Eli Heidenreich’s first NFL preseason ended with a touchdown, a salute to the crowd and a place on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ squad.The seventh-round pick and Pittsburgh native was included in the Steelers’ initial 53-man roster Sunday after he and fellow Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Alex Tecza made Naval Academy football history by appearing together for Pittsburgh in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.Heidenreich and Tecza are the fourth pair of Naval Academy graduates to appear for the same team in the same NFL game, the second pair of former Navy football teammates to do so and the first pair…
Author: Tommy Grant
Thousands of U.S. Army soldiers—from Korea to Virginia—laced up their boots last week to earn a Danish military award now authorized for wear.The march, first reported by Task & Purpose, inspired thousands of soldiers across the world to load up their rucksacks and pound the pavement. The Royal Danish Air Force March, called the Danish Flyver, requires participants to carry 22 pounds over 12.4 miles. The march dates back to Denmark’s DANCON March, a long-distance ruck that began during a 1972 United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cyprus. According to the Army, the Danish Air Force later developed its own version…
Prepping has never been more expensive, especially when it comes to stockpiling food. Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are pushing up the price of energy, droughts and heat waves are killing crops, and data centers are making water more and more scarce. All of this means that food is going to keep getting more expensive. Fortunately, you can still get a lot of emergency food for a reasonable price if you’re willing to search and to buy things in bulk. You’ll also need to be willing to eat some of the basics: rice, beans, pasta, and so forth, but…
The U.S. launched new air strikes on Iranian targets on Tuesday, quashing hopes that an exchange of fire last weekend might not lead to a wider renewal of hostilities.Oil prices had already risen after that first exchange of direct attacks since July and after reports of two tankers being hit on Monday leaving the Strait, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Brent crude futures, already up 2% on the day, jumped almost 2% more on the reports. [O/R]Tehran remained defiant, warning that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat…
The United States has approved a potential $800 million sale of Bell helicopters, weapons and equipment to Iraq, according to the State Department.The proposed Foreign Military Sale includes GAU-19 three-barrel machine gun launchers, M260 seven-tube launchers for 2.75-inch rockets, electro-optical/infrared sensors and missile launch detection systems.The State Department did not specify how many helicopters Iraq is seeking to purchase.The package also includes Very High Frequency radios, spare parts, ground support equipment, technical publications and data, and new-equipment training for Iraqi pilots and maintenance personnel. U.S. government and contractor personnel would provide engineering, technical and logistics support.The State Department said the…
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation to keep federal agencies operating beyond Oct. 1 when existing funds are due to expire with the start of the new fiscal year.By a vote of 370-48, the House passed the extension of current spending through Dec. 11 and sent it to President Donald Trump for signing into law. The Senate passed the measure on Aug. 8.The temporary measure prevents the type of situation that occurred last year, when a government shutdown put paychecks for U.S. troops in doubt. The measure was needed because Congress so far has failed to…
After a 35-year Navy career, Capt. Rich Sussman administered the oath of enlistment to his son, Matthew Sussman, on his final day of service.Matthew had wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and enlist in the Navy for years, according to a recent release.“We explored a lot of possibilities and options,” Christine Sussman said in the announcement. “No matter what I threw at him, nothing really seemed to stick or really get him excited until he started talking about enlisting. It’s like the most enthusiastic we’ve ever seen him about anything.”In June, Matthew’s family gathered at the Albany Military Entrance…
The Navy’s highest-ranking officer told sailors during a town hall on Monday that it would be a while before the service would return to its main logistics hub in the Middle East after it was heavily damaged early in the Iran war.Answering a displaced service member’s question about retrieving personal goods from the base they previously called home, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said the Navy would not be using Naval Support Activity Bahrain for the foreseeable future. “We’re not getting back in there anytime soon,” Caudle said. “I just want to be completely honest with that.”On Feb.…
American Rheinmetall delivered the first Lynx XM30 prototype to the Army this week, the company said in a Tuesday statement, the latest move in the service’s yearslong effort to replace the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle.The vehicle is slated to start testing, while seven additional prototypes are scheduled for delivery later this year. The evaluation is part of a roughly $764 million Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract intended to take the vehicle from digital design through validation. The Lynx XM30 was created for a battlefield increasingly shaped by drones and electronic warfare, according to the company, and its design features modular,…
Editor’s note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service.The four Filipino archaeologists knelt shoulder to shoulder in a trench only slightly larger than a toddler’s sandbox, shaving away paper-thin layers of earth and filling buckets with soil beneath a blazing early afternoon sun on the Philippine island of Mindanao.A few feet away, Mike Henshaw, who spent much of his 25-year U.S. Army career recovering the remains of fallen service members, was creating a grid by stretching string between wooden stakes. He then activated a ground-penetrating radar device, hoping…