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Military News
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or
ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the
survival and success of liberty."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
Face
of Defense: Marine Gives
Gift of Life to Brother
By
Lance Cpl. Robert C.
Frenke, USMC
Special to American Forces
Press Service
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CAMP
FOSTER, Japan, Feb 2008
– Cameron Bonner’s
life was in danger, and
his best hope for survival
came from a U.S. Marine
stationed at this Okinawa
base.
Marine
Corps 1st
Lt. Austin
Bonner,
left,
visits
with his
brother,
Cameron
Bonner, in
Los
Angeles.
The
lieutenant
donated a
kidney to
his
brother,
who
suffers
from
lupus.
Courtesy
photo
(Click
photo for
screen-resolution
image);high-resolution
image
available. |
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Cameron’s
brother, Marine Corps 1st
Lt. Austin Bonner, is the
training officer for
Marine Air Support
Squadron 2, Marine Air
Group 18, 1st Marine
Aircraft Wing. He is one
of two siblings who were
found to be perfect
matches as potential
kidney donors for Cameron,
who was diagnosed in 1998
with lupus, a disease that
causes the body’s immune
system to attack healthy
cells.
The other match, brother
Marty Bonner, donated a
kidney to Cameron in 2000.
But that kidney failed in
the fall of 2005, and
Cameron’s options were
dwindling. Doctors said he
was not healthy enough
that year to receive a
kidney transplant from
Austin. Over the next two
years, Cameron suffered
through having his blood
filtered three times a
week in a procedure called
dialysis.
In Cameron’s case, the
disease attacked both
kidneys, causing them to
fail in 2000. Since his
diagnosis, he’s had a
brain hemorrhage, a stroke
and two open-heart
surgeries.
“His quality of life
suffered,” Austin said.
“He wasn’t able to do
a lot. While he was going
through dialysis, he
couldn’t eat certain
foods or drink too much
water, and he was tired
all the time.”
Once doctors said Cameron
was healthy enough to
undergo another transplant
surgery in 2007, Austin
flew home to meet his
brother. With his wife’s
support and his
command’s consent,
Austin flew to Los Angeles
to undergo the surgery at
the Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center on Jan. 15.
“His family is very
close,” said Amy Bonner,
Austin’s wife of 10
years. “I was very
honored and proud to know
he cared and loved his
brother enough to give him
another chance at life.”
Before going into surgery,
Austin and his wife
prepared their son,
Andrais, 7, and daughter,
Avery, 4, for their
father’s upcoming
procedure.
“My son was a little
more sensitive to me going
to the hospital, since
he’s a little older,”
Austin said. “Our son
had a grandmother who
passed away, and all he
knew was she went to the
hospital and died.”
“We reassured him by
letting him know that
daddy’s going to be
fine,” Amy added.
“He’s giving a piece
of himself to save Uncle
Cam. Basically, we talked
with them and prayed with
them a lot.”
After more than 12 hours
of surgery, Austin came
out with one less kidney
and Cameron with a renewed
chance.
“I felt relief when I
saw Austin,” Amy said.
“To have your husband
and brother-in-law in
surgery is hard. We were
worried about both of
them. We were praying to
God that the kidney would
take, that it will be
healthy. Austin did well,
and then we were all
waiting for Cameron to
finish up. He came out,
and we got the news that
everything went well. By
10 p.m. we were all
jumping for joy.”
The doctors released
Austin from the hospital
Jan. 17, and Cameron on
Jan. 19. Austin gave his
brother the gift of life,
and his wife and others
believe he would go
through anything for
anyone.
“Austin is always
putting other people
first,” Amy said. “He
doesn’t worry about
himself. He didn’t care
about any of the potential
problems; it didn’t
matter what he had to go
through to help his
brother. His brother means
the world to him.”
Since the operation,
Cameron has had some
complications, but the
Bonner family and doctors
are optimistic about his
kidney. Cameron and Austin
are doing well.
“I’ve learned from
this situation,” Austin
said. “A lot of people
have expressed their
gratitude, and sent out
their prayers. It was all
worth it just to have my
brother.”
(Marine Corps Lance Cpl.
Robert C. Frenke serves at
Marine Corps Base Camp
Butler, Japan.)
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Africa
Command Pledges to Partner with
Other U.S. Agencies
By
Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON,
Nov. 2007 – The military’s
unified command responsible for
operations across Africa will
work in tandem with other U.S.
government agencies to assist
partner nations there to
confront poverty, disease,
terrorism and other challenges,
a senior U.S. officer said
today.
“We
are not looking to take the lead
for any other government-agency
work that they are doing today
across the continent or our
international partners,” Navy
Vice Adm. Robert T. Moeller,
U.S. Africa Command’s deputy
to the commander for military
operations, told “bloggers”
and Internet reporters during a
conference call.
AFRICOM will team with the U.S.
State Department and other U.S.
agencies and organizations to
assist African partners to
combat AIDS, malaria and other
challenges that affect regional
stability and security, Moeller
explained.
AFRICOM marked the startup of
its initial operations Oct. 1.
For now, the command is
collocated with U.S. European
Command in Stuttgart, Germany.
Plans are for AFRICOM to be
fully established as a separate
unified command by Sept. 30 and
eventually to base the
command’s headquarters
somewhere in Africa.
The new command will consolidate
support efforts in Africa
currently performed by U.S.
Central Command, U.S. Pacific
Command and U.S. European
Command, Moeller pointed out.
“By doing so, we would hope
that we would be more effective
in (providing) that kind of
support,” Moeller pointed out.
Moeller dispelled a
misconception that AFRICOM
intends to have a large military
footprint in Africa.
“The establishment of AFRICOM
is not about the deployment of
(sizeable U.S.) forces to the
continent or the establishment
of bases,” Moeller emphasized.
From time to time, Moeller
explained, some U.S. military
personnel would go to the
continent to team with African
partners in performing
security-cooperation activities.
A key point is that African
nations are taking the lead in
their relations with AFRICOM,
which will assist those
countries in developing the
capacities they need to help
themselves, Moeller said.
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Biographies:
Vice
Adm. Robert T. Moeller, USN
Related Sites:
U.S.
Africa Command
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Military
Transformation Requires Cultural Change
By
Steven Donald Smith
American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON,
June 2006
–
To be sure, the Defense Department's
transformation initiative is about improving
military technology, mobility, lethality and
speed to meet the 21st century's asymmetrical
threats. But it is a cultural transformation
as well.
"Transformation
is really about cultural changes as much as
anything else," said Thomas Hone, the
Defense Department's Office of Force
Transformation assistant director for risk
management, in a June 6 interview. "It
means a change in people to maximize their
potential."
Changing
the way people think about their work will
yield better results, he added.
Transformation
is a continuing process that does not have an
end point. The evolution of concepts,
processes, organizations and technology are
all part of transformation. Change in any one
of these areas necessitates change in all,
military officials said.
Hone
said that when Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld arrived for his second tour as
Pentagon chief in 2001, he was on the vanguard
of military transformation.
"He
had an intuition," Hone said of Rumsfeld.
"And I think the intuition was correct.
That intuition was that people could do things
very different and the results would be
dramatic."
Because
transformation represents a shift in
fundamental and long-held conventions, it has
not been welcome by everyone.
In
his commencement speech May 31 at the Air
Force Academy, Rumsfeld reiterated that the
U.S. must continue to transform and streamline
its military forces to meet future challenges.
He then pointed out that some people will
always be resistant to change and urged the
airmen to challenge inherited assumptions and
seek out better approaches.
"I
urge you to make that the bedrock of your
careers," Rumsfeld said during his
graduation remarks.
Hone
credits the former director of the Office of
Force Transformation, retired Navy Vice Adm.
Arthur K. Cebrowski, who died in November, for
having the broad vision for force
transformation. "One of the things that
struck him over his long and very successful
military career was the way in which war
itself was changing," Hone said.
For
instance, in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Cebrowski was intrigued by the Revolution in
Military Affairs, a theory about the future of
warfare. During this time period, the ability
to get information on enemy positions became
so absolute that large amounts of ordnance
were no longer needed to destroy a target.
"Information
can displace firepower," Hone said.
"You don't need so much firepower,
because you know where the target is and you
can hit it with precision munitions. You find
a target and then you attack it. You'd do all
of this in a matter of minutes instead of in a
matter of hours or days."
Hone
said transformed concepts and technologies
have already been put to good use in Iraq.
Joint close-air support is provided to ground
troops around the clock and in all weather
conditions. "Technology and organization
makes this possible," he said.
The
quick toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in
2003 is another example of transformation at
work. "A relatively small military
knocking over the Army of Iraq and removing
the regime there from power," Hone said.
"That was done with just a little more
than 130,000 troops. That's not very much when
you're talking about a country of 26 million (people)."
He
also stressed the positive impact
transformation will have on the U.S. Army as
it moves toward brigades that are designed to
be highly mobile, self-sufficient and
interchangeable.
"You
will be able to pull one out and put another
in its place," Hone said. "(It's) as
though you were pulling a brick out of a wall
and putting another back in."
Had
the U.S. military had current capabilities
during World War II, it could have ended the
war in Europe in the fall of 1944 instead of
the spring of 1945, Hone said.
"If
you could go back to the spring of 1944 and
tell General (George S.) Patton that 'We can
offer you day-and-night, all-weather,
precision bombing. We can offer you
coordination between ground and air. We can
offer you all the logistics you need when you
need it. We'll anticipate what you'll need so
it will show up on time. We will offer you
combat replacements, so that as soldiers get
tired they get replaced by other soldiers who
understand the situation.' If you had gone to
him and said all that in April 1944, he'd have
grabbed every piece of it and the war in
Europe would have been over in October
1944," Hone said.
This
wish list of hypothetical offerings to Patton
is now becoming a reality, he said.
"And
that's what we're talking about now,"
Hone said. "We're talking about getting
real intelligence on the enemy in real time.
We're talking about making sure that everybody
at every level has a shared operating picture."
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Related Site:
DoD
Transformation
Nation
to Honor Fallen During National Moment of
Remembrance
By
Paul X. Rutz
American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON,
May 2006
–
On May 29, Americans will pause together to
remember servicemembers from wars past and
present who have given the ultimate sacrifice
while defending the nation.
The
National Moment of Remembrance takes place for
one minute each year on Memorial Day, starting
at 3 p.m., local time.
"The
time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time
when most Americans are enjoying their
freedoms on the national holiday,"
according to a news release from the White
House Commission on Remembrance. "The
moment does not replace traditional Memorial
Day events; rather, it is an act of national
unity in which all Americans, alone or with
family and friends, honor those who died for
our freedom."
Observing
the moment can be as simple as ringing a bell
three times or pausing for a moment of silence,
the news release said. Americans are
encouraged to ask others to remember,
including family, friends and co-workers.
Established
by Congress in December 2000, the White House
Commission on Remembrance encourages Americans
to remember the sacrifices of its fallen
military members, as well as the families they
leave behind. According to its mission
statement, the commission "promotes acts
of remembrance throughout the year and asks
Americans to pay our debt of gratitude in
memory of our fallen by giving something back
to the nation."
The
idea for the program came in May 1996 when the
commission's director, Carmella LaSpada, asked
children touring the nation's capital what
Memorial Day meant to them. "That's the
day the pool opens," they said.
Providing
a sense of history to America's citizens and
ensuring younger generations remember the
sacrifices made to preserve their freedom is a
major goal, the news release said.
In
addition to the National Moment of Remembrance,
the commission has promoted other programs. In
June 2004, the commission sponsored a "historically
accurate" sand sculpture on Normandy
Beach, France, to commemorate the 60th
Anniversary of D-Day, according to its Web
site. Sand sculptors worked for six days,
making a 30-foot by 30-foot sculpture of
allied troops storming the beach.
The
commission employs cartoonists to create new,
limited-edition cartoons for a calendar each
year. It also partners with Dear Abby to send
messages of support to the nation's troops.
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Related Sites:
White House
Commission on Remembrance
Operation
Dear Abby
DoD
Top News
.Bush
to realign overseas troops
American Forces Press Service
Stuttgart, Germany — President Bush unveiled a historic
realignment of U.S. troops overseas Monday, a move he said
would create a more agile, lethal fighting force while
easing burdens on military families.
Bush said the plan, the most comprehensive U.S. troop shift since the end of the Cold War, would make U.S. forces quicker to respond to threats in the war on terrorism. As many as 70,000 troops and 100,000 family members and civilian workers would return from bases in Europe and Asia.
"The world has changed a great deal, and our posture must change with it," Bush told the Veterans of Foreign Wars, "for the sake of our military families, for the sake of our taxpayers and so we can be more effective in projecting our strength and spreading freedom."
The global realignment includes plans to close some unspecified bases and use others in Eastern Europe as transit points to send forces quickly from the United States to trouble spots.
The president's announcement, coming amid Republican criticism of Democrat John Kerry's fitness to be commander in chief, also served a political purpose, particularly given that the VFW's 105th annual convention took place in a hotly contested state. Kerry addresses the VFW on Wednesday.
Bush has been making regular campaign appearances that emphasize his credentials as commander in chief and leader of the war on terrorism. A week ago, Bush nominated Rep. Porter Goss,
R-Fla., to head the CIA. On Aug. 2, he endorsed some of the recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
Retired Army general Wesley Clark, a Kerry supporter who once headed NATO forces in Europe, called Bush's proposal "pure politics." He called it "a slap in the face of the Europeans" and "more unilateralism on the part of the administration."
Bush said the troop realignment would alleviate some hardships that servicemembers suffer from frequent transfers and time away from families.
Kerry and his aides have criticized the administration for what they see as
over reliance on National Guard and reserve troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, where many are on extended tours that have created problems for families.
"Our servicemembers will have more time on the home front and more predictability more time for their kids and to spend time with their families at home," Bush said.
The plan, to be implemented over 10 years, would not affect the 172,500 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush dismissed Kerry's pledge to bring an unspecified number of troops home from Iraq in his first six months in office. Bush said it "sends the wrong signal to the enemy, who can easily wait six months and one day. Sends the wrong message to our troops, that completing the mission may not be necessary. Sends the wrong message to the Iraqi people, who wonder whether America means what it says."
The Kerry camp says Bush is mischaracterizing the pledge by leaving out Kerry's conditions.
The realignment plan would affect many of the 200,000 U.S. troops abroad. About half are in Europe, including 70,000 in Germany. The Pentagon told German officials this year that it was thinking about replacing two Army divisions there with smaller, more mobile units. Sophisticated weaponry would be sent to some bases to make up for troop reductions.
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& Space Tech
The Defense
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Armed
Forces Journal International
US Defense.com
Joint
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Journal of
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A
Nation in
Mourning
"Columbia's lost. There are no survivors," a
grim-faced President Bush later said in an address to the
American people. "These astronauts knew the dangers and
they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble
purpose in life." (Full
story)
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