2023 RNG THIRD QUARTER

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CAREER TRAJECTORY FINDING YOUR

From holding a doctorate to saving lives as an EMT, the guardsmen and reservists who grace the pages of this issue show the true scope of the reserve component’s capabilities.

Take our cover story (page 10), about Dr. Trillitye Paullin, who serves in the Army National Guard and developed a test that detects protein allergens in breast milk. Air Force spouse Crystal Kupper shares how Paullin’s own struggles – and her background in cellular and molecular biology – led her to even begin thinking about creating such a test.

“I don’t believe in chances,” Paullin told Kupper. “I absolutely think what happened was a perfect storm between my Ph.D. specialty in protein analysis and my kiddos, who both experienced food reactivity.”

On page 18, Virginia Cruse, a Navy Reserve veteran and licensed professional counselor, breaks down how to approach the subject

of mental health in a civilian workplace setting through an adapted version of the elevator speech.

We also look at the career accomplishments that led to a guardsman being honored with a security forces award, emergency preparedness careers among the Navy Reserve and more.

There are 1,001 ways to make a career – either in the military or as a civilian – and we’ve only scratched the surface in this issue. But we hope the journeys shared here inspire, motivate and encourage you, much like they’ve done for us.

Until next time,

KARI WILLIAMS Associate Editor

PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER

Todd Taranto

MANAGING EDITOR

Bianca Strzalkowski

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Kari Williams

PLEASE CALL 703-337-8100

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EDITORIAL DESIGN

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Christopher Adams

Ben Greene

Allison Churchill

Virginia Cruse

Crystal Kupper

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by Chris Adams

Staff Sgt. Trillitye Paullin with her daughter, June. Courtesy photo

3RD ANNUAL USAR COMPETITION

HONORS & AWARDS

• Seventeen members of the 10th Airlift Wing, New York National Guard, were honored for their work as part of the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. Master Sgt. Byron Catu received the Air Medal with Valor. Two air crews, led by Capt. Robert Dana and Lt. Col. Dominic Conlan, received air medals.

• Maj. Matthew Bryant, a chaplain with the 914th Air Refueling Wing, recently received the Military Chaplains Association Distinguished Service Award. The award was first issued in 1991 and recognizes the excellence of chaplains.

• Master Sgt. Daniel Chafin, of the 85th U.S. Army Reserve Support Command, was awarded the Purple Heart for his actions in Iraq in October 2011. He was the truck commander of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle crew when an “explosive formed projectile” hit them during a convoy escort operations mission,” a news release stated. All crew members were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

Study: Education, support reduce binge drinking among guardsmen

Online education and support phone calls have shown promise in “reducing risky drinking” among Army National Guardsmen, according to a University of Michigan study.

The study consisted of 739 guardsmen from across 41 Michigan National Guard units who were split into three groups – peer-support, online-education only and a control group. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism funded the study, according to a news release

“We’re so grateful for the cooperation and ongoing engagement by the Michigan Army National Guard, which is working to improve the health and readiness of its members and made it possible for us to do a study that could help many other Guard units nationwide,” said senior author Lara Coughlin, Ph.D., an addiction psychologist and researcher at U-M, in a news release.

Results included:

• Guardsmen in the peer-support group reported an average of 2.6 days binge drinking by the end of the study compared to 5.2 and the beginning.

• Guardsmen in the online-education only group reported an average decrease from 4.2 to 2.8 days.

• Guardsmen in the third group saw no change.

Binge drinking, according to the study, was defined as six or more drinks in a sitting for men and four or more for women.

A previous U-M study found that nearly one-third of guardsmen in the state who had deployed “showed signs of risky drinking,” the release stated.

For more information, or to review the study, visit https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ NCT02181283.

– Lt. Gen. John Healy said in a document sent to AFRC senior leaders April 1

Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Scott Lynn, left, commanding general of Army Reserve Medical Command out of Pinellas Park, Florida; and Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Boudnik, AR-MEDCOM command sergeant major, walk through a plumage of purple smoke prior to the Expert Field Medical Badge ceremony for the 2023 United States Army Reserve EFMB competition in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, May 12, 2023. Hosted by Central Medical Area Readiness Support Group, the two-week-long 2023 USAR EFMB featured 49 competitors.

Photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Hernandez

“As we take steps to transform for the future, integrating our air, space and information operations will be vital to succeeding as we compete now, enable integrated deterrence, prepare for escalation and win wars across multiple domains.”

World War II veteran James K. Kunkle lays in the back of a KC-135 boom pod and watches the boom operator refuel an F15-C Eagle from the 114th Fighter Wing, Fresno, California, April 25, 2023. Kunkle served as an Army Air Corps pilot during World War II and flew P-38 and P-57 aircraft. Kunkle received the Distinguished Service Cross for engaging 20 German aircraft and downing two of them. Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Shannon Nielsen

Arkansas, Nebraska units deploy to Ukraine

Guardsmen from Arkansas and Nebraska National Guard units are currently deployed to Ukraine.

More than 160 members of Arkansas’s 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team assumed command of the Joint Multinational GroupUkraine at Grafenwoehr, Germany, to “mentor and advise the Ukrainian armed forces and enable combat training center capability and capacity to help the Ukrainians better defend their country from aggression,” a release stated.

“This mission is vital to help deter aggression in Europe,” said Maj. Gen. Jonathan Stubbs, Arkansas’s adjutant general, in the release. “These Arkansans will execute their mission with great professionalism, and will no doubt have a strategic impact on the outcome of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, 13 guardsmen from the 1-134th Cavalry of the Nebraska National Guard will be on a yearlong deployment to the same region.

“All our NCO corps across Europe are advancing at different paces. They have different capabilities already existing inside their formations. So, we must critically analyze where they are, understand the starting point, and develop a plan to advance them. That is where the National Guard plays a key role since they already have those relationships. Now we can hone in on that so we are all shooting towards the same target.”

CG-Reserve Policy Board accepts online submissions

The Coast Guard Reserve is now accepting online submissions for policy-related ideas that could improve organization, training and equipment. Previously, those interested in submitting an idea had to fill out a formal memorandum and receive a command endorsement before it made its way to the Coast Guard Reserve Policy Board. For more information, or to use the online submission form, visit https://www.mycg. uscg.mil/News/Article/3371216/do-you-havea-great-idea-that-could-benefit-the-coastguard-reserve/.

Ohio National Guard begins ‘no wrong door’ policy

A new initiative from the Ohio National Guard’s J9 Directorate is expected to help improve service member care.

Itself a newer policy, J9 brings existing programs, such as Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and Behavioral Health under one umbrella along with new programs “concentrated on awareness and mitigating self-directed harm, violence and substance abuse,” according to a news release

“The J9 allows us to move quickly from what were multiple isolated programs looking to resolve issues independently, into a collective approach seeking to resolve service member and military family concerns as they emerge, not after they occur,” Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. said in the release.

An installation redesignation

Camp Beauregard, the main training installation of the Louisiana National Guard, has been renamed the Louisiana National Guard Training Center Pineville. The new name was one of six submitted to Maj. Gen. Keith Waddell, adjutant general, a news release stated. An official unveiling ceremony will be held this fall.

JRIC ribbon-cutting ceremony

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held recently for the renovated Joint Reserve Intelligence Center at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado. The $16 million project took three-and-a-halfyears to complete and created an additional 22,000 square feet of “classified space with redundant critical infrastructure,” according to a news release

– U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Robert V. Abernethy, Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. European Command, during the annual State Partnership Program Conference in Denver in April

Chief master sergeant aims to ‘make things better’ for reservists

BY KARI WILLIAMS

One of the newest members of the Air Force Reserve’s advisory council hopes to bring a focus on mental health education to the force.

“I’ve had and have clients who have been in the military,” said Chief Master Sgt. Gayla Gibson, a licensed professional counselor in her civilian career. “You have some military members who, they will drive or they will pay out of pocket for fear of reporting it to their superiors or their squadrons or what have you. So because they fear the ramifications, what is that going to do to my career?”

Gibson, who serves with the 482nd Mission Support Group at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, was one of 10 new council members announced the Air and Space Forces Association Warfighter Symposium earlier this year.

Council members advise the chief of the Air Force Reserve and his representatives in relation to Department of Defense policy and legislative issues, according to a news release.

Gibson said she is looking at things to “better” mental health and resilience within the reserves, particularly education.

“So making sure the members, as well as the commanders and the other leaders, are on the same page,” Gibson said. “They understand how the process works, what the process is. Members understand that just because they’re struggling with anxiety, depression, it’s not a career-ending thing. So helping – starting with that education piece so there’s more transparency … [and we] can then move to helping the members. Giving them the way forward to continue to be able to serve, which is what they want to do.”

Gibson said the council is a “great team of people” that’s broken into groups based on topics that are pertinent to the individual.

“We have that group of mental health resilience, retention/recruitment, barriers to service,” she said. “All of us coming together,

bringing our experience, bringing our knowledge, being able to reach out to all of these different people to help us, to make things better for members of the reserve.”

Joining the Reserve Advisory Council was a way for Gibson to give back and help others in the force that she said had given her so much. She joined the Air Force Reserve in 2001 and spent most of her career at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

“It has been awesome, for the most part,” she said. “Of course, you have your bumps here and there, but I pretty much grew up at Scott Air Force Base in the same squadron … From airman, senior airman all the way up to chief. I had some great mentors, great friends … Those mentors saw something in me, that I didn’t see in myself.”

Gibson said she owes a lot of who she is to the Air Force. She has been with the Mission Support Group at Homestead since September 2022 after spending most of her career in medical.

“As chief, now I’m touching more people,” she said. “So it became … ‘I’m affecting this many people, what can I do next to affect a larger group?’”

The council’s work, according to Gibson, isn’t restricted to just what the members think. Rather, members reach out to their wings, squadrons and groups to have conversations and bring that back to the full council.

Gibson will serve a two-year term on the council.

“I won’t be there forever, and we’re just starting out,” she said. “But I would just like to urge anyone who feels passionately about making change, about helping to make the force better for the future forward, to consider becoming a part of the council because it’s a great opportunity beyond connecting with different people, beyond the professional development opportunities, it’s that opportunity to make such a huge difference.

“And understanding that you may not be, in your term, your two-year term, you may not be able to see the end result, but just knowing that you started it and you’re pushing it forward then passing it on the next, it’s a great opportunity.”

Those interested in contacting the Reserve Advisory Council can email AF.Reserve.Council@us.af.mil

New members of the Air Force Reserve Advisory Council were welcomed at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfighter Symposium earlier this year. Photos courtesy Chief Master Sgt. Gayla Gibson

Security forces awardee credits team for success

BY KARI WILLIAMS

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CRANE

When the opportunity arises to take on a challenge, maybe a little bit of risk, and something that’s not 100% comfortable, do it.

That’s Capt. Paul Day’s message for aspiring Air National Guardsmen.

“Any given moment in your career, you’re going to be presented with an opportunity to take on a challenge you may not feel fully prepared to take on … but don’t be afraid to take on that challenge because that’s where the greatest rewards come from,” said Day, the 2022 Air Reserve Component Company Grade Officer of the Year.

Day earned the aforementioned honor, in part, due to his leadership and development role with Agile Combat Employment missions during his deployment to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

Day deployed in January 2022 with the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing and was the unit’s chief of plans and operations in the anti-terrorism office.

While overseas through July 2022, Day was the officer-in-charge for the mission set. He managed two missions that, according to a news release, included “developing equipment lists and working with U.S. Air Forces Central Command to secure necessary equipment. These ACE missions took him and his team to undisclosed locations throughout the region.”

Day said he was told that there wasn’t necessarily a plan in place, but “AFCENT needs you to develop the equipment package.” After returning from the first mission, Day said, he wrote a “pretty robust” after action report documenting what went well and would could be improved.

One of the biggest – but also exciting –challenges, according to Day, was they created the plan organically.

“As the lead of security, there were a couple big challenges,” Day said. “[We were] really starting from scratch, so you know where you’re going and a little bit about that location.”

But to protect assets, speed was key.

“You can’t bring a lumbering, logistics footprint with us that would slow us down,” Day said.

His work was ultimately used AFCENT wide. To reach that point, according to Day, he met weekly – sometimes multiple times per week – with leaders of “each key function” for the mission sets. Those meetings included developing a common terminology so that, for example, defenders and bombers would be on the same page.

That was critical in the second mission to helping “codify counter-SAUS [small unmanned aircraft systems] capacity.”

Day also was involved with Operation Allies Refuge, working at Holt Field in Wisconsin as Afghan refugees were brought stateside. He oversaw roughly 40 airmen who were tasked with transporting refugees from Holt Field to a nearby Army base.

“It was very eye opening,” Day said. “It’s a humbling experience. I got to see, especially women and children, as they walk off the change, seeing the United States for first time and almost a sense of relief, also some excitement ... [and ] trepidation.”

Day learned in early 2023 he would receive the Air Reserve Component Company Grade Officer of the Year award.

“It was pretty exciting,” Day said. “Probably the best part of it honestly was getting the

email from Col. [Victor] Moncrieffe, the ‘Top Cop’ for the Air National Guard] … his email and just talking about how and why I won the award and that was probably one of the highlights. I have a lot of respect [for him] … He’s an outstanding officer and representative of our career field. So to get the accolades from him was pretty amazing.”

Still, receiving the award wouldn’t have been possible without his team, Day said.

A third-generation airman, Day enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2014 and commissioned in 2018. His grandfather served in Korea, while his father served during the Vietnam War. Day said he always wanted to serve, but became a police officer after graduating college. A friend on the force was in the Air National Guard and spurred him to join at 30 years old.

He now serves with the 190th Air Refueling Wing.

Soldier with Ph.D. creates protein allergen test for infants

BY CRYSTAL KUPPER, AIR FORCE SPOUSE

Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Trillitye Paullin can still remember the exact pitch and timbre of her newborn daughter’s screams.

Baby June was only 1 month old in 2015 when her parents discovered her tiny body covered in eczema and her diaper full of blood. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, where doctors determined their firstborn had severe infant food allergies.

“Your breast milk is killing your baby,” they told Paullin.

Nearly 5% of children 5 years old or younger have food allergies, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. And a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that food allergies among children were on an upward trend.

Round one

No one knew for sure what in Paullin’s breast milk was causing the problem – especially since there was no way to test for the precise

allergen(s) June was reacting to. Tests are currently designed for those ages 6 months and older. So the new mother went on a strict allergen-elimination diet, avoiding foods like dairy, seafood and nuts in the hopes of eventually nursing June again.

It worked. Supplemented by special formula, mom and daughter resumed breastfeeding two weeks later and continued until June’s first birthday. But the situation was far from ideal.

Paullin, an engineering technical specialist with the 878th Engineer Company of the North Carolina National Guard, had limited dietary and nutritional options for almost a year in her quest to nourish her baby.

“It had a lot of implications for my physical and mental health,” Paullin said.

She hoped things would be different when her second daughter was born in

2018. But Rose followed in her big sister’s allergy footsteps.

“There was a lot of turmoil and trauma around my thoughts, like I don’t know if I can do this again by myself; I don’t know if I’ll survive,” she said. “There was a lot of sadness around the fact that I knew I was going to be buckling up for another journey.”

But this time, Paullin fought back — and used her civilian background and military-tested determination to do so.

Dairy deliverance

Paullin, a North Dakota native, joined the National Guard in 2005. When she earned her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology in 2016, she focused on proteomics (the study of proteins). She knew the root cause of infant food allergies stems from specific reactions to food proteins — so why couldn’t she create a test to figure out which proteins?

“I don’t believe in chances,” Paullin said. “I absolutely think what happened was a perfect storm between my Ph.D. specialty in protein analysis and my kiddos, who both experienced food reactivity.”

At the time, Paullin was working as a quality assurance manager for a dairy processing facility. If she could check for cross contamination in cow milk there, she reasoned, shouldn’t she be able to do the same for human milk elsewhere?

Today, June and Rose are ages 8 and 5 — and completely allergy-free. Paullin, in fact, is the only one in the family with any sort of allergies.

Eczema (rash)

Reflux

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Constipation

Bloody/mucous stool

A few weeks after Rose was born, Paullin launched Free to Feed, a biotechnology research company hoping to release in October the world’s first patented allergen detection test kit for human milk. It will be available over-the-counter, Paullin said, to make it easily accessible for new parents. Free to Feed also offers one-on-one consultations, conducts research studies and provides caregiver education and milk-sharing opportunities.

“I want Free to Feed to provide parents with the tools they need to make educated decisions about their baby’s allergies,” Paullin said. “And give them all the love and empathy they deserve along the way.”

She looks back on everything — joining the National Guard, deploying to a combat zone, the thousands of hours poured into her Ph.D., a civilian job testing cow milk, learning to be a soldier and a mother, her daughters’ food struggles, the frustration and tears before the breakthroughs — and wishes she would have given herself more grace.

But if the Army has taught her anything, she said, it’s that this, too, shall pass, if you keep soldiering onward.

“When you finally get to the source of your child’s food allergies, it’s like you finally get to meet your baby because their real personality begins to emerge,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, this is the little human I’ve brought into the world.’”

To join the waitlist for the Free to Feed allergen test kit, visit freetofeed.com/ waitlist

Staff Sgt. Trillitye Paullin and her daughters, Rose and June.

Courtesy photo

Signs your infant may have food allergies:

“I don’t believe in chances. I absolutely think what happened was a perfect storm between my Ph.D. specialty in protein analysis and my kiddos, who both experienced food reactivity.”

– Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Trillitye Paullin

Army medic receives EMT certification through the military

BY CHRIS ADAMS

The Emergency Medical Services system across the country is “facing crippling staffing challenges,” according to the American Ambulance Association. But service members trained in medical fields can slide into a viable profession on the civilian side.

Spc. Trevor George, who serves in the Minnesota National Guard, is a testament to this. George trained and served as an Army medic, defining his military and civilian employment. He currently works in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) field and is a medic in his Guard unit.

“The Army helped because I got to go into the training, and it was eight weeks of EMT class for the National Registry [of Emergency Medical Technicians],” George said. “I like helping people. I get to go out, and I help soldiers train. I get to cover them for ranges. When they get injured, they come to me … the one person they are happy to see, I guess, all the time.”

The 32-year-old Army specialist enlisted in 2013. He spent four years on active duty before joining the Minnesota’s 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry HHC, where he serves as an Army medic.

“I actually transitioned from being an EMT to a paramedic,” he said. “I went to school for two years … because I was on active duty for four years and all, I was able to jump right into the paramedic program and skip, I guess, a semester or so of schooling because I already had my EMT.”

George said the Army provided the training he needed to become an EMT. He spent eight weeks preparing for the rigorous National Registry EMT test, administered by the NREMT, the certifying agency for EMTs in the United States.

“They kind of pushed us. It was five, six chapters a week,” George said. “They pushed you through, and they really broke it down and helped us understand the material.”

After passing the test, the Army sent George to Joint-Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, for 16 weeks of field medicine instruction in the 68 Whiskey Combat Medic Specialist Training program.

“It was your patient assessment,” he said. “It was trauma, learning all about trauma, the different kinds of trauma, you could potentially see how to treat it. And then you actually went out and did what we call a trauma lane, where you go through a simulation of combat, you get to the point where if somebody gets injured, you treat them. You move them … from the point of injury back to a triage area. And from triage, you still are treating them and then you’re evacuating.”

George was in college when he decided to change his vocational direction and visited an Army recruiter. The conversation turned to Army medics and his interest was piqued.

“I thought that sounded kind of interesting and fun,” George said.

George works as a paramedic at Sanford Ambulance in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. But he said there are some distinctions between being a paramedic and an Army medic.

“As an Army medic, we’re working as EMTs with variances,” George said. “There’s different skill sets that we get signed off on by doctors and different medications we

can push, and we’re limited into what we’re allowed to do. Whereas a paramedic, I’m still under a doctor, but I have a wider range of skills. I have a larger list of medications I can push.”

According to the Warfare History Network , Army medics are more important than ever, stating that in the last 30 years, the ratio of wounded-to-killed in battle has increased exponentially.

“Although the overall casualty rates were low, the number of wounded that required medical attention was relatively high compared to other wars,” the Warfare History Network reported. “In World War II, U.S. forces suffered 1.6 wounded for every soldier killed. In Vietnam, the ratio was 2.8 wounded for each soldier killed. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the ratio was 16 soldiers wounded for each soldier killed.”

George advises soldiers or future soldiers pursuing an EMT track to be teachable, focused and open-minded.

“Absorb everything you can, listen to them … and do it how they tell you to do it,” he said. “Don’t make up your own way. They’re the medical experts. They’re the experts on training people on how to be an Army medic and an EMT and stuff. Just listen, absorb it all, follow their instructions and then just have attention to detail.”

Award-winning career counselor puts his soldiers first

BY CHRISTOPHER ADAMS PHOTOS BY CPL. MASON RUNYON

For Sgt. 1st Class Antoni Bukowski, receiving the Army Reserve’s 2023 Career Counselor of the Year honor felt like winning an Academy Award.

A former waste management contract specialist in civilian life and now a full-time Army Active Guard Reserve career counselor in Hawaii, he said when his name was announced, it “just meant so much.”

Bukowski was the recipient of two distinctions: the Military Meritorious Service Medal and the Sgt. Maj. Jerome Pionk Excellence in Retention Medal.

But it was the Pionk medal that had Bukowski ecstatic.

“I didn’t really care about the Army award that I got … the Military Meritorious Service Medal,” he said. “I wanted this Jerome Pionk Award, which is the excellence and retention, which is basically like the highest award that we can get in our profession.”

Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth stated in a recent Army News Service press release that career counselors play a crucial role in ensuring the retention of the Army’s skilled workforce and augmenting its invest-

ments in soldiers while allowing soldiers to invest in themselves.

“This is a responsibility and a charge that has never been more important, probably in the entire 50-year history of our all-volunteer force,” Wormuth said during a March ceremony.

Bukowski’s former supervisor, Lt. Col. Jim Hannigan, said Bukowski always puts the soldier first and definitely earned the award.

“He’s done that at great personal cost,” Hannigan said. “He’s invested in the Army

Reserve. He’s invested in his soldiers. And he sacrifices a lot to make that happen … always killing his own mission.”

Bukowski’s father, having seen an Army recruiting commercial that pitched a free pair of socks, inadvertently set his son’s military career path in motion in 1996. Later that summer, Bukowski answered a phone call from a recruiter asking for his father. The elder Bukowski was a bit too old for the service, but the recruiter began pitching Bukowski. The fact that his college would be paid for was an incentive, but attending basic training is what really appealed to the career counselor.

“It was just the notion of attending basic training. Drill sergeant yelling at you and all that good stuff,” Bukowski said. “And before I knew it, she was at my house, and I was signing a contract. I still have those Army socks that I have not worn them to this day as like a memento of the reason why I joined.”

Bukowski began his Army Reserve career as a personnel administrative specialist. But when he arrived at his transportation unit, only manual labor positions were available and he chose to operate a locomotive.

One of his unit teammates left to become a career counselor and suggested Bukowski consider a job in an administrative unit. After a month, his former teammate called him and recommended a career counselor position.

“I wound up being on orders and shadowing what he did to see if I wanted to do it,” Bukowski said. “A couple months later, I went to reclass school, and then a couple of months after that I got an AGR, or a full-time position, doing the job. So it kind of happened really quickly.”

Bukowski still isn’t sure what he wants to do “when he grows up,” but that hasn’t prevented him from helping others find their professional selves.

“I love talking to people, and I love assisting people any way that I can,” he said. “And it’s ironic that here I am a career counselor instructing or, you know, kind of advising or recommending, suggesting what other soldiers should do with their lives when, again, I don’t even know what I want to do kind of thing. But, you know, it’s rewarding.”

Not all the situations are successful, but Bukowski said positive outcomes occur more often than not. One soldier he helped with reclassification and a change of MOS is now set on a six-figure civilian career path.

Spc. Alec Sanders credits Bukowski with guiding him to success. He knew when he met the career counselor that he was different.

“And I remember when I went to meet with him the first time,

[he was] just absolutely the most friendly guy in the world,” Sanders said.

The specialist told Bukowski he was interested in a cyber unit but other people he reached out to didn’t know how to refer him to that particular unit and didn’t make any effort to, attempting to steer him in another direction instead.

“And right away, he walked over, took my case, and then immediately called the colonel of that unit,” Sanders said. “And immediately the next day he had me set up with everything, so I went. I was able to sign the papers. He did everything in like a super timely manner. Just a super friendly guy through the whole process.”

Bukowski’s award is a result of his success, predicated on the success of the soldiers he counsels. And their success circles back to Bukowski’s determination to be a caring and responsive career counselor and retention specialist who approaches his vocation with a singular purpose.

“So, again, that’s what makes me feel good is just that the end game of some of these soldiers is definitely helping them in their civilian lives … you did something right in your job when that happens,” Bukowski said.

“I love talking to people, and I love assisting people any way that I can.”

– Sgt. 1st Class Antoni Bukowski

Reserve components prep

Guardsmen and reservists routinely complete training responsibilities. Here you’ll find a roundup of some of the

An Army Reserve Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent participates in their annual training ‘Guardian Shield’ in May at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. Annual trainings like GS23 are essential to mission success not only for classroom and weapons qualifications, but also for agents to network and leverage experience from multiple law enforcement backgrounds. Photo by Senior Airman Matt Porter

Cpl. Keiarree Ealey, a squad leader with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, prepares to move during a platoon attack for a Mission Rehearsal Exercise in April at Joint Reserve Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana. The MRX is a collective training event with Marine Air Ground Task Force integration to evaluate the Marines’ capabilities to ensure their level of readiness for the upcoming Integrated Training Exercise 4-23, the largest Marine Corps Reserve exercise of the year.

A crew chief assigned to the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center in Tucson, Arizona, prepares to marshal the launch of an F-16 Fighting Falcon in May at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, during Northern Edge 2023. Photo by Master Sgt. Amber Monio

Photo by Cpl. Jennifer Delacruz

for disaster, deployment

missions and deployments alongside their civilian the events and issues they trained for so far this year.

Marines with 3rd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO), Marine Forces Reserve, prepare to execute high frequency radio communication in May during exercise Intrepid Maven 23.3 in the United Arab Emirates. Intrepid Maven 23.3 is a Task Force 51/5-led bilateral exercise between MARCENT and the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. Photo by Cpl. Jennifer Delacruz

West Virginia National Guard and Peruvian Air Force personnel discuss features of a medical mannequin used in May during exercise Cooperation IX, at Pisco Air Base, Peru. The exercise, coordinated by the System of Cooperation Among the American Air Forces, brought together 13 partner nations to develop interoperability in times of emergency response.

Reserve Citizen Airmen from the 14th Intelligence Squadron contribute to Operation 2000 Cherry Trees on May 4 through collaboration with the unit’s Honorary Commander, Mr. Michael Roediger, director and chief executive officer for the Dayton Art Institute. Men and women of the 14 IS supported the project and the DAI by planting and landscaping trees. Courtesy photo

Air National Guardsmen test a suspected biological substance on May 5 during Emergency Management Battlefield Expeditionary Response training in a mock village constructed at McCrady Training Center, Eastover, South Carolina. The multi-day Fox EMBER exercise enabled the airmen to practice responses for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear events. Photo by Senior Airman Amy Rangel

Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Emily Beightol-Deyerle

How to address mental health while advancing your career

BY VIRGINIA CRUSE, LPC, NAVY RESERVE VETERAN

Mental health support is a top goal of the National Guard and reserve component, as it should be. The data are clear that Guard and reserve troops separated from the active component are at higher risk of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury due to lack of active-duty military support.

As reserve and Guard soldiers, getting help for mental health means we have civilian employers to inform. How do we talk to employers about getting help for our mental health and, moreover, gain their buy-in for continued support?

First things first: we either control the narrative, or the narrative controls us. To receive support from our workplace to get treatment, we are smart to talk to our bosses, our HR department and our colleagues about our mental health. Talking to civilian colleagues about military mental health issues is uncomfortable, but avoiding it is unrealistic.

To bridge this gap, we’ll create an “elevator speech” to give us structure, get straight to the point, and secure the buy-in we need from our civilian employer to get mental health help.

The elevator speech

We get the term “elevator speech” from the business world. It’s brief, about 30 seconds (the time it takes to ride from the bottom to the top of a building in an elevator), and clearly and succinctly states our purpose. It follows tenets of narrative therapy and logotherapy and follows a specific outline:

1. Thank them for the opportunity to talk.

2. Introduce our elephant: own our emotions/ lack of emotion.

3. Own our past – own our narrative and speak plainly.

4. Describe our turning point – epiphany.

5. Ask for buy in and support; manage expectations.

6. Thank them/show dedication.

Thank them for the opportunity to talk. When talking with HR or our work team, start by setting the stage and thanking them for taking the time to speak with us (even if no one had a choice). If possible, proactively ask for an opportunity to speak with them; it shows courage and it controls the narrative.

Introduce our “elephant.” “The elephant in the room” is an expression that means there’s something present that is difficult to ignore, and we are smart to introduce it. For example, feeling nervous, emotionally raw or even numb when talking about mental health is OK so long as we acknowledge it. Same for using a note card; simply introduce it.

This may sound like: “In order to respect your time, I took some notes to help me stay on point,” or, “It is nerve-racking to speak to you about my PTSD because of the stigma, so I thank you for your patience.”

Own our past. This is an opportunity to own our behavior and not make any excuses. Focus on work issues and speak in concise terms. We do not have to share details, so keep it simple.

This may sound like, “When I first got back from deployment, I thought I was OK, but I had problems and started acting out at work.” Note: this is not the time for new revelations.

The epiphany. This is our turning point and notes why we have made the choice to change now. This can sound like, “After receiving a performance improvement plan, I realized that I need help.”

Ask for buy-in, manage expectations. We need support from our employer so we can get the help we need, and we need to manage expectations. This may sound something like, “I want to recover from PTSD, and I know it’s not easy. I’ll need to attend counseling weekly and take time off from work. I believe that with your continued support I can do this.”

Thank them/show dedication. Wrap it up smartly and thank them; we need their support. When it comes to showing dedication, we get to be dedicated to whatever we choose; just speak plainly and succinctly: “Thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk to you today. I want you to know that I am dedicated to our team and to our mission.”

Every elevator speech is as different as our experiences, and I encourage you to follow the outline. I developed the elevator speech on the work of Robert Rosenthal and Viktor Frankl, two greats in psychology, and this strategy has helped hundreds of soldiers gain the support of their civilian employers and forge a path to recovery.

Virginia Cruse is a licensed professional counselor and the author of “The Soldier’s Guide to PTSD.” You can find more at www.TheSoldiersBlog.com

Space National Guard A timeline of advocacy efforts

The Air National Guard has been performing space missions since the mid-1990s, but with the creation of the Space Force in 2019, Guard leadership has advocated for the creation of a Space National Guard. Despite being a legislative priority for the National Guard Association of the United States – and the introduction of bipartisan legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives – it has yet to be established. Here’s a look at how the issue has developed:

1996

The Air National Guard begins performing space missions.

FEBRUARY 2020

“Comprehensive Plan on the Organizational Structure of the U.S. Space Force,” a Department of the Air Force report to congressional committees, is released but does not discuss how the Guard and reserve component would be factored into the force.

JUNE 2, 2020

A Congressional Budget Office report estimates the creation of a smaller Space Guard would “result in additional annual operation and support (O&S) costs totaling $100 million, along with onetime construction costs of $20 million.” The report also determines that a larger Space Guard would “would require $400 million to $900 million in one-time costs to construct additional facilities (such as armories) and to equip the new units.”

The lower cost, the report stated, would “require about 850 full-time and 2,500 part-time personnel),” while the higher end would call for 1,100 full-time and 3,200 part-time personnel.

DECEMBER 20, 2019

Space Force is established when the National Defense Authorization Act is signed into law.

MARCH 2020

Gen. Joseph Lengyel, thenchief of the National Guard Bureau, testifies in support of the establishment of a Space National Guard.

MAY 2021

Gen. Daniel Hokanson tells the House Appropriations subcommittee that establishing a Space National Guard is a priority and that the cost would be roughly $200,000, covering changing name tags and signage. Guard leaders argue the June 2020 CBO report was based on incorrect data.

SEPTEMBER 2021

MARCH 2023

Fifty adjutants general urge Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to create a Space National Guard.

JUNE 2022

NGAUS requests President Joe Biden reconsider the White House Office of Management and Budget’s opposition to a Space National Guard, citing in a letter the incorrect assumption that all states would have Space Guard units, rather than “only 1,000 space professionals in 14 units across eight states and territories.”

MAY 10 2022

Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduces legislation to establish a Space National Guard as a reserve component of the Space Force.

MAY 3, 2023

FEBRUARY 2023

In a bipartisan effort, senators reintroduce legislation to establish a Space National Guard.

MAY 24 2022

During a virtual NGAUS press conference, ANG leaders say the uncertainty of a Space National Guard hurts morale.

MAY 2022

An Office of Management and Budget report states the Biden administration has opposed the creation of a Space Guard. A Space Force operating proposal is submitted to Congress, but does not include creating a Space Guard.

APRIL 2022

The National Guard Association of the United States hosts Capitol Hill staffers to discuss the inclusion of a Space National Guard. Brig. Gen. Steven J. Butow, California’s Air National Guard commander, says replacing ANG space professionals “could cost $750 million” and take up to a decade, according to a NGAUS report

Reps. Jason Crow and Doug Lamborn reintroduce the Space National Guard Establishment Act in a bipartisan effort.

Intelligence officers set parameters for

A California National Guardsman has partnered with a fellow soldier to help others ensure they fully understand which benefits are available to them.

Vic Hill, an Army intelligence officer, created MyRuck – an artificial intelligence-powered web and mobile app that provides an easy-to-navigate dashboard explaining service members’ eligibility for federal, state and local benefits.

Hill, who joined the Guard in 2016, said the idea for MyRuck started with trying to

BY KARI WILLIAMS

establish the benefit differences in the Guard and reserve component and who they apply to. He had been at the basic officer leadership course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for roughly two years when West Point graduates arrived for their leadership course. It was then he noticed the differences.

“So here I am a 27-year-old, 28-year-old guy with a daughter trying to figure out stuff and then here come these 20-, 21-year-olds straight out of West Point,” Hill said, “and they’re active duty so they’re figuring out

where they’re buying a home. And I was there like, ‘Man. I know that I’m eligible in some way, shape or form, but there’s all these nuances that are involved in eligibility for reserve and Guard.’”

From that jumping off point, Hill asked around and learned more about additional benefits and when he could qualify.

“[I] just found out that all circumstances are so individualistic,” he said. “So my cofounder [Brad Clark] and I just started to

Vic Hill Brad Clark

pick away at it because he’s in the National Guard too and he’s prior active duty so we have different benefits.”

Clark, who also was an intelligence officer in the California National Guard, said Hill and he started brainstorming after discussing the issues Hill had applying for benefits.

“The first iteration was literally a spreadsheet … We were both on same page about thinking there’s probably a better way to skin that cat,” said Clark, who currently is in the Inactive Reserve.

They questioned how spouses and dependents factor into the equation and other circumstances like active duty transitioning to the reserves.

The idea for a web and mobile app came from receiving information as paper pamphlets, items posted on job/bulletin boards and “an absolute ton of hyperlinks that just shot you into all these different resources,” according to Hill.

The VA benefits process, according to Clark, “leaves a lot to be desired,” in part, because of the number of “human touch points.”

“In 2023, [there are] probably a lot of very unecessary touch points so to speak,” Clark said.

Developing the app – with neither guardsmen having a tech background – was a labor of love, according to Clark.

“It was challenging having this idea and being able to bring it to life,” Clark said. “We had a few bumps in the road as far as bringing on tech talent.”

Hill said there was an initial version of the app in 2019 that was put through a Bunker Labs accelerator program, but continued production was delayed due to a deployment.

“Since 2020, it’s been about a year and then we took a pivot,” Hill said. “So this last year has really been where we figured out through talking to both the military community and to service providers, nonprofits, employers, to arrive at where we’re at now, which is kind of honed in on HR integration, but not just civilian employers, but also DOD HR so we can reach all military.”

The AI integration came after looking into intelligent automation, or hyper automation, according to Hill.

“And connecting all the dots and being able to deliver answers faster but also being able to onboard people faster,” Hill said. “So eliminating the long questionnaires.”

When an employer adopts the platform,

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their current HR technology, such as ADP or WorkDay, is integrated on the back end.

“What we then come in and do with our technology is when you’re onboarding with an employer, there’s an additional onboarding card where it says upload your military documents,” Hill said. “It pings our software and we can read your military documents and we can extract that data and see what benefits you’re eligible for at a federal, state and local level. And then that is provided in a very nicely designed dashboard.”

The response so far, Clark said, has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“We have kind of a novel idea of an old problem and just the reaction has been overwhelming,” Clark said.

The app is slated to release in July, with the goal of having 100 customers between July and December.

For more information, visit https://www.myruck.ai/

National Guard ‘governor’ witnesses transformation of refugees, service members

BY WILL MARTIN, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD & AIR FORCE RESERVE VETERAN PHOTOS BY MASTER SGT. MATT HECHT

Col. Bernadette Maldonado was spent. In the wake of the U.S. military’s abrupt departure from Afghanistan in late 2021, the senior New Jersey Air National Guard officer was pulled into Operation Allies Welcome, a Homeland Security effort to resettle tens of thousands of Afghan refugees on American soil.

“We didn’t have the manning right, we didn’t have the schedule right,” Maldonado said, reflecting on the overwhelming logistics and tight timeframe of her mission. “I remember just being exhausted.”

Overcome with fatigue, Maldonado scaled a set of stairs during one of her morning surveys of refugee living conditions. To her surprise, a little Afghan girl jumped from the top of the stairs, embracing Maldonado, and thanking her for bringing her family to safety. Her contagious joy breathed life into the colonel’s spirit.

“I almost started balling,” Maldonado said. “I was like, ‘OK, this is why we’re doing this.’”

Maldonado has been some places. With more than three decades of service, her military passport includes stops in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Europe and war-torn Afghanistan. But her most immersive international experience, she said, occurred on an Army parade field in New Jersey.

“Even though I was going home at night … I remember being so submerged in the mission like I never have before in my career,” Maldonado said about her four-month assignment as “governor” of the Allies Wel-

come site at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. “I think we thought we knew their culture … but you really don’t until you’re submerged into it like that. It changed my perspective.”

Fort Dix served as one of several Allies Welcome DOD sites. Military personnel from all branches and components provided transportation, lodging, medical care and legal support to those making the U.S. their new home. In short order, the operation resettled more than 76,000 Afghan nationals across the nation.

OAW by the numbers

Approximately 97,000 Afghan nationals, U.S. citizens, and Lawful Permanent Residents have arrived in the U.S. as part of Operation Allies Welcome.

Of those, more than 88,500 are Afghan nationals, and the remainder were U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Of the more than 88,500 Afghan nationals who arrived in the United States as a part of Operation Allies Welcome, more than 77,000 of them were paroled into the United States on a case-by-case basis, for urgent humanitarian reasons, for a period of two years.

Approximately 19,000 people remain at one of five “safe havens” at military installations across the United States.

More than 7,400 Afghans, American citizens, and lawful permanent residents have been relocated to their new communities from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Approximately 9,300 Afghan nationals, American citizens, and lawful permanent residents are currently at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

As a reminder, all Afghans were vetted prior to arrival and underwent additional screening at the Port of Entry, and they are required to receive critical vaccinations as a condition of their humanitarian parole.

Thank you to our advertising partners who support YOU and your families!

“People and their families are checked in, offered a COVID vaccine, fed, provided medical care, counseled, and sheltered before their onward movement,” Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Sep. 3, 2021. “Every single day our military personnel perform heroic work in the service of so many.”

On Fort Dix, what began with a few thousand refugees in two hard buildings quickly grew into a makeshift city of about 15,000 refugees populating mammoth tents across the post’s parade field.

“These tents were like those huge Oktoberfest tents you see in Germany,” said Maldonado.

Lined with bunk beds, they were the same style of shelters used to house U.S. troops preparing for combat deployments during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They slept like a 1,000 people … (but) we quickly learned the Afghan culture is very family oriented,” Maldonado said. “You can’t just put strangers together.”

Without them, we couldn’t accomplish our mission of keeping you informed.

SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security

The Afghans began erecting dividers and hanging sheets to divide their spaces into family units. As a result, the tents designed for 1,000 were lucky to house half that. And many refugees, Maldonado said, were unaccompanied, their hasty exodus driving a heart-wrenching wedge between the family members who escaped and those who remained to face Taliban rule.

“I couldn’t imagine leaving everything you have, your family, all that, and just getting on a plane and having nothing,” Maldonado said. “Every time I walked anywhere, they were like, ‘When am I going to get settled? Where am I going next? How long is this going to take?’ A lot of the time we just didn’t have answers.”

Aided by cultural advisors with deep roots in Afghan culture, Maldonado and her Task Force Liberty team quickly turned to inserting a sense of community into the settlement.

Rather than resort to military terms that smacked of the war the refugees left behind – like “commander” or “base” – they used words such as “governor,” “mayor” and “village.”

They set up schools, with Afghans serving as teachers. An open space became a soccer field to occupy waves of restless children. And a colossal tent served as a “base exchange,” a free market filled with donated goods, a godsend for those who with little more than a suitcase of personal belongings.

“We built a community to help a community,” Maldonado said. “We had every single (military) career field doing just whatever needed to be done. I think we just lived off our motto of ‘Better every day.’”

On a near daily basis, imams and other Afghan leaders would join Maldonado and members of her team, sharing coffee or tea as they talked over the needs and conditions of the villages. On a more fundamental level, they just talked life.

“It was almost like therapy,” Maldonado said.

As life changing as Allies Welcome was for the Afghan nationals, it was also transformative for Maldonado and the other service members. Though on military orders and in uniform, the mission, she said, was humanitarian at its core.

“We ended up having about 2,500 military personnel from active duty to Guard and reserve, (from) as far away as Alaska to help

Operation Save a Thousand

No One Left Behind, a charitable organization that supports former interpreters and U.S. government employees who are eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa, has launched the Save a Thousand campaign. The goal is to relocate 1,000 SIV-eligible Afghans from Afghanistan to Pakistan so they can complete the SIV process.

As of May 2023, 556 people have been moved to Pakistan and 224 are in the U.S., according to NOLB.

Those interested in donating to the cause can do so at https://www.nooneleft.org/ operation-save-a-life.

with this mission,” Maldonado said. “It was an absolute joint effort, what we call in the Air Force a total force effort … just to see them jump in and just be so emotionally involved. It was actually a tough deployment to leave.”

“We built a community to help a community. We had every single (military) career field doing just whatever needed to be done. I think we just lived off our motto of ‘Better every day.’”

– Air Force Col. Bernadette Maldonado

Gold Star mothers vow to never stop talking about their children

BY CRYSTAL KUPPER, AIR FORCE SPOUSE

A quote by Ernest Hemingway often runs through Gold Star mother Jane Hughes’ mind: “Every man has two deaths: when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.” The Washington mother is determined to not let that happen to her daughter, 25-year-old Air Force Reserve Staff Sgt. Danielle Hughes Crone, who died in 2010.

“My goals now are making sure everyone else remembers her,” Hughes said. “I’m not ever going to quit saying her name and talking about her.”

On the other side of the country, fellow Gold Star mother Charlene Cosgrove-Bowie feels the same about her son, Marine Corps Reserve Lt. Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove III. Her only child was a mere 23 when he was killed in Iraq in 2006.

“I had hopes of seeing him get married and was looking forward to being a grandmother,” said Cosgrove-Bowie, a New Jersey resident. “All those dreams were shattered in one split second.”

Despite these losses, both women are determined to carry on their children’s legacies.

Before & after Gold Star families share the heartbreaking commonality of having lost a military spouse, child, sibling or parent. This group includes those whose military-connected family member died by suicide.

That situation describes Hughes’ daughter, a boom operator and ophthalmic craftsman who transitioned to the Air Force Reserve from active duty in 2008. Danielle flew 130 sorties over eight deployments to the Middle East. When she returned home, Hughes noticed that her child wasn’t fully herself, acting depressed and generally unhappy. Her husband called one late summer day with the news that Danielle had died by suicide.

“It was pretty shocking,” Hughes said. “I never would have expected that from her.”

It took Hughes, a mother of two, around 18 months to come up for air.

When she did, she knew she had to bond with and help other Gold Star families. She first joined Gold Star Mothers of Washington, then co-founded Gold Star Families of Washington. She attended Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors events. She had a banner made featuring Danielle’s name and photo and began walking in parades with it.

“I just sort of moved forward in remembering her,” Hughes said. “Like you have any choice.”

Continuing service

Cosgrove-Bowie, meanwhile, joined Gold Star Mothers of America almost immediately after Christopher’s death when the casualty officer suggested it might help. It was a club she never wanted to be a part of, she said, but she wanted to be kept informed of events where she could honor her son.

“It takes a lot to go on, to live your life without that precious child,” Cosgrove-Bowie said. “It’s kind of like life is over.”

But it wasn’t. Cosgrove-Bowie created, Legacy of a Hero: The L/Cpl Chris Cosgrove III Foundation, Inc. The nonprofit’s mission is to help veterans, military and first responders in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Additionally, she joined the local Marine Corps League as an associate member, following in Christopher’s footsteps. The

league, in turn, started another nonprofit in Christopher’s memory called Marines Care

“So now we’ve got these two nonprofits that do so much to help others in Chris’ name,” Cosgrove-Bowie said. “I often say to Chris, ‘I am just so proud of you, and I hope you’re proud of what we’re doing to keep your memory alive and continue good work in your name.’”

Hughes and her family planted an oak tree in a nearby veterans’ park. It grew from seeds hailing from Arlington National Cemetery and has a plaque honoring both Danielle and a family friend’s father who is buried at Arlington. It’s where Hughes feels closest to her oldest child.

Cosgrove-Bowie feels that connection every week when she visits her son at the local cemetery.

“I wish that people really thought about the sacrifice that our children have made and the sacrifices that Gold Star moms themselves have made,” she said. “There are those who did what they had a passion to do and didn’t make it home.”

For more information about American Gold Star Mothers, visit https://www.goldstarmoms.com/.

Staff Sgt. Danielle Hughes Crone

Lt. Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove III

DOD STARBASE celebrates 30 years of bringing kids hands-on STEM education

BY ALLISON CHURCHILL, ARMY PUBLIC AFFAIRS VETERAN

Before STEM became the buzzword it is today, a teacher with connections at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit, Michigan, used those ties to help students see firsthand where learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics could lead them.

The success of that program, Project STARS – or Science, Technology, Aerospace, Readiness School – caught the attention of a Michigan senator, who worked to expand it nationally as the Department of Defense’s STARBASE just two years later. In the three decades since, more than 1.5 million students have graduated from its programs.

Barbara Koscak, the elementary school teacher, teamed up with then-Brig. Gen. David Arendts, the 127th Fighter Wing commander. He then gave access to Selfridge; Lt. Col. Richard “Rico” Racosky, an F-16 pilot who developed a formula for achieving success that was incorporated into the program;

and Rick Simms, a student at Wayne State University with a lifelong love of aviation, to create Project STARS in 1991.

Simms knew Koscak through the Civil Air Patrol, one of the program’s early partners. He had joined at 14 after years of watching planes take off from Selfridge’s airfield with his family, he said.

The four created curriculum for a five-day, non-residential summer program, funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The first year, parents registered their children individually. The goal was to get children, especially those from populations typically underrepresented in science fields, excited about what they were learning in school.

“I always say we’re not teaching for mastery but for inspiration,” said Simms, who’s now the program director at Selfridge. “How can we ignite that inspiration with students in a way where they see the value of what

they’re learning in school, and how that has practical applications with some really cool technology?”

A military installation was a natural fit, the team decided.

After the first year, Sen. Carl Levin, who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told his colleagues about Project STARS.

“They find people who are excellent role models showing kids that someone cares about them, shares their excitement about learning about jet aircraft and computers and launching rockets,” he said in the Congressional Record for June 23, 1992. “It is an invaluable bridge across the gulf of hopelessness and disdain which is too prevalent in our cities. It is just a wonderful way to help youth trying to be their best.”

Levin collaborated with Georgia’s Sen. Sam

Jo Rodriguez, DOD STARBASE Idaho’s deputy director, poses with chemistry equipment at Gowen Field, Idaho. Photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph R. Morgan

Nunn on legislation to provide funding for an expansion to other installations, and President George H.W. Bush signed it into law in 1993. It now operates under the DOD’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, though there are academies at some active-duty installations.

The main focus is still fifth graders, through the five-day summertime class or a school year program in which students attend the program for five days over several weeks. Schools provide transportation and ensure each student has lunch, and STARBASE funds the rest. A program for older students launched last year, and has since served more than 2,200 middle school students at 47 locations, and nearly 300 high school students at 12 locations.

Pre- and post-program assessments show the lessons are sinking in. According to the 2022 annual report, students answered 16% more questions correctly on average. They also reported feeling more confident in their STEM skills, had greater awareness of STEM careers and inhterest in pursuing them.

While STARBASE isn’t a recruitment program, graduates do also report favorable opinions of installations as good places to work, and teachers are more likely to recommend military service.

Lt. Col. Bryan Amara, 127th Air Refueling Group’s director of maintenance, had a favorable opinion of Selfridge before his parents enrolled him in one of the early cycles of STARBASE. They both worked there, and he wanted to follow his stepdad’s footsteps to being a fighter pilot. Project STARS was an opportunity for him to enhance his math and science skills.

Amara did become a pilot. Since he is also assigned to Selfridge, he has gotten to see how the program evolved.

“It’s remarkable the difference between class two and class 30 years later,” he said.

He and his classmates got to build rockets and learn about hydroponic farming, since astronauts were using that technique to grow plants on the space station. Today’s students work with robotics, build a Mars rover model and get in a shuttle simulator. For his class, sitting in an F-15 simulator was cool – “But not as cool as the space shuttle.”

For more information about STARBASE, or to find a program near you, visit https://dodstarbase.org/

Reservists serve as ‘conduits’ through Navy’s emergency preparedness program

BY BEN GREENE

Capt.

Photo

Navy reservists can become flag officers through the Navy Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer program, a three-year billet helping civilian agencies overcome crises.

NEPLO, which is only available to reservists, helps civilian authorities request and receive Department of Defense aid from the Navy during disasters. Since 1991, participants have included reservists employed as chief financial officers, first responders, teachers and program managers.

“NEPLOs really are problem solvers,” said Capt. Annette Washburn, deputy commander of the program. “They have the ability to look at a complex problem from an overarching, strategic level while simultaneously keeping the human element in focus and always ensuring that people’s lives are our No. 1 concern.”

That’s why she said civilian agencies “know their NEPLOs by name” before humanitarian challenges create a need for DOD resources.

A dozen NEPLO leaders have been promoted to flag officer, according to the program’s public affairs office. And there are only about 100 officers training at any one time.

Staff in the seven NEPLO areas – the Marianas Islands, Hawaii, America’s Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Washington D.C. – can serve while continuing their career or seeking educational opportunities. They also can coordinate aid across the 10 regions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Washburn is working toward a master’s degree at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, while she works as deputy commander of the enterprise.

She commissioned into active duty in 1998 and affiliated with the reserves in 2007. As a junior officer, she was told life in the military meant she could have it all but not all at once. Her experience, however, has proven that’s a false message.

“I can easily and confidently refute that theory,” she said. “I’m a mother of five, and a wife, and a deputy commander of a large enterprise of talented men and women that dedicate their lives to protecting the American people right here at home. I’ve been able to have it all at once.”

The program that began 22 years ago now offers 138 billets, according to Cmdr. Amber Lewis, of the NEPLO public affairs office. Ninety-five Navy captains, five commanders and 38 enlisted sailors are in the three-year-venture.

Senior officers staff the force, who represent many designators before being selected by the Command/Non-Command Board, also known as the apply board. Then, these reservists develop competencies to plan, prepare for and execute disaster assistance after natural or manmade emergencies.

“Our NEPLOs speak both military and civilian languages,” Washburn said. “They’re the conduits that bridge the civilian request for support and the DOD capability.”

Such readiness comes during three years in

an extensive training pipeline built on Navy courses, joint training and FEMA courses. The classes happen online and in person, Washburn said, but are only available to reservists.

“When called upon, the NEPLOs will respond rapidly and effectively,” she added. “When you can get that group together and all those diverse backgrounds together to look at a problem and break it down to support not only the lead federal civilian agency but also our DOD, you can get a lot of work done.”

Navy Capt. John R. Desormier, a NEPLO assigned to FEMA Region 1, provides Defense Support for Civil Authorities in 2021 at the Hynes Convention Center COVID-19 Community Vaccine Center in Boston, Massachussetts. Photo by Capt. Jennifer Pendleton

HOW THE RESERVE COMPONENT

RESPONDED TO 9/11

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack prompted the largest National Guard activation since World War II.

from the Individual Ready Reserve executed a total of 83,800 sets of mobilization orders in the aftermath of 9/11 as of Jan. 1, 2014.

More than 11,000 Air Force reservists

were recalled to active duty in the first 45 days following 9/11.

More than 2,000 Army Reserve

soldiers have been killed or wounded in the two decades since 9/11.

More than 5,400

out of 8,000 Coast Guard Selected reservists mobilized after 9/11.

442 commercial airports in 52 states and territories

were secured by the National Guard following 9/11.

23,000 Navy Reserve

62,688 Marines personnel have been mobilized since 9/11 to augment the active force and units across the full spectrum of Navy operations.

SOURCES: https://www.marforres.marines.mil/usmcr100/history/; https://www.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2770474/afrc-reflects-on-the-20th-anniversary-of-911/; https://www.usar.army.mil/Portals/98/ Documents/historycorner/NY%209-11.pdf; https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/2021/pubs/of-interest/9-11-perspectives/9-11-and-the-army-reserve-the-strategic-shift-lawrence/; https://www.govinfo.gov/ content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-670T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-670T.htm; Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 36.

A member of the Army Reserve places roses on a memorial on Sept. 8, 2019, during a 9/11 Day of Remembrance ceremony in Fort Totten, New York. The annual event honors the six soldiers of the Army Reserve’s former 77th Regional Support Command who were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Photo by Sgt. Rodney Roldan

too. "