Stars & Stripes - 02.16.18 by Metro Spirit

Volume 10, No. 10 ©SS 2018

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018

war, at home t a s le tt a b ’ s ic d e m s le Documentary chronic Page 2 LLC of Trauma Film Photo courtesy

TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • •S S ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

2PAGE 2

Friday, February16, 16,2018 2018 Friday, February

COVER STORY

‘Trauma’ captures view of medics’ world BY DIANNA CAHN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mitch Wiese sat in a concrete bunker — a wry, half-smile playing at the soldier’s shadowed face as he wondered what war was going to do to him and the medevac unit he flew with. It was 2011, the peak of the surge in the Afghanistan conflict. Wiese, a pilot, and his crew from the 10th Mountain Division’s Company C, 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, were conducting multiple missions some days — jumping at the crackle of the radio, running to their helicopter so they could pluck wounded off the battlefield, stem the bleeding, patch the holes in human flesh, pump in oxygen or fluids. Frequently, they were covered in blood and dust, ears ringing, chopper blades thumping, adrenaline racing, as they worked to save lives. To them, it seemed like they had the most demanding and gratifying jobs in the world. Still, Wiese wondered what kind of nightmares the medics — or “back-seaters” — must have. The pilots up front don’t see everything, he says in the just-released documentary “Trauma,” available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. But just hearing the struggles of the medics and their victims was enough. “I know everyone’s gonna go home with a lot of memories — a lot of bad memories,” he says. Cut to 2014. Wiese, now bearded, sat at the dining table in his home in Albany, N.Y., watching that wartime clip of himself on a computer screen. He leaned back in his chair. It struck him as strange, he said, that he knew back then what would happen down the road. “It’s weird listening to myself talk about having problems” in the future, he says, his voice cracking with emotion. “And here I am.” Following Wiese and five members of his medevac unit

PHOTOS

H ARRY SANNA /Trauma Film LLC

A medevac helicopter crew from the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, lands in Afghanistan to attend to a wounded soldier in 2011. Six men from the medevac unit were followed home from the mission in the documentary “Trauma.” from their 2011 deployment in Afghanistan through a five-year rocky journey back home, “Trauma” captures a unique view into the world of men whose job took them to the heart of war with the most noble of missions — and the unavoidable reckoning. In the documentary, there is no narration other than the voices of the men, interviewed over the course of time. Their lives change and evolve. Some come quickly to the end of their military service, while others carry on until they can’t anymore. Each struggles to adapt back home, to reconnect with their families and do jobs that mean so much less to

them. “We were unsung f-ing heroes,” Robert Speth, crew chief of the 2011 deployment, says in the film. “Dude, if you were getting on my aircraft, you had a good chance of getting off alive. You were having the best worst day of your life. And now I come back, I turn wrenches on rich peoples’ airplanes — nobody gives a sh-. But I am actually OK with that,” he said. “I am fine with that because that other stuff was gonna kill you.” Even as the medics’ lives move forward, the war scenes splash back onto the screen with that same incessant and SEE PAGE 3

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mitch Wiese, medevac pilot, is pictured in action in eastern Afghanistan in 2011.

Friday, 16,16, 2018 Friday,February February 2018

TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • •S S ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

PAGE 3 3

COVER STORY FROM PAGE 2

violent urgency, reminding you that there is no singular narrative of war. Slowly, you come to realize that the hardest job these men could ever have is finding their own way home.

A binding force Journalist Harry Sanna started filming the Black Hawk crew on what was supposed to be a weeklong embed with the unit at Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province in 2011. But there was something about the story that he just couldn’t quit, he said in an interview with Stars and Stripes. He extended his stay for weeks, went on missions and spent downtime with the men, learning their stories and seeing what the job entailed. At some point, the crew began to see him as family, said medic Michael Walker, a sergeant first class on that mission, in an interview. Later, when Sanna suffered from the aftermath of war and losing colleagues on the battlefield, they grew even more connected. “What we all went through over there was a binding agent for us,” Sanna, 30, said from his home in Sydney, Australia. “While at times, year after year, some people were in better places, I feel there was a collective internal reckoning coming for us all.” Sanna’s struggle isn’t covered in the film, but it is a driving force that propelled him to reach out to the unit years later and fly to the United States in 2014 to interview six of them. He hung out with Walker and Wiese and the others on their sofas, filming at all times of day and night as they spoke with rare candor. Wiese talked about the struggles he and his wife had with infertility, the nightmares and lost sleep, and what a quick fuse could look like at home. Walker, now 44, confronted the camera with his raw account of the job that took him back to Afghanistan, how the mission separated him from his family not just physically, but emotionally, until his wife went home to her native Japan, taking their daughter with her. “Yeah, there is a price you pay,” Walker says, shortly after his family left. The camera stayed on him as his eyes filled with tears. “But the job is too important,” he says. “The people that would be left behind. I can’t ...” Each of the six men Sanna followed took a different path, but they all struggled to find an identity as dramatic and intense as being a combat medic. “In my mind,” pilot Julian Gilbert says in the film, “it’s going to be difficult to top that year we had in Afghanistan, as far as finding meaning and purpose.” Speth had been gearing up to go back to Afghanistan when his daugh-

Photos courtesy Trauma Film LLC

A medevac helicopter flies over eastern Afghanistan in 2011 en route to picking up wounded soldiers. the film came into focus — shifting from a documentary about the work of a medevac crew in Afghanistan to a story about what happens to them in the long years afterward. Gaddie said there was a pivotal point early on in their effort when Sanna was showing him his Afghanistan footage and it was “all really tame.” “Isn’t there anything else?” Gaddie asked. A day later, Sanna called him and showed him a very difficult scene. “He showed it to me shaking. He had avoided certain footage,” Gaddie said. After that, Sanna summoned the courage to go back and look at all the footage, coming to terms with his own journey. That’s when he grasped what he was trying to get from his subjects. “The film sort of took a new turn at that point,” Gaddie said.

A stop along the way Then-Sgt. 1st Class Michael Walker is seen beside the medic unit’s helicopter at Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province, Afghanistan, in 2011. ter bit her lip while jumping on the couch and started screaming. He held her, but said she smelled like hydraulic fluid. His wife was calling from upstairs to see if she was OK, but in his mind, he’s hearing the radio call and helicopter noises. Only he was holding his daughter on that chopper. “It was at that moment when I realized, ‘Dude, you can’t do this — you need help,’ ” Speth says in the film. He traded in his mission for civilian coveralls and found his way back to his family.

“I still wonder how I made it home, after what we did on a daily basis,” Wiese, 42, said in an interview. “Now I sit in a cubicle.”

Turning point For Sanna, the difficult journey was redemptive. Through a Kickstarter campaign, he raised enough money to hire an editor. When he joined forces with producers Ryan Cunningham and David Gaddie,

The documentary was in the editing stages in 2015 when the filmmakers began to realize that some stories were incomplete. Wiese and his wife, who struggled with infertility, had a son. Wiese has been consistently in therapy, and in his last onscreen interview, he says he is in such a good place. But for others, things were far less certain. No one had heard from their colleague Bart Prouty. Prouty, like Walker, had gone back to Afghanistan after his 2011 tour. But the tour was tough for Prouty, and he left the SEE PAGE 4

TA R S • •S S ta rs

P 4 AGE 4

A N D

a n d

• SStTrR iI pP eE sS •

Friday, February16, 16,2018 2018 Friday, February

MILITARY/COVER STORY

USAF drops re-enlistment bonuses in 17 fields BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes

Air Force cryptologic language analysts who specialize in Korean or Hebrew who are eligible to re-enlist may want to submit their paperwork now. The same goes for airmen in more than a dozen Air Force career fields about to lose retention bonuses that can be as much as $90,000. The Air Force on Feb. 6 announced it was eliminating selective re-enlistment bonuses for 17 career fields — including Hebrew and Korean cryptologic language analysts — and reducing retention bonuses for 19 more in fiscal 2018. For the first time since 2012, airmen assigned to specialty codes subject to reduced or eliminated bonuses now have 30 days to re-enlist and still get their higher bonuses. FROM PAGE 3

deployment in the middle. Sanna and his crew reached out to Prouty, but he stopped responding to them and his medevac buddies. Sanna decided to go back to him and capture his journey. After his deployment was cut short, Prouty had been in and out of treatment programs, he and Speth said in the film. Prouty was drinking too much and struggling to find steady ground. The last time Prouty saw Speth, the two buddies fought. “You are gonna be one of the f-ing homeless vets sitting on the side of the road with the ‘I served’ hats begging for handouts because you couldn’t get your sh-- together looking for answers at the bottom of the bottle,” Speth, now 38, warns him in the film. Prouty, now 37, remembered it this way: He’d stopped taking his medication and he was spiraling. He felt like he had no control, he says in the film, and he didn’t care if he lived or died. Then his friends intervened, encouraging him to check himself into treatment. “It was my brothers trying to take care of me, and um,” he says, his voice welling with emotion, “that meant a lot.”

The flip side From the start, Sanna immerses viewers in the powerful story of rescuers in battle who were called to save lives. Only late in the documentary does he call post traumatic stress disorder by its name. Sanna says that was

For the past five fiscal years, the change to career fields eligible for bonuses was effective immediately. The Air Force Personnel Center posted the list of changes to selective re-enlistment bonuses Feb. 6. It showed a total of 89 jobs eligible for re-enlistment bonuses, up from 80 last year. Twenty-six jobs were added, while 20 career fields that were already on the list will see higher bonuses this year. AFPC said that reinstating the grace period “means airmen in Air Force specialty codes being reduced or terminated will have an opportunity to qualify for the selective retention bonus at the previous rate.” All bonus increases and additions were effective as of Feb. 6, while decreases or deletions won’t go into effect until March 7, according to the AFPC guidance released Feb. 6. The Air Force uses bonuses to entice

airmen to stay in the service and sign another enlistment contract in career fields that are critically undermanned and those requiring experienced airmen. Air Force officials said the criteria used to determine fields eligible for reenlistment bonuses last year included current and projected manning levels, retention levels and trends, and the cost of training new airmen. Jobs for which bonuses were eliminated this year include remotely piloted aircraft sensor operators and RPA maintainers for RQ-4 Global Hawks, as well as refuelers/maintainers for the B-52 and B-2 bombers. While the Air Force is also ending bonuses for cryptologic language analysts in Korean and Hebrew, it’s adding a bonus for airmen in the same career field who specialize in Chinese. Bonuses, meanwhile, for cryptologic language analysts with an expertise in

Arabic are being reduced. Mental health services and firefighting vehicle and equipment maintainers are also among the jobs where bonuses are being cut. Those being added to the list include in-flight refuelers, human intelligence specialists, special investigators, dental hygienists and pharmacy. In some career fields, bonus eligibility depends on how many years of service an airman has. For example, airmen in survival, evasion, resistance and escape will see higher bonuses if they’ve been in the service for six to 10 years or 10 to 14 years. For a full list of selective retention bonuses for 2018, go to: http://www.afpc.af.mil svan.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @stripesktown

‘ I still wonder how I

made it home, after what we did on a daily basis. Now I sit in a cubicle.

’

Mitch Wiese former Chief Warrant Officer 2

no accident. By then, you are invested — in men troubled by war, and in men whose job it was to save lives on the battlefield. “I wanted to push past the definition,” Sanna said of PTSD. That’s when you see the flip side. The guilt over those they couldn’t save; the smell of burning flesh that never quite dissipates; the eyes of wounded children — wide in terror and pain — with no language to console them; the heavy, dark toll this mission would take on their families. Throughout the film, medic Todd Fuchigami, aka Fuji, serves as the joker who likes to keep things light. Toward the end, he tells the story of having to help reposition a casualty whose head had been split open. He could feel the texture of the man’s brains through his glove, and saw the ring on his finger as he draped an American flag over him. He wondered whether the man had talked to his loved ones recently. He thought about his own wife, he said.

Courtesy Trauma Film LLC

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Harry Sanna sits inside the Black Hawk helicopter belonging to the medevac unit in Afghanistan in 2011. The realities aren’t pretty — long sleepless nights, the things he won’t tell her, Islamophobia, alcohol, alienation. Bursts of crying fits alternating with bursts of rage. And for Prouty — and maybe others — a willingness to drive into an embankment. The men describe these feelings in detail. “Was it worth it?” Walker asks himself about his time as a medic, toward the end of the film. He says he is going to Japan to ask his family to come

home. “Yeah. You have 1,200 people who are going back to their families and that’s just the people I treated,” he answers. “But I am starting to realize the price is too high.” “Trauma” is available on Amazon, Vimeo, iTunes and Tugg. Links can be found on the film’s website: https:// trauma.film/ cahn.dianna@stripes.com Twitter: @DiannaCahn

Friday, February 16, 2018

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

superb craftsmanship. precise timing.

2635 Washington Road, Augusta, GA Mon - Sat 9am - 9pm | 706.738.7777 www.windsorfinejewelers.com

TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • •S S ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

PAGE 6 6

Friday, February16, 16,2018 2018 Friday, February

MILITARY

Army to focus on discipline, morale in training overhaul BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The Army will soon overhaul its Basic Combat Training course in an effort to produce fitter, more disciplined and better motivated new soldiers, the general in charge of entrance training said Feb. 9. The Army will hold recruits to higher physical fitness standards, send them on more realistic combat training exercises and increase its efforts to teach basic skills, such as first aid, arm signal communication and shooting rifles using only iron sights, said Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost, the commander of the Army’s Center for Initial Military Training. “First unit assignment leaders want initial entry training to deliver disciplined, physically fit new soldiers who are willing to learn, who are mentally tough, professional and who are proud to serve in the United States Army,” Frost said. “The bottom line is that when you graduate Basic Combat Training, you are supposed to be ready for your first unit assignment [and] to be ready to step on a plane and go to combat.” The changes are expected to

go into effect before the fiscal year ends in October. They come as the Army looks to recruit some 15,000 new soldiers to increase its force during the coming year. Through the past three years, the Army polled more than 27,000 of its noncommissioned officers, warrant officers and officers in the ranks of second lieutenant to colonel, asking them to identify deficiencies they have observed among the service’s newest soldiers. What Frost found was leaders primarily concerned with a lack of discipline among those soldiers reporting to their first units. The general said the surveys indicated a trend in new soldiers reporting with less-than-stellar work ethics and bad habits, such as arriving late for duty or wearing their uniforms sloppily. Other concerns included soldiers who have issues following orders and obeying and showing respect for their superiors, he said. To incorporate better discipline, the Army will increase its focus in basic training on indoctrinating soldiers on Army values and evaluate them on their discipline. Recruits will undergo bunk

inspections, participate in drill and ceremony competitions and face tests on their knowledge of the Army’s history. Frost said the focus on the Army’s long history is meant to build espirit de corps, teaching the service’s values through lessons on pivotal battles from the Revolutionary War to the capture of Baghdad from Saddam Hussein’s forces in the Army’s 2003 Thunder Runs across Iraq. They will largely focus on individual acts of valor in past battles to instill in recruits “what it means to be a United States Army soldier” and connect them with the service’s heritage, he said. The increased physical fitness standards will align with ones required of soldiers in the force. That means recruits must score 60 points — determined by a soldier’s age and gender — on each of the three aspects of the Army Physical Fitness Test, pushups, situps and 2-mile runs. Previously recruits only needed to score 50 points on each test in basic training, Frost said. To aid recruits in achieving the more stringent fitness requirements and to better prepare them for combat,

STEPHEN STANDIFIRD/Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Pfc. Michael Williams crawls under barbed wire at the confidence course as part of a six-week Basic Combat Training cycle for prior-service soldiers. Williams previously served in the Navy. the Army will increase the amount of time recruits spend in the field and boost combatants training from 22 hours to 33 hours during the 10-week course. The final training exercise — called the Forge — will be among the changes that include combat-specific tasks. The 81-hour exercise will consist of a 40-mile road march with tasks along the way, including a medical evacuation exercise, a night infiltration, a mission to resupply troops, an obstacle course and patrols “very much like what they could see in combat,” Frost said. The overhauled Basic Com-

bat Training course has been tested for several months at Fort Jackson in South Carolina with “a lot of success,” the general said Feb. 9. “We are simply trying to instill some pride, a little bit of grit and resilience in basic combat training there,” Frost said. “It’s not that we’re going back to shining boots, and having drill and ceremony as a predominant aspect of basic training. We’re not. But what we are doing is we are creeping some of that back in — we’re trying to do things the right way.” dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

Navy moves closer to launching a sea drone BY SCOTT WYLAND Stars and Stripes

The Navy could begin deploying a self-piloting sea drone by the end of the year to hunt for submarines at a time when China and Russia are expanding their underwater fleets, according to the research agency that designed it. The Navy received the $20 million prototype last week from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Navy researchers will now work to further develop the robotic vessel — which requires no remote piloting — with the aim of integrating it into

fleets. The Sea Hunter has undergone rigorous testing in the past two years to ensure it can pilot itself safely and follow international rules for avoiding collisions at sea, according to DARPA. Navy officials haven’t said when the drone will go into service, but DARPA said its first missions could happen later this year. Sending relatively low-priced, unmanned drones to stalk submarines in waters filled with mines or combatants is far less risky than deploying a multibillion-dollar warship with a large crew, agency officials said.

“The U.S. military has talked about the strategic importance of replacing ‘king’ and ‘queen’ pieces on the maritime chessboard with lots of ‘pawns,’ ” Fred Kennedy, head of DARPA’s tactical technology, said in a statement. DARPA and Navy researchers began collaborating on the project in 2014. The Sea Hunter has no weapons. It is strictly a surveillance vessel that uses cameras and radar to spot submarines. The 132-foot vessel is highly maneuverable and travels up to 27 knots per hour, researchers say. It will be able to track submarines for a longer period of time than can warships and planes,

researchers say. Land-based technicians will monitor the drone but won’t steer it unless a problem arises. At the Sea Hunter’s christening in 2016, former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told the Reuters news agency that robotic vessels will be a countermeasure to Russia and China expanding their submarine fleets. “I would like to see unmanned flotillas operating in the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf within five years,” Work said. wyland.scott@stripes.com Twitter: @wylandstripes

Friday, February 16, 2018

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

Friday, February 16, 2018

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

Friday, February 16, 2018

Friday, February 16,16, 2018 Friday, February 2018

TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • •S S ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

PAGE 11 11

WAR ON TERRORISM

Preparing for the worst Bagram hospital with 99 percent survival rate braces for more casualties BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan edical officials in Afghanistan are preparing for more casualties as the U.S. military sends more troops close to the front lines to advise government forces in their fight against militants and terrorists. The Craig Joint Theater Hospital here has had what officials believe to be a record success rate at keeping casualties alive — many of them Afghans wounded in operations with U.S. forces — which officials said helps boost battlefield confidence. Those lifesaving capabilities likely will see even greater demand as the U.S. steps up operations here against the Taliban and Islamic State. The number of Americans wounded in action in Afghanistan rose by more than 25 percent last year compared with each of the previous two years, accord-

ing to an analysis of Pentagon data. Officials have said U.S. forces will be at greater risk under the Trump administration’s more aggressive strategy in the region, which already has increased troop levels, loosened rules of engagement and sharply increased airstrikes. At Bagram, officials said they were consulting the U.S. Central Command about adding staff to prepare for an increase in operations tempo and casualties. “The more combat you have, the more casualties you’re likely to have,” said Col. Walter M. “Sparky” Matthews, head of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group. He oversees the military’s medical task force responsible for nonspecial-operations medical teams here. “It would be unwise for us not to plan for an increase in casualty numbers.” The medical system is ready and able to treat more wounded than it has been, even without added staff, Matthews said, because the number of casualties is normally pretty low. The Bagram

hospital was quiet on a recent afternoon, and its emergency and operating rooms were empty. A few Afghans in civilian attire and bandages sat in a waiting area. “It would also be unwise for us to assume that the low numbers of U.S. casualties that we’ve had in the recent past would remain that way,” he said. “We’re certain that increase is going to come. We just don’t know to what degree.” It’s likely that as casualties rise, the Afghans will continue to bear the brunt of the losses, and officials here said they’re working both to shore up Afghan medical capabilities and to treat those they can in the coalition’s system.

The 99 percent A flight surgeon descended from a Texas Ranger who rode out of Abilene in the 1860s, Matthews exudes a kind of cowboy charm to go with the hat, lariat and spurs that hang on his office wall. He wears a sidearm strapped to his hip. SEE PAGE 12

Equipment belonging to Col. Walter “Sparky” Matthews hangs on a post decorated with one of the small Texas Ranger badges he hands out to staff at the hospital at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. C HAD G ARLAND/Stars and Stripes

TA R S • •S S ta rs

P 12AGE 12

A N D

a n d

• SStTrR iI pP eE sS •

Friday, February16, 16,2018 2018 Friday, February

WAR ON TERRORISM FROM PAGE 11

Instead of challenge coins, his staff earn what look like miniature Texas Ranger stars for good work, and they’re encouraged to wear the coveted symbols on their ID badge pulls. One of their achievements the Austin native likes to tout is a more than 99 percent survival rate. That’s up from an earlier 98 percent, officials said. “We’re super proud of that,” Matthews said, comparing it with survival rates as low as 25 percent in conflicts over the past 150 years. A 1 percent bump — 1.27 percent to be exact — may seem small, but for a hospital that saw more than 450 trauma cases in 2017, it’s the difference between life and death for about five patients. That’s equal to nearly half the 11 U.S. combat deaths here last year. Officials would not say how many patients were Afghan troops, but there were just 113 U.S. casualties in fighting in the country last year. The motto on rounds here is “no one dies today,” and as they’ve come close to achieving that goal, deaths have become so rare that Matthews said it’s unnerving when someone does not survive. Lt. Col. Jared Clay, the hospital’s chief medical officer and the overseer of forward medical facilities in Afghanistan, is less enthusiastic about the survival rates. He said it doesn’t necessarily give a full picture of the situation. Advancements in vehicle and body armor are preventing many grave injuries, he said. The wider use of tourniquets and better front-line first aid are keeping serious wounds from becoming fatal. Still, some of the injured die before getting to the hospital. And some patients couldn’t be saved even if they were at a medical facility when the injury happened, Clay said. Brain injuries, such as a gunshot to the head, are the leading cause of such unpreventable deaths. It’s rare that those who can be saved aren’t, he said. “Once they roll under that flag, there’s a 99 percent chance they will survive,” Clay said, referring to a large U.S. flag draped over the ambulance bay near the flight line. Known as “Warrior’s Way,” it’s where the wounded enter the hospital.

PHOTOS

C HAD G ARLAND/Stars and Stripes

Col. Walter “Sparky” Matthews looks over the trauma ward at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

Matthews keeps his notebook and a tray of small badges he hands out to staff at the hospital on his desk.

A confidence boost A capable medical system standing by to give lifesaving aid reassures U.S., coalition and, especially, the Afghan forces who go on operations alongside them, the officials said. Clay has treated government troops here who were wounded while exhibiting “extreme bravery,” such as going first to clear a room or leading the charge to take a well-defended objective. Troops have more confidence when they know their chances of survival are strong,

Matthews said. “We don’t want them to have to think about risking their life on the battlefield. We want them to go out there and risk (the enemy’s life) and know that theirs is safe,” he said. Besides 11 combat fatalities here last year, 102 U.S. troops survived being wounded in action, according to Pentagon data. That makes for a fatality rate of about 10 percent — well below the rates in several earlier years and about half the rate during the Vietnam War. Afghan forces, however, are at far greater risk of death than Americans have been in decades. The fatality rate

in 2016 — the last full year for which data were available — was more than 36 percent. It was on track for a similar rate early last year. The government has suppressed the full security forces casualty data from 2017. Afghan military medical facilities are staffed with Western-educated surgeons and experienced doctors, officials at Bagram said, but they lack some of the pricey, high-tech equipment common in U.S. facilities, and they aren’t yet as capable of treating the seriously wounded. The growing air force, which is increasingly taking on missions to evacuate casualties, still struggles to get them off the battlefield fast enough. Last month in Helmand province, Gen. John W. Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in the country, lauded government forces there for “dramatically” reducing evacuation times to 90 minutes, saying it would boost combat troops’ morale. But that’s still a full 30 minutes beyond the “golden hour” U.S. forces aim for. Coalition advisory teams are mentoring local medical teams, helping to improve the care at the scene and at hospitals. The U.S. military also transports and treats Afghans

in limited cases, though doctors here said it’s enough to keep surgical teams busy and their skills sharp. “The reason we take care of our Afghan colleagues ... is to help them survive, to increase recruiting (and) to increase boldness on the battlefield, until that Afghan military medical system can grow both in size and in capability,” Matthews said.

‘The Super Bowl for us’ Roaming hospital halls recently, the shaved-headed colonel stopped to greet an Afghan double amputee in a wheelchair. He was the last of about a half-dozen Afghans with bandaged limbs, heads or eyes who’d been sitting in a waiting area earlier. The man had first arrived in bad shape months ago, Matthews said. He seemed in good spirits on this follow-up visit, smiling and shaking hands with the Texan. Medical professionals here have trained their entire careers to save troops broken and battered in battle, Matthews said, and Bagram is where they put those skills to use. “It’s the Super Bowl for us.” garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland

Friday, February 16, 2018

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • •S S ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

PAGE 14 14

Friday, February16, 16,2018 2018 Friday, February

MILITARY

GI spouse jobs: a work in progress Sen. Kaine proposes legislation to reduce unemployment among military families BY DIANNA CAHN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Frequent moves across state or international lines; a spouse who is away from home for work for months at a time; insufficient and expensive child care. These are some of the reasons that military families are far more likely to be struggling on a single income than other American families. Fortythree percent of military spouses are not in the labor force, compared to 25.5 percent of civilian families living on a single income, according to a 2016 survey by the nonprofit Blue Star Families. The rate of unemployment for military spouses — those actively seeking work — ranges from three to six times higher than their civilian counterparts. In proposing new legislation to help close the gap, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Feb. 6 that the ripple effect is impacting military readiness, leaving servicemembers burdened with deployments, financial concerns and frustrated spouses. “The men and women who support their Marine, soldier, sailor or airman — they are

critical to the support of our military mission,” Kaine said. “And if we can make their path a little easier, it’s a good thing for military readiness, family happiness. It keeps people in the military longer if they know their spouse continues to have opportunity.” The Military Spouse Employment Act of 2018 seeks to give military spouses a leg up in federal hiring and to push the Defense Department to offer more opportunities for spouses: enable them to run private businesses on base, expand educational and training and give them more access to affordable child care. Kaine said he wants to attach the bill to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act with bipartisan support. The senator, whose eldest son, Nat, is a Marine infantry officer, is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and co-chairs the Senate Military Family Caucus. He began looking at spouse employment a year ago, after another initiative helped target job opportunities for Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. He met in the past year with spouses, business leaders and advocates. “They talked about the

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

K AREN A. IWAMOTO/Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Army spouse Brittany Gibson interviews for a job with Family and MWR food and beverage director John Stone at Aliamanu Military Reservation’s community center in Honolulu, in August.

‘ The men and women who support their Marine, soldier, sailor or airman — they are critical to the support of our military mission. And if we can make their path a little easier, it’s a good thing for military readiness, family happiness.

’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. frequent moves as a barrier to employment, the number of job changes they were undergoing,” he said. “They talked about the difficulty of having a profession that requires a state license … and when you transfer from one state to the next, suddenly you don’t have that credential and it can take a while to get it.” In a roundtable in October, spouses spoke about their frustrations at not being able to build careers or find jobs that paid enough to justify child

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.

care. As those frustrations grew, more families were opting out of the military, hurting retention, he said. “It speaks to the future of our military and speaks to the power of the force,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, the CEO of Blue Star Families, before the legislation was introduced. “But it’s easy not to see the problem at all.” The bill’s most impactful aspect would modify federal authority to fast-track the hiring of military spouses, since the most desirable jobs near military installations are often federal positions, Kaine said. According to the Blue Star Families survey, 79 percent of spouses who apply for federal jobs don’t get them, even though there is law that allows hiring managers to appoint military spouses. The process is cumbersome and doesn’t work quickly enough for spouses who move every few years, Roth-Douquet said. In addition, the bill proposes that the Defense Department submit a plan to change rules to allow spouses to run their businesses on bases. And DOD

would look to increase affordable child care by changing hiring requirements for workers. This change, Kaine said, would probably not reap immediate results. The bill also instructs DOD to expand educational opportunities and training for military spouses. This includes increasing awareness for career training and education programs and scholarships; giving spouses greater access to transition training and counseling; and helping professionals get recertified when they move to a new state. Roth-Douquet said she thought the legislation was a good start, but noted that changes need to focus not just on legislation but also nonprofits and private businesses, to make the job market friendlier and more flexible for military spouses. “We’ve got an opportunity here,” she said. “It’s just a matter of us innovating the path forward and getting enough attention to do it.” cahn.dianna@stripes.com Twitter: @DiannaCahn

• S

Friday, February 16, 2018

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

P E R S O N A L I N J U RY AT TO R N E YS AT W O R K F O R YO U www.nicholsonrevell.com Harry D. Revell

Sam G. Nicholson

George S. (Sam) Nicholson

Adam W. King

4137 Columbia Road Augusta, Georgia 30907 | (706) 722-8784

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

Friday, February 16, 2018

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

• S

ta rs

a n d

r i pe s

•

Sat Feb 17

8pm Ronnie Milsap

Miller Theater $49-$99. Visit millertheateraugusta.com or call 800-514-3849.

7:30pm Southern Fried Chicks Cage-Free Comedy Tour

Jabez S. Hardin Performing Arts Center $42.50. Visit AugustaAmusements.com or call 706-726-0366.

7:30pm “Hamlet”

AU’s Maxwell Theatre The traveling Aquila Theatre group presents Shakespeare’s play. $18, general; $12, AU alumni and military; $7, children, students, AU faculty and staff. Call 706-667-4100 or visit augusta.edu/maxwelltheatre.

Sun Feb 18

2pm “Guess Who Showed Up at Dinner”

Bell Auditorium $44-$57; group rates available for groups of 10 or more. Call 706262-4573 or visit georgialinatix. com. If you would like to place an ad in the Marketplace, contact james@themetrospirit.com

Mon Feb 19

6pm - 8pm Civil War Roundtable Meeting

Goodwill’s The Snelling Center Paul Quigley, a Virginia Tech history professor, presents on “The Confederacy’s European Problem”...Those Russians!” Meetings are $23, including dinner (buffet starts at 5:15). Membership is $25 per

Friday, February 16, 2018

year, individual; $40, couple. Call 706-736-2909 or visit civilwarroundtableaugustaga. com.

Tue Feb 20

12:30pm Noon Arts: Chinese New Year

Lansing B. Lee Sr. Auditoria Center Sponsored by the Augusta University Arts Council and Confucius Institute, this show will highlight the talents of students, staff and faculty with a Chinese cultural twist. Free admission; free food and drinks. Call 706-7218800 or email tperea@augusta. edu.

8pm Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox

Miller Theater $38-$53. Visit millertheateraugusta.com or call 800-514-3849.

Wed Feb 21

7:30pm Augusta University Wind Ensemble with the Parris Island Marine Band AU’s Maxwell Theatre Free; seating is ﬁrst-come, ﬁrstserved. Call 706-667-4100 or email maxwelltheatre@augusta. edu.

Thu Feb 22

8pm Blackberry Smoke with Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real Bell Auditorium $29.50-$59.50. Call 877-4AUGTIX or visit georgialinatix.com.

Friday, February 16, 2018

• TA R S A N D S T R I P E S • • SS ta rs a n d S t r i pe s •

PAGE 15

20 PAGE 16

• •S S t aT A r Rs S

a AnNdD

SStTrR iI pP eE sS •

Friday, February Friday, February16, 16, 2018 2018