Veteran Suicides Decline 7 Percent in 2019, No Sign of COVID Impact Yet

Sept. 8, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Veteran suicides dropped significantly in 2019, with a 7.2 percent year-over-year decline in the adjusted suicide mortality rate marking the largest single-year decline since 2001, newly released data from the Department of Veterans Affairs show.

All told, 399 fewer suicides were recorded among veterans in 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, than in 2018. The 6,261 total suicides recorded were the fewest in a year since 2007. The average number of veteran suicides per day also declined—from 18.2 per day in 2018 to 17.2 in 2019.

Still, the adjusted rate of suicides among veterans continues to exceed that of the general population—in 2019, there were 31.6 suicides per 100,000 veterans, compared to 16.8 per 100,000 non-veteran adults. That gap, however, did narrow in 2019.

“Taken together, much work remains to be done. As long as Veteran suicide numbers are annually in the thousands, there is no sense of mission accomplishment or satisfaction within VA, despite being heartened by unprecedented decreases in Veteran suicide,” the VA’s 2021 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, released Sept. 8, concludes.

The report also indicated that male veterans remain far more likely to die by suicide, with a rate of suicide more than twice the rate among female veterans. The overall decline in suicide rate in 2019 included declines for both male and female veterans, though, with the rate among male veterans in particular declining for the first time in nearly a decade.

“Suicide prevention remains a top priority for VA, with the most significant amount of resources ever appropriated and apportioned to VA suicide prevention,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “Suicide is preventable, and everyone has a role to play in saving lives.”

The Department of Defense released its own report on suicide in the ranks in 2019 back in October 2020, finding that nearly 500 military personnel killed themselves that year. That number was also a decline from 2018, of about 50 service members.

It remains to be seen whether the 2019 declines continued into 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and upended millions of lives. But while the VA does not have finalized 2020 data on deaths from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it has been monitoring suicide-related indicators for veterans receiving Veterans Health Administration care.

Analysis of that data, the report said, showed no sign of increases in suicide or other suicide-related indicators.

Those results follow other studies of the general population that showed no increases in the suicide rate during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, despite fears by some to the contrary.

The VA did find, however, an increase in “all-cause mortality”—deaths by any cause—among veterans receiving VHA care. And that increase, the study states, “exceeds the number of VA deaths that have been directly attributed to COVID-19.”

Again, those findings echo other academic studies of the general population that have observed excess death counts that are not all attributed directly to COVID-19.

“It … remains to be seen the impact of COVID-19 beyond the data and surveillance tools and means currently available to VA,” the report states. “Furthermore, the potential for a negative rebound effect in the proximal years following initial impact of wide-scale catastrophic or seismic events witnessed within modern history merits vigilance paired with aggressive prevention and intervention preparation and implementation.”

Military members and veterans experiencing a mental health emergency can contact the Veteran Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255. Veterans, troops, or their family members can also text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net for assistance.

Austin, Blinken Thank Qatar for its Role in Afghanistan Evacuation

Sept. 8, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken joined their counterparts in Qatar on Sept. 7 to acknowledge the transit and care of 58,000 evacuees from Afghanistan and to give a nod to the country’s strategic role in countering Iran as the American presence in the Mideast draws down.

In Pentagon remarks about the end of the Afghanistan War on Sept. 1, Austin said many countries helped the 124,000 evacuees, including Americans, endangered Afghans, and third-country citizens, to depart amid the danger and turmoil following the fall of Kabul, but he singled out Qatar for a visit.

Austin and Blinken both thanked the Gulf partner and described Qatar’s role in America’s desire for a continued over-the-horizon counterterrorism capability. Drone strikes in Afghanistan following the American withdrawal are believed to have originated from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

“No operation is ever perfect,” Austin acknowledged, promising an after-action report about the precipitous drawdown and evacuation effort.

He confirmed a reporter’s question that ground intelligence operations had been withdrawn from Afghanistan, but that regional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, including that housed at Al Udeid, would be instrumental in America’s regional security efforts moving forward.

“There’s no question that it will be more difficult to identify and engage threats that emanate from the region, but we’re committed to making sure that threats are not allowed to develop and create significant challenges for us in the homeland,” he said. “We already have robust capabilities in the region … We’ve come a long way in the last 20 years in terms of the development of our capabilities.”

Austin added: “There isn’t a scrap of Earth that we can’t reach out and touch when we need to. We’ve demonstrated that time and time again.”

Austin thanked Qatar for serving 10,000 meals to evacuees three times per day during their transit through the country. Some 4,000 evacuees were still in the country when the two American cabinet members spoke.

Blinken said some 100 American citizens, mostly dual nationals, are believed to still be in Afghanistan and that the State Department is working to help them depart on charter flights, should they desire to leave. Several thousand Afghan special immigrant visa applicants are also believed to be in the country, although Blinken said an accurate tally had not been made.

Hamid Karzai International Airport remains closed to commercial flights, with charters and overland routes used to evacuate those now in danger. Blinken said Qatar and Turkey have been in touch with the Taliban to provide the assistance necessary to reopen the airport to commercial flights and that the Taliban is not blocking egress or holding hostages, contrary to reports.

Austin said he discussed a range of issues with Qatari officials, including malign behavior by Iran.

“Iran’s support for terrorism and its willingness to supply increasingly lethal weapons to non-state groups undermines the regional stability that we all seek,” he said. “We’re committed to working together to enhance regional defenses against destabilizing actions, including Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

Austin also acknowledged Qatar’s role as a regional mediator, citing several other areas where the two nations can work together.

“Our relationship goes deeper than just defense concerns,” he said. “We’re working with our regional partners toward some important shared objectives: to wind down conflicts, to provide humanitarian aid to civilians in need, to de-escalate tensions, and to encourage dialogue. We think that’s the right way to ensure regional security and stability, and we know that Qatar stands with us.”

Air Force Innovation Hub Hears Pitches for ‘Flightline of the Future’

Sept. 8, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s technology innovation hub has asked technology companies, industry partners, academia, and others to “revolutionize” flight line operations. The effort—a “sequel” to AFWERX’s 2020 base of the future initiative—is aimed at addressing three specific challenges: airfield maintenance and repair; aircraft maintenance operations; and flight line security.

Projects on all three topics were presented in late August at the AFWERX Innovation Hub in Las Vegas, Nev., according to a Sept. 7 release.

A common theme, officials said, was autonomous technology. Project teams pitched using artificial intelligence and automated tech to collect airfield surface data and determine damage, streamlining maintenance and repair.

In particular, “smart pavement” was pitched as a potential innovation for the Air Force to use in its base of the future. Smart pavement has often been pitched as a future technology for highways and roads, with sensors embedded into the pavement providing data on traffic and working with smart cars.

For airfields, however, smart pavement can be used in other ways. Hill Air Force Base, Utah, already has a “smart runway,” thanks to a project from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which installed sensors on and in the base’s runway to detect pressure, temperature, moisture, and movement, along with other data, according to Airport Improvement.

All that data, experts say, can help inform decisions about operations and maintenance, as engineers can monitor the runway’s conditions more closely.

Smart pavement could also help address flight line security, according to some pitches presented to AFWERX. Sensors embedded into lights on the runway or the surface of the runway itself could use facial recognition or scannable badges to determine the identity of individuals on the flight line.

Projects presented to AFWERX also touted the use of artificial intelligence and automated processes to improve aircraft maintenance.

“The technology shown during the AFWERX Challenge will completely transform aircraft maintenance operations,” Lt. Col. Yogi Lebby, Advanced Concepts chief, said in a statement. “These new modernizing solutions will allow maintainers to be more proactive, document more effectively, and drive efficiencies back into a maintainer’s day. The future is now and I’m excited to be part of the journey.”

The Air Force has been interested in the idea of using AI to improve maintenance for years now. In 2020, the service tripled the number of aircraft using predictive maintenance algorithms, with the hope of using vast amounts of data and machine learning to anticipate issues, which would allow maintainers to more quickly identify problems and start work on solutions.

While AFWERX said it evaluated “hundreds” of participants in its Flightline of the Future challenge, the program doesn’t have the ability to award any contracts itself. Instead, it engages with individuals, startups, small businesses, large enterprises, academia, and research labs, then connects them with other Air Force agencies that can award deals. Some projects pitched to AFWERX can be selected for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards.

A Satellite Swarm May be the Next-Gen Hurricane Hunters

Sept. 8, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

LAFAYETTE, Colo.—A mockup of a 30-centimeter-long satellite on a shelf in the lobby of Blue Canyon Technologies may not look like much, but it represents a new approach to weather reconnaissance that could one day render one of the Air Force’s earliest missions obsolete.

The three-unit, or 3u, cubesat’s real-life counterpart is already in orbit, itself a pathfinder, while in a workroom at Blue Canyon Technologies in August, technicians put together one of six that NASA plans to launch as a constellation in 2022.

For now, the Air Force Reserve Command’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron—the “Hurricane Hunters”—flies WC-130J Super Hercules aircraft outfitted with weather gear out of Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., into and around tropical cyclones such as hurricanes to collect data on the location and intensity. The mission dates back to 1943 and started, according to the command, because of a dare between two Army Air Corps pilots. The squadron went to work in support of the National Hurricane Center as recently as Hurricane Ida.

These aircrews today place themselves in the “perfect temporal and spatial” situation to collect data, being right inside the storms, said William Blackwell, lead researcher for the TROPICS mission, short for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats. But coverage from those airplanes is “very sparse,” Blackwell told Air Force Magazine in an interview. Unlike an airplane inside a storm, a satellite in space can record data about an entire hurricane all at once.

If all goes according to plan, the TROPICS mission could “substantially improve our ability to forecast tropical storms,” said Blackwell, principal investigator for the NASA-funded program and associate leader of the Applied Space Systems Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Existing satellites that detect visible or infrared light from low Earth orbit can’t “see” through the tops of clouds because those wavelengths don’t penetrate, Blackwell said.

The TROPICS pathfinder, on the other hand, has shown that it can, in effect, peer inside—”below the clouds, where it really matters,” Blackwell said. TROPICS detects longer-wavelength microwave radiation, which penetrates the cover and reveals clues about the storm’s intensity, including moisture and a core temperature anomaly that indicates the maximum sustained wind speed.

Polar-orbiting satellites that gather data for other agencies do observe microwave radiation—Blackwell estimated the satellites at “school-bus-sized”—and “then you have to wait six hours before the next one flies over.” Yet even adding in observations that international partners may contribute, “there’s still a big gap.”

Assuming the pathfinder continues to check out, the six-satellite TROPICS constellation will bring that “revisit” rate down from six hours to about 50 minutes, Blackwell said. A constellation of 24 could get the revisit rate down to about 6 minutes.

The $30 million mission includes the cubesats and a year-and-a-half of operations—a three-month commissioning period to get the satellites set up and checked out followed by a year of data collection and then three months of decommissioning at the end. If it works well, Blackwell could envision stretching out the operations to as long as three years.

TROPICS’ pathfinder cubesat made three passes over Hurricane Ida just before and just after the storm made landfall in Louisiana in August. The images show the hurricane’s “very clear structure” over the Gulf of Mexico and later when “the storm kind of dissipates” over land, Blackwell said.

“Initial images” released by NASA of Hurricane Ida detected at 205 gigahertz, one of the cubesat’s 12 channels, “lend a lot of confidence that the data we receive from the imager will be useful in characterizing a hurricane’s structure,” said NASA’s Patrick Duran, TROPICS applications lead at Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., in a Sept. 3 release. “It’s really great to see how well the 205-GHz imagery represents Ida’s inner core.”

Blackwell said the rest of the channels are up and running now as well.

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Staff Sgt. Colleen F. Mitchell

Sept. 8, 2021

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 20 to 22 in National Harbor, Md. Air Force Magazine is highlighting one each workday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Staff Sgt. Colleen F. Mitchell, an aerospace medical technician assigned to the Air Force District of Washington.

Mitchell was the sole aerospace medical technician assigned to Manda Bay, Republic of Kenya, in support of Operation Octave Shield. She risked her personal safety to help establish a casualty collection point during the first ever Al-Shabaab attack on a U.S. military base in Kenya. She activated and led a team of four augmented medical personnel to provide immediate triage and assessment for predicted casualties upon direct impact of 10 confirmed mortar attacks, 38 rocket propelled grenades, and numerous small arms fire exchanges at the camp compound and the airfield.

Mitchell courageously provided emergent prolonged field care for more than 16 hours, assisting in stabilization of two critical and four acute stress casualties. She also flawlessly executed Manda Bay’s first walking blood bank, where she pre-screened 12 individuals for stand-by donation.

2021 Outstanding Airmen of the Year honoree Staff Sergeant Colleen Mitchell. USAF

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SOUTHCOM Concludes Haiti Humanitarian Mission

Sept. 7, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

U.S. Southern Command wrapped up its humanitarian mission to Haiti on Sept. 3, flying the last of 671 missions after the island nation was ravaged by an earthquake and tropical storm.

The logistics were achieved thanks to the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Wing, the Puerto Rico National Guard’s aviation unit, Special Operations Command-South, U.S. Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras, and SOUTHCOM’s own assets, none of which were deployed globally at the time.

“We had all components on deck,” said SOUTHCOM Commander Adm. Craig S. Faller, who is due to hand over command in October, in a statement. “Less than 24 hours after the earthquake, the U.S. Coast Guard began lifesaving efforts and delivery of aid, a testament to the urgency with which we come to help our partners in their time of need. Our Task Force worked around the clock to save lives.”

SOUTHCOM spokesman José Ruiz told Air Force Magazine military assistance was crucial in the early stages of the relief operation.

“As those disaster-relief missions progress and more experienced experts arrive to aid longer-term recovery and reconstruction, U.S. military capabilities are no longer requested, and roles previously performed by military units and troops are assumed by other, more experienced relief organizations,” he said.

Helicopters were delivered from JTF-Bravo; situational awareness teams deployed from SOC-South; and helicopters assisted from the Puerto Rico National Guard along with C-130s from the Arkansas Air National Guard.

The Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force deployed personnel and assets, including the USS Arlington, Billings, and Burlington, as well as MV-22 Ospreys.

Ruiz said the timely disaster response helped rescue more than 477 people and delivered nearly 600,000 pounds of aid.

Trouble began on the Caribbean island when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Aug. 14, killing 2,200, followed two days later by the fierce winds and rain produced by Tropical Storm Grace.

Joint Task Force-Haiti stood up Aug. 15 and was led by Rear Adm. Keith Davids with the Coast Guard providing search and rescue in remote areas; the Army, Navy, and Puerto Rico National Guard delivering helicopters; and Air Force C-130s providing airlift and logistics capabilities throughout the mission.

In all, the DOD response entailed 19 helicopters, six ships, eight transport aircraft, and 1,200 personnel. In Haiti, the U.S. delivered food, water, and medical supplies with several hundred flights.

The humanitarian response now turns over to USAID to provide food, shelter, and health care to affected areas.

Watchdog: Air Force is Tackling In-flight Physiological Issues But Can’t Fix Them All

Sept. 7, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force is working to improve safety and reduce pilot physiological events in some of the aircraft most commonly cited for those issues, but the service can do only so much to reduce risk due to human error and the “hazards inherent to the aviation occupation,” a new report from the Defense Department’s Inspector General states.

That assessment stands in contrast to what Col. Mark Schmidt, then-lead of the Air Force Physiological Episodes Action Team, told Air Force Magazine in December 2020, saying, “the objective is to drive physiological episodes to zero.”

The audit of the Air Force’s actions taken to mitigate physiological events from the Pentagon’s IG examined four aircraft specifically—the F-15C, the F-15D, the F-15E, and the T-6A—after identifying them as the fighter and trainer aircraft with the highest reported rates of physiological events, defined as “any injury, illness, or abnormal physiological condition experienced by aircrew or others because of the flight environment.”

The report, released Sept. 2, states that the Air Force has managed to close 47 of 79 recommendations resulting from investigations of mishaps to reduce physiological events in the four aircraft, while also conducting 67 research studies since 2010 on the topic.

Many of the physiological events studied were related to a lack of oxygen, a condition called hypoxia that can result in cognitive impairment, slow reaction time, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, difficulty concentrating, and tingling or numbness in the extremities.

It’s an issue that has received increasing attention over the past few years. In 2012, the Air Force launched a large-scale investigation into breathing problems on board the F-22 Raptor, where pilots said they sometimes even blacked out at the controls due to lack of oxygen. Data from the Inspector General’s report captures the scale of that problem, with 57 combined physiological events reported in the F-22 in 2011 and 2012, compared to 33 total from 2013 to 2020, after the service began fixing several identified problems and installing backup oxygen systems in every jet.

But while the F-22 has improved, other fighters have experienced more issues. The T-6A trainer has had the most high-profile problems, leading to a grounding of the fleet in 2018 after a surge in hypoxia-like events. Since the Air Force has said it plans to redesign the oxygen system and adjust oxygen control levels in flight, the reported rate of events has dropped by more than half, the DOD IG found. But in both 2019 and 2020, the rate of physiological events per 100,000 flight hours was still higher than 25, compared to 6.63 in 2010.

The inspector general’s report did note that “because the T‑6A Texan II is the first aircraft flown by Air Force aircrew, the nerves of the aircrew could be a factor in the increase of reported” events.

Still, the report found that most of the recommendations resulting from Air Force investigations and studies conducted by the service’s 711th Human Performance Wing have been related to the T-6A—51 of the 79 total recommendations have had to do with the aircraft, and there have been nine research studies on it since 2017 alone.

Pilots in the F-15E, meanwhile, reported 3.06 physiological events per 100,000 flight hours in 2010 and have never gotten below that number since. In 2020, the rate was 8.51.

The two planes that saw lower reported rates of physiological events in 2020 compared to 2010 were the F-15C and F-15D. But the report did note that “the reductions were not consistent each year across all reviewed aircraft,” with a significant increase reported for those two planes in 2015 and 2016.

In response to that surge, the Air Force established an independent review team to study the root causes. That team issued recommendations that led to the Air Force’s F-15 system program office implementing new maintenance procedures to better respond to reported hypoxia events, installing a new, digital cockpit pressure monitoring and warning system in the fighters, and upgrading and replacing canopies and canopy seals after reports of leaks.

In addition to fixing issues with the aircraft, the DOD IG’s report found that the Air Force has implemented training to help pilots and aircrew identify and prepare for physiological events, starting with Undergraduate Flying Training but including periodic refreshers.

While the inspector general’s office offered no new recommendations as a result of its audit, the issue of physiological events is unlikely to die down anytime soon. In its markup of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee included a provision requiring the Defense Department to investigate issues and compile a report on the pilot breathing system of the F-35. That requirement came just a few months after NASA conducted its own study on pilot breathing issues, mostly in the F-15 and F/A-18, but also in the F-35.

After just three reported physiological events for the fifth-generation fighter during its first four years flying in the Air Force, there have been at least three events in the F-35 every year since, according to the DOD audit.

As COVID-19 Cases Mount, Pentagon Limits Who Can Come to Work

Sept. 7, 2021 | By Tobias Naegele

The Pentagon is imposing new limits on how many people may come to work as the numbers of COVID-19 infections continue to rise in the National Capital Region. Beginning Sept. 9, Pentagon offices will be limited to 40 percent of capacity as the Pentagon institutes Health Protection Condition “Bravo+.”

The new limits on capacity at the world’s largest office building come at a time when most military leaders had imagined things would be returning to normal. But the spread of the delta variant of the disease forced officials to ratchet up protections to “HPCon” Bravo on Aug. 2, and five weeks later, to do so again.

“We continue to see a steady increase in coronavirus disease … cases and positive test results in the National Capital Region,” wrote Michael B. Donley, the director of administration and management at the Pentagon, a role sometimes dubbed “mayor of the Pentagon.” “Data suggests the COVID-19 Delta variant may be more transmissible than the original strain of the virus,” he added.

Donley said the number of cases in the D.C. region had reached the Bravo+ threshold of 16-30 average new cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period.

Under the new guidance, commanders and supervisors are directed to support maximum telework opportunities to eligible employees, and masks must be worn indoors at all times except when alone in an office, for identification purposes, or when necessary to accommodate a disability. In addition, the workforce will be subject to random COVID-19 entrance screening, and all visitors will be screened. Pentagon dining facilities are open but for takeout service only.

The move follows new vaccination deadlines for Air Force and Space Force members announced over the Labor Day weekend. Active-duty Airmen and Guardians have until Nov. 2 to be fully vaccinated. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members have until Dec. 2. Members can get any COVID-19 vaccination they choose, but only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Because the protocol requires three weeks between shots to be fully vaccinated, time is short for members who have not yet received their first dose.

Noteworthy among the limits imposed by the Pentagon is the shuttering of its outdoor 9/11 Memorial, which is closed to the public except for pre-approved activities just as the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches.

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Staff Sgt. Valerie Graw

Sept. 7, 2021

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 20 to 22 in National Harbor, Md. Air Force Magazine is highlighting one each workday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Staff Sgt. Valerie Graw, a cyber operations controller with the 88th Communications Squadron Cyber Operations Center.

Graw led nine personnel and steered cyber operations for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, during the coronavirus pandemic. Her team resolved 5,800 network outages and enabled the increase in Air Force virtual private network users from 60,000 to 428,000, which resulted in her selection as Air Force Materiel Command’s 2020 cyber systems Airman of the Year.

Additionally, as the installation’s sole maintenance tracking system administrator, she created and managed accounts for 400 users and eight Air National Guard units. Her actions protected $6 million in information technology assets and shielded the Department of Defense’s second-most-attacked network.

Graw also earned her Community College of the Air Force degree in Information Systems Management and graduated from Airman Leadership School in the top 10 percent of her class, garnering distinguished graduate and the academic achievement award.

Staff Sgt. Valerie Graw, one of 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021. Air Force photo.

Read more about the other Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021: