Army - Kicking Tires On Jltv

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Washington Report Congress Urged to Approve More Base Closings An Army that has readiness as its top priority cannot afford to waste money maintaining excess infrastructure, a panel of Army installation officials has warned Congress. In a renewed plea for Congress to approve another round of base closings, Lt. Gen. David D. Halverson, commanding general, U.S. Army Installation Management Command, and assistant chief of staff for installation management, said the estimated $480 million a year spent maintaining unneeded facilities would be better spent on training and readiness of troops or on addressing deferred maintenance and upkeep of facilities that are needed. “Fiscal realities are showing in the decline in our facilities, and it is affecting our future readiness,” Halverson told a House Armed Services Committee panel in early December. Having that half-billion dollars from excess bases for other purposes would help the Army, he said. “That would buy a lot of readiness, and it would also focus our efforts that we need for investment purposes.” He listed improvements in ranges as one of the top readiness priorities. “Persistent funding constraints and the cumulative rising costs of energy, construction, water and engineering services have forced the Army to take risks in installations to maintain the ready force,” Halverson said. The withdrawal of significant combat forces from overseas has an impact on domestic bases, he said. “We never had the full force at home station at the same time,” he said. Having everyone home and in need of postwar training to restore readiness has led to complications, such as scheduling time on ranges. With increased demand, planning is more complicated. With tight funding, training rotations are sometimes taking longer, making scheduling even more difficult, he said. Col. Andrew Cole Jr., garrison commander at Fort Riley, Kan., said Army posts are suffering from years of underfunding, having to pay for standard maintenance versus restoration and modernization. “We make choices, and we make some decisions,” he said. “Ultimately, if there is a catastrophic failure, then we have to end up allocating our funding against that.” An example, he said, was a leak in the heating and cooling system of a historic building that likely was the result of not spending money on adequate preventive checks. The leak caused significant damage over three floors of the building. Halverson said the Army is filled with other examples, like how problems with air conditioning in hot locations can lead to mold and health issues. Congress is not ready to accept additional base closings and has flatly denied spending any Pentagon money for planning closures. However, the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision calling on DoD and the services to submit a 2017 comprehensive inventory of worldwide installations, looking at current and future needs. They want to see a 20-year force structure plan to avoid shutting down bases that might be excess today but could be needed in the future. Additionally, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is working on a report about excess infrastructure, with the intention of assessing the value of keeping more posts and installations than needed to provide surge capacity. Funding Bill Includes $122 Billion for Army The battle over the fiscal year 2016 budget concluded with an elusive compromise after President Barack Obama on Dec. 18 signed into law a $1.1 trillion spending bill that included $514 billion in basic defense spending plus $59 billion for overseas contingency operations, a $26 billion increase over the fiscal year 2015 budget. The Pentagon, White House and Congress will get to do the whole thing all over again for FY 2017, which begins Oct. 1, 2016. Passing a 2017 budget will be even more complicated because it is a presidential election year, when politicians find it difficult to reach any compromise. The spending levels in the FY 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act match a bipartisan agreement made in October. The measure, combining discretionary spending for all federal agencies into one bill, was the last significant piece of legislation Congress had to pass in 2015 before going home for the year. The Army’s share of the budget is about $122 billion, excluding money for contingency operations. The FY 2017 Army budget is expected to be only 2.2 percent larger. The agreement includes $129 billion for military personnel, a $1.2 billion increase over FY 2015. Operations and maintenance spending increase by $5.8 billion, to $167.5 billion for FY 2016. There are large increases for procurement and research programs. Procurement spending is $110 billion for 2016, a $17 billion increase over the 2015 budget. Funding of research and development programs is $69.8 billion for FY 2016, a $6.1 billion increase. The Army’s share is $53.5 billion for active, National Guard and Army Reserve personnel; and $41.7 billion in the base budget for operations and maintenance. For procurement, the compromise gives the Army $5.9 billion for aircraft, $1.9 billion for tracked vehicles, $1.6 billion for missiles, $1.2 billion for ammunition, and $5.7 billion for other procurement. The Army also receives $7.5 billion for research, development, test and evaluation; and $1.5 billion for military construction and family housing. 6 ARMY ■ February 2016
News Call Animal-Assisted Therapy Can Help With PTSD Animal-assisted therapy is offering an alternative or supplement to the cognitive processing and prolonged exposure therapies currently in use to help military veterans who suffer from nightmares, depression and other effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. The trauma-focused talk therapies have been known to help, but as a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association notes, “nonresponse rates have been high.” Some PTSD patients, for example, find the therapy so upsetting that they drop out. Dogs have served soldiers for decades and have proven helpful in easing PTSD. Horses have helped, too. Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio offers equine-assisted therapy. So do VA facilities in Bedford, Mass., and Albany, N.Y. In 2010, retired Lt. Col. Bridget Kroger founded her own organization. After equine therapy helped her recover from PTSD, the 24-year Army veteran, who served two tours in Iraq, established the Wounded Warrior Equestrian Program to help riding facilities and horse-rescue farms provide services to service members and veterans around the country. Patrick Bradley, a Vietnam veteran who suffered from PTSD, recognized the symptoms when his son Skyler left the Army after more than a decade in uniform and multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bradley, director of the raptor program at a Florida nature park, persuaded his son to visit him at work. Skyler Bradley found peace among the wounded birds of prey and soon was spending a lot of time at the park. He also began training the birds. Together, the Bradleys established the Avian Veteran Alliance and have teamed with the local VA center where Skyler was once a patient. Veterans visit the park twice a week to work with wounded raptors, and Patrick Bradley takes the birds to the VA center each month. Matthew Simmons, who served in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, directs operations at the Serenity Park Parrot Sanctuary on the West Los Angeles VA campus. His wife, clinical psychologist Lorin Lindner, founded the park in 2005. It adopts sick, wounded and abandoned parrots and lets wounded warriors care for and establish relationships with them. Simmons and Lindner also established the Lockwood Animal Rescue Center north of Los Angeles in 2011. It shelters and rehabilitates wolves and wolf dogs from around the U.S. and pairs them with veterans who suffer from PTSD. Research has shown that touching an animal can lower blood pressure, relieve stress and reduce anxiety. As veterans work with and care for the animals, they build confidence and self-esteem as well as accept responsibility. —Toni Eugene Staff Sgt. Cedric Richardson rides Gary the horse at the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Equestrian Center. Riding is part of the Soldier Adaptive Reconditioning Program at Brooke Army Medical Center. Army Warns: Be Vigilant Against Online Scams This Valentine’s Day, you might be someone’s sweetheart and not even know it. That’s because imposter accounts online have proliferated. No one is immune; as Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces- Afghanistan, posted on his official Facebook page about this time last year: “The intent of this page is to inform readers about activities here in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there are individuals who copy the photos and comments from this page and create fake pages using my name to find romance and/or try to scam people out of money.” The post also noted that in the six months prior, more than 700 fake sites in Campbell’s name had been identified. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command has already warned people involved in online dating to “proceed with caution when corresponding with persons claiming to be U.S. soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan or elsewhere.” In addition, the Army recently released a tip sheet for soldiers to reduce the chances that their names and images will be appropriated by scammers. “Imposter Accounts, Romance Scams, and Unofficial Sites” suggests soldiers take the following steps to reduce their vulnerability: ■ Conduct routine searches on social media platforms for your name; public affairs professionals should also search for the names of senior leaders they rep- U.S. Army/Lori Newman February 2016 ■ ARMY 7
Page 1: The Magazine of the Association of
Page 4 and 5: Fighting for Relevancy in the Gray
Page 7: Seven Questions For Female Veterans
Page 11 and 12: COMMAND SERGEANTS MAJOR and SERGEAN
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Page 15 and 16: tween crime and war, and between pe
Page 17 and 18: part of the barracks spic and span.
Page 19 and 20: He’s the Army Surgeon Will Serve
Page 21 and 22: 1901 1917-18 Dr. Mary Walker is cap
Page 24 and 25: Cyber Capabilities Key By Lt. Gen.
Page 26 and 27: Sgt. 1st Class Richard Miller, left
Page 28 and 29: Joint force soldiers brace against
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Page 36 and 37: U.S. Army/Sgt. Alexandra Hulett U.S
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Page 40 and 41: The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle is
Page 42 and 43: Deep Roots of the Army’s Before 1
Page 44 and 45: Acknowledging the dental corps’ b
Page 46 and 47: Members of the 6th Squadron, 6th Ca
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Then-Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, c
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AUSA Sustaining Member Profile DHL
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U.S. Army/John Hamilton During test
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Final Shot U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. War
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JLTV EXPERTISE. Your payload is max
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