Dunbar to remain state's top military officer

Wisconsin National Guard Public Affairs Office

Governor Scott Walker announced today the reappointment of Major General Donald Dunbar as the adjutant general of Wisconsin.

 "Major General Dunbar has demonstrated over the past five years that he is a proven leader," said Governor Walker, who is the commander-in-chief of the Wisconsin National Guard. "I know he will effectively lead the Wisconsin National Guard through the challenges of the future."

Dunbar became the state's 30th Adjutant General on Aug. 3, 2007, when he assumed command of the 10,000-member Wisconsin National Guard from Major General Al Wilkening. As Adjutant General, Dunbar oversees the state's Emergency Management division, chairs the Governor's Homeland Security Council, and is the governor's Homeland Security Advisor. He also serves as the vice-chair on FEMA's National Advisory Council.

"I am honored and humbled to be reappointed as Wisconsin's Adjutant General and I am grateful to Governor Walker for his leadership and confidence," Dunbar said, " I am also grateful to my wife, Colleen, for her love, friendship and support of a career with many demands.

"It is my distinct privilege to continue in this capacity and serve with the outstanding Soldiers and Airmen of the Wisconsin National Guard and the exceptional civilian professionals at Wisconsin Emergency Management and within the Department of Military Affairs," Dunbar continued. "I am very proud to lead them and pledge to do my very best to be worthy of their service and this reappointment."

Dunbar began his military career in 1983 and completed pilot training in 1985. He has served as KC-135 functional manager at the National Guard Bureau, staff member for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, executive officer to the director of the Air National Guard, and commander of the 141st Operations Group.

In 2005, he became commander of the Milwaukee-based 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. There he commanded more than 900 Airmen and was responsible for maintaining worldwide unit readiness.

Dunbar has volunteered for and deployed on contingency missions including Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and Northern Watch. He commanded the 385th Expeditionary Operations Group in 2004 and 2005, supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom with C-17 and KC-135 operations.

As adjutant general, Dunbar has mobilized more than 6,000 Soldiers and Airmen for combat operations and led the state through five declared Stafford Act emergencies.

Dunbar is a Drexel Hill, Penn., native. He and his wife, Colleen, currently reside in New Berlin, Wis.

Missouri Guard engineers build retaining wall at Honduran school

By Army National Guard 1st Lt. John Quin

Missouri National Guard

NACO, Honduras (7/3/12) - Soldiers from the Missouri Army National Guard’s 1438th Engineer Company (Multi-Role Bridge) took on a new project, building a retaining wall at a school outside Naco, Honduras on June 28.

The wall, which sits beneath a hill, will serve a dual purpose by stopping further erosion and increasing security for the young students. Some of those students were on hand, watching the Soldiers work.

“The kids have been great,” said Spc. Zack Adkins, a member of the 1438th Engr. Co. “We’ve been trying to get past the language barrier with them.”

The Soldiers are in Honduras as part of U.S. Army South’s Beyond the Horizon exercise.

The exercise seeks to combine military skills training in areas like engineering and medicine with humanitarian outreach projects. The vast majority of service members who have participated are in the National Guard or Reserves and many, like the 1438th, came to Honduras in two-week rotations for their annual training.

The Soldiers working on the wall are part of the exercise’s final rotation. Although they have been in Honduras since Saturday, much of their previous work was finishing nearly-completed projects left by previous rotations.

Because extra materials were available and the community expressed a need, the Soldiers were able to take on the retaining wall mission as a ‘project of opportunity.’

By the time the Soldiers leave, the wall will be four cinderblocks tall, said Army Sgt. Brad Fouch, also from the 1438th Engr. Co.

“After we leave, the locals will build it the rest of the way up,” Fouch said.

Even with temperatures soaring into the 90s and a heat index well above 110 degrees, Adkins said the mission was a rewarding one.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s a good time – it’s hard work, but it’s worth it.”

For Army Pvt. James Walker, Army Pfc Brandon Smith, and Spc. Jamin Coleman, this was not only their first humanitarian mission, but their first trip outside the United States.

“It’s a good experience,” Walker said.

Coleman agreed.

“It’s good to be able to help out other people,” he said. “You have to start from something, so it’s nice to help the people here get to a good starting place.”

The Beyond the Horizon exercise concludes in early July.

Wyoming Army Guard helicopter rescue crews create very real training environment

By 1st Lt. Christian Venhuizen

Wyoming National Guard

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (7/3/12) - Flying a mission of mercy is what Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael Reisig said he loves about his job as a medical evacuation helicopter pilot for the Wyoming Army National Guard.

 “I’m there to help the guy on the ground. I’m there to make sure that every soldier makes it home when he deploys,” Reisig said. “If I can save just one more guy and get him home to his family, that’s what it is all about.”

From June 21-23, Soldiers from Company C, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, tested their abilities to rescue injured and ill personnel from simulated combat zones and other precarious situations. Missions were called in using military codes and helicopters, fully equipped with medical personnel and supplies, launched to their destinations at Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center, Wyo.

Company C, who call themselves Charlie Med, has the distinction of being the most deployed unit in the Wyoming Army National Guard and has seen tours of duty for its pilots, medics, maintenance personnel and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters since Desert Storm.

A three-year rotation to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom recently came to a close, and allowed the unit to turn its focus back to training and preparing for missions here at home and abroad.

Army Sgt. Eric Cothren, a flight medic with Company C, 5-159th AR and a firefighter in Denver, said the roles of his military medical team and what his civilian counterparts do are closely related.

“We go out and we pick the patients up at the point of injury,” he said. “We get them back to the hospital in the rear and get the surgical interventions they need to stabilize them, and then we pick that same patient up and transport them to the higher level of care.”

There are a few other differences between what is expected of military medics and their civilian counterparts, Cothren said.

“Not only do we go out and pick up the patient, we’re also doing a lot of post-surgical transports where we’re doing a lot of things that a nurse would do,” he said. “We’re maintaining sedation on [post-surgical patients] which requires a higher standard of care than a regular medic would do.”

Cothren said many of C Company’s medics are also civilian paramedics, who bring with them a host of skills and experience through from their civilian occupation to help them save Soldiers on the battlefield.

“All of the regular [emergency medical technician] basics were trained to a higher level, thanks to these paramedics,” he said. “We were able to give a much higher standard of care than a lot of previous units that were MEDEVAC … [was] able to give.”

 “The best thing about [this training] is it gives you that unknown, that sense of ‘I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but I still have to go on with my day,’” Reisig said. “When we come in for our one weekend a month we know what’s going to happen, but when we come in for our two weeks in the summer and we do this 72-hour [operation], we don’t know if we have to get up at two in the morning, we don’t know if it’s going to happen in the shower, we don’t know if it’s going to be when we’re eating.

“Maybe we will be out at the aircraft, already ready, you just don’t know and that’s the best part of the training.”

Simulated missions included the use of hoists and the loading and unloading of patients on litters. Both types of missions fit into what the Soldiers’ combat and noncombat roles require.

 When not rescuing Soldiers and civilians from the battlefield, Company C Soldiers can be called upon for search and rescue missions in areas not accessible by ambulances and not suitable for aircraft landing, or they can land to pick up those in need of medical attention.

 As with both the state-side missions and those in combat, crews with Company C leave the ground with no major weapon systems on board. The helicopters fly with red crosses painted on them, picking up protection from gunships only when the mission dictates it.

“There [are] also the times where not having the weapons is also the good thing,” Reisig said, referring to the way the United States conducts medical operations in compliance with the Geneva Convention.

“It’s kind of a morale thing, almost, in this battle that we’re in today,” he said. “We don’t go out there with weapons. We don’t break the rules. We don’t cheat. We do what’s right and we get the mission done.”

National Guard mourns loss of four Airmen

By Army National Guard Sgt. Darron Salzer and Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Carver

National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. (7/3/12) – The 145th Airlift Wing of the North Carolina Air National Guard is mourning the loss of four Air National Guard Airmen, and the serious injury of two others, after their C-130 Hercules crashed in southwestern South Dakota approximately 6:30 p.m. Mountain time July 1.

Paul K. Mikeal

"We are deeply saddened that four of our outstanding Airmen lost their lives while battling wildfires over the weekend in South Dakota," said Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau. "Our thoughts and our prayers go out to the family members and friends of those who were lost, and we wish a speedy and full recovery of those who survived this tragic event.

" The aircraft – equipped with a U.S. Forest Service-owned Modular Airborne Firefighting System – was assisting with the White Draw wildfire near the town of Edgemont, S.D., when it crashed. The cause of the crash is currently under investigation

The men who lost their lives are Air Force Lt. Col. Paul K. Mikeal, a pilot from Mooresville, N.C. with the 145th AW; Air Force Maj. Joseph M. McCormick, pilot from Belmont, N.C.; Air Force Maj. Ryan S. David, a flight navigator from Boone, N.C.; and Senior Master Sgt. Robert S. Cannon, a flight engineer from Charlotte, N.C.

Joseph M. McCormick

"Words cannot express how much we feel the loss of these Airmen," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Tony McMillan, the 145th AW commander. "Our prayers are with the families, as well as our injured brothers as they recover."

In a statement July 2, President Barack Obama said he knows that Americans across the country share in his concern for the well being of the surviving crewmembers and deep condolences for the families of those who lost their lives.

"They are heroes who deserve the appreciation of a grateful nation," Obama said.

Ryan S. David

Mikeal was assigned to the 156th Airlift Squadron as an evaluator pilot and had more than 20 years of service. He leaves behind a wife and two children. McCormick was an instructor pilot and chief of training for the 156th Airlift Squadron. He was married with four children.

David was an experienced navigator and was also assigned to the 156th. He joined the North Carolina Air National Guard in 2011 after prior service in the active-duty U.S. Air Force. His wife and one child survive him.

Cannon had more than 29 years with the 145th AW and was a flight engineer with the 145th Operations Support Flight. He was married with two children.

The names of the injured have not been released. Both of the injured Airmen remain hospitalized.

Robert S. Cannon

The crew and its aircraft, along with two other 145th C-130s and three dozen Airmen, flew from Charlotte, N.C. to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., June 30 to assist with fighting forest fires in the Rocky Mountain region. They were due to move to a base in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Monday.

"The support of civil authorities during natural disasters is a key and unique mission of the National Guard," said Army Maj. Gen. Gregory Lusk, the adjutant general of North Carolina National Guard "The MAFFS mission is probably one of the seminal missions of the Air National Guard, representing interagency coordination between the Guard and the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense organizations to suppress the fires."

According to Forest Service records, the agency has been working with the North Carolina Air National Guard on fire suppression missions since the early 1970s.

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue declared that flags be flown at half-staff today.