Latest news with #M1A1
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to attend 250th Anniversary of the US Army Grand Military Parade
WASHINGTON (WCBD) – Preparations are underway in the nation's capital for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army's grand military parade. The parade will be attended by dignitaries from around the country, including South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette. Evette will join more than 9,000 soldiers from across the U.S. as they march through the streets of Washington and display some of the military's equipment. The parade will feature approximately 130 vehicles, including 28 M1A1 tanks, 28 Bradley fighting vehicles, 28 Stryker armored fighting vehicles, and various other vehicles towing artillery launchers. There will also be more than 50 helicopters and horses, mules, and army bands. The parade is estimated to cost $45 million. It gets underway Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A Minnesota military family speaks out: No troops to quell protests
An M1A1 tank in Washington D.C. (Photo by) As a Minnesota military family, we feel compelled to speak against the Los Angeles Marine deployment and address what we see as a far more troubling issue that affects every American family. The deployment of active duty military forces against American citizens on American soil in a law enforcement capacity is fundamentally wrong and deeply dangerous to our republic. Our Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen take a sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They are trained to fight wars — not to police American communities. When we blur the line between military force and civilian law enforcement, we abandon core principles that have protected our democracy for nearly 250 years. The Posse Comitatus Act is 150-year old law that bans in most instances federal troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement. As Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center for Justice writes, the law 'embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty.' Our founders understood that military power must never be turned inward against the very people our service members have sworn to protect. As a military family, we know the character of our service members. They are patriots who love this country and its people. They should never be put in the impossible position of having to choose between following orders and upholding their oath to protect American citizens' constitutional rights. This isn't just another ho-hum political dispute — it's about the fundamental nature of American democracy. Military families have sacrificed enough. Our service members should not be used as tools of domestic enforcement against the communities they call home. We call on all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, to reject the normalization of military deployment against civilians. Today it may not affect your family directly — but precedents set today will echo for generations. Our military belongs on foreign battlefields protecting America, not on American streets policing Americans.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's birthday military parade could cause $16 million of damage to DC's streets
Donald Trump's birthday military parade could cause as much as $16 million worth of damage to the streets of Washington, D.C., officials estimate. The June 14 parade, which will celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary, is being held on the president's own 79th birthday and will cost around $45 million. That price tag includes the estimated damage. Trump himself has called the cost of the parade 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it.' Organizers say that the parade will consist of around 130 vehicles, including 28 M1A1 tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker armored fighting vehicles and artillery launchers being towed. A flyover of the U.S. capital will be undertaken by more than 50 helicopters, while 7,000 soldiers will march in the streets. There will also be at least eight bands, three dozen horses and two mules. The Army has said that it will cover all repair costs to the District's streets, which it estimates will be $16 million, according to NBC News. It has already said that it would place thick metal plates as long as 20ft down where tanks will turn on the parade route, at a cost of $3 million. Earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was 'concerned' about the scope of damage that the tanks and armored vehicles could cause. "These are, for the most part, local streets, and if they're rendered in unusable, we have to make them usable,' she said. "Probably we would fix it and then go seek our money from the Fed," she said. "That gives me some concern about fronting costs and waiting for them to get back." Trump told NBC News' Meet the Press earlier this month that the 90-minute parade would be well worth its eye-watering cost. 'We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it,' Trump insisted.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's birthday military parade could cause $16 million of damage to DC's streets
Donald Trump's birthday military parade could cause as much as $16 million worth of damage to the streets of Washington, D.C., officials estimate. The June 14 parade, which will celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary, is being held on the president's own 79th birthday and will cost around $45 million. That price tag includes the estimated damage. Trump himself has called the cost of the parade 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it.' Organizers say that the parade will consist of around 130 vehicles, including 28 M1A1 tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker armored fighting vehicles and artillery launchers being towed. A flyover of the U.S. capital will be undertaken by more than 50 helicopters, while 7,000 soldiers will march in the streets. There will also be at least eight bands, three dozen horses and two mules. The Army has said that it will cover all repair costs to the District's streets, which it estimates will be $16 million, according to NBC News. It has already said that it would place thick metal plates as long as 20ft down where tanks will turn on the parade route, at a cost of $3 million. Earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was 'concerned' about the scope of damage that the tanks and armored vehicles could cause. "These are, for the most part, local streets, and if they're rendered in unusable, we have to make them usable,' she said. "Probably we would fix it and then go seek our money from the Fed," she said. "That gives me some concern about fronting costs and waiting for them to get back." Trump told NBC News' Meet the Press earlier this month that the 90-minute parade would be well worth its eye-watering cost. 'We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it,' Trump insisted.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Army estimates that Trump's military parade could cost $16 million in damage to Washington streets
The cost to repair Washington, D.C., streets after the upcoming military parade celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary could cost as much as $16 million, according to U.S. military officials. That's part of an estimated $45 million total cost for the June 14 military parade, which coincides with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday. The cost estimates have fluctuated as planning continues. In an interview with NBC News' 'Meet the Press' earlier this month, the president defended the cost of the parade, calling it 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it.' 'We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it,' Trump added. The parade will be part of a massive celebration in downtown Washington that includes a number of events, historical displays and a demonstration by the Army's famous parachute team, the Golden Knights. The parade itself will include about 130 vehicles, including 28 M1A1 tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker armored fighting vehicles and a number of vehicles towing artillery launchers. More than 50 helicopters will also participate in an 'extensive flyover' in the nation's capital. The event will also bring more than 9,000 soldiers from around the country to Washington, about 7,000 of whom will march in the parade itself. The event will also include at least eight Army bands, and some troops will ride on the nearly three dozen horses and two mules expected to march as part of a historical section of the parade. The soldiers visiting Washington for the parade will be housed in government buildings, including the Department of Agriculture building and a General Services Administration building. A few thousand others will bunk at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The troops are expected to eat military rations called meals ready to eat, or MREs, during their stay. Trump had long wanted a military parade during his first term. But it was canceled over concerns about cost and the optics of a military parade in the nation's capital that could be seen as akin to the kind commonly seen in Moscow, Beijing or Pyongyang, North Korea. The inclusion of tanks in a potential parade also drew concerns about what their tracks might do to the streets of Washington. The Army is preparing for the potential harm to Washington streets with several measures it hopes will avert damage. These include using 1-inch-thick steel plates, some as long as 20 feet, at places along the parade route where the tanks must turn and where those turns could cause the most damage to the streets. The addition of the steel plates is expected to cost the Army about $3 million, officials said. The tanks are also being outfitted with new track pads to create separation between the metal track and the ground, the officials said. Army officials said they believe these measures will keep the damage to a minimum and bring the cost of repairing any damage down significantly. 'We are targeting those areas that we have concerns, which primarily are areas where the tracked vehicles are going to have to turn sharply,' said Col. Jesse Curry, the executive officer for the Army Corps of Engineers. 'We are not particularly concerned that this staging area and the routes have been selected to really minimize the risk from weight and damage. But really, those areas where tanks have to turn, particularly the areas where the surface of the pavement, we typically receive an exaggerated level of stress.' The parade route itself will follow Constitution Avenue along the National Mall from 23rd Street to around 15th Street. The roughly 50 aircraft will include Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, including several special operations variants. Also planned to fly are several historic aircraft, including World War II-era B-25s, P-51s and Vietnam-era helicopters. The parade is expected to last roughly 90 minutes and will be broken into eras: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Global War on Terror, the modern Army and the future. The Army's Golden Knights will jump during the presentation about the Army's future and plan to deliver an American flag to Trump. In the early-May 'Meet the Press' interview, Trump defended himself against claims that the military parade was for his birthday, reiterating that the Army's 250th birthday and Flag Day are also on June 14. 'My birthday happens to be on Flag Day,' he said. 'I view it for Flag Day, not necessarily my birthday. Somebody put it together. But no, I think we're going to do something on June 14, maybe, or somewhere around there. But I think June 14. It's a very important day.' This article was originally published on