The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune / TBO.com Military News On June 7, 2012, Army Sgt. Stefan Leroy was walking in Maiwand, Afghanistan, carrying the body of a friend killed by an improvised explosive device. Leroy stepped on another IED and the force severed both his legs. But for Leroy, now 24 medically retired and living in Santa…

The Tampa Tribune / TBO.com Military News To improve military efficiency in the face of budget cuts and nimble adversaries, a congressional committee is taking aim at the number of generals and admirals. But for the most part, the proposals won’t affect the commands headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. MacDill has plenty…

The Tampa Tribune / TBO.com TAMPA — Army Gen. Joseph Votel had a busy and historic day Wednesday, one that highlighted the continuity of leadership and the importance of commandos as a force in the ongoing fight against jihadis. At a change of command ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, attended by Defense Secretary Ash…

The Tampa Tribune / TBO.com Military News TAMPA — Sitting on the floor of the MacDill Air Force Base gym, Army Sgt. Lauren Montoya swats a red, white and green volleyball across the net, where another group of men and women are sitting on the floor waiting to swat it back. All the while, her teammates,…

The Tampa Tribune / TBO.com Military News As the head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command since June, Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown is leading the aerial campaign against the Sunni insurgent group calling itself Islamic State. Since the campaign started 15 months ago, there have been nearly 8,000 airstrikes at a cost of about $11…

Two military construction projects slated for MacDill Air Force Base, worth nearly $100 million, could become collateral damage in a defense budget battle between the White House and Congress, a defense budget expert says. With the Obama administration and Congress unable to agree on a defense budget, the Pentagon may have to operate through December…

The Pentagon wants military headquarters like U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, both based at MacDill Air Force Base, to cut personnel. But what that means in Tampa is hard to say. Centcom officials would only say they have reduced their headquarters budget by nearly 35 percent, to $485 million from $744 million…

For Richard Cicero, U.S. Central Command is becoming a familiar, and welcome place to visit. On Friday, the Weeki Wachee resident and former U.S. Army Special Forces member and military contractor will receive the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom in the Central Command Reception Center on MacDill Air Force Base. The…

The Department of Veterans Affairs Sunshine Healthcare Network is conducting an internal review of how a veteran in the custody of the Bay Pines VA Police Department was able to overdose on drugs, said Bay Pines spokesman Jason Dangel. The veteran, Carl Giordano, 61, of St. Petersburg, was charged with possession of a controlled substance…

TAMPA — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said consideration should be given to providing more security for soft targets like military recruiting and training centers in the wake of Thursday’s killing of four Marines and a Navy reservist by 24-year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. “Since the Internet communications have been launched, offensively, into…

TAMPA — The head of a group advising communities about how to protect military installations from shuttering during Pentagon cost-cutting measures said he is certain Congress will approve another Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission by 2019. “If I was a betting man, between now and 2019, I’d say 100 percent,” said Anthony Principi, chairman…

TAMPA — Back in the mid-1980s, while serving at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, Daniel Jones would sometimes put on a dress in the confines of his off-base apartment. “But I would never go outside in a dress,” said Jones, 63, who now lives in Tampa as Nancy Jones and is transitioning to…

TAMPA — One calls it a win-win for the U.S. and Iran. One calls it an imperfect deal, but a step in the right direction with a long-mistrusted adversary. And one calls it a bad deal that will lead to further problems in the Middle East. Three local Middle Eastern affairs experts contacted by The…

Even before Army Master Sgt. Anthony Link could deliver the dreaded knock on the door, he heard a woman inside shout out in despair. “No,” cried Talisa Williams, who pulled up a window curtain and saw the men in their dress uniforms. “My baby. Not my baby.” It was shortly after 5 a.m., July 8,…

More than 300 military representatives from 39 nations concluded a weeklong operational planning conference at MacDill Air Force Base today, that “further developed and refined coalition plans to degrade and defeat” the Sunnin insurgent group Islamic State, according to U.S. Central Command, which hosted the conference. Centcom oversees U.S. military operations in a tumultuous 20-nation…

TAMPA — Do you have an advanced solution to help U.S. Special Operations Command develop its “Iron Man” body armor of the future? If so, the command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, wants to hear from you. Socom is seeking up to 12 vendors to display their technology at the upcoming Special Operations Forces…

U.S. Central Command is hosting its third operational planning conference this week in the fight against the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State. The conference, which runs from today through May 1 at the command’s headquarters on MacDill Air Force Base, will be an opportunity for military planners from 39 nations to “further develop and refine…

Because the Russians and jihadi groups like Islamic State have been so successful in using the internet and other means to tell their stories and deliver their messages around the world, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is recommending more than doubling the among of money given to U.S. Special Operations Command for…

Speaking to an audience full of University of South Florida academics and students, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command was asked to grade military efforts to date against the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State. “B-plus,” said Mark Fox, the first of seven speakers addressing the issue of extremism in the Middle East at a…

About halfway through his deployment to Liberia to help in the fight against Ebola, a member of the Joint Communications Support Element came down with a fever. For most people, that’s not very significant. But when you are working at the epicenter of a deadly epidemic, a fever raises concerns, because that’s one of Ebola’s…

When Dave Scott was an Air Force wing commander at Hurlburt Field from 1999 to 2001, he used to give out special bottles of Jack Daniel’s, made from a single barrel of the Tennessee distillery’s finest product. The bottles were from the Jack Daniel’s By the Barrel program. Created around the turn of the century,…

William Allen lived through one of the worst experiences ever faced by an American soldier then spent the latter part of his life trying to convince the U.S. Postal Service to dedicate a stamp in commemoration. Just 19, Allen was of the first U.S. troops sent over to Korea after South Korea was invaded by…

After 16 years with the Veterans Administration, Roy L. Hawkins Jr., the acting director of the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, is leaving for the private sector. Hawkins, 39, will become the chief operating officer at the Chippenham Johnston-Willis Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia working for Hospital Corp. of America. Hawkins leaves Jan. 9 and…

Personal information from more than 1,300 employees of the Veterans Administration nationwide was compromised in a computer breach involving security clearances, according to a memo being delivered this morning to VA employees. They are among more than 48,000 employees across the federal government whose information may have been compromised, according to the memo, a copy…

After regaling the gathering of combat wounded with his stories of helping hunt down drug lord Pablo Escobar then taking part in the invasion of Panama, Nelson Corbin gets serious. “We are the only military group here,” says Corbin, a retired Green Beret sergeant major as he addresses the nine men about to board 23-foot…

The defense spending bill passed by the House of Representatives today authorizes a 10 percent budget increase for U.S. Special Operations Command, extended authority for it to carry out its missions and more money to keep its troops healthy. But it also includes reductions in benefits for troops and their families. It also includes funds…

It’s been more than two years since he resigned his position as director of the Central Intelligence Agency over an affair, but David Petraeus is still being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the nation’s top law enforcement agency won’t say why. “The Petraeus investigation is still ongoing,” said Christopher Allen, an FBI…

TAMPA — Sometime in January, if all goes according to plan, forces with the terrorist Islamic State holed up since June in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul will be hit with a double whammy — Kurdish Peshmerga forces attacking from the west and Iraqi security forces from the south. If successful, the operation will…

The Pentagon may be 800 miles to the north, but what happens inside the world’s largest low-rise office building has a huge effect on Tampa, where MacDill Air Force Base is the only installation in the United States with two major military commands. So when the President announces the Defense Secretary is stepping down, people…

Back in April, the Department of Veterans Affairs released the results of its investigation into cancer deaths that occurred as the result of delayed gastrointestinal treatment. The report found that none of the deaths occurred at either the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa or the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center in St.…

Iraqi Security Forces have initiated a counterattack against the Islamic State to relieve troops in Bayji, said Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Austin, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon Friday morning, said while it was difficult to pinpoint exactly when Iraqi troops…

A federal court ruling in North Carolina this week will have a devastating impact on many of the nearly 20,000 Floridians currently registered with the Marine Corps for their exposures at Camp Lejeune to three known human carcinogens found in the camp’s drinking water, said a man who contracted breast cancer as a result. Those…

MacDill Air Force Base would like an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The city of Tampa would like one as well. A year ago, the base and the community would likely have gone their separate ways in pursuit of a mutual desire. Not anymore. Thanks to a program implemented by the Air Force, the 6th Air Mobility…

Almost every day, U.S. Central Command sends out an email listing Islamic State targets the U.S. and its coalition partners have hit in Syria and Iraq. The latest came Thursday, with two emails touting that a combination of U.S. bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 11 airstrikes in Syria south of the Kurdish town…

TAMPA — Kathleen Fogarty, director of the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, has been named to temporarily take over the Veteran Administration’s Southwest Healthcare System, including the troubled Phoenix VA hospital that has been at the center of controversy over patient deaths as the result of treatment delays. Fogarty, 55, told The Tampa Tribune she…

When the U.S. military deploys forces to far away places, members of the Joint Communications Support Element, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, are among the first to ship out. That’s the case with Operation United Assistance, the Pentagon’s efforts to provide command and control, logistics, medical, training and engineering assets to contain the Ebola…

TAMPA — One of the biggest complaints about the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital is the time it takes to get someone to answer the phone. Kathleen Fogarty, director of the Tampa hospital, wants to change that. On Monday morning, she sent an email blast to all 4,900 hospital employees calling on them to be…

It’s been a tough few years for Tampa’s defense industry. With the war in Iraq ending in 2011 and about two-thirds of the remaining 30,000 U.S. troops set to leave Afghanistan by the end of the year, the Pentagon was on a course to reduce its global footprint and the White House and Congress were…

TAMPA — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald says he knows firsthand the attraction Florida has for veterans. “Florida is a veteran magnet,” said McDonald, speaking to reporters after touring VA facilities in St. Petersburg and Tampa. “I know that because I am one of the ones who’s been magnetized.” An Army veteran, McDonald purchased a…

President Barack Obama reiterated his long-standing position on how to battle the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State. “American forces deployed to Iraq, do not and will not have a combat mission,” Obama told a packed gymnasium at MacDill Air Force Base, where he spoke after receiving a briefing on efforts by U.S. Central Command on…

TAMPA — U.S. Central Command leadership will brief President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this morning at MacDill Air Force Base on a wide range of efforts to degrade and defeat the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State, including plans to train vetted Syrian fighters in Saudi Arabia, top military leaders told senators Tuesday.…

For years, Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine General who once ran U.S. Central Command, blistered the administration of George W. Bush for its handling of Iraq. Now Zinni is teeing up on President Barack Obama’s approach in Iraq, saying he is “worried” by Obama’s cautious approach to the current crisis and the Sunni insurgent group…

For Kendra DiMaria, a former law enforcement officer with the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System police department, her problems with management began in the summer of 2009 when a supervisor began making sexual innuendos, according to a lawsuit she and other former and current officers filed in 2010 against the Department of Veterans Affairs. The…

As the 10th commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, a job title that became official Thursday afternoon in a ceremony at the Tampa Convention Center, Army Gen. Joe Votel assumes leadership in what he and his predecessor called “the golden age” of special operations. But he takes command at a time of flux. The days…

Military News Three years ago, Adm. William McRaven, the new commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, stood in a hangar at MacDill Air Force Base and delivered his vision for the future to 3,000 workers at the commando headquarters. Support current combat operations. Strengthen the global special operations forces network. Take care of the health…

A Tampa woman, whose husband serves at MacDill Air Force Base, is one of 11 people who will be honored by the White House for “doing extraordinary work across the country as leaders in entrepreneurship,” according to a White House media release. Adrianna Domingos-Lupher, chief executive officer of MSB New Media, a digital media marketing…

Only one of more than 40 Americans taken hostage in Iraq between 2004 and 2006 was rescued, despite the presence of more than 120,000 U.S. troops, a robust intelligence network, ownership of the skies and relatively friendly relations with the host nation, says a former Navy SEAL who helped organize rescue efforts. Overall, only five…

TAMPA — The body of Marine Cpl. Rob Richards, a St. Petersburg native and war hero who touched off international outrage through a video showing him and three others urinating on dead Taliban fighters, is coming home later this week. Richards, 28, died in North Carolina on Aug. 13 from what a family spokesman described…

“Miss Piggy” is getting new wings. “Kermit,” too. The two old, lumbering Orion P-3 propeller driven aircraft that fly into hurricanes out of MacDill Air Force Base for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will be getting a major overhaul over the next three years. But the $35 million refurbishing job won’t take the planes,…

In 2012, military spending in the three-county Tampa region accounted for nearly $14 billion in economic output, 141,000 jobs and represented about 7 percent of the economies of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties, according to the Florida Chamber Foundation. Statewide, defense spending brought in about $70 billion, or about 10 percent of the gross domestic…

Sen. Bill Nelson, gearing up for a trip this week that will take him to Ukraine, the Baltic states and Turkey, departed from the Obama administration’s more measured approach and called for providing lethal arms to Ukraine’s military, which is battling Russian-backed rebels and facing down 20,000 Russian troops amassed along the border. However, Nelson…

Mike Jernigan can’t watch fighters from an al-Qaida splinter group push closer to Baghdad. It’s not that he is trying to avoid the images. But on Aug. 22, 2004, while a squad leader with Company E 2nd Battalion 2nd Marine Regiment, Jernigan was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device in Mahmudiyah, Iraq. He suffered…

With the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria advancing toward Baghdad, the State Department is drawing up contingency plans for a possible evacuation of the U.S. Embassy there, according to a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Nelson, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today attended a classified briefing on…

In the wake of the attacks of 9/11, an international coalition of nations was formed at U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base to coordinate a global response. With the war in Iraq over (though that nation is still in turmoil) and the war in Afghanistan winding down, the original impetus for the…

As the command responsible of overseeing two wars, U.S. Central Command saw huge increases in personnel and budget at its MacDill Air Force Base headquarters after 9/11. Since 2001, the command’s Tampa-based contingent of military and civilian personnel jumped 70 percent by 2013, to nearly 2,730, with another 1,300 positions allocated to its subordinate commands.…

In a snapshot of an overwhelmed Veterans Health Administration system, auditors found more than 57,000 veterans waiting at least 90 days to be scheduled for care and nearly 64,000 others enrolled in the system in the past decade who have yet to be seen for an appointment. In Florida, more than 8,500 new patients were…

During his time in Tampa as commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. James Mattis said he saw no evidence to confirm that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, released in a prisoner swap last week, collaborated with his captors. “I have never seen one bit of verified or confirmed evidence of that,” Mattis said in a…

Arch Bush, now almost 91 and living in Sun City Center, says he has no special plans in store for today. Ed Bialy, 88, says he may wander over to the local VFW post in Brooksville, for some hot dogs and beer. Maurice Johnson, 90, says he will continue an annual tradition, dinner with friends…

One by one, veterans or their relatives told about the problems they’ve experienced dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Waiting too long for medical attention. Inaccurate diagnoses, Waiting too long to have claims processed. About 100 people filled the auditorium at New Port Richey City Hall Thursday morning, attending a town hall meeting called…

The tragedy of the Fort Hood shootings hit home for a Bay area high school this morning as the assistant principal of Mulberry High School asked for a moment of silence to honor a former student gunned down Wednesday at the sprawling Texas military base. “Many of you are aware of the senseless tragedy of…

A day after another mass killing at a military installation, those who live on, work at or frequently visit MacDill Air Force Base expressed sadness and sympathy, but no feeling of vulnerability. “I live on the base and I feel very safe,” said Amanda Patterson Crowe, whose husband, J. Michael Crowe, 36, is a Navy…

With his Marine unit decimated and desperate to break out beyond the pill boxes lining the airstrip on the island of Iwo Jima, Woody Williams sat in a bomb crater listening to his commanding officer ask for ideas and volunteers. The commander wanted someone to charge the pill boxes and take out the Japanese mowing…

The Tampa special operations community is lauding President Barack Obama’s choice to be the next deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. Vice Adm. Sean Pybus, currently head of NATO’s Special Operations headquarters in Brussels, was named by Obama Tuesday to take the MacDill Air Force Base headquartered command’s No. 2 slot. That slot is…

Neither the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa nor the C.W. “Bill” Young” VA Medical Center at Bay Pines were the locations where deaths occurred as the result of treatment delays, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and hospital officials. Frustrated by a lack of answers from VA officials about the location of…

The last time Pat Coggins heard from her grandson Steven Coggins II was about two weeks ago, when he called to tell her he was in Tampa, with no food or water. “He said, ‘I am on the side of the road. I haven’t eaten in three days. I am dehydrated,’” said Coggins, who lives…

Many of the people engaged in U.S. efforts to help find Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 will be in Tampa next month at a conference devoted to the techniques and technologies being used in the search. The mystery of the flight, which disappeared one week ago, and the technology being used to find the jet will…

As the A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the Warthog, approaches the business end of the long refueling boom, Air Force MSgt. Nancy Primm takes control of the KC-135 Stratotanker, calmly conducting an aerial pas-de-deux 20,000 feet above the earth. For a few minutes, the two aging aircraft, moving through the skies over Valdosta Georgia at about…

Raymond James Stadium has seen some sloppy play over the years, but Saturday, the slop will be on purpose as more than 7,500 diehards are scheduled to compete in a grueling obstacle race that includes running up ramps, crawling through mud under barbed wire, slithering through rolling mud hills and jumping over fire. The Special…

TAMPA — Inside Hangar 3, a structure so old it had a starring role in the 1955 Jimmy Stewart movie “Strategic Air Command,” a team machines parts for airplanes nearly that old so they can keep flying. It is one of the most critical missions at MacDill Air Force Base — prolonging the life of…

For those who live on the base and the thousands of military retirees living nearby, the MacDill commissary offers about 30 percent savings over the cost of food and other items at civilian supermarkets. It also employs 103 people. But that benefit of service — and the jobs it generates — are in danger of…

TAMPA — Five cancer patients died and nine others suffered injury because of delays in diagnosis or treatment through the Sunshine Healthcare Network of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which includes all of Florida, according to internal VA documents obtained by The Tampa Tribune. The diagnoses, according to the documents, involved patients with gastro-intestinal…

The 48th Civil Support Team, a National Guard unit created to provide assistance if a weapon of mass destruction ever went off here, is getting a new home in Pinellas Park. The specially trained 22-member unit, and all its high-tech equipment, is currently housed in a hangar at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. But military construction…

Special operations forces will be key players in any post-2014 U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, say local members of the special operations forces community reacting to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. And there would be a heavy Tampa flavor, because three commands based at MacDill Air Force Base would play a role.…

TAMPA — For the second time in about a month, MacDill Air Force Base has instituted a new security policy at its entry gates. Starting about two weeks ago, anyone trying to get on base is required to have a pass, according to Air Force 2nd. Lt. Patrick Gargan, a spokesman for the 6th Air…

On a chilly Wednesday morning, Arlene Gillis arrives at the Tampa Jet Center toting a brown cloth bag containing a prosthetic leg and two prosthetic knees. For most people, this would be unusual carryon luggage for a short flight to Tallahassee. But for Gillis, the devices, worth about $100,000 combined, are her stock in trade.…

Vincent Young, who had a history of domestic violence arrests and told friends he was dying of cancer, was one of the more than 100,000 veterans treated annually by the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System when he showed up at the St. Petersburg emergency room last week. But at about 5 p.m. on Oct. 25,…

ST. PETERSBURG — The FBI has identified the 68-year-old veteran who was shot to death by police after officials said he threatened them Friday night at Bay Pines VA Medical Center. Officials say Vincent L. Young, 9261 48th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, drove to the medical center at 10000 Bay Pines Blvd. at about 5…

Military As the commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command Central, Army Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata oversees special operations forces in one of the world’s most volatile regions. Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Nagata’s command provides special operation forces options to the commander of U.S. Central Command, also headquartered out of MacDill and support to…

U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, just launched a new initiative that will make Tampa the epicenter of international special operations coordination. On Oct. 1, as the government shutdown and 1,500 civilian Department of Defense employees at MacDill were sent home, Socom was quietly starting up the International Special Operations Forces…

For Susan Price, who arrived in Washington, D.C., from her home in Riverview on Monday afternoon, the trip to the nation’s capital was years in the making. It was a journey that began after a deadly Afghanistan ambush took her son’s life on Sept. 8, 2009. And it continued through an often torturous bureaucratic process…

If the government shutdown doesn’t end by Oct. 22, national cemeteries will have to reduce the number of veterans they can bury every day, furlough employees and limit the care they give to gravesites, said Kurt Rotar, director of the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell. “I am very concerned,” Rotar said. “If we run out…

Many people are troubled by the prospect of a long-term houseguest. But not at the Tampa Palms home of Ty and Anna Edwards. That’s because the future houseguest is a man Edwards has been trying to bring into the country for the last four years. The man who saved his life. “I am just ecstatic,”…

Holed up in an abandoned house on a war-torn Somali street, in pain after being shot in the back and surrounded by an unknown number of enemy militia members, it dawned on Chris Faris that he would never see his family again. “When I accepted the fact that I was going to die in the…

Shane Huff, a major in the Air Force Reserve, spent Thursday afternoon in his office at MacDill Air Force Base. But instead of doing his usual work as the spokesman for the 927th Air Refueling Wing, Huff was keeping an eye on his 10-year-old son Simon, who was doing his homework. That’s because Huff, who…

While no one knows how long the shutdown of the federal government will last, Air Force Col. Scott DeThomas, commander of MacDill Air Force Base, said two things are certain. The effect locally will be severe and will get worse the longer the shutdown goes on. Standing outside MacDill’s main gate to address the media…

Stories of wheelchair-bound World War II veterans pushing aside barriers at the WWII Memorial in Washington, shuttered because of the government shutdown, hits home with Barbara Howard. That’s because Howard, the director of Honor Flights of West Central Florida, has a group of 80 WWII veterans from this area set to hop a flight next…

The tweet from the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General Thursday afternoon was blunt. “We recommend @CENTCOM issue an updated Iraq Country Plan.” As the MacDill-headquartered command in charge of U.S. military operations in most of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Centcom is responsible, in conjunction with the State Department, for putting together…

As U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command officials finalize plans for trimming their headquarters budgets by 20 percent as ordered by the Secretary of Defense, Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Indian Rocks Beach, is asking that any cuts include defense contractors. Back in July, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered military headquarters, including Centcom…

The Air Force is reviewing its security policies, procedures and programs in the wake of Monday’s mass shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. in which 13 people were killed, including the man authorities say carried out the deadly attack. The Air Force began its internal review Tuesday, in anticipation of Defense Secretary Chuck…

In the wake of the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 13 people, including the man accused of carrying out the deadly attack, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will order a review of the security at all U.S. military installations around the world. Locally, that review would include MacDill Air Force Base.…

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says he would lead the charge to bring a new military command to MacDill Air Force Base that could create more than 4,000 new jobs with an annual economic benefit of up to $450 million if such a move is possible. “I absolutely would lead that effort,” he said, responding to…

Relying on a hostile government to secure its widespread cache of chemical weapons, especially in a war zone with rapidly shifting front lines, is difficult, hard to verify and would take more time than the White House would likely want to give, according to CIA operatives and military personnel who specialized in weapons of mass…

The diminutive Marine veteran with the battle burns on his body from Vietnam will wake up at 4 a.m., as he always does, and take his early morning walk through his Gulfport neighborhood, like usual. But for Rene “Ray” Smith, Tuesday will be different. While most of the rest of the nation frets over possible…

The man who is planning to burn nearly 3,000 Qurans Wednesday in a Polk County park said that even a plea from the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East won’t stop him. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command, Monday asked Rev. Terry Jones to rethink his plan to burn…

Two local congressman opposed to military action against Syria say they are concerned that language in the senate bill authorizing the use of force may leave the door open for the presence of U.S. personnel on the ground there. The bill, passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday by a 10-7 vote, “does not…

TAMPA — With momentum in Congress moving toward supporting the president’s call for a military attack against Syria, Tampa-area legislators are divided on what course of action to take. Not by party, but by chamber. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, has already come out in favor of President Barack Obama’s call for a limited strike…

TAMPA — A Centcom spokesman in Tampa took issue with a media report from Britain saying the role of that nation’s military representatives at U.S. Central Command has been downgraded because Prime Minister David Cameron refused to join in military action against Syria. The report “mischaracterized” the sitation, according to Lt. Col Christopher Belcher, a…

The process veterans face when applying for benefits is complex and often takes years. So, many veterans turn to representatives, accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs, to help them navigate the system. But the GAO report, requested by Nelson and other senators last year, was released today and shows that the VA does not…

Inside a building at MacDill Air Force Base, operators of the booms feeding fuel from KC-135 Stratotanker jets to thirsty fighters and bombers sit in front of a jazzed-up video game called a Boom Operator Weapons Systems Trainer. There they practice the delicate in-flight maneuver that links up two aircraft zooming through the skies at…

Kristin Beck, a transgendered retired Navy SEAL who struggled with life-long gender identity problems, says she has nothing but contempt for the Army private who blamed gender issues in part for leaking nearly a million classified documents. “Someone that does something like that, then uses an excuse to behave badly, is an amazingly poor human…

In future natural disasters or battlefield operations, U.S. Special Operations Command would like to be able to take over local AM and FM radio transmissions to broadcast its own message. To do that, the MacDill Air Force Base headquartered command “is seeking sources to provide a radio broadcast system capable of searching for and acquiring…

Military Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III, who took command of U.S. Central Command in March, oversees U.S. military operations in one of the world’s most volatile regions, encompassing most of the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Austin, 60, served as the Centcom chief of staff from September 2005 until November 2006, oversaw the withdrawal of…

In a move that could bring more than $50 million of military construction to MacDill Air Force Base at a time of drastically reduced military spending, the Army wants to relocate two Army Reserve helicopter units from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Relocating A and F Companies of the 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, would bring…

Starting Oct. 1, honorably discharged veterans charged with certain misdemeanors in Hillsborough County will be able to have their cases heard in a specialized court that will take into account the unique needs of those who have served. The Misdemeanor Veterans Treatment Court will focus on honorably discharged veterans suffering from military service-related mental illness,…

At Woodside High School in a suburb south of San Francisco, Suzanne Jensen was a bright, hardworking student who excelled at sports, according to her mother, Karla Straube. There was no hint, says Straube, of a future that would include arrests at military bases around the country, including MacDill Air Force Base. “She was a…

ORLANDO — At times drawing cheers from a ballroom full of disabled veterans, President Barack Obama today offered five priorities for “fulfilling our promises to all who served” and said his administration remains committed to stemming the “epidemic of suicides,” veteran homelessness and a backlog of disability benefits claims. “Maybe you lost your sight but…

The woman who sneaked on to MacDill Air Force Base four times in a three-month span was ordered held in jail pending a hearing into whether she is competent to face charges. Suzanne Jensen, 50, also “presents a significant flight risk,” said Federal District Court Judge Anthony E. Porcelli in ordering Jensen held in a…

MacDill Air Force Base changed some of its rules for handling cargo in the wake of the death in January of a staff sergeant who was crushed by a KC-135 refueling boom in a warehouse. Air Force Staff Sgt. Emily Elizabeth Clayburn, 29, was killed instantly shortly before 3 p.m. Jan. 14 when a crated…

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced today he is reducing the number of unpaid days off for civilian military employees from 11 to six. That’s good news for about 3,500 employees at MacDill Air Force Base who were affected by layoffs and a surrounding community that benefits economically from the base. The employees — about…

Shortly before 10 a.m., on the dock outside Mote Marine Laboratory, dozens of divers prepare for an underwater mission that will meld science with the triumph of the human spirit. As gear and food and ice are stowed aboard the small flotilla of waiting boats on a sweltering Monday morning, Mike McCauley, a researcher with…

TAMPA – A Florida-based charter school company has applied to open a kindergarten-through-eighth grade charter school on MacDill Air Force Base that would accommodate nearly 900 students. If approved, the school would be the first charter school at MacDill and only the ninth in the country on a military base. The Florida Charter Educational Foundation…

MacDill Air Force Base could see the loss of as many as 1,200 military and civilian jobs beginning in October 2014 under a plan presented Wednesday afternoon by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The cuts would come over a five-year period from U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, both headquartered at the base,…

A Tampa defense manufacturer has won a five-year, $19.8 million contract to help teach airmen how to operate Predator and Reaper drones. The contract, awarded to CAE USA, is part of one of last remaining growth areas in defense spending and comes at a time when the Department of Defense is drastically reducing its budget.…

In the early summer of 1950, North Korean troops, having just captured the South Korean capitol of Seoul, came to the house of 14-year-old Eddie Ko. “I saw them dragging away my parents,” says Ko, now 77 and living in Tampa. Ko escaped. His parents, Christian missionaries, were killed and Ko, fueled by revenge, wound…

For Martin Royen, the black Honda VTR 1300 motorcycle parked outside his apartment is equal parts conveyence, two-wheeled therapy session and a loud link between cultures. Royen, 61, a chain-smoking, retired Belgian national police captain who investigated heinous murders and later became a Belgian TV star, moved to the Tampa area in April as a…

Most weeks, Richard Cicero can be found spending an hour or two at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, encouraging the wounded. The 43-year-old, now living in Weeki Wachee, is uniquely qualified. He has prosthetic devices where his right arm and right leg used to be, a story to tell about that, a son still…

The day after the man in a gas mask opened fire in a suburban Denver movie theater, retired Largo telephone company employee David Garrett had some words of caution for his son, whose children survived the massacre. Watch the kids’ behavior, Garrett told his son, Duane Garrett. A dozen people died in Theater 9 at…

After hearing more than an hour of “gut-wrenching testimony” from four veterans who were raped during their service, members of a House subcommittee said that military sexual trauma is an emergency and demanded that the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense improve the way they protect and treat troops and veterans. “According to…

Alex Simpson left Los Angeles on July 7 and headed to Tampa on a mission. He wanted to win gold medals at the 33rd National Veterans Wheelchair Games. And he wanted to sample some of Tampa’s famous Latin food. So Simpson, who was a record-setting sniper when he served in the Army, and his father,…

Douglas Caldas was the life of any party, according to his brother and girlfriend, a guy who could bring two disparate groups together just by pulling off a joke. He was a hard worker with track record of success at his job. But on Friday, the Air Force senior airman from New Jersey, who had…

Sitting in his wheelchair, Davis Celestine grabs the hard rubber handle of the free motion rowing machine at the New Tampa YMCA, and pulls it back, repeating the maneuver over and over until beads of sweat drip from his brow. For Celestine, president of the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America,…

In the wake of security issues raised by government contractors with top-level security clearance, including one at MacDill Air Force Base, Sen. Bill Nelson has co-sponsored legislation tightening how that clearance is issued. The bill, introduced Wednesday, calls for increasing oversight of background investigations, firing investigators involved in falsifying those checks, and providing better guidance…

Sen. Bill Nelson has asked the Air Force for an explanation of how a woman snuck into MacDill Air Force Base four times in three months. Nelson (D-FL) has asked for a “briefing on security,” according to his spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. Suzanne Jensen, 50, trespassed onto the base, home of U.S. Special Operations Command and…

The women get up on a hot Saturday morning in April for the long ride to Tampa. One is making a 130-mile drive from Astor, and the other is traveling 40 miles from Dade City. Though they are coming from different places, their paths to a Tampa ceremony honoring fallen troops is remarkably similar. Each…

For her 103rd Independence Day, Florence Ellenberger will celebrate one of her favorite holidays like she always has. She will wake up, put on red-white-and-blue clothing and wave an American flag. “I am very patriotic,” says Ellenberger, born on Memorial Day in 1910. “I love this country, and I love our flag.” The biggest difference…

The former Pentagon general counsel who pored over 25,000 pages of email traffic between now-retired Marine Gen. John Allen and Tampa socialite Jill Kelley before turning them over to the Inspector General says there is no reason to reopen an investigation into those electronic exchanges. Jeh Johnson, who served as Pentagon General Counsel from Feb.…

TAMPA – For troops serving in the U.S. Central Command region, there will be at least one benefit from reductions in military spending. Coming home for the Army’s Rest and Recuperation Leave program will be quicker. That’s because, starting Monday, troops will no longer take charter flights home, which required going to Kuwait and making…

Nicole March has plenty of support in her battle to obtain Veterans Affairs benefits she thinks are due her father, who served in World War II and Korea. There are more than 40,000 people, the vast majority strangers, in her corner. When March, a store detective at Target, got what she thought was a rude…

TAMPA — As a Green Beret, Scott Neil was one of the first U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 9/11. For years, he fought insurgents there and in Iraq, suffering injuries to his brain and spine along the way. In July 2010, his service to the nation was ending, but a new battle began. This one…

TAMPA — Zack Shannon had several passions in his short life. Fishing; sports; and the military, where his dad and three older brothers served. Following in their footsteps, Shannon, 21, joined the Army in 2010 after graduating from Dunedin High School. He became a helicopter mechanic and deployed to Afghanistan in December, his first trip…

An organization under fire after nearly 60 people were indicted on racketeering charges has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Department of Veterans Affairs operations in Florida, VA officials say. Allied Veterans of the World, which runs nearly 50 Internet parlors with computerized slot machine-style games, donated about $500,000 between 2007 and 2010,…

LITHIA — Every so often, a big black armored vehicle known as an MRAP is seen cruising local streets. Usually seen in warzones such as Afghanistan, the armored vehicle, emblazoned with “Homeland Security” in big white letters on the side, belongs to a specialized team dealing with violent offenders. Not too many people know about…

TAMPA — U.S. Central Command will get a new boss in a change of command ceremony scheduled for March 22, according to a Centcom official. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Lloyd Austin has been named by President Barack Obama to run the command, which oversees U.S. military efforts in most of the Middle East…

TAMPA — For Mike Nicholson, a Marine sergeant who lost three limbs in Afghanistan, the long journey home to Tampa is almost over. The latest step for Nicholson, who graduated from Plant High School and worshipped at Christ the King Catholic Church, came Wednesday, during a press conference at Heroes Plaza, where actor Gary Sinise…

TAMPA — Booz Allen Hamilton, a major military contractor with offices in Tampa, has won a contract worth up to nearly half a billion dollars for a groundbreaking program to help special operations forces and their families deal with the unusual stresses they face. The one-year contract has four annual options for renewal, bringing its…

TAMPA — The crew of a military cargo jet landed at the wrong airport in Tampa in July, in part, because of fatigue, complacency and a lack of flight discipline, an Air Force investigation has found. It wasn’t until the cargo jet was halfway down the runway at Peter O. Knight Airport, a small flight…

TAMPA — The Navy Blue Angels and other aerial acrobatic teams, along with a number of military aircraft displays, are scheduled to come to MacDill Air Force Base in April for AirFest 2013, a two-day event showcasing the machines and personnel of the flying service. The base is touting the event on its AirFest Facebook…

The family of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who died at his Tampa home on Dec. 27, will not be holding a local memorial service, according to his daughter, Cindy Schwarzkopf. “We originally intended on having a memorial service in the Tampa Bay area,” said Schwarzkopf, whose father was 78 when he died at home, surrounded by…

TAMPA — Emily Elizabeth Clayburn, who was killed Monday in an industrial accident at MacDill Air Force Base, “was the girl who could make everyone laugh,” according to her mother. A staff sergeant, Clayburn, 29, was a competitive swimmer on her high school team in upstate New York who wanted to serve her country, her…

TAMPA — MacDill Air Force Base has changed procedures in its air traffic control tower after an Air Force cargo plane carrying the commander of military operations in the Middle East and South Asia landed at the wrong airport last July. Though an Air Force investigation took the flight crew to task, Marine Gen. James…

SEMINOLE — “Get in the jeep.” Joseph Sebastiano knew it would be bad. A few days earlier, his sergeant had forced him to have sex in the barracks shower. Now, with the other men in the platoon done for the day, the sergeant told Sebastiano he had “extra duty.” His voice drops to a near…

The nomination of the first Vietnam War veteran to lead the Department of Defense is being hailed by some from Tampa who served in that conflict. For Dave Braun, an Army missile technician who was in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense is a…

The KC-46 aerial refueling tanker program is one of the Air Force’s top priorities and a matter of huge importance here in Tampa, where a group of political and civic leaders is working to bring some of the aircraft to MacDill Air Force Base. The new aerial refueling tankers are most likely protected from automatic…

TAMPA — When Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Matt Sitton was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan on Aug. 2, the 26-year-old from Largo was helping provide security for a bomb squad searching for remains of a soldier killed the day before. A total of 14 U.S. soldiers went on the mission. None of…