Stars & Stripes - 04.06.18

Volume 10, No. 17 ŠSS 2018

FRIDAY, A PRIL 6, 2018

New brand of combat advisers partners with Afghan forces to prepare for springtime ops Page 2

Soldiers with the Army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, center, and role players portraying Afghan villagers and soldiers tend to wounded individuals as an American HH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter lands to pick up the injured. The scenario was part of a mission rehearsal exercise Jan. 15 for the 1st SFAB, which was preparing for its spring deployment to Afghanistan.

C OREY DICKSTEIN /Stars and Stripes

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Army hopes new units, deployed closer to front lines, will help break the stalemate in Afghanistan

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

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FORT POLK, La. eventeen years in the infantry have turned Army 1st Sgt. Shaun Morgan into a hardcharging grunt, but the veteran of five combat tours who recently deployed to Afghanistan is prepared to take a back seat and let that nation’s forces lead the fight.

It won’t be easy, said Morgan, a company senior enlisted leader with the Army’s new 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade. The unit is charged with advising Afghan soldiers closer to the front lines than conventional U.S. troops have operated in several years.

But he believes his unit — the Army’s first brigade of specially trained combat advisers — is the right formation

to take the lead in the mission that top Pentagon brass hope will break a long stalemate in the 16-year fight against the Taliban.

“So, we’ve been kind of going about it wrong for a while, I think,” Morgan told Stars and Stripes during pre-deployment training recently at the Joint Readiness Training Center at this central Louisiana Army post, noting the U.S. spent years fighting the Taliban before handing the mission off to the Afghans while training them primarily at their military’s senior levels. “Maybe this is an opportunity to get on the right foot toward getting it right. Like, we couldn’t get it through our heads that we weren’t the fighters, right?

Especially in the infantry – I think the bosses decided maybe this is the right shot, and it just makes sense to me.”

The 1st SFAB arrived in Afghanistan

last month as part of the Pentagon’s increase in strength from 11,000 to 14,500 troops. It has moved much of its formation to locations across the country to partner with Afghan Army kandaks — units of several hundred soldiers similar to U.S. battalions — as those units prepare for a multi-front offensive against the Taliban. The move to partner at unit levels was an instrumental element of President Donald Trump’s strategy announced in August to turn the tide of the war and draw the Taliban into peace negotiations.

The SFAB unit has a deep stable of soldiers selected by their leaders for advanced skill sets and combat and advising experience. Those attributes, the brigade’s commander said, made the 1st SFAB ideal to embed with Afghan front-line forces. Their mission has been described as more dangerous

than that of American forces — outside the special operations community — since 2014.

“It’s not business as usual for the United States Army,” said Col. Scott Jackson, the Ranger-tabbed infantry officer picked by top generals to command the first of six planned SFABs. “This organization is purpose-built to be advisers. We have built a group of people that has got the right skill set — specially selected, specially trained, specially equipped.”

This is not the first time the United States military has built teams of combat advisers to aid partner militaries in operations against an American enemy.

U.S. advisers have trained Afghan units for more than a decade and, more recently, aided Iraqi security forces SEE PAGE 3

A soldier with the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, left, is pictured alongside soldiers portraying Afghan security forces during training Jan. 15 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. The 1st SFAB, the Army’s first dedicated brigade of combat advisers, will guide Afghan Army units at the tactical level.

C OREY DICKSTEIN /Stars and Stripes

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as they pummeled Islamic State.

But past programs have been “ad hoc,” Jackson said, relying on leaders torn away from their units, or teams cobbled together just weeks ahead of a deployment or once soldiers have arrived in a war zone.

Not so with Jackson’s unit.

The bulk of his team spent several months training together at Fort Benning, Ga., once the unit began taking shape last summer.

Timing is now The SFAB unit consists of officers and noncommissioned officers who have served in their current job at other units — Jackson, for example, commanded the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, at Fort Stewart, Ga. That model, based on formations in Army Special Operations Command, grabbed the attention of the Pentagon’s top brass and field commanders, who were struck by the SFAB soldiers’ advanced training.

Jackson told Stars and Stripes that he initially anticipated at least a year of prep time before heading overseas.

That was not to be.

Army Gen. John Nicholson, the American general running the Afghanistan war from Kabul, requested Jackson’s unit deploy in time to aid Afghan security forces as they prepare their springtime operations, according to defense officials. Nicholson believes the unit’s soldiers, with their advanced training and completion of a new specialized combat advising course, are needed to train and advise Afghan army kandaks.

Despite the shortened training time, Jackson — and dozens of his soldiers who spoke to Stars and Stripes — said the unit is well-prepared for the mission.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who visited the unit at Fort Benning before it deployed, told reporters he has “a lot of confidence” that its soldiers are fully prepared.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the U.S. Central Command chief who oversees U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, said he believes the 1st SFAB will “set a great example” during its tour.

“They are going to help us make a really big difference during an important time in Afghanistan,” he said.

Training to advise On a wooded live-fire range along a ridge on northern Fort Polk, a platoonsize team of the 1st SFAB’s advisers moved swiftly through pine trees alongside a larger unit of soldiers posing as Afghan National Army troops.

The SFAB advisers, in combat gear toting M4 carbines, accompanied the

C OREY DICKSTEIN /Stars and Stripes

Soldiers with the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, wearing the darker Operational Camouflage Pattern uniforms, consult with role players representing Afghan soldiers, while they conduct a patrol Jan. 16 at Fort Polk. mock-Afghan soldiers, stopping occasionally to advise leaders on the best routes and proper techniques as the soldiers trudged toward their objective — a cluster of makeshift buildings in a clearing on high ground, representing a remote Afghan village.

“Don’t bunch up,” an SFAB adviser warned the role players as three of the soldiers moved to within an arm’s length of each other.

Moments later, as the patrol neared the mock village, the shooting started.

The 1st SFAB soldiers remained hidden within the trees, watching attentively and communicating via radio as the role players sprinted forward and took aim at the buildings that housed the enemy firing at them.

About 30 minutes after the shooting began, as Afghan role-player casualties began to pile up, the SFAB advisers made their first move into the fight — calling in a helicopter to evacuate the wounded and aiding the role players as they worked to clear the enemies.

The exercise, on a rare frigid and snowy day at Fort Polk, offered a glimpse of what the SFAB soldiers anticipate once they join their Afghan partners.

“We let them handle it,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Lionell Williams, a mortarman with the SFAB’s 4th Battalion,

who advised the patrol. “If and when they needed us, then we stepped in.

But the key is we want to see how they operate, let them do their job and only help if it’s needed.”

The 1st SFAB is modeled after the special operations advisory forces who have worked alongside Afghan commando units for several years. Those U.S. forces have proven themselves on the battlefields against the Taliban, al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters, top U.S. military officials have said.

Pentagon leaders are often quick to tout those Afghan commanders as “undefeated” on the battlefield when they are advised by U.S. special operators.

“The Afghan special forces that have had mentors basically always win when they’re in the fights,” Mattis said in December. “They always win — to the point they’ve been probably … overused. So our point is to make their general-purpose force more capable.”

Creating a stronger force Critics of the new unit’s mission in Afghanistan point to the U.S. military’s experiments with advisory teams and their failures, including in Afghanistan.

The new model risks building an overreliance on the American advisers, warned Jason Dempsey, a former Army officer with experience advising

in Afghanistan.

In theory, Dempsey said, the SFAB represents a progressive step in the train-and-advise mission, but he questioned how much a unit that is expected to spend nine to 12 months in Afghanistan can really accomplish.

“These guys are going to get over there, they’re going to teach the basics — the same [tactics] we’ve been teaching for years —and then they’re going to leave,” he said. “No one has time to build real, meaningful personal relationships and help [the Afghans] find a real, true solution to their problems.”

Dempsey predicted that the Afghans will benefit most from the access to combat assets the SFAB will bring.

“They’re going to deliver airpower and firepower,” said Dempsey, a military analyst with the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank. “If you give the Afghans airpower you can suppress the Taliban, so it’s going to look like a smashing success.”

The Pentagon has already increased the tempo of its bombing campaign in Afghanistan since Trump’s strategy was revealed last year. In 2017, the United States dropped 4,361 bombs on Afghanistan, nearly equaling the 4,649 bombs it dropped in the country in 2014, 2015 and 2016 combined.

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Jackson, the 1st SFAB commander, agreed that his unit would increase front-line Afghan forces’ access to American airpower, but he wants his soldiers to push the Afghans to use their own capabilities, which include attack aircraft and medical evacuation airlift.

“Our first tool of choice is an Afghan tool,” the colonel said. “We want to pull out the Afghan wrench whenever possible to solve an Afghan problem.”

At times, that will mean denying Afghan requests for American help, he said.

“Don’t get out there and become decisively engaged

or become the main effort,” Army Lt. Col. Jason Sabat, the commander of the 1st SFAB’s 2nd Battalion, said. “That’s not helping anybody. We don’t want to get there and create a new dependency that doesn’t already exist.”

The SFAB soldiers should put the Afghans in a position to succeed without the need for American advisers in the future, Sabat said.

The Afghans “are ready and willing and they are ready to mix it up,” he said. “Their culture has been one of conflict for centuries, so it’s not like they haven’t been around it before. So, I think that’s where it forces us as American to really

take a step back and let them have the opportunity to learn.”

Morgan, the first sergeant on his sixth combat rotation, described “a buzz of excitement” among the soldiers who volunteered for the unit’s first tour.

“We’re going out there to do something different, to make a change,” he said. “But this group — I think if you came here you’re probably someone who embraces that, who sees that this different approach is probably a positive.

“I think this is how you win,” Morgan added. “I like to win.” dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

C OREY DICKSTEIN /Stars and Stripes

A U.S. Army sergeant with the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade provides medical assistance to a role player portraying an Afghan national during a mission rehearsal exercise Jan. 15 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk in Louisiana.

With 1st SFAB deployed, Army looks to build more adviser brigades

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Building on what was merely a concept at the beginning of 2017, the Army hopes to boast five brigades of conventional soldiers hand-selected and specially trained to advise indigenous partner forces by the end of next year. Army officials say the service is seeking to quickly build its Security Force Assistance Brigades, units designed to shoulder the bulk of the Pentagon’s train, advise and assist missions throughout the world. That is why the Army is seeking funding to build three SFABs — it has begun assembling two — in fiscal year 2019, according to the service’s budget request sent last month to Congress.

The Army’s goal is to build six SFABs, five in the active-duty Army and one in the National Guard. The service is considering building two division headquarters to manage the brigades, Army officials said. “My view right now is that with regard to irregular warfare, we’re going to be engaged in that indefinitely,” Army Secretary Mark Esper told Stars and Stripes in an interview last month. “There will always be a need to help build allied or partnered forces, so [the SFABs] can take on that mission. Which is far better than us doing it with our combat brigades’ soldiers.”

The Army for decades has worked to train partner forces to fight. In recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has often pulled apart its traditional combat brigades to build small trainingand-advising units for that mission. The problem, Esper said, is that has meant those brigades were not focused on their primary charge — training to fight.

With the new SFAB units focused on

the Army’s train, advise and assist responsibilities, it should free the service’s 58 brigade combat teams to concentrate on preparing for potential full-spectrum combat operations — the kind of fighting they would face in a near-peer war against an adversary such as Russia, China, North Korea or Iran, Esper said.

The Army is still ironing out how the SFABs fit into the service’s model, including where it will station units.

SFABs are unlikely to focus simply on advising partner forces in combat, Esper said. Instead they are likely to be used to help train allies across the globe, perhaps in areas like South Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa and South America.

Much will be learned from the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade’s current deployment to Afghanistan, he said. The Fort Benning, Ga., unit arrived there early this month, charged with advising Afghan troops close to the front lines in the 16-year fight against the Taliban.

“Anytime you get to stand up a brand new organization is exciting,” said Army Col. Scott Jackson, the commander of 1st SFAB. “Anytime you get to stand up something built like this one is, is even more exciting. To say you’re breaking ground on something is phenomenal for everybody in this organization.”

The unit that began taking shape last summer has already started passing on lessons learned to the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade, which the Army began building at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in January.

The 1st SFAB will learn much more about the proper way to operate as it works in Afghanistan, Jackson said.

The security force assistance brigades are the brainchild of Gen. Mark

Milley, the Army’s chief of staff, who has long contended privately that the Army would need teams of soldiers to train partner forces outside of the special operations community.

Milley, a Green Beret, has insisted that while similar to the traditional role of Special Forces, the SFAB concept does not infringe on their responsibilities.

“In today’s world, we think the mission profile of train, advise, assist exceeds the capacity of Special Forces — who are running at a very, very high op tempo,” Milley told lawmakers March 15. “So, Special Forces is primarily now — not exclusively, but primarily — training and advising host nation special operations.”

The SFABs, meanwhile, will focus on training partners’ conventional forces — those who conduct traditional ground operations.

Milley has ordered that those soldiers who want to join a security force assistance brigade are specially trained, in a manner comparable to how the Army prepares its special operators. SFAB soldiers are held to higher physical standards than their counterparts in regular Army brigades; they must have proven leadership skills and they are required to complete specialized advising training at the new Military Advisor Training Academy at Fort Benning. The schoolhouse provides soldiers advanced training on advising and medical skills, focusing on developing their critical thinking, according to the Army’s description.

The Army’s policy is to build the SFABs from volunteers. Unit leadership then selects soldiers best fit to serve in the unit after a strenuous vetting process, Jackson said.

“The right people are the most ma-

ture people,” he said.

Those chosen are also required to have served in the position they would take in the SFAB. Jackson, for example, has commanded a brigade and his six battalion commanders have each led other battalions.

“They’ve all done their job before,” Jackson said. “... How can you advise if you haven’t done the job before? And so, we are giving our foreign security force partners highly qualified and truly experienced folks who have operational experience doing the job they are trying to advise on.”

An opportunity to command a company again led Maj. Ryan Morgan to volunteer, he told Stars and Stripes.

Morgan was serving as a staff officer when he learned about the SFAB concept.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to get another command,” he said. “So this has been pretty awesome. And it’s absolutely the most talented group I’ve ever been able to work with.

“Everyone really wants to be here,” he said. “That’s what’s really great about this. We all believe in it. We don’t have to be here — it’s something we’re all excited to be a part of.”

Milley told lawmakers March 15 that he believes top-quality volunteers will ensure the units are all “high-quality products.”

“I think we’ll see over time for the indigenous conventional forces a much better adviser capability built out of these brigades,” the Army chief of staff said. “And, meanwhile, we’ll recoup the readiness value of bringing the regular [combat] brigades home to train for their regularly designed missions.” dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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Transgender ban could cost soldier her job

BY K IM GAMEL Stars and Stripes

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Just nine months ago, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lindsey Muller was feted as a guest speaker at an Army-sponsored LGBT pride observance at Camp Humphreys.

Now she’s worried she may lose her job after nearly two decades of honorable service because of a new push to ban most transgender troops from serving in the military.

Muller, a 36-year-old transgender aviator, is two months shy of beginning the lengthy process of retiring after what will have been 18 years of service. Even if she retires before the status of transgender servicemembers is finally resolved, thousands of others could be affected.

“I think they’ve proven their mettle in combat; they’ve proven their mettle in peacetime. They’re there for their peers when they need them, and I think to dismiss them would be a huge disservice,” she told Stars and Stripes in an interview March 29.

President Donald Trump issued an order recently banning most transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military except under “limited circumstances.”

The decision follows his surprise declaration last year that he intended to reverse his predecessor Barack Obama’s plan to allow transgender individuals to serve openly.

The Trump order has been mired in legal challenges and four federal courts ruled against it, prompting the Pentagon to allow those serving to remain and other transgender people to enlist beginning Jan. 1 until litigation runs its course.

The new directive rolls back the blanket ban announced by Trump on Twitter last year, but opponents said the changes didn’t make it any less discriminatory.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a former Marine general, said in a memorandum cited by Trump that having transgender people in the military posed “substantial risks” to readiness and unit cohesion.

Muller, who enlisted as a male at 17 and served with the 101st Airborne Division when it rolled into Iraq in 2003, said she is living proof that’s not the case.

Serving by example Pfc. Ryan Muller graduated with honors from his infantry class at Fort Benning, Ga.

M ARCUS FICHTL /Stars and Stripes

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lindsey Muller poses for a photo while holding an image from a 2003 tour to Iraq.

He went on to earn an Expert Infantry Badge and a Combat Infantry Badge along with numerous other commendations and rave evaluations, which have been carefully cataloged in two binders.

Muller began pursuing flight school in 2007 and went on to become an Apache pilot.

Lindsey, who has legally changed her name and began openly identifying as a woman in 2016, is currently an aviation safety officer based at Camp Humphreys.

She said she was prepared to resign when she decided to begin the process of transitioning, but her superiors talked her out of leaving.

“At each echelon I was asked to stay based on performance,” she said during the interview in her off-base townhouse. “That’s been a recurring theme. I put myself at the mercy of my peers and my commanders … and they’ve said either we’ll figure this out together, or it’s not an issue.”

Muller, who is originally from Poplar Bluff, Mo., saw the military as a way to escape small-town life and see the world. She said she wasn’t even aware of transgender individuals until a few years into service when a friend took her to a drag show.

She was inspired to transition by

former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck, who came out as a transgender woman in 2013.

At first Muller kept a low profile and stopped wearing her male-only combat badges on her uniform because they attracted too many stares and questions.

But she said her identity was eating away at her, so she put the awards back on and made a “coming-out video” when she turned 30 and shared it slowly.

While most people have been supportive, she has encountered discrimination, including some co-workers who have told her they don’t want her around their families.

“I’ve had people tell me I should do the Army a favor and commit suicide.

My wife and I have both had death threats, threats of assault,” she said.

Muller has no regrets and says joining the Army was the best decision of her life.

“The military is the reason I am where I am today, hands down,” she said. “It’s the reason that I can afford to pay for certain trips, vacations and see the world. It’s the reason that my family lives so comfortably.”

Having spent more than half her life in uniform, she feels obligated to speak out against the ban on behalf of the thousands of other transgender servicemembers and those seeking to sign up.

“The only way to combat something like this is to face the prejudice head-on, and I can’t do that by being silent,” she said, adding that her career “proves that a lot of those reservations are not justified.”

“If I don’t, and I just take my retirement papers, and I just fade off into the distance, what about those thousands of other troopers?” she said. “It essentially feels like jumping on a grenade for those guys.”

Legal challenges Muller is a plaintiff in one of the legal challenges brought by civil rights organizations.

The issue was complicated after Trump said that he was rescinding his previous decision after a Pentagon review and would allow transgender troops to serve in limited cases instead of barring them outright.

The Justice Department immediately asked the federal judges who temporarily blocked the ban last year to dissolve their old orders as moot.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman hinted she had little interest in doing so and suggested during a hearing in Seattle on March 27 that the

ban could be struck down permanently, according to The Associated Press.

Pechman requested further briefs within a week about how the president’s new policy might affect the case. She also insisted that both sides limit their arguments to the broader initial ban.

Natalie Nardecchia, an attorney with the plaintiffs’ representative Lambda Legal, argued that the government’s new policy is irrelevant.

“When the government discriminates against a group of people, they have to have a reason; they can’t say, we’ll go study it and come up with a reason,” Nardecchia said at a press conference after the hearing. “Making slight changes in the policy in its final version does not render it constitutional.”

Mattis, meanwhile, has declined to answer questions on the new policy, citing the ongoing litigation.

“I’m not going to discuss transgender.

I’ve already said that two times now,” he told reporters March 27 at the Pentagon. “Anything I say … could jeopardize the purity of what they do.”

In his 48-page memo to the president, Mattis said allowing military personnel who seek to undertake a treatment to change their gender or who question their gender identity poses “substantial risks.”

He also said that exempting servicemembers from “well-established mental health, physical health and sexbased standards” could hurt “military effectiveness and lethality.”

The policy includes narrow exemptions allowing some transgender members to serve.

The Pentagon has not said how many transgender people are serving, but a Rand Corp. study estimated between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops are transgender.

Muller, who said she paid for most of her gender reassignment surgery out of pocket, said she wished she could sit down with Mattis and share her perspective that transgender troops who fight to serve should be honored, not dismissed.

She already feared the writing was on the wall when she stood at the podium June 29 for the ceremony honoring the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at Camp Humphreys.

“I made a comment during the speech that this was my first LGBT pride event as an openly serving member of the military, and I don’t know if it’ll be my last,” she said. “We just don’t know.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Fichtl contributed to this report. gamel.kim@stripes.com Twitter: @kimgamel

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Soldier of the Year to represent Fort Gordon

by Laura Levering | Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office

Spc. Obi Okechukwu holds two bachelor’s degrees: one in music education and the other in vocal performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And while music is his passion, the Dallas, native put it on hold in search for something bigger.

“I really didn’t want to be a much older age and think to myself, ‘What if I didn’t do this?’ So I decided to take this chance and see how big a difference I can make in the world,” he said.

His search for something greater led to unexpected personal success.

Okechukwu, U.S. Army Garrison religious affairs specialist, earned 2018 Fort Gordon Soldier of the Year. The competition was spread over five days and consisted soldiering skills including physical fitness, weapons qualifications, a 12-mile ruck march, day and night land navigation, and a challenge course with multiple obstacles. The competition ended with a Sergeants Major of the Army Board where his knowledge of the military was tested.

Having less than a year of experience in the Army, Okechukwu said he was shocked when he found out he had won.

“I did my best, but it was a lot of work, and I just wanted to get through it,” Okechukwu said.

His supervisor and Good Shepherd Chapel NCOIC, Sgt. Kayanna Johnson, was not the least bit surprised. Johnson described Okechukwu as a Soldier with a positive attitude who is quick to volunteers and who excels at any task given to him.

“He is very motivated and kept a positive attitude through the whole competition,” Johnson said.

Johnson helped Okechukwu prepare for competition by motivating him to do extra physical training, working on climbing techniques, and helping him study for the board any chance they had.

Looking ahead to the next step, Johnson said she will continue to work with Okechukwu until the day he leaves for Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he will vie for U.S. Army Installation Management Command 2018 Training Soldier of the Year. The competition will take place April 16-19 at. If anyone is best suited to help, it is Johnson. She remembers being in Okechukwu’s boots around this time last year. Johnson placed runner up in the U.S. Army Installation Management Command 2017 Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Best Warrior Competition at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

“I plan to help Spc. Okechukwu succeed by sharing the knowledge of what I went through and making sure he’s engaged in some task of the competition until he leaves,” Johnson said. “My goal is to have him fully prepared for any task he may encounter while he’s competing at this next level.”

Okechukwu said he looks forward to representing Fort Gordon next month and plans to give it his all. His inspiration comes from his parents and faith in God. “They were so proud that I joined the Army following my brief teaching experience and encourage me every day to do my best and to work hard,” Okechukwu said. “A competition like this – it’s another opportunity that if you see you have what it takes, then you should go forward.”

Fort Gordon Soldier of the Year, Spc. Obi Okechukwu, will compete in the U.S. Army Installation Management Command 2018 Training Soldier of the Year competition April 16-19.

Laura Levering / Fort Gordon Public Affairs Office

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67th ESB culinary specialists train with purpose

by Sgt. Victor Everhart Jr. | 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade Public Affairs

Soldiers assigned to the 67th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade worked on their respective crafts during the battalion “Signal Week”. Not all Soldiers in the Lightning Battalion are communication specialties.

The culinary specialists trained on one of the most over looked but most appreciated skill sets to have in a deployed environment, field feeding.

Today’s battlefields demand ration support systems that adequately provide for the needs of the Soldiers, and these culinary specialists are ensuring they’re ready for all missions they’re given in the future.

“Since its signal week we wanted our 92 Golfs (culinary specialists) to get proficient setting up the Mobile Kitchen Trailer and supplying meals to the Soldiers also conducting training,” said Master Sgt. Leona Clark. “This is a great opportunity for the Soldiers to prepare and get more acquainted with their equipment in preparation for the field training later this year.”

During this training it gave newly arriving culinary specialists a chance to see the faces of the Soldiers they would be supporting giving them a new perspective on their services.

“The dining facility here is managed and operated by civilians on Fort Gordon,” said Pvt. LaVonte Howard, a culinary specialist assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 67th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade. “My focus this week has been learning as much as I can from my superiors in case we are called to go downrange, my NCO’s have preached readiness all week and part of that is being as technically proficient as possible with the equipment I’ve been trained on.”

With readiness at the forefront of “Signal Week”, both new and seasoned Soldiers have the mindset of improving skills and becoming the best at what they do.

“Even further than just preparing meals these Soldiers are becoming more cohesive and the camaraderie is building,” said Clark. “Whether they know it or not

Pvt. LaVonte Howard, a culinary specialist assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 67th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, serves meals during the 67th ESB “Signal Week.”

SGT. VICTOR EVERHART JR. / 35TH THEATER TACTICAL SIGNAL BRIGADE PUBLIC AFFAIRS

knowing your equipment is only a part of being a great unit but if everything is technically proficient and the team understands everyone else’s piece of the pie it makes missions run smoother and endorses a positive environment that everyone wants to be a part of.”

“We train as a section but when we were told we would be cooking for the battalion and potentially the brigade it opened some of our eyes,” said Howard. “Seeing my fellow Soldiers enjoying meals that I helped prepare and hearing the compliments definitely gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride. I learned a lot in the last few weeks as we prepared for this training

and other training events in the future and I look forward to learning as much as possible from all my superiors so I can become a leader and do the same for my Soldiers.”

Training events that foster a positive learning environment are exactly how Soldiers improve technically and tactically, also it’s how readiness is improved and units become fully mission ready and capable.

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MILITARY

Air Force program aims to grow kids’ aviation interest

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Star and Stripes

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The Air Force plans to put kids into the cockpit to teach them how to fly in hopes of sparking youth interest in aviation as the military struggles with a pilot shortage.

The service has invested $2.4 million into the first year of the Flight Academy, a program that will pay for 120 Air Force Junior ROTC cadets to study aviation at one of six universities across the country this summer. They also have the chance to earn their private pilot’s license.

The goal is to get “kids interested in aviation again,” said Todd Taylor, Air Force Junior ROTC regional director and acting Flight Academy director.

“We just don’t think that aviation is coming up the way it used to when our country was pushing a lot of aviation … back in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s,” he said.

In the late 1980s, the Hollywood blockbuster “Top Gun,” starring Tom Cruise as a Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot, was credited with boosting recruitment for naval aviators.

More than 30 years after the film’s release, the Air Force wants to recapture the imagination of American youth for flying.

Today, the Air Force is short about 1,800 pilots. Commercial airlines, meanwhile, are struggling to hire enough pilots to meet an increasing demand for passenger flights and replace pilots nearing retirement age.

By putting students interested in military service and aviation through flight training, “We think that’s going to draw” more young people to careers in aviation, Taylor

said.

In Europe, two Air Force Junior ROTC cadets were among those selected from about 700 applicants for this summer’s nascent Flight Academy — the only two cadets chosen from overseas, Taylor said.

Jordan Soles, a senior at Spangdahlem High School, and Wesley Phelan, a junior at SHAPE American High School in Belgium, will attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., for about eight weeks this summer.

Soles said he would love to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force. “It’s going to be difficult, but it’s an opportunity I want to take,” he said.

Phelan said he hasn’t made up his mind whether to pursue a career in aviation, but he’s always wanted to get a pilot’s license. “I didn’t think I’d ever have time for it,” he said, since it can normally take six months or more.

The Air Force expects to spend about $20,000 on each Flight Academy cadet. The funds cover academics, flight training, room and board, travel to the school and a medical screening.

For the Air Force, “it’s a huge leap of faith,” Taylor said. The Flight Academy graduates have no obligation to join the Air Force or continue aviation-related pursuits.

“There’s no military commitment, and some students may or may not choose to join the military,” Taylor said.

JOSEPH PICK /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

Air Force Junior ROTC cadets take a familiarization flight in a 1st Special Operations Wing aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Fla., in June.

But even if cadets choose to become commercial pilots or work as an air-traffic controller or aircraft maintainer, “we would still consider that a success on our investment,” he said.

The Air Force has committed to funding the program for the next six years after this summer, Taylor said.

Next year, the service hopes to expand the program to 250 students; by 2020, the plan is to award scholarships to 500 cadets, according to Taylor.

Eventually, the Air Force hopes to offer spots to between 1,200 and 2,000 Air Force JROTC cadets every year.

“It’s a national problem,

it’s not just a military problem,” Taylor said of the pilot shortage.

Boeing last year forecast that retirements and additional aircraft would push the need in North America for 117,000 new pilots over the next 20 years.

The Air Force, meanwhile, needs at least 20,000 pilots to fly its assorted aircraft, and was about 1,800 short toward the end of 2017, officials said.

The majority of unfilled positions are for fighter pilots, officials said.

The Air Force also is trying to expand diversity among its aviators, a gap the Flight Academy program aims to

‘ We just don’t think that aviation is coming up the way it

used to when our country was pushing a lot of aviation … back in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s.

’

Todd Taylor acting Flight Academy director

reduce over time, Taylor said.

More than half of Air Force JROTC cadets worldwide are minorities, he said.

The application window for next year’s Flight Academy opens in early fall. Candidates don’t need flying experience but have to have some interest in aviation, Taylor said. The program is currently open to junior and seniors, but Taylor said they hope to eventually include sophomores.

The Federal Aviation Association requires students be at least 17 years old to be eligible for a private pilot certificate.

Taylor said the Flight Academy is working with the FAA to change the minimum age to 16 for its students.

Phelan, the junior from SHAPE, is excited — and a little anxious — about learning to fly. “I’m nervous after hearing stories of soloing,” he said. “I can only imagine what that’s like the first time.” svan.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @stripesktown

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MILITARY

Pentagon mulls overhaul to mandatory training

BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Military leaders have said they’re overwhelmed by unnecessary training requirements, but seasoned officers at this airfield in southern Afghanistan said they see signs of a turnaround as the Pentagon looks to streamline military policies.

To illustrate the excesses, a group of Army chief warrant officers listed some of the 23 mandatory computerbased modules they had to do before deploying here to train Afghan helicopter pilots. None had anything to do with their jobs as advisers, they said.

Standing on the flight line, the four officers said they’re required to submit three times as many forms to request leave back home as they do to fly an MD-530 Cayuse Warrior attack helicopter over this largely Talibancontrolled Afghan province.

It’s all part of a slew of bureaucratic demands many say has gotten out of control, in some cases affecting unit readiness and contributing to widespread dishonesty as officials “fudge” compliance reports. Now the Trump administration is seeking to lighten the load.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced a review of personnel policies, professional military education and training last summer to refocus the military on combat effectiveness. In January, the National Defense Strategy called out professional military education as stagnant.

Decisions have not yet been made on reforms aimed at honing training and education, a Pentagon official said recently.

In Kandahar, Chief Warrant Officer 3 John Cornetto, who deployed here in January, said he’s already seen things “turning around,” with less micromanaging and greater decision-making authority at lower levels. Soldiers are already hopeful about a renewed focus on combat, he said.

“What you see is the morale … is greatly improved because we’re finally able to do our jobs properly,” said Cornetto, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman with nearly 21 years in the military.

The abundance of mandates was hampering operations, he said. He knew of helicopter crew chiefs getting just 12 hours a week to do their actual jobs. However, room for improvement remains, he said.

“You can’t go out on missions until your sexual harassment training’s

JARED J. DUHON /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

A U.S. adviser and an Afghan Air Force MD-530 pilot perform a preflight inspection in February at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. Before they deployed to Afghanistan to train Afghan helicopter pilots, Army chief warrant officers had to complete 23 computer-based modules.

‘ You can’t go out on missions until your sexual

harassment training’s complete or your cyber awareness training’s complete. Then you have to sit through that class, and they’re just painful.

’

Justin Watts chief warrant officer deployed to Kandahar

complete or your cyber awareness training’s complete,” Cornetto said as an example. “Then you have to sit through that class, and they’re just painful.”

Part of the agony is that the class content doesn’t change from year to year, said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Justin Watts, of the Hawaii-based 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, also deployed to Kandahar.

“It’s one thing to do it once,” he said.

“It’s another thing to insult someone’s intelligence by telling them the same thing every year. I get it, don’t put a random CD (in a government computer).”

The ongoing struggle The complaints are not new. An Army War College study in 2002 found that company commanders had 256

training days to cram in 297 days’ worth of requirements each year. A decade later, an Army Inspector General report said leadership at 10 bases complained of “task overload.”

But Cornetto, Watts and others said things have gotten somewhat better in the past 18 months or so, with some commands doing better than others.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brent Ely, of the 82nd Airborne Division’s combat aviation brigade and a pilot trainer at Kandahar, said back in Fort Bragg, N.C., his division commander was already trying to “reduce the stupidity” and improve both the unit’s effectiveness and paratroopers’ quality of life.

“By far, he is one of the best general officers I have seen when it comes to listening to the troopers at all levels and then acting on that input ... all by using common sense,” he said of Maj. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla.

For example, in most cases paratroopers are no longer required to wear the widely mocked reflective belt for physical training, Ely said.

He’s also cut needless requirements and implemented policies to improve morale, foster innovation and gather honest feedback.

In December, the popular Facebook page “U.S. Army WTF! Moments” posted news that Kurilla had slashed the paperwork required for a leave request to one document.

The general declined to discuss his policy changes, said spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, “as he would be concerned about coming off as self-promoting.”

Elsewhere in the military, relief from the “huge, overbearing level of training requirements” may not yet have come, said Andrew Swick, a research associate at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security and a former Army infantry officer.

Based on his discussions with around a dozen officers, he said soldiers face greater scrutiny through the Army’s Digital Training Management System, pushing some to fudge the numbers.

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MILITARY

Navy tests drone that can detect coastal mines

FROM PAGE 12

Checking the boxes A December update to mandated training was billed as reducing the load. A Stars and Stripes review found that it dropped the frequency of some requirements, gave commanders more discretion on others and mandated some, such as training on human trafficking, prior to deployment instead of annually.

However, a unit’s training burden isn’t limited to what’s in the regulation, and it’s not just computer-based or classroom training that gets shirked.

“The system right now is incentivizing letting things fall by the wayside across the board,” Swick said.

For example, a unit in the rotation to deploy to Europe recently did not have enough time to conduct annual weapons training on one of its systems, so a familiarization firing session was counted as fulfilling the requirement, even though it didn’t meet Army standards.

Widespread “pencil-whipping” of requirements like that were detailed in a 2015 Army War College study, which found “rampant duplicity” among Army officers, who reported “hand waving, fudging, massaging or checking the box” to meet the timeconsuming requirements. It was part of a tacit system in which Pentagon staff accepted the information they knew was often flawed.

Army War College professors and retired officers Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras focused on the Army for the study, titled “Lying to

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

Courtesy of the Department of Defense

A screen grab shows the Defense Department’s Cyber Awareness Challenge computer-based training module.

Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession,” but said the issues pervaded the military and extended beyond false reports of compliance with training requirements. “Bending the truth” in combat zones frequently led to dishonesty in assessments of partner forces, they found.

The authors called for restraint in issuing requirements and a willingness to accept the political risk of reducing the existing mandates.

Despite initial pushback from the Army’s senior ranks and a “no kidding” from others, the services began to initiate changes, with the Army letting two-star generals cut some requirements, and the Air Force committing to slash computer-based training by 40 percent, Wong told Stars and Stripes.

“The culture change is definitely not complete,”

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

Wong said. “But I’m encouraged that leaders are feeling more empowered to use their judgment.”

Many requirements were created to “cover your ass” as a unit commander, said Donald C. Bolduc, a recently retired brigadier general. But during four years as head of Special Operations Command Africa before retiring in October, Bolduc said he cut the requirements burdening tactical units by assuming more responsibility.

Such command-level decisions are personality dependent, he said, and he underscored the need for the Pentagon to issue a higherlevel policy on the matter sooner than later.

“I don’t think it’s being done fast enough,” Bolduc said. garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland

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

The Navy has completed developmental testing of a dronebased coastal mine detection system intended to become standard equipment on littoral combat ships.

The testing, done in February aboard the USS Coronado off the Southern California coast, put the system through its paces in a realistic environment using the assigned crew and aviation detachment to verify that it is ready for the next step of operational testing, a Navy statement said.

The system is designed to identify surface mines and other obstacles on beaches or surf waters, which until now needed to be done by sailors or Marines actually landing for a first-hand look. Aside from risking casualties, such reconnaissance can also potentially reveal landing zones.

The mine-detecting drone is part of the evolving Coastal Mine Reconnaissance system, a suite of technologies on littoral ships to be used to find and destroy mines that hinder amphibious operations.

Littoral combat ships, with shallow drafts, are designed to conduct operations close to shorelines.

Drones are steadily gaining prominence in Navy technology. On March 20, the Navy announced it was renaming Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ship, created in 2011, to PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants to better reflect its scope of projects.

The Coastal Mine Reconnaissance module consists primarily of the MQ-8B Fire Scout, an unmanned helicopter developed by Northrop Grumman that carries the AN/DVS-1 Coastal Battlespace Reconnaissance and Analysis, or COBRA, sensor that in day-

time detects surface-laid mine lines, minefields and obstacles in the beach zone.

The Navy deemed COBRA operational in October after a battery of testing.

While aboard the USS Coronado, the Coastal Mine Reconnaissance system was tested with nine specific missions, the Navy said.

Evaluated were missiontasking from a shore-based commander, planning by the aviation detachment, flying planned missions, downloading and analyzing collected data and transmitting data to the mine warfare commander.

Other participants involved in the testing were Aviation Detachment HSC-21.3, Mine Countermeasures Detachment 6, Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division, NSWC Panama City Division, and Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center, the Navy said.

Last summer, the Navy demonstrated a portable, remotecontrolled drone system to detect buried and submerged mines.

The Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research’s TechSolutions program, is equipped with “an ultrasensitive magnetometer sensor system” that provides real-time search data to a handheld tablet, the Navy said.

It can differentiate between types of objects via an intricate set of algorithms.

“This technology will help Sailors and Marines who are approaching a beachfront to rapidly clear, or at least determine the location of, mines or other hazards that are in their way,” ONR Command Master Chief Matt Matteson said in a Navy statement. “It could potentially save a lot of lives.” olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

Friday, April 6, 2018

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Fri Apr 6

5pm - 9pm First Friday Downtown Augusta A family-friendly arts event that includes musicians, dancers, artists and other vendors. First Friday Fire, presented by Arcane Arts, will be at the corner of 11th and Broad at 8 p.m. and will feature feats of fire, spinning poi, staff, hoop, fan and more in a familyfriendly show to the music of DJ Codec.

Visit facebook.com/artistsrowaugusta.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Scott Richard, running for Georgia House of Representatives (District 123); and Trent Nesmith, running for U.S. House of Representatives (District 12).

Email columbiacntydems@aol.com. Visit facebook.com/columbiacntydemocrats for updated information, or call 706-4145558.

Thu Apr 12

All day South Carolina Humanities Festival

SC Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment of the Humanities, Augusta Common sponsors a statewide festival in a Featuring George Clinton & Parliament different location each year. This year, Funkadelic, the James Brown Band the festival comes to Aiken, providing (ft. Fred Wesley), Dumpstapunk and an opportunity for the city to showcase more. $30, general; $100, VIP. Visit its rich cultural history. The kick-off TheMajorRager.com or FWBpro. com. A event will be at 7:30 p.m. April 12 in the portion of the proceeds will go toward Etherredge Center, followed by two full the nonprofit organization James Brown days, April 13 and 14, of programming Academy of Musik Pupils (JAMP). A at various locations in the city. Visit late night show at Sky City will follow, facebook.com/2018SCHF. featuring Everyone Orchestra, for $25 per ticket.

8pm Comedian Kathleen Madigan Miller Theater $35-$45. Visit millertheateraugusta.com Mon Apr 9 or call 800-514-3849.

7pm Columbia County

6pm - 11:30pm The Major Rager

Democratic Party Meeting Columbia County Government Center Auditorium, Building A The Columbia County Democratic Party invites the public to its monthly meetings, held on the first Monday of every month (unless it’s a holiday).

Social time takes place before the meetings at 6:30 p.m. Speakers this month include Lawrence Komp, running for water conservation commission;

8pm - 9:30pm Augusta Archaeological Society Meeting Big Daddy’s Bar & Grill The meeting’s speaker will be Kelli Spearman with the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area, who will speak on the Confederate Powder Works from the War between the States through the 21st century plans of the site. Dinner, 6:30 p.m.; program, 8 p.m. Call 706-8291615.

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