supporting our troops

Army Times

Up to two-thirds of the U.S. Army’s combat brigades are not ready for wartime missions, largely because they are hampered by equipment shortfalls, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday, citing unclassified documents.

In a letter to President George W. Bush, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton, said that “nearly every non-deployed combat brigade in the active Army is reporting that they are not ready” for combat. The figures, he said, represent an unacceptable risk to the nation.

Air Force Times

Young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are having a harder time finding a job than their peers who didn’t serve in the military.

Last year, about one in six veterans between 20 and 24 was jobless, nearly double the rate for nonveterans their age. It was brighter in the second quarter of this year, when young vets had an 11.2 percent jobless rate, but that was still higher than the 8 percent for nonvets their age and more than twice the overall unemployment rate.

Navy Times

Two laptop computers with personal information on about 31,000 Navy recruiters and their prospective recruits were stolen from Navy offices in New Jersey in June and July, the Navy disclosed on Wednesday.

It was the third time in little more than a month that personal data on Navy personnel has been lost or unintentionally released publicly over the Internet.

Stars & Stripes

U.S. Army garrison commanders from all over Europe are comparing cost-cutting strategies at a meeting in Heidelberg this week.

Army installations in Europe have been cutting services in recent weeks because of a budget crunch due to the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.