Hagel: DOD will develop new ‘offset strategy’

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The Pentagon must develop a new “offset strategy” in order to stay ahead of rapidly advancing competitors, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said.

The new “Defense Innovation Initiative”, which Hagel unveiled at the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., on Saturday, is a multifaceted effort to develop “game changing” technologies and marry them with new operating concepts.

To address emerging threats, Hagel has ordered the establishment of a new Long-Range Research and Development Planning Program to help identify, develop, and field technological breakthroughs that can enhance American combat power.

Hagel said that the fields of robotics, unmanned systems, miniaturization, big data, and 3-D printing will be of particular interest.

The Defense Department chief said the program “will invite some of the brightest minds from inside and outside government to start with a clean sheet of paper and assess what technologies and systems DOD ought to develop” over the next 3 to 5 years and beyond.

But the Pentagon needs more than new technology, according to Hagel. Citing past DOD “offset” successes like the one that led to the development of stealth planes, smart bombs, and drones, he said “the critical innovation” is to combine groundbreaking systems with new strategic and operational concepts. He has ordered the department to beef up its wargaming and military education efforts to figure out the best way to fight with the new gear that DOD acquires.

Hagel has tapped his deputy, Bob Work, to shepherd the initiative and lead a new Advanced Capability and Deterrence Panel to guide it forward.

“The Defense Innovation Initiative will shape our programs, plans, and budgets. As the initiative matures over time, I expect its impact on DOD’s budget to scale up in tandem,” Hagel said.

The new innovation initiative was motivated by two trends: technological advances by potential enemies, and the onset of an era of budget constraints.

“While we spent over a decade focused on grinding stability operations [in Iraq and Afghanistan], countries like Russia and China have been heavily investing in military modernization programs to blunt our military’s technological edge,” Hagel said.

In recent years, U.S. officials have watched with particular concern as China has been developing new stealth aircraft, attack submarines, a variety of longer range and more accurate missiles, anti-satellite weapons, electronic warfare, and cyberattack capabilities.

At the same time, militant groups have also been acquiring more advanced weapons.

“America does not believe in sending our troops into a fair fight… But that is a credo we will not be able to honor if we do not take the initiative and address these mounting challenges now,” Hagel warned.

Money – or a lack thereof – is also part of the equation.

“Continued fiscal pressure will likely limit our military’s ability to long-term challenges by increasing the size of our force, or simply outspending potential adversaries on current systems,” Hagel said. “So to overcome challenges to our military superiority, we must change the way we innovate, operate, and do business.”

harper.jon@stripes.com Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Sherman's March at 150: 5 questions and answers

A turning point in the Civil War came 150 years ago this week, when Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman left the smoking ruins of Atlanta and launched his scorching March to the Sea. Here are five questions and answers about the commander whose name, even today, evokes admiration or hatred - and about his march, which hastened the war's end:

Why march to the sea?

The Civil War was in its third year in 1864, and casualties continued to mount. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September helped President Abraham Lincoln win a second term on Nov. 8, ensuring that his fight to preserve the Union would continue. At the same time, the Confederacy showed no sign of giving up.

With the top Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, confronting Robert E. Lee in Virginia, Sherman proposed an arcing campaign, first southward across Georgia to Savannah, then through the Carolinas toward Virginia to aid Grant. His army would leave a trail of destruction. This plan, Sherman reasoned, would conquer land but also send the enemy a message.

"If we can march a well-appointed army right through his territory, it is a demonstration to the world, foreign and domestic, that we have a power that (Confederate President Jefferson) Davis cannot resist," Sherman wrote to Grant.

"I can make this march and make Georgia howl."

Lincoln worried a misstep "might be fatal to his army." Davis promised as much, saying Sherman, alone in the heart of enemy territory, would be crushed.

But Grant trusted Sherman, who, after ordering men into many deadly assaults during the war, made clear that he'd rather accomplish conquest in a different way.

"Shock and awe. That's really what Sherman was talking about," historian John Marszalek, author of "Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order," said in an interview.

Who was William Tecumseh Sherman?

Going back to "Cump" Sherman's boyhood, when his father died virtually penniless and his mother sent him to be raised by another family, Marszalek said the warrior known for chaos was really guided by a lifelong quest for order. Central to this notion was restoration of Union and the rule of law.

Sherman, a West Point graduate, was superintendent of a military school in Louisiana when South Carolina seceded in 1861, setting the war in motion. He wept out loud when he heard the news, then took a commission in the U.S. Army, knowing he'd fight cadets he'd trained. Ironically, Sherman always considered himself friendly to the South.

At the same time, he came to believe the Southern population's continuing support for war had to be broken, along with the Confederate army.

Sherman's veteran troops had come to love his quirky, unkempt style, his intelligence that some felt verged on craziness, and his fighting spirit.

"I'd follow Uncle Billy to hell," one soldier said.

The March to the Sea took barely a month. Sherman telegraphed Lincoln on Dec. 22: "I beg to present to you as a Christmas-gift the City of Savannah."

Did Sherman destroy everything in his path?

No. But as part of a "war on the Confederate mind," his march left many feeling that way - to this day.

Without supply lines, his 62,000-member army needed to live off the land.

"Forage liberally," he famously ordered - and many troops took that as license to pillage.

One letter home describes the spoils that foragers returned to camp with one night: "Pumpkins, chickens, cabbages" for the evening meal, but also "a looking-glass, an Italian harp ..., a peacock, a rocking chair."

Much destruction was formally ordered. Whatever could benefit the enemy - cotton gins, barns, factories, Confederate leaders' homes - could be set ablaze. Teams assigned to wreck rail lines made bonfires of torn-up ties, heated rails red hot, then twisted them around trees: "Sherman's neckties." Sherman torched some towns that harbored snipers or guerrillas. The few battles along the march were quickly won by the unstoppable Union force.

Rumors of this onrushing whirlwind spread fearfully among those in Sherman's path. And who knew what that path was? Even Lincoln would say: "We know what hole he went in, but we don't know what hole he'll come out of."

And the deception echoes today. Historian Marszalek said he's often approached after talks.

"He burned my great-grandfather's barn," a listener will say.

"Where was that?" Marszalek will ask - and it will be nowhere near Sherman's path.

"He got into people's psyche. That's exactly what he wanted to do. And it's still very much there," Marszalek said.

Along Sherman's route today, a visitor will hear about total ruin - but then see signs beckoning tourists to an "antebellum trail" of unburned plantation houses.

Sherman claimed to have inflicted $100 million worth of physical damage, though historians call this figure a guess.

The psychic damage was incalculable.

How is Sherman's march remembered today?

Sherman remains a rare Civil War figure still readily remembered.

Many Southerners quote family stories about "the devil incarnate." Confederate-interest websites brand him a "war criminal" and worse.

But the passage of time has allowed a more nuanced view.

At a reenactment in Atlanta, David French, portraying one of Sherman's troops, said, "He took the chivalry out of war, and frankly it's why he won. He was really one of the first modern generals."

Many military historians agree, saying he influenced a broadened view of what's acceptable war-making.

Others say Sherman's harsh tactics were meant to bring the Civil War to an end.

In Milledgeville, Georgia, the first major stop on the march, a symposium on Sherman's complexities is planned this month - and later the community will hold a "Dinner with Uncle Billy," combining a meal with a drama based on accounts of all sides who were present during his occupation.

Historian Robert O'Connell, author of "Fierce Patriot," a 2014 biography of Sherman, said in an interview he senses the march is now "perceived as a cruel but necessary thing."

Why Tecumseh?

Naming his son after the American Indian leader made perfect sense to Sherman's father. Unwittingly prophetic, he explained, "Tecumseh was a great warrior."

---

Christopher Sullivan can be reached at features@ap.org

Sam Smith, the sad singer? Not really

NEW YORK — If you go to a Sam Smith concert, you’ll probably hear his stories of unrequited love and how he’s never been in a relationship.

But he says that void has been slowly filled — partly thanks to meeting men and going on dates — but mainly because of his devoted fans who have helped him top the charts with his album, push millions of singles and sell out stadiums like Madison Square Garden.

“I’m going on dates, here and there, meeting people,” Smith said in a recent interview. “I’m not lonely anymore because of that, but obviously I would like someone next to me while I sleep.”

He added with a laugh: “But I’m working on that.”

Smith has become the year’s breakthrough act thanks to his booming, soulful voice, playful demeanor and deep, honest lyrics that help break up the monotonous, dance heavy sound on pop radio.

“In the Lonely Hour,” his debut album released in June, has sold more than 772,969 units. His single “Stay With Me” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold more than 3 million tracks; and other songs have built on his buzz, from another Top 10 hit and multi-platinum success, “Latch” with Disclosure, to the upbeat “La La La” with Naughty Boy to Smith’s newest single, “I’m Not the Only One,” which jumped to No. 11 in mid-November.

The 22-year-old has number of big-name fans — from Beyonce to Mary J. Blige, with whom he’s recorded. And he’s been getting calls to collaborate with others.

“I remember being ecstatic for having 200 Facebook likes. ...Now I take that completely for granted now that I have like a million. But I’m now thinking, ‘I really would like two million,’ " he said.

“In the Lonely Hour” features pop grooves and ballads about love lapses and loneliness. The lyrics are brave and straightforward — Smith tells one man to leave his lover for him on one song, and one another he’s open about being in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same. And “Stay With Me” opens with the line: “Guess it’s true, I’m not good at a one-night stand.”

“When I’m speaking about my insecurities ... that’s when my music is the best. And that doesn’t happen every day, so this writing process was quite dramatic and because I was trying to get these songs that were honest and brutal and real,” said Smith, who co-wrote each of the songs. “I’m not a naturally sad person, so I was writing for a year and I wasn’t sad every single day for a year, so that was tough.”

He said he believes the fans are resonating with his honesty.

“The whole world knows my business now, I’ve got nothing else to hide ... and I think that people are respecting that,” he said.

Smith grew up in a small village in Cambridgeshire, England, and he decided to pursue music after his singing teacher told him he was good. He said he worked with dodgy managers as a teen, leading to false record deals and disappointments. But he persevered, eventually meeting the right producers to help him craft songs that speak from the heart.

Smith said fans have told him intense stories about connecting to his music. He’s also wants to be a voice for young gay men and women who look up to him.

“It’s so, so deeply important to me to be a spokesperson,” Smith said. “I want to be, but not just for gay people, for straight people, for lesbians, transsexuals, anyone in the world. I want my music to relate to absolutely everyone.”

Sandy Alouete, VH1’s senior vice president of talent and music programming, calls Smith a true artist.

“There’s no gimmick. Watching him on TV or hearing him on the radio, it’s just a pure delivery in a pop world that tends to stray from that,” she said.

Alouete recalls attending a Smith show, and taking in the audience.

“Anyone and everyone was on their feet, singing along — older couples on date nights, parents with their kids, gay, straight, you name it,” she said. “That’s the artist he is and that just happens once in a blue moon.”

Online: samsmithworld.com

US says it has targeted Khorasan Group again in Syria with airstrike

AMMAN, Jordan — American warplanes have struck for a third time an al-Qaida-linked extremist faction operating in Syria, the U.S. military’s Central Command said Friday.

A single airstrike targeted the Khorasan group, CENTCOM said in a statement, referring to a network of senior al-Qaida operatives that U.S. officials have said is plotting terrorist attacks against targets in the West.

The Khorasan Group operates in coordination with the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, according to U.S. officials.

The raid was one of 20 conducted by the U.S.-led coalition between Wednesday and Friday, the military said. All but three of the attacks occurred near the north-central Syrian city of Kobani, where Kurdish militiamen have been fending off an assault by militants of the Islamic State group for weeks.

U.S. officials say the main goal of the air campaign is to destroy Islamic State, an al-Qaida offshoot that has overrun large swaths of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq. However, in September and last week, warplanes also targeted Khorasan, whose existence was revealed by American officials last month as the bombing campaign in Iraq was extended to Syria.

In an apparent reference to the latest strike, Syrian activists reported that a drone aircraft launched two rockets in the Syrian town of Harem, close to the Turkish border in the northern province of Idlib, much of which is under rebel control. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike targeted an “agricultural center,” killing two men in the vicinity.

However, a pro-government Facebook page put the death toll at more than 20 and said the center had served as the local headquarters for the Nusra Front.

Like previous attacks on the Khorasan Group, U.S. officials said the latest strike did not specifically target Nusra, a Sunni Islamist group that is among the most powerful and radical rebel groups fighting the government of President Bashar Assad.

Syrian opposition activists said, however, that the true target of the strikes against Khorasan is the Nusra Front, which has considerable support in Syrian opposition zones.

The Nusra Front has long had a working relationship with elements of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army, a loosely organized rebel umbrella group. In recent weeks, however, Nusra fighters have reportedly been attacking Free Syrian Army positions in northern Syria.

Many opposition activists in Syria and elsewhere doubt the existence of Khorasan, contending that the targets being attacked are actually Nusra Front strongholds. Last week, as Central Command announced the second round of strikes on Khorasan positions, opposition activists said warplanes had hit the headquarters of the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, another hard-line rebel group with al-Qaida links.

Outside experts who closely monitor opposition activity in Syria also say they had never heard of Khorasan until U.S. authorities in Washington began to cite the group as a threat.

The initial wave of airstrikes that U.S. officials said was aimed at Khorasan in September reportedly targeted its leadership, including Kuwaiti-born Muhsin Fadhli, thought to be a major al-Qaida operative.

Fadhli, implicated in a number of al-Qaida operations, was reported to have moved to Syria last year to set up cells of European extremists to execute terrorist strikes in Western countries.

But Fadhli’s death in the U.S. airstrikes in September in Syria was never confirmed. Whether he survived is not publicly known.

The Nusra Front, which first emerged publicly in Syria in early 2012 with a series of car bombings in government-controlled areas, later split with its onetime ally, the Islamic State, which became a bitter rival. Islamic State is now the dominant armed opposition faction in Syria.

The U.S. bombing campaign has fueled rumors of a potential rapprochement between the two extremist groups.

On Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted sources in Aleppo and Raqqah provinces saying the Nusra Front and other Islamist groups had sent emissaries to Islamic State to set up a cease-fire and begin negotiations. The Islamic State, however, reportedly refused the overtures.

Los Angeles Times special correspondent Bulos reported from Amman and Times staff writer McDonnell from Beirut.

©2014 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Incriminating statements can be used in AFN murder trial, judge rules

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — A military judge on Friday denied a motion to suppress statements an Air Force staff sergeant made to officials investigating the death of a Navy broadcast journalist, allowing the incriminating statements to be used in his murder court-martial.

Col. Donald Eller, the Air Force judge hearing the case, also denied a defense motion to move the trial of Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Oliver from Germany to the United States, finding that pretrial publicity of court proceedings relating to the death of Petty Officer 2nd Class Dmitry Chepusov was not prejudicial to Oliver’s defense.

Eller heard two days of arguments earlier in the week on a range of motions, including a request from Oliver’s defense team to sever his pending court-martial for Chepusov’s 2013 death from a 2012 incident for which he faces additional charges.

Eller handed down rulings on many of the issues Friday, denying most of the defense’s requests.

Oliver is charged with premeditated murder in Chepusov’s death, as well as assault, making two false official statements and two counts of obstructing justice. He is also charged with aggravated assault likely to cause grievous bodily harm and obstruction of justice for a previous incident.

Chepusov and Oliver were co-workers at American Forces Network at Ramstein Air Base, where Oliver’s court-martial is expected to start in mid-January.

In one of its first motions Tuesday, Oliver’s defense had sought to suppress incriminating statements he made to Air Force investigators. Maj. Shane McCammon, Oliver’s senior defense attorney, argued that investigators used “unlawful inducement” and coercion to elicit those statements.

Investigators made Oliver aware of his right to a lawyer before and during questioning, at one point telling him, “You can ask for a lawyer any time you want,” Eller, who watched video of the interrogation, said. Additionally, Oliver had been represented briefly by a German attorney during his time in German custody; that lawyer told him not to make any statements, according to Eller.

Eller said Oliver “voluntarily chose to ignore the advice of his German lawyer” and was persuaded that Oliver’s incriminating statements were products of his own “free and voluntary will.”

Oliver’s attorneys also had asked to have the trial moved from Germany to the U.S., arguing that media coverage of the case — particularly by Stars and Stripes — would unfairly taint the jury pool. Stories printed in the newspaper and on its website included facts about the case that McCammon said would be inadmissible during the trial.

“Whether accurate or not, the reports are not inflammatory” or sensationalistic, Eller said in his ruling denying the change of venue. “While the court does harbor concerns about the prejudicial impact of reports” of some of the facts, the law doesn’t require complete ignorance on the part of panel members.

Anticipating continued media interest in the case, the court issued an order to prospective panel members in October to prevent them from reading about, listening to or watching coverage of the proceedings.

Eller granted Oliver five extra days of credit for alleged violations of rights while in pre-confinement at the Army confinement facility in Mannheim.

millham.matthew@stripes.com

Twitter: @mattmillham

Baumholder quarantine site ready for troops returning from Ebola mission

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The first group of U.S. troops scheduled to be isolated in Army barracks at Baumholder on returning from an Ebola-related mission in West Africa could arrive this weekend, Army officials said Friday.

Maj. Gen. John R. O’Connor, commander of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the unit heading the monitoring mission in Germany, said he’s been in contact with local community leaders about the plan.

Those quarantined at Baumholder will spend 21 days living in a tightly controlled environment among a complex of buildings, surrounded by a fence, on the edge of Baumholder’s Smith Barracks. Twice-daily temperature checks are required to ensure soldiers remain symptom-free.

The quarantine barracks have been equipped with pool and foosball tables, fitness equipment, game consoles, flat-screen TVs, laptops with webcams, and books and magazine kits from the Army library system in Europe.

Military officials held a town hall Thursday at Smith Barracks to ease concerns and answer questions.

Soldiers being quarantined “are all determined to be low-risk,” Col. Shawn Wells, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, told hundreds of soldiers and civilians. “That means that they’ve been setting up tents, they’ve been working in these labs, not making any contact” with Ebola patients.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month ordered the quarantine for troops who spend time on the ground supporting U.S. humanitarian aid efforts in three hard-hit countries in West Africa, where the Ebola virus has killed more than 5,000 people.

The policy goes beyond guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has rejected a mandatory Ebola quarantine — recommending only voluntary isolation for those potentially exposed.

Baumholder is one of two U.S. military bases in Europe the Pentagon has designated as “controlled monitoring” sites for servicemembers returning from the West Africa mission. The other is Vicenza, Italy. Five stateside bases have also been designated as monitoring sites.

Those staying at Baumholder would be troops assigned only to Germany, O’Connor said.

Baumholder was chosen because of its proximity “to rapid transit, in this case an autobahn, and a medical facility,” O’Connor said, referring to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. “The same in Vicenza.”

The first contingent tentatively penciled in for Baumholder comprises about 30 to 40 soldiers with the 15th Engineer Battalion based in Grafenwöhr. O’Connor said the soldiers were deployed for about a month to Liberia, where they built just over a dozen Ebola treatment facilities.

While there, they lived in secure quarters and were not exposed to Ebola patients, he said.

“We’re really looking forward to our soldiers coming home,” he said. “They’re excited to get back and be with their families. We set the conditions for them to do that as quick as we can to ensure that they’re safe, their families are safe and the communities are safe.”

Family members will have to wait to hug their returning soldiers, however. They won’t be allowed inside the monitoring area, but they may be able to speak to a loved one through the fence and they’ll be able to drop off items for the center to hand off, officials said. All rooms have Internet access to enable soldiers to stay in touch with friends and family.

O’Connor said planning for the controlled monitoring area involved a range of organizations, including, the 21st TSC, the Air Force, garrisons, Installation Management Command, USO, volunteers and family readiness groups. The USO, for instance, donated a DVD library, coffee, playing cards and board games, among other items.

Six previously empty buildings on Smith Barracks make up the monitoring area: four will house the soldiers; one will serve as the operations center and one as a medical clinic.

Soldiers showing any symptoms associated with Ebola would immediately be taken to Landstuhl, officials said, where they would be tested — a procedure that takes from four to eight hours to get results, said Lt. Col. Luke Wiest, 21st TSC command surgeon. A patient testing positive would be evacuated to the United States for care, he said.

Soldiers in each of the four living areas will be sequestered by group to avoid possible cross-contamination, officials said. They’ll spend time outdoors with their group, and eat together in a tent facility inside the compound using disposable tableware.

Trash will be separated into four receptacles and not disposed of for at least 72 hours, the theoretical life span of the Ebola virus, Wiest said.

“There’s a strict audit trail for every soldier,” O’Connor said.

The fence is as much to keep people from wandering in as wandering out, said Col. Jeffrey Murray, commander of the 16th Sustainment Brigade, which is running the operation.

“A lot of people have asked that — is this prison?” Murray said at the town hall.

“Anyone who has signs or symptoms, their room is quarantined” until tests confirm whether the soldier has Ebola or some other illness, such as malaria, which is common in West Africa, or the flu, Col. Peter Kubas of the 30th Medical Brigade said at the town hall.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health of Rhineland Palatinate told Stars and Stripes that U.S. military officials contacted German health officials in early November and said they would work together to ensure the safety of the Americans and the citizens of Baumholder.

O’Connor said his team is “anxious to get these soldiers home in time for the holidays and get them processed through before Christmas.

“We’re very confident that we’ve done everything that we’ve been asked to do. We’re prepared to respond and agile enough to respond to any changes that come at us.”

At least one outside expert seems to agree.

“A World Health Organization doctor was in the area last week,” Kubas said at the town hall. “We were speaking with him, and he looked at us and he said, ‘What you guys are doing here is absolutely overkill.’ ”

Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Klöckner contributed to this report.

svan.jennifer@stripes.com

millham.matthew@stripes.com

Air controller becomes just 3rd airman to earn 2nd Silver Star

WASHINGTON — As bullets cracked around his head, Air Force Master Sgt. Thomas Case stayed cool and directed pinpoint airstrikes on Taliban positions less than a stone’s throw away.

And with two foreign fighters coming at the commander of the Army unit to which Case was assigned as a joint terminal attack controller, he shielded the officer with his body and took them down with his rifle.

For his heroism fulfilling both the air and ground aspects of the JTAC’s job during a battle on July 16 and 17, 2009, Case on Tuesday became just the third airman to be awarded a second Silver Star medal. Case, who’s now part of the 18th Air Support Operations Group at Fort Bragg, N.C., received the honor in a ceremony at Pope Field.

As a staff sergeant in 2004, he was awarded his first Silver Star for an operation during the 2003 invasion of Iraq to seize and hold the Haditha dam. Over the course of several days, controlling up to 14 aircraft simultaneously, Case was responsible for over 300 enemy casualties, the destruction of dozens of enemy tanks, scores of artillery pieces and even a few enemy boats.

The 2009 battle in the Khost province of Afghanistan, for which he earned his second Silver Star, was an entirely different affair.

“It’s apples and oranges,” he said. “You go from fighting a conventional military force to fighting an insurgency.”

It was a nighttime operation deep in the Khost-Gardez Pass in eastern Afghanistan. A platoon of Rangers, accompanied by Case, climbed out of helicopters a few miles from a group of mountain camps where they hoped to capture or kill a specific Taliban combatant, as well as disrupt insurgent activities in the area.

The began a tough climb toward the objective, but went off course and soon came under heavy fire from a machine gun in a fighting position just 15 yards away.

“The enemy had the high ground,” Case said. “We didn’t have a lot of time or room to maneuver.”

According to the Air Force narrative of the incident, “Pinned down in the center of the platoon’s formation, Sergeant Case recognized they needed to employ close air support. With machine guns rounds impacting the ground and trees within two feet of him, Sergeant Case remained exposed to enemy fire so he could locate the enemy position.”

But then Case realized he couldn’t call in an airstrike from a AC-130 gunship orbiting overhead because his communications were down because wires on his radio had been damaged.

“Bullets were flying around. I’d love to be the guy able to say a round had sliced through his wires,” he said. “The truth is it actually got hung up. It was the deciduous forest there.”

He was able to partially piece his equipment back together amid the onslaught, and finally directed the gunships crew to destroy the enemy position with fire from its 25 mm cannon.

Case said he had few qualms about directing an airstrike so close to the platoon’s position.

“The ground force commander asked me what the hell I was doing,” he said. “I just said, ‘Sir, that’s the best crew up there.’ It was just incredible to see them put their bullets where they were supposed to go.”

After directing two danger close airstrikes, Case saw through his night-vision goggles that two insurgents were bounding down the hill toward him and the Army officer commanding the mission. Instinctively, his fighting sense switched from air to ground.

“As they closed within fifteen meters of their position, Sergeant Case literally placed himself between the enemy personnel and the ground force commander in order to protect him from their gunfire,” according to the Air Force narrative of the battle. “Employing his M-4 rifle and directing the ground force commander to take cover, he then killed both insurgents, both of whom turned out to be highly trained foreign fighters.”

Case continued shooting and continued directing airstrikes, and within about half an hour, he estimates, the Taliban in the area were dead or on the run, and the Rangers began securing control of the mountainous terrain around them.

Years later, Case and the Ranger commander, Capt. Carmen Bucci, maintain a strong bond. Bucci attended the medal ceremony Thursday.

Firing his weapon in a ground engagement was nothing new for Case, but in retrospect, he said the danger-close nature of the airstrikes he’d been forced to call in were unusual, and the tremendous noise of the big rounds slamming into the slope some fifty feet away are something that has stuck with him.

“With the proficiency of that crew, I’d do the same thing again,” he said. “I certainly hope I don’t have to, but I would.”

carroll.chris@stripes.com

Twitter: @ChrisCarroll_