In the news

Kent Williams, 74, a retired vice admiral who as commander of a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat in 1969 helped turn back an attack by North Vietnamese troops on an American unit trapped on a beach, is being inducted into the Coast Guard Academy's Hall of Heroes.

Navy will carry out rare 3-carrier exercise in Sea of Japan

The U.S. Navy has announced that it will carry out a rare exercise this weekend in the western Pacific involving three aircraft carriers. The exercise will take place in the Sea of Japan east of the Korean peninsula and is intended to send a message to North Korea of America's security commitments in the region, according to U.S. officials.

US carriers in rare Pacific op amid N. Korea tensions

Three US aircraft carriers will stage joint drills in the western Pacific for the first time in a decade, the US Navy said Thursday, as tensions in the region over North Korea reach fever pitch. The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt will conduct "coordinated operations in international waters", the navy said, as US President Donald Trump's high-stakes trip through Asia takes him to China.

Trump’s war

Actually, Trump is only the delegator-in-chief, having passed to subordinates a president's most solemn duty of guiding our nation's war policies - including what wars to be in. For example, he has turned the mess in Afghanistan over to the military brass, apparently hoping he can wash his hands of responsibility, then blame the generals if things go wrong.

Link seen between domestic violence and mass killings

On Sunday, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley walked into First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding 20 others in what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the deadliest mass shooting in his state's history. In the wake of this tragedy - as is often the case after similar attacks - many are left asking why and how could it happen.

West Seattle Marines: Celebrate the Corps’ 242nd birthday Friday

The night before Veterans Day , it's the 242nd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps - founded by an Act of Congress on November 10, 1775 - and Marine veteran Tim McConnell is organizing an informal celebration: I am seeing if there are any other Marines in the area that want to get together this Friday for an informal celebration of the Marine Corps birthday. The usual Marine Corps birthday is a very formal ball, and is full of pomp and circumstance and formalities that I don't have the time or energy to be a part of.

Pentagon has known of crime reporting lapses for 20 years

The Pentagon has known for at least two decades about failures to give military criminal history information to the FBI, including the type of information the Air Force didn't report about the Texas church gunman who had assaulted his wife and stepson while an airman. The Air Force lapse in the Devin P. Kelley case, which is now under review by the Pentagon's inspector general, made it possible for him to buy guns before his attack Sunday at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Texas gunman escaped mental hospital: police

The man who carried out one of the deadliest US mass shootings escaped from a mental health facility in 2012, the same year he was convicted by a US Air Force court-martial of domestic abuse, according to a police report. Devin Kelley, who massacred 26 people at a church in rural southeastern Texas on Sunday, was convicted of assaulting his first wife and stepson while serving in the US Air Force in 2012, according to the Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal: Air Force didn’t send Texas church gunman’s conviction record to FBI

The U.S. military failed to submit the conviction record of Texas church gunman Devin Patrick Kelley to the Federal Bureau of Investigation following a 2013 court-martial conviction, a lapse that could explain why Kelley was allowed to purchase guns in more recent years. Kelley purchased one gun in 2016 and another this year at two different Academy Sports + Outdoors shops in San Antonio, according to a spokeswoman for the retailer.

USACE teams with PRASA to provide water to 100,000 residents, businesses in NW Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Running water is still a scarce commodity for many Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. But, in the past weeks residents in Isabella and Quebradillas have been able to wash, bathe, cook and drink from the tap again.

Kelly’s Civil War comment takes White House into the weeds on 157-year-old issue

On Nov. 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States with 39.8 percent of the popular vote in a four-person race. Why all this is interesting now, 157 years later, is that current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly came out recently with the comment that the Civil War began because the sides couldn't compromise.

‘Creepy, Crazy and Weird’: Texas Church Gunman Devin…

Former classmates of Texas church shooter Devin Kelley say he was a 'creepy', 'crazy' and 'weird,' person who preached about atheism on the internet. On Sunday, Kelley opened fire inside First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, outside of San Antonio, killing 26 people and injuring 24. Patrick Boyce, who attended New Braunfels High School with the killer, told DailyMail.com: 'He had a kid or two, fairly normal, but kinda quiet and lately seemed depressed.

Chickenhawk Donald: A Complete and Total Disgrace

On November 3, US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan, was sentenced to dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to private, and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

69 Marines hospitalized in California E. Coli outbreak

This 2006 colorized scanning electron micrograph image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the O157:H7 strain of the E. coli bacteria. On Wednesday, May 26, 2016, U.S. military officials reported the first U.S. human case of bacteria resistant to an antibiotic used as a last resort drug.