Memorial Day

One of my favorite poems by Kipling is about soldiers, I felt like sharing it on this Memorial Day.  It is a very sad poem and is timeless.  The further removed the military becomes from the society in which it exists (at present less than 1% serve in the military), the less engaged the rest of society becomes in making decisions to go to war.  I get the sense that the U.S. is quite war weary at the moment, but I still worry about politicians sending soldiers to war when they know nothing of it, and don't know anyone in the military.  I don't understand how one who has never been to war can make any rational decision to send young people in their prime to a distant front.  War is serious.  It should be used as a last resort.  Today my mind has been on all of the soldiers, past and present, that we have known, in our family, among our friends, who made the ultimate sacrifice.  I hope that I am worthy of that sacrifice as an American, and that I give back in whatever way that is possible.  I want to make a promise, even if to myself, to take care of our veterans for the rest of my existence.  So, many thanks to my family, my friends, those no longer with us, and those who continue to walk to the front "when there's trouble in the wind."

Tommy

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

~ Rudyard Kipling

In Ike Skelton's Words

I recently attended an event in Kansas City where Ike Skelton was a speaker.  It was an incredibly thoughtful take on civil military relations in the United States.   I think the speech is worth sharing.  Isaac Newton "Ike" Skelton IV (born December 20, 1931) is the former U.S. Representative for Missouri's 4th congressional district.  During his tenure, he served as the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.  On November 2, 2010 he lost his seat to Vicky Hartzler.  For more on Ike Skelton, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike_Skelton. 

 

Two things before the article.  1)  I love that his parents named him Isaac Newton.  2)  This is one of my favorite things about Ike Skelton, in 2010,

 

"Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., had just finished addressing his Republican colleague Todd Akin Thursday.  Skelton then turned to the side and muttered "stick it up your ass."" 

 

 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/rep-skelton-to-rep-akin-s_n_315821.html

The original article appears here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/rep-skelton-to-rep-akin-s_n_315821.html

 

 

The following is the text of Ike's speech.   

 

 

West Point Society of Greater Kansas City, MO

Founders Day Speech by Ike Skelton

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Thank you for that kind introduction. 

Through the years, West Pointers have written numerous chapters in the growth and development of the United States, from the Westward Movement to International leadership.  And I know your association with West Point makes you quite proud.

In the spring issue of the Quarterly West Point magazine, the pictures of Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and Dwight Eisenhower are on the cover, together with these words are:

“At West Point, much of the history we teach was made by the people we taught.”

                          

 

I have spent most of my adult life working with and on behalf of the U.S. military.  Nothing in my long career has given me as much satisfaction. Today our troops, the training, the equipment, and the performance are the envy of militaries --- and societies --- all across the globe.  Our military is the gold standard for 21^st century armed forces.

Throughout my career, and indeed across the centuries of U.S. history, the American people have had a complex and ambivalent attitude towards their military.  Tonight, I want to take a few minutes to think out loud with you about the state of relations between the American armed forces and the American people they are sworn to serve.  Let me offer some thoughts.

            Since 1776, when the United States won its independence from Great Britain, there has been an underlying dislike of large standing militaries in the American public.  This attitude was codified in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which gave Congress the power to raise and maintain an army, but placed a strict term limit of two years on the funding of such an army. 

From 1776 through the end of the Second World War, the United States government called on citizens to take up arms to fight its wars, but upon the conclusion of a war, the nation would shrink the military back to peacetime levels, and the military members would return home to their civilian lives -- much the way George Washington did after leading the Continental Army against British forces.  In the 20^th century, the Cold War began to change that pattern of build-up/draw-down, but the ambivalence remained.

In 1973, at the end of the Vietnam conflict and with great distaste for the Vietnam era draft, the United States military became an all-volunteer force.  This had a dramatic impact on civil-military relations.  This new force consisted completely of individuals who chose to serve their country, in peacetime and in wartime.

Draftees previously provided a bridge between the military and society.  Although most ultimately chose civilian careers, their service fostered a sense of understanding of the military among the broader population.  

Yet, events of the past decade --- the stresses and strains --- have taken their toll. This evening I would like to make a few comments on the gap that I believe has emerged in the past decade or so between the United States military and the society that it serves.

There are two key points that I would like to leave you with tonight.  First, there is a civil-military gap, it is serious, and it is growing.  Second, there are two sides to this gap.  Both the military and society have contributed to the creation and expansion of this gap.  Consequently, there is work that must be done on both sides in an effort to narrow this gap.

The existence of a civil-military gap is clear, at least to me, and to Admiral Mullen, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has spoken eloquently and passionately about it.  At a conference on military professionalism that was held here at NDU last year, Adm. Mullen stated, “our audience, our underpinning, our authorities – everything we are, everything we do comes from the American people.  And we cannot afford to be out of touch with them.” 

The starting point is statistics: less than one percent of Americans serve in the armed forces.  Civilians who do not know anyone who serves are more likely to feel disconnected from the military because they feel that military activities do not have any impact on their lives --- or vice versa.

Many Americans do not pay attention to what the military is doing.  This is largely the result of the mindset that when the United States is at war, the military is handling it, so there is no need for ordinary civilians to take an active interest or to contribute to ensuring success in the conflict.    The gap is also visible in that many service members tend to interact mainly with fellow service members in their personal lives. 

This limits the opportunity for civilians and service members to form personal connections that would foster communication and understanding between the two groups.

In 1999 the Triangle Institute for Security Studies did a study on civil-military relations.  The authors, Peter Feaver and Richard Kohn, predicted that if the civil-military gap continued to widen, the military would develop a culture distinct from that of society writ large. 

This study serves as a warning.  A lack of communication and understanding between the military and society could be detrimental to the military as it could result in decreased support for ongoing wars -- as we are seeing now --, increasing difficulty in recruitment and retention, and even cuts in military benefits, personnel, training, and equipment.  As the American public becomes more disconnected from the military, people will be less willing to lend full support to military endeavors. 

This will also have negative impacts on recruitment and retention, in terms of both quality and quantity.  Talented individuals who have other career or education options in civil society will be less likely to choose the military life if the American public is not fully respectful and supportive of the military. Likewise, many of the most talented military members may chose to leave the military sooner than they otherwise would if they feel that their hard work and dedication are not appreciated. 

Ultimately, if the military has trouble attracting and retaining intelligent and motivated individuals, then the U.S. armed forces may well become something less than what they are today. .

            This brings me to my second point.  There are two sides to this gap, and we must look to both sides if we are to understand the problem, and we must get both sides to work to narrow the gap.

First, the military.  Today, as you know far better than I do, the military is worn out.  Between the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, recent involvement in Libya, and various humanitarian efforts, the U.S. military has been stretched, and stretched, and stretched.  Service members are spending a lot of time away from home, and thus are physically disconnected from life in the United States. 

When they are at home, service members continue to carry a heavy work-load to support those serving overseas and to catch up with their family responsibilities.  Consequently, they make little effort to get involved in their local communities. 

This is exacerbated by general negative public opinion towards wars in which we are involved.  You can plot it over time.  The attitude of the public is not just an abstraction: it can have a strong effect on individual soldiers.  Service members might be inclined to believe that society does not care about the sacrifice that they are making and the risks that they are incurring.  These feelings might be intensified by the calls for cuts in the defense budget.  Feeling unappreciated can lead individuals to withdraw from civil society and seek the company of fellow service members who do understand.  This is a problem we have seen before, such as after the Vietnam War.  Too many members of the armed services adopted an “if they don’t care about us, then we don’t care about them” attitude towards society.  Do not fall victim to this mentality.  To do so would adversely affect troop morale and perpetuate and intensify the problem.

Second, American Society:  This feeling among service members of being under-appreciated stems from the fact that society as a whole takes the military for granted.  Most Americans do not know anyone who serves in the armed forces, so they do not take the initiative to understand the military.  In American society there is a prevalent “out of sight, out of mind” mentality towards the military.  This is reminiscent of the sentiment of British society towards its military in the late 1800s.  Rudyard Kipling captured this well in his poem “Tommy”.  :

 

For it’s Tommy this, and’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”

But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;

An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;

An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

                                                                                                                                        

The problem of the civil-military gap is self-perpetuating.  As service members spend less time actively involved in their local communities, the American population will become even more disconnected from the military and will be less likely to invest the time to understand and gain an appreciation for the military.  The two sides feed off of each other, creating a cycle that must be broken before it becomes detrimental to military efforts.

 

            A worst-case scenario would be the two sides giving up on each other. 

As generals and admirals, present and past soldiers, you are the leadership in the eyes of the public.  If the public sees you reaching out and attempting to foster stronger ties between the military and the local community, then people will be more likely to reach out in return and to respect and appreciate the work that the military is doing.

I would like to leave you with a few suggestions for initiating this change.  First, be aware of the state of civil-military relations on the local level.  Engage the community in two ways:  first, through encouraging service members to play an active role in community life, and second, by inviting the community to get to know the military.  To increase the presence of service members in the community, use your position of authority to influence and encourage your troops to get involved in the community, whether that be joining a local civic club, sending their children to an off-base school, or joining or coaching a local sports team.  The type of involvement is unimportant.  What matters is that the public sees service members and their families as active, contributing members of the community.  You should also make a point of urging motivated and charismatic individuals are assigned to community liaison roles at the base or post.  Such individuals could prove extremely effective in building a strong outreach campaign and helping individual service members to get involved. 

As for inviting the public to learn more about the military, you could urge that your local base or post hosts a certain number of events each year, events that are open to the public.  These events could be ceremonies honoring achievements of individuals, or a military version of “show and tell.”  Here too, the precise nature of the events is of little importance.  What matters is to foster a sense of inclusion among local civilians. 

As the Roman orator Cicero said, “Gratitude is the greatest of all virtues.”  Today the public may not show the military as much gratitude as it deserves.  Society must understand the military if the civil-military gap is ever to narrow.  Understanding will foster appreciation.  Society must have greater exposure to the military in order to gain a greater understanding.  Lack of knowledge often comes from lack of communication.  This is where you come in.  Because of your background and experiences, you can improve communication between the two sides, foster understanding of the military’s role, and ultimately increase the appreciation that American society has for the military and its mission.  You can create this change starting at the local level.  Remind the American people and yourselves that you are citizen-soldiers and thus you are their military. 

Thank you very much – it is certainly good to be with you.

Home

Being home in Kansas is such a wonderful feeling. I was home with my mother for the last few days... I got home tonight (2.5 hour drive) and was putting my things away and organizing, so I naturally was going through my CDs and I forgot that I put a CD in my external drive. I still listen to vinyl which means my iPod is as old as the original. I still listen to CDs. When we moved from North Cackalacky to Kansas, I brought the external CD drive mostly because we were attempting to rough it, and my laptop served as a very rudimentary CD player. The last time I remember listening to this particular song (lyrics to follow)...Asheville, North Carolina. We moved in December 2012, but I found this today. I hate moving so often, it totally scrambles the brain. Anyhow. I love the film Crazy Heart and I love the lyrics of this song, by Ryan Bingham. I think it expresses some things about someone being home. And I shall cut and paste. I listened to the song and wrote what I heard in the song. I might have a word or two wrong here or there. Or thereabouts. But it still applies. I don't drink Whiskey, never gamble, and I don't do eight balls. I just love to love this song. It is rather lovely. That is all.

The Weary Kind Ryan Bingham Crazy Heart Your heart is on the loose… You rolled the sevens with nothing to lose. This ain’t no place for the Weary Kind. You called all your shots. Shoot an eight ball at the corner truck stop. Somehow this don’t feel like home anymore. This ain’t no place for the Weary Kind. …This ain’t no place to lose your mind. This ain’t no place to fall behind …Pick up your Crazy Heart and give it one more try… Your body aches… Playing your guitar and sweating out the hate. The Days and the Nights all feel the same. Whiskey has been A thorn in your side and doesn’t forget The highway that calls for your heart inside. And this ain’t no place for the weary kind. This ain’t no place to lose your mind. *** Your lover won’t kiss, It’s too damn far from your fingertips, You are the man that ruined her world. Your heart is on the loose. You rolled the sevens with nothing to lose. This ain’t no place for the Weary Kind.

Back from the Dead...Sort of.

So, after many years of atrophy, my brain is back in creative mode. I suppose studying history and writing mind-numbing academic papers did that to me. Thankfully those cobwebs have been swept clean. I would love to get back into writing online, I have never had anyone read my musings, but I have the original thought here and there. I am not a fan of putting my feelings out there, but with the way that the world is these days, I realize people anymore have little to no anonymity. I am slowly becoming accustomed to living my life in a world where any stupid thing I say lives somewhere in the ether that is the internet. Or as GW once said, “the internets,”…”you know…the Google.” I am not entirely certain what motivated me to get back into writing but I keep a journal regularly. Mostly I rage about how discontented I have become with the state of my own personal style of organization and housekeeping ability (I hate vacuuming and I have 2 of the furriest mutts this side of the Cape Fear River), about the degradation of humanity, about feeling lonely, wishing I could worry less, you know, the usual. No worries, I don’t aim to trouble anyone with that here. Keeping that nonsense in the journal. I am reading a book by Ernest Becker called The Denial of Death. He wrote, “…the fear of death is a universal that unites data from several disciplines of the human sciences, and makes wonderfully clear and intelligible human actions that we have buried under mountains of fact, and obscured with endless back-and-forth arguments about the ‘true’ human motives.” (Becker, xvii-xviii). So I suppose Becker might say that my fear of death drives my urge to write about my existence. It is a way of setting down my own personal history so that when I am gone; there will be some sort of trail, that I left my mark in some fashion. That is probably a simple way of saying it. But part of me sees a lot of good in the world. I cannot help but be positive when I know plenty of people who do great things. On the other hand, I see violence and hate and my faith in humanity burns out. Life is so fleeting; I don’t understand why some people spend their time being hateful. It is such a waste. But being human, I have those same urges that burble up from time to time. The seven deadly sins. In short order, these are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. I feel them all, sometimes all at once. And raw, human emotion is ugly. But something inside me is driven to try to shake those feelings, to tear them apart, deconstruct them, understand them, light them on fire, and let them go. That is what draws me to examining the life of the mind. I approach most everything with humor, I try to be open, I try not to judge. But of course sometimes I am humorless, closed minded and guarded, and I do judge. I had plenty of cringe worthy moments over the course of my life, and I stopped counting at, oh, let’s just say a billion. Empathy is one human emotion for which I am thankful. I cannot count the number of times I found myself in situations where I knew what the other person was feeling. More often than not, when at a pub, a sojourn to the ladies room almost always ends up with someone in tears—if you are there after the witching hour. I have helped a lovely lady clean herself up to go face her pain out on the dance floor with being no more than a perfect stranger. No matter how many tests you take to hammer out what your personality might be, for example the Myers Briggs, it is very much like a crap shoot. You wake up in a crap mood and you take the test and you are an introvert. You wake up and your mood dictates that your flatulence has the consistency of rainbows, you are an extrovert. At any rate, tests are useless; they measure nothing more than one’s ability to take a test. So, perhaps my desire to write once more is to somehow resurrect my own sense of self and to examine what the good life lived looks like. And along the way, perhaps, soliciting some comments from my inner circle, many of whom live inside their heads as much as I do. I just wish that in our modern culture it is okay to make mistakes; it is okay to feel vulnerable. In the culture in which I live, a military community, the stakes are very high. “Suck it up” is a mantra. I would love to soften my interpretation of the world in which I live. Let my flatulence smell of rainbows!! I am not a service member, I am a civilian. The longer I live and move around all of these war makers, I realize I am a pacifist. I am not an activist, a big difference, though I might be moved to activism in the right scenario. I am a staunch patriot. I am only a pacifist because I have seen what war can do to people. What it does to their soul. How it completely strips people of humanity. But I also know people who have no scars, no wounds of war, and have the easiest time compartmentalizing and sleep peacefully at night. My husband is one of them. I often observe him like he is an animal in a zoo, I study him closely. I know he saw some horrible things, has emotions about what he has done as a soldier in a time of war. It is almost like there are 2 people living inside of him—the one that goes to work and puts on the war face, eats razor blades for breakfast, and the one that comes home and snuggles with the dogs and uses baby voices to call them, and later asks me for a kiss and to be tucked in. But, for me, it is a challenge to try to understand how people’s circuitry is wired in their wee noggins. How can 2 people have the same experience, see and smell the same things in a traumatic experience, but have such an opposite account of that experience? I guess that is what I am driving at with the big blog exercise is to put my Freudian Id out there. I used to think I was alone. In the digital age when people can connect, I feel so much more normal! It was like Eureka! I am not the only freak out there! I want to voice my fears, what makes me feel so abnormal, so as to exorcise those feelings, to let them go. So…back to death. I think life is a series of deaths and rebirths—the death of a dream (failure); the death of a parent, spouse, loved one (grief); and ultimately rebirth. Even the littlest thing can bring about rebirth, and hence, I am most intrigued by people who are resilient. It sounds great on paper, but I am not sure I am one of the lucky few. One of my favorite characters in the Winnie the Pooh series was Eeorye. I always thought he was the wisest of the characters. He talked about how the other animals in the 100 Acre Wood had, “no brain at all, some of them…only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake.” Eeorye was downright Yoda-esque. Most people favored Pooh, for obvious reasons, mostly because when you are a kid you love saying Pooh. I am a grown up and I love saying Pooh. I identified with Piglet to be sure, he was such a Simpleton, though. Tigger was on drugs. Had ADD for sure. Anyhow, my point with the Eeorye analogy is that we all need someone like that in our life, we all need someone like Tigger, Pooh, Piglet. They all balance one another out. Eeorye lived in a state of constant grief. Without his other friends to help pull him out of morass, he probably would have stabbed himself with a thistle. My faith in humanity remains robust. But I am determined to figure out, at least on some small level, how and why people think. Most often, I return to death, the avoidance of it (plastic surgery), the celebration of it (war). We almost always want to be the most perfect version of ourselves. But I strive to live in the ugly as well. The moments of despair, insecurity, and humility are just as informative as those that enliven and uplift us. I will leave you with Ernest Becker on the topic, “In times such as ours there is a great pressure to come up with concepts that help men understand their dilemma; there is an urge toward vital ideas, toward a simplification of needless intellectual complexity. Sometimes this makes for big lies that resolve tensions and make it easy for action to move forward with just the rationalizations that people need. But it also makes for the slow disengagement of truths that help men get a grip on what is happening to them, that tell them where the problems really are.” (Becker, 1).

PHOTOS: MND-B commander Awards Paratroopers for Valor

PHOTOS: MND-B commander Awards Paratroopers for Valor

Wounded Warrior Outreach

This is a step in the right direction. There is an outreach program here at Fort Bragg, but it'd be nice to see things like this in smaller communities. I think it makes a huge difference in the lives of wounded soldiers. The Wounded Warrior Project has a number of wonderful programs. I'd like to see local gyms and YMCA's reach out to local wounded vets...


From: "U.S. Department of Defense" Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:21:11 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Chairman Urges Athletic Directors to Help Wounded Warriors
Chairman Urges Athletic Directors to Help Wounded Warriors
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:05:00 -0500



Chairman Urges Athletic Directors to Help Wounded Warriors
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
ORLANDO, Fla., June 20, 2009 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to a nontraditional audience that believes in some very traditional American values here today.
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics annual convention that its members are in a position to connect veterans – especially wounded veterans – to their greater communities.

The chairman spoke about the role that sports has played in his life, and how coaches – going back to a Little League coach in mid-1950s Los Angeles – influenced him along the way. It also made him a Dodgers fan, a Lakers fan and a UCLA basketball fan, he added.

Sports even influenced the admiral's decision to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. He played basketball in high school and wanted to play on the East Coast where Bill Bradley – a standout for the Princeton Tigers – played. Sports allowed Mullen the opportunity to attend the Naval Academy, which he called "a place that literally changed my life forever."

The admiral said he wants the athletic directors to do what they can in their communities for wounded warriors, noting that young men and women from the Wounded Warrior Project were attending their convention. "What you do and the people you touch make such a difference in our country," Mullen said to them.

The 170,000 to 180,000 young men and women in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are his main concern as chairman, Mullen said. The military is in its eighth year of war and the force is pressed, he added, noting that, on average, servicemembers are on their fourth deployment.

The admiral told the athletic directors that he is a Vietnam vet. "That was my first war, and I remember it like yesterday," he said. "I am fortunate enough to be in a position of leadership to make sure that some of the things that happened back then – particularly the disconnect between the American people and its military – never recur. Your support of these young men and women is a big part of that."

The country must take care of those who are wounded and provide for the families of those killed, Mullen said. "We must take care of, provide for [and] create opportunities for them for the rest of their lives," he added.

The directors' participation, he told the group, is important to recognize the sacrifices servicemembers have made and to help wounded warriors and their families continue. "Their lives have changed forever, but their dreams haven't changed at all," he said.

Recognition on college campuses around the United States helps to connect the American people to its military, the admiral said.

"We're a much smaller military than we used to be – 2.2. million men and women who serve – and being able to tell their stories and to connect with the rest of America is absolutely vital," he said. "Those who serve overseas in these wars just want to know one thing: Are the American people behind us? When that question is answered positively, they don't have questions. They don't worry about the politics; they carry out the mission. And the American people are behind our men and women in the military."

More than 35,000 young men and women serving in the military have been physically injured since Sept. 11, 2001, the chairman noted, along with "tens of thousands more who are suffering from combat stress, post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries – the signature injuries of the war. I believe that we, as a country, owe them for what they've done, even in tough economic times."

It all goes back to their dreams, Mullen said. These veterans want an education, a good job, a chance to send their children to school and to own their own homes. "The dreams haven't changed, but the path has," said he told the athletic directors.

Civilian communities, he told the group, are part of the map that charts the path. The Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs have a role, he said, but so do communities.

More than 100,000 servicemembers need "people to put their arms around them and support them as they move to their future," Mullen said. "The only way we can do that is to have communities throughout the land know that combat warriors are living in their communities, and to match up the individual needs with community support."

He spoke of meeting a young Navy SEAL who had been blinded in combat. His home county had people waiting for him when he got home, the chairman said. They helped him with education, training and rehabilitation, and in finding a job. And the young man is poised – like the rest of his comrades – to contribute to the United States for the rest of their lives, the chairman said.

Future Combat Systems Update...

The plot thickens...In typical Army fashion, they plan on changing another acronym though the program itself does not seem too far off from the original and seems even more cumbersome.



Future Combat System (FCS) Program Transitions to Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization
Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:12:00 -0500
________________________________________
IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 451-09
June 23, 2009

________________________________________
Future Combat System (FCS) Program Transitions to Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization

The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics issued an acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) today that implements decisions regarding the Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team (FCS BCT) program announced by Secretary Robert M. Gates in April. FCS is the Army's largest modernization program.

In making decisions for the fiscal 2010 FY10 Gates expressed a specific concern that the portion of the FCS program to field new manned combat vehicles did not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency and close quarters combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was further troubled by the terms of the current single contract covering the whole FCS effort. The restructuring ordered today addresses these issues.

The ADM released today cancels the Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team (FCS BCT) program and in its place directs the Army to transition to a modernization plan consisting of a number of separate but integrated acquisition programs to meet the secretary's objectives. Those integrated programs include one to spin out the initial increment of the FCS program to seven infantry brigades in the near term and additional programs for information and communications networks, umanned ground and air vehicles and sensors, and an integration effort aimed at follow-on spinouts to all Army brigades. The ADM also terminates the manned ground vehicle portion of the previous FCS program and directs an assessment with the Marine Corps of joint capability gaps for ground combat vehicles. The assessment will inform new requirements for Army ground combat vehicle modernization, leading to the launch of a new acquisition program in 2010.

The termination of the Manned Ground Vehicles portion of the FCS program will negatively impact the Army's ability to develop the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) independent of the FCS development timeline as required by the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009. The department is working closely with the Congress to determine the appropriate path forward for the NLOS-C.

The ADM directs the Army to identify the most efficient means to end the manned ground vehicle development effort with the least cost to the taxpayer and to use work already completed in any follow-on ground combat vehicle developmental programs.

The Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has established a task force to examine critical issues in Army-wide modernization. This modernization task force will lead a comprehensive review of force designs, the BCT modernization plan, network integrated architectures, and ground combat vehicle operational requirements.

"The BCT modernization strategy will yield a versatile mix of BCTs that will leverage mobility, protection, information, and precision fires to conduct effective operations across the spectrum of conflict," said Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director, Army Capabilities Integration Center, TRADOC.

For more information on the Army issues, contact Lt. Col. Martin Downie, Office of the Chief of Public Affairs Army, at (703) 697-7591. For question on the ADM, please call Cheryl Irwin at OSD-PA at (703) 697-5131.

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

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