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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 121 · Saturday, 10 October 2026

Pentagon

Hegseth opens up new TradWife MOS

Army says new career field will allow warfighters to focus on lethality while someone else remembers the kids

DTS works properly after hack by rogue AI

Lincoln sailor returning from deployment already broke

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Vol. 15 · No. 121

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Vol. 15 · No. 121 · Deployed worldwide

Saturday

10 October 2026

1141 Zulu

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Air & Space · Page 6

Air Force shoots down military spouse after mistaking it for spy balloon

Stuff happens. Mistakes were made. #FakeNews

Filed · 1104

The US Air Force has shot down a military spouse over a base in Texas after mistaking the “large, blimp-like object” for a Chinese spy balloon.

“All these spy balloon sightings have had us on high alert. When we saw this globular, bulbous mass lurching towards base we had to take it out,” Maj. Derek Lambert said. “Turns out it was just Staff Sgt. Johnson’s wife going to the commissary to get a party size bag of Doritos.”

Soon after the incident, Lambert’s squadron nearly bombed the on-base McDonald’s after sighting what appeared to be a coordinated attack by multiple spy balloons. Luckily, they pulled up before anyone was hurt. The brash, screechy clucking noises coming from the targets indicated they were military spouses.

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