In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either.
When the battle in the small village of Wanat ended, nine U.S. soldiers lay dead and 27 more were wounded. A detailed study of the attack by a military historian found that weapons failed repeatedly at a "critical moment" during the firefight on July 13, 2008, putting the outnumbered American troops at risk of being overrun by nearly 200 insurgents.
Pete Hegseth’s controversial plan to screen older soldiers for testosterone deficiencies and offer them more of...
When the ‘“department of government efficiency” was raging unchecked through the federal government in February 2025,...
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, this week ordered an annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and...
