Paraguay Medical Exercise Aids Impoverished Citizens

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea
U.S. Special Operations Command South

YASY CANY, Paraguay, June 6, 2013 – Life here in this small farming district in the Canindeyú Department is tough, and it shows on the faces of its 30,000 residents.

Located in the vast internal countryside 160 miles outside of Paraguay’s capital of Asuncion, the town lacks many basic services and its infrastructure needs to be revamped.

A Paraguayan military dental hygienist examines the teeth of a local man June 1, 2013, during a two-day Paraguayan-led medical civic action program conducted in the Canindeyú Department of Paraguay. DOD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Driving into town is quite a sight as poverty is truly visible, with small shops on one side of the road, and a few rundown houses, shacks and restaurants on the other side, the livestock running the grounds along the road.

Unemployment is high and most families live on $100 monthly to feed a family of six and in some cases up to 10 people. Every day is a struggle.

In towns like these, members of the Paraguayan military and its civil affairs elements thrive. After several months of planning and with support from the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay and U.S. Special Operations Command South Civil Affairs, based in Homestead, Fla., a two-day Medical Civic Action Program, commonly referred to as a MEDCAP, was held June 1-2 in the area’s largest school.

More than 3,000 residents received social and medical services including pediatrics, gynecology general medicine, optometry, ophthalmology, dentistry, immunizations, identification registration and family planning. Laboratory and pharmacy services also were provided.

Paraguayan officials felt the Canindeyú Department, located in the northeastern part of Paraguay and bordering Brazil, was an important area to provide these services due to the poverty and in the wake of the massacres in nearby Marina Cue following a land dispute. That event shook the confidence and trust among many of the residents toward the nation’s security forces, a misperception they want to change.

“We plan and execute these missions because we understand the needs of the people in places like this and these services are important to their livelihood,” said Paraguayan Col. Leonardo Ibarrola, the operations officer for Paraguay’s civil affairs team. “This is a very poor area, and we understand our role as part of the government is to make sure our presence is felt and help those in the country who don’t have much and need our assistance.”

In order to provide these essential services to residents living in Paraguay’s rural districts, the Paraguayan military works closely with a number of different government agencies and civic groups to provide the support and personnel for a complex operation that reflects Paraguay’s whole-of-government approach.
Word of the event spread quickly. Some residents walked miles to arrive at the school and others packed themselves in pick-up trucks.

The Paraguayan military also provided transportation to the MEDCAP to ensure as many people as possible could benefit.

Sitting outside one of several classrooms used as makeshift clinics, 74-year-old Anadeto Furrez, a father of eight, patiently waited for his prescription for free medicine.Furrez, who suffers from cataracts was also given a new pair of glasses.

“This day is a miracle and a blessing,” said the grandfather of 35. “These are services we truly need, and I am very grateful to our military and the support from the U.S. We hope things start to get better and more jobs come to our town. This is a start!”

Along with support for the MEDCAP, the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay donated $15,000 worth of medical supplies to the town’s public clinic as well as supplies for two local schools.

“The United States is committed to assist Paraguay and help improve the quality of life for all Paraguayans and build a lasting friendship based of mutual respect and cooperation between our great nations,” Marine Corps Col. Michael D. Flynn, the senior defense official and defense attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay, said during a small ceremony celebrating the event and donation.

Since 2008, the Paraguayan Civil Affairs section, which teams up with the country’s national police for these events, has averaged four MEDCAPs a year in ungoverned and under-resourced areas across the country. This event marked the 22nd time this type of operation was accomplished.

“These guys [Paraguayan Civil Affairs] are truly professional and have a passion for what they do,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Hansel Delgadillo, who is the lead civil affairs planner for U.S. Special Operations Command South in support of the Office of Defense Cooperation in Paraguay.

Delgadillo has been working with his counterparts for the better part of three years and has seen the Paraguayan Civil Affairs unit develop each year.

“From planning to coordination and execution, they are really in control of each event, and the leadership demands nothing but the best to ensure every citizen is treated and cared for,” he said.

Paraguayan Civil Affairs planners, with support from SOCSOUTH, are already coordinating the concept of operations for another MEDCAP this September in another rural community.

There is no question that living here is tough, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. However, during this most-recent MEDCAP, there were two expressions on people’s faces: pain and joy. Blame the pain on the dental work, but such pain produces a healthy smile.

Global Force’s Needs Shape DOD Biosurveillance

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2013 – A new biosurveillance division at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center here -- home to a unique serum repository and database for service members and a global network of military laboratories -- is working to fill gaps at the convergence of battlefield biodefense and health surveillance.

Health surveillance involves monitoring human health to identify and prevent infectious and chronic diseases. Biosurveillance, at least for the Defense Department, is the process of gathering, integrating, analyzing and communicating a range of information that relates to health threats for people, animals and plants to help inform decisions and provide for increased global health security.

The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center vision is to be the central epidemiological resource and global health surveillance proponent for the armed forces. Its mission is to provide timely, relevant and comprehensive health surveillance information to promote, maintain and enhance the health of military and associated populations.

Last year Dr. Rohit Chitale became director of the fledgling Division of Integrated Biosurveillance, which shares a building with the DOD Serum Repository, the world’s largest, with more than 55 million serial serum specimens dating back to the mid-1980s.

The specimens are linked to the Defense Medical Surveillance System, a database that can be used to answer questions at the patient level and in the aggregate about the health of the armed forces and beneficiaries.

Also part of AFHSC is the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System, called GEIS, whose 33 partners include military laboratories, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations around the world that support service members and population-based surveillance and capacity building in 62 countries.

Leading the new biosurveillance division, Chitale has a doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a master’s of public health in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Before joining AFHSC last year, the 42-year-old scientist was senior analyst in the Global Disease Detection, operations center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Soon after the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic in 2002-2003 sickened more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed 774, Congress funded the GDD program at CDC in 2004. The aim was to strengthen the global capacity to detect, identify and contain emerging infectious diseases and international bioterrorism threats.

In 2006, Chitale was one of the first analysts to help establish the GDD Operations Center at CDC. This epidemic intelligence and response operations unit uses many sources of information about disease events, including Internet-based media reports scanned for key words in more than 40 languages.

“What I came to AFHSC to do,” he told American Forces Press Service during a recent interview, “was to take the next step.”

The new division is part of a multiagency effort to implement the nation’s first U.S. National Strategy for Biosurveillance, released in 2012 by the White House to make sure federal agencies can quickly detect and respond to global health and security hazards.

It’s also part of a push to increase DOD diagnostics funding through the department’s biodefense program, Andrew C. Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, told American Forces Press Service in an interview last year.

Some of the work is done by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office of the Chemical and Biological Defense Program, as well as by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense.

In October 2009, Weber himself ushered the Chemical and Biological Defense Program into the biosurveillance business by signing a memorandum to the military department secretaries announcing that emerging infectious diseases would become part of the chemical and biological defense mission.

Chitale, who says he’s spent the past 14 months building his division and learning about the many separate biosurveillance efforts underway across the department and the military services, is looking to better integrate these elements to create a coherent, global picture of biological threats -- and recommendations for action -- specific to the Defense Department.

“We now have a [memorandum of understanding] between Health Affairs, where AFHSC is, and Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs,” Chitale said.

“Historically,” he explained, “NCB’s mission is global security -- combating weapons of mass destruction writ large -- and our mission is the medical care and surveillance of the forces and DOD populations.
They’re different missions, … [but] recently it has become increasingly clear that they are converging.”
The memo, signed last summer, describes how NCB and DOD Health Affairs will collaborate on cooperative activities that contribute to U.S. national security and to global health security.

“NCB and Health Affairs will cooperate on activities that help counter weapons of mass destruction, to include chemical, biological, or radiological events that impact various domains significant to U.S. forces,” Chitale said. “In effect, that’s the whole spectrum when it comes to health.”

His division helped to write a 50-page operational plan in December that lists 61 actions that the two organizations will accomplish together.

“They will be things like facilitating training for more preventive-medicine residents,” Chitale said. “We’re going to help create and implement better algorithms for syndromic surveillance. We’re working to create information management systems so we can all work more smartly -- for example, a system that can bring multiple high-quality information streams into one portal and refresh every 10 minutes, and be shared with trusted partners.”

The challenge for DOD is that the biosurveillance mission is complex, he noted. “There are three services that each do what we do here to some extent, but they do it for their own service,” he said. “What added value do we have? One thing, at least, is that we can bring it all together to get a complete picture.”

Such an augmented system would use information from the DOD agencies, the rest of the U.S. interagency including the CDC, the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, the AFHSC-GEIS network, the Internet-based Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, or ProMED, and even more informal sources, such as Twitter.

Ultimately, Chitale said, he envisions being able to do for DOD what he and his CDC colleagues did for global public health, but even more -- collect a broad range of data and information relating to human, animal and plant health, work with partners and analyze it according to DOD needs, and provide guidance, recommendations and reach back support to the department’s leadership and DOD customers such as the six geographic combatant commands, and especially their surgeons’ offices.

Chitale has initially organized his small division into teams that include alert and response operations, coordination and engagement, and innovation and evaluation.

“We haven’t said that we’re actually creating an operations center,” he said. “But the Alert and Response Operations team, ARO, is a term modeled after WHO’s Global Alert and Response Operations [established in 2000], probably the world’s first strategic health operations center. Others were since stood up around the world, and under the vision and leadership of Dr. Ray Arthur, we established one at CDC in 2006. In some ways, and based on the needs, I’m trying to model several of our key activities after that.”

Already the AFHSC and the new division have relationships broadly across the interagency, including the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the intelligence community, particularly through the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Center for Medical Intelligence in Maryland.

NCMI is an intelligence organization, while AFHSC is a preventive medicine and public health organization. Yet, there is some overlap in methods and certainly in goals. “Importantly,” Chitale said, “we are working with NCMI closer than ever before, and are formalizing a MOU with them as well.”

Key areas in which AFHSC and the new division can provide value for DOD biosurveillance is in disease detection, preventive medicine guidance and coordination with the interagency, he added. “We’re trusted across the DOD and also domestic and international medical and public health communities – a real value add in this new paradigm, this new normal,” Chitale said.

“When it comes to something like disease detection,” he added, “you need the ability, which we have, to pick up the phone and call someone in Uganda who you trust -- a medical person, U.S. government staff working in the host nation, even someone in the Ministry of Health or WHO staff -- and ask them what’s going on. They can talk to their people in the country, and you get high-quality information back within minutes to hours.

“You get real, hard information,” he continued, “and those are your boots on the ground -- those are your listening posts across the globe.”

Patriots, F-16s May Remain in Jordan After Eager Lion Exercise

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2013 – The United States could leave Patriot anti-missile batteries and F-16 fighter jets in Jordan following the end of Exercise Eager Lion, a Pentagon spokesman said here today.
Jordan has requested the batteries, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has not yet reviewed it, Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters. Hagel is returning from NATO meetings in Brussels today.

“When the secretary receives the request, he will favorably consider it,” Warren said. “Jordan is a strong partner with us. We have a longstanding and strong relationship with the Jordanians, and we want to do what we can to support their security requirements.”

The fighting in neighboring Syria has raised concerns in Jordan. The Patriot batteries and F-16s are going to Jordan to take part in Eager Lion – an annual exercise that this year encompasses 19 nations and about 8,000 service members. It is scheduled to start June 9 and to run through June 20.

About 200 U.S. soldiers of the 1st Armored Division based at Fort Bliss, Texas, deployed to Jordan in April to provide a nucleus of command and control capabilities if the fighting in Syria spills over into Jordan. About 120,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan to escape the country’s civil war.

T-1 Jayhawk mod ushers in new era in CSO training, first for AF

by Capt. Ashley Walker
12th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs

6/5/2013 - NAVAL AIR STATION PENSACOLA, Fla.  -- The 451st Flying Training Squadron completed the final step of a long journey when a T-1A Jayhawk modified for electronic warfare training took flight on an undergraduate syllabus sortie June 4.

This is the first time in Air Force history an undergraduate aviation program has formally incorporated the fundamentals of electronic warfare in flight into their syllabus.

"Incorporating a formalized, airborne electronic warfare training platform is a first for flying training at the undergraduate CSO level," said Lt. Col. Timothy Moser, 451st FTS commander. "Eleven years after the original CSAF vision and after four years of testing, the first official student training flight is a significant accomplishment for the unit and the Air Force."

According to Gen. Edward Rice, Commander of Air Education and Training Command, "The 451st FTS has embraced innovation. Rather than rest on their laurels, the unit strived to find better ways of doing business, while embracing a culture of cost consciousness. Advances like these enable our nation's airpower advantage while helping us meet today's fiscal challenges."

While the 451st FTS, which executes the advanced phase of undergraduate CSO training, has employed the T-1 since 2009, the newest modifications usher in a new era in CSO training.

Previously, the electronic warfare portion of CSO training was taught only in a simulator with basic flying skills taught in the aircraft. With the new modification, the electronic warfare skills are now integrated into the flying where the concepts initially taught exclusively in the simulator are reinforced airborne.

The modifications allow the T-1 to hold an additional student and instructor station in the aft section of the aircraft. The aft training stations receive flight information from the aircraft's avionics, global positioning system, flight instruments and simulated threats are introduced to provide a virtual threat environment to students. The modifications also include new touchscreen consoles that allow instructors to interact with students and set up different threat scenarios to better teach students how to identify and react to notional threats while in flight.

The addition of the second training station and instructor station allow twice as many student training events to take place in the same amount of sorties according to Moser.

"Basic electronic warfare training has never been formally conducted airborne until now," he said. "And because of the modifications, we're able to do so without adding any additional sorties, which saves resources and Airmen's time while enhancing the quality of our training."

"The configurability of this system allows for flexibility in training we've never had before - it's nearly limitless," said Moser of the system. "All an instructor needs to do is change the configurations in the system and the student can train for practically any scenario in any operational airframe they are eligible for assignment to later. Not only are we getting twice as much accomplished in one sortie, we're also saving future resources because we won't have to update the aircraft as frequently to adapt to changing requirements."

According to Maj. J.D. Shell, 451st FTS director of staff, "the new modifications prepare students for operational responsibilities in a threat environment, while fostering crew coordination and the ability to problem solve during actual flight. Through innovation, we've changed the way the Air Force conducts undergraduate electronic warfare training."

"The training is now more modern and incorporates advances in GPS technology and electronic flight displays, similar to operational aircraft. The result is a better prepared aviator for the operational Air Force," said Shell.

In addition to navigation duties, in operational aircraft CSOs inform aircrew members of threats, provide systems management, verify target identity and release munitions. The new T-1 modification helps teach students those responsibilities by providing simulated synthetic radar with a virtual target. Instructors aboard the aircraft have the ability to dynamically control threats in real time. The modified T-1 system also has the capability to record and play back the flight data for further evaluation and enhanced flight debriefs.

The modified T-1 development and test team, affectionately known as 'the Mod Squad,' worked to improve system reliability to make the system more user-friendly for instructors and students. The team, comprised of civilian engineers and 451st FTS instructors, worked to automate unnecessary and cumbersome procedures, lowering the chance for instructor-induced errors, securing valuable training.

Following the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the Air Force was tasked to consolidate specialized undergraduate navigator, electronic warfare officer and weapons system officer training into one course. The result was the creation of Undergraduate Combat Systems Officer training and the stand up of the 479th Flying Training Group at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., in 2010. The group is now the sole provider of Air Force CSO training, graduating approximately 350 students a year. Once they've completed the program, each graduate is universally assignable, meaning they can be assigned to any aircraft with a CSO crew position in the U.S. Air Force fleet.

Desert Challenge competitors train at Luke

by Senior Airman David Owsianka
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

5/31/2013 - LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. -- What thoughts come to mind when hearing that a person has any of the following: vision impairment, traumatic brain injury, amputation, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or spinal cord injury?

Probably not an athletic competitor.

Fourteen U.S. Paralympic competitors trained at the Luke Air Force Base Fitness Center May 13-17 to prepare for the Desert Challenge that took place May 18 in Mesa, Ariz.

"This is important because it allows service members an opportunity to compete and realize that getting back into sports or finding sports can be a huge lift in their lives," said Harrison Ruzicka, retired Army corporal and Desert Challenge Games competitor.

The Desert Challenge Games is a regional competition for individuals with physical disabilities. The event is open to U.S. and international male and female athletes with permanent physical disabilities age 6 through adulthood who are interested in competitive athletics.

The participants training at Luke AFB competed in shot put, discus, javelin; 100-, 200-, and 400-meter wheelchair and ambulatory sprints; and a 1,500- and 5,000-meter ambulatory run.

"We brought the athletes into the environment they will compete in to help them acclimate and get a week of training with national team coaches," said Kallie Quinn, U.S. Olympic Committee Paralympic Division associate emerging sports program director. "It's great for our athletes (who are prior military) to train here, because they are able to re-engage with a military community."

The athletes received guidance from four national team coaches.

"It's been great to have the paralympic coaches instruct us with their level of training," Ruzicka said. "It gets better each time I go to camp, and I improve because of the coaches brought in."

For Ruzicka, participating in events like the Desert Challenge isn't just about competing.

"I've gotten in much better shape since getting involved in these events, as well as meeting others who have gone through similar circumstances," he said. "We share stories. It makes it easier on me, and I'm sure for some of the others as well to find that community (brotherhood) again that is such a big part of the military."

General Patton, We Need You Now

Commentary by Lt. Colonel John Lewis Cook, USA (ret.)

On Tuesday, I watched some great acting on TV.  Most of it would have qualified professional actors for an Academy Award but, unfortunately,  these actors were not professional. They were merely politicians, U.S. Senators to be exact.   They pretended to be outraged at the alarming number of sexual assaults in the military and they hauled all the military brass they could find before the Senate Armed Services Committee to demonstrate just how outraged they were.
 

There were a great deal of sound bites  and fury but it signified little since real facts were in short supply.  Anyone that has ever seen Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart will remember the scene where Captain Renault of the Casablanca Police force is “shocked! Shocked to discover that gambling is going on at Ricky’s,” at the same time he taking kickback to keep it going.  That was a great movie but it was fiction.  What is going on in Washington now is, unfortunately, not fiction. 

Here are the only facts that matter, regardless of all the hype.  Recently, the Department of Defense reluctantly released the results of a service wide survey dealing with sexual assaults in the military for 2012.  This survey revealed that there were 26,000 sexual assaults across all services in 2012.  However, only one in eight of these assaults were reported.  

If you watched these hearings on Tuesday, you would naturally assume that most of these assaults were against women committed by big, brutish heterosexual males but you would be wrong.  The dirty little secret that was not discussed during these hearings is this.  Of the 26,000 sexual assaults reported in the survey in 2012, 14,000 were male on male assaults.  That’s not a mistake; that’s the truth. Only 12,000 were male on female assaults.  However, this dirty little secret was not discussed in any detail yesterday.  In fact, it was not discussed at all and to actually know this is the fact of the matter  will require you to read the whole report.  

This is why I would nominate the Senators and the witnesses for Academy Awards for their acting.  They pretended that there was no dead cat on the dining room table and they carried it off with perfection.  So, instead of dealing with the real issue, the Senators created a phony issue and used it to batter the witnesses, the senior military brass.  The phony issue goes something like this.  Since so few of the victims are coming forward and reporting the assault, perhaps the unit commanders should be by passed and the victim allowed to report directly to some Sexual Assault Czar outside the military unit’s chain of command.  This makes sense only to a politician who has no experience with how the military operates because the commander is ultimately responsible for good order and discipline.  

Many of the Senators seemed to be surprised that the number of assaults from 2012 showed a 35% increase over 2011.  Why the increase?  They pretended to not know the answer but it really is not that hard to figure out, even for a U.S. Senator. It’s really quite simple.  In late 2011, legislation was passed to allow gays to serve openly in the military.  Don’t ask don’t tell was dead.  The military became the next best thing to the Catholic church for horny homosexuals and, according to the numbers in the survey, they wasted little time in taking full advantage.  Naturally, these spineless Senators do not want to face the reality that they could have prevented homosexuals serving openly  in the military but they didn’t do it.  If this awful truth is exposed, they may get some of the blame and, God knows, they don’t want that.  

There was a time, not so long ago, where parents worried about their daughter going into the military for fear that she may be assaulted by a male.  This was not a concern of parents who sent their sons off to the military.  Unfortunately, all of this will now have to be rethought. The daughters may very well be assaulted by lesbians and the sons raped by homosexuals.  And there was poor General Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the look of the deer in the headlights, giving the standard answer that more needs to be done etc., etc.

Have things gotten as bad as they can get and can we now hope for things to get better?  Unfortunately, the answer is no.  Things will get much worse for the American military.  Just like the Boys Scouts of America, our military is not what it used to be.  Also, consider this.  It is simply a matter of time before a General officer comes out of the closet and announces that he or she is gay.  If General Patton came back today, would he understand any of this?  If he slapped a soldier for being a coward in combat,  what would he have done to a homosexual?  Of course these are different times than what Patton experienced.  During his day, the military won wars.  He left social experiments to others, where the stakes were not as high if the experiment failed.  It’s a pity we don’t have a George Patton to put in front of these spineless Senators today.

If we fast forward twenty years, is it possible that the entire defense of the nation will be in the hands of a bunch of homosexuals?  Is it possible that the most critical decisions concerning national defense will rest with those that are so abnormal and unstable as to engage in unnatural acts?  God help us all.

About the Author

Lieutenant Colonel John Lewis Cook, United States Army (Retired), “served as the Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, with responsibility for developing the force structure for the entire Afghan National Police.  As of 2012, this force totals 157,000.  From March 2008 until August 2012, his access and intimate associations with all levels of the Afghan government and coalition forces have provided him with an unprecedented insight into the policies which will determine the outcome of the war.  It is this insight, coupled with his contacts and associations throughout Afghanistan that form the basis of Afghanistan: The Perfect Failure.

Click to read more about Lt. Colonel John Lewis Cook

Jelinski-Hall: Men, women united by uniform, single standard

by Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

5/30/2013 - ARLINGTON, Va. -- Male and female service members are united by the uniform they wear and by a single, shared standard, the senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau said here last week.

"We do not serve based on gender, race or creed," Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Denise Jelinski-Hall said during a ceremony at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. "We serve united by the uniforms we wear.

Noting that the lifting of a ban on women serving in combat is exponentially increasing opportunities for women in the military, Jelinski-Hall stressed the importance of a single standard regardless of gender.

"As you move forward to seize your opportunity, remember there is no separate standard for men and women," she said at a Women in the Military Wreath Laying Ceremony sponsored by the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues to coincide with the Memorial Day weekend.

"There is only the standard," Jelinski-Hall said. "Any woman who can meet the standard for the particular role she seeks in our armed forces can -- and increasingly does -- have the opportunity to succeed and to serve."

Nearing the end of a career that took her from the Midwest prairie to the Pentagon and from Airman to the senior enlisted advisor for a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Jelinski-Hall was one of five senior enlisted female service members honored as part of the May 22 ceremony.

The others: Army Command Sgt. Maj. Billie Jo Boersma, Navy Master Chief April Beldo, Marine Sgt. Maj. Angela Maness and Coast Guard Master Chief Julie Gunderson.

"Each has distinguished themselves in their respective branches, each has seized an opportunity to create a great moment for themselves and in so doing have created great moments for all women in the military," Jelinski-Hall said of her fellow honorees.

More than 300,000 -- or 15 percent -- of the nation's almost 2.3 million active and reserve component service members are women.

"We have contributed in unprecedented ways," Jelinski-Hall said. "We have fought, we have bled, and we have died alongside our brothers in arms in Iraq, in Afghanistan and wherever our nation called us to serve -- and did so proudly.

"As we look to the future on women in service, we all have one thing in common: An all-encompassing love for the United States of America and a desire to serve our nation."

Iowa Air Guardsmen Train for Disaster Relief

by Tech. Sgt. Sara Robinson
132 Fighter Wing

6/2/2013 - Camp Ashland, Nebraska -- Severe weather is on the forefront of all of our minds as we see the destruction caused by tornados in recent weeks. However, the Iowa Air National Guard is always prepared to fulfill their role in disaster relief. They recently trained with members of the Nebraska Air and Army National Guard to practice their search, recovery and decontamination disaster plan.

These guardsmen are all members of a group called the Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear and Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package (CERF-P). Their job is to provide immediate response capability to the Governor, searching an incident site, including damaged buildings; rescuing any casualties, decontaminating them, and performing medical triage and initial treatment to stabilize them for transport to a medical facility (this includes extracting anyone trapped in the rubble).

A vital element of that package is the 132 Fighter Wing's contribution as the Fatality Search and Recovery Team (FSRT). These services Airmen provide a valuable resource by collecting human remains in a respectful and dignified manner. They remove the fatalities from a contaminated area to a place where they can be properly cared for.

"The most important part of our job is knowing that we are getting the deceased back to their living relatives to help provide closure to anyone who may have experienced a loss in one of these situations," say Staff Sgt. Brandon King, FSRT member.

Fatality recovery is not a pretty job, it's not a happy job, but someone has to do it. Not just anyone can do it either. Individuals need to feel comfortable in their protective gear and able to move in confined spaces. They need to be physically fit and able to lift 200 pound mannequins in the 90 degree heat. Those are only the physical requirements. The mental toll can be much greater on a person.

"The hardest part of being part of the FSRT would be the need to recover the remains of children. They are so young and defenseless. It makes it worthwhile though being able to give the family their child so they can have a proper burial," says Tech. Sgt. Branden Hassett, FSRT team leader.

The FSRT team does a job that is not very popular but a vital role following any catastrophic event. They need to function in unfavorable conditions and deal with unthinkable sights, sounds and smells. A lesson that we learned after events like Katrina when remains where left in the view of citizens for days on end. This caused serious issues both mentally and on a public health standpoint.

"That is where we play a key role is during that initial shock. Because the faster you go into an environment to handle what has happened the better and easier the recovery is. The quicker people can hopefully go back to their normal lives. That's what we are here to do," explains Maj. Tim Pegg, FSRT OIC.

Some members of the team have experience dealing with the collection of remains. Hassett volunteered for the team after an experience overseas with a downed pilot. He was working mortuary affairs at the time and saw firsthand benefits of his mission. He said it makes the difficulty of collecting worthwhile to know that the pilot would be returned to his wife for a proper burial.

"I volunteered to be a part of the FSRT because they were having a hard time finding people. It's a hard job. I knew from my time overseas that this is something that I can mentally handle and not everyone can," explains Hassett.

Staff Sgt. Ryan King also has experience from his time overseas. His advice is to be as proficient as possible with all of the things that you can learn ahead of time because when you are faced with a real world casualty you never know what will happen.

"You can train with the equipment and get used to the Hazmat suits and know what you are going to do as far as operating procedures but until you have actually been down range and dealt with a situation like this, you really don't know how you are going to react," explains King.

Realism is the key to any training and this scenario based exercise is not different. Without being able to provide the real world situation to train in, trainers come as close as they can. They enlist the help of local actors and lots of fake blood. Their version of a tornado ravaged Omaha zoo is complete with collapsed buildings and confused citizens looking for loved ones. All of the buildings are fake and all of the people's injuries are makeup, but the teamwork needed to accomplish this mission is very real.

"Our team has been together for quite a while so they are an outstanding team. Some of the best people that we have in services are out here today. We have a highly motivated, highly technical team and they will accomplish the mission extremely well. I attribute that success to both the joint training and the individual training that we are able to accomplish throughout the exercise," says Pegg.

Decontamination plays a major part of what the team practices. Since the 'hot zone' is filled with a potential deadly gas, the team needs to know how to properly clean themselves of any contaminates. Everyone helps each other through the spraying and scrubbing of the suits and gear before they are cleared from the area.

The team has training on Hazardous Material procedures, different chemicals and handling remains. Their protective suites play a vital role in the exercise and being able to do their job. Even with all of this specialized and costly gear, Pegg says that they could not do the mission without his most important asset... his team of highly motivated Airmen.

"I think one of the most important things we have out here is our people. Without the people being motivated, trained and qualified to do their job, it just can't be done. Having these volunteers step up, take time off of their full time job time after time to show up for training has really contributed to a successful mission," says Pegg.

So until they are needed in a real world situation. The 132nd Fighter Wing's FSRT will continue training and being ready at a moment's notice in hopes that they will never be called up with the bad news that somewhere their services are needed.

Air Commando excels through MAVNI program

by Staff Sgt. Melanie Holochwost
Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs

5/23/2013 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- A Korean native stationed here was one of the first Airmen to join the Air Force and earn his U.S. citizenship through the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest Program.

Senior Airman Seung-Jae Oh, U.S. Air Force Special Operations School cultural advisor, was one of seven Airmen selected for the Air Force MAVNI pilot program.

The MAVNI pilot program allowed the Defense Department to recruit up to 1,000 non-citizens who didn't have permanent resident status, but had been in the U.S. legally for at least two years. The recruits needed to possess critical skills the military needed like medical, foreign language, and/or cultural expertise.

Oh said he stumbled across the MAVNI program in a Korean-language community newspaper during his third semester at the University of Notre Dame. He said he was attracted to the benefits and decided to apply.

"I came to the United States as a teenager with my family," he said. "I was 'Americanized' and I didn't want to leave. I really wanted to earn the right to be a citizen in an honest way. Plus, I was struggling financially with college tuition, so the GI Bill could really help me."

However, it wasn't only about the benefits. Oh said he wanted to give back to the United States and serve with honor and distinction.

So far, he's deployed to Korea twice in support of training exercises and proved MAVNIs can be very useful in enhancing mission effectiveness. He's also trying to extend his enlistment so he can fill a 365-day deployment by the end of the summer.

Oh was a very motivated team player, according to his Army supervisor on his latest deployment.

"He sought out every training opportunity possible during Balance-Knife, including a six-hour night movement over rough terrain," said U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2nd Class Chadd Kuhn, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group Airborne.

During the exercise, Oh translated and interpreted conversations between roughly 100 U.S. and Republic of Korea Special Operations Forces personnel.

"I did both literal and figurative translation," Oh said. "Translating technical terms, jargon, and acronyms that ROK personnel were relatively familiar didn't require too much thinking. However, when they referred to ideas, people, events, or customs that were not well known outside the culture associated with the language, I added some background information to facilitate the communication."

Oh said he would translate/interpret the statement without making any changes, but then follow it up with some clarification based on his read of the speaker's intention.

"I also took care to ensure that this added information, which did not come from the speaker but from me, did not contradict the message being transmitted," he said. "Subtle nuances are difficult to get across in a different language, but I did my best to preserve them as well."

Kuhn said Oh's technical expertise allowed the entire group to communicate and train effectively.

"For two of the six-week deployment, Oh was the only interpreter present for training," Kuhn said. "This required him to translate 10 to 12 hours a day."

Oh said ROK soldiers often regretted their level of English was not high enough to get their point across without relying on linguists. As a result, Oh said he helped them out by attending social gatherings.

"As time went on both sides were somehow able to communicate better without going through an intermediary," Oh said as he laughed.

When he's not deployed, Oh is fully integrated into the academic courses at USAFSOS, said his supervisor, Master Sgt. Leslie VanBelkum, USAFSOS language-enabled combat advisor.

Oh has briefed USAFSOS students on Korean culture during several different courses throughout the year, VanBelkum said.

"MAVNIs like Oh are a huge benefit to us because they can see both the American and their native countries' perspective with ease," he said. "They are so valuable because unlike some linguists, the language and culture just comes naturally to them."

Oh is now part of the MAVNI working group, which is focused on improving the program.

"The expedited process to become a citizen was a bit complicated when I went through it," Oh said. "The program was new and only a very few people on base were familiar with it. One of the biggest changes we made was eliminating tech school. The new Air Force MAVNIs will go straight into their jobs at USAFSOS after basic training."

Oh also dedicates his spare time to tutor Korean linguists who are stationed here, VanBelkum said.

"Oh is the brightest and most dedicated Airman I have ever had the pleasure of serving with," he said. "His life experiences have helped American SOF bridge the cultural divide and build long-lasting partnerships."

Soldier Trains for Paralympics

By Tim Hipps
U.S. Army Installation Management Command

SAN ANTONIO, June 4, 2013 – Paralympic swimming hopeful Army Spc. Elizabeth Wasil doubles as a model of resilience and as a poster soldier for the Army Strong Bands campaign.

Spc. Elizabeth Wasil earns one of her five gold medals April 14, 2013, at the 2013 Texas Regional Games at Trinity University in San Antonio. U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Wasil bounced back from triple surgery for injuries to both hips by plunging into a pool and learning to swim competitively. She quickly stroked her way into the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, or WCAP, which provides soldiers an opportunity to train full-time for Olympic sports.

Now she's competing against some of the best para-athlete swimmers in the world, with visions of earning a spot on Team USA for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Wasil won five gold medals in less than two hours April 14 at the 2013 Texas Regional Games at Trinity University. She took the 100-meter freestyle in 1 minute, 12.54 seconds and also won the 100-meter breaststroke (1:26.87), 50-meter freestyle (34.00), 100-meter individual medley (1:12.39) and 100-meter backstroke (1:28.84).

"I want to be that one to beat," Wasil said. "It's amazing to be in WCAP. We have great strength and conditioning coaches, like Capt. [Jason] Barber. His mindset is push me until I can't take it anymore, and I like that, because a lot of people like to back off para-athletes.

"I figure I better push myself as hard as I can, and we'll find out what I can and can't do," she added with a big grin.

Wasil since competed in her second Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she is stationed at Fort Carson. Earlier this spring, she set a national record (3:14:14) for her division in the long course 200-meter breaststroke at the 2013 U.S. Paralympics Spring Swimming Nationals in Minneapolis.

"In Minneapolis, I was seeded as third, 14th, 12th -- I wasn't very promising in my events," Wasil said. "But then I raced them and I placed first in all of them. I had quite a bit of competition at that one. It was the first time I had a full heat of people in my same classification, so it was pretty intimidating, but it was an absolutely wonderful experience."

Wasil already exceeded her short-range goal of returning to duty. She was serving as a medic in Katterbach, Germany, when she was injured.

"I have bilateral hip injuries that I sustained while I was in Iraq," Wasil said of the incident that is still being investigated. "I was there for five months in 2009 and 2010."

Wasil was evacuated and treated at Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, and Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Three surgeries later, she has embraced new challenges with a vengeance.

"I showed up at the pool to swim one Saturday morning, and Master Sgt. Rhoden Galloway was there," she recalled. "He asked me if I would like to learn how to swim, because I didn't know what I was doing, and I said 'yes.' His wife, Shayna, started working with me, and within about a month they taught me the four basic strokes. And then I started trying out for the Warrior Games team."

Before departing for the 2012 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Wasil competed at the Texas Regional Games here, where she received her classification as a para-athlete.

"[I] had my first competition, and I fell in love with it," she said. "I had good, patient coaches."

Wasil soon met below-the-knee amputee Sgt. Jerrod Fields, a track and field Paralympic hopeful in the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, at the 2012 Warrior Games.

"He asked me if I had any interest in pursuing swimming full-time, and I laughed at him and I said, 'Yeah, OK,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'No, really, we have a program.' And that's when I found out about WCAP. I started entering every competition I could find within the U.S. to try to make a standard time to get into WCAP."

Wasil needed only five meets to swim WCAP qualification marks in the 100-meter breaststroke and 50-meter freestyle. Had she not participated in the Warrior Games, she would not be training for a spot in the 2016 Paralympic Games.

"They didn't know that I was classifiable, so I didn't swim against the physical-injury category," Wasil explained. "I swam open and I still medaled gold, silver and bronze against able-body females. That's when I thought: 'Maybe I can do this.'"

Throughout her recovery, Wasil yearned to return to duty.

"I kind of had a point to prove," she said. "I really wanted to be found fit for duty. Once I started winning, and once I started doing well in the water, people started taking me more serious that I really could get to a place to where I could be a medic again.

"One of the greatest things that came out of this was July 3 of 2012, after two and a half years, I was finally found fit for duty to be a medic again, which is what I love,” she said. “And then WCAP picked me up, so it's been an amazing year to go from such a low place to being injured and being worried about even staying near the military to being in such a central focus of it and getting to meet so many amazing athletes."
Wasil's story was touching even before she found the military.

Originally from Prescott Valley, Ariz., she graduated from Arizona Project Challenge, an at-risk youth program, at age 16. After attending Yavapai and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges for a year, she joined the Army at 17.

"Arizona Project Challenge has unfortunately closed its doors this past year, but it was an amazing program run by the National Guard," Wasil said. "It was a five-month at-risk program, and you actually got some college education while you were there, as well. And they gave you a scholarship when you graduated. I graduated company and color guard commander and I was one of the youngest in the program.

"That's where I fell in love with the Army, because I loved the structure and the mentors I had there that I had never had in my life before. It was the first place that really encouraged you to be a free thinker and to take responsibility. It was so much different than the life I was used to."

Likewise, Wasil is now a poster soldier swimming in a world she never knew.

"In Arizona, we all swam growing up," said Wasil, who did not consider herself a competitive swimmer until last year. "My brother swam in high school, but I did not. I swam when I was much younger, just with the summer team for fun in Arizona. I guess if racing your brother and your neighbor counts, then sure.

"It's been a very strange year,” she continued. “I guess I owe all of it to Warrior Games because I never would have pushed as hard to become competitive. I had no idea what the Paralympic world was."

Pope total force team restores historic WWII cannon

by Senior Airman Melissa Dearstone
440th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

6/4/2013 - HOPE MILLS, N.C. -- Teamwork and dedication brought volunteers from the 440th Maintenance Squadron, Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps., and civilians together to refurbish a World War II 105 millimeter howitzer cannon at Veteran's Memorial Park in Hope Mills, N.C.

Hope Mills Mayor Jackie Warner presented the volunteers with certificates of appreciation at the board of commissioners meeting May 6 and recognized them for not only refurbishing the cannon, but also for cleaning up the park.

Nine volunteers spent their weekends helping with this project, according to Senior Master Sgt. Mark Slade, 440th MXS structural maintenance supervisor. "We not only preserved the cannon, but we pressured washed the benches and cleaned up the park to make it nicer and more presentable for the community of Hope Mills," slade said.

The cannon, designed to provide light and field artillery support for tactical infantry units, was becoming an eyesore and safety hazard and was going to be removed from the park if it not restored.

"Before we began the refurbishing process, we assessed the cannon and took what we could apart," said Staff Sgt. Nicholas Dudley, 440th MXS. "We took the parts we could and sand-blasted them, got rid of the rust and corrosion, and then painted them. We did the same with the parts left on-site."

Senior Airman Brandon Hamilton, 440th MXS, said that he and team leader Staff Sgt. Marcus Martinis researched the cannon to make sure they got the original color scheme correct in order to preserve the historical value.

Hamilton said that this project showed the community that military members' willingness to get involved and help one another.

"The work done between the active duty members, ART's, JROTC and civilians shows how we can all work together as a team and set a good example to everyone," said Dudley about the total force effort to refurb the cannon. "We are all under the same flag and it is important that we can all work together to accomplish goals."