Uncle Sam Short on Sergeants

Unmarried loved ones have no standing, get nothing from Army

(NEWSER) - To the US Army bureaucracy, love means little without a marriage certificate—so the fiancée of a man killed in Iraq was left with nothing other than what his family was willing to part with. Now, the Washington Post reports, Kyle Harper, 27, is trying to forge a path very different from what she and Sgt. Michael Hullender had planned. More»

(NEWSER) - As many as 24 US Army soldiers took their own lives in January, an enormous rise over previous years, the Army Times reports. The deaths of seven soldiers have been confirmed as suicides, while 17 pending cases will likely get the same designation, the AP reports. If that happens, the death toll from suicide will surpass that of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan for January. More»

Early promotions are used to fill gaps, in violation of regulations

(NEWSER) - The War in Iraq has left the Army so short of good officer material that the Pentagon is doling out promotions to unqualified soldiers, according to the Boston Globe. In 2006, the Army promoted thousands of soldiers ahead of schedule and against regulations to fill the void left by exhausted Iraq veterans. More»

Staff Sgt. Ahmed Kousay al-Taie was kidnapped at gunpoint

(NEWSER) - The US military has identified the remains of America's last service member missing in Iraq—an Army interpreter who was kidnapped at gunpoint in 2006, the AP reports. Staff Sgt. Ahmed Kousay al-Taie, a native of Iraq who lived in Michigan, had sneaked off base by motorcycle to visit his Iraqi wife. Today the Army said his remains had been positively identified at the military mortuary in Dover, Delaware. But officials released no other information about his death or the finding of his remains. More»

David Hickman, 23, was last of some 4,500 to die

(NEWSER) - On Nov. 14, just a month before the final US troops left Iraq, a 23-year-old soldier lost his life to an improvised explosive device. David Emanuel Hickman was the last American to be killed in a war that cost some 4,500 Americans their lives, the AP reports. With the US mission over, his family and friends are remembering him as a jokester with the nickname "Zeus" (because, he playfully said, his physique was so impressive the gods would be envious); as an outside linebacker who was the linchpin of a defense so complicated his high school had to scrap it after he graduated because no other teen could figure it out; as someone with a goal of one day joining the Special Forces, and who, in the words of a friend, "didn’t sign up to get his life on track. He wanted to be a physically and mentally elite soldier." More»