Trade Deadline Additions Paying Postseason Dividends ›› NHL Playoffs, Page 24

MILITARY VIRUS OUTBREAK MUSIC 10% increase Thanking troops, Olivia Rodrigo makes to VA budget Biden celebrates flawless pop debut proposed vaccine progress with album ‘Sour’ Page 6 Page 8 Page 14 Trade deadline additions paying postseason dividends ›› NHL playoffs, Page 24 stripes.com Volume 80 Edition 30B ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION SUNDAY,MAY 30, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas Future focused Biden’s first Pentagon budget request places emphasis on next generation of weaponry BY COREY DICKSTEIN AND CAITLIN DOORNBOS Stars and Stripes he Pentagon on Friday unveiled a $715 billion budget request for fiscal year 2022, asking Congress for the Defense Department’s large- Tst-ever investment in developing next-generation weaponry that top defense officials cite as neces- sary to maintain military advantages over China and Russia. President Joe Biden’s first Pentagon budget request places an emphasis on the future battlefield, with the Defense Department primarily focused on China, which seeks military parity with the United States in the coming years, said Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The 2022 budget request represents an essentially flat budget, seeking an increase in funds of 1.6% more than the 2021 Pentagon budget, moving some money used for current readiness in recent years to prepare for a future fight. SEE FUTURE ON PAGE 3 An Air Force cadet takes measurements on geometric and hypersonic research vehicles. The Pentagon’s budget proposal seeks more funding for hypersonic research and other technology. JOSHUA ARMSTRONG/U.S. Air Force Buffalo Soldiers to be honored with West Point statue BY MICHAEL E. RUANE a smile. dry began slicing it apart with a razor and a The Washington Post So before he began to sculpt in clay, Dixon, pipe saw. LUBBOCK, Texas — Late into the night, 73, sat down in his converted firehouse here It was one of the final steps in the project to in his studio on Avenue X, surrounded by and began to sketch. He eliminated Mat- get a bronze version of the model ready for props and tools and diagrams of the human thews’ smile, and de-aged his face until he installation this summer at West Point. form, sculptor Eddie Dixon worked on the had the image of a serious-looking African There, it will honor the little-known unit of Buffalo Soldier’s face. American soldier in his prime. Black soldiers that taught horsemanship to It was the hardest part of the equestrian Dixon went on to complete his model of generations of white Army officers amid the statue he was making for the U.S. Military Matthews, believed to be the last known Buf- harsh racial oppression of the time. Academy at West Point. The only pictures he falo Soldier to serve at West Point. And one Portions of the model had to be cut apart to BRAD TOLLEFSON/For The Washington Post had of the late Sgt. Sanders H. Matthews Sr. day early this month, he paced his studio in a Eddie Dixon's completed statue of a were photos of him as an elderly man, or with dark baseball cap as an expert from a foun- SEE STATUE ON PAGE 7 Buffalo Soldier is shown in his studio. PAGE 2 • STARS AND STRIPES • Sunday, May 30, 2021 BUSINESS/WEATHER US stocks cling to gains and end week higher EXCHANGE RATES Military rates South Korea (Won) 1115.45 Associated Press the index’s fourth straight month- benchmark 10-year Treasury. Switzerland (Franc) 0.9008 Euro costs (May 31) $1.19 Thailand (Baht) 31.26 Stocks capped a listless day of ly increase and follows a bumpy Typically, worries about rising in- Dollar buys (May 31) 0.8013 Turkey (NewLira) 8.5802 British pound (May 31) $1.38 trading on Wall Street with mod- few weeks in the markets as inves- flation fuel expectations of higher Japanese yen (May 31) 106.00 (Military exchange rates are those available est gains Friday and the S&P 500’s tors moved past a stellar corporate interest rates, which can cause South Korean won (May 31) 1089.00 to customers at military banking facilities in the Commercial rates country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger first weekly gain in three weeks. earnings season and focused on bond yields to rise. many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3769 For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur Gains in technology and health the tug-of-war between the eco- The S&P 500 rose 3.23 points to Britain (Pound) 1.4153 chasing British pounds in Germany), check with Canada (Dollar) 1.2082 your local military banking facility. Commercial care companies outweighed a nomic recovery and rising infla- 4,204.11, its third straight gain. China(Yuan) 6.3714 rates are interbank rates provided for reference Denmark (Krone) 6.1134 slide in communications stocks, tion. The Dow Jones Industrial Aver- Egypt (Pound) 15.6602 when buying currency. All figures are foreign retailers and elsewhere in the Wall Street largely shrugged off age added 64.81 points, or 0.2%, to Euro 0.8220 currencies to one dollar, except for the British Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7617 pound, which is represented in dollarsto market. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% a report indicating consumer 34,529.45. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Hungary (Forint) 286.20 pound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.) Israel (Shekel) 3.2507 and notched a 1.2% gain for the spending increased last month, gained 12.46 points, or 0.1%, to Japan (Yen) 110.02 INTEREST RATES week. the latest economic snapshot to 13,748.74. Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3010 Norway (Krone) 8.3433 Prime rate 3.25 The benchmark index closed show inflation accelerating in the Smaller company stocks fell. Philippines (Peso) 47.80 Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75 Poland (Zloty) 3.69 Federal funds market rate 0.09 out the final day of trading in May U.S. economy. Treasury yields The Russell 2000 index lost 4.10 Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7502 3month bill 0.02 with a monthly gain of 0.5%. That’s fell, including the yield for the points, or 0.2%, to 2,268.97. Singapore (Dollar) 1.3239 30year bond 2.29 WEATHER OUTLOOK SUNDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN EUROPE MONDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 59/51 Kabul Seoul 86/59 71/61 Baghdad 106/75 Tokyo Drawsko Osan Kandahar Mildenhall/ 71/61 71/60 99/64 Pomorskie Busan Lakenheath 61.41 66/61 65/44 Iwakuni Kuwait City Bahrain 67/62 Brussels Zagan Sasebo 108/86 93/87 Ramstein 59/46 74/61 Guam 68/48 64/41 83/80 Riyadh Lajes, 106/80 Doha Azores Stuttgart 111/82 63/60 62/44 Pápa Aviano/ 62/46 Vicenza 64/50 Naples 71/62 Okinawa Morón 78/75 92/64 Sigonella Rota 77/51 The weather is provided by the Djibouti 78/59 Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 100/79 71/67 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. TODAY IN STRIPES American Roundup ...... 11 Books .......................... 12 Comics .........................15 Crossword ................... 15 Music ..................... 13-14 Opinion ........................ 17 Sports .................... 19-24 Sunday, May 30, 2021 • STARS AND STRIPES • PAGE 3 PENTAGON BUDGET Future: Austin says budget ‘funds the right mix of capabilities’ FROM PAGE 1 “It strikes an appropriate balance between preserving present readiness and future modernization, but it is biased toward the future operating environment and readiness,” Milley told House lawmakers during a hearing Thursday. “We are trying right now to put down payments on investments that are going to pay huge dividends 5, 10, 15 years from now for a future force that will be able to compete successfully with any ad- versary out there, to include China.” The 2022 budget request asks for more than $112 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation, a roughly 5% boost over the Pentagon’s 2021 RDT&E budget, which had been its largest-ever in that port- folio focused on future weaponry. That money will be spent largely on the development and procurement of hypersonic missiles, ar- tificial intelligence and autonomous capabilities, microelectronics, and space and cyber technology, which Milley and De- fense Secretary Lloyd Austin labeled criti- cal to future combat operations. The budget proposal would also provide U.S. troops and Defense Department civil- ian workers a 2.7% pay raise, earmark $617 million toward hardening military installa- tions against the impacts of climate change, spend some $500 million on coronavirus pandemic-related efforts, and set aside $30.7 million to identify and address extre- mism in the ranks. JOE GROMELSKI/Stars and Stripes The request is smaller than the initial esti- The Pentagon’s 2022 budget would provide a $172.9 billion budget for the Army, a $163.9 billion budget for the Navy, a $47.9 mated Pentagon budget request for 2022 billion budget for the Marine Corps, a $195.3 billion budget for the Air Force, and a $17.5 billion budget for the Space Force. drafted during former President Donald Trump’s administration, which would have Contingency Operations funds. The 2022 LCSs, all of which had yet to reach the Na- wireless networks. The budget proposal al- sought about $722 billion, matching calls budget proposal would roll those funds, vy’s fleet. so includes $10.4 billion for cyberspace ac- from Republicans for at least 3-5% yearly such as about $69 billion in OCO funding for The budget would fund a total force of tivities and $20.6 billion for space and space- growth in Defense Department funding.

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