Eideard

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

About 200 active-duty troops and veterans wearing T-shirts advertising their branch of service marched Saturday in San Diego’s gay pride parade with American flags and rainbow banners, marking what is believed to be the first time a military contingent has participated in such an event in the U.S.

Many of the active-duty troops said they were moved to come out because it is time to end the military’s ban on openly gay troops. The march comes a day after a federal appeals court reinstated “don’t ask, don’t tell” but with a caveat that prevents the government from investigating or penalizing anyone who is openly gay.

National Guard member Nichole Herrera, 31, said she didn’t think twice about marching, even though the policy is back on the books. She said she was “choked up” several times as she walked down a main thoroughfare in San Diego, a major Navy port.

“This is one of the proudest days in my life. It’s time for it (the policy) to be gone,” Herrera said. “I’m a soldier no matter what, regardless of my sexual orientation.”

The crowd roared as the group waving military flags and holding placards identifying their military branch walked past the thousands.

Every branch of service was represented Saturday, including the Coast Guard. Marines and sailors ran out carrying their branch’s flags over their heads. One Marine stopped to pose with two towering bikini-clad blondes in stiletto-heeled boots.

Onlookers stepped into the parade route to salute them.

Bravo! The salute is overdue. Wish my cousin Billy was alive to see the Navy allow him public pride.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

From nearly the beginning of his tenure as secretary of defense, Robert Gates set his sights on ending a controversial practice in the U.S. Army known as “stop loss.” Wednesday he announced he’s done it.

“There are no Army soldiers stop-lossed,” Gates announced at a Senate hearing.

“Stop loss” is the Pentagon’s policy of forcing some service members to stay in uniform beyond the date they expected to leave the service.

It’s used during times when the Pentagon needs as many troops as possible, such as at the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

As far back as 2007, just months after taking over as defense secretary, Gates said about stop loss: “It is an issue. It troubles me. And I think it is a strain. “

But he couldn’t eliminate it because tens of thousands of soldiers, many of them experienced sergeants, would have left the Army if not for stop loss. But in March of 2009, he announced that the practice would be phased out by 2011.

And according to an Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Timothy Beninato, as of May 31 there are no more soldiers under stop loss, except for approximately 131 who were previously stop-lossed and are now hospitalized or receiving rehabilitation resulting from wounds or illness incurred while on duty in “a hostile fire” area…

All told, about 120,000 soldiers have been subjected to stop loss orders, the Pentagon says. Under federal law, each of them is entitled to $500 for each month they were stop-lossed…

If you’re a veteran who can lay claim as one of those held captive in the military under the stop loss rule, you can file a claim online at www.defense.gov/stoploss.

And thank you for service above and beyond the contract your government originally made with you.

Ever dreamt of controlling a dot-gov or dot-edu? A hacker is selling access to dozens of military, government, and university Websites for $55-499 a piece.

Discovered by security firm Imperva, the hacker advertises varying fees, services, and proofs for cracking into .mil, .gov, and .edu sites around the world.

The priciest, access to the homepage of the U.S. Army, National Guard, and Army Forces, goes for $499 each, followed by access of university and governmental Websites. You’ll also find passes to the Italian Official Government Website for $99 or a Taiwanese educational center for $88…

Brian Krebs of Krebson Security said he saw the back-end evidence of the hacks and found them legit.

“Amid all of the media and public fascination with threats like Stuxnet and weighty terms such as “cyberwar,” it’s easy to overlook the more humdrum and persistent security threats, such as Web site vulnerabilities. But none of these distractions should excuse U.S. military leaders from making sure their Websites aren’t trivially hackable by script kiddies,” he wrote on his blog.

You wonder if the official webmanagers of all these sites even keep up-to-date with the world of patches?

Gee, I wonder if they sang this one at the concert?

The Army said it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.

Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the Army’s Transportation Corps. “My whole issue was I don’t need to be preached at,” Smith said in a phone interview from Phoenix, where he is stationed with the National Guard. “That’s not what I signed up for.”

Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for helicopter electrician training when the Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts.”

Smith said a staff sergeant told 200 men in their barracks they could either attend or remain in their barracks. Eighty to 100 decided not to attend, he said.

“Instead of being released to our personal time, we were locked down,” Smith said. “It seemed very much like a punishment…”

Smith said he and the other soldiers were told not to use their cell phones or personal computers and ordered to clean up the barracks.

About 20 of the men, including several Muslims, refused to attend the concert based on their religious beliefs, he said.

The Christian evangelical proselytizing theme clings like stink to many American military bases – especially those in the Bible Belt. Often introduced by a small cadre of over-the-top fundamentalist officers linking throughout our wonderful worldwide network of military enclaves.

It’s something folks haven’t had to report on, blog about, complain about as much since the religious glory days of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld; but, nonetheless persistent and pernicious. The only humorous bit being officer types who should know that “the book” – in the military sense – always takes precedence over their holy roller guidebook.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

About 1,000 National Guard soldiers will report for duty Saturday in Puerto Rico, activated by the governor this week to help fight a drug-fueled crime tsunami that has flooded the Caribbean island.

The military personnel will repair police cruisers and join local authorities on patrols in the most crime-ridden areas of Puerto Rico, mainly in poor parts of the commonwealth’s largest cities. One soldier will accompany a police officer on each patrol, said the National Guard chief, Maj. Gen. Antonio Vicens.

“The problem that exists now is that the police are short of personnel,” Vicens said. “What we are going to do solely is to help them. First, we are going to help them with mechanics, provide them with more than 100 mechanics so that their fleet of patrol cars can go out on the street. Once we have that, we are going to have joint preventive patrols.

“You won’t see military vehicles on the street. What you’ll see are police patrols on the street…”

Gov. Luis Fortuno announced the call-up in his annual state of Puerto Rico speech Monday night, saying the help is needed until more officers can be trained. He did not set a timetable.

In a separate development, Fortuno announced Tuesday that U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez Velez had reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and the Puerto Rican Police Department for the federal agency to have jurisdiction over a series of major crimes. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and more stringent federal U.S. laws can apply…

Rodriguez said the agreement will streamline the prosecution of cases and allow federal agents immediate access to some crime scenes.

“We feel very strongly about fighting crime,” she said Thursday. “It’s much better to fight crime together. This is an additional crime-fighting measure.”

There certainly seems to be enough crime to fight, eh?