Pfc. Justin Vnenchak, an infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, maintains security in his sector while fellow paratroopers and Afghan policemen search a compound April 8, 2012, in southern Ghazni province, Afghanistan. Vnenchak is armed with an M-4 carbine. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod. (DVIDS)
In “This Week in the DoD” for April 20:
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Department of Defense is highlighting its campaign to end sexual assault in the military.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta traveled to Brussels, Belgium, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for joint ministerial meetings with NATO allies and International Security Assistance Force partners. The meetings precede this summer’s NATO summit in Chicago.
The secretary and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testified before the House Armed Services Committee regarding the ongoing situation in Syria.
President Barack Obama announced April 16 that Army Spc. 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr. will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. Sabo was killed during an ambush after shielding an injured soldier from a grenade blast and destroying an enemy bunker. The explosion that destroyed the bunker also killed Sabo. He had been nominated by his unit for the award, but his paperwork had been lost until recently.
The U.S. and a broad coalition of nations and non-governmental organizations are preparing for Pacific Partnership 2012, a humanitarian and medical exercise set to begin in May. The hospital ship USNS Mercy will deliver in-country aid to Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on a Sesame Workshop panel to discuss the “Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings and Changes” campaign and other collaborations between the Sesame Workshop and Department of Defense to help military children cope with the unique stresses of military family life.
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From DMA Navy
The Deputy of Navy Personnel Command, Rear Adm. Martha Herb, addresses sailors about sexual assault awareness, and reiterates the Navy’s commitment to eliminate sexual assault from the fleet. She also encourages sailors and their families to join in on the conversation happening this month during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
To join in visit www.facebook.com/usnavy or tweet #SAAM on Twitter.
By Elaine Sanchez, AFPS
From www.defense.gov
First Lady Michelle Obama met with military families and support group leaders in Minnesota to “shine a spotlight” on the state’s efforts to aid troops and their families.
Speaking at a roundtable on Minnesota Air National Guard Base, the first lady called the state a model of military family support.
“We have just been amazed at how organizations and businesses and individuals are stepping up in ways large and small,” Obama said.
Spotlighting military family support efforts is one of the goals of the Joining Forces campaign, the first lady noted. She and Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife, launched this initiative last year to boost the nation’s support of troops, veterans and their families and “to highlight the great work that’s happening already.”
Staff Sgt. Dremiel Byers (back), a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program at Fort Carson, Colo., and Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner clinch during a battle of world champions in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials.
U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program wrestler Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers is more concerned about making good on a promise to his late grandfather than the return of Rulon Gardner, his former archrival on the mat.
“I just want to make sure I get the medals that nobody said I could get, and especially the one I promised my grandfather,” said Byers, who vowed to win an Olympic medal for his late grandfather, Theodore Byers. “Chase the medals, and the right one will come. That’s our philosophy with the Olympics.
“I want it to be gold. I’ve always wanted it to be gold, and he wanted it to be gold. He would have been proud no matter what I brought home, but gold is why I was going. I’ve got my promise coating that medal. It’s the one that has eluded me. I understand both sides of that coin, I definitely do, but I just need my coin to be gold.”
Byers, 37, is a 2008 Olympian and the lone U.S. Greco-Roman wrestler to win gold, silver and bronze medals at the World Championships. A 10-time U.S. national champion, he is the only American wrestler to strike gold at both the open and Military World Championships.
Byers’ next challenge comes Saturday at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.
German soldiers of 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 40th Mechanized Infantry Regiment pull security during an Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT) training exercise at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany. OMLT XXIII and Police Operational Mentor Liaison Team VII training are designed to prepare teams for deployment to Afghanistan with the ability to train, advise, and enable the Afghan National Security Force in areas such as counter-insurgency, combat advisory, and force enabling support operations. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ian Schell (DVIDS)
While flying over Colorado a B-2 Stealth Bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base, MO, moves into position for a mid-air refueling via the boom of a KC-135R Stratotanker from the 128th Air Refueling Wing, Milwaukee on 09 May, 2012. The B-2 Stealth bomber and the KC-135 crews conducted the aerial refueling to maintain mission readiness standards.
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt Jeremy M. Wilson (DVIDS)
Royal Canadian Mounted Police assigned to a Marine Security Emergency Response Team debark from the HMCS Ville de Quebec (FFH 332) to conduct boarding operations during Exercise Frontier Sentinel 2012 May 8, 2012 at sea off Sydney, Nova Scotia. Exercise Frontier Sentinel is a combined interagency exercise involving Joint Task Force Atlantic, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Command. The exercise is designed to continue to develop and validate the existing plans, treaties and standard operation procedures for a bilateral response to maritime homeland defense and security threats.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ernesto Hernandez Fonte / Released) (DVIDS)
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