Military and Defense

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DoD) announced an agreement with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to demonstrate large-scale manufacturing and delivery of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Under the terms of the agreement, the federal government will own the resulting 100 million doses of vaccine. The vaccine doses could ...

Medal of Honor recipients show extraordinary courage when facing down impossible situations. That was the case for Marine Corps Pfc. Frank Witek, who fought and died while liberating Guam from the Japanese during World War II. Witek was born Dec. 10, 1921, in Derby, Connecticut, but his family — including two sisters and three brothers — moved to Chicago when he was ...

An accident involving an amphibious assault vehicle off the coast of southern California has left one marine dead, two injured and eight missing, the Associated Press reported early Friday. The accident occurred late Thursday night, and all the Marines involved were part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, AP reported. Search and rescue efforts led by the Marines and Navy ...

On a blisteringly hot day in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, Army Spc. Enrique Acevedo and Army Pfc. Bennie Kinley, both with the North Carolina Army National Guard, were handing out meals to the children of Buncombe County. Suddenly, a mother from the neighborhood graciously offered ice cream to the two hard-working guardsmen to help cool them down. This ...

July 27 marks the 67th anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement that ended three years of hostilities between United Nations forces and North Korea. To commemorate that, we’re highlighting the life and career of Navy Master Chief Petty Officer William Charette — who was the only living hospital corpsman to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in ...

A soldier was found dead outside of Ford Hood Army base in Texas on Wednesday, marking the third time a soldier’s remains were discovered in a month, according to Army officials. Pvt. Mejhor Morta, 26, was found dead July 17 outside the Army base in the vicinity of the Stillhouse Hollow Lake, a reservoir that the U.S. Army Corps of ...

Not all Medal of Honor recipients participated in the major wars we’ve studied so closely in history classes. Marine Corps Sgt. John Mapes Adams is one of the few recipients who earned a grateful nation’s highest honor outside of a significant war period in U.S. history. Adams was born on Oct. 11, 1871, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, under a different name: ...

The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Tripoli (LHA 7), yesterday, July 15, 2020. Although the Navy canceled the traditional public commissioning ceremony due to public health and safety restrictions on large public gatherings, the Navy commissioned the USS Tripoli administratively and the ship transitioned to normal operations. Meanwhile, the Navy is looking at a future opportunity to commemorate the special event ...

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts was one of several men responsible for setting up a new post in a volatile region of Afghanistan in 2008. The operation turned into a disaster for U.S. forces, but Pitts’ actions in guarding the post from insurgents earned him the Medal of Honor. Pitts was born on Oct. 1, 1985, and grew up on ...

Musicians played a significant role during the Civil War, cheering up the men in the camps and preparing them to go into battle. But they also took on additional duties, some of which could be dangerous, and they took their roles as soldiers seriously. As we commemorate the recent anniversary of the pivotal Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, we remember ...

The Department of Defense released a statement Friday expressing concern about the People’s Republic of China (PRC) decision to conduct military exercises around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea July 1-5. “The designated area where the exercises are due to take place encompass contested waters and territory,” the DoD said. “Conducting military exercises over disputed territory in the ...

More than 7,000 American service members have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone since Sept. 11, 2001. More than 16,000 have died of other causes in that time. Gold Star families have borne the losses, and Defense Department officials want Americans – especially those serving in the department – to understand what the Gold Star lapel ...

The Battle of Gettysburg is remembered as one of the most pivotal encounters of the Civil War, a conflict that led to more than 1,500 men earning the newly created Medal of Honor. One of those recipients, Army 1st Sgt. Frederick Fuger, wasn’t even a U.S. citizen when he held the Union position during Confederate Maj. Gen. George Pickett’s famous ...

U.S. fighter jets intercepted four Russian military planes flying off the Alaskan cost Saturday, marking the fourth interception this month, according to The Hill. NORAD F-22 fighter jets intercepted four Russian Tu-142 planes flying 65 nautical miles south of the Alaskan Aleutian islands Saturday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The Russian military planes remained in the ...

The Department of Justice announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging Ethan Melzer, 22, of Louisville, Kentucky, for allegedly planning an attack on his U.S. Army unit by sending sensitive details about the unit – including information about its location, movements, and security – to members of an extremist organization named Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), an occult-based neo-Nazi ...