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

Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Monday, 2 November 2026

Pentagon

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

Secretary says historic artifact looks better without America's allies

Spirit Halloween store to become pop-up ICE detention center

Army FRG unveils haunted house featuring spouses saying ‘I’m fine’

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Vol. 15 · No. 131

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Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Deployed worldwide

Monday

2 November 2026

1817 Zulu

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· Page 2

Celebration as 500,000th sailor graduates NETC with zero knowledge

Filed · 1537

GREAT LAKES, Ill. — The Naval Education And Training Command (NETC) threw a party celebrating half a million students passing through “A-school” since 9/11 without learning a thing.

“It may not seem like much, but this is hard work,” Commanding Officer Rear Adm. Michael White said, over a big slice of cake. “It is a real challenge to send sailors to A-school for several months and teach them absolutely nothing.”

White continued, “Sailors reporting to their first command are often told to forget everything they learned in A-school. So we decided to streamline the process and not teach them in the first place.”

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