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A missile is climbing upward through a dark sky with fire and smoke trailing behind it. A Black Dagger Zombie missile target, designed to fly a ballistic flight path and demonstrate defensive protection capability, launches from Fort Wingate, N.M., Nov. 2, 2024. Courtesy photo
PENTAGON, (May 2, 2025): The Army confirmed it will implement a new space domain-related enlisted military occupational specialty by next fall, the service's top space officer announced during a media briefing at the Pentagon today.
Initially announced by the Army's deputy chief of staff in December 2024, the MOS — titled 40D space operations specialist — is on track to become official by October 2026, the commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, told reporters.
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PENTAGON, (April 18, 2025): Recognizing the success the United States has had against ISIS, including its 2019 territorial defeat under President Trump, today the Secretary of Defense directed the consolidation of U.S. forces in Syria under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve to select locations in Syria.
This consolidation reflects the significant steps we have made toward degrading ISIS' appeal and operational capability regionally and globally. This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the U.S. footprint in Syria down to less than a thousand U.S. forces in the coming months.
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Soldiers assigned to 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, conduct a dismounted squad patrol along the southern border outside of Sierra Blanca, Texas, March 31, 2025. Photo by Army Pfc. Malik Waddy-Fiffee
PENTAGON, (April 16, 2025): On April 11, 2025, a national security presidential memorandum directed the Defense Department to accept jurisdiction of certain federal lands along the southern border from other agencies.
"Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats," President Donald J. Trump said in the memorandum. "The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past."
The change directed in the president's memorandum will enhance the ability of service members to conduct their mission at the border.
The Defense Department, Interior Department and Department of Homeland Security already use land along the southern border. Included in that is the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot strip of land lying parallel to the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The memorandum notes that "Federal Indian reservations" are excluded.
It directs DOI and DHS to cede jurisdiction for portions of their land to DOD. That noncontiguous land, about 170 square miles, runs along the border between New Mexico and Mexico.
Once the Army accepts jurisdiction of that land, it will become part of a national defense area — a specified piece of federal land over which DOD maintains administrative authority and jurisdiction and is permitted to establish and enforce a controlled perimeter and access.
The area will be considered an extension of Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Service members stationed at the border and operating on that land will have greater authority to execute their mission. They will be governed by the same rules as when they are defending any other military installation, such as apprehending trespassers and passing them to appropriate civilian or federal law enforcement officials.
Under the new arrangement, military personnel will continue to work together with U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to establish and enforce a controlled perimeter and controlled access to the area as part of an effort to repel unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking and other cross-border criminal activities.
To deter unlawful entry, service members will construct and position temporary barriers, detect and monitor the use of routes across or adjacent to the area and apprehend individuals who breach the barriers. Service members will place signs and construct temporary barriers to visibly indicate the boundaries.
Military operations at the southern border fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. Northern Command, which remains ready to adjust its operations in response to the memorandum.
"U.S. Northern Command continues to plan and prepare to serve as the operational lead for the implementation of the national defense area," said Marine Corps Col. Kelly Frushour, Northcom director of public affairs. "Forces responsible for securing the national defense area will conduct any necessary training to perform their assigned tasks effectively."
By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News
Published with permission of DOD
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PENTAGON, (March 3, 2025): Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum today directing Fort Moore, Georgia, to be renamed Fort Benning.
The installation will now be renamed in honor of Army Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who "served with extraordinary heroism during World War I with the United States Army, and in recognition of the installation's storied history of service to the United States of America," the memo reads.
Originally established and named Camp Benning in October 1918 after Civil War-era Confederate Gen. Henry L. Benning, the installation kept Benning's name until being renamed Fort Moore — after Army Lt. Gen Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Compton Moore — in May 2023.
Read more: RESTORING FORT MOORE TO FORT BENNING IN HONOR OF WWI SOLDIER