A new threat environment means a transformed National Guard should maintain its force after drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

Jewish troops observing the Passover holiday cannot consume bread or — in some traditions — beans and corn or their derivatives, making it difficult for deployed soldiers to comply with their religious obligations.

Often, they have cobbled together meals on their own from permissible foods, such as salami, canned tuna, fresh fruit and matzoh, said Army Reserve Col. Bonnie Koppell, a Phoenix rabbi and command chaplain with the 63rd Regional Support Command.

“People functioned as an Army of one, as it were,” she said.

But when Passover, which commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, begins March 29, many Jewish soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will have access to special rations supplied by the Defense Logistics Agency.

These are not the only rations tailored to support religious observance. Year-round, the DLA’s Defense Supply Center Philadelphia ships thousands of halal and kosher rations for Muslim and Jewish troops, as well as detainees and foreign militaries.

In 2009, the center distributed 204,000 kosher meals and 1.32 million halal meals, according to Jim Lecollier, chief of DSCP’s individual rations branch. For this Passover, it has distributed more than 7,500 Passover meals and a number of related kits used to conduct a ritual feast called a seder. The kits are full of Passover-specific foods and religious materials.

Kosher and halal meals cost the Pentagon roughly the same as other MREs, $86 per case of 12, Lecollier said. The kosher-for-Passover meals cost more, $126 for a case of 12.

This year, the Army ordered 341 cases of the meals, the Navy and Marines ordered 213, and the Air Force ordered 72.

Koppell said that providing specialty foods is an important way to support diversity and troops’ free expression of religion.

“It gives them a sense that their religious observance is respected, that they’re understood for who they are, they’re supported and respected,” she said.

Kosher and halal rations have been available since Operation Desert Storm, and rations adhering to kosher-for-Passover rules — which are more restrictive than normal kosher rules — were first offered in 2004.

Although the process varies by service, personnel in need of such meals should request them through their chaplain, Lecollier said. Often, units pre-purchase kosher and halal meals to have on hand, but kosher-for-Passover meals must be ordered three to four months before the holiday, he said.

While halal and kosher standards both prohibit some items, such as pork, the two standards are not interchangeable. Halal foods cannot contain alcohol, and kosher foods cannot contain shellfish or mix meat and dairy.

My Own Meals, a Deerfield, Ill., company, manufactures Glatt kosher MREs and — under its JŸ&ŸM Food Products division — Dhabiha halal MREs, company President Mary Anne Jackson said.

But the meals are not always easy for the troops to locate when their unit is deploying rapidly and has no inventory. In some cases, soldiers and their relatives have contacted Jackson directly to locate or order meals.

“For the most part, there are kosher and halal meals in theater at all times,” Jackson said. “If someone tells you there aren’t, they’re wrong. They’re in Kuwait, they’re in [United Arab Emirates], Iraq, Afghanistan. They’re everywhere.”

My Own Meals, which has contracted with U.S. military since 1996, also makes its kosher and halal meals for grocery stores, universities and prisons.

To produce kosher meals, workers under the supervision of a rabbi must painstakingly dismantle, steam-clean and inspect the company production machinery and utensils. Each of the ingredients — including kosher meat from Minnesota and New Jersey — are certified kosher, assembled, cooked and packaged under rabbinical supervision.

Abdenour Moussawi, an inspector with the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, certifies halal food at JŸ&ŸM facilities. Moussawi inspects equipment for cleanliness and supervises production.

JŸ&ŸM purchases meat from halal butchers in California, Washington, Iowa and New Jersey, where Muslim butchers must invoke the name of Allah as the animals are slaughtered.

A Muslim has no choice but to eat, dress and live according to halal — meaning permissible — standards, Moussawi said. Lack of access to halal food could harm a soldier’s job performance.

“It has to do with his psyche,” Moussawi said. “If he’s not comfortable with what he’s eating, he’s not going to be a comfortable soldier. You have to make everything proper for him.”

Kosher company LaBriute, of Lakewood, N.J., is supplying Passover meals this year. Two entrees, bone-in chicken and beef stew with vegetables, are complemented by matzo crackers, coffee, tea, dried fruit, nuts, macaroons, canned salmon and gefilte fish (a pungent carp patty).

A sense of community

This Passover, Koppell is one of many chaplains with plans to conduct a seder for troops. She will travel to Kuwait and use a government-issued seder kit, which includes a plastic seder plate, a box of matzo, religiously significant foods and a Passover prayer book called a Haggadah.

“It builds a tremendous sense of community,” Koppell said. “You have a private sitting next to a captain at the seder table, where under normal circumstances they wouldn’t have that kind of peer relationship. It’s an opportunity to freely be who they are in a place they might not feel that freedom.”

Abe Halberstam, president of LaBriute, said that when the government awarded him the contract in late January to provide kosher-for-Passover meals, not all his suppliers had begun producing kosher-for-Passover items. He had to wrangle the food from suppliers, assemble the meals and ship them — all in time for the holiday.

“The minute I get that contract, I start pulling all my resources together, and start nudging and making sure everyone is in sync,” Halberstam said. “We go into high gear, and it’s a big challenge.”

The orders went out via Army Post Office and Fleet Post Office on March 5.

“I believe we all have to take care of our troops one way or the other,” Halberstam said. “The most rewarding part of that is, when there are troops out there that need meals, I get these kits out to them on time.”

View full post on Military Times – News

A former White House staff photographer who started photographing Iraq in 2003 said that comparing old images to recent ones presents a picture of staggering economic growth there.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

The Marja operation has served as proof of principle for operations in Afghanistan, and commanders are working to adopt the principles in other areas in the country, a senior military official said.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — A retired master sergeant who lost her hand nine years ago when a package bomb exploded here is the first woman in the U.S. to receive a hand transplant.

Now she believes her surgery, the first hand transplant performed at a Defense Department hospital — Wilford Hall Medical Center here — will give hope to service members who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Retired Master Sgt. Janet McWilliams, 59, cradled her bandaged left hand March 3 as military and civilian doctors declared her surgery a success.

“Two weeks ago I received a gift, a hand,” McWilliams told reporters. “Hopefully this will provide hope for [wounded service members] as well as receiving something back that is priceless, and that is our dignity.”

Doctors said the ground-breaking procedure, performed here, could pave the way for future hand transplants for wounded service members.

“This is an exciting day and … this is a tremendous opportunity,” said Army Col. Dr. James Ficke, chairman of the Wilford Hall and Brooke Army Medical Center integrated departments of orthopedics and rehabilitation.

Almost 1,000 troops wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan have undergone major extremity amputations, and about 50 of them could qualify for a hand transplant, said Ficke, who also is the orthopedic surgery consultant to the Army surgeon general.

McWilliams’ surgery signals great potential for other service members, but “what really happens in the future, time will tell,” Ficke said. “This is an additional choice for patients.”

McWilliams has undergone 29 surgeries since July 31, 2001, the day she noticed a package on her desk at Lackland. At the time, McWilliams was a first sergeant for the 342nd Training Squadron.

As soon as she opened the package, it exploded, severing her left hand and fingers from her right. The explosion also tore into her torso, damaged her right eye, blew out her eardrums and left powder burns all over her body.

A former airman assigned to McWilliams’ old training squadron, the 344th, sent the bomb because he was angry that he had been medically discharged from the Air Force. McWilliams had recommended a mental health evaluation for Brandon Walters, who was convicted of sending the bomb and sentenced to more than 90 years in prison.

As McWilliams recovered, she tried various prosthetics, but none seemed to work or fit right.

“I used all different types of devices to make my quality of life as good as it can be, but in the back of my mind I always wanted a hand, and this wonderful [donor] family gave me that gift,” she said.

In August 2009, McWilliams was put on the waiting list for a donor hand, said Maj. (Dr.) Dmitry Tuder, the lead surgeon on the transplant surgical team.

The search for a donor hand is complicated by factors such as skin color, race, gender and blood type, said Dr. Joe Nespral, director of clinical services for the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance.

On Feb. 16, a match was found, and McWilliams was in surgery the next day.

Since the surgery, McWilliams has healthy blood flow to her new hand and she already has some feeling in her thumb and fingers, Tuder said.

He estimates she will gain feeling in the hand in about six months and in about a year will have recovered enough feeling and function to complete daily tasks. She also faces months of vigorous occupational therapy and will rely on immunosuppressive medications for the rest of her life.

“I’m prepared for the next six months or years,” said McWilliams, who wore a blue robe with her rank and her former squadron patches.

“ ‘No’ is not part of my vocabulary. This beautiful new hand will certainly become a part of my body.”

McWilliams also thanked the donor family for their generosity despite their deep loss.

“At night, in the quiet, I marvel, I absolutely marvel at what has happened here,” she said. “And at the same token, I think of the family.”

View full post on Military Times – News

Three of the four services and all of the reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals for February.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

BAGHDAD — Almost seven years after the first bombs in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraqis went about their business Friday with little observance of the anniversary, looking to the future with a mixture of trepidation and hope.

Perhaps more important in the minds of many was the ongoing wait for final results from the country’s second nationwide parliamentary election. The milestone will determine who will oversee Iraq as U.S. forces go home, but could also point the direction the fragile democracy will take down the road — deeper into the sectarian divide that followed Saddam’s fall, or toward a more secular, inclusive rule.

“Now we have democracy and freedom, but the cost was dire and Iraqis have paid that price,” said Raid Abdul-Zahra, 38, a technician in Najaf.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition appears to be ahead in the tight race. With almost 90 percent of the vote counted as of Thursday, his coalition was leading in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces compared to five provinces for his closest rival, the Iraqiya coalition led by secular Shiite and former prime minister Ayad Allawi. Al-Maliki’s coalition also has about 40,000 votes more in the overall vote count.

Many, especially among the country’s Sunni-minority that dominated Iraq during Saddam’s rule, blame the U.S. for the sectarian violence that erupted after the invasion.

“Failure is the word that should be linked with the U.S war. The Americans brought people to power, but those people are specialized in reprisals, blackmail, inflaming sectarianism and robbing,” said Mohammed Thabit, a retired teacher from Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit.

While violence has plummeted since the height of the bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, attacks continue, although in much smaller numbers.

On Friday, at least five people were killed across Iraq.

Three people died when a bomb exploded in the Sadr City slum in east Baghdad; gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in Baghdad; and a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed an Iraqi soldier, police and hospital officials said. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Many Iraqis view the U.S. withdrawal plans with mixed feelings — pride that their country is regaining its full sovereignty but also concern that the lull in violence may break and bloodshed return.

“If the forces leave speedily, there will be a power vacuum and more problems will erupt because Iraqi forces are not loyal to Iraq but to their party affiliations,” said Abdul-Karim Moussa, 55, in Baghdad.

Others think the violence will dissipate after the U.S. pulls out.

“I think the violence will vanish after the American withdrawal because they are causing the violence. They entered Iraq to steal its natural resources,” said Ahmed Abdul-Hussein, 55, in Kut.

In Sadr City, the stronghold of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Sheik Suhail al-Akabi described the anniversary as the “ominous day of the invasion,” and called for a demonstration April 9, the anniversary of Baghdad’s fall, “to call for the departure of the occupying forces.”

Al-Sadr’s followers have been some of the most adamant voices calling for U.S. troops to immediately leave Iraq.

The U.S. military said there were no ceremonies or special events to mark the anniversary.

At least 4,386 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

Those numbers have tapered off significantly as violence has dropped and U.S. forces have limited their operations as part of the U.S.-Iraq pact under which American forces pulled out of Iraqi cities.

Last year, 152 American service members died in Iraq, compared to 314 a year earlier, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press using data from the Pentagon.

The number of troops in Iraq has also dropped significantly since the height of the war in October 2007, when the U.S. had about 170,000 troops in the country. About 95,000 remain, and that number is expected to fall to 50,000 by the end of August under President Obama’s plan to remove all combat troops from the country. All American troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011.

According to figures compiled by Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry and released last fall, 85,694 people were killed from the beginning of 2004 to Oct. 31, 2008, and 147,195 were wounded. The figures include Iraqi civilians, military and police, but do not cover U.S. military deaths, insurgents or foreigners, including contractors. And it did not include the first months of the war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

However, those figure are widely considered a minimum because many deaths went unreported.

The war in Iraq has cost more than $712 billion, according to the National Priorities Project.

———

Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Katarina Kratovac contributed to this report.

Related reading

• Among Iraqis, psychological scars run deep

View full post on Military Times – News

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to Mexico City as part of a U.S. delegation focused on helping the Mexican government fight drug-trafficking cartels and other security threats.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

Patriot Academy, the military’s first accredited high school, graduated its first class at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana.

View full post on American Forces Press Service News Feed

NORFOLK, Va. — Two F/A-18E Super Hornet pilots from Strike Fighter Squadron 136 have been permanently grounded for flying too low before a Georgia Tech football game Nov. 7, according to a source.

The pilots, both mid-’90s graduates of Georgia Tech, flew over Bobby Dodd Stadium in downtown Atlanta at just a few hundred feet above the stadium, under the 1,000 feet minimum required by Navy rules.

Multiple videos of the flyover, posted on YouTube, show the planes screaming low over the stadium.

“I can confirm the incident did happen,” said Lt. Cmdr. Phil Rosi, spokesman for Naval Air Force Atlantic. “But it would be inappropriate to comment further as these are not public figures and have an expectation of privacy.”

But documents obtained by Navy Times and authenticated by a senior Navy official familiar with the investigation name the pilots as Lt. Cmdr. Marc Fryman and Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Condon. Both were assigned to non-flying jobs through an administrative process called a Field Naval Aviator Evaluation Board, the results of which are not released by the Navy.

In the documents, Rear Adm. R.J. O’Hanlon, commander of AirLant, was unforgiving in his assessment of the incident and in Fryman and Condon’s future in naval aviation.

“Fryman failed to provide effective [crew resource management] for his flight lead and allowed an unsafe flyby to occur with nearly tragic consequences,” O’Hanlon wrote of the mission commander. “Despite his spotless record, his complacent, passive response to a major altitude transgression is unforgivable in my view.

“Continued aviation service involving flying is not in the best interest of Lt. Cmdr. Fryman or the United States Navy.”

O’Hanlon’s judgment of Condon was equally tough. The admiral wrote that Condon ignored low-altitude warnings and didn’t “keep altitude in his scan” and that the incident could have ended “tragically.”

O’Hanlon dismissed the conclusion by some of the reviewers of the board’s results that the altitude error was unintentional.

“The arguments written by prior endorsers that Lt. Cmdr. Condon’s actions were an honest mistake are not persuasive,” he wrote. “He is a senior, very experienced department head who placed his aircraft and wingman in a very dangerous position.”

Both will stay in the Navy, but O’Hanlon recommended both have a “warfare transition” to another officer community.

The pilots reported the low pass themselves upon landing and the Navy convened the evaluation board immediately to determine if the officers violated Navy rules.

Navy records show that Condon was reassigned to AirLant on Feb. 12, but Fryman’s record still shows him at VFA 136. However, sources say that he, too, is at AirLant.

“The results are tough for sure, but they broke the rules and got a proper punishment for what they did,” said the senior Navy official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. “It may seem tough, but it’s a safety issue and the admiral made the right call.”

Related material

• View the flyover

View full post on Military Times – News