Face of Defense: Marine Corps Vet Recalls Experiences

By Marine Corps Sgt. Bryan Nygaard

4th Marine Corps District

SALISBURY, Md., Aug. 12, 2014 – The Marines at Recruiting Sub-Station Salisbury here work over 60 hours every week to recruit highly qualified men and women into the Marine Corps. When they are not out canvassing the local community looking for future Marines, they are in the office making phone calls, interviewing applicants and processing paperwork.

Their office frequently receives visitors who do not want to join the Marine Corps -- they just want to talk about it. These are former Marines, most of whom served before the recruiters were even born, who stop by the office to talk about their Marine Corps experiences.

The recruiters will turn away from their computer screens and listen to stories about the “Old Corps.” Many of these Marine veterans even bring in books and keepsakes from their time in the service and initiate impromptu show and tell sessions in the recruiting office. Once they are finished sharing their fond memories of being one of the few and the proud, they thank the recruiters for their time, shout “OO-RAH!” or “Semper Fi!” as they leave, usually to return with a new story to share.

One of these storytellers is Robert Thomas. Recently, the 73-year-old Salisbury native came by the recruiting office with his dress blues jacket from when he served many years ago. He was not there to show off his uniform, but he had a favor to ask of the Marines. It was a favor that turned out to be a story 50 years in the making.

Thomas was born and raised in the rural farmlands of Cambridge, Maryland. While he was a senior in high school, he decided to join the Marines, much to the chagrin of his mother.

“I knew at the time when I graduated I did not want anything to do with college,” Thomas said. “I was not ready for it and would probably have been a disaster if I had gone.”

His mother eventually conceded and signed the parental consent papers, allowing him to enlist. Thomas arrived at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, in July 1959 and graduated the following October. His parents were at his graduation ceremony and had purchased him a set of dress blues. During that time, Marines were not issued dress blues at recruit training like they are today. Each Marine had to purchase them from the clothing and uniform store at their respective base.

Thomas was trained to be a combat engineer and was assigned to 2nd Pioneer Battalion [now known as 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion] of the 2nd Marine Division, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

“We built things, we blew up things with C4, we laid out mine fields, used detonating cord and dug up mines … that sort of thing,” Thomas said.

In November 1960, Thomas went out to sea on what would be one of many “cruises.” He was attached to Task Force 88, an amphibious ready group, which embarked on a goodwill tour known as Solant Amity Cruise I. During this expedition, Thomas and his fellow Marines crossed the equator eight times, sailed in three different oceans and set foot on more than a dozen countries located throughout the continents of Africa, Europe and South America.

One of the more notable events of the tour came in January 1961 when elements of the task force landed in Matadi, the chief seaport of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to assist in the evacuation of western nationals and United Nations troops. The country, which had recently been liberated from Belgium, had fallen into civil war, prompting the Congolese government to request military assistance from the U.N. During the early 1960s, the U.S. Navy assisted the U.N. several times in stabilizing the newly independent nation, according to Thomas.

After being out to sea for more than six months, Thomas came home in June 1961, and married his high school sweetheart, Nancy. Thirty days after getting married, he left on another cruise to Vieques, Puerto Rico.

On October 26, 1962, Thomas and the rest of his unit were told to grab their gear and to write up their wills. They boarded the USS Monrovia and sailed south. This was during the tenuous 13 days in October 1962 known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Monrovia served as part of the U.S. blockade around Cuba following the discovery that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles there.

“I thought we were going to war,” said Thomas, whose wife was three months pregnant at the time. “It got serious for us when we started firing machine guns off the stern of the ship. We thought something might come out of it. I was with a good group of people. I think we all knew our jobs and we were ready to do what our country called us to do.”

Nuclear war was averted on October 28, of that year when the United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement that called for the removal of all nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing all nuclear missiles from Turkey. After the missiles were removed from Cuba, the blockade formally ended on November 20 and Thomas returned home in December.

On June 26, 1963, Cpl. Thomas was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. Five days later, he checked into the Maryland State Police Academy. He would serve as a Maryland State Trooper for 31 years, rising to the rank lieutenant colonel.

Barely two years had passed when Thomas heard his nation’s call once more. He decided to come back to the Marine Corps. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ordered two battalions of Marines to protect the American air base in Da Nang, South Vietnam, furthering the buildup of U.S. forces there. Thomas and another state trooper, also a former Marine, went to the Marine recruiting station in Annapolis to see if they could get back in. The recruiter turned him away after Thomas told him he was married with a child and had another on the way.

“That is probably just as well,” said Thomas, noting that his wife probably would have shot him before he departed.

And with that, Thomas was undoubtedly done with the Marine Corps. He credits his four years in the Marines with preparing him for life.

“The Marines do an excellent job about building character and instilling responsibility in people,” Thomas said. “You learn to look out for people. You learn to take care of yourself -- to be prepared for eventualities that take place and to be adaptable so that when something raises its ugly head you can deal with it.”

Recently, Thomas read on a website dedicated to the Marines of the Solant Amity cruise that he was authorized to wear two different medals on his dress blues in addition to his Good Conduct Medal. He, like countless other veterans from World War II through Vietnam, left the service without knowing what medals and ribbons they were eligible to wear.

In order to verify that he actually was allowed to wear these medals, Thomas contacted the military awards branch of Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs. They were able to confirm what medals he was allowed to wear and then mailed them to him.

The first was the National Defense Service Medal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established this medal in 1953 for service during a national emergency, war or armed conflict. It has only been authorized for four different time periods: the Korean War), the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War and the Global War on Terrorism. Thomas was made eligible to wear this medal because he served from 1959 to 1963.

The second medal he is allowed to wear is the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 for service in any military campaign in which no other service medal is authorized. The first campaign the medal was issued for was the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was later made retroactive for actions that took place in the Republic of the Congo.

Those two medals along with Thomas’ Good Conduct Medal, which is awarded to a Marine for every three consecutive years of good behavior, made up the three medals that he was allowed to wear on his dress blues. There was only one problem -- Thomas did not know how to put them on his uniform or the order of precedence in which they were to be arranged. So he went to the one place he knew he could find help.

Marine Corps Sgt. Randall Dobbs, a recruiter at the Salisbury station, was in the office when Thomas came by with his dress blues jacket. Dobbs looked up the order in which the medals were to be mounted, then found an old ribbon bar in his wall locker, set the medals on it and mounted the bar on the dress blues jacket.

“It felt good to do that for him,” said Dobbs, a native of Macon, Georgia. “He thinks the world for what we did for him, but that was just a five-minute project.”

That project represents Thomas’ four years of service during a perilous time when the U.S. was engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Even though he never engaged enemy forces in a combat situation, he was involved in two major events of that period.

“I was not there for any conflict -- nobody was shooting at me, which was a good thing,” Thomas said. “I gave them four years to start something and because they did not, it was not my fault.”

Although he does not exactly fit into his dress blues anymore, he says it is important to show his friends and family what he earned.

“My family members were always supportive of me being a Marine anyhow, but the Marine with the medals now, they think is kind of neat,” Thomas said.

AF ‘Hurricane Hunters’ help with rescue efforts, data research during Hawaii deployment

By Master Sgt. Brian Lamar, 403rd Wing Public Affairs / Published August 11, 2014

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AFNS) --

As Hawaii recovers from the one-two punch from Hurricanes Iselle and Julio, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, better known as the Air Force Reserve’s Hurricane Hunters, spent close to a week providing hurricane reconnaissance support, as well as helping with rescue efforts and data research.

The squadron launched aircraft from the island of Oahu during the storm threats and flew eight missions into Iselle and five into Julio during their stay.

Iselle, which at one point was a Category 4 hurricane, weakened into a tropical storm before it made landfall on the Big Island Friday, Aug. 8, while Hurricane Julio spared the islands moving north of Hawaii Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10.

The deployment to Hickam was due to the threat of severe weather to the Hawaiian Islands and was considered a rare event since hurricanes typically don't make their trek intact all the way to the islands, said Maj. Jon Brady, 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer.

Hawaii has been hit by three hurricanes since 1952, the last of which was Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

A hurricane-force storm hitting Hawaii is rare due to three factors; water too cold to sustain intensity, shear winds that threaten to topple a storm over and disorganize its wind-field flow, and a desert of dry air that chokes away its power, said Brady.

"I've been doing this 14 years, and this is the first time I've had two storms back-to-back on one deployment, where I hit one storm, go into crew rest, and the next day fly into another storm, said Maj. Sean Cross, 53rd WRS pilot. "And, they're both major hurricanes at some point."

Due to the rareness of a hurricane hitting Hawaii and the uniqueness of a second hurricane trailing, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center was happy see the Hunters.

"The data they provided to us was vital," said Tom Birchard, the senior forecaster and hurricane specialist for CPHC. "It helped immensely. A lot of times we are taking educated guesses with the wind radii and wind field. Satellite data can only give us so much info; the data from the aircraft are ground truth."

That ground-truth data that the CPHC forecasters enjoy provides real-time assistance to emergency managers on the ground and helps them with weather watch and warning decisions.

"Seventy-five percent of that analysis is weighted based on the weather data gathered by the aircraft," said Birchard.

On Sunday, Aug. 10, the Hurricane Hunters assisted the U.S. Coast Guard with locating and rescuing three people north of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

A 42-foot sailboat had sent a distress mayday signal Sunday. The captain of the boat radioed that his engine had blown, and he was taking on water. To make matters worse, the captain also relayed his location, which was northeast of Hurricane Julio in an area projected to have 40-to-50-foot swells. With the boat's engine gone, and one sail ripped to shreds, the three people on board needed immediate attention.

"The latitude, longitude coordinates at the time of the mayday call placed the sailboat near the northeast side of the eye wall with approximately 55 knots of wind," said Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster and hurricane specialist with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

It was in a dangerous place in the core of the wind field, said Birchard.

The Hurricane Hunters, who had just finished collecting data from the eye of Hurricane Julio, turned back toward the storm and began the search.

A stroke of luck had occurred for all parties involved in the rescue mission.

"We had already fueled up the plane for a 10-hour mission, but our second storm fix requirements were cancelled, which meant we had extra fuel to search for the plane," said Williams.

As the Hunters neared the last known location of the endangered sailboat, they dropped to a low altitude to begin a visual search. Initially, they were not able to see the boat due to the weather, but once they got closer, they were able to hear the mayday signal and worked their way toward the disabled craft.

"One of the Navy oceanographers spotted the boat," said Williams. "If he hadn't seen that, we might have gone by."

"It was complicated to find the boat," said Tech. Sgt. Jenna Daniels, the loadmaster for the flight. " Once we got down below the cloud-level, we spotted it pretty quickly."

"I was working with a superstar crew," said Williams. "I had a lot of useful input from the crew, which helped me make quick and sound decisions. All we could do was stay calm with these guys on the radio. Somehow it all came together. Everyone was working together as a team and handled the situation well. It was a hug morale boost for us to find them."

Once the location was confirmed, the mission was turned over to a U.S. Coast Guard C-130.

"We were very lucky to have a Hurricane Hunter WC-130J nearby that bought us some time and offered a great sense of hope to the sailboat to see the aircraft flying above," said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jason Hagen, the command duty officer at the U.S. Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center.

The Hurricane Hunters also worked with the Navy’s research contingent of the Naval Academy’s Training and Research in Oceanic and Atmospheric Processes in Tropical Cyclones , or TROPIC, gathering storm data.

"This deployment provides us with a unique opportunity," said Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Elizabeth Sanabia, a researcher and associate chair with the Naval Academy's Department of Oceanography. "We haven't had a (Category 3) hurricane in the Atlantic for quite some time. Also, because Julio is following closely behind Iselle, we can collect data that will tell us how these storms interact."

While the Hurricane Hunters were busy with their normal mission of gathering the real-time storm data for the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center, the Naval researchers were gathering data for a study to determine how the relationship between the ocean and hurricanes works. The researchers use specialized buoys, Airborne/Air Expendable Bathythermograph or AXBT, that were dropped out of a modified launch tube in the back of the WC-130J. The buoys send data by a radio signal from the ocean surface while diving down 200 feet under the water giving Naval personnel a column of data to examine.

"This mission was based on a field research program in 2008 where it was shown that if you have information about the ocean, some models can make better forecasts," said Sanabia.

According to Sanabia, the research will help meteorologists develop an understanding of the relationship between salinity and temperature of the ocean and storm strength.

"Most of the forecast models today just draw data from the atmosphere itself, but since hurricanes draw heat from the ocean, newer models called "coupled models" look at both the ocean and the atmosphere and need the information from the ocean to be accurate," she said.

Naval personnel set up and dropped AXBT buoys during each reconnaissance flight into Iselle and Julio, which radio back information about the ocean's temperature, said Maj. Jon Brady, a 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer.

"The partnership between the Navy researchers and our squadron is great because it benefits the forecasts with very little extra costs," said Brady. "We are already flying these missions, while they are using the back half of our aircraft to conduct this research.

"The knowledge gained is also helpful. They are helping with future forecasts," he added. "They are able to prove how much ocean cooling occurs as [storms] go by. The Navy's AXBT buoys provide key ocean temperature measurements which are crucial to intensity forecasting for hurricanes. Warmer ocean temperatures increase storm strength, while colder temperatures will weaken them. Knowing the actual water temperatures ahead of an approaching storm is very important aspect of intensity forecasting."

The partnership between the Navy TROPIC research team and the Hurricane Hunters is in its fourth year and is an ongoing partnership to help the National Hurricane Center increase the accuracy of hurricane forecasts by incorporating ocean data from beneath tropical systems into air-ocean coupled prediction models, which use data from the air and the ocean to obtain ocean temperature data to use in forecasts.

 With Julio dying and heading off to die in the colder waters North of Hawaii, the Hunters head back to Biloxi, Mississippi, this week ready for the next storm, which is brewing in the Atlantic basin.

Defense Health Agency Makes Quick Progress, Official Says

By Terri Moon Cronk

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2014 – As the Defense Health Agency approaches its one-year anniversary Oct. 1, it has already saved money and standardized health care in the Defense Department, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said today.

The new medical agency was set up to establish common business processes and clinical practices for the Army, Navy and Air Force and marked the end of the three services’ own medical departments, Woodson said, adding that the three separate departments served the nation “magnificently.”

As the cost of health care continues to rise, Woodson said, DoD must leverage efficiencies, technology and standardization in order to continue to provide affordable, high-quality health care for service members and their families.

“It’s much more important that we have common business processes and common clinical practices that transcend the services,” he said.

The cost of health care has grown significantly, Woodson said. In 2001, DoD’s overall Military Health System budget was about $19 billion, he said, and by 2012 it grew to about $54 billion.

“We need to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars, but we also we need to be good stewards within the broader Department of Defense family, because every dollar we spend –- necessarily so -- on protecting the health of service men and women and their families are dollars that can be applied to training, manning, equipping and modernizing the force,” Woodson said. “So there’s got to be a balance.”

DHA has already produced benefits in less than a year by saving money and producing clinical and business standardization, he said.

“We expect [DHA] to be a fantastic contribution going forward into the future that will make the Military Health System stronger, better and more relevant in the decades ahead,” Woodson said.

Service members and their families won’t notice much change, he said, although he called today’s military medicine more integrated with a joint approach to developing many health care programs and policies. Patients can count on more consistency, more depth in the programs, more availability of care, he added.

Military medicine today is about creating and maintaining the highest standards of care and making sure the department can resource all of its health care operations appropriately, Woodson said.

DHA will position the Military Health System to be more relevant and stronger in the future, and ensure resources are available to support a strong health care delivery system, Woodson said.

Calling the DHA’s collaboration between the Army’s, Navy’s and Air Force’s medical departments “wonderful,” Woodson said new ways to do businesses together are discovered every day.

“I think there are some very important and wonderful things coming out of this new approach to enterprise management of the Military Health System,” he noted.

“The establishment of the Defense Health Agency was probably one of the most important transformative changes in the Military Health System in five decades,” Woodson said. “And it was due.”

NSTC Holds MSS Summit

By Scott A. Thornbloom, Naval Service Training Command Public Affairs

GREAT LAKES, Ill., (NNS) -- Representatives from Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) and 30 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Science Instructors (NSI) gathered for a four-day Mariner Skills Simulator (MSS) summit, August 4-7.

The MSS Summit was a chance for the 30 NSIs to discuss, operate and learn to instruct basic navigation using the high-tech computer-based MSS in Training Support Center's (TSC) Operations Specialist/Quartermaster "A" School on Naval Station Great Lakes.

Rear Adm. Rich Brown, NSTC commander, welcomed the NROTC instructors from universities around the country and the NAWC representatives from the Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla., to the summit.

"This is a good tool to teach midshipmen the basics of navigation," said Brown, who also said he had spent hours learning and operating MSS to determine if it was something NROTC midshipmen could use.

"But why are we doing MSS at all?" he said. "Not every single NROTC student is going to be a ship driver. But, just as every Marine is a rifleman I firmly believe every Naval officer is a ship driver."

When NSTC officials looked to create a navigational classroom aid for NROTC units in 2008, they originally unveiled a state-of-the-art Conning Officer Virtual Environment (COVE) and Sub Skills Net simulators at Jacksonville University (JU) in Jacksonville, Fla. They soon determined they needed something simpler than the navigational systems in place on Navy bases around the country.

Today the Mariner Skills Simulator is installed at 37 NROTC units, serving midshipmen in nearly twice that many colleges and universities due to crosstown enrollment agreements.

"The ultimate goal is to have MSS installed at all NROTC units to support the common navigation and seamanship curriculum for midshipmen," said David Coles, NSTC's N6 Command Information Officer (CIO). "In FY15, NSTC will install two new MSSs, and complete five technology refresh efforts at existing units."

The MSS consists of computer software for navigation and seamanship. It is also used by the Navy at training commands, allowing students to accurately gauge a ship's navigation, handling and enhancing its contact management. Students can work as a team of two or three using a drop-down screen that shows them the same forward view that is on one of their computer monitors. The large screen also allows instructors to better measure the progress of the midshipman or officer candidate.

According to Coles, universities have been extremely helpful in assisting NROTC units in implementing MSS.

"At some institutions, the partnership between the NROTC unit and university has been especially important," he said. "For example, Arizona State University paid for their NROTC unit's MSS in 2013. North Carolina State implemented a wireless/laptop version of MSS as part of their new library that same year, in close partnership with the Navy. Universities have been very supportive of bringing this technology to their campuses."

Lt. Christopher Spring, a Naval Science Instructor and Navigation Department Head for the NROTC unit at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., was the MSS Summit Instructor who gave daily lectures and set up navigation scenarios. He called MSS and outstanding tool for midshipmen.

"MSS is a tool that enables instructors to teach navigational principles to students allowing them to get hands-on with ideas and actually employing them virtually in real time," said Spring. "So it's not just drawing lines on a chart abstractly. They can see the importance of it. They can see how radar works and how they can pull information from radar and how that all gets them from point A to point B safely."

Some of the officers at the summit also thought bringing NROTC instructors to Great Lakes was just as important as learning the software.

"The exchange of ideas about how to do the training, I think, is where real improvements in our system happen," said Capt. Michael Ryan, professor of Naval Science and commanding officer of the Notre Dame NROTC unit in South Bend, Ind. "It's also good to get to meet the technical matter experts from here at Great Lakes or from NAWCTSD to really become efficient at running MSS."

Other NSI staff members from schools in the middle of the country and far away from Navy bases on the coasts, said MSS has really helped their midshipmen understand basic navigation of a U. S. Navy ship.

"Penn State is literally in a land-locked state," said Cdr. Jason Stewart, the executive officer and NSI of the unit located almost directly in the middle of Pennsylvania (State College, Pa.) "The nearest body of water to us is about 30-45 minutes away from us and it's a man-made lake. Time and proximity are not on our side when it comes to the fleet. Having this tool to reinforce the book learning will make the students better at what they do and give them a better understanding when they head to the fleet."

Many of the NSI officers have just reported to their units and were getting their first extensive look at MSS and ways to better instruct their midshipmen. They were anxious to return to their units to use what they had learned at the MSS Summit.

"It has been very informative training," Lt. Kristen Laraway, a NSI from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. "I think we'll have lots of success bringing it back to the unit. We have a lot of students going through the program and this training for the instructors will be very beneficial for the unit."

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. That also includes the NROTC program, which was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

DoD Continues Aid to Combat Wildfires in Northwest

From a U.S. Northern Command News Release

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., Aug. 12, 2014 – Two Department of Defense C-130 aircraft equipped with U.S. Forest Service Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems and under the command and control of U.S. Northern Command are assisting with wildfire suppression efforts in the Northwest, Great Basin, and elsewhere in the West at the request of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Since July 20, DoD aircraft have conducted 124 air drops and discharged more than 229,500 gallons of fire retardant.

Over the last 24 hours, officials said, DoD aircraft conducted four airdrops and discharged about 8,500 gallons of retardant on the Old Blue fire in Idaho. Over the same period, two airdrops discharged about 2,500 gallons of retardant on the Moonie fire in Idaho

The supporting unit flying the MAFFS mission is the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard, located in Cheyenne.

Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard C-130 aircraft assigned to units in California, Colorado, North Carolina and Wyoming are capable of dropping fire retardant using U.S. Forest Service MAFFS units. Aircrews, maintenance crews and support personnel undergo special NIFC training and certification to perform these missions each year.