Author: Braxton Taylor

For veterans who feel big-budget Hollywood films paint an unfair or inaccurate picture of life in and out of uniform, the GI Film Festival San Diego is the chance to see the reality of the veteran experience on the silver screen. In 2025, America’s largest military film festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary and is coming with a slate of films, shorts and documentaries that rival anything it featured in years past.Since 2015, the GI Film Festival has showcased some 238 military-connected films for more than 13,000 viewers in both Washington, D.C., and San Diego. The festival opens its 10-year…

The White House has backed off President Donald Trump’s stunning social media proposal to change the name of Veterans Day to “Victory Day for World War I” and will settle for keeping the name while adding a proclamation hailing American victory in World War I.The White House will also go with a victory proclamation rather than a name change — at least in the U.S. — for V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, which is observed every May 8 in Europe and May 9 in Russia to mark Nazi Germany’s surrender to the allies in World War II.“We are…

The Air Force’s top uniformed leader pointed to increases in recruiting numbers, slightly longer basic military training exercises and new dining hall options as examples of how he is reviving the service’s “warrior ethos” — using a phrase pushed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.In an update letter to all airmen Friday, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff, said the service has already signed up and enlisted 74% of the people it set for its fiscal 2025 goal.”A year and a half ago, I committed to leading our Air Force into the future through initiatives designed to ensure we remain…

After Maj. Zachary Sessa launched his F-35C Lightning II’s payload at Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen last year, the historical significance of the flight dawned on him.Nearly a year ago, Sessa deployed with the Marine Corps’ first F-35C unit aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln bound for the Pacific. But with less than a month out of port, the Pentagon ordered the carrier strike group to the Middle East as Iran-backed Houthis continued to attack shipping vessels in the region.The physical redirection also constituted a mental one for the troops aboard the strike group. Having spent their pre-deployment expecting to…

The Air Force has to dig new silos for its Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, instead of reusing Minuteman III silos as originally planned, according to the service. “The Air Force continues to assess its options and design concepts as part of doing good systems engineering. While no decision has been made, we expect Sentinel to use predominantly [Air Force]-owned real estate to build new missile silos instead of re-using MMIII silos,” a service spokesperson said in a statement Monday. This shift means the service might have to construct hundreds of new silos, since the Sentinel program is intended to replace 400…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to cut the number of their highest-ranking officers — four-star generals and admirals — by at least 20%.In a memo released Monday, Hegseth argued that senior leaders should be “unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness” and “a critical step in this process is removing redundant force structure.”In addition to ordering the firing of a minimum of 20% of four-star positions on active duty, the memo also orders a similar reduction in the National Guard and at least a 10% cut across all generals and admirals in the…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the first step to turn his rhetoric about bloated senior military ranks into policy on Monday with a memo ordering the services to eliminate at least 20 percent of their active-duty four-star general and flag officer billets, as well as at least 20 percent of all general officer jobs in the National Guard, plus another 10% of general and flag officer billets across the entire military.The move comes as the Trump administration has been pushing for widespread personnel reductions and realignments across the Defense Department, and days after Hegseth ordered the Army specifically to start…

If small drones are critical to the Army’s future fight, what happens when you run out of batteries?That’s one of the questions the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team tackled during a recent rotation at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany. “We learned a lot of lessons about battery power. For example, the exercise that we conducted was in the wintertime in Germany, so it was below freezing conditions and pretty adverse weather conditions. And what we found was battery life was significantly degraded in the cold and affected the flight time and the ability of us to employ…

Processing wild game as a profession is gritty, dirty work. In a matter of months, hundreds of animals go from the field to the butcher’s cooler, leaving hunters wary of the outcome and processors burned out from the grind. Here are a few tips to maximize the amount of meat you pick up from your processor.Before the ProcessorAs a general principle, dirty or tainted meat gets thrown away. Hair, dirt, and soured muscle are breeding grounds for bacteria, which thrive in warm, moist conditions and can double in population every 20 minutes if not cooled quickly.Contaminated meat gets hacked off…

Between executive orders, federal layoffs, and new regulations, the last four months have been heartburn-inducing for public lands advocates. But last week, the House Natural Resources Committee offered a glimmer of hope that the voices of hunters and anglers are being heard in Washington, D.C.When the committee released its portion of the Republicans’ budget reconciliation package, advocacy groups pointed out that the document made no mention of public land sales. This is noteworthy because it had been widely reported that Republicans were considering selling public land as a way to pay for other items in the budget.“The decision to leave…