Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans advocates, it’s Thursday, August 27, 2020.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
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[Editor’s Note: pretty wild video of the event at the link.]
18 hours ago
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WASHINGTON
— In the most violent skirmish in months between U.S. and Russian
forces in Syria, a vehicle collision in the eastern part of the war-torn
country
left American troops with concussions, two U.S. officials said
Wednesday.
One
official said Russian vehicles sideswiped a light-armored U.S. military
vehicle, injuring four Americans. The official said two Russian
helicopters flew
above the Americans, and one of the aircraft was within about 70 feet
the vehicle.
National
Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement that a
Russian vehicle struck the American vehicle near Dayrick, in northeast
Syria.
“To
deescalate the situation, the coalition patrol departed the area,”
Ullyot said. “Unsafe and unprofessional actions like this represent a
breach of deconfliction
protocols, committed to by the United States and Russia in December
2019.”
While
there have been several other recent incidents between the American and
Russian troops who all patrol in eastern Syria, officials described
this one as
the most serious. U.S. troops are usually accompanied by members of the
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Both
officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the
incident that were not yet made public. One official said the incident
happened deep
inside the eastern Syria deconfliction zone, where Russian troops
generally should not be present.
The
officials said the incident is being discussed by senior officials from
both countries who routinely work to prevent conflicts between troops
in that area.
U.S. and Russian commanders have frequent conversations to try and
avoid contact between their troops there.
Gen.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone on
Wednesday to Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff.
No details
of the conversation were provided. Often the top U.S. and Russian
military leaders do not publicly release the contents of their phone
calls, so it’s not clear if the incident was discussed.
Ullyot
said the U.S. forces were in what is called a Mine-Resistant Ambush
Protected All-Terrain Vehicle. That replaced early versions of a vehicle
developed
more than a decade ago to allow troops in Afgnhanistan and Iraq to
better withstand roadside bombs.
8 hours ago
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Vice
President Mike Pence lauded President Donald Trump for rebuilding the
military, fixing the Department of Veterans Affairs and
strengthening America’s national security in his Republican
convention speech on Wednesday night.
“We’ve
taken the fights of radical Islamic terrorists on our terms on their
sites,” Pence said in a speech delivered from Fort McHenry
in Baltimore that also touched on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic,
the country’s economic turmoil and racial equality protests across the
country. “We’ve stood up to our enemies and we’ve stood with our
allies.”
The
speech, which doubled as Pence’s formal acceptance of his re-nomination
to serve as vice president in a second Trump term and
an argument for why the Republican ticket deserves four more years,
came on a night heavy with military imagery and veteran speakers.
Last week, Democratic leaders decried Trump as an erratic commander in chief who has been soft on foreign dictators, adversarial
towards allies and callous about the impact of his decisions on military families.
But
in the Republican Party rebuttal on Wednesday, second lady Karen Pence
praised Trump as a champion of military spouses and veterans’
mental health care. Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, the vice
president’s national security adviser, stated that Trump “reversed the
decline of our military and restructured our national security strategy
with historic investment and vision.”
Pence
— the son of a veteran and the father of a Marine Corps captain — noted
that several Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients
were among the crowd of several hundred spectators for his speech at
the historic military site.
He
credited Trump as a commander in chief who “stepped in and from day one
and kept his word to rebuild our military” by signing
sizable increases in military spending in recent years, a move that
critics have said has come at the expense of other domestic and
diplomatic priorities.
Pence noted that Trump founded the first new branch of the armed forces in decades, the U.S. Space Force. And the vice president
highlighted improvements to the Department of Veterans Affairs in the last three years.
“After years of scandal robbed our veterans of the care that you’ve earned in the uniform, President Trump kept his word again,”
Pence said. “We reformed the VA and Veterans Choice is now available for every veteran in America.”
The
issue of medical care “choice” for veterans has been a key campaign
focus for Trump, both this cycle and in 2016, and a point
of controversy for his critics.
The
availability of private-sector health care for veterans has expanded
significantly since Trump signed the VA Mission Act into
law two years ago, but prominent Democratic leaders (along with Sen.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.) have blasted Trump’s shift of resources from VA
hospitals to outside clinics as an abdication of government
responsibilities.
Trump has also taken criticism for saying he came up with the idea of veterans “choice,” even though the named VA Choice program
was started in 2014 under President Barack Obama.
But
Pence said the improvements to VA and the military stand as as proof of
Trump’s focus on fulfilling America’s responsibilities
to its “heroes.”
Following
the speech, Trump joined Pence in greeting and posing for pictures with
the veterans and other audience members in attendance.
The president is expected to deliver the closing remarks of the
week-long convention on Thursday evening.
26 Aug 2020
VA
Secretary Robert Wilkie went to President Abraham Lincoln's hometown of
Springfield, Illinois, Wednesday to double down on his opposition to a
gender-neutral update to the agency's iconic motto, taken from
Lincoln's second inaugural address.
Wilkie
dedicated a plaque at the VA's Camp Butler National Cemetery in
Springfield with the existing motto: "To care for him who shall have
borne
the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." The VA secretary made
his purpose in the visit clear in remarks that followed.
"The words that brought us here should not be diluted, parsed or canceled," Wilkie said, according to a VA release.
The Department of Veterans Affairs "welcomes
all veterans, including the 10% of all veterans who are women," Wilkie
said. But, he added, "the words that brought us here ought to be
preserved as they were spoken and displayed so every generation
understands the origin of America's progress in becoming
the most tolerant nation on earth."
The
current motto was adopted in 1959, and the words have since been
emblazoned at the entrance to VA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In
his Memorial Day remarks this year, Wilkie announced that the motto
would go up at more than 140 VA cemeteries nationwide, and the Camp
Butler
cemetery in Springfield became the first Wednesday. The VA has not yet
given a cost estimate for the project.
The
organizations Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Service
Women's Action Network and several lawmakers from both sides of the
aisle
have argued that the current motto is exclusionary, and fails to
recognize that about 10% of veterans and 17% of the armed forces are women.
Advocates
for changing the motto have offered up a paraphrase of Lincoln's words:
"To care for those who have borne the battle, and for their families
and survivors."
Another
proposed version would state: "To fulfill President Lincoln's promise
'To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan' by serving and honoring the men and women who are
America's veterans."
Tom
Porter, Government Affairs vice president at IAVA, noted that Wilkie's
trip to Springfield coincided with the Defense Department's marking of
"Women's Equality Day."
"It
seems like he's trying really hard" to make it more difficult for any
future change to the motto, Porter said of Wilkie. "It's kind of
head-scratching
what he's doing."
Changing
a few words in the motto would not be a disservice to Lincoln's legacy,
Porter said. "It's not canceling Lincoln," Porter said, adding that
reverence for the 16th president "should not be used as an excuse to
make women feel unwelcome" at the VA.
He speculated that if Lincoln were commander in chief today, he would be in favor of a change to the motto.
The
debate over the motto resulted in a heated exchange at a House hearing
last month between Acting VA Deputy Secretary Pamela Powers and Rep.
Kathleen
Rice, a New York Democrat.
In
defending the current motto, Powers said at the July 24 hearing of a
House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that
the
panel had "heard from some women on both sides of the issue," but she
was cut off by Rice.
The motto can have the effect of keeping women from seeking health care at the VA, Rice said.
"You
immediately feel like you don't belong there," she said. "I really hope
that you will reconsider your position and stop making reference to
words
that were spoken many years ago because the reality of our military in
2020 is very different."
In
a statement to Military.com Wednesday, Rice said she found it
"disappointing that Secretary Wilkie is ignoring the calls of veterans
and lawmakers
and proceeding with adding new displays of the VA's outdated motto."
Lincoln's
famous second inaugural address was given on March 4, 1865, ahead of
the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.
His fuller statement reads:
"With
malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right,
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work
we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall
have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among
ourselves, and with all nations."
By
August 26, 2020 at 7:12 p.m. EDT
A
soldier missing from Fort Hood was probably found dead, his family’s
attorney said Wednesday, adding to the toll of service members at the
Texas installation who
have vanished or died in murky circumstances in recent months.
Sgt.
Elder Fernandes, 23, was last seen Aug. 17 by members of his unit at a
home in Killeen, outside the sprawling post, the Army said. His family
later arrived in
Texas from Massachusetts to aid in the search.
In a
news conference Wednesday, Army officials said Fernandes reported he
was a victim of a sexual assault in May. An investigation determined it
was unsubstantiated.
Fernandes recently learned the results of the inquiry, officials said.
Army officials had previously said Fernandes
may have left the area on his own accord after speaking with soldiers in his unit.
Lt.
Col. Justin Redfern told reporters Fernandes was an “exemplary” leader
but became troubled in March, suggesting mental health issues. The
commander said he believed
it was unconnected to the sexual assault allegations.
Fernandes
was hospitalized at Fort Hood on Aug. 11 and released on Aug. 17, the
last day he was seen, Army official said, but declined to say for what
purpose. The
family grew concerned when he did not call his mother as promised after
his discharge. His blue BMW was found at his unit motor pool, the
family told The Washington Post.
Army
officials told the family a body was found hanging in a tree in Temple,
about 25 miles east of the installation, family attorney Natalie Khawam
said. A black
backpack at the scene contained his driver’s license, phone and hygiene
items, Khawam said. Fernandes’s military ID was in a pants pocket.
The Temple Police Department said the
ID
indicated that the remains may belong to Fernandes but “no forensic
confirmation has been made at this time.” The initial investigation has
not found evidence of foul play, the department said.
“They
don’t know what happened, whether it was suicide or whether murder. But
I’m going to tell you what they did to him, the blood on their hands,
it’s a form of
murder,” Khawam said in a news conference in Florida on Wednesday,
where she demanded a congressional investigation of Fort Hood.
The
Fernandes family chastised the Army’s investigation in a Tuesday call
with The Post, hours before they received word of the discovered
remains.
“Somebody
cannot just vanish from the face of the Earth like this. Somebody knows
something,” said Isabel Fernandes, an aunt of the missing soldier. “We
can’t sleep,
we can’t eat. This is beyond cruelty.”
Fort Hood has been gripped by separate killings and high profile disappearances this year.
Investigators
said a fellow soldier killed Guillén on Fort Hood and buried her
remains in a shallow grave. Police confronted him on July 1, and he
fatally shot himself,
investigators said.
The remains of Pvt. Gregory Wedel-Morales, a soldier missing since August 2019, were found
in a field in Killeen in June. Three other soldiers were
killed in separate shooting incidents. Pfc. Brandon Rosecrans was
killed in nearby Harker Heights in May. Spc. Freddy Delacruz was killed
on March 14 and Spc. Shelby Jones was killed in
early March.
The
five suspected homicides of soldiers at Fort Hood between March and June
outpaced the last four years combined, Stars and Stripes reported.
Army data has shown more violent and nonviolent crimes occur among
soldiers at Fort Hood than at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which hosts
thousands more troops.
A
friend of Fernandes told Khawam that the soldier was being harassed and
hazed within the unit. Lt. Col. Chris Brautigam, a spokesman for the 1st
Cavalry Division,
said Fernandes was transferred to another unit to avoid reprisals from
superiors.
“These men and women go through a lot,” Khawam said. “I’m not talking about war here. It’s toxic command.”
Army
officials said the search for Fernandes was a “top priority” of the 1st
Cavalry Division, with soldiers searching for him on and off Fort Hood
and with Killeen
police also investigating.
But the family said the Army took too long to get the public involved. A news
release was published four days after Fernandes was last seen.
“The Army goes online, posting they
helped since day one,” Isabel Fernandes said. “It’s all bull — t.”
On July 30, under intense scrutiny after the Guillén slaying, the Army convened
an independent panel to review the command climate at the base. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Wednesday she was “heartsick” and vowed
to investigate the Fernandes case and other deaths at Fort Hood.
Fernandes,
a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist, was born
in Cape Verde, a string of islands in the Atlantic west of Senegal. He
arrived in
the United States as a 10-year-old, his family said.
Friendly
and family-focused, he had plans to reenlist in the Army when he
visited family for Christmas, his aunt said, and did not reveal any
problems with his command.
“He’s
a giver. He will put his life on the line to protect others,” Isabel
Fernandes said. “He wanted to do something positive for this country.”
1 day ago
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The Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday surpassed 50,000 coronavirus cases among
its patients since the start of the pandemic in March, with more than
half of those positive tests coming in the last 50 days alone.
Despite the milestone, the department has seen a significant
decrease in its number of active coronavirus cases in
recent weeks. As of Monday evening, 137 VA hospitals were monitoring
3,942 current cases of the fast-spreading illness, a drop of about 32
percent in the last month.
VA
officials have said that they do not consider the active-case counts or
the cumulative coronavirus totals as appropriate measures of the spread
of the illness,
and point instead to the hospitalization rate among patients with
positive tests.
So far in August, about
15 percent of all patients who test positive for coronavirus have
required hospitalization. That’s the lowest rate in the last five
months. In July, the figure was 17 percent.
In the prior four months, the figure topped 20 percent.
Currently
only two department sites — one in North Chicago, one in Gainesville,
Fla. — have reported more than 100 active coronavirus cases on campus.
That number
was as high as 14 late last month.
Of
the 50,000-plus cases among VA patients in the last six months, about
87 percent of the cases were veterans. The remainder are a mix of
dependents, military
personnel, VA employees and community members receiving care at
veterans hospitals as part of the department’s federal mission to serve
as a backup health system for the nation.
At
least 2,636 VA patients have died from the illness since March 18. More
than 520 of those deaths were in August so far, making it the deadliest
month for
virus patients in the system since May, when 740 deaths were recorded.
In June and July, that number did not top 500. The department is on pace to hit nearly 650 in August alone.
Along
with the patient deaths, the department has seen 49 fatal cases of the
virus among its employees. All but nine of those occurred before July
9.
The decrease in active
cases and increase in fatalities comes as large sections of America are
seeing similar trends after a summer spike in coronavirus transmissions,
particularly in the south
and west.
More than 176,000 Americans have died from complications related to the virus in the last six months.
VA
officials have said they are preparing for the possibility of another
surge in cases this fall, in line with predictions from national health
experts.
But
the department has also worked to reopen many medical care sites to
non-emergency patients, staff and visitors in recent weeks, in an effort
to return to
normal operations.
