With a gloved salute, power was transferred from Commanding Officer Capt. David Dees to Capt. Janet Days. She is the first Black female to hold the position in Naval Station Norfolk’s 106-year history.
Veteran-geared job fair in Hampton draws 300 – Daily Press
Thomas “TJ” Miller’s voice was hoarse from four hours spent talking with around two dozen job recruiters. Miller, who is 120 days away from concluding a 20-year career in the Air Force, was faced with a question he had not been asked by an employer before: “What do you want to do?”
“And I don’t have a hard answer for that,” Miller said.
More than 330 job seekers wandered from hiring booth to hiring booth during Thursday’s Recruit Military job fair at the Hampton Roads Convention Center. Most had one thing in common — they are members of the local military community looking for a new purpose after their service.
Miller, a master sergeant, has served as an air traffic controller, which brought him to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in 2015.
“But I did that for 20 years, do I really want to do it for another 20?” Miller said as he shrugged his shoulders. “With the military, they tell you where you’re gonna go, when you’re gonna go, and how long you’re gonna be there for. So, for the first time since 2003, I get to control where I live and what I do with my life, which is exciting and terrifying at the same time.”
Industries such as education and law enforcement have sought to recruit veterans for years, but the effort has more urgency as the job market has tightened during the pandemic. Among the recruitment booths at Thursday’s event was the Hampton Sheriff’s Office, Elizabeth River Tunnels, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Chesapeake Police Department and the City of Virginia Beach. When asked, most said they were accepting applications for “all levels of positions.”
Katarina Peterson, human relations manager for Virginia Beach, said the qualities veterans gain from military service are in high demand.
“They are problem solvers and are good at reacting to and managing change. Those are leadership qualities we want in our employees,” Peterson said.
Robert Mulvihill, the company’s event director, described Recruit Military acts as a connector between employers and veterans, service members transitioning out of the military, and military spouses. Thursday’s event, he said, was one of the largest he had seen in Hampton since 2016.
“Whether you have four years in or 24 years in, you come out of the military with leadership, mentorship and supervisory skills, and those are qualities that translate into a corporate job. We have 16,000 companies who currently work with us, so you never know what opportunities you might find,” Mulvihill said.
Mulvihill said the best thing transitioning service members and veterans can do at a job fair is keep an open mind.
Mulvihill retired from the Navy in 2010 after 20 years as a gunner’s mate. He worked as a government contractor immediately following his military career, but when the job ended two years later, he found himself working as a debt collector and then in a customer service.
“The jobs served the purpose in that moment, you know, by putting food on my table. Ultimately, I knew that was not want I wanted to do. I spent about a year trying to figure out my life… I never would have thought I would have ended up as the event director for Recruit Military, but it is 100% my purpose. I will do this until I can’t,” Mulvihill said.
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When the job fair doors opened at 11 a.m., Miller was fourth in line. And as recruiters packed up their booths at 3 p.m., he was one of the last to leave. Of the approximately 25 booths he visited, Miller said he will probably submit applications to 15.
“I am hoping that someone looks at my technical skills and my soft skills, and says ‘We can take this and make this into something’,” Miller said.
But Miller plans to attend more job fairs to evaluate what is best for his next phase of life.
“I could stay here in Hampton Roads or I could hit the reset button and pack up and move anywhere in the world. And that is scary because I don’t necessarily want to start back at ground zero,” Miller said.
While his retirement — slated for May 1 — draws closer, Miller is not rushing the job selection process.
“It is not just a job — it is your life. I invested 20 years of my life with the Air Force, and while I am not willing to give up the control I now have, I am looking to dedicate another 20 years of my life to the right company…. I want that spark with my new career, where you just know, ‘This is it. This is what I am meant to do and where I am meant to be,” Miller said.
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
Former US Navy captain sentenced in ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery scandal – Daily Press
SAN DIEGO — A former U.S. Navy captain who was caught up in a massive contracting scandal was sentenced Thursday to 2½ years in federal prison for taking nearly $91,000 in bribes.
Retired Capt. David Haas also was ordered to make restitution and to pay a $30,000 fine.
Prosecutors said Haas, 54, of Kailua, Hawaii, was among dozens of Navy officials who were bribed to help obtain defense contracts for a man known as “Fat Leonard” Francis.
Francis owned Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd., or GDMA, which supplied food, water and fuel to vessels for decades. He has acknowledged overbilling the Navy by $35 million with the help of officers whom he plied with prostitutes, Kobe beef, cigars and other bribes so they would direct their ships to Pacific ports Francis controlled in Southeast Asia.
More than 30 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty in the sweeping corruption case. Francis, who also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2015, was awaiting sentencing when he fled home confinement in San Diego last year and is now in custody in Venezuela, where he has requested asylum.
From 2011 to 2013, Haas, who was captain of the 7th Fleet command ship Blue Ridge, accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of entertainment, including hotel rooms, prostitutes, alcohol and dinners, during multi-day parties arranged by Francis overseas, prosecutors said.
Haas pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit bribery, a charge that could have carried up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In federal court in San Diego on Thursday, he told the judge he had brought shame on his family and the Navy and tarnished his two-decade career, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“I should never have had a relationship with that guy,” Haas said. “I should never have allowed Leonard Francis into anywhere.”
Naval Station Norfolk welcomes 1st Black female commanding officer – Daily Press
Capt. Janet Days will become the 51st commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk, making her the first Black female to hold the position in the installation’s 106-year history.
A change of command ceremony will be held Friday morning. Days will relieve Capt. David Dees, who will assume duties as the Chief of Staff for Commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.
A 1999 Old Dominion University graduate, Days holds a Bachelor of Science in business. She went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval War College command and staff diploma. She is also a graduate of Joint and Combined Warfighting School at Joint Forces Staff College and is a qualified joint specialty officer.
Days has been awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (seven awards), Army Commendation Medal (two awards), Army Achievement Medal, and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal.
Her sea assignments include tours aboard the USS Simon Lake; USS Mahan and USS Forrest Sherman as engineer officer. Additionally, Days completed two deployments, one to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to conduct theater security cooperation and a subsequent deployment to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility to conduct counter-narcotics operations.
Days went on to serve as the Destroyer Squadron 28 material officer and staff director embarked aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, where she completed two deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Days also served as the executive officer and commanding officer of USS McFaul.
A deployment took Days to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Joint Staff, J7 liaison officer to the International Security Assistance Force headquarters.
Following a tour as the executive officer of Surface Warfare Schools Command in Newport, Rhode Island, Days was appointed Naval Station Norfolk’s executive officer in 2021. She is also the first Black female to hold that position.
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
Camp Lejeune Marines conduct training with Navy at Fort Story – Daily Press
VIRGINIA BEACH — “Oohrah!” rang out as roughly 180 Marines plunged into thigh-deep ocean water Monday, disembarking from an amphibious Naval craft before crawling up the sand dunes of Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story.
The Marines, faces caked with imitation camouflage paint, were part of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment who traveled from Camp Lejeune to “storm the beach” as part of a large-scale interoperability training exercise alongside Virginia Beach-based sailors. This week’s training marks the first time in more than 10 years an entire infantry battalion has participated in such an exercise.
The joint base, said Marine Corps operations officer Capt. Aaron Ladd, is unique in that it offers the terrain, technology and Naval presence needed to support integrated exercises.
Through the week, landing craft (LCUs) will deposit 800 infantry Marines on the beach at the Hampton Roads installation, while hovercraft will roar onto the sand, carrying vehicles meant to help Marines set up shop on foreign shores. The various exercises, facilitated by the Navy’s amphibious craft, make the Marine Corps’ beach assaults possible.
“We (Marines) do what we do, but we couldn’t do it without the Navy,” said Cpl. Akile Jones, a second-generation Marine.
The Marines, lugging upwards of 50 pounds of gear, dotted the Fort Story beach as they rushed to regroup and complete their objectives. They were slated to spend the next five days damp with sea water, protecting themselves from the elements and opposing companies to simulate a foreign shore operation.
“We even drop them in a few feet of water so they hit the beach with wet boots and wet uniforms, like they might do in a real-world situation,” said Boatswain’s mate first class Thomas Ross, beach party team coordinator.
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The Marines arriving on the beach were fresh off the Little Creek-based USS Gunston Hall, a Navy dock landing ship. As part of the interoperability training, Marines spent two days aboard the ship, learning how to support the sailors who run and maintain the boat.
Dock landing ships, and other amphibious squadron ships, are home to Marine Expeditionary Units for about 75-90% of the time they are deployed with an amphibious squadron, said Lt. j.g. Nicholas Seymour, assistant operations officer aboard the USS Gunston Hall.
“The Marines are not just on board to do what they do ashore. They help supplement and support the ship. … Once the Marines understand how the ship works, what we (the sailors) are trying to do and how we do it, they go from being ship riders to really being an asset,” Seymour said.
Lance Cpl. Matthew Stork said the training was helping him learn the ship and Navy customs and lingo without the rigors of underway ship living. Like many in his company, this week marked Stork’s first time experiencing “ship life.”
“It is proof of concept … There are just some things you can’t learn until you are in it, but this gives us some idea of what to expect,” Stork said.
The battalion is expected to conclude rotating companies through the interoperability training by the end of the week. Each company spends about two days aboard the dock landing ship, a partial day conducting ship-to-shore operations and 4-5 days in the elements.
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
Army allows 3 months parental leave under updated policy – Daily Press
The Army rolled out its parental leave policy Tuesday, making it the last branch to comply with a Department of Defense directive issued in January.
Like the other services, soldiers who give birth are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave following a period of convalescent leave, while the non-birth parent is eligible for 12 weeks of parental leave.
“The Army recruits Soldiers, but retains families, and this is one of the ways we can provide support,” Anthony Hewitt, a spokesperson for the Army’s Chief of Public Affairs, wrote in an email.
The program also expanded to include soldiers welcoming adopted or long-term foster children, authorizing them to take 12 weeks of leave.
[ Family first? Parental leave for military members extended from 3 weeks to 3 months ]
The leave must be taken all at once or incrementally within a year following the birth, adoption or placement. Leave taken incrementally must be taken in periods of at least seven days.
The leave may be denied if it is determined the soldier’s absence will affect unit readiness, but unique to the Army policy is a stipulation that only a first general officer in the soldier’s chain of command can deny the leave.
The DoD issued guidelines for the long-awaited policy on Jan. 4. A day later, the Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard implemented it. The Navy released its policy Jan. 19, two weeks later, followed by the Marine Corps on Monday.
On Jan. 24, Lt. Col. Terence Kelley said the Army was “being deliberate” in updating the policy to ensure a smooth transition.
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
#Reviewing Military Alliances in the Twenty-First Century
Notes:
[1] Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990).
[2] Christopher Hemmer and Peter J. Katzenstein, “Why Is There No NATO in Asia? Collective Identity, Regionalism, and the Origins of Multilateralism,” International Organization 56, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 575-607.
[3] Alexander Lanoszka, Military Alliances in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022), 166.
[4] Václav Havel, To the Castle and Back (New York: Random House Publishing, 2008), 303.
[5] Francis Fukuyama and Michael McFaul, “Should Democracy Be Promoted or Demoted?” The Washington Quarterly 31, no. 1 (Winter 2007-08): 23-45.
[6] John J. Mearsheimer, “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe After the Cold War, International Security 15, no. 1 (Summer 1990): 5-56.
[7] John J. Mearsheimer, “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin,” Foreign Affairs 93, no. 5 (September/October 2014): 77-89.
[8] Lanoszka, 13-14.
[9] Lanoszka, 15.
[10] Layla Quran and Bryan Wood, “Why the U.S. decision in Syria has left some allies anxious,” PBS Newshour, October 25, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-the-u-s-decision-in-syria-has-left-some-of-their-allies-anxious.
[11] Arms Control Export Act, Public Law 90-629 (2021), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-1061/pdf/COMPS-1061.pdf.
[12] Celeste A. Wallander, “Institutional Assets and Adaptability: NATO After the Cold War,” International Organization 54, no. 4 (2000): 705-735.
[13] “NATO and SEATO: A Comparison,” in United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967, Part IV.A.1, ed. Leslie Gelb (Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1969).
[14] Lanoszka, 198.
[15] Mark Webber, James Sperling, and Martin A. Smith, What’s Wrong with NATO and How to Fix It (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021).
[16] Jussi M. Hanhimäki, Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in the Post-Cold War Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).
[17] Timothy Andrews Sayle, Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019).
[18] Ted Galen Carpenter, NATO: Dangerous Dinosaur (Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2019).
[19] Stephen M. Walt, The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy (New York: Macmillan, 2018).
[20] “Lord Palmerston 1784–1865,” in Oxford Essential Quotations Fourth Edition, ed. Susan Ratcliffe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Another sailor assigned to USS George Washington has died by apparent suicide, police confirm – Daily Press
A sailor assigned to the USS George Washington died by apparent suicide last week, Newport News police confirmed Tuesday.
Lucian Johan Woods, a boatswain’s mate seaman aboard the aircraft carrier, died Jan. 23 at a private residence in Newport News, according to Cmdr. Robert Myers, spokesperson for Naval Air Force Atlantic.
Newport News police spokesperson Sarah Ketchum confirmed Woods’ death was ruled a suicide. She declined to release further details.
“Embedded chaplains, mental health providers, and leaders are engaged with the crew and are available to provide appropriate support and counseling to those grieving this unexpected loss,” Myers said.
Woods’ death comes on the heels of a push for increased efforts to improve mental health services and suicide intervention after Norfolk-based Navy installations reported seven sailors died by suicide last year.
The deaths included three sailors linked to the same aircraft carrier Woods was assigned to — the USS George Washington — who died by suicide within a week in April while the carrier was undergoing an overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding. A Navy report issued in December concluded that the deaths were not connected. Less than eight months later, between Oct. 30 and Nov. 26, four sailors assigned to Norfolk’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center died by apparent suicide.
Since April, the Navy has increased Washington sailors’ access to mental health resources. Among the support for Washington sailors is an embedded mental health team and two deployed resiliency counselors that work on the ship. A Military and Family Life Counselor is also available to the crew.
Last year’s death also spurred lawmakers to tour the maintenance center in December and January. During a visit on Jan. 17, Sen. Tim Kaine drew parallels between the carrier-related deaths and those of the maintenance center.
“Whether it’s an overly-long shore deployment as the ship is being refurbed or whether it’s because of something beyond your control physically, or if you’re in this different capacity that wasn’t exactly what you thought you were going to be doing — how do we make sure you’re still valued? That you still understand you’ve got a really important purpose,” Kaine said.
Resources for service members and veterans struggling with mental health, including 24-hour crisis hotlines:
- The Military Crisis Line: call 1-800-273-8255, ext. 1; or text “273Talk” to 839863
- Military OneSource: 1-800-342-9647
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 — call or text
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
Marine Corps policy update extends parental leave to 3 months – Daily Press
The U.S. Marine Corps updated its parental leave policy Monday, bringing the service into compliance with a Department of Defense directive issued earlier this month.
Among the changes is a leave extension from 3 weeks to 3 months for all Marines and the inclusion of those who adopt or foster.
“This action strikes the right balance of allowing our Marines more time at home after the arrival of a child and improved resources to care for their families, while at the same time providing our commanders the flexibility required to maintain readiness and accomplish the mission,” Yvonne Carlock, the service’s deputy communication strategy and operations officer, wrote Tuesday in an email to The Virginian-Pilot.
Marines who give birth are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave following a period of convalescent leave, while the non-birth parent is eligible for 12 weeks of parental leave. The program also expanded to include Marines welcoming adopted or long-term foster children, authorizing them to take 12 weeks of leave.
[ Family first? Parental leave for military members extended from 3 weeks to 3 months ]
The leave must be taken all at once or incrementally within a year period following the birth, adoption or placement. Leave taken incrementally must be taken in periods of at least seven days for a maximum of 12 increments.
Similar to the Navy’s policy, deployed Marines will be required to defer parental leave until the deployment is complete. But marines who do so may be eligible to extend the one-year expiration date of the 12-week leave.
The Marine Corps is the latest service to release its policy changes following the Jan. 4 memo. A day after the Pentagon issued the long-awaited policy, the Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard implemented it. The Navy released its policy Jan. 19, two weeks later.
The Army has not yet released its new parental leave policy, but was expected to do so soon.
Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]
The Master Negotiator?
The narrative that Negroponte depicts of Baker’s time as secretary of state resembles not so much a master negotiator, but rather a master crisis manager. The author depicts the numerous challenges Baker and the United States faced between 1989 and August 1992 when Baker left the State Department to become Chief of Staff to George H.W. Bush. The Gulf War, Tiananmen Square, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism in Europe, the Middle East peace process, and the ethnic fighting that erupted in Yugoslavia were just some of the challenges that Baker faced. With these, and other challenges, the author presents Baker as a capable and able secretary of state. Yet, the limitations Baker sometimes faced in trying to get parties to negotiate—in Yugoslavia and in the Middle East, for example—are expertly described by the author and illustrate how it was sometimes not possible for Baker to juggle and balance the interests of the parties involved to achieve a negotiated settlement. Negroponte, rather than depicting a master negotiator, presents an able member of Bush’s administration working to implement his policies, but facing limits, even at the height of America’s power and prestige at the end of the Cold War and America’s victory in the first Gulf War.
Negroponte conducted significant research in writing this book, with ample sources cited that include interviews, newspapers, books, articles, and other sources. The book would be a stronger asset for researchers, however, if it included an index. The organization of the book via seven main themes works to focus the reader on some key issues Baker faced as secretary of state. The drawback to this thematic approach, however, is that the chronology of events sometimes gets lost. Baker faced multiple challenges at the same time. A thematic approach, rather than a chronological one, does not illustrate just how many international issues Baker managed concurrently. If such a chronological approach had been offered, readers would have a better appreciation for the complex issues and negotiations that Baker had to manage.
The style and focus of this book make it a good source for readers wanting an introduction to either the foreign policy of the Bush administration or events leading to the end of the Cold War. Stylistically, the book flows in a more journalistic fashion than scholarly. This is not to say the work is not rigorous in its sources. It is, but it does not read like a typical scholarly work of history. Negroponte’s narration of events is suitable for this work that is covering several major events over four years. If, however, readers want more in-depth analysis or detail on a particular event, like Yugoslavia, they should consult other sources. Even so, the amount of information provided by the author is enough to whet readers’ appetites for more.
