Army recruiting up for June but still down for year
The Army cut into its recruiting deficit slightly in June but still faces a daunting battle to meet its annual goal of 80,000 new enlistees.
Army recruiters enlisted 6,157 new soldiers this month, 507 more than its goal, Army officials said Wednesday.
The June surplus breaks a string of four straight months in which the Army missed it goals by wide margins.
A big Hooah! to those who have recently answered the call.
Arroyo sends her husband into exile
Gloria Arroyo, the president of the Philippines, yesterday announced that her husband was being sent into exile, amid growing pressure on her leadership. She did not say how long Jose Miguel Arroyo would remain abroad or where he was going.
Keep treading water, Gloria. You’re heading towards a well-deserved reckoning.
Storms hamper US chopper rescue efforts
US military officials say they fear all 17 troops aboard a special operations helicopter are dead after hostile fire downed the craft in a rugged mountain ravine in eastern Afghanistan.
If those aboard were confirmed killed, the crash would be the deadliest blow yet to American forces in Afghanistan, already grappling with an insurgency that is widening rather than winding down.
The officials said they knew of no communications from the crash site, accessible only by foot.
Stormy weather hampered rescue efforts after the MH-47 helicopter crashed on Thursday while ferrying in reinforcements for troops already on the ground pursuing al-Qaeda militants near the border with Pakistan.
My eternal gratitude to those aboard in uniform, and my best wishes to their loved ones for closure and my sorrow for their losses.
US signs formal defence pact with India
India and the US have signed their first formal defence pact since the US imposed sanctions on India following its 1998 nuclear tests.
The 10-year agreement promises enhanced military co-operation, including joint weapons production, technology transfer, patrols of Asian sea-lanes and collaboration on missile defence.
Signing the “strategic framework on defence†in Washington, Pranab Mukherjee, Indian defence minister and Donald Rumsfeld, his US counterpart, said the two countries, whose military ties had been negligible until the terrorist attacks of 2001, had “entered a new eraâ€.
This is one I really need to give a more in-depth look.
Biggio makes his mark as Astros rip Rockies
Craig Biggio homered and set the modern record for being hit by pitches, and Roy Oswalt pitched seven scoreless innings for his fourth straight win to lift the Houston Astros over the Colorado Rockies 7-1 Wednesday.
Biggio was hit on the right elbow in the fourth inning by Byung-Hyun Kim, breaking Don Baylor’s post-1900 record of 267 times hit by pitches. Biggio calmly turned and trotted to first as he had so many other times, but this time he pointed to the ball and asked the ball boy to send it back to the Astros’ dugout as a keepsake for his years of pain.
267? That’s taking “taking one for the team” well past its limit.