• The British Army is trialing a healthy shake-up of the food served to troops.
• Instead of the traditional full English breakfast, soldiers and officers will be offered smoothies, fruit, yogurt, and every millennial's favorite brunch dish: avocado toast.
• The initiative has been launched in a bid to tackle growing rates of obesity in the Army — 57% of soldiers are reportedly classed as overweight.
• One anonymous source from within the Army told INSIDER he wasn't sure how well the menu makeover would be received.
• What's more, a registered nutritionist told us that avocado toast wouldn't actually be the best option for a post-training meal, as it lacks protein.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

The British Army diet is getting a millennial makeover.

While full English breakfasts have long been a staple for troops, this could soon be replaced by everyone's favorite brunch: avocado on toast.

Alongside a healthy smoothie, the new millennial-friendly breakfast option is being introduced in a bid to tackle obesity amongst troops, the Express reported.

Indeed, Lieutenant-Colonel Ben Watts was recently quoted as saying that 57% of soldiers are overweight and 12% fall into the obese category — however, it's worth noting that BMI tests often class extremely muscular people as overweight as well.

Watts even said that the growing rate of obesity in the army is a "national security threat" because fewer troops are fit to be sent into battle.

And so the healthier "warrior breakfast" options are reportedly being trialed with units of 4 Infantry Brigade at Catterick in North Yorkshire.

It's been devised by defense contractor Aramark in collaboration with HQ Regional Command, the Express reported, and will see soldiers offered a light pre-breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and smoothies to start their day, and then avocado on toast as a refuel meal after their morning training sessions.

A spokesperson for the army explained to INSIDER that they take a "holistic approach" to wellbeing, educating recruits in nutrition, diet, and exercise in order to maintain a healthy weight. Troops have to pass regular fitness tests too.

The new breakfast forms part of a "Healthy Living Pilot," which aims to lead to improvements in the areas of nutrition, alcohol, smoking, work-life balance, and mental health, with the ultimate goal of increasing retention of personnel in the military.

But what will the soldiers make of the changes?

A source who spent time as a reserve soldier in the British Army told INSIDER: "Smoothies and avocado would be a pretty drastic turn from army breakfasts as I knew them, which were mostly focused on filling you up — and not costing too much.

"My first breakfast on a British Army base was: sausage, bacon, bread, hash browns, beans, and porridge. There were apples and bananas, but it is fair to say the troops were not that enthusiastic about them."

Another source from inside the army, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed that the new menu likely wouldn't go down well with all the recruits.

"It's an interesting thought and would certainly be welcome in the Officers' Mess, not so sure about the soldiers though!" he said.

Read more:You can now buy sneakers that look like avocado toast for $130

He also explained that one reason obesity is an issue in the army is that the food provided isn't particularly appealing, which means troops often end up purchasing more delicious — but less nutritious — options.

"One of the main reasons for poor health and obesity is the government's decision to outsource chefs and cooking to contractors like Aramark," he said.

"The 'core meal,' which they are obliged by the MoD [Ministry of Defence] to provide is a balanced meal but is deliberately bland and uninspiring.

"Soldiers can opt for the more expensive alternative options which are more appetizing but are regularly unhealthy, such as burgers, pizzas, chips, baked beans, etc."

The army spokesperson added that caterers are required to provide food to suit a wide range of dietary requirements, including healthy options.

There's also been a change in how food is paid for.

"Soldiers now have to pay for their food as well," our source continued. "The old system had it deducted at source from pay.

"Many soldiers are bad at managing their finances and then end up with no money to pay for food so have to eat rations, which are designed to dump loads of calories into your system to keep you going for high-intensity exercises!"

Breakfast is a little different though — for the "core option," soldiers can currently eat a cooked breakfast comprising six items including two proteins, but cereal and milk are also deemed one of the six. This means that even if you only want a bowl of cereal, you're wasting money by not getting a fried egg, a sausage, and beans on fried bread alongside it, according to our source.

Read more: There are health benefits to avocados that go beyond good fats, according to a new study

He also explained that many of the soldiers and officers choose not to go to breakfast at all because they'd rather sleep longer and they don't actually want to eat a big meal before doing a high-intensity exercise circuit as part of their physical training.

"Officers used to be able to order soldiers to have breakfast but we cannot order people to spend their own money."

Perhaps with lighter options on offer to start their day, more soldiers would decide to eat before training.

Rhiannon Lambert, a registered nutritionist and founder of Rhitrition clinic on London's Harley Street, said she welcomes the healthier changes to the army diet.

"Regardless of the growing rates of obesity, the army deserves to have a nourishing and fulfilling breakfast that's going to aid them in their productivity and overall health," Lambert told INSIDER.

"Focusing on changing their dietary plan owed to obesity is something that should be seen as a positive thing in helping the health of our troops rather than focusing on the question of weight and numbers."

However, Lambert pointed out that avocado toast isn't actually the perfect healthy meal many people believe it to be.

"Avocado on toast isn't actually that balanced as it doesn't have enough protein in," Lambert explained. "I would recommend adding a protein source on the top such as nuts, seeds, beans, eggs, or hummus.

"And of course, everyone is completely unique, and lifestyle and activity levels should dictate the diet."

Aramark has been contacted for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Mount Everest is not the hardest mountain to climb — here's what makes K2 so much worse

• Map Pesqueira, a 19-year-old trans film student at the University of Texas at Austin, lost his Army ROTC scholarship this spring, around the time that Trump's transgender troop ban went into effect. 
• "I would watch basic training videos for the Army before school, and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up," Pesqueira told INSIDER.
• Pesqueira received support from Caitlin Jenner to help continue his education during a "Good Morning America" segment in June. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

When Map Pesqueira learned that he was losing the Army ROTC scholarship that would pay three years of tuition at the University of Texas at Austin, he did what anyone in need of financial support would do: He set up a GoFundMe page to request help paying for his next year of college.

But Pesqueira, 19, wasn't just a kid who caught a bad break. He's apparently the first person to be prevented from joining the military by President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops.

Pesqueira knew he was trans from a young age, and also grew up surrounded by the military. "My cousin serves in the Marines, my brother was an officer in the Army, my grandfather served as a Navy sailor in the Vietnam War, so the military has been in my family and has a heavy influence on me."

Pesqueira remembers going to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas with his father, who worked as a funeral director and worked on funerals at the base. "When I was younger, he would come home and give me the unit coins that soldiers gave to him, and I was really fascinated by these coins and their uniqueness and exclusivity to members of the military. And that's sort of how I started falling in love with it," he told INSIDER by phone. 

As a middle school student, "I would watch basic training videos for the Army before school, and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up."

But he also knew that he needed to live his life in a body that matched who he was inside. Pesqueira recounted an early memory of visiting Santa Claus at age 5 or 6. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Pesqueira said that he wanted to be a boy.

Pesqueira began medically transitioning when he turned 18, even with the looming threat of Trump's ban on transgender troops making its way to the Supreme Court.

"It was very freeing for me, and I was fortunate enough to go to a school where identities like mine were accepted and there was... I wasn't the only transgender person at my school and it was very freeing to be able to express myself."

And in applying for the scholarship, Pesqueira thought the idea of a ban on transgender troops was so absurd that it couldn't possibly be enacted. "When I applied for the scholarship, it was in fall of 2017, the tweets about Trump's intention to bar trans people had already come out. I fully knew that there was a possibility that this could be a policy that would actually be created," he said. 

"I kept telling myself, 'There's no way that this is actually going to happen,'" he said. "It just didn't make any sense to me."

Pesqueira said he received the scholarship in May 2018, and "had all of it planned out," he said. "I would commission as a second lieutenant, as a signal officer or military intelligence officer, and eventually [become] a public relations officer, working out on the West Coast," he said. 

"I have a love for media, and storytelling, and filmmaking," the film student said, "but I also have a love for the military." A role as a public affairs officer would merge his two passions. 

Pesquiera said he was assigned an advisor from the Department of Defense who would help him navigate the issues arising from the possible ban. Since the scholarship wouldn't go into effect until his sophomore year in college, dramatic changes could happen before it went into effect. 

Pesqueira said it was never clear whether he had joined the military under the previous policy of accepting trans troops, effective when he received the scholarship — or under the new policy, when the scholarship would go into effect.

Pesqueira told the Daily Beast that he learned he was being medically disqualified from the military on April 8, 2019. "That was the [first] moment I was ever notified that I was being held to the new policy," he said. Under the new ban, which was enacted on April 12, 2019, transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have begun to medically transition are disqualified from service. Trans people are allowed to serve if they have lived in their birth sex for at least three years prior to enlistment. 

The Department of Defense spokesperson told The Daily Beast,"The student's gender identity did not impact his status in the ROTC program. The scholarship offer was contingent upon meeting the standards required of all prospective recruits; the student did not meet these standards," further stating, "The offer was contingent upon meeting service entry standards. There are a wide range of medical conditions that make prospective recruits unfit for military service. It would be improper to discuss the medical history of a particular candidate." Defense Department spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell confirmed the conditions of the offer to Pesqueira and declined to comment further. 

After the media began covering Pesqueira's story, he got an unusual invitation: to meet with Caitlyn Jenner for "Good Morning America."

"I never expected an outreach from Caitlyn Jenner," Pesqueira said. "When I met her, it felt really right."

Although Jenner, a celebrity and transgender woman, had been a Trump supporter in the past, "She was just as astounded by the trans ban as anybody was."

Jenner presented Pesqueira with a check for $25,000 to help finance his education.

"What I've learned from this whole situation is the military [...] is the right choice, it's just not the right time," Pesqueira said. And if the ban is overturned, "I'll drop whatever I'm doing to go achieve the dream that I wanted when I was a kid of serving in the military. There's no doubt that I would pursue that."

In the meantime, he's been thrust into the spotlight, becoming the face of how the trans ban is affecting real people. As a film student, Pesqueira is more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, he said, but "We need the ignorance to go away, we need more education." 

But despite his newfound advocacy — he made an appearance at this year's GLAAD awards— Pesqueira is still just a teenager.

"I think people tend to forget that I'm just a normal, 19-year-old college student working to get an education," Pesqueira said. 

"Yes, the story is big and it's important, but I'm still a kid."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The incredible story behind Slack, the app that's taken over offices everywhere

• Seventy years ago, Costa Rica got rid of its army.
• President Carlos Alvarado Quesada said that has allowed it to invest elsewhere.
• Costa Rica also generates more than 99% of its electricity from renewable sources.
• As a result, Costa Rica is the happiest and most sustainable country on Earth.

Costa Rica is getting something right. The Central American country of stunning beaches, rainforests, and biodiversity, is also known for its stable democracy and educated population.

Its president, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, said at Davos 2019: "Seventy years ago, Costa Rica did away with the army. This allows for many things. Eight percent of our GDP is invested in education because we don't have to spend on the army. So our strength is human talent, human wellbeing."

By comparison, World Bank data shows the US spent less than 5% of its GDP on education, while the world average is just 4.8%.

President Alvarado said not spending on the armed forces also allowed his country to protect the environment. Costa Rica generates more than 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, with the vast majority from hydroelectric dams.

While this is a major achievement, electricity only represents a small proportion of the country's energy usage, as many homes use gas for heating, and fuel for their cars.

Air quality in Costa Rica, as in many countries around the world, is a concern, and some parts of the capital San Jose breach World Health Organization limits for air pollution.

Read more:For $260 a night, you can stay in this Boeing 727 airplane-turned-hotel suite perched 50 feet high in Costa Rica — take a look inside

The Costa Rican government has used taxes collected on the sale of fossil fuels to pay for the protection of forests.

President Alvarado said: "We saw in the eighties that the forest coverage was reduced to 20% due to animal farming and timber. We've managed to recover all this and we're back to forest coverage of 50%. By this we are combating climate change."

Forests are of crucial importance to the country's biodiversity, which hosts more than five percent of the world's species, despite a landmass that covers just 0.03% of the planet.

President Alvarado said these efforts have helped boost Costa Rica's economy. "Many people say that to protect the environment goes against the economy. Whereas it's the complete contrary. Our tourism has grown precisely because of this."

As a result, Costa Rica is the happiest and most sustainable country on Earth, according to the Happy Planet Index (HPI).

This index, which has been published four times since 2006, takes the wellbeing and longevity of a population; measures how equally both are distributed; then sets the result against each country's ecological footprint. And Costa Rica has topped the poll three times out of four.

It is not just the HPI. A recent Gallup poll found Costa Rica to be one of the happiest countries in the world. It also has some of the oldest people, with life expectancy of 78.5 years, longer than in the US.

Read more:Costa Rica went 76 days without fossil fuels, but that's not the only reason it's the future of the planet

Professor Mariano Rojas, a Costa Rican economist at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, attributes Costa Ricans' high wellbeing to a culture of forming solid social networks of friends, families, and neighborhoods.

The reason Costa Rica tops the HPI time and again, however, is that it delivers all this while using a quarter of the resources typically used in the Western world.

There are, of course, flaws in the HPI's calculations, not least that it fails to account for the murder rate in the countries that it ranks.

In Costa Rica, that rate hit 12.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, more than double the world average of 5.3.

President Alvarado said the murder rate was very high across Latin America. "The main thing insecurity is connected to is inequality. Latin America is one of the most unequal regions in the world."

He said murders in Costa Rica take place in "very specific areas where what is required is a policy of opportunities.

"This has been done successfully in a number of countries, by creation of leisure options, prevention of drugs, new opportunities for the youth, for women, the creation of new jobs; and that is very hopeful."

Costa Rica recently pushed through a program of tax reforms, which President Alvarado said has freed up the money to spend on social programs.

"If you bring in these reforms and sort out your problems of liquidity, it means we didn't have to cut any of our social programs. It also meant that there was stable funding of public services. And there is a stability, which is what we need to relaunch our economy."

SEE ALSO: I lived in Costa Rica for a year, and everyone was worried about climate change

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A rescue center in Costa Rica wants you to snuggle their sloths

• Map Pesqueira, a 19-year-old trans film student at the University of Texas at Austin, lost his Army ROTC scholarship this spring, around the time that Trump's transgender troop ban went into effect. 
• "I would watch basic training videos for the Army before school, and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up," Pesqueira told INSIDER.
• Pesqueira received support from Caitlin Jenner to help continue his education during a "Good Morning America" segment in June. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

When Map Pesqueira learned that he was losing the Army ROTC scholarship that would pay three years of tuition at the University of Texas at Austin, he did what anyone in need of financial support would do: He set up a GoFundMe page to request help paying for his next year of college.

But Pesqueira, 19, wasn't just a kid who caught a bad break. He's apparently the first person to be prevented from joining the military by President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops.

Pesqueira knew he was trans from a young age, and also grew up surrounded by the military. "My cousin serves in the Marines, my brother was an officer in the Army, my grandfather served as a Navy sailor in the Vietnam War, so the military has been in my family and has a heavy influence on me."

Pesqueira remembers going to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas with his father, who worked as a funeral director and worked on funerals at the base. "When I was younger, he would come home and give me the unit coins that soldiers gave to him, and I was really fascinated by these coins and their uniqueness and exclusivity to members of the military. And that's sort of how I started falling in love with it," he told INSIDER by phone. 

As a middle school student, "I would watch basic training videos for the Army before school, and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up."

But he also knew that he needed to live his life in a body that matched who he was inside. Pesqueira recounted an early memory of visiting Santa Claus at age 5 or 6. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Pesqueira said that he wanted to be a boy.

Pesqueira began medically transitioning when he turned 18, even with the looming threat of Trump's ban on transgender troops making its way to the Supreme Court.

"It was very freeing for me, and I was fortunate enough to go to a school where identities like mine were accepted and there was... I wasn't the only transgender person at my school and it was very freeing to be able to express myself."

And in applying for the scholarship, Pesqueira thought the idea of a ban on transgender troops was so absurd that it couldn't possibly be enacted. "When I applied for the scholarship, it was in fall of 2017, the tweets about Trump's intention to bar trans people had already come out. I fully knew that there was a possibility that this could be a policy that would actually be created," he said. 

"I kept telling myself, 'There's no way that this is actually going to happen,'" he said. "It just didn't make any sense to me."

Pesqueira said he received the scholarship in May 2018, and "had all of it planned out," he said. "I would commission as a second lieutenant, as a signal officer or military intelligence officer, and eventually [become] a public relations officer, working out on the West Coast," he said. 

"I have a love for media, and storytelling, and filmmaking," the film student said, "but I also have a love for the military." A role as a public affairs officer would merge his two passions. 

Pesquiera said he was assigned an advisor from the Department of Defense who would help him navigate the issues arising from the possible ban. Since the scholarship wouldn't go into effect until his sophomore year in college, dramatic changes could happen before it went into effect. 

Pesqueira said it was never clear whether he had joined the military under the previous policy of accepting trans troops, effective when he received the scholarship — or under the new policy, when the scholarship would go into effect.

Pesqueira told the Daily Beast that he learned he was being medically disqualified from the military on April 8, 2019. "That was the [first] moment I was ever notified that I was being held to the new policy," he said. Under the new ban, which was enacted on April 12, 2019, transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have begun to medically transition are disqualified from service. Trans people are allowed to serve if they have lived in their birth sex for at least three years prior to enlistment. 

The Department of Defense spokesperson told The Daily Beast,"The student's gender identity did not impact his status in the ROTC program. The scholarship offer was contingent upon meeting the standards required of all prospective recruits; the student did not meet these standards," further stating, "The offer was contingent upon meeting service entry standards. There are a wide range of medical conditions that make prospective recruits unfit for military service. It would be improper to discuss the medical history of a particular candidate." Defense Department spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell confirmed the conditions of the offer to Pesqueira and declined to comment further. 

After the media began covering Pesqueira's story, he got an unusual invitation: to meet with Caitlyn Jenner for "Good Morning America."

"I never expected an outreach from Caitlyn Jenner," Pesqueira said. "When I met her, it felt really right."

Although Jenner, a celebrity and transgender woman, had been a Trump supporter in the past, "She was just as astounded by the trans ban as anybody was."

Jenner presented Pesqueira with a check for $25,000 to help finance his education.

"What I've learned from this whole situation is the military [...] is the right choice, it's just not the right time," Pesqueira said. And if the ban is overturned, "I'll drop whatever I'm doing to go achieve the dream that I wanted when I was a kid of serving in the military. There's no doubt that I would pursue that."

In the meantime, he's been thrust into the spotlight, becoming the face of how the trans ban is affecting real people. As a film student, Pesqueira is more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, he said, but "We need the ignorance to go away, we need more education." 

But despite his newfound advocacy — he made an appearance at this year's GLAAD awards— Pesqueira is still just a teenager.

"I think people tend to forget that I'm just a normal, 19-year-old college student working to get an education," Pesqueira said. 

"Yes, the story is big and it's important, but I'm still a kid."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The incredible story behind Slack, the app that's taken over offices everywhere

• US Army Special Forces, including the Green Berets and Delta Force, are some of the best in the world.
• But those two units, though they often get confused, have important differences in their composition and missions.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment — Delta, or "Delta Force," or CAG (for Combat Applications Group) or whatever its latest code name might be — is one of the best door kicking-units in the world.

From raining hell on Al Qaeda in the early days of the war in Afghanistan to going after the "deck of cards" in Iraq, the super-secretive counterterrorism unit knows how to dispatch America's top targets.

But during the wars after 9/11, Delta's brethren in the Army Special Forces were tasked with many similar missions, going after top targets and kicking in a few doors for themselves. And Delta has a lot of former Special Forces soldiers in its ranks, so their cultures became even more closely aligned.

That's why it's not surprising that some might be a bit confused on who does what and how each of the units is separate and distinct from one another.

In fact, as America's involvement in Iraq started to wind down, the new commander of the Army Special Warfare Center and School — the place where all SF soldiers are trained — made it a point to draw the distinction between his former teammates in Delta and the warriors of the Green Berets.

"I hate analogies like the 'pointy end of the spear,'" said then school chief Maj. Gen. Bennett Sacolick.

"We're not designed to hunt people down and kill them," Sacolick said. "We have that capability and we have forces that specialize in that. But ultimately what we do that nobody else does is work with our indigenous partner nations."

So, in case you were among the confused, here are four key differences between Delta and Special Forces:

SEE ALSO: 5 key differences between Delta Force and SEAL Team 6

Delta, what Delta?

With the modern media market, blogs, 24-hour news cycles, and social media streams where everyone's an expert, it's tough to keep a secret these days. And particularly after 9/11 with the insatiable appetite for news and information on the war against Al Qaeda, it was going to be hard to keep "Delta Force" from becoming a household name.

The dam actually broke with Mark Bowden's seminal work on a night of pitched fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993, which later became the book "Black Hawk Down." Delta figured prominently in that work — and the movie that followed.

Previously, Delta Force had been deemed secret, its members signing legally binding agreements that subjected them to prison if they spoke about "The Unit."

Known as a "Tier 1" special operations unit, Delta, along with SEAL Team 6, is supposed to remain "black" and unknown to the public. Even when they're killed in battle, the Army refuses to disclose their true unit.

Special Forces, on the other hand, are considered Tier 2 or "white SOF," with many missions that are known to the public and even encourage media coverage. Sure, the Green Berets often operate in secret, but unlike Delta, their existence isn't one.

Building guerrilla armies.

This is where the Special Forces differs from every other unit in the US military. When the Green Berets were established in the 1950s, Army leaders recognized that the fight against Soviet Communism would involve counterinsurgencies and guerrilla warfare fought in the shadows rather than armored divisions rolling across the Fulda Gap.

So the Army Special Forces, later known as the Green Berets, were created with the primary mission of what would later be called "unconventional warfare"— the covert assistance of foreign resistance forces and subversion of local governments.

"Unconventional warfare missions allow US Army soldiers to enter a country covertly and build relationships with local militia," the Army says. "Operatives train the militia in a variety of tactics, including subversion, sabotage, intelligence collection and unconventional assisted recovery, which can be employed against enemy threats."

According to Sean Naylor's "Relentless Strike"— which chronicles the formation of Joint Special Operations Command that includes Delta, SEAL Team 6 and other covert commando units — Delta's main mission was to execute "small, high-intensity operations of short duration" like raids and capture missions.

While Delta operators surely know how to advise and work with foreign guerrilla groups, like they did during operations in Tora Bora in Afghanistan, that's not their main function like it is for Green Berets.

Assessment and selection.

When Col. Charles Beckwith established Delta Force in 1977, he'd spent some time with the British Special Air Service to model much of his new unit's organization and mission structure. In fact, Delta has units dubbed "squadrons" in homage to that SAS lineage.

But most significantly, Beckwith adopted a so-called assessment and selection regime that aligns closely with how the Brits pick their top commandos. Delta operators have to already have some time in the service (the unit primarily picks from soldiers, but other service troops like Marines have been known to try out) and be at least an E4 with more than two years left in their enlistment.

From what former operators have written, the selection is a brutal, mind-bending hike through (nowadays) the West Virginia mountains where candidates are given vague instructions, miles of ruck humps and psychological examinations to see if they can be trusted to work in the most extreme environments alone or in small teams under great risk of capture or death.

Special Forces, on the other hand, have fairly standard physical selection (that doesn't mean it's easy) and training dubbed the Q Course that culminates in a major guerrilla wargame called "Robin Sage."

The point of Robin Sage is to put the wannabe Green Berets through a simulated unconventional warfare scenario to see how they could adapt to a constantly changing environment and still keep their mission on track.

Size matters.

Army Special Forces is a much larger organization than Delta Force, which is a small subset of Army Special Operations Command.

The Green Berets are divided up into five active duty and two National Guard groups, comprised of multiple battalions of Special Forces soldiers divided into Operational Detachments, typically dubbed "ODAs." These are the troopers who parachute into bad guy land and help make holy hell for the dictator du jour.

It was ODA teams that infiltrated Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance and Pashtun groups like the one run by Hamid Karzai that overturned the Taliban.

These Special Forces Groups are regionally focused and based throughout the US and overseas.

Delta, on the other hand, has a much smaller footprint, with estimates ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 operators divided into four assault squadrons and three support squadrons. Naylor's "Relentless Strike" even hints that Delta might have women in its ranks to help infiltrate operators into foreign countries for reconnaissance missions.

And while Special Forces units are based around the world, Delta has a single headquarters in a compound ringed with concertina wire at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

• Activists have been protesting the $20 billion big data company Palantir for its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• Palantir's software has been used to gather, store, and search for data on undocumented immigrants, and reportedly played a role in workplace raids.
• Palantir has also been notoriously secretive due to its work with government, policing, and military organizations like the Department of Defense, the Army, the Marine Corps, the FBI, and the CIA.
• Because Palantir's software runs on Amazon's cloud, activists have also been protesting Amazon Web Services.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Palantir, first launched in 2004, was very secretive for most of its existence.

Its earliest claim to fame is that it was cofounded by Facebook board member and VC Peter Thiel, one of President Donald Trump's biggest backers in Silicon Valley.

Over the years, Palantir grew into one of the most valuable startups in the country, with a $2.75 billion in venture capital raised, a $20 billion valuation, and an IPO planned for as soon as this year — despite the fact that it operates under a veil of secrecy.

It works closely with the US government, counting the FBI, CIA, and Department of Defense as customers, among other agencies (more on that in a moment). Indeed, Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently blasted other tech companies for what he perceives as a reluctance to work on defense-related projects. 

Palantir has boasted about the good that it does, especially as pertaining to its work with government agencies: Earlier this year, CEO Alex Karp said that he hears about a foiled terrorist attack in Europe almost every week. 

However, in more recent months, Palantir has found itself scrutinized for its dealings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US agency responsible for enforcing President Donald Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the country. WNYC reported that ICE agents use the company's apps in the field during workplace raids.

That controversy has touched Amazon as well, as Palantir relies on Amazon's cloud to run its big data software. Already, people within and outside of Amazon have protested its ties to Palantir.

Now, activist organizations are protesting Palantir for working with ICE by providing the software that makes many of its core operations possible. On July 12, activist organizations held a protest at Palantir's Palo Alto offices to protest the company's contracts with ICE. 

At the same time, Palantir's creators are going on the offensive, criticizing tech companies that don't work with the US government and proclaiming Palantir's patriotic bona fides.  Joe Lonsdale, a VC who cofounded Palantir but is no longer involved in company's operations, said this week that Palantir is "probably the most patriotic company" in Silicon Valley.

Business Insider has reached out to Palantir for comment. Here's what to know about this richly valued and controversial data mining company.

What is Palantir?

Based in Palo Alto, California, Palantir was founded in 2003 by a group of PayPal alumni and Stanford computer scientists, including CEO Alex Karp. 

Palantir creates software to manage, analyze, and secure data. Its name comes from a mystical, spherical object in the "Lord of the Rings" book that allows its owner to "see from afar." In total, the company has raised $2.75 billion in venture capital.

As for Karp, he is a self-described socialist, even though Palantir works with large corporations and government agencies to provide big data tools.

The company was born out of Thiel's experience working at PayPal, where credit card fraud cost the company millions each month. To solve the problem, PayPal built an internal security application that helped employees analyze suspicious transactions.

Palantir takes a similar approach by finding patterns in complicated data. For example, law enforcement agencies can use it to search for links in phone records, photos, vehicle information, criminal history, biometrics, credit card transactions, addresses, and police reports.

VICE reported Palantir's software allows law enforcement to enter a license plate number and quickly get an itinerary of the routes and places the vehicle has travelled. Police can also use it to map out family and business relationships.

And Palantir's technology has been used in New Orleans for predictive policing, The Verge reported— a practice that has been shown to increase surveillance and arrests in communities of color.  Palantir has been involved in various lawsuits in the past few years. For example, in 2017, Palantir settled a lawsuit from the Department of Labor saying that its hiring practices discriminated against Asians. 

In 2016, Oracle reportedly considered buying Palantir. Palantir was reportedly in talks with Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley about an IPO in the second half of 2019. But according to a recent Bloomberg report, the IPO is likely to be pushed back to next year.

As a privately held company, Palantir's valuation is believed to be anywhere from $11 billion to $41 billion, depending on who is doing the estimates. Pitchbook pegs its valuation at $20 billion.

Why is Palantir so secretive?

Palantir is notoriously tight-lipped. That's because many of its customer agreements include non-disclosure clauses due to the nature of their work. As a result, Palantir tends to keep a low profile, sharing almost no information about how its software is used or its own finances. 

A Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources in May said Palantir's 2018 revenue was around $1 billion, with $30 million in losses.

While it counts commercial businesses and nonprofits as customers, it also works with many government organizations, banks, and legal research firms. Some customers include Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase, the Department of Defense, Merck, Airbus, the FBI, and the CIA.

On its website, it says that people work with Palantir to uncover human trafficking rings, analyze finances, respond to natural disasters, track disease outbreaks, combat cyberattacks, prevent terrorist attacks, and more. 

Working with government agencies is a core part of Palantir's business. For the first several years, Palantir only sold its data analysis products to US government agencies. Palantir works with various military organizations and combat missions to gather information on enemy activity, track criminals, identify fraud, plan logistics, and more.  

For example, its software has been used by the Marine Corps to gather intelligence, and it's building software for the US Army to analyze terrain, movement, and weather information in remote areas. It's even been rumored to have been used to track down Osama Bin Laden, although Palantir did not comment directly on it. 

Palantir has also been selective about the customers it works with. For example, Karp previously told Fortune that Palantir turned down a partnership with a tobacco company "for fear the company would harness the data to pinpoint vulnerable communities to sell cigarettes to."

What is Palantir doing with ICE?

According to USAspending.gov, Palantir has roughly $50 million in contracts with ICE. Palantir provides investigative case management software to ICE to gather, store, and search troves of data on undocumented immigrants' employment information, phone records, immigration history, and more.

Palantir employees had "begged" to end the ICE deal, but Karp said the data is being used for drug enforcement, not separating families. Palantir also said ICE uses its technology for investigating criminal activity like human trafficking, child exploitation, and counter-terrorism. However, in May, Mijente reported that ICE agents used Palantir's software to build profiles of undocumented children and family members that could be used for prosecution and arrest.

WNYC also reported that ICE agents used a Palantir program called FALCON mobile to plan workplace raids earlier this year. This app reportedly allowed them to search through law enforcement databases with information on people's people's immigration histories, family relationships, and past border crossings. 

In January, two days after an ICE reportedly sent an email notifying staff to use the FALCON app, ICE raided nearly 100 7-Elevens across the country. In April, ICE arrested 280 immigrants in the largest workplace raid in over a decade.

From October 2017 to 2018, ICE workplace raids led to 1,525 arrests for civil immigration violations. In comparison, there were only 172 arrests the year before. 

Why are people protesting Amazon?

All this has also sparked protests against Amazon, since Palantir relies on Amazon's cloud to run its software. Last summer at the Burning Man festival, a national group for Latinx and Chicanx organizing called Mijente brought a giant cage to protest Amazon and Palantir's involvement with ICE.

In October, an anonymous Amazon employee wrote a Medium blog post that said over 450 Amazon employees wrote to CEO Jeff Bezos demanding it to stop working with Palantir. Employees also confronted Bezos at an all-hands about its connection to ICE.

On July 8, Amazon employees circulated another internal letter demanding that Amazon stop working with Palantir and take a stand against ICE.

Read more: Read the internal letter sent by a group of Amazon employees asking the company to take a stand against ICE 

Later that week, at an Amazon Web Services conference, activists interrupted the keynote in protest of Amazon's ties to Palantir and ICE.

"As we've said many times and continue to believe strongly, companies and government organizations need to use existing and new technology responsibly and lawfully. There is clearly a need for more clarity from governments on what is acceptable use of AI and ramifications for its misuse, and we've provided a proposed legislative framework for this. We remain eager for the government to provide this additional clarity and legislation, and will continue to offer our ideas and specific suggestions," an AWS spokesperson said in a statement.

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at rmchan@businessinsider.com, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: These are the programming languages that are used by America's most valuable startups, from Airbnb to WeWork

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Nxivm leader Keith Raniere has been convicted. Here's what happened inside his sex-slave ring that recruited actresses and two billionaire heiresses.

• Army Col. Kathryn A. Spletstoser has come forward to accuse Air Force Gen. John Hyten of sexual assault.
• Hyten is President Donald Trump's pick for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the most powerful military positions in the world. 
• Hyten has denied the accusations. He gave his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday in a private session. Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said that Hyten's nomination would advance. 
• Spletstoser said that the incidents occurred while Hyten was her boss at US Strategic Command. The Air Force conducted an investigation into the misconduct allegations against Hyten but declined to move the case to court-martial.

The New York Times identified Army Col. Kathryn A. Spletstoser, 51, as the accuser who came forward with allegations of sexual assault against Gen. John Hyten, President Donald Trump's pick for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hyten, 60, whose nomination had been overshadowed by accusations of sexual assault, will become the military's second most powerful leader if he is confirmed by the Senate. He was interviewed privately by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday; after he was questioned in a Senate secure facility, the committee chose to advance his nomination, Defense News reported.

A Defense Department spokeswoman, Col. DeDe Halfhill, told The New York Times, "With more than 38 years of service to our nation, Gen. Hyten has proven himself to be a principled and dedicated patriot."

Chief of Air Combat Command Gen. James "Mike" Holmes looked into the accusations against Hyten but declined to move the case to court-martial in June. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth wrote a letter to then-Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper with concerns about the Air Force's investigation into Spletstoser's allegations. 

"The severity of the allegations and the sensitivity and seniority of General Hyten's billet demand that a senior officeholder — not a peer, and certainly not a peer who is junior in grade to General Hyten — should be the convening authority," they wrote. Holmes is technically junior to Hyten.

Read more: A Marine general said he'd rather 'his daughter work in a brothel than be a Marine pilot.' A female pilot called that 'unconscionable'

Spletstoser had previously spoken with The Associated Press anonymously, detailing the allegations against Hyten, including several incidents of inappropriate touching in 2017. According to The Times, she said these incidents occurred in her office or on work trips when they were both working at US Strategic Command and Hyten was Spletstoser's boss.

Spletstoser told The Times about an incident she said occurred on December 2, 2017, in Simi Valley, California, while they were attending the Reagan National Defense Forum. Spletstoser said Hyten came to her hotel room, sat on her bed, attempted to kiss her, and pressed himself against her until he ejaculated.

Hyten has denied accusations of sexual misconduct, and Spletstoser's case did not move to court-martial. A military official who spoke with The Times said Hyten, as the head of US Strategic Command, would have be heavily guarded, and it was unlikely — but not impossible — that he could have gone to Spletstoser's California hotel room in 2017 without drawing notice.

Spletstoser said she didn't report him because she thought he would both be retiring soon. Furthermore, she told The Times, "Who was I going to report it to? Secretary Mattis? Really? All I was trying to do was just survive and not have my life ruined."

Spletstoser told The Associated Press that she believed that Hyten professionally retaliated against her because she rebuffed him, giving her negative performance reviews after a series of exemplary ones. She was also put under investigation for toxic workplace behavior, she said — the same behavior that she said Hyten had previously encouraged. 

Hyten's performance reviews had been glowing, saying that Spletstoser had "unlimited potential to lead and serve with distinction as a multi-star" general, according to The Associated Press. But after she rejected him, Spletstoser found herself under investigation, then dismissed from Strategic Command. She attempted to retire but was moved to another job because Army officials believed the retirement was coerced, The Associated Press reported.

With Hyten poised to become one of the most powerful military leaders in the world, Spletstoser told The Times, "I realized I have a moral responsibility to come forward. I could not live with myself if this happens to someone else and I didn't do anything to stop it."

Spletstoser has a 28-year service record, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is still on active military duty.

SEE ALSO: US Senate votes 89-1 to confirm Army Gen. Mark Milley as next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What El Chapo is really like, according to the wife of one his closest henchman

• The Guadalcanal campaign during World War II was one of the more savage battles in the Pacific theater.
• Between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943, tens of thousands of US Marines and soldiers gave their lives in a brutal fight against elite Japanese troops
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Guadalcanal campaign began August 7, 1942 and lasted until February of 1943. During those seven months, 60,000 US Marines and soldiers killed about 20,000 of the 31,000 Japanese troops on the island.

The main objective of the fighting was a tiny airstrip that the Japanese were building at the western end of Guadalcanal, a speck of land in the Solomon Islands. The airstrip, later named Henderson Field, would become an important launching point for Allied air attacks during the Pacific island hopping campaign.

Now check out these 7 interesting facts you didn't know about the battle.

SEE ALSO: Here's how the US pulled off a daring mission to take out the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor

1. Every branch of the US military fought in the battle

The Air Force didn't yet exist, but the Army, Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines all fought in the battle.

The Army provided infantry to assist the Marines in the landings and sent planes and pilots to operate out of Henderson Field. The Navy provided most logistics, shore bombardments, and aviation support. The Marines did much of the heavy lifting on the island itself, capturing and holding the ground while their aviators provided additional support.

2. The only Coast Guard Medal of Honor ever bestowed was for service at Guadalcanal

Signalman First Class Douglas Munro was one of the Coast Guardsmen operating landing craft for the Marines. After the initial invasion, the US controlled the westernmost part of the island and the Japanese controlled the rest. A river ran between the two camps and neither force could get a foothold on the other side.

Then-Lt. Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller ordered a force to move through the ocean and land east of the river. The Marines encountered little resistance at first but were then ambushed by the Japanese. Munro led a group of unarmored landing craft to pick up the Marines while under heavy fire from Japanese machine guns. Just as they were escaping the kill zone, Munro was shot through the head.

3. Guadalcanal was a "who's who" of Marine legends in World War II

In addition to Chesty Puller, many Marine legends were at the island. Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone earned his Medal of Honor there. Master Gunnery Sgt. Leland Diamond drove off a Japanese cruiser with a mortar. Brig. Gen. Joe Foss earned a Medal of Honor and became a fighter Ace after downing 26 enemy aircraft around the island.

4. Guadalcanal was viciously fought at sea, in the air, and on land

Most battles are at least primarily fought in one domain. A ground battle is backed up by air power, or an air engagement has some defense from ships — but Guadalcanal was total war.

Ships clashed in the straits around the island and provided shore bombardments. Planes engaged in dogfights and strafed enemy troops and ships. US Marines fought for every inch, but also used mortars and artillery to engage the Japanese Navy.

There were three major land battles in the campaign, seven naval battles, and constant aerial dogfighting.

5. The first landings were helped by the weather

Japanese reconnaissance flew near the US fleet as it approached the islands, but the Americans got a lucky break as storms limited visibility, and the US Navy wasn't spotted until it was bombarding the beaches. Planes and naval artillery provided support as the Marines assaulted the surprised defenders.

6. Two of the carriers lost in the Pacific were lost during the Guadalcanal campaign

The Imperial Japanese Navy sunk 10 aircraft carriers and escort carriers over the course of the war.

One, the USS Wasp, was sunk near Guadalcanal on September 15, 1942 by a Japanese sub. The sinking of the Wasp was captured on film.

The USS Hornet was sunk near the Santa Cruz islands, to the southeast of Guadalcanal. Hornet was lost during a major battle with a Japanese carrier fleet that was pulling back from Guadalcanal. The Japanese aircraft got the jump on the Americans as the engagement started, and the Hornet was irreparably damaged by two torpedoes, two crashed Japanese planes, and three bombs.

7. The battle was a major turning point

While Midway and Iwo Jima get most of the glory as turning points where America got an upper hand on the Japanese, it was at Guadalcanal that Marine, Navy, and Army aviators took out elite Japanese air crews, allowing America to achieve air superiority more easily in future battles.

The island itself became a launching point for the American military to move north, crawling their way up to the Japanese homeland.

• The Circle of Heroes is an underwater memorial honoring military veterans who served in the US Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy.
• Twelve statues were sunk in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida to create the memorial, and an additional twelve will be added in 2020.   
• The memorial also acts as an artificial reef to help sustain marine life.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Following is a transcript of the video. 

These statues are being sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.

They make up an underwater memorial honoring US military veterans.

It's called the "Circle of Heroes."

The statues are located 10 miles off the coast of Clearwater, Florida.

The memorial represents those serving in the US armed forces.

The statues are 40 feet below the surface.

So visitors have to dive to see the statues up close.

The memorial could also help aquatic life by serving as an artificial reef.

An artificial reef can attract fish under the right conditions.

There are currently 12 life-sized statues.

An additional 12 will be added in 2020 to complete the memorial.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Snipers have one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs on the battlefield, and the stress from that can be tremendous.
• Many snipers said they handled their job's intense pressures by quieting their worries and allowing their training to guide them.
• "This profession as a whole constitutes a difficult lifestyle where we have to get up every day and train harder than the enemy, so that when we meet him in battle we make sure to come out on top," a Marine scout sniper said.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

There are few "safe" jobs in armed conflict, but certainly one of the toughest and most dangerous is that of a sniper. They must sneak forward in groups of two to spy on the enemy, knowing that an adversary who spots them first may be lethal. Here's what Army and Marine Corps snipers say it takes to overcome the life-or-death stress of their job.

"As a scout sniper, we are going to be constantly tired, fatigued, dehydrated, probably cold, for sure wet, and always hungry," Marine scout sniper Sgt. Brandon Choo told the Department of Defense earlier this year.

The missions snipers are tasked with carrying out, be it in the air, at sea, or from a concealed position on land, include gathering intelligence, killing enemy leaders, infiltration and overwatch, hunting other snipers, raid support, ballistic IED interdiction, and the disruption of enemy operations.

Many snipers said they handled their job's intense pressures by quieting their worries and allowing their training to guide them.

"There is so much riding on your ability to accomplish the mission, including the lives of other Marines," a Marine scout sniper told Insider recently. "The best way to deal with [the stress] is to just not think about it." An Army sniper said the same thing, telling Insider that "you don't think about that. You are just out there and reacting in the moment. You don't feel that stress in the situation."

These sharpshooters explained that when times are tough, there is no time to feel sorry for yourself because there are people depending on you. Their motivation comes from the soldiers and Marines around them.

Learning to tune out the pressures of the job is a skill developed through training. "This profession as a whole constitutes a difficult lifestyle where we have to get up every day and train harder than the enemy, so that when we meet him in battle we make sure to come out on top," Choo told DoD.

'You are always going to fall back on your training.'

So, what does that mean in the field, when things get rough?

"You are going to do what you were taught to do or you are going to die," 1st Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a veteran Army sniper, told Insider. "Someone once told me that in any given situation, you are probably not going to rise to the occasion," a Marine scout sniper, now an instructor, explained. "You are always going to fall back on your training."

"So, if I've trained myself accordingly, even though I'm stressing out about whatever my mission is, I know that I'll fall back to my training and be able to get it done," he said. "Then, before I know it, the challenge has passed, the stress is gone, and I can go home and drink a beer and eat a steak."

Choo summed it up simply in his answers to DoD, saying, "No matter what adversity we may face, at the end of the day, we aren't dead, so it's going to be all right."

Do the impossible once a week.

Sometimes the pressures of the job can persist even after these guys return home.

In that case, Sipes explained, it is really important to "talk to someone. Talk to your peers. Take a break. Go and do something else and come back to it." Another Army sniper previously told Insider that it is critical to check your ego at the door, be brutally honest with yourself, and know your limits.

In civilian life, adversity can look very different than it does on the battlefield. Challenges, while perhaps not life-and-death situations, can still be daunting.

"I think the way that people in civilian life can deal with [hardship] is by picking something out, on a weekly basis, that they in their mind think is impossible, and they need to go and do it," a Marine sniper told Insider. "What you're going to find is that more often than not, you are going to be able to achieve that seemingly-impossible task, and so everything that you considered at that level or below becomes just another part of your day."

He added that a lot more people should focus on building their resilience.

"If that is not being provided to you, it is your responsibility to go out and seek that to make yourself better."

SEE ALSO: This soldier may look like Chewbacca, but his suit makes him one of the deadliest fighters on the battlefield

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Heart-pounding video shows a badass Coast Guardsman running down a narco-sub loaded with cocaine and pounding on the hatch

• A heartbreaking war story former Vice President Joe Biden has told on the campaign trail for years never actually happened, according to a new report in the Washington Post. 
• For years, Biden has told a story of traveling to Afghanistan in 2008 and presenting a Navy captain with a Silver Star for trying to rescue a fellow soldier under fire. Biden recalls the captain as feeling guilty and saying to him, "Sir, I don't want the damn thing."
• The Post said it "appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened."
• Biden did, in fact, present a Bronze Star to an Army staff sergeant who risked his life to save a fellow soldier and felt conflicted about accepting the award.
• But in his various tellings of the story, Biden got the service member's branch, rank, the nature of the attempted rescue, where it took place, and the type of award wrong.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A heartbreaking war story former Vice President Joe Biden has told on the campaign trail for years never actually happened, according to a new report in the Washington Post. 

In Biden's version of the story, he traveled to visit US troops in Afghanistan's Kumar province while vice president at the request of a four-star general to honor an act of bravery by a Navy captain who had carried the body of his fallen soldiers out of a gorge while under fire. 

By Biden's telling, the Navy captain in question still blamed himself for his colleague's death and rejected Biden's attempts to give him a Silver Star, a military award that recognizes bravery in combat. 

When Biden tells the story, he recalls the captain saying, "Sir, I don't want the damn thing" and "Do not pin it on me, Sir! Please, Sir. Do not do that! He died."

The Post said that according to interviews with "more than a dozen" military officials and Biden campaign staffers, "almost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect" and it "appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened."

Read more: The Pentagon was apparently blindsided by a Trump administration move that affects children of deployed troops

The Post's examination of the true facts found that while Biden did in fact travel to Kumar province, he did so while a US Senator in 2008 and not as vice president.

The member of the armed forces who carried out the dangerous mission to retrieve his colleague's body was a 20-year old Army specialist named Kyle J. White and not a Navy captain, and also never received a Silver Star at the time. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor several years after the fact, according to the Post. 

Biden did, in fact, once give an award to a distraught and guilt-wracked Army Staff Sgt. Chad Workman in Afghanistan's Wardak province, his campaign confirmed to the Post. 

In an interview with the Post, Workman described feeling apprehensive about receiving a Bronze Star from Biden to honor his bravery in rushing into a vehicle engulfed in flames to try and rescue a fellow soldier and "trying to get out of it." 

And during his 2008 visit to Kumar province, Biden and two other US senators witnessed Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez present a Bronze Star to Spc. Miles Foltz, who did put himself directly in the line of Taliban fire to rescue a wounded soldier who ended up surviving despite being shot in the neck. 

As Biden embarked on the campaign trail to support Democratic candidates including presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, he began telling a mish-mash of those three stories on the campaign trail, with the account becoming more "harrowing and less accurate" with every telling, the Post said.

Read more: Joe Biden has been a self-professed gaffe machine for decades but Democratic primary voters don't seem to care, yet

Throughout his political career, Biden has frequently invoked and highlighted heart-wrenching stories about the sacrifices made by deployed members of the US armed services.

Biden's late son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, served as a Judge Advocate General in the US Army and deployed to Iraq for a year from 2008 to 2009. 

But Biden is a self-admitted gaffe machine and is known for sometimes making misstatements or exaggerating the truth to get across a larger, more significant point. 

Throughout his career, Biden has relied on his ability to connect with people and make an impression wherever he goes on the campaign trail — gaffes aside. 

Workman told the Post that Biden "has that look where his eyes can see into your eyes" and said "I felt like he really understood."

SEE ALSO: Here's how Joe Biden went from being a kid from Scranton to a US Senator, VP, and now the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Fox News pundits are using white supremacist language tied to 'The Great Replacement' conspiracy theory

• For 13 years, Josh Griffin served in the US military where he's seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and worked with special operations forces. 
• Now, at 33-years-old, he's trading in his rifle for shoulder pads and a helmet. 
• As part of a special Army program, Griffin can complete the last two years of his bachelor's degree at Colorado State University while remaining on active duty. 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

When 33-year-old Houston, Texas, native Josh Griffin steps onto the gridiron at Colorado State University this year, he will do so as the oldest player in college football. He'll also do so as an active duty US Army staff sergeant with special operations combat experience. 

For the past 13 years, Griffin has served as a member of the 10th Airborne Special Forces Group and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, according to Colorado State University Magazine. Over the past decade, Griffin has seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and trained with the elite US Army Rangers and Green Beret special forces. Some of those missions, according to the Coloradoan, are steeped in secrecy. 

Griffin was able to make his transition to the football field thanks to a special Army program that lets him attend college in the US while remaining on an active duty ROTC program. Now, with two years left to complete his bachelor's degree, Griffin is trading in his rifle for shoulder pads and a helmet and is majoring in philosophy with a minor in military science. All of that, Griffin told The Coloradoan, is a dream come true. 

"It was always a dream for me to play ball, and then when I got the opportunity to come back to school to finish a degree, I was like, OK, let me go to a school where I can see if I can walk on," Griffin said. 

That dream almost led him elsewhere. According to The Coloradoan, the army veteran was weighing options all around the country, from Philadelphia in the northeast to schools closer to his hometown in Houston. It was only after he missed a flight to meet with coaches at the University of Southern California that he decided on a whim to Google CSU's program. 

In an interview with The Coloradoan, CSU professor of military service Troy Thomas said he remembered receiving a knock on his office door a year and a half ago. When the door opened it was Griffin who entered, saying, "Hey, I think I'm going to try and go to school here." 

"It's a good news story for him," Thomas told the Coloradoan. "But it's also a great story for CSU and CSU football. It's also a great thing for the Army. " 

As a walk-on, Griffin is still floating between positions and it's unclear how much playing time he'll ultimately receive. The time spent running the ball and breaking through tackles though, is only one component of Griffin's value according to CSU coach Mike Bobo. 

"He has influence," Bobo told the Coloradoan 'He's older. He's done a great job of taking these guys under his wing. If something happens, the first person they call a lot of times is Josh, and I think that's great."

Read more: 

53 years after he dropped out of school to fight in the Vietnam War, a Michigan man finally received his high school diploma

Inside the company helping veterans launch their own startups, from farming crickets to selling matcha powder

Veterans sound off on Trump's statement on barring transgender people from the military

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Navy has its own Area 51 and it's right in the middle of the Bahamas

• The US Army will begin fielding new night vision goggles and an integrated weapons sight next week, when the technology will be delivered to the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley in Kansas, the Army announced Monday.
• The new Enhanced Night Vision Goggles - Binocular (ENVG-B) and the Family of Weapons Sights – Individual (FWS-I) offer improved depth perception and increased situational awareness at night, as well as the ability to accurately shoot around corners and from the hip.
• During testing, one member of the development team witnessed a Marine lying down on his back and shooting backwards over his shoulder at targets 50 to 100 meters away. He hit five out of seven targets.
• "I decided this was an insane game changer," Sgt. First Class Will Roth, who was involved in the development, told the Army. "I'm a believer, one hundred percent. Nothing else offers these kinds of capabilities."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Army is preparing to field new night vision goggles and an integrated weapons sight that will change the way US ground forces go to war.

The new Enhanced Night Vision Goggles - Binocular (ENVG-B) and the Family of Weapons Sights – Individual (FWS-I) will make US Soldiers and Marines deadlier in the dark by offering improved depth perception for better mobility and increased situational awareness at night, as well as the ability to accurately shoot around corners and from the hip.

The Army will begin fielding this capability next week at Fort Riley in Kansas, where this new technology will be delivered to the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.

The night vision goggles offer higher-resolution imagery, as well as improved thermal capabilities, giving ground troops the ability to see through dust, fog, smoke, and other battlefield obscurants.

The goggles wirelessly connect to the weapon sight, delivering Rapid Target Acquisition capability. With a picture-in-picture setup, soldiers can see not only what is in front of them, but also whatever their weapon is aimed at, allowing them to shoot from the hip or point their weapon around a corner.

"This capability "enables Soldiers to detect, recognize and engage targets accurately from any carry position and with significantly reduced exposure to enemy fire,"according to the Army.

This system was tested with US soldiers, special operators, Marines, and National Guard personnel.

Sgt. First Class Will Roth, a member of the Army Futures Command Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, was skeptical when he first learned about this technology, he told the Army in a statement. "I couldn't envision a time when Soldiers would accept this product and trust it in the field," he said.

His mind changed after he saw a Marine lie down on his back and fire over his shoulder at targets 50 to 100 meters away, relying solely on the goggles paired wirelessly to the optics on the Marine's rifle. "He hit five out of seven. It gave me chill bumps," Roth said.

"I decided this was an insane game changer," he added. "I'm a believer, one hundred percent. Nothing else offers these kinds of capabilities."

Senior Army officials are optimistic about the capabilities of this new technology.

"It is better than anything I've experienced in my Army career," Lt. Gen. James Richardson, deputy commander of Army Futures Command, told Congress earlier this year, adding that Rangers had "gone from marksman to expert" with the help of the new optics.

Read more: US soldiers will soon deploy with game-changing night vision that lets them shoot around corners

Brig. Gen. Dave Hodne, director of the Army's Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, told reporters last October that he "can't imagine, right now, any future sighting system that will not have that kind of capability."

The ENVG-B and FWS-I mark the first deliverables of the US Army's one-year-old four-star command, Army Futures Command, which is dedicated to the development of next-generation weapons and warfighting systems.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Heart-pounding video shows a badass Coast Guardsman running down a narco-sub loaded with cocaine and pounding on the hatch

• A former US soldier, Craig Lang, is being held in Ukraine on suspicion of killing a Florida couple in 2018, Radio Free Europe reports. 
• Lang and his accomplice planned to steal from the couple and use the money to travel to Venezuela to fight with rebels there. They had previously fought with an ultranationalist militant group in Ukraine together. 
• Lang is also linked to another former soldier who was charged with sharing bomb-making instructions over social media. 
• Visit Business Insider for more stories. 

Former US Army soldier Craig Lang is being held in Ukraine on suspicion of killing a Florida couple in 2018, whom he and an accomplice are accused of stealing from so they could travel to "participate in an armed conflict against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," Radio Free Europe reports. 

Lang, 29, was enlisted in the Army from 2008 to 2014, after which he fought with ultranationalist Ukrainian paramilitary group Right Sector before attempting to fight Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda linked extremist group in East Africa. Lang and his accomplice, Alex Zwiefelhofer, who also fought with Right Sector were deported from Kenya as they tried to enter South Sudan in 2017. Zweifelhofer enlisted in the Army in 2015, went AWOL in 2016, and was discharged in 2018, according to a criminal complaint from the US district court in Florida. 

The two are accused of murdering Serafin and Deanna Lorenzo in Estero, Florida. According to the Department of Justice, the couple met with Lang and Zwiefelhofer to purchase $3,000 worth of firearms. Lang and Zwiefelhofer are accused of taking the $3,000 and killing the couple in the course of the robbery.

The two had planned to commit crimes, including "committing robberies, hot wiring and stealing boats and/or a yacht, escaping to South America and Ukraine, and smuggling firearms and ammunition,"according to the complaint. Lang eventually traveled from the US to Cúcuta, Colombia, via Mexico City, to cross to border into Venezuela and fight the government. From there, Lang traveled to Madrid, Spain, and then on to Ukraine, where he was captured.

Read more:Amid mass protests in Moscow, Vladimir Putin showed up at a right-wing nationalist motorcycle rally in Crimea

The two are being charged with conspiracy to commit robbery affecting commerce and to discharge a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, robbery interfering in commerce, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death, according to the DOJ. Zweifelhofer also faces charges of sexual exploitation of a minor in North Carolina related to video footage FBI officers found on his cell phone.

If found guilty of the federal charges, Lang and Zwiefelhofer face up to life in prison or the death penalty. 

Lang is also linked to Jarrett William Smith, another former soldier, who the DOJ charged on September 21, with distributing bomb-making instructions via social media. Radio Free Europe reported. Smith planned to travel to Ukraine to fight with the ultranationalist Azov Battalion and had sought Lang's advice on fighting in Ukraine.

SEE ALSO: 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What El Chapo is really like, according to the wife of one his closest henchman

• US Army Staff Sgt. Richard Ciccarella was stationed at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida from August 2017 to March 2018.
• During that period, prosecutors say, Ciccarella uploaded topless pictures of a relative to a Russian website named iMGSRC.ru. 
• A cursory inspection of the website reveals it to be an anonymized imageboard, like 4chan and 8chan, that's home to an active community of people sharing photos of children with sexually suggestive and overtly sexual statements.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

You'd never know from the front page of the Russian website iMGSRC that, within its depths, dozens of users are sharing photos of children in various states of undress.

The comments sections underneath those photo galleries are full of other users, all anonymized, weighing in with correspondingly disturbing remarks. 

It's this website where US Army Staff Sgt. Richard Ciccarella is said to have uploaded topless pictures of a young female relative. Ciccarella pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators about an email address for a Russian website; according to Assistant US Attorney Gregory Schiller, the photos didn't constitute child pornography.

Instead, he's being charged with making a false statement to a federal agent.

"The lie and the obstruction was to cover up an email address to cover up a much bigger investigation that was going on," Schiller said, according to a report in the Palm Beach Post. 

Read more: A US Army soldier who worked at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort uploaded photos of an underage girl to a Russian website, prosecutors say

From August 2017 to March 2018, Ciccarella was assigned to the US Army communications detail at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. It was during this period that he is accused of uploading the photos of an underage girl, said to be his relative — one such photo showed an underage girl in underwear next to a Christmas tree, the Miami Herald reported, with the caption, "dirty comments [sic] welcome."

A closer look at the website reveals a much deeper issue: The site is rife with users sharing photos of children in various states of dress, often paired with explicit or suggestive sexual statements.

Like 4chan and 8chan, iMGSRC is an "image board"— an anonymized web forum that allows users to host photos and comment on them. As of September 28, it boasted 1,168,898 registered users. Many of those users upload relatively banal images, like animal and travel photos. Indeed, much of the front page of iMGSRC features photos of cute animals.

But, also like 4chan and 8chan, much of that content seemingly isn't being moderated: We found example after example of users sharing photos albums of children. Some of those photos feature children in their underwear or various states of undress. In every case, those photos were paired with sexual comments from the original uploaded and other users. 

The FAQ of iMGSRC addresses the moderation question directly: "We can not be held responsible for what user post on site," it says, "But we do take care to keep host as clean as possible." It also specifically states, "ABSOLUTELY NO CHILD PORN, no child abusive pics and NO child abusive comments! Your account will be banned permanently."

Terms of service aside, it's clear from a brief look around the site that those rules are loose at best. Many of the photos are unlikely to be legally considered "pornography," similar to the ruling with Ciccarella, as the children aren't fully nude.

iMGSRC has gained a reputation in the criminal community for hosting such material. In 2014 a US District Court of Kansas ruling recognized that the site was frequently used to host and trade child pornography. The website has been used in other countries to identify uploaders of illicit pictures of minors as well.

Representatives from iMGSRC did not respond to a request for comment as of publishing.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch SpaceX's 'most difficult launch ever'

• President Donald Trump tweeted that a civil war could be the result of his impeachment. According to a report by the New Yorker, he later added that his "very serious foot injury" would prevent him from fighting in that theoretical civil war. 
• Trump had five deferments from service in Vietnam, four were for education, and the fifth was a medical deferment, for a foot condition he described as heel spurs.
• We asked podiatric surgeon Dr. Jacqueline Sutera (who has not treated Mr. Trump) to explain the diagnosis.

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Following is a transcript of the video.

Dr. Jacqueline Sutera:The heel spurs are little calcifications that start to form at the bottom of the heel bone, and in someone who has, like, a very thin fat pad, you might be able to actually feel it, and can cause pain.

They're typically a little bit spiky on x-ray, and so they're kind of pointy. And that can cause irritation to the surrounding tissue in the area, the fascia is right there, that's where the plantar fascia attaches onto the heel bone as well.

So, plantar fasciitis, heel spur syndrome, heel spur, that all really goes together.

People with heel spurs and heel pain, plantar fasciitis, typically have pain when they first get out of bed in the morning. So, shouldn't it feel better when you are resting after a night's sleep? The problem with that and the reason why it happens is because when you're resting, the soft tissue just relaxes and there's a swelling there.

So, then you go to stand up on it with all of your body weight, and it starts that inflammation all over again.

Some people can have heel spurs without heel pain, some people have heel pain without heel spurs, it kind of just is an individual thing and it should be really checked out.

You need an x-ray to diagnose a heel spur.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on August 8, 2017.

Join the conversation about this story »

• A good sniper has to be able to hide in plain sight, which means they have to master camouflage and concealment.
• Insider recently visited Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and observed stalking training, where snipers in training attempt to slip past instructors undetected to put fire on a target.
• Before they entered the field, the students were given the opportunity to paint their faces and "veg up," where they customize their ghillie suits with vegetation.
• These photos show how snipers use grass and other vegetation to disappear.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Camouflage and concealment are vital skills every sniper must have in order to hide in plain sight, a necessary ability if a sniper is to fulfill their mission and survive on a modern battlefield.

Insider recently had the opportunity to observe a group of snipers at the Scout Sniper School at Marine Corps Base Quantico go through stalking training, an exercise where the students practice sneaking into a position where they could effectively fire on a target without, at any point, being spotted by the instructors.

At the base, it's high-stakes hide-and-seek that will determine whether they become Marine Corps scout snipers. On the battlefield, a mistake can mean life or death. In these photos, you can see how these troops gear up to disappear.

Read more: A top sniper slipped past about a dozen Marines — no one saw him even when he was less than 3 feet away

Before the training began, the snipers painted their faces, covering features that stand out, such as the nose and cheekbones, with brown paint and flat features with green. The snipers also sometimes put a little black paint just under their eyes.

Face paint that is too dark or too light can give away a sniper's position, and it did for at least one student during the training. "It was so unnatural," an instructor said.

The students then grabbed their gear and jogged out to the vegetation site, a location roughly 1,000 meters from the observation post where the sniper school instructors were positioned.

The snipers were given 10 minutes to customize their ghillie suits, in this case a mesh cover to which students attach vegetation to help them blend into their environment. A top sniper can complete this process much faster.

To "veg up," as the process is called, the snipers collect grasses and other vegetation and weave it into the their mesh covers.

As one of the instructors explained, the idea is to create a natural look that will help them blend into the negative space.

Read more:This Marine Corps sniper put a bullet in a target 8,000 feet away — here's how he took one of the hardest shots of his life

The snipers do not want to be seen as the bush. They want to be the space between the bushes.

They also want to break up and distort their outline to obscure features that are likely to cause a human being to stand out in the environment in which they hope to achieve concealment.

Every sniper approaches the vegetation and camouflage process a little differently.

But camouflage is only one part of the equation. Snipers also have to carefully consider their movement, their screens, both natural and artificial, their cover, and their body position.

These snipers also have to watch out for things like deflection, which can cause them to fail the mission by missing their shot, and muzzle blast and shadow, which can give away their position as some students learned the hard way during the training.

Vegged up and ready to go, the students ventured out into the field for their first stalking exercise. While the instructors scored a few "kills," a number of the students made it through. This exercise will eventually decide who becomes a scout sniper. Those that fail will not.

• An Omnicom team led by DDB last year won the US Army's ad business, covering an estimated $4 billion over 10 years.
• Business Insider got the full pitch deck that won the account.
• DDB's first multi-media campaign is set to launch in the coming weeks on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
• The winning pitch includes personalized social media videos targeting high-schoolers, ads featuring headshots of new recruits, and a campaign starring soldiers' parents as influencers.
• It also proposed the Army run ads on publishers such as BuzzFeed, Twitch, and The Washington Post.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Holding company giant Omnicom's Team DDB last November won the US Army's ad business after a multi-year review, covering an estimated $4 billion over 10 years. In addition to lead agency DDB, the winning group includes media shop OMD, PR firm FleishmanHillard, and multicultural agency Fluent360.

Business Insider obtained the full pitch deck that Team DDB presented to Army officials. The document is embedded in full at the bottom of this story.

Read more: The military can't get Gen Z to enlist. Here's how top Army marketers plan to fix the problem.

Omnicom pitched a variety of digital and social efforts including episodic Instagram stories and sponsored content on BuzzFeed, Twitch, and Reddit

The deck includes a wealth of proposals for its first multimedia campaign under the new tagline "Tomorrow Takes an Army," which is set to launch in the coming weeks across platforms including Instagram and Facebook and youth-oriented media outlets.

The Army's head of marketing, Brigadier General Alex Fink, told Business Insider his team looks to reach the elusive Gen Z with "immersive, episodic storytelling" like that featured in "72Hours." That's one of the ideas in the pitch deck and is an Instagram and YouTube video series highlighting individual missions and updating every three days.

Other potential aspects of the campaign include Facebook video ads targeting high-schoolers by name and sponsored BuzzFeed surveys that show users jobs they might get after serving in the Army.

Additional slides list Reddit, Snapchat, and gaming platform Twitch as potential destinations for sponsored content alongside traditional publishers like The Washington Post and The Houston Chronicle.

Spec ads claim soldiers could get jobs at tech companies like Github and LinkedIn

The deck lists Microsoft, GE, Tesla, and Amazon among Omnicom's potential partners on the Army account. It also implies that service in the armed forces could lead to jobs at "great companies" like Google, Facebook, and Apple.

Omnicom proposed an unbranded campaign called TTAA, or Operational Thunderbolt, that would attract recruits by promoting high-skill jobs at tech companies including Github, Careerbuilder, and LinkedIn.

Spec ads highlight high-tech Army initiatives like "real life Iron Man suits" as well as work in the solar and wind power industries and a proposed Lab of Tomorrow, described as "an interactive, multi-sensory futuristic dome, highlighting the innovation and technology of the US Army."

New campaign has tagline "Tomorrow Takes an Army" and features ads starring recruits and proud parents as influencers

The deck even proposes enlisting soldiers' parents as influencers who create sponsored blogs and content on goarmy.com to position membership in the Army as a family decision.

Another proposal involves creating a database of headshots from every new recruit to target people with personalized ads across platforms including social, digital, and even highway billboards.

The agency proposed making a big shift into online video, away from linear TV

Omnicom pitched significantly cutting the Army's linear TV spend in favor of online video, search, social, and influencer content. Another slide describes this strategy as "mobile to the core," though TV ads would still make up the majority of the Army's annual paid media budget of about $100 million.

Omnicom also proposed using behavioral data to shift its buys from segments to individuals, with potential buys on platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, travel hubs like TripAdvisor, online job sites for major employers like Walmart, and publishers including ESPN and TMZ.

In terms of hyper-targeting, Omnicom proposed using search engine data to identify people who recently bought test prep books or searched for jobs in healthcare.

Fink told Business Insider that Army will hold the agencies more accountable by attaching goals to every individual budget item. Another slide identifies some of the numbers Omnicom would be expected to deliver.

The new campaign's key goal is to make the US Army more relevant to young Americans

The pitch deck opens with a bold thesis of "reverence vs. relevance" and cites surveys finding that, while most Americans have great respect for the Army, they know little about it, do not find it relevant to their lives, and have no interest in enrolling. 

That sentiment was echoed by Army officials who told Business Insider that this irrelevance, combined with a low unemployment economy, is to blame for the military's recent recruitment struggles.

The pitch emphasizes that the military is about "more than combat and war," with soldiers enlisting to expand their career options rather than "as a last resort."

Omnicom encouraged a particular focus on recruiting women, with additional spec ads highlighting diversity efforts amid emotional appeals to protect the US from outside threats and "hate."

The Federal Procurement Database lists the minimum value of Omnicom's contract at about $128 million over a 10-year period, but according to a Department of Defense statement, the company could earn significantly more depending on how many projects the Army assigns.

Read the full pitch deck below.

SEE ALSO: An audit found the US Army wasted $36 million on marketing in one year. Here's how its new leaders plan to ensure a return on taxpayers' money.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Burger King's CMO explains why the biggest risk in marketing is not taking one

• While it might seem normal for every country to have a military, there are some that don't have any armed forces whatsoever.
• Thirty-one countries don't have any armed forces, according to the CIA Factbook. This includes a lot of countries that receive military assistance from more powerful states.
• In some territories that don't have a standing army, police forces function as de facto military forces.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Can you guarantee security without a military? For most people, this question sounds like a contradiction, but there are countries that maintain their territorial sovereignty without actually having military forces.

With the help of the CIA World Factbook, we have identified the 31 countries that currently don't have armed forces.

While there are some nations on this list that don't have a military whatsoever, others are dependent on other, more powerful countries that act as protective forces in the case of an emergency. For example, the Marshall Islands' military defense is the responsibility of the US, while France and Spain both provide military support to Andorra because of their proximity.

Read more: These are the 25 most powerful militaries in the world in 2019

In some territories that don't have any standing army, their police forces function as de facto military forces. In Costa Rica, for example, the Fuerza Pública is responsible for the defense of the country's external borders in addition to the police's usual regulatory functions.

Here is our list of which countries exist without regular armed forces.

SEE ALSO: 7 intimidating images from China's 70th anniversary show just how powerful its military has become

1. Andorra

The mini-state between France and Spain only has about 85,000 inhabitants. The country in the Pyrenees does have its own police, called Cos de Policia d'Andorra, but no military. The defense of the independent state is the responsibility of Spain and France, because of their close proximity.

2. Aruba

The island state of Aruba lies in the Caribbean Sea and has, since 1986, been a separate, semi-autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In recent years, it has become extremely popular with tourists.

The defense of the country, which has 116,000 inhabitants, is the responsibility of the Netherlands. Aruba's national security services focus on fighting crime and terrorism.

3. Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are a group of islands in the Caribbean belonging to the British Overseas Territories. This means Britain is also responsible for the defense of the archipelago, which lies roughly 150 miles south of Cuba. Nevertheless, the Cayman Islands still have a national police force called the Royal Cayman Islands Police Force.

4. Cook Islands

The Cook Islands, named after Captain James Cook, are an island state in the southern Pacific that is independent but in free association with New Zealand. Thus New Zealand is responsible for its defense but only at request by the Cook Islands.

5. Costa Rica

There have been no armed forces in Costa Rica since 1949, but police forces are usually used for defense purposes.

The country, which is often referred to as "Switzerland of Central America", proclaimed its permanent and unarmed neutrality in 1983. In fact, Costa Rica is protected by the US.

6. Curacao

Curacao is also an island state in the Caribbean Sea that has no military forces. However, the Dutch government controls the foreign and defense policy of the 171 square-mile island, which has almost 150,000 inhabitants.

In a referendum in 2009, the people of Curacao voted to become a self-governing country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard (DCCG) also provides maritime security.

7. Dominica

Dominica is an island state in the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Pacific and is a member of the Commonwealth, a union of several sovereign states consisting of the United Kingdom and its former colonies. Dominica has a police force called the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force, which also acts as a coastguard.

8. Faroe Islands

Located in the North Atlantic between the British Isles, Norway, and Iceland, the Faroe Islands have a total of 51,000 inhabitants. They do not have regular armed forces, but the Danish government is responsible for their defense. The Arctic Command, which is part of the Danish armed forces, is responsible for the territorial defense of the Faroe Islands.

9. French Polynesia

French Polynesia is located in the southern Pacific Ocean and consists of many small and large islands. The most famous island of the territory is Tahiti. In total, French Polynesia has 290,000 inhabitants, but no armed forces of its own. Instead, France is responsible for its territorial defense.

10. Greenland

Greenland is the largest island on earth and geographically belongs to North America but is an autonomous part of Denmark. In 2008, Greenland voted for stronger self-government and responsibility in domestic affairs.

In 2009, Greenland passed the Self-Government Act, recognizing that its citizens had a right to self-determination under international law. However, Denmark continues to exercise control over several policy areas, including foreign, security, and financial policy. This is why the Danish government is also responsible for the defense of the island.

11. Grenada

Grenada is an island state in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Since the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, the country no longer has its own military force.

However, there is a police force called the Royal Grenada Police Force, which also acts as the coast guard.

12. Iceland

Although Iceland is a member of NATO, it has no permanent military force. NATO is responsible for Iceland's defense.

Since 2006, all US forces have withdrawn from Iceland. Iceland participates in international peace missions with the civilian Icelandic crisis management unit.

13. Kiribati

The state of Kiribati, independent since 1979, is located in the western Pacific Ocean and has 109,000 inhabitants.

Kiribati, which used to be called The Gilbert Islands, has no regular armed forces and the establishment of a military is forbidden in the constitution. However, the island state does have police forces.

14. Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is the sixth-smallest state in the world. Although the country has no military armed forces, its national police force cooperates closely with the military forces of neighboring countries like Austria and Switzerland.

15. Marshall Islands

After almost four decades under US administration, the Marshall Islands gained their independence in 1986. The Marshall Islands have no armed forces of their own so territorial defense is still provided by the US.

16. Mauritius

Mauritius is an island state in the Indian Ocean and has 1.3 million inhabitants. The country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968.

Although Mauritius has no regular armed forces of its own, it has police forces and a paramilitary unit called the Special Mobile Force. This is supposed to ensure the internal and external security of the country.

17. Micronesia

Parts of the Caroline Islands, a former UN trust territory in the Western Pacific under US administration, merged in 1979 and adopted their own constitution as the Federated States of Micronesia. Independence followed in 1986. The island state has no military of its own, so its defense is the responsibility of the United States.

18. Monaco

The second-smallest state in the world, Monaco lies on the French Mediterranean coast and is known as a tax haven. The city-state, which covers an area of just 0.78 square miles, has a total of 31,000 inhabitants. France is responsible for its defense but Monaco still has a national police force.

19. Montserrat

The Caribbean island of Montserrat has been considered an overseas territory of the United Kingdom since 1783. Due to repeated volcanic eruptions, many of the island's inhabitants have fled abroad in the past 25 years. Although Montserrat has its own police force, there is no regular military and its defense is Britain's responsibility.

20. Nauru

Nauru, south of the Marshall Islands, is the smallest republic in the world. After being annexed by several countries during the 19th and 20th centuries, the country was declared a UN trust territory after the Second World War.

In 1968, the small island gained its independence. There is no military for its almost 10,000 inhabitants, but according to an informal agreement, the responsibility for defense lies with Australia.

21. Niue

Located in the South Pacific, Niue Island has just 1,600 inhabitants and is a self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand. Although the small island has no military of its own, it does have its own police force. New Zealand provides the defense to this isolated island.

22. Palau

Situated west of the former Caroline Islands, the archipelago opposed unification with the newly founded Federated States of Micronesia in 1978 and declared its independence as the State of Palau instead.

There is still a free-association agreement between the US and Palau. Thus, the US is allowed to station military personnel in the area. However, this has not yet happened. Palau also has national police.

23. Panama

The Central American country Panama abolished its military in 1990 and instead created the Panamanian Public Forces.

They consist of a national police force, a national aviation service and a border service. Since 1994, Panama's constitution has prohibited the creation of a standing military.

24. St.Lucia

St. Lucia is an island state that belongs to the West Indies and is a member of the Commonwealth. The state does not have its own military but has its own police force, including a special unit and naval unit. 

25. St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The Caribbean island state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines gained its independence in 1979 after having been subordinated to the United Kingdom for a long time. The 102,000 inhabitants of the island have no military, but the island state has its own police force.

26. Samoa

The islands, now known as Samoa, were the first Polynesian nation to achieve independence in 1962. Samoa has no formal defense structure or regular armed forces, but it has its own police force. There are also informal defense relations with New Zealand in place.

27. San Marino

San Marino is not only the oldest existing republic in the world, but it's also the third-smallest European state. The mini-state, which is completely surrounded by Italy, has no regular armed forces but has a voluntary military corps that performs ceremonies and can be used to support the police.

In an emergency, the state reserves the right to call all San Marino citizens between the ages of 16 and 60 to service. However, responsibility for defense lies with Italy.

28. Sint Maarten

The Caribbean island of Sint Maarten is autonomous but part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The northern part of the island, Saint-Martin, is an overseas territory of France.

Sint Maarten has no regular armed forces and the territorial defense of the island is the responsibility of the Netherlands.

29. Solomon Islands

Since the independence of the Solomon Islands in 1978, there have been repeated violent riots, and the crime rate on the islands has been high.

Between 2003 and 2017, aid missions consisting of police, military and civilian advisors from a total of 15 countries were active in the Solomon Islands. The aim of these missions was to restore civil and political order. The Solomon Islands have no standing army but have a police force.

30. Tuvalu

Until its independence in 1978, the island state of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean was known as the Ellice Islands (a British colony). The fourth-smallest state in the world has around 11,000 inhabitants and no military of its own. However, Tuvalu has its own police force.

31. Vanuatu

Until its independence in 1980, Vanuatu belonged to the New Hebrides, a territory of several Pacific islands administered by the United Kingdom and France.

The island state of Vanuatu, consisting of over 80 islands, has no regular military, but there is the Vanuatu Police Force, the Vanuatu Mobile Force, and the Police Maritime Wing (PMW).

• The US Army has struggled to recruit new soldiers and prove the value of its $400 million annual advertising budget in recent years.
• Its new marketing leaders told Business Insider they would shift toward digital, data-driven marketing and away from linear TV to target the elusive Gen Z. 
• The pitch deck that ad holding company giant Omnicom used to win the Army account includes Facebook ads targeting high-schoolers, soldiers' moms as influencers, and campaigns highlighting potential jobs for Army vets at tech companies like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Future recruiting efforts will also focus on events like Comic-Con and Pax, because officials said gamers "make good soldiers."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Army isn't just any advertiser.

While membership in the military has dropped significantly since the 1970s, the largest wing of the American armed forces spends around $400 million dollars annually on marketing to recruit and retain soldiers, according to Department of Defense estimates.

The Army failed to meet its recruitment target in 2018 for the first time in more than a decade and hit more modest goals for 2019 by focusing on student loan debt.

Through interviews with top Army officials and a pitch deck that reveals how holding company giant Omnicom won the Army's ad business, Business Insider offers an exclusive look inside the military's plan to reverse those trends by shaking up its marketing strategy.

Most young Americans don't think the Army is relevant to their lives: The military can't get Gen Z to enlist. Here's how top Army marketers plan to fix the problem.

The Army's new heads of marketing said they planned to move away from big-budget, broad-reach TV ads focused on defending the US in combat and focus on episodic content on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat that courts people by highlighting potential jobs in high-tech fields like drones and cybersecurity.

The Army slashed and restructured its marketing division in an attempt to spend money more effectively: An audit found the US Army wasted $36 million on marketing in one year. Here's how its new leaders plan to ensure a return on taxpayers' money.

After Congress withheld half of its ad budget due to an audit that revealed millions in spending that didn't deliver results, the Army dissolved its marketing division, relocated to Chicago, and revamped its approaches to data and events. Officials told Business Insider they planned to emphasize conferences like Comic-Con and esports festival Pax, saying gamers and programmers "make good soldiers."

The winning pitch promised to move millions in spending to the places where young people live: This pitch deck reveals how ad giant Omnicom won the US Army's $4 billion marketing business. Its first ads are about to hit digital and social media.

An extensive deck that the world's second-largest ad holding company used to win the Army account provided more evidence of the military's plans to reach young people by targeting Facebook ads to high-schoolers, running sponsored content on platforms like Reddit, BuzzFeed, and Twitch, and casting soldiers' moms as influencers.

It also listed buzzy brands like Tesla and Amazon as partners and suggested that soldiers could get jobs at companies like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn after they leave the military.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Burger King's CMO explains why the biggest risk in marketing is not taking one