After several years of the Army and Navy publicly missing their recruiting targets by thousands of people, the Defense Department’s five military branches had hit or exceeded their fiscal year 2026 recruiting goal as of July, months ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. It’s a genuine turnaround — one the current administration has been quick to credit to leadership and a resurgence of patriotism. The full picture is more complicated, and part of what’s driving record enlistment numbers is something less flattering: a civilian job market that isn’t offering young Americans as many good options as it used to. The…

While I’ve been a knife nut for as long as I can remember, I’ve also been engaged in a long-term dalliance with packs and bags. I began carrying a backpack daily in college and haven’t looked back since. There’s something energizing about the idea that you could just grab your bag and hit the road at the drop of a hat. Over the years, I’ve run through countless packs, sling bags, messenger bags, and more, all in an effort to find The One. Many of them, I ditched fairly quickly, due to bad ergonomics, faulty zippers, or just plain dislike.…

Perhaps the scariest two words in the English language are “do something.” In the aftermath of anything horrific, the natural tendency of many people is to demand that the government “do something,” ostensibly so the thing never happens again. The problem is that all too often, the something that they do has absolutely no chance of actually preventing another horror, but it can have longer-lasting repercussions, such as the actions by the Thai Prime Minister following last week’s school shooting. Cam mentioned last week that the PM, as Interior Minister, had previously cracked down on…

Shuttle run-type fitness tests are becoming more popular in military fitness testing. Multiple types of them test different components of fitness, such as the Army’s sprint-drag-carry, the Air Force’s and Space Force’s 20-meter high aerobic multi-shuttle run (HAMR), a.k.a. the “beep test,” and the service academies’ 4×10-yard shuttle run. Depending on which test you must do, you need to practice specifics and arrange them into your training week with the ideas below: About the Tests Used in the Military 20-Meter HAMR (Air Force, Space Force) The 20-meter HAMR (high aerobic multi-shuttle run) is a cardio fitness test used by the…

Hollywood perpetuates a lot of terrible ideas. People, for example, think the medieval period was dull and colorless, which is the exact opposite of reality. Just look at the illustrations of tournaments when you get a chance. It’s a riot of color. That misunderstanding just annoys medieval history buffs like me. The blatant misrepresentation of what suppressors actually do and are actually used for, however, is another matter. New Jersey banned them, as have some other states. They seem not to see them as safety devices, but as the tool of assassins in a James…

The military knows the dangers that boredom can bring to the workplace. Structured routines, maintenance schedules and organized recreation keep service members’ minds and bodies active. Deployments, training, testing, evaluations, PCSing, combat readiness prep and countless other activities keep time moving fast. Even downtime feels structured. Boredom can drive creativity and inspiration, but left unchecked, it can also breed negative behaviors. A bored mind starts to worry, doom scroll, spiral into negative thought patterns or grow restless. More:Search forVeteran-Friendly Jobs. Boredom in the Civilian Sector Some private companies still eye idle-looking employees with suspicion, but more and more recognize the…

The facelifted 2026 Land Rover Defender 110 is, undoubtedly, a very cool SUV. It manages the classic Land Rover trick of being both incredibly capable off-road and also very nice to drive around town. People lament the death of the old Land Rover Defender (some so much they started a car company about it), but nostalgia is overrated. The L663 Defender (as the current generation of Defender is known internally at Land Rover and to Land Rover nerds) looks super-rugged while remaining a modern luxury vehicle. Is it luxurious enough to justify asking prices that can very easily crest six…

We can debate what the worst crime in the world is, but to me, anyone who hurts a child is going to be at the top of the list. The worst the hurt, the worse they are in my book. I get that some people out there think that the issue is how we treat these individuals, but I honestly don’t care. Pedos deserve the wood chipper set on slow, in my not-so-humble opinion. Look, when the hardened felons in prison also despise someone the rest of society hates, you know you’re dealing with the…

Coast Guard forces have suspended a search some ten days after a vessel with nine people on board went missing in the Hall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). USCG and Sector Guam had received news of the 20-foot skiff on July 31 as it was scheduled to return to Ruo Island, some 625 miles southeast of Guam, on July 30, but did not do so. After a ten-day search which involved numerous partners and covered 250,000 square nautical miles and more than 31 search patterns, the USCG stopped the search. “We have made the difficult decision to suspend our…

Less than a month after West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey started investigating several companies for allegedly discriminating against an in-state ammunition manufacturer, the AG says he’s received pledges from the firms that they will treat lawful firearm commerce the same as any other industry.  As we reported in mid-July, Kent Cartridge Company said it was denied services by two payment processing firms because of the products it makes. McCuskey started investigating Bill.com and Ramp after representatives told KCC that they couldn’t use their services “due to compliance and underwriting restrictions,” and “due to restrictions from…

A former U.S. Marine whose family said just days ago that he was near death in a Russian hospital has been freed after more than four years in custody and is on his way to a military hospital in Texas. Robert Gilman, 32, was released after Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a pardon on humanitarian grounds, U.S. officials told Reuters. He was being flown out of Russia on a State Department plane, and officials said he was walking and talking, a marked change from the condition his advocates had described only a week earlier. His family said he had been…

Michigan’s Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate isn’t making gun control a big part of his campaign, but Abdul El-Sayed has some pretty strong feelings about our right to keep and bear arms.  As CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reports, El-Sayed has taken down dozens of videos he posted on YouTube over the last few years because his comments won’t play well with Michigan voters. In an April 2023 video, for instance, El-Sayed took aim at the Second Amendment. Though the video has since been made private, a transcript is still available.Folks who believe in “gun rights,” they…