Old Guard Maintains Vigil in DC Blizzard
A tomb guard from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) walks the mat during a snowstorm at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA, January 3, 2022. (US Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser/Arlington National Cemetery/released)
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Sometimes for a hurricane, but it is very rare for weather to disrupt the sentinels who stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Task & Purpose has more photos of the continuous guard at the tomb during this week’s snowfall.
Federal agencies are stepping in to help Hawaii investigate the impact on civilians from petroleum leaked into Pearl Harbor’s tap water from a Navy fuel storage facility, reports Military Times.
President Joe Biden on Monday signed the massive National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, which approves more than $768 billion in defense spending— noticeably more money than the White House proposed. Defense Systems says the expensive investments were partly fueled by concerns that grew in 2021 about whether the Pentagon can modernize and gain novel capabilities fast enough to thwart American adversaries.
A second attack against US-led coalition troops in Iraq involving two fixed-wing drones rigged with explosives was foiled Tuesday, Military Times reports. An unnamed coalition official told Reuters that the drones were shot down by air defenses as they approached Ain al-Asad Airbase, located in western Al-Anbar province. Air defenses also foiled another attempted strike on Monday was made at a coalition base housing US troops near Baghdad International Airport.
The US led-coalition in Syria struck several launch sites for short-range rockets believed to be intended for attacks on an eastern Syria installation used by US troops, officials said Tuesday. Military Times reports the strikes against the launch sites apparently were conducted by US forces, but a statement issued by the coalition did not specify who carried them out. The statement offered few details beyond saying the sites “posed an imminent threat in the vicinity of Green Village, Syria,” and were struck in self-defense.
The Navy has successfully completed underwater explosion shock testing for its new unmanned minesweeper, reports Breaking Defense.
Google is stepping up its operations in cloud-based and enterprise security, reports TechCrunch. Google confirmed on Tuesday it had acquired Siemplify, an Israel-based cybersecurity startup that specializes in end-to-end security services for enterprises, typically referred to as security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) services.
A board of officers convened this week to determine whether the officer who led the infantry battalion involved in the fatal 2020 sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle should be discharged from the Marine Corps or allowed to continue to serve. LT COL Michael Regner, a 19-year combat veteran, was removed as the commander of Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, in October 2020, a few months after eight Marines and one sailor died off San Clemente Island, CA, reports ISNI News.
A US Army officer facing sexual assault charges will require a unanimous guilty verdict to be convicted in an upcoming court-martial, a judge ruled this week ahead of a potentially groundbreaking case. COL Charles Pritchard, an Army judge in Kaiserslautern, Germany, said allowing a nonunanimous guilty verdict in the trial of LT COL Andrew Dial would violate due process by denying him the same rights that civilian defendants enjoy, reports Stars and Stripes (paywall).
North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile into its eastern waters on Wednesday, reports Military Times. The launch came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further boost his military capability at a high-profile ruling party conference last week.
The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is expected to conduct its first deployment in 2022 — four years after it was originally scheduled to deploy, reports Navy Times.
The Navy seeks to use automated and artificial intelligence to allow warfighters to better communicate and coordinate among themselves, reports Defense Systems. A special notice solicits vendors to help conduct research campaigns spearheaded by the Office of Naval Research.
A federal judge in Texas has granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Navy from acting against 35 sailors for refusing on religious grounds to comply with an order to get vaccinated against COVID-19, reports Navy Times.
