Think tank urges U.S. to not reduce presence in Okinawa; Trump turns to military leaders for high-level diplomacy with Iran, Russia; and American Legion helps ensure veteran with no family gets proper final send-off.
1. A new report from a U.S. foreign policy think tank is urging Washington to renegotiate a decades-old agreement with Japan to reduce the Marine Corps presence on Okinawa, arguing that the deal should instead be reversed to strengthen deterrence against China. The report, released Feb. 3 by the Atlantic Council, recommends keeping about 5,000 Marines on Okinawa rather than relocating them to Guam and retaining the Corps’ airfield in densely populated central Okinawa along with a replacement runaway under construction farther north. The authors call for reversing the Defense Policy Review Initiative, or DPRI, a 20-year-old U.S.-Japan agreement aimed at reducing the U.S. military footprint on Okinawa by moving thousands of Marines to Guam.
2. President Donald Trump has taken the unusual step of tapping military leaders for high-level diplomacy, sending the top U.S. commander in the Middle East to talks over Iran’s nuclear program and positioning the Army secretary as a key negotiator on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, for the first time joined indirect U.S.-Iran talks Friday in Oman, appearing in his dress uniform as a reminder of the American buildup of military might in the region. As Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reprised his role at Russia-Ukraine talks this week, he worked to keep the conversation going with Ukrainian officials in the downtime between sessions, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.
3. He had no family left. Hundreds of strangers showed up anyway. The funeral service for Jeffrey Kalnas, a U.S. Navy veteran, was held Wednesday in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, after word spread locally that he would otherwise be buried alone. The service, officiated at First United Methodist Church West Pittston, drew hundreds of residents, veterans and community members who came to ensure Kalnas received public recognition for his military service. West Pittston Borough Secretary Kendra-lee O’Brien-Rogers told Military.com that the borough itself did not organize the event but pointed to community and veterans groups that stepped in. “The borough was not directly involved in this event,” O’Brien-Rogers said, adding that the service was officiated by the West Pittston United Methodist Church and supported by members of the American Legion, including Commander Ron Gitkos of West Pittston American Legion Post 542.
4. China and South Korea have discussed resuming joint maritime search-and-rescue drills that have been suspended for about 15 years, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. Working-level policy talks between officials from both nations’ defense ministries took place Thursday in Beijing, according to a news release issued by the South Korean ministry that day. China and South Korea began the humanitarian drills in the Yellow Sea — known was the West Sea on the Korean Peninsula — in 2005. Follow-on exercises were held in 2007, 2008 and 2022 before the series was curtailed, according to a Thursday report by Yonhap News Agency. The exercises ended in a period of strained relations between the two countries following a strengthened U.S.-South Korea exercise and the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system from the United States, according to Jan. 8 report by the Kukmin Ilbo.
5. Two West Virginia National Guard members who were shot in Washington, D.C., will receive Purple Heart medals, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. In November, Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was shot and killed by an Afghan national near the White House. A second member of the West Virginia Guard, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was also shot and has since been recovering. Speaking at a reenlistment ceremony on the National Mall in Washington, Hegseth said the two were being honored for their actions while serving in support of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force mission.
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