Bob McCarty Writes

As a former Air Force officer, I like to “talk trash” when it comes to interservice rivalry.  Today, however, I must commend the folks serving aboard the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan and other U.S. Navy vessels in the Pacific as they risk radiation contamination while conducting rescue and recovery operations in Japan. The video below tells [...]

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President Barack Obama cited national security interests, foreign policy interests and the interests of justice when he announced 23 months ago he would close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within 12 months.  Despite more than 140 mentions of GITMO on the White House web site since then, the facility remains open.  To celebrate that, I [...]

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One of the most popular stories about members of the “Greatest Generation” is that of “The Fighting Sullivans” who died aboard the U.S.S. Juneau during the Battle of Guadalcanal.  That story is heroic, in part, because it has to do with five brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country during World War II. [...]

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Today, I received an update from Jim Hoeft, social media coordinator for the federal government’s Deepwater Horizon Response Team.  Excerpts from that update appear below: Right now, we have approximately 9,900 personnel who are responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife with an additional 9,500 volunteers. There are already 335 vessels that are on the [...]

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NOT GUILTY x THREE! DETAILS IN UPDATE #2 BELOW. According to a report in Navy Times this morning, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas, 28, of Blue Island, Ill., was found not guilty by a six-man jury of charges of dereliction of duty and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member. SO1 [...]

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Four months ago, I began covering the cases of three U.S. Navy SEALs who stand accused of roughing up a detainee in Iraq believed responsible for shooting and killing four American contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, and then dragging their bodies through the streets and hanging them from a bridge.  Today, the court-martial begins for one [...]

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WARNING: This is good news. Three months ago, I published several posts about the cases of three U.S. Navy SEALs who face assault charges related to their capture of Ahmed Hashim Abed, the alleged planner of the March 2004 ambush, killing and mutilation of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq.  Abed, it’s alleged, was punched [...]

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