Peter Kassig, threatened with next beheading, is former Army Ranger

INDIANAPOLIS — Peter Kassig first visited Beirut on a college spring break trip. What the former Army Ranger from Indiana saw there prompted him to return, the next time as a medical assistant and humanitarian worker hoping to offer blankets, food and medical care to victims of the region's conflicts.

Kassig founded a nongovernmental organization that provided aid for refugees fleeing the civil war in neighboring Syria. But his work in Lebanon led to his capture by militants on Oct. 1, 2013, while en route to eastern Syria.

On Friday, Kassig, 26, appeared in an online video that purported to show a masked militant who threatened to behead the Army veteran next, after the apparent beheading of British hostage Alan Henning.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the video's authenticity, though it was released in the same manner as other Islamic State group videos and the masked militant sounded similar to the one who carried out other slayings.

In a statement issued Friday evening, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Kassig was being held by Islamic State militants.

"At this point we have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video released earlier today. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal — military, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence — to try to bring Peter home to his family," Hayden said.

The video and threat were a heartbreaking development for Kassig's family and friends, who have stayed silent since his capture while working to secure his release.

Kassig's parents issued a statement Friday describing their son's work and asking for privacy.

"We ask everyone around the world to pray for the Henning family, for our son, and for the release of all innocent people being held hostage in the Middle East and around the globe," the statement said.

According to his parents, Kassig, an Indianapolis native, converted to Islam while in captivity and now goes by the name Abdul-Rahman. He served in the Iraq war and later became an emergency medical technician.

In a January 2013 interview with Time, Kassig said he traveled heavily throughout Lebanon to assess the needs of people there.

He said he designed his aid organization, Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, around a belief that "there was a lot of room for improvement in terms of how humanitarian organizations interact with and cooperate with the populations that they serve."

SERA, he said, focused on supplementing the work of larger organizations by delivering aid that could "do the most good for the most people over the longest period of time possible."

"It's about showing people that we care, that someone is looking out for those who might be overlooked or who have slipped through the cracks in the system for whatever reason," he said.

SERA has since suspended its efforts while Kassig's family has worked to win his release.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence asked for prayers Friday for Kassig and his family during "this unspeakably difficult time."

Sidestepping cuts, US likely to use ‘war credit card’ to pay for Iraq-Syria action

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has been issuing dire warnings this year that the military is fast approaching a severe money crunch — a problem compounded now by the war in Iraq and Syria.

With mandatory defense cuts looming next year and new war costs mounting, Congress will almost certainly reach for an old standby accounting solution to keep money flowing — the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, a so-called war credit card.

The OCO account, separate from the base defense budget and exempt from spending reductions set to remain in place until 2021, allows the military to respond quickly to unforeseen crises. It also allows Congress to sidestep tough budget decisions such as trimming troop benefits and eliminating weapons systems the military says it no longer needs while paying for a war that the Obama administration says could last years.

Critics say relying on the fund also enables the Pentagon to avoid the rigid cost controls and spending reductions that were the goal when Congress agreed to mandatory spending caps to reduce the growing federal debt.

“There is currently no limit on OCO, so there is as much room as they need,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C.

Spurred on by budget cuts, the military has proposed freezing troop pay raises at 1 percent, slashing commissary benefits, overhauling Tricare health care coverage, and retiring hardware such as the A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft and the USS George Washington aircraft carrier.

The CSBA recently estimated the military could soon face $300 billion in mandatory cuts.

Meanwhile, war costs are quickly mounting since bombing began in August.

The Pentagon says it is spending up to $7 million to $10 million per day on an air offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that is likely to be long and difficult. Lawmakers also authorized the Obama administration to begin training and arming Syrian rebels into a proxy ground army, which will take years and could eventually cost over $1 billion dollars.

Analysts estimate the annual cost of the war could range between $2.4 billion and $18 billion.

Congress will almost certainly pay that bill using the OCO account, said Gordon Adams, an analyst with the Stimson Center and a professor at American University.

“It is like a drug. It is the magic feel-good for anybody’s budgetary needs,” he said.

Lawmakers must hash out a new defense spending plan by Dec. 11, when the stop-gap spending measure they passed just before leaving Washington for mid-term elections expires.

The White House has already requested $65.8 billion in OCO funds for the coming year.

“If they don’t come back sometime after the election and bump that [OCO budget] up $10-$15 billion, I will be shocked,” Adams said.

That means Congress will not have to shoehorn the cost of the war into the base budget. It has so far rejected many of the cost-cutting measures suggested by the Pentagon, which military leaders say are necessary to keep the services ready to protect the country but often mean painful hits to lawmakers’ home districts.

The Air Force put the A-10 aircraft — beloved by infantry troops — on the chopping block but it was protected in the House by Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., whose district includes Davis-Monthan Air Force Base with the highest concentration of the aircraft in the world. Barber is locked in a tight mid-term race with a retired A-10 pilot.

The OCO has been criticized for years as a kind of budget credit card and a slush fund for wasteful spending. There was a move among some lawmakers and advocacy groups to have it abolished earlier this year but it gained little traction.

“I think the biggest negative long-term consequence is it completely eliminates budget discipline and planning in the Pentagon,” Adams said.

He said supplemental wartime spending over the past decade has contributed to a bloated military bureaucracy where civilian jobs outnumber uniformed positions.

While Congress is likely to sidestep difficult budget decisions, Adams said serious Pentagon reform and cost-cutting will also be derailed if OCO spending increases for the war.

“It you don’t do it [reform] now, wait to see the disaster you have when this war is over,” he said.

Jim Hasik, a defense analyst with the Atlantic Council, called the OCO fund an “accounting workaround” used to avoid the mandatory budget caps imposed by Congress and said it has potential drawbacks.

But he said overall it makes good sense to separate defense accounts that have different goals. The base Pentagon budget is aimed at long-term military preparedness and daily operations while the OCO pot can provide the spending flexibility needed to deal with sudden and unforeseen threats.

That flexibility can prove critical to the fight and protecting troops. When improvised explosives became a top threat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. spent $50 billion to field 24,000 mine-resistant vehicles that could survive the blasts and protect occupants.

With the threat receding, those mine-resistant trucks and other vehicles may be costing the government $100 million just to ship them back from Afghanistan, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Many of the trucks should simply have been destroyed or given away because upkeep is not economical, auditors said.

“There is absolutely potential for more overspending any time you use a supplemental account, sure. In a sense, that is actually part of the plan,” Hasik said. “You worry less about checking up on the waste and abuse and you just worry about getting it done fast.”

For now, the top concern is whether the Obama administration has a strategy that will ultimately win the war against the Islamic State and not whether more reliance on the OCO account with cause problems in the future, Hasik said.

“I’m not worried that the door is open [to irresponsible spending] because somebody is talking about using supplemental funding,” he said. “I’m worried that there is no logical end game.”

tritten.travis@stripes.com

Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

'American Sniper' trailer drops ahead of Christmas release

October 3rd, 2014 | Navy SEAL Video | Posted by Meghann Myers

If you’re looking for some cinematic firefights after Christmas Day presents and brunch, you’re in luck.

The film version of former Navy SEAL Chief Special Operator Chris Kyle’s best-selling American Sniper memoir is coming to theaters Christmas Day, the tale of his path toward 160 confirmed kills, the most of any shooter in American history.

Actor Bradley Cooper was able to meet with Kyle once before the SEAL was murdered in 2013.

“Thank God I got to talk to him once on the phone. It was a very quick conversation. But I did tell him how serious I was about making this movie,” Cooper told USA Today. “And he should just know that whatever fears he had about Hollywood, to just put them aside and trust me. That I was going to do everything I could to tell this story.”

Kyle published the book in 2012 and became an icon in American military lore and marksmanship culture.

Unfortunately, he was killed in 2013 by a fellow veteran, whom he’d taken shooting to help relieve the man’s post-traumatic stress.

Tags: American Sniper, Bradley Cooper, Chief, Chris Kyle, SEAL, sniper

Permalink | October 3rd, 2014

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New program helps families of fallen access education benefits

Even with hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarship money and education benefits available for spouses and children of fallen service members, many of those families struggle to pay for college because they don’t know the benefits exist, or have trouble accessing them, a nonprofit group says.

So the group, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, has announced its new program offering an online portal at www.taps.org/edu/ to help families identify scholarships and education benefits, as well as get one-on-one guidance through the maze.

Since a pilot program began in January, TAPS has helped 420 survivors with their education benefits, said Bonnie Carroll, the group’s CEO and founder, at an event in Washington, D.C., announcing the new program, which in its pilot phase alone has helped 140 widows and children submit information and applications.

“This is just the beginning,” Carroll said. “For these families, it means the dream of education is now possible.”

The public-private partnership between TAPS, the Veterans Affairs Department, the 45 states that have educational benefits of some kind for the families of the fallen, private organizations providing scholarships, and companies that have contributed to the effort “will ensure all education resources available to these children are now fully accessed,” said Carroll, who founded TAPS following the death of her husband, Army Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, in a 1992 military plane crash.

She credited two family members who “harnessed their pain, saw a need and took action” in creating the new program — Ashlynne Haycock and Tabitha Bonilla.

Haycock’s father, Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Haycock, died while serving in 2002, when she was 10. Her mother, Nichole, died in 2011 when Ashlynne was a junior at American University. Among the obstacles she faced with funding the remainder of her education, she said, was trying to get a $30,000 loan without a parent to co-sign for it. A number of lenders tried to convince her that a 9 percent or 10 percent interest rate was reasonable for a $30,000 loan.

In working with TAPS staffers to find college financial assistance, it became clear there was no central place to go for information about available scholarships. Then Bonnie Carroll suggested that Haycock, now 23, could come up with a solution to the problem.

Haycock said families have been grateful for the program, noting that case workers often help them fill out applications and work with VA and other organizations when there are glitches.

The portal also has been key, said Bonilla, whose husband, Army Capt. Orlando Bonilla, died in Iraq in January 2005 — just 11 months after her father, Army Sgt. 1st Class Henry Bacon, died in Iraq.

“Families are overwhelmed. They don’t know where to turn,” said Bonilla, who has been working with Haycock on the project and has had her own difficulties with education funding. While a senior at Campbell University in North Carolina, her funds from VA and private scholarships ran out, and she got a bill from the university for $12,000.

“I definitely didn’t know about states’ survivor education benefits,” she said. “I might have qualified for benefits in Texas.”

Of the 45 states that offer educational benefits of some kind for families of fallen service members, two-thirds fully waive tuition and/or fees, and most of the others offer full or partial scholarships. The TAPS program also informs families about federal benefits to assist spouses and children of the fallen, such as the Marine Gunnery Sgt. John D. Fry Scholarship and the Survivors and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program.

Seven-year-old Lina Caboteja, daughter of Marine Staff Sgt. Nick Caboteja Jr., said her father died when she was 3 years old. “I miss him a lot,” she said.

She’s now in second grade, and said she’s happy that she’ll be able to receive a scholarship “when I go to college to learn to become the president of the United States.”

Lina’s mother, Bridgette, said the TAPS portal has helped her see the range of available opportunities for her children.

“This is one less thing I have to worry about, and I know my husband would be glad his children are taken care of.”

Colleges adapt to post-9/11 vets' needs

Bryan Box, a 28-year-old student veteran, carries a large thermos with “SAB9491T” scribbled on its side. The inscription is Box’s battle roster, which he described as a digital “dog tag” used by the Army to identify soldiers.

He added the “T” at the end simply because it holds his tea. He has another thermos with an “S.” That one is for soup.

As fall semester sets in, Box navigates the University of Alaska Anchorage campus while still carrying the ID code that labeled him for during his six years as an enlisted soldier. In school, he’s learning both biology and how to adapt.

Not long ago, he was sitting atop mountains in Afghanistan with an ashtray and binoculars, waiting to stop anyone with weapons from moving across the border from Pakistan. Now Box likens his life on campus to “being on an alien planet.”

Box is far from alone in the transition from soldier to student. The veteran population at Alaska’s two largest universities is increasing at rates that outpace the growth of total enrollment.

At UAA, the number of student veterans and their dependents jumped 38 percent between 2009 and 2014, compared to 4 percent in campuswide enrollment. In the same period at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the total student population shrank by 8 percent while the number of veterans swelled 61 percent, according to university records.

A national trend

The trend is national. Some 1 million student veterans were enrolled in colleges in 2013, double the number in 2009, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. As the military continues to downsize, VA expects the numbers to keep growing.

To accommodate student vets, UAA and UAF have made changes. Staff has been hired and student veteran resource centers have been created as campus hubs to help with VA paperwork, health care, housing and enrollment. The centers also act as meeting spots for veterans who rely on one another to regain the camaraderie lost when they left active duty.

First comes the paperwork.

Brian Fausett said he spent more than a year hassling VA to process paperwork so he could enroll in UAA through the department’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program, a service for veterans with service-related disabilities.

“I was actually going to go to welding school because it didn’t look like UAA was going to happen,” said the 33-year-old veteran, who served eight years in the Army.

Fausett said it wasn’t until he went through a liaison in Sen. Mark Begich’s office that a VA employee called him and set up a meeting. Now he’s a part-time student studying natural sciences. By the time he was accepted, he said, key classes were closed and enrolling as a full-time student was no longer an option.

Through VA, Fausett should receive tuition payment and a stipend for books and housing, but that’s still being worked out, he said.

Nichole Grunwald, military and veteran community services assistant at UAA, said navigating the benefits process can be among the most difficult and frustrating steps for student veterans. Grunwald staffs the resource center that opened in 2011 with one other full-time employee.

“We fought like junkyard dogs to get the veteran center here,” said Box, who is also president of the UAA chapter of Student Veterans of America, a national organization that provides student veterans with resources and support.

According to a 2012 survey by the American Council on Education, 71 percent of nearly 700 schools had specific programs and services for service members and veterans.

Beyond initial paperwork, student veterans must also have their benefits certified each semester by a university official, said Eric Pedersen, associate vice chancellor for Enrollment Services at UAA.

In the past five years, the university has gone from one to three certifying officials to handle the growing pile of forms, he said.

Seeking reconnection

Doug Bowers, 51, is a senior at UAA majoring in social work. He served in the Army for 22 years and deployed twice to Afghanistan. He has three grown daughters and, he said, little in common with his nonveteran peers.

“If it wasn’t for the vet center, it would be a lot rougher,” Bowers said. “The vet center gives you the camaraderie, the connection. You can speak freely about these types of shared experiences, where in the general population you just sit there quiet as a church mouse nine times out of 10.”

In general, student veterans are older than their peers. Many have families. Many have seen war, and some still suffer its lasting effects.

Bowers underwent multiple knee surgeries, has lower-back pain and is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Box said he has to sit at the back of the classroom. After years on quiet mountains waiting for sounds of attack, he can’t tolerate the noise of other humans breathing too loudly around him. As for Fausett, his eyes are constantly shifting. He watches rooftops, reflections and people.

“I watch the mood and the behavior of the people around me because if people start running I’d like to know which way they’re going so I can join them,” Fausett said. “That’s not PTSD in the sense that it’s a mental crippling, that’s a learning response.”

Grunwald said counseling and health care services are offered through the university’s health system and at the VA.

Once a student veteran herself, Grunwald started classes at UAA in 2008. Something she had to get used to, she said, was the number of young students in her entry-level classes.

“It was a shock for me. I didn’t like it at first,” she said. “I didn’t like all the chaos and the noise.”

'A bunch of privates'

Fausett compared campus to “a battalion that has no officers and no sergeants and it’s just a bunch of privates.”

An on-campus housing community for student veterans was launched at UAA this fall. Grunwald said she spearheaded the group housing after several veterans came looking for accommodations that didn’t involve living with an 18-year-old. Grunwald had 12 spots reserved, but in a last-minute scramble to fill rooms, she could find only four interested veterans.

Box said the university’s firearms and alcohol bans might deter student veterans from living on campus. Also, the dorms are not family-friendly, he said.

Next academic year, Grunwald said, she hopes to reserve apartment-style dorms and get the word out to veterans earlier.

She said she expects the numbers of student veterans on campus to keep climbing. Recently, she said, she’s seen an uptick in the number of service members using GI Bill education benefits after having their enlistments cut short as the military grows smaller.

“The Air Force has been cutting people. The Army has been cutting people,” she said. “Some have had their minds set to be career service members and are now having to quickly find a job, so the GI [Bill] is what they’re turning to.”

U.S. awards $450M to link job training, employers

The Obama administration is awarding nearly a half-billion dollars to community colleges that are partnering with employers on job training.

Massasoit Community College in Massachusetts and Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley Technical College are the largest recipients and will each get about $20 million.

A Maryland program will receive $15 million to partner with companies like Raytheon and IBM to train workers with little education for jobs in cybersecurity or information technology. Community and technical colleges in Kentucky will get $10 million to expand online learning for degrees in computer and medical fields.

Vice President Joe Biden and the secretaries of Education and Labor will announce the grant winners Monday at the White House. Linking job training to industry demand is key to the administration’s strategy to improve wages and reduce unemployment.

Center helps student veterans with college plans

GAINESVILLE, FLA. — A University of Florida program is helping military veterans succeed in college.

The Gainesville Sun reports that the Collegiate Veterans Success Center serves about 600 University of Florida students who receive military benefits. A full-time Veterans Affairs counselor has been assigned to the campus since January.

The center is part of the national VetSuccess on Campus program that began in 2009 at the University of South Florida.

The University of Florida center allows student veterans to access the VA benefits system, health care system and the university school system.

The idea behind the program is to make it easier for veterans to navigate through higher education.

Military Times reported last year that the Veterans Affairs Department was expanding the number of schools participating in the VetSuccess on Campus program, bringing VA counselors to more than 60 new locations this fall.

While the program is based on college campuses, the participating VA counselors can offer help on more than just education-related issues.

Counselors can help vets learn about and apply for benefits they might not know about, and they also maintain close ties to VA medical facilities and Vet Centers.

In addition to help with academic issues, the program provides an additional and more convenient “entree into the VA” for student veterans, opening up a world of VA benefits to people who would not go to stand-alone VA centers and thus could have been shut out, a VA official said last year.

One student veteran, Caleb Archie, told the Gainesville Sun that when transferred to the University of Florida from a smaller college, he was overwhelmed and confused. The VA benefits counselor assigned to the school, Charlotte Kemper, took him to the financial aid office, the Collegiate Veterans Success Center and to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where she was helping him apply for work study, the Sun reported.

Benefits counselors can access the VA benefits system, health care system and a school’s system to help student veterans with any issue they encounter.