News Call U.S. Offensive Strengthens Afghan Security

In what may be the last major U.S. cludes the 504th Parachute Infantry Command for U.S. Army forces on the offensive in Afghanistan before 33,000 Regiment, is to push insurgents from peninsula, a responsibility now as- surge troops redeploy by the end of the southern part of Ghazni. sumed by U.S. Army Pacific. this summer, U.S. soldiers in April be- U.S. troops with other coalition Established in 1944, Eighth Army gan clearing militants from provinces forces will conduct short, targeted as- served as the occupational force in south of Kabul and conducting short saults in Afghan provinces bordering Japan and commanded ground forces assaults against insurgents in the east- Pakistan, such as Paktika and Paktya, as the only U.S. field army in the Ko- ern border region with Pakistan. where insurgents infiltrate from neigh- rean War. Since then it has served as a Their mission is to attain a high boring safe havens. theater army and Army service compo- enough level of security that Afghan nent command supporting the United forces can take responsibility by the Eighth Army Change. In line with the Nations Command, Combined Forces end of 2013 and U.S. combat troops can U.S. shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific Command and U.S. Forces Korea. withdraw by the end of 2014. In addi- region delineated in the Defense Stra- tion to strengthening security around tegic Guidance issued in January, the capital, troops seek to ensure con- Eighth Army has been designated as Upcoming Deployments trol of the major highway linking Kabul an operational-level field army head- The Department of Defense has with the city of Kandahar, a strong- quarters. named an Army brigade combat hold of the southern insurgency, and Now integrated with U.S. Army Pa- team of nearly 3,900 soldiers to to interdict insurgent travel on eastern cific, it is capable of commanding mul- deploy as part of the upcoming routes to and from Pakistan. tiple U.S. and multinational corps in rotation of forces operating in Af- Vital to the U.S. mission is the 1st joint and combined operations and ex- ghanistan. The 4th Stryker Brigade Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of the ercises operational command and con- Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Divi- 82nd Airborne Division, which took trol of U.S. Army forces on the Korean sion, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, command of Forward Operating Base Peninsula. Wash., is scheduled to deploy early Warrior in Ghazni Province in April. Eighth Army previously served as this winter. The goal of the 1st BCT, which in- the U.S. Army Service Component

From right, SSG Tyler Rux, SGT Robert Addington and SPC Clark Choate, 3rd Platoon, Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, Task Force Blue Geronimo, patrol a field near the village of Gorchek in Khost Province, Afghanistan. U.S. Army/SSG Jason Epperson U.S.

June 2012 I ARMY 11 CAPE Releases Report. In a report re- only of the installation’s growth since sistance Teams to help Afghan army leased in April, the Center for the 2003 but also its strategic importance in and police units improve their logistics, Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE) at DoD’s shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific intelligence, maintenance, administra- West Point, N.Y., listed six essential region. tion and training capabilities during characteristics of the Army Profession: The division headquarters, which the transition of security responsibility trust, trustworthiness, military exper- will not be deployable, will oversee the to them. tise, esprit de corps, honorable service training and readiness of some 17,000 First Army East’s other new mis- and stewardship of the profession. soldiers in 2nd, 3rd and 4th Stryker sion, Contingency Expeditionary Forces The report is the Army Profession Brigade Combat Teams of 2nd Infantry training, will help members of the op- Campaign’s first annual report. The Division; 16th Combat Aviation Bri- erational reserve maintain training result of a year-long study, the report’s gade; and 17th Fires Brigade. The new proficiency. Until recently, 1AE trained findings and recommendations are headquarters will also provide an inter- only units with valid deployment or- based on the feedback of more than mediate level of management between ders. The withdrawal from Iraq and 40,000 Army professionals throughout the brigades and I Corps, a level that coming drawdown in Afghanistan, the service who commented not only exists at similar large bases such as Fort however, combined with the Army’s on the state of the profession but the Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, N.C. planned reduction in end strength, future. have created this new mission. The report found that 98 percent of 1AE Expands Training. As it celebrates A joint team of nearly 6,000 active the responders considered themselves its fifth anniversary, First Army Divi- duty, Army Reserve and National professionals. It also found that “over- sion East (1AE) is expanding its train- Guard soldiers headquartered at Fort whelming numbers of survey partici- ing for reserve component units with Meade, Md., 1AE operates across the pants … trust other members of their two additional missions—the Security eastern half of the United States and units and their direct leaders.” Many Force Assistance Team and Contin- territories. Originally, 1AE was com- junior leaders, however, were con- gency Expeditionary Forces training. posed of six mobilization stations and vinced that one mistake could ruin As of early March, more than 140 10 brigades, but it has been trans- their Army career and that they would First Army senior officers and NCOs formed over the past five years. It now be punished for offering “too candid” were training and preparing to deploy has three mobilization stations and opinions to senior officers. for nine months as Security Force As- consists of eight brigades supporting 52 Based on data gained from the study, the report specified seven focus areas GENERAL OFFICER CHANGES* and associated initiatives designed to help in the development of the profes- sion. I Institutionalized Army profes- sion concepts. I Building and sustaining trust re- lations. I LTG M.T. Flynn LTG T.C. MG R.P. Mustion MG B.G. Watson Improving standards and disci- from Asst. DNI Nicholas from from Dir., Military from Dir., Jt. Engi- pline. for PE, ODNI, Dep. Dir., SID, Personnel Mgmt., neering Direc- I Washington, NSA, Fort Meade, ODCS, G-1, USA, torate/Cmdr., US- Certifying Army professionals. D.C., to Dir., DIA, Md., to Asst. DNI Washington, D.C., ACE, Transatlantic I Investing in leader development Washington, D.C. for PE, ODNI, to CG, HRC, Fort Div. (Forward), Washington, D.C. Knox, Ky. USF-A, to Dep. for the Army of 2020. Dir. for Jt. and I Strengthening the Army’s culture. Coalition Warfight- I ing, J-7, Jt. Staff, Integrating/synchronizing hu- Suffolk, Va. man development. Brigadier Generals: M.L. Brand from Dep. Chief, Spt./Security Assistance, ODR-P to Dep. Chief, For more information or to down- Ops., ODR-P; S.A. Davidson from Dep. CG/Dir. of Ops., SDDC, Scott AFB, Ill., to Cmdr., DLA-Dis- load the report, visit CAPE’s website tribution, DLA, New Cumberland, Pa.; F.A. Espaillat, USAR, from PM CATT (Army Guard Reserve), at http://cape.army.mil. PEO STRI, Orlando, Fla., to Mobilization Asst. to the Dep. Dir. (IMA), DLA, Fort Belvoir, Va. I AFB—Air Force Base; DIA—Defense Intelligence Agency; DLA—Defense Logistics Agency; DNI—Director of National Intelligence; HRC—U.S. Army Human Resources Cmd.; IMA—Individual HQ for Lewis-McChord. The Army Mobilization Augmentee; NSA—National Security Agency; ODCS—Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff; ODNI—Office of the Director of National Intelligence; ODR-P—Office of the Defense Repre- will establish a two-star headquarters sentative-Pakistan; PE—Partner Engagement; PEO STRI—Program Executive Office-Simulation, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Training and Instrumentation; PM CATT—Project Manager, Combined Arms Tactical Trainers; SDDC—Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Cmd.; SID—Signals Intelligence Directorate; on October 1. The unit will be desig- USA—U.S. Army; USACE—U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; USAR—U.S. Army Reserve; USF-A— nated Headquarters, 7th Infantry Divi- U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. sion (which was deactivated in 1994) *Assignments to general officer slots announced by the General Officer Management Office, Department of the Army. Some officers are listed at the grade to which they are nominated, promotable or eligible to be and will report to I Corps. frocked. The reporting dates for some officers may not yet be determined. The reorganization is a reflection not

12 ARMY I June 2012 itary honor, the DSC was awarded to Army Casualties in Afghanistan SGT Pereira for “distinguished service and heroism” in Kandahar Province, The following U.S. Army soldiers were reported killed supporting Opera- Afghanistan, in 2010. tion Enduring Freedom from April 1 to April 30, 2012. All names have been SGT Pereira, a 28-year-old native of released through the Department of Defense; families have been notified. Brazil who became a U.S. citizen two CPT Michael C. Braden, 31 SPC Benjamin H. Neal, 21 years ago, is the first Screaming Eagle SSG Andrew T. Brittonmihalo, 25 SSG David P. Nowaczyk, 32 to be awarded the DSC since Vietnam. SSG Christopher L. Brown, 26 SFC Jeffrey J. Rieck, 45 He joined the Army in March 2009 and SPC Antonio C. Burnside, 31 CPT Nicholas J. Rozanski, 36 deployed to Zhari District of Kandahar SPC James E. Dutton, 25 PFC Christian R. Sannicolas, 20 Province, Afghanistan, in May 2010. SPC Jason K. Edens, 22 SPC Philip C.S. Schiller, 21 SGT Pereira was a specialist and SSG Brandon F. Eggleston, 29 SGT Dean R. Shaffer, 23 squad leader in November when an SPC Moises J. Gonzalez, 29 SSG Tyler J. Smith, 24 improvised explosive device detonated SFC Shawn T. Hannon, 44 SPC Manuel J. Vasquez, 22 during a dismounted patrol, killing SGT Tanner S. Higgins, 23 CW Don C. Viray, 25 two of his soldiers. SGT Pereira suf- CW Nicholas S. Johnson, 27 1LT Jonathan P. Walsh, 28 fered shrapnel wounds to his spleen, SGT Dick A. Lee Jr., 31 SPC Jeffrey L. White Jr., 21 liver and left lung, which began to col- PFC Michael J. Metcalf, 22 SGT Chris J. Workman, 33 lapse as the enemy initiated an am- bush. SGT Pereira commandeered an all-terrain vehicle and drove into the battalions located at Fort Stewart, Ga.; iment. In 1943 it retired its horses for oncoming small-arms fire to evacuate Fort Knox., Ky.; Camp Atterbury, Ind.; armored vehicles, and after World War wounded comrades. He then returned Camp Shelby, Miss.; and Joint Base II it converted to the 3rd Armored Cav- to help other casualties. “Only after all McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. alry Regiment, a combined arms outfit. of the wounded Soldiers had been Since it was activated in March 2007 evacuated and were receiving medical with the task of mobilizing, training, Screaming Eagle Received DSC. SGT care,” reads the citation, “did he accept deploying and demobilizing Army Felipe Pereira, Company A, 1st Battal- treatment himself.” Reserve and National Guard soldiers, ion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd SGT Pereira said he was just doing sailors and airmen, 1AE has mobi- Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne his job. “If you actually stop and think, lized almost 200,000 servicemembers Division (Air Assault), received the that’s when you start panicking be- and demobilized more than 45,000. Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) at cause you don’t know what to do,” he a ceremony at Fort Campbell, Ky., in said. “The key is to keep moving and 3rd Cavalry Welcomes Strykers. Third April. The nation’s second-highest mil- hope the decisions you’re making are Cavalry Regiment welcomed 151 Stryker vehicles to Fort Hood, Texas, in April. The arrival of the vehicles marked the first major step in the two-year conversion of 3rd Cavalry from an ar- mored cavalry regiment to a Stryker brigade combat team. More than 200 additional vehicles were scheduled to arrive later this spring. According to the regiment’s com- mander, COL John D. Richardson IV, the cavalry troopers are now sched- uled to train and qualify and to be ready for deployment by November 2013. The unit has experienced numerous organizational changes since it was commissioned in 1846 as a “Regiment

of Mounted Rifleman” to protect set- Army U.S. tlers crossing the continent on the Ore- The arrival of the first of 151 Strykers was celebrated with a champagne chris- gon Trail. At the outset of the Civil War tening at Fort Hood, Texas, in April. Fort Hood’s Third Cavalry Regiment was the in 1861, it became the 3rd Cavalry Reg- last scheduled unit in the Army to transform to a Stryker brigade combat team.

14 ARMY I June 2012 Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Raymond T. Odierno presents SGT Felipe Pereira, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), with the Distinguished Service Cross in April at Fort Campbell, Ky. the best decisions that can be made.” Army Chief of Staff GEN Raymond T. Odierno, who presented the award, said, “There is a Portuguese proverb that says, ‘Live to live, and you will learn to live.’ … This is a man who has lived to live and through his heroic acts of valor inspired and al- lowed others to live as well.”

Power and Energy Lab Opens. In April, the Army opened its new Ground Sys- tems Power and Energy Laboratory (GSPEL) at the U.S. Army Tank Auto- motive Research, Development and Army/Sam Shore U.S. Engineering Center in Warren, Mich. cation criteria. LEED helps identify ef- White House release, “silenced the en- The 30,000-square-foot facility houses fective design, construction, operation emy fire, but also ended Specialist eight laboratories in which the Army and maintenance of “green” buildings. Sabo’s life. His indomitable courage will test vehicle systems and compo- Official LEED certification awaits final and complete disregard for his own nents under a variety of conditions. review. safety saved the lives of many of his Research conducted there will aim platoon members.” for reduced fuel consumption and in- MoH Awarded to Vietnam Vet. Army SPC Sabo’s unit nominated him for creased fuel efficiency. The complex is SPC 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr., a rifleman with the Medal of Honor soon after his equipped to test every type of manned the 101st Airborne Division during death, but the paperwork was lost for and unmanned wheeled vehicle in the the Vietnam War, was posthumously decades. In 1999, Tony Mabb, a Viet- U.S. military. awarded the Medal of Honor in May nam veteran of the 101st and a writer At the GSPEL opening, LTG Ray- for his actions in eastern Cambodia in for the Screaming Eagle magazine, came mond V. Mason, Army deputy chief of May 1970. His widow, Rose Mary Sabo- across a file on Sabo while doing re- staff for logistics, stressed that reduc- Brown, and his brother, George, repre- search at the National Archives mili- ing fuel consumption will also reduce sented him at the ceremony. tary repository in College Park, Md. soldiers’ combat risk. On average one SPC Sabo, then 22, saved the lives of He contacted his congresswoman, in every 46 resupply convoys encoun- several of his comrades when his pla- Corinne Brown, who recommended ters problems. “About 80 percent of toon was ambushed from all sides by a DoD reconsider the Medal for Sabo the convoys that are traveling on the large North Vietnamese force near the and pushed through a waiver of the roads of Afghanistan right now are Se San River. SPC Sabo charged the en- statute of limitation, which limits the carrying fuel,” he said. emy position, killing several of the sol- awarding of the Medal to within three The Power and Energy Vehicle Envi- diers, and then assaulted an enemy years of the recipient’s act of valor. ronmental Lab, the centerpiece of the flanking force, drawing fire away from new facility, enables simulation of a va- his unit and forcing the North Viet- Best Rangers/Best Sappers. In April riety of terrain from locations through- namese to retreat. An enemy grenade the Army announced the winners of the out the world and full mission testing landed nearby as the platoon secured a annual Best Rangers and Best Sappers under a variety of environmental con- resupply of ammunition, but SPC Sabo competitions. MSG Kevin Foutz and ditions, in temperatures ranging from picked it up, threw it and used his SFC Thomas Payne from the U.S. Army minus 60 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, rel- body to shield a wounded comrade Special Operations Command won the ative humidity of up to 95 percent and from the blast. With shrapnel embed- 29th Annual David E. Grange Jr. Best wind speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. ded in his back, he continued to charge Ranger Competition at Fort Benning, The new GSPEL supports the Army’s the enemy emplacement through auto- Ga. CPT Mike Kendall and SSG Frank energy initiatives in another way: It is matic weapons fire. He was hit several Batts, 82nd Airborne Division, took first the first DoD lab designed and built to times but crawled close enough to place in the Best Sapper Competition at meet Leadership in Energy and Envi- throw a grenade into the bunker. “The Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. ronmental Design (LEED) Silver certifi- resulting explosion,” according to the The Foutz-Payne team won the cov-

June 2012 I ARMY 17 SSG Frank Batts (left) and CPT Mike Kendall display the 2012 Best Sapper trophy. Below, MSG Kevin Foutz (right) and SFC Thomas Payne took home 2012 Best Ranger honors.

eted Colt 45 pistols awarded to the Best Rangers over 49 other teams during the three-day competition. Only 34 teams finished. The largest field yet—38 two-man teams—competed in the Best Sapper Competition, a centerpiece of the Army Engineer School’s annual regimental conference. They competed on a course of 50 miles over a period of 50 hours. In addition to overcoming physical chal- lenges such as a gas-mask run and rap-

pelling a 100-foot cliff, they dealt with Army U.S. day and night land navigation prob- lems and thermal breaching exercises.

FED Bravo Debut. In late April, the Army debuted its latest concept vehi- cle, the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator (Bravo Version)—FED Bravo—at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2012 World Congress in De- troit, Mich. The Bravo version of the concept vehicle significantly improves fuel economy over the Alpha version shown to the public last fall, and, un- like the Alpha, it can generate and ex- port electric power to soldiers in severe environments such as Afghanistan. When plugged into a microgrid, the FED Bravo can provide power at for- ward operating bases and other small military outposts, thus reducing power requirements and improving soldiers’ Army U.S. efficiency. In addition, the engine turns off automatically when idling, improv- ing fuel efficiency. Funded by DoD, the FED Bravo was developed by engineers at the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Develop- ment and Engineering Center in War- ren, Mich., along with industry partner World Technical Services, Inc. (

The Army’s latest concept vehicle, the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstra- tor, or FED Bravo, was introduced in late April at the Society of Automotive Engi- neers 2012 World Congress in Detroit. U.S. Army U.S.

18 ARMY I June 2012