Protecting the Economic Security of Servicemembers

July 15, 2015

Courtesy of Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery

Today, as we observe Military Consumer Protection Day, I want to highlight the resources available to help servicemembers and veterans protect themselves against fraud and make informed decisions about managing their money.  Protecting the rights and interests of the brave men and women of our military is a priority for the Department of Justice.  The Department endeavors to protect the health, safety, and economic security of servicemembers and veterans through criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions, including cases that help recoup money lost through fraud, loan defaults, and the abuse of federal funds.  We work closely with the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other agencies to identify and address the greatest threats to members of the military and veterans as consumers.  And U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country have established strong working relationships with military installations in their districts, collaborating with JAG Corps officers and others.

Military Consumer Protection Day also gives us an opportunity to focus on the federal and state laws directed at safeguarding the rights of servicemembers and veterans.   The Department has developed enforcement toolkits for U.S. Attorneys, State Attorneys General, and Judge Advocates detailing the specialized laws and resources available to respond to consumer fraud targeted at servicemembers, veterans and their families.  One of those laws is the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which eases financial burdens on servicemembers by providing relief from credit obligations and court proceedings while they are on active duty.  It also postpones, suspends, terminates, or reduces the amount of certain civil obligations – including interest rates – for members of the armed forces.

We want to make sure servicemembers know about these protections – and know how to take advantage of them if they encounter illegal practices.  The Department’s recent successes in enforcing the SCRA demonstrate the breadth and importance of the rights it creates.  For example, the SCRA can protect servicemembers facing problems related to –

Student Loans: In United States v. Sallie Mae, Inc., 77,795 servicemembers will receive $60 million in compensation for having been charged excess interest on their student loans.  The settlement has also led the Department of Education to streamline the process under which servicemembers can obtain the interest rate benefit for their government-owned and guaranteed student loans.

Auto Repossession:  In United States v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc.,  Santander is required to pay over $10 million to more than 1,100 SCRA-protected servicemembers whose motor vehicles were repossessed unlawfully between January 2008 and February 2015.

Storage Auctions: In United States v. Horoy, Inc. d/b/a/ Across Town Movers, the consent order requires the defendants to pay $169,900 in damages to ten servicemembers for unlawfully auctioning off their stored goods without obtaining court orders, as required by the SCRA.

Mortgage Foreclosures: In the first wave of SCRA payments to go out under the National Mortgage Settlement, from JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and GMAC Mortgage, 952 servicemembers are eligible to receive over $123 million for non-judicial foreclosures.  The banks will repair any negative credit report entries related to the allegedly wrongful foreclosures and will not pursue any remaining amounts owed under the mortgages. This joint federal-state agreement includes expanded protections for servicemembers.

The Department’s recently created Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative is further strengthening our comprehensive legal support and protection network for servicemembers, veterans and their families, through enforcement, education and access to justice. We’ll maintain an active website of resources, and perform outreach at military installations throughout the country – such as our participation in Military Consumer Protection Day activities at Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst in New Jersey today.

We encourage servicemembers and veterans to be proactive in rooting out consumer fraud as well.  If you think your rights under the SCRA or other statutes  have been violated, or if you think there is a fraud scheme targeting servicemembers in your area, please reach out to your commander or legal services on your base.

The Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative and Military Consumer Protection Day are two examples of ways the U.S. government helps our men and women in uniform give their full attention to their military and professional responsibilities without adverse consequences for themselves or their families. Enhancing support for consumer protections will allow servicemembers to focus on their work safeguarding the country and help veterans live securely in the country they have sacrificed so much to protect and defend.

Find detailed information about servicemembers’ and veterans’ consumer rights at http://www.military.ncpw.gov/ and www.servicemembers.gov.

Base B-1 to cap off veteran's ceremony in sturgis Aug. 4

28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs Division

7/15/2015 - ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. -- A base B-1 bomber will fly over Main Street in Sturgis, S.D., at 3 p.m., Aug. 4 as part of the 15th Annual Veterans Recognition Ceremony.

The flyover will cap off an event formally recognizing four South Dakota veterans - one each from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and Gulf War - and their families for their service.

"The B-1 flyover is one of the iconic moments during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally," said Brenda Vasknetz, City of Sturgis Rally and Events Department director. "While the flyover is one part of our annual Military Appreciation Day, it is the highlight of the week for many riders. It is not just 'any' flyover - it is part of a series of events orchestrated to commemorate, recognize and show our appreciation for our military, veterans and their families."

One of the veterans to be recognized is retired Lt. Col. George Swan, a former B-1 weapon system officer who served 21 years and accrued 3,200 flying hours, including 400 combat hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The three other veterans to be honored include former U.S. Army Pfc. Paul Priest, 9th Armored Division, who served at the battle for the Ludendorff Railway Bridge at Remagen over the Rhine River, retired Lt. Col. Jerry Teachout, a pilot who served in all four wars during his 28-year career, and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Birnbaum, a combat veteran who served in Vietnam and then joined the South Dakota Army National Guard, becoming the fifth state command sergeant major of the SDNG.

Vasknetz said the B-1 flyover is the culmination of the Minute of Silence on Main Street in Sturgis.

"During this minute, traffic stops, motorcycle engines are shut down, people hug or pat the backs of those who have served, and the crowds are silent," she said. "Main Street is 'frozen' as we reflect on the freedoms that our military and its veterans have protected throughout our nation's history."

Vasknetz added that having the B-1 flying over Main Street during the military appreciation portion of the 75th Sturgis Rally will be a powerful and exciting affirmation of the city's dedication and appreciation for all those who have served and those currently defending the freedoms we all hold dear.

"We could not be more excited," she said.

US Navy, Marines Integrate to Improve Maritime Missions during Talisman Sabre

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Paolo Bayas, USS George Washington Public Affairs

TIMOR SEA (NNS) -- Marines embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) and introduced the Joint Automated Deep Operation Coordination System (JADOCS) during exercise Talisman Sabre 15 (TS15).

According to Marine Cpl. Steward Bach, a JADOCS operator, their visit aboard George Washington allowed the U.S. Marine Corps to show the U.S. Navy their capabilities and how the Marine Corps can integrate and improve the Navy's maritime missions.

"There is a common misconception that Marines are supposed to be a land fighting force. We are also a sea-to-land fighting force," said Bach. "Talisman Sabre gives us an opportunity to go back to our maritime roots and JADOCS is the system we are using to do so."

Bach added that JADOCS is a system that links land and sea assets, and creates a clear image that is designed to allow a combatant commander to make better tactical decisions. It improves communication between all allied resources and provides more detail for real-world scenarios, which ultimately allows better tactical engagements.

"As III MEF [Marine Expeditionary Force] supports approximately one hundred TSC [theater security cooperation] and exercise events per year, our planners, along with 7th Fleet planners, are shaping to align our participation in a more building-block approach by capturing our METs (Mission Essential Tasks) sustainment training and certification exercise requirements," said Marine Col. A.J. B. Ylanan, senior Fleet Marine Force staff officer. "To continue the momentum of 7th Fleet's success in Operation Valiant Shield 14 last fall, which III MEF assets also participated in, TS15 also serves as an ideal event platform that can further experiment and refine the Marine Corps' contribution to integrate as a positive-force multiplier to the Navy's maritime operational objectives in addition to exercising our core amphibious capabilities."

III MEF is based in Okinawa, Japan, and is home to more than 23,000 Marines, Sailors and their families. They operate in support of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, providing for the mutual defense of Japan and ensuring regional security.

"After over a decade of forward combat deployments in support of overseas contingency operations (OCO), the Marine Corps is gradually returning to our traditional roots as a naval service and are reinvigorating our partnership with our Navy brethren," said Ylanan. "This coordinated and collaborated effort will certainly lead toward providing expanded and streamlined capabilities as we work and operate with several of our allies and partner nations throughout the 7th Fleet area of responsibility, which will polish our response package to potential future threats and other humanitarian assistance and disaster relief requirements."

"A part of Talisman Sabre was to train Navy personnel to use JADOCS and how to use the system to integrate with Marines," said Bach. "So far, I have not met a single Sailor who has not seen the advantages to our system. It is history in the making to be able to integrate JADOCS with the Navy's system and I am blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of it."

TS15 is a biennial land, sea and air military training exercise between U.S. and Australian forces that features more than 33,000 personnel, 21 ships, 200 aircraft and three submarines, which increases U.S.-Australian interoperability to respond to a wide variety of contingencies and maintain security, peace, and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

George Washington Builds Relationships with Japan, Australia, New Zealand during Talisman Sabre

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Shayla D. Hamilton, USS George Washington Public Affairs

TIMOR SEA (NNS) -- The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) welcomed distinguished visitors from Japan, Australia and New Zealand to learn about and experience aircraft carrier operations during Talisman Sabre 2015 (TS15), July 11.

The tour familiarized George Washington's Australian and New Zealand partners in flight operations, aircraft launch and recovery, aircraft maintenance and ship navigation. Along with being briefed on daily ship operations, the visitors were able to get insight on TS15 exercises.

Distinguished visitors included Sumio Kusaka, Japanese ambassador to Australia, Tony Lynch, New Zealand's deputy secretary of defense, and Stuart Robert, Australia's assistant minister of defence and Mark Binskin, chief of Australia's defence force.

"It's been a fantastic experience," said Lynch. "The arrival was something quite spectacular. Meeting the people here, the welcome and the scale of this vessel are all quite something by New Zealand's standards. The contact between New Zealand and the U.S. is just great. In Defense, it's all about people-to-people ties and connections. Seeing the passion and the energy of each other during exercises such as Talisman Sabre is quite something."

Distinguished visitors toured the ship's hangar bay, flight deck, navigation bridge, air operations center and combat direction center.

"The bilateral, biennial exercise Talisman Sabre is well and truly underway," said Robert. "Today's visit was a great opportunity to come on board what is one of the most potent weapons systems the world has seen, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier."

According to Robert, the opportunity to bring high-level Australian government and military officials aboard George Washington shows the strength of the U.S. and Australian alliance.

"I know my colleagues in the defense force gain so much from these alliances," added Lynch. "We're in a great trajectory between the U.S. and New Zealand and I'm looking forward to that continuing."

TS15 is a biennial land, sea and air military training exercise between U.S. and Australian forces that features more than 33,000 personnel, 21 ships, 200 aircraft and three submarines, which increases U.S.-Australian interoperability to respond to a wide variety of contingencies and maintain security, peace, and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Daily Deployed

by Randy Roughton
Airman Magazine

7/14/2015 - CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada -- After working the night shift as a newly arrived remotely piloted aircraft pilot at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, Maj. Jeremy slept on a mattress that snugly fit in his closet. He resorted to the unusual sleeping arrangement to get the rest he needed during the day as his three children played freely in the house.

At night, once the children were in bed, Maj. Jeremy gave his wife, Nikki, a kiss before he began his 35-minute commute from their north Las Vegas home to his midnight shift at Creech AFB, where he still pilots an armed remotely piloted aircraft 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan.

Unlike deployed manned aircraft pilots, Maj. Jeremy returns home after each shift fighting the war. However, he describes himself as feeling like "a ghost in the morning," because he had to spend so much of his time catching up on his sleep while the rest of the family members went about their daily business. Some of the most heart-wrenching moments involved missing his children's activities, such as his oldest son's Little League baseball games and then 4-year-old daughter's first dance recital.

"Leaving home to go to a war zone is a mindset," the former C-5 Galaxy pilot said. "It's a huge emotional roller coaster, leaving the stressors of my family behind and inheriting new stressors on the way to work. It was a huge mindset change, and I had to have that capability to be able to wear different hats, being Dad and going in and fighting the war."

Most of the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing "Hunter" Airmen use their commutes to prepare their minds to be in a wartime mindset at work, said Col. Jim Cluff, the 432nd AEW commander.

"I ask them every time they come through that gate to have a deployed mindset and a warfighter mentality," Cluff said. "But then I want them to undeploy every day and every night when they drive home. It puts a lot of stressors on our Airmen when you ask them to do that every day."

Each shift is like a police stakeout from thousands of feet away. The pilot flies the RPA while working with his sensor operator and intelligence analyst to look for patterns of life and day-to-day interactions on the ground. The crews provide around-the-clock intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to troops on the ground. In addition, the RPAs often search for high-value terrorist targets and sometimes launch missile strikes.

"All of those (missile strike) decisions are made away from Creech AFB and Cannon (Air Force Base, New Mexico) in the theater, as they should be," Cluff said. "In the end, we all have a vote, as well. My Airmen have a vote at the end of the day because they're the ones pulling the trigger and guiding the weapon. If they're not comfortable with the shot, they won't take it. (RPA crewmembers) are professional Airmen, they are professional aviators, and that profession brings responsibility. That responsibility is if I'm going to take a life today, I'm going to take a life knowing that it's the right thing to do."

In addition to conducting missile strikes, RPAs are also used to gather intelligence. That information is then collected, processed, exploited, analyzed and disseminated through the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System. The DCGS, which consists of 27 geographically separated network sites, produces intelligence information from data collected by sensors on the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, executes worldwide DCGS operations.

RPA pilots can fly up to almost four times the average of 300 hours flown by manned aircraft pilots. While most people connect RPAs with protecting troops and hunting terrorist targets, they can also save lives, as the RQ-4 Global Hawk and RQ-1 Predator did in damage assessments and assisting aide convoys after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. They also continue to deal with myths about the job. They particularly dislike the word "drone," because they feel it carries a connotation of an aircraft potentially delivering a strike without human decision-making.

"Every Predator can fly for almost 24 hours," Cluff said. "That is a lot of video to look at, and it takes a lot of people to do that. So it's a manpower intensive operation we are involved in.

"We fly airplanes from here around the world 7,000 miles away, and there's always a man or woman in the loop. That loop just happens to be 7,000 miles wide, and there is always somebody involved in the decision-making."

Another myth many people have about RPA pilots is that they are nothing more than glorified video game players, said Maj. Bishane, an RPA pilot who volunteered for RPA duty.

"What I tell people is 'Yes, if you play video games, there are certain skill sets that may translate,'" Maj. Bishane said. "'However, the individual you're watching is a real person, and perhaps the family, and it starts to sink in that this is a real-life thing happening, and you have to manage your emotions appropriately. Because if a ground commander decides you need to pull the trigger and execute the strike, this is an individual that perhaps you've been watching for a long time, and you start to learn about them in some respects. Now you have to execute that strike and you may see the aftermath, in terms of a funeral or something like that. Yes, you're looking at them through a screen, so you're not necessarily right there. However, you start talking about how much you're watching the target, and it becomes a more intimate ballet with you and that target.'"

RPA pilots obviously don't face the same immediate physical risks their counterparts in manned aircraft experience directly over their targets. However, combat, whether from directly over the enemy or from a world away, still delivers an emotional toll. A 2011 study at the School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, found that almost half of RPA pilots experience high operational stress severe enough to disrupt their personal lives.

"There is a safety net physically, but emotionally we have to put up with a lot," Maj. Jeremy said. "We have so many different roles to play, switches to flip and different hats to wear that the emotional and mental toughness you need to do it is sometimes as dangerous as the physical aspect of being in the war."

Chaplain (Capt.) Zac does his part each day to help take care of the wing's Hunter family during visits with the 432nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Reaper weapons expediters, followed by chit-chats with maintainers in an RPA hangar.

"Take it easy," he tells them as he says goodbye with a handshake. "Holler if you need anything."

The chaplain is part of a unique human performance team that combines chaplaincy staff with a psychologist, a physiologist and a physician that are available 24/7 to provide counseling and guidance.

"There needs to be a daily presence," Chaplain Zac said. "Sometimes I can look in someone's eyes and say, 'Airman, you don't look like you did yesterday.' But that means I or the chaplain's assistant were there yesterday. That daily contact gives us the ability to notice those things and intervene before it's too late."

Post-traumatic stress disorder amounts to a small percentage of what the human performance team sees in RPA crewmembers. More often, they see combat stress and relationship issues, he said.

"We're in combat. As a result, we are deployed in place, and that brings certain stresses and difficulties in people's lives," he said. "Most of the things we deal with are relationship oriented, but that's a part of being away from your family so much and being in a difficult environment.

"We have to have relationships, and the only way we can have relationships is through access. So we have to have the same clearances other people have. We have to be able to walk where they walk and work where they work," Chaplain Zac said. In doing that, we build relationships, which allows us to have proactive care rather than reactive care. We don't just want to put people back together. We want to prevent people from breaking in the first place."

One of the ways Maj. Jeremy stays strong is by remembering conversations with some of the service members RPAs protected when he was deployed . That's how he and his fellow RPA crewmembers know the importance of the job they're doing on this small base in the Nevada desert.

Fortunately, Maj. Jeremy no longer sleeps in his closet. He now works a day shift so he can make his son's baseball games and other family activities. Still, there are days when he wonders if he can continue to successfully balance his family responsibilities with the demands of a continuous wartime mission. However, there are always those days that reinforce the importance of the RPA mission.

"Some days, you go to work and think this is awesome," he said. "Other days, you feel really burned out and think, 'Do I really want to do this for another 10 to 12 years? But then I hear from some of the guys we support and leave work in a completely different mood than when I went in."

Maj. Jeremy's struggle to balance mission and family is typical of the life of remotely piloted aircraft pilots. Manning remains a critical issue for the Air Force as MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper operations have surged nine times in eight years. The Air Force needs 1,700 pilots but only has 1,000 fully trained, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III. The service needs 300 newly trained pilots annually, but is only getting about 150, with almost 250 leaving the field each year, Welsh said.

Earlier this year, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James announced short-term actions in an "RPA get-well plan." Those actions included incentive pay increases and bonuses for crews, directing additional funds to the mission, augmenting current crew manning, increasing the number of pilot graduates and increasing the use of Guard and Reserve Airmen, as well as contractors. Also, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter approved resetting the combat air patrol planning guidance to show the decrease in patrols from 65 to 60 to alleviate the RPA community's state of constant surge. The Air Force also plans to mobilize reserve component forces to take on three patrols and is working on funding actions to relieve RPA crewmembers' stress. The service recently added almost $8 million into the RPA program to increase technical school capacity, increase reserve component manpower augmentation days and contract some downrange and recovery efforts.

US, Romania partner in F-15C, MiG flight training

by Senior Airman Dylan Nuckolls
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

7/15/2015 - CAMPIA TURZII, Romania -- The sound of F-15C Eagle fighter aircraft engines roaring down the runway seems like a normal thing for the Airmen of the 142nd Fighter Wing, Oregon Air National Guard, Portland, Oregon, to hear.

However, seeing Romanian MiG-21 fighter aircraft following behind their F-15Cs may be a new experience for these Guardsmen.

But sights and sounds like these together are a regular occurrence as the European theater security package continues.

The ANG Airmen, along with active-duty U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 123rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, serve in various roles for the TSP while forward deployed to Campia Turzii, Romania, as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.

Since arriving to the country, the Airmen have performed routine flying missions and become accustomed to the Transylvanian airspace. They will soon begin working with the Romanian air force pilots and their MiG-21s.

With building their partnership in mind, both sides shared objectives they hope to achieve from the training.

"We continue to work on our interoperability," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, 123rd EFS commander. "If we come back, hopefully we have made those connections and made those standards so it is easier to quickly pick up where we left off."

Romanian air force Cmdr. Marius Oatu, 71st Air Base commander, also remarked on the two countries working together to learn from each other.

"The fact that the Stars and Stripes are standing near the colors of the Romanian flag are a guarantee for success generally speaking," Oatu said. "We have a great opportunity to train together and practice tactics and procedures together with the Airmen from the 123rd EFS."

In addition to allowing the U.S. and Romanian air forces to work together, the training demonstrates the United States' commitment to a peaceful Europe.

"All these exercises are a great opportunity to tighten the bond between the United States and Romania," Oatu said.