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.

“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.

“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.

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].”

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.

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.”

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Twitter: @Rose_Lori

The investigation will determine whether Shanahan has promoted Boeing, where he worked for more than 30 years before arriving at the Pentagon in 2017, or disparaged the massive aerospace firm’s competitors, an IG statement said Wednesday. When Shanahan was sworn in as the deputy defense secretary in July 2017, he signed an ethics pledge, vowing he would recuse himself from any issues that could impact Boeing.

The probe follows a complaint issued last week by an independent and nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Washington, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which questioned Shanahan’s actions as the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian and as the acting secretary, his job since since Jan. 1.

The acting secretary has been informed of the investigation, said Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the IG.

Shanahan has previously denied any wrongdoing and told lawmakers last week that he welcomed the probe.

“Acting Secretary Shanahan has at all times remained committed to upholding his ethics agreement filed with the DOD,” Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said Wednesday. “This agreement ensures any matters pertaining to Boeing are handled by appropriate officials within the Pentagon to eliminate any perceived or actual conflict of interest issue with Boeing.”

In its March 13 complaint, CREW cited several media reports that indicated Shanahan in private meetings had promoted Boeing products to his subordinates and had disparaged Lockheed Martin, which was chosen over Boeing to build the F-35 Lightning II advanced fighter jet.

Shanahan, 56, was named acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump on Jan. 1 after serving as the Pentagon’s No. 2 under former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis since July 2017. He had previously been employed at Boeing since 1986, working on military-related programs as well as commercial aviation. He was serving as the company’s senior vice president for supply chain and operations when he left to work at the Pentagon.

Shanahan has been considered among Trump’s top choices to be nominated to the defense secretary post, but Pentagon and White House officials have declined to comment publicly about him or others who could be tapped to fill the position.

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Of the 117 changes the reports recommended — later trimmed to 103 — 91 were put in place, according to a Feb. 25 memorandum to Congress by Adm. William Moran. Those changes were meant to address years of underfunded operations, an increased pace of operations and an erosion of safety standards, according to the reports.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer ordered the reports to identify problems that led to the separate tragedies involving ships of the Japan-based 7th Fleet. He tasked the Navy with conducting a comprehensive review in August 2017 and the following month asked an independent team of subject matter experts to conduct a separate strategic readiness review.

The USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine container ship in June 2017, killing seven sailors. Two months later, the USS John S. McCain ran into a Liberian merchant vessel, resulting in the deaths of 10 sailors. Both destroyers sustained millions of dollars in damages.

A little more than year after the reports came out, Moran in his memo declared the service “currently safe to operate and a more effective Navy than we were a year ago.”

While the memorandum provides the most detail yet on the changes made after the tragic collisions, some in Congress are pushing for more information to ensure safety standards are being met.

In a heated exchange last month, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, challenged Adm. Philip Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, for more detail about the progress of the implementation of the recommendations.

“I would like to see specific data on where we stand with issues like certification of sailors and personnel on the ships, training rules, staffing levels — and I want real numbers,” King told Davidson at an Armed Services Committee hearing Feb. 12. “I don’t want general, ‘we’re working on staffing or we’re working on more training’ because these were avoidable tragedies.”

Davidson directed King to Moran’s report and said those numbers “were all readily available.”

The report highlighted several recommendations that have been implemented and offered some numbers, but Moran did not list all changes in his memo.

Moran broke down the recommendations into three tiers of importance: safety, followed by operations effectiveness and, finally, “strengthening the culture of operational excellence.”

Safety issues

At the time of the collisions, ships were sent to sea to keep up with a fast pace of operations despite having fallen behind on required maintenance and mandatory training for their crews.

The practice of waiving those requirements — called Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plans — was eliminated in October 2017 while the reviews were underway. In their place, the Navy conducted Ready-for-Sea Assessments to evaluate the manning levels, training certifications and equipment status on operational vessels.

In Japan, 15 of 18 ships passed these assessments, while three were “sidelined for additional training and maintenance prior to getting underway.”

The report did not identify the sidelined ships, and 7th Fleet officials declined to release their names for security reasons.

The November 2017 comprehensive review also recommended changing crew sleep schedules to better accommodate circadian rhythms and reduce fatigue, which Navy reports identified as a contributing factor in both collisions.

Moran in his memo said all ships reported implementing the suggested sleep schedules since the policy was rolled out in November 2017, but “anecdotal feedback indicates uneven compliance during manpower-intensive operation scenarios.”

Effectiveness and culture

To reduce workloads, the Navy last year put the need for manpower on ships and on shore in overseas locations ahead of the need at U.S. bases, Moran’s memo states.

That meant assigning some personnel to temporary duty overseas and putting some operations on hold to make sure forward-deployed ships “went to sea with the manpower they needed,” he wrote. Moran said that on average, 100 percent of overseas billets are filled, compared to the Navy-wide 95 percent.

However, a Government Accountability Office official told Congress in December that ship manning still needed improvement.

GAO Defense Capabilities and Management director John Pendleton said many sailors on two Yokosuka-based ships he visited on a research trip last fall reported heavy workloads and 100-hour workweeks.

“I’m concerned that this reveals an underlying problem still facing the Navy — that it simply is not putting enough sailors on the ships to cover the workload,” Pendleton said at a Dec. 12 congressional hearing.

Meanwhile, the Navy increased incentives for sailors to remain overseas longer to boost stability, and in May 2018 increased the standard tour length by one year for Japan, Guam and Spain. Incoming sailors at those locations are now serving up to four years.

When Vice Adm. Robert Burke, chief of naval personnel and deputy chief of naval operations, announced the change last year at a townhall meeting in Yokosuka, he said the intent was to avoid having commands “in a state of continuously having to train up their people and not having a seasoned, experienced crew that can train up the new junior folks.”

In the past year, the Navy has also issued several assessments of leadership, including fleet-wide officer-of-the-deck competency checks. Results revealed “deficiencies in practical applications of the Maritime Rules of the Road,” but 91 percent of test takers passed the assessments, according to the memorandum. As a result, the Navy developed two new junior officer-of-the-deck courses for training.

Another assessment of surface warfare officers was improved to better gauge the proficiency of prospective commanding officers. Of the 103 officers who were assessed, five were removed from the command pipeline, according to the memorandum.

More information wanted

King, after reviewing the report, continues to seek out more data related to the Navy’s changes.

In a March 10 interview with Defense News Weekly, he said the Navy has “made a good-faith effort to respond” to him and that officials had met with him at the Pentagon. He also commended the service for being “responsive to this tragedy.”

Still, King wants more specific data instead of “general reassurances.”

“My age-old question is ‘does it work and how do you know?’ And until I see ship specific data, I’m not going to be satisfied that we’re really making the progress that we should be,” he told Defense News Weekly.

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“We are still in recovery mode,” said Ryan Hansen, spokesman for the 55th Wing, which oversees operations of the base located just west of the Missouri River.

Flooding began Friday at Offutt, as well as across Nebraska and other states along the Missouri River. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated and many farms impacted. Areas south and also along the Mississippi River are bracing for possible flood waters.

At least 17 high-water records have been set across Nebraska, where 660 people are in evacuation shelters and the National Guard and State Patrol have had to rescue more than 175 people, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said in a statement, reported The Associated Press.

The water at Offutt receded enough to allow the base to reopen a previously closed access gate and all personnel returned to work Tuesday, Hansen said. About 10,000 personnel report to the base each day, and about 6,500 are active-duty servicemembers.

Flood waters are expected to continue to recede through the week and Hansen said base officials plan to have environmental crews along with engineers and the fire department determine building safety and survey damage. About 30 buildings flooded and at the water’s peak, one-third of the base was covered.

Preventive measures to mitigate fuels leaks at the airfield appeared to be successful, as no leaks or line breaks have been detected, according a news release posted to Offutt’s Facebook page.

“After reviewing aerial photos of the areas of the installation affected by flooding, base officials identified a sheen on top of the flood water near the fuel storage area. More than 3,700 feet of boom was deployed to ensure any possible fuel leak was contained,” the release stated. “Closer examination, by boat, at the site, leads base officials to suspect the sheen is actually caused by residual fuel from submerged equipment. Again, there is no evidence of a ruptured tank or a fuel line leak.”

One of the base’s older storage tanks collapsed in the water, but it was empty and no longer in service, the release stated.

“We are continuing to monitor the area with support from members of the [Environmental Protection Agency] Region 7 emergency response team,” said Col. Michael Manion, 55th Wing commander. “There is no threat to personnel at this time and we are committed to ensuring compliance with all environmental procedures moving forward.”

Officials continue to test the base’s drinking water and it remains safe to drink, the release stated.

To focus on recovery, an annual air show scheduled for June was canceled. It typically draws about 150,000 people to Offutt to view the 55th Wing’s RC-135s, fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft, along with aircraft from across the Air Force and other branches of the military, Hansen said. The Air Force Thunderbirds were scheduled to appear at the show.

Camp Ashland, a National Guard training site about 25 miles west of Offutt on the Platte River, was completely underwater earlier this week and remains inaccessible.

About 200 members of the Nebraska National Guard also continue to support recovery efforts across the state, said Master Sgt. Michael Houk, spokesman for the National Guard. Missions include traffic control, administrative support to the state’s emergency operations center, and aircraft drops of sandbags at Cooper Power Station, two levees and Lincoln Power Station. Three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and one UH-72 Lakota helicopter remain on standby for search and rescue and medevac missions.

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Twitter: @Rose_Lori

“I was like, ‘Well, this might be a mistake,’ ” she said Tuesday with a laugh.

Goodwin, now a senior, is singing soprano this week at the annual DODEA-Europe Honors Music Festival, her third year participating in the select choral group. The experience, she said, has changed her life.

“I was totally on an engineering track and from being in choir and coming to things like this … I’m now going to study musical theater in London next year,” she said. “This has pushed me towards my new life.”

Goodwin’s passion for music is the norm among the nearly 140 students from 18 Department of Defense Education Activity schools from across Europe partaking in the festival — the military school system’s equivalent of all-state choir and band.

As this year’s festival T-shirt says, it’s “Eat, sleep, music repeat” — and the students said they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I keep coming back because it’s really, like, the greatest musical experience available for kids overseas,” said senior Donovan Compton, a bassoon player from Vicenza High School in Italy who is participating in his fourth and final festival.

This year, 76 vocalists and 62 band members were chosen from more than 350 blind auditions.

They’re holed up this week at a hostel overlooking the Rhine River rehearsing for a concert they’ll put on Thursday in Bingen.

On Tuesday, the place was jamming.

The band at one point rehearsed “The Jig is Up,” a lively American composition that sounds like a traditional dance tune until it doesn’t, said Tim Robblee, the band’s guest conductor.

“It’s a very predictable jig until it kind of jostles and surprises you,” he said. For the kids, it’s challenging to play because they have to figure “out how it’s changing and make it cohere in their brains.”

“’The Jig is Up’ is just a really fun song to play, in general,” said Ramstein senior Alex Sims, a percussionist who this week is playing the bongos, the maracas, the cabasa, the vibraphone, the bass drum and the timpani.

Meanwhile, there were some clapping and foot-stomping going on in the choral room, while the choir members sang and swayed their hips to “Nda Wana,” an African folk song that is sung in the Bantu dialect.

The song required a similar energy as “Worthy to be Praised,” a gospel tune that earned high praise from the students after a mini-rehearsal with Ramstein Middle School music instructor Giovana Kingsberry.

“I always get excited when we do gospel music,” said Stuttgart senior Tito Mercado, a tenor in the choir who loves the musician Bruno Mars. “I always smile when I’m singing it.”

The festival offers the students a diverse lineup of musical compositions intended to challenge and sharpen their skills while further kindling their love of music, said the guest conductors.

Every year, DODEA brings in two new guest conductors, usually from the states, to lead the band and the chorus with help from DODEA music instructors. Robblee is the director of bands and associate professor of conducting at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va.

This year’s guest choir conductor, Justin Lewis, has ties to both Germany and the Air Force. An Air Force officer now posted to the Pentagon, Lewis previously was the associate director of the Air Force band at Ramstein and directed the Rheinland-Pfalz International Choir.

His background in Europe gives him a perspective on the importance of Europe-wide school events.

“As the U.S. military’s footprint in Europe expands and contracts, they (DODEA) need to continue to be flexible to give students the opportunity to learn, especially when they’re geographically separated from a lot of other students their age,” he said.

That’s especially true for students such as Hayden Davis, a trombonist from tiny Alconbury in the U.K.

“My band has, like, seven people,” the senior said. “I always miss the feeling of playing with a super-large band and having that big sound you just can’t get with a few people.”

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Twitter: @stripesktown
 

“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.”

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Dubbed the “ship-in-a-box,” the full-scale fishing dhow inside a warehouse has become a key training tool in efforts to combat threats in Middle East waters, such as drug trafficking that funds extremists in places like Afghanistan.

It’s run by the Maritime Engagement Team, a group of 10 U.S. Coast Guardsmen who specialize in maritime enforcement operations.

Known as the MET Facility, the compound also includes a pair of stacked shipping containers simulating cargo aboard a ship and is in high demand from U.S. and partner forces.

The team recently took Stars and Stripes on a walkthrough of the facility to show how they use it to practice safety sweeps, close-quarter battle techniques, quick exits and searches.

“They’re searching for illicit materials and we’re trying to deter illicit activities,” said Coast Guard Capt. John Gregg, the team’s commander. “Sometimes there are narcotics that are found, and we have had experiences where boarding teams have found weapons.”

The facility has been around since 2003, mainly to keep Coast Guard members up-to-date on qualifications, but it has recently become a valuable training environment where the Americans and partner countries can share best practices. The team’s 2019 calendar is already fully booked, officials said.

“We realized that we really had the capacity here, and as we began to build our own capability with this facility, it really had a lot of promise,” Gregg said. “So, we started to have engagements with partners and that demand signal grew.”

Last year, 27 countries sent nearly 800 participants to the facility.

Earlier this year, security forces from four Gulf countries came together with the Americans at the facility for an exercise in ship-boarding tactics.

“Each country has unique methods when it comes to inspection and approach,” said Capt. Saleh Alfodary of the Kuwaiti coast guard, in a U.S. Army video in January highlighting the exercise involving Kuwaiti, Saudi, Bahraini and Emirati teams. “This exercise was held on the basis of standardizing methods of inspection, uniting our understanding and theories and creating a foundation for cooperation and relationships between the largest nations in the Arabian Gulf.”

The increased demand for the facility comes as boarding parties, known as visit, board, search and seizure teams, have scored some of the largest smuggling busts since the Combined Maritime Force here transitioned from a U.S. force to a multinational counterterrorism and maritime security coalition after 9/11.

Just before Christmas, the British destroyer HMS Dragon boarded a pair of dhows carrying nearly 11 tons of illegal drugs — the largest CMF bust so far. In December and January, the U.S. destroyer USS Chung-Hoon busted two more vessels hauling about 10 tons of hashish in the Gulf of Aden.

To hone their skills prior to the busts, Chung-Hoon’s boarding team had trained at the ship-in-a-box and had received training onboard their own ship.

“I am grateful that Chung-Hoon was able to play a small part,” Cmdr. Brent Jackson, the ship’s skipper, said in a statement following one of the drug busts.

Although the MET trains for many scenarios, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Philip Cook said that most boarding parties encounter cooperative crewmembers. During practice runs, participants have fun with role-playing and hand-to-hand combat exercises that add authenticity to the experience and prepare them for less compliant crews.

Any flagless vessel is deemed “stateless” under international law and patrols seek out such vessels for boarding, using a checklist to assess red flags, or what the team calls “tripwires,” that represent threats or questionable behavior and set the tone for a boarding.

“Our job is to establish positive control,” said Cook, who said he enjoys sharing tips on how to find hidden compartments.

Positive control could mean dealing with combatant crew members, clearing spaces with “questionable” cargo or providing medical assistance, he said.

Many partner navies in the region conduct coastal operations as part of their daily missions, a sharp contrast to the deep-water U.S. Navy, officials said. The MET specializes in those coastal engagements, which is what draws regional partners to work with them.

“They are great at partnering with regional navies and coast guards,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Adan Cruz, commodore of all surface patrol forces in the 5th Fleet. “Because of the Coast Guard presence here, it makes it easier to engage with the other regional coast guards who are doing similar operations.”

Of the 20 U.S. ships permanently stationed in Bahrain, six of them are Coast Guard cutters.

“Most navies are not in the business of power projection. They’re in the business of enforcing sovereignty,” Gregg said. “Most other countries, whether it’s navy or coast guard, are in the business of fisheries enforcement, countersmuggling, search and rescue — missions that very much dovetail with what the U.S. Coast Guard does.”

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Twitter: @joshua_karsten

Moon and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats “held wide and in-depth discussions and exchanged opinions on issues concerning South Korea and the United States,” the presidential office said in a statement.

It did not provide more details, but Coats’ visit came three weeks after the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended without an agreement over efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

Moon, who is eager for peace with the North, has directed his administration to get Pyongyang and Washington back to the table.

Trump and Kim left Hanoi, Vietnam, after failing to bridge the gap between the North’s desire for relief from punishing economic sanctions and U.S. demands for complete denuclearization.

North Korea has warned that it’s considering ending nuclear talks and lifting a long-range missile testing moratorium if the United States doesn’t reciprocate for steps already taken toward denuclearization.

Trump, who has consistently cited the suspension of missile and nuclear tests as an indicator of diplomatic progress, said he would be disappointed if that happens.

Kim will decide on the moratorium soon, the North’s vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui said earlier this month.

In January, Coats welcomed the fact that the North had “halted its provocative behavior” with the testing moratorium.

But he told senators at an intelligence committee hearing that the communist state was “unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons” because it sees them as key to regime survival.

North Korea already has rebuilt a launch site that it had partially dismantled as part of disarmament steps last year, according to recent satellite images.

However, no new activity has been detected since the reconstruction was spotted at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There has been no activity of significance at the vertical engine test stand or launch pad since our last report,” which was on March 9, the think tank said Tuesday.

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The cutter Bertholf arrived March 3 at Sasebo Naval Base, according to a statement issued Monday by U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed a number of economic sanctions on North Korea in response to its developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The Coast Guard helps enforce those sanctions by keeping a lookout for prohibited ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, such as coal, and goods.

The Coast Guard did not say whether the Bertholf had interrupted any illicit transfers.

The Bertholf, first of the Coast Guard’s new National Security cutters, left its homeport of Alameda, Calif., with its crew of 170 on Jan. 20 for deployment in the Western Pacific.

The cutter’s presence also reinforces the U.S. commitment to keeping the East China Sea open to navigation, according to the Coast Guard.

“The United States is a Pacific nation,” Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area, said in the statement. “We have deep and long-standing ties with our partners in the region, and more importantly, we share a strong commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, governed by a rules-based international system that promotes peace, security, prosperity and sovereignty of all nations.”

Prior to its patrol in the East China Sea, the Bertholf hosted Japan Coast Guard officers aboard the ship during a visit to Yokosuka.

“The U.S. Coast Guard is proud to operate with our Pacific counterparts,” Fagan said. “Together we are dedicated to enhancing our capabilities and strengthening maritime governance and security while promoting individual sovereignty.”

The Bertholf is operating under the tactical command of the 7th Fleet during its Pacific deployment.

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Twitter: @CLopez_Stripes

U.S. Africa Command has expanded its counterterrorism mission in Somalia with the number of airstrikes tripling since April 2017 — a spike that coincides with a Trump administration policy to grant military commanders broader authority. During that time, AFRICOM public statements announcing strikes have repeatedly said that no civilians were believed to have been caught in the raids.

However, Amnesty International in a report released Wednesday found five incidents in which 14 civilians were killed and eight injured in strikes. During its investigation, Amnesty said it found “credible evidence” that U.S. strikes in Lower Shabelle — an administrative region in southern Somalia — were responsible for four of the incidents and that the fifth was “most plausibly” caused by a U.S. airstrike.

The reported attacks happened between April 2017 and December 2018.

“In the incidents presented in this report, civilians were killed and injured in attacks that may have violated international humanitarian law (IHL) and could, in some cases, constitute war crimes,” Amnesty International said in its report called “The Hidden U.S. War in Somalia.”

Hours before the release of the Amnesty report, AFRICOM announced that it carried out another strike in Somalia, which it said killed three terrorists.

“Also, we are aware of reports alleging civilian casualties resulting from this airstrike,” AFRICOM said in a Tuesday statement. “As with any allegation of civilian casualties we receive, U.S. Africa Command will review any information it has about the incident, including any relevant information provided by third parties.”

Regarding the Amnesty report, AFRICOM said Tuesday: “Our assessments found that no AFRICOM airstrike resulted in any civilian casualty or injury. Our assessments are based on post-strike analysis using intelligence methods not available to non-military organizations.”

During its investigation, Amnesty International said it interviewed retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, former head of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, who described targeting methods to the group.

While Bolduc did not oversee the five incidents detailed in the report, Amnesty said targets were considered to be lawful based on four criteria: “age, gender, location, and geographical proximity to Al-Shabaab,” the report said.

“According to General Bolduc, all military-aged males observed with known Al-Shabaab members, inside specific areas — areas in which the US military has deemed the population to be supporting or sympathetic to Al-Shabaab — are now considered legitimate military targets,” Amnesty reported.

In a response to the AI report, AFRICOM said “BG Buldoc’s [sic] purported articulation of targeting standards does not accurately reflect the targeting standards of AFRICOM or the [Department of Defense].”

The report spotlights a military campaign that has steadily intensified for several years, generally away from the public eye.

While AFRICOM publicizes its many airstrikes in the country, its assertions about no civilian casualties are getting more scrutiny. Amnesty also said not all strikes are publicly acknowledged by AFRICOM. In its response to Amnesty’s allegations, AFRICOM said in four of the strikes at issue, civilian casualties were unlikely “based on contradictory intelligence that cannot be disclosed because of operational security limitations.”

AFRICOM denied carrying out the fifth incident listed by Amnesty.

Amnesty called on the U.S. to conduct an independent investigation, acknowledge civilian casualties and offer compensation to the families of survivors.

The Pentagon says it has about 500 military personnel in Somalia, where AFRICOM conducted 47 airstrikes in 2018 and 35 the year before. So far, AFRICOM has launched about 30 strikes in 2019.

Somalia has emerged as AFRICOM’s main effort during the past three years. U.S. special operations troops also serve on the front lines in the country as advisers to government forces.

The military push comes ahead of the anticipated departure in 2020 of a multinational African force, which has led the decadelong battle in Somalia against the insurgents. The U.S. aim is to weaken the group and prepare government forces to lead the fight once the African Union force ends its deployment.

Amnesty said security concerns and access restrictions prevented it from doing on-site investigations for its probe. Instead, interviews took place in-person or over encrypted voice calls placed from phones located outside al-Shabab-held territory, the organization said.

Amnesty said it interviewed 65 witnesses and survivors of the five alleged U.S. airstrikes at issue.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver

The long-range strategic bombers with the 2nd Bomb Wing out of Barksdale Air Force Base, La., arrived at the British base last week along with about 600 airmen and their equipment.

The B-52s will operate out of Fairford, U.S. Air Forces in Europe — Air Forces Africa’s forward operating location for bombers.

“While here, the bombers will integrate into our U.S. and allied forces to demonstrate the strength of NATO operability of joint and combined arms teams,” Harrigian, USAFE’s deputy commander, told reporters.

Deployment of the bombers to Europe is part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which is aimed at reassuring NATO allies concerned about Russia’s military assertiveness. During the post-Cold War era, it was relatively rare to send long-range bombers to Europe, but recent tensions with Russia have prompted the Air Force to incorporate the aircraft into more alliance exercises.

Last year, three B1-B Lancers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, deployed to Fairford for a month in May for NATO exercises BALTOPS and Saber Strike. A B-52 from Barksdale arrived in September for Saber Strike.

And in May 2017, a flight of Stratofortresses from the 2nd Bomb Wing deployed to RAF Fairford for similar exercises across Europe.

Unlike in past years, the B-52s deployed to Europe this spring are slated to conduct training events simultaneously with B-52s deployed to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, in what U.S. European command said earlier this week was a “clear and visible demonstration of U.S. commitment to global allies and partners.”

Since 2004, the U.S. has rotated B-1, B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers out of Guam to conduct training missions in Asia as part of the INDOPACOM’s “continuous bomber presence.”

In recent weeks, the bombers have garnered headlines after flying a series of flights over the South China Sea.

EUCOM and INDOPACOM closely coordinated the cross-command training effort with U.S. Strategic Command, along with USAFE in Germany, Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii and Air Force Global Strike Command in Louisiana, EUCOM said.

“The ability to operate in the different environments at the same time and demonstrate global reach and the capacity to do that in a timeline that synchronizes our efforts is really a tremendous opportunity for our collective teams in both theaters,” Harrigian said.

howard.william@stripes.com
Twitter: @Howard_Stripes
 

The confiscated property and equipment, belonging to two international companies that were awarded maintenance and operations contracts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is worth more than $780,000, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report published Monday.

There were times when the Afghan employees of the contractor Exelis, Inc. — previously known as ITT Systems Corp. — tried to remove their equipment from work sites, but were “held against their will at gunpoint and locked in containers for extended hours” by Afghan forces, company officials told SIGAR.

Contractor staff were “often detained” by Afghan troops to force them to repair equipment that was outside the scope of contract requirements and wouldn’t release them until the equipment was fixed, the report said, citing USACE.

Exelis submitted more than 400 incident reports to USACE from across 800 facilities between 2011 and 2013 alone, the company told SIGAR. Of those, 71 regarded abuses, threat, intimidation, and confiscated property, USACE said.

SIGAR launched its investigation — which examined two contracts held by U.S.-based Exelis, covering a period from 2010 to 2015, and a third contract held by IDS International Government Services that began in 2015 and finishes this month — after complaints from USACE employees. The three contracts total more than $1 billion. IDS International is also a U.S.-based company.

The property and equipment confiscated from the contractors included a variety of items, such as batteries, exhaust fans, air conditioners and air and fuel filters, SIGAR said.

Most of the confiscated property has been reclaimed, USACE said, but the Army engineering command has paid over $325,000 to Exelis for items it could not recover at several sites. It’s still reviewing a payment for missing IDS property worth more than $450,000, SIGAR said.

Afghan forces “apparently believed they had the right to confiscate the equipment” as it was located on their bases, the watchdog said, adding that problems continue to plague the one remaining contract.

“The theft of contractor-owned property and verbal abuse and harassment of contractor staff by (Afghan forces) is still occurring despite actions taken by USACE and CSTC-A to address these issues,” SIGAR said. “Since the national maintenance contract is ongoing, it is possible that additional equipment may have been confiscated, resulting in further costs to the U.S. government.”

CSTC-A, or Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, is the primary liaison between the United States and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. It sets the requirements for both construction of ANDSF infrastructure and the operation and maintenance support to Afghan installations.

Despite repeated complains of abuse and theft, “CSTC-A has not issued any financial penalties against the ANDSF for stolen property or contractor mistreatment, reporting that it has not done so because withholding funds ‘harms ANDSF forces more than it would tend to change behavior,’” SIGAR said.

However, after learning of SIGAR’s findings, Maj. Gen. Paul Ostrowski, CSTC-A’s deputy commanding general, sent a letter warning Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdullah Habibi that if some of the missing property isn’t returned, the equivalent value will be deducted from the international assistance provided to the Afghan military. The U.S. and its allies provide about $4 billion to $5 billion each year to fund Afghanistan’s defense budget, much of it on Defense Department contracts to equip, train and maintain the security forces.

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Twitter: @pwwellman

The high administrative court in Muenster did not order a ban on Germany allowing U.S. bases to relay drone data, as three Yemeni citizens had sought in a court filing. The three plaintiffs said they lost family members to U.S. drone strikes in 2012.

The court’s findings run counter to years of military denials that Ramstein Air Base plays a part in Middle East drone warfare.

The court said in a statement that there were “substantial indications” known to the German government that the U.S. drone missions assisted from Ramstein are at least in part “violating international law.”

The court added that the German parliament’s investigation into the National Security Agency’s activity in Germany and official information the court examined prove “the central role” of Ramstein Air Base’s satellite relay station for “continuing armed U.S. drone missions in Yemen.”

The drone allegations began when a former sensor operator said in 2013 that the technology used at Ramstein transfers data between drone pilots in the United States to aircraft on missions in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.

Air Force officials at Ramstein on Tuesday, when queried about the court’s ruling, said no drones are launched or operated from the base as part of counterterrorism activities.

“We greatly value our longstanding and close relationship with Germany and remain in close dialogue with our German counterparts on all matters related to our bases here and our mutual efforts to support German and European security,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said in a statement Tuesday.

The 86th Airlift Wing also said in 2017 that “no data is relayed through Ramstein for the operation of drones.”

A USAFE-AFAFRICA spokeswoman could not immediately confirm late Tuesday whether that was still the case.

The court said that armed drone strikes are only “legitimate under recognition of the guidelines of humanitarian international law and international human rights protection.”

The U.S. military has conducted drone strikes in Yemen as part of its fight against al-Qaida and extremist groups. That isn’t illegal, even if it did use a base in Germany as part of the effort, the court said.

But statements by U.S. officials cast doubt on whether the drones were focused solely on targets with a “continuous combat function,” the court said. Targeting civilians associated with militant groups but not actively fighting for them could result in extrajudicial killings, the court stated.

Germany’s assumption that the U.S. has not violated German or international law is based on an “inadequate investigation of facts and is finally legally not sustainable,” the court said.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which brought the case forward for the three Yemenis, said in a statement that the ruling was “an important step to place limits on the U.S. drone program via Ramstein, which is contrary to international law.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer H. Svan contributed to this report.

kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com

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The fourth suspect, apprehended in the city of Darmstadt, is a 33-year-old French citizen, prosecutors said Monday. Two other suspects — both brothers of the man who died of stab wounds following the break-in — already are in custody and have been charged with attempted robbery.

“Part of the investigation also is to find out how the fourth suspect is related to the brothers already jailed,” the Zweibruecken prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attempted robbery and whether the American acted in self-defense or used excessive force. German authorities did not say when they expected to conclude their investigation of the 41-year-old American, who works as an Army civilian.

In an interview with Stars and Stripes days after the attack, the American described a violent encounter in which he was forced to fight for his and his family’s life.

The confrontation began when the father opened his front door on a Sunday evening and four men forced their way in. The American fought off three of the men and managed to push them back out the door, which locked shut. But one man slipped past and ran upstairs, where the man’s wife and three children were hiding.

While the father fought, he heard his wife’s screams. At one point, the invader had pinned the wife down and was smothering her with one hand on her neck, the American said.

After forcing the other three men out of the house, the father grabbed a kitchen knife. As he charged up the stairs, he collided with the robber and the two scuffled. The American said he thought he had stabbed the intruder three times.

The culprit then fled and made it out the door. Police said the invaders drove away but stopped in the nearby village of Krickenbach. They laid the 43-year-old injured man on the sidewalk. One of the suspects, the older brother of the injured man, asked a witness to call for medical help, officials said.

The wounded man died at the scene from blood loss related to puncture wounds, investigators said, citing an autopsy result. His 51-year-old brother was arrested and charged with attempted robbery and another brother was arrested days later. The men are German nationals, the police said.

Police said the arrest of the fourth suspect was the result of “intensive investigations.”

There are no indications that the suspects are part of a larger criminal network, Zweibruecken lead prosecutor Iris Weingardt said.

Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this story.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver
 

Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking for an investigation into “suspicious” social media accounts that could be impersonating veterans service organizations.

“Online influence and psychological operations against trusted civilian community leaders like our nation’s veterans are novel threats that demand law enforcement attention,” they wrote.

The request for an FBI investigation follows an announcement earlier this month from the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, which launched its own review into foreign actors using “shadowy practices” to disseminate false information to veterans, servicemembers and their families.

The committee is in a fact-finding stage and is planning to hold meetings with stakeholders about the issue.

Cisneros, a Navy veteran, is a member of the veterans affairs committee and the House Armed Services Committee. He asked for an FBI investigation “in order to identify and dismantle these cyber threats before they cause harm,” he said.

Vietnam Veterans of America, a congressionally chartered veterans service organization, has been looking into the issue since 2017, when it discovered a Facebook page using its name and logo. The page posted politically divisive posts and was followed by nearly 200,000 people – tens of thousands more than the official VVA page.

Facebook Inc. disabled the page after determining it violated VVA’s intellectual property.

Kristofer Goldsmith, associate director for policy and government affairs at VVA, has worked to shut down more fake accounts that target veterans and servicemembers with “divisive propaganda,” he said.

Though the issue has the attention of the veterans affairs committee, Goldsmith argued earlier this month that the FBI needs to become involved to track and identify the people behind the accounts.

“The problem is persistent, widespread, and presents a threat to the force and the veterans community,” Goldsmith said Tuesday in a statement. “We’re glad that Congressman Cisneros and the members are taking this issue seriously, and we hope that Director Wray will too. Depending on social media companies to stop bad-actors is not enough — we need to hold the people behind these fraudulent online avatars accountable.”

A study from Oxford University in 2017 found Russian operatives used Twitter and Facebook to disseminate “junk news” to veterans and servicemembers.

Researchers with Oxford’s Project on Computational Propaganda, which studied how Americans were affected by disinformation campaigns during the 2016 presidential election, found trolls and bots targeted military personnel and veterans with propaganda, conspiracies and hyper-partisan political content. The population of veterans and servicemembers contains “potentially influential voters and community leaders” because of the trust the public places in them, the study states.

In their letter, the four congressmen asked Wray whether the FBI was aware of the problem and if the agency had taken any action to combat it.

“As the federal law enforcement agency responsible for criminal and counterintelligence investigations, we respectfully request answers to our questions below about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s work to combat such predation,” the letter states.

The Military Coalition — a group of 32 military and veterans organizations that includes VVA, as well as Veterans of Foreign Wars and Wounded Warrior Project — listed cyber protection for veterans and servicemembers as one of their policy goals. The group said it wants to encourage Congress, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense to investigate the online targeting of servicemembers and provide training and online protection where necessary.

wentling.nikki@stripes.com
Twitter: @nikkiwentling

The Pentagon on Monday released a list of $12.9 billion worth of projects that could be defunded in some combination to divert $3.6 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The 21-page list highlights military projects worldwide that had not been awarded contracts as of Dec. 31.

More than $600 million in projects focused on deterring Russian aggression in Europe are potential targets identified by the Pentagon, including ammunition depots, fuel storage sites and rail network improvements centered on speeding the U.S. military’s ability to respond to a crisis.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe, said cutting such projects would be a blow to efforts in countering Russia.

“These projects were selected based on a professional assessment of what was most needed in order to ensure effective deterrence by U.S. forces as part of NATO,” Hodges said Tuesday, referring to how the projects were originally chosen for funding. “They represent tangible manifestations of America’s commitment to Europe and to the alliance, which has unfortunately been called into question over the last couple of years.”

In Europe, several school construction projects could be in jeopardy, including plans for a new $79 million Spangdahlem Elementary School, a $56 million Clay Kaserne Elementary School in Wiesbaden and a $46.6 million new Robinson Elementary in Stuttgart.

Other long-planned efforts, such as the $43.9 million expansion of the Marine Corps’ headquarters in Stuttgart and a $31 million mission training complex in Grafenwoehr – the Army’s main training area in Europe – also are potentially on the chopping block.

A Defense Department fact sheet said no decisions have yet been made and that if the Pentagon’s 2020 budget request is enacted on time, no military construction projects would be delayed or canceled.

In Europe, the largest number of projects is related to the military’s ongoing efforts to deter Russian aggression through the European Deterrence Initiative, or EDI. While much of that military campaign has focused on funding operations, such as rotating armored brigades from the U.S. to serve as reinforcements in Europe, another dimension centers on logistics. Since Russia’s 2014 forced annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the United States and allies have spent billions trying to improve infrastructure that would be needed to move forces in response to a conflict.

“I cannot stress enough that U.S. (European Command’s) ongoing and future success in implementing and executing these strategies (to deter Russia) is only possible with Congress’ support, especially the sustained funding of the European Deterrence Initiative,” EUCOM commander Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti told lawmakers earlier this month.

Hodges said beefing up logistics networks is one of the ways the U.S. compensates for a smaller Army presence, which stands at roughly 32,000 soldiers on the Continent.

“We could only fill half of a football stadium with the number of troops we have here (in Europe),” Hodges said of the Army’s presence. “Our deterrence contributions rely on presence in Europe and on prepositioned equipment and logistical infrastructure that will enable rapid reinforcement.”

A focal point has been the setup of large ammunition depots scattered at strategic locations in Europe, improvements at ports where weaponry would be offloaded and at various railroad points where gear would likely be hauled. And there are scores of initiatives that have been funded, but for which contracts are yet to be rewarded. Some of the biggest plans are in Poland, where about $145 million is to be spent on ammunition and fuel storage sites, staging areas and rail extensions.

The Pentagon list also touches projects in central and Eastern European countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Areas of focus include military airfield upgrades and munition storage areas.

In addition to logistics efforts, a plan to build a $15 million special operations training center in Estonia is on the list. In southern Europe, $21 million to improve port facilities at the U.S. Navy’s hub at Rota, Spain, and $47.8 million to improve Navy logistics and mobility centers in Souda Bay, Greece, also are at risk.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver
 

Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, N.Y., Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; Defense Intelligence Agency civilian Scott A. Wirtz, 42, of St. Louis, Mo., and interpreter Ghadir Taher, 27, of East Point, Ga., were among 16 people killed by a suicide bomber at a restaurant in Manbij in northern Syria.

The suspects were captured Tuesday when U.S.-backed forces took control of an ISIS encampment in the village of Baghouz, the last sliver of territory in Syria held by the extremists, Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a Twitter post.

He said the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the Kurdish-led group. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects.

“This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight,” Bali said in a Twitter post. He said hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment.

The servicemembers were at a restaurant near a crowded market for a meeting with local leaders, U.S. Central Command said after the January attack. Members of the Manbij Military Council, which has controlled the city since it was liberated from ISIS in mid-2016, were also reportedly among the other dozen people killed in the blast.

Kent, who left a husband and two sons, was the first female U.S. servicemember killed in action since December 2015, and the first killed in action in the anti-ISIS campaign. She was a cryptologist and cancer survivor who had lobbied on Capitol Hill for new protections for servicemembers and was slated to start a graduate program this year.

Farmer, whose survivors include his wife and four children, had served in the 5th Special Forces Group for most of his nearly 14-year career and had served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his Army career, he earned awards including the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with the combat “C” device, the Army Commendation medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and a Combat Infantry Badge.

Wirtz, a Navy veteran, is the first known Defense Department civilian killed in action in what has been called Operation Inherent Resolve since 2014. He spent most of his Navy career from 1998 to 2005 assigned to the Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 5, where he specialized as a sniper. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and also deployed to locations in Africa, the Philippines and South Korea, according to his mother.He joined the DIA in 2017 as an operations support specialist, charged with overseeing operations to collect human intelligence. He served three deployments to the Middle East in the role, according to his DIA biography.

Taher was born and reared in the Syrian capital of Damascus and became a naturalized citizen after she immigrated to the United States with her brother in 2001. She joined a company that provides linguists to the U.S. military after studying at Georgia State University.

The ISIS-held village of Baghouz is the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the extremist group, which once held a vast area of Syria and Iraq, calling it an Islamic “caliphate.” Baghouz’s fall would mark the end of the devastating four-year campaign to end IS’s hold on any kind of territory, although it maintains scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries.

The battle for Baghouz — including the encampment, a collection of tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels — has dragged on for weeks amid an unexpected exodus of civilians from the area.

U.S.-backed forces have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more ISIS fighters may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The first suspect, identified as Mohammad Rafea Yassen Y., 28, is accused of carrying out 13 attacks on Americans with explosives between 2006 and 2008, and of more recent crimes as a member of the Islamic State group, including public executions. Officials did not release his or the other suspects’ last names for privacy reasons.

“In two cases, he secured executions at the village square at which members of the terror organization killed children, women and men,” German prosecutors said of the 28-year-old’s involvement in ISIS, adding that it began in 2014.

Before he joined ISIS, the suspect was already involved in the resistance. His first attacks were carried out near his hometown of Rutba in Iraq’s Anbar province, German authorities claimed on Monday. That province ranks among the deadliest for U.S. and allied forces in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in March 2003.

Among those killed in the attacks were “members of the U.S. Army, the local police and civilian bystanders,” the federal prosecutor’s office said. The Iraqi suspect is believed to have assembled the explosive devices with the help of other militants.

It’s not clear how many American deaths the man is purported to have caused — some 475 troops were killed in hostilities in Anbar province between 2006 and 2008, to include nearly 200 reportedly killed in incidents involving improvised explosive device blasts, according to an analysis of casualty data on the website icasualties.org, which tracks coalition deaths.

For example, Sgt. Michael D. Rowe, a 23-year-old soldier form New Port Richey, Fla., was killed in an IED attack near Rutba on March 28, 2006, the data shows. Two Marines were also killed in hostilities near the town — Lance Cpl. Shane P. Harris, 23, killed by enemy fire on Sept. 3, 2006 and Capt. Kevin Kryst, 27, killed in a mortar attack on Dec. 18, 2006.

Yassen Y. is accused more recently of being an accomplice in other killings and war crimes after joining ISIS about five years ago, though scarce details were provided. He acted as a guard and used his Kalashnikov assault rifle to carry out executions, authorities said.

The federal prosecutor’s office also pressed charges against two other Iraqis accused of being ISIS members: Muqatil Ahmed Osman A., 29, and Hasan Sabbar Khazaal K., 27. Osman A. attended military training and then participated in ISIS battles. Khazaal K. is believed to have produced and distributed propaganda material for ISIS.

“He filmed executions, punishments and missions of the terror organization,” and forced members of the local community in Rutba to watch the videos, prosecutors said.

In 2015, the three left Iraq for Germany. They were arrested in June 2018 and have been in jail since that time.

Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office has for years pressed charges against suspected Islamic radicals accused of committing acts of terror in other countries. The first sentence in a case where a foreign combatant was tried for having a role in attacks on U.S. forces abroad came in February 2018, when a German court sentenced an Afghan refugee to four years and 10 months in jail for carrying out attacks years earlier in Afghanistan.

kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com

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Tech. Sgt. Jacory Royster of the 36th Security Forces Squadron was found not guilty Friday of the most serious charge against him after a four-day court-martial, according to a trial report provided to Stars and Stripes.

Prosecutors alleged that Royster in July had touched a woman’s back, buttocks and leg without her consent.

Several people levied those accusations against Royster, 36th Wing spokesman Tech Sgt. Jake Barreiro said last month. Royster was not placed in pre-trial confinement pending trial.

However, Royster was found guilty of using indecent language and telling several servicemembers they could consume alcohol, as long as they did so out of his sight, a violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the report said.

Royster will be reprimanded for his conduct and forced to forfeit $4,800.

burke.matt@stripes.com

Soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division began arriving in Berlin and will move on to training grounds in Poland for live-fire drills, U.S. Army Europe said.

“Our ability to rapidly surge combat-ready forces into and across the theater is critical in projecting forces at a moment’s notice to support the NATO alliance,” USAREUR said in a statement. “However, this deployment is not in response to any real world situation.”

The purpose is to “exercise the U.S. Army’s ability to rapidly alert, recall and deploy under emergency conditions.”

The sudden deployment is the latest sign of how the Pentagon’s “Dynamic Force Employment” strategy is altering how the Army operates in the U.S. European Command area.

The concept, developed by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, calls for more unpredictable deployments designed to showcase military agility to potential adversaries.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military also deployed an advanced missile defense system to Israel where it will operate from various locations in an effort to bolster Israeli defenses. That Army mission also tapped Fort Bliss soldiers, including the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

The force now arriving in Germany under the Dynamic Force Employment concept “makes our activities unpredictable to potential adversaries … while maintaining strategic predictability for our NATO allies and partners,” USAREUR said.

The soldiers will travel to Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, where they will use more than 700 pieces of equipment pulled from an Army pre-positioned equipment site in Eygelshoven, Netherlands. The soldiers will train with their Polish counterparts over the next few weeks, USAREUR said.

“The training will culminate with a gunnery and a combined live fire exercise. Once the exercise is complete, the unit will return to Fort Bliss and the equipment will return to Eygelshoven,” USAREUR said.

The Army relies on pre-positioned weapons stockpiles to make up for a smaller number of permanently based troops in Europe, where both manpower and weaponry were scaled back after the Cold War.

In response to concerns about a more aggressive Russia, the military in Europe has been building up weapons stockpiles, which forces rotating into Europe can draw from for training or in a crisis.

The weapons stocks “reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power,” USAREUR said.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver

The Maj. Gen. W.P.T. Hill Memorial Awards for Food Service Excellence were established in 1985 with the aim of improving food service operations and identifying the best expeditionary dining facility in the Marine Corps. The award winners — I MEF and II MEF cooks are also competing — are expected to be named in early April and will be able to attend a ceremony in Chicago in May.

Food specialists of the 37th Regiment presented a “build your own” meal of Okinawa taco rice to judges and patrons on Thursday. It’s an island lunchtime staple of ground beef or chicken, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes served on top of rice.

The competition involved more than a meal; the regiment also had to build a field mess tent fitted with a kitchen, serving line, seating area and physical security.

The team dedicated its expeditionary field kitchen, or EFK, to Pvt. Howard P. Perry, who in 1942 became the first African-American to enlist in the Marine Corps. Construction started on Feb. 28 and builders overcame strong winds and heavy rains to finish the job.

“It took about three weeks to set up the site,” the regimental mess chief, Gunnery Sgt. Julia Criquimatura, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday. “The EFK itself can feed over 800 Marines, twice a day.”

On competition day, a three-person panel – two senior food-service specialists from Headquarters Marine Corps and a civilian representative from the National Restaurant Association – judged the regiment’s presentation. Servicemembers from various commands were invited to experience the field kitchen and taste the menu items.

“I am very impressed with what I am learning about the Marines in particular with the standards they adhere to, how they evaluate their performance, how they hold everyone accountable and the teamwork where everybody is a mentor for one another, helping each other grow,” Michael Pizzuto, a judge from the National Restaurant Association, told Stars and Stripes.

Pizzuto, on his first trip to Okinawa, said being a part of the judging panel held a special meaning for him. The island was his father’s last duty station while serving in the Army during World War II.

This year’s competitors prepared the taco rice meal to highlight their connection with Okinawa, according to Col. Scott Johnson, commander of CLR 37.

“This year they brought it,” he said. “Not only the tactical setup, with the camo-netting and concertina wire, but also the internal setup with the best chow on the menu.”

The Marines put their own spin on the menu’s side items with names like “quarterdeck quesadillas,” “fire watch nachos” and “sea bag salad bar.”

Aside from judging the food quality and taste, the judges evaluated the entire process, from site layout, management and sanitation, to food preparation, maintenance, storage and financial accounting.

Pizzuto said the MEF that comes out victorious would most likely be close in final scores, but he said he was impressed by the quality and maturity of the Marines he evaluated, compared to the chefs he speaks to in civilian kitchens.

“The military travels on its stomach,” he said. “If they are not healthy and not well fed, they are not going to perform or get the mission done. But I don’t see that happening, especially with the kind of enhancements here.”

Competitors said winning the top award means recognition for the routine, daily work done in kitchens to feed Marines.

“I really hope we win,” said food-service specialist Lance Cpl. Carolina Campuzano. “This morning we gave our best, we put our love and everything into this meal and this whole set up.”

Criquimatura said the competition brought out the best in the regiment.

“The highlight of today was everybody’s mood; everybody was just really happy to be here, the cooks, the patrons, everything was amazing,” she said. “It was hard work. It was all worth it.”

vazquez.carlos@stripes.com
Twitter: @StripesCarlos