WASHINGTON - A Civil War African American regimental battle flag missing since the mid-1970s is back in Army hands following an FBI and Army undercover operation in Philadelphia.

WASHINGTON - A final decision has not been made, but Defense Secretary William S. Cohen will probably not authorize burial of another Vietnam unknown at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery.

WASHINGTON - Russia has agreed to a U.S. proposal that the two countries set up a temporary joint early warning center to reduce the risk that year 2000 computer problems may trigger a false nuclear alert.

WASHINGTON - The ethnic Albanian faction in Kosovo has agreed to sign a peace agreement by March 15, but Serbs have not approved any deal.

WASHINGTON - A video interview of Dr. Sue Bailey, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, has been added to the DoD anthrax information site on the World Wide Web.

DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Va. - A team of 12 Defense Threat Reduction Agency personnel in Europe have returned home after months of patrolling one of the most troubled hot spots in the world -- Kosovo.

WASHINGTON - "Know thine enemy." That sage advice is key to combating chemical and biological warfare, according to a top military expert in the field.

WASHINGTON - "Congress may want to give [the military] a higher pay raise, and that's fine provided Congress pays for it," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Feb. 19 while in Alaska.

WASHINGTON - Federal employees who want to get the most out of their career and retirement have a new source for information and assistance on the Internet. The Interior Department's human resources office presents "Career Manager" at www.doi.gov/octc/.

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii - Adm. Dennis C. Blair took the helm of Pacific Command here Feb. 20 in ceremonies with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen presiding.

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said he was going to "inflict" a speech on 5,000 airmen and soldiers here, but it was clearly a message they wanted to hear.

WASHINGTON - The United States has ordered six B-52 bombers to deploy to Royal Air Force Base Fairford, United Kingdom, to support possible NATO air operations aimed at ending the conflict in Kosovo.

SEATTLE - It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel.

WASHINGTON - Service members and civilians can gain new insights into the Defense Reform Initiative during a live, interactive, electronic town hall meeting here March 4 to be broadcast by satellite and made available via the Internet.

REDMOND, Wash. - The world that innovative high tech firms create and build could not exist without a strong and ready military, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said during a speech to Microsoft employees here Feb. 18. "It can be easy to forget that this global marketplace was neither created by magic, nor will it be kept by marketing," Cohen said.

BANGOR, Wash. - Sailors and Marines here took advantage of an opportunity to question Defense Secretary William S. Cohen about a number of quality of life issues including housing and medical care. They also asked him about possible military operations in Kosovo and the future of the submarine force in a post-Cold War world.

SPRINGFIELD, Va. - Contest entry deadline is July 16 for the 1999 Armed Services YMCA poster contest for elementary school children of military families.

WASHINGTON - Fifty-one U.S. aircraft will deploy to European staging areas to support possible air operations in Yugoslavia, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Feb. 17.

WASHINGTON - Peace force or air strikes? U.S. and NATO authorities are planning for both.

WASHINGTON - "If it is an important and critical issue for military women and men, we're not giving up," said Mary Wamsley, 1999 chairwoman of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.

WASHINGTON - One way or another, American service members may soon become involved in Kosovo, the southern Serb province where ethnic Albanians are struggling for independence.

WASHINGTON - Despite Iraqi threats of attacks against coalition bases in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the United States remains committed to enforcing no-fly zones over Iraq and containing Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON - There are 2,000 good reasons to shop in your commissary. It's part of Kaye Fannin's job to make sure you know what they are.

WASHINGTON - African Americans' contributions to the nation are not just black history, but an integral part of American history, said Army Lt. Gen. Joe N. Ballard.

WASHINGTON - After a slow start, the DoD family housing privatization program is finding its legs and service members should see a rapid improvement in base housing throughout the United States. In fact, some 60,000 military housing units should be privatized by the end of fiscal 2000.

WASHINGTON - Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including the means to launch them, constitute the greatest single threat to vital U.S. national interests, the directors of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency said Feb. 9.

FORT LEE, Va. - Selected commissaries plan by March 1 to give shoppers more aisle time either by opening daily or reducing the times they close three straight days for federal holidays.

WASHINGTON - Doin' the TDY checklist. Request orders. Call travel. Make rental car, hotel and airline reservations. Get a cash advance. Pick up tickets. Pack. Go. Come back. Save receipts. File voucher. Check mail for travel pay. There is relief in sight.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen's visit here was to strengthen military ties with South Africa, but that does not mean U.S. service members will deploy to African hot spots.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Someday, Col. Barbaranette Bolden predicts, women and members of minorities who land high- profile positions won't work in the fish bowl of public scrutiny. Someday, she believes, "People will say it's just another person doing an important job."

WASHINGTON - Military medicine boasts some of the best doctors, facilities and care available anywhere, but that's not good enough, DoD's top personnel official told health care managers here Feb. 4.

COMALAPA AIR BASE, El Salvador - You won't see any telephone company offering you a deal like this: $13 a minute or $225,000 a day.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The United States hopes to "broaden and deepen" military relations with South Africa, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Feb. 9.

WASHINGTON - A fit fighting force and healthy population require a different kind of health care system, one of DoD's top physicians said here Feb. 4.

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department's top doctor categorically denied reports that contaminated anthrax vaccine has been shipped to military units.

BONN, Germany - U.S. forces will serve in Kosovo if an agreement is reached to end the conflict between the Serbs and ethnic-Albanian separatists, Defense Secretary William Cohen assured European allies here.

MUNICH - "King Hussein was a soldier for peace," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said on learning of the Jordanian leader's death of cancer at age 63.

MUNICH - NATO membership is open to qualified countries, despite Russia's continuing opposition to expanding the security alliance, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said here Feb. 7.

MUNICH - NATO must be more mobile and better able to sustain and protect its armed forces to meet future challenges, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told European security specialists here.

WASHINGTON - Why is the United States considering sending troops to Kosovo? Does it matter to us when a place like Kosovo falls victim to turbulence and bloodshed?

MADRID - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen praised European allies here Feb. 5 for their willingness to secure peace in the troubled Serbian province of Kosovo.

WASHINGTON - The proposed fiscal 2000 defense budget increases will help service members meet the threats of today and the possible threats of the future, said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress Feb. 3..

WASHINGTON - President Clinton has said he will commit American troops to Kosovo only if there is a strong peace agreement, a permissive security environment and a NATO mission with clear exit strategy.

COMALAPA AIR BASE, El Salvador - More than 100 members of Joint Task Force-Aguila took part in a recent joint-service mission, transporting more than 728 tons of food for victims of Hurricane Mitch in El Salvador.

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department wants to make sure all people eligible for health benefits get the care they need, including those over age 65, a senior health official said here Feb. 2.

WASHINGTON - The United States may send 2,000 to 4,000 troops to Kosovo if a peace settlement is reached between Serb authorities and ethnic Albanians, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told members of Congress here Feb. 3.

WASHINGTON - Evidence indicates Saddam Hussein is pulling back some of his air defenses from the contested no-fly zones, but according to William S. Cohen, "only the Shadow knows" what the Iraqi dictator plans for the future.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The possibility of blast wounds looms large for U.S. service members when they deploy to areas where land mines are used or still buried from past conflicts. Military doctors need to know how to treat land mine wounds before they head to battlefields with U.S. troops. In October 1998, a group of medics from each of the services got that chance in Sri Lanka.

WASHINGTON - To defend against the growing threat of missile attacks on foreign-based U.S. forces, DoD will accelerate development of a sea-based theater missile defense system.

WASHINGTON - Blatant, in-your-face discrimination against African Americans in his hometown of Selma, Ala., made Vincent L. Johnson an angry young man.

COMALAPA AIR BASE, El Salvador - Most U.S. soldiers in the Hurricane Mitch relief effort here use their primary job skills to help Central American nations rebuild. A few, however, find themselves doing double duty with a second skill that comes natural: speaking Spanish.

WASHINGTON - More than 2.8 million military personnel and family members have the right to vote. The DoD Federal Voting Assistance Program provides them tools and help to exercise this right regardless of where they are stationed.

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's offer to pay a bounty for shooting down coalition air forces is another sign of the Iraqi dictator's growing frustration, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Feb. 1.

WASHINGTON - The president's fiscal 2000 defense budget goes to Congress Feb. 1, and with it will go much media coverage and some confusion.

WASHINGTON - The president's fiscal 2000 budget includes $18 million to keep the Troops to Teachers program going another year. The Defense Department program was scheduled to end September 1999.

WASHINGTON - Infantrymen all over the world will agree with a retired Army command sergeant major's assessment: "Friendly fire isn't friendly."

WASHINGTON - Will U.S. troops be peacekeepers in Kosovo if a settlement is reached? That's the question facing the nation's senior defense officials.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is scheduled Feb. 4 to depart on an eight-day trip to Spain, Germany and South Africa, defense officials here announced.

WASHINGTON - With deployed U.S. forces increasingly threatened by medium-range missile attacks, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen announced Jan. 20 that DoD will step up development of an expanded theater missile defense capability.

WASHINGTON - TRICARE is fundamental to military readiness and quality of life, so let's get it right, Gen. Dennis Reimer said Feb. 1 at the annual TRICARE conference here.

WASHINGTON - Defense health officials unfolded bold new ideas for making sure TRICARE works as planned to deliver quality health care in peace and war. The result could mean more care in-house and less from contractors.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military will continue excelling in all its missions under the president's $268 billion fiscal 2000 DoD budget, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Feb. 1.

WASHINGTON - The Civil War had raged two years and the outcome was far from certain. The Union had more men, weapons, supplies. Yet charismatic Confederate generals drubbed the Union regularly; they seemed bolder, smarter, luckier -- more masterful. But then a friendly-fire incident occurred that cut the Rebel string and may have changed the course of the war.

WASHINGTON - Congress gave the Defense Department an additional $113 million in October to boost 1999 recruiting and retention efforts.

WASHINGTON - The president's fiscal 2000 defense budget of $267.2 billion reflects DoD's emphasis on service members with requests next year for a 4.4 percent pay raise Jan. 1, a targeted pay raise July 1, and military retirement reform.

WASHINGTON - Each of the military services can now annually enlist 2,500 more individuals with certain alternative diplomas under a five-year DoD pilot program that began Oct. 1.

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. - Commissary shoppers at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., pocketed more than $2 million in fiscal 1998, making them No. 1 savers in DoD's $114 million coupon-clipping bonanza.