News of the Force: Tuesday, May 30,
2017 - Page 3
U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard is reminding
adventurers to keep an eye on safety after a recent string of water rescues
around the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Coast Guard's new funding bill could
provide money needed to repair the pier damage caused by Hurricane Matthew on
Tybee Island, Ga., according to Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Kucera,
the officer in charge of U.S. Coast Guard Station Tybee.
The U.S. Coast Guard seized 750 pounds
of marijuana from a boat off the coast of Boca Raton, Fla., on Saturday,
and arrested several Caribbean nationals. Approximately 45 miles separate the
South Florida and Bahamian coasts, and the U.S. Coast Guard says it constantly
patrols the area.
U.S. Coast Guard officials say a tug
boat has sunk off the coast of Louisiana and a crew member is missing.
Authorities in Montauk, N.Y., say a
member of the U.S. Coast Guard has been charged with attacking a 67-year-old
Long Island woman while she slept in her home.
And on May 20th, members of the
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's Kona Flotilla were on hand in western
Hawaii to offer vessel safety checks and pass out safe boating and safe
paddling information.
SHAPE and Eucom senior leaders working
together
![Greater coat of arms of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.svg](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/E0DYODs7vWB-5lial3ZHNYAtjGo3E_zFA7-bpND9kwQyPcSbCbKflA8K0huMkZrqjaCyjHSlkV1hDXh5AtuHFTtW3v9rlnLQ7R7hSdki5S67PeB6910b0gKLkoUFr7joMmk4yPMIk8sd208srurD_teJoOWRYxOX1nY8h2nXDJZPg2geAibWozUMNW1dN8PSS209WRfIoIb_MejIGAw2ORpbdci7SNZ5OyCYk6HP8dqM_NZ0ntppVyMfVatZywnLYP9VPlKzrGSfj9UYQar1EHYnULRWU8u5m5ZhjAOV6QoVCT4=s0-d-e1-ft#https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Greater_coat_of_arms_of_Supreme_Headquarters_Allied_Powers_Europe.svg/290px-Greater_coat_of_arms_of_Supreme_Headquarters_Allied_Powers_Europe.svg.png)
Historians estimate that
between 70 million and 85 million people were killed during World War II.
It was the most destructive war in history. Europe - from the Ural
Mountains to the United Kingdom - was a charnel house.
Since Victory in
Europe Day - May 8, 1945 - American service members have been an integral part
of the effort to guarantee peace on the European continent. Working with allies
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 72 years have passed without a
major conflict on the continent - one of the longest periods of peace in
European history. The stability that led to that peace is
threatened by Russia from the east and terrorism emanating from the Middle East
and North Africa.
Army Gen. Curtis M.
Scaparrotti represents U.S. military power on the continent as the commander of
the U.S. European Command, and represents the
alliance’s resolve to maintain peace as NATO’s Supreme
Allied Commander for Europe. One of the general’s jobs is to ensure
Eucom and NATO work together.
In this effort, Navy
Fleet Master Chief Crispian D. Addington and
Croatian Command Sergeant Major Davor Petek work
together to help the general achieve his aims. Addington is the senior enlisted
leader based at Eucom headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and Petek is the
senior enlisted leader based at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe,
in Mons, Belgium. "But we constantly work together," Addington said
during an interview with both men.
The missions are not
too different, Petek said. NATO’s and Eucom’s priorities are almost the same, he
said. But the two enlisted leaders work in different arenas. The
mission for both organizations is to ensure there are trained and ready troops
that can deter aggression, execute operations and defend national and NATO
interests.
The mission of U.S.
forces in Europe and NATO has changed from one of being a headquarters focused
on engagement to being focused on deterrence. Both are true warfighting
commands.
The idea of a Europe
"whole, free and at peace" seemed within reach a decade ago. Then Russian
aggression began, with the country invading Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the
Republic of Georgia in 2008. In November 2013, Russian President
Vladimir Putin set his sights on Crimea - an autonomous province of Ukraine. In
March 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea. Today, separatists in
eastern Ukraine, supported by Russian troops, are in battle in that region.
Russian revanchist behavior scared the nations of Europe. The
Russian strategy is not quite war, but not peace either.
NATO responded and
there are now multinational NATO units in the Baltic Republics and Poland. NATO
allies patrol the skies and ships cruise the Baltic and Black seas.
This meant a change in posture for Eucom and SHAPE. "The last time
the United States had this many troops in Europe, I was sitting on the other
side of the wall," Petek said. "Here today, I am sitting at one of the two
strategic commands of NATO as the senior enlisted leader. The environment
changed and NATO changed also."
One bright example of
this is the enhanced forward presence the alliance put in place in Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Four framework nations - the United Kingdom,
Canada, Germany and the United States - are the core of enhanced brigades based
in the countries. Many NATO nations attached troops and capabilities to these
units.
"This is an
opportunity to not only accomplish the mission of the enhanced forward presence,
but also to work on interoperability especially on the enlisted level," Petek
said. "Even before they deployed those troops were talking to each other,
learning about each other."
From
a tactical perspective, enlisted troops needed to know things such as if they
could talk to each other, if their radios were compatible, and what the
capabilities of the partner nations’ weapons systems are. While
NATO prides itself on interoperability, this is one of the few times the
integration of units has been conducted at such a tactical level. "These are
things that are important to enlisted troops to know so we can operate
together," the sergeant major said.
"Apart from the
strong message these enhanced forward presence battle groups send to Russia of
our determination to protect the NATO boundary - it is the first time since
the Cold War that we are deploying troops in these numbers," Addington
said.
The fleet master
chief praised the opportunities for training both within the units and with host
nation units.
The enhanced forward
presence battle groups also prompts non-commissioned officers to address
differences in military cultures. For example, the U.S. battle group in Poland
initially worked with international forces that did not have an empowered senior
NCO - not all militaries have a tradition of giving senior NCOs the
responsibility to lead. "Now," Petek said, "they come to a U.S.
group and there is a sergeant major there, and the expectation is if you go
there, you better get a senior enlisted service member who can work with the
U.S. unit."
These nations realize
there is the need to have a senior enlisted leader standing right next to the
national commander because the battle group commander has a senior NCO standing
with him, Addington said.
Both senior enlisted leaders reinforce their commander’s intent
wherever they go, Addington said, and the message, he added, is "95 percent the
same. We want to make sure the troops are ready and able to do what they are
expected to do."
There are multiple
events throughout the year to engage senior NCOs. Many of them are combined
events. "The international senior enlisted seminar is a major event we do every
year," the fleet master chief said. The seminar brings roughly 40 senior
enlisted leaders together to talk about current events and ways to build
strategic partnerships.
"There are many
events that may be a Eucom or a NATO event and we will both go with the boss,
because we have U.S. senior leaders and NATO senior leaders and we are one
team," Petek said. "There is no ego here. It’s all about working together to
meet the boss’s mission and intent. That’s the bottom line."
One aspect both men
noted was the different views of enlisted troops throughout the alliance. "We
have levels of, let’s call it ‘enlisted empowerment,’ that range from 100
percent to zero because we still have nations that don’t even have an NCO
corps," Addington said.
NATO is not in the
business of changing national systems, but there are expectations for NCOs when
they arrive to take a job in a NATO unit or headquarters. "We want
the nations to understand that if you want to send your best and brightest to
serve together with us to accomplish whatever task we have, this is what we
expect them to be able to do, these are the qualifications we expect them to
have, this is the education they should have, and the nations need to ensure
their enlisted folks have those qualifications for these NATO jobs," Petek
said.
NATO is an alliance,
not an authoritarian command. The troops still belong to the nations that supply
them.
"The greatest benefit
of having the sergeant major and myself there is I provide the U.S. perspective
and he provides the international perspective - that piece that I have not grown
up with," Addington said. "We are able to get to what’s right for the nation and
what’s right for NATO across the line."
Today in history
On this date in 1539, Hernando de
Soto, with 600 soldiers, landed at Tampa Bay, Fla. In 1783, Benjamin Towne,
of Philadelphia, published the first daily newspaper in the U.S. In 1845, the
first immigtants from India arrived in Trinidad and Tobgo. In 1848, William
Young received a U.S. patent for an ice cream freezer; and Mexico
ratified a treaty giving the U.S. New Mexico, California and parts of
Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, in return for $15 million. In 1967,
daredevil stunt man Evel Knievel set a record, successfully jumping
over 16 cars on his motorcycle. In 1971, NASA launched Mariner 9, to
Mars. In 1996, John Tesh finished his career for "Entertainment Tonight"
after ten years as the show's host.
The parting shots
Today is the birthday of comedian, actor
producer and director Mel Blanc (1908-1989).
A Maryland couple fought with a security
officer south of Dewey Beach early yesterday morning after the officer told them
to not to trespass in a private area.
Illinois lawmakers are considering
allowing the state's farmers to grow hemp. The National Council of State
Legislatures says at least 30 other states have laws related to industrial hemp.
Proponents say the expansion could create jobs. Illinois Farmers Union marketing
director Rob Davies says a big mis-conception is that hemp is similar to
marijuana. He says it's not a drug, and from farmers' perspectives it makes
sense "to have an alternative commodity" to grow.
A zoo-keeper who died after a tiger
entered an enclosure at a wildlife park in Cambridgeshire, England, has
been named as 33-year-old Rosa King.
Australia plans to ban convicted
pedophiles from traveling overseas in what the government said today is a
world-first move to protect vulnerable children in Southeast Asia from
exploitation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
has asked Pope Francis to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in a
Canadian school system where indigenous children were abused for decades.
A 73-year-old Australian fisherman had a
scary encounter with a great white shark and lived to tell the tale of what it's
like facing off a "a bloody shark."
And police say golfer Tiger Woods has
been arrested on a DUI charge in Florida. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
says on its website that Woods was booked into the county jail around 7
a.m., EDT, yesterday. Jail records show Woods was arrested by the
police in Jupiter. He was released just before 11 a.m., yesterday, on his
own recognizance. He has been charged under a Driving Under the Influence
statute. No other details were immediately available.
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