Iraq and Iran were among the key issues on the table when Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with top officials in Saudi Arabia.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for talks with political and military leaders.

Women Airforce Service Pilots were awarded Congressional Gold Medals Wednesday for their service during WWII. WASPs were the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.

Lawmakers are questioning the cost and the delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

For three days in October 1944, a Japanese-American military unit fought in dense woods, heavy fog and freezing temperatures in the mountains of France, answering the prayers of an American battalion pinned down by German forces.

In a bloody rescue mission that became one of World War II’s most famed battles, more than 800 troops fighting with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team died as the unit saved 217 American forces.

“The 442nd, for its size and length of service, is the most decorated unit in the entire history of the United States military,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week in remarks before the Japanese American Memorial Fund. “Their story has taught me so many things and has likely inspired all who have heard it.”

German forces had cut off the Texas National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, in the Vosges Mountains when commanders ordered in the 442nd. The German troops already had repelled repeated rescue attempts by the 141st’s other two battalions.

Nearly half of the men in the Japanese-American unit would be dead or wounded three days later, with the Texas battalion still isolated.

“Then, something happened in the 442nd,” according to an official account at the Army Center for Military History. “By ones and twos, almost spontaneously and without orders, the men got to their feet and, with a kind of universal anger, moved toward the enemy position. Bitter hand-to-hand combat ensued as the Americans fought from one fortified position to the next. Finally, the enemy broke in disorder.”

The original 4,000 men had to be replaced nearly three and a half times. In total, about 14,000 men served at the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, ultimately earning 9,486 Purple Hearts, 21 Medals of Honor, and an unprecedented eight Presidential Unit Citations, Mullen told an audience that included troops from the 442nd and 141st.

“I am truly humbled in the deepest sense possible to be in their midst, to share with you some of the many lessons I have learned from their intrepid service,” he said. “Their story has taught me so many things and has likely inspired all who have heard it.”

Mullen said a study of what inspired Japanese-American troops is a lesson in pride, courage and a heartfelt belief in the liberties promised by the U.S. Constitution.

“These Japanese-Americans nobly volunteered to serve the very country who persecuted and imprisoned them and their families,” Mullen said, referring to the U.S. policy of placing Japanese-Americans in internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “Yet, these Japanese-Americans who chose to serve felt not only a deep sense of patriotism, but they also felt that they had to prove their patriotism, their loyalty to a then-ungrateful nation.”

The chairman said he derives another important lesson from the 442nd from an anecdote about one of the unit’s officers. When a Colonel Kim, a Korean-American, was told to transfer out of the unit because of a historical Korean-Japanese friction, he refused the order.

“‘They are Americans. I am an American. And together, we are going to fight for America,’” Mullen said, quoting Kim.

“In everything we do, every choice we make,” Mullen continued, “we should strive to make our communities and this nation as rich and diverse as possible by living up to the principles upon which the United States of America was founded.”

Afghan and NATO forces captured three suspected militants during a joint raid in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday.

NATO officials are calling Wednesday’s suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan an indiscriminate attack on innocent civilians.

Wednesday marks the anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Japanese forces, the last remaining Axis Power of World War II.

Former enemies and allies somberly marked the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in Poland on Tuesday.

Vaccinations against the H1N1 flu virus will be mandatory for all uniformed personnel.

New Orleans will soon open the National World War II Museum.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II.

One hundred thirty soldiers with the Minnesota Army Reserve are preparing for their deployment to Afganistan.

Violence in Baghdad is at an all-time low since 2004.

When an “honor flight” from Long Island, N.Y., lands here tomorrow with 31 mostly World War II veterans aboard, it’s likely to be met in the same manner as others before it: with much applause and fanfare.

The Honor Flight Network is a nonprofit group that transports World War II survivors and other veterans who may be terminally ill to the nation’s capital to visit and reflect at their memorials. Hundreds of veterans have taken advantage of the opportunity to visit the national memorials at no cost.

“The reason I’m involved in this is to make a difference, and I feel that we are,” said retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Eric L. Haney, whose book, “Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counter-terrorist Unit,” was the basis for the hit TV series “The Unit.”

Haney also is a spokesman for Theragenics Corp., a partner with the Honor Flight Network for this year’s honor flights. On behalf of the corporation, Haney said, he hopes to educate the veterans about the risk of prostate cancer and available treatments.

“We’ve helped make it possible for hundreds of veterans who would never have gone to D.C. to take a trip to their memorial,” he said. “So many of them tell me it’s an experience they will never forget, [and] many say it was the best day they’ve had in a long time. I’m grateful to give back to them. On a larger scale, we’re helping to spread a message that is so important but rarely discussed: men’s health.”

The Long Island veterans will begin their one-day excursion around 10:30 a.m. and wrap it up around 8 p.m. In between, they’ll visit the World War II Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Marine Corps War Memorial, more commonly referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial.

The experience understandably is an emotional one for the veterans, but it also has an impact on the relatives and guardians who accompany each flight.

“The trip allowed me conversation time with men and women who became remarkable heroes by their response to duty,” said Dr. Jack Griffeth, who served as a medical guardian aboard an Honor Flight from Atlanta earlier this year, in his blog on the tohonortocure.com Web site.

“I conversed with men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, leaped from the sinking [USS] Yorktown, saw the flag raised on Iwo Jima, liberated the prisoners from Japanese and German prisons … [and] took on shrapnel and continued to fight,” he said.

Griffeth said the veterans often told their stories through tears, and occasionally with enthusiasm and excitement. The doctor said he was only too enthused to relay all he’d learned when he encountered groups of students who had volunteered to assist the veterans.

“I went up to several groups … exclaiming, ‘Remember reading about Pearl Harbor? This guy was at the airfield during the attack! This guy was on the Yorktown when it was torpedoed and sank! Remember reading about D-Day? This guy was on Omaha Beach,’” he wrote. “‘These old guys you are pushing in wheelchairs saved the world!’”

The kids truly seemed to get it, he said.

So, as the plane lands tomorrow and the veterans make their rounds, a new generation has a chance to learn about The Greatest Generation from the men and women who earned that moniker.

The Honor Flight Network has four more flights planned this year.

Source: Department of Defense