Chairman of Joint Chiefs Stresses to New Officers the Wisdom of Enlisted Soldiers
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 8, 2008; Page A09
The nation's top military official yesterday urged graduating U.S. officers at the Army War College to listen to the combat-tempered soldiers below them, saying it is critical to keep young veterans in the force and tap their understanding of today's unconventional wars.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that junior officers and enlisted soldiers "are wise beyond their years," adding that "war has a way of doing that." Such soldiers know "a few new things about how to wage irregular warfare in this new century," and military leaders "would be foolish to toss that knowledge aside," Mullen said in a commencement address to more than 300 colonels and lieutenant colonels graduating from U.S. Army War College at Carlisle, Pa.
Mullen's remarks reflected growing concern among senior Pentagon leaders over the retention of the Army's captains and other junior leaders, who are increasingly weary from repeated and lengthy war zone rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan and in some cases alienated from the generals who lack their first-hand experience.
Fresh thinking is vital to reforming military institutions that are "mired in peacetime and must fundamentally change," Mullen said. Addressing graduates at the college, which offers master's degrees in strategic studies to military officers considered most promising for promotion, Mullen asked who "will have the strength and the courage to put forth the ideas that truly change the way we act as an institution?"
Such change must not only harness the lessons from today's counterinsurgencies but also position the U.S. military for a wide range of possible future conflicts, including large-scale conventional combat, he said. "We still face very real threats from regional powers who possess robust conventional and, in some cases, nuclear capabilities," Mullen said, warning that "the specter of major conflict may have diminished, but it has not yet disappeared."
Voicing a concern echoed by chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps and other services, Mullen highlighted the need to restore conventional capabilities that have atrophied as a result of the overwhelming focus on Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There are young Marines who have never deployed aboard a Navy ship and Army officers who have not been able to focus on their mission of providing artillery fire support," he said.
The Navy, for its part, has devoted thousands of soldiers to land jobs and revived riverine units with the advice of Vietnam war veterans -- but today has a fleet of 280 ships at sea, "far fewer than it may need to provide the credible maritime presence" required by regional U.S. commanders, Mullen said.
The Air Force, meanwhile, has suffered "a serious decline in nuclear mission focus and performance, a decline which erodes our nation's ability to effectively deter and to defeat potential major adversaries," he said, referring to evidence in a classified Pentagon investigation of the Air Force's failure to safeguard U.S. nuclear weapons materials. The investigation led Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last week to remove Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley.
Commenting on that decision, in which he played a role, Mullen said: "I respect and admire the decisions by Secretary Wynne and General Moseley to accept responsibility and accountability for this decline. That should serve a lesson to us all about leadership, but so too should it serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of complacency."
Since he took office last fall, Mullen has made a priority of reaching out to Army personnel of all ranks to better address strains in the nation's main ground force, and yesterday he also raised the health of the all-volunteer force and, particularly, the wounded "who bear the seen and unseen scars of war."
"Too many of them find themselves adrift in paperwork and processes designed for a peacetime force -- again, out of balance for the wartime reality we face. Too many of them suffer in silence. We must take better care of them, and each other," he said.
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They have always said the NCO's are the backbone of the military amd combat tested veterans have knowledge and experience that can NOT be taught in classrooms.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Chairman of Joint Chiefs Stresses to New Officers the Wisdom of Enlisted Soldiers
Entire NZ Gov apologizes to Vietnam Veterans.
New Zealand Government Apologizes to their Vietnam Veterans and Families
Entire NZ Gov apologizes to Vietnam Veterans.
The links below document the formal apology by the New Zealand Prime Minister and both Parties of government for lack of recognition and lack of recognition by prior administrations of herbicide damages for their Vietnam Veterans, as well as their families.
The links take time to down load.
New Zealand Prime Minister
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/video.cfm?c_id=1501138&objectid=10512976&content_media_id=4998863
The National party’s response it at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/video.cfm?c_id=1501138&objectid=10512976&content_media_id=4998864
Minor party responses are at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/video.cfm?c_id=1501138&objectid=10512976&content_media_id=4998872
{Thanks to Australian Vietnam Veteran Rifleman “Bob Gibson” - Vietnam Vet 67-68 for sending the links.}
While our own nation historically has been less than stellar in its admittance of "all" herbicide damages both to the Veteran and his family as well; and the interference of previous administrations in recognizing known facts. In fact, history demonstrates White House directed interference and a congress that would not address the issues even though they admitted the facts in published house reports such as HR 101-672. … The Agent Orange Cover-up: A Case of Flawed Science and Political Manipulation. Yet, still nothing was done and very little has been done today in the admittance of all the facts and outcomes using various "less than transparent" methodology.
HR 101-672 was released in August 9, 1990 and the flawed science has finally been fully documented that Ranch Hand Study the so called “gold standard” was so flawed and so many wrong assumptions were made it missed an entire doubling of cancers associated to the single dioxin, TCDD. We at this point have no idea with the flawed assumptions what other statistics were driven towards null and still being used as denial tools by VA/IOM.
However, as bad or “less than stellar” our own government has been in its treatment and recognition of Vietnam Veterans it pales in comparison with the treatment of the New Zealand Government and their lack of recognition of even have been exposed. Denying that fact for over 40 years.
While it is too late for many New Zealand Veterans to see vindication and recognition of honorable service; I can only hope that their Vietnam Veterans and their families can finally take some solace from these total government apologies and admittance of prior government transgressions against the most noble of all citizens of any Nation.
My congratulations to Lindsey and all the New Zealand Vietnam Veterans and their families in their hard fought battle for recognition and hope that at least mentally they can find some comfort in vindication after over 40 years of struggles.
My opinion only…it is too bad our own government and others as well do not have the same intestinal fortitude in their convictions as the New Zealand Government in admitting their mistakes and previous transgressions for which their Veterans paid dearly.
Kelley
Bush tells Congress to pass Iraq funding
Bush tells Congress to pass Iraq funding
President Bush boards Marine One as he departs the White House in Washington, Friday, June 6, 2008. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 7, 2008; 10:24 AM
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, seeking to better his negotiating position ahead of votes on a huge Iraq war-funding bill, said Saturday that U.S. troops "deserve better" than the treatment they are getting from the Democratic-led Congress.
"This is an opportunity for Congress to give our men and women in uniform the tools they need to protect us, and Congress should approve these vital funds immediately," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Congress has had this funding request for more than a year, and there is no reason for further delay."
But the dispute over the hotly contested bill, and the delay in getting it passed, is as much as anything due to demands from Bush that Democrats find unacceptable.
The bill contains unrelated domestic spending beyond Bush's $178 billion war funding request and the president has threatened a veto if it doesn't come out. Meanwhile, the White House wants to add money to the measure to let troops transfer ramped up GI Bill education benefits to their spouses or children.
Bush said that any further delay in passage will have dire consequences, such as temporary layoffs of civilian employees next month and no more paychecks for troops after July.
"Our men and women in uniform and their families deserve better than this," the president said. "They deserve the full support of Congress. I often hear members of Congress say they oppose the war but still support the troops. Now they have a chance to prove it."
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I don't even know where I want to start on this, DOD was told to start budgeting all the war funds into the budgets 2 years ago, no more supplementals, yet here they are still doing add ons. The stock market just tanked due to the .5 percent rise in unemployment yesterday, which indicates the Senate is right in asking for additional unemployment benefits, the GI Bill MUST be improved per the Webb Bill, not the John McCain/Graham indentured servant version. If President Bush supported the troops he would reduce the Iraq forces to pre surge levels or less of 130,000 they have declared the surge over but there are now 10,000 more troops in Iraq than there was before the surge. He would fire the VA Secretary for comparing TBI to high school football in Alaska a week ago when he was campaigning with Senator Ted Stevens and said that to many veterans are being diagnosed with PTSD rather than adjustment disorder, similar words of that now infamous e mail from Texas VA worker MS Perez.
If the VA does not support the full treatment of veterans with PTSD and want to diagnose veterans that are still having PTSD symptoms more than 6 months after the incident, then they are violating the DSM4 standards up to 6 months they can say it is "battlemind" after 6 months of chronic problems it is then considered PTSDand the VA should be rating is as such. There is nothing that says they can't treat and review the veterans over the next few years and if they improve after treatment reduce the compensation, but to treat them all as malingering money grubbing bottom feeders, is just plain wrong, talk about creating a stigma? I can't wait until we get a Democratic President that will appoint a vet friendly VA Secretary rather than an advesarial types we have had since Sec Principi left.
Searching for Project SHAD: Vet's efforts lead to investigation, legislation
Searching for Project SHAD: Vet's efforts lead to investigation, legislation
Written by Elizabeth Larson
Monday, 26 May 2008
The USS Granville S. Hall under way off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, on Nov. 8, 1965, the same year as Project SHAD began its tests in the Pacific. The ship accompanied light tugboats involved in the tests, according to Jack Alderson, a former Navy lieutenant who commanded the tugs. Official U.S. Navy photograph.
NORTH COAST – Years after he left the military, Jack Alderson began asking questions about chemical testing he was involved in and its effects on his health and the health of others.
Those efforts led to the introduction of a bill earlier this month that would offer health benefits to veterans exposed to chemical agents during two classified government projects in the 1960s and 1970s.
North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg of Montana introduced HR 5954 on May 1.
If passed, the bill will provide Veterans Affairs health benefits to veterans who were exposed to biological, chemical or other toxic agents as part of Project 112 and Project SHAD.
Rehberg said the legislation is loosely crafted after that which was written to address Agent Orange. A similar bill previously was introduced but it died in the Senate.
Project 112, which included Project SHAD, was a series of approximately tests conducted between 1963 and 1973 by the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, according to Thompson and Rehberg. During these projects, a number of weapons containing chemical and biological agents such as VX nerve gas, Sarin nerve gas and E. coli were tested on unknowing military personnel.
According to the Force Health Protection and Readiness Program tests were conducted on the open sea in the North Atlantic, open water locations of the Pacific Ocean and near the Marshall Islands, Hawaii, Baker Island, Puerto Rico and the California coast. In addition, there were land-based tests in Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland, Florida, Utah, Georgia and in Panama, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Testing took place at the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, according to a Department of Defense fact sheet. Project SHAD – which stands for “Shipboard Hazard and Defense” – took place offshore.
Its purpose was “to identify U.S. warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with chemical or biological warfare agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks while maintaining a war-fighting capability,” the Department of Defense fact sheet explained. The project sought to find out how chemical and biological agents behaved under different climatic, environmental and use conditions.
But the true nature of the classified projects was kept under wraps for decades, and is still only slowly being revealed, according to Thompson.
Bringing the truth to light
Shortly after he was elected to Congress in 1998, Thompson said he was approached by one of his constituents from Humboldt County, Ferndale resident Jack Alderson, who had been a tugboat commander during Project SHAD. Alderson had become ill and had cancer issues but couldn't get answers about the project from the government.
“For years they denied that this was ever happening,” said Thompson.
Similarly, Rehberg said he was approached by a constituent on the day he was sworn into Congress in 2001.
Alderson, 74, said he's been trying fighting to break the issue loose since 1993.
When President John F. Kennedy was elected, the US had a strong nuclear program, but lacked similar strength in biological and chemical weaponry, explained Alderson.
Kennedy directed his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, to strengthen the nation's chemical program, and the result was Project 112 which included Project SHAD and gave rise to the development of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, said Alderson.
In October of 1964, Alderson – at the time a 32-year-old lieutenant who had served in the Navy for 10 years – was assigned to Project SHAD, along with several hundred other experienced sailors and officers. The point was to see how a Navy warship could hold up under chemical attack.
“We were all ordered in,” Alderson said. “None of us were volunteers.”
The testing involved all branches of the military. Alderson commanded five Army tugboats, each of which had a Navy lieutenant as the officer in charge and a crew of 11 sailors, handpicked for their experience and secret clearances.
Alderson said they were trained how to decontaminate a ship after a test and conduct air sampling. After two months of training, he reported to his superiors that they were ready for their mission,
President Lyndon Johnson signed off on the tests, which Alderson said commenced in January of 1965.
The tugboats left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and went to Johnston Island, southwest of the Hawaiian islands, where Alderson said the tests took place. Accompanying the tugs was the laboratory ship, Granville S. Hall.
Alderson said the tugs would go out to sea for six days at a time, and would form a line as long as 100 miles. On their decks would be three caged Rhesus monkeys, although some tests didn't involve animals.
Two Marine jets would fly over and spray a chemical weapon – including E coli., Bacillus globigii, Coxiella burnetti, Pasteurella tularensis and fluorescent particles – as well as a trace element and simulants. Alderson said the tugs had small labs on board, where they would take air samples. All of the chemicals used were carcinogenic.
Some tests involved the tugs taking out barges of monkeys which were sprayed with the neurological agents Sarin and VX. Those agents weren't used directly on the tugs, said Alderson.
The tugs would then go to the laboratory ship in rotations, taking the sick monkeys and their air samples. “The monkeys were not in good shape,” he said.
The monkeys, if they survived, would be observed by lab technicians on the laboratory, who eventually would euthanize the animals and conduct necropsies on them.
Alderson and his fellow Navy men began to suffer health problems themselves, including respiratory issues. They also noticed their immune systems suffered after they were vaccinated against the chemical agents.
The operations in the Pacific were carried out through rehearsal and written instructions, said Alderson. They stayed off the radio, not wanting anyone to know they were there conducting tests.
Alderson was involved in the secret operations until 1967. He made trips back to the Deseret Testing Center in Ft. Douglas, Utah, and that's where he met Jack Barry, who had been in an Army chemical corps for five years but was a civilian working for the Department of Defense by the time he met Alderson.
Barry, who was the right-hand man to the Marine colonel overseeing a number of biological tests, would be in Oahu, Hawaii, during the late spring and early summer of 1965, when officials carried out “Big Tom,” a Navy test that focused on the vulnerability of island naval bases in the event of a biological or chemical attack from the sea.
The drift of that test – which used Zinc Cadmium Sulfide and liquid Bacillus globigii – came in from sea and went across parts of the island, said Barry.
Barry said that similar drift tests, using the same chemicals as well as nerve agents, were conducted near Fort Greeley, Alaska. A fact sheet on Project SHAD's “Shady Grove” operations said tests took place at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Alderson said he doesn't think the Department of Defense wants it known just how many tests were done near civilians and on or near US soil.
When Alderson and Barry left their involvement with the tests, they said they were threatened with prosecution and prison time in Ft. Leavenworth if they disclosed anything about the operations.
Discovering troubling common threads
Alderson later went on to become chief executive officer of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District from 1975 to 1996. Barry left the Desert Testing Center in 1975 and joined the US Forest Service, moving to Davis to manage a technology development enterprise team.
In 1993, Alderson said he and some of the men who he served with decided to get together for a reunion.
It was a challenge, he said, to gather the men, who largely hadn't kept in touch. Most of the men wouldn't speak to their former Navy colleagues on the phone or answer anything in writing.
He said they did finally manage to get together for a small reunion in San Diego, where about 40 people came.
When they got together, they discovered many of them had suffered ongoing respiratory problems and various types of cancer. Alderson himself has had malignant melanoma, the most severe form of skin cancer. He also discovered that he has four pieces of asbestos in his lungs. In addition, he has had prostate cancer, and suffers from fatigue syndrome and severe allergies, the latter of which he said developed immediately after he was inoculated during the Project SHAD years.
When he discovered that he wasn't alone in his health concerns, he decided to start looking for answers.
The first politician he approached was US Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had visited the harbor district to discuss a harbor dredging project. While she was in Alderson's office, he shared his story.
Feinstein asked him to write her a letter outlining the situation, which she in turn took to the Department of Defense, which responded that Alderson should contact them directly. That, he said, was their way of putting him off.
It wasn't just the government pushing back on Alderson's requests. He said he went to a veterans group with his story. Their response, he said, was that the government wouldn't do that to its servicemen.
Meanwhile, Thompson had gotten into Congress, and the two men knew each other from having worked together on local issues when Thompson was in the state Senate. Alderson took him the story and began working with Thompson and his staff, who Alderson credits with doing a lot of hard work and investigation to bring the issues to light.
The Department of Defense at first denied that the program had taken place. But in May 2000 Alderson said CBS began doing TV reports on the issue.
Following pressure by Thompson and further investigation by CBS, the Department of Defense released a fact sheet on Project SHAD, a copy of which was obtained by Lake County News.
The date of the release? Sept. 13, 2001.
“You saw it in the paper, didn't ya?” Alderson joked.
He said he believes the government's timing was calculated for release during a time of crisis so that the issue wouldn't draw attention.
While getting classified information on the testing hasn't been possible, Alderson said a lawsuit regarding Project SHAD resulted in the deposition in 2004 of the project's plans and operations officer and lead scientist, Dr. J. Clifton Spendlove.
While the Department of Defense had claimed that most of the records for Project SHAD were destroyed or had deteriorated, Spendlove said most of the records were still in Utah, and he additionally stated he had filmed some of the tests.
“We have enough evidence that we believe Dr. Spendlove was telling the truth,” said Alderson.
Spendlove also has testified publicly about the project before a special advisory panel convened by the Institute of Health.
Gradually, however, the issue began making its way into news reports, which is where Barry saw it.
He said he wrote to Thompson to tell him of the civilians who were exposed. Alderson found out about Barry's letter and the two men reconnected. At Alderson's invitation, Barry has since joined a special subcommittee set up by the Vietnam Veterans of America to work on issues related to Project SHAD.
Barry himself currently suffers from a rare form of cancer, but he says he's unsure if it's from the testing, his previous Army service or even time in the Forest Service, which also used toxic chemicals.
Thompson said that while the government eventually admitted the reports were correct, “We haven't had the level of cooperation from our government that we believe we should be getting.”
Finding the people exposed has been even more of a challenge, said Thompson.
Rehberg said preliminary estimates are that as many as 6,000 vets were exposed to the toxic agents, along with as many as 1,500 civilians. Thompson said Vietnam Veterans of America believes the numbers of vets exposed are actually much higher.
Alderson said that, just counting technical staff involved in the testing, between 500 and 600 people were affected. If you add in the many others on Navy ships exposed to the chemicals, the number climbs to 6,000. Add in “white coats” – people who were conscientious objectors and wouldn't fight but who volunteered for chemical tests – and that brings the number up to 18,000.
About 50 to 60 percent of the men he worked with on the light tugs are now dead, Alderson said, including six of the operation's 10 officers.
“We have some vets that are long dead because of the exposure they received, and that's just wrong,” Thompson said.
Government won't make effort to reach affected vets
The two congressmen faulted the government for a shoddy attempt to notify those who were exposed once they were identified.
Rehberg said he found it appalling that the government did the tests, then shirked its responsibility to help veterans.
In February, a US Government Accountability Office report stated that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs needed to improve efforts to identify and notify individuals exposed to chemical and biological tests.
The report added that tens of thousands of military personnel and civilians have been exposed to such tests by the Department of Defense.
“Since 2003, DOD (Department of Defense) has stopped actively searching for individuals who were potentially exposed to chemical or biological substances during Project 112 tests, but did not provide a sound and documented basis for that decision,” the report stated. “In 2003, DOD reported it had identified 5,842 service members and estimated 350 civilians as having been potentially exposed during Project 112, and indicated that DOD would cease actively searching for additional individuals.”
The following year, the Department of Defense ruled that the recommendation to continue an active search for those exposed “had reached the point of diminishing returns, and reaffirmed its decision to cease active searches,” a decision that the Government Accountability Office said “was not supported by an objective analysis of the potential costs and benefits of continuing the effort.”
From 2003 on, other organizations, such as the Institute of Medicine, identified an additional 600 people who could have been exposed. “Until DOD provides a more objective analysis of the costs and benefits of actively searching for Project 112 participants, DOD’s efforts may continue to be questioned,” the report stated.
The Lake County Veterans Service Office confirmed to Lake County News that they have received inquiries about Project SHAD from local veterans who think they may have been affected.
For the vets involved, it's tough for them to get treatment once they confirm their involvement in the tests, because the Veterans Administration has refused to provide them with health benefits or compensation for their diseases, which is a reason for the bill, said Thompson.
Alderson said he and others involved in the testing have had problems with their medical records, portions of which have been known to disappear.
The bill instructs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs within 180 days of enactment to notify all veterans of potential exposure to the biological or chemical weapons used in Project 112 and Project SHAD.
HR 5954 would “establish a presumption of service connection,” said Thompson, which would mean that once a vet was identified, any health issues would be presumed service-related.
“It's our hope that once this happens we can get them that health care they need,” Thompson said. “They should not be denied and neglected any more”
Although the bill's previous version died in the Senate, Thompson and Rehberg said they have assurances from Congressman Bob Filner, chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, that he'll get a hearing for the bill quickly.
“I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to have some success this time,” Thompson said.
Vietnam Veterans of America has endorsed the legislation, the congressman noted.
Rehberg credited Thompson for taking the lead on the matter. “When Mike gets his teeth in your ankles, he's not going to let go.”
Thompson said the government's denial and refusal to take care of the affected veterans has gone on far too long – more than 40 years in some cases.
Alderson, who previously has testified on Project SHAD before the Senate Armed Services Committee – said Thompson has asked him to come and testify before Congress during the bill's first hearing, scheduled for June 12, before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
Barry credited Alderson for working to bring the project to light. “He's not in it for personal gain. He's looking after his people.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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I am glad Congress is looking at this issue, I do hope they include all of the Cold War era test programs, the Operation Whitecoat veterans used inbiological weapons experiments from 1953-1973 when Nixon signed the 1972 BWTC agreement, the 7120enlisted men used at Edgewood Arsenal from 1955 thru 1975 in chemical weapons and drug experiments, other tests were conducted at Fort McClellan, Fort Bragg and any other place they may have done this, Panama, Alaska, they should all be covered if they were harmed by the exposures and links to the toxins and their current medical conditions can be linked. There are 2 studies that show the Edgewood veterans have extensive medical problems related to Sarin and mustard agents, LSD, PCP, Scopolomine, Ecstacy in all 254 seperate substances, the EPA shows 77 toxic sunstances in the drinking water wells of Edgewood Arsenal that were not capped and closed until 1978 three years after the last experiments. The CDC's ATSDR database links these to gastrointestinal, pulmonary, nuerological and cardiovascular problems, almost all body systems can be affected by these toxins.
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Some being shut out of aiding vets
In the past few days there have been several stories in The Blade about the U.S. military's high suicide rate, high occurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder, and lack of qualified mental health professionals within the Veterans Administration to help with the ever-increasing number of veterans needing mental- health care.
I find it quite ironic that, given these reports, licensed mental- health counselors such as myself are being virtually shut out of the VA health-care system. The majority of "counseling" positions within the VA are open only to social workers. Indeed, I am not even allowed to apply for "counseling" jobs because I am not a social worker. Recently I offered my services to the VA on a volunteer basis and I was denied the ability to even volunteer to help my fellow veterans.
While we hear that the VA is doing all it can for our veterans, it is in reality actively and purposely keeping well-qualified mental-health counselors from providing desperately needed services to our brave veterans. How, I ask, is this doing everything they can for our veterans?
This has to stop, and the VA needs to be forced to open up its recruiting and hiring practices equally to all qualified mental-health professionals. If you want to do something for our troops, call your congressman and senator and demand that our troops be given the best care possible by allowing all appropriately trained mental-health professionals equal access to VA employment. Our service members deserve the best mental-health care they can get and by all accounts they are not getting it.
Fred Lockard
Maumee
Improve services for military, families
It has been discouraging to read, hear, and watch stories about the inadequate treatment of our veterans' mental-health issues and needs after returning from their service for our country. Regardless of how we feel about war, it is sad that we are in such a crisis in trying to treat and support soldiers who may be experiencing conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder.
The donation of time and expertise by mental-health professionals is wonderful but mental health seems to be an issue that many times is not adequately funded. We also need to beef up support to the families of these soldiers. Everyone is affected.
The irony in Toledo is that a very effective not-for-profit organization that can provide such support to families had to layoff three employees because of financial difficulties. The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Toledo provides educational programs and support to families like mine. I hope that someone will step up and do the right thing to make sure agencies like NAMI are able to be there for families.
Let's find a way before it's too late to do the right thing for soldiers and their families as well as countless others who need help.
Liz Sheets
Ottawa Hills
Counting down
The end of an "error": Jan. 20, 2009.
Jerry Chabler
Sylvania
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Thursday, June 5, 2008
Asked to resign, which is code for firing,
On today’s edition of CNN Newsroom Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports that top Air Force leadership were asked to resign. This is a result of the B-52 bomber that flew across country with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that nobody knew were live nuclear weapons until the plane landed.
Please credit all usage to Jamie McIntyre
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We've got breaking news to tell you about that's coming to us from the Pentagon, and specifically from the Department of the Air Force. We have just learned that the top Air Force leadership is out, fired.
Let's head straight to the Pentagon and our senior correspondent there Jamie McIntyre. What's going on, Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is an example of Defense Secretary Robert Gates no-excuses management style. As you said, heads are rolling over the issue of the handling of nuclear weapons and other leadership issues in the Air Force.
Asked to resign, which is code for firing, is the top civilian in charge of the Air Force, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and the top military general in charge of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff General Mike Moseley. The two top leaders of the Air Force are being replaced because Secretary Gates has received a highly critical report of how the Air Force has reacted to an embarrassing incident last year which a B-52 bomber flew across country with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that nobody knew were live nuclear weapons until the plane landed in Barksdale, Louisiana.
There were supposed to be big changes made from that. But a recent inspection of the base was less than satisfactory, and Secretary Gates just got a report on his desk from an independent investigator, a Navy admiral who has been in charge of reviewing what the Air Force has done to take care of this.
It's not just this issue though. There have been a number of leadership issues in the Air Force including questions about a conflict of interest around a high-profile public relations contract that was left from the Air Force. And all of that together led Secretary Gates to decide that he was going to take decisive action.
It's not unlike what he did when he heard about the shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. In that case, he fired the Army secretary and head of the hospital there, as well -- Brianna.
Air Force leadership in shake-up
Air Force leadership in shake-up
By ROBERT BURNS
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 5, 2008; 1:42 PM
WASHINGTON -- The military and civilian chiefs of the Air Force are resigning, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne to step down.
A public announcement was expected later in the day.
There was no immediate word on who would be nominated to replace Moseley and Wynne.
Press secretary Dana Perino said President Bush knew about the resignations but that the White House "has not played any role" in the shake-up.
Moseley became Air Force chief in September 2005; Wynne took office in November 2005.
Wynne is the second civilian chief of a military service to be forced out by Gates. In March 2007 the defense secretary pushed out Francis Harvey, the Army secretary, because Gates was dissatisfied with Harvey's handling of revelations of inadequate housing conditions and bureaucratic delays for troops recovering from war wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Air Force has endured a number of embarrassing setbacks over the past year. In August, for instance, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country. The pilot and crew were unaware they had nuclear arms aboard.
The error was considered so grave that President Bush was quickly informed.
Moseley later announced that in response to flaws exposed during the nuclear weapons error, the Air Force would change the way bomber crews organize for their nuclear training mission.
Gates also has been trying to learn more about how fuses for Air Force ballistic missiles were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. Gates was briefed last week on the conclusions of an internal investigation of that matter but the results have not been made public.
Four cone-shaped electrical fuses used in intercontinental ballistic missile warheads were shipped to the Taiwanese instead of the helicopter batteries they had ordered. The fuses originated at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., but the mix-up apparently occurred after the parts were shipped to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
In another incident, the Pentagon inspector general found in April that a $50 million contract to promote the Thunderbirds aerial stunt team was tainted by improper influence and preferential treatment. No criminal conduct was found.
Moseley was not singled out for blame, but the investigation laid out a trail of communications from him and other Air Force leaders that eventually influenced the 2005 contract award. Included in that were friendly e-mails between Moseley and an executive in the company that won the bid.
"It is my sense that General Moseley's command authority has been compromised," Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at the time.
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SALUTE Secretary Gates it's about time there is some accountability at the top. My step father is a retired AF TSGT WW2- 1962 he would be ashamed of the past few years performance go 8th Army Air Corp
