Medal of Honor recipient's valor hidden for decades

By Jeanne Meserve, CNN Homeland Security Correspondent

September 18, 2010 10:49 p.m. EDT

Washington (CNN) -- On Tuesday, more than 42 years after Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger died on a Laotian mountaintop, President Obama will award him the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for bravery.
But for decades even Etchberger's own children didn't know about his heroism.
Cory Etchberger was in third grade in 1968, when he was told that his father had died in a helicopter accident in Southeast Asia. At age 29 he learned the truth, when the U.S. Air Force declassified his father's story.
"I was stunned," he told CNN during a visit to his hometown of Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. troops weren't supposed to be in neutral Laos, so Richard Etchberger and a handful of colleagues shed their uniforms and posed as civilians to run a top-secret radar installation high on a Laotian cliff. Called Lima Site 85, it guided U.S. bombers to sites in North Vietnam and parts of Laos under communist control.
The North Vietnamese wanted to eliminate the installation, and early on the morning of March 11, 1968, its soldiers succeeded in scaling the 3,000-foot precipice and launching an attack.
Timothy Castle, of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence, wrote the book "One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam." He calls Etchberger "a hero."
Castle said Etchberger, a technician, picked up an M16 rifle, which he barely knew how to use, and ferociously protected his colleagues. One of them was Stanley Sliz. "I got hit in both legs," Sliz remembered, "and everybody was screaming and hollering, but they weren't able to get close because of Etch firing at them."
John Daniel still has scars from the shrapnel wounds he got that day. "He was the only one that didn't get injured in the firefight," he recalled. "They kept throwing grenades and shooting, and we kept picking up hand grenades and throwing them, or kicking them to the other side of the mountain."
When a helicopter flown by CIA-affiliated Air America arrived to evacuate them, Etchberger braved enemy fire to load three wounded comrades, including Daniel and Sliz, onto hoists.
"Thank God for Dick Etchberger. If it wasn't for him, I would not be alive today," Daniel told CNN.
Etchberger made it onto the chopper unwounded. But as it began to pull away, enemy shots rang out.
Sliz said he saw a splotch of red, and realized the man who had saved his life had lost his own. One round had hit Etchberger and killed him.
"I live it every day," said Sliz. "I live it every day. It haunts me."
Shortly after Etchberger's death, he was secretly awarded the Air Force Cross for bravery. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but then-President Lyndon Johnson rejected the idea, fearing it would expose the U.S. military's activities in Laos.
In his hometown of Hamburg, American flags fly from the light poles and men congregate on the steps of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Since Etchberger's story became public, a memorial has been erected commemorating his heroism, and his name is proudly displayed on the town's sign. But now there is an addition: a hand-drawn banner reading "Medal of Honor winner."
Though the battle of Lima Site 85 took place more than four decades ago, Castle believes it is important to recognize the heroism of the men who were there.
"We have these extraordinary folks in the U.S. military who are willing to accept these types of missions and to go to these very remote places in very dangerous conditions," he said. "The men that went to Site 85 had every reason to believe that no one in the public would ever know anything about what they were doing or what they had done, but they went anyway."
Etchberger's three sons will be at the White House Medal of Honor ceremony Tuesday. So will John Daniel, whose life he saved. "There might be some tears there. Carpet in that White House may be wet. But we'll make it," said Daniel.

But Castle noted that the full story of Lima Site 85 still isn't known. Ten technicians who were on the Laotian mountaintop with Etchberger, Daniel, and Sliz that March morning in 1968 have never been accounted for.

CNN's Jim Spellman, Sara Weisfeldt and Floyd Yarmuth contributed to this report.

U.S. Air Force Wants Soldiers to Be Like Batman

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103585-U-S-Air-Force-Wants-Soldiers-to-Be-Like-Batman

A program started by the U.S. Air Force focuses on making soldiers as versatile as the caped crusader.
Batman is awesome, but only because he's so smart. He figures out exactly what he'll need in the field and stuffs in all into his Batsuit and utility belt. This is exactly what inspired the U.S. Air Force's "BATMAN" program, which aims to develop new equipment so that soldiers are as capable as Batman himself.
BATMAN stands for Battlefield Air Targeting Man-Aided kNowledge. Sure, it cheats, but who's really going to criticize the Air Force when it's running a program called BATMAN? BATMAN program engineer Reggie Daniels says: "[Batman's] devices allow him to have an advantage. That is what we're trying to do."
The goal of BATMAN is to make soldiers "lighter, smarter, and deadlier." Where a soldier on today's battle field might have to lug 160 pounds of equipment around, Batman is seemingly able to carry even more gadgetry without the weight. The Air Force says this weight is a burden, and hopes to make soldiers more able to complete their missions with less burden through BATMAN.
The program uses the "human chassis" as its Batsuit, with engineers focusing on how to make it more agile by moving equipment to less straining areas of the body. BATMAN is pioneering the use of chest mounted computers and speech recognition, in addition to batteries that get lighter as they're used.
The most Bat-like object is the "Bat Hook," the nickname used for the Remote Auxiliary Power System developed by Defense Research Associates that was also inspired by Batman. DRA's lead test engineer recalls thinking: "You know what would be really cool? Something like what Batman has on his belt that he can take out and wing it up to a power line and get power." The Remote Auxiliary Power System has a hook that can be thrown onto power lines, with a razor inside that will cut tap into them. Power can then be siphoned from the hook through a wire that will recharge a soldier's devices, if necessary.
Future developments are still underway in the BATMAN program, such as a light-based communications system that can be used instead of wiring. Batman's array of gadgetry always seemed like it was impossible for anyone but billionaire Bruce Wayne to create, but the Air Force is pretty rich too.
Source: Tech News Daily

A few more pictures I've found

For those military folks who need car insurance

https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_logon/Logon

USAA has great deals on insurance for military and military families! They got free checking, financing, auto insurance, credit cards, renters insurance, mutual funds, home and property insurance, life insurance, health insurance, medicare solutions, and long term care insurance.

anyone whos in or has family whos in the service knows that insurance is needed in the dangerous life! Check out USAA today and pass along the information!

BAE Launches U.S. Air Force Jet Trainer Replacement Program

http://avstop.com/news_sept_2010/bae_launches_us_air_force_jet_trainer_replacement_program.htm

September 13, 2010 - BAE Systems announced that it will pursue the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Pilot Training Family of Systems with the world's most advanced and successful fast jet training system, the proven Hawk Advanced Jet Training System.  BAE Systems is well positioned to compete for the USAF Advanced Pilot Training (APT) Family of Systems (FOS) - commonly called the T-X system - and to provide the training system for the next generation of operational pilots.  BAE Systems has an off-the-shelf solution that is the only fully optimized jet trainer that is low risk, in-service and has demonstrated affordable life-cycle cost.  "As the premier provider of fast jet training systems worldwide - BAE Systems is training for the future now," said Larry Prior, Executive Vice President of Service Sectors for BAE Systems.

"BAE Systems will prime this pursuit from its U.S. business and leverage its extensive experience and highly relevant global capabilities to offer the most advanced family of systems available now to replace the aging T-38 training system. We will pursue strategic partners in the U.S. to provide best value to the U.S. Air Force while investing in the U.S. industrial base."  The BAE Systems Hawk Advanced Jet Training System is a true system that fully integrates live jet training with a high-fidelity virtual environment to support the development of pilots. The Hawk Advanced Jet Training System is more than just the aircraft. The system delivers advanced aircraft avionics, a fully integrated training environment, instructor debrief features and other front line capabilities that deliver the best training to pilots.  The sophisticated BAE Systems Hawk Advanced Jet Training System enables pilots to train effectively in a synthetic environment and allows them to train in the same way they fight, including multi-engagement scenarios, complex combat situations, intercepts, data-link operations and the use of synthetic sensors. Warfare of the future is not just about flying the aircraft, but about understanding, processing and reacting correctly to the quantity of information available in the cockpit.  The Hawk Advanced Jet Training System does not require development to meet the Air Force's desired 2017 Initial Operational Capability date, and it will substantially lower the total cost of training mission-ready pilots. The Hawk family is the F-35 lead-in trainer for the U.S. Navy, Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. More than 900 Hawk aircraft have been delivered across 18 countries and more are on order in support of training current and future pilots.

Evolved from a system that has demonstrated more than 2.5 million flying hours, the BAE Systems Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer is now entering service with the Royal Air Force. BAE Systems brings a proven history of leading major aviation programs, partnering on front line U.S. aircraft, and developing and fielding trainers, fighters and other aircraft around the world.

Air Force Week! Let's get started with some new technology

http://inventorspot.com/articles/laser_backpack_air_force_busts_it_out

Funded by the US Air Force, a new portable backpack laser system has been developed for mapping interior environments and also for being AWESOME.

 

We’ll state right up front that the thing bears little resemblance to the slick units used in “Ghostbusters” or anything that a Star Wars fanboy or Star Trek fangirl dreamed up.

 

It’s ugly and misshapen – almost aggressively so – but the scientists at the University of California, Berkeley weren’t exactly going for looks.

 

Instead, they were going for an improvement in current laser mapping techniques, which right now can take anywhere from a few day up to a week or more, especially for an interior space with a great deal of surface variations, nooks, crannies, and things you should really have put away before your mom came over.

 

This laser backpack is the first of its kind to operate without being lashed to a robot like some kind of hideous eye or melded to a cart like a technological graft, making it a revolution in human use, if not fashion sense.

 

The way the data is collected has also been vastly improved over other previous laser mapping iterations. Whereas predecessors to the laser backpack – the laser sombrero and laser jockstrap (ok, so not really) – collected data in a stop and go fashion, leading to the aforementioned long wait times prior to complete mapping, the backpack is able to collect data on the fly while the wearer is walking around a room.

Laser Backpack: It's sooo light!

 

In addition to the laser, U of C scientists have also developed a method for producing photo-realistic, 3D renderings of the rooms they scan, a boon for furniture bargain hunters everywhere.

 

Realistically, the intention is for the Air Force to use the technology to plan military operations by viewing the interiors of modeled buildings and determining attack strategies.

 

The trick, of course, lies in getting the laser backpack-wearing operative into the house in the first place.

 

“Have you heard the Good News? Perhaps we could chat about the Lord as we wander through every room in the house.”

 

Doesn’t seem suspicious at all.

 

Still, the laser backpack is a step in the light direction.

 Source: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Photo Credit: John Kua, University of California, Berkeley    Douglas Bonderud

Pics of Marines VS pirates and a video of the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VuRJnrul10&feature=player_embedded

U.S Marines Vs. Pirates

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international antipiracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said.

The mission — using small craft to reach the deck of the German-owned vessel as the 11-man crew huddled in a safe room below — ranks among the most dramatic high seas confrontations with pirates by the task force created to protect shipping lanes off lawless Somalia.

The crew managed to kill the engines before barricading themselves in the safe engineering room, communicating with the ship's operator by satellite phone and leaving the craft dead in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen.

"The pirates had entered a ship that they couldn't steer and there was no crew," said Juergen Salamon, the ship's operator based in Dortmund, Germany.

The pirates then hit an emergency button that connected them directly with the ship operators.

"They asked us where the crew is," Salamon chuckled. "We told them, 'They're on leave.' "

There was no demand for ransom, he said.

The tactic so frustrated the pirates they started heavily damaging equipment, Navy officials and the ship's operator said.

Lt. John Fage, a spokesman at the U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, described the predawn raid as an "air and sea" assault that included Cobra attack helicopters for surveillance and coordination.

The New York Times, citing unnamed American officials, reported that about 5 a.m. Thursday, two teams of 12 Marines each motored up in inflatable boats to the hijacked ship, the 436-foot-long Magellan Star.

The Marines clambered up portable ladders — much as pirates have been doing — and swiftly took over the ship. Two helicopters hovered overhead, throwing down cones of light. A Turkish frigate, part of the American-led antipiracy task force, was nearby.

Marine Corps officers said the attack involved "overwhelming force" and the element of surprise. Marines were able to separate the pirates and confront them singly or in small groups, while helicopters bore down.

The pirates, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, gave up quickly when faced with large numbers of Marines carrying heavier weaponry.

"The pirates were definitely overmatched," Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of the 5th Fleet, said in a telephone interview. "We created a good plan and executed it really well."

Getting word to the crew barricaded in the safe space proved to be a challenge for rescuers, however. Marines had to drill through steel walls to reach the suspicious sailors.

Capt. Alexander Martin said the crew was finally convinced that they were being rescued when a Marine ripped the American flag patch from his uniform and stuffed it through a hole the rescuers had bored in the steel door.

It was the first boarding raid by the multinational task force since it was formed in January 2009 to patrol off the Horn of Africa, said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost in Bahrain.

Raids earlier this year that recaptured ships from Somali pirates were by Dutch and Russian commandos who were not part of the antipiracy task force.

In Thursday's mission, there were no injuries reported among the Marines or crew of the Magellan Star and no shots were fired, Fage said.

The ship was traveling from Bilbao, Spain, to Singapore with a cargo of anchor chains, Salamon said. It is now en route to Dubai for repairs.

The U.S. team from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force launched the assault from aboard the USS Dubuque, an amphibious transport ship that had been en route to a joint training exercise with Jordan.

It received orders from the White House to assist the anti­piracy task force, said Brig. Gen. David Berger, the head of Marine Corps operations at the Pentagon.

"It's a great thing that everything ended without any bloodshed," Salamon said.

U.S. warships are part of a 25-nation mission protecting merchant vessels from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia and into the Gulf of Aden. The task force often opens fire on suspected pirates but had not previously launched a boarding raid.

It was not clear what will happen to the captured pirates. They were in custody aboard one of the ships in the task force, and the officers on the scene are awaiting orders from higher levels.

While hundreds of Somali pirates have recently been sent to jail in Kenya, the Seychelles or Somalia, and a few have even been taken to Europe and the United States, many more have been set free by Western navies in a controversial "catch and release" approach because of the complications of prosecuting gunmen arrested on the high seas.

Information from the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and McClatchy Newspapers was used in this report.

FN SCAR

From Wikipedia -

The Special Forces Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, is a modular rifle made by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FNH) for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to satisfy the requirements of the SCAR competition. This family of rifles consist of two main types. The SCAR-L, for light, is chambered in the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge and the SCAR-H, for heavy, fires 7.62x51mm NATO. Both are available in Long Barrel and Close Quarters Combat variants. The FN SCAR system completed low rate initial production testing in June 2007. After some delays, the first rifles began being issued to operational units in April 2009, and a battalion of the US 75th Ranger Regiment was the first large unit deployed into combat with 600 of the rifles in 2009. While purchases of the MK 16 SCAR-L variant by the US Special Operations Command have been canceled, US SOCOM will still buy the MK 17 SCAR-H variant and some subordinate Spec Ops commands are still looking to buy the MK 16 SCAR-L variant and or keep the existing MK 16s they have already purchased.

The SCAR is manufactured in two main versions; Light (SCAR-L, Mk 16 Mod 0) and Heavy (SCAR-H, Mk 17 Mod 0). The L version fires 5.56x45mm NATO using improved STANAG (M16) magazines. The H fires the more powerful 7.62x51mm NATO from a newly designed 20-round magazine. Different length barrels will be available for close quarters battle and for longer-range engagements. The initial solicitation indicated that the SCAR-H would also be chambered for the 7.62x39mm M43 cartridge, and 6.8x43mm Remington SPC cartridge. However, FN is not currently offering other calibers.

The Mk 16 Mod 0 was intended to replace the M4A1, the Mk 18 CQBR and the Mk 12 SPR currently in SOCOM service, before SOCOM decided to cancel the order for the Mk 16 Mod 0 (see below). The Mk 17 Mod 0 will replace the M14 and Mk 11 sniper rifles.

The SCAR features an integral, uninterrupted Picatinny rail on the top of the aluminum receiver, two removable side rails and a bottom one that can mount any MIL-STD-1913 compliant accessories. It has a polymer lower receiver with an M16 compatible pistol grip, flared magazine well, and raised area around magazine and bolt release buttons. The front sight flips down for unobstructed use of optics and accessories. The rifle uses a 'tappet' type of closed gas system much like the M1 Carbine while the bolt carrier otherwise resembles the Stoner 63 or Heckler & Koch G36.

The SCAR is built at the FN Manufacturing LLC, plant in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Fabrique Nationale introduced a semi-automatic version of the SCAR modular rifle system, the 16S (Light) and 17S (Heavy), at the end of 2008. This version of the SCAR is designed for the law enforcement and commercial markets, and is manufactured in Herstal, Belgium and imported by FNH USA, Fredricksburg, Virginia, United States. FNH USA slightly modifies the rifle (supplying a U.S. made magazine and machining a pin in the magazine well) to be in compliance with U.S. Code before selling them.

In July 2007, the US Army announced a limited competition between the M4 Carbine, FN SCAR, HK416, and the previously-shelved HK XM8. Ten examples of each of the four competitors were involved. During the testing, 60,000 rounds apiece were fired from each of the 40 carbines in an "extreme dust environment." The purpose of the shootoff was for assessing future needs, not to select a replacement for the M4.

During the test, the SCAR suffered 226 stoppages ranking second to the XM8 with 127 stoppages, but less compared to the M4 with 882 stoppages and the HK 416 with 233. This test was based on two previous systems assessments that were conducted using the M4 Carbine and M16 rifle at Aberdeen in 2006 and the summer of 2007 before the third limited competition in the fall of 2007. The 2006 test focused only on the M4 and M16. The Summer 2007 test had only the M4, but increased lubrication. Results from the second test resulted in a total of 307 stoppages for the M4 after lubrication was increased, but did not explain why the M4 suffered 882 stoppages with that same level of lubrication in the third test.

The SCAR was one of the weapons displayed to U.S. Army officials during an invitation-only Industry Day on November 13, 2008. The goal of the Industry Day was to review current carbine technology for any situation prior to writing formal requirements for a future replacement for the M4 Carbine.

On May 4th 2010, a press release on FNH USA's official website announced the SCAR Acquisition Decision Memorandum was finalized on April 14, 2010. This is an approval for the entire weapons family of the Mk16 SCAR Light, Mk17 SCAR Heavy and the Enhanced Grenade Launcher Module.

Introduced in 2004 as an addition, the Enhanced Grenade Launcher Module (EGLM), officially referred to as the FN40GL, or Mk 13 Mod 0, is a 40 mm grenade launcher based on the 'GL1' designed for the F2000. The FN40GL is marketed in both an L and H model, for fitting the appropriate SCAR variant.. The EGLM system features a double action trigger and a swing out chamber. These offer two advantages over the M203 system, the first being that the launcher does not need to be re-cocked if the grenade does not fire, and the latter being that longer grenades can be used.

In 2008, a variant of the FN SCAR was one of four finalist rifles for the Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) competition. The IAR is a United States Marine Corps requirement for a lightweight automatic rifle for squad automatic rifle use. The FN entrant is different from existing SCAR versions in that it combines closed bolt operation (fires from bolt forward / chambered cartridge) with open bolt operation (fires from bolt to the rear, no chambered cartridge), switching automatically from closed to open bolt as the weapon's barrel heats up during firing. There have been previous firearms with mixed open/closed bolt operation, but the automatic temperature-based operating mode switch is an innovation. The IAR competition was expected to result in Marine Corps procurement of up to 6,500 automatic rifles over five years,[18] but eventually the SCAR variant was passed over in favor of the Heckler and Koch HK416 rifle, later designated as the M27.

U.S Marines, British advisers at odds

taken From

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090306195.html?hpid=moreheadlines

IN MUSA QALA, AFGHANISTAN U.S. Marines and British civilian advisers are waging two wars in the hilly northern half of Helmand province: They're fighting the Taliban, and they're quarreling with each other.


The disagreements among the supposed allies are almost as frequent as firefights with insurgents. The Americans contend that the British forces they replaced this spring were too complacent in dealing with the Taliban. The British maintain that the Americans are too aggressive and that they are compromising hard-fought security gains by pushing into irrelevant places and overextending themselves.
"They were here for four years," one field-grade Marine officer huffed about the British military. "What did they do?"

"They've been in Musa Qala for four months," a British civilian in Helmand said of the U.S. Marines. "The situation up there has gotten worse, not better."
The disputes here, which also extend to the pace of reconstruction projects and the embrace of a former warlord who has become the police chief, illuminate the tensions that are flaring as U.S. forces surge into parts of southern Afghanistan that had once been the almost-exclusive domain of NATO allies. There are now about 20,000 U.S. troops in Helmand; the 10,000 British soldiers who once roamed all over the province are now consolidating their operations in a handful of districts around the provincial capital.

The new U.S. troops in the south are intended to replace departing Dutch soldiers and relieve pressure on under-resourced and overburdened military personnel from Britain and Canada, where public support for the war has fallen even more precipitously than in the United States. But the transition entails significant new risks for U.S. forces, who are now responsible for more dangerous parts of the country.

To the south of Musa Qala, U.S. Marines are in the process of moving into Sangin district, where more than 100 British troops - nearly one-third of that country's total war dead - were killed over the past four years. Senior Marine officers initially resisted being saddled with the area, which they dubbed "the killing fields," but they relented after pressure from top U.S. commanders.
The influx also has elicited conflicting emotions from coalition partners. British and Canadian officers say they didn't have the manpower or equipment to confront a mushrooming insurgency by themselves, but they also cringe at the need to be bailed out by the United States.

"There's a mix of relief and regret," said a British officer. "We've spilled a lot of blood in Sangin and Musa Qala, and we're quite frankly happy to leave those places, but we don't want this to look like another Basra," referring to the southern Iraqi city that U.S. and Iraqi forces had to rescue after it was seized by militias upon a British pullout in 2007.


More than a dozen U.S. and British military and civilian officials were interviewed for this story, but almost all of them spoke on the condition that they not be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue. A more aggressive stance.

Here in Musa Qala, a large town surrounded by farms and rocky hills, the arrival of the Americans has also prompted debate about whether a more offensive posture by coalition troops will stem the insurgency, or whether deals, compromises and a concentration of resources around key population centers will be sufficient to achieve stability.

British forces rolled into Musa Qala in early 2006 after the Taliban killed the district chief, but the troops left later that year after striking a deal with the insurgents to not attack the town. The truce was short-lived, and by the following February, hundreds of Taliban fighters recaptured the area, prompting the British, aided by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, to conduct a large operation in late 2007 to wrest control of the district center.

Military Hotels - stumbled upon this

http://military-hotels.us/

You can use this guide to learn about hotels, motels, lodges, inns, and resorts near US military bases.
You can also check room availability and discounts ... and make secure reservations with immediate confirmation.
NO SERVICE FEES ... and our hotel ratings, guest reviews, and distances from base will save you time and money. They even offer Extended stay rates!


So take out your credit cards, and get booking! and be sure to remember to get travel insurance

Marines

Insurance for military & families

Insurance Issues for Military Servicemembers & Their Families

Members of the armed services can be deployed on short notice, leaving little time to address their personal or business affairs. Insurance coverage, in particular, is often affected when someone moves out of state or spends an extended period of time away from home. Before you purchase any insurance policy, it is a good idea to ask the agent or broker specific questions about how the company will handle issues related to the deployment of their policyholders who are in the military. Each company’s guidelines can vary. By shopping around, you may be able to find an insurer who takes the specialized needs of service members into account. It might be difficult to handle routine business like paying premiums timely or renewing policies when you’re deployed. Talk to your agent before you leave to learn when a policy is up for renewal and to make arrangements to pay your premiums. You may be able to renew a policy early or have your premiums paid by automated bank draft. Some insurance companies might also allow you to suspend certain coverage while you’re deployed. Most insurance companies use payment history and continuity of coverage as factors to determine their rates and eligibility standards. If your insurance lapses or expires while you’re away, you could come home to find companies unwilling to insure you or only willing to do so at a higher rate. Military members get all sorts of stuff, Home Insurance, Life Insurance, Car Insurance, and travel insurance.

Some Marine Pictures

More Army Pics, enjoy

starting up again, this time for real!