Army - Kicking Tires On Jltv

West Named Army Surgeon General
Maj. Gen. Nadja West is sworn in as the Army’s
44th surgeon general and commanding general
of U.S. Army Medical Command by acting
Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning. As part of
her new assignment, West will be promoted to
lieutenant general, the first African-American
woman in the Army to hold the rank. She succeeds
Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, who retired.
years; this is first time in 24 years that it
has fallen to the U.S.
“Our cooperation over the past 55
years has promoted regional security and
the democratic development of our
member countries,” Army Chief of Staff
Gen. Mark A. Milley said at the closing
of the group’s 2015 conference in Colombia.
It “provides our armies the opportunity
to increase cooperation and
integration … and, most importantly,
identify the topics of mutual interest in
defense-related matters to develop solutions
that are beneficial to us all.”
DoD: Security in Afghanistan
Deteriorated Last Half of ’15
DoD has acknowledged in a recent
report, “Enhancing Security and Stability
in Afghanistan,” that “the overall security
situation in Afghanistan deteriorated”
in the second half of 2015, “with
an increase in effective insurgent attacks
and higher ANDSF [Afghan National
Defense and Security Forces] and Taliban
casualties.” The report, the second
mandated by Congress in the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2015, covers the period from June
1 through Nov. 30.
“Fighting has been nearly continuous
since February 2015,” the report says.
SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
R. Kazimer, Tier 2, from
Dir., Corporate Info., CIO,
USACE, Washington, D.C.,
to Dep. to the CG, CCoE,
TRADOC, Fort Gordon, Ga.
Tier 1: L. Swan to Dep. Dir., Rapid Capability
Delivery, JIDA, Washington, D.C.
■ CIO—Chief Information Officer; CCoE—
Cyber Ctr. of Excellence; JIDA—Joint Improvised-
Threat Defeat Agency; TRADOC—U.S. Army
Training and Doctrine Cmd.; USACE—U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
The ANDSF are now capable of clearing
areas of insurgents, but their ability
“to hold areas after initial clearing operations
is uneven [and] they remain
reluctant to pursue the Taliban into
their traditional safe havens.”
In the six-month reporting period, 12
U.S. service members were killed in
Afghanistan, and 40 were wounded in
action. Insider attacks are still a threat,
although the number continues to decline.
Terrorist and insurgent groups—
particularly al-Qaida—and the possible
expansion of extremist groups such as
the Islamic State are threats to progress
as well as security.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan, now
numbering nearly 10,000, are expected
to remain through most of 2016.
Summit Links Soldier
Readiness To Sleep
Fatigue can lead to mistakes, and the
Army has begun to focus on the importance
of adequate and quality sleep to
soldiers’ performance.
Staff Sgt. Jacob Miller, 2015 Drill
Sergeant of the Year, told attendees at a
sleep summit sponsored by the Army
Office of the Surgeon General that he
recognized he had put himself and his
soldiers at risk more than once due to
exhaustion after serving long duty
hours. Miller acknowledged that the
Army has accorded more time for sleep
since then, but he believes more enforcement
of that guidance is needed.
Army sleep specialists at the summit
agreed that quality sleep is imperative to
good safety and that more data is needed
to show the link between fatigue and
poor performance. Sleep, they noted, is
a critical element in the Army’s Performance
Triad, which also includes activity
and nutrition. The Office of the Surgeon
General is currently conducting
Performance Triad pilot studies.
Sky’s ‘Unraveling’ Earns Praise
From Literary Critics in 2015
Emma Sky, a noted Middle East
expert and contributor to ARMY magazine,
released her memoir, The Unraveling:
High Hopes and Missed Opportunities
in Iraq, last year—and the literary
world took notice.
Her book was named one of The New
York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2015
and a Times Editors’ Choice, one of the
Financial Times Books of the Year, a
New Statesman [U.K.] Essential Book
of the Year, a Times [U.K.] Book of the
Year, and one of Military Times’ Top 10
Books of the Year. The book was also
shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson
Prize for Nonfiction for 2015.
Sky is the director of Yale University’s
World Fellows program and a senior fellow
at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global
Affairs. Although initially opposed to
the war, she volunteered to help rebuild
the Iraqi government after Saddam Hussein
was overthrown in 2003.
She served as the Coalition Provisional
Authority’s governorate coordinator
of Kirkuk, Iraq, from 2003 to 2004,
and as Gen. Raymond T. Odierno’s political
adviser from 2007 to 2010. ✭
John Martinez
10 ARMY ■ February 2016