Stars and Stripes February 5, 2016

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Volume 8, No. 8 ©SS 2016

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Carter recommends longer maternity and paternity leave for servicemembers

ILLUSTRATION BY BEV S CHILLING Stars and Stripes

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MILITARY

Courtesy of the DOD

Portuguese, Spanish and U.S. troops train at the Besmaya Range Complex in Iraq. The Pentagon’s budget proposal doubles the amount spent on fighting militants.

SCOTT THOMPSON /Courtesy of the U.S. Air National Guard

The Pentagon wants to keep the A-10 Thunderbolt II in the Air Force arsenal until 2022, a nod to the aircraft’s effectiveness against insurgent targets in Iraq and Syria.

SHAWN M C C OWAN /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

The budget would fund the purchase of 45,000 smart bombs for the Air Force, which has dropped more than 35,000 munitions against the Islamic State group.

DOD budget increases funds for battling Islamic State with eye on Russia, China

BY TARA COPP Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has designed its 2017 budget request to push more money into the fight against the Islamic State group and shift resources for potential conflicts with Russia and China, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Tuesday.

“Key to our approach is being able to deter our most advanced competitors,” Carter said during a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., a group of private sector and government leaders who meet regularly to hear from national policymakers. “To be clear, the U.S. military will fight very differently than we have in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in the rest of the world’s recent memory. We will be prepared for a high-end enemy.”

Compared to last year’s Defense Department budget, the $582.7 billion request for 2017 would double the amount of money that the United States spent battling Islamic State militants and would quadruple the amount it spends on defenses in Europe against continued Russian aggression.

SEE FUNDING ON PAGE 3

S.T. STEWART/Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps

Marines with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, depart Camp Lejeune, N.C., for a rotation in Europe last year. The Defense Department’s 2017 budget proposal calls for an additional 3,000-5,000 troops to be sent to Europe.

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MILITARY

Navy SEAL to receive Medal of Honor

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will award the nation’s highest award for military valor to a senior enlisted Navy SEAL for his actions during a 2012 raid in Afghanistan that freed an American civilian from captivity.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Edward Byers, a special warfare operator, will receive the Medal of Honor on Feb. 29, the White House announced Tuesday.

He’ll be the 11th living servicemember to receive the award for actions in Afghanistan and only the third sailor presented the medal since the 9/11 terror attacks.

The most recent sailor to receive

the Medal of Honor was another Navy SEAL, Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, a master-at-arms who in 2006 was posthumously awarded the medal for actions in Iraq.

Byers’ “courageous actions” occurred Dec. 8-9, 2012, according to a White House announcement. The White House did not provide specific details about his actions, and the Navy did not immediately respond to a request for more information. However, Navy SEALs from the highly secretive SEAL Team 6 took part in a raid Dec. 9, 2012, to free an American doctor from Taliban captors in the eastern Afghanistan mountains of Laghman province. Dr. Dilip Joseph had been captured outside Kabul on Dec. 5 and was rescued in the operation. The

raid included a large firefight that left at least a handful of Taliban fighters dead as well as an American, 28-yearold Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque, whom the Pentagon said at the time had been assigned to an East Coast-based naval special warfare unit.

An unnamed defense official told USA Today that the SEAL’s actions left no doubt that he deserved the Medal of Honor.

“There’s no margin of doubt or possibility of error in awarding this honor,” the defense official familiar with the case said. “His actions were so conspicuous in terms of bravery and self-sacrifice that they clearly distinguished him to be worthy of the award, including risk of his own life.”

Byers, 36, is a native of Toledo, Ohio, who enlisted in the Navy about a year after graduating from Otesgo High School in Tontogany, Ohio, in June 1997, according to the White House.

A SEAL since 2003, Byers has served eight overseas deployments including seven combat tours. He’s a highly decorated operator who has been awarded at least seven medals for combat valor, including five Bronze Stars with “V” device. He’s also been awarded two Purple Hearts.

The Medal of Honor has been awarded to only five Navy SEALs. Three received the honor for actions in Vietnam before Monsoor in Iraq and Lt. Michael Murphy for actions in 2005 in Afghanistan. dickstein.corey@stripes.com

Funding: Proposal quadruples amount spent countering Russia FROM PAGE 2

To bolster the U.S. military’s fight against the Islamic State group, the Pentagon wants to keep the A-10 Thunderbolt II warplane in the Air Force arsenal until 2022, a nod to the critical role the aircraft has played striking insurgent targets in Iraq and Syria. It also would fund the purchase of 45,000 smart bombs to replenish the supply for the Air Force, which has dropped more than 35,000 munitions against Islamic State targets since Operation Inherent Resolve began in August 2014.

Carter said the United States must also focus on Russia and China.

Because of their actions, from Ukraine to the South China Sea, “DOD has elevated their importance in our defense planning and budgeting,” he said.

In Europe, the Pentagon’s planned moves would amount to a surge in U.S. military presence and spending in a region that until two years ago was a constant target for cuts in troops, which now stand at about 65,000. But Russia’s annexation nearly two years ago of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support of

pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine has led the United States and NATO to dramatically step up their presence in eastern Europe.

In late 2014, the European Reassurance Initiative was launched and supported more frequent Air Force and Navy rotations into eastern Europe along with numerous infrastructure projects to sustain an increased presence, such as refurbished military runways, firing ranges, barracks and training grounds where allies conduct war games.

In the 2017 request, which will be delivered to Congress on Tuesday, the Pentagon is seeking a base budget of $514.1 billion and a separate Overseas Contingency Operations account of $58.6 billion, which is within the limits set in December as part of last year’s budget agreement.

While the full details of the budget request will not be available until next week, Carter outlined some of his top initiatives. $3.4 billion to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops to Europe, and a brigade’s equivalent’s worth of additional tanks, vehicles and artillery to shore up NATO defenses against Russian aggression.

The request would quadruple the amount the United States is set to spend countering Russia in Europe in fiscal year 2016. $7.5 billion on operations against the Islamic State. $1.8 billion to purchase 45,000 replacement smart bombs. $71.4 billion to support research and continued development of futuristic propulsion systems for jets, navigation and targeting systems for bombs, and swarming capabilities for both. $8.1 billion to develop advanced undersea weapons systems to counter recent advances in Chinese submarine technology.

Defense budget experts already have questioned how the Pentagon can afford these initiatives, especially given the modernization expenses that the Pentagon faces for the next generation of submarines, stealth bombers and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

At a recent defense budget discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a panel of budget experts warned that the ongoing needs in Afghanistan and Iraq will make it more difficult to make the upgrades the Penta-

SUSAN WALSH /AP

Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks about his proposed Defense Department budget Tuesday at the Economic Club of Washington. gon seeks.

“When the next administration takes office in January 2017, it will need to make many difficult choices to rationalize long-term defense modernization plans with the resources available,” Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the center,

cautioned at the meeting.

Carter acknowledged the difficulty ahead.

“Budgets often require trade-offs … so where tradeoffs among force structure, modernization and readiness posture needed to be made, we generally pushed to favor the latter two,” he said. copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter: @taracopp

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COVER STORY

Troops say parenting benefits long overdue

BY STEVEN BEARDSLEY Stars and Stripes

Servicemembers welcomed a new Pentagon plan to boost benefits for military parents, many saying the changes were long overdue and some arguing they still fell short of what military families need.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Jan. 28 that he would set maternity leave at 12 weeks for all services and ask Congress to raise paternity leave to 14 days from 10. The Army and Air Force currently offer six weeks of maternity leave.

“Our calculation is quite simple,” Carter said in a Pentagon news briefing. “We want our people to be able to balance two of the most solemn commitments they could ever make: a commitment to serve their country and a commitment to start and support a family.”

The proposals are part of Carter’s ongoing effort to modernize the military and to make it more competitive as it seeks to retain and recruit quality forces.

“It’s a long time coming, and it’s expected,” said retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Melody Fugazzotto, who now lives in Wiesbaden, Germany. “You have more women in the military, in general, and in higher positions than they were before.”

Katy Elrod, an Army veteran and mother of two who works for Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Naples, Italy, said six weeks of maternity leave was never enough for new mothers, physically or emotionally.

“This is the minimum, and I’m really, really happy they’re doing it,” she said.

Female sailors and Marines receive 18 weeks of maternity leave since

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus tripled the benefit in July; they’ll lose six of those weeks when the change goes into effect.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said it was disappointed by the move, which will break faith with female Marines and sailors. The group for post-9/11 veterans urged the DOD and White House to intervene and ensure their leave time is not reduced.

“As a former naval officer and a parent, I am particularly disappointed by this six-week loss in maternity leave for Marines and sailors,” said Matt Miller, chief policy officer for IAVA. “It’s critical that the Defense Department preserves and improves the system of support for military families, and those who continue to face challenges in finding and paying for quality child care.”

The Navy will honor the 18-week leave for sailors and Marines who are pregnant or become pregnant within 30 days of the service enacting Carter’s new policy, said a spokesman for the service’s personnel command.

Some sailors say 12 weeks is insufficient.

“I don’t think it’s enough time to come to an emotional place where you can take your child to the (Child Development Center) and leave them there while you go to work,” said Seaman Jessica Spradley, a hospital corpsman with the Yokosuka Naval Hospital’s OB/GYN Section. “Only 12 weeks of maternity leave is not emotionally easy for moms.”

Carter also said he’d increase hours at military day care centers and expand health coverage to include fertility treatment. He plans to ask Congress to increase the three-week leave for dual-military families adopting a child, and allow the second parent to take off two weeks if that person is also in the military. He also proposed allowing families to postpone a military move under certain circumstances.

Juggling parenthood with a military career has long been a challenge for servicemembers, who, unlike their civilian counterparts, cannot take unpaid leave.

Capt. Juan Pratts, with the Army’s 266th Financial Management Support Center in Kaiserslautern said Carter’s plan to expand day-care hours — from 12 hours a day to a minimum of 14 — might help him juggle his morning schedule. He takes his year-old son to child care on one base when it opens at 6 a.m. and then races to another base for physical training at 6:30. Under the new changes, the center would open at 5 a.m.

Servicemembers welcomed Carter’s plan to expand paternity leave.

“Right now, we’re only getting 10 days, and those first few days are really hard for the moms to be by themselves with the kid,” said Sgt. Jean Paul Ramos, with the 21st Theater Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern. “So I would say, yes, it would definitely benefit the couple.”

Proponents of the changes, like Elrod, say they push the military in the right direction — and make it a trailblazer for the rest of the country, where maternity and paternity leave are still rare for many jobs.

“The military doing this is incredibly important because we’re setting the standard,” Elrod said.

Stars and Stripes reporters Tara Copp, Travis Tritten, Phillip Walter Wellman, Dan Stoutamire, Tyler Hlavac and Nancy Montgomery contributed to this report.

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MILITARY

Marines, Army: Women should sign up for draft

BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps commandant and Army chief of staff told the Senate on Tuesday that they believe women should be required to sign up for the military draft now that they are being integrated into all combat positions.

Marine Gen. Robert Neller and Army Gen. Mark Milley testified there should no longer be an exemption for women in the Selective Service program, while Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the opening of combat roles has raised the need for a national debate.

The service leaders were called before the Senate Armed Services Committee for an oversight hearing on the ongoing effort to open about 225,000 combat military jobs — from boot camp to special operations units — to female troops.

“Every American that is physically qualified should register for the draft,” said Neller, who had requested but was denied exclusions of women in some Marine com-

bat jobs.

Mabus, who has been a top supporter of women’s integration, was not so forceful with his recommendation on the draft, which has been used in the past to increase combat forces during wartime but has not been used since an allvolunteer force was created in the 1970s.

Men, who had in the past filled combat roles, are still required to register with the Selective Service in case a draft is again needed. But now that women will serve in all combat jobs — following an order by Defense Secretary Ash Carter in December — the question of the draft is looming.

“This needs to be looked at as a national debate given the change,” Mabus said.

The Supreme Court has ruled that women do not need to register because they do not fill critical combat occupation specialties, according to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and the question is again working through the courts.

In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in the case of the National Coalition

CARLOS BONGIOANNI /Stars and Stripes

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., asks a question during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., looks on. for Men v. the Selective Service System on whether the draft should include women.

McCaskill said she believes it is time for women to be part of the draft. “Part of me believes that asking women to register” could make them realize that a military career is an option, McCaskill said.

But as the Pentagon moves forward with women’s integration, some lawmakers on the Senate panel remain skeptical, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

McCain pointed again to a Marine Corps integration study released last summer that found differences among women — specifically, more injuries and lower performance in combat situations.

He said it shows that biological differences have implications on the battlefield.

Neller

Mabus

“Rather than honestly confront these realities, some have sought to minimize them,” McCain said.

The senator questioned the timeline of the military’s decision to open combat positions, saying it was made before the consequences were thoroughly studied.

But service leaders who testified — including Neller — told lawmakers they have accepted the integration order

Milley

and are moving forward. The Pentagon hopes to have all plans in place by April.

Full integration will likely take longer. The Army will require up to three years to move women into all of its armor and field artillery occupational specialties, Milley said.

He said he has “absolutely no doubt in my mind” that some women can perform any job in the Army. trittten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

World War II-era dry dock moving from Guam to Philippines Stars and Stripes

A massive, dilapidated, dry dock used in the Pacific since World War II is moving to the Philippines after spending nearly half a century at Naval Base Guam.

Several local tugboats and the 467ton tug Rhocas guided the Richland dry dock out of Apra Harbor last week in preparation for an open-ocean tow to the Philippines that will take several days. The Rhocas began that tow on Jan. 28.

“I’ve been working on this dry dock since I was 18 — in the 1970s and ’80s,” Paul Yatar, a crane operator with Guam Shipyard, said in a Navy statement. “I worked on her while she was an active dry dock, but it has reached its life cycle, and it’s a good thing to see it go after all this time.”

It’s unclear what will happen to the dry dock — which has a deep basin that can be flooded so ships can be floated in and repaired after the water is drained — once it arrives in the

Philippines.

The Richland — more than two football fields long, 124 feet wide and 57 feet high — was built in 1943 by Chicago Building & Iron Co. of Eureka, Calif., and was put into commission the following year, the Navy said. It first was towed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then to the Eniwetok and Ulithi atolls before making its way to San Pedro Bay, Philippines, to be used with U.S. and Allied ships near the end of World War II. It was reclassified as a medium

auxiliary floating dry dock in 1946 and was renamed Richland in 1968, when it arrived at Apra Harbor while the Vietnam War was in high gear and Guam served as a major jumping-off point for ships and aircraft.

The piers at the base have undergone major renovations the past few years, improvements that have left no room for the antiquated dry dock, Capt.

Alfred “Andy” Anderson, the base’s commanding officer, said last fall. news@stripes.com

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WAR ON TERRORISM

An AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter flies over the desert terrain between Tal’Afar and Mosul, Iraq, in 2006.

Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Accelerating the campaign More US troops, Apaches could be needed in retaking Mosul from Islamic State

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The United States could need more troops — amd attack helicopters — in Iraq as it prepares Iraqi forces to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland said Monday.

MacFarland, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said the United States is weighing options to “accelerate” the campaign, which could include expanding its 3,700-troop force there. The additional troops would help more quickly train about 10 brigades of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters assigned to liberate Mosul, the country’s second-largest city.

“All of us in uniform are preparing various options, and the president will decide,” the general told reporters Monday at the Pentagon during a video briefing from Baghdad. “… Certainly, we’ll do everything we can to continue this campaign by, with and through the indigenous forces that are on the ground. That’s really the best way to defeat the enemy, we believe.”

It remains unclear when ground operations against Mosul could begin. The Operation Inherent Resolve coalition has trained nearly 20,000 Iraqi troops for the fight and has about 3,000 in training.

The siege of Mosul, a city much larger than Ramadi, could require up to 30,000 troops, Army Col. Steve Warren, an OIR spokesman, estimated last week. About 10,000 Iraqi troops participated in the Ramadi offensive, although most of the fighting was led by Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, a force largely expected to lead the fight again in Mosul.

Iraqi commanders have estimated their forces would be prepared to take Mosul by the end of the year or the beginning of 2017. MacFarland declined to speculate Monday, saying only that he wants “to get this wrapped up as soon as I possibly can.”

In recent months, the United States has expanded its own role in the fight against the Islamic State militants, primarily through the use of special operations forces. In Iraq, it added some 200 troops called an Expeditionary Targeting Force to conduct raids and gather intelligence. It additionally added about 50 special operators in Syria to work with indigenous forces fighting the militant group there. MacFarland, like other Pentagon leaders, declined to comment on the special operations groups.

Those forces are not expected to serve on the front lines in assaults on major cities such

“I believe surprise is a really underappreciated principal of war. I don’t want to get too much into what those precise capabilities would be because I’d like the enemy to find out about it for the first time when the area around them is going up in smoke.”

Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland top US general in Iraq

as Mosul or Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s self-declared capital in Syria, Pentagon officials have said.

On Monday, MacFarland told reporters he did not want to provide specifics about the options he’d lay out to Pentagon leaders for any further increases in the United States’ role in Iraq.

“I believe surprise is a really underappreciated principal of war,” he said. “… I don’t want to get too much into what those precise capabilities would be because I’d like the enemy to find out about it for the first time when the area around them is going up in smoke.”

But they could include American AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. MacFarland said the options that the United States provided Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the lead-up to the assault late last year on Ramadi — including American-flown Apaches — are still possible.

Al-Abadi did not explicitly turn down the offer for the United States to provide Apaches to take Ramadi, MacFarland said. Instead, the prime minister simply didn’t see the need for them at that time, the general said.

“He didn’t say, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Maybe a little bit down the road we’ll need it for other places,’ ” MacFarland said. “… We are in a constant dialogue with the Iraqis about what kind of support they require and we can provide.

“They have to ask for it, and they have to want it, and we’re here to provide it as required,” he said. dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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MILITARY

A NDREW BARTHOLOMEAUX /Courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Lt. Kevin Mullins instructs Lt. Corey Schulz on proper sextant procedures recently in Newport, R.I. The sextant is used to take the altitude of the sun to determine latitude in celestial navigation.

Navy to teach more sailors art of celestial navigation

BY M ATTHEW M. BURKE Stars and Stripes

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Navy has long been a scientific leader, outfitting its ships and sailors with cuttingedge technologies. However the sea service is returning to its roots and teaching sailors how to navigate using the sun, moon and stars.

Celestial navigation is an art that harkens back to the time before the United States was founded. It was long considered one of the most important educational requirements for mariners, but was largely discontinued a decade ago by the Navy as navigation relied more heavily on computers and global positioning systems.

In 2011, navigators and assistant navigators once again began receiving celestial navigation training at the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officers School in Newport, R.I., said Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows, a spokeswoman for the Naval Education and Training Command. Starting this summer, the training will be required for enlisted quartermasters, who assist navigators, in CSchool programs.

In fiscal 2017, it also will be implemented for entry-level quartermasters in A-School, and Navy ROTC pilot programs at the Philadelphia

Consortium, University of Rochester and Auburn University began the training in the fall.

“It’s a difficult topic, but our sailors are pretty excited about it,” said Rear Adm. Michael White, education and training commander. “It’s part of their history, and it takes them back to their roots.”

Learning celestial navigation requires some classwork, he said, but sailors also must go out at night, armed with a sextant, an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. They take multiple sight readings, which are essentially angular measurements between celestial bodies and the horizon.

The students then consult almanac tables to identify celestial bodies and chart their position and course.

Navy ships generally have multiple navigation systems, from an inertial navigation system to GPS, so they are never in danger of losing their way if one goes down because of hacking or mechanical failure, White said. At the same time, relying solely on technology could be a recipe for disaster.

What if one or multiple systems are hacked or malfunction and you are left with only one? Celestial navigation can also be used to check the accuracy of those computer-

and technologically-based systems.

The return to the core principles of navigation was due to efficiencies in training that freed up more time to teach the old discipline and has little to do with cyberattacks, Navy officials said. Yet that threat cannot be overlooked in the computer age.

Instead, the decision to bring back the sextants was simply a tweak to the curriculum, which White said is a balancing act between the past, present and future. His command must decide what stays and what goes.

For example, the Navy still teaches the use of flags to send signals, yet teaching the operation and maintenance of a ship’s pump has changed dramatically. That process used to be mechanical, but now, the controls are electrical while some are operated remotely. This has changed the knowledge an operator must possess.

“There’s always a balance,” White said. “Do you teach how to operate and fix [a system] or do you rely on technology?

I spend a lot of time looking at that.”

There are no plans to add additional timeworn navigational techniques back into the Navy curriculum, White said. burke.matt@stripes.com

Remains found at site of helo crash in Hawaii Stars and Stripes

Some remains have been retrieved from the site of two downed Marine Corps helicopters off Hawaii’s North Shore, a Honolulu newspaper reported.

Twelve Marines died in the Jan. 14 crash, which remains under investigation.

The deceased Marines’ families have been given information about the remains, according to the Star-Advertiser in Honolulu.

“We have a very detailed plan in place to handle any of our brother Marines as we retrieve them and then bring them back to their families, wherever they would like, in a dignified fashion,” Capt.

Timothy Irish, a Marine Corps spokesman, told the newspaper.

He provided no further details about the remains.

The Marines did not immediately responded to a Stars and Stripes request for further information.

Debris from the two CH53E helicopters is concentrated about two miles offshore from Waimea Bay, strewn in an area 300 feet beneath the surface. The North Shore is famous for its high waves, which have hindered search and recovery efforts.

A safety zone, encompassing waters extending a mile in all directions around the salvage operations, will remain in effect through Feb. 10, or until salvage operations are complete.

The Navy’s USNS Salvor is leading the underwater salvage effort, and has been using equipment brought in from Key West, Fla., to assist divers, the Star-Advertiser reported.

“We have a very detailed plan in place to handle any of our brother Marines as we retrieve them and then bring them back to their families, wherever they would like, in a dignified fashion.”

Capt. Timothy Irish Marine Corps spokesman Salvagers have the ability to mix gases for dives deeper than 300 feet, and divers have been acclimating to the extreme depth, Irish said.

The USNS Navajo, a Navy tugboat, is expected to assist with the effort, he said.

Officials want to preserve and retrieve debris so investigators can piece together what caused the helicopters to crash.

Salvor has sonar and a remotely operated vehicle aboard, but as of Saturday no decision had been made whether these would be used in the salvage, the newspaper said.

“The first step is to get the ship out to the site and to get the wreckage mapped, then a decision will be made as to how the recovery operation will proceed,” Sarah Burford, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, told the newspaper in an email Saturday.

Roughly 80 Marines are assisting in the recovery. news@stripes.com

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PA PAGE 10

MILITARY

Bergdahl’s lawyer says his client is entitled to medals

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

FORT BRAGG, N.C.— Accused Army deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should be awarded several medals, including the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal, his military lawyer asserted Tuesday during a pretrial hearing.

Army Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt said Bergdahl, accused of abandoning his eastern Afghanistan post in 2009 before he was captured by the Taliban, was entitled to the awards and the Army’s failure to grant them could bias potential jurors in the trial.

Bergdahl faces a general court-martial on charges of “misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place” and “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty.”

He has not entered a plea.

“We believe this is a prejudice and casts a semblance of guilt,” Rosenblatt told Army Judge Col. Jeffrey R. Nance during the hearing, which largely focused on the defense’s ability to access classified material related to Bergdahl’s case. “We encourage the government to correct that.”

Bergdahl, who appeared for the first time in front of Nance on Tuesday, wore a pressed dress blue uniform with sergeant’s stripes, a Combat Infantryman Badge and 10 overseas service bars, representing his five years in captivity. Rosenblatt said Bergdahl should be authorized to wear the Purple Heart, the POW Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the NATO medal.

Nance, who will oversee Bergdahl’s court-martial scheduled for Aug. 8-19 at Fort Bragg, N.C., said there was time to resolve the issue before the trial, adding that any prejudice that could be caused by the lack of medals on future pretrial proceedings is “minimal.”

Bergdahl, 29, remains on active duty at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, assigned to U.S. Army North.

He spent five years imprisoned by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network before he was released in May 2014 in a controversial prisoner swap for five Taliban commanders who had been held in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The soldier faces up to life in prison if convicted of the more

TED RICHARDSON /AP

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, arrives for a pretrial hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C., with his defense counsel Lt. Col. Franklin D. Rosenblatt, left, on Tuesday. Bergdahl, who was held by the Taliban for five years after he walked off a base in Afghanistan, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. serious misbehavior charge.

The desertion charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a dishonorable discharge, reduction to the rank of E-1 and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.

Throughout the hearing, Bergdahl remained mostly silent, answering three questions from Nance, “Yes, sir.” The ex-captive sat straight up in his chair throughout the nearly two-hour hearing, maintaining his focus on the judge.

Meanwhile, the prosecution and defense wrangled over wording in a protective order governing how classified information, including some 300,000 pages related to the case, is handled.

While Rosenblatt said his team must be granted greater access to that information to properly prepare Bergdahl’s defense, the prosecution argued that safeguards must be in place to protect the unauthorized leak of classified information.

“It’s prejudicial to Sgt. Bergdahl if he can’t get to [classified information] right now,” Rosenblatt said, adding that his client is “the guy who has the most need to know but the least access to it.”

The prosecution, represented by Capt. Michael Petrusic, argued that any such classified information — and any witnesses who might have access to such details — should be screened by a senior military

official with authorization to classify or declassify material before it can be released to Bergdahl’s defense.

Nance, noting the complexity that the vast amount of classified material adds to the case, said he would determine in the near future how such information should be handled, adding that some of it has already been made public.

“The fact of it being released to the public does not declassify it,” Nance said, indicating that such information could not be used in public court unless it is properly declassified.

Nance did not set a date for Bergdahl’s next court appearance. dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

Live-fire training resumes with restrictions at range in S. Korea

BY SETH ROBSON Stars and Stripes

Training resumed Saturday at the Rodriguez Live Fire Range in South Korea, although restrictions introduced after a missile went astray last month will remain in place for the time being.

A tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided anti-tank missile fired Dec. 30 by U.S. Marines landed 200 meters outside the range boundary in an abandoned building within Pocheon

city limits. An investigation into the incident is ongoing, said Col. David Patterson Jr., 8th Army spokesman.

“We will not fire the munition involved in the … incident on [Rodriguez Range] until the joint investigation is completed,” he said.

The safety of Pocheon residents remains a top concern of the command, Patterson said.

“Eighth Army is committed to work with the (South Korean) government to address the concerns of the Pocheon

residents,” he said.

However, the readiness of 8th Army units is critical to deterring aggression, and the range provides a unique opportunity to train and prepare its units, Patterson added.

U.S. and South Korean forces have been on alert this week after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6.

In response, South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts of propaganda and pop music across the Demilitarized

Zone, and the U.S. sent a Guam-based B-52 bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons on a low-level flight over South Korea as a show of force.

The Rodriguez Live Fire Range is a 3,390-acre complex used year-round by both U.S. and South Korean forces.

While most of the surrounding area is rural, nearby residents have long voiced complaints about noise, fires and other incidents. robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1

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VETERANS

VA seeks more money for claims processing

BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs was hit again Tuesday with concerns over the mismanagement and ballooning costs of its new paperless system for processing disability claims.

Department officials told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that it expects to request more money from Congress for its $1.3 billion electronic benefits management system, which has helped decrease a backlog of paper disability claims but also increased in cost by 122 percent since it was set up in 2009.

The cost overruns are due to poor VA oversight including numerous unplanned changes to the system and inefficient contracting, according to federal audits by the VA inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.

Congress made a substantial investment in the Veterans Benefits Management System that “is still not functionally operational after six years

— I’m sure that can be argued — but there is certainly going to be more money needed,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House panel.

Miller said some claims still cannot be fully processed through the electronic system, as auditors pointed out last year.

Dawn Bontempo, director of the VA’s Veterans Benefits Management System, said the electronic system was designed to be regularly updated and improved, which is the reason for the continuing costs.

“We will never stop looking for ways to improve service to our veterans,” Bontempo said.

“We will be turning our attention to new innovations as part of the 2018 budget.”

The paperless filing system has helped to reduce the

number of veterans waiting a long time to hear back on their disability claims.

The backlog reached a high point in 2013, when 611,000 were waiting more than 125 days for a VA decision. The department has dramatically reduced that number to slightly more than 75,000, though the number of veteran appeals to those decisions stands at about 433,000, the department reported.

The VA had a goal of eliminating the backlog by 2015 but was unable to reach it, and now says that some more complex veteran claims will always take longer.

“There are some things that are harder to do and we can’t do it within 125 days,” said Beth McCoy, VA deputy under secretary for field operations.

Despite the progress, the VA inspec-

tor general found in September “costs continue to spiral upward and final end-state costs remain unknown,” all while the department cannot guarantee an adequate return on the investment.

The VA recently weathered a scandal after its mismanagement led to the largest construction project failure in its history. A Denver hospital project ballooned from $328 million to nearly $1.7 billion.

Two House lawmakers raised the alarm this month over the VA’s plans to spend $624 million to create a new electronic patient scheduling system for its clinics and hospitals, saying it is spending too much.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., told the VA it should have made it clear to Congress in 2009, when it began the new paperless disability processing system, that it would require more money in the future.

“You say you have a never-ending project with a never-ending price tag and never-ending goals,” he said.

tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

VA reinstates two implicated senior executives at Phoenix

BY DIANNA CAHN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has sent two senior executives implicated in the 2014 wait times scandal in Phoenix back to work and says more temporary reinstatements will likely follow after the agency issued new guidance on the appropriateness of paid administrative leave.

Lance Robinson, who was assistant director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, and Brad Curry, the Phoenix Health Administration services chief, have new jobs at the Phoenix VA after 19 months on paid leave, according to VA officials.

Their disciplinary cases are still pending, said VA spokesman James Hutton, while the VA reviews “recently obtained evidence to determine what accountability actions may be appropriate.”

The reinstatements come as the VA faces growing scrutiny over misconduct in its leadership ranks and the discipline of those involved. Veterans’ advocates have lambasted the VA for failing to fire implicated officials and for wasting taxpayer money by leaving suspected officials on indefinite paid leave while their cases remain

unresolved.

Hutton said the department published new guidance Jan. 6, stating that paid administrative leave should be used “only where absolutely necessary” — when an employee is “a direct threat to self or others, to the Department’s mission or to government property.”

“This has prompted a review of all cases in which VA employees have been sent out on administrative leave and should result in many of those employees’ return to duty, either in permanent positions of record or, where appropriate, in other roles on a temporary (detailed) basis,” he said.

Though that guidance was issued only last week, Hutton said the return of Robinson and Curry was a direct result. The two men had been on paid suspension since May 2014, after the VA Office of Inspector General found they’d been involved in a data-manipulation scheme to cover up long waits that veterans faced for appointments.

Robinson was also implicated in a different investigation for retaliating against a whistleblower.

Robinson will now be a strategic planner for the network and Curry will be a health systems specialist, said Jean Schaefer, spokeswoman for the VA Southwest Healthcare Net-

work, VISN 18.

Last week, lawyers for Robinson challenged the VA to fire him or put him back to work, claiming the agency didn’t have enough evidence to take action against him.

His lawyers also directly contradicted Dec. 14 testimony by VA Under Secretary for Health David Shulkin before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He testified that the delays in disciplinary cases at the Phoenix VA were due to a criminal probe by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that was preventing them from interviewing key witnesses.

Robinson’s lawyers said that federal prosecutors had decided months ago not to pursue charges and that Robinson had been interviewed by VA investigators on more than one occasion.

When the scandal erupted in May 2014, the VA IG found that more than 1,700 patients were languishing without care because their names were left off the electronic wait list for appointments. Some died while waiting for care. The scandal led to revelations of mismanagement and misconduct nationwide. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned amid the crisis.

Veterans advocates denounced the VA for a lack of accountability following the return of the two Phoenix of-

ficials, calling on VA leadership, from Secretary Bob McDonald on down, to take responsibility for failing to punish executives who acted to harm rather than help veterans.

“If Secretary McDonald and the top leadership at the VA do not have the courage, or competence, to properly fire employees like Curry and Robinson who engage in misconduct that puts lives at risk, then they have no business managing an agency that millions of veterans rely on for their critical health care needs,” Concerned Veterans for America Legislative and Political Director Dan Caldwell said in a statement. “The stakes for our veterans are simply too high.”

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said in a statement that the fact that it took 19 months to conclude that Robinson and Curry needed to work for their paychecks was “simply mind-boggling.”

“Right now, VA leaders owe the public an explanation for why they wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars paying these employees to sit at home while apparently taking almost no action to investigate the allegations against them,” he said. cahn.dianna@stripes.com Twitter: diannacahn

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Say what?

COVER STORY

A sample of reader comments from

stripes.com

Lowering standards for women?

Students with Infantry Training Battalion practice basic marksmanship at Camp Geiger, N.C., on Sept. 26, 2013. They were part of the first company to include female Marines.

TYLER L. M AIN Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps

General’s ‘greatest fear’ that military might lower standards for women

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The military will face pressure to lower standards if women are unable to meet the physical requirements to join front-line combat units or elite fighting forces, a ranking Marine Corps general said Jan. 8.

Calling it his “greatest fear,” Gen. John Kelly, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, who is slated to retire at the end of the month, predicted few female troops would be able to meet the physical demands in the traditionally all-male military occupations — primarily in the infantry, armor and special operations fields.

“There will be great pressure, whether it’s 12 months from now, four years from now, because the question will be asked whether we’ve let women into these other roles, why aren’t they staying in those other roles?” Kelly told reporters Jan. 8 at the Pentagon. “And the answer is … if we don’t change standards, it will be very, very difficult to have any numbers — any real numbers — come into the infantry or the Rangers or the SEALs.” All jobs in the military are set to open to women no later than April 1, following a December directive from Defense

Secretary Ash Carter.

Carter and other Pentagon leaders have been adamant standards would not be lowered for female troops attempting to enter such positions and quotas would not be introduced mandating certain numbers of women in positions or units.

Carter has said it could take years for women to qualify to serve in many of the newly opened positions.

Kelly, a 45-year Marine veteran, cited a University of Pittsburgh study commissioned by the Marine Corps to defend his position that most women were unlikely to make the cut in the combat arms fields.

That study — one of more than 30 gender-integration studies conducted by the military in recent years — found women, generally, were twice as likely to be injured carrying heavy loads or participating in other activities common for combat soldiers.

“Because of the nature of infantry combat, infantry training, and all of rest, there’s a higher percentage of young women in the (University of Pittsburgh) scientific study that get hurt, and some of them get hurt forever,” Kelly said.

The Marine Corps opened its Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va., to women as part of its two-year, gender-integration assessment, but none was able

to pass. Three female soldiers, however, completed the Army’s famously grueling Ranger School last year.

Carter has said opening the positions to women will improve the military because it will allow the most qualified individual — whether a man or a woman — to serve in the position.

“Everyone who is able and willing to serve their country, who can meet the standards should have the full and equal opportunity to do so,” Carter said Dec. 3. “The important factor in making my decision was to have access to every American who can add strength to the force. Now more than ever we cannot afford to have barriers limiting our access of talent.”

Kelly questioned whether integration would really help the military in its single most important endeavor — battlefield lethality.

“I think every decision has to be looked at (through) only one filter, and that is, does it make us more lethal on the battlefield?” Kelly said. “If the answer to that is yes, then do it. If the answer to that is no, clearly don’t do it.

If the answer to that is, it shouldn’t hurt, I would suggest that we shouldn’t do it, because it might hurt.” dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

Gen. John F. Kelly predicted few female troops would be able to meet the physical demands in the traditionally all-male military occupations — primarily in the infantry, armor and special operations fields — putting pressure on the military to lower standards.

Readers respond: I spent almost three years in Vietnam between volunteering to return and extensions. I am 100% against having females on the front lines. It will destroy the cohesive bond that holds soldiers together. Oh, they can paint all types of pretty pictures but it won’t be the same!

— triggerfish The general’s worst fears have already been realized, and continue to be realized: There are lower standards for women. …

Most recently the Navy introduced a double standard for allowable body fat (about 25% for men--which is pretty damned high--vs. 35% for women). The beat goes on.

— BG Davis The moment the service academies were integrated in 1976, separate physical standards were mandated. … It’s just that the military, politicians and the press have sold the “success” of the coed force as based on women meeting the same standards, so now no one can backtrack from it.

— ADM64 I’m astonished that this general has not faced any repercussions for saying what he did. Obviously he waited until retirement to say it, but I can’t imagine this administration allowing him to leave unscathed for speaking the truth and not following the party line — Roy Smith

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MILITARY

DOD: Scarcity prompted medal review

BY TARA COPP Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — In eight years of conflict in Iraq, the Department of Defense and White House only identified four servicemembers deserving of the Medal of Honor, all posthumously awarded.

In the 15 years of fighting in Afghanistan, only 13 servicemembers have been recognized with the Medal of Honor.

The low number of recipients is one of the factors that prompted the DOD to review approximately 1,100 medals earned by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, and to determine whether higher honors might be merited.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the review also reflects input from veterans’ groups.

“There have been some concerns expressed that perhaps there needs to be greater recognition,” Cook said.

“This is in part a response to that … to determine if indeed certain servicemembers deserved different recognition than perhaps they received initially.”

There have been 3,496 Medal of Honor recipients in U.S. history.

The first recipient was awarded the medal in 1863.

Of those: 424 were awarded for actions in the Indian Wars during the U.S. westward expansion from 1863 to 1891; 1,523 were awarded for actions in the Civil War, 1863-65; 122 were awarded for actions in World War I, 1917-18; 473 were awarded for actions in World War II, 1941-45; 146 were awarded for actions in

the Korean War, 1950-53; 259 were awarded for actions in the Vietnam War, 1964-75; 2 were awarded for actions in the Somalia campaign, 1992-95; 4 were awarded for actions in Iraq, 2003-11; 13 have been awarded for actions in Afghanistan, 2001-16.

DOD spokesman Matthew Allen said the review would be initiated by each service. The Medal of Honor and each of the service crosses — the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross and the Air Force Cross — must be awarded within five years of the military action being recognized. In cases where more than five years have passed, which is the case for all of the Iraq medals, the service has to request a time waiver from Congress, he said.

“We will follow appropriate

procedures, including working with Congress to obtain necessary timewaiver legislation, to ensure servicemembers are properly recognized,” Allen said.

The services have until Sept. 30, 2017, to review all of the medals.

“The sheer number that are being reviewed here, more than 1,000, would indicate that there’s the possibility” that additional Medal of Honor recipients would be identified, Cook said.

The Pentagon announced it would review the honors and establish new guidelines for awarding medals. The recommendations, which include two new awards for combat-specific actions and a specific award for drone operators, must be implemented in the next 12 months. copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter: @TaraCopp

7th Fleet commander urges China transparency

BY JAMES K IMBER AND COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

YOKOSUKA, Japan — U.S. forces in the Pacific are “very closely monitoring” China’s recent acts of assertiveness, including the landing of three civilian airplanes on a manmade island in the disputed South China Sea, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said Jan. 7.

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, speaking with reporters aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in port at Yokosuka, urged China to be more transparent with neighboring southeast Asian nations about its intentions in the South China Sea, saying its actions are causing “angst” in the region.

On Jan. 7, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the U.S. was “concerned” after China landed three civilian planes on a newly built runway on a man-made island it claims in the South China Sea. Fiery Cross Reef, the site of the runway, is part of the Spratly Islands, which are

‘ We would like China to help with the security and stability of the region by being clear with what they’re doing.

’

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucion 7th Fleet commander also claimed by other nations, including Vietnam and the Philippines.

China landed two commercial jets on Fiery Cross Reef on Jan. 6, just days after having landed an airplane there for the first time since the runway was completed in September, according to China’s state-run news agency Xinhua.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described the latest moves to The Associated Press as tests of the airfield for “civil aviation” purposes.

“We would like China to help with the security and stability of the region by being clear with what they’re doing,” Aucoin said in his first meeting with reporters since he took command in September.

“U.S. Navy ships sail where we want to in international waters. But merchant vessels are already feeling this. They need to operate in these international waters, so it would be very helpful for China to abide to these international standards and norms.”

On Jan. 8, Hanoi filed its second formal protest with Beijing in a week for moves that violate “Vietnam’s sovereignty and threaten peace and stability in the region.”

“There is angst associated with this,” Aucoin said. “It would be very nice for all countries, not just China, but all of the countries to stop this reclamation and resolve this peacefully and not let this angst cause this destabilizing factor to continue.”

On Jan. 7, Cook told report-

ers at the Pentagon that the U.S. was concerned about China’s activities on the disputed islands in “a very important part of the world to the United States and others.”

“We don’t pick sides in these disputes,” Cook said.

“Anything being done by any country to try to raise tensions over these disputed islands, to try to militarize or to engage in reclamation activities on these islands, we think only adds to instability in the South China Sea.”

Freedom of navigation is key, Aucoin said, both for naval and commercial vessels.

“Seventh Fleet stretches from international waters in the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean,” he said. “By virtue of the fact that we exercise with Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and many other southeast Asian navies, we’re going to fly, sail and operate where international law allows. This is just freedom of navigation.

We should have the right to go through these waters. These international waters are the lifeline for this area of the world, and we need to keep them open.”

In October, the United States challenged China’s claims to another disputed reef in that area when it sailed a destroyer, the USS Lassen, within the 12-nautical-mile territorial water limit claimed

by China around Subi Reef.

China criticized the maneuver.

Corey Dickstein reported from Washington. kimber.james@stripes.com Twitter: @james_kimber dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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MILITARY

Alaska sergeant honored for rescue Stars and Stripes

An Army staff sergeant serving in Alaska received the highest honor a soldier can be awarded for an act of valor in a noncombat situation during a ceremony on Jan. 8.

Joshaua J. Schneiderman, with the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, was awarded the Soldier’s Medal at the Joint Base ElmendorfRichardson Frontier Theater for his actions in saving a fisherman from drowning in the Copper River on June 14, 2014, according to an Army statement.

Schneiderman, his family and coworkers were at Cop-

per River dip-netting sockeye salmon from the fast-flowing, frigid waters. After seeing another angler being swept downriver, Schneiderman ran to his truck to get a life vest, raced back to the river and tossed it to the man. He then jumped into the river and, with his waders filling with water, fought the current to grab the man and pull him to shore, the statement said.

The Soldier’s Medal, created by an act of Congress in 1926, is awarded for distinguished heroism not involving conflict with an enemy. The performance must have involved personal hazard or danger and the voluntary risk of life.

From staff reports

Remains of Korean War GI will be buried in Ohio with full military honors Stars and Stripes

The remains of a soldier declared missing in action 65 years ago during the Korean War will be buried this week with full military honors.

Pfc. David S. Burke, 18, of Akron, Ohio, will be laid to rest Friday in Rittman, Ohio, according to a statement by the Department of Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency.

On Nov. 25, 1950, Burke was among 136 soldiers and four officers taken prisoner from Company C, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th

Ohio Guard members deploying to Guam YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — More than 200 National Guardsmen from Ohio are heading to Guam this month to support a “theater security package” for U.S. Pacific Command.

The 112th Fighter Squadron from Toledo Air National Guard Base will deploy to Andersen Air Force Base

Infantry Division, after an attack near the China-North Korea border. The unit, which suffered heavy casualties and was surrounded by Chinese troops, was forced to surrender, the statement said. Burke was declared missing in action after the battle.

Burke was identified in December through DNA analysis, dental records and circumstantial evidence.

More than 7,800 Americans remain missing from the Korean War. news@stripes.com

— where it will be known as the 112th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron — to take over the theater security package mission from the 125th EFS out of Kadena Air Base, Japan, according to an Air Force statement.

The 125th EFS will redeploy to Tulsa Air National Guard Base, Okla., but 12 of the squadron’s F-16 Fighting Falcons will move to Guam for the 112th EFS to operate.

A NTONIO BEDIN /Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Hanging out U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Support Battalion, exit a U.S. Air Force 86th Air Wing C-30 Hercules aircraft onto Juliet Drop Zone in Pordenone, Italy, on Jan. 7 during airborne operations. The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the U.S. Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, capable of projecting ready forces anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa or Central Commands areas of responsibility within 18 hours.

2 Gitmo detainees are sent to Ghana

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Two Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to Ghana, the first of an expected 17 such transfers approved for January, the Pentagon announced last week.

The government of Ghana agreed to accept Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby, detainees who were held more than 13 years at the detention facility in Cuba, after they were unanimously approved for transfer by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, according to a Pentagon statement issued Jan. 6. The task force comprises six departments and agencies charged with determining which detainees can be safely transferred from the facility.

“The United States is grateful to the Government of Ghana for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to

support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the statement read. “The United States coordinated with the Government of Ghana to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”

The detention center now holds 105 detainees. Fifty-nine are not eligible to be transferred for security reasons.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter last month notified Congress that 17 detainees would be transferred from the facility to other nations throughout January. Carter transferred only 15 detainees in 2015 after taking office in February.

Bin Atef, according to The New York Times Guantanamo Docket, was born in 1979 in Saudi Arabia and fought with Osama Bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade and was an admitted member of the Taliban. He was captured in Afghanistan and transferred to U.S. custody about January 2002 after

engaging in combat against the American-led coalition.

Like Bin Atef, Salih AlDhuby was born in Saudi Arabia and claims Yemeni citizenship, according to the Guantanamo Docket. The suspected Al-Qaida member was born in 1981 and was captured by Afghan forces in December 2001 following an explosion near Tora Bora.

He’s been held in Guantanamo since May 2002.

President Barack Obama has promised to close the Guantanamo Bay facility since he was a candidate in 2008, but has struggled to do so amid congressional opposition to moving detainees to a prison in the United States.

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, passed in November, banned moving any detainees to the United States. Obama announced at the time he opposed that provision but he signed the bill anyway. dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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GAO wants better prescription drug oversight

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes

The Army needs to do a better job of monitoring prescriptions to treat posttraumatic stress disorder to ensure soldiers are receiving the proper medications, a government report says.

The Government Accountability Office advises that the Defense Department, along with the Army, should more closely track and review prescriptions for PTSD, in line with recommended treatment guidelines it shares with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Without ongoing monitoring, “the Army may be unable to identify and address prescribing practices that are inconsistent with the guideline and do not have clinical justification,” GAO Health Care Director Debra Draper wrote in the report, which was pub-

lished Jan. 5.

Draper’s recommendation comes from a GAO audit of how the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments prescribed drugs for PTSD and mild brain injury. The investigation was based on a provision in the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act which directed the GAO to assess continuation of care, particularly for servicemembers with PTSD or mild brain injuries who were making the transition to VA health care.

The VA and Defense departments have developed joint guidelines for treating PTSD and mild brain injury, which discourage the use of benzodiazepines — a class of sedatives — and antipsychotic drugs.

Both classes of these drugs were once widely prescribed for PTSD, but studies have found that the potential for serious side effects outweighs their

effectiveness. The GAO report found that the VA closely tracks prescriptions for PTSD, especially for benzodiazepines and antipsychotics, and is actively working to reduce the numbers of prescriptions for both classes of drugs. At one VA medical clinic, for example, an electronic medical record reminder is activated when a prescription for certain antispsychotics is written for a veteran with PTSD who does not have a diagnosis of severe mental illness. The provider must justify why the medication is needed. The clinic decreased the percentage of veterans with PTSD who had been prescribed antipsychotics by almost half, from 21.8 percent in 2013 to 11.5 percent in 2015.

The Army, where the largest number of troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, stopped requiring military hospitals to review their pre-

scribing practices for atypical antipsychotics when that policy requirement expired in 2014.

But providers and pharmacists interviewed at one Army medical facility said they were continuing these reviews because they identified “higher-thanexpected prescription rates” for the medications, the report said.

DOD and VA officials say they plan to issue an updated version of the mild brain injury guideline by no later than early 2016. As of November, the Food and Drug Administration had not approved a medication to treat mild brain injury.

Both agencies are working toward stocking the same medications to treat mental and sleep disorders and pain, as directed by recent legislation. svan.jennifer@stripes.com

About 1,000 Air Force civilians may face job cuts

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Some Air Force civilians could lose their jobs in the next several months as the service begins to use involuntary measures to eliminate about 1,000 unfunded positions, officials said Wednesday.

Some installations will be given civilian reduction-inforce authority through April 4 to meet Defense Department funding targets and adjust their civilian workforce, the Air Force said.

More than 1,000 unfunded civilian positions were identified at 48 Air Force installations during a major command needs assessment in early August, officials said in a statement. The Air Force did not say whether all of those positions are currently filled.

The Air Force is seeking to take unfunded positions off the books, Rose Richeson, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday.

A reduction-in-force gives units “latitude and options” on how to place and move af-

fected employees into funded positions and “clear off any positions that are unfunded,” she said.

The goal, the service said, will be to place most of the remaining civilians into funded positions whenever possible.

To make a job placement easier, an employee’s job grade can be reduced; pay and grade protections can be retained; and certain qualifications can be waived, officials said.

A reduction-in-force typically targets employees who have the least amount of time in their jobs.

Those who can’t be immediately reassigned will be offered registration in the Defense Department’s Priority Placement Program and receive consideration for future vacancies according to their registration, the Air Force said.

The Air Force will use “every possible measure to minimize personal financial hardship for our civilian workforce and their families,” Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, the deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, said in a statement.

JUSTIN STUMBERG /Courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Underway in Souda Bay The USS Ross prepares to pull out of Souda Bay, Greece, on Sunday. Ross, an Arleigh Burkeclass guided-missile destroyer, forward deployed to Rota, Spain, is conducting a routine patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe.

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USS Barry leaves Virginia for Japan

BY A ARON K IDD Stars and Stripes

The USS Barry steamed away from Norfolk — its homeport for more than 20 years — on Jan. 12 toward its new home in Japan.

The guided-missile destroyer, scheduled to join the 7th Fleet at Yokosuka Naval Base in the spring, will replace the USS Lassen, which left Japan earlier this month and is conducting one last patrol of the western Pacific before moving on to Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville, Fla. The Lassen made headlines worldwide in October when it challenged China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea by sailing within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of several artificial islands Beijing has been building up with runways and fortifications.

The freedom-of-navigation exercise drew a strong protest from China.

“We look forward to the voyage ahead and are ready for any challenge that comes our way,” Cmdr. Jennifer Eaton, Barry’s commanding officer, said in a Navy statement.

“Being forward deployed to Japan is an incredible honor for every Barry sailor and their family. It gives us an opportunity to represent the

TROY MILLER /Courtesy of the U.S. Navy

The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry, shown transiting the Atlantic Ocean in 2008, is on its way to its new homeport in Japan where it will join the 7th Fleet at Yokosuka Naval Base.

United States across the globe.”

The destroyer — which features the Navy’s newest Aegis combat system and is capable of firing all Vertical Launch System ordnance, including the latest missiles — and its 300 sailors have undergone

rigorous training during the past year to prepare for the move and the 7th Fleet’s busy schedule.

“Barry’s presence will provide an increased operational capacity to respond to global crises and support America’s

national defense goals through cooperation with allied nations,” the statement said.

Eaton took command of the Barry in August, replacing Cmdr. Patrick Foster, who was fired following an investigation into “a series of decisions

over time reflecting poor judgment, failure to meet and uphold the highest personal and professional standards, and poor program management,” the Navy said. kidd.aaron@stripes.com Twitter: @kiddaaron

Kelly hands Tidd control of US Southern Command

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd took the U.S. Southern Command on Jan. 14, as its outgoing leader Marine Gen. John F. Kelly prepares to retire following more than four decades in uniform.

Tidd, a 1978 Naval Academy Graduate who has most recently worked alongside Secretary of State John Kerry as the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assumed control of the combatant command that oversees U.S. military operations in South and Central America and the Caribbean. SOUTHCOM largely faces issues such as drug trafficking, narcoterrorism and providing hu-

‘ (Adm. Kurt

manitarian and disaster relief. It also oversees the W. Tidd is) States’ never afraid United controversial to roll up his detention facility sleeves and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. get grease Described by Defense Secreunder his tary Ash Carter nails. as “a principled Ash Carter leader” who is Defense secretary “never afraid to roll up his sleeves and get grease under his nails,” Tidd, 59, has extensive service in the Southern Command region where he previously commanded the Navy’s 4th Fleet/Naval Forces Southern

’

Command.

That experience, along with his recent work as the military’s link to the State Department, will serve Tidd well in continuing Kelly’s successes of promoting “peace and rising prosperity” throughout the region, Carter said.

“We take great confidence in this hemisphere’s future, even as we remain focused on what further progress requires,” Carter said. “We simply cannot tolerate the activities of criminal organizations who poison so many communities across the Americas. …

I know Adm. Tidd shares this steadfast commitment and he will carry it forward with characteristic excellence and resolve.”

Kelly, 65, has led SOUTHCOM since November 2012 and will retire at the

end of the month.

The infantry officer, who commanded troops through some of the toughest stretches of fighting in Iraq and later served as the senior military adviser to former defense secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, is the longestserving general officer in the United States military.

“John Kelly is the epitome of a senior military leader and a United States Marine,” Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. “… He is a decisive, engaged leader whose passion for the mission is equaled by his compassion and concern for every man and woman who has ever served with him.” dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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Sailor punished for sexual harassment

BY STEVEN BEARDSLEY Stars and Stripes

NAPLES, Italy — A sailor assigned to the destroyer USS Ross will be confined for 120 days and stripped of rank for making repeated sexual comments to female sailors, a Navy judge ruled Jan. 12.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Aldane Aarons, a gas turbine systems mechanic aboard the Spain-based ballistic missile defense ship, will have his pay docked and be demoted to seaman recruit under the court-martial sentence. He is expected to face administrative separation from the service.

Navy judge Capt. John Waits

sentenced Aarons to a badconduct discharge but was bound by a pretrial agreement ruling out that option. Under the agreement, Aarons pleaded guilty to a sexual harassment charge and prosecutors withdrew a sexual assault charge. The convening authority and the defendant agreed to a maximum 120 days in confinement.

Military law calls for a judge to deliver an independent sentence in any case that involves a deal between the convening authority and the defendant. If the judge’s sentence is stiffer than the punishment outlined in the deal, the judge must defer to the agreement. If more

lenient, the judge’s ruling will stand. The judge is kept from seeing the punishment set out in the deal before ruling.

The maximum penalty for sexual harassment is a year of confinement, pay forfeiture and a bad-conduct discharge.

Two of Aarons’ three victims were present to testify. One, a Navy fireman who worked with Aarons, testified that the hugs he playfully sought turned awkward as his hands moved farther down her back.

Aarons asked why he couldn’t get “any sugar,” made suggestive gestures and once tried pulling her coveralls off as she was pulling them up, she testified.

Another sailor, a petty officer third class, told Waits that Aarons refused to sign a training certificate until she told him whether she liked “brown sugar.” Aarons, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jamaica, is black. She recalled Aarons once pulling her against a bulkhead after she brushed past him in a tight space and trying to pull her coveralls down. After pushing him away, she avoided him in the ship whenever possible, she said, to the point of missing meals.

Prosecutors pushed for a stiff penalty, saying Aarons targeted younger sailors during deployment. They said that all three women were

considering leaving the Navy and that a stiff penalty would send a message to crews on small ships like the USS Ross.

“People knew and people saw this was happening,” prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Kimberly Kelly told Waits.

Navy defense attorneys argued Aarons shouldn’t be punished for claims that went beyond sexual harassment.

“The only thing he’s pleaded guilty to is making comments,” defense attorney Lt. Brian John argued in his closing.

Aarons read a statement of apology. He said his comments were offensive but he asked for leniency, saying he was “filled with shame and regret.”

Is 2016 the year of commissary reform on Capitol Hill?

BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Last year was mostly a bust for lawmakers on Capitol Hill hoping to overhaul military commissaries, one of servicemembers’ oldest and most cherished benefits, though 2016 kicks off with new momentum and proposals.

If last year was about privatization, this year could focus on “variable pricing” and commissary-branded products as a way to cut $1.4 billion in annual costs and modernize the worldwide chain of 243 military grocery stores.

“It’s what every grocery chain does across the country,” said Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., a retired Army brigadier general. He chairs an Armed Services subcommittee that kicked off new hearings last week on overhauling the stores.

Adjusting commissary product prices depending on the region where they are sold and selling products under a Defense Commissary Agency label are ideas backed in a consultant study delivered last fall to Congress, which will likely form the basis of debate on the Hill. Advocacy groups are already warning Congress to move with caution and that changes could result in shoppers abandoning the stores.

The Pentagon proposed reducing the commissary budget to $400 million but the road to reform during the past couple of years has been rocky.

Servicemembers are wary of changes to the benefit and groups opposed a proposal put forward by the Senate last year that would have privatized a handful of stores as part of a pilot project.

Still, proponents of military personnel reform in Congress are fresh from a major victory in 2015 with a historic overhaul of the armed services retirement system.

Heck, whose family was in the supermarket business when he was growing up, hopes lawmakers are ready to move this year on military grocery stores and he is now leading the effort in the House. But he said slashing the stores’ budget is not the main goal.

“There are some that feel the driving factor should be moving the commissary off of [Defense Department] appropriated funds. … I can say from my perspective that is not the driving motivation,” Heck said.

Instead, the grocery stores could improve the way they sell food and be more efficient by using variable pricing. That would mean operating more like their commercial counterparts outside of the gate.

“If you go to the Kroger in Alabama, they are going to have a different price than the Kroger in San Francisco,” he said. “So the goal is to make sure the beneficiary has the same level of savings across the [DECA] footprint in relation to where they actually live and would be purchasing.”

The DECA-labeled products would also take a page from private stores that shelve their own groceries to complete with name brands.

Heck hopes to get commissary sales to at least a break-even point — the stores now lose money on every sale — though still at a level that saves shoppers money over local commercial supermarkets. Of course, that would likely mean some increased prices. “I think that compared to what we see today there may be some places where costs would go up, but there also may be some places where costs would go down,” he said.

Military advocates and a military trade association are skeptical. They told lawmakers during a hearing called by Heck on Jan. 13 to beware of variable pricing and DECA-labeled products.

“This becomes a slippery slope,” said Tom Gordy, president of the Armed Forces Marketing Council, a group that lobbies for commissaries and exchange stores.

Adjusting commissary prices in each store to more closely match local prices will result in higher costs for shoppers — and could allow DECA to increase prices even more in five or 10 years if new financial pressures come along, Gordy said.

Eileen Huck, government relations deputy director of the National Military Family Association, said many shoppers now depend on the commissaries to stock brand-name products and that supplying a DECA-labeled

alternative would not give the same assurance of quality.

“Our concern is that DECA does not have the expertise to develop private label products,” he said.

Such opposition could cause problems for reform efforts on the Hill. To complicate the issue, the Government Accountability Office is still expected to release a report this year on the possibility of privatization, which could trigger new hearings on that controversial idea, according to Heck.

If any changes gain enough lawmaker support, they could be added into the National Defense Authorization Act, a massive military policy bill that typically takes most of the year to hammer out.

Brooke Goldberg, deputy director for government relations for the Military Officers Association of America, called commissaries a landmark benefit and said lawmakers should not look to cut it in times of austerity unless they can replace it with something of equal or higher value.

Meanwhile, changes in pricing regionally — instead of consistent prices across the global chain of stores — is also perceived as a threat by military families and risks their loyalty to the commissary system, Goldberg said.

“They rely on that consistency, so when you change things you risk them leaving and not coming back,” she said. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

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‘Our Marines earned this’

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

The Marine Corps officially opened its infantry ranks to women Jan. 12 by issuing an administrative order intended to facilitate their integration into all combat jobs by April 1.

The change means female Marines who have already successfully completed infantry training and related job school for combat weapons are eligible for the “ground combat arms” occupational specialty, which clears the way for them to request lateral moves into formerly closed jobs.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced last month that women in any service will no longer be barred from combat positions based on their gender. The decision opened the remaining 10 percent of military positions to women — roughly 220,000 jobs, including those in elite units such as the Army’s Delta Force and

Corps opens infantry ranks to women the Navy SEALs. The Marine Corps was the only service that sought to keep some combat jobs closed to women.

While serving as Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Joseph Dunford, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued that women should be kept off the frontlines because mixed-gender units weren’t as capable as all-male units.

The current commandant, Gen. Robert B. Neller, sounded far more positive about women serving in combat roles in a Marine Corps statement issued Jan. 13.

“Our Marines earned this. They

volunteered, worked hard, completed the training and earned these [military occupational specialties],” he said. “Given the secretary of defense’s decision last month, we now have the authority to award those qualified Marines the additional [military occupational specialties], and we’ll continue to keep faith with them. Marines who are eligible and interested can now request to serve in those previously closed jobs.”

Dozens of women completed the Marines’ infantry training in the past two years as part of an integration study conducted by the service,

and they would be eligible for the infantry job specialty under the announced opening.

In the statement, Sgt. Maj. Ronald L. Green commended the women who participated in the study for their dedication in helping the Marines “develop a well-planned and responsible integration process that ensures the Marine Corps remains prepared to answer our nation’s call, while reinforcing our standards and core values.”

The issue of combat training standards to be used for women remains contentious.

Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon earlier this week, Gen. John F. Kelly, U.S. Southern Command commander, said his “greatest fear” was that the military over time would be pressured into lowering physical standards for women entering combat jobs. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

Pfc. Christina Fuentes Montenegro, one of the first female Marines to graduate complete infantry training, receives final instructions before an exercise in November 2013.

PAUL M ANCUSO Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps

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