By Donna Miles
Nov. 30, 2006 – Although the active Air Force and Air Force Reserve are downsizing their ranks to free up funds for new aircraft and equipment, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said he wants any force changes within the Air National Guard to be driven by requirements, not numbers. Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum responded to an airman's question yesterday during a town hall session with National Guardsmen serving here in Operation Jump Start, the Guard's mission in support of the U.S. Border Police.
Blum acknowledged that the active Air Force and Air Force Reserve had a decision to make as they grappled with the challenge of paying for their equipment modernization effort. Ultimately, he said, they opted to do it by cutting their manpower 10 percent.
"The Air Force has made the corporate decision that they are going to downsize their force and take the money savings from paying that force ... and apply it to having a smaller Air Force that's more modernized," Blum told the group.
But the general said he's not convinced that's the best strategy for the Air National Guard.
When Air Force leaders asked him to cut the Air Guard by 16 percent, Blum said he simply said "no."
"I am not sure the Air National Guard needs to be 16 percent smaller," he said. In fact, he said, he's not convinced the National Guard should be smaller at all, and even sees arguments that it might need to grow.
Blum pointed to the active-duty members leaving the Air Force and questioned, "Where are these skilled veterans going to go if we don't have any spaces for them?"
Giving them an opportunity to serve in the Air National Guard - a force that costs about 10 percent of what the active force costs because members get paid only when they're actually on duty - makes perfect sense, Blum said. "That is a tremendous bargain for the American taxpayer," he said, giving the country 24-7 on-call capability, ready to respond to a crisis, at a fraction of the cost of the active force.
"So to me, the logical thing is that if you're going to shrink the active (force), you ought to grow the Guard," he said. "Because it's a pretty dangerous world out there, and nobody has got a crystal ball any better than mine."
Ultimately, Blum said, decisions about Air Guard strength need to boil down to what requirements they will be required to fulfill. "I'm worried about capability," he said.
The bottom line, he said, is that every state and territory needs enough Air National Guard members to meet its state and federal commitments. "I want a capability that we are going to deliver 53 governors and one president of the United States, so that when they call on the Guard, we are always ready and we are always there," he said.
The missions the Air National Guard is performing around the world demand a lot of capability, he told the troops, who are among 6,000 National Guard volunteers from around the country serving along the Southwest U.S. border.
"I can't do this mission without the Air Guard," he said. "There is no Air Force Reserve in this mission, and there is no active Air Force in this mission."
Similarly, Blum said, he needs the 106,000 members of the Air National Guard to keep up with the demand for Air Expeditionary Force units overseas and Air Guard support during natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. "The response to Katrina couldn't have happened without the Air Guard," he said.
He cited the single biggest difference between Air National Guardsmen and their active and Air Force Reserve counterparts. "They don't have a dual mission," he said. "The active Air Force and Air Force Reserve don't get called out by their governors in the middle of the night to do things that you get called out to do in Guam, Tennessee, New Mexico and Georgia, every year when the hurricanes come.
"You have a different mission. So we have a different circumstance," Blum told the Air Guardsmen in the group. "And should we be a little bit smaller? Maybe, but not 16,000 smaller."
Blum admitted he's found himself having to do "a very delicate kabuki dance" with Air Force, Pentagon and congressional leaders as he tries to determine exactly what size the Air Guard should be.
He noted that Air Force leaders promised Congress they wouldn't change the size of the Air Guard, and language to that effect is included in the Base Realignment and Closure legislation. Cutting the Guard would go against Congress' intention, he said. "And the last thing the chief of the Guard Bureau is going to do is to defy the will of the Congress of the United States, because they do in fact set the size of the armed forces and the National Guard."
Blum said he's "not absolute" about what direction the Guard strength numbers ultimately will ultimately take, but is sure of one thing. "I am not going to get driven by a budget to a number," he said.
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Florida Guard Delivers Donations to Kabul Orphange
By Tech. Sgt. Christopher DeWitt, USAF
Nov. 30, 2006 – Blankets, school supplies and soccer balls made their way to hundreds of orphaned children here today thanks to a deployed Florida U.S. Army Guard unit and donations from Americans. "This demonstrates America's compassion," said Col. Andrew Verrett, commander of the 930th Army Liaison Team, from Homestead, Fla. "We tend to be a nation of doers not talkers, and this project demonstrates that."
The items -- nearly 2,000 blankets, 1,000 soccer balls and basic school supplies -- made their way from the United States to Kabul, where members of the 930th planned the distribution to the Allahoddin orphanage in Kabul.
"We wrote to newspapers back home and used the power of the Internet," said Army Lt. Col. Abe Conn, liaison officer with the 930th. "One friend told another and so on. Before we knew it, we had received the blankets, balls and $3,500 for shipping. The whole unit helped with planning, inflating balls and distributing the donations."
Though the items came in from across the United States, a multinational group helped deliver the goods, with Macedonian and British servicemembers helping the Guard unit unload the trucks and hand the items out to the children.
"It's a sense of hope to the children who might not have any," Conn said. "It is a promise of a brighter tomorrow."
This is the second tour to the Afghan capital for the 930th. During the first, from July 2002 to March 2003, the unit raised $7,000 and built tables and chairs for the orphanage. Conn said the unit's soldiers remembered the children kicking cans around and decided to give them something better to kick around.
"It's a great thing to help other people, and that's what we did here today," Conn said. "We had a choice. We could have done nothing or we could have done something; ... we chose to do something."
(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Christopher DeWitt is assigned to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan.)
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
Nov. 30, 2006 – Blankets, school supplies and soccer balls made their way to hundreds of orphaned children here today thanks to a deployed Florida U.S. Army Guard unit and donations from Americans. "This demonstrates America's compassion," said Col. Andrew Verrett, commander of the 930th Army Liaison Team, from Homestead, Fla. "We tend to be a nation of doers not talkers, and this project demonstrates that."
The items -- nearly 2,000 blankets, 1,000 soccer balls and basic school supplies -- made their way from the United States to Kabul, where members of the 930th planned the distribution to the Allahoddin orphanage in Kabul.
"We wrote to newspapers back home and used the power of the Internet," said Army Lt. Col. Abe Conn, liaison officer with the 930th. "One friend told another and so on. Before we knew it, we had received the blankets, balls and $3,500 for shipping. The whole unit helped with planning, inflating balls and distributing the donations."
Though the items came in from across the United States, a multinational group helped deliver the goods, with Macedonian and British servicemembers helping the Guard unit unload the trucks and hand the items out to the children.
"It's a sense of hope to the children who might not have any," Conn said. "It is a promise of a brighter tomorrow."
This is the second tour to the Afghan capital for the 930th. During the first, from July 2002 to March 2003, the unit raised $7,000 and built tables and chairs for the orphanage. Conn said the unit's soldiers remembered the children kicking cans around and decided to give them something better to kick around.
"It's a great thing to help other people, and that's what we did here today," Conn said. "We had a choice. We could have done nothing or we could have done something; ... we chose to do something."
(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Christopher DeWitt is assigned to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan.)
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
America Supports You: Silver Star Families Undertakes Holiday Project
By Samantha L. Quigley
Nov. 30, 2006 – Silver Star Families of America, a group dedicated to supporting wounded servicemembers and their families, is thinking outside the box this Christmas. A member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program highlighting ways Americans and the corporate sector support the nation's servicemembers, the group has undertaken a program to send holiday cheer to military and veterans hospitals.
"We concentrate on sending Silver Star banners to the wounded," Steve Newton, the organization's founder, said. "But the members wanted to do something special for the wounded for Christmas."
Through "Project Christmas," Silver Star Families is sending at least one box of goodies to a military hospital, a Veterans Affairs medical center or a combat support hospital in every state in the U.S., and to Germany and Iraq, Newton said.
The effort got under way a mere three weeks ago, and the organization has nearly met its goal. All boxes for overseas locations have been shipped to ensure they arrived in time for the holidays. As for the stateside venture, only a handful of states remain to be checked off the list. "This has been a big project for us," Newton said. "We usually don't tackle care packages on this scale. But we've had a lot of support."
That support has come from within, with members donating items to stuff the boxes, and from the celebrity realm, including best-selling author Dean Koontz. The author shipped "cases and cases of autographed books," which meshed well with the group's goal of sending "fun" items. Other items donated for the packages include signed baseball, football and other sports memorabilia, as well as items with musicians' signatures.
"We got pencils from the Chicago Cubs, just hundreds and hundreds of pencils," he said. "The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team sent us, I bet it was 150 ... T-shirts, beautiful T-shirts."
The Silver Star members also are taking it upon themselves to pick up any slack, Newton said. One member from the Washington area stepped up to cover the postage for all of the packages being sent from the national headquarters in Missouri. Other members are sending packages on their own to ensure as many wounded servicemembers as possible have a great Christmas.
"If you'd asked me a week or two ago, I'd have said, 'I don't ever, ever want to see any kind of box again," Newton said with a laugh. "But I think we'll do this every year."
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
Nov. 30, 2006 – Silver Star Families of America, a group dedicated to supporting wounded servicemembers and their families, is thinking outside the box this Christmas. A member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program highlighting ways Americans and the corporate sector support the nation's servicemembers, the group has undertaken a program to send holiday cheer to military and veterans hospitals.
"We concentrate on sending Silver Star banners to the wounded," Steve Newton, the organization's founder, said. "But the members wanted to do something special for the wounded for Christmas."
Through "Project Christmas," Silver Star Families is sending at least one box of goodies to a military hospital, a Veterans Affairs medical center or a combat support hospital in every state in the U.S., and to Germany and Iraq, Newton said.
The effort got under way a mere three weeks ago, and the organization has nearly met its goal. All boxes for overseas locations have been shipped to ensure they arrived in time for the holidays. As for the stateside venture, only a handful of states remain to be checked off the list. "This has been a big project for us," Newton said. "We usually don't tackle care packages on this scale. But we've had a lot of support."
That support has come from within, with members donating items to stuff the boxes, and from the celebrity realm, including best-selling author Dean Koontz. The author shipped "cases and cases of autographed books," which meshed well with the group's goal of sending "fun" items. Other items donated for the packages include signed baseball, football and other sports memorabilia, as well as items with musicians' signatures.
"We got pencils from the Chicago Cubs, just hundreds and hundreds of pencils," he said. "The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team sent us, I bet it was 150 ... T-shirts, beautiful T-shirts."
The Silver Star members also are taking it upon themselves to pick up any slack, Newton said. One member from the Washington area stepped up to cover the postage for all of the packages being sent from the national headquarters in Missouri. Other members are sending packages on their own to ensure as many wounded servicemembers as possible have a great Christmas.
"If you'd asked me a week or two ago, I'd have said, 'I don't ever, ever want to see any kind of box again," Newton said with a laugh. "But I think we'll do this every year."
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
Cold War History Played Out at Guantanamo Bay Gate
By Sgt. Jim Greenhill, USA
Nov. 30, 2006 – Even as deployed National Guard members make history serving with Joint Task Force Guantanamo, they find history at the base's Northeast Gate. Minutemen and women helping fulfill JTF-GTMO's mission of providing safe care and custody for enemy combatants detained during the global war on terrorism can join Marine guides for an off-duty visit to a place where the world once seemed to hold its breath as superpowers stood eyeball-to-eyeball during the Cuban Missile Crisis. About 13 percent of JTF-GTMO is currently made up of National Guard troops, mostly from the Maryland National Guard.
The nation's oldest overseas naval base is also the only one in a country with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations. But the tensions that once surrounded the Northeast Gate, the only crossing point between the naval station and the rest of Cuba, have long since evaporated.
"We have a very good rapport with the Cuban army," a Marine Corps staff sergeant said at the gate in mid-November. He is not being identified for security reasons. "We talk to them quite often," he said. "There's no tension like there used to be."
A few feet away, a half-dozen uniformed Cuban soldiers trimmed grass and picked up trash on the Cuban side, preparing for the monthly meeting between naval station commander Navy Capt. Mark Leary and his Cuban military counterpart. The fence-line meetings alternate between the American and Cuban sides. One month, the two commanders meet in a former Marine reaction force room on the base; the next, they meet in a building on the Cuban side of the line. They discuss issues such as security, the fence and communications, the Marine staff sergeant said.
"We don't deal with politics," Leary said. "Even during the time of President (Fidel) Castro's recent illness, there was no discussion. It really is much more of a local and pragmatic relationship dealing with the base and the local area of eastern Cuba."
Once a year, troops from both sides perform a mass casualty drill, demonstrating both sides' willingness to set aside differences and help each other during a crisis.
Decades ago, the atmosphere was similar to that embodied by Jack Nicholson in a line from the movie "A Few Good Men." "I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me," his character, a Marine colonel, said.
Tensions were so high that shots were fired, though there were no gun battles. Over several years, troops on both sides of the fence competed for national pride.
Cubans lobbed rocks onto the tin roof of the reaction room were Marines were trying to sleep, so the Marines built a 40-foot-high fence along a stretch of the base's perimeter.
Then Cubans hung coat hangers and other metal objects on the new fence to clatter in the night wind and disturb the Marines' sleep, so the Marines added barbed wire.
When Cubans raised their flag higher than the Stars and Stripes, Marines installed ever-higher flagpoles on the U.S. side. The Cubans ultimately won that face-off by moving their flag to the top of a distant ridge line on the Cuban side, an elevation the Marines could not achieve.
As tensions persisted, the Cubans beamed a powerful spotlight into the reaction room's windows. "Marines can't sleep, they're not happy Marines," the staff sergeant said. "So we've got to do something about it."
Vice Adm. John Bulkeley, the base commander in the 1960s, devised a way to deal with that problem.
For 30 days, laborers worked in a tent erected on a hillside below the Marine building. "On the 30th night, the Cuban light came on, the tent came down and if y'all walk this way you'll see what the Cubans saw that night," the Marine staff sergeant told a group of visitors to the gate area.
A giant Marine Corps symbol painted on a massive concrete slab remains on the hillside. When the Cubans turned on their light on that 30th night, it spotlighted a super-sized eagle, globe and anchor. "The Cubans said, 'We're not going to spotlight that,'" the staff sergeant said. "They shut their spotlight off."
But the Marines favored highlighting the symbol. Anticipating the Cuban reaction, they had installed a light of their own that shines on the crest but not into their windows. At night, the single light can be seen from high ground throughout the 45-square-mile naval station.
Tensions grew more serious in 1964, when the U.S. arrested 17 Cuban fishermen for violating territorial waters off the Florida coast and Castro cut the fresh water supply the U.S. had for years pumped from a river several miles north of the naval station. "We stayed here," the staff sergeant said. "We didn't leave. He expected us to leave."
So Castro accused the U.S. of stealing water. To counter this, Bulkeley invited media to watch as the cast iron water pipe into the base was cut near the North East Gate. He sent a piece to Castro, with a photograph of the ceremony. Visitors still can see the exposed pipe.
The U.S. had shipped water into the base until a desalination plant that uses the same technology used on submarines was completed. The naval station uses wind turbines and diesel generators to supply power. Supplies are shipped or flown in. "We're totally self-sufficient," Leary said.
Marines and Cuban soldiers still face off from watch towers on hillsides on both sides of the 17-mile fence. No one goes to the Northeast Gate without permission from the Marines. The drive there crosses salt flats once dotted with 50,000 mines, which President Bill Clinton ordered removed in 1996. They were replaced with motion and sound sensors.
The Marines' respect for their Cuban counterparts is reflected in the order to visitors to not photograph them, point at them or make any gestures.
Only two people cross the fence line each day. An 85-year-old and a 79-year-old Cuban, the last two who still work on the naval station, arrive on the Cuban side at 6 a.m., walk across, work on the naval station and leave again at 6 p.m.
Once, about 4,000 Cubans came through the gate to work on the base. But Castro cut off the labor supply, later relenting to allow people who were working there before the ban to continue. Twice a month, Marines escort cash to the fence line so retired Cubans can collect their U.S. pensions.
Today, most naval station labor is supplied by nationals from Jamaica and the Philippines who live at GTMO.
Once or twice a month, Cubans who have attempted to cross into the naval station are returned to Cuba.
"Throughout history, the base has kind of cycled in importance," Leary said. "In the end, it's always been a good investment for the United States. It will continue to be a good investment. I don't know what the future missions would be. There are certainly other ones, (and) an extended-stay detainee mission is certainly possible."
(Army Sgt. Jim Greenhill is assigned to the National Guard Bureau.)
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
Nov. 30, 2006 – Even as deployed National Guard members make history serving with Joint Task Force Guantanamo, they find history at the base's Northeast Gate. Minutemen and women helping fulfill JTF-GTMO's mission of providing safe care and custody for enemy combatants detained during the global war on terrorism can join Marine guides for an off-duty visit to a place where the world once seemed to hold its breath as superpowers stood eyeball-to-eyeball during the Cuban Missile Crisis. About 13 percent of JTF-GTMO is currently made up of National Guard troops, mostly from the Maryland National Guard.
The nation's oldest overseas naval base is also the only one in a country with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations. But the tensions that once surrounded the Northeast Gate, the only crossing point between the naval station and the rest of Cuba, have long since evaporated.
"We have a very good rapport with the Cuban army," a Marine Corps staff sergeant said at the gate in mid-November. He is not being identified for security reasons. "We talk to them quite often," he said. "There's no tension like there used to be."
A few feet away, a half-dozen uniformed Cuban soldiers trimmed grass and picked up trash on the Cuban side, preparing for the monthly meeting between naval station commander Navy Capt. Mark Leary and his Cuban military counterpart. The fence-line meetings alternate between the American and Cuban sides. One month, the two commanders meet in a former Marine reaction force room on the base; the next, they meet in a building on the Cuban side of the line. They discuss issues such as security, the fence and communications, the Marine staff sergeant said.
"We don't deal with politics," Leary said. "Even during the time of President (Fidel) Castro's recent illness, there was no discussion. It really is much more of a local and pragmatic relationship dealing with the base and the local area of eastern Cuba."
Once a year, troops from both sides perform a mass casualty drill, demonstrating both sides' willingness to set aside differences and help each other during a crisis.
Decades ago, the atmosphere was similar to that embodied by Jack Nicholson in a line from the movie "A Few Good Men." "I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me," his character, a Marine colonel, said.
Tensions were so high that shots were fired, though there were no gun battles. Over several years, troops on both sides of the fence competed for national pride.
Cubans lobbed rocks onto the tin roof of the reaction room were Marines were trying to sleep, so the Marines built a 40-foot-high fence along a stretch of the base's perimeter.
Then Cubans hung coat hangers and other metal objects on the new fence to clatter in the night wind and disturb the Marines' sleep, so the Marines added barbed wire.
When Cubans raised their flag higher than the Stars and Stripes, Marines installed ever-higher flagpoles on the U.S. side. The Cubans ultimately won that face-off by moving their flag to the top of a distant ridge line on the Cuban side, an elevation the Marines could not achieve.
As tensions persisted, the Cubans beamed a powerful spotlight into the reaction room's windows. "Marines can't sleep, they're not happy Marines," the staff sergeant said. "So we've got to do something about it."
Vice Adm. John Bulkeley, the base commander in the 1960s, devised a way to deal with that problem.
For 30 days, laborers worked in a tent erected on a hillside below the Marine building. "On the 30th night, the Cuban light came on, the tent came down and if y'all walk this way you'll see what the Cubans saw that night," the Marine staff sergeant told a group of visitors to the gate area.
A giant Marine Corps symbol painted on a massive concrete slab remains on the hillside. When the Cubans turned on their light on that 30th night, it spotlighted a super-sized eagle, globe and anchor. "The Cubans said, 'We're not going to spotlight that,'" the staff sergeant said. "They shut their spotlight off."
But the Marines favored highlighting the symbol. Anticipating the Cuban reaction, they had installed a light of their own that shines on the crest but not into their windows. At night, the single light can be seen from high ground throughout the 45-square-mile naval station.
Tensions grew more serious in 1964, when the U.S. arrested 17 Cuban fishermen for violating territorial waters off the Florida coast and Castro cut the fresh water supply the U.S. had for years pumped from a river several miles north of the naval station. "We stayed here," the staff sergeant said. "We didn't leave. He expected us to leave."
So Castro accused the U.S. of stealing water. To counter this, Bulkeley invited media to watch as the cast iron water pipe into the base was cut near the North East Gate. He sent a piece to Castro, with a photograph of the ceremony. Visitors still can see the exposed pipe.
The U.S. had shipped water into the base until a desalination plant that uses the same technology used on submarines was completed. The naval station uses wind turbines and diesel generators to supply power. Supplies are shipped or flown in. "We're totally self-sufficient," Leary said.
Marines and Cuban soldiers still face off from watch towers on hillsides on both sides of the 17-mile fence. No one goes to the Northeast Gate without permission from the Marines. The drive there crosses salt flats once dotted with 50,000 mines, which President Bill Clinton ordered removed in 1996. They were replaced with motion and sound sensors.
The Marines' respect for their Cuban counterparts is reflected in the order to visitors to not photograph them, point at them or make any gestures.
Only two people cross the fence line each day. An 85-year-old and a 79-year-old Cuban, the last two who still work on the naval station, arrive on the Cuban side at 6 a.m., walk across, work on the naval station and leave again at 6 p.m.
Once, about 4,000 Cubans came through the gate to work on the base. But Castro cut off the labor supply, later relenting to allow people who were working there before the ban to continue. Twice a month, Marines escort cash to the fence line so retired Cubans can collect their U.S. pensions.
Today, most naval station labor is supplied by nationals from Jamaica and the Philippines who live at GTMO.
Once or twice a month, Cubans who have attempted to cross into the naval station are returned to Cuba.
"Throughout history, the base has kind of cycled in importance," Leary said. "In the end, it's always been a good investment for the United States. It will continue to be a good investment. I don't know what the future missions would be. There are certainly other ones, (and) an extended-stay detainee mission is certainly possible."
(Army Sgt. Jim Greenhill is assigned to the National Guard Bureau.)
Article sponsored by criminal justice online and police officer turned law enforcement writer.
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