Monday, October 29, 2007

Senior Enlisted Leader Visits Fort Knox

By Maureen Rose
Special to American Forces Press Service

Oct. 29, 2007 - The
military's top enlisted servicemember visited this Kentucky base Oct. 26 and addressed an audience for the post's Retiree Appreciation Days event. "We owe a good deal to retirees sitting in the coffee shops talking about the good old days. The past is the reason we're a great nation," Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey said. "We all focus on the young men and women of now, but if it were not for the young men and women of the past, we would not be in the position we're in now -- which is free."

Gainey, a former Armor Center command sergeant major, is the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position created by the former chairman,
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, and filled by Gainey since its inception in 2004.

Gainey's primary job is to gather information for his boss,
Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who succeeded Pace as chairman Oct. 1. "He uses me as his eyes and ears to get out where he can't travel to and come back and, no kidding, tell him how the young men and women on the ground are feeling," Gainey said.

However, the information flow is in the opposite direction this time. "I told Admiral Mullen I was going to be here," Gainey said, "and he wanted me to express how proud he is of (the retirees)."

Gainey observed a retiree wearing a
Vietnam logo on his cap talking to a younger, active-duty Marine who was traveling with Gainey.

"I try to make our generation -- the young people I'm with every day -- understand every time they pass a retiree, like this former
Marine sitting right here, stop and look them in the face and say, 'Thank you for your service,'" he explained. "That's the message; I'm trying to let them all know to do it. Every time we pass a retiree, we should all say 'thank you.'"

The street of gratitude goes two ways, Gainey said. When he visits young people serving in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, he tells them Americans appreciate their service.

"It's not all me saying, 'Hooah, we're doing a great job.' I let them know constantly, because I travel a good bit, how proud our country is," he said. "It's important, no matter what political affiliation you belong to, that we support our soldiers, men and women, Marines, airmen, Coasties -- anybody, our warriors who fight this war -- it's important that we let them know that we're behind them. We might not agree to the overall policy, but who cares? We have to support those men and women."

Gainey said he always thanks new enlistees, as well. "I see the guys and gals coming in off the streets and, with the mission they're about to hit, I thank them, too," he said. "They're enlisting knowing they're going to go to war."

Interrupted frequently during his visit by those who recognized Gainey from previous assignments, he waved and shook hands like a politician.

One retiree, however, got a bear hug from Gainey. His name is Dale Cleveland. "He's the reason I am what I am today," Gainey said with a laugh. "He was my platoon sergeant years ago, so if you don't like me, blame him!"

Cleveland returned the compliment, thumping Gainey on the back. "I can give you the skinny on him," said Cleveland, a retired Fort Knox first sergeant.

"We used to have young soldiers over to our house for dinner all the time in Germany, but we had no idea he would end up there," Cleveland's wife, Gabi, said with a gesture skyward.

Crystel Swaite also wanted a chance to shake hands with Gainey. She was the soldier of the year in 2002 at Fort Hood, Texas, where Gainey was her post sergeant major. "He was very motivational; he's one of the reasons I stayed in," she said.

Realizing that retirees sometimes are overlooked, Gainey said he soon will understand firsthand how that feels. "I'm retiring April 25, after 33-1/2 years," he said. "I'm nothing more than a torch-carrier for (the retirees).

"And someday," he added, pointing to his young aide, "he will be a torch carrier for me."

(Maureen Rose is a staff writer for the Fort Knox Turret.)

Industry, Academic Leaders Pool Brainpower to Address IED Threat

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 29, 2007 - The head of the Defense Department's counter-improvised explosive device effort today challenged some of the best minds in industry, academia, the national laboratories and the
military to come up with better ways to thwart these deadly weapons. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, opened a two-day conference here designed to spark better solutions to the IED problem.

The conference is focusing on three parts of the attack plan against what's become
terrorists' weapon of choice in Iraq and, increasingly, in Afghanistan: Attack the network; defeat the device; and train the force.

Meigs thanked the roughly 750 participants for technological advances they've helped develop, particularly in the intelligence and training realms. What's needed now, he said, are better technologies so troops can identify IEDs sooner, before they inflict damage.

Defense Department officials say IEDs have caused nearly half of all casualties in Iraq and nearly 30 percent of those in Afghanistan since the start of combat operations.

"I am so convinced that the way you take the initiative away from the enemy is to find the IED, locate it before the soldier, sailor, airmen or Marine, or perhaps in the future, a civilian, gets within the blast range of the thing," Meigs said during today's unclassified opening session.

"When the individual is within the blast range of an IED, we have lost all opportunity for our initiative. The initiative is in the hands of the enemy," he said.

Meigs acknowledged that the easy answers already have been explored. "We have all picked the low-hanging fruit in this area," he said. "If we are going to develop that capability, it is going to require a full-court press by the scientific and technical base of our country and our allies."

Robin L. Keesee, deputy director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, told reporters technical conferences like this one help focus some of the best brainpower in the country and among U.S. allies on the scope and complexity of the IED challenge.

The sessions promote information sharing that generates the broadest range of plausible solutions, reduces redundancy of effort, and helps weed out initiatives that already have been tried, he said.

JIEDDO's past two industry conferences yielded better-quality, more-focused technological proposals, many within the first week of the session, Keesee said.

Speed is critical in an environment where insurgents, unrestricted by any formal hierarchy, are able to quickly alter their
tactics, techniques and procedures, he said.

"They are watching what works and doesn't in a neighborhood and are adapting on that basis," Keesee said. "Our soldiers and Marines and others are adapting their tactics and techniques at that level. The challenge for us is, how do we adapt the technology as well to support the Marines and soldiers?"

Another challenge is getting an acquisition system based on annual budgets and usually focused three to five years ahead to respond to circumstances that morph within days, weeks or months. "We need to work toward adapting our acquisition practices to the global war on terror," Keesee said.

JIEDDO has come a long way toward that end, reducing time to get funding approval for a new idea to as little as three weeks. That's the time it takes to run the idea through a panel of scientists and engineers who verify it makes operational sense,
military experts to ensure it makes tactical and operational sense, and service-level and Defense Department levels to agree it makes investment sense.

Investing in an effort that can amount of millions or even tens of millions of dollars "is really unheard-of in the rest of the Department of Defense," Keesee said. "That's usually a process that takes years."

Keesee credited the combination of better
technology; better tactics, techniques and procedures; and better troop protection with helping to reduce IED casualties. "It all goes together to make it more difficult for insurgents, and to make our soldiers and Marines and others more survivable (and) more surviving when attacked," he said.

He reiterated Meigs' assertion that insurgents now have to work four to six times harder to inflict the level of damage they once did.

Retired
Army Gen. John Abizaid, former commander of U.S. Central Command and today's keynote speaker, told conference participants he's "absolutely, 1,000 percent convinced" that cooperation between JIEDDO and industry has helped reduce the IED threat troops face on the battlefield.

Abizaid said the threat isn't likely to go away any time soon, because the enemy views IEDs as their opportunity to gain high ground over an enemy they can't confront any other way.

"We need to continue to close this gap," with an eye to future battlefields as well as those troops are fighting on today, he said.

Injured Veterans Tackle New Adventure

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 29, 2007 - Seven injured veterans geared up to pit themselves against sand and the Caribbean Sea on Oct. 18 as part of an inaugural adaptive adventure trip. Before the veterans and their wives had a chance to test any of those boundaries, however, they had visitors to greet.

Members of the St. John American Legion and its auxiliary, which had met the group at the ferry the night before, arrived bright and early with nothing short of a full breakfast. The gesture, which included a certificate of appreciation and a lifetime membership to the American Legion, awed the veterans.

As the Legionnaires left the campground, so did the veterans. They headed to the beach to learn the sport of sea kayaking adapted to their individual situations.

"I hope that they're having an opportunity to have an adventure and push their barriers and boundaries a little bit," said Joe Mornini, director of Team River Runner. "These guys, they're just going to appreciate more what they do under their own steam."
Being in paradise doesn't negate all frustrations, however.

The veterans found that slicing through two-plus miles of turquoise waters in "sit-on-top" kayaks was a piece of cake. That was only after they'd negotiated the sandy beach to get to the boats, however.

For those with prosthetic legs, that challenge was minor. Former
Marine John Jones, who lost both legs below the knee when the Stryker vehicle he was riding in hit a double-stacked anti-tank mine near Qaim, Iraq, nature caused him no problems.

"The sand, no, it wasn't anything really," Jones said. "The only thing that really screwed me up was not having (full use of) my leg that broke on me."

Army Sgt. Peter Rooney agreed that sand posed more problems for those using wheelchairs than actually getting the boat to glide through the water.

When the veterans returned from a paddle around nearby Whistling Cay, a small island, they graduated to sea kayaks, which have a cockpit. That cockpit allows a kayaker to sit below the surface of the boat.

Arawak Expeditions, a local company specializing in sea kayak adventures, provided instruction in both types of boats, including how to get out of, and back into, a sea kayak should it flip in open water. That was a lesson some of the veterans who have worked with Team River Runner in the therapy pool at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center are very familiar with.

That wasn't necessarily so for the spouses, some of whom found the exercise a little more difficult than promised.

"They said that was easy!" said Danielle Pannell, wife of former
Army Sgt. Kevin Pannell, who lost both of his legs above the knee when an insurgent threw a grenade at his foot patrol in Sadr City, Iraq. "It wasn't. It was hard!"

The day ended on a much more pleasant note, as the group set out on its first snorkel of the trip in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. The fish stories included sightings of a barracuda, a large tarpon, and the wing of a long-ago crashed plane.

Team River Runner is a chapter of Disabled Sports USA, a supporter of "America Supports You," a Defense Department program connects citizens and corporations with
military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.

Kosovo Situation 'Stable, But Fragile,' Commander Says

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 29, 2007 - The situation in Kosovo is "stable, but potentially fragile," the commander of U.S. forces there said.
Army Brig. Gen. Douglas B. Earhart, commander of the American contingent in the NATO-led Kosovo Force, said he is proud of the job that his 1,500-member force has done and believes the province is ready for several key events.

Earhart commands a multinational force based around the National Guard's 29th Infantry Division. The 39th Infantry Division will take over the command Nov. 2.

The first event Earhart referenced is Kosovo-wide elections scheduled for Nov. 17, followed by the end of the 120-day supplemental negotiation process that Serbia, Kosovo and a team of international negotiators have been holding on the status of the province.

"Things are calm, but underneath the surface people are anxious, and they are not sure of what the outcome is going to be," the general told American Forces Press Service. "People are tired of waiting; they just want this thing resolved. It doesn't matter if you are Kosovar Albanian or Kosovar Serbian; you just want it over so you can get on with normal life."

The NATO-led Kosovo Force is keeping the province stable, but there are challenges, he said. Reports of paramilitary groups operating on both sides of the provincial border add to the fragility of the situation. "When the media report on those groups, we see the population getting anxious about that," Earhart said.

The general discounts these organizations. "They operate on the fringe and have no legitimacy," he said, adding that these groups are more like gangs than any type of organized political movement.

"They are rogue criminals living in the hills with nothing better to do than to stir up trouble," he said. "They stir up trouble because it serves their purposes to have a lawless area."

The
criminal elements want uncertainty; they want disruption, because this allows them to operate. The government needs to get into these areas and establish control, Earhart said. "Where you don't have a lot of tax collection, you don't have a lot of police activity," he said.

The bottom line is that there are pockets of these criminals in the province, but nothing widespread, he added.

Kosovo
police are getting better, and they are extending the government's control. NATO forces are working with them to improve their capabilities, the general said.

He also noted a lot of rebuilding is going on in the province. "In one sense, economically, there is something going on. Someone is doing better," he said. "I think there is a more entrepreneurial spirit today than there was two or three years ago.

"There is still money coming in from the diaspora -- Kosovars who moved to Switzerland, Italy and Germany -- and that fuels a lot of the economy here," he continued, adding that such income cannot fuel an economy for long.

Unemployment in the province still is very high; officials estimate that it is around 70 percent. "We have a very large population of people between 18 and 30 years old, and those folks are not working, and that is troublesome," Earhart said.

Building employment opportunities is important to the security situation. "With people sitting around, it's more likely that folks get involved in activities that are not productive," he said.

Earhart said members of the Kosovo Force want a quick resolution to the diplomatic process so economic development offered by the international community can flow into the province.

"I think that's something that most people on the ground here wish for," he said. "They hope for a situation stable enough so that international investors will come in here and really start to get things going here."

Earhart said the task force works with soldiers from five other countries: Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Romania. "This relationship has been gong since 2003, and it gets better every year," he said.

He said he is working to transfer responsibility to the men and women of the 39th Infantry Division. "When the KFOR 9 soldiers arrive, we walk through every task that's required of soldiers on the ground here," he said. "We do that in three weeks, then we give our successors an opportunity to lead that same activity. At the end of that period, we feel confident that replacements are set."

Officials intend for Kosovars to see no difference in competence in the soldiers. "That's important, because we've done a lot of good work in building up the trust and confidence in KFOR, and so we obviously want to maintain that," he said.

The general also discussed how experiences that National Guardsmen have in their civilian lives help them in Kosovo. "I see it every day," he said. "The only way you can really successfully engage the civilian population is by getting out and walking among the people and talking with them. If you've been a teacher, if you've been a
police officer, if you've been a nurse, if you've had any kind of civilian job where you have to deal with people, then you generally know how to communicate. Just from that basic standpoint, you can tell there's a difference there.

"The other part is, we have soldiers that have specialty skills; we have a lot of
police officers and teachers on the task force. They can sense when things are not quite normal," he continued. "We have plumbers who have worked on schools' bathrooms; we've had water hydrologists look at well systems; we've had firefighters go to fire stations to help the Kosovars improve their training and update their equipment. We've had people here who have a direct influence on the community due to their civilian experiences."

When his unit first got to Kosovo, the general said, he immediately was struck by the reception the Kosovars gave his unit. "I was instantly struck by the friendliness with which I was greeted," he said. "From that moment to today, I considered myself to be a member of the Kosovo family, and I've been treated with respect and friendship from all segments of the society: Kosovars and Serbs."

Specifically, Earhart said, he remembers a visit he made to a local school, which teaches more than 5,000 children in three shifts. He was met by 300 children singing an American song. "I thanked them for their song and told them that they are the hope for the future of Kosovo," he said. "At the end of that, two 5th grade girls gave me a beautiful picture. It has an American flag in the foreground and a picture of the globe. Around the globe are children holding hands and above that is the NATO cross.

"I was so struck by that. It's a beautiful piece of art, and the message is tremendous."

Defense Logistics Agency Supports Wildfire Relief Effort

American Forces Press Service

Oct. 29, 2007 - In the midst of fires raging in
California, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Department's largest combat support agency, has come to the aid of the thousands of evacuees and Marines and sailors supporting wildfire relief efforts by supplying the Federal Emergency Management Agency with meals and other supplies necessary to sustain the evacuees and fight fires.

DLA's Joint Logistics Operations Center is the DLA office responsible for coordinating and monitoring the agency's support to federal and other Defense Department and government agencies. In response to a FEMA tasking, the JLOC and Defense Distribution Center coordinated the shipment of packaged meals from Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin, Calif., to March Air Reserve Base, just north of San Diego near Riverside, Calif.

Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin worked with the
California Highway Patrol to coordinate escort assistance to ensure the trucks transporting the meals could quickly and safely get to displaced residents affected by the fires.

"I want to congratulate the warehousing team at (the depot) for their mobility and flexibility to meet the challenge of resources," said the depot's Shipping Division chief, Bob Mahan. "I stand in awe of the folks in shipment planning, truck control and customer service who never thought of getting up from their desks to leave at 3:30 p.m., but hunkered down and got the food rolling to those in need."

Two hundred fourteen active-duty personnel, 72 Defense Department civilians and 2,492 National Guardsmen are engaged in either ground or airborne firefighting or
security and relief operations, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

FEMA requested 42,624 packaged meals on Oct. 23, and the
Marine Corps requested seven truckloads of the meals be delivered to Camp Pendleton, Calif. -- totaling 120,000 meals -- and an additional 600 meals went to the Naval Special Warfare Group at San Diego.

DLA also augmented FEMA's National Response Coordination Center with an onsite liaison officer to facilitate DLA support In addition to supporting FEMA, the Joint Logistics Operations Center also coordinated DLA's
military support.

Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin also shipped 200 fire retardant gloves and 200 fire retardant coveralls to Camp Pendleton. Defense Supply Center Philadelphia coordinated the delivery of 200 additional fire retardant coveralls directly from vendors.

"The (packaged meals) will augment local-level efforts to provide subsistence to evacuees," said Marine Lt. Col. Todd Lloyd, the JLOC's operations information management chief. "The fire retardant material will enable the
United States Marine Corps to execute its mission in assisting the firefighting efforts.

"DLA stands ready to respond to any request for assistance that is received from FEMA, U.S. Northern Command or the
military services" he said. "The JLOC is operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until further notice in order to receive, process and support requests for assistance."

DLA provides supply support, and technical and logistics services to the
U.S. military services and several federal civilian agencies. With headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va., the agency is the source for nearly every consumable item, whether for combat readiness, emergency preparedness or day-to-day operations inside the Department of Defense.

(From a Defense Logistics Agency news release.)