Stars and Stripes May 7, 2015

Volume 7, No. 20 ©SS 2015

FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015

For information please contact Waverly Williams 803-774-1237 or waverly@theitem.com

Son writes book chronicling World War II captain’s secret mission to save hundreds from the Soviets Lee Trimble, right, chronociled the covert mission of his father, Capt. Robert Trimble, above, in “Beyond the Call.”

CARLOS BONGIOANNI /Stars and Stripes

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Friday, May 8, 2015

COVER STORY

An Army Air Forces bomber pilot thought his new mission was to fly repaired aircraft out of the war zone. It turned out to be much more than that. He was sure it was ...

‘A ONE-WAY TICKET TO A FIRING SQUAD’

BY CARLOS BONGIOANNI Stars and Stripes

C

ARLINGTON, Va. apt. Robert Trimble was “mad as hell” when he learned of the deception.

It was Feb. 15, 1945, and the 25-year-old U.S. Army Air Forces bomber pilot had just arrived for duty at Poltava Air Base, Ukraine. It was one of three bases in Soviet territory where the U.S. military was allowed to operate during World War II, and Trimble accepted orders there believing it would be a relatively risk-free mission flying out aircraft that had crashed and been repaired.

Checking in with the commanding officer of the small U.S. contingent at Poltava, Trimble asked, “Where are these planes that they want ferried back to Italy and England?”

That’s when Col. Thomas Hampton dropped the bombshell, informing Trimble that flying planes out was only a ruse to deceive the Russians. His real business at Poltava was a top-secret mission, working with counterintelligence agents to find recently liberated American POWs and help them get home. The mission would eventually expand to include POWs from other allied nations as well as death camp refugees.

As his mind tried to process the information, Trimble had to restrain his anger at being duped into a role that was a “one-way ticket to a firing squad” if the Russians discovered what he was doing.

Later, after making contact with POWs roaming the Polish countryside, Trimble fully embraced his mission. He saw the desperate plight of those who had been liberated from Third Reich prison camps. Many were sick, emaciated, often clothed in rags and left to fend for themselves during a brutally harsh winter.

Trimble risked his life numerous times over six weeks, helping to rescue hundreds of POWs. He came to the aid of others, too. In one daring rescue, nearly foiled by Russian agents who had become suspicious of his activities, Trimble helped 400 French women make it out of Poland and back to France.

“The Russians were trailing me something fierce,” he would later tell his son, Lee, who only learned of his father’s secret exploits in 2006, more than 60 years after the war.

Robert Trimble accidentally mentioned to his son that he had served in Russia. The slip of tongue led to three years of interviews as the son coaxed his father into telling his story. Robert Trimble died in 2009.

“He never wanted to go public with this,” Lee Trimble said during a recent interview in northern Virginia, where he spoke of his nearly decade-long effort to document and research his father’s war experience for a book. “Beyond the Call,” published in February. “He had held on to this for 60-plus years … because his superiors had told him, long ago, that it was top secret and not to talk about it.”

There was also the fear that divulging his experiences might come

back to haunt him. “The Russians may not be happy with some of the things he did,” Lee Trimble said.

Cowards and traitors That first day in Poltava, Robert Trimble received a crash course on the political hurdles the United States and its western allies faced.

As many as 1 million former inmates recently freed from Nazi prison camps in Poland were in dire need. Advancing Soviet troops, for the most part, were not interested in providing aid to those who might turn out to be spies or who might hold antiSoviet sentiments.

And they were not interested in letting other allied nations provide aid in territory that the Soviets were planning to gobble up as the war was coming to a close.

Allied leaders were concerned about treatment of prisoners of war, whom the Soviets viewed as cowards. In 1941, in an effort to ensure his troops fought to the death in their war with Germany, Soviet leader Marshal Joseph Stalin decreed that

any troops who became POWs were criminal deserters. “There are no prisoners of war, only traitors,” he said.

Russian POWs who survived Nazi concentration camps and fell into the hands of their own comrades were usually put to death for the crime of becoming a POW.

Because the Soviets had thwarted nearly every effort to get teams into Poland to extract POWs, a plan was hatched to bring a pilot to Poltava to be an agent working with the Office of Strategic Services, the U.S. military’s wartime intelligence agency, which was the precursor to today’s CIA. SEE PAGE 3

Capt. Robert Trimble on the road between the American camp and the headquarters site at Poltava Air Base, Ukraine, in 1945.

Courtesy of Michael Kaluta

Friday, May 8, 2015

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COVER STORY FROM PAGE 2

‘Absolutely safe’ On Dec. 30, 1944, Capt. Robert Trimble had just completed his 35th and final bombing run over Germany. Elated that his tour of duty was over, Trimble was eager to get home and see his wife and newborn daughter. As he landed his B-17 Flying Fortress at RAF Debach, England, where he was assigned to the 493rd Bomb Group, he was called in by his commanding officer, Col. Elbert Helton, who made Trimble an offer: You can go home on leave for three weeks and then face the very real possibility of getting new orders that will put you in harm’s way again, running more bombing missions. Or you can take an “absolutely safe” job out of the combat zone.

It was an agonizing decision that cost him his leave, but Trimble took the latter. Six weeks later — after getting a diplomatic passport in London and taking a circuitous route from the U.K. through Paris, southern France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Iran, and Russia — Trimble landed at Poltava.

After his briefing, Trimble met two OSS agents who were to work undercover in Poland gathering information on POWs. They gave him instructions on contact procedures and codes for communications, all of which he had to memorize. They also touched on the hazards he would face, particularly if the Russians learned of his work. In that case, he would be a prime target for murder.

The day after arriving in Poltava, Trimble was flown to Krakow, where the Russians wanted to show the Americans a former Nazi camp that had been liberated. It was his first day in Poland, and Trimble was taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. A pile of naked bodies frozen stiff and overflowing from a shed was one of the horrific sights that etched itself in his mind and haunted him for the rest of his life, he later told his son.

Trimble was also exposed again and again to atrocities committed by Soviet troops. Lee Trimble writes in the book that his father had been “to the abyss, looked over the edge and could never be the same.”

In seeing the depths of depravity reached in war, the pilot asked himself, “How could this be a world worth fighting for?”

Soon after his trip to Krakow,

Trimble was staying at the Hotel George in Lvov, Poland, where he received information on a group of American POWs in a barn in southeast Poland. Sneaking away from the hotel and his official Russian escort, Trimble found his way to the barn with a small supply of food and a plan to get the men to Lvov, where he would buy them tickets to Odessa, Ukraine. Once there, the POWs stood a good chance of getting transport that would get them back home.

After a few such missions, word began to spread throughout the Polish countryside about the American captain who was helping POWs of all nationalities. Soon groups were making their way to Lvov to find him.

Every time Trimble left the air base, he carried a vest stuffed with as much as $15,000, a huge amount of money for a war-zone economy.

The cash would be quickly spent attending to the needs of the POWs.

‘Needles in a haystack’ After his father’s death, Lee Trimble began the arduous odyssey of discovery to see whether there was official documentation of what his father had revealed.

“This was really like trying to find needles in a haystack. I’ve been researching this for six years,” he said. He got no information through Freedom of Information Act requests.

“I went to the CIA. I went to the Department of Defense. And all I could get was a simple reply like, ‘No records found,’ just three words.

There’s no comeback with these people. You can only interact with them through their websites.” If he wanted to ask a follow-up question, Trimble said he had to start a whole new case for each one.

With the help of his daughter, Rachael, Trimble began searching the National Archives and found documentation that showed his father had served at the U.S. Eastern Command at Poltava. And he learned of the intense political battles brewing behind the scenes as Cold War rivalries were heating up at the close of WWII.

Treated like pawns By the end of March 1945, Trimble’s secret mission in Poland came to an abrupt end. The Soviets were angry over several incidents involving American aircrews and unau-

thorized transport of personnel and aircraft. In retaliation, they halted all flights by American aircraft into and out of Poltava for nearly a month. Rescued combat crews, wounded troops and salvaged bombers were kept from leaving the base. No mail was allowed in or out.

Morale plummeted.

To appease the Soviets, the U.S. court-martialed two pilots involved in suspect flights, and the top two U.S. officers at Poltava were relieved of command. That left Trimble as the next highest-ranking officer to take command of the American contingent.

That the U.S. repeatedly caved to Soviet demands and seemed more than willing to sacrifice its own people in doing so was very troubling to Trimble. He was sickened by the “duplicity and dishonor of politics.”

He doubted that the generals in charge would stand up for him if his secret mission became known.

There was a deep sense of betrayal, Trimble later told his son. “That was an overriding theme in my discussions with my father — that he had always felt that he and his men were all treated poorly as though they were pawns in a greater political battle,” Lee Trimble said.

The war in Europe came to an end in May 1945, and the Eastern Command at Poltava was closed down June 23, 1945. Trimble received the Bronze Star for his work at Poltava, though it is not known if it was for his role as commanding officer or if it also recognized his secret mission.

“Beyond the Call,” recounts how Trimble was so disturbed by the events that unfolded during his time at Poltava, that he wrote in one of his last weekly report as commanding officer: “Shame on America.”

Upon returning to the States, he couldn’t shake the horrors of war he had seen. His belief that the higherups sold out their men for the sake of diplomacy ate at him. Already struggling with depression, Trimble was called to the Pentagon, where a general upbraided him for what he wrote.

The book recalls: “How could it have come to this? After everything he’d been through, all he’d given of himself, to be scorned like that, told he was unpatriotic; to have longed so deeply to come home, only to find that the war tormented him more here than it had when he was in the thick of it.”

Trimble had suicidal thoughts.

World War II: Leading to the end, an interactive project at stripes.com/go/victoryeurope

His wife, Eleanor, realized it and beat him to the gun, threatening to use it on herself. It jolted him to tears, he told his son.

“It was hard to put the part of my mom threatening to kill herself into the book,” said Lee Trimble.

“But I felt it was important. It just shows how emotional the time was between the two and that it actually took a few years after he got back to really have the relationship better again.”

While he was in the process of getting his discharge papers, Trimble was ordered to go to Wright Air Base in Dayton, Ohio. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that his work in Poland was being recognized. The French ambassador presented Trimble with the Croix de Guerre for his efforts in saving the 400 women.

“So this was the irony of what was going on,” Lee Trimble said, noting that the French recognized his father’s heroic acts just after he was reprimanded by a U.S. general.

Trimble also received recognition from the Russians in 1995, who sent him the 50th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War medal for his contributions at Poltava in helping the Russians defeat the Nazis.

Overdue honor Though his father never intended to have his story go public, Lee Trimble said he felt compelled to write it.

“I think the world deserves to know that there was this great humanitarian who saved on the order of a thousand lives,” he said.

For several years, Lee Trimble worked with the office of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to get the Air Force to posthumously promote his late father to major in accordance with two general officers’ recommendations in 1945. However, the Air Force said the request had gone well past the statute of limitations and denied it.

The office of Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., is now in the process of submitting a package to the Defense Department requesting they look into whether Trimble is deserving of the Medal of Honor, his son said.

“I feel that my father never received from the United States the honor that he should have received for the work he did.” bongioanni.carlos@stripes.com

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Friday, May 8, 2015

MILITARY

Quake relief team has international flair American, British, Nepalese veterans join forces to help bring aid to disaster victims in Nepal

BY SETH ROBSON

Aid — in the form of food, medical supplies and searchand-rescue teams — has poured in from dozens of countries and aid organizations. So far, the Nepalese earthquake victims have been appreciative of the foreign volunteers’ help but some are frustrated at slow delivery of government aid, Mrzlak said.

There have been reports of relief materials piling up at the airport because of a customs backlog, although USAID officials dispute the claim. Agency officials say the supplies are being stored away from the airport before being sent out.

One of the British veterans helping Team Rubicon is Chloe Russell, 33, a former British Army captain. Russell is using skills she honed on four deployments to Afghanistan with the Royal Logistics Corps to get hold of gear, such as batteries, that team members need.

Team Rubicon United Kingdom plans to set up this year.

Its first aid mission was to have been to the Philippines, but when spots opened up for the Nepal mission, Russell decided to go.

On Sunday, she was preparing to drive three hours from Kathmandu to Langtang, which has yet to receive much help, she said.

“I’m a bit nervous but I want to get out there and see what I can do to help,” she said. “I feel privileged to be here.”

Stars and Stripes

KATHMANDU, Nepal — U.S. and British veterans are teaming up with ex-Gurkhas to bring aid to Nepal earthquake victims.

Team Rubicon — a group of U.S. veterans who use their military training to help people after disasters — has sent several teams to Nepal in recent days. About 20 members are working with 10 British military veterans, the Gurkhas and Nepali doctors in quake-hit villages.

Gurkhas — whose name comes from Nepal’s Gorkha region — have served with British forces for more than 200 years. They participated in both world wars and have been involved in numerous other missions, with multiple deployments to Afghanistan in recent years.

There are about 3,000 Gurkhas serving with the British army today. They have a reputation for being disciplined, loyal and friendly, said British Army Lance Cpl. Hasta Gurung, 46, a former Gurkha who is helping guide Team Rubicon in Nepal.

The death toll from the April 25 earthquake surpassed 7,200 over the weekend as search-and-rescue workers reached into more remote parts of the Himalayan country.

Gurung, who still serves as a military policeman in Britain, said his home village, near the quake’s epicenter in the Barpak region, was leveled.

“My village is completely wiped out,” he said Sunday as he helped the U.S. and British veterans plan an aid mission.

“Two people died, and my close relatives are homeless.

The surrounding villages were destroyed, too.”

Team Rubicon has brought medical supplies from the U.S., and has set up camp at another company’s office in

PHOTOS

BY

SETH ROBSON /Stars and Stripes

Nick Mrzlak, 42, of Farmington, N.M., an ex-Navy hospital corpsman, plans an aid mission with Nepalese men in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday. Mrzlak is part of Team Rubicon, a group of U.S. veterans who are teaming with British veterans and ex-Gurkhas (Nepalese soldiers) to help Nepal earthquake victims.

Kathmandu.

This is the first disaster for Dennis Clancey, 32, of Phoenix, a former U.S. Army infantry captain and Iraq veteran, since he joined Team Rubicon six months ago. The export company owner said Kathmandu became saturated with aid workers early, so Team Rubicon is focused on distant villages.

On Saturday, Clancey and Gurang were looking at maps to work out where to send aid while other former servicemembers tested generators.

“It is just a matter of getting good enough intelligence and getting to areas that other aid groups haven’t gone to,”

Clancey said.

Team Rubicon travels light so members can walk to hardto-reach areas, he said.

“There have been landslides and avalanches in some places that have covered roads, and people can’t get out,” said Nick Mrzlak, 42, of Farmington, N.M., an ex-Navy hospital corpsman.

Mrzlak has already spent two days camping at Malemchi — an area northwest of Kathmandu that suffered severe damage.

“We were doing very basic first aid and we set up a clinic and saw about 100 patients,” he said.

At this time of year Nepal

is warm at low elevations, but team members expect to work in snow and freezing temperatures in some of the most isolated, high-altitude villages, he said.

robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1

‘

My village is completely wiped out. Two people died, and my close relatives are homeless.

The surrounding villages were destroyed, too.

’

British Army Lance Cpl. Hasta Gurung former Gurkha helping guide Team Rubicon in Nepal

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MILITARY

‘Inappropriate’ comment ends AF general’s career

BY JENNIFER SVAN Stars and Stripes

A comment deemed ethnically offensive has ended the 34-year career of an Air Force major general, a decorated combat pilot who oversaw about 32,000 personnel.

Air Force officials have not disclosed the specific words that led to the resignation of Maj. Gen. Michael Keltz, commander of 19th Air Force at Joint Base San AntonioRandolph, Texas.

The comment was made at a public, nonjudicial punishment proceeding, at which a company-grade officer was appealing an Article 15 punishment before Keltz, the convening authority. The hearing was held April 9 in San Antonio.

Article 15 hearings are typically held for minor infractions and can result in certain limited punishments, such as pay forfeiture or extra duty. A person can appeal if he or she feels the punishment is unduly harsh.

Maj. Toni Whaley, a spokeswoman for Air Education

and Training Command, confirmed May 1 that the comment was an offensive ethnic stereotype in reference to the officer’s alcohol intake, though it was not directed at the individual. She said the Air Force won’t release Keltz’s comment, which resulted in several complaints to the staff judge advocate.

Whaley said the companygrade officer will get another chance to appeal his punishment. “Because the comment was inappropriate, a decision was made by leadership to let this member have his day in court again with a clean slate” she said. The Air Force won’t release the nature of the officer’s offense until the issue is legally resolved.

Whaley said an official retirement date for Keltz has not been set yet. In the interim, he’s working as a special assistant on the staff of Gen. Robin Rand, the air training command commander, who has accepted Keltz’s resignation.

In a statement, Keltz said: “I inadvertently made an unfortunate comment, I own it, and I

hold myself accountable to the same high standards my subordinate commanders are held to. As a result, I have tendered my resignation from command and requested to retire from service.”

Rand, in a news release, praised Keltz as an “extraordinarily dedicated” airman and commander with a highly distinguished service career.

Keltz, Rand said, “realizes the impact of his actions and has expressed his genuine regret to me, which he extends to all” airmen.

“As a senior leader” Keltz “understands he must be held accountable for this inappropriate comment.”

Rand appointed Keltz to lead 19th Air Force in October. The unit was responsible for training more than 30,000 U.S. and allied students annually, from entry-level undergraduates to advanced combat crews.

Keltz’s resignation ends a career that began with his graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1981. He flew combat and contingency operations on AC-130H, MC-

Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

Maj. Gen. Michael Keltz, the commander of 19th Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, resigned effective April 30.

130E, MC-130H and AC-130U gunships and Combat Talons aircraft in Grenada, El Salvador, Panama, Sierra Leone and in operations Desert Storm and Provide Comfort, according to his Air Force biography.

He was also the air component commander for several

classified joint task forces in Iraq and Afghanistan during operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

He accrued more than 4,000 flying hours, including more than 300 combat and contingency sorties. svan.jennifer@stripes.com

US advisers in Iraq settle into life and daily work

BY JOSH SMITH Stars and Stripes

BESMAYA, Iraq — For the American soldiers arriving to train Iraqi security forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, this base just south of Baghdad offers few surprises.

Many of the familiar-looking wooden huts and concrete blast walls are left over from the last U.S. units that occupied this base before all American troops were withdrawn in 2011.

The first new troops arrived here at the beginning of the year. The Army won’t say exactly how many of its soldiers man this particular training camp, officially designated the “Building Partner Capacity site,” but the U.S.led coalition says it has roughly 1,000 trainers at four such bases around Iraq.

An advance team scouted the site

late last year to determine what needed to be revamped for the new American presence and, according to officials at the camp, the conclusion was not much.

“There is really very little different now,” said Sgt. 1st Class Frank Batts, who routinely visited the Besmaya base while his unit was deployed in the area in 2010.

The camp boasts a large gym and a dining facility that most deployed soldiers would likely consider above average. Contractors in bow ties slice fresh tropical fruit and serve American and international troops a range of dishes. A recreation facility is still largely empty, with equipment just starting to arrive.

“I can’t complain at all,” said Sgt. Brandon Roberts, who is one of many soldiers on their first deployment.

“There’s good food, and we’re working hard. Nothing to complain about.”

One downside to this particular base is that, according to soldiers, it doesn’t have a post exchange, and mail can take more than a month to arrive. So troops who make runs to better stocked bases in Iraq often return better supplied.

It was at this site in March that the first U.S. soldier was injured by ground fire since the coalition began training Iraqis. The soldier was slightly wounded in the face when an unknown gunman fired from outside the base.

At Besmaya, the coalition camp is located in close proximity to the Iraqi soldiers with whom the advisers work.

Unlike in Afghanistan, where the international training efforts have been marred by deadly insider attacks by Afghan forces, that threat hasn’t significantly affected daily work for foreign troops here.

“We have a security posture that

would prevent [an insider attack] from occurring, but we’ve never seen any indications that there would be an attack,” said 2nd Lt. Rebecca Tummers, an intelligence officer at the base. “It’s not something we consider a high threat in this area.”

That was an assessment echoed by other American soldiers, who said they’ve had nothing but good relationships with the Iraqi forces.

“The platoon that I work with has a pretty decent bond, and they want to joke with me as soon as I show up,” said Sgt. Cody Sorrell. “It got to the point where I knew when they needed a break or when I should push harder.”

Maj. J.D. Pritchett went further in describing his daily work with the Iraqis: “We would call them friends.”

Email: smith.josh@stripes.com Twitter: @joshjonsmith

Friday, May 8, 2015

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Friday, May 8, 2015

MILITARY

Padres assemble troop care packages

California base holds wildfire training

BY JENNIFER H LAD Stars and Stripes

Kellum is an Army veteran who has served since 2000 and remains in the Army Reserve. He said he knows how nice it can be to receive a personal note and care package while deployed, “to know someone is thinking about you.”

Carla and Jim Hogan, whose son, Donald, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009, also participated by providing socks for the care packages. Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan was walking on a road with his squad in southern Afghanistan when he saw an IED trigger string.

He called out a warning to his fellow Marines and shoved the man who was closest to the bomb, saving the squad but sacrificing himself. He received the Navy Cross for his actions.

After their son’s death, they kept in touch with his squad mates, Carla Hogan said, and noticed that they were always asking for socks. The Hogans created an organization called Socks for Heroes and have now shipped 355,000 pairs of socks to troops overseas.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.

— Marine and Navy aircraft practiced fighting wildfires April 30, scooping up water from Pulgas Lake and dropping it on a nearby hill as smoke from the real thing billowed in the distance.

This is the eighth year the base has teamed up with civilian firefighters for the certification exercise, but this year’s training seems particularly critical with severe drought leaving many parts of San Diego County bone dry.

Last May, fires burned more than 6,000 acres at Camp Pendleton, forcing hundreds of Marines and families to evacuate. More than 40 military aircraft helped fight those fires.

The current fires at Pendleton have burned about 4,000 acres in live-fire impact areas but are contained and do not pose a threat to buildings or people, officials said.

“Obviously we had a pretty tough year last year, and we’re expecting it to be another tough year this year,” said Brig. Gen. Edward Banta, commander of Marine Corps Installations West and Camp Pendleton. The military-civilian partnership was created after the 2007 wildfires, which scorched 370,000 acres and burned 1,600 homes.

Marines and sailors also appreciate being able to assist when called, they said.

“San Diego’s our hometown, so of course we want to help out when we can,” said Lt. Cmdr. Renee May, an MH-60H Knight Hawk pilot.

Military choppers hovered April 30 over Pulgas Lake, gathering hundreds of gallons of water in buckets attached to the aircraft and dumping it on a nearby hill. An MV-22 Osprey also participated in the demonstration but did not have a bucket attached.

Hlad.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @jhlad

hlad.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @jhlad

BY JENNIFER H LAD Stars and Stripes

SAN DIEGO — Seven years after a Marine mother learned that some of her son’s battle buddies weren’t receiving any mail, a grass-roots effort to support the troops has grown into a partnership with a Major League Baseball team that has produced more than 3,000 care packages.

On April 29, players and management of the San Diego Padres, as well as several employees of Mercury Insurance, gathered on the field at Petco Park to put together 1,000 baseball-themed care packages for the deployed Marines and sailors of I Marine Expeditionary Force. Each box contained a baseball, a Padres hat, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, dental floss, socks, Cracker Jack popcorn, beef jerky, a razor, a Padres bag and a personal note.

Supporting the military is part of the team’s long-term identity, said Tom Seidler, a member of the Padres’ ownership group.

The team was the first national sports team to have an annual military appreciation day, and in 2008 began wearing camouflage jerseys for every Sunday home game. The current camouflage jersey uses the Marine Corps’ digital pattern in desert colors.

“We are always looking for new and different ways” to show our support, Seidler said, and assembling care packages is simple and fun.

In 2008, Monica Nungaray’s son was serving in Afghanistan when he told her that some of his fellow Marines had not received any mail or care packages. Nungaray and one of her co-workers at Mercury Insurance organized a “packing party” and sent 80 packages that year.

The party grew annually, and in 2014, the insurance company began partnering with the baseball team to send baseballthemed packages.

Staff Sgt. John Jackson was the recipient of one of those boxes last year at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. This year, he helped pack boxes for his fellow Marines.

J ENNIFER HLAD/Stars and Stripes

San Diego Padres pitcher Tyson Ross and his girlfriend, Ashley Hoffman, assemble care packages for deployed troops at Petco Park on April 29. Mercury Insurance worked with the Padres to assemble and ship 1,000 packages to Marines and sailors with I Marine Expeditionary Force.

The self-described “huge baseball fan” roots for the St. Louis Cardinals, but said he appreciated the care package from the Padres.

“It definitely means a lot,” Jackson said. “It’s great to get anything baseball related.”

Ian Kennedy, one of the Padres’ starting pitchers, helped pack boxes last year and asked to be included this year as well.

He also brought his three young daughters — the oldest is 4 — to participate, because he said he wants to teach them about helping others and what it means to serve.

Kennedy’s brother-in-law is in the Navy and recently got stationed in San Diego, and he said he tries to do as much as he can to support the military.

“We don’t forget about them when they’re gone,” he said.

The items in the care packages were provided by the insurance company, and Kevin Kellum, a claim specialist with Mercury, said it’s just “a way for us to say thank you to Marines and sailors serving today.”

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Show military spouses your appreciation today

MILITARY

Gen. Dunford nominated M for Joint Chiefs chairman

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has tapped Marine Commandant and former Afghanistan commander Gen. Joseph Dunford to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In Dunford, who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama picked a general with extensive battlefield experience in two countries where American forces are still deployed. If confirmed by the Senate, it would mark the latest promotion in the 59-year-old general’s rapid rise through the ranks. Obama praised him as “tireless” and one of the most respected strategic thinkers in the military.

“I know Joe, I trust him, he’s already proven his ability to give me his unvarnished advice based on his experience on the ground,” Obama said in a brief appearance with Dunford on Tuesday.

The pick comes as 3,000 U.S. servicemembers are back in Iraq after a long, unpopular war in the country. Radical militants with the Islamic State have seized territory and killed thousands while the U.S.-trained Iraqi military disintegrated. American military advisers are now trying to help Iraqi forces beat back the Islamic State while training at

Friday, May 8, 2015

JACQUELYN M ARTIN /AP

President Barack Obama has tapped Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday. the same time. Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, where a war that began more than 13 years ago is as violent as ever, though most of the fighting is being done

by Afghan forces, with the Americans focused on training and advising.

“We have to keep training Afghan forces and remain relentless against al-Qaida,” Obama said.

Lawmakers were quick to praise Dunford, who would succeed Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

“In addition to his leadership of the Marine Corps, General Dunford’s exemplary service in Iraq and Afghanistan makes him a strong choice,” Sen. John McCain, RAriz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,

Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher Terry Leonard, Editor Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor Tina Croley, Managing Editor for Content Amanda L. Trypanis, U.S. Edition Editor Michael Davidson, Revenue Director CONTACT US 529 14th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20045-1301 Email: stripesweekly@stripes.com Editorial: (202) 761-0908 Advertising: (202) 761-0910 Michael Davidson, Weekly Partnership Director: davidson.michael@stripes.com Additional contact information: stripes.com

said in a statement.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement: “The range and severity of threats America faces today is unprecedented. I am encouraged that the president has chosen as his top military officer a general who has stared down many of those threats personally.”

Obama nominated Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the head of U.S. Transportation Command, as vice chairman.

Dunford and Selva must be confirmed by the Senate.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter calledthe men “exemplary leaders.”

“I look forward to their sound counsel and to working with them to protect the country and meet the needs of the finest fighting force the world has ever known,” he said in a statement.

In Afghanistan, Dunford was the top commander for 18 months from early 2013 to 2014.

An Afghan Ministry of Defense official said Dunford had a good relationship with Afghan security forces.

“We hope that he remains committed,” he said.

Stars and Stripes’ Zubair Babakarkhail in Kabul, Travis Tritten in Washington and Jennifer Hlad in San Diego contributed to this report.

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.

© Stars and Stripes, 2015

ilitary Spouse idea of needing special recogAppreciation Day nition as a military husband, is today, a date fearing a separate day would intended to recogbe divisive. nize all military spouses. HowChris Pape is a videographer ever, male military spouses who created MachoSpouse. sometimes feel overlooked by com, one of the promoters this day of recognition. One of this year’s Male Military website dedicated to male Spouse Day. When Pape was spouses, MachoSpouse.com, is chosen as the 2014 Air Force promoting the first Male MiliSpouse of the Year as part of tary Spouse Day this week as the Armed Forces Insurance well. Some military husbands Military Spouse of the Year I talked to, while agreeing that competition last May, he was most spouse programs don’t given a coin. It was pink. He quite fit them, were ambivalent and the spouse of the year winabout the need for their own ners from each of the service day of appreciation. branches, as well as the overall Male spouses are getting Military Spouse of the Year, more attention these days, said were honored at a luncheon in Army spouse Dave Etter, the Washington, host of a podcast called Male SPOUSE CALLS D.C. ImMilitary Spouse Radio. mediately “With the increased accepafterward, tance of field grade (positions) the other being filled by women, the honorees large strides gained by the — all women LGBT movement, amplified by — were the invention of social media, invited to anguys as spouses are being other event identified,” Etter said. at the White His Male Military Spouse House. Pape Radio broadcasts cover the exwas not. pected topics, “I unJoin the conversation with Terri at like grilling derstand stripes.com/go/spousecalls techniques, it was for finances, and a Mother’s one simply Day brunch,” titled, “Beer Beer Beer.” AnPape said, adding slyly, “I asother, however, was all about sumed, since I wasn’t invited wardrobe for formal military to the Mother’s Day brunch, events, including the dos and that I might get an invite for don’ts of evening wear: Do Father’s Day, Memorial Day, wear a T-shirt under a dress the Fourth of July, or any other shirt. Don’t wear argyle socks event, but nothing.” with a tuxedo. He and his Pape shrugs it off, admitting guest even discussed the finer the majority of male spouses points of evening gowns, which don’t need or want their own can be worn on some official day. “But we thought it would occasions by their active-duty be fun, so we’re running with wives. it,” he said.

Military husbands defy some Etter had some suggestions stereotypes, but they don’t for the celebration. “Now, if want to be treated like women. there were a Military Spouse Appreciation Day geared Etter said spouse appretoward guys — with female ciation events usually try to spouses welcome, of course — include men, but with limited the vendors who sponsor would success. Corporate sponsors [be] the likes of Cabela’s, Bass know less than 10 percent of Pro Shops, NAPA, DeWalt … spouses are men, so tokens of Male military spouses would appreciation tend toward the come out of the woodwork in feminine. droves to participate in that “I count on my yearly kind of event.” manicure in May to maintain If Etter is right, Pape and my leading-man stature and MachoSpouse might be on the appearance,” joked Army right track. The website partspouse Chris Field, a professor nered with a gunsmith school, of philosophy.

Sonoran Desert Institute “I’d appreciate a male School of Firearms Technolspouse day, sure,” he said, “and ogy, which awarded a scholara new set of grill tongs would be great.” But Field said he ship for one of their courses to isn’t quite comfortable with the a male military spouse.

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