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F r i d a y , J a n u a r y 4 , 2 0 1 3 T H e R e D 7 . n e T

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Area’s first baby arrives at eglin to Army family

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Briefs ...............4

philpott ...........6

Ceremony to honor fallen Florida

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page 2 | THe RED 7 | Friday, January 4, 2013

Year No. 3 edition No. 1

The Red 7 is published by the Northwest Florida Daily News, a pri-vate firm in no way connected with the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) or the U.S. Army.

This publication’s content is not necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, the U.S. govern-ment, the Department of Defense, the Depart-ment of the Army or 7th Special Forc-es Group (Airborne). The official news source for 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) is http://www.soc.mil/.

The appearance of advertising in this publication does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. govern-ment, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) or the Northwest Florida Daily News for products or services advertised. Ev-erything advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national ori-gin, age, marital status, physical handi-cap, political affiliation or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user or patron. Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the North-west Florida Daily News.

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By WENDY VICTORA

Northwest Florida Daily News

For eight grieving families of local military personnel, 2012 was the year that they lost fathers, brothers, sons and husbands.

Six Airmen and two Soldiers with ties to the local area were killed in the line of duty in the last 12 months.

Six of those casualties occurred in February.

On Feb. 18, a U28-A crashed in the Horn of Africa, killing all four airmen onboard. Capt. Ryan Hall, 30, Capt. Nicholas Whitlock, 29, 1st Lt. Justin Wilkens, 26, and Senior Airman Julian Scholten, 26, were based out of Hurlburt Field.

Investigators later determined the crash was caused by “spatial disorientation,” or the crew’s fail-ure to sense the plane’s location in relationship to the ground.

“Clearly, the crash which took the young lives of Captain Hall, Captain Whitlock, Lt. Wilkens and Airman Scholten far too soon was an inflection point in 2012,” said Col. Jim Slife, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt. “It was among the sad-dest days of the year.

“However we honor their mem-ories by focusing on our mission and protecting the freedom they died defending.”

Five days later, Army Sgt. Joshua Born, 25, of Niceville, was killed during violent protests of the military’s burnings of Qurans.

His mother, Beth Croft of Fort Walton Beach, said the family con-tinues to struggle 10 months after his death.

“We’re just making it,” she said. “It’s a day-by-day thing.”

Born’s unit remains deployed, but Croft has been in contact with some soldiers who worked with Josh.

Their reflections on her son have helped her. They have told her that Josh had integrity, loyalty, always stood by what was right and could be counted on to do

what he was asked to do. But Josh was also the comedian who liked to joke and make people laugh.

“Joyful and happy — that’s how I would like for him to be remem-bered,” she said.

Just two days after Born’s death, Air Force Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis was shot at his desk inside the heavily guarded Interior Ministry in Kabul, Af-ghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Before deploying, Loftis had been assigned to the Air Force Special Operations School, Air Force Special Operations Training Center at Hurlburt. Base officials said last week that a large audito-rium at the center will be named after him.

“I speak on behalf of all my colleagues when I say the Air Force Special Operations Train-ing Center sorely misses Lt. Col.

John Darin Loftis,” said Col. Wil-liam Anderson, commander of the training center. “His knowledge of the Afghan culture and his tireless work for the people of Afghanistan made him an irreplaceable asset to the Air Force.”

On April 25, Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Britton-Mihalo, an Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) soldier, was killed by machine gun fire in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. James Brownlee, the public affairs officer with the Spe-cial Forces, said Britton-Mihalo was the “cutting edge” of an elite group.

“When we think of heroes, Sgt. Britton-Mihalo was the clear defi-nition of what a hero was,” he said.

Brownlee added that Britton-Mihalo was the “life of the party” and someone his friends could count on. His wife, Sgt. Jesse Brit-ton, is also with the 7th Special

Forces Group.“Jesse, she loved him to death,”

Brownlee said. “When you look back at the year in review, the world’s a darker place without him.”

But the local losses were not over.

On Oct. 11, a young airman with ties to all of the local bases was killed during a training ac-cident in Pensacola Bay. Maj. Garrett Knowlan, a 32-year-old married father of two young chil-dren, was struck by a boat during a water survival course.

He recently had been assigned to the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base.

“All of Team Eglin continues to carry the Knowlan family in our thoughts and prayers, particularly at the holiday season,” said Andy Bourland, director of public affairs at Eglin.

Eight local service members were killed in 2012

Ap fIlE phOTO

An Air Force carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Air Force Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock of Newnan, Ga., upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012.

Friday, January 4, 2013 | THe RED 7 | page 3

By KATIE TAMMEN

Nortwest Florida Daily News

EGlIN AfB — Some of Florida’s fallen heroes in 2012 will be recognized in a special ceremony later this month at the Air Force Armament Museum.

Hundreds of people are expected to gather Jan. 19 for the unveiling of 19 new portraits to the war me-

morial mural for military members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We honor them once a year,” said Bill Everett, Region IV commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. “We’re the only state in the United States that does that. Everybody else puts it aside for some reason or another.”

Army Sgt. Joshua Born, who was killed in Afghani-

stan last February, will be the only local resident on the mural, accord-ing to Sam Houston, the commander of Chapter 811 Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Air Force Lt. Col John

Loftis and Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Britton-Mahalo, who also were killed in Afghanistan in 2012, are not included because the Department of Defense did not list Florida as their “official home of

record,” he said. The men and women

added to the mural this year will join the portraits of all the military men and women from Florida killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2002, Everett said.

Last year, 36 faces were added and the year before that 35 were added.

“This is the way the county shows (its) appre-ciation… for their sacri-fices,” Everett said.

In addition to the fami-lies of the fallen, military officials and various local and state government representatives, including Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and Attorney General Pam Bondi, are expected to attend.

Local students will play a role in the 45-minute ceremony alongside a man who will play Taps and “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes, Everett said.

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The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 19 at the Air Force Armament Museum.

Ceremony to honor fallen Florida service members

By Claudette Roulo

American Forces Press Service

WAShINGTON — Ser-vice members can expect to see an average increase of about $60 in their 2013 ba-sic allowance for housing, Cheryl Anne Woehr, the BAH program manager for DOD, said Dec. 13.

Overall, rates went up an average of 3.8 percent, Woehr said. Rate increases were spread throughout the country.

“There wasn’t any par-ticular one region that was a big winner or a big loser this year,” she said.

Service members in New York City will receive the largest increase this year, 14.7 percent on average, fol-lowed closely by Altus Air Force Base, Okla., which will see a 14.1 percent average increase.

Rates for basic allowance for housing, or BAH, are set through annual reviews of market rents, utility costs and renter’s insurance rates, Woehr said.

“We measure those in each location for various types of housing,” she said.

The BAH program office surveys property managers to determine current rental

rates in each duty location. Housing types considered include apartments, town homes and duplexes, as well as single-family rental units of various bedroom sizes. Utility information is derived from the American Commu-nity Survey, conducted annu-ally by the Census Bureau, and renter’s insurance in-formation comes from area insurance companies, she said.

“We want to make sure [service] members are able to afford adequate and ap-propriate housing within a reasonable distance of their duty station,” Woehr said.

About one million service members receive BAH, she said, which is paid to service members in the U.S. who live off base or in privatized base housing. The allowance is designed to cover the total housing cost for the median rental housing type for the service member’s pay grade, Woehr said.

Service members who re-side outside the U.S. receive an overseas housing allow-

ance, which is not affected by changes to BAH, she said.

BAH varies between pay grades because, by law, it is also determined in part by assessing the housing of ci-vilians in similar pay brack-ets, Woehr said.

“We look at what civil-ians in a typical income range typically live in, and we price that type of housing for equivalently paid military personnel,” she said.

About 21 percent of BAH localities saw a net decrease, but service members al-ready receiving a higher al-lowance at those locations will continue to receive it, Woehr said.

“We recognize that they’ve already made hous-ing decisions based on that amount,” she said. “It’s only members newly reporting that will receive the new lower rates.”

Department of Defense officials also announced the new basic allowance for subsistence, or BAS, rates for military members. En-listed service members will

receive $352.27 a month, up from $348.44 per month this year. Officers will receive $242.60 a month, up from $239.96 in 2012.

Annual adjustments to

BAS, a monthly, nontaxable cash payment intended to be used to buy food, are linked to changes in food prices as measured by the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture.

The index rose by 1.1 per-cent between the beginning of October 2011 and the end of September 2012, forming the basis for the increased BAS rates.

DoD announces 2013 housing, subsistence allowance ratesoverall, rates went up an average of 3.8 percent,

Cheryl Anne Woehr said. Rate increases were spread throughout the country.

page 4 | THe RED 7 | Friday, January 4, 2013

By lAUREN DElGADO

Northwest Florida Daily News

EGlIN AfB — The first baby of 2013 in Okaloosa and Walton counties made his appearance at 3:43 a.m. Tuesday.

William Barrett Johnston weighs in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measured about 20½ inch-es long when he was de-livered at Eglin Regional Hospital.

His actual due date was Dec. 31, but his mom, 24-year-old Danelle Rob-erson, was in labor about three days.

“A baby born in the year after the world was supposed to end,” joked the father, 25-year-old Army Staff Sgt. William Johnston.

The couple moved to Crestview from Texas in July. Johnston is an ex-plosive ordnance disposal

student at Eglin. This isn’t the first New

Year’s baby for the John-ston family. In 1986, John-ston’s older brother was the first child born in their home county in Texas.

Danelle said she hadn’t been practicing her dia-pering, but some of the couple’s family was in town. William had slept

during most of the day, she said, and let her get a few hours of sleep as well.

“He’s just been really relaxed,” Danelle said.

When asked what she wanted her son to know when he’s older, Danelle had a simple message.

“You’re going to be awesome,” she told a sleeping William.

Area’s first baby of 2013 arrives at Eglin William Barrett Johnston claimed the honor at 3:43 a.m. Jan. 1

DEVON RAVINE | Daily News

Danelle Roberson and William Johnston hold their newborn son, William Barrett John-ston, who became the area’s first baby of 2013 when he was delivered at 3:43 a.m. Jan. 1, at Eglin Hospital. William Barrett Johnston weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

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Come out and cheer on your favorite team! TVs will be tuned to the BCS Bowl Championship game on Monday, Jan. 7 at Legends Sports Grill. Doors open at 6 p.m. In addition to regular menu favorites, the new Mon-day Fresh Market Salad Bar will be open to mix your own all-you-can-eat salad for only $5.95. 850-279-3534

Resolution runThe Eglin Fitness Cen-

ter invites everyone to cel-

ebrate the New Year and hit the ground running with Eglin’s annual Resolution 3-Mile Run/Walk on Jan. 11. Showtime is 2 p.m. at the CE pavilion on Cypress Road, with the race’s start at 2:30 p.m. Participation is free for all personnel.

For information, contact the Eglin Fitness Center at 850-882-6223 (Main Center) or 850-883-9127 (Annex).

Jersey Boys at Jackson Theater

Join Eglin ITT on an overnight trip to New Or-leans, Jan. 20-21, to the Jackson Theater for a performance by the Jer-sey Boys. Cost is $250 per person, double occu-

pancy for transportation with accommodations at the Hilton Riverside. 850-882-5930

Tops In Blue – ‘Listen’ World Tour

Tops In Blue—the U.S. Air Force’s Premier En-tertainment Showcase—is offering a free night of fam-ily entertainment at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22 at the Emerald Coast Convention Center on Okaloosa Island. Performance seating begins at 6:30 p.m. and the general public is welcome.

More information about the current tour is available at www.topsinblue.com. The tour is sponsored in part by Coca-Cola.

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WAShINGTON (Army News Service) — As Ameri-cans ring in the new year, Soldiers, Afghan security forces and their coalition partners are engaged in combat, training and hu-manitarian operations.

Fighting in Afghanistan continues, as evidenced by battlefront dispatches dat-ed Dec. 31.

It was confirmed that a top Taliban leader in the Andar district of Ghazni province was arrested by Afghan and coalition secu-rity forces, according to an International Security As-sistance Force Joint Com-mand operational update.

“As one of the most se-nior Taliban leaders in the district, the insurgent ex-ecuted tactical planning, kidnapping operations, de-tainee operations and stra-tegic planning to support the Taliban insurgency. He was directly involved in at-tacks against Afghan and coalition forces and in con-tact with local Taliban lead-ership,” the report states.

Additionally, a Taliban leader was arrested in the Nad ‘Ali district of Helmand province. The leader com-manded a direct action cell operating in the district. He also planned and coordinat-ed multiple ambushes and IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, accord-ing to the ISAF report.

A Haqqani leader in the Pul-e ‘Alam district of Logar province, was arrested as well, the report said. The leader coordinated and prepared improvised ex-plosive device, or IED, at-tacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also facilitated the distribution of weapons, IEDs and sui-cide vests to insurgents throughout the district, the report states.

The report continues

with details concerning other combat operations around the country.

During a security opera-tion in search of a Taliban leader in the Andar district of Ghazni province, two insurgents were arrested by an Afghan and coalition security force. The leader commands a large number of insurgents and manages IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

Afghan and coalition forces killed several armed insurgents during an opera-tion in the Ghaziabad dis-trict of Kunar province as well. During the operation, the security force observed the armed individuals en-gaged in hostile activity and engaged them.

AfGhANS TAKING lEADSoldiers continue to

train Afghan police and se-curity forces as U.S. forces continue to draw down. And now, Afghans themselves are training other Afghans.

For example, at Camp Parsa, an Afghan National Army-led, six-week counter-IED course is set to gradu-ate 40 Afghan soldiers who will be proficient at defeat-ing the IED threat.

Although the Afghan National Army, or ANA, ini-tiated the training and im-plementation of the course, U.S. Soldiers provide assis-tance to ensure the trainers are taught the latest lessons on counter-IED tactics.

“We conduct a train-the-trainer effort here,” said Capt. Michael Wilda, officer in charge of the counter-IED partnership.

Even though U.S. Sol-diers offer assistance, little is needed or requested, he said.

GREATER ROlE fOR WOMEN

Soldiers and coalition

partners met at Bagram Airfield this month to devel-op a unified plan to recruit women into the Afghani-stan police force and pro-vide them with important training.

“This conference en-abled us to draft a basic training instruction plan,” said Lt. Col. Scott Perrenod, Regional Command - East, deputy chief reintegration officer. “We added very im-portant elements to include literacy, tactical questioning, evidence-based operations and witness statements, and an Afghan peace and reintegration program.”

Nadereh C. Lee, the RC-East and Combined Joint Task Force-1 senior develop-ment officer and deputy se-nior civilian representative, attended the conference to ensure a civilian perspec-tive was represented.

“It’s critical to have women involved in every-thing here to be able to move forward in Afghani-stan,” Lee said. “We need to start thinking of women dif-ferently, as powerful actors economically, in security forces and in every aspect of Afghan life.”

INfRASTRUCTURE IMpROVEMENTS

U.S. Soldiers continue to help Afghans with criti-cal infrastructure improve-ments. For example, one of the many projects of the Army Corps of Engineers is to provide more reliable electricity to Kandahar by the end of 2013. This in-cludes work on substations and transmission lines.

“These capital improve-ment projects will be the enduring legacy of coalition and U.S. efforts from the last decade,” said Lt. Col. Robert Bensburg, officer in

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House-Senate con-ferees have agreed to the more modest House-passed plan for raising drug co-payments on military family members and retirees who fill pre-scriptions at TRICARE retail outlets or through mail order.

The fee increases are scheduled to take effect Feb. 1, TRICARE of-ficials said as the fiscal 2013 defense authoriza-tion bill, with many other provisions impacting the military community next year, moved toward final passage.

The new pharmacy fee plan includes a require-ment that beneficiaries 65 and older have all main-tenance drugs for chronic conditions refilled, for at least one year, through TRICARE mail order or at base pharmacies, rather than through retail outlets where the cost to TRI-CARE is a third higher.

TRICARE likely will need to publish a draft

regulation, solicit pub-lic com-ment and launch an education effort for elderly beneficia-ries before it begins to enforce

home delivery for seniors. That could delay starting that portion of the phar-macy plan until April or later.

It is a matter “under review and as yet we do not have an imple-mentation time frame established,” said Kevin J. Dwyer, deputy chief of benefit information and outreach for the TRICARE Management Activity.

Conferees were per-suaded to embrace the House plan, supported by advocates for military beneficiaries, over more aggressive fee hikes sought by the Obama ad-

ministration. The Senate version of the defense bill was silent on the issue, which was a nod for the administration to proceed.

But over the past two weeks, a House-Senate conference ironed out differences between sepa-rate versions of the de-fense bill and the House plan prevailed. So after January, at TRICARE retail outlets, the cur-rent $12 co-pay for brand name drugs on the mili-tary formulary will rise to $17. The $25 co-pay for non-formulary drugs will jump to $44. The co-pay for generic drugs at re-tail will stay at $5. Drugs will stay free at military pharmacies.

For mail order, the cur-rent $9 co-pay for brand names on formulary will increase to $13. The $25 co-pay for brand names off formulary will jump to $43. Generic drugs will continue to be dispensed by mail at no cost.

For fiscal 2014 and

beyond, the plan directs that drug fees be raised annually by the same percentage as retiree cost-of-living adjustments. In years when a COLA increase applied to phar-macy fees would total less than a dollar, it will be delayed a year and combined with the next adjustment. So that drug fee increases, when exe-cuted, are always a dollar or more.

The administration wanted drug fees reset substantially higher in 2013 and to grow by $2-a-year through 2016. It then wanted annual adjust-ments to match medi-cal inflation, not retiree COLAs.

Mail order users of brand name drugs save two-thirds on co-pays au-tomatically because refills are for 90 days versus 30 days at retail. Given those savings and the conve-nience of home delivery, backers of the House plan expect most elderly beneficiaries, once forced to use mail order, to stay with it, saving TRICARE hundreds of millions of dollars year after year.

The projected sav-ings allowed the House to roll back the drug fee increases sought by the administration without raising the budget’s top line. In fact, so many TRICARE dollars will be

saved that conferees used some of that money to fix a “glitch” in Combat-Re-lated Special Compensa-tion (CRSC).

CRSC ‘GlITCh’ — Ef-fective Jan. 1, several thousand retirees forced from service short of 20 years due to combat-re-lated disabilities will see their compensation pop by an average of a few hundred dollars a month. These folks became eligi-ble for CRSC in 2008 when Congress expanded the program to cover these so-called “Chapter 61” retirees. But the formula for calculating payments had a flaw, which some disabled retirees noticed when the VA raised their disability rating but their take home pay didn’t change.

Whether and how indi-viduals are impacted de-pends on a mix of factors including original service disability rating, length of service, rank and the VA rating for combat-related conditions.

ENhANCED SERB — Other personnel-related provisions in the defense bill (HR 4310) will give the services new authority to hold Enhanced Selec-tive Early Retirement Boards for paring ranks of retirement-eligible of-ficers during the force drawdown. The enhanced SERB allows the services

to be more selective in retiring senior officers. It was used effectively after the Vietnam War. Current SERB author-ity is more limited. For example, an officer now can be screened for early retirement only every five years. It also is difficult to target specific year groups or job specialties when services need to pare a sizable number of officers in grades O-5 and O-6.

TIME-IN-GRADE WAIVERS – The defense bill also will double the number of time-in-grade waivers the services can use to reduce excess senior officers. These waivers lower from three years to two the time O-5s and above must serve in current grade to retire at that rank. It’s another force shaping tool sought by the services as force strength falls.

COMpENSATION COMMISSION – The bill establishes a special nine-member commission to review military pay and retirement changes that will preserve “viability of the all-volunteer force,” starting with a package of reforms being drafted by the Department of Defense. The commis-sion is to deliver a report to Congress within 15 months, recommending any changes to the DoD or “president’s” plan that at least five commission-ers support.

The commission, by law, will not propose changes to retirement for the current force. But it can propose enticements to current serving mem-bers to switch retirement plans voluntarily. Pre-sumably the offer would include some lower-value

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package with earlier vested and portable benefits, which also would deliver long-term retirement savings to the government.

Conferees rejected the president’s request that recommendations from the pay commission have the sanctity of recommendation from base closing com-missions, which Congress could accept or reject but not modify them.

Tom philpott is a syndicated columnist. You may write to him at Military Update, p.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111; or at milupdate@aol.com.

WAShINGTON (AFNS) — Employment website Monster.com is collaborat-ing with the White House’s Joining Forces campaign and will contribute to the initiative’s goal of hiring or training an additional 250,000 veterans and mili-tary spouses by the end of 2014, Acting Commerce Department Secretary Re-becca M. Blank announced here yesterday at the Na-tional Veteran Employment Summit hosted by Monster and Military.com.

Joining Forces is a com-prehensive national initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, to provide service members and their families with the opportunities and support they have earned. One of the effort’s main fo-cuses has been connecting America’s veterans and military spouses with ca-reers that match their skills, experience and dedication. To date, Joining Forces has worked with more than 2,000 companies to hire or train 125,000 veterans and mili-tary spouses.

During the summit, of-ficials said, human resource

leaders from the public and private sector engaged with veterans, senior military and government officials, and re-spected nonprofit organiza-tion leaders about the most effective ways to prepare, support, and connect veter-ans with employers.

“All of us at the Com-merce Department and throughout the administra-tion have made hiring vet-erans a priority,” Blank said. “Whether it’s by making improvements in how the military transitions service members from the battle-field to the workplace, en-suring the post-9/11 GI Bill stays strong, or through the efforts of the Joining Forces initiative, President Obama and this administration are taking steps to ensure that veterans can find job oppor-tunities when they return from service.”

“We are proud to support the efforts of the private sec-tor — and companies like Monster and Military.com — in hiring the men and women who have bravely served this nation,” Blank added.

“Through Joining Forces we’re working to show mili-tary families that they live

in a grateful nation,” said Navy Capt. Todd Veazie, ex-ecutive director of the Join-ing Forces initiative. “Over the past year we’ve asked Americans to step up and show their support. Every-one we’ve met has exceeded our expectations not only by making commitments but also by raising their goals even higher. I saw that same energy today from Monster and Military.com, companies that are dedicated to help-ing military families connect with jobs and training op-portunities. We’re eager to continue working together in the months and years ahead.”

With a local presence in more than 40 countries,

Monster connects employers with quality job seekers at all levels, provides personalized career advice to consumers globally and delivers vast, highly targeted audiences to advertisers. The Mili-tary Skills Translator, Vet-eran Virtual Career Fairs, Veterans Talent Index and today’s Veterans Employ-ment Summit are indicative of Monster’s commitment to serving the full spectrum of veteran employment needs. The company provides em-ployers with tools that help them attract veteran talent on a regular basis, includ-ing veteran friendly job post-ings, veteran power resume search tools and access to the Military Career Ad

Network.“We were honored to

bring together human re-source leaders from the private and public sectors, veterans, senior military and government officials and re-spected nonprofit leaders to participate in today’s Veter-ans Employment Summit here in Washington,” said Sal Iannuzzi, Chairman, Presi-dent and CEO for Monster. “Throughout the day, these leaders addressed what pro-grams and best practices their organizations are do-ing to prepare, support and

connect veterans. Teaming with the Joining Forces ini-tiative furthers Monster’s commitment to help connect veterans to those employers who want to hire them.”

Military.com, a business unit of Monster Worldwide Inc., is the nation’s largest online military destina-tion serving over ten mil-lion members, including active duty personnel, re-servists, guard members, retirees, veterans, family members, defense workers and those considering mili-tary careers.

employment website teams with Joining Forces

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portunities and support they have earned.

TRICaRe FRoM Page 6

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charge of infrastructure in RC-South’s Stability Divi-sion. “The Afghan govern-ment will be the recipient of a great opportunity to provide multiple levels of services to its citizens that would most probably not have been available for an-other 30 years.”

ESTABlIShING RUlE Of lAW

In 2012, the Afghan criminal justice system continued to make strides in implementing the rule of law, and demonstrating its national sovereignty in the criminal justice system at the Justice Center in Par-wan, or JCIP.

At the JCIP, the Afghans are partnering with the Rule of Law Field Force-Afghanistan. ROLFF-A’s mission is to provide es-sential field capabilities, liaison and security to part-nered Afghan and coalition civil-military teams to build Afghan criminal justice ca-pacity, increase access to dispute resolution services, fight corruption and pro-mote the legitimacy of the Afghan government.

In 2012, about 1,200 crim-inal cases were completed, as compared to only 436 in a 2011. These include primary level, juvenile and appellate court cases.

“These numbers depict a steady increase in the court’s ability to dispense fair and impartial Afghan justice, which serves as a demonstrable example of Afghan sovereignty,” said Brig. Gen. Ural D. Glanville, ROLFF-A commander.

“This is a total effort by our Afghan partners,” Glan-ville continued. “Afghan judges, Afghan prosecutors and Afghan defense coun-sel are demonstrating their resolve and commitment to bringing the rule of law to their nation.”

Glanville said the JCIP is a “clear example” of a working partnership be-tween the Afghan govern-ment and coalition forces

to bring to justice those who violate the laws of Afghani-stan “in a fair, equitable and transparent manner.”

2013 OUTlOOKDuring a visit to Afghan-

istan this month, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta met with U.S. command-

ers and later told report-ers that “to a person, (U.S. commanders) said the Afghan forces are proving they can do the job.”

Panetta said that con-tinued coalition support for the Afghan forces will include a focus on leader-ship development, an ef-

fort to build their planning, logistics and procurement capabilities, and training that will allow them to provide larger and more complex operations on the battlefield.

Recent progress on security in Afghanistan “makes it all the more im-

portant to confront broader strategic challenges that we face, and we are doing that,” Panetta said.

The rule of law must be strengthened and the na-tions must work together “to reduce corruption and promote the quality of gov-ernance that will support

these hard-won security gains,” Panetta said.

“Together with the in-ternational community we must promote sustainable economic development, education (and) healthcare to give the Afghan people the better future they de-serve,” Panetta said.

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