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Irish-American Heritage Month! March 30th -- Welcome Home Viet Nam Veterans Day

The Virginia Ancient Order of Hibernians (VAAOH) initiated action to formally recognize past, current, and future contributions of Vietnam and Vietnam-era military veterans resident in the Commonwealth of Virginia. VAAOH suggested a bill that would annually proclaim 30 March as "Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day" and encourage observance of that day with ceremonies and activities that promote recognition of the contributions of those involved in the Vietnam conflict. On 30 March 1973, the United States Armed Forces completed the withdrawal of combat troops from Vietnam.

District 30 Delegate Ed Scott agreed to champion this legislation. As a result, House Joint Resolution Number 136 now designates March 30 as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day in Virginia” to celebrate the service and numerous contributions of the Commonwealth’s Vietnam-era veterans.” The resolution notes that more than 58,000 members of the United States Armed Forces, including 1,304 Virginians, lost their lives in Vietnam and more than 300,000 members of the Armed Forces were wounded. Further, the resolution notes that more than 262,000 Vietnam veterans currently reside in the Commonwealth. Delegate Ed Scott presented a framed copy of the resolution at the VAAOH State Meeting in April 2010.

(l to r) JJ Kelly (AOH National Director, Veterans Affairs), Delegate Scott, Bill Halpin (VAAOH Veterans Affairs Chairman), and Rich Alexy (VAAOH State President)

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VIETNAM WAR: 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF START OF GROUND CAMPAIGN STIRS VETERAN'S MEMORIES BY CAROLYN ROBBINS | CROBBINS@REPUB.COM MARCH 09, 2015

SPRINGFIELD — As veterans of the Vietnam War mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the ground war there, local Marine veteran Daniel M. Walsh III said memories of conflict and lost platoon members have been flooding back to him.

"Fifty years, I can't believe it," he said on Friday during a interview at his home on Magnolia Terrace. Walsh, a former Springfield city councilor, veterans services director and husband of Councilor Kateri Walsh, sat in his second floor study surrounded by photographs of members of his platoon and military memorabilia including posters and model aircraft.

Walsh, who was a newly minted lieutenant when his company of 200 men were involved in an assault on a North Vietnamese stronghold in 1966, recalled the stifling hot day when he first experienced the horrors of war.

His company lost 10 men and 20 more were wounded, including Walsh, who is a recipient of a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, among other service honors.

Before Walsh was wounded on his right side by a shot from enemy fire, he witnessed the death of his friend, Staff Sgt. Leonard Lenny Hulquist, who was fatally shot by the enemy. Hulquist, a graduate of Boys Town, Nebraska, had three young daughters back in the states. Springfield veteran Daniel M. Walsh III talks about the Vietnam War. An excerpt from a conversation with Daniel M. Walsh III, former Springfield City Councilor and city Veterans Services director, was a United States Marine platoon commander in Vietnam when he seriously wounded during a fierce fire fight on March 5, 1966. That memory was one of many that still haunt Walsh on this weekend's anniversary. Many of the men he served with called him or emailed him this weekend to recall how fortunate they had been.

One friend contacted Walsh to tell him that he had obtained the email of one of Hultquist's daughters, Melody. Walsh contacted her immediately. "Your father died in my arms ... on Hill 50 in South Vietnam," Walsh wrote. "In my home office, I have a picture I took of your father returning from the tailor's shop where he had sewn on the 12-year mark (chevron) in his Marine career."

View full size The Springfield Union on March 8, 1965 leads with stories on the landing of Marines at Da Nang in Vietnam. The photo was taken in Okinawa a couple of months before the group landed in Vietnam. "He was so proud to be a Marine, and he was one of the best the Corps ever had," Walsh wrote. "Not a day goes by that I don't have a little chat with your father. I miss him still and I am so sorry that you did not have this incredible man for you and your sisters to grow up with." Later on that bloody day on Hill 50, Walsh was also hit, but was saved by another platoon member, Patrick Barth, who lives outside of Atlanta.

Barth also gave Walsh a call. "I spoke with him today and I thanked him again," he said. The two remain good friends and see each other often.

With the perspective of 50 years, Walsh said he believes the Vietnam War was a mistake. Walsh said he sensed that the Americans were despised and unwanted in Vietnam from his first days there. But he said his men heard little about anti-war protests back in the states. "We were doing our jobs," he said. Walsh said he has come to believe that war is futile and he prays daily for the those who serve in war-torn countries from Afghanistan to Iraq. "We've been at constant war since 1965," he said.

For those who continue to serve, Walsh has the utmost respect. "They're doing their job, protecting our freedoms," he said. March 8 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the ground war in Vietnam with the deployment of 3,500 Marines. By war's end on April 30, 1975, nearly 3 million service men and women fought in the conflict that would take the lives of more than 58,000 Americans.

Of those who served during the Vietnam War, 258 were awarded the Medal of Honor. More than six out of 10 award recipients made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives while performing the courageous acts for which they were later honored. American military advisers had been involved in South Vietnam since the 1950s.

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VA News Release

VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor 03/17/2015 03:01 PM EDT

VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor Elimination of Net Worth Makes More Veterans Eligible for Health Care

Washington – The Department of Veterans Affairs is updating the way it determines eligibility for VA health care, a change that will result in more Veterans having access to the health care benefits they’ve earned and deserve. Effective 2015, VA eliminated the use of net worth as a determining factor for both health care programs and copayment responsibilities. This change makes VA health care benefits more accessible to lower-income Veterans and brings VA policies in line with Secretary Robert A. McDonald’s MyVA initiative which reorients VA around Veterans’ needs. “Everything that we do and every decision we make has to be focused on the Veterans we serve,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “We are working every day to earn their trust. Changing the way we determine eligibility to make the process easier for Veterans is part of our promise to our Veterans.” Instead of combining the sum of Veterans’ income with their assets to determine eligibility for medical care and copayment obligations, VA will now only consider a Veteran’s gross household income and deductible expenses from the previous year. Elimination of the

consideration of net worth for VA health care enrollment means that certain lower-income, non-service-connected Veterans will have less out-of- pocket costs. Over a 5-year period, it is estimated that 190,000 Veterans will become eligible for reduced costs of their health care services. In March 2014, VA eliminated the annual requirement for updated financial information. VA now uses information from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration to automatically match individual Veterans’ income information which reduces the burden on Veterans to keep their healthcare eligibility up to date. That change better aligned VA’s health care financial assessment program with other federal health care organizations. Veterans may submit updated income information at www.1010ez.med.va.gov/, or by visiting their nearby VA health care facility. For more information, visit www.va.gov/healthbenefits or call VA toll-free at 1-877-222-VETS (8387).

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TRICARE patients must attest to health coverage on 2014 tax returns

As tax season begins, DoD officials want to remind TRICARE beneficiaries of changes in the tax laws, which require all Americans to have health care insurance or potentially pay a tax penalty. For the first time since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, all U.S. citizens, including service members, military retirees and their family members, must report health care coverage on their 2014 taxes, said Mark Ellis, a Defense Health Agency health care operations program analyst. For this year only, taxpayers will “self-attest” on their 2014 tax forms to each month in which they had health care coverage, he said. The act mandates that health care must meet minimum essential coverage, and TRICARE coverage meets that criteria for the majority of service members and their families, Ellis said. TRICARE Prime, TRICARE Standard, TRICARE for Life, TRICARE Overseas, TRICARE Remote and the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan meet the minimum essential coverage, he added. When purchased, premium-based plan such as TRICARE Reserve Select or TRICARE Retired Reserve also fulfill the act’s requirements. Uniformed service members who have questions about TRICARE, the act and the individual coverage mandate can visit the TRICARE website to download a fact sheet on TRICARE and the act, with TRICARE plans compared to minimum essential coverage, Ellis said. Military beneficiaries that are solely eligible for care in military hospitals and clinics, for

example, parents and parents-in- law, have an automatic exemption from the tax penalty for tax year 2014 only. The site also has suggestions for those who need to purchase coverage to meet the act’s minimum requirements, he noted. That could include retired reservists, Selected Reserve members, young adults up to age 26 and those who leave military service but need transitional coverage, Ellis said. TRICARE beneficiaries with tax questions should contact the Internal Revenue Service or their tax advisers, he emphasized. “The experts there can help them,” Ellis said. TRICARE customers, like all filers, will self-attest on their 2014 tax returns, no health care coverage forms will be mailed to them. The TRICARE and ACA fact sheet is available at http://www.tricare.mil/~/media ~~~~~

Post-9/11 veteran unemployment dips Army Times, by George Altman, Staff writer 10:47 a.m. EST March 6, 2015

The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans dropped to 6.7 percent in February, government data show, mirroring a drop in the nation's unemployment rate.

For the newest generation of veterans, the unemployment rate was down more than 1 point from January's 7.9 percent mark. Large month-to-month changes are common in this measure, which has a small sample size that is prone to fluctuation. Those rates are clearly pointing in the right direction for post-9/11 veterans: The 2014 annual unemployment rate was 7.2 percent, nearly 2 points lower than the 2013 rate and nearly 5 points lower than the rate in 2011.

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(Here we go, again…)

Army expands Operation Atlantic Resolve to six countries

Army Times, by Michelle Tan, Staff writer February 20, 2015

The U.S. military's Operation Atlantic Resolve will expand into Romania and Bulgaria beginning in late March amid continued fighting and increased tensions in the region."Think of Operation Atlantic Resolve as a yearlong, continuous series of exercises from Estonia to Bulgaria," said Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe.

Operation Atlantic Resolve was launched last April in the three Baltic States and Poland as a way for the United States to demonstrate its commitment to NATO as the region faced a new but familiar threat.

The addition of Romania and Bulgaria brings the number of soldiers conducting Atlantic Resolve training and exercises to about 1,900, up from about 900 now, officials from U.S. Army Europe said.

In the last 11 months, Russia has annexed the Crimea region, secured a vital port in the Black Sea and sponsored a civil war in Eastern Ukraine that has claimed thousands of lives – all within a few hundred miles of NATO's borders.

A recent cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels did not hold, with continued fighting around Debaltseve, a heavily contested railway hub in eastern Ukraine."What needs to happen is Moscow needs to abide by the agreement it signed up to and remove their heavy weapons and the Russian forces from Eastern Ukraine and respect the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Wednesday.

The U.S. military will "continue to reassure our allies and partners in NATO through continued exercises, presence, Black Sea air policing," Kirby said. The Army is expanding Operation Atlantic Resolve "for the purpose of assurance to those allies as well," Hodges said.

The Russians "illegally annexed Crimea," and they are now working to "fracture" the NATO alliance by "using all aspects of national power to create friction," Hodges said. "I am sure that their No. 1 objective is to fracture the alliance, to put a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, and then, if they can, separate the different parts of Europe from each other," he said. "If countries don't believe fellow members would respond in an Article 5 situation, then they've really created a serious crack in the alliance and what it stands for."

Article 5 in the North Atlantic Treaty states that an attack on one member is an attack on all, and is "the core of what NATO is all about," Hodges said. The task in front of NATO — and the U.S. — now is to assure its allies closest to Russia, Hodges said.

In March, soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, who are currently supporting Operation Atlantic Resolve in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, will conduct Operation Dragoon Ride and "road march" their Strykers back to home station in Vilseck, Germany.For the soldiers in Estonia, the farthest away, the ride will take seven to 10 days and span more than 1,800 kilometers, or more than 1,100 miles, Hodges said.

The ride, which will be a first for many soldiers, represents a "great" leader development opportunity and tests the unit's maintenance abilities, Hodges said. It also will test the Army's ability to freely move from one country to another while providing a "very visible" show of assurance to local residents, he said.

In April, paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy, will jump into Romania and Bulgaria. They will be replaced by about 1,000 soldiers from the 2nd

Cavalry Regiment and 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. Operation Atlantic Resolve will continue in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with about 900 soldiers from 1st BCT, 3rd Infantry, who are rotating in from Fort Stewart, Georgia, as part of the Army's regionally aligned forces concept.

As these company-sized units conduct training and exercises with their partners in those six countries, a mission command element of about 90 soldiers from 4th Infantry Division headquarters will provide the command, control and oversight, Hodges said. In addition to growing Operation Atlantic Resolve, the Army also is rebuilding its equipment in the region.

In 2013, the Army shipped its tanks and Bradleys back to the United States, marking the end of an era that began 70 years ago during World War II. At its peak, Germany was home to 20 U.S. armored divisions, or about 6,000 tanks. Today, the Army has a European Activity Set that contains about a battalion's worth of heavy equipment, including 29 Abrams tanks and 33 Bradleys. This set is meant to be used by troops coming into the region from the United States. By the end of January 2016, the Army plans to grow that set to a brigade's worth – that's about 220 Abrams tanks and Bradleys, Hodges said. The vehicles will arrive in Europe in waves, with the second battalion's worth scheduled to arrive in March with soldiers from 1st BCT, 3rd Infantry Division. "This equipment is getting harvested from units," Hodges said, adding that the equipment will be moved around as the Army reorganizes its brigade combat teams.

Growing the Army's equipment set in Europe is cheaper in the long run, assures America's allies and allows the service to respond more quickly if needed, Hodges said. What has not been determined is where this additional equipment will be stored, Hodges said. Some equipment could be stationed in Germany, while the rest is stored in the Baltics, or all of it could be in one location, he said.

U.S. Army Europe has survey teams looking at various locations in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, he said. Hodges said he expects to have recommendations in mid-March for Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. "The potential host nation has to want it, the U.S. ambassador in that country must want it, and it needs to make sense for us," Hodges said. "Is it efficient for training? Does it support [EUCOM]? Everything's on the table."

~~~~ New Heritage Foundation Study Ranks U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Strength as ‘Marginal’ By: John Grady, February 24, 2015

A newly created “Index of Military Strength” rates the Navy and Marine Corps as “marginal” in being able two fight two major regional conflicts almost simultaneously while having sufficient reserves to carry out other missions.

With the exception of the Air Force, the ranking of “marginal” was the Heritage Foundation’s assessment of the nation’s individual military services and nuclear force. The Air Force was rated “strong” in its ability to meet the criteria.

Dakota Wood, senior research fellow at Heritage, said Tuesday the Washington think-tank intends to update the index annually as it does with others that it produces. “Next year’s will be more current” in its ratings because it will be published in the fall rather than a full quarter later. The index “didn’t get into future predictions” of military strength and will not in the future.

The broad-ranging index also provided ratings for different regions — Middle East, Europe and Asia — and potential and existing challenges in each.

Steven Bucci, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy and National Security at Heritage, said that in creating the index the foundation thought of adding a section on homeland defense but backed away because in most instances the military is in a supporting role in that realm.

“We [the United States] prefer to play away games” in assessing national security needs, he said. That allowed the writers to focus on the Department of Defense in creating the index.

In its assessment, Heritage wrote the Navy is “strong in readiness but at a cost to future capability” and “is just able to meet requirements.” To meet the criteria set for the “strong” rating, the Navy would have 346 surface ships and 624 strike aircraft. The Navy now has 274 ships in the Fleet.

On the Marine Corps, Heritage wrote its “strongest suit was readiness” but it is “hampered by old equipment, troubled replacement of its key ground vehicles and a shrinking force.” To meet the criteria for the “strong” rating, the Marine Corps would have 36 battalions from the current strength of 21.

In rating the nation’s overall military strength, Heritage wrote that it was “adequate to meeting the demands of a single major conflict” while also continuing “various presence and engagement activities.” The writers noted that military strength has been affected by declines in military spending and shrinking of end strength, most noticeably since 2011.

In his remarks following the release of the index, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said that in Navy leaders’ own words a force of 260 ships would mean “we became a regional power.”

Forbes specifically mentioned areas like the Strait of Hormuz and the Asia-Pacific region, noting that 85 percent of the world’s commerce moves on water and “the only navy in the world” protecting underwater cabling that moves data from continent to continent (the U.S. Navy) requires that the United States remain a global power.

“You won’t be able to buy back,” he said, “what we’ve lost” in defense spending cuts. Forbes put the cuts at $780 billion since the Budget Control Act was passed, even without sequestration. He said that in talks with liberals and conservatives he stresses “defense won’t be cheaper” by delaying maintenance and modernization.

The Heritage index writers noted the Navy and special operating forces “cycled [equipment] through operations more often and for longer periods of time, and old equipment is being extended while proposed replacements are problematic.”

Wood summed up Heritage’s findings this way: The “allies are under-investing” in maintaining military strength; the United States’ “enemies are making smart investments”; and the American “military is aging and shrinking in size.”

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Scaled-back pay raises called 'insidious' Military Times, by Leo Shane III, Staff writer 9:23 a.m. EST February 16, 2015

Your military paycheck is getting smaller.

It's happening despite raises in military pay every year, military advocacy groups warn. And they say it will keep shrinking if Pentagon officials get their way.

Critics say the Pentagon's intensifying zeal to hold military raises under the rate of average private-sector wage growth is threatening to resurrect an old specter: a so-called "pay gap" that some say slowly drains away the purchasing power of military families.

"It's insidious, because troops are still seeing a 'raise' in their pay," said retired Air Force Col. Mike Hayden, director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America. "But your dollars don't go as far. You don't have the same discretionary income as before."

Over the years, Pentagon officials have consistently downplayed such concerns, saying basic pay is just one aspect of a robust pay-and-benefits package that stacks up very well against the private sector when considered in total, even with the recent smaller basic pay raises.

During the rollout of the White House's 2016 defense budget request in early February, Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Ramsay, the Defense Department's director of force structure and resources, sought to reassure troops, stating: "We are all about our people."

But, he added, "Dollars we saved in pay and compensation ... help balance out readiness and capability."

Critics say that won't matter if troops feel unappreciated and leave the ranks. The Air Force Sergeants Association says the recent pay decisions have "re-opened the wound of a pay gap" and threaten retention. The Association of the U.S. Army has labeled pay equity one of its top concerns in coming years.

Lagging behind?

The 2016 defense budget request calls for a 1.3 percent increase in basic pay, 1 percentage point below the estimate of average private-sector wage growth next year. If approved, it would be the third consecutive year troops would get raises lower than their civilian counterparts.

For 2014 and 2105, service members received a 1 percent bump in basic pay — the two smallest raises in the history of the all-volunteer force, dating back to 1973. Next year's proposed raise would be the second-smallest in that time period.

According to MOAA's calculations, the gap has vanished only once, for a single year — 1982, when a massive 14.3 percent catch-up raise for the troops was approved in an effort to compensate for the parsimony of the 1970s. But in 1983 and beyond, military raises again lagged civilian pay growth to an extent that the gap grew as high as 13.5 percent in 1998 and 1999.

Above-average raises again narrowed the gap over the first decade of this century, but it has never been smaller than 2.4 percent, from 2010 through 2013. This year, it has widened for the first time since 1999, growing to 3.2 percent.

MOAA and other critics estimate that a 1.3 percent basic pay raise next year that lags private-sector wage growth would widen the gap between military and civilian pay to around 5 percent, an annual salary difference of about $1,500 for most midlevel enlisted troops and around $3,000 for midlevel officers.

And if the Pentagon's long-term plans are approved, that gap could rise steadily over the next four years, approaching double digits, MOAA says. Hayden noted that when the gap peaked at over 13 percent in the late 1990s, it took almost a decade of compensation corrections to deflate.

"Once you start capping pay, it becomes so easy to keep doing it until you really hurt retention," he said.

Hayden said MOAA is already hearing anecdotal evidence of troops bailing out of the service for civilian life mainly because of compensation trims.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly told Congress the lower pay raises are not ideal but are not crippling, and once again are disputing suggestions of a significant gap between military and civilian pay.

They have also noted that a focus on troops' paychecks does not consider other pillars of military compensation such as housing benefits free health care and heavily discounted prices at base commissaries.

However, the Pentagon's budget plan calls for further cutbacks in housing allowances so that troops cover about 5 percent of their costs out of their own pockets; suggests that prescription co-pays may rise again under the military's health plan; and seeks to trim back subsidies for commissaries, driving up prices and shortening store hours.

Taking a fresh look

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, incoming Defense Secretary Ash Carter noted that "compensation and benefit costs must be balanced with readiness and modernization requirements to ensure we maintain the highest quality, ready, and modern military force."

In coming weeks, Carter will return to Capitol Hill for more budget hearings at which he will defend the lower pay raise proposal.

Last year, House members pushed to have the military pay raise at least match private-sector wage growth, but accepted a lower pay raise after negotiations with the Senate.

Members of both chambers promise a fresh look at the issue this year, along with the long-term personnel changes recommended in the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission report.

Hayden said he is hopeful that his and other groups can successfully lobby lawmakers to block the Pentagon plans this year, even while military leaders argue that the billions saved by the pay changes over coming years could fill critical needs elsewhere.

"The question is, when is enough going to be enough?" Hayden said. "We need the military to speak out about the negative impact this has on their wallets too. Once you start trimming back on pay, you're starting to threaten readiness."

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Experts: Docs should ask about patients' military history Military Times, by Patricia Kime, Staff writer 12:52 p.m. EST February 16, 2015

An American Medical Association panel has recommended that physicians and other health care providers ask about the military history of patients when reviewing their cases.

A group of doctors who advise the AMA on its Current Procedural Terminology codes — a collection of medical terms used to report medical procedures and services to insurance programs — voted to add military history and veterans status to the "social history" part of evaluation and management guidance.

The recommendation, pitched by advocates at the American Psychoanalytic Association, the White House's Joining Forces Initiative and others, was accepted because the groups indicated service members and veterans often don't volunteer this information to their health providers, panel member Dr. Peter Hollman told Military Times on Friday.

"Research shows that [military personnel or veterans] don't bring it up on their own and it could possibly play a role in their condition — exposure to toxins, hearing loss. This recommendation says to those in the field, 'You ought to think about this with your patients,' " Hollman said.

When taking a patient's social history, providers should consider asking about military experience, branch of service, specific jobs performed, and how they feel the military has affected them, said Prudence Gourguechon, a psychoanalyst and former American Psychoanalytic Association president.

"When a patient comes for medical care or behavioral health care, it is important to ask everyone, including children, if they or a loved one has served in the military," Gourguechon said. "A child of a deployed parent, for example, may exhibit behavioral problems that can't be understood without knowledge of his parent's military service."

Hollman cautioned that the CPT recommendations are only guidelines, not requirements. He added, however, that including military history in the CPT codes "adds another measure of importance to this information."

"If you were to look at, say, domestic violence 30 years ago, we weren't taught at med school to think about it. ... We might have asked about child abuse, but we didn't ask whether someone's spouse was beating them," Hollman said. "Like the awareness now paid to that issue, this takes things up a notch. People start thinking about it and pretty soon asking about military service becomes part of the routine."

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One of 17 Female Soldiers Passes Latest Pre-Ranger Course

Military.com

Only one of 17 female soldiers passed the latest pre-Ranger course at Fort Benning, as part of the Ranger Training Assessment Course (RTAC), an effort that will allow the first female candidates to attend Ranger School in April. The RTAC, has been designated a pre-requisite for all women who wish to attend the Ranger School. About half of all candidates fail to earn the coveted, gold and black Ranger tab.

The first RTAC course ended in late January with five out of 26 female soldiers successfully completing the course alongside 50 out of 96 males that completed the course.

The results of this latest round of RTAC were not as encouraging. A 1LT was the only female soldier out of 17 fellow female candidates to meet the standards of the course. Only 35 of 83

male soldiers passed the course. Typically, the success rate is about 57%; this class had a 36% success rate.

The pilot program and assessment comes amid increasing demand in recent years to open up to women all military specialties, including infantry. Army leadership is open to the idea, but insists there will be no lowering of standards.

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Researchers seek combat troops with lung symptoms Navy Times, by Patricia Kime, Staff writer February 27, 2015

Army researchers are looking for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with breathing difficulties such as shortness of breath or wheezing to study how deployments may affect lung health.

With some combat veterans returning from war with respiratory ailments such as asthma, hyperactive airways and, in some cases, constrictive bronchiolitis — a rare disease involving scarring and inflammation of the smallest airways — Army physicians are starting the third phase of a long-term study into deployment-related pulmonary health.

The Study of Active Duty Military for Pulmonary Disease Related to Environmental Deployment Exposures, or STAMPEDE, seeks to determine what lung diseases may be associated with overseas military operations, said retired Army Col. Michael Morris, a pulmonologist at San Antonio Military Medical Center, Texas.

"There are complicated diagnoses out there," Morris said. "We want to be able to explain to a general medical public the difference between the average citizen and the military population who may have different exposures."

Previous studies done under STAMPEDE include an analysis of the health of 400 soldiers with career-limiting asthma to see whether the incidence of the disease was higher in those who deployed than those who didn't (it wasn't), and a study of 50 service members to evaluate respiratory symptoms after they deployed.

In that research, published last July in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 40 percent of patients showed some evidence of reactive airways after deployment, including eight diagnosed with asthma and two with respiratory issues related to acid reflux.

Six service members also were found to have miscellaneous airway disorders and four other troops displayed diminished capacity to transfer inhaled oxygen into their bloodstreams.

The new STAMPEDE study will be similar to the one with the 50 troops. Morris and his team are seeking active-duty or retired personnel who deployed to a combat zone and developed respiratory symptoms during or shortly after deployment and still have symptoms.

Participants will be required to spend a week in San Antonio or at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

They also must be able to exercise on a treadmill and have no history of pre-existing lung conditions before deploying, according to Morris.

As part of the research, participants will undergo blood work and chest imaging, electrocardiograms, breathing tests, exercise tests, a vocal cord exam and bronchoscopy.

Morris emphasized that participants also must be eligible for Tricare. While he is in talks with the Veterans Affairs Department's War-Related Injury and Illness Study Center and the South Texas VA Medical Center to offer the study to veterans, he said those discussions are preliminary.

Some veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have developed debilitating respiratory illnesses after serving in the region. Many blame the military's use of open-air burn pits to dispose of trash in theater, saying the smoke produced by the fires sickened them.

Other studies have shown that particulate matter in the air — fine granules of microscopic dust and sand — may have damaged airways while several veterans who were exposed to a sulfur fire in Mosul, Iraq, in 2003, developed chronic disease.

A study by experts at Vanderbilt University diagnosed 38 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with constrictive bronchiolitis.

But Morris said more research is needed to determine the extent of that diagnosis in service members and explore other possibilities.

"The study from Vanderbilt was biased in favor of one disease, making other people think they have that disease, but it's more complicated than that," Morris said.

Service members or retirees wanting to participate can call the STAMPEDE staff at San Antonio Military Medical Center at 210-916-3976 and at Walter Reed at 301-295-4191.

They also can be reached by email via usarmy.jbsa.medcom-bamc.list.bamc-stampede@mail.mil.

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(From Theater of the Absurd: they forget to include the exact time and date?)

CENTCOM: Battle of Mosul could begin in April Military Times, by Andrew Tilghman, Staff writer 5 February 19, 2015

U.S. and Iraqi military planners are gearing up for the long-awaited battle of Mosul, which will likely begin in April or May and mount a fighting force of up to 25,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops to force out the Islamic extremists who have controlled the city for nine months.

In a rare public disclosure of future battle plans, a U.S. Central Command official outlined the operational planning for reporters in a briefing Thursday.

Current planning envisions that five Iraqi army brigades of "fighting forces," backed by three Kurdish peshmerga brigades, will "contain from the north," the CENTCOM official said.

Plans also call for a "Mosul fighting force" that will include many former Mosul police officers and Sunni tribesmen, which will push into the densely populated neighborhoods of the predominantly Sunni city, the official said.

For months, U.S. military officials have pointed to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, as a major milestone in the campaign against the Islamic State group, which has about 1,000 to 2,000 fighters in Mosul, the CENTCOM official said.

Mosul is the largest city controlled by the Islamic State across its territory in Iraq and Syria and is central to the group's stated intention to recreate an Islamic caliphate. Islamic State forces seized the city in June as several Iraqi army brigades offered no resistance, fleeing the advancing militants and abandoning arsenals of U.S.-made weaponry.

Preparations now underway include "shaping and isolating" the future battlefield of Mosul and providing U.S.-led training for the Iraqi troops who will be fighting. The CENTCOM official said U.S. and Iraqi military planners want to launch the invasion in April or May, in part to avoid the worst of Iraq's summer heat and this year's Ramadan holiday that begins in June.

But that timeframe will be slipped if the Iraqis are not considered ready, the official said.

"If they are not ready, if the conditions are not set ... we have not closed the door on sliding that to the right," the CENTCOM official said of the operation's timing.

About 2,600 U.S. troops are in Iraq, many of them advising, assisting and training Iraqi troops.

It's unclear whether the invasion of Mosul will include a small number of American forces on the ground with Iraqi combat troops to serve as joint terminal attack controllers, or JTACs, to help provide accurate targeting information for U.S. air support.

Pentagon officials say no American JTACs have been on the ground to this point. During the final planning phases for the invasion of Mosul, the potential need for JTACs will be evaluated and options presented up the chain of command for President Obama to consider, the CENTCOM official said.

It is highly unusual for military officials to offer planning details about future operations. When a reporter asked the CENTCOM official, who spoke during an official briefing on condition of

anonymity, why he was providing the details, he said it was to show "the level of commitment [the Iraqis] have to this. ... This is their plan, they have bought into it."

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Finally some common sense!

Pentagon Hears a Message From Its New Chief: STFU Daily Beast, 4 March 2015

The new Defense Secretary criticized his own people in public for talking to the press. And in the Pentagon, they’re taking that as a message: “Don’t talk to the media.”

The Pentagon is still shaking, after the rhetorical bomb Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter dropped on the place yesterday.

The new Secretary of Defense blasted military officials for telling reporters that Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces could launch an offensive to reclaim a major Iraqi city as early as April. He called their statements inaccurate and a “mistake.”

“That clearly was neither accurate information nor, had it been accurate, would have been information that should be blurted out to the press,” Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday about suggestions that the campaign to reclaim the city of Mosul could begin in spring. “So it’s wrong on both scores.”

Carter’s not off-base; the briefing was overly optimistic, maybe even foolhardy. But Carter did not give a full accounting of the facts, either. The briefing he criticized wasn’t a one-time slip-up; U.S. officials had been suggesting a spring attack on Mosul for months. Moreover, the Pentagon-sanctioned official who briefed reporters left open the possibility of moving that timeline “to the right” if the Iraqis were not ready. In other words, the April-May timeline was hardly set in stone.

Yet Carter accused the briefers of revealing “military secrets.” There was nothing even remotely classified in the presentation.

Regardless, Carter’s public admonition, along with his repeated assertions that the Pentagon must protect the civilian-led chain of command, has had a chilling effect on those in uniform who said they have heard one message from the newly-minted Defense Secretary.

“Don’t talk to the media,” one defense official told the Daily Beast.

The Defense Department hasn’t exactly been press-friendly of late, especially when it comes to the war against ISIS. Unlike earlier conflicts, few reporters have been allowed to embed with U.S. troops, even those training Iraqi forces on well-secured bases. Basic statistics about the

American-led air campaign have had to be pried free from the Pentagon—even though the effort has cost the U.S. at least $1.5 billion and hit more than 2,500 targets. By the way: The Defense Department hasn’t admitting to killing a single civilian in those 2,500+ attacks.

On February 19, Pentagon officials scheduled a 30-minute briefing with reporters to update the public on the U.S.-led campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The briefing conditions were that the briefer could only be identified as a CENTCOM official. Among the topics: the potential military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, considered a keystone of the U.S.-led effort to rid Iraq of the Islamic State. Mosul is ISIS’s capital in Iraq and the largest city it controls.

That official said a Mosul offensive could begin in April or May, taking as many as 25,000 troops, and spelled out where some of the units would come from. Some of those forces were still receiving training, the official said, but would not say with any specificity how the U.S. would use its airpower to support such a campaign.

The official said the troops would confront as many as 2,000 ISIS fighters. And he stressed that such a timeline would “move to the right,” likely to fall, if the Iraqis were not ready.

The briefing caused an immediate uproar in both Iraq and Washington, with some blasting the Pentagon for telegraphing its proposed war plan. In a letter to President Barack Obama, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain called the decision to share such details.

“These disclosures not only risk the success of our mission, but could also cost the lives of U.S., Iraqi, and coalition forces,” Graham and McCain wrote in that letter.

More importantly, many inside the Pentagon felt the timeline was overly optimistic as The Daily Beast first reported, given the Iraqi forces’ readiness and concerns from the Iraqi government about conducting such an operation so soon. The public uproar caused some to declare that an offensive was more likely in fall.

But as it turned out, the CENTCOM official offered few new details. Talk of a spring offensive to reclaim the city appears to have first happened publicly on December 10, when Brett McGurk, the State Department’s special presidential envoy for defeating the militant group, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that such a timeline was possible. Moreover, he said it would be “reasonable” to estimate such an offensive would take as many as 25,000 Iraqi troops.

The military endorsed that timeline a month later. In January, U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Lloyd Austin gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal, saying it could happen in the spring or summer. Austin stressed that Iraq, led by two divisions, would conduct the ground offensive.

“If we did things alone or with some of the other allies on the ground, it could move faster,” Austin said in that interview. “But the Iraqis have to do this themselves.”

In at least three instances afterward, Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, talked about a potential Mosul campaign, but hesitated to commit to a potential spring timeline.

But the decision to spell out all the details in one briefing led many to interpret the CENTCOM official’s comments as an effort to telegraph the campaign. On Tuesday, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carter was asked again about the briefing, prompting his answer.

“Every once in a while, somebody gets out in front of their skis,” he added.

Carter’s comments come after his decision to replace Kirby as spokesman within a day of taking office, even with no one lined up to replace him. Many assume he will replace Kirby with a civilian, and Carter has said he will be more available to reporters.

The decision to publicly criticize an official who spoke accurately about the war raises fears among some that an already opaque war will become more so as those in uniform fear speaking up.

On Tuesday, for example, Austin told lawmakers that the coalition had killed 8,500 ISIS fighters since August, when the campaign began. That is 2,500 people higher than the last estimate provided by U.S. officials just 40 days ago.

On January 22, Stuart Jones, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told Al Arabiya that “we estimate that the airstrikes have now killed more than 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq.”

That is, on average the U.S. claims to have killed between 37.5 and 62.5 ISIS fighters a day, depending on whether the U.S.-led coalition killed 6,000 and 6,999 ISIS fighters.

But no one would say how the U.S. tallied that estimate, where those deaths occurred, or which coalition member strikes contributed to that figure. Rather, officials called the figures an estimate based on battlefield assessments. Any further details were classified, they added. And they continue to insist there are no confirmed civilian casualties among those killed.

Carter’s comments only made officials more reticent to defend those numbers.

“I will defer to Austin’s comments,” three officials told The Daily Beast on Tuesday when clarity on the general’s assertion was sought.

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Public support grows for U.S. combat troops in Iraq Military Times, by Andrew Tilghman, Staff writer March 8, 2015

Americans may be moving beyond their war weariness.

A series of new polls shows that public opinion is shifting about military operations in Iraq and an aversion to putting boots on the ground is fading. "It is safe to say that Americans are more supportive of sending U.S. forces into Iraq than they were a year ago," said Fran Coombs, the managing editor at Rasmussen Reports, a nonpartisan firm that conducts public opinion polling.

According to a Rasmussen poll in early February, 52 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should send "send combat troops back to Iraq as part of an international coalition to fight ISIS." That's up from 48 percent in October. Meanwhile, the percentage of those opposed fell 8 points, to 28 percent from 36 percent in October.

And a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Feb. 26-March 2 found that 62 percent of Americans support sending U.S. combat troops to fight the militants, while just 30 percent oppose such a move.

The polls suggest that the rise of the group known as the Islamic State has focused public attention, fueled anxiety about international terrorism and begun to erode some of the broad opposition to sending troops into new conflicts.

Some polls, however, shows the limits to U.S. support for aggressive military action.

An NBC News/Marist Poll conducted in early February found that a strong majority of Americans, 66 percent, believe that some ground troops are needed to combat the Islamic State militants. Yet only 26 percent of those people believe the U.S. should send a "large number of ground forces," while the remaining 40 percent of those people support a "limited number" of U.S. ground forces. Those opposed to all ground forces in Iraq accounted for 26 percent of respondents in the NBC News/Marist Poll.

The uptick in support for troops in Iraq comes amid a wave of broader pessimism. The percent of people who believe that the "U.S. and allies" are "winning the war on terror" has plummeted to an all-time low of 19 percent, down from about 50 percent in 2012, according to the Rasmussen polls. Public support is tipping in favor of a debate on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are considering a bill expanding President Obama's authority to use military force against the Islamic State militants.

A 54 percent majority of Americans want their member of Congress to vote for a measure, while only 32 percent are opposed, according to the NBC News/Marist poll. The shift toward support for boots on the ground in Iraq was also captured by Pew Research Center polls. In October, about 39 percent of respondents were in favor of "sending ground troops" to Iraq, a number that rose to 47 percent in late February when a Pew poll asked the same question.

Coombs cautioned that public support for military operations is often conditioned on a belief in international support and allies who share burden. "The 'as part of a coalition' part is critical," Coombs said. "I think if President Obama came out and said the U.S. is going to send in troops to Iraq unilaterally, people would go crazy. There would not be strong support for that."

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VA Offering Free Gun Locks

Washington Times, January 8, 2015

VA is offering free gun locks to veterans if they provide details on the number of guns they own and their home address, raising concerns about a government-run gun registry. Some veterans have received a form letter in recent days from VA offering gun locks if they return a completed form listing their name, address and number of guns in the home. “As your partner in healthcare, we are committed to keeping you and your family safe,” states the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. “Gun locks have been shown to greatly reduce death and injury caused by firearms in the home. If you own a gun, we hope you will request and use a gun lock.” The letter said agency officials “hope to reach all our veterans with this offer.” VA said it will mail the locks to the address provided by a veteran. One veteran who received the letter said it raises concerns about “a gun registry in disguise.” “Young soldiers are already notoriously reluctant to admit any problems with post-traumatic stress disorder,” said the veteran, who asked to remain anonymous. “Imagine the effect if the average 23-year-old private ... back from Iraq, already reluctant to ask for help ... is now hearing rumors that if he seeks help from VA for sleeplessness, PTSD, nightmares, etc., Big Brother is going take his guns away? Now young veterans will really avoid asking for help”.

The letter about gun locks obtained by the Times was signed by Daniel Hendee, director of the VA medical center in Philadelphia. A VA spokesman in Washington said he was not aware of such an effort and could not provide further comment immediately. Recently, an ex-Marine who was being treated for various health issues through the Philadelphia VA office shot and killed six family members before taking his own life. And an incident at the VA clinic in El Paso, Texas, resulted into two deaths - the gunman and a doctor. The Iraq veteran who shot and killed a VA hospital doctor before turning the gun on himself was a former employee of the clinic who had threatened the doctor more than a year ago.