Top Guard General: Nation's Guard Members at Peak of Excellence

By Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

Aug. 22, 2007 - As the chief of the National Guard Bureau touted the achievements of today's citizen-soldiers and -airmen to sports commentators at Fenway Park here earlier this month, a 91-year-old World War II veteran sitting in the stands below the broadcast booth made much the same claims on behalf of today's Guard members. During the fifth inning of the Aug. 17 Boston Red Sox baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum told Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo of the New England Sports Network that 70 percent of Guard members have served at least one tour related to the global war on terrorism.

"We're in 40 countries," Blum said. "We're providing about 50,000 troops overseas as you and I are talking and watching this ballgame; 6,000 on the southwest border; and about 10,000 called out by their governors for forest fires, floods, ... getting ready for hurricanes."

Blum explained how being a Guard member requires balancing civilian vocations, schooling and family life with military commitments. "This is the most experienced, combat-proven force that we've ever had," he said.

The general was in Boston in part to visit with members of the 29th Infantry Division Association, which includes soldiers from the National Guard division who have served as long ago as World War II and as recently as this year in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of those soldiers, 91-year-old Stanley Bernstein, was watching the ballgame below where Blum was being interviewed.

Bernstein was a platoon sergeant when he landed on Omaha Beach on the French coast. His platoon came ashore in a different place than planned. "We were supposed to oppose one German division," he said. "Instead, there were three divisions on maneuvers, and they decimated our troops."

Twenty-three of his men died. After that, Bernstein fought the Germans and their allies from France through Belgium and into Germany, where he was among soldiers who entered the concentration camps.

About every two years until he was in his 80s and could no longer make the journey, Bernstein went back to the beach where his comrades fell, keeping a promise he had made to their memory.

He took his wife. "You couldn't have been here," he recalled her saying. "How did you get on top of that mountain?"

Bernstein also took each of his five children. "I wanted to show each child the horrors I went through serving our great country, and I wanted to tell them how proud I was doing this and wanted them to instill this in others," he said.

He has been married for 60 years, has five children and 12 grandchildren and retired as a successful businessman. Yet when a uniformed soldier sitting next to him reminded Bernstein how he and his colleagues are often called the "Greatest Generation," he replied: "Today's soldiers, in my judgment, the sacrifices they are making are the most commendable thing I've ever seen. The last six years, you've been doing services that are so outstanding. The National Guard has done an outstanding job."

Bernstein said he fought to repay his country and still would. "Having been a first-generation American -- my parents came from Europe -- I felt I owed my country, because it's been so great to our family. Only in America can you come from poverty and make a decent living, sleep peacefully in a house every day, drive a car. For a minority, being Jewish, coming from nowhere, having no background, you were able to get an education, get a decent job. I'm grateful to our country. I would give my life for it."
Meanwhile, Blum was upstairs taking with Remy and Orsillo.

"It bonds generations," he said of military service. "The quality of the Guard is better than it's ever been at any time in the history of the Guard."

(Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill is assigned to the National Guard Bureau.)

U.S. Assessment Team Arrives in Belize Behind Hurricane Dean

By Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service

Aug. 22, 2007 - About 20 soldiers and airmen from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, deployed here yesterday as part of an initial assessment team following Hurricane Dean. The then-Category 5 storm slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early yesterday, just north of this Central American nation.

The team -- which includes a security detail, medics, engineers, search-and-rescue assets and communications specialists -- was transported via two UH-60 Black Hawks and one CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Upon arrival, task force personnel took leaders from the Belize Defense Force and American Embassy on a two-hour flight to survey the damage from the storm.

"We went north to Corozal and surveyed the damage along the coast," said Army Maj. Michael Angell, task force commander for the mission. "We flew around that town, a couple of other villages, and stopped to pick up three Belize Defense Force medics and transport them to another location," he said.

Based on the initial assessment from yesterday's flight, Angell said damage to the country's infrastructure was minimal. "One village had a lot of roofs blown off, billboards blown over, and that was the extent of the damage," he said.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Heather Prater, a civil engineer deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., flew on the mission with an automated route reconnaissance kit to capture video of the potentially damaged areas. "There was some flooding and trees uprooted," she said, "but even up around the coast it looks good."

During the flight, Prater used a hand-held video camera to capture the route of the helicopter. Later, after downloading the data from the reconnaissance system, she was able to provide detailed photos and video that correlated to a global positioning system location, pinpointing the damage on a map.

Although he didn't see a lot of structural damage, Angell said, damage to crops from wind and flooding could be substantial.

"Agriculturally, they took a huge hit," he said, referring to extensive damage to sugar cane fields and papaya crops, which Belize is known for.

During the mission, aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk from 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, from Soto Cano, the surveyors also were able to transport three Belizean medics to a nearby village.

A separate mission aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, also from the 1/228th, transported 26 Belize Defense Force infantrymen to outer lying areas that have no police or fire and rescue forces, Angell said.

The team is slated to fly another survey mission today to survey other areas for potential damage.

"We'll continue to support until they tell us we're no longer needed," Angell said.

(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs is assigned to Joint Task Force Bravo Public Affairs.)

Joint Task Force Bravo Treats 1,300 Patients in Peru

By Senior Airman Shaun Emery, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service

Aug. 21, 2007 - Members of Joint Task Force Bravo's medical disaster relief task force, deployed from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, continue to assist citizens here following a magnitude 8 earthquake that struck the region Aug. 15. Over the past two days, medical team members have treated more than 1,300 patients with a wide variety of conditions. Most patients required medicines for gastro-intestinal illnesses, respiratory illnesses, minor wounds, and aches and pains.

In addition to basic medicines and medical care, members of the field team diagnosed a case of appendicitis in the field and quickly had the patient transported to a mobile surgical team stationed at the airport.

"When the patient arrived, she approached the front of the line with her mother," said Air Force Capt. William Ingram, an emergency medicine physician's assistant. "We listened to her story, and she had three days of worsening abdominal pain. We laid her down to do an evaluation and determined that she needed to be taken away immediately."

News of the American medical team's presence traveled quickly through the town and to other agencies providing assistance. When other agencies arrived to help, members of Joint Task Force Bravo's medical team were able to pack up and move to another location to provide more care.

"Once more agencies arrived, we realized we would be able to move locations and provide help to more people," said Air Force Master Sgt. Deborah Davis, the task force's noncommissioned officer in charge. "There are so many people in need. I'm glad we could offer our services to so many people."

As the mission wrapped up, many of the medical team members reflected on the time they spent in Peru.

"The fact that we executed within 20 hours of notification and were the first American contingent speaks volumes of our capability," said Air Force Maj. Paul Valdez, medical operations officer in charge. "It just goes to show that our military is capable of providing humanitarian assistance anytime anywhere in the world."

(Air Force Senior Airman Shaun Emery is assigned to Joint Task Force Bravo Public Affairs.)

Idaho School Launches 'Operation Education'

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 21, 2007 - Between physical and fiscal challenges, severely injured servicemembers and spouses who don't hold a college degree may find earning one a bit daunting. The University of Idaho is working to change that. With a slogan of "You've served us; now let us serve you – with a college degree," the school launched Operation Education in June 2006.

"Operation Education is a scholarship program that was designed to provide financial and social support for disabled veterans who have been wounded since ... 9/11," Karen White, the scholarship's chairman, said. "The program is individually tailored to each applicant and what that particular person or that family unit's needs are."

That can be as little as help with child care all the way to tuition, fees, and books to housing and other support necessary for injured servicemembers to attend classes.

"Because of their injuries, they are generally eligible for vocational rehabilitation," White, who holds a doctorate in physical therapy, said. "So besides what they may have gotten through their military service, ... we fill in the gaps."

Servicemembers applying for University of Idaho Operation Education scholarships must have been severely injured on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, and must be accepted by the university. Idaho students are given priority. The scholarship also is open to spouses, White said.

"So, if the instance happens where the veteran is not able to or not interested in coming to school, then his or her spouse could come and partake in getting a higher education," she said. "Or, if both wanted to come to school, we would be happy to fund the ... two of them."

Operation Education began when one of the university's development officers attended a holiday gathering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, White said. She was so moved by the patients' spirit and fortitude that she started working on a way for a university all the way across the country to say, "thank you."

"The natural answer was higher education," White said. "Being a university, that is how we could help and what we could offer."

So far, the university has offered that opportunity to three veterans. The first scholar started in January and has since graduated, found a job and bought a house in the area, White said, adding that he only needed assistance for a semester.

"We still have two, and we want it to be a small program," she said. "I think max, we could handle three, maybe four new students per year."

More than that and the individualization of the program would suffer, she said.

White said she is hoping to encourage other colleges and universities to start similar programs.

"Use the name. Use the idea," she said. "I am more than willing to share with any college ... what we've learned, our forms, our focus or ideas."

One thing she's learned, White said, is that lots of people believe in the program and have shown it through financial support. The scholarship has been completely funded through private money.

"We've had a wonderful outpouring of support," White said. "Primarily (it's been) from University of Idaho alums, but also some folks who have just heard about the scholarship and were impressed with what we were doing and have chosen to send money our way."

Frequently those donors have had a military connection, she added. In fact, Army officers Meagan Bacharach and Chris Rizzo, who are planning their January 2008 wedding, have found a unique way to support the program.

Bacharach, whose parents are University of Idaho alums, and Rizzo have added Operation Education and another Special Operation Warrior Foundation to their bridal registry.

"Between the two of us, we really have enough things," Bacharach said in an Operation Education news release.

This gesture thrilled White, who thinks Operation Education is an appropriate gesture for the university to make to the nation's servicemembers.

"It just seemed like such a natural way to thank and acknowledge those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedom and our country," she said.

Editor's Note: To find out about more individuals, groups and organizations that are helping support the troops, visit www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil. America Supports You is a Defense Department program that directly connects military members to the support of the America people and offers a tool to the general public in their quest to find meaningful ways to support the military community.

Alaska Air National Guard Unit Prepares for Larger Role at Elmendorf

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 21, 2007 - Air Force National Guard Col. Chuck Foster is going to miss his Tastee Freez. As 176th Wing here prepares to move to its new home on nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base, the local haunt for ice cream and burgers blocks away will be just one of the emotional ties that Foster and the rest will have to cut.

"This is our home. I have been here since 1990. I like it here. The community likes us here," said Foster, who serves as vice wing commander for the 1,500-airman-strong unit. "The emotional attachment is the thing. We're really going to feel bad about leaving Kulis."

The nearby Tastee Freez is so closely tied to Kulis that it formed the "Ice Cream Support Squadron" in 2005 and provides ice cream sundaes for unit Christmas parties and deployments. Photos of the unit and its history there adorn the diner's walls.

But, the colonel said, the move is needed to expand the mission of the base.

Kulis is located on 129 acres of neatly manicured real estate adjacent to the Anchorage International Airport. Relics of the base's fighter jet flying history jut from the lawn mounted on posts and posed as if still in flight. Behind the armory offices though, is a crowded flight line that is only expected to become fuller.

"We can't grow," Foster said. "If we had to put every airplane we owned on the ramp here, you'd have to get the shoehorn out."

Under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations, the base is expected to gain four more C-130 Hercules cargo planes to its airlift fleet. It now has eight C-130s, and four HC-130s. The HC-130 is an extended-range, combat rescue version of the C-130 transport aircraft. The HC-130 can perform extended searches and airdrop pararescuemen and survival equipment to isolated survivors. Also, larger helicopters are being developed for the base's rescue missions. It now has six HH-60s Pavehawks.

In addition, the wing's 249th Airlift Squadron is forming an association with an active-duty counterpart on Elmendorf Air Force Base, the 517th Airlift Squadron, to fly C-17 Globemaster III aircraft on missions worldwide. Collocation is better to accommodate the association and the mission, Foster said. The 249th already is providing pilots and crews to fly the planes.

"Overall, it's a benefit to the state of Alaska," Foster said.

About $143 million in construction is planned, and some ground has been broken on projects at Elmendorf. Most of the projects are slated for fiscal 2008 and 2009, and major moves will begin in summer and fall 2010, when the buildings become available, Foster said.

The move will consolidate the two installations in Anchorage, reduce infrastructure, and create an active-duty and reserve-component association. Elmendorf has room and will not need to expand, and the Anchorage airport will now have land for later expansion, he said.

The 176th provides military airlift and rescue throughout Alaska when civilian agencies cannot manage the rescue due to lack of specialized equipment or expertise. The wing averages about 100 rescue missions a year, ranging from ejected pilots to searching for overdue aircraft or recovering stranded mountain climbers.

Kulis also houses a rescue coordination center, which has Alaska National Guardsmen performing a traditionally active-duty mission.

In one of their more high-profile rescues, Guard members rescued 23 people stranded at sea in July 2006 when the Japanese cargo ship Cougar Ace, carrying about 5,000 automobiles rolled onto its side.

The Alaska National Guard's rescue coordination center assisted the Coast Guard with the rescue mission. The Alaska Air National Guard dispatched two HH-60 Pavehawks, two HC-130s, one C-130 Hercules and about a dozen pararescuemen.

The rescue garnered national attention and was awarded the Jolly Green Rescue Mission of the Year, which recognizes the Air Force's most outstanding rescue missions. The unit was called in because the Coast Guard could not get there without refueling.

"We've have unique hardware and unique expertise that is found nowhere else in Alaska," Foster said.

The base is also home to an air surveillance squadron, which performs an active-duty mission assumed by the Guard.

When combining the move, transformation and ongoing missions with operational deployments and humanitarian aid missions around the world, Foster likens his task to rebuilding an airplane while it is still in flight.

"There is a war on. We have all of the normal things that we need to do, plus we're fighting, plus we're transforming into a new missions and to a new location," he said.

The former rescue helicopter pilot says his wing is up to the task, but concedes there will be some anxious moments.

"If anybody can pull it off, we can. That doesn't mean that it's not hard," Foster said. "Our future does look bright, but it is turbulent. I believe we will do a very good job for the state and nation."

C-17s in Alaska Ramp Up to Go Operational

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 21, 2007 - Long-range, heavy airlift resources for wartime and humanitarian efforts across the globe will be a day's flying time closer to the need in less than a month. The 517th Airlift Squadron, a former C-130 Hercules unit, is in the process of becoming operational as a C-17 Globemaster III unit. C-17s provide longer range and capabilities to carry larger loads than C-130s. Placing the capabilities of the C-17 in Alaska means war support and humanitarian aid can be anywhere in the world a day sooner.

Since the first C-17 touched down in Alaska in June, the unit has been readying itself to become operational next month, flying missions across the state and training crews and maintainers.

The third C-17 arrived here this month. The fourth is expected next month, and the unit will begin flying missions for U.S. Transportation Command. By November, officials expect a full complement of eight airlift jets.

Previously, C-17s flying from the continental United States would have to lay over in Hawaii or Alaska before moving on to eastern locations. Even though the aircraft can fuel on the go, to travel farther, crews would have to be swapped or safe rest time allotted.

Now, because of their forward location in Pacific Command, crews can fly to all points east in a day, or they can cross the North Pole and be in Germany in eight hours.

"We can reach any critical point in the world in less than 10 hours," the unit's commander, Air Force Lt. Col. Dave Almand, said.

The commander has been flying C-17s since they first rolled out at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., in 1994. He said it combines the large cargo capabilities of the bigger C-5 Galaxy but has the flexibility of the much smaller C-130.

"It's outstanding -- still, hands down, the most capable airlifter in the world. Nothing compares to it," Almand said.

The C-17 can fly nonstop, refueling on the go, and boasts high reliability and low maintenance, he said.

The cargo hold can accommodate an Abrams tank, 10 up-armored Humvees, two tractor trailer trucks, or 100 paratroopers and all of their gear. The jet can also land on short dirt runways in austere locations -- needing only 3,500 feet -- with loads up to 170,000 pounds. A commercial airliner typically requires about 3,000 feet just to touch down, with stopping distances twice that of the C-17. The C-17 touches down in the first 500 feet.

"We can land in the dirt. We can fly directly into a combat environment. We don't have to pre-position," Almand said.

At the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, the C-17 was able to drop 1,000 Marines in remote locations of Afghanistan. Limited access to the country, requiring long-distance trips, and the ability to haul enough cargo to equip Marines as they were emplaced were challenges the C-17 easily overcame, Almand said. Other tactical aircraft would have had to be staged closer to the drop areas, which was not possible in this operation.

Three C-17s cycled in the Marines and their equipment in 16 hours.

Also unique to the C-17 are its special operations capabilities, many of which are classified, as well as its ability to descend rapidly. Pilots can be safely out of enemy range at 30,000 feet and, with the flip of a switch, place all four jet engines in reverse and drop 20,000 feet per minute to make their drop. A commercial airliner can drop comfortably at about 2,000 feet per minute.

In the early hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 15 C-17s flying out of Italy were able to drop 1,000 paratroopers and their equipment. It was the largest similar drop since Normandy but with not nearly the risk, Almand said.

"It was actually a pretty simple operation," he said.

Air Force Capt. Brett Lent has been flying C-17s for four years, including flying disaster-relief missions to Thailand after the tsunami hit there in December 2004. Because of the speed in which air craft and crews were deployed, there was not enough time to make arrangements for in-flight fuel tankers. This forced them to stop to refuel in Alaska. Because of the stop, their allotted safe flying time ran out in Japan, and they could not make it all the way to Thailand the same day.

"Had we launched from here, we would have been in Thailand in one day," Lent said.

C-17s are particularly useful because they can fly in all weather and can drop anywhere, even where there is no landing strip.

"For humanitarian aid, if there is sky above you, we can get to you. And we have mass," Lent said. "We can drop 170,000 pounds of cargo for a large group of people and give them the aid they need. And we don't need an airfield to do it, and we can do it in any weather. We don't even have to see the ground. We're impeded only by diplomatic clearances."

That means warfighters they have all the cargo they need when they need it, Lent said.

The active-duty 517th Airlift Squadron will partner with the National Guard's 249th Airlift Squadron to provide pilots and crews. The 249th is forming now and will be collocated with its active-duty counterpart. The unit now has some pilots and crews flying with the 517th. The active-duty squadron will eventually provide three crews for every aircraft, and the Guard will provide two. A crew is made up of a pilot, copilot and loadmaster.

The addition of the Guard pilots and crews will allow the unit to provide continuous operation of the jets, Almand said. The unit will be "taskable any time, worldwide, for any mission," he said.

Besides its strategic location, Almand said, Alaska allows for training that is afforded nowhere else. The base is next door to Fort Richardson and the 67,000-square-mile Pacific Alaskan Range Complex, which offers training in a simulated combat environment and is home to the Red Flag-Alaska exercises.

"Alaska is the best low-level training environment in the world, hands down," the pilot said. "No one will be able to train like we do up here."

Defense Department to Close TALON System

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 21, 2007 - The Defense Department announced today that it will close the TALON intelligence reporting system Sept. 17 and maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements. TALON, which stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices, was established in 2002 by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. servicemembers and defense civilians at stateside and overseas military installations. It is being closed because reporting to the system had declined significantly, and it was determined to no longer be of analytical value, said Army Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

The department is working to develop a new reporting system to replace TALON, but in the interim, all information concerning force protection threats will go to the FBI's Guardian reporting system, Keck said.

"No one should think that we're no longer looking at force protection and making sure that information that law enforcement people, security people get reported is moving up some way to be evaluated so that we take force protection precautions and evaluate if there's a threat or not," Keck said. "That's still certainly happening."

The TALON system came under fire in 2005 for improperly storing information about some civilian individuals and non-government-affiliated groups on its database. The Defense Department conducted a four-point review of the system in December 2005 and, as a result, purged a large amount of information that was deemed unnecessary from the database.

The Defense Department Inspector General reviewed TALON, and in a report dated June 27, 2007, found that the program legally gathered and maintained information on individuals and organizations. However, the report found that the department's Counterintelligence Field Activity maintained TALON reports without determining whether the information should be retained for law enforcement and force protection purposes.

Keck said the department will evaluate possible future reporting systems, but that there is no timeline to establish a new system. It may be determined that the Guardian system or another reporting system already in place serves the needs of the Defense Department, he said.