Army Gen. Carter Ham, US Africa Command boss, said he’s encouraged by the growing number of nations joining the coalition committed to stopping Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s forces from attacking innocent Libyan civilians. Ham told reporters Monday that Belgian and Canadian forces joined the fight on Monday and he expected additional countries to become involved in the coming days. US and British warships launched 124 Tomahawk missiles against Libya’s integrated air and missile defense systems over the weekend, effectively kick-starting the no-fly zone over the coastal city of Benghazi. On Sunday, US aircraft flew roughly 30 of the 60 air sorties over the region, but by Monday, coalition partners’ aircraft flew “the overwhelming percentage” of sorties, said Ham. “We are hopeful some other nations will continue to join us. Some have made some firm offers and we expect to see their forces operating in the next day or two,” he said. France, Denmark, and Qatar are among the coalition nations participating in Operation Odyssey Dawn. (Ham transcript)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.