News of the Force: Friday, October 20, 2017 - Page 1

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Friday, October 20, 2017 - Today is World Osteoporosis Day

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North Korea vows to unleash nuclear strike on the United States

    

    North Korea issued another threat of nuclear annihilation against the U.S. yesterday, vowing to unleash an "unimaginable strike at an unimaginable time."

    Australia's prime minister today dismissed an extraordinary letter from North Korea to the Australian Parliament and other countries as a "rant" against U.S. President Donald Trump and a sign that Pyongyang was "starting to feel the heat."

    Japanese officials have resorted to using comics to disseminate a survival guide in the event North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decides again to fire missiles in their direction.

    And CIA Director Mike Pompeo has warned that North Korea is on the cusp of being able to hit the U.S. with a nuclear missile. He stressed Washington still preferred diplomacy and sanctions, but said military force remains an option.

 

Terror chief killed in U.S. drone strike

    Omar Khalid Khorasani, the chief of the dreaded Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP JuA) is believed to have been killed in a recent air strike on the Afghan side of the border, militant sources have said.

 

Russia to take control of Kurdish oil pipeline

    Russian energy major Rosneft has agreed to take control of the main oil pipeline in Iraq's Kurdistan, further boosting its role as the main international investor in the semi-autonomous region.

    Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed yesterday what he says is his country's gravest error in the past 15 years: placing Moscow's trust in the West.

 

Tillerson raps China a 'predatory rule-breaker'

    

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has rebuked China for subverting the global order, undermining the sovereignty of its neighbors and for being an irresponsible international actor prone to "predatory" economic policies.

 

Search for missing Malaysian airliner to resume

    

    Malaysia has struck a deal with the U.S. company Ocean Infinity to resume the search for missing airliner MH-370. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014.

    The world's greatest aviation mystery has taken a new turn with the search for MH-370 to begin again, and Australia will play a key role.

 

Philippines says 'big possibility' militant leader has been killed

    

    The Philippines' military said yesterday there was a "big possibility" that a top Malaysian militant tipped to become Islamic State's point man in Southeast Asia has been killed in an overnight battle.

    The Philippines' military has struggled to defeat hundreds of well-armed militants who seized the southern city of Marawi in May.

 

Orders for anti-tank missiles continue to roll in at Raytheon

    

    The Raytheon Co. racked up orders worth more than half a billion dollars yesterday to build radio-controlled anti-tank missiles for the militaries of Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Bahrain.

 

Britain's PM asks E.U. to help her end Brexit 'sniping' at home

    

    British Prime Minister The Rt. Hon. Theresa May has appealed to European Union leaders to help her silence critics at home by signaling a willingness to break the deadlock in the Brexit talks.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered one of her most positive assessments of Brexit talks in months yesterday, saying she believed negotiations between the E.U. and Britain were moving forward.

    Once heralded as a crucial moment in Britain's march out of the European Union, a meeting of the bloc's leaders this week will instead focus on other simmering crises amid the stalled Brexit negotiations.

 

New Zealand to hold marijuana vote under new leader

    

    New Zealand is poised to slash immigration, rethink trade deals and vote on legalizing marijuana under a new government that takes office next week.

 

Tillerson pushes for stronger ties with India

    The United States vowed this week to work with India in preference to China over the next century to promote a "free and open" Asia-Pacific region led by prosperous democracies.

 

Raqqa celebrates victory over ISIS

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

    

    The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab troops, announced earlier this week that they had captured Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold and the terror group's former de facto capital.

    Rapid advances by Russian- and Iranian-backed government forces in eastern Syria are thwarting the U.S. military's hopes of pressing deeper into Islamic State territory after winning the battle for Raqqa.

    American-backed forces have largely driven the Islamic State from Raqqa, but the big question is who will rule it next.

    Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday voiced his gratitude to the Speaker of Kuwait's National Assembly, Marzouq Al-Ghanim, for his speech, as the latter slammed Israel's remarks on jailed Palestinian Parliament members.

    U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley lashed out on Wednesday at Iran for what she called a "laundry list" of bad behavior, and she criticized the U.N. over its stance on Israel.

    A growing number of Israeli Arabs from some more radical communities have been supporting ISIS, and now several of them have been sentenced to prison time for joining ISIS.

    And mandatory military service has long been one of the main tension points between religious and secular Israelis, and Orthodox Jews have violently protested over the issue.

 

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    Couzin Gym's Thought for the Day: Many girls like to marry a military man -  he can cook, sew, make a bed, and is in good health - and he's already used to taking orders.

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Homeland insecurity

    

    A solar-paneled barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border is an option the Trump administration could pursue, according to a senior Customs and Border Protection official who has been closely monitoring the construction of prototypes.

    Crews are already working at the construction site of prototypes for President Trump's border wall in San Diego County, Calif.

    An American businessman who worked for years undercover as an FBI confidential witness was blocked by the Obama Justice Department from telling Congress about conversations and transactions he witnessed related to the Russian nuclear industry's corruption case.

    Lawmakers are growing impatient with the Trump administration on the issue of cyber war, saying the United States lacks a clear policy for responding to attacks.

    Did you know? The Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the DHS, brought together 22 previously separate agencies with 179,000 employees.

    The Department of Homeland Security has granted a REAL ID enforcement extension to Pennsylvania through Oct. 10th.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday sought permission to interview the FBI informant who helped agents uncover a major corruption scheme by Russian nuclear officials seeking to aggressively expand their American business under the Obama administration. As he prepared to collect a $500,000 payday in Moscow in 2010, Bill Clinton sought the State Department's permission to meet with a Russian official during Obama's uranium decision.

    And Puerto Rico has had steady rain this week, meaning misery for those whose roofs were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Across the island, frustration is building over delays in the distribution and installation of the tarps usually provided by FEMA.

 

U.S. Army

    

    Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, troubled by a lack of information two weeks after an ambush on a U.S. special operations forces patrol in Niger left four U.S. Army Green Berets dead, has ordered an investigation. In the face of growing scrutiny, Mattis yesterday said the type of attack that killed the four U.S. troops in Niger earlier this month was "considered unlikely" and pledged to release the findings of a Pentagon investigation "as soon as possible."

    The United States Army is developing what it calls "high-tech" underwear. No kidding.

    A WW II-era, unexploded bomb was revealed at a construction site for a new school near the U.S. Army's Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany on Wednesday. Officials say the bomb was safely removed.

    U.S. Army Europe announced yesterday actions to reduce the personnel structure across the command in fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

    Flour has announced the company was awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to support the power grid repair in Puerto Rico.

    The U.S. Army has revised its multi-domain battle plans with the help of the U.S. Air Force. 

    Florida Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Jason Kirk addressed concerns about the Herbert Hoover Dike in Clewiston, Fla., on Oct. 9th. The governor is seeking federal funds for the repair of the Lake Okeechobee dike.

    The U.S. Army has accepted the first M1A2 SEPv3 version of the Abrams main battle tank.

    Lockheed Martin will be delivering next-gen Apache helicopter sensor systems under a new U.S. Army contract.   

    Scientists say their discovery on bulk elastomers can help design matrix materials for composites for the future generations of U.S. Army combat helmets, facial protection and more.

    U.S. Army navigation and targeting experts are ready to kick off a 10-year program to build an electro-optical all-weather day-and-night target designation and laser range finder system to help forward observers guide smart munitions to their targets.

    One of four planes taking 125 members of the New York Army National Guard left Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station yesterday morning for Puerto Rico.

    U.S. Army navigation and targeting experts are ready to kick off a 10-year program to build an electro-optical all-weather day-and-night target designation and laser range finder system to help forward observers guide smart munitions to their targets.

    The Kentucky Army National Guard contributes over $600,000 a year to solders' tuition assistance programs at Western Kentucky University (WKU).

    More than 50 members of the Alaska Army National Guard are deploying to St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to provide operational and sustainment support in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

    Armored combat vehicles experts at Textron Systems will build as many as 255 Mobile Strike Force Vehicles (MSFV) and vetronics for use in Afghanistan under the terms of a $332.9 million U.S. Army contract announced on Wednesday.

    And U.S. Army explosives-detection experts needed handheld and vehicle-mounted mine-detection systems with ground-penetrating radar able to detect buried metallic as well as non-metallic mines and other kinds of explosives. They found their solution from L-3 CyTerra, in Woburn, Mass.

 

NOAA news

    

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released its U.S. Winter Outlook, with La Nina potentially emerging for the second time. NOAA predicts a cold and wet winter in the north, and a warm and dry south.

    And transformed in the 1970s from illicit drug runner to federal research vessel, the shrimp boat R/V Gloria Michelle has spent most of its life tracking fish for science. Visitors got a chance to tour the boat in New Bedford, Mass., yesterday when it was docked at the State Pier as part of a public outreach effort. A branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates the vessel, whose home port is in Woods Hole. The 72-foot Gloria Michelle makes three primary trips each year for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center: two, in the spring and fall, with Massachusetts state scientists to count and study fish populations, and a summer trip focused on shrimp in the Gulf of Maine. It works in coastal waters from Virginia to the Canadian border; a larger vessel does surveys offshore. Visitors heard from crew members and scientists, toured the vessel’s living quarters, and got a look at the fishing net and a table full of fish typical of a near-shore Massachusetts catch. "We could've stayed there for hours, truly," said Tobey Eugenio, a teacher from Our Sisters’ School in New Bedford. She and two other teachers brought 17 students and a few parents. They enjoyed hearing about life on board, she said. Matthew Camisa, a senior biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said the crew does a 20-minute tow in each of 103 randomly assigned locations off Massachusetts each May and September. Fish get dumped onto a table, sorted into baskets and buckets and are examined. The catch typically includes silver hake, scup, monkfish, skate, and Atlantic mackerel, among other species. Crew members record characteristics such as length, weight, and sex, and they collect the fishes’ ear bones, which are used to determined their age, much like the rings of a tree. "It’s pretty neat," said Nina Shepherd, a biological technician who was showing ear bones to visitors. The bones can reveal a lot about a fish population. "They’re not living as long, because we're catching the big ones," she said. Visitors met the vessel’s second-in-command, Chris Gallagher, a member of the NOAA Commissioned Corps. The corps is a little-known uniformed service whose officers train at the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School and pilot NOAA’s research vessels. Trips aboard the Gloria Michelle usually include a captain and first mate from the Commissioned Corps, plus two deck hands and up to six scientists. The vessel has been collecting fish in the same way, with the same gear, for some 40 years. That consistency helps ensure reliable results, Camisa said. "You want to be confident that any trend you see in the data, it’s reflective of what’s actually happening with the fish," he said. "That’s the only true way of saying what a population is doing." The drawback to using old gear is that fishermen view the gear as out of date, according to NOAA biologist Anne Richards. NOAA also works with fishermen on modern commercial vessels, but on the Gloria Michelle, science comes first. "We’re not fishing for fish; we're fishing for information," she said.

 

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps

    

    Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB) and Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor, both in Washington state, and U.S. Navy Reserve components and Department of the Navy civilians, are supporting Exercise PANDEMIC 17 for Navy Region Northwest commands.

    The U.S. Navy maintains a reserve fleet of military sealift vessels, but its war plans assume the availability of a sizable U.S. commercial fleet.

    Military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts at the Northrop Grumman Corp. are continuing their efforts to install a sophisticated surface-search radar system on the U.S. Navy's fleet of MQ-8C Fire Scout shipboard unmanned helicopters.

    And the RQ-21 Blackjack is a small tactical unmanned air system used by the U.S. Marine Corps.

 

U.S. Air Force

    

    The U.S. Air Force and several academic sites have launched a study called MilSeq to explore the impact of incorporating exome sequencing into routine medical care.

    Air Force officials have selected 335 officers as candidates for command in the combat air forces.

    Lt. Col. (Dr.) Brad Meyers, of Jefferson, who has a practice in Waterloo, was promoted to colonel in the United States Air Force at Truax Field in Madison, Wis.

    Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, the commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, has placed a new award streamer on the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School's guidon in recognition of the school's receipt of an Air Force-wide award.

    More than 1,200 Air Force civilian employees have been selected for basic, intermediate and developmental education.

    The United States Air Force Concert Band and the Singing Sergeants from Washington, D.C., will be in America's heartland through Oct. 26th.

    A new U.S. Air Force undersecretary who once worked side-by-side with U.S. Sen. John McCain to pressure the military to disclose more information about the cost of the Air Force's B-21 bomber program now opposes disclosure of the Raiders' actual costs.

    Maintainers at Hill AFB, Utah, are supporting the F-35As' first appearance in Asia during Exercise Seoul ADEX 17.

    Remotely-piloted aircraft from March Air Reserve Base, Calif., are again in the air to help combat this year's California wildfires.

    Federal agents have searched a home in southwestern Ohio - and it isn't the first time. The homeowner was previously a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve and worked in Air Force research.

    The West Virginia Air National Guard has announced the promotion of its first African-American man, Col. Christopher S. Walker, the Chief of Staff for the West Virginia Air National Guard, to the rank of brigadier general.

    Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., will have to wait a little longer to find out if it's getting one of the two installments of the F-35As.

    American Legion Post #26 and the Minot, N.D., Civil Air Patrol's Magic City Composite Squadron will be hosting their 2nd annual Wreaths Across America fundraiser on Nov. 8th.

    The General Aviation Council of Hawaii will present its Hilo Aviation Day and Fly-in on Saturday at Hilo International Airport's Civil Air Patrol facility.

    "Welcome Home to Korean War-era Veterans" will be the theme of the annual Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Community Park, which will be sponsored by American Legion Post 404 and the City of Marco Island, Fla. Set for 11 a.m., on Nov. 11th, the ceremony honoring America’s service men and women will include a special tribute to Korean War-era veterans highlighted by a special City of Marco Island proclamation recognizing all Korean War-era veterans. A keynote speech by State Rep. Francis Rooney, III(R-Naples) will be delivered, along with speeches by Collier County Commissioner Donna Fiala and retired U.S. Army Col. Charlotte Roman, who is a member of Marco Island City Council. A review of the Korean War’s history will be presented by Bill Duncan, the chaplain of American Legion Post #404 and a Vietnam War Navy veteran. An opening prayer will be offered by Charlie Purple, a U.S. Navy Seabee during World War II, and a closing prayer will be by Mike Harris, the chaplain of U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla # 95, of Marco Island. A POW-MIA ceremony will be led by the past commander of Marco Island’s American Legion and VFW posts, Lee Rubenstein, and Bill Horton, the commander American Legion Post 404. There will also be a reading of the names of Marco veterans who have passed away over the last year by VFW Post 6370. The ceremony will again be a blended affair involving all four of the island’s military organizations: American Legion Post 404, VFW Post 6370, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla #95 and Marco Island’s Civil Air Patrol squadron. Representatives of each organization will comprise a color guard bearing the flags of the four military groups, while the American flag will be carried by members of the city’s police and fire-rescue departments. The color guard will be led by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Doug Bartlett, commander of the Marco Island Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla. The ceremony will also include: The Pledge of Allegiance led by Cub Scout Pack # 234, of Marco Island; The National Anthem and America the Beautiful will be sung by Susan Doyle, of Naples, followed with a fly-over by the Marco island Civil Air Patrol squadron in a World War II-era plane. Keith Dameron, vice president and business development officer for the Iberia Bank of Collier County, will be serving as master of ceremonies. Patriotic music will be provided by DJ Steve Reynolds and the playing of "Taps" will be by Greg Gruesel of the Marco Island Lutheran Church. A special, covered seating area for all veterans and special VIP seating for the Korean War-era vets and their spouses will be provided. The City of Marco Island will cover the cost for renting the tents and chairs that will be used for the ceremony, which, in the past, had been funded by the island’s veterans groups through public donations. The Iberia Bank will underwrite all other expenses for the ceremony. Vietnam War-era veterans were honored at the 2016 Veterans Day ceremony. This year’s event will honor the sacrifices of vets who served from January of 1950 to June of 1955, the federal government’s timeframe for the Korean War-era. "The Korean War is sometimes called the forgotten war," notes Lee Rubenstein, a past commander of Marco’s American Legion and the VFW posts. "No truce was ever signed and even today, the Korean peninsula is once again on the verge of North Korea trying to ignite another war. We remember and honor all veterans from all years. It’s especially important now as our Korean veterans are aging and they deserve to be thanked for their service 57 years later, Marco Island style." A large crowd is expected, so please arrive early. Bring lawn chairs, as seating is limited. The Veterans Community Park is located at 901 Park Ave. on Marco Island.

    Auxbeacon.org has a story today about "CAP Brand Management." Visit: http://auxbeacon.org/civil-air-patrol-brand-management/ . Meanwhile, in a message received today through our website, a party writes: "Mr. Munger, I have been helping the folks at AuxBeacon and wanted to do the same for you in tribute to your long term pain with the abuse in the Civil Air Patrol while still being supportive of cadets. MarkMonitor is an Internet brand management firm that owns glassdoor.com and has unresolved complaints against it with the Better Business Bureau, so it is not accredited and has only a low C+ rating. Civil Air Patrol could be using member dues money to pay to have others make false positive and glowing entries about the organization."
    And today marks the 40th anniversary of the Gillsburg, Miss., plane crash of Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd. Although they weren't Southern rock's first band - that title belongs to The Allman Brothers Band - Lynyrd Skynyrd was arguably the whiskey-soaked genre's most popular and influential crew. Somewhere around 7 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1977, the band's plane went down in a wooded, swampy area in Gillsburg. The band had charted a propeller-driven Convair 240 to travel from Greenville, S.C., to Baton Rouge, La., to play a concert at the Louisiana State University. According to reports, the plane ran out of fuel and the pilot was forced to attempt an emergency landing. The crash killed six people, including the band's lead singer and main songwriter, Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and Steve's sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines. Pilot Walter Wiley McCreary and co-pilot William John Gray, both of Dallas, and the band's assistant road manager, Dean Kilpatric, died as well. Twenty others on the plane were injured. The plane crashed about six miles from the Gillsburg home of Donald Chase, Sr. Chase and his son hopped in their truck and headed to the scene after being alerted about a plane down by the Civil Air Patrol. Chase said in 2015 that he helped paramedics carry out passengers on stretchers. Chase also said he had no idea who he was helping until later when a nurse at the hospital told him the people in the plane were "the Lynyrd Skynyrd band." Chase said he'd never heard of them. "Street Survivors" was the band's fifth studio album, released three days before the crash. The album's cover photo featured the band members engulfed in flames. Out of respect, MCA Records replaced the original cover with a basic group shot against a black background. Thirty years later, the original album cover was restored on a deluxe CD release. After the crash, the band went on a 10-year hiatus. In 1987, they reunited for a world tour with Ronnie Van Zant's brother, Johnny, taking over on lead vocals. Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and continues to tour today. Guitarist Gary Rossington is the only founding member that is still in the band.

 

American Red Cross

    

    The Pueblo of Sandia in Albuquerque, N.M., is donating $1 million to the American Red Cross' Disaster Relief Fund. The donation will be broken into three separate checks.

    Lucky Supermarkets stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions have started collecting monetary donations for the American Red Cross.

    WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Ky., is supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross as they help those affected by the wildfires in California and the hurricane in Puerto Rico.

    Stearns Bank N.A., in St. Cloud, Minn., is donating $250,000 to the American Red Cross to aid its hurricane relief efforts.

    The American Red Cross is having multiple blood drives throughout West Virginia this month.

    The Dominican University, near Marin, Calif., has become a gathering site for the American Red Cross as volunteers from across the nation flock to the area to assist with the raging wildfires.

    And to help communities and families affected by the devastating wildfires in California, The Coca-Cola Foundation has pledged a $500,000 grant to the American Red Cross.

 

 

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