Army

WASHINGTON - They returned home to a politically traumatized nation that treated them with indifference and scorn. Now, veterans' advocates fear the country will again miss an opportunity to recognize the toil and torment of the 3 million service members sent to fight the Vietnam War. The Pentagon's plans to celebrate the veterans - five years in the making - are sputtering. This Memorial Day is supposed to be the curtain-raiser for a series of gatherings to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of US involvement in the decade-plus war and to honor those who served.

Uncle Sam may not want you after all. In sharp contrast to the peak years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army last year took in no recruits with misconduct convictions or drug or alcohol issues, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And soldiers already serving on active duty now must meet tougher standards to stay on for further tours in uniform. The Army is also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars less in bonuses to attract recruits or entice soldiers to remain.

Repairs to the aging Sagamore Bridge during the spring have slowed traffic leaving Cape Cod to a crawl most nights and backed it up for miles on Sundays, culminating in a Mother's Day morass when the stalled line of cars stretched past multiple exits on Route 6 and triggered all-day gridlock on nearby Route 6A. "Whoever conceived of this plan should be fired," said Anne Kilguss, a Boston social worker and psychotherapist with a second home in...

This week's landmark presidential election should end six decades of effective military rule in Egypt, but it remains unclear how much authority the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak will cede to the elected leader. One thing is certain, though: the generals want no interference with their budget, their economic empire or promotions. The main question is whether a military that has grown accustomed to virtually unchallenged domination over the past six decades will be willing to quietly give it all up, or know how to deal with a civilian president if one is elected.

Editor's note: The original edition of the review below erred in saying the author mistakenly put a lieutenant colonel in charge of a brigade instead of a battalion; the error appeared in the uncorrected proof, but not in the published book. The review also says the author was hasty in referring to the targets of Vietnam's Phoenix program as Vietcong "supporters," when it was officially aimed at "cadre. " The author acknowledges that point of view, but says she "intentionally chose a less precise term to reflect the often imprecise manner the campaign was carried out on Vietnamese civilians.

DECATUR, Ala. -- At 68, many people are slowing down. Not John Wicks: He's going to Iraq. Wicks, a psychiatrist, has been called out of military retirement by the Army to fill a shortage of mental health specialists needed to help soldiers cope with combat. He could be gone as long as a year. The Army hasn't told Wicks what his exact assignment in Iraq is, or where in the country it will send him. "I believe that the morale in general is not that good since the scandal at that prison," he said, referring to the allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

NEW YORK — For US troops in World War II, Margie Stewart was the girl they had left behind. For the Army, she was a wholesome pinup girl who had an important message for the boys. The Army made a dozen posters of her, and ultimately printed 94 million copies. Most pictured a handwritten letter at the poster's forefront. "Please get there and back," was the message on some posters. "Be careful what you say or write. " Ms. Stewart, the Army's official poster girl, posed in practical clothes, in contrast to the provocative pinup photos of stars like Betty...

A Boston man who joined the Army to help pay for college for his sister and himself was among three soldiers killed in an explosion in Iraq on Saturday, less than three weeks before his birthday and two months before he was going to complete his military service, relatives said. Sergeant Daniel J. Londono, 22, was in a military vehicle in Baghdad with Staff Sergeant Clint D. Ferrin, 31, of Picayune, Miss., and Private First Class Joel K. Brattain, 21, of Santa Anna, Calif., when an improvised explosive device struck it, the Department of Defense said yesterday.

The first female commandant of the Army's elite drill sergeant school, who had been suspended for a time by the Army, has bid a tearful farewell to supporters, students and colleagues as she stepped down from her historic position. Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King says the past six months of being suspended and then reinstated amounted to very trying times. She says she still believes the Army is a great place to serve the country. The Army never explained why it suspended her on Nov. 29, nor did it offer a full explanation when she was reinstated May 11. It would...

WASHINGTON -- The Army's top general said yesterday that he is encouraged by a recent rebound in recruiting, and he rejected suggestions that the stress of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is pushing the service to a breaking point. "We're a long way from what anybody would call dire straits," General Peter Schoomaker said in an interview with a group of reporters at a Washington hotel. He noted that more soldiers are signing up for additional tours than were expected, particularly among combat units that have served lengthy tours in Iraq.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A court granted bail for Sri Lanka's former Army chief on Friday, a move seen as a step toward a full pardon for the man credited with ending the country's long civil war but who later was jailed after challenging the president in elections. Sri Lanka's High Court set Sarath Fonseka's bail at $8,000 in a case where he is accused of harboring Army deserters. His lawyer, Saliya Peiris, said that Fonseka was also asked to surrender his passport. The court's decision comes ahead of a meeting between Sri Lanka's foreign minister and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton...

The army says it has detained eight suspected members of the Gulf cartel and seized drugs, guns and hand grenades during investigations into the May 13 discovery of 49 dismembered bodies on a highway in northern Mexico. Mexico's Defense Department says the suspects were caught Thursday as part of an operation designed to capture those responsible for the grisly discovery in the city of Cadereyta. But the department has not said whether the eight suspects were directly involved in those killings.

Mexico's army announced Friday that it had detained a fourth high-ranking officer during a civilian investigation into alleged military links to drug cartels. Three generals were previously detained. The Defense Department said it brought in retired Lt. Col. Silvio Hernandez Soto for questioning, noting he was named in the same round of detention orders issued May 7 that included the other officers. However, the department did not specify what the allegations against him were.

Hundreds of former and would-be soldiers in Haiti refused government orders to disband and marched through the capital on Friday, a show of force that culminated in the evening with a tense exchange of gunfire with police outside an old military base. The ex-soldiers and their young recruits have been pressing President Michel Martelly to honor his campaign goal of restoring the armed forces, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record, holding marches in the capital, often in mismatching uniforms.

Haiti moved to crack down on a band of former and would-be soldiers who had been staging protests for more than a year, closing two old military bases they had occupied and locking up dozens of participants in a pro-army march including two Americans. National police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said the Americans were jailed because they were acting as if they were part of Haiti's military on Friday during a demonstration to demand that President Michel Martelly restore the country's armed forces, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record.

SANAA, Yemen — Government troops and warplanes pounded Al Qaeda positions in southern Yemen on Wednesday, killing at least 29 militants as part of a ramped-up campaign against the group, military officials said. Al Qaeda-linked fighters have taken over a swath of territory and several towns in the south, including the Abyan provincial capital of Zinjibar, in the past year, pushing out government forces and setting up their own rule. In recent weeks, the army has launched a concerted effort to dislodge the militants from their strongholds - and is closely...

WASHINGTON -- Under criticism for poor treatment of injured soldiers, the Pentagon announced new measures yesterday to provide more health screenings, improve its record keeping system, and simplify an unwieldy disability claims system. Testifying before a House panel, Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense, and Major General Gale Pollock, the Army's acting surgeon general, acknowledged a need for major changes in the outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers and veterans.