Read the latest articles from Task & Purpose (Page 21)

Air Force Maj. Ross Elder, a test pilot and combat fighter pilot, was named by NASA as the commander of an upcoming year-long Mars simulation mission. A Space Force officer and Marine Corps fighter pilot were also named to the crew.
Air Force

Air Force test pilot picked to command year-long Mars simulation mission

NASA named an Air Force test pilot, a Space Force officer who was once an ICBM missile officer, and a Marine Corps F/A-18 pilot as crew for a year-long Mars simulation mission.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 185th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in a Title 10 status protect a Los Angeles Federal Building and federal personnel in Los Angeles, Calif., June 9, 2025. Approximately 2,000 National Guard forces are supporting the protection of federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area. (Department of Defense photo by Capt. Alex Werden)
National Guard

Former generals say LA, DC deployments harm troop morale, apolitical reputation

“Disapproval from fellow Americans can only exacerbate feelings of isolation and low morale for the military deployed,” 11 generals wrote in a recent court filing.

Army Body Fat Exemptions
Army

Soldiers who score high on fitness tests are once again exempt from body fat standards

Soldiers who qualify for exemptions but do not meet the Army’s height and weight standards will not be referred to the Army’s Body Composition Program.

Iwo Jima Tank
Culture

World War II Marine veteran reunites with tank he drove on Iwo Jima

Leighton Willhite visited Virginia to see the tank he drove at Iwo Jima, 80 years ago.

U.S. Air Force Airmen 1st Class Maya Hartung, an admin with the 182nd Command Support Squadron, Illinois Air National Guard, poses for a photo of her boots at the 182nd Airlift Wing in Peoria, Illinois, March 1, 2024. The 182nd Airlift wing operates and maintains C-130 Hercules Aircraft. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Avery Litton)
Air Force

Air Force walks back rules on taller combat boots

A rule that required boots to be 8 inches tall in the heel will now be reduced to 6 inches after airmen found that boots in smaller shoe sizes were often too short.

The USS Canberra sails in the CENTCOM area of operations.
Ships

The Navy turned its ‘little crappy ship’ into a mine hunter

After twenty years and billions of dollars, littoral combat ships are finally performing mine countermeasures as originally planned.

An airman assigned to the Kentucky Air National Guard's 123rd Airlift Wing jumps above Henry E. Rohlsen Airport near Christiansted in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Aug. 26, 2025, as part of Emerald Warrior 25.2, a large-scale special operations exercise being staged in multiple locations by Air Force Special Operations Command.
Air Force

Air Force special ops troops practice airfield seizures amid Caribbean build up

Air Force special operations commandos practiced seizing airfields in the Caribbean as the Navy amassed ships in the region.

A new KC-46A Pegasus connects with an F-15 Strike Eagle for an aerial refueling test over California in 2018. (Courtesy photo by John D. Parker/Boeing)
Air Force

Stuck fuel probe caused trio of mishaps in Air Force’s newest tanker

All three suffered “nozzle binding” events when the tanker’s fuel probes got stuck in fighter planes during refueling.

Rangers Test Drones
Army

Army Rangers are testing out drones as anti-tank weapons

The Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment has been testing whether first-person view drones laden with explosives can penetrate enemy armor.

Soldiers in basic training complete the Rite of Passage ceremony at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, May 11, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Resnick)
Army

Soldier who died in Fort Leonard Wood range incident was a month from graduating basic

Pvt. Andrey Okunev died on Friday after being injured on the rifle range. He and his fellow soldiers were slated to graduate next month.

John "Lucky" Luckadoo near a B-17 in World War II.
World War II

‘Lucky’ Luckadoo, last original pilot of World War II’s ‘Bloody Hundredth’ dies at 103

Maj. John "Lucky" Luckadoo flew 25 bombing missions over Europe during the war, surviving some of the most intense air battles of the war. He became an advocate for the 100th Bomb Group's history.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 28: Tom Hanks attends Focus Features' "The Phoenician Scheme" New York Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Entertainment

West Point alumni group cancels award ceremony honoring Tom Hanks

Hanks was set to be honored this month at West Point. The group presenting the award says it's focusing instead on training cadets.

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 4: National Guard Military Police watch as trains arrive and depart during rush hour at L'Enfant Plaza station on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. Members of the National Guard and Federal Law Enforcement continue to patrol the Nation's Capital, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard and law enforcement to patrol the nation's capital to assist in crime prevention with more than 2,200 National Guard troops have been deployed in Washington, D.C., a mission that experts estimate is costing over $1 million a day when factoring in pay, housing, travel, food, fuel and other logistics, according to comparisons with the 2020 mobilization of 5,000 Guard members that cost more than $2 million daily. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
National Guard

Georgia becomes seventh state to send its National Guard to DC

The 300 guardsmen from Georgia are being sent to relieve some of the approximately 2,300 National Guard troops already active in the nation's capital.

An F-35A Lightning II performs a restricted climb over March Air Reserve Base during takeoff for a practice demonstration, April 11, 2025. The F-35A Demonstration Team showcases the power, precision, and lethality of the world’s most advanced multirole stealth fighter. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Nathan Poblete)
Americas

US sending F-35s to Puerto Rico as military buildup in the Caribbean continues

The 10 stealth fighters will deploy in the wake of the Navy sending seven ships and a submarine to southern Caribbean waters, where the U.S. bombed a civilian boat this week.

FILE: A Naval Special Warfare operator conducts visit, board, search, and seizure training aboard a contracted vessel during maritime interdiction operations training. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Charles Propert/ Naval Special Warfare Group ONE)
Navy

SEAL Team 6 infiltrated North Korea in a mission gone wrong

A report by the New York Times details a complex and risky operation in 2019 to spy on North Korea's leader that ended when the SEALs aborted the mission, killing three fishermen who had stumbled across them.

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 3: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., attend a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the Harlem Hellfighters of World War I, in Emancipation Hall on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Americas

Drug cartels are ‘no different than al-Qaida,’ Hegseth says

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed that drug smugglers intent on reaching the United States will be treated the same as al-Qaida.

U.S. Marines Lance Cpl. Kaitlyn M. Erkson, an intelligence analyst with the Aviation Combat Element, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Southern Command, and Sgt. Sean S. Saball, a data noncommissioned officer with the Command Element, SPMAGTF-SC, mix paint during a visit to Casa Misericordia orphanage for girls with disabilities in Comayagua, Honduras, Oct. 28, 2017. Service members with SPMAGTF-SC volunteered their time playing with the children, handing out toys and school supplies, and painting the orphanage. The Marines and sailors of SPMAGTF-SC have donated over 7,000 hours of community service to local communities throughout Central America during their six-month deployment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Ian Leones)
News

VA may have sent 35,000 veterans ‘erroneous’ warnings about home foreclosure

Veterans received letters indicating that they were behind on their VA home loan payments. The VA did not provide an explanation for the issue.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to rename the Defense Department to the War Department, a name once held by the Department of the Army, before the creation of a single organization to oversee all branches of the millitary.
Army

Is ‘War’ the new name for the Department of Defense?

President Trump said he wants to rename the Defense Department to the Department of War, which was once the agency in charge of the Army. But a formal rebrand would require Congress.

A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, parks on a runway for a forward armed and refueling point (FARP) for ARCTIC EDGE 2025, August 18, 2025, at Cold Bay Airfield, Alaska. AE25 provided Special Operations Command North the opportunity to test a range of capabilities and response options to deter, disrupt, degrade, and deny competitor activity in the Arctic in support of globally integrated layered defense of the homeland. AE25 is a NORAD and U.S. Northern Command-led homeland defense exercise designed to improve readiness, demonstrate capabilities, and enhance Joint and Allied Force interoperability in the Arctic. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gracelyn Hess)
Air Force

Every single F-35 delivered to the US military last year was late

On average, new F-35s were delivered 238 days late in 2024. A government watchdog found that the F-35 builder continues to collect “hundreds of millions” in fees despite sagging delivery times.

An instructor with the Marksmanship Master Trainer Course, fires his weapon during an M7 familiarization course at Fort Benning, Georgia, July 2, 2025. The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit regularly partners with units across the Army to enhance lethality and precision through expert firearms instruction. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Hamlin)
News

Army’s newest rifle for soldiers dropped from independent testing program

The new M7 rifle was dropped from a program the Pentagon designed to run independent stress tests on new weapon systems for real-world scenarios.