LAT AM: SOUTHCOM Command Change; Regional Deal on Amazon Forests

First Female Commander for SOUTHCOM.

U.S. Southern Command has changed leaders and the new chief, U.S. Army General Laura Richardson, is the first woman to head the sprawling geographic combatant command.

U.S. Army General Laura J. Richardson, assumes command from Defense Secretary Lloyd  Austin at SOUTHCOM Headquarters in Doral, Florida, Oct. 29, 2021.  (SOUTHCOM photo by Master Sergeant Stephen J. Caruso)

In a command change ceremony October 29 at SOUTHCOM headquarters in Doral, Florida, Navy Admiral Craig Faller, turned over U.S. military responsibility for the Latin American and Caribbean regions to Richardson. The 57-year-old general is only the second woman, after Air Force General Lori Robinson, to lead a geographic combatant command.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended the ceremony as did several dignitaries from the region, including Colombia’s Minister of National Defense Diego Molano.

Austin congratulated Molano on the recent capture of Colombia’s most-wanted cartel leader, Dario Antonio Úsaga (alias Otoniel). The two defense leaders discussed deepening cooperation on strategic issues including Colombia’s contributions to global and regional security, migration, cyber defense, and intelligence. They also stressed the importance of respect for democracy and human rights in all aspects of the bilateral defense relationship, according to the Pentagon.

SOUTHCOM is responsible for providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation in its assigned area of responsibility which includes Central America (but not Mexico), South America and the Caribbean.

During the war in Iraq, Richardson commanded an assault helicopter battalion and flew missions to support troops on the ground, Austin noted. She later commanded U.S. Army North, before taking command of SOUTHCOM. “There isn’t a crisis that she can’t handle,” Austin said.

Reflecting on his nearly three years at SOUTHCOM, Faller noted that democracies in the Western Hemisphere have been under assault from a vicious circle of threats, the Tampa Bay Times reported. They include corruption, climate change, COVID-19, major hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes, and transnational criminal organizations as well as “the corrosive, malign influence of the People’s Republic of China.”

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Curbing Amazon Deforestation.

The week before the SOUTHCOM ceremony, after high-level talks in Colombia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a regional partnership to address deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

“We’ll give much-needed financial assistance to help manage protected areas and Indigenous territories, and we’ll help scale up low-carbon agricultural practices to farmers throughout the Amazon,” Blinken said October 21, in the capital, Bogota, the VoA website reported.

“This new regional partnership will help prevent up to 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere while capturing another 52,000 metric tons of carbon, and we estimate it will save — save — more than 45,000 hectares of forest,” he added.

Deforestation in the Maranhão state of Brazil, in 2016. (Photo by Ibama from Brasil – Operação Hymenaea, Julho/2016, via wikipedia)

The Amazon spans eight countries in South America, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The Amazon and other rainforests are crucial because they take in carbon dioxide and produce about one-fifth of the world’s oxygen. About a third of Colombia is in the Amazon.

FRIDAY FOTO October 29, 2021

Ahoy?

(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Edward Wargo)

U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant j.g. (junior grade) Robert DiRado competes in the National Commander in Chief Cup polo  tournament in Charleston, South Carolina on October 1, 2021.

Here at 4GWAR, this is not where we expect to see a member of the Coast Guard — on horseback with a polo mallet in hand. An Army officer, maybe. They’ve been playing polo since the 1890a.

The “Sport of Kings,” is believed first to have been played by Iranian and Turkic nomads in Central Asia, with the current form originating in Iran (Persia) and spreading east to India where the British encountered it in colonial days and took it back to England and the rest of western Europe.

In 1896, the U.S. Army took up the game at Fort Riley, Kansas. In addition to improving the riding skills of cavalrymen, polo taught leadership, teamwork and strategy, according to the United States Polo Association website. Polo was introduced at West Point in 1901. By 1914, 17 Army posts were playing polo. In 1928, the U.S. Army team made it to the final of the U.S. Open Polo Championship, and there were Army polo teams across the country, as well as in the Philippines, Hawaii and Panama. The other military branches, Air Force, Marines and Navy soon followed suit.

Lieutenant DiRado, who is the Executive Officer of the Southeast Regional Fisheries Training Center in Charleston, South Carolina, represents the Department of Homeland Security on the Navy team.

Army beat DiRado and his Navy teammates in the final round of the Commander in Chief Cup tournament. Just a week later, however, Di Rado was part of a joint Department of Defense team that defeated a British Armed Forces team. At the Churchill-Roosevelt Cup polo tournament October 9 and 10, in Aiken, South Carolina, the U.S. team dominated, winning 11-8.

PLANET A: Glasgow Climate Change Conference; Climate Risk Analysis by DoD, ONI

Climate Meeting in Glasgow.

World leaders, including President Joe Biden, will gather in Scotland Sunday (October 31, 2021) to discuss the threat posed by climate change, its ramifications and — hopefully — what more to do about it.

Known as the Conference of Parties or COP26, the 26th United Nations annual climate change summit, it will run for two weeks. This year’s summit will focus on negotiations to limit emissions, and could be “the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control,” according to the summit’s website.

The meeting comes just a week after several U.S. government agencies, including the Defense Department, have issued reports expressing their concerns about the fallout from climate change — severe weather has caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military installations, like Tyndall Air Force Base on Florida’s panhandle and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, on coastal North Carolina. Other military bases on Guam in the Pacific are vulnerable to rising seas.

Damaged aircraft hangar at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, following Hurricane Florence in 2018. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Allie Erenbaum )

And that’s not all, Pentagon planers are concerned that droughts, sea rise, ever fiercer cyclones and hurricanes will spawn massive migrations as people seek food, water, shelter and employment that could overwhelm other nations and spark political unrest and violence.

The Pentagon’s Climate Risk Analysis notes:

Climate change is reshaping the geostrategic, operational, and tactical environments with significant implications for U.S. national security and defense. Increasing temperatures; changing precipitation patterns; and more frequent, intense, and unpredictable extreme weather conditions caused by climate change are exacerbating existing risks and creating new security challenges for U.S. interests.

“Climate migration is absolutely affecting the United States directly, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told  NPR in an interview October 26. In Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America, “where farmers can’t grow crops, their traditional approaches to sustaining livelihood are very challenged. We’ve also seen that happen, of course, from Africa going up into Europe, other regions of the world,” she said.

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DOD Won’t be There.

Defense Department officials will not be attending the global climate conference in Scotland, the Defense One website reports.

Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told Defense One that no one from the Defense Department will accompany the president, but said officials “remain hard at work building climate resilience throughout the department and the force.”

Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, and Joseph Bryan, the Defense Department’s senior advisor for climate, are participating in an event Friday (October 28) at the New America think tank to talk about the Pentagon’s new climate report.

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National Intelligence Estimate.

Another government report, by the National Intelligence Council finds that “climate change will increasingly exacerbate risks to US national security interests as the physical impacts increase and geopolitical tensions mount about how to respond to the challenge.”

An overloaded Haitian vessel with interdicted stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard on September 14, 2021, during extensive migrant interdiction operations in support of Operation Southeast Watch. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Christian Homer)

The report, which examines climate change risks to U.S. nation security through 2040 arrived at three key judgments:

—Geopolitical tensions are likely to grow as countries increasingly argue about how to accelerate the reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions that will be needed to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Debate will center on who bears more responsibility to act and to pay—and how quickly—and countries will compete to control resources and dominate new technologies needed for the clean energy transition.

–The increasing physical effects of climate change are likely to exacerbate cross-border geopolitical flashpoints as states take steps to secure their interests.

—Scientific forecasts indicate that intensifying physical effects of climate change out to 2040 and beyond will be most acutely felt in developing countries, which we assess are also the least able to adapt to such changes. These physical effects will increase the potential for instability and possibly internal conflict in these countries, in some cases creating additional demands on US diplomatic, economic, humanitarian, and military resources.

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PLANET A is a new, occasional posting on climate change and the global impact it is having national security and the U.S. military. The name is derived from activists who warn that climate change is an urgent threat to the world because there is no Plan B to fix it — nor a Planet B to escape to.

ARCTIC NATION: U.S. Ice Breaker Circumnavigating North America; Canadian Coast Guard showing Royal Navy the Ropes in the Arctic

Ice Breaker Healy Heading for Home.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy navigates near Baffin Island, Canada on September 16, 2021. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Matt Masaschi)

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy is about a month away from completing its circumnavigation of North America. The aim of the mission is to strengthen allied partnerships along the way, while conducting Coast Guard missions and supporting scientific exploration to increase understanding of the changing Arctic environment.

Uniquely equipped to conduct scientific operations, Healy is also the premiere U.S. high-latitude research vessel. Healy is the only U.S. military surface vessel that routinely deploys to the ice-covered waters of the Arctic to provide access and secure national interests related to our maritime borders and natural resources.

After setting out from its homeport in Seattle on July 10, the 420-foot medium ice breaker sailed to the Gulf of Alaska, around the 49th state through the Bering and Chukchi seas to the Arctic Ocean where it patrolled before returning to Seward, Alaska in late August to pick up a team of international scientists to study sea ice and other conditions. Healy and its crew of 85 then retraced the cutter’s journey around Alaska to the Beaufort Sea, transited the Northwest Passage — now more accessible in summer as sea ice continues to decline — through Canadian waters to Baffin Bay, the Davis Strait and Nuuk, Greenland September 13.

Healy’s crew and  the science team deployed research equipment in Baffin Bay and off the coast of Greenland. After another stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Healy entered Boston Harbor October 14. The next day the Coast Guard held an Arctic discussion roundtable aboard the Healy.   Coast Guard Vice Admiral Steven Poulin, the Atlantic Area commander, along with the Coast Guard 1st District command, Rear Admiral Thomas Allan, and the ice breaker’s commander, Captain Kenneth Boda, were joined by more than 20 professors, students, and Arctic leaders from several U.S. universities.

The U.S. Coast Guard held an Arctic discussion roundtable aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy in Boston on Oct. 15, 2021. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lieutenant Commander Katie Blue)

On Prince of Wales Strait, a narrow stretch of water separating two islands in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Boda told the Seattle Times , stretches of shoreline had collapsed due to permafrost thaw. Boda said the crew was largely able to find open water rather than having to break ice. Healy is expected to return to Seattle around November 20 after taking the Panama Canal back to the Pacific Ocean.

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Canadian Coast Guard Trains UK Royal Navy

The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy is learning the cold facts about operating in the Arctic from shipmates in the Canadian Coast Guard, who have a great deal of cold weather experience, SEAPOWER reports.

British sailors are training with Canadians on how to navigate through icy waters and how to break ice where necessary. At the same time, Canadian Coast Guard personnel will have operational training opportunities with the Royal Navy and gain experience with crewless technology.

An agreement to formalize the arrangement was signed between the two NATO nations at the Canadian Coast Guard’s (CCG) headquarters in Ottawa on October 8.

U.S., British and Canadian flags fly over Ice Camp Seadragon during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2020. ICEX 2020 is a biennial submarine exercise which promotes interoperability between allies and partners to maintain operational readiness and regional stability, while improving capabilities to operate in the Arctic environment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael B. Zingaro)

“The sharing of the Canadian Coast Guard’s wide experience and expertise will mean British sailors are better equipped when sailing to the frozen region,” the Royal Navy said in a press statement.

Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking vessels, from hovercraft to heavy and light icebreaking and long-endurance ships, keep Canadian ports open year-round, freeing ice-bound vessels, escorting ships through ice-covered waters and maintaining a constant presence the High North during the navigable season.

The Royal Navy has shown a renewed interest in the Arctic region in recent years because of its key strategic importance to the security of the U.K.

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Nuclear submarine USS Toledo in the Arctic Ocean 2020. (U.S. Navy Photo by MC1 Michael B. Zingaro)

ARCTIC NATION is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military and environmental developments in the Far North. The 2013 U.S. “National Strategy for the Arctic Region” described the United States as “an Arctic Nation with broad and fundamental interests” in the region. Since that strategy was developed, mineral riches beneath the Arctic Sea – which is bordered by six nations, Canada, Denmark (which controls Greenland), Iceland, Norway, Russia and the United States — have prompted concerns about a “Cold Rush” of industries, corporations, speculators and governments hoping to take advantage of resources once thought inaccessible.

FRIDAY FOTO (October 22, 2021)

Preparation is Everything.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aaron Lau)

Firefighters and Sailors, assigned to the littoral combat ship USS Detroit (LCS 7), respond to simulated fires during a fire drill aboard the ship on October 6, 2021. The Detroit is homeported at Naval Station Mayport, Florida.

We thought the lighting and composition of this photo is amazing. Please click on the photo to enlarge the image.

The U.S. Navy takes fires very seriously. At Naval Service Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois — the Navy’s only enlisted boot camp – recruits are trained in firefighting as one of five basic competencies, which also include: Damage control, watch standing, seamanship and small-arms handling/marksmanship.

The importance of firefighting aboard ship was driven home in July 2020 when the amphibious assault ship, USS Bonhomme Richard, caught fire beside the pier at Naval Base San Diego, California and burned for four days. No lives were lost but the 22-year-old Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) was a total loss. It had been in San Diego since 2018 undergoing more than $250 million in modernization improvements. When the fire was finally out and the damage assessed, Navy leaders determined it was too costly to rebuild and decided to scrap the huge vessel.

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Latest Developments in Bonhomme Richard fire investigation.

The Navy issued two devastating reports October 20, following a lengthy investigation into the causes and response to the fire. The suspected arson fire that destroyed the $2 billion combat ship spread uncontrollably because of a cascading chain of errors including insufficient training of the crew, an accumulation of combustible repair and maintenance materials, and most of the ship’s fire stations being out of commission at the time of the fire.

There were four categories of causal factors that allowed for the accumulation of significant risk and led to an ineffective fire response, according to the Navy. They included the material condition of the ship, the training and readiness of the ship’s crew, the integration between the ship and supporting shore-based firefighting organizations, and lastly, the oversight by commanders across multiple organizations. The investigation concluded “a lack of familiarity with requirements and procedural noncompliance at multiple levels of command” contributed to the loss of ship.

“The loss of this ship was completely preventable,” said the Navy’s Number 2 commander, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Bill Lescher.

The investigation also found that a raft of systemic reforms put in place following a 2012 shipyard fire in Maine that destroyed the submarine USS Miami were not followed, helping fuel Bonhomme Richard’s demise in the process, according to the Navy Times.

Additionally, the report recognized the “bravery, ingenuity, and resourcefulness in the actions of Sailors across the San Diego waterfront and others who had a role in the response,” and identified 10 meritorious performance recommendations for actions taken during the firefighting efforts, SEAPOWER reported.

The cascade of errors and breakdowns involved 36 Navy personnel, the investigation found, including the commander of the Bonhomme Richard and five admirals, who failed to maintain the ship, ensure adequate training, provide shore support, or carry out proper oversight, according to CNN.

The preliminary hearing for the crew member charged with starting the fire, who has not been identified, is scheduled for November 17.

FRIDAY FOTO (October 15, 2021)

Dress (Rhythm and) Blues.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sergeant Erin Morejon) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Well this is something you don’t see every day.

This photo shows Marines with the Parris Island Marine Band in their dress blue uniforms playing electric and bass guitars at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina.

Portraits of band members were being taken for recruiting photos April 10, 2021 to support the Musicians Enlistment Option Program.

Instrumentalists and vocalists who want to join the Marines can put their musical talents to work through the Marine Corps Musician Enlistment Option Program (MEOP). Performing throughout the continental United States and internationally, Marine musicians serve as musical ambassadors of the Marine Corps. For the record, the Marine Corps has 10 bands based around the world.

To qualify for the MEOP, recruits must first audition and qualify for the music program. Every MEOP recruit attends the Corps’ 13-week recruit training and, upon graduation, attends the Naval School of Music for advanced instrumental and academic training. Check it out here. There’s also a cool musician/recruiting video, here.

SHAKO: Happy Birthday U.S. Navy

 Still Underway after 246 Years.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Megan Alexander) Click on image to enlarge photo.

On this day (October 13) in 1775, the Continental Congress voted for two vessels each to be fitted out and armed with 10 carriage guns, a proportional number of swivel guns, and a crew of 80. Lawmakers directed the pair of ships be  sent out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America.

So like the U.S. Army, which the Continental Congress created on June 14, 1775 — months before the Declaration of Independence — the U.S. Navy is older than the country it serves. A point President Joe Biden noted in his birthday greetings to the Navy.

“The founding of the naval service began before our Nation’s independence, when General George Washington wrote a letter to the Continental Congress, asking for properly equipped ships to prevent enemy vessels from bringing supplies to the British Army. That moment marked a turning point in the American Revolution and paved the way for our Nation’s seafaring military might,” Biden wrote — adding “As the United States rises to face the global challenges that will shape our future, the Navy remains what it always has been-ready to meet the moment. Our active duty and Navy Reserve sailors are not only trained to fight, but equipped to provide humanitarian assistance. From disaster relief in devastated areas to assisting refugees and deploying emergency medical units, the work of our Nation’s sailors is vital to combatting the interconnected challenges of our time. Even through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Navy delivered lifesaving vaccines across oceans to vulnerable communities around the world.”

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The photo above shows an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the Black Knights of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 4, lifting off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. The Sea Hawk was beginning a vertical resupply-at-sea with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and the Royal Australian Navy fleet replenishment vessel HMAS Sirius on Oct. 10, 2021 in the Indian Ocean (two of which can been seen in the background).

In the foreground of the photo are some of the Vinson’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet attack fighters.

The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability through alliances and partnerships with nations in the area while serving as a ready-response force in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to the Navy.

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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York in the photo.

FRIDAY FOTO (October 8, 2021)

Loaded Up and Truckin’

(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Antwain Hanks)

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the U.S. Air Force 35th Fighter Wing is positioned on the flight line waiting to take off during Exercise Beverly Sunrise 21-08 at Misawa Air Base, Japan on September 22, 2021.

The exercise allowed airmen to test their Agile Combat Employment (ACE) and Multi-Capable Airmen (MCA) skills by expanding the scope of tasks pilots, ground crews, safety, security, medical and other personnel can complete to recover and relaunch aircraft rapidly from a simulated austere location.

FRIDAY FOTO (October 3, 2021)

Son of a Sailor.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Spencer Fling)

Seaman Dominick Mazuera, with his father at his side, lifts his son Mateo in the air after seeing him for the first time since joining the Navy and graduating from Recruit Training Command.

More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp based at Great Lakes, Illinois.

In addition to the technical difficulties that delayed this week’s FRIFO, your 4GWAR Editor was faced with some tough choices for this week’s subject matter. We try to give each of the services their fair share of attention, we also try for a really beautiful photo, or else one that may not be great art but has an important story behind it. Nothing like that leaped out at us until we saw this sweet little image. The caption provided by the Navy gives the basic information, the imagery itself does the rest.

Your 4GWAR editor has been on the road a lot over the past two months from Pittsburgh, PA to the rocky coast of Maine and most of the mid-Atlantic states in between. In every city and town we visited there were vacant, boarded up businesses, big hotels empty as ghost towns and local restaurants and night spots struggling to survive with a skeleton staff. And yet everywhere — literally everywhere — we saw help wanted signs.

During this time we visited with old classmates, family and friends, all of whom have been through a rugged year and a half, battered by fire and flood — literally — long hours with little respite as nurses, teachers and other critical workers, all manner of physical and mental health challenges from depression and stress to COVID and cancer. (If you click on the second highlighted item above you’ll see the pains the Navy has taken to protect its recruits and other personnel from the pandemic) To paraphrase Thomas Paine, These are the times that try people’s souls.

So this little happy moment in time made the final FRIDAY FOTO cut. We hope you experience some of the joy, optimism — and a bit of pride — it gave us.

On that note, we leave you with the Jimmy Buffett song that inspired the headline for this week’s posting.