Members Named to Panel Scrubbing Confederate Icons from DOD

Feb. 12, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Defense Department and congressional leaders on Feb. 12 announced eight appointees to the bipartisan commission tasked with renaming military bases that bear the monikers of Confederate leaders.

Congress, in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, called on the Pentagon to begin the process of removing homages to Confederate leaders, like Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Hood, Texas. Lawmakers created the panel despite a disagreement on the issue with former President Donald J. Trump that threatened to derail the legislation altogether.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s picks for the commission are retired Adm. Michelle Howard, the Navy’s first Black and female admiral; former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert B. Neller; Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute; and retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, an emeritus professor of history at the U.S. Military Academy.

“Each of these individuals possesses unique and relevant experience, in and out of government, that I know will inform this important effort,” Austin said. “I am enormously grateful for their willingness to serve the nation again, and I thank them in advance for the wise counsel I am confident they will provide.”

Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees also announced their appointees. SASC Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) chose retired Army Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, a former Army Chief of Engineers and the first Black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to serve in that role. SASC Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) picked Jerry Buchanan, a former drill sergeant and investment business owner.

HASC Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) selected Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and former director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. HASC Ranking Member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) picked Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), whose district includes Moody and Robins Air Force Bases.

The commission is tasked with developing a plan to rename DOD resources in conversation with local communities. That blueprint is required by October 2022, to implement the changes by Jan. 1, 2024.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Feb. 12 that while the committee will focus on renaming bases that bear the names of Confederate generals, it goes beyond that to include monuments, symbols, displays, and other items that commemorate the Confederacy.

“It’s bigger than just bases,” he said.

DOD Now Deploying 4,700 Troops for National Vaccination Drive

Feb. 12, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Pentagon is readying around 4,700 Active-duty forces to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency at coronavirus vaccination sites nationwide, expanding the military’s role in pandemic-response efforts.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is directing more than a four-fold increase in the number of troops headed to help vaccinate the general public, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Feb. 12. The original plan involved five 222-person teams, but is now spiking to 25 total teams that will deploy in the near future.

Of the 20 additional teams, half will be groups of around 220 people sent to inoculation megasites. The other half include 139-person teams who will go to smaller shot distribution sites across the country.

FEMA is selecting where to allocate troops for those deployments, Kirby said. For example, one larger group of medical personnel like registered nurses from Fort Carson, Colo., is deploying to a megasite in California.

The Pentagon expects more details on the Active-duty groups will be available next week.

The Pentagon is still assembling its support teams, and the department wants to ensure “we are properly poised and ready to support those sites” as soon as FEMA is ready, Kirby said. Groups are preparing to leave on a rolling basis to be flexible, he added.

This batch of 4,700 personnel are assisting on top of around 26,000 National Guardsmen and 3,000 Active-duty troops already assigned to the COVID-19 response across the country, Kirby said.

Americans and Israelis Team Up for Missile Defense Practice

Feb. 12, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

American and Israeli troops are practicing ballistic missile defense and collaborative crisis response in this year’s iteration of the Juniper Falcon exercise.

“Juniper Falcon 21 is a demonstration of our strong commitment and long-standing military relationship with Israel,” Lt. Gen. Steven Basham, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa deputy commander and Joint Task Force-Israel commander, said in a release. “Built over years of cooperation, our deliberate and strategic partnership allows us to continually develop the interoperability necessary to maintain and enhance Israel’s defensive capacity.”

During this year’s largely virtual version of the annual, bilateral exercise—which offers the Israel Defense Forces another chance to work on homeland defense—troops are responding to computer-simulated scenarios, U.S. European Command told Air Force Magazine on Feb. 10.

“While the exercise is informed by overall dynamics in the Middle East, it is not in response to any recent developments or specific real-world events in the region,” the command added.

Approximately 300 Defense Department representatives—including American Airmen, other U.S. troops, and civilian employees—are participating with an undisclosed number of IDF personnel in the two-week exercise that kicked off Jan. 31. Service members are participating from around Europe, Israel, and the United States, EUCOM said.

“The exercise will be conducted from various locations in Germany, Israel and the U.S.,” the command said. EUCOM will also “have some forces participating or acting as response cells from their home stations in Europe.”

Israel’s recent redesignation to fall under U.S. Central Command’s responsibility for collaboration won’t impact this year’s version of Juniper Falcon. CENTCOM could make changes to bilateral training in the future as needed, however.

“Any time there are changes to the command structure, there are processes and collaboration that need to occur,” the command wrote. “Any handover will be done in a deliberate, thoughtful, and careful manner to ensure no interruption of our security relationship with Israel.”

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 16

Feb. 12, 2021

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

Feb. 16: Two Scud missiles hit southern Israel.

Check out our complete chronology of the Gulf War, starting with Iraq’s July 1990 invasion of Kuwait and running through Iraq’s April 1991 acceptance of peace terms.

Some Airmen See Tours Extended at Several Pacific, European Bases

Feb. 11, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Single Airmen and Guardians on their first duty assignments to 22 locations in the Pacific and Europe will now have to pack their bags for a longer stay—beginning next month, those tours will last three years instead of two.

The Department of the Air Force announced the policy change to a 36-month overseas posting for first-timers on Feb. 11.

Affected locations include: RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom; RAF Lakenheath, U.K.; RAF Alconbury, U.K.; RAF Croughton, U.K.; London, RAF Menwith Hill, U.K.; RAF Fairford, U.K.; RAF Welford, U.K.; RAF Molesworth, U.K.; Aviano Air Base, Italy; Stavenger Air Base, Norway; Ramstein Air Base, Germany; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Sembach, Germany; Vogelweh, Germany; Landstuhl, Germany; Kapaun, Germany; Einsiedlerhof, Germany; Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany; Kadena Air Base, Japan; Misawa Air Base, Japan; and Yokota Air Base, Japan.

Previously, troops would stay in those assignments for 24 months. But Air Force officials said two years isn’t enough time to settle in.

“During these moves, service members not only have to adjust to their new jobs, but also to a new culture and country, which takes time,” Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, said in a release. “A 24-month tour was not adequate for our new Airmen and Guardians to thrive, nor was it enough time to provide the continuity needed for the unit.”

Officials expect longer tours will help units train better and improve service members’ professional development, as well as offering more stability early on in their career, according to the release.

The change will not impact Airmen or Guardians who were retrained or otherwise shifted into a new career, or who served in the military before commissioning as officers. Service members who live with spouses and other family members will continue to see 36- or 48-month-long stints in overseas jobs, according to the Air Force.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 12-15

Feb. 11, 2021

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

Feb. 12:

An air attack destroys three downtown Baghdad bridges—the Martyr’s Bridge, Republic Bridge, and July 14 Bridge.

Soviet envoy Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov stops in Tehran en route to Baghdad, carrying a Soviet peace plan.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein tells Primakov that Iraq would cooperate with efforts to arrange a cease-fire in the Gulf War.

Feb. 13:

F-117 fighters bomb a building in Baghdad that coalition forces believe to be a military command bunker but which is being used as civilian air-raid shelter, and 200-400 civilians are killed.

An Iraqi armored division, caught moving at night, is destroyed by air power.

Feb. 14:

An RAF Tornado is shot down by a missile over Baghdad.

Two U.S. Air Force crewmen are killed when an EF-111A is lost in Saudi Arabia after a mission over Iraq.

Back in the U.S., anti-war demonstrators splash blood and oil on a Pentagon doorway.

Feb. 15:

Hussein’s five-man Revolutionary Command Council announces that Iraq is ready “to deal” with a UN resolution requiring withdrawal from Kuwait.

U.S. officials estimate three months of war against Iraq will cost $56 billion, of which the U.S. would pay $15 billion, and other coalition members would pay $41 billion.

Check out our complete chronology of the Gulf War, starting with Iraq’s July 1990 invasion of Kuwait and running through Iraq’s April 1991 acceptance of peace terms.

DOD Rolls Out More COVID-19 Vaccines, Ramps Up FEMA Support

Feb. 11, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Defense Department has administered more than 800,000 coronavirus vaccines to its personnel so far, as Active-duty troops begin heading out to help the general public get vaccinated as well.

The Pentagon had ordered 1,040,825 vaccine doses as of Feb. 11, with 966,280 delivered to military treatment facilities across the globe, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. Of those, 800,135 doses have made it into people’s arms—including 580,442 first shots and 210,693 second shots.

“Essentially, we’ve administered 82 percent of all the vaccines delivered,” Kirby said. “The focus is keen and sharp and we’re continuing to do what we can to make vaccines available to all who want them.”

The Pentagon is not tracking how many troops have opted out of the jab, which is still a voluntary procedure, he said. DOD says there is no central way to track who turns down the shot or who wants to wait for inoculation.

The department is trying to instill confidence in the vaccines that are, or may soon be, approved for emergency use in the U.S. First Lady Jill Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has served as the face of the federal pandemic response for nearly a year, urged troops to get the shot at a recent event.

While Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has taken the vaccine “because he believes it was the right thing to do for him and for his health and for his family, and for his ability to do the job,” Kirby said, “he recognizes that this is a personal decision that everybody has to make.”

As the vaccine effort ramps up nationwide, the Pentagon is sending out the first Active-duty teams to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An Army unit from Fort Carson, Colo., will arrive in Los Angeles to help beginning Feb. 15, Kirby said.

The 222-person team is assigned to the 299th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, and is largely made up of medical personnel, including vaccinators and registered nurses, according to a U.S. Northern Command release.

Last month, Maj. Gen. Chad P. Franks, commander of 15th Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., also said his personnel were again activated to help with the joint COVID-19 response for a second time during the pandemic. Those Airmen will be part of a headquarters team that helps states rapidly distribute vaccines in short supply, he said.

“Just yesterday, we got activated again, as part of NORTHCOM’s planning to see how we can help the country with vaccinations across the U.S. here in the next couple months,” Franks said during a Jan. 28 Space Force Association event. “Now we’re going through that planning process.”

The Pentagon has authorized more than 1,000 troops to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with additional deployments still in the works, Kirby said.

Air Force Launching Extremism Review as DOD Mulls Problem

Feb. 11, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Department of the Air Force will conduct its own comprehensive assessment of white supremacy and other forms of extremism in its ranks, while senior leaders in the next few weeks begin to discuss the problem with Airmen and Guardians as part of a Pentagon-wide look at the issue.

In question are the effects on the force—and the United States at large—of personnel who sympathize with or actively participate in local militia groups, white supremacist organizations, and other extremist factions.

In a letter to Airmen and Guardians on Feb. 11, acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth, Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman, and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said that the vast majority of service members uphold the nation’s laws, policies, and standards.

“There is a small subset who fall short and are eroding the respect our nation’s citizens have for its military,” the leaders wrote. “We have a responsibility to defend the nation for all Americans.”

While service members have a First Amendment right to freedom of expression, Airmen and Guardians have an obligation “to stand against extremism, as we should with anything that threatens to undermine good order and discipline, trust, and our culture of respect,” they said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Feb. 3 ordered the military to pause their work in the next few months so units can hold conversations on extremism. Air Force and Space Force leaders will hold talks “about the threat extremism poses to the Department of the Air Force, our Nation, and our democracy” as part of that stand-down, the leaders said.

The Department of the Air Force plans to release more guidance in the next two weeks on how units should handle the stand-down. Spokespeople from multiple major commands said they are waiting on more information from headquarters to begin those discussions.

As part of the department-wide assessment, leadership also wants to hear from Airmen and Guardians about their thoughts on and experiences with extremism, according to the letter.

Multiple current and former military personnel took part in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, prompting the Pentagon to begin reviewing its policy, laws, and regulations that govern the active participation of military members in extremist groups. That report is expected to be completed at the end of March.

Air Force Reviewing Support Services Amid Suicides, COVID-19

Feb. 11, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Department of the Air Force is launching a review of its mental health, family advocacy, and other support programs for Airmen and Guardians, as part of an ongoing struggle with suicide in the ranks and to offer better care during the coronavirus pandemic.

A new Air Force task force called “Operation Arc Care” is taking a fresh look at bolstering service members’ resiliency in the face of stress and adversity.

“Our people are the most important resource we have,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass in a Feb. 11 release. “We’ve been hearing their challenges, and we owe it (to) them to build a strategy that ensures our Airmen, Guardians, and families get the care they need, wherever they are, and whenever they need it.”

The task force is taking the long view, opting for an open-ended, five-year strategy that the department says can give leaders the flexibility they need to tailor support programs to their troops. That strategy is now in the works, and should be done by the end of March.

Aspects of the military that fall under the review include unit leadership, the chaplain corps, key spouse programs, mental health clinics and alcohol and drug abuse prevention initiatives, the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program, and more.

The group plans to issue recommendations later this year for potential changes in those areas that “remove policy barriers and … improve the experience of care” for service members and their families, Col. Laura Ramos, Air Force Resilience strategic partnership division chief, said in the release.

“We’re using community-focused programs customized by major command, base, and garrison-levels because they are best suited for answering the needs of their Airmen, Guardians, and families in their unique locations,” Ramos said. “We recognize that having a worldwide presence makes us a ‘community of communities’ and while many needs are universal, some are specific to certain units, missions, people, areas, and geographic locations.”

Their work began in 2019, when then-Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein ordered all wings to stand down for a day to discuss suicide prevention. The Air Force has seen around 100 or more suicides a year since 2014.

Despite their efforts, that pace hasn’t slowed: 98 Airmen had killed themselves in 2020 as of mid-September, the service said in its most recent public tally. For many, pandemic-era stressors—such as an inability to spend time with loved ones and the shift to virtual work and schooling—are an added mental-health concern.

Feedback from the ops pause and beyond led the department to create its Arc Care team. Starting in November 2020, the group gathered more data and looked at the policies and resources of Air Force and Space Force support programs and services. That information is now shaping the ultimate strategy and the group’s guidance on how to move forward.

“Are leaders at every echelon involved?” Air Force Resilience Director Brig. Gen. Claude Tudor said in the release. “What resources will we have at your fingertips to click on or call to make an appointment that helps you find their way? Are we providing those resources and are they readily available for all forces and family members to understand and use? That is what we want to get after.”