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Washington (CNN) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed an order Friday to deploy the first wave of troops to Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's new strategy, a defense official confirmed to CNN.

The troops from the Army and Marines will be the first of 30,000 that are to be sent to Afghanistan by summer under the plan announced by Obama this week.

An official announcement is not likely before Monday, the officials said.

Approximately 1,000 Marines are expected to deploy this month, military officials told CNN previously. The Army may not deploy the first soldiers until at least March, Army officials said Friday.

Testifying before a congressional committee, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week that a "significant" number of troops will arrive in the spring and summer, with the final troops moving to Afghanistan by late summer or early fall.

Meanwhile, the White House said Obama would meet with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, on Monday. Both are expected to testify before Congress next week.
– CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The House passed a measure Thursday that would set a 12-month limit on the military's use of controversial "burn pits" to dispose of potentially hazardous materials on bases overseas.

The pits, used to burn all matters of waste, have been controversial since troops complained of various health problems from inhaling fumes.

The measure, sponsored by Reps. Tim Bishop, D-New York, and Carol Shea-Porter, D-New Hampshire, would prohibit the use of the pits for burning medical and hazardous waste, including plastic bottles, during operations lasting longer than 12 months.

"We should not continue to recklessly use burn pits to dispose of hazardous waste across Iraq and Afghanistan," Bishop said in a statement. "Our troops should be free to focus on fighting the enemy without worrying how their lives may be further endangered by breathing in toxic air from their own bases."

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Gen. David McKiernan is being replaced as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates insisted Wednesday that the recent ousting of Gen. David McKiernan as the top allied commander in Afghanistan was not made because of his general's requests for more troops or the rise in casualties.

Gates was asked about the decision to replace McKiernan with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan at a House Armed Service Committee hearing. It was the first time a general of that ranking had been replaced during a war since President Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.

The question, by Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, was whether it was fair to fire McKiernan since he wasn't given the resources he wanted, as the Iraq war was considered the top priority until just recently.

"This was an individual who by policy was given second choice on resources and never enough despite repeated requests," Sestak said.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is standing by new defense budget allocations.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates Wednesday defended his decision to shift budget funds to support weapons the U.S. military is currently using in Iraq and Afghanistan and away from research and weapons that may be used in future conflicts.

"We have to be prepared for the wars we are most likely to fight. Not just the wars we have traditionally been best suited to fight or threats we conjure up from potential adversaries who in the real world also have finite resources," he said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, where he appeared with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen.

The budget decisions were met with some skepticism from the outset. In his opening remarks, Rep. John McHugh, R-New York, questioned the decision to cut spending from some of the development programs.

"Can we really say that the threat of nuclear and missile proliferation is lower now than it was four years ago to warrant such significant reductions to missile defense? Are we so confident in our diplomatic efforts with Iran and North Korea that we can afford a nearly 90 percent cut in European Missile Defense and a 35 percent cut to our U.S. missile defenses in Alaska and California? Some of us, to say the least, are dubious," McHugh said.

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Veterans groups are angry after President Barack Obama told them Monday that he means to go ahead with a proposal to have treatment for service-connected injuries charged to veterans' private insurance plans.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Veterans groups are angry after President Barack Obama told them Monday that he means to go ahead with a proposal to have treatment for service-connected injuries charged to veterans' private insurance plans.

Leaders of the country's most prominent veterans groups met Monday at the White House with Obama, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Steven Kosiak, the director in charge of defense spending for the Office of Management and Budget.

Some of the veterans groups were caught off guard when the president said the administration wants to go ahead with the idea as a way of generating $540 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2010. The groups and some members of Congress have been very vocal in opposing the idea.

The message, according to some of the people in the room, was that if the groups do not like this idea, they need to come back with another way of saving or raising revenues for the VA.

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Concerns about the effects of toxins emitted from burning trash at military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan has members of Congress demanding more tests and research from the military.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Concerns about the effects of potentially toxic emissions from burning trash at military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan has members of Congress demanding more tests and research from the military.

The congressmen want to see if there is statistical validity to complaints about illness and disease suffered by troops who have served in those countries.

The emissions, from what are known as 'burn pits,' have been a concern for troops, especially those who served at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq. Many of the soldiers who went through Balad since the beginning of the war had become used to "Iraqi crud," as they dubbed the symptom of excessive coughing and black phlegm. Soldiers complained of respiratory problems and skin infections, and in some cases believed they developed leukemia and tumors from the exposure.

The pits at Balad were at one point open and burning everything from plastics and food to medical waste. In the later years, incinerators were installed at Balad but many other bases in Iraq and Afghanistan still use the pits without incinerators to burn garbage.

Various tests by the military have concluded that emissions are not harmful. The Pentagon's Force Health Protection Directorate analyzed more than 160 air samples and concluded that the only risk is of temporary respiratory distress, nothing that poses a long-term threat.

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The Obama White House chose to make the announcement that it was adding 17,000 troops to Afghanistan at the end of a day dominated by coverage of President Barack Obama's signing of the multi-billion dollar stimulus package.

(CNN) - A funny thing happened as the White House tried a relatively low-key approach to announcing that it was adding 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. The military didn’t seem to be on board with the message.

The announcement by the Obama administration contrasted with how the Bush administration announced both its increase of troops in Iraq, the “surge,” and even a later addition of troops to Afghanistan last year. Both of those announcements were made in a speech from then-president George Bush.

But the new administration was stuck – it knew it needed to get troops to Afghanistan to satisfy the immediate need to stabilize things, but it also knew it was not ready to announce what its strategy for Afghanistan was. You see, the administration has a review underway for a new, comprehensive strategy that looks at both the military and diplomatic needs for the war.

So the Obama White House chose instead to make the announcement at the end of a day dominated by coverage of President Barack Obama's signing of the multi-billion dollar stimulus package. The announcement came out late afternoon via Pentagon leaks and then a four-paragraph e-mail(subject line: “Statement by the President on Afghanistan”), and outlined a 50% increase in troops to Afghanistan.

Full story at AC360 Blog

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The newly appointed head of the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday the department needs a fundamental change in how it handles its paperwork.

Eric Shinseki described a Sisyphean task for caseworkers trying to plow through the backlog of files to make decisions on veterans' claims.

"If you were to walk into one of our rooms where adjudication or decisions are being made about disability for veterans, you would see individuals sitting at a desk with stacks of paper that go up halfway to the ceiling. And as they finish one pile, another pile comes in," Shinseki said at a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing.

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Gates has the tough task of bridging two administrations.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates is learning that becoming the first defense secretary to bridge two administrations can lead to some awkward moments.

Last week, President-elect Obama announced that he would keep Gates on to run the Pentagon.

He still answers to President Bush, since, as both President Bush and President-elect Obama have pointed out, "there's only one commander in chief at a time," Gates said. But he is not blind to the fact that his new boss and his transition team have demands too, which leads to "occasional awkwardness."

Asked for an example, Gates said that at times he's had to choose between meeting with the transition team or meeting with members of the current administration.

Apparently the incoming president's staff wins out over outgoing president's staff.

"Let's just say that if I'm faced with a choice between attending a principals meeting on an issue that I think it not particularly hot, and a meeting with the transition folks, I'll opt for the latter," Gates said.

But the current president doesn't have to worry about being ignored.

"I'm not forgetting at all for a second who is the president until noon on January 20th," Gates said. "I haven't missed any meetings with the president, let me put it that way."

Gates has had "several telephone calls" with the president-elect to talk about personnel to replace the outgoing political appointees, he told reporters traveling with him on a trip overseas.

"We really haven't sat down yet for a thorough discussion of specific foreign policy issues, national security issues," Gates told the traveling reporters, according to a transcript.

He's also met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who was in town Monday to meet with the defense secretary and the incoming nominee for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Track Palin is supposed to deploy to Iraq on Thursday .

(CNN) - A liberal veterans group called Monday for an official investigation into media discussion of Track Palin’s deployment to Iraq — prompting a Defense Department response that there had been no irregularities involved, and would be no investigation.

“Numerous outlets have reported the date and location of Palin's deployment, which compromises operational security,” said Vote Vets in a statement. “The source of the leaks would be acting in violation of the law, and putting troops at unnecessary risk, and could be prosecuted.”

But the kind of information the group is referring to is typically publicly released by the Defense Department well in advance of a unit’s deployment. And the date of Palin’s upcoming deployment has been referred to numerous times by his mother, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, on the campaign trail.

"There is no violation of operational security,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “DoD tells the public when we rotate a brigade into Iraq or Afghanistan."

There was no word from the Pentagon on whether there had been any requests for special consideration in Track Palin’s case. Earlier this year, John McCain asked the media not to report the precise date and time his son Jack would be returning from Iraq until he was back in the United States, a request that was honored by all major news organizations.