Earlier this year, while visiting family in Florida and pretty much killing time, Pfc. Paul Ieti won $150 at a Florida fair’s karaoke contest by belting out “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts. His latest rendition of that hit came with a bit more pressure. And earned him a chance at bit more cash. The 21-year-old petroleum supply specialist from American Samoa was the last of six male singers featured during Wednesday night’s two-hour episode of “America’s Got Talent,” part of the NBC show’s “Judgment Week” festivities that determined which 48 acts will move on to perform live at…
Author Kevin Lilley
A recent USA Today appreciation for James Garner, the iconic actor who died Saturday at age 86, called him “the epitome of the reluctant hero.” The examples cited involve Garner’s on-screen choices and characters as well as his off-screen battles with studios. But before all that — before a career that spanned from Maverick to The Rockford Files to … well, to Maverick, and plenty of stops in between — Garner was in Korea, quite literally trying to avoid getting his ass shot to pieces. Then-Pvt. James Bumgarner received his second wound during his time in Korea (multiple obituaries say he…
The superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy wanted the school’s new head football coach to get a first-person understanding of the jobs his players — current Black Knights and future recruits — will be doing after they hang up the pads. So Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, himself a starting offensive lineman while at West Point in the 1970s, brought Jeff Monken along on a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan last month, with the three-star speaking with recent academy grads as well as more senior leaders to find out how to improve the school in ways that will help future students succeed…
It’s something the Army has known for years but the entertainment community is just finding out: It’s tough to close a base. Even a fictional one. When Fox officially shut down Fort McGee, Florida — home to the freshman comedy “Enlisted” — this spring, fans mounted a push to convince the network the show was worth saving. They pointed to an awful time slot, a lack of promotion and an underappreciation for a growing social media following, which led to the show trending on Twitter frequently — sometimes when it wasn’t even on. Mainstream media — give or take –…
There were no head-shavings, no laughing about early career missteps, not even any celebrity sing-offs with 80s-era rockers: Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, was light on laughs during his Monday appearance on “The Late Show,” but he did field some tough questions … and make one heroic airman’s night. Grass, who is in charge of 760,000 Army and Air National Guard members, met host David Letterman at the Indianapolis 500 in May — the guard sponsors the race team co-owned by the talk-show legend. Grass thanked Letterman for speaking to recruiters and potential enlistees at the…
The British army, like its U.S. counterpart, is drawing down. The waistlines of its soldiers, however, are not. Multiple British media outlets have reported that more than 32,000 soldiers have chalked up at least one fitness-test failure in the past three years . More than 22,000 British army members are considered overweight by the Ministry of Defence, which one unnamed U.K. defense official (make that “defence official”) blamed on their “appalling diet.” Despite the eye-popping statistics — current British army end strength rests at 150,000 or so — the Daily Mail reported only 50 U.K. soldiers had been kicked out…
The Hollywood forces behind “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty” could tell Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s story on the big screen, according to a report from a well-known industry news site. Deadline.com said earlier this week that Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal are “in the early planning stage” of a project on the recently returned prisoner of war. Bigelow became the first woman to win the Oscar for best director with “The Hurt Locker” in 2008, and she and Boal both produced that movie as well as “Zero Dark Thirty,” a version of the Osama bin Laden raid that benefited…
John Brooks grew up in Germany. His father served in the U.S. Army and now reportedly lives in Switzerland. And Monday, in Brazil, his goal beat Ghana. They don’t call it the World Cup for nothing. Brooks became the first U.S. player to come off the bench and score a goal in World Cup play, using his head in the 86th minute to give the Americans a 2-1 victory. Or, as his German club team’s website put it, thanks to Google translate: ” Four minutes after the equalizer, the 21-year-old screwed after a corner highest to head the highly acclaimed winner of…
Video-game conference-goers got a sneak peek Tuesday at “Fury” — a tank-based World War II drama starring Brad Pitt that hits theaters in November. The Wargaming.net panel at the E3 megaconference in Los Angeles debuted the short clip, which was posted on YouTube by IGN and reported on by Vanity Fair. And now that the attribution’s out of the way, take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahFWvk1NgfY What we learn in 95 or so seconds: Fans of CGI and “Transformers”-level battle sequences probably should stay home come November: Fury was shot on film, with traditional special effects. This would explain why the production…
A Fox television spokeswoman confirmed to Army Times on Thursday what the TV industry had been predicting for months: The Army-themed comedy “Enlisted” had been canceled before the end of its initial 13-episode run. Many blamed the cancellation on the show’s Friday-night time slot — some publications even sought redress — but despite the perceived poor timing, fans of the show frequently massed on Twitter every Friday to watch together and share their reactions, often with cast members and always with show creator and Twitter ringleader Kevin Biegel. When the show went off the air in late March, fans continued…
