ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico — An F-16 fighter jet from Holloman Air Force Base crashed Tuesday night in a rural area between Alamogordo and El Paso, but no serious injuries were reported. Military officials said the jet was on a training flight when it crashed around 7:15 p.m. about 80 miles southeast of the base. The
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WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump announced the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State. He announced his death in an address to the nation Sunday morning from the White House. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,” Trump said, noting he was killed in a U.S. military raid in northwest Syria over the weekend.
Continue ReadingA new biography of former Defense Secretary James Mattis reports President Donald Trump personally got involved in who would win a major $10 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Pentagon, according to the website Task & Purpose, which writes about military issues. That hotly contested contract was awarded to Microsoft on Friday
Continue ReadingMicrosoft has won a hotly contested contract to provide cloud computing services to the Defense Department, besting Amazon in a months-long competition in which President Donald Trump threatened to intervene. The contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure is said to be worth billions of dollars over the coming decade. Amazon had long been considered
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — When a New Mexico veteran was admitted to hospice care last week, he had only one last wish: to say goodbye to his beloved dog, Patch. John Vincent is a Marine who fought in Vietnam. The 69-year-old was hospitalized in Albuquerque before being transferred to a nearby VA hospice facility. Because
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EL PASO, Texas — A barricaded teenage murder suspect was arrested about an hour into a SWAT standoff over the weekend that followed a house party shooting in which a decorated Fort Bliss soldier was killed and four other people were wounded. The suspect, identified in jail records as 17-year-old Joseph Anthony Rocha-Chaparro, emerged from
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EL PASO, Texas — A barricaded teenage murder suspect was arrested about an hour into a SWAT standoff over the weekend that followed a house party shooting in which a decorated Fort Bliss soldier was killed and four other people were wounded. The suspect, identified in jail records as 17-year-old Joseph Anthony Rocha-Chaparro, emerged from a home in
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About 4,000 soldiers from Fort Bliss’ 2 nd Armored Brigade Combat team are about to undergo the Army’s stiffest training challenge — a training rotation at the National Training Center. Soldiers from the Iron Brigade will load up their equipment and travel about 800 miles to Fort Irwin, Calif., in the middle of the Mojave
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$1.5 million dollars has been pledged for the Borderland by tech giant Microsoft. The Seattle-based company has a vetted interest in the Sun City and the region, due to its bicultural and bilingual make up. “This isn’t just one city on one side of the border, it’s really two cities as part of a binational
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The U.S. is now calling for an immediate ceasefire in Turkey’s strikes against Kurds in Syria, and is sending Vice President Mike Pence to lead a mediation effort. Pence says he’s being dispatched to the Middle East by President Donald Trump as U.S. troops pull out of northeast Syria and Turkish forces invade. Pence says
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U.S. Army Private First Class Tycorey Dudley from Fort Bliss received a much-needed lift over the weekend, with the keys to a newly refurbished 2016 Nissan Rouge at the Las Cruces County Music Festival. The donation was made by Allstate Insurance and Caliber Collision through the Armed Forces YMCA. Those who organized the donation tell
Continue ReadingEl Paso County Sheriff’s deputies said Thursday they were looking for a vehicle that struck and killed a Fort Bliss soldier who was walking along Interstate 10 near Horizon last weekend. Authorities described the vehicle as a dark-colored SUV or minivan, possibly a Dodge Caravan, with front end damage and perhaps windshield damage too. Investigators
Continue ReadingA former Fort Bliss soldier suspected of planning to bomb multiple high-profile targets around the U.S. was once on the “hit list” of a teenager who tried to blow up his high school in South Carolina. Federal authorities late Wednesday indicted Jarrett William Smith, 24, with sharing bomb-making instructions online. Officials said he also discussed
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A federal grand jury late Wednesday formally indicted former Fort Bliss Army soldier Jarrett William Smith, who allegedly discussed bomb-making techniques and suggested targeting a news network and former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke. Smith’s indictment (which you can read at the bottom of this article) comes amid a wave of arrests and charges the
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The FBI has arrested a U.S. soldier who allegedly discussed plans to bomb a major American news network, planned to travel to Ukraine to fight with violent far-right group Azov Battalion and allegedly distributed information online on how to build bombs. He also allegedly suggested targeting Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke of El Paso. According
Continue ReadingFollowing multiple acts of vandalism at Veterans Memorial Park, Las Cruces might place protections on the public site. “People don’t respect the park,” said Rod Gajewski, a Vietnam veteran who survived prostate cancer after exposure to Agent Orange. In May 2018, police arrested teenagers in connection with stealing letters from the Vietnam Memorial and damaging
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Fort Bliss is proving to be the perfect place for a visiting National Guard unit from the East Coast to do its final training before deploying. About 4,000 soldiers from the 30 th Armored Brigade Combat Team arrived at Fort Bliss in mid-August and they will train here for about 60 days. This fall, “Old
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A World War II veteran from Texas is asking people to help him celebrate his 100th birthday. Jim South’s birthday wish to receive 100 cards for his big day, Oct. 7. His senior living home posted a photo of South with a sign asking for the cards. He joined the Army in 1940 and was
Continue ReadingAn agricultural maze. In Texas. Honoring military families. Could this get any more American? Every year, the Graff 7A Ranch in Hondo hosts the South Texas Maize, a giant labyrinth of sorghum and seasonally appropriate puns. Like many agricultural mazes across the country, the Maize maze is known for its impressive designs. This year, the
Continue ReadingThe fight over funding for a border wall in Texas and other states appears to be heating up again in Congress this month as lawmakers near a deadline to pass a military funding bill. The partisan divide over the wall was on display last week when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its $694.9 billion annual
Continue ReadingA “hypersonic rocket sled” at Holloman Air Force Base’s high speed test track traveled Mach speed 8.6.— which is 6,599 miles per hour, or over one mile a second, the base announced. Holloman officials released an incredible video this past week that showed the blasting of the rocket sled in the Tularosa Basin in southern
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday forced out John Bolton, his hawkish national security adviser with whom he had significant disagreements on Iran, Afghanistan and a cascade of other global challenges. The two men offered opposing accounts on Bolton’s less than friendly departure, a leave-taking example of what had been a fractious relationship almost from the
Continue ReadingThe U.S. Department of Defense is diverting an estimated $3.6 billion in military construction funds to help build President Donald Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, some of it from Texas and New Mexico. The Pentagon has now released the full list of 127 military construction projects that will lose funds in order to help
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Federal authorities want to divert $125 million from two planned projects at New Mexico military bases to help to build part of President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Members of the New Mexico congressional delegation were informed Wednesday of the Department of Defense’s decision. Funding is expected to be diverted from an $85
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