December 17, 2009 by admin.

December 16, 2009

American Forces Press Service|by Samantha L. Quigley

It’s a scene that’s played out in airports across the country numerous times in the past eight years: Families and servicemembers clinging to each other, either sad to leave or happy and vowing to never let go again.

The emotion always is appropriate, but the location of the scene - just beyond the airline ticket counters and before the security checkpoint - robs the actors of precious minutes with loved ones. Those lost minutes are unnecessary, at least as far as the Transportation Security Administration is concerned, a TSA spokesman said.

“TSA permits the airlines to offer a gate pass to family members of arriving or departing U.S. servicemembers,” Greg Soule said. “So, family members who want to accompany a … servicemember being deployed to the boarding gate, or greet them [as they return] from deployment at the arrival gate may receive passes to enter the secure area of the airport.”

Though TSA allows this practice, the final decision rests with the airlines, from which family members must request the passes. Each airline, and possibly even airport, has its own rules and procedures, Soule said.

Families interested in obtaining a gate pass need to check with the airline before arriving at the airport to determine the exact rules and procedures.

“It’s an airline procedure,” Soule said. “It is something that TSA has permitted the airlines to do, though we have security regulations that we provide to the airlines.

“Typically, only passengers who are flying and have a boarding pass are allowed to pass through security,” he added.

TSA makes this allowance out of support for the armed forces, Soule said.

Though military family members with gate passes can pass through security, they must adhere to all security regulations. This includes removing coats, jackets and shoes, and the liquids regulation. Anything of a liquid or gel consistency must be 3.4 ounces or less and be sealed in a quart-sized storage bag to pass through security, Soule said.

Each family member would have to present the gate pass as well as a valid government-issued identification card, Soule added.

TSA doesn’t keep statistics on how frequently military families take advantage of this opportunity. Volunteers at Washington-Dulles International Airport’s USO lounge said they are not frequently asked about the program or for assistance in obtaining the passes.

Separations and reunions are emotional enough in normal situations, but with the holidays in full swing, they’re even more poignant. And thanks to the TSA and cooperating airlines, they can be more positive.

“We’re happy to do this and make this small exemption,” he added, noting that TSA officials recognize that military families, as well as servicemembers, make sacrifices for the country.

The TSA has no jurisdiction overseas, so U.S. military family members wishing to see off or meet their servicemember at a foreign airport are encouraged to check with the airline for local policy.

The policy on gate passes is available on the Transportation Security Administration’s Web site under the heading “Accommodations for U.S. Military Personnel.”

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December 15, 2009 by admin.

By Robert Brodsky rbrodsky@govexec.com December 11, 2009

Small businesses owned by veterans have jumped to the front of the line for Veterans Affairs Department contracts.VA published a final rule in the Federal Register on Dec. 8 creating a set-aside contracting program for veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.The rule, which has been in development for more than three years, requires VA contracting officers to set aside procurements between $100,000 and $5 million if they expect two or more eligible veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to submit a fair and reasonable offer. VA contracting officers also will be allowed to let sole-source contracts to these firms, for awards from $3,000 to $5 million.”Only a small percentage of veterans own small businesses,” the rule states. “With this new procurement authority, additional businesses may be opened by veterans seeking to participate in the sole-source or set-aside procurement actions. More likely, [veteran-owned small businesses] not currently in the federal market may be expected to explore selling to VA.”To participate, companies must register with the VetBiz.gov Vendor Information Pages database to verify that they meet all eligibility requirements. Any company that misrepresents itself in the database could face debarment for up to five years.Previously vendors could self-certify the accuracy of the information provided. But now, officials with the VA Center for Veterans Enterprise must verify the data as part of the VetBiz application process. There are nearly 16,000 veteran-owned small businesses in the VetBiz database, including about 9,000 service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.The Federal Register notice also requires VA to give small businesses owned and controlled by veterans priority over all other socioeconomic groups, such as firms in historically underutilized business zones and small disadvantaged businesses. Prime contractors that propose using veteran-owned firms as subcontractors also must receive preference.Congress has not yet authorized a similar procurement program governmentwide.”This VA-specific rule is a logical extension of VA’s mission to care for and assist veterans in returning to private life,” the notice states. “It provides VA with the new contracting flexibilities to assist veterans in doing business with VA.”The rule builds off a 2004 executive order by President George W. Bush that mandated increased contracting and subcontracting opportunities for veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. In 2006, Congress passed the Veterans Benefits, Health Care and Information Technology Act, which authorized VA to set aside and award sole-source contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.VA received 97 comments on its proposed rule, although many were form letters that included identical responses, according to the notice. Officials did not make any significant changes from the August 2008 interim rule.Among the other policy changes in the final rule, VA contracting officers will not need a waiver to purchase supplies and services from veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses rather than Federal Prison Industries Inc., the mandatory supplier for agencies purchasing specified products.The rule also creates a mentor-protégé program at VA in which larger firms tutor, train and guide smaller businesses in exchange for preference in prime contract awards. The mentor firms are encouraged to help service-disabled veteran-owned and veteran-owned small businesses obtain bonds.In addition, the rule proposes that the Small Business Administration hear protests regarding the size and eligibility of companies winning VA set-aside contracts. VA will accept comments on the proposal through Jan. 7, 2010.VA awarded 35 percent of its fiscal 2008 contract dollars to small businesses, including 15 percent to veteran-owned small businesses and 12 percent to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. In contrast, the government as a whole awarded 3 percent of contract dollars to veteran-owned firms and just 1.5 percent to small companies owned by service-disabled veterans. The governmentwide goal in both categories is 3 percent.

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December 10, 2009 by admin.

By Megan Scully  December 9, 2009The four-star general charged with getting additional U.S. forces and equipment into Afghanistan on Wednesday acknowledged the challenges of his mission but expressed confidence it can be done.Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, called President Obama’s plans to deploy 30,000 troops to the landlocked country by the summer “prudent pacing,” adding that the military successfully moved almost the same number of personnel into Afghanistan this year.”You’re talking about roughly the same … numbers and roughly the same time,” McNabb said during a breakfast with reporters. “On the positive side, we just did that. On the harder side is the fact that we’re doing it starting in December — December being winter, that [deployment] becomes harder.”McNabb, who last traveled to Afghanistan in August, said his job is to provide several options for using air and ground transportation to get equipment into the country. The logistical costs of the additional troops and equipment depend largely on which options are selected.”Afghanistan is a little bit like the 14th Street Bridge,” he said, referring to the popular route into Washington. “The 14th Street Bridge can handle so much [traffic] and at some point it gets jammed up. … And, if you do this right, what you want to do is, you want to open up another lane and then you want to open up another bridge.”TRANSCOM now moves 50 percent of its cargo through Pakistan and another 30 percent through alternative northern routes, including through Russia, McNabb said. The supplies that move through the alternative northern routes are nonmilitary items, such as building supplies and food.Meanwhile, 20 percent of cargo, including all lethal and sensitive equipment, moves by air, McNabb said. But that comes with a steep price tag that is roughly 10 times greater than the cost of surface shipments.Despite its high cost, McNabb called air shipments his “ultimate ace in the hole” if there’s a tough winter in Afghanistan. But he also acknowledged it would put a strain on the fleet, particularly the Eisenhower-era refueling tankers the Air Force flies.For some urgently needed equipment, such as the mine-resistant all-terrain vehicles the military is buying for Afghanistan, air is the only way for shipment — at least for now.So far, the military has sent 236 of the M-ATVs to Afghanistan, at a shipping cost of about $130,000 per vehicle, McNabb said.Generally, the military flies five vehicles aboard a commercial Boeing 747-400 from Charleston, S.C., to the region and then transfers the M-ATVs to a C-17, which flies into Afghanistan, McNabb said. One C-17 can hold three M-ATVs, and can unload them very quickly.The military can handle air shipments of about 500 M-ATVs a month. Oshkosh Corp., the vehicle’s maker, has said it will start producing 1,000 vehicles a month beginning this month. This pace eventually will allow the military to move some vehicles more slowly by surface transportation to the region and then fly them into the war zone.

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December 1, 2009 by admin.

by Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated PressRobert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, declined to say how many additional troops would be deployed, but senior administration officials previously have said that about 30,000 will go in coming months, bringing the total American force to about 100,000.On top of previous reinforcements already sent this year, the troop buildup will nearly triple the American military presence in Afghanistan that Mr. Obama inherited when he took office and represents a high-stakes gamble by a new commander in chief that he can turn around an eight-year-old war that his own generals fear is getting away from the United States.The speech he plans to deliver at the United States Military Academy at West Point at 8 p.m. will be the first test of his ability to rally an American public that according to polls has grown sour on the war, as well as his fellow Democrats in Congress who have expressed deep skepticism about a deeper involvement in Afghanistan.Mr. Gibbs told reporters at the White House that Mr. Obama would discuss in the speech how he intended to pay for the plan - a major concern of his Democratic base - and would make clear that he had a time frame for winding down the American involvement in the war.”This is not an open-ended commitment,” Mr. Gibbs said.The administration was sending its special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, to Brussels on Tuesday to begin briefing NATO and European allies about the policy.He will be joined at NATO headquarters there on Friday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who will brief NATO foreign ministers in his capacity as the senior allied commander.Before leaving for West Point on Tuesday, Mr. Obama will meet with more than two dozen Congressional leaders at the White House to discuss his plan. Mr. Obama spent much of Monday calling allied leaders.He spoke for 40 minutes with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who signaled that France was not in a position to commit more troops. There are currently 3,750 French soldiers and 150 police officers in Afghanistan.”He said France would stay at current troop levels for as long as it takes to stabilize Afghanistan,” said an official briefed on the exchange, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private diplomatic exchange.Instead of troops, Mr. Sarkozy told Mr. Obama that France was putting its focus on a conference in London sponsored by Germany and Britain to rally support for Afghanistan, officials in Washington and France said.The French defense minister, Hervé Morin, publicly confirmed the French position on Monday, saying, “There is no question for now of raising numbers.”Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain said Monday that Britain would send 500 additional troops to Afghanistan in early December, raising the number of British troops there to 10,000.The announcement was closely coordinated between the governments in London and Washington, the two largest troop providers in the 43-nation coalition fighting in Afghanistan. Mr. Brown spoke to Mr. Obama by video link after his announcement in the House of Commons.Mr. Obama also called President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, and he met at the White House with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia.Administration officials said that Mr. Obama in his speech would lower American ambitions for the rate of training Afghan soldiers and the national police, a position that could put him at odds with some senior lawmakers.They have been pressing to expand and accelerate the training, to speed the day when Afghan forces could assume more security duties and American troops could begin to withdraw.In his strategic assessment, General McChrystal called for increasing the Afghan Army and the national police force by a combined 400,000 people.But after originally embracing this approach, administration officials had second thoughts, fearing that pursuing this goal would just churn out thousands of substandard recruits. An administration official said the focus now would be on producing somewhat fewer but better trained troops, as quickly as possible. The shift was reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal.Under the new plan, newly trained Afghan security forces will work with American or other allied forces at every level. General McChrystal recommended this requirement in his assessment to increase the quality of the Afghan force and “accelerate their ownership of Afghanistan’s security.”A senior Defense Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a plan that had not been formally announced, said Monday that the first additional troops would be thousands of Marines sent to opium-rich Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold in the south of Afghanistan. The Marines will begin to arrive in the region in January, the official said, and will be followed by a steady flow of tens of thousands..Most of the additional forces in the south will go to Kandahar Province, the Taliban heartland, where the United States is stretched thin and has very few troops in the province’s largest city, also called Kandahar. The Taliban are currently in control of large parts of the province and are contesting control of the city.The Defense Department official said that the additional United States troops would be used to try to secure the city and then the region.”With more forces we should be able to lock down the security in Kandahar and the surrounding areas of Kandahar,” the official said.The official said that after the president’s speech, which will begin at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday in Afghanistan, General McChrystal would brief his commanders and then embark on a daylong fly-around to visit NATO military installations in the country - Kandahar in the south, Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, Bagram Air Base in the east and Herat in the west.Reporting was contributed by Peter Baker, David E. Sanger, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler from Washington, Steven Erlanger from Paris, and John F. Burns from London.

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