March 29, 2024

Fallen Sailors Honored at USS Cole Memorial

Cole

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The US Navy honored the memory of 17 sailors killed in the 2000 jihadi attack on destroyer USS Cole, reports Military Times. Monday marked 20 years since the attack in a Yemeni port. “Nowhere was that event felt more deeply than right here with the families, the friends, the shipmates of the 17 sailors we lost,” said ADM Christopher Grady. The Federal Bureau of Investigation determined the attack was carried out by members of al-Qaida.

The Atlantic hurricane season is not over yet, reports The Washington Post. In a typical storm season, the Atlantic averages one named storm after Oct. 19, which would suggest that even in an average year the season wouldn’t be quite done yet. However, this season is anything but typical, considering it is pacing more than a month ahead of the busiest season on record, which occurred in 2005, and have dipped into the Greek alphabet for only the second time. The National Hurricane Center is watching an area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms in the far eastern Atlantic, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

US forces hit the Taliban with airstrikes in Helmand, reports Defense News. COL Sonny Leggett confirmed on his twitter account that the strikes over the past two days in Helmand did not violate the US-Taliban agreement signed in February. GEN Scott Miller, commander of US forces in Afghanistan said, “The Taliban need to immediately stop their offensive actions in Helmand Province and reduce their violence around the country. It is not consistent with the US-Taliban agreement and undermines the ongoing Afghan peace talks.”

Top general dodges on Afghanistan plans, reports The Hill. In an interview with NPR that aired Monday morning, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman GEN Mark Milley would not discuss specific plans but insisted the US would “responsibly” end the war. “We’re on a plan to do a responsible, deliberate drawdown to about 4,500 here very shortly,” the general said. “And then future drawdowns will be determined by the president. And I’m not going to disclose specific numbers and what those are.

The US Army’s new tactical information warfare unit conducted its first training exercise specifically dedicated to maturing the formation’s concepts and tactics. C4ISRNET reports that the 915th Cyber Warfare Battalion was officially created by Army Cyber Command in 2019. It consists of 12 expeditionary cyber and electromagnetic teams that are solely meant to support brigade combat teams or other tactical formations with cyber, electronic warfare, and information operations capabilities.

The Trump administration plans to sell three advanced weapons systems to Taiwan after notifying Congress of the deals, reports Defense News. The move is likely to further anger China, as the country claims Taiwan as its territory and has recently stepped up its threats to use force against the island if necessary. This week, in the wake of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s calls for peaceful dialogue, China released new footage showing a large-scale military exercise simulating an invasion reports The Washington Post.

 

 

Sailors sequestered away from their families as a coronavirus precaution would be eligible to receive their Family Separation Allowance earlier under a provision in the House of Representatives’ version of the 2021 Defense Department budget, reports Stars and Stripes. Currently, the service members are ineligible for the Pentagon’s $250-per-month Family Separation Allowance until 30 days after deploying from their homeport. But pre-deployment quarantines have meant sailors are often separated from their families well before a ship gets underway.

The USS Stout has ended its 215-day, record-setting deployment, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The Stout spent much of its time at sea making sure merchant ships and tankers could get safely through the Straits of Hormuz.

Polish Navy divers on Monday began a five-day operation to defuse the largest unexploded World War II bomb ever found in Poland, reports Reuters, forcing more than 750 people to evacuate their homes.

The US Marine Corps will limit travel for guests of honor for birthday balls due to fiscal and pandemic safety reasons, reports Marine Corps Times.

The Washington, DC, area trends slightly downward on US News & World Report’s Best Places to Live for 2020 and 2021, reports WTOP News.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced that state officials will no longer consider plans to close a Maryland State Police helicopter base on the Eastern Shore, The Associated Press reports.

Maryland election officials say they are ready to “rock and roll” as preparations for the Nov. 3 election wrap up, reports Maryland Matters. Here are answers to frequently asked questions about the election.

Some Charles County public school students and teachers received hotspots and web cameras last month with help from members of the Joint Base Andrews Office of Special Investigations, reports The Southern Maryland Chronicle. The volunteers from Andrews completed in one day what it would have taken CCPS staff several days to finish. They helped prepare 1,000 hotspots for students and nearly 2,000 web cameras for teachers.

The Blue Origin launch of a NASA moon landing experiment aboard the company’s reusable New Shepard rocket was successful Tuesday morning, reports UPI. Just like New Shepard test flights of the past, no people were on board, but the rocket carried a dozen research payloads to space for NASA, reports The Verge.

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