The sighting of a military aide handling the football, closely following President Joe Biden as he exited a meeting with the United Kingdom’s prime minister on July 10, the day before the NATO summit during which the war in Ukraine was discussed, heightened already building tensions between NATO members and Russia.

Russia and the United States respectively lead the nuclear weapons race, both far ahead of the seven other countries that also have nuclear weapons, according to data obtained from the World Population Review.

Out of the nine countries that have nuclear weapons, the U.S., Russia and Pakistan are the only three that have aides following their political leaders with nuclear briefcases. The information that person carries, along with alphanumeric codes the president carries, allows the world’s most powerful political leader to launch Armageddon if needed at any moment.

Despite the contents of the nuclear football remaining somewhat of a mystery for national security concerns, the device itself still conveys a striking message to the U.S. adversaries, reminding them of the massive defense capabilities it can activate amidst heightened nuclear tensions, said Christopher Karns, former 341st Mission Support Group commander.

The nuclear football was not always what is today. Over time, the briefcase has had drastic changes to its contents, causing speculation to arise over its morality.

A history of the nuclear football

Following the creation and use of the atomic bomb in the 1940s, a story that “Oppenheimer” deeply explored, then President Dwight D. Eisenhower feared the U.S. would be helpless against a nuclear assault. In the late 1950s, he directed a military aide to carry a bag containing documents that would allow the president to communicate an action plan with military headquarters across the country whenever he left Washington.

Eisenhower’s initial satchel included emergency action documents which would help the president regain control of United States actions if a nuclear attack was launched by another country.

“In the event of a nuclear attack, the president could basically seize control of the government and suspend habeas corpus and do all sorts of other things that he wouldn’t be allowed to do in peacetime and wouldn’t be constitutional, but would nevertheless, let him run the government on an emergency basis,” Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, an organization that aims to inform the public about man-made threats to humanity, told Military Times.

Eisenhower transferred the satchel to his successor, President John F. Kennedy, who changed it over time, as he wanted blueprints for an alternative solution to the all-or-nothing nuclear war strategy of the time.

Former President Jimmy Carter trimmed down the football’s contents, knowing that if the situation arose in which he would have to use the football, he’s have just minutes to act.

Legal concerns about the documents within the football drove revisions during the Carter and Reagan Administrations. By the late 1980s, the documents inside the nuclear football had been completely updated for the first time since Kennedy, said former military aide Buzz Patterson, who handled the football during the Clinton Administration.

“It was pretty much the same football when Carter assumed office that JFK had had and it was outdated,” Patterson said in an interview with Military Times. “They did a couple of modernizations. They went back and looked at the war plans [and] the president’s emergency documents and they realized that some of the stuff is pretty old.”

Despite changes and modernizations throughout history, Karns believes the football is still a strong symbolic message to foes of the United States.

“The availability of this capability serves as a valuable deterrent to those considering harm to the United States,” Karns, who led the 341st Mission Support Group in their mission to prepare expeditionary combat support forces to operations around the world, wrote in a text response to Military Times.

Common misconceptions

Russia and Pakistan both have similar nuclear briefcases. Unlike the U.S., which clouds the nuclear football with mystery, Russia unveiled the contents of that country’s nuclear briefcase on television in 2019 .

As Russian television showed in 2019, the briefcase held actual buttons to launch a nuclear attack, a flash card with codes on it and a keypad of sorts to enter numerical instructions. The contents have not been shown since, however, an aide still follows Putin around will it regularly.

Press spotted an aide carrying Putin’s nuclear briefcase, called the “Cheget,” when he arrived at the Red Square Victory Parade in May. Putin then gave a speech, blaming Ukraine for the war and citing Russian casualties, further increasing tensions among nations.

The U.S. actually has three footballs — one for the president, one for the vice president and one for the designated survivor

The vice president is offered a personal squad of military aides to carry a backup football, but can refuse the satchel, as then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson did. Most vice presidents do not reject the football, Schwartz said, as it’s crucial for national security in cases of presidential death or if the commander-in-chief is unable to perform his or her duties.

Patterson said that when Clinton severely injured his knee, there were discussions over whether they needed to make Gore’s backup satchel the main one.

“There was a conversation between myself and one of the VP’s military aides, and my concern was if we put Clinton under [anesthesia], then Gore has to have [control of] the football for however long it takes, but we never ended up having to do that,” Patterson said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was seen at the January 6 insurrection being followed by a military aide holding the satchel.

The satchel is not all that is required to trigger nuclear weapons in times of crisis. A card with authentication codes, the Sealed Authenticator System, also dubbed the “biscuit” which doesn’t have real launch codes but can verify the president’s identity, is supposed to be always carried by the president.

Ballistic missile submarine crews use the alphanumeric codes on plastic cards to authenticate a nuclear launch order from U.S. Strategic Command, Schwartz said. Those cards were at one point nicknamed SAS cookies because they were in a foil-like wrapper, like cookies. The cookie term later became the “biscuit.”

“The president does not have the launch codes,” Schwartz said. “No president has had launch codes. So, the president can’t physically turn keys or push buttons to do anything, he’s relying on a whole chain of people, hundreds of people down the chain of command to transmit the orders and do all of that.”

The National Security Agency generates identification codes for the president to use to authenticate their identity with the National Military Command Center if they want to activate a nuclear defense, Schwartz said.

The activation process begins with an alphanumeric challenge response code from a National Military Command Center officer to the president. The president would then read their identification code, stored on the biscuit, through a secure communication device in the football. If correct, the president chooses an action plan and attack orders are relayed to all involved in the chosen nuclear defense strategy, including intercontinental ballistic missile operators, submarines and bombers, Schwartz said.

Lost biscuit never found

There have been circumstances throughout history when the president was separated from the biscuit, such as when then President Reagan was shot in 1981 and hospital workers stripped him down to save his life, tossing the biscuit into a hospital bag amid the pandemonium.

“[Clinton] lost them forever,” Patterson said. “We never did find them. I was the guy that was with him when he confessed that he had lost them. When I pressed him on it, and I said ‘Okay, sir, how long’s it been since you’ve seen them? Where’s the last place you saw them?’ Typical stuff you ask when somebody’s lost something. And, he said he couldn’t recall. And at one point, he said it could have been up to three or four months [since he’d seen them].”

Patterson claims that Clinton confessed he lost the codes the same morning the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal hit the press.

“The thing about the military aides is we are right around the president, but we’re not always with the president in terms of being in the same room,” Patterson said.

Ethical ramifications

The job of carrying the nuclear football can be burdensome, and not only because it weighs about 45 pounds. Patterson says that the psychological impact of holding such monumental power influences the handler.

“It’s not an easy job,” Patterson said. “It can result in tremendous casualties and the loss of life, livelihoods, cities, homes and all that kind of stuff. I think we all just knew that we were there to be a tool that [could be used], but we didn’t necessarily have to.”

The White House and Department of Defense collaborate to select nuclear football handler candidates. Patterson said that he was one of six Air Force members flown out to Washington for background checks and interviews. Once selected, Patterson immediately flew back to Northern California, sold his home and moved into the White House.

Patterson served for the usual two years, representing the Air Force’s nuclear football handler, alongside a team of military aide’s from other branches.

No specific mental health test was necessary for the role, Patterson said, instead candidates were appointed to the position after passing a security clearance. Schwartz said everyone who works with the president or vice president must pass a screening called “Yankee White.”

“They’re subjected to the personnel reliability program, just like everybody else who works with or around nuclear weapons,” Schwartz said. “Except, of course, for the president, who isn’t subject to anything.”

Schwartz said that most presidents avoid acknowledging the football due to unease.

“[Their inauguration briefing is] the first and last time most presidents think about this,” Schwartz said. “Most of them find it off putting [and] disturbing, you know, to be reminded that they have this power. So they just generally do not think about it.”

While the president has the power to activate it, the military aide is tasked with ensuring that the president is of sound mind before they were to activate the nuclear football.

Patterson recalled grappling over how he would refuse the president’s command to launch nuclear weapons if he believed they were not of sound mind and body.

“And I told myself internally many times ‘If I think he’s coming across as nuts, I don’t think I can participate in this,’” Patterson said. “And so that’s how I rationalized it to myself, and I think a lot of the other aides thought the same kind of thing.”

When then President Trump was in office, some media outlets questioned his sanity, Schwartz said.

“So even if the president went completely bonkers and wanted to launch a nuclear attack, he can’t physically do anything,” Schwartz said. “If he was mentally deranged, people would have a responsibility not to follow those orders, although legally they’re supposed to. So, there’s this kind of gray area there about what you would do, which was tested during the Trump Administration.”

Federal prosecutors lodged an indictment against Trump, alleging he took boxes of classified documents with him as he was leaving office, including documents with information about nuclear programs, defense and weapons.

President Biden’s mental fitness has been debated, 43% of Americans said they believe Biden and Trump are both too old to be president again, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found.

This leaves the military aides tasked with handling the football in charge of what Karn’s believes is the final defense and symbol to prevent a nuclear attack.

“The nuclear enterprise is the ultimate insurance policy for the nation,” Karns said. “If a situation or scenario ever developed where nuclear capabilities were considered, it would impact all of DoD and [the] whole of government in some capacity.”

C4ISRNET Senior Reporter Colin Demarest contributed to this article.

*CORRECTION: This article has been updated, deleting references to the origin of the term “football,” adding information on the term “biscuit,” accurately reflecting the number of nuclear footballs as three and correctly identifying what the president carries as part of the nuclear order process.

While the Big Apple was first to keep the party going, it might not have been the first to party; New York was not the first state to throw a parade. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island beat New York to the festivities, but due to lack of continuation over the years, these are not considered the first Labor Day parades.

New York wasn’t even the first state to sign Labor Day into legislation, a title which Oregon proudly claimed when it made Labor Day an official holiday in 1887. During that same year, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York state all passed similar laws. Over the following decade, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Nebraska joined in.

Americans today embrace Labor Day as a last hurrah of summer, though the origins and the meaning of the holiday are less well-known, and not without controversy.

Starting in 1884, the labor movement called for strikes and protests on May 1 to push for an eight-hour workday. In 1889, International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, was created by socialists and trade unions in Europe as a commemoration of the general strike for an eight-hour work day on May 1, 1886, in Chicago that led to a deadly riot that left at least 11 dead and dozens injured.

“Why would a militant labor event in America affect the rest of the world when America was trying to avoid it?” said Scott Molloy, a former professor at the Labor Research Center at the University of Rhode Island. “Well, they did it because these were martyrs. These were people who gave their life to a larger issue. And that is the eight-hour day, better treatment, better wages, and so forth and so on.”

Labor Day not May Day

May Day, which recognizes the work of labored workers through a celebration of dancing, singing and the crowning of a “May Queen” to bring in the new season, is celebrated in more than 60 countries on May 1, though not in the U.S.

“The rest of the world, especially the industrialized world, celebrated May Day,” said Molloy, in an interview with Federal Times. “In Europe, the working class was much better organized and organized earlier than in the United States, they were also very militant, and they would often combine their labor experience and desires with radical and revolutionary movements.

“So that’s how it got seared into the American mind that May Day, a European holiday, was a dangerous thing,” he said. “In the popular mind, particularly among politicians, who didn’t want any part of that stuff, they avoided the use of May Day, and created Labor Day, as kind of an alternative, a more civilized way to get attention and make achievements [because] they didn’t want to be stamped with the Red Scare from another continent.”

U.S. President Grover Cleveland had misgivings about the Socialist origins of Worker’s Day and the pagan origins of May Day and therefore officially signed legislation on June 28, 1894 to make Labor Day a federal holiday celebrated the first Monday in September, 1894 — marking the end of individual state celebrations and the beginning of nationwide recognition.

But Cleveland did not do this out of support for the Labor Union, he did it out of fear of voters, according to Molloy.

Cleveland “was no friend of labor, per se. He was against what they call protectionism,” Molloy said. “And that had to do with tariffs and taxes on imported goods, usually from England. And what would happen is that these manufactured items would come get to America at a cheaper price, and we could produce them. And so a lot of the labor unions would embrace the idea of a tariff to keep foreign made goods out … So in an attempt to maybe get some of those votes back, he signed the law, establishing Labor Day on a federal basis. But in reality, I think 35 or 37 states had already passed legislation to celebrate Labor Day, so in many ways, Cleveland was the last guy in line, and he really didn’t do much.”

McGuire vs Maguire

Although the date of the first Labor Day is easy to pinpoint, there’s some debate over who the official founder of Labor Day was, but Peter J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire have been deemed the two men who stick out in history.

There are records from 1882 showing McGuire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, said that there should be a day set aside for a “general holiday for the laboring classes” that should be “celebrated by a street parade, which would publicly show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”

The New Jersey Historical Society believes that Maguire’s leadership of several strikes in the 1870s, with the intent of gaining recognition for manufacturing workers, should be credited with the foundership. They also found that while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union, Maguire proposed the holiday in 1882.

No matter which McGuire-Maguire founded it, the right to celebrate the work of American citizens throughout history was a long fight in the making.

More than 140 years since the first Labor Day, Americans still celebrate the holiday with parades, barbecues and last-minute beach trips before the start of fall. And many recognize it as the informal end of summer.

Labor Day is recognized by 97% of employers by giving at least some of their employees the day off. However, this does not mean that everyone gets the day off.

In a survey conducted by Bloomberg BNA, 15% of organizations will have security, public safety workers or technical personnel working on Labor Day, 13% of organizations will have professional employees working, 11% will have managers working and 10% will have service, maintenance staff, sales and customer service working.

Federal employees will have Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, off of work and government offices will be closed.

The next federal holiday is Columbus Day.

1st Lt. Hailey Hodsden, a platoon leader with the regiment’s 4th Squadron, lost her life when the Stryker she was traveling in merged onto Autobahn 93 and was hit by the civilian vehicle. The other soldiers traveling in the Stryker were unharmed and the incident is currently under investigation, according to a statement from U.S. Army Europe and Africa.

On the scene, civilian medical personnel treated Hodsden before transporting her to a local hospital, however, when she arrived at the hospital the medical staff pronounced the 24-year-old officer dead.

“Hailey was an exceptional leader,” said Lt. Col. Joseph M. Byerly, 4th Squadron Commander. “As the Saber family mourns her loss, we are reminded of the courage and commitment that she displayed each day. She was a true example for others to emulate.”

Hodsden was originally from Dripping Springs, Texas, before graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where she was commissioned as an Armor officer. Before the accident, Hodsden had been in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment for a little over a year.

“Lt. Hodsden was well-respected by all who knew and served with her. She was a valued Dragoon and teammate,” said Col. Robert S. McChrystal, 2nd Cavalry Regiment Commander. “We extend our sincerest condolences to her family, friends, and fellow Dragoons.”

The U.S. lab led the three-hour sortie on July 25 with test units at the Eglin Test and Training Complex in Florida. The flight followed two years of work and a partnership with Skyborg Vanguard, a team made up of personnel from the lab and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center with the intent of creating unmanned fighter aircraft.

“This sortie officially enables the ability to develop [artificial intelligence and machine learning] agents that will execute modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to the CCA program,” said Col. Tucker Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the Air Force. The CCA program, or collaborative combat aircraft, was designed to create combat drones that can operate with piloted aircraft.

The lab’s Autonomous Air Combat Operations team created algorithms for the flight that took millions of hours to mature in simulations, during sorties with the X-62 VISTA experimental aircraft, while working with the XQ-58A, and during ground test operations, according to the announcement.

Previous flights of the XQ-58A Valkyrie have supported the Air Force’s effort into loyal wingmen research. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions produces the drone.

The Air Force Research Lab is the service’s primary scientific research and development center responsible for the discovery, development and integration of cost-effective warfighting technologies for the country’s air, space and cyberspace forces.

“AI will be a critical element to future warfighting and the speed at which we’re going to have to understand the operational picture and make decisions,” Brig. Gen. Scott Cain, the lab’s commander, said in the announcement. “AI, Autonomous Operations, and Human-Machine Teaming continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace and we need the coordinated efforts of our government, academia, and industry partners to keep pace.”

“For years, VA and DoD have enforced discriminatory policies harming service members and veterans,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women, filing one lawsuit in Manhattan and one in Boston, together with the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic and the National Veterans Legal Services Program. “These members sacrificed for this country. They should not have to sacrifice their right to build a family.”

Currently, DoD and the VA healthcare policies state that service members and veterans can only receive access to IVF if they are legally married, have the ability to produce necessary sperm and eggs to build an embryo and their fertility is directly impacted by a severe injury, illness or service-connected disability.

The lawsuits claim that the current IVF treatment requirements are discriminatory and ask the court to declare the alleged discriminatory eligibility provisions unlawful. The lawsuits state that the current DoD and VA policies violate Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which grants due process and equal protection to everyone, alleging that the current policies discriminate against individuals on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, marital status and the cause of their infertility.

Ashley Sheffield filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on behalf of a proposed class of veterans who are excluded from IVF access. Sheffield herself has been directly impacted by the IVF requirements in place by the VA. Due to injuries sustained during Sheffield’s service, she has developed issues that affect her fertility, qualifying her for the VA’s medical requirements, however, after seeking VA IVF services, she was denied due to being married to a woman.

“Like so many LGBTQ+ veterans, I honorably served in the Armed Forces, and I earned the health benefits that millions of veterans enjoy,” Sheffield said. “I’m shocked and disappointed that the VA is denying me and other veterans IVF benefits because we’re in same-sex marriages. We are entitled to equal treatment, and we should no longer be treated as second-class citizens.”

Sheffield’s case is not a singular experience, Lindsay Church, a non-binary NOW-NYC member, shared their experience in a statement at the press conference.

“My service came with severe injuries, leaving me disabled and unable to carry a child due to extensive damage to my ribs, sternum, spine, and torso,” Church wrote. “Despite my service-connected disability, my spouse and I do not have access to vital fertility treatments, such as IVF, because my disabilities are not to my reproductive system, and we are in a same-sex marriage.”

The VA only started providing IVF services in 2017, but with restrictions on who was covered delineated by Congress. Under pressure from rights advocates, VA has looked at loosening the rules but says Congress would have to enact the reforms. VA included such language in its 2023 budget plan, which would provide IVF to veterans who are single and in same-sex relationships, but the policy was not passed.

“We appreciate the VA’s proposal, but to our knowledge that budget proposal has not gone anywhere in this Congress,” said Yael Caplan, a representative from Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic. “So, if this Administration wants to stop unlawful discrimination, they can do so and stop enforcing these harmful conditions.”

NOW-NYC seeks revisions to this policy which include providing IVF services to same-sex couples, individuals who are single and access for individuals whose infertility has not been directly diagnosed as a result of military service.

The lawsuits specifically ask for the court to dismiss the requirements of marriage, the requirements to provide a sperm and an egg and the requirements that infertility be due to military services, citing these issues as discriminatory provisions.

“Ten years ago, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act because that heinous law treated same-sex marriages as invalid and dehumanized LGBTQ+ people,” said Michael Stefanilo Jr., a partner who leads the LGBTQ+ Civil Rights practice at the Boston location of Brody Hardoon, Perkins, & Kesten, LLP. “There is no excuse for the VA breathing new life into the bigotry that LGBTQ service members and veterans have faced for hundreds of years.”

Air Force 1st Lt. Micah Grissom was visiting Princess Beach near Destin, Florida, May 13 when he sprang into action to save the life of a distressed swimmer caught in one of those deadly currents.

When Grissom, assigned to the 96th Operations Support Squadron at nearby Eglin Air Force Base, and his wife of three months at the time, Lydia, arrived at Princess Beach, they saw a frantic scene playing out on the sandy shore. People were pointing out to the ocean, a woman was on the phone with 911, and a group of people were huddled by the water’s edge, looking out. As the 25-year-old Colorado native scanned the scene, he saw three swimmers who appeared to be in trouble approximately 20-30 yards away in the deeper water between sandbars.

The group of three included a couple who had been dragged into the rip current and a swimmer who had initially tried to help but got swept up in the rip current himself.

Grissom also noticed double red flags, meaning the water was closed to the public due to high surf and strong currents. At first, he was unsure if the swimmers were at risk or just enjoying the waves. After asking some onlookers about the situation, Grissom decided he wanted to investigate.

“I told my wife I wanted to go and check it out, just to see if something was wrong, because it can’t hurt to go and check on people and just ask if they are okay,” he said.

Springing into action, he entered the water and allowed the strong currents to pull him closer to the distressed swimmers. He reached them quickly, and it was clear they were not okay. The female swimmer had swallowed a lot of water and was semi-conscious, her limp body supported by the two male swimmers. Due to the severity of the situation and the difficulty the other two men were having, the group decided Grissom would try to save her.

Having aquatic-rescue experience himself from the Merchant Marine Academy prior to commissioning in the Air Force, Grissom started his rescue attempt, despite never having encountered a rip current before.

At first, he tried to use a side stroke to get himself and the female swimmer out of the rip current and safely to land, but the strength and force of the swiftly moving water made this task impossible.

“It’s very deceptive just looking at it from the shoreline,” Grissom said. “I mean you could see the waves crashing overhead, but you don’t realize just how strong the water is until you’re in it and you feel the pull of the ocean bringing you out to sea. So, when I was out there trying to swim against the rip current with her, it was just a big struggle — and it would have been, even if I was alone.

“It’s hard enough to attempt to swim against it by yourself, but then you add another person, and it’s nearly impossible,” Grissom said.

Switching tactics, Grissom decided that he had to use the waves to his advantage. As a wave broke, Grissom would launch the woman’s body forward with as much force as he could muster to get her closer to shore. But the depth of the water robbed him of the ability to push off the ocean floor as his feet could not reach it. He didn’t have enough power to move her very far.

Despite being a devoted scuba diver and snorkeler, the enormous pull of the rip tide proved to be a larger problem than he anticipated. After each toss of her body, Grissom would get pulled underwater and have to first get air himself before quickly swimming to keep her afloat, then restarting the entire process.

“Reality hit me and I thought, ‘dang, we’re not able to fight this.’ I did fear that [the rip current would win],” he said. “I think I knew that I’d be able to make it out, but with this woman, the clock’s just ticking because she had taken in a lot of water. … I knew we had to get her out, and that was terrifying to think about. I just became very desperate. I’m like. I have to get her out now.”

Throughout this whole ordeal, he and the female swimmer did not speak at all, he noted. She was just eerily calm and compliant with the entire situation; whether she had accepted her fate or was too tired to respond is unknown.

Rip currents are prevalent along the East, Gulf and West coasts of the U.S., as well as along the shores of the Great Lakes. According to the United States Lifesaving Association, over 100 deaths a year are due to rip currents in U.S. waters.

One young man was simply wading in knee-deep water at an Oregon beach May 12 when he was knocked over by a wave and pulled out into the Pacific Ocean by a rip current.

On the July 4th weekend, lifeguards were forced to pull almost 200 swimmers out of the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks due to powerful rip currents. These rescues followed at least 10 deaths in June due to rip currents in Alabama and Florida.

On Sunday, eight people were rescued from a rip current in Lake Michigan, near Park Township, Michigan. Three people were pulled out into the lake by rough waters, and the five people who tried to rescue them also had to be rescued.

Rip currents pose a dangerous threat even to athletes. On June 27, Ryan Mallett, a former NFL quarterback, died in a rip current near Destin.

The dangers that rip currents pose were not lost on Grissom’s wife and other bystanders who were watching fearfully on the shore as he struggled to save the woman’s life.

Eventually, Grissom was able to get his tiptoes to the sandy ocean floor and get firmer footing to propel the woman forward with his slow but productive tossing method. Once he was able to stand, he beelined towards the shore, holding her in his arms.

When they emerged from the water, friends of the couple trapped in the rip current descended upon the female swimmer and forced her to vomit up sea water and help her regain consciousness as medics arrived on the scene. Meanwhile, Lydia ran towards her husband to make sure he was okay.

With adrenaline seizing through his veins during the rescue, the aftermath — an utter lack of energy and fatigue — didn’t hit until Grissom was safely on dry land.

Because he was totally focused on the woman’s safety, Grissom doesn’t remember exactly how the two male swimmers made it back to shore, but they did. Afterward, they told Grissom that God had sent him to the beach to save them that day.

“I absolutely agree, because when we were heading to the beach, we weren’t even planning to go to that beach,” Grissom said. The only reason Lydia and he ended up at Princess Beach was because they had noticed some available nearby parking.

Although the beginning of Grissom’s day at the beach turned into a harrowing ordeal, his heroic actions saved at least one life, possibly more. He was then able to to enjoy the rest of his beach day in peace with Lydia.

“The threat environment facing us today is no longer dominated by terrorists or violent extremist organizations,” said Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, AFCENT commander and head of the Combined Forces Air Component for U.S. Central Command. “But there are other threats in this region, and we must be ready to face them as well. The ETSG represents a critical evolution in AFCENT’s warfighting capabilities to address these emerging threats.”

During a meeting with reporters earlier this year, Grynkewich said his focus had shifted from extremist groups — although that remains a concern — to deterring Iran’s nuclear program and thwarting the proxy groups that receive advanced conventional weapons and training from Iran. Tehran has turned its attention to attacking U.S. and coalition forces in Syria, and possibly mounting offensives at sea and on the region’s oil infrastructure, he added.

Ar a July 3 event at Al Udeid to celebrate the creation of the ETSG and to commemorate a change of command, Grynkewich said these threats required a new and innovative approach, and a “way to ensure we could generate airpower whenever and wherever needed.”

The ETSG will advance U.S. goals in the region by combining elements of AFCENT’s existing logistics, sustainment and engineering units to provide a more agile and responsive support capability, he said. Since its creation in March, it has already successfully conducted missions across 12 bases in eight countries.

The unit, which Grynkewich described as an echelon above wing support capability, includes airmen from 19 different Air Force Specialty Codes.

During the July 3 event, Col. Glenn Cameron took command of the ETSG from Col. Anthony Figiera, who oversaw its formation.

“The ETSG is an organization that will help us fight the next war,” Figiera said. “It’s about agile combat employment. This group is focused on campaigning — setting the theater, providing capabilities and resources — but can swiftly transition from theater campaigning into operations execution.”

The ETSG’s ability to make swift use of vital capabilities where they are in high demand will crucially impact the Air Force’s mission.

“This will be vital tomorrow as the ETSG works to ensure our theater is set for any future contingency operations,” Grynkewich said. “It will be essential in wartime, allowing us to execute agile combat employment by ensuring those locations have the logistics, engineering and communications infrastructure in place.”

Cameron, the unit’s new cmmander, “has the exact right background for this new and impactful command, and I’m excited to see what he and his team do next,” Grynkewich said.

Around 40,000 to 60,000 U.S. troops are deployed across CENTCOM, largely at military hubs in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

Roughly 2,500 Americans remain in Iraq to advise and assist local troops in keeping the Islamic State at bay — a job that often falls to the Iraqi air force.

Cope Thunder is a bilateral exercise that aims to improve the interoperability of the United States and the Philippines through fighter training. The exercise will allow the two countries to swap tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Cope Thunder was first held in 1976 in the Philippines. However, in 1992, it was moved to Eielson Air Force Base and overtime renamed Red Flag Alaska. This will mark the first time Cope Thunder has been held in the Philippines since 1990.

The exercise is a valuable opportunity for the United States and the Philippines to improve their military cooperation and exchange helpful tactics and will feature C-130 Hercules, A-10 Warthogs, and F-22 Raptors, taken from multiple participating units for the exercise.

The aircraft on display include, but are not limited to those, and showcased a Philippine Air Force FA-50 performing a touch-and-go on July 5. On the same day, a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor from the Hawaiian Raptors Squadron, which is made up of the 19th and 199th Fighter Squadrons, landed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines to participate in exercise Cope Thunder 23-2.

The overall goal of this exercise is to heighten our countries’ shared interests and strengthen the two nation’s military bonds. By working together and providing well-trained and equipped troops, the nation dissuades aggressors by demonstrating the military’s commitment to working together to ensure regional stability.

In the announcement, it was stated that Simmons, who is currently assigned as command senior enlisted leader of the Space Operations Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, will replace Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott H. Stalker as command senior enlisted leader for U.S. Space Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.

In a moderated discussion on Agile Combat Employment and Enlisted Leadership back in October 2022, Simmons discussed the complexities space brings to missions and the unforeseeable climate space imposes.

“You continue to hear that space is congested, contested, [and] competitive, I’ll add that it’s complex. It is extremely complex in space,” Simmons said. “Space is ubiquitous. It is persistently present. It is involved in every mission, it is involved in every capability and it must be intertwined as such… Space is no longer peaceful, permissive or predictable. That is a new condition we find ourselves in.”

Simmons continued on to highlight the present dangers space holds and the importance of exploring the terrain in informed, updated ways.

“Space is a ballistic battlefield. And what I mean by that is things move in space at 17,000 plus miles per hour and with over 50,000 objects in space or nearly 50,000 objects in space, each of those have the potential of colliding at an instant and creating a cascade of long lived shrapnel,” Simmons said. “That is a battlefield that just doesn’t stop. It doesn’t rest. Space is a technical and a tactical terrain. We have to get after a new set of threats and we have to understand what the new thresholds are.”

Simmons emphasized our responsibility to understand and battle space with new, inventive solutions.

“We have to look at getting after things, not only in an innovative way, but being able to iterate those things and integrate them into the fight faster and further in than what’s ever been asked from space before,” Simmons said.

By giving Simmons a new assignment, hopefully his background and extensive knowledge of space can help the U.S. Space Command advance their journey into space and continue to fight on such an incalculable terrain.

“We have to empower at the edges with the authorities to be able to execute at speed,” Simmons said. “That means we have to be able to trust those leaders at the very front end, the very front edge of the space fight.”

With Simmons as one of those leaders at the front of the space fight, the ever-evolving fight in space continues with a new leader.

The Army’s internal auditors will review whether officials at five installations correctly docked meal allowances from soldiers during field training events this year, according to an internal announcement reviewed by Army Times.

At stake is roughly $15 per field day for a typical enlisted soldier, and troops interviewed by Army Times were furious that the service is “counting pennies,” as one characterized the audits.

The audits, conducted by the Army Audit Agency, will check basic allowance for subsistence — or BAS — deductions from May and June at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Cavazos, Texas; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Carson, Colorado; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

BAS, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and Army regulations, is a monthly payment between $311 and $905 based on rank and availability of cooking facilities, intended to “partially offset” the costs of service members’ meals. Although virtually all troops beyond those in initial training receive BAS, many barracks-dwelling members must pay equivalent mandatory meal card charges.

Under the same regulations, though, units must deduct soldiers’ BAS on a day-for-day basis when they attend field exercises and eat “Government-provided” meals. The deductions add up, and can tear a hole in a soldier’s budget amid widespread food insecurity in the ranks.

Bryce Dubee, a spokesperson for the Army, said the audits are a “follow-up…to previous audits conducted on meal collection for field training” that indicated significant “non-compliance” with the deduction policy.

Although Dubee said the Army’s new HR platform, the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, did not inspire the audit, the platform was highlighted in the internal announcement. The new program changed long-standing processes for BAS deductions.

According to the regulation governing Army audits, such efforts identify areas where improvements can be made, make recommendations to solve problems, and identify “potential monetary benefits” in cases of financial loss. The internal auditors often review complex or new pay-related programs. Last year, the agency found an experimental recruiting performance bonus program may have overpaid recruiters by nearly $500,000.

Before the new HR platform debuted, the deductions would occur after lower-level commanders submitted field exercise rosters to finance offices. According to an internal control checklist, division-level units are typically responsible for ensuring their units impose BAS collections in line with DoD directives and Army policy.

On social media forums devoted to the Army, soldiers discussed the pending audits and openly wondered if they’d see missed deductions retroactively applied as debt on their paystubs. In an email to Army Times, Dubee said the audits are focused on “process and compliance” rather than clawing back money from soldiers.

One former infantry NCO who spoke with Army Times, requesting anonymity because he isn’t authorized to speak to media, suggested responsibility for any mistakes should fall on administrative personnel rather than individual soldiers.

But the NCO, now a cyber warfare soldier, also questioned the practice of deducting the meal allowance during field training altogether.

Army regulations governing the allowance explicitly state BAS “is not intended to offset the costs of meals for family members.” But many military families try — and fail — to qualify for food assistance programs, and even the Pentagon’s new “basic needs allowance” for hungry families is not working as intended.

“If you’re an E4 and married, that’s an extra [$450] a month,” the cyber NCO said. “You want to tell the guy, ‘Hey, I know you’re in the field away from your family, and we fed you MREs, but we’re gonna completely wreck your budget this month and you just have to suffer.’”

Another soldier, an NCO stationed in Georgia, acknowledged the allowance is technically only intended for the soldier, but argued that “BAS is a vital part of [most service members’] monthly budget, especially with the current high inflation rates.”

In a text message to Army Times, he argued the service “should not be doing BAS deductions for field time…rations should be included in the training budget.”

Currently, it’s not clear whether the audits will expand to other installations should this round uncover widespread deduction failures. Dubee said the auditors “will make this determination.”