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June 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

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News from <strong>MHCE</strong><br />

JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

American Airlines has<br />

Parked 100 Jets Due to<br />

Pilot Shortage<br />

See page 22<br />

Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />

WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US<br />

Pfizer COVID Shot<br />

80% Effective in<br />

Young Kids, Early<br />

Data Shows<br />

Pfizer and its German partner,<br />

BioNTech, said Monday that<br />

an early analysis showed<br />

their three-dose coronavirus<br />

vaccine regimen triggered<br />

a strong immune response<br />

in young children, proving<br />

80% effective at preventing<br />

symptomatic infections in<br />

children 6 months to 4 years<br />

old.<br />

The results, along with other<br />

recent developments, signal<br />

that the long and frustrating<br />

wait for a vaccine for the<br />

youngest children, the last<br />

group to lack access, could<br />

be over within weeks.<br />

A few hours after Pfizer and<br />

BioNTech issued a news<br />

release announcing the data,<br />

which has not been peer<br />

reviewed, the Food and<br />

Drug Administration said<br />

its outside experts will meet<br />

<strong>June</strong> 14 and 15 to discuss<br />

the Moderna and Pfizer-<br />

BioNTech pediatric vaccines.<br />

Pfizer and BioNTech said<br />

they plan to finish filing data<br />

with the FDA this week <strong>—</strong><br />

and warned that the efficacy<br />

number was fluid because<br />

results are still arriving.<br />

If the FDA advisory panel<br />

looks favorably on the<br />

vaccines, the agency could<br />

authorize them as soon as<br />

<strong>June</strong> 16 or 17.<br />

Vaccine advisers to the<br />

Centers for Disease Control<br />

and Prevention then would<br />

consider who should get<br />

the vaccines, with a final<br />

recommendation coming<br />

from agency director<br />

Rochelle Walensky shortly<br />

afterward. The vaccines<br />

would probably be available<br />

immediately.<br />

"This is incredibly exciting<br />

data!" Kawsar Talaat, a<br />

pediatrician and vaccine<br />

expert at Johns Hopkins<br />

Bloomberg School of Public<br />

Health, wrote in an email. "I<br />

also think that it reinforces<br />

what we've seen in adults as<br />

well. For the Omicron variant,<br />

a third dose is necessary for<br />

optimal protection."<br />

Federal officials are already<br />

reviewing the pediatric<br />

vaccine from biotechnology<br />

company Moderna, a twoshot<br />

regimen that was 51%<br />

effective in preventing<br />

Continued on page 13


2 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 3


4 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 5<br />

Focus on Oversight a Key for Success at<br />

CoreCivic<br />

In the corrections industry, maintaining high standards of<br />

operation is imperative to meeting the needs of the individuals<br />

in our care. That's why CoreCivic adheres to a stringent set of<br />

guidelines set forth by our own standards, as well as those of our<br />

government partners and the American Correctional Association<br />

(ACA).<br />

Founded in 1870, the ACA is considered the national benchmark<br />

for the effective operation of correctional systems throughout<br />

the United States. To become accredited, a facility must achieve<br />

compliance with ACA mandatory standards and a minimum of<br />

90 percent non-mandatory standards. CoreCivic facilities adhere<br />

to ACA standards, and in 2020, CoreCivic earned an average<br />

ACA audit score of 99.6 percent across all facilities.<br />

Key ACA audit areas include facility personnel, resident reentry<br />

programs, resident safety, health care, and more.<br />

holds our facilities and staff to a high standard. To be able to<br />

represent our facility and receive reaccreditation in person is an<br />

honor."<br />

Adhering to ACA standards is only one part of CoreCivic's<br />

commitment to robust oversight. When government partners<br />

utilize CoreCivic's services, we are held not only to our own<br />

high standards and those of the ACA, but we are often held to<br />

the same or higher accountability of our public counterparts<br />

through stringent government contracts, unfettered access to<br />

our facilities for our partners, and hundreds of on-site quality<br />

assurance monitors.<br />

We provide access to our government partners, with most of<br />

our facilities having government agency employees known as<br />

contract monitors who are physically on-site to ensure we are<br />

operating in line with partner guidelines.<br />

Recently, the ACA held in Nashville, Tennessee, its 151st<br />

Congress of Corrections, an annual convention that brings<br />

together corrections professionals from across the country. In<br />

addition to various workshops and events at the convention, the<br />

ACA Commission on Accreditation also held panel hearings to<br />

award accreditation to correctional facilities that meet the ACA's<br />

rigorous requirements. Listed below are the seven CoreCivic<br />

facilities that earned reaccreditation this year, with mandatory/<br />

non-mandatory scores:<br />

• Bent County Correctional Facility - 100/99.0<br />

• Citrus County Detention Facility - 100/100<br />

• Eloy Detention Center - 100/100<br />

• Lake Erie Correctional Institution - 100/99.3<br />

• Saguaro Correctional Center - 100/99.8<br />

• Stewart Detention Center - 100/100<br />

• Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility - 100/100<br />

"The accreditation process is very important," said Warden<br />

Fred Figueroa from Eloy Detention Center, one of the seven<br />

CoreCivic facilities that was awarded reaccreditation. "ACA<br />

To maintain our own high standards, annual on-site audits covering<br />

all operational areas are administered to ensure compliance with<br />

contractual and regulatory obligations and corporate-mandated<br />

requirements. Each CoreCivic Safety facility is audited by our<br />

internal quality assurance division, which is independent from<br />

our operations division. Facilities are expected to be audit-ready<br />

year-round, maintaining continuous compliance with numerous<br />

applicable standards.<br />

CoreCivic employs 75 staff members dedicated to quality<br />

assurance, including several subject matter experts with extensive<br />

experience from all major disciplines within our institutional<br />

operations.<br />

"A lot of hard work goes into preparing for these audits,"<br />

Figueroa said. "Once they're complete, the staff can see their<br />

accomplishments and feel proud."<br />

Having multiple levels of oversight helps CoreCivic maintain<br />

a safe environment for those in our care. By holding ourselves<br />

accountable to our own high standards, along with our<br />

government partners' and ACA's standards, CoreCivic continues<br />

to be a trusted partner working to better the public good.


6 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 7


8 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

Infectious Disease Expert Takes Charge as<br />

Army’s Top Health Officer in Europe<br />

LANDSTUHL, Germany <strong>—</strong> U.S. troops are unlikely to<br />

have to endure a repeat of the heavy COVID-19 restrictions<br />

they faced during the early days of the pandemic, the Army’s<br />

new top health officer in Europe said Wednesday.<br />

“The extreme lockdown that we experienced, I don’t think<br />

we’ll see that again,” Brig. Gen. Clinton Murray told Stars<br />

and Stripes after taking command of Regional Health<br />

Command-Europe.<br />

The regional command provides medical and dental services<br />

to personnel in about 40 countries, including support for<br />

troops in U.S. central and Africa commands.<br />

Murray took charge of the unit from Brig. Gen. Mark<br />

Thompson in a ceremony at Landstuhl Regional Medical<br />

Center. Soldiers stood in close formation before dozens of<br />

attendees, all without masks.<br />

It contrasted starkly with the welcome Thompson received<br />

when he arrived in the spring of 2020, in the early stages of<br />

an outbreak that countries the world over struggled for two<br />

years to control.<br />

In his speech Wednesday, Thompson recalled the challenges<br />

of assuming command as the COVID-19 pandemic began<br />

raging.


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 9<br />

He thanked the medical staff, who he said had administered<br />

some 210,000 vaccine doses and 360,000 coronavirus tests.<br />

“You collectively did the impossible over the last two<br />

years,” Thompson said.<br />

The regional command provides medical and dental services<br />

to personnel in about 40 countries, including support for<br />

troops in U.S. central and Africa commands.<br />

Murray took charge of the unit from Brig. Gen. Mark<br />

Thompson in a ceremony at Landstuhl Regional Medical<br />

Center. Soldiers stood in close formation before dozens of<br />

attendees, all without masks.<br />

It contrasted starkly with the welcome Thompson received<br />

when he arrived in the spring of 2020, in the early stages of<br />

an outbreak that countries the world over struggled for two<br />

years to control.<br />

In his speech Wednesday, Thompson recalled the challenges<br />

of assuming command as the COVID-19 pandemic began<br />

raging.<br />

He thanked the medical staff, who he said had administered<br />

some 210,000 vaccine doses and 360,000 coronavirus tests.<br />

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10 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 11<br />

Thompson also noted efforts by the command<br />

to care for Afghan evacuees who passed<br />

through U.S. bases in Germany on their way<br />

to the United States after the fall of their<br />

country to the Taliban.<br />

Medical staff at Landstuhl treated 391 Afghan<br />

patients and delivered 26 babies, he said.<br />

Thompson will head to U.S. Army Medical<br />

Command headquarters at Fort Sam Houston<br />

in San Antonio, Texas, said Gino Mattorano,<br />

a spokesman for Regional Health Command-<br />

Europe.<br />

He will trade cities with Murray, who<br />

previously helmed Brooke Army Medical<br />

Center in San Antonio.<br />

The harsh restrictions at the beginning of<br />

the pandemic were due to concerns about a<br />

lack of hospital beds as well as the absence<br />

of vaccines and testing tools, which are now<br />

available, Murray told Stars and Stripes.<br />

Health officials will have to see whether the<br />

virus continues to mutate into new variants.<br />

But should that happen, they’re more<br />

prepared than they were at the beginning of<br />

the pandemic, he added.<br />

“We may move back and forth on wearing<br />

masks and having events, changing a little bit<br />

of what we do, but I don’t think we’ll ever go<br />

back to when we truly shut down,” Murray<br />

said.<br />

Murray specialized in infectious diseases at<br />

multiple points during his career, according<br />

to a biography provided by Regional Health<br />

Command-Europe.<br />

He completed a fellowship in infectious<br />

diseases in 2002 and reviewed infection<br />

control procedures during a deployment to<br />

Afghanistan in 2012. He is a member of the<br />

Infectious Diseases Society of America, a<br />

medical association based in Arlington, Va.


12 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact kyle.stephens@mhce.us


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 13<br />

illness in children between 6 months and 2 years old, and<br />

37% effective in children 2 to 5 years old.<br />

Regulators previously had set aside three dates for the FDA's<br />

outside experts to review the vaccines for young children,<br />

beginning with a session on <strong>June</strong> 8. Those meetings are now<br />

canceled.<br />

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT <strong>MHCE</strong>.US<br />

Under the revised schedule, the FDA and its outside<br />

experts will discuss the Moderna vaccine for children and<br />

adolescents from 6 to 17 years old on <strong>June</strong> 14. The following<br />

day, they will review vaccines for the youngest children,<br />

with advisers evaluating the Moderna vaccine for children<br />

6 months through 5 years old and the Pfizer-BioNTech<br />

vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years old.<br />

"The overall data are encouraging such that it is really hard<br />

to look at one vaccine apart from the other," according to an<br />

official familiar with the process who spoke on the condition<br />

of anonymity because that person was not authorized to<br />

speak publicly. The official suggested the two vaccines<br />

would probably be reviewed side by side.<br />

A CDC planning document notes that vaccines are expected<br />

to be shipped immediately after being authorized by the<br />

FDA. Preordering for doses could begin in late May or<br />

early <strong>June</strong>, but an exact date will be contingent on when the<br />

FDA's external advisers meet.<br />

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children younger than<br />

5 is a three-shot regimen tested in nearly 1,700 children.<br />

Each dose is one-tenth of the adult dose. The third shot<br />

was added in December after it became clear that two shots<br />

failed to muster an immune response equivalent to what<br />

was generated in young adults in early coronavirus vaccine<br />

trials. It is given two months after the second shot.<br />

Although that setback was hugely disappointing to parents,<br />

the addition of a third shot was seen by many experts as<br />

necessary because the omicron variant of the coronavirus<br />

had fundamentally changed the pandemic. The two shots<br />

that provided robust protection against infection and severe<br />

illness early on were markedly less protective against the<br />

omicron variant.<br />

"Omicron has really thrown a curveball on us <strong>—</strong> it seems<br />

that two doses are not sufficient for adequate efficacy against<br />

infection with Omicron, with any vaccine, at any age," Flor<br />

Munoz, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Baylor<br />

College of Medicine, said in an email before the new data<br />

was released.


14 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

While the adult trials recruited tens of thousands of<br />

volunteers and waited to see if vaccinated people were<br />

better protected, the children's vaccine trials were primarily<br />

designed to measure immune responses using blood tests.<br />

The criteria for success was whether a vaccine provoked<br />

a comparable immune response to what was seen among<br />

young adults in trials conducted before the widespread<br />

emergence of variants. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and<br />

Moderna pediatric vaccines succeeded on that measure,<br />

although the significance of that benchmark has shifted<br />

with the emergence of the omicron variant.<br />

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT <strong>MHCE</strong>.US<br />

The companies also measured cases of symptomatic illness<br />

in the population, and Pfizer and BioNTech said the 80%<br />

efficacy finding was preliminary and based on 10 cases of<br />

COVID-19 in the study population as of the end of April.<br />

Once 21 cases have occurred, the companies will conduct a<br />

more formal analysis of efficacy.<br />

David Benkeser, a biostatistician at Emory University's<br />

Rollins School of Public Health, said the updated data<br />

would probably be ready before a decision would need to<br />

be made, and that he wouldn't be surprised if the efficacy<br />

number declined somewhat as more cases occur.<br />

"Even still, it appears the data are so far pointing towards<br />

a safe and effective vaccine for young children," Benkeser<br />

wrote in an email.<br />

Moderna's two-shot vaccine regimen was about 51%<br />

effective in children 6 months to 2 years old, and 37%<br />

effective in children 2 to 5 years old.<br />

If Pfizer's efficacy data holds up, it could pose a conundrum<br />

for public health officials, physicians and parents. If<br />

both vaccines are cleared by the FDA, the CDC advisory<br />

committee could weigh whether one vaccine should be<br />

recommended over the other.<br />

Moderna is studying a booster given six months after the<br />

last shot.<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact nathan.stiles@mhce.us<br />

In either case, the hope is that children will be fully<br />

vaccinated in advance of a potential surge in the fall.<br />

On Sunday, before the Pfizer announcement, White House<br />

coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha predicted on<br />

ABC News' "This Week" that children could have access<br />

to a shot "in the next few weeks" and that action would be<br />

taken on the Moderna vaccine as soon as regulators were<br />

finished with their review.


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 15<br />

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT <strong>MHCE</strong>.US


16 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

Army Poll Finds Widespread Unawareness Among<br />

Gen Z About Perks of Military Career<br />

Young adult Americans think they know a lot about Army<br />

life, but a newly released cross-generational survey showing<br />

otherwise is giving the service impetus to fill in the knowledge<br />

gaps amid a recruitment crisis.<br />

“The Army has what Gen Z is looking for in an employer. They<br />

just don’t know it yet,” Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army<br />

enterprise marketing, said in a statement issued Wednesday.<br />

The Know Your Army national consumer survey found that 73%<br />

of respondents ages 18 to 25 claimed familiarity with the Army,<br />

the highest level of any generation polled.<br />

But survey participants in that age group turned out to be largely<br />

unaware of what the Army can offer them.<br />

More than half of Generation Z respondents did not realize<br />

that soldiers can receive benefits such as tuition assistance and<br />

the possibility of earning full college tuition. Regarding early<br />

retirement benefits, only 31% were in the know.<br />

The release of the polling data comes as the service touts a new<br />

advertising campaign that talks up the wide range of benefits<br />

associated with military life.<br />

Instead of highlighting soldiers in the field, the “Know Your<br />

Army” ads call attention to things such as pension plans,<br />

mortgage loan perks and free schooling. The aim is to show how<br />

such privileges set the Army apart from civilian employers.<br />

Given the difficult recruiting environment, which military<br />

officials have blamed in part on a competitive labor market, the<br />

Army’s 2023 budget request calls for an end-strength of 473,000<br />

active-duty soldiers, even though Congress has authorized the<br />

force to grow to 500,000 by <strong>2022</strong>.<br />

Military officials have said that the cap is temporary and that the<br />

Army intends to grow once the recruiting environment improves.<br />

Another misperception about Army life for 30% of Generation<br />

Z polled is that the majority of jobs available to soldiers are<br />

combat-related, the Army said.<br />

The survey was conducted by the Army in March across a<br />

sample of 3,000 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 76. No<br />

margin of error was listed.<br />

Top brass has previously sounded alarms over the service’s<br />

difficulty finding qualified recruits in that 18-25 age range.<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact nathan.stiles@mhce.us<br />

“We are in a war for talent,” Gen. James McConville, the Army<br />

chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in May.


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 17


18 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

Business Is Global. Your Education Can Be, Too.<br />

Complete Business Minor in One<br />

Summer across Two Countries<br />

By taking the five courses offered in this 12-week program, you<br />

can complete a Business Minor and enjoy the unique opportunity<br />

to immerse yourself in a cultural experience. Our Complete<br />

Business Minor Abroad program will take you to the beautiful<br />

streets of Rome, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, this Summer <strong>2022</strong><br />

semesters<br />

Business Core Fast Track<br />

By taking the five courses offered in this 12-week program, you<br />

can complete a Business Minor and enjoy the unique opportunity<br />

to immerse yourself in a cultural experience. Our Complete<br />

Business Minor Abroad program will take you to the beautiful<br />

streets of Rome, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, this Summer <strong>2022</strong><br />

semesters<br />

<strong>2022</strong> Program Update<br />

In these uncertain times, the Harbert College of Business is<br />

taking extraordinary steps to ensure the health and welfare of its<br />

students. As such, only two study abroad trips will be offered for<br />

this summer.<br />

Please be on the lookout for details on offerings of a range of<br />

Study Abroad Programs in Summer 2023. We appreciate your<br />

interest and will be global again as soon as possible.<br />

Study Abroad<br />

At the Harbert College of Business, we offer the opportunity to<br />

experience different business cultures, practices and standards<br />

around the world. Round out your undergraduate experience with<br />

a study abroad trip to Italy and Spain and gain a global business<br />

perspective.<br />

Undergraduate study abroad opportunities will allow you to gain<br />

experience with a variety of contexts.<br />

Have Questions?<br />

COVID-19 has made the idea of international travel seem far<br />

away. Let us reassure you we will provide a safe study abroad<br />

experience that will give you an edge in your future career<br />

Dr. Daniel Butler<br />

Assistant Dean, Harbert Global Programs<br />

Thomas Walter Professor<br />

334-844-2464<br />

butledd@auburn.edu


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 19<br />

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20 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

DODEA Seniors’ Last Checklist: Caps, Gowns and<br />

Diplomas<br />

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany <strong>—</strong><br />

Graduation ceremonies have begun<br />

at Defense Department schools in<br />

Europe, where more than 1,300 seniors<br />

are completing their secondary studies.<br />

The first batch of graduates in the<br />

Department of Defense Education<br />

Activity-Europe’s Class of <strong>2022</strong> walked<br />

the stage May 29, when 53 seniors<br />

received their diplomas at Bahrain<br />

Middle/High School.<br />

Most ceremonies are this week. On<br />

a stage set up inside Kaiserslautern<br />

High School’s stadium on Wednesday,<br />

Michelle Howard-Brahaney, the<br />

director of DODEA-Europe, told 165<br />

graduates to “greet the future with<br />

optimism, open minds and open hearts.”<br />

“The experiences you’ve gained<br />

through this will serve you and our<br />

country the rest of your lives,” she said.<br />

A total of 1,375 students are expected<br />

to receive their diplomas at 21 schools<br />

from the United Kingdom to the Middle<br />

East.<br />

Graduating class sizes range from<br />

seven at Ankara Elementary/High<br />

School in Turkey to 183 at Ramstein<br />

High School.<br />

The high school seniors are part of<br />

DODEA-Europe’s 75th graduating<br />

class. The milestone harkens back to<br />

post-war Germany, when five high<br />

schools opened their doors to the first<br />

children of U.S. military members<br />

serving abroad.<br />

“The world has changed dramatically in<br />

the 75 years since our mission began,”<br />

said Stephen Smith, a DODEA-Europe<br />

spokesman. “However, the spirit of our<br />

teachers and administrators is the same<br />

now as it was then, infused to the core<br />

with determination and innovation.”<br />

Most of this year’s graduation<br />

ceremonies are being held on U.S.<br />

military bases, in facilities such as<br />

stadiums and aircraft hangars or in<br />

community parks.<br />

A handful are off base. Alconbury and<br />

Lakenheath in the United Kingdom<br />

held their ceremonies this week at Ely<br />

Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, while<br />

Wiesbaden High School’s ceremony<br />

will be Friday in the city’s stately<br />

Kurhaus.<br />

Ankara’s seven seniors will mark<br />

the end of their high school years<br />

at a ceremony Friday in the U.S.<br />

ambassador’s residence.<br />

Ramstein cheered on its graduates<br />

Thursdayin a car parade before sending<br />

them off with their diplomas at a<br />

ceremony Friday evening in hangar<br />

No. 3.<br />

Both SHAPE and AFNORTH hold<br />

their ceremonies <strong>June</strong> 10, the last of the<br />

DODEA-Europe <strong>2022</strong> commencement<br />

events scheduled.<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact nathan.stiles@mhce.us


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 21<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact kyle.stephens@mhce.us


22 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

American Airlines has Parked 100 Jets Due to Pilot<br />

Shortage<br />

A shortage of pilots from retirements<br />

and pandemic cutbacks has forced Fort<br />

Worth-based American Airlines to park<br />

about 100 of its smaller regional jets,<br />

even amid strong summer passenger<br />

demand.<br />

“There is a supply and demand imbalance<br />

right now and it really is within the<br />

regional carrier ranks,” American<br />

Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Friday<br />

at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions<br />

investor conference in New York. “We<br />

have probably 100 aircraft or almost 100<br />

aircraft that aren’t productive right now,<br />

that aren’t flying.”<br />

Isom’s comments come amid soaring<br />

airfare prices as travelers are eager to<br />

get out after two years of pandemic<br />

restrictions and as airlines work to get<br />

back to pre-pandemic flying levels.<br />

Nearly every airline in the industry is<br />

facing similar issues with struggles to


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 23<br />

replace pilots and other key workers, even though<br />

several are forecasting record revenues.<br />

Airlines would love to take advantage of rising<br />

ticket prices from high consumer demand. Airline<br />

ticket prices for summer travel are up about 48%<br />

compared with 2019, according to travel site<br />

Hopper. That more than offsets rising fuel and labor<br />

costs. American upped its second-quarter revenue<br />

projections on Friday, now expecting to bring in<br />

sales 11 to 13% higher than during the same period<br />

in pre-pandemic 2019.<br />

The <strong>2022</strong> summer travel season has seen airlines try<br />

to balance their own ability to fly bigger schedules<br />

versus the risk of meltdowns if operations are<br />

stretched too thin. As carriers such as Delta, JetBlue<br />

and Southwest have cut flights to focus on reducing<br />

delays, American Airlines is flying a schedule that<br />

is about 20% larger than its next nearest competitor<br />

at Delta.<br />

The biggest constraint, Isom said, comes in the<br />

number of pilots American Airlines and its regional<br />

carriers are able to hire. About 1,000 of American’s<br />

15,000 pilots took early retirement packages during<br />

the COVID-19 pandemic. Paired with a large<br />

number of pilots slated to hit mandatory retirement<br />

age, it hass left carriers such as American with a<br />

deficit of key employees.<br />

American has filled that gap by hiring pilots from<br />

regional carriers, including its own at wholly-owned<br />

airlines such as Envoy and Piedmont. In turn, that<br />

leaves a shortage of pilots to fly the smaller 50 and<br />

75-passenger jets.<br />

“There are constraints out there in terms of aircraft,<br />

there are constraints around pilots from the<br />

perspective of the mainline and through training,”<br />

Isom said.<br />

American and others have increased pay for regional pilots and have<br />

added signing and retention bonuses to help students through flight<br />

school. The economic incentives of jobs that pay more than $200,000 a<br />

year should eventually attract more pilots, but it could take several years<br />

to get the number of pilots needed to properly staff airlines, Isom said.<br />

“I see demand for travel,” Isom said. “I see an industry that has been<br />

more or less constrained and now trying to say back up and is still facing<br />

those constraints.”<br />

American has been able to make up some of the<br />

cutbacks in flights by using larger regional jets and<br />

parking smaller models, Isom said.<br />

While that helps carry more passengers, using<br />

bigger planes also means fewer frequencies,<br />

especially to smaller destinations. Regional airlines<br />

fly 43% of the country’s flights. according to the<br />

Regional Airline Association, and two-thirds of<br />

the country’s airports are only served by regional<br />

carriers.<br />

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24 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

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WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 25<br />

Biden Tells Navy Graduates Next Decade<br />

will be Decisive for Democracy and<br />

World Order<br />

President Joe Biden told U.S.<br />

Naval Academy graduates on<br />

Friday that the next decade<br />

will be decisive for democracy,<br />

national security and reshaping<br />

the international world order for<br />

generations.<br />

Russia’s brutal assault on<br />

Ukraine has spurred a fight that<br />

is dividing the globe in terms of<br />

geography and values, Biden<br />

said at the academy’s graduation<br />

and commissioning ceremony.<br />

applied to join the military<br />

alliance earlier this month after<br />

decades of neutrality.<br />

“[Putin] has NATO-ized all of<br />

Europe,” Biden said.<br />

Fresh off a trip to Asia, the<br />

president told graduates that<br />

they will be at the forefront<br />

of U.S. efforts to counter the<br />

rising dominance of China. The<br />

maritime theater in the Indo-<br />

Pacific <strong>—</strong> a region that will be<br />

“vital to the future of our world”<br />

<strong>—</strong> will be the “leading edge” of<br />

America’s response to natural<br />

humanitarian disasters, Biden<br />

said.<br />

“[We will show] people<br />

throughout the region the<br />

unmatched ability of the United<br />

States to be a force for good,” he<br />

said.<br />

The Navy will be tasked with<br />

strengthening connections with<br />

allies and implementing an Indo-<br />

Pacific strategy that ensures<br />

freedom of navigation of the<br />

South China Sea and keeps sea<br />

lanes open and secure, Biden<br />

said.<br />

“These long-standing basic<br />

maritime principles are the<br />

bedrock of a global economy<br />

and global stability,” he<br />

said. “Sailors and mariners,<br />

submariners and SEALs, Navy<br />

aviators and surface warfare<br />

officers, we’re going to look to<br />

you to ensure the security of the<br />

American people.”<br />

Creating a Culture<br />

“We’re living through a global<br />

struggle between autocracies<br />

and democracies,” he said.<br />

Biden accused Russian President<br />

Vladimir Putin of aiming to<br />

conquer Ukraine to wipe out the<br />

identify of its people. Attacks<br />

on schools, nurseries, hospitals,<br />

museums serve no other purpose<br />

than to eliminate the Ukrainian<br />

culture, he said.<br />

“That’s what you’re graduating<br />

into,” Biden said. “A world<br />

that more than ever requires<br />

strong principles and engaged<br />

American leadership, where<br />

America leads not only by the<br />

example of its power but the<br />

power of its example.”<br />

of Caring<br />

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The fallout from the war in<br />

Ukraine is already changing<br />

longstanding defense postures<br />

around the world, he said.<br />

Putin’s attempt to “Finlandize”<br />

Europe into neutrality has<br />

backfired, Biden said, driving<br />

Finland and Sweden into<br />

NATO’s arms. The two nations<br />

Learn more at frontier.edu/military


26 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

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WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 27<br />

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28 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

Special Olympics Drops<br />

Vaccine Rule After $27M<br />

Fine Threat<br />

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. <strong>—</strong> The Special Olympics<br />

has dropped a coronavirus vaccine mandate for its<br />

games in Orlando after Florida moved to fine the<br />

organization $27.5 million for violating a state law<br />

against such rules.<br />

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced<br />

the organization had removed the requirement for its<br />

competition in the state, which is scheduled to run<br />

<strong>June</strong> 5 to <strong>June</strong> 12.<br />

"In Florida, we want all of them to be able to compete.<br />

We do not think it's fair or just to be marginalizing<br />

some of these athletes based on a decision that has<br />

no bearing on their ability to compete with honor<br />

or integrity," DeSantis said at a news conference in<br />

Orlando.<br />

5,500 violations of state law for requiring proof of<br />

coronavirus vaccination for attendees or participants.<br />

Florida law bars businesses from requiring<br />

documentation of a COVID-19 vaccination. DeSantis<br />

has strongly opposed vaccine mandates and other<br />

virus policies endorsed by the federal government.<br />

In a statement on its website, the Special Olympics<br />

said people who were registered but unable to<br />

participate because of the mandate can now attend.<br />

TO ADVERTISE<br />

contact Kyle.Stephens@mhce.us<br />

The Florida health department notified the Special<br />

Olympics of the fine in a letter Thursday that said<br />

the organization would be fined $27.5 million for


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 29<br />

Army Units in South<br />

Korea Receive Award<br />

for Initial Response to<br />

COVID-19 Pandemic<br />

CAMP HUMPHREYS,<br />

South Korea <strong>—</strong> Eighth<br />

Army received the Army<br />

Superior Unit Award for<br />

its efforts in curbing the<br />

spread of COVID-19<br />

during the onset of the<br />

pandemic in South Korea,<br />

according to a press<br />

release Thursday.<br />

“Eighth Army and cited<br />

units displayed outstanding<br />

meritorious service<br />

through their response<br />

to the global pandemic<br />

cause by COVID-19,<br />

making their #1 priority<br />

to protect the force during<br />

these extraordinary<br />

circumstances,” the<br />

award’s citation said.<br />

The citation from the<br />

Army’s Human Resources<br />

Command added that<br />

Eighth Army’s efforts<br />

“enabled the effective<br />

response to the pandemic<br />

not only on the Korean<br />

Peninsula but more<br />

importantly informed<br />

response operations<br />

worldwide.”<br />

Soldiers present for duty<br />

while being attached to<br />

Eighth Army or one of<br />

several units in South<br />

Korea between Jan. 28,<br />

2020, to April 30, 2020,<br />

are eligible to wear the<br />

superior unit award<br />

permanently. Army<br />

civilian employees who<br />

served within the same<br />

timeframe are also eligible<br />

for the award.<br />

South Korea became one<br />

of the first countries to<br />

report COVID-19 cases<br />

outside of China in January<br />

2020. In Daegu, roughly<br />

100 miles southeast of<br />

Camp Humphreys in<br />

Pyeongtaek, the U.S.<br />

military reported its firstever<br />

COVID-19 case on<br />

Feb. 20, 2020.<br />

U.S. Forces Korea, the<br />

command responsible for<br />

roughly 28,500 troops<br />

on the peninsula, and<br />

its individual garrison<br />

commanders initiated<br />

lockdowns as case<br />

numbers increased in the<br />

military community.<br />

The Army’s response<br />

in South Korea, which<br />

included the construction<br />

of several quarantine<br />

facilities and the<br />

reassignment of thousands<br />

of service members,<br />

became the testing<br />

ground for the military’s<br />

worldwide pandemic<br />

response.<br />

Col. Michael Tremblay,<br />

the former garrison<br />

commander at Camp<br />

Humphreys, did not<br />

leave the base for 102<br />

consecutive days.<br />

“Everybody’s singular<br />

focus from then on was,<br />

‘How do we get this from<br />

getting inside,’” he said in<br />

<strong>June</strong> 2021. “We quickly<br />

ramped up the things<br />

that we were doing. For<br />

those three months, we<br />

did nothing but 24-hour<br />

operations, continuously<br />

coming up with new<br />

processes.”<br />

An Eighth Army<br />

spokesman said the<br />

command was “extremely<br />

proud of our soldiers, both<br />

past and present.”<br />

“Their professionalism<br />

allowed us to continue<br />

our mission of supporting<br />

our regional allies and<br />

deterring potential<br />

adversaries while<br />

simultaneously managing<br />

the effects of the global<br />

pandemic,” Lt. Col. Neil<br />

Penttila said in an email<br />

to Stars and Stripes on<br />

Friday.<br />

USFK counted 104 new<br />

infections in the week<br />

ending Monday, down<br />

from the 141 cases<br />

reported between May 10-<br />

16, according to a USFK<br />

update on Tuesday.<br />

The command reported 98<br />

infections May 3-9, down<br />

from the weekly record of<br />

1,599 cases Jan. 4-10.<br />

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30 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

VA Secretary Sets Goals to House More Veterans in<br />

LA, Prevent Homelessness<br />

WASHINGTON– Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary<br />

Denis McDonough said Friday that the agency will get<br />

more veterans into homes this year in Los Angeles and help<br />

prevent homelessness.<br />

The agency will get 1,500 additional veterans into homes,<br />

and 180 housing units will be added to the campus of the West<br />

Los Angeles VA Medical Center, along with 535 individual<br />

veteran housing units through project-based vouchers,<br />

McDonough told attendees at the National Coalition for<br />

Homeless Veterans Conference, a three-day event that<br />

gathers community-based service providers working with<br />

veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.<br />

The coalition held the conference for the first time in two<br />

years. The theme for this year’s conference was “Coming<br />

Together: Facing the Future,” and consisted of more than<br />

600 service providers and partners who sought resources and<br />

technical assistance for homeless veterans in other areas.<br />

McDonough said the VA would use 75% of its U.S. Department<br />

of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive<br />

Housing vouchers. According to the VA Homeless Programs<br />

website, the program pairs HUD's Housing Choice Voucher<br />

rental assistance with VA case management and supportive<br />

services for homeless veterans.<br />

McDonough said 60% to 63% of the vouchers are used<br />

yearly.<br />

"We're going make sure that 50% of veterans who receive<br />

HUD-VASH vouchers find permanent housing within 90<br />

days,” he said. "So we're not only going to use the vouchers<br />

more aggressively, we're going to use them in a more timely<br />

manner."<br />

McDonough also said the agency will get 38,000 veterans<br />

into permanent housing and is "driving hard" to prevent<br />

veterans from becoming homeless.<br />

"It means making existing housing more affordable through<br />

HUD-VASH and through supportive services for veteran<br />

families," he said. "It means helping unsheltered vets get<br />

off the street through the grant [and] per diem program, and<br />

it means learning every veteran's unique story and getting<br />

them the wraparound service they need."<br />

McDonough said those services include food, health care,<br />

mental health care, and child care.


WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 31<br />

"Whether a veteran needs assistance addressing physical or<br />

mental health, a substance use disorder, justice involvement,<br />

or anything else… we're going to be there to help," he said.<br />

The VA campus in West Los Angeles is 388 acres. The<br />

land was donated to the government in 1888 by a wealthy<br />

California landowner who wanted the area to be used to<br />

provide health care and homes for disabled veterans. There<br />

are several historic structures on the campus, and most of the<br />

buildings were built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style,<br />

with their characteristic red-tile roofs and stucco walls.<br />

The campus contains a nine-hole golf course, a Japanese<br />

garden and plenty of open space. Many of the buildings<br />

now sit vacant, some because of their states of disrepair.<br />

Others are vacant due to the coronavirus pandemic pushing<br />

employees out of their offices.<br />

In one part of the campus, construction workers are restoring<br />

two large buildings into permanent housing units. The VA<br />

expects to have 186 apartments ready for use by the end of<br />

the year.<br />

The Department of Housing and Urban Development<br />

estimated in January 2020 that 37,252 veterans experienced<br />

homelessness in a single night. An estimated 10% of those<br />

veterans lived in Los Angeles.<br />

McDonough also spoke about two successes from last year.<br />

In October, McDonough vowed to get all homeless veterans<br />

living in the area known as "veterans row" in Los Angeles<br />

into housing by Nov. 1. At the time, about 40 people lived<br />

along veterans row, a homeless encampment just outside the<br />

West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.<br />

McDonough said the agency succeeded in placing Los<br />

Angeles homeless veterans into housing by the deadline.<br />

In November, the secretary promised the VA would house<br />

an additional 500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles in time<br />

for the holidays. In December, VA Deputy Secretary Donald<br />

Remy said the VA had surpassed that goal and found housing<br />

for 537 veterans.<br />

Of those veterans, 46% have found permanent housing using<br />

government vouchers, and the rest have been accepted into<br />

temporary housing, Remy said.<br />

In April, McDonough signed an updated plan for a longdelayed<br />

housing development intended to help solve the<br />

veteran homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.<br />

The 656-page plan, called Master Plan <strong>2022</strong>, contains details<br />

for a major construction project on the VA campus in West<br />

Los Angeles. The updated plan calls for more than 1,000<br />

housing units for homeless veterans to be under construction<br />

within one to five years. The plan states 220 additional units<br />

will be built within six to 10 years, and the VA will add 350<br />

more units sometime after that.


32 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us JUNE <strong>2022</strong> EDITION<br />

Spending millions to build seawalls<br />

would be cheaper than spending<br />

billions to rebuild the base after<br />

a devastating hurricane, Cheney<br />

reasons.<br />

Parris Island has so far been<br />

spared the direct hits that have<br />

caused billions in damage to other<br />

military installations, but it has<br />

been evacuated twice in the last<br />

five years for hurricanes, which hit<br />

South Carolina every eight years, on<br />

average.<br />

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris<br />

Island Wages Battles, Not War, Against<br />

Climate Change<br />

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. <strong>—</strong> Rising<br />

seas are encroaching on one of<br />

America's most storied military<br />

installations, where thousands of<br />

recruits are molded into Marines<br />

each year amid the salt marshes<br />

of South Carolina's Lowcountry<br />

region.<br />

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris<br />

Island is particularly vulnerable<br />

to flooding, coastal erosion and<br />

other impacts of climate change,<br />

a Defense Department-funded<br />

"resiliency review" noted last<br />

month. Some scientists project that<br />

by 2099, three-quarters of the island<br />

could be under water during high<br />

tides each day.<br />

Military authorities say they're<br />

confident they can keep the secondoldest<br />

Marine Corps base intact, for<br />

now, through small-scale changes to<br />

existing infrastructure projects.<br />

Maj. Marc Blair, Parris Island's<br />

environmental director, describes<br />

this strategy as "the art of the small,"<br />

a phrase he attributes to the base's<br />

commanding general, Brig. Gen.<br />

Julie Nethercot. In practice, it means<br />

such things as raising a culvert<br />

that needs to be repaired anyway,<br />

limiting development in low-lying<br />

areas and adding floodproofing<br />

measures to firing range upgrades.<br />

Others advocate much larger and<br />

more expensive solutions, such<br />

as building huge seawalls around<br />

the base, or moving Marine Corps<br />

training away from the coast<br />

altogether.<br />

Parris Island has an outsized role<br />

in military lore and American pop<br />

culture as a proving ground for<br />

Marines who have served in every<br />

major conflict since World War I. It<br />

remains a crucial training ground,<br />

along with Marine Corps Recruit<br />

Depot, San Diego. But the rising sea<br />

is proving to be a formidable enemy.<br />

Salt marsh makes up more than<br />

half of the base's 8,000 acres, and<br />

the depot's highest point, by the fire<br />

station, is just 13 feet (4 meters)<br />

above sea level. It is linked to the<br />

mainland by a single road that's<br />

already susceptible to flooding.<br />

Low-lying areas on the island and<br />

the nearby Marine Corps air station<br />

already flood about ten times a<br />

year, and by 2050, "the currently<br />

flood-prone areas within both bases<br />

could experience tidal flooding<br />

more than 300 times annually and<br />

be underwater nearly 30 percent of<br />

the year given the highest scenario,"<br />

according to the Union of Concerned<br />

Scientists.<br />

Military reports have for decades<br />

acknowledged threats from climate<br />

change to national security, as<br />

wildfires, hurricanes and floods have<br />

prompted evacuations and damaged<br />

bases. A Pentagon document<br />

published last fall, after President<br />

Joe Biden ordered federal agencies<br />

to revamp their climate resilience<br />

plans, says the Department of<br />

Defense now has "a comprehensive<br />

approach to building climate-ready<br />

installations" and cites an adaptation<br />

and resilience study undertaken by<br />

Parris Island.<br />

But day-to-day disruptions are<br />

growing, from nuisance flooding<br />

on roads to rising temperatures<br />

and higher humidity that when<br />

combined, limit the human body's<br />

ability to cool down with sweat.<br />

Those wetter, hotter days could limit<br />

outdoor training. Already, more<br />

than 500 people on Parris Island<br />

suffered from heat stroke and heat<br />

exhaustion between 2016 and 2020,<br />

putting the base among the top ten<br />

U.S. military installations for heat<br />

illnesses, according to the Armed<br />

Forces Health Surveillance Branch.<br />

All the training that happens at<br />

Parris Island could be technically<br />

replicated on cooler, drier land<br />

somewhere else, said retired Brig.<br />

Gen. Stephen Cheney, who served<br />

as commanding general at the base<br />

from 1999 to 2001.<br />

But Cheney doesn't foresee any<br />

appetite in Congress for closing the<br />

base and relocating its mission to<br />

less risky ground, which means the<br />

government needs to start investing<br />

in structural solutions to protect<br />

its crucial components such as the<br />

firing ranges near the water, he said<br />

in an interview with The Associated<br />

Press.<br />

In 2018, Hurricane Florence<br />

pummeled North Carolina's Camp<br />

Lejeune, washing away the beach<br />

used by Marines for training,<br />

destroying buildings and displacing<br />

personnel. A month later, Hurricane<br />

Michael tore through Tyndall Air<br />

Force Base in Florida, devastating<br />

airplane hangars and causing $3<br />

billion in damage.<br />

Those disasters should serve as<br />

cautionary tales for Parris Island,<br />

argues Cheney. But there is no<br />

grand overhaul currently planned<br />

<strong>—</strong> no concrete bulkheads or other<br />

seawalls that could dramatically<br />

revise the post's visual character, no<br />

master plan to raise buildings all at<br />

once.<br />

Hurricane planning is focused on<br />

protecting life and preserving the<br />

equipment and buildings necessary<br />

to limit training disruptions, said<br />

Col. William Truax, the depot's<br />

director of installations and logistics.<br />

"We're not taking on any major<br />

projects because we've not<br />

experienced a major threat to what<br />

we have to do here," Truax said. "To<br />

be honest, these old brick buildings<br />

aren't going anywhere."<br />

Parris Island also depends on the<br />

resilience of communities just off<br />

the base. Stephanie Rossi, a planner<br />

with the Lowcountry Council of<br />

Governments, said the group's<br />

Defense Department-funded study<br />

of climate change impacts suggests<br />

shoring up the only road on and off<br />

the island, elevating buildings and<br />

bolstering the storm water system of<br />

an area where military families live.<br />

The base also works with<br />

environmental groups to support<br />

living shoreline projects, building<br />

up coastal oyster reefs to strengthen<br />

natural buffers to floods and<br />

hurricanes.<br />

"The waters will recede," said Blair,<br />

the environmental director. "The<br />

more resilient we make this place,<br />

the quicker we can get back to<br />

making Marines."

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