Latest news with #DefenseDepartment
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump pardons former Army officer court-martialed for refusing COVID shot, rules
President Trump on Thursday pardoned a former Army officer who was convicted by a military court martial for refusing to follow the Pentagon's COVID-19 safety rules. Former Lt. Mark Bashaw was discharged from the Army in 2022 during the Biden administration after he would not take the COVID-19 shot and then refused to work remotely. Bashaw also would not submit a coronavirus test before reporting for office, and he would not wear a face mask indoors. The Pentagon had required such measures of all service members should they decline the mandated vaccine, and Bashaw was found guilty by a military judge for failing to comply. But Trump on Thursday pardoned Bashaw along with a slew of other individuals, including a former Chicago gang leader and reality TV stars convicted on tax evasion and bank fraud charges. Starting in August 2021, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin required the COVID-19 shot for troops, sailors and airmen, arguing at the time that the mandate was critical to keeping U.S. forces healthy and ready to fight. The Pentagon later dropped the rule in January 2023 as the pandemic waned. The mandate forced out thousands of service members who were involuntarily discharged after refusing the shot, but Bashaw — at the time company commander of the Army Public Health Center's headquarters at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. — marked the first service member to be tried by a court martial over the Pentagon's rules. He claimed the court martial happened because he 'refused to participate with lies,' according to a 2023 post to social platform X. Though the judge who oversaw his trial didn't hand down any punishment, the conviction gave Bashaw a criminal record. Trump's pardon wipes out that record. Weeks after his inauguration, Trump took executive action in January to begin reinstating service members who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as mandated by the Defense Department under former President Biden. Trump in a Jan. 27 executive order stipulated that the booted service members could be brought back with full back pay and benefits, with an easier medical screening. The Pentagon last month started to try to woo back to the military the service members who left. 'They never should have had to leave military service, and the department is committed to assisting them in their return,' said Tim Dill, the Defense Department's acting deputy undersecretary of personnel and readiness. The former military members dismissed from the ranks have the option to be reinstated, but it's unclear how successful the effort will be given that the military branches found that many of the veterans who left had moved on with their lives. As of early April, only about 100 of the more than 8,700 individuals ousted chose to rejoin. It is not clear if Bashaw is seeking to be reinstated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
4 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump's Air Force One deal with Qatar not final, despite U.S. claims
Despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction's terms, said officials familiar with the matter.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump pardons former Army officer court-martialed for refusing COVID shot, rules
President Trump on Thursday pardoned a former Army officer who was convicted by a military court martial for refusing to follow the Pentagon's COVID-19 safety rules. Former Lt. Mark Bashaw was discharged from the Army in 2022 during the Biden administration after he would not take the COVID-19 shot and then refused to work remotely. Bashaw also would not submit a coronavirus test before reporting for office, and would not wear a face mask indoors. The Pentagon had required such measures of all service members should they decline the mandated vaccine, and Bashaw was found guilty by a military judge for failing to comply. But Trump on Thursday pardoned Bashaw along with a slew of other individuals, including a former Chicago gang leader and reality TV stars convicted on tax evasion and bank fraud charges. Starting in August 2021, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin required the COVID-19 shot for troops, sailors and airmen, arguing at the time that the mandate was critical to keeping U.S. forces healthy and ready to fight. The Pentagon later dropped the rule in January 2023 as the pandemic waned. The mandate forced out thousands of service members who were involuntarily discharged after refusing the shot, but Bashaw – at the time company commander of the Army Public Health Center's headquarters at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. – marked the first service member to be tried by a court martial over the Pentagon's rules. He claimed the court martial happened because he 'refused to participate with lies,' according to a 2023 post to X. Though the judge who oversaw his trial didn't hand down any punishment, the conviction gave Bashaw a criminal record. Trump's pardon wipes out that record. Weeks after his inauguration, Trump took executive action in January to begin reinstating service members who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as mandated by the Defense Department under former President Joe Biden. Trump in a Jan. 27 executive order stipulated that the booted service members could be brought back with full back pay and benefits, with an easier medical screening. The Pentagon last month started to try to woo back to the military the service members who left. 'They never should have had to leave military service, and the department is committed to assisting them in their return,' said Tim Dill, the Defense Department's acting deputy undersecretary of personnel and readiness. The former military members dismissed from the ranks have the option to be reinstated, but it's unclear how successful the effort will be given that the military branches found that many of the veterans that left had moved on with their lives. As of early April, only a little over 100 of the more than 8,700 individuals ousted chose to rejoin. It is not clear if Bashaw is seeking to be reinstated.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
No clear plan for supporting Guam missile defense system, GAO finds
The Defense Department has yet to develop a clear strategy to guide the construction, deployment and long-term management of the missile defense architecture it is building on Guam, the Government Accountability Office has determined. The office is concerned that without such a plan, the effort risks cost and schedule overruns and an infrastructure unready to accommodate the additional personnel required to operate the defensive shield. In a report released May 22, the government watchdog notes that while the Pentagon has set up organizations to manage the Guam Defense System and has now designated lead services for sustaining and operating it, there is no strategy to transfer responsibilities from the Missile Defense Agency to the various service leads. 'As a result, DOD risks schedule delays for the deployment of GDS [Guam Defense System] elements and incomplete plans for organization, training, personnel levels, and facilities, among other things,' the report states. The Army, which is leading the effort to establish the system on the strategic island in the Pacific, also faces hurdles to advocate for construction and installation support from the other military services well-established on Guam. And the Defense Department has yet to come up with firm numbers for personnel required to operate and sustain the system and estimates of when they might arrive, according to the report. 'Without clear personnel requirements or deployment schedules, the services will not be able to adequately plan for necessary support systems, which will reduce service personnel readiness and may exacerbate existing infrastructure,' the watchdog states. At the end of 2023, the Pentagon pointed to 2024 as critical for establishing the planned missile defense architecture on Guam. As the threat from China continues to grow, DOD pledged to deliver a foundational capability to help stave off a potential attack directed at Guam by the end of 2024. That schedule is already slipping. Guam is an island of nearly 170,000 people that sits in a vulnerable position — it is closer to Beijing than it is to Hawaii. The island plays host to a significant amount of U.S. combat power and would therefore be an attractive target for China in the event of a war in the Taiwan Strait. The Missile Defense Agency and the Army sought a combined $1.5 billion in the fiscal 2024 budget to begin preparing the island by moving assets into place and integrating capabilities. The Pentagon designated the Army in 2023 as the lead service overseeing the acquisition and execution plan for defending Guam. The current plan, according to the report, is to distribute elements of the architecture across 16 sites on the island and establish a Guam command center. The Pentagon is planning for its first deployment to begin in fiscal 2027, with final GDS elements coming in fiscal 2032. The architecture is a tall order, considering the Army's previous experience establishing a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system on Guam in 2013. The THAAD battery, known as Task Force Talon, was first deployed as expeditionary but became permanently stationed in June 2016 to defend against possible ballistic missile threats from North Korea. Over a decade later, the report points out that the Army does not have sufficient installation support for the THAAD battery and has had trouble getting approvals from the Navy for construction to support the system. The Army's status on the island leaves it without its own construction planners, forcing it to rely on other services. For example, GAO reports that the THAAD unit did not receive approval to start environmental work until January 2024 to construct a temporary maintenance facility for equipment after a typhoon hit the island in May 2023. The unit also has limited storage space for parts and has to leave some parts outside unprotected, resulting in continuous corrosion issues. And austere conditions have resulted in 'morale challenges,' GAO found. The THAAD unit had just installed a latrine with running water and an ice machine in 2023. There is still no drinkable water at the location. The Army is going to require a much larger number of facilities to support the new missile defense architecture and wants to 'make Guam a duty station of choice,' the report states. The Army will continue to have to rely on installation support from the other services because it won't be establishing its own base on the island, GAO said. 'The Army will likely face challenges in advocating for construction priorities and coordinating installation support across multiple locations.' At the same time, the Pentagon is looking to move personnel to the island for the missile defense system. The Marine Corps is also relocating 1,700 Marines from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam. The plan is to move them all by 2029, the report notes. The agency previously reported Guam's limited housing is a concern as the Marines build up a presence there, and the Air Force and Navy both have construction priorities for their own bases that could compete for resources needed for the missile defense system's establishment. The Pentagon also struggled to determine which service would be responsible for operating and sustaining which elements of the Guam architecture. GAO indicated there were some internal disputes over the division of responsibilities for various aspects of the system. Despite the deputy secretary of defense directing the Army in June 2023 to determine how many personnel would be required for GDS within 120 days, the service did not complete the task and still had not produced a number by August 2024, according to the report. The Army told GAO it was waiting for the Pentagon to decide the lead organizations for operations and sustainment before determining personnel levels, facility needs and training plans. The Pentagon has also not established a timeline for transferring responsibility, according to the report. 'DOD has proposed multiple military services to manage GDS, which makes developing a plan for operating and sustaining GDS particularly challenging,' the report states. 'Specifically, DOD officials told us that this missile defense program will be the department's largest and most complicated, presenting communication and planning challenges among the various DOD stakeholders.' Without some prediction of personnel that will flow onto the island over what timeline, the Pentagon faces the prospect of 'deploying personnel to Guam without adequate facilities or installation support services in place, including security of sites, fire protection and emergency management at bases operated by three different military services in Guam,' according to the report. Some estimates state there will be a need for roughly 913 Army personnel in Guam by fiscal 2028, while another calculates a possible growth of 4,464 personnel by the same year. Overall, the island's population is estimated to grow from 17,917 personnel and dependents to 26,605 by fiscal 2034. In its report, GAO recommends that the Pentagon develop a strategy with a timeline for transferring responsibilities to lead organizations and services for the various elements of the architecture. The Army should also develop a 'long-term strategy' for its organization as a supported command on the island. And the defense secretary should determine personnel requirements needed for the architecture 'to allow sufficient time for completing construction of necessary support facilities on Guam,' the report states.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hegseth directs reorg of Pentagon testing office, appoints new leader
The Pentagon has appointed a new director of its operational test enterprise and directed a reorganization that would reduce its staff to 30 civilians, 15 military personnel and one senior leader. In a Tuesday memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the move to restructure the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, or ODOT&E, supports the Pentagon's 'America First' defense strategy. 'A comprehensive internal review has identified redundant, non-essential, non-statutory functions within ODOT&E that do not support operational agility or resource efficiency, affecting our ability to rapidly and effectively deploy the best systems to the warfighter,' Hegseth said. The Defense Department estimates the changes will save more than $300 million annually. The Pentagon's test and evaluation office oversees the process for validating weapons and platforms across the Defense Department. While the military services have their own test teams, the DOD-level office sets policies, provides oversight for major programs and serves as an adviser to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, among other responsibilities. One of the office's more public-facing tasks is publishing an annual testing update on the department's major weapon systems, including the F-35 fighter jet, the Navy's Columbia-class submarine and the Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. The report also assesses the health of the test and evaluation enterprise, including its equipment, ranges and other testing facilities. The most recent report was released in January. Raymond O'Toole has served as acting director of the office since January, following two prior tours in the acting role. The memo appoints Carroll Quade, currently the Navy's deputy for test and evaluation, to perform the duties of ODOT&E director effective immediately. 'Mr. Quade will assume all duties of the Director, overseeing the transition and ensuring ODOT&E's statutory requirements remain effective and in compliance with statute,' the memo states. The personnel cuts will come through a 'targeted, deliberate and expeditious' civilian reduction in force, according to the memo. RIF notices will be distributed early next week and personnel who are not retained will be placed on administrative leave. All leadership currently classified as senior executive service will also be put on leave. ODOT&E civilians who are employed by one of the military services will transfer back to those offices. The department did not provide details on how many civilian and military personnel currently reside within ODOT&E and it's not immediately clear how many positions the Pentagon plans to eliminate. Beyond the workforce reductions, Hegseth calls for ending all contractor personnel support within seven days of the memo's release. 'If ODOT&E decides it needs to support contractor personnel after adjusting to its base statutory mission set, ODOT&E may request such contract support with Deputy Secretary of Defense review after an initial 60-day acclimation period,' the document states.
