Come Early, Take Metro to the Parade
Posted by Java Joe on Thursday, June 12, 2025 · Leave a Comment
The last Army parade on the scale of this weekend’s 250th celebration was in 1991 for the Desert Storm Homecoming. President George H.W. Bush greets General H. Normal Schwarzkopf. (Photo from Wikipedia National Victory Celebration)
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The Army is set to hold a parade in Washington marking its 250th birthday on June 14, the president’s 79th birthday, reports Military.com. More than 6,600 soldiers, as well as dozens of tanks and other combat vehicles are now expected. Tribute also will be paid to the president including Golden Knights parachuting onto the White House lawn to present a flag to him. The last Army parade of this scale was in 1991, following victory in Operation Desert Storm.
The celebration begins with a fitness competition at 9:30am, then a festival on the National Mall at 11am, featuring live music and military vehicles, equipment, and weapons, reports The Hill. The parade begins at 6:30pm and will roll down Constitution Avenue NW. The troops will march in groups wearing uniforms representing every American conflict dating back to the American Revolution.
The equipment includes tanks from World War II and more than 62 aircraft that will be part of a flyover across the capitol. Task & Purpose provides a list of all that will be on display.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith predicted “major impacts to traffic” and advised attendees to arrive early and consider forgoing cars for the Metro, reports Military.com. Army officials estimate around 200,000 will view the military parade. The event has been designated a National Special Security Event for its size and anticipated counter-protests, which are planned. Officials are on alert for the spread of the immigration-related clashes roiling in Los Angeles.
President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to assist LA law enforcement with deportation protests will likely cost $134 million, reports Politico. Acting Pentagon comptroller Bryn MacDonnell, testifying at a House budget hearing on Tuesday alongside DefSec Pete Hegseth, said the estimate covers costs such as travel, housing, and food. The $134 million anticipates a 60-day deployment, MacDonnell told the lawmakers, and will come from the DoD’s operations and maintenance budget, reports Military Times.
The battalion of 700 active-duty Marines Trump deployed on Monday to LA are based out of Twentynine Palms, CA, reports Military.com.
The LA protests of immigration enforcement raids are spreading across the country, including DC, reports Military.com. Some have resulted in clashes as law enforcement officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds. Activists are planning more demonstrations on Saturday to coincide with Trump’s military parade through Washington.
A grand jury indicted Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) on a trio of charges alleging she forcibly interfered with law enforcement officials outside an immigration detention facility in Newark, reports Politico. The three counts carry a maximum 17-year prison sentence. Two other Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation and the city’s mayor were also present.
Absent an itemized defense budget request from the White House, House appropriators took the unusual step of unveiling a detailed $831.5 billion defense funding measure, reports Air and Space Forces Magazine. The legislation includes $228 billion for the Air Force and $29 billion for the Space Force. Last week, another House appropriations subcommittee also approved nearly $4 billion for military construction across the two services.
DHS Sec Kristi Noem slashed the Coast Guard’s infrastructure budget by 90% in an FY26 $21 million budget proposal, reports Stars and Stripes. While receiving more than $400 million in 2024, a federal watchdog report in March found a need for at least $7 billion to fix the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure, which includes family housing and barracks, boat stations, piers, lighthouses, firing ranges, airfields, and shipyards.
The Army Corps of Engineers has developed upgrades for a family of modular, rapidly deployable, protective structures to shield against drone attacks. The announcement follows Ukraine’s unprecedented covert drone attacks that destroyed multiple Russian bombers and other aircraft at several bases across that country, reports The War Zone.
The leader of al-Qaida’s Yemen branch has threatened the lives of Trump and billionaire Elon Musk over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In his first video message since taking over the group last year, Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki also called for lone-wolf militants to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Arab states, reports Military.com.
Trump’s vision of a new, twin-engine version of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet may need to be scaled back due to cost and engineering realities, reports Reuters. Speaking in Qatar last month, Trump said the new “F-55” would feature “two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35.” However, there is a caveat, with Trump saying, “if we get the right price.”
The Royal Air Force is considering a mix of F-35B and F-35A fighter jets, with the latter potentially linked to NATO’s nuclear sharing mission, reports UK Defence Journal.
Amazon Web Services on Tuesday announced the launch of a second cloud computing region built specifically to host the federal government’s secret classified information, reports NextGov. The AWS Secret-West Region will service defense and national security customers and their partners.
Trump’s latest cybersecurity mandate rolls back an order the State and Treasury departments used to financially punish people who supported attacks that harmed US national security, reports Defense One. The new order “limits the application of cyber sanctions only to foreign malicious actors” and prevents “misuse against domestic political opponents and clarifying that sanctions do not apply to election-related activities,” according to a press release.
Italy has terminated its contracts with Israeli spyware company Paragon, after revelations that the surveillance technology was used against critics of the government – including journalists and migrant rescue workers – prompted political uproar and calls for a full investigation, reports Al Jazeera.
Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, has said that the US is no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state, explicitly abandoning a cornerstone of US Middle East diplomacy, reports The Guardian. He told Bloomberg News that any future Palestinian entity could be carved out of “a Muslim country” rather than requiring Israel to cede territory.
All Army installations renamed to sever ties with the Confederacy will have their original names restored, reports Military.com. “We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change, and I’m superstitious — we want to keep it going,” Trump told a crowd of uniformed service members during a speech on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, NC. Nine Army posts shed Confederate names in 2023 and most rechristened to honor American war heroes and other legendary figures of Army lore.
More ships will be renamed, following the USNS Harvey Milk, announced last week to time with Pride Week. CBS confirmed that Hegseth plans to rename seven other naval ships that honor the civic leaders and activists Lucy Stone, Dolores Huerta, Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers, according to Military.com which tells their stories here. There are no reports to rename the USNS John Lewis, USNS Earl Warren, USNS Robert F. Kennedy, or USNS Sojourner Truth. In addition, two ships from the Lewis and Clark class that have been in service for more than a decade have also been singled out for renaming.
Contracts:
GardaWorld Federal Services LLC, Arlington, Virginia (W519TC-25-F-0261); Triple Canopy Inc., Herndon, Virginia (W519TC25F0262); Allied Universal, Irvine, California (W519TC-25-F-0263); Acuity International LLC, Reston, Virginia (W519TC-25-F-0264); SOC LLC, Chantilly, Virginia (W519TC-25-F-0265); Patriot Group International Inc., Warrenton, Virginia (W519TC-25-F-0266); and Continuity Global Solutions LLC, Port Saint Joe, Florida (W519TC-25-F-0267), will compete for each order of the $10,336,446,197 firm-fixed-price contract for guard and protective security services. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 15, 2035. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.
Huntington Ingalls Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $8,056,338 modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-16-C-2116) to increase the previously established requirements to support sailor infrastructure at Newport News Shipbuilding. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by April 2026. Funding will not be obligated at time of award. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W912DY-25-D-0072); Ameresco Inc., Framingham, Massachusetts (W912DY-25-D-0073); The Brewer-Garrett Co., Middleburg Heights, Ohio (W912DY-25-D-0074); Centrica, Malta, New York (W912DY-25-D-0075); CMTA Inc., Prospect, Kentucky (W912DY-25-D-0076); Constellation, Baltimore, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0077); Energy Systems Group LLC, New Burgh, Indiana (W912DY-25-D-0078); Engie Services, Overland Park, Kansas (W912DY-25-D-0079); Green Generation Solutions, Bethesda, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0080); Honeywell International Inc., Duluth, Georgia (W912DY-25-D-0081); Johnson Controls Government Systems LLC, Rockville, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0082); M.C. Dean, Tysons, Virginia (W912DY-25-D-0083); Noresco, Westborough, Massachusetts (W912DY-25-D-0084); CEG Solutions, LLC, Arlington, Virginia (W912DY-25-D-0085); Schneider Electric, Carrollton, Texas (W912DY-25-D-0086); Southland Industries, Garden Grove, Massachusetts (W912DY-25-D-0087); Trane, White Bear Lake, Minnesota (W912DY-25-D-0088); and Veregy LLC, Phoenix, Texas (W912DY-25-D-0089), will compete for each order of the $3,000,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to acquire energy and water conservation services, reduce energy or water consumption and associated utility costs and reduce energy and water-related operation and maintenance costs. Bids were solicited via the internet with 19 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 9, 2035. US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Oceaneering Internation Inc., Chesapeake, Virginia, is awarded a $33,134,365 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N64498-25-D-4007) for Virginia-class submarine sail racetracks, payload tube loading platforms, and multiple all-up-round canister special support equipment ladder kits with shipping crates. Work will be performed in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by June 2030. Fiscal 2025 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,085,151 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the System for Award Management (SAM) website, with five offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity.
Filed under Leader Features, Morning Coffee · Tagged with Acting Pentagon comptroller Bryn MacDonnell, Cesar Chavez, DHS Sec Kristi Noem, Dolores Huerta, F-55, Golden Knights, Harriet Tubman, Lucy Stone, Medgar Evers, Metropolitan Police Dept chief Pamela Smith, Mike Huckabee, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thurgood Marshall, Twentynine Palms, USNS Earl Warren, USNS John Lewis, USNS Robert F. Kennedy, USNS Sojourner Truth
