Tag: fort-liberty

  • Watchdog sues for info about Army labeling nonprofits as terror groups

    Watchdog sues for info about Army labeling nonprofits as terror groups

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    The conservative organization Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon this month in an attempt to obtain information that could shed more light on an Army antiterrorism training that labeled several legitimate nonprofits as terrorist groups.

    Photos of slides shown during an antiterrorism training at Fort Liberty were posted online this summer, prompting outrage about the groups labeled as terrorists. Nonprofits that were incorrectly labeled included People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, as well as the anti-abortion groups Operation Rescue and National Right to Life. The advocacy groups Earth First, Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front were also listed.

    National Right to Life issued a news release calling the situation “deeply offensive to all pro-life Americans,” and PETA told Military Times the Army made the correct decision to get rid of the “counterfactual presentation.”

    Judicial Watch, which often files Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct, accused the Army of targeting anti-abortion Christians. The group wants the Defense Department to hand over any documents that could show why National Right to Life and other anti-abortion groups were on the list.

    Judicial Watch is also suing for any emails written by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo, Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus that might mention designating anti-abortion groups as terrorist organizations.

    The group claimed the training was made with ill-intent and wasn’t merely a blunder, as the Army has perviously said.

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    Army leaders testified to lawmakers in September about the training. An internal investigation found that the soldier who created the slides was an employee of the local garrison and added the nonprofits based on open-source research, said Army Assistant Secretary Agnes Gereben Schaefer. The Army didn’t find any evidence that the soldier sought to subvert Defense Department policy or to further a personal political viewpoint.

    Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized Lt. Gen. Patrick Matlock, the Army deputy chief of staff, after he refused to reveal what disciplinary measures the soldier faced. Matlock said only that the soldier was retrained, and the chain of command took action. He cited privacy and safety concerns as the reason he wouldn’t give more details.

    In a news release last week, Judicial Watch blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for “trying to set our military against conservative American citizens.” However, the Army investigation found that the training slides were created in 2017, while former President Donald Trump was in office.

    About 9,100 soldiers saw the slides over the past seven years, the Army investigation found.

    “The training materials were very poorly developed, and we fully acknowledge that failure,” Matlock testified. “That length of time is almost unexplainable.”

    This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

    Nikki Wentling covers disinformation and extremism for Military Times. She’s reported on veterans and military communities for eight years and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.

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  • How the Army is using AI during Hurricane Helene relief

    How the Army is using AI during Hurricane Helene relief

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    The Army’s 18th Airborne Corps is for the first time using a battlefield capability to map road closures, cellular outages, supply needs and other data in real time to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Northern Command help people whose homes and communities were battered by Hurricane Helene late last month.

    The Army is using its Maven Smart System to provide responders with the information needed to make quick, on-the-ground decisions, such as where to send medical supplies or how many truckloads of water to take into certain storm-ravaged areas, defense officials told reporters Monday.

    Weeks after the deadly hurricane tore a path from Florida’s Gulf Coast into the Appalachian Mountains, some residents in the southeast are still sifting through the wreckage caused by floods and landslides that destroyed entire towns.

    More damage is feared as Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida this week as well.

    Maven is a data analysis and decision-making tool that takes in reams of data from multiple sources and uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to visualize the information.

    The Pentagon originally adopted Maven to use geolocation data and satellite imagery to automatically detect potential targets on the battlefield. Its use in responding to Helene is the first instance Maven has been applied to hurricane response efforts, defense officials said.

    “We can get data out of these environments that have little to no communications capabilities back into the FEMA dashboard so they understand where they need to supply things,” said one defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I think being able to bring together this common operating picture gives us better situational awareness, helps us respond faster and facilitates getting support and supplies out quicker.”

    The system eliminates the need for responders to read through spreadsheets to gather pertinent information. Instead, Maven pulls out the most important data for leaders to analyze, the official said.

    The military used similar technology for disease surveillance during the Covid-19 pandemic and to track individuals during the withdrawal of U.S. forces and their allies from Afghanistan, according to officials. The operators of Maven are hoping to learn from their experience responding to Hurricane Helene, and want to hone the system for use in future natural disasters or national crises.

    “That way, in an event like this, we can be part of the noble effort assisting the nation’s citizens in their most urgent time of need,” a defense official said. “We can create a platform that can be an enduring presence, ready to respond.”

    Part of Maven’s job for the hurricane response is to track members of the National Guard and active-duty troops who have deployed to the areas hardest hit.

    As of Monday, 7,600 troops from 18 different states had deployed to the southeast. They’re providing humanitarian relief, clearing emergency routes, assessing damaged water systems and restoring infrastructure. The Defense Department also provided hundreds of high-water vehicles and dozens of helicopters and rescue boats, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has established 12 emergency operations centers across the southeast, including three in North Carolina alone, Ryder said.

    About 7,000 federal personnel, including FEMA staff, are deployed to the area. As of Sunday, FEMA had approved $137 million in housing and other types of assistance to more than 81,500 households in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The agency also provided 15 million meals, 14 million liters of water and 157 generators.

    As response efforts were underway, misinformation about FEMA’s work spread online. The high volume of false information sowed confusion among survivors and threatened response and recovery efforts, FEMA said. The agency created a webpage to try to dispel the rumors.

    While the cleanup from Helene continues across the southeast, Florida was preparing Tuesday for another hurricane to make landfall this week. Hurricane Milton was expected to hit the west coast of the state on Wednesday as a Category 3, the Associated Press reported.

    More than 5,000 Florida National Guard troops were mobilized Tuesday to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s arrival. Army officials moved additional personnel and equipment to Fort Moore in Georgia in anticipation of search and rescue operations.

    This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

    Nikki Wentling covers disinformation and extremism for Military Times. She’s reported on veterans and military communities for eight years and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.

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  • Trump pledges to revert Fort Liberty to Confederate general name

    Trump pledges to revert Fort Liberty to Confederate general name

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    Editor’s note: This article was published as part of a content-sharing agreement between Army Times and The Fayetteville Observer. Military Times has edited the story for style and clarity.

    In his first visit to Fayetteville in his bid to seek another term in the White House, former President Donald Trump told a crowd of more than 5,000 at the Crown Arena on Friday night that he would restore the name of the world’s most populated U.S. military installation.

    Formerly known as Fort Bragg and named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, the home of the Army airborne and Special Forces was renamed Fort Liberty last June.

    “We did win two world wars from Fort Bragg. … So, this is no time to be changing names. … We’re going to do everything we can to get it back. We’re going to bring our country back,” Trump told the crowd that roared with applause and chanted, “Fight, fight, fight!”

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    Ahead of Trump’s remarks, Sanford resident Chelsea Ruston said she is a military spouse and does not think renaming the installation was worth the money.

    Ruston said she came out to support Trump.

    “He cares for America, everything to make America great again, closing our borders. … I liked gas prices better (when he was in office). I liked that inflation was down and interest rates,” she said.

    Trump’s visit to Fayetteville was a town hall, which lasted a little more than an hour, and included questions from several North Carolina residents.

    Topics included what Trump and others have said was a lack of response to those affected by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, and illegal immigration, but the majority of the questions centered on military topics.

    Dwight Francisco, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, who had presented Trump with a Purple Heart that Francisco had been awarded, said he was moved to see Trump stand up after being grazed in the ear by a bullet during an assassination attempt at a June rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    Francisco also claimed that the homelessness rate of veterans under Trump’s administration was about 7% and has increased to 14%, asking Trump what he would do to help homeless veterans.

    Trump said it upset him to see homeless veterans in front of hotels, while “illegal immigrants, many who are killers, drug dealers and terrorists” can walk into the same hotel and sleep there.

    He said he would support border policies written during his last term and he would empower local law enforcement to arrest people illegally in the country who have committed crimes and claimed that 350,000 migrant children are missing under the current administration.

    He also said the U.S. is sitting on “liquid gold” and said the money from drilling oil and gas would be used “to take care of our veterans properly.”

    The Army renamed Fort Bragg as Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a broader effort to remove Confederate names from bases. (Karl B DeBlaker/AP)

    Trump was asked by John, who said he was a former Green Beret kicked out of the military over a COVID-19-vaccine mandate, what he would do to hold military leaders accountable over the former Department of Defense mandate for service members that Congress overturned.

    Trump said there should have never been a vaccine mandate and that he would take care of the accountability.

    “We lost a lot of great people — a lot of people were forced into doing things they didn’t want to do,” he said.

    Austin, an active-duty service member at Fort Liberty, told the crowd he was at Friday night’s forum in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the Army or Department of Defense.

    Austin asked Trump about Iran launching missiles toward Israel last week and what Trump’s thoughts were on the Iron Dome Missile System used to protect Israel and if America should have a similar system.

    “We have to be totally prepared, and we have to be absolutely prepared … hit the nuclear and worry about the rest later,” Trump responded.

    Trump said that World War III could start before the election and referenced the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

    He said the attacks between Israel and Iran and between Russia and Ukraine wouldn’t have happened if he were president.

    He said there were no attacks during his four years in the White House.

    “We defeated ISIS. I rebuilt the military, and we have great generals,” he said.

    Asked by a Marine veteran who said he is also a “Latino for Trump” about what he would do for accountability over the 2021 withdrawal in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 service members, Trump called the withdrawal an “embarrassing moment in the history of our country.”

    Trump said that during his last few months in office troops were getting out of the Middle East and about 5,000 service members were in Afghanistan.

    He said the U.S. should have never given up Bagram Air Base and said that no service members were killed during his last 18 months in office.

    “Then we had the election, these guys took over, and it all started up again,” Trump said. “We lost 13 and left $85 billion worth of equipment behind. We left Americans behind. Everything was wrong.”

    Trump said he would fire the generals involved. Former U.S. Central Command commander, Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, has since retired.

    The last question of the night was asked by former Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, who sat on stage during the town hall along with Francisco and John, the former Green Beret.

    Lohmeier said he was relieved of his command and lost his pension after he criticized DOD training on diversity, equity and inclusion.

    “These trainings are still dividing our troops,” Lohmeier claimed.

    He asked Trump if he would fire the “few woke generals” who are a problem.

    Trump said he’d appoint Lohmeier to a task force to look into the matter if elected president.

    Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com.

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