The New Boat on the Block

The Navy has commissioned its newest, quietest, and most heavily armed nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23). The third and final U.S. Navy submarine in the Seawolf class, the submarine can sail under the polar ice cap or through shallow water, armed with cruise missiles, mines, torpedoes, unmanned undersea vehicles, surveillance sensors, and naval special warfare forces.

“We don’t go to sea to go to war,” said President Jimmy Carter at the commissioning ceremonies at Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn., in February. “We go to sea to preserve the peace.” Carter, who trained in nuclear engineering, is the only president to have served as a submariner.

The submarine has a 100-foot-long, 2,500-ton hull extension known as the multimission platform to test new generations of weapons and support Navy SEAL operations. It can travel at speeds in excess of 25 knots and dive more than 800 feet. The 151-member crew will sail the boat to its West Coast homeport, NB Kitsap, Wash., later this year to join the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Don’t Be Scammed

You want to contribute to American efforts in Iraq, but watch out who you end up helping. New Internet scams that refer to Iraq are hitting the public.

“These new Internet fraud schemes are among the worst we have ever encountered,” says Michael Garcia, assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration and customs enforcement.

One scheme involves e-mails to relatives of U.S. servicemembers killed in Iraq. Claiming to be a volunteer working with U.S. forces, the sender states that a late friend, who also was a U.S. servicemember killed in Iraq, was a good friend of the relatives’ slain son or daughter. The sender then asks for money, with a link to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Web site. Garcia says those who receive the bogus e-mails should ignore and delete them.

Hero Miles

Through its partnership with Operation Hero Miles and individual airlines, the nonprofit Fisher House Foundation reunites families by providing airline tickets to servicemembers wounded or injured in Iraq or Afghanistan for a leave or pass from a hospital, or for their families to visit them. Since the program’s inception in early 2004, the foundation has given more than 2,500 tickets to these heroes and their families, saving them an estimated $2.5 million.

Although most major airlines participate, at this time only Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and America West accept donations of miles from their passengers.

TRICARE Update

Health care in College Suppose your daughter chooses to attend college in an area where TRICARE Prime is not offered. Under the TRICARE Standard benefit, your college student can see any TRICARE-authorized provider of her choice. TRICARE Standard does not require enrollment. Your daughter must present her uniformed services ID card as proof of TRICARE eligibility. In most cases she will be required to pay up-front and file her own claims.

If your daughter currently is enrolled in TRICARE Prime, she must disenroll from it once she arrives at her new location. She also must contact her primary care physician to get any necessary referrals and contact the regional contractor for appropriate authorizations; otherwise, she will have to pay higher costs.

In Review

A Question of Loyalty: General Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial That Gripped the Nation By Douglas Waller. HarperCollins, 2004. $26.95. ISBN 0-06-050547-8.

In 1925 Army Gen. Billy Mitchell (1879-1936) was a bold, outspoken advocate for the potential value of military air power, but his annoying, arrogant criticism of the War Department earned him legions of enemies and a sensational court-martial.

Author Douglas Waller has penned a captivating story that is part biography, part military history, and part courtroom drama, as he describes Mitchell’s glamorous life, his constant bickering with top brass, and the trial that fascinated the nation. As Waller relates, the trial was shameful political theater complete with perjury, witness tampering, and character assassination. Still, Mitchell was convicted and disgraced, even though he was mostly right.

Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, World War II’s Forgotten Heroes By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Broadway Books, 2004. $24.95. ISBN 0-385-50338-5.

When the black soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 761st Tank Battalion finally got to Europe in 1944, they just wanted to fight the Germans. Unfortunately, they also had to fight the segregated culture of the Army, which did not think black soldiers could fight at all.

Former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has written a magnificent history of a segregated armor unit assigned to Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army. Abdul-Jabbar tells marvelous inspirational stories of the tank commanders, gunners, loaders, and drivers who fought for 183 straight days in France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and Austria. They fought in horrible weather against two tenacious enemies: the Germans and racial prejudice.

This is an exciting, frank story, filled with combat action and anecdotes of good and bad leadership, struggle and sacrifice, and the bond of comradeship that can only be shared by brothers in arms.

— William D. Bushnell

Welcome Home

Some 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, veterans will be honored in a national homecoming celebration. “Welcome Home ... America’s Tribute to Vietnam Veterans” will be held in Branson, Mo., June 13-19. More than 100,000 veterans and their families from across the nation are expected to attend.

The idea for the ceremony came from Steve Presley, a West Point graduate and retired career soldier, and Gary Linderer, a decorated Vietnam veteran and author. “The thing we kept coming back to in our discussions was the absence of Vietnam veterans at the various events we were both involved in supporting,” Presley says. “Talking with Gary helped me better understand why the men and women who served so heroically in Vietnam were staying away from these celebrations. As a nation, we’d never really given them the recognition they deserved. So we decided to do it. We want to give our Vietnam veterans the homecoming they never received.”

The event, which has a $100 registration fee, includes a parade, the Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall Experience (a facsimile of the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C.), a golf tournament, and a grand finale concert. Entertainers include the Oak Ridge Boys, the Beach Boys, and the 5th Dimension.

War Games

Remember those board games you used to play? Check out Memoir ‘44 from Days of Wonder. This war game, based on the Allied campaign in Europe from 1944 to 1945, helps you relive history. Players can choose from 17 scenarios, ranging from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge. Hexagonal tiles depicting woods, hills, towns, bunkers, and barbed wire are placed on the board’s map depending on the battle. The armies are represented with plastic playing pieces, which include infantrymen, tanks, and artillery. Players draw cards from a deck that allow special events, such as air strikes or artillery barrages, and roll the dice to attack their opponents. Visit www.daysofwonder.com.

Healthy Choices

It’s time to make some healthy choices. A new DoD initiative is trying to persuade people to quit smoking, moderate drinking habits, exercise, and lose weight.

“Healthy Choices for Life” will “put information in the hands of individual servicemembers and family members so that they can change their behavior,” says Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Adopting better habits enables people to avoid health problems such as lung cancer, emphysema, liver damage, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes, says Winkenwerder.

About $13 million has been budgeted to fund pilot programs, which could include toll-free smoking and drinking cessation phone lines and Web sites touting healthier lifestyles. Visit www.tricare.osd.mil/healthychoices.

Scholarship Spotlight

A 2004 graduate of Boston College, 2nd Lt. Alexandra Weiskopf, USA, was commissioned by her father, Col. James Weiskopf, USA-Ret., and received her first salute from her brother-in-law, Spc. 1st Class David Riley, USA, who currently is serving in Afghanistan.

How has The Scholarship Fund of MOAA helped you and your family? My two sisters and I all received money from MOAA. Although I had an ROTC scholarship, it didn’t cover everything. Because of MOAA, I basically walked out of college debt free, and I really feel like I earned my degree.

You majored in English, communications, and Asian-American studies, yet you still found time to volunteer. Since I’m interested in journalism, I volunteered at What’s Up, a magazine in Boston that teaches homeless people how to write news articles, take photographs, and sell their own products. It gives them job skills, which I think is neat.

Your father was a public affairs officer. Do you plan to follow in his footsteps? I want to forge my own path. Now, I’m an intelligence officer for the 16th Military Police Brigade in Fort Bragg, N.C., but I certainly would enjoy doing public affairs.

What do you want to achieve in your career? I want to stay in a field where I explain things to people. I chose intelligence because it’s a lot like journalism. You take all of the information out there and explain it so people understand it.
 
— Kris Ann Hegle

Attention!

Check out these military-related entertainment offerings.

Behind the Lines (Scribner, 2004, $30): Andrew Carroll’s book looks at warfare through the personal correspondence of U.S. and foreign troops and civilians, collected on a three-year trip to 35 countries.
It begins with the American Revolution and continues through Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The 2005 National Memorial Day Concert (Sunday, May 29, 8 p.m.): This year’s concert, broadcast on PBS from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle for Iwo Jima during World War II. Visit www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert.

The Pentagon Channel: EchoStar Communications and its DISH Network satellite TV service now offers the Pentagon Channel, DoD’s news and information network for and about the military. The channel provides DoD news briefings from the Pentagon and more. Visit www.pentagonchannel.mil.

Where to Turn