10-26-2012 - Northwest Florida Daily News

F r i d a y , O c t o b e r 2 6 , 2 0 1 2
T H E R E D 7 . n e t
Standing down
for homeless
veterans
Page 2
Logo chosen for
Jingle Bell Jog
Page 2
INSIDE
Briefs...............3
Philpott............6
A show of
strength PAGE
4
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Page | THE RED 7 | Friday, October 26, 2012
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The Red 7 is published by the
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firm in no way connected with the
7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
or the U.S. Army.
This publication’s content is not
necessarily
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of the Army or 7th Special Forces
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Year No. 2 Edition No. 44
Standing down for homeless vets
By WENDY VICTORA
Northwest Florida Daily News
DEVON RAVINe | Daily News
Nurse Anita Wolfe gives tetanus and flu shots to Army veteran LaDerrick
Harmon on Oct. 19 during the 5th Annual Okaloosa County Homeless
Veterans Stand Down at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Walton
Beach.
FORT WALTON BEACH — Russell
Ferguson bared one slender
white shoulder for a flu shot and the
other for a tetanus shot.
“This arm is going to be sore
for a few days,” nurse Anita Wolfe
told him.
“Awwww,” he muttered softly.
“You’re a good nurse.”
Wolfe and another nurse chatted
with and fussed over Ferguson for a
few moments before he moved on
to a room where volunteers filled
a giant green duffle bag with warm
clothing, a sleeping bag and other
necessities for life on the street.
“It’s respect about veterans who
have served our country,” Ferguson
said when asked what he appreciated
the most about 5th Annual Okaloosa
County Homeless Veterans’
Stand Down on Oct. 19.
Friday’s event at First Presbyterian
Church in Fort Walton
Beach was staffed by volunteers
who “stand down” from their normal
occupations to assist homeless
veterans.
Ferguson, who has lived in Okaloosa
County since 1955, was a military
police officer in the Air Force.
He’s been on the streets for much
of his adult life.
“It’s just like people look down on
us,” said Ferguson, who added that
he soothes himself by thinking that
maybe, someday, those people will
understand what his life has really
been like.
“One of these days, you’re going
to be down and out and you’re going
to see how it is,” he said
In addition to medical and mental
health services and supplies, veterans
at the Stand Down could get
a hot lunch, a free bicycle and help
with applying for various programs.
They could also work out their
legal problems.
Okaloosa County Judge Patt
Maney, who helps organize the
Stand Down, was there along with
Logo design chosen
for Jingle Bell Jog
Heather Sasser a student from Crestview High
School poses for a picture with Steve Tuttle,
president of the Special Forces Association,
Chapter VII, on Oct. 18. Sasser’s design was
chosen to be the 34th Annual Jingle Bell Jog’s
logo design this year.
U.S. Army
a team of attorneys to help veterans
resolve the kind of misdemeanor issues
that can send them to jail again
and again.
One young Marine Corps veteran
had a worthless check charge
in Walton County. Maney spoke with
officials there and helped resolve
the issue locally.
The alternative would have been
for the young man to spend weeks
in jail.
“I’ll take the plea and we’ll resolve
it today,” Maney said. “This
guy will be able to get on with his
life.
“It’s hard to keep a job when
you’re in jail.”
Some of the services offered Friday
were available only to veterans,
while others were open to anyone
in need.
Not all the veterans who showed
up were homeless. Some just appreciated
the opportunity to check
a few things off their list, like getting
a flu shot.
The volunteers came from all
over Okaloosa County said they
were glad to help.
“You receive a lot more blessings
than you give,” said Dr. Ana
Leurinda, who was working in the
medical room.

Vi lacrest
Friday, October 26, 2012 | THE RED 7 | Page
community Briefs
From staff reports
Change of
Command Ceremony
Colonel Miguel D. Howe
Deputy Commander 7th
Special Forces Group (Airborne)
cordially invites you
to attend a Change of Command
Ceremony at which
time Lieutenant Colonel
Richard R. Navarro Jr. will
relinquish command to
Lieutenant Colonel Ronald
P. Fitch Jr. at 10 a.m. Nov. 1 at
Meadows Parade Field 7th
Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Complex Eglin Air
Force Base. Military dress is
duty uniform, civilian dress
is casual. R.S.V.P. NLT Oct.
26 to CPT Perez at 885-850-
2206/2210 or email at geovannie.perezrosado@ahqb.
soc.mil.
Settlement of
Estate
Anyone with debts owed
to or by the estate of Specialist
Raliek Q. Boswell must
contact Captain Daniel
Fields, the Summary Court
Martial Officer for the Soldier.
SPC Boswell passed
away at the Sacred Heart
Hospital of Pensacola on
September 26. Call CPT
Fields at (850) 885-2733 or
email daniel.fields@soc.mil.
Pet Welfare open
house, reunion
Pet Welfare is hosting
their 30th Anniversary
Open House/Reunion from
moon to 3 p.m. Oct. 27 at 683
Range Road, Eglin AFB.
We’re celebrating 30 years
of dedicated service to our
military and local communities
and their pets. Rain
date is from noon – 2 p.m.
Oct. 28. The event is free
and open to the public.
There will be food and
drinks for everyone. The list
of events include: military
working dog demonstration,
tour of the facilities,
face painting, children’s
games and a fire engine
tour.
Pet Welfare volunteers
will be on hand to conduct
tours through the renovated
facilities and guest can
meet cats and dogs available
for adoption.
We encourage all families
that have adopted from us to
join us and bring your furry
friend, too.
If you need base access
for this event, contact Lisa
Kilpatrick at 850 758-0613.
Adult Confirmation
classes
Confirmation classes
for any adults needing this
Sacrament will begin soon.
There are six sessions.
Sessions will be offered on
Wednesday or Sunday evenings.
The Sacrament will
be conferred in early 2013
at Eglin AFB. For more
information, contact Valerie
Counsman at 882-7322
or valerie.counsman.ctr@
eglin.af.mil.
Chapel collecting
Coats for Kids
In conjunction with
the United Way, the Eglin
Chapel is collecting coats
again this year for needy
children in Okaloosa and
Walton counties. Bring
new or slightly worn coats
for all sizes and deposit
them in the boxes provided
at each chapel location.
Coats will be collected now
through Dec. 5. For questions,
call Sherry Flater at
882-7303.
Marriage Care
Seminar
The Eglin Chapel is
sponsoring a free Marriage
Care Seminar from
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Thursdays,
Nov. 1, 8, 15 and 29
with lunch provided at the
Eglin Library Conference
Room. Topics will be: I Take
You - Nov. 1, To Have and
to Hold - Nov. 8, For Better
or Worse - Nov. 15, To Love
and to Cherish - Nov. 29. To
register, call the chapel at
882-2111.
See briefs page 8
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Page 4 | THE RED 7 | Friday, October 26, 2012 Friday, October 26, 2012 | THE RED 7 | Page 5
A show of
strength
Military wives are put through the paces during Sister Strong
By ANGEL McCURDY
Northwest Florida Daily News
Sue Merchant gripped a
large water jug tightly
as she made her way
down the dirt trail to the
next obstacle waiting for
her.
The wife of Maj.
Gen. Kenneth Merchant, program
executive office for weapons at
Eglin Air Force Base, was one
of 60 military spouses participating
in Sister Strong on Friday, Oct.
19. The women spent the day going
through exercises and scenarios
that mimicked their husbands’
training.
“If our husbands can do it,
we can,” Merchant said, wiping her
brow as she shared the weight of the
water jug with another wife.
Friday’s Sister Strong event at
the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group
(Airborne) cantonment was the first
of a series of events in which wives
will learn more about training at local
bases.
Next quarter, Eglin Air Force
Base will host a takeoff of the reality
show “Amazing Race.” Other events
will be held at Hurlburt Field and
Camp James E. Rudder.
“Some of the spouses were talking
and we realized that we really
don’t know each other,” said Shirley
Fletcher, wife of 7th SFG (A) commander
Col. Antonio Fletcher and
an organizer of Friday’s event. “We
thought this would be a great way
to bridge the gap and do something
fun.”
Friday morning, the women carried
water jugs and rucksacks for
a half mile and teamed up to tote
Spc. Fernando Lozano | U.S. Army
A participant gives all she’s got while performing sit-ups during the Army Physical
Fitness Test portion of the Sister Strong event Oct. 19.
stretchers loaded with 100 pounds
of sand, all while being barked at by
Special Forces dogs and Soldiers.
Tricia Bauernfeind, whose husband
Col. Tony Bauernfeind is commander
of Hurlburt’s 1st Special
Operations Group, said that while
her husband’s work in the Air Force
is different than Marines and Soldiers,
they all put their lives on the
line.
“It’s interesting talking one-onone
with the different wives,” Bauernfeind
said. “We have different
experiences but some of the same
stresses, so it’s interesting to see
how they deal with things and we
can borrow and learn from their
ideas.”
Bauernfeind had camouflage
paint striped across her face and a
slight smile as she hauled a gurney
down a path with her four teammates.
She said when she signed
up for Sister Strong she had no clue
what she was getting into.
“I have five or six friends that
came out. We all agreed that if
someone goes down, the others
will pick each other up or carry our
carcasses to the end,” Bauernfeind
said, laughing.
A participant of the fires the M4 Carbine Rifle during the Sister Strong event on Oct. 19, on the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) compound.
Spc. Fernando Lozano | U.S. Army
Team members carry a stretcher with a simulated casualty while performing the down pilot portion of the Sister Strong
event Oct. 19 on the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) compound.
Staff Sgt. Ramon M. Marrero | U.S. Army
Spc. Fernando Lozano | U.S. Army
A participant is shown how to properly load an M4 Carbine
Rifle by a Soldier during the marksmanship portion of the
event.
Spc. Fernando Lozano | U.S. Army
Team members take turns carrying ammunition cans, water
jugs and a ruck sack while road marching to the next event
during the Sister Strong event Oct. 19 on the 7th Special
Forces Group (Airborne) compound.
Spc. Fernando Lozano | U.S. Army
A participant gives all she’s got while performing push-ups
during the Army Physical Fitness Test portion of the Sister
Strong event Oct. 19 on the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
compound.

Page | THE RED 7 | Friday, October 26, 2012
Sequestration’s threat to commissaries; retiree COLA set
Tom
Philpott
Taxpayer support of
base grocery stores this
fiscal year would fall by
$130 million, or 9.4 percent,
if Congress fails to reach
a debt-reduction deal by
Jan. 2, its deadline to avoid
arbitrary budget cuts mandated
by the sequestration
mechanism in last year’s
Budget Control Act.
The Office of Management
of Management and
Budget delivered that
news to Capitol Hill in a
larger report that Congress
required to make
the impact of the sequestration
threat more transparent
to
voters.
A commissary
budget
cut of that
size, which
stores likely
would be
forced to
absorb over
just the last
six to nine months of fiscal
2013, intensifying its effect,
“would be devastating,”
says Tom Gordy, president
of Armed Forces Marketing
Council. The council
represents manufacturers
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Appraising
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of products sold in military
stores.
Commissary shoppers,
Gordy said, likely
would see store hours
and staff services cut by
next spring, and might
even see some stores
closed in areas where
two or more bases are
co-located. Commissary
budgets are used almost
entirely for wages and
benefits of its 18,000
employees.
About two-thirds of employees,
Gordy notes, are
affiliated with the military,
either family of active-duty
members or military retirees,
retiree spouses or
veterans. Many employees
would see work hours
and incomes cut by the
sequestration knife.
Exchanges or base department
stores would not
be impacted because they
are self-sustaining, with
staff salaries and other
operating costs paid for
through store-generated
profits.
Commissaries, however,
rely on annual taxpayer
subsidy of $1.4 billion. In
return, military patrons
see savings of about 30
percent on their groceries,
a popular benefit
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The commissary appropriation,
like funding
for most other defense and
non-defense discretionary
spending, would be hit by
the sequestration process
that both Republicans
and Democrats agreed
to accept as an intolerable
result if they could
not muster the political
courage to reach a fresh
$1.2 trillion, 10-year debt
reduction agreement.
Some key lawmakers,
worried that this pitiable
Congress still lacks leadership
and character to
negotiate a debt deal after
the election, are said to be
drafting stop-gap legislation
to delay sequestration’s
impact for at least
several months.
The White House is
signaling that President
Barack Obama won’t accept
anything short of a
“balanced” debt deal to
avoid sequestration, a deal
that would include higher
taxes on the wealthy,
which is something most
Republicans have pledged
not to consider.
The Defense Commissary
Agency, which
oversees military grocery
operations worldwide
from Fort Lee,
Va., won’t comment on
the potential impact of
sequestration. DeCA is
operating, like the rest
of the Department of Defense,
on the assumption
lawmakers will act to avoid
sequestration and compromise
on a plan to address
the nation’s $16 trillion
debt crisis. With this
Congress, however, the
sequestration mechanism
seems about as thoughtful
as passing a loaded gun to
a pouting child.
Gordy said DeCA probably
could absorb a 5
percent cut without shoppers
being impacted. That
could be handled, for ex-
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Friday, October 26, 2012 | THE RED 7 | Page
cola From page 6
ample, by layoffs of some
headquarter employees
or by enticing older careerists
to retiree early.
Above 5 percent, however,
and staff furloughs
would have to be large
enough to impact store
hours and even force some
stores closures.
2013 COLA SET
— Military and federal
civilian retirees, survivor
benefit annuitants, disabled
veterans and Social
Security recipients will see
a 1.7 percent cost-of-living
adjustment in January.
Annual COLAs for federal
benefits are based on
inflation, as tracked by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics’
Consumer Price Index
for Urban Wage Earners
and Clerical Workers
(CPI-W). This COLA was
set by comparing average
prices for a market basket
of goods and services
tracked by CPI-W in the
third quarter of last year
to average prices in the
third quarter this year.
That comparison shows
the CPI-W average of
223.23 for July through
September 2011 has
climbed to 226.94 for the
third quarter this year, an
increase of 1.66 percent,
which the BLS rounded up
to 1.7 percent.
BLS economist Steve
Reed said food inflation
was relatively modest
at 1.6 percent. Gasoline
prices are high today but
also were high in the third
quarter of last year, climbing
by only 2.6 percent
since last September. The
price of durable goods,
meanwhile, rose more
modestly.
This COLA will be less
than half of last year’s 3.6
percent adjustment, after
two years without a costof-living
raise when consumer
prices fell during
the recession and collapse
of the housing and financial
markets.
Various debt reduction
studies, including the
2010 report of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility
and Reform,
also known as the Simpson-Bowles
commission,
have proposed moving
from CPI-W to a “chainweighted”
CPI for adjusting
federal entitlement
and retirement programs.
That would save an
estimated $200 billion over
the next 10 years. Retirees
can expect adoption of
the chain CPI for Urban
Consumers (C-CPI-U) to
be floated again when Republicans
and Democrats
resume negotiations on
addressing the debt crisis.
If Congress had agreed
to the chain CPI already,
the COLA in January
would be 1.5 percent rather
than 1.7 percent.
Proponents argue that
the chain CPI addresses
“substitution bias” found
in the CPI-W. That market
basket of goods and services
is weighted based
on spending patterns of
American workers. And
every two years BLS conducts
a separate survey to
readjust how those goods
and services are weighted
in the basket.
What CPI-W doesn’t do
is change the mix of goods
and services it surveys to
reflect changes in spending
behavior. For example,
as the price of beef rises,
consumers buy less beef
and more chicken. CPI-
W doesn’t take account
of that shift so, critics
contend, it exaggerates
inflation.
A chain CPI would
capture changes in consumer
behavior. But
opponents of that index
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off financially with inflation
adjustments shaped
more by prices than by
preferences.
Tom Philpott is a syndicated
columnist. You may write to
him at Military Update, P.O.
Box 231111, Centreville, VA
20120-1111; or at milupdate@
aol.com.
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Page | THE RED 7 | Friday, October 26, 2012
briefs
From page 3
2nd Annual Twilight
Fall Festival
Hey, kids! Get your spook
on for Eglin’s 2nd Annual
Twilight Fall Festival from
4:30-6:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the
Eglin Golf Course in Niceville.
Come “dressed to thrill”
for a Kids’ Costume Contest,
with awards for winners in
all categories. There will be
plenty of candy and prizes to
collect, plus spooky stories
to enjoy, and some freakishly
good specials available
at the snack bar. The festival
is open to the public with
no charge for admission, so
scare up your whole family
and all your friends for a
frightening fun time!
Hurlburt Field to
host open house
Hurlburt Field will be
hosting a Team Hurlburt
Open House from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. Oct. 27, providing the
public with an inside look at
the 1st Special Operations
Wing and some of the other
units at Hurlburt Field as
well as have food, fun and
entertainment available.
The Open House will
feature several types of aircraft
and various other static
displays from across base
as well as kid-centered activities.
All non-DoD traffic
will need to enter through
the East Gate off Martin
Luther King Blvd. and the
gate off Lovejoy Road. The
Main Gate off Highway 98
will only be open to DoD ID
cardholders.
Additionally, all attendees
are subject to search and the
following items will not be allowed
through the gates: No
drugs, guns, knives, coolers,
back packs, pets and large
purses.
To submit an item for the
briefs, e-mail us at news@
thered7.net. Deadline for
Friday’s edition is noon Monday.
2087763