Stars and Stripes Daily Headlines

www.stripes.com February 27, 2023 | View in browser   Pentagon tells service members to stop displaying giant US flags at major events In a Feb. 10 memo to its public affairs offices, the Defense Department said that having service members carry the U.S. flag horizontally or land it on the ground after a parachute jump is no longer acceptable. Read more > Military, VA provide troops, vets more gun safety options to help reduce suicides Reducing access to firearms has helped reduce suicide deaths and improved survival rates of suicide attempts, according to a Pentagon committee’s report, which includes 117 recommendations that stretch beyond safe firearm storage. Read more > Chaplains to serve as counselors aboard all Navy destroyers by 2025 The Navy plans to permanently assign chaplains to all destroyers by fiscal year 2025 in hopes they can fill a shortage of emotional, mental and spiritual counselors aboard those ships. Read more >   US and allies hold naval drills as Russian activity increases in Mediterranean The U.S. and its allies launched large-scale naval drills in the Mediterranean Sea, where Russian warships have been transiting in increasingly high numbers. Read more >   Tokyo protests Chinese coast guard’s sixth approach to disputed Senkaku islets this year Incidents this week marked the fifth and sixth times this year that Chinese coast guard vessels intruded into Japan’s territorial waters, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. Read more > Longtime AFN leader dies of heart attack at US air base in Japan Robert Hawthorne, chief of the American Forces Network Pacific technical services division, died Thursday at this base in western Tokyo after suffering a heart attack. Read more >   Bell eyes facility expansion even as new Army helicopter contract draws scrutiny Preparations for new Bell facilities in Texas come despite an ongoing review of the selection process by a key congressional watchdog agency. Read more >   China protests US Navy surveillance plane’s Taiwan Strait flight China said it closely monitored the flight of a US surveillance plane through the Taiwan Strait, accusing the US of having ‘deliberately disrupted and undermined the regional situation.’ Read more >   Contract for Navy’s Red Hill facility alternatives is an enigma The company awarded a half-million-dollar, no-bid "public outreach" contract to solicit ideas from the community about possible alternative uses of the Navy's Red Hill facility is being tight-lipped about how it plans to conduct community outreach. Read more >   UN chief points to 'massive' rights violations in Ukraine Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered "the most massive violations of human rights" in the world today, the head of the United Nations said Monday, as the war pushed into its second year with no end in sight. Read more >   NASA, SpaceX scrub launch attempt of next astronauts to space station NASA announced it would target Thursday at 12:34 a.m. as long as SpaceX could resolve the technical issue that prevented Monday’s launch. Read more >   STRIPES.COM | EUROPE | JAPAN | KOREA | OKINAWA | GUAM © 2022 Stars and Stripes · 633 3rd St. NW Suite 500, Washington, DC 20001-3050