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“The forces already assigned will remain assigned,” said Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, referring to the roughly 85,000 soldiers in the theater, primarily stationed in South Korea, Hawaii, Washington and Alaska.

“We will bring forces from [the mainland] over,” he said during a media roundtable at U.S. Army Pacific headquarters that included Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Gen. James McConville, vice chief of staff of the Army.

Brown said the number of troops to be tapped annually has not yet been set and would vary depending upon circumstances and the preferences of allies and partner nations hosting the troops.

“It would be a division headquarters and several brigades — you know, 5,000, 10,000 rotating over,” he said. “I would hesitate to throw a number out. It’ll depend on the scenario. It’ll depend on the exercise. There will be a continued focus on the assigned forces staying and the additional forces to come.”

McConville described the planned rotations as part of Dynamic Force Employment, a key component of the National Defense Strategy released by the Pentagon last year, which emphasized America’s shift to so-called “great power competition.”

“We’re talking about moving troops into a place with certain capabilities based on the partners we’re dealing with — move them out and move them back,” he said. “And then have the agility to move around the globe and in this theater the way we need to in response to our partners.

“They’re expeditionary. They’re rotational. They’re not long-term. They’re not permanent. But we can move them the way we need to, depending on the mission requirements.”

The beefed-up rotations would dovetail with U.S. Army Pacific’s evolving plans for Pacific Pathways and the new Multi-Domain Task Force.

Pacific Pathways, which launched in 2014, strings together already established Army exercises with allies and partner nations throughout the Pacific as a way of keeping U.S.-based troops and equipment deployed beyond the International Date Line for extended periods.

During the first several years, the rotations were a matter of a few weeks.

This winter, soldiers spent 3 1/2 months in Thailand and are now in the Philippines for four months of joint training, Brown said.

“Next year it will be six months,” he said.

The Army’s Multi-Domain Task Force program was piloted in the Pacific and this year is moving on to Europe for its second phase.

During the Pacific pilot, an artillery brigade stood as fires headquarters while integrating with an intelligence, cyber, electronic warfare and space detachment. The task force was first tested at a ship-sinking exercise during last summer’s Rim of the Pacific drills in Hawaii.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has since directed the Multi-Domain Task Force be built up to counter potential attempts by adversaries to deny access in those domains by U.S. forces.

Brown said the multidomain concept is crucial because any conflict scenario in the Pacific would require a “joint solution” involving all service branches.

“Any issue that would develop in the South China Sea, all the forces are going to have to work together to be successful to handle that," Brown said. “Nobody’s asking for that. Competition doesn’t mean conflict; we don’t want that. But in any scenario you can come up with in the Pacific, it would be a joint solution.”

Positioned on any of the theater’s 25,000 islands, the Army could potentially enter any fray with long-range weapons.

“Those islands make a difference,” he said. “Land will play a role — as all domains will in a joint manner.”

McConville emphasized that the U.S. is not at the point of placing “long-range precision fires” in partner nations in the Pacific.

“I think they are ‘open to the discussion’ is probably the way to put it,” he said. “They’re certainly open to us being there working with them, absolutely.”

olson.wyatt@stripes.com
Twitter: @WyattWOlson
 

A recipient of the Silver Star, Cowart brushed it off, assuming someone wanted to send him an invitation to an event. A second phone call later that day from the Pentagon triggered his curiosity. He was told to expect a third call from a senior ranking official in the next day or two – and that it was good news.

The next day, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey called to congratulate Cowart — his Silver Star would soon be upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest award for valor.

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“I had no idea my award was under review,” said Cowart, who now lives in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. “The Distinguished Service Cross is a great honor.”

Cowart’s award is one of a dozen Silver Star medals announced recently by the Army for upgrade through a review process of post-9/11 valor awards that began in 2016. All military departments have completed their respective reviews, said Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, Pentagon spokeswoman. However, there are a few Army cases still pending final decision or announcement. Of the Army’s 12 awards announced this year, only five names have been released.

The review encompassed about 100 citations of the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and Air Force Cross and about 1,000 Silver Star recommendations.

It has resulted in 57 upgrades: four Medals of Honor, 16 Distinguished Service Crosses, 12 Navy Crosses, two Air Force Crosses and 23 Silver Stars, Gleason said.

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“The Army is currently in the process of scheduling the associated award presentation ceremonies,” she said.

When then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the review, the Pentagon established a definition for combat that all services now use: “The definition will encompass meritorious service while personally exposed to hostile action or while under significant risk of hostile action.”

So far, three of the Medals of Honor have been presented and the fourth ceremony to honor the late Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins will take place at the White House on March 27. Atkins died June 1, 2007 while deployed near Bagdad, Iraq, with the 10th Mountain Division. He saved the lives of three other soldiers by shielding them from a suicide bomber.

Distinguished Service Cross presentations for the late Maj. Thomas G. Bostick and Capt. Andrew L. Bundermann took place earlier this year. A service for Sgt. Robert K. Debolt will take place March 28 at Fort Riley, Kan., and for the late Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker on April 5 in Pittsburg, Pa.

Cowart said Dailey told him during their call that he sat on the review board for Cowart’s medal review and the process took about one year.

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Cowart’s medal was awarded based on his actions May 13, 2007 in Samarra, Iraq, while serving as gunner with 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment — part of the 1st Cavalry Division. At a traffic checkpoint operated by his platoon, two occupants from a vehicle exited a car — one opened fire on the soldiers and the other was wearing a suicide vest.

Cowart tackled the man in the vest, who ultimately detonated the device. While his actions limited damage from the explosion, Cowart’s platoon leader 1st Lt. Andrew Bacevich Jr., who was nearby, died as a result of the blast. Cowart lost his left leg.

"After the explosion, it starts to get a little blurry,” Cowart said in an Army new release. “I know I didn't see a weapon. I didn't see a suicide vest. I wasn't just going to shoot an unarmed guy. But I knew he was a threat and had to do something. We had a struggle, but then it was all black and I woke up in a hospital in Ballad [Iraq].”

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Eventually, Cowart was moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he would spend the next 15 months.

Jonathan Free served in Cowart’s platoon and was there that day. Cowart served as Free’s sergeant and described him as the type of leader who was actually looking out for his soldiers.

“It was such an intense moment,” said Free, who traveled from Colorado to witness the pinning ceremony. In the moments following the attack, “I felt if I wasn’t with him, he wasn’t going to be OK. That’s how I feel today with him getting the award.”

Craig Hall, a member of the platoon who was wounded two weeks before Cowart, was there with him at the medical center in San Antonio. Together, the two mourned the loss of their lieutenant and recovered from their wounds.

“(Cowart) is one of the only guys I was able to speak to afterward. We are mentally and spiritually connected. He’s a lifelong friend,” said Hall, who flew to Texas from Massachusetts for the ceremony because he felt he owed it to Bacevich.

The award upgrade “is a testament to the guy (Cowart). Really is. He’s selfless and he cares about everyone,” Hall said.

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Returning to Fort Hood for the ceremony this week, the 1st Cavalry Division rolled out the red carpet for Cowart and his family. They were given access to view military vehicles up close, tour the museum and stables, and his 14-year-old twin daughters rode horses from the division’s Horse Cavalry Detachment.

“I am honored and humbled,” Cowart said Wednesday at the podium during his ceremony, standing before hundreds of active-duty servicemembers who filled the bleachers and spilled onto the surrounding grass.

Free and Hall were joined at the ceremony by about a dozen other veterans who served alongside Cowart, who poke of the joy of seeing his fellow soldiers again, as well as the difficult memories it conjured.

“Reuniting also brings sadness. Sadly, one member of the crew isn’t here,” he said, referring to Bacevich. “I think about those events every day.”

thayer.rose@stripes.com
Twitter: @Rose_Lori

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