Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly justified his firing last week of the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s skipper in a speech broadcast Monday over the ship’s public address system, calling Capt. Brett Crozier “stupid” if he thought a letter calling for his crew to be evacuated because of coronavirus concerns wasn’t going to leak.

SUGHED: Sailors and Marines prioritize who can update ID cards during pandemic

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq transferred its compound at Taqaddam Air Base to government security forces on Saturday, as international forces battling the Islamic State group continue to shrink their presence in the country.

Capt. Brett Crozier was dismissed for not using his chain of command to make service leaders aware of his concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.

Ground-based air defenses in Iraq were being set up “to protect Iraqi, coalition, and U.S. service members from a variety of air threats,” a Pentagon official confirmed Wednesday, declining to say where or whether they were operational.

Sgt. 1st Class John David Randolph Hilty was due to retire in June and looking forward to returning to civilian life, according to friends.

Despite only completing half the race, the Green Berets earned an “honorary finish” award, since they spent much of their time assisting other racers.

A Syrian militia said no alleged Islamic State prisoners had escaped, contrary to initial reports, after the group quelled a prison uprising with the help of aircraft from U.S.-led coalition forces.

Service members could receive extra money for hardships caused by coronavirus quarantines, self-isolation or restricted movement, under new Defense Department pay guidance.

Some 2,500 Army paratroopers who were rushed to the Middle East just days after Christmas remain separated from their friends and families indefinitely as the rapidly spreading coronavirus prevents them from returning home.

The State Department has ordered some U.S. government employees at diplomatic facilities in Iraq to leave the country, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said Thursday, hours after two rockets hit the Green Zone.

The long-planned transfer of the base, located 40 miles south of Mosul, and about $1.7 million in equipment, took place amid a pause in the U.S.-led coalition’s training of Iraqi forces and a temporary withdrawal of some foreign forces.

While Katyusha rockets have been the deadliest thing flying over Camp Taji in recent weeks, officials have long been concerned about the threat of potentially toxic burn pit smoke, a government watchdog has found.

Milton Eatchel, a 90-year-old Korean War veteran, couldn’t celebrate his birthday with a party because of coronavirus social distancing, so neighbors threw him a kind of reverse parade.

U.S. and coalition troops deploying to the Middle East will be put under a 14-day predeployment quarantine at their home stations to prevent potential strain on medical facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The unnamed petty officer second class was training at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington, the state with the second-highest number of cases of the COVID-19 disease in the U.S.

President Donald Trump called on the Syrian government to release U.S. Marine veteran Austin Tice, buoying the family’s hopes for the return of the Texan, who was abducted while working as a freelance photojournalist near Damascus in 2012.

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq has paused training activities and begun pulling some international troops from the country because of concerns about the rapidly spreading coronavirus, military officials said Thursday.

The U.S. transfer of an outpost near Iraq’s western border with Syria to Iraqi security forces Tuesday marked the official start of a long-planned consolidation of coalition troops in the waning battle against the Islamic State group.

A special operations gunship directly supported maritime operations in the Persian Gulf for the first time during a joint exercise with Navy ships and a patrol aircraft last week, the U.S. military said.

More than 300 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers returning from Afghanistan began a 14-day quarantine Saturday to prevent potential spread of the coronavirus, the division said in a statement.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts and Army Spc. Juan Miquel Mendez Covarrubias were killed in Wednesday's attack on the training base north of Baghdad.

An American air raid early Friday morning on an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq was precise, proportionate and defensive — designed to deter the group from launching more rockets at American and anti-ISIS coalition forces, the top general for U.S. Central Command said.

Multiple strikes in a joint U.S.-British operation targeted Kataeb Hezbollah weapons facilities inside Iraq, one unnamed U.S. official told The Associated Press in Washington.

Three coalition troops — two Americans and a Briton — were killed Wednesday when nearly 20 107mm Katyusha rockets struck Camp Taji north of Baghdad, where U.S. and other coalition troops are based, U.S. Central Command’s top officer said.

Gunnery Sgt. Diego D. Pongo, of Simi Valley, Calif., and Capt. Moises A. Navas, of Germantown, Md., both 34 and both with 2nd Marine Raider Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., were identified as the service members killed Sunday during a joint U.S.-Iraq raid.

U.S. Army troops and other personnel in Italy should report to work as normal Tuesday, officials said on Facebook, as the military awaited a signed copy of an Italian decree imposing restrictions on travel throughout the country.

The two American deaths are the first combat fatalities in the country in 2020 and bring to three the number of Americans who have died while deployed as part of the U.S. anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and Syria.

The first collection of female versions of the classic green toy soldiers are also available for pre-order in bagged sets of 36. Color options include tan and, somewhat controversially, pink.

Master Sgt. John A. Chapman as posthumously awarded the military’s highest decoration for combat bravery for his actions during the March 2002 Battle of Takur Ghar in Afghanistan. He was the first airman to earn the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

It remains unclear whether the ban on “all Confederate-related paraphernalia” on Marine Corps installations would apply to barracks rooms, or if it would require removing any existing features on bases.

Earlier this month, Stephen J. Weiss, a World War II soldier, traveled to Paris for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe honoring the veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA, with which he briefly served during the war.

Pfc. Joseph Del Hierro and passenger Mary Moon, both 26, were on a 2009 Honda CBR600 and died of their injuries from the crash.

Stephen Weiss, 94, survived some of the fiercest combat of World War II and then learned that battles don’t end when the shooting stops.

U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq awoke to a rare sight Tuesday as snow fell in parts of the country.

Airmen will be allowed to wear up to 2-inch beards under a new Air Force guidance that outlines grooming standards for religious accommodations. The updated grooming policy, published Friday, also allows members of the Sikh faith to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs.

Hundreds of Air Force special operations members gathered last week at Hurlburt Field in Florida to remember Senior Master Sgt. Rick DeMorgan, one of three Americans killed last month fighting the unprecedented wildfires in Australia.

U.S.-backed forces in Syria captured eight Islamic State group fighters and affiliates, along with weapons, documents and military equipment, during a large-scale operation alongside American special operations troops last week, the military said Thursday.

Mail delivery to military APO and FPO addresses in Iraq has resumed after a weekslong suspension that began in the wake of the U.S. killing of a top Iranian official and a retaliatory strike by Iran on two bases housing American forces.

Combat medic David Ott’s injury caused by a roadside explosion in Iraq in 2006 seemed minor, until months afterward he fell into a coma, his brain bleeding and swollen from the traumatic brain injury he’d suffered.

Wet weather didn’t stop hundreds of people from lining the streets of a North Carolina community to welcome home the body of Spc. Antonio Moore, about a week after the 22-year-old soldier was killed in a vehicle rollover in northeastern Syria.

Cpl. Austin McMullen, Cpl. Timothy R. Watson, Sgt. Anders K. Larson and Staff Sgt. Leary K. Reichartwarfel each received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., for putting their own lives in danger to save Ali Joy and her twin girls.

A nighttime mortar attack on the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone hit the U.S. Embassy, injuring one person there, staff members said Monday.

The Department of Defense on Saturday announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.

The ISIS official known by the pseudonym Abu al-Ward al-Iraqi was killed along with another militant who officials have not yet identified during the raid in Deir al-Zour province on Jan. 14, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said.

The arrest of ISIS mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was announced by the Iraqi government’s security media cell in a statement Thursday.

The 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron’s jets arrived just hours after a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed a top Iranian general in early January.

Army Green Beret Master Sgt. Nathan Goodman died Tuesday during military freefall training in Arizona, officials said. The incident occurred during routine training near Eloy, Ariz., U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer said in a statement.

Ukraine plans to send 20 troops to Iraq to support the NATO training mission once the alliance resumes the work it put on hold as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in recent weeks.

U.S. officials had been discussing pulling out of some Iraqi bases to consolidate the American and allied troop presence in the country, but conflict with Iran and calls from Baghdad for foreign troops to withdraw have left those plans in limbo.

2020 VISION

Marines will likely get greater clarity in the coming months on the commandant’s bold new vision for a leaner and meaner force to fight near-peers like China and Russia in contested waters and on coastlines.

In addition to the trio of Silver Stars — the military’s third-highest personal award for combat bravery — officials also presented seven Bronze Stars for valor and 17 Army Commendation medals.

The streets of Irbil, an Iraqi city of more than 1 million people, were noticeably empty throughout the day after the Iranian missiles struck. Residents were staying home out of fear of additional strikes, said a traffic officer in the suburb of Ankawa.

President Donald Trump again threatened to strike Iran in response to any attack on American targets for the second night in a row Sunday as rockets again fell on an area of Baghdad near where the U.S. Embassy is located.

On Twitter, President Donald Trump said 52 Iranian sites 'will be hit very hard and very fast' if the country strikes American personnel or assets in response to the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed Friday by a U.S. airstrike.

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq has suspended training with government security forces and bolstered security at bases in the wake of a deadly strike that killed Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leaders, a military official said Saturday.

Pfc. Patrick Giannone, 19, from Spotsylvania, Va., was an information technology specialist assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The rapid deployment, which adds to the nearly 14,000 troops that have deployed to the region to deter Iranian threats since this summer, comes after mobs waving militia flags stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The U.S. military struck five facilities used by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria blamed for a rocket attack that killed an American contractor.

U.S. troops have curtailed some operations in Iraq in recent months over concerns of a heightened threat of attack from Iranian proxy groups who operate in the country.

Col. Matthew W. Brown, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division wished troops in Nineveh province happy holidays on Wednesday and Thursday and presented them with awards, handed out coins and gathered feedback.

Donning Santa hats and riding in Chinooks instead of sleighs, a combined military mission delivered holiday cheer to U.S. troops at several austere camps on what one general called the “outside edge” of America’s military footprint in eastern Syria.

The U.S. is temporarily halting a program under which bomb-sniffing dogs were sent to countries in the Middle East after a report released Friday found at least five more of the specially trained dogs had died in Jordan and Egypt following poor care, mistreatment or negligence.

A young Marine once “hacked” then-Maj. Gen. Jim Mattis’s computer and sent an email from the two-star’s account to a female Marine that the private first class had a crush on, the former defense secretary told a crowd at a luncheon Wednesday near his hometown.

Initially given a 30% chance of survival after being injured in Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Ryan Davis has battled through blood clots, infections and amputations. The theft of his family's truck and other belongings threatened to make an already bad year worse — until police recovered everything.

Militants in Bahrain have obtained sophisticated bomb components like those Iran has allegedly been supplying to Houthi rebels in Yemen, researchers have found.

America’s future enlisted leaders will need to couple the ability to bring violence to bear on the country’s enemies with a range of new skills, such as diplomacy and countering disinformation campaigns, the Pentagon’s outgoing top enlisted advisor said.

The United States is offering a $15 million reward for information on Abdul Reza Shahlai, a top Iranian commander who allegedly planned attacks against U.S. and allied forces, including a 2007 raid in Iraq that killed five American soldiers.

With political campaigns ramping up and presidential impeachment efforts underway, the Marine Corps issued a reminder about what political activities its members can engage in legally, including what’s acceptable to tweet, “gram” and otherwise share on social media.

Titled “Brave for My Family,” the book tells the story of the Christmas six years ago that young Davidson Whetstone spent with his father, Dave, who was recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after being wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade blast in Afghanistan.

Spc. Ezra Maes spent four months in intensive care undergoing near daily surgeries and battling an infection. He’s now assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion and undergoing physical and occupational therapy.

The operation, led by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Frank Cocciolillo, was a team-building opportunity for the unit, which supports the Jordan Armed Forces Joint Training Center in Amman.

Brendan Bialy, 18, who helped tackle and disarm a gunman during a school shooting earlier this year, has graduated Marine Corps boot camp, where he distinguished himself as platoon honor man.

The soldiers of Special Operations Task Force 102 received five Silver Star medals, seven Bronze Star medals with Valor devices, 15 Army Commendation medals with Valor devices and 21 Purple Hearts in one deployment.

Soldiers from the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based 432nd Blood Support Detachment jumped out of a CH-47 Chinook with rehydrated, freeze-dried plasma packed in their ruck sacks.

Tech. Sgt. Ken O’Brien has been called "Superman" by some and a hero by others — and, while en-route to receive one of the 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year awards, O'Brien lived up to his reputation when he saved a child's life.