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

Vol. 15 · No. 114 · Thursday, 24 September 2026

Army

Mitch McConnell returns from extended drill weekend

Staff says senator’s three-month absence was “routine National Guard obligation”

Trump considers replacing Hegseth with rock or something

Army adopts ‘Your body, my choice’ as new recruiting slogan

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Vol. 15 · No. 114

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Duffel Blog

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Vol. 15 · No. 114 · Deployed worldwide

Thursday

24 September 2026

0624 Zulu

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· Page 2

First Sergeant won't let troops leave Syria until they fill out their leave chits

Filed · 1531

Days after President Donald Trump announced he would be pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria, a Marine first sergeant on the ground has refused to let any of them leave until "every swingin' dick" has filled out their leave chits, sources confirmed today.

"Hold on there, motivators. No one's going anywhere until you all have a daggum hour-by-hour safety plan in place," said 1st Sgt. Ray Thornton. "And there ain't no way in hell the CO will approve these chits until squad leaders have inspected every friggin' POV."

Thornton stressed to the Marines that anyone planning to travel farther from Syria than the allowed 200-mile leave boundaries would need to have a special plan in place and would need to call CENTCOM every 24 hours to check in.

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