News Call
Afghanistan: The Retrograde
Despite many challenges, the United
States is on track in moving equipment
out of Afghanistan. More than 40,000
containers and 30,000 vehicles have
been shipped home over the past year,
with some 80,000 containers and 20,000
vehicles to come by December. The
buildup of infrastructure, materiel and
supplies in Afghanistan includes 560
bases, 50,000 pieces of rolling stock and
equipment, and 90,000 20-foot equivalent units of supplies.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan
will be a historic logistics accomplishment, and in some ways, the Afghanistan retrograde is even more difficult
than the withdrawal from Iraq. Afghanistan’s landlocked status, lack of a navigable river, rugged terrain, primitive
road networks and politically sensitive
relations with its neighbors contribute
to making the retrograde a logistical
nightmare.
There are only two routes out of
Afghanistan to the nearest usable
port—Karachi, Pakistan. The Pakistan
“ground line of communication” includes crossing from eastern Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass or from
the southern town of Chaman to get to
Pakistan. Pakistan shut both routes for
seven months in 2011–12 and periodically threatens to close them again. The
only other surface route is the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), which
runs through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. By far, the quickest and easiest
method for retrograde is air shipment,
but this method is considerably more
expensive than using the NDN.
Afghanistan presents even more
challenges to the retrograde. Rather
than donating or selling usable items,
as it did in Iraq, the United States is divesting—by destroying and/or selling
for scrap—some of the equipment it is
leaving in Afghanistan. The main reason for doing so is because of the fear
that it could fall into the hands of insurgents. The equipment is trashed before it is sold to ensure that versatile
parts such as timers or copper wiring
cannot be repurposed to make roadside bombs.
Combat Standards for Women. The
Army will not lower physical standards for women as it prepares to inte-
grate them into ground combat jobs,
Army Chief of Staff GEN Raymond T.
Odierno said in an interview with
USA TODAY in November. “Whatever
we do,” he said, “we are not going to
lower the standards.”
The Army is working to meet DoD’s
January 2016 deadline for opening
all MOSs to women, including those
that require a great deal of physical
strength and living in rugged conditions. The Army continues to study
the MOSs and the demands associated
with them, but critics of the Pentagon
directive have warned that opening
military jobs such as Infantry, tanks
and special operations, which are currently off-limits to women, may result
in a lowering of standards and that,
under pressure, the Army may bend.
GEN Odierno pledged it will not.
If an MOS stays closed to women after study, that exception must be approved by the Secretary of Defense.
GEN Odierno said it is too early to tell
if the Army will seek any exceptions.
“We’re nowhere near close to saying,
‘Hey, I don’t think we can do this.’
Right now, our plan is to go forward in
opening all MOSs.”
U.S. Army/CPT Peter Smedberg
Curbing Pay and Benefits. Top military commanders, forced to deal with
the decreasing DoD budget, have
agreed to a plan that will rein in the
growth of military pay and benefits,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
GEN Martin E. Dempsey said in a November 2013 interview. The new plan
A shipping container is transported by a
U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter during
a personnel and equipment movement
mission in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province
in October 2013. The helicopter crew, assigned to the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade,
is made up of Texas and Oklahoma Army
National Guard units and has played a
critical role in retrograde operations and
base closures across eastern Afghanistan.
January 2014 ■ ARMY
11
U.S. Army/SFC Raymond J. Piper
The AH-64E “Guardian” replaces the
smaller AH-64D “Longbow.” The new
aircraft is equipped with technology
that allows pilots to fly in overcast skies,
and it offers integration of manned and
unmanned aircraft systems.
Retired GEN Ann Dunwoody, grand marshal of the 2013 Veterans Day Parade
in New York City, greets spectators along Fifth Avenue. Army Chief of Staff
GEN Raymond T. Odierno (right) represented the featured service branch. The
parade gave special recognition to women in the military—past and present.
GEN Dunwoody is the country’s first female four-star general.
AH-64E Milestone. The Army’s newest
Apache helicopter, the AH-64E,
achieved initial operating capability
12 ARMY ■ January 2014
in November 2013 in the hands of the
“Tigersharks”—the soldiers of 1st
Squadron, 229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 16th Combat Aviation
Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord,
Wash.
The unit was issued its first AH-64E
in January 2013 and was named the
Army’s first unit equipped with the
helicopters after completing fielding
and individual training last May. The
unit maintained a high operational
tempo, flying more than 670 hours last
November, in order to be prepared to
deploy overseas early this year.
Prioria Robotics Inc.
will not cut benefits to servicemembers or retirees immediately, he said.
It is a multiyear effort to curb the cost
of military compensations, including
pay, health benefits and housing allowances. Without the cuts, the Army
will lack funds for new weapons and
training within 10 years.
Military personnel costs, which already form about half of the Pentagon
budget, will soon grow to 60 percent
if these changes are not made. GEN
Dempsey said that for “what we have
asked these young men and women to
do over the last 10 years, we can’t pay
them enough.” He acknowledged, however, that the military’s leaders “also
have an institution to manage” and the
changes are necessary to balance the defense budget.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have been
working on this plan for nine months,
GEN Dempsey said. They will unveil
the plan when the proposed defense
budget is released in February, he said,
and it must be approved by Secretary
of Defense Chuck Hagel and President
Obama before it is submitted to Congress.
U.S. Missiles in Turkey. Secretary of
Defense Chuck Hagel announced in
November that two U.S. Patriot missile batteries stationed in southern
Turkey to guard the country against
air attacks from neighboring Syria will
be replaced. At Turkey’s request, the
United States will continue to augment Turkey’s air defenses for one
more year.
Some 400 soldiers of 3rd Battalion,
2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment,
31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade,
were stationed in the border city of
Gaziantep, about 40 miles from the Syrian border, for almost a year as part of a
NATO commitment of six Patriot batteries deployed after Turkey requested
assistance in defending its airspace.
The batteries’ respective radars tracked
all activity across the border. U.S. Army
Europe’s 10th Army Air and Missile
Defense Command (AAMDC) provided command and control. The two
Patriot batteries, from the 32nd AAMDC at Fort Bliss, Texas, returned to
the United States for maintenance. By
mid-December 2013, about 250 soldiers
of the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th AAMDC, took
over the air-defense mission in Gaziantep.
At the request of soldiers in combat, the Army recently purchased 36 Maveric unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The bird-like drone is classified as a micro-UAS. It
is smaller than the Raven and Puma and supports soldiers at the squad level.
SENIOR EXECUTIVE
SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS
F. Blackmon,
Tier 2, from Dep.
Asst. Sec.,
OASAF for Force
Mgmt. Integration,
to DASA (Army
Review Boards),
OASA (M&RA),
Washington, D.C.
M. Reheuser,
Tier 2, from Dir.,
DPCLO, DoD,
Washington, D.C.,
to Exec. Dir., U.S.
Army HQ Services, OAASA,
Washington, D.C.
Tier 1: G. Sands-Pingot, from Principal Dep.
G-3 for Ops./Exec. Dep., Supply Chain and
Industrial Ops., AMC, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.,
to Dir., Human Capital, OCAR, Pentagon, Arlington, Va.
AMC—Army Materiel Cmd.; DPCLO—Defense Privacy and Civil Liberties Office;
DASA—Dep. Assistant Secretary of the
Army; HQ—Headquarters; OAASA—Office
of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army; OASA (M&RA)—Office of
the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs); OASAF—Office
of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force;
OCAR—Office of the Chief, Army Reserve;
Ops.—Operations.
SFC Jason J. Manella
(left), 2013 NCO of the
Year, and 2013 Soldier
of the Year SPC Adam
Christensen.
NCO Journal/Meghan Portillo
Best Warriors 2013. SFC Jason J. Manella, U.S. Army Reserve Command,
and SPC Adam Christensen, U.S. Army
Pacific Command, were named 2013
NCO of the Year and Soldier of the
Year, respectively, at the conclusion of
the Army Best Warrior Competition at
Fort Lee, Va., in November 2013. The
event consisted of three days of tests in
various areas, including warrior tasks,
battle drills, physical fitness, land navigation and weapons qualification.
SFC Manella, 445th Civil Affairs Battalion, Mountain View, Calif., and SPC
Christensen, 472nd Military Police Company, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, were
selected from a group of 24 competitors representing soldiers from 12 major Army commands.
SFC Manella has been in the Army
for 10 years and has deployed three
times in support of Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring
Freedom. SPC Christensen enlisted
two years ago and hopes to eventually serve in the U.S. Army Special
Forces Command.
Soldiers in the ranks of corporal
through sergeant first class vied for
NCO of the Year, while soldiers ranking from private to specialist competed
for Soldier of the Year.
Army Downsizing. Soldiers from the
4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team
(BCT), 2nd Infantry Division, Joint
Base (JB) Lewis-McChord, Wash., are
working through the post-deployment
reintegration process and are in the
process of receiving new assignments.
The brigade, which will officially deactivate in March, consists of more than
4,200 soldiers and is one of 10 BCTs
that the Army announced last summer
would be eliminated by the end of fiscal year 2017.
Many soldiers will probably move to
other units based out of JB Lewis-McChord. Others could relocate to Fort
Collins, Colo., where the brigade’s subordinate units are expected to be assigned. Soldiers can ask for specific assignments to specific units, but those
requests are being balanced with the
Army’s needs. Most 4th BCT soldiers
will be relocated by the summer. Some
could remain on base until September
30, especially if they are among the approximately 500 who are being called
upon to help manage the deactivation.
The 4th BCT was formed at JB
Lewis-McChord in 2006 and deployed
twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.
The joint base is losing some 4,500
to 5,000 soldiers in the downsizing
process. In October, it lost about 350
soldiers when the howitzer-firing 1st
Battalion, 377th Field Artillery Regiment, deactivated.
Preflight Screening Changes for
Servicemembers. Changes have been
made to the process that servicemembers use to qualify for the expedited
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) pre-check security screening process at airports.
Before December 2013, servicemembers—including members of the reserve
components—presented their common
access card (CAC) to use TSA pre-check
lanes in 10 domestic airports. Doing so
allowed them to remain wearing their
footwear, light outerwear and belts,
and keep their 3-1-1 compliant liquids
and laptops in carry-on bags. TSA is
phasing out the CAC scan process entirely by March 31.
Under the new process, servicemembers will use their 10-digit DoD identification number, which will become their
known traveler number. It is on the back
of most CACs. For CACs that still contain a nine-digit Social Security number,
the DoD identification number can be
found by signing onto the milConnect
website and selecting “My Profile.” Servicemembers who have already paid to
participate in a Trusted Traveler program and have a known traveler number may continue to use the membership as long as it is renewed, but using
their DoD ID number is free.
January 2014 ■ ARMY
13
USMC/LCpl. Clayton Filipowicz
manned aerial systems, such as the location of roadside bombs, to plot safe
routes for supply convoys.
The program aims to provide the
Army with state-of-the-art unmanned
ground vehicles and unmanned aerial
systems, and TARDEC develops and
integrates the technology solutions for
those machines. During the commercialization phase, TARDEC hopes to
provide the Army with unmanned
ground vehicles and aerial systems
that are totally integrated and can be
operated at the same time by one person from a single control station.
CPT Kelly Calway, who was the first woman in the military to finish the 29th Army TenMiler, also took first place in the female category of the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2013. Her time for the 26.2-mile race was 2:42:16, which qualified her for the Olympic
trials in 2016. CPT Calway, who was the female 2008 Army Athlete of the Year, is a Military Intelligence officer. She was scheduled to deploy to Kuwait soon after the race.
Servicemembers may use pre-check
for leisure travel as well as official
business. For more information, visit
www.defensetravel.dod.mil and click
on the “TSA Pre-check Program Expands” link in the right-hand margin.
Commemorative Stamps Issued. Medal
of Honor recipients from World War II
helped unveil a new series of U.S. Forever postage stamps dedicated to the
464 servicemembers who received the
award for their battlefield gallantry during the war. The first-day-of-issue ceremony took place at the National World
War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.,
on Veterans Day 2013.
When the U.S. Postal Service began
the recognition effort, it chose to honor
the last 12 living Medal of Honor recipi14 ARMY ■ January 2014
ents from the war. Black-and-white portraits of those men in uniform surround
the actual stamps on the sheet. The
stamps depict the Army and Navy versions of the medal. (The Air Force medal
was not created until after the war.) A
new “prestige folio” format lists the
names of each of the World War II
Medal of Honor recipients. Nearly half
of those listed died as a result of their
battlefield bravery and received the
award posthumously. Of the 12 living
recipients specifically honored, only
eight survived to see the ceremony.
Robotics Funding. In late October,
DoD awarded additional funding to
commercialize the ForeRunner, a highspeed inspection robot developed by
RE2 under an Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
The supplementary funds are being
awarded as a Phase III SBIR with the
U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research,
Development and Engineering Center
(TARDEC), which will work to maximize the usefulness of the ForeRunner
and provide it with the capability to
work with other systems. One goal, for
example, is to enable the ForeRunner to
use information gathered from un-
Women’s Museum Statue. Honoring
the service of women in the Army, a
full-size fiberglass statue of a female
soldier in full combat gear was unveiled outside the U.S. Army Women’s
Museum at Fort Lee, Va., in November
2013. Women from every combat era
since World War II attended the standing-room-only ceremony. More than
200 personalized bricks support the
statue and its base.
The Army Women’s Museum honors the contributions that women have
made to the Army since the Revolutionary War. Originally the Women’s
Army Corps Museum at Fort McClellan, Ala., it was moved to Fort Lee and
dedicated in 2001. The museum provides military history instruction to
soldiers and veterans and offers free
American history classes to more than
12,000 K–12 students in central Virginia
each year. To learn more about the museum, visit www.awm.lee.army.mil. ✭
Army Casualties in
Afghanistan
The following U.S. Army soldiers
were reported killed supporting
Operation Enduring Freedom
from November 1 to November
30, 2013. All names have been released through the Department
of Defense; families have been
notified.
SFC Forrest W. Robertson, 35
SSG Richard L. Vazquez, 28
SSG Alex A. Viola, 29