Category: US Military

I know parking in the D.C. area can be crazy, but this going way overboard:

Bryan Whitman, the senior Pentagon official charged last month with stealing a Capitol Hill nanny’s license plates, has been placed on paid administrative leave and had his top-level security clearance revoked.

It remains unclear whether Whitman, the highest-ranking career civilian in the Defense Department’s public affairs office, had informed his superiors of the alleged crimes — which he was required to do.  (……)

In early April, court records say, Whitman stole two license plates from the car of a nanny who had used a visitor pass to park in his neighborhood, where she cares for a young couple’s 1-year-old son. Two days later, after the plates were replaced, he stole another from the car. Then, in late April, he struck once more — but this time the couple caught him on a video camera they had mounted inside their home’s front window.

After handing over the plates to police and being charged, Whitman agreed to a deal this week that would lead to the case’s dismissal if he pays $1,000 in restitution, performs 32 hours of community service, remains out of trouble for the next 10 months, and stays away both from the nanny and the woman for whom she works.

The source close to him insisted he didn’t know his target was a nanny. Whitman, who has worked at the Defense Department for more than two decades, believed the person using the visitor pass worked on Capitol Hill and was taking advantage of the available parking.

A spokesman for the District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation Department said Wednesday it is legal for nannies to use visitor passes when they are working.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but I would not want to live some place where you have to get a parking pass just park on the side of the street.

For servicemembers who rely on their BAH for some extra cash by living in a smaller home than what you could afford with your stipend, get ready because Congress is coming to take that money from you:

Senate lawmakers want to radically overhaul how military housing stipends are awarded and end the practice of troops pocketing extra cash from the payouts.

The plan is tucked into the Senate’s pending draft of the annual defense authorization measure, and hasn’t received the same attention as major military health care and acquisition reforms also included in the legislation.

But it has the potential to change housing stipend totals for nearly every service member in coming years, with some potentially losing hundreds of dollars a month. And it comes after a series of pay and benefits trims in recent years that have left advocates frustrated about increased financial strain on military families.

Instead of the current Basic Allowance for Housing system, which assigns flat-rate stipends for zip codes across the country based on troops’ rank and family status, the new proposal would move closer to the military’s Overseas Housing Allowance. That system sets maximum payable stipends but awards troops only for their actual expenses, making recipients provide proof of what they pay in rent and utilities costs.

Dual military couples and service members who room with friends would not be able to game the system either. They’d see their individual stipend cut in half, adjusted to cover just their actual costs and nothing more.  [Military Times]

You can read more at the link, but this will do little to save any money and instead take money from troops to give to realtors.  I would not be surprised if the real estate lobby is behind this change.  That is because what will happen is that the realtors will make sure the rent for a home matches what the servicemembers maximum BAH rate is.  This will in turn drive up rental rates across the city as well which will bring in more money for realtors from civilians trying to find a place to rent.

This already happens in Korea with the Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) which has led to realtors being put off limits for colluding with property owners.  I also wonder how this affects servicemembers who own homes?  Will they be allowed to use the BAH to pay their mortgage?  What if they have the house paid off?  Will they have their BAH cancelled?

It seems to me that if Congress wants to save money than tax whatever the remaining BAH is as income.  For example if someone’s BAH is $2,000 and rents a house for $1,500 than tax the extra $500 as earned income.  This would keep money in troops pockets and not artificially increase rental rates across an entire community plus put money back in the treasury.  This makes too much sense so it probably will not happen.

I wear New Balance running shoes and the claim they are not durable by the Pentagon I am highly skeptical of considering how the various shoes I have wore over the years have held up just fine:

Now the Pentagon has stepped into more procurement quicksand, this time here in Lawrence, where it touched off a war of words with the New Balance footwear company, the Lawrence City Council and U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, by alleging the company’s athletic shoes are not fit for military duty. The company is not allowed to sell shoes on military bases, which it says will cost it the sale of many as 225,000 pairs to recruits and soldiers annually.

 

It was a snub heard ’round the world, sparking allegations that the Department of Defense prefers shoes made in Vietnam and Malaysia rather than in American hometowns like Lawrence, and amplified by New Balance’s decision to retaliate by taking up arms against President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership. The trade pact would lower tariffs on goods imported from 11 other nations, which New Balance says would flood the market with cheap foreign-made athletic shoes.

 

Rob DeMartini, New Balance’s president and CEO, said he agreed not to oppose the trade pact in exchange for assurances from Michael Froman, the Obama administration’s top trade official, that he would ease the impact by helping the company get a Defense Department contract to produce up to 225,000 pairs of athletic shoes a year for military recruits and soldiers. That never happened, the company said, then unleashed its attacks on the trade pact after years of reluctant silence.

 

“I’m definitely not a defense appropriation or procurement expert, but in the seven years I’ve been working on this, I’ve seen nothing but a bureaucratic nightmare, where middle managers at the Pentagon are making decisions that affect real jobs and real lives in America,” said Matthew LeBretton, a New Balance vice president. “There’s something really wrong with the system.”

 

LeBretton refuted DoD allegations that New Balance shoes are too expensive, noting that the company offered to supply the shoes at cost in an effort to keep its assembly lines humming and its supply lines full. He also disputed Pentagon claims that the test shoes it provided were not durable; published reports say the shoes were given to just six service members who were asked to run 30 miles over two months and then fill out a questionnaire.  [The Eagle Tribune]

Here is probably the most troubling statement in the whole article:

“If the Defense Department wants to make an argument that they want to buy non-American goods, that’s one thing,” Smithberger said. “But what a company’s political position is should have no bearing on whether they would get a contract or get a fair hearing and an ability to compete. It’s definitely improper.”

You can read more at the link.

Drink/drive limit toughened on US military bases in Japan, in line with Japanese standard: https://t.co/aK8MyPkc68 pic.twitter.com/0BQioioflO

— Erik Slavin (@eslavin_stripes) March 28, 2016

For those that haven’t read about this read I recommend going over to the John Q. Public blog and read about the curious case of Air Force veteran Alicia Watkins.  She was the woman that for yet to be determined reasons was given media credentials at a Donald Trump event and given the opportunity to ask a question.  Trump then invited her to come up on stage and made her a job offer.  The whole scene was strange, but when people began digging into Alicia Watkins backstory things got even stranger.

If you take everything she says at face value she is a 9/11 survivor from the Pentagon attack who had a close friend die who she started a charity for.  She then deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq where she saw combat action, suicide bombers, was seriously wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart.  She was also a military sexual assault survivor, has a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.  She was then medically discharged from the Air Force and proceeded to become a homeless veteran.  While homeless she did video diaries that eventually landed her a spot on the Oprah Winfrey show.  She then went on to attend Harvard, become a beauty queen, reality television personality and gets the VIP treatment at Super Bowl 50.  I probably missed a few things, but that is the best I could do in a paragraph.

So what has been verified about Watkins?  As far the media company she claimed to be working for that got her press credentials according to CNN it does not exist.  We also know that she was an executive assistant for Major General Durbin at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2006.  I have seen nothing yet to show she deployed to Iraq.  We also know that she is claiming to be at two places at the same time.  This 2007 Air Force article has her addressing airmen that had recently returned from an Iraq deployment.  Her speech was about how being at Ground Zero during 9/11 motivated her to join the Air Force which is different from her other accounts of being assigned to the Pentagon during the 9/11 attack.  The Washington Post was able to confirm that her enlistment date was in 1998 which means that the 9/11 attacks could not have motivated her to enlist.

It is also unclear if she had to be homeless because if she was medically retired she should have been receiving a stipend and disability each month.  As far as attending Harvard this was a stretching of the truth because she enrolled in the Harvard Extension School which is an online offering of courses which anyone can sign up for.  There has yet to be any evidence that she was actually hit by any IED or seen any combat action.  I also could not find any evidence of the charity she supposedly started for her friend killed during the Pentagon attack.

Really a DD214 would pretty much clear a lot of this up because it would show whether she has a Purple Heart or not.  It would also show her assignments to see if she was actually assigned to the Pentagon on 9/11.  It would also show her deployment history.  There are already a lot of holes in this story, but hopefully the Stolen Valor folks can get a copy of her DD214 to put the remaining questions to rest.

Here is something that all servicemembers should keep in mind this political campaign season:

In a year that will undoubtedly be headlined by politics both national and local, the Air Force is warning airmen to watch what they say and how they say it.

With the 2016 presidential election just nine months away, the Air Force released an informational video last week, reminding airmen of Department of Defense regulations on discussing politics on social media.

In the video, Tech. Sgt. Holly Roberts-Davis cites a long-established DoD directive that prohibits active-duty military members from directly participating in partisan political activities, but includes updates as the policy relates to social media.

Things like campaigning for a candidate, soliciting donations to a particular campaign and even wearing a military uniform to a partisan political event have long been outlawed by the military, Roberts-Davis says in the video. But 21st century ways of communicating have extended those same concepts to the online world.

Roberts-Davis says active-duty military members are generally allowed to express political views on social media platforms, but there are several important caveats.

“If that social media site, or your post identifies you as on active-duty … then you must clearly and prominently state that the views expressed are those of you as an individual only and not those of the Department of Defense or your service,” Roberts-Davis says.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I would not be surprised if in the next few years garrison commanders don’t start implementing this on their installations with or without a state law in effect:

Beginning New Year’s Day, military installations throughout Hawaii will prohibit anyone under age 21 from buying or using tobacco.

The new rules by the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force coincide with a similar measure passed by the Hawaii legislature in June that takes effect Friday.

Hawaii is the first state to institute an under-21 ban on tobacco sales and possession, which also includes so-called e-cigarettes, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. More than 100 U.S. municipalities have raised the minimum age for tobacco sales to 21, with California considering a state-wide ban.

Military installations don’t always follow state law on such matters. Even though Washington and Colorado have legalized recreational use of marijuana, servicemembers are not allowed to use the drug in those states.

The Navy’s ban does not apply to personnel or transactions while aboard U.S. naval vessels because they fall under federal laws. Tobacco is sold aboard some ships. The Navy banned smoking in submarines at the end of 2010, but talk last year of a fleet-wide ban met resistance from some members of Congress.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

This really shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that has been following this issue, it has been pretty clear this was going to happen for quite some time.  So now when is the physical fitness test going to be equal as well?:

Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday opened all military jobs to women, a historic step that removed the final barriers to women in ground combat and special operations positions despite opposition from the Marine Corps that sought to keep all-male units on the frontlines.

“Everyone who is able and willing to serve their country, who can meet the standards should have the full and equal opportunity to do so,” Carter said during a news conference at the Pentagon. “The important factor in making my decision was to have access to every American who can add strength to the force. Now more than ever we cannot afford to have barriers limiting our access of talent.”

Carter gave the service chiefs 30 days to provide a detailed plan for integrating women into positions now closed. All jobs must be available for qualified women by April 1, he said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

It is was only a matter of time before Powerpoint made its way into tactical vehicles and it appears some of the higher level command Strykers will be the first vehicles outfitted with a Powerpoint capability.  So how long before this spreads to other vehicles?

The Stryker, an eight-wheeled armored vehicle used almost exclusively by the U.S. Army, has had a tumultuous history. But now, according to an Army release, it might have found a new calling as a specially outfitted command vehicle that will give troops inside unprecedented communications capabilities.

Fielded in the early 2000s, the Stryker first saw combat in Iraq and had to be modified after its armor was deemed too thin for some of the lower-tech weapons, such as improvised explosive devices, employed by Iraqi insurgents. Strykers are light armored vehicles and sort-of in between for military transportation: Not quite a tank, and not quite a truck, they are often used to move troops quickly with sufficient defensive armament. Traditionally the Stryker is mounted with either a heavy machine gun, a cannon or sometimes even a 105mm howitzer.

The Army’s Mobile Tactical Communications Network to Enable Mission Command on the Move, which goes by the much shorter acronym MCOTM, is testing a Stryker that replaces its main armament with something much more sinister: PowerPoint.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is the latest controversy on the religious freedom front:

A sign outside an Army training center at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, that featured a knight with crosses on his breastplate and shield was taken down Monday afternoon, hours after the head of a religious-freedom advocacy group called for the image’s removal.

The image represented the “Fighting Knights” of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 8th Special Troops Battalion. Members of the unit recently transformed an unused motor pool area into a warrior training center, 8th Theater Sustainment Command spokeswoman Sgt. 1st Class Mary Ferguson told Army Times. A news release detailing the offerings of the center went out Friday at Army.mil and other locations and included an image of the sign.

The knight with red crosses is “not an approved logo,” Ferguson said. She said she wasn’t sure how long the sign had been up or who approved the design, noting that the center had opened recently. A photo of the sign hosted by the U.S. Pacific Command website is dated Oct. 23.  [Army Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but if the cross was whited out is having a knight as a logo still approved or are knights now officially politically incorrect?

By the way Army Times if you wondered where the image came from just do a Google image search for the word knight and the knight on the board is one of the top search results from this webpage.