Tough talk by Marine commandant complicates sexual-assault cases

By MICHAEL DOYLE

McClatchy Newspapers

Published: September 14, 2012

Gen. James Amos

COURTESY OF THE U.S. MARINE CORPS

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps commandant wanted to snuff out rape in the ranks. However, his well-meaning but overly blunt talk instead complicated Marine sexual-assault cases worldwide and raised troubling questions about whether accused Marines will get a fair shake.

This week, for the second time in recent months, a Marine Corps trial judge found that Gen. James F. Amos' forceful remarks on sexual assault earlier this year presented the appearance of unlawful command influence.

Command influence can severely hinder the military justice system, where facts are found and fates determined by people who are drilled to obey their superiors.

So on Marine Corps bases from Twentynine Palms in California to Parris Island in South Carolina and beyond, defense attorneys are quietly but persistently challenging a system that they fear could be stacked against them. Already, some have secured additional trial help.

The commandant, a four-star general, has been compelled to answer a judge's written questions under oath. Conceivably, some cases could be dropped altogether, an ironic and unintended consequence of the Marine leadership's aggressive anti-rape stance.

"Our cases, particularly our sexual-assault cases, are being tried under intense scrutiny from both within and outside the Marine Corps," Col. John Baker, the chief defense counsel of the Marine Corps, said in an email Thursday.

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WWII-era Female Marine Honored by 'Top Brass' Military

By CRYSTAL WYLIE 

Richmond Register, Ky.

Published: September 12, 2012                                                                               

Marine Corps Corporal Nell Martin Campbell's official military picture.

RICHMOND REGISTER/MCT

 RICHMOND, Ky. — “You ever had a general kiss you on your forehead?”

This is the question 90-year-old Corporal Nell Martin Campbell has been asking her nurses since two Army generals and other “top brass” visited her at Baptist Health in Richmond (formerly Pattie A. Clay) on Aug. 25.

Campbell is a WWII-era female Marine from Waco, who was recently hospitalized after a fall that left her with eight broken ribs, bruised organs and a punctured lung. Her grandson, Lt. Col. James R. Martin, was among the visitors, who were in town for a commander’s conference conducted at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

During the visit, Maj. Gen. Robert Stall bent over Campbell’s bed and kissed her forehead, a moment “she will never forget and will relive forever,” said Dinah Martin, Campbell’s daughter-in-law.

“The realization that two generals and others had altered their plans and made it a priority to visit her was like medicine,” Dinah said. “It was a real morale-booster.”

Campbell was one of the 18,000 women Marines who were enlisted during WWII between 1943 and 1946, James Martin said.

That number was reduced to just a few thousand near the end of the war, until 1948 when Congress voted to give women “full-fledged status in the military,” he said.

Before 1948, the enlistment of women in the military was more of a “war-time, stop-gap measure” and they were not intended to serve for long terms, James said.

  After training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Campbell was sent to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where women Marines operated the military bases while every able-bodied Marine man was engaged in combat.

“Without women stepping up to the plate in WWII, there was no way those stations could have stayed open,” James said.

During the WWII era, women soldiers had catchy nicknames like “WACS” or “WAVES,” which are both acronyms for women in the Army and Navy respectively.

But, when asked what women Marines would be nicknamed, Gen. Thomas Holcomb said in the March 27, 1944, issue of Life magazine: “They are Marines. They don’t have a nickname and they don’t need one. They got their basic training in a Marine atmosphere at a Marine post. They inherit the traditions of Marines. They are Marines.”

So when James Martin joined the military at age 17, he asked his grandmother if she had been called something like a WAC or a WAVE. She seemed to take offense to his question, he recalled.

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Army Testing Body Armor Made for Women

Spc. Arielle Mailloux gets some help adjusting her protoype Generation III Improved Outer Tactical Vest from Capt. Lindsey Pawlowski, Aug. 21, 2012. Both Soldiers are with the 1st Brigade Combat Team Female Engagement Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). These prototypes designed specifically for the needs of female soldiers, with shorter torso length and other improvements, are being fielded at Fort Campbell, Ky., for the next few weeks.

MEGAN LOCKE SIMPSON/U.S. ARMY


By NANCY MONTGOMERY

Stars and Stripes

Published: September 13, 2012

Nineteen soldiers training this week to deploy to Afghanistan were sporting the newest thing in the Army’s defensive arsenal: body armor strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.

The 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., are to be the judges of the new vests now in prototype. Authorities hope they will provide a safer, more comfortable fit to the 14 percent of active duty troops who are women, and who for years have been wearing body armor designed for men.

Would the new “Improved Outer Tactical Vests” — shorter in the torso, narrower in the shoulders, darted in the bust and with a narrower but adjustable waist — pinch, gap, bell or otherwise fail in form, fit and functionality?

It was too soon to tell, said Libby Richardson, of the U.S. Aberdeen Test Center, who is leading the field test. “It’s the first day,” she said Tuesday, of a testing period that will last a couple of weeks.

But Capt. Lindsey Pawlowski, veteran of two deployments in the usual body armor, seemed pleased. “I can sit down in it,” she said. “I can run in it easier.”

The discomforts of the standard vest made it tougher to do the job, said Pawlowski, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall. “Anybody who’s short like me, it’s, ‘Oh, God, why?’ ”

Pawlowski and the 18 other soldiers testing the vests are to be on the brigade’s Female Engagement Team, seeking to interact with Afghan women, when they deploy in November.

As they train, it will become clearer, Richardson said, if the new body armor under development for the past couple of years addresses shortcomings of the “unisex” body armor designed with male bodies in mind.

The vests were too long in the torso for many women, who tend to have shorter torsos and longer legs than men of the same height, leaving a dangerously exposed gap under the arms. They also hit women in the hips or rode up in the back when women were seated, in Humvees, for instance.

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Military Veterans' College Benefits are Running Late

By JENNIFER FEEHAN 

The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade/MCT

Published: September 1, 2012

BOWLING GREEN -- Army veteran Kyle Birkholz has attended classes for two weeks at Bowling Green State University without books.

He learned Friday that his book stipend from the Department of Veterans Affairs would not arrive as expected, nor would his monthly housing allowance.

A glitch at the VA means the check is not in the mail for Mr. Birkholz and countless other veterans across Ohio who receive benefits to attend college.

"This is a very anxiety-producing event in students' lives," said Barbara Henry, assistant vice president of nontraditional and transfer student services at BGSU. "The very beginning of the semester, they're trying to figure out what the work load is like, particularly if they're a new student transitioning, they may have been in Afghanistan in May, they're in university for the first time in September."

While the VA tries to iron out the problem, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other state officials are urging colleges and universities to be flexible with student veterans so that none is penalized or forced to drop classes because of late payments.

BGSU, for its part, is cutting checks for all of its student veterans -- short-term loans with no interest, fees, or lengthy applications.

Mr. Birkholz, an athletic-training major from Clyde, Ohio, said he planned to take BGSU up on its offer."I'm going to have to. I need books," he said. "This really made me feel relieved."

The VA said Friday that "a system programming error" occurred when the agency was moving Ohio and West Virginia claims to St. Louis from Buffalo. The agency said it believed the glitch affected "potentially 300 Ohio and West Virginia students" whose college enrollments were received between July 24 and Aug. 9.

Area universities said the problem appears more widespread to them.

In a letter to area legislators, Bowling Green President Mary Ellen Mazey said the university believes "the vast majority of our 284 student veterans will not receive their basic monthly housing allowance or semester book stipends on time."

Those 284 students -- 32 of whom are at the Firelands campus near Huron, Ohio -- were notified by email that optional emergency loans were being made available. They were invited to meetings Friday on campus, where officials explained the situation and fielded questions.

Ms. Henry said affected students could pick up checks between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Room 110 of the Administration Building.

Students will be required to sign a promissory note, agreeing to repay the university once the VA checks arrive.

Geoff Roberts, an Army veteran from Port Huron, Mich., who did two tours of duty in Iraq, said he is to receive a $1,047 monthly housing allowance and a book stipend of up to $1,000 for the school year at BGSU. Because he has a part-time job on campus and savings, he doubts he'll need the loan, but he's pleased that BGSU is offering it.

"As a student I can't believe how quickly this whole process went through. It's huge," said Mr. Roberts, president of the BGSU Student Veterans' Club.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/military-veterans-college-benefits-are-running-late-1.187743

Wyo. National Guard Gets Stress Training (Combating Suicides)

By JAMES CHILTON 

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Published: September 2, 2012

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Army National Guard is arming its troops with a new weapon: a skills set to cope with the stresses of military life.

According to media reports, suicides in the Army have outnumbered combat deaths this year. That statistic serves as a stirring reminder of the importance of not only post-traumatic support but of proper mental and emotional conditioning, said Lt. Col. Samuel E. House of the Wyoming Guard.

"Military suicides have long been an issue within the military," House said. "The idea behind resilience training is to minimize that - as well as address other issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Army has offered resilience training, formerly called "battle-mind training" for several years. But, House said, it was only recently that the Army began to mandate that specific numbers of troops go through it.

Those troops, he said, can then use the lessons they've learned to help other soldiers cope with the day-to-day stresses of military life, such as the disconnect that can sometimes occur between military and civilian life.

"It's designed to look at the cultural aspect of it, not just the combat piece of it," House said. "There are just as many suicides among those who have deployed versus those who have not deployed. Marital problems, it's the same thing."

It's not uncommon for soldiers to assume a pessimistic disposition, whether it's due to the violence they witness overseas or whether they're coping with being separated from family and loved ones, House tells the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Others can cope with military life but may have a hard time readjusting to civilian life, where responsibilities and expectations may be different than previously.

"Individuals who have done their four years or eight years or 20 years, it's interesting to see: Some people get out and go off and are very successful, other individuals, it's all they know," he said. "Particularly within the National Guard, before you deploy you have those (civilian and familial) responsibilities. Then you deploy and for the first two or three months, you feel like you need to be a part of the things at home."

While many soldiers are eventually able to accept their new roles, House said once they do return, they have to adjust to family life all over again.

At the same time, a soldier's spouse may have settled into his or her own new routine, which they then have to alter once the soldier returns home.

For that reason, one of the big focuses of the resilience training is getting soldiers to consider more than just the worst-case scenario.

All too often, House said, some soldiers may assume they're being cheated on or left behind.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stripes.com/news/wyo-national-guard-gets-stress-training-1.187787