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December 16, 2015: Absence from loved ones, Christmas traditions, and the comfort of family rituals is one of the most difficult moments of a soldier’s deployment. In some of the most dangerous locations, even the sound of Christmas carols could bring trouble.
This Christmas, our soldiers are holding their posts in Kuwait, Afghanistan and other undisclosed locations. Some of these places may have electricity while others, like FOB’s, may be void of modern amenities. A Christmas card, a ribbon or a bow can go a long way in reminding troops that we are here and we are thinking of them. A string of lights and a few sweets to remind them of the taste of home can make time overseas easier in a moment where nothing has been easy.
The cards that travel in our care packages come from children and schools, nursing homes and churches from across America. Every care package contains a note from Support Our Troops® showing soldiers where their gifts come from, so they know that those warm wishes are from a town and from a community much like the one they left behind.
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Researchers are working to create a new design for the Harry Potter-esque invisibility cloak, which will conceal objects, making them more difficult for adversaries to detect. (Photo: DoD photo Illustration )Recently – To scientists, it's called the "dielectric metasurface cloak." To the rest of us, it's something that makes you invisible, at least according to the people at the University of California-San Diego. It was invented by a team that includes professor Boubacar Kante, and it's possibly a huge step breakthrough in the ongoing quest for invisibility, according to an article in the Army Times. Not surprisingly, the work has military interest, and Kante and his team are planning to submit a proposal this month. The applications are obvious – something that could aid the military in hiding an object trying to get close to an objective would be valuable indeed.
"Unmanned Areal Vehicles and other planes, ships and anything else interested in dodging radar could have a use for it. And it could also be used as high-end camouflage for any background colors," the article said. "The Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center is a Defense Department contractor tasked essentially to be a matchmaker for the Pentagon and academia/industry. Kayla Matola, research analyst for HDIAC, told Army Times the UCSD design is lighter and cheaper than anything else out there, and “basically what the military’s looking for” regarding cloaking capabilities.
Read more: Did scientists just invent an invisibility cloak? If so, the military is interested.
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U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone meets Chief Master Sgt. Phillip Easton, 86th Airlift Wing command chief, upon his arrival to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 24. 2015. (Sara Keller/U.S. Air Force)Recently - Spencer Stone, the Military Airman 1st Class who helped his two American friends take down a terrorist with an AK-47 assault rifle on an Amsterdam-Paris train last month will be awarded a Purple Heart. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced the news on Monday, according to an article by Military,com.
Stone has been called our very own "Captain America," and was already getting the Airman's Medal, the highest non-combat award in the Air Force. The honors will be issued at a Pentagon ceremony on Wednesday, the article said.
Stone, Skarlatos and their friend Anthony Sadler were on vacation Aug. 21 when they subdued, disarmed and hogtied a heavily armed gunman on a train heading from Amsterdam to Paris, according to Air Force Times. The gunman, who was armed with the gun, a Luger and a box cutter, stabbed Stone during the melee, sending him to the hospital. France awarded all three Americans the Legion of Merit within days of the attack.
Read more: Military Airman Who Helped Stop Attack on Paris-Bound Train Will Get Purple Heart
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North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un (left) and South Korea's Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan Photo: AFP/Getty Images/EPASEOUL, Tuesday - After days of escalating military tensions between North and South Korea, the contentious countries have agreed to end a standoff, according to ABC News. The countries had been quarreling over a series of events that led to one of the most serious escalations of military intent in over five years.
The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, ordered a "quasi-state of war" and South Korea had raised its military readiness to the its highest level. The two Koreas fired artillery shells across their heavily-fortified border, known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and South Korea broadcast anti-North Korean messages over a loudspeaker. The exchange of fire did not result in any damages or injuries, but the two countries argued over who had fired first.
Had the military standoff escalated, the implications could have potentially sparked a global conflict, one that the United States Military might have intervened in. North Korea said it would lift its semi-state of war and said it "regret" causing injuries to South Korean soldiers from a landmine blast on Aug. 4. South Korea, starting on Tuesday, will stop its broadcasts over the border.
Read more: Military standoff between North, South Korea quells after talks
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U.S. Army Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut, speaks with reporters Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, at Fort Benning, Ga., where she was scheduled to graduate Friday from the ArmyÂ’s elite Ranger School. Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver are the first two women to complete the notoriously grueling Ranger course, which the Army opened to women this spring as it studies whether to open more combat jobs to female soldiers. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)FORT BENNING, Ga. - Since 1972, only male soldiers were allowed to attend Ranger School, one of the most grueling tests the army has to offer. The two month course is so notoriously difficult that only 3 percent of soldiers ever finish it. Last Spring, for the first time, women were allowed to enroll. Recently, according to Yahoo News, Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver were the first women ever to complete the training.
Griest, 26, of Orange, Connecticut, and Haver, 25, of Copperas Cove, Texas, will become the first women to wear the Army's coveted Ranger tab when they graduate alongside 94 male soldiers Friday at Fort Benning.
Currently, women are still unable to join infantry, armor and special forces units, but that could change next year after the Pentagon makes its recommendations. Haver and Griest — both graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — not only finished the course they started in April. They both had to start from scratch, having failed two previous attempts. Haver is an Apache helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, and Griest is a military police officer and Afghanistan veteran stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Read more: Two women soldiers are the first to pass Ranger School
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A check presented to Support Our Troops®TAMPA, recently – Mike Howe, the co-owner of Tampa Humidor, a cigar shop in Tampa, noticed something interesting about sales at his store. In addition to the regular customers around the area, he was getting a lot of troops - former servicemen and women, and veterans of recent wars and military service persons. In fact, so many service members were coming into the store and buying cigars online that he decided to memorialize them. "They're a part of our customer base," he said, "We have a lot of current and ex-military folks and customers. We get a lot of pictures from guys that are on active duty - flags and stuff too - so we put those up on the wall. We call it the wall of honor." The interactions with these men and women spurred Howe to do something more than just put up pictures.
Read more: Tampa Humidor raises money for Support Our Troops