Africom Will Maintain ‘Light Footprint’ in Africa

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

STUTTGART, Germany, June 12, 2012 – The United States has no plans to seek permanent bases in Africa, and, in the spirit of the new defense strategic guidance, will continue to maintain a “light footprint” on the continent, the top U.S. Africa Command officer said.

“In Africa, I would say a light footprint is consistent with what we need and consistent with the defense guidance,” Army Gen. Carter F. Ham told the House Armed Services Committee in February.

With no troops directly assigned to it, Africom relies heavily on its service components: U.S. Army Africa based in Vicenza, Italy; U.S. Air Forces Africa, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany; U.S. Marine Forces Africa and Special Operations Command Africa, both based here.

“It is that proximity to the theater that enables the agility we require,” Ham told Congress.

Africom has had its headquarters here since it initially stood up in 2007 as a subcommand of U.S. European Command before reaching full operational capability in 2008. Then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the first Africom commander, Army Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, agreed to defer any decision on its permanent location until 2012.

A congressionally directed review of alternate basing plans is under way, and is expected to be delivered sometime this year. None of the plans being developed involves relocating the headquarters to the African continent, Ham said.

While not expressing his own preferences, Ham said he believes Africom has “been very well served” by its Stuttgart headquarters. In addition to good facilities and proximity to an international airport with direct links to Africa, he noted, Stuttgart offers the operational advantage of being in the same time zone as many of Africom’s African partners. “We are on the same daily rhythm,” the general said.

In addition, he said, collocating Africom with U.S. European Command makes sense, promoting their tradition of working together as they share forces, resources and capabilities.

Ham also underscored the importance of Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, the only permanent U.S. base in Africa. With about 2,000 U.S. personnel deployed there as part of Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, many from the Army National Guard, it provides a stable platform for U.S. military operations in a critical part of the world, he said.

“It’s a great strategic location,” he told American Forces Press Service. “It facilitates not only our operations for U.S. Africa Command, but also U.S. Central Command and U.S. Transportation Command. It is a very key hub and important node for us, a good location that allows us to extend our reach in East Africa and partner with the countries of East Africa.”

Ham said he recognizes concerns among some African countries about an increased U.S. presence on the continent, but emphasized that cost alone would preclude the United States from establishing more permanent bases there.

Meanwhile, a new initiative that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno announced last month could increase Africom’s engagement opportunities with no uptick in permanent staffing.

The Army plans to implement a regionally aligned force concept next year to better support combatant commanders, Odierno said. Africom is expected to be the first to receive these rotational forces as part of the pilot program to begin next year, followed by U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Pacific Command.

Commander Seeks Better Military-to-Military Relations With China

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Chinese and American officials recognize the importance of good, uninterrupted military-to-military relations, and the commander of U.S. Pacific Command will do what he can to further that goal.

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III spoke about his new command and the importance he places in building the U.S. military relationship with China during a recent interview.

“The last thing you want to have is miscalculation between large militaries,” the admiral said. “You want diplomacy to work. Militaries should only come into play when diplomacy fails, and then they should work hard to get you back into a diplomatic dialogue where real peace lies.”

The U.S.-China military relationship has been rocky. China broke off military-to-military relations with the United States in January 2010, when the United States announced it would sell arms to Taiwan. For months, military relations were frozen, then they slowly warmed. In 2011, the military-to-military relationship resumed. Then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates stressed that it was particularly in times of stress between the nations that such ties were important.

Gates visited China in January 2011, and his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liang Guanglie, just finished a visit to the United States. The visit went forward even as arms sales to Taiwan again hit the news.

Chinese government officials face many decisions as the country moves forward. The nation has had stupendous growth over the past 30 years, and year-to-year growth in gross domestic product remains high. The Chinese army is benefiting from the booming economy, and Chinese officials are modernizing the military.

“They are an emerging power, and we are a mature power,” Locklear said. “How they emerge, and how we encourage them will be an important key to both China and the United States.”

The Chinese have many choices to make, and better military-to-military communications will allow both nations to understand why officials are making these choices. All this is “for the good of the global security environment,” Locklear said.

The on-again, off-again nature of communications between the militaries doesn’t help. “I think we may be reaching a turning point in that,” he said. “Both nations realize that it’s not in the best interests of anyone in the world for the U.S. and China to not have a favorable relationship with each other, and that good military-to-military relations [are] critical to that.”

Military-to-military contacts are one way to build trust between the nations, the admiral said. “You learn to operate together, you learn to cooperate, you learn about each other’s families -- you get a personal view of each other.” So when things happen, he added, commanders can reach out to one another.

Sometimes it’s impossible for capitals to talk to each other, the admiral said, and military commanders, with these types of contacts, sometimes can calm things down a bit.

Locklear had just returned from a visit to Beijing, and said he came away encouraged by the progress. “I’m hopeful that we can continue to have a dialogue and just talk together,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything.”

The United States and its closest allies don’t agree on everything, he noted. “But I do believe we should not allow those disagreements prevent us from understanding each other in the places that we can, and allow us to control our appetite for disagreement,” he said.

The South China Sea is an area of contention, with China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Cambodia asserting jurisdiction in various parts of the waterway, which covers an area from Singapore to Taiwan.

“The United States doesn’t take sides on competing territorial claims,” Locklear said. “But we have an opinion on how we want those disputes to be resolved. First, we want them resolved by peaceful means and in accordance with customary law and by the things like the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. There are ways to deal with this.”

Additionally, the United States calls upon all claimants to clarify their claims.

The South China Sea is crucial to trade in the region and with the United States. Half of the trade for the United States flows through the region. Almost all of the oil for China and Japan flow through the waterway.

There are competing claims to islands and seamounts in the sea, and how this plays out is of concern to the United States. “The way to deal with this is to settle in a forum where there can be as much win-win as possible,” the admiral said. “But we want it done in a peaceful environment and we don’t want a heavy hand from any side to enforce the process.”

While not taking sides, the United States has a national interest in the freedom of the seas -- including the South China Sea -- and has consistently opposed excessive maritime claims. U.S. forces will continue to preserve the rights, freedoms and uses of the sea guaranteed to all nations by conducting freedom of navigation missions in the area.

While China is important to the U.S. strategy in the region, Locklear said, Korea is one area that keeps him awake at night. North Korea has a new leader, and more than half the population survives on fewer than 800 calories a day. The regime spent an inordinate amount of money to try to launch an ICBM, and there are rumblings that North Korea may continue to develop nuclear weapons. With the money that North Korea spent on its failed missile, “you could have fed 20 million people for one year,” the admiral said.

Transnational threats also are a growing concern. Locklear said the cyber threat is the greatest transnational threat in the region, followed by terrorism. U.S. Pacific Command has an office dedicated to protecting its own networks and working with allies to combat cyber attacks. Locklear said he wants regional and international organizations to work together to define the rules of the Internet road.

“In the area of violent terror organizations, we are seeing … a transition,” the admiral said. “In the terror world, as you squeeze on one side of the balloon, it pops out somewhere else. Terrorists look for areas to exploit.”

Terror groups are drawn to areas where people are disenfranchised and poor. “We’re seeing more of that in some areas of Asia and we are going to have to adapt our forces to deal with that,” Locklear said. “But in the long run, I think the solution is prosperity, and a general sense of security that makes it so these terror networks can’t survive.”

But the bottom line, the admiral said, is that the American people have to understand that the United States is a Pacific nation, with national interests that must be secured.

“For six decades, the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific has provided the security infrastructure that basically underpins the prosperity in the region,” he added. “This will continue.”

Thurman: Keep Accompanied Korea Tours at Current Level

By Karen Parrish

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 – Family-member-accompanied tours for U.S. service members in South Korea should not expand beyond the roughly 4,600 family members now authorized, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea told Congress today.

Army Gen. James D. Thurman testified alongside Peter R. Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, before the House Armed Services Committee today on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Given continued uncertainty on the peninsula and ongoing budget constraints, the general said, it’s essential to maintain U.S. force readiness at its highest level, “given our requirement to ‘fight tonight.’”

During his confirmation hearing before he took command of U.S. military forces in Korea, Congress asked him to assess tour normalization and force relocation, Thurman noted.

“It is my assessment that expanding tour normalization beyond our current authorization of 4,645 family members is unaffordable under the current construct,” he said.

Force relocation plans are on track, Thurman said, adding that he will continue to assess them to ensure they place the right capabilities in the right places to meet operational requirements.

Defense Department officials have considered “tour normalization” in South Korea for a number of years. Then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in July 2010 that he was considering a two-year tour for single service members and a three-year tour for troops accompanied by their families.

Gates cautioned at the time, however, that the infrastructure such tours would require -- such as schools, hospitals and commissaries -- would make the change an expensive one.

Panetta, Dempsey: Chiarelli Inspired All

By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2012 – The Defense Department and the Army said goodbye today to a general known for his leadership and his innovation, but who may be best remembered for his focus on advancing brain injury treatment and mental health care.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were among hundreds who gathered today at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall’s Summerall Field to celebrate the career of Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, as he retired following 40 years of service.

As the son of a World War II Silver Star recipient, Chiarelli “exemplified the values of his father: of patriotism, of courage, of resilience, of dedication,” the secretary said.

Panetta said he traveled to Baghdad as part of the Iraq Study Group in September 2006, where the group heard a briefing from Chiarelli, then commander of Multinational Corps Iraq. Iraq at the time was “in considerable turmoil,” the secretary said.

“But Pete’s presentation demonstrated an extraordinary knowledge of the 21st-century battlefield,” he continued. “He was honest, he was direct, he called it as it was, and he pulled no punches.”

The secretary said one member of the group who was particularly impressed with Chiarelli was then-Texas A&M University President Robert M. Gates, who as secretary of defense later chose the general to serve as his senior military assistant.

“For 17 months, Pete served as Bob Gates’ right-hand man, advising him on a full range of pressing national security matters, and always -- always -- giving him insight into how the decisions he was making would impact on the men and women on the battlefield.”

The hallmark of Chiarelli’s career is “the depth of his concern for the welfare of every soldier,” the secretary said. “It’s that quality that made him the perfect choice to be the vice chief of staff of the Army.”

For his more than three years in that job, Chiarelli has not rested, Panetta said, but has devoted himself to improving the lives of soldiers and family members at a time of extraordinary strain.

“Under his leadership, the Army has taken tremendous steps to give soldiers increased dwell time [at home stations] between deployments, and he’s been an outspoken advocate for wounded warriors -- in particular, those suffering from the unseen wounds of war,” the secretary said.

More than any other officer, Panetta added, Chiarelli sought to eliminate the stigma of post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues.

“And he’s devoted every ounce of his energy to the problem of suicide in the Army,” the secretary said. … “Thanks to his tireless efforts, the department is fully working to confront these issues.”

Panetta said Chiarelli and his wife, Beth, have made “an extraordinary difference.”

“You’ve touched so many lives,” he told the couple. “You’ve inspired all of us … to redouble our efforts to protect the men and women who fight to protect us.”

Panetta assured Chiarelli that while the nation’s military members will miss him, “the light that you have lit will continue to shine, and to light our way in the future.”

Dempsey used his remarks in part to offer guidance to media members covering the event: “I want you to report that we have never had a finer man in uniform, and never a finer couple, than Pete and Beth Chiarelli,” he said.

Dempsey said his fellow general is an outstanding son, husband, and father, as well as “an unbelievable friend.” But as a soldier, the chairman added, Chiarelli “is a giant of a man in every way, inside and out.”

Dempsey said that after watching Chiarelli “stalking the halls of the Pentagon,” he finally got the image he was seeking to describe his fellow general, likening the general to Paul Bunyan, the larger-than-life lumberjack of North American folklore.

“[It’s] almost like he’s got a big hatchet or ax on his back, hacking his way through the bureaucracy to make life better for soldiers and their families,” the chairman said.

Dempsey said before the end of the Cold War, Chiarelli was known as one of the finest trainers in the Army, and was the first commander assigned to Iraq to realize -- and train his staff to deal with -- the key question of how to run a city.

In Baghdad, Chiarelli led the Army to transform its “fundamentally flawed” command-and-control structures, and then to make those systems reach to ground troops, so a squad leader could build context from the bottom up, Dempsey said.

When he came back from war, Dempsey added, Chiarelli confronted the Army’s “enduring challenge” with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress injury.

“He drove our Army -- drove it -- to recognize the problem, to reduce the stigma, to confront it. And that was Pete Chiarelli,” Dempsey said.

Beth Chiarelli likewise worked to improve the Army, the chairman noted, by focusing among many other issues on the challenges military children face while changing schools frequently during a parent’s career.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Dempsey said. “The enduring example of both Pete and Beth Chiarelli is that you have to live with a passion for something. The goal is not just to make a living, but to make a difference. And boy oh boy, did you two make a difference.”

On Chiarelli’s last day at work, Dempsey noted, hundreds of members of the Army staff formed a cordon from his Pentagon office to the parking lot to “clap him out” of the job.

“What struck me was this wasn’t organized by his executive officer, it wasn’t organized by any other general officer, it was organized by the noncommissioned officers,” the chairman said. “And if that doesn’t tell you about Pete Chiarelli, you don’t know anything about Pete Chiarelli.”

During the ceremony, Chiarelli received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the department’s highest noncombat military award. His wife, Beth, received the Secretary of the Army Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the highest Army honor a civilian can receive.

Chiarelli thanked his wife and their four grown children for their love and support during his career. Marrying Beth was the “best decision I ever made,” he said, adding that they are both “immensely proud” of their sons and daughter.

Chiarelli said he bought his father a journal after the senior Chiarelli retired, and asked him to record some of his experiences from World War II, during which the older Chiarelli received a battlefield commission.

“I still have that journal,” the general said. “Every page is blank. He never wrote a single word. Like many from his generation, he never talked about his experience or exploits in combat.”

One of his father’s fellow soldiers, however, sent him a 24-page narrative outlining some of the two men’s shared exploits across North Africa, Italy, southern France, Austria and Germany.

That document proved to him something he’s also learned for himself over four decades in uniform, Chiarelli said: “There is undeniably a thread that links every soldier to those who came before, and those still to come.”

Years after commanding 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq and later Multinational Corps Iraq, Chiarelli said, not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of the 650 soldiers under his command who were killed.

“I would trade all the medals and ribbons on my chest, and every bit of rank, to get just one back,” he said.

Two years ago, Chiarelli added, he presented a Purple Heart to a young staff sergeant who had been wounded in successive roadside bomb explosions in Afghanistan.

“He was there with his parents, his wife and their two children,” the general said. “Over the course of our conversation, he told me how much he loved being a soldier, leading soldiers. He wanted desperately to get back to his unit.”

Chiarelli said the young man was suffering from traumatic brain injury, and it was “readily apparent to me he had difficulty gathering his thoughts and speaking.”

The general said he now believes the invisible injuries of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury are the signature wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“While we have made significant progress in recent years, we must, must, must continue our efforts,” Chiarelli said. “We owe it to our men and women in uniform, active and reserve, as well as veterans, and their families.

“I want this to be my parting message to all of you as I leave our Army’s active ranks,” he concluded. “I certainly hope in retirement to be able to continue to champion this most important cause, and contribute in some meaningful way.”

Flournoy Discusses State of World as She Leaves Office

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2012 – The day Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden was also a long and tense day for Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

She was at the White House on May 2 helping then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates make calls to foreign civilian and military leaders. She was among the first to know that the joint special operations mission deep in Pakistan had been successful.

Late that night after President Barack Obama’s announcement that justice had caught up with the 9-11 planner, Flournoy walked out of the White House. “I didn’t know that people had spontaneously gathered outside,” she said. “I could hear them singing but not identify it at first. Then I recognized the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.’ It was an incredible moment.”

Flournoy will leave office this week after serving during three years of incredible change for the department and the world. The president has nominated James Miller, the current principle deputy at the office, to succeed her.

When Flournoy came into office there were still more than 100,000 troops in Iraq and violence was growing in Afghanistan. There was a plan in place to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and a question mark about what to do in Afghanistan.

The bin Laden raid marked a high point for the world in the war on terrorists. Flournoy credits President Barack Obama’s leadership for being key to success. “This was not a slam dunk in terms of an easy judgment call,” she said. “This was something that frankly he had some very senior advisors telling him not to do. He took a calculated risk, but at the end of the day it was an extremely strong decision, and one that meant a lot symbolically in the fight against al-Qaida.”

Flournoy is happy with the progress made against this deadly terror group, but “it’s a project we’re not finished with yet,” she said. “We should be particularly grateful for the contributions of our special operations and intelligence forces.”

The U.S. military left Iraq at the end of 2011, and after a surge of 33,000 American troops into Afghanistan, there is enough progress that a drawdown has begun there.

Some talking heads have said the U.S. military is now in decline, a premise with which Flournoy strongly disagrees. “This is not a military in decline,” she said. “It’s hard to remember a time when the U.S. had more capability, more professional expertise, more people who were battle-tested at the pinnacle of their profession of arms.”

It is only natural, she said, that as one war ends and another draws down that military officials are contemplating a smaller force. “We grew the force to accommodate these two large ground wars,” Flournoy said. “It’s only expected you would examine this drawdown over time.”

Flournoy cited two of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s guidelines for the new defense strategy. The first was at the end of the process, America would still have the most powerful military in the world. “Second, he said he wanted to learn the lessons of previous drawdowns,” she said.

Previous drawdowns resulted in a hollow force -- meaning typically too much force structure and sacrifices to training, modernization and readiness. “So the force looks good on paper, but it’s not what the country really needs,” she said. “We’ve looked that risk in the eye and we’re doing everything we can to be mindful and avoid a hollow force this time.”

Many service members see the policy position as one that doesn’t have any impact on their lives; however, “policy first and foremost really affects where we focus our attention as an instrument of national policy,” the undersecretary said. “It affects where we’re going in Afghanistan and what we commit to there, [and] our broader global sense of priorities.”

Obama announced a new defense strategy earlier this month that talks about re-balancing the U.S. military to put greater emphasis on Asia. “That, long term, is going to affect the lives of service members as more and more of them will be asked to serve in Asia in support of building partner capacity there, enhancing deterrence, reassuring allies and so forth,” Flournoy said.

Asia is becoming more important to America, she said, noting Asian markets and suppliers drive the U.S. economy. “With the end of the war in Iraq, we have more ‘bandwidth’ to focus on the future. Obviously we will do what we need to to prevail in Afghanistan, but as we think more and more about the future we see both the challenges and opportunities arising out of Asia.”

The rise of China and India as world powers reinforces the trend, but the United States must cultivate other nations in Southeast Asia, Flournoy said. Also important, she noted, is the continued and deep alliances with Japan and South Korea.

“The United States is a Pacific power and has always played a unique role in underwriting the security under which all that dynamism and economic growth has been based,” Flournoy said.

But could Asia remain stable without the United States? “It’s hard to imagine that with so much competition and periods of great tension and even conflict,” she said. “It is something that even countries that are not our allies -- like China and other countries in the region -- all tend to acknowledge that the United States plays a stabilizing influence and they don’t want us to leave.”

The Middle East and Central Asia remain areas of turmoil, but Flournoy feels good about the responsible conclusion in Iraq. “We’ve set Iraq up to be a stable and sovereign and self-reliant country,” she said, “and we’ve set ourselves up to have a very robust security relationship with them going forward.

“And I think we’ve turned around the strategy in Afghanistan,” she continued. “I think there has been a lot of progress there. For the first time in five years, violence is down in Afghanistan.” For the first time in years, the United States has “a shot” at achieving its goals, she added.

The NATO operation to protect civilians in Libya from Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is a good model for the future, Flournoy noted. The U.S. military played a limited role focused on the unique capabilities that the American military possesses, such as air-to-air refueling; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets; and command–and-control infrastructure.

The United States had important interests, but they were not vital in the country. Other nations had far more at stake. “I actually think this is an interesting model for the future, particularly as we have greater success in building partner and allied capacity and others are capable of stepping in to take a leadership role,” she said.

The actions over Libya and in Afghanistan prove that NATO is an active and vibrant alliance, Flournoy noted. “The question for NATO is as these economic pressures increase on our European allies, how are they going to manage their own defense enterprise? How are they going to keep investing in defense capabilities that enable them to keep contributing to the future?”

NATO needs to take stock of the assets within the alliance and find a smarter and cheaper way to provide capabilities. “How do we leverage each others’ strengths?” she asked. “How do we mitigate the shortfalls that we experience? We need to put our minds together to ensure the sum of the contributions is greater than the ‘eaches.’”

Flournoy saw increased emphasis on cybersecurity and expects operations in cyberspace to become more important in the years to come. Her office gets involved because the domain is so new, and experts are puzzling over what constitutes an attack. What constitutes an act of war? What is an appropriate response?

This past year saw the Arab Awakening and Flournoy sees it as both a challenge and an opportunity. “It’s a number of countries trying to embrace the ideals that have defined the United States since its founding -- democracy, rule of law, open dialogue, a vibrant public square,” she said.

“The challenge comes because this is happening in areas where the societies have really been oppressed so there haven’t been conditions for the development of political parties, free and fair elections and debate and so forth,” she said.

Right now, some of the parties best positioned to exploit the opportunities “are not the most representative or most democratic,” she said. “Long term, I think this will prove to be a positive development in this part of the world.”

After three years of a frenetic pace, Flournoy will take some time to get re-acquainted with her family. But she will miss the job, she said.

“I’ve had the good fortune to work with two extraordinary secretaries of defense, a wonderful team of military counterparts and the chance to interact with the extraordinary men and women who service in uniform,” she said. “In my trips to Afghanistan and Iraq and other operational areas, I was just consistently bowled over by the quality of the people and their dedication to the mission.”