Until more testing can be done, Army medics are being told to stop using a new product developed at Virginia Commonwealth University to help control bleeding among wounded troops.

Nearly six years into the war in Iraq, the United States military still is having trouble getting spare parts for some armored vehicles it uses there, Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, said yesterday.

In 1992 the Worcester Wreath Co. began the Arlington Wreath Project. The company, based in Harrington, Maine, provided wreaths to place on the headstones of American veterans in the oldest and least-visited sections of Arlington National Cemetery. Seventeen years later, that project has grown into a national event known as Wreaths Across America. This year, Worcester Wreath Co. will donate more than 10,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. The company’s president, Morrill Worcester, says the project’s mission is to remember the fallen, honor those who serve, and teach our children the value of freedom.

The Navy will christen its newest attack submarine, the New Mexico, during a 10 a.m. ceremony Saturday at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News. The sixth Virginia-class submarine, the New Mexico will have a crew of about 134 officers and enlisted personnel. The 7,800-ton New Mexico is 377 feet long, has a 34-foot beam and will be able to dive to depths of greater than 800 feet and operate at speeds in excess of 25 knots submerged.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the State Board of Elections violated federal law by mailing absentee ballots to military personnel overseas too late for them to return the ballots in time to vote. U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams said he would not fashion a remedy himself but leave it to the U.S. Department of Justice and the State Board of Elections to come up with a plan that would prevent such mishaps in future elections.

George Bland went up onto the deck of the battleship West Virginia on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. The U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, was at peace. A little before 8 a.m., the tranquil morning came to an end.

You can show support for U.S. military personnel this holiday season by buying and donating a real Christmas tree during Trees for Troops Weekend, Dec. 5-7, 2008. In Virginia, two tree farms, Joe’s Trees in Newport (Southwest Virginia) and Clouse’s Pine Hill Farm in Winchester (Northern Shenandoah Valley), are giving the public the chance to get involved. During the weekend, people can buy trees and write a personal message on tags that will be attached to the trees for delivery to military families nationwide.

In January 1942, Maj. Clay Dan Albright Jr. of the United States Army Air Corps was assigned to Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama to teach twin-engine flying to African-American pilots who had passed basic flight training in single-engine planes. The success of the basic flight training program had encouraged the Army Air Corps to plan to put black pilots in larger, multi-engine bombers, according to a 1998 report by the U.S. National Park Service.

Virginia is fighting a looming decision by the Navy to move an aircraft carrier from Norfolk to Mayport Naval Air Station near Jacksonville, Fla.

The Navy said yesterday that it wants to move one of four nuclear aircraft carriers stationed in Norfolk to Jacksonville, Fla., prompting protests from Virginia’s two U.S. senators and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. The move could be completed within five years and would involve the relocation of about 3,190 military personnel. “Considering the impacts of the financial crisis on federal, state and local budgets, we question the wisdom and timing of an option that will cost the Navy an incredible amount of money and not significantly improve the nation’s security,“ Kaine said.

Several Virginia-based firms are among the best employers for military veterans, according to a publication. Henrico County-based security firm The Brink’s Co. and Norfolk-based railroad company Norfolk Southern Corp. are among the nation’s Top 50 military-friendly employers, according to G.I. Jobs magazine. Brink’s, a secure transportation and cash management company, ranked No. 18, while Norfolk Southern ranked No. 30.

Edward Farley is a lucky man. Farley was a 19-year-old platoon sergeant when he came ashore in the 1944 invasion of Normandy. “It was something I’ll never forget as long as I live,“ said the Petersburg man, a wartime amphibious-truck driver. “So many people, young boys, on the beach and in the water”—killed and wounded as they fought their way against the Nazis across bloody Omaha Beach and into France.

“I don’t want to see them forgotten,“ he says quietly, speaking after the opening of a Royal Air Force Museum exhibition on the conflict. “We were pals.“ For decades, Allingham didn’t talk about the Great War. And then, after he hit 100, he made talking about it his mission—the excitement at the start, the thrill of flying, the blood, the lice, the fear, the dead.

It takes a brave soldier to do what Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge did in Iraq. It takes as much bravery to do what he did when he got home. Blackledge got psychiatric counseling to deal with wartime trauma. Now he is defying the military’s culture of silence on the subject of mental health problems and treatment. “It’s part of our profession . . . nobody wants to admit that they’ve got a weakness in this area,“ Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America’s two wars.

Rebels and pro-government militiamen who fought each other in an east Congo town this week committed war crimes by executing civilians, Congo’s top U.N. envoy said yesterday. An independent human-rights group said it believes dozens of people were killed. The accusations came as the Congolese army advanced toward rebel lines in renewed fighting near the provincial capital, Goma, that threatens a fragile rebel-called cease-fire.