Volume 10, No. 4 ŠSS 2018
FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 2018
Rising concern Government watchdog report contradicts Trump stance on climate threat to military installations Page 2
Typhoon Neoguri slams Okinawa in 2014. Although an extreme-weather event can’t be linked directly to climate change, it can reveal how military bases are vulnerable when such events occur more often, the Government Accountability Office said in a recent report. Screen grab from Defense Department video
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Report: Military should prepare for climate threats BY SCOTT WYLAND Stars and Stripes
Drought-induced wildfires scorching California bases. More frequent hurricanes battering island installations. Rising seas that will put many military bases under water in the next 20 years. These are some possible climate change threats that the military must better prepare for in the coming years to protect bases and personnel, the Government Accountability Office said in a report that runs counter to the White House’s climate change skepticism. “A three-foot rise in sea levels will threaten the operations of more than 128 United States military sites, and it is possible that many of these atrisk bases could be submerged in the coming years,” the GAO said in the report, released in December. For example, in the Marshall Islands an Air Force radar station built on an atoll for $1 million is expected to be underwater within two decades, the report says. To prepare for such threats, the GAO said, the Defense Department should require all bases to budget for future costs of repairs and safeguards while training more staffers on how to plan for climate-driven hazards such as rising seas. The Trump administration’s recently released national security strategy stands in contrast to the GAO’s sense of urgency over climate change. The strategy emphasizes that the real security threat is regulations that hinder America’s energy dominance and economic growth. It makes an indirect reference to climate change — greenhouse gases, which most scientists
say are the chief cause of global warming — but never describes it as a threat. “The United States will remain a global leader in reducing traditional pollution, as well as greenhouse gases, while expanding our economy,” the strategy says. This dismissal of climactic threats is at odds not only with the GAO’s position but also with the views of congressional leaders, who believe the military should treat climate change as a growing threat. The defense bill that President Donald Trump signed recently included a section about how climate change could imperil military bases and create “breeding grounds” for terrorism in regions plagued by famine and droughts. “Climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and is impacting stability in areas of the world . . . where the United States Armed Forces are operating today,” a bipartisan amendment said. The defense secretary must submit a report to Congress in a year that identifies 10 installations most vulnerable to climate change, including from floods, wildfires and melting ice caps. The report also must outline how to mitigate climate-related problems such as storms eroding a training site. The military concluded years ago that climate change could damage U.S. bases and disrupt operations, and it will
A.J. C OYNE /Courtesy of the Virginia National Guard
Virginia National Guard soldiers from the 429th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, patrol in support of Hurricane Sandy operations in 2012 in Norfolk, Va. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office identifies climate change as a threat to military installations. continue to explore how to lessen the impacts regardless of the president’s political rhetoric, said David Livingston, climate and energy expert with the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. “I really don’t think DOD is going to swing to the opposite end of the pendulum” under Trump, Livingston said. “They’re not going to walk away from it (climate change) now that they have findings. That train has left the station.” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., proposed stripping climate language from the bill, but the House of Representatives voted 234-185 against removing it, including 46 Republicans, Livingston said In the new law, Congress cites the GAO’s report on
how the military has failed to adequately plan for climate change. Defense officials mostly agreed with the GAO’s recommendations to improve climate change planning, though they rejected the suggestion to link every severe weather event to climate change. “Tracking impacts and costs associated with extreme weather events is important,” the Pentagon said in comments contained in the GAO report. “However, attributing a single event to climate change is difficult and doesn’t warrant the time and money expended to do so.” The GAO argued that while a single weather event such as a typhoon can’t be linked to climate change, it often shows how vulnerable a base will be
‘ A three-foot rise in sea levels will threaten the operations of more than 128 United States military sites, and it is possible that many of these at-risk bases could be submerged in the coming years.
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Government Accountability Office report
when severe weather grows more frequent. One incident the GAO cites occurred in the Yukon Training Area in Alaska, where units doing artillery training sparked a wildfire despite taking necessary precautions. Other areas show signs of climate wreaking long-term havoc. In the western states, droughts have amplified wildfire threats, and floods have damaged roads, runways and buildings on military bases. In the Arctic, the combination of melting sea ice, thawing permafrost and sea-level rise has eroded shorelines, damaging runways, seawalls and training areas. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has acknowledged climate change as a growing threat to military operations. “I agree that the effects of a changing climate — such as increased maritime access to the Arctic, rising sea levels, desertification, among others — impact our security situation,” Mattis said in the defense bill’s amendment. wyland.scott@stripes.com Twitter: @wylandstripes
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MILITARY
General’s promotion pulled after calling a staffer ‘sweetheart’ BY JOHN VANDIVER Stars and Stripes
WILL MORRIS/Stars and Stripes
Members of the 212th Combat Support Hospital pose in period uniforms during a ceremony marking the unit’s 100th anniversary Dec. 28.
Army hospital unit marks 100 years since WWI creation BY WILL MORRIS Star and Stripes
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — A hundred years ago, when the Army established Evacuation Hospital No. 12, the world was a starkly different place. Europe was locked in the first great war of the 20th century. Arriving in France in August 1918 as part of the U.S. Expeditionary Force, the men of Evacuation Hospital No. 12 faced massive casualties caused by artillery, poison gas attacks and trench warfare. They lacked penicillin and many other medicines that are now commonplace. Today the same unit, renamed the 212th Combat Support Hospital and based at Rhine Ordnance Barracks, sends surgical teams directly into forward areas across the world using resources that can be found in any modern hospital. On Dec. 28 the unit gathered to commemorate its birthday and 100 years of its history. “It’s always been a pres-
tigious unit,” said Col. John White, deputy commander for administration for the 212th. “It’s the only hospital that’s been around since World War I.” As part of the ceremony, seven members of the unit dressed in period uniforms from all of the conflicts in which the hospital has served. During each of these campaigns, with the exception of Korea, the 212th operated hospitals in forward areas treating thousands of patients. In World War II, the unit treated patients from D-Day and sent special surgical teams behind enemy lines to treat wounded soldiers in Bastogne. The groups performed 50 major surgeries before other Army units could catch up to them. It is estimated the unit treated 26,000 patients during World War II. During the Vietnam War, the unit, known then as the 12th Evacuation Hospital, treated more than 37,000 patients. morris.william@stripes.com Twitter: @willatstripes
STUTTGART, Germany — Maj. Gen. Ryan Gonsalves’ nomination for a third star has been pulled in the wake of an Army Inspector General’s probe that found he disrespected a female congressional staffer when he called her “sweetheart.” A report of the investigation into the incident was provided Dec. 29 to Stars and Stripes and determined the “preponderance of the evidence” indicated Gonsalves referred to the staffer as “sweetheart” during an October 2016 meeting. As a result, Gonsalves violated Army Command Policy, which requires treating others with “dignity and respect,” the investigation concluded. The IG recommend the report be referred to the Judge Advocate General for “appropriate action.” So far, the Army declined to detail what the future holds for Gonsalves, who led the 4th Infantry Division until August but is now serving as a special assistant to the commanding general, III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. In July, Gonsalves was nominated for a third star, but his nomination was formally withdrawn Nov. 27. An anonymous complaint against Gonsalves was made to the IG on July 20, days after Gonsalves’ nomination and one week after Stars and Stripes reported he was in contention to serve as the next commander of U.S. Army Europe. According to the IG report, Gonsalves’ pending nomination for a third star prompted an angry reaction from a
Gonsalves staffer of Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. The Army IG report redacted the names of the female congressional staffer and about 10 other people who were present during the October 2016 meeting at Fort Carson, Colo. The report included testimony from members of Gonsalves’ staff who took part in the session. The complaint cited accusations that Gonsalves took issue with the female congressional staffer’s youth, and that the general said she should take detailed notes on why the military needed funding “since she was a Democrat and did not believe in funding the military,” the IG report stated. Multiple members of the congressional delegation described Gonsalves’ remarks during the meeting as “sarcastic and unprofessional,” the report states. Another male staffer described the remarks as “sexist, inappropriate and unprofessional,” according to
the report. At one point during the meeting, the female staffer passed a note to a colleague that read: “Did this guy really just call me sweetheart?,” the report states. Accounts of the meeting differed, however. Some people in attendance defended Gonsalves, saying he acted professionally, though their names and positions were redacted from the report. The IG report cites another allegation that Gonsalves asked the staffer her age. When she responded, Gonsalves spoke about his time as a young Army officer serving along the Fulda Gap during the Cold War. Gonsalves is then accused of telling the staffer to take notes so her “Democratic boss” would understand the military’s needs, according to the report. The meeting was focused on the Army’s growing mission in Europe and the need for more consistent funding in light of concerns about a more aggressive Russia. The IG report also cited statements that after the meeting with Gonsalves, the staffer informed her boss — Langevin — but she declined to file a complaint at the time. After the Stars and Stripes report about Gonsalves’ possible nomination to command USAREUR, the staffer posted statements on Facebook critical of the general and said the Army was making a “bad decision,” the IG report states. An anonymous IG complaint followed. “Although MG Gonsalves testified that he did not refer to [the female staffer] as ‘sweetheart’ during the meeting, the evidence did not support his recollection,” the IG report states. vandiver.john@stripes.com
A probe found that Maj. Gen. Ryan Gonsalves violated Army Command Policy, which requires treating others with “dignity and respect.”
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At the ready Misawa’s Draughon Range helps pilots prepare to counter North Korean threats BY SETH ROBSON Stars and Stripes
DRAUGHON RANGE, Japan — The seeds of victory over Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were sown on a desolate beach in northern Japan. Now, Air Force and Navy pilots are there preparing for a more sophisticated enemy: North Korea. Draughon Range encompasses 1,900 acres of sand dunes and forest near Misawa Air Base. It’s where Air Force and Navy pilots train to defeat enemy air defenses — a mission that would be crucial to any fight on the Korean Peninsula. The suppression of enemy air defense, or SEAD, mission was born during the Vietnam War and has evolved to use Navy EA-18 Growlers capable of jamming enemy radar and Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons charged with destroying radar and missile launchers with precision bombing. “We find, fix and target radars and missiles and provide access for other aircraft,” said 35th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Scott Jobe. He leads Misawa’s two squadrons of F-16s — jets that would be among the first to cross the Demilitarized Zone if a war were to happen. North Korea, which has conducted provocative underground nuclear blasts and missile tests this year, is a primary focus for the Misawa pilots, Jobe said. Other F-16s could conduct the mission, he added, but Misawa’s jets are the only ones in the Western Pacific that train for it. “If called upon, we are expected to be ready to react to any threat in the region, which includes North Korea,” Jobe said. “We would go in wherever
D EANA HEITZMAN /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 13th and 14th Fighter Squadrons line the runway during exercise Beverly Sunrise 1707 at Misawa Air Base, Japan, on Sept. 16. Beverly Sunrise, an annual exercise, is a simulated deployment to test the readiness of the 35th Fighter Wing. ters while other Misawa planes play the role of enemy aircraft. The Air Force also uses computers to simulate threats. The North Koreans are equipped with older SA-2 and SA-5 missile systems provided by the Soviets during the Cold War. They aren’t as sophisticated as those fielded by China and Russia, but are still a threat, Jobe said. Exactly how many missiles the North Koreans have is classified; however, Jobe said they’re useless without radar. “No matter how many missiles or launchers there are, without a guidance system they are less of a threat,” he said.
Operation Inherent Resolve
SETH ROBSON /Stars and Stripes
Old shipping containers used as targets have taken a beating at Draughon Range. our SEAD capabilities are needed to stimulate the threats so we can locate and destroy them.” If North Korea breaks the cease-fire — in effect on the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953 — Jobe said the United States would react.
“We will go in there and stimulate the threat so they look at us and shoot at us and we can shoot back,” he said. Misawa pilots practice countering the North Korean air-defense systems daily, weather permitting, Jobe said. Growlers fly over the range, jamming radar signals sent out by training emit-
ISIS never had much in the way of air defenses. However, the group’s fanatical fighters took brutal revenge on downed pilots, burning them alive in cages and posting videos of the killings online. This was the threat that Misawa pilots faced when they deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014 and 2015. Ahead of that mission, the pilots completed SERE — survival, evasion, resistance and escape — training at Draughon and were well aware of the risks of flying over enemy territory. SEE PAGE 6
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“There are many more threats to worry about, especially if you have to eject from your aircraft [such as] evading from the enemy, surviving in the desert landscape, coordinating for recovery,” said F-16 pilot Capt. Danielle Kangas, who deployed to the Middle East from Misawa in 2015. To prepare pilots for the downrange missions, Misawa pilots practiced bombing with the pinpoint accuracy they’d need to strike the militants, whose positions were surrounded by civilian homes in cities such as Mosul and Raqqa. The small bombing area at Draughon was the ideal place to train for an operation where there was also limited airspace. In Iraq and Syria, the pilots dropped 100- to 1,000-pound bombs and had to be precise to minimize collateral damage, Kangas said. The Air Force added a mosque-like building made from shipping containers and barrels to Draughon. The structure, which Misawa pilots trained to avoid, still stands in the forest, painted white to make it easy to spot from the air. “We fly in Draughon so much, we are pretty familiar with the landscape and terrain features … downrange, we went to hundreds of different locations that we had never seen before,” Kangas said. The Misawa pilots also practiced strafing runs they’d need to target dismounted insurgents or vehicles. A row of red tires at the range directs pilots to a “tactical” target on the beach — a shipping container surrounded by old Humvees blasted with 20mm rounds from planes flying as low as 75 feet. “Strafing isn’t the most common attack we do, so utilizing Draughon Range is even more important to have the ability to practice it so we remain proficient in the event we need to strafe in combat,” Kangas said. Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, or JTACs, from around the Pacific came to Draughon to prepare for battle in Iraq and Syria. They practiced identifying the enemy from the ground, marking the targets with lasers and directing pilots over the radio. Pilots used Draughon to simulate Middle East areas of operations and practiced coordinating with JTACs, Kangas said. “This is basically us talking to a guy on the ground who is talking our eyes onto the target and then giving us parameters and approval to perform the attack,” she said.
Core mission There’s plenty of evidence of the effort to prepare Misawa pilots at
RUSSELL MCBRIDE /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
The 13th Fighter Squadron trains at Draughon Range, north of Misawa Air Base, Japan, in this undated photo. Draughon. The beach there is littered with hundreds of bombs and impact craters where larger munitions — some as heavy as 2,000 pounds — have been dropped. Munitions used at the range don’t pack as much punch as bombs used in combat; however, they do contain small charges so pilots can see where they land. Explosive ordnance disposal personnel render duds safe before disposing of them. With the fight against ISIS winding down, the Misawa-based airmen are focused on their core mission: neutralizing enemy air defenses. “A lot of the real basic training goes on here … identifying the target from the plane and flying at 350 knots and dropping bombs while communicating with people in the area,” said Joe Conley, 49, of Toledo, Ohio, a civilian contractor with Cubic Global Defense
who has helped run the range since 1998. Range workers make sure the training is safe, clearing pilots to drop bombs and talking to them by radio as they approach targets. Conley was watching in 2000 when a pilot bailed as his F-16 went down just offshore. “It just stalled into the water and sank,” he said. “There was no explosion or anything. Everything was slow.” The range is named after Petty Officer 3rd Class Mathew Draughon, a Navy diver who drowned trying to salvage the aircraft.
Mackay Trophies Misawa pilots flying over Syria twice won the prestigious Mackay Trophy for the “most meritorious flight of the year.” Past recipients of the award, which has been given out since 1912,
‘ We would go in wherever our
SEAD capabilities are needed to stimulate the threats so we can locate and destroy them.
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Col. Scott Jobe 35th Fighter Wing commander
include Eddie Rickenbacker, the highest-scoring American ace of World War I, and Chuck Yeager, first to break the sound barrier. In 2014, the award went to Capt. David Kroontje and Capt. Gregory Balzhiser, who in their F-16s attacked four times 500 miles inside enemy-controlled terrain; destroyed three ISIS blockades, multiple armored vehicles and an observation post; and killed insurgents firing at Yazidi civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar. Misawa pilots helped Kurdish peshmerga fighters rescue 40,000 civilians, including women, children, elderly and sick, according to the National Aeronautical Association. In 2015, four more Misawa fliers — Lt. Col. Jeffrey Cohen, Maj. Seth Taylor, Kangas and Capt. Mathew Park — were awarded Mackay trophies for their actions over al Hasakah in northeast Syria. Over four hours, the crews destroyed eight enemy fighting positions with no friendly or civilian casualties. The battle marked the end of a threemonth operation that liberated 17,000 square kilometers of territory from ISIS, the Air Force said. robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1
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Sailors learn value of innovation, risk, failure BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The first day Sean Anthony walked into Great Horn, a small tech company near Boston, he knew he was a long way from his Navy home. “Two people chilling in beanbag chairs, a couple people on a couch, someone in a La-Z-Boy, and they had a Nintendo Wii hooked up to the TV,” said Anthony, an enlisted cryptologic technician stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. “It looked like a college frat boy’s lounge party, but they were doing business and talking about expense reports and updating their software and other type stuff that other normal businesses would do. But it was definitely a bit of a culture shock.” A shift in culture for sailors, however, is one of the primary goals of the Pacific Fleet Industry Innovation Fellowship program — still in the pilot stage — that places them in small companies with an ethos of innovation and risk-taking. The program operates in partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, which is intended to foster civil-military technology collaboration. The fellowship sprang from an innovation summit in 2016 aboard the USS San Diego during Fleet Week in San Francisco, said Adam Harrison, MD5’s director. Industry and military participants at the summit found a common interest in developing and training people to be more creative and adaptive when faced with opportunities or threats, he said. “The recommendation that came out of this summit was that we look at doing an across-military-industry fellowship program for high-potential personnel,” he said. The first four sailors participated in late 2016, and another three joined two firms this past fall.
Better understanding For Anthony, whose job includes developing and advising cybersecurity throughout the Navy, the fiveweek fellowship with Great Horn was a good fit — culture shock aside. The company’s work focuses on cloud cybersecurity, with a product intended to provide endpoint protection from cyberintrusion or scamming for clients who use companywide cloud services from, say, Gmail, Amazon or Microsoft, Anthony said. “One of the things that surprised me was the difference in terms of cyber-
Courtesy of Derek Fletcher
Dan Bowden, left, CEO of the high-tech startup O2O2, and Cmdr. Tom Ogden don prototype face masks that the company is developing in Auckland, New Zealand. Lt. Cmdr. Derek Fletcher, right, recently spent five weeks at the company evaluating the product’s potential uses on Navy flight decks. security,” he said of comparing the approaches of the Navy versus the tech company. “For me, cybersecurity deals with hardware, like servers and actual computers,” he said. “I got to see [this company’s] point of view on those topics,” he said, adding that he returned to the Navy with a better understanding of cloud infrastructure. Lt. Cmdr. Derek Fletcher, assigned to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, recently spent five weeks at a threeperson firm called O2O2 in Auckland, New Zealand. The company is developing a face mask filter, and Fletcher’s background — a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, experience prototyping and familiarity with Emergency Air Breathing masks as a submarine officer — earned him a fellowship spot. As was the case with Anthony, Fletcher has had no experience in the civilian corporate world. “It gave me the opportunity to be exposed to completely new types of experiences, to help broaden my skill sets that I can rely on in the future as my Navy career progresses,” he said. The Auckland company is developing a face mask with an eye toward marketing where many people are used
to wearing filters because of air pollution, such as South Korea and China, Fletcher said. “The problem is that those are not very effective unless you get a very tight seal around your mouth and nose for the filtration to work,” he said. “And as you’re breathing, you’re breathing in that hot, humid air, so it’s very uncomfortable to wear.” O2O2’s face mask creates a pocket of filtered air in front of the wearer’s mouth but doesn’t need to seal the area.
No fear One lasting lesson from the fellowship was the mindset Fletcher saw in the company concerning failure — or more accurately, the lack of fear of failure. “That’s one of the things I brought back,” he said. “In the shipyard where we’re working to develop a course that kind of helps hone in on and to help us understand our preconceived notions of failure, of how we were raised to think that if something fails, someone’s to blame. And if you accept failure, then you’re admitting blame for whatever happened.” Another takeaway was how such a small company — comprising only
three co-founders — created a presence of a roughly 100-employee firm by effectively outsourcing all aspects of work, including innovation. Fletcher said seeing how that was done will help with the shipyard’s ongoing project of developing a network of partnerships with schools, academies and private companies. Harrison said the next step for the program is to open it to servicemembers across the military, with a longerterm goal of recruiting and sending 50 fellows per year, depending on funding. Fellows are assigned on a temporary duty basis, so the military is responsible for their room and board wherever they go. “Ultimately, what we’d like to do in a final step is create opportunities to bring industry people into the military,” he said. That could make for an interesting learning curve. “In the Great H office, if one of the employees wanted to take a power nap because it helped their functionality, they were able to take a power nap,” Anthony said. “In the Navy, you can’t do that, right?” olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
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Army plans to end early retirement program BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — The Army will end a program in 2018 that allowed some soldiers to receive retirement benefits without serving a full 20 years in uniform, the service’s top civilian recently announced in a memorandum. Army Secretary Mark Esper said in a Dec. 15 memo that the end of the Army’s drawing down of its force strength was the reason why he rescinded the Temporary Early Retirement Authority, or TERA, program. TERA, in use since 2012, allowed soldiers who had served at least 15 years but less than the 20 years typically needed to secure full retirement
entitlements to receive those benefits if they had been selected for a discharge as part of the Army’s drawdown. It also allowed some officers to receive those benefits if they had not been selected for a promotion. TERA “has served as an effective tool for drawing down the Army’s end strength,” Esper wrote in his memo. “However, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 increased Army end strength and we have ceased the drawdown.” In 2016, the Army ended its yearslong drawdown that followed budget cuts and the decreased need for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The service now seeks to grow its active-duty force strength by some 7,500
Stars and Stripes
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The U.S. military has asked the Japanese government to stop people from buzzing its military bases with remote-controlled aircraft that may pose safety and security risks. Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S Pacific Command, asked for action on the drone flights during a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera in November, the Asahi newspaper reported Dec. 27. Small, remotely piloted aircraft that have been operated by individuals over Camp Schwab — a Marine Corps facility on Okinawa — pose a security and safety hazard, said Air Force Col. John Hutcheson, a U.S. Forces Japan spokesman. “I wouldn’t say it’s happening every day but it’s frequent enough to be a significant concern,” he said. “Oftentimes we can see the people flying [drones] but they are off the grounds of the installation.” Harris told Japanese officials that there is a risk of a drone colliding with a military aircraft, Asahi reported. There was an incident where a U.S. military helicopter had to make a sharp turn to avoid hitting a drone, the newspaper reported. The small aircraft don’t appear to be
TERA. Soldiers still awaiting the results of pending 2017 promotion boards after Jan. 15 will have 30 calendar days following the promotion announcements to submit an early retirement request to their chain of command. Four officer promotion boards from fiscal year 2017 have not yet been announced, said Hank Minitrez, a spokesman for the Army’s personnel office. All soldiers who are approved to retire through the TERA program must leave the service by Sept. 1, Esper wrote in the memo. dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
Military women plan #MeToo demonstration
US asks Japan to ban drone flights over military bases BY SETH ROBSON
soldiers to about 483,500 by September to meet growing worldwide challenges, including an uptick in troops operating in Afghanistan. Esper’s ending of the TERA program allows some soldiers to receive the benefit next year. The program was initially approved to run throughout fiscal year 2018, according to the Army. Soldiers eligible for TERA must submit a request through their chain of command by Jan. 15 for early retirement consideration, which will be approved or denied by Feb. 28, according to the memo. However, some soldiers will still have opportunities after Jan. 15 to receive early retirement benefits through
BY NANCY MONTGOMERY Stars and Stripes
DAVID MCN ALLY/Courtesy of the U.S. Army
The U.S. military has asked the Japanese government to ban people from flying personal drones over American military bases. a significant issue at other U.S. installations in Japan; however, there are rules for operating them on base. At Yokota — USFJ’s headquarters in western Tokyo — battery-powered toy drones are allowed at sports fields on the west side while larger recreational drones can be flown from an eastside taxiway. After a drone crashed onto the roof of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s residence in April 2015, Japan banned them from flying over airports, densely populated areas and above 492 feet without permission. Another law bans drone flights over important facilities such as the National Diet building, Imperial Palace, nuclear power plants and embassies. However, those rules don’t apply to U.S. military facilities. Following Harris’ request, the Japanese government is looking at revising its laws to cover U.S. bases, the report added. Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report. robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1
Advocates for military women are planning a #MeToo demonstration outside the Pentagon this month to add their voices to the movement that has put a spotlight on workplace sexual harassment and extinguished the careers of powerful men in entertainment, media, technology and politics. The event is envisioned as a way to allow military women and their supporters throughout the Washington area to raise awareness, show solidarity and share stories about sexual assault and harassment in the military. “We are demonstrating outside the Pentagon to ensure the voices of servicewomen and men are not left behind in the #MeToo movement and that the reckoning that has swept other industries in the nation also takes place in the military,” said Lydia Watts, CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network, one of three nonprofit groups involved in the effort. The military has wrestled with sexual assault and harassment since the 1991 Tailhook scandal burst into public view. At a reunion of retired and active-duty Navy aviators at a Las Vegas hotel, 83 women and seven men were assaulted by some 100 men, with the Navy’s top brass doing nothing to stop them. The initial Navy investigation blamed a few lower-ranking men, and the rear admiral in charge of the probe said he believed that many female Navy pilots
were “go-go dancers, topless dancers or hookers,” according to a Pentagon report. The rally is scheduled for 8 to 9 a.m. on Jan. 8 at the Pentagon Metro Station in Arlington, Va. Sexual assault and harassment in the military has been discussed and studied for more than a decade. Though it has been addressed with policy and law changes, it remains a serious problem. A 2014 Rand Corp. study found that an estimated 26 percent of active-duty women were sexually harassed in that year and that nearly 5 percent had been sexually assaulted. Of the minority of those who reported, about 60 percent said they’d faced retaliation for reporting it. At the Army and Navy service academies where future military leaders are minted, half of female cadets had been sexually harassed; 12 percent said they’d been sexually assaulted, according to Defense Department reports released earlier this year. Don Christensen, a former Air Force top prosecutor now the president of Protect Our Defenders, which is a cosponsor of the demonstration, said that military leadership failed to take the problem seriously, despite lip service. Senior officers who perpetrate sexual harassment and assault should be publicly chastised and made example of, he said, instead of being allowed to quietly retire. montgomery.nancy@stripes.com Twitter: @montgomerynance
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WAR ON TERRORISM
Soldiers honored for saving lives after car bombing BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Seconds after releasing his handheld microphone, Sgt. Joshua Sears heard the loud bang. “I see the trees on the side just like blow forward,” the Cincinnati native said, recalling the incident during an interview last week. “It was crazy.” Eight vehicles back from Sears, who was in the lead vehicle of the route-clearance platoon’s formation, Spc. Garrett “Doc” Young, the platoon medic, heard Sears radio that the van they were passing was loaded down with bags. Then Young saw the flash and heard the boom. “It was so loud and it was so bright, I thought that was it,” he said. But it wasn’t. It was like a starter’s pistol, and soon panic and training kicked in as the soldiers raced to secure the area and prepare casualties for evacuation. In 32 minutes, the wounded were already being treated at a field hospital, a timeline their leaders say saved two American lives. During a ceremony at Bagram on Dec. 20, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Dan Dailey awarded Army Commendation Medals with “V” devices to Sears, Young and a third soldier, Sgt. Mark Andrisek, for their actions during the Nov. 13 incident in Kandahar province. “It’s really recognizing the fact that everyone’s alive because of them,” said Capt. Danielle Villanueva, the soldiers’ company commander. “It’s an incredibly proud moment for us as a command.” The soldiers of 4th Platoon,
Alpha Company, 127th Airborne Engineering Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Afghanistan in July. It’s a first deployment for Young and Andrisek and a second for Sears, who served in Afghanistan in 2012. Sears’ gunner had first spotted the van and made it stop, When but Sears the enemy couldn’t it was shoots, it’s see loaded easier to with woven plastic kill them bags — the back. type that Sgt. Joshua typically Sears hold about 50 pounds of fruit, fertilizer or explosives — until they got alongside it. As they passed, the driver looked up at him, deadpan, as they all do, he said. Then, repeating a pattern that developed in Kandahar this past fall, the man blew himself up. He had seemed to know, as Sears figured many insurgents had learned, that the convoy would simply drive past his vehicle with little hassle. “That’s the way we had to play the game,” Sears said. “You don’t really want to impede on these people’s lives because the idea’s to be here to help them.” Coalition convoys try to avoid disrupting the flow of everyday traffic too much, Sears said. For all they know, the cars and vans passing them or weaving into their convoys are harmless: farmers taking goods to market, families going to visit sick loved ones. It’s a vulnerability the
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PHOTOS
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C HAD G ARLAND/Stars and Stripes
From left: Sgt. Mark Andrisek, Sgt. Joshua Sears and Spc. Garrett “Doc’’ Young are pictured at Bagram Air Field on Dec. 20 with an American flag scarf Young’s wife gave him for Christmas in 2016 that he’s carried in his cargo pocket his entire time in Afghanistan, including on a patrol Nov. 13 in Kandahar province when a suicide car bomber wounded four of his platoon mates.
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An RG-33, like the one damaged in the Nov. 13 suicide car bomb attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, is pictured. insurgents have begun exploiting to deadly effect in 2017, killing three coalition troops in suicide car-bombing attacks in Kandahar province and wounding at least 10 others. “When the enemy shoots, it’s easier to kill them back,” said Sears, who’d been in firefights on a previous deployment that hadn’t claimed casualties. Suicide car bombings are different, he said. “It’s pretty much a one-way ticket.” But such bombings “are the only way they can get us,” Sears said. Route-clearing platoons have been “finding everything,” he said, meaning hidden or buried improvised
explosive devices. While the suicide attacks have recently claimed U.S. lives in the province, insurgents have used vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs, more extensively against Afghan security forces, said 1st Sgt. Roman Pavlyuk, Alpha Company’s senior enlisted leader. Pavlyuk credited his troops’ quick reaction to their adaptability on the battlefield and to drills that units had conducted to prepare for such incidents after a fatal attack on a U.S. convoy in August. In that attack, a man who had been pretending to work under the hood of his vehicle
gave chase to a U.S. convoy after it passed and detonated his car bomb when he got close, Sears said. The blast killed two 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers and wounded four others. On Sept. 15, it happened again. This time, two Afghans in a truck that appeared to be carrying fruit detonated their hidden explosive cargo, killing a Romanian soldier and wounding at least one more nearly fatally, the American soldiers said. “He’s a full-blooded American,” Young said, referring to the amount of U.S. blood used in transfusions to save the second Romanian soldier. In the November incident, the powerful blast from the Afghan’s vehicle spun the third vehicle in the U.S. convoy, a 20-ton RG-33 armored vehicle, flipping it off the side of the narrow road, 20 feet down into a ravine onto its roof. Luckily, the gun turret was remotely operated, Sears said. A gunner standing in it likely would have died. Young found the bomber’s face and entrails on the convoy’s bomb-detecting Husky vehicle. Andrisek found his foot. The RG-33’s hood, which took six soldiers to carry, was blown 300 yards away in a SEE PAGE 14
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WAR ON TERRORISM FROM PAGE 12
field. The blast also knocked the helmets off both the RG33’s driver and the platoon leader in the front passenger seat. When Sears dismounted and reached the scene, Young was already treating Spc. Kimkirvie Mapaye, the driver. He was “pretty messed up,” with severe burns on his arms, face and neck. Two other soldiers, though “walking wounded,” were helping out. Someone shouted that a soldier was still inside the truck. When Sears climbed in, he could see his platoon leader’s legs on the roof, but he couldn’t pull 1st Lt. Victor Prato out. To make matters worse, the truck was on fire. “There was three separate little fires going — or not little,” Sears said. “The ground was soaked [with fuel].” Andrisek, of Victorville, Calif., coordinated efforts to put out the fires, set up security and a sweep of a helicopter landing zone for secondary explosive devices. “Doc had pretty much all the help he needed,” Andrisek said. “Instead of like getting too zoned in on … the casualties, you can’t forget where you’re at, so I started emplacing security … started like multitasking.” Sears jumped out to find Prato’s upper body was pinned outside the vehicle, under the roof of the roughly 15-ton hull, but the platoon leader was still conscious and talking. Mechanics quickly hooked up the recovery vehicle’s boom and began carefully raising the damaged truck body — a critical moment, Andrisek said, as it could have shifted and crushed Prato
PHOTOS
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JUAN MUNOZ /Courtesy of the U.S. Army
Actor Gary Sinise, second from left, was on hand when Sgt. Joshua Sears, left; Spc. Garrett Young, second from right; and Andrisek, right, received Army Commendation Medals with “V” devices for their bravery in reaction to a suicide car bombing attack on their convoy. further. Soon, with Prato and Mapaye on litters, wrapped in blankets and far from the wreckage alongside an injured Afghan translator and the two lightly wounded paratroopers, medevac helicopters arrived to whisk them away. Prato and Mapaye were eventually transferred stateside for recovery. President Donald Trump on Dec. 21 visited Prato, who suffered multiple soft tissue injuries, at Walter Reed
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National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and awarded him a Purple Heart. Sears, Andrisek and Young said they had mixed emotions about receiving commendation medals. “Things happened. We reacted,” Sears said. “It’s not something you really feel should be awarded.” The bigger reward, Andrisek said, was that no one died. “That’s what we take away at the end of the day,” Young
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
said. They were grateful, though, for the chance to meet with Milley and Dailey and with Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers. Dailey also pinned a Combat Medical Badge on Young. But, as the trio waited for a
flight back to Kandahar later that day, their minds were on their fellow troops on duty in the southern province and the work they do. “We’ve got a mission tomorrow,” Sears said. “It never stops.” garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland
Gen. Mark Milley, chief of staff of the Army, pins an Army Commendation Medal with “V” device on Sgt. Mark Andrisek at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on Dec. 20.
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PACIFIC
Yokosuka hospital stands by civilian policy change BY T YLER HLAVAC Stars and Stripes
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Naval Hospital Yokosuka is standing by a recent appointment policy change that makes it harder for nonmilitary personnel to receive care. Under the new protocol, which took effect in early November, patients who are not active-duty or the dependent of a servicemember are restricted to making sameday medical appointments on a space-available basis. The facility’s commander, Capt. Rosemary Malone, addressed recent criticism of the new procedure during an interview Dec. 29 with Stars and Stripes. She said that federal guidelines demand that overseas military medical facilities give servicemembers priority and that her hospital is simply following rules that had already been established. “In order to meet access to care standards we had to make this procedural change,” she said. “An active-duty servicemember would come in and the [doctor] would say come back in a week, and there was no appointment within a week … it was pushed out because the appointments were taken.” Naval hospitals on Guam and Okinawa adhere to similar policies, she added. The change has vexed many at Yokosuka, including Jim Collings, a civilian who works as a speech-andlanguage pathologist for on-base schools. “It will be essentially impossible to serve my students without interruption and deal with the demands of this new appointment
policy,” he told Stars and Stripes in an email. “I think my biggest personal issue with this latest announcement has to do with the hypocrisy related to being essential when it comes to the real daily threat living here … but being relegated to second or third class when it comes to getting basic medical care.” Malone said some civilians — who are not put through the extensive medical screenings required of servicemembers and their dependents — have strained the hospital’s resources. “A lot of times there are individuals who seek care with conditions that we would say you’re not suitable to go overseas if you were active-duty,” she said. “Those that don’t go through overseas screening come here thinking, ‘I got the care in the states, I should be able to get it here,’ but it’s not the same. I’m a community-sized hospital basically and my branch clinics are primary care clinics.” Those unable to get an appointment have the option of being treated at an off-base hospital. However, some Yokosuka residents say that Japanese health care is not the same as America’s and that language barriers make it difficult to receive care. Nicholas Gott, an emergency planner for Submarine Group 7 at Yokosuka, said he has had trouble navi-
TYLER HLAVAC /Stars and Stripes
The hospital at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, is now serving civilian patients only on a spaceavailable basis. gating the Japanese health care system, even with help from his Japanese spouse. “Japanese medicine is advanced but does not cover some standard American treatments,” he said. “Someone is going to get hurt. Someone may die. Medical care is not the time to have language barrier problems.” Gott added that Japanese hospitals are more restrictive with pain medications and tightly control prescriptions by offering only small doses and requiring frequent return visits for refills. Another issue, he said, is that off-base providers do
not accept American health insurance and require patients to pay for care immediately out of pocket and file later for reimbursements. Malone denied that Japanese hospitals are substandard. She said her staff frequently trains with Japanese civilian medical staff and that servicemembers are often referred to Japanese hospitals for care. She said her facility and some insurance companies can provide lists of hospitals with English-speaking staff. “We have strong relationships with our host nation hospitals and their staff,” she said, adding that she
‘ An active-duty servicemember would come in and the
[doctor] would say come back in a week, and there was no appointment within a week.
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Capt. Rosemary Malone commander of Naval Hospital Yokosuka
has visited several off-base facilities. “Japanese have a standard of care and it may not be the same, and we may do things differently, but we get similar good outcomes. We wouldn’t send our patients to their facilities if we didn’t trust how they provided care.” The Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery will send teams to the hospital to examine its primary care procedures and evaluate whether it is adequately staffed to serve the base, Malone said. “My staff go into the business of health care because they want to take care of people,” she said. “We would love to do that for all but we have to make sure those highest [priority levels] have that access. Our goal is to make sure patients can come here and that we have appointments.” hlavac.tyler@stripes.com
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Sage Valley Hunt Club, Graniteville, S.C. This event benefiting Mead Hall Episcopal School will feature three southern songwriters including Levi Lowrey, Wyatt Durrette and Angie Aparo, who have written songs for or performed with the Zac Brown Band. $150 admission includes barbecue dinner and a drink ticket. There also is a cash bar, silent auction and gift shop. Visit meadhallschool.org or call 803644-1122.
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art This concert featuring Finn Magill and Will MacMorran includes light refreshments and Irish tea, and it’s also BYOB. $25 (a portion of admission will be donated to GHIA). Make reservations for the concert at eventbrite.com. Call 706-722-5495.
6:30pm - 10:30pm Evening With Southern Songwriters
7pm - 11pm Poison Peach Film Festival
Imperial Theatre Organized by Christopher Forbes of Forbes Film, this event showcases the offerings of Augusta’s film community. Friday’s presentation includes a familyfriendly short film showcase from 7-8 p.m., a not so family-friendly film at 8:15, and a family-friendly film at 9:30 p.m. Saturday’s presentation includes a not so family-friendly short film showcase from 7-8 p.m. and two NOT familyfriendly films at 8 and 9:30p.m. Sunday features a family-friendly Western World Premiere Double Feature with “The Last Days of Billy the Kid” and “Jesse James vs. the Black Train.” Continues 7-11 p.m. Jan. 6 and 7. $13 per day or $20 for a weekend pass. Call 706-722-8341or visit imperialtheatre.com.
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Mon Jan 8
7pm Henry Rollins
Miller Theater Entertainer speaks about the photos he’s taken around the world. $35-$170. Visit millertheateraugusta.com or call 800-514-3849.
Wed Jan 10
6:30pm Keeping the Dream Alive: Why Dr. King Still Matters
Beulah Grove Baptist Church An interfaith service honoring Martin Luther King Jr., sponsored by the Progressive Religious Coalition and featuring speaker the Rev Dr. Gerald L. Durley, as well as music by the Davidson Fine Arts Chorale and Creative Impressions. Visit prc-augusta.org.
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