Dunford Arrives for Consults in Athens, Readies for Indian 2+2

By Jim Garamone, DoD News, Defense Media Activity

ATHENS, Greece -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived here today for meetings with Greek defense officials.

Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford is being hosted by Greek navy Adm. Evangelos Apostolakis, the chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff. The two men and their staffs will discuss ways to increase cooperation between the two already close NATO allies.

Greece is a member of the coalition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Greek forces are also cooperating in the refugee crisis that affects the nations of the Mediterranean Sea.

Both countries would like to see greater cooperation moving forward, defense officials said.

India

The chairman will leave Greece and travel to New Delhi to attend the two-plus-two meetings there. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Indian Minister of External Affairs Shushma Swaraj, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be leading the meetings.

“India is one of our premier security partners and an important and influential global leader,” Dunford said to press traveling with him. “Our nations are united by shared values and a commitment to freedom. The Two-plus-Two presents an historic opportunity to develop our growing partnership and to explore ways of enhancing our security cooperation.”

India is the only non-treaty ally with whom the United States has this form of discussion, officials said.

A senior administration official speaking on background put the meeting in perspective: “[Pompeo’s] travel in tandem with Secretary Mattis is a strong indication of the deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India, and of India’s emergence as an important security provider in the region,” the official said. “India's central role in our National Security Strategy is enshrined in the President's National Security Strategy as well as the administration’s South Asia and Indo-Pacific strategies.”

Officials said the U.S. would like to see increased cooperation with India and would like to explore ways to “operationalize” India’s unique status as a Major Defense Partner.

The U.S. would like to see defense trade grow with India and would like to see an expansion and broadening of the exercise program between the two nations, officials said.

McCain’s Life Celebrated at Washington National Cathedral

WASHINGTON -- The nation bid farewell to Arizona Sen. John S. McCain III -- former Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, war hero and Vietnam prisoner of war -- in a patriotic and emotional service today at the Washington National Cathedral.

McCain lost his battle with brain cancer Aug. 25 at age 81. He will be laid to rest tomorrow at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

VIPs, from former presidents Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton, to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and former defense secretaries Leon Panetta and Ash Carter, attended the funeral.

The military provided ceremonial support for the retired Navy captain from body bearers and ushers to the U.S. Navy Band and U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club during a service that spanned two-and-a-half hours.

McCain’s ‘Amazing’ Life

Former President George W. Bush said what was remarkable about McCain’s life was the “amazing sweep” of it.

“From a tiny prison cell in Vietnam to the floor of the United States Senate, from trouble-making [Naval Academy] plebe to presidential candidate, wherever John passed throughout the world, people immediately knew there was a leader in their midst,” he said.

“And one epic life was written of courage and greatness of our country,” Bush added.

“John was, above all, a man with a code,” the former president said. “He lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and purpose to his life and to his country.

“He was courageous, with a courage that frightened his captors and inspired his countrymen,” Bush said.

“As John would say: ‘My friends,’ we come to celebrate an extraordinary man -- a warrior, a statesman, a patriot, [who] embodied so much that is best in America,” former President Barack Obama said.

‘He Made This Country Better’

Obama said McCain made him and Bush better presidents during his Senate tenure, “just as he made the Senate better. Just as he made this country better.”

McCain showed a largeness of spirit and an ability to see past differences in search of common ground, the 44th president said.

He answered the highest of callings to do something that was bigger than he was by serving his country during a time of war, Obama said.

“Others this week and this morning have spoken of the depths of his torment and the depths of his courage there in the cells of Hanoi, when day after day, year after year, that youthful iron was tempered into steel.” he said of McCain’s five-and-a-half years spent as a prisoner of war.

In captivity, McCain learned how each moment, each day and each choice is a test, the former president noted. “And John McCain passed that test again and again and again. And that’s why when John spoke of virtues like service and duty, it didn’t ring hollow. Those weren’t just words to him. It was a truth that he had lived, and for which he was prepared to die.”

A Family Man

McCain was also lauded as a great family man, husband and father.

His daughter, Meghan McCain, gave the eulogy and said, “the nation is here to remember you,” to her father.

“That fervent faith, that proven devotion, that abiding love -- that is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the Red River Delta to the brink of the presidency itself,” she said.

“Dad,” McCain said, “your greatness is woven … into the life and liberty of the country you sacrificed so much to defend.”

Face of Defense: Guard Soldier Uses Medical Skills to Save Boy’s Life

By Army Staff Sgt. Michael Davis, New York National Guard

CAMP SMITH TRAINING SITE, N.Y. -- National Guard members spend countless hours every year training for the next big mission. For Army Spc. Nicole McKenzie, that mission wasn’t overseas -- it was just below an overpass on her way home from the Yonkers armory on Aug. 3.

McKenzie, a cable systems installer and maintainer with Company A, 101st Signal Battalion, New York Army National Guard, saw a flash of red going over a guardrail on the Saw Mill River Parkway and immediately pulled her car to the side of the road.

“I saw what looked like the outline of a boy going over the side,” McKenzie said. “I knew something was wrong.”

Her instincts had been sharpened by nearly six years of Army training, which erased all doubt and hesitation at the scene.

“Thanks to my Army training, it was all automatic; everything was fluid,” McKenzie said.

She ran over to the edge where she saw Police Officer Jessie Ferreira Cavallo, of the Hastings-on-Hudson police department already assessing the scene.

Teamwork

When McKenzie saw the 12-year-old boy lying on the rocks below, she shouted to Cavallo, “Let’s go!” They both ran to the shallow end of the overpass, climbed over a fence, and dropped 10 feet to the jagged ground below.

The boy, a resident of the Bronx, had left the Andrus campus in the Bronx. Andrus is a private, nonprofit organization that provides services for vulnerable children, children with special needs, and children with severe emotional and behavior issues.

Andrus staff were speaking with the boy when he jumped from the overpass he had been standing on.

McKenzie, who spent three years on active duty with the 168th Multifunctional Medical Battalion and just completed combat life-saving training with the Guard, immediately began to triage the injuries the boy sustained in the fall.

Quick Thinking, Treatment

She used quick thinking to improvise a flashlight from her phone to administer a concussion test, took his vital signs, and kept talking to him so he stayed awake and alert.

Next, she shouted to a bystander above to grab the medical bag from her trunk and throw it down.

Working in tandem with Cavallo, they used splints from her bag to secure his neck, arm and leg, and stayed with him until the medics arrived and took him to the Westchester hospital.

The Westchester County Police records department confirmed the assistance from McKenzie and the pivotal role that both the National Guard and local police played in working together to assist the young boy.

McKenzie doesn’t think she’s a hero. For her, it’s all about loyalty to her unit and her community.

“I wear the uniform every day because I want to help soldiers -- I want to help people,” McKenzie said. “This is my family.”