Female veterans learn fly-fishing to cope with trauma

The only sound in this one corner of Golden Gate Park is the whirring "zzzzzz" of fishing lines, as they arc out over a deep green pond, sending rippling concentric circles toward shore.

Seven female military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are learning how to fly-fish as a way to cope with the emotional fallout from serving their country.

"As vets with PTSD, we are hard on ourselves, with why our recovery is taking so long, and fly-fishing shows me to be OK with where I am," said Christine Stout-Holmes of East Palo Alto, who served 18 months in Germany in the '80s, as an Army combat telecommunications officer, encrypting and deciphering messages in the back of a van. Her trauma, she said, came from sexual abuse she suffered while enlisted.

As she perfected her roll cast, swiveling her wrist sideways, she compared fly-fishing with dance: "It has a rhythm, like ballet, and you have to learn to move with gracefulness."

It also can help female veterans ease their anxiety and depression, and in some cases, serve as the one activity that draws them out of the house each week, said Maureen Brown, a 30-year Army veteran who served in Desert Storm and started the women's group in May with a fly-tying class at the Menlo Park VA clinic.

Recreational therapy

For the past seven years, Brown has taught fly-fishing as a form of recreational therapy at six Northern California veterans clinics through the Veterans First Fly Fishing Federation.

She enlisted a recreational therapist at the Menlo Park veterans clinic to establish a fly-tying class and called on Golden West Women Flyfishers founder Fanny Krieger, a fly-fishing hall of famer who produced several instructional fly-fishing videos with her late husband, Mel, an internationally renowned fly-fishing instructor with several books on the topic.

"When I started, I, like you, knew nothing," Krieger said, addressing the veterans for their casting lesson at the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club. "Then I learned a little, and I thought I knew it all. Then I hit another level and realized fly-fishing is infinite."

The students, who are practicing for an upcoming fly-fishing trip, had previously spent many hours making flies out of colorful yarn, peacock feathers and rabbit hair. The focus and attention on a small task is soothing for veterans who remain hyper-vigilant and jittery long after their service is over, Brown said.

"Sometimes it's hard for me to slow down in my head," said Pam Olson of Santa Cruz, who served in the '80s as a Navy cook and as an explosives handler in Puerto Rico. "Fly-fishing and the repetitive motion of it helps."

While fly-fishing may seem to the casual observer like a lot of standing in waders and waiting for a bite, anglers actually cast every two or three minutes, so that their flies mimic the actual hopping behavior of real flies that fish see from below the surface, said volunteer Lelia Lanctot of Larkspur, who was on hand to assist the students' technique.

"Woo! I think I'm getting it!" laughed Navy veteran Ana Espitia of San Jose, whose three years as a machinist mate tending nuclear submarines off the coast of Scotland left her with lingering depression.

Chance to get outside

She smiled as the perfect arc of her line sailed expertly into the lake.

"Fly-fishing feels free; it's good to feel the air," said Espitia, who cares for her ill mother and rarely gets a chance to leave the house. "I now have something to look forward to every week."

South Korean ex-prostitutes face eviction from site near US base

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — More than 70 aging women live in a squalid neighborhood between the rear gate of the U.S. Army garrison here and half a dozen seedy nightclubs. Near the front gate, glossy illustrations posted in real-estate offices show the dream homes that may one day replace their one-room shacks.

They once worked as prostitutes for American soldiers in this "camptown" near Camp Humphreys, and they've stayed because they have nowhere else to go. Now, the women are being forced out of the Anjeong-ri neighborhood by developers and landlords eager to build on prime real estate around the soon-to-be-expanded garrison.

"My landlord wants me to leave, but my legs hurt, I can't walk, and South Korean real estate is too expensive," says Cho Myung-ja, 75, a former prostitute who receives monthly court eviction notices at her home, which she has rarely left over the last five years because of leg pain.

"I feel like I'm suffocating," she says.

Plagued by disease, poverty and stigma, the women have little to no support from the public or the government.

Their fate contrasts greatly with a group of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II. Those so-called "comfort women" receive government assistance under a special law, and large crowds demanding that Japan compensate and apologize to the women attend weekly rallies outside the Japanese Embassy.

While the camptown women get social welfare, there's no similar law for special funds to help them, according to two Pyeongtaek city officials who refused to be named because of office rules. Many people in South Korea don't even know about the camptown women.

In the decades following the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea was a poor dictatorship deeply dependent on the U.S. military. Analysts say the South Korean government saw the women as necessary for the thousands of U.S. soldiers stationed in the South. Some of the women went to the camps voluntarily; others were brought by pimps.

In 1962, the government formalized the camptowns as "special tourism districts" with legalized prostitution. That year, some 20,000 registered prostitutes worked in nearly 100 camptowns, and many more were unregistered.

The women who became prostitutes saw few other options, but the work made them social pariahs, unable to live or work anywhere else, says Park Kyung-soo, secretary general of the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes against Korean Civilians, a group that tries to uncover and monitor alleged U.S. military crimes against South Koreans.

Pockets of former camptown women exist throughout South Korea. Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, the women of Anjeong-ri mostly live alone in tiny homes, struggling to pay for food and rent on a monthly government stipend of 300,000 to 400,000 won ($300 to $400).

Activists say most of the women are in danger of losing their homes.

"I'm so worried that I can't sleep," says a camptown woman who will only give her surname, Kim, because she's ashamed of her past. The 75-year-old's landlords have told her she has a month to leave, and she looks nearly every day for a new home.

The camptown women's predicament began when Washington and Seoul agreed in 2004 to relocate the sprawling Yongsan U.S. base, which takes up 620 acres of prime real estate in the center of wealthy Seoul, to the base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the capital. The deadline, originally set for 2012, is now tentatively 2016.

At the end of the move, Camp Humphreys will have tripled in size and house more than 36,000 people, including troops, their family members and civilian staff. Investors are eyeing the Pyeongtaek land in anticipation of homes for U.S. military families and sites for businesses that will cater to the new flood of people and wealth.

Piles of rubble from demolished homes sit next to new villas. A few blocks from some of the remaining shacks, a partially built apartment building rises to the beating of hammers and whirring of drills.

Landlords eager to capitalize on rising land prices are trying to force the women out with pressure and eviction orders, and have more than quadrupled the monthly rent, from 50,000 won ($50) to 200,000 won ($200), said Woo Soon-duk, director of the Sunlit Sisters' Center, a local non-governmental organization dedicated to the women.

Many of the women want the government to take greater responsibility for their well-being and financial stability. They believe they played an important role for South Korea.

In June, 122 former camptown prostitutes sued the South Korean government. They're each seeking 10 million won (about $9,870) in compensation. A court date has not been set. Activists and lawyers for the women say police prevented prostitutes from leaving; that the government forced the women to undergo tests for sexually transmitted diseases, then locked them up if they were sick; and that officials from the U.S. military and South Korean government regularly inspected the prostitution operations.

The government saw the camptowns as a way to regulate prostitution, bring in much needed money and keep the U.S. soldiers happy. It was also worried about a rising number of sex crimes committed against South Korean women by U.S. soldiers in the 1950s and '60s, Park says.

A spokeswoman for the government's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family declined to comment until after a court reaches a decision. She wouldn't give her name, saying office rules prohibited her from being named publicly. The U.S. military wouldn't answer specific questions about the women, saying in a statement that it was aware of their case and has "zero tolerance" for prostitution.

Many of the women feel trapped.

As Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Rebels" plays on an old radio, Kim Soon-hee, 65, a former camptown prostitute, eats a piece of melon. Clotheslines crisscross her room, which barely fits a bed and a dresser. The air smells strongly of the mold that covers the walls.

She wants to move to a better place in the same neighborhood, but she's too poor. "In the winter, the water doesn't flow because the pipes are frozen," she says. She shares a courtyard with two other one-bedroom homes that are empty.

Jang Young-mi, 67, who was orphaned as a girl and worked in a military camptown for nearly two decades, lives with three mangy dogs. A bite from one of them left the long white scar on her hand, but she refuses to abandon the offending animal.

"Maybe because I lived for so long with American soldiers, I can't fit in with Koreans," Jang says. "Why did my life have to turn out this way?"

Hundreds at slain journalist Sotloff's service

PINECREST, Florida — Letters slain journalist Steven Sotloff wrote to his family before he was beheaded by Islamic State militants were read at his memorial service Friday, with him telling them to be happy and stay positive and that if they didn't meet again, he hoped they would in heaven.

Several hundred mourners attended the service at Temple Beth Am in suburban Miami, including Sen. Marco Rubio. He told the gathering that Sotloff unmasked "the nature of what we are dealing with" in final moments of his life.

There was heavy security, with officers stationed at the front gate and entrance of the building in Pinecrest.

The temple's executive director Robert Hersh said the service was arranged as quickly as possible, keeping with Jewish custom, even though Sotloff's body is not there.

"Our job is to help them grieve, and that's what we're here to do as a family," Hersh said before the service. He said the family will sit shiva, the Jewish mourning period, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Organizers distributed a sheet of paper with the lyrics to a song Sotloff's sister, Lauren Sotloff, had chosen — "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd.

Sotloff attended the temple school as a child, and his mother, Shirley Sotloff, teaches preschool there.

Sotloff, a 31-year-old who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines before he was captured in Syria a year ago, also was an Israeli citizen. That fact was not widely known before his death — in part because Israel's military censor apparently kept a lid on the story for his safety. His killers are not believed to have known about his background.

The Islamic State has beheaded two American journalists it held captive for what the militants called payback for more than 120 U.S. airstrikes on its assets in northern Iraq since Aug. 8. Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were two of what the State Department has described as "a few" Americans still being held hostage by the group. The Islamic State also had threatened to kill a British man it is holding hostage.

In a statement on Wednesday, a family spokesman said Sotloff dedicated his life to portraying the suffering of people in war zones, but was "no hero."

Family spokesman Barak Barfi told reporters gathered outside the family's suburban Miami home that Sotloff "tried to find good concealed in a world of darkness," and to give voice to the weak and suffering in the Arab world. Barfi said Sotloff was "no war junkie," but was drawn to the stories of the turbulent Middle East, and his family has pledged to "not allow our enemies to hold us hostage with the sole weapon they possess — fear."

At US base, S. Korean ex-prostitutes face eviction

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — More than 70 aging women live in a squalid neighborhood between the rear gate of the U.S. Army garrison here and half a dozen seedy nightclubs. Near the front gate, glossy illustrations posted in real-estate offices show the dream homes that may one day replace their one-room shacks.

They once worked as prostitutes for American soldiers in this "camptown" near Camp Humphreys, and they've stayed because they have nowhere else to go. Now, the women are being forced out of the Anjeong-ri neighborhood by developers and landlords eager to build on prime real estate around the soon-to-be-expanded garrison.

"My landlord wants me to leave, but my legs hurt, I can't walk, and South Korean real estate is too expensive," says Cho Myung-ja, 75, a former prostitute who receives monthly court eviction notices at her home, which she has rarely left over the last five years because of leg pain.

"I feel like I'm suffocating," she says.

Plagued by disease, poverty and stigma, the women have little to no support from the public or the government.

Their fate contrasts greatly with a group of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II. Those so-called "comfort women" receive government assistance under a special law, and large crowds demanding that Japan compensate and apologize to the women attend weekly rallies outside the Japanese Embassy.

While the camptown women get social welfare, there's no similar law for special funds to help them, according to two Pyeongtaek city officials who refused to be named because of office rules. Many people in South Korea don't even know about the camptown women.

In the decades following the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea was a poor dictatorship deeply dependent on the U.S. military. Analysts say the South Korean government saw the women as necessary for the thousands of U.S. soldiers stationed in the South. Some of the women went to the camps voluntarily; others were brought by pimps.

In 1962, the government formalized the camptowns as "special tourism districts" with legalized prostitution. That year, some 20,000 registered prostitutes worked in nearly 100 camptowns, and many more were unregistered.

The women who became prostitutes saw few other options, but the work made them social pariahs, unable to live or work anywhere else, says Park Kyung-soo, secretary general of the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes against Korean Civilians, a group that tries to uncover and monitor alleged U.S. military crimes against South Koreans.

Pockets of former camptown women exist throughout South Korea. Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, the women of Anjeong-ri mostly live alone in tiny homes, struggling to pay for food and rent on a monthly government stipend of 300,000 to 400,000 won ($300 to $400).

Activists say most of the women are in danger of losing their homes.

"I'm so worried that I can't sleep," says a camptown woman who will only give her surname, Kim, because she's ashamed of her past. The 75-year-old's landlords have told her she has a month to leave, and she looks nearly every day for a new home.

The camptown women's predicament began when Washington and Seoul agreed in 2004 to relocate the sprawling Yongsan U.S. base, which takes up 620 acres of prime real estate in the center of wealthy Seoul, to the base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the capital. The deadline, originally set for 2012, is now tentatively 2016.

At the end of the move, Camp Humphreys will have tripled in size and house more than 36,000 people, including troops, their family members and civilian staff. Investors are eyeing the Pyeongtaek land in anticipation of homes for U.S. military families and sites for businesses that will cater to the new flood of people and wealth.

Piles of rubble from demolished homes sit next to new villas. A few blocks from some of the remaining shacks, a partially built apartment building rises to the beating of hammers and whirring of drills.

Landlords eager to capitalize on rising land prices are trying to force the women out with pressure and eviction orders, and have more than quadrupled the monthly rent, from 50,000 won ($50) to 200,000 won ($200), said Woo Soon-duk, director of the Sunlit Sisters' Center, a local non-governmental organization dedicated to the women.

Many of the women want the government to take greater responsibility for their well-being and financial stability. They believe they played an important role for South Korea.

In June, 122 former camptown prostitutes sued the South Korean government. They're each seeking 10 million won (about $9,870) in compensation. A court date has not been set. Activists and lawyers for the women say police prevented prostitutes from leaving; that the government forced the women to undergo tests for sexually transmitted diseases, then locked them up if they were sick; and that officials from the U.S. military and South Korean government regularly inspected the prostitution operations.

The government saw the camptowns as a way to regulate prostitution, bring in much needed money and keep the U.S. soldiers happy. It was also worried about a rising number of sex crimes committed against South Korean women by U.S. soldiers in the 1950s and '60s, Park says.

A spokeswoman for the government's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family declined to comment until after a court reaches a decision. She wouldn't give her name, saying office rules prohibited her from being named publicly. The U.S. military wouldn't answer specific questions about the women, saying in a statement that it was aware of their case and has "zero tolerance" for prostitution.

Many of the women feel trapped.

As Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Rebels" plays on an old radio, Kim Soon-hee, 65, a former camptown prostitute, eats a piece of melon. Clotheslines crisscross her room, which barely fits a bed and a dresser. The air smells strongly of the mold that covers the walls.

She wants to move to a better place in the same neighborhood, but she's too poor. "In the winter, the water doesn't flow because the pipes are frozen," she says. She shares a courtyard with two other one-bedroom homes that are empty.

Jang Young-mi, 67, who was orphaned as a girl and worked in a military camptown for nearly two decades, lives with three mangy dogs. A bite from one of them left the long white scar on her hand, but she refuses to abandon the offending animal.

"Maybe because I lived for so long with American soldiers, I can't fit in with Koreans," Jang says. "Why did my life have to turn out this way?"

GOP senator seeks new authority against militants

WASHINGTON — The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is pushing legislation authorizing the president to use military force against Islamic state militants in Iraq, Syria and wherever else they threaten U.S. interests.

Sen. Jim Inhofe is circulating a draft of a resolution granting the president the authority to "use all necessary and appropriate force in order to defend the national security of the United States against the threat posed by the organization called the Islamic State or 'IS,' formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as any successor organization."

The measure, which has no end date, would allow President Barack Obama to deploy ground forces as well as continue with airstrikes against the merciless militants who have seized swaths of Iraq, threaten the government and killed two American journalists inside Syria.

Inhofe is seeking bipartisan support for his measure as Congress returns to Washington next week from its five-week break. The resolution also forces the president to submit a strategy to Congress within 60 days for how to defeat the Islamic State group. President Barack Obama has vowed to destroy and degrade the militants but conceded last week that the administration has no strategy.

The Senate has a shortened session in September, and it is unclear whether lawmakers will act on any legislation responding to the militant threat. Some Republicans and Democrats contend that the president already has authority to act based on the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

In a letter to Obama on Friday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said the president has the authority to use military force against the militants.

"Just as the U.S. has conducted operations against terrorists elsewhere, there is no legal reason preventing you from targeting ISIL in Syria," Rubio, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, wrote. He pressed Obama for a strategy to defeat the militants.

Other Republicans say they are reluctant to give the president any blanket military authority absent a detailed strategy.

Pending in the Senate is the sweeping defense policy bill, and Inhofe's resolution could be part of that debate, although the Senate is not expected to act on the defense bill until a postelection, lame-duck session in November.

Other lawmakers also have said they will push for resolutions on military force. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican., said he will propose a resolution next week to require a comprehensive plan from Obama on how to defeat the Islamic State group. His measure also would revoke the 2002 authority to use military force in Iraq and grant a new, short-term authorization for military force.

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democradt, is proposing a measure that would authorize military air strikes against militant targets in Syria.

South Korea rules out residual US force near DMZ after consolidation

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean defense officials said Friday the U.S. will not leave residual forces near the Demilitarized Zone after it shifts most of its troops on the peninsula to southern regional hubs, while American officials didn’t rule out the prospect of leaving some troops behind “temporarily.”

The two statements reflect the sensitivities north of Seoul, where cities already have plans for the land that will be handed over as American forces vacate bases there.

The Ministry of National Defense’s announcement that no residual forces would remain in Area I came one day after the two allies said they would form a combined division next year.

The division will initially be headquartered in Uijeongbu but will eventually move to Pyeongtaek as part of the relocation; and be led by an American commander with a South Korean deputy. Officials from both countries said the creation of the combined division would not affect the relocation.

U.S. Forces Korea, however, issued a statement Friday that said “no decision has been made to temporarily keep a U.S. residual north of Seoul. As with other issues involving Alliance agreements, a decision to keep a residual U.S. force will be managed in a collaborative manner.”

The statement also said South Korea and the U.S. “are reviewing ways to enhance the combined defense posture” through set bilateral processes.

“Policy discussions on how best to defend the ROK are ever-evolving and happen on an ongoing basis,” it said.

USFK commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti raised the possibility last year of leaving some American troops in Area I, which includes Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu and Camp Casey in Dongducheon, after the relocation of units to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.

“There may be a need, operationally, to leave some residual in those areas just for proper defense and response,” he told reporters, adding: “It is a sensitive issue, but we will work our way through it and do what is best for Korea and what is best for the defense of Korea.”

The announcement surprised and angered some Area I residents, who had expected the 2nd Infantry Division to leave their cities as part of a long-delayed relocation of units to Camp Humphreys. The move was initially supposed to take place in 2008, but because of funding and construction problems it has been postponed twice, to 2012 and then to 2016.

Katherine Hammack, the Army’s assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said last spring that construction was on track to be completed by 2016-17 and that most units slated for relocation would be able to move by 2017 and the bases they vacate would be ready for return to South Korea.

rowland.ashley@stripes.com

chang.yookyong@stripes.com

Ohio college becoming leader in drone technology

DAYTON, OHIO — Officials with an Ohio community college say it has taken another step toward positioning itself as a national leader in drone technology research.

Sinclair Community College officials on Aug. 26 announced plans for the renovation of an existing downtown Dayton campus building into a $5 million training and certification center for unmanned aerial systems.

The school said the center will allow students to fly UAV quadcopters indoors, Deborah Norris, Sinclair vice president of workforce development and corporate services, told the Dayton Daily News.

“It will give us more classroom space focused on UAS...,” she said.

Sinclair has had more than 150 students seek a two-year degree in its UAS program, Norris told the paper.

Despite the region being passed over for an FAA drone testing site last year, Sinclair has moved full speed ahead on the development, teaching and application of the technology.

The growth in the technology was on display Tuesday during the first day of the three-day Ohio UAS Conference in Dayton, which has drawn more than 700 people and 70 exhibitors from across the United States, Israel, Mexico and Australia, according to the Dayton Daily News.

The attendance was a record for the 3-year-old event. It featured an indoor flying competition among three colleges that was organized by the Air Force, the Daily News reported.

The commercial market for unmanned aerial systems will “dwarf” sales to the military within a decade, said Michael Tosanco, president and CEO of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

The revolutionary technology is on an evolutionary path much like computers or automobiles and will change the lives of nearly everyone when drones are integrated into civilian airspace in coming years, according to Tosanco.

“The state of the industry is more and more people want this,” he said.

Drones will increasingly take over jobs that are dirty, dull, difficult and dangerous and do them more effectively and efficiently, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is under a congressional mandate to integrate drones into civilian manned airspace by September 2015. The FAA chose seven locations across the nation last year, rejecting a combined bid from Ohio and Indiana. But officials say the region nevertheless has led the nation in research of the technology.

A study by AUVSI said the industry would create 100,000 jobs and an $82 billion market nationally by 2025

Apply to college with video instead of SAT score

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore-area college is the first in the country to unveil an application option that allows students to submit videos as part of their admissions applications.

Goucher College in Towson announced Thursday that applicants for the 2015-2016 academic year can choose not to submit SAT scores or transcripts, and instead send a two-minute video about why they want to attend the institution.

Other colleges and universities allow students to submit videos as supplements to grades and test scores, but Goucher is the first to consider a video as the primary piece of a prospective student’s application.

Goucher is a private college with roughly 1,450 undergraduate students.

Goucher President Jose Bowen said the school introduced the new application option because students are “more than the numbers” on their academic records.

Decorated Army officer honored for saving fallen man from oncoming train

After two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, the morning commute on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system from Orinda, Calif., to San Francisco must have seemed pretty routine to Maj. Adam Czekanski one day last winter.

He got to the station just in time and could hear a train coming into the station. But then he saw something else. A man standing at the edge of the platform began slowly leaning forward and then toppled onto the tracks, directly in front of the oncoming train.

The commuters on the platform froze in horror, "as if they were paralyzed," Czekanski said later. But he knew exactly what to do. He ran from the top of the escalator to the edge of the platform and jumped onto the tracks to help the fallen man.

"He was lying there flat on his back," Czekanski said. "I pulled him away from the tracks and got him under the lip of the platform. I know it sounds like a cliche," he said, "But I did what I had to do."

It was much more than he had to do. On Thursday, Czekanski, a major in the Army Corps of Engineers, received the Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest award for valor in a noncombat setting.

The incident occurred just after 7 a.m. Jan. 24. The victim, later identified as Adrian Malagon, had what BART police later thought was a seizure.

Malagon himself could not say what it was. He told BART police he remembered nothing from the time he blacked out until he regained consciousness in an ambulance on the way to John Muir Hospital in Martinez.

But Czekanski remembers it clearly. His Army training, he said, "helps us to make quick decisions."

He saw Malagon on the tracks, saw the train approaching and jumped in.

"The guy had a gash on his head and was bleeding," Czekanski said. He was not responsive. "He opened his eyes, but he did not say anything. I told him not to move, and hollered for others to call 911," Czekanski said.

In the meantime, Monique Marshall, who was operating the BART train, had noticed what she thought was a black jacket fall onto the tracks, just as the train was slowing for the station. She slammed on the emergency brake, and the train stopped.

Czekanski, however, was already on the track and the train was bearing down on him and the injured man. "I hope that someone would do the same for me," he said.

Wesley Riggins, another BART patron, rushed to help Czekanski with the injured man. The Orinda Fire Department and an ambulance responded.

The medal was presented by Brig. Gen. Mark Toy at a ceremony at the Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco Area headquarters on Market Street.

Toy is the commanding officer of the Corps' San Francisco area. Czekanski, 37, is the deputy commander. He has been a soldier for 16 years.

This is not Czekanski's first award for valor. He received the Bronze Star three times and the Purple Heart once for service in the Middle East. He served as a company commander, battalion executive officer and battalion operations officer in his combat tours. He also earned the Combat Infantryman's Badge.

The Soldier's Medal is rarely given, only a few times a year for the whole Army, according to J.D. Hardesty, public affairs officer for the Corps of Engineers San Francisco District.

Czekanski never heard again from Malagon, the injured man. The Chronicle was unable to contact Malagon.

©2014 the San Francisco Chronicle. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Alaska VA clinic in Wasilla without doctors

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Veterans Affairs clinic in Wasilla is without doctors after the three physicians working under contract over the summer decided not to renew those.

A nurse practitioner, who transferred from Anchorage last week, is now carrying the 1,000-patient caseload.

The Mat-Su Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic is supposed to have two full-time doctors but has been down one since 2012. The last full-time doctor left in May, KTVA reported.

"There were three physicians at various times who had been selected to come work there and had dropped out for various reason or there were credentialing issues with them," said Cynthia Joe, chief of staff for the Alaska VA Healthcare System.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has expressed concern with staffing at the clinic and asked the VA's inspector general to look into the quality of care provided there.

Joe told The Associated Press earlier this summer that recruitment of doctors and nurses is one of the biggest challenges the system faces in Alaska.

"We are offering salaries that are within what we can offer through the VA," she told KTVA, noting the VA also offers incentives and cost-of-living allowances.

The offered salary in the case of the Wasilla clinic is capped at $195,000. There were no pending applicants.

The VA has referred around 700 veterans from the area to a clinic run by the Southcentral Foundation in Wasilla. Hundreds more are being seen by Providence Alaska Medical Center and private practices.

Although $5 billion was included in a recent VA bill to go toward hiring more doctors, it's unclear whether any of that money will help the Wasilla clinic.

"I think we are always hopeful of anything that will give us more latitude to hire," Joe said.

The VA plans to hold a town hall to discuss veterans' issues in Anchorage on Sept. 16. As part of that, the VA said it "welcomes frank and open discussion of Veterans' concerns in all VA program areas."

Records were falsified at Minneapolis VA, former workers say

MINNEAPOLIS — Two former employees of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center allege they were pressured to falsify patient appointment dates and medical records to hide delays, a television station reported.

In a report that aired Wednesday night, the ex-employees told KARE-TV that in some cases, they were told to falsify medical records by writing that patients had declined follow-up treatments when, in reality, they say the veterans had never been contacted.

The former VA workers fear that patients' lives may be at risk because they say some cases involved suspected colon cancer.

"Some of them were getting missed altogether," said Heather Rossbach, one of the former VA workers.

Until recently, Rossbach was a medical support assistant and Letty Alonso was a supervisor in the Minneapolis VA's gastroenterology department.

"I feel like they need to be exposed for what's really going on," Alonso said.

The women contend they were fired after trying to alert top VA administrators about the problems, and have outlined their allegations in a complaint to the VA's Office of Inspector General.

Minneapolis VA Health Care System director Patrick Kelly told KARE he's not aware of any secret wait lists at the facility, and he does not believe such lists exist.

"None have been uncovered," Kelly said.

In August, government investigators reported they found no proof that delays in care caused any deaths at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix. But investigators say they found widespread problems that the Veterans Affairs Department is promising to fix.

Kelly said in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday that the quality of care in the Minneapolis VA's gastrointestinal clinic is "excellent."

"Veterans should not deter from coming to the Minneapolis VA based on the allegations of former employees," Kelly's statement said.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said Thursday he has sent a letter to federal agencies to confirm they are investigating the former workers' claims.

Walz, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement the allegations are "extremely troubling" and run counter to what local leadership at the VA told him.

"If these allegations prove true, those responsible must and will be held accountable," Walz' statement said. "No employee should feel pressured to falsify data or fear retaliation if they do the right thing and report wrongdoing to their superiors."

Rossbach and Alonso said their gastroenterology department was in charge of scheduling colonoscopies to detect cancer and follow-up care if a doctor spotted problems.

"I caught one with bleeding 46 days with no action whatsoever," Alonso said.

To keep evidence of delays in Minneapolis out of VISTA, the VA's official electronic record tracking system, the women said a supervisor ordered them to keep a secret patient waiting list.

Kelly told the station that Alonso's allegations about wait times were "unfounded. Unsubstantiated."

KARE reports the independent Office of Special Counsel for the U.S. government is investigating both women's claims that they were fired for blowing the whistle. A spokesman told the AP on Thursday the agency had no comment.

Alaska Guard adjutant general resigns, governor says

JUNEAU, Alaska — A scathing report into allegations of sexual assault and fraud in the Alaska National Guard finds that victims do not trust the system because of a lack of confidence in the command.

The report, released Thursday, was requested by Gov. Sean Parnell, who said he was angry that it had taken several years to get to the bottom of concerns.

He told reporters from Anchorage that he had requested and received the resignation of Alaska National Guard Adjutant Gen. Thomas Katkus. Parnell said the buck stopped with Katkus.

"I've been extremely frustrated over the years because it seemed like we've been chasing a vapor," said Parnell, who has been criticized for not doing enough in response to allegations of sexual assaults within the Guard. He said when his office heard concerns, it would go to Guard leaders and be assured the matter was being handled and be given a description of how it was handled. He said he had no evidence that he was misled.

Investigations requested by Alaska's two U.S. senators found the same thing, he said, that it seemed the cases were being properly handled. He said it took this type of a "deep review" to get at the heart of the problem.

Parnell said when he obtained "concrete examples" of how the command structure was "failing Guard members," in February, he took those to the National Guard Bureau. The bureau's Office of Complex Investigations conducted the review.

It found that the Guard is "not properly administering justice" in investigating or adjudicating Guard member misconduct cases, that actual and perceived favoritism, ethical misconduct and fear of reprisal had eroded the trust and confidence in the Guard leadership, and the Guard does not have a formal means for coordinating with local law enforcement in cases involving Guard member misconduct.

The review also found what it called instances of fraud — such as embezzlement of funds from a program to help Guard families and misuse of government equipment for personal gain — but said those cases did not have an effect on the reporting of sexual assault.

It found that lack of confidence and trust in Guard leadership "is impeding the organization from reaching its full potential, and this persistent negative theme is contributing to the perception that the AKNG leadership is not addressing the concerns of sexual assault victims." AKNG is Alaska National Guard.

Recommendations include improving the reporting process to ensure the information of victims of sexual assault is kept confidential and that the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate or a law enforcement liaison track allegations of conduct investigated by law enforcement.

Parnell committed to implementing the report's recommendations and appointing a project team to oversee that, with the bureau's help. He called it a starting point for change. He also said there would be further changes to the Guard's command structure.

Brig. Gen. Mike Bridges will serve as acting commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs until a replacement for Katkus is appointed.

Parnell apologized to those who had been victimized.

"Our Alaska Guard members deserve better. The victims who have been hurt deserve better. And those who have brought complaints forward deserve better," he said.

Release of the report did not quiet the criticism against Parnell, who is seeking re-election.

State Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, said Parnell's administration "let misconduct by the Alaska National Guard chain of command go on for far too long."

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, called on Parnell "to hold accountable those individuals who have forced the AKNG to operate under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust for so many years."

Begich's office said the earlier reports did not include significant findings because they were conducted in an "ad-hoc manner," often by individuals or units accused of improprieties.

Air Force Academy punishes gymnasts; basketball staffer under investigation

The Air Force Academy is taking disciplinary steps against its men's gymnastics team after a probe uncovered underage drinking, and the academy also is investigating allegations of misconduct by a men's basketball staffer.

The announcement Thursday comes a month after academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson ordered a review of conduct within the school's athletic department in response to an investigation by The Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs, Colo. The academy confirmed it is seeking discipline but refused to release details, citing the federal Privacy Act.

"Incidents over the past year have revealed a pattern of unprofessional behavior and underage drinking by the Men's Gymnastics team," the academy said in a news release. "The incidents did not involve sexual assaults or illicit drug use; however, they are not in line with the Academy's institutional values."

The academy gave little information on the alleged misconduct by a member of the basketball staff.

"The Academy will conduct an investigation and release information, as appropriate," the academy said.

In August, the Gazette reported a pattern of misconduct among athletes at the academy dating to 2010. Athletes were involved in sexual assault, drug use, cheating on tests, binge drinking and other forbidden behavior, the investigation found.

After academy investigators were told that athletes at a 2011 party in Manitou Springs may have used date-rape drugs to incapacitate girls before sexual assault, the academy launched a sweeping probe dubbed "Operation Gridiron." That investigation targeted 32 cadets, including 16 football players. It led to three courts-martial and the dismissal of 17 cadets.

Johnson reacted to the Gazette's story on the misconduct by calling for an Inspector General's review of the athletic department to determine whether athlete and coach conduct is in line with the school's values.

Although the academy acknowledged that it had found more misconduct, the school isn't saying how it is disciplining those involved. When asked to provide more information on how many cadets were facing administrative punishment or courts-martial, an academy spokesman said he didn't know.

"All I have is what you see in the press release,"' spokesman Meade Warthen said.

©2014 The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Analyst: DOD as much as $300 billion short if strategy unchanged

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense will be hundreds of billions of dollars short of what’s needed to enact the nation’s official defense strategy in coming years, a new report on the nation’s defense budget released Thursday predicts.

To execute programs and plans laid out in budget and strategy documents, DOD will need $200 billion to $300 billion more than allowed by automatic spending limits known as sequestration, according to the report by Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

And the analysis doesn’t take into account the demands of new and intensified conflicts in places such as Ukraine or Iraq, where the United States has been pulled back into airborne combat missions. Since June, the U.S. has spent some $600 million on limited airstrikes and an advisory mission aimed at halting the advance of Islamist insurgents.

And earlier this week in Estonia — a nation nervous that its neighbor Russia is intent on dragging it back into a revived Soviet sphere — President Barack Obama hammered home the point that the United States would stand firmly behind all its NATO allies.

The United States now must decide whether to provide more defense funding or trim military missions — and potentially tell some partners overseas they’re on their own, Harrison said.

“We’re kind of at a fork in the road in the strategy-budget process,” he told reporters Thursday in Washington.

Sequestration calls for about $1 trillion less in defense spending over decade than defense planners had expected before 2011, when the cuts became law. As a result, the U.S. military now forecasts declining end strengths, reduced unit readiness and curtailed modernization of weapons systems.

The 2012 defense strategic guidance called for a shift of military emphasis and resources from the Middle East to Asia, where a resurgent China has been building its military and flexing its muscles in territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam and others.

The strategy was upheld this year by the Quadrennial Defense Report, which has been assailed by Republicans in Congress who say the document is geared more toward presenting an affordable strategic assessment in a time of falling defense spending than a realistic one.

But even the current strategy is too expensive if Congress and the president leave sequestration the law of the land, Harrison concluded in his 34-page report.

“The Department appears to be caught between two approaches for addressing its strategy-resource mismatch,” Harrison wrote. “It has not budgeted enough to fully resource the defense program called for by its strategy, nor has it revised its strategy and defense program to fit within the budget constraints set by Congress.”

Harrison tallied up expected defense shortfalls to reach his estimate of $200 billion to $300 billion.

Current budget limits won’t fund enough troops or warships to enact the defense strategy, he said. The Army plans to cut its active-duty end strength to 450,000 by 2019 while the Marines plan to level off at 182,000, but critics say the current budget limits won’t even support those reduced levels.

”Assuming these force levels are needed to execute the strategy at an ‘acceptable’ level of risk, the budget appears to be roughly $20 billion short” over the coming five years, the report said.

DOD also appears to be counting on $50 billion to $100 billion in overseas wartime funding to cover core expenses in coming years, he said. Another $31 billion in savings from controversial proposed cuts to military compensation and weapons programs are needed — cuts Harrison characterized as “unlikely to materialize.”

DOD’s most recent budget request assumes the Pentagon will be allowed to exceed sequestration caps by $116 billion over five years. It’s not a safe bet that a bitterly divided Congress will be able to reach an agreement to kill sequestration even for pressing strategic reasons, he said.

“They tweaked it, but they haven’t been able to turn it off,” he said.

In response to a question about the CSBA report, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday the department was striving to find a way to avoid sequestration, which former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta referred to as a “meat ax.”

“We are acutely aware that sequestration remains the law of the land, and we are working all the time with Congress to forge a way ahead here,” Col. Steve Warren told reporters.

If the situation persists, the United States may be forced to adjust its defense strategy, Harrison said.

“That may mean coming up with more innovative concepts for how we will conduct missions and achieve our strategic objectives around the world,” he said. “It also may mean shedding priorities and divesting ourselves of some security commitments in the future.

“That’s going to be painful and uncomfortable, and people aren’t going to like it,” he said. “But that is one way … to reduce what we’re expecting the Department of Defense to do in the future.”

carroll.chris@stripes.com

Twitter: @ChrisCarroll_

'Friendly fire' bombing that killed 5 US troops blamed on miscommunication

WASHINGTON — A "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan that killed five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan in June was caused by a series of avoidable miscommunications among air and ground forces, according to a military investigation report released Thursday.

The report from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan, cited a collective failure by soldiers, commanders and air crew members to execute the fundamentals of the mission. As a result, the five Americans and one Afghan were mistaken for enemy forces and were attacked with two laser-guided bombs.

Many details of the report were blacked out before its public release.

The incident was one of the deadliest friendly fire episodes of the entire war, which began 13 years ago next month.

The crew of the Air Force B-1 bomber were executing an authorized order, but they were faulted by investigators for not taking reasonable precautions to ensure they knew where friendly forces were located. Despite discrepancies in reported U.S. troop locations — suggesting that something may have been amiss — the air crew did not take necessary steps to validate its information before launching the bombs, the report said.

Unidentified members of the ground forces, which included an Army Special Forces unit, were faulted for incorrectly communicating some troops' positions and for not knowing that the B-1 bomber's targeting gear is incapable of detecting friendly marking devices of the type used by U.S. ground forces in the June 9 operation. These failures led to the mistaken conclusion that the targeted U.S. and Afghan soldiers were insurgents.

In response to the Central Command report, the Army said it is considering whether any tactics should be changed to minimize chances of repeating mistakes that led to this tragedy. It also forwarded the investigation report to the commander of Army Special Operations Command to decide whether any punitive action should be taken.

The Air Force said it would study the report before deciding on any disciplinary action.

The June incident happened in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan at the end of an operation led by the Afghan army and supported by Army Special Forces. Their aim was to disrupt insurgents and improve security for local polling stations in the Arghandab district in advance of the June 14 Afghan presidential runoff election.

From an altitude of about 12,000 feet, the B-1 bomber was providing what the military calls close air support while U.S. and Afghan ground troops were moving out of the area at the conclusion of their operation.

The six soldiers who were killed had moved from their group's main position in a valley to higher ground on a ridgeline in order to maneuver on insurgent forces. Muzzle flashes seen at their position on the ridgeline were mistaken for signs of rifle fire from insurgents, in part because the movement of the six was not properly communicated to those coordinating with the B-1 crew. And when the B-1 crew said their targeting pods had detected no U.S. marking devices at that location it was decided that targets must by insurgents.

"While this complex combat situation presented a challenging set of circumstances, had the team understood their system's capabilities, executed standard tactics, techniques and procedures and communicated effectively, this tragic incident was avoidable," the partially censored report concluded.

The five Americans killed were Staff Sgt. Jason A. McDonald, 28, of Butler, Ga.; Staff Sgt. Scott R. Studenmund, 24, of Pasadena, Calif.; Spc. Justin R. Helton, 25, of Beaver, Ohio; Cpl. Justin R. Clouse, 22, of Sprague, Wash., and Pvt. Aaron S. Toppen, 19, of Mokena, Ill.

The Afghan killed in the attack was identified by Central Command as Sgt. Gulbuddin Ghulam Sakhi.

The tragedy was an example of how battlefield mistakes caused by confusion or miscalculations can have profound consequences. Friendly fire is a problem as old as warfare, and although technological advances, training and combat experience have lessened the frequency, it still poses a threat to U.S. and allied forces.

"War is a very human endeavor, and mistakes inevitably will occur," retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, an Iraq war veteran and now professor of military history at Ohio State University, said after the June incident.

Tuition assistance changes start taking effect on Saturday

New policies affecting which soldiers are eligible for Army Tuition Assistance will take effect in the coming days and weeks.

Prominent among those changes is a new rule linking eligibility for TA reimbursement to a soldier’s grade upon completion of an approved academic course.

Effective Saturday, soldiers must achieve a grade of “C” or higher in undergraduate college courses, “B” or higher in graduate courses and a “Pass” for courses that only issue pass/fail grades.

The restriction applies to courses that start Saturday or later, not to courses already in progress on that date.

And in another near-term change, colleges and universities have until midnight Friday to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Army that sets certain standards of performance and service for institutions that receive student tuition payments through the online GoArmyEd system.

Soldiers should check the Defense Department website, www.dodmou.com, to see if their school has signed the memorandum of understanding. If a school is not listed, soldiers should contact their local education center to discuss options for enrolling in an institution that does qualify for TA, according to guidance issued by the Army Continuing Education Division.

In another TA change scheduled for Oct. 1, Tuition Assistance funds only can be used to pay for tuition costs of up to $250 per semester hour, not for the instructional fees associated with some courses.

The Army also is changing the timeline for requesting Tuition Assistance.

As in the past, TA requests must be approved before a soldier’s class start date. In an Oct. 1 procedural change designed to facilitate that requirement, soldiers attending schools that do not upload their course catalogue into GoArmyEd should generate their TA request at least 10 days before the class start date to provide sufficient time for processing.

Education officials note that with the end of fiscal 2014 nearing, Sept. 19 (11:59 EST) will be the last day for soldiers to request TA for classes that begin on or before Sept. 30 because of the Army’s fiscal year close out. There are no exceptions to this requirement.

The policy does not apply to requests for classes that will start Oct. 1 or later in fiscal 2015.

The Army expects to spend about $275 million on TA in fiscal 2014. As of late summer, more than 115,000 soldiers were drawing funds from the program, with many of them enrolled in multiple classes.

NATO leaders meet in face of uncertain future

NEWPORT, Wales — NATO leaders are gathering in Wales Thursday to confront the threat of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and a host of unfinished business in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama flew to Europe on Tuesday, stopping first in Estonia, where on Wednesday he sought to reassure NATO countries of the United States’ “unwavering” commitment to the alliance’s collective defense.

He and other leaders at the summit of NATO heads of state are meeting at a posh resort not far from the Welsh capital of Cardiff. Such events are typically well-scripted and offer few surprises, but this summit finds the alliance facing a myriad of security issues that challenge its capabilities and purpose.

After more than a decade of leading the international military mission in Afghanistan, NATO had been hoping to use this summit to highlight successes and reaffirm future commitments to Afghanistan’s stability, while symbolically pivoting to face the growing threats posed by conflicts closer to home in places like Ukraine.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force announced Thursday morning that another coalition soldier had died during an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, underscoring the fact that more than 40,000 NATO and partner troops remain in the war-torn country.

The terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, represent the only time in the alliance’s 65-year history that it invoked the collective defense article of its charter. One legacy of that is the fact that Afghanistan is the first item on the agenda on Thursday afternoon.

The unresolved presidential election in that country means there won’t be an Afghan head of state to fete at the summit, complicating any messages of closure and undermining talk of future plans.

More immediately, the election dispute has left a critical agreement over future international troop levels unsigned. Financial donors have said a peaceful political transition is a prerequisite for the future aid upon which Afghanistan relies.

But the challenges in Afghanistan have been overshadowed by NATO’s Cold War foe, Russia and the advances of the Islamic State in Iraq. Later on Thursday, NATO leaders will move on to the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s involvement in the region, seen as one of the most pressing challenges to the alliance.

Member countries are expected to agree to take a more robust stance toward what is seen as Russian aggression. Among the plans are a rapid-response force that would position more troops and equipment closer to the hot spots along Russia’s western border.

During his stop in Estonia, Obama said NATO needs to enhance its readiness.

“That means we need to step up our defense planning, so we’re fully prepared for any threat to any ally,” he said. “It also means we need to have the infrastructure and facilities that can receive rapid reinforcements, including here in the Baltics. We need to enhance NATO’s Rapid Response Force so it can deploy even more quickly and not just react to threats, but also deter them.”

The final day of the summit on Friday will feature sessions examining the future of NATO, a topic also expected to be dominated by Ukraine as well as the bloody conflicts in the Middle East. Top American officials like Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to meet with their counterparts in closed-door discussions.

U.S. officials say even during the first session on Afghanistan, leaders will seek to use the experience there to lay the foundation for NATO’s future.

“We’re moving into a world in which NATO will be less salient in Afghanistan, but in which we want to capitalize on the lessons that we’ve learned, the partnerships that we’ve built — what we’re calling the interoperability platform that has emerged where NATO members have learned to work with a very wide range of countries across the globe,” Charles Kupchan, senior director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, told reporters during a conference call last week.

Smith.josh@stripes.com

Twitter: @joshjonsmith

Air Force to reprimand Krusinski rather than pursue court-martial

WASHINGTON — The Air Force has decided to punish a former sexual assault prevention officer accused of groping a woman outside a Washington-area restaurant last year by issuing him a letter of reprimand rather than pursue a court-martial, according to an Air Force document obtained by Stars and Stripes.

The disposition decision by Col. Bill Knight, the commander of the 11th Wing, “was based primarily on the fact that [Lt. Col. Jeffrey] Krusinski had already been acquitted during his civilian trial,” according to the document, which is being reviewed.

A letter of reprimand “is designed to improve, correct and instruct those who depart from standards of performance, conduct, bearing and integrity and whose actions degrade the individual and the unit’s mission,” according to the Air Force.

In keeping with service policy, the letter to be issued to Krusinski will be filed in an unfavorable information file. The officer’s senior rater also would put the letter in Krusinski’s officer selection record, which could affect his ability to rise further through the ranks.

“This means he probably will not [be promoted],” an Air Force official said on condition of anonymity.

In the meantime, Krusinski remains on active duty and is supervising other airmen.

Allowing him to serve in a supervisory role “is being done with great oversight and is a conscious reflection of both his rank and performance since the incident. He has performed well and contributed in a positive manner that is within our expectations and requirements for a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force,” according to the document.

Krusinski will not be discharged, according to the document, and he will remain eligible to apply for retirement benefits after completing 20 years of service. However, he could be forced to retire at a lower grade if service officials decide that the unfavorable information in his personnel records merits such a reduction.

Krusinski was arrested by Arlington County, Va., police in May 2013. He was initially charged with sexual battery in the incident, but Virginia prosecutors revised the charge to regular assault and battery, saying the sexual crime requires additional proof of sexual intent.

During a civilian trial in Arlington Country Circuit Court in November 2013, a 23-year-old woman testified that Krusinski drunkenly groped her outside a bar, then verbally harassed her.

“I feel someone come up behind me — their chest is to my back, and they firmly grab my rear end as they’re walking by, and they ask me if I like it,” said the accuser, who broke down in tears during her testimony.

Another woman testified that she saw Krusinski grope the accuser. She also said he propositioned and groped her as well before she rebuffed him.

A civilian jury reached a verdict of not guilty following two days of testimony.

Forewoman Alison Kutchma said the jury had sympathy for the woman, but felt the evidence did not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Krusinski’s case drew considerable attention because at the time, he was the head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention and response office. The allegations came at a period when U.S. military leaders were under fire from lawmakers, advocacy groups and others for what critics charged were insufficient efforts to prosecute sexual assault cases.

Stars and Stripes reporter Chris Carroll contributed to this report.

harper.jon@stripes.com

Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Seoul American HS student recovering from meningitis

19 minutes ago

By Ashley Rowland

Stars and Stripes

Published: September 4, 2014

SEOUL, South Korea — A Seoul American High School student has been diagnosed with viral meningitis but is responding well to treatment, according to U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.

A garrison statement said the male student was diagnosed last weekend with suspected bacterial meningitis, typically more serious than viral meningitis. However, a DNA test later showed he had viral meningitis. Symptoms include sudden fever, headache and stiff neck.

The student has undergone antibiotic treatment and is recovering, the release said.

An investigation showed the student had few close contacts with others, aside from his immediate family and one other student. None have shown symptoms of the disease, and all have been treated with a single dose of antibiotics as a preventive measure, the garrison said. DODEA Pacific spokesman Charly Hoff said the student was a member of the school's cross country team.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meningitis is caused by inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, injury, cancer or some drugs.

Viral meningitis can be serious but is rarely life-threatening in people with normal immune systems.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported only three cases of meningitis in 2014, according to the garrison.

"A patient coming down with meningitis does not necessarily have to get it from someone else," the statement quoted Col. Sam Lee of the 65th Medical Brigade as saying. "It can be from the normal bacterial that is around our skin and body parts."

The community will be informed of developments in the case, garrison commander Col. Maria P. Eoff said in the statement.

rowland.ashley@stripes.com

Twitter: @Rowland_Stripes

More than 100 Americans fighting with Islamic State, Hagel says

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that more than 100 Americans are fighting with Islamic State militants, the first time the Pentagon chief has put a number on U.S. citizens aiding the terrorists.

Hagel cited the Americans aiding the jihadists to illustrate the threat that the Islamic State poses to the United States.

“We are aware of over 100 U.S. citizens who have U.S. passports who are fighting in the Middle East with ISIL forces,” Hagel told CNN, using the U.S. government’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State. “There may be more. We don’t know.”

U.S. intelligence officials have said that as many as 300 Americans may have joined forces with the Islamic State. They are among thousands of Westerners believed to be fighting alongside the militants.

Hagel spoke after U.S. analysts verified as real a video released Tuesday showing the beheading of reporter Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist slain in such a gruesome manner, following the slaying of James Foley, a video of which was posted Aug. 19.

“It makes you sick to your stomach, but it again reminds you of the brutality and barbarism that is afoot in some places in the world,” Hagel said.

Vice President Joe Biden used stronger words Wednesday during a speech in Portsmouth, N.H.

“When people harm Americans, we don’t retreat, we don’t forget,” Biden said. “We take care of those who are grieving.”

His voice rising to almost a shout, Biden added: “And when that’s finished, they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice — because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.”

President Barack Obama employed more restrained language in making a similar point.

“Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget … that our reach is long and that justice will be served,” Obama told reporters in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Obama was to join other allied leaders Thursday and Friday at a NATO summit in Wales.

In the videos released by the Islamic State, the black-shrouded figures who beheaded Foley and Sotloff spoke with a British accent. About 500 Brits are thought to be fighting with the group, along with hundreds more from France, Russia and other European countries.

The Islamic State militants have said the beheadings are their response to U.S. airstrikes that Obama launched against them in Iraq almost four weeks ago.

Hagel made his remarks during an interview at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He said extending the bombing campaign to Syria, the terror group’s hub, is among a number of military options he and other national security leaders are considering, though he ruled out sending U.S. combat troops to the region.

Since the Islamic State fighters began sweeping across Iraq almost three months ago, Obama has dispatched 760 American troops to advise Iraqi forces, set up joint operations centers in Baghdad and Irbil, and to assess the threat.

Under the War Powers Act, Obama is asking Congress for authorization to send 405 more troops to Iraq, with 55 to be pulled out for a net increase of 350. Obama has faced criticism in recent weeks for taking too long to come up with a strategy to counter the militants.

“They control half of Iraq today,” Hagel said Wednesday. “They control half of Syria today. We better take them seriously.”

Hagel urged Congress to approve Obama’s request for $500 million to equip and train moderate Syrian rebels who are combating both the Islamic State fighters and Syrian forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

David Goldstein of the Washington bureau contributed.

©2014 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

With water parks and new buildings, North Korea's capital coddles the elite

PYONGYANG, North Korea — As though Pyongyang did not already feel like a theme park, now the North Koreans have turned it into an actual theme park.

Already a showcase of Stalinist architecture, the capital and its monuments to communist ideology are perfectly arrayed along wide boulevards. But now a new "folk park" compresses the highlights into walking distance, featuring all the sights of North Korea in miniature form.

There's a tiny Kim Il Sung Square, complete with miniature tanks and missile transporters; and bronze statues of Kim and his son Kim Jong Il, shrunk down to mere lifesize. (The real ones, in central Pyongyang, are a towering 19 feet).

On a sunny Sunday morning, however, few people were at the park. There was a solo tourist, a few organized groups of children in school uniforms, and a flock of mainly Japanese journalists who were shooed away from the small monuments when they got too close while taking pictures.

A recent visitor, in the capital for the first time since 2008, came away with the impression that Pyongyang is becoming even more like a Potemkin village.

Many more cars are on the streets — and not just the locally produced "Pyonghwa" brand or Chinese BYDs, but Lexus sport-utility vehicles and late-model BMWs and Audis — and many women are dressing more fashionably. Brightly colored, shiny high heels, often with jewels, appear to be the trend du jour.

Changjon Street, in the heart of the square, is unrecognizable from a few years ago. Rows of round apartment towers line the street. Lit up at night, they are festooned with neon bands, giving them the appearance of giant fireworks. By day, the towers are reflected in the glittering river, making the city look "just like Dubai," in the words of one government-appointed minder.

This is not a city on the ropes. But it also is not a city that is representative of the state of North Korea.

The situation in the cities outside the capital, and even more so in the countryside, remains extremely dire. The state does not provide anything like the kinds of rations it once did, and hunger remains widespread.

Even in Pyongyang, there are still many more signs of extreme poverty than wealth. Bent-over elderly women carry huge sacks on their backs, men with weathered faces sit on their haunches by the roadside, and North Korean children appear smaller than their Southern peers.

Foreign visitors to Pyongyang are driven along the same routes from their hotels, no matter where they are going, leading them to conclude that only certain streets are fit for foreign consumption.

The Pyongyang Folk park, which opened two years ago, is one of the many developments in the city that marks the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth (he was born on April 15, 1912 — the same day the Titanic sank). The park features the sacred mountain of Paekdusan in the north, the dams of the West Sea and the ancient city of Kaesong near the southern border.

"Our great leader Comrade Kim Jong Un gave instructions to build this park for our people to teach them about our history from ancient to modern," said Kim Hyung, a state-appointed tour guide who was selling maps of the park. "We are very proud of our North Korean nation."

Construction still abounds today. Pyongyang airport is getting a new terminal — although foreign residents here say it's taking a long time — and new riverside parks feature basketball courts and picnic areas.

A drive around Pyongyang passes building sites filled with mounds of dirt, dump trucks and cranes, where men in olive green uniforms and yellow hard hats scurry around with spades. Visitors staying at a hotel near the Daedong river go to sleep and wake up to the sound of boats dredging up sand to be made into cement.

Then there are the facilities for the elite that have been added to revolutionary monuments of the standard visitor's tour.

There's the Munsu water park in Pyongyang — a huge indoor space with water slides — where the North Korean patrons all seemed to be in large groups and many were wearing what appeared to be standard-issue swimsuits. Meanwhile, the shop, selling Nike shoes and SpongeBob water guns, was empty.

At a fancy new equestrian center on the outskirts of the capital, with its faux log cabin buildings and manicured tracks, the "horse trainers" were all 20-something men with crew cuts, looking as though they had come straight from their barracks. There was not a "customer" — or, for that matter, any horse poop — in sight.

It's part of what Evans Revere, a former U.S. diplomat with a long career spent dealing with North Korea, calls the "bread and circuses" approach.

"The theme parks, amusement parks, water parks, equestrian parks — these are all directed at the elite while people in the rest of North Korea are not doing well at all," Revere said. "The regime is making every effort to present an image of economic success."

To be sure, the vast majority of what outsiders see is staged.

The United Nations World Food Program, which feeds about 10 percent of the North Korean population, said in its latest monitoring report that 39 percent of the people it surveyed did not consume any kind of protein in the week before the agency visited.

Meanwhile, political repression remains as fierce as ever, with the state using fear of labor camps — or worse — to keep people from agitating for change.

But there is nevertheless a noticeable improvement in the living conditions of the elite — Pyongyang is home to the 10 percent of the population considered most loyal to the Kim family.

This raises many questions, including:

Where is the money coming from? The North Korean regime has long diverted its resources to its pet projects — away, say, from food to its nuclear program — but its recent missile tests suggest that it is not cutting corners with the military.

And will this contribute to social unrest? Although information is strictly controlled in North Korea, the country is more open than it was even a few years ago. Cellphones are now in use — maybe not widely, but in use all the same — and some people are allowed to travel.

It will be hard to keep up the charade of communist egalitarianism when the elites in Pyongyang are clearly living so much better than everyone else.

But then again, the people who have political power — the party cadres who live in the fancy new apartment towers — will be happier and even less likely to rock the boat.

5 theories why Islamic State is goading US

WASHINGTON — It's a little hard to figure out the Islamic State's strategy following its second videotaped execution of an American citizen in less than a month. Over the last two years, the group has shown impressive strategic acumen, growing into the world's wealthiest terrorist group and something close to a viable theocratic state. It has achieved those aims via a strategy of gaining and consolidating control within Iraq and Syria — two of the world's most unstable states — while, unlike al-Qaida, avoiding action that would provoke a major U.S. response.

Why is it now carrying out very public killings that seem designed to provoke an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, and maybe even in Syria? The fate of al-Qaida over the last 13 years doesn't seem like a wise model to follow. But here are a few possible explanations for what ISIS is thinking.

1. They feel cornered.

ISIS accomplished quite a bit in 2013 and the first half of 2014, including taking over nearly a third of Syria and the city of Fallujah in Iraq. Most remarkably, it managed to do this in such a way that both the Syrian and U.S. governments largely left it alone.

It's interesting to ponder what might have happened if ISIS had stopped conquering territory after Fallujah and simply focused on consolidating its rule over the areas it already controlled and enforcing Sharia law. If that were the case, it's possible that there might be a de facto, relatively stable Islamist state between Iraq and Syria right now.

But a group that proclaims itself a caliphate can't really stop expanding, and it couldn't stay under the radar forever. The fall of Mosul was one tipping point, leading the United States and Iran to up their assistance to the Iraqi government and muscle out the problematic Nouri al-Maliki. Last month's encroachment into Kurdistan and the potential massacre of Yazidis on Mount Sinjar was another one, pushing the reluctant Obama administration to finally launch airstrikes.

At that point, with the bombs already dropping, ISIS may have calculated that there was nothing more to be gained from avoiding a confrontation with the United States, and struck back with one of the most politically powerful weapons in their arsenal.

2. They don't think the U.S. will act.

ISIS can read polls too. They know how reluctant Americans have been to see the country involved in another Middle East entanglement. This administration has been extremely hesitant to increase American involvement in Iraq and even more reluctant to get involved in Syria. A president who tells the press that "we don't have a strategy yet" for ISIS certainly doesn't sound like one who's in a rush to go to war.

ISIS may believe that it can continue to demonstrate that it can strike the U.S. by executing these prisoners, and that the U.S. isn't going to do anything about it. If this really is their thinking, they don't have a very good grasp of history. Americans are traditionally reluctant to go to war right up until they do. Saddam Hussein didn't think the U.S. would really attack him either.

3. They think this is working.

Terrorist groups thrive on attention and the Foley killing has done more to make the group a household name than any of its other actions. Beyond media attention, we don't know what impact the killing had on international recruitment. ISIS is an extremely media-savvy organization that has sustained itself on its ability to recruit fighters from abroad, including from Europe and the United States. If the group's leaders believe these killings further that goal, they may keep at it, despite the possible consequences on other fronts.

4. They're upping the price.

We all know that the U.S. government has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists (except when it does.) ISIS apparently asked for $132 million for Foley, which, to put it bluntly, does not sound like the demand of a group that plans to release its hostage. That amount is more than al-Qaida affiliates earned in total from ransoming dozens of European hostages over the past five years.

By contrast, ISIS is reportedly asking for $6.6 million for a 26-year-old American woman in custody, which sounds like a figure you might quote if you're actually looking to make a deal.

Is there any chance of this? The Obama administration would lose all credibility if it paid a ransom at this point. But Jabhat al-Nusra's recent release of American writer Peter Theo Curtis may have demonstrated an alternative plan. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power apparently introduced Curtis' family to emissaries from Qatar, who negotiated with the al-Qaida-linked group for his release. (We still don't know the terms of that deal.) ISIS, which has released European hostages in the past, may be wondering if third-party intermediaries might make a similar deal for the Americans it still has in custody.

It also seems significant that ISIS is apparently now threatening a British citizen in its custody. The British government also doesn't pay ransoms to terrorist groups, but perhaps ISIS is testing how steadfast the Brits are in adherence to that policy.

5. This was the plan all along.

It may not seem very logical from the outside for ISIS to provoke the United States into open warfare. But while ISIS' tactics have differed form al-Qaida's thus far, it shares its former patron's antipathy to America's presence in the Middle East and now may feel it's acquired enough territory, money, weapons and manpower to pursue a time-honored strategy of provoking the U.S. into military overreach. This seems like hubris, but that too is not exactly unprecedented.

Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international news, social science and related topics. He was previously an editor at Foreign Policy magazine.

Hagel makes it easier for veterans with PTSD to get discharge upgrades

By Jon Harper

Stars and Stripes

Published: September 3, 2014

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel signed a directive Wednesday to make it easier for veterans with PTSD claims to get their unfavorable discharges upgraded.

Many Vietnam veterans claiming to have service-related PTSD have been petitioning the applicable “board for correction” for an upgrade to their discharge status. During the Vietnam War era, the U.S. military did not recognize PTSD as a legitimate medical diagnosis.

A less than honorable discharge can have many negative effects on a former servicemember, including a loss of benefits.

“Liberal consideration” will now be given in cases where there is any evidence to indicate that PTSD might have contributed to misconduct that led to a less-than-honorable discharge, Hagel said in the memorandum.

Hagel noted that records for troops who served before PTSD was recognized often lack important information, which makes it “extremely difficult” to document PTSD or establish a connection between PTSD and misconduct.

The new policy guidance will make it easier for veterans to make their case that undiagnosed PTSD negatively influenced their behavior while they were in the service. It also clarifies how boards should judge applications.

Hagel said that PTSD and related conditions will be considered potentially mitigating factors if they can simply be “reasonably determined” to have existed when the person was discharged for misconduct.

However, the existence of PTSD or PTSD-related symptoms at the time of discharge will not necessarily result in an upgrade.

The Pentagon chief directed the boards to “exercise caution” when it comes to cases where a discharge stemmed from “serious” or “premeditated” misconduct.

“Potentially mitigating evidence of the existence of undiagnosed combat-related PTSD … will be carefully weighed against the severity of the misconduct,” Hagel said.

Moreover, the new guidance does not apply to people who had pre-existing PTSD that was not aggravated by military service.

harper.jon@stripes.com

Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Under international pressure, France suspends warship delivery to Russia

PARIS — France suspended the delivery of the first of two Mistral warships to Russia, saying that Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine go against the interests of European security.

The decision, announced after a national security meeting at French President Francois Hollande's Elysee Palace in Paris on Wednesday, was made on the eve of a two-day NATO leaders' summit in Britain starting Thursday that will be dominated by responses to the conflict in Ukraine.

"The president noted that, despite the plan for a cease-fire that still must be confirmed and implemented, the conditions for France to allow the delivery of the first BPC are not there," Francois Hollande's office said in an emailed statement, referring to the French abbreviation for the Mistral-class ship.

France has come under international pressure to cancel the $1.6 billion contract. Signed in 2011, it commited France to deliver two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, the first in October of this year and a second in 2016.

Hollande on July 21 held out the threat of a possible cancellation of the warship's sale. His statement today didn't mention the fate of the contract for the second ship.

A spokesman at DCNS, the state-owned shipbuilder of the Mistral, declined to comment on Hollande's decision.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization didn't play a role in getting France to suspend delivery of the Mistral, according to a senior NATO official who asked not to be name discussing security matters.

Many allies — possibly all — will see it as good decision, the official told reporters Wednesday in Newport, Wales. Russia made this suspension of delivery the only possible decision by its actions, the official said.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking to reporters in Brussels two days ago, said that although arms sales are for individual governments to decide, "I am confident that each and every allied government will take such decisions mindful of the overall security situation and concerns expressed by fellow allies."

Russia is facing a further tightening of sanctions imposed by the European Union over its incursions into Ukraine and military help for rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces.

France's government has been repeatedly reprimanded for supplying military hardware to Russia as eastern EU leaders accuse President Vladimir Putin of prosecuting a war in Ukraine.

As recently as June, Foreign Laurent Fabius defended the deal, signed by the previous French administration, saying that Russia had already paid two-thirds of the cost and that hundreds of French jobs were at stake.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Brussels on June 5, scolded Hollande's government over the contract. Obama will attend the NATO summit.

"I have expressed some concerns, and I don't think I'm alone in this, about continuing significant defense deals with Russia at a time when they have violated basic international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of their neighbors," Obama said then. "It would have been preferable to press the pause button."

French president suspends warship delivery to Russia

PARIS — France suspended the delivery of the first of two Mistral warships to Russia, saying that Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine go against the interests of European security.

The decision, announced after a national security meeting at French President Francois Hollande's Elysee Palace in Paris on Wednesday, was made on the eve of a two-day NATO leaders' summit in Britain starting Thursday that will be dominated by responses to the conflict in Ukraine.

"The president noted that, despite the plan for a cease- fire that still must be confirmed and implemented, the conditions for France to allow the delivery of the first BPC are not there," Francois Hollande's office said in an emailed statement, referring to the French abbreviation for the Mistral- class ship.

France has come under international pressure to cancel the $1.6 billion contract. Signed in 2011, it commited France to deliver two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, the first in October of this year and a second in 2016.

Hollande on July 21 held out the threat of a possible cancellation of the warship's sale. His statement today didn't mention the fate of the contract for the second ship.

A spokesman at DCNS, the state-owned shipbuilder of the Mistral, declined to comment on Hollande's decision.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization didn't play a role in getting France to suspend delivery of the Mistral, according to a senior NATO official who asked not to be name discussing security matters.

Many allies — possibly all — will see it as good decision, the official told reporters Wednesday in Newport, Wales. Russia made this suspension of delivery the only possible decision by its actions, the official said.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking to reporters in Brussels two days ago, said that while arms sales are for individual governments to decide, "I am confident that each and every allied government will take such decisions mindful of the overall security situation and concerns expressed by fellow allies."

Russia is facing a further tightening of sanctions imposed by the European Union over its incursions into Ukraine and military help for rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces.

France's government has been repeatedly reprimanded for supplying military hardware to Russia as eastern EU leaders accuse President Vladimir Putin of prosecuting a war in Ukraine.

As recently as June, Foreign Laurent Fabius defended the deal, signed by the previous French administration, saying that Russia had already paid two-thirds of the cost and that hundreds of French jobs were at stake.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Brussels on June 5, scolded Hollande's government over the contract. Obama will attend the NATO summit.

"I have expressed some concerns, and I don't think I'm alone in this, about continuing significant defense deals with Russia at a time when they have violated basic international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of their neighbors," Obama said then. "It would have been preferable to press the pause button."

Brew the perfect cup with vets' tips

Coffee rations were a mainstay for many Civil War troops by the time a young Sgt. William McKinley of Ohio performed his famous coffee service on the battlefield at Antietam in 1862.

“The battle began at daylight,” wrote then-Col. Rutherford B. Hayes. “Before daylight men were in the ranks and preparing for it. Without breakfast, without coffee, they went into the fight.”

“Famished and thirsty” by afternoon, they were “to some extent broken in spirit.” McKinley supervised the brigade’s “commissary department” and “from his hands every man in the regiment was served with hot coffee and warm meats. … He passed under fire and delivered, with his own hands, these things, so essential for the men for whom he was laboring.”

Coffee’s popularity had grown among U.S. troops since it replaced whiskey in soldiers’ daily rations in 1837, writes military historian Fredric C. Lynch in his essay “Civil War soldiers made coffee America’s drink.”

Civil War troops on the march would have brewed what today is known as “cowboy coffee,” that no-filter, in-cup potion you drink with the grounds (theoretically) resting on the bottom.

And believe it or not, their method isn’t far off from what two veterans-turned-coffee roasters — and self-proclaimed coffee geeks — say you should do to brew the perfect cup:

In the barracks

Save space by skipping the drip coffeemaker with the hotplate, advises Bob Mastin, a Vietnam-era Navy officer who runs his own coffee-roasting company and coffee shop in Rhode Island.

He and his staff like the simpler methods.

“If there is a way to make hot water, there is a way to make a perfect cup of coffee,” says Merri Lade, a former military police specialist in the Army National Guard who now works as a barista in Mastin’s shop.

Provided you’re able to heat water in a microwave, today’s big-box stores, Internet mega-retailers and coffee connoisseur websites all sell small coffee presses and one-cup, pour-over brewing devices that don’t take up outlet space.

Lade scouted Wal-Mart and found an all-in-one version in which you brew your coffee right in the cup (about $20, check the camping section).

If your water boils while zapping, let it sit in the microwave for a bit, Mastin says. The temperature will drop, more or less quickly depending on your container, ideally to about 205-206 degrees.

“You want it plenty hot but not boiling.”

Iced-coffee lovers — or anyone with a caffeine tooth — will want to check out the cold-brew techniques on this page.

At the office

Bring in the Renuzits and banish your workplace’s burnt-coffee smell for good.

You’ll get better coffee anyway if you all band together, buy good beans and brew directly into a Thermos-like “airpot” rather than a glass carafe that sits on a hotplate, Mastin says.

But an airpot setup won’t cure bad water — or just plain bad coffee.

“Our mess sergeant used to make coffee in 32-gallon corrugated cans — you know, the big silver garbage cans,” Lade says.

“He’d fill the can with water and heat it with a big immersion heater. He then opened and dumped cans of some god-awful generic coffee into the bucket. And it would sit — while he did other things. No specific timeframe.

“But at some point the immersion heater would come out and the can of ‘coffee’ allowed to cool some, which would cause the grinds to sink (supposedly) and then we’d all dip our cups in as we went through the mess line.”

To make the opposite impression on the troops around you, learn the simple techniques for bringing out coffee’s best flavors. Use filtered or bottled water, and be generous with the grounds. For a 64-ounce airpot or carafe, Mastin recommends 3.5 ounces to 4 ounces of coffee.

In the field

If your daily dose is dear enough that you dedicate precious pack space to brewing devices, then you’re probably drinking a pretty perfect cup.

Make it better with whole beans and a hand grinder — “or a battery-operated coffee grinder that looks like a flashlight and is really cool for $9.99 at Amazon!” Lade says.

“But if a soldier really wants to impress his friends, he could roast coffee beans over the fire.”

She both issued and accepted the challenge, procuring a cast-iron skillet and lighting an early morning campfire.

Getting the green beans to roast evenly turned out to be tough, she says.

“I have some practicing to do.”

Of course, if your goal is the perfect cup, you’ll want a professional roast. Brew it individually — in a small French press or in a camping percolator that sits atop a stove or open fire.

Fully loaded

What about the brewing method purported to deliver the maximum caffeine kick — no heat required?

Even if you have access only to cold water, you can make “a killer cup of super-smooth, high-test, 24-hour-cold-brewed coffee,” Lade says.

Cold brew is both much more highly caffeinated — how much more depends on a number of factors, including steep time — as well as unbelievably smooth in flavor, Mastin says. Using anywhere from a 1:4 to 1:8 coffee-to-water ratio or to taste, follow the steps below.

For a crowd, Mastin’s big-batch cold-brew recipe:

Needed:

■ 5-gallon bucket

■ Specialty filter bag (www.toddycafe.com) or a clean white T-shirt or similar fabric (to hold the grounds)

■ 5 pounds of auto-drip-ground coffee

■ 5 gallons of filtered or bottled water

1. Place the bagged grounds into the bucket.

2. Pour the water over the top.

3. Refrigerate and let steep for 24 hours.

4. Remove the coffee grounds, squeezing to recover all of the coffee.

5. Initial yield will be about 2 gallons. Dilute with 2 more gallons of water.

6. Heat it up or serve it iced.

Total yield: About 4 gallons