The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested U.S. Navy Seaman Bareen Dzayee, 25, along with Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, and Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, for allegedly providing over $2,000 to an individual they believed to be an ISIS member.

The trio reportedly believed their money would sanction the purchase of rocket-propelled grenades and drones that would be used to murder U.S. service members.

“Over years, the individuals communicated about several plans to support ISIS, including through the provision of personnel, services and money,” a criminal complaint read. “Through chats, voice calls and multiple messaging platforms, these conspirators pledged allegiance or ‘Bayat’ to ISIS and its leader.”

Dzayee enlisted in the Navy in 2021 and served aboard the USS John McCain from March 25, 2022, to July 19, 2024.

Between March 2025 and January 2026, the FBI identified all three suspects as ISIS sympathizers after alarming social media posts.

The posts pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization, promoted violence and discussed weapons and explosives in support of ISIS operations.

A confidential FBI source the suspects believed to be an active ISIS member reached out to Ghafoor and Shamsaldeen in May 2025 and joined a social media group chat in which Shamsaldeen specifically stated his desire to injure U.S. service members, travel overseas to fight for ISIS and “take action” to make his fantasies of violence come true.

Ghafoor, Dzayee and Shamsaldee paid money between March and May of this year to the confidential FBI source. At one point, Ghafoor said it would be “sick” if the contact — who was the FBI agent — wrote Ghafoor’s name on one of the drones.

During the process of sending money to the FBI source, Ghafoor acknowledged that doing so would be treason but stated that he wanted to continue with the transaction, according to the Justice Department.

He also reportedly told the confidential source that he had fantasized about killing a female soldier by beheading and wanted to kill 300,000 Americans.

“For years, the Department of Justice has been encouraging Americans that if they see suspicious activity, they should report it to law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser for the District of Kansas said in a DoJ release. “That’s because long gone are the days where terrorist threats and attacks are incidents that only take place far away on foreign soil.”

The U.S. Navy announced a probe into the Saturday morning death of a service member aboard the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.

Boatswain’s Mate Seaman Jesse Braswell died following an incident involving a firearm. A sailor is currently in pretrial confinement in connection with the death, the Navy confirmed Monday, but no charges have been filed.

“The situation is currently under investigation and further information will be provided once available,” the service said.

Newest Ford-class carrier USS John F. Kennedy heads to sea for testing

The carrier recently returned on Feb. 4 to Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in Virginia after completing builder’s trials.

The Kennedy, which is set to join the fleet in 2027, is currently finishing construction and testing before participating in acceptance trials.

The latter are conducted by the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey and mark the final tests before a ship enters service.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a close ally of President Donald Trump, says he raised the issue directly with the president, arguing that the government should not be involved in adjudicating doctrinal disputes among faith traditions.

Two more Republicans from Utah — Sen. John Curtis and Rep. Mike Kennedy — also urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to amend the list for the same reason.

The Pentagon subsequently announced on Monday that it had removed “unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed.”

The new “Religious Affiliation Codes” no longer features the subheading gathering together Christian denominations, thus sidestepping the contentious issue of whether to include or exclude Mormonism.

Instead, it provides a long list of uncategorized options, including the previous Christian denominations; the Church of Latter-day Saints; other major religions like Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism; and classifications of Agnostic, “no religion,” and “other religions.”

According to a May 20 memorandum signed by Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata, the list will provide chaplains with “clear, readily available information” to better anticipate the religious needs of service members and to deliver religious support consistent with their faith and practices.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, described the original shift as “long overdue,” saying that the consolidation is intended to improve administrative efficiency rather than elevate certain religions over others.

“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions,” Parnell said in a statement on Friday. “Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”

Troops will not be restricted, however, in what information they choose to include on their dog tags.

When previewing the new policy in March, Hegseth said that the rank insignia worn by military chaplains on their uniforms is set to be replaced with religious insignia. He emphasized chaplains are “first and foremost called and ordained by God,” and, while they will retain rank as an officer to those they serve, their rank will not be visible.

The changes are expected to take effect by mid-July.

The Palau-flagged M/T Marivex, which was reportedly traveling without cargo, was transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman when its crew failed to respond to directions from U.S. forces in the region.

A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln responded by firing a precision munition into the Marivex‘s engineering and steering spaces.

“Marivex is no longer sailing to Iran,” a release from U.S. Central Command stated.

To date, U.S. forces carrying out the naval blockade — launched April 13 — in waters around Iran have disabled seven non-compliant ships, according to the command release.

Well over 100 vessels have complied and been redirected, while 42 ships transiting the area with humanitarian aid have been permitted to pass.

The United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, part of the House’s version of the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill, would codify and increase military technical cooperation between the U.S. defense industry and Israel’s, as well as create a technical liaison position within the Pentagon to support the effort.

The House Armed Services Committee approved the measure as part of its National Defense Authorization Act after a marathon debate on hundreds of amendments.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strike down the proposal, but it found very little support from his colleagues.

“We need to tell [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that America calls the shots, not the prime minister of any other country,” Khanna said during his introduction of the amendment. “[Americans] want less cooperation and blank checks to Israel, not more. Only the United States Congress would dream up at this moment, ‘Let’s actually do more for Israel,’ not less.”

Eight committee members, including fellow Democrats, spoke against Khanna’s effort to quash the measure. The amendment was ultimately defeated.

The proposal “actually improves oversight and accountability for these programs by designating a single official responsible,” said committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. “Claims that this provision somehow cedes authority to a foreign government are ridiculous.”

Lawmakers quarrel over effort to boost defense tech integration between US and Israel

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the committee, conceded that he understood some of the concerns Khanna outlined in his amendment, particularly regarding Netanyahu’s leadership in Israel and his multi-front war.

“We have endless wars, now, in Gaza, in the West Bank [...], in Lebanon,” Smith said. “No effort to negotiate, no effort to find partners for peace amongst the Palestinians or the Lebanese, even where there are opportunities to do so.”

But the measure puts existing programs under streamlined supervision, Smith argued. He and other committee members touted the benefits of Israeli technology for U.S. weapons systems.

The cooperation initiative “comes at a very bad time because of everything I’ve just said about Israel, but let’s not forget” what it actually does, Smith said.

Michael Hanna, director of the U.S. program at International Crisis Group, told Military Times the addition of the U.S.-Israel cooperation initiative “tells us something important about the broader climate.”

Further integrating U.S.-Israeli military cooperation differs from the memorandum of understanding, or MOU, process that has dictated military aid to Israel historically, he said.

“It’s hard to imagine there will be another MOU after [the next] one,” Hanna said. The current MOU expires in 2028, and while Hanna said a shorter agreement could follow, it’s clear that the U.S.-Israel relationship is changing.

“The Israelis understand that and are trying to get ahead of that” by moving from an aid model to one of co-production and procurement, he said.

One committee member spoke in support of Khanna’s amendment. Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., argued the cooperation initiative “entrenched” the U.S. and Israeli militaries “with no strings attached.”

“A clear majority of Americans already oppose sending more military aid to Israel,” Jacobs said. “They will not support this, and neither should we.”

A majority of Americans now hold negative views of Netanyahu and Israel, according to polling from the Pew Research Center. By August of last year, 60% of Americans disapproved of sending the country additional military aid, per a Quinnipiac poll.

The House’s version of the NDAA is expected to go to the floor for a vote in mid-July. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., pledged to introduce another effort at that time to strike the section about U.S.-Israeli cooperation.

On ships and bases in the Middle East, U.S. troops — some recovering from injuries — operate amid exchanges of fire with Iran every few days as the Navy blockades Iran’s ports.

At home, the Pentagon is scrambling to bolster production of depleted munitions as families of service members cope with the stress of extended deployments.

Counterattacks from Iran continue against U.S. allies in the region, such as Bahrain and Kuwait, which Iran targeted in a ballistic missile attack on Friday.

Trump declared his ceasefire with Iran in April, but the war has settled into a stalemate, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz largely closed to shipping and Trump threatening a return to full-scale bombings of Iran if peace negotiations fail.

The threat requires U.S. troops to maintain an acute state of readiness.

That means everything from stocking bases with missiles and interceptors to scouring intelligence from drones and satellites to updating lists of targets inside Iran should large-scale fighting resume.

“To maintain this constant state of ‘Level 10’ alert vigilance, to be ready to go at the drop of a hat, is a very stressful and difficult operational mission,” said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Joseph Votel, the former commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, described the current conflict phase as “a very, very dangerous period for us.”

He said keeping troops ready during the ceasefire is no small challenge.

“It puts on a lot of pressure on leaders to make sure that people are still at their edge,” Votel said.

Asked for comment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the U.S. military stands ready to support deployed troops “in every way imaginable.”

“The Department of War is proud of our incredible troops. Their courage, readiness, grit, and unmatched professionalism are why they are the greatest fighting force in human history,” Parnell said.

TOLL ON TROOPS AND FAMILIES

For U.S. troops recovering from injuries, the military’s shift to an extended wartime footing requires a profound adjustment.

U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Cory Hicks, 37, is among the wounded recovering from an Iranian drone attack at the start of the war that left him without a pulse for minutes.

Punctured by shrapnel that severed an artery and fractured his jaw, Hicks is also wrestling with the impact of a traumatic brain injury from the blast that could challenge him for life.

“It sounded like a small prop plane coming in quick,” Hicks told Reuters. “And then it just smashed into the building and blew up. And I remember a big bright ball of flames and lots of pressure and heat, and I was out.”

Hicks is not the only one adapting to a new normal. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, where he is being treated, is coping with a new surge in combat care cases years after the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Hicks said.

Around 400 U.S. troops have been wounded during the conflict, many of them with a traumatic brain injury like Hicks. Over 90% have returned to duty, the U.S. military says. Thirteen service members have been killed in the conflict.

Families of U.S. service members also confront stress amid confusion about what is happening during the ceasefire.

Iranian state media publishes claims regularly about attacking U.S. ships and aircraft. On Friday, Iran said it fired warning shots at U.S. warships in the Gulf of Oman, an event the U.S. military denies happened.

“It’s just really scary not to know details of what exactly is going on,” said Yadira Dessaint, mother of a sergeant in the Army Reserve from California’s San Fernando Valley.

Dessaint asked not to identify her son for fear of retaliation by the U.S. military. She has protested for an end to the war, which has damaged Trump’s popularity.

Just one in four respondents in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll ​said the U.S. military action in Iran has been worth it.

Dessaint said her son has seen multiple attacks on his position by Iranian drones, their debris falling around him after being intercepted by air defenses.

“I tend to send a text every day: ‘Good morning, son. I love you,’” Dessaint said. “Every so often, I get ‘I love you mom’ or ‘I miss you’ or something.”

PERSISTENT THREAT

As the United States and Iran negotiate a potential deal to open the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil transited before the war, it looks increasingly likely that any agreement would extend the ceasefire while delaying some of the thorniest issues, such as Tehran’s nuclear program.

That suggests the tense standoff and the demands on the U.S. military will continue.

The signs of strain on military operations are visible in the huge expenditure of munitions for the war. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it could take years to fully replenish U.S. inventories of missiles and interceptors.

Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said it is not just inventories that are eroding.

“Wars are expensive. They grind on the equipment and the people, as well as the missiles that are shot,” Karako said.

Back in Maryland, Hicks stays in touch with fellow U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, some frustrated by deployments that are being extended as the conflict drags on.

“They’re doing a lot better now than they were. The threat is not as bad,” he said, referring to the reduced scale of fighting.

But Hicks carries the memory of six fellow soldiers who died in the Kuwait attack that injured him, including Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39.

“I was talking to Sgt. Amor when the drone hit. She was maybe 10 feet away from me,” he said. “It’s something that I’m going to have to deal with the rest of my life.”

The U.S. military believes the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, a U.S. official told Reuters. U.S. Central Command said on X that the U.S. then struck Iran’s surveillance sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, which are both on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the U.S. action broke an April 8 ceasefire, adding that repeated violations showed Washington had no intention of reducing tensions. It warned that the United States would bear responsibility for the consequences of its “illegal actions” and any further escalation.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had attacked U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. strikes and fired at four tankers trying to cross the strait without its permission.

Kuwait’s army said on Saturday it engaged seven ballistic missiles that entered the country’s airspace early in the morning and passed over several residential areas, resulting in the fall of some debris. The army added that the Iranian attack caused material damage but no casualties. In Bahrain sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter.

PAKISTANI MINISTER REPORTED EN ROUTE TO TEHRAN

Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes. Kuwait’s foreign ministry described the Iranian attacks, including the latest one on Saturday, as “blatant” aggression that threatened citizens, residents and regional security, a ministry statement said.

Iran later said it had hit U.S. bases in both countries with ballistic missiles but the U.S. military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its target.

The U.S. and Iran have been engaged in largely indirect negotiations to secure an interim deal to halt the three-month-old war that would leave issues including Iran’s nuclear program to further negotiations.

But amid periodic skirmishes a deal has remained elusive.

Tehran wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the strait. Iran has effectively blocked the waterway, where about a fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war.

Iranian state media reported that Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister of Pakistan, which has been mediating an end to the conflict, was on his way to Tehran on Saturday.

A Pakistani source said Naqvi would carry a message from Pakistan to the Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing mounting domestic political pressure due to rising gas prices to bring the unpopular war to an end. He told NBC that while most of Iran’s drone and missile manufacturing facilities had been destroyed, the Iranians still have access to about a fifth of their missiles.

“They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, according to excerpts released by the network on Friday.

When asked why Iran’s leaders were not more inclined to strike a deal, if they are as desperate as he has portrayed them, Trump said, “Because they are strong. They’re proud. There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do, they’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while.”

After the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran attacked Gulf states hosting U.S. bases and largely stopped shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflict has driven up oil prices and disrupted supply chains for other products. The U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday that it was pushing millions of people closer to hunger due to rising fuel and transport costs.

Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN on Friday that a peace deal hinged on the Trump administration unfreezing $24 billion in Iranian assets, and warned that the U.S. would “enter into a dark corridor” if it resumed attacks.

FIGHTING FLARES ACROSS REGION DESPITE CEASEFIRES

In a parallel conflict in Lebanon, two Lebanese army officers and a soldier were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle in south Lebanon, the Lebanese army said, while the Israeli military said it was investigating the incident.

The Israeli military said it struck the vehicle after identifying what it described as a threat to its forces and receiving indications that Hezbollah was preparing to fire on Israeli troops from the area. Iran-aligned Hezbollah called the incident part of Israel’s continued aggression against Lebanon.

Iran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem this week rejected a U.S.-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting in Lebanon. The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations.

Israel has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amid increasing friction with the U.S.

The jobless rate for all veterans fell from 3.7% in April to 3.2% in May. The rate for the post-9/11 veterans ticked up from 4.0% in April to 4.1% in May but was still down from 4.5% in March, the bureau’s report said.

One trend in the report was the continuing improvement among the nation’s 2.1 million women veterans, as shown by a three-month surge – from an unemployment rate of 7.1% in March to 4.4% in April and 3.3% in May.

The last time the unemployment rate for women veterans was less than the rate for male veterans was in January 2019, when women veterans had a jobless rate of 2.7%, compared to 3.0% for male veterans.

However, the BLS has issued occasional cautionary notes on the data for women veterans, stating that the data comes from a much smaller sample than for male veterans and was thus susceptible to greater fluctuations.

One reason women veterans may be doing better on the jobs market is that more employers are realizing that “women make excellent employees,” said Heather Long, chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union.

In her estimation, the latest jobs report showed that the market’s recent “low hire, low fire” environment had come to an end. “The hiring recession is over,” Long said in a phone interview Friday.

She also noted that wages were not keeping up with inflation – the BLS said that wages were up 3.4% in May while the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in a recent report projected that Consumer Price Index for May would come in a 4.2%.

“It’s a split-screen economy,” Long said, noting that job growth was continuing while the nation was at war in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, inflation was ticking up, the nationwide average for a gallon of regular gasoline Friday was $4.24, and the main concern of voters in numerous surveys was “affordability.”

The improving performance of women veterans was unsurprising to Kevin Rasch, the Warriors to Work regional director at the Wounded Warrior Project.

“Employers recognize the value of having veterans” on the payroll, Rasch said. “They bring a lot of value to the table,” he said in a phone interview Friday - and that recognition was now being given to women veterans.

Rasch recently returned from a trip to Germany where he visited U.S. bases to speak with active duty troops to learn of their concerns about transitioning back to civilian life in the states.

“AI is one of the hot topics” for those transitioning troops who feel that they could be at a disadvantage in the civilian jobs market, Rasch said. His team was prepared to coach those transitioning veterans on coping with AI, Rasch said, but he also said that “AI is not going away.”

Rasch said job seekers should not automaticall blame AI when they lose out on a position because “someone learned how to use AI better than you.”

The predictions ahead of the release of the BLS jobs report suggested that AI would be a factor in job losses. “AI is now the leading reason companies give for cutting jobs and the primary industry citing it is technology,” Andy Challenger, labor and workplace expert and chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement prior to the release of the BLS report.

The BLS report said that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 172,000 jobs in May, which was similar to the gain of 179,000 jobs in April.

“Leisure and hospitality added 70,000 jobs in May, well above the average monthly gain of 14,000 over the prior 12 months,” the BLS report said. Food services and bars added 48,000 jobs, health care added 35,000 and manufacturing added 7,000.

“This is about the strongest market of my lifetime,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNBC of the job gains.

He attributed the gains to President Donald Trump’s policies, including the tax cuts he enacted last year.

Caine held bilateral discussions with senior leaders of the interim government and with U.S. embassy personnel. During those meetings, he underscored the importance of Venezuelan stability, broader security across the Western Hemisphere and the military’s commitment to implementing Trump’s “three-phase plan,” Joe Holstead, a spokesman for Caine, said in a statement.

The plan focuses on avoiding chaos, bolstering an economic recovery and — eventually — facilitating a transition to democracy.

A key pillar of the effort has been restoring Venezuela’s oil industry, which Trump previously characterized as a “total bust.”

All of that changed with Operation Absolute Resolve. The sprawling military raid — which involved more than 150 aircraft — culminated in Delta Force commandos descending on a heavily fortified compound and capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The pair were later flown to New York, where they each face criminal charges.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, continues to maintain a robust presence in the region, with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group sailing into the Caribbean in May.

Since September, the Pentagon has carried out at least 62 strikes in the waters off South America, killing nearly 200 people whom the Trump administration says were involved in drug trafficking, according to data compiled by Military Times. Many legal experts dispute the legality of those operations.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee voted unanimously Thursday to include the mandate in their markup of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

Under the provision, a trained third party would have to be present for exams conducted by obstetrician-gynecologists at military treatment facilities.

The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, whose district includes Tripler Army Medical Center, one of the facilities where Army gynecologist Maj. Blaine McGraw, is accused of sexually abusing and secretly recording female patients.

McGraw, 48, faces eight charges and 273 specifications involving 96 victims across a period of seven years at Tripler and the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas.

During his Article 32 hearing on May 26, witnesses for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division said McGraw admitted recording patients, claiming he did it for the purpose of notetaking but also told investigators he had “voyeuristic tendencies” as a teenager that were exacerbated by a traumatic deployment to Syria, according to the Killeen Daily Herald.

Tokuda’s amendment would require military health facilities to train chaperones and ensure they be used for any exam, treatment or procedure that involves the ”genitalia, rectum or female breasts” or for forensic health exams.

It follows a Defense Health Agency policy change last year that said physicians must offer chaperones for sensitive medical exams or procedures.

Patients have always had access to a chaperone in the military health system, but doctors are now required to offer one under the policy.

The proposed requirement would not have had any impact on a separate sexual assault case involving Army physician Maj. Michael Stockin, who was sentenced in 2025 to nearly 14 years in prison for sexually abusing patients at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington.

Stockin, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, pleaded guilty to 41 violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including abusive sexual contact and indecent viewing with male patients during medical exams.

At the time of Stockin’s investigation, it was considered one of the largest cases involving sexual assault in the U.S. military.

The committee’s markup of the defense policy bill must pass the House and be negotiated in conference process with the Senate before it becomes law.

After a spirited 30-minute debate late Thursday evening, members of the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment offered by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., to change the names in a narrow 29-27 vote.

In offering her amendment, Strickland said it was necessary because the Trump administration ignored Congress by changing the new names, choosing to honor, instead, different service members with the same last names as the Confederate officers for which the bases originally were named.

Strickland said while the current names honor military personnel in their own right — for example, Fort Lee in Virginia is now named for Fitz Lee, a Buffalo soldier who earned the Medal of Honor — the administration’s changes sidestepped the law and were hurtful to many military personnel and veterans for reviving Confederate legacies.

“They used the same stunt the commission considered and rejected, finding new service members that share the same last name as the Confederate traitors,” Strickland said.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who voted for the amendment, said his Virginia ancestor fought for the Union and would be “rolling in his grave” knowing U.S. military bases were named for Confederate leaders.

“I thought we did it right in 2020 — we debated it, it was a strong debate here. It passed in the House, a Democrat majority, and it passed in the Senate, Republican majority,“ Bacon said. ”The president vetoed it, and we overrode the veto. We did it right, and what happens is the secretary comes in here, puts his thumb in our eye … it should bother all of us.”

Lawmakers opposed to the change said the longstanding names have widespread and international recognition and mean much to the troops who have served on the bases, even as they may not know much about the installation’s namesakes.

“To judge historical figures by the morality of our time is taking certain things out of context … I just heard we can’t honor our forefathers who enslaved other people. Are we going to rename this city? Where does it end?” asked Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.

“I think Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and President Trump have struck a reasonable balance. Our history should be taught, not erased, the good and bad,” agreed Rep. John McGuire, R-Va.

Under Strickland’s amendment, the Naming Commission’s recommendations would be reinstated: Fort A.P. Hill would become Fort Walker; Fort Bragg would become Fort Liberty; Fort Benning would become Fort Moore; Fort Hood would become Fort Cavazos; Fort Lee would become Fort Gregg-Adams; Fort Polk would become Fort Johnson; Fort Rucker would be Fort Novosel; and Fort Pickett would be Fort Barfoot.

Fort Gordon also would become Fort Shughart-Gordon. The installation, once named for Confederate Maj. General John Brown Gordon, was changed last year to honor Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, a Medal of Honor recipient for his heroism in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.

Strickland said she worked with Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., to add the name Sgt. First Class Randall Shughart, who also earned the Medal of Honor in that battle.

Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Fla., joined with Bacon and committee Democrats to overturn the names.

Codifying the ‘Department of War’

The panel also voted to change the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, introduced the amendment, saying that the change sends an “unmistakable signal” that “America is willing to fight and win to secure its interests.”

“This name reflects the determination and resolve of our brave men and women of the U.S. military who aggressively fight to secure our national interests,” Jackson said. “Our military does much more than defend the homeland.”

The War Department was established by legislation signed by President George Washington in 1789, and it remained so until 1947, when President Harry Truman sought to consolidate the services under a single Cabinet-level command structure.

Truman recommended that Congress pass legislation creating a Department of National Defense, which became the Defense Department.

Pentagon asks Congress to codify ‘Department of War,’ estimates $52 million cost

Trump issued an executive order Sept. 5, 2025, to restore the name Department of War, a secondary title to the Defense Department. The department has been using the moniker but requires legislation to permanently change the name.

Smith said the name change would have very little impact on adversaries.

“Practically speaking, it makes no frickin’ difference whatsoever. We have a lot of important work to do … and we are arguing over a name. It’s incredibly expensive to change that name,” Smith said.

Earlier in the day, the panel also voted unanimously by voice vote to ban hate symbols like swastikas, nooses and other graphics across the department, to include tattoos, uniforms, patches, personal equipment and government property.

The amendment requires the secretary to establish standards for identifying and addressing prohibited symbols and procedural review for removal.

Coast Guard clarifies hate symbol policy

The proposal is related to a policy change last year by the Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, that classified the Nazi insignia as “potentially divisive” rather than a hate symbol.

Coast Guard officials said the policy change was misunderstood, and it was designed to clarify — not downgrade — its stand on extremist symbols.

“This is not an updated policy but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols,” officials wrote in a statement.

The measure, which has bipartisan support, was added as an amendment to the House version of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, a massive defense funding and policy bill. After more than 14 hours of debate, the committee sent the bill to the full House, where it’s expected to go to the floor for a vote in July.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the amendment. Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran, previously grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the cost of the war. During an April 29 hearing, Moulton guessed the cost could reach $100 billion, or about $600 per U.S. taxpayer, he said.

“For the American taxpayers out there, I’m just wondering if they have an extra 600 bucks lying around to pay for your war,” Moulton said. “That’s a question we ought to ask.”

The measure requires the defense secretary to provide the House and Senate armed services committees with an unclassified assessment of the total cost of the operations by April 1, 2027. The U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran began Feb. 28.

In addition to the costs of damaged or destroyed equipment and property, expended munitions and deployments, the report would include the cost of an ongoing U.S. Navy blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the proposal says.

Pentagon officials estimated May 12 that the total cost of the Iran war had reached $29 billion, up from $25 billion on April 29. Jules Hurst III, the Defense Department’s acting comptroller, relayed the figures to lawmakers during back-to-back budget hearings on Capitol Hill.

Hurst emphasized that the projections did not include expenditures for repairing damaged military installations in the region.

A Congressional Research Service report released May 13 tallied 42 U.S. aircraft lost or damaged during the war, with drones accounting for 25 of the 42 losses.

The Pentagon has not publicly disclosed the scale of munitions expended before a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect April 7, citing operational security. A May 27 analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, however, found that more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles had been launched during the U.S. strikes on Iran and 290 THAAD interceptors were used.

In addition to providing the cost assessment to the armed services committees, the measure mandates the Defense Department make it publicly available on its website.

In a marathon markup session that lasted from Thursday morning until 12:00 a.m. Friday, committee members debated and passed nearly 600 amendments and the bill language of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

The committee approved the proposed legislation in a 44-12 vote. It now proceeds to the House floor, where it is expected to be considered in mid-July.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said the proposal would revitalize the defense industrial base, invest in jobs and military personnel and “reverse the damage caused by decades of underinvestment in the U.S. military.”

Ranking member Rep Adam Smith, D-Wash., called it a “good solid bill” that supports the troops by investing in pay and benefits, continuing defense acquisition reform initiatives and supporting allies.

But, Smith said, the sheer size of the cost should cause pause.

“[The base amount] is a 30% increase over what the committee did last year — that is a lot of money at a time when we have a $40 trillion debt,” Smith said.

Target pay raises, boost to BAH

The proposal includes a significant boost in troop pay beginning Jan. 1, 2027, especially for junior enlisted personnel. Under the proposed legislation, service members E-5 and below would receive a 7% pay raise, while those E-6 to O-3 would get a 6% pay raise. Members O-4 and above would see their paychecks rise by 5%.

The pay plan is higher than the 3.8% increase service members received in fiscal 2026 but less than half the 14.5% increase they received in 2025.

The proposal also increases the size of the active duty force by 40,100, including: 15,000 for the Army; 12,000 for the Navy; 8,900 for the Air Force; 1,400 for the Marine Corps; and 2,800 for the Space Force.

With the increases, the active duty force will total 1,342,900 members.

Regarding benefits, the bill would remove a service member’s Basic Housing Allowance from calculations for consideration for the Basic Needs Allowance, a benefit available to low income military families whose income levels could qualify them for food stamps.

The provision, which would base a service member’s income and qualifications for the allowance on base pay and allowances while omitting the significant stipend provided to cover housing, was included in the House version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill but dropped from the final legislation.

According to a 2023 department survey, roughly a quarter of military families were considered “food insecure,” meaning they had difficulties buying enough food for themselves and their families.

Health and child care changes

The House proposal contains several other provisions to improve the well-being of service members and their families.

It would allow active duty personnel and reserve members on active duty to take bereavement leave in the loss of a pregnancy or stillbirth.

It would place limits on the Defense Department’s plans to restructure military health facilities, and it would require the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit of Tricare’s pharmacy benefits.

The bill would require the department to implement an initiative to improve procedures for processing complaints against Tricare, the Defense Department’s health program, by developing a system for filing complaints not handled sufficiently by the standard complaint process.

And it proposes to allow military health beneficiaries to access physical therapy without a referral. It would expand child care options for military families by including au pairs as eligible in-child care providers under the DoD’s Child Care in Your Home Fee Assistance Pilot Program.

Controversial amendment votes

The bill was advanced to the House with two amendments that are sure to spark debate among members and in negotiations with the Senate, including an amendment offered by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, and an amendment from Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., who proposed changing the names of military bases once named for Confederate generals back to the names recommended by a congressional naming commission in 2022.

Jackson’s amendment passed by a 29-27 vote while Strickland’s also was approved by the same number.

Regarding department oversight, lawmakers agreed that the Pentagon should submit reports to the committee on the removal of flag or general officers, including the reason, concern or inaction by the officer that prompted the relief. The provision stems from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April, along with his interference in promotion lists that has resulted in the removal of more than 19 senior officers.

The bill also also requires an independent assessment into a decision last month to cancel the deployment of an Army Armored Brigade Combat Team to Poland and a report from U.S. European Command on an effort to remove 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany.

The House $1.15 trillion authorization aligns with the Trump administration’s Defense Department base budget request. The administration also seeks an additional $350 billion for defense in a request known as reconciliation that requires separate legislation outside Congress’s normal appropriations process.

The Senate has not revealed its version of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to mark up their version in meetings next week that are closed to the public.

During the lengthy debate Thursday, House lawmakers offered dozens of amendments on issues that included a proposal to reduce the amount authorized in the bill by $150 billion, an effort to shield the independent Stars and Stripes newspaper from department interference by protecting the paper’s publisher, motions to increase oversight of the secretary’s management of the Pentagon’s independent press and a prohibition of the sale of political merchandise on military installations.

All were defeated.

The bill now moves to the House for consideration. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., told reporters Wednesday that he expects a vote to occur after the Independence Day break in July, according to a report from Politico.

Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran’s sea trade while Tehran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle ​East Gulf.

U.S. forces have intercepted multiple commercial and oil tankers in the Indian Ocean in recent months.

Overnight, U.S. forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel MT DAVINA located in the Indian Ocean within the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.

We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks… pic.twitter.com/7sNPNx0doN

— U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) June 5, 2026

“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” the Indo-Pacific Command wrote in an X post.

The Davina, a supertanker capable of carrying up to two million barrels of crude oil, was placed under U.S. sanctions in October 2024 for Iranian oil trading, according to ship tracking data.

The vessel, also known as the Lenore, was last seen on June 5 off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed on Friday.

The vessel’s draft indicated that it was almost fully laden with an oil cargo, separate shipping data showed.

The proposal would authorize Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to offer a discount at exchange stores that’s equivalent to the price of the federal gas tax. The tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for regular and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel.

The proposal would also allow the secretary to cut fuel prices further in order to counteract state and local taxes.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., introduced the measure, which was included — with bipartisan support — in the House’s version of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that passed through the House Armed Services Committee early Friday morning.

“This discount, equal to the federal fuel tax, shows profound gratitude to our nation’s heroes who have borne the heavy costs of war defending our freedoms,” Hamadeh said in a statement. “This common-sense step delivers real relief to our selfless service members and their families.”

But the relief won’t be imminent. The bill next goes to the full House for a vote, followed by negotiations with the Senate to establish a final fiscal 2027 defense package.

Over the past several years, the budgeting process has included stopgap funding measures and stretched to December before defense appropriations were finalized.

Domestic gas prices have surged since the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran began on Feb. 28. The prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway for global oil trade — has sent oil prices up.

Across the U.S., Memorial Day weekend prices were the highest they’d been in four years, according to the American Automobile Association.

The national average for a gallon of regular was $4.56 over that holiday weekend, $1.38 higher than the same weekend last year.

Pump prices have cooled in the days since, with the average cost of a gallon of regular on Thursday at $4.24.

“But uncertainty lingers over when the Strait of Hormuz will fully reopen and resume traffic,” AAA said in a release. “That unknown means oil prices will likely not decrease dramatically as summertime gasoline demand starts going up.”

According to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, fuel prices are set locally by surveying gas stations in close proximity to installations and matching the lowest price.

Polling about the Iran war has revealed deep concerns from Americans about the increased gas prices. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from May, 63% of the country say their household’s personal financial situation has taken a hit from recent gas price increases, up from 55% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in March.

President Donald Trump said in a CBS News interview in May that he would consider suspending the federal gas tax for all Americans, but the tax moratorium would require an act of Congress.

During a House Armed Services Committee markup of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers said that investing in Trump-class battleships would mean ignoring lessons learned from past Navy mistakes in which the service invested billions of dollars in ill-conceived procurement programs.

Instead, lawmakers wanted the military to invest in the future, incorporating lessons about the importance of uncrewed systems that other conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, have laid bare.

“This is the most expensive sitting duck in world history,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. “This battleship is a boondoggle.”

Moulton referenced an op-ed by retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis in which he argued battleships are entirely obsolete in the face of hypersonic missiles, drone swarms and a litany of modern weapons systems.

The battleship was a “vanity project” that would inevitably fall by the wayside and vanish once Trump left office and Republicans came to their senses, Moulton said.

The discussion revolved around the allocation of $1 billion for the Trump-class battleship included in the House’s version of the NDAA. An amendment proposed by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the committee, sought to void that allocation completely.

The amendment failed on a 26-30 vote, but lawmakers were defiant in their rejection of the Trump-class battleship program, and more broadly, of what it meant fiscally and strategically for the military.

President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 Defense Department budget request listed the cost of the first Trump-class battleship at $17 billion, but a Congressional Budget Office report assessed that the ship could cost closer to $20 billion.

Construction on the first Trump-class battleship is slated to begin in 2028, with delivery scheduled for the 2030s, according to Navy budget estimates.

“Where we need to be going is smaller more attritable autonomous systems,” Smith said. “The capabilities of these systems are growing by leaps and bounds from one iteration to the next and they cost pennies compared to what something like this battleship would cost.”

Trump announced his desire in December 2025 to build several Trump-class battleships. It would mark the first time the Navy would pursue building a battleship since 1944, when the Iowa-class USS Missouri was launched.

Trump-class battleships should not be built until weapons technology is ready, lawmakers say

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said he took umbrage with the fact that the president announced plans for the battleship without any proof of design or analysis, instead offering an AI-generated photo during a concept unveiling at his Florida resort over the holiday season.

The $1 billion included in the NDAA requested $390 million to go toward design and $610 million for fabricated parts and steel for the design of the ship.

Smith specifically cited previous instances in which the Navy put the cart before the horse, pointing toward the Zumwalt-class, littoral combat ship and the Next Generation Cruiser, or CG(X), program in which the shipbuilding process saw construction begin before design was complete, leading to ship failures — and a program cancellation in the case of the CG(X) program.

Other lawmakers piled on.

“Look to the present and then to the future and say, ‘Does this make any sense?’” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. “This battleship makes absolutely no sense.”

Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., questioned the possibility for success of a battleship planned to be outfitted with weapons systems that hadn’t even been built yet.

The president’s namesake vessel would rely on hypersonic missiles, electromagnetic railguns and high-powered lasers, Trump said in December.

But the hypersonic missile program was only in its testing phase, and the Navy’s electromagnetic railgun program was paused in 2021 after never fielding the weapon. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle recently admitted that high-energy laser weapons were necessary but would require more funding and research to implement widely across the Navy fleet.

“The necessity of this Trump-class battleship ... comes from the name and name alone,” Vindman said. “The real need on the modern battlefield is cheaper, smaller, distributed and, in some cases, unmanned systems.”

The $17 billion price tag of the battleship would enable the military to buy roughly 3.5 million of $5,000 drones, Vindman said.

Attorneys for the Pentagon filed a motion Wednesday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reconsider its Tuesday decision in the case, Wilkins v. Hegseth, which lifted a stay on prohibiting HIV-positive people whose infections are controlled by medication and who otherwise qualify from serving while the case continues.

In 2024, Circuit Court Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District Court of Virginia ruled that with treatment advances — and previous court rulings that allowed infected personnel to continue serving and deploy — civilians with controlled levels of the virus should be allowed to serve.

The Defense Department appealed Brinkema’s decision, and last December, the Fourth Circuit implemented a stay to new enlistments while it considered the case. In February, a three-judge panel reversed Brinkema’s ruling, but in May, the appeals court announced the case would be heard by a full panel of judges. The court clarified that the decision also lifted the stay.

The announcement was met with swift response from attorneys for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who asked that the stay be reinstated.

“Applying the injunction universally would disrupt the military’s expansive recruitment and accession operations,” wrote Charles Scarborough, an appellate attorney for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice.

“With the panel’s grant of a stay, the military resumed applying its HIV-related accession policies. Ceasing application of those policies … would impose an unnecessary and wholly improper burden on the military’s operations,” Scarborough added.

The case involves Isaiah Wilkins and two unnamed HIV-positive plaintiffs who sued the Defense Department after they sought to join or re-enlist but were prohibited based on their HIV status.

Wilkins was serving as a member of the Georgia Army National Guard who found out he was HIV-positive while trying to enlist in the Army Reserve.

The plaintiffs argued that antiviral medications kept their viral loads low or undetectable and affected U.S. service members had won similar suits and were allowed to stay in the military and deploy.

Defense Department and military services have long been concerned over transmission of HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS, from exposure to blood in a needle stick or responding to a traumatic injury.

In 2022, after Brinkema ruled that the military could not deny commissions to HIV-positive troops who sought to become officers nor could they be discharged, the Defense Department barred commanders involuntarily separating, restricting deployments or preventing commissions of affected troops.

The Defense Department stopped processing and training new recruits who were HIV-positive in January following the 4th Circuit’s decision to implement a stay.

Attorneys representing Wilkins and others said Tuesday they did not expect the stay to be lifted. They called it “great news.”

“On a regular basis, I hear from people with HIV who want to serve their country by joining the military, and that’s now again a viable option,” said Peter Perkowski in a statement issued by Minority Veterans of America, a group that has joined the plaintiffs.

The Defense Department disagreed.

“This Court should enter an order reinstituting the panel’s prior stay of the universal injunction on appeal in this case to the extent the injunction applies beyond the three individual plaintiffs in this suit,” Scarborough wrote in court documents.

From January 2020 through June 2025, the Defense Department screened roughly 7 million service members across the active, reserve and National Guard components. Of those, 1,463 were identified as HIV-positive, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division.

Rear Adm. Dan Lannamann, who commands the Navy Regional Maintenance Center, ousted the commanding officer, executive officer and command master chief of the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center.

Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Howell were relieved of their duties Wednesday.

“There is no impact to the command’s mission as a result of these reliefs,” the Navy said.

The service typically uses the phrase “loss of confidence” as a blanket statement when dismissing senior leaders.

Navy fires commanding officer of USS Truxtun following collision with supply ship

The Navy did not provide details on the circumstances surrounding the firing.

Capt. John Bauer, commander, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, temporarily stepped into the role of commanding officer.

In the interim, Cmdr. David Reinhardt, waterfront operations officer, assumed the duties of executive officer, and Master Chief Petty Officer David Marcus, CNRMC command master chief, has taken over the position of command master chief.

The Navy in February fired the commanding officer of the destroyer USS Mason due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command.

Effective immediately, master chiefs (E-9), chief warrant officers 5 (CWO5) and limited duty officers at the rank of captain (O-6) are now exempt from regular periodic performance evaluations and fitness reports, according to the June 3 NavAdmin.

“Personnel in these paygrades have demonstrated a sustained history of superior performance and established records that negate the requirement for annual periodic reporting,” the message stated.

Previously, evaluation and fitness reports for the specified personnel were to be submitted on an annual basis, according to the NavAdmin.

The new policy change, meanwhile, does not impact reporting requirements for personnel assigned to a detachment.

“Reporting seniors retain the authority and are highly encouraged to submit special evaluations or fitness reports for personnel in these paygrades to document distinctly outstanding performance or sub-standard performance/misconduct,” the message states.

The service’s Bureau of Naval Personnel is overseeing the implementation of the new policy, while individual commands are instructed to ensure local policies and ticklers, or administrative reminders, “are updated to reflect the removal of regular periodic reporting requirements for the affected paygrades,” the memo states.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the exemptions apply to fitness reports, or FITREPS.

The Battle “E” is awarded to U.S. Navy commands that display “superior performance during operations, inspections, certifications, assessments and training events in a competitive cycle, assessing their proficiency and overall effectiveness in all phases of operations,” according to the Navy.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier returned to port in August 2025 after a nine-month deployment which saw the Carl Vinson operating in the U.S. 3rd, 5th, and 7th Fleet areas of operations, including providing support to Operation Rough Rider, a large-scale military campaign that launched air and naval strikes against Iran-backed Houthi Rebels.

By the time the Carl Vinson homeported in San Diego, California, the aircraft carrier had completed more than 10,000 sorties, 23,000 flight hours and sailed over 275,000 nautical miles combined.

“The Carl Vinson team displayed unrelenting perseverance and superior performance as they successfully carried out sustained operations at sea throughout 2025,” Capt. Joshua Wenker, commanding officer of Carl Vinson, said in a release.

“Our sailors worked together to successfully execute a wide range of missions while operating in the Western Pacific and the Middle East, once again setting the standard for courage and steadfastness. I could not be more proud of my team, and their achievements continue to add to the storied history and legacy that has made this ship America’s Favorite Carrier!”

In addition to the Battle “E” achievement, 11 departments on board the Carl Vinson earned distinction, with the vessel also earning awards for Carrier Maintenance and Environment Protection and Energy Conservation, according to the Navy.

As the U.S. Navy’s third Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson plays an integral role as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 1, consisting of Carrier Air Wing 2, guided-missile cruiser USS Cape St. George, the Zumwalt-class USS Michael Monsoor, the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Jack H. Lucas and the guided-missile destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 1.

Sgt. Devin A. Seibel, 26, died on May 31 at Erbil Air Base, Iraq, according to a Defense Department release. He was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve at the time of the incident.

Seibel, a native of Robinson, Texas, was a combat medic specialist assigned to the Air Ambulance Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade out of Fort Carson, Colorado.

He enlisted in May 2017 and previously completed a deployment to Afghanistan in 2020-21.

“Sgt. Seibel’s positive impact as an exceptional non-commissioned officer, friend and husband was felt by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” Col. Cameron Gallagher, commander of the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, said in a statement provided to Military Times. “He distinguished himself through an unwavering commitment to professional excellence and a relentless pursuit of growth. As a flight paramedic supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, he consistently delivered outstanding patient care and embodied the highest standards of our profession. His loss is deeply felt across the entire Ivy Eagle Brigade and his legacy of service, compassion and dedication will not be forgotten.”

Seibel’s awards include the Army Commendation Medal with Combat Device, five Army Achievement Medals, two Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghan Campaign Medal, the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal, the Non-Commissioned Officers Professional Development Ribbon, the NATO Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the Combat Action Badge, and the Driver and Mechanic Badge.

A statement Tuesday by U.S. Army Central and Third Army noted that the incident occurred as troops were training alongside British Army partners.

A British soldier, Lance Corporal James Freeman, was also killed in the incident.

Freeman died “following a tragic accident during routine military training activity whilst deployed on Operation SHADER, Iraq,” the British Ministry of Defence posted.

He was 29 years old.

The incident is currently under investigation, a Defense Department release stated.

Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commander of Navy Installations Command, announced the development during a media roundtable Wednesday, in which he discussed the service’s recently announced food service transformation initiative.

“We acknowledge that our sailors are busy,” Gray said in the roundtable. “This grab-and-go is an effort to ensure that no matter what your schedule looks like during the day, you have the opportunity not only to ensure that you get something to eat but that you get healthy options.”

In 2025, there were few grab-and-go options across all shore-based galleys, Gray said.

By the end of June 2026, there will be a grab-and-go stations at 95% of all shore-based galleys.

The Navy is also planning to maximize the amount of time those grab-and-go stations are open by the end of the year.

CNO denies reports of poor food service aboard Navy vessels

Right now, galleys operate so that they only offer food during breakfast, lunch and dinner time.

In between those hours, sailors are unable to access food there.

But by the end of 2026, grab-and-go stations will operate from the minute the galley opens to the minute it closes to ensure that sailors always have a meal option that accommodates their busy schedule.

“If you come in, for example, at breakfast time and you have your breakfast and you know you’re not going to be able to come back and have lunch, you can then swipe your card before you go and take a sandwich, a salad and a protein drink with you, so that you can eat,” Gray said.

Gray also provided more information about the expanded meal entitlement options for sailors that the Navy Systems Command announced last week.

The service launched its shore food service transformation initiative on May 29 at Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport, Mississippi, and on June 3 at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Washington, with the goal of expanding its reach to other installations if the implementation proves successful.

The Navy intends to begin phase two of the rollout between March and July 2027 and expand the initiative to another nine installations.

The food shore initiative, aside from the expanded meal entitlement program, will offer multiple food stations within the galley, including international cuisine, a vegan station, a Mongolian barbecue station, pizza stations, a deli station and a salad bar, among others.

The Navy is also attempting to boost the quality of food and service, having recently brought members from the Culinary Institute of America to both pilot program sites to train cooks.

The Government Accountability Office looked at the Tricare Extended Care Health Option, known as ECHO, and its ECHO home health care benefit, known as EHHC. Military families may face challenges getting access to these services, which help individuals keep, learn or improve skills and functioning for daily living; provide durable medical equipment and incontinence supplies; and offer caregiver support, such as respite care.

Families with special needs may have difficulty getting access to the services they need, especially because of frequent military moves.

The coverage may be outdated, with the amounts at the same level since 2009, auditors noted in a GAO report published Monday.

Because of rising health care costs, the Defense Health Agency “lacks reasonable assurance that ECHO benefits, including EHHC services, are fully meeting the program’s purpose of mitigating the disabling effects of a qualifying condition,” auditors stated.

The coverage limit for the ECHO program has remained at $36,000 per enrollee per calendar year since 2009, when lawmakers last authorized an increase.

Auditors said that with inflation, that equates to about $24,000 in 2025 dollars.

About 27,000 eligible dependents were enrolled in ECHO in 2024, according to DoD. Most of these are children with intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities or other significant health needs.

Eligibility and other requirements and coverage vary between the service branches. Of the total ECHO population, about 1,000 were homebound with complex medically complex conditions and qualified for the ECHO home health care benefit.

But out of those 27,000 enrolled, only about 4,235, or 16%, used the ECHO services, auditors stated.

In their response to a draft report, DoD disagreed with the GAO recommendation to assess whether the coverage limit of $36,000 is enough.

They stated that in 2024, the 4,235 enrollees had an average total government expenditure of $6,600. That $36,000 coverage limit is set by law; those who require the ECHO home health care services aren’t subject to the cap. Auditors noted that a review could provide information for any potential congressional action.

Lawmakers required GAO to conduct this review of the coverage for nursing care, habilitative programs and respite care through Tricare ECHO and other federal programs.

ECHO respite care services must be provided by a Tricare-authorized home health agency, to provide a short-term break for the usual caregiver. The ECHO program allows up to 16 hours per month.

The auditors also reviewed state Medicaid home- and community-based services, such as skilled nursing care and respite care, in seven states with high military populations.

Military families may be eligible for this care, which in some cases may offer more benefits than ECHO, but access can be limited. Auditors cited a study that found in 2025, it took about 32 months to move from a waiting list to enroll in one of these state programs. Families have said that by the time they can receive the services in a state, it’s time for them to move.

DoD is in the process of standardizing its eligibility requirements, and the number of respite care hours offered across all the military service branches through the Exceptional Family Member Program. DoD officials told GAO auditors that they expect to fully implement standardization of the respite care services by October 2027, and those with profound need would be eligible for up to 32 hours of respite care per month.

Of all the services GAO auditors reviewed, respite care was the most frequently requested from 2022 through 2024, according to data from one of the Tricare managed care contractors.

But about 68% of the authorizations for services weren’t used by the families. Defense Health Agency officials told auditors shortages of respite care providers may contribute to unused services. The shortage can also delay or limit access to nursing care services for military families.

Low respite care hours and low reimbursement offered by ECHO may also contribute to challenges in getting providers, according to the GAO report.

Two ECHO case managers told auditors that even if the respite hours increased to 32 hours per month, it would still be hard to find providers, since respite care providers want more hours than that.

If lawmakers decided to move forward with the development of a U.S. Cyber Force, there would be challenges to its implementation because current responsibilities are shared between the various services and U.S. Cyber Command, per the Wednesday report written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Many observers contend that the challenge of generating military capability and capacity necessary to deter, compete, fight and win in the cyber domain can be directly attributed to the lack of a single organization responsible and accountable for force generation in cyberspace — or organizing, training and equipping the military forces operating in this domain,” the report states.

Lawmakers have contemplated the necessity of a Cyber Force for over a decade since the 2010 establishment of U.S. Cyber Command, or CYBERCOM, one of the Department of Defense’s 11 unified combatant commands.

Current efforts to create a standalone Cyber Force are spearheaded by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, as an amendment to the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

The report showcases how CYBERCOM is expected to perform the functions of both a combatant command and a military service, but a proposed Cyber Force would take over most of its “service-like” responsibilities, and thus organizing, training and equipping forces for the cyber domain.

The think tanks examined ways Congress and the Defense Department could stand up and implement a Cyber Force as a new military service with a cyber-specific mission that centers around assisting forces in conducting offensive and defense cyberspace operations.

The initial budget for standing up a Cyber Force is an estimated $10 billion to $11 billion, the report says, although that budget is already currently allocated into other services and cyber capabilities.

In the fiscal 2027 defense budget request, the Pentagon distributed $7.7 billion to cyberspace operations, according to budget documents, with $4.1 billion designated to CYBERCOM and the remaining $4.6 billion set aside for other defense organizations, such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The budget request also emphasized the need for $20.5 billion for cyberspace activities and $12.1 billion for cybersecurity.

At least 20,000 active-duty personnel, 3,500 to 5,000 National Guard members and a civilian workforce of 6,000 would be needed to staff a Cyber Force if established, the report reads, highlighting that the commission envisions the force as a relatively small military organization.

“By grouping personnel into broad occupational categories within which they can specialize or generalize, the Cyber Force will preserve distinct competencies, support future changes in how cyber missions are conducted and create a professional identity strong enough to anchor training, career development and long-term readiness,” the report says.

Instead of following the precedent of other military branches, the commission recommended that a Cyber Force follows in the footsteps of the U.S. Public Health Service by employing commissioned and warrant officers for uniformed personnel without an “enlisted cadre.”

The think tanks weighed two options for institutional alignment: placing the Cyber Force within the Department of the Army, like the Space Force is attached to the Department of the Air Force, or making the Cyber Force its own military department.

If included in the Army, the force could have increased speed and efficiency since it would belong to an already existing DoD bureaucracy, but it could be then considered a lower priority.

By having its own military department, the Cyber Force could ensure prioritization of cyber issues within the Pentagon, but standing up a new DoD bureaucracy would require substantial time and resources.

Regardless of organizational structure, it would take between 12 to 18 months to reach initial operating capacity, the report states.

The panel’s personnel subcommittee has proposed limiting the DoD’s plans to restructure the military health system and called for reversing any changes the department has made to 41 military treatment facilities.

The subcommittee’s draft of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization bill also would improve congressional oversight of military medical reforms by requiring the Defense Health Agency to give quarterly updates to Congress of its plans to change the system.

The proposals stem from a massive overhaul of the military health system reforms initiated under the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which called for transferring military hospital and clinic management to the Defense Health Agency and reducing administrative redundancies across the system.

The legislation ultimately aimed to focus the military health system on training military medical personnel for combat operations and caring for active-duty troops, and placing non-military patients in private sector care covered by the DoD.

As a result of the reforms, DHA and the military services planned to restructure the entire hospital system, announcing in 2020 that it would improve two military medical centers and consolidate or downsize 48 facilities, including 38 that would no longer see military families or retirees as patients.

At the time, Thomas McCaffery, who served as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs in the first Trump administration, said the changes were necessary to prepare military physicians and troops for deployment.

“We reviewed all facilities through the lens of their contributions to military readiness — that includes MTFs [being] operated to ensure service members are medically ready to train and deploy,” McCaffery said in a 2020 report to Congress.

But those reforms bled patients from military heath facilities, resulting in inadequate numbers for military physicians to maintain their skills. In turn, services degraded across many military hospitals and clinics, according to senior enlisted personnel.

In late 2024, the Defense Department reversed course on the plan to shed patients to private care, vowing to bring back 7% of patients by the end of 2026. It also has announced several partnerships with community health facilities to ensure that military physicians get adequate trauma training and patient exposure to maintain their skills.

But the DoD has failed to provide information to Congress regarding the reforms, frustrating members with its lack of candor regarding any planned closures of facilities.

Concerns voiced by lawmakers over changes to facilities that weren’t made public, such as Keller Army Community Hospital, West Point, New York, which was to lose its inpatient beds and Fort Leonard Wood’s new hospital. That hospital was to open not as a full-service hospital as planned, but an ambulatory clinic, which prompted several legislative changes, including the proposed fiscal 2027 NDAA restrictions.

Under the draft NDAA, DHA would not be allowed to make changes proposed for 41 facilities and must “reverse any steps to carry out a service change” and “restore personnel and clinical services affected by any such service change to a level that existed as of March 3, 2026.”

According to the proposed legislation, three facilities faced downsizing from hospitals to ambulatory care facilities, meaning they would have no inpatient capabilities. Those included:

• Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia;
• 88th Medical Group, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, (including closing pediatric cardiology and discontinuing chiropractic care); and
• Naval Hospital Beaufort, South Carolina, including discontinuing chiropractic care.

Those that would limit access to active-duty service members only included:

• 78th Medical Group, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia;
• 72nd Medical Group, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma;
• 75th Medical Group, Hill Air Force Base, Utah; and
• 66th Medical Squadron, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.

Those that would have excluded caring for retirees and their dependents, only seeing active-duty personnel and their family members were:

• 22nd Medical Group, McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas;
• 341st Medical Group, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana;
• 28th Medical Group, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota;
• 92nd Medical Group, Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington;
• 90th Medical Group, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming;
• 355th Medical Group, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona;
• 9th Medical Group, Beale Air Force Base, California;
• 45th Medical Group, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida;
• 4th Medical Group, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina;
• 460th Medical Group, Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado;
• 27th Special Operations Medical Group, Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico;
• 412th Medical Group, Edwards Air Force Base, California;
• 30th Medical Group, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California;
• Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi, Texas;
• 19th Medical Group, Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, (which also plans to discontinue nutrition services); and
• 20th Medical Group, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, (which also plans to discontinue nutrition services).

Facilities planning to restrict services only to active duty members and dependents who live on base included:

• 23rd Medical Group, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia;
• 366th Medical Group, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
• 319th Medical Group, Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota; and
• 61st Medical Squadron, Los Angeles Space Force Base, California.

Three facilities were slated to discontinue contracts for chiropractic and nutrition services, including:

• 55th Medical Group, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska;
• 2nd Medical Group, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; and
• 87th Medical Group, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

In addition, the following facilities would discontinue contracts for chiropractic services:

• 1st Special Operations Medical Group, Hurlburt Field, Florida;
• 10th Medical Group, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado; and
• 96th Medical Group, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

Seven facilities would have seen changes in services, to include:

• David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, California, slated to lose its labor and delivery department;
• 42nd Medical Group, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, which would stop its educational and developmental intervention services;
• Vilseck Army Health Clinic, Germany, which would discontinue its physical medicine and rehabilitation services;
• Naval Health Clinic Patuxent River, Branch Health Clinic Dahlgren, Virginia, which would no longer offer radiology;
• Army Health Clinic Munson, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which would stop offering mammography;
• Naval Health Clinic Lemoore, California, which would lose its operating rooms;  and
• 7th Medical Group, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, which would stop offering nutrition services.

And according to the proposed legislation, one facility — the Desert Sage Community Based Medical Home, part of William Beaumont Army Medical Center, at Fort Bliss, Texas — was slated for closure.

In October, then-acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ferrara said review of the military health system was an ongoing process and no plans for reductions or closures were set in stone.

“Like any enterprise, we’re always looking at ‘Where are we there — where do we have supply and demand mismatches?’ That’s just good governance of the system,” Ferrara said in response to a question from a reporter at a Military Officers Association of America conference.

“If you looked at any corporation that had 100 hospitals or 100 stores, they should be looking at them to say where it makes sense to dedicate their resources. That’s kind of what we’re doing, just as a matter of course, so there’s not, like, a list,” Ferrara said.

Karen Ruedisueli, MOAA’s director of government relations for health, said Tuesday that the organization, which represents active-duty and retired military personnel and family members, continues to press pressed Congress and the Defense Department to conduct “rigorous data-based analysis and mitigation planning” before shifting patients from military facilities to civilian care.

Ruedisueli first reported on the facilities list in the proposed legislation Tuesday.

“MOAA will keep members informed as this legislation moves forward and work to ensure any changes to the MHS prioritize the needs of those who have served,” Ruedisueli wrote in a blog post.

The House Armed Services Committee plans its mark up of the fiscal 2027 NDAA Thursday. It then will be forwarded to the full chamber for consideration. The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to mark up its version next week but has not released a draft.