Volume 7, No. 11 ŠSS 2015
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
For information please contact Waverly Williams 803-774-1237 or waverly@theitem.com
The famous photo taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal shows the American flag being raised on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945. From left: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Michael Strank, John Bradley, Rene Gagnon and Harlon Block. Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
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THE BATTLE OF IWO JIMA AT 70 BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
I
n retrospect, the quote seems almost too cinematic, as if a Hollywood screenwriter handed a one-sentence script to James Forrestal for the moment he reached Iwo Jima. The secretary of the Navy landed by ship on the Japanese island on Feb. 23, 1945. Four days earlier, 30,000 U.S. troops, most of them Marines, had invaded the heavily defended speck of volcanic rock 750 miles from mainland Japan. Another 40,000 came ashore over the following month in a battle remembered as one of the deadliest of World War II. At Iwo Jima’s southern tip stands its tallest point, Mount Suribachi, peaking at 554 feet. The morning of
But Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson, the battalion commander who had sent the platoon up the mountain, wanted the flag for his unit. In the popular version of the tale, when told of Forrestal’s request, Johnson barked, “To hell with that!” He instead ordered another group of Marines to bring a second, larger flag to the summit that could be delivered to the secretary at a later date. So was born the most famous photo of the war, and possibly in all of U.S. history. Five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised the second flag on Suribachi that afternoon, a scene captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. His image wound up on the front page of hundreds of newspapers and virtually overnight became a national emblem of courage.
aggressively used it to present their story to America,” he said. “They did then, and they do now.”
Sudden veneration Those public-relations efforts received an early boost from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who sought to exploit the popularity of Rosenthal’s photo to rally support for the war. At Roosevelt’s behest, a painting of the image, above the slogan “Now — All Together,” graced the posters and billboards that anchored the nation’s seventh war bond drive in spring 1945. In six weeks, the government raised more than $26 billion, the largest amount among the eight bonds issued during the war and nearly twice the projected total.
Soon after the bond campaign, the U.S. Post Office depicted the flagraising photo on a three-cent stamp, reinforcing the image in the nation’s collective memory. In Rosenthal’s shot, which won the Pulitzer Prize for photography in 1945, each man is visible only from the side or back. The vantage point obscures individual identity, yet together they emerged as the face of the war. “That photo drove home the idea of the Corps as people,” said Walt Ford, the former longtime editor and publisher of the Marine Corps Gazette and Leatherneck Magazine. “That was different from the other services, which were more associated with machines — airplanes, ships, tanks. The men on Suribachi reminded Americans of themselves.” SEE PAGE 3
Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took what might be the most famous photo in U.S. history. National Archives
the secretary’s arrival, amid fierce fighting across the island, a Marine platoon climbed to the summit. As a handful of its members lifted a 20-foot-long water pipe topped with a small American flag, Forrestal, watching from the beach below with Gen. Holland Smith, spoke the line that enshrined him in military mythology. “Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.” His words resonate as a source of historical pride within the Corps 70 years later. In Marine lore, the island siege counts as one of the Homeric battles, alongside Belleau Wood in France in 1918, Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950 and Hue in Vietnam in 1968. It was what Forrestal did after his remark that ignited a series of events that elevated his prediction to, perhaps, something closer to a self-fulfilling prophecy: He asked for the flag.
The country’s visceral reaction to the photo created an opportunity for the smallest of the armed services to shape an outsized identity. Marine leaders realized that with a single image they could tell — and sell — a narrative to America that would redefine perceptions of the Corps and captivate recruits, politicians and Hollywood. They saw a chance to cultivate an enduring aura for the Marines and turn Forrestal’s 500-year forecast into a fait accompli, and in the ensuing decades the Corps, once the nation’s least respected military branch in public opinion polls, has evolved into its most prestigious. “The photo’s message was, ‘We can take any amount of suffering for the country and win the battle,’ ” said Aaron O’Connell, author of “Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marines Corps,” and an assistant professor of military history at the U.S. Naval Academy. “The Corps knew they had a good product with that photo, and they
The campaign saturated America in the blood-soaked saga of Iwo Jima. More than 6,800 U.S. troops were killed and some 19,000 wounded, with the Marines absorbing the vast majority of the losses. Japan’s strategy to fight to the death cost the lives of nearly 19,000 Japanese soldiers. The battle ended on March 26 and marked the only time in the war that the overall casualties of the invading force surpassed those of the enemy. Three of the Marines in the photo died on the island: Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley and Michael Strank. The two who survived, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes, joined Navy corpsman John Bradley on a nationwide tour to promote the war bond. They were hailed as the embodiment of an ideal expressed by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz in the other well-known quote linked to the battle: “Among the Americans on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
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THE BATTLE OF IWO JIMA AT 70 FROM PAGE 2
The country’s sudden veneration of the Corps proved vital in the dawn of the post-war era, when the Marines were engaged in another kind of struggle for survival.
Hollywood and the Beltway President Harry Truman hastened the war’s end when he authorized the dropping of two atomic
police force.”) The Marines countered with a two-pronged publicity offensive that parlayed the goodwill inspired by Rosenthal’s photo. In Hollywood, Corps officials collaborated with filmmakers on “Sands of Iwo Jima,” a dramatized account of the battle starring John Wayne as a Marine sergeant. As recounted in “Underdogs,” Corps consultants selected combat foot-
and earned four Academy Award nominations. “The Marine Corps was much more culturally savvy than the other services,” O’Connell said. “They were much better at telling war stories. They gave attention to the human aspect of war.” Meanwhile, as “Sands of Iwo Jima” played in theaters, Marine liaisons screened another film in the offices of federal lawmakers in
1980 after 41 years and now lives in Alexandria, Va. “Every one of them told me, ‘We saw that picture of the flag on Suribachi. We’ll never reduce the funding for the Marine Corps.’ ” The pincer attack was a success. Truman yielded to public and political sentiment while complaining that the Marines “have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin’s.” The Corps remained intact, and when North Korea in-
Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps
The massive memorial outside the walls of Arlington National Cemetery has an official name: The Marine Corps War Memorial. The bronze statue, based on the famous flag-raising photo, is dedicated to all Marine Corps personnel who have died in the defense of their country since 1775, but “nobody calls the statue by its official name,” said Walt Ford, the former longtime editor and publisher of the Marine Corps Gazette and Leatherneck Magazine. “Everybody knows it as the Iwo Jima memorial. That tells you the meaning Iwo Jima has for both the public and the Corps.”
bombs on Japan in August 1945, just five months after the Battle of Iwo Jima. The outcome convinced him that air superiority and nuclear weapons would decide future conflicts, and he slashed the defense budget for most of the country’s conventional forces. In 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, whom Truman appointed, broached plans to disband the Marines and Navy, dismissing both branches as irrelevant to modern warfare. (Truman, for his part, disparaged the Corps as “the Navy’s
age from Iwo Jima for the film and rewrote a pivotal scene to make Wayne’s character more appealing. Hundreds of Marines appeared as extras, and Gagnon and Hayes, along with Bradley, re-enacted their roles in raising the flag. The Corps’ marketing campaign for the movie’s release in 1949 reached into high schools and department stores, and the Marines set up lobby displays in theaters that included blow-ups of Rosenthal’s photo. The film finished among the year’s top 10 in box-office revenue
Washington. “Bombs Over Tokyo,” a 19-minute promotional documentary produced by the Corps, chronicled the war in the Pacific through combat footage and showed the flag going up on Mount Suribachi. Norm Hatch, a Marine photographer and Iwo Jima veteran who worked on the film, brought “Bombs” to Capitol Hill, lugging along a 16mm projector and portable screen. “I made sure all the important people in Congress saw it,” said Hatch, 93, who retired from the Marines in
vaded South Korea in 1950, Truman dispatched Marine units to aid the fight. Hatch believes the credit for Truman’s acquiescence begins with Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94. (For decades, Hatch defended the photographer against spurious charges that he staged the shot, and combat footage confirmed its authenticity.) The photo’s universal symbolism transformed Iwo Jima into a shared experience for Americans. SEE PAGE 4
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THE BATTLE OF IWO JIMA AT 70 FROM PAGE 3
Their familiarity with the image deepened the impact of “Sands of Iwo Jima” and “Bombs Over Tokyo,” and the films fortified a sense of loyalty to the Corps. “They had an effect because people had seen the photo first,” Hatch said. “That’s how they knew what happened on Iwo Jima. That’s how they knew the Marines.”
‘Did we live up to them?’ The Marine Corps War Memorial pierces the sky outside the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The 78-foot-tall, 100-ton bronze sculpture, completed in 1954, recreates the flag-raising tableau, reflecting the symbiosis between the Marines and Rosenthal’s photo. “Nobody calls the statue by its official name,” Ford said. “Everybody knows it as the Iwo Jima memorial. That tells you the meaning Iwo Jima has for both the public and the Corps.” Rosenthal’s photo also seared the island invasion into Corps culture. The Marines seized on the image’s emotional potency for recruiting purposes, reproducing the picture in ads and brochures, while drill instructors invoked the battle during boot camp. “Iwo Jima almost immediately became part of the fabric of being a Marine,” said Charles Neimeyer, director of Corps history at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va. “But it isn’t mentioned in a
Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
U.S. Marine Corps name tapes, rank insignias, badges, dog tags, belts and hats hang from a memorial to the fallen Marines of the Battle of Iwo Jima in February 1945 at the top of Mount Suribachi on July 26, 2012. Mount Suribachi is the site of where the iconic photo “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” was taken after the battle. triumphalist way. It’s brought up to drive home what it means to wear the uniform and make you aware of those who came before you.” Author Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense, deployed
to Vietnam as a 26-year-old infantry officer in 1966. He recalled trainers emphasizing that weeks of fighting — and dying — followed the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi. “Your sergeants taught you that some Marines had it worse than you did,” said West, who has written several books about the military, among them “The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan.” “They told us, ‘The Marines at Iwo Jima took heavy casualties and kept going. It does not matter if you lose 70 percent of your unit — you will continue to fight like they did, and you will win like they did.’ ” America’s most recent wars offered evidence that the influence of Iwo Jima persists among Marines. In his 2013 book “The Leader’s Code,” Donovan Campbell, a platoon commander who served in Iraq, described an exchange with his 19-year-old radio operator after the unit’s first sustained firefight. “Hey, sir, do you think we fought well today?” the lance corporal asked Campbell. “I mean, do you think that all the Marines who fought at Iwo
Jima and Okinawa would have been proud of us? Did we live up to them, sir? Did we do our part?” Another soaring tribute to the raising of the flag accents the National Museum of the Marine Corps that opened in 2006 in Triangle, Va. A stainless steel spire attached to the roof extends 210 feet at a 60-degree angle, replicating the tilt of the metal pipe in Rosenthal’s image. The museum’s collection holds both flags that flew above Suribachi in 1945. In the end, James Forrestal, the secretary of the Navy who coveted the first flag, received neither of them. Marine leaders, aware of the country’s response to the photo, recognized that the flags belonged to history — and might make possible Forrestal’s vision of a Marine Corps for the next 500 years. “That image has been a central piece of the Corps’ survival and it’s also an image of democracy,” Ford said. “It’s America’s image.” kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
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VETERANS
McDonald comments draw mixed reactions BY TRAVIS TRITTEN Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Reactions from veteran groups and Capitol Hill ran the gamut Tuesday from outrage to acceptance following an apology by VA Secretary Bob McDonald for claiming he served with U.S. special operations forces. The American Legion called the secretary’s claim a disappointing “lie” while the Veterans of Foreign Wars said it accepted McDonald’s apology for a “misspeak.” Still others said it was part of a troubling pattern of misleading statements after McDonald was called out last week for inflating the number of Department of Veterans Affairs employees fired after its waittime scandal. McDonald, who was picked last summer specifically to clean up dysfunction and wrongdoing at the massive agency, issued an apology Monday for a recent “CBS Evening News” segment in which he told a homeless veteran, “I was in special forces.” According to his VA bio, he graduated West Point in 1975, became an Army Ranger and then served in an Army unit that is not part of special operations forces. “He did complete Ranger training and served honorably with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. But a lie is a lie,” American Legion National Commander Michael D. Helm said in a prepared statement. “I can’t believe people do this. What a disappointment from the leader of a department whose No. 1 issue right now is the restoration of trust.” During a press conference in Washington Tuesday, McDonald again apologized for the “inaccurate” statement. He said his focus during the encounter was on getting the man assistance and not the small talk. “What I said was not on my mind at the time. I was trying to connect
VA secretary apologizes for claiming he served with special ops forces with them and we had people with us that could help get them into a home if they were a homeless veteran,” McDonald said. In his apology, McDonald said his comment about special operations forces was an “inaccurate” statement and that he has “great respect” for those who have served in those units. The group Concerned Veterans For America hammered McDonald on again damaging public trust in the VA. “CVA is not surprised that Secretary McDonald was caught exaggerating his military service when he was just found by multiple fact checkers to have misrepresented the number of people fired by the VA as a result of the wait list scandal — on national television nonetheless,” CEO Pete Hegseth said in a written statement. The secretary said during a Feb. 15 inter-
view on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had fired 900 employees, including 60 connected to the widespread manipulation of veteran appointment records to hide long and sometimes dangerous waits for care at VA hospitals and clinics across the country. But the website PolitiFact rated the claim as “false” and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker column gave it four Pinocchios, its most untruthful rating. Previously, McDonald and the VA had been harshly criticized by Congress for not firing employees responsible for the wrongdoing. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said Tuesday he is disappointed with the chairman’s recent comments. “After a rough couple of weeks that also included inflated claims of accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs, I hope Secre-
tary McDonald will redouble his efforts to ensure his statements — and those of all VA officials — are completely accurate,” Miller said in a written statement. But the secretary’s claim of being in special operations forces and his subsequent apology did not rankle everybody. VFW National Commander John W. Stroud said McDonald had misspoken, saying he was in “special forces” when in fact he was “special forces-qualified,” in an attempt to connect with the homeless vet. “The secretary has since apologized for his misspeak, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States accepts it,” Stroud said in a statement to Stars and Stripes. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said McDonald has an “extremely tough job” reforming the VA, and his group still backs him. “He called me personally today to apologize for that mistake and we at IAVA accept his apology,” Rieckhoff wrote in a statement. “We know Secretary McDonald is a man of exceptional commitment who served honorably and cares deeply about our veterans. All of America has witnessed his deep dedication to our community in his first few months on the job.” When contacted for comment, Sen. John McCain’s office brushed off the flap over McDonald’s comments, saying the VA has larger concerns. The Arizona Republican was an architect of the massive VA overhaul law passed in August and since has pressed the agency to hold more employees accountable for the records manipulation last year. “His comments were unfortunate, but Senator McCain is far more concerned by Secretary McDonald’s performance as VA Secretary,” McCain’s communication director Brian Rogers wrote in an email. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
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PAGE 11
MILITARY
STRATEGY SESSION JONATHAN ERNST, POOL /AP
In only his sixth day on the job, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter holds a regional security meeting at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, on Monday. Carter gathered top U.S. military commanders and diplomats for talks about the battle against the Islamic State group.
New Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter convenes a meeting of his ‘Team America’ to discuss campaign against Islamic State militants BY JON H ARPER Stars and Stripes
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — After a highly unusual meeting in Kuwait with U.S. military leaders and diplomats, new Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Islamic State militants that are rampaging through Syria and Iraq are “hardly invincible,” and said the coalition arrayed against them is
effective and determined. Carter helmed a six-hour, closeddoor session Monday with 25 military and diplomatic officials he called his “Team America” to discuss the fight against the terrorist group. Kuwait is home to nearly 10,000 American troops, as well as the headquarters of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, which is managing the campaign
against Islamic State militants. Carter, who stepped into his new job last week, traveled to Camp Arifjan to confer with senior military and diplomatic experts and develop his own assessment of the U.S. war strategy in the region. [see box] There are about 3,000 American troops in Iraq training and advising Iraqi forces and providing force protection. During a troop talk before
the big confab, Carter was asked if the cap on the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, set at 3,100 by President Barack Obama, should be raised. “I don’t have a good answer for you right now,” Carter acknowledged, saying “that’s one of the things I want to climb on top of” during the meeting with senior experts. SEE PAGE 12
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Friday, February 27, 2015
MILITARY FROM PAGE 11
When asked what it would take for him to recommend sending American ground troops into direct combat with the Islamic State, an option that Obama has so far ruled out, Carter sounded a note of caution. “We need to be convinced that any use of our forces is necessary, is going to be sufficient, [and] that we’ve thought through not just the first step but the second step and the third step,” he said, “so that we if we do ask you to do something, we’re asking you to do something that is going to succeed and it makes sense and ... it is necessary to take the risk that you’re taking. That’s my responsibility.” Carter said he would discuss the potential follow-on effects of various policy options during the high-level meeting. The Pentagon chief assured the troops that “we’ll do what it takes to defeat ISIL,” using a common acronym to refer to the Islamic State. “We will deliver lasting defeat, make no doubt. And when that happens … [it] will be your achievement,” he told them. After the meeting, Carter told reports that the anti-ISIL coalition has “the ingredients of the strategy” right, but there are some things that can be done better. “ISIL’s use of social media will be pressing us to be more creative in combating it in the information dimension, as well as the physical dimension,” he said. He also suggested that some nations in the coalition need to be doing more, saying there was a “need to leverage further the individual contributions of each” member. Carter did not identify specific countries he believes are not contributing enough. He made it clear that he expects the coalition to win the fight. “The discussion indicated clearly to me that this group is hardly invincible,” he told reporters. “Our efforts to date have already been having some important impacts. Our global coalition is up to the task, and so is American leadership.” Carter said he will host more consultations like
‘TEAM AMERICA’
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter convened a meeting in Kuwait on Monday to get a progress update and hear ideas on the military campaign against Islamic State militants. Among the attendees:
Gen. Philip Breedlove NATO commander
Retired Gen. John Allen president’s special envoy for the coalition against the Islamic State
Gen. Lloyd Austin commander of U.S. Central Command
Gen. David M. Rodriguez commander of U.S. Africa Command
Gen. Joseph L. Votel III commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command
Lt. Gen. Ray Thomas head of Joint Special Operations Command
Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata commander of Special Operations, Central Command
Brett McGurk deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran at the U.S. State Department
Douglas Silliman ambassador to Kuwait
Joseph Westphal ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Barbara Leaf ambassador to United Arab Emirates
Alice Wells ambassador to Jordan
Monday’s meeting in the future, and will bring in outside experts to contribute to the discussions. The commander of CJTFOIR offered an upbeat assessment of the war effort, especially the situation within Iraq. Lt. Gen. James Terry told reporters traveling with Carter that the Islamic State was “on the defensive” and their freedom of movement was increasingly limited by American airstrikes and Iraqi military efforts. Less than two weeks ago, Islamic State fighters were able to capture the town of al-Baghdadi in the vicinity of Iraq’s Al-Asad Air Base, where several hundred U.S. troops are training Iraqi soldiers. The base itself has come under frequent indirect fire attack with rockets and mortars. Earlier this month, militants breached the perimeter with the aid of suicide bombers, but Iraqi forces turned back the attackers before they
got within striking distance of the American contingent. Terry told reporters that the Iraqi security forces have launched an operation to recapture the town. The attack is being carried out by Iraq army’s 7th Division, utilizing mechanized forces, counterterrorism units and some tribal fighters. U.S. troops at al-Asad are advising the Iraqis in their effort, and CENTCOM is conducting airstrikes to support the operation. “I’m pretty confident that the Iraqis will retake this,” he said. Terry suggested the group’s gains were being inflated by the group’s propaganda and the media. “They are conducting what I would call local kinds of attacks,” he said, “and then they use that to feed into the information environment and create a mystique that’s somewhat larger than it is.” harper.jon@stripes.com Twitter: @JHarperStripes
Lt. Gen. James Terry commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve
Robert Beecroft ambassador to Egypt
JONATHAN ERNST/AP
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, center, meets with troops at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, on Monday. Carter assured the troops that “we’ll do what it takes to defeat [the Islamic State].”
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Threats from Islamic State don’t deter military spouses
MILITARY
Army considering cutting I servicemembers in Alaska BY SETH ROBSON Stars and Stripes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Army could remove the bulk of its forces in Alaska under cost-saving plans that will cut active-duty ranks by tens of thousands of troops, the military said. Department of the Army officials are in Alaska this week talking to people about the looming force cuts — mandated under the Budget Control Act of 2011, commonly known as sequestration. The act required that the Army reduce its troop strength from a high of 570,000 in 2010 to 450,000 by the end of fiscal year 2017. If sequestration-level funding continues in fiscal year 2016, the Army will have to reduce its active-duty force to 420,000. U.S. Army Alaska spokesman Lt. Col. Alan Brown said two Alaskan Army posts — Fort Wainwright and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson — are among 30 installations being considered for force reductions. Worst-case scenarios would see the loss of the bulk of 13,000 active-duty soldiers stationed in Alaska, including 5,300 at Fort Richardson and 5,800 at Fort Wainwright, Brown said. “That would be both our combat brigades,” he said. Alaska is home to the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker
Friday, February 27, 2015
Worst-case scenarios would include the loss of 5,300 troops at Fort Richardson and 5,800 at Fort Wainwright.
Brigade Combat Team at Wainwright and the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) at Richardson. Richardson is already slated to lose about 200 personnel when the 2nd Engineer Brigade inactivates in May, although most of the brigade’s soldiers will remain in Alaska with other units, Brown said. Officials deciding where to cut forces will look at military considerations as well as on- and off-base infrastructure, community investment, schools and education, medical services, family and veteran support and quality of life, he said. Basing troops in Alaska has many advantages, Brown said. Alaskan forces are part of the Pacific Pivot strategy, which involves efforts to boost military engagement in a region that’s home to the bulk of the world’s people and many of America’s most important trade partners. “We have partnerships with
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all these Pacific countries,” Brown said. “It is going to take us less time to get to a contingency in Asia than it would from the Lower 48.” Last year, paratroopers from Alaska showed what they could do during the Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand. After a 16-hour flight from Elmendorf on a C-17 transport, they parachuted into Thailand, trained for three days and then returned home, he said. Last week, a platoon of Alaska-based paratroopers jumped onto the Japanese island of Hokkaido with Japan Self Defense Force soldiers, and this summer 600 soldiers from Alaska will participate in the Talisman Saber exercise in Australia, Brown said. Anchorage businessman Justin Green, whose demolition company has worked regularly on bases in Alaska, said the military is a vital part of the community. “If these bases close down, that’s less money (in the) local economy,” he said. Decisions on which Army units and organizations will be selected for possible reductions have not been made. The analysis of environmental and socioeconomic impacts as well as community feedback will be considered by decision makers, according to U.S. Army Alaska.
robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1
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.
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f the hackers who threatsionally, is a matter of balance. ened military spouses on Some spouses have begun Twitter hoped to inspire using pseudonyms online. fear, they were disapOthers shun social media pointed. Instead, the women altogether, but the women who who received the threats have received these recent threats appeared in multiple media said that’s not practical in their interviews, spreading a meslives. sage of vigilance without fear Angela Ricketts, author of in print, television, radio and “No Man’s War,” a book about online. her life as an Army spouse, Earlier this month, hackers was also a target of the threats. claiming connections to the Is“I’ve written a very personlamic State terrorist organizaally revealing memoir,” Ricktion breached the social media etts said. “So for me to hide accounts of a military spouse from any of that is futile.” organization called Military Amy Bushatz is the managSpouses of Strength and used ing editor of SpouseBUZZ for that access to send threatening military.com, making online messages to several military anonymity impossible, even spouses, calling them by name. in the wake of the threatening Lori Volkman, Navy spouse messages and owner of Trajectory Comshe received. SPOUSE CALLS munications, a public relations “We don’t firm, was one of those spouses. want to “My first natural reaction delete our was fear. But once that initial entire online adrenaline rush passed, I lives,” said realized that staying afraid Bushatz, an was a choice,” Volkman said. Army wife. “My fear was telling me to go “The key inside and lock the doors, and I is to make hated that because it meant the sure you are enemy was winning. I decided not giving Terri Barnes instead to be watchful and out sensitive smart, which informaJoin the conversation with Terri at requires a tion like stripes.com/go/spousecalls clear head. your exact The danger location via was very real, geo-tagging,” but reacting out of fear wasn’t she said. “Locking down your doing me any good.” social media accounts so that I asked Congressman Mike only those you approve can see Rogers, former chairman of your photos and other inforthe House Intelligence Commation is a great, easy way to mittee, to weigh in on this amp up your personal security issue, and he agreed that carewithout compromising your ful choices are important in a social life.” climate where media is used as Liz Snell, the founder of Mila weapon. itary Spouses of Strength, has “ISIS has shown it is clearly beefed up her website security adept at bringing images of and advises using a two-step terror into our homes through verification process for logging television and social media. It into social media accounts. is important to strike a smart “You can be cautious and balance between good operaalert without being fearful,” tional security and continuing said Snell, a Marine Corps to live our lives without fear,” spouse. “Be diligent in knowsaid Rogers, now the host of a ing who your Internet friends Cumulus radio program about are.” national security. “Specific Ricketts said social media threats to our military commuusers should also stay abreast nity dictate that our military of frequent changes in social families be especially vigilant. media privacy settings and It is never a good idea to post keep filters tight. things that would make it easy “I’ve been either an Army for someone with ill intent to brat or Army wife my whole find their way to your doorlife so social media is a godstep.” send,” Ricketts said. “It allows Maintaining healthy caution me to maintain relationships alongside the connections we with the people I hold dearly, depend on as military spouses, so I would never want to lose either personally or profesthat.”
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Friday, February 27, 2015