Friday, February 23, 2007

Army Upgrades Its Electronic Warfare Training

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 22, 2007 –
U.S. Army soldiers and insurgents have something in common: They share a single electromagnetic spectrum to communicate and launch attacks. "The spectrum is that invisible world inhabited by television transmissions, by all sorts of radios, by cell phones, by satellite links, by GPS links," Army Col. Lauri Moe Buckhout, electronic warfare division chief, told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

"In Baghdad you might have American soldiers, coalition soldiers ... an Iraqi friendly forces mother and father talking to each other to coordinate a taxi to pick up their sick son and take him to the hospital," she said. "They are all legitimate users of the spectrum."

Buckhout said the U.S. forces' enemies haven't historically used electronics to wage warfare, but things are changing and the spectrum is wide open.

"In the middle of it, there's a bad guy using a cell phone to make something bad happen," she said. "So we have to get good at finding that one hostile spectrum user and take him out.

"Electronic warfare is defined as using the spectrum to attack an enemy, to deny, degrade, defeat the capabilities of an enemy," Buckhout said. "We need to dominate the spectrum."

The Army's fight to dominate electronic warfare is hampered by its lack of experience, she said. The last time the army wielded electronic warfare as a major tactic, soldiers used "barrage jammers" to prevent enemies from using the spectrum. But these former methods are now ineffective, Buckhout said.

"It was a big box that would radiate electronic death and put out a heavy frequency across a wide spectrum," she said. "You can't do that any more, because think of all the collateral damage you would have."

In response to a changing electronic battlefield, Gen. Richard A. Cody, army vice chief of staff, launched two
U.S. Army training courses in October, aimed at giving soldiers an edge.

The "Tactical Course," a three-week session at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., trains soldiers at the battalion level and below. Electronic warfare operators at the brigade level and higher take the "Operational Course," receiving six weeks of training at the Fort Sill, Okla.

One of Cody's directives is to make the
Army equally competent in electronic warfare as the other services, Buckhout said.

"(Other branches) have electronic warfare professionals who are PhDs in what they do, and we're just starting out," she said. "We didn't have any (electronic warfare) folks, so the
Navy stepped up and said, 'We can help you.'"

These Navy advisors "have been fully integrated, absolutely embraced, and they have taught the Army a whole lot about how to fight this fight," she said.

The Army plans to replace a majority of those advisors with soldiers by March 2008, she added.

Another goal Cody outlined is to make electronic warfare an Army core competency, meaning every soldier will receive training, she said.

The Army will base its approach in part on the Navy model. "Everyone's got to touch it now, which is a huge sea change," Buckhout said. "Each soldier has to understand some basics of electronic warfare - jammers, the threats on the spectrum electronic system that reside in both air and on ground."

Soldiers, ranging from privates engaged in initial
training to the chief of staff of the Army, will receive some level of electronic warfare training, she said.

"The Army needs to get smart in electronic warfare so we can handle ourselves in this environment and take control of it rather than having it take control of us," she said.

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Diversity, Equality Programs Strengthen America's Military

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 22, 2007 – Defense Department policies that promote diversity and equal treatment for all servicemembers and civilians, regardless of race, have helped to make the
U.S. military a force to be reckoned with, a senior DoD official said here today. The U.S. military is smaller than the force that existed 15 years ago, but it's also the most lethal military ever, Clarence A. Johnson, principal director and director for civilian equal employment opportunity within the department's office of diversity management and equal opportunity, said at a DoD-sponsored African-American History Month symposium held at a local hotel.

"I think that is true, at least in part, because the Defense Department has put in place policies and programs to ensure that
military and civilian members are treated fairly, equably and with respect, thus maximizing the production capacity of each of our members," Johnson said to senior educational leaders representing 15 historically black colleges and universities.

African-Americans traditionally have looked at military service as a way to serve their country and to get ahead, Joyce M. Jarrett, provost for Hampton University, said. And, through the years "the
armed forces took the lead and convinced the nation to be inclusive," Jarrett said.

To support diversity, "we really have to lean forward," said Dr. Joseph Guzman, deputy assistant secretary of the
Air Force for strategic diversity initiatives. While the Air Force has achieved increased diversity over the years, Guzman noted, it still needs more African-Americans to fill senior military officer and civilian leadership positions.

The
Army, too, has a plethora of professional positions to offer young college graduates, Maj. Gen. John R. Hawkins III, the Army's deputy chief of staff for mobility and reserve affairs, said. And ROTC, he noted, remains a strong program for commissioning junior officers as they graduate from a college or university.

"We want to make those opportunities available, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that you are aware of those opportunities," Hawkins told the senior education leaders.

In addition to seeking a climate of personnel diversity, the department also sponsors programs that seek out minority-owned firms to do business with DoD.

Paul Bowes, a Hampton University graduate, businessman and Vietnam-era Army veteran, attended the symposium to press his proposal for a pilot program that would have non-tactical military vehicles use non-foreign-oil sources of fuel, such as biomass products like ethanol.

"Me being here, communicating and setting up relationships with historically black colleges and universities, is part of it," Bowes said.

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Walter Reed Puts 'Full-Court Press' on Fixing Building 18

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 22, 2007 – The
Army surgeon general's staff is putting a "full-court press" on fixing the backed-up repairs needed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's outpatient Building 18, the service's top medical officer said here today. Flanked by a host of staff officers and facing a small army of media, Army Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Kevin C. Kiley said most of the reported maintenance issues that brought the center into the national spotlight will be fixed by the end of this week.

Kiley also said a major renovation is planned for the building -- a former hotel used to house outpatients and their families -- that will overhaul it entirely, including its heating and air conditioning system and plumbing. Because the soldiers there will have to move, the timing has not been set. Planners want to cause minimal disruption to the soldiers, Kiley said.

Officials allowed media to tour the building, as well as another building that houses outpatient soldiers, the Mologne house. Soldiers milled around Building 18 shooting pool and playing video games as reporters and photographers flocked around them.

The halls throughout the 54-room building smelled of bleach and plaster. Contractors went about repairing plumbing and painting walls. Finished rooms were on display.

The same soldier pictured in newspaper reports standing next to a moldy wall was now being photographed standing with the Army's surgeon general in a freshly cleaned and painted room.

Another soldier,
Army Spc. Ruben Villalpando, said he is happy he can get a warm shower now. For the past several months, his water has varied from extremely hot to cold, he said.

"Now it will be a lot better," he said. "You fix my shower and I'm good."

Within walking distance of the hospital's Georgia Avenue entrance, Building 18 was bought by the Army in 1989.

In 2005 the
Army spent more than $260,000 replacing the carpet in all of the rooms and fixing up the lobby and game room. New mattresses and tables were placed in each room. The game room got a new pool table, games and a plasma television. Security cameras also were installed.

The rooms are apartment-style, with two bedrooms sharing a common kitchen area and bath. Each has a microwave and a small refrigerator.

There are 76 soldiers living in the building. It can house 106.

Kiley said his staff also is looking into reported problems with the bureaucracy of the medical process and personnel system. He admitted that the outpatient process can, at times, be bureaucratic, and that it needs to be streamlined.

"We want to be responsive to their concerns, both medical and quality of life, and we're going to move out smartly on that," he said. "We worry when soldiers think we are ignoring them. We want to correct that."

Kiley said officials are looking at adding more case managers. At one time, one case manager was responsible for 120 soldiers, Kiley said. Now the ratio is about 1 to 30 soldiers, and officials will look at lowering the ratio even further, he said.

Some of the problems are systemic across the Army and the Defense Department, Kiley acknowledged, but he said he would call on service officials, and Congress if needed, to fix the problems. Primarily, he said, he hopes to streamline the medical and physical board process that determines the administrative disposition of soldiers' cases that is lengthy and bureaucratic.

Kiley said that, while there is no excuse for the problems cited in news reports, those problems not indicative of the care all of the servicemembers and their families receive at the center.

The hospital has a staff of 4,200 and has treated more than 6,000 wounded soldiers in the past five years. The population of outpatients at Walter Reed increased from pre-war levels of about 120 to a peak of more than 874 soldiers in 2005.

Over the next few weeks, the hospital staff will review about 30 outstanding work orders, according to a Walter Reed news release. The hospital already has completed more than 200 maintenance projects in the past year, the release reported.

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