By Rowan Scarborough
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The Washington Times
In a shift in tactics, the U.S. military in Afghanistan plans to rely more on old-fashioned surveillance, as compared with new-age technology, to stop the biggest killer of American service members in the field.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was informed by the Pentagon in recent weeks that the command is building up a special task force to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify, Neutralize) is designed to constantly watch troop and convoy routes to catch the enemy planting IEDs, which account for more than 50 percent of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan.
"I just found out they finally instituted ODIN in one province, Ghazni, in Regional Command East," Mr. Hunter, California Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Washington Times. "IED attacks dropped by 70 percent. They have already killed 25 insurgents. That was after 20 days of being on line."
The Pentagon has spent nearly $20 billion in a concerted effort since 2004 to blunt IEDs after they became prime weapons for insurgents in Iraq and then for the Taliban in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Gen. Petraeus referred questions to the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, which coordinates all counter-IED work. A spokeswoman for the organization referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not respond to a reporter's questions over several days.
However, a senior NATO officer in Afghanistan told The Times, "We have added substantial additional counter-IED platforms, optics, assets."
Mr. Hunter, a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve, has pushed for months for the Pentagon to put more surveillance aircraft in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, analysts are debating whether the best counters to IEDs are high-tech jammers, lasers and detection devices - on which the Defense Department has spent billions of dollars - or on something simpler such as watching the roads where the bombs are embedded.
Mr. Hunter, who fought in Fallujah, said Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, greatly relied on the task force during the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, with dramatically improved results.
Mr. Hunter said Gen. Petraeus' commanders "created an Army air unit that was able to do this outside [the defense secretary office's] purview on the Army's own so they didn't have to go through any red tape. They killed more bad guys than the rest of the people in Iraq put together, and they were all IED emplacements."
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Soldier becomes second woman to set national high-powered rifle record
FORT BENNING, Ga. (WTVM) – A U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit soldier becomes the first service member since 1987 to win the National High Power Rifle Championship.
Sgt. Sherri Jo Gallagher set a new national record in the match with a 2396-161x, dropping only four shots during the entire competition. She shot 21 more bulls eyes than anyone else. Competitors included legends of the sport and past champions.
"I wanted to be in the military since I was very young-I was drawn to the challenge and excitement of it," said Gallagher. "I wanted to learn how to be a leader and make a difference in life. Then I had the opportunity to join the USAMU and turn my favorite hobby into my daily life. Nothing could be more fun than that."
She also became the second woman ever to win the championship. Her mother Nancy Tompkins won the honor in 1998.
"We were both competing that year so I didn't get to watch her that much" Gallagher said. "But, she wasn't shooting high-power this year so she was able to watch me shoot. She brought me coffee every day. It was very nice."
Gallagher currently holds 21 national records in rifle. In 2009, she won the national high-power long-range rifle championship for the first time.
Airman awarded Purple Heart: Looking forward
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Angela Williams watched as the Purple Heart — the military’s oldest decoration — was pinned to her only child’s Battle Dress Uniform, just below the heart.
“I’m the proudest mother in America right now,” she said Friday at a ceremony at Goodfellow Air Force Base. “I’m just glad he’s here.”
Seven years after Staff Sgt. Dustin Vigil, 17th Security Forces Squadron, was wounded during his tour in Iraq, the 27-year-old is still coping, emotionally and physically, with the experience.
On June 25, 2003, Vigil was traveling in a Humvee when a mortar round exploded outside the vehicle. Vigil was thrown 10 feet, landing on his head and suffering from injuries that at the time were believed to be superficial.
More than a year after that day, the migraines Vigil experienced following the explosion had become so severe he was required to have an MRI scan. Doctors found his skull was fractured and several of the discs in his back were damaged. His first brain surgery was in 2005; the second, two years later.
Vigil said he’s also gone through neck surgery and spent some time with his ankle in a cast because of a hairline fracture, which he had walked on for three or four years.
“It (all) happened within three weeks,” he said. “I looked like I was hit by a car.”
Friday morning at Goodfellow Air Force Base’s event center, members of his squadron, members of the wing staff and his family came together to honor the airman who’s still battling his injuries.
Vigil said the presence of his mother, who has mainly experienced the hospitals, surgeries and doctors that came as a result of his injury, made the ceremony more meaningful.
“Her coming in and seeing this was a huge uplift,” he said.
Williams and her husband, Lynn Wendt, stood alongside Vigil after the ceremony as he shook hands with members of his squadron, men and women from the wing staff and members with the city’s respite center.
The medal was presented by Brig. Gen. Scott Bethel, the strategy, integration and doctrine director and deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at Headquarters Air Force in Washington, D.C. Bethel is a former commanding officer of Goodfellow.
At the end of a speech directed at the audience, Bethel turned to Vigil and thanked him for “being such a wonderful American.”
Vigil’s squadron presented the shadowbox for displaying the medal.
Friday also was the last day he would see one of his former Air Force K-9 Spidla, or “Spidy.” After the ceremony he spent several minutes kneeling on the carpet holding and playing with the black and brown German Shepard.
“It’s good to see him. I love to be able to touch and play with him one last time,” Vigil said. “He was my partner.”
Becoming a K-9 handler was one reason Vigil said he signed up for the Air Force. Although the Oklahoma native had offers to play college soccer, he also visited military recruiting offices, hearing pitches for each branch.
When he visited with the Air Force, the recruiter made no promises about his future, and Vigil knew it was the path to take. He enlisted July 2001.
“It was pre 9/11,” he said, “There was something about the military that was tantalizing or alluring.”
Now, he said, given the chance, he wouldn’t take any of it back.
Although he wished his children, who live in California with his wife, could be at the ceremony, he understood they couldn’t be pulled from school. He said Goodfellow members filmed the ceremony and will send a copy to them.
Vigil said he plans to stay in the Concho Valley, in part because of a state-sponsored group of combat veterans called “Bring it to the Zone.” Men and women meet to talk among themselves, rather than a psychiatrist, about what they’ve experienced overseas.
He said there are still days when he looks in the medicine cabinet and sees it contains more medication than most 80-year-olds would use, but he tries to be grateful for what he has — including his new decoration.
“You have to be positive. If you have a negative attitude you’re not going to get anywhere,” Vigil said. “I’m happy because I’m alive. You have to be.”
Craig Morgan shares bond with audience at Pope AFB
Flanked by a pair of aircraft - a C-17 Globemaster and a C-130 Hercules - and with hangers No. 4 and 5 in the background, country music star Craig Morgan performed a free concert Friday night on the flight line of Silver Ramp at Pope Air Force Base.
It was a familiar - and welcoming - sight for Morgan, a former soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division.
"Thank you; it's so good to be back in this part of the world," Morgan said to the cheering crowd, which military officials estimated at 15,000. "It always feels like home."
That sentiment hit home with Staff Sgt. Chris Connell, a soldier in the 82nd who attended the concert with his wife, Morgan, and daughter, 5-year-old Arianna.
"It's good to have something like this for families to do on a Friday night," said Connell, who danced with his daughter in the waning orange sunlight during a performance by opening act Perry Howell & the Barn Burners.
"It's really good to see him (Morgan) give back to soldiers - to take care of his brothers," Connell said.
Pfc. Jason Jimeson and his wife, Andrea, thought the free concert was a nice diversion for a Friday night.
"It's cool; it's a free concert!" said Jimeson, a solider at Fort Bragg. "But it's also really cool he's giving back ... and it's a nice going away party for Pope."
Jimeson was referring to how Pope Air Force Base will become part of Fort Bragg when the planned Base Closure and Realignment is complete.
The only thing realigning itself Friday night was the crowd, which surged to the front of the stage and stood throughout Morgan's entire set.
Morgan often thanked those assembled, consisting mostly of soldiers and their families.
Accompanied by his five-piece band, Morgan also made the crowd happy by playing several of his greatest hits, including "That's What I Love About Sunday," "Bonfire," "Little Bit of Life" and many more.
At one point, during the first chorus of "I Got You," Morgan stopped the song in order to pull an engaged couple up who were to be married the next day on stage. The couple held a sign that caught the singer's attention.
"Ma'am, do you know how hard it is to read and sing at the same time?" Morgan playfully asked the bride-to-be in the front row. "Now, I can do a lot of things at once, but I can't do that."
While Morgan's antics and vocal prowess entertained the masses, it was the singer's down-to-earth attitude that most impressed Sgt. Thomas Anderson, who attended the concert with his wife, Tris.
"I like that he (Morgan) stays true to his roots," said Anderson, a soldier at Fort Bragg. "He knows where he's from, and he knows what Army families go through. He's served here and no matter how famous he's become, his values still come through."
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