This week on Q&A, we talk with Ward Carroll, editor of military.com. Military.com is a website which provides news, information and support to current and former service members and their families as well as non-military readers.
The website has over ten million members and Mr. Carroll discusses a wide array of defense issues, including the way procurement works in the Department of Defense. In addition, he talks about the total costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last ten years as contrasted with the initial amount Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the wars would cost.
Overall troop strength is reviewed and projections for cutting troop levels also are discussed. Our guest also looks at the top defense contractors paid by the U.S. government in 2011.
He recounts his career in the United States Navy, and his decision to go into journalism after teaching at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Ward Carroll graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy after studying naval aviation. He flew the back seat of the F-14 for 16 of his 20 years including five extended deployments. He flew over Bosnia, Sarajevo, and the no-fly zone in Iraq and taught for four years at the Naval Academy. He is the author of three novels written prior to joining military.com.