Zingers about the Distinguished Warfare Medal, fired with the same deadly accuracy as drone strikes unleashed from computer screens, mock the U.S. military’s latest ribbon as “The Purple Buttocks” and “The Chairborne.”

A website about war-zone burn pits offers a photoshopped version of the medal as a glossy, gold Xbox controller. At Stars and Stripes, one writer quipped the fresh decoration — announced Feb. 13 by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to honor troops who direct cyberattacks and drone strikes — has ignited “an avalanche of Whiskey Tango Foxtrots.” And at an online store run by current and ex-military members, retailers joke that any recipients will have earned the award from “the safety of some air conditioned box while sipping on their mocha-frapachino [sic] that they picked up on the way in to work that day, and waiting for Papa John’s to show up with lunch.”

Boom. 

The shrapnel-packed jabs seem to be fueled as much by the non-combat medal's mere existence as by the decoration's rank: the Distinguished Warfare Medal is slotted by military brass slightly above the Bronze Star, long the fourth-highest combat award granted for heroism and/or meritorious service in battle.

Many of the so-called "Distant Warfare Medal" critics — and cutups — fully acknowledge the strategic value of cyber experts within the U.S. armed forces, especially as President President Barack Obama on Friday deployed American service members and drone aircraft to the African country of Niger, where they could be used to support a French counterterrorism mission in neighboring Mali.

Still, some can't help but smirk at the thought of a keyboard clicker eventually being pinned with a ribbon. And there are those in the service who thought the first mentions they read about the medal were a just a dash of military satire. After all, for men and women in uniform, sarcasm and dark humor are as common as camo and Hesco (a protective barrier). 

"I thought it was a joke at first," said Marine Sgt. Jeremy Lattimer, 26, who earned a Bronze Star for his actions in Afghanistan's Helmand Province where, in one three-hour stretch on Nov. 22, 2009, he led his squad as they maneuvered through enemy machine gun fire then helped another squad escape an ambush.

"When I saw that this has a higher rating than the Bronze Star, it seemed a little bit extreme," added Lattimer, reached by phone at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he's receiving treatment for a traumatic brain injury sustained in combat. "Whenever you start getting into (awarding) valor for someone in a box behind a computer in who knows where, I think that's a point where it starts rubbing people the wrong way."

Meanwhile, some military families are so disturbed by the new medal that punchlines seem out of line. 

Courtesy of Veronica Ortiz-Rivera

Marine Staff Sgt. Javier Ortiz-Rivera was heavily decorated in life. After dying in action, he was awarded the Bronze Star. In 2009, he and his wife, Veronica (left), attended the Marine Corps Ball.

Near Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Marine Staff Sgt. Javier Ortiz-Rivera was based before his 2010 IED-blast death in Afghanistan, his wife, Veronica, speaks softly and somberly about the value of the Bronze Star that the Marine earned posthumously. 

"To know that somebody sitting at a computer who never risked their life is going to get something that’s worth more, it almost puts less of a value on what my husband did and what so many other men have done," Ortiz-Rivera said. "To take that new medal and give it a higher classification than the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart is disrespectful. Maybe I’m just biased because my husband was killed in combat.

"It feels like it almost strips away a little of his heroism, honestly, although he is and always will be a hero to us," she added. "I'm not at a point where I can joke about" this new medal.

And for Army veteran Andrew O'Brien, who served in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009, any humorous takes about any medals — no matter how they are earned — simply feels wrong, he said. 

"We are all on the same team," O'Brien said. "I believe they (drone operators) deserve medals just as much as anyone else and recognition for the things they do. I also feel (the humor) is an attack on them for what they do. To mimic a video game as an award? We are all part of the same fight."

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Francois Lenoir / Reuters

In this Oct. 2012 file photo, U.S. General John Allen attends a news conference during a NATO defense ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels. Allen has decided to retire rather than proceed with his nomination as the NATO supreme allied commander due to "health issues" in his family.

General John Allen said Tuesday he has decided to retire for "personal" reasons, leaving behind his nomination as the NATO supreme allied commander.

President Barack Obama accepted Allen's request, praising him as "one of America's finest military leaders" and "a true patriot," The White House released in a statement Tuesday. Back in October, Obama nominated Allen for supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe.

Last week, three U.S. military officials told NBC News that Allen's withdrawal from the position was likely to happen. The officials acknowledged that Allen did not want to drag his family through a nomination process, which likely would have brought up his controversial emails with Florida socialite Jill Kelley.

Allen's emails Kelley came to light during the investigation that ultimately brought down CIA director David Petraeus, who confessed to an extramarital affair with a separate woman. The Pentagon had cleared Allen of wrongdoing in that scandal last month.

In a statement Tuesday, Allen made clear that his decision to retire after 32 years in uniform was personal: "While I won't go into the details, my primary concern is for the health of my wife, who has sacrificed so much for so long."

Obama commended Allen's service in Afghanistan, where Allen has served as a top U.S. commander.

"General Allen presided over the significant growth in the size and capability of Afghan National Security Forces, the further degradation of al-Qaida and their extremist allies, and the ongoing transition to Afghan security responsibility across the country," Obama said.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta also expressed his gratitude for Allen's efforts in Afghanistan.

"His leadership over the last 19 months will long be remembered as pivotal to this campaign," Panetta said in a statement Tuesday. "The strategy he developed and implemented has put us on the right path towards completing this mission, with Afghan forces now on track to step into the lead for security nationwide this spring and to assume full security responsibility by the end of next year."

Departing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta extended Monday a list of benefits — all previously denied by the Pentagon — to the same-sex spouses of service members as well as to the unmarried partners of gay troops.

The perks, automatically available to heterosexual military spouses, will include child care services, member-designated hospital visits, and the issuing of military ID cards, which will give same-sex spouses and partners access to on-base commissaries, movie theaters and gyms. The policy changes will go into effect once training on the new rules is completed, Panetta said.

While advocates for gay and lesbian service members and their families hailed Panetta’s policy switch as “substantive” and “encouraging,” the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) still blocks the DOD from enacting more than 85 other benefits now provided to heterosexual military spouses and their children — most notably medical and dental care, housing allowances, and death benefits.

Also, as NBC News reported Feb. 4, that same federal law mandates that when a gay service member is killed in combat, military officials must first notify that troop’s blood family, not their spouse, as is normally the course of action. 

Panetta said DOMA is “now being reviewed by the United States Supreme Court" — and he offered his first clear signal that the Pentagon wants that law overturned.

“There are certain benefits that can only be provided to spouses as defined by that law,” Panetta said. “While it will not change during my tenure as secretary of defense, I foresee a time when the law will allow the department to grant full benefits to service members and their dependents, irrespective of sexual orientation. Until then, the department will continue to comply with current law while doing all we can to take care of all soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and their families."

Same-sex advocates have been pushing the DOD to extend full benefits to the spouses and partners of all U.S. service members since the repeal 17 months of ago of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which prohibited gay troops from revealing their sexual orientation.

“At the time of repeal, I committed to reviewing benefits that had not previously been available to same-sex partners based on existing law and policy,” Panetta said. “It is a matter of fundamental equity that we provide similar benefits to all of those men and women in uniform who serve their country ...

“Taking care of our service members and honoring the sacrifices of all military families are two core values of this nation. Extending these benefits is an appropriate next step under current law to ensure that all service members receive equal support for what they do to protect this nation."

Advocates for gay and lesbian service members and their families praised Panetta’s policy shift although they said that the move is not groundbreaking due to the DOMA legal blockade.

“Secretary Panetta’s decision today answers the call President (Barack) Obama issued in his inaugural address to complete our nation's journey toward equality, acknowledging the equal service and equal sacrifice of our gay and lesbian service members and their families,” said Allyson Robinson, an Army veteran and executive director of OutServe-SLDN, an association of actively serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender U.S. military personnel with more than 50 chapters and 6,000 members.

“We thank him for getting us a few steps closer to full equality — steps that will substantively improve the quality of life of gay and lesbian military families,” Robinson said.

The American Military Partner Association (AMPA), a support network for LGBT military families, released the following statement today in response to Panetta's announcement: 

“We’ve waited far too long for this, and it’s fantastic news that our dedicated military families will now have access to some of the benefits and support services they need and deserve,” said Stephen Peters, the group's president. “However, (DOMA)  continues to undermine our military families who sacrifice so much for our nation. This summer, we hope that the Supreme Court will make it clear that our families are just as important and deserve the same protections, benefits, and support that federal recognition brings.”

To offer the new benefits to partners, DOD will ask gay and lesbian service members to sign a “Declaration of Domestic Partnership” in which they will attest that they are in a committed relationship, and intend to remain so indefinitely, and that neither is legally married, according to OutServe-SLDN.

The changes will take “several months to complete, Pentagon officials said. The extra time is needed so that military leaders can offer a chance for the public to comment on the new rules and also to allow an opportunity for each of the branches to update its IT system, develop new processes for issuing ID cards, and train their personnel on the refreshed benefits package.

Panetta did stop short on offering a full slate of benefits that gay advocates have been requesting for two years: on-base housing and burial at Arlington National Cemetery and other items that don’t fall under DOMA, according to OutServe-SLDN. (The organization’s lawyers drafted an explanation outlining the policy shift for gay service members and their families.)

DOD officials have explained to OutServe-SLDN that “policy for burial at Arlington National Cemetery is under review. At issue is how to verify eligible same-sex relationships for the surviving spouse in order to ensure equitable policy implementation."

NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.

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Declaring that it would strengthen both the military and the country, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday lifted a ban on women in combat and said that it was “the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation.”

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, the secretary vowed that the decision would not compromise military readiness and pledged that the armed forces would not lower standards for service, such as for physical fitness.

“If they can meet the qualifications for the job,” he said, “then they should have the right to serve.”

President Barack Obama said in a statement that the decision would “be another step toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals of fairness and equality,” themes that he sounded three days earlier in his second inaugural address.

The deaths of more than 150 American military women in Iraq and Afghanistan, the president said, demonstrate that “valor knows no gender.” Another 1,000 women have been wounded in the nation’s two most recent wars.

The decision replaces a 1994 military policy memo signed by Les Aspin, a defense secretary under President Bill Clinton, that excluded women from assignments to units below the brigade level if the unit would be engaged in direct combat.

The change is expected to open 230,000 front-line positions to women.

Nearing the expected end of his own time as defense secretary, Panetta spoke of visiting Arlington National Cemetery and seeing no distinction between men and women who had given their lives in defense of the country.

Slideshow: All-female U.S. Marine team in Afghanistan

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

View images of the women deployed as the second Female Engagement team in Afghanistan

Launch slideshow

“They serve, they’re wounded, and they die right next to each other,” he said. “The time has come to recognize that reality.”

The secretary said that there would be a review period for each of the armed services to see if there are any jobs that should be excluded. He wants recommendations on his desk by May 15.

But Pentagon officials said it might be next year before specifics are worked out and women can begin applying for the newly opened positions. 

Asked specifically about special operations units such as the Navy SEALs and Delta Force, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon briefing that he believes there are women who would meet those standards.

For years, women in the military, and outside groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have argued that women already serve on the front lines but are not recognized for it. Women constitute 15 percent of the active-duty military.

Panetta said repeatedly that he had been impressed by the role of women in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are making our military stronger, and we are making America stronger,” he said.

Critics of Panetta’s decision had expressed concern that allowing women to serve in combat roles could harm unit cohesion and weaken military readiness. Others said they worried about lower standards for physical fitness, leading to a weaker fighting force.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, said earlier Thursday that lifting the ban was “the right thing to do,” but he stressed that the military should make sure physical standards are met.

Reaction on Capitol Hill appeared mostly positive. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican, congratulated Panetta for the decision in an interview on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC.

“I think this is a very positive step, and it reflects the reality of what’s happening, obviously, in defending our nation,” she said.

Related: Women on front lines 'distracting,' critics say

Reuters, file

Jalaluddin Haqqani (R), the Taliban's minister for tribal affairs, points to a map of Afghanistan while his son Naziruddin looks on in Islamabad in October, 2001. The Haqqani insurgent group is named after its patriarch and founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was a legendary anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in the 1980s. Back then he was admired by the Americans.

Senior members of the Haqqani network said that the United States' designation of the militant group as terrorists could endanger the life of an American soldier thought to be in their custody and jeopardize peace talks.

"The Obama administration and U.S. military commanders know that their soldier Bowe Bergdahl is in our possession," a Haqqani commander told NBC News in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location on Friday.  "He is in our custody, but his government failed to make any sincere effort for his release, and now this new development could add to his woes."

AFP - Getty Images

This image grab from an undated video reportedly posted on the internet by Afghan militants on Dec. 25, 2009, allegedly shows U.S. soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan around six months previously.

The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, have been blamed for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other high-profile assaults in Afghanistan.  The group is also believed to be holding U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009 in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, bordering Pakistan’s South Waziristan.

Members of the network say Bergdahl was handed over to the Taliban when a delegation of senior Taliban leaders began peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar in exchange for the top five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay. After those talks failed, the Taliban sources told NBC News that Bergdahl was returned to the Haqqani network.

Report: US offers Taliban more for captive soldier

On Friday, U.S. officials announced that the Obama administration would formally designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization. The move was part of a complicated political decision as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and pushes for a reconciliation pact to end more than a decade of warfare.  

But the move would only undermine the United States' efforts in the region, one of the Haqqani commanders told NBC News.

NYT: White House backs listing Haqqani militant group as terrorists, officials say

"How (will) their talks with the Taliban bring peace to Afghanistan when they declared us terrorists?" the commander, who asked to remain anonymous, said. "It would further increase their hardship and they should wait for more losses in the coming days." 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a report to Congress saying the network met criteria for a terrorist designation on Friday, State Department officials told reporters.  

'Frustrated' dad of kidnapped US soldier takes action

The Obama administration has been trying to coax Afghanistan's fighting groups into peace talks, offering the prospect of a Qatar-based political office for insurgents and even the transfer of several prisoners being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Negotiations have been dormant for months, and the Haqqanis have been among the least interested in talking.

Designation by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United States.

The Haqqani commanders also told NBC News that they were part of the mainstream Afghan Taliban headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar and declaring them as a terrorist group would make it worse for the United States and its allies in in Afghanistan.

"We are fighters of Islam Emirate of Afghanistan led by our supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar," a senior commander said. "Our aim is to expel all the occupying forces from Afghanistan and install a purely Islamic government there."

The Pentagon welcomed the designation of the group as a terrorist group.

"The Haqqani Network represents a significant threat to U.S. national security and we will continue our aggressive military action against this threat," said George Little, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, in a statement. "These new group designations will build on our efforts to degrade the Network's capacity to carry out attacks, including affecting fundraising abilities, targeting them with our military and intelligence resources, and pressing Pakistan to take action."

The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its archrival, India.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

Photos: Pakistan -- A nation in turmoil

A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official, who asked to remain nameless because of the sensitivity of the issue, both denied claims that Pakistan was working with the network and dismissed the designation. 

"If we are sponsoring the Haqqanis, which we are not because they cause more problems for Pakistan than anyone else, then only will this new labeling equate to something," he told NBC News. "No responsible person has proven that we are directing them in any way. Obviously there are contacts, but the U.S. has contacts for the purposes of negotiations, etc. too with these guys."

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Though Congress has quashed any new round of base closures in its latest funding bill, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday called shutting down some excess military installations inevitable as the Pentagon seeks to shed operating costs.

"Now may not be the time for (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) as our economy recovers, but sooner or later, one way or another, the department is going to need to take a hard look at its basing infrastructure as we seek to reduce our overhead costs," Panetta told a meeting of the Association of Defense Communities in Monterey, Calif., according to a report of the speech from National Defense magazine.

Talk of BRAC, which is formed to slash military expenses and make operations more efficient, leads to widespread consternation in many military communities, which fear loss of jobs and trouble planning for roads and other services.

The latest round took place in 2005 and was just completed last fall. It involved closing 24 major installations and consolidating other service-specific bases into joint installations.

In New Jersey, McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and Naval Air Station Lakehurst were combined to form Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. And in Washington state, Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base became Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The joint bases share administrative and support operations.

Panetta had proposed new rounds of BRAC discussions for 2013 and 2015, but the House Armed Services Committee in May voted down funding of such efforts.

Still, Panetta sees base closings and realignments as an important way to cut costs.

“It is a debate we must continue,” Panetta said, according to National Defense. “Based on conservative estimates, the first four rounds of BRAC are producing annual savings of $8 billion, and the comparable figure for the 2005 round is $4 billion.”

Panetta said on Monday that base closures not only save money but provide a way to transfer ownership of government property that can spur private economic development in those communities.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, found that the 2005 BRAC round cost $35.1 billion to execute with net savings not realized until 2018. Previous base closings in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 were less complex and generated savings more quickly.

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The letter from the frontlines could have been written yesterday.

"Thank you for your sweet card. It made my miserable day a much better one but I don't think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having," reads a handwritten note to Betty from Steve Flaherty of Columbia, S.C. "RPG rockets and machine guns really tore my rucksack."

But this and other newly discovered letters written to "Betty," "Mother" and "Mrs. Wyatt" weren't sent from Afghanistan, or any other place where American servicemen are deployed now.  They were penned more than 40 years ago before the author, who was with the 101st Airborne, was killed in the northern section of South Vietnam.

The documents were given to the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a landmark meeting in Vietnam on Monday. Panetta and Vietnam Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh exchanged long-held artifacts collected during the war -- including a small maroon diary belonging to a Vietnamese soldier.

Vietnam opens new sites for US MIA hunt

A letter to Flaherty's mother gives an unvarnished version of life on the battlefield. 

"Our platoon started off with 35 men but winded up with 19 men when it was over. We lost platoon leader and whole squad.” He added, “The NVA soldiers fought until they died and one even booby trapped himself and when we approached him, he blew himself up and took two of our men with him.”

Vietnam's 'napalm girl' comes to terms with iconic photo

The obit of Steve Flaherty of Columbia, S.C. published in the State Newspaper on March 30, 1969.

Another letter to his mom reads: "We couldn't retrieve the bodies of our men or ruck sacks and when we brought air strikes, jets dropped napalm and explosives that destroyed everything that was there."

The letter adds: "If Dad calls, tell him I got too close to being dead but I'm O.K. I was real lucky. I'll write again soon."

Slain soldier’s Vietnam letters too later for his parents, but other relatives will cherish

A third letter to Mrs. Wyatt defends the war while spelling out the toll it was taking on the people fighting: "This is a dirty and cruel war but I’m sure people will understand the purpose of this war even though many of us might not agree."

According to U.S. defense officials, Vietnamese forces took Flaherty's letters after his death in March, 1969, and used them in broadcasts during the war.

Vietnamese Col. Nguyen Phu Dat kept the letters, but it was not until last August, when he mentioned them in an online publication, that they started to come to light.

Panetta visits Vietnam, exchanges soldiers effects

Early this year, Robert Destatte, a retired Defense Department employee who had worked for the POW/MIA office, noticed the online publication, and the Pentagon began to work to get the letters back to Flaherty's family.

The exchange of documents underscores how much the relationship between Vietnam and the United States has changed in 17 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations, George Little, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

"It is a reflection of the priority the United States places on people-to-people ties with Vietnam," the newspaper quoted Little as saying. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Handout / Reuters

A hand-written memo by then CIA Director Leon Panetta in which U.S. President Barack Obama authorised a Navy SEAL team operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan one year ago.

With the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death approaching, Leon Panetta has spoken of the nerve-wracking moments of the night of the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs.

The picture in Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's office captures the "mission accomplished" moment. 

It shows Panetta, then the head of the CIA, and a group of U.S. commandos and others in the CIA operations center on the night of May 2 with their arms around each other — a quiet celebration just after U.S. helicopters crossed back over the border into Afghanistan. 

Not until then — 90 minutes after U.S. special operations forces had lifted off from the heavily fortified compound in Pakistan where they went in search of Osama bin Laden — was he sure they could breathe a sigh of relief. 

"We got the job done," Panetta said Friday as he recalled the long silences and the tense, heart-pounding moments before Adm. William McRaven's words finally came through loud and clear. 

"Geronimo EKIA" — the code name for bin Laden, and the signal for "enemy killed in action." 

Abbottabad - One year after Osama bin Laden

With the first anniversary of the al-Qaida leader's death approaching, Panetta spoke to reporters on his plane as he flew back from a series of meetings with defense leaders in South America. Perched on a table inside the Airstream trailer — dubbed the Silver Bullet — that serves as his office inside his C-17 transport plane, Panetta traced back through the nerve-wracking moments of that night. 

And he talked about its impact over the past year. 

"I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation," he said. 

While al-Qaida and its offshoots remain a threat, he said, the military and intelligence communities have learned to work better together since Sept. 11, 2001. Still, he acknowledged, there is no single, completely effective way to destroy the terror network. 

"The way this works is that the more successful we are at taking down those who represent their spiritual, ideological leadership, the greater our ability to weaken their threat to this country," he said. 

The story of the raid is well-known: The SEALs and special operations forces that flew deep into Pakistan; the wrenching moment when one of the helicopters went down in the heat, landing hard with its tail on the wall; the SEALs' assault on the house where they believed bin Laden and his wives had been living for several years; and what Panetta on Friday called the "fingernail-biting moments." 

"We knew that there were gunshots and firing, but after that we just didn't know," said Panetta, describing the nearly 20 minutes of silence after the SEALs went into the house. 

PhotoBlog: Osama bin Laden's hideout revealed

Then came confusion. McRaven, commander of the operation, told him that he thought he'd picked up the word "Geronimo." 

"The way he said it was like, you know, 'We think,'" said Panetta. "It wasn't ideal. We were still waiting." 

A few minutes later came the KIA message. Then came the long flight out of Pakistan. 

"By that time they had blown the helicopter that was down and we knew we had woken up all of Pakistan to the fact that something had happened," Panetta said with a laugh. "The concern was just exactly what were they thinking and how were they going to respond." 

The moment they crossed the border, he said, was "the moment when we finally knew the mission had been accomplished." 

Then they could embrace the victory. 

The raid created a deep fissure into the already rocky U.S.-Pakistan relations. U.S. officials, including members of Congress, were irate that the al-Qaeda leader had been able to hide — virtually in plain sight — in a Pakistani military town. Some suggested there was at least some knowledge of his hiding place. 

Pakistani leaders, meanwhile, were outraged that the U.S. had launched a military mission deep within the country's borders without alerting them, violating their sovereignty. Islamabad's military commanders were embarrassed that the U.S. was able to carry out the raid without being detected. 

The bin Laden saga has continued in Pakistan. His three wives and their families were deported early Friday to Saudi Arabia. Officials have said that the wives and as many as eight children and some grandchildren were living in the compound when it was raided. 

The anniversary has triggered security warnings for Americans in Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy said its employees would be restricted from restaurants and markets in Islamabad for the next two weeks. While there was no mention of bin Laden, the period includes the anniversary date.

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The Pentagon is rebranding and reorganizing its clandestine spy shop, sending more of its case officers to work alongside CIA officers to gather intelligence in places like China, after a decade of focusing intensely on war zones.

Several hundred case officers will make up the new Defense Clandestine Service,  according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program.

Drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the officers will be sent to beef up U.S. intelligence teams in areas that are now receiving more attention. Those include Africa, where al-Qaida is increasingly active, to parts of Asia where the North Korean missile threat and Chinese military expansion are causing increasing U.S. concern.

Defense Department case officers already secretly gather intelligence across the globe on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other issues, mostly working out of CIA stations in embassies and operating undercover like their CIA counterparts.

But an internal study by the Director of National Intelligence last year found the agency still focused more on its traditional mission of providing the military with intelligence in war zones, and less on what's called "national" intelligence — gathering and disseminating information on global issues and sharing that intelligence with other national security agencies, the official said.

The study also found that the Pentagon did not always reward clandestine service overseas with promotions, so its most experienced case officers often left for the CIA, or switched to other career paths within the Pentagon.

The new service is intended to curb personnel losses, making clandestine work part of the Pentagon's professional career track and rewarding those who prove successful at operating covertly overseas with further tours and promotions, like their CIA colleagues.

The case officers in the field — some military and some civilian — will answer directly to the top intelligence representative in their post, usually the CIA's chief of station, in addition to serving their agency back home. The arrangement is likely to curb complaints seen in earlier expansions of the Defense Department's spy mission, which the CIA and other agencies saw as the military stepping on their territory.

The changes were worked out by the top Pentagon intelligence official, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers, and his CIA counterpart who heads the National Clandestine Service, and briefed to Congress before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed off on the new program last Friday.

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