WASHINGTON - More than 350 military athletes and officials from all the services are headed for Zagreb, Croatia, to compete in the 2nd Military World Games Aug. 5-18. The Americans will compete against more than 8,000 military athletes from nearly 80 countries, DoD spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said.

SEOUL, Republic of Korea - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has announced command selections for U.S. European Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

SEOUL, Republic of Korea - The United States aims to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula through "deterrence, dialogue and determination," according to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.

WASHINGTON - A U.S.-Colombian search team recovered remains of four Americans aboard a U.S. Army reconnaissance plane that slammed into a mountain July 23 while on a counterdrug mission, DoD spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said.

WASHINGTON - With one strong voice, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders from all of DoD's unified commands have told Congress that development of the F-22 jet fighter is essential to the nation's defense.

HOWARD AIR FORCE BASE, Canal Zone - Big yellow "X's" crisscross the runway, warning pilots away. The air traffic control tower across the runway is empty, as is the row of hangars that grew up with American air power and with the military mission surrounding the Panama Canal since 1917.

HOWARD AIR FORCE BASE, Canal Zone - With machetes, they hack their way through the dense jungle until they near the smooth green grass and can see the homes. They look for the ones where somebody lives but isn't home. TVs, VCRs and stereos can fetch good money and don't take long to find.

TOKYO - "The United States, Japan and South Korea all want cooperation -- not confrontation -- with North Korea," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said at a July 28 press conference here.

WASHINGTON - Senior Master Sgt. David Huppert forgot he'd volunteered to donate bone marrow. Then Christine Roberts called from the DoD Marrow Donor Program in Kensington, Md., telling him his marrow matched a man desperately in need.

WASHINGTON - The latest buzz from the Pentagon is a honey of a story: The military's trying to train bees to locate land mines.

WASHINGTON - The recent buzz about honeybees as flying mine detectors is just part of the story about how the Pentagon is trying to enlist diverse members of the zoological kingdom for military applications.

WASHINGTON - The United States hasn't given up hope of finding alive the five Americans and two Colombians aboard a counternarcotics aircraft that apparently crashed July 23 in Colombia, DoD spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said.

WASHINGTON - Before he left for Vietnam in 1968, Marine Corps F-4B Phantom fighter-bomber pilot Capt. John A. Lavoo told his mother, "If I don't come back, you'll know where I am."

WASHINGTON - The American Red Cross opened a state-of-the-art communications center July 26 at Fort Sill, Okla., completing a two-year modernization effort for the agency's emergency messaging services.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey - More pay. More people. U.S. pilots here say both would help them deal with frequent deployments and high operations tempo.

WASHINGTON - North Korea is making its neighbors nervous -- very nervous. Reports of an underground missile launch site near China and talk of a new missile capable of reaching America's West Coast have caused alarm here as well as in Tokyo and Seoul.

WASHINGTON - Keeping the 19 countries of the NATO coalition together was both the hardest job and greatest achievement of Operation Allied Force.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey - U.S. pilots patrolling over Iraq as part of Operation Northern Watch have no doubts about the dangers lurking below. They know Iraqi forces aim to knock them out of the sky.

WASHINGTON - 1999 would "99." This shorthand means some computer systems and equipment on Jan. 1, 2000, might read "00" as "1900." The error could generate inaccurate data or even cause systems to shut down. Systems that won't handle the year change correctly must be fixed or replaced; those that will work correctly are called Y2K-compliant.

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - Hot. Dry. Dusty. Remote. "Halfway between Hollywood and Hell," a soldier sitting on a curb outside the visitors quarters muttered as she took a swig from a sweating cola can in the meager shade of a scraggly tree.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen listened as DoD recruiters told him what life is like as they try to attract qualified people to the military.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - It's probably one of the biggest battles DoD has fought in its war against Y2K, but the millennium bug will not stop the Defense Logistics Agency from delivering whatever, whenever and wherever supplies are needed when 1999 becomes 2000.

WASHINGTON - Due to the high level of interest in the DoD still image entitled "The Sight of Sound," a high resolution version of the image is now available for download at: http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/images/sightofsound.jpg.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey - America's men and women in uniform make up the world's finest fighting force, and as such, they deserve the best quality of life the nation can offer, according to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.

WASHINGTON - U.S. and Russian troops will soon be conducting combined patrols in the American sector of Kosovo to ease the fears of ethnic Albanian and Serb civilians and to enhance communications between the two peacekeeping forces, Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock said July 13.

ANKARA, Turkey - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen thanked Turkey July 15 for its support of NATO's Balkan activities and met here with leaders to discuss Iraq and regional stability.

WASHINGTON - Navy Lt. Ron Candiloro's F/A-18 Hornet creates a shock wave as he breaks the sound barrier July 7. The shock wave is visible as a large cloud of condensation formed by the cooling of the air. A smaller shock wave can be seen forming on top of the canopy.

WASHINGTON - On the heels of the first White House Conference on Mental Health, DoD has launched two new initiatives aimed at reducing stress and suicide among service members and their families.

ATHENS, Greece - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen thanked Greece for its support of NATO's peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo during a visit here July 13 and 14.

WASHINGTON - Fear, trauma, terror. A knock on the door. Get out or die. A bullet to the back of the head. Execution. Rape. People's homes, businesses -- even their identities -- torn asunder.

WASHINGTON - Halting mandatory anthrax shots would represent a "significant disservice" to men and women in uniform, Defense Secretary William Cohen and Gen. Henry Shelton said in a written rebuttal to the Army Times Publishing Co.

FAIRFAX, Va. - It was actually July 13, 1999. But as far as the Pentagon was concerned the date was March 4, 2000, as DoD was wrapping up a test of the military's logistical systems in what was billed as the largest Year 2000 test ever conducted.

TASZAR AIR BASE, Hungary - When Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Leroy Weyrick III got orders for his third tour in the Balkans, he figured it to be a quiet six months at this logistics support base.

SAN DIEGO - TRICARE patients who go to a military clinic or hospital in Southern California might not see a uniformed doctor. Their health care could come instead from a civilian physician employed through the region's managed care support contract.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen praised Hungary's support for Operation Allied Force July 12 during his first visit here since the former Soviet bloc nation joined NATO.

OSLO, Norway - The Cold War is over and fighting has stopped in the Balkans, but it's no time for NATO to relax, according to the U.S., Nordic and Baltic defense leaders meeting here.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - The situation in Kosovo remains dangerous and it is likely to remain so for some time to come, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen warned July 12.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen got a glimpse of how one NATO nation is preparing its soldiers for their role in the NATO-led security mission in Kosovo.

WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense will conduct an after-action review for Operation Allied Force, Pentagon officials announced July 8.

WASHINGTON - President Clinton recently authorized Secretary of Defense William Cohen to order some 33,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to active duty in support of NATO operations in and around the former Yugoslavia.

WASHINGTON - The TRICARE Family Member Dental Plan is going overseas.

WASHINGTON - Contributing nations need to accelerate troop deployments to the NATO-led security mission in Kosovo, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said June 8 on his way to Europe.

WASHINGTON - Many U.S. service members supporting NATO's Balkan operations are receiving imminent danger pay -- while others supporting combat operations wonder why they're not getting the money.

WASHINGTON - Final Y2K testing on the Global Positioning System indicate Jan. 1, 2000, will be a nonevent, according to Air Force officials involved in the project.

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - Windswept rocks, sand and brush rim the narrow, two-lane asphalt strip that stretches 35 miles north from Interstate 15 to the main gate here. There are no buildings, no lights, no crossroads, and only the occasional winding curve, to slow you down.

WASHINGTON - Many NATO allies are falling behind the United States in research, development and procurement, and the growing gap is "somewhat troubling," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said July 8.

WASHINGTON - Officials in charge of refugee resettlement at Fort Dix, N.J., will host a July 9 ceremony marking the end of Operation Provide Refuge.

WASHINGTON - The Korean War is often referred to as the "forgotten war," and many families of servicemen missing from that war felt their loved ones were also forgotten -- until now.

WASHINGTON - Fees at military child care facilities will increase by about 1.6 percent for the 1999-2000 school year, DoD officials announced June 29.

WASHINGTON - The NATO commander said Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo is off to a good start, but he is concerned about Serb movements into the neighboring Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro.

WASHINGTON - A misreading of a routine contracting procedure caused a spate of news stories June 29 that questioned whether DoD's anthrax vaccine is safe.

WASHINGTON - Science fiction stories often feature "super soldiers" designed to fight in interplanetary wars. These super warriors can survive in all climates and atmospheres. They can go farther, take more pain, have better eyesight and are stronger than ordinary people.

WASHINGTON - From Macedonia to Kosovo to Albania, U.S. medical teams are busy protecting the health of U.S. peacekeeping forces against infectious diseases and unsanitary conditions.

WASHINGTON - The full contingent of about 7,000 U.S. troops taking part in Operation Joint Guardian will be in place in Kosovo within the next two weeks, according to Army Lt. Gen. John M. McDuffie, Joint Staff logistics director.

GREAT LAKES NAVAL TRAINING CENTER, Ill. - The recruit had made a knucklehead mistake. He was in-processing for boot camp and started to walk into the women's head instead of the men's.

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas - A squad of men and women in BDUs road marches down a trail. With camouflage paint on their faces and M-16 rifles at ready, they approach a tree line, spread out and begin to stealthily climb a hill. The sun has not yet burned off the ground fog.

WASHINGTON - Rates at military child development centers and school age programs are based on total family income and location. Installation commanders set local policies and rates within an allowed range determined by DoD.

WASHINGTON - Last fall, the child development center for the Naval District of Washington in Anacostia reached a pinnacle of success. It was accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs.