Volume 10, No. 8 ©SS 2018
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY
2, 2018
Lance Cpl. Michael Ferguson, an infantry assaultman, fires an M136 AT4 rocket launcher during training at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, South Korea, on June 7. ROBERT WILLIAMS JR. Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
Aggravated assaultmen Elimination of infantry specialty irks some Marines Page 2
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MILITARY
Some Marines will change jobs BY M ARTIN EGNASH Stars and Stripes
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — Some Marines are unhappy about the planned elimination of the infantry assault specialty, a move that aims to free up personnel for other job fields. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller announced the cancellation of the military occupational specialty a week ago. Beginning in October, the Marine Corps will cease training infantry assault Marines and will start phasing out assault sections within rifle companies. “I found out officially last week. I don’t agree with it,” said Cpl. Calin Perrone, an assaultman with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, who joined the Marines expressly for this niche specialty. “It seemed like a really cool job. You’re like a jack-of-all-trades in the infantry,” Perrone said. “It was assault Marine or nothing.” Infantry assault Marines, designated as 0351s, utilize a variety of weapons
and explosives to destroy enemy tanks, clear obstacles and provide rocket fire to support other infantrymen. Using explosives is definitely part of the appeal of the job, Perrone said. Canceling the military occupational specialty has caused these roughly 500 assault Marines to change their current plans in the Corps. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” said Perrone, who is considering getting out of the Marine Corps instead of re-enlisting because of this cancelation. Other assaultmen, who will transfer to a different combat military occupational specialty, will already have the skills necessary to thrive because of similar training, Perrone said, though “it will take some getting used to.” In the past few decades of fighting wars in the Middle East, assaultmen have been underutilized and marginalized by other infantry specialties because of the lack of enemy tanks and traditional obstacles on that battlefield, said Sgt. Joseph Varley, who is in Perrone’s unit.
K ASSIE L. MCDOLE /Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
Assault Marines take cover behind a breachers blanket during training at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in January. “A lot of people don’t know what we are,” Varley said. “I’ve had situations where I was left . . . during a training operation because a squad leader didn’t know what I was capable of or what my team was capable of.” When squad leaders do know how to utilize assaultmen, they usually take them on every patrol because of their versatility and lethality, Varley said. “It’s always a toss-up, of being utilized very well or being left behind and forgotten,” he said. The cancellation will be fully implemented in 2021 or 2022, when current 0351s will be required to transfer to another specialty. Combat engineers
will be attached to rifle companies to handle demolitions and clearing obstacles. Still, the assault Marines on the ground worry that the many roles they fill will not be adequately replaced by other infantryman. “I don’t think getting rid of us and replacing us with another [military occupational specialty] is going to work out as well as it needs to,” Varley said. However, Varley added that “if the commandant gives us an order, we take care of it, and make sure that it gets done.” egnash.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @Marty_Stripes
Extensive upgrades to Navy’s oldest warship complete BY T YLER HLAVAC Stars and Stripes
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy’s oldest warship has completed 19 months in dry dock designed to extend its service another 20 years. The USS Blue Ridge, which serves as the flagship of the Yokosuka-based 7th Fleet, returned pierside last week at Yokosuka after an extended dry dock maintenance period, a Navy statement said. It “received numerous upgrades, including installation of the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services computer system, modernization of the ship’s engineering plant, and refurbishment of the main condenser and ventilation systems,” the statement said. Installing CANES on a ship will “consolidate and modernize communications, computers and intelligence network systems,” according to Northrop
TYLER HLAVAC /Stars and Stripes
After 19 months in dry dock, the USS Blue Ridge sits pierside Jan. 22 at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. Grumman. The Blue Ridge still needs additional repair work before returning to service, the Navy said. It is slated to receive engineering and electrical plant upgrades and living quarters improvements. Engineering plant issues will require
the amphibious command ship to undergo additional repairs for the next several months, said Lt. Cmdr. Adam Cole, a 7th Fleet spokesman. “While modernization of Blue Ridge’s communications suite has gone very well, additional maintenance is required to address issues with the ship’s engineering plant which is nearing 50 years in service,” he said. “Once these repairs are finished, Blue Ridge will resume its role as 7th Fleet’s command ship and play a critical role as our forces operate forward on a daily basis.” The ship entered dry dock in June 2016 for what was scheduled to be a 14month period. Commissioned in 1970, the Blue Ridge is the oldest deployable warship in the Navy and the second-oldest stillactive ship. Only the USS Constitution, which is primarily a ceremonial ship, is older. In 2011, the chief of naval operations extended the Blue Ridge’s service life
into 2039. The Blue Ridge is one of only two amphibious-command ships still in service. The other, the USS Mount Whitney, is the flagship of the Navy’s 6th Fleet out of Naples, Italy. Before the Blue Ridge becomes operational, the Navy said the crew will undergo extensive training in searchand-rescue operations, navigation, seamanship, engineering proficiency and damage-control efforts. “After about two years in the yards spent on crucial repairs and improvements, it’s the crew’s turn to get ready to get back on patrol and return to our mission once again,” Blue Ridge commander Capt. Brett Crozier in the statement. “I would like to especially thank the crew, family members, ship’s repair force workers, and others who have had a hand in modernizing Blue Ridge.” hlavac.tyler@stripes.com
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MILITARY
SURVEILLANCE SURGE
Col. Stephen ‘’Joker’’ Jones stands in front of an MQ-9 Reaper drone at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, on Jan. 23. C HAD G ARLAND/Stars and Stripes
Kandahar Air Field now home to largest deployment of Reaper drones BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — This expansive base has become home to the largest operational deployment of Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones to one airfield, as the U.S.-led coalition works to gain momentum in the 16year fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency. The drones arrived recently to augment efforts to target the Taliban, who control or contest more territory now than since its regime was toppled in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. and Afghan forces are also battling an Islamic State affiliate that has taken root in the east and the northwest. “We’re going after the enemy, we’re going after the vehicles they use, we’re going after the buildings that they try to hide from us in,” said Col. Stephen “Joker” Jones, an Air Force commander here who began flying unmanned air-
craft in 2000. Drones are the signature aircraft of the war in Afghanistan and perhaps the most controversial. They’ve been criticized for causing civilian casualties and for inspiring retaliatory terrorist plots. The Obama administration embraced their use for targeted killings and covert assassinations. There’s no sign of an end to those practices under the Trump presidency. A suspected drone strike on Haqqani network leaders in Pakistan drew Islamabad’s ire last week, though the U.S. has denied its involvement. Cheaper to operate than manned warplanes and able to loiter above the battlefield for long stretches, remotely piloted aircraft are critical for reducing civilian casualties, U.S. officials say. Their “unblinking eye” lets commanders observe targets day and night to make decisions in a “relaxed, calculated fashion” about the best strike timing and weaponry to reduce unwanted damage, Jones said.
“In this type of warfare, we want — we need — our airstrikes to be as precise as possible, as well as not incurring any collateral damage,” Jones said, “specifically, no noncombatants.” The nearly three squadrons of MQ-9s now based here — officials declined to give specific numbers — along with a newly deployed squadron of “Warthog” A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, will provide critical support to a first-of-its-kind Army brigade, said Maj. Gen. James Hecker, commander of all U.S. air power in Afghanistan. The Army’s Fort Benning, Ga.-based 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade, or SFAB, will put experienced combat advisers with conventional Afghan fighting units at the tactical level when it deploys here this spring. “They’ll need both [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] as well as [close air support] to make sure that they can accomplish their mission successfully,” Hecker said.
The $65 million Reaper, a successor to the Predator, has a suite of high-tech reconnaissance and targeting sensors that serve as a “necessary precursor” to an A-10 raid, Jones said. It can conduct strikes itself using laser-guided GBU-12 Paveway II bombs and Hellfire missiles, as well as 560-pound, GPS-guided GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs. “My preference is always a Hellfire because it’s so accurate,” Jones said. “I can get that thing right into somebody’s chest if I needed.” Jones was flying drones before they were armed. In the early days of the war, he piloted a Predator doing reconnaissance for B-2 JDAM strikes against this same airfield before the U.S. occupied it. Teeming with more than 35,000 coali tion troops, contractors and civilians at the height of the war, the base became a shadow of its former self with the SEE PAGE 4
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MILITARY
New USS Portland might be RIMPAC flagship BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — This summer’s Rim of the Pacific naval exercise is expected to include one of the Navy’s newest amphibious warfare vessels as its flagship, the Army firing a Navy missile into the sea and a first innovation fair. The USS Portland has been tentatively chosen to serve as RIMPAC’s flagship, Capt. Brian Metcalf, the program manager for LPD amphibious warfare vessels, said in January at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Va., according to USNI News. The final decision on that flagship designation will not be made until a RIMPAC planning meeting in early April, Navy officials said. The Portland will become the Navy’s 11th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship after its ceremonial commissioning event scheduled for April in Portland, Ore. The ship is slated this fall to be fitted with the next generation of the Navy’s laser weapon system for testing, according to USNI. The previous iteration was tested in the Middle East aboard the USS Ponce. All 26 nations, including China, that participated in the 2016 RIMPAC have been invited formally to the 2018 biennial international maritime exercise, the world’s largest. New this year will be the Army’s land-based launching of a Navy missile to sink a ship at sea. The missile
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withdrawal of most combat forces in 2014. Since then, it’s been the only airfield to host the Reapers, Jones said. Predators once based here and at other bases are now gone, though Army MQ-1C Grey Eagle drones remain. About one-third of the base was handed over to Afghan forces. Some of the rest languished without maintenance, but Jones led a three-week scramble earlier this year to prepare it for dozens more warplanes. For now, the drones will remain concentrated here. “With a further buildup to support the SFAB, we’re stick-
JOHN PHILIP WAGNER JR./Courtesy of the U.S. Navy
The USS Portland transits Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 2. will be launched from an Army heavy expanded mobility tactical truck, said Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. Army Pacific spokesman. The missile will be fired from Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, he said. A Japanese unit also will fire a mis-
ing to Kandahar,” Jones said. “We haven’t branched out yet to other bases.” The U.S. is increasing its aerial surveillance over Afghanistan by one-third, to levels approaching those at the height of the conflict, Hecker said. More over-the-horizon surveillance capabilities also will come online here soon. Earlier this month, Naval Air Systems Command revealed plans to have General Atomics, maker of the MQ-9, provide 12-month “surge support” flying its own unarmed aircraft over Helmand province, where a Marine Corps task force is embedding advisers with government forces. Afghan forces also have
sile during a sinking exercise, Garver said. The decommissioned frigate USS McClusky and the retired tank landing ship USS Racine are expected to be used as targets during the sinking exercises, the Navy said. The Army’s missile drill was
stood up their own unarmed surveillance drone program, though they still rely largely on help from the U.S.-led coalition. The surveillance surge comes as the Trump administration’s South Asia strategy is putting thousands more troops in Afghanistan, where they soon will be closer to the fight than in recent years. Conventional troops, such as those of the SFAB, soon will follow the example of U.S. special operations forces who have been routinely fighting alongside their Afghan counterparts. Commanders also have more authority to strike targets deep in enemy-controlled territory, which Air Force Brig. Gen.
prompted by a challenge in 2016 by U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris for the Army to operate outside its typical land-based domain, Garver said. “Simply put, this concept provides us a way to ensure access to the global commons in the run-up to war and fight in those same commons should war come,” Harris said last year of the multidomain battle concept that spawned the coming missile drill. “Components must increase their agility and provide support to each other across the warfighting domains.” This year’s RIMPAC will continue to build on the growing importance of experimentation during the exercise by holding the first-ever innovation fair at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The four-day event — slated for June 28 through July 1 — will include exhibitions, displays, contests and special events. Unlike innovation fairs in which vendors and industry officials showcase technology or products for sale, this event is a chance for government offices and government-sponsored academic institutions — both U.S. and foreign — to display and demonstrate technological capabilities they are developing. The displays are intended to focus on port and harbor security, robotics systems, virtual and augmented reality, green energy and disaster relief, among others. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
Lance Bunch said already has allowed the U.S. to go after a drug trade that supplies much of the Taliban’s war chest. U.S. and Afghan warplanes have been pounding militants and their hideouts mainly in the south and the east last year, and officials plan to keep the pressure on them through the winter. Bunch said “scores” of ISIS fighters who cropped up in the northwestern Jowzjan province have also been killed in recent strikes. The A-10s began flying combat missions in support of ground troops a day after arriving in-country a week ago. Lt. Col. Todd “Riddler” Riddle flew the first sortie, which he said took him over “traditional
hot spots.” Riddle, 43, from Warrensburg, Mo., has flown missions over Afghanistan on several deployments in support of coalition forces since May 2002. He flew the last of the A-10s out of Kandahar when they left in 2012. This time around, the warplanes will be supporting Afghan-led operations, he said, but U.S. air controllers still will be calling the shots. “We’re ready to bring the A-10 and all of its weapons to bear on all of our enemies,” he said. garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland
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EUROPE
NASA’s ‘flying lab’ in Europe to study emissions of fuels BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The flight line here is hosting two aircraft typically not seen in these parts. NASA’s DC-8 “flying laboratory,” an aircraft based near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and decked out with various sensors and intake valves, was in Germany in January to conduct joint research with the German Aerospace Center and its Airbus A320 research aircraft. The agencies are conducting flights in tandem through the skies over Europe to see how traditional jet fuel blended with alternative fuels changes the physical characteristics of contrails — short for condensation trails — and their effect on the environment. The effort is the latest in a series of research projects during the past few years, some in the United States and some in Germany, using different aircraft and other sampling techniques to measure the effect of alternative fuels on emissions. On Jan. 24, the two planes took off one after the other into rainy skies. The NASA plane trailed the A320 by several minutes, carrying on board researchers and an assortment of instruments to sample and analyze gases and particles within the lead aircraft’s wake. “We know that CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from aircraft are a problem,” said Bruce Anderson, a senior research scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. “The contrails that form from aircraft create cloudiness over large regions, and as air travel increases, that’s going to be more and more cloudiness.”
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we’re just doing research to understand the physics of the problem, and, hopefully, that will lead to technical solutions for addressing the problem.
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Bruce Anderson NASA Langley Research Center
PHOTOS
BY
MICHAEL B. K ELLER /Stars and Stripes
Research scientist Eddie Winstead annotates data during pre-flight checks on NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Jan. 24. Contrails — or the ice clouds that form in the exhaust of aircraft flying at higher altitudes where the temperatures are colder — can trap heat and make the surface of the earth warmer at night, Anderson said. “This research will, hopefully, tell us ways that we can reduce that effect.” So far, the teams have flown three joint flights. At least three more are planned. The government shutdown temporarily grounded the project but only for a day, Anderson said. “We had ‘excepted’ status, meaning we could stay here, but we couldn’t work, so we were waiting out every vote.” After the shutdown struck at midnight Jan. 19, the teams canceled a flight on Jan. 22, but by Jan. 23 — after the shutdown ended — they were back to work. During some of the flights, the German A320 burns standard jet A fuel with a 50 percent biofuel mix — alternative fuels produced from renewable feed stocks. The NASA jet flies from 2.5
miles to 15-18 miles behind the German plane, said Wayne Ringelberg, a retired lieutenant colonel and former Air Force test pilot who is the chief DC-8 pilot for NASA during the project. “Wakes can be fairly strong and dangerous things to fly in,” he said, but the NASA plane has experienced only moderate turbulence because it’s flying at a safe distance. While the plane is in flight, a small laser shines between the arms of two cloud probes on the DC-8 wingtips. “When ice particles pass through, it scatters light out and we measure that,” Anderson said. Tubes sticking out the sides and on top of the aircraft are used to draw in air samples. Researchers are measuring gases, aerosols and ice particles. Ground experiments show that burning alternative fuels produces fewer soot particles, both German and NASA researchers said. Fewer soot particles emitted from aircraft produce larger contrail ice particles, Anderson
Brian Elit inspects the Airborne Science Laboratory before takeoff. said. Those particles, in turn, descend to lower altitudes more quickly and evaporate, shortening their presence in the skies. “Right now we’re just doing research to understand the
physics of the problem, and, hopefully, that will lead to technical solutions for addressing the problem,” he said. svan.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @stripesktown
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Ed Center increases college presence by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office
FORT GORDON, Ga. – Fort Gordon strengthened bonds with four universities last week. For the first time, Augusta University and the University of Maryland University College partnered with the Fort Gordon Army Continuing Education System in a Memorandum of Agreement signing Jan. 10 at the Command Support Center, Bldg. 35200, located off Heritage Park Lane. The purpose of the MOA was to formally recognize an affiliation between the universities and the Fort Gordon Garrison in providing educational services to potential and enrolled students on the installation. Georgia Military College and Webster University also signed MOA’s signifying their continued education support on the installation by adding cyber-related education opportunities to their existing programs. The agreement benefits the military community by increasing degree plan offerings that offer opportunities in the cyber career field on the installation. Augusta University will offer a bachelor’s degree in technology with a concentration in cybersecurity. UMUC will offer a bachelor’s degrees in computer science, homeland security, and information system management. Webster University and GMC will also offer degrees in support of the cyber network. Col. Todd Turner, Fort Gordon Garrison commander, said that a needs analysis survey conducted across all ranks about a year and a half ago helped get officials to this point. “We identified certain degrees that we had gaps in, then we went out and submitted a request for proposals out to all the universities in the local areas,” Turner said. Modernized classrooms located within the new CSC played a key part in getting universities like AU
Sealing the deal for a closer partnership with Fort Gordon is Gretchen Caughman, representing Augusta University as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Seated with her at a Jan. 19 official Memorandum of Agreement signing event are Command Sgt. Maj. Charlie Bryant, left, garrison command sergeant major; and Col. Todd Turner, Fort Gordon’s garrison commander. At right is Alvin Crawford, supervisory education services specialist with the Fort Gordon Army Continuing Education System Education Center. Caughman’s school is to have a Fort Gordon classroom linked directly to the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center now taking shape in downtown Augusta. Laura Levering / Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office
to come here. Thanks to equipment and advanced technologies, the AU classroom at Fort Gordon will be linked directly to the $60 Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center being built in downtown Augusta. It is all part of the installation’s 12-year transformation plan. “We’ve modernized in supporting the future transformation of the installation providing increased qualify of life, and we’re partnering with these universities in here that have met a very high standard to be asked to come on post,” Turner said. It is a transformation that has Al Crawford, ACES supervisory education services specialist, excited. “It’s heartwarming,” Crawford said. “It took so much effort, so many trials and errors, before we actually got into a modern facility like this.” Enrollment for the new cyber degrees began earlier this month and as a whole has gone up. Crawford said Servicemembers have been very receptive of the new degree options along with the modernized facility, which the universities helped design.
“We put up walls, and they put some money into modernizing it so that they’d be able to hook those classrooms up,” Crawford said. It was an opportunity Dr. Gretchen Caughman and her colleagues at AU were grateful to have. “We at Augusta University are deeply and intently committed to serving those who serve us, and we consider that to be one of our greatest missions,” said Caughman, AU executive vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost. Fort Gordon’s partnerships with AU and the other universities directly contribute to the Army’s cyberspace strategy of building a cyber force, Turner said. Many who pursue higher education in the cyber field will take what they learn back to the workforce. “They could go to one of these schools, get their engineering degree, and actually be on the Garrison staff helping to deliver this capability for the Army,” Turner said. This is a key piece of transforming how we deliver the service in a better place … and that’s exciting.”
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Army opens first-of-its-kind training system for wideband satellite operators by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office FORT GORDON, Ga. – The U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence unveiled the first-of-its-kind Wideband Training and Certification System in the Army Jan. 11. Students attending the Cyber CoE Satellite Systems Network Coordinator Course will use WTCS to apply classroom learning to simulations generated from real-world events. Soldiers training on WTCS will soon staff the Army’s Wideband Satellite Communications Operations Centers located at five military installations worldwide. At the WSOCs, operators perform satellite payload management tasks for the Wideband Global SATCOM constellation of satellites, delivering world-class, resilient, assured, secured, and reliable strategic communications capability worldwide for the Army, all of DoD, other government agencies and the National Command Authority. The WTCS allows instructors to build tailored scenarios to support specific training objectives. The WTCS reacts in real time to student input, allowing each scenario to develop realistically and simulate an unfolding situation. The first class of WSOC operators to use the WTCS is already underway and will graduate in February 2018. “Army SATCOM enables satellite communications for carrier strike groups, deployed air wings, special operations task forces, intelligence assets, and strategic forces, providing them a decisive advantage to fight and win in any environment against any adversary. By using WTCS to ‘train how we fight,’ WSOC operators will be better prepared to deliver their 24/7, no-fail mission to enable satellite communications for our warfighters. It is all about operational readiness; the Army’s number one priority,” said Col. Enrique Costas, the program manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems.
Sgt. Roy Dilworth III, an instructor at the U.S. Army Signal School, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence, demonstrates how students will benefit from the modular, interactive training and simulation system. James Christophersen / PEO EIS
Col. Patricia Sayles, assistant commandant, U.S. Army Signal School, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence; Col. Enrique Costas, project manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems; and Col. Scott McLeod, project manager Training Systems (PM TRADE) look on as SFC Justin Jacobsen, 1C Branch noncommissioned officer in charge for the Cyber CoE, cut the ribbon during a ceremony celebrating the delivery of the new Wideband Training and Certification System. James Christophersen / PEO EIS
PM DCATS selected the Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation to develop and field the WTCS. It is PEO STRI’s first training and simulation system for space hardware. “Creating a complex virtual training system from the ground up which provides high fidelity and an immersive experience is second nature to PEO STRI,” stated Brig. Gen. William E. Cole, the program executive officer for PEO STRI. “WSOC operators have the responsibility to ensure satellite communications are always up and running. The WTCS will be an integral part of meeting that responsibility by providing training that prepares the WSOC operators to handle basic operations and more importantly, to be able to handle anomalies and threats. WTCS offers realistic training at an accelerated pace and a very reasonable cost.” The WTCS is a modular, interactive training and simulation system to be used by the Army military occupational specialty 25S, Satellite Systems Network Coordinator Course, additional skill identifier 1C. The USACCoE WTCS consists of two classrooms including 12 student and 2 instructor classroom workstations, 6 realistic, high fidelity laboratory training workstations, and 2 instructor lab workstations. Each WTCS supports up to 12 simultaneous running simulations, each representing a “mini WSOC”. The ribbon cutting marks the delivery of the first two of seven WTCS trainers which PM DCATS and PEO STRI will field at WSOC facilities worldwide before May 2018.
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MILITARY
Experts, leaders: Promotion system outdated BY CLAUDIA GRISALES Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — A panel of military experts and leaders urged lawmakers Jan. 24 to revamp a woefully outdated officer promotion system that has plagued recruiting and retention efforts. The system, born of a 1980 law called the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, standardized military promotions and established an “up or out” career path for servicemembers. Experts testifying before a subpanel of the Senate Armed Services Committee seem to agree that the policy, also known as DOPMA, is a onesize-fits-all approach that the military has outgrown. “The bureaucracy still treats troops like interchangeable draftees. It’s not only disrespectful but short-sighted and this can’t be fixed until DOPMA is fixed,” Timothy Kane, a Hoover Institution fellow at Stanford University, said during testimony to the subpanel. “Our enlistees and our officers are fantastic, but how they get treated is not so fantastic. That’s why we have, repeatedly, a retention crisis.” The comments before the Senate Armed Services sub-
Panel urges lawmakers to revamp ‘up or out’ policy for officers committee on personnel issues marked a far-reaching discussion on military personnel practices that could influence the development of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. Military leaders at the hearing said they are facing a more competitive job market now and need to offer more to recruit and retain servicemembers, especially ones with specialty skills. Life-work balance must become a bigger priority, military leaders and experts agreed. “We are in a war for talent. The propensity to serve is declining amidst an improving economy and it’s adversely impacting both recruiting and retention,” said Navy Vice Adm. Robert P. Burke, deputy chief of naval operations. “Sailors leaving the Navy continue to
express frustration with the industrial-age personnel systems and inflexible and complex personnel processes.” Lawmakers seem to agree that the military’s personnel management law needs to be updated. The current system limits the military’s ability to respond quickly to unforeseen threats, restricts rapid changes to force levels due to budget demands and doesn’t allow the services to differentiate among themselves, said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., chairman of the subpanel. “DOPMA’s authors never envisioned the post-Cold War military as presently constructed. Today’s force is 43 percent smaller than the military of 1980, and is constantly engaged in ways never predicted during the Cold War,” Tillis said. “Repeated overseas
‘ Our enlistees and our officers are
fantastic, but how they get treated is not so fantastic.
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Timothy Kane Hoover Institution fellow at Stanford University
combat deployments strain the more traditional warfighting career fields, while at the same time new military domains require entirely different officer skill sets. We must ask ourselves, can a personnel system designed for an industrial-age military be successful in the information age?” For example, commanders don’t have hiring and firing power that they need and can’t eject abusive coworkers. That, in turn, feeds into a system that inadvertently could protect sexual predators, who are more difficult to remove. The military struggles with that concern, seeing 10 times the level of sexual assault among its ranks compared with that of the civilian population, Kane noted. “This system lets them hide in plain sight,” he said. As a result, the services have lost sight of their focus on excellence, and a personnel gap has developed between servicemembers with 12 years in the military and those with 20 years, Kane added. “The historical military principle for most of our history has been excellence or
out,” he said. “But we don’t do that anymore. It doesn’t matter how excellent or un-excellent you are, you are pretty much guaranteed promotion pretty much all the way to 20 years.” In one example, Kane said an airman serving after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was forced out of the service for not getting a promotion. The servicemember had to seek a third master’s degree to stay in the Air Force, and he refused. “That’s the kind of nonsense that happens when people can’t control their own careers,” he said. “One thing to change in DOPMA is you do not have to retire after you have failed to promote twice … that’s what you can fix with a sentence.” Military experts and leaders from each of the services testified they need more flexibility to allow servicemembers to follow their own career paths. “We now believe it’s time to consider changes needed to more effectively and efficiently recruit, assess, retain the talented officers needed to sustain our ready force and to better manage and employ individual talents and specialize emerging skills,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas C. Seamands, the Army’s deputy chief of staff. grisales.claudia@stripes.com Twitter: @cgrisales
Tougher fitness tests slated for some airmen BY WILLIAM HOWARD Stars and Stripes
The Air Force is rolling out a more rigorous fitness test for airmen in two job fields that require coordination with ground combat troops. Air liaison officers and tactical air control party operators will undergo a physical fitness assessment designed specifically for them sometime next year, officials announced Jan. 24. “There are certain career fields, ALO and TACP, for instance, that required much higher and broader levels of physical fitness to meet the demands of their operational mission sets,” said Dr. Neal
Baumgartner, chief of the Air Force’s Exercise Science Unit. Currently, all airmen are required to pass a fitness assessment known as Tier 1, which involves a timed 1½-mile run and a number of situps and pushups completed in one minute. The Tier 2 test will include the 1,000-meter row, pullups, trap bar dead lift, two-cone agility drill, medicine ball toss, grip strength test, 100yard farmer’s carry, extended cross-knee crunch, weighted lunges and a faster 1½-mile run. “Each of these 10 components has specific relevance to unique ALO-TACP operational mission sets,” said
Master Sgt. Matthew Gruse, of the Exercise Science Unit. Scoring is based on a 10point scale for each event. Airmen must score at least 46 points out of 100 to pass. The run is timed and must be completed in under 11 minutes, 31 seconds. Unlike the current Tier 1 fitness assessment, age and gender aren’t factored into scoring. Airmen taking the Tier 2 assessment won’t have to take the Tier 1 test. Once the new assessment is implemented next year, ALO and TACP operators will have 12 months to adapt to the new Tier 2 test. howard.william@stripes.com Twitter: @Howard_Stripes
JOE YANIK /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
Master Sgt. Kyle Anderson, 3rd Air Support Operations Group, runs between two cones during a speed, strength and agility demonstration at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Jan. 9.
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OLYMPICS
Winning tradition US sending seven soldiers to represent nation in Pyeongchang BY K IM GAMEL
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SEOUL, South Korea gt. Emily Sweeney came close to a berth in the Olympics in 2010 and 2014 only to see her hopes dashed. The 24-year-old luge athlete said the Army’s World Class Athlete Program helped her overcome the disappointment and finally win a chance to compete in this month’s Winter Games. “It’s been a long journey,” she said Jan. 23 in a telephone interview from Latvia where she is training with Army luge teammates Sgt. Matt Mortensen and Sgt. Taylor Morris. Sweeney joined the New York Army National Guard in 2011 and trained with the military police. She said a routine leadership course helped pull her out of a funk after she missed the Olympics for a second time in 2014. “That was right after me not making the team so that kind of got my butt back into gear,” she said. “I completed that course and then got back into my training for the luge as well.” Sweeney and six other soldiers on the luge and bobsled teams will travel to South Korea for the Feb. 9-25 Olympics in Pyeongchang. All but one are in the WCAP, an Army unit that provides opportunities for troops with athletic skills to participate in international competitions while promoting the military. They must balance their athletic training with their military duties, and spend time offseason conducting clinics and making appearances at high schools and colleges in support of recruiting efforts.
Since 1948, 446 soldiers have represented the United States at the Olympics as athletes or coaches, earning 111 medals in sports including bobsled, track and field, boxing, wrestling and shooting events. The WCAP, which is headquartered at Fort Carson, Colo., was founded in 1997 and has sent 55 soldier-athletes to win gold, silver and bronze medals in the Summer and Winter Olympics. It’s a longstanding tradition. Since 1948, 446 soldiers have represented the United States at the games as athletes or coaches, earning 111 medals in a variety of sports including bobsled, track and field, boxing, wrestling and shooting events. Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Weber, 31, earned a spot on the Olympic team without being part of the WCAP and trained while deployed. Spokesman Col. Sean Ryan welcomed his participation. “Soldier-athletes like SFC Weber can train on their own competitions, but don’t always make the times or standards for WCAP at the time they apply,” he said. “For Nate, an even more impressive accomplishment as he deployed to Afghanistan with 10th Special Forces.” Here’s a look at the seven Army Olympians headed to Pyeongchang:
Sgt. Emily Sweeney Sweeney, 24, of Suffield, Conn., has been sliding since she was 10, following in the footsteps of her sister Megan who retired after finishing 22nd in
the Vancouver Olympics. She was the luge Junior World Champion in 2013 and holds one World Cup gold medal. She’ll be competing in the women’s singles luge in Pyeongchang.
Sgt. Nick Cunningham Cunningham, 32, of Monterey, Calif., will be competing in his third Olympics on both a fourman and two-man bobsled team. He enlisted in the New York Army National Guard in 2011 and is a carpentry and masonry specialist. Cunningham started bobsledding in 2008 and made his first Olympic team in Vancouver as a brakeman before making the transition to driver.
Sgt. Taylor Morris Morris, 26, of Salt Lake City, will compete in the men’s singles luge in his first Olympics appearance. He started the luge in 2002 and missed the cut for the last Winter Games by a sliver of a second. Morris joined the National Guard in 2011. “It’s a really good opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself as well as representing the U.S.A. as an athlete and a soldier,” he said. SEE PAGE 14
Sgt. Matt Mortensen (13) and teammate Jayson Terdiman race down the track during the World Cup luge doubles competition in Calgary, Alberta. Mortensen is one of seven servicemembers who will represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. JEFF MCINTOSH, THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP
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OLYMPICS
Soldier-athletes focus on Games, not politics BY K IM GAMEL Stars and Stripes
SEOUL, South Korea — American soldiers competing in the Olympics this month will march in the same stadium as North Koreans, but the athletes say they’ll be focused on the competition, not politics. Three soldiers will be on the U.S. luge team, and four others will be on the bobsled team. North Korea isn’t competing in those events, but the Feb. 9 opening ceremony will bring everybody together. “I don’t think it will be weird at all. We’re used to overcoming adversity through sport,” Sgt. Matt Mortensen said Jan. 23 in a telephone interview from Latvia, where he’s training with his luge teammates. “If it was a different environment and atmosphere then maybe we would think on the FROM PAGE 12
Sgt. Matt Mortensen Mortensen, 32, of Huntington Station, N.Y., will be competing in the doubles luge for his second Olympics. He joined the New York National Guard in 2010 and trained as an electrician. “Participating in the Olympics as both an ath-
military side of the issue, but for now everybody gets treated as an equal when you’re at the Olympic Games and that’s why it’s such a bonding experience,” he told Stars and Stripes. North Korea’s agreement to join the Winter Games in Pyeongchang as part of rare talks with the South has eased tensions on the divided peninsula after months of saber rattling over the communist state’s nuclear weapons program. The United States, which maintains some 28,500 servicemembers ready to “fight tonight” in South Korea, has cautiously welcomed the decision while vowing to keep up pressure aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Sgt. Emily Sweeney pointed to the Olympic truce resolution, which was passed by the United Nations calling for all
countries to cease conflict during the Games. “As a soldier, I mean yes you say North Korea and you think big red flag,” Sweeney told Stars and Stripes. But, she said, the Olympics are “about the world coming together and putting their best foot forward so I think that kind of trumps everything else for me.” Mortensen, Sweeney and Sgt. Taylor Morris will be on the luge team. The bobsled team will include Sgt. Justin Olsen, Capt. Chris Fogt, Sgt. Nick Cunningham and Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Weber. Six of the seven Olympians are part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, which was established in 1997 to give soldier-athletes a chance to show off their skills in international competitions such as the Olympics and the Paralympics. Soldiers must be nationally ranked in their sport to
lete and a soldier is most definitely something to be proud about,” he said. Mortensen finished 14th in Sochi but thinks he and civilian doubles teammate Jayson Terdiman have a shot at the podium this year. “We have proven over the past few seasons that we are one of the fastest sleds down the track,” he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Weber
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Weber, 31, of Pueblo West, Colo., will compete in the Olympics for the first time after an unorthodox path to become a contender. He will push Sgt. Justin Olsen in a four-man team and compete in the two-man event as well. That brings him full circle because the Green Beret says he
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, 2018
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army
Capt. Chris Fogt and Sgt. Nick Cunningham practice for the two-man bobsled event as part of the the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, established in 1997 to give soldier-athletes a chance to participate in international competitions. participate. Mortensen, who will be competing in his third Olympics, said he faced similar concerns about the U.S. rivalry with Russia during the 2014 Games in Sochi. “As a soldier I feel honored to represent the greatest country in the world at the greatest competition in the world. It is quite a humbling feeling,” Mortensen said. “I also think that the recent agreement made by North and South Korea to march into the opening ceremonies as a unified
country speaks volumes about how unifying the Olympic Games as a whole can be.” The two Koreas agreed to march under a unification flag and to form a combined women’s hockey team. North Koreans also will compete in figure skating, short-track speed skating, Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing after being given exceptional late entries by the International Olympic Committee for the two-week Games.
was inspired to try out for the team after reading a magazine article about Olsen during a lunch break in Special Forces training. Weber said his military career comes first, but he has managed to train for his Olympic goal while deployed in hot spots from Afghanistan to Niger. Weber said he’s proud to represent the Army in the Winter Olympics. “I love any job where I get to wear the stars and stripes,” he tweeted.
competition, a fight, a battle, a war, expecting to do well. You want to win,” he said in a video produced for the Olympic Channel.
Capt. Chris Fogt Fogt, 34, of Orange Park, Fla., won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsled in Sochi and will make his third Olympics appearance in Pyeongchang. He’s a military intelligence officer and spent a year deployed in Iraq after the 2010 games. Fogt had to find creative ways to train for his winter sport while serving as a commander at Fort Hood, Texas. He’s going for the gold in South Korea. “I don’t think you ever go into a
Sgt. Justin Olsen Olsen, 30, of San Antonio, Texas, was a gold medalist in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and came in 12th in Sochi. Olsen will compete as a driver for the first time and will seek a medal in the four man and two man events. “Sgt. Olsen is our hope for the future as far as driving goes. He’s really put in the time and is focused and committed,” Capt. Mike Kohn, a U.S. coach and a WCAP member, was quoted as saying in a press release. Olsen joined the New York National Guard in 2011. “I already represent my country,” Olsen said upon enlisting. “Now I have an opportunity to serve and represent my country at the same time.” gamel.kim@stripes.com Twitter: @kimgamel
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Fri Feb 2
Bridal Show
Aiken Center for the Arts A show and sale (formerly named Antiques in the Heart of Aiken). Continues 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb 3 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb 4. $15 tickets are good for all three days. Call 803-6419094 or visit aikencenterforthearts.org.
Wed Feb 7
10am - 6pm Aiken Antique Show
Sat Feb 3
Noon - 3pm MiniCon MayHem
Cardboard Castle, 4015 Columbia Road An AgamaCon event featuring cosplay, a preview of AgamaCon Year 3 (coming March 3 and 4), vendors and more. Visit facebook.com/agamacon.
7pm Sat Feb 3 Pro Wrestling BUSHIDO
Thomson Boys & Girls Club $7, advance; $10, at door; $20, VIP; free, military and emergency personnel with ID. Group rates available. Visit livewireaugusta.tk or facebook.com/PWBUSHIDO.
6pm - 10pm Boot Scoot Boogie Bash Columbia County Exhibition Center A fundraiser for the American Red Cross that includes live music, live and silent auctions, barbecue and more. Call 706922-8487 or visit facebook.com/ events/366776087095652.
Sun Feb 4
12:30pm - 5:30pm The Georgia
Bell Auditorium An event that includes a bride and groom fashion show, cake and food tastings, live entertainment and vendors. $12, advance; $15 (cash only) at the door. Visit eliteevents.com.
8pm Cody Jinks
Miller Theater $35-$202. Visit millertheateraugusta. com or call 800-514-3849.
Thu Feb 8
7:30pm POPS! Under the Streetlamp
Bell Auditorium This group will perform retro hits with Symphony Orchestra Augusta. $16-$66. Visit soaugusta.org or call 706-826-4705.
Thu Feb 8
All day Writers Weekend
Augusta University, Summerville Campus Featuring craft lectures, readings and book signings with Rebecca Skloot, Karyn Parsons, George Ella Lyon, Tony Grooms, Sean Hill, Ashley M. Jones, Tonya Marie Agerton, Tom Robertson and Bob Young. Runs daily through Feb. 10. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit literaryaugusta. com. Call 706-729-2508 or email aharrisparker@augusta.edu.
Friday, February 2, 2, 2018 Friday, February 2018
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