• The US Army Old Guard, the oldest regiment in the Army, spent at least $26,000 on a party at the Trump International Hotel in DC this past February. 
• The Old Guard did not use government funds to pay for the event or the deposits required to reserve the space, the Old Guard's spokesman said.
• "Questions still remain about why the hotel was selected and the impression given off by holding a military function at Trump's DC hotel, which has been the subject of lawsuits, congressional inquires, and political debate," one legal expert told Insider. 
• Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories. 

The US Army ceremonial regiment that escorts the president spent at least $26,000 at President Donald Trump's Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, for its formal winter ball.

The Old Guard— the 4th battalion of the 3rd US Infantry, which gets its name from being the Army's  oldest active-duty regiment — is the president's official escort regiment and performs ceremonial duties, including drum-and-fife shows and keeping vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Arlington National Cemetery.

Like most other regiments across the forces, the Old Guard occasionally holds formal events to celebrate its service members. The regiment's winter ball on Feb. 7, 2019, was held at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, at a cost of at least $26,000, 1100 Pennsylvania and Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington reported. An initial estimate, for 500 guests, put the minimum bill at $48,790 for a three-course plated meal, seven bartenders working three hours each, as well as the rent of the ballroom and additional service fees. 

The Trump Organization leases the building the hotel is in from the federal government, and Trump has broken with previous presidents by retaining his ownership of these and other businesses. Ethics watchdogs say Trump may be breaching ethics and the Constitution by profiting off of state and federal governments, as well as foreign governments. 

The Old Guard did not use government funds to pay for the event or the deposits required to reserve the space, said the Old Guard's spokesman, Maj. Stephen Von Jett. 

"No appropriated funds were used for this event," Von Jett told Insider. "Fundraising for the event began before ticket sales and proceeds from fundraising were used to secure the deposits," he said, mentioning that the fundraisers included candy sales, bake sales, and similar events. 

At $80 per ticket, according to an event invitation posted to th eregiment's Facebook, and with 356 attendees, ticket sales would have raised $28,480 to cover the minimum cost of booking the event space. But when asked for the final cost of the event, Von Jett told Insider that because it wasn't an official US military activity, the final cost wasn't recorded. 

The Old Guard said the location was chosen by members of the 4th Battalion because it offered a competitive rate and was conveniently located. Asked whether the optics of having an event at the president's luxury hotel concerned the regiment or entered into the decision, Von Jett told Insider, "With no undue command influence, the members of 4th Battalion of the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, in their personal and private capacity, independently decided to host a private event at the Trump International Hotel Washington."

"The 3rd United States Infantry Regiment assisted the unit with leadership and oversight to ensure their actions were in keeping with all applicable laws and regulations," he added. 

However, whoever signed the contract on behalf of the members of the unit organizing the ball used the Old Guard's government address as their physical address on the signatory page.

Ethics issues aside, the regiment's choice remains puzzling, Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight told Insider. 

"If federal funds were not used, the event avoided potential constitutional violations for President Trump," Amey said.

"Questions still remain about why the hotel was selected and the impression given off by holding a military function at Trump's DC hotel, which has been the subject of lawsuits, congressional inquires, and political debate. It could be a simple night out at a trendy DC hotel or a show of support for the commander in chief, but only the organizers can answer that."

The contract, which 1100 Pennsylvania and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) both obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, shows most dollar amounts included in the contract, as well as personal information of hotel employees and Old Guard members, have been redacted, making it difficult to know how much was spent on the night out. But in addition to the $26,000 food and beverage minimum, the Trump property tacks on a 24% service charge, adding at least $6,240 to the bill. The minimum also doesn't include services like valet, which could have added a significant amount to the final bill. 

On its signature page, the contract includes a section where signatories can indicate whether they are representatives of a foreign government, a foreign government agency, embassy, or political party, a royal family, or sovereign wealth fund, which would ostensibly alert Trump to potential violations of the foreign emoluments clause. No such option exists for members of the US government or a US government entity, although the domestic emoluments clause exists to prevent federal or state governments from contributing to the president's wealth above the amount of his salary.

SEE ALSO: Army divers wore gear from the 1940s to inter a Pearl Harbor survivor on the USS Arizona

SEE ALSO: The Pentagon revealed a top official stepped down after allegedly kissing and hugging women on his staff

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We can thank the US military for the smelliest weapon in the world

• Service academy students from both West Point and the Naval Academy were seen giving the "OK" sign, which has been tied to white supremacy, during a pre-game show for the annual Army-Navy football game. 
• Officials from both schools told The Wall Street Journal they were investigating the intentions of the students. 
• The hand gesture was added to the Anti-Defamation League's online database of hate symbols used by white supremacist and other far-right extremists in September. 

Officials from two of America's top military academies are investigating the intentions of students at both their schools who flashed hand symbols associated with "white power" while on national television, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Service academy students from West Point and the Naval Academy were seen giving the "OK" sign behind ESPN's Reece Davis during a pre-game show for the annual Army-Navy football game. 

The hand gesture, in which a person makes a circle connecting their pointer finger and thumb and extends their other fingers, was added to the Anti-Defamation League's online database of hate symbols used by white supremecists and other far-right extremists in September. 

Spokespersons from both academies told The Wall Street Journal they were investigating the intention of students who made the gesture. 

4chan users originally adopted the "OK" gesture as part of a trolling campaign in which they said the shape of the hand represented the letters "W" and "P" for "white power." However, the ADL said extremists eventually adopted the gesture in earnest. 

Oren Segal, the director of the ADL's Center on Extremism, acknowledged the importance of understanding the context of the gesture to diagnose whether someone's intentions are meant to be hateful when it was added to the database earlier this year.

In addition to meaning "OK", the hand symbol has also been used in something called the "circle game," in which people try to get each other to look at the gesture below their waist.

While Segal admitted the ADL was hesitant to add the gesture to the database because of the sign's long history of just meaning "OK," he said the examples of it being used for hate had reached a tipping point.

"At this point, there is enough of a volume of use for hateful purposes that we felt it was important to add,"Segal told the Associated Press in September.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most maps of Louisiana aren't entirely right. Here's what the state really looks like.

• The US Army and the Department of Defense on Monday posted a large, color photo of Joachim Peiper, a Nazi officer and war criminal who massacred captured US troops, in Facebook posts commemorating the Battle of the Bulge.
• The posts have been deleted amid the furor, but only the Army's XVIII Airborne Corps, which first posted the photo along with apparent excerpts from Peiper's diary, has offered an explanation — that it was part of a weeks long effort to retell the story of the battle.
• The XVIII Airborne Corps, which has said that its aim is to "tell the full story of the Battle of the Bulge," did not mention the massacre of 84 American prisoners of war in its Facebook post for December 17, the 75th anniversary of this war crime.
• The Corps' edited post, however, still features questionable lines like calling Nazi Germany a "beloved nation."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Army and the Department of Defense are facing a furor for posting to their official Facebook pages a large photo of Joachim Peiper, a Nazi officer and war criminal who brutally massacred captured US troops in the battle they sought to commemorate in their posts.

The Army's XVIII Airborne Corps posted the photo of Peiper on Monday with a story detailing the inner thoughts and feelings of the infamous Panzer tank commander and Waffen SS leader as part of an ongoing effort by the Corps to retell the story of the Battle of the Bulge day-by-day on social media for its 75th anniversary.

The photo of Peiper was also shared on the 10th Mountain Division and Department of Defense Facebook pages with varied context. The Pentagon did not respond to Insider's request for an explanation for the sharing of the photo.

In a post that began the battle's retelling, titled "December 16, 1944: 'Today we gamble everything,'" the XVIII Airborne Corps wrote a story of Peiper's activities prior to the battle. "He paused at his desk. He hated to be alone with his thoughts, with the feeling of uncertainty he'd been trying to avoid for weeks," the Corps wrote. "The others were confident. They believed in der Fuhrer."

The post featured actual excerpts from Peiper's diary.

"We regret the use of the photograph of Joachim Peiper," the Corps said in a statement posted to Facebook after the post of Peiper and his musings was deleted.

"The intent was to tell the full story of the Battle of the Bulge, which will continue here, by explaining the incredible odds that were stacked up against the American Soldier," the Corps explained. 

'His beloved nation'

The Corps released an edited version of its initial post that removed some of the narrative of Peiper pondering before the fight.

The edited post, however, still features questionable lines about Nazi Germany:""The mission was called 'Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein' ('Operation Watch on the Rhine'), and Joachim would lead it. The fate of his beloved nation rested on his ability to lead his men through the American lines."

It remains unclear who wrote this post and who reviewed it before it was published to official Facebook pages.

On December 17, 1944, Peiper's forces murdered 84 captured Americans in an incident known as the Malmedy massacre, and they were also responsible for the deaths of another 19 American prisoners of war elsewhere in Belgium.

The XVIII Airborne Corps, which has said that its aim is to "tell the full story of the Battle of the Bulge," did not mention Malmedy in its Facebook post for December 17. Furthermore, no American officer has received the same treatment in follow-on posts that Peiper received in the Corps' first post.

Peiper spent more than 10 years in prison after being tried by an American military war-crimes tribunal. After his release, he was killed in a gunfight in France.

Social-media users have sharply criticized the posts by the Army units and the Department of Defense, calling them "vile and disturbing,"according to The Washington Post. One user said the US military was "glorifying a Nazi war criminal." 

"How about removing the romanticized description of the evil guy and featuring the US Army and Allied troops who managed to beat them back," one commenter wrote on the Corps' post. "We don't need to have him be the first-named individual in this piece."

The photo of Peiper itself interesting in that it is in color. While the National Archives has one in black and white, the photo posted on social media by the US military says "colored by Tobias Kurtz."

Journalist Corey Pein, as The Washington Post and others note, discovered a Deviant Art account believed to belong to Tobias Kurtz that featured several images of Nazis, as well as comments that spoke positively of Hitler and the Nazis.

A spokesman for the XVIII Airborne Corps told The New York Times that the photo was purchased from an image-sharing website called Ipernity.

That spokesman explained to Insider that the Army officer and historian who obtained the image had an account on the paid site and used his access to acquire colorized photos for the Corps' project.

The Corps has posted colorized photos of American forces as well in the days since the original post. It is unclear if those originated from the same image-sharing site.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We can thank the US military for the smelliest weapon in the world

• The military has awards for hard work and achievement, just like jobs in the civilian world.
• And just like jobs in the civilian world, some of those plaudits don't really amount to much.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Everyone wants recognition for their hard work and dedication. In the civilian world, promotions and cash raises are a solid ways to let employees know that the company respects their work production and technical skills.

Holy s--- we wish the military was structured in that same way.

Although service members do get promoted, that only happens once every few years — if you're lucky. It's only a 17% chance that an active duty troop will stay in the military for 20 years before retiring. That's much lower than most people think.

Now we can't accurately pinpoint why all troops decide to get out before hitting their 20, but we know why most of our veterans friends did: They didn't felt appreciated.

So how does the military show their brave men and women that they give a s--- about them? Well, keep reading.

SEE ALSO: 6 of the goofiest myths about the US military

1. "Mandatory fun" days.

If this term sounds confusing to the civilian ear, it sounds just as weird to a newbie boot's as well.

Mandatory fun isn't just the name of the We Are The Mighty podcast, it's also the event all service members have to attend when their units throw appreciation parties for troops.

Every active duty member has to show up, be accounted for, and must look like they're having fun (good commands will also design a fun event, but...that's rare).

Sure there are free hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and soda, but, unfortunately, these events usually take place on a Saturday afternoon. Although you'd much rather be doing anything else, you're stuck at work because you did your job too well.

2. Free afternoons.

What's interesting about the military is we have to take part in formations on a regular basis. This is a standard tool the military uses to pass information to everybody in the unit at the same time.

Sometimes, the officer-in-charge will give their command the day off as a way of acknowledging everyone's handiwork.

Unfortunately, they use the formation tool to relay this news to everyone. So ... they call everyone to formation ... to let them know they have the afternoon off.

But hey, a free afternoon is a free afternoon.

3. Command coins.

When most civilians hear the word "coin" they think that involves money. In this case, it really doesn't.

Although it costs money to purchase a command coin, the collector item has zero value anywhere on earth except in a veteran-themed bar. Sure the practice of handing out a command coin is a cool way of praising a troop, but, at the end of the day, it's just something that collects dust on the owner's desk or shelf in their office.

How about shelling out some real coin once in a while? That will really show the troops their command cares.

4. Certificate of appreciation.

Nothing feels better than to be recognized for your hard work in front of your peers and be handed a piece of pre-formatted paper praising you.

We're totally kidding! Receiving a letter or certificate of appreciation means close to nothing when other troops next to you get the exact thing — word for word.

The only thing that makes the certificate different, it has your name and rank is on it.

Whoopty freakin' do!

5. Getting a shout out in formation.

Remember earlier when we talk about standing in formation?

Well, Staff NCOs and the command's officer also like to give shout-outs to their troops there as well. At least you get some notoriety for your excellent work, but unless it reflects somehow on your bi-annual evaluation — nobody gives a f--- afterward.

Unless you earn your unit a day or half day off, being told "good job for killing the enemy yesterday" only goes so far if it doesn't get you anywhere afterward.

Welcome to the suck, boot.

• The US military's shift to focus on competition with Russia and China has put renewed attention on the threat of nuclear weapons.
• Nuclear war remains an extremely unlikely but dangerous threat, and one the Army is thinking more about, the service's chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, said this week.
• Responding to it and other challenges effectively requires the right people with the right skills, and the Army has several programs meant to ensure it has them, McConville said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US's shift to "great-power competition" with Russia and China has focused attention on the array of sophisticated weaponry those countries field, from growing submarine fleets to thickets of anti-aircraft systems.

But which of those weapons is most concerning?

"Nuclear weapons ... absolutely," Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, said Tuesday during an event at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC.

"At the end of the day," McConville added, nuclear weapons create "an existential threat, and we don't ever want to get to a nuclear war. People talk about great-power conflict or great-power war, but a nuclear exchange between great powers, no one wants to go there, so that is absolutely it."

Nuclear arms have only gotten more powerful since 1945, when the US became the first and so far only country to use them. Concern about a superpower war going nuclear eased after the Soviet Union collapsed, and the US's focus on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism over the past two decades further shifted attention from the nuclear threat.

Asked on Tuesday if he thought the Army was spending enough time preparing for a potential of nuclear exchange, McConville said the service, driven by the National Defense Strategy, was "doing a lot more thinking about those types of things."

"We see ourselves at an inflection point. The last 18, 19 years you've focused on the fight you have, and the fight you had was irregular warfare. It was counterterrorism. It was counterinsurgency."

"There's a shift going on right now," he added. "So when we do our war games — when our troops do their training at the tactical level; when we're doing the training at our level, the operational, strategic level — those challenges are integrated into the type of exercise we're doing."

To handle that challenge and others, the Army is also looking at the people it has and seeking the right personnel with the right skill sets, McConville said.

"That's why ... I want to get a much more agile personnel system and a talent-management system, and we're starting to get those type of things."

"So you want to talk nuclear ... I can hire someone, right now, a major, lieutenant colonel — I've got a nuclear problem, I can go out there and go out to industry and say, Hey, want to be a lieutenant colonel? Come in. Any data scientists? I'm looking for them. Someone that's really good, that understands data, I'll make you a major or something like that. You come on in, you can serve, and you can help us solve these problems."

'A war for talent'

The Army's personnel are its "most important weapon system," McConville said Tuesday.

"But I believe that we have to compete for talent. We're in a war for talent. We've got to get the right people in the right jobs," he added, echoing a sentiment expressed by other senior military leaders.

To that end, McConville said the Army was rolling out a new assessment program for what he called "the most consequential job" in the Army: battalion command.

"That lieutenant colonel influences 500 or 600 people, whether they want to stay in the Army or get out of the Army. It's a level of leadership that I think is the most important," McConville said. "If you take a look at officers that may have gotten out early of the Army, you ask them how their battalion commander was, it was probably not who they wanted or inspired them to serve."

As part of the Battalion Command Assessment Program, announced in November after a pilot last summer, majors and lieutenant colonels who wanted battalion command went through a board process that narrowed the field to 800.

Those 800 field-grade officers began arriving at Fort Knox on Wednesday for a weeklong testing process to "make sure they're fit, make sure they're deployable, take a look at their comprehensive leadership and potential," McConville said. "They'll take a look at their peer reviews and subordinate reviews, there'll be a blind board, there'll be a psych [evaluation] — all these type of things so we know we're putting people in the right place, the right job."

Under the old system, a promotion board would review officers' files "for about two and a half minutes," whereas the new approach is like the NFL combine, McConville said.

"You could be Heisman Trophy winner or you could be at some state school, and you come together and they know the knowledge, skills, and behavior that they need in their future players, and they run them through the system, and that's why sometimes you see someone coming out of nowhere that maybe wasn't a Division 1 player that can actually make it in the pros."

What "we want to do is take a look at people and put them in the right place, so I think that is fairly substantial," McConville said.

The promotion system for noncommissioned officers has also changed to reward merit over time served.

"We used to do it by time and grade," McConville said. "So if you are really outstanding noncomissioned officer, a staff sergeant, you'd have to wait until all the people ahead of you got a chance to get promoted. Now if you're the most qualified person, you're going to the top of the list and you're getting promoted."

Those changes are just two Army efforts to find talent and revamp training in order to prepare soldiers and the service as a whole for modern warfare, which is likely to present an array of new and deadly challenges, even without nuclear weapons.

"We have a sacred obligation. There's parents out there that send me their kids, and they expect us to take care of them ... In order to do that, we've got to train them hard, because combat is unforgiving," McConville said Tuesday. "We've got to make sure that our soldiers are the most highly trained, disciplined, and fit soldiers on the battlefield."

SEE ALSO: The US Navy's recent visit to a vital WWII hub is another sign it's thinking about how to fight in the Pacific

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Inside the US military's $223 million 'doomsday plane,' capable of surviving a nuclear blast

• Many took offense at a general's comment for seeming to minimize the death of superstar Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others.
• "Lots of people mourning a basketball player this morning. I think I'll use my energy to remember SPC Moore and his Family. #RIP," Maj. Gen. John Evans tweeted about Spc. Antonio Moore, who was killed Friday in Syria.
• Some veterans said that the general's comment failed to acknowledge the grief many feel for Bryant, 41, who retired from the NBA in 2016 after a legendary career.
• A spokeswoman for Cadet Command said, "Since we tend to connect to celebrities more, we have a tendency to forget about others who are just as important. There was no disrespect meant."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As Americans continued to a grapple with the death of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others on Monday, a US Army general took to Twitter to highlight the loss of another American: a 22-year-old soldier killed in Syria.

But many took offense at the way the general did it.

"Lots of people mourning a basketball player this morning. I think I'll use my energy to remember SPC Moore and his Family. #RIP," Maj. Gen. John Evans tweeted.

Spc. Antonio Moore, a combat engineer in the Army Reserve from Wilmington, N.C., was killed in a vehicle rollover accident on a Friday mission in eastern Syria. In a statement, his battalion commander said: "Antonio was one of the best in our formation. He will be missed by all who served with him."

Many veterans said that the general's comment failed to acknowledge the grief many feel for Bryant, 41, who was retired from the NBA after a legendary career. His daughter Gianna "Gigi" Bryant was also killed, as 

"As a life long laker fan, #Kobe helped me get through deployments in the early 2000's," wrote one person in response to Evan's comment. "Both deaths are tragic, but in different ways. No need to make it a contest."

And a former Army officer, who led a research program on veterans prior to joining the RAND Corporation, tweeted that the comment was not in keeping with Army values.

"This is not a healthy look for civil-military relations," tweeted Philip Carter. "The military does not have a monopoly on suffering or death; insisting on primacy of grief is inconsistent with the Army value of selfless-sacrifice."

Evans leads thousands of Army ROTC cadets as the head of Cadet Command, based in Fort Knox, Ky. He said the response from many veterans made his point.

"I think my detractors here made my case for me — no one life is any more important than another — regardless the celebrity. Look forward to them Retweeting the story about SPC Moore to demonstrate their conviction."

A spokeswoman for Cadet Command said Evans didn't intend any disrespect in his comment.

"As we mourn the losses of a basketball legend and of a Soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving this great Nation, we believe everybody's life has value and that all loss of life tragic," Lt. Col. Nichole Downs said in a statement. "Since we tend to connect to celebrities more, we have a tendency  to forget about others who are just as important. There was no disrespect meant towards the families of the nine that were lost."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We can thank the US military for the smelliest weapon in the world

• Palantir executive Shyam Sankar described the company's work developing AI targeting capabilities for drones as "this generation's Manhattan Project," according to two people familiar with the comments.
• The comments, made during a January all-hands meeting, come as the company expands its work on "Project Maven," a department of defense project which Google stopped working on in March following protests inside of the company.
• Sankar also told employees the company was profitable in 2019, the people said, though it's not clear by what metric.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Secretive data analytics firm Palantir believes its work helping drones autonomously identify enemy targets is as urgent and important as America's race to develop a nuclear weapon during World War II, two sources have told Business Insider.

At a company all-hands meeting earlier this month, Palantir President Shyam Sankar described Project Maven, the artificial intelligence defense initiative that Palantir joined after Google announced its departure in 2018, as "this generation's Manhattan Project," according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Sankar's remarks served as a rallying cry for beleaguered staffers at the Peter Thiel-backed company, which has struggled to balance lucrative government and military contracts with growing ethical concerns from employees, one of the people said.

Palantir started working on Project Maven, a Pentagon effort to develop artificial intelligence software capable of independently interpreting drone imagery and identifying potential targets, in 2018 after Google announced it would pull out in the face of protests from employees who decried the company's participation in the "business of war." 

Critics of the project describe it as a major step toward autonomous weapons that could select and destroy targets without human intervention. 

One person familiar with Palantir's role in Project Maven said that the company's initial task was to train drones to analyze potential targets against ground terrain, but that it has recently expanded into building tools that can identify objects on oceans and seas.

Read more: Palantir grabbed Project Maven defense contract after Google left the program: sources

It's unclear how much the Project Maven contract is worth to Palantir — Google's contract was reportedly worth up to $250 million per year — but it appears to be helping the bottom line: Sankar also told employees at the all-hands that the company had achieved profitability, the sources said. It wasn't immediately apparent on what basis he made that claim.

Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp made a similar claim in two video messages sent to employees in December and January. One of those videos, sources said, featured Karp taking a break from snow skiing to address the camera.

Palantir, now in its 17th year of operation, has struggled to justify the $20 billion valuation it received in its most recent 2015 funding round. Co-founder Joe Lonsdale told the Wall Street Journal last year that it would likely be "a few years" before the company is ready for an initial public offering — a timeline that stretches the limits of what most venture capital firms regard as feasible for realizing returns on their investments.

Private shares, which make up the bulk of compensation for many employees, have seen little movement on the secondary markets in recent years, leaving many shareholders without an exit opportunity. 

In December, the company announced a $110 million contract with the Army to build a military readiness tool which pulls together data about soldiers, including location and mental health status, to establish which troops are ready for deployment. 

Palantir is currently competing for a similar military readiness contract with the Air Force, and a battlefield intelligence project with the Navy, one of the sources told Business Insider. In March, Palantir won a similar Army contract for battlefield intelligence, known as Distributed Common Ground System or DCGS, which is worth as much as $800 million. 

In 2019, Palantir faced internal pushback from employees over its work to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement digitally profile targets for deportation. Karp ultimately decided to renew its contract, valued around $50 million, in September.

The Grace Hopper Celebration, which is the world's largest conference for women in computing, dropped Palantir as a sponsor in August because it gives "direct technology assistance that enables the human rights abuses of asylum seekers and their children at US southern border detention centers," Robert Read, an executive with the conference's parent company, told Business Insider at the time.

Other tech CEOs have taken the controversy as an opportunity to speak out in favor of defense contracts. In December, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the US tech industry has an obligation to support the Pentagon.

"I know it's complicated but you know, do you want a strong national defense or don't you? I think you do. So we have to support that,"Bezos said at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum, in reference to Project Maven. "We are the good guys, I really do believe that."

At the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland on Thursday, Karp stood by the company's decision to work with ICE to find "people in our country who are undocumented," though he conceded that some employees left the company over the issue.

″​The core mission of our company always was to make the West, especially America, the strongest in the world, the strongest it's ever been, for the sake of global peace and prosperity, and we feel like this year we really showed what that would mean," Karp said in an interview with CNBC.

When asked by CNBC about the Business Insider report on Project Maven, Karp stopped short of confirming the contract.

"If this were true, I'd be very proud," he told CNBC.

Palantir declined to comment.

Got a tip about Palantir? Call our tips line at +1 (646) 768-4744, text it via encrypted messaging app Signal, or contact this reporter directly at bpeterson@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @BeckPeterson. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: The founders of a billion-dollar Israeli spyware startup accused of helping Saudi Arabia attack dissidents are funding a web of new companies that hack into smart speakers, routers, and other devices

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Last minute gift wrapping? Here's how to wrap your present in under 2 minutes.

• More than 100 US troops hammered in an Iranian missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.
• Among them is US Army Specialist Kimo Keltz, who told Reuters that after the attack, "my head kinda felt like I got hit with a truck."
• While many troops took shelter in bunkers during the attack, some troops, including Keltz, were standing guard outside.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the wee hours of Jan. 8, Tehran retaliated over the U.S. killing of Iran's most powerful general by bombarding the al-Asad air base in Iraq.

Among the 2,000 troops stationed there was U.S. Army Specialist Kimo Keltz, who recalls hearing a missile whistling through the sky as he lay on the deck of a guard tower. The explosion lifted his body - in full armor - an inch or two off the floor.

Keltz says he thought he had escaped with little more than a mild headache. Initial assessments around the base found no serious injuries or deaths from the attack. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, "All is well!"

The next day was different.

"My head kinda felt like I got hit with a truck," Keltz told Reuters in an interview from al-Asad air base in Iraq's western Anbar desert. "My stomach was grinding."

Keltz, who said he had concussion symptoms for days, is among 109 soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the wake of last month's attack, a figure that has steadily risen as more troops report symptoms and get medical screening.

Reuters interviewed more than a dozen officials and soldiers and spoke with brain-injury specialists to assemble the most comprehensive account so far of the nature of the soldiers' injuries and how they sustained them.

The slowly rising casualty count underscores the difficulty in detecting and treating what has become one of the most common injuries in the U.S. military during two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. troops face roadside bombs, rockets and mortars.

More than a week after the attack, on Jan. 16, Defense Secretary Mark Esper was made aware that soldiers had suffered brain injuries from the missiles, the Pentagon said. That day, the Pentagon reported that an unspecified number of troops were treated for concussive symptoms and 11 were flown to Kuwait and Germany for higher-level care.

On Jan. 22, Trump said that he "heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things," prompting criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and a U.S. veterans group that the president was underplaying the casualties from the attack.

"I think it was unfortunate to use those words," said Republican Representative Richard Hudson, who represents Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Bragg that includes the Army's Special Operations Command.

The White House declined to comment for this story.

A Different Class of Wounds

The U.S. military has long treated brain injuries as a different class of wounds that do not require rapid reporting up the chain of command, unlike incidents threatening life, limb or eyesight.

Since 2000, nearly 414,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, according to Pentagon data. The number is likely higher because the Pentagon only counts as one injury cases where a soldier suffers brain trauma in multiple incidents.

U.S. troops operating drone flights appeared to have suffered the most brain injuries during the attack on al-Asad, said Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Garland, who was on the base at the time. Many worked near the air strip, he said. Like Specialist Keltz, who was manning a guard tower, the drone pilots had been assigned to watch for a possible ground attack.

"Those drone pilots, they're the ones that took the brunt of the TBI cases," said Garland, who as commander of Task Force Jazeera oversees more than 400 soldiers.

The number of troops diagnosed with brain injury from last month's attack was expected to stabilize near the current count, one U.S. official said. Less than 10 were now being monitored with possible TBI symptoms, the official said.

The total U.S. military count, however, excludes civilian contractors on the base at the time, many of whom have since departed.

Some U.S. troops also suffered from anxiety-related symptoms after the attack, including sleeplessness and, in at least one case, a sustained high heart rate, according to interviews with soldiers and officials. However, they could not provide a specific number.

The Pentagon categorizes brain injuries as mild, moderate, severe or penetrating. The vast majority of injuries are classified as mild, as were all of the injuries reported from al-Asad.

Standing Guard

Garland, the commander, said he was taken aback when he learned of U.S. intelligence indicating that Iranian missiles would strike within hours. He immediately found a base map and started sizing up the best options to shelter his troops.

He recalled old bunkers on the base built during the era of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2003. But the bunkers wouldn't hold everyone. Some would need to disperse, taking cover in armored vehicles driven away from targets.

Others in Garland's unit -- including Specialist Keltz --would need to stand guard to watch for additional attacks beyond the expected missiles.

Keltz said he and a fellow soldier were already manning a tower when First Sergeant Larry Jackson came to them, explaining the intelligence and giving them their orders.

"What I need you boys to do is to lay down on the ground when the impacts happen - and then I need you to jump right back up and man those guns," Jackson said in an interview, recounting his instructions to Keltz and other soldiers at the base.

As the Iranian missiles streaked through the night sky toward the base, their engines glowed orange - like the ends of lit cigarettes, Garland said. The glow was all that Garland could see in the darkness before scrambling back into a bunker.

Then came the blasts. At least eleven missiles struck the base, destroying housing units made from shipping containers and other facilities.

"Every explosion I heard, I was thinking, OK, that's a number of people that have just lost their lives," he said.

But initial checks after the attack showed nobody was killed or obviously injured, despite massive devastation to the base. Word got back to Washington. Just before 6 a.m. in Baghdad, Trump tweeted an update: "Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good!"

Falling through the Cracks

On the ground at al-Asad, U.S. Army Major Robert Hales, a doctor who is deployed to al-Asad, defended the initial reports of no injuries.

"Everyone here did not have any outward physical injuries," he said in an interview. "There were no lacerations. There's no shrapnel wounds."

Such "silent" injuries take time to manifest, he said.

Injury figures kept climbing in the weeks after the attack. What began as at least 11 cases grew to 34 about a week later.

On Jan. 22, Trump made his controversial comment, referring to the injuries as "headaches." The Veterans of Foreign Wars demanded an apology for Trump's "misguided remarks".

A week later, on Jan. 28, the toll of brain injuries climbed to 50. In early February, Reuters was the first to report that the count had surpassed 100.

The brain injuries sustained in the Iranian missile attack are fundamentally different than those that have typically resulted from past attacks, brain-trauma specialists said.

That's because the al-Asad bombing was more intense than typical quick-hit, single-explosion attacks: The explosions came in waves and lasted more than an hour.

When a roadside bomb goes off in Afghanistan, head wounds are often visible. In insurgent bomb blasts, shrapnel or other flying debris can cause brain injuries upon impact. But the damage from large pressure waves from a major blast - like the ones at al-Asad that Specialist Keltz felt - often take more time to diagnose.

Marilyn Kraus, director of the Traumatic Brain Injury program and concussion clinic at George Washington University, said troops may minimize or underreport their symptoms initially. Others may not show symptoms until much later in part because their injuries are initially masked by the adrenaline rush that comes with combat.

"Some of these things can fall into the cracks initially," said Kraus, who previously served as medical director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Consult Section at the Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

In the short term, mild traumatic brain injury can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and confusion, while longer-term effects can include chronic headaches, mood changes and dizziness, Kraus said. Repeated head injuries can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain degeneration disorder that some researchers have linked to suicidal thoughts, substance misuse and depression, she said.

Hales, the Army doctor, cited research within the past six months showing in animal models that signs of damage to the brain can increase in the weeks after a blast. At al-Asad, soldiers started showing symptoms such as headaches or a "foggy feeling" days after the attack, Hales said. The symptoms often persisted.

"That's the reason why you saw a huge delay" in identifying the injuries, he said. "That prompted us to re-screen pretty much the whole population of al-Asad."

Join the conversation about this story »

• Former Army Sergeant Frank Diaz served over 34 years in the military, and now runs a successful food truck business.

• He credited his business success to his military training, and said he makes a point of hiring other veterans because they are "phenomenal workers."

• Diaz told Business Insider that the skills and training he developed in the military can be tailored to fit the challenges of the civilian business world, and offered 5 tips for entrepreneurs.

• Visit BI Prime for more stories.

Retired Army Sergeant Frank Diaz said his military experience, and that of his team, is an advantage for his small business.

After 34 years in the military, including a tour in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War and counter-terror operations with the Department of Defense, he now runs an successful food truck company that serves award-winning barbecue on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

While his current business is certainly different from running antiterrorism operations, Diaz said he sees both through a lens of strategy and planning.

Diaz spoke with Business Insider about five key lessons from his military background that he uses to run his successful business. From his start in 2012 with a simple military-style mobile kitchen trailer, Diaz now has a fleet of trucks and a brick and mortar location and a growing team of veterans who keep everything rolling smoothly.

Maintain a can-do attitude

Diaz said that compared to the high-pressure world of counter-terror operations, business emergencies are nearly always manageable.

"A lot of times [customers] come to us with last-minute event request or catering requests, and I'll do it," Diaz said. "I'm a can-do type of guy, been in plans and operations for almost 34 years, so if there's a way to make it happen, I make it happen. That's just been my mindset."

Develop a strategy to out-match the competition

"In the military, we're taught certain skills, we're taught to plan, we're taught how to be strategic," Diaz said. "I needed to see where the enemy was in order for us to develop a plan."

He added that his strengths in planning and strategy have translated well to the civilian world, where he says he looks to see what other businesses are doing well so he can do it better.

"In a business market we don't have an enemy," he said. "However, we do have competitors."

Draw on all available resources

Diaz has gone to many different briefings and support groups to help him start his business, and he learned something useful from each of them.

"Not one of them had all the answers, but all of them had some of the answers," he said.

Make your bed every morning

"If there's one thing that I know, it's that the military helps us to learn discipline," he said. "And a disciplined person is a phenomenal person."

Diaz shared the words of former Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, who often speaks about the power of having a consistent morning routine. McRaven's 2014 speech to the graduates of the University of Texas has been viewed more than 10 million times, and his book, "Make Your Bed," is a best-seller.

"Begin each day simply by making your bed," Diaz recalled him saying. "If anything goes wrong in that day, you can always go home and know that your bed has been made, and you had at least accomplished one thing in that day."

Demonstrate loyalty to your team

Diaz makes a point of hiring veterans to work with him, and encourages other business owners to do the same.

"Veterans are very disciplined. They're also loyal. They know what it's like to be part of a team," he said. "The esprit de corps is great. And they work hard at everything that they do."

And Diaz is not worried about a spotless service record, either.

"I've hired people that have been discharged other than honorably, and they have done phenomenally because they still have those core teachings that they've learned: that discipline, the teamwork, the commitment, the duty," he said

"People make mistakes in life, and still, I think that the military is a good breeding ground for good employees," he added.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL commander explains why you should make your bed every single day

• TSA is the latest US government agency to ban TikTok on government devices.
• TikTok is a short-form video app especially popular among Gen Z, and it has amassed 1.5 billion downloads. Its parent is the Chinese developer ByteDance.
• US lawmakers have expressed concern over possible national security issues, and TikTok has faced accusations of censorship at the request of the Chinese government.
• The Pentagon also issued a warning in December that military personnel should delete TikTok from all devices due to "potential security risks associated with its use."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Transportation Security Administration became the latest federal agency to ban short-form video app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. 

ByteDance is the highest-valued privately-held company in the world, worth an estimated $75 billion, and has been called "China's Facebook" for its size and ownership of popular social networking apps.

It launched the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, in 2016, and the international version in 2017. Since then, it has been downloaded 1.5 billion times, and might even be gaining on Instagram and Snapchat in numbers of active users. 

The video platform has recently been criticized for censoring content that might offend governments in markets where it operates. In September, The Guardian saw internal documents that instructed moderators to censor content that could anger the Chinese government, including mentions of Tiananmen Square or Tibetan Independence. In a statement, TikTok said that these policies were no longer in use as of May.

US lawmakers have also been critical of TikTok as a potential security risk. In October, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida asked the Trump administration to investigate the app based on what he called "ample and growing evidence" of censorship at the request of China, while Sens. Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton wrote a letter to the head of national security asking for an investigation into the app as a counterintelligence risk.

In November, the US Senate held a hearing on technology and data security and invited representatives from major technology companies, including TikTok. TikTok declined to send a representative. Zhu said he planned to meet with lawmakers about their concerns over TikTok but then canceled the meetings.

"While we think the concerns are unfounded, we understand them and are continuing to further strengthen our safeguards while increasing our dialogue with lawmakers to help explain our policies. We recently reached out to several members of Congress to express an interest in meeting in the near future," a TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider.

The Pentagon has some history of banning devices from government phones, notably Pokemon Go in 2016. Since then, several agencies and branches of the military have banned TikTok. 

SEE ALSO: With a new LA office and a forthcoming creator studio, TikTok is poised to take on Instagram and YouTube

1. The Navy banned TikTok from government devices.

On December 16, the Pentagon sent a "Cyber Awareness Message" that "identifies the potential risk associated with using the TikTok app and directs appropriate action for employees to take in order to safeguard their personal information,"The Guardian reported. The message also advised military personnel to "uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information."

The following week, the Navy banned TikTok from government-owned devices. A Navy bulletin said that members with TikTok accounts who didn't remove the app from devices would be blocked from the Navy intranet. A Navy spokesperson told The Guardian that generally, Navy personnel are allowed to use social media apps, although sometimes specific apps thought to be security risks are banned. 

2. The Army had been advising members against using TikTok since mid-December.

TikTok was a tool used by the Army for reaching and recruiting Gen Z, until it was banned from government-owned devices in late September, Military.com reported.

An Army spokesperson told Military.com that TikTok "is considered a cyber threat," and that while the Army cannot ban members from using it on personal devices, it does recommend caution. 

3. The Air Force banned TikTok, along with other branches, in early January.

"The threats posed by social media are not unique to TikTok (though they may certainly be greater on that platform)," an Air Force spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.

Videos of jet stunts and troops jumping out of planes tend to go viral on the app, and may also pose an additional risk, the Journal reports.

4. The Coast Guard gave similar reasons for a ban.

A Coast Guard spokesperson told The New York Times in January:"TikTok is not an application currently used on any official Coast Guard device."

He also said that Coast Guard members go through an annual cyber awareness training.  

5. The Marine Corps expressed similar reasoning for a ban in January.

"This decision is consistent with our efforts to proactively address existing and emerging threats as we secure and defend our network. This block only applies to government-issued mobile devices," a spokesperson told The New York Times.

6. According to a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Department of Homeland Security has also banned TikTok from its devices.

On February 22, Schumer sent a letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske about the agency allowing TikTok use, and he cited a policy from the Department of Homeland Security the prohibits TikTok on devices, the Associated Press reported. TSA is an agency within DHS.

7. This week, TSA became the latest agency to specifically ban the app.

On February 23, the TSA released a statement saying a "small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA's social media outreach, but that practice has since been discontinued," the Associated Press reported.

• The TSA says it has stopped allowing employees to use Chinese-owned video app TikTok.
• TSA also told the Associated Press that it didn't publish content directly to TikTok or publish content directly to the platform. 
• However, videos from TikTok are still available on TSA's Instagram account, and on official accounts for agency spokespeople.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Transportation Security Administration has become the latest government agency to ban TikTok after national security concerns, but the agency's statement on how it used the Chinese-owned app appears to contradict its own actions.

On February 23, the Associated Press reported that the TSA would no longer allow employees to post on TikTok after a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, warned about a potential cybersecurity risk. In a statement, the TSA said that a  "small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA's social media outreach, but that practice has since been discontinued." It also told the AP that it never directed followers to TikTok or published directly on the platform.

But the TSA's own Instagram account seems to dispute the agency's statement. As of writing this, at least 12 different videos, shown from the TikTok accounts "@TSA_gov" and "@TSA" are viewable on the TSA's official Instagram account. The TikTok videos are saved under a highlighted story titled "Videos" on the account.

The TikTok videos reposted to the TSA Instagram account also prominently feature TSA public affairs spokesperson Lisa Farbstein. Farbstein, a TSA official, has also shared TikTok videos from the account @TSA on her Twitter as recently as February 11. The official TSA Twitter account frequently retweeted her posts. The TSA referenced its social media strategy in response to Schumer's letter and is also currently competing for a Shorty social media award.

Neither the @TSA nor @TSA_gov TikTok accounts still exists, though the reposted videos are still viewable on Twitter and Instagram. TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

It appears the TSA did not link to the app, although the distinction might not mean much. To share videos on Twitter and Instagram, users commonly download the videos from TikTok and reupload them. But the prominent TikTok logo on the videos, plus the names of the accounts that created them, may direct interested viewers to TikTok. 

One thing is clear: Videos initially posted to TikTok under TSA branding prominently feature agency representatives and have been shared by agency officials and official agency accounts — even though it said it never published on the platform nor directed followers to it.

TikTok has been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times. The video platform, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced concerns of censorship. In September, The Guardian saw internal documents that instructed moderators to censor content that could anger the Chinese government, including mentions of Tiananmen Square or Tibetan Independence. In a statement, TikTok said that these policies were no longer in use as of last May. Senators Marco Rubio, Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton have been critical of TikTok and asked for investigations into potential cybersecurity risks. The US military had previously banned the app after a warning from the Pentagon.

The TSA did not respond to a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: US government agencies are banning TikTok, the social media app teens are obsessed with, over cybersecurity fears — here's the full list

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 8 weird robots NASA wants to send to space

• The US military successfully conducted a flight test of a glide body for future hypersonic weapons, the Department of Defense announced Friday morning.
• "Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability," Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe, the director of Navy's Strategic Systems Programs, said in a statement.
• Hypersonic weapons are a key area of great-power competition between the US, China, and Russia, and fielding hypersonic weapons is a top priority for the Pentagon.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US military successfully conducted a flight test of a glide body for future hypersonic weapons, the Department of Defense announced Friday morning.

The Army and the Navy, which are jointly developing a common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) for future weapons systems, carried out a test launch at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, late on Thursday local time, with the Missile Defense Agency monitoring the experiment and gathering data to inform defense developments.

The C-HGB "flew at hypersonic speed to a designated impact point," DoD said, adding that "this event is a major milestone towards the department's goal of fielding hypersonic warfighting capabilities in the early- to mid-2020s."

A glide body is the part of a hypersonic weapon that carries the warhead. Launched using a conventional rocket booster, the glide body eventually separates. After separation, the weapon is no longer able to accelerate, but it is able to maneuver to evade defenses and deliver a warhead to target.

While hypersonic weapons have the ability to fly at speeds of at least Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, it is their maneuverability that makes them particularly dangerous to anyone on the receiving end, as modern missile-defense systems are not designed to counter this type of threat.

Hypersonic weapons provide "the warfighter with an ability to strike targets hundreds and even thousands of miles away, in a matter of minutes, to defeat a wide range of high-value targets," DoD explained.

Hypersonic weapons are a key area of great-power competition between the US, China, and Russia, and fielding hypersonic weapons is a top priority for the Pentagon.

The latest milestone C-HGB test built on the results of a flight experiment conducted in October 2017.

"Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability," said Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe, the director of Navy's Strategic Systems Programs.

The Army intends to field a ground-launched hypersonic weapon in 2023, with the Navy fielding a ship-launched variant the same year, Defense News reports. A submarine-launched version is expected in 2024.

SEE ALSO: This US Navy flattop has been sailing the high seas with a Captain America battle flag and a flight deck full of a F-35 stealth fighters

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This breakthrough could make it much cheaper to send aircraft into space

• Some enlisted immigrant doctors say they can't use their medical skills to help the Army battle the coronavirus, and are instead left doing menial tasks, The Washington Post reported.
• In the meantime, the military has a shortage of doctors, and the Army has begun asking retired soldiers with medical expertise to return to active duty.
• So far, the Department of Defense has reported 280 coronavirus cases throughout the armed forces.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A number of immigrant doctors have been unable to use their medical skills in the Army to battle the coronavirus pandemic due to lengthy, years-long background checks, according to The Washington Post.

Several of them told The Post they are not allowed to practice medicine in uniform and have instead spent their time completing basic tasks such as cleaning and taking out trash — all while the military suffers a shortage in doctors and an uptick in coronavirus cases.

Some have taken their skills to civilian hospitals instead, where they have begun treating coronavirus patients instead of military service members.

One doctor from India who specializes in respiratory illnesses told The Post he recently treated some 40 coronavirus patients in New York City, after spending years as a low-ranking soldier, using none of his medical skills. He said he enlisted in the Army in 2015.

"I love to help people," he told The Post. "But these hurdles are unnecessary. I'm wasting years of my medical experience in the Army."

Meanwhile, the need within the military for doctors is dire. The Army has even begun asking retired soldiers with medical qualifications to return to active duty to help respond to the pandemic, according to Task & Purpose.

The physicians were recruited into the Army years ago through the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program. But due to the exhaustive security-checks process, many have languished on reserve duty the entire time.

As of Thursday, the Department of Defense had reported 280 coronavirus cases throughout the armed forces, according to Reuters.

The MAVNI program was originally created to recruit immigrants whose skills were considered crucial to the military, particularly those in health care professions, according to the Pentagon.

Though MAVNI was shut down in 2017, in part due to the stymied background-check process, The Post reported that at least several dozen immigrant doctors are still stuck in limbo, waiting to serve.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

SEE ALSO: More than 10,000 US National Guard members are helping battle the coronavirus across the US

DON'T MISS: US Navy rushing to test all 5,000 sailors on deployed aircraft carrier hit by serious coronavirus outbreak

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most maps of Louisiana aren't entirely right. Here's what the state really looks like.

• Italy has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 11,000 deaths, the most of any country.
• The country has been put on lockdown, and police are now using drones to monitor movement.
• The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has killed more than 39,000 people worldwide and infected more than 803,000, according to recent totals.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As of Tuesday, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has infected more than 803,000 people worldwide, and has killed more than 39,000.

Italy has more cases than any country except the US, and it leads in deaths with 11,500 recorded. On March 9, Italy was put under a strict lockdown set to last three weeks and be lifted this Friday, although authorities now say it will likely be extended. 

Italian police are now using drones to monitor people's movement and make sure that they're following lockdown rules. Take a look.

SEE ALSO: How China, the US, and Europe are using robots to replace and help humans fight coronavirus by delivering groceries, sanitizing hospitals, and monitoring patients

Italy's lockdown is one of the strictest in Europe.

Source: Business Insider

At first the lockdown only applied to the northern Lombardy region, but the prime minister expanded it to cover all of Italy.

Citizens are required to stay home except for essential work or family reasons, and stores besides grocery stores and pharmacies are closed.

Only essential travel is allowed, and travelers must sign police documents about their reasons for travel. Police are also stopping cars for checks.

On March 23, the Italian Aviation Authority approved police requests for using drones for support.

Source: Euronews

Italy also called in its army to enforce the lockdown.

Drone pilots from the Italian Army Military Corps patrolled near Turin, Italy, on March 28, seen here.

The drones locate pedestrians and cars still moving around the city despite the lockdown.

Then, the police receive coordinates so they can track down people who are out and check them.

The Aviation Authority gave permission to use these drones through the initial lockdown order of April 3, though that could also be extended.

They are specifically for urban areas or smaller populations with increased risk.

Source: Euronews

Drones are restricted to under 25 kg — about 55 pounds — and there are limitations on airspace near airports.

The Italian Ministry of the Interior tweeted that by March 23, more than 90,000 people and 2,000 businesses had been reported for violating lockdown restrictions. About 60 million people are under lockdown orders in Italy.

Source: Twitter

One man in northern Italy was reportedly cited for violating lockdown to play "Pokémon Go."

Source: Business Insider

Italians who break the rules could face up to a $232 fine and even six months in prison.

Source: CNN

Health officials say that there are signs the lockdown is beginning to work, but that might be a reason to be "even stricter."

Source: Business Insider

• The coronavirus pandemic has led US military chaplains to share their faith through videos on social media.
• But some of the military's official social media accounts have shared these sermons — a violation of the separation between church and state, legal experts say.
• Most bases have taken down the sermon videos within minutes or hours of complaints, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. But one Alabama Army base kept a video up for days.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping the country, military chaplains have turned to social media to share their faith.

But dozens of soldiers at Redstone Arsenal, a missile-maintenance Army base near Hunstville, Alabama, say their chaplain's online sermons are violating their First Amendment rights.

Some 43 soldiers alerted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that the official Redstone Arsenal Facebook page shared a video of the chaplain proselytizing — a violation of the Constitution and Pentagon policy alike, experts say.

On April 17, Redstone's official Facebook page posted a video of Maj. Christian Goza, a chaplain. "Jesus gave me a peace,"he said in his sermon, before telling listeners that the "only way" to find God's messages is "in the Bible."

"Read the scriptures, study the scriptures, and when all these things — like tidal waves and pestilence and tornadoes — we can be held, and we can hold onto the promises God gives us," Goza said. "So God bless to the Redstone Arsenal."

Most of the people who complained about Goza's sermon told the MRFF that they're Christian, according to Michael Weinstein, the organization's founder. But they said the chaplain's message was not inclusive.

If a religious message is shared on an official military page, it must be "pluralistic," Weinstein told Business Insider.

Otherwise, it serves as an endorsement of a particular faith. And the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment — also known as the separation of church and state — prohibits the US military from endorsing particular religious messages, experts say.

Redstone isn't the only military base with this problem

Frank Ravitch, a professor of law and religion at Michigan State University, told Business Insider that the Facebook post "violates the Establishment Clause as currently understood." 

"The problem here is not the clergy member [Goza]," Ravitch said. "The big issue is: Why was this posted to the base's website?" 

"There's a fundamental difference between the minister doing this on a page that does not represent the base [versus] the military as a whole," he added. "This has what we call 'the imprimatur of the state.'" 

Between mid-March and mid-April, soldiers on other bases have complained to the MRFF about potential proselytizing on social media. Working diligently to maintain "the separation between church and state," as Weinstein put it, the MRFF filed complaints and the videos were removed.

After receiving the complaints about Redstone, the MRFF went on the offensive, asking officials at the base to remove the video.

The request was answered, but only after 10 days. Weinstein said such requests are typically honored within hours. 

This time, none of the complainants felt they could speak up except by contacting him, Weinstein said. 

"If they felt they could go up to the chain of command to ask for those videos to be taken down, they would do it," Weinstein told Business Insider. "Our clients fear reprisal, retribution, and revenge."

"Nobody's willing to talk," Weinstein added. 

Proselytizing on military bases can be common, Weinstein said. Weinstein said that one soldier at Redstone told him it's been ongoing since at least 2016, telling him of a mandatory sexual assault prevention training that year where a speaker told soldiers that "the only way to truly overcome the horrors of rape and sex trafficking is to have Jesus as your 'King.'"

Even though the video on Redstone's Facebook page was removed, the posting is still "legally actionable," Ravitch said, if soldiers "were aggrieved by it."

"It's not legally moot, because those people could sue for a violation of their constitutional rights," he said.

Redstone officials didn't respond to Business Insider's questions about the videos. An Army press office representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Inside London during COVID-19 lockdown

• Happy Armed Forces Day! It's celebrated on the third Saturday in May.
• Established in 1949 by President Harry S. Truman, Armed Forces Day celebrates and gives thanks to the military for their service.
• In honor of the holiday, we rounded up 43 of the best pictures taken by military photographers.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories. 

On any given day, plenty of military photographers are capturing the grit and glory of American troops in the field — and in war zones — around the world. 

From leaping out of airplanes to detonating obstacles, even their training can be dangerous.

To celebrate Armed Forces Day, here are 43 captivating images of US troops in action, taken by military photographers.

A US Navy Blue Angels flyover at the end of an Independence Day celebration in front of the Lincoln Memorial, July 4, 2019, in Washington, D.C.

Cadets in face masks pose for a picture after their graduation ceremony at the US Air Force Academy, at Air Force Academy, Colorado.

New US Army recruits who have been in quarantine for 2 weeks meet their drill sergeants.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned conducts flight operations.

President Donald Trump awards US Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia the Medal of Honor at the White House in Washington, June 25, 2019.

US Marines detonate obstacle-breaching Bangalore torpedoes during an exercise at Twentynine Palms, California.

A US Marine drinks cobra blood during a jungle survival exercise with the Thai Navy.

US Air Force basic training recruits arrive and practice social distancing at the Pfingston Reception Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.

US Navy sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) depart the ship to move to off-ship berthing in Guam.

New recruits receive a briefing at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California.

Senior Airman Daniel Lasal performs a post-flight inspection on an F-16 Fighting Falcon on Nov. 15, 2016, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

US Army Soldiers, assigned to 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, conduct mortar training in Arta, Djibouti, on Jan. 5, 2017.

Ray Chavez, 104, the oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor, rings the Freedom Bell during the Freedom Bell Opening Ceremony and Bell Ringing at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on April 8, 2016.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexis Rey conducts pre-flight checks on an EA-18G Growler on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on Dec. 11, 2016.

A US Army soldier provides security using his M240B machine gun during a unit reconnaissance patrol in Hohenfels, Germany on Jan. 21, 2016.

11th Marine Expeditionary Unit Commanding Officer Col. Clay C. Tipton speaks to his Marines on the flight deck of the USS Somerset on Dec. 3, 2016.

Comedian Jon Stewart poses for a photo with the Air Force team during the 2016 Department of Defense Warrior Games in West Point, N.Y., on June 15, 2016.

Senior Airman Daniel San Miguel, an aerospace propulsion journeyman, oversees an F110-GE-129 engine being tested during its afterburner phase on Feb. 4, 2016.

Aircrew aboard a C-130 Hercules assigned to the 36th Airlift Squadron circle a Micronesian Island on Dec. 5, 2016.

The US Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team performs a rifle demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 22, 2016.

An F-35 Lightning II flies around the airspace of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on March 5, 2016.

Marines with the Maritime Raid Force, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct military free-fall training over Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Oahu, Hawaii on Oct. 18, 2016.

Cpl. Zachery Personett, an infantryman with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, gives a thumbs up to a Royal Army of Oman soldier after he cleared a weapons malfunction during a combat marksmanship range as part of Exercise Sea Soldier on Feb. 19, 2017.

A Crew Chief assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 observes the landing zone from a UH-1Y Huey during a training operation at Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue, North Carolina, on March 9, 2017.

Sgt. Johnathan Stamets looks through his M8541A optic attached to the M-110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System rifle aboard the USS Somerset Ombudsman on Jan. 12, 2017.

U.S. Army and French Soldiers bed down during a field training exercise in Arta, Djibouti, on March 16, 2016.

Marines with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion take cover while conducting urban demolition breach training in Yuma, Arizona, on March 30, 2017.

Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Jonas jumps out of a C-130 Hercules while flying over Yokota Air Base, Japan, on March 2, 2016.

US Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Charles Kettles is awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House on July 18, 2016, for actions during a battle near South Vietnam in 1967.

Marines, assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, depart the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay in a combat rubber raiding craft on Aug. 29, 2016.

Seaman Kennedy Prescott performs a deadlift during a power lifting competition aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island on Sept. 18, 2016.

Senior Airman Tariq Russell, a 21st Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler, shakes the paw of his partner, Paul, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., on June 14, 2016.

US Army Soldiers, assigned to 101st Airborne Brigade, fire a Javelin Anti-Tank Missile system during a large-scale platoon live-fire exercise at Fort Campbell, Ky., on July 29, 2016.

A member of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing security forces stands on a flightline near a guard tower at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia on Nov. 14, 2016. Behind the Airman a rare supermoon rises in the sky.

Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro throws a shotput during the 2016 Invictus Games in Orlando, Fla., on May 10, 2016. He earned a gold medal in the men’s shot put in his disability category.

Special Tactics Training Squadron students swim the length of the pool with their hands and feet bound during a pre-scuba class at Hurlburt Field, Fla., on June 29, 2016.

The U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon performs during the Battle Color Ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, on March 2, 2017.

Electrician's Mate Fireman Desiree Mason and Damage Controlman Fireman Edgar Rotundo practice pipe-patching drills during a Damage Control Training Team exercise on the flight deck of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry in the waters south of Japan on March 5, 2017.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 and the Norwegian Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team participate in a cold-weather endurance ruck march in Ramsund, Norway.

The amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island transits the Arabian Sea on March 3, 2017.

Construction Mechanic Constructionman Matt Adams traverses a mud-filled pit while participating in the endurance course at the Jungle Warfare Training Center in Okinawa, Japan on Feb. 17, 2017.

The Patriots Jet Team performs aerial acrobatics as pyrotechnics provided by the Tora Bomb Squad of the Commemorative Air Force explode, forming a "Wall Of Fire" during an air show on March 18, 2017.

Editor's note: Daniel Brown wrote an earlier version of this post.

• We are all familiar with the most common form of the US military salute, a respective gesture from a military personnel raising her right hand to eye level.
• But many may not know where it comes from. In fact, the origins of the US military salute isn't a clear-cut case.
• Editor of Army Officer's Guide and Acting Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, Robert J. Dalessandro, shares his insight about the complicated history of the military salute. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Robert J. Dalessandro: The origin of the military salute that we use in all the armed services of the United States is really shrouded in mystery. We really don't get a good look at what the quote, unquote customs, and traditions are until the Army spells them out around World War I.

In the Army, we say that the tradition certainly goes back to Roman times. If you've ever seen any of the Roman movies, the Romans would sometimes slap their chest and put their arm up in the air as a matter of salute. And they say that that salute had an origin to show allegiance from your heart and then to show that you didn't have a weapon in your fighting hand — that your hand was open and that you're a friend. That's one of the very early origin stories.

There's a second one. One is that in the times of the knight. A knight who saw a friendly knight or to pay tribute to a king would raise the visor of his helmet, to let that person see their face. And then, show an open hand, again that they didn't have a sword in their hand.

If you think about the act of grabbing the visor of your helmet and lifting it up to show your face, and you think about today's salute where the right arm is taken up and touches the brim of your headgear, helmet, or soft hat, that is very similar to this medieval era days of knights.

I would say those are the two most common origin stories of the salute. We know that all of these legends and myths that have been passed down to us on how the salute started — they have in common the idea of showing that you are not hostile to the person you're approaching, that you don't have a weapon in your hand, and that you are in fact a person that wants to speak with, and perhaps honor the person you are approaching.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in December 2017.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Explosive detection dogs risk everything to keep US troops safe from hidden dangers on the battlefield.
• Each of these dogs has a special relationship with a handler who stands by them in combat, often putting their life on the line as well.
• Insider talked to three US Army handlers and two military working dog veterinarians about the highly trained and valued dogs saving the lives of US service members. Here's what they had to say.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dogs are man's best friend, but war takes that special bond to another level. Out on the front lines of brutal armed conflicts half a world away, US soldiers count on their canines to keep them safe from hidden threats and get them back home alive.

One of many dangers on the modern battlefield is improvised explosive devices, crude bombs that can be disguised as everything from part of a car to roadside trash, but US explosive detection dogs are trained to find these deadly weapons before disaster strikes.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert Citrullo, the kennel master who supervises the service's 8th Military Working Dog Detachment at Fort Drum, told Insider that a dog he deployed with named Uran "definitely saved not only my life but multiple other service members' lives by finding IEDs and other things that were just ready to go off and hurt someone."

He said that soldiers feel better having the dogs around. "They know the dog has been proven. [The dog] can find explosives, and they know it is going to keep them safe."

Hunting down explosives and other threats obviously comes with serious risks for the working dogs and their handlers.

"We're on the front line most of the time," Army Sgt. Kristin Vanderzanden, a squad leader and patrol explosive detection dog handler at Fort Polk, told Insider. The stakes are high. If an IED or a booby trap goes undetected, then the dog, maybe the handler and possibly others could be wounded or killed.

The handlers and their dogs also have to worry about the many other horrors of war.

"One of my teammates went out on a mission with his dog, and they got hit by a suicide bomber," Vanderzanden, who deployed to Afghanistan, said.

"They were seriously injured," she said. "We didn't know if either of them was going to make it." Both lived, but the dog ended up losing one of his rear legs.

'Army equipment that literally has its own brain'

The dogs that end up serving in the armed forces start their training early, usually around seven to eight months old, at Lackland Air Force Base, which is also where US service members go to learn to be handlers after mastering other soldiering skills elsewhere.

Military working dogs can be taught a variety of complex skills, everything from finding narcotics and explosives to engaging enemy combatants. A dog named Conan made headlines last fall for his role in a special forces raid that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Before a handler ever gets paired with one of these dogs, they get assigned an ammunition can that serves as a pretend dog for practicing commands and leash control.

Citrullo explained that putting an inexperienced soldier with a specially-trained military working dog would be like training a new recruit on a fully-loaded rifle. "It's too much of a safety risk," he told Insider, adding that improperly handling a military canine risks the animal or the handler getting hurt.

A dog, of course, is much more complicated than a rifle, as each dog is different. Strengths, weaknesses, and how the animal interacts with the handler can vary greatly depending on the dog's breed, age, experiences, and personality.

Army Spc. Joseph Ramos, a handler with the 8th Military Working Dog Detachment, told Insider that his dog Fox has severe separation anxiety.

"I never thought he would get so attached to me," he said.

If he leaves, even for only a few days, Fox's "whole character changes," Ramos said. "I have to check on him periodically, even through a long weekend, just to make sure he's eating." He has to be sure Fox is healthy and performing as he should because the animal is his responsibility.

"Not only do you have to worry about your own soldier tasks, but you have this extra equipment on you that needs attention as well," he said. Everything he does, he has to take the dog into consideration. "You can't just think about yourself."

Dealing with military working dogs, which often unofficially outrank their handlers, requires tremendous patience.

A working dog is "Army equipment that literally has its own brain and can choose not to work correctly just because it doesn't want to," Citrullo told Insider. "You can do everything correct with your military working dog and the dog could still choose to not do what it was trained to do."

Handlers work with their dogs daily, building a relationship and getting to know the animal, learning its likes, dislikes, needs, abilities, and limitations.

When she deployed to Afghanistan, Vanderzanden made armament decisions based off her understanding of her dog Frenky. She told Insider that she did not carry grenades into combat because Frenky is toy-driven. "I knew if I threw anything, he would be running after it," she said.

Unlike regular dogs, which may be easily spooked by thunder, fireworks, and other loud noises, military working dogs, which often accompany their handlers during live-fire training exercises, are familiar with the weapons of war and trained not to panic in response to gunfire or explosions.

"On deployment, we took mortar rounds, there was sniper fire, there were door charge explosions." Vanderzanden said, explaining that Frenky's response was based off her reaction. "If I don't react, he doesn't react."

Taking 'care of the animals that take care of our troopers'

The nature of the explosive detection job regularly puts handlers and their dogs in harm's way, with the working dogs often facing some of the greatest risks.

"It's paws before boots," Citrullo told Insider. Not trying to be cruel, he explained that while the aim is for the dogs to safely identify threats to the force, if a dog is unfortunately injured or killed by an IED or some other deadly device but it saves the lives of soldiers behind it, "that's a win for us."

That being said, the US military has veterinarians available to care for its working dogs and fight for their lives.

"I take care of the animals that take care of our troopers," Col. Andrew McGraw, a military veterinarian and the director of the Lt. Col. Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital, told Insider. "We do our very best for these animals because they are selfless."

Handlers are trained to provide basic first aid in emergency situations, but for more serious situations, the military calls on the experts.

Military veterinarians treat a variety of ailments, everything from heat exhaustion and gastrointestinal issues to gunshot wounds and IED blasts, sometimes working medical miracles with injured animals. It's a challenging job, one that demands far more than just caring for wounded working dogs.

Lt. Col. Patrick Grimm, a military veterinarian and a radiologist at the working dog hospital, told Insider that on one combat deployment, he was called up in the middle of the night following reports of an ambush.

He waited for several hours as Black Hawks brought in wounded troops but no dog. When the last helicopter finally came in, it delivered about half a dog wrapped in an American flag. The dog had been hit with an IED, and there was nothing he or his team could do.

"I saw the kennel master from the special forces team that was involved in the mission in the corner," he said. "I went over to him, and he was crying." Several US troops were killed. The handler assigned to the deceased dog was alive but had lost his legs.

Grimm said the kennel master asked him to deliver the flag to the handler in the hospital, to deliver the heartbreaking message that his dog didn't make it. He said that this was one of the hardest things he has had to do.

"Being a veterinarian in the Army is more than just being there for the dogs," he said. "It's about being there for the team and the handlers and supporting them." Grimm stayed with the handler at the hospital, not saying much, but being there for him when he needed it most.

It can be 'traumatic' for a handler to say goodbye to a friend

"Military working dogs tend to be a morale boost" for US troops deployed overseas, Citrullo told Insider, and it can be difficult when something happens to them in battle. But, the handler usually takes that hit the hardest.

"You can't spend that amount of time with an animal and not become attached," he said. Vanderzanden described her dog Frenky, who she has been with for three years, as her "best friend."

Losing a dog can be a "traumatic experience," Citrullo said, but "the Army has always been very supportive. There are ceremonies for working dogs just as they would have a ceremony for a fallen service member."

Most military working dogs do return from combat, but not all of the dogs who come back can continue to serve, as some injuries, both physical and psychological, can leave them unfit for duty.

Like human soldiers, military working dogs can develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD in dogs can manifest as avoidance, hiding, and loss of rapport with the handler, veterinarians Grimm and McGraw told Insider, adding that there is usually some specific event, like an explosion or a vehicle rollover, that "the dog handler can point to and say that after this particular incident, the dog wasn't the same."

Working dogs that can no longer certify due to injury, age, or some other reason retire, at which point the military looks into adopting them out as pets to live out their days in peace.

For some dogs, that is not an option. Some dogs may serve their whole lives. Vanderzanden said she saw an older dog work finding drugs right up until he died.

"He was really aggressive. We determined that he was not going to be adoptable," she said. "He was a narcotics dog. We just decided to keep working him and letting him do his thing because he seemed happy."

The dog actually managed to make a find just two weeks before he passed.

Military working dogs give all they have in service of something they do not understand, and they do it for their handlers, the people who matter most in their lives, the people who stand with them through good times and bad.

"When I got [Frenky], he was barely two years old, and he just turned five in March," Vanderzanden said.

Over the past few years, a pup has become a seasoned soldier. "We've been through a lot together," she said. "Every day, he is super excited to see me. He's super excited to get to work."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• The man who stopped an active shooter on a bridge in Kansas on Wednesday was US Army Master Sgt. David Royer, who's stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
• "I knew people's lives were in danger. I needed to do something," Royer said Thursday. Local authorities say that his quick reaction saved "countless lives."
• After the incident was resolved, Royer went home, mowed the grass, and ate dinner with his family.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

After Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, soldier Master Sgt. David Royer stopped an active shooter on the Centennial Bridge by slamming his truck into the gunman, he went home to mow the lawn and have dinner with his family, he said Thursday.

Royer, a corrections noncommissioned officer with the 705th Military Police Battalion, had left the base on Wednesday and coming up on the bridge when a man with a rifle exited his vehicle and began firing at vehicles in the oncoming lane.

On the phone with his fiancé at the time, Royer told her to call 911. After hanging up, he sprang into action. "I knew people's lives were in danger. I needed to do something,"he told media Thursday.

"I assessed the situation very quickly, looked around and just took the only action possible that I felt I could take,"he said, adding, "I accelerated my truck as quickly as possible and struck the active shooter and pinned him underneath my truck."

He said that local law enforcement arrived on the scene within minutes.

Royer admitted that he was "shocked" by the incident, but his military training and adrenaline took over. The active-duty soldier has been in the Army for 15 years and has gone through military police and special reaction team training.

"I took appropriate action and took out the threat as fast as possible," he said. Royer's 2014 Chevy Silverado, the first car he ever bought, suffered extensive damage.

"What was a very, very dangerous situation, fortunately, was ended quite quickly," Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said at a briefing Wednesday evening. "Very likely countless lives were saved by the person that intervened."

"He won't call himself a hero, but I will," Kitchens said of the Fort Leavenworth soldier on Thursday. "He saved countless lives." Only two people, including the shooter, were injured in the incident.

Royer explained that he never imagined an active-shooter situation occurring in traffic but acknowledged that concern about such an event is "always in the back of my mind because of how crazy things are in the world today."

He said that after the incident he was "calm," telling reporters that he just wanted to get back home.

"When I got home I just wanted to get everything back to normal — get to my kids, give them a hug, and then I mowed my grass, ate dinner and spent time with my family," he said.

SEE ALSO: FBI says shooting attack at a US Navy base in Texas being investigated as 'terrorism-related'

Join the conversation about this story »

• In the past year, the US Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command have all shown interest in the same bolt-action rifle for their snipers — the Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) rifle able to fire three different rounds.
• "We're excited about it because it's going to improve capabilities, it's going to improve our ability to conduct operations, and it is going to allow for a more flexible sniper element," a veteran Army sniper told Insider.
• The multi-caliber rifle known by a few different names can be chambered in 7.62X51 mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum, and .338 Norma Magnum, meaning snipers no longer have to choose between weapons systems capable of firing different rounds for different missions and targets.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Army, the Marine Corps, and the special operations community all want the same bolt-action rifle for their snipers, and US sharpshooters are excited to get their hands on it.

"It's an awesome gun," 1st Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a seasoned Army sniper, told Insider, referring to the Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) rifle, known as the Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) in the Army and the Advanced Sniper Rifle (ASR) by Special Operations Command and the Marines.

The PSR, which the Army also calls the Mk 22, is a "good gun coming at a good time that is going to increase efficiency and capabilities," Sipes, who oversees the sniper course at Fort Benning, Ga., said.

"We're excited about it because it's going to improve capabilities, it's going to improve our ability to conduct operations, and it is going to allow for a more flexible sniper element," he said, explaining that the new rifle essentially lets US snipers employ three separate weapon systems in a single platform.

Instead of making US military snipers choose between weapons capable of firing different rounds for different missions and targets, the multi-caliber rifle can be chambered in 7.62X51 mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum, and .338 Norma Magnum.

"It gives more flexibility to the sniper as to what configuration to put it in and what targets they are going after," Lt. Col. Chris Kennedy, lethality branch chief of the Maneuver Center of Excellence's Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate soldier division, previously told Insider.

The weapon is expected to replace the Army's M2010 and M107 sniper rifles, which Sipes said have "served the Army extremely well."

Sipes and his team were tapped to provide feedback on the PSR program. Speaking for a team of snipers, he told Insider that "there hasn't been any negative feedback. We are all excited to get that weapon system."

"I can tell you I never saw anything on that gun that I didn't like," he said. "It shoots phenomenally well. What it does, as far as barrel changes and things like that go, is pretty exceptional."

Special Operations Command awarded Barrett a $49.9 million contract in March 2019 for the MRAD rifle for its ASR program.

In the Department of the Navy's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal, the Marine Corps put in a $4 million request for 250 ASRs. The aim is for the ASRs to "replace all current bolt-action sniper rifles in the Marine Corps."

US snipers use two types of rifles in combat. They use semi-automatic rifles for increased maneuverability and rapid target engagement and bolt-action rifles for increased accuracy.

The Marine Corps request stressed that the new rifle offers "extended range, greater lethality, and a wider variety of special purpose ammunition."

In its FY 2021 request, the Army put in a $10 million request for 536 PSRs, noting that the rifle "increases stand-off distances ensuring overmatch against enemy counter sniper engagements and increases sniper capability," something increasingly important as the US shifts its focus from counterterrorism to great power competition.

Fielding is still a little ways out, but Sipes said that "we are looking forward to moving that into the future."

He explained, though, that the rifle is not what makes a sniper. "The equipment is just a bridge, an extension of you, not the other way around."

Sipes previously told Insider that "there are a million things that go into being a sniper, and you have to be good at all of them."

A single long-range shot, for instance, requires considerations of more than a dozen different variables, and concealment and camouflage, critical skills that allow a sniper to stealthily operate and avoid detection in dangerous areas, are no different.

Becoming a good sniper requires more than just good equipment, Sipes said. It requires constant training to become proficient.

SEE ALSO: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

SEE ALSO: US Army sharpshooters reveal how they hunt enemy snipers in a deadly 'game of cat and mouse'

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

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid