Senators backing higher military pay raise too

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin sat down with reporters this morning to talk about the new Afghanistan strategy, defense procurement reform and the upcoming defense budget. And he mentioned that the Committee will be backing a 3.4 percent pay raise for members of the military in 2010, a half-percent above what President Obama outlined in his budget bill.

Last week the House Armed Services Committee backed the same plan; Veterans groups have been pushing for the extra money too.

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Navy: Wanna get away? Apply by May 1.

There long has been talk of finding a way to let troops take a break from the armed forces for a while and then return at their same spot in the career lineup. The Pentagon has never found a way to make it work. The Navy thinks it has.

Don’t expect to get a free backpacking trip through Europe, though.

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New option for media coverage at Arlington National Cemetery

Families now have an extra option for media coverage at Arlington National Cemetery.

If they wish, the chaplain or main speaker’s gravesite remarks can be recorded.The rest of the ceremony will remain private.

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In the newsroom: North Korea missiles, Iraq progress and Tiger Woods

The Associated Press is reporting that the USS McCain and the USS Chafee left from the port of Busan, South Korea, to monitor the North’s expected missile launch. A spokesman wouldn’t give their destination.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if the Pentagon planned to shoot down the missile. "If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it," he said.

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In the newsroom: Afghanistan, flooding and bad news for the F-22

Well, Afghanistan dominates everything today, of course. But we're hearing some other stuff.

The airmen from Grand Forks Air Force Base and the North Dakota National Guard are pitching in where they can, hoping to hold back the waters of the Red River. Some 1,700 Guardsman are now filling sandbags. Check out the local coverage.

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Afghan/Pakistan strategy "not a straightjacket"

President Obama’s team didn’t have many specifics about the new Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy Friday, but they had plenty of metaphors to describe it.

The strategy calls for setting a series of benchmarks to mark progress, but officials are just starting the process of figuring out what these benchmarks will be.

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New Afghanistan policy -- benchmarks for Pakistan, eh?

The White House rolled out the new Afghanistan strategy Friday morning, and one of the themes is that we're going to expect more from thegovernment of Pakistan.

"We are looking for performance and changes in behavior on the Pakistani side," a White House official said last night at a background briefing, adding that Obama had "made very clear there are no blank checks."

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Mexico: 'We have to take care of our own backyard"

Yesterday the president said he's considering deploying National Guard troops to the southern U.S. border to help contain violence there, but would not commit to any immediate military move. Texas Gov. Rick Perry called that "a mistake," repeating his call from a month ago for the federal government to pay for for 1,000 additional troops or federal agents to help secure the border.

I just got off the phone with Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, who offered these thoughts on the issue:

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Obama: We can do more for veterans

The president just took a question on unemployment among veterans during his online town hall meeting. The full transcript and video should be available at the White House web site later today, but here are his comments on that issue:

"We wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the sacrifices of earlier veterans. We would not enjoy the same safety and security and liberty that we do. So when our veterans come home from Iraq and Afghanistan -- and they have performed brilliantly; they have done everything that's asked of them, regardless what your views are on these wars -- they have earned these benefits that all too often we've failed to give them.

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In the Newsroom, March 26

The eds just got out of the daily planning meeting, so here's what's scheduled for the paper:

Army Capt. sentenced for Waegwan murder
From our Pacific bureau: Army Capt. Christopher Gray was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with eligibility for parole for the murder of his wife, Lea Gray. Her body was found May 9 in a ditch in a wooded area about 4.5 miles east of Camp Carroll in Waegwan.

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Surprise presidential visit at ceremony for fallen heroes

The president was a surprise visitor at the Medal of Honor Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery this afternoon.

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In the Newsroom, March 25

Here's what we're planning for tomorrow's papers:

Obama press conference recap
In case you missed it, our reporter Kevin asked the president a question about plans to expand the military and VA benefits while trying to trim the overall budget. His response, and a recap of other key issues, went up online late last night but came too late for today's print editions.

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Update: Sesame Street specials on AFN

Just a quick follow up to my blog post the other day -- AFN has released the times and days it'll run the special military deployment episodes produced by the Sesame Workshop:

**** BRATS – Our Journey Home (90-min)
April 5, 1130 EST, AFN Family

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On the border? Not troops.

With a full-scale drug war gripping the U.S.-Mexico border, governors of border states have called on the commander-in-chief for help. Earlier this month, President Obama said he was open to options, but did not want to “militarize” the southern U.S. border.

Then, Defense Secretary Gates later said on “Meet the Press” that the military would provide training, equipment and intelligence, including surveillance, to the overall effort.

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Military malpractice bill before Congress again

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., was up before the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon to talk about his bill to allow medical malpractice claims against the military. It's the same measure that he unsuccessfully championed last year, and that I wrote about last summer.

At issue is a Supreme Court decision known as the Feres Doctrine, which blocks troops from suing for damages related to injuries that occur while on active duty. Last year, Hinchey took up the cause after urging from the family of Sgt. Carmelo Rodriguez; Military doctors found potentially cancerous tumors during a physical in 1997 but didn't inform him of the diagnosis for eight years. He died of skin cancer in January 2007.

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In the Newsroom, March 24

Here's what we have planned for tomorrow's paper:

Camp Lemonier could become an enduring base
From our Mideast Burea: The base, located near Djibouti International Airport, has grown from a sleepy 97-acre post to a 500-acre base in just a few years, one of the military’s major installations on the continent. And last year’s stand-up of U.S. Africa Command means the base is only going to get busier.

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Best workplace in the US -- The Army?

The website Glassdoor recently released a list of the 50 best places to work in America, based on a survey of its 75,000 members.

And while Netflix (#3), Google (#7) and Apple (#19) might not be surprises on the list, #43 is a bit off the beaten path: The U.S. Army.

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The plane that didn't crash

CNN reported Monday afternoon that a C-17 had crashed in Olney, Texas, according to a spokesman at Sheppard Air Force Base.

Soon after, they reported that local police had received calls that a C-17 had gone down, but a spokesman at Sheppard Air Force Base could not confirm the crash.

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In the Newsroom, March 23

Still working on some of the details, but here's a peek at tomorrow's editions:

Charges filed in 2007 attack in Iraq
The Army has filed a criminal complaint in Iraqi court against 12 people beleived responsible for a May 2007 attack that killed seven U.S. soldiers. U.S. officials said the filing took longer than expected because the last three suspects were captured just this weekend.

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Looking for some Heroes -- We need your help

Our staff has already started compiling lists for our annual Heroes section, but we're hoping our online readers can help point us to some noteworthy servicemembers whom we haven't highlighted yet.

Every year Stripes puts together profiles of some of the troops honored in Iraq in Afghanistan for their bravery and leadership on the battlefield. The idea behind the package has always been to highlight the stories of these Silver Star soldiers and valorious Marines (and airmen and sailors!) to show just a small slice of the courageous work being done by all servicemembers overseas.

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"Not a bullet - Not an ounce."

A new book about the history of the Irish Republican Army says that by one account there were up to 10,000 explosions of homemade bombs, or IEDs,related to Northern Ireland by 1992.

“You could be forgiven for calling them ‘Irish Explosive Devices,’ it says in “IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets.”

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In the Newsroom, March 20

Here's what we're working on for tomorrow's editions:

Navy ships collide in Strait of Hormuz
Our Pentagon guys are following reports that two U.S. Navy vessels -- The USS Hartford, a submarine, and the USS New Orleans, an amphibious ship -- collided early this morning between Iran and the Arabian peninsula. Navy officials say there were no serious injuries; 15 sailors on board the sub did suffer minor injuries.

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In the newsroom, March 19

A little later than usual today, but here are some of the stories slated for tomorrow's editions:

$500 stop-loss pay to start April 1
We've already got this one up online -- Soldiers currently stop-lossed can expect an extra $500 on April 1, and soldiers who have been stop-lossed at any time since Oct. 1 can expect to get compensated for those months by June.

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Frontline leadership

Crazy day in the Stripes newsroom in D.C. After Leo posted what was going in the newspaper, the Pentagon decided to turn on the story switch. Lots happened:

Secretary Gates said all but a very few stop-lossed guys would be allowed to return to normal lives, and that compensation was coming for every soldier stop-lossed since Oct. 2008. (Rep. John Murtha is trying to get that dialed back to Sept. 11, 2001 -- cha ching!). Oh, and my man Jeff has details tomorrow about who's getting the $500/month, and howto go about getting it.

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Elmo headed back into combat

Down at the Pentagon today some top military leaders and young military children got a sneak preview of the Sesame Workshop's latest special, Coming home: Military familes cope with change.

It's the latest in a series of programs created by the Sesame Street crew to help military families talk to their young children about a parent's deployment and the challenges of military service. And the Workshop just recently completed a tour of military bases touching on the same themes.

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In the Newsroom, March 18

Here's a look at our stories for tomorrow:

Six years in Iraq
Tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of U.S. combat operations in Iraq -- our Mideast staff has an extensive look back and ahead at the conflict. Even with plans for withdrawal in the next two years, U.S. involvement in Iraq has lasted longer than any modern American military campaign aside from Afghanistan and Vietnam.

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Colbert headed to Persian Gulf

Comedian Stephen Colbert is headed to the Persian Gulf to entertain U.S. troops, but he won’t say where or when.

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone where I’m going, but just say it’s sandy and they’d like us to leave,” Colbert told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

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Sunshine on My Government Makes Me Happy

Wired's Danger Room today is honoring “Sunshine Week”, an effortof the American Society of Newspaper Editors, bydiscussing all of the ways the Pentagon and other governmentagencies havekept public information hidden from view by rejecting their media requests using the Freedom of Information Act.

Since I'm an investigative reporter at heart, I stand shoulder to shoulder with them on this one. There are many ways reporters get information -- sources, witnesses, being there – but the government’s Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, is a crucial tool muckrakers use to expose government wrongdoing and corruption to the public. The journalist association Investigative Reporters and Editors even gives a highly-respected annual award for best use of FOIAs.

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Heard a rumor? Check it out.

There’s a guy in Washington named Mike Causey, who's something of a media superstar here, which is remarkable, given that his beat is going through mounds of dry information in search of items of interest to the Federal workforce.

His ability to find interesting things and report them in an engaging manner has him all over the place – The Washington Post, local radio, and FederalNewsRadio.com, which came about in the 1990s as a Web site and radio station.

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Mullen on Afghanistan: "...if you're not winning, you're losing."

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen said on the talk program Charlie Rose that the U.S. is not winning the war in Afghanistan and that he expects more violence and American casualties as the U.S. ramps up its efforts to gain the upper hand on the Taliban.

ROSE: Are the Taliban winning?

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Remarks from the First Lady at Fort Bragg

We'll have a in-depth piece on the struggles of military families up on our website later today (written by one of our great reporters over in Europe, Geoff Z). But to whet your appetite here are a few of the more noteworthy paragraphs from Michelle Obama's brief address to families at Fort Bragg yesterday afternoon:

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100 years of Walter Reed in photos

Walter Reed Army Medical Center this year is celebrating its 100th year of tending to wounded warriors. Official ceremonies aren't scheduled until the end of April, but the staff there just set up a new web site for the centennial celebration.

Among the interesting features is a photo gallery with a mix of historic and recent shots of the famed hospital -- Below is one of President Warren Harding shaking hands with a wounded soldier at the campus in 1921.

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In the newsroom, March 12

Here's our daily look ahead at tomorrow's editions:

Wounded soldiers facing punishment
Commanders at Fort Bragg's transition unit have come under fire for holding soldiers recovering from combat injuries to the same standards as able-bodied soldiers, often punishing them for minor infractions. That includes reprimanding soldiers with sleep disorders for missing morning wake-up calls and assigning menial chores to troops taking pain medications.

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How big will your military pay raise be?

President Obama received strong support last month when he promised a military pay raise in 2010, but at least one veterans organization believes he hasn’t gone far enough.

The Military Officers Association of America this week asked Obama to up his
promised pay increase from 2.9 percent next January to 3.4 percent, in an effort to close what they call the lingering pay gap between military and private sector wages.

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In the Newsroom, March 11

Just a few hours before deadline, here's what tomorrow's paper looks like:

Iraq Bombings raise concerns
The White House and military leaders say a pair of bombings this week in Iraq are not related to withdrawal plans there, but Iraqi leaders are bracing for more trouble in the future. And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied that the suicide bombings have encouraged other potential attackers to follow their lead.

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“Taking Chance”

If you haven’t seen this HBO movie about a Marine officer who volunteers to accompany a fallen Marine from Dover Air Force Base to his hometown out West, do so as soon as you can.

Based on a true story, as they say, Kevin Bacon stars as Marine Lt. Col Mike Strobl, who sees the name of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps, who was killed in Anbar in 2004, on a DOD Web site for casualties. Bacon is a “cubicle guy” at Quantico, preparing reports as part of Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He volunteers to take him home, feeling a little guilty about his lack of involvement in the current conflicts.

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In the Newsroom, March 10

Here's what we have in store for tomorrow's editions:

Older soldiers find a niche in new Army
In 2006 Congress raised the Army's age cap from 35 to 42. Last year 393 men and women 40 or older enlisted, enitced by steady employment and new college benefits they can pass onto their children.

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Pentagon: Mooning no laughing matter in the South China Sea

The Pentagon this morning confirmed early wire reports that a US Navy contracted ocean surveillance ship was harassed and threatened by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea over the weekend.

Five Chinese vessels including a Chinese Navy intel ship and Chinese aircraft had harassed and threatened the USNS Impeccable and another surveillance ship for days. On Sunday, two ships approached the Impeccable and Chinese crewmembers disrobed and waved Chinese flags, while others blocked her path and attempted to snare a line dragging sonar equipment.

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"Don't ask, don't tell" fight starting up

It’s likely still months before a hearing on Rep. Ellen Tauscher bill to repeal the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, but groups on both sides have already started gearing up for the fight.

On Wednesday VoteVets announced a letter writing campaign to members of Congress on the issue, and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network announced plans for a rally March 13 at the Capitol to protest the policy.

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In the newsroom, March 6

Here's what we're following today for tomorrow's editions:

Another attack on Bagram

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Army to release numbers of suicides monthly

From now on the Army will release the number of soldiers who have committed suicide each month. That’s a change from the once-a-year release policy they’ve been following as suicides continue at alarming rates.

In February, two soldiers took their lives and another 16 deaths are suspected suicides, the Army announced on Thursday. That compares with 12 confirmed suicides and 12 suspected suicides in January.

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Obama to Shine Light on Shadow Government

President Obama announced on Thursday he plans to put the kibosh on a federal contracting boom that has helped feed massive growth in the national budget (and Washington’s population of McMansion’s). His primary target: defense contractors.

The war in Iraq sparked a massive and immediate expansion in contracting, first chronicled by the Center for Public Integrity, in 2003. The Pentagon had awarded jobs worth hundreds of millions of dollars by expanding much smaller pre-existing contracts with a simple “modification”. The U.S. justified a surge of no-bid awards by claiming that only the largest and most globally-based of companies could handle the work as quickly as the U.S. wanted it. Budget watchdogs cried foul at the entire process.

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Ghani to run for president in Afghanistan

Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan's former finance minister, has decided to run in Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential election.

“I am committed to running in a free and fair election to be held in August but will declare formally when the legal situation is clear,” Ghani said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

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Tax refund donations for homeless vets

A House Veterans Affairs sub committee took up a long list of bills at their hearing this afternoon, most dealing with employment opportunities and training for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

But one of the pieces of legislation that got the most attention was a bill by Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., which would allow taxpayers to donate $3 of their tax refund to aid homeless veterans. The bill would create a check-off box on federal forms so taxpayers could easily make the donation, and create a special housing assistance fund within the Department of Treasury to administer the money.

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In the Newsroom, March 4

Here are a few of the top stories slotted for tomorrow's editions:

First Lady's visit to Arlington

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In the Newsroom, March 3, 2009

Here's a look at some of what is going in tomorrow's editions, and some newsroom happenings:

At Texas ranch, a change of scenery and pace for veterans

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The pen is mightier?

Several news outlets today are reporting on the official gifts Prime Minister Gordon Brown brought from Great Britain for President Obama.

Today, Reuters, among others, reported that Brown was to give “a pen holder fashioned from the timber of HMS Gannet, a sister ship of the Resolute that also served for a time on anti-slavery missions off Africa.” The Resolute is the ship whose timber were used to make the Oval Office desk (for those of you who missed National Treasure, mercifully.)

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Sound off on "don't ask, don't tell"

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., today will reintroduce a bill to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces. Democrats in the House have been working for the last six years to overturn the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but with Barack Obama in the White House they now have their best chance of success.

During the president campaign Obama told Stripes and other news media he would overturn the policy if elected. Plans to repeal “don’t ask” are posted on the White House web site. But a spokesman at the White House today would not comment on the bill, and Tauscher’s staff told me they have not received any official support for their efforts yet.

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