Recognizing the needs of families with service member’s deployed, the Department of Defense is setting up a new set of advisers tasked with evaluating the issue. As part of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, money has been designated for a group of senior enlisted advisers, and spouses of senior enlisted service members. Each year the group is required to submit a report outlining its assessments of the family readiness program. As the Military Times reports:
USA Today offers an important look at how the city of Worcester, Massachusetts has been affected by the Iraq war. Unlike the city’s casualties in other wars, Worcester has lost none of its citizens in Iraq. The article looks at how the lack of personal loss translates into awareness of the war. It’s an interesting take, and worth reading, as this excerpt shows:
A new GAO report released yesterday reported there were 145 sexual assault cases reported at the nation’s three military academies during the three years the report looked at. While praising the academies for increased measures to combat and treat sexual assaults, the report worried about inconsistencies with the reporting process. At one point surveys distributed to cadets found that 300 said they could report some kind of unwanted sexual contact – a far cry from the actual 145 cases officially reported.
For most people most of the time, however, Iraq seems less like a war than a rumor of war.
“Gone are the yellow ribbons, gone are the flags flying everywhere so crisply and the banners on the overpasses,” says Daniel Brennock, a retired Navy captain. “No one remembers the war until they sit down at 6:30 and watch the news.”
Marines based on the islands of Okinawa and Japan were placed under restrictions limiting movement throughout their immediate areas. After the recent rape of a 14-year-old girl on Okinawa last week by a Marine Staff Sergeant, and a series of other less serious incidents committed by service members, the restrictions came as Okinawa’s residents expressed outrage over their behavior. As the Associated Press reports:
Also on the Military Times website, if you’re looking for something different to watch, check out this video of the Navy’s record-breaking electromagnetic rail gun.
Over the past week, Okinawan lawmakers have passed resolutions demanding tighter discipline among American troops, and groups have held several protests. In the latest demonstration, some 300 people held a meeting on Tuesday in the town where the rape is alleged to happened.
