January 16, 2015
1
STARS AND STRIPES
Volume 7, ©SS2015 2015 Volume 7, No. 5 ©SS
RIDAY,, JJANUARY 16,2015 2015 FFRIDAY ANUARY 16,
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January 16, 2015
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
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Friday, January 16, 2015
COVER STORY
Extreme conditions part of the landscape
True north BY PATRICK DICKSON
I
Stars and Stripes
THULE AIR BASE, Greenland t’s 8:36 on this early October morning, and the sun is starting to peek out from beyond South Mountain. The weekly charter flight is bringing people and supplies. It, too, makes an appearance over South Mountain as it begins to bank right, approaching the only runway here at Thule Air Base, America’s northernmost military base. Inside the operations building, the command staff is joking with each other and getting ready for a weekly ritual. “Ready?” Out they go. They form a line between the building and the parked jet, welcoming those who blearily exit. They’ve flown 5½ hours overnight from Baltimore Washington International Airport on the weekly contract flight. It’s cramped but as wellserved as any commercial flight. Some are returning from leave. Some are family, flown in to visit their loved one in uniform. Some are above the Arctic Circle for the first time, feeling their first burst of 15-degree air and looking out at the windswept, treeless but oddly beautiful base they will call home for one year. Capt. Ryan Crean, who handles logistics for the 821st Support Squadron, smiled when asked about the environs.
“A scientist once told me, ‘Greenland has some of the most beautiful forest in the world, but it’s an inch tall,’ ” he said. The 10,000-foot runway, a holdover from the days of the Strategic Air Command and the B-52 bombers that used it, and the base’s extensive infrastructure make possible just about anything the Western world wants to accomplish in the Arctic. The National Science Foundation rotates researchers through the base. They continue on to Summit Camp, atop 2 miles of ice in the country’s interior, to measure global warming and other weather phenomena. Allied nations also need the support of Thule’s 821st Operations Wing, which handles the flights. Greenland was granted self-government in 1979 by Denmark but remains within the kingdom, so 400 Danes are here doing the support functions with the help of native Greenlanders. One of the biggest support missions for the base is Operation Boxtop, which twice a year resupplies Canadian Forces Stations Alert and Eureka, tiny outposts 300 miles farther north on Canadian soil — or, more accurately, on Canadian permafrost — on Ellesmere Island across the Nares Strait. For Boxtop II, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, 47 sorties — a mixture of Canadian C-17s and C-130s — delivered 206 tons of dry goods and more than 350,000 gallons of fuel for the winter months. But the base’s two main missions
BY PATRICK DICKSON Stars and Stripes
— tracking satellites and orbiting debris, and watching for ballistic missile launches from the “Russian landmass” — are the reason the base was built, and why the seemingly anachronistic base remains.
History Thule, pronounced TOO-lee, is a Greek word that first appears in the writings of the explorer Pytheas, from roughly 330 B.C. The term “ultima Thule” in medieval maps denotes any distant place beyond the “borders of the known world.” The part of Greenland now known as Thule was settled by Denmark in the early 20th century by explorer Knud Rasmussen, whose name graces the base community center. The U.S. government built weather and radio stations in the area beginning in 1941 to help in the war effort against the Germans. But it was “communist aggression” in 1950 that heralded Operation Blue Jay, according to an Army documentary of the same name, when “a giant air base on top of the world” was constructed. Thule and its surrounding bases were once host to more than 10,000 military members. Camp Century, 150 miles inland from Thule, was a self-sustaining, nuclear-powered city with 200 soldiers in the summer, occupied from 1959 to 1966 under the Army Polar Research and Development Center to study survival in Arctic climes and to do research on the ice sheet. SEE PAGE 4
One cowhide can produce 10 footballs.
THULE AIR BASE, Greenland — Legend has it that Eric the Red, father of famed explorer Leif Ericson, gave Greenland its name to attract settlers. It’s a plausible theory; the island is inhabited in dots along the southern coasts, since the interior is a frozen wasteland. The vast ice sheet, 2 miles thick at its peak, stretches for 750 miles to the east coast from Thule, and more than twice that north to south. The big empty. An ice sheet three times the size of Texas. Glaciers spill into fjords along the coast. At Thule, the land slopes down to the base, North Star Bay and Mount Dundas. The capriciousness of the weather is fascinating and frightening, something all too familiar for base residents. Winter was fast approaching. As the Earth tilts away from the sun, Thule becomes a land of permanent night, and permanent cold, dipping to as low as 47 below zero, according to base statistics. “The coldest I saw, during a storm, was minus-60,” 1st Lt. Matthew Smokovitz said. “It gets to a point where you can’t really tell the difference. It’s already cold — who cares at this point?” High winds, created by low pressure to the west over Baffin Bay, blow in off the ice cap from the southeast. SEE PAGE 3
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.
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January 16, 2015
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STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
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COVER STORY FROM PAGE 2
The air is channeled into the valley where Thule is located, increasing the wind speed. According to the base welcome packet, during a storm in March 1972, the anemometer on a storm shelter recorded what is now considered the third highest wind velocity ever: 207 mph. The welcome packet is probably the only one in the Air Force with this provision: “Storm Condition Delta — All personnel are restricted to the buildings in which they are located at the time a Storm Delta is declared. Absolutely No Pedestrian Or Vehicular Travel Is Permitted.” Even in good weather, drivers are required to radio in with the number of travelers and destination when leaving the base perimeter, marked with signs rather than a fence. The changing conditions are of particular interest to the crew at the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. They are on a mountain where the weather is crazier than down on the base, and they need to be manned 24/7, all year. No exceptions. Maj. Chris Castle, the operations officer at BMEWS, said the weather can change in an instant. “When that happens, we have to be pre-positioned to ensure that we can continue operations,” Castle said, “because we can be severed from the main base for three of four days, so we have to keep an eye on the weather.” Having two crews on site is essential. “If it takes a turn for the worse, we bring up other folks to augment the ones who are here, send home people
PATRICK DICKSON /Stars and Stripes
A group of Danish hikers stop near the Greenlandic ice sheet to grab some “blueberry soup” and an energy bar. The ice sheet covers more than 80 percent of Greenland, and rises to 2 miles thick at its peak. who don’t need to be here, and that way people can just rotate in and out here, without having to travel on the road,” he said. Smokovitz recounted one such day. “It was the day before or on Thanksgiving, and I got recalled,” he said. “That’s the thing with being on crew; if the weather gets bad or something bad happens, they can call you. You’re basically on six-ring standby; you’ve got six rings to pick up or you’re in some trouble. “So, all right, pack your bags, quick quick quick, run out to the truck, and by the time we made it up to ‘12 Swiss’ (the 12th Space Warning Squadron) the weather just kept getting worse and worse as we went up the mountain. “We should have pulled over and gone into the storm shelter,” he said. “I mean, we had the car in first gear; it was barely moving along. We just couldn’t see anything.” Shelters dot the roads to the radars and North and South Mountains. Each has two beds, some food in a footlocker with a breakable seal, and a phone connected directly to a base operator. Best of all, there is a heater. The heat knocks you back when you open the door.
Predicting the storm At 947 miles from the North Pole, Thule is closer to Moscow than to Washington, and without much land mass up-
wind, forecasting the weather is more a seat-of-the-pants operation than at just about any U.S. weather station. Al Hay, 54, is a retired Air Force master sergeant. He has been a polar forecaster for 12 years and has been a contractor at Thule for two years. As the Air Force takes over forecasting at Thule, he’s returning to his roots, forecasting weather on the other side of the Earth — Antarctica. Hay is headed to McMurdo Station this month. “We’re working here with minimal data,” he said. “In the States, you have a large network of radars ... whereas up here, you got nothing; you got Baffin Bay. Nothing really local in our area.” Despite the lack of data, the weather guys must be ready to sound the alarm. Dave Siebert, 57, who calls Phoenix home, spent 20 years in the Air Force and seven years at Thule. “We’ve got two main missions here: Resource Protection is going to be the populace of the base as well as the equipment,” he said. “We have a 30-knot warning for, like, not opening the hangar doors. “The second one is going to be for the aircraft that comes through. We support anyone, from NASA, Canada, a lot of scientists; Ukraine comes through just for general exercises.” Tech. Sgt. John Thompson III, 34, had been at Thule for three weeks. “[Y]ou get into the storm
season, the colder season, and [weather forecasters] get into notification of when there may be large storms, or hurricane-force winds, blizzards, whiteouts, things like that, that cause people to be relegated to their dorm with no movement. You don’t wanna head outside in something like that.” Some years are bad. Siebert remembered one year with seven Charlie storms with some going into Delta; other years have one Charlie that lasts a few hours.
Shifting ground The base sits on permafrost, which is soil at or below freezing. All construction has to be raised so the heat of the building or pipes doesn’t melt the soil and destabilize the structure. Pipes that cross streets arch over the traffic at 90-degree angles, and the superhighways of pipes between the barracks make for some of the ugliest landscaping imaginable. When you’re aiming radars thousands of miles out, soil stability is crucial. Castle pointed out the cooling towers at the facility. “To have a large-foundation building, very heavy and very large, especially something that’s producing a lot of heat ... your building can settle and crack and move,” he said. To cool the ground under the massive radar systems, an intricate cooling system was installed, he said, “which is really counterintuitive: Why
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Permanent midnight In October, the sun arcs low across the southern sky. You lose about a half-hour of light each day. In November, twilight gives way to constant darkness. “Dark season was a little weird,” Smokovitz said. He arrived in October, working the midnight shift and sleeping during daylight hours until the sun set for good. “It was always dark, and I never saw anybody for months. ... It’s awkward; your body is used to seeing the sunlight; used to seeing people.” Full-spectrum lighting, which mimics sunlight and is sometimes used in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder, is available in the dorm rooms. Some airman gave the devices positive reviews, but everyone who’d been through one winter lit up when talking about the sun’s return. “On Feb. 21, we had the ‘first light’ party. ‘The sun’s out! The sun’s back!’ Smokovitz said. The higher altitude at BMEWS gave the crew there a glimpse of the sun over the opposing mountains before the people on the main base saw it. “We always referred to it as ‘hope on the horizon. ” dickson.patrick@stripes.com Twitter: StripesDCchief
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FROM PAGE 2
The U.S. military winds up in some of the most remote places on the planet:
1
Shemya Air Base, Alaska
2
Kwajalein Atoll
Located on the second-tolast major Aleutian Island, it combines the charm of Greenland weather with the spaciousness of Guam.
Kwajalein Atoll is 2.5 miles long and averages 800 yards wide, and is home to 1,000 people, mostly Americans, about 2,100 miles southwest of Honolulu.
3
RAF Ascension Island
4
McMurdo Station Antarctica
Located on the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, RAF Ascension Island is 1,750 miles west of South Africa, and 2,090 miles east of South America. The U.S. Air Force has a small contingent there.
McMurdo Station is operated by the National Science Foundation but houses some military members who get people in and out. It’s on Ross Island in Antarctica, claimed by the nearest country, New Zealand, which is 2,800 miles away.
5
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia, a tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean, is almost 1,000 miles south-southwest of India.
6
Lajes Field, Portugal
7
Guam
Lajes Field, on the small, Portuguese-owned Azores in the Atlantic some 1,000 miles west of Portugal, is an important refueling station for aircraft.
At 30 miles long, 8 miles wide, Guam is a lonely 1,600 miles east of Tokyo or Manila. It hosts bases for the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard.
But this was the era of the Cuban missile crisis, and the Army also worked on plans to base newly designed “Iceman” ICBMs in a massive network of tunnels dug into the ice sheet. “Project Iceworm” was eventually deemed impractical and abandoned. No missiles were ever known to have been based at Camp Century. By 1969, the camp was left to the shifting ice sheet, which was crushing its walls and eventually reclaimed it. Its nuclear reactor, which provided power for 33 months, was removed. Most Army personnel were assigned to nearby Nike-Hercules missile sites. Mortars and ground-to-air missiles were part of their equipment, and they practiced with them regularly. As with any ordnance, not all of it detonated, and there are signs warning personnel. A local population was moved to a village called Qaanaaq, 60 miles to the north. It remains the nearest village of “locals” — accessible only by sea or helicopter — though much of the old Thule village still stands, its structures being reclaimed slowly in the dry cold. The village stands at the foot of Mount Dundas, which looms over the base in every sense. It’s on the T-shirts at the small BX: “Been there, Done Dundas.” A newcomer gets his bearings finding it, and it’s a rite of passage for anyone stationed here. During the months when the sun appears — March to October — you are almost expected to climb it.
Community In such austere conditions, there are limited options for ways to spend free time. Some get lost in themselves, retreating to their room to Skype with a girlfriend or take classes on the somewhat slow “Dormnet.” There is no commissary, and most visit the chow hall — the Dundas Buffet Restaurant — three times a day. As at most remote U.S. military locations, the food is excellent. Some drink. One American contractor summed it up this way: “You either become a chunk, a drunk or a hunk.” First Lt. Matthew Smokovitz, 25, of Canton, Mich., was spending his last few days at Thule, and said the amount people drink rises when the sun goes down in October and doesn’t reappear for months. “It seemed like, this probably isn’t the best thing, but people get a lot more sedentary during the dark season and they don’t have a lot to do, and sometimes drinking picks up a little more because, ‘What else are we doing to do today?’ “You can go to the bowling alley, go to the gym, the community center, I guess,” said Smokovitz, who spent his first assignment here at the 12th Space Warning Squadron. “It’s like a rinseand-repeat thing. It’s so cold and so dark; where you gonna go?” Base leaders are careful not to let their people go down this rabbit hole.
PATRICK DICKSON /Stars and Stripes
The entrance to the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System operations building is flanked by “cooling towers,” which channel Arctic air under the facility so any heat generated by facility is taken away. Building on permafrost requires such measures, so the structural integrity is not compromised. The gym is top-notch and always has special programs, including a four-country hockey tournament while Canadian forces were deployed here for Boxtop. (The Danes won it all.) The community center hosts visiting musicians — country singer Ash Bowers was there in early October — and shows movies in its theater. There’s a vast lending library of books and videos, and talks by visiting Inuits and scientists. “It’s a very tight-knit community. Everybody looks out for each other,” said Tech. Sgt. Jason Brumbaugh, 34, of Sacramento, Calif. “But with that, you do tend to make good friends, and it makes it harder to leave because of how close you get.” The air-traffic controller has been at Thule for about six months. “The best thing is the people,” he said. Sean Lohr is a contractor working at Detachment 1. He’s been through seven winters at Thule. “It’s a small-town atmosphere,” said Lohr, 38, of Colorado Springs, Colo. “It’s difficult to go anywhere when you don’t at least recognize a face. “Back at our barracks, we have a set-up that will play video games and a set-up to where we can watch movies or listen to music or whatever,” Lohr said.” If we get sick of seeing each other’s faces, we can go to our rooms and be by ourselves.” Families can fly in once a year to visit. Smokovitz talked about the visit his wife, an Air Force officer in the space community, made in late winter. “She came during the dark season, so she didn’t really get to see what Thule has; she saw the buildings and stuff. She had the same impression I had at first: This is Cold War stuff. It’s really old. “She said she wasn’t envious; but the one thing she did say was, at least the squadron is good,” he said. “The people that are here, they’re ready to go have fun. They want to hang out, they want to talk; they’re social.” Among his favorite things about Thule is listening to the calving of glaciers on the bay.
“There’s a whole bunch of icebergs. When there’s no wind, the sound of the icebergs breaking apart — it’s like thunder. It’s incredible. … You can’t believe you’re hearing it.” What would Smokovitz tell an airman who gets Thule as an assignment? “Keep an open mind about it,” he said. “A lot of people who’ve had negative things to say about this place haven’t seen it.” On his last night, Smokovitz was initiated into the Knights of the Blue Nose, a ceremony derived from the Navy’s penchant for celebrating the crossing of the equator and other geographical markers. It honors the recipient for having endured a year in “this dread region of the earth.” “Having served the minimum apprenticeship north of the Arctic Circle with the armed forces of the United States of America,” read his boss, Lt Col Jason Resley, “Lt. Smokovitz is hereby accorded the honor as a Knight of the Blue Nose …” Then his unit mates took the traditional magic markers and made his nose, and much of his face, blue.
Goodbye The operations building where passengers gather to board the plane back to the United States, is no bigger than a 7-Eleven. People had come in from the pre-dawn cold, and choked a bit on their goodbyes. Brumbaugh’s words resonated. “Call me, OK?” One airman said goodbye to his wife and two children, their weeklong visit coming all too quickly to a close. He buried his nose in his baby daughter’s hair, kissing her over and over as his wife and son busied themselves among their things. Soon they boarded. The bird was up. And those left behind prepared for the long, dark winter. dickson.patrick@stripes.com Twitter: @StripesDCchief
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COOPT0023.AG.RB.012013_YoungProfessionals_#44_Photo_Magazine_FullPage_7.875x10.indd 2
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crossword COOPT0021.AG.RB.012013 SMRU496908(Exp.01/11/2015) © 2013 New York Life Insurance Company, 51 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010
B.C. By Kenneth Holt
57 Dennis the Menace, e.g.
sound 102 Illuminated
16 Put a spell on
72 Anew, to Nero
18 Read with great care
73 Innermost sanctuaries in ancient temples
58 Bit of a blossom 105 Flattered excessively ACROSS Life Insurance. Retirement. Long-Term Care. 21 Tough to outwit 59 Gardener’s soil 24 East ___, U.N. 109 Call to Bo Peep 1 Certain seabird member since 2002 60 Dashboard abbr. 110 What lungs help 5 Modem speed unit 9
Come out correctly
25 Alcatraz 2 accommodations
76 Clean off, as a blackboard 79 Boxing legend
115 Achiever
30 1969 Nobel Peace Prize grp.
81 Drunkard 83 Phi ___ Kappa
provide
61 Bed supports
COOPT0021.AG.RB.012013_YoungProfessionals_#44_Photo_Magazine_FullPage_7.875x10.indd
14 Cry in “A Christmas Carol”
62 “___ Now or Never”
75 Tote
114 Clock setting in 84-Across
17 Believed unquestioningly
63 Diocese of the Eastern Orthodox Church
116 Hard to hang on to
32 New York footballers
19 Large, round hairdo
65 :
117 Incite, as havoc
34 Relating to Bonaparte
85 Court precedent
20 Medical breakthrough of 1998
67 Chemist’s deg.
118 CBS symbol
35 ___ and void
87 Dress, as in a toga
119 TV spot
36 Sacred poem of David
88 Mountaineering aid
22 Expert fighter pilot
69 Ordained ones
89 Gun an engine
23 Bob Knight and John Wooden, famously
71 A number’s homophone
120 Romanian money, and others
37 Open, as a soda bottle
91 Burning remnant
121 Gaelic language
38 ID of a sort
93 Fancy sewing case
26 Calif. airport
72 “The Divine Comedy” writer
40 Offspring in a sty
94 Not tomorrow’s
27 Concealed
68 European blackbird
DOWN
41 Holdings
1
Popular fragrance
42 Electrical power units
100 Shell lining
2
And others
44 Cause embarrassment to
101 “Piece of cake!”
97 Pampas kin
28 Decent person, Yiddish-style (var.)
74 Drink cooler
29 Small monkey
78 Bank-robber’s target
31 Japanese wrestling style
80 Change copy
32 Become solid
82 Obsessed by
33 Tree growth rings
83 Prettiest at the ball
36 Dart team’s hangout
84 Big Apple monogram
39 Daughters’ husbands
85 Dried coconut meat
43 Cafeteria of yore
86 Hilo souvenir
46 Concealed shooter
87 As Poe might
9
48 Possesses
88 Obtained
59 Be slothful
49 Sales-kit item
89 Critics, often
10 “Buenos ___!” (“Good day!”) 11 Crimean country house
64 When doubled, an engine sound
12 “Disgusting!”
66 Creme cookie
112 “To ___ is human”
13 “Before,” when before
67 Anne ___ (Henry VIII’s second wife)
113 Word from Beaver Cleaver
77 Added employees
81 Canvas support
51 It’s fit to be tied
90 Babies
52 Having a sharp taste
92 Saps of strength
53 Freight weight, sometimes
95 Deli loaf
54 Bar furniture 55 Mouse catcher 56 After the deadline
96 Jewish country 98 The “way” of the East 99 Bakery appliance 101 Bounce back, as
3
Sheet-music symbol
4
Microwaves, in slang
5
Big monkey
6
Many miles off
7
WWW address
8
Tombs with two large uprights and a capstone Mary Kay competitor
14 Fast sailing ship built on the mid-Atlantic 15 Exotic berry in some diets
45 Somewhat pickled 47 Dessert choice
103 Gossiper’s topic 104 “Comin’ ___ the Rye”
53 Kind of a shortcut
105 “Because freedom can’t protect itself” org.
55 Ripped
106 Opera-house level
57 Voting group
107 Airport approximations, familiarly
50 Wingless extinct bird
58 Edging of small loops, as on lace 61 Dove into second
69 Hot dog topper 70 Flax product 71 Fine material
1/18/13 11:34 AM
108 TV legend Dick Van ___ 109 Busy bug 111 Music genre
Last week’s answers
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January 16, 2015
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
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Friday, January 16, 2015
COVER STORY
Keeping watch Missile Warning Operations Center keeps continuous eye out for missiles ‘launched in anger’ BY PATRICK DICKSON Stars and Stripes
THULE AIR BASE, Greenland — In the dimly lit Missile Warning Operations Center, scrubbed of classified information before visitors enter, two airmen monitored the computer screens, watching for the telltale indicators of ballistic missile launches. They talked over a secure system with other operators around the globe, never more than an arm’s length from a telephone with pushbutton connections to some of the highest-level security personnel in the United States. The airmen were at the helm of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, a radar that detects, tracks and provides threat assessment of ballistic missiles launched from the Russian landmass. “The radar will compute where the object came from, will give you a rough location of the launch site and, more importantly, it will project
ONLINE For more photos, videos and an interactive map of remote assignments for U.S. servicemembers, go to
stripes.com/go/thule
where it’s going,” said Maj. Chris Castle, operations officer for the 12th Space Warning Squadron. He spoke matter-of-factly about the technical aspects of the BMEWS, the mission and nuclear annihilation. “At that point, we hand that off to the command and control centers — Cheyenne Mountain — and people will determine if we’re under attack.” He grinned. “Now, that doesn’t happen very often. People don’t launch long-range missiles in anger very much.” Castle noted that while the BMEWS has other more routine, time-consuming functions, missile warning is the core mission at Thule. It’s a year-round, 24/7 operation with downtime only for maintenance, which is tightly controlled and scheduled in advance with its sister radars at RAF Fylingdales in the U.K. and Clear Air Force Station, Alaska. The radars send out a sweep of beams at a low elevation that allow the receivers to detect anything in its window. They allow operators to see anything coming off the Russian landmass. “It can detect anything,” Castle said. “It’s sufficient enough to catch any Earth-launched object” within its field of view. Because the radar is so sensitive — it can “see” a flock of geese — computer algorithms analyze the size and speed of any object and determine whether it is threatening. When the radar detects something that could be a ballistic missile, it will present a track — “a yellow line on the computer with an origin point, where the object is in its flight path, and then where it’s headed,” Castle said. That information is passed up the chain to Cheyenne Mountain, where
The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, or BMEWS, is one of three such installations that keep an eye out for long-range missiles leaving “the Russian landmass.” PATRICK DICKSON /Stars and Stripes
it is integrated and shotgunned to a network defense system that includes AEGIS cruisers, Patriot missile batteries and U.S. missile silos. Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, familiar to some from the Matthew Broderick movie “WarGames,” was built deep inside the granite mountain in the late 1950s as a hardened command-and-control center for defense against Soviet missiles and long-range bombers. “To my knowledge, we’ve never detected something we didn’t know was coming,” Castle said. “We can see test launches,” he said. “When the Russians launch test vehicles from the North Sea — and they routinely test their new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Bulava — usually we can see those. But, luckily, there’s a large intelligence structure within the Department of Defense, so those things are not surprises to us.” While missile warning is the priority, 98 percent of what consumes the BMEWS staff is tracking space objects. “Every day, we receive a list of objects the radar is supposed to
track. And the radar is a very smart machine, and it does most of this on its own,” Castle said. “It makes sure that Earth-orbiting objects are where they’re supposed to be.” “There’s a lot of junk in space. The majority of what’s up there is junk. But we have to keep track of that stuff.” BMEWS personnel monitoring space junk — the radar is so sensitive it can see something the size of a grapefruit at a distance of 3,000 miles — answer to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. For polar-orbiting satellites, the poles are the only common point when the Earth is turning, so operators here see satellites and debris multiple times a day, whereas the same object might pass over a station at the equator only once a day. “We’re just one small part of the picture. But we’re good, Castle said. “We’re so far north, that anything in a polar orbit is passing through here. So a lot of interesting things are happening in the sky above Thule.” dickson.patrick@stripes.com Twitter: @StripesDCchief
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ith today’s busy lifestyle, it takes a plan to get things done. Whether it’s as simple as a grocery list, or as complicated as planning a wedding, careful preparation can help you save time, money and countless headaches.
to remain in your home? Could your children still graduate from college? Would your dependents be able to pursue their dreams and goals? Without a proper financial plan in place, the answer may be “no.”
Surprisingly, though, most people don’t have a well-thought-out plan when it comes to protecting their loved ones if something bad were to happen like an unexpected illness or untimely death. Ask yourself, if you suddenly became disabled*, or died, would your family have the financial means
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*Disability Income Insurance available through one or more carriers not affiliated with New York Life, dependent on carrier authorization and product availability in your state or locality. **Guarantees are based upon the claims-paying ability of New York Life Insurance Company. This educational third-party article is being provided as a courtesy by Steven Abeln, Agent, New York Life Insurance Company. To learn more about the information or topics discussed, please contact Steve at sabeln@ft.newyorklife.com, or call (907) 250-0018 to set up a free consultation.
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January 16, 2015
January 16, 2015
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WAR ON TERRORISM
Washington soldiers set to deploy to Iraq soon BY JENNIFER HLAD Stars and Stripes
AP
Afghan forces inspect the site of a roadside bomb explosion Jan. 5 in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. A roadside bomb hit a NATO convoy, damaging one vehicle but inflicting no casualties.
Breedlove: Expect more casualties in Afghanistan BY CARLO MUNOZ Stars and Stripes
KABUL, Afghanistan — Americans must be prepared for more U.S. casualties in Afghanistan even after the declared end to NATO’s combat mission in the country, the alliance’s supreme commander warned Jan. 8. “All of us as commanders have reminded our senior leadership … the war in Afghanistan has not ended, (just) the combat mission for NATO,” Gen. Philip Breedlove told Stars and Stripes. “It’s hard to say, but we are going to continue to have (American) casualties” in Afghanistan, Breedlove said in an interview at Bagram Air Field. “It is going to be unavoidable,” he added. Breedlove’s comments came just days after American and allied forces officially closed the book on the 13-year International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, shifting to a lower-key, advisory role supporting, named Resolute Support. At the time, the White House and top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan heralded the transition as crucial milestone
in ending America’s longest war. The move represented “an end of an era and the beginning of a new one” in Afghanistan, ISAF commander Gen. John Campbell said at the command’s end-of-mission ceremony in Kabul on Dec. 28. Under the White House’s plan, roughly 11,000 U.S. troops and about 2,000 NATO troops remain on the ground to train and advise Afghanistan’s army and police and to conduct counterterrorism operations. The American troop number is slated to drop to 5,500 by the end of this year, with all U.S. forces scheduled to leave Afghanistan by 2016. After the collapse last summer of Iraq’s U.S.-trained army when confronted by a surprise attack by fast-moving Islamist forces, analysts and U.S. lawmakers have warned that a similar scenario could unfold in Afghanistan if international troops pulled out too precipitously, leaving the government forces to fend for themselves. While American and NATO troops are no longer the main fighting force in Afghanistan, U.S. troops will continue to be in the line of fire on a regular basis during the follow-on mis-
CARLO MUNOZ /Stars and Stripes
Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s top military commander, speaks Jan. 8 in Kabul, Afghanistan. concerns over whether President Barack Obama’s plan for Afghanistan will be enough to ensure the country’s security beyond 2016. In November, Campbell, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, said he was reviewing whether Afghan forces were ready and whether he should recommend through his chain of command that additional NATO forces stay longer. Earlier this month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani suggested Washington re-examine its future plans because of a resurgent Taliban and the possible threat from other insurgent groups in the region. “Are we looking at contingencies? Absolutely,” Murray when asked about possible changes to the postwar mission. But “this is not (Operation Enduring Freedom) … that is part of the mind-set we are going to [have to] get used to,” he said.
sion, Maj. Gen. John Murray, deputy commanding general for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said Jan. 6. “We are not going out on kill/capture missions anymore, (but) this is still a very dangerous place,” Murray said in an interview at the command’s headquarters at Bagram. “There are going to be some hard questions when we lose (the first) soldier” under Resolute Support. Despite those risks, American troops in postwar Afghanistan “can’t just sit on the FOB” and completely disengage from the security threats facing Afghan forces, Murray said, referring to the 23 remaining U.S. forward operating bases scattered across Afghanistan. The upcoming fighting season, the first under Resolute Support, will be American commanders’ “last good year to have an impact” on Afghanistan’s postwar future. With so much at stake, top U.S. commanders have voiced
munoz.carlo@stripes.com
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MILITARY
Leaders for POW/MIA effort named BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department last week appointed leadership for a new command that will replace the dysfunctional, scandal-prone agencies now in charge of recovering the nation’s war dead. Rear Adm. Mike Franken, a former Navy legislative director who is new to the recovery efforts, will be interim commander until a civilian director is chosen in about six months, defense officials said. Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague, the commander of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and a top leader of existing recovery operations, was named the interim deputy director. Filling the positions is another step toward an ongoing consolidation of JPAC and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office into a single organization, which was ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in March and will likely continue into 2016. More than 83,000 Americans are still missing from past conflicts, and the agencies have drawn criticism for only recovering about 72 remains annually. During the past two years, they also have riled surviving families and have been charged with widespread mismanagement and botched recovery efforts. McKeague has said he hopes to increase the number of annual recoveries to about 125 by 2018. The newly appointed leaders met with families and MIA groups, who have been asked to help name the command before it officially stands up in about two weeks. Defense officials said working more closely with the families of the missing will be a key mission for the new command, which will have a temporary headquarters in Washington until a permanent location is chosen next year. Much of the work has yet
WAYNE HANSEN /Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Denetra Reilly, with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, digs in an established excavation grid in Thua Thien-Hue province, Vietnam, in 2012. to be done and the transition from JPAC and DPMO is expected to take about one more year. Franken and McKeague will build the new command with input from DOD working groups that began meeting last year. The groups comprise volunteers from JPAC, DPMO, the Armed Forces DNA identification laboratory, and other military personnel, according to the DOD. Last fall, the department’s inspector general warned that poor leadership and a hostile work environment in the current MIA accounting agencies could transfer over to the new command. Efforts to root out those cultural problems are being weighed, DOD said. But Franken and McKeague have not yet determined what safeguards will be in place to ensure the current problems do not continue, according to defense officials. There are already plans to review the recommendations of working groups staffed by employees of the agencies
Hagel: Interim chief ‘highly qualified’ Stars and Stripes
Rear Adm. Michael Franken, interim director of the new, unified agency responsible for recovering and identifying the remains of missing servicemembers, has held a number of leadership roles during his military career. He has been commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa; vice director for strategy, plans, and policy at U.S. Central Command; commander of Destroyer Squadron 28; commander of Task Group 152 for the Eisenhower Strike Group; and U.S. Pacific Command division chief in the Joint Staff’s joint operations directorate. Franken was hand-picked by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to be interim director of the new agency, according to defense officials. In a statement, Hagel described Franken as “a highly qualified leader who has a strong operational and policy background.” Defense officials said Franken is not new to standing up organizations. After the mired in dysfunction and scandal. “We are going to take another look at those work-
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he helped establish “Deep Blue,” the Navy’s operational think tank that deals with classified missions. He also was the first commander of the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill. A senior defense official, speaking on Franken condition of anonymity to discuss the organizational changes, said that Franken’s biggest handicap as he enters the job is his lack of familiarity with the MIA identification-and-recovery mission and related operations. “I have much to learn,” Franken acknowledged in a written statement provided to reporters. The search for a permanent director is under way, according to officials, which means Franken may have little time to get up to speed and to make changes before he is replaced.
ing groups,” a senior defense official told Stars and Stripes “Adm. Franken is going to assess whether that was the
right path.” tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
“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 16, 2015
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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 Z
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word search
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Free speech always comes with a price
MILITARY
CENTCOM hacked on Twitter, YouTube Troops threatened, military contact information released BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Hackers claiming to be sympathizers with the militant group Islamic State took control of U.S. Central Command’s Twitter feed and YouTube channel Monday, posting threats to servicemembers and contact information of military We won’t staff and stop! We retired brass. know The posteverything ings lasted about 30 about minutes you, your and includwhat wives and ed appeared children. to be a Islamic State contact group roster for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and other commands, the cellphone numbers and home addresses of some retired generals, and maps of North
‘
’
January 16, 2015 Friday, January 16, 2015
I The Twitter account for U.S. Central Command, shown in this screen grab, was apparently hacked on Monday, with proIslamic State group messages plastering the account’s profile. Korea and China. Stars and Stripes could not immediately verify if the documents were authentic. On CENTCOM’s YouTube channel, the hackers uploaded Islamic State propaganda videos and footage of the group’s fighters. When contacted Monday, a CENTCOM spokeswoman said the command was still gathering information on the hacks. “We can confirm that the CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised earlier today,” the command said in a released statement. “We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter. We have no further information to provide at this time.” Its Twitter feed was suspended just after 1 p.m. Eastern time. The YouTube channel was disabled soon after. “We broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you,” said one message posted to the Twitter account. “You’ll see no mercy, infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your
Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher Terry Leonard, Editor Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor Tina Croley, Managing Editor for Content Amanda L. Trypanis, U.S. Edition Editor Michael Davidson, Revenue Director CONTACT US 529 14th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20045-1301 Email: stripesweekly@stripes.com Editorial: (202) 761-0908 Advertising: (202) 761-0910 Michael Davidson, Weekly Partnership Director: davidson.michael@stripes.com Additional contact information: stripes.com
PCs, in each military base.” The message said the Islamic State group is waging a “cyber jihad” through a “cyber Caliphate,” referring to the group’s stated goal of creating its own global fundamentalist Muslim state beginning in Iraq and Syria. “We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children,” the posted threat continued. “U.S. soldiers! We’re watching you!” Subsequent tweets also claimed that the Pentagon’s computer networks had been hacked. An uncaptioned photo posted to the Twitter account showed what appeared to be the interior of a military office with desks and two soldiers, one with a dog. The hack comes after the FBI says North Korea infiltrated Sony Pictures networks in November, releasing private company emails and leaking the unreleased movie “The Interview.” The incident raised U.S. concerns over cybercrime and warfare by enemies. Stars and Stripes reporter Jon Harper contributed to this story. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. The contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this newspaper. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised. Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.
© Stars and Stripes, 2015
n military families we piece, writer David Brooks speak often of freedom, pointed out that much of what and we know what it Charlie Hebdo publishes — costs. We’ve seen the barbs aimed at Jews, Muslims, price of liberty paid by those Christians and others — would we know and love, but I wonder be considered hate speech by whether we can truly apprecisome Americans. Support for ate our freedom unless we’ve freedom of expression has to felt its absence. For those who include freedom for words and have always had it, freedom is images we consider offensive, easy to overlook, as is the cost. even hateful. As Americans, we’re allowed Free expression must be exto worship, speak, live and act tended to unpopular opinions, as we choose. The Declaration to expressions that attack instiof Independence says our cretutions, beliefs and principles. ator endowed us with the rights Free expression for peaceto life, liberty and the pursuit ful artists and satirical writers of happiness. We hold these also requires freedom for truths to be self-evident, but hateful, name-calling protestwhen Thomas Jefferson wrote ers. When we classify some about them, “these truths” speech SPOUSE CALLS as unacwere radical. The signers of the Declaraceptable tion were revolutionary in because it every sense of the word. More is offensive, than 200 years later, these all freedom truths have become comof speech is monplace — perhaps until the diminished. recent terrorist attack in Paris. Our ConstiOur freedoms, particularly tution does free expression granted by not grant the First Amendment to the freedom Constitution, Terri Barnes from being have fresh offended. Join the conversation with Terri at meaning. Freedom of stripes.com/go/spousecalls The murspeech and ders of 17 peoof the press ple over three means plenty days in Paris remind us that of us will be offended about for some in this world, freedom one thing or another. It means is still a radical and dangerwe have the right to speak out ous idea. Expressions opposed when we are offended, but not by Islamic fundamentalists the right to silence the offendproved fatal for 10 contributors ers. to a satirical magazine. Freedom of expression is Ten people were killed for a right worth exercising, and self-expression. that means more than tweeting Millions rallied in Paris, and #JeSuisCharlie. It means freemillions more are speaking dom to be informed, to access out on social media against the a plethora of news sources, to massacre, showing that the atexplore ideas, to write letters to tempt to dampen free expresthe editor, to laugh at cartoons. sion only encouraged more of It means freedom to protest it. Totalitarian regimes and injustice, to discuss issues ideologies don’t allow freedom openly. of speech or press, because Freedom of expression is they empower. one of the rights our military is Control of information and sworn to uphold, and like any knowledge is a way for those in freedom it is not free, even for power to stay in power, while those not in uniform. The cost free expression allows indimight include listening with vidual discernment, thought respect and discernment, deand action. ciding between arguments that are worth having and those Discernment is necessary, that aren’t. because when free expression Free expression means is allowed, not all messages that we all will be offended by will be ones we want to hear. something. That’s the bottom This truth has been less line. recognized in the worldwide In the aftermath of Charlie demonstrations of support for Hebdo, it seems a small price the fallen satirists. In a New York Times opinion to pay.
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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www.AnchorageChevrolet.com
ARMY NAVY
www.ClassicAlaska.com
Barbies Cafe’
www.LithiaChryslerAnchorage.com
Contact Steve Abeln
(907) 250-0018 Steve@AlaskaStripes.com
Brought to us each week with the support of these businesses
Sponsorship Level
Advertising Steve Abeln - (907) 250-0018 Steve@StripesAlaska.com
STRIPES •
www.LithiaKIAAnchorage.com
ALASKA PREMIER DENTAL GROUP www.SmileAlaska.com
Sponsorship Details - Steve 250-0018
www.BarbiesCafe.com
Fred Meyer
www.FredMeyer.com