Stars & Stripes - 03.30.18

Volume 10, No. 16 ©SS 2018

Polar plunge Mindful of Russia’s presence in Arctic region, Navy conducts drills with under-ice torpedoes Page 2

A diver assigned to Underwater Construction Team One surfaces from a hole in the ice in the Beaufort Sea off the coast of Alaska on March 16 during a torpedo retrieval drill in support of Ice Exercise 2018.

DANIEL HINTON /Courtesy of the U.S. Navy

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018

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COVER STORY

Divers, helos help recover torpedoes

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

Fast-attack submarines fired torpedoes beneath the ice during the Navy’s fiveweek Ice Exercise that kicked off this month in the Arctic Ocean.

The Seawolf-class USS Connecticut and the Los Angelesclass USS Hartford each fired several training torpedoes, which carry no warheads and hold a minimal amount of fuel, the service said.

In step two of the torpedo drill, divers from the Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two and Underwater Construction Team One and the Coast Guard plunged through ice holes to retrieve the torpedoes.

“The primary objective of this year’s ICEX is to test new under-ice weapons systems and validate tactics for weapon employment,” Ryan Dropek, director of weapons testing at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division in Newport, R.I., said in a Navy statement.

“Once the divers recover these torpedoes, we can extract important data about how they perform and react in these conditions.”

The United States is seeking to beef up its Arctic military capabilities as ice continues to melt there due to the warming climate, sparking international competition for access and natural resources.

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. European Command, told lawmakers that the U.S. was “not keeping pace” with Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic region, which includes a new Arctic military command.

Scaparrotti told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that given what Russia is now putting in place, “they would have the capability, in perhaps two or three years, to control the Northern Sea route if they chose to do so.”

After the training torpedoes

A helicopter lifts a torpedo through a hole in the Arctic ice March 16 during Ice Exercise 2018.

Members of Ice Camp Skate recover a torpedo from the Arctic Ocean during Ice Exercise 2018.

were fired, helicopters took gear and personnel to the location where the weapons were expected to run out of fuel, the Navy said. Each torpedo also had a homing device.

Teams of three to four divers drilled a series of holes in the ice big enough for entry, as well as a hole large enough for a torpedo to be pulled out by helicopter.

The torpedoes possess “positive buoyancy,” meaning they were built to float toward the

surface of the water near the bottom of the ice.

“Once we know the location of the torpedo and drill holes, our divers slip into the water to begin placing weights on a line attached to the tail end of the torpedo,” Chief Warrant Officer Michael Johnson, officer-in-charge of MDSU-2 divers, said in the Navy statement.

“The weights help shift the torpedo from a state of positive buoyancy to neutral buoyancy under the ice.”

PHOTOS

In neutral buoyancy, the torpedoes reached density equilibrium with water, a state where they neither floated up nor sank.

Divers then placed brackets with cables to the top and bottom of the torpedoes, and a helicopter pulled them out of the ice hole.

The divers were also essential in helping build two runways for the training camp, the Navy said.

The divers trained for the

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DANIEL HINTON /Courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Arctic exercise during the Coast Guard’s two-week Cold Water Ice Diving course in Seattle.

During the course, they dove in Loc de Roc, British Columbia, at a 5,000-foot elevation to replicate some of the stresses they would feel in the Arctic.

MDSU-2 and UCT-1 are homeported at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Norfolk, Va. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

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MILITARY

BLACK HAWK UP

US sanctions on Russia mean Afghan air force must get its American-made helicopters flying

BY PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN Stars and Stripes

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The nascent Afghan air force is in a race against the mechanical failure of its Russian-made helicopters, as it works with its U.S. allies to operate new Black Hawks at a time when the Taliban may be the strongest it’s been since before the 16-year war began.

Russian Mi-17 helicopters form the backbone of Afghanistan’s air force.

Afghan airmen are so familiar with the Mi-17 that they need very little international advice to use them effectively.

However, because the U.S. supports the Afghan military financially, the Russian helicopters won’t be getting fixed much longer.

Sanctions against Russian arms manufacturers have made servicing the Mi-17 fleet increasingly difficult, the U.S. military says, and that means the Russian helicopters are unlikely to remain sustainable beyond next year.

Afghanistan’s ability to transport troops and supplies would drop without viable helicopter squadrons, crippling its fight against insurgents and its goal of operating with less support from allies.

Afghanistan received its first Black Hawks six months ago. Since then, 11 have been delivered, with a total of 159 expected to arrive by 2024. The aircraft are former U.S. military UH-60A models upgraded to a more powerful UH-60A+ variant.

Plans are now on course for 16 pilots and 16 enlisted aircrew to finish the Black Hawk mission qualification program in May. The goal is to have eight crews of four — two pilots and two enlisted aircrew — operating during this year’s fighting season, which begins in the spring. They’ll be based at Kandahar Air Field and be used for operations in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, officials said, performing the same functions as the Mi-17.

So far, “the transition has been phenomenal,” said Air Force Col. Armando Fiterre, commander of the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group, which trains and advises the Afghan air force at Kandahar Air Field. “Afghans are great fighters and they have taken to the UH-60 likes ducks to water.”

Critics have called the Black Hawk transition politically motivated and said

that it could hurt Afghan forces in the short term as it fights the Taliban and other groups.

Fiterre played down those concerns.

“The political reality is that the Russian supply system is not keeping up with the demand of what we need,” he said. “I’m not here to bash the Mi-17. It’s a great helicopter. It can be the best helicopter in the world, but if you can’t sustain it, it does you no good.

“The UH-60 affords us that opportunity to tap into It (the Mi- a reliable logisti17) can be cal chain, the U.S. military logistical the best chain, to supply the helicopter aircraft,” he added.

The Black Hawk in the also brings several world, but tactical advantages, officials said. if you can’t U.S. At Forward Operatsustain it, ing Base Shorab, it does you in the Helmand Valley, operators no good. can fit two Mi-17 Air Force helicopters comCol. Armando fortably on the heliFiterre pad area and three commander, in a pinch, said Air 738th Air Force Maj. Ted Expeditionary Rogers, director of Advisory Group operations for the 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron.

Rogers said they can fit five of the more compact Black Hawks, meaning they can launch more independent missions at once.

The Black Hawk “gives you greater flexibility in the battlespace, so I can move troops faster, I can move more troops in a bigger lift package,” Rogers said. “It’s going to be a greater capability for the Afghan military.”

Also, because the Black Hawk doesn’t have to be sent to Russia for major maintenance like the Mi-17, “it’s much easier to keep it flying in the field,” Rogers added.

However, there is a learning curve for the new pilots and crews. U.S. officials at Kandahar told Stars and Stripes that some former Mi-17 pilots were finding it “hard to break habits” acquired during years of flying Russian helicopters.

They said English, which is needed to understand the technical manuals, remains a hurdle for some trainees, as

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PHOTOS

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PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN /Stars and Stripes

Afghan C208 pilot Capt. Naween, left, trains on an aircraft simulator at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 17.

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Afghan pilots learning to operate the aircraft fly for the first time with U.S. contractors March 19. well.

The Black Hawk isn’t the only aircraft able to take over traditional Mi-17 functions. The American-made Cessna 208 Caravan has been part of the Afghan air force for a number of years, and U.S. advisers are encouraging the Afghans to do more with it.

“We’re working really hard on that aircraft to get it to a more effective and useful force,” Lt. Col. Marcus Jackson, the 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron commander, said of the C208.

“They are very set in their mindset that rotary wing is always the answer, and this is just a new capability that they have to grow into.”

Afghan C208 pilot Capt. Naween, who is training to become an aircraft commander, said, “Of course airdrop is use-

ful. We can supply ammunition, water, food, everything.” But despite hours of practice, he’s never been asked to do those things during an actual operation.

U.S. officials hope that will change as time runs out on the Mi-17’s sustainability. As Afghanistan receives more Black Hawks and more Afghans are trained on the aircraft, squadrons will be established at bases across the country.

But for now, Fiterre said, the focus is creating a smooth “cultural shift” from Russian to U.S. aircraft. “It’s an actual training and skills-set change that needs to occur,” he said. “It’s a cultural change.” wellman.phillip@stripes.com Twitter: @pwwellman

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MILITARY

Urgent care

Military doctors treat Iraqi forces as ISIS continues fight

BY CHAD GARLAND

unit has “expanded the scope a bit,” in part to keep surgical and other critical skills sharp.

The medical staff is also performing restorative operations to repair years-old, devastating injuries some Iraqis have suffered. The surgeries may address bone loss or disease that have destroyed or damaged the patients’ limbs.

Some patients have been able to walk for the first time in years following surgery, Gurney said.

Stars and Stripes

A U.S.-led medical task force in Iraq has treated hundreds of patients during the past five months, including about 300 wounded Iraqi security personnel, as coalition forces have shifted from offensive operations to holding ground retaken from Islamic State.

Though ISIS has lost all of the territory it once controlled in Iraq, remnants of the group continue to launch attacks, killing and wounding security forces and civilians.

The volume of patients and the rate of Iraqi wounded being treated have surprised U.S. officials at times.

Because Iraq often lacks sufficient medical capabilities to treat the casualties of the ISIS battle, now in its third year, coalition medical units are filling the gaps for now and are working to train local medical staff for the future.

The U.S.-led coalition mostly has aided severely wounded Iraqi troops, but occasionally civilians as well when life, limb or eyesight otherwise would be lost.

Based out of Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wash., the 47th Combat Support Hospital deployed to Iraq in early October, after much of the heavy fighting had ended and just a few months before Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the terrorists.

Nevertheless, the hospital has seen patients on nearly every day of its more than five months in country.

Pentagon data show 16 Americans killed and five wounded in action while supporting the anti-ISIS fight in that period. Nearly half of the hospital’s patients have been Iraqi troops — a “significant rate,” said Col. Robert Howe, commander of the task force, known as TF Med. During the grinding, monthslong battle for Mosul, the Iraqi government called

Training with Iraqis, partners

Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Soldiers from the 47th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad check a patient for wounds Nov. 24.

They include, from left, Pfc. Michael Torres, Capt. Daniel Braun, Sgt. Jennifer Abbey, Dr. (Capt.)

Cecily Vanderspurt and Spc. Brianna Camarena. Islamic State lost the territory it controlled in Iraq but still is wounding and killing security forces and civilians. on the World Health Organization to help provide frontline trauma care for those wounded in the battle, most of whom were civilians.

Though ISIS lost control of Mosul last summer and the rest of its Iraq territory by the end of 2017, a commander in northern Iraq said that confrontations between Kurdish forces and ISIS fighters continued to be bloody in the early part of this year. In recent weeks, the militants have carried out surprise attacks on Iraqi forces and government-backed militias.

Surprising volume The volume of patients in the first 90 days of the deployment was surprising, said Col. Jennifer Gurney, a surgeon with the medical task force.

At the time, they’d received patients on all but one day

and had treated nearly 400 in total, though that figure included everything from someone with the “sniffles” to cases of multiple traumatic wounds.

Since then, there have been few down days, but a slightly lighter volume of about 200 more patients treated, said Maj. Elizabeth Desitter, the command’s operations officer. That figure isn’t counting patients who came in for less urgent issues or dental and physical therapy appointments.

Equipped with a pharmacy, a lab, an X-ray unit and a blood bank, the hospital provides the highest level of care for troops in the country and can keep patients as long as needed.

Troops from far-forward locations are transported there after being stabilized by surgical elements at for-

ward positions in an effort to treat the wounded within 60 minutes. During that critical period, known as the “golden hour,” the odds of saving their lives are greatest.

The hospital also keeps those far-forward units stocked with blood for transfusions, a key focus of its efforts, which supplies managed at 15 sites. Supported units have received 100 boxes of blood, Desitter said.

Each box can contain up to 20 units of whole blood — more than that if packed with other types of blood products like platelets — and each unit could save up to three lives, though in some cases trauma patients may need dozens of units or more.

Gurney said the Iraqis who had been treated largely were suffering from gunshot or blast wounds.

However, Howe said the

The task force also has trained Iraqi medical professionals with the ultimate aim of “working itself out of a job,” Desitter said.

To support the large number of Iraqi wounded, the task force has been developing a course to teach Iraqi personnel to train physical therapy assistants, Desitter said.

Training helps officials keep up their readiness during the occasional slow periods, she said. To prepare for their deployment, they reviewed lessons their predecessors learned from the grinding battles for Iraq’s Mosul and Syria’s Raqqa.

They’ve shared those lessons since with their Iraqi counterparts, 20 of whom have been trained to teach others basic combat lifesaver skills.

They’re now working on advanced skills.

The Americans have also trained in theater-specific skills with British, Dutch, German, Australian and Canadian teams. Personnel from 10 countries make up the medical task force, which includes U.S. troops from the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Howe, the task force commander, said he was proud of the work they’d been doing.

“We’ve got the best job out there,” he said. garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland

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MILITARY

Still work to be done for military women Strides made, but battle remains to address retention, recruitment gaps

BY CLAUDIA GRISALES Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has seen gains when it comes to women entering service, from increases in academy enrollments to growing numbers in newly opened combat positions, service secretaries said March 20.

The Army and Air Force are on track this year to see increases in the percentage of women enrolled at their academies, service secretaries said. Of the applicants for this year’s incoming Air Force Academy class, 30 percent are female, an academy spokesman said March 20.

However, the secretaries also agreed much work remains to address the sizable gaps that still exist between men and women in the services.

“We are trying to change a little bit the way we talk and think about who the protectors are in this country,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told the House Armed Services Committee. “I think sometimes the way we talk about the services may appeal more to boys than to girls.”

Overall, U.S. military has seen gains in the recruitment of women in recent years, with new combat positions open to women and growing enrollment at the academies.

The Air Force, in particular, will mark the highest percentage of women ever enrolled at their academy, Wilson told the House panel during a wideranging hearing on the services’ 2019 budget proposals.

Wilson’s comments came on the heels of testimony by other service secretaries, who said they have also seen gains but are still working to expand those efforts in recruitment and especially retention of women. The hearing could influence the development of the next National Defense Authorization Act.

Academy growth U.S. News & World Report recently estimated the U.S. Air Force Academy has a gender distribution of 75 percent male vs. 25 percent female.

That’s up from when a Rand Corp.

HEIDE C OUCH /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kaitlyn Besse, assigned to the 21st Airlift Squadron, checks paperwork prior to a Women’s Heritage Flight on March 17 at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Women have made gains in the military, but work still needs to be done to address the gaps between men and women in the services. study found female enrollment at the academy had reached 21 percent by 2009, up from 16 percent several years earlier.

Army Secretary Mark Esper said he’s also seen an increase.

“We see a higher percentage of women being selected to enter the academy as from a commissioning source,” he said.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is estimated to have 22 percent female enrollment. This, as the U.S. Naval Academy is estimated to have more than 20 percent female enrollment, said retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of government operations for the Service Women’s Action Network, or SWAN. “The percentage of women in classes entering the Air Force Academy and Naval Academy has been growing to a goal over 20 percent for about 10 years,” Manning said after hearing of the comments about the academies at the hearing. “The Coast Guard Acad-

emy has been in the 33 percent vicinity for a number of years now.”

Some people, however, remained concerned the Army has an artificial cap in place that is keeping West Point from boosting its enrollment of women.

Among them, retired Army Col. Ellen Haring, who is SWAN’s director of programs and research. She said it’s difficult to explain the significant gap in Army ROTC programs with a 28 percent female enrollment rate vs. West Point’s 22 percent.

“I want to know why West Point, which provides a completely free education, a prestigious education, doesn’t seem to be able to enroll women at the same rate as Army ROTC programs, which offer more limited scholarships,” Haring said.

Initiatives could boost recruitment, retention Despite the gains, the service secretaries agreed that plenty of work

‘ We are the protectors. That’s what the military does. We serve to protect the rest of you and that’s a very natural place for a woman to be.

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Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson

remains to address the gaps between men and women in the military.

Wilson made a series of striking remarks that a cultural shift has to be addressed first, moving from a focus on men to one of women as protectors serving their country.

“If I asked everyone in this room to … just close your eyes for a second and think about the most protective person you know in your life, someone who would do anything to keep you safe … half the people in the room are thinking about their moms,” Wilson said in response to a question about efforts in addressing the gaps. “We are the protectors. That’s what the military does.

We serve to protect the rest of you and that’s a very natural place for a woman to be.”

Wilson’s comments brought a bustling hearing of back-and-forth dialogue to an abrupt silence.

“Secretary Wilson, I’ve never heard the case for who should be serving in our uniforms better put than the way you said that,” Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, remarked. “I don’t know if you noticed, but it got really quiet in here while you were finishing up your statement. I think it was because your words were reverberating in our minds.”

Esper said the Army has opened more combat jobs to women. He said he visited with them at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California and Fort Bragg in North Carolina where they are “doing very well.”

A “Leader’s First” initiative has helped enrolled dozens of women, he said.

“So a lot of expansion happening there,” Esper said. “We are expanding the number of posts that [servicewomen] can travel to as well to make sure that we have greater opportunity throughout the ranks.”

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer echoed Esper’s remarks, touting his service’s “Sailor 2025” effort, which could help better recruit and retain women.

The new effort would let servicemembers “off-ramp” midcareer to take a break to study, have a family or other options and then return to the service without penalty.

“Going forward, rest assured … it’s game on,” Spencer said. “All three of us [services] fish from the same pool and that pool is getting smaller and smaller … We are going to be using every single tool available to us.” grisales.claudia@stripes.com Twitter: @cgrisales

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Fort Gordon honors women in history

by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office The U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon celebrated Women’s History Month with a command program March 15 in Alexander Hall.

In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. And after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, on March 12, 1987, U.S. Congress passed Public Law 100-09 designating March as National Women’s History Month.

The theme for this year’s program was “Nevertheless she persisted: Honoring women who fight all forms of discrimination against women.”

Lt. Col. Al Eckart, 513th Military Intelligence Brigade deputy commander, described Women’s History Month as “a time to focus both on removing barriers to success for women and the significant accomplishments of women.”

Eckart gave examples of women in U.S. history who achieved significant firsts including Harriet Tubman, the first woman to run an underground railroad for slaves escaping the South; Katherine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper; and Condoleezza Rice, the nation’s first female national security advisor. He then introduced the program’s guest speaker, Brig.

Gen. (Ret.) Clara Adams-Ender, whom he said has accomplished many firsts.

Adams-Ender joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1961 after earning her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. In 1967, she became the first female officer to receive the expert medical field badge, and in 1976 became the first woman to earn a Master of Military Art and Science degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. She became the first African American Nurse Corps officer to graduate from the U.S. Army War College in 1982, and subsequently was named the college’s first “outstanding female graduate” in 2013.

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Clara Adams-Ender serves as guest speaker during the U.S. Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon Women’s History Month Command Program held March 15 at Alexander Hall. Adams-Ender joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1961 and was a woman of many “firsts,” including the first female officer to receive the expert medical field badge.

Laura Levering, Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office

Servicemembers play a trivia game of “Who Am I?” during the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon Women’s History Month Command Program held March 15 at Alexander Hall. The game was intended to increase the audience’s knowledge of prominent women in American history.

Laura Levering, Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office Adams-Ender’s was promoted to brigadier general in 1987 and went on to lead a career filled with success until her retirement in 1993. In 2001, she published her memoir, “My Rise to the Stars,” which chronicles her life’s success and the obstacles she overcame to achieve them.

Adams-Ender said this year’s theme is very appropriate for the times and conditions women face today – much like those she faced early on.

“The goal is to demonstrate the power of the voice, of persistent action, of believing that meaningful and lasting change is possible in our democratic society,” Adams-Ender said. “Through the theme, we celebrate women fighting not only sexism and misogyny, but also against many intersecting forms of discrimination faced by American women today.”

Behind each woman’s success, including her own, lie one common attribute: persistence, she said. Adams-Ender read the dictionary’s definition of persistence, and then shared her own.

“My definition is the art of never giving up; understanding that you may be deterred, distracted or delayed from reaching a goal, but you can never be stopped from reaching it completely if you are willing to be persistent,” AdamsEnder said.

She went on to share excerpts from the lives of women in American history who made a difference in their own lives and others.

In closing, she said that with persistence and a will to never give up, anything is possible.

“If one keeps the goal in mind and continues to move in the direction of the accomplishment, it will be accomplished,” Adams-Ender said. “When being persistent in your work, understand that sometimes the most persistent thing you can do is to get some rest, because there’s more to be done tomorrow.”

The program concluded with a friendly competition in which two teams of five Servicemembers were randomly selected to play a trivia game. The game “Who Am I?” was intended to increase the audience’s knowledge of prominent women in American history.

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Army general, NSA nominee emphasizes cyber risks, opportunities during congressional hearing

by Sgt. 1st Class Jose Ibarra | DoD News

WASHINGTON – President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to serve as the next director of the National Security Agency promised to defend the nation and secure the future as he testified before lawmakers during his confirmation hearing March 15.

Lt. Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, spoke before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is considering his nomination to succeed retiring Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers as NSA director.

Ensuring security “The safeguard of our national secrets, the safeguard of our capabilities is one of the most important things the next director will continue to address,” Nakasone said. “My intent is to look to ensure the security of the enterprise and the security of the network initiatives that NSA has undertaken to date are timely, are accurate, are on target to ensure that we continue to have the safeguard of our national treasures,” he said.

He emphasized two elements that will help ensure national security.

The first focus, he said, is “continuing to hire great people that work at the NSA, not only hiring them, but also training them, developing them and ensuring that their long-term careers with the NSA are well tended to.”

Secondly, he said, the agency needs to continue to look at control mechanisms to provide the ability to safeguard networks and secure the environment.

If confirmed to the post, Nakasone will assume the current dual-hat arrangement of leading both U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA. Strong public-private partnership The general emphasized the importance of working with the private sector on technology to secure the future and to continue to attract the best and the brightest to serve.

“If confirmed, I know that a strong public-private partnership will be needed to ensure this country benefits from the leading-edge technology being developed and implemented today and into the future,” Nakasone said, adding that the

agency’s mission and technological advances are what sets the NSA apart from the public sector and helps to attract young talent.

“We have to continue broad abilities to continue to recruit from a very diverse population -- academia, and industry, [and] within inside our government,” Nakasone said, noting he admires the agency’s ability to look at a broad range of capabilities, including people who have disabilities, and to provide the necessary infrastructure that will support them.

Securing the future Nakasone addressed security concerns ranging

from Russian and Chinese cyber threats to private-sector encryption platforms to soldiers wearing geolocation devices. He also touched on insider threats and how to reconsider looking at networks, data and weapons systems.

“Ten, 15, 20 years ago, we were concerned about what we said on phones. Today we’re concerned about what our Soldiers wear, where they’re talking, where they’re able to be monitored,” he said. “This is indicative of how we have to approach the future. We are technologically informed -- we also have to be informed for operational security as well.”

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MILITARY

Navy studies lack of sleep’s effects on decision-making

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

The Navy is funding research into how sleep deprivation affects decision-making in a group setting, such as among a ship’s bridge crew.

The Office of Naval Research Global is sponsoring ground-breaking research by professor Sean Drummond with the Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences in Australia.

Little research exists on how and to what extent lack of sleep affects a group while its members are collectively analyzing data and making decisions, the Navy said in a statement recently. The effects of sleep deprivation on individual performance have been extensively documented.

“From high op-tempo Navy special warfare missions, to Sailors on extended watch on ships, to long-duration flights or Marines in theater, the issue of sleep loss is critical to the performance and wellbeing of our warfighters,” Capt. Kevin Quarderer, ONR Global commander, said in the statement. “Professor Drum-

mond’s research will play a key role in understanding and enhancing their endurance and combat effectiveness.”

The Navy has more deeply scrutinized the ill effects of sleep deprivation in the wake of two separate deadly collisions by the guided-missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain last summer in which 17 sailors died.

A Navy comprehensive review issued in October assigned some of the blame for the collisions to crew fatigue due to poor sleep patterns.

Lack of sleep has been found to profoundly affect work performance, which can decline as much as 30 percent after the first sleep-deprived night and up to 60 percent after the second consecutive such night, the Navy review said.

Participants in Drummond’s study will be monitored during waking hours by wearing eye-tracking devices that measure attention as they perform tasks, such as focusing their gaze on moving images on a computer screen while at the same time ignoring distractions, the Navy said.

Participants will also wear EEG, or electroencephalogram, headsets that measure brain activity from the cerebral cortex, the control center of memory, attention and perception, the Navy said.

“Professor Drummond’s team is taking a systematic approach to studying fatigue and circadian rhythm disruption, and how it impacts decisionmaking in complex tasks,” Dr. Jason Wong, ONR Global’s science director, said in the statement. “This research will provide insight that can be applied by our Sailors and Marines, who often have to work long hours in less-thanoptimal sleep environments, and we expect it will improve their cognitive and physical health.”

The participants will be roused without proper sleep toward the end of the study regimen and then perform group exercises, during which their decision-making ability and processes are monitored.

They are tasked with reaching consensus after reviewing various discrete bits of information and then outlining the reasoning process supporting

Courtesy of Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences

The effects of sleep deprivation on decision-making in a group setting are being studied in a research project funded by the Navy. their decisions.

“Such experiments will allow us to compare decision-making abilities after a well-rested state and after sleep disruption and circadian misalignment,” Drummond said in the Navy statement.

“This is important because, during military engagements, you must make fast decisions — deploying resources, reacting to the enemy — at all hours of the day, while processing information from many sources.”

Drummond worked as a staff psychologist at the VA

San Diego Healthcare System from 2005 to 2014 and has been at the Monash School of Psychological Sciences as a professor of clinical neuroscience since December 2014, according to his faculty biography.

His clinical research has focused on the treatment of insomnia, and other areas of research have examined the interaction of sleep, sleep disruption and psychiatric symptoms. olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

Navy offering new bonuses to keep its pilots

BY T YLER HLAVAC Stars and Stripes

The Navy is offering aviators as much as $175,000 to stay in uniform as it struggles with a pilot shortage.

Pilots selected for promotion to lieutenant commander could get that much for agreeing to stay in the service for five years under a 2018 retention bonus program, according to a Navy administrative message.

Three-year commitments could net pilots bonuses of up to $90,000, depending on which aircraft they fly. The bonus program also offers senior pilots $100,000 for a commitment to serve three more years, including a tour as an installation commander, according

to the message.

Naval officers with the rank of commander are the top leaders and flag officers of tomorrow, Navy personnel chief Vice Adm. Robert Burke said in the message.

“Their skills and leadership experience are essential to the success of the Navy,” he said. “Our return on investment is the retention for continued Navy service of our aviation warfighters, with their invaluable, irreplaceable skill sets and leadership.”

The Navy is facing acute shortages of strike fighter, electronic attack and helicopter mine countermeasure pilots, said Burke, who testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee on military readiness last month.

“Each did not retain sufficient numbers of O-4 (lieutenant commander) pilots to meet all operational department head requirements in our aviation squadrons,” he said in his testimony.

“Navy is applying a combination of monetary and nonmonetary incentives focused on meeting aviator career expectations and quality of life/service.”

The Navy said the bonuses are needed to stem pilot losses to the civilian sector.

“We asked Aviators of all ranks how we should modernize and improve moving forward,” Capt. Michael Baze, head of aviation career management at Naval Personnel Command, said in a press release. “Aviators reported they wanted our programs to be more

flexible, merit-based and competitive with civilian opportunities. We took that feedback seriously, incorporating each of these elements in the program changes you see here today.”

Cmdr. Thomas Bodine, a former TOPGUN instructor now serving as an executive fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said the incentives show that the service is willing to reward aviators who excel.

“The decision to remain in the Navy or to separate is a deeply personal one,” he said. “The new bonus payouts are concrete proof that the Navy values its aircrew.” hlavac.tyler@stripes.com

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Friday, 30,2018 2018 Friday,March March 30,

PACIFIC

Evacuation drill planned at same time as war games

BY K IM GAMEL Stars and Stripes

SEOUL, South Korea — Next month the military plans to practice one of its worst nightmare scenarios in South Korea — a mass evacuation — this time adding plans to fly some volunteers to the U.S. The semiannual rehearsal, known as Focused Passage, is scheduled for April 16-20.

That will make April a busy month on the divided peninsula since the noncombatant evacuation operation, or NEO, exercise will occur at the same time as joint war games with the South.

The military holds evacuation exercises every spring and fall, involving mostly family members and civilian contractors. The plan to fly some participants to the U.S. is believed to be a first for the drills.

This spring’s NEO will take place at a sensitive time. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to hold historic summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and with President Donald Trump in May. Heightened tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program have served as a wake-up call for NEO organizers as the possibility of conflict rose last year with several missile tests by the North and threats of military action by both sides.

The situation has calmed after North Korea’s participation in last month’s Winter Olympics led to a series of diplomatic breakthroughs. But U.S. officials and experts said there’s a new awareness about the need to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

Adm. Harry Harris, the head of the Hawaii-based Pacific Command, said during a

House Armed Services Committee hearing last month that Army Pacific at Fort Shafter has been tasked with updating the evacuation plan for South Korea.

Harris was responding to a question by Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., who expressed concern about flaws in the current plan.

“I don’t get the sense that the rehearsals, the walkthroughs, the soup to nuts had been thought through logistically,” Brown, a retired Army Reserve colonel, said.

He noted the evacuation would likely be happening at the same time additional troops were flowing onto the peninsula.

Harris acknowledged that “there is work to be done.”

“If conflict breaks out on the Korean Peninsula then we’re going to have to get Americans off of there. The numbers are staggering,” he said, giving estimates of 200,000-plus American civilians in addition to more than 1 million Chinese and 60,000 Japanese who would also be looking for a way out.

“Our friends, allies, partners and others also have a vested interest in the evacuation of noncombatants should war break out on the peninsula,” Harris told lawmakers at the Feb. 14 hearing without elaborating.

NEO under scrutiny The State Department has the overall responsibility for noncombatant evacuation operations, but the military would carry them out. That means carrying out exercises on a routine basis to examine everything from the tactical level, such as assembly points, to operational and strategic aspects, Army Pacific spokes-

Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

Soldiers based throughout the Korean Peninsula take part in a noncombatant evacuation operation exercise in spring 2017. man Col. Christopher Garver said.

“The plans needed an update because the scope and scale of the situation continues to grow and because the war plans themselves have evolved over time,” he said recently in an email. The issue has taken on urgency as North Korea demonstrated rapid progress toward its goal of developing a nuclear weapon that could reach the U.S. mainland.

It test-fired several missiles last year that appeared to be within reach of U.S. bases in South Korea, Japan and possibly Guam, although experts are divided over how close it is to perfecting the technology needed to actually strike.

Trump responded by mocking Kim as “little rocket man” and threatening to unleash “fire and fury” and to “totally destroy North Korea” if necessary to defend the U.S. and its allies.

In December, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it was getting too dangerous to keep noncombatants in South Korea and even suggested making the country an unaccompanied post, meaning servicemembers could not bring family with them.

The U.S. military quickly said it has no plans to initiate

evacuations, while saying the safety and welfare of troops, civilian staff and loved ones are top priorities and contingency plans are in place.

The Financial Times reported that officials vetting Korea expert Victor Cha as a possible nominee to be the U.S. ambassador in Seoul asked if he was prepared to help manage the evacuation of American citizens, a move that would almost certainly send a signal to the North that military action was imminent.

Cha later cited the dangers facing Americans as he expressed reservations about a military strike in an op-ed in The Washington Post.

“Given that an evacuation of so many citizens would be virtually impossible under a rain of North Korean artillery and missiles (potentially laced with biochemical weapons), these Americans would most likely have to hunker down until the war was over,” he wrote.

Testing capabilities The semiannual drills, Focused Passage in the spring and Courageous Channel in the fall, are mainly aimed at testing plans and making sure family members of troops

and civilians working for the military are ready to go at a moment’s notice.

The process appears orderly as spouses and children with backpacks and go-bags file through stations set up in gyms and other assembly points on the main U.S. bases.

Soldiers check their information packets, and staff from the Red Cross and other departments are on hand to answer questions about pets, vehicles and other concerns.

Yongsan Garrison offered free helicopter rides to encourage participation last year. A select group was flown to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.

This year about 100 people will travel all the way to the United States, according to people familiar with the call for volunteers. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Chad Carroll declined to comment on NEO participants or specific movements, citing operational security.

He also dismissed concerns that Focused Passage will coincide this year with the joint SEE PAGE 14

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Friday, March30, 30,2018 2018 Friday, March

MILITARY/PACIFIC

Military family pets stranded as United suspends shipments

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes

Military families on Guam moving to the U.S. mainland might be forced to leave their pets behind after United Airlines’ decision to suspend its pet transportation program until no later than May 1 following multiple delivery mistakes and at least one pet death.

United is the only carrier flying directly between the island and the mainland U.S., according to families there, some of whom took to social media March 21 to say they felt blindsided

by United’s announcement.

“We leave April 5th and our two pups will be stuck here, boarding (when) service resumes,” said one Facebook post, from a woman on Guam named Ryane. “That could be a month. We are devastated and not even sure we will leave without knowing they will be on a flight.”

Amber Fake, a Navy spouse living on Guam, told Stars and Stripes that United’s decision is “very disheartening and worrisome for myself and many other military families.

“Our pets are our family and we jump through many hoops” — such as rabies testing, vaccines, extended quarantine, entry permits and licenses — “to get them to Guam,” Fake said.

“Now with United suspending the program without notice or exception, many military families are stuck with orders to (move) and no way to get their pets out of Guam,” she said.

Fake said the military community of some 7,000 people on the Pacific island doesn’t have the option of using Air Mobility Command rotator flights, which don’t serve Guam.

There are foreign airlines that fly to Japan and South Korea from Guam, where families could then fly to the United States. It remained unclear March 21 whether servicemembers would be allowed to reroute their orders to those countries, even if they paid out of pocket for an additional flight, or whether additional quarantine measures for pets would apply. Spouses

Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher Terry Leonard, Editor Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor Tina Croley, Managing Editor for Content Doreen Wright, 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) 761-0900 Advertising: (202) 761-0910 Michael Davidson, Weekly Partnership Director: davidson.michael@stripes.com Additional contact information: stripes.com

told Stars and Stripes that United was the only option they were given during moving briefings.

Fake said the only response from military officials on Guam thus far was a message posted March 20 on the Andersen Passenger Terminal Facebook page which says there are currently no options for servicemembers to ship their pets.

In Germany, Patriot Express flights move through Ramstein Air Base to and from the States. A limited number of pet accommodations are available on those flights. Military families in Germany may also ship pets via Lufthansa, an airline agent said. Defense Department personnel in Japan and South Korea, along with other nations, also have additional carrier options.

The suspension does not affect pets that travel in the cabin. They must be able to fit in a carrier under the seat. Service animals continue to be allowed in the cabin.

United said it would honor reservations confirmed as of March 20 for PetSafe, its program for pets traveling in cargo, the airline said.

“We are taking this voluntary action to conduct a thorough and systematic review of our PetSafe program and make improvements that will ensure the best possible experience for our customers and their pets,” United said in statement posted on its website.

The airline said it would complete the review

by May 1.

The decision to suspend the pet travel program comes after three dogs were loaded on the wrong planes recently, including one that wound up in Japan instead of Kansas. A fourth pet, a 10-month-old French bulldog, died in an overhead bin during a flight from Houston to New York.

The latest incidents follow a year in which 1.3 out of every 10,000 animals transported by United in cargo holds died, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing the Transportation Department.

That compares with 0.47 out of every 10,000 across all airlines that reported data. svan.jennifer@stripes.com

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, 2018

Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

U.S. military dependents from throughout the Korean Peninsula arrive at Yokota Air Base, Japan, during last spring’s noncombatant evacuation exercise.

FROM PAGE 12

war games known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, which were delayed until after the Olympics and Paralympics, which ended March 18.

“Therefore, the Combined Forces Command is confident in our ability to conduct this routine training,” Carroll said.

Experts warn the reality would be chaos, with millions of Koreans and foreigners streaming south. A key uncertainty is what will happen with the hundreds of thousands of nonmilitary Americans in South Korea, including tourists.

“The drills are probably a 10th of a percent of the people or less who would be moving,” said Bruce Bennett, a Rand Corp. defense analyst who was in Seoul last week. “The other thing to remember is that we’re moving just Americans in the drills and in practice we’d be moving multiple nationalities, including likely the Japanese.”

“You’d have to move through a Korea where many Koreans would also be moving to get out,” Bennett said, adding that the Chinese would also be rushing to buy up space in planes and ferries to get their people out. “We would require some major coordination.”

He said North Korean missiles also could threaten air bases and assets needed to lift people off the peninsula and pointed out that any plan to take people first to nearby

bases in Japan would be complicated by political concerns as Tokyo would have to worry about its own people in South Korea.

“The bottom line is that they discovered that they had a plan which was in trouble, which was not in great shape,” he said.

The U.S. Embassy doesn’t provide details about evacuation plans but “encourages all U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Korea to register” with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, known as STEP, which can be done online. It notes the consular section’s website also has relevant information.

An actual NEO would ideally be the last step. The first thing to watch for would be an authorized departure for American citizens, which would be announced to allow people to leave by commercial means.

In another complication, Focused Passage will coincide this year with the joint war games known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, which are due to begin on April 1 after being delayed until after the Feb. 9-25 Winter Olympics and the March 9-18 Paralympics.

USFK dismissed concerns, saying the annual exercises are the culmination of many months of planning. “Therefore, the Combined Forces Command is confident in our ability to conduct this routine training,” Carroll said. gamel.kim@stripes.com Twitter: @kimgamel

Friday, March 30, 2018

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MILITARY

‘No assembly line here’ Heavy Equipment Division keeps the US Army rolling on Korean Peninsula

BY M ARCUS FICHTL Stars and Stripes

U

CAMP CARROLL, South Korea nited States tanks, Humvees and trucks that break down in South Korea don’t stay out of the fight for long, thanks to a massive repair shop near the southeastern city of Daegu.

The Heavy Equipment Division at Camp Carroll can service almost every vehicle in the Army’s inventory.

“If there’s a piece of equipment that the unit’s having an extremely long time to troubleshoot or repair … they send it here,” said the division’s chief, Matthew Tassin.

The centerpiece of the site — which includes paint shops, road-test facilities and lots filled with newly refurbished vehicles — is a massive, 141,782-squarefoot, H-shaped hangar built in 1964.

After the break whistle blows, more than 250 Korean mechanics pour in and hustle to about 30 broken-down vehicles, mending them with wrenches and blow torches.

“There’s no assembly line here,” Tassin said of the workshop.

It’s easy to see why. Almost no two pieces are alike. The mechanics were working on vehicles ranging from Abrams tanks to fuel trucks and mineclearing claws when Stars and Stripes visited earlier this month.

When equipment arrives, one or two mechanics are assigned to it. They might strip it down and build it back up before checking the work to make sure it’s up to standard. Repaired vehicles are repainted and sent back to units, Tassin said.

Fixing a Humvee takes about 66 days, while a tank takes 79. That’s much less than it would take to ship it back to the States, Tassin said. “It means something (to our workers); it’s value to them,” he said of their speed and craftsmanship.

Out of 400 projects that go through the facility each year only a tenth of 1 percent are kicked back, Tassin said. That record makes the division the top repair shop out of a dozen similar facilities in the Army. The Carroll shop has the same

PHOTOS

BY

M ARCUS FICHTL /Stars and Stripes

Workers walk through the Heavy Equipment Division maintenance bay at Camp Carroll, South Korea, on March 6. rating as the Army’s stringent aviation repair shop.

It’s so good that Marines on Okinawa, Japan, are sending some of their gear there to be fixed. The facility’s hose fabrication shop, which Tassin called a “top seller,” is another point of pride, with orders coming in from as far away as Hawaii and Europe.

Along with time, the workshop saves the Army money. A cost-sharing agreement means 71 percent of labor costs are covered by South Korea, along with any equipment and tools bought from Korean vendors.

Tassin said the Heavy Equipment Division also has a major wartime function, while during peacetime it helps service the prepositioned war stock at Camp Carroll and Busan, South Korea.

During a war, the division would add thousands of Korean civilian reservists and begin doling out that equipment to freshly arriving troops. fichtl.marcus@stripes.com Twitter: @MarcusFichtl

A worker at the division gives a Humvee a fresh paint job.

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Noon 3M Augusta Invitational Forest Hills Golf Club This three-day event concludes Sunday, April 1. Continues at 9 a.m.

March 31 and 8:30 a.m. April 1. Free to the public and an awards ceremony and trophy presentation will take place Sunday after completion of play. Visit augustajags.com/sports/mgolf/.

Sat Mar 31

11am - 2pm Mutts & Mimosas DiVino, North Augusta This dog-friendly event features a brunch buffet, bottomless mimosas, a workshop on essential oils for dogs, complimentary five-minute massages and more. $40; half of the proceeds go directly to Dog Networking Agents Inc. Pre-registration strongly encouraged.

Email Mutts.And.Mimosas@gmail.com or visit facebook.com/DNACSRA.

8pm Texture of a Man Bell Auditorium Presented by Festival of Praise, this program features Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Take 6, James Fortune and Pastor Charles Jenkins. $32-$77. Call 877-4AUGTIX or visit georgialinatix.com.

8:30pm The Mavericks Miller Theater $49.50-$59.50. Visit millertheateraugusta.com or call 800514-3849.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Mon Apr 2

5pm - 10pm Mayor’s Masters Reception Augusta Common Honorees include Vaughn Taylor and Jim Dent. The event also includes food samples from local restaurants before 7 p.m. $10. If there is inclement weather, the party will move to the Sacred Heart Cultural Center. Visit augustaga.gov or eventbrite.com.

9:30pm - 12:30am Cody Webb and Ray Fulcher Country Club Dance Hall & Saloon $5 at the door. Visit augustacountry. com or call 706-364-1862.

Tue Apr 3

4pm - 11pm Rock Fore! Dough Evans Towne Center Park Featuring Scotty McCreery, Jordan Davis, DJ Rock, Shaun Piazza and the inaugural “Jacket Jam” with special musical guests. $29, advance; $39, day of show. Proceeds go toward the First Tee of Augusta. Visit rockforedough. com.

Thu Apr 5

7pm Grand Ole Rager Evans Towne Center Park Featuring Keith Urban, Russell Dickerson and Ray Fulcher. $59.50, general (will tier up to $69.50 as tickets sell out). A portion of the proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Visit GrandOleRager.com and FWBpro.com.

Friday, 30,30, 2018 Friday,March March 2018

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