ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Biden administration proposes a $177.5 billion Army budget for fiscal 2023, a $2.8 billion increase over current spending.

The increase is part of a $773 billion defense budget that is 4% greater than the 2022 budget and 9.8% greater than the 2021 budget.

The budget request is a “positive thing for the Army” because it supports readiness while also paying for transformation of capabilities and force structure, said Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo.

The Defense Department has launched Military In Lasting Tribute, an online memorial honoring service members who died while serving honorably on active duty.

The memorial is the first DoD memorial to include peacetime deaths, and it ranges from 1985 to the present, according to a Pentagon press release. More than 47,000 service members have died on active-duty status since 1985, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Twenty years ago, terrorists in hijacked airliners changed America—and the military—forever.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Shortly afterward, at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon, shearing through three of the building’s five rings.

Members of the Association of the U.S. Army’s headquarters staff, led by retired Gen. Bob Brown, the association’s executive vice president, marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by laying a wreath at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Virginia.

“The Association of the U.S. Army is honored to have the opportunity to recognize our fallen heroes on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” said Brown, who will become AUSA’s president and CEO on Oct. 1.

The Pentagon will make the COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for service members by mid-September, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Aug. 9 in a memo to the force.

Shots could be required sooner if the vaccines receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, according to the memo.

Beginning July 9, health protection restrictions inside the Pentagon will be further relaxed to allow up to 90% occupancy in most workspaces. 

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said this is not a complete return to “pre-COVID-19 normal,” but it is getting closer. 

“We are going to continue force health protection levels to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within our workforce,” he said July 8. 

The Army’s intelligence corps is focused on people, readiness, modernization and relationships with allies and partners as it prepares to compete in an increasingly complex environment. 

“In the 31 years I’ve been in the Army, the strategic environment has never been more complex or, quite frankly, ... harder to assess,” Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said March 10 during The AUSA Noon Report, a webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

David Norquist, the Pentagon comptroller nominated to become deputy defense secretary, is a former Army GS-9 program and budget analyst who believes in fiscal and structural reform and is a strong supporter of the military’s civilian workforce.

Testifying July 24 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Norquist said the biggest challenge facing the Defense Department’s civilian workforce is competing for talent with other private and public employers.

Army Secretary Mark T. Esper has been confirmed to be the next defense secretary, giving the Pentagon its first Senate-confirmed leader since Jan. 1 and leading off a series of major changes in Army leadership.

The Senate on July 23 voted 90-8 to confirm Esper for the top Pentagon job. Senators are expected to soon also vote on Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where, if confirmed, he will succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is completing his four-year term as the nation’s top military officer.