Rod's US Military Blog

The Air Force Hurricane Hunters have evacuated from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi to continue operations at Homestead Air Reserve Station near Miami to support ongoing missions into Hurricane Gustav and flights beginning today into Tropical Storm Hannah. Reservists of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters, have been tracking Gustav over the past several days as it has grown from a depression into a Category 4 hurricane, and prepares to land on the Gulf Coast. These Reservists fly missions into these powerful storms to provide the best possible data used by forecasters at the National Hurricane Center to project the direction and intensity.

It's that time of the year again. Each May and September, military commissaries hold massive case lot sales, where patrons can save 50 percent or more off regular commissary prices on bulk-sized products.

To see when the September sales dates are at your nearest military commissary, visit https://www.commissaries.com/case_lot_sale.cfm.

The Army is now offering a financial incentive for recruiting new college Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets who take courses in critical foreign languages. New ROTC cadets who sign a contract to enter the Army (including the Army Reserves and National Guard) are eligible for the program starting this fall that pays $100 a month for the first year of participation, $150 a month for the second year of language study, $200 a month for the third year, and $250 a month for the fourth year (maximum $3,000 over an academic year).

Languages covered by the program are: Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Korean, Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan), Urdu (Pakistan and India), Indonesian, Swahili (east Africa), and Hausa (west and central Africa). ROTC cadets and other interested students can contact their military science professors at their colleges or universities for more information and to sign up.

As 1,500 National Guard members arrived in New Orleans on Friday to support the city’s police department and assist in executing civil support missions, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced the activation of all available remaining Louisiana National Guard forces to assist with emergency operations in preparation for Hurricane Gustav. With the newly activated troops coming on board, the total of Louisiana Guard members activated reaches 7,000.

Gustav, which has already grown to a Category 3 hurricane, is bearing down on on the Gulf Coast with sustained winds of more than 120 mph, and is expected to make landfall late Sept. 1 or early Sept. 2.

Back and forth. Back and Force. Back and Forth. Last June I reported that the (then) Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley wanted to reorganize aircraft crew chiefs, flightline maintainers and weapons loaders from maintenance squadrons into operation squadrons by the end of 2008. The Air Force had tried this once in the early 90s, but the idea didn't work out so good, so they undid the reorganization in 2002.

Now it seems that the new Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz has put a stop to that plan. In a press statement, Schwartz said, "“Independent maintenance groups produce professionals with the highest levels of maintenance and logistics competency and that translates to mission effectiveness."

Many people confuse the terms, AWOL and Desertion. Some people believe that AWOL is when someone is absent for less than 30 days, and someone absent from the military for 30 days or more is a deserter. That's not quite true.

Air Force officials are taking applications from active-duty enlisted Airmen for Physician Assistant Phase I training classes beginning January, April and August 2010. The deadline for applications is no later than Jan. 25 and no earlier than Nov. 1. To be eligible, applicants must:

• be on active duty in the grade of E-3 through E-8 with a minimum of two years and a maximum of 14 years active military service as of Aug. 31, 2010.
• applicants must be less than 42 years of age when they complete Phase II training.
• have a a minimum score of 450 for all areas of the SAT, and a minimum combined score of 1,425 in critical reading, verbal and math.
• have a minimum general score of 80 points on the ASVAB.
• have completed 60 semester hours of transferable college credits with a GPA of 2.5 or better. A combined minimum 3.0 GPA is required in the math and science courses.

For details, contact your local military personnel flight or education office.

Read this Stars & Stripes article and see if it makes you as angry at our State Department, as it does me. U.S. Army Sgt. Bryan McNeely was in Iraq last year when he found out that his wife, Eva, was stranded in Germany. She still is, caught in a legal bind.

Although Eva McNeely has lived in the United States (legally) for 17 years, and is married to a U.S. Soldier, she is being denied re-entry by the Department of State. The reason? A 1999 marijuana possession conviction, for which she received a pardon from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles in 2005.

The practice of firing gun salutes has existed for centuries. Early warriors demonstrated their peaceful intentions by placing their weapons in a position that rendered them ineffective. The gun salute system of the United States has changed considerably over the years.

In response to the mid-year rise in gasoline prices, General Service Administration officials raised the temporary-duty mileage rate from $0.505 per mile to $0.585.

The increase applies to all uniformed personnel and civilian employees traveling on official business by privately owned automobile or motorcycle, effective Aug. 1.