A parent presiding over a child’s promotion ceremony is rare enough. Being able to arrange such an event in a war zone is verging on the impractical, but can happen. But organizing such a promotion, then following it up inside a year with the child promoting the parent? That makes you the leader in the family-friendly clubhouse, and that’s where you’ll find the Moon men, thanks to a May 15 ceremony in Aberdeen, North Carolina. There, 1st Lt. Steven B. Moon pinned O-6 insignia onto Col. Steven R. Moon, a reservist serving on…
A veteran of the war in Afghanistan has been told he should suffer for his service. Retired Army Capt. Matt Zeller says he fought for Americans to freely express themselves, but what he saw on his windshield crossed the line. Zeller was out grocery shopping in Virginia Sunday when he returned to find the following note on his car: “You should be ashamed of yourself. You are a murdered if you ‘served’ in Afghanistan. I hope you watch your child starve and die in front of you, as you have done to the people of Afghanistan.” “I have a young…
Chances are, the plot twists, conspiracies and layered storytelling that make up NBC’s soldier-focused “American Odyssey” have not caused you any great confusion. Because chances are, if ratings are to be believed, you haven’t watched the show. The Sunday-night drama, which showcases a female soldier’s escape from a U.S.-backed hit squad and the descent of her and the rest of the cast into a web of big business, traitors and terrorism, received mixed reviews from critics prior to its April 5 debut. It’s received less-than-mixed ratings: Last night’s airing had a 0.6 share in the 18-to-49-year-old target demographic, dead last among first-run…
First, the video. Warning: Contains some naughty words, features at least one woman in a bikini and includes some jabs at defendants in high-profile Army criminal cases. May be inappropriate for viewers who are under 18, at work or don’t appreciate the occasional veggie MRE joke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HSBTfRaH8U0 Now, the back story: The video comes from the team behind Article 15 Clothing, with the rap itself written and performed by Mat Best, who served with 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, before separating as a sergeant in 2008. “It’s not very specific to a very small community,” said Best, whose penned previous rap battles…
The early reviews are in for “American Odyssey,” an NBC drama premiering Sunday night at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. Central) that tracks a female Army sergeant through a conspiracy-laden maze of big business, high treason, imprisonment and cyberwarfare. Sound complicated? It is — and that’s either good or bad, depending on the critic. Alessandra Stanley at The New York Times calls the series “an exhilarating thriller,” lifted by the special relationship between Sgt. Odelle Ballard (Anna Friel) and Aslam (Omar Ghazaoui), the Muslim teenager assigned to guard her after her capture when the rest of her unit was wiped out … by American forces.…
The story of the first cultural support team member to be killed in Afghanistan will be brought to the silver screen with the help of an Academy Award-winning actress, Deadline.com reported earlier this week. Fox 2000 teamed with Reese Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard production company to secure film rights for the upcoming book “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield,” according to the entertainment-news website. The title references 1st Lt. Ashley White, who was killed in a roadside bomb blast in Kandahar province’s Zhari district on Oct. 22, 2011. White was part of…
Residents of Estonia, stirred up by instigators in that nation’s news media, told U.S. soldiers exactly what they thought about their presence Tuesday in the Baltic nation as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve: Their simple message: “Welcome.” Also: “It gets cold here.” Responding to a request from the Estonian TV news magazine “Prillitoos” — “Sunglasses,” according to Google Translate — viewers knitted socks and mittens for members of Iron Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, who are training in the region. More than 120 pairs of homemade warmth were delivered, according to a Facebook post from the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn,…
Gary Faulkner, a Colorado man with no combat training or independent wealth, made at least 11 attempts to find and capture Osama bin Laden — some ending in Pakistan, one ending in Las Vegas, none conducted under the auspices of any government or military agency. How does a nation honor such actions? A medal? Prison time? A movie starring Nicolas Cage with a title lifted from an old recruiting commercial? Turns out, it’s the third thing. Cage will portray a character based on Faulkner in “Army of One,” The Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday. Larry Charles, the director behind “Borat,” “Bruno” and “The Dictator,” will…
Deployments can stop Army parents from attending a child’s rites of passage, everything from birthdays to graduations to recitals to touchdowns. Such milestones are the kinds of things that can’t tag along into a war zone. Well, most of them can’t. Master Sgt. Ronald Hoover was in Afghanistan when his daughter, Jessica Boughan, was slated for promotion to sergeant first class. Not only did the 26-year veteran get to see it, he got to do it — the ceremony took place Sunday at Bagram Airfield. “This is the first big event that he has actually been able to be at so it’s pretty great,” Boughan…
Given all the creative, often disturbing, ways people have found to be impolite to one another over social media, one might think that revisiting old, nonsensical battles like “jocks vs. the marching band” would be unnecessary. One would be wrong. Jim Rome, host of a long-running nationally syndicated sports-talk radio show and “Jim Rome on Showtime,” took to Twitter during the New Year’s Day onslaught of college football to post the following: “Is there anyone not in a marching band who thinks these dorks running around with their instruments are cool?” Reaction was swift, and among the bands and band…
