June 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

News from MHCE 

JUNE 2022 EDITION 

American Airlines has 

Parked 100 Jets Due to 

Pilot Shortage 

See page 22 

Monthly Newsletter 

WWW.MHCE.US 

Pfizer COVID Shot 

80% Effective in 

Young Kids, Early 

Data Shows 

Pfizer and its German partner, 

BioNTech, said Monday that 

an early analysis showed 

their three-dose coronavirus 

vaccine regimen triggered 

a strong immune response 

in young children, proving 

80% effective at preventing 

symptomatic infections in 

children 6 months to 4 years 

old. 

The results, along with other 

recent developments, signal 

that the long and frustrating 

wait for a vaccine for the 

youngest children, the last 

group to lack access, could 

be over within weeks. 

A few hours after Pfizer and 

BioNTech issued a news 

release announcing the data, 

which has not been peer 

reviewed, the Food and 

Drug Administration said 

its outside experts will meet 

June 14 and 15 to discuss 

the Moderna and Pfizer- 

BioNTech pediatric vaccines. 

Pfizer and BioNTech said 

they plan to finish filing data 

with the FDA this week — 

and warned that the efficacy 

number was fluid because 

results are still arriving. 

If the FDA advisory panel 

looks favorably on the 

vaccines, the agency could 

authorize them as soon as 

June 16 or 17. 

Vaccine advisers to the 

Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention then would 

consider who should get 

the vaccines, with a final 

recommendation coming 

from agency director 

Rochelle Walensky shortly 

afterward. The vaccines 

would probably be available 

immediately. 

"This is incredibly exciting 

data!" Kawsar Talaat, a 

pediatrician and vaccine 

expert at Johns Hopkins 

Bloomberg School of Public 

Health, wrote in an email. "I 

also think that it reinforces 

what we've seen in adults as 

well. For the Omicron variant, 

a third dose is necessary for 

optimal protection." 

Federal officials are already 

reviewing the pediatric 

vaccine from biotechnology 

company Moderna, a twoshot 

regimen that was 51% 

effective in preventing 

Continued on page 13

2 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us JUNE 2022 EDITION

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 3


WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 5 

Focus on Oversight a Key for Success at 

CoreCivic 

In the corrections industry, maintaining high standards of 

operation is imperative to meeting the needs of the individuals 

in our care. That's why CoreCivic adheres to a stringent set of 

guidelines set forth by our own standards, as well as those of our 

government partners and the American Correctional Association 

(ACA). 

Founded in 1870, the ACA is considered the national benchmark 

for the effective operation of correctional systems throughout 

the United States. To become accredited, a facility must achieve 

compliance with ACA mandatory standards and a minimum of 

90 percent non-mandatory standards. CoreCivic facilities adhere 

to ACA standards, and in 2020, CoreCivic earned an average 

ACA audit score of 99.6 percent across all facilities. 

Key ACA audit areas include facility personnel, resident reentry 

programs, resident safety, health care, and more. 

holds our facilities and staff to a high standard. To be able to 

represent our facility and receive reaccreditation in person is an 

honor." 

Adhering to ACA standards is only one part of CoreCivic's 

commitment to robust oversight. When government partners 

utilize CoreCivic's services, we are held not only to our own 

high standards and those of the ACA, but we are often held to 

the same or higher accountability of our public counterparts 

through stringent government contracts, unfettered access to 

our facilities for our partners, and hundreds of on-site quality 

assurance monitors. 

We provide access to our government partners, with most of 

our facilities having government agency employees known as 

contract monitors who are physically on-site to ensure we are 

operating in line with partner guidelines. 

Recently, the ACA held in Nashville, Tennessee, its 151st 

Congress of Corrections, an annual convention that brings 

together corrections professionals from across the country. In 

addition to various workshops and events at the convention, the 

ACA Commission on Accreditation also held panel hearings to 

award accreditation to correctional facilities that meet the ACA's 

rigorous requirements. Listed below are the seven CoreCivic 

facilities that earned reaccreditation this year, with mandatory/ 

non-mandatory scores: 

• Bent County Correctional Facility - 100/99.0 

• Citrus County Detention Facility - 100/100 

• Eloy Detention Center - 100/100 

• Lake Erie Correctional Institution - 100/99.3 

• Saguaro Correctional Center - 100/99.8 

• Stewart Detention Center - 100/100 

• Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility - 100/100 

"The accreditation process is very important," said Warden 

Fred Figueroa from Eloy Detention Center, one of the seven 

CoreCivic facilities that was awarded reaccreditation. "ACA 

To maintain our own high standards, annual on-site audits covering 

all operational areas are administered to ensure compliance with 

contractual and regulatory obligations and corporate-mandated 

requirements. Each CoreCivic Safety facility is audited by our 

internal quality assurance division, which is independent from 

our operations division. Facilities are expected to be audit-ready 

year-round, maintaining continuous compliance with numerous 

applicable standards. 

CoreCivic employs 75 staff members dedicated to quality 

assurance, including several subject matter experts with extensive 

experience from all major disciplines within our institutional 

operations. 

"A lot of hard work goes into preparing for these audits," 

Figueroa said. "Once they're complete, the staff can see their 

accomplishments and feel proud." 

Having multiple levels of oversight helps CoreCivic maintain 

a safe environment for those in our care. By holding ourselves 

accountable to our own high standards, along with our 

government partners' and ACA's standards, CoreCivic continues 

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



8 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us JUNE 2022 EDITION 

Infectious Disease Expert Takes Charge as 

Army’s Top Health Officer in Europe 

LANDSTUHL, Germany — U.S. troops are unlikely to 

have to endure a repeat of the heavy COVID-19 restrictions 

they faced during the early days of the pandemic, the Army’s 

new top health officer in Europe said Wednesday. 

“The extreme lockdown that we experienced, I don’t think 

we’ll see that again,” Brig. Gen. Clinton Murray told Stars 

and Stripes after taking command of Regional Health 

Command-Europe. 

The regional command provides medical and dental services 

to personnel in about 40 countries, including support for 

troops in U.S. central and Africa commands. 

Murray took charge of the unit from Brig. Gen. Mark 

Thompson in a ceremony at Landstuhl Regional Medical 

Center. Soldiers stood in close formation before dozens of 

attendees, all without masks. 

It contrasted starkly with the welcome Thompson received 

when he arrived in the spring of 2020, in the early stages of 

an outbreak that countries the world over struggled for two 

years to control. 

In his speech Wednesday, Thompson recalled the challenges 

of assuming command as the COVID-19 pandemic began 

raging.


He thanked the medical staff, who he said had administered 

some 210,000 vaccine doses and 360,000 coronavirus tests. 

“You collectively did the impossible over the last two 

years,” Thompson said. 

The regional command provides medical and dental services 

to personnel in about 40 countries, including support for 

troops in U.S. central and Africa commands. 

Murray took charge of the unit from Brig. Gen. Mark 

Thompson in a ceremony at Landstuhl Regional Medical 

Center. Soldiers stood in close formation before dozens of 

attendees, all without masks. 

It contrasted starkly with the welcome Thompson received 

when he arrived in the spring of 2020, in the early stages of 

an outbreak that countries the world over struggled for two 

years to control. 

In his speech Wednesday, Thompson recalled the challenges 

of assuming command as the COVID-19 pandemic began 

raging. 

He thanked the medical staff, who he said had administered 

some 210,000 vaccine doses and 360,000 coronavirus tests. 

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Thompson also noted efforts by the command 

to care for Afghan evacuees who passed 

through U.S. bases in Germany on their way 

to the United States after the fall of their 

country to the Taliban. 

Medical staff at Landstuhl treated 391 Afghan 

patients and delivered 26 babies, he said. 

Thompson will head to U.S. Army Medical 

Command headquarters at Fort Sam Houston 

in San Antonio, Texas, said Gino Mattorano, 

a spokesman for Regional Health Command- 

Europe. 

He will trade cities with Murray, who 

previously helmed Brooke Army Medical 

Center in San Antonio. 

The harsh restrictions at the beginning of 

the pandemic were due to concerns about a 

lack of hospital beds as well as the absence 

of vaccines and testing tools, which are now 

available, Murray told Stars and Stripes. 

Health officials will have to see whether the 

virus continues to mutate into new variants. 

But should that happen, they’re more 

prepared than they were at the beginning of 

the pandemic, he added. 

“We may move back and forth on wearing 

masks and having events, changing a little bit 

of what we do, but I don’t think we’ll ever go 

back to when we truly shut down,” Murray 

said. 

Murray specialized in infectious diseases at 

multiple points during his career, according 

to a biography provided by Regional Health 

Command-Europe. 

He completed a fellowship in infectious 

diseases in 2002 and reviewed infection 

control procedures during a deployment to 

Afghanistan in 2012. He is a member of the 

Infectious Diseases Society of America, a 

medical association based in Arlington, Va.


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illness in children between 6 months and 2 years old, and 

37% effective in children 2 to 5 years old. 

Regulators previously had set aside three dates for the FDA's 

outside experts to review the vaccines for young children, 

beginning with a session on June 8. Those meetings are now 

canceled. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MHCE.US 

Under the revised schedule, the FDA and its outside 

experts will discuss the Moderna vaccine for children and 

adolescents from 6 to 17 years old on June 14. The following 

day, they will review vaccines for the youngest children, 

with advisers evaluating the Moderna vaccine for children 

6 months through 5 years old and the Pfizer-BioNTech 

vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years old. 

"The overall data are encouraging such that it is really hard 

to look at one vaccine apart from the other," according to an 

official familiar with the process who spoke on the condition 

of anonymity because that person was not authorized to 

speak publicly. The official suggested the two vaccines 

would probably be reviewed side by side. 

A CDC planning document notes that vaccines are expected 

to be shipped immediately after being authorized by the 

FDA. Preordering for doses could begin in late May or 

early June, but an exact date will be contingent on when the 

FDA's external advisers meet. 

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children younger than 

5 is a three-shot regimen tested in nearly 1,700 children. 

Each dose is one-tenth of the adult dose. The third shot 

was added in December after it became clear that two shots 

failed to muster an immune response equivalent to what 

was generated in young adults in early coronavirus vaccine 

trials. It is given two months after the second shot. 

Although that setback was hugely disappointing to parents, 

the addition of a third shot was seen by many experts as 

necessary because the omicron variant of the coronavirus 

had fundamentally changed the pandemic. The two shots 

that provided robust protection against infection and severe 

illness early on were markedly less protective against the 

omicron variant. 

"Omicron has really thrown a curveball on us — it seems 

that two doses are not sufficient for adequate efficacy against 

infection with Omicron, with any vaccine, at any age," Flor 

Munoz, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Baylor 

College of Medicine, said in an email before the new data 

was released.


While the adult trials recruited tens of thousands of 

volunteers and waited to see if vaccinated people were 

better protected, the children's vaccine trials were primarily 

designed to measure immune responses using blood tests. 

The criteria for success was whether a vaccine provoked 

a comparable immune response to what was seen among 

young adults in trials conducted before the widespread 

emergence of variants. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and 

Moderna pediatric vaccines succeeded on that measure, 

although the significance of that benchmark has shifted 

with the emergence of the omicron variant. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MHCE.US 

The companies also measured cases of symptomatic illness 

in the population, and Pfizer and BioNTech said the 80% 

efficacy finding was preliminary and based on 10 cases of 

COVID-19 in the study population as of the end of April. 

Once 21 cases have occurred, the companies will conduct a 

more formal analysis of efficacy. 

David Benkeser, a biostatistician at Emory University's 

Rollins School of Public Health, said the updated data 

would probably be ready before a decision would need to 

be made, and that he wouldn't be surprised if the efficacy 

number declined somewhat as more cases occur. 

"Even still, it appears the data are so far pointing towards 

a safe and effective vaccine for young children," Benkeser 

wrote in an email. 

Moderna's two-shot vaccine regimen was about 51% 

effective in children 6 months to 2 years old, and 37% 

effective in children 2 to 5 years old. 

If Pfizer's efficacy data holds up, it could pose a conundrum 

for public health officials, physicians and parents. If 

both vaccines are cleared by the FDA, the CDC advisory 

committee could weigh whether one vaccine should be 

recommended over the other. 

Moderna is studying a booster given six months after the 

last shot. 

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In either case, the hope is that children will be fully 

vaccinated in advance of a potential surge in the fall. 

On Sunday, before the Pfizer announcement, White House 

coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha predicted on 

ABC News' "This Week" that children could have access 

to a shot "in the next few weeks" and that action would be 

taken on the Moderna vaccine as soon as regulators were 

finished with their review.


VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MHCE.US


Army Poll Finds Widespread Unawareness Among 

Gen Z About Perks of Military Career 

Young adult Americans think they know a lot about Army 

life, but a newly released cross-generational survey showing 

otherwise is giving the service impetus to fill in the knowledge 

gaps amid a recruitment crisis. 

“The Army has what Gen Z is looking for in an employer. They 

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

enterprise marketing, said in a statement issued Wednesday. 

The Know Your Army national consumer survey found that 73% 

of respondents ages 18 to 25 claimed familiarity with the Army, 

the highest level of any generation polled. 

But survey participants in that age group turned out to be largely 

unaware of what the Army can offer them. 

More than half of Generation Z respondents did not realize 

that soldiers can receive benefits such as tuition assistance and 

the possibility of earning full college tuition. Regarding early 

retirement benefits, only 31% were in the know. 

The release of the polling data comes as the service touts a new 

advertising campaign that talks up the wide range of benefits 

associated with military life. 

Instead of highlighting soldiers in the field, the “Know Your 

Army” ads call attention to things such as pension plans, 

mortgage loan perks and free schooling. The aim is to show how 

such privileges set the Army apart from civilian employers. 

Given the difficult recruiting environment, which military 

officials have blamed in part on a competitive labor market, the 

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

active-duty soldiers, even though Congress has authorized the 

force to grow to 500,000 by 2022. 

Military officials have said that the cap is temporary and that the 

Army intends to grow once the recruiting environment improves. 

Another misperception about Army life for 30% of Generation 

Z polled is that the majority of jobs available to soldiers are 

combat-related, the Army said. 

The survey was conducted by the Army in March across a 

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

margin of error was listed. 

Top brass has previously sounded alarms over the service’s 

difficulty finding qualified recruits in that 18-25 age range. 

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

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



Business Is Global. Your Education Can Be, Too. 

Complete Business Minor in One 

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By taking the five courses offered in this 12-week program, you 

can complete a Business Minor and enjoy the unique opportunity 

to immerse yourself in a cultural experience. Our Complete 

Business Minor Abroad program will take you to the beautiful 

streets of Rome, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, this Summer 2022 

semesters 

Business Core Fast Track 

By taking the five courses offered in this 12-week program, you 

can complete a Business Minor and enjoy the unique opportunity 

to immerse yourself in a cultural experience. Our Complete 

Business Minor Abroad program will take you to the beautiful 

streets of Rome, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, this Summer 2022 

semesters 

2022 Program Update 

In these uncertain times, the Harbert College of Business is 

taking extraordinary steps to ensure the health and welfare of its 

students. As such, only two study abroad trips will be offered for 

this summer. 

Please be on the lookout for details on offerings of a range of 

Study Abroad Programs in Summer 2023. We appreciate your 

interest and will be global again as soon as possible. 

Study Abroad 

At the Harbert College of Business, we offer the opportunity to 

experience different business cultures, practices and standards 

around the world. Round out your undergraduate experience with 

a study abroad trip to Italy and Spain and gain a global business 

perspective. 

Undergraduate study abroad opportunities will allow you to gain 

experience with a variety of contexts. 

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DODEA Seniors’ Last Checklist: Caps, Gowns and 

Diplomas 

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — 

Graduation ceremonies have begun 

at Defense Department schools in 

Europe, where more than 1,300 seniors 

are completing their secondary studies. 

The first batch of graduates in the 

Department of Defense Education 

Activity-Europe’s Class of 2022 walked 

the stage May 29, when 53 seniors 

received their diplomas at Bahrain 

Middle/High School. 

Most ceremonies are this week. On 

a stage set up inside Kaiserslautern 

High School’s stadium on Wednesday, 

Michelle Howard-Brahaney, the 

director of DODEA-Europe, told 165 

graduates to “greet the future with 

optimism, open minds and open hearts.” 

“The experiences you’ve gained 

through this will serve you and our 

country the rest of your lives,” she said. 

A total of 1,375 students are expected 

to receive their diplomas at 21 schools 

from the United Kingdom to the Middle 

East. 

Graduating class sizes range from 

seven at Ankara Elementary/High 

School in Turkey to 183 at Ramstein 

High School. 

The high school seniors are part of 

DODEA-Europe’s 75th graduating 

class. The milestone harkens back to 

post-war Germany, when five high 

schools opened their doors to the first 

children of U.S. military members 

serving abroad. 

“The world has changed dramatically in 

the 75 years since our mission began,” 

said Stephen Smith, a DODEA-Europe 

spokesman. “However, the spirit of our 

teachers and administrators is the same 

now as it was then, infused to the core 

with determination and innovation.” 

Most of this year’s graduation 

ceremonies are being held on U.S. 

military bases, in facilities such as 

stadiums and aircraft hangars or in 

community parks. 

A handful are off base. Alconbury and 

Lakenheath in the United Kingdom 

held their ceremonies this week at Ely 

Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, while 

Wiesbaden High School’s ceremony 

will be Friday in the city’s stately 

Kurhaus. 

Ankara’s seven seniors will mark 

the end of their high school years 

at a ceremony Friday in the U.S. 

ambassador’s residence. 

Ramstein cheered on its graduates 

Thursdayin a car parade before sending 

them off with their diplomas at a 

ceremony Friday evening in hangar 

No. 3. 

Both SHAPE and AFNORTH hold 

their ceremonies June 10, the last of the 

DODEA-Europe 2022 commencement 

events scheduled. 

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American Airlines has Parked 100 Jets Due to Pilot 

Shortage 

A shortage of pilots from retirements 

and pandemic cutbacks has forced Fort 

Worth-based American Airlines to park 

about 100 of its smaller regional jets, 

even amid strong summer passenger 

demand. 

“There is a supply and demand imbalance 

right now and it really is within the 

regional carrier ranks,” American 

Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Friday 

at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions 

investor conference in New York. “We 

have probably 100 aircraft or almost 100 

aircraft that aren’t productive right now, 

that aren’t flying.” 

Isom’s comments come amid soaring 

airfare prices as travelers are eager to 

get out after two years of pandemic 

restrictions and as airlines work to get 

back to pre-pandemic flying levels. 

Nearly every airline in the industry is 

facing similar issues with struggles to


replace pilots and other key workers, even though 

several are forecasting record revenues. 

Airlines would love to take advantage of rising 

ticket prices from high consumer demand. Airline 

ticket prices for summer travel are up about 48% 

compared with 2019, according to travel site 

Hopper. That more than offsets rising fuel and labor 

costs. American upped its second-quarter revenue 

projections on Friday, now expecting to bring in 

sales 11 to 13% higher than during the same period 

in pre-pandemic 2019. 

The 2022 summer travel season has seen airlines try 

to balance their own ability to fly bigger schedules 

versus the risk of meltdowns if operations are 

stretched too thin. As carriers such as Delta, JetBlue 

and Southwest have cut flights to focus on reducing 

delays, American Airlines is flying a schedule that 

is about 20% larger than its next nearest competitor 

at Delta. 

The biggest constraint, Isom said, comes in the 

number of pilots American Airlines and its regional 

carriers are able to hire. About 1,000 of American’s 

15,000 pilots took early retirement packages during 

the COVID-19 pandemic. Paired with a large 

number of pilots slated to hit mandatory retirement 

age, it hass left carriers such as American with a 

deficit of key employees. 

American has filled that gap by hiring pilots from 

regional carriers, including its own at wholly-owned 

airlines such as Envoy and Piedmont. In turn, that 

leaves a shortage of pilots to fly the smaller 50 and 

75-passenger jets. 

“There are constraints out there in terms of aircraft, 

there are constraints around pilots from the 

perspective of the mainline and through training,” 

Isom said. 

American and others have increased pay for regional pilots and have 

added signing and retention bonuses to help students through flight 

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

year should eventually attract more pilots, but it could take several years 

to get the number of pilots needed to properly staff airlines, Isom said. 

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

more or less constrained and now trying to say back up and is still facing 

those constraints.” 

American has been able to make up some of the 

cutbacks in flights by using larger regional jets and 

parking smaller models, Isom said. 

While that helps carry more passengers, using 

bigger planes also means fewer frequencies, 

especially to smaller destinations. Regional airlines 

fly 43% of the country’s flights. according to the 

Regional Airline Association, and two-thirds of 

the country’s airports are only served by regional 

carriers. 

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Biden Tells Navy Graduates Next Decade 

will be Decisive for Democracy and 

World Order 

President Joe Biden told U.S. 

Naval Academy graduates on 

Friday that the next decade 

will be decisive for democracy, 

national security and reshaping 

the international world order for 

generations. 

Russia’s brutal assault on 

Ukraine has spurred a fight that 

is dividing the globe in terms of 

geography and values, Biden 

said at the academy’s graduation 

and commissioning ceremony. 

applied to join the military 

alliance earlier this month after 

decades of neutrality. 

“[Putin] has NATO-ized all of 

Europe,” Biden said. 

Fresh off a trip to Asia, the 

president told graduates that 

they will be at the forefront 

of U.S. efforts to counter the 

rising dominance of China. The 

maritime theater in the Indo- 

Pacific — a region that will be 

“vital to the future of our world” 

— will be the “leading edge” of 

America’s response to natural 

humanitarian disasters, Biden 

said. 

“[We will show] people 

throughout the region the 

unmatched ability of the United 

States to be a force for good,” he 

said. 

The Navy will be tasked with 

strengthening connections with 

allies and implementing an Indo- 

Pacific strategy that ensures 

freedom of navigation of the 

South China Sea and keeps sea 

lanes open and secure, Biden 

said. 

“These long-standing basic 

maritime principles are the 

bedrock of a global economy 

and global stability,” he 

said. “Sailors and mariners, 

submariners and SEALs, Navy 

aviators and surface warfare 

officers, we’re going to look to 

you to ensure the security of the 

American people.” 

Creating a Culture 

“We’re living through a global 

struggle between autocracies 

and democracies,” he said. 

Biden accused Russian President 

Vladimir Putin of aiming to 

conquer Ukraine to wipe out the 

identify of its people. Attacks 

on schools, nurseries, hospitals, 

museums serve no other purpose 

than to eliminate the Ukrainian 

culture, he said. 

“That’s what you’re graduating 

into,” Biden said. “A world 

that more than ever requires 

strong principles and engaged 

American leadership, where 

America leads not only by the 

example of its power but the 

power of its example.” 

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The fallout from the war in 

Ukraine is already changing 

longstanding defense postures 

around the world, he said. 

Putin’s attempt to “Finlandize” 

Europe into neutrality has 

backfired, Biden said, driving 

Finland and Sweden into 

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Special Olympics Drops 

Vaccine Rule After $27M 

Fine Threat 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Special Olympics 

has dropped a coronavirus vaccine mandate for its 

games in Orlando after Florida moved to fine the 

organization $27.5 million for violating a state law 

against such rules. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced 

the organization had removed the requirement for its 

competition in the state, which is scheduled to run 

June 5 to June 12. 

"In Florida, we want all of them to be able to compete. 

We do not think it's fair or just to be marginalizing 

some of these athletes based on a decision that has 

no bearing on their ability to compete with honor 

or integrity," DeSantis said at a news conference in 

Orlando. 

5,500 violations of state law for requiring proof of 

coronavirus vaccination for attendees or participants. 

Florida law bars businesses from requiring 

documentation of a COVID-19 vaccination. DeSantis 

has strongly opposed vaccine mandates and other 

virus policies endorsed by the federal government. 

In a statement on its website, the Special Olympics 

said people who were registered but unable to 

participate because of the mandate can now attend. 

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The Florida health department notified the Special 

Olympics of the fine in a letter Thursday that said 

the organization would be fined $27.5 million for


Army Units in South 

Korea Receive Award 

for Initial Response to 

COVID-19 Pandemic 

CAMP HUMPHREYS, 

South Korea — Eighth 

Army received the Army 

Superior Unit Award for 

its efforts in curbing the 

spread of COVID-19 

during the onset of the 

pandemic in South Korea, 

according to a press 

release Thursday. 

“Eighth Army and cited 

units displayed outstanding 

meritorious service 

through their response 

to the global pandemic 

cause by COVID-19, 

making their #1 priority 

to protect the force during 

these extraordinary 

circumstances,” the 

award’s citation said. 

The citation from the 

Army’s Human Resources 

Command added that 

Eighth Army’s efforts 

“enabled the effective 

response to the pandemic 

not only on the Korean 

Peninsula but more 

importantly informed 

response operations 

worldwide.” 

Soldiers present for duty 

while being attached to 

Eighth Army or one of 

several units in South 

Korea between Jan. 28, 

2020, to April 30, 2020, 

are eligible to wear the 

superior unit award 

permanently. Army 

civilian employees who 

served within the same 

timeframe are also eligible 

for the award. 

South Korea became one 

of the first countries to 

report COVID-19 cases 

outside of China in January 

2020. In Daegu, roughly 

100 miles southeast of 

Camp Humphreys in 

Pyeongtaek, the U.S. 

military reported its firstever 

COVID-19 case on 

Feb. 20, 2020. 

U.S. Forces Korea, the 

command responsible for 

roughly 28,500 troops 

on the peninsula, and 

its individual garrison 

commanders initiated 

lockdowns as case 

numbers increased in the 

military community. 

The Army’s response 

in South Korea, which 

included the construction 

of several quarantine 

facilities and the 

reassignment of thousands 

of service members, 

became the testing 

ground for the military’s 

worldwide pandemic 

response. 

Col. Michael Tremblay, 

the former garrison 

commander at Camp 

Humphreys, did not 

leave the base for 102 

consecutive days. 

“Everybody’s singular 

focus from then on was, 

‘How do we get this from 

getting inside,’” he said in 

June 2021. “We quickly 

ramped up the things 

that we were doing. For 

those three months, we 

did nothing but 24-hour 

operations, continuously 

coming up with new 

processes.” 

An Eighth Army 

spokesman said the 

command was “extremely 

proud of our soldiers, both 

past and present.” 

“Their professionalism 

allowed us to continue 

our mission of supporting 

our regional allies and 

deterring potential 

adversaries while 

simultaneously managing 

the effects of the global 

pandemic,” Lt. Col. Neil 

Penttila said in an email 

to Stars and Stripes on 

Friday. 

USFK counted 104 new 

infections in the week 

ending Monday, down 

from the 141 cases 

reported between May 10- 

16, according to a USFK 

update on Tuesday. 

The command reported 98 

infections May 3-9, down 

from the weekly record of 

1,599 cases Jan. 4-10. 

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VA Secretary Sets Goals to House More Veterans in 

LA, Prevent Homelessness 

WASHINGTON– Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary 

Denis McDonough said Friday that the agency will get 

more veterans into homes this year in Los Angeles and help 

prevent homelessness. 

The agency will get 1,500 additional veterans into homes, 

and 180 housing units will be added to the campus of the West 

Los Angeles VA Medical Center, along with 535 individual 

veteran housing units through project-based vouchers, 

McDonough told attendees at the National Coalition for 

Homeless Veterans Conference, a three-day event that 

gathers community-based service providers working with 

veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness. 

The coalition held the conference for the first time in two 

years. The theme for this year’s conference was “Coming 

Together: Facing the Future,” and consisted of more than 

600 service providers and partners who sought resources and 

technical assistance for homeless veterans in other areas. 

McDonough said the VA would use 75% of its U.S. Department 

of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive 

Housing vouchers. According to the VA Homeless Programs 

website, the program pairs HUD's Housing Choice Voucher 

rental assistance with VA case management and supportive 

services for homeless veterans. 

McDonough said 60% to 63% of the vouchers are used 

yearly. 

"We're going make sure that 50% of veterans who receive 

HUD-VASH vouchers find permanent housing within 90 

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

more aggressively, we're going to use them in a more timely 

manner." 

McDonough also said the agency will get 38,000 veterans 

into permanent housing and is "driving hard" to prevent 

veterans from becoming homeless. 

"It means making existing housing more affordable through 

HUD-VASH and through supportive services for veteran 

families," he said. "It means helping unsheltered vets get 

off the street through the grant [and] per diem program, and 

it means learning every veteran's unique story and getting 

them the wraparound service they need." 

McDonough said those services include food, health care, 

mental health care, and child care.


"Whether a veteran needs assistance addressing physical or 

mental health, a substance use disorder, justice involvement, 

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

The VA campus in West Los Angeles is 388 acres. The 

land was donated to the government in 1888 by a wealthy 

California landowner who wanted the area to be used to 

provide health care and homes for disabled veterans. There 

are several historic structures on the campus, and most of the 

buildings were built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, 

with their characteristic red-tile roofs and stucco walls. 

The campus contains a nine-hole golf course, a Japanese 

garden and plenty of open space. Many of the buildings 

now sit vacant, some because of their states of disrepair. 

Others are vacant due to the coronavirus pandemic pushing 

employees out of their offices. 

In one part of the campus, construction workers are restoring 

two large buildings into permanent housing units. The VA 

expects to have 186 apartments ready for use by the end of 

the year. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development 

estimated in January 2020 that 37,252 veterans experienced 

homelessness in a single night. An estimated 10% of those 

veterans lived in Los Angeles. 

McDonough also spoke about two successes from last year. 

In October, McDonough vowed to get all homeless veterans 

living in the area known as "veterans row" in Los Angeles 

into housing by Nov. 1. At the time, about 40 people lived 

along veterans row, a homeless encampment just outside the 

West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. 

McDonough said the agency succeeded in placing Los 

Angeles homeless veterans into housing by the deadline. 

In November, the secretary promised the VA would house 

an additional 500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles in time 

for the holidays. In December, VA Deputy Secretary Donald 

Remy said the VA had surpassed that goal and found housing 

for 537 veterans. 

Of those veterans, 46% have found permanent housing using 

government vouchers, and the rest have been accepted into 

temporary housing, Remy said. 

In April, McDonough signed an updated plan for a longdelayed 

housing development intended to help solve the 

veteran homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. 

The 656-page plan, called Master Plan 2022, contains details 

for a major construction project on the VA campus in West 

Los Angeles. The updated plan calls for more than 1,000 

housing units for homeless veterans to be under construction 

within one to five years. The plan states 220 additional units 

will be built within six to 10 years, and the VA will add 350 

more units sometime after that.


Spending millions to build seawalls 

would be cheaper than spending 

billions to rebuild the base after 

a devastating hurricane, Cheney 

reasons. 

Parris Island has so far been 

spared the direct hits that have 

caused billions in damage to other 

military installations, but it has 

been evacuated twice in the last 

five years for hurricanes, which hit 

South Carolina every eight years, on 

average. 

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris 

Island Wages Battles, Not War, Against 

Climate Change 

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — Rising 

seas are encroaching on one of 

America's most storied military 

installations, where thousands of 

recruits are molded into Marines 

each year amid the salt marshes 

of South Carolina's Lowcountry 

region. 

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris 

Island is particularly vulnerable 

to flooding, coastal erosion and 

other impacts of climate change, 

a Defense Department-funded 

"resiliency review" noted last 

month. Some scientists project that 

by 2099, three-quarters of the island 

could be under water during high 

tides each day. 

Military authorities say they're 

confident they can keep the secondoldest 

Marine Corps base intact, for 

now, through small-scale changes to 

existing infrastructure projects. 

Maj. Marc Blair, Parris Island's 

environmental director, describes 

this strategy as "the art of the small," 

a phrase he attributes to the base's 

commanding general, Brig. Gen. 

Julie Nethercot. In practice, it means 

such things as raising a culvert 

that needs to be repaired anyway, 

limiting development in low-lying 

areas and adding floodproofing 

measures to firing range upgrades. 

Others advocate much larger and 

more expensive solutions, such 

as building huge seawalls around 

the base, or moving Marine Corps 

training away from the coast 

altogether. 

Parris Island has an outsized role 

in military lore and American pop 

culture as a proving ground for 

Marines who have served in every 

major conflict since World War I. It 

remains a crucial training ground, 

along with Marine Corps Recruit 

Depot, San Diego. But the rising sea 

is proving to be a formidable enemy. 

Salt marsh makes up more than 

half of the base's 8,000 acres, and 

the depot's highest point, by the fire 

station, is just 13 feet (4 meters) 

above sea level. It is linked to the 

mainland by a single road that's 

already susceptible to flooding. 

Low-lying areas on the island and 

the nearby Marine Corps air station 

already flood about ten times a 

year, and by 2050, "the currently 

flood-prone areas within both bases 

could experience tidal flooding 

more than 300 times annually and 

be underwater nearly 30 percent of 

the year given the highest scenario," 

according to the Union of Concerned 

Scientists. 

Military reports have for decades 

acknowledged threats from climate 

change to national security, as 

wildfires, hurricanes and floods have 

prompted evacuations and damaged 

bases. A Pentagon document 

published last fall, after President 

Joe Biden ordered federal agencies 

to revamp their climate resilience 

plans, says the Department of 

Defense now has "a comprehensive 

approach to building climate-ready 

installations" and cites an adaptation 

and resilience study undertaken by 

Parris Island. 

But day-to-day disruptions are 

growing, from nuisance flooding 

on roads to rising temperatures 

and higher humidity that when 

combined, limit the human body's 

ability to cool down with sweat. 

Those wetter, hotter days could limit 

outdoor training. Already, more 

than 500 people on Parris Island 

suffered from heat stroke and heat 

exhaustion between 2016 and 2020, 

putting the base among the top ten 

U.S. military installations for heat 

illnesses, according to the Armed 

Forces Health Surveillance Branch. 

All the training that happens at 

Parris Island could be technically 

replicated on cooler, drier land 

somewhere else, said retired Brig. 

Gen. Stephen Cheney, who served 

as commanding general at the base 

from 1999 to 2001. 

But Cheney doesn't foresee any 

appetite in Congress for closing the 

base and relocating its mission to 

less risky ground, which means the 

government needs to start investing 

in structural solutions to protect 

its crucial components such as the 

firing ranges near the water, he said 

in an interview with The Associated 

Press. 

In 2018, Hurricane Florence 

pummeled North Carolina's Camp 

Lejeune, washing away the beach 

used by Marines for training, 

destroying buildings and displacing 

personnel. A month later, Hurricane 

Michael tore through Tyndall Air 

Force Base in Florida, devastating 

airplane hangars and causing $3 

billion in damage. 

Those disasters should serve as 

cautionary tales for Parris Island, 

argues Cheney. But there is no 

grand overhaul currently planned 

— no concrete bulkheads or other 

seawalls that could dramatically 

revise the post's visual character, no 

master plan to raise buildings all at 

once. 

Hurricane planning is focused on 

protecting life and preserving the 

equipment and buildings necessary 

to limit training disruptions, said 

Col. William Truax, the depot's 

director of installations and logistics. 

"We're not taking on any major 

projects because we've not 

experienced a major threat to what 

we have to do here," Truax said. "To 

be honest, these old brick buildings 

aren't going anywhere." 

Parris Island also depends on the 

resilience of communities just off 

the base. Stephanie Rossi, a planner 

with the Lowcountry Council of 

Governments, said the group's 

Defense Department-funded study 

of climate change impacts suggests 

shoring up the only road on and off 

the island, elevating buildings and 

bolstering the storm water system of 

an area where military families live. 

The base also works with 

environmental groups to support 

living shoreline projects, building 

up coastal oyster reefs to strengthen 

natural buffers to floods and 

hurricanes. 

"The waters will recede," said Blair, 

the environmental director. "The 

more resilient we make this place, 

the quicker we can get back to 

making Marines."

June 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

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