First Friday briefing [July 6, 2001]

Georgia Department of Defense First Friday Briefing, July 2001
'02 Defense Budget Threatens 116th's Bombers
Members of the Georgia Air National Guard's 116th Bomb Wing are anxiously watching political maneuverings that will determine the fate of their unit. The 116th, based at Robins Air Force Base, learned this past week that the President's Fiscal Year 02 defense budget called for moving the Wing's eight B1-B Lancer bombers to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.
The announcement, which came as a surprise to everyone involved-including Georgia's congressional delegation-did not include any follow-on mission for the bomb wing. Maj. Gen. David Poythress, Georgia's Adjutant General, broke the news to the Wing's more than 300 full-time members shortly after he learned of the decision. Poythress vowed to fight the move.
Reaction from the governor's office and Capitol Hill was swift.
"These 1,100 men and women of the 116th are not some fly-by-night outfit. They are highly trained, award-winning professional airmen," Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., wrote in an editorial in the Macon Telegraph. "In May 1999, the 116th received the Outstanding Unit Award, making it the only Air Force unit to win this award 10 times. In FY2000, the 116th had the highest mission-capable rate of any B-1 wing, and it achieved the lowest cost-per-hour in the entire B-1 fleet."
Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., vowed he and other lawmakers would put up a united front against the proposed move.
"Congress still has the power of the purse," he said. "And we feel the fight has just begun."
This past Friday, the wing hosted State Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Dist. 8, along with Maj. Gen. Weaver, director of the Air National Guard. Chambliss said the fight is just starting. "We're going to be pursuing this in much more depth during the next several weeks," he said during his visit.
"You know, this thing is not a done deal. It may be the right thing," Chambliss added. "But we've got to be satisfied that it is the right decision, and if it is the right decision, then we want to know what the Air Force is going to bring in here from a mission standpoint because we're not going to let this facility stay idle."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's proposal would cut $165 million from the Air National Guard for the B-1 program and reassign its aircraft to the active-duty Air Force. The proposal calls for the eight B-1 bombers assigned to the 116th Bomb Wing to be moved by Sept. 30 and for other B-1s, assigned to the Kansas Air National Guard and at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, to also be shifted.

The force would be consolidated and stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. The Air Force also is planning to reduce the number of B-1 bombers from 93 to 60.
878th Gets New Commander
Command of the 878th Engineer Combat Battalion stationed in Augusta changed hands June 2 with Lt. Col. John A. Heath accepting responsibility for the unit's mission and the welfare of its soldiers from Lt. Col. Peter Kole Jr.
The ceremony in which Heath received the battalion guidon took place at the 878th's home station on Milledge Road. Kole has been reassigned to State Headquarters in Ellenwood.
Heath, a Cuthbert native, has been in the National Guard since August 1972 and received his commission as an officer in 1974.
He served in several positions from 1976 to 1988 with the 560th Engineer Combat Battalion. In 1992 Heath transferred to Headquarters, 265th Engineer Group, Marietta, where he worked as the group's engineer equipment maintenance officer.
This is not Heath's first assignment with the 878th. He served with the unit in 1996 as battalion executive officer.
A year later Heath returned to the 265th Engineer Group where he worked as the group S3 and then served as the unit's deputy commander from 1998 until now.
Nutter Takes Command
Col. C.J. Nutter accepted command of the 122nd Rear Operations Center June 24 from Col. Lawrence H. Ross in a ceremony held at the unit's home station in Savannah.
Ross becomes deputy commander of the 78th Troop Command upon leaving the 122nd.
Nutter began his military career in 1966, serving as an active duty Special Forces team medic. He left the enlisted ranks in 1968 after being commissioned as an Army officer.
Nutter continued to serve with Special Forces as a team commander and remained in that position until his discharge from active service in 1971.
He joined the National Guard in 1979 and has seen duty with 1st Battalion, 108th Armor and the 48th Infantry Brigade. Nutter has also worked as deputy director of plans and operations with the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Military Support Division to Civilian Affairs, SPP Director; and as operations officer for 3rd Infantry Detachment, 3rd Infantry Division.
He served 18 months this past year as the United States-Georgian military liaison deputy team chief in Tbilisi, the Republic of Georgia.
The military liaison team is part of U.S. European Command's Joint Contact Team Program. As team chief, Nutter assisted in facilitating USECOM's objectives of the stabilization, democratization, military professionalism and building closer relationship between the Republic of Georgia and NATO.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardenadze honored him for his service with an award before leaving the republic in May 2000.
48th Conducts Annual Training
While more than 1,500 soldiers with the 48th Infantry Brigade continue their six-month deployment in Bosnia, another 1,200 brigade soldiers conducted their two-week annual training, June 16 to 30, to maintain their combat skills.
Some of the soldiers sharpened their individual abilities in areas such as weapons qualifications and job-specific training. Others fine-tuned their skills in the operation of the M-1Abrams tank, Bradley fighting vehicle and the Army's new Paladin self-propelled artillery piece.
Cannon Dedication Scheduled
A piece of history will be formally rolled out when the Historical Society of the Georgia National Guard and the Georgia National Guard Museum unveil and dedicate the Napoleon, a 12 pounder Field Gun Saturday morning at Ellenwood's Oglethorpe Armory.
The ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m., is open to all guardsmen and the public and will last about one hour. Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, the adjutant general of Georgia, is the featured speaker. An informal reception follows the ceremony.
The Field Gun, which took more than two years to restore, was originally manufactured in 1864. Union and Confederate armies used the Napoleon during the American Civil War.
Of French design, the canon was named in honor of Emperor Napoleon III.
During Saturday's ceremony, Stone Mountain Historical Reenactors with the DeKalb Light Artillery, 9th Georgia, Battery B, will demonstrate how the cannon is fired. The unit is under the command of Capt. Rick Palmer.
Chaplain Corps Graduates First Classes
The Georgia State Defense Force Chaplain Corps presented the first graduates of its Basic Officer and Basic Non-commissioned Officers courses July 1 during a ceremony at Coral Ridge Baptist Church.
Members of the Chaplain Corps worked diligently for 18 months to prepare for the graduation. The event allowed the corps to showcase its efforts, while providing these "ministers in the military" to meet their active duty, Reserve and National Guard counterparts.
Efforts Underway to Salute Bosnia-Based Troops
Two significant efforts remain underway in communities across the state to recognize our men and women serving in Bosnia.
In the Atlanta area, the well-known supermarket chain Harry's Farmers Market and Harry's In A Hurry restaurants conducted a Memorial Day program during

which customers were invited to sign or write messages to the soldiers. Harry's also prepared special gift packages filled with cookies, personal items and other goodies that would be distributed to Bosnian children.
Georgia Guard officials have confirmed the packages have arrived at Camp Comanche in Bosnia. The 1,660-pound pallet was to be broken down and delivered the week of July 4 to the other base camps where Georgia guardsmen are stationed.
A second statewide program acknowledging our troops in Bosnia is Operation Thank You. This program, organized through the efforts of more than 30 chambers of commerce and individual companies throughout the state, is collecting Georgia products for airlift to the soldiers. In conjunction with this is the delivery of children's items such as small toys and sporting goods, schoolbooks and supplies, videocassette tapes, and music cassettes and CDs that will be given to Bosnian children.
DoD Submits Second Oglethorpe Award Application
As part of its continuing organization improvement process, the Georgia Department of Defense has completed and submitted its 2001 application for the Georgia Oglethorpe Award. A product of several months of hard work and organizational improvement, the 55-page document was delivered to Oglethorpe Award officials earlier this week.
"The Oglethorpe process is highly respected in the private and public sectors across the state and region," said Brig. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, team leader for this year's application effort. "Our selection last year for a site visit was a great honor to the men and women of the Georgia Department of Defense. But we believe we've made great improvements, in terms of how our organization works and in terms of how well we are telling our story in the application."
Award examiners use the same criteria as the national Malcolm Baldrige Award to recognize organizational performance. The process evaluates the organizations in six key areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, information and analysis, human resource focus and process management. A seventh category, "Business Results," links the other six areas and shows how organizations measure the effectiveness of their key processes.
"This is a highly demanding organizational self-assessment program," Nesbitt said.
"And while we obviously want to win the Oglethorpe Award, the real value to us is the process of looking at our organization to define our measures and our processes."
A team of examiners will now score the Georgia DoD's application. Oglethorpe Award officials will notify agencies later this summer about whether they have been selected for a site visit. These visits, which usually last three-to-four days, take place in mid-fall.
Georgia Media Cover Bosnia Deployment
In mid-June, 15 journalists representing eight media outlets throughout Georgia saw first-hand what Georgia National Guard soldiers are facing during their eight months in Bosnia. The media tour, organized by the Georgia Department of Defense Directorate of Communications Office, was the largest OCONUS media tour ever organized by the National Guard. It was also the largest organized media tour seen so far by SFOR-9 officials.
The nine-day trip consisted of three full days on the ground with soldiers in Bosnia. Teams of media representatives visited with Georgia troops throughout the American controlled sector of Bosnia. Journalists were strategically placed in areas where significant numbers of Georgia troops from their part of the state were assigned.

"The media tour was designed to showcase the role of Georgia soldiers from around the state in this very important peacekeeping mission," said Lt. Col. Jim Driscoll, director of communications. "We anticipate that media exposure from this trip will be significant."
Media representatives from Atlanta (WGCL-TV, Ch. 46), Macon (The Macon Telegraph and WGXA-TV, Ch. 26), Griffin (The Griffin Daily News), Waycross (Waycross Journal), Savannah (Savannah News, Comcast Broadcasting, Creative Loafing), Jonesboro (Clayton News Daily), Vidalia (Vidalia Advance), and Dublin (TV35) participated in the tour.
Accompany the media to Bosnia were photojournalists of the 124th MPAD who captured the Bosnian deployment on film and video. Over the next few weeks, many of these photos can be viewed on the electronic publication Up ToThe Minute and on the Georgia DoD website.
The Georgia Air National Guard's 165th Airlift Wing, provided transportation to and from Bosnia and will also be featured in many of the civilian media stories.
June 19 Statement by State Rep. Saxby Chambliss Regarding House Resolution 154 Honoring The Army National Guard Deployed in Bosnia
Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution to honor our National Guard troops in Bosnia. The Georgia National Guard has a long and cherished military history dating back as far as the 1730s. From helping to secure American independence, to the Spanish American War to World War I and II, to Korea and Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf, the National Guard has played an important role in protecting and defending American interests around the world.
From the headquarters and part of the 148th Forward Support Battalion in Macon to the Company A, 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment stationed in Moultrie and Valdosta, the 48th Infantry Brigade continues to honor its past by proudly serving in Bosnia. The men and women of the 48th spent months undergoing extensive training and preparation for their deployment. They have put their jobs and family lives on hold and will have been away from their homes and families for almost a year.
We say "thank you" today to the families and employers for their sacrifices in supporting our National Guard. And we say "thank you" and "God bless you" to the citizen soldiers who are doing such an outstanding job.
First Friday Briefing is published monthly for the soldiers, airmen and employees of the Georgia Department of Defense, Georgia Army National Guard, Georgia Air National Guard and Georgia State Defense Force. If you'd like to be added to our subscription list and have the First Friday Briefing faxed or emailed, or you have comments or story submission, call the Directorate of Communications at (404) 624-6060 or DSN 338-6060. Or email burchfieldlee@dod.state.ga.us
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