First Friday briefing [June 1, 2001]

Georgia Department of Defense First Friday Briefing, June 2001
148th Keeps Humvees Humming While in Bosnia
Looking across the Camp Comanche motor pool is like seeing a sea of Humvees. Camouflage vehicles stretch to the horizon like ships on the waves.
Keeping the fleet up and running is an important task, but Company B, 148th Logistics Task Force, Georgia Army National Guard, is up to the challenge, according to the unit's soldiers.
"We are the direct-support maintenance for Camp Comanche," said Sgt. 1st Class Larry J. Rittenberry, Co. B's maintenance control NCOIC.
"We have 65 soldiers on the ground with 12 different shops, including some at Eagle Base and Camp McGovern," he added.
The shop works on all sorts of military vehicles from Humvees to five-ton trucks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Most of their work is done on the M1114 up-armored Humvees, said Sgt. 1st Class Rittenberry. The large number of vehicles being used, combined with the age of the fleet and the high mileage it racks up, keep the mechanics busy, he said. "We have been replacing a lot of the engines," he said. "But we also replace transfer cases and transmissions."
Sgt. 1st Class Rittenberry said the turn-around time on an engine is about four days. A transfer case, the gearbox that controls the Humvee's four-wheel-drive, takes about two days to replace, he said.
Spc. Edgewood Baker, a heavy-wheeled vehicle mechanic, said Co. B handles maintenance on M998-series Humvees along with a variety of larger vehicles. Five-ton trucks, HEMTTS and CUCVs are serviced at the shop. So are Task Force Eagle's tracked vehicles.

"We work on any tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles that break down. We get them combat-ready," said Sgt. Harry Moore, a tracked-vehicle mechanic with Co. B. "We take care of anything and everything that they need to keep moving."
Sgt. Moore said he is enjoying his deployment. "A lot of these guys I have known for a long time. I grew with some of these guys and we've been training together for years back in Georgia."
Sgt. 1st Class Rittenberry agreed. "This deployment has gone really well. Everybody is working well together, our production level is way up and morale is out of sight," he said. "I couldn't ask for a better bunch of people to work with," he added.
117th Keeps Constant Vigil in Kuwait Desert
Over the long summer months, two hundred fifty members of the 117th Air Control Squadron at Hunter AAF will be closely monitoring the skies in the remote Kuwaiti desert searching for trespassing Iraqi aircraft.
The 117th is the lead unit for all air control operations for the Southern No-Fly Zone in Iraq keeping a constant vigil for Iraqi aircraft that violate a 1991 agreement to cease military flights along the Iraq/Kuwaiti border. They also make sure U.S. military jets in the area fly safely as they patrol the region. If a bad guy strays through the controlled airspace, Guardsmen of the 117th stand prepared to "sic" U.S. Warplanes on them at a moment's notice.
After the Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council placed restrictions on the Iraqi airspace and where its military aircraft could fly. A coalition of international forces has been there since the war's end to monitor this airspace. The 117th is participating in Operation Southern Watch for the next 90 days as part of the Air Expeditionary Force. On the other side of the 33rd parallel is Operation Northern Watch that monitors the northern side of the border.
"Iraqi air defenses take shots at allied aircraft almost daily," according to Lt. Col. Cary Downing, Commander of the deploying 117th, "so there's a persistent threat in the region."
Southern Watch made news in February, when U.S. forces bombed air defense targets in Iraq. The Iraqis had been continuously improving their air defenses and threatening U.S. jets combing the skies of the region, Defense Department officials said. Air Force fighter jets honed in on the potential threats and eliminated them.
In Kuwait, 117th controllers will watch the airspace on a myriad of computer screens. If an Iraqi jet flies into the area, they notify U.S. and other allied planes of it presence. Often the ground controllers like those of the 117th detect enemy planes in the sky before the fighter jets see them. The controllers call pilots on the radio and advise them where to find the enemy.
The 117th has prepared for this rotation to Kuwait for the past year. They train at home by monitoring flights throughout the

Savannah area, working with the Beaufort Marine Base and the state's Air Guard units. In preparation for Southern Watch, the unit downloaded electronic maps of the Middle East's airspace so that they could gain the familiarity they needed prior to deployment.
The 90-day deployment will consist of three rotations. The first rotation of approximately 90 Guardsman is expected home by the end of June.
Video Teleconferencing from Bosnia puts Teacher in Touch with Students
The marvel of modern communications technology was made vividly apparent recently when a video teleconferencing link was established between a Georgia schoolteacher currently on duty with the 48th Brigade in Bosnia and the more than one hundred former students he left behind in October.
Staff Sergeant Roy Marchert, a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry and a Gwinnett County School teacher spoke one-on-one with over 100 of his former students at Dacula Middle School from the Gwinnett County School TV studios for more than an hour.
The technology that connected Marchert with his students is the same being offered families of all Guardsmen currently in Bosnia. Families can go to one of eight locations across Georgia where this videoconferencing equipment is in place and talk directly with their love ones in Bosnia.
"I thought that it might not work," said a skeptical Dacian Strimbu, a student of Marchert's speaking of the technology that was used to connect the students with their teacher. "But I saw and talked with him; I was really happy."
From two studios in the sprawling Gwinnett County media facility, Marchert could see his former students and called each by name as they rose to ask him questions. The students asked the popular teacher many questions from the weather in Bosnia and the food in the mess hall, to the future of the peace
keeping operations. Marchert sat in a smaller studio in Tuzla facing a monitor and camera. The brief two-second delay was a minor inconvenience considering that the signal was being broadcast via satellites orbiting around the earth.
Accompanying the students in the studio was Marchert's wife and children who had a moment to speak privately with their husband and father. "To see him on the screen and to see his enthusiasm is tremendous," said wife Diane.

Berkman Receives MacArthur Leadership Award at Pentagon Ceremony
Captain Kevin Berkman, Co H 171st Aviation Regiment, GA ARNG was among twenty-four recipients of the prestigious General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Awards presented at the Pentagon on May 23. The MacArthur Leadership Award recognizes company grade active duty, Reserve and National Guard officers who demonstrate duty, honor and country. Criteria for the award include the ability to motivate others, understand fellow soldiers and inspire commitment, teamwork and espirt de corps.
"The reason we recognize these outstanding leaders today is because your influence on soldiers is so strong and so lasting," said General Eric K. Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the Army who presented the awards to the 24 recipients from throughout the U.S.
Lieutenants and Captains traditionally win the 15-pound bronze bust of Gen Douglas MacArthur and a gold watch from the Association of the United States Army.
For the presentation of the award, Berkman's wife, Col. Dannis Livingston, Aviation Group Commander and other members of his unit accompanied him to Washington. Capt. Berkman was able to compete for the MacArthur Award by virtue of his winning Georgia's William Few Award which personifies many of the same values as the national honor.
Selective Service Reports Registration Gains in Georgia
The Selective Service System this week announced a significant rise in nationwide registration compliance for men who were born in 1981, including increases in Georgia. This marks a reverse in the downward trend experienced over the past nine years.
Nationwide, the Selective Service Progress Report showed that 87 percent of men born in 1981 were registered with Selective Service for the current calendar year. This figure is up from 83 percent of men born in 1980 and who were registered in 1999 as reported last year.
Georgia posted a two- percent increase this year, but officials stressed that more work needs to be done to make sure that all men register or risk losing out on important opportunities.
"We are pleased with the good progress report we achieved, but we're ever mindful that more need to be done to educate young men of their responsibility to register and the benefits they forfeit if they don't," said Colonel William Thomas of the Georgia Army National Guard and commander of the Selective Service Systems Georgia Detachment.
"We know that the main reason men don't register is a simple lack of awareness; and with 5,000 young men turning 18 every day in the U.S., we need to constantly work to ensure that our message is getting delivered effectively," added Col. Thomas. He

noted that Selective Service is planning a number of awareness-raising activities in partnership with community-based organizations.
For the past two years, Selective Service has been engaged in a series of innovative partner relations with education associations and community-based organizations that reach young men and their influencers. These partners have committed themselves to raising the visibility of the registration requirement.
Federal law requires that virtually all young men living in the U.S. register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Late registrations are accepted through age 25. Failure to register leaves young men ineligible for federally funded student loans and grants, student financial aid in most states, job training, many state and Federal jobs, and U.S. citizenship for immigrant men seeking citizenship.
Additionally, failure to register is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a find of up to $250,000.
Young men who need to register can do so at their local post office, by direct mail, in job training programs or at schools with a registrar. Selective Service has also been offering on-line registration for the past year. Young men can now sign up quickly by going on the Internet at http://www.sss.gov
Top Fighter Pilots Compete at 4th Annual Turkey Shoot
The skies over South Georgia were filled with the thunder of one hundred fighter jets on May 17 when some of the nation's best "top gun" pilots descended upon the Air National Guard's Townsend Bombing Range for the 4th Annual "Turkey Shoot."
The daylong competition tested the bombing and strafing accuracy of the military's top fighter pilots is one of only a handful of similar bombing competitions in the country.
The "Turkey Shoot" is co-sponsored annually by the Georgia Air National Guard and the Governor's Military Affairs Coordinating Committee. More than 300 invited guests and VIPs witnessed aircraft from active, reserve and National Guard squadrons making pass after pass at targets on the sprawling 5,200-acre training.
The Townsend Range, part of the Georgia Air Guard's Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah directs more that 3,000 training flights each year. While Air Guard air controllers at Townsend direct fighters into the bombing airspace, it's the skill of the individual pilot to place bombs on target that is the ultimate measure of success of this day's competition.
The bombs used for the competition are inert, 25-pound concrete filled canisters with a small spotting charge that explodes

upon impact. Highly sophisticated scoring equipment located throughout the range identifies how close the bombs are to the target. Following several bombing runs at the target, pilots drop to treetop levels to strafe a huge bulls-eye target with their 50 cal machine gun.
The fourth annual Turkey Shoot was won by a flight of F-16s of the 140th Fighter Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard.
Georgian Defense Officials Meet U.S. Counterparts in Savannah
Twelve members of the Republic of Georgia's Ministry of Defense met recently with the U. S. Department of Defense to set a five-year strategy for the former Soviet country's military and what role the United States will play to help.
Defense experts say the U.S. will benefit by developing an ally in a country that borders Russia and is an access point for a rich oil and natural gas reserve.
The visit also includes trips to area military bases.
Both delegations, for example, flew by helicopter to visit the North Carolina National Guard during its annual training at Fort Stewart. They also spent time with soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield.
Defense Department officials picked Savannah because the Georgia National Guard has a part in the relationship between the U.S. and the Republic of Georgia. The National Guard keeps a representative in the Republic of Georgia year-round to answer questions and explain the Guard's mission, said Col. Cassel Nutter, a Georgia Guardsman who spent a year in the country.
The United States came to aid of the Republic of Georgia to help its people survive the especially bitter winter of 1992, said Jeffrey M. Starr, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.
After the republic separated from the Soviet Union, it fought a civil war. When the war ended, the republic decided it wanted to look toward the U. S. and other western nations to rebuild its government, including the military. The U. S. military started sending assistance in 1998, Starr said.
Americans have shown the country how to organize a professional military that ultimately falls under civilian command. They've explained how to write a national military strategy, organize a budget to support it and how to present those items to parliament, Starr said.
"There was no tradition or basis in (Republic of) Georgia of defense decision-making," he said. "It was created from nothing."

Once those basic structures were in place, the U. S. started sending troops into the country to train with its military, Starr said. Now, U. S. Navy Seals, Army Special Forces and Georgia National Guardsmen go the Republic of Georgia to train, he said.
Former Governor Speaks About the National Guard
Touting the Georgia National Guard as a fine organization and one he was proud to lead, former Gov. Lester G. Maddox recently spent two hours sharing stories and philosophy with members of the Historical Society of the Georgia National Guard for the group's video memoirs project.
The video project, conducted by the Society, establishes a permanent record of the memoirs of Georgia National Guardsmen and other prominent Georgians who have been associated with the Guard. Other interviewees have included former Governor and two-time Adjutant General S. Ernest Vandiver, and as well as Georgia Guard veterans of World War II.
As with already completed interviews, a transcription of the Maddox interview will be made and the videotape will be made available for historical research.
During his administration Maddox mobilized Guardsmen to assist civil authorities during rioting in Augusta, Ga., and to prevent violence during the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Georgia's National Guard Associations Schedule Conferences
The Georgia Guard's two professional organizations are both planning their annual meetings for the weekend of June 8-10. The Enlisted Association of the Georgia National Guard will host its annual meeting at the Columbus Hilton in Columbus. For additional information contact MSG Jackie McKennie at (404) 576-5323. On that same weekend, members of the National Guard Association of Georgia will be meeting on the other side of the state. The NGAUS conference is scheduled for Clarion Hotel on Jekyll Island. For registration information contact Col (Ret) Marshall Kenemer at 912-369-6138.
Georgia DOD Garners Three Minuteman Mike Awards
The Georgia Department of Defense has been named recipient of three "Minuteman Mike" awards, presented by The Adjutant General's Association. The awards are presented for achievement in building public and community relations. Georgia was awarded first place in the "public information" category for media coverage surrounding the 48th Infantry Brigade's train-up and preparation for the Bosnia Deployment. The agency also received a third place award for the opening of the second campus of

the Youth Challenge Academy, and a third place for the Drug Demand Reduction's "Truth or Consequences" program that is presented at area schools.
Braves Offer Discounts for Military Personnel
The Atlanta Braves have announced that tickets for the June 21st game will be offered to military personnel and their families at a reduced rate. Contact Mike Glennon, Braves promotional manager, at (404) 614-1404.
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