First Friday briefing [Dec. 1, 2000]

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FIRST FRIDAY BRIEFING December 2000
1,200 Georgia Guardsmen Respond to Presidential Call Up for Bosnia
More than 1,200 Georgia Army National Guardsmen from throughout Georgia prepare to leave their homes and families this weekend in response to an official Presidential Selective Reserve Call Up in support of NATO peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. The 1,200 Georgia Guardsmen, members of the 48th Infantry Brigade in Macon, will be the largest National Guard involvement in the history of the Balkan conflict.
The soldiers will deploy to Fort Stewart during the first two weeks of December to begin specific training activities relating to the Bosnian mission. Following a week's furlough during the Christmas holidays, the Bosnia-bound Guardsmen will return to active duty on January 2nd. The Guardsmen will have a final rehearsal at Fort Polk, LA in late January.
In early March 2001, the Guardsmen leave for Bosnia. The mobilization will end in October 2001.
National Guard Chief Visits State
Lieutenant General Russell C. Davis, Chief, of the National Guard Bureau, visited the Georgia National Guard on 21 November. Major General Poythress hosted Gen. Davis' visit at Dobbins. During the one-day visit, Gen. Davis received a series of briefings on the readiness of the Georgia Army and Air National Guard presented by Brigadier Generals Michael Seely and Wick Searcy. Owen Ulmer, director of JOPS, also briefed Davis on the operations of the CRT WMD unit, and Georgia's counterdrug taskforce. Gen. Davis was accompanied by his wife who received briefings on the Youth Challenge Academy and efforts currently underway to provide assistance to the hospitals and orphanages in the Republic of Georgia. Davis also took the opportunity before leaving to tour the facilities of the 4th CST .
Nationwide Air Guard Planning Meeting Slated For Savannah

The City of Savannah is hosting the National Guard Bureau's Long-Range Integrated Planning Process Conference scheduled for December 4-7 at the Marriott Waterfront. This prestigious conference is attended by more than 250 senior Air National Guard officers. More than 40 general officers will be in attendance at the annual planning meeting. The conference is designed to identify opportunities to enhance combat readiness of all units in the Air National Guard through exercises conducted around the world. Among the topics to be discussed at this year's IRR conference will be issues of Homeland Defense and the Quadrennial Review.
Lynn Nominated for Air Force's Sijan Leadership Award
Colonel George "Tom" Lynn, commander of the 116th Bomb Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard has been nominated for the Lance P. Sijan Award, the highest leadership award in the Air Force. Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver, Jr., commander of the Air National Guard selected Lynn from the more than 88 flying wings and 200 geographically separated units that compose the Air National Guard.
The Air Force sponsors the annual award program which recognizes Air Force personnel who exhibit the highest example of professional and personal leadership standards.
Lynn is recognized for the Wing attaining a mission capable rate for the B-1B bomber that is 13 percent above the mission capable rate of all active duty B-1 units, and having the best mission capable rate of any B-1B unit during fiscal year 2000. In addition, the 116th achieved a sortie rate 20 percent higher than any other B-1B unit and assumed sole responsibility for Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) six B-1B commitments. While possessing 11.3 percent of the total B-1B fleet and only 3 percent of all spare B-1B parts and equipment, the Georgia National Guard bomb wing under Lynn's leadership accomplished more than 15 percent of all B-1B sorties flown in fiscal year 1999.
Under Lynn's leadership, the 116th Bomb Wing has successfully completed its conversion to the B-1B and completed one AEF cycle and is current preparing for another AEF cycle and its first operational readiness inspection with the B-1B.
The Lance P. Sijan Award is named in memory of Capt. Lance P. Sijan, a 1965 graduate of the Air Force Academy, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously. Sijan, on a flight over North Vietnam, was shot down and evaded capture for more than six weeks. After his capture and torture by the North Vietnamese, a crippled Sijan managed to escape, crawling into the jungle. He was recaptured several hours later, interrogated, tortured and died on Jan 18, 1968. Sijan never divulged information to his captives.
Youth Challenge To Graduate Largest Class
Deputy Secretary of Defense, Rudy deLeon is scheduled to be among the dignitaries in attendance when the Youth Challenge Academy graduates Class XV on Sunday, December 17. Secretary deLeon is expected to be accompanied by a number of officials from the Department of Defense and National Guard Bureau. This graduating class is also likely to be the largest ever for the Fort Stewart-based academy. Although students are still completing final tests, more than 230 are expected to graduate. This is the first class after the Georgia Legislature expanded the size of the program during its last session. The graduation will be held at the Macon Coliseum at 6:30 pm.

Employers Gather to Discuss ESGR Issues
The call up of the 48th Brigade -- as well as other National Guard training and deployments -- will have a major impact on the families of deploying citizen-soldiers. But their employers also have to deal with the loss of valued employees. How do business owners, supervisors and municipalities cope with that loss of employees called to perform military service? That was the subject of a day-long workshop this week at Ft. McPherson in Atlanta. More than 50 National Guard and Reserve employers from across the state attended the event, along with military leaders.
"We have to adapt because this is the way the military will be in the future," said Kenny Trussell, information services manager for Thiele Kaolin Company in Sandersville, who employs deploying Guard members. "Our company is dedicated to the community and our country. Part of that dedication is supporting the Guard."
For Jack Warren of the Clayton County School system, the conference was an eye-opener. "I was astounded at how much the military has gone down in size; which emphasizes why we need to use the National Guard and Reserve more," he said. The conference was hosted by General John Hendrix, commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command, who illustrated the increasing reliance on the National Guard and Reserve forces. He explained that the size of the active Army has decreased over the past 15 years, while there has been an increase in the number of missions, like the peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans.
The attendees also heard from Major General David Poythress, Georgia's Adjutant General, and Brian Sharratt, executive director of the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.
The employers who attended this groundbreaking workshop represented businesses and organizations from all corners of Georgia and from across the economic spectrum - small businesses, county and city governments, educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, and larger businesses.
One of the highlights of the day was the opportunity for the participants to break into small groups to discuss employment issues such as notification of deployments, insurance concerns and family issues. The small group setting also gave military leaders an excellent chance to hear employers concerns and ideas.
"We have a department head who is deploying," observed Danny Herring, city manager of Quitman. "We can always see that we're losing an employee but we don't think about how they are serving our country. This conference helped us realize that."
Local Legislators Named Honorary Commanders
Two local legislators were recently named Honorary Commanders of the 165th Airlift Wing, Georgia Air National Guard. The ceremony was

held during the unit's annual Family Day festivities.
The unit, based in Garden City, GA, named Georgia State Representative Ann Purcell (District 147/Rincon) as the 165th Airlift Wing Honorary Commander and Georgia State Representative Ron Stephens (150th/Garden City) as the 165th Support Group Honorary Commander.
The Honorary Commander's Program is a program through which the Air National Guard and local civic leaders and employers enjoy close interaction allowing for greater communication throughout the community and a greater understanding of the total mission of the unit. The 165th AW flies the famed C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft and is stationed at Savannah International Airport.
Guard Donate Clothing, Medical Equipment, Furniture to Tbilisi Orphanages, Hosptials
Members of the Georgia Air and Army National Guard played a significant role recently in collecting clothes, furniture and even medical equipment to send to hospitals and orphanages in the Republic of Georgia. A warehouse full of donated items recently were collected and loaded onto a tractor-trailer for treatment to the Port of Savannah and then onto a freighter bound for Europe and the Republic of Georgia.
Ms. Norma Hassinger, a member of the Georgia's Friendship Force, has been the impetus in urging National participation in this worthwhile program. In addition to the National Guard, she has actively recruited businesses, churches and organizations of every description to become actively involved with this crusade for children throughout the Republic of Georgia.
"The National Guard has always been there when I needed them," said Norma Hassinger, "from collecting items at individual units to storing them in warehouses prior to shipment to Georgia." The National Guard has provided items for the former Soviet Republic for more than three years. "Over the years, the Guard contributed an enormous amount of personal items, clothes and toys that I know will be a surprise to 'my children' in orphanages throughout the capital city of Tiblisi and throughout the country, "continued Hassinger.
Recently, Hassinger again called upon the Kennesaw Armory to store the enormous amount of items collected prior to shipping overseas.
Among the valuable items headed toward Tbilisi were two portable medical x-ray machines valued at more than $30,000 each donated by a South Georgia physician. The shipment, also contained several medical gurneys, examination tables and office furniture.
"A number of physicians have donated medical supplies, sophisticated diagnostic equipment and furniture for hospitals in the Republic of Georgia," said Col. Joe Morgan, the State Air Surgeon who returned from Tbilisi two years ago and helped Hassinger to spearhead National Guard involvement.
Command Chief Pearson DeLoach of Headquarters, GA ANG, has mobilized Chiefs in every Georgia Air Guard unit to support the Orphanages in Tbilisi. His persistence paid off handsomely recently when talking with a military friend in Florida. Who alerted him to a

shipment of children's clothes once collected for South American relief operations. According to Pearson, the clothing donated was for a cold weather climate, impractical for its original usage. Pearson was successful in having the shipment donated to the Republic of Georgia orphanage effort and arranged for a Savannah C-130 to pick it up and carry it to Atlanta.
National Guard's involvement with the Republic of Georgia began almost a decade ago as part of the National Guard's Partnership for Peace initiatives. Georgia Army Guard engineers deployed to the Republic of Georgia more than five years ago and made significant repairs to hospitals and orphanages in the capital city of Tbilisi. This interest in our Sister nation continues. Other nation-to-nation linkages have developed and recently the TAG and Mrs. Poythress visited some of the orphanages and hospitals that are targeted for the donations.
The Georgia National Guard Counterdrug Task Force Promotes the Hero of Red Ribbon Week
In 1985, a young man made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Enrique Camarena, a former Marine, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by drug lords while serving as an undercover DEA agent in Mexico. Special Agent Camarena willingly risked his life for a noble cause. As a result, he became a hero while combating the illegal flow of drugs into the Untied States.
In commemoration of Enrique's sacrifice, his family began wearing red ribbons in support of a drug-free America. As a result, the last week of October is now recognized as National Red Ribbon Week. Adults and children across the nation wear red ribbons to show their pride in living a life free of the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The red ribbon is also a tribute to the real life hero, Enrique Camarena.
In support of Red Ribbon Week 2000, the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Task Force of the Georgia Counterdrug Task Force impacted over 171,000 children and adults this year. From 20 - 31 October 2000, DDR distributed 160,936 ribbons to 72 schools and community-based organizations. Additionally, 28 drug awareness presentations were performed at elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the state.
The mission of the Drug Demand Reduction Task Force is to provide positive role models for the youth of Georgia while promoting the pursuit of excellence and a drug-free future. The Georgia National Guard proudly salutes Enrique Camarena and his valiant commitment to a drug-free America.
For additional information on the DDR Task Force, call 770 919-3408.
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