WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense will not be creating a Cold War Service medal, and commemorative medals being sold by private vendors are not authorized for wear on military uniforms, defense officials said.

FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C. - A culture of change, flexibility and adaptability is more important to transforming the military than simply having new hardware, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told students Jan. 31 at the National Defense University here.

WASHINGTON - Workers are ahead of schedule in repairing the huge hole sliced out of the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001, by a terrorist-hijacked airliner.

WASHINGTON - Defense Department efforts netted a record $12.6 million for the 2001 Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz noted at a Jan. 31 Pentagon awards ceremony.

WASHINGTON - DoD officials believe caring for service members after a deployment should be a national priority. They've taken the lessons learned since the Gulf War and devised a set of guidelines for healthcare professionals to care for service members with deployment- related health concerns.

WASHINGTON - "It is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedom's fight," President Bush said Jan. 29 during his first State of the Union address.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used the daily Pentagon press briefing to give some details about President Bush's fiscal 2003 defense budget proposals, which the White House plans to release Feb. 4.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Society for Human Resource Management showed its support for America's military reserve components Jan. 29 by signing a pledge at a society luncheon ceremony here.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - It will be 4 a.m. in Kandahar, but service members in Afghanistan will be able to see the Super Bowl this Sunday.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is launching a border security initiative that includes new funds for the U.S. Coast Guard.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will talk Jan. 31 about the transformation of the U.S. military during a major speech at the National Defense University here.

WASHINGTON - People should expect to see the number of Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees in U.S. control to keep growing, according to Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem.

WASHINGTON - Anti-Taliban Afghan forces supported by U.S. Special Forces yesterday killed six Al Qaeda members who had seized one of the wings of a hospital in Kandahar.

WASHINGTON - Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke today gave a brief snapshot preview of the president's 2003 defense budget.

WASHINGTON - Afghan Interim Authority Chairman Hamid Karzai is meeting with America's national security team today to discuss the status and disposition of the Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees.

U.S. NAVAL BASE, GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld flew here today to visit Joint Task Force 160 troops at Camp X-Ray, where 158 Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees are now under U.S. military control.

WASHINGTON - While the U.S. Central Command chief is satisfied with the type and level of American troops in Afghanistan, if he needs more he can call on them, said a Joint Staff spokesman.

WASHINGTON - They're evil, they're out there, and America is their target. Global terrorists are relentless in their desire to attack the world's bastion of freedom, according to President Bush.

WASHINGTON - U.S. commanders in Afghanistan used an AC-130 gunship strike to destroy a "very large cache" of arms and ammunition discovered Jan. 24 at the site of a raid.

WASHINGTON - WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2002 - The president's upcoming State of the Union speech will cite national security, homeland defense and revitalizing the economy as the nation's top three goals.

WASHINGTON - He's the commander no one wants to see.

WASHINGTON - Talk about a general who's proud of his troops. Just mention the Army Special Forces operation in Afghanistan to the Army's vice chief of staff and he'll glow as he tells you about their mission.

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces raided two Taliban leadership compounds north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers told reporters today.

WASHINGTON - U.S. aircraft since Jan. 21 have struck Iraqi targets three times in the southern no- fly zone, DoD officials said Jan. 24.

WASHINGTON - While combat still happens in Afghanistan, the international humanitarian relief effort has averted a disaster in that country, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Jan. 24.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2002 - The flow of Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees into the holding facility a - The flow of Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees into the holding facility at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will continue as capacity and facilities permit, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke said today.

WASHINGTON - After some initial growing pains, the European Union's conversion to the Euro currency that started Jan. 1 will make life easier for U.S. service members serving in Europe, DoD officials believe.

WASHINGTON - The United States "will not cut corners" when it comes to national defense, President Bush told about 1,500 members of the Reserve Officers Association here today.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Central Command has relaxed the requirement that female service members wear the Muslim abaya when off-base in civilian clothes.

WASHINGTON - They are disciplined, smart, motivated, goal-oriented and have a disposition to serve.

WASHINGTON - Since Sept. 11, the nation's Army Reserve forces are mobilizing faster than ever before, according to the chief of the Army Reserve.

WASHINGTON - Terrorists hate the United States for "who we are and what we stand for," Army Gen. John Keane told several hundred military reserve officers here today.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said charges that U.S. military personnel are mistreating Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "are just plain false."

SPRINGFIELD - Postmark deadline is Jan. 28 for aspiring elementary school artists of military families to enter the Armed Services YMCA's art contest for Military Family Week.

NATICK, Mass. - The new, streamlined Military Eye Protection System developed at the Army Soldier Systems Center here is about to replace a grab bag of current protective eyewear.

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials have no evidence that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead from a kidney ailment, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on the NBC-TV program "Meet the Press."

WASHINGTON - Two Marines died and five others were injured Jan. 20 in the crash of a CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter in Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command said.

WASHINGTON - At the same time U.S. and anti-Taliban forces were liberating Afghanistan, an unprecedented humanitarian operation was also under way.

WASHINGTON - The focus in Afghanistan remains the "exploitation" of sites for information and intelligence, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, said today.

WASHINGTON - As many as 60,000 service members who served in combat zones over the past several years recently got letters from the IRS saying they may lose their tax exclusion for that combat-zone duty. But DoD is telling the troops not to worry about it.

WASHINGTON - Where were you and what were you doing when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.?

WASHINGTON - A five-member delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross will visit the detainee holding facility today at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

WASHINGTON - Recruiters said it is too early to gauge whether the events of Sept. 11 will translate into more young Americans wanting to join the military.

WASHINGTON - DoD is getting "more tools in its toolkit" to properly shape an aging civilian work force, a senior personnel official said.

WASHINGTON - Americans were able to stand united after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on America because of efforts of such people as Martin Luther King Jr., Chaplain of the Coast Guard (Navy Capt.) Leroy Gilbert told the audience today at DoD's 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. annual breakfast.

WASHINGTON - When the Winter Olympics begin Feb. 8 in Salt Lake City, Utah, thousands of U.S. service members will be on the scene.

WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials Jan. 15 received 1,000 origami cranes from a Japanese couple who spent nearly three months hand-folding their gesture of sympathy and prayer for the families and victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon last year

WASHINGTON - When Jerry Bruckheimer met with Gen. John M. Keane at the Pentagon, the Hollywood film producer told the Army vice chief of staff he planned to make a movie about the Army's 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia.

WASHINGTON - The United States and Russia have agreed to set up several working groups to discuss defense-related issues in preparation for President Bush's Moscow visit later this year.

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces are moving into the Philippines, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters today.

WASHINGTON - John Walker Lindh, the so- called American Taliban member who was captured after a November prison uprising in Afghanistan, has been charged in federal court.

WASHINGTON - Like teachers throughout America, Jim Sisler threw out his lesson plan for Sept. 12, 2001.

WASHINGTON - With the arrival of 30 detainees there are now 50 Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists under guard at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

WASHINGTON - Military operations around Al Qaeda's Zawar Kili complex are winding down, Joint Staff spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said today.

WASHINGTON - If military intelligence is to be good, it has to be secret and it has to be fast.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. intelligence effort in Afghanistan will pay off in thwarting attacks on the United States, its allies and friends, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Jan. 11.

WASHINGTON - More than 1,000 U.S. service members are en route to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to provide security for the Al Qaeda detainees under U.S. control.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed actions in Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism with Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill during a meeting at the Pentagon Jan. 10.

WASHINGTON - An act recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush increases the guaranty on Veterans Affairs home loans from $50,750 to $60,000.

WASHINGTON - President Bush has said that U.S. troops will probably be in Afghanistan for quite some time, and one of the first questions service members involved in operations in Afghanistan and environs ask is, "How long is that?"

WASHINGTON - U.S. and coalition forces continued to hammer the Al Qaeda's Zawar Kili site in eastern Afghanistan, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke said Jan. 10.

WASHINGTON - In signing the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Act, President George W. Bush said the United States owes military personnel the full measure of respect for their service and sacrifice.

WASHINGTON - President Bush will sign the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Bill into law Jan. 10 during a ceremony at the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON - A Marine Corps KC-130/R crashed into a mountain near Shamsi, Pakistan, at 6:45 p.m. today Pakistan time, U.S. Central Command officials said.

WASHINGTON - U.S. aircraft continued to hit the Al Qaeda base at Zawar Kili Jan. 8, U.S. Central Command officials said.

WASHINGTON - DoD is embarked on making fundamental changes to America's nuclear deterrent, said J.D. Crouch, assistant defense secretary for international security policy.

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces currently are detaining 364 prisoners who were caught in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld addressed Afghanistan, base closures and the DoD budget Jan. 8 in a C-SPAN television call-in show.

WASHINGTON - U.S. aircraft struck "approximately" four targets in Afghanistan Jan. 6, DoD spokeswoman Torie Clarke said today.

WASHINGTON - President Bush announced on Oct. 7, 2001, that the United States had begun striking the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later that day took the rostrum in the Pentagon and spoke about America's aims in its war on terrorists.

WASHINGTON - U.S. and coalition forces struck again at the Zawar Kili complex in Afghanistan's Paktia Province, DoD officials said Jan. 7.

WASHINGTON - Service members will see an average increase of 6.9 percent in their January pay.

TAMPA, Fla. - Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the tall Texan who has become such a common figure to the American public as he leads American forces fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, was shopping for olives in Crete when his world changed so drastically Sept. 11.

WASHINGTON - U.S. and U.N. efforts in Afghanistan appear to have averted starvation in the country, U.S. State Department officials said Jan. 3.

WASHINGTON - A Vietnam vet in Alabama. A single Mom in Alaska. A World War II veteran in Big Fork, Montana. A fifth-grader in Minnesota. A chaplain in Tennessee.

WASHINGTON - U.S. B-52 and B-1 bombers, F-18 fighters and AC-130 gunships struck a suspected Al Qaeda regrouping point -- the Zawar Kili compound southwest of Khowst -- for the second time in two days Jan. 4.

WASHINGTON - "Al Qaeda is on the run," said Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the chief of U.S. Central Command Jan. 4.

WASHINGTON - The outpouring of financial support for the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon has been prodigious.

WASHINGTON - Ask George W. Bush about his field commander in Afghanistan, and he'll describe Army Gen. Tommy Franks as a "down-to-earth, no-nonsense" kind of guy.

WASHINGTON - In his first news conference of 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today there is a lot left to do in Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism will be pursued wherever it leads.

WASHINGTON - "A couple of hundred" soldiers from the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division are on the ground in Kandahar, Afghanistan, to replace Marines, who have been there since late November.

WASHINGTON - The United States will use whatever resources needed including special operations forces to capture the Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership, Pentagon officials said Jan. 2.