Pentagon

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent a second day Tuesday on Capitol Hill meeting privately with Republican senators. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is one of the lawmakers still in favor of Hegseth’s nomination.

Jill Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are traveling to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. They will highlight programs the administration is rolling out to improve the quality of life and early childhood education in the military.

The U.S., including in Alabama, is remembering the lives taken and those reshaped by Sept. 11, the date when hijacked plane attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001, marking an anniversary laced this year with presidential campaign politics. APR listeners shared their stories from that day during the 20th anniversary of the attacks, in this encore presentation.

Fireworks on Capitol Hill started long before this Thursday’s Fourth of July holiday. Congress is still working on the new spending plan for the U.S. Military and things got contentious in the House of Representatives. APR news was in Washington, D.C. during a partisan fight over the bill.

The Pentagon has announced that the U.S. will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package. President Joe Biden also singled out Javelin anti-tank missiles, built at a Lockheed-Martin factory in Troy as being part of the new U.S. package of aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The State Department has greenlighted an emergency $138 million in foreign military sales for Ukraine to provide critical repairs and spare parts for Kyiv's Hawk missile systems. The U.S. announced the move Tuesday saying that Ukraine has an urgent need for the maintenance support to keep the missile system running. An Alabama based company will to be put to work on the delivery.

The Pentagon says its controversial military travel policy for reproductive health care was used just 12 times from June to December last year. The policy prompted a political blockade on military promotions by Alabama U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville.

The military confirms as many as 121 unmarked graves in a former Black cemetery have been discovered at a U.S. Air Force base in Florida. Alabama Public Radio uncovered similar results in its national award-winning investigation “No Stone Unturned.”

Defense Secretary, and Mobile native, Lloyd Austin says he's eager to return to the Pentagon after being released from a hospital where he was treated for complications from surgery for prostate cancer he kept secret from President Joe Biden. Austin was released Monday and is expected to work from home as he recovers.

Both the White House and Pentagon said they would look into why President Joe Biden and other top officials weren't informed for days that Defense Secretary, and Mobile native, Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized. A Pentagon spokesman pointed to one reason: A key staffer was out sick with the flu.