Stars and Stripes 12 4 15

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Volume 7, No. 50 ©SS 2015

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015

A Doctors Without Borders employee walks through the charred remains of their hospital after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 3.

AP

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COVER STORY Injured Doctors Without Borders staff are seen near their hospital after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike on Oct. 3 in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz.

M EDECINS SANS FRONTIERES /AP

‘Multiple errors resulted in mistakes’ General: Those closest to US airstrike on Doctors Without Borders suspended from duty

BY JOSH SMITH Stars and Stripes

A

KABUL, Afghanistan U.S. airstrike that killed 30 people at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was caused largely by human error, and those most closely involved have been suspended, the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Nov. 25.

The Oct. 3 strike on the hospital was a “direct result of avoidable human error, compounded by process and equipment failures,” Gen. John Campbell told reporters as he went over the findings of an investigation into the incident. “In addition, the report found that fatigue and a high operational tempo contributed

to this tragedy,” as U.S. and Afghan special operations forces were under sustained attack for five days and nights.

“Multiple errors resulted in mistakes,” Campbell said during a news conference, calling the strike “a tragic but avoidable accident.”

Some of the American troops involved failed to follow the rules of engagement and the airstrike was “not appropriate for the threat

faced,” Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, Campbell’s deputy chief of staff for communications, acknowledged at the same briefing.

The U.S. special forces commander on the ground did not have authority to call in the strike based on the circumstances, the report found.

Those “most closely associated with the incident have been suspended from their duties,” Campbell

‘ The frightening catalogue of errors outlined

today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war.

’

MSF General Director Christopher Stokes

said. “Matters regarding individual accountability will be managed in accordance with standard military justice and administrative practices for joint commands.” Officials refused to disclose how many personnel have been suspended, or what disciplinary recommendations have been made.

While American officials struck an apologetic tone, insisting they would never intentionally target a hospital, the report’s findings, which contradict some other accounts, may do little to sway critics who say it is hard to understand how well-trained troops with high-tech gear could mistakenly destroy a well-known medical facility.

SEE PAGE 3

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COVER STORY FROM PAGE 2

Officials with Doctors Without Borders, which goes by its French initials MSF, called the report’s findings “shocking” and said many questions remain unanswered.

“The frightening catalogue of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war,” MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said in a statement. “The destruction of a protected facility without verifying the target — in this case a functioning hospital full of medical staff and patients — cannot only be dismissed as individual human error or breaches of the U.S. rules of engagement.”

U.S. investigators determined that a series of errors led the American forces involved to confuse the hospital run by MSF with an Afghan intelligence headquarters building reportedly occupied by Taliban fighters.

“The medical facility was misidentified as a target by U.S. personnel who believed they were striking a different building several hundred meters away where there were reports of combatants,” Campbell said.

“The report also determined that the personnel who requested the strike, and those who executed it from the air, did not undertake appropriate measures to verify that the facility was a legitimate military target.”

The mistakes began when an AC-130 gunship was scrambled to respond to a report of troops under fire. In the rush, the report found, the crew skipped some basic steps, including a normal mission brief and a review of the “no-strike” list of targets to be avoided, such as the MSF hospital.

When that mission was called off, the plane continued with its original task of supporting an operation being conducted by U.S. and Afghan special forces in the heart of the city.

During its flight, some of the aircraft’s electronic communications systems malfunctioned, preventing the ship from transmitting video and other electronic messages. The crew nevertheless continued the mission despite the technical failures.

As the AC-130 approached the city, it reported being fired upon by a surface-to-air missile, which led to it taking up position 8 miles away, undermining the capabilities of some of its targeting systems. Still, the military forces proceeded with a plan to attack suspected insurgents occupying the intelligence agency headquarters.

The American special operations commander on the ground did not have the authority to call in the airstrike, and could not visually

N AJIM R AHIM /AP

U.S. soldiers walk into the charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 15.

distinguish between the hospital and the intended target, according to the report.

When the ground troops sent the aircraft the correct coordinates of the headquarters building, the malfunctioning targeting systems instead correlated the coordinates to an open field. The air crew then visually selected the hospital as the “closest large building near the open field,” based on a description provided by a forward air controller on the ground.

“Tragically, this misidentification continued throughout the remainder of the operation, even though there were some contradictory indicators,” Campbell said. When the system eventually correctly identified the intended target, “the crew remained fixated on the physical description of the facility and at that point did not rely on the grid coordinate,” despite no evidence of hostile activity at the hospital.

Even as the attack began, opportunities to avert disaster were missed.

One minute before opening fire, the air crew provided the coordinates of the hospital to a military headquarters at Bagram Air Field. But troops at the headquarters failed to match the coordinates to the no-strike list, and were also under the impression that the aircraft was providing immediate support to troops under fire.

The strike began at 2:08 a.m.

Twelve minutes later, a special forces officer at Bagram received a desperate call from MSF officials saying their hospital was under attack, yet the strikes continued for nearly

20 minutes longer. By the time the special forces commander in Kunduz was informed that the hospital had been struck, the AC-130 had already stopped firing, leaving the main hospital building an inferno of flames.

The U.S. timeline differs from that from MSF, which has reported that the strikes lasted for more than an hour as the organization called and texted multiple officials in Afghanistan and Washington.

The attack followed days of heavy fighting in the northern Afghanistan city, which had been overrun by Taliban insurgents. Afghan forces initially fell back in the wake of the surprise Taliban offensive five days earlier, but then, aided by American special operations troops, fought to retake control of the city.

Senior Afghan officials have claimed that the hospital compound was being used by Taliban fighters to fire on government forces trying to retake the area. Shoffner refused to comment on the Afghan allegations.

American officers have said Afghan forces requested the strike to take out Taliban firing positions, and U.S. intelligence analysts were reportedly tracking reports of insurgents using the hospital.

But MSF asserts that the hospital was not being used as a base by insurgents and that there was no heavy fighting in the area at the time.

The strike sparked controversy over the continued use of American airstrikes, despite the declared end of the international combat mission at the end of last year.

Kate Clark, a researcher with the Afghan Analysts Network, said the Nov. 25 briefing only raised more questions about the American rules of engagement in Afghanistan, which Schoffner said some of those involved did not follow.

“All those rules of engagement take into account the Geneva Conventions, and they are there partly to ensure that U.S. forces don’t breach those conventions and commit war crimes,” she said. “So if you’re not following your rules of engagement you may well be in serious trouble, because it’s not just a war crime to target a hospital, it’s also a war crime not to take precautions to protect civilians.”

In the days following the attack, President Barack Obama apologized and Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he would hold personnel accountable if an investigation showed U.S. culpability in the airstrike at the hospital.

The results did not satisfy MSF officials, who reiterated calls for an independent investigation into the attack, which they say is a war crime.

“The U.S. version of events presented today leaves MSF with more questions than answers,” Stokes said. “Investigations of this incident cannot be left solely to parties to the conflict in Afghanistan.”

More than a half-million people have signed an MSF petition urging Obama to consent to an independent investigation. Critics have said the military investigation, which was overseen by general officers outside the chain of command but vetted by Campbell, is not enough to determine the facts.

The U.S. Forces-Afghanistan investigation, which Campbell defended as “thorough and unbiased,” is one of three undertaken after the attack, but no assessment has been made by anybody outside of the parties involved.

MSF released the results of its own review on Nov. 5, concluding that the attack was conducted intentionally to destroy the hospital, a contention that Campbell denied, saying U.S. forces would never intentionally strike a hospital.

The NATO-led coalition along with some Afghan officials has been conducting a limited probe to officially confirm civilian casualties.

The Afghan government has not launched any kind of separate investigation, despite initial promises to examine the tragedy.

In the end, Campbell admitted, U.S. troops “failed to meet our own high standards on Oct. 3.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Corey Dickstein contributed to this report. smith.josh@stripes.com Twitter: @joshjonsmith

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MILITARY

SETH ROBSON /Stars and Stripes

Filipinos protest near the Olongapo Hall of Justice, where U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted on Tuesday in the 2014 slaying of a transgender woman.

Pemberton had been charged in the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, but was convicted of a lesser charge. Gabriela is a Philippine women’s advocacy group.

Marine convicted in Filipina slaying

BY SETH ROBSON Stars and Stripes

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — A Philippine court on Tuesday convicted a U.S. Marine of killing a transgender woman he picked up in a bar during shore leave last year and sentenced him to six to 12 years in prison — setting off a custody dispute whose outcome could affect U.S. efforts to rebuild military ties with the island nation at a time of concern over a resurgent China.

Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton of New Bedford, Mass., was found guilty of strangling and drowning Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in the toilet of a hotel room in Olongapo, the main city along Subic Bay, in October 2014. The court convicted Pemberton of the lesser charge of homicide rather than murder because the crime was not premeditated and he was impaired by alcohol. He was also ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in damages to the victim’s family.

After the court clerk spent three hours reading Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde’s summation, U.S. and Filipino authorities argued for another three hours over who should take custody of Pemberton.

Ginez-Jabalde said the 1998 U.S.-Philippine Visiting Force Agreement was ambiguous over the custody issue and ordered Pemberton sent to New Bilibid Prison, the country’s main civilian prison in suburban Manila.

SEE PAGE 6

TED A LJIBE /AP

Convicted U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton is escorted to his detention cell upon arrival at Camp Aguinaldo at suburban Quezon City northeast of Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday. Pemberton was sentenced to 6-12 years in prison.

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MILITARY FROM PAGE 4

But the Americans refused to hand him over, citing provisions of the agreement that allow U.S. authorities to hold servicemember-defendants “until completion of all judicial proceedings.” Under the U.S. interpretation, those proceedings aren’t complete until all appeals are exhausted.

Following the verdict, Pemberton huddled with several U.S. officials on the top floor of the courthouse in Olongapo City while a temporary deal was worked out. After the haggling dragged on until nearly 7 p.m., the judge ordered Pemberton returned to Camp Aguinaldo, a Philippine military base near Manila where he has been guarded by U.S. personnel during the trial.

She gave officials five days to reach an agreement on custody or she would send him to Bilibid.

The issue of where Pemberton will be held is sensitive in the Philippines because of its complex relationship with the United States, which wants to build a security relationship with the Philippines to counter a rising China and combat international terrorism.

Many Filipinos believe the United States has never treated the Philippines, a former American colony, as a truly independent country and equal partner. Those suspicions can boil over at any sign of what Filipinos consider special treatment for Americans.

The issue of legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops was among the reasons behind the failure of negotiations to extend the lease on U.S. air and naval facilities in the Philippines in the early 1990s.

Those had been the largest U.S. air and naval facilities in East Asia.

When Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted of rape in 2006 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, many Filipinos were outraged that he was detained at the U.S. Embassy rather than a Philippine prison. In 2009, a Philippine court overturned the conviction after his accuser recanted her testimony. He was then returned to the United States following a cash settlement with the victim’s family.

The fact that Pemberton was convicted, however,

Filipinos protest near the Olongapo Hall of Justice, where U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted Tuesday in the 2014 slaying of a transgender woman.

PHOTOS

helped defuse public anger, despite concern that protests could erupt later if the custody dispute cannot be amicably resolved.

Laude’s mother, Julita, said she had hoped Pemberton would be convicted of murder rather than the lesser homicide charge.

“But the important thing is he will be jailed,” she told The Associated Press. “My son’s life is not wasted.”

The Laude family’s private attorney, Harry Roque, told the AP that “this is a bittersweet victory because it is not murder.”

“If what he did isn’t cruelty, I don’t know what is,” Roque said.

Pemberton met Laude on Oct. 11, 2014, in a disco in a

red-light district of Olongapo while bar-hopping with other Marines following joint U.S.Philippine military exercises.

They checked into a nearby hotel, and Laude was later found dead in the bathroom.

The cause of death was determined to be drowning; her head was in the toilet.

Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., testified that he had drunk a half-dozen beers and several shots of liquor on the night of the slaying. He said that when he got to the disco, he was approached by what he thought were two provocatively dressed women who offered sex.

BY

SETH ROBSON /Stars and Stripes

Pemberton said that when he discovered Laude was a man, a fight ensued. Pemberton said he used a choke hold to subdue Laude but claimed she was still breathing when he left and that someone else must have killed her. A shipmate testified that after Pemberton returned to his vessel, he said, “I think I killed a he-she.”

The case has cast a pall over the renewal of military relations between the U.S. and the Philippines, providing fodder for those who object to any American presence. About 100 riot police cordoned off streets around the courthouse in Olongapo, about 80 miles from Manila, as about 200 protesters awaited the judge’s decision on where to house Pemberton. Some in the crowd waved placards with photos of Laude, while speakers told of other crimes committed by U.S. troops over the years.

The crowd had dispersed by the time the standoff was over.

While the slaying has sparked some protests, public support has been growing for a stronger U.S. military presence, particularly with China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the ongoing threat of terrorism and the need for

international in coping with the typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that regularly batter the country.

President Barack Obama recently signed an agreement with the Philippines to allow U.S. forces to pre-position disaster relief supplies and other materials in the country.

Nevertheless, the deal spawned its own backlash, with the Philippine Senate calling it a treaty that should require Senate ratification rather than a presidential signature alone. The national Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the agreement, with a decision expected this month.

Patricio Abinales, a Philippines expert at the University of Hawaii, says any fallout from the Pemberton case is likely to be short-lived.

“I think there will be the usual noise from the small left-wing groups, but in the light of what China is doing, and with Obama reiterating American commitment to Philippine security during last week’s APEC meeting, Pemberton’s case will be in the media for at most a week, then disappear to the inside pages,” Abinales said. robson.seth@stripes.com

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‘He’s a con, and he killed my soul’ South Korean prosecutors reopen bigamy case against ex-US soldier

BY SETH ROBSON Stars and Stripes

Prosecutors in South Korea have reopened the case of a U.S. soldier who allegedly tricked a local woman into a bigamous marriage and left her $50,000 in debt when he returned to his wife in America, according to South Korean news reports.

Rachel Lee, 43, a divorced mother from Chuncheon, said a friend introduced her to Master Sgt. Scott Fuller, 40, in August 2013 when Fuller was serving with the Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division. The pair hit it off and married in a traditional Korean ceremony just four months later. However, documents Fuller submitted to have the marriage recognized in Korea, including Army and U.S. Embassy certifications of his single status, turned out to be forged, she said.

“He’s a con, and he killed my soul and broke my heart,” Lee said of the deception, which was discovered only after Fuller abruptly returned to the U.S. in May 2014. “He just left without saying anything. He totally ruined my life.”

The Army returned Fuller — who was stationed at Fort Drum in New York — to South Korea when it discovered the forgeries.

In October 2014, a South Korean court found him guilty of forgery and sentenced him to eight months in prison. The Army knocked him down in rank to sergeant first class after an Article 15 hearing, according to documents provided by Lee to Stars and Stripes. The details of the case were then verified by a U.S. military official in Korea.

Fuller then convinced Lee, the Korean court and the Army that he had, at last, divorced his American wife after producing what he claimed was a divorce judg-

ment document from a New York court. His sentence was reduced on appeal to a $10,000 fine with no prison time, and his rank was restored. Fuller also used the document to obtain a dependent identification card for Lee that listed her as his spouse.

It wasn’t until August of this year that she found out — from Fuller’s American wife, Marianne — that the divorce document was also a forgery.

The Army quickly determined that the document was likely not genuine. Nonetheless, U.S. and Korean officials declined to take further action, Lee said.

However, the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported over the weekend that Korean prosecutors are working with U.S. officials to re-examine the case with a focus on the forged papers and might seek Fuller’s return to Korea.

After the court case, Fuller was allowed to retire honorably with benefits Nov. 1 and is living in Rockland County, N.Y., with Marianne; their daughter, 6; and son, 4, according to the New York Post.

“It’s not just a money matter,” said Lee, who claims to have been left with $50,000 in debt, which includes a twoyear lease on the couple’s offbase apartment in Uijeongbu.

‘ Fuller has never

been punished for his bigamy or forgery ... or for his use of forged documents to obtain a military I.D. card. ’

Howard Myerowitz attorney representing Rachel Lee in her case against Scott Fuller

Courtesy of Rachel Lee

Rachel Lee, right, has asked the Army to court-martial retired Master Sgt. Scott Fuller, 40, left, whom she accuses of tricking her into a bigamous marriage, then leaving her $50,000 in debt when he went back to his American wife.

“He has broken my heart and my 16-year-old son’s heart.”

Lee said she has tried to contact Fuller many times but received no reply. He did not answer questions from Stars and Stripes sent to an email address provided by Lee’s attorney.

Last month, Lee said she filed a monetary loss claim through the Army after being advised to do so by Maj. Gen. Theodore D. Martin, 2nd ID commander. That claim will be promptly reviewed on its merits, said Lt. Col. Richard Hyde, a 2nd ID spokesman.

“If approved, the claim may result in an order to Mr. Fuller to pay damages,” Hyde said.

However, Lee also wants the Army to court-martial Fuller.

Last week, Lee’s attorney, Howard Myerowitz of Song Law Firm in Fort Lee, N.J., wrote to Martin asking that the Army prosecute Fuller for crimes ranging from forgery

to making a false official statement, bigamy, obstruction of justice and failure to obey a regulation.

“Fuller has never been punished for his bigamy or forgery of a New York Supreme Court Judgment of Divorce or for his use of forged documents to obtain a military I.D. card for Ms. Lee,” Myerowitz wrote. Under Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, “retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay are subject to provisions of the UCMJ.” It’s a security concern if soldiers are able to forge documents to obtain identification from the Army without punishment, Myerowitz said in a telephone interview last week. “How is this something that the Army doesn’t want to completely throw the book at him over?”

The Army doesn’t usu-

ally pursue charges in a case where South Korea asserts jurisdiction, Hyde said in a recent email.

“Former servicemembers are normally not directly subject to court-martial jurisdiction except in limited circumstances,” he said.

Decisions to charge soldiers — or former soldiers — are carefully considered and take into account factors such as the need to preserve good order and discipline, punishment of the wrongdoer, magnitude of harm to an alleged victim, cost and likelihood of conviction, Hyde said.

“All of these factors are considered in every case, as they were in Mr. Fuller’s case,” he said. “In the end, the decision to prefer charges is a purely discretionary act by a commander.”

Stars and Stripes staffer Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report. robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1

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WAR ON TERRORISM

Anti-Islamic State campaign named for WWII mission

BY TARA COPP Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The pilot in one of the most iconic air battle photographs of World War II wonders whether the Pentagon really thought things through before naming the current air campaign to destroy Islamic State oil Operation Tidal Wave II. The original Operation Tidal Wave was an Aug. 1, 1943, mission to destroy Adolf Hitler’s main oil supply in Ploesti, Romania — the deadliest singlemission air loss in U.S. history.

In the famous photograph, a single B-24 Liberator punches through a wall of black smoke just as it has cleared its burning refinery target. The famous bomber was named The Sandman, and its pilot, then-1st Lt. Robert W. Sternfels, isn’t sure the Defense Department knows how very wrong things went that fateful day in 1943.

Despite the losses, the mission had multiple acts of extreme heroism as airmen pushed through the dangerous target. Five Medals of Honor were awarded for actions Above: Sternfel’s bomber The Sandman, shown in this National Archives document, was photographed in one of the most iconic images of the air war during World War II. Right: Stars and Stripes’ front page for Aug 6, 1943, details the Aug. 1 raid on German oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania. Because the photo was taken in a mirror, the image is reversed.

that day, and the long-range attack — a 2,600-mile round trip — was the longest run accomplished to date.

But it came at a cost.

“I think it’s terrible,” Sternfels, now 95, said from his home in Laguna Woods, Calif.

“The people that selected that … really don’t know what happened.”

Earlier this month, Central Command announced the namesake mission, with a similar goal. In the same way that the U.S. went after Germany’s oil supply — oil was essential for ground and air operations to succeed — the U.S. military is going after the Islamic State’s supply. The terrorist group has made it a priority to take over refinery cities in Iraq and Syria and use the revenue from selling the oil to fund its operations.

Central Command launched Tidal Wave II on Nov. 8 to shut down that funding source.

Unlike the original, single-day mission, Tidal Wave II is ongoing; the U.S. military said Nov. 23 that it had destroyed 283 tanker trucks used to smuggle oil from eastern

Syria mainly to Turkey, where it is sold at a reduced rate to generate about half of the militant group’s income.

Target: Hitler’s oil After weeks of practicing in extreme heat, where crews flew in formations just 100 feet over the Libyan desert, 177 B-24 Liberator bombers took off Aug. 1, 1943, as part of Operation Tidal Wave. They flew from their North African base in Benghazi, Libya, to land a crippling blow to oil refineries in Ploesti.

The refineries were producing an estimated one-third of Hitler’s oil, and the U.S. Army

Air Forces planned a massive run against the target to choke off the supply.

Multiple waves of B-24s from the 98th, 376th, 44th, 93rd and 389th Heavy Bombardment Groups flew in — some 300 to 500 feet off the ground, others as low as 100 feet off the ground — to surprise and destroy their targets.

But the Germans were waiting for them.

They lit smoke pots to obscure the area, and once U.S. aircrews started bombing the refineries, thick, black smoke from the fires made it impossible to see.

German fighters dove and shot at the formations, sending bombers crashing to the ground.

The crews faced heavy anti-aircraft fire, and several bombers hit thick wire traps that the Germans suspended from balloons over the target.

In that single-day strike, 54

bombers did not make it home and 532 airmen were killed, according to “Combat Chronology, 1941-1945,” an official reference maintained by the Air Force Historical Studies Division.

Hitler’s refineries, while damaged, survived the deadly attack. It took another year of relentless bombing, more than 13,000 tons of bombs and the loss of an additional 2,000 airmen before Ploesti fell in August 1944.

When Sternfels questions the naming of the current mission, it’s because he believes serious navigational mistakes that day led to the unnecessary deaths of too many airmen and the failure of the original mission to do lasting damage to the refineries.

Col. Keith K. Compton, commander of the 376th bombing group, led the waves of bombers and had the first wave turn too early, Sternfels said.

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WAR ON TERRORISM FROM PAGE 12

That mistake led them to Bucharest, not Ploesti. In correcting the wrong turn, Compton’s lead group missed its assigned target, the Romana Americana refinery — the most important of the targets, according to the U.S. Air Force Historical Support Division — and the refinery was back to normal within months.

“Virtually every study on the Ploesti attack stated that the damage was not at all significant and had little impact on either overall German oil processing or on production at the Ploesti refining complex,” said Archangelo DiFante, a senior research archivist at the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. But the importance of that mission went beyond destroying refineries, DiFante said.

“It showed the world, especially the enemy, that despite their losses, the [U.S. Army Air Force] heavy bombers could reach and attack targets deep within German-held territory and return.”

The Sandman’s flight Ploesti was on fire and heavy with smoke from Compton’s earlier wave of attacks when Sternfels’ group reached the refinery, so the bombers in his formation used train tracks to guide them.

But the Germans were ready for that, too, and had 88 mm guns mounted on flat railcars. Haystacks along the route began to open, revealing heavy anti-aircraft guns.

The Sandman and the other bombers in its wave of attack were moving in at 200 mph, and it was very difficult

Courtesy Bob Sternfels

Bob Sternfels piloted The Sandman in the Aug. 1, 1943, Operation Tidal Wave mission against Hitler’s oil in Ploesti, Romania. Here he is standing in the waist gunner’s position of the restored B-24 Witchcraft at Lyon Air Museum in Santa Ana, Calif., in May 2014. to keep the bomber under control, Sternfels said. He had his co-pilot, 2nd. Lt. Barney Jackson, grip the bomber’s wheel and both men fought to keep the Sandman level as it flew through the prop wash of the bombers swarming ahead of them.

As Sternfels looked out his window at the gun train below, he said he flashed back to the carnival games he saw as a child, in which people would pay to shoot at fake ducks that were pulled across a carnival barker’s game stand on a chain to win a prize.

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Except here, he recalled, “We were the ducks.”

The bombers that survived were the ones closest to the train, because the rounds were on time-delayed fuses that did not explode fast enough to destroy the Liberators closest to it.

The Sandman pushed into its target, completely enveloped by the smoke. Liberators around him were hit and had engines and bomb bays on fire. They saw some men bail out whose parachutes failed to open. In his mission report of that day, Sternfels and

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.

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his crew reported seeing 11 bombers around them on fire, breaking apart or crashing.

He said he couldn’t think about bombers he saw going down. “I was worried about my survival,” he said. “I had no feeling.”

As soon as he dropped their bombs over the target, bombardier 2nd Lt. David Polaschek used the interphone to reach his pilot.

“He said, ‘Let’s get out of here!’ ” Sternfels recalled.

“I said, ‘I’m doing the best I can!’ ”

Capturing the moment When the iconic photograph was taken, Sternfels and his crew had just emerged from the smoke. He was flying 200 mph about 150 feet off the ground.

“We went into the smoke and, fortunately, we came out of it at a moment where I could see the smokestacks. I was headed right for them.”

Several brick smokestacks about 200 feet tall were directly in front of him. Based on the length of his bomber’s wings — each of which was

55 feet long — he believes he missed the smokestacks by only 35 or 40 feet.

“It was pretty close,” he said. “I didn’t have time to think about it. I was busy trying to correct to save the moment. I wasn’t thinking in the future. I saw them and I pulled up and turned.”

Another Liberator flying ahead of him captured the moment in a photograph.

Once the aircrews returned with the film, the image was selected to distribute to newspapers and quickly became a favorite used to tell the story of the danger crews faced that day.

But the iconic image of that moment is actually backward, Sternfels said.

Because of the extreme combat over Ploesti, none of the bomber’s open windows and gun turrets could be spared for a camera, so crews rigged up an alternative.

“They could not photograph from the side (of the bomber) because of the gun emplacements,” he said. Instead, the crew “attached a mirror out of the back of the plane. It was a front surface mirror, like on a car.”

“When they mounted the camera inside the plane to photograph the mirror’s reflection, things were in reverse,” he said.

The image that was later widely reproduced, and appeared on the Stars and Stripes front page, “is completely wrong,” he said. When he punched his bomber out of the black smoke about 150 feet off the ground, he saw the smokestacks dangerously close on his right-hand side.

In photographs, the bomber should appear to the right of the smokestacks. But even the National Archives version of the photograph is flipped, and the bomber is on the left of the smokestacks. It’s something Sternfels hopes they will correct for history’s sake.

“One side is correct,” he said. “But the other side is preferred in reprints.”

In his book on Operation Tidal Wave, “Burning Hitler’s Black Gold,” published with co-author Frank Way in 2000, the photo is correct. copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter:@TaraCopp

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First of a continuing Stars and Stripes series profiling the 101 veterans in Congress.

From Navy SEAL to US lawmaker

BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ryan Zinke explains his philosophy of government through the 13 military combat knives he keeps in his House office.

They are all the blades issued to the freshman Republican from Montana over his 23 years as an officer with the Navy SEALs and a commander with Team 6. During that time, the special operators were searching for an ideal tool.

Zinke said he began his SEAL career with the classic Ka-Bar knife in the 1980s, during what he calls the ponytailsand-pirates era of the storied special ops teams.

It was a simple and effective knife design first fielded during World War II. But the SEALs were changing from the swashbucklers of the Vietnam era to a more conservative modern force, Zinke said, and they wanted to design a specialty knife to meet their unique requirements.

The result was the Buckmaster, a tricked-out, all-silver survival knife with a hollow storage handle, makeshift grappling hooks and a storage pouch. Despite the bells and whistles, the Buckmaster was heavy and unwieldy.

Eventually, the SEALs moved on to simpler Bowie knife designs, yet still struggled in later years to find an all-American product as required

by purchase rules.

By the end of his career, as a Navy commander, Zinke was back to carrying a Ka-Bar-type knife.

“The irony … we almost started where we ended. The lesson learned is sometimes the original stands the test,” Zinke said. “The lesson learned for acquisition is that sometimes when you have too many chiefs — you know, everyone putting a requirement in — what comes out doesn’t work well.”

Zinke may now be in a better position to do something about the bureaucracy that dogged the SEAL knife design.

Zinke, 54, is wrapping up his first year as the sole representative for Montana — the second-biggest district behind Alaska — and as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which takes the lead in creating annual defense policy.

His focus has been trimming back military bureaucracy and focusing more on the warfighting abilities and front-line leadership that make up the “teeth” of U.S. might.

“You see it almost in every aspect of government. In the military, the decisions that should be made by the (Navy enlisted) chiefs are now going to flag officers,” Zinke said.

“When you have 740,000 (Department of Defense) employees, which is now about equivalent to our active-duty Army and Navy combined, that’s an enormous amount of headquarters at the expense of your teeth.”

Zinke recently sat down with Stars and Stripes for an interview in his office.

Congress As the only congressman representing your state, you’ve criticized federal bureaucrats for being out of sync with local needs. What doesn’t Washington get about Montana?

It’s the same with the military. The view from the headquarters is oftentimes not the same view from the front line. One-size-fits-all may work in Washington, but when you bring it out to Montana, it just doesn’t fit. The model is either inefficient or trying to please everyone.

As a SEAL commander, you have been in charge of nimble, effective teams. How does that compare to working in a Congress that many see as gridlocked and divided?

I haven’t seen anything in 10 months that is outside the ability of America to fix.

That’s a good thing. There is an enormous amount of talent in Congress. The art is getting that talent organized where it acts as a team rather than individuals.

The budget Do you support the significant cuts to Defense Department headquarters staffing in the proposed 2015 defense budget?

The acquisition process in the military is broken. You have major weapons systems that are 17 years old before they’re fielded. Imagine having a cellphone that is 17 years old.

The rate of technology is moving faster, and we need to move at the speed of our competitors and we’re not. What happens is you have these programs where you try to overtest and remove all the risk. It goes through a labyrinth of these desks whose only purpose is to say, “No.” Now, we have the F-35 and other major weapons systems where the turnaround rate is too long. When we were

kids, if you got something military, it was cutting edge. Now, cutting edge rarely is in the military. You have to remove some layers, incur some risk and have some accountability.

As someone who put in over 20 years of service, do you think the military retirement overhaul in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act — providing 401(k)-style accounts to everybody — is a good deal for those who sign up in the future?

It’s certainly more flexible.

Some of the concern prior to this was individuals who served their country for eight years or 10 years would be without any transportable mechanism for retirement. The downside is there is some concern that it is going to be harder to hold people in because you can leave the service at 12 to 14 years.

My response was, if you’re not happy and if you don’t feel like you’re being effective in your job, then you probably shouldn’t be in the military anyway.

Veterans issues People talk about the public being out of touch with the 1 percent or so who serve in uniform. Is there a cultural divide between veterans and nonveterans in Congress?

The divide really is practical experience. I think the consensus of Congress is they support the veterans. But supporting the veterans is more than just allocating resources.

It is understanding what the veteran faces and understanding priority. Also, just because it is a Department of Defense budget, it shouldn’t get a pass.

They have to be held to the same level of accountability as any other department.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving toward more private care. Do you think that is a way to solve the agency’s problems?

I think it should be judged on metrics. If veterans are dying waiting for health care, that is inexcusable.

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Rep. Ryan Zinke explains his philosophy of government through the 13 military combat knives he keeps in his office.

CARLOS BONGIOANNI /Stars and Stripes

FROM PAGE

That means we need options to make sure they have care.

If the VA can’t deliver care in an appropriate time and be competitive with what’s out there, then veterans should be able to go out there and get private care.

I think we need to look at shaking the VA up, and there are some things that VA should do better than anybody. I think they should do trauma, burns and prostheses better than anybody.

They should do traumatic brain injury and help with that bow wave, and post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide support.

Current conflicts How did the death last month of Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, an Army Delta Force

‘ It was Teddy Roosevelt that … understood the

importance of America emerging as not a country of isolationism but a factory of freedom.

’

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana special operator, affect your thinking on the U.S. intervention in Iraq?

I was privy to a lot of individuals — and close friends — that perished, and I remember every one. I think it is a reminder of what the sacrifice is. Also, it is a reminder as a congressman to hold the administration accountable, to make sure we have the right rules of engagement to win decisively. When you go to battle, you want to make sure someone has your back. That if you get in trouble there’s a force ready-trained to assist you, either a quick-reaction force, an air cavalry or a combination of both, as well as medical evacuation. All that I think is a requirement for a great nation to lend its troops that are in harm’s way.

BIO

Party: Republican State: Montana Family: Married, with three children

What should be our military strategy against the Islamic State group?

I don’t think you can do it any worse than we’ve been doing. I’m concerned you have Russian aircraft that could be potentially flying over the forces that we’re trying to help.

The agreement with Russia I saw simply as “don’t bump into each other” and “don’t target each other’s air assets.” But it doesn’t speak to ground forces and whether you are going to engage. We have a case where we’re helping anti-Assad forces and they’re helping pro-Assad forces. ISIS (the Islamic State group) tends to sit in the middle as a common enemy, but the boundaries are not clear. ISIS isn’t wearing blue jerseys, we’re not wearing white and Russia’s not wearing

Age: 54 Branch: Navy Years of service: 23

red, so the operational picture is much more difficult.

It will take an engagement with our allies in the area, and we are going to have to show them we are a reliable partner in this.

Navy SEALs What’s your most vivid memory as a Navy SEAL? Probably being deployed forward in Iraq when my daughter was also deployed and my son-in-law was deployed. My wife was at home with my two young sons.

Chris Kyle’s movie “American Sniper,” when that came out, it focused a lot on the families back home, and that kind of prompted me to remember that period. That movie was

ONLINE

To view video of the life and times of Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, go to: stripes.com/go/zinke

about wounds and sacrifice.

The mission that killed Osama bin Laden has made SEAL Team 6 more famous than ever. Are there any SEAL missions you really want to tell people about but are sworn to secrecy?

I signed disclosures on every one. With bin Laden, I think it should have been just “U.S. special operations forces” who were credited. I think we should have left it there. Over the course of time, it’s been drilled down to individual trigger-pullers. … After bin Laden, the Obama administration released what SEAL Team 6 did. I’ve been very critical of this administration for releasing information, in some cases while special operations were still on target.

That is unprecedented.

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FROM PAGE

Can women be effective SEALs under the current standards?

In my career, there have been women operators that I’ve worked with, and I think everyone has their roles and missions. I look at the Marine Corps study, and I think the Marine Corps had it right.

What is important is mission success, and everyone needs to do their duty to the capacity they can. It is not a question of being tough; it is a question of putting the right person in the right place. Not everyone needs to be a quarterback on a football team. Certainly, women have a more significant role in the military than ever before, and I think we will continue to see that.

When did you join SEAL Team 6?

I was there in 1990. We were still in what I call the “pirate phase.” There was this kind of swashbuckler attitude. The senior enlisted more or less ran the team. An officer’s job was to be quiet and learn and not get in the way. And we were pretty wild. Over a period of time, I think the team had to change. In my career, I spent a lot of time training hard, a lot of time looking at the next contingency and a lot of time looking at what equipment was out there. Occasionally, there’d be a conflict. Today’s SEAL enters the service at war and they’re likely to spend their entire career at war. They are far more lethal. I would say that they are smarter, faster and more capable than my generation. I have no doubt that if the SEAL team of my generation went against the SEAL teams today, I wouldn’t last very long, Was being a special operator something you wanted to do since childhood?

I had no idea what a SEAL was until I graduated college.

I played football at the University of Oregon. There was an admiral who commanded the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War. He was a great Duck alumni, and he used to give the leadership talks to the football team. He just commanded respect. He asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was going to be a field geologist working off the coast and diving as part of that. He said, “Well, if you’re going to dive, the SEALs are more your personality.” He arranged for a

Photos courtesy of Ryan Zinke

Above: Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., heads to his Capitol Hill office, at the door of which he has posted the United States flag, the Montana state flag and the Navy SEAL flag. Below: Zinke served 23 years as an officer with the Navy SEALs and a commander with Team 6. recruiter and arranged to help me with a set of orders. …

I certainly would do it all again, even with the mistakes I made going through. I miss the guys and I miss the camaraderie. I miss the mission focus. I was a witness to great talent.

While I was never the best jumper, diver, explosive expert, I always knew who was. I had an opportunity to surround myself with what I think were the greatest teams assembled.

Last words You’ve said Teddy Roosevelt is your favorite president.

What do you like about him from a military perspective?

He did what he said. Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t perfect, certainly, but he led from the front and he had the courage to think big. We have a lot of our public lands because he had the courage to look 100 years ahead and wonder what the United States should be. It was Teddy Roosevelt that drove the Great White Fleet, that understood the importance of having the Panama Canal and that understood the importance of America emerging as not a country of isolationism but a factory of freedom. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

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PACIFIC

MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR UPGRADES TO NAVY, AIR FORCE INFRASTRUCTURE ON GUAM ARE TRANSFORMING THE PACIFIC ISLAND INTO A

STRATEGIC HUB A B-52 bomber crew chief assigned to the 20th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron marshals his aircraft on the flight line on Aug. 22 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

A LEXANDER RIEDEL /U.S. Air Force

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

Multimillion-dollar upgrades to Navy and Air Force infrastructure on Guam will pave the way for the deployment of the some of the military’s most advanced ships and aircraft, as well as the relocation of thousands of U.S. Marines from Okinawa.

The upgrades will elevate the tiny Pacific island into a maritime strategic hub, a key element laid out by the Pentagon in the Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy issued in August.

Guam, which became an American territory in 1950, is prime real estate for the Defense Department because it’s the only strategic territory that the United States can claim within the time zone of Asia, said Patrick M. Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank.

“Every other contingency requires reinforcement from

Hawaii, Alaska or the West Coast of the United States, or it depends on the politically precarious and expensive forward-basing in host countries” such as Japan and South Korea, Cronin said.

Guam also resides on the strategic axis of the so-called “second-island chain,” which lies outside the primary islands closest to China, such as Taiwan, Japan and the northern Philippines. That strategic location gives the U.S. “persistent engagement and presence” that translates to deterrence of North Korea, and to China’s rising power, he said.

This year saw the arrival of a fourth Los Angeles-class attack submarine and a second submarine tender to Naval Base Guam. The Navy expects deployment of a joint highspeed vessel by 2018, along with three Mark VI patrol boats, during the next couple of years.

At the heart of Guam’s transformation is the planned transfer of 5,000 Marines

from Okinawa to Guam by roughly 2023.

The Navy recently cleared the regulatory hurdles to begin major projects building the Marine Corps base, or cantonment, at the Navy Computer and Telecommunications Station at Finegayan, and family housing and a livefire training range complex on Andersen Air Force Base.

Upgrades for Marine aviation also are underway at Andersen. During a recent tour of the massive air base that covers much of the island’s north, Steven Wolborsky, director of plans, program and readiness for Andersen’s 36th Wing, laid out the numbers.

“We have two 11,000-foot concrete runways, both rebuilt within the last 10 years,” he said. “We have enough parking for more than 155 aircraft, with a robust in-ground refueling infrastructure, so we don’t have to necessarily run a lot of fuel trucks out to the flight line.

“We have the largest capacity of jet fuel in the Air Force

at 66 million gallons — coupled with an equal amount down south with the Navy.”

Roughly 19 million pounds of explosives are stored on 4,400 acres, he said.

Since 2004, the air base has had continuous, six-month rotations of six B-52 bombers and 300 airmen. Fighter jets have four-month rotations, although not on a continuous basis. The region’s squadron of five Global Hawk surveillance drones is based at Andersen. More than a halfbillion dollars has been budgeted since 2010 for upgrades to buildings and infrastructure supporting the airfield.

Heavy machinery is at work in an area north of the airfield, where a vast concrete apron has been laid in preparation for construction of the first of two hangars to be used by the Marine Aviation Combat Element. The site will give the Marines the capability of “hot” refueling, meaning jets can remain running as they gas up.

Workmen are also busy lay-

ing the groundwork for a hangar to lodge the Navy’s MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones, the first of which is expected to arrive in 2017. Wolborsky said four Tritons are expected for the squadron, which will be manned by about 50 Navy personnel during six-month deployments.

The high-altitude Tritons have a range of roughly 2,300 miles, allowing them to easily reach North Korea.

Strategic importance Imperial Japan recognized Guam’s strategic importance as it expanded through conquest during World War II. As Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, they simultaneously attacked Guam and other islands.

Guam was defended by about 400 U.S. sailors and Marines and 250 members of the local militia comprising native Chamorro, but those forces surrendered to overwhelming numbers after the second day.

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U.S. commanders viewed the Mariana Islands, particularly Guam, as a linchpin in the strategy of “leapfrogging” across the Pacific to the Japanese mainland.

After American forces liberated Guam in July 1944, the island was converted into a massive supply depot to support invasions of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and ultimately, it was expected, Japan. Thousands of B-29 bombing sorties flew out of the newly built Andersen Air Force Base on raids on the Japanese home islands.

By the Vietnam War, about 150 B-52s were amassed at Andersen for intense bombing of Hanoi. Andersen remained a strategic B-52 base until the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

“After that came what we call the infamous ‘Sleepy Hollow’ days,” Wolborsky said.

He’s not fond of the pejorative, “but it is a reality that for more than a decade and a half, there wasn’t a lot of interest, activity or investment in capabilities and facilities on Guam.”

The naval air station adjoining the international airport was closed, and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission considered abandoning Andersen, Wolborsky said. Instead, Naval Base Guam and Andersen were merged into a single entity in 2009 named Joint Region Marianas.

America’s renewed focus on the Pacific in the new millennium — largely driven by growing trade with the supereconomies of China and India — led to a re-evaluation of Guam’s strategic importance.

“We’re only a few hours away from any place, whether for contingency or humani-

tarian assistance disaster response,” Wolborsky said, noting that Andersen’s competitive advantage in warfighting comes from long-range strike aircraft.

“The bombers deployed here now are from Minot, North Dakota,” he said. “For them to fly to Asia, do a mission and fly back — which we can do and we’ve demonstrated we can do — would be about a 35-hour mission. That stretches the limits of aircraft and aircrew.

It also requires a half-dozen or more air refuelings to pull that off.

“If we forward that same bomber to Andersen, in that 35-hour period we can do that mission maybe twice, possibly even be working on it a third time with a far lower air-fueling requirement.”

Preparing for Marines Much of the Pentagon’s maritime security strategy for the island centers on Naval Base Guam, whose main site is about 30 miles south of Andersen.

During a recent tour, Capt.

Alfred “Andy” Anderson, the base’s commanding officer, displayed obvious relish in pointing out relics of World War II and the base’s newest improvements.

The airstrip used by the Japanese still sits on the base but is used only occasionally for special operations training.

The planes are faster and missile ranges are longer than decades ago, but those technological advances have not removed the strategic significance of Guam, he said.

“If, heaven forbid, we have a crisis or a fight we have to deal with in this part of the world, the sailing days to get here from the West Coast of

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the United States, you’re talking probably two weeks,” he said. “In most instances, the distance from Guam to, be it Korea, be it the South China Sea, you can get there in about 96 hours.”

Naval Base Guam experienced its own deterioration during the Sleepy Hollow era, but recent projects and deployments — and more to come — are bolstering its maritime posture.

At 3,752 feet, Victor Wharf is the longest in the Pacific theater, and its total renovation was completed in June after years of construction.

It has space to support an amphibious readiness group, which includes an amphibious transport dock, an amphibious assault ship and a third support vessel, he said.

“Because once the Marines are here, if there’s a crisis, we’ve got to be able to get them out of here,” Anderson said.

An adjoining wharf has been rebuilt entirely of concrete that won’t break down under punishment of heavy vehicles and those with tank-track propulsion.

The renovation has been driven largely by the anticipated relocation of Marines to Guam from Okinawa, with some of the funding linked to that move, he said. Some funding has come directly from Japan, he said.

Anderson said there are discussions about porting even more vessels at the base. That fourth sub, the USS Topeka, joined the three other Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarines earlier this year.

The joint high-speed vessel, which the Navy recently redubbed Expeditionary Fast Transport, is slated to be homeported here by 2017. It’s a catamaran-style craft intended

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U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Christopher Owens observes sailors assigned to the Fleet Introduction Team operating a Mark VI patrol boat in Virginia in August. Three of the high-tech boats will be coming to Guam in the next couple of years. to quickly move cargo and personnel, particularly where ports are small or ramshackle, because it can maneuver in only 15 feet of water. The vessel also includes a helicopter flight deck and a ramp for quick vehicle off-loading.

“The joint high-speed vessel is specifically designed to help the Marines and get them to their location in a quicker manner,” Anderson said.

Patrol boats on way The state-of-art Mark VI patrol boat that is headed here is a “game-changer,” said Capt.

Erich “Buzz” Diehl, commander of Task Force 75, which was stood up earlier this year and is headquartered at Camp Covington in Naval Base Guam.

With two arriving next year and a third expected in 2017, the 85-foot-long boats will have the range to reach the high seas far from islands to support major combat operations, Diehl said.

Task Force 75 is the Seventh Fleet’s newest task force, aimed at streamlining command-and-control explosive ordnance disposal, Coastal Riverine and Seabee detachments — components of which are operating in 13 to 18 countries on any given day.

The components can quickly shift to humanitarian aid and disaster relief. For example, the task force provided planners and engineer support to the III Marine Expeditionary Force when it responded to the massive earthquake in Nepal

last spring.

The Mark VI, with a crew of 10 and capability to carry eight more people, harkens back to the versatility of the PT boats used throughout the Pacific island chains during World War II. “The reason I say it’s a game-changer for us is because it really provides a capability niche for a lot of our countries that don’t, say, have large frigates or destroyers,” Diehl said. “It’s a light capability in the coastal-to-blue-water area.”

Standard arms include two remote-controlled MK-38 25 mm guns and six .50-caliber machine guns, with additional mounts to hold more machine guns and a grenade launcher.

The rear of the boat can launch and retrieve small boats and unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles. Yet the Mark VI is small enough to be transported by larger Navy ships such as amphibious transport docks.

Diehl said he expects the Mark VI will often be deployed on amphibious ships to support the myriad annual exercises in the region, such as PHIBLEX, the bilateral amphibious exercise held in the Philippines with U.S. Marines.

In general, the new boats will enhance U.S. interactions with partner nations and allies.

“That’s a big part of what we do, building relationships throughout the Indo-Asia Pacific,” Diehl said. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

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