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Veterans' groups have service in common
BY LYNNE STIEFEL
STAFF WRITER, Pioneer Press, Glenview, Illinois
After serving in the defense of their country, many veterans and their wives have continued to serve after returning to Glenview or Northbrook.

They do so as members of organizations and clubs, some dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, that are ingrained in community life.

"There's a camaraderie among all servicemen. You all have your humorous and serious stories to tell, but you respect each other for the service you give your country," said James Hughes, incoming commander of Northbrook's George W. Benjamin Post No. 791 of the American Legion.

While the draw of the various military organizations may differ, each has similar goals: To foster patriotism; to instill a sense of obligation to the community, state and nation; and to preserve the memories and incidents of the wars, conflicts or military installations with which they are associated.

Those underlying philosophies bind veterans of all ages who fought in wars in every decade, regardless of whether the conflicts were politically popular.

Common thread
"It is a meeting of a diverse group of individuals who do have this common thread. We all have served our country and have been discharged honorably. Titles aren't important. Everybody is equal as far as camaraderie is concerned," said W.R. Bickley, commander of Glenview's Joseph M. Sesterhenn Post No. 166 of the American Legion.

Also duty-bound are the wives of veterans who join local chapters of the American Legion Auxiliary.
"I'm proud of my husband being in the service," said Shirley Howenstein, vice president of the Glenview post's auxiliary. "This is one way of letting everyone know I am proud to be an American."

Members of the groups collect donations for and visit veterans in nursing homes or hospitals.
They raise money and perform community service projects to benefit Glenview and Northbrook families and children. Many award college scholarships annually and sponsor sports teams or youth groups.

The legion posts hold oratorical contests for high schools students, based on the U.S. Constitution.
The legion posts' auxiliaries and the Glenview Council of the Navy League provide awards and medals to junior Reserve Officers Training Corps units at high schools in the Chicago area.

Memorial tributes
Arguably their most visible contributions are the memorial ceremonies and patriotic parades in which they participate.
The Memorial Day parade sponsored by Glenview's American Legion Post 166 is particularly close to Bickley's heart.
"That really is the American Legion parade," he said. "We limit our parade to just the groups that are really identified with veterans' activities for Memorial Day. We don't have politicians or commercial deals, just the Boy and Girl Scouts."

Supporting troops
The Glenview Navy League also acts as a support group for recruits currently serving at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, the Coast Guard and the Marine Corps. The group holds barbecues and picnics, and brings two busloads of recruits to Glenview to share Thanksgiving Dinner.

"They appreciate the backing and the help. It gives them a lift knowing there is a bunch of civilians who care, and it gives us a lift to say here's what we can do to help you," Navy League president Barry Jacobson said.

With their World War II veterans -- their largest membership group -- now in their 70s and 80s, the focus for some of the groups is less on swapping old war stories and more on learning about health and hospitalization programs.

"They're talking about veterans' benefits, the closing of hospitals and the high cost of drugs," Bickley said. "Even the guys who were shot at, they can't use their Medicare benefits at a VA hospital."

The groups now play an important role in lobbying for better benefits, Hughes said.
"Many of the veterans can take advantage of the programs, but there are tremendous time lags to get into the system," Hughes said. "It's important to have a unified voice for veterans that can be heard by politicians and other people."

Yet the groups strive to remain apolitical. They don't endorse candidates or take political stands.
Reaching out
With their memberships declining, some of the groups are reaching out to veterans of more recent wars, who may not have been as comfortable joining military organizations as the veterans of World War II.

Both Bickley and Hughes would like to see the American Legion open membership to all veterans, not just those in service during wars or times of declared conflicts.

Here's more about some of the local military groups:
Glenview's American Legion Post 166 was chartered in November of 1923. It was named after Joseph Sesterhenn, the only person from Glenview killed during World War I. It currently has 228 members.

Northbrook's American Legion Post 791 was chartered in December of 1936. It was named for George Benjamin, the first Northfield Township resident killed in World War I.

The post sponsored Northbrook Days from 1937 until 1949 to raise money to build its Legion Hall. It currently has about 370 members.

Glenview's American Legion Auxiliary began in 1919. Northbrook's Auxiliary was issued a charter in August of 1935. Both are open to female relatives of veterans or deceased veterans and to female veterans.

Patriotism exhibit features American Legion national commander's display
By BUD CHAMBERS/Staff Reporter  Wednesday, July 7, 2004 1:47 PM CDT    
With America's 228th birthday party just slipping back into the nation's rear view mirror, "patriotism" is obviously a fitting subject for the Brenham Heritage Museum's featured third quarter exhibit.

Wilfred O. Dietrich, BHM's chairman of the board, announced Tuesday that John Brieden, current American Legion national commander, and his wife, Terry, spent time during a recent break from John's Legion duties to prepare a patriotic-oriented display of his gifts from around the world.

Dietrich added that it is the museum board's opinion that Brenham and Washington County can take "a special pride in being home to the Legion's national commander" and observed that both residents and many visitors to the area will certainly enjoy "this obviously one-of-a-kind exhibit."

Though officially the Brenham Heritage Museum's July-September quarterly exhibit, Brieden noted Tuesday "my year as Legion commander ends Labor Day weekend."

Thus, Brieden said, when he is back and again devoting full time to his State Farm insurance business, he would be available to talk to school groups about his extensive Legion travels to most of the 50 states, U.S. territories and worldwide "from Korea's demilitarized zone (DMZ) to last month's 60th anniversary of D-Day in France."

In the meantime, except if a group were to catch Commander Brieden "home for a couple of days" in either July or August, his wife Terry - who joined John on most of his overseas journeys - is potentially available to provide "evening programs" about the Legion mementos' exhibit.

Dietrich, (979) 836-3120, said he will be happy to take calls from group's interested in a program about the exhibit this summer.

Among the treasures now on display at Brenham Heritage Museum on loan from Brieden are such as a quilted American flag, several wood-sculpted American eagles and numerous often near one-of-a-kind quilts which highlight the feelings of patriotism "in small town America" as given to Brieden at local American Legion posts.

There are a number of "key to cities" presented to him from various U.S. cities and several others from his foreign travels.

Of course, one highlight in Commander Brieden's now 10 full months as the Legion's national leader came early on - when Texas Gov. Rick Perry placed him in nomination for the Legion's highest elected office at the 2003 St. Louis convention and these "friends from 35 years ago as cadets at Texas A&M" joined up for a return trip to Festus, Mo.

Seems this pair had signed up for a summer job at "traveling Bible salesmen" and left there as sales partners for a period of time now some 35-plus summers ago.

Both Brieden and Perry were amazed to find "a few older folks" at a Legion reception there who recalled opening doors to them.

In being interviewed during this most recent trip home, the national Legion commander's most vivid thoughts concern attending both the Washington, D.C. dedication of the World War II Memorial and the 60th anniversary observance of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy, France.

"I first felt that with two-thirds of our World War II veterans gone, the new memorial would be directed more to bring an understanding of the sacrifices made by their generation - but in seeing more than 150,000 veterans of that war (1941-45) come here teary-eyed, my mind changed.

"They may be mostly in their 80s, but I now realize how important this memorial is to them (and in memory of their buddies who never returned) as much as for the future understanding of the Great War by our young."

Brieden said that equally memorable is standing and viewing just one American cemetery containing 10,000 American graves from D-Day and beyond - the days when brave men's actions literally changed the world.

V eterans' group sending local teen to D.C.

Drew Phillips will participate in a mock government program

TRACY LOEW
Statesman Journal
July 8, 2004

West Salem High School senior Drew Phillips will spend part of his summer getting a close-up look at American government.

Phillips was selected as one of two representatives from Oregon to attend the American Legion Boys Nation program <http://www.legion.org/?section=prog_evt&subsection=evt_bn&content=evt_bn> in Washington, D.C., July 23-31.

His trip is sponsored by the Salem and Keizer posts of the American Legion.

Each delegate to the weeklong conference will represent his state as a senator in the structure of a mock Senate. The "senators" caucus at the beginning of the session, organize into committees and conduct hearings on bills.

The boys also will participate in lectures, forums and field trips around the Washington, D.C., area. They will visit Arlington National Cemetery, the monuments and memorials on the National Mall, the U.S. Supreme Court and the White House.

This will be Phillips' second trip to the nation's capitol; he first visited seven years ago.

"It will be cool to go back and see some stuff after I've had AP history - I'll really understand the significance more," Phillips said.

Phillips, 16, has been interested in politics for as long as he can remember. He participates in mock trial at school and will be student-body president next school year.

"As I started to become more aware of what politics was and how government ran - I realized I wanted to be involved in government," he said. "I've considered being a political adviser, being a lobbyist, going into the judicial branch somehow."

Phillips was chosen from about 150 participants in Oregon's American Legion Boys State program. <http://www.legion.org/?section=prog_evt&subsection=evt_bs&content=evt_bs>

Delegates to Boys Nation are chosen based on their academic record, leadership potential and performance in an interview. Oregon's other delegate is from Tualatin.

The American Legion is the world's largest veterans' organization.
MVHS' Martens selected to attend American Legion Boys Nation
Only 96 Boys State representatives from across the nation are chosen to attend the July 23-31 event
Brian Martens, 17, a senior at Missouri Valley High School, and an Iowa American Legion Boys Stater this summer, is one of 96 high school student representatives throughout America chosen to attend the American Legion Boys Nation, July 23-31 at Marymount University, Arlington, Va. He will serve as a delegate for Iowa.

The 59th annual session of the American Legion Boys Nation program is designed to inspire a strong devotion to America while providing a practical view of federal government procedures.

He is the son of Jack and Jean Martens, Missouri Valley, and was sponsored at Boys State by Council No. 999, Knights of Columbus. Martens is active in track, Key Club, is a member of the Student Council, Spanish Club, Art Club, Math Club Speech competitor, is a member of SADD, DREAM, is a class officer, member of the National Honor Society, FCCLA and competes in cross country.

Brian was selected as a delegate for the 2004 American Legion Boys Nation program based on his academic record, leadership potential and previous activities associated with the American Legion Boys State program in Iowa.

The American Legion Boys Nation program provides a week of government training in the nation's capital, comprised of lectures and forums with visits to federal agencies, institutions, memorials and historical sites. Valuable experience of the political process is gained through the organization of party conventions, the introduction and debate on bills and resolutions, and the election of an American Legion Boys Nation President and Vice President.

Each American Legion Boys Nation delegate represents his home state as a "Senator." The "Senators" caucus at the beginning of the session and organize into committees and conduct hearings on bills, allowing delegates to learn the proper rules and procedures according to the U.S. Senate. Members of Congress and other high-ranking officials in the federal government, including President George W. Bush, have participated in the American Legion Boys Nation.

Martens was selected by his peers at Boys State as a judge on the Boys State Supreme Court during which time he and the others visited the state capitol and the supreme court chambers.

According to former State Legion Commander Don Schrum, who has been a leader of Boys State activities for many decades, Brian marks the first local student ever to be selected for Boys Nations honors since the program began in 1938.

©MISSOURI VALLEY TIMES - NEWS 2004
Reserves Stretched To Limit
Associated Press
July 8, 2004
WASHINGTON - In a bipartisan show of concern that the military is dangerously overworked, lawmakers said Wednesday the Pentagon is stretching troops to their limit and perhaps undermining the nation's future force.

Amid worries the high level of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan could discourage potential new service members, Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., said it was not reassuring that most reserve components were falling below their recruiting goals for the year.

As of May 31, the Army National Guard was reported at 88 percent, the Air National Guard at 93 percent and the Air Force Reserve at 91 percent of their goals.

"We're taxing our part-time soldiers, our Guard and Reserves nearly to the breaking point," said Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. "We have to be aware that the families back home are paying a significant price. We don't want to break the force."

Added Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee chairman: "We're also concerned that insufficient force structure and manpower are leading the services to make decisions that I liken to eating the seed corn. That is, in order to make it through today, we do things that mortgage the future."

The Army recently decided to deploy units that have been used to train other soldiers. Hunter also noted that the ratio of reserves to active duty soldiers in Iraq is increasing and he said he was concerned that troops are not getting enough turnaround time back in the states.

Defense Department officials testified at a committee hearing about troop rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The session followed last week's announcement that the Army was calling up soldiers who had already served in the Middle East.

Stretched by war needs, the Pentagon already had declared a "stop-loss" to prevent troops from leaving once they have finished their obligation.

The Army in April broke a promise to some active-duty units, including the 1st Armored Division, that they would not have to serve more than 12 months in Iraq. It also has extended the tours of other units, including some in Afghanistan.

Some lawmakers are seeking a permanent increase in the size of the military. But Pentagon personnel chief David Chu said defense officials can make better use of those in the service by reorganizing brigades, making sure uniformed personnel are not performing jobs civilians could do and temporarily increasing troops levels with stop-loss and other devices.

"I really think you're wrong," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told Chu.
Cole said the Pentagon is doing a superb job of managing it resources, but that "in the end, it does take people, and you are using people pretty hard right now."

"At some point there's a limit in terms of personnel, and I think you're there, Cole said.
Critics have charged that wide use of the stop-loss device and dipping into the Individual Ready Reserve amount to conscripting people to fight in Iraq.

For the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, the Army is forcing thousands of former soldiers back into uniform, a reflection of the strain on the service of the long campaign in Iraq, coming on top of the global fight against terrorism.

More than 5,600 former soldiers - mostly those who recently finished serving and have skills in military policing, engineering, logistics, medicine or transportation - will be assigned to National Guard and Reserve units scheduled to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, officials announced last week.

Members of the Individual Ready Reserve, perhaps thousands more are likely to be called up next year, the Pentagon said.

People in the Individual Ready Reserve are distinct from the National Guard and Reserve because they do not perform regularly scheduled training and are not paid as reservists.

They are eligible to be recalled in an emergency because their active duty stints did not complete the service obligation in their enlistment contracts.

washingtonpost.com
Hostile Mission for Recruiters
Prison Scandal Discourages Enlistment in 372nd MP Unit
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 8, 2004; Page A01
KEYSER, W.Va. -- In an oil-stained gas station parking lot, Army recruiter Justin Broadwater drinks iced tea and waits, paperwork ready, for an 18-year-old he says is "hard-core ready to go."

Sgt. Broadwater hopes so, anyway. His wedding plans give him only two weeks to meet his monthly quota of three new soldiers. One is already in hand. He's hoping that this will be No. 2.

His cell phone rings. "Yeah, buddy, I'm down here. . . . Yeah? Ah. That's bad," then a quick sign off and a sigh. The candidate's mother is sick. He'll reschedule soon; he's not sure when.

Broadwater's smile slips, rights itself. "It's a good sign, calling like that," he says. "Most of them, if they don't want to join, they'll just no-show you."

A military recruiter's job is rarely easy, but few have it harder than Broadwater, who's drawn what might be the toughest task in the stateside military: trying to fill openings in the notorious 372nd Military Police Company, in Cresaptown, Md., seven members of which are charged with abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Across a swath of Appalachian Maryland and West Virginia, Broadwater works 12-hour days, hunting for volunteers on increasingly hostile terrain.

The Army says it is recruiting enough soldiers nationwide, but here, in the epicenter of the scandal, it's falling short. Last year, Broadwater, 24, signed up more reservists for the 372nd and other units than anyone else in his battalion. This year, he struggles to find one in a month.

"Tough or easy, it's what you make it," Broadwater says of his job. For him, "it's a privilege."
Broadwater and three other Army recruiters work in LaVale, Md., in a strip mall office next to a bridal shop. When the phone rings, they all lunge for it. Each must find one to four new soldiers a month, and it takes nearly every waking moment to do it.

To reach his goal, Broadwater drives nearly 5,000 miles and makes 2,000 phone calls a month, getting, if he's lucky, one appointment for every 65 calls. He has signed kids up at football practices and on basketball courts, in cars and in one-room houses crowded with extended family. He chauffeurs the recruits to Pittsburgh for their physicals, coaches them for their aptitude tests and calls them every few days to ward off cold feet. Despite all that, he's missed his monthly target several times recently, including a couple of months when he went without a single recruit.

By the end of May, the battalion was more than 500 soldiers short of its year-to-date goal of 1,574. Last fall, LaVale was the most successful station among 34 in the battalion, which covers the Maryland and West Virginia panhandles and western Pennsylvania. But by spring, 11 recruits had backed out of their commitments, a rate "at least double" the rate last fall, said Sgt. 1st Class John Summerfield, the LaVale station commander. Iraq, he says, "is a big part of it."

Poor and patriotic regions like this one are the lifeblood of America's volunteer military. Kids join as soon as they leave high school, for the college money, the job training, the opportunities so scarce at home. They join because they're proud of their country and they want to help. But during the past three years, they've been seeing more combat and less college. Every reserve unit in this area has been called to the Middle East at least once. Two active duty soldiers died, one with young kids, the other a kid himself. Then came Abu Ghraib and the photos that disgusted the world. Now, pride comes mixed with anger and growing doubts about the war.

"It's the parents holding me back," Broadwater says. When he calls, they hang up the phone, refuse to put their children on the line, tell him off. They try to talk their sons and daughters out of joining, and, more often now, they succeed.

Broadwater pushes the numbers hard: Serve one weekend a month for six years and earn thousands in college money, bonuses and pay. He tells the mothers, "If the Lord's going to take you, he'll take you sitting right there in your chair." They remind him that an Iraqi bomb took Pvt. Brandon L. Davis, 20, this spring. The parts of his body that could be identified were buried near his home in Cumberland, Md., and the rest, weeks later, in Arlington. It was a mortar attack that took Sgt. George A. Mitchell of Antioch, W.Va., a soldier's soldier who used to take his toddlers to church on Sundays so his wife could get some sleep.

This is what Laura Anderson thinks about when her daughter Cecelia Haslicker -- blonde and athletic, bubbly and accident-prone -- says she wants to be an Army truck driver. "Are you sure this is what you want to do? Are you sure?'" the Winchester, Va., mother asks. Anderson's 21-year-old son just came home from Iraq, his back injured from dodging an ambush. "Does anyone listen to their parents?" she wonders.

"I don't want to just sit around this town," says Haslicker, 18, of Cumberland, who ships out to basic training later this month. "I'm up for adventure. I want to make something of myself."

Broadwater helped sell Brandon Davis on the Army and says he's "up there" -- pointing heavenward -- "proud." Like Davis, Broadwater was a combat engineer, but in the reserves, which he joined at 17. Broadwater's family members were shocked two years ago when he left a good-paying construction job for active duty in the LaVale recruiting station.

"After September 11th, one weekend a month in uniform wasn't enough," he explains. He grew up in this region, too, in Meyersdale, Pa. In high school, he wrestled against Joseph Darby, the 372nd MP who slipped a note under a superior's door describing the prisoner abuse by his comrades-in-arms. Broadwater has put three recruits into the 372nd this year, he says. "Are they going to be good soldiers? Yeah, they will be."

"I love the Army," he says a half-dozen times in a day. It's given him a career path, and, certainly in this job, firm goals. He's had Army logos and colors stitched onto his new leather jacket and painted on his motorcycle. Broadwater would go to Iraq "right now," he says.

Instead, he is headed to Frostburg, his wheeled suitcase filled with brochures and key chains for the freshmen at Frostburg State University.

Broadwater strides across the campus, his crew-cut head swiveling. "Some days I'll walk along . . . and the kids are all like this," he demonstrates, hiding his face and turning away. A week ago, Broadwater was at another college when an administrator tried to run him off. She knew Davis, the dead soldier from Cumberland, and she told Broadwater that she'd tear down his recruiting posters. Broadwater lost his temper. "He died for your right for complain!" he shouted at her.

The campus is empty. Broadwater gives his business card to an administrator whose foster son "needs the military" and suggests a basketball game with a muscular senior who's favoring the Air Force.

"Where're the kids today?" Broadwater keeps asking. They tell him to come back tonight for the freshman barbecue.
Back in LaVale, Broadwater calls Joshua Hickey, his first recruit this month, who says he wants to serve "to do my part, and earn bonuses for college." Hickey has a friend who might want to join. Broadwater sets up a meeting at the Keyser gas station. "You really need to push him for me," he tells Hickey. Three times, he says, "If there's a problem, call."

Dale Terry, the battalion's advertising and public relations chief, bustles around the office. He has come from Pittsburgh to find ways to stem the losses. He might order a larger sign for the center. He is thinking about sponsoring a local running race. He's checked into doing more TV ads. He has wandered through the Wal-Mart, asking local people how they feel about the Army. "Ninety percent positive," he says, riffling through a stack of questionnaires, quoting from a few. "Good job!" writes Ruth, 45. "When they abuse people there's no excuse for it," writes Stacey, 33.

"We are a nation at war," Terry says. "The moms and dads are hearing conflicting stories from the media. But the Army drives on."

The four recruiters look at him, then go back to their phones. They remember the surge of walk-ins after Sept. 11, when the war on terrorism began. These days, hardly anybody walks through the door and into the Army. Candidates with a felony or a drug or weapons charge on their records won't do. Some flunk their aptitude tests. In the past few days, three LaVale recruits failed their physicals: one for a wart, one for a bunion and one because he'd been poked in the eye a day before. The men call the Army doctor "the anti-recruiter."

Broadwater shrugs into his leather jacket with Army logos and mounts the motorcycle painted Army colors. His feet barely touch the ground as he revs up, then zips through the foothills to Frostburg.

Peach-fuzzed kids in shorts reflect off his mirrored sunglasses as Broadwater scans the crowd. He's looking for Steven McKelvey, a reservist from Bel Air, Md., who wants to transfer to a unit closer to campus. When the recruiter finds him, the pre-law freshman says he'd like to be a military policeman.

Broadwater brightens. An MP for the 372nd.
"Awesome unit," he says. "Awesome."
No Plans for Military Draft, Official Says
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 8, 2004; Page A10
There are no plans to reinstate a military draft and the Bush administration does not support conscription, the Pentagon's top official for personnel and readiness told Congress yesterday.

Trying to counter recent Internet rumors that the military and the Selective Service System are girding for a potential draft to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Undersecretary of Defense David S.C. Chu said there is no reason to bring back the draft. He fielded questions at a House Armed Services Committee hearing that focused on the strains on military personnel as officials plan to rotate more troops into the conflicts in coming months.

"The administration does not support resumption of the draft," Chu said, responding to a question from Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). "There is no secret plan on this front."

Members of the committee bemoaned the rising stress on the Army and the increasing use of the National Guard and Reserves. Chu and top military officials said that there is definitely a strain, but that the Army can handle its current operations while relying on reserve forces to share "the burden of service" throughout the all-volunteer military.

There are 18 brigades with more than 140,000 troops in Iraq, and officials said yesterday that the next rotation will keep about 135,000 troops there in 17 brigades. The U.S military is expected to have a presence in Iraq for several years, but Pentagon officials yesterday declined to speak to the committee publicly about future rotations, saying only that they will be "different."

Last week, the Army announced it is dipping into a pool of soldiers who have left active duty, calling up 5,600 this week who are in the Individual Ready Reserve. While the IRR has more than 111,000 members, the Army's Human Resources Command has identified more than 22,000 it could call into service if needed. Pentagon officials have said they probably will tap into some of that pool.

A recent "stop-loss" order kept thousands of soldiers in the military despite their plans to leave active duty, and it followed a Pentagon decision to move thousands of troops from South Korea into western Iraq by early next year. The Army is also sending its elite training forces overseas.

As of the next rotation into Iraq, reserve components are slated to make up 43 percent of the forces there, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, said forces are "absolutely" stretched thin. He also said the entire force is doing a job it was not necessarily trained for, arguing that the Army needs to reconfigure from a Cold War stance to a more versatile force for the global war on terrorism. "This is a different war," he said.

Some lawmakers said yesterday that they fear the military is dangerously close to being broken. Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.), the committee's ranking Democrat, said he believes that the military is wearing its soldiers out. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said he believes the military is "using people pretty hard right now" and needs to consider expanding, an idea the Pentagon has resisted because it would raise the military's budget.

"We are also concerned that insufficient force structure and manpower are leaving the services to make a decision that I liken to eating the seed corn," committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said.

Missing Marine mystery deepens  Pentagon investigates whether kidnapping in Iraq is a hoax     
By Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent, NBC News
The strange disappearance of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, reportedly kidnapped in Iraq nearly three weeks ago, grows even more mysterious.

Senior Pentagon officials tell NBC News, a man claiming to be Hassoun, called his family in Lebanon and the U.S. embassy in Beirut, saying he was - "released by his kidnappers somewhere in Lebanon" and that he was "waiting to be picked up."

But in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S. officials remain in the dark. "We have received reports that he may be in contact with various individuals and there are other reports that he might be in Lebanon. But we cannot confirm any of these at this time," said Powell.

Late Wednesday, FBI agents showed up at the Hassoun family home in West Jordan, Utah. And Pentagon officials tell NBC News that the Navy has now launched a criminal investigation into Hassoun's disappearance, and the possibility that his kidnapping may be part of an elaborate hoax.

Few clues since disappearance in June
Hassoun disappeared from his Marine unit on June 20. He showed up a week later in a hostage-style video, with a sword held over his head and his alleged captors threatening to kill him. Terrorist experts say, however, the group said to have held Hassoun is unknown.

"We don't know whether this group is simply an Internet address. ... We don't know if they were simply fabricated. We have no idea what's going on here," says terrorism expert Steve Emerson.

A second group later claimed Hassoun was beheaded - then retracted that claim. Pending the investigation, military officials refuse to say Hassoun's kidnapping was a hoax, but they point out he had reportedly talked openly about leaving his Marine unit to join his family in Lebanon. Whether he was kidnapped and then released along the way remains a mystery.

July 8, 2004
MILITARY
U.S. Starts Drawing Plans to Cut Its Troops in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, July 7 - With an interim Iraqi government now in place, the Pentagon is beginning long-range planning on how to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq, senior military officials said Wednesday.

Pentagon officials have previously said that about 135,000 troops would stay in Iraq through 2005. But the military's Joint Staff is working on detailed plans to reduce that number by 2006, on the assumption that Iraqi Army and other security forces will be ready to take on more responsibility by then, officials said.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, the top operations officer for the Joint Staff, Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz of the Air Force, signaled that this thinking was well under way. When asked about planning for the size of an American force that could move into Iraq for yearlong assignments beginning in early 2006, he declined to give specific figures but said, "The bottom line is, it is different than what we anticipate" for 2005. He added, "There is a significant planning effort that will wrap up later this summer.''

A senior defense official said later that the Joint Staff was developing options for a smaller force in Iraq, proposals that would be consistent with the goal of Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, to reduce the American military presence in Iraq over time. Some officials said those options revolved around 100,000 troops, or fewer, but troop levels could increase if security in Iraq worsened.

Reducing American forces in Iraq has been a consistent goal of the Bush administration. While any reduction would almost certainly occur after the November elections, the prospects could blunt Democrats' contentions that the administration planned poorly for the period after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.

The continued American presence is also a sore spot for the new Iraqi government as it seeks to establish credibility with the Iraqi people. And reducing it would lessen the strains placed on the United States Army by troop commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.

Democrats and Republicans voiced concern at Wednesday's hearing that the Army was wearing out its active duty and reserve forces, a worry that even a top Army officer said he shared. "Are we stretched thin with our active and reserve component forces right now?'' said Gen. Richard A. Cody, the new Army vice chief of staff. "Absolutely.''

But General Cody, along with the Pentagon's top personnel official, David S. C. Chu, said the Army was meeting its commitments, and recruitment and retention remained generally strong.

For the first time, General Schwartz outlined the Pentagon's strategy for how Iraqi national guard and army forces could gradually replace American troops around the country, starting in the relatively stable north where he said security patrols would soon be conducted exclusively by Iraqi forces. In parts of the country where the insurgency is still fierce, American forces will remain in strength and conduct patrols on their own or with Iraqi troops.

"The bottom line is, is that this will be done incrementally and it will be done in locations around Iraq where transitions can occur and the Iraqi security forces can be successful," said General Schwartz, who said that as Iraqi forces proved they could secure a region, American forces there would move to more restive areas.

"We will cascade American forces from those locations to places where they can be better utilized," General Schwartz said. "And ultimately, naturally, we'll reduce the force structure in Iraq."

How long American forces stay in Iraq and in what numbers will be driven by security conditions and how quickly Iraqi security forces establish themselves, senior military officers here and in Iraq said. The United States Army, which is providing the bulk of the troops in Iraq, is preparing worst-case contingency plans to keep troop numbers at their current levels of 135,000 to 140,000 for the next several years, if necessary.

"We've got plans to do that for as long as it takes because this will be event-driven, not time-driven," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on "The Newshour With Jim Lehrer'' on PBS on July 1. General Schwartz said Wednesday that, based on the experience of training indigenous forces in Afghanistan, it would be "several years" before Iraq would develop a full complement of security forces.

But with one of the Army's most highly regarded officers, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, now overseeing the training and equipping of Iraqi forces, and a new four-star American commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., on the ground, military officials are expressing guarded confidence that American troop levels in Iraq may actually begin to decline rather than increase, as they have steadily over the last year.

General Abizaid is expected to wait until at least September to give his assessment on whether troop levels can be adjusted up or down.

Even as tensions flared in Sunni strongholds like Falluja and Baquba, American military officials pointed to encouraging signs elsewhere in Iraq. Last week in Mosul, for instance, Iraqi security forces conducted two operations that seized weapons, ammunition and people suspected of being insurgents, all with very little help from American troops, officials said.

"There were, not unexpectedly, a few minor hiccups," Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham, the top American commander in northern Iraq, said via e-mail. "But every day we are closer to the day when Iraqi security forces will have the capability to manage their own security matters."

Submarine industry In dire Straits, experts Say
Decline In Production Raises Questions About Fleet's Future
By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat
Published on 7/7/2004
Groton - Even though 2004 has been touted as "The Year of the Submarine," the low rate of U.S. submarine production has raised doubts about the nation's ability to continue building top-quality boats, experts said Tuesday at a conference here.

Several speakers pointed to the experience of the United Kingdom, which restarted its submarine program in 1997 after a 10-year hiatus. Electric Boat in Groton was called in last year as a technical consultant to help right the troubled program.

The last thing the United States needs is to find itself in the same situation, said U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who sponsored the conference at the Mystic Marriott.

The conference started on an optimistic note, with speakers observing that this year the Navy will commission its first submarine in six years and has begun converting four ballistic missile submarines to fire conventional missiles in a project touted as the epitome of military transformation.

"There's a lot of firsts going on in the world right now, certainly in this country, and we're proud to be right in the middle of it," EB President John P. Casey told about 150 submarine parts suppliers at the Submarine Industrial Base Conference.

Casey and others at the conference said the submarine industry also faces greater danger now than at almost any time in its history, as rising costs and a rapidly declining fleet threaten the country's ability to build the boats. As the Navy struggles with a shipbuilding budget that only enables it to buy about 60 percent of the ships it needs, the fleet eventually could shrink to about one-third of its Cold War high.

Several speakers said the Navy has to build at least two submarines a year to maintain its fleet, but that it is difficult to reach that level of production.

"There is no shortage of competition for (shipbuilding) funding, but we have a powerful story to tell," Casey said. "We have to shift the argument from this being a high-cost platform to this being a high-value platform."

Casey thanked the suppliers for working hard and long to preserve the submarine industrial base during the 1990s, but cautioned, "Today we're going to ask you to labor longer and harder. ... What's at stake today is nothing less than the future of submarine building in this country."

The conference, aimed at submarine parts suppliers in Connecticut, also attracted representatives from companies all over the country.

Dodd said he attended the launch of the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, 50 years ago, that his mother christened the USS Henry L. Stimson in the 1960s, and that his cousin, William McAree, was commanding officer of a submarine.

"But my interest in this technology transcends personal and parochial interests," Dodd said. "I'm deeply worried if we don't maintain this technology, we place our country in peril."

Submarines have an inherent stealth that make them the ideal ship for surveillance missions, to deliver Special Forces troops covertly, to strike an enemy without warning and to conduct other tasks that are crucial to the global war on terrorism, Dodd said.

"I would say our submarine needs have only increased in the post-9/11 world," Dodd said.
He criticized an internal Navy study that concluded that the undersea fleet could shrink from the current 54 submarines and a Cold War high of more than 100, to as few as 37. The study, he said, "was based on flawed logic and faulty assumptions."

After ordering 42 submarines in the 1980s, the Navy ordered only three in the 1990s. It is on track to order at most just 11 in this decade, a rate that threatens the survival of the industry, speakers said.

Electric Boat has teamed with Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding to co-produce the Virginia class of submarine, which means each shipyard is building just half a submarine a year. Both shipyards contend the Navy must build at least two submarines a year if the two yards are going to be even minimally efficient.

As the production rate has dropped, so has the supplier base, so that today about 84 percent of the parts going into nuclear submarines are produced by only one company, which precludes competition, said Rear Adm. John D. Butler, the program executive officer for submarines at Naval Sea Systems Command.

One vendor said his company invested millions of dollars to produce enough nuclear reactor parts for two or three submarines a year, which means most of its capacity is wasted based on current production.

Butler called on the submarine suppliers to suggest ways to reduce the cost of submarine construction, particularly if the Navy is going to meet its goal of increasing production from one submarine a year to two submarines a year by fiscal year 2009.

He said the program faces a quandary: The cost per ship is high when the Navy builds only one submarine a year, but the budget will not support two a year even though the per-ship cost would be lower.

"We must reduce the per-unit cost of these ships," Butler said. "We must show improvement with each ship. We must show innovation in cutting costs. We must get to two ships per year by '09."

Rear Adm. Stephen E. Johnson called on the suppliers to suggest innovations that will make submarines even more valuable to war planners. For instance, he said, designers have to figure out how to get as much as 10 times the weapons and sensors into a Virginia-class submarine - or figure out how to get the same payload into a smaller boat.

"Projecting power for the United States is about payload," Johnson said. Submarines, he said, must make a contribution to every military service, in every theater, and whenever required in the defense of the nation.

Al Malchiodi, director of the Concept Formulation group at EB, agreed. The typical warship carries about 1.5 to 1.6 percent of its weight in payload, either weapons or sensors.

"There are ways to improve that," he said, and EB is investigating some of them, such as putting more weapons outside the hull, and developing new forms of propulsion that will require less space, creating more room for weapons.

And, he said, EB continues to look at new equipment that submarines can carry, such as underwater, surface and aerial drones that can do surveillance.

"We need new submarine payloads if they are going to continue to be relevant," Malchiodi said.
Rear Adm. William G. Timme, commander of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., and deputy commander for undersea technology at Naval Sea Systems, said his office also is wringing every operational day possible out of submarines in the fleet.

Instead of having submarines spend an average of about two years of every decade in overhaul, that has been reduced to about one year in 10, he said, and the number of staff-days spent on overhauls has dropped from more than 1 million to about 455,000. He said the cutbacks have been achieved without affecting the quality of repair and maintenance work by carefully studying how frequently some work needs to be done and developing diagnostic techniques to better predict when a submarine component might be in danger of failing.

"The quality of the maintenance that we do, and the quality of the parts, remains just as high as it ever was in the past," Timme said.

Emergency Measures, Not Desperate Attempts, Fill Troop Rotations
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2004 -- Pentagon leaders today faced tough questions on Capitol Hill on issues of deployment and force structure as the military gears up for another round of troop rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The next major rotation of troops signals the third of U.S. forces into Iraq, the sixth for Afghanistan.
House Armed Services Committee members questioned whether measures by the Pentagon to call up 5,600 Individual Ready Reserve members to active duty and whether the pullout of thousands of troops from South Korea by the Pentagon for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan indicated a manpower crisis in the military.

David S. C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the measures were not a last resort. Instead, he said, they are efforts by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard Myers to ensure the "burden of service in Iraq and Afghanistan is shared equitably."

Chu said guidelines set forth by the Defense Department are designed to allow each unit an "approximate equal period of time back home or out of the theater." Those guidelines ensure equity in "the burden of these deployments so that we do not over concentrate the load on any particular unit."

On the rotation of troops from Korea, Chu noted that improvements in South Korea's military forces have reduced the need for American ground forces to be stationed there permanently in peacetime.

"This is an opportunity to have that brigade serve in Iraq as currently planned," Chu said.
He said the call-up of IRR soldiers, though rare, is not "inappropriate," emphasizing that the use of IRR soldiers has historically been limited in scope. Still, he added, that call-up of the IRR was needed because it allows the Defense Department to "fill holes quickly" with trained people in the appropriate skills.

Chu also addressed the question of why Marines typically serve a seven- month tour of duty, opposed the Army's 12-month rotations. He said this was a decision made by Rumsfeld, given the length of initial obligation by Marine Corps recruits.

"Their service obligation allows us to realize more than one rotation during a first term of service," Chu noted. He added that Marine command elements and headquarters units will deploy on 12-month rotations.

Lt. General Jan C. Huly, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for plans, policies and operations, said the rotation policy is the "best course" for the Marine Corps to train, organize and deploy combat forces.

Huly said that the Marines are deploying and operating overseas at much higher tempos than at any time in recent memory. He said almost one out of every three Marines is now forward-deployed, stationed or based worldwide.

Also at issue was the continued reliance on National Guard and Reserve units that make up 46 percent of the force going into Iraq. One committee member called this "taxing citizen soldiers to the breaking point."

That concern led to questions on whether the military had a 'surge capacity' should another contingency operation requiring substantial forces arise.

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, admitted that the military is "stretched thin" with reserve and active components having recently completed the largest troop movement since World War II.

"You can't move eight and a half divisions and 240,000 thousand forces without stressing the force," he said. However, he added, the military is working rapidly to rebuild its surge capacity.

Asked by if he could use 10,000 more Army troops per year over the next three years, Cody replied, "Yes, Sir."
As for when U.S. forces will be out of Iraq, Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Staff, told the committee that move will take place incrementally and whenever possible, but that it will take years. He said the bottom line "will be in locations around Iraq where transitions can occur and the Iraqi security forces can be successful."

Schwartz said some transitions will take place in the very near term. For example, in northern Iraq, U.S. officials anticipate only Iraqis will do patrols. But he said that if Afghanistan is any indication, "it will be several years" before all troops are out of Iraq.

Meanwhile, the pace of military operations and the length of deployments have not hurt military recruiting and retention goals, Chu pointed out to the committee.

He said that each military service in the period through May met their active-duty recruiting goals, "and met them handsomely."

In addition, he said, the military continues to recruit well above its target in term of high school graduates, which has resulted in higher aptitude-test results.

Chu also noted that retention is likewise going well within the services, though the Army did not quite make its quarterly goal. But, he added, the Army is "quite confident in its ability to do so by the end of the year."

Joe March, Director
National Public Relations
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