Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

The United States is ready to change fundamentally its military presence on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe, where static U.S. defenses have stood guard for decades, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said June 3.

“It’s time to adjust those locations from static defense to a more agile and a more capable and a more 21st century posture,” Rumsfeld told reporters.

While declining to discuss specifics, Rumsfeld’s remarks were a clear indication that after months of internal Pentagon calculations about how best to array American forces abroad, and after a period of consultations with U.S. European and Asia allies, the first major changes are about to be happen.

There are about 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, about 47,000 in Japan and about 100,000 in Europe.

Doctor: Anti-malarial drug may be harmful

In the past six weeks, Dr. Michael Hoffer has treated nine service members who returned from Iraq or Afghanistan unable to walk a straight line or stand still without staggering. Some said objects appeared to spin around them for more than an hour at a time.

A Navy commander and director of the Department of Defense Spatial Orientation Center at Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Hoffer believes the problems are linked to a drug called Lariam — known generically as mefloquine — that the military gives to troops to prevent malaria.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has urged the Pentagon to set a timeline for a Defense Department study, announced in March, of negative effects from Lariam and other anti-malarial drugs.

Two soldiers held after another is killed

Two soldiers from a combat unit at Fort Benning, Ga., that saw heavy action early in the Iraq war were arrested in the shooting death of a buddy in the crowded parking lot of a Columbus, Ga., nightclub.

Spc. Stanley Swanson, 23, was shot in the chest and killed at about 2 a.m. May 30 outside the Boom-Boom Room, said Lt. Steve Cox of the Columbus Police Department.

Police arrested Spc. Andrew S. Mineau, 21, and Spc. Anthony J. Calhoun, 24. A Benning spokeswoman confirmed they are with the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

A 9mm handgun and a shotgun were seized from Calhoun, Cox said. And a .40-caliber handgun was taken from Mineau.

On June 1, a local judge ordered that Mineau and Calhoun be held without bond, he said.

Officer sentenced in fatal crash

Air Force 1st Lt. Todd Doughty was sentenced to 18 months confinement and dismissal from the service after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving in a general court-martial May 31.

The charges stemmed from a February incident in Kabul, Afghanistan. After drinking, Doughty lost control of his vehicle while driving at a high speed. The passenger in the car, Spc. David E. Hall, assigned to 805th Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, Army Reserve, Raleigh, N.C., was killed in the one-vehicle accident.

Soldier charged after wife found dead

A woman’s body was found in a military footlocker and her husband, a Reserve soldier she publicly hailed as a “hero” during his tour in Iraq, has been arrested.

Bail was set at $250,000 June 1 for Matthew James Denni, 38, of Battle Ground, Wash., who remained in the Clark County Jail for investigation of first-degree murder in the death of Kimberly Faye Denni. Arraignment was set for June 10.