Paintball teams help vets adjust

NORMAL, Ill. (AP) — While Chris Aguayo was serving in the U.S. Army, he witnessed his best friend burn to death in a Humvee.

"It took its toll on me," he said. "I had survivor's guilt. I went into a huge depression."

In an effort to cope, he requested a change in military bases. It was there that one of his buddies suggested he start playing paintball.

"It was my first taste of playing paintball with a group," he said. It happened only months before he was deployed to Afghanistan — his second tour of duty. He previously went to Iraq.

"It was a big help for me," he said. "It jump-started my idea to put together my own team. I wanted to take that and give back to other active members and vets."

Now Aguayo, 29, a freshman at Illinois State University, has organized a military-structured Task Force Legion that has paintball teams across 10 states, including the Charlie Company in Illinois.

"It's basically our way to use our military training," said Aguayo. "For us, being able to utilize our training and skills ... we're able to release stress."

Dave Morgan, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1993-2003, is the leader of the third platoon out of Champaign.

"Brotherhood is the biggest thing," he said. "People in the military know what to expect with each other. We've gone through some stuff. This is a stress reliever; you forget the day."

Morgan said after years of structure that comes in the military, "It's a culture shock when you first get out."

Jordan Smith, 25, also an ISU freshman, said the structure of Task Force Legion helps him cope with his post-traumatic stress.

"PTSD can be a real nightmare," he said. "I want to do all I can to keep others from having to go through it."

Smith met Aguayo in August and the two "really hit it off; we have a common bond," he said. Smith became Aguayo's right-hand man, in charge of headquarters, recruiting, logistics and administration.

For Chad Bradford, a Marine vet and now leader of the second platoon in Normal, Task Force Legion provides a social outlet, a sense of direction and a sense of brotherhood.

"When I first returned I didn't feel like I fit in," he said. "I was hesitant to admit I was a vet."

As a part of Task Force Legion, Bradford, 24, also an ISU student, said he can help other vets and "let them know they are not alone."

Bradford said the group is trying to get recognized as an ISU registered student organization so they can have access to emails for other vets on the college campus. But Task Force Legion also is open to anyone, Aguayo said. One current member is a firefighter; there are others thinking about enlisting in one of the armed forces.

"We teach leadership and professionalism," said Aguayo. "We can educate those who want to go into the service."

How to build a memorial for a ‘never-ending war’?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans of the war on terrorism say they deserve a monument in downtown Washington to recognize their sacrifices, but they are hindered by a rule that says a conflict must be long finished in order to build a memorial, leading some to wonder how to commemorate a "never-ending war."

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America wants a location by the end of 2015 for a monument to those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the major battlefields of the war on terrorism.

The fighting has wound down as the war stretches into its 12th year, but veterans are struggling to define an end date.

"One of the things that's very difficult is, because these aren't technically declared wars, they're operations of the global war on terror, it's difficult to fit the statutes," said Lauren Augustine, a member of the veterans organization's legislative team. "We've been in the wars for over a decade, but it's particularly difficult to have that closing date."

Under the Commemorative Works Act of 1997, a war memorial can't be authorized until at least 10 years after it officially ends, said Lucy Kempf, an urban planner with the National Capital Planning Commission.

"Usually, a time lapse between an event or an individual's death is needed, just to give some historic perspective," she said.

The end dates of other wars were easy to determine. They were when the United States signed documents to end the country's involvement.

All U.S. combat troops are out of Iraq and likely will be out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, so there is an easy way to mark a concrete end date to those operations, said Terry Anderson, a military history professor at Texas A&M University.

But the global war on terrorism was declared by a 2001 authorization for the use of military force that goes far broader than a single country. Indeed, it deems the shadowy, transnational al-Qaida the enemy. That makes it almost impossible to determine whether and when the conflict will end.

"This shift happened because we've never fought an enemy like Osama bin Laden-types. We've never fought an enemy like that before," Anderson said.

Anderson said the war will not end as long as terrorists disagree with the Western way of life because no one can negotiate with or change the minds of extremists.

"As long as there are radical Islamists who will kill themselves to kill others, we never will have a peace treaty with the (global war on terrorism)," he said. "It is the never-ending war."

Such a lack of conclusion likely will become a factor in future U.S. conflicts as well, he said.

"I don't think any country would ever want to start an atomic war," Anderson said. "Therefore, I think this unfortunate type of warfare, this terrorism warfare, is probably the type of thing we will be seeing in the future."

To build a memorial in Washington, Congress has to enact federal authorization, then a panel has to find an appropriate place and design, Kempf said. How long the construction process takes can vary because of the time and money required to raise public funds, she said.

IAVA is eager to start the process by finding a congressional sponsor.

Finding a place for the memorial may be tricky. The IAVA has said it wants to secure a spot on the National Mall, but the Commemorative Works Act prohibits new memorials or monuments there, Kempf said. Other areas of the District of Columbia and places in Arlington, Va., are open to construction.

Augustine, however, said a memorial on the Mall is important to remind Americans of the sacrifices made by this generation of veterans.

"When we're thinking about the legacy and the service of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's so important to start thinking about that today to ensure their services are honored on the National Mall alongside many of the other wars, and that our country never forgets," she said.

Russian propaganda campaign finds fertile ground in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine — The Russian invasion of Ukraine began long before separatists seized control of eastern Ukrainian city buildings.

It began long before an estimated 40,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, engaging in “training exercises” as Moscow threatened “consequences” for Ukrainian resistance. It even began long before the mostly bloodless seizure of Crimea in March.

Experts and officials in Ukraine insist it began during the autumn of 2004.

It was then, they say, while Ukrainians and much of the world rejoiced at the power of democracy shown through the Orange Revolution, that Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite a landslide victory earlier in 2004, saw the potential of democratic unrest spreading into his nation. Analysts say he worried.

Shortly after, he began a media campaign demonizing Ukraine, to both Russians and Russian-speaking eastern and southern Ukrainians. Ukraine, long considered an inseparable ally for Russia, was portrayed as dangerous, untrustworthy and a puppet that the United States was using to harm Russia.

Newscasts and newspapers painted Kiev as tragically out of control, a place that in the interest of history and even of love needed to be brought back under the safe control of mother Russia. Even entertainment programming added to a new, negative perception of Ukraine. Television police dramas began to feature Ukrainian villains. Today, an evening of Russian television typically features newscasts and talk shows that depict an America eager to destroy Russia, a Europe on the brink of collapse and an inept and chaotic Ukraine.

Ukrainian media analyst Maksym Savanevsky noted in a Facebook post on the topic that Russian drama shows are “powerful propaganda.” They paint an “image of Russia as a beautiful, rich and happy country. The Ukrainians, as a rule, serve as the underdogs, traitors, blunt,” Savanevsky wrote. The overarching message, he said, is that Ukraine would be better off under Russian rule.

Georgy Satarov, a prominent Putin critic who was an adviser to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and attended a conference on peace initiatives last week in Kiev, said the strategy is not new. The Soviet Union applied similar demonization tactics to create a strong negative perception of the United States.

The campaign has worked. Satarov said some polls have shown about 70 percent of Russians support Putin’s plans for Ukraine, and as many as 60 percent say they’re willing to take part.

“When you spend 10 years preparing the soil, it’s easy to get the new seeds of discontent to grow well,” he said. “Remember, it’s also about a monopoly of the views being sent out. The opposition in Russia is very weak, and very disorganized. The Kremlin controls the message that the people see.”

Ukrainian experts agree that the most obvious recent example is the notion that Ukraine has become a very dangerous place for Russian speakers. It’s a narrative that most Russians, and many if not most eastern Ukrainians believe. But Ukrainian experts insist there is nothing to back it up. In fact, most insist that seen from Kiev or the West, it’s clearly absurd.

“That Ukraine stands against Russia in all things, that Ukraine is run by radical nationalists, is a myth,” said Bogdana Kostiuk, a Radio Free Europe journalist who covers the Ukrainian government. “It is not true and from Kiev, it’s obvious that it isn’t true.”

But what is true isn’t all that matters, she notes.

“In the east, they believe the myth,” she said. “So Ukrainians live in parallel realities. The great failing here is that those in Kiev have not been able to make what is really happening clear to those in the east.”

The Russian narrative, that Kiev is run by thugs and fascists, is repeated often not only by Russian separatists who have seized government buildings and demanded a vote on whether eastern regions should secede and join Russia, but also by many citizens who have no interest in secession, but don’t believe they can trust their own government.

The lack of trust was aggravated by the Ukrainian parliament’s quick approval of a bill that would downgrade Russian’s status as an official language. The bill hasn’t become law, but it is frequently mentioned by Russian critics of the interim government in Kiev.

Kostyantyn Gryshchenko is a former vice prime minister of Ukraine and a former minister of foreign affairs who served in the administrations of both Viktor Yanukovych, the president who in February fled to Russia after the Maidan protests and is considered Russia-friendly, and Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych’s predecessor and the hero of the Orange Revolution. Before Ukrainian independence, he was influential in the Soviet Union’s foreign ministry.

In an interview Friday, he said that the picture many in Russia and eastern Ukraine have of what happened in Maidan and what the government is trying to accomplish now is twisted. But he also blamed the government for not getting the facts out as well as the Russians have promoted their spin.

“They had to create a sense of inclusiveness, and they failed to do that,” he said. “There was no consistent message from Kiev, so the people believed the worst.”

He added, “People believe what they are told is the truth.”

Promoting a different message now is difficult. Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, who polls show is the front runner in elections set for May 25, found that out when he went to eastern Ukraine to campaign. Known to many Ukrainians as “the chocolate king” and owner of a string of candy stories, he’s not often subjected to hostile meetings, but this time he was the subject of a blockade after landing at the Donetsk airport.

“When I finally got downtown to meet people, quite a few had turned up to hear what I had to say, but as soon as I started talking, the lights went out,” he recalled Friday, laughing at what he called a difficult campaign stop. His visit to the east ended when he went to the border and was told that Russian helicopters had flown into Ukrainian airspace.

Volodymyr Viatrovych, the director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, said understanding Ukrainians’ experiences is important to grasping why the propaganda campaign has been effective even among some Ukrainians.

“Ukraine has three identities, really,” he said. “The first of course is Ukrainian, but it’s just new that people see themselves as only Ukrainian. The second is Soviet, and for many people this was a time of greater security. They may not have had as much opportunity to succeed, but they also didn’t have as great a chance to fail, so this is a comforting identity. And the third identity is Russian.”

He said that while 25 percent of Ukrainians have Russian backgrounds, many more have extended family with Russian background. And many more than that speak Russian. After hundreds of years of shared history, the power of Russian identity is strong in Ukraine.

One aspect of Putin’s campaign was to merge the Soviet identity with the Russian one, focusing on larger pensions and a stronger military and foreign policy position, and by taking a similarly anti-American stance.

“The Soviet identity is more than symbolic; the Soviet Union was a powerful force in the lives of many Ukrainians,” Viatrovych said.

In the Ukrainian military, for example, essentially all high-ranking officers began their careers in the Soviet military. Among Ukrainians over 40, much of their education was in Soviet schools. “Putin has used that to his advantage. There are quite a lot of Ukrainians who accept his propaganda because they have fond memories of growing up Soviet,” Viatrovych said.

Legendary pilot Gen. Chuck Yeager in court Monday in breach-of-contract lawsuit

FRESNO, Calif. — On the steps of a Fresno courthouse, legendary Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager talked about shooting down Nazi German planes during World War II, breaking the sound barrier in an experimental aircraft in 1947 and parachuting out of a free-falling supersonic jet after his pressurized suit caught fire.

He also talked about his latest enemy – a Fresno law firm that has sued him for breach of contract.

“I would rather be fighting them in the air than stuck in this ... courtroom,” Yeager, 91, said last week. “Nothing but a bunch of baloney going on in there.”

The American war hero who trained astronauts for NASA and still believes he can fly fighter jets is a defendant in a 5-year-old lawsuit filed by the oldest law firm in Fresno.

Wild, Carter & Tipton, founded in 1893, contends that Yeager and his wife, Victoria Scott Yeager, never paid for its services in a number of civil cases and have an unpaid bill of nearly $270,000.

The Yeagers say the firm was doing the work for free and have countersued Wild, Carter & Tipton for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.

The civil trial starts Monday in Fresno County Superior Court.

In an interview Thursday, the Yeagers described the case as David vs. Goliath. They are defending themselves, while Wild, Carter & Tipton has hired attorneys Marshall Whitney, Mandy Jeffcoach and Kristi Marshall of the Fresno firm McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte & Carruth.

The Yeagers also contend they haven’t gotten a fair shake from the Fresno court system.

Before Judge Kristi Kapetan was picked to be the trial judge, the case had been assigned to Judge Jeffrey Hamilton, who worked for McCormick Barstow in the early 1990s.

Victoria Yeager said Hamilton should have declared a conflict because his pretrial rulings have been unfair. Hamilton said Friday that judicial ethics prohibit him from commenting.

In a ruling in March, Hamilton ordered the Yeagers to pay the McCormick Barstow lawyers $7,740 for delaying the trial. The trial was continued six times when the Yeagers needed only one continuance, the judge said.

In addition, Hamilton closed discovery – the time for gathering evidence – which the Yeagers contend will prohibit them from presenting their case.

The Yeagers contend the McCormick Barstow lawyers also aren’t playing fair. Thursday, they dismissed the General Chuck Yeager Foundation as a defendant from the suit. That’s bad for the Yeagers because the lawyer representing the foundation can’t assist them in their arguments.

As the trial nears, the Yeagers said one issue weighs heavily on their minds – their request for a jury trial. Their opponent wants Kapetan to decide the lawsuit after hearing testimony.

“The general wants to tell his side and let the people decide who’s right,” Victoria Yeager said.

Kapetan is expected to decide Monday on the jury request.

Whitney and Jeffcoach declined to comment Thursday, saying they did not want to disparage Yeager or his reputation. But in court papers, they contend Yeager’s wife is taking advantage of him and got him in legal trouble.

Yeager bristled at the allegation, saying his wife takes good care of him.

“Look at her,” he said, smiling. “I got a good deal.”

Chuck Yeager was just launching his life as an American icon when he married his first wife in 1945. Chuck and Glennis Yeager were married 45 years until her death in 1990.

The Yeagers had retired to the Grass Valley area years earlier, and Yeager stayed in the area after his wife died. He met actress Victoria Scott D’Angelo on a hiking trail there in 2000, and they married in August 2003.

Since then, Yeager has been thrust into nearly two dozen lawsuits involving a variety of opponents, including his own children. He also has gone through more than 20 attorneys in a span of less than seven years, including 10 lawyers to fight Wild, Carter & Tipton.

“Prior to that, General Yeager had no real exposure to litigation,” the McCormick Barstow lawyers say in court papers, which note that Victoria Yeager was involved in more than 30 lawsuits before marrying Yeager.

In an interview, the Yeagers said they live on the general’s pension in a modest three-bedroom, two-bath home on 30 acres in the Gold Country community of Penn Valley.

They drove to Fresno in a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The only tipoff to Yeager’s life of excitement is the license plate: BELL X1, the plane that Yeager flew faster than the speed of sound way back in 1947.

Yeager said his advancing age barely limits him. He wears a hearing aid but doesn’t need a walker or assistance to get around. He said he still drives and flies private planes. A couple of years ago, he broke the sound barrier again in a military jet above Edwards Air Force Base, and said he could do it again if given the opportunity.

When his wife tries to give details of his exploits, he takes over the conversation.

He recalled being 21 when he shot down his first German plane near Berlin in March 1944. He was flying a P-51 Mustang that he said was the first plane to penetrate Germany and reach Berlin to hunt down the powerful Luftwaffe.

As an Air Force test pilot, he became the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound on Oct. 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 plane above the Mojave Desert at a top speed of Mach 1.06 (700 mph).

He broke the world speed record again on Dec. 12, 1953, going Mach 2.44 in an X-1A aircraft. During the flight, he lost control and plummeted nearly 50,000 feet before regaining control.

In 1962, Yeager became the first commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School, training astronauts in the early years of NASA.

Despite Yeager’s achievements, his life has been complicated by lawsuits – including one brought by a daughter.

Yeager had four children with his first wife. Victoria Yeager said Glennis was a “great wife to the general” because she took care of the finances “and gave him his freedom to do what he wanted to do.”

Before she died, Glennis Yeager set up a tax-shelter corporation for their children into which earnings from Yeager’s books, commercials and speeches flowed. But after Yeager remarried, he began battling his daughter Susan Yeager in court over control of his private assets, which had been placed in a trust.

Victoria Yeager, who is younger than any of her stepchildren, declined to talk about the family’s legal fight. “It costs money to be rich because everyone wants a piece of you,” she said.

Wild, Carter & Tipton at one point represented Chuck and Victoria Yeager in the case against Susan Yeager. It was one of seven suits the Fresno law firm took on the Yeagers’ behalf before ending their relationship in 2008.

When the Yeagers didn’t pay, Wild, Carter & Tipton sued them in January 2009. The Yeagers then countersued, saying the lawyers bungled the cases. The Yeagers also contend that they thought the lawyers were doing the cases pro bono since there was no written contract, court records say.

Wild, Carter & Tipton contends in court papers that, even without a written contract, the firm is entitled to be paid for its services, especially since it provided “the Yeagers with monthly billing statements that evidence their hourly rate, the time expended and a description of their work performed.”

One of the cases involved AT&T. In November 2007, Wild, Carter & Tipton filed a complaint against AT&T on behalf of the Yeagers, accusing the corporate giant of violating the general’s privacy and by using his name without permission in a news release for its Cingular Wireless product. In June 2012, the Yeagers won $135,000 in damages in the case.

In court papers, the Yeagers contend that Wild, Carter & Tipton did not advise them of a $300,000 offer to settle the case.

But Wild, Carter & Tipton says “there is no such evidence such an offer was ever made by AT&T.” The only offer Wild, Carter & Tipton knew about was for $20,000 that the Yeagers declined, court papers say.

The Yeagers also accuse the lawyers of negligence, saying the case was worth much more, but Wild, Carter & Tipton says the Yeagers have no evidence to support their allegations.

In another case, Wild, Carter & Tipton represented the Yeagers against Park River Oak Estates Homeowners Association in Sacramento.

The association accused the Yeagers of failing to pay a monthly assessment fee. Once the Yeagers got rid of Wild, Carter & Tipton, they were represented by at least five other attorneys before losing the suit and owing $43,135 in damages, court records say.

Victoria Yeager said she and her husband don’t trust lawyers.

“They’re complaining now, but they took the cases because they thought they were going to get rich off the general,” she said.

Wisconsin citizen-soldiers took divergent paths after Iraq tour

Five years ago, thousands of Wisconsin factory workers, farmers, students, hamburger cooks and accountants were far from their homes, crossing the desert frontier between Kuwait and Iraq on a historic mission to help bring an unpopular war to a close.

When the Wisconsin National Guard’s largest deployment to a combat zone since World War II ended about eight months later, 3,200 men and women returned with vivid memories of desert heat, blinding sandstorms, extended separation from families and friends, interaction with a foreign culture, and duties that ranged from tedious to harrowing.

They arrived back in Wisconsin amid one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history. Many encountered rough patches reuniting with families. More than a few struggled to slow down to the speed of civilian life after missions that required constant vigilance.

And many brought home new confidence and fresh perspectives after overcoming difficult circumstances overseas, said Lt. Col. Ryan Brown, executive officer for the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which accounted for most of the roughly 4,000 state Guard members on full-time active duty overseas during 2009.

“Deployments change lives,” said Brown, who spent 2009 — his third military deployment — as defense operations chief for the cluster of military bases in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. “For the most part, people come back more prepared to deal with the rest of their lives rather than less prepared. Some will say ‘this is making my life harder,’ but the vast majority are better equipped to deal with life in general.”

Despite the well-documented stress of lengthy mobilizations, the state Guard’s turnover rate stayed at about 15 to 16 percent as deployments grew more frequent during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Brown said.

“Retention is high because we paid some attention to it,” said Col. Tim Lawson, commander of the 32nd IBCT. “We went out of our way to work with employers and families.”

Since 2009, the state Guard’s Madison-based Service Member Support Division has grown, making it able to deliver more assistance to soldiers and families before, during and after deployments, Lawson said.

The division added a job placement service in 2012 when unemployment was running at 10 percent in the 32nd.

Military officials say men and women with experience like overseas deployments are great hires because they have been trained as disciplined leaders and problem solvers.

Closing out a war

Annual U.S. casualties in Iraq peaked in 2007 at 904, and dropped below 150 in 2009. Only one Wisconsin Guard soldier died in Iraq that year. The death was described as unrelated to combat.

The U.S. was turning the country back to Iraqi control, and the 32nd played its role by helping prepare for Iraqis to take control of 20,000 suspected detainees held by U.S. forces. Wisconsin soldiers guarded detainees, helped empty out a massive detention camp, transported prisoners to Baghdad courtrooms, and trained Iraqis as corrections officers.

During pre-mobilization training in Florida and New Mexico, many soldiers were unhappy to learn that nearly half of them would work 12-hour shifts in detention facilities instead of their chosen duties in infantry, transportation, engineering and artillery.

“Part of the power of the National Guard is its incredible flexibility,” the state Guard’s top commander, Maj. Gen. Donald Dunbar, told the soldiers in a letter after they returned home. “(The) Army needed these missions accomplished by professional Soldiers who could do it right the first time.”

Detainee duty proved grueling and tedious for some, while others warmed to the task. But not all the 32nd’s days were quiet.

Missions still classified

One unit was forced to watch helplessly as 11 of the Iranian refugees who had been under their protection were killed by Iraqi soldiers who stormed the camp firing guns and swinging clubs. The July 2009 incident at Camp Ashraf was condemned by Amnesty International.

“Our guys were trying to intervene to stop it and they were told they couldn’t,” said Maj. Michael Hanson, deputy director of the Service Member Support Division. The unit’s commander, Capt. Andrew Weiler, wasn’t comfortable discussing the incident or its impact on his troops, said state Guard spokesman 1st Lt. Joe Trovato.

At some detention camps, soldiers had to quell disturbances or forcibly move uncooperative detainees.

Other soldiers drove detainees from the camps to the courts in Baghdad, often speeding past the wrecks of vehicles overturned earlier by buried bombs. After standing by in court as judges ordered long prison terms or even death, Wisconsin troops drove sometimes distraught detainees back to camp.

Some units defended bases, and the duty could be uneventful. Still, even in the Green Zone, bombs were periodically lobbed in, shaking the walls for blocks around.

There were units with riskier duties.

More than 200 soldiers worked in small patrol units to conduct thousands of high-risk surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance missions from one end of Iraq to the other, according to duty summaries provided to the State Journal. Soldiers wore civilian clothes with “relaxed grooming” standards so they could try to blend in to surroundings. At least some were under tactical control of Special Operations forces.

Further details of the missions are still classified, Trovato said.

But soldiers said it wasn’t unusual to be rocked by nearby explosions, or targeted by small arms fire.

Help is available

Some soldiers reported a transition period of weeks or months shedding the hyper-alertness required by hazardous duty. Even the stress of being overseas in a support role can take a toll. The Guard’s support division urges all soldiers to take advantage of confidential counseling.

“It’s going to be different for everybody,” said 1st Sgt. Paul Metz, 46, a guard at the Oxford Federal Correctional Institution who has gone on five deployments since joining the guard in 1993 and a regular Army tour during the first Gulf War. “Other people might find it harder and other people might find it easier. I usually take a month or month and a half before I go back to work.”

Metz’s 2009 stint was with the Reedsburg-based Charlie Co. of the 1-105th Cavalry, one of the units that conducted high-risk missions in populated areas not under tight military control.

“There were an awful lot of (bombs) but nothing that directly affected me,” Metz said. “They were close enough where they certainly shook the dust off the ceilings.”

Much of the stress comes from needing to be alert constantly to danger, Metz said. When traffic stops on a busy street, it could mean an ambush is imminent, he said.

“You’re in a different mindset when you put on your Kevlar and your helmet and you lock and load outside the gate,” Metz said.

Back home, Metz said, he spent time talking to a counselor to help him ease back the throttle.

“I’ve always found it most difficult the first two months back, just the emotions and feelings,” Metz said. “You can’t turn it off like a switch.”

Metz, however, did turn it back on. In 2012 he volunteered for a deployment to Afghanistan as part of a team spreading agriculture technology.

Spartans in good shape after downing Alconbury

RAF ALCONBURY, England – Strong attacks and few mistakes helped SHAPE's soccer teams sweep Alconbury on Saturday.

Girls

SHAPE 6, Alconbury 4: The lady Spartans looked set to dominate Alconbury, ending the first half ahead 3-0.

Alconbury, however, mustered a second half revival that netted four goals, but failed to hold off SHAPE's offense.

Shawn Whitehurst, SHAPE’s coach, said one of the things his team did right during the game was attacking the ball in the air.

"We were able to make a couple really good chain plays, connections between players," Whitehurst said.

Alconbury coach Armando Cordero was upbeat despite the loss. He said the Dragons were not putting enough pressure on their opponents' dribbling during the first half.

"We really were the better team in the second half," Cordero said.

Boys

SHAPE 6, Alconbury 0: The Spartan boys managed a big victory over the Dragons.

SHAPE ran away with numerous goals in the first half and in the second half their offense kept the ball almost constantly near the Alconbury goal.

Doug Burgoyne, SHAPE’s coach, said his boys made few mistakes on the field, playing "calmly" and with discipline.

"I'm quite proud of them," Burgoyne said. "This is the best game they've had."

This made it all the more difficult for the Dragons, who are fighting manpower and experience issues. Alconbury coach Jeff Black said his team has a lot of freshmen and a small roster with some kids opting for baseball instead.

Black said playing a team like SHAPE helps his team understand how to apply what they learn in training.

"You play a good, good solid team like SHAPE and they move the ball around, and they pass and they make the runs and cuts, those are the things that you … (teach them) in training but they don't really see or know until they're played against it," Black said.

mathis.adam@stripes.com

Twitter: @AMathisStripes

US, Philippines reach deal on troops

MANILA, Philippines -- The United States and the Philippines have reached a 10-year pact that would allow a larger U.S. military presence in this Southeast Asian nation as it grapples with increasingly tense territorial disputes with China, according to two Philippine officials and a confidential government primer seen by The Associated Press on Sunday.

The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships, is due to be signed Monday at the Department of Defense in the Philippine capital, Manila, shortly before the arrival of President Barack Obama, the officials said. Obama's visit is the last leg of a four-country Asian tour that also took him to Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

The two officials spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact ahead of its signing.

A Philippine government primer on the defense accord did not indicate how many additional U.S. troops would be deployed "on temporary and rotational basis," but it said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in Philippine camps.

Hundreds of American military personnel have already been deployed in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide counterterrorism training and as advisers to Filipino soldiers, who have been battling Muslim militants for decades.

The Philippine Constitution bars permanent U.S. military bases. Under the agreement, a Filipino base commander would have access to entire areas to be shared with American forces, according to the primer.

Disagreements over Philippine access to designated U.S. areas within local camps had hampered the negotiations for the agreement last year.

The agreement would promote better coordination between U.S. and Filipino forces, boost the 120,000-strong Philippine military's capability to monitor and secure the country's territory and respond to natural disasters and other emergencies.

"Pre-positioned materiel will allow for timely responses in the event of disasters - natural or otherwise," the primer said.

The presence of foreign troops is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, a former American colony.

The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close down major U.S. bases at Subic and Clark, northwest of Manila. However, in 1999, it ratified a pact with the United States allowing temporary visits by American forces. That paved the way for hundreds of U.S. forces to hold counterterrorism combat exercises with Filipino troops dealing with insurgents in the country's south.

This time, the focus of the Philippines and its underfunded military has increasingly turned to external threats as territorial spats with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea heated up in recent years. The Philippines has turned to Washington, its longtime defense treaty ally, for help modernize its navy and air force, among Asia's weakest.

Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships were deployed to another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal, where they have been trying to block food supplies and rotation of Filipino marines aboard a grounded Philippine navy ship in the shallow waters of the remote coral outcrops.

The Philippines' desire to bolster its territorial defense has dovetailed with Washington's intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China's rising clout.

Such convergence would work to deter China's increasingly assertive stance in disputed territories, Philippine analyst Ramon Casiple said. But it could also further antagonize Beijing, which sees such tactical alliance as a U.S. strategy to contain its rise, and encourage China to intensify its massive military buildup.

"The Philippines' immediate and urgent motivation is to strengthen itself and look for a security shield with its pitiful military," Casiple said. "The U.S. is looking for a re-entry to Asia, where its superpower status has been put in doubt."

"China will become more careful but it's determination to build its military will intensify because what's at stake is something which it has publicly declared as a core interest," he said.