Military Personnel

The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show. The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now. The Air Force had maintained that it...

Members of Congress said they are so angry about the crescendo of sex-crime scandals in the armed forces that they are considering fundamental changes to military law and other measures that the Pentagon has resisted for years. Lawmakers from both parties said Wednesday that they were appalled by the latest revelation: that the Army is investigating a sexual-assault prevention officer on suspicion of sex abuse and pimping. Several members pledged to overhaul the way the military punishes...

NIAMEY, Niger — The newest outpost in the U.S. government's empire of drone bases sits behind a razor-wire-topped wall outside this West African capital, blasted by 110-degree heat and the occasional sandstorm blowing from the Sahara. The U.S. Air Force began flying a handful of unarmed Predator drones from here last month . The gray, mosquito-shaped aircraft emerge sporadically from a borrowed hangar and soar north in search of al-Qaeda fighters and guerrillas from other groups hiding in the region's...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says military personnel who engage in sexual assault are betraying the uniform they are wearing. He says he has directed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to "step up our game exponentially" to halt such assaults. In a tough statement, Obama said he wanted members of the armed services to hear directly from their commander in chief that such behavior is not only unacceptable, but illegal and unpatriotic. Obama's remarks came in response to a question about charges against...

President Obama announced in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be halved over the next 12 months, pledging that "our war in Afghanistan will be over" by the end of 2014. The president said he will withdraw 34,000 troops by this time next year, at which point about 34,000 U.S. military personnel will be left in Afghanistan. He pledged that "this drawdown will continue" throughout 2014, although the final target has not been determined.

President Obama's new defense strategy champions the same arguments military downsizers have invoked since 1991: The United States must invest in technology and disinvest in active-duty military personnel. The plan unveiled Thursday by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is based on two such tenets: It must "protect key investments in the technologically advanced capabilities most needed for the future . . . [and] no longer size active forces to conduct large and protracted stability...

Not for the first time, The Post erred in its selection of articles for its front page. The Aug. 17 article " 11 killed in helicopter crash in Kandahar " was relegated to the World news page on A8. Yet a large photo of striking miners being shot at by police in South Africa occupied much of the front page, while the related article was on Page A11 [" Police kill striking miners in South Africa "]. It is a sad day indeed when the deaths of seven U.S. military personnel are not considered...

Army Spec. David Hunt made it through a year of deployment in central Iraq largely unscathed. But two years after returning to the United States, he faces medical retirement from the military. As Hunt, 37 , describes it, there's "really not any place" for him in the Army because of chronic migraine, the condition that has plagued him ever since an off-duty auto accident in 2006. He has fought the symptoms — nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light — through deployments to the...

In pre-dawn darkness, a ­Toyota Land Cruiser skidded off a bridge in North Africa in the spring, plunging into the Niger River. When rescuers arrived, they found the bodies of three U.S. Army commandos — alongside three dead women. What the men were doing in the impoverished country of Mali, and why they were still there a month after the United States suspended military relations with its government, is at the crux of a mystery that officials have not fully explained even 10 weeks...

The U.S. government's fiscal predicament has many causes. But if you had to reduce them to one sentence, it might go like this: "Congress responds to the short-term demands of particular groups, not the long-term needs of the nation as a whole. " Case in point: the seemingly unstoppable growth of medical benefits for former military personnel under Tricare , the Defense Department's health program. This mushrooming expense is a major reason that Pentagon health-care spending rose from $19 billion in fiscal 2001 to $52.8...

First lady Michelle Obama came to Annapolis on Wednesday to offer "a huge thank you" to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and state lawmakers for passing a bill to ease the transition of military veterans into civilian jobs. Obama attended a signing ceremony for the Veterans Full Employment Act of 2013 , legislation that aims to speed up the process for military personnel seeking credentials and licenses needed for civilian jobs. The law will also allow military training to count as college-level...

The U.S. government's fiscal predicament has many causes. But if you had to reduce them to one sentence, it might go like this: "Congress responds to the short-term demands of particular groups, not the long-term needs of the nation as a whole. " Case in point: the seemingly unstoppable growth of medical benefits for former military personnel under Tricare , the Defense Department's health program. This mushrooming expense is a major reason that Pentagon health-care spending rose from $19 billion in fiscal 2001 to $52.8 billion ...

NIAMEY, Niger — The newest outpost in the U.S. government's empire of drone bases sits behind a razor-wire-topped wall outside this West African capital, blasted by 110-degree heat and the occasional sandstorm blowing from the Sahara. The U.S. Air Force began flying a handful of unarmed Predator drones from here last month . The gray, mosquito-shaped aircraft emerge sporadically from a borrowed hangar and soar north in search of al-Qaeda fighters and guerrillas from other groups hiding in...

The sequester may turn out to be a good thing, at least when it comes to some Pentagon programs. It is forcing the military services to make hard choices they have avoided even thinking about while the money freely flowed to the Defense Department. The United States was at war and whatever programs the services called necessary got funded, with few questions and little oversight. Pentagon spending on the Afghan and Iraq wars totaled about $1.3 trillion, while an additional $5.2 trillion paid for Defense's...

An Air Force fighter pilot is found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in his home and sentenced to one year in military prison. He is dismissed from the service without benefits. Then, his commanding officer throws out the verdict and reinstates the pilot's active-duty status. That "inexplicable decision," as the New York Times called it in an op-ed Tuesday , may sound like the plot of a military novel or movie. But it's what reportedly happened in a case that is now under review at the highest...

Chuck Hagel appeared more at ease during his first day on the job at the Pentagon on Wednesday than he did during his turbulent confirmation process, as he repeatedly paid homage to a military that has been engulfed in war for nearly 12 years. Hagel, who was sworn in earlier in the day, is the only Vietnam combat veteran to serve as defense secretary. In his remarks Wednesday, the former enlisted infantryman didn't dwell on his experience or the two Purple Hearts he was...

McLean-based TroopSwap is shifting focus from daily deals to digital identification as the founders continue to pursue a business that both improves the lives of current and former military personnel, and expands the company's bottom line. Co-founder Blake Hall, a veteran of the Iraq war, said service members often struggle to prove their status after exchanging an active-duty I.D. card for separation papers. The result is veteran benefits that go unclaimed and exposure to fraud for both the veteran...

First lady Michelle Obama came to Annapolis on Wednesday to offer "a huge thank you" to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and state lawmakers for passing a bill to ease the transition of military veterans into civilian jobs. Obama attended a signing ceremony for the Veterans Full Employment Act of 2013 , legislation that aims to speed up the process for military personnel seeking credentials and licenses needed for civilian jobs. The law will also allow military training to count as...

President Obama announced in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be halved over the next 12 months, pledging that "our war in Afghanistan will be over" by the end of 2014. The president said he will withdraw 34,000 troops by this time next year, at which point about 34,000 U.S. military personnel will be left in Afghanistan. He pledged that "this drawdown will continue" throughout 2014, although the final target has not been determined.

President Obama will propose a pay raise for federal civilian employees that is less than private-sector wage growth yet more than that favored by many House Republicans, who want to extend an employee pay freeze. Obama will propose a 1 percent pay increase in the administration's fiscal 2014 budget plan, which is expected in mid-March. At the same time, the House plans to vote soon on legislation that would extend the current freeze on basic pay rates through the end of the 2013 calendar...