Wounded Warriors Honored in New York City

From Navy Safe Harbor Public Affairs

NEW YORK (NNS) -- Seven Navy wounded warriors were honored Nov. 3, in New York City at the Bob Woodruff Foundation's 4th annual "Stand-Up For Heroes" benefit.

Throughout the week, these Sailors, their spouses, family members, and friends participated in receptions and sightseeing, attended a comedy show, and were part of the Good Morning America audience.

"This is a fun and well-deserved opportunity for these service members," said Capt. Key Watkins, director of Navy Safe Harbor, the Navy and Coast Guard's wounded warrior program. "They've dedicated so much to our Nation -- to their fellow citizens; it's great for them to enjoy New York City while being recognized for their commitment and their sacrifices."

Stand-Up For Heroes was hosted by Jon Stewart and featured special performances by music and comedy icons such as Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett and Bruce Springsteen. Stand-Up brought together leaders from business, entertainment and philanthropy to raise funds to help injured service members and their families as they return to their communities.

"It was a tremendous honor to be included," said Stephnie Rose, wife of Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Justin Rose, who was injured in Afghanistan in July 2009 when an IED explosion rocked the vehicle he was in.

"It meant so much seeing the generosity of organizations like the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and the support of people like Jon Stewart and other celebrities was amazing," said Mrs. Rose.

As for her nerves about walking the red carpet leading up to the event, Mrs. Rose said, "Being beside my husband and being proud of him took all my worries away."

The event was broadcast to troops on Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) and ABC News, reaching hundreds of thousands of service members and support personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of service members recovering or rehabilitating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation provides resources and support to service members, veterans and their families to successfully reintegrate into their communities so they may thrive physically, psychologically, socially and economically. Through a public education movement called ReMIND.org, the Bob Woodruff Foundation helps educate the public about the needs of service members returning from war — especially the one in five service members who have sustained hidden injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury and Combat Stress, including Post Traumatic Stress, Depression and Anxiety and empowers communities nationwide to take action.

"The Navy is committed to caring for our wounded warriors and their families, so being part of an event that creates an even greater awareness of their sacrifice and commitment, and also the invisible wounds of war was truly amazing," said Watkins.

For more information about Navy Safe Harbor, visit www.safeharbor.navy.mil or follow the program on Facebook and Twitter.

Retired Guardsmen Preserve War History, Camaraderie

By Spc. Jessica M. Lopez

Louisiana National Guard

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 5, 2010 – At the Jackson Barracks Military Museum, Wednesdays are a time for reminiscing and restoration for the members of the 122nd Bomb Restoration Squadron Unit.

The unit is a group of volunteer retired Guardsmen who help to restore old military aircraft and cannons for the museum and the members have stories of their own to share while they work.

Not long ago, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Cordero was recalling Thanksgiving Day 1946, when a B-29 crashed at an airbase in Tokyo.

“Horrendous crash,” Cordero recalled. “I was scared. It was the first time I had to talk to J.C.”

His comrades listened more closely.

“We have the same initials,” said Cordero. “I figured I could ask him a favor.” The favor?

“Please take me now. I don’t want to burn.”

The unit is a place where stories like Cordero’s are all too familiar.

“Our get-together is more about the camaraderie … we enjoy the companionship,” said retired Air Force Col. Ernest “Buddy” Gossom. “We start telling stories. We don’t know who is telling the truth and who is not, and we don’t care.”

Before Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, the 122nd had 25 active volunteers.

“Right now we have about eight to 10 people who come out here and join us,” said Gossom. “Everyone is getting older, and they just can’t make it.”

The reduction of members is not the only challenge the 122nd is facing.

“Since Katrina our work has grown, and our work space has changed at least four times,” said retired Air Force Col. Arthur Alberti. “We look forward to our next workspace which is made just for us to do our restorations.”

The multi-use complex building, scheduled to be completed in January 2011, will have two bays in which the 122nd can work.

“The 122nd is a part of the history department, which is why we have an area for them in our new building,” said Stan Amerski, acting director of the Jackson Barracks Museum and curator. “It’s important to honor their service by restoring the aircraft they flew.”

Most of the members of the 122nd were the pilots of the aircraft that need to be restored.

“It’s a blessing to have them because they are the experts,” said Amerski.

On the move-in date, the 122nd will begin restoring the aircraft in the air park outside the museum, to include: the T-11, A-26, F-4, F-15, T-33, F-100 and F-102.

“Once we have our spot, we will be able to start on more than two projects,” said Cordero. “But we are going to need extra hands.”

The 122nd is accepting volunteers of all ages to help with the restoration process and to keep military history alive.

History – CGC Tamaroa and “The Perfect Storm”

Written by: LT Connie Braesch

Post Written by William H. Thiesen, Ph.D., U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian

Since 1790, Coast Guard vessels have ventured into harm’s way to carry out the service’s missions. Some were overcome by conditions and tragically lost at sea, while others were able to complete their mission – relying heavily on the skill and courage of their crews. In the so-called “Perfect Storm,” the major nor’easter made famous by a bestselling book and film of the same name, the Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa (WMEC-166) deployed into a maelstrom of heavy seas and high winds to help vessels caught in the storm. Despite the conditions, she managed to complete her SAR mission and return to port but not without a fight.

Last weekend marked the nineteenth anniversary of the Perfect Storm, also known as the “Halloween Nor’easter.” By October 28, 1991, two large weather systems were on a collision course off the East Coast – Hurricane Grace was moving from the southeast toward an un-named extra-tropical cyclone. The two weather systems merged to spawn a much larger and more powerful storm. By October 30, NOAA offshore weather data buoys reported sustained winds of more than sixty miles per hour with gusts exceeding seventy miles per hour and wave heights as high as forty feet.

The “Tam” would find itself at the center of the Perfect Storm and the centerpiece of Sebastian Junger’s recounting of the events that took place that fateful weekend. Built for the U.S. Navy in 1943 as a seagoing tug for towing damaged World War II warships, the Tamaroa (ex-USS Zuni) had only a single screw, a relatively high freeboard of ten feet and was nick named the “Automatic Trough Finder” by her World War II crew. In 1946, the Coast Guard received the surplus navy vessel into the fleet and by the time of the storm she was celebrating almost fifty years of service. The 205-foot antiquated cutter presented far more challenges to her crew in a monstrous storm than would the more modern twin-screw 210-foot Coast Guard Cutters.

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct. 30)--The Tamaroa's rigid hull inflatable rescue boat is sent to help the sailing vessel Satori. Satori, with three people on board, needed help about 75 miles south of Nantucket Island after being caught in the storm. U.S. COAST GUARD PHOTO

Despite the challenges, Tamaroa and her crew would make several rescues in the midst of the powerful storm. One such case involved a New York Air National Guard HH-60 helicopter returning from its own storm-related mission. The aircraft was low on fuel, could not connect with its C-130 fuel tanker and had to ditch ninety miles south of Montauk, New York. When an HH-3F helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod attempted to hoist the downed aircrew but was unable to make the rescue due to winds blowing up to 100 miles per hour, the Tamaroa would prove the victims’ best chance for survival.

After a four-hour transit, Tamaroa arrived on scene but the sea state and winds had worsened. Commander Brudnicki, Tam’s captain, looked out from the bridge to see wave tops towering over the ship sweeping the deck and swamping the crew. The engine room crew worked feverishly to keep the fifty-year-old powerplant running. A breakdown during this critical point, especially with only one screw, would prove disastrous. With the aircrew fighting for their lives in mountainous seas, Brudnicki tried several times to position the cutter upsea of the survivors and drift down on them for the rescue. After two hours, the Tam succeeded in maneuvering next to the hypothermic aircrew. The deck gang dropped a scramble net over the ship’s side retrieving one airman before pulling up a group of three others. The downed H-60’s pararescueman, Rick Smith, was never found despite a massive search effort.

In recognition of Tamaroa’s heroic efforts to overcome technological and environmental obstacles and conduct her missions, the cutter received the Coast Guard Unit Commendation and the Coast Guard Foundation Award. In addition many of the crew received the Air Force Commendation Medal and eighteen of Tam’s crew received the Coast Guard Medal, the largest group to receive this award in the history of that honor.

Remembering a WWII Coast Guardsman

Friday, November 5, 2010

Written by: Christopher Lagan

Earlier this week, the remains of Vice Admiral Thomas R. Sargent III were interred at Arlington National Cemetery. A World War II hero and member of the Greatest Generation, Sargent rose to the rank of vice commandant of the Coast Guard before retiring from the service in 1974.

As an ensign, Sargent served aboard the Cutter Modoc on the Greenland Patrol and on convoy escort duties at the beginning of World War II. LCDR Sargent was awarded the Bronze Star as the commanding officer of the patrol frigate USS Sandusky escorting war ships as part of the Allies’ Philippine Campaign. On July 1, 1970 Vice Admiral Sargent became the 11th Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard.

“Vice Adm. Sargent epitomized our core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty,” said Vice Adm. Sally Brice-O’Hara, vice commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, adding, “He answered our Nation’s call to duty in war, serving in each of the World War II major naval combat zones, as well as in peace by guarding our waters and protecting the mariners who use them.”

Vice Admiral Sargent was a founder of the Association For Rescue At Sea, Inc. (AFRAS). As the organization’s first chairman, Sargent established the AFRAS Gold Medal – presented annually to an enlisted man or woman for an act of extraordinary bravery during a rescue at sea, which was recently renamed in his honor.

Stay tuned to the Compass during Veteran’s Day week as we cover events honoring all who have worn the uniform in service of freedom. We’ll also share ways you can convey your thanks to all veterans, or honor those special to you.

Veterans’ Reflections: Going to War in 1944

By Ian Graham

Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2010 – John J. Kushwara didn’t have to risk his life.

Unlike many of his fellow recruits at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in 1944, the 24-year-old Kushwara had volunteered to don the uniform and go to war. It was a choice, technically, but he didn’t consider it much of one. Though he had a perfectly good job at the time, he said, he knew his country needed him.

“I felt it was my duty to go,” he said. “I told my foreman if he didn’t let me go, I was going to quit. So he let me go.”

But fortune smiled on Kushwara after he enlisted. He had to take some leave during training to tend to his wife, who was sick at the time. The night before he returned to Camp Lejeune, his unit was sent to war, ultimately to Iwo Jima. Two friends he had planned to meet up with after the war didn’t make it back from the Pacific front.

At Lejeune, Kushwara became a bit of an oddity. Leadership didn’t know what to do with him, he said, so he ended up repeating infantry training 11 times. By the end, he joked, he was untouchable, because he knew the training course so well.

“I went through so many times, I knew where all the booby traps were,” he said.

His extensive infantry training came in handy when he finally was assigned to a new unit and sent to the Pacific. Thirty-one days on a boat took him to Okinawa, where he fought enemy soldiers and vicious weather.

“I went through a tidal wave and a typhoon in Okinawa. … I was only 24. I never thought I’d make it home,” Kushwara said. “We lived in a tomb for a while [to escape the weather], and had a truck parked outside. When the storm was over, the truck was gone. The waves took ships out of the water and put them on land.”

At one point on the island, Kushwara recalled, he had a moment of profound irony. Early into his time on Okinawa, he lost his dog tag.

“Later on, I was in the chow line, and I found a tag on the ground,” Kushwara said. “I was scratching the surface of it, and I [turned] to the fellow in front of me and said ‘Here’s a poor bastard [who] got killed,’ and it was my own dog tag.”

A few years ago, in his hometown of Wallingford, Conn., Kushwara was honored at the celebration of the Marine Corps birthday. He took part in the cake-cutting and was central to a ceremony with a young Marine, a moment he said he found very touching.

“I’m proud that I was a Marine. I’m proud that I stood for my country,” he said. “I could have stayed home, but I felt it was my duty to go. I’m very proud. Very, very, proud.”

(“Veterans’ Reflections” is a collection of stories of men and women who served their country in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the present-day conflicts. They will be posted throughout November in honor of Veterans Day.)

Veterans’ Reflections: Fighting in the Battle of the Bulge

By Ian Graham

Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2010 – John Reep almost missed out on his chance to serve. On Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he was turned away at his local Marine Corps recruiting station in Chicago.

The medical personnel testing new recruits said he had tuberculosis and was ineligible for service, so he went to the Cook County Sanitarium to seek medical assistance.

“I was in there for six weeks before a doctor said, ‘Get the hell out of there, you ain’t got TB,’” Reep said. It would take years before the cause of his plight would be discovered.

“Finally, when I was living [in the Washington, D.C., area] – I had asthma – a doctor asked me if I’d ever been hit in the chest as a kid,” he said. “My old man was drunk, he came home one night wanting to fight, and he hit me in the chest and knocked me out. But what happened is there was a spot on my lung, and apparently it stays with you for life – but I never had tuberculosis. I’d probably have been in Guadalcanal with the Marines.”

After a year of medical checkups, Reep was drafted into the Army in 1943. The spot on his lung hadn’t changed, but he had medical records stating clearly that he didn’t have tuberculosis, so he was allowed to serve.

“They asked me if I wanted to join the Air Corps, and I said, ‘No, infantry,’ and boom, there I was, in the infantry,” Reep said.

His unit, the 30th Infantry Division, “Old Hickory,” was sent to Southampton, England, to supplement infantry forces after the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy. The casualties of the invasion were so high that his division had to be sent in to replace the troops who were killed on the beach.

“We had three-day passes to Paris,” Reep said. “We got up in the morning and the sergeant says, ‘Hey, where are you going?’ We said, ‘We’re going to Paris,’ and he said, ‘Like hell you are. You’re going to Belgium. The Germans broke through.’”

Reep’s next steps would take him straight into the Battle of the Bulge. His unit started moving from one city to the other, sifting through the wake of repeated German assaults and retreats as they headed toward the Siegfried Line, a series of fortifications on Germany’s western border.

“In [one village] we saw a lot of bodies – women and children,” Reep recalled. “[German forces] came through and said they were traitors in that town.”

They also came upon the aftermath of the Malmedy Massacre, in which 84 American prisoners of war were murdered by their German captors. Reep said the men had been captured and grouped in a field, where a German truck backed toward them, ostensibly as a transport to take the prisoners into custody. When the canvas was lifted, a machine gun opened fire.

“It was just a slaughter,” he said.

Reep said the most memorable thing about being in Malmedy was the time an American soldier in his unit took out what appeared to be three American tanks and 17 U.S. soldiers on Dec. 21, 1944. The American soldier, Sgt. Francis Currey, had been suspicious of a ruse and asked a suspect soldier if he was excited for the Rose Bowl that year.

The man’s response, “No, I’m not interested in flowers,” was enough at the time to tip Currey off that the suspect soldier wasn’t American, Reep said.

“He machine-gunned them all down – the kid was crazy,” Reep recalled. “He had a bazooka and a lot of rounds, and he took out the three tanks.”

Currey earned the Medal of Honor that day. The tanks he destroyed were German tanks repainted to look like American tanks, and the soldiers he killed were enemy soldiers who had tried to infiltrate his unit.

Though the fighting eventually landed Reep in a Dutch hospital for a few weeks – the wet cold of northwestern Europe in the winter had given him pneumonia and frostbite – he would continue to fight until he left the Army as a staff sergeant in 1952 and returned home after 10 years of service.

(“Veterans’ Reflections” is a collection of stories of men and women who served their country in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the present-day conflicts. They will be posted throughout November in honor of Veterans Day.)

Nevada Governor Recalls Desert Shield, Desert Storm Duty

By 2nd Lt. Jason Yuhasz

Nevada National Guard

RENO, Nev., Nov. 5, 2010 – It was Pearl Harbor Day 1990 when the Nevada Air National Guard was called up to serve in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

One of the airmen called to duty in 1990 was a young lieutenant colonel and Nevada state legislator, who would go on to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his extraordinary achievements as a flight leader during the conflict.

Today, he's recognized across the nation as Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.

The Nevada airmen were deployed to Shaikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, where they flew their RF-4C Phantoms in extreme heat on demanding missions and often encountered enemy fire.

Twenty years after the conflict, Gibbons recently recounted his experiences, including his time serving under Army Gens. Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, and the friendship he developed with another young officer, who would eventually become the current Nevada adjutant general, Bill Burks.

Gibbons said the leadership of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Ron Bath, now the vice-chairman of the Nevada Military Support Alliance, stands out in his memory the most.

"Ron took charge when things weren't going well, or if someone had a problem," he said. "Ron was the individual whom everybody turned toward to help solve a critical problem ... a guy I grew up with, went to war with, a great friend and someone I admire tremendously."

Gibbons said he applied many of his military lessons learned to his civilian career. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997-2006 before becoming the Nevada governor.

"Military experience allows you to create great friendships in addition to learning many things you would never get to learn as a civilian, including leadership skills and teamwork," Gibbons said. "Most importantly, the military challenges you as an individual to discover your greatest

abilities, especially in trying times."

Gibbons began his Air Force career with an active-duty stint from 1967-1971.

He graduated from the Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College and eventually attained the rank of colonel before retiring as the vice commander of the Nevada Air Guard's 152nd Reconnaissance Group in 1996.

"As governor, there are times I look back on my years in the Air Force and appreciate the ability I gained to forge ahead during challenging times when situations seemed impossible," he said.

Gibbons said the intangible value of friendships established during combat are some of the most valuable and longest-lasting relationships of one's life.

"Those individuals you see regularly, you train with, you trust implicitly: those are the greatest friends you can ever have," Gibbons said. "Those friends you make while in the military are probably the most valuable, enduring relationships you will ever have."

Distant War

Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by Marc Yablonka is a newly edited collection of articles covering some 18 years of his freelance reporting on the aftermath of the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. He became interested in Vietnam through the refugees he met in Los Angeles as an adult education teacher and during his five trips to Southeast Asia. He is not a war correspondent but as he notes became a chronicler of war by telling the stories of those who had “been there.” He has written for Reuters, Agence France Presse, and been published in the Army Times, Stars and Stripes, and Vietnam Magazine to name a few.

His post-war visits to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia chronicle the lives of those who were left to face an oftentimes grim situation. Their interviews and stories bring back forgotten stories of sacrifice and suffering. He also writes about the challenges faced by Vietnamese refugees who reconstructed their lives in the United States. I particularly found his story about Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photojournalist for the AP, very interesting. Most of us are familiar with Nick Utʼs photo of the “napalm girl” which became an icon of the war and its tragedies. Yablonka also tells us the story of that girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, and her long and painful journey of recovery.

The book also presents interviews with a wide variety of military and civilian Americans including former Red Cross girls, Air America Pilots, photographers, combat journalists, civilian doctors and orphanage workers, exploring their exploits, trials and regrets. All of their stories are interesting but it is the story of Cherie Clark who worked in the orphanages, flew out with the children as Saigon fell, and returned to Vietnam to continue her work that I found the most touching. Those of you who visited orphanages and those kids during your tour know what I am talking about.

To say there are many untold stories of the Vietnam War is an understatement. The war was a many faceted conflict that involved soldiers serving their country, and a wide variety of American and Vietnamese civilians. Yaklonka’s articulate and sensitive reporting brings the personal stories of these men and women alive on the page, providing a very interesting retrospective of that distant war.

Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

Marc Phillip Yablonka (Author)

A PRINTED COPY OF THIS BOOK CAN BE SENT ON REQUEST IF REQUIRED FOR PUBLISHING A REVIEW

A Merriam Press Original Publication: Military Monograph MM27 This is a newly-edited compilation of eighteen years of Yablonka’s reportage on American involvement in Indo-china and the people affected by America’s connection to that part of the world. After all those years and numerous articles about an indelible mark on American history published in the likes of the U.S. Military’s Stars and Stripes, Army Times, American Veteran, the Weider History Group publication Vietnam Magazine and others, these stories needed a wider audience for the world to know what they suffered, how most survived, and how they overcame adversity.

Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, will be the vehicle to the reader’s understanding of a war and its aftermath that may seem distant now, but what is important is that it will make readers realize—if they haven’t already—that in war, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or the sands of Iraq, in a very real sense, while who wins and who loses is obviously important, what is equally necessary is that good somehow must and shall prevail.

Contents:

• Prologue

• Acknowledgments

• Chapter 1: Doctors in a War Zone: The Ultimate Training Ground

• Chapter 2: Wounded Four Times and Still Proud: Major Jim Morris

• Chapter 3: A Gold-Plated Mission

• Chapter 4: Indomitable Spirit at the Hanoi Hilton: Vice-Admiral James Bond Stockdale

• Chapter 5: Everything is Okay Now: Nick Ut

• Chapter 6: From AFVN to Wheel of Fortune: Pat Sajak

• Chapter 7: $100, a Leica, and a One-Way Ticket to Saigon: Catherine Leroy

• Chapter 8: Air America: The Truth

• Chapter 9: If the Walls of the Continental Could Talk…

• Chapter 10: When Art and Life Blur: Kieu Chinh

• Chapter 11: Cambodia Revisited

• Chapter 12: Bringing the War Home: Requiem

• Chapter 13: Standing by Their Men: Donut Dollies

• Chapter 14: Q&A Time with Steve Stibbens

• Chapter 15: Lest We Ever Forget: The POWs

• Chapter 16: Chopper Chums Reunite: Pilot Association Remembers Vietnam’s Good Times

• Chapter 17: Heaven Helped Them: Oliver Stone and Le Hy Haislip

• Chapter 18: Back to the Present

• Chapter 19: Canada Just Lost Track of Something: Vietnam Vets From North of the 49th Parallel

• Chapter 20: Dog Tags Take the Long Road Home: David and Kurt Arnold

• Chapter 21: Unfriendly Skies for Air Vietnam

• Chapter 22: So Long Bob: Obit for Bob Hope

• Chapter 23: Burying the Hatchet: Nguyen Ngoc Hung

• Chapter 24: Shadow of War: Cherie Clark

• Chapter 25: A Shepherd in Laos: Bishop Jean Khamse Vithavong

• Chapter 26: Radio Japan Manager is Tuned in to Vietnam: Masako Yuasa

• Chapter 27: Serving with Distinction…on Four Legs! Dogs in Vietnam

• Chapter 28: The Longest Yards: The Mountain People 2

• Chapter 29: The Long Journey of Bounlieng Philavong

• Chapter 30: Big Trouble in Little Saigon

• Chapter 31: He Hated War but Loved the Work: A Q&A with Allen Cates

• Acknowledgments: Thank You to Magazines and Newspapers Specifications

• First Edition (July 2009)

• Paperback: ISBN 978-0-557-08441-8 — $19.95 o Perfect bound, full-color wrap-around cover

• Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-557-14378-8 — $36.95 o Blue linen cover with title stamped in gold on spine, full-color dust jacket

• PDF file on CD disc — $10.00 o Complete copy of the book including the cover images in a single PDF file.

• 258 6 × 9 inch pages

• 67 photos/illustrations Testimonials It is a truism that everything that can be said about Vietnam, Watergate, and that terrible era in our history has been said or written.

Marc Yablonka proves this wrong, as he explores those days from odd and untouched angles. He creates an unforgettable portrait of something you thought you knew well, and find you did not know at all. —Jim Morris, author of War Story

Marc Yablonka captures the nuances and sidelights of Vietnam and the personalities of the war in South East Asia. I spent two tours flying Army helicopters in this conflict and Marc brought out some views that I was not aware of. Combat is not all war stories and he artfully fills in a lot of blank spaces for veterans like me. His writings will help others understand the war better. Yablonka has a skill and it shows in his recent work. Hope there is more to come ... —LTC (Ret) Tom Lasser, RVN, 1967-68, 1969-70

The Author Marc Yablonka is a graduate of the Professional Writing School of the University of Southern California. He served as a Public Affairs Officer (CWO-2) with the 40th Infantry Division Support Brigade and the Installation Support Group, California State Military Reserve, at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California, between 2001 and 2008. He also served with the Sar-El unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. He lives with his wife Cammie and their long-haired orange Tabby named Ruffy in Burbank, California. Availability Published July 2009. Available now direct from the publisher by mail, phone or the Merriam Press web site, as well as from Amazon and other online booksellers. Available from most bookstores by special order. Booksellers: This title will be available soon through Ingram.

Today in the Department of Defense, Monday, November 08, 2010

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates is traveling.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn has no public or media events on his schedule.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, deputy commander for operations, U.S. Forces-Iraq will brief the media live from Iraq at 10:30 a.m. EST in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973) to provide an update on current operations.  Journalists without a Pentagon building pass will be picked up at the River Entrance only.  Plan to arrive no later than 45 minutes prior to the event; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification.  Please call 703-697-5131 for escort into the building.

1231 Military Servicemembers

With the addition of CW2 Marc Yablonka, CSMR, Military-Writers.com now lists 1231 US Military Servicemembers who have authored over 3900 books

Chief Warrant Officer Marc Yablonka, CSMR, “is a graduate of the Professional Writing School of the University of Southern California. He served as a Public Affairs Officer (CWO-2) with the 40th Infantry Division Support Brigade and the Installation Support Group, California State Military Reserve, at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California, between 2001 and 2008. He also served with the Sar-El unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. Marc Yablonka is the author of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.”


According to the book description of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, “This is a newly-edited compilation of eighteen years of Yablonka’s reportage on American involvement in Indochina and the people affected by America’s connection to that part of the world. After all those years and numerous articles about an indelible mark on American history published in the likes of the U.S. Military’s Stars and Stripes, Army Times, American Veteran, the Weider History Group publication Vietnam Magazine and others, these stories needed a wider audience for the world to know what they suffered, how most survived, and how they overcame adversity. Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, will be the vehicle to the reader’s understanding of a war and its aftermath that may seem distant now, but what is important is that it will make readers realize—if they haven’t already—that in war, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or the sands of Iraq, in a very real sense, while who wins and who loses is obviously important, what is equally necessary is that good somehow must and shall prevail.”

More Information
http://www.military-writers.com/

Coast Guard Heroes: Kathleen Moore

Written by: LTJG Stephanie Young

With contributions from LTJG Ryan White

This Compass series chronicles the first 14 heroes the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters have been named for. These men and women, who stood the watch before us, lived extraordinary lives as they lit the way for sailors in times past, braved gunfire in times of war and rescued those in peril at sea. As Coast Guard heroes, their stories are a constant reminder of our service’s legacy. As the namesake of the Coast Guard’s newest patrol boats, they will inspire the next generation of Coast Guard heroes.

Kathleen “Kate” Moore devoted her entire life to those at sea as the keeper of the Black Rock Harbor Light on Fayerweather Island, a small seaside community south of Bridgeport, Conn.

Moore first stood the watch at the age of 12, when her father began tending the light in 1817 after a shipboard injury prevented him from going to sea. As Moore grew older, and her father’s health worsened, she took on most of the duties herself, although she was not officially appointed as head keeper until 1871.

She served at the station for an astounding 72 years where she continually braved the harsh storms of Long Island Sound to save those in peril. As keeper, her light was literally the difference between a successful journey or catastrophe for the more than two hundred vessels sailing the sound nightly.

On one particular night, Moore heard cries of distress coming from the harbor. She went out in her rowboat with her brother and cousin searching for the sailor, and after an hour’s search they found two men clinging to a capsized boat.

In her later years, Moore was interviewed by a reporter who asked her about the dangers she encountered at Black Rock Harbor. “You see, I had done all this for so many years, and I knew no other life, so I was sort of fitted for it.,” Moore replied.

Moore’s career was filled with ardent determination and she is officially credited with saving 21 lives. When she retired from service in 1878 at the age of 84 and was asked about her saves, Moore said, “I wish it had been double that number.”

A special place in the Coast Guard’s history

Despite the seclusion of the many locations where keepers served, they were true pillars of their maritime communities. The Black Rock Harbor Lighthouse, originally built in 1808, was built on an island in Long Island Sound at the mouth of Black Rock Harbor. The isolated lighthouse served as an important beacon on the busy seaports along Long Island Sound as it was the only light between Eaton Neck, New York and New Haven, Connecticut.

Daily work at a lighthouse included many repetitive and routine tasks but the men and women who stood the watch for those at sea required dedication and self-sufficiency to ensure their vital labors were accomplished.

“It was a lifetime of service,” remarked Vice Admiral Brice-O’Hara of Lighthouse Keeper Kathleen Moore’s career as Keeper of Black Rock Light. “Though not named the official Keeper until her late seventies, Moore had been assisting her injured father with lighthouse duties since the age of 12. She ran both the lighthouse and the family homestead from an early age, and didn’t retire from her post until 1878 – when she was 84 years old.”

Credited with saving over 21 lives, Keeper Kathleen Moore slept in her work-clothes, facing the window to make sure her light stayed burning. “She proved that women performed with distinction – whether the job at hand was harrowing or dutifully and diligently routine,” admired Vice Admiral Brice-O’Hara, “The crew of the Kathleen Moore will have high standards to uphold in honoring the legacy of this remarkable Keeper.”

Coast Guard Heroes: Charles Sexton

Written by: LTJG Stephanie Young

With contributions from LTJG Ryan White

This Compass series chronicles the first 14 heroes the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters have been named for. These men and women, who stood the watch before us, lived extraordinary lives as they lit the way for sailors in times past, braved gunfire in times of war and rescued those in peril at sea. As Coast Guard heroes, their stories are a constant reminder of our service’s legacy. As the namesake of the Coast Guard’s newest patrol boats, they will inspire the next generation of Coast Guard heroes.

Many of the Coast Guard’s heroes fought in wars abroad or found themselves under enemy fire in foreign countries. But, Charles W. Sexton found himself faced with danger in the course of his everyday duties at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment. Sexton, a machinery technician, was rescuing four fishermen in peril when the seas tragically took him.

On January 11, 1991, Sexton and his crew launched motor lifeboat 44381 after they received report that the fishing vessel Sea King, a 75-foot stern trawler, was taking on water four miles northwest of the Columbia River Bar. The Sea King had four men on board and was in danger of sinking with her decks awash and the engine room steadily filling up with water.

Sexton went aboard the foundering fishing vessel with other crewmembers to treat the injuries of a Sea King crewmember who had fallen to the deck.

Once the victim was stabilized, Sexton focused his attention on dewatering the vessel. Because the Sea King was so flooded, it required several dewatering pumps to remove the initial quantity of seawater from the engine room along with hourly dewatering the vessel to ensure the boat did not submerge.

After more than six exhaustive hours of dewatering and maintaining the vessel, with the worst of the treacherous bar crossing behind them, the Sea King rolled over without warning and threw its passengers into the agitated seas. The power of the water trapped Sexton in the enclosed pilothouse and he, along with two fishermen, went down with the vessel.

Retired Chief Quartermaster Bill Segelken was on scene as a crewmember aboard Coast Guard Cutter Iris when Sexton was lost to the sea. He was a First Class Quartermaster at the time and remembers vividly the sight of Sea King overturning.

“The Sea King took a long roll to port. While the vessel appeared to be recovering from the roll the port quarter went under and the ship began to roll,” said Segelken. “While in our minds, as we observed this, it seemed to take forever, the reality is that once the ship started to roll she was capsized in seconds.”

A special place in the Coast Guard’s history

There is a certainty of danger that Coast Guardsmen encounter in the line of their every day duties, whether it is the shifting water’s of a river bar or towing an unstable vessel, and it is an unvarying reminder of how fragile life is.

“The Columbia River Bar is always a treacherous place to navigate,” said Segelken. “Even on a nice day the swells could be running at six to eight feet and as quick as the current changes directions they could build to 10-12.”

Despite the perilous complexities in the Sea King’s rescue, Sexton exhibited courage and devotion to save others in the most humbling of ways. Sexton’s courage was recognized as he was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal for extraordinary heroism.

“It has long been understood that the Coast Guard faces danger every day, but that could not be more true than a day on the Columbia River Bar,” said Segelken. “In my career after this incident I have spent nearly 15 years in command centers. I have launched countless aircrews and small boats into harm’s way. This case provides me a firsthand reminder of the potential impact of those dangers.”

At a ceremony on May 17, 1991 Rear Admiral Joseph Vorbach, commander of the 13th District commented on Sexton’s heroism: “Keep bright his memory so that next time someone asks who are your heroes, you wont hesitate to answer Petty Officer Sexton.”

Today in the Department of Defense, Friday, November 05, 2010

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates hosts an honor cordon to welcome Slovenian Minister of Defense Ljubica Jelusic to the Pentagon today at 9 a.m. EDT.  The cordon will be held on the steps of the Pentagon River Entrance.  Journalists without a Pentagon building pass will be picked up at the Pentagon River Parking Entrance only.  Plan to arrive no later than 30 minutes prior to the event; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification.  Please call 703-697-5131 for escort to the cordon.

Secretary Robert Gates is honored at 6:30 p.m. EDT at the American Patriot Award Gala presented by the National Defense University Foundation in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington D.C.  For more information on the American Patriot Award and the Gala, please visit  http://www.americanpatriotaward.org and http://www.NDUFoundation.org/Gates or contact Nancy Miller at 202-685-2527, email: millern@nduf.org.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn has no public or media events on his schedule.

Veterans’ Reflections: Service Was ‘Rite of Passage’

By Ian Graham

Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2010 – Ralph Cupper enlisted in the Army at age 17 in 1944, preferring not to wait until he was drafted to serve his country.

The Brecksville, Ohio, resident recently visited the National World War II Memorial with other veterans and reflected on his time in the war.

“Everybody was patriotic at that time,” he said. “I didn’t even finish high school. I went straight into the service … and I got shipped off to the Pacific.”

The cultural environment back then was very different from today’s, he said. The military wasn’t just a way to pay for school or get a career jumpstart – it was a rite of passage for people who considered themselves patriotic. It was a duty to serve when called, he said, and when Japanese bombs hit Pearl Harbor, that was more than enough of a call.

“At that time, everybody wanted to serve their country,” he said. “We were attacked. It’s different today. I don’t think people realize what we went through, or what our thinking was at that time.”

Cupper called himself a “young buck,” eager to get into the fight and immature about a lot of things when he joined the service. But after a few weeks on a boat to Okinawa with the 7th Infantry Division and the ensuing fight he lived to tell about, he said, he was changed.

The war helped to mature him, Cupper said, noting that he saw a lot of gory things, was wounded, and lost friends during the campaign in the Pacific.

“It matured me. It scared the hell out of me,” he said. “I think you just grow up a little in the service.”

It’s important for young servicemembers to get to know “the older fellas” when in combat, he said. They’ve lived through more, he explained, and can help younger servicemembers stay safe under fire, especially in modern asymmetrical combat.

“It’s a different world. It’s different combat. It’s a different [type of] war altogether,” Cupper said. “Basically, if you’re in the infantry, you need to keep your [rear end] down. You have to listen to the older fellas. When I went in, the older fellas had been in a lot more combat than I had. You learn how to survive.”

Though he was wounded in combat, he said, he counts himself lucky that he wasn’t hurt worse or killed, but he added that’s a small price to serve the greater cause. His reward, he said, is the appreciation he’s shown to this day, some 64 years after he left the Army.

“I didn’t realize [the National World War II Memorial] was as great a thing as it is,” he said. “I think it’s a great tribute to the men and women who served in World War II. “They’re honoring what we’ve done. I didn’t realize that so many people would honor you the way people have today. I’ve been crying almost all day since we left Cleveland.”

(“Veterans’ Reflections” is a collection of stories of men and women who served their country in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the present-day conflicts. They will be posted throughout November in honor of Veterans Day.)

Guantanamo Task Force Stands Tall in Tough Mission

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 4, 2010 – Duty with Joint Task Force Guantanamo is one of the most demanding assignments in the military, but task force members recognize its importance and strategic implications for the United States and its troops in harm’s way, their commander said.

The 2,000 men and women serving here – a mix of servicemembers, government employees and civilian contractors – recognize the importance of their job providing “safe, humane, legal and transparent” care for 174 detainees at the facility, Navy Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harbeson told the Army Reserve chief, Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, who visited here last week.

Soldiers and sailors of the Joint Detention Group posted as guards at the base’s nine camps make up more than half of the task force. They typically pull 15- to 16-hour work days six days a week, performing a mission that Harbeson said demands extraordinary self-control and discipline in the face of verbal insults, flying body fluids and other assaults from detainees.

“This is the most challenging job in the military today, by virtue of what these individuals have to endure and experience,” he said.

“You have to have iron discipline,” agreed Army Col. Donnie Thomas, the Joint Detection Group commander. “We know we have actors here who are still in the fight, … and they try to incite the guard force. It’s incredible to see the professionalism [the guards] demonstrate, and how they treat these detainees with dignity and respect.”

Thanks to new measures at the facility, assaults on the guards have dropped dramatically during the past year, Harbeson reported.

In January 2009, one-third of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay lived in communal settings, spending 20 hours each day outside their cells with free access to recreation equipment, TV, radio, library books and a food pantry. Today, 89 percent of the detainees live communally, and officials here are considering converting a wing in the maximum-security Camp 5 to allow even more.

Meanwhile, assaults on the guard force plummeted, from 1,100 in 2009 to 110 so far in 2010.

“We attribute that to the communal environment, with less actual guard-detainee interaction” because most detainees no longer need to be escorted to showers and recreational facilities, Harbeson explained. “That has minimized the source of friction between guard and detainees. … So it’s been a win-win all around.”

Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Calkins, a noncommissioned officer at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp 5, said he’s seen huge changes since he left from his previous tour here in April 2008.

“The detainees have calmed down a lot,” he said. “We had people getting ‘splashed’ every day. It happened all the time.”

Now, there’s a big incentive for detainees to resist such behavior, which can get them transferred from the communal “ultra-light” facility at Camp 6 to Camp 5 – the task force’s version of “time out.” Instead of getting 20 hours each day outside their cells at Camp 6, detainees at Camp 5 get just four.

“Typically, when they come to us, they want to get back to Camp 6,” Calkins said. “So they will cause all these problems over [at Camp 6], and when they come to me, they’ll get really, really quiet. They don’t want to stay here.”

While Calkins and his fellow Army guards at Camp 5 are trained correctional specialists, their Navy counterparts at Camp 6 come from a variety of backgrounds -- – aircraft mechanics, logisticians and some masters at arms, explained Navy Ensign Paul Fogel, the camp’s assistant officer in charge. All received four weeks of specialized training at Fort Bliss, Texas, before reporting to Guantanamo.

Navy Lt. Sean McMichael, the Camp 6 commander, said he’s impressed by how well his sailors have made the transformation after volunteering for duty at Guantanamo Bay, or in some cases, he said, being “volun-told.”

“It’s dynamic,” McMichael said. “The guards have to remember what we’re here for and maintain their vigilance at all times. … They have to maintain their cool, even when you’re spit in the face.”

Pulling duty in this environment requires a unique way of thinking about the detainees, he said. “You have to have a mindset that these are residents,” he explained. “If you think of them as terrorists and go with that mindset, you can’t be fair and firm and impartial. And that’s the stand we take as we conduct all our operations here.”

Calkins, who has experienced the insult of being “splashed” himself, marvels at his young soldiers’ self-restraint. “These soldiers are amazing,” he said. “They get splashed. They get called every name in the book, … and they go wash themselves off and come back for more.”

Armed with nothing but pepper spray and strict rules about when they can use it, the guards learn to use other tools to get detainees to cooperate.

“It’s not like in [the combat] theater, where you have a weapon,” said Calkins. “Here, your weapon is your ability to talk to people. If you can talk to the detainees, you can make them realize that, ‘Hey, I am here to do a job and that is all. This is nothing personal.’”

Guards say their biggest frustration here isn’t the occasion mistreatment they get from detainees; it’s what they view as widely held misconceptions about how they treat the detainees.

Detainees select their three meals each day from six different menus, have access to 24/7 medical care and are issued prayer rugs, Qurans and other religious articles to practice their faith. They also get access to newspapers in a variety of languages, as well as 18 satellite channels, 11 radio channels, a full library of materials, and classes in subjects including the popular new keyboard computer class.

“When people ask me why we’re offering computer classes to detainees, I tell them, ‘We want the detainees to focus on this, not on how to ‘splash’ the next guard,” Harbeson said.

But no matter how well they do their jobs, Navy Capt. Sharon Campbell, the task force’s chief of staff, acknowledged the reality of serving in what many here consider a highly underappreciated mission.

“We are doing an important job, detaining enemy belligerents brought here from the battlefield, and providing safe, humane and transparent care for them as the legal process is worked,” she said. “But there are no accolades here, so we have to concentrate on keeping people pumped up. We really have to work to keep each other motivated.”

Meanwhile, the task force members recognize that their every action here is eyed through what sometimes feels like a microscope, and counts in how the world sees them personally, the U.S. military and the United States.

“It’s a very politically charged mission in the sense that if we don’t do it right it negatively reflects on the government and the country,” Fogel said. “Every reaction you make or every action you don’t take could potentially be something that could really be a not-so-good thing.

“That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of 19- to 25-year-olds,” he said. “But their actions really do project what and how we are looked upon by the world.”

Another motivating force, Calkins said, is the recognition that how the mission is conducted here has a direct impact on troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He still grimaces when he thinks about the repercussions from detainee mistreatment at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

“What we do definitely can have an impact,” he said. “Soldiers are still getting hurt [as a result of what happened at Abu Ghraib.]”

Calkins said he regularly reminds his soldiers that they stand squarely on a front line in the war on violent extremism.

“I tell my soldiers that everybody has their piece, whatever that piece may be – whether you are in the States, whether you are in Afghanistan, whether you are in Iraq, or whether you are here at Gitmo,” he said. “And I feel that our piece is vital.

“Anything that these soldiers do or don’t do can have an effect on what happens to our soldiers” serving in the combat theater,” he added.

Sailors Visit Guam School for Red Ribbon Week

By Jesse Leon Guerrero Joint Region Marianas Public Affairs

CHALAN PAGO, Guam (NNS) -- Sailors from U.S. Naval Hospital Guam (USNH) helped educate students about the dangers of substance abuse at Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary School on Guam Oct. 29.

The command sent the personnel to assist Department of Education teachers and staff in celebrating Red Ribbon Week, a national campaign that educates and encourages youth to live a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle.

"You guys have dreams, you want to do something," said Lt. Martin Casarez, a physical therapist from the hospital, to a fourth-grade class. "If you're getting in trouble because you're on drugs, that's going to affect your ability to reach your dreams. It doesn't matter whether it's alcohol, whether it's marijuana, whether it's cocaine, or any of those drugs. They're going to affect your process in getting to where your dreams are at."

Hospitalman Apprentice Jordan Ramsdell, also of USNH Guam, shared stories about how marijuana negatively affected students at his high school in his hometown of Portland, Ore. Ramsdell said he wanted to help Ordot-Chalan Pago students avoid that experience.

"We had people making wrong decisions and a couple people paid the ultimate price for it," Ramsdell said. "It's important that [the students] are educated, and I'm just glad we had the opportunity to come out because I feel very strongly about it."

School officials appreciated the Sailors taking time to educate students.

"With the Navy coming in, the military coming in, it's a different aspect," said Rebecca Perez, the school's principal. "We're hoping the kids get different views, but we're all here for the same reason, which is to say 'no' to drugs."

Perez added that hospital personnel and other Sailors have partnered with the school for years through cleanup projects, tutoring sessions and other volunteer activities. She thanked the Navy for offering students a healthy insight into healthy lifestyle choices and for encouraging them to stay in school.

Red Ribbon Week takes its name from the red campaign ribbons that honor Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was kidnapped and killed in Mexico City, while investigating drug traffickers in 1985.

Today in the Department of Defense, Thursday, November 04, 2010

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn have no public or media events on their schedules.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen speaks at 11:15 a.m. EDT at the U.S. Institute of Peace Women and War Conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Foggy Bottom, 1150,

22nd Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

   Media interested in attending should contact Lauren E. Sucher, lsucher@usip.org, 202-429-3822 or JCS Public Affairs, 703-697-4272.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy will speak to the World Affairs Council at 10 a.m. EDT at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel,

1127 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

  Contact Tara Rigler at 571-232-0621 or tara.rigler@osd.mil.

Col. Donald Galli, commander of Task Force Falcon and 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade will brief the media live from Afghanistan at 10:30 a.m. EDT, Nov. 4, in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973) to provide an update on current operations.  Journalists without a Pentagon building pass will be picked up at the River Entrance only.  Plan to arrive no later than 45 minutes prior to the event; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification.  Please call 703-697-5131 for escort into the building.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell will conduct a press briefing at 1 p.m. EDT in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973).  Journalists without a Pentagon building pass will be picked up at the River Entrance only.  Plan to arrive no later than 45 minutes prior to the event; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification.  Please call 703-697-5131 for escort into the building.

Sailors and Marines Train-Up for Amphibious Operations

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ron Kuzlik, Expeditionary Strike Group 2 Public Affairs

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- More than 200 active and Reserve component Sailors and Marines stormed Anzio Beach aboard Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story (JEBLCFS), Va., Oct. 29, as part of Exercise Sandcrab 2010.

After initial delays caused by high seas, heavy winds and some computer problems, the landing was successfully accomplished.

"We had some small logistical problems, but we were able to turn it around as a result of the training that we go through," Chief Boatswain's Mate (SCW) Stephen Helmer said. "The successful integration of Active and Reserve component assets, combined with our experience and training is what enabled the exercise to proceed. The want to, the need to, learn and be involved is the mitigating factor."

The simulated ship-to-shore movement and amphibious landing was the highlight of the three-day training exercise between U.S. Navy Beach Group TWO (NBG2) and the Marine Corps 4th Landing Support Battalion.

This was all part of an increased emphasis on training in amphibious operations to provide fully-trained and ready personnel and prepare Navy and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve assets for mission readiness and world-wide deployment.

Among the objectives of the exercise was to conduct individual, team and craft training exercises to train Reserve component personnel to handle actual and simulated personnel and equipment casualties.

The operation featured Landing Craft Air Cushioned, high-speed over-beach-landing class hovercraft capable of carrying 75 tons of weapons, cargo, equipment and personnel.

Seabees from Amphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 2 utilized improved Navy lighterage system causeways ferries to transport Humvees, Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) six-wheel drive all terrain vehicles, and support personnel.

Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 provides operational command and control over forces to deliver power projection ashore and rapidly respond to global crises.

ESG-2 Commander Rear Adm. Kevin D. Scott emphasized the importance of providing Sailors and Marines continued training with Navy landing craft and lighterage.

"Hands-on training develops proficiency and confidence in our Sailors and Marines," Scott said. "This type of joint exercise is how we know we are ready to successfully execute any mission in support of the nation's maritime strategy."

"Our Reservists have always been essential members of the nation's military force. They are the reason why we have unsurpassed readiness to respond to any mission, anytime, anywhere. A fully integrated Reserve component brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise that complements our active component and increases our overall combat effectiveness," said Scott.

The primary mission of NBG 2 and its subordinate commands, ACB 2, Assault Craft Unit (ACU) 2, ACU 4, and Beach Master Unit 2, is to provide ship-to-shore transportation of fuel, materials and equipment in support of expeditionary strike groups, Marine expeditionary forces and brigade-sized operations and maritime prepositioned force operations.