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Gates signs Afghan troop surge orders
Officials say Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed the first orders deploying troops to Afghanistan under President Barack Obama's new surge strategy. Full story
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  ‘Nightly News’: Medal of Honor profiles
  Sam Davis: The real Forrest Gump
  Vet's message of hope
  A gift to the injured
  Jason Dunham: Ultimate sacrifice in Iraq
  Posthumous Medal of Honor
  Vernon Baker: 'Good soldier' gets his due
  Ted Rubin: From concentration camp to Korea
  Military analysis
Jacobs: Assessing Obama's West Point Speech
Jacobs: New information, or just old politics?
Jacobs: Russia, get the message yet?
Jacobs: Rating Obama's performance
Jacobs: Gitmo comes to New York
Jacobs: Failure and tragedy at Fort Hood
Jacobs: Media winning fight with the White House
Jacobs: Whither Pakistan?
Jacobs: Obama gets the prize
Jacobs: A week in review
  Charity Begins at War

Part 1
From executive suite to slums of Baghdad
Tom’s journal: Called back to Army — ‘no joke’
Part 2
Training turns into ‘hurry up and wait’
Tom’s journal: Preparing for ‘very dangerous job’
Part 3
Venturing ‘outside the wire’ in Baghdad
Tom’s journal: ‘ThunderCat6’ gets his bearings
Part 4
In the end, it all comes back to garbage
Tom’s journal: 'I was minding my own business'
Part 5
Officer’s philanthropic spirit survives
Tom’s journal: Charitable work continues
Update, reader reaction
And NBC Nightly News profiles Tom's work

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Video: Military news
The secret life of drones
Dec. 4: Rachel Maddow is joined by Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof to talk about the use of CIA drones in Pakistan.
WWII vet fights to keep flagpole
Fort Hood unit deploys to Afghanistan
Can bin Laden be caught?
Taliban 'caught off guard' by U.S. Marines
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  Laid to rest at Arlington
A flag decorates a grave during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington
Reuters
NBC's John Rutherford pays tribute to the men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Fact file
How big’s a division? What’s a battalion?
  The Long Haul
The Associated Press examines the lengthy deployment of the 1st Brigade Combat Team/34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard:

Part I: Long haul in Iraq is just the start
Part II: Welcome to Iraq, and a long separation
Part III: A funeral and a birth

  Special report: Military families
John Brecher msnbc.com