Army gets 4,200 applications for retroactive stop-loss payments

The Army has received 4,200 applications for retroactive stop-loss payments since it began accepting applications on Oct. 21, said Sam Retherford, director of officer and enlisted personnel management. 

A total of 136,000 soldiers and families of deceased soldiers are eligible for compensation if they or their loved one were held beyond the scheduled end of their service since 2001. Also eligible are 39,000 airmen, 9,660 Marines and 250 sailors.

Applications will be accepted until Oct. 21, 2010. Of the applications submitted to the Army so far, 2,000 have been processed, Retherford said on Friday.

The Air Force has been getting about 90 applications per day, said Retherford, who did not provide any information on Navy or Marine Corps applications.

The reason why people are required to submit a claim for compensation is that the services’ did not keep reliable records on who had been stop-lossed, Retherford said.

Those eligible for compensation have to provide proof that they were stop-lossed, such as a deployment order, he said.

“If the member doesn’t have the documentation, then the service will, based on the claim, attempt to find the documentation to support the claim, but it has to be shown and proved, there was no other way around it because records in a lot of cases – as I mentioned – were not maintained,” Retherford said.

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Defense bill allows Pentagon to bar release of detainee abuse photos

A defense bill signed into law by President Obama yesterday grants the federal government broad authority to withhold photos depicting alleged abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon now has the power to bar the release of any detainee photo taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009.

The policy, which is in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, might have rendered a pending Supreme Court case as moot. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit seeking the photos, and a federal court ordered their release earlier this year under the Freedom of Information Act.

Obama, who had originally said at the beginning of his presidency that he would make the photos public, reversed himself in May and directed the Justice Department to fight that court order. The Supreme Court was scheduled to discuss the appeal in conference this week.

The decision to suppress the photos was a tough political call for a president that campaigned on a promise of transparency. The ACLU said that decision made a mockery of Obama's stated commitment to accountability, but some Democrats in Congress have expressed a desire to leave Bush-era actions in the past, lest they distract the Obama administration from moving forward with new goals.

Announcing his decision this spring, Obama said the exemption to FOIA is necessary in this case, because releasing the photos would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and "put our troops in greater danger."

Although the photos "represent conduct that didn't conform with the Army manual," Obama said in May, "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."

The ACLU disagreed in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month, saying the photos "are of critical relevance to an ongoing national debate about accountability."

The ACLU's response to the legislation was harsh. Jameel Jaffer, director of the organization's National Security Project, said in a statement: "We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners."

The U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a letter yesterday to the Supreme Court, saying a brief was forthcoming that addressed how the new legislation affects the court case. 

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Korean war hero to receive posthumous medal of honor

Fifty-eight years ago Private 1st Class Anthony Kahoohanohano died while providing cover fire for retreating U.S. troops, killing 11 enemy fighters with his rifle and two more with his shovel before being fatally wounded.

On Wednesday, he received long-overdue recognition for his battlefield heroism; Language inserted into the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization Bill signed into law by the president upgraded his posthumous Distinguished Service Cross to a Medal of Honor, the highest military award for valor under fire.

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VA hires outside firm to help deal with GI Bill backlog

Department of Veterans Affairs officials today announced plans to bring in outside contractors to help them deal with the thousands of unprocessed new GI Bill claims, and to try and avoid a similar fate for the spring semester.

In a statement under secretary for benefits Patrick Dunne called the move an effort to correct problems as quickly as possible.

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Senator: Afghanistan is going to be very expensive

In a conversation with defense reporters this morning Sen. Jack Reed (chair of the Senate Armed Services' seapower committee) said he is confident that President Obama is carefully weighing all the options for Afghanistan and will unveil a long-term plan -- "not just a message, but a plan" -- soon.

But he also said that lawmakers and the public need to remember that "the financial costs of this are going to be significant and need to be considered," which might mean cuts in other large weapons systems and military non-war programs as early as next year.

When pressed Reed would not name any likely candidates, noting that there are no clear targets for budget cuts (unlike this time last year, he said, when the F-22 was already being eyed up for cost-cutting plans). But he said that personnel costs and warfighting needs will be protected from any such trims, leaving plenty of other programs in jeopardy.

So defense industry experts who hoped this year's defense budget battles -- which saw billions in "wasteful legacy programs" pulled away -- were the end of belt-tightening at the Pentagon may be facing bad news in February, when the fiscal 2011 budget proposal is put forward.

One thing Reed doesn't see in the near future: An increase in defense spending above expected adjustments. "With the overall economy still struggling, it's difficult to see a big increase in the defense budget for next year," he said.

[PHOTO: Associated Press]

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So much for that veto threat -- Obama to sign NDAA

Tucked inside the president's praise and promises to sailors in Florida yesterday was a quick line about the defense authorization bill finalized by Congress last week:

"To make sure you can meet the missions we ask of you, we are increasing the defense budget, including spending on the Navy and Marine Corps. This week, I'll sign that defense authorization bill into law."

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Gates: We need to treat psychological injuries like physical ones

On Monday, while President Obama promised sailors in Florida that "your nation will fulfill its responsibilities to you," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a crowd of mental health experts in Washington D.C. that more work needs to be done quickly to adequately address post-traumatic stress disorder and related illnesses.

The remarks, which came at the start of a joint DOD/VA four-day summit, echoed comments from top leadership in both departments over the last few months. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said only a small fraction of the troops returning from combat suffer serious emotional trauma, but for those "it could mean treatment for a long time."

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Army allows Sikh captain to keep beard and turban

The Army has allowed a Sikh Army doctor to keep his turban and beard after an outcry by a Sikh advocacy group.

But if he is transferred to another command or deploys, he’ll have to apply for another waiver from the Army’s uniform policy, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Garver.

“This accommodation does not constitute a blanket accommodation for any other individual; as each request must be evaluated based on its own unique facts and individual circumstances,” wrote Army Maj. Gen. Gina S. Farrisee in a letter to the soldier.

The Sikh religion requires men to wear turbans, beards keep their hair unshorn. To Sikhs, cutting one’s hair is as serious an offense as adultery.

When Capt. Kamajleet Singh Kalsi joined the Army during medical school, his recruiter told him that his religious beliefs would not pose a problem.

But as he neared the end of his medical training, he was told he may have to lose his turban and beard. He asked for an exemption from the Army Graduate Medical Education Office, but he was denied last December.

In April, Kalsi applied for a “request for religious accommodation” through his chain of command, and he learned Friday it had been granted by Army G-1, said his attorney Amandeep Sidhu.

“This is a victory and it’s one we applaud the Army for making, but at the same time we look at a general policy that doesn’t currently allow Sikhs to freely serve – to walk up to a recruiting office and be able to enlist without going through the hoops that our client had to go through,” Sidhu said on Friday.

Sidhu said his law firm was approached about Kalsi’s case by the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group that was formed after two Sikhs were attacked in retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“I am overjoyed by the Army’s decision to allow me to serve my country,” Kalsi said in a Sikh Coalition news release. “Like the many Sikhs who fought before me, I know I will serve America with honor and excellence.”

The Sikh Coalition held a protest in April at the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial against the Army’s policy that prevents Sikh soldiers from wearing turbans and having beards.

The group also filed a formal complaint with the Army and Defense Department inspectors general on behalf of Kalsi and 2nd Lt. Tajdeep Singh Rattan, a Reservist training to be an Army dentist who is also seeking an exception to the Army’s policy on turbans and beards.

“I am willing to lay down my life for America. In return, I ask only that my country respect my faith,” Rattan said in April. “My turban and beard are not an option – they are in intrinsic part of me.”

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Military lifts media restrictions on showing images of troops killed in Afghanistan

Embedded media in eastern Afghanistan are no longer banned from showing images of troops killed in action.

All media in Afghanistan are now bound by the same set of ground rules, said Col. Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.

The rules prevent media from releasing images that clearly identified troops killed in action before their next of kin are notified, but it makes no further restrictions.

However, there rules appear to contradict themselves, because they also say: “Casualty photographs showing a recognizable face, nametag, or other identifying feature or item will not be used. Media should contact the PAO for release advice.”

When asked about the apparent discrepancy, Shanks said the issue would be clarified when the NATO ground rules are updated next.

For now, the clause allowing media to release images of the fallen after next of kin notification applies, he said.

The issue first came up when Regional Command-East issued a rule at the end of September that banned embedded media from publishing pictures or video of troops killed in action.

The move was prompted by the Associated Press’ decision to publish a photo of a dying Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, despite his family’s objections, a spokesman for RC-East told the Washington Post.

RC-East later revised its ground rules on Oct. 15 to ban images of fallen troops that show their nametag, face or any other recognizable features.

The ground rules were promptly re-revised.

PHOTO FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

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NDAA awaits president's signature after Senate approval

Late yesterday the Senate put its stamp of approval on the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill, passing it 68-29. All of the opposition votes came from Republicans angry over the inclusion of hate crime legislation in the defense measure, but enough crossed the aisle -- including Senate Armed Services ranking member John McCain -- to easily pass the bill.

The measure now heads tothe White House, where there is still some question whether President Obama will sign it. Although the bill follows "wasteful legacy program" cuts backed by Obama -- the airborne laser program, the multiple kill vehicle program, future combat systems components, the presidential helicopter program -- House members insisted on keeping the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine effort.

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DODEA SAT scores down slightly but still above national average in critical reading and writing

DODEA student’s SAT scores in critical reading and math were down slightly this year compared with 2008.

For 2009, DODEA students scored an average of 505 on critical reading, down four points from 2008, but still four points above the national average; and DODEA students’ average score on math was 498, down one point from 2008 and 17 points below the national average, a DODEA news release said.

In writing, DODEA students’ average score was 492, the same as last year and one point below the national average, the news release said.

African American DODEA students saw their scores decline in the three above-mentioned areas compared to 2008, but they scored higher than the national average on critical reading, math and writing.

Hispanic DODEA students’ average scores also fell compared to 2008, but they still scored higher than the national average in all three areas:

CHARTS PROVIDED BY DODEA.

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U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, by the numbers

At the House Armed Services Committee this morning, Pentagon officials briefed Congress on the status of the planned withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. So far so good, according to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy. 

Barring a major setback with the elections in January or a deterioration of security, the military's plan for removing nearly two-thirds of the troops still in Iraq over the next year should proceed without any problems. Lawmakers called that good news, but even after assurances seemed wary of exactly how all of those people and vehicles will return home.

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Public affairs team headed to Pakistan to counter propaganda

The State Department is sending a public affairs team to Pakistan to "do a better job countering propaganda" about the United States often reported by local media, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.

"We're adopting a new policy where we don't leave any misstatements unanswered," Clinton said after speaking at an event in Washington sponsored by the United States Instititute of Peace think tank.

She said many accounts in newspapers of America's policies are "plain wrong."

"We're going to be much more aggressive interacting with the Pakistani media," she said.

Clinton said she realizes that even when the US makes a statement to correct information reported, Pakistanis "might not believe us," but the United States will "go at it day in and day out" to build trust and get the word out.

"Frankly, I'm quite surprised we hadn't done more of this in an effective manner," she said.

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MRAPs modified to deflect RKG-3 anti-tank grenades

Troops in northern Iraq have modified MRAPs to deflect anti-tank grenades known as RKG-3s, said Brig. Gen. Robert Brown, deputy commander of Multi-National Division-North. 

Popular with Sufi insurgents in northern Iraq, RKGs are thrown and have a parachute to stabilize them in flight so that the business end of the grenade hits its target.

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VA: Calls to student vets about the GI Bill are not a scam

Officials over at the Department of Veterans Affairs are still working to unravel the massive delays in new GI Bill checks this semester, but for now they're confident of two things:

1 -- More than 213,000 veterans have applied for the new benefits.
2 -- Many still don't know how much money they'll be getting.

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Latest foreign policy challenge for Obama: Sudan

Both White House and State Department officials this morning are rolling out new policy documents on Sudan, pledging more engagement with the government there on the issue of Darfur and independence for the country's southern provinces.

It's a plan months in the making; Earlier this year, President Obama promised that an internal Sudan Policy Review would produce a new way forward for the U.S. in the region. In a statement this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for "simple but significant changes" to help bring peace to the region:

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Media restrictions in Afghanistan up in the air

For the second time in two days, Regional Command-East in Afghanistan is reviewing a rule regulating photos and video taken of U.S. casualties.

At the end of September, RC-East issued the following rule for embedded media:

“Media will not be allowed to photograph or record video of U.S. personnel killed in action.”

But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman and Central Command expressed concern, RC-East issued a new ruling on Thursday that still imposes restrictions on what media can show:

“Media will not be prohibited from viewing or filming casualties; however, casualty photographs showing recognizable face, nametag or other identifying feature or item will not be published.”

“In respect to our family members, names, video, identifiable written/oral descriptions or identifiable photographs of wounded service members will not be released without the service member’s prior written consent. If the service member dies of his wounds, next-of-kin reporting rules then apply.”

Whitman told reporters Friday that the new rule addresses only half of his concerns, but he expected the matter to be resolved soon.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for CENTCOM, said U.S Forces-Afghanistan and RC-East were working on getting the final ground rules “solidified.”

“I think there was some misunderstanding in the final edits and what ultimately got posted,” he said in an e-mail Friday.

A spokesman for RC-East confirmed Friday that the rule is still being reviewed.

The rule was reportedly a reaction to the Associated Press’ decision to publish a photo of a dying Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, despite his family’s objections.

“After that incident, we felt that for the sake of the soldier and the family members that was what we needed to do,” Lt. Col. Clarence Counts, a spokesman for the U.S. military command in eastern Afghanistan, told the Washington Post.

PHOTO: Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard

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New Pentagon personnel head could be key in DADT fight

Late yesterday the White House released its latest list of presidential nominees; Among the names was retired Marine Gen. Clifford Stanley, to serve as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The position, vacant since President Obama took office, is seen as a key post in the ongoing effort to overturn the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy; Undoubtedly it will be among the first questions posed to Stanley when he goes before the Senate for confirmation.

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Reporters in eastern Afghanistan banned from showing troops killed in action

The U.S. military command in eastern Afghanistan has banned embedded media from photographing or record troops killed in action, but that ruling is under review.

The move comes after the Associated Press last month ran a photo of a dying Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, despite his family’s wishes.

The recent change is meant to clarify existing rules on what reporters can and cannot do when embedded with U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, said Master Sgt. Thomas Clementson, a spokesman for Regional Command-East.

“We periodically review our ground rules and incorporate updates and changes as needed,” Clementson said in an e-mail. “Please bear in mind that these ground rules only apply to embedded media in RC East, which is a point that may have been lost in some of the recent reporting.”

The change appears to have taken effect in late September, but RC-East is already reviewing it, Clementson said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters Thursday that he has expressed concerns to U.S. Central Command about the way the rule is written.

“CENTCOM understands the concerns that I’ve had; they will tell you that they’ve probably had similar questions about it and that’s why they’re addressing it,” Whitman said.

He called RC-East’s ruling an “isolated incident.”

Col. Wayne Shanks, ISAF public affairs officer, said during a phone interview from Kabul on Thursday that ISAF produces one set of general media guidelines that go to all the regional commands in Afghanistan.

Each regional command is given the leeway to make adjustments to those ground rules based on "command concerns," or other caveats concerning coalition forces within the command.

Shanks was unable to say why RC-East decided to implement the more stringent ground rule.

He also said there is no plan to enforce the new RC-East guideline about recording images of troop casualties across Afghanistan.

"No - we've issued our ground rules," he said.

T.D. Flack contributed from Kandahar

PHOTO: Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard.

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Army to cut re-enlistment bonus for deployed soldiers

The Army is cutting its re-enlistment bonus for soldiers deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait beginning October 20.

Those soldiers will be able to receive up to $5,300 to re-enlist, compared with the current maximum of $9,500, said Sgt. Maj. Dean Drummond, Army senior career counselor.

“Retention is good,” Drummond said. “The budget is also limiting us to what we can offer soldiers out there. We are no longer in the years of receiving the dollar amounts we’ve had in the last four or five years.”

The move is part of the latest changes to the Army’s Selective-Re-Enlistment Bonus program. They take effect Oct. 20, he said.

In another change, artillery crew members will not be eligible for a re-enlistment bonus as of Oct. 20 because they are no longer undermanned, Drummond said.

Meanwhile, soldiers who repair Kiowa, Apache, Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters will rate a bonus, he said. Soldiers who fly unmanned aerial vehicles will also be eligible for up to $14,600 to re-enlist.

October has been the first month that soldiers have been eligible for re-enlistment bonuses since July, when the Army effectively stopped most bonuses.

By the summer, the Army had already met its retention needs, Drummond explained.

“We had a lot of soldiers that wanted to wait to reenlist on 1 October, for this new year, which is what we wanted to do,” he said. “We wanted to move commitments from last year into this year.”

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Advance funding for the VA awaits Obama's signature

Congress still hasn't approved the fiscal 2010 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though the new fiscal year started on Oct. 1. But last night, lawmakers did make sure that the VA will start fiscal 2011 with money in the bank.

The Senate approved advanced funding for the department's medical services, facilities and research programs, in an effort to keep those accounts funded even if Congress misses its deadlines for new budget bills. Last week the House approved the same measure, and the bill is headed to the White House where President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

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Texting while driving ban applies to military too

Last month President Obama signed an executive order banning federal employees from texting while driving, citing the potential danger of the practice. And it's bad news for thumb-typing troops -- those rules apply to you too. 

The services this week began sending their own orders informing troops of the new rule and outlining exactly what it entails. Troops can't text and drive while on "official government business," or while driving a U.S-owned vehicle, or while using a government-issued cell phone. 

That means not checking your Blackberry emails at red lights too. Under the federal rules, "texting" means reading or sending any data over a phone while the car is in a roadway, even if it's stopped at a traffic signal. Just checking the weather app on your iPhone while you cruise across base? That's against the rules too.

There's no word yet on what punishment troops could face if the MPs catch you updating your Twitter page while driving through the front gate, but the official stance is that all troops and federal employees must pull off the road and park their car before pulling out their cell phones for texting.

[PHOTO: Associated Press]

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Just how good is that 3.4 percent military pay raise?

The Senate is expected to put the final stamp on the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill sometime this week. While the more controversial aspects of the measure -- the hate crimes language, the military commissions changes, the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter -- will be the headline as it heads to the White House for the president's signature, perhaps the easiest to understand and most important part of the bill for most troops is the 3.4 percent pay raise it contains.

The raise (which was 0.5 percent more than what President Obama asked for) will mean about $75 more a month for an E-4 with six years in the service, and nearly $96 for an E-5 with more than 10 years.

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Obama faces gay dinner guests asking and telling: When us?

At the cavernous Washington Convention Center, some of the nation's most powerful and recognizable gay celebrities in politics, entertainment, and just about every other walk of life are gathering for the biggest night of the year in gay advocacy - the Human Rights Campaign dinner. 

Tonight, they had one man on their mind, keynote speaker, President Barack Obama, and one question: What do you think he will say?

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PEO Soldier to field 57,000 sets of lighter body armor for soldiers in Afghanistan by May

The Army is expected to finish fielding new lightweight soldiers armor for troops in Afghanistan by May, said Fred Coppola, of Program Executive Office Soldier.

The Army has awarded an $18.6 million contract to KDH Systems for 57,000 sets of the body armor, which will start to be fielded in December, said Brig. Gen. Peter N. Fuller, head of PEO Soldier.

The new body armor is between 10 and 15 pounds lighter than current body armor, which can weigh between 27 and about 40 pounds, depending on the size of the vest, Fuller said on Friday.

PEO Soldier will also send another 1,000 sets of the body armor in a new camouflage pattern that the Army will evaluate in Afghanistan, he said.

As of Oct. 6, there were about 44,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, according to the Army.

The number of body armor sets ordered is based on soldiers’ missions in Afghanistan, not the number of soldiers there, Fuller said.

“We’re waiting for the theater to tell us, ‘We want these units to receive it because they’re the ones that are outside the Forward Operating Bases and operating in a high environment and they are doing long duration missions, and they need to save as much weight as possible,’” he said.

PHOTO: A soldier wearing current body armor in Afghanistan.

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U.S. sends first lethal cargo to Afghanistan through Russian airspace

The United States has sent its first shipment of lethal cargo to Afghanistan via Russia, a State Department spokesman said Thursday.

Under an agreement struck in July, the United States can send troops and military equipment to Afghanistan through Russia. This is on top of NATO-Russia agreement that allows the United States to send non-lethal cargo to Afghanistan by way of Russia.

The first flight of lethal cargo under the July agreement landed at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, a senior military official said.

“Russia’s agreement to allow the United States to transit lethal equipment across its territory in support of ISAF operations is an important contribution to our efforts to improve security and stability in Afghanistan,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement Thursday.

“We look forward to many more flights under this agreement.”

The United States government began exploring alternate supply routes to Afghanistan earlier this year after militants in Pakistan started to disrupt the flow of NATO supplies through the Khyber Pass.

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House panel advances bill to let troops sue for medical malpractice

While folks on one end of the Rayburn House Office building yesterday were finalizing plans for next year's defense budget, members of the House Judiciary Committee quietly forwarded Rep. Maurice Hinchey's bill which would permit servicemembers to sue the military in certain cases of medical malpractice.

It's a first big step forward for Hinchey's proposal, although it's still a long shot to pass both the full House and Senate (a companion bill, sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, is working through the Senate). The bill would allow civil lawsuits against military doctors in cases of clear medical negligence, something that's currently prohibited under federal law.

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2010 NDAA kills F-22s, but includes hate crime legislation

Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain (the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, respectively) briefed reporters just a short time ago on details of the agreed-upon defense authorization bill for fiscal 2010.

Most of the details aren't a surprise: Troops will see a 3.4 percent pay raise in January, $6.7 billion for armored vehicles including the new M-ATVs, $600 million for equipment shortfalls in the guard, more cash for defense health and family support programs.

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Military money flowing on Capitol Hill today

While all the attention this week has been focused on the Afghanistan talks at the White House, Congress has been moving a number of defense budget measures in quick succession this week, shaping spending for next fiscal year.

Of course, fiscal 2010 already started on Oct. 1, so lawmakers are already behind. Vets groups have been railing against the cumbersome budget process all week because the Department of Veterans Affairs yet again started its new fiscal year without clear funding numbers. But a final vote on the measure is expected in the House today on the issue.

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VA to banks: Those emergency GI Bill checks are real!

So far nearly 14,300 student veterans have received emergency GI Bill checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs since last Friday. Another 9,300 applied online for the money, and should be receiving their checks in the next few days.

The payments are advanced on students' promised education benefits, and were designed to help tide veterans over until the VA finishes processing everyone's paperwork for this semester. Veterans service groups last month reported thousands of students contacting them, worried that delays in tuition payments and living stipends could leave them deeply in debt before the department sorted out its backlog.

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Casey hints Afghanistan surge could cut into dwell time

The Army chief of staff hinted Monday that an increase in troop strength in Afghanistan would cut into soldiers’ time at home.

Gen. George Casey spoke Monday at the Association of the United States Army, an organization that brings together Army officers and former Army officers who now work for defense contractors.

This year’s event comes as top military and civilian leaders are wrestling over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.

When asked if sending extra troops to Afghanistan could delay the Army’s plan to give soldiers more time at home, he said the Army still hopes to give soldiers close to two years off for every year they deploy by fiscal 2011.

“Beyond that, I don’t want to say anything else,” Casey said. “I mean, you can do the math as well as I can: More troops makes it harder to get – more troops impacts dwell, I mean there is no question about that.”

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UN: Life in Afghanistan is bad, but Niger is worse

Despite eight years of war, Afghanistan is only the second worst place in the world to live.

Top honors in that undesirable category go to Niger, according to the UN's annual ranking of quality of life around the globe.

The United Nations Development Program looked at 182 countries, assessing people's well-being with measures such as life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and per capita gross domestic product. This is the first time since 1996 that Afghanistan was included.

(Norway is listed as the best place to live, followed by Australia and Iceland. The United States was ranked 13th).

The report, released today, underscores just how challenging a task reconstruction is in Afghanistan. Check out these scary factoids about the Afghan population:

• 28 percent of adults can read
• 50 percent go to school
• 78 percent lack a good water source
• Life expectancy is 43 years
• Probability of not surviving to age 40 is 41 percent

And not surprisingly, almost no one moves there - except possibly more US troops.

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Military giving the boot to Twitter squatters

For a while on Twitter there were handles tweeting about the Air Force with official sounding names, like "usairforce." Except they weren't the Air Force.

Call them Twitter squatters.

See, the military was a little late to the social networking game, and when they got on board they found others had already snapped up their names. And they weren't too excited about being UsAIRForce12.

So the Air Force - the first service to really embrace social media - called up Twitter and had the pesky freeloaders kicked off those trademarked names. The Air Force took over all those accounts, and now has seven official Twitter handles. (That's big Air Force. Many individual wings and commands have their own Twitter accounts.)

All those accounts, such as @AFPAA and @US_Air_Force, will soon shift to one name, @usairforce. That's the same name the Air Force changed to on Facebook. The old Facebook identity, Hap Arnold, was killed off.

The Air Force is trying to be consistent across social media platforms, using usairforce on all of them. Air Force social media guru Paul Bove said it's all for branding.

"Plus it's pretty direct and simple as a name," he said.

The Marines too are doing some evicting. Bove recently passed along Twitter contact info to them, so they can deal with their own squatter problem.

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Faces of Honor program helps provide plastic surgery for wounded vets

A group of plastic surgeons on Thursday announced the launch of Faces of Honor, a national program to provide free consultations and low-cost procedures for servicemembers who suffered facial injuries in combat, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The program is meant to supplement care already provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Dr. Donn Chatham, president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He added that many members of the academy have advanced skills that VA doctors may not possess.

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Troops who sold homes at a loss could be in line for cash

Defense officials this week announced more details to the Homeowners Assistance Program announced earlier this year as part of the economic stimulus packages. For troops who've sold their homes at a steep loss in recent years, it could mean tens of thousands of dollars in compensation.

The program was originally intended solely for troops forced to move because of base closure decisions. But federal officials set aside $555 million earlier this year to expand the program to cover wounded troops forced to move, families of deceased troops who relocate, and troops who've sold their homes after a PCS move.

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Top U.S. war generals push back Obama critics

In a rare alignment of the military news planets on Thursday, three of the most important U.S. generals shaping the country's foreign policy and directing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made public appearances and spoke to the press.

Gen. David H. Petreaus, CENTCOM commander, and Iraq war commander Gen. Ray Odierno were both in Washington.  Afghanistan war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal appeared at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS (which I heard pronounced "double "I", double "S"), a London think tank.  

Surprisingly, they all are quite familiar with President Obama.

McChrystal rejected the narrative of Barack Obama's critics who say that the president should pick the general's war plan as it was delivered or suffer total American defeat in Afghanistan.

"I discount immediately anyone who simplifies the problem or offers a solution...or says, 'This is what you have got to do'," he said, "because they absolutely have no clue about the complexity of what we are dealing with."

McChrystal has said in several interviews he supports the White House deliberaitons. On Sunday, he told CBS's David Martin that even flying above ground troops in his helicopter daily is not enough to truly understand the war because you can't hear the bullet's whizzing by. 

McChrystal also said that he only has spoken to Obama once on the phone since taking command earlier this year.  That line set off a firestorm of conservative criticism at Obama.  McChrystal in later interviews has said he is not concerned with direct access to the president and is confident in the chain of command.

In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove called it a "troubling revelation" revealing "Obama's aloofness on the war", and bragged that Pres. George W. Bush, Rove's old boss, talked to his field generals at least every week or two. 

Petraeus would have none of it. 

"If you looked at my calendar, and the amount of time that I've spent in Washington, I think that you'd find there's been an extraordinary amount of contact at that level," he told NBC anchor Brian Williams at a newsmaker conference at the Newseum in Washington, DC. 

There, Petraeus also gave many reasons why he supports counterinsurgency operations (he wrote the book, it's called the Petraeus Doctrine, after all), which is the basis of McChrystal's suggested plan for Afghanistan. 

When Petraeus spoke at lenth explaining the lower levels of violence continuing in Iraq depsite the U.S. withdraw plan, Williams pointed out the country is far from a peaceful place, and pressed, "Is it going to be a disaster for the rest of our adult lives?"  Petraeus answered firmly, "I don't think so."

About ten minutes after Petraeus' event ended downtown, Gen. Odierno took the briefing room podium over at the Pentagon to update reporters on the state of affairs in Iraq.

He too was asked how often he speaks to President Obama.  Odierno said he sends a progress memo each week that he knows the president reads, because he hears back from him.  And later today he was going to talk with Obama.  He talks even more often with Vice Pres. Joseph Biden, he said, who has made several trips to Iraq. 

But then Odierno added that he regularly talks with the Joint Cheifs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and Sec. Robert Gates, and that he was comfortable speaking through the chain of command because: "That's how it should be."

Whether these pronouncements represent media savvy generals towing the administraiton line, or straight-talking generals telling the Washington chatterati just how it is, others can decide. 

That's just what they said today.

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CENTCOM promises new investigaton into deadly Wanat attack

Staffers from Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's office said this morning that U.S. Central Command officials will launch a new investigation into the July 2008 battle in Wanat Village, which resulted in the death of nine soldiers and the wounding of 27 others.

Questions about the fight -- and more disturbingly, whether commanding officers gave soldiers the resources and preparations they needed to survive at a dangerous outpost -- have lingered since the Army released its report on the attack last fall. Investigators detailed how 48 members of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment were placed in a vulnerable new forward operating base and overrun by a insurgent force of more than 200 men.

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