U.s. Troops | featured news

The first Vietnam veteran to be U.S. defense secretary is spending his first overseas trip on the job thanking soldiers and Marines. At about 11 a.m. ET Friday, Hagel touched down in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The US has deployed 100 troops to Niger to assist French forces in neighbouring Mali, President Barack Obama says.

A German official is saying Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told NATO allies that the U.S. will leave between 8,000-12,000 American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when combat ends.

President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that 34,000 troops will return from Afghanistan by early 2014, a source familiar with the speech told Reuters.

The Associated Press has learned that suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year....

U.S. military officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a Navy SEAL commander in Afghanistan. Navy SEAL Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Saturday of a non-combat-related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

While the Pentagon brass and U.S. military leaders are struggling over how to bring women into ground combat training, two young female soldiers have already proven they've got what it takes to join their male counterparts on the battlefield.

A federal lawsuit filed by four service members Tuesday challenges the Pentagon's longstanding policy barring women from serving in direct combat positions.

The men sought to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban and travel to Afghanistan to kill American troops, federal authorities said.

CNN's Randi Kaye looks at the fascination some military followers have with men in uniform.