WASHINGTON - In a State of the Union address here marked by a call for renewed American innovation and cooperation, President Barack Obama pointed to the nation's military as an example to follow.

"Look to Iraq, where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high; American combat patrols have ended; violence is down; and a new government has been formed," the commander in chief said.

In Afghanistan, U.S. troops have taken Taliban strongholds and trained Afghan Security Forces, and will continue to deny al Qaeda the safe-haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11, he said.

"Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency," Obama said. "There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance."

But U.S. and coalition efforts are strengthening Afghan capacity and building an enduring partnership with the Afghan people, he said.

"This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home," the president said.

The nation has sent a message to all parts of the globe, Obama said: "We will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you."

Obama credited American leadership, especially in the New Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, for curbing the global nuclear threat.

Thanks to the treaty, he said, far fewer nuclear weapons and launchers will be deployed.

"Because we rallied the world, nuclear materials are being locked down on every continent so they never fall into the hands of terrorists," he said.

America leads the world in the quest for freedom and security, the president said, and the nation must always remember "that the Americans who have borne the greatest burden in this struggle are the men and women who serve our country."

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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - The 3^rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2^nd Infantry Division, will rededicate the Arrowhead Brigade Memorial on Wednesday, January 26, at 3 p.m., during a ceremony that will be conducted adjacent to the brigade headquarters.

The names of eight Soldiers who died during the brigade's 2009-20010 deployment to Iraq will be added to the memorial during the ceremony.

The Arrowhead Brigade Memorial is a 6-foot tall bronze statue of a Soldier in full battle gear, and the statue stands atop a granite base with panels etched with the names of fallen Soldiers. The memorial honors Arrowhead Brigade Soldiers who have fallen since the brigade's inception.

During the October 2007 ceremony at which the memorial was first unveiled, the names of 88 Soldiers assigned to the brigade who died in combat or training, as well as those from other units who died while they were under the brigade's operational control were read.

The Arrowhead Brigade Memorial project began during the 3^rd Stryker Brigade's first deployment to Iraq and the memorial was dedicated following the brigade's second Iraq deployment.  3^rd Stryker Brigade has deployed to Iraq three times (Nov 03-Sept 04; June 06-Sept 07; Aug 09-Aug 10).

The memorial was designed by Olympia-area sculptor Gareth Curtiss.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - The United States Army Air Ambulance Detachment (USAAAD) at the Yakima Training Center will say farewell to a legendary aircraft, the UH-1 Huey, with a final flight ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. 

A special guest for the ceremony is former UH-1 Huey pilot and Medal of Honor recipient Col. Bruce P. Crandall (U.S. Army retired), and the guest speaker is Master Aviator and former 9th Aviation Battalion commander Col. Philip E. Courts (U.S. Army retired). Following the ceremony Crandall and Courts will accompany a UH-1 flight crew and the USAAAD command team on a final flight around the YTC range.

The UH-1 Helicopter, known to most simply as the Huey, was first manufactured in 1956. The Army began receiving them by 1959. Its distinctive nickname came from the pronunciation of its first Army designation of HU-1- for helicopter, utility - and later models featured the word Huey emblazoned on the pilot's foot pedals.

More than 15,000 of the aircraft were produced with about half that number having been flown during the Vietnam conflict.

The U.S. Army National Guard retired the UH-1 Huey from service in a ceremony at Fort Myers,Va. Oct. 2, 2009. The USAAAD Yakima Training Center will transition to the UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter.    

WASHINGTON - A commission of current and retired officers, senior noncommissioned officers and civilians charged with evaluating Defense Department policies to ensure they promote equal opportunity plans to recommend lifting the ban on women in combat.

The nonpartisan Military Leadership Diversity Commission will make 20 recommendations to President Barack Obama and Congress to increase diversity and inclusiveness and develop "a demographically diverse leadership that reflects the forces it leads and the public it services," according to a pre-decisional draft document posted on the commission's website.

The final report is expected in March.

Calling the military a leader in providing opportunities to all service members, regardless of their racial and ethnic background, the group concluded that it's now time to eliminate barriers based on gender.

Current U.S. military policy prohibits women from serving in combat units below the brigade level. And although women make up 14.6 percent of the military, they and minority members still are underrepresented in leadership posts, the commission noted.

"Increasing the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of senior leadership requires eliminating barriers that disproportionately affect the advancement of women and minorities," the draft report said.

This can be done on two levels, the commissioners said, beginning with the education and mentoring required to ensure all service members are equally prepared to manage their career progression.

"Second, DOD and the services must remove institutional barriers to open traditionally closed doors, especially those related to assignments," the draft report continues. "An important step in this direction, recommended by the commission, is to remove the restrictions that prevent women from engaging in direct ground combat."

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton, Jr., a commission member, announced last week at a military professionalism conference that the group had agreed to recommend that women be allowed to serve in combat.

"What we are saying is that women may be assigned to any job they are qualified for," Becton said at the National Defense University's conference on "Introspection and Reflection on Basic Tenets and the Way Ahead" on Jan. 11.

"We are making a recommendation," he said. "We are saying, ‘Let's remove barriers.' And I think people are very qualified to do certain jobs, but because of their gender, they are not given the opportunity to do them."

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WASHINGTON (AFPS) -- As the military enjoys tremendous support from the American people, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said now is the time to step back, assess the impact of 10 years of war and ensure the institution remains on course.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, opening a leadership conference Jan. 10 at the National Defense University at Fort McNair here, called for a proactive self-examination --institutionally and by individual leaders -- and appropriate course corrections, as needed.

The chairman called today's all-day conference -- titled "Military Professionalism: Introspection and Reflection on Basic Tenets and the Way Ahead" -- "an opportunity to begin a conversation and debate about who we are, what we have become, and how that matches up to who we should be."

"For something like this, which is at the heart of who we are, we can't do enough self-examination," he told the attendees, key leaders of the military education and training community.

"This is not self-flagellation," he added. "This is examination to make sure we understand it and that we keep feeding it back to raise those who will lead, in the not-too-distant future, our military and, in fact, our country."

Echoing a message Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sent during a speech at Duke University in September, Admiral Mullen cited a growing chasm between the American people and the military that depends on their support for its very survival.

Secretary Gates noted during that speech that less than 1 percent of the U.S. population has shouldered the national security burden, and he expressed concern that Americans are losing contact with those who make up its military.

Today, Admiral Mullen said that although most Americans have tremendous goodwill toward their men and women in uniform, by and large they have little true connection to who they are or what they represent.

That's a dangerous situation for the military, which can't survive without public support, Admiral Mullen said.

"Our underpinning, our authorities, everything we are, everything we do comes from the American people," he said. "And we cannot afford to be out of touch with them. ... To the degree we are out of touch, I think is a very dangerous course."

The chairman cited changes in the American public's perception of the military during the span of his own career.  

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2011 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday described the Pentagon's three-step process for preparing to allow gays to serve openly in the military services.    

At a Pentagon news conference with Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gates updated reporters on the department's plan for implementing repeal of the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, which has been in effect since 1993 and remains in effect until the process is complete.

"Our goal here is to move as quickly, but as responsibly, as possible," Gates said. "I see this as a three-step process. The first is to finalize changes in regulations [and] policies [and] get clearer definition on benefits."

The second phase is to prepare training materials for use by personnel specialists, chaplains, commanders and other leaders, and those who are in daily contact with service members, he said.

The third phase, the secretary explained, is the actual training for service members.

"We're trying to get the first two phases of that process done as quickly as possible," he said. "My hope is that it can be done within a matter of a very few weeks, so that we can then move on to what is the real challenge, which is providing training to 2.2 million people."

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This from USA Today: President Obama is likely to sign the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy Wednesday, and may hold a news conference this week, spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.

Officials have discussed a presidential news conference after the Senate wraps up its end-of-the-year business, including the proposed arms cut treaty with Russia -- but no one knows when that might happen.

A news conference is "certainly possible," Gibbs said.

Though the schedule is being finalized, Gibbs said he expects a formal White House signing ceremony Wednesday morning to sign the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal.

"I think there are a lot of people who are interested in attending," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said White House and Pentagon lawyers are working on "implementation and legal issues" associated with lifting the ban on gays in the military.

As the Senate voted Saturday to end "don't ask, don't tell," Obama praised members for "ending a policy that undermines our national security while violating the very ideals that our brave men and women in uniform risk their lives to defend."

Obama said:

It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed. It is time to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their country openly.

This from NPR: While most military personnel see no problem serving with openly gay comrades, some military chaplains are bristling. Many of the 3,000 chaplains are evangelical and believe repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy may affect how they do their jobs.

Ronald Crews, a retired Army colonel and chaplain, works with active chaplains from his evangelical denomination. A few months ago, he began asking military chaplains what they thought about repealing don't ask, don't tell. One response in particular bothered him. The chaplain had just returned from a briefing by a general about the impact of changing the policy and asked if the military would protect him if he asserted that homosexuality is a sin.

"And the response he received from this four-star general was, 'If you cannot accept the changes coming, you have an option: You can resign your commission,' " Crews says.

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This from The Los Angeles Times: They were barely men at the time, unaware of each other but baptized by the same fire.

Paul Perrault was 21, a naval officer aboard the light cruiser Phoenix, anchored in Pearl Harbor's East Loch. He had just risen from his bunk when cannon-like blasts tore through the morning calm. Scrambling to his post in the gunnery, he saw a sky speckled with Japanese planes.

Across the harbor on Ford Island was Seaman 2nd Class Anthony "George" Mark, 18, who narrowly escaped as a plane strafed his area and bombs plunged into nearby hangars.

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This from The News Tribune: Floyd Herron, 91, remembers the "day of infamy" as well as can be expected for a man who spent it constantly shooting or loading an anti-aircraft gun under enemy fire.

He lives today in a top-floor apartment at Tahoma Terrace with his wife, Jeanne. They have a clear view of Mount Rainier in an apartment filled with his Navy memorabilia and her oil paintings.

He gets a sparkle in his eye when he talks about Pearl Harbor. He can't say for sure if his gun hit any of its targets, but he and his fellow sailors responded quickly and kept their enemy from sinking the ship.

The Pennsylvania was among the first to return fire in the Japanese assault, first with machine guns and then with heavier weapons such as the anti-aircraft gun Herron wielded.

The bigger guns were locked up that morning because the ship was under repairs and unsuspecting of an attack. Herron had just finished breakfast when enemy planes buzzed past the ship about 8 a.m. and hit their initial targets at nearby Fort Island. He broke a padlock on one of the guns and started delivering ammunition for his four-man team.

Herron kept his head down during the attack, so he can't say for sure what the scene looked like around the harbor.

"We were trained, and we had a job to do," he said.

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