United States Military

Paula Coughlin was grocery shopping in Jacksonville, Fla., when I caught up with her on the phone this week. If anyone has an interesting perspective on the U.S. military's absurd inability to deal with sexual assault, it's Coughlin. She is the former Navy lieutenant who blew the lid off the tawdry goings on at the 1991 gathering of Naval aviators known as the Tailhook Assn. Symposium. In a third-floor corridor of the Las Vegas Hilton, she was sexually attacked by fellow flyers. When the Navy failed to act on her complaint, she went public.

Paula Coughlin was grocery shopping in Jacksonville, Fla., when I caught up with her on the phone this week. If anyone has an interesting perspective on the U.S. military's absurd inability to deal with sexual assault, it's Coughlin. She is the former Navy lieutenant who blew the lid off the tawdry goings on at the 1991 gathering of Naval aviators known as the Tailhook Assn. Symposium. In a third-floor corridor of the Las Vegas Hilton, she was sexually attacked by fellow flyers. When the Navy failed to act on her complaint, she went public.

It would be the nation's finest hour since the 1948 Berlin airlift. It would redeem the foreign military assistance received by the United States essential to throwing off the British yoke. And it would fulfill President John F. Kennedy's noble inaugural pledge to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." It is President Bill Clinton's impending overthrow of Haiti's military thugs.

The United States has resumed military contacts with Indonesia to try to foster reform, the State Department said Wednesday, less than a year after Washington suspended the ties over violence in East Timor. Indonesian air force officers observed U.S. military exercises in Thailand this month, and Washington has authorized participation by Indonesian air force and navy personnel in a disaster relief exercise in July, U.S. officials said.

The United States has resumed military contacts with Indonesia to try to foster reform, the State Department said Wednesday, less than a year after Washington suspended the ties over violence in East Timor. Indonesian air force officers observed U.S. military exercises in Thailand this month, and Washington has authorized participation by Indonesian air force and navy personnel in a disaster relief exercise in July, U.S. officials said.

It's Friday night at the drive-in. As the pale-skinned hero of the season's hot new martial-arts flick snaps the bones of the Asian archvillain, the Winnetka 6 erupts in honking horns and flashing headlights. The movie that has the big-wheeled pickups beeping is "Bloodsport." Advertised as the true story of an American who defeated all comers 13 years ago in a no-holds-barred international tournament of warriors, the movie opened last month at 800 U.S.

Currahee , a Cherokee word meaning "we stand alone together," is the name of a rugged, small mountain in Georgia where soldiers during World War II trudged their way uphill as they trained to become paratroopers . The word also fittingly served as the title for the opening episode of "Band of Brothers," the groundbreaking HBO miniseries that aired a decade ago Friday. The Emmy-winning, 10-part series, which was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, continues to resonate with audiences who view the work as a much-needed historical tribute to the soldiers who helped defeat Nazism in Europe.

It is shameful that veterans of the United States military have to wait months, and sometimes more than a year, to begin receiving the benefits they are owed after their years of service. Yet that is the case. Almost 900,000 veterans across the country currently have claims pending for disability, pension or education benefits; nearly 600,000 of those claims are considered backlogged by the Department of Veterans Affairs - meaning they have already taken more than 125 days to process.

FRESNO -- At 6 o'clock on a sweltering June morning in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, Sarah Saga dressed in the traditional veil and full-length covering that many Muslim women wear and roused her two children from a deep sleep. The house was silent as other relatives slept. Saga, the 24-year-old daughter of an American mother and Saudi father, hurried with daughter and son to a nearby market, where they hailed a cab for the U.S. Consulate.

  The Soviets put guns before butter, but we put almost everything before guns. " - Margaret Thatcher, January 1976 When Margaret Thatcher made the above observation in a speech that earned her the title "Iron Lady" from the Soviet army newspaper, she noted that the Soviet Union was spending 20% more each year than the United States on military research and development, 25% more on weapons and equipment and 60% more on strategic nuclear forces....

It would be the nation's finest hour since the 1948 Berlin airlift. It would redeem the foreign military assistance received by the United States essential to throwing off the British yoke. And it would fulfill President John F. Kennedy's noble inaugural pledge to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." It is President Bill Clinton's impending overthrow of Haiti's military thugs.

Why is it necessary for presumably objective journalists to characterize Nicaragua as "leftist" when noting that Nicaragua opposed the invasion of Panama by rightist United States military aggressors ("World Reaction to Noriega's Arrest," Jan. 5)? Centrist Spain, left-centrist Mexico and the leftist Soviet Union also opposed the intervention, but their political persuasions were not worthy of comment. Your staff even failed to observe the "rightishness" of Britain, Japan and Thailand.

Periodically, residents will see additional flags flying at City Hall. Fountain Valley last week began flying flags of each branch of the United States military along with the United States flag for a week beginning on the birthday of the particular service, city officials said. The first additional flag, the Army's, started flying June 14. The services and dates of future flag raisings are: Coast Guard, Aug. 4; Air Force, Sept. 18; Navy, Oct. 13; and Marine Corps, Nov. 10.