Archives » Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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David Botti
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Feb 20, 2008 12:33 PM
A selection of military news stories over the recent days:
Recognizing the needs of families with service member's deployed, the Department of Defense is setting up a new set of advisers
tasked with evaluating the issue. As part of the 2008 Defense
Authorization Act, money has been designated for a group of senior
enlisted advisers, and spouses of senior enlisted service members. Each
year the group is required to submit a report outlining its assessments
of the family readiness program. As the Military Times reports:
The new law puts the onus on the Defense Department to ensure family
readiness programs are “comprehensive, effective and properly
supported,” and that this support is continuously available to all
military families — National Guard and reserve, as well as active duty
— in peacetime and in war, and during periods of force structure change
and relocation of military units.
USA Today offers an important look
at how the city of Worcester, Massachusetts has been affected by the
Iraq war. Unlike the city's casualties in other wars, Worcester has
lost none of its citizens in Iraq. The article looks at how the lack of
personal loss translates into awareness of the war. It's an interesting
take, and worth reading, as this excerpt shows:
Denis Leary, director of Massachusetts Veterans
Inc., says his shelter is not serving a single Iraq war veteran. But
the counselors see an increase in nightmares, delusions and flashbacks
among vets of other wars, possibly because of memories revived by news
from Iraq.
For most people most of the time, however, Iraq seems less like a war than a rumor of war.
"Gone are the yellow ribbons, gone are the flags
flying everywhere so crisply and the banners on the overpasses," says
Daniel Brennock, a retired Navy captain. "No one remembers the war
until they sit down at 6:30 and watch the news."
A new GAO report released yesterday reported
there were 145 sexual assault cases reported at the nation's three
military academies during the three years the report looked at. While
praising the academies for increased measures to combat and treat
sexual assaults, the report worried about inconsistencies with the
reporting process. At one point surveys distributed to cadets found
that 300 said they could report some kind of unwanted sexual contact --
a far cry from the actual 145 cases officially reported.
Marines
based on the islands of Okinawa and Japan were placed under
restrictions limiting movement throughout their immediate areas. After
the recent rape of a 14-year-old girl on Okinawa last week by a Marine
Staff Sergeant, and a series of other less serious incidents committed
by service members, the restrictions came as Okinawa's residents
expressed outrage over their behavior. As the Associated Press reports:
Okinawans have complained about crime, crowding and noise brought by
the troops for many years. Protests in the 1990s forced the closing of
a Marine air station, and now a plan to build a new airstrip on the
island has stirred persistent opposition.
Over the past week,
Okinawan lawmakers have passed resolutions demanding tighter discipline
among American troops, and groups have held several protests. In the
latest demonstration, some 300 people held a meeting on Tuesday in the
town where the rape is alleged to happened.
Also on the Military Times website, if you're looking for something different to watch, check out this video of the Navy's record-breaking electromagnetic rail gun.
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