Corporals Becky Gwynne and Alan Cheshire are brother and sister and have been deployed to Afghanistan at the same time The Army Siblings Fighting The Taliban: Brother And Sister Make Military History By Serving Together In Afghanistan — Daily Mail A brother and sister have made history after both serving in Afghanistan at the same time. Corporals Alan Cheshire, 24, and Becky Gwynne, 22, are both deployed as part of the Brigade Reconnaissance Force in Helmand province. Cpl Cheshire is a section commander for the Light Dragoons while Cpl Gwynne of the Royal Military Police carries out a number of duties in support of her brother’s operations. Read more …. My Comment : The military is clearly in their blood.

First Woman Tapped To Lead Spy Satellite Agency: Exclusive — AOL Defense WASHINGTON: For the first time in its storied history, the secretive builder and operator of America’s spy satellites, the National Reconnaissance Office, will be run by a woman. In the best Washington tradition, the news went out just before 5 p.m on a Friday when the NRO’s director in waiting, Betty Sapp, sent an email to her colleagues. Sapp, currently principal deputy director at the spysat agency, will move up one slot and replace NRO Director Bruce Carlson, who many credit with turning around the agency’s problem-plagued acquisition system. Read more …. My Comment : Another glass ceiling broken for women in the intelligence community.

Can Obama Safely Embrace Islamists? — Michael Hirsh, National Journal In an article in the current National Journal called “The Post Al Qaida Era,” I write that the Obama administration is taking a new view of Islamist radicalism. The president realizes he has no choice but to cultivate the Muslim Brotherhood and other relatively “moderate” Islamist groups emerging as lead political players out of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere. (The Muslim Brotherhood officially renounced violence decades ago, leading then-dissident radicals such as Ayman al-Zawahiri to join al Qaida.) Read more …. Update : ‘The War on Terror Is Over’ — Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard My Comment : So the war on terror is over …. hmmmm …. I learn something new everyday.

(Image courtesy of PenumbraLpz via Wikimedia Commons.) £1bn Nuclear Sub Hit A Sandbank As Commander Was In The Shower — Daily Mail * HMS Astute ran aground because offer was not using correct radar * Rescue vessel crashes into sub causing more damage * Repairs ran into hundreds of millions of pounds * Commander Andy Coles lost job a month after incident The commander of the Royal Navy’s newest nuclear-powered submarine was taking a shower minutes before it ran aground, an official inquiry has concluded. The 24-page report says Commander Andy Coles was spotted returning to his cabin as HMS Astute, the UK’s most advanced hunter-killer sub, headed into a sandbank. The embarrassing detail is included in the inquiry which found that a catalogue of errors contributed to the beaching of the £1billion submarine off the west coast of Scotland on October 22, 2010. Read more …. My Comment : More embarrassment being heaped on the British Navy. Britannia certainly does not rule the waves today.

USS Freedom in the September 2009. ( Wikipedia ) Navy Defends LCS Amid New Reports of Failures — Military.com The Navy defended a controversial new warship on Monday amid reports of leaks and equipment failures, saying the problems had been corrected and did not represent long-term issues. A government watchdog group, however, warned that the ship could be unsafe. The Project On Government Oversight said in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees that it had obtained internal Navy reports documenting problems aboard the littoral combat ship USS Freedom. The San Diego-based Freedom is the first in a new class of small, fast, modular warships that carry the hopes of a Navy brass eager to grow a shrinking, aging fleet. Read more …. Update #1: Cracks Could Jeopardize Navy Plans to deploy LCS to Singapore — Defense Update Update #2: Failed Equipment, Flawed Designs Plague Lockheed Littoral Combat Ship — POGO Project on Government Oversight My Comment : Lockheed does not need these problems now …. especially since their F-35 program is also being scrutinized and criticized for problems and failures.