Headlines from Military World bring us military news of the First UK soldiers to join the US Marines’ Female Engagement Team. The all-female course focuses on interacting with the local female population of Afghanistan. Their interactions are to help foster relationships and to gain the trust and support of the Afghans, while at the same time, patrolling with infantry soldiers.

The British soldiers have fully integrated into their environment; they are already working, living, and eating with 50 female Marines from across Hemland province. The all-female course has cultural important to the operations in Afghanistan. Afghan law prohibits women from speaking to or greeting males outside of their own families.

This law affects, in turn, how military men interact with the local population. The male members of the military are unable to access approximately 51 percent of the Afghan population. The influence of Afghan women in the society often shows in the behavior of their children and husbands. As women have a significant influence on not only their families, but their communities as well, this valuable resource remains largely untapped.

Meanwhile, headlines from Military.com bring military news of the British troops in Afghanistan put under US command. As part of a move to restructure NATO forces in Afghanistan, the United States forces took about 8,000 British troops under its wing. A United States Marine Corps Major General commands NATO forces in Helmand province, which most of the British troops were located in Afghanistan.

The change in command is part of a decision made by NATO to split its Regional Command South. The command oversees a combined force of 50,000 American, British Canadian, and other troops, which consists of two separate commands.

The US Command Regional Command-Southwest will be in charge of the operations in the Nimroz and Helmand provinces while a British commander will be in command of forces in Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul, and Daikundi provinces.

PASADENA – Throughout their 13-year friendship, Steven Longfellow and Dennis Lowe have attended the same elementary school and risen through the ranks of the Boy Scouts together.

With the end of their high school days approaching, the two teens – who live down the street from each other – now will attend West Point Military Academy together this fall.

Longfellow, 18, will graduate from Polytechnic School and Lowe, 19, from Flintridge Prep. They met at Chandler School in kindergarten and have been friends ever since.

“It’s going to be great for moral support,” Lowe said of them attending West Point together. “Just to have someone you’ve known for a long time there … it’s kind of difficult to relate to if you have not been through it.”

Both say they want to serve their country.

“There is something I need to give back,” Longfellow said.

In preparation for basic training camp, which begins at the end of June, the teens are following a strict workout regimen – running and doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Several times a week, they train with a former Marine in La Crescenta, who tries to instill discipline and give an early introduction to what military life will be like.

Read the full story here.

Francis Marion Military Academy is looking for a few good teenagers – specifically, boys and girls who will enter ninth and 10th grades in August.
The students must be drug-free if they hope to enroll at the new charter school, which opens Aug. 18. Monday marked the first day of enrollment for the academy, which will be the second of its kind – behind Sarasota Military Academy – in Florida. Officials hope to have 100 ninth- and 10th-graders when school opens.

The school is the brainchild of members of the Ocala-Silver Springs Rotary Club, who spent nearly three years seeking a charter. Morrey Deen, a former Ocala police chief, and Skip Archibald, a former superintendent of schools, spearheaded the quest.

Enrolling in this “quasi-military” school, where the tagline is “We support second chances” and the modus operandi is strict discipline, has helped him overcome his bad habits. The academy helped curb his smoking and chewing tobacco addictions and more importantly, his discipline problems, including recent run-ins with the law because of thefts.

The academy calls itself quasi-military. It borrows heavily from the discipline and physical training of the military. But the academy is voluntary and doesn’t require cadets to enlist after graduation.

There is no room for goofing off at this school. The teens wake up at 6 a.m. daily and are in bed by 10 p.m. They eat three balanced meals, and in addition to marching and drills, they spend more than an hour on physical training each night.

They’re never left alone. The military training staff, or cadre, stays with each group and enforces the rules — and there are plenty of rules.

Girls and boys don’t interact. There’s no television, no e-mail, no smoking, no chewing gum, no cursing. They get one 10-minute call home each Sunday.

Students don’t get kicked out of class here. They do push-ups to refocus that energy.

Just to get into the academy, which is free to students and funded by the state and federal governments, the teen has to have fallen off track.

Some are parents. Some have been expelled. Some lack discipline. Many have just given up.

To read the full resource article go here.

What is defensive driving?
It is a training, a practice, and most of all, a mindset for motor vehicle drivers. The bottom line is that it seeks to guarantee at all possible costs safety in traveling.

Defensive driving may be achieved through proper adherence to a variety of general rules of the road as well as practicing driving techniques. Most states in America actually require drivers, particularly those who have committed offenses, to take defensive driving courses.

A driver who understands defensive driving is one who possesses the knowledge, skills and the right attitude while driving. He knows the traffic rules, is highly skilled when it comes to driving but not lax or overconfident, and has a right attitude towards driving and others on the road.