Health Care Providers Saluted

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz saluted the worldwide efforts of military doctors, nurses, medics, and other care providers, saying they are “maintaining the health and the effectiveness of America’s defenders.”

Wolfowitz, in comments made at the annual TRICARE conference held recently in Washington, D.C., praised not only those military medics who often are deployed to dangerous areas to treat wounded troops, but also the stateside military medical personnel who help protect the health of the families of deployed servicemembers.

“Our men and women serving on the front lines can go about their missions with the confidence that can only come from the knowledge that while they are deployed, the most dedicated medical team in the world is watching over their loved ones,” Wolfowitz said.

Medical personnel have made a number of contributions to the military. Medical teams deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq have “raised battlefield medicine to a level beyond anything” that was imaginable before, Wolfowitz said. Military medical research also has contributed significantly to current operations, leading to the development of improved body armor that incorporates biomechanics and helps save lives.

Military medicine has a long tradition of producing breakthroughs that eventually benefit the public at large. During World War II, military researchers developed life-saving antibiotics such as penicillin, as well as a vaccine against typhus. And research performed by Army Dr. Walter Reed led to the eradication of yellow fever.

Wear Them for the Troops!

Grandkid Vacation

It can be the best of times; it can be the worst of times. Taking the grandkids on vacation, that is. Resorts that offer a good mix of age-appropriate activities in a family friendly setting and familiar, comfortable environment help ensure you and the kids enjoy your time together. Here are four questions to ask.

1. How are the resort grounds designed for families? The JW Marriott in Orlando, Fla., gets points for its winding pool, outdoor play areas, bicycles, children’s book and video library, and children’s menu.

2. Are accommodations family friendly? Condo-style suites with plenty of room mean you all can be together without getting in each other’s way. At Ocean Club West in the Turks and Caicos islands, every suite has a fully equipped kitchen, washer and dryer, and living room with a TV/VCR, along with separate bedrooms and bathrooms.

3. What can we do with the kids? At some resorts, children’s programs are strictly kids’ stuff. Not at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel in Maui, Hawaii. Everyone gets a kick out of complimentary activities such as lei making, grass-skirt weaving, and hula dancing. And the resort can arrange whale watching or volcano exploring.

4. What can kids do on their own? Programs such as Royal Caribbean’s “Adventure Ocean” offer supervised sports, crafts, and workshops. So relax!

— Maryann Hammers

MOAA Networker

TRICARE Update

Need to travel for referred care? TRICARE Prime beneficiaries referred by their primary care manager (PCM) for services at a location more than 100 miles from their PCM may be eligible to have their travel expenses reimbursed by TRICARE. The TRICARE Prime travel entitlement is available to non-active duty TRICARE Prime enrollees and TRICARE Prime Remote family members. Beneficiaries must have a referral and travel orders from a TRICARE representative at the military treatment facility (MTF) where they are enrolled or from the TRICARE Regional Offices (TRO) if their PCM is a TRICARE network provider. For more information, contact the local MTF or find a TRO beneficiary counseling and assistance coordinator at www.tricare.osd.mil/tricare/beneficiary/bcacdirectory.htm.

Meeting Needs

Marine R. Lee Ermey, host of the History Channel’s “Mail Call,” has joined with the VFW to become the voice of a program that services military families in need. The VFW’s Unmet Needs Program helps military families meet unexpected financial challenges further complicated by a family member’s deployment. More than 100 families have received grants that have helped defray the costs of home or auto repairs, mortgage payments, child care, and medical expenses. For more information, visit www.unmetneeds.com.

In Review

Spare Parts: A Marine Reservist’s Journey From Campus to Combat in 38 Days By Buzz Williams. Gotham Books, 2004. $26. ISBN 1-592-40054-X.

In a candid and revealing memoir, former Marine reservist Buzz Williams describes his swift and painful transition from carefree college student to combat Marine during the Gulf War in 1991.

Williams joined the Corps in 1989 and became a light armored vehicle crewman with a Virginia reserve unit. He tells colorfully of his emotional and physical “wake-up” at boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

Williams criticizes the quality of training, his lack of confidence in NCO leadership, and his overall disappointment with the Marine Corps. He confesses he had trouble reintegrating into the civilian world, making this book more therapeutic for the author than the reader.

The Last Flight of Bomber 31: Harrowing Tales of American and Japanese Pilots Who Fought in World War II’s Arctic Air Campaign By Ralph Wetterhahn. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004. $26.
ISBN 0-7867-1360-7.

Not since Brian Garfield’s 1969 history of World War II in the Aleutians, The Thousand Mile War, has anyone written so dramatically about the air war in the North Pacific and Bering Sea as Ralph Wetterhahn. Award-winning author Wetterhahn has produced a stunning history of the little-known air campaigns of the Americans and the Japanese in the frozen and foggy Arctic backwater theater from Alaska to the Soviets’ Kamchatka Peninsula. Combining tales of U.S. and Japanese air operations, Wetterhahn describes the unbelievably harsh weather conditions; sudden and fierce aerial combat; and often tragic results of airplanes that were shot down, crash landed, and went missing.

He also tells of Bomber 31, a Navy PV-1 Ventura bomber, lost on a bombing mission in 1944. The wreckage of Bomber 31 was found on the Kamchatka Peninsula in 2000, and Wetterhahn participated in the recovery of the crew’s remains.

— William D. Bushnell

One Click to Financial Help

The government has launched a new Web site that offers one-stop financial education for all Americans. The mymoney.gov site is billed as a helpful resource and an entry point to all federal financial literacy and education programs. DoD, which offers a number of financial tools, is among 20 agencies that have contributed to the site.
 
“The Web site and hot line are great resources for servicemembers and their families to obtain free, credible, unbiased information on personal finance from agencies in the federal government,” says Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for Personnel and Readiness. From the site, visitors can order a free financial tool kit that contains information on how to choose and use credit cards, how to get out of debt, and Social Security and investing. The kit also can be ordered by calling (888) 696-6639.

Golf Anyone?

Retiree Spotlight

Capt. H. Hart Kait, USN-Ret., led a distinguished military career and an equally notable fencing career.
He has fenced with Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Cornell Wilde. Known in his community as “The Captain,” Kait also is well recognized for his volunteer efforts.

When did you first pick up a foil? In the mid-1920s my high school French class put on a production of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and I [had] the leading role. So I had to learn how to fence and found that I had a love and a skill for the sport.

You were well on your way to the Olympics. What happened? I was also a young naval officer at that time. I was assigned to the USS Monaghan. On Dec. 7, 1941, our ship was credited with sinking an enemy midget submarine that had snuck into Pearl Harbor.

It’s been 45 years since you’ve retired. How do you spend your time? Over the years I’ve taught mathematics as a substitute teacher and as a private tutor. I’ve volunteered at my church and at the YMCA, where I still teach fencing to kids and adults three times a week. I also enjoy my time in the garden.

This year you’ll be 96. What’s your secret? I take medication, but I also spend time with young people and outdoors, and when I awaken each morning I know it’s to a bonus day.

— Karen Braynard

Attention!

Check out these military-related entertainment offerings.

Arlington: Field of Honor, $24.95: National Geographic presents a portrait of one of America’s most sacred places. This DVD uses rare archival footage and true-life accounts to provide a look at this treasure of American history.

The Enemy Within: Terror in America — 1776 to Today (International Spy Museum, 2004, $19.95): The museum’s companion book to its exhibit provides a historic perspective into acts of terrorism that have taken place in America, from the Revolution to world wars I and II to Sept. 11. It includes more than 120 historic photographs. Visit www.spymuseumstore.org.

Medal of Honor Gallery: A new gallery honoring members of the submarine force who have received the nation’s highest medal has opened at the Submarine Force Library and Museum, which is located in Groton, Conn. For more information on the exhibit, visit www.ussnautilus.org/honor.html.

Not in the Mail

On Leave: Biosphere 2

In the 1960s, whenever Alice Cramden irked Ralph on “The Jackie Gleason Show,” he’d point to the heavens and shout, “To the moon, Alice!” Here in Ben and Bonnie Voyage land, however, the roles are reversed. Bonnie often would like to put me into orbit, but she can’t afford the rocket. She’s found the next best thing, though, at the end of a dusty road in the middle of nowhere.

Nestled in the foothills of Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains (30 miles north of Tucson), Biosphere 2 was built in the late 1980s with $150 million in funding from Texas oil magnate Edward Bass. Designed as an airtight replica of Earth’s environment (Biosphere 1), its concrete foundation was lined with stainless steel and its overhead glass panels were hermetically sealed with space-age putty. The designers were interested

in habitat problems that might be encountered during space travel or in colonizing the moon or Mars. This 7.2 million-cubic-foot structure contains five biomes, including a 900,000-gallon ocean, rain forest, desert, savanna, and agricultural area, all surrounding a human habitat. During the 1990s, two groups of “Biospherians” lived inside the facility, hoping to learn what problems would arise from living in a closed system. Well, they learned!

On our tour, we passed through the chamber door into a warm, tropical biome. To our left was the rain forest, thick with banana trees and all manner of vegetation. And, yes, it does rain inside, though it is produced by overhead sprinklers and there is no wind. Trees, it turns out, need wind to strengthen trunks. Without a breeze, a tree grows top-heavy, then falls over when the wind does show up. Below us, a saltwater “ocean” sat with its own wave-making machine. The coral and fish weren’t doing as well as in a real ocean, due, in part, to variations in acidity.

The first team of Biospherians, consisting of four men and four women with backgrounds in environmental biology, horticulture, forestry, medicine, gardening, chemical engineering, and maintenance, moved inside in September 1991. Things common outside became luxuries inside. The inhabitants had one cup of coffee every month from their coffee trees. With a limited source of food, providing varied meals became a real challenge, but they amassed surprisingly tasty recipes.

More than 1,000 sensors, distributed throughout the Biosphere, sent data to mission control, located outside the structure. It monitored environmental variables and engineering controls as the Biospherians encountered a number of physical, agricultural, and environmental problems. The most serious was the depletion of oxygen. Microbes flourishing in enriched soil consumed oxygen faster than photosynthesis from the forests could replace it. The oxygen level dropped so low it was like living in Machu Picchu, Peru. Mission control “cheated” by inserting additional oxygen. The process was repeated once again before the eight emerged after a two-year stay. A second try was made by five men and two women, but it was terminated in 1994 after six months, this time because of an increase in nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide levels, plus social problems.

Besides being worth the visit, Biosphere 2 taught me an important lesson. Because we earthlings haven’t yet determined how to live in space, I’d better start behaving better!

— Ben Voyage travels the world to gather tips for MOAA members.