Colonel Aboard Space Station to Enlist 800 Army Recruits

20 Feb 2020

Stars and Stripes

When more than 800 Army recruits across the United States take the oath of enlistment later this month, they'll have someone to look up to – way up.

Army astronaut Col. Andrew Morgan, who is aboard the International Space Station orbiting some 250 miles above Earth, is slated to swear them in Feb. 26 via a broadcast to 100 locations, U.S. Army Recruiting Command said in a statement Tuesday.

It will mark the first time the oath will have been administered nationwide from the ISS, where Morgan is the flight engineer, it said.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis, USAREC's deputy commanding general, will host the ceremony and a question-and-answer session with Morgan, which will also be streamed via NASA TV, DVIDS and the Army's Facebook and YouTube pages.

—One of three current Army astronauts, Morgan is a combat veteran and emergency physician who served with special operations units and deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, a NASA biography said.

—The West Point graduate was selected to become an astronaut in 2013, completed astronaut candidate training in 2015, and has performed seven spacewalks and one flight to the ISS.

The swearing-in event is meant to highlight the Army's need for soldiers in fields involving science, technology, engineering and math

—Space is a growing interest to the Defense Department, which recently launched a sixth service branch focused on the extraterrestrial domain.

—While mostly associated with operations on Earth, the Army relies heavily on "space-enabled" technology such as intelligence and communications satellites to help soldiers "see, shoot, move and communicate," the USAREC statement said.

Call to anons, video game enthusiasts kek

The Army has been seeking to grow its force and had to retool how it recruits new talent last year, after failing in 2018 to meet its recruiting goal for the first time since 2005. In 2019, it surpassed its more modest target, and launched initiatives to market itself to fitness buffs and video gaming enthusiasts

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/20/colonel-aboard-space-station-enlist-800-army-recruits.html

The Army's Unconventional Big-City Recruiting Strategy Is Paying Off, Officials Say

20 Feb 2020

Military.com | By Richard Sisk

The Army was on track to meet or exceed its recruiting goals again this year, with help from an unexpected boost of enlistments in the traditionally difficult northeast region, Army officials said Wednesday.

The whole East Coast, from Richmond north, is really taking off," Army Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, commander of Army Recruiting Command, said at a Pentagon roundtable with defense reporters

He didn't have specific numbers at the ready, but said Army recruiters had met 100% of their goals in New York City and Boston, where recruiting has normally lagged behind the South and Southwest.

Muth and Dr. Eugene "Casey" Wardynski, assistant Army secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, also said that the surging economy, with unemployment at 3.6%, was not having the usual effect of discouraging enlistments

We want to be great in a great economy," Wardynski said. "We're in a position to do great when America is doing great."

Muth said the Army fell short of its goal in fiscal 2018, when about 70,000 were recruited, compared to the goal of 76,000. Last year, the Army met its goal of 68,000 new recruits. And so far this year, the service is pacing 2,026 recruitments ahead of the same period last year, Muth said.

The plan was to have the end strength of the Army at 485,000 by the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30, Wardynski said. With recruitments currently going well, the Army already has plans for a late entry pool for recruitments in excess of 485,000, he said.

Both Wardynski and Muth attributed the improving recruiting numbers to a new marketing campaign called "What's Your Warrior," begun last November to highlight opportunities in the Army for today's youth.

They also emphasized a switch to focus more on 22 major cities for recruiting, and a targeting of so-called "Generation Z," those born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s

Under Brig. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army Enterprise Marketing, the Army marketing team moved from its headquarters near the Pentagon to Chicago last fall to get closer to private-sector expertise. That includes DDB Chicago, which has a $4 billion contract as Army's full-service ad agency until 2028.

Fink said the effort to connect with Generation Z through such innovations as virtual recruiting stations and more creative uses of Instagram and YouTube were already paying off. In December, the Army logged 4.6 million visits to GoArmy.com, Fink said

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/20/armys-unconventional-big-city-recruiting-strategy-paying-officials-say.html

Navy, Marine Corps Racing to Cut $40 Billion in Spending

(U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Jake McClung)

19 Feb 2020

Military.com | By Gina Harkins

The acting Navy secretary has ordered top brass to find ways to shift billions of dollars away from redundant or outdated programs to pay for high-ticket items – and leaders have been given just weeks to carry out the plan.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger and other Navy Department leaders have until April 15 to find at least $40 billion that can be used to pay for new ships and ballistic-missile submarines. The review, which acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly ordered in a memo Tuesday, must identify ways to "fund the development, construction and sustainment of this new fleet over the next five years."

"As we prepare to go to Congress to defend our … 2021 budget request, it has become increasingly apparent that we have a challenging story to tell," Modly wrote. "We are facing three critical pressurizing mandates that are conspiring to limit our ability to deliver the Integrated Naval Force required by the National Defense Strategy."

Those requirements include a congressional mandate to build a 355-ship Navy, improving readiness shortfalls after years of high operational tempo, and a four decade-long recapitalization of the nuclear ballistic submarine force. All of that, Modly wrote, will need to be paid for amid a "flat budget environment."

We must act now to make tough, fiscally informed choices in order to fund our key strategic priorities using the budget we have, not the budget we wish we had," he added.

The Marine Corps referred questions about the review to the Navy. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for information about how it will carry out the directive.

Generating $8 billion a year in savings over the next five years will be equal to about 7% of the Navy Department's annual topline budget, Modly told leaders. The savings, he said, will be repurposed to help pay for what he called his top three priorities: designing and building a 355-plus-ship Navy by 2030; ethical and educational opportunities for sailors and Marines; and digital modernization across the forces.

During the review, the acting secretary said leaders should identity low-priority, redundant or legacy programs that can be eliminated, reduced or restructured to meet the services' needs

"We must find savings within the Department to reinvest in the kind of decisive naval force that will provide for our nation's future economic and political security," Modly added.

He also challenged the sea services to a bit of service rivalry in his memo, calling on the Navy and Marine Corps to beat the Army's recent budget cuts.

But the Navy Department cuts will more than triple the $13 billion the Army has trimmed from its budget over the next several years. Coined "Night Court" sessions, Army leaders have met after hours and aggressively moved money away from low-priority programs to fund readiness and modernization efforts.

Related: Army Releases Full List of 80 Programs it Plans to Kill or Trim Back

No portion of the Navy budget is exempt from scrutiny as part of the eight-week analysis, which Modly is calling the "stem-to-stern capability-based strategic review." But the acting secretary marked eight programs that should receive consideration as department leaders look for potential savings.

Some of the changes could include eliminating headquarters, commands or organizations; streamlining naval logistics; outsourcing some programs; consolidating training and installation management; and significantly cutting service-support contracts, among others.

Gilday, the Navy's top officer, said last month that the Navy Department would need a bigger slice of the Pentagon's budget if sailors and Marines are going to be called on to counter China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Splitting the budget equally between the Army, Navy and Air Force doesn't match the requirements of the National Defense Strategy, he added, which calls for a hefty naval presence.

"If you believe that we require overmatch in the maritime, if you believe that in order to execute distributed maritime operations and to operate forward in great numbers now – that we need more iron – then yes, we need more topline," Gilday said.

The Navy Department's 2021 budget request, which includes overseas contingency operations funds, totaled $161 billion, $2.9 billion less than last year's request. The overall Pentagon budget request for next year is $705 billion.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/19/navy-marine-corps-racing-cut-40-billion-budget.html

Military Still Struggles to Handle Kid-on-Kid Sexual Assaults

Q why are kids at military bases so sick, where’s this coming from?

13 Feb 2020

The Associated Press | By REESE DUNKLIN and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

The U.S. Department of Defense is struggling to change how it handles the abuse of military kids, including cases involving sexual assault by other children, according to a report commissioned by Congress.

The military has been slow to implement reforms that lawmakers mandated more than a year ago, said the report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Pentagon still doesn’t know the extent of child-on-child sexual assaults, in part because some officials dismiss incidents without reporting them and the Pentagon has no one place to track all cases that have been logged.

Worldwide, more than 1.2 million school-age children live with military families, many on large bases that include schools, recreation centers, playgrounds and other trappings of civilian life.

While the report credited the Pentagon and some armed services for making policy changes on paper, it concluded ground-level change was lagging.

“I’d say their intentions are good. They’re starting to make progress,” said Brenda Farrell, the report’s primary author. “But it has a long way to go in order to get it to the point where they have oversight in place to be able to say that things are actually improving or that they’ve got this particular area under control.”

Lawmakers tasked Congress’ watchdog agency with doing its review after an Associated Press investigation detailed how justice failed both victims and offenders in child-on-child sexual assaults on bases.

—AP’s reporting showed how the Pentagon and Department of Justice were failing both victims and offenders. Cases that investigators made often died on the desks of prosecutors, even when an attacker confessed. Victims were denied help because regulations granted counseling only if the attacker was an adult.

—In response, Congress passed legislation that required a series of reforms, starting in fall 2018. Wednesday’s report amounted to a progress check.

—The report recommended 23 changes, which the GAO’s Farrell said was a high number.

—“If the leadership sends the message this is a high priority, then everyone else will start to fall in line,” Farrell said.

—In responses included in the report, the Defense Department generally agreed with the suggestions.

—On one recommendation, the Pentagon said it was working with the U.S. Department of Justice to improve how criminal investigators and prosecutors respond to cases. AP found that federal prosecutors with jurisdiction over many large domestic bases and all overseas bases rarely prosecute. On some bases, state prosecutors have jurisdiction — and were much more likely to take a case. Unlike the federal system, states have juvenile justice programs that focus on rehabilitation.

—Another recommendation cited a lack of pediatric sexual assault forensic examiners to help build cases based on physical evidence — the military there are only 11 such specialists, the report said. The Pentagon agreed that more expertise was needed and said it was working on building that expertise.

—Generally, the changes related to child-on-child sexual assault so far have focused on revising written policies for how to handle and track reports. The military’s equivalent of social services, the Family Advocacy Program, published new guidelines as did the Army and the Pentagon-run school system known as the Department of Defense Education Activity, know as DoDEA.

—AP’s investigation documented nearly 700 sex assault reports on U.S. bases worldwide over 10 years, a certain undercount because the Pentagon did not systemically track cases.

—The GAO also found that the Defense Department didn’t know the full scope of the problem because data kept by its various branches was incomplete — and a centralized tracking system is a long way from reality. The Pentagon said it awarded a contract to develop a database in mid-November.

—The Defense Department “has not yet identified all information requirements, developed a plan for how it will use the data it collects, or established a schedule for development and implementation,” GAO said of a tracking database.

—The report also found that some complaints weren’t getting classified as abuse by staff at military bases. That staff has “considerable discretion” in deciding whether complaints are investigated or recorded in incident-tracking data.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/13/military-still-struggles-handle-kid-kid-sexual-assaults.html

Battle of Iwo Jima's Last Living Medal of Honor Recipient Still Working for Military Families

23 Feb 2020

The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa. | By Dave Sutor

Hershel "Woody" Williams did not even know something called the "Medal of Honor" existed when the Quiet Dell, West Virginia, native learned he would receive the nation's highest and most prestigious personal military decoration.

In fact, at the time, he thought the best part about getting the medal was being sent home sooner than expected after fighting in the Pacific Ocean Theater during World War II.

"In September (1945), after the war was over in August, I was called to my division general's tent for him to tell me that I was being sent back to the states," said Williams, one of two Medal of Honor recipients from WWII still living .

"The whole division, they were not scheduled to come back to the states yet, but I was sent back to Washington to receive it. And if he used the terms or the words 'Medal of Honor' it didn't mean anything to me because I had never heard of it. I didn't know what he was talking about. … The thing that impressed me and the thing that I remember most of course is – I had been there for two years now – I got to go home. He could have said anything else in the world and I don't think it would have overshadowed that."

Williams, a corporal with the 21st Marine Regiment, earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Iwo Jima, which occurred 75 years ago from Feb. 19 through March 26, 1945.

On Feb. 23, Williams – armed with a flamethrower and with only four riflemen covering him – destroyed seven Japanese pillboxes, one by one, over a four-hour period. His medal-earning action took place on the same day as the iconic Iwo Jima flag raising, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Williams did not witness the flag actually being raised, but did see it later flying high atop Mount Suribachi, providing a "morale booster."

'Beyond the Call of Duty'

On Oct. 5, 1945, President Harry S. Truman presented Williams with the Medal of Honor during a group ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Truman recognized Williams for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty," according to his citation.

Williams "daringly went forward alone to attempt the reduction of devastating machine-gun fire from the unyielding positions" and, on one occasion, "mounted a pillbox to insert the nozzle of his flamethrower through the air vent, killing the occupants and silencing the gun; on another he grimly charged enemy riflemen who attempted to stop him with bayonets and destroyed them with a burst of flame from his weapon."

His citation said: "His unyielding determination and extraordinary heroism in the face of ruthless enemy resistance were directly instrumental in neutralizing one of the most fanatically defended Japanese strong points encountered by his regiment and aided vitally in enabling his company to reach its objective. Cpl. Williams' aggressive fighting spirit and valiant devotion to duty throughout this fiercely contested action sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service…

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/23/battle-iwo-jimas-last-living-medal-honor-recipient-still-working-military-families.html

Health Care

Hacker group targeted law firms, released veterans’ stolen data related to PTSD claims

Dylan Gresik. 3 days ago

Ok anons this sounds fishy, why target veterans with PTSD. Easily triggered? This is not good

Hackers have gained access to sensitive data from at least five law firms in the past four months, releasing stolen data that includes pain diary entries from veterans’ personal injury cases, Emsisoft, a cybersecurity and anti-malware company, told Military Times.

Maze, a hacking and ransomware group, has breached several law firms, local government databases and other companies, demanding payments for data recovery and deletion. The posted information includes VA documents, patient care records, legal fee agreements and privacy consent forms.

why were these law firms so hack able?

https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/military-benefits/health-care/2020/02/19/hacker-group-targeted-law-firms-released-veterans-stolen-data-related-to-ptsd-claims/

>>8225615

Pretty cool I have to say, the military is upping their game and recruiting Gen Z and on the East coast no less is fantastic

>>8225656

They have a particular skill set, and sure the military will discipline their minds, which is missing ingredient to real intelligence