BOSTON — There has been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad, two African countries that are integral to the military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, a top U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. The government of neighboring Chad in recent days also has questioned its agreement with the U.S., Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady, the nation’s second-highest-r ..read more

Attention, commissary shoppers: Here’s what you need to know about the possible costs you may have to front as your local store eliminates plastic and paper bags. Efforts to ditch single-use bags are gradually taking effect at U.S.-run grocery stores at military bases around the world, so be prepared with reusable bags. Guam’s commissaries got rid of plastic and paper bags as of March 15, and Hawaii’s commissaries will follow starting April 30. California and Washington will eliminate the bags on June 30. As for the remaining commissaries around the world, the Defense Commissary Agency plans t ..read more

A chief assigned to the Japan-based destroyer Higgins was convicted of attempted espionage and other charges last week, according to the Navy. Chief Fire Controlman (Aegis) Bryce Steven Pedicini was found guilty of attempted espionage, failure to obey a lawful order, and attempted violation of a lawful general order charge specifications, following a weeklong, judge-only general court-martial, the Navy said. Dating back to November 2022, Pedicini shared national defense and classified information with a representative from a foreign government that he had reason to believe could be damaging to ..read more

Military officials are disputing allegations that they withheld details about additional attacks on U.S. forces following the deadly August 2021 bombing in Afghanistan and insisting that the tragedy was the result of a lone insurgent, not a coordinated assault. The pushback comes in response to a CNN report released Wednesday which appears to show multiple rounds of gunfire following the explosion at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021. That attack killed 13 U.S. servicemembers as well as dozens of Afghan civilians. In a newly released video from the network — repo ..read more

The Coast Guard Reserve alerted thousands of its personnel to a data breach last week, nearly three months after someone improperly sent their personally identifiable information to unapproved recipients, the service confirmed Tuesday. An April 18 notification from the Coast Guard Reserve warned that a data exposure discovered Jan. 24 distributed the private material to “individuals with no authority to view the information,” a retired Coast Guardsman, who received the notification and spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Military Times. The incident, which affected 10,700 Coast Guard Res ..read more

“I am up at the front and entering Belleau Wood with the U.S. Marines.” And with that final dispatch, war correspondent Floyd Gibbons — armed with nothing but his pen and paper — strolled into a melee of artillery and machine gun fire. This dispatch would later help to shape the ethos of the United States Marine Corps and more than a century on, define the public’s view of the “Devil Dogs.” A seasoned reporter for the Chicago Tribune, the charismatic Gibbons had reported on the Pancho Villa expedition in 1916 and the sinking of the RMS Laconia in 1917 before accepting his latest assignment as ..read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Korean War veteran from Minnesota who still carries shrapnel in his leg from when he was wounded in combat will finally get his Purple Heart medal, 73 years late. The U.S. Army notified Earl Meyer, 96, of St. Peter, on Monday that it has reversed itself and granted him a Purple Heart, which honors service members wounded or killed in combat. The decision came after a campaign by his daughters and attorney. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota championed his cause. The Army’s top noncommissioned officer — the sergeant major of the army — took an interest in the case after it had ..read more

NASCAR fans watching Sunday’s Würth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway are going to see a special paint design on Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 car honoring the World War II Flying Tigers and Vietnam War veterans. Wallace told Military Times the paint scheme, which will be unveiled at the April 28 race, is a call back to a 2019 design that honored the A-10 Thunderbolt. Four Vietnam War veterans will also have their names on the hood of the car — and attend the race. “There’s a lot of race fans, a lot of crew members, part of the race teams that have a military background,” Wal ..read more

MANILA, Philippines — American and Filipino forces launched their largest combat exercises in years Monday in a show of allied firepower near the disputed South China Sea that has alarmed Beijing. The annual exercises by the longtime treaty allies will run until May 10 and involve more than 16,000 of their military personnel, along with more than 250 French and Australian forces. While the Philippine military maintains that the Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — trainings are not directed at a particular country, some of their main conflict scenarios are set in or near the disput ..read more

A U.S. defense official said that a failed rocket strike was launched at a base housing U.S.-led coalition forces at Rumalyn, Syria, marking the first time since Feb. 4 that Iranian-backed militias have attacked a U.S. facility in Iraq or Syria. No personnel were injured in the attack. Iraqi authorities said early Monday that they were searching for “outlaw elements” who launched an estimated five missiles across the border from Iraq into Syria late Sunday night targeting the base. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Also on Monday, a U.S. official said American forces had shot ..read more