Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, the first Dolphin HH-65 helicopter unit in the nation to arm its helicopters, has completed its final training tests, CG District 13 headquarters announced.
The enhanced use of deadly force stems from demands for increased security after 9/11 to protect potential terror targets like bridges, ports and waterways, with large groups of people, after 9/11, the Coast Guard said in a press release. The helicopter's guns will not be used in routine law enforcement missions, Coast Guard officials said.
The Port Angeles aircrews who completed their final training tests last Thursday are "hand-selected, highly trained indivicuals specifically chosen for their maturity, judgement and sound decision making skills," the Coast Guard said in a press release.
The Coast Guard adds its aviation wing to the armed boats, cutters and maritime security boarding teams it already has.
Local Coast Guard officials said the Port Angeles air station crews have been conducting extensive land-based and open-ocean firing range training and hostile-boat intercept maneuvering drills since the initial phase of training began in the spring of 2008.
That was when the air station received upgraded MH-65C helicopters outfitted with M-14T rifles and M-240 machine guns.
By the way, you can download and watch a Coast Guard video of these aircrews in action, as an Astoria, Ore. MH-60 crew medevacks a sailor off of an unnamed, moving Navy submarine off the Washington Coast last Wednesday.
The Defense Department has an official "watchboard" for the flu pandemic.
According to a DoD statement:
"In an influenza pandemic, the DoD's mission is to preserve the U.S. combat capabilities and readiness and to support U.S. government efforts to save lives, reduce human suffering and slow the spread of infection. "
The Associated Press on Sunday reported that Spc. Christopher Hogg, 23, of Deltona, Fla., died Sept. 10 from “pneumonia due to H1N1 influenza,” according to Fort Jackson, S.C. commander Brig. Gen. Bradley May. Fort Jackson is the Army’s largest basic training camp.
In its public health guidelines regarding H1N1 swine flu, the DoD says one concern is of the flu spreading among the nations 1.3 men and women in uniform, and their families, affecting readiness:
"The Military Health System must be prepared to rapidly evaluate and effectively manage patients with suspected or confirmed pandemic influenza throughout the entire range of militaryoperations and health care settings. In addition to providing health care, efforts must limit thespread of disease among Service members, their families, local communities, and the workplace."
I remember a line from a marching chant our drill instructor used to sound out:
"My Marine Corps color is green...."
Is it ever.
With the Defense Department alone accounting for 93 perecent of all government fuel consumed, the services have been looking for ways to reduce dependency on the grid and fossil fuels.
As usual, the Marines are in the lead.
Some years back, Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Mattis, who had commanded 1st Marine Division in Iraq where he saw fuel convoys become ripe targets for sabotage, and later Marine Corps Combat Development Command, issued a challenge:
"Unleash us from this tether of fuel," Mattis said, calling for a 50 percent reduction in Defense Department fuel use.
Just this August, Commandant of the Marines, Gen. James T. Conway, hosted a defense energy summit.
One of the interesting field innovations the Marines are looking at is a tower of power called Mojo.Back in April, the Corps' 8th Communications Battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., wanted to see the devices developed by Critical Power Solutions Internationl Inc. of Ashburn, Va.
Like the Army's caissons, Mojos, along with larger, double-axled Titans made by Critical Solutions, are wheeled, road-ready, rapidly deployable trailers. They include a 26-foot telescoping tower, battery box and complex set of electronics as well as four solar panels and a wind generator.
Mojos typically produce approximately 520 watts of sustained solar power, and the wind turbines generate 350 to 600 watts of sustained power, Critical Solutions says.
Why the interest? The Marines want another tool in the big toolbox the bring to the battlefield. Renewable power sources in remote environments, as in combat or border patrol situations, come with reduced heat and noise signatures. They could cut down on fuel convoys and save lives by reducing exposure to the risk of roadside and suicide bombers.
In short, they're a stealthier source of power. Marines with Mojos, for instance, could place a remote team at sites where refueling is dangerous or difficult, retaining communication capabilities without traditional power logistics.
In addition to the military, Critical Solutions alternative energy towers have been demonstrated for emergency preparedness agencies. They were at the center of critical response exercises last December at the Center for National Response in West Virginia.
Of the 93 percent of all government fuel that the Defense Department alone consumes, 52 percent is used by the Air Force, 33 percent by the Navy. The Army uses around seven percent, according to figures cited in a Brookings Institution study.
In an August 2007 study for the Brookings Institution, Col. Gregory Lengyel wrote:
The United States has a National Security problem, energy security, in which the Department ofDefense has a unique interest. The United States imports 26% of its total energy supply and 56% ofthe oil it consumes. The DOD is the largest single consumer of energy in the United States andenergy is the key enabler of US military combat power.
Huge energy consumption, increasedcompetition for limited energy supplies, ever increasing energy costs, and no comprehensive EnergyStrategy or oversight of energy issues in the DOD have created vulnerabilities. These includepotential fuel and electricity supply disruptions as well as foreign policy and economic vulnerability.The DOD needs a comprehensive Energy Strategy and organizational structure to implement astrategy to improve National Security by decreasing US dependence on foreign oil, ensure access tocritical energy requirements, maintain or improve combat capability, promote research for futureenergy security, be fiscally responsible to the American tax payer, and protect the environment.
Thisstrategy can be implemented through leadership and culture change, innovation and processefficiencies, reduced demand, and increased/diversified energy sources.
Meanwhile, in his excellent "DoD Energy Blog," Andy Bochman last September mentioned a Marine general in Iraq who wanted solar panels in order to "outgreen al Qaeda." Instead of trucking fuel from Kuwait, creating targets for improvised bombers, the general wanted to "beat al Qaeda at its own game," Bochman wrote, taking away those targets by using solar power.
CBS news reports that their reporter in Afghanistan, Cami McCormick, who was wounded in an improvised bomb explosion that killed a U.S. soldier last Friday, is in stable condition at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
She arrived there about 2 a.m. Wednesday after being stabilized and evacuated to several U.S. military medical units in Afghanistan, then airlifted to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
McCormick was traveling with U.S. Army soldiers when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, IED. A soldier in the same vehicle, Spc. Abraham S. Wheeler III, 22, of Columbia, S.C., was killed in the attack.wounded.
McCormick reportedly suffered multiple fractures to her arms and legs but had no head injuries. She has been with CBS since 1998 and was at Ground Zero in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, in New Orleans when Hurrican Katrina hit, and in the Persian Gulf for the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
Tradition and some circumstantial evidence indicates the stars and stripes were first unfurled in battle on Sept. 3, 1777, in a skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, Delaware, the only battle of the revolution fought on Delaware soil.
The Colonial general, William Maxwell, ordered the colors unfurled as his force of 700 light infantry and cavalry, including 100 sharpshooters, prepared to meet a force of British and Hessian soldiers. The engagement actually began about Aug. 30 with skirmishes a few miles south of the bridge.
Patriot forces fought well, using Native American tactics, but ran low on ammunition. That forced a retreat to Pennsylvania to meet up with Gen. George Washington at Brandywine Creek, where he was preparing to meet British Gen. Howe's army. Eash side lost about 30 killed and wounded.
Washington's force of 11,000 eventually met Howe's force of 18,000 at Brandywine two weeks later, which ended in defeat and as Washington was outmaneuvered and American forces fled. The British, exhausted, failed to pursue and the Continental army was able to regroup.
But the flag, which had been designed by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, was here to stay, replacing the Grand Union flag carried by Continental forces in 1776.
There's a marker at Cooch's Bridge today. I've driven by it while visiting family in the East.
While a historians' debate continues over whether the flag was first raised there, the Cooch family continues to hold reunions at their ancestral home and favor tradition, continuing to fly a 13-star "Betsy Ross" flag at Cooch's Bridge for nearly a century.
June 14, of course, later was designated Flag Day by Congress, a national day of observance to commemorate the birth of the nation's symbol.
But Sept. 3 was the day Old Glory first was raised above the heads of American fighting troops.
Of other important military historical note this week, Sept. 2 marks the end of WW II with the signing of unconditional surrender documents by Japanese leaders on the USS Missouri in 1945.
And another big turning point in history occurred Sept. 2, 31 B.C. in the naval Battle of Actium during the Roman Civil Wars. Naval forces of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa destroyed the fleet of Mark Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide a year later. Their defeat helped Octavian emerge as ruler of Rome, ending the Roman republic and beginning the Roman Empire.
With the Pentagon's announcement Tuesday of the deaths of three more Fort Lewis soldiers in Afghanistan participating in a heightened offensive against the Taliban, U.S. military deaths grew to 47 in August, the bloodiest month ever in that war.
The Fort Lewis deaths drove to nine in two weeks the number of Fort Lewis soldiers killed in the newly arrived 5th Stryker Brigade which quickly entered the fighting aftrer arriving in July.
September has seen the escalation continue. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that in a major blow, a Taliban suicide bomber killed the country's deputy intelligence chief, Abdullah Laghmani, and 22 other people in Kabul, until now considered a relatively safe city.
All nine Fort Lewis deaths have come from the brigade's 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. The 5th Stryker Brigade is deployed throughout Kandahar and Zabul provinces, while U.S. Marines are in Helmand province.
Killed Monday in Shuyene Sufia, Afghanistan when their unit was attacked by an improvised bomb were Spc. Jonathan D. Welch, 19, of Yorba Linda, Calif and Pfc. Jordan M. Brochu, 20, of Cumberland, Me.
Spc. Tyler R. Walshe, 21, of Shasta, Calif. also died Monday in southern Afghanistan of wounds from an improvised bomb.
With Afghanistani elections as a backdrop last week, U.S. led coalition forces have increased their offensives in the south, the home of the Taliban and a hotbed of fighting.
While the number of U.S. and coaltion casualties have increased, the Taliban has been bloodied as well.
Across the border in Pakistan's Swat Valley Monday, Fox News reported 30 al-Qaeda or Taliban linked insurgents killed in clashes with Pakistani forces after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 police cadets. Wednesday, the Daily Times in Pakistan reported 15 Taliban killed and 105 captured in a clash with security forces near Mingora. Meanwhile, at a border crossing between Afghanstan and Pakistan, explosions tore through a line of 16 NATO fuel trucks idled and backed up by a two-dayborder closure dispute over fruit inspections.
The other bomb, near the border crossing, ripped through a line of NATO fuel trucks backed up by a two-day closure resulting from a dispute over fruit inspections. At least one driver was killed and 16 trucks destroyed on the Pakistani side of the Chaman crossing, police official Gul Mohammad said.
Meanwhile, Scott Fontaine of The News Tribune in Tacoma has some personal information about onre of the Fort Lewis soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice on Monday.
Brochu hinted in his MySpace profile at a rough upbringing, listing his heroes when asked as himself.
"My life has been hell and no one thought or cared if I would make it," he wrote, "and I'm still (here) and for once my head is held high."
Brochu was thinking of college but didn't feel ready so decided to serve in the Army. His former guidance counselor, Nancy McLean, told Fontaine "He saw it as a way to do good. It was a way to prepare for the world."
Hal Bernton of the Seattle Times, writing under the auspices of the McClatchy Corp.'s news group, arrived in Afghanistan on the weekend and writes in his blog as he gets oriented to the country.
All three of Fort Lewis's Stryker Brigades, the 3rd, 4th and 5th, are part of the 2nd Infantry Division.
The 5th became the first Stryker brigade deployed to Afghanistan when it arrived in July.
The three soldiers were killed on the final day of the deadliest month ever for American troops in Afghanistan, with 77 coalition military members killed largely in an increased offensive againt the Taliban.
At least 325 men and women in uniform from Washington's hometowns and military bases have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
More than 300 foreign troops with the U.S. led coalition have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, more than any other year of war in Afghanistan, 77 of them in August.
The war in Afghanistan began nearly eight years ago after the al-Qaed, Taliban-complicit terror attacks on U.S. soil of 9/11, but languished and stalled after the Bush Administration diverted forces to start a controversial war in Iraq.
Seattle's Museum of Flight has two interesting public presentations this month regarding some little known units and planes in military aviation history:
39th Airlift Squadron Troop Carrier Squadron panel. One of the few WW II squadrons of any kind still active today. Sat., Sept. 12, 2 p.m - 3 p.m.
The 39th Troop Carrier Squadron has been moving everything from soldiers and celebrities to bodies and ammunition in and out of all sorts of places in every American conflict since World War II. Veteran airlift pilots and crew members share stories and photos from the Vietnam era to the present. Mission permitting, a 39th Airlift Squadron Lockheed C-130 will be open to the public for tours during Museum hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Defying Gravity and the Odds: The Unlikely Story of the Boeing X-32B Joint Strike Fighter, Tue., Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Speaker Dennis O'Donoghue, currently Boeing Commercial Airlines' vice president, test and validation, recalls his first Boeing assignment in 1996 as lead test pilot of the X-32B STOVL Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstrator Aircraft program. Sponsored by the Royal Aeronautical Society Seattle Branch.
According to a museum press release, O'Donoghue during the summer of 2001 commanded the first flight and flew the first hovers and first vertical landings of the X-32B. After the JSF program, he was assigned as deputy project pilot for the Sonic Cruiser and the 7E7/787 programs.
O'Donoghue, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, includes in his career experience as a NASA research test pilot at Lewis Research Center , Cleveland , Oh. He conducted exploratory flight tests, airborne science projects, and space support missions on a various aircraft platforms including the DC-9, DHC-6, G-159, Lear 25, OV-10, T-34, and YAV-8B Harrier.
O'Donoghue's military experience included 12 years of active duty as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot and test pilot. He flew operational missions in the A-4M, AV-8A and AV-8B Harrier aircraft, and engineering flight tests on the AV-8B and F-14 Tomcat.
The VA's suicide prevention campaign is taking its outreach online, piloting a one-on-one chat service called "Veterans Chat" for veterans who feel more comfortable with anonymity on the internet.
Veterans, families and friends can anonymously chat with a trained VA counselor online, and if the communication indicates a crisis, the counselor can immediately transfer that person to the VA Suicide Prevention hotline where steps in crisis intervention begin.
Veterans retain anonymity by entering whatever names they choose once they enter one-on-one chat. A counselor then joins them who is trained to provide information and respond to the requests and concerns of the caller.
If the counselor decides the caller is in a crisis, the counselor will encourage the Veteran to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline, where a trained suicide prevention counselor will determine whether crisis intervention techniques are required.
The pilot program has been in operation since July 3 and has shown results. In once instance, an online counselor convinced a veteran needing immediate assistance to provide ahome number, then remained in the chat room with the veteran while another hotline staffer called and talked to the veteran’s mother. Working with the mother, the hotline counselor was able to convince the veteran to check into a inpatient care.
“This online feature is intended to reach out to all veterans who may or may not be enrolled in the VA health care system, Dr. Gerald Cross, VA’s acting undersecretary for health, said in a press release that the online feature is intended to reach out to all veterans who may or may not be in the VA health care system.
“It is meant to provide Veterans with an anonymous way to access VA’s suicide prevention services,” he said.
Veterans, family members or friends can access Veterans Chat through the suicide prevention Web site (www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org).
A veterans tab on the left-hand side of the web page takes them directly to veterans resource information. There's also a hotline number 1-800-273-TALK, and a link on the Veterans Chat tab on the right side of the Web page to enter.
"The chat line is not intended to be a crisis response line,” Dr. Janet Kemp, VA’s National Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the VA medical center in Canandaigua, N.Y., said in a news release.
"Chat responders are trained in an intervention method specifically developed for the chat line to assist people with emotional distress and concerns,” Kemp said. “We have procedures they can use to transfer chatters in crisis to the hotline for more immediate assistance,” she said.
The VA’s trained counselors staff the chat line from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. from the VA national suicide prevention center at the Canandaigua, N.Y. VA medical center, while the suicide hotline is staffed 24/7.
On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany, along with Soviet Red Army and Slovak forces, invaded Poland, leading to the beginning of World War II.
Poland's allies, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, declared war on Germany two days later, with France, Canada and South Africa following suit.
The invasion began a week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty of non-aggression between Nazi Germany and the USSR, also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
Contrary to some myths, Poland did not surrender easily or quickly. By some historians estimates, the Germans lost the equivalent of an armored division and a fourth of its air force. The Poles suffered greatly, losing not only troops to war and war crimes, but an estimated 200,000 civilians in the Germans' "total war."
The invasion also set the stage for the Holocaust with the establishment of Nazi death camps, notably at Auschwitz, where an estimated 3 million Jews were murdered. The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw was walled in by the Nazis in 1940, and was the scene of an armed Jewish resistance movement in 1943 that ended with German retaliation that left more than 56,000 dead and the destruction of the ghetto, ending with the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw in May 1943.
Although Poland as completely overrun within a month, the Polish government never surrendered. Polish military forces fled to Hungary and Romania and regrouped as Polish fighting units under British and French forces, while the largest resistance movement in Europe began to form in Poland.
Meanwhile, also on this day in history, in 1969 a 27-year old Libyan Army captain named Muammar al-Qaddafi lead a successful military coup to oust King Idris I and take over the Libyan government.
The Defense Department announced Friday that the commander of Carrier Strike Group Three and the USS John C. Stennis Strike Group based in Bremerton, will be assigned to direct theProgramming Division, N80, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.
Rear Adm. (lower half) Mark A. Vance already is slated for promotion to a two-star rear admiral.
Vance, a Naval aviator, is a Billings, Mont. native and University of Idaho graduate, with graduate degrees from the University of Southern California and the U.S. Naval War College.
Vance’s biography includes fleet assignments with fighter squadron deployments -- including to Iraq -- from both coasts,with squadrons from the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz, USS Independence, USS Carl Vinson, and USS Harry Truman.
Vance's 4,000 accident-free hours in various Navy jets include 3,500 in F-14 Tomcats.
Vance also has previously served as deputy director and acting director of "Deep Blue," then the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Navy has established an operations group, informally known as "Deep Blue," an operations group established after 9/11 to provide intellectual support for the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and regional warfighting commanders-in-chief in the global war on terrorism, according to Navy officials.
According to Defense Daily International, Deep Blue is akin to the Air Force's"Checkmate"strategic planning organization.
Both organizations reportedly explore new concepts for platforms, weapons systems, sensors, and tactics, techniques and procedures to improve U.S. capabilities in a "network-versus-network" war with Al-Qaeda and other internationally dispersed terror groups, a Naval official told DDI.
Four soldiers from Fort Lewis's 5th Stryker Brigade were killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Friday.
Killed Tuesday were Pfc. Dennis M. Williams, 24, of Federal Way; Capt. John L. Hallett III, 30, of Concord, Calif; Capt. Cory J. Jenkins, 30, of Arizona; and Sgt. 1st Class Ronald W. Sawyer, 38, of Trenton, Mo.
KOMO television, the Seattle ABC affiliate, says Williams family told them he was concerned about a lack of ammunition and equipment to fight the war, echoing problems voiced by troops early in the Iraq war.
"What he was told and what he heard is that ammo was low, conserve your stuff, and he just didn't feel that they were equipped like they should have been - like it was a low-budget war," Dennis' brother, David Williams, was quoted by KOMO as saying.
Williams, a Federal High School graduate from the Seattle area, enlisted in 2007 and was on his first deployment.
Jenkins, a Brigham Young University graduate, was a physician assistant, Sawyer a medic. Hallett was a West Point graduate.
The four served with the brigade's 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.
Fort Lewis's Stryker brigades, considered the most technologically advanced ground forces in the Army, have now suffered six casualties since arriving in Afghanistan in July. It is a key elemenet in the fight against Taliban strongholds in Kandahar and Zabul provinces.
The News Tribune of Tacoma says the deaths push the number of Washington service members killed since 2001 in Iraq and Afghanistan to 323.
The Department of Veterans Affairs sent letters to 1,200 veterans across the country mistakenly telling them they have ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal neurological disease.
James Bunker, a leader of the National Gulf War Resource Center said the organization counted at least as many worried veterans from Alabama, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming had contacted the group about the error.
Denise Nichols, the vice president of the National Gulf War Resource Center, said the V.A. was blaming a coding error for the mistake.
Letters dated Aug. 12 were intended to notify veterans who have Lou Gehrig’s disease of disability benefits available to them.
In a statement acknowledging the error, the VA said it had been contacted by a "small number" of veterans, which the NGWRC disputed. Bunker said the VA was telling reporters it had only received 10 responses from veterans regarding the letter.
According to the VA:
"In our efforts to keep Veterans informed of their expanding eligibility for benefits, VA sent notifications to Veterans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for disability compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), outreach letters were sent to 1,864 veterans and survivors last week.
"VA has since been contacted by a small number of these Veterans who do not have ALS, but were mistakenly sent the ALS outreach letter."
The VA said it is "immediately reviewing" the individual claims files for all recipients of the letter to identify those who were erroneously notified, and VA employees will be following up to personally reach out to ensure the letter is undersood to be a mistake, and not a diagnosis of ALS.
VA employees also will "express VA’s sincere apologies for the distress caused by this unfortunate and regrettable error," the VA said.
Recipients of the letter are encouraged to call VA at 1-800-827-1000 with any questions.
Our own Coast Guard District 13 this week is hosting Exercise Pacific Unity off Port Angeles and in Seattle this week, joined by various Coast Guards from nations around the North Pacific.
The exercise includes vessel from Japan, Russia and Canada, whils two members of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum, China and South Korea, have sent observers.
Vessels, like the Russian Border Guard Vessel Vorovskiy, in the above Coast Guard photo taken while it was en route to the three-day exercise, will be coordinating search and rescue exercises, aids to navigation, law enforcement and security operations. Crews will have a chance to get together in some social and cultural activities as well, Coast Guard officials said.
Check out more info and photos at District 13s Web site.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on Monday said the VA is moving to help veterans seeking compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder by simplifying the process.
Shinseki, a retired general and highly regarded Army chief of staff in the 1990s who oversaw Army "transformation" to 21st century warfare through the creation of Fort Lewis's Stryker brigades, was appointed by President Obama to do the same for the VA.
“The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” Shinseki said in a press release Monday.
The VA published a proposed regulation in the Federal Register make it easier for veterans to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the amount of evidence required if the stressors in the claim are related to a fear of military or terrorist hostilities.
Public comment regarding the proposed rule will be taken over the next 60 days, with a final regulation to be published once all comments are considered.
According to the VA news release, under the new rule, the VA would not require corroboration of a stressor related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity if a VA psychiatrist or psychologist confirms that the stressful experience recalled by a veteran adequately supports a diagnosis of PTSD and the veteran's symptoms are related to the claimed stressor.
Previously, claims adjudicators were required to corroborate that a noncombat veteran actually experienced a stressor related to hostile military activity. This rule would simplify the development that is required for these cases, officials explained.
According to mental health experts, PTSD is a recognized anxiety disorder that can follow seeing or experiencing an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury to which a person responds with intense fear, helplessness or horror, and is not uncommon in war. Feelings of fear, confusion or anger often subside, officials noted, but if the feelings don't go away or get worse, a veteran may have PTSD.
The VA has been beefing up its mental health service for combat veterans, adding thousands of new professionals in the last four years.
The department also has established a toll-free suicide prevention helpline -- 1-800-273-TALK -- and has a Web site available for online chat in the evenings.
At the Pentagon, meanwhile, Army vice chief of staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli last month announced the launch of the largest study of behavioral health ever undertaken by the Army.
Chiarelli, originally from Seattle, is actively spearheading the study that will be conducted by a dream team from the military, National Institute of Mental Health, academia and other members in hopes of better understanding the underlying causes of suicide.
I found out about Chiarelli's sincere passion for soldiers' welfare when I profiled him while I was working for the now defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in March 2008. At the time he was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' senior military advisor.
Chiarelli in a Pentagon news release said the $50 million study will examine behavioral health, psychological resilience, suicide risk, suicide-related behaviors and suicide deaths across the active and reserve components over all phases of a soldier’s career.
Findings will be presented quarterly with preliminary results due in November.
Chiarelli said the findings could be incorporated in real time into treatment programs. The Army had a record number of suicides in 2007 with 115, and again in 2008 with 139.
“[The study group] realizes this is not business as usual. We’re not going to wait for the final results of the study,” the general said, referring to the project’s five-year timeline.
“We feel that this could be huge -- huge for the Army, the Department of Defense and quite frankly, for America.”
The general predicted that an early recommendation will be to relieve stress on the force by increasing the amount of time troops spend at home relative to the length of time deployed. Chiarelli said deployment stress has shown to manifest itself in high-risk behaviors in soldiers.
“Unfortunately, in a growing segment of the Army’s population, we’ve seen increased stress and anxiety manifest itself through high-risk behaviors, including acts of violence, excess use of alcohol, drug abuse and reckless driving,” he said.
Chiarelli, a Seattle University and University of Washington graduate who maintains connections here, knows the stresses of war, having commanded every unit from platoon to corps level. Chiarelli, who grew up in Magnolia's neighborhood and entered the Army during the Vietnam war after completing ROTC at the UW, served two tours in Iraq.
He first commanded the famed 1st Cavalry Division and later Multi-National Forces-Iraq.
Now a four-star and second in command overall of the Army, Chiarelli is determined to get to the bottom of military suicides and prevent them.
"It rips your heart out," Chiarelli told a group of soldiers in June while on a week-long tour of Army installations to look for clues, a Pentagon news report said.
Two Fort Lewis soldiers with the first U.S. Stryker brigade to serve in Afghanistan died last Tuesday in a roadside bomb explosion, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Their deaths bring to three the number of local soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week.
Pfc. Jonathan C. Yanney of Litchfield, Minn., and Spc. Troy Orion Tom of Beclabito, N.M., a member of the Navajo nation, are the first members of the post's 3,900 member 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division to be killed in Afghanistan.
Both soldiers were on their first deployments and died in a roadside bomb attack near Arghandab in Kandahar province, which has seen violence escalate in the runup to elections in Afghanistan.
The 5th, which is Fort Lewis's newest Stryker brigade, deployed to southern Afghanistan in June to battle the Taliban.
Tom, 21, a three year Army veteran, was an infantryman. He is survived by his parents, David and Carolyn Tom, two brothers and a sister of Beclabit, where his father is a delegate to the Navajo Tribal Council, the Daily Times of Farmington, N.M., reported.
"Students really thought highly of him," Paul reportedly said. "He had a great sense of humor, a great smile and he was trusted by his friends. He was a very intelligent guy, and he had passion."
Yanney, meanwhile, was 20 years old and a fire support specialist.
In a message posted on MySpace, Russ Yanney, who identified himself as Jonathan's father, said:
"His unit was en route to assist another unit under fire, and his vehicle struck an (improvised explosive device). He was my first-born son. I loved him very much and he will be greatly missed. His smile and desire to help and learn will always be remembered."
In his own MySpace page that he last used on July 31, Yanney cited his heroes as his father and grandfather. He said of himself simply that he was an honest and hardworking guy but was nervous when first meeting people though he could open up afterwards.
"I'm pretty active, so I don't like just sitting around doing nothing," he wrote on his MySpace page.
The two Fort Lewis soldiers were killed the same day as First Sgt. Jose 1st Sgt. Jose San Nicholas Crisostomo, a Spanaway resident and Vietnam veteran, at age 59 became the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces to die in Afghanistan.
It was the first time that three or more members of the armed forces from Washington's military bases or hometowns died on the same day since Nov. 18,2007, when three members of the 4th Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis died in Baqouba, Iraq.
Crisostomo, originally from Guam but a leader in South Sound's Chamorro community, reentered the Army in 2008 after being away since retiring after a 24 year career in 1994. Crisostomo already had served tours of duty in Vietnam and the 1991 Gulf War, and received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. The husband and father of three left behind 10 grandchildren. The senior NCO did not serve with a Fort Lewis unit but with International Security Assistance Force Kabul.
The words in "War Dogs," a 2006 song by Murray Weinstock, are on the Pentagon's web page devoted to what are now called military working dogs, but which have always been known as war dogs.
When I left my home in the USA.
I was one of many trained a special way.
There was a war going on.
And I was sent to help.
Never did I complain,never whine, never yelp.
The Air Force photo above was taken in April 2007 of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Reese of the 20th Infantry Regiment, 20th Infantry Division, and his military working dog Grek at a safe house before beginning an assault against insurgents in Bahriz, Iraq.
The training hours were long
They worked you to the bone.
When youre part of a team
You got to hold your own.
Military working dogs as they're now called are respected as fellow soldiers and honored veterans especially for the lives they saved.
But while revered, especially by former handlers, as recently as Vietnam it wasn't always that way. Over the last few years, former handlers and non-profit advocates have been working to do justice to their service and memories by finding them homes after their working years, and since 2005 have been working on a war dog memorial.
Sniffing out the bad guys,
sniffing out the mines,
scouting up ahead,
I’m the point man on the line.
Especially in Vietnam. But from that war in which homecomings left scars, war dogs had no homecomings.
According to the US War Dogs Association, Dr. Howard Hayes, a retired National Institute of Health veterinarian in 1994 counted 3,747 dogs served in Vietnam, determined from records of "brand numbers" tattoed on the dogs' left ears.
However, more likely 4,900 dogs were used between 1964 and 1975 as records of dogs in Vietnam were not maintained before 1968, the association says.
The military working dog association says on its Web site:
"Only 204 dogs exited Vietnam during the 10-year period. Some remained in the Pacific, and some returned to the United States. None returned to civilian life. So what happened to the dogs that remained? Most whereeuthanized and the others where turned over to the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army)."
War dogs, never lose their way.
War dogs, saving night and day.
War dogs, we’ve been led astray.
War dogs. Left behind, where we stayed.
Long before the current wars, man's best friend was at his side in defense of home and trained to help in the work of survival. They were transformed into military working dogs and used in larger scales in wars since ancient times.
While Egyptians and Greeks used the dogs as sentry and attack dogs, the Romans took them to new levels, used large mastiffs from Brittannia in actual battalion sized battle formations.
Over the centuries their duties grew, including messenger dogs, search and rescue, scouts and explosive detectors. In Iraq, they also were infamously misused to intimidate prisoners during interrogations. During WW II the Soviet Union made suicide bombers of them, strapping explosives to them then remotely blowing them up as she searched under German tanks for food.
(Not everyone realizes, too, that dogs like the cuddly Portuguese Water Dogs made famous now by President Barack Obama's family, were once the messenger dogs of the Spanish Armada. Bred as fishermen's dogs, these original sea dogs are extremely intelligent, have big lungs and webbed feet, can dive 30 feet for nets, herd fish and swim between boats. Some who didn/t drown as the Armada's ships sank, it is believed, made it to Ireland and are the ancestors of Wheaton terriers.)
In Vietnam alone, according to the Pentagon, nearly 4,000 dogs served, 281 officially reported as killed in action. But those are only what is known since records were kept.
A bond is built forever,
forever and a day.
Built on love, built on trust,
that’s the K-9 way.
Out on a mission
we pray for all our friends
that the shepherd will leadhis flock
back to safety once again
So what is being done with U.S. dogs when they retire?
Military Working Dogs Adoptions, an informal group that wants to find homes for retired four-legged veterans, has a site that features heartwarming remembrances of modern success stories, and tells how people can contact the military, without being too much of a pest, to adopt one.
One story involves the adoption by a former military K-9 handler in Vietnam, whose working partner in that war was a German shepherd named Smoke, who 40 years later adopted a modern day working dog.
Despite their military duties, the military working dogs were screened prior for their acceptance by the military and are known for their tremendous temperaments.
The U.S. military has used several breeds of dogs in an war dog capacity since World War II. At first primarily German Shepherds and Doberman Pinschers, though the Doberman's have been replaced by Labrador Retrievers, with Belgian Malinois in the mix, according to U.S. Military Working Dogs Association.
Those who worked with, loved and respect these four-legged veterans also, since 2005, have been working to recognize and remember them through the U.S. War Dog Memorial Fund for a monument to be built in New Jersey.
There's already a recognition at the Air Force Armament Museum in Florida in a sculpture, "Faithful Partner - Guardian of the Night" was sculpted by Susan Bahary to honor and remember all working dogs, their handlers, trainers and veterinary staff.
Those who served with or admire these canine veterans make a promise echoing a conscience-pricking one made by the human troops who returned from Vietnam, ignored or forgotten:
For the second time in three months, war has claimed the life of a U.S. soldier who served in Vietnam and was old enough to carry an AARP card.
This one was close to home, a senior NCO from Spanaway, First Sgt. Jose "Joe" San Nicolas Crisostomo, 59, who on Tuesday became the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces to perish in Afghanistan.
After retiring with 24 years of service in the Army in 1993, Crisostomo voluntarily returned to help out the Army in April 2008, deploying to Kabul two months later, the Pacific Daily News of Guam reported.
Crisostomo, a leader of South Seattle's Chamorro community from Guam, was a Vietnam war veteran, 1991 Gulf War veteran, and received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during his previous 24 years of service.
A husband, father of three and grandfather of 10, Crisostomo would have turned 60 on Aug. 29th.
The News Tribune of Tacoma has a story that the Seattle Times picked up that says dozens of people, many from South Sound's Chamorro community of which Crisostomo was a leader, have gathered daily at his home since then to support his wife, Patricia, and his family and to participate in a nine day rosary. The paper said Crisostomo was also nicknamed Sinbad.
Julian Leon Guerrero Mendiola, a fellow veteran who helped found Grupun Minagof, a community group of Chamorro families in the Pacific Northwest, said Cristosomo was most often called "Joe."
"He was one hell of a guy. He was very family-oriented. And he went above and beyond himself to help other people," the Pacific Daily News quoted Mendiola as saying.
Crisostomo died when a roadside bomb tore through the armored Humvee in which he was riding outside of Kabul on Tuesday. The Defense Department said Crisostomo served with International Security Assistance Force Kabul, but did not specify a unit within it or from what U.S. Army post he was based.
In May, Maj. Steven Hutchison of Scottsdale, Ariz., another Vietnam veteran, was killed in Iraq, become the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces killed in either war.
Hutchison wanted to reenlist after 9/11 but his wife was against it, his brother told the Associated press.
After Hutchison's wife died "a part of him died and he rejoined the Army in July 2007 at age 59, his brother, Richard, told the AP in May.
Hutchison served in Afghanistan for a year before deploying to Iraq last October to lead a team of a dozen soldiers training the Iraq military.
Hutchison, who taught psychology at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles in the 1990s, served with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kan.
William Calley, the former Army lieutenant convicted on 22 counts of murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, publicly apologized for the first time this week while speaking before a civic group in in Georgia.
“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday, according to the Columbus Ga. Ledger-Enquirer.
The report said Calley's voice began to break when he added, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”
You can read the original story that the wires picked up in the Ledger-Enquirer.
In March 1968, American soldiers gunned down hundreds of civilians in My Lai, a Vietnames hamlet. At first the Army denied the event, then downplayed it, claiming the dead were mostly Vietnam.
In November 1969 journalist Seymour Hersch uncovered what happened. Calley was court-martialed and convicted of murder.
Until Wednesday, Calley had refused to grant interviews about what happened until Wednesday when he spoke at the Columbus Kiwanis meeting. He made a brief statement then took questions from the audience. Calley answered questions regarding his original orders, the question of a helicopter and only two U.S. casualties -- neither the result of enemy fire.
The Coast Guard will host an international, humanitarian service training exercise from in the Port Angeles and Seattle areas from Aug. 24 to 27.
The exercise is being conducted in support of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum (NPCGF), an international partnership of Coast Guard-like agencies from Japan, Russian, China, South Korea, Canada and the U.S., a press release from Seattle-based Coast Guard District 13 said.
Ships from Japan, Canada, China and Russia as well as security personnel from South Korea are scheduled to participate in the various events. They are slated to visit and operate out of Port Angeles next Monday, Aug. 24, and to travel to Seattle Wed., Aug. 26.
The training, named Pacific Unity, brings humanitarian professionals from the forum nations to train on aids-to-navigation, search and rescue, and maritime security operations, the Coast Guard said.
When a vehicle with two people went through a parking lot barrier at Des Moines Marina and plunged into Puget Sound on June 28, Coast Guard members Bruce Johnson and Steve Kokita saw it.
Without hesitation, the two dove into the water and rescued the driver but could not save the passenger.
Tuesday at a Des Moines city council meeting, the two were presented with certificates of valor, awarded to those who exhibit heroism by putting their own lives at risk to save another. Capt. Suzanne Englebert, Coast Guard Captain of the Port based in Seattle, presented the commendations.
Phillip Ewing of Navy Times reported Wednesday that in a highly unusual event, five Bahamian fishermen clinging to their capsized boat "were rescued Aug. 11 by what could be the world’s least likely ship to render aid on the high seas — a U.S. ballistic missile submarine."
The USS Rhode Island based out of Georgia, a sister to the big Trident ballistic missile submarines based near Seattle at Bangor, was underway in theAtlantic Ocean when its crew spotted the overturned fishing vessel with four men and a 14-year-old boy aboard.
A Navy announcement said the big boat's Gold Crew commander, Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, decided to turn around and investigate.
While tight security normally has Navy security teams keeping fishermen and others from getting too close to the boats, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for Submarine Group 10, said that while highly unusual for ballistic missile subs, which operate invisibly, to help mariners, the Mooney felt obligated to help the fishermen who had been adrift in their upside down boat for four days.
Citing a Navy announcement, Ewing wrote that "the rescued men joked with the Rhode Island’s crew that no one would believe the story of how they were rescued, according to the Navy’s announcement, but Mooney gave each one proof — a ship’s command coin."
The web site allrecipes.com has a version of an army chow tradition -- SOS -- that got a four-star out of five rating.
You all ought to know SOS stands for what beef in gravy covering a shingle of toast looks like.
This version of the classic Army chow used ground beef. When I grew up an Army brat, my dad and mom sometimes fed us creamed chipped beef on toast.
One allrecipes.com reader spiced up their SOS by suggesting more Worcestershire sauce, a chopped yellow onion, Knorr beef bullion mix and ground garlic.
In today's world I'll bet there's a vegan tofu version somewhere.
Benedict Carey of the New York Times on Monday reported:
"The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say.
"The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees.
TyroneHeade, a friend of mine and a key figure in Seattle's Scottish music category, is a world champion after winning the World Solo Amateur Piping Championship in piobaireachd music last Friday in Glasgow, Scotland.
Among other things, his win is significant because, at an age, 47, when, like athletes, pipers are considered past their prime, Tyrone's skills are improving. Furthermore, it's rare to see a pipe major -- Tyrone leads the Seattle-area's Elliott Bay Pipe Band -- compete in such a distinguished international forum.
Why mention it here in a military blog?
Well, for one thing, I play the Great Highland Bagpipes (known in Ireland as the Irish Warpipes)and Tyrone has been a teacher.
But in military matters, the instruments' adoption as martial music for British forces is one reason the pipes, which date back in various forms to ancient Egyptian days and at one time were popular in different variations throughout medieval Europe, did not die out.
British general Sir John Cope's army notoriously is said in song and lore to have fled from battle with a Jacobite army at the sound of the pipes.
Cope, commander in chief of government forces in Scotland, was defeated in a 15 minute battle in 1745 at the battle of Prestonpans, when his Hanoverian-British forces were routed by the forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie.
In 1746, the Bonnie Prince and his French-backed Jacobite Scots were trounced by at the Battle of Culloden, leading to the breakup of the Highland clan system. Charlie fled to Rome never to try to regain the throne his family once held again.
A captured Scottish Jacobite bagpiper, James Reid, was the only piper among rebels hanged after Culloden in 1745, when the attempt to restore Bonnie Prince Charlie to the throne of Scotland was defeated.
While he pleaded he had not carried arms and a jury suggested leniency for the piper, Reid's sentence, now part of lore and legend, was handed down by the judge. It notoriously noted that since no army had marched without instruments, and a highland regiment had never marched without a piper, Reid's pipes were construed as "an instrument of war."
Sounds almost like "weapon of mass destruction."
Back to Tyrone. Here's a little story I wrote today about him and his achievement.
Before tuning up for the challenge of his talented musical life, Tyrone Heade was felled by food poisoning. He was white as a banshee and dizzy yet somehow mustered the strength to summon the spirit of Scotland’s most ancient muses. Which made it all the more stunning when, last Friday, Heade, of Seattle, emerged as a world champion bagpiper. He took top place in the classical and most significant form of bagpipe music, piobaireachd – pronounced “pea-brock” and sometimes spelled simply pibroch – at the World Solo Amateur Piping Championship in Glasgow, Scotland. “I'm still pretty shocked that this thing is called what it is and I won it,” Heade said by phone from Glasgow Monday morning as he prepared to fly home Tuesday. “It is incredibly validating. It’s a huge award for me. I was in shock for over 24 hours after and it is still shocking,” Heade, who lives on Queen Anne with his wife, Rachael, and their cat, Lewis, said. “And I won it playing my granddad’s pipes, which was a wonderful thing.” Glasgow last week was alive with Celtic music and dance as the site of the “Piping Live” festival and the Glasgow International Pipe Festival, which coincided with the 2009 World Pipe Band Championships. The latter was won a remarkable sixth time by Simon Fraser University’s Pipe Band, located just north of the border in Burnaby, B.C., the top honor among several awards earned by Pacific Northwest pipers last week. Heade’s competition was held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance under the auspices of CLASP, the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers run by the National Piping Centre in Scotland. (For the initiated, it differs from the famed Glenfiddich World Piping Championships for professional.) Heade, (pronounced “heed”) is a key figure in Seattle’s Scottish music scene and has received other honors through the years. He also is pipe major of the competitive Elliott Bay Pipe Band; resident piper at St. James and St. Mark’s Cathedrals; a founding member of Mastery of Scottish Arts, which brings the world’s best pipers, drummers, fiddlers and dancers to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall each year; and highly regarded for his effective but gentle teaching style with students ranging from seven to 70. Heade formerly worked in marketing before venturing into bagpiping full time. He hires his services through www.bagpipe-entertainment.com, with www.Bagpipe101.com a short version of his URL. The now defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper profiled him in a 1999 feature. http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/bagp04.shtml While the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe is commonly known from the skirling marches assimilated into martial music, piobaireachd can be thought of as music in a literary sense. In Scotland, a piper might play the popular tunes magnificently but is more highly regarded for mastery of piobaireachd, known also as Ceol Mor, or Great Music (pronounced “kyol more”.) The classic tunes are long, varying from more than six to more than 20 minutes and have been preserved in sheet music since the early 1700s. There are rules to master but they are also left to some interpretation. “The hard part,” Heade said, “was actually practicing in the heat in Seattle before I left for Scotland” helped when St. Mark’s cathedral allowed him to use their cool chapel. The tune Heade played was “Tulloch Ard,” a 10 to 12-minute “gathering tune” of the MacKenzie clan. Heade said he grew emotional reading the favorable comments from his judge, Pipe Major Jimmy Banks, a retired military piper. “Although I was sick I decided I would play the tune for all I was worth. It was heavily phrased and I tried to show that I knew what I was doing. I even lost my balance once while playing and was getting really tired at the end. But he really liked the tune,” Heade said. Heade’s win is distinctive for two reasons: At 47, an age when pipers, like athletes, can be considered past their prime, Heade continues to improve. And there aren’t many pipe majors -- those who lead and direct pipe bands -- doing this kind of competition. “It’s really rare that someone my age keeps improving,” he said. “And it’s funny but there aren’t any pipe majors doing this.” “It’s also especially nice to have this now that I am walking into my 20th anniversary being the cathedral piper for St. James,” Heade said. Seattle for years seemed a black hole of Scottish pipe music until the last two decades. It’s proximity to Simon Fraser University, now a piping epicenter, along with the rise of other local entertainment and competition bands, and Heade’s achievements and those of younger local pipers like Jori Chisholm and the Northwest Junior Pipe Band have brought it more into the light. “A lot of good young people are getting a good education,” Heade said, noting that Chisholm, an award winning piper, plays with Simon Fraser’s world champion band. There are five grades of amateur piping, with grade V being beginners, III intermediate and I top level. The next level is professional. While Heade took top honors in amateur piobaireached, he placed sixth in marches, reels and strathspeys. Overall amateur solo honors went to Joshua MacFarlane from Toronto. Practically every piper has a teacher at levels higher than he or she. Heade’s teacher, who normally doesn’t show excitement, was enthusiastic at learning Heade one. Heade’s teacher is Alan Bevan of Canada, who on the weekend won the overall professional “masters” solo piping competition in Glasgow. Heade, began taking lessons from Bevan when Bevan, a gifted and hard-working piper, was 17. Bevan is now married with two kids and is a lawyer. “Alan continues to be a big influence on me. I spent 12 years with Alan and I received a terrific attitude and terrific education from him,” Heade said. Heade now plans to head to a London piobaireachd competition in November. He also wants to take his skills to another level, but age restrictions on the professional medal ranks limit him, as they screen out older players. At home in Seattle on the weekend, Heade’s wife, Rachael, informed his friends of his win, knowing her humble husband wouldn’t jump to do so. More than a few wee drams were lifted in toast. Excellence is a daily pursuit in any discipline, Heade said. “You are only as good as your weakest skill,” he said. “Once you think you’ve gotten it all beat you begin to not do so well at all.”
The Museum of Flight has several public programs with connections to military history coming up in August. The cost to attend is museum admission.
* "Sweethearts of the AEF," a play performed by the museum's resident Amazing Skies Theater volunteer acting troupe, takes to the stage at 2 p.m., Sat., Aug. 8 in the William M. Allen Theater.
The musical is based upon the life of Elsie Janis, a Broadway star who went to France in 1917 to entertain World War I American troops, the AEF or American Expeditionary Forces. The show repeats Aug. 15 and Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. in the Museum's Personal Courage Wing replica of a French Farmhouse Courtyard.
* Also on Aug. 15, USS Enterprise survivors of the 1969 accidental explosion of a rocket on an F-4 Phantom II fighter jet will be on hand in the William M. Allen Theater at 2 p.m. to talk about it. The accident on Jan. 14, 1969 left 28 dead and 343 injured.
* "Sharpie: The Life Story of Evelyn Sharp, a lecture and book signing by author Diane Bartels, is planned for Sat., Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. Bartels researched and wrote the inspiring book about Evelyn Sharp, known as "Nebraska's aviatrix."
Born in 1919, Sharp was motivated by her first airplane ride at 15 to earn a commecial pilots license in the next three years, and by the time she was 20, was one of only 10 women flight instructors in the U.S. Sharp became one of the first women to ferry U.S. Army Air Force fighters during WW II, and lost her life in the service of her country during a takeoff accident while piloting a P-38.
Meanwhile, the museum, as home of the American Fighter Aces Association and the Personal Courage Wing of war planes, through the summer has brought out a collection devoted to the U.S. Eighth Air Force's 56th Fighter Group, in which pilots flew the durable P-47 Thunderbolts.
Known as "Zemke's Wolfpack" for their commander, Col. Hubert "Hub" Zemke, the unit was one of the most successful American fighter units of WW II. Video includes rare color footage from the documentary, Zemke's Way.
Among items on display are artifacts and photos of James C. Stewart -- not to be confused with the actor, James M. Stewart who flew bombers. James C. Stewart was a fighter ace who recorded 12.5 "kills" and was awarded the Distinquished Service Cross, the nation's second highest medal for valor.
The 56th's top ace was Lt. Col. Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski, known until his death in 2002 as "America's greatest living ace" after surpassing WW I ace Eddie Rickenbacker's record of enemy "kills" with 28.
Gabreski, a Pennsylvanian and son of Polish immigrants, was himself shot down and became a POW after asking to fly "one more mission" after D-Day in 1944 when he had completed enough missions to warrant a trip back to the U.S. His prison camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers in March 1945.
In 1942, when he first went to England, accounts in Gabreski's book, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot's Life, indicate Gabreski was frustrated at cooling his heels while his American unit was organized. So he won permission to join an RAF Polish Squadron, the 315th, and flew Spitfires in combat before joining the 56th.
Gabreski also later served during the Korean War, where he was credited with shooting down 7 Migs. He made the Air Force a career and held several wing commands before retiring and becoming president of the Long Island Railroad.
This blog picks up where the military/veterans affairs blog I wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ends.
After 25 years at Seattle PI, I was among the more than 150 people laid off when the newspaper closed its print edition, and with it the military/veterans affairs blog "Now Hear This."
Quite a few veterans asked me to keep it going but I had important family business to pursue. My dad, an Army retiree, finally passed away July 5 from complications due to dementia.
I spent 25 years at the PI, including a stint covering the Green River serial murders.
I served a hitch in the Marines 36 years ago, receiving an honorable discharge with a service connected disability. I spent 15 years as an Army brat, a tough upbringing I would not trade for the world.
I have a degree from Penn State and studied at Boston University and UPenn.
I also attended seminars at the Army War College and the Institute of Strategic Studies.
As a reporter, I tried to focus on the human element of those who serve and their families.
I'll try to keep this going and do justice to all of you who selflessly serve and served.
According to a museum press release, O'Donoghue during the summer of 2001 commanded the first flight and flew the first hovers and first vertical landings of the X-32B. After the JSF program, he was assigned as deputy project pilot for the Sonic Cruiser and the 7E7/787 programs.
