SPECIAL EDITION YEAR IN DEFENSE ARMY | NAVY | MARINES | AIR FORCE | NATIONAL GUARD FREE 2014 EDITION Hagel’s Battles Defense STRATEGIC COMBAT LIFE AFTER SHIFT READY SERVICE secretary faces From Afghanistan Innovative tech Programs help tough choices to the Pacific region for the troops wwith education, jobs 2 SPECIAL EDITION USA TODAY USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION 3 4 SPECIAL EDITION USA TODAY USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION 5 " is is a product of EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jim Lenahan [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Jeanette Barrett-Stokes [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Jerald Council U.S. NAVY [email protected] EDITORS THE TROOPS Chris Garsson Christine Neff ABOVE AND BEYOND Elizabeth Neus 40 Paying tribute to heroes Amanda Shifflett — past and present DESIGNERS HONOR THE FALLEN Erin Aulov 42 Remembering those Karen Loehr who have died Kathleen Rudell Lisa M. Zilka WOMEN IN COMBAT 53 Training and assessment INTERNS underway Quinn Kelley, Zoe King SHAME OF A NATION CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Matt Alderton, Lucas Bernhardt, Julie Bird, 54 Trying to put an end to Paige Bowers, Stacey Closser, Clay Dillow, sexual assaults Jesse Ellison, Laura Laing, Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Tom Philpott, Erik Schechter, Marc INVISIBLE TRAUMAS Selinger, Adam Stone, Dan Taylor, 55 Preventing suicides, treating Tom Vanden Brook CONTENTS PTSD CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS U.S. MARINE CORPS A WAY OF LIFE Kelly Boyd, Zach Crookston, David Hyman, How four military families Gary Tramontina 59 THE POLICIES THE BRANCHES fared in 2013 ADVERTISING AT THE HELM ARMY JOB HUNTING VP, ADVERTISING 6 Defense chief faces tough decisions 22 Q&A with the chief of staff 66 Programs provide direction Patrick Burke | 703-854-5914 and a look at new challenges [email protected] REBALANCING ACT BUYING POWER Handling complicated foreign policy NAVY PROJECT MANAGER 11 70 Commissaries keep current Justine Goodwin | 703-854-5444 26 Q&A with the chief of opera- NEW KIND OF WARFARE [email protected] tions and a look at “operating 16 Taking command of cybersecurity forward” THE WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY A USA TODAY publication, Gannett Co. Inc. BUDGET BATTLES MARINE CORPS UNMANNED ACCOMPLISHMENTS USA TODAY, its logo and associated graphics are the 20 Services caught in fi scal crunch 30 Q&A with the commandant and 75 trademarks of Gannett Co. Inc. or its affi liates. All rights a look at amphibious priorities New systems fl y high reserved. Copyright 2013, USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Editorial and publication headquarters Secretary of AIR FORCE TECH FOR THE TROOPS are at 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22108, and ABOUT THE COVER Defense Chuck 34 Q&A with the chief of staff and a 78 The latest in armor, equipment at 703-854-3400. Hagel makes a stop aboard the Arleigh For accuracy questions, call or send an e-mail to look at the Joint Strike Fighter Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS BUILDING FOR VICTORY [email protected]. Stethem at Fleet Activities, Yokosuka — a NATIONAL GUARD 83 Military construction worldwide U.S. Naval base outside of Tokyo — on Oct. Prepared for “boots on the PRINTED IN THE USA 38 4 while visiting South Korea and Japan. ground” MILITARY HEART Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images 86 Service members lend a hand 6 SPECIAL EDITION USA TODAY THE POLICIES Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks with troops at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu on May 30. HAGEL’S HEAVY AGENDADEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Defense chief faces tough challenges in the year ahead By Tom Vanden Brook convince reluctant service chiefs to accept ers on stemming sexual assaults in the job. He doesn’t absorb details, he doesn’t them. Adopting reforms to the military’s military, and doing so without drawing listen to advisers and he’s too diplomatic to OR CHUCK HAGEL, the listening tour justice system will be another major issue attention to himself. make an impression on Congress.” is over. on which he’s judged. “He’s leading thoughtfully and methodi- Since his historically contentious Hagel, though, prefers to leave report cally, and not with a lot of overt publicity,” NO HONEYMOON confirmation for defense secretary in cards and navel-gazing to others. Reed said. “He leads more with a kind It was clear from the start that Hagel FFebruary, Hagel has been listening to just “I don’t sit around every night at 7 of quiet confidence and has an excellent would not have a honeymoon. Though about anybody with an opinion about the o’clock and think about, well, what did I rapport with the uniformed military.” a former senator, he became the first Pentagon — generals and privates, senators get today, an A, B, F — whatever,” Hagel But there are some who already believe nominee as defense secretary to have his and veterans. Now, on a host of issues — said in an interview with USA TODAY in his he’s the wrong man for the job. nomination filibustered. And that delaying from shrinking the military to stemming its office at the Pentagon in November. “We’ll “What the military needs right now is a tactic came from Republicans — members sexual assault crisis — it’s time to act. leave that to when the job’s over.” forceful advocate in the debate of national of his own party. Whether Hagel meets those challenges On Capitol Hill, Hagel can count on the priorities, and Hagel doesn’t have that kind The ranking Republican on the Senate will become evident soon. The Pentagon’s strong support of Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., of personality. He seems afraid to speak Armed Services Committee, James Inhofe budget for 2015, to be unveiled early in a prominent member of the Armed bluntly,” said Loren Thompson, a military of Oklahoma, challenged Hagel’s toughness 2014, for example, will begin to show just Services Committee. To Reed, Hagel gets analyst at the Lexington Institute and a on Iran. Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, how deep the cuts will be in troop levels strong grades for handling the budget and consultant to defense contractors. “Hagel is and weapons. It will be Hagel’s task to demanding accountability from command- turning out to be the wrong person for the CONTINUED USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION 7 8 SPECIAL EDITION USA TODAY THE POLICIES suggested during the hearing, with no substantiation, that Hagel might have received money from North Korea — a charge Hagel denied. Cruz’s colleagues on both sides of the aisle condemned the attack as inappropriate. If the criticism stung, Hagel, 67, hasn’t winced. Maybe that’s because he’s seen and heard far worse. He and his brother, Tom, served in Vietnam at the war’s height in 1967 and ’68. One of his first jobs as a private on the battlefield was to burn bar- rels of human waste, he told his biographer, Charlyne Berens. In 1968, the brothers were sent to Saigon to blunt the Tet offensive. There, in house-to-house fighting, the brothers “got very, very good at killing,” Tom Hagel told Berens. Later, Chuck rescued his brother from a burning vehicle, which had run over a land mine. The Army awarded two Purple Hearts to Chuck Hagel. He returned home, succeeded in business ventures (including founding a cellphone company), and won two terms in the Senate from his home state of Nebraska. Reed, himself an Army veteran, said Hagel built credibility within the military. JASON REED/GETTY IMAGES “He’s been a soldier,” Reed said. “He knows On a visit to the Kabul Military Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, in March, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel talks to members of the what it takes.” U.S. Army and Marine Corps. During his first year in office, Hagel has made it a point to meet regularly with young enlisted personnel. CREDIBILITY COUNTS with troops serving multiple deployments boots on the ground. “That doesn’t mean lawyers to handle the cases. Hagel’s response to the rough road to the of a year or more, prompted the Pentagon it’s an either/or thing. It can’t be. We’re still Hagel disagrees and is unequivocal Pentagon was not to lash out but to listen. to expand its ranks to spread the burden. going to need a more capable and ready on keeping commanders in charge. “You He meets regularly with young enlisted Hagel, in this interview, would not say and sized Army,” Hagel said. “We’re not cannot fix this problem by going outside,” personnel and said he insists on meeting what force level he deems appropriate. But going down to nothingness here in the Hagel said. “It will not work. Not in the service chiefs in their offices, not his. wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan are part Marines and our land forces.” military. Commanders have to have a role “I wanted to try to get my arms around of America’s history, not its future, he said. There’s no reason to maintain large in this.” Cutting commanders out, he said, this place first,” Hagel said. “Develop some “We’re not going to be putting any — I ground forces, Adams said. Troops’ salaries would “absolve them of any knowledge, credibility as the leader don’t think anytime and benefits are expensive. More to the responsibility or accountability for what’s of this place first. People soon, but we’ve got to point, they won’t have much to do, he going on in their very command. Com- take your measure pretty be prepared for anything said. “The world we live in with regard to manders need to know about their people. quick. But people, I’ve “I wanted to try — large land forces and ground forces is just not that dangerous.” They are responsible for their people.