For a couple of years now, the Pentagon has raised a growing concern for the U.S. military: Recruitment levels are dropping pretty fast.

The Pentagon is particularly focused on recruitment levels for younger millennials and Gen Z.

A Department of Defense survey found that when young people were asked, "How likely is it that you will serve in the military?" only 11% responded "definitely" or "probably."

So, the military has been investing in some unexpected strategies, and a big one is video games. The Pentagon is hoping the world of esports, streaming, and gaming will turn things around for their generational recruitment crisis.

Technically, video games aren't totally new territory for U.S. military recruitment. In the early 2000s, the Pentagon released its own game called America’s Army, a multiplayer shooting game in the vein of Call of Duty or Counterstrike. After decades of pretty reasonable success, it eventually discontinued in early 2022.

The U.S. military has also collaborated with game makers behind franchises like Call of Duty or Doom, sometimes using modified versions of games to teach recruits, at other times consulting with game designers to plan "realistic" war scenarios or even recruiting game designers for Washington think tanks focused on military strategy.

So, this relationship is decades old. But, the dropping numbers of military applicants in recent years has ushered in a new era in the gaming-military complex, and this is where esports and streaming have really dominated.

There is now a pro-esports team for every branch of the military – even the space force. They compete with other pro teams, other military branches, and even other allied countries' military teams. The military also sponsors many esports tournaments, which helps enlarge their presence even more.

They've also steadily been streaming on the massively popular platform Twitch, the top gaming streaming site in the world, but this is where recruiters have most recently run into trouble.

Twitch's age limit is only 13 years old, and critics have objected to using such recruitment tactics on children. In some cases, the military allegedly had links with vague messages like "Sign up to win!" which, when clicked through, only led to recruitment forms.

In 2020, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even proposed an amendment to a fiscal bill to stop the military from using video games for recruitment. Lawmakers voted against it, 292 votes to 126. Though it didn't pass, it renewed attention on the controversial practice and put a strain on the military's video game push.

Around the same time as the House vote, the Army found itself in hot water after banning viewers on Twitch who trolled and criticized the military, including writer and activist Jordan Uhl.

After being sued for violating free speech, the military temporarily left Twitch altogether.

Some critics have also pointed out the dangers of trivializing war and militarized violence for children, by equating it with a video game. Even today, the Air Force has a game directly on its website called Airman Challenge that lets you learn about drones and operate one to bomb "insurgents" in Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's unclear what exactly is next for the military's big recruitment push in video games. Although the recruitment practice has repeatedly found itself in controversy, it seems to be far from slowing down. Esports tournaments and sponsorships are only continuing, and the military has cautiously waded back into the world of streaming.

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Video above: Ceremony being held in New York to honor 9/11 victims

Americans are remembering 9/11 with moments of silence, readings of victims' names, volunteer work and other tributes 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

A tolling bell and a moment of silence began the commemoration at ground zero in New York, where the World Trade Center's twin towers were destroyed by the hijacked-plane attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Victims’ relatives and dignitaries also convened at the two other attack sites, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Other communities around the country are marking the day with candlelight vigils, interfaith services and other commemorations. Some Americans are joining in volunteer projects on a day that is federally recognized as both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The observances follow a fraught milestone anniversary last year. It came weeks after the chaotic and humbling end of the Afghanistan war that the U.S. launched in response to the attacks.

But if this Sept. 11 may be less of an inflection point, it remains a point for reflection on the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people, spurred a U.S. “war on terror” worldwide and reconfigured national security policy.

It also stirred — for a time — a sense of national pride and unity for many, while subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties. In ways both subtle and plain, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.

Live video: Ceremony held at the Pentagon to honor lives lost on 9/11

And the attacks have cast a long shadow into the personal lives of thousands of people who survived, responded or lost loved ones, friends and colleagues.

More than 70 of Sekou Siby's co-workers perished at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the trade center's north tower. Siby had been scheduled to work that morning until another cook asked him to switch shifts.

Siby never took a restaurant job again; it would have brought back too many memories. The Ivorian immigrant wrestled with how to comprehend such horror in a country where he'd come looking for a better life.

He found it difficult to form the type of close, family-like friendships he and his Windows on the World co-workers had shared. It was too painful, he had learned, to become attached to people when “you have no control over what’s going to happen to them next.”

“Every 9/11 is a reminder of what I lost that I can never recover,” says Siby, who is now president and CEO of ROC United. The restaurant workers' advocacy group evolved from a relief center for Windows on the World workers who lost their jobs when the twin towers fell.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden plans to speak and lay a wreath at the Pentagon, while First Lady Jill Biden is scheduled to speak in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes went down after passengers and crew members tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers headed for Washington. Al-Qaida conspirators had seized control of the jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles.

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff joined the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, but by tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony. It centers instead on victims' relatives reading aloud the names of the dead.

Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about Sept. 11 — grief, anger, toughness, appreciation for first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, occasional political barbs, and a poignant accounting of the graduations, weddings, births and daily lives that victims have missed.

Some relatives also lament that a nation which came together — to some extent — after the attacks has since splintered apart. So much so that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which were reshaped to focus on international terrorism after 9/11, now see the threat of domestic violent extremism as equally urgent.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans remembered 9/11 on Sunday with tear-choked tributes and pleas to “never forget," 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

Nikita Shah headed to the ceremony on the ground in a T-shirt that bore the de facto epigraph of the annual commemoration — “never forget” — and the name of her slain father, Jayesh Shah.

The family moved to Houston afterward but has often returned to New York for the anniversary of the attack that killed him and nearly 3,000 other people.

“For us, it was being around people who kind of experienced the same type of grief and the same feelings after 9/11,” said Shah, who was 10 when her father was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Victims’ relatives and dignitaries also convened at the two other attack sites, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Other communities around the country are marking the day with candlelight vigils, interfaith services and other commemorations. Some Americans are joining in volunteer projects on a day that is federally recognized as both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

More than two decades later, Sept. 11 remains a point for reflection on the attack that reconfigured national security policy and spurred a U.S. “war on terror” worldwide. Sunday's observances, which follow a fraught milestone anniversary last year, come little more than a month after a U.S. drone strike killed a key al-Qaida figure who helped plot the 9/11 attacks, Ayman al-Zawahri.

It also stirred — for a time — a sense of national pride and unity for many while subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties. In ways both subtle and plain, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.

And the attacks have cast a long shadow on the personal lives of thousands of people who survived, responded or lost loved ones, friends and colleagues.

Firefighter Jimmy Riches’ namesake nephew wasn’t born yet when his uncle died, but the boy took the podium to pay tribute to him.

“You’re always in my heart. And I know you are watching over me,” he said after reading a portion of the victims’ names.

More than 70 of Sekou Siby's co-workers perished at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the trade center's north tower. Siby had been scheduled to work that morning until another cook asked him to switch shifts.

Siby never took a restaurant job again; it would have brought back too many memories. The Ivorian immigrant wrestled with how to comprehend such horror in a country where he'd come looking for a better life.

He found it difficult to form the type of close, family-like friendships he and his Windows on the World co-workers had shared. It was too painful, he had learned, to become attached to people when “you have no control over what’s going to happen to them next.”

“Every 9/11 is a reminder of what I lost that I can never recover,” says Siby, who is now president and CEO of ROC United. The restaurant workers' advocacy group evolved from a relief center for Windows on the World workers who lost their jobs when the twin towers fell.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden spoke and laid a wreath at the Pentagon. At the same time, first lady Jill Biden spoke in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes went down after passengers and crew members tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers headed for Washington. Al-Qaida conspirators had seized control of the jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles.

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff joined the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York. Still, by tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony. It centers instead on victims' relatives reading aloud the names of the dead.

Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about Sept. 11 — grief, anger, toughness, appreciation for first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, occasional political barbs, and a poignant accounting of the graduations, weddings, births and daily lives that victims have missed.

Some relatives also lament that a nation that came together — to some extent — after the attacks have since splintered apart. So much so that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which were reshaped to focus on international terrorism after 9/11, now see the threat of domestic violent extremism as equally urgent.

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has learned that an independent Pentagon review has concluded that the U.S. drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children in the final days of the Afghanistan war was not caused by misconduct or negligence, and it doesn’t recommend any disciplinary action.

The review found there were some breakdowns in communications and in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing, according to a senior defense official familiar with the report.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

Video above: White House blasts Texas order blocking vaccine mandates

The Pentagon is in the dark about the vaccine status of hundreds of thousands of its civilian employees just weeks before the deadline to fully vaccinate its workforce against COVID-19.

The Pentagon has made significant progress vaccinating the military's active-duty force but according to Defense Department data, the Pentagon has not tracked vaccinations or received self-reporting data for more than half of its civilian employees, even though the looming Nov. 22 vaccination deadline for civilian federal government workers falls before the deadline for most active duty service members.

Well over 90% of service members have been fully or partially vaccinated, but without data on the civilian workforce, the Pentagon may face a major challenge ensuring a huge swath of its employees are vaccinated in time.

The department's civilian population numbers more than 765,000 but DoD has approximately 400,000 civilian employees with an unknown vaccine status.

Press secretary John Kirby said the Pentagon is still working through how to ensure its civilian workforce is fully vaccinated, but he did not foresee it becoming a "huge issue" going forward.

"Our civilian workers here, they take their jobs very seriously, they take their obligations to their families and their coworkers very seriously and I think we have every expectation that they too will continue to seek and pursue getting vaccinated," said Kirby at a press briefing Tuesday. "There are a range of administrative tools that leaders here at the department would have to make sure that our civilian workers are likewise getting the vaccine."

The vast majority of the Defense Department's civilian workforce is spread across the United States, with the largest concentration in and around Washington, D.C. Only a small percentage of DoD civilians work overseas.

The current department numbers show nearly 319,000 DoD civilians are fully vaccinated, while another 46,477 are partially vaccinated. But these numbers only include individuals who received their vaccine through a DoD provider or self-reported receiving the vaccine.

"The numbers on the website are incomplete," said Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman. "The Safer Federal Workforce Taskforce, which is implementing the President's EO requiring federal employee and contractor vaccination, will have requirements on what data DoD must collect for its federal civilian workforce, so we should know more information about the implementation soon."

The DoD civilian population has also had far more deaths from COVID-19 than the military population. In all, 334 civilians have died of COVID-19, according to Defense Department data, while 62 service members have died of the disease.

The Nov. 22 deadline for being fully vaccinated is still six weeks away, but the deadlines for receiving the vaccines are rapidly approaching or, in the case of the Moderna vaccine, have already passed, since an individual has to receive the full schedule of doses and wait two weeks before being considered fully vaccinated.

In order to meet that deadline, the last possible date for receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine is Oct. 18, while the latest possible date for first dose of Moderna was Oct. 11. The Pfizer vaccine requires a three-week waiting period in between first and second dose. Moderna requires a four-week wait. The last possible date to receive the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is Nov. 8, two weeks before the Nov. 22 deadline.

Only the Air Force has an earlier deadline, requiring its active duty force to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 2. As of this month, the Air Force has fully or partially vaccinated 95.4% of active duty airmen.

The Navy, which has a Nov. 28 deadline, leads the services with 98% of its active duty force either fully or partially vaccinated, while the Marine Corps, with the same deadline, has fully or partially vaccinated 90% of active duty marines.

The Army has partially or fully vaccinated 91.4% of active duty soldiers, and its deadline for vaccination is Dec. 15.

In all, the military has a 96.7% vaccination rate among active duty, including fully and partially vaccinated, Kirby said at the briefing, which means approximately 44,700 active duty troops remain unvaccinated out of a total force of 1.35 million. That puts the military well ahead of the general population, which has a 78.4% vaccinate rate for those 18 and over.

According to an Oct. 1 memo that mandated vaccines for DoD's civilian workforce, employees "must be prepared to provide a copy of their COVID-19 vaccine record."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month.

It announced Friday that an internal review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed.

According to the Associated Press, 10 civilians, including seven children, were killed.

"It was a tragic mistake," Gen. Frank McKenzie, Commander of U.S. Central Command, said Friday during a press briefing.

For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite numerous civilians being killed, including children.

On Friday, Gen. McKenzie said he took full responsibility for the tragic outcome and offered condolences to the victim's family members.

"I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed," Gen. McKenzie said. "This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake, and I offer my sincere apology."

Gen. McKenzie said they are considering making reparation payments to the family of the victims.

News organizations later raised doubts about that version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagon's assertion that the vehicle contained explosives.

Three American presidents stood somberly side by side Saturday at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, sharing a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the nation's worst terrorist attack with a display of unity.

Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago. Each man wore a blue ribbon and held his hands over his heart as a procession marched a flag through the memorial before hundreds of people, some carrying photos of loved ones lost in the attacks.

Before the event began, a jet flew overhead in an eerie echo of the attacks, drawing a glance from Biden toward the sky. For much of the ceremony he stood with his arms crossed and head bowed, listening while the names of the victims were read. At one point, he wiped a tear from his eye.

Biden was a senator when hijackers commandeered four planes and carried out the attack. He was Obama's vice president in 2011 when the country observed the 10th anniversary of the strikes. Saturday's commemoration was his first as commander in chief, beginning in New York City and culminating late afternoon at the Pentagon, where the world's mightiest military suffered an unthinkable blow to its very home.

In between he visited Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers brought down a hijacked plane that was headed for the U.S. Capitol. Biden and his wife, Jill, walked with relatives of the crash victims into the grassy field where the jet came to rest.

He reflected on the need for unity when he dropped by the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department to deliver Bud Light and thank first responders who responded to the plane crash on Sept. 11.

"Everyone says Biden, 'Why do you keep insisting on trying to bring the country together?'' the president told reporters. "That's the thing that's going to affect our well-being more than anything else."

It is now Biden who shoulders the responsibility borne by his predecessors to prevent another strike. He must do that against fears of a rise in terrorism after the hasty U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, where those who planned the Sept. 11 attacks were sheltered.

But on a day when his nation recalled its shock and sorrow, Biden left the speech-making to others.

Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, spoke in Shanksville at the Flight 93 National Memorial, praising the courage of those passengers and the resilience of Americans who came together in the days after the attacks.

"In a time of outright terror, we turned toward each other," she said. "If we do the hard work of working together as Americans, if we remain united in purpose, we will be prepared for whatever comes next."

Former President George W. Bush, speaking before Harris, recalled how 9/11 showed that Americans could unite despite their differences. It was a message, he said, that was needed today.

"So much of our politics have become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment," Bush said. "On America's day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor's hand, and rally for the cause of one another. That is the America I know."

Biden, speaking at the firehouse later, praised Bush's message of unity, and mentioned that he had taken photos with some boys wearing Trump hats at the firehouse. Biden framed the need for unity as a crucial to the success of democracies, asking "Are we going to, in the next four, five, six, 10 years, demonstrate that democracies can work, or not?"

Former President Donald Trump skipped the official 9/11 memorial ceremonies and instead visited a fire station and police precinct in New York.

While Biden had no prepared remarks of his own Saturday, he did offer praise for Bush's words, telling reporters in Pennsylvania that he thought the former president "made a really good speech today. Genuinely."

But unity was a theme that Biden emphasized in a taped address released by the White House late Friday. He spoke about the "true sense of national unity" that emerged after the attacks, seen in "heroism everywhere — in places expected and unexpected."

"To me that's the central lesson of September 11," he said. "Unity is our greatest strength."

Biden is the fourth president to console the nation on the anniversary of that dark day, one that has shaped many of the most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions made by the chief executives over the past two decades.

Bush was reading a book to Florida schoolchildren when the planes slammed into the World Trade Center. He spent that day being kept out of Washington for security reasons — a decision then-Sen. Biden urged him to reconsider, the current president has written — and then delivered a brief, halting speech that night from the White House to a terrified nation.

The terrorist attack would define Bush's presidency. The following year, he chose Ellis Island as the location to deliver his first anniversary address, the Statue of Liberty over his shoulder as he pledged, "What our enemies have begun, we will finish."

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were still deadly when Obama visited the Pentagon to mark his first Sept. 11 in office in 2009.

By the time Obama spoke at the 10th anniversary, attack mastermind Osama bin Laden was dead, killed in a May 2011 Navy SEAL raid. Though the nation remained entangled overseas, and vigilant against terrorist threats, the anniversary became more about healing.

"We reaffirm our commitment to keep a sacred trust with their families — including the children who lost parents, and who have demonstrated such extraordinary resilience. But this anniversary is also about reflecting on what we've learned in the 20 years since that awful morning," Obama said in a statement early Saturday morning.

"That list of lessons is long and growing. But one thing that became clear on 9/11 — and has been clear ever since — is that America has always been home to heroes who run towards danger in order to do what is right."

When they think back on Sept. 11, 2001, Obama said, he and former First Lady Michelle Obama aren't left only with lasting images of two planes flying into the twin towers of the World Trade Center or the wreckage at the other attack sites, but also with the courage of the first responders who acted on that day and in the following weeks and months.

"It's the firefighters running up the stairs as others were running down. The passengers deciding to storm a cockpit, knowing it could be their final act. The volunteers showing up at recruiters' offices across the country in the days that followed, willing to put their lives on the line," the former president wrote.

That same selflessness, Obama said, has been on display "again and again" over the past two decades.

For John Wesley, no day has a greater significance than Sept. 11, 2001. His reasons are deeply personal, powerful and inspiring.

Images of his fiancée are indelibly etched in Wesley's mind, heart and soul. Sarah Clark died when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and deliberately crashed into the Pentagon.

"She saw the same old world each day with new eyes, and her compassion never blinks," Wesley said.

Authorities allowed Wesley to watch the boarding gate video. He saw two of the hijackers looking at a child playing with an Elmo toy, seniors being pushed onboard in wheelchairs and students securing their backpacks.

"For me, how could you look at that and still do what was on your mind?" Wesley said.

Wesley decided at the last minute not to go on the trip with Clark because it was his first day on the job as an actor on HBO'S "The Wire."

"Growing up in Mississippi, I just believe I would have fought," Wesley said.

Every year on the 9/11 anniversary, Wesley visits the Pentagon crash site. He will be there this year, as well. In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Clark in his remarks. Wesley said her positive influence has made him a better man. He said she helped lead him back to his faith.

"People need help. People need compassion. And I wanted people to know that I had no malice, that I never asked God why. I just thanked him for the time that I had with her and all the things that happened with her," Wesley said.

Clark taught sixth grade at Backus Middle School in Washington, D.C. She was on Flight 77 to chaperone students to an ecology conference sponsored by National Geographic.

Days before the flight, Wesley and Clark decided to bump up their wedding date to December. They picked a place to hold their wedding reception and shopped for wedding bands.

Wesley had the grim task of identifying Clark's remains.

"I was looking for this ring because this is the ring she would have had on," Wesley said.

Wesley said that over the years, he has focused on writing music and books inspired by Clark.

"If we are going to stop this hatred, we are going to have to start with the children," Wesley said. "That's the real lesson, and that will be our saving grace if we learn to love each other."

Wesley has since found a new love, which he said has helped him emotionally. His work in the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights is his passion.

"It seems I am where I'm supposed to be," Wesley said.

Wesley has advice for anyone who has suddenly lost a loved one, saying life is short, to honor them by doing a simple act of kindness and use that depth of pain to lift others up.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.

Biden will visit ground zero in New York City, the Pentagon and the memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 was forced down, the White House said Saturday.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a separate event before joining the president at the Pentagon, the White House said.

Biden's itinerary is similar to the one President Barack Obama followed in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Obama's visit to New York City coincided with the opening of memorial at the site where the iconic World Trade Center towers once stood.

Next Saturday's anniversary falls less than two weeks after the end of the nearly two-decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. The war was launched weeks after the 9/11 attacks to retaliate against the al-Qaida plotters and the Taliban, who provided them safe haven.

Biden has found support from the public for ending the conflict but has faced sharp criticism, even from allies, for the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops and allied Afghans during the final two weeks of August.

Biden on Friday directed the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11 attacks in a gesture toward victims' families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government.

The conflict between the government and the families over what classified information could be made public came into the open last month after many relatives, survivors and first responders said they would object to Biden's participation in 9/11 memorial events if the documents remained classified.

___

Superville reported from Wilmington, Delaware.

The messages began pouring into the law office of Joseph Jordan in Killeen, Texas, soon after the Pentagon announced it would seek to make the COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for troops. Service members wanted to know what their options were if they didn't want to be vaccinated.

"It's been the number one issue for our law firm for the last few days," Jordan told CNN. "I'm getting emails, I'm getting messages on my Facebook, we're getting phone calls. It's been absolutely nuts. Three or four calls an hour."

The issue of mandatory vaccinations is relatively new for Jordan, whose experience as a criminal defense attorney near Fort Hood focuses on violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. But that hasn't slowed the calls.

"The questions aren't coming from the young enlisted. They're coming from the seniors, they're coming from the midlevel ranks," Jordan said. "I talked to a guy with 31 years in the service, and he asked, 'Do I need to retire now?'"

In the wake of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's announcement Monday that he would by mid-September seek the authority to make the vaccine mandatory even if it hadn't yet received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other law firms have seen a similar spike in inquiries. CNN spoke with five law firms with a focus on military law that say they have all seen a surge in inquiries about the COVID-19 vaccines. (Two other law firms say they have not received questions on this issue.)

'A lot of anger'

"The soldiers who have talked to me, I've experienced a lot of anger," said Joseph Owens, a lawyer who served in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps. Owens says his firm, based in Columbia, Maryland, has received about a dozen calls since Austin's announcement.

For Owens, the question revolves around whether it is a lawful order to compel service members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. And to answer that question, he says he will look into the decision-making process behind mandating that vaccine and the legal considerations that went into the decision. Any procedural missteps in testing, authorizing, or administering the vaccine, he says, could make it an unlawful order.

"I think there's a very good argument that the answer is no, it's not a lawful order," Owens said, citing the troubled implementation of the anthrax vaccine in the late 1990s.

The military mandated the anthrax vaccine beginning in 1998, but it quickly ran into legal challenges and sowed distrust of unknown vaccines among service members, some of whom faced dismissal for their refusal to take the vaccine. That skepticism has crept up again with some troops for the COVID-19 vaccine.

"They want more data before they put a chemical in their body," Owens said.

But a similar challenge to the COVID-19 vaccines could be far more difficult to make, especially if the Defense Department waits for FDA approval before making the shots mandatory.

Despite being far newer vaccines, the COVID-19 shots have been administered to nearly 170 million Americans and many more around the world. The vaccines currently have an emergency use authorization from the FDA. Under this authorization, the military has made the vaccine available on a voluntary basis — troops who want to receive it can. But until now, Pentagon officials had been clear that they would not move to make it mandatory, focusing instead on encouragement and education to convince skeptical service members of its importance.

Jordan acknowledged the potential difficulty of challenging a mandatory order to get the coronavirus vaccine.

"You may not have a leg to stand on as it is, because you're looking at what is in the best interest of the service and your duty to your country," he said.

The military has accelerated its plans to vaccinate the force with the expectation of either imminent FDA approval or a request for a waiver from the defense secretary.

A draft warning order obtained by CNN from a West Coast Army base lays out a detailed plan to organize vaccinations across the facility, including what roles units will play and where vaccination sites will be set up. The warning order, which is notification of an upcoming mission, says the date the vaccine becomes mandatory will be referred to as "V-Day," short for vaccination day. It also appears to be a reference to "Victory Day," a holiday to mark successes in battles or war.

'V-Day'

"Given uncertainty with regard to potential FDA approval date, V-Day could occur with less than 7 days notice," the draft warning order states.

There are up to 17 mandatory vaccines for troops, though the total number required for each individual service member depends on where he or she is deployed or based. In the United States, service members are required to receive at least eight vaccines before basic training, including chickenpox, Hepatitis A&B, and a yearly flu vaccine. (The anthrax vaccine is required for longer deployments in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific. In North America, it depends on Defense Department policy.)

As the Pentagon develops a policy around restrictions for service members who refuse to accept the COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes mandatory, troops who refuse the currently mandatory vaccines face an array of potential disciplinary actions, including possible discharge from the military.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday that commanders would have a "range of tools" to work with service members who did not want to receive the vaccine that do not rely on disciplinary measures. But he added that "once a vaccine has been mandated, it becomes a lawful order to compel an individual to take the vaccine."

"Our expectation is that if an individual doesn't want to take the vaccine that we're going to provide them some counseling," said Kirby at a press briefing Wednesday, including "access to doctors, access to leaders in their chain of command so they fully understand the implications and repercussions to them if they don't take the vaccine."

Kirby said there could be religious and medical exemptions to receiving the vaccine, but that it would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Patrick McLain, a retired Marine Corps military judge based in Dallas who still practices law, fully expects that some troops will be discharged over their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, similar to the courts-martial over the anthrax vaccine.

"I have no doubt it'll happen again," McLain said, estimating that it would take until the beginning of next year before the military began taking more severe actions. McLain said he had already taken on his first client who did not want to receive the vaccine, but he estimated that number across the military would be quite low in the end.

"There's probably a relatively small percentage in the military that will resist it," McLain said. "You're not going to find too many people that are joining the military that are going to refuse orders."

WASHINGTON —

The Pentagon police force on Wednesday identified the officer who was fatally stabbed at a transit center outside the Pentagon.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency said Officer George Gonzalez was a New York native and Army veteran who served in Iraq. He'd been on the police force for three years. He died after being stabbed during a burst of violence at a transit center outside the building, and a suspect was shot by law enforcement and died at the scene.

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. military, was temporarily placed on lockdown Tuesday after a man attacked the officer on a bus platform shortly after 10:30 a.m. The ensuing violence, which included a volley of gunshots, resulted in "several casualties," said Woodrow Kusse, the chief of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, which is responsible for security in the facility.

The suspect was identified by multiple law enforcement officials as Austin William Lanz, 27, of Georgia.

The officer was ambushed by Lanz, who ran at him and stabbed him in the neck, according to two of the law enforcement officials. Responding officers then shot and killed Lanz. Investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the attack and were digging into Lanz’s background, including any potential history of mental illness or any reason he might want to target the Pentagon or police officers.

The officials could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.

Lanz had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in October 2012 but was "administratively separated" less than a month later and never earned the title Marine, the Corps said in a statement.

Lanz was arrested in April in Cobb County, Georgia, on criminal trespassing and burglary charges, according to online court records. The same day, a separate criminal case was filed against Lanz with six additional charges, including two counts of aggravated battery on police, a count of making a terrorist threat and a charge for rioting in a penal institution, the records show.

A judge reduced his bond in May to $30,000 and released him, imposing some conditions, including that he not ingest illegal drugs and that he undergo a mental health evaluation. The charges against him were still listed as pending. A spokesman for the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Lanz had been previously held at the agency’s detention center but referred all other questions to the FBI’s field office in Washington.

An attorney who represented Lanz in the Georgia cases didn’t immediately respond to a phone message and email seeking comment, and messages left with family members at Lanz’s home in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth, Georgia, were not immediately returned.

Tuesday's attack on a busy stretch of the Washington area’s transportation system jangled the nerves of a region already primed to be on high alert for violence and potential intruders outside federal government buildings, particularly following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

At a Pentagon news conference, Kusse declined to confirm that the officer had been killed or provide even basic information about how the violence had unfolded or how many might be dead. He would only say that an officer had been attacked and that "gunfire was exchanged."

Kusse and other officials declined to rule out terrorism or provide any other potential motive. But Kusse said the Pentagon complex was secure and "we are not actively looking for another suspect at this time." He said the FBI was leading the investigation.

"I can’t compromise the ongoing investigation," Kusse said.

The FBI confirmed only that it was investigating and there was "no ongoing threat to the public" but declined to offer details or a possible motive.

Later Tuesday, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency issued a statement confirming the loss of the officer, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his condolences and said flags at the Pentagon will be flown at half-staff.

"This fallen officer died in the line of duty, helping protect the tens of thousands of people who work in — and who visit — the Pentagon on a daily basis," Austin said in a statement. "This tragic death today is a stark reminder of the dangers they face and the sacrifices they make. We are forever grateful for that service and the courage with which it is rendered."

The attack occurred on a Metro bus platform that is part of the Pentagon Transit Center, a hub for subway and bus lines. The station is steps from the Pentagon building, which is in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington.

An Associated Press reporter near the building heard multiple gunshots, then a pause, then at least one additional shot. Another AP journalist heard police yelling "shooter."

A Pentagon announcement said the facility was on lockdown, but that was lifted after noon, except for the area around the crime scene.

Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were at the White House meeting with President Joe Biden at the time of the shooting. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Austin returned to the building and went to the Pentagon police operations center to speak to the officers there.

It was not immediately clear whether any additional security measures might be instituted in the area.

In 2010, two officers with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency were wounded when a gunman approached them at a security screening area. The officers, who survived, returned fire, fatally wounding the gunman, identified as John Patrick Bedell.

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Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Michael Biesecker in Washington and Matthew Barakat and Sagar Meghani in Arlington, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Whether it was people spending more time looking skyward during the pandemic, the effect of its decreased pollution and visibility, or a Pentagon investigation announced this summer, more people reported UFO sightings in 2020.

According to the National UFO Reporting Center, sightings increased by 1,000 over the year nationally, with 7,200 total calls about UFOs. Calls to their hotline in New York state alone doubled in 2020.

In Michigan, Bill Konkolesky, state director of the Mutual UFO Network, says their office got about 233 calls in 2020, up from about 200 the previous year. But before you get too excited, Konkolesky says he’s not really in the business of mystery.

“Even on a bad year, we can identify about 85% of what comes into us, most years closer to 95%,” he said. “Our credibility is on the line. We’re in it for the truth of what may be out there.”

Konkolesky says different types of aircraft, celestial objects like bright stars and planets, weather phenomena, drones and satellites are the typical culprits.

“I don’t think the increase in sightings has anything to do with that small percentage that fall into the anomalous category,” he said. “I think it’s all explainable.”

Konkolesky says about a third of calls to their branch of MUFO last year turned out to be Space-X Star Link satellites, launched into near orbit to improve internet connection worldwide. The satellites take on eerie formations when visible: Space-X Sky Link Video

“When you see these satellites, they travel in a chain,” said Konkolesky. “You’ll see several satellites flying in a row, and they look pretty spooky when you see them.”

The influx of calls may also have something to do with renewed interest and renewed legitimacy in the topic of UFOs in the form of a Pentagon investigation, announced last summer. The Department of Defense also recently commented on a series of declassified videos taken by Navy pilots, who were confused over an unidentified object they spotted mid-air.

“They’re seeing things they can’t identify either,” said Konkolesky. “It takes sort of the giggle factor away from discussing the topic.”

While he waits anxiously for the Pentagon report, reportedly due out sometime next month, Konkolesky says he doesn’t want to burst anyone’s bubble. He’s still excited at the prospect of one day discovering new life in the universe.

“It’s thrilling to be on that cutting edge,” he said, “to be living in an age where we discover that there is intelligent life in outer space.”

If you want to report any sightings to MUFON, click here.

To see national reports of UFOs, check UFO Stalker here.

The National UFO Reporting Center also catalogs sightings by month here.

This story was originally published by Doug Reardon at WXMI.