Hyten Reflects on ‘Enormous Progress’ as Grady’s Confirmation Hearing is Set

Hyten Reflects on ‘Enormous Progress’ as Grady’s Confirmation Hearing is Set

Nov. 22, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The position of Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is officially vacant. Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten retired Nov. 19, and Navy Adm. Christopher W. Grady awaits his Senate confirmation hearing.

Hyten’s final departure from the Pentagon as the military’s No. 2 officer, posted to social media by the Joint Staff on Nov. 18, preceded a ceremony the following day at Joint Base Andrews, Md., during which Hyten reflected on the changes he had seen over the course of his four decades in uniform, from the early post-Vietnam years to the current era of strategic competition.

“For the last 40 years, we’ve made enormous progress to ensure the U.S. military is the most trusted and credible, apolitical institution in the United States of America and the most lethal military the world has ever seen,” Hyten said. “And now, we have to make sure it stays that way for the next 40 years and beyond.”

Grady’s confirmation hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 2, according to the Senate Armed Services Committee calendar. Grady has led the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command/U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command since May 2018. He has also held the duties of commander for U.S. Naval Forces Strategic Command and U.S. Strategic Command Joint Force Maritime Component since February 2019.

President Joe Biden announced Grady’s nomination Nov. 1, virtually guaranteeing some sort of gap after Hyten’s retirement—the full Senate has taken at least a month to confirm every Chairman and Vice Chairman in the past decade.

After the Dec. 2 confirmation hearing, Grady’s nomination will proceed to the full Senate for a vote. But while leading lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have previously pledged to act quickly to minimize any vacancy, senators can place procedural “holds” on nominees, which slow down the process—such holds delayed Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s appointment for roughly a month.

On top of that, the Senate’s end-of-the-year calendar has grown increasingly crowded. Already, passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act has been pushed back weeks and is still not finished; the government is operating under a continuing resolution that will expire in early December; and Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he wants to pass President Joe Biden’s social spending bill, called Build Back Better, by Christmas. 

Congress is currently in recess for the Thanksgiving holiday and returns to session Nov. 29. Then the Senate is scheduled to be in session only two more weeks before recessing again until 2022, but that could very well change.

During a press briefing Oct. 28, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby called any sort of gap in the Vice Chairman role “not optimal” but noted that the Joint Staff had worked through such situations before. By law, there is no procedure for naming an “acting” vice chairman, but some of Hyten’s roles and responsibilities can be delegated on an “acting” basis, Kirby added.

Air Force Magazine queried the Joint Staff for clarification on how Hyten’s duties were being delegated and had yet to receive a reply.

One Pilot Dies, Two Injured in T-38 Crash at Laughlin

One Pilot Dies, Two Injured in T-38 Crash at Laughlin

Nov. 20, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

One pilot was killed and two more were injured during an incident involving two T-38 trainer jets at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, on Nov. 19, the 47th Flying Training Wing announced.

Details of the incident have not been disclosed, but a release from the 47th FTW indicated that it occurred at 10 a.m. local time on the base’s runway. 

One of the pilots is in critical condition and was evacuated by air to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The other was transported to Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Del Rio, Texas, treated, and released, the wing said in a statement.

“Losing teammates is unbelievably painful and it is with a heavy heart I express my sincere condolences,” Col. Craig D. Prather, 47th Flying Training Wing commander, said in a release. “Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with our pilots involved in this mishap and their families.” 

On Nov. 21, the Air Force identified the pilot who died as 2nd Lt. Anthony D. Wentz, 23, a student pilot in the 47th FTW from Falcon, Colo. No other pilots were identified.

The T-38 is the Air Force’s supersonic trainer, used to teach pilots supersonic techniques, aerobatics, formation, night and instrument flying, and cross-country/low-level navigation. The cockpit has two seats—it is unclear whether both T-38s involved in the Nov. 19 incident had two pilots.

This marks the second fatal incident this year involving the T-38C. In February, an Air Force instructor and Japanese student were killed at Dannelly Field near Montgomery, Ala. An investigation later determined that both pilots made errors during the descent that led to the crash. 

Also in February, a pilot was faulted for relying on a “seat of the pants feel” that led to a crash involving a T-38 at Sacramento Mather Airport, Calif. Prior to those two incidents, there hadn’t been an accident involving the T-38 since 2019.

Kendall Connects Interpersonal Violence, Disparity Report Findings to Issue of Suicide

Kendall Connects Interpersonal Violence, Disparity Report Findings to Issue of Suicide

Nov. 19, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force’s recently released reports on interpersonal violence and on gender, race, and ethnic disparities are linked to the issue of suicide in the military, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a Facebook town hall Nov. 18.

These recent reports have revealed data showing stark differences in promotions, discipline, trust in leadership, and other areas between white male service members and women and racial and ethnic minorities. They have also included tens of thousands of Airmen, Guardians, and civilians within the DAF reporting some action that resulted “in psychological or physical harm or that detracts from a culture of dignity and respect.” 

Taken together, these issues contribute to one of Kendall’s most pressing concerns, he said.

“I want to make a connection between these two reports, in a way, and the other thing that has been happening in the force that keeps me awake at night,” Kendall said. “It’s the number of suicides we have. … And I think every one of these is in some way an institutional failure. It’s a leadership job to make sure people are educated about the issues they face. It’s a leadership job to make sure that people understand that when they do have a problem, that they can get help and that it’s OK to do that.”

The interpersonal violence survey, which asked respondents about 81 different behaviors identified on a “continuum of harm,” found that many Airmen and Guardians did not report incidents because they didn’t believe it was serious enough or they did not think their leaders would do anything about it. Kendall called that “disturbing” and pointed to the need for leaders to do better in supporting their troops, whether they’re facing disparity or interpersonal violence.

“If you take the case of suicide, for example, there’s the individual who is involved, and there are the people that know him and are around him and see him often and have an opportunity to intervene and help him or her. That’s something that the whole chain of command has to emphasize all the time,” Kendall said. “Similarly for the disparity, any inequities that we see, we have to act on, we have to deal with them. Interpersonal violence, in the study, often takes the form of bullying or hazing. It’s not physical violence. It’s emotional damages. It’s violence that’s done to someone’s psyche, to their mental health, as opposed to their physical health, and it certainly has implications for their health overall.”

Indeed, the survey classified actions like spreading workplace rumors and verbal harassment as interpersonal violence. And actions like those were often not reported, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said. But that speaks to a broader issue that “our Airmen and Guardians felt that if they did report, nothing would happen,” Brown said. “And maybe from negative past experience or with those that they serve with, they’ve seen examples where we, as a command or leadership, didn’t respond with the right processes.”

By taking a more expansive look at interpersonal violence, the Air Force hopes to gain a better understanding of how to monitor and deal with issues that could be “precursors” to other forms of violence, Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones added.

“The more that we know, the better prepared we’re going to be to be able to address these things,” said Ortiz Jones. “That’s why one of the things we’re looking at as it relates to that is better understanding activities, for example, like grooming and stalking—things that we don’t necessarily talk as much about … but as best we can understand some of these kinds of behaviors that indicate or are precursors, rather, to other forms of interpersonal violence, the best we’ll be able to respond, prevent those things.”

If certain minority groups lack trust in commanders to solve issues, especially of interpersonal violence, they will be more vulnerable and isolated, Ortiz Jones said. And fixing that trust in leaders to encourage reporting will require a comprehensive effort, Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said.

“It isn’t one leader. … It’s leadership at all levels. It’s leadership from frontline supervisors all the way up through the leadership of the service that you see here on the screen,” Raymond said. “So to call on the leaders would be to call on everybody in the leadership roles that you’re in to make sure that we’re providing an environment that is conducive for folks to come to work and do the mission that is so critical, and to do it in a way that they feel empowered and safe.”

“I would tell every one of our Airmen and Guardians, … ‘Don’t stop there,’” Bass said. “Gen. Raymond just talked about leaders at every level, and that holds all of us. Every leader has a leader above them. We have chains of command.”

Should Airmen and Guardians report interpersonal violence only to be dismissed by their direct leadership, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said they should continue to press the issue.

Ukraine Requests New Defense Assistance Amid Increased Tensions With Russia

Ukraine Requests New Defense Assistance Amid Increased Tensions With Russia

Nov. 19, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III promised his “unwavering” support to deter Russian aggression as border tension builds. Reznikov also confirmed Nov. 19 that Ukraine requested additional U.S. foreign military sales for its air and naval defenses.

“We have to defend our air and sea,” the defense minister said at a press conference at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C.

Reznikov said Russia is using hybrid warfare, including helping Belarus push migrants across the European border, to destabilize the region and distract Eastern European NATO members Lithuania and Poland. Russia also holds Ukraine’s energy security hostage with the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will allow Russia to circumvent Ukraine and cut off gas access, if it chooses.

The new Ukrainian Defense Minister met with Austin for the first time at the Pentagon Nov. 18 during yet another tense period in Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia. This time, Russia’s unexplained actions could spell imminent invasion, prompting Reznikov’s last-minute trip to Washington just a month after Austin visited Kyiv. It is estimated that Russia has amassed up to 90,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border near the Ukrainian capital.

“We have a well-developed and a powerful land force. The need is an air defense and missile defense,” Reznikov said.

The defense minister said the U.S. Congress and Defense Department have voiced their backing of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and that a DOD team will travel to Ukraine to assess the country’s needs.

“I got a very strong position from Secretary Austin that they will be shoulder and shoulder with us, Ukraine,” Reznikov said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine.

The defense minister, nonetheless, acknowledged that arms sales require State Department and congressional approval.

“Not only Secretary Austin would be deciding—it’s also a political decision,” he added.

A State Department spokesperson declined to confirm to Air Force Magazine on Nov. 19 that such a letter of intent had been received from Ukraine but provided a list of the $2.5 billion in training and equipment assistance provided to Ukraine since 2014.

The assistance includes tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite imagery and analysis support, counter-battery radars, and night vision devices and thermal scopes, which are used by front-line troops defending against Russian-backed separatists and elite Russian sniper units.

At the Pentagon on Nov. 18, Austin voiced his support to Ukraine, echoing a message President Joe Biden conveyed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an August visit to Washington.

“Our support for Ukraine’s self-defense, sovereignty, and territorial integrity is unwavering,” Austin said. “We are monitoring closely recent Russian military movements near your borders, and we’ve made clear our concerns about Russia’s destabilizing activities and our desire for more transparency.”

A History of Support

Reznikov said in his comments at the Ukrainian Embassy that more than $200 million in annual assistance from the United States has followed the same pattern: Russian aggression matched by U.S. capabilities.

First, he said Russia posed a land threat with its tanks on the southeastern border in the Donbas region, where a low-intensity conflict continues with Russian-backed separatists. The U.S. response was to provide Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Russia then intercepted sensitive military communications, and the U.S. provided high-tech communications equipment. In 2020, Russia’s rapidly expanding Black Sea navy fleet began incursions into Ukrainian territorial waters, and the United States provided Mark VI and Island-class patrol boats.

Now, Russia is positioning attack helicopters and fighter jets near the border to complement its robust anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems in place in occupied Crimea. That’s why the U.S. team will travel to Ukraine to assess its defense needs.

The defense minister declined to describe the specific foreign military sales requests made but confirmed that a letter had been conveyed to the State Department.

Reznikov also said a frank discussion with Austin at the Pentagon confirmed intelligence that Russia was building up troops for exercises and leaving behind military hardware and weaponry for future use.

The defense minister also said he was confident the U.S. would stand with Ukraine to deter a Russian invasion.

“The main idea is that to stop aggression, we need to show clearly that the cost will be too high,” he said, noting that he previously spent two years as a negotiator with Russia and he knows that members of the Russian government are pragmatic.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley spoke to his own Ukrainian counterpart, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Lt. Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, after the Pentagon meeting Nov. 18.

“We’re going to ensure this communication on a regular basis,” Reznikov said of that meeting.

Biden has long pressed Ukraine to crack down on corruption and increase transparency in its institutions. The defense minister took pains to assure the U.S. that Ukraine has made strides in reforming its defense apparatus and coordination between the president, parliament, and Ministry of Defense.

“My personal task is to ensure the implementation of comprehensive reforms for the development of the armed forces,” Reznikov said, citing reforms in personnel management, acquisitions, and social issues, including housing and compensation of service members.

Reznikov deflected a question about NATO entry, saying path to entry was a political decision that depended on all 30 members of the alliance and that such a decision was not on the NATO agenda.

During his August visit to Washington, Zelensky told Biden that Russia’s aggression was an urgent threat. Ukraine and the U.S. signed a defense strategic framework, but at a Mount Vernon event Aug. 31, Zelensky told Air Force Magazine the framework was too vague.

“This is just the direction, the framework,” he added. “I need more substance.”

Reznikov said Nov. 19: “My task today is to provide substance to this agreement and to implement its provisions.”

Retire the MQ-9 by 2035? Not So Fast, Defense Analysts Argue

Retire the MQ-9 by 2035? Not So Fast, Defense Analysts Argue

Nov. 19, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force needs to reconsider its plans to retire the MQ-9 Reaper by 2035, given the drone’s capabilities and potential uses when measured against financial constraints and mission demands, defense analysts from four different think tanks argued Nov. 19. 

Experts from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, RAND Corp., the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Hudson Institute, speaking at a virtual event, all agreed that the MQ-9’s useful life is far from over, even as the Air Force proceeds with modernization plans for continued divestment in the platform.

“From a cost perspective, for me, this is kind of a slam dunk,” said Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at CSIS. “If you want to look to retire platforms in the Air Force inventory, I can give you a list of things you ought to start looking at, and [the MQ-9] is not on that list.”

The Air Force has announced some upgrades for the MQ-9 in the coming years. But ultimately, the plan is still to start retiring the fleet, which is the largest fleet of remotely piloted aircraft in the USAF’s inventory, starting in 2030 and finishing by 2035. 

The reasons for that, argued retired Maj. Gen. Lawrence A. Stutzriem, director of research at AFA’s Mitchell Institute, are two competing factors—the Air Force’s need for modernization and the limits of the budget.

Right now, the service is pursuing or procuring new fighters, bombers, tankers, and intercontinental ballistic missiles, in addition to its drone fleets. All of those efforts will cost billions, but the Air Force’s budget continues to lag behind the other services, and the Pentagon’s overall budget is not expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

With limited funds and numerous priorities, Air Force leaders have adopted a strategy of asking to retire older “legacy” platforms to free up money for newer programs. The MQ-9 has been caught up in that push, Stutzriem said, which is a mistake.

“Yes, retiring the Reaper frees up some money,” said Stutzriem, who wrote a policy paper on the MQ-9 for the Mitchell Institute. “But from a cost per effect … what you can do with this for the lowest cost per flying hour is extraordinary.”

The argument for moving on from the MQ-9, observers have noted, is its lack of survivability in contested environments. Such a deficiency seemingly puts it at odds with the Air Force’s need to modernize to keep pace with China.

But such a mindset ignores current realities, both Harrison and Stutzriem said—demand for the MQ-9’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities across combatant commands remains strong.

“There is an insatiable demand for ISR right now,” Harrison said. “And that is only going to continue to increase in the future. So the Air Force has actually got to be asking itself, how is it going to meet that demand or even try to meet some fraction of that demand? If you’re in a budget-constrained environment, you’ve got to be looking at cost-effective ways of meeting that demand out into the future. We’re talking steady state, peacetime demand that is a driver of this right now. It’s not just in CENTCOM, it’s in INDOPACOM. It’s in SOUTHCOM. It’s in AFRICOM. It’s all over.”

And even beyond the current demand for ISR in environments where the Reaper can perform its duties, the MQ-9 could take on a broad range of new missions with relatively affordable investments and upgrades, Stutzriem argued, including:

  • Wide area surveillance in regions of strategic competition.
  • Air and missile defense.
  • Maritime and littoral operations.
  • Communications relays.
  • Arctic domain awareness.
  • Cruise missile defense of the homeland.
  • Defense support of civil authorities.

In particular, the MQ-9 has more to offer than some think in a potential conflict with China, said Bryan Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute. While it won’t be flying over “downtown Beijing,” as Stutzriem noted, it can operate in the Indo-Pacific region to monitor and warn of incoming threats, going places where the U.S. may be reluctant to send manned platforms such as the Air Force’s E-3 AWACS or the Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye.

“The MQ-9 can provide you that passive surveillance platform to give you a network that provides the [airborne early warning] capability we need in that long gap that’s going to emerge between the Chinese coast and the places where E-3s and E-2s can operate,” Clark said. “That airborne early warning capability could be sufficient to give you the warning you need of an incoming missile attack or an incoming bomber attack.”

The key to enabling these new uses is innovation, Stutzriem said, citing “that principle of strategies that you can use old things, current things, in powerfully new ways if you’re creative about it.” And the best way to go about finding creative solutions, argued Caitlin Lee, associate director of the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center at RAND, is to trust the Airmen currently flying the Reaper to adapt.

“They’re in the best position to do this. They’re first movers, early adopters, and they are an essential source of bottom-up innovation in the service,” Lee said. “So the Air Force leadership needs to do what’s necessary here, which is support continuing to produce and fly the Reaper, and also support the people who fly these airframes every day in combat, and who are just absolutely critical for any kind of unmanned innovation going forward.”

Here’s What CSAF Thinks You Should Be Reading, Listening To

Here’s What CSAF Thinks You Should Be Reading, Listening To

Nov. 19, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. added two new books, a podcast, and a documentary to his leadership library aimed at encouraging Airmen to expand their thinking, avoid “hindsight bias,” learn about their heritage, and find ways to remove potential barriers to service and/or promotion.

This is what he has to say about each selection:

Think Again, Adam Grant

“When was the last time you changed your mind? In Think Again, Dr. Adam Grant offers prescriptions for our Airmen to ‘rethink’ by seeking out information that goes against our entrenched or bureaucratic views. … Individual and collective rethinking should be done on a recurring basis to maintain our competitive advantage against our pacing challenge.”

The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order, Rush Doshi

“To inform our rethinking, Dr. Rush Doshi provides a masterclass on rethinking our blind spots regarding China’s strategic ambitions, … [by unpacking] the complex tapestry of China’s grand strategy.”

Knew It All Along, Katy Milkman’s Choiceology Podcast

“One rethinking pitfall, ‘hindsight bias,’ clouds how we view the past in the retrospect of the present,” writes Brown in a letter to Airmen. This podcast “shows us how to avoid selectively choosing details to make sense of the past.”

Red Tail Angels is a three part documentary series on the formation, early years, contributions and legacy of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Featuring interviews with historians, pilots, and many of the Tuskegee Airmen themselves. Produced by Air Force Television Pentagon (SAF/PAI). Episode One premiered on Veterans Day. Source: USAF

Red Tail Angels—The Story of The Tuskegee Airmen, Air Force Public Affairs

“Nearly 75 years ago, the Tuskegee Airmen pioneered a new paradigm of diversity within military aviation. Today, Action Order A challenges us to rethink the standards of our pilot selection process to identify and remove potential barriers,” Brown said.

Parsons Gets to Work on New Air Base Defense Plan for Europe, Africa

Parsons Gets to Work on New Air Base Defense Plan for Europe, Africa

Nov. 18, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

An initial team of Parsons employees arrived at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Nov. 15, and its members are now working daily with U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, designing a plan to better defend U.S. air bases in the European and African theaters.

The move comes about three months after Parsons received a 10-year, nearly $1 billion indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity Air Base Air Defense contract to “design, mature, procure, integrate, operate, and maintain Air Base Air Defense (ABAD) systems” across USAFE-AFAFRICA, according to a company release.

The government wants a mix of sensors and kinetic and nonkinetic systems that can find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess a range of threats, from small unmanned systems to hypersonic missiles.

Shaun McGrath, Parsons’ ABAD program manager, told Air Force Magazine the team will initially focus on establishing the requirements necessary to carry out the first phase of the contract.

In Phase 1, Parsons will help establish the Ramstein Air Defense Systems Integration Lab, or RADSIL, at Ramstein. The lab will be operated by Airmen and serve as the command and control center for air base defense operations in the European and African theaters.

The goal is to build an integrated system of systems that uses both commercial and government off-the-shelf software and hardware to help the service digest mass amounts of data that can be replicated at other locations and potentially on an expeditionary basis. That’s a key factor as the Air Force moves toward a more distributed concept of operations, known as agile combat employment.

“It’s much like me showing up in a location, trying to figure out how we’re going to do a bare base stand up. This is the same thing,” McGrath said. “It’s how do you get everybody to work together? How do you figure out what the actual requirements are? And, how do you start to phase that in so we can actually, successfully get into Phase 1.”

Rapidly Evolving Threat

Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA, told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September that threats—especially those from Russia—were evolving so rapidly, the Air Force needed a better way to defend its larger bases as well as the more austere locations it will be operating.

“We had to accept the fact that we probably weren’t in the position we wanted to be,” Harrigian said. So, in February, the command launched an initial demonstration to try to determine what sensors were already available and then try to find a way to fuse that data “into a picture that then was supported by decision-making tools to minimize the number of people required to do this mission set. That’s kind of our goal. We recognize that you can’t have a whole bunch of people doing this or it will never get resourced,” Harrigian told reporters at the conference.

McGrath said Parsons and its industry partners are building upon and then operationalizing USAFE’s original efforts.

Harrigian said one of the big challenges will be finding cross-domain solutions capable of crossing various classification levels and then figuring out how to filter that through a decision-making algorithm that uses emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.

“So that’s where we’re starting with them,” Harrigian said, referring to the Parsons team. “And, clearly, as we go through the budgetary side of it, this is what we’re communicating back up to the Air Force to figure out, ‘OK, how do we turn that big idea, the [concept of operations], into a level of funding that is scalable and tailorable for the broader Air Force. There’s still some decisions to be made there, and I don’t want to get in front of everybody, but I think the conversation is going in the direction that I expected it to, which is some of this we’re gonna have to figure out.”

Although Ramstein will remain the Air Base Air Defense hub, Harrigian said Aviano Air Base, Italy, is “the next place I’d like to go.” However, as of September, agreements with the host country were still being worked out.

“I am in the camp of, ‘Let’s go faster on this,’ because I think it’s inside of the price point that should make it affordable for us to expand this at a speed that gets after what [Chief of Staff] Gen. [Charles Q.] Brown is pushing to accelerate change,” Harrigian said.

DOD Inspector General Finds Pentagon Leaders Acted Appropriately on Jan. 6

DOD Inspector General Finds Pentagon Leaders Acted Appropriately on Jan. 6

Nov. 18, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Officials within the Defense Department acted appropriately and reasonably in reacting to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a DOD inspector general’s report found, determining that they “did not delay or obstruct” a response to the U.S. Capitol Police’s request for assistance.

The Nov. 18 report, however, does include a dozen recommendations for the Pentagon to consider to better its defense support of civil authorities, ranging from clarifying chain of command issues to better communication equipment to more planning and training.

The inspector general’s office interviewed 44 witnesses as part of its probe, including then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller, then-Secretary of the Army Ryan C. McCarthy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James C. McConville, and head of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson.

The report was ordered Jan. 15 in the wake of the insurrection, which saw hundreds of people breach the U.S. Capitol attempting to disrupt the certification of Electoral College results and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

The riot, which resulted in U.S. Capitol Police officers being overwhelmed and beaten and one protestor being shot, sparked outrage—and questions as to why it seemed to take so long for the National Guard to deploy and restore order.

In March, Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, testified that the Defense Department took more than three hours to approve a request for the D.C. Guard to deploy to the Capitol. 

The inspector general’s report, however, states that when Walker made the request, he “could not clearly articulate to his staff what the [Capitol Police] specifically needed,” leading to McCarthy heading to the Metropolitan Police Department to coordinate with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser directly.

Based on witness testimony, the IG concluded that “a chaotic and confusing situation” unfolded that affected the key conference call during which the U.S. Capitol Police Department requested DOD assistance, resulting in subsequent confusion that took time to clear up.

On top of that, the D.C. National Guard “is not an emergency response organization,” and military leaders are trained to plan out operations with key details instead of simply sending troops “into an uncertain situation as they become available,” the report states.

Those conclusions led to the IG’s finding that Pentagon leaders’ actions Jan. 6 were “appropriate, supported by requirements, [and] consistent with the DOD’s roles and responsibilities.”

Still, the inspector general recommended that the DOD review and update its Defense Support of Civil Authorities policy and guidance concerning U.S. Northern Command’s role in providing support to civilian authorities in and around the D.C. region, as well as command and control of the D.C. National Guard, including an operational commander for Defense Support for Civil Authorities (DSCA) matters. The IG also recommended integrating DOD’s command and control with civilian authorities.

In addition to command and control, the department can plan and train better for such situations, the report concluded, from codifying the process for other agencies to request DOD for DSCA issues, to forming contingency plans for DSCA situations, to conducting training for how to submit requests for support.

The D.C. National Guard should also refine its process for selecting and certifying individuals to serve on its Quick Response Force, noting that “members assigned to the QRF were not sufficiently trained to conduct high-intensity civil disturbance operations such as the situation presented on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Finally, D.C. National Guard personnel should be issued and trained on proper communications equipment, the report states, noting that much of the communication that occurred Jan. 6 happened over personal cell phones.

Will Airmen, Guardians Be Separated for Refusing Vaccine? ‘Pretty Straightforward,’ Kendall Says

Will Airmen, Guardians Be Separated for Refusing Vaccine? ‘Pretty Straightforward,’ Kendall Says

Nov. 18, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Will Airmen and Guardians who continue to refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and don’t get an exemption from the rule be separated?

“It’s actually a pretty straightforward question,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Nov. 18, all but outright stating that vaccine refusers will be booted from service.

Kendall, addressing the question during a virtual town hall on Facebook, did not explicitly say that every single person who refuses the vaccine without an exemption will be separated. But he made it clear that DOD leadership doesn’t see how those who refuse the vaccine can continue to serve.

“The bottom line is that willfully disobeying a lawful order is incompatible with military service. And to get a vaccination is a lawful order,” said Kendall. “The Secretary of Defense put that order out. We’re implementing it in the Air Force. There isn’t any question about it being a lawful order. We have to do a lot of things to take care of the health of the force, and people have been required to get vaccinations for a number of things.”

The Department of the Air Force has yet to publicly lay out a standardized process for dealing with those who refuse the shot—a spokesperson told Air Force Magazine on Nov. 3 that ​​disciplinary action for disobeying a lawful order would be taken in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice at the commander level using an escalatory approach.

Since then, the Navy and the Marine Corps have made it clear—Sailors and Marines who refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccine will get the boot. Sailors have five days to start the vaccination process if their request for an exemption is denied, and Marines will start the separation process as soon as they are determined to have outright refused the vaccine.

As of Nov. 16, 1,067 Airmen and Guardians have formally refused the vaccine, while 4,817 have religious accommodation requests pending, 1,617 have received some form of exemption, and 2,184 are simply listed as having not started the vaccination process. All told, 97.3 percent of the Active-duty force is at least partially vaccinated.

Air Force policy requires the service to rule on religious exemption requests within 30 business days, a deadline the service may struggle to meet given the crush of waiver-seekers. Yet even if someone does receive an exemption, Kendall questioned whether the unvaccinated would be able to serve in the same way as those who do get the shot.

“There’s a possibility of getting an administrative or medical exemption. There’s a possibility of applying and getting a religious accommodation and getting proof of that. But then there’s a question of even if you do get that, is it still compatible with service, is it still possible for you to deploy [without] it, for example?” Kendall said.

And for those who don’t get an exemption and still refuse, “there are going to be consequences for that,” Kendall said. “Ultimately it is incompatible with military service to disobey lawful orders. Every one of us, whether you’re an officer or enlisted person, takes an oath that says, ‘I will follow the lawful orders of those appointed over me.’ That’s universal, and so that I think that should give you the answer to the question.”