Guard Has Given Out Nearly 38K COVID-19 Vaccines to Troops

Jan. 29, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

As of the afternoon of Jan. 29, the National Guard Bureau had given out more than 37,580 COVID-19 vaccines to its uniformed personnel, with about 4,000 troops having received the two doses needed to grant maximum protection against the virus, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jerry L. Fenwick, director of NGB’s Office of the Joint Surgeon, told reporters during a Jan. 29 press call.

Troops who are deployed following their first dose are being prioritized for second doses in their deployed locations—whether they’re mobilized stateside in the nation’s capital in the wake of the Jan. 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol or serving overseas. Unvaccinated troops who are currently deployed to Washington, D.C., are also being prioritized for shots if they’re interested in getting them, Fenwick added.

“At any given time,” about 2 percent of Guard troops providing security-centric support in the District of Columbia tend to be in quarantine due to infections or exposures, said Army Lt. Col. Paul Tumminello, deputy surgeon general for the District of Columbia National Guard, said during the press call.

“We have to look at this in a dynamic sense, and so our positivity rates, if we look at it from the 5th of January—which we consider the beginning—to the end, or to today, we’re looking at positivity rates of about 1 to 3 percent,” Fenwick explained. “And so, over time, if we snapshot it, it comes out to about two percent.”

Fenwick said that positivity rate should be viewed through “the lens of the national percentage rate of 9.3 percent,” praising the Guard’s “force health protection” and the way it has advised Guard troops serving in the city.

However, he said he couldn’t publicize the total number of Guard members who’ve tested positive for the new coronavirus since being mobilized within the District.

“Right now, I’m not at liberty to disclose the actual number from one time frame to another timeframe,” Fenwick told reporters. “Our office has been tracking the actual percentage rates over a period of time due to the dynamic nature of the mission.”

Guard troops who are exposed and test positive for COVID-19 while on duty in the District are placed in isolation at area hotels where they were already staying, Tumminello said.

“There’s a white cell or a buddy care at every hotel … where those Soldiers [and Airmen] are staying, and … they’re visited at least three times a day making sure they have all the food and care that they need,” he explained. “And if there’s anybody that has any increase in their symptoms, or [is] feeling not well, they would be moved to a hospital, but that has not had to happen.”

The DCNG made headlines last week after photos of Guard troops sleeping on the floor of a parking garage located close to the Capitol building—some visibly unmasked and not positioned at least six feet away from their colleagues—circulated on the internet.

“When National Guard members departed from their individual states and upon arrival to the DC Armory, they had their temperatures checked and completed a screening questionnaire,” NGB spokesperson Wayne V. Hall wrote in a Jan. 25 email to Air Force Magazine. “Masks and social distancing are required where the mission allows. They are following these procedures daily.”

Guard troops are biding by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Hall added.

Top ISIS Leader in Iraq Killed in Coalition Airstrike

Jan. 29, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

A U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed the leader of the Islamic State group in Iraq on Jan. 27, a blow to the group’s effort to grow and continue operating.

The coalition aircraft were supporting an Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service raid near Kirkuk, which killed the leader “Abu Yasir” and 10 other ISIS members, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto said on Twitter.

“The Coalition will continue to remove key leaders from the battlefield and degrade the terrorist organization. Terrorists-you will never live in peace- you will be pursued to the ends of the earth,” Marotto tweeted.

The strike comes about one week after ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack in Baghdad that killed at least 32 people.

The group has continued to operate mostly underground in both Iraq and Syria after the coalition and partner forces eliminated ISIS’s physical caliphate in 2019 and killed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in an October 2019 raid by U.S. forces.

In November 2020, the U.S.-led coalition conducted 14 airstrikes consisting of 34 total engagements in Iraq and Syria, OIR announced in early January. This total is much smaller than the height of coalition operations before the caliphate ended, but was a slight increase from the previous month.

In the first month of 2021, partner forces in Iraq and Syria had conducted 82 operations against ISIS, “preventing 63 terrorists from committing acts of terror,” OIR announced on Jan. 29.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 1

Jan. 29, 2021

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

Feb. 1:

An Iraqi force, estimated at 60,000, masses for an attack near the Kuwaiti town of Al Wafra.
Airstrikes drive Iraqis into defensive positions.
Bush tells military families at Fort Stewart, Ga., that Iraq would not dictate when the ground offensive would begin, and that ground war would be launched only if needed.

Check out our complete chronology of the Gulf War, starting with Iraq’s July 1990 invasion of Kuwait and running through Iraq’s April 1991 acceptance of peace terms.

Space Force to Adopt ‘Specialist,’ Other New Ranks Feb. 1

Jan. 29, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Space Force will drop the rank system it inherited from the Air Force for a new set that combines Air Force and Army names, the service said in a Jan. 29 memo to Guardians.

A Space Force spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the memo, posted on a Facebook page popular with Airmen. It’s the latest move to forge the new service’s own path forward as it tries to establish a culture separate from the Air Force it came from in December 2019.

Changes to the rank structure only affect enlisted troops, while officers will retain the same career ladder from second lieutenant to general.

Enlisted Guardians from E-1 to E-5 will be known as Specialist 1, Specialist 2, Specialist 3, Specialist 4, and Sergeant. That’s a switch from Airman Basic, Airman, Airman 1st Class, Senior Airman, and Staff Sergeant.

The Space Force said people should address troops in the first four ranks as “Specialist,” though abbreviations or the full title are also acceptable.

The enlisted system continues on to technical sergeant and then chief master sergeant. There is no command chief master sergeant on the list of new ranks. The top enlisted member will be known as Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force (CMSSF).

While ranks will stay the same on the officer side, the Space Force has decided to call its top brass “Chief of Space Operations” and “Vice Chief of Space Operations” rather than Chief and Vice Chief of Staff as in the Air Force.

Guardians will continue wearing the same Air Force rank insignias, like the chevron patches, while the Space Force finalizes new designs “sometime in the coming months,” according to a Jan. 29 release. Troops will get to weigh in on their future insignias.

Official military documentation like forms and websites will reflect the updates beginning Feb. 1, the Space Force said in the release, cautioning that “it may take time for all systems to reflect the change.”

“There are no changes to military benefits or entitlements,” according to the service’s memo, signed by Patricia Mulcahy, the Space Force’s deputy Chief of Space Operations for personnel.

The decision comes shortly after the Space Force’s first birthday, as well as a previous announcement that the service’s members will be known as “Guardians.” As it did when picking that name, the Space Force considered crowdsourced input from the field while mulling its options for new ranks.

Congress created the Space Force during the Trump administration after years of discussion about the best way to handle new forms of aggression on orbit, such as anti-satellite missiles and signal jamming. The new service is a separate branch under the Department of the Air Force that is now in charge of training troops, buying hardware and software, and providing those resources to military commanders around the world.

Space Force missions span ballistic missile warning, GPS guidance for personnel and weapons, satellite communications, and more that have been around for years under the Air Force. Proponents say those jobs will become increasingly important and difficult as countries jockey for free rein in space.

As they searched for gender-neutral terms with more combat ethos, some instead pushed the Defense Department to adopt naval ranks—including Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who ultimately dropped legislation that would have required it.

Naval ranks even earned the backing of a pop culture icon who is well-versed in (fictional) space operations.

“Why not borrow back from ‘Star Trek’ and adopt our ranks as well? We took them from the Navy for good reason, even though [show creator] Gene Roddenberry was a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps. They made better sense when talking about a (space) ship,” William Shatner, the Canadian-born actor who played Starfleet Capt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek, said in a recent op-ed. “You should adopt the Navy ranks as they are the ones the public is most used to being heroes.”

USAFA Cracking Down on Students for Widespread Cheating Last Spring

Jan. 29, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The U.S. Air Force Academy has kicked out students and reprimanded others after nearly 250 cadets were suspected of using online learning to cheat on tests and plagiarize assignments last spring.

USAFA sent freshmen, sophomores, and juniors home from the Colorado Springs, Colo., campus in March 2020 as the new coronavirus spread across the U.S. For the first time, the school of more than 4,000 students pivoted to distance learning to finish out the semester.

But that presented opportunities for students to game the system, away from the watchful eyes of professors, other cadets, and a wall bearing the school’s honor code: “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.”

“Infractions ranged from failing to properly cite sources, to using unauthorized online tutoring websites to receive solutions to exam questions in real time, to completing final exams in small groups,” the school said Jan. 29.

They were caught through “existing Dean of Faculty academic safeguards,” and most of the 249 students admitted to cheating, USAFA said.

One student was expelled and one resigned from the service academy because of their misconduct, spokesman Mike Slater said. Others must complete six months of probation and remediation, while some cases are still under review. The school hopes remedial measures will dissuade students from violating the rules again.

“Remediation is a consequence and not an act of leniency,” USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark said. “If earned, remediation provides an opportunity to reset the moral compass.”

The school waited for students—who run the process of holding fellow cadets accountable for honor code violations—to return to campus for the fall semester before taking punitive measures.

“The process is currently progressing slower than normal, primarily due to COVID restrictions, but the academy is dedicated to ensuring cadet accountability throughout the entire honor process,” the school said. “Cadets in violation of the honor code are not allowed to represent the academy until they complete the required remediation.”

The incident highlights the challenges of increasingly digital education, particularly as the pandemic has forced schools across the globe to go virtual. Though all USAFA cadets are back on campus for the 2020-2021 school year, classes are still a mix of in-person and online instruction.

USAFA isn’t the only service academy to run into misconduct issues during remote learning. Last year, 73 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were accused of cheating during an online calculus final—the largest cheating scandal in the school’s recent history.

The Air Force Academy has dealt with its own spates of cheating in the past, including a 2019 incident when 10 cadets were suspected of cheating on final exams, and in 2014 when 40 freshmen were investigated for copying lab work for a chemistry class.

The 2014 investigation was the “fourth probe of cheating involving a group of cadets at the Air Force Academy since 2004,” according to the Associated Press.

USAFA is taking the latest cheating as an opportunity to overhaul its honor code for the first time in several years.

“The purpose of the review is to provide findings and recommendations for improvement to the Honor Program, ensuring the Cadet Honor Code and Honor Program relevantly and effectively achieve cadet character development,” the school said.

A review committee will discuss ways to better encourage “living honorably” with senior leaders, school alumni, cadets, and other stakeholders. There is no set timeline for finishing the review or implementing its findings.

Clark acknowledged the probe during a Jan. 21 AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event, but did not say what happened last spring to prompt a new look at the entire honor system.

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

“We recognize that we need to take a look at the honor code, and make sure that we’re serving these cadets well, so that they are internalizing it and understanding what it means to live honorably,” Clark said.

The point is not to threaten a cadet’s career, he said, but to put them back on the right track if they do violate the school’s trust. Still, students need to take misconduct seriously: “It could have a pretty significant impact on your career, if your career gets to continue,” he said.

“The honor code is there to develop these folks that we bring in from all different walks of society, from all different places, and develop them so that by the time they graduate, … they are committed to that honorable living, not only as graduates, but for the rest of their lives, that it is something that they actually believe in,” Clark said.

Acting SECAF’s Goals: Sustain Momentum, Then Pass the Baton

Jan. 28, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth is focused on ensuring continuity in the department until a Senate-confirmed successor is secured, championing Air Force and Space Force priorities as the 2022 defense budget takes shape, and “telling the Department of the Air Force’s story,” according to a Jan. 28 departmental release.

“My plan, in whatever time period required, is to hand the baton off to somebody else,” Roth said in the release. “My goal is to ensure that the enterprise is able to continue to operate in its normal, outstanding fashion and that I support the Airmen and the Guardians in terms of getting them what they need to do their jobs.”

Roth also said he’s dedicated to helping the department sustain its “momentum on both the air side and the space side,” and keeping its eyes fixed on reaching goals laid out by the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

“We can’t afford to sit idle,” he said in the release.

Roth served as the Air Force’s comptroller until the Biden transition team tapped him to pick up where outgoing SECAF Barbara M. Barrett left off following her departure from the Pentagon. Before being chosen for the interim job, he planned to retire from federal service, the release noted.

“If I can help, I’m happy to serve,” he said in the release. “That’s what I’ve done for 40-plus years; so a matter of perhaps a few more months, I’m all in.”

But his additional experience performing the duties of the Air Force under secretary—first from June 2019 to October 2019, and then again from May 2020 to December 2020—have uniquely equipped him to tackle more than just numbers.

“A lot of the things that go to the Secretary run past the under’s inbox,” he noted in the release. “I’m a trained budgeteer, and that’s my sweet spot, but I did get involved in manpower issues and things like promotion boards, department-wide studies, and disciplinary matters. All of that, which I personally found fascinating, exposed me to other issues across the department.”

DOD: Taliban Violence Likely to Delay Full Afghanistan Withdrawal

Jan. 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Biden administration still wants to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan as long as the Taliban abides by the agreement reached last year, but that hasn’t happened yet, the top Pentagon spokesman said Jan. 28.

Last year, the U.S. reached a deal with the Taliban to remove all of its troops by May, provided the group reduces its violence and denounces its ties to al-Qaida.

“We obviously are still committed to ending this war, but we want to end it responsibly,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “It’s difficult to see how we get there from right where we are now.”

There are now 2,500 troops in the country to conduct counter terrorism and training missions—the lowest level since the beginning of the war. Military officials say that is enough to do the job they are given, but “the question is how much longer do they have to keep doing that job,” Kirby said.

New Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, in his Jan. 19 confirmation hearing, said he wants the war to end in the right way, without allowing violent groups to continue to threaten the U.S. Austin also raised the issue of Afghanistan in calls this week with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and other international military leads.

U.S. officials have said the violence in Afghanistan is unacceptably high and has not abated despite the negotiations. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report released in November that enemy-initiated attacks in a three-month span from July to September had jumped 50 percent compared to the previous three months.

“The Taliban is calibrating its use of violence to harass and undermine the (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) and [the Afghan government] but [to] remain at a level it perceives is within the bounds of the agreement, probably to encourage a U.S. troop withdrawal and set favorable conditions for a post-withdrawal Afghanistan,” the Defense Department said in the SIGAR report.

FEMA Asks DOD for Help Administering COVID-19 Vaccines

Jan. 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Pentagon is sourcing a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy military personnel to help administer the COVID-19 vaccine, an expected increase to the more than 20,000 Guard personnel already helping across the country.

The FEMA request, sent to the Defense Department on Jan. 27, is going through the sourcing stages just like any request for military forces from a combatant command, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a briefing. An executable plan is expected within days, rather than weeks, because “we know there’s an urgency,” he said.

Guard personnel are working at 216 vaccine sites across the country, and there are about 1,000 DOD medical personnel on prepare to deploy orders if needed to help, said Max Rose, the COVID senior advisor to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III.

Austin’s first meeting in the job was with senior military leaders on the topic of COVID-19, and he recently met with Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the chief operating officer of the government effort previously known as Operation Warp Speed on how to help with vaccine distribution.

“We have to move further, we have to move faster, we have to be as bold as possible all the while remembering that it is our utmost prerogative to protect the United States at home or broad,” Rose said.

The FEMA request comes as the DOD itself is struggling to administer vaccines to its own population. As of Jan. 28, the department has received 769,000 doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and about 366,000 doses have been administered, Joint Staff Surgeon Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs told reporters.

U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency have distributed the vaccine to 306 sites around the world.

The vaccine is voluntary for U.S. military personnel. Friedrichs said the department has seen a higher take rate among older personnel and fewer younger people getting the jab. This means some troops are deploying or conducting key missions, such as those central to national security and nuclear security, having declined the shot.

DOD is “not compelling people to get the vaccine, this is truly something people have to volunteer for,” Friedrichs said. The Pentagon does not have numbers of how many service members have said no to the shot.

As of Jan. 28, there are 138,783 cases of COVID-19 in the Defense Department, and cases have been rising at a rate coinciding with the rest of the country. The department has been able to “aggressively expand testing,” meeting 100 percent of its requirement last week, Friedrichs said.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Jan. 29-31

Jan. 28, 2021

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

Jan. 29:

The U.S. and the Soviet Union announce that a cease-fire is possible if Iraq makes an “unequivocal commitment” to withdraw all troops from Kuwait and takes “concrete steps” in that direction.
In the State of Union address, President George H.W. Bush repeats that the U.S. goal is to “drive Iraq out of Kuwait, to restore Kuwait’s legitimate government, and to ensure the stability and security of this critical region.”
A Joint STARS aircraft detects 50 Iraqi tanks moving toward Saudi Arabia.
Using deception, 1,500 Iraqi troops in three battalions attack Khafji in Saudi Arabia, and then come under coalition air attack. For the first time, coalition ground forces counterattack. Elements of the 1st Marine Division engage with anti-tank and automatic weapons.

Jan. 30

Marines lose three armored vehicles in the battle for Khafji, while Iraqis lose 24 tanks and 13 armored vehicles.
USAF fighter-bombers destroy oil pumping pipes and manifolds to stop one of biggest-ever oil spills.
Commanders report that the U.S. has lost 12 aircraft, that the U.K. has lost five, and that Italy and Kuwait have lost one each.

Jan. 31

An AC-130H gunship, supporting Marines around Khafji, is shot down by Iraqi infrared surface-to-air missile, and 14 crew members are killed.
Two US soldiers are captured by Iraqi soldiers at Iraqi-Saudi border.
Saudi troops, assisted by Qatari forces, U.S. Marines, and heavy air support, recapture Khafji.
Coalition aircraft attack and rout two Iraqi divisions assembling north of Khafji for attack.

Check out our complete chronology of the Gulf War, starting with Iraq’s July 1990 invasion of Kuwait and running through Iraq’s April 1991 acceptance of peace terms.