Archive for the ‘armed forces prayer focus’ Category
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Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
General Lloyd Austin III, United States Army, Commanding General, U.S. Forces, Iraq
Lloyd James Austin III was born in August 1953 in Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and also earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Auburn University, and a Master’s Degree in Business Management from Webster University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.
After graduation from West Point, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He has served at Fort Bragg, in Indianapolis with the Recruiting Command, and as a Company Tactical Officer at West Point, New York. He has had assignments in Germany, at Fort Drumm, New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Fort Stewart, Georgia and was engaged in the war in Iraq.
From September 2003 until August 2005, he was the Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in Operating Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, and then served at Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
In September 2010 he became Commanding General of U.S. Forces, Iraq, taking over from General Ray Odierno.
IN THE NEWS: At the ceremony officially closing the Iraq war, Army General Lloyd J. Austin said, “We are a much more seasoned force, across the board. If you look at the experience in our ranks, it’s just incredible.” Austin noted the many service members who, like him, have multiple deployments under their belts .He especially acknowledged the high levels of adaptability of personnel and equipment, and the advancement of the concept of joint operations. His pride in the Army and other U.S. forces was evident as he gave the orders to “case the colors,” signifying a new relationship between the U.S. and an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and secure.
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Thomas R. Lamont, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs)
Thomas R. Lamont was educated at Illinois State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He obtained his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law.
In the mid-1970s, he worked as counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Later he engaged in the private practice of law. In addition to his work as a lawyer, Lamont was involved in community and public service in a number of lays.
He served as Judge Advocate General for the Illinois Army National Guard, retiring with the rank of Colonel.
Lamont was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Illinois system. He later served as a member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, and on the Military Academy Appointments Committee of U.S. Senator from Illinois Alan J. Dixon.
President Obama nominated Lamont to be the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and he received the confirmation of the Senate.
IN THE NEWS: The Army is moving forward with plans to cut about 8,700 positions, using a mix of early retirement offers, buyouts and attrition to trim the jobs by the end of the fiscal year in late September 2012. “Army commands and agencies are continuing to take necessary actions to reduce their civilian on-board strength to meet funded targets established by the secretary of defense and reflected in the president’s budget,” Thomas R. Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs said in a statement. “To the maximum extent possible, the Army will rely on voluntary departures to achieve these manpower reductions.”
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Vice Admiral David J. Venlet, Program Executive Officer, F-35 Lightning II Program
David J. Venlet is from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School and US Naval Test Pilot School. He has a BS in Systems Engineering and MS in Aerospace Engineering. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
Venlet’s tours include Naval Air Systems Command Strike test pilot at Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, the F/A-18 program in various capacities including class desk officer and deputy program manager. He was executive assistant to the commander, Naval Air Systems Command, and served as program manager or Air-to-Air Missiles involving AIM-9x deployment.
Fleet tours include VF-41 as an F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer embarked in USS Nimitz. He wears the distinguished Flying Cross for action in VF-41. After re-designation as a naval aviator, he flew with VF-143 as an F-14 pilot embarked in USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and with VF-101 at NAS Oceana as a Tomcat instructor pilot and A-4 adversary pilot
Vice Admiral Vinlet previously served as commander Naval Air Systems Command, as executive officer, Tactical Air Programs and commander Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, with responsibility for Navy weapons and systems and fleet support capabilities at China Lake and Point Mugu, California. He is now the program executive officer for the F-35 Lightning II Program.
IN THE NEWS: In an interview, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral David Venlet said it would be “wise to sort of temper production” of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, calling initial assumptions about the design a “miscalculation.” Venlet said early tests revealed that parts would need to be replaced and redesigned, adding several million dollars to the cost of planes that already carry an $111 million price tag on average. “The question for me is not ‘F-35 or not?’” Venlet said. “The question is, how many and how fast?”
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
General James Mattis, USMC, Commander, United States Central Command
James Mattis was born in September 1950 in Pullman, Washington. He graduated from Richmond High School and attended Central Washington University. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in January 1972.
As a lieutenant, he served as a rifle and weapons platoon commander in the 3rd Marine Division. As a captain, he commanded a rifle company and a weapons company in the 1st Marine Brigade, then Recruiting Station Portland as a major. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he commanded 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, one of Task Force Ripper’s assault battalions in the Gulf War.
Rising through the ranks, Mattis served with Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury. He was nominated by President George W. Bush for appointment to the rank of general to command U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. In August, 2010, he replaced General David Petraeus as the current commander of United States Central Command.
IN THE NEWS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered their deepest condolences for the loss of life in a joint statement issued last weekend, and said they are closely monitoring reports of the cross-border incident that led to the killing of more than two dozen Pakistani soldiers. Despite increasing conflicts between the United States and Pakistan, including one that followed the U.S. raid in May that killed Osama bid Laden, “the focus now is on continuing to engage with our Pakistani counterparts over time, even during difficult periods,” said a Pentagon spokesman. While CENTCOM has not yet officially announced its role in the investigation (as of this writing), the command’s press secretary said, “I think you can expect the investigation to look at the full range of factors that contributed to this tragedy and it will be broad, expansive and thorough.”
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
Lieutenant Colonel Melinda F. Morgan, USAF, Chief for Public Affairs
Melinda F. Morgan received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing from the University of Kentucky at Lexington. She went on to earn a Master’s of Education in Counseling from Louisiana Technical University in Ruston.
She was commissioned as a graduate of the Air Force ROTC at Kentucky. Her Air Force career has spanned the additional career fields of Current Operation Officer, Section Commander and Manpower Management. Her experience has included the war fighting missions of AWACS, B-52, A-10, F-16 and Headquarters European Command. She has provided public affairs support for Operation Allied Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Hurricane Katrina Relief Operations.
Lieutenant Colonel Morgan is currently assigned as the Chief for Public Affairs , Information and Products, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs , Pentagon, Washington, D.C. She just completed a seven-month deployment to the Combined Air Operations Center as Deputy Director of Public Affairs.
IN THE NEWS: Lieutenant Colonel Melinda Morgan, speaking for the Pentagon, reported the successful test of a new bomb capable of exceeding the speed of sound. She said the test aimed to gather data on “aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies.” The project is part of the Prompt Global Strike program which seeks to give the US military the means to deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within an hour.
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
General Norton A. Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force
Norton Allan Schwartz was born in December 1951 at Toms River, New Jersey. General Schwartz graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, receiving his bachelor’s degree in political science and international affairs. He earned a Master’s degree in business administration from Central Michigan University. He is an alumnus of the National War College, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His assignments range from student undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, in Texas, to service in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Washington and other locations domestically, and in the Philippines and Germany. He has more than 4,000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft, and participated in the airlift evacuation of Saigon. He served as Chief of Staff of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for Northern Iraq and in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also led the Joint Task Force that prepared for the noncombatant evacuation of U.S. citizens in Cambodia.
Norton is the current Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. As Chief, he serves as the senior uniformed Air Force officer responsible for the organization, training and equipping of 680,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Norton and other service chiefs function as military advisers to the Secretary of Defense, National Security Council and the President.
Schwartz is the first Jewish Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
IN THE NEWS: General Norton Schwartz testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, fielding tough questions over the Dover mortuary. Schwartz was visibly unhappy with some of the questions, but he didn’t duck. “There should be no misunderstanding about who is responsible,” he said. “It’s Mike Donley [Secretary of the Air Force] and me. There’s no escaping it.” Schwartz added, “America deserves the highest standards of service of integrity and excellence. And we can accept nothing less.”
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Michele Angelique Flournoy was born in December 1960 in Los Angeles, California.
Ms. Flournoy earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University and a master’s degree in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University.
She was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction and, at the same time, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy. In that capacity, she oversaw three policy offices in the office of the Secretary of Defense: Strategy; Requirements, Plans and Counterproliferation; and Russia, Ukraine and Eurasian Affairs.
She has served as a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, where she founded and led the university’s Quadrennial Defense Review working group, which was chartered by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop intellectual capital in preparation for the Department of Defense’s quarterly review.
Ms. Flournoy was appointed President of the Center for a New American Security, prior to which she was a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she worked on a broad range of defense policy and international security issues.
She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in February 2009. She serves as the principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters on the formation of national security and defense policy and the integration and oversight of DoD policy and plans to achieve national security objectives.
Ms. Flournoy is married to Scott Gould, a retired Captain in the United States Navy Reserve, and now U.S. Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and they have three children.
IN THE NEWS: Recent violence in Afghanistan reminded Americans that bringing about a peaceful Afghanistan is far from complete, Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, said at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. Such isolated attacks should not cause people to think that U.S. and NATO operations are “doomed,” Flournoy said. Events on the ground prove “momentum has shifted in Afghanistan and the strategy is working.”
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
General James Thurman, U.S. Army, Commander, U.S. Forces in Korea
James David Thurman was born in September 1953 in Marietta, Oklahoma. He received a B.A. in history from East Central University and a Master of arts in Management from Webster University. Thurman received a regular Army commission from the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant in 1975.
Thurman began his career in the 4th Infantry Division serving as Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Motor Officer for 6th Battalion, 32nd Armor. He commanded all levels from Company to Division. After attending the Officer Rotary Wing Aviator Course, he commanded the Aero-Scout Platoon, and later became an officer with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North, Carolina.
He received additional education at the U.S. Army Armor School, Fort Knox, Kentucky, the Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and served as Executive Officer at Fort Hood, Texas. He saw active duty in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia, and was Chief of Operations with the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Camp Doha, Kuwait.
In October 2006, Thurman was nominated for promotion by President George W. Bush to the rank of Lieutenant General. His receipt of promotion and his third star was January 2007. Just the month prior to that, Thurman took over assignment in Heidelberg, Germany. His current command assignment began in July of this year. His title is United Nations Command, R.O.K.-U.S. Combined Forces Command, Korea.
IN THE NEWS: Both General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James D. Thurman, commander of U.S. Forces, Korea, joined Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in the 43rd Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, Korea, an annual gathering of U.S. and South Korean senior military leaders. Thurman said he couldn’t be more proud of the combat-seasoned force he commands with both the Republic of Korea and U.S. troops. He added that based on what he sees in Korea daily, troops’ concerns about budget cuts don’t seem to be affecting morale. “If you stick around long enough, the questions get to what it means to be a Soldier, a Sailor, an Airman, a Marine,” added General Dempsey.
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
General Keith B. Alexander, Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
Keith B. Alexander was born in December 1951 in Syracuse, New York. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also has an MSBA from the Boston University Graduate School of Management and dual Master of Science degrees in systems technology (electronic warfare) and physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. He holds a MS in national security from the National Defense University.
Previous assignments include the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Headquarters of the Department of the Army in Washington. He was Commanding General of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Central Command, McDill Air Force Base, Florida. Prior to that he was Deputy Director for Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and served in a variety of command assignments in Germany and the U.S.
He served as an intelligence officer during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia.
General Alexander is a Roman Catholic.
IN THE NEWS: Last month, Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan submitted a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for giving individual states the right to control the internet. The resolution called for “an international code of conduct for information security.” It requests “international deliberations within the United Nations framework on such an international code, with the aim of achieving the earliest possible consensus on international norms and rules guiding the behavior of states in the information space.” When asked at security conference about the resolution, General Keith Alexander, the Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said, “How do we do this without regulating it [the internet]?” He indicated his disfavor in giving the regulation power to the United Nations.
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Featured Member of the Armed Forces for Prayer
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Major General Jeffrey S. Buchanan, Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Army Reserve Command
Jeffrey S. Buchanan was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry upon graduation from the University of Arizona with a BS degree in Wildlife Ecology. His first assignment was with the 82nd Airborne Division, where he served as a Rifle Platoon Leader, a Reconnaissance Platoon Leader, and a Rifle Company Executive Officer.
For four years he served at the United States Military Academy at West Point as a Company and Battalion Tactical Officer. His next assignment was with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), shortly after which he served with a Task Force on Full accounting, an organization that still strives to account for Americans that remain missing from the Vietnam War.
IN THE NEWS: Defense officials are seeking to minimize reports that Iraqi leaders have asked that 5,000 U.S. troops remain in the country after the end of the year. Under a 2008 security pact, all remaining U.S. troops must leave Iraq by the end of this year. Iraqi and U.S. officials have been discussing whether to keep a small U.S. military presence in the country after December to train Iraqi security forces.President Obama is considering leaving 3,000 to 5,000 troops in the country. Major General Jeffrey Buchanan told Pentagon reporters that troop totals have been kept at about 40,000 in order to give commanders the most flexibility as they debate how large a force to leave in Iraq. He said there also are about 150 NATO troops in Iraq, from a number of different countries, helping to train Iraqi forces.
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