Volume 10, No. 21 ©SS 2018
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2018
One of a kind
Air Force pararescuemen team with Army helicopters in unique Afghanistan rescue squadron
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A U.S. Air Force pararescueman communicates with an Army Task Force Brawler CH-47F Chinook during a training exercise in Afghanistan in March. G REGORY BROOK /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
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COVER STORY
Ready to rescue PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN /Stars and Stripes
A pararescueman with the Air Force’s 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron practices a highaltitude, high opening jump at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on March 23.
Rescue squadron comprising unique mix of assets is set for fighting season in Afghanistan BY PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN Stars and Stripes
O
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan n a recent evening at the United States’ largest base in Afghanistan, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter landed with distant mountains in front of it and something unusual behind it: the headquarters of the Air Force’s 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron. The CH-47 is an Army helicopter, but because it suits the mountainous region of northern Afghanistan, it’s being used by the 83rd ERQS — making it the first joint-personnel rescue squadron comprising Army aircraft and air crew and Air Force pararescue specialists. Air Force pararescuemen, or PJs, have had less to do in Afghanistan since international combat operations ended in 2014. But with U.S. airstrikes intensifying and more American boots on the ground, they expect that will
change soon. Pararescuemen specialize in recovering servicemembers in danger, such as when an aircraft crashes, a vehicle hits a bomb or a building collapses on them. Commonly referred to as a “jack of all trades but master of none,” a pararescueman is versed in skills such as scuba diving, parachuting, high-angle shooting, vehicle extraction and medical work. “Before in Afghanistan, we were gone all the time,” said Air Force Maj. Rob Wilson, commander of the 83rd ERQS, referring to PJs deployed when international forces were still engaged in combat operations. “This time is different because we don’t have the number of boots on the ground.” The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan peaked at 100,000 in 2012. After NATO switched to a train, advise and assist mission four years later, the SEE PAGE 3
G REGORY BROOK /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
A U.S. Army crew chief aboard the CH-47F Chinook observes the successful test of threat countermeasures during a training flight in Afghanistan in March.
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number dropped to fewer than 10,000, split between NATO support and the United States’ separate counterterrorism mission. There are now about 15,000 U.S. troops in the country. Wilson said it’s been about two years since PJs carried out a recovery mission in Afghanistan. Their work is expected to pick up this year — underscored by the establishment in Kandahar of a second PJ team in Afghanistan that uses Air Force aircraft. “So instead of having our guys on alert, waiting for something to happen, we’ll start farming out our PJs to different (special operations) teams,” Wilson said. “I’m trying to get us more in the casualty evacuation role, where we can preposition our aircraft around Afghanistan when units say, ‘Hey, this is going to be a really hot area. We need you in case one of our helicopters goes down.’ ” The CH-47 should give the PJ mission a boost: It has basic resuscitative and surgical capabilities that the Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk did not. Besides the ability to carry more people and equipment, the CH-47 can also fly longer, faster and at higher altitudes. The entire floor of the aircraft is armored, unlike the Pave Hawks. That’s important for the PJs, who are often reaching the scene when bullets are flying. The missions require their pilots to have skills that not every Army pilot is trained for, such as accommodating passengers who need to slide out of the helicopter on a rope when it is unable to land. Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Shawn Miller, one of the squadron’s initial CH-47 pilots, said his fellow Army pilots and aircrew have been adapting to the PJs needs since the aircraft joined the squadron in October. “We’ve done some pretty extensive training,” he said. “I think we’re very capable and very well-equipped in many of the mission sets. “We are still working through the decision-making processes and that kind of thing, but I think we’ve broken a lot of ice in other areas,” he said. The Army owns the CH-47s and oversees maintaining and sustaining them. The Air Force decides when and how to use them to best suit mission needs. The setup creates the possibility of discord, should they disagree on a mission’s risk level. The joint squadron has yet to conduct an official mission after six months of training, but so far, Miller said, the PJs “have been pretty reasonable about the acceptance of mission approvals and what we do typically on the Army side.” The general mood around the 83rd ERQS headquarters is that their work
G REGORY BROOK /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
A U.S. Air Force pararescueman, assigned to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, communicates with an Army Task Force Brawler CH-47F Chinook during a training exercise in the mountains of Afghanistan in March.
‘ The season is warming up. The buildup is coming. I don’t hope for it, but it’s what we’ve been training for.
’
Air Force pararescueman will pick up in the coming weeks as the fighting season begins. “The season is warming up. The buildup is coming,” said one of the 14 PJs who, together with 28 Army personnel, make up the squadron. “I don’t hope for it, but it’s what we’ve been training for.” With their winter training complete, the main task now is informing units of the squadron’s abilities in a new phase of the 16-year war. “Our primary job here is going around and educating everyone on what we can do, what we can offer and how they can get us,” Wilson said. “We’re constantly telling people: ‘This is what we do now, these are the capabilities we bring now versus back then.’” wellman.phillip@stripes.com Twitter: @pwwellman
PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN /Stars and Stripes
A pararescueman with the Air Force’s 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron finishes a high-altitude, high-opening jump at Bagram Air Field on March 23.
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WAR ON TERRORISM
Looking down the road As US bolsters air operations in Niger, special operators say African terrorist groups a future threat – if not right now BY JOHN VANDIVER Stars and Stripes
AGADEZ, Niger — The runway under construction here, stretching more than a mile in the southern Sahara Desert, is both the Air Force’s biggest troop labor building project ever and the newest sign of a growing American military campaign against extremists in West Africa. At Air Base 201, U.S. airmen put down damp burlap sacks to keep fresh concrete from cracking under the blaze while they are building a home for MQ-9 Reaper drones. The U.S. is bolstering air operations at a time when the costs of its Africa strategy have grown clearer. Five American servicemembers were killed in combat operations during the past year in Africa, the first such deaths in a generation. It raises the question: Does the threat posed by any extremist group in Africa justify U.S. forces being thrust into harm’s way? As the Pentagon has dedicated more resources to counterterrorism efforts in Africa, there are conflicting views among security analysts about the broader threat and whether it’s as significant as the U.S. military sees it. “I think we can be smarter about what we are doing, and doubling down on a military investment isn’t really a smart long-term strategy,” said Steven Feldstein, a former State Department official for Africa and analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Is $100 million for
a drone base in Agadez the smartest way to approach the issue?” U.S. military leaders acknowledge that none of the major extremist groups — AlShabab in Somalia and a mix of Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates elsewhere — constitute a major threat to the U.S. today. But commanders argue that they could if their activities go unchecked. “If there isn’t something done to assist the countries across the Sahel region, it is going to become a very real threat,” said Col. Brad Moses, commander of the 3rd Special Operations Group, which handles missions in 11 West African countries. “Twenty years from now they will be an existential threat if we don’t assist our partner forces now.” The rationale for the military’s expanding mission in places such as Somalia and Niger and a $110 million base in Agadez — that a threat to the homeland looms in the not-so-distant future — has generally been accepted in Washington.
Terrorism’s ebb, flow Moses’ assessment echoes what top military leaders have
JOHN VANDIVER /Stars and Stripes
Air Force Capt. Tim Lord looks out at the runway being built in Agadez, Niger. The runway, to be used by drones and other aircraft, is more than a mile long. been saying since U.S. Africa Command was launched a decade ago. From Gen. William E. Ward, who stood AFRICOM up in 2007, to Gen. Thomas Waldhauser today, all have said the same thing — that extremists on the African continent aspire to attack America. When four soldiers were killed in an October ambush in Niger, lawmakers were surprised by the risk troops face, but not necessarily the underlying logic that drives the missions. The data give a mixed picture about how terrorism is
evolving in Africa. In 2017, there was a nearly 50 percent decline in fatalities, with 10,376 deaths caused by Islamic militant groups in Africa compared with 18,728 in 2015, according to the U.S. government-affiliated African Center for Strategic Studies, or ACSS. Much of the drop-off is attributed to few attacks by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group, which a few years ago was the most lethal of all African terrorist groups. Boko Haram has expressed little interest and demonstrated no
‘ This is exactly the time and exactly the place to address
these threats. If we don’t deal with it here at a cost that is affordable, we will end up dealing with it somewhere else at a much higher cost.
’
Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks U.S. Special Operations Command Africa
capability in operating outside the region. However, al-Qaida-aligned groups have proved resilient in West Africa. They caused 391 deaths last year, nearly double 2016’s fatalities, according to ACSS. The increase is blamed on the emergence of a new jihadi umbrella group known as Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM. In March, al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attack on an Army base in Burkina Faso and the French Embassy there, which caught the attention of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa boss Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks. The attacks marked a shift from mainly civilian-populated areas to hard targets. “They (al-Qaida-linked groups) have been building capability and capacity since 2012,” Hicks said during a recent stop in Niger to observe his command’s Flintlock SEE PAGE 6
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exercise, the largest special operations war game on the Continent. For Hicks, the military’s investment now in places such as Niger equals preventive medicine. “This is exactly the time and exactly the place to address these threats,” Hicks said in an interview. “If we don’t deal with it here at a cost that is affordable, we will end up dealing with it somewhere else at a much higher cost.”
The risk of not acting
many drones would be based at the site. About 350 military personnel are involved in the project. About 600 airmen are expected to be deployed to the site on six-month tours once construction is finished later this year. The campaign also has given a jolt to the local economy. The U.S. has spent about $10 million on asphalt and $7 million on rock that gets crushed to rubble. Locals work jobs at the base dining facility. A security team monitors the base’s fence line around the clock and conducts joint base patrols with Nigerien forces. The base’s strategic location and cost make it unlikely that the U.S. is in Niger for the short term. Basewide wireless access has boosted the airmen’s quality of life. However, there are no immediate plans to begin adding fast food and buildings that often come with a more permanent designation. “This is to be an expeditionary base,” Harbaugh said.
Feldstein said more skepticism is needed when considering aspirational rhetoric from extremists and what they are actually capable of achieving. But to argue against the idea that the militant groups in Africa could evolve into the al-Qaida of Osama Bin Laden is to take on risk. “If you are the person who basically says, ‘I don’t think this threat is that serious’ and something happens, no matter how small, that can be used against you,” Feldstein said. “It is always to your political advantage to be very serious about threats.” In Africa, the costs have been high for U.S. special operations forces. In May, SEAL Senior Chief Petty Officer Kyle Milliken was killed in combat in Somalia. In Niger, Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, of the 3rd Special Forces Group, were killed in the October ambush along with attached soldiers Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson and Sgt. La David T. Johnson. “It’s a complex environment just like any other place we work in,” said Capt. Neal, a Green Beret with the 3rd Special Forces Group who recently advised Nigerien troops during the Flintlock exercise and whose last name was withheld for security reasons. He declined to comment on the ambush in Niger. But when asked whether it was worth taking on risks in countries like Niger where the threats to the U.S. are vague, he said it was. “Anytime you can go there and improve someone’s quality of life and security situation, it is worth it,” he said.
vandiver.john@stripes.com Twitter: @john_vandiver
vandiver.john@stripes.com Twitter: @john_vandiver
JOHN VANDIVER /Stars and Stripes
Airmen work in the unmanned aerial device apron in Agadez, Niger, where drones will be parked when they are not in operation.
US project in Niger will house drones BY JOHN VANDIVER Stars and Stripes
AGADEZ, Niger — There’s no sign yet of a Green Beans Coffee shop, a staple at some of the military’s austere semipermanent bases around the world that troops have come to know. But give it time. The U.S. Air Force is nearing completion of a $110 million project in the Saharan desert town of Agadez, Niger, known as Air Base 201. And even the locals seem to think the Americans are going to be around for some time to come. “They will call this the U.S. air base. They want us to feel at home here,” said Lt. Col. Brad Harbaugh, commander of the 724th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron. “I remind them it’s Nigerien.” The construction effort amounts to the largest Air Force troop labor project in history. The service typically relies on contractors for such projects, but U.S. troops are doing most of the building in Niger. Technically, the base — about a mile
from the city’s small airport — is Nigerien, but the U.S. has exclusive rights to about 20 percent of the compound’s largely barren 9-mile perimeter, military officials said. “We’re building a base from nothing, from scratch,” Harbaugh said. “This was all historically nomadic land.” The base was slated to open late last year, but completion has been pushed to the end of 2018 because of the difficulties of operating in the austere southern Sahara. Work crews must keep newly poured concrete damp during the day so the slates don’t crack in the afternoon heat. “The guys are working around the clock right now to get it done,” said Capt. Tim Lord, who helps oversee construction. Three unmanned aerial vehicle aprons are being set up where drones will park. Niger’s government granted the U.S. authority to carry out armed drone flights shortly after an October ambush that left four U.S. soldiers dead. Military officials declined to say how
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MILITARY
Brigade likely to welcome 1st female infantry officer BY NANCY MONTGOMERY Stars and Stripes
VICENZA, Italy — The 173rd Airborne Brigade, one of the Army’s most deployed and decorated units, is expected to soon welcome its first female infantry officer. Taylor England, the toprated infantry cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, chose Italy and the 173rd as her first duty assignment, according to an Army News Service story. It was a choice that opened up only after Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited the academy in January and learned that England wanted an Italy assignment, the story said. “As Milley greeted cadets at a dinner, he asked England where she hoped to be posted. She replied, ‘Italy, sir.’ Shortly after, she said, Italy was opened up to female infantry officers,” the story said. “It was pretty awesome,” England said. “The best lieutenants end up in Italy. It’s definitely going to be a challenge, even if I wasn’t a female, because of the competition.” The Army hadn’t previously announced the move. In January, the service announced that in addition to Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, N.C., three more bases would open up for female infantry and armor officers: Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; and Fort Bliss, Texas. Officials with the 173rd were not immediately available for comment April 27. England, 22, is the top-
SEAN K IMMONS/Courtesy of the U.S. Army
U.S. Military Academy Cadet Taylor England fires at a target during the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition at West Point, N.Y., on April 14. England plans to serve with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. ranked cadet out of 230 headed to the infantry branch. The rankings reflect academic standing and performance in military skills and physical training. The Ohio native maxed out her most recent physical fitness test and ran 2 miles in 13 minutes, 9 seconds — 9 seconds shy of the men’s fastest standard. England, a lacrosse player at the academy, must still graduate from the Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course
before her assignment to the 173rd, which is the Army’s contingency response force in Europe. The unit, which fought in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and counts 18 Medal of Honor recipients, did not integrate women into its paratrooper ranks until 2000. The distinction went to 1st Lt. Leslie Balfaqih, a military police officer. Infantry and armor units were closed to women until December 2015, when Defense
Secretary Ash Carter ordered the military services to open all combat jobs to women. The next year, Capt. Kristen Griest became the first female infantry officer in the Army when her request was approved to transfer from a military police unit. Months later, the first 10 female lieutenants graduated from the Infantry Officer Basic Course. Infantry troops have been the most resistant to the idea of women in their units, Defense Department studies
have found, citing beliefs that their presence would degrade physical standards and unit cohesion. “You just overcome it by being competent and being physical and showing them that you can do what they can do,” England said in the Army News Service story. “You’re not going to shy away from their resistance. You’re going to show them, ‘Hey, I’m here, and I’m ready to lead soldiers.’ ” montgomery.nancy@stripes.com Twitter: @montgomerynance
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VETERANS
‘I don’t think it’s right’ Denial of full honors at Arlington irks ex-POWs’ kin BY M ATTHEW M. BURKE Stars and Stripes
Army Pvt. 1st Class Robert Fletcher was captured by Chinese forces in Korea on Nov. 27, 1950, after heavy fighting. The Buffalo Soldier endured three years in captivity, during which he was subjected to starvation, freezing temperatures and physical and psychological torture. He carried these scars until his death Feb. 12. Thanks to an act of Congress regarding prisoners of war, the native of Ann Arbor, Mich., will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on June 4. However, his survivors have joined a growing number of dissatisR. Fletcher fied POW families angry that enlisted POWs who survived captivity and made it home are denied full honors — most notably, an escort and the iconic horse-drawn caisson — at the nation’s most hallowed cemetery. Those honors are reserved for officers and those killed in action. “It’s just disgusting,” said Fletcher’s daughter, Kanda Fletcher. “My dad fought that war and lived the POW experience until the day he died … and you’re going to sit there and tell my family that my dad can’t be buried with full honors because he wasn’t
and could never be an officer? I don’t think it’s right.” Fletcher is not alone. “I wanted the caisson because I thought, after all he had been through for this country, that he deserved that,” said Charlotte Smith, whose husband, Bill, died at 86 in June 2016. He was captured in Korea on Nov. 2, 1950. Like Fletcher, he spent nearly three years in captivity, followed by 15 months recuperating at what was then Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Before he died, Bill Smith told his wife he wanted to be buried at Arlington with his “band of brothers.” “When we started the process to bury him in Arlington, I — in my naivety — thought that he would be honored with a full military service, and when I asked for that, they said, ‘Oh no, no, he has to be an officer or be killed in action,’ ” Charlotte Smith said. “I said, ‘Do you mean to tell me that after he spent 2 ½ years and went through the torture that he went through, that he is not entitled to that?’ It’s not right.”
Myriad regulations The rules regarding burial and honors at Arlington can be confusing. Eligibility for former POWs is established by the Code of Federal Regulations, according to Renea Yates, Arlington’s deputy superintendent for cemetery administration. It said any former POW who served honorably and died on or after Nov. 30, 1993, can be
ROBERT K NAPP/Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
A Marine salutes a passing horse-drawn caisson during a full-honors funeral at Arlington National Cemetery in February. buried in-ground there. A Defense Department instruction titled “Military Funeral Support,” sets a standardized baseline of services to be provided, Yates said. That includes a two-person uniformed detail, the playing of taps, the folding of the flag and presentation to the family of the deceased. Additional elements such as a rifle detail, a color guard, pallbearers, a caisson and a military flyover “could be provided … if personnel and resources are available,” the Defense Department’s “Military Funeral Honors” website says. On top of the Defense Department’s standardized guidelines, the veteran’s service branch also has discretion over which, if any, additional honors are bestowed, Yates said. Arlington follows an Army regulation titled “Salutes, Honors and Visits of Courtesy” as administrator over the cemetery. The minimum, per the Army regulations, for enlisted servicemembers eligible for in-ground burial provides a casket team, a firing party,
the playing of taps by a bugler, and a chaplain, which is what Fletcher will receive, Yates said. Officers eligible for burial at Arlington, as well as E-9s, are eligible for “full honors,” which includes an additional escort, a marching element, a band and the horse-drawn caisson. “The decedent’s branch of service provides the respective military honors for his or her service and the level of military honors rendered depends on the rank of the deceased as well as service customs, traditions and availability,” Arlington spokeswoman Kerry Meeker wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes. “There are no stipulations that afford prisoners of war different funeral honors.” The same policy applies to Medal of Honor recipients, Yates said. Yates said she feels bad that some families walk away from the process unhappy, but said Arlington can barely keep up with the current number of requests. There are only eight horsedrawn caisson slots per day,
and the cemetery performs up to 30 burials, she said. There is a minimum of a four-month wait to receive standard honors at Arlington and a sevento nine-month wait for full honors and the caisson. There were 5,071 former POWs living in the U.S. as of August, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, that tally could be incomplete, as it includes only those in the VA system.
‘Shame on you’ Kanda Fletcher lamented that officers who never stood on the firing line could get full honors at Arlington, but enlisted former POWs could not. “Shame on you,” she said, directing her anger to the Army and Arlington. “My dad deserves so much more than that.” Robert Fletcher dropped out of high school at 17 and joined the Army in 1950. In a few months, he was in Japan as a member of the 24th Infantry Regiment, an acclaimed unit of black soldiers and white officers. SEE PAGE 14
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When the Korean War started, Fletcher’s regiment was the first to go to the peninsula, he would later tell journalist/filmmaker James Militzer in a 2013 documentary. They arrived at Busan and pushed toward Seoul. The North Koreans and the Americans took turns wiping each other out. Of the 250 men Fletcher landed with, 212 were killed. The regiment received replacements and rejoined the fight. It wasn’t long before the North Korean army was decimated. Fletcher’s regiment was sent north to the Yalu River, which separates North Korea and China. The Chinese were waiting for them. “On Nov. 27 [1950], we got hit with everything but the kitchen stove,” Fletcher recalled. They lost more than 100 men, including half of Fletcher’s squad. Many, including the unit leadership, were wounded. “We were caught on a little knoll. We were out of ammunition; I had, I think, a clip left,” Fletcher said in the film. “Some people had four or five rounds … I really don’t know how we could have fought any longer.” As a unit, the men decided to surrender to the Chinese. Wearing summer clothes, they were marched toward prison camps as temperatures dropped well below freezing. “A lot of guys froze to death; a lot of guys starved to death; a lot of guys died from wounds,” Fletcher recalled. They were passed from the Chinese to the North Koreans, who exacted their revenge.
Dysentery claimed many men. “The death rate started climbing,” he said. “I was 180 pounds and I went down to about 90 pounds.” Fletcher recalled being forced to watch fellow soldiers thrown into a pit alive and eaten by rats, or tied to a tripod and soaked with water repeatedly until they froze to death. He remained in captivity until Aug. 8, 1953. Out of 8,000 prisoners taken with him, Fletcher said only 3,000 came back alive. “I don’t know why I survived,” he said. “I just said the good Lord up there was not ready for me. That’s the only thing I can say.”
‘Entirely offensive’ Fletcher — who was dedicated to veterans’ issues and spent 22 years on the Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War — hadn’t even wanted to be buried at Arlington, but his family pushed him into it. Hearing that he won’t receive full honors at the nation’s most hallowed cemetery felt like a slap in the face. It doesn’t sit well with advocates either. “Of course, this is ridiculous!” Korean and Cold War POW/MIA Network Executive Director John Zimmerlee wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. National League of POW/ MIA Families chairwoman and CEO Ann Mills-Griffiths doubted that denying former POWs full honors even could be happening. “Why would this occur? It makes no sense,” she wrote to Stars and Stripes. “If that is true, then it is entirely
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PHOTOS
BY
ELIZABETH FRASER /Courtesy of the U.S. Army
The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment Caisson Platoon, known as “The Old Guard,” escorts a former Army colonel to his final resting place April 2 at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. offensive.” Attempts to get the policy changed or to get exemptions have failed. Charlotte Smith said her family was offered the horse-drawn caisson from the family of an officer who was not a POW but was eligible for burial with full honors, but Arlington would not allow it. After receiving a complaint from Fletcher’s family, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., tried to intervene to get full honors for Robert Fletcher, Kanda Fletcher said. She was not successful. A high-ranking military officer who knew Robert
This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. The contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this newspaper. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised. Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.
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A full-honors funeral takes place at Arlington National Cemetery on April 9. Fletcher also tried. Arlington officials said any changes to policy would have to come from Secretary of the Army Mark Esper or Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. For the loved ones left behind, depriving these men full honors continues to pick away at them. “I was angry; I was hurt. I was incensed for my husband because I felt like it made him less honored for what he had done for this country,” Charlotte Smith said. “It’s just not right. When he came back at 82 pounds, he suffered just as much as an officer did.
They went through the same torture; they went through the same cold; they went through the same deprivation.” Nevertheless, Smith said it would not take away from the legacy of Bill Smith and his fellow enlisted POWs, like Fletcher. Smith was most proud that he never signed a confession in captivity and never “turned his back on a buddy.” “He never gave in,” she said. “He always said they got to his body but they never got to his mind.” burke.matt@stripes.com
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MILITARY
Army cuts mandatory training, other programs BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes
The Army is eliminating online training programs and a leave-planning requirement as part of a broader push to reduce tasks that take away from time spent on combat readiness. Army Secretary Mark Esper ended three online mandates in April: media awareness, Combating Trafficking in Persons and the accident avoidance course. He also lifted several requirements related to unit safety programs and inspections. Esper and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in an April 13 memo that mandatory training cannot be available only in online formats and that web-based instruction is not a substitute for training conducted by leaders. Commanders are free to make “prudent risk-informed decisions” to cut tasks that don’t involve combat, the first of four related memos said. The memos eliminated some headquarters-level requirements, such as the use of the Travel Risk Planning System, or TRiPS. Esper and Milley cited TRiPS as a “burdensome requirement” that “unnecessarily weighs down our Army from focusing on its core mission.” A leave form and safety briefing should be sufficient, they said. TRiPS travel risk assessments were among the documents many soldiers had to submit when requesting leave, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brent Ely, a helicopter pilot trainer deployed to Kandahar Air Field told Stars and Stripes earlier this year. In all, eight documents were required to take leave in the States, four times the paperwork he had to file to fly missions over the largely Taliban-controlled Kandahar province. The streamlining is an “encouraging development,” said Leonard Wong, a professor at
Courtesy of the Department of Defense
Screen grabs, above and below, show the U.S. Department of Defense Combating Trafficking in Persons computer-based training module. The course is one of three mandates being eliminated at Army headquarters level in a bid to streamline training requirements, though combatant commanders may opt to require them.
the Army War College and a retired Army officer. Wong co-authored a 2015 study that found a widespread trend of
Army officers “fudging” or “pencil whipping” tasks or reports, often because they had too many requirements and
insufficient time to complete them. Senior leaders seem to now be pushing back against a
bureaucracy that has gradually expanded at the expense of military professionalism, Wong said. “What we’re seeing now is a concerted effort to restore a correct balance,” he said April 24 via email. “We’re shifting away from trusting checklists and charts and going back to trusting leaders and leadership.” The Army directives also called on commands to nix any requirement for subordinates to generate reports related to soldier records and proficiencies. Instead, it said commands would rely on existing Army data systems. Esper and Milley also called on commands to make leaders aware of earlier policy changes meant to reduce the burdens many units face. The changes were greeted cautiously by soldiers and veterans on the online forum Reddit, where some users identifying themselves as soldiers mentioned forging training certificates in the past. Others ranted about time-consuming difficulties with computer-based training systems. “Less mandatory training and reports for your commander, more time spent doing the rooty-tooty point and shooty,” said one Reddit user named Colonel-Error, summarizing the Army directives. Some worried the burden would simply shift to the tasks of recording training or wrestling with the electronic systems. Wong was more optimistic. “With these signals coming from the highest levels of leadership in the Army, subordinate leaders will, hopefully, feel empowered to use their judgment in taking prudent risk and exercising disciplined initiative,” he said. Formal policy regulations will soon be issued, according to Army documents. garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland
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MILITARY
Technical support From bugs to bombs, little-known Seabee unit protects US embassies BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes
A
military unit that helped secure U.S. diplomatic compounds for decades has seen its mission grow as security threats have escalated from bugs buried in embassy walls to car bombs driven up to embassy gates. Perhaps the most widely known military defenders of U.S. embassies are Marines. But a small group of Navy Seabees, known as the Naval Support Unit-State Department, has played a largely from front page behind-thescenes role implementing technical measures to combat threats abroad since the 1960s. The unit’s exploits are largely unsung outside the Navy’s Construction Battalions — the “C.B.” from which the name Seabee comes. “You see the AFN commercials of the Marine with the rifle and he’s handsome, clean-shaved and protecting the embassy,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Millisor, a Seabee at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. “You never really know what the Seabees do.” In short: Marines do physical security; Seabees do technical security. In April 1966, in the heat of Cold War spy games, the Navy first formally committed Seabees to help the State Department combat Soviet spy technology. Before the end of the decade, they’d take part in a major transformation to combat terrorist attacks. As embassies became more fortresslike, the Seabees’ focus expanded from inte-
rior walls out to compound perimeters and from watching construction projects for bug-planting to maintaining systems that monitor for signs of potential violence. “Back in the Cold War era, the threat was different; we were in that spy-versus-spy mentality,” said Chief Petty Officer Subrina Stallings, the unit’s operations chief. “Now we’re more so on that physical protection … those outer layer defense areas first.” The Navy’s construction battalions were founded during World War II to build bases and clear airstrips, mainly in the Pacific theater. They were eventually tasked with building schools and hospitals as “goodwill ambassadors.” Their embassy duty didn’t start until the early 1960s. Marine guards overseeing embassy construction projects in Moscow and Warsaw lacked the expertise to spot fishy behavior as local workers installed networks of listening devices in the buildings. After the Seabees dug out the bugs and repaired the walls in 1964 and 1965, they were assigned to supervise several construction projects. Some installed secure conference rooms — called “bubbles,”
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of State
A Navy Seabee with the Naval Support Unit-State Department cuts a container at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April. like something out of the era’s spy-themed TV series. Meanwhile, anti-American protests and terrorist attacks were forcing embassy security to expand from anti-crime and anti-espionage to defense. A spate of violence in the Middle East, Latin America and Europe in the 1960s and ’70s prompted the State Department to beef up walls and fences and install heavy vault doors and window grates, closed-circuit TV and alarms. Beginning in 1968, after John Gordon Mein was forced from his limousine and assassinated in Guatemala City — the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty — Seabees helped armor embassy vehicles, including the secretary of state’s 1971 Cadillac. The program proved its worth when three people in an armored embassy car walked away unharmed after a 1972 bombing in Cambodia. Today, about 120 Seabees belong to the security unit, with about 70 posted to more than 40 embassies to support
the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. Other Navy construction specialists staff regional centers and travel where the service needs them. Stallings said she traveled more than 250 days a year covering 13 sites in the Western Hemisphere from a regional center in Florida during her first tour with the unit from 2008 to 2011. Attracted to the unit by the prospect of technical training and travel, Millisor spent more than a year at the Baghdad embassy, one of three high-threat diplomatic missions where the Seabees maintain a small but constant presence. Now in Tel Aviv, he’s helping with the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem. In Kabul, Afghanistan, the site of another high-threat embassy, State Department personnel rarely leave the compound. It was a more difficult post than any other for Chief Petty Officer Will Lathan, a Seabee who had previously lived in a tent in Cameroon during a mission
there. “You’re living inside a maximum-security prison,” Lathan said of the compound where he served in 2016. One difference, he said, is that all that security is meant to keep people out, not in. Recent history has placed a greater emphasis on embassy security following al-Qaida attacks on diplomatic missions in Africa in 1998. A wave of violent protests and attacks in 2012, including the deadly storming of a U.S. mission in Libya, again spurred efforts to improve embassy security. As U.S. forces withdraw from places like Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic security officials have said they may need to rely even more on the Seabees. Though small and obscure, the unit is capable and ready, several Seabees said. “They kind of call upon us to adapt and overcome anything,” Millisor said. “We’re very adaptable.” garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland
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Fri May 4
Evans Towne Center Boulevard This event includes live music, DJ, 6pm - 10pm Rodney Atkins margarita bars, food trucks and Columbia County Amphitheater other entertainment. $5, general $20. Visit evanstownecenterpark.com or secure.wazoo-tix.com/events/rodney- advance at Security Federal Bank locations; $10, at the gate; free, atkins. park pass holders. Email events@ columbiacountyga.gov or call 706-8687pm Derby Day Gala 3484. For park pass information, visit and Hat Party evanstownecenterpark.com/parkpass. Imperial Theatre This 100th anniversary event is a 8pm Todrick Hall reception that includes hor d’oeuvres, Miller Theater drinks, a photo booth, live music and $30-$219. Visit millertheateraugusta. a screening of the Marx Brothers com or call 800-514-3849. film “A Day at the Races.” $15. Visit imperialtheatre.com or call 706-722-8341.
Sat May 5
9am - 5pm GoodBoats for Goodwill: Dragon Boat Race & Festival Lake Olmstead A family event that will feature dragon boat races, awards, a festival showcasing Asian traditions, food and other vendors, cultural performances, children’s activities and more. Free. Visit goodboats.org.
11am - 9pm Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival Festival Site, Exit 172, Thomson Music starts at noon and the lineup includes JD McPherson, Samantha Fish, Amy Helm, Kenny Neal, The Randall Bramblett Band and Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton. $40 at the gate. Visit blindwillie. com.
2pm - 9pm Cinco Saturday
Mon May 7
7pm Columbia County Democratic Party Meeting Columbia County Government Center Auditorium, Building A The Columbia County Democratic Party invites the public to its monthly meetings, with social time at 6:30 p.m. The speaker this month is Francys Johnson, a candidate for District 12 representative. Email columbiacntydems@aol.com. Visit facebook.com/columbiacntydemocrats for updated information, or call 706-4145558.
Wed May 9
8pm Whose Live Anyway? Bell Auditorium Featuring current cast members of the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” including Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis and Joel Murray. $45.25-$72.25. Call 877-4AUGTIX or visit georgialinatix. com.
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