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Military.com
The U.S. defense chief has ordered the Defense Department to suspend the collection of bonuses improperly awarded to California National Guard members.
In a recent statement Carter said he ordered the Pentagon's Defense Finance and Accounting Service "to suspend all efforts to collect reimbursement from affected California National Guard members, effective as soon as is practical. This suspension will continue until I am satisfied that our process is working effectively."
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Tribune News Service via Stars and Stripes
The California National Guard can’t locate more than 4,000 of the 9,700 soldiers caught up in the military enlistment bonus scandal that has rocked one of the nation’s largest Guard organizations, according to its commander.
In an internal memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau, Maj. Gen. David Baldwin said the California Guard needed help finding thousands of soldiers who received improper enlistment bonuses or other incentives at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars a decade ago.
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Military Times
The overall number of veterans serving in Congress will likely drop again next session, even as the number of lawmakers who fought in the recent wars continues to rise. An analysis from the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign shows that for the first time in 70 years, Congress could boast fewer than 100 veterans in the House and Senate in 2017. That is due in large part to retirements of World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, and the aging of America’s veterans population as a whole.
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Reuters
A petition to the White House to halt the U.S. Navy's abolition of sailors' traditional ratings that are more than two centuries old has topped 100,000 signatures, above the number needed for an official response, according to the online petition site.
The petition was launched within hours after Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said on Sept. 29 that the Navy would do away with such ratings as gunner's mate and boatswain's mate.
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Bloomberg
The Pentagon will request about $6 billion more for the current fiscal year to pay for troop increases in Iraq, a slower draw-down of troops from Afghanistan and more intense air operations, according to Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord. The "budget amendment" also will respond to an urgent request from field commanders for additional systems to counter Islamic State drones, McCord said in an interview. "You start to see these in play now in the fight," he said.
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Air Force Times
The Air Force is planning to cut some of its most commonly-required — and often repetitive or unnecessary — training programs in half.
In an Oct. 27 memo, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said the service studied 42 training courses — some of which all airmen were required to do every year — that, if taken all at once, would eat up 60 hours of an airman's time. James and Goldfein said the Air Force will cut out 15 training courses entirely and streamline or consolidate sixteen more. This will cut training time to a little less than 30 hours.
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Defense News
In what could be a big blow to the Army’s current path to develop its internal intelligence software suite — which has been long been marred in controversy — a presiding judge in a lawsuit brought by Palantir Technologies protesting the Army’s acquisition efforts for the system has ruled in favor of the Palo Alto-based company. Palantir filed a bid protest in the US Court of Federal Claims against the US Army June 30 for issuing what it says was an unlawful procurement solicitation for the service’s next iteration of its Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) that shuts the company’s commercial offering out of the competition.
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KPCC-FM
It's been almost 50 years since James Clarke joined the Marines. He served on the flight line in Vietnam, fueling aircraft 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
"I'm proud to say I was a member of the Tomcats," Clarke said.
More than 10 years ago, Clark filed a disability claim associated with his Vietnam service. He’s survived throat cancer and lives with chronic artery disease.
It took the VA four years to deny the claim.
"They turned me down in 2009," Clarke said. "I filed an appeal, and you never hear from them. I'd go over to the regional office from time to time. And 'Oh, yes sir, Mr. Clarke, we're still working on it,' and nothing."
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MilitarySpot.com
Career counselors are urging Army Soldiers to read the Army enlisted force retention program changes, re-class and initial entry requirements that took effect in 2016.
The changes not only ensure Soldiers are aligned into the fields best suited for them, but offer the most qualified Soldiers avenues for career advancement.
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U.S. Army Central
Sergeants from around the U.S. Army Central area of operations traveled to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, for the inaugural 160th Signal Brigade Noncommissioned Officer Week.
The weeklong celebration focused on junior and senior enlisted Soldiers with a special focus on their career development and the physical readiness that makes them the backbone of the U.S. Army.
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