Cameroon: National Guard joins 36 nations in Africa’s largest communications exercise

By Army 1st Lt. Miranda Summers Lowe

District of Columbia National Guard

DOUALA, Cameroon - National Guard members from two states and the District of Columbia are participating in Operation Africa Endeavor, a joint training mission sponsored by U.S. Africa Command which focuses on communications interoperability and information sharing among African Union, the U.S. and partner nations.

Two Air National Guard officers are serving as observer/controllers during the exercise portion of the two-week mission. One of their first tasks was to help develop the training scenario which is based on African Union, U.S., and U.N. response to a major earthquake in a fictitious country.

Air Force Lt. Col. Randy Coltrin, of the 217th Air Operations Group, and Lt. Col. Jeff Marks, of the 183rd Fighter Wing, have been working with teammates from Canada, Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania.

“Watching the African nations work together has been a great experience. They treat each other so well,” said Marks. “Through this training, spending two weeks together, we’ve really built camaraderie with each other.”

Coltrin added that coordinating so many delegations from across the world has been a challenge, but hard work had been making the operation successful. Two planning conferences took place before the event started.

“The planning that went into this operation has been tremendous--and it paid off,” said Coltrin. “We came in and hit the ground running. We were unable to go to the planning conference, but because of the hard work that went into the planning, everyone seems to understand why they’re here. The scenario planning has been thorough. There’s so much background.”

And participation has been high among those involved in the planning and execution of the exercise.

“I’m very impressed by the level of participation I see from the African Nations. I’ve really enjoyed working with so many people, so many different countries,” Coltrin added.

Operation Africa Endeavor is in its sixth iteration.

First Lady Touts Spouse Licensure Successes

By Lisa Daniel and Amaani Lyle

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – Continuing her efforts to ease employment challenges from duty-related moves, First Lady Michelle Obama joined Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in Chicago today as the state became the 23rd to facilitate the transfer of military spouses’ professional licenses.

Obama joined Quinn at the Illinois National Guard Armory, where the governor signed the “Military Family Licensing Act” into law.

Military spouses are the “folks who are giving their heart and soul to this country every single day,” Obama said. “Every time our country asks them to pick up their families and move across the country at a moment's notice, they do it and they do it with pride.”

The first lady also reminded spectators that homefront duties remain -- and increase -- for working military spouses while their uniformed husbands or wives serve overseas for months or years on end.

“On top of all that, they are some of the best volunteers in their communities,” Obama said. “They still find time to participate on the [Parent-Teacher Association], in their parish council, to support the Little League and the Girl Scouts. So we owe it to these individuals to get this licensing issue right."

The first lady said she intends to renew the call to action for all U.S. states to facilitate license transfers for military spouses. “This is an eminently solvable problem,” she added.

Getting states to ease the transfer of professional licenses for military spouses is a key issue for the “Joining Forces” campaign Obama started last year with Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden. They’ve set a goal of having all 50 states ease the burden of accepting military spouses’ out-of-state licenses by 2014.

In states without the eased restrictions, military spouses spend too much time compiling and transferring documents and being retested, and many decide it’s too much trouble, Marcus Beauregard, the Defense Department’s state liaison chief, told American Forces Press Service in a June 22 interview. “We started looking at how to truncate that time,” he said.

States require licenses for those in virtually every medical occupation, as well as teaching, social work, cosmetology and other fields, and the requirements vary from state to state, Beauregard said. Of working military spouses, one-third work in fields that require licenses, and most of those are medical, he said.

To ease the burden, some new state laws allow military spouses to transfer an out-of-state license with an endorsement of the office that issued it, Beauregard said, while others will accept the licenses with documents that validate the license or the holder’s clean business record, and other states issue temporary licenses for spouses to do business.

“We don’t ask them to lower any standards,” he said. “We just ask them to encompass military spouses in licensure more quickly.”

Teachers, generally, must go through a different process through each state’s Board of Education, Beauregard said. Attorneys also have not been part of the legislative effort, as their licenses must be approved by each state’s Bar Association. Last year, spouses in the legal profession created The Military Spouse JD Network, which lobbies the American Bar Association and state Bars to make attorney licenses more portable for military spouses, officials with the network said.

Military spouses whose work requires a license should prepare well ahead of a move by having a copy of their current license, as well as any documents needed to show the license is in good standing , Beauregard said.

“They need to be prepared for that transition, and hopefully, we will have the processes in place now to make it happen more quickly,” he added.

While processes vary from state to state, Beauregard said, license approvals usually happen in the state’s division of occupational licensing, as part of a consumer protection office, or a state board of health or education.

Since its launch, the Joining Forces initiative has helped significant numbers of military spouses and veterans alike, the first lady said today in Chicago.

“I want all of our military families to know that America does have your backs,” she said. “It is really a country that appreciates and cares about your service. Whether it’s fixing this licensing issue, or helping you find a job, or making sure that you and your family have the health care and benefits you’ve earned, we are working hard every day to serve you as well as you have served this country.”

Dempsey Details Challenges in Visit to Nebraska Base

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. – Likening the global security environment to strong winds such as those that come with severe weather here in the central plains, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke today about challenges buffeting the nation.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and his wife, Deanie, spoke with 300 service members, Defense Department civilians and family members this afternoon at this base in Omaha -- an American Indian name, the chairman noted, that means “those who go against the wind.”

“It’s a pretty challenging time, and we only get through it because of perseverance,” Dempsey said, noting that the past decade has seen the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the global terrorism threat and emerging security and economic challenges.

The chairman’s town hall meeting included a cross-section of Offutt Air Force Base, home of the 55th Wing, U.S. Strategic Command and the Air Force Weather Agency.

Stratcom is responsible for the U.S. legacy nuclear command and control mission, space operations, global strike, Defense Department information operations, global missile defense, and global command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

“Deanie and I want to compliment you on what you do for your country with a rather incredible portfolio,” the chairman said.

Dempsey talked about his focus on three major defense transitions. The first transition the chairman described involves resetting the force for different kinds of security challenges.

“We spent 10 years focused like a laser beam on counterinsurgency,” Dempsey noted. “We’ve got to still do some of that, … as well as confronting global terrorism for the foreseeable future.”

But most of the force will be resetting itself, the chairman said, “rekindling skills that maybe have been sidelined,” to get ready for the challenges expected in the second half of this decade.

The second major transition will be from a bigger budget to a smaller budget, Dempsey said.

“The question we will answer with your help is how much smaller will that budget become and still allow us to preserve the resources necessary to live up to the responsibility we have … to prevent the United States of America from being coerced in any domain. We are a global power,” the chairman said.

“I think we can figure that out with your help,” he added.

The third transition, of a military at war to a more peaceful time, may be the most challenging of all, Dempsey said.

The Defense Department must do it right, he added. “[We must] make sure that we don’t abandon someone who has served their country in time of war and toss them over the transom,” he said.

The challenge will come from trying to merge the processes the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, as well as trying to reach out to the civilian sector and academia to help service members who, in increasing numbers, will become veterans.

“Over the last 10 years, what has kept us together is a bond of trust, probably unique in any profession at any time,” Dempsey said. Seeing these transitions through, he told the audience, will help to sustain that trust, even through uncertainties of budget or security.

The first question Dempsey took was about the nature of his service to President Barack Obama as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“One of my responsibilities … as part of the Joint Chiefs [is to] take a look at the individual issues that consume your time -- so Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Egypt, wherever it happens to be,” he explained.

“Our job is to make sure we see the whole thing in context. … We try not to look at a particular event -- for example, a ballistic missile test -- but rather to provide the context in which that event exists,” he added.

Such a test could be described in the context of a North Korea interested in becoming increasingly nuclear and having a new leader, in a region dominated by a China that had changed over 10 years and one in which the United States is assuming a larger presence.

“Our advice becomes how to address that range of issues,” Dempsey said, “but in context, so that we can shape the future regionally and globally, not narrowly.”

To a question about health care costs, the chairman said it’s a topic he wrestles with intellectually and emotionally, along with issues of personnel costs, compensation and retirement.

“It’s a big pile of money -- in fact it’s the biggest pile of money that we have in the budget, and … that manpower account is placing a greater demand on the budget overall than it ever has, and it’s not sustainable,” he explained.

“I’m not saying that to be Chicken Little,” Dempsey added. “I’m telling you the facts: that our manpower costs, at the size force that we have today, will quickly overwhelm the budget.”

The Defense Department has to figure out how to make its manpower costs more affordable, he said.

“If we fail to do that, and we are precluded [by Congress] from shedding unneeded infrastructure, … then the only place you can absorb the reduction is in operations, maintenance and training. And that is not an Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard that I want to be part of,” the chairman said.

Dempsey predicted that the department probably won’t be able to balance the manpower account in the fiscal 2013 budget, which means next year the department will try again to make that happen.

“The commitment I’ll make to you is that we will do so in as equitable, fair, transparent, credible way we can," he said, "but we have to touch it."

Suicide Conference Spurs Hope for Answers

By USPHS Lt. Cmdr. David Barry, DCoE clinical psychologist

We hear about suicide in the news, read about it on the Internet, and each of us in our own way work toward preventing the loss of lives. Rarely, do we get the opportunity to discuss suicide as a community. I was privileged to be able to attend and present at the fourth annual DoD/VA Suicide Prevention Conference. For me, it was a great opportunity to share my perspective on suicide prevention and to learn from leaders, service members and notable civilian organizations.

During the three-day conference, the secretaries for the Defense Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Veteran Affairs voiced their concerns and future plan of attack to combat suicide. The secretaries spoke to the importance of ending suicides, providing quality programs and communicating suicide programs and research amongst departments, service branches, providers, peers and individuals.

Each speech resonated with me in different, yet meaningful ways. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s call for pioneering and breaking “new ground in understanding the human mind and human emotion” encouraged me to strive to further learn and participate in preventing suicides. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius inspired hope for our country as she spoke of removing “any distinction between behavioral and mental health.” As a substance abuse provider and subject matter expert, I was motivated and encouraged by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki’s call to target and prevent substance abuse as a means to prevent suicide and veteran homelessness.

Throughout the conference, speakers emphasized the point that suicide isn’t an isolated event, and it’s preventable. Valuable information to prevent suicides was integrated into a bountiful agenda. At times, it was difficult to choose which session to attend, since there were many intriguing breakout sessions. The sessions I attended, I found to be particularly informative and significant, such as the association of sleep and suicide discussion, skill-building exercises and breakouts focusing on the service member and their families. Numerous times throughout the conference, other attendees often remarked on the quality and utility of the presentations they attended.

I was fortunate to present on a topic dear to me, Substance Abuse Prevention: Reducing the Risk of Suicide. I highlighted the importance of engaging in substance misuse prevention as a means to reduce risk factors for suicide, while augmenting an individual’s protective factors. Attendees at my presentation were receptive and seemed very engaged in the topic. It was a rewarding moment for me to be able to support our service men and women, while contributing to a conference that’s making a difference within the military and civilian communities.

As a psychologist, provider and peer, I found it encouraging that there is a community of professionals and caregivers who are supported by their upper echelon of leadership and are committed to eliminating suicide. I wasn’t only inspired and motivated, but also reassured that the services, Defense Department and civilian leaders are working harder than ever toward improving the lives of those who’ve served our country in uniform. The participation of senior leaders, senior military enlisted, and many other distinguished speakers made this year’s suicide prevention conference not only informative, but unprecedented and historic.