Military Personnel

The arrest of an apparently AWOL Army private in Killeen, Texas, has been attributed to a suspicious-behavior tip from a member of the public, authorities announced Thursday. They say the man intended to attack military personnel at Ft. Hood. In announcing the tip, Police Chief Dennis Baldwin would not discuss details of the information provided but said at a briefing: "We would probably be here giving you another briefing had he not been stopped. " The solider has been identified as 21-year-old Naser Jason Abdo, who allegedly went AWOL on July 4 from Ft. Campbell in Kentucky.

Like many actors these days, Tom Wiggin -- best known for his 10-year run as the scheming Kirk Anderson in the CBS daytime drama "As the World Turns" -- is dabbling in music. But don't expect to hear him on the radio any time soon. The 54-year-old's musical venture is more philanthropic than Top 40: He wants to supply every American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan with an MP3 player. "I'm taking the American mentality on this," Wiggin said. "Sure, it's a big job. But it can be done."

When a member of the U.S. military is killed in the line of duty in a combat zone, the president sends a condolence letter to his or her family. But such letters were never sent to families of military personnel who committed suicide in combat zones. Until this week. "This issue is emotional, painful and complicated, but these Americans served our nation bravely," President Obama said in a statement, released Tuesday, announcing his reversal of the long-standing policy. "They didn't die because they were weak.

WASHINGTON - President Obama has confidence in the Secret Service director, his spokesman said Tuesday, as a prostitution scandal widened with allegations that at least 20 women joined members of the U.S. advance team arranging security for the president's visit to Colombia last weekend. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was briefed by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, told reporters that "20 or 21 women foreign nationals were brought" to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, where the Secret Service and other members of the advance team were staying.

WASHINGTON - Eleven Secret Service agents and five members of the U.S. military working on a security team preparing for President Obama's arrival at a regional summit in Colombia were under investigation Saturday for apparent misconduct involving prostitutes. The incident occurred early Thursday at the Hotel Caribe, a historic beachfront hotel where the advance team was staying in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena. The episode began when police and hotel personnel began checking hotel rooms as part of the strict security surrounding the weekend Summit of the Americas, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is investigating 10 U.S. military members in a widening inquiry into whether an advance team led by the Secret Service hired prostitutes or engaged in other misconduct before President Obama visited Colombia for a weekend summit, U.S. officials said Monday. The Pentagon investigation is focusing on five Army Special Forces soldiers, two Marines, two Navy personnel and one member of the Air Force, a U.S. military official said. The Navy and Air Force personnel belong to an explosives detection unit, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The nation's war on drugs took on the look of a real war here Monday when regular U.S. Army troops, on orders from the White House, joined federal raids of suspected marijuana gardens in the King Range National Conservation Area about 175 miles north of San Francisco.

A possible terrorist plot against military personnel at Ft. Hood in Texas was disrupted with the arrest of an Army private who had purchased ammunition and bomb-making materials in preparation for such an attack, law enforcement officials said Thursday. Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, a 21-year-old Texas native who had successfully argued that he was a conscientious objector whose Muslim faith would not allow him to deploy to Afghanistan, was arrested at a motel Wednesday by Killeen, Texas, police after his purchase of gunpowder at a local gun store aroused employees' suspicion.

VALLEY CENTER, Calif. -- Their hilltop home outside this rural community in northern San Diego County was the proudest possession of Billy and Shellie Dial. To the Dials, the home on New Moon Lane represented safety for Shellie and their six daughters and 10 grandchildren while Billy, a Marine master gunnery sergeant, was deployed in Iraq. And it was where the Dials had planned to retire when Billy finishes his current hitch.

It is the "signature wound" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: traumatic brain injury from the blast of the enemy's improvised explosive devices. Now two researchers say that minor changes in the military's combat helmet could reduce the incidence and severity of these injuries. Using complex computer modeling to determine the impact of such blasts on helmets, physicist Willy Moss and mechanical engineer Michael King of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California concluded that soldiers and Marines would be better protected by wearing a slightly larger helmet with 1/8 inch more foam padding.