More than 900 take part in 'One Tough Cookie' inaugural mud run

Wisconsin National Guard Public Affairs Office

More than 60 service members and veterans joined approximately 900 women and girls to prove they are "One Tough Cookie" Saturday (Sept. 15) in a 5K mud run adventure at Oakwood Knoll Girl Scout Camp in East Troy, Wis.

The Wisconsin National Guard Recruiting and Retention Command co-sponsored the event with the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin-Badgerland Council, with the goal of promoting physical activity. Race Director LaShell Lentz said the inaugural event went extremely well.

"There will definitely be a next year," she said. "We had double or triple the spectators we were expecting. I think we'll easily double our participants for next year. We've gotten tons of really great feedback."

Warrant Officer 1 Kari Wagner, who has led Girl Scout Troop 2651 in McFarland, Wis., for the past year, also led six Girl Scout moms and two other women through the course.

"We did awesome," she said. "We started together and we all finished together."

Wagner said they tackled the course to show the girls in Troop 2651 that fitness is important.

Lentz described the difficulty level of the obstacle-filled course - designed by two Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans from the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 1158th Transportation Company - as beginner to intermediate, but said it still challenged many of the participants.

"The course is as hard as you make it," she said.

Obstacles included jumping through tires, climbing walls, low-crawling through mud and swimming in icy, murky water. Wagner recounted part of the course where one participant was reluctant to scale the wall, but overcame the challenge with help and encouragement from others.

"She was out of her element," Wagner observed. "She was crying afterward, but she was happy that she did it."

The "One Tough Cookie" was the first such race for Col. Joane Mathews, deputy chief of staff for personnel with the Wisconsin Army National Guard, and her 15-year-old daughter Shannon.

"We really enjoyed it," Mathews said. "It was a good time for us to connect while exercising and having fun. It also gave us both the urge to do more of these because it was so fun."

Lentz said that an age-appropriate course will be offered next year for girls 14 and under.

Proceeds from the run benefited the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin-Badgerland Council.

DCoE Releases Clinical Support Tools to Treat Dizziness Symptoms

By Corina Notyce, DCoE Strategic Communications

While most patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as concussion, completely recover within days to weeks, some individuals experience persistent symptoms such as dizziness. Dizziness is a common symptom following mTBI and if left unresolved or untreated, can have a significant impact on a service member’s quality of life.

Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) developed “Assessment and Management of Dizziness Associated with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Reference Card and Clinical Recommendation” to give primary care providers a quick and easy way to help evaluate and manage dizziness symptoms in patients who have been diagnosed with mTBI.

“Usually dizziness associated with mild TBI resolves within seven days,” said U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Rita Shapiro, chief of clinical practice guidelines for DCoE TBI directorate. “However, approximately 20 percent of patients can present with chronic or recurring episodes of dizziness symptoms that require additional examination by a provider to determine the cause and make appropriate referrals.”

There are three basic types of dizziness:

■Vertigo: a false sense of motion

■Disequilibrium: being off-balance or unsteady while standing or attempting to walk

■Lightheadedness: feeling faint or other vague sensations such as disconnect with environment

The reference card and clinical recommendation provides differentiation between the different types of dizziness, so providers can accurately categorize a patient’s symptoms and provide a focused assessment.

“When someone is regularly experiencing dizziness symptoms it can make daily activities challenging and for severe cases, almost impossible,” said Shapiro.

The clinical recommendation includes information on red flags that require urgent referral to appropriate specialists, medication side effects, patient management and referral options. According to Shapiro, this resource allows providers to get detailed information and reasoning behind each step in the algorithm card.

The reference card provides a listing of focused diagnostic tests and specific comorbid conditions (e.g., migraines, sleep disorders, psychological disorders and visual disturbances) which should be explored based upon a patient’s symptoms. It is intended for use by primary care providers and can be carried in their pocket for quick reference on the job.

Additionally, training slides corresponding to the clinical recommendation and the reference card are available for providers.

To request hard copies of the “Assessment and Management of Dizziness Associated with Mild TBI Reference Card and Clinical Recommendation,” contact DCoE at DCoEProducts@tma.osd.mil. To download these tools and other TBI resources, visit the Health Professionals section of the DCoE website.

DCoE recently released a clinical recommendation and reference card for neuroendocrine dysfunction screening following mild TBI, and will be releasing similar tools focused on the evaluation and management of prolonged visual disturbances associated with mild TBI next.

Navy Commissions Littoral Combat Ship Fort Worth

The Navy will commission the Freedom-variant littoral combat ship Fort Worth (LCS 3) Sept. 22, during a 10 a.m. CDT ceremony at the Port of Galveston, Texas.

The ship’s name honors the city of Fort Worth, Texas, which has supported the U.S. military as home to ranger outposts, training facilities, aviation depots, and defense manufacturing for more than 140 years.  Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the ship's sponsor, will give the command to "man our ship and bring her to life" during the ceremony.

Fort Worth, the third LCS delivered to the Navy and the second of the steel, semi-planing monohull Freedom variant, is designed to operate quickly in shallow water littoral environments to counter challenging threats in coastal regions, specifically mines, submarines and fast surface craft.  The Fort Worth will maintain a forward presence and deter hostility while projecting power and maintaining sea control.

A fast, agile, and innovative surface combatant, LCS 3 is capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots and can operate in water less than 20 feet deep.  Fort Worth will be a platform for launch and recovery of manned and unmanned vehicles, serving to enhance maritime security and performing the core capabilities that define the Navy.  Its modular design will support interchangeable mission packages, allowing the ship to be reconfigured for antisubmarine warfare, mine warfare, or surface warfare missions on an as-needed basis.

Fort Worth will be manned by one of two rotational crews and augmented by one of three mission package crews during focused mission assignments.  The prospective commanding officer of the Blue crew is Cmdr. James R. Blankenship, from Ironton, Ohio.  The prospective commanding officer of the Gold crew is Cmdr. Warren E. Cupps, from Fort Worth, Texas.

More information on the LCS can be found at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=1650&ct=4

Jackal Stone Promotes Special Operations Partnerships

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – The scenario for the Jackal Stone 2012 special operations exercise taking place in Croatia reads like a Hollywood thriller.

A criminal gang infiltrated an industrial plant in the fictional nation of Freedonia, stealing nuclear, biological and chemical material to pass to a terrorist organization. Commandos from U.S. Special Operations Command Europe teamed up with special police from Croatia’s Interior Ministry to track down the perpetrators and recover the material.

The recovery – following an action-packed mission – wasn’t the end of the story. An analysis revealed that the insurgents behind the plot had tentacles extending deep into Freedonia. They had to be stopped.

Freedonia turned for help to the United Nations, which in turn, called on NATO to intervene with military forces. NATO declined, citing force commitments in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but urged individual member nations to form a coalition.

Eleven nations stepped forward, with the United States taking the lead. U.S. and Romanian company commanders command two ground task forces, and a Norwegian is leading the maritime component.

“We formed this coalition, and now we are going to take on the Freedonian insurgency problem,” Army Maj. Gen. Michael S. Repass, commander of Special Operations Command Europe, told American Forces Press Service by phone from Croatia.

That sets the stage for Jackal Stone, an annual multinational exercise designed to build special operations capabilities and improve interoperability among European partner nations.

The two-part exercise began earlier this month with a bilateral U.S.-Croatian counterterrorism exercise and expanded into a multinational, multi-echelon counterinsurgency scenario that continues into next week.

About 700 U.S. participants are on the ground, working alongside special operators and enabling forces from 10 partner nations as they apply capabilities many have honed together in Afghanistan.

“To the extent possible, Afghanistan has informed everything that we are doing during this exercise,” said Repass, who serves as Jackal Stone’s coalition commander.

About 60 role-players, many portraying insurgents, add realism to the scenario.

“This is a live exercise, full up,” Repass said. “We have role players, people who have taken on the personas of insurgents and are living those personas. And we have multiple sources of intelligence collecting on these personas in the operating environment.”

That includes many of the intelligence sources in use in Afghanistan, including human intelligence and imagery from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft flying overhead, he said. Participants also conduct post-mission analyses, applying biometrics from a database created especially for the exercise, and exploiting intelligence from seized cell phones and computers.

“So we have a very sophisticated operation at the tactical level that will feed intelligence upward, creating a much more robust intelligence picture,” Repass said. “At the same time, we are getting national-level Freedonian and international intelligence feeding into us, and we are pushing that down to the tactical units.”

While exercising as they would operate in a real-world scenario, the participants are improving their ability to work together as they apply what NATO calls “smart defense,” Repass said.

The basic premise is to leverage each other’s capabilities to build stronger teams to serve in a coalition or NATO operation, he explained. “You provide tactical units up to your level of ability and your nation’s willingness to do so, and you team up with another capable partner,” he said.

Repass pointed to the International Security Assistance Force special operations structure in Afghanistan as a tangible demonstration of that concept. Stood up about four years ago, it has grown to an estimated 2,000 operators from about 18 countries.

Jackal Stone is building on this capability, Repass said, strengthening participants’ collective ability to plan and execute combined and joint multinational operations with host-nation support from civil and governmental agencies.

That’s fundamental to realizing the vision of Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, the Special Operations Command commander, of a special operations force network, postured for global challenges.

While ensuring special operations have the equipment and technical ability to operate together, Repass said the exercise helps strengthen the relationships that underpin their operations.

“One of the fundamental truths of this whole endeavor is that you can’t build trust in a crisis. You have to have long relationships, and this is strictly done in the human domain,” he said.

“The more we develop these relationships, the better we will work together in the future,” Repass said. “The more capable and interoperable our militaries are, the better we will be as a community to achieve common goals of security, stability and peace.”

New Defense Health Headquarters Opens in Virginia

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Top leaders in Army, Navy and Air Force medicine are now housed under one roof for the first time to direct the future of military medicine to stay relevant, strong and effective for service members in harm's way, the Defense Department’s top health affairs official said here today as the new Defense Health Headquarters officially opened.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs and director of TRICARE Management Activity, spoke at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new headquarters, a product of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act.

"Today signifies a beginning, and not an end," Woodson said. "Today is about a promise we make to the men and women who serve, the American people and to the U.S. Congress that we are committed to be the [best] military medical force going into the future."

The BRAC move put medical people and organizations physically together, which has benefits that are not necessarily captured on organizational charts, he said, adding that Congress knew there would be a greater return on the investment as time marched along.

"For decades, we worked effectively together on all of the issues that affect military medicine," he said. "So we are not fixing something that is broken -- we are strengthening our system for the future."

The move of key military medical personnel into one building will bring a new era between the services -- a joint approach and enterprise decision making, which is important to make the U.S. military better in the future and to have a medically ready force, Woodson said. "There's nothing that can replace face-to-face conversation," he added.

"The [Base Realignment and Closure Commission] understood that we have a shared mission and a shared vision, Woodson said. “They understood that patient care and the responsibilities for overseeing that care cannot be finely sliced and put into organizational boxes. There are many overlapping lines, … especially as we've seen in the last 10 years of war. We stood shoulder to shoulder delivering that care on the battlefield.”

The new facility is important to readiness because the Defense Department needs more enterprise solutions for a medically ready force. "We need approaches to mental and physical health and conditioning,” he added, “so this allows us to develop uniform policy around being medically ready."

Another component to being medically ready in theater involves providing a skilled medical workforce to be on land, sea and in the air to deliver on the promise of care, he said.

"This also allows for the efficient planning of medical training platforms that are so important, particularly in an era where the training is technologically dependent,” he said.

The years ahead are going to be different, Woodson said. "We are expected to be more agile and efficient, with a more joint and enterprise focus in how we reach and implement decisions. The Congress, the services and the American taxpayers demand it of us."