DEOMI News Highlights DEOMI News Highlights is a weekly compilation of published items and commentary with a focus on equal opportunity, equal employment opportunity, diversity, culture, and human relations issues. DEOMI News Highlights is also a management tool intended to serve the informational needs of equity professionals and senior DOD officials in the continuing assessment of defense policies, programs, and actions. Further reproduction or redistribution for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. 13 women graduate from the Army’s first integrated armor officer course [Meghann Myers, Army Times, 1 December 2016]  Thirteen female officers are among the 65 lieutenants to graduate from the Army’s first integrated Armor Basic Officer Leader Course, the Maneuver Center of Excellence announced on Thursday.  The women represent another milestone on the Army’s path to full gender integration, following the first women to complete Ranger school in summer 2015 and the first to complete the Infantry Officer Basic Leader Course in October.  The Army has chosen to build up its ranks of female leaders first, followed by enlisted recruits in infantry and armor schools next year. 13 women graduate from the Army’s first integrated armor officer course Corps: Transgender Marines to Meet Fitness, Grooming Standards [Hope Hodge Seck, Military.com, 29 November 2016]  The Marine Corps became the last service in the Defense Department to release a policy governing transgender troops this month, in preparation to comply with a Pentagon order that will allow transgender recruits to join the military by next July.  The six-page policy, signed by Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, deputy commandant for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and released as a Marine Corps bulletin on Nov. 22, leaves a number of questions unanswered. In addition, key details, such as how to accommodate troops who are concerned about privacy, are left to unit commanders to handle.  The service also reserves the right to separate Marines whose ability to serve is adversely affected by medical conditions or medical treatment related to their gender identity, the policy states, adding that these Marines would be treated “in a manner consistent with a Marine whose ability to serve is similarly affected by medical condition(s) unrelated to gender identity or gender transition.” Corps: Transgender Marines to Meet Fitness, Grooming Standards House Passes Bills to Boost Overtime Pay and Protect Whistleblowers [Eric Katz, Government Executive, 30 November 2016]  The House [on Wednesday] passed the Follow the Rules Act, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis. The measure would allow federal employees to disobey orders from their supervisors that would violate federal rules and regulations. The matter arose after the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a ruling in June saying the State Department acted properly when it gave an employee a bad performance review for refusing to carry out a directive that went against federal rules.  The Whistleblower Protection Act protects a federal employee from retaliation “for refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law.” The court’s ruling, however, stated in a precedent-setting opinion that State was permitted to punish the employee because rules and regulations do not qualify as federal statute.  “The Follow the Rules Act will close a loophole that undermines whistleblower protections for federal employees,” [Rep. Gerry] Connolly [D-Va.] said. “Federal employees who defy a supervisor’s direction to violate rules and regulations should not be subject to retaliation.” House Passes Bills to Boost Overtime Pay and Protect Whistleblowers

2 DECEMBER 2016

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DEOMI News Highlights Culture “I want them to understand how bad that hurts me”: Vets slam college for taking down U.S. flag Houston Conwill, Whose Sculptures Celebrated Black Culture, Dies at 69 Museum Cafeteria Serves Black History and a Bit of Comfort

Discrimination House Passes Bills to Boost Overtime Pay and Protect Whistleblowers Lawsuit by Norfolk’s first veteran liaison says city fired him for raising ethical concerns PSNS discrimination suit settled She says she was harassed by superiors. Now she protests outside the TSA for hours. Watchdog to Merit Board: Improve Records of Whistleblower Appeals

Diversity 13 women graduate from the Army’s first integrated armor officer course Air Force testing new maternity uniforms Congress drops plans to make women register for the draft Corps: Transgender Marines to Meet Fitness, Grooming Standards Does Diversity Create Distrust? Obama Seeks to Cement Agency Diversity Efforts Before Trump Takes Office Oldest remaining Tuskegee Airman, a St. Petersburg man, dies at 101 Ship named after first Black Marine pilot White House: Obama supports registering women for military draft

Miscellaneous Army to study how physical conditioning affects soldiers’ mental health The Navy took away sailors’ job titles, and now no one knows what to call each other Outgoing Navy Sec. Mabus leaves profound imprint on policies, ship acquisition Patricia Kutteles, Driven by Tragedy to End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Dies at 67 Ruth Gruber, a Fearless Chronicler of the Jewish Struggle, Dies at 105 Study: Families of those who commit suicide should keep benefits Symposium airs sleep disorders’ role in health issues

Misconduct Advocates want Obama, Trump to pardon “bad paper” dismissals Army Says It Fairly Dismissed Soldiers With Mental Health Problems, Brain Injuries “Crush their nuts”: Marines determine working for this commander was pure hell Senators, military specialists say Army report on dismissed soldiers is troubling

Sexism Few women fight wildfires. That’s not because they’re afraid of flames.

Sexual Assault Military wife fights for better protection of victims of sexual harassment in DOD schools Women in Canadian Military Report Widespread Sexual Assault

2 DECEMBER 2016

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Culture

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/11/28/i-want-them-to-understand-how-badthat-hurts-me-vets-slam-college-for-taking-down-u-s-flag/

‘I want them to understand how bad that hurts me’: Vets slam college for taking down U.S. flag By Peter Holley The Washington Post, November 28, 2016 When the president of Hampshire College decided to remove the American flag from the center of campus days after Donald Trump’s election, the move triggered fiery reactions. For the members of the campus community who consider the flag a symbol of fear, the flag’s descent was celebrated as a moral necessity. For others, like David Soucy, a veteran who considers the flag a symbol of sacrifice, it felt like a deeply personal insult. “I was in Iraq 18 months,” Soucy told NBC affiliate WWLP. “I got hurt, spent time at Walter Reed. I came home, and there’s no way I’ll let anyone take down the flag, no way.” “It means a lot to me and my brothers,” he added. Soucy was joined Sunday by hundreds of flag-waving veterans from across New England who descended upon the liberal arts college’s campus in Amherst, Mass., to deliver a forceful rebuke to opponents of the U.S. flag. The demonstrators called upon Hampshire officials to reverse their most recent decision to stop flying all flags — including the stars and stripes — on the main flagpole on campus, according to masslive.com. Demonstrators, the outlet reported, sang “God Bless America” and held signs with slogans including “No flag = no taxpayer (money).” Domenic Sarno, the mayor of the nearby city of Springfield, told the gathering that the American flag is a “beacon of hope, freedom and democracy.” “I would just hope that Hampshire College and its leadership would rethink this and show the proper respect for the opportunities that you have here — not somewhere else, but here in the United States,” Sarno said. “For the students here and the president and board of trustees have risen from what the veterans sacrificed, this flag, and not to fly the flag on this campus if you were in some other countries around the world it would be handled very, very differently,” he added. Micah Welintokonis, a veteran from Coventry, Conn., told masslive.com that the school was ignoring its educational role by banning the flag. “Coddling young men and women old enough to serve our country has zero educational value,” Welintokonis said. “I am frustrated by the things going on in this country. Let us pray for our nation to move forward together.” “They took down my flag, they have a right to that. I’m here to defend their right to do that, but I want them to understand how bad that hurts me,” veteran Jerry Maguire told WWLP. The only reported incident occurred when a man who refused to identify himself interrupted a group photo by sitting among demonstrators and “making obscene gestures,” WWLP reported.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/11/28/i-want-them-to-understand-how-badthat-hurts-me-vets-slam-college-for-taking-down-u-s-flag/ Video published by masslive.com appears to show the same man sitting silently among frustrated protesters. “Campus police surrounded the young man as flag-waving demonstrators jeered or tried to talk to him,” masslive.com reported. “The young man said nothing. He eventually lowered his hands and stared straight ahead, ignoring the crowd. He walked away after several minutes.” Gamalier Rosa, an Army veteran and protest organizer who served in Iraq, told the Globe that taking down the flag showed a lack of respect for veterans and their relatives. “Our flag is a symbol of our country,” she said. “Our clearest message is that we ask others to respect the flag as we do.” Hampshire’s American flag was initially lowered by someone on the day after Trump’s election as president. Then, sometime before dawn on Veterans Day, someone burned the flag, according to The Washington Post’s Susan Svrluga. Hampshire officials said the flag-burning incident is being investigated by campus police. When the burned flag was replaced, the Hampshire board announced that the new flag would be flown at half-staff, “both to acknowledge the grief and pain experienced by so many and to enable the full complexity of voices and experiences to be heard,” Svrluga reported. But Jonathan Lash, the president of the small college in Western Massachusetts, said the decision to keep the flag at half-staff only served to complicate the issue. The problem, he explained, was that it upset veterans and military families who saw the measure as a sign of disrespect for the tradition of national mourning. So it was removed entirely. Lash said the flag’s removal was not intended as a sign of disrespect, but to accommodate the diverse range of reactions to the symbol. For some people, he noted, “the flag is a very powerful symbol of fear they’ve felt all their lives because they grew up as people of color, never feeling safe — and people for whom it’s a symbol of their highest aspiration for the country.” In an email to the campus community Friday, Lash wrote that college leaders hoped that removing the flag “will enable us to instead focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, antiimmigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.” He also wrote, “Some have perceived the action of lowering the flag as a commentary on the results of the presidential election — this, unequivocally, was not our intent.”

SEE ALSO: Hampshire College Draws Protests Over Removal of U.S. Flag [The New York Times, 2016-11-28]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/arts/design/houston-conwill-dead-sculptor.html

Houston Conwill, Whose Sculptures Celebrated Black Culture, Dies at 69 By Sam Roberts The New York Times, November 20, 2016 The sculptor Houston Conwill. (Credit William L. Conwill) Houston Conwill, a sculptor best known for collaborative sitespecific works celebrating African-American culture and spiritualism, died on Nov. 14 in the Bronx. He was 69. His wife, Kinshasha Holman Conwill, the deputy director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, said that the cause was prostate cancer. Mr. Conwill, a former seminarian and Vietnam War veteran, assimilated a wide range of genres and forms, among them maps and bowls of earth, to depict memory, heritage and the African diaspora in works that blurred the boundaries between performance and conceptual art. His memorial to the poet Langston Hughes at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem was described as “exquisite” by The Village Voice. Ebony magazine praised his waterfall cascading over the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center in San Francisco as a “unique tribute.” The critic Michael Brenson wrote in The New York Times in 1989 that his “Poets Rise,” at the Social Security building in South Jamaica, Queens, “may be the best public sculpture installed in New York City this year.” Mr. Conwill’s works are also on display near the African Burial Ground National Monument at the Ted Weiss Federal Office Building in Lower Manhattan and at the Harold Washington Memorial Library in Chicago. They are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Mr. Conwill frequently collaborated with his sister, the poet Estella Conwill Majozo, who survives him, and the architect Joseph DePace. Mr. Conwill’s “Rivers” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. It is a memorial both to Langston Hughes and to Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, whose collection became the basis for the center. (Credit: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times) “What distinguishes Mr. Conwill’s career is how it combines emotion and politics with historical, visual and architectural research,” Steven Nelson, director of the African Studies Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in an email. “Mr. Conwill’s legacy resides in his unique ability to merge ritual, cutting-edge art and rigorous research in the creation of works that reframe African-American identity while inspiring communication and reminding us of our humanness.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/arts/design/houston-conwill-dead-sculptor.html Mr. Conwill said he was “especially drawn to myth, ritual and the transmission of wisdom and culture across continents and generations” as he evolved from painting to performance art, music and movement, wall reliefs, floor installations and sculptures that “awaken the imagination and bring to mind a flood of images, memories and insights.” Houston Eugene Conwill was born on April 2, 1947, in Louisville, Ky., to Mary Luella Herndon, an educator, and Giles Conwill, a waiter. After studying in a Benedictine monastery, he enlisted in the Air Force and served in Vietnam as a communications operator, among other assignments, at the height of the war there. He graduated from Howard University in 1973 with a bachelor of fine arts degree and received a master’s in fine arts from the University of Southern California. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. In addition to his wife, with whom he lived in Manhattan and Washington, and his sister, he is survived by three brothers, Giles, William and Spivey. Mr. Conwill’s best-known work may be his terrazzo and brass floor design at the Schomburg Center, part of the New York Public Library. It is a memorial both to Langston Hughes, whose ashes are buried in a book-shaped urn within the design, and to Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a historian and bibliophile whose collection became the basis for the center named in his honor. An allegorical dance floor, the work maps the African diaspora and features verses from Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Unveiled in 1992, the work, titled “Rivers,” includes the poem’s last line: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.” In 1989, Mr. Conwill exhibited “The Cakewalk Humanifesto: A Cultural Libation,” a large window etched like a dance floor, at the Museum of Modern Art. The work evoked a dance by slaves that began as a mockery of their white masters. Overlaid was a map of five Southern cities, including Tuscumbia, Ala., the birthplace of Helen Keller, whose blindness, one critic wrote, protected her from color-line prejudice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/dining/african-american-museum-sweet-home-cafe.html

Museum Cafeteria Serves Black History and a Bit of Comfort By Kim Severson The New York Times, November 28, 2016 WASHINGTON — Chefs talk about pressure all the time: brutal shifts when the wait for a table is an hour long, an important critic is in the restaurant and your best sous-chef just sliced her finger to the bone. But they don’t know pressure like the cooks here at the Sweet Home Café inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture. First, consider the sheer volume of work. Some days, nearly 2,000 people walk through the cafe door. Waits for tables can stretch to two hours in a restaurant that essentially serves only lunch. It’s been that way ever since the museum, the Smithsonian’s newest, opened two months ago. Crowds aren’t the biggest problem, though. Cooks here have the weight of history on their shoulders. They are trying to tell the story of the African diaspora through food that customers grew up eating and have deeply held opinions about. “It’s extremely intense,” said Jerome Grant, the executive chef at the cafe, which is managed by Restaurant Associates along with Thompson Hospitality, the largest black-owned food service company in America. Mr. Grant recently sat down at a table where a church group from Houston was having lunch. A woman he estimates was in her 70s gave him a tough critique of the cafe’s smoked meats. Mr. Grant explained that the restaurant used a smoker that can hold 800 pounds of meat, built by a company in Oklahoma. “Oh, that’s where you’ve gone wrong,” she told the chef. “People in Oklahoma don’t know anything about barbecuing or smoking nothing.” Mr. Grant had been the chef at the Mitsitam Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 and was the Smithsonian’s first attempt to embrace the idea that a museum’s cafeteria was as important to understanding culture as the art, literature and historical documents on display. Sweet Home Café is intended to both expand the understanding of the black experience in America and comfort museumgoers who spend hours exploring a collection that is both painful and powerful. “That’s why the name works,” said Mallory Bowen, one of the lead cooks. “We want people to feel comforted and feel at home after seeing some harsh things. We tell people: ‘You’re home now. Welcome home.’” Of course, a cafeteria line is not the most comforting setting, but once you pick up a tray and start wandering from station to station, the history lessons start looking delicious. Diners who take the time can learn how pan-roasted trout glazed in hazelnut butter and stuffed with mustard greens or a bowl of beefy son-of-a-gun stew with barley and root vegetables tells the story of freed slaves who headed west to work as ranch hands. Both the trout and the stew are in the Western Range section of the cafeteria. It’s one of four stations attempting to categorize the culinary history of a group of people who cooked in everybody’s kitchens and so have an outsize influence on the American diet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/dining/african-american-museum-sweet-home-cafe.html “It’s a dining style that transcends race and region,” said Albert Lukas, a supervising chef who for two years traveled the country like an anthropologist, seeking recipes and advice from black home cooks and professional chefs. The intellectual architecture for the cafe sprang from the work of Dr. Jessica B. Harris, the food writer and scholar who provided a research paper on the food of the African diaspora to the museum’s scholarly committee three years ago. She narrated parts of the museum’s culinary exhibition and donated personal items, and even hand-carried a chef’s jacket from Leah Chase, the New Orleans Creole cook, to give to the curators. Dr. Harris proposed dividing the cafeteria into five sections. Four made it, including the Agricultural South station, with its emphasis on familiar dishes like fried chicken, chopped pork barbecue and Gullah-style hoppin’ John made with the small, ruddy Sea Island red peas that were an essential crop in the antebellum rice culture of South Carolina. The Creole Coast station features Gulf shrimp over Anson Mills grits, as well as a catfish po’ boy and Alabama-style barbecued chicken, with its white sauce built from apple cider vinegar and mayonnaise. Picking exactly which version of which dish to serve remains a challenge, and the menu will continue to evolve, Mr. Lukas said. Early debates included whether the Caribbean pepper pot served with a piece of oxtail on the bone should reflect a style more common in Jamaica or in Guyana, whether the cornbread should have sugar, and whether the collard greens should be seasoned with pork, smoked turkey or no meat at all. (They went with the Guyanese, the cornbread with sugar, and the collards with turkey.) Mr. Lukas also had to be mindful of what diners may want, or not want, to eat. “Obviously, chitterlings would be wildly significant in terms of dining culture, but it would be a tough thing to sell,” he said. The balance between authenticity and palatability is the biggest challenge with museum food, said Gillian Clark, a former Washington chef who now lives in Alabama and is developing a menu for the Mobile Museum of Art. “Think about a hoe cake,” Ms. Clark said. “I’m in a field with water and cornbread, and I am starving, and I am going to wipe my sweaty handkerchief on this dirty hoe and rub it with this piece of meat that was in my pocket. That’s authentic. But if I serve that in my restaurant, people are going to run out of here.” At Sweet Home Café, the back story is often a bigger factor than the recipe. Thomas Downing was the son of freed slaves who became an oysterman in New York in the early 1800s and went on to operate one of the plushest oyster restaurants in New York, join the Underground Railroad and help form the city’s antislavery society. His story is represented with a proper New York City oyster pan roast, which sells for $12.95 in the North States section. A fifth station, Dr. Harris had suggested, should be called Culinary Cousins. The idea was to more clearly underscore the connection with Africa. For example, diners might eat the food of Senegal as a way to understand the rice culture of the Carolinas. “Africa had an enormous influence everywhere, and the whole notion is that the food we eat here and now is not monolithic,” she said. But Dr. Harris is mindful that she is an academic and not a restaurant designer, and that only so much culture can be reflected in a kitchen that serves hundreds of people a day. Even with all the scholarly thoughtfulness and culinary skill brought to bear on the rest of the menu, the buttermilk-soaked chicken, which sells for $14.95 with two side dishes, remains the most popular order. It

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/dining/african-american-museum-sweet-home-cafe.html sometimes accounts for more than a third of all sales, leaving the chefs a little forlorn that people are missing out on the other offerings. What’s the attraction? People have their theories. Carla Hall, the television personality who runs a fried chicken restaurant in Brooklyn, has signed on as a culinary ambassador for the museum. She’s an advocate for vegetables in the cafe, because she thinks too many people think of Southern food as pork and macaroni and cheese. But she gets why fried chicken is so popular. “Fried chicken is the one thing I would never want to make at home,” she said, “so that becomes that celebratory item.” Even Dr. Harris, who visited the cafeteria this month for the first time, after hosting a discussion with Pierre Thiam about his book “Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes From the Source to the Bowl,” took a box of chicken to go. “It’s portable,” she said. “I don’t want to carry son-of-a-gun stew in a box on a plane.”

Discrimination

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2016/11/house-passes-bills-boost-overtime-pay-and-protectwhistleblowers/133531/

House Passes Bills to Boost Overtime Pay and Protect Whistleblowers By Eric Katz Government Executive, November 30, 2016 The House on Wednesday passed two bills friendly to various parts of the federal workforce, including a measure to boost overtime pay and another to increase protections for whistleblowers. The Overtime Pay for Secret Service Agents Act would provide $22 million to allow “almost everyone” at the agency to receive their full pay, according to its sponsor, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. A provision of the law guiding Secret Service operations caps agents’ annual salary at that of a General Schedule-15, step 10 employee. The lengthy and crowded presidential race this year caused agents to reach that cap quickly, in some cases as early as May. Patrick O’Carroll, executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Association, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a November hearing some Secret Service workers were shorted as much as $30,000-$40,000 in overtime pay. Democrats on the panel have said Congress should solve the problem permanently by automatically eliminating the pay caps for Secret Service agents every four years. Chaffetz said a long-term solution would simply require the agency to boost its hiring. The House also passed the Follow the Rules Act, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis. The measure would allow federal employees to disobey orders from their supervisors that would violate federal rules and regulations. The matter arose after the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a ruling in June saying the State Department acted properly when it gave an employee a bad performance review for refusing to carry out a directive that went against federal rules. The Whistleblower Protection Act protects a federal employee from retaliation “for refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law.” The court’s ruling, however, stated in a precedentsetting opinion that State was permitted to punish the employee because rules and regulations do not qualify as federal statute. The employee was instructed by a supervisor to compel a contractor to rehire a fired subcontractor, according to court documents. Such a request violates a provision of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and the employee refused to carry out the order. The employee’s supervisors later gave him a negative performance review and stripped him of his duties as a contracting officer for his failure to follow orders. In its ruling, the court set a precedent that when a supervisor asks an employee to violate a federal rule or regulation, the employee must comply. Duffy said the precedent created a “gap in whistleblower protections” that was “threatening their ability to stand up for what is right.” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who cosponsored the bill, said it would “improve management practices across the federal government.” “The Follow the Rules Act will close a loophole that undermines whistleblower protections for federal employees,” Connolly said. “Federal employees who defy a supervisor’s direction to violate rules and regulations should not be subject to retaliation.” Both measures will now head to the Senate for consideration, with just a few weeks left on its schedule to send them to the White House for President Obama’s signature.

http://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/lawsuit-by-norfolk-s-first-veteran-liaison-says-cityfired/article_65c40cec-8361-505e-acef-b9cec6b15052.html

Lawsuit by Norfolk’s first veteran liaison says city fired him for raising ethical concerns By Eric Hartley The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), November 28, 2016 Norfolk City Manager, Marcus Jones is photographed during a press conference in City Hall on Nov. 18, 2016. (Kristen Zeis/The VirginianPilot) NORFOLK—The city’s former military liaison says in a new federal lawsuit that he was fired in retaliation for raising ethical questions about a federal program meant to help veterans find jobs. John Andrews, who left city government in November 2014, says he lost his job after pointing out a possible conflict of interest: A man selling software to help veterans transition to new careers was married to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official overseeing similar efforts. In a complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Andrews requests reinstatement to his job, plus unspecified damages, and asks the court to order the city to institute policies to “eradicate the effects of past retaliation.” The lawsuit says the firing by Norfolk City Manager Marcus Jones violated Andrews’ First Amendment rights as well as state and federal laws meant to protect whistleblowers. Jones and the city attorney didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment. A city spokeswoman emailed a statement saying no one would comment on Andrews’ lawsuit and calling his departure a “personnel matter.” Andrews referred questions to his lawyer, Jamie Shoemaker, whose assistant said he was unavailable for comment Monday. Andrews, a retired Navy captain, was hired in 2012 as the city’s first special assistant to the city manager for veterans services and military affairs. Part of his job was to help departing service members transition to the civilian world. The city hoped having such an official in place would encourage more people to stay in Norfolk after leaving the military. The events in Andrews’ lawsuit center on two people who are not named as defendants: Rosye Cloud and her husband, Chad Cloud. In statements released through a lawyer, the two said Andrews’ allegations of wrongdoing have no merit. Starting in 2013, Rosye Cloud led a Department of Veterans Affairs effort to overhaul a federal online job portal for veterans, according to Andrews’ complaint. She had previously worked on veterans policy in the White House, and Andrews met with her several times as part of his work for the city. Chad Cloud owned a Washington-based firm, Software Performance Group, that was trying to sell state and local officials in Virginia software that – among other things – helped veterans transition to new careers. Andrews’ lawsuit says Chad Cloud “entered this narrow field of software development shortly after his wife’s involvement began” in the federal program.

http://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/lawsuit-by-norfolk-s-first-veteran-liaison-says-cityfired/article_65c40cec-8361-505e-acef-b9cec6b15052.html Andrews’ complaint says he started raising concerns with senior city officials after both Clouds came to Virginia Beach and gave separate presentations during an August 2014 meeting of an advisory committee on military and veteran education. On Nov. 6, 2014, according to Andrews’ lawsuit, Chad Cloud emailed an associate saying the veterans employment center, the federal program his wife was working on, would be an “ally” with his company. Two weeks later, the lawsuit says, Andrews had become “frustrated by Norfolk’s lack of interest or inability to fully consider his concerns.” So on Nov. 21, he emailed Rosye Cloud asking whether her husband was involved in the operations of the program she oversaw. She replied that he was not and, in a separate email, told a deputy city manager she had recused herself from contracting activity related to the program. Later that day, the lawsuit says, Andrews was called in to meet with Jones, the city manager, only to have the meeting rescheduled to the following Monday. On that Monday, the lawsuit says, Jones told Andrews he was fired and said, “This is just not a good fit.” Andrews’ lawsuit says: “Jones fired Andrews in retaliation for Andrews raising the questions, complaints and concerns about the Clouds’ conflict of interest set forth above and the origin of Chad Cloud’s software product.” Norfolk has a new military liaison. Bonnie Baker was hired in November 2015, a year after Andrews left. Andrews now works for the Navy in a civilian post, director of corporate development for the Military Sealift Command. He announced a run for City Council this year, but he didn’t file to be on the ballot in an August special election, saying he didn’t have enough time to build up name recognition. Martin Thomas Jr. won the seat. In her statement Monday, Rosye Cloud said: “This complaint is John Andrews’ latest attempt to peddle outright false and defamatory information, and I remain committed to serving our veterans.” Her husband’s attorney, Jonathan Lenzner, added: “The VA and the Office of Inspector General have researched these allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated. This complaint is simply an attempt to recycle previously disproven fabrications and conspiracy theories.” A deputy undersecretary for veterans affairs said in a statement last year he had “no reason to believe that these allegations have merit.”

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/psns-discrimination-suit-settled-42605f9e-dde0-65de-e0530100007faed5-403488666.html

PSNS discrimination suit settled By Andrew Binion Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, Wash.), November 28, 2016 TACOMA — A lawsuit in federal court against Puget Sound Naval Shipyard by a female engineer alleging she had been harassed and discriminated against has been settled, with the Navy agreeing to pay $144,000, apologize to the woman and institute enhanced training for shipyard managers. The Navy admitted no wrongdoing as part of the agreement in the suit filed in July 2015 by Vena Ward, but her attorney said she had been transferred to a different department and was satisfied by the apology and the hope that nobody else would be subjected to what she endured. Ward, who is black and visually impaired, alleged she had been denied advancement and was harassed and discriminated against because of her gender, race and disability. "No settlement is ever perfect, but it's terms I think both parties can live with," said Ward's attorney, Jacob Downs. "I think the most important thing for her is the acknowledgment of what happened to her by the Navy and some sort of commitment expressed by the Navy to not let it happen again to anyone else." The settlement included a personal apology from shipyard commander Capt. Howard Markle, Downs said. A spokesman for the shipyard declined to comment on the settlement. Ward was hired at the shipyard in 2008 after working three summers there as a nuclear engineering student trainee before finishing her degree in chemical engineering. She uses a reading device and zoom software to do her work. She claimed she had been denied advancement while peers were promoted around her and had been subjected to degrading conversations and emails. "When she spoke up about it, or voiced that it was inappropriate, people looked at her as getting upset," Downs said. "I think in a certain sense they thought she is 'playing the race card,' and then retaliated against her." Ward completed the informal complaint process with an equal employment opportunity counselor and filed a formal complaint in January. After 180 days without results, she became eligible to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Downs said the apology acknowledged the Navy had fallen short in certain areas. "In my eyes it was as close to an admission of fault one could get without legally admitting it," Downs said. The $144,000 figure includes attorneys’ fees, money for Ward's pain and suffering along with compensation she would have received if her promotion had not been delayed, Downs said. He said the promotion took two years to complete, where for others the process took a couple of months. The new training for managers will include topics beyond sexual harassment and will include "the concept that managers have an independent duty to address (equal employment opportunity) issues/conduct," according to the stipulation for compromise settlement provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html

She says she was harassed by superiors. Now she protests outside the TSA for hours. By Manuel Roig-Franzia The Washington Post, November 30, 2016 Alyssa Bermudez protests in front of the Transportation Security Administration headquarters in Arlington, Va. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) The whistleblower wears high heels. These she chose. They mattered to her. They would be her uniform, as much as combat boots and fatigues once had been. For Alyssa Bermudez, these heels, that dress, the makeup — they all meant that she was something new. They represented her evolution from Bronze Star soldier to professional woman. Yet now she marches in them. On the streets of Arlington — not the sands of Iraq. She hoists a protest sign instead of a rifle. She draws stares rather than salutes. The four-inch heels clatter on the sidewalk. Clip, clop. Down 12th Street, around the corner to Hayes Street. Clip, clop. Back again and again and again. For hours. Bermudez says she was driven to protest by the allegedly piggish behavior of men with whom she worked at the Transportation Security Administration headquarters across the street. These men ogled her, she claims, snickered about her being in a “harem” because she’s pretty, and retaliated against her when she complained, ultimately stripping her of employment five days before her probationary period ended. “TSA has a saying: If you see something, say something,” Bermudez, 33, says one afternoon. “Little did I know that when I said something, I would be fighting the agency. It’s a very daunting task.” Bermudez’s unusual protest ritual, periodic marathons of six- and seven-hour days at a busy intersection, has served to surface broader problems at a troubled agency assailed by Congress for its treatment of whistleblowers who raise concerns about problems as diverse as alleged sexual harassment and security lapses at the nation’s airports. Bermudez’s vigil has gotten people talking about the indignities allegedly visited upon other female TSA employees, abuse including derogatory comments and women being forced to do push-ups in the office in skirts. “If you want to be a bully and beat your chest, this is the agency where you want to work in management,” says Natalie Khawam, a Florida-based attorney who has handled dozens of discrimination and whistleblower cases against the TSA across the country. Bermudez’s troubles have been exacerbated by health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, which she says is related to her military service in Iraq. Although her protest has quite literally made her case highly visible, she is far from the only woman who alleges that her life has been upended by working at TSA. A House oversight committee’s summary of its hearings on the agency in April was scathing: “As a result of a chilling culture of intimidation and retaliation at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), security gaps go unaddressed, and senior employees are not held accountable for misconduct.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html The Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that investigates employment issues that include whistleblower retaliation claims, has received 121 complaints from TSA this year — up from 87 last year, according to statistics provided in response to a request from The Washington Post. “Our morale stinks. Our security is at risk,” says Andrew Rhoades, an assistant director in the TSA Office of Security Operations who testified in congressional hearings. “This is more than just grab-assing or boysbeing-boys. This is a cultural problem.” A TSA spokesman did not respond to interview requests made by phone and in writing about Bermudez’s case or about the broader issues related to whistleblowers and harassment. Bermudez, right, is promoted to E-6 staff sergeant in Baghdad in October 2008. (Courtesy of Alyssa Bermudez) Army service that left trauma Alyssa Bermudez’s story is, in a sense, a thoroughly American allegory about the modern workplace as well as the story of a country trying to accommodate a generation of soldiers whose psyches have been shaped, and sometimes tragically bruised, by far-off wars that can’t be completely comprehended by those who did not serve. It’s about how hard it is to come back. It’s about unseen wounds. On Sept. 11, 2001, Bermudez was getting blood drawn as part of her Army enlistment. She’d signed up weeks earlier, attracted by the notion of precision and discipline. She was 17 years old. An announcement came over the intercom. Something bad was happening in New York. On the ride home with her recruiter to Belton, Tex., about an hour north of Austin, she listened in disbelief to news of planes piercing skyscrapers. It only confirmed for her that she was on the right path. She came from a military family. Her paternal grandfather was a Korean War infantryman. Her father, who was born in Puerto Rico, was a career Army veteran who moved to Texas, where he met Bermudez’s Mexican American mother. Boys had always noticed Alyssa Bermudez. She’s slender and athletic, with delicate features and dark brown eyes. On her high school track squad, she says she heard the catcalls when she walked past the boys’ teams. She tried to ignore them. It got worse in the Army, she says. During basic training, a fellow soldier kept remarking about how much he liked how she held her chest in the air when she marched, and how her hips swayed. She felt she had little choice but to put up with it. She wanted to be a soldier. She spent four years in the Army, then took an honorable discharge to have more time at home with her young son while her husband, also a soldier, was doing long deployments in the Middle East. Being out of uniform didn’t feel right. As her marriage was crumbling, she reenlisted in late 2007, and a year later, she was being sent to Iraq, where she led a team that made complex maps to be used by field commanders, a job that earned her a Bronze Star for excellence. Iraq left scars. She talks about a night, an awful night in Iraq, in a quavering voice. The walls were tall, she says, spooling fragments of memories through tears. She breaks down entirely recounting that moment. She can’t continue. Documents related to her Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against TSA tell the rest: She says she was sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html When she returned to the States after a year-long deployment, the trauma was still there, but something unexpected nagged at her. Iraq had been horrible. Yet, for some indefinable reason, she wanted to go back — the world made sense there — but she didn’t. In those months, her anxiety was compounded. After she was stateside, two of the soldiers who’d been under her command in Iraq committed suicide — adding to the staggering toll of returning service members who have taken their lives after tours in Afghanistan or Iraq. Bermudez left the military in 2011, after she’d reached the rank of staff sergeant, to pursue her career aspirations in the private sector. It was hard for her to shed her uniform. She kept it in her closet. She looked at it often. But she resolved to make her appearance reflect her goal of being a career woman. She bought Nine West pumps and Tahari dresses. Bermudez earned a master’s degree in education, but finding work was hard. Finally, after months of searching, she landed a job helping process Army recruits in Maryland, where she’d moved with her second husband. Men noticed her there, too. Notes would be left on her desk: “My heart races every time I see you.” (A former co-worker who spoke to her about the notes confirmed the incident.) She wanted so badly to be recognized for the quality of her work. Instead, she felt like an object. “It’s difficult to stand out as a female,” she says. “None of them knew how hard I worked.” Bermudez was determined to succeed based on her competence, friends say, but her attractiveness could sometimes be a liability, because she’d be typecast. “People look at her and think certain things because of society’s views of pretty women and what they should and shouldn’t be able to do,” said Karina Arcia, who served under Bermudez in the Army. “I don’t think people should be judging her for her looks. She’s not just a pretty face.” In 2012, Bermudez took a position with a government contractor, working at the TSA in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which handled data about security at the nation’s airports. Bermudez is looked at by passers-by as she protests in front of the TSA headquarters. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Far from ‘zero tolerance for this behavior’ The TSA is an unusual creature in the constellation of American government agencies. Created in the post-9/11 security frenzy, it didn’t have the long-standing cultural footprint of older government agencies. It absorbed a melange of former law enforcement officers, military service members and airline industry employees — each professional group having distinct traditions and modes of operation. The agency has been beset by internal criticism and blasted by some congressional leaders. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings this spring accused the agency of wasting millions on reassignments designed to retaliate against whistleblowers, a practice that TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger acknowledged as “inappropriate.” “It’s kind of like the Catholic Church when they had problems with priests — they moved them to another parish,” says Khawam, the Florida attorney, who says she’s handling about 100 whistleblower and discrimination complaints against the TSA. “It’s really weird and it’s, quite honestly, gross.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html At the TSA, Bermudez transitioned from contract employee to a full-time job with the agency by 2014. She eventually became the executive assistant to a tough-talking former Marine and Iraq vet named Mark Livingston, who was the TSA’s deputy administrator for intelligence and analysis. Livingston had a reputation as a workaholic and taskmaster. Bermudez didn’t mind. She liked taskmasters. It made her feel like she was back in fatigues. But going to work became uncomfortable for Bermudez. A colleague told her that a high-ranking official, Christopher Coffey, made sexually demeaning remarks about her and other women who worked for Livingston. Coffey allegedly said Bermudez and the others were doing “women’s work,” according to a complaint filed by Bermudez. He called them the “harem,” according to the complaint, and said they were having “affairs” and “trysts” with Livingston. Coffey did not respond to repeated interview requests. Bermudez reported the remarks to Eric Sarandrea, an acting deputy administrator, according to her complaint. After that conversation, Bermudez says, the male bosses began steps to allegedly retaliate against her, culminating with her firing months later. She says she confided to Sarandrea that she’d been a victim of sexual assault in Iraq, and that she had “zero tolerance for this behavior.” She expected the higher-ups to take her seriously. Instead, she says, “I was treated as if I did something wrong by coming forth with the truth.” Sarandrea did not respond to repeated interview requests. Bermudez was unnerved, because she feared the inquiry into her complaint would be controlled by a highranking TSA executive she accuses of harassing her: Joseph Salvator. Salvator is a burly former Marine with a big personality. In a photo from an internal message board, Salvator can be seen giving a noogie — a roughhouse move that involves grinding knuckles into someone’s head — to a fellow employee. In a deposition transcript obtained by The Washington Post, Salvator acknowledged settling with the agency in a matter involving alleged “inappropriate conduct” with a female subordinate. He’s also been the subject of a complaint by a female employee who alleged that he’d made her uncomfortable by knocking on her hotel room door in the wee hours of the morning. Rhoades, the TSA official who testified on Capitol Hill, has provided information to congressional investigators that appears to document Salvator receiving a $9,000 bonus despite Bermudez’s complaints and the other issues. Bermudez says her problems with Salvator date to the beginning of her tenure as a full-time TSA employee. One morning, she walked into the office of her boss, Livingston, to deliver some paperwork, as was her daily practice. Salvator, who was involved with an employee morale survey, was there. According to interviews with Bermudez and Livingston, Salvator leaned forward in his chair and stared at her “from head to toe in a sexually suggestive manner, and then asked her, “What do you want to be when you grow up?’ ” “It was very inappropriate,” Livingston says in an interview. “He was trying to look down her shirt. He was sucking on his teeth, making it obvious he was making a point of checking her out. There was no doubt what was going on.” Livingston says it was clear that Salvator expected Bermudez to complain. Later that day, Livingston says, Salvator came to him and said, it’s “our word against her if she files a complaint,” according to Livingston, who later sued the TSA, alleging that he was demoted because he had refused to tolerate mistreatment of female employees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html Livingston says he rebuffed Salvator: If asked about the incident, he would tell the truth. In his federal suit, Livingston says that Salvator told him that he couldn’t work with him if he was going to be a “Boy Scout.” Livingston says Bermudez was singled out by Salvator because of her looks. “I think she was more attractive than most,” he says. “He wasn’t doing that to the ugly girls.” Bermudez is photographed in September 2008, approximately a week after she arrived in Kuwait. (Courtesy of Alyssa Bermudez) ‘No one’s ever taken that approach’ In early October 2014, Livingston was demoted. Bermudez had lost her most important ally. The next month, she says, she attended a town-hall-style meeting. She expected a discussion about the workplace environment. Instead, she heard an announcement about a promotion for Salvator — the man she says had harassed her. She was appalled. None of the employees were asking questions, she says. She raised her hand. “Will Mr. Livingston be afforded the same opportunity, such as yourself, to address the workforce?” She was told no. He didn’t work there anymore. The next day, Bermudez looked at her phone and saw a text message as she was about to get out of her car to go to work: Sarandrea, the official to whom she had reported the allegedly offensive remarks, was telling her she’d been put on administrative leave. She was flummoxed. There was no explanation. She called Sarandrea and asked why. She says he told her: “Alyssa, it’s simple. Go home.” Her leave extended into the new year. When she returned, her days were numbered. On April 30, 2015 — five days before the end of her one-year probationary period, she was fired, leaving her as a single, unemployed mother. Her bosses told her that she’d had too many unscheduled absences — an assertion she denies — and wasn’t a “team player.” Her termination letter also says she was “confrontational, disrespectful and intimidating,” and chided her for saying that the problems she was having with coworkers “were not her fault.” The letter cited a passage from the agency’s code of conduct that instructs employees to exercise “courtesy and tact” in dealing with workers and supervisors. But Arcia, her friend from the Army, describes Bermudez as just the opposite. “Her leadership style was this: She took care of everyone. Behind every strong character is a fragile person. She’s so compassionate.” Bermudez decided that she wouldn’t go quietly. She’d already filed an EEOC complaint. But as the case dragged on, she became frustrated. She had signs and fliers printed. She built a website, nojusticetsa.org . In June, more than a year since she’d been let go, she screwed up her courage. She put on her heels and drove down to the corner of 12th and Hayes. She ran out of fliers in a matter of hours. “Our headquarters is in shock. No one’s ever taken that approach to stand up to them,” Rhoades, the TSA whistleblower, says.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-says-she-was-harassed-by-superiors-now-she-protestsoutside-the-tsa-every-day/2016/11/30/4f3316d6-a5e4-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html Bermudez has a formal manner. She calls men “sir” when they stop to ask her what she’s doing. Most people just walk past with quizzical looks on their faces. Those who do stop sometimes wonder aloud about, of all things, the way she dresses. “The first thing that struck me, after reading her sign and getting an overall picture of the situation, was how she was dressed,” a passerby muses in a video by a freelance journalist that is posted on Bermudez’s website. “In a nude dress, with sparkles, very thin heels. The hair is awesomely bouncy with curls. And I’m thinking, If there’s a message to tell, you’re actually speaking for the accusation in support of the accuser, less of yourself.” Bermudez has heard it before. Her whole life. She wants to talk about what she’s thinking. The world wants to talk about how she looks. She says she has the right to dress how she pleases. One recent afternoon, a woman who used to work at the TSA stopped to talk to Bermudez. Like Bermudez, she was a military veteran, and she’d heard the snickers in the office. “It’s just like a frat house,” Dayna Ginger says. “That is the way they carry themselves. That is the way they act. It’s sickening.” “I know,” Bermudez says. “Just the way they speak in general,” Ginger goes on. “Racy comments. Stuff that doesn’t need to be talked about in a work context. Jokes. They think it’s okay to cross the line about having sex with other women. It’s kind of actually disgusting.” Bermudez is nodding. “I talked to my therapist,” Bermudez says. “I’m not a victim, I’m a victor.” Ginger wants to know whether Bermudez will be back. Bermudez assures her she will, even though her life has become a series of unfortunate mishaps. She fainted at the VA — she has a condition known as syncope, which causes temporary loss of consciousness due to a drop in blood pressure — twisting her ankle. Her Shih Tzu became sick. She totaled her car, leaving her with a hairline fracture of her tibia. And she’s still out of work. She feels like someone has been pricking a voodoo doll made in her image. Still, she plans to return to 12th and Hayes. She has more to say, even if everyone wants to talk about what she’s wearing. She might make one change, though: Next time, she says, she’s thinking of wearing more comfortable shoes.

http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/11/watchdog-merit-board-improve-records-whistleblowerappeals/133488/

Watchdog to Merit Board: Improve Records of Whistleblower Appeals By Charles S. Clark Government Executive, November 29, 2016 A spike in the number of “individual right of action” whistleblower appeals in recent years has overtaxed the tracking software used by the Merit Systems Protection Board, a watchdog found, threatening the independent agency’s capacity to measure its performance in handling cases of workplace reprisal. Since passage of the 2012 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, MSPB for the first time has been required to help protect federal whistleblower rights by collecting data on the number of appeals filed and the outcomes of cases the agency decides, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released on Monday. “We found weaknesses in their recording and reporting of these appeals,” auditors wrote to House and Senate oversight committees. “We found discrepancies between the data MSPB publicly reported and the data MSPB provided to us. Some of these discrepancies may have been caused by the lack of updated data." Of the two types of whistleblower appeals—individual right of action and otherwise appealable actions— only individual right of action complaints rose, the report said. That’s a sign that more individuals had been subject to a personnel action, such as a reassignment, and claimed the action was reprisal for whistleblowing, after which the complainant exhausted the process at the Office of Special Counsel, GAO noted. In “otherwise appealable actions,” which did not rise after the law passed, an aspiring whistleblower can appeal adverse actions such as a demotion directly to MSPB. Though MSPB has “taken steps to collect whistleblower appeals data,” GAO found shortcomings in coding that led to over-reporting the number of cases closed. “Further, MSPB has not updated its data entry user guides to reflect new reporting requirements nor has it instituted checks to ensure data accuracy,” the report said. GAO recommended that the MSPB chairman update the agency’s data entry user guide, and add a quality check in its data analysis and reporting process. MSPB agreed with these recommendations in draft form, adding that its staff with “limited resources” handled 61,090 cases from 2012-2015, a “vast amount of data.” Any shortcomings, Chairman Susan Tsui Grundmann wrote, are not the fault of individual staffers but of the agency.

Diversity

https://www.armytimes.com/articles/13-women-graduate-from-the-armys-first-integrated-armor-officercourse

13 women graduate from the Army's first integrated armor officer course By Meghann Myers Army Times, December 1, 2016 (Photo Credit: Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy/Army) Thirteen female officers are among the 65 lieutenants to graduate from the Army's first integrated Armor Basic Officer Leader Course, the Maneuver Center of Excellence announced on Thursday. The women will follow up the 19-week course with the Army Reconnaissance Course and stints at Ranger, Stryker, Airborne or other schools before reporting to their platoons next summer, officials said. "As long as you’ve got the heart and motivation, any soldier can succeed," Command Sgt. Maj. John Woodson, ABOLC's senior enlisted leader, said in a press conference at Fort Benning, Georgia. "It doesn’t matter what gender you are. These 13 females, and the males, all proved that they can work together and accomplish the mission." The women represent another milestone on the Army's path to full gender integration, following the first women to complete Ranger school in summer 2015 and the first to complete the Infantry Officer Basic Leader Course in October. The Army has chosen to build up its ranks of female leaders first, followed by enlisted recruits in infantry and armor schools next year. Since the Army began accepting women into its last closed military occupational specialties, leaders have fielded questions about whether women are up to the challenge and whether special accommodations have been made to push them through. "There was some skepticism in the beginning. Just to see, can they do it?" said Staff Sgt. George Baker, an ABOLC instructor. "It’s a first. You’re always going to have that little bit there. But as soon as they started performing to those same standards – we didn’t change anything. They met and exceeded those standards and it solidified that they have a place here." The class started with 75 participants back in July. Two women and six men were recycled, according to the Armor School commandant, while two men were medically eliminated. "They performed at the same rate as their male peers in all of those [High Physical Demands Test] tasks, as well as the tasks that make up the program of instruction for BOLC," Brig. Gen. John Kolasheski said. "About the same percentage male and female passed or didn’t pass in terms of some of the academic rigor." Ten women graduate from the Army's first integrated infantry officer course Asked what kind of guidance or support the Army has given to these women, who could now be singled out for rocking the boat, Maneuver Center of Excellence commander Maj. Gen. Eric Wesley said the Army tends to close ranks in the face of that dynamic. "We want them to succeed, we want to empower them, and there’s no need to create individual fame or distinct identities that then makes them further vulnerable to those in the blogosphere, etc.," he said. But individually, he added, he has offered some advice. "When I’ve talked to some of our lieutenants individually, one of the things I tell them is whenever you change the dynamics of an institution – no matter what – any leader that drives change for the better, there’s going to be heat and there’s going to be friction because some people don’t like change," he said. "But what we’ve clearly identified here is that this change is good and it makes the Army better." The Armor school's enlisted courses, for both 19D Cavalry Scouts and 19K Armor Crewman, will open in February and March, respectively, Kolasheski said.

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/news/local-military/air-force-testing-new-maternityuniforms/ntDqy/

Air Force testing new maternity uniforms Small uniform office at Wright-Patt oversees outfitting of airmen throughout globe. By Barrie Barber Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, November 25, 2016 Air Force Uniform Office clothing designer Stacey Butler, right, inspects an improved maternity uniform prototype which is being tested by Capt. Mollie Eshel, left, who is in her 38th week of pregnancy and works at the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (Ty Greenlees / Staff) WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE—Her camouflage maternity uniform was such a comfortable fit, Air Force Capt. Mollie Eshel said her co-workers didn’t notice she was pregnant until something like her 34th week. Eshel, 32, was part of a group of 60 female airmen who have tested a prototype of the uniform the Air Force Uniform Office hopes to roll out next October. “Most people didn’t even notice that it was different, so that was kind of a plus,” said Eshel, a deputy branch chief in the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “It’s been really comfortable to wear all the way through.” With a $1.7 million budget and 18 staff members, the small uniform office headquartered at WrightPatterson oversees the outfitting of hundreds of thousands of Air Force personnel serving around the globe in all kinds of climates and terrains on Earth and above it. “We sit among our customers,” said Yvonne Wilson, Air Force Uniform Office section chief. “We have an opportunity to talk to them and see what works in a uniform design and get that immediate feedback.” Uniforms are reviewed for changes every 10 years. With testing and production, it takes about three years to field a new clothing item, officials said. “We’re not going to do change for change sake,” said Col. William Mosle, chief of the Human Systems Program office that oversees the office. “We’re going to do change to improve it, to make it fit better, to make it more comfortable, to be able to support the mission better.” One uniform fits all The redesigned maternity Airmen Battle Uniform was meant to be more comfortable and fit better based on what pregnant airmen say they needed most, said Stacey Butler, a clothing designer who led the changes. Air Force Uniform Office clothing designer Stacey Butler, left, adjusts an improved maternity uniform prototype on a mannequin that is also being tested by a pregnant Capt. Mollie Eshel, right, who works at the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (Ty Greenlees / Staff) New fabrics stretch more easily, and the uniform has more pockets and looks more like what airmen wear on the job, designers say. “To look like their fellow airmen was important,” Butler said. In the old maternity version still in use, some women have had to cut a nylon stretch panel to make the uniform fit comfortably or change to bigger sizes as many as three times during their pregnancy, she said.

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/news/local-military/air-force-testing-new-maternityuniforms/ntDqy/ The new uniform has more buttons to convert to a bigger size, and sports more pockets to store cell phones, keys, pencils and military ID cards — something airmen asked for, Butler said. A stretch panel does not have an elastic band in the waist. “So far, it is comfortable for them to wear through the entire pregnancy,” the clothing designer said. “I think I had only one person change sizes through their pregnancy.” The Army and the Coast Guard expect to take the same uniform off the rack and stitch their own versions for soldiers and sailors, she said. A wardrobe for everyone With more women in the Air Force — and the increasing fitness of airmen overall — clothing designs have changed, said Wilson, who has worked at the office for nearly 40 years. Today, nearly one out of five airmen are women, the highest percentage among U.S. military branches. “We have more women in the Air Force than we did have,” Wilson said. “We’re making their uniforms more comfortable for them. We’ve improved those configurations to better suit their needs.” In choosing clothing for occupations that run the gamut from firefighters to pilots, the uniform office’s staff includes textile technologists, engineers, configuration managers and a technical writer. Their influence on what airmen wear starts at boot camp. Air Force recruits sort through 70 clothing-related items — from Airmen Battle Uniforms and athletic gear to socks and boots — that will outfit nearly 37,000 trainees in fiscal year 2018. That’s nearly 2.6 million items at a cost of $59.4 million, according to the Air Force. Under the Berry Amendment, the military is required to use 100 percent American-made sourced-materials and manufacturers to produce clothing for troops, officials said. “That can be very difficult in a textile market that has continually seen the manufacturers move overseas,” said Lynda T. Rutledge, director and program executive officer of the Agile Combat Support Directorate at Wright-Patterson, which has oversight of the uniform office. “That’s really one of the biggest challenges.” By the numbers Outfitting Air Force personnel in the right type of uniform and clothing is critical for success, according to the Air Force. The small Air Force Uniform Office, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, designs and develops clothing-related items for airmen throughout the globe. Here are a few facts about the office: $1.7M: The office’s budget. 18: The number of staff members, including textile technologists, engineers, configuration managers and a technical writer. 37,000: The number of Air Force trainees who will be outfitted with clothing items in fiscal year 2018. $59.4M: The cost of outfitting Air Force recruits with clothing items in fiscal year 2018. Source: Air Force

SEE ALSO: New Air Force dress blue shirt, maternity ABU on the way [Air Force Times, 2016-12-01]

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/ndaa-women-draft-dropped

Congress drops plans to make women register for the draft By Leo Shane III Military Times, November 29, 2016 (Photo Credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images ) Lawmakers have officially dropped plans to make women register for the draft, instead opting for a review of the ongoing need for the Selective Service System. The controversial provision had been part of early drafts of the annual defense authorization bill, and narrowly passed a House Armed Services Committee vote last spring. A Senate panel followed suit a few months later. But conservatives in both chambers objected to the provision and stripped it out of the final legislative draft unveiled Tuesday. Under current law, men ages 18 to 26 are required to register for possible involuntary military service with the Selective Service System. Women have been exempt, and past legal challenges have pointed to combat restrictions placed on their military service as a reason for their exclusion. Early this year, Defense Secretary Ash Carter removed those restrictions, opening combat posts to women for the first time. In response, a collection of military leaders and women’s rights advocates said they would support requiring women to now register for the draft. Instead, the final authorization bill draft — expected to be voted on by Congress in the next few days — calls for a review of the entire Selective Service System, to see if the idea of a military draft is still realistic and cost-effective. The system has an annual budget of about $23 million, but watchdog groups have questioned whether the system could assemble a list of draftees if a national emergency were to arise. And military leaders have repeatedly insisted they have no desire to return to the draft to fill the ranks. No Americans have been pressed into involuntary military service since the last draft ended in 1973. Though Democrats are likely to renew debate on the issue next year, it’s unlikely to progress far with Republicans set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

SEE ALSO: Women in draft, religious exemptions dropped from final version of defense policy bill [The Washington Post, 2016-11-29] Congress drops plans to make women register for draft [The Hill, 2016-11-29]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/11/29/transgender-marines-must-meet-fitness-groomingstandards.html

Corps: Transgender Marines to Meet Fitness, Grooming Standards By Hope Hodge Seck Military.com, November 29, 2016 Marines stand at parade rest in this undated photo from the Marine Corps. The service in November 2016 became the last service in the Defense Department to release a policy governing transgender troops. The Marine Corps became the last service in the Defense Department to release a policy governing transgender troops this month, in preparation to comply with a Pentagon order that will allow transgender recruits to join the military by next July. The six-page policy, signed by Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, deputy commandant for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and released as a Marine Corps bulletin on Nov. 22, leaves a number of questions unanswered. In addition, key details, such as how to accommodate troops who are concerned about privacy, are left to unit commanders to handle. The service also reserves the right to separate Marines whose ability to serve is adversely affected by medical conditions or medical treatment related to their gender identity, the policy states, adding that these Marines would be treated "in a manner consistent with a Marine whose ability to serve is similarly affected by medical condition(s) unrelated to gender identity or gender transition." What constitutes an adverse impact on a Marine's ability to serve, however, is not detailed. "For all of DoD, not just the Marine Corps, everyone's blazing a trail on this," said Maj. Garron Garn, a spokesman for the department. "A lot of scenarios are being discussed. It's so new and we're breaking ground." He suggested that a Marine's inability to meet the height and weight or fitness standards of the gender to which he or she has transitioned would be cause for separation under the policy. According to that policy, transgender Marines must meet all uniform, grooming, height, weight, and physical fitness standards appropriate to their preferred gender, and must comply with the same drug testing rules. Marines still in boot camp, officer candidates school, or primary job training may be separated if medical treatment associated with gender transition interferes with training, the policy states. Marines who are unable to meet standards when transitioning can apply for an exception to policy, which would be adjudicated by the deputy commandant for M&RA on a case-by-case basis, according to the document. The policy gives wide berth to unit commanders to find ways to provide appropriate privacy for Marines and sailors under their command. While the Navy addressed privacy and comfort concerns in its policy by requiring troops to maintain a basic level of modesty in berthing and shared bathroom and shower facilities, the Marine Corps gives commanders the option to spend money to modify base showers and bathrooms to "provide reasonable privacy." Commanders may also rearrange sleep and shower schedules to achieve "reasonable privacy in the accomplishment of all missions," the policy states.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/11/29/transgender-marines-must-meet-fitness-groomingstandards.html How much money might be spent to build more private facilities and what the parameters are for these kinds of modifications are not detailed in the document. "Each case is really going to be unique and individual and it's going to be case-by-case," Garn said. On top of this, leaders of Marine Corps Installations and Logistics and Marine Corps Combat Development Command are tasked specifically with modifying shower facilities for the privacy of all recruits, officer candidates, and Marines, meaning that open shower bays at boot camp and other facilities could soon become a thing of the past for the service. The Corps will take advantage of mobile training teams to educate commanders at installations, as it did with the integration of women into combat roles, according to the document. Garn said dates for these training sessions have not been set, but said the training will likely be complete by spring, ahead of the deadline to accept transgender recruits. The Corps has received a small number of requests from transgender troops to begin the transition process, a step that requires a diagnosis from a military medical provider and approval from the chain of command, an official said. The service, however, is not releasing specific numbers of transition requests. The issue of accommodating transgender troops has received direct attention from Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, Garn said. "He and several key senior leaders are meeting in the coming weeks to talk about these scenarios with the intent of taking care of Marines," he said. "I have not heard from anywhere that Marines are pushing back against this. The decision has been made and the Marines will execute." Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-diversity-create-distrust/

Does Diversity Create Distrust? Doubts about a Harvard professor’s landmark finding By Daisy Grewal Scientific American, November 29, 2016 (Credit: Vetta, quavondo, Getty Images) In 2007 the Harvard professor Robert Putnam published a paper that appeared to challenge the benefits of living in a racially diverse society. Putnam’s study, which used a large, nationally representative sample of nearly 30,000 Americans, found that people living in more diverse areas reported lower levels of trust in their neighbors. They also reported less interest in voting, volunteering, and giving to charity. In other words, greater diversity seemed to be linked to both feelings and behaviors that threaten a sense of community. The finding was alarming to many people, including Putnam himself, because the U.S. continues to grow in racial and ethnic diversity with each passing decade. Putnam’s research was widely cited, both within academia and by the media, as a counterargument to popular notions about the benefits of diversity. His paper was even cited in a brief filed for the high-profile case, Fischer v. University Texas, concerning the legal fairness of affirmative action processes at public universities. Abigail Fisher, a white woman, was denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and filed suit, alleging racial discrimination on the part of the university due to affirmative action. Putnam filed a brief of his own, objecting to the use of research findings in making a case against diversity policies. But what if the conclusions stemming from Putnam’s research were actually wrong to begin with? Sociologists Maria Abascal, of Princeton University, and Delia Baldassari, of New York University, published a paper late last year which refutes Putnam’s conclusions. After reanalyzing the same dataset used by Putnam, Abascal and Baldassari asserted that when it comes to distrust and diversity, most of the distrust is expressed by Whites who feel uncomfortable living amongst racial minorities. In other words, greater distrust may stem from prejudice rather than from diversity per se. Therefore, Putnam’s conclusion that racial diversity leads to less altruism and cooperation amongst neighbors was incorrect. If there is a downside to diversity, it has less to do with the behavior of racial minorities and more to do with how Whites feel when living amongst non-Whites. To understand why Abascal and Baldassari came to such different conclusions than Putnam, one has to start with understanding how researchers have traditionally defined and measured the “diversity” of a community. Scholars, including Putnam, have measured diversity through a concept called the heterogeneity index, which tells you what proportion of a community is made up of members of different groups. Using the index, a community made up of 80% Whites and 20% Blacks would be considered equally “diverse” as one made up of 20% Whites and 80% Blacks. This is a problematic assumption. Think about the example of a neighborhood that’s 80% White and 20% Black. If I am a White person living in that neighborhood, I’m much more likely to interact with people who are the same race as me than if I were living in a neighborhood that is 80% Black. If I’m Black living in the same neighborhood, the opposite is likely to be true. Abascal and Baldassari found that Whites living with more racial minorities report the highest levels of distrust. They also found another factor which skewed Putnam’s results. The survey that Putnam drew his findings from is called the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey. It was administered in 2000 to a

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-diversity-create-distrust/ nationally representative sample across 41 U.S. communities. The survey had five questions about trust. One question reads, “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?” and respondents are asked to answer on a three-point scale expressing high, moderate, or low levels of trust. Past research has shown that Blacks and Hispanics, on average, report less trusting attitudes than do Whites. Without controlling for this, neighborhoods with more Blacks and Hispanics will appear to have lower “trust,” but for reasons having nothing to do with the degree of diversity. There is a third factor to consider, the authors argue. In the U.S., heterogeneous communities tend to be undergoing demographic change, either due to white flight or gentrification. Sadly, it’s rare to see wellestablished and stable racially diverse communities. Therefore, it may be the instability of diverse communities, rather than diversity itself, that erodes trust. Greater neighborhood instability has been linked to many other negative outcomes such as more substance abuse, child abuse, infant mortality, and crime. Abscal and Baldassari’s findings lead to uncomfortable conclusions about the role that racial diversity plays in our society. When non-Whites move into predominantly White communities, it has the potential to unmask racism and prejudice. Perhaps one of the reasons that this idea has been rarely discussed, both by academics and by the public, is because it is such a difficult topic to address. It illuminates the gap between how we might want to see things versus how they actually are. Past community research on racially mixed neighborhoods shows how Whites often appreciate and esteem diversity in the abstract while geographically distancing themselves from non-Whites. Efforts to celebrate diversity as an ideal will do little to solve the practical challenges of living in an increasingly multicultural society. Instead, we will need to first acknowledge and discuss that for some of us, living alongside people who are different is not as desirable as we might like to think.

http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/11/obama-seeks-cement-agency-diversity-efforts-trump-takesoffice/133441/

Obama Seeks to Cement Agency Diversity Efforts Before Trump Takes Office By Eric Katz Government Executive, November 28, 2016 President Obama poses with his cabinet in 2009. He sought to create a more diverse federal workforce, starting at the top. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take control of the executive branch, the Obama administration is looking to institutionalize the progress it has made in building diversity priorities into hiring and everyday government practices. The White House is hosting a multi-day event that kicked off Monday to share best practices and emphasize the importance of inclusion at all levels of federal agencies. Officials including Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, Office of Personnel Management acting Director Beth Cobert and chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama and assistant to President Obama Tina Tchen expressed their pride in what the administration has accomplished and the importance of building on that momentum as Trump takes office. The Summit on Diversity and Inclusion in Government followed the work of a council created by Obama in a 2011 executive order to bring more people from a wider array of backgrounds into the federal workforce. In addition to administration officials, private sector companies, academic researchers and advocacy groups addressed the federal personnel gathered at the White House. Cobert instructed them to move beyond training to instead ensure in the closing weeks of Obama’s term that diversity is “being built into the fabric of all business functions” in government. She noted specific success stories, such as the Agriculture Department's use of blind applications in hiring. As a result, the department increased the number of women in Senior Executive Service positions by 50 percent. In addition, agencies exceeded Obama’s goal of hiring more than 100,000 disabled individuals in government over five years. Passing that milestone “didn’t stop with a celebration,” Cobert said, adding that agencies should continue to press ahead on diversity efforts underway as the Obama administration comes to an end. Donovan said managers should commit to hiring diverse teams, noting that hearing different perspectives made him better at his job. He also advocated agencies work together to find common solutions to shared problems. “This is something that drives me nuts about government,” Donovan said. “So often we have each individual agency working on their own, in their own silo. The fact is -- particularly when it comes to an issue like diversity -- there are a lot of similar challenges.” He added there was no reason each agency should try to reinvent the wheel, and in many cases, “innovation” should simply mean “theft.” “The idea that each of us would try to solve these challenges alone doesn’t make any sense,” Donovan said. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Energy Department’s deputy secretary, said the “experience of our nation” this past summer forced the organization’s leadership to examine “what we can do together.” That

http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/11/obama-seeks-cement-agency-diversity-efforts-trump-takesoffice/133441/ led to informal listening sessions with herself and Secretary Ernest Moniz and rank-and-file employees, who reported they would not work at an agency without a commitment to diversity. This provided a wakeup call to the department, she said. “Self-interest is a good motivator if doing the right thing is not,” Sherwood-Randall said. She added leadership would have to drive diversity initiatives, and the efforts must be lead “by those who have been included in their life experiences” rather than historically excluded groups. A.J. Jones II, the chief policy and communications officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, said what administration officials could not, making direct references to Trump’s appointments and promises. He stressed the importance of having difficult conversations, saying federal employees should ask Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who Trump has tapped to serve as his attorney general, how he “feels about diversity in the workforce.” He noted inclusion in Trump’s administration would be important, as he “can’t do great deals with China” if he has no one of Chinese descent in his administration. Sherwood-Randall admitted agencies are facing a “ticking clock” to build diversity efforts into their core missions. She said agencies across government are preparing a report for the Trump transition team to inform them of the diversity initiatives already underway. The deputy secretary, who left the summit early to attend her first meeting with Trump’s Energy team, said her department’s efforts on diversity were still unfinished. Her workforce, she added, would be “extremely disappointed if all the work that has been done is dropped or lost” when Trump takes office. Turning the clock back on agencies’ inclusion efforts would put them at a competitive disadvantage, Donovan said. “If we’re missing a big part of America with the recruiting that were doing,” he said, “we’re playing with one hand tied behind our back.”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/oldest-remaining-tuskegee-airman-a-st-petersburg-man-dies-at101/2303534

Oldest remaining Tuskegee Airman, a St. Petersburg man, dies at 101 By Paul Guzzo Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, November 20, 2016 Family and friends of Willie Rogers, right, applaud after the Association for the Study of African American Life and History gave him a centennial pin at the St. Petersburg Museum of History in August 2015. Mr. Rogers also received keys to the cities of St. Petersburg and Lakeland. (Lara Cerri/Times, 2015) Willie N. Rogers was an American hero, and at age 101, he was a living example of the nation's history. He was a member of the "Greatest Generation," which defeated the Axis powers in World War II, doing his part as a master sergeant in the all-black Tuskegee Airmen during the era of racial segregation in the U.S. military. The longtime St. Petersburg resident died Friday from complications of a stroke. He was the oldest surviving member of that original legendary 100th Fighter Squadron. Mr. Rogers' nephew, Clinton Glover, said his uncle deserves to be celebrated for his contributions to this country. But Mr. Rogers would be uncomfortable with any hoopla, Glover said. "He didn't like a lot of fuss," Glover said. "He was humble. That's who he was." In 2007, President George W. Bush saluted 300 surviving Tuskegee Airmen at the White House and apologized for any indignities they endured. They were then awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. But Mr. Rogers was not there, nor were his daughters Felicia Rogers of St. Petersburg or Veronica Williams of Douglasville, Ga., even aware that their father was part of the first African-American military aviation squadron in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. They knew he had served in World War II, but he did not reveal that portion of the story until 2012. Part of the reason for that silence, he'd tell his family, was because his work was on the ground in logistics and administration, not in the sky where the heroics took place. "He would always say there were many who deserved attention more, but were not here to receive it," Williams said. But Mr. Rogers was involved in military action and was shot in the stomach and leg by German soldiers during a mission in Italy in January 1943. He spent three months in a hospital in London and then returned to the war. After Germany's surrender, Rogers witnessed the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. He arrived after it was liberated by American troops April 29, 1945, but his daughter wonders whether evidence of the horrific crimes there haunted him.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/oldest-remaining-tuskegee-airman-a-st-petersburg-man-dies-at101/2303534 "He could give dates, names, locations of events from the war," Williams said. "But he didn't like to give specifics about what occurred to him. He saw things that were bad. And he experienced treatment because he was African-American that wasn't fair." Still, the family worked hard to get him the credit he deserved after his Tuskegee service was disclosed in 2012. Mr. Rogers received his Congressional Gold Medal in November 2013. Also in recent years, he was presented with the keys to the cities of Lakeland and St. Petersburg. His portrait hangs in the St. Petersburg Museum of History. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman noted Mr. Rogers' death in a tweet Sunday: "Rest in peace, our friend — St. Pete's 2015 Honored Veteran and Tuskegee Airman, 101-year-old Willie Rogers.'' Born in Apalachicola in 1915, he moved to St. Petersburg after the war and established Rogers Radio Sales and Services that sold and repaired radios and other small appliances, said his daughter Veronica. "He could fix anything," she said. But she said his greatest attribute was his ability to love everyone unconditionally. Despite being mistreated as an African- American even while serving his nation, Mr. Rogers held no ill will to anyone. "He recognized that we as people and he as a black man have come a long way but that there is still more to go," Williams said. "But in God's eyes there is no color, he'd say. We are all one and he lived by the greatest commandment — to love one another." Until recently he continued to walk the short distance every Sunday from his apartment in Burlington Towers to services at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. On Saturday, before a noon service honoring Mr. Rogers, his family will make that trek in his honor. While the family is appreciative that the community honors Mr. Rogers' military past, Williams hopes her father will be remembered most for his life's motto. "Treat everyone with dignity, pride and integrity," she said. "He said that a lot. And he meant it." Contact Paul Guzzo at [email protected] or (813) 226-3394. Follow @PGuzzoTimes.

SEE ALSO: Willie Rogers, Tuskegee Airman, dies at 101 after stroke [USA TODAY, 2016-11-21]

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/ship-named-after-first-black-marine-pilot/351898408

Ship named after first black Marine pilot By Nikki Burdine WUSA (Washington, DC), November 14, 2016 WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - A huge honor for a local man: The first African-American Marine pilot and the first general officer, Lt. General Frank E. Petersen, now has a ship bearing his name. He broke barriers his entire life and even after death, his legacy lives on. WUSA9's Nikki Burdine sat down with his family at their Northwest, D.C. home, to learn more about the General. In 1950, just two years after President Truman desegregated the military, Frank E. Petersen enlisted. "I don't think anyone really chose dad, I think dad chose the Marine Corps," said Frank E. Petersen III, his son. Lt General Petersen chose to be one of the few, one of the proud. But the challenges he would face wouldn't just be on the battlefield. As the first African-American Marine pilot, Petersen saw resistance from the beginning of his career. "I remember once a man refused to salute dad," said Petersen III. "Dad said 'listen, if you don't want to salute me, that's fine. But if I take off this uniform would you at least salute the uniform?'" Lt General Petersen chose how to deal with those challenges. He would overcome them, by completing 350 combat tours, 38 years of service, and being named the first African-American general officer. "The barriers that dad faced, he always said, 'son, no matter how difficult the challenge, there's always somebody out there that's going to do the right thing," said Petersen III. Petersen family (Photo: Courtesy) Petersen's leadership extended to his home life as well, as a husband and a father of five. "Here's the thing about General Petersen, he was a humble giant of a man," said Alicia Petersen, his widow. "When you talk about leaders, he was truly a leader who led by example." But to his five children, he was just dad. "He didn't ask us to do anything that he wouldn't do, he lead from the front," said Petersen III. "He was a great Marine but also a great dad." He was also a grandfather and great-grandfather. "He just always inspired me to do more and be more and to rise above," said his grandson, Petersen IV. The mark of a true leader: Never behind you, never in front of you, always beside you. So when Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus contacted the Petersen family about placing the name Frank E. Petersen, Jr. on the side of a ship, it just made sense. "If they wanted to name a ship after someone, they picked a good person," said Gayle Petersen, his daughter. "Because I bet you that ship is going to be awesome because that ship is going to have the spirit of a person that is the epitome and embodiment of fighting."

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/ship-named-after-first-black-marine-pilot/351898408 In the end, Lt General Frank E. Petersen was chosen, by the Navy to bear a great honor. "His excellence was undeniable and when you're in the business of protecting this great country and you're putting men's lives at stake, the artificial barriers you put up are meaningless," said Petersen III. "You need the best and the brightest and dad was that. So that had little choice. He was the man." "I think this particular honor would have meant so much to him because he would see it as a symbol for other young men who came after him to have something concrete they can see and look at and say, wow, General Petersen, he really did it for all of us," said Alicia. The ship-naming ceremony was held last week in Cherry Point, NC. A fitting place, as it was the location General Petersen took over as his very first command. Construction began on the future USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr. in April 27 and is expected to enter the Navy fleet in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Navy destroyer named after native Topekan Frank E. Petersen Jr. [The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, 2016-11-22] Navy warship named for 1st black Marine Corps aviator [Marine Corps Times, 2016-11-27-2016]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/01/obama-supports-registering-women-militarydraft/90449708/

White House: Obama supports registering women for military draft By Gregory Korte and Tom Vanden Brook USA TODAY, December 1, 2016 In this Aug. 21, 2015, file photo, Army 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, center, and Capt. Kristen Griest, right, pose for photos with other female West Point alumni after an Army Ranger school graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga. Haver and Griest became the first female graduates of the Army's rigorous Ranger School. The decision by the Pentagon to allow women to serve in all combat jobs has put new focus on an often-forgotten U.S. institution: the Selective Service. While America has not had a military draft since 1973, all men must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18. U.S. leaders repeatedly insist that the allvolunteer force is working and the nation is not returning to the draft. But there are increasing rumblings about whether women should now be required to register if they can indeed serve in all areas of the military. (Photo: John Bazemore, AP) WASHINGTON — President Obama supports requiring women to register for Selective Service when they turn 18 — becoming the first president to endorse universal draft registration since Jimmy Carter. "As old barriers for military service are being removed, the administration supports — as a logical next step — women registering for the Selective Service," said Ned Price, a spokesman for Obama's National Security Council. The White House had previously expressed neutrality on the controversy, but took a position in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday. But the timing of Obama's support makes it mostly symbolic, coming in the final weeks of his presidency and the day before the House will vote on a defense policy bill that strips a Senate-passed provision to add women to Selective Service. Instead, the compromise version now calls only for a commission to study two related issues: Whether women should be included in Selective Service, and whether the Selective Service system itself should be abolished. The White House made clear that Obama supports an all-volunteer force, and there are no plans to reinstitute the draft. But Obama believes adding women to the draft would serve two purposes: showing a commitment to gender equality throughout the armed services, and fostering a sense of public service that comes from requiring draft registration as a ritual of adulthood. The Pentagon also expressed its support for a universal draft Thursday. "It makes sense for women to register for Selective Service just as men must," said spokesman Peter Cook. Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened all combat roles to women earlier this year, which "only strengthens our all-volunteer force by giving us access to 100% of America's population so we can recruit and retain the most qualified individuals," Cook said. Removing the ban on women in all combat roles opened more than 200,000 jobs to women, most of them in Army and Marine infantry units. As a practical matter, women troops have been exposed to combat conditions for a long time. More than 280,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan out of nearly 2.5 million troops. In those wars, 152 women have died in battle or from non-combat causes and more than 950 have been wounded in action. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, had no comment on the White House announcement, said Dustin Walker, a spokesman.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/01/obama-supports-registering-women-militarydraft/90449708/ The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., applauded the announcement. "We need to remove arbitrary barriers to service by women in our armed forces," Reed said in a statement. "There is no draft in today's military, but it is difficult to say we have true equality if we continue with a Selective Service system that only requires compulsory service from men." Sen. Mitch McConnell supports having women register for draft Kate Germano, chief operating officer of the Service Women's Action Network and a retired Marine officer, said her advocacy group views the White House announcement as a significant step toward improving national security. The draft would only be revived in time of a national emergency, and excluding women would mean lesser qualified men would be selected over women for the fight, she said. "That doesn't make sense," Germano said. "We support this wholeheartedly." Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the White House stand has value even it doesn't become policy. "It’s symbolic," O'Hanlon said. "But it’s a good statement." No one has been drafted into the military since 1973 — and indeed the last enlisted man drafted into the military retired years ago. But Selective Service can still have far-reaching consequences for young men and — under the policy change now supported by Obama — young women. Those who fail to register for the draft can be denied federal student aid and loans, security clearances, government employment and job training programs. For immigrants, failing to register can be a roadblock to citizenship. Three-quarters of states make Selective Service a requirement for driver's licenses and other government benefits. For Obama, adding women to the draft would also eliminate an inconsistency in the administration's policy on transgender status. The Education Department, for example, is pressuring schools to recognize a student's self-identified gender. But current Selective Service say the sex at birth determines whether someone is subject to the registration requirement. Subjecting women to Selective Service has long made for intriguing politics, often fraught with ulterior motives. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced bills for years that would add women to the draft — but then also require a draft any time Congress declares war or authorizes military force for conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan. His calculation: Requiring a draft would make Congress less likely to go to war in the first place. Senior military officials, over the years, say they prefer the volunteer force for its professionalism. Draft women? Why not?: Column On the other side of the spectrum is Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a hawkish conservative and member of the Armed Services Committee who proposed adding women to the draft earlier this year. But his proposal was essentially offered as a dare, attempting to force an election-year vote on a policy he opposes. Hunter blasted the White House announcement on Thursday as "purely politics, one last jab," given the action taken by Congress. Hunter noted that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, had opposed opening Marine infantry units to women in his previous post as commandant. "The military doesn't support this," Hunter said. The incoming Trump administration is likely to review and potentially repeal allowing women to serve in ground combat units, Hunter said. The Senate version of the defense policy bill, which includes a provision requiring women to register for the draft, passed in June, 83-15. In July, the House voted 217-203 to remove the provision from its version of the bill. A conference committee hashed out a compromise bill this week.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/01/obama-supports-registering-women-militarydraft/90449708/ It was President Franklin Roosevelt who first proposed drafting women in order to address a shortage of military nurses in World War II. "Since volunteering has not produced the number of nurses required, I urge that the Selective Service Act be amended to provide for the induction of nurses into the armed forces," he said in his 1945 State of the Union Address. "The need is too pressing to await the outcome of further efforts at recruiting." Two months later, the House passed a bill to draft nurses, 347 to 42, but the bill died in the Senate, and the war soon ended. In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rostker v. Goldberg that an all-male draft was constitutional, with Justice William Rehnquist writing in a 6-3 decision that because Congress had excluded women from some combat roles, it was reasonable for Congress not require that they be subject to the draft. Voices: Draft could help fight for women's rights

Miscellaneous

https://www.armytimes.com/articles/army-to-study-how-physical-conditioning-affects-soldiers-mentalhealth

Army to study how physical conditioning affects soldiers’ mental health By Meghann Myers Army Times, November 27, 2016 (Photo Credit: Sgt. Brandon M Banzhaf/Army) A human performance program designed to help Green Berets straighten out their bodies after punishing deployments could have emotional and psychological benefits, too, according to researchers. A team at Colorado State University has a grant to study whether the physical conditioning of the Human Performance Program, which is part of U.S. Special Operations Command's Preservation of the Force and Families initiative, can help soldiers psychologically, spiritually and socially. "We’re going to look at the other domains to see how the physical side might influence those other domains, and, potentially, how those other domains might influence the physical part," team member Tracy Nelson, a health and exercise science professor, told Army Times in a phone interview. Nelson and the rest of the team will work with the 10th Special Forces Group at nearby Fort Carson, building on past research they've done with Green Berets. This time they'll study special operators who participate voluntarily in the human performance program, which includes a mix of strength and endurance exercises, as well as access to physical therapy and a nutritionist. SOCOM created the Preservation of the Force and Families Task Force about three years ago in a bid to take care of and preserve a force that has shouldered a relentless operational tempo since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The troops - including Army Rangers, Special Forces and aviators, Navy SEALs, Air Force pararescuemen and combat controllers, and Marine special operators - have been in high demand for more than 15 years, and the demand for their highly specialized and sought-after skills isn't expected to dissipate any time soon. Part of the task force's work has been to invest in the human performance program, hiring strength coaches, physical therapists, performance dietitians and other experts to work with special operations troops in an effort to help them better weather the rigorous physical strain and activity they encounter every day on the job. Building on SOCOM's research into how the program affects soldiers physically, the Colorado State study will use both biometric and survey data to assess whether soldiers hitting the specialized gym several times a week see improvements in their mental health and personal lives. "An extensive battery of questionnaire assessments" will gauge soldiers' psychological and spiritual health as well as family, romantic and social relationships, said team member Lise Youngblade, a human development and family studies professor. The team will also record body composition, strength, agility, mobility and take blood samples from the soldiers, to look for biomarkers that can affect mental health. "Of particular interest is Vitamin D, because we know that influences mental health but also influences physical health, and that can be influenced by travel, work schedule, exposure to the sun," Nelson said.

https://www.armytimes.com/articles/army-to-study-how-physical-conditioning-affects-soldiers-mentalhealth Checking up About 250 soldiers will participate in the study, going through the assessments over a three-year period. "Ideally we would get them before they deployed, right after they deployed, and soon after that," Nelson said. "Ideally we’d have three measures. And maybe, more ideally, I think two-a-year for three years is what we’re hoping for." Because the program is voluntary, there's a wide range of users to compare, based on whether they go four days a week, once a week or less. "If we could actually capture what happens when they’re home, right away, and then when they’re part of the program again – our hypothesis about this is that guys who participate will rehab better after deployment than guys who don’t, and they’ll be able to be deployed again potentially sooner and they’ll be on top of their game if they’re part of the program," Nelson said. If they're right, the research could give the military a reason to expand specialized strength and conditioning programs outside of special operations, she added.

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/the-navy-took-away-sailors-job-titles-and-now-no-one-knows-whatto-call-each-other

The Navy took away sailors’ job titles, and now no one knows what to call each other By David B. Larter Navy Times, November 18, 2016 (Photo Credit: Petty Officer Timothy Schumaker) "Hey... you." Things have gotten, well, awkward, in the two months since the Navy abruptly eliminated sailor's titles and the shorthand that they used to refer to each other like "GM1," "OS2" or "boats." During a recent underway on the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, it was apparent that sailors weren’t having an easy time of it. If you ask sailors what they do, invariably they tell you their now non-existent rating. Others say they're getting in hot water for still using those abbreviated titles, even though they're the fastest way to refer to sailors (and don't involve remembering dozens of last names). What’s clear is that sailors still don’t know what exactly to make of the move, which was rolled out in late September with little detail about the larger career implications. Some sailors said the decision genuinely upset the more senior sailors in the division. One airman who did not want to be identified to share candid views said his second and first classes were particularly distraught. “It's a waste," the airman said. "They feel like it takes away from their accomplishments and their identities that they've built over their careers." Another junior sailor said he had little patience for all the bellyaching over the dumped ratings. “It does seem pointless but people just don’t like change,” said the sailor, who also asked to remain anonymous. “In some ways though I like the idea of having greater career flexibility.” Online the conversation around dumping ratings hasn’t died down. On a Navy forum on the link sharing website Reddit, sailors describe the daily annoyances that the ratings execution has brought. “Does anyone get annoyed being corrected on addressing Petty Officers, etc. by their old rates?” one Redditor asks, a question that has generated 35 responses to date. Photo Credit: Jeff Bacon/Broadside.net “For instance, I was talking with an officer and without thinking, referred to a Petty officer 1st class as HM1,” Redditor drm4490 continues. “She says, ‘you mean petty officer first class so-and-so?’ I mean, even though she's technically right, it rubs me the wrong way when they actually correct you. I also just find it way easier to say three syllables.” One Redditor said he disagreed with the change but would just be happy when it's one thing or the other. “I've been corrected for using both a generic PO1 X as well as (insert rate here) X. The try-hards are offended by the old and the salty ones are offended by the new,” the commenter said. “I'll be happy when

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/the-navy-took-away-sailors-job-titles-and-now-no-one-knows-whatto-call-each-other everyone gets on board or it's changed back. As nice as it would be to have my rate back, I just want it one way or the other.” Another sailor said his command has been using the “seaman” and “petty officer” honorifics in formal paperwork but have otherwise ignored the new rules. “Have yet to see anyone in my command get butt hurt over us calling each other by rate,” the commenter said. “Most of us have put a half-assed attempt at saying Seaman or Petty Officer and mostly use it jokingly. Only our CO, XO, and CMC have put up a real attempt at not using rates. Normally just use SN or PO when writing emails and doing paperwork for formalities.” One sailor noted that the change is still causing confusion in simple interactions such as telephone calls. “Talking to a chief on the phone yesterday: ‘I'll get airman... seaman so and so... whatever the f--- this new rate bulls--- is, to come open the door for you,’” the commenter recalled. “Chief clearly isn't enjoying this new game.”

https://www.stripes.com/news/outgoing-navy-sec-mabus-leaves-profound-imprint-on-policies-shipacquisition-1.441634

Outgoing Navy Sec. Mabus leaves profound imprint on policies, ship acquisition By Wyatt Olson Stars and Stripes, November 29, 2016 Navy Secretary Ray Mabus answers questions during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 2, 2016. Looking on is Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes) Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recently recalled the last year in the life of his father, a timber merchant who died decades ago at 85. “The last year of his life, he didn’t cut a single tree but he planted thousands, and he did that as an act of faith, an act of hope,” Mabus told sailors in Hawaii. “He knew as an absolute fact that he would never see any money, never see any benefit, but he did it. He did it for his granddaughters that he never met. He did it for their children.” The long haul has been a major part of the philosophy that has driven the former Mississippi governor since he assumed the Navy post in May 2009. He retires Jan. 20 after serving longer in that job than anyone since World War I. Mabus is also among the most controversial Navy secretaries. His coterie of fervent admirers consider him the Obama administration’s most effective service secretary. His detractors decry him as a social activist whose decisions -- from naming a ship for assassinated gay activist Harvey Milk, removing terms with “man” from enlisted rating systems and integrating men and women in Marine Corps basic training -undercut esprit and combat effectiveness in favor of social engineering. During Mabus’ tenure, the Navy signed contracts for 86 new ships, more than double the number contracted for in the previous seven years. His admirers credit his political skills for building bipartisan support for his policies on Capitol Hill. “Ray Mabus is one of the most successful service secretaries in modern times,” said Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute, a libertarian think tank in Virginia. “During the Obama years, the Navy has been by far the best managed of the military departments. Mabus has run a tight ship, and as a result the Navy and Marine Corps are in better shape than the Air Force or the Army.” During his tenure, the self-described “disruptive” Navy secretary implemented an ambitious plan to wean the fleet off fossil fuels, increased the length of maternity leave and overruled a decision by the Marine Corps opposing a Pentagon order to allow women in all combat jobs. He has also promoted gender neutrality in the Navy and Marine Corps by calling for unisex uniforms, instituting guidelines for transgender servicemembers, integrating men and women in basic training and stripping job titles of gender reference. Those steps have drawn fire from conservatives, who are likely to look for a new direction in the incoming Donald Trump administration, which will be working with a Republican-controlled Congress. The changes involving the Marine Corps so enraged Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Marine veteran, that he called for Mabus to resign and described him as “a greater threat to the Marine Corps than ISIS,” meaning the Islamic State.

https://www.stripes.com/news/outgoing-navy-sec-mabus-leaves-profound-imprint-on-policies-shipacquisition-1.441634 Some female sailors are opposed to the proposed pants-only style -- no more skirts -- while others have criticized the possibility of having to spend more on uniforms during a transition. The House Armed Services Committee noted in a markup of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that the Navy was unable to identify an “operational necessity” for the uniform changes. Mabus also angered some conservatives over naming ships. In 2012 he proposed naming an LCS after Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who has become an icon for gun control advocates since she was gravely wounded by a gunman in Tucson, Ariz., a year earlier. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., added an amendment to the 2012 defense authorization bill calling for a report on how far Mabus had strayed from unofficial naming protocols. The subsequent report concluded that, aside from the USS Gabrielle Giffords, the ship names Mabus had chosen were “consistent with established, special and unofficial naming conventions.” “I’ve always been astounded at people that work their whole lives to get into leadership positions and then refused to lead,” Mabus told Stars and Stripes. “If you are making decisions, you’re going to get criticism. If you don’t get any criticism it probably means you’re not doing very much.” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, on the sidelines at a NavyUniversity of Connecticut football game at Annapolis, Md., in September, 2016. (Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes) Mabus contends that the underlying motive for his changes has been to make sailors and Marines better warfighters. “Overall, I hope that my legacy is that the Navy and Marine Corps are substantially changed but also significantly stronger than they were eight years ago,” Mabus said. On the top of his to-do list was increasing the number of ships being built for the Navy, a goal Mabus has achieved. “In 2001, the U.S. Navy had 316 ships,” Mabus said. “By 2008, seven years later, after one of the big military buildups in our history, we were down to 278 ships.” With the contracts in the pipeline, the Navy is on track to possess 308 ships by 2021, he said. Mabus has also overseen the commissioning of the first wave of the troubled littoral combat ships, which have suffered from high-profile breakdowns at sea. Critics say the Navy let construction get ahead of testing for the new style of warship. “We just think the LCS program was totally mismanaged, that the Navy prioritized speed in the program rather than having a good sense of what they want the ships to actually do,” said Mandy Smithberger, a defense expert with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog organization in Washington. The ships were designed for a smaller crew than past warships, but Smithberger and other critics argue that the manning expectations are unrealistic. The U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended this summer that Congress pause funding LCSs until the Navy alters its acquisition strategy.

https://www.stripes.com/news/outgoing-navy-sec-mabus-leaves-profound-imprint-on-policies-shipacquisition-1.441634 Mabus has defended the vessels, calling them “great ships” earlier this fall and maintaining that the Navy will work through the initial problems. Mabus also touts the success of moving the Navy and Marine Corps away from fossil fuels to renewables. He launched the Great Green Fleet initiative soon after becoming secretary, and earlier this year the first aircraft carrier group was deployed using a 50-50 blend of fossil and biofuels. As of last year, Navy and Marine Corps bases were getting half their energy from renewable sources, such as solar, wind and geothermal, Mabus said. Renewables account for about 35 percent of the energy the Navy uses at sea – half of which is nuclear. “We’re better warfighters today because of it,” he said. “We’re more expeditionary because of it. We’re less vulnerable because of it.” Sweeping changes in Navy policy, however, are likely what Mabus will be most remembered for – assuming they aren’t reversed by the incoming administration. Mabus’ effort “clearly reflects President Obama’s views,” said John Hattendorf, emeritus Ernest J. King professor of maritime history at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. The length of Mabus’ tenure has provided stability and allowed him to shepherd changes, Hattendorf said, comparing Mabus to Navy secretary Josephus Daniels, who held the position from 1913 to 1921 and ushered in a more professional service. Daniels drew fire from sailors for banning the use of alcohol on board, but Mabus’ decisions and policy changes have drawn greatest fire from Navy and Marine Corps alumni and conservative lawmakers. Last year, the Marine Corps sought an exception to a Defense Department requirement that qualified women be allowed into combat jobs. The Corps had based the request on a study it said showed that teams and squads with women were slower and more prone to injuries. The full study was never released. Mabus publicly panned the study for failing to include physically capable women as participants. He also said that because the Marine Corps did not have standards in place for those combat positions, such a study was unable to judge minimal performance requirements for the jobs. When it comes to naming ships, Mabus said, “I know I’m not going to please everybody. But my job, as I see it, is to make sure that those ships connect to the American people. “If you live in Wichita, you don’t have much connection to the Navy normally. But now that there’s a USS Wichita, there’s that connection.” Mabus’s predecessor instituted a namesake convention based on famous American explorers and pioneers for a new class of supply ships called T-AKEs. Mabus named ships after civil rights leaders Medgar Evers and Cesar Chavez because he regards them as pioneers. “I got the name Cesar Chavez from the shipyard,” he said. “They were the ones who recommended it because 85 percent of the shipyard workers in San Diego are Hispanic.” Mabus ushered in a host of personnel changes designed to attract recruits and retain sailors, such as increasing the hours Navy day care is available, allowing commanders to promote by merit rather than longevity for up to 5 percent of their enlisted personnel and tripling maternity leave to 18 weeks. That leave plan was curtailed earlier this year when Carter announced an across-the-force maternity leave of 12 weeks.

https://www.stripes.com/news/outgoing-navy-sec-mabus-leaves-profound-imprint-on-policies-shipacquisition-1.441634 “I think that Ray Mabus, on the whole, has been good for the Navy,” said Shawn VanDiver, director of the San Diego chapter of the Truman Center for National Policy, a Washington organization that advocates progressive ideas for national security. VanDiver, who joined the Navy at 17 in 2001 and served until 2013, believes that many of the personnel policy changes made by Mabus reflect generational change. “My generation is now coming into the ranks of power, and nobody gives a [expletive] if somebody is gay or if a woman is running something in the military,” he said. “We just don’t care.” How much of Mabus’ legacy, including contracting, renewable energy and gender equality, will survive the incoming administration is an open question since Republicans won control of Congress and the White House in the Nov. 8 election. “It’s hard to roll back the stuff your predecessor did unless there’s some reason that it’s absolutely not working,” VanDiver said. Of potential reversals, Mabus said, “If you go back, you make us a less effective warfighting force. I don’t know anybody who wants to do that. “It shouldn’t be ideological. It shouldn’t be a matter of political correctness or anything like that. It’s what makes us better warfighters.” [email protected] Twitter: @WyattWOlson

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/patricia-kutteles-driven-by-tragedy-to-end-dont-ask-dont-tell-diesat-67.html

Patricia Kutteles, Driven by Tragedy to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ Dies at 67 By Sam Roberts The New York Times, November 20, 2016 Patricia Kutteles with her husband, Wally, and the folded flag that was presented to them at the funeral of her son Pfc. Barry Winchell. (Credit: Roy Inman for The New York Times) Patricia Kutteles, whose relentless efforts helped reverse the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy a decade after her son was beaten to death by a fellow soldier who presumed he was gay, died on Nov. 14 in Kansas City, Mo. She was 67. The cause was kidney and liver failure after being treated for cancer, her husband, Wally, said. Mrs. Kutteles, a psychiatric nurse, was having coffee in her kitchen early on July 5, 1999, when she was informed by phone that Pfc. Barry Winchell, her 21-year-old son from her first marriage, had been kicked in the head in an altercation. In fact, Private Winchell had been bludgeoned in his barracks with a baseball bat until his head was cracked, as one witness put it, “like an egg shell.” Rather than accept the defendants’ version of a drunken brawl gone amok or the Army’s disavowals of homophobia, Mrs. Kutteles adopted the slogan that had been drilled into her son during basic training as an infantryman. “I hear him now, over and over, telling me, ‘Suck it up, Mom, and drive on,’” she told The New York Times in 2000. “Everything I’m doing is for him: Suck it up and drive on.” She testified at the court-martial of his confessed killer, Pvt. Calvin Glover, who is serving a life term, and his accomplice, Specialist Justin R. Fisher, who was sentenced to 12 and a half years (he was released in 2006) for spreading rumors that Private Winchell was gay, taunting him and goading Private Glover. (Charges against Specialist Fisher of being an accomplice to murder had been reduced to obstructing justice in return for his testimony.) But Mrs. Kutteles drove on. She and her husband sued the Army for wrongful death because officers failed to halt the harassment that led to her son’s death. The claim was denied. They sought, but failed, to deny a promotion to the base commander. They also collaborated with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (now OutServe-SLDN) to push to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which President Bill Clinton’s Defense Department issued as a compromise in 1993 and which let gay men and lesbians serve if they hid their homosexuality. In 2009, President Obama declared that he would allow gay people to serve openly. Congress repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 2010, and the repeal took effect the following year. The Kutteleses had one of the pens the president used to sign the repeal framed in their living room. “Pat’s voice was pivotal in the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Matthew F. Thorn, the executive director of OutServe-SLDN, said on Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/patricia-kutteles-driven-by-tragedy-to-end-dont-ask-dont-tell-diesat-67.html “In what I can only imagine was a most difficult time for her,” Mr. Thorn said, “she had a resolve to share her son’s story and her story as a mother, losing her son because of anti-gay violence and harassment, and went beyond the law in helping individuals to understand lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on a human level.” Private Winchell’s story was told in a 2003 Showtime movie, “Soldier’s Girl.” Troy Garity was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as Private Winchell. Mrs. Kutteles would remain vigilant, she said, prepared to speak against the possible release of Private Glover after he served his minimum term (he was sentenced to life, but with the possibility of parole). “My life is now at the whim of the Army,” she said in 2000. “I’ll have to go to years of hearings.” Patricia Ann Slyker was born on March 30, 1949, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Her father, Joseph, was an electrician. Her mother was the former Frances McCaffery. Her marriage to Grant Winchell ended in divorce. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a son from her first marriage, Ian Winchell; a stepdaughter, Deborah Green; a brother, Joe Slyker; and three grandchildren. In 1999, Private Winchell was dating a transgender woman: a dancer he had met at a gay nightclub that he had been invited to the first time by his roommate at Fort Campbell, Ky., Specialist Fisher. During a bout of heavy drinking over the Fourth of July weekend, according to court testimony, Private Glover picked a fight with Private Winchell, who knocked him to the ground. As Private Winchell stalked off to go to bed, Specialist Fisher mocked Private Glover for losing a fight to a presumed gay man — goading him as the pair drank. Finally, Private Glover grabbed a baseball bat and clubbed his victim as he slept. An Army inquiry exonerated the officers at the base who were responsible for the outfit’s behavior and concluded, despite testimony to the contrary, that there had been no general climate of homophobia. Mrs. Kutteles, distraught that her son had suffered torment for months and bitterly disappointed at the outcome of military justice, joined with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in public appearances and appeals to elected officials to make the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” a lasting memorial to her son, whatever his sexual orientation. Barry Winchell had told his mother only that he was dating a dancer. Her name was Calpernia Addams, but he never elaborated on her gender. “When I found out Calpernia was a transsexual or whatever, that was a bit surprising,” Mrs. Kutteles told The New York Times Magazine in 2000. “But she is a very nice person, and she really cared about Barry. Knowing he was in a happy relationship, in the end, that helped.” In another Times article, she added, “It didn’t matter to me one way or the other, and Barry would know that.” “I think he was just trying to find out who he was,” she said. “I can’t bear to hear that Army recruiting song: ‘Be all that you can be in the Army,’” Mrs. Kutteles said. “My son tried to be all that he could be, and he got murdered.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/nyregion/ruth-gruber-dead.html

Ruth Gruber, a Fearless Chronicler of the Jewish Struggle, Dies at 105 By Robert D. McFadden The New York Times, November 17, 2016 Ms. Gruber in Alaska in 1941. She documented Stalin’s gulags and life in Nazi Germany. (Credit: Reel Inheritance Films) Ruth Gruber, a photojournalist and author who documented Stalin’s gulags, life in Nazi Germany and the plight of Jewish refugees intercepted by the British on the infamous passage of the Exodus to Palestine in 1947, died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 105. Her son, David Michaels, confirmed her death. Ms. Gruber called herself a witness, and in an era of barbarities and war that left countless Jews displaced and stateless, she often crossed the line from journalist to human rights advocate, reporting as well as shaping events that became the headlines and historical footnotes of the 20th century. Over seven decades, she was a correspondent in Europe and the Middle East and wrote 19 books, mostly based on her own experiences. Acting for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she escorted nearly 1,000 refugees from 19 Nazi-occupied nations to a safe haven in the United States on a perilous trans-Atlantic crossing in 1944. They included the only large contingent of Jews allowed into America during World War II. As with many of her exploits, the rescue became the subject of one of her books, “Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America” (1983). It was made into a twopart CBS mini-series in 2001, starring Natasha Richardson as Ms. Gruber. Ms. Gruber was in Jerusalem in July 1947 to cover a United Nations conference when she learned that a Chesapeake Bay steamer — refitted by the paramilitary group Haganah as a transport for Jewish immigrants and renamed the Exodus 1947 — had been intercepted by British warships as it approached Palestine, overloaded with 4,515 refugees, including many orphans and Holocaust survivors. She rushed to the Port of Haifa to report on the episode. The vessel, listing and damaged in an offshore attack that left three dead and 120 injured, was seized by the British. Turned back within sight of the Promised Land, the refugees were transferred to prison ships and returned to Germany, where they were interned in fenced compounds reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps. Ms. Gruber, acting as a pool reporter for news organizations, photographed and wrote about horrific conditions aboard the ships and in the camps. The international outcry that followed profoundly embarrassed the British, who were then governing Palestine under a 1922 League of Nations mandate, and helped pave the way for Israeli independence in 1948 and the eventual resettlement of nearly all the interned Jews. The story was chronicled in Ms. Gruber’s 1948 book, “Destination Palestine: The Story of the Haganah Ship Exodus 1947.” (The book was updated in 1999 and in 2007 as “Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation.”)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/nyregion/ruth-gruber-dead.html The episode was also the basis of the Leon Uris novel “Exodus,” published in 1958, and of Otto Preminger’s 1960 film adaptation, which starred Paul Newman. A documentary film, “Exodus 1947,” narrated by the CBS News reporter Morley Safer, was broadcast on PBS in 1997. Ms. Gruber, who worked for The New York Herald Tribune, The New York Post and, briefly, The New York Times, covered the Nuremberg war-crimes trials and many events in the history of Israel, including its war for independence. In 1952, she escorted Eleanor Roosevelt on a visit to development sites in Israel. Her empathetic coverage, she often said, was rooted in her pride as a Jew and as a journalist with a mission. “I had two tools to fight injustice — words and images, my typewriter and my camera,” she told a United Jewish Federation seminar at the University of Pittsburgh in 2001. “I just felt that I had to fight evil, and I’ve felt like that since I was 20 years old. And I’ve never been an observer. I have to live a story to write it.” Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 30, 1911, to David and Gussie Gruber, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. A brilliant student, she held abiding passions for Judaism and German culture, including Goethe, Nietzsche, Schiller and Schopenhauer. She graduated from Bushwick High School at 15 and New York University at 18, by then already fluent in German. On fellowships, she earned a master’s degree in German at the University of Wisconsin at 19 and a doctorate in German literature at the University of Cologne at 20, one of the youngest ever to achieve that distinction. In 1932, on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, she traveled across Germany, saw festering antiSemitism, even attended Nazi rallies and once saw Hitler deliver a tirade. She returned to New York and, after reporting locally for The Times, joined The Herald Tribune in 1935. She was soon crossing Soviet Russia on assignment. Ms. Gruber in New York in 2011. (Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images) “I am experiencing that feeling of zest which goes with exploration,” she wrote as she flew over the snowcapped Urals on a 6,000-mile trek to Siberia. “I am in the thick of an historic moment. I am in an era in the making.” She looked like the early Hollywood star Myrna Loy (who was only six years older than Ms. Gruber): small and delicate, with a pointed chin and high cheekbones — a strange, incongruous young woman among the kulak prisoners and soldiers aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, bound for the mills, ports and labor camps. It was wondrous stuff for The Trib and for another book, “I Went to the Soviet Arctic” (1939). After completing a task for Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes in 1941 — to assess Alaska’s prospects for homesteading postwar G.I.s — Ms. Gruber took on a mission for President Roosevelt in 1944, escorting 984 refugees to America on a ship that ran a U-boat gantlet. Skirting Jewish immigration quotas, the president invited them as “guest” visitors. With Ms. Gruber’s lobbying, they held out near Oswego, N.Y., and applied for residency in 1946. In 1951 she married Philip H. Michaels, a New York lawyer who died in 1968. In 1974 she married Henry J. Rosner, an official at New York City’s social services and human resources agencies. He died in 1982. Besides her son, an assistant secretary of labor in the Obama administration, she is survived by a daughter, Celia Michaels, a former CBS News editor who covered the war in Lebanon in 1980; two stepdaughters,

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/nyregion/ruth-gruber-dead.html Jeri Drucker and Elaine Rosner-Jeria; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Another stepdaughter, the writer Barbara Seaman, died in 2008. Ms. Gruber was the subject of a documentary film, “Ahead of Time,” in 2010. She received many humanitarian awards and counted Eleanor Roosevelt, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir as friends. In her later years she continued to write articles and books and lectured widely. Her last book was “Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story” (2007). As she told an audience at Stony Brook University in 2008, she always knew how to be in the right place at the right time. “Whenever I saw that Jews were in danger,” she said, “I covered that story.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/study-families-of-those-who-commit-suicide-should-keep-benefits1.442044

Study: Families of those who commit suicide should keep benefits By Nancy Montgomery Stars and Stripes, December 1, 2016 Air Force Col. Eugene Marcus Caughey speaks at a ceremony at Schriever Air Force Base in 2014. Caughey, formerly vice commander of the 50th Space Wing, was found dead at his Colorado Springs home in September 2016. (Christopher DeWitt/U.S. Air Force) The Air Force is investigating whether Col. Eugene Caughey, 46, formerly the vice commander of the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, died in the line of duty. Caughey shot himself three weeks before his court-martial on rape, sexual assault and adultery charges was scheduled to start in October. The Army is investigating the same thing in the suicide of Master Sgt. Timothy Shelton. Shelton, 46, was convicted of sexual abuse of a child at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky on July 15, 2015. He shot himself with a gun retrieved from his parked truck after a lunch break before he was to be sentenced. The two cases go to the heart of a debate about the investigations that determine whether military suicides were of “unsound mind” when they killed themselves, and so in the line of duty, or of “sound mind.” Those of sound mind who kill themselves commit misconduct, regulations state, and their families are denied retirement and other benefits, which for families of long-serving troops can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Psychiatrists, family groups and a recent RAND corporation study in improving the military’s post-suicide response say that no families of suicides should be made to forfeit benefits. They say that family members have also made sacrifices for the military, and that denying benefits adds another blow to their trauma. Suicide is devastating, causing feelings of guilt, anger and shame in survivors, said retired Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former top Army psychiatrist, and raises survivors’ risk for suicide. Since a rise in military suicides focused attention on the issue a decade ago, the policy has been to find almost all suicide victims in the line of duty because of unsound mind, including cases in which troops are accused of serious crimes, experts said. Even when investigating officers and legal advisers advise that a suicide was not in the line of duty, but was in fact misconduct, commanders frequently overrule them, according to Army lawyer Maj. Marcus Misinec, a critic of the policy. Misenec highlighted two cases he was familiar with in a 2014 article in the Military law Review, those of a master sergeant and a captain. Both had shot themselves after evidence of sexual crimes had been exposed. Neither man had a documented history of mental issues. Both communicated that either they couldn’t bear the idea of going to prison or live with what they’d done. Both had had a “motive for self-destruction,” Misinec wrote. “They were not experiencing suicidal ideations while having adulterous sex with subordinates or sexually molesting a ten-year-old step-daughter,” he wrote. “Rather, it was when they were caught that they simply

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/study-families-of-those-who-commit-suicide-should-keep-benefits1.442044 caved to immediate mental adversity caused by their own doing, acted impulsively, and killed themselves. Their apparent motive was to avoid the personal and criminal consequences of those shameful acts.” In both cases, investigating officers and lawyers advised the suicides be ruled misconduct, and commanders disapproved the recommendations and determined the deceased was “in the line of duty.” Misinec argued that finding such cases in the line of duty does a disservice to troops not accused of crimes, people who kill themselves because they suffer from post-combat syndromes such as PTSD, survivor guilt, traumatic brain injury or depression. He noted that the Army would have provided far less support if either had gone to prison and been stripped of pay and allowances. Line of duty investigations are supposed to determine why a soldier committed suicide, “not to justify the potential expenditure of close to half a million government dollars over four decades when the soldier’s actions — not the Army’s — are responsible for his family’s plight,” he wrote. Legal issues and relationship problems are considered prevalent risk factors for suicide. According to an Army report, from 2006 to 2009, seven of 18 field-grade officer suicides faced criminal legal issues. “It’s often something that’s not just illegal but something that would get them shunned,” Ritchie said. “There’s depression that clouds their thoughts. They’re in a depressed, dark place and not thinking clearly.” But most with those problems don’t kill themselves. Caughey was the only one of scores of military defendants he’s represented to commit suicide, including accused rapists and murderers, said attorney Ryan Coward. “People survive it, they get through it,” Coward said. “And there are acquittals at court-martial.” Coward suggested that the Air Force had failed to provide Caughey with a “wingman” for support as required and said that suicide itself is evidence of a mental health problem. It’s true that some suicides believe their families would be better off without them, Ritchie said. “But believe me, that’s not the case,” she said. “The trauma of suicide scars families for generations.” Determining why someone commits suicide remains a complex puzzle that line of duty investigations can’t solve, she said. Caughey, for example, who shot himself at home, his wife in the next room, was taking an anti-depressant and an anti-convulsant, according to autopsy records. Shelton, a member of the 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment “Nightstalkers,” who was once lauded by German officials for helping avert a drowning, had recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan. He had been diagnosed with chronic PTSD, according to reports, and suffered from nightmares of helicopter crashes like the one that had killed a good friend and others he’d been tasked with investigating. [email protected]

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/symposium-airs-sleep-disorders-role-in-healthissues/article_54ef298f-c4b7-55e2-95d7-16806b7e364a.html

Symposium airs sleep disorders’ role in health issues By Drew Brooks Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, November 19, 2016 Soldiers with the 505 PIR sleep aboard at C-17 en route to Kandahar Air Field. (Brian Thorpe) The old mantra that "sleep is for the weak" has no place in the modern military. But health professionals are still butting against cultural and operational hurdles as they discover more connections between sleep disorders and mental and physical health issues. Stephanie Brooks Holliday outlined some of those hurdles and the dangers of sleep disorders among troops during a presentation Friday as part of the annual Forward March symposium. The two-day symposium is aimed at bringing community and health care leaders together to address issues affecting military families. Holliday, an associate behavioral scientist at the RAND Corp., said sleep issues are not unique to the military. But service members do appear to be at a higher risk of having sleep problems. "Sleep problems are prevalent, debilitating and persistent among service members," she said. Citing a study funded by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological health and Traumatic Brain Injury and the Army Medical Department, Holliday said only about a third of troops report getting seven or more hours of sleep each night. The rest receive less than the recommended seven to eight hours, she said, with 31 percent reporting six hours each night and 31 percent reporting five or fewer hours a night. Outside of the military, similar studies have found less than 8 percent of adults sleep five or fewer hours a day. Also, about half of service members report poor sleep quality, Holliday said. While just under a third of the larger adult population makes similar claims. And a third of troops report they are fatigued at least three to four days each week. That's disturbing, she said, because of the critical role sleep plays in the restoration of body and mind. Sleep affects both mental and physical health, Holliday said. And the consequences of lack of sleep can lead to depression, anxiety, increased risk of accidents, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, memory lapses, poor work performance, social and marital problems and weight management issues. "Not getting enough sleep is a really serious issue," Holliday said. "Sleep is critical." Lifestyle concerns Much of the problem can be traced to the military lifestyle. Holliday noted poor sleep environments, especially during training or on deployments, and long hours as contributing factors in the military's sleep issues.

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/symposium-airs-sleep-disorders-role-in-healthissues/article_54ef298f-c4b7-55e2-95d7-16806b7e364a.html But there's also the thinking that staying up late is a sign of strength or stamina, she said. Service members report sleep issues regardless of their deployment history. And those issues often remain with them after they've left military service. Holiday said that, too often, military leaders don't consider the ramifications of lack of sleep. And many troops enter a dangerous cycle of using energy drinks and caffeine to stay awake and medication to sleep. "The culture of the military is really not always conducive to sleep," Holliday said. Army leaders have taken note of the connections between sleep and health. Speaking during the first day of Forward March on Thursday, Command Sgt. Maj. Scott Schroeder of U.S. Army Forces Command said in-depth analyses of soldiers who commit suicide shows a clear connection between lack of sleep and behavioral problems that could lead a soldier to take his own life. The problems range from young soldiers to senior leaders. Schroeder said a soldier who recently killed himself had been diagnosed with insomnia. Another, whom he called a "very senior officer," was also not getting enough sleep. "He had not slept for two years," Schroeder said. "The leading cause of suicide is depression," he added. "And the leading causes and contributing factors to depression are sleep disorders." Holliday said the Army is leading the way when it comes to changing the way the military thinks about sleep. She praised the Army's Performance Triad, a health program focused on improving sleep, exercise and nutrition, and said the service is taking steps in the right direction. Holliday also said the military was offering more treatments to combat sleep disorders, including various therapies, medication and alternative treatments, such as yoga and meditation. But, she said, there is still a lack of understanding among some troops and their leaders. "The stigma is still there," Holliday said. "Sleep is viewed as a luxury, rather than a necessity." Military editor Drew Brooks can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3567.

SEE ALSO: The Army has a sleep problem. Here’s how to fix it. [Army Times, 2016-11-20] [OPINION]

Misconduct

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/vva-letter-trump-obama-bad-paper

Advocates want Obama, Trump to pardon ‘bad paper’ dismissals By Leo Shane III Military Times, November 30, 2016 Military veterans advocates are urging President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump to pardon tens of thousands of post-9/11 service members who were discharged for infractions related to mental health. In a letter being delivered to both men this week, Vietnam Veterans of America National President John Rowan says such a pardon will require Obama and Trump to work together on developing a plan for identifying those individuals — expected to total around 300,000 — and restore their veterans’ benefits. “Over the last 15 years of continuous warfare, our government has failed to respond appropriately to multiple, comprehensive reports of veterans being inappropriately discharged from the military,” the letter states. “We implore you to at least save the current generation of America’s warriors an unfairly marginal life as outcasts in the nation they have so faithfully served.” At issue is the practice of “bad paper” discharges for troops who suffered from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma or other mental health issues. Advocates have said that many troops kicked out of the ranks in recent years for alcohol abuse, drug use and suicide attempts should instead have received treatment for those under-diagnosed problems. Veterans with less-than-honorable discharges are ineligible for a host of government benefits, including free health care. “They are more likely to suffer with self-medication and substance abuse, to become homeless, or incarcerated, or to die by suicide,” Rowan wrote. “For many injured and ill veterans, these administrative separations and the denial of critical veterans’ benefits are a life-sentence.” Veterans can appeal those discharges, but the process is complicated, time-consuming and expensive. Instead, Rowan is asking for an upgrade in discharge status for all veterans who qualify and “to immediately grant access to PTS and TBI screening at the VA for all veterans.” VVA and other veterans groups have pushed for congressional action on the problem for months, but are now turning to Obama and Trump for immediate relief. Rowan compared the situation to President Jimmy Carter’s pardon in 1977 to individuals who had illegally avoided the draft, in an effort to unify the country in the years following the Vietnam War. Obama offered legislation to address the problem in 2008, during his stint in the Senate. But the White House had avoided comment on the issue in recent months, despite repeated pleas from advocates. Congress has included language in its annual defense authorization bill to review the problem and ease rules on dismissing troops showing signs of mental health problems, but supporters say that action alone won't be enough to address the problem. VVA officials acknowledged that setting up guidelines for how to identify and screen eligible veterans will likely take months, making Trump’s participation in any such plan equally crucial. In the past, Rowan has talked about expanding the bad paper discharge forgiveness to veterans of all eras, especially since PTS and TBI were largely unknown at the height of the Vietnam War. “But for many of them it is too late,” he wrote. “Let’s ensure that their children and grandchildren do not suffer the same fate.”

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report

Army Says It Fairly Dismissed Soldiers With Mental Health Problems, Brain Injuries By Daniel Zwerdling NPR, December 1, 2016 U.S. Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning ordered a review after an NPR investigation found thousands of soldiers diagnosed with mental health problems or brain injuries were dismissed for misconduct. But the new Army report concluded that it treated the soldiers fairly. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) An Army review concludes that commanders did nothing wrong when they kicked out more than 22,000 soldiers for misconduct after they came back from Iraq or Afghanistan – even though all of those troops had been diagnosed with mental health problems or brain injuries. The Army's report, ordered by Secretary Eric Fanning, seeks to reassure members of Congress that it's treating wounded soldiers fairly. But senators and military specialists say the report troubles them. "I don't think the Army understands the scope of this problem," says Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "And I don't think they've conveyed the seriousness to get it right." The Army's report is "unbelievable," says psychiatrist Judith Broder. "It's just bizarre." Broder was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Obama for organizing the Soldiers Project, a network of hundreds of psychotherapists and others who help troops and their families. NPR asked Fanning for an interview, but he declined and sent a statement: "Anyone who is injured while serving our nation deserves to be properly diagnosed and treated," it says, in part. "In cases where a Soldier is facing separation as a result of his or her conduct, the completion of a thorough medical review is a routine part of the Army's process." The Army didn't provide NPR an interview with other top officials, either. NPR and Colorado Public Radio revealed last year that the Army has separated more than 22,000 wounded soldiers for misconduct since 2009, stripping them of some or all of their benefits — often unfairly because they had mental health problems or brain injuries. As a result, 12 Democratic senators signed a letter asking Fanning to investigate and "rectify this grave offense to the men and women that serve in our armed forces." Fanning responded by ordering Assistant Secretary for Manpower Debra Wada "to conduct a thorough, multidisciplinary review," of how the Army handles misconduct separations for troops with mental health problems or brain injuries. Army auditors and the inspector general took part. The report is dated April 14, but Army officials released it only recently. The report's conclusion: "The Army remains confident in the administrative processes that define misconduct separation procedures." The report supports that statement by arguing that the Army has followed the letter of a 2009 law. But senators say the report focuses too narrowly on precise legal wording instead of examining a widespread problem that started coming to light more than a decade ago. The nation's leaders had become increasingly troubled by widespread media reports that commanders were kicking out wounded combat soldiers instead of helping them. So Congress passed a law requiring

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report commanders to evaluate two issues whenever they're considering dismissing a soldier for misconduct: whether that soldier has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, and whether he or she deployed during the previous two years in a war zone or other "contingency operation." If so, the commanders must decide if those injuries "constitute matters in extenuation" that helped trigger the soldier's behavior. The law does not specifically mention other mental health disorders. The Army's report states that only 3,327 of the more than 22,000 soldiers who had been kicked out met that legal test. As a result, investigators ignored the rest of the soldiers — roughly 19,000 of them — who had mental health problems or brain injuries. Broder says that by focusing on the fine print in the law, Army officials are missing the big picture. If Army officials genuinely want to help wounded troops, their new report makes no medical sense. President Obama awards the 2011 Presidential Citizens Medal to Judith Broder during a ceremony at the White House. Broder created The Soldiers Project which meets mental needs of servicemembers and their families. (Charles Dharapak/AP) "It's mind boggling to exclude people because they don't have one of those two diagnoses," Broder says. "Our experience at the Soldiers Project is that at least half, maybe more than that, of the people who call us with mental health problems following their service have anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol problems, all of which directly flow from their experiences in combat." But, she says, they have not been diagnosed with PTSD or TBI. Army records, which NPR and CPR obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reinforce the Soldiers Project's findings. Those records show that most of the 22,000-plus troops whom the Army kicked out for misconduct had been diagnosed with illnesses such as "anxiety disorder," "adjustment disorder" or "mood disorder," which includes depression. Murphy says he's also troubled that the Army report suggests that soldiers' mental health injuries don't matter if they didn't serve in the wars within two years of their diagnosis. "What we know is that PTSD and other disorders and conditions that arise from military service often don't rear their ugly heads until two or three or four years later," he says. The federal government's studies of Vietnam veterans show that mental health problems linked to combat sometimes take many more years to show up and be diagnosed. "What a moral injustice it continues to be to have so many soldiers with mental illnesses and brain injuries connected to their service who are being discharged and made ineligible [for benefits]," says Murphy. The Army report also seeks to rebut another finding by NPR and CPR: Many, if not most, of the soldiers with mental health disorders or TBI who were kicked out for misconduct lost some or all of their benefits. The new Army report states that 88 percent of the soldiers they examined "were separated under honorable conditions and were immediately eligible for medical care through the Veterans Administration." The report's wording sounds as if those soldiers got a coveted honorable discharge, which conveys all the benefits the Army has to offer. But in response to questions by NPR, the Army disclosed that actually, 96 percent of those troops received a "general under honorable conditions" discharge — which denies some crucial benefits. The Army's report does not disclose that fact.

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report It's "completely misleading," says Colby Vokey, a former top attorney in the Marine Corps who's now in private practice. "A general discharge has a very negative effect on soldier. It often carries a stigma." Soldiers who receive a general discharge get access to medical care at the VA, but they lose their education benefits under the GI Bill – one of the main incentives for people to join the service. In addition, a general discharge can hurt their chances of getting good jobs. "I have a client right now who's a soldier," Vokey says. "He wants to get into law enforcement or corrections. He's applied to a number of police departments and because of the general discharge, they won't hire him." The Army's report acknowledges that investigators did find some problems with the ways commanders have been separating soldiers for misconduct. It states, for instance, that they couldn't find evidence in more than one third of the cases they examined that commanders had considered soldiers' mental health before they kicked them out. But, the report adds, "that finding alone does not mean the [commanders] did not review it or that the Army was non-compliant" with the law. Fanning told each of the 12 senators in a letter that from now on, the Army will require commanders to document in writing that they reviewed the soldier's medical files. Fanning wrote in the letter that investigators found 73 cases in which soldiers might have been kicked out unfairly, and that the Army will review those cases "to determine if the Soldier's discharge should be upgraded." When Murphy read that finding, he laughed. "No, the number is clearly not 73. The problem is much bigger than that." "The bottom line for me is that the Congress still has work to do to ensure that our soldiers who are facing mental health challenges, and have been kicked out of the Army, get a fair shake," says Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Both Wyden and Murphy told NPR that they are trying to figure out their next steps. That could include calling for congressional hearings and pushing for a tougher law to protect soldiers with mental health problems and brain injuries. But Andrew Pogany, a soldiers' rights advocate who has helped trigger federal investigations of alleged mistreatment of soldiers, says that's not enough. "The only way we can really find out how the Army is treating wounded soldiers is by forming an independent third-party commission and conducting a genuine investigation," Pogany says. "As long as Army officials investigate themselves, we'll just hear what those officials want to tell us." Michael de Yoanna of KUNC contributed reporting to this story.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marine-corps-armando-gonzalez-fired

‘Crush their nuts’: Marines determine working for this commander was pure hell By Jeff Schogol Marine Corps Times, November 29, 2016 (Photo Credit: Marine Corps.) The commander of a Marine Corps squadron in Yuma, Arizona, was fired in April after an investigation determined he had created a toxic work environment and allegedly made racist, sexist and other unacceptable comments about personnel who worked for him, according to an official military report. Lt. Col. Armando Gonzalez’s command philosophy at Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 can perhaps best be summarized by the advice that he allegedly gave to a subordinate: “You've got to crush their nuts … or they'll never respect you,” he said, according to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing's command investigation, which Marine Corps Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “In general, Lt. Col. Gonzalez appears to have conducted himself in a manner that created an intimidating, hostile, and offensive work environment,” the report concludes. “This environment appears to have episodically culminated with the premature departure of several members of the command.” Gonzalez declined to comment on Tuesday. He told the investigator that some of the people who made accusations against him had an ax to grind. “There are individuals who obviously want to crush me; I am not sure why; I was under a lot of stress; the burden of command is heavy; people just don't understand how challenging it is to always do things in a professional manner,” he told the investigator. A member of Gonzalez's unit tried unsuccessfully to make Gonzalez aware of the command climate problems by writing him an email saying: “The staff often avoids presenting you with bad news because they fear your reaction. Instead of absorbing bad news and providing guidance for a solution, the perception amongst the officers and [staff noncommissioned officers] is that you immediately look to lay blame on someone.” Many of the 27 witnesses told the investigating officer that Gonzalez used demeaning language against African Americans, Mexicans, Asians, Samoans and others, according the report. Witnesses said he was especially disparaging toward women and Jews, the report says. Gonzalez vehemently denied some of the claims outlined by the investigating officer. One woman told the investigator that she did not object when Gonzalez allegedly demeaned women and Jews because she was “concerned about what he thinks of her and the type of report he might write on her,” the investigation determined. The woman was likely referring to her fitness report, which is akin to performance evaluations in the private sector. The squadron was deployed to the Middle East between March and October 2015. Before leaving, Gonzalez allegedly said he wanted all women in the unit to remain in Bahrain instead of going to Kuwait, the investigation found. As one witness understood it, leaving the women behind was meant to “protect them from the predominantly male infantry Marine population in Kuwait,” the investigation says.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marine-corps-armando-gonzalez-fired During the deployment, Gonzalez was allegedly surprised to learn the unit would receive care packages because “Marines in Bahrain and Kuwait were not in real combat such as Fallujah,” the investigation found. The commander allegedly “feared that word might get to the Marine Corps Times that MWSS-371 Marines were deliberately misleading a class of second graders and tricking them into sending care packages.” Not all of the allegations against Gonzalez were substantiated. A woman told the investigator that Gonzalez swore at her and then threw a two-inch thick binder at her. In a separate alleged incident, a woman said that Gonzalez made her hold a pushup position for a minute while verbally berating her. Gonzalez denied both allegations, and the investigator said he was unable to substantiate them. However, the investigation determined that Gonzalez failed to correct a speaker at a safety stand down, who told the squadron that hazing is “not a real thing.” Some of Gonzalez’ commanders praised his leadership of the unit, including one who called him “one of the most professional and ethical officers with which I have served,” the investigation found. But the investigator determined that “any reasonable person, being exposed to the same facts and circumstances” would conclude that Gonzalez created a hostile workplace. “The Marines and sailors of MWSS-371 deserve to be treated fairly with dignity and respect and must be allowed to work in an environment free of unlawful, offensive and discriminatory behavior,” the investigation found. “Lt. Col. Gonzalez bears accountability and full responsibility for the negative command climate and hostile environment fostered at MWSS-371.”

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report

Senators, Military Specialists Say Army Report On Dismissed Soldiers Is Troubling By Daniel Zwerdling NPR, December 1, 2016 U.S. Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning ordered a review after an NPR investigation found thousands of soldiers diagnosed with mental health problems or brain injuries were dismissed for misconduct. But the new Army report concluded that it treated the soldiers fairly. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) An Army review concludes that commanders did nothing wrong when they kicked out more than 22,000 soldiers for misconduct after they came back from Iraq or Afghanistan – even though all of those troops had been diagnosed with mental health problems or brain injuries. The Army's report, ordered by Secretary Eric Fanning, seeks to reassure members of Congress that it's treating wounded soldiers fairly. But senators and military specialists say the report troubles them. "I don't think the Army understands the scope of this problem," says Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "And I don't think they've conveyed the seriousness to get it right." The Army's report is "unbelievable," says psychiatrist Judith Broder. "It's just bizarre." Broder was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Obama for organizing the Soldiers Project, a network of hundreds of psychotherapists and others who help troops and their families. NPR asked Fanning for an interview, but he declined and sent a statement: "Anyone who is injured while serving our nation deserves to be properly diagnosed and treated," it says, in part. "In cases where a Soldier is facing separation as a result of his or her conduct, the completion of a thorough medical review is a routine part of the Army's process." The Army didn't provide NPR an interview with other top officials, either. NPR and Colorado Public Radio revealed last year that the Army has separated more than 22,000 wounded soldiers for misconduct since 2009, stripping them of some or all of their benefits — often unfairly because they had mental health problems or brain injuries. As a result, 12 Democratic senators signed a letter asking Fanning to investigate and "rectify this grave offense to the men and women that serve in our armed forces." Missed Treatment: Soldiers With Mental Health Issues Dismissed For 'Misconduct' Lawmakers Call For Army To Investigate Misconduct Discharges Of Service Members Fanning responded by ordering Assistant Secretary for Manpower Debra Wada "to conduct a thorough, multidisciplinary review," of how the Army handles misconduct separations for troops with mental health problems or brain injuries. Army auditors and the inspector general took part. The report is dated April 14, but Army officials released it only recently. The report's conclusion: "The Army remains confident in the administrative processes that define misconduct separation procedures." The report supports that statement by arguing that the Army has followed the letter of a 2009 law. But senators say the report focuses too narrowly on precise legal wording instead of examining a widespread problem that started coming to light more than a decade ago. The nation's leaders had become increasingly troubled by widespread media reports that commanders were kicking out wounded combat soldiers instead of helping them. So Congress passed a law requiring commanders to evaluate two issues whenever they're considering dismissing a soldier for misconduct: whether that soldier has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, and whether he or she deployed during the previous two years in a war zone or other "contingency operation."

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report If so, the commanders must decide if those injuries "constitute matters in extenuation" that helped trigger the soldier's behavior. The law does not specifically mention other mental health disorders. The Army's report states that only 3,327 of the more than 22,000 soldiers who had been kicked out met that legal test. As a result, investigators ignored the rest of the soldiers — roughly 19,000 of them — who had mental health problems or brain injuries. Broder says that by focusing on the fine print in the law, Army officials are missing the big picture. If Army officials genuinely want to help wounded troops, their new report makes no medical sense. "It's mind boggling to exclude people because they don't have one of those two diagnoses," Broder says. "Our experience at the Soldiers Project is that at least half, maybe more than that, of the people who call us with mental health problems following their service have anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol problems, all of which directly flow from their experiences in combat." But, she says, they have not been diagnosed with PTSD or TBI. Army records, which NPR and CPR obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reinforce the Soldiers Project's findings. Those records show that most of the 22,000-plus troops whom the Army kicked out for misconduct had been diagnosed with illnesses such as "anxiety disorder," "adjustment disorder" or "mood disorder," which includes depression. Murphy says he's also troubled that the Army report suggests that soldiers' mental health injuries don't matter if they didn't serve in the wars within two years of their diagnosis. "What we know is that PTSD and other disorders and conditions that arise from military service often don't rear their ugly heads until two or three or four years later," he says. The federal government's studies of Vietnam veterans show that mental health problems linked to combat sometimes take many more years to show up and be diagnosed. "What a moral injustice it continues to be to have so many soldiers with mental illnesses and brain injuries connected to their service who are being discharged and made ineligible [for benefits]," says Murphy. The Army report also seeks to rebut another finding by NPR and CPR: Many, if not most, of the soldiers with mental health disorders or TBI who were kicked out for misconduct lost some or all of their benefits. The new Army report states that 88 percent of the soldiers they examined "were separated under honorable conditions and were immediately eligible for medical care through the Veterans Administration." The report's wording sounds as if those soldiers got a coveted honorable discharge, which conveys all the benefits the Army has to offer. But in response to questions by NPR, the Army disclosed that actually, 96 percent of those troops received a "general under honorable conditions" discharge — which denies some crucial benefits. The Army's report does not disclose that fact. It's "completely misleading," says Colby Vokey, a former top attorney in the Marine Corps who's now in private practice. "A general discharge has a very negative effect on soldier. It often carries a stigma." Soldiers who receive a general discharge get access to medical care at the VA, but they lose their education benefits under the GI Bill – one of the main incentives for people to join the service. In addition, a general discharge can hurt their chances of getting good jobs. "I have a client right now who's a soldier," Vokey says. "He wants to get into law enforcement or corrections. He's applied to a number of police departments and because of the general discharge, they won't hire him." The Army's report acknowledges that investigators did find some problems with the ways commanders have been separating soldiers for misconduct. It states, for instance, that they couldn't find evidence in more than one third of the cases they examined that commanders had considered soldiers' mental health before they kicked them out. But, the report adds, "that finding alone does not mean the [commanders] did not review it or that the Army was non-compliant" with the law.

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/498557687/army-contests-npr-investigation-of-dismissed-soldiers-inmisleading-report Fanning told each of the 12 senators in a letter that from now on, the Army will require commanders to document in writing that they reviewed the soldier's medical files. Fanning wrote in the letter that investigators found 73 cases in which soldiers might have been kicked out unfairly, and that the Army will review those cases "to determine if the Soldier's discharge should be upgraded." When Murphy read that finding, he laughed. "No, the number is clearly not 73. The problem is much bigger than that." "The bottom line for me is that the Congress still has work to do to ensure that our soldiers who are facing mental health challenges, and have been kicked out of the Army, get a fair shake," says Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Both Wyden and Murphy told NPR that they are trying to figure out their next steps. That could include calling for congressional hearings and pushing for a tougher law to protect soldiers with mental health problems and brain injuries. But Andrew Pogany, a soldiers' rights advocate who has helped trigger federal investigations of alleged mistreatment of soldiers, says that's not enough. "The only way we can really find out how the Army is treating wounded soldiers is by forming an independent third-party commission and conducting a genuine investigation," says Pogany, CEO of the Uniformed Services Justice and Advocacy Group. "As long as Army officials investigate themselves, we'll just hear what those officials want to tell us." Michael de Yoanna of KUNC contributed reporting to this story.

Sexism

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/few-women-fight-wildfires-thats-not-becausetheyre-afraid-of-flames/2016/11/19/452c6cba-ac19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html

Few women fight wildfires. That’s not because they’re afraid of flames. By Darryl Fears The Washington Post, November 20, 2016 The Fire Learning Network hosted its first female firefighter training program in 2016. Some of the women who attended the program told The Post what it’s like to pursue a career in a maledominated environment. (Video: Monica Akhtar, Tauhid Chappell/The Washington Post)

WHISKEYTOWN, Calif. — The burn boss scanned the snaking trail of the Swasey Recreation Area through thick black sunglasses. She saw firefighters scurrying on a hill above in a smoky blue haze. They were setting dozens of fires to burn away piles of sticks and shrubs that a lightning strike or cigarette butt could use to grow into a wildfire. Their work was part of a key prescribed burn training that could help them move up in rank. But there was a much deeper meaning for burn boss Erin Banwell and the firefighters in the haze. All but a few were women, and they were taking part in the first majority-female training exchange, called WTREX, in a profession that is known for shunning women. “We need to create a space for women to develop,” said Amanda Stamper, one of the training’s organizers, who darted up and down the trail to offer help. “They get held back on purpose because of bias. It makes it really hard for women to function well.” During the first briefing meeting for the three-day prescribed burning in October, Kelly Martin, the fire chief at Yosemite National Park, was floored when she entered a dining hall and saw 35 women staring back at her. “It was just, like, . . . stunning,” Martin said. “I needed a moment.” In more than three decades as a wildfire fighter, she had never seen so many female colleagues in one room at one time. Women who fight wildfires for the federal government describe their work as isolating and lonely — and scary in a way that has nothing to do with fire. In a male-dominated, hypermasculine discipline that operates like the military, they face discrimination, sexual harassment and verbal abuse. Nearly 45 years ago, women sued for better access to firefighting jobs. Under court order, the Forest Service’s operation increased female recruitment in a region that includes California, where bias against women is some of the worst in the nation, civil rights advocates say. But when the order expired 10 years ago, the number of women sharply fell because, critics say, the service failed to adequately address a chauvinist culture. Women hold about 12 percent of the government’s permanent wildfire suppression jobs at the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, and retaining them is a challenge. A sample of recent Equal Employment Opportunity complaints show why many choose to leave. Heidi Turpen, a former firefighter for the Forest Service, said male colleagues routinely propositioned her for sex and told her women didn’t belong at her station in the Sequoia National Forest.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/few-women-fight-wildfires-thats-not-becausetheyre-afraid-of-flames/2016/11/19/452c6cba-ac19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html Alisha Dabney, a former Forest Service wildfire crew member, said she was ordered by a supervisor to report when her menstrual cycle started and was placed in a headlock during an attempted rape. She said she was fired after reporting the harassment. Despite the rain, participants in the first female wildfire training program gather outside to take a group photo at a Whiskeytown training camp on Oct. 27. (Tauhid Chappell/The Washington Post)

Anda Janik, a former firefighter who settled a claim against the Navy in 2013, was not provided with facilities to shower at a fire station outside San Diego. Janik said in an interview that she was forced to knock on a battalion commander’s door each morning to ask to use his office shower. Other women said they were propositioned for sex, inappropriately touched, stalked, photographed without their knowledge, spied on while bathing and screamed at because of their sex. Many women said they are speaking out about abuse because of Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff’s suicide in April. After her body was discovered in Shenandoah National Park, county fire officials discovered sexually suggestive messages about Mittendorff on a website, messages which appeared to have been posted by her colleagues. The Forest Service, which employs more than 10,000 federal firefighters, far more than any other agency, acknowledges past problems but said it now has zero tolerance for sexual harassment. The agency said it requires civil rights training for every employee, conducts surveys and has bulked up its contingent of investigators and case workers for a rapid response to complaints. “We do have positive trends,” said Lenise Lago, deputy chief for the agency’s business operations. “Data shows that our cases of harassment based on gender are half of what they were five years ago.” Critics say many women don’t report bad conduct because they’re afraid of repercussions. Before Martin defied the odds to become one of the highest-ranking officers in federal wildfire suppression, she was one such woman. In testimony before a House oversight committee in September, Martin said she was stalked during a training early in her career and spied on as she took a shower but kept quiet, as many women say they do, for fear that reporting it would hurt her career. Martin told lawmakers she finally came forward at “great risk to my career,” because recent cases have shown that the kind of harassment she experienced in 1984 is still happening. “As women, many of us feel shame and fear of coming forward to report misconduct and cannot bring ourselves to be the ones who have the difficult and painful task of speaking up about this type of serious allegation,” she said. ‘I’m never going back’ At a small apartment in suburban Los Angeles, Heidi Turpen held her head back to stop tears from streaming down her face. Turpen was recalling her six-month stint as a seasonal worker last year for the Forest Service, a division of the Agriculture Department, in Sequoia National Forest. She was excited to have a job doing what she

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/few-women-fight-wildfires-thats-not-becausetheyre-afraid-of-flames/2016/11/19/452c6cba-ac19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html loved with good pay and government benefits. But just three months into the season that started in June, according to her civil rights claim against the agency, the harassment started. Turpen and another woman on her female crew were exercising with a male firefighter in a gym when another man approached: “When you’re done rubbing that [female genitalia] all over yourself,” he said, addressing the male firefighter, “you can come have a beer with us.” The women, stunned, debated whether they should report it. Turpen said yes; her friend declined. “She wanted to wait to see if things would get better. She didn’t want to ruffle feathers. I said, ‘What about my feathers? They’re ruffled.’ ” Turpen’s report to a supervisor triggered a talk with both men. When she returned to the gym, she was told she was banned. She fought that decision and won. Later, she said, when women were moved to a male barrack from an all-female barrack because of a hole in the roof, she and a friend were verbally attacked by a man within days. “He lays into us about the cleanliness of the kitchen, saying we’re attracting bugs and we’re dirty and we should be washing dishes,” Turpen said. “Finally he got so close to my face, I said you’re coming off a bit hostile right now,” Turpen recalled. “He said I was being hostile. Females shouldn’t be here. He was so close to my face that I was backed up to the refrigerator.” The Forest Service declined to discuss individual claims, but Lesa Donnelly, vice president of the Agriculture Department’s Coalition of Minority Employees, confirmed that Turpen is one of several women who brought charges against the agency. California is an especially bad place for women firefighters, Donnelly and other women said. Several women filed a lawsuit against the service in 1972 for failure to hire and recruit women, which resulted in a push to bring more women into firefighting after the lawsuit was settled nine years later. Donnelly, who lives in Redding near Whiskeytown, filed a second lawsuit in 1995 over reprisals against women after the first lawsuit. The experience turned Donnelly into an advocate. “I get calls every day from women who are getting harassed,” Donnelly said. “Obviously, there are a lot of male firefighters in the agency who are pro-diversity, who want women on their crews and want women to get ahead. But there are enough misogynists who want to keep women out of the field and out of managerial positions.” Over the remaining three months of Turpen’s stint, she claimed that a police officer with a drug-sniffing dog illegally searched her room because of false rumors that she sold narcotics. “I was also approached by male employees asking for sexual favors. A guy started stalking me.” Her anxiety was creeping into paranoia. “My day-to-day life turned into this fear of what was going to happen next,” Turpen said. After the season, Turpen switched careers. “I’m never going back,” she said. ‘Uniquely discriminatory’ Diversity training at the Forest Service tries to cover all the bases — bias in hiring and promotion, sexual harassment such as propositions and inappropriate touching, as well as dirty words about women that fly constantly on the crews.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/few-women-fight-wildfires-thats-not-becausetheyre-afraid-of-flames/2016/11/19/452c6cba-ac19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html A 2008 National Report Card on Women in Firefighting showed that 85 percent of women said they thought they were treated differently from men. Women reported being exposed to pornography, requests for sex and hostile language 15 times more often than men. “There’s something about firefighting that seems to make it a uniquely discriminatory environment,” said Debra D’Agostino, an attorney at the Federal Practice Group who represents Janik and other federal employees. “I deal with female law enforcement officers all the time, and I don’t hear this sort of thing.” It drives women away. “Women say, I really want to do firefighting but I don’t want to hang out with these guys who objectify women and act crass and . . . be a part of an environment that’s not welcoming to them,” said Stamper, a former member of the Forest Service who’s now a fire-management officer for the Nature Conservancy in Oregon. But Stamper and others say the troublemakers are a minority. Some men are trying to help change the culture of firefighting. One is Travis Dotson, a firefighter who addressed discrimination against women in an essay he wrote in the summer for Two More Chains, a publication devoted to the profession. “You see crew after crew after crew with no women on them. That’s not a reflection of who’s applying for these jobs,” Dotson said in an interview, explaining why he spoke out. Two participants in WTREX work together during a training exercise. (Tauhid Chappell/The Washington Post)

“There are the things you hear, the egregious, things that are way out there: ‘I don’t hire women.’ There are . . . things we don’t even realize we’re doing,” he said. “When a woman is leading a crew, and an authority comes looking for the boss, they always go to the tallest guy in the group. He may be the rookie on the team but always get addressed.” Reaction to the essay was generally positive, he said. “There’s real minor instance of men being offended. They felt like I used too broad of a brush. My response is I understand. The intent of the piece was you don’t get to hide. Yeah, they see me as a traitor. That’s okay, it’s worth it to me.” ‘This is a safe space’ Leaning on the handle of her hatchet on the trail at the Swasey Recreational Area, Katie Sauerbrey — 5foot-3, 118 pounds and wearing a no-nonsense expression — said she has heard it all from men: Women won’t last. They belong in the home raising families. She dismisses it. “I’ve been at fires with a 35-pound bag on my back, a 35-pound chainsaw and a 10-pound kit. If you have the mental grit to get through that, you belong,” she said. Sauerbrey, a firefighter for the Nature Conservancy who embeds with the Forest Service and National Park Service when needed, said she traveled from her station in South Carolina to the women’s training exercise to work with intelligent and strong women. “I know a lot of women who have left fire because they did not feel supported or felt there was no room for them to grow,” Sauerbrey said. “It’s sad for me to see women who have that desire who don’t continue

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/few-women-fight-wildfires-thats-not-becausetheyre-afraid-of-flames/2016/11/19/452c6cba-ac19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html because of the culture. It’s hard to describe the passion people have for this job. There’s no other job I’d rather be in.” WTREX, or Women-in-Fire Training Exchange, electrified female firefighters when it was announced. Ninety people from the United States and abroad applied for the 10-day training, and fewer than half were accepted for lack of space. As a fire rages behind them, Sonya Kaufman, right, and Emily Troisi explain how two Washington-area natives ended up in jobs fighting wildfires in the deep woods. (Darryl Fears/The Washington Post)

In firefighting, every bit of training is essential. It’s the path to the certifications needed to move up in rank and pay. In fire crews throughout the country, where two women are often the maximum, they are often overlooked by the men who lead them. Many are so intimidated, they don’t ask questions because guys sometimes mock them, so they don’t advance. “This is a safe space,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, a University of California Cooperative Extension adviser who planned the event. “There are no wrong questions. Women feel more comfortable in this environment.” And they had swagger. They barked orders. They paid little attention to the dangerous poison oak they walked over to get to assignments. They wanted to demonstrate something too many of their male colleagues doubt — that women can do the work. Monique “Mo” Hein was one of several women who came up with the idea for WTREX. They were at a regular training event in North Carolina last year where they were assigned to a barracks for women only. At night, after hard training days, they sat in a room talking about fire with more comfort than they did around men. “It was like, ‘How do you run a chainsaw?’ Maybe there were other ways to do it that men don’t talk about because they’re used to doing it their way,” she recalled. The talk got bold. “We wanted to see more women in leadership roles. We wanted to help get them there. All of a sudden, we had this thought about a TREX with all women.” WTREX might have been a safe space deep in the forest, but these women would have to return to their crews. At the prescribed burn and in the dining hall where firefighters gathered for dinner, they spoke openly, sharing specific instances of discrimination and sexual harassment. But afterward, nearly all of about 15 women interviewed for this article quietly asked that their comments not be included. And each one said the same thing: It would hurt their career.

Sexual Assault / Harassment

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/military-wife-dodea-not-following-federal-law-in-addressingsexual-harassment

Military wife fights for better protection of victims of sexual harassment in DoD schools By Karen Jowers Military Times, December 1, 2016 (Photo Credit: Hal Bergman/Getty Images stock) An Army wife is fighting to get better protection for victims of sexual harassment in Defense Department schools following an incident involving her daughter at a DoD-run school in Germany. Three years ago, a classmate of Susan Roeder’s daughter at Vilseck High School allegedly urinated into a bottle while seated near her during class. Later, as they exited the room, he allegedly asked her daughter, “Did you see it that time?” – referring to his penis. Roeder found out about 18 months after the incident that the school’s principal had classified it as misconduct, not sexual harassment – a move she said “means there is no record of the incident ever happening and [the Department of Defense Education Activity’s] record stays clean." She contends DoDEA is not following federal laws outlining public schools’ responsibilities in addressing student discrimination, meaning DoDEA students “do not have the same rights when they report sexual harassment or sexual assault as every other public school student.” She’s raised concerns about how such complaints are investigated, how parents can appeal DoDEA decisions and how victims are, or are not, informed of punishments. Defense officials are investigating Roeder’s concerns, said DoD spokeswoman Laura Ochoa, but she declined to provide specifics, saying the department doesn't comment on ongoing investigations. DoDEA spokesman Frank O’Gara confirmed that the incident was not substantiated as sexual harassment but as student misconduct; he declined to offer a specific rationale, also citing the ongoing investigation. Roeder also has contacted the departments of Justice and Education. Education Department officials referred her to Justice; a DOJ spokesman declined to say whether there is an investigation. Simple ‘misconduct’? Roeder said her “first inclination was that it was ‘stupid boy behavior,’” she said, but she later learned the student had exposed himself at least twice to other students and notified the principal via email. In a response, the principal – who has since retired and couldn’t be reached for comment – wrote: “I take this matter very seriously and agree with your assessment that it has risen to a level of both urgency and critical import.” The male student was suspended the day of the alleged misconduct, Roeder said, and he later returned to the U.S. along with his family. There was no disciplinary hearing, Roeder said, and she was not informed of the results of any investigation. She became aware of the “misconduct” classification when she revisited the matter after the substitute teacher in the classroom at the time was rehired to work at the school. Roeder was concerned, she said, because the substitute teacher failed to take action when the incident happened, and the substitute teacher faced no repercussions. “This reclassification relieved the principal of the responsibility of filing a Serious Incident Report, as the perpetrator then simply withdrew from school and returned to the U.S. to avoid a disciplinary hearing,” Roeder said. “If this were investigated the way it should be, it could prevent more victims – and he could get the help he needs to stop this behavior.”

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/military-wife-dodea-not-following-federal-law-in-addressingsexual-harassment Under Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex can include sexual harassment or sexual violence. A 2000 presidential executive order mandates that those laws apply to DoDEA schools, too, and all federal agencies must report information on Title IX complaints to the Justice Department. When she requested a copy of her daughter’s written statement, Roeder also learned behavior records are destroyed at the end of each DoDEA school year. O’Gara confirmed that “each year is a clean slate for each student” in terms of student discipline, adding that alleged criminal behavior is in the hands of law enforcement. Roeder’s daughter said other students witnessed the alleged exposure, but did not hear the alleged comment made as the students left class. “A substantiated allegation of ‘exposing oneself’ is a serious offense and would normally fall under sexual harassment,” O’Gara said. O'Gara said there was one allegation of sexual harassment that was substantiated at Vilseck High School during the 2013-2014 school year, but it wasn't the Roeder incident. Concerns over victims’ rights Parents lack an avenue for appealing a local school’s decision outside DoDEA, said Roeder. “DoDEA basically writes its own rules and investigates itself,” she said. “Parents in overseas locations have no one to go to when they are unable to resolve an issue with the school. There is no school board and while military commanders and the inspector general may listen, they have no authority,” she said. Roeder said she was also concerned because there was no requirement to inform the victim that the report had been reclassified "because the principal has 100 percent authority over the process and there is no written policy for the investigation.” The law gives victims the right to receive information on all outcomes of a complaint under the federal law Title IX. O’Gara said victims in the DoDEA system are also entitled to this information. However, principals must abide by privacy laws and "must balance the reporting requirement against the privacy of all parties involved.” DoDEA officials are looking at his specific topic in a review of existing policies and regulations which has been underway for more than six months, he said. One issue is that if officials determined that it was not a Title IX-based offense, the victim may not get the same protections in terms of notification, said Scott Lewis, co-founder and an advisory board member of the Association for Title IX Administrators. “I don’t know if Title IX would mean a legal requirement to notify her, but as a practical matter, it would have made sense to do so,” he said. However, if the incident is “sexualized in nature, whatever the results are, they need to let the victim know the final outcome. There’s nothing that stops them from erring on the side of caution and letting her know,” Lewis said. Karen Jowers covers military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times. She can be reached at [email protected]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/world/canada/canada-military-women-sexual-assault.html

Women in Canadian Military Report Widespread Sexual Assault By Ian Austen The New York Times, November 28, 2016 Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of the Canadian defense staff, speaking on Monday about a report showing that more than a quarter of women in the Canadian military have been sexually assaulted during their careers. (Credit: Chris Wattie/Reuters) OTTAWA — More than a quarter of women in the Canadian military have been sexually assaulted during their careers, according to a survey by the government’s statistical agency. The survey, conducted by Statistics Canada and released on Monday, was commissioned by the armed forces and followed a scathing 2015 report that found that the culture of the military was “hostile to women and L.G.T.B.Q. members and conducive to more serious incidents” involving sexual harassment and assault. But only 23 percent of those who said they had been assaulted reported what had happened, most often “to their military supervisor,” according to Statistics Canada. Just 7 percent filed reports with the military police or the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. “The fact that some won’t report or haven’t reported or are concerned that their report won’t be taken seriously is a huge concern for me,” Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defense staff, said at a news conference on Monday. “There will not be negative consequences. The negative consequences will be for all those who are perpetrators, not those who report.” The survey puts hard numbers to the findings of the 2015 report by Marie Deschamps, a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since the release of that report, General Vance has introduced several measures to eliminate inappropriate sexual activity and, separately, to increase the number of women in the military. In addition to finding a high rate of sexual assault, the survey also found that members of the military were almost twice as likely as the general population to have been victims of sexual assaults within the past year. The survey of about 43,000 active members of the military showed that 960, or 1.7 percent, had been victims of an assault during that period. The rate for the Canadian working population is 0.9 percent. In the House of Commons, Harjit Sajjan, Canada’s defense minister and a former military officer, called the rate of sexual assaults “completely unacceptable.” He added, “We need to do better, and we will do better.” The armed forces will use the survey as a benchmark to judge the success of General Vance’s initiatives. Like the military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is facing a scandal over inappropriate sexual activity within its ranks. Last month, Commissioner Bob Paulson, the head of the Mounties, made an emotional apology to hundreds of women who were bullied, sexually harassed or discriminated against while working as officers or employees of the force. It also settled two class action lawsuits and will pay about 100 million Canadian dollars, or $74 million, in settlements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/world/canada/canada-military-women-sexual-assault.html For the military survey, Statistics Canada defined sexual assault as being forced into unwanted sexual activity either physically or through threats, unwanted sexual touching, being drugged or intoxicated, or otherwise manipulated. Unwanted touching was the most common form reported by the survey respondents. Nearly half of women who were assaulted, 49 percent, said that a supervisor or someone of a higher rank had been responsible. In addition to sexual assaults, the military appears to be facing a major challenge in changing the tone of its workplace. The survey reported that 79 percent of respondents witnessed or experienced “inappropriate sexualized behavior” over the past year. Lewd jokes were the most common form, but 39 percent of respondents said they had heard sexual comments and 34 percent inappropriate discussions about the sex lives of others. Last year, General Vance’s predecessor, Gen. Tom Lawson, came under fire after he said in a television interview before his retirement that “it’s because we’re biologically wired in a certain way and there will be those who believe it is a reasonable thing to press themselves and their desires on others. It’s not the way it should be.” He later apologized.