Volume ©SS2015 2015 Volume7, 7, No. 7 ©SS
F RIDAY,, JJANUARY 30,2015 2015 F RIDAY ANUARY 30,
Afghan national Afghan national sport kicks sport kicks offoff another season another season Page Page2 2
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January 30, 2015
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
PAGE 2
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Friday, January 30, 2015
COVER STORY
PHOTOS
BY
JOSH SMITH /Stars and Stripes
One rider, left, tries to keep a calf carcass from his competitors during a buzkashi match on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Jan. 15. Individual riders can win money and other accolades by wrestling the calf from dozens of other competitors, carrying the carcass around a flag, and dropping it in the “end zone.”
From left: Buzkashi riders wrestle over a calf carcass; crowds watch the match; and a player scores by dropping a calf carcass in a chalk circle.
New year brings new season of buzkashi BY JOSH SMITH Stars and Stripes
W
KABUL, Afghanistan ith a swirl of dust, sweat and pounding hooves, the annual season of buzkashi, Afghanistan’s national sport, is in full swing. The final months of winter traditionally serve as the informal season when riders mount horses to wrestle over a decapitated and disemboweled calf or
goat. Buzkashi is translated as “goat dragging” in the local Persian, but a calf carcass is usually used because it lasts longer during the pulling and tugging. A game of horsemanship that traces its roots to the medieval nomadic tribes that roamed Central Asia’s steppes, buzkashi is still played in various forms across the region, but Afghans are perhaps the most famous players. The game was immortalized by Hollywood in the third installment of “Rambo,” when the action hero plays buzkashi with mujahedeen fighters before shooting down a Soviet helicopter.
The game was banned under the Taliban, but has made a comeback since the regime’s fall in 2001. Matches are notoriously haphazard affairs with widely varying or nonexistent rules, although more regulated versions have appeared in recent years. Riders usually compete as individuals and try to fight off other players to carry the carcass around a flag and across a field to a chalk circle that serves as an “end zone.” smith.josh@stripes.com Twitter: @joshjonsmith
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STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
Friday, January 30, 2015
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PAGE 3
VETERANS
VA revamp is unveiled without cost estimate BY HEATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a major restructuring effort Monday to streamline its often disjointed bureaucracy by standardizing service regions in the country and increasing coordination between them. For years, the nine organizations within the department have divided the country into their own regions with little or no coordination. By June 30, VA aims to have the entire department under the same service boundaries through a program called MyVA, breaking the country into five regions. Officials said in a conference call with reporters that the move is a cornerstone of
VA Secretary Bob McDonald’s push to overhaul the scandalridden organization. The VA does not have an estimate for how much the restructuring will cost, officials said, nor are there many details about what the changes will mean for veterans’ care. “The overall transformation will take a while,” said Scott Blackburn, director of the MyVA Program Management Office. “There will be a lot of analysis and we’ll know a lot more of the answers over the next couple of months.” The department has been undergoing changes since a national health care scandal cost former Secretary Eric Shinseki his job, following revelations that patients languished for years on secret
lists created to make wait times appear artificially short. Some veterans died while awaiting care. In addition, the VA has been criticized for a backlog of hundreds of thousands of disability claims and a confusing bureaucracy that often frustrates veterans seeking care and compensation for serviceconnected injuries. The hope is that MyVA will make it easier for veterans to interact with the department. “Ultimately, this reform will improve the Veteran experience by enabling Veterans to more easily navigate VA and access their earned care and benefits,” McDonald said in a released statement. One change, for example, allows call center agents to suspend or resume certain
benefits payments without making veterans go through additional steps. Officials said MyVA is the largest restructuring in the department’s history, though details on exactly what it will entail or how the changes will be made were not announced Monday. In terms of employees, Veterans Affairs is the secondlargest department in the federal government, after the
Department of Defense. Bob Snyder, the executive director of the MyVA Program Management Office, said despite consolidation in some parts of the department, he does not anticipate job cuts. “There is more than enough work to do across the VA,” he said. “This not about cutting jobs.” druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes
VA chided for not endorsing bill that allows bonuses to be rescinded BY HEATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes
In a sign that some lawmakers may be losing patience with the man brought in to clean up the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Secretary Bob McDonald came under unusually personal criticism Tuesday during a hearing on a bill that would give him sweeping powers to rescind bonuses and reduce pensions. After VA officials told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that the department had not taken a position on the bill, Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., gave a pointed response. “We have a secretary of Veterans Affairs who can’t make a decision on something that’s so obvious,” he said. “It’s just extraordinary, and what it says to me and what it says to the veterans of this country is nothing’s really changed.” The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. McDonald, who replaced Eric Shinseki in July, has come under fire for not doing more to hold accountable officials connected to a health care scandal. He has said
JOE G ROMELSKI /Stars and Stripes
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., wants the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary to be able to take back performance pay from managers implicated in last year’s wait-time scandal and other wrongdoing. that he must work within the legal framework established to discipline employees. VA counsel Kim McLeod said she is not aware of any current mechanism the department has to recoup bonuses from employees, except in the case of
administrative errors. The bill, introduced this month by House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., is a response to what he sees as inaction in the face of the nationwide VA crisis. Many senior executives tied to secret
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MILITARY
A-10 backlash stirs free speech debate General’s ‘treason’ comment sparks concerns over servicemember rights BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. James Post raised eyebrows this month when he warned fellow airmen in Nevada that talking to Congress about the embattled A-10 Thunderbolt could qualify as treason. “If anyone accuses me of saying this, I will deny it … anyone who is passing information to Congress about A-10 capabilities is committing treason,” Post told an audience of officers at Nellis Air Force Base accordPost ing to the military blog John Q. Public, an opinion forum not aligned with organization. The Air Force has brushed off the statement as hyperbole but confirmed Jan. 23 that the inspector general has opened an investigation. The two-star general’s warning comes at a delicate time for the Warthog. The service is facing an internal backlash from airmen who want to keep the close-airsupport aircraft and another uphill budget battle with Congress over the retirement. The blog said it corroborated the quote through senior officials and several other sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Experts said the statement was meant to quash disagreement within the Air Force over phasing out the A-10 and push the plans by leadership. Whether Post’s method was inappropriate or trampled
the rights of servicemembers depends on one’s point of view. “Just to the lay person who has never been in the military, it would seem to have a chilling effect” on protected speech among troops, said Larry Youngner, who served as an Air Force judge advocate for 20 years and is now a managing partner in the Virginia law firm Tully Rinckey. “Most of the A-10 pilots I’ve known in the past would take it as a challenge … They are so proud of the accomplishments of the A-10 they would take it as an opportunity. It would embolden them to contact Congress.” Post is the vice commander of the Air Combat Command, which oversees A-10 air wings and close-air-support units. Federal and military law give all servicemembers the right to communicate with congressional representatives through official and private channels, though they are not to use their service or rank to endorse partisan political causes or campaigns. “I love that platform. That said, if I’m for it or against it, I have the unfettered right to contact Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and tell him about my support of that aircraft,” Youngner said. He said most airmen understand their rights, and concern over Post’s comments is likely overblown. “It would appear to me he was advocating a policy decision and the way he approached it, frankly, wasn’t the best way to approach it,” Youngner said. “He is a fighter pilot. He is blunt and direct and probably said it in a way that was consistent with his upbringing. “In his defense, it was so outrageous that he couldn’t have been serious.” SEE PAGE 6
Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
An A-10 Warthog is shown in flight during a NATO Operation Allied Force combat mission.
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January 30, 2015
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Friday, January 30, 2015
MILITARY
Pentagon denies any Bergdahl decision Stars and Stripes
The Army on Tuesday pushed back against reports that a decision had been made to prosecute Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for desertion. Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who now works at the London Center for Policy Research, told Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday that he learned of the military’s decision from two sources. “The Army has come to its conclusion, and Bowe Bergdahl ... will be charged with desertion,” he said.
NBC News followed that Tuesday with a report that senior defense officials said Bergdahl would be charged with desertion, and that charges could be referred within a week. The charges, NBC reported, will not allege that Bergdahl left his base with the intent never to return. While a court-martial could lead to prison time, NBC News reported defense and military officials as saying it is likely Bergdahl would be given consideration for the five years he spent in captivity and be permitted to leave the Army with a “less than honorable”
FROM PAGE 4
The Air Combat Command put out a statement saying the reference to treason was “hyperbole” meant to underscore an important point. “While subsequent government debate will continue at the highest levels … our job as airmen is to continue to execute our mission and duties,” the written statement said. “Certainly our role as individual military members is not to engage in public debate or advocacy for policy.” But mention of treason should not be taken lightly, especially by a high-ranking military officer talking about servicemembers’ right to contact their representatives, said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale University and served as a judge advocate in the Coast Guard. “Maybe it is being blown out of proportion, but there is a problem there,” Fidell said. “You are playing with fire when you tell members of the services that they better not get in touch with members of the Congress.” He said the military has a
discharge. “The reporting from Fox News and NBC on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is patently false,” the Army said in a statement emailed late Tuesday. “To be clear there have been no actions or decisions on the Sgt. Bergdahl investigation.” The only American prisoner of war from the 13-year fight in Afghanistan was released from Taliban captivity in May, but the celebration was short-lived. Some of Bergdahl’s former colleagues claimed that he deserted and
that soldiers were killed or injured trying to find him. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the command authority in the Bergdahl case, has not publicly released his findings, NBC reported. “The investigation is still with [Milley],” the Army statement continued, “who will determine appropriate action — which ranges from no further action to convening a court-martial. We understand the public interest in this case and once a decision has been made, the Army will be open and transparent in this matter.”
‘ He is a fighter pilot. He is blunt and direct and probably said it in a way that was consistent with his upbringing. In his defense, it was so outrageous that he couldn’t have been serious.
’
Larry Youngner former Air Force judge advocate
‘ Maybe it is being blown out of proportion, but
there is a problem there. You are playing with fire when you tell members of the services that they better not get in touch with members of the Congress.
’
Eugene R. Fidell military justice teacher at Yale University
strict hierarchy that means lower-ranking members listen closely to what superiors say and do. Statements like the one made by Post have to be heeded. “The danger is it can have a chilling effect beyond what is needed for an orderly workforce, and it can deprive Congress of valuable information,”
Fidell said. Maj. Pete Hughes, an Air Force spokesman, said last week that the service’s independent watchdog is looking into the matter after urging by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “The Air Force Inspector General’s Office is conducting a thorough, timely, investigation into the allegations against
Major General Post and is actively engaged in determining the facts of the matter in the most expeditious manner possible,” he wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said she was “disturbed” by the treason comment and said U.S. law protects the right of servicemembers to speak to
lawmakers. “How could members of the armed forces exercising their lawful right to communicate with Congress be providing aid and comfort to our enemies?” she said in a statement. “If the facts are on the Air Force’s side regarding its efforts to prematurely divest the A-10, what does the Air Force fear?” The Air Force proposed the retirement of the A-10, known for its belching nose cannon, last year. Powerful lawmakers such as McCain and retired Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., came out against the move but eventually suffered a minor loss in December when Congress gave the service some leeway to decrease maintenance and flying hours. The debate is set to come roaring back as the 2016 defense budget begins to be hammered out. The Air Force, along with the rest of the Defense Department, is hashing out its budget strategy now. Hearings on Capitol Hill are expected to begin next month. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
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crossword
A SHADY CROSSWORD By Kenneth Holt
108 Small egg, to a biologist
28 Island off the mainland
70 Style of column
109 Electronic domestic appliances
30 Manila envelope fastener
72 Thousands of pounds
112 Highlands hillside
32 Bumbling simpleton
113 It fires electric darts
33 Roth plan acct.
74 Offerer of calls via Internet
114 Mature 108-Across
35 Full of activity
76 Arrid rival
115 Hauling fee
36 Nary a person
77 Snake “talk”
67 Bolt, as of lightning
116 Resembling
37 Breakfast staple
80 Nutcase
69 Trinket
117 Gravity-driven vehicles
38 Oscar winner Sean
82 Qualified
39 Area between curbs
118 Get married to
84 Lobster claws
41 Roquefort and Stilton, for two
85 Fruit tree with purplish flowers (var.)
120 Novelist Bagnold
42 Less believable, as an excuse
86 “... pocketful of ___”
DOWN
43 On the mother’s side of the family
56 U.S. Army group 60 Naval force 61 Won back
ACROSS
63 Hautboys
1
Flower stalk
64 “Filthy” money
5
Fitted within one another
65 Beats by a hair
11 Elbow’s site 14 Cavalryman’s sidearm 19 CBS eye, e.g. 20 Colorless, odorless gas 21 Female deer 22 Leave out in pronunciation
66 Former Pirate great Dick
71 “___, amigos!” 72 Makes more durable 75 Jeweler’s tool 76 Bushes with plumlike fruits
119 Pig’s innards
78 Rodent-spotter’s shriek
1
Bit of defamation
79 “Step ___!”
2
80 The Big Dipper, aka Charles’ ___
“Bag” or “board” beginner
3
Cousin of “Heck!”
29 Fertilization goal
81 South American empire of yore
4
Figure in Islam
31 En ___ (as a big group)
5
Certain salamanders
82 Catch sight of
6
Community character
83 ___-tac-toe
7
“Rocky” co-star Talia
8
Makes a doily, maybe
9
Dallas-to-Boston dir.
23 Four Corners state 24 Sourdough alternative 26 Some art class subjects 27 Certain editors
32 Mideast export 34 Permanent location? 35 Social unrest 38 Home to Notre Dame 40 Fit for planting 44 Holding a grudge 45 Female helper of a sort
84 Worker in a dry cleaner’s, sometimes 88 Lambeau crowdpleaser 89 Affording beautiful vistas 91 Decisive bout enders
50 PC linkup letters
92 Alternative to “window”
51 Miniature hopper
93 Elephant goad
52 Admitting customers
96 Cross or Bic
53 Water-skier’s aid
97 Shoulder gesture
54 Fast tawny feline
100 Gilbert & Sullivan creation
55 Overnight lodging house
104 Most impudent
10 New entrant into society, briefly 11 Mideast’s Gulf of ___ 12 Sounds from a pride 13 Radio, TV, etc.
45 Carried by 46 Choices for fencers 47 “All You ___ Is Love” (Beatles) 48 Alley rodents 49 There are two in mathematics?
71 Hit the ground 73 Himalayan country
87 One billion years, geologically 90 Performed perfectly 92 Alaskan native 94 Kind of violin stroke 95 Try for an ace 97 Navigation hazard 98 Row of shrubs 99 Bowling lane button
54 Like some carpeting
100 Army beds
56 Sprightly dance, French-style
101 Formed like an egg
57 Type of acid
103 Middle-of-the-___ (moderate)
58 Kindle purchase 59 Joke-filled tribute 60 Jolly Roger and Union Jack, e.g.
102 Erato or Urania
104 Some elephants or whales 105 Emerald Isle
62 One way to become a parent
106 Alias of H.H. Munro
66 Polish seaport
110 Most extreme degree
17 Idyllic Biblical spot
67 “May the ___ be with you”
111 Make a little ___ long way
18 Orchestrated silence
68 Moon-related
25 Ancient item
69 Imperfections
14 Portuguese misters 15 Female former student 16 ___ one’s time (wait)
107 ___ off (angry)
Last week’s answers
8
January 30, 2015
ALASKA EDITION
>> EXPLORE ALASKA
Upper Right: Replica of a “Baby” Nambu 7mm Japanese pistol. Photo courtesy of the Alaska Veterans Museum.
Visit a Museum It’s winter, it’s cold, instead of staying home, why not use this time to enjoy the multitude of museums and historical sites in Southcentral Alaska? With interests ranging from aviation to railroads, natural history to local history, mushing to native Alaskan culture, Southcentral has museums for everybody.
The Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum at Lake Hood contains some of the aircraft that helped create Alaska, including a 1928 Stearman, a 1929 Travel Air, a 1931 Fairchild Pilgrim, a 1941 Stinson and a 1934 Waco YKC. Their mission is to preserve, display, educate and honor the history of aviation, and the museum is a must for anyone interested in the history of flight.
Anchorage
(907) 265-2834 www.wellsfargohistory.com/ museums/anchorage
Alaska Museum of Science and Nature fills a special need for science education in Alaska. Its mission is to study and exhibit natural history materials relating to Alaska’s natural history and to promote and develop educational programs. With exciting, hands-on natural science exhibits, it is a learning experience for all ages. (907) 274-2400 www.alaskamuseum.org
(907) 248-5325 www.alaskaairmuseum.org Alaska Heritage Museum at Wells Fargo includes artifacts and fine art by Alaskans, and a history of the Wells Fargo Company in Alaska’s Gold Rush era. It is the largest private collection of its kind in Alaska, and includes a traditional sea kayak covered in seal skin and a 2/3 scale stagecoach.
Alaska Native Heritage Center collection showcases all of the indigenous cultures in Alaska. Exhibits include tools, watercraft, clothing, art, drums and showcases lifestyles of the five different Alaskan cultures: Athabascan; Yup’ik and Cup’ik; Inupiaq and St. Lawrence Island Yupik; Aleut and Alutig; and Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. (907) 330-8000 www.alaskanative.net Alaska State Troopers Museum is dedicated to preserving and telling the colorful story of law enforcement in the most unusual, rugged and enormous jurisdictions in America. Displays include antique radios and communication devices, handcuffs and leg irons, early wiretapping
Fairchild Pilgrim at the Aviation Museum. Photo by Chuck Veloza.
equipment, and unique uniforms. A highlight is a fully restored 1952 Hudson Hornet patrol car. (907) 279-5050 www.alaskatroopermuseum.com Alaska Veterans Museum houses historical artifacts, weapons, uniforms, photos, posters, models, dioramas, oral histories and over 110 personal stories from service members and veterans, and their volunteer staff members are eager to share this exciting history. (907) 677-8802 www.alaskaveterans.com
Chomper, the Anchorage Museum’s snapping turtle, spends an evening enjoying the museum’s art. Here seen admiring a Mt. McKinley painting provided by the Alaska Airlines Foundation.
ribbon racks, mini medals, Coin displays, shadow Boxes & more!
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January 30, 2015
9
ALASKA EDITION
>> EXPLORE ALASKA
Museums, cont. The Anchorage Museum in Downtown Anchorage features both permanent and traveling exhibits, focusing on Alaska history, science, art and native culture. With an earth and life science section and a planetarium, there is much to see. Alaska history including gold rush, whaling industry, Great ’64 Earthquake exhibit and the Alaska at War section are uniquely Alaskan. For children, the Imaginarium is a must see, with animals, natural science and hands-on learning experiences. (907) 929-9200 www.anchoragemuseum.org Elmendorf Wildlife Museum offers wildlife and natural resources displays that include over 150 life-like mounted specimens, including all of the common species of birds, fish and mammals found in Alaska. For information about entering JBER property, visit http://www.mybaseguide.com (907) 552-0310 Oscar Anderson House Museum in Anchorage is a typical 1915-style Anchorage Home. Tours are available Tuesdays to Sundays during the summer. The history of the city and life of early Anchorage are on display in this, the first wood-frame house in Anchorage, completely restored to its original appearance.
Homer Pratt Museum is dedicated to preservation of the stories of the Kachemak Bay region, and is the only natural history museum on the Kenai Peninsula. Exhibits focus on a wide variety of art, natural history, native cultures, homesteading, fishing, marine ecology and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Included in the outdoor exhibits include the historic Harrington homestead cabin with period furnishings, a botanical garden and forest nature trail, and permanent art installations. (907) 235-8635 www.prattmuseum.org Hope Hope & Sunrise Historical and Mining Museum is dedicated to preserving photographs, documents and artifacts related to the communities of Hope and Sunrise. Hope is the best-preserved gold rush community in South Central, and Sunrise City, once the most populated in the State, is now one of the most important archaeological sites associated with the gold rush area and the oldest
gold towns on the Iditarod Trail, producing over a million dollars in gold. (907) 782-3740 https://sites.google.com/site/ hopehistoricalsite2/home Kenai Kenai Visitors & Cultural Center features include the history of the Native Alaskan culture, the Russian era, and the oil industry. Displays include Fort Kenay, Athabaskan, Aleut and Russian culture. (907) 283-1991 www.visitkenai.com K’beq Interpretive Site, located at mile 52.6 of the Sterling Highway, is run by the Kenaitze Indian Tribe. Athabascans share traditions and culture through interpretive walks featuring archaeological sites and traditional plant use. (907) 283-3633 www.kenaitze.org/index.php/k-beq continued on page 15
(907) 274-2336 www.aahp-online.net Cooper Landing Cooper Landing Historical Society and Museum is displayed in two historic buildings: Jack Lean’s Cabin, built in the late 1920’s, and the home of the Cooper Landing Post Office for almost 40 years; and the School House, built in 1955 and used until 2001. Exhibits include a slab of 600 year old Sitka Spruce, the medical instruments used by Dr. Joseph H. Romig and Dr. Howard G. Romig (1896 to 1980), and a fully articulated skeleton of a 20 year old brown bear. (907) 598-1042 www.cooperlandingmuseum.com Display at the Alaska Veterans Museum
One cowhide can produce 10 footballs.
Learn even more at National University. Service members are eligible for reduced tuition. Online. On base. Non-profit. Don’t think you have time to learn something new? You just did.
Keep learning at think.nu.edu © 2015 National University NU14_1705-35
10
ALASKA EDITION
January 30, 2015
January 30, 2015
11
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
Friday, January 30, 2015
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PAGE 11
PACIFIC
JPAC saw increase in identifications in 2014
Better technology, lab space help program more than double number of MIA results BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — The beleaguered command tasked with finding the remains of lost U.S. troops said it has more than doubled the number of identifications of MIA remains in 2014 over the year before. The 107 identifications for 2014 by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command came primarily from remains linked to the Korean War (42), World War II (36) and the site of a 1952 crash of an Air Force cargo plane into Mount Gannett in Alaska (17). The number of identifications from the Vietnam War, at 12, was about half the average of 21 IDs made annually over the previous nine years. John Byrd, JPAC’s laboratory director, credits the increase to a mix of new procedures, increased lab space and developments in technology.
‘Success for us’ “It’s success for us, big success for us,” Byrd said during an interview at his office at JPAC headquarters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. “A lot of the programs that we’ve put together through the years are reaching maturity and bearing fruit now.” The words “success” and “JPAC” have not been associated often in the past couple of years. A Defense Department Inspector General’s report in October concluded that the MIA accounting effort lacked clarity of mission, a strategic plan, a disinterment policy, a centralized database of MIAs and coordination with combatant commands and host nations.
More than 40 current and former employees complained of mismanagement, which taken as a whole “paint a picture of long-term leadership and management problems,” the report said. Last year the defense secretary ordered an overhaul of the agency, which is now underway. Just how the restructuring and new personnel will mitigate shortcomings and increase the effectiveness in accounting for MIAs remains to be seen.
An opportunity JPAC spokesman Lee Tucker described the agency makeover as “a phenomenal opportunity” for “taking an already talented and great organization and doing nothing but improving it.” Asked how that assessment jibes with shortcomings cited by the IG report, Tucker said: “I think that we’re being very responsive right now in addressing all those concerns head-on in forming an entirely new DOD agency. “We’re not just putting Band-Aids on here and there.” The increase in identifications for 2014 is the first sign of improvements to come, he said. The 107 remains identified won’t be officially “accounted” for until their nearest kin are contacted and they agree with JPAC’s findings, Byrd said. “We have an eclectic, diverse tool kit that takes advantage of the kinds of records that the military built up and maintained over the years,” Byrd said. One of JPAC’s most productive programs now is identifying a set of Korean War remains called K208.
The remains were turned over to the U.S. in 208 boxes toward the end of that conflict and are estimated to hold the commingled remains of about 350 individuals, based on subsequent testing, Byrd said. Using the standard operating procedures of the time, U.S. mortuary personnel dipped the remains in a chemical bath to sanitize them before examination, he said. Among the chemicals was formaldehyde, which years later was discovered to have degraded DNA in the tissue and bones, which makes sampling difficult. “We were stuck for a long time,” Byrd said.
cific in Honolulu, also called the Punchbowl.
Chest X-rays Another development over the past five years aided in identifying Korean War remains and, to a lesser degree, those from World War II: chest X-rays. Sometime around 2005, JPAC learned that the services had taken and stored chest X-rays of inductees during the 1940s and ’50s to screen for tuberculosis. Numerous times, JPAC queried the National Archives and Records Administration, which holds the bulk of military records in warehouses in St. Louis, but were always told their whereabouts were unknown, Byrd said. Then, around 2008, the National Archives contacted JPAC “out of the blue” and said they were on the verge of recycling the entire stash of Army and Air Force X-rays for the minute amount of silver on each film. JPAC retrieved about 7,500 X-rays belonging to soldiers or airmen missing from the Korean War and about 1,200 from the World War II era for those services. Although the X-rays were of the lungs, the neck vertebrae and collarbones are also captured in each shot. Bones and teeth have patterns and shapes that are unique to a person, much as fingerprints are, Byrd said. Technicians superimpose
‘Wheels turning’ But “a lot of wheels turning between 2008 and 2012” helped produce last year’s identifications, he said. “In 2006 we were identifying one or two soldiers a year from the K208, and it had been that way since the early 1990,” Byrd said. In 2008, a separate lab was set up for the K208 remains. “That gave us the ability to take all of the remains out at one time and look at them as a large group,” Byrd said. “The problem with that group is that they’re commingled in a very massive way.” The lab developed a DNA protocol for “untangling” the commingled remains. “That protocol is one of the big breakthroughs that has helped speed things up,” Byrd said. “We’ve identified over 40 Korean war cases this year.” Thirty of those were K208 remains, with an additional 10 from remains disinterred from the graves of unknown soldiers buried at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pa-
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the induction X-ray over an image of found bones, which at times “match up perfectly,” he said. “Most forensic experts consider that kind of radiographic comparison to be positive identification, meaning that you can find uniqueness such that if you find a match, it shouldn’t be anybody else — if it matches up on multiple points.”
X-rays of inductees More recently, JPAC found and took possession of similar X-rays taken of inductees for the Navy and Marines. Each shot, however, was loaded onto reels that contain hundreds of X-rays, and over the past year, JPAC has been unraveling the chaotic filing system. But in that time, they’ve found X-rays for 80 percent to 90 percent of the Marines missing from the Korean War. “For World War II we have a long way to go, but so far they culled out about 1,400 X-rays of missing sailors and Marines,” Byrd said. Global climate change and melting glaciers played a role in retrieving and identifying 17 airmen from the cargo plane crash 62 years ago. In 2012, the crew of an Alaska Army National Guard Black Hawk unit on a training flight saw a tire, life rafts and oxygen bottles on a glacier, according to a report by ABC News. olson.wyatt@stripes.com
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January 30, 2015 Friday, January 30, 2015
MILITARY
Hagel warns of limits on military might BY JON H ARPER Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — As he prepares to hand over the reins of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is warning that military power has its limits and Americans should avoid believing that force alone can transform conflict-riven societies in the Middle East and elsewhere. “It is easy to drift into other missions, and I do believe that you always have to ask the tough questions. What happens next? Where do you want this to end up,” Hagel said in an interview with Stars and Stripes and Military Times. “Any secretary of defense has to always be on guard that we don’t inadvertently sometimes drift into a more accelerated use than we thought of what our military was going to be [doing] … I think the two long wars that we were in the last 13 years is pretty clear evidence of … how things can get out of control, and drift and wander.” Hagel’s warning came as the U.S. military has returned to Iraq to help the Iraqi government defeat the Islamic State, which has seized about a third of Iraq and Syria. The U.S. Central Command is conducting an air campaign against the militants, and about 1,550 U.S. troops have been sent to Iraq to train and advise government and Kurdish peshmerga forces. An additional 800 troops are providing force protection. President Barack Obama has ruled out using U.S. combat troops to fight the insurgents and has placed a cap of 3,100 personnel on the number of U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq. But some members of Congress have urged the U.S. to play a more robust military role. Meanwhile, about 10,600 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan to advise and assist Afghan forces after the American combat role ended last month.
Hagel’s caution about mission creep stems from his experience as a combat infantryman in Vietnam, where a U.S. advisory role morphed into a long and divisive war involving at its height more than a half-million American servicemembers. “We’re products of our experiences, and we all come at our jobs … being shaped by those experiences,” Hagel said. “The violence, the horrors, the suffering that I saw [in Vietnam] conditioned me ... I saw the suffering of our own troops; I saw the suffering of the Vietnamese people; I saw terrible things, which war always produces.” Hagel said his experience in Vietnam, where both he and his brother Tom were wounded, convinced him that “you cannot impose your will, you can’t impose your values, you can’t impose your standards, your institutions on other societies and other countries. It has never worked; it never will work, as noble as you believe [the effort] is.”
Based on experience As a combat veteran and former VA official, Hagel is sensitive to the effects of open-ended military commitments on the force, including active-duty members, their families and veterans. Since assuming the post in early 2013, Hagel has initiated institutional reforms and a number of reviews to try to get at some of the problems affecting the military community. He said he probably devoted as much time to those issues as anything else. But he remains worried about the health of the all-volunteer force after 13 years of counterinsurgency fighting, and thinks more work needs to be done. Physical and men-
tal health, suicide, morale and sexual assault within the ranks are some of the major people issues that Hagel has tried to tackle during his tenure. At the same time, budget cuts, troop reductions and concern over pay and benefits have left the rankand-file uncertain about their future. “Anytime there is uncertainty in an institution or a family … you will have people off balance,” Hagel said. “They will be concerned, and of course they are [right now] … I think there is a good deal of uncertainty out there.”
Proud of efforts Hagel said it was impossible to solve all of the problems on his plate during his fairly short tenure, but he’s proud of his efforts to get the ball rolling in the right direction. “You’re not going to fix some of this in a year or two years, but … you can start to turn it around,” he said. “I hope that we can continue to do these things because health of the force is essential to everything we do,” he said. “If you really have major breakdowns, you will not be able to continue to recruit and retain quality people. And without quality people, you don’t have much.” In the past, Hagel has discussed problems that plagued the force in the Vietnam era, including poor disci-
pline and tensions within the ranks. “I’m a little more oriented to these kinds of human dynamics and health of the force issues than maybe some would be because I saw it, I lived it, I understand it,” he said. Hagel also waded into two controversial gender issues. When the former infantryman was asked if he had any concerns about women being integrated into ground combat units — a concept the services are experimenting with — he said: “Anyone who is qualified and capable and wants to do a job in the military should have the opportunity to do that. [But] we’re not going to lower standards … No one wants that. If you’re quality, you’re capable, you want to do it, you should have an opportunity.” Hagel was also asked whether transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military. They are currently barred from doing so, but there are calls from the LGBT community and elsewhere to change the rules. He declined to say whether he thought the exclusion should be lifted, but noted that the military has dealt with controversial policy changes in the past, including racial integration, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and gay marriage. “This institution has been on the cutting edge of social change in this country since World War II,” Hagel said. He believes the military needs to respect the desires of individuals to serve, but not make any changes that would jeopardize mission preparedness. “I have confidence in the process and the system [and believe] that the transgender issue will be dealt with in a fair way,” he said. Hagel is expected to be replaced next month after his nominated successor, Ashton Carter, is confirmed by the Senate.
“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” Ronald Reagan
February 6, 1985 State of the Union Address
January 30, 2015
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ALASKA EDITION
code breaker In these Code Quotes from America’s history, each letter given is a code consisting of another letter. To solve this Code Quote, you must decode the puzzle by replacing each letter with the correct one. An example is shown. A ‘clue’ is available if you need extra help. Example: G E O R G E W A S H I N G T O N Is coded as: W J A M W J G I T C X Z W F A Z M J P
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Hint: This American statesman and orator served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Last week’s answer: “Of all the aspects of social misery, nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment.” Jane Addams
word search
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SCIENCE HERITAGE VETERANS Museums ELMENDORF ANDERSON Science SOCIETY Nature SUNRISE Aviation SEWARD DOROTHYPAGE Heritage TRANSPORTATION Native WILLIAM
Troopers Veterans Anchorage Downtown
NATURE AVIATION NATIVE TROOPERS ANCHORAGE DOWNTOWN WILDLIFE OSCAR COOPERLANDING HISTORICAL Elmendorf Sunrise Transportation PRATT HOPE Wildlife Kenai PALMER Industry KENAI Oscar Palmer TRAPPERCREEK Prince TALKEETNA TOWNSITE KNIK Anderson Seward William INDUSTRY PRINCE Cooper Landing Talkeetna Sound SOUND
Historical Society Pratt Hope
Previous week’s answers
Trapper Creek Dorothy Page Townsite Knik
FREELANCE WRITERS Stars & Stripes U.S. Edition – Alaska is looking for freelance writers to add a local flavor to our newspaper. Two specific areas of interest are “Veteran Spotlights”, focusing on Alaska Veterans, and “Explore Alaska” focusing on Alaska adventure. Other topics will be added as well.
If you have a desire to help tell our readers about our local Veterans, Alaska’s outdoors, and other newsworthy topics, please email SteveA@AK.net. Please include some writing samples.
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‘Johnnie Come Lately’ a story of love, family
MILITARY
Retired generals are urging W senators to lift spending cap BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Top retired military commanders on Tuesday warned the Senate that it should lift a mandatory cap on defense spending this year or put at risk military readiness as the world enters a new era of widespread conflict. Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane testified against the budget caps and outlined the increasing dangers before the Senate Armed Services Committee at the behest of new chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is pressing for more defense dollars and deeper military intervention abroad. The hearing comes as the White House and Defense Department prepared to release proposed annual budgets Monday that will include a spending cap imposed by sequestration — and a political fight over cuts to troop benefits. Many lawmakers in the Senate and House say the modest $1.7 billion increase to the cap of the $523 billion 2016 defense budget should be removed to allow bigger increases. “No nation in history has maintained its military power but failed to keep its fiscal house in order,” Mattis said.
January 30, 2015 Friday, January 30, 2015
But Congress’ agreement to cap defense dollars was meant to force wise choices on reducing spending and “it has failed in that regard,” he said. Spending caps are set to kick in across the federal government next fall as a way to decrease the nation’s debt and will remain in place into the next decade, keeping defense spending to increases of about 2 percent. With the fiscal 2016 budget proposals next week, Congress, the Obama administration and the DOD are set to begin another grappling match over whether military personnel expenditures such as pay, retirement and benefits should be slashed. The Pentagon has argued those costs are ballooning and will crowd out other needs. Mattis said the DOD cap should be repealed because it is sapping troop morale and causing uncertainty within the military. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Congress and the military should first develop a foreign policy strategy and then come up with the money to cover it, but the spending limit is upending that process. “We’ve been allowing budgetary indecision to drive strategy, and that is the worst thing to do,” Kaine said. The testimony also included comments from former CENTCOM commander Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, who
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said bickering over budget issues could raise doubts among American allies abroad. Meanwhile, the cap comes as the United States is facing an array of global threats — Islamic radicalism, a resurgent Russia, a nuclearambitious Iran, a rising China — that has not been seen since the rise of the USSR during the Cold War, Keane said. He told the Senate defense oversight panel that the country should generally take a more active military role around the world, including sending some ground troops to direct airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The removal of combat troops and planned drawdown of advisory forces in Afghanistan could be premature and thus create instability in the future, Keane said. “How can we not learn the obvious and painful lesson from Iraq,” he asked, and avoid pulling military forces according to a political time line? President Barack Obama and his administration have “adopted a cheap fatalism” in claiming the various conflicts around the world have no military solution, McCain said in a statement submitted for the record. The senator was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and could not chair the hearing. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
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hen Kathleen themselves. Revealed one by Rodgers wrote one throughout the story, these “Johnnie Come secrets draw the reader in, givLately,” pieces of ing hints about the characters’ her military background found actions and interactions. their way into the story. In fact, Along with the subterfuge a lot of her life found its way and conflict in the Kitchen into the story of Johnnie Kitch- family, the author provides a en and her family in the book, point of comfort in the form of which hits bookstore shelves Brother Dog, the family’s large Sunday. The action takes place and loyal Labrador retriever. in Texas, for instance; Rodgers He’s a constant for all the charand her husband, now retired acters, particularly Johnnie, a from the Air Force, also live in repository of the trust and love Texas. the family has for each other, However, the book is not even when they don’t feel it. He a purely military story. It’s a provides an overarching sense story about a family with miliof stability of tary elements woven throughSPOUSE CALLS the family in out. The protagonist, Johnnie, the midst of is not a military wife, but turmoil, as her husband, Dale, is from a well as hope military family. The book is set for healing in 2007 during both the Afghan the family’s and Iraq wars. A family friend pain. is injured in combat. Johnnie Elements and Dale are at odds when of Rodgers’s their 18-year-old son wants to own sons join the Army. Johnnie’s shadmade it into owy memories of the young the book as Terri Barnes soldier who was her father are well, with a recurring their blesselement of the Join the conversation with Terri at ing, she said. stripes.com/go/spousecalls narrative. One of JohnJohnnie’s nie’s sons is backstory an artist, and is provided through flashthe other wants to be a soldier. backs and in poignant, mostly Rodgers has one son who is an unsent letters Johnnie writes artist and another in the Army, to various characters, includwho recently returned from ing both of her absent parents, deployment in Afghanistan. past lovers, advice columnist “Johnnie” is Rodgers’s secDear Abby and singer Karen ond novel. Her first, “The Final Carpenter. Salute,” about an Air Force The late recording artist pilot, was released in paperhas relevance to Johnnie, who back last fall. overcame an eating disorder That book was recognized much earlier in her life, a char- with a silver medal for fiction acteristic she also shares with by the Military Writers Society her creator. Perhaps because of of America after its hardcover her own experiences, Rodgers release in 2009. said she wanted to write about Rodgers said she began a woman who had overcome thinking of herself as a writer her past, but was still haunted in her mid-teens and joined the by it. Writing about healing staff of her high school newsand for the purpose of healing paper to avoid taking home is important to Rodgers. economics. “In ‘Johnnie,’ I wanted to “One day I was carrying write about someone who has around a raw egg pretending struggled with something, like it was a baby, and I decided I an addiction, and come out on hated that home ec class, bethe other side,” Rodgers said. cause I was never going to get “I wanted to write about a married and have kids,” she really deep issue, but this isn’t said, laughing at the certainty a novel just about bulimia. It’s of her younger self. about being a mother.” “My dream was to be a It’s also a book about being writer,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t a daughter, a granddaughknow in the old days what ter and a wife. It’s about an exactly that was. We’re never extended family with plenty quite where we want to be as of secrets, which they keep to writers, but when we look back, protect each other as well as we’ve come a long way.”
January 30, 2015
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ALASKA EDITION
>> EXPLORE ALASKA
Museums, cont. cont. from page 9
Palmer Palmer Museum of History and Art is located at the Palmer Visitor Information Center. Outdoor exhibits include the farm equipment collection. Palmer was the site for the many colonists who participated in the Matanuska Colony Project, and is still an active farming area. The garden around the center contains a wide variety of annuals, perennials and trees. (907) 746-7668 www.palmermuseum.org Seward The Seward Museum is operated as a partnership between the Resurrection Bay Historical Society and the City of Seward. Located on the first floor of the Library and Museum building, it is committed to documenting and interpreting the diverse history of the town of Seward and the Resurrection Bay. The museum contains almost 5,000 objects, photographs and archives, including “Waves over Seward”, a short film about the Great ’64 Earthquake. (907) 224-4082 www.cityofseward.us Talkeetna Talkeetna Historical Society Museum is located in the Little Red School House in downtown Talkeetna. Talkeetna itself is an area with numerous historical buildings, and the Museum offers a Walking Tour brochure that will guide you through the museum and to several historic buildings. Talkeetna is also the jumping-off place for Denali climbers, and a Ranger from the Talkeetna Station gives talks about mountaineering, mountain climbers, and guides tours through the Mountain Exhibit room. (907) 733-2487 www.talkeetnahistoricalsociety.org Trapper Creek Trapper Creek Museum in Trapper Creek is a settler’s log cabin housing a wonderful collection of artifacts, stories and pictures depicting the
Display at the Alaska Veterans Museum
life of Alaska’s homesteaders, gold rush miners and trapping pioneers. The gift shop features many antique collectibles, reproductions and local crafts. (907) 733-2557 www.trappercreekmuseum.com Wasilla Dorothy Page Museum and Historic Townsite has displays including the regional history of mining, homesteading, historic buildings and Iditarod history. A new exhibit about the Great ’64 Earthquake includes artifacts and newspapers as well as personal stories. (907) 373-9071 www.wkhsociety.org/museums Knik Museum is located in one of the only two remaining buildings in the Knik historic town site. Knik’s central location near the ocean made it into a trading hub and supplier for the SouthCentral Alaska interior. Displays include a collection of artifacts from the Alaska Gold Rush era. The second floor of the museum is home to the Sled Dog Musher’s Hall of Fame, and Knik remains a checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail. (907) 376-7755 www.wkhsociety.org/museums Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry was established to give a home to the transportation and industrial remnants of industry that tells the stories of the people and the machines that opened Alaska to exploration and growth. Among the exhibits are old airplanes, trains and tractors, gold mining equipment, and statewide collections from Eskimo skin boats to jet aircraft. (907) 376-1211 www.museumofalaska.org
Whittier Prince William Sound Museum is located inside the Anchor Inn, and 22 exhibits tell the story of Whittier’s history as a military port and rail terminal during World War II and the Cold War, as well as history of the Great ’64 Earthquake. A new exhibit pays tribute to the service of the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska, including the 1898 rescue of stranded members of the American whaling fleet by officers of the U.S. Revenue Cutter “Bear”. The 300 sailors were stranded on the northern coast of the Arctic Ocean after their ships were trapped and crushed by the arctic icepack. (907) 472-2354 www.pwsmuseum.org
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January 30, 2015 Friday, January 30, 2015
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