ARLINGTON, Va. (Air Force News Service, Dec. 15, 2015) -- Once Susan Zerbe learned that a CH-47 Chinook helicopter had been shot down in Afghanistan, killing all 30 U.S. troops on board, she knew her son was one of them. "I heard it on the news that morning and I just knew he was on there," she said of her son, Tech. Sgt. Daniel Lee Zerbe. Hours later, her premonition … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 11, 2015) -- Senior noncommissioned officer, or NCO, selection boards and the Qualitative Management Program, or QMP boards, scheduled for the second, third and fourth quarters of this fiscal year, will consider Soldiers in all components, E-6 through E-9, for possible involuntary separation. Notification memos went out today for the March … [Read more...]

FORT KNOX, Ky. (Dec. 10, 2015) -- After more than four decades, the identification tags issued to all Soldiers, commonly called "dog tags," are getting an update. In accordance with Department of Defense guidance governing the reduction of the use of Social Security numbers, the Army published a new version of Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-8-14, Nov. 30. The pamphlet … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 9, 2015) -- A total of 19 military occupational specialties, or MOSs, in the Army will open to women beginning early next year. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Dec. 3 that women who qualify will be able to serve in any job, anywhere in the military. He directed the Army and other services to provide an implementation plan by Jan. … [Read more...]

December 7, 2014 - ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- When a Soldier trips over a rock, he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and presses on. Bomb-defusing robots, for the moment, are not so good at recovering themselves in the same way. Chad Kessens, a robot manipulation research engineer with the Army Research Laboratory, or ARL, part of the Research, Development and … [Read more...]