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Face of Defense: Mortuary NCO Ensures Dignified Transfer of Fallen
Relevance Score: 4.611 2009-07-22 12:14:30
Many people have trouble viewing the deceased or coping with the emotions of witnessing the transfer of a fallen comrade. For Army Staff Sgt. John A. Rosado, it is an honor to ensure fallen heroes are returned home in a timely and dignified manner. It is a regular part of Rosado’s job to attend ramp ceremonies here, where U.S. and coalition forces stand in formation behind an open aircraft while the casket of a fallen hero is carried up the walkway. Paying their last respects to the one who gave all, troops salute the hero. The pallbearers, his former comrades, shoulder their heavy burden with somber faces as they slowly march past the long rows of servicemembers to the waiting plane. “The purpose of a ramp ceremony is to give a final farewell to our comrades, especially for the unit who’s suffering the loss,” said Rosado, a reservist from Clermont, Fla. “It’s to pay respect to the person who paid the ultimate sacrifice.” A soldier since 1993 and a civilian corrections officer for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Rosado has worked in mortuary affairs since 2000 and is the Joint Sustainment Command Afghanistan mortuary affairs noncommissioned officer in charge. “Our job is to make sure to expedite our fallen comrades back to loved ones in a timely manner,” he said. The mortuary affairs collection point here, one of two for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, serves regional commands South and West, and is managed by the NATO Maintenance and Supply Association. The collection point at Bagram Airfield serves regional commands North and East. Rosado became a mortuary affairs specialist after a six-week course at Fort Lee, Va., that included working at a morgue, taking fingerprints of remains and assisting technicians in autopsies. Rosado helps to prepare fallen heroes for transfer to Dover Air Force Base, Del., where each receives a dignified transfer to the Dover Port Mortuary for final preparations of the remains. When Rosado receives notification of a fallen comrade, he first alerts personnel to stand by while he collects information about the arrival of the remains. “In a respectful manner, with the unit escorts, we’ll unload the remains from the plane,” he said. The mortuary affairs personnel and the unit escorts proceed to the mortuary collection point, where remains are screened for unexploded ordnance, ammunition and sensitive weapons. “Once they’re screened, they enter a holding area,” Rosado said. “A chaplain will do a small, informal prayer over the remains with the unit representatives.” After the fallen troop’s comrades leave, mortuary personnel remove personal effects from the remains. Dover personnel later will cleanse the remains and conduct an autopsy. Once the belongings have been inventoried and paperwork is completed, the remains will be stored in ice inside transfer cases in refrigerated vans. Rosado then contacts the movement control team at the airfield to receive a transportation control number, scans the documents and sends them to the mobility section to book a flight. Rosado’s final duty is the ramp ceremony, organized through the 649th Regional Support Group. Rosado and mortuary personnel prepare by tying a U.S. flag over the transfer case. “It’s so when the pallbearers load the case on the plane, the flag is already folded properly,” he explained. They then transport the flag-draped case to the flightline, where U.S. and coalition servicemembers line up in formation. The mortuary affairs specialists then bring the van forward to send the servicemember home. “Not many people can [handle seeing] a deceased person, or the cause of death, in this state,” Rosado said. “It’s a privilege and an honor. It helps give the family closure.”
US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq offered Internet service
Relevance Score: 3.931 2010-02-07 13:11:40
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are being offered an Internet service primarily aimed at companies in Asia. The new service offers high-speed Internet access with out the need for phone lines, cable or dial-up modem. TS2 Satellite Technologies company is using satellites to power their Internet service. For soldiers deployed to the war zones this service can allow for communications back home. Many of the soldiers arrive in Afghanistan and Iraq with their own lap top hoping to stay in contact with loved ones. The troops can connect with the service when they are in their barracks. Not everyone though in the service is just using the Internet to stay close with family some are using it to blog and stay in touch with their business associates in the US. Having that connect with family and those at home have upped the morale of the troops.
Biometrics Track Bad Guys
Relevance Score: 3.890 2009-06-01 11:23:24
Northrop Grumman is developing a “biometric” intelligence system to help U.S. troops keep tabs on suspected terrorists and insurgents. The system, which identifies people by their fingerprints, iris patterns or other biological metrics, is meant to meet a need identified by U.S. forces in Iraq. On February 5, 2006, soldiers from the Texas-based 4th Infantry Division, deployed to north-central Iraq since the previous fall, sortied from their base to set up checkpoints outside the town of Balad. The town was so bad that the Iraqi army had sent one of its crack Kurdish units, normally based in the peaceful north of the country, into an outpost downtown. But snipers had kept the Kurdish troops from even leaving the base. Balad was desperately in need of some spring cleaning. But standing at their checkpoint on a road outside Balad, the soldiers realized they lacked the necessary tools. Army intelligence had provided them with a list including names, descriptions and in some cases outdated photos of known bad guys. The soldiers carried fuzzy color copies of the list in their pockets and compared every passerby to the descriptions. But the photos too grainy and the descriptions too vague: pretty much every Iraqi man has a moustache, black hair and brown eyes. As for names? Besides sharing a small number of popular surnames, Iraqis have a habit of tacking their father’s and grandfather’s name onto their own or even going by nicknames that don’t match their photo IDs at all, assuming they even have photo IDs. There was just no way for the American soldiers to reliably know if they had happened to ensnare a bad guy in their net. And on that February afternoon, they returned to base empty-handed and frustrated. Stinging from failures like those in Balad last year, in January the Army gave Los Angeles-based defense firm Northrop Grumman $20 million to develop a biometric solution. The idea, says Northrop Grumman vice president Larry Schneider, is to “ingest disparate sources of military information worldwide, to establish a central repository that can be queried. So if someone shows up at one place and says his name is one thing, then shows up somewhere else saying his name is another thing, that can be identified and can be passed back to tactical land forces.” Soldiers might register detainees’ biometrics using a portable scanner. That info, combined with a brief history of the suspect, would be fed into a central database back in the States and analyzed by algorithms endlessly searching for connections between suspects. If, during a future operation, the soldiers happen across any of the same suspects as before, the system would alert them. Over time, the system might accumulate enough data on suspects’ movements to begin drawing conclusions about behavior patterns, allowing intelligence agents to predict suspects’ activities and, if necessary, thwart them. “People talk about how we’re disadvantaged in asymmetric warfare,” Schneider says, using the military’s favorite term for big industrial armies fighting elusive, low-tech insurgents and terrorists. Biometrics, he adds, “are an example of how our technology advantages us.”
The National Intrepid Center of Excellence and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Chooses Polycom Telemedicine Solutions to Care for Military Service Members and Veterans
Relevance Score: 3.531 2010-05-17 17:06:45
Telepresence Equipment to Be Used in World-Class Telemedicine Program for the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injuries and Psychological Health Issues Polycom, Inc., the global leader in telepresence, video and voice communication solutions, has made an in-kind telemedicine solution donation to the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). The equipment, valued at approximately $500,000, will give military medical professionals a powerful new tool for promoting the resilience, recovery and reintegration of warriors suffering from psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries. The 72,000-square-foot NICoE facility, which opens this year, will be dedicated to research, assessment and treatment of military service members and veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health issues. Polycom is equipping the NICoE with industry-leading solutions capable of supporting a collaborative, telemedicine network. The solution will enhance NICoE's capabilities to deliver the highest quality of care for patients by supporting a wide variety of telemedicine services including consultation and coordination, comprehensive evaluations, and coordinated research as well as caregiver training and education. "Thanks to Polycom, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence will bring the very best care and support to the men and women who have made enormous sacrifices for their country," informed Arnold Fisher, Honorary Chairman of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a not-for-profit organization that has provided more than $150 million in support for the families of military personnel lost in service to the nation, and for severely wounded military personnel and veterans. Fisher said, "Traumatic brain injuries and psychological health issues represent a significant issue for returning soldiers, so the need for a center like NICoE has never been more vital. With this support from Polycom, medical specialists and researchers from around the world will be able to come together to better understand what is needed to provide the best care to soldiers and their families." The Center will consist of a Data Immersive Visualization Environment (DIVE), an auditorium, a classroom and three intake and evaluation suites. Polycom's video conferencing infrastructure will be at the heart of the NICoE network. Enabling NICoE to be the hub to a world-class network of researchers and providers seeking and sharing vital information to be used for training and educating clinical providers, first responders, other Warriors, and family members, as well as for bringing together decision makers to recommend policy changes based on insights derived from clinical, educational and research activities. "Polycom is honored to be a part of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a facility that represents hope and an opportunity for healing to soldiers and their families," informed Roseanne M. Cohen, Polycom federal market director. "Our entire company has rallied together to lend support to this project. We are proud to give back to the soldiers and their families who have served and sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy every day. I cannot think of a more deserving community." The NICoE donation was made possible through a partnership between the Polycom Global Citizenship Program and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Polycom's Global Citizenship Program is designed to leverage the strength of Polycom's products, resources, and people to improve access to and the quality of education and healthcare worldwide, as well as provide support to communities in need. What is more, Avaya's government solutions team provided an in-kind contribution of the voice and data infrastructure that serves as the foundation of NICoE's communications architecture. Together, as part of the Polycom Open Collaboration Network, Polycom and Avaya deliver a powerful suite of unified communication capabilities that maximize the capabilities at NICoE's state-of-the art facility. "The fact is these soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have given so much to protect our way of life," informed Joel Hackney, president, Avaya Government Solutions. "Their contributions are nothing short of making the world a better place. They have paid a very steep price for everything this country stands for and we owe them a debt that cannot be repaid. Together, Avaya and Polycom are contributing to a center of excellence that will help our Veterans have the best quality of life possible. We are very proud to be part of this initiative and look forward to continuing our work with those who protect freedom and democracy." About the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund The National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) concept features a holistic approach led by a skilled interdisciplinary team to harness the latest advances in science, therapy, telemedicine, education, research technology while providing compassionate family-centered care for Warriors and their loved ones throughout the recovery process. Ideally situated on the Navy Bethesda campus, this facility will be adjacent to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with close access to the Uniformed Services University, the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Health Administration and the Metro transportation system. The NICoE is part of the centers of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) which serves as a hub for federal, national and international efforts to identify, prevent, mitigate, treat and rehabilitate those affected by psychological and cognitive injuries. About Polycom Polycom, Inc. is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere.
US probe warns of waste in Iraq, Afghanistan war deals
Relevance Score: 2.952 2009-06-15 17:15:14
A bipartisan commission on wartime contracting warned Wednesday that the sheer scale of US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan "create plentiful opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse." In an interim report titled "At What Cost?", the commission said more than 240,000 contract employees -- about 80 percent of them foreign nationals -- now work in support of the US Defense Department in Iraq and Afghanistan. They manage dining facilities, wash uniforms, guard bases, protect diplomats, transport supplies and build projects that range from water treatment plants to hospitals, the report said. "Contractors are doing vital work, generally to good effect, but the sheer scale of their operations and weaknesses in the federal contract-management and oversight systems create plentiful opportunities for waste, fraud, and abuse," it said. Among the waste highlighted by the commission was the construction of a 30-million-dollar dining hall at Camp Delta, a US military base southeast of Baghdad. The base already has a dining hall and the new one will not be completed before December 2009, at a time when US forces are being withdrawn from the country. The report also underscored the less well known human cost: 1,360 employees of subcontractors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the US interventions in the region, compared to nearly 5,000 US troops. Foreign gov'ts, firms paid for trips by Pentagon staff: report Pentagon staff for a decade took trips worth millions of dollars which had been paid for by foreign governments and overseas companies doing business with the US Defense Department, according to a study released Wednesday. From 1998-2007, sources outside the US government picked up the tab for more than 22,000 trips worth at least 26 million dollars, according to the study by the Center for Public Integrity. During the 10-year time period, foreign governments spent more than 2.6 million dollars on about 1,500 trips. US allies in the Asia-Pacific were among the top sponsors of the "freebies" including Australia, Singapore and Japan. But the list also includes China and Russia, the study found. Among private sponsors, the medical industry was particularly generous, paying for more than 10 million dollars for military pharmacists, Pentagon doctors and others who play a role in the six billion dollars the Pentagon spends annually on prescription drugs. Other private companies made the list such as Nike, Mattel and Sony. "This is the kind of behavior that should be barred without a loop hole." said Winslow Wheeler of the nonprofit Center for Defense Information. A Pentagon spokesman on Wednesday defended the practice, saying it was authorized and carried out under a set of rules. "These were events that these individuals vetted with their legal counsels to make sure that they were appropriate," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "Travel regulations are designed, written to avoid a conflict of interest," Whitman said. "In all the cases that I'm aware of (the travel was) properly reviewed and approved," he said.
US, China and Russia lift arms spending to new record: study
Relevance Score: 2.785 2009-06-09 22:26:50
World military spending hit a new record in 2008, boosted by the Iraq war, the return of Russia as a global player and the emergence of China, a Swedish think tank said in its annual report Monday. World arms expenditure totalled 1.464 trillion dollars last year, a rise of 45 percent from a decade ago and representing 2.4 percent of global gross domestic product or 217 dollars for every person on the planet, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said. Compared with 2007, the figure rose by 4.0 percent in real terms. "The introduction of the idea of 'the war on terrorism' has encouraged several countries to see their problems from a very militarised perspective, and is used to justify high military spending," Sam Perlo-Freeman, the main author of SIPRI's report on military expenditure, said in a statement. "At the same time, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost an extra 903 billion dollars in increased military spending for the United States alone," he said. The United States is, as expected, by far the world's biggest arms spender, according to the think tank. It represented almost 42 percent of the 2008 total, more than the 14 other top countries combined in what SIPRI described as a legacy from former president George W. Bush. Since 1999, US defense spending has soared by 67 percent in real terms to 607 billion dollars last year. China, which like Russia has almost tripled its military expenditure in the past 10 years, was for the first time the world's second-biggest arms spender in 2008. SIPRI estimated its spending at 84.9 billion dollars, which accounted for six percent of the global total. That would put it ahead of France and Britain, which each accounted for 4.5 percent. "China's increase has roughly paralleled its economic growth and is also linked to its major power aspirations," SIPRI said. Russia, like China, took advantage of the recent years' economic boom prior to the global crisis to reassert its superpower ambitions, returning to fifth position on SIPRI's list in 2008 after a decline in the post-Cold War period. Meanwhile, military spending in South America soared by 50 percent in 2008 over the previous decade, "led by Brazil's long-term push for regional power status and Colombia's escalating spending related to its internal conflict," the think tank wrote. Among the top 15 biggest spenders, only Germany and Japan have decreased their arms spending since 1999, with drops of 11 percent and 1.7 percent respectively last year. At the other end of the line, the 100 biggest weapons manufacturers registered total sales of 347 billion dollars in 2007, an increase of five percent in real terms from 2006, according to the most recent statistics compiled by SIPRI and presented in its annual yearbook. That list is topped by US company Boeing, ahead of Britain's BAE Systems and US group Lockheed Martin. Western companies dominate the ranking, with 44 of them from the US and 32 from Western Europe. SIPRI said the companies that registered the sharpest increases were manufacturers of armoured tanks, in strong demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as companies that subcontract their services to militaries.
Set up and maintain a robust satellite hub at the Qatar base
Relevance Score: 2.779 2009-12-28 17:10:42
Sgt. Jeffrey Yauch, from Plover, Wis., adheres to the old Army conviction: leave it better than you found it. During a one-year deployment, the 1st Cavalry Division soldier wrote detailed technical standard operation procedures for tactical satellite hubs employing the military's latest communications technology. Yauch's painstaking labors led to an unprecedented 99-percent satellite reliability rate, according to signal reports at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. Tactical environment uptimes typically range between 90 and 95 percent, according to Chief Warrant Officer Scott Gray, 1st Cavalry Division Special Troops Battalion network technician chief. "Our team set a new standard for maintaining a tactical satellite hub," said Gray, who then commended the entire unit for supporting communication requirements for over 230,000 combat patrols in Iraq this year. The 1st Cavalry Division, a rapidly deployable armored division based at Fort Hood, Texas, assumed duties as the Multi-National Division - Baghdad headquarters in January. While the main body moved into Iraq, Yauch and 18 other Soldiers formed a tactical satellite hub at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, located on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The team of Soldiers inherited a critical mission: set up and maintain a robust satellite hub at the Qatar base. Warfighters throughout Iraq would depend on their signal integrity for a variety of audiovisual services, such as telecommunications, video teleconferences and network access. Unfortunately, specific instructions about fielding the Army's most recent equipment didn't exist. Yauch resolved to fix that discrepancy, as the Soldiers went to work. The tactical satellite document has been disseminated throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
First interactive showroom allows visitors to 'touch the green'
Relevance Score: 2.696 2009-05-03 11:34:13
In order to keep up with the savvy, techno-minded youth of today, we have opened our first interactive 'showroom' in London, where members of the public are invited to step off the street and into our world. Known as a Contact Point, this showroom in the Kingsland shopping centre Dalston, London, aims to make the Army a little more accessible in terms of what is involved in Army life. With a battlefield simulator, a virtual range using laser-powered rifles and a selection of informative films profiling real operatives within the organisation, the showroom is geared as much towards education as it is recruiting. And, the centre doesn't focus solely on the combative aspect of military life as both 'shop floor' and 'back office' careers are highlighted. Exciting and innovative environment Colonel Paul Meldon, the commander of regional recruiting for London, commented: "The Army plans to use the Contact Points to start talking to society and the communities in a fresh way that allows the public to find out about their Army in an exciting and innovative environment. "No question will be avoided and the full range of Army activities will be on show so that the public can "touch the green" in a way that has never been tried before." Staffed by serving soldiers and stocked with the same simulators our soldiers use in their training, it is hoped that Londoners will add touching base with a soldier to their 'to do' list next time they head to Dalston. Another centre will open shortly afterwards in Hounslow, West London. If the Contact Points are successful in London, then it is hoped that similar centres will open across the country.
First interactive showroom allows visitors to 'touch the green'
Relevance Score: 2.696 2009-05-03 11:34:13
In order to keep up with the savvy, techno-minded youth of today, we have opened our first interactive 'showroom' in London, where members of the public are invited to step off the street and into our world. Known as a Contact Point, this showroom in the Kingsland shopping centre Dalston, London, aims to make the Army a little more accessible in terms of what is involved in Army life. With a battlefield simulator, a virtual range using laser-powered rifles and a selection of informative films profiling real operatives within the organisation, the showroom is geared as much towards education as it is recruiting. And, the centre doesn't focus solely on the combative aspect of military life as both 'shop floor' and 'back office' careers are highlighted. Exciting and innovative environment Colonel Paul Meldon, the commander of regional recruiting for London, commented: "The Army plans to use the Contact Points to start talking to society and the communities in a fresh way that allows the public to find out about their Army in an exciting and innovative environment. "No question will be avoided and the full range of Army activities will be on show so that the public can "touch the green" in a way that has never been tried before." Staffed by serving soldiers and stocked with the same simulators our soldiers use in their training, it is hoped that Londoners will add touching base with a soldier to their 'to do' list next time they head to Dalston. Another centre will open shortly afterwards in Hounslow, West London. If the Contact Points are successful in London, then it is hoped that similar centres will open across the country.
SatComms for Soldiers
Relevance Score: 2.668 2009-07-26 20:37:18
Have been out with British forces in the area of Sangin in northern Helmand Province. This area appears to be turning into the main effort of the current fight in Afghanistan, but this is unclear to me at the moment. I do know that air assets are heavy. During our mission yesterday, a B-1 could be seen overhead, though it was miles high. On the ground, this place is loaded with IEDs and there were many firefights during yesterday’s mission. My section of eight soldiers did not fire a single round; we did not come into direct contact, though bullets sometimes zipped overhead. Nearly all missions are conducted on foot and the soldiers like it that way. I am with the British battalion called 2 Rifles. The last mission I did with 2 Rifles was in Iraq, and they killed maybe 26-27 JAM members during that fight. Yesterday they only killed two Taliban (Predator actually made the shot), but the mission was well run, and morale here is very high. Everybody is ready to roll again and missions are near continuous. I’ll ask British commanders to let me stay, though that might not be necessary because there are so few helicopters. More likely I am stuck here. FOB Jackson is probably going to be my Hotel California, but that’s all good because these are great soldiers, in the thick of it, and I want to stay. More broadly speaking, our forces are spread to the high winds across desolate stretches of Afghanistan, sometimes in tiny “bases” with as few as a half-dozen soldiers. Last December, I spent some time with a group of such soldiers in Zabul Province, but hardly wrote a word about them, yet. They were deep in wild country and it took two days for us to drive out to a paved road. Those soldiers had no access to Internet, and said that on one occasion they didn’t even get mail for three months. Until December, I used a satellite antenna called a “Regional BGAN” (R-BGAN) HNS-9101 to transmit dispatches from remote areas. These small, portable systems are expensive; during a fifteen-day period last year, I spent almost exactly $5,000. (Prices based on bandwidth usage.) During late 2008, when I saw the group of a half-dozen American soldiers, out there in the boondocks, two days from a road and once going three months without mail, I told Mrs. Frankie Mayo, who runs Operation AC. Frankie and Operation AC had sent loads of gear to Iraq, including air conditioners and generators. When I told Frankie about the isolated soldiers, she got to work with Hughes to send R-BGANs to Afghanistan. Lucky for me, with the old R-BGAN no longer usable, Hughes, through Frankie, shipped a newer model, the Hughes 9201 BGAN Inmarsat Terminal. Many of this year’s dispatches will come through the 9201. Without such a terminal, large numbers of Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors will be without regular communications for much or most of their time in Afghanistan. The infrastructure is Spartan to non-existent. Life here is tougher than it was in Iraq, and the fighting will be tougher still. Yes, there are the gigantic bases-as in Iraq-where everything is available, but little of the war is being fought from the larger bases. Extended battlefield journalism from Afghanistan is relatively non-existent. Broadly speaking, folks at home will not know how their loved ones are doing unless they can communicate directly. To learn more about the effort to send satellite communications gear to troops downrange, please see Operation AC.