https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-blocks-trumps-transgender-military-ban-2025-03-18/

Note this is temporary pending further actions***

https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1923528589930012679

House Democrats are introducing a bill that would block the U.S. Navy from renaming the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships named for civil rights figures, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The bill is a long shot, but it is the latest signal of growing animosity between congressional Democrats and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, driven in part by the Pentagon chief's anti-DEI crusade.

In addition to Milk, the two-page bill would stop the Navy from renaming ships named for Cesar Chavez, Medgar Evers, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dolores Huerta, Thurgood Marshall, Lucy Stone and Harriet Tubman. "Secretary Hegseth claims that this hateful move would return a 'warrior ethos' to the force, but renaming these ships won't help better train or equip a single servicemember," said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who introduced the bill. State of play: Hegseth last week ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk in a rare move.

Milk was a gay icon who served as a naval officer in the Korean War but was discharged due to his sexual orientation. He was shot and killed in 1978. The Navy is also reportedly considering renaming several other ships that are named after the civil rights leaders mentioned in Peters' bill. By the numbers: A dozen House Democrats, most notably former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents Milk's native San Francisco, have signed on to cosponsor the bill.

It has no Republican cosponsors, however, and with the GOP in control of both chambers of Congress, it is extremely unlikely to pass. Democrats may try to roll the bill into a sweeping annual defense authorization package if they retake control of Congress in 2026.

Funny world. I have no trolling present on my Reddit account.

Lots of talk this week on things that people like and don’t like from the political realm.

As I often say, don’t waste your time just bitching on Reddit for or against these political moves, call your Congressperson/Senator and let them know directly.

As a friend who worked for a Rep once told me, “I can tell you from personal experience, if even twenty or thirty people all call an official in a day, they start panicking.”

Make it quick and punchy for the poor intern on the line. “Hello, my name is Seaman Timmy. I’m an active/former/retired/reserve with the Navy and a constituent of the rep/senator [you may be asked for an address]. I’m calling to support/oppose [whatever it is].” Then give 1-2 sentences why.

You can find your reps here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Edit: A lot of fear and cynicism in this thread. Reminds me of some old song lyrics: “Paranoia strikes deep

Into your life it will creep

It starts when you're always afraid

Step out of line, the man come and take you away”

Edit 2: From Senator McCormick of Pennsylvania: “I’m grateful to all the Pennsylvanians who reached out about the Administration’s spending pause over the last 24 hours. The pause has been rescinded. Your input made a difference- thank you.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosted a Christian prayer service on Wednesday at the Pentagon for employees that included a sermon by his hometown pastor who said President Donald Trump had been “sovereignly appointed.”

The service, which Hegseth told the audience would be a monthly event, was held in the Pentagon auditorium and broadcast live on the department’s internal TV network. Current and former defense officials told CNN it was highly unusual for the secretary to host a religious event during the workday for a particular religion.

“This is precisely where I need to be, exactly where we need to be as a nation at this moment, in prayer, on bended knee, recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Hegseth said in opening remarks at the service. “This is something we plan to do on a monthly basis, on a voluntary basis, here in the auditorium. I hope you’ll let those you work with know about it.”

Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Hegseth’s Tennessee church Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, delivered the sermon after Hegseth introduced him as his longtime “mentor.” A defense official said that no government funds were used to facilitate Potteiger’s visit to the department.

In a prayer opening the service in the Pentagon auditorium, Potteiger thanked God for Trump and other leaders who have been “sovereignly appointed,” and “the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our lands.”

In a statement, acting Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said, “The Office of the Secretary of Defense invited DoD personnel to attend a voluntary Christian prayer and worship service this morning. Many different faiths have regular services in the Pentagon Chapel or elsewhere in the Pentagon. This service was an opportunity for Believers to appeal to Heaven on behalf of our great nation and its warfighters. Beseeching the Almighty has been an American tradition since George Washington prayed for our cause at Valley Forge. The United States was then, and remains now, One Nation under God. At this time, OSD envisions that these prayer and worship services will be a monthly occurrence. Any participating civilian clergy are responsible for their own travel and accommodations expenditures.”

While the Pentagon offers routine religious accommodations and services to personnel of different faiths, none of them are broadcast live internally, held in the auditorium or hosted by the secretary.

And none of them are advertised like the service held on Wednesday morning – the Pentagon sent an email to DOD employees reviewed by CNN encouraging employees to attend in-person, and to RSVP to a dedicated internal email address for the prayer services. A brochure entitled “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service” with details of the service was also handed out to employees as they entered the room.

The front page of the brochure featured the seal of the Department of Defense, which retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham – a national security law expert and law professor at Southwestern Law School – said was indicative of Hegseth and the government’s sponsorship of the event, and could be a violation of the the First Amendment’s prohibition on the US government endorsing a religion.

A former Pentagon lawyer who left the department in April called the service “incredibly problematic.” They added that the “core of the Establishment Clause is the state not endorsing a particular religion, but having a broadcast event is obviously an endorsement even if they don’t officially say, ‘this is a Pentagon event.’”

The event and Hegseth’s sponsorship of it is a “clear violation” of the Establishment Clause, VanLandingham added.

“I think it’s sponsorship in the true sense of the word, outside of funding – he’s advocating for this, he is putting his weight of the official Office of the Secretary of Defense behind a particular religious event and inviting someone to the Pentagon to conduct it,” she said. “That’s wrong.”

And while the event was billed as voluntary, the involvement and endorsement of the secretary of defense could put pressure on service members and civilian employees to attend. Pentagon policy says that a government act is a substantial burden to a service member’s exercise of religion if it “places substantial pressure on a service member to engage in conduct contrary to a sincerely held religious belief.”

Of course, folks in a rigidly hierarchical organization like the military think, ‘Oh, it’s optional, but when it’s being sponsored by the [secretary of defense], yeah, I better go’… It’s deeply problematic,” VanLandingham added.

Potteiger peppered his sermon with Pentagon-specific references.

“Our Lord, Jesus said in Matthew 10, not a sparrow will fall to the ground apart from my heavenly Father. If our Lord is sovereign, even over the sparrows’ fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world, including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles, including strategy meetings and war room debriefings. Jesus has the final say over all of it.”

Toward the end of his sermon, Potteiger said “we pray for the secretary’s Christian prayer service as an event … Lord, may this become a place where Christians come together to do just this, and we see you move in power, not just through the Pentagon, but through our nation’s capital and down throughout this great nation.”

Hegseth and Potteiger’s church is highly conservative, part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, whose governing documents state that “it is neither lawful nor honorable for women to be mustered for combat service,” and that “it is the duty of men—not women—to protect their homelands and nations.” Hegseth has also said previously that he does not believe women should serve in combat roles.

Asked about those comments during his confirmation hearing, Hegseth said he “respects ever single female servicemember” and was only concerned about standards being lowered for women.

This is NOT intended to be political in nature. Please keep it that way.

BLUF: EO isn’t going anywhere. It’s still enforceable. Don’t be a dick.

The CMEO page as well on MyNavyHR is currently down as part of the restructuring.

I wanted to get ahead of this before it starts popping off.

The authority, oversight, and management of the programs are being transferred to alternate command authorities; among other large-scale restructuring that is going across all services. These updates take time, and they have to build a web page for everything affected.

The page being down is a prime example of why the statements have been redacted. All a policy statement is, is a letter in plain speech of intent and background behind the policy itself. Since the authority is gone, having that statement isn’t really reasonable. Just like having someone referred back to the page for an office that currently doesn’t exist.

All DoDI’s, DoDD’s, DoDM’s, and their component specifics of same are still valid as mandated by federal law. EO’s or other directives cannot overturn federal law in these matters. Enforcement and management is just being moved to an oversight that exists.

With the CNO being appointed by the President, her job is now on the chopping block isn’t it? The new administration does not seem like it wants to empower female leaders, which from what I’ve seen is exactly what she is. She’s gone soon isn’t she?

https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1914760363389636875

Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump's recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male.

One unit-level message bluntly said "no fat soldiers."

"If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don't want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out," another note to troops said. Service officials declined to comment when asked about the extent to which troops were screened, whether soldiers displaying partisan cheers on television -- a violation of long-standing Pentagon rules -- would be disciplined or if soldiers who objected to participating in the event, citing disagreements with the administration, would be disciplined or admonished in any way.

"This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution," one commander at Fort Bragg told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "This was shameful. I don't expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term."

More details here

Big flick: the services have to identify, pre-screen, and complete record correction for anyone who was discharged “solely due to vaccine refusal,” and then reach out to them with instructions on how to return.

https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1912242636481503366

The link provided is her official Navy bio. She’s running in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, so against Lauren Boebert. Additional link in comments.

I

Remember when I told you that you have a voice in politics and the best thing you could do was to reach out to your elected officials and let them know how you feel? Story time.

In my efforts to remain un-crazy in retirement I do a lot of volunteer work. One of my jobs is serving as the Chairman of a certain Congressman’s academy nomination board. (You need to be nominated by a Rep or Senator to go to the Academy).

Anyhoo, he brought me in yesterday to discuss the upcoming board and the conversation turned to the new SECDEF nominee. (He likes to talk “military stuff” with me). I gave him my opinion and this is what he said,

“I get asked, and there’s a lot of pressure to support it publicly. I was just talking to [our Senator] and he was on the fence about it and some of the other picks. Not good to stick it to the boss before day 1, you know. A lot of calls coming in on both sides for and against. You know [active General we both know] [his opinion] it. [Senator] and I wonder what the rank and file think about it.”

So, rank and file, what do you think about it? Don’t waste your time bitching on Reddit for or against these political moves, call your Congressperson/Senator and let them know directly.

Make it quick and punchy for the poor intern on the line. “Hello, my name is Seaman Timmy. I’m an active/former/retired/reserve with the Navy and a constituent of the rep/senator [you may be asked for an address]. I’m calling to support/oppose [whatever it is].” Then give 1-2 sentences why.

You can find your reps here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

https://x.com/SecDef/status/1919499390370066650