Army Times

LAHORE, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers killed 43 people in near-simultaneous blasts, the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week and a clear sign that militants have the power to strike targets despite months of army offensives and U.S. missile strikes.

Friday’s twin bombings in the eastern city of Lahore, which also wounded about 100 people, raised fears of a new wave of attacks by Islamic militants. With no explanation of why the violence is surging now or how long it could last, Pakistanis have been left to guess at how bloody the situation could get.

“This is an attack against our people, our country,” said senior Lahore official Sajjad Bhutta, calling on law enforcement agencies to improve their intelligence networks.

Underscoring the widespread fear, a series of small explosions injured at least three people and sparked panic in another Lahore neighborhood late Friday night. Police officials said the five low-intensity blasts apparently resulted from loose explosives scattered through the residential area of Iqbal Town. While the explosions terrified residents and sent police and rescue workers racing through town, there were no reports of deaths or major damage.

The two suicide bombers, who were on foot, set off their explosives within seconds of each other near two trucks carrying soldiers on patrol in RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood with numerous military buildings. About 10 of those killed were soldiers, Police Chief Parvaiz Rathore said.

It was the second major attack in the eastern city of Lahore this week.

Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose and bystanders rushed the wounded into ambulances. Video shot by a cell phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Who are these beasts? Oh my God!” Bukhari shouted after the blast in a mixture of English and Urdu.

The explosions killed 43 people and injured about 100, said senior police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida, which have been fighting to destabilize the U.S.-allied Islamabad government.

They launched a bloody wave of bombings last fall across Pakistan, leaving 600 people dead in near-daily attacks done in apparent retaliation for an army offensive against the insurgents’ main stronghold, in the tribal region of South Waziristan along the Afghan border.

The government offensive was seen as fairly effective, forcing many Taliban leaders to flee and reducing the area where the insurgents could operate openly.

The insurgent attacks slowed early this year. In recent months, they have been smaller, farther apart and largely confined to remote regions near Afghanistan.

But on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where police interrogated suspects — including militants — killing 13 people and wounding dozens. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Also this week, suspected militants attacked the offices of a U.S.-based Christian aid group in northwestern Pakistan, killing six Pakistani employees, while a bombing at a small, makeshift movie theater in the city of Peshawar killed four people.

It remains unclear why the violence is increasing now. It could be in revenge for a series of recent arrests, or, less likely, because of the visit to Pakistan this week by Afghan President Hamid Karzai — a bitter enemy of the Taliban.

Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for Pakistan’s tribal regions, long an insurgent stronghold, sees the attacks as violent flailing by semi-independent militant groups who lost many of their leaders in the government offensive.

It will be hard, he said, to crush them without better intelligence.

“You can’t have a centralized strategy against them because they have no centralized leadership,” he said.

But he also doubts insurgents have the resources to launch the same kind of series of attacks that swept Pakistan last year.

The attacks certainly show the insurgent network has not been crushed despite the recent arrests and regular U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan against Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives. While many of the arrests remain closely guarded secrets, the militants known to have been arrested in Pakistan include the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are believed to have lost their top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a U.S. missile strike in January. The group has denied Mehsud is dead but has failed to prove he’s still alive, and the attacks could be a way to show they are still relevant.

“The Pakistani Taliban are telegraphing that they are able to strike despite the hits they have taken,” said analyst Kamran Bokhari of the U.S.-based security analysis firm STRATFOR, said. “It looks like we are in the middle of a new wave of attacks.”

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Dogar reported from Lahore; Sullivan from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.

ATLANTA — The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into a security breach of veterans’ medical information at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a physician assistant stored unauthorized clinical information on her personal laptop regarding veterans who were seen at one of the VA specialty clinics. The newspaper sites an internal document it obtained.

Katie Roberts, the press secretary for the VA, confirmed the investigation.

The newspaper reports the agency has yet to determine how many veterans are affected or the degree to which the data contained personal and medical information.

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Information from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Three hours after a Navy helicopter crashed last month in West Virginia’s snow- covered mountains, National Guard medic Casey Dunfee cracked his cable on the floor of a Black Hawk rescue helicopter to break the ice and lowered himself hundreds of feet to the wreckage below.

Seventeen crew members of the downed MH-60S Navy helicopter — suffering from such injuries as broken legs, a broken back and a crushed arm — anxiously awaited rescue as they shivered in biting winds, 17-degree temperatures and deep snow drifting higher than their heads in some places.

Gov. Joe Manchin joined the West Virginia Senate on Friday in recognizing Dunfee and other members of the Army and Air National Guard rescue team for their courageous rescue. The governor presented the National Guard with a special commendation.

“They say that with skill and determination you can expect a masterpiece,” the governor said. “That’s what you get when you call in the National Guard.”

All the victims of the Feb 18 crash in Pocahontas County, save one, have been released from the hospital. All are expected to survive, including a crewmember trapped beneath the helicopter when it came to rest in deep snow with its tail shorn away and its main rotor obliterated by the impact.

Though the snow and cold made rescue difficult, West Virginia Guard adjutant general Gen. Allen Tackett said the deep snow helped softened the crash. “If that snow hadn’t been there on the ground, we’d probably have 17 casualties today.”

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Middleton, who walked away from the downed helicopter with a bloody nose and a few cuts and scrapes, said, “The snow got us into this, but it also got us out of it.”

Dunfee said he could hear and feel tree limbs snapping around him as he dropped via a cable from the Black Hawk hovering above the tree line. He landed near the wrecked helicopter, his weight settling into about 8 inches of snow. Not too bad, he thought, until he stood up and his feet sank down about 4 feet, the snow coming up to his chest.

Rescue pilot Kevin Hazuka said his Black Hawk was within seven minutes of running out of fuel when he dropped Dunfee and Hopkins near the crash site, knowing they would have to ride out the night until more rescuers could reach them the next day.

He dodged a menacing snow storm to get the first rescuers to the scene amid thick clouds, blinding snow and spotty communications with the downed craft.

Though Dunfee and fellow medic Nicole Hopkins landed near the crash scene, it took them the better part of two hours to reach the injured: they made their way one step forward, one step back, up a steep hillside booby-trapped by fallen trees and rocks hidden under snow.

Once they arrived they quickly assessed the injured. They reached two men trapped inside the aircraft by climbing up the tail, clambering atop the cabins and engines. Dunfee and Hopkins worked to stabilize the injured until other rescuers could make their way in.

The pair ran IVs to keep the injured hydrated, but the lines froze within 20 minutes. The drinking water they had with them froze, too, and had to be melted with the help of a fire.

With too few blankets, the medics and less-seriously injured crewmen would take turns standing by the fire to warm themselves before huddling up against the injured to share body heat, making sure to keep them talking and alert.

They gathered up all the candy, beef jerky, apples and other snacks the crew had with them, and shared a little nearly every hour.

Hopkins, who squeezed herself between the injured Navy men trapped inside the helicopter to warm them, said they feasted on Sour Patch Kids candy. “I’d give him two and then the other guy two,” she said. “And we had a couple of laughs,” she said — anything to keep their minds off the pain.

It took rescuers on the ground hours to nail down the helicopter’s location, but they finally zeroed in on the large orange rescue panels that the stranded crew hung in the trees and on flares they set off.

Nearly 16 hours after the crash, the first six victims walked out to safety. Five were brought out on stretchers. The last came off the mountain five hours later.

Though the official investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, Hazuka says the accumulation of heavy ice on the rotors likely brought down the helicopter, which was based at the Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

MIAMI — The training schedule for U.S. military operations in Latin American and the Caribbean is changing because of ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.

U.S. Southern Command announced a revamped training schedule Friday. Typically, SouthCom runs nearly a dozen multinational exercises focused on security and humanitarian assistance in the region.

Three exercises were canceled. One new humanitarian exercise in Haiti is scheduled this summer. A dozen medical training exercises will provide medical support in Haiti through September.

SouthCom officials say the training schedule was adjusted in response to the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, and could be changed again if their operational needs change.

The winners of the 35th Culinary Arts Competition at Fort Lee, Va., were announced Friday.

The annual competition drew 629 entries from 229 competitors, according to a release from Fort Lee. Chefs and other culinary artists and teams took home a total of 494 medals, including 133 gold medals.

The winners are:

• Installation of the Year: first place, U.S. Army Team Europe; second place, Fort Bragg, N.C.; third place, Team Coast Guard.

Winners in the other major competition categories were:

• Armed Forces Chef of the Year: Staff Sgt. Joshua Spiess, Fort Monroe, Va.

• Armed Forces Junior Chef of the Year: Pfc. Antoinette Davison, Team Europe.

• Field Cooking Competition: Team Fort Monroe, Va.

• Student Team Skills Competition: Team Fort Bliss, Texas.

• Nutritional Hot Food Challenge: CSC Derrick Davenport and CS1 Michael Edwards, Team U.S. Navy.

• Baron H. Galand Culinary Knowledge Bowl: Team Fort Bragg, N.C.

• Best Ice Carving in Show: Team Puerto Rico.

• Army Senior Enlisted Aide of the Year: Sgt. 1st Class Sherra Jackson, Fort Myer, Va.

• Army Junior Enlisted Aide of the Year: Staff Sgt. Jose Alves, Fort Lee, Va.

Winners in special categories included:

• Best Exhibit in Show (Category A, cold platter): Sgt. Ken Turman, Team Europe.

• Best Exhibit in Show (Category B, cold appetizers): Staff Sgt. Stevie Bronson, Team Europe.

• Best Exhibit in Show (Category C, patisserie/confectionery): Spc. William Pelkey, Team Europe.

• Best Exhibit in Show (Category D, showpiece): Master Sgt. Mark Morgan, Fort Monroe, Va.

• Most Artistic Exhibit in Show: Sgt. Trent Skinner, Team U.S. Army Reserve.

• Best Team Buffet Table (Category E): Team Europe.

• Judges Special Award (Cold Food Table): Team Fort Hood, Texas.

• Best in Class, contemporary cooking (Category K): Sgt. Billy Daugette, Team Pentagon; Sgt. Ashley Schei, Team Hawaii.

• Best in Class, contemporary pastry (Category P): Spc. William Pelkey, Team Europe.

WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war.

The number was well above the 16.6 percent jobless rate for non-veterans of the same ages, 18 to 24.

As of last year, 1.9 million had deployed for the wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some have struggled with mental health problems, addictions, and homelessness as they return home. Difficulty finding work can make the adjustment harder.

The just-released rate for young veterans was significantly higher than the unemployment rate of young veterans in that age group (14.1 percent) in 2008.

Many of the unemployed are members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed multiple times, said Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion. Sharpe said some come home to find their jobs have been eliminated because the company has downsized. Other companies may not want to hire someone who could deploy again or will have medical appointments because of war-related health problems, he said.

“It’s a horrible environment because if you’re a reservist and you’re being deployed two or three times in a five-year period, you know you’re less competitive,” Sharpe said. “Many companies that are already hurting are reluctant to hire you and time kind of moves on once you’re deployed.”

One veteran looking for work is Dario DiBattista, 26, of Abingdon, Md., a graduate student who did two tours in Iraq in the Marine Reserves with a civil affairs unit. He said he’s found that a lot of military skills don’t readily transfer into the workplace, and in many cases, there aren’t jobs to apply for even if companies want to hire veterans.

“If you don’t have a strong family support system ... it’s hard to get over the hump to make the decision of where you’re going to live, what you do for work, where you’re going to go to school, if you can even qualify to get into school,” DiBattista said.

For veterans of all ages from the recent wars, the unemployment rate in 2009 was 10.2 percent. Historically, younger veterans have had more difficulty than their older counterparts finding a job because they often have less training and job experience. Some joined the military right out of high school.

One possible solution is to make it easier for veterans to transfer certifications they have for jobs they did in the military into the civilian workforce, Sharpe said.

The Labor and Veterans Affairs departments have a variety of programs addressing the problem. The hope is that one program, the Post-9/11 GI Bill rolled out last year, will be particularly effective. Under it, $78 billion is expected to be paid out in education benefits over the next decade for veterans of the recent wars to attend school.

The national unemployment rate last year was 9.3 percent, the highest since 1983.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A North Carolina-based soldier has been charged in connection with several sexual assaults and burglaries near Fort Bragg.

Authorities said Friday the new charges against 22-year-old Spc. Aaron Pernell, of Tulsa, Okla., came after a task force reviewed a series of attacks in Fayetteville and neighboring Hoke County since June.

The 26 new charges include three counts each of first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping; five counts of attempted second-degree rape; and six counts of first-degree burglary.

Pernell was charged last month in two burglaries and a sexual assault at Fort Bragg. He remains in military custody and it wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Authorities say the task force has determined a second rape suspect is in the area, but hasn’t identified the man.

Related reading

• Spc. investigated in series of sexual assaults

VIENNA — At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the Austrian army, government officials said Friday. An army statement suggested some of the remains may be that of U.S. pilots shot down and imprisoned during World War II.

Police Col. Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry plans talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation, adding it was not yet clear whether the army owned the property or was renting it.

The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contain about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.

The graves were identified from wartime photos, made from U.S. bombers, showing open graves and bodies. U.S. authorities made the imagery available on request of Austrian historians tasked two years ago by Defense Minister Norbert Darabos with researching documented war crimes at the site, used by the SS during World War II.

A statement available Friday on the Austrian army web site said up to 219 people were massacred at the location during the dying days of World War II in an attempt to hush up atrocities committed there.

Among other things the probe was meant to “find out more over the identity and the whereabouts of the victims killed in the last days of the Second World War,” said the statement. “The systematic violence of the Gestapo ... focused mostly on resistance fighters, prisoners of war, concentration camp inmates and forced laborers but also shot-down U.S. pilots.”

The site originally contained hundreds of victims but many were moved by the officer in charge of the wartime facility out of fears that he would be found responsible for the killing. The exhumation and reburials were stopped, however, because of the approach of the Soviet Army.

While the relocated bodies were subsequently found and given a proper burial, about 70 of the dead remained unaccounted for until they were located by the probe.

The army statement said that the investigation also established the identities of two suspected perpetrators who subsequently fled to Germany and could still be alive. It gave no details.

———

Associated Press writer Alex Mueller contributed to this report.

At a recent think-tank discussion in Washington, a former Marine described a commander who wouldn't allow troops to get mental health counseling unless they obtained a permission slip — which was attached to a 3-foot-tall teddy bear that they had to carry to the counseling session.

Washington lawmakers can talk all they want about removing the stigma of seeking mental health help, but what really counts is what's happening at your duty station. Have you heard similar tales of humiliation for troops trying to get mental health counseling? Send your stories to mentalhealth@militarytimes.com. No names will be used without permission.

Federal employees can now use their Family and Medical Leave Act benefits — up to 12 weeks of leave each year — to help a family member who is in the military and deployed overseas, according to a March 5 memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management.

Feds now can use their FMLA leave to arrange for childcare of a deployed relative’s son or daughter, attend official ceremonies related to the service member’s deployment, or make funeral arrangements if the service member is killed. Employees can use sick or annual leave under FMLA, but if they run out, must take unpaid leave.

OPM said federal employees can take leave to:

• Attend military or American Red Cross family support or assistance programs related to the deployment.

• Enroll the service member’s child in a new school or day care facility and attend meetings with school or day care staff.

• Meet with government agencies on behalf of the service member to obtain or appeal military benefits.

• Make or update financial or legal arrangements for the service member, such as preparing a will.

• Attend counseling for themselves, the service member or for the service member’s child, as long as the counseling is related to the deployment.

• Take care of a child when there is an urgent and immediate need, but not on a regular basis.

The employee must be a spouse, son, daughter or parent of a deployed service member to be eligible for leave.

Feds also can take up to 26 weeks of paid or unpaid leave per year to help a family member who is sick or injured as a result of previous active duty military service, OPM said.

Congress expanded employees’ benefits under FMLA as part of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that was passed last fall.

Service members and veterans praise legislation that would expand access to mental health care — but they question the military’s ability to improve treatment given the challenges of today’s high operations tempo.

One proposal in the House would require all returning combat veterans to undergo confidential, face-to-face mental health screening. Another would allow direct access to mental health counseling without a referral from a primary care physician.

The bills are designed to detect mental health problems and prevent suicides and attempts at a time of record suicide rates in the armed forces.

Troops receive pre- and post-deployment screenings, but they are not necessarily evaluated by licensed professionals in optimal settings.

Army Lt. Col. Jason Wieman, a physician at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., said the services simply don’t have enough psychiatrists, physicians and nurses to adequately screen and provide follow-up care to the thousands of service members cycling in and out of the war zones on a regular basis.

“This is an issue of extreme importance for us as a nation,” Rep. Michael McMahon, D-N.Y., told a crowded conference room during a discussion Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

At least 349 service members committed suicide last year, McMahon said, adding that just weeks ago, an Army Ranger from near his congressional district with two tours of duty killed himself in a shopping-mall parking lot.

McMahon and Rep. Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., worked together last spring to introduce HR1308, the Veterans Mental Health Screening and Assessment Act. Portions of the bill were included in the 2010 defense budget.

McMahon said he was glad to see $500 million in additional funding for mental health care in the budget, but said language for mandatory screening was left out.

The two lawmakers paired up again last fall to introduce HR 3839, the Counselor Accessibility Reform and Expansion (CARE) for Soldiers Act. Both bills have been referred to subcommittee and have no companion legislation in the Senate.

Wieman said he welcomed the initiatives but noted the perennial shortage of licensed mental health care providers in the military.

“The medical system simply doesn’t have that resourcing,” he said.

Returning home

As the division surgeon for Multi-National Division-Baghdad during the troop surge from 2006 to 2007, Wieman helped oversee the redeployment of some 17,000 troops to Fort Hood, Texas. He said 30 percent of those returning troops — more than 5,000 soldiers — indicated in post-deployment screenings a need for follow-up mental health care, but relatively few received immediate treatment because of shortages of credentialed providers.

The screening “almost made the situation worse because help wasn’t provided on an immediate basis,” he said.

Timothy Muchmore, a former soldier and now deputy director in the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, cited the Army’s record suicide rate, which reached 23 per 100,000 soldiers in 2009.

Citing the different lengths of deployments among the branches of service, Muchmore questioned whether Army combat tours should be shortened from 12 months to nine months, and dwell time increased to as much as three years between deployments.

“Left to its own devices, the Army will continue to spin as fast as it can,” he said. “Perhaps Congress has to step in and provide some minimums and maximums,” he said.

William Collins, a former Judge Advocate General in the Marine Corps and now an advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said removing the stigma of mental health disorders from military culture will be a long-term challenge.

Collins recounted a story about a service member seeking mental health counseling on post who was told by a commander that he could do so only after obtaining the “chit,” a slip of paper authorizing permission — which was attached to a 3-foot-tall stuffed animal.

“If you wanted to go to mental health, you had to carry this giant teddy bear,” he said.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — In the living room of a tract home deep inside a sprawling military base, visitor Nicole Wong opens her arsenal of teaching tricks: a plastic craft box filled with homemade puzzles, magic markers and shaving cream.

Meridyth Clark, 2, and her sister Olivia, 4, are immediately hooked.

"What does that feel like?" Wong asks as she squirts the shaving cream onto a tray and lets the girls dig in.

"Daddy!" says Olivia. "It smells like Daddy."

Wong, a visiting educator with Fort Leonard Wood's Heroes at Home program, is part of an $8 million federally funded military version of Parents as Teachers at 24 bases nationwide. The program provides free education tips for parents as well as in-home early childhood screening for disabilities and learning delays.

"See, Mom," Wong says later to Ashley Clark who sits nearby. "We're building those hand and small motor skills."

Started in 1981 as a small program for new parents in four Missouri school districts, Parents as Teachers has evolved into an international household brand, embedding itself in living rooms from Fort Leonard Wood all the way to China. It's so big, the organization has a sprawling training center in the warehouse district of Maryland Heights for new educators from around the world.

Yet the recession has placed this early childhood education powerhouse in the financial line of fire, potentially forcing it to scale back not only its reach in Missouri but also the program model it had hoped other states would follow.

As its funding shrinks, options may include — for the first time — charging middle- and high-income Missouri families for follow-up visits.

"As funding gets more lean, one of the things that we're beginning to look at is to provide some fee-based services," said Chris Nicastro, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the agency that administers Parents as Teachers' contracts statewide. "It's not something we'd like to do. We recognize the program has been extremely popular with middle-class families. But we want to make sure (it) can still be available to them."

Revenue shortfalls are dire both in Missouri and nationwide.

Last month, the Pentagon threatened to cut all of its funding for the Heroes at Home program. In Missouri, lawmakers are close to approving Gov. Jay Nixon's recommended $4.1 million cut to Parents as Teachers Missouri programs in its next fiscal year. That move, coupled with another $3.4 million cut in the last budget season and a recent $2 million withholding, would shave 22 percent off its original $34 million budget in 18 months.

Missouri is the only state in the country that publicly funds Parents as Teachers programs in all of its school districts, allowing all parents, regardless of income, access to free services.

For years, its national branch has pressed other states to replicate that funding model, arguing that the broad investment saves taxpayers millions in special education programs by catching learning issues early and sending more children to kindergarten prepared to learn.

Critics in the Legislature say the organization may be helping too many in the middle class who could pay for these resources or find them elsewhere, while not focusing enough on needy families.

Parents as Teachers currently classifies 57 percent of its served families in Missouri as high-needs.

"We felt their direction maybe needed to be emphasizing the higher-needs students," said Rep. Mike Thomson, R-Maryville, the chair of the Missouri House Appropriations Committee for Education.

Sue Stepleton, CEO of Parents as Teachers National Center, said Missouri's nationally touted model would probably have to retool given what's being said by those who hold the purse strings.

She said legislators should not underestimate the program's significance to the middle class. Limiting free visits in those homes to initial screenings will lead to more children with undiagnosed learning disabilities and developmental problems, she said. "There will be less families being served, and there will be delays that are missed," she said.

The organization calculates that taxpayers save $3,700 per child per year in special education costs because of early screenings. Regardless of socioeconomic background, schools also benefit from increased parental engagement in early learning and school activities, Stepleton said.

The mandate to refocus its resources on the needy was not completely unexpected. Since August, the national branch of Parents as Teachers has been working with Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to better extend its reach, Nicastro said.

By next year, the department will offer financial incentives to entice educators to reach families with higher need. Parents as Teachers educators who visit those families would earn nearly double what they are paid to work with a middle-class family, Nicastro said.

In richer times, Missouri legislators on both sides of the aisle were drawn to Parents as Teachers because it appealed to a broad base of voters. With the exception of a cut in 2003, it has been funded at a mostly steady level for the past decade. But with the state facing what one legislator called "a drop off a budgetary cliff," priorities have changed.

"I guess it gets down to the point, can we afford that luxury in a very difficult time?" Thomson said.

News of the cuts set off a firestorm on Facebook and other social media sites popular with parents. Stepleton warned that officials are likely to feel that heat at election time.

"They will be held accountable by voters by the decisions they make," she said. "I trust they will make the decisions in that light."

Parents as Teachers' most prominent political supporter was hesitant to criticize the Missouri cuts.

"I have been through tough times in Missouri, and that is a very important, very difficult choice for the governor and the General Assembly," said Republican Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond.

Bond, however, is still going to bat for the programs. Last month, his office helped win a temporary reprieve from the Pentagon, keeping Heroes at Home off the budgetary chopping block at least until September.

Meanwhile, belt-tightening has begun. The St. Charles School District decided last month to cap Parents as Teachers visits with district families because it feared it would not be reimbursed for extras, said Superintendent Randy Charles.

The district previously allowed more visits than budgeted because it could count on additional Parents as Teachers funding left over from other districts that failed to fully enroll their own programs. The district expects that pool to dry up soon, he said.

At Fort Leonard Wood, the news that Olivia and Meridyth might lose their visits with Wong because of budget cuts didn't sit well with their mother.

The family is still adjusting to her husband's recent return from Iraq. The Clarks have moved nine times in 11 years for his career in the Military Police.

"With moving so much and having a life almost in constant chaos, it's beneficial to have Parents as Teachers come in to remind you on how to reconnect with your children and where they should be at their age," Ashley Clark said. "It's also a special treat for the kids. It's something for them — something not just for Dad."

FORT RILEY, Kan. — A unit from the Army's 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley is heading to Kuwait soon to begin the process of bringing soldiers home from Iraq.

The 1st Sustainment Brigade will hold a ceremony on Monday to case its colors in preparation for the deployment. The brigade assists combat units in their operations.

The soldiers are expected to be gone from Kansas for a year.

The United States will begin reducing the number of combat troops in Iraq to about 50,000 by August as part of a security agreement with the Iraqi government. The agreement leaves noncombat units to assist with advising, training and support operations.

MARJAH, Afghanistan — After a day spent pinned down in gunbattles or caught in a maze of roadside bombs, with little hope of air support and an erratic Afghan army to coax along, Lance Cpl. Travis Anderson reflected on the frustrations of the campaign U.S. forces were fighting.

"I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this," the 20-year-old from Altoona, Iowa, said as his company of Marines spearheaded the ground assault to reclaim Marjah from the Taliban.

Three weeks later, the Marjah insurgents have been largely defeated. The offensive on the southern Afghan town — NATO's largest combined operation in Afghanistan — is described as the first step of an 18-month push to push the Taliban out for good.

Now it's time to figure out what went right and what didn't work. Addressing questions raised by the battle is viewed as key to how the overall Afghan war could unfold. All the more so because the offensive was the first full-fledged reality check for the counterinsurgency warfare that the top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has pledged to achieve.

Winning here, and holding the ground in the months to come, would be a first step for the Afghan exit strategy President Barack Obama hopes to start implementing next year.

There appears to have been some success for the so-called "McChrystal Doctrine," of focusing on winning over civilians rather than killing insurgents, then beefing up Afghan forces to replace the Westerners.

More than 10,000 NATO and several thousand Afghan troops took the town in a few days, fighting some intense gunbattles against an estimated 600 insurgents. Casualties were low: 15 NATO troops and 21 civilians killed as of Friday, according to the international force. The Afghan Human Rights Commission has counted at least 35 civilians deaths.

Sporadic fighting continues.

A week into the battle, Marjah's civilian chief was brought in to raise the Afghan flag over the town center, and Marjah residents who fled have begun to return.

Cooperation between NATO and Afghan forces showed improvement. From the rank to officers, the Marines in the offensive all seemed determined to fight alongside Afghan soldiers, rather than instead of them. Most appeared to take pride in whatever cooperation they managed to achieve with their Afghan counterparts, overcoming language and culture barriers.

And despite intense doubts from Marjah residents, a new Afghan police force was brought in after the offensive. Many of the previous policemen were so brutal and corrupt that residents expelled them even before the Taliban took back control of the area in 2007.

But the offensive also highlighted the many pitfalls ahead.

Stringent rules of engagement limit the use of force in every way possible to spare civilians. It means troops can't shoot at anything but an insurgent seen with a gun.

That requires getting close enough to see the enemy, and fighting an old-fashioned, exhausting war on foot, carrying heavy backpacks, pressing against Taliban positions one field and one house at a time.

Though Marines often stretched the rules by pointing small-arms fire at compounds or bushes where hidden fighters shot from, the guidelines severely curtailed their options. Several times, the AP saw insurgents simply stroll out of a battle, having hidden their guns to flee once they were cornered. They were clearly familiar with NATO's rules.

NATO announced its plans to attack Marjah loud and clear to give civilians time to leave, but that gave the insurgents plenty of time to plan. Capturing them wasn't NATO's priority, and the leaky cordon set up around the town allowed many to slip away. That means well-trained fighters and snipers, some of whom came from abroad, may rejoin the battle elsewhere.

Some have questioned the significance of taking Marjah and involving thousands of troops just to secure a collection of farming hamlets that account for only a tiny fraction of Helmand province, itself just a small part of Regional Command South.

In Brussels, the Russian ambassador to NATO said he was puzzled by allied claims that the offensive was a success. Dmitry Rogozin noted that a firefight this week between two rebel factions in northern Afghanistan had in fact resulted in more deaths among the insurgents than the entire Marjah operation.

"So the result (of the Marjah offensive) was that the mountain shook, but only a mouse was born," he said citing a Russian proverb.

The restrictions on fire also put the NATO forces at much bigger risk by greatly limiting whatever air or artillery support they can expect. Even while pinned down in an intense gunbattle, it could take Marines as much as 40 minutes to clear all the steps for an airstrike to take place, AP reporters saw.

At least 12 of the civilians were killed early on in the fighting, one of the few times U.S. forces shot a surface-to-surface missile at insurgents. The military said the high-precision, GPS-guided missile did hit some Taliban. But it also killed women and children, and the outrage, which drew a public apology from NATO, means artillery support will be even harder to obtain — a changed reality that drew repeated expressions of concern from NATO officers.

Throughout the fight, the Taliban were accused of relying heavily on human shields, and as the days passed, they were often more brazen about holding a position — despite drones and helicopters overhead — when they felt they couldn't be spotted from above.

And blending in with civilians has also let the Taliban stay behind the lines even as NATO troops push forward. Every night, insurgents can creep up to American supply lines to plant roadside bombs.

"We've achieved the first phases, but some of the most challenging efforts are still ahead," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, a Marine officer whose company led the ground assault.

The military's first main phase is "clear," meaning chase out the Taliban. Next, and equally important, it says, is "hold" — preventing them from coming back. And then there's "build": new schools, roads, clinics and a generally better life than under the Taliban's Islamist theocracy.

Winfrey's troops are due to spend the next several months scattered in outposts around Marjah, patrolling streets and manning checkpoints. Insurgents are sure to throw ambushes, suicide bombers, roadside bombs and snipers their way, especially once smaller units operate without much backup.

Finally comes the step that will allow NATO troops to go home: Making sure Afghan forces can shoulder the burden alone.

The Afghan army units sent into Marjah with the Marines seemed much better trained and more determined to fight than many forces in previous years. But still, they didn't follow orders well, they rarely turned up for their assignments on time, some started their day with a joint of marijuana, and orders often got lost in translation.

Shakier still are the Afghan police, who are supposed to start securing the town in the coming weeks. Fresh out of training, they vow they'll track the leftover Taliban and win the civilians' trust. But one of their first moves in Marjah was to take for themselves all the transistor radios they had been given by the Marines to distribute to villagers, an AP reporter saw.

If they lose their grip, American forces may have to re-conquer the town street by street.

Insurgents are well aware of all this. The lessons learned from Marjah are likely also being learned by the Taliban as NATO generals prepare an even bigger offensive in the coming months, focused on neighboring Kandahar province.

The Fisher House Foundation will receive $250,000 from President Obama, who is donating to charities the $1.4 million award that came with his Nobel peace prize, the White House announced March 11.

The foundation is one of 10 charities that will receive a portion of the money. It is the only military-related charity, and it will receive the largest amount. The next highest is the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which will receive $200,000 for its long-term relief efforts in Haiti.

“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need,” Obama said in a statement announcing the recipients. “I’m proud to support their work.”

Kenneth Fisher, chairman and chief executive officer of the Fisher House Foundation, expressed the foundation’s gratitude to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We are thrilled and honored to be chosen as a recipient of President Obama’s Nobel prize award money,” Fisher said in a statement. “For 20 years, Fisher House has supported our troops and veterans by providing housing for their loved ones during their care and rehabilitation at military installations and VA medical centers around the world. It is a responsibility we take very seriously and have accepted as our duty and obligation to our service men and women.

“More than 130,000 families have crossed the thresholds of Fisher Houses around the world. With this additional financial support, we’ll be able to do so much more to give back and give thanks to those who risk their lives for our freedom.”

First Lt. Caleb Campbell might get a shot to play for the Detroit Lions, after all. He worked out for the team earlier in the week and has been offered a contract, according to goblackknights.com.

The Lions drafted Campbell in the seventh round out of West Point in 2008, hoping the college safety could play linebacker and special teams. Then-coach Rod Marinelli was an Army veteran. Then-president Matt Millen’s son Marcus had played with Campbell.

Campbell was the first Army player drafted since 1997, when Green Bay took quarterback Ronnie McAda with the final pick (240th overall). But just before training camp, Campbell was ordered to military duty instead. The Army had revised the policy that would have allowed Campbell to play pro football while on active duty.

The Lions invited Campbell for a private workout last week. Campbell arrived Monday night, then went through a physical and workout Tuesday. He worked with coach Jim Schwartz, linebackers coach Matt Burke and special teams coach Danny Crossman. He told goblackknights.com that he weighed 237 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.49 seconds.

Campbell returned to Fort Sill in Oklahoma on Tuesday night. He got good news tonight.

“My agent called and said that he was thinking that we are going to get a contract, he wasn't certain, but that he thought one would be coming,” Campbell told goblackknights.com today. “He called me this morning and told me that he had a contract sitting on his desk for me from the Lions. I just found this morning, it's been a heck of a day.”

Lions spokesman Bill Keenist declined to comment. The team generally does not confirm a roster addition until the player has signed the contract.

Details concerning Campbell’s military commitment are still being ironed out.

More military sports news:

After Action blog

LANCASTER, Pa. — Surgeons went to work on five Marines mangled by a roadside bomb.

Multiple blasts near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, had torn off the legs of one soldier. Another Marine required amputation of both legs.

Though the time for prayers would come, Army National Guard chaplain Aris Fokas saw the immediate need in the operating room was for an extra set of hands.

He offered his as doctors and nurses labored late into the night in December 2005.

Fokas got busy retrieving medical supplies, hanging intravenous drips and hand pumping blood through a warmer.

When the need for those tasks waned, Fokas slipped back into the role of chaplain. He spoke and prayed with the wounded and with their buddies, who paced and waited for news.

It was one trying night among many Fokas experienced during an 18-month deployment in Iraq.

Fokas, a United Church of Christ minister, joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 2003. He was 39 years old and felt called to serve his country by pastoring to soldiers on the front lines.

Fokas warmed to the challenges, and many colleagues came to admire his professionalism and humanity.

But now that he’s home, Fokas, 46, is facing a challenge that threatens his future with the military.

An officer has accused Fokas of telling him he is gay.

Although Fokas denies any such disclosure, a commander at Fort Indiantown Gap has ordered an inquiry.

“It is the policy of the United States Army ... that homosexuality is incompatible with military service,” Lt. Col. David W. Wood informed Fokas in a memorandum. “Therefore ... an investigation is in process to determine if separation action is warranted.”

Fokas, for now, remains in the Guard, but his chaplain duties are suspended pending the investigation’s findings.

Under the 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” more than 13,000 service members have been dismissed for being gay or lesbian.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for Congress to repeal the ban. Democrats have introduced a repeal bill as the Pentagon gets set to study whether lifting the ban could hurt morale and unit effectiveness.

In the meantime, because “don’t ask, don’t tell” remains the law, Fokas in an interview declined to say anything about his sexual orientation other than to acknowledge he is single and has never been married.

He noted, too, that the United Church of Christ ordains openly gay and lesbian ministers, a denomination-wide policy since 1980.

The commander of the 104th Aviation Brigade at Fort Indiantown Gap informed Fokas in January of the accusation that he had violated “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The commander told Fokas the accusation was made by Fokas’ former supervisor, a higher-ranking chaplain.

Fokas said the supervisor wrote a memo in December 2009 describing a phone conversation the previous June. In that conversation, the supervisor alleged, Fokas disclosed being gay.

Fokas denies saying any such thing. He said he had a heated phone conversation in June 2009 with the supervisor, but the memo the supervisor wrote contains “inaccuracies and fabrications.”

“It’s trumped up and it’s abusive,” Fokas said of the supervisor’s memo. He characterized the resulting investigation as “a waste of administrative time.”

“I’ve done nothing that would violate my ordination vows or compromise my position to be trusted by soldiers,” Fokas said.

Fokas’ claim is backed by a number of servicemen who vouch for the chaplain’s integrity.

Harry Delorenzo, 57, of Warrington was the command sergeant major of the 228th Forward Support Battalion, a unit in which Fokas served for five months at Camp Shelby, Miss., and for 12 months in Iraq.

Delorenzo said he saw Fokas daily and consulted with him frequently about soldiers who were coping with personal problems. He said he also went to Fokas for pastoral counseling after the death of a family member back home.

Delorenzo described Fokas as a dedicated professional who truly cared for the soldiers and who went out of his way to offer comfort and improve morale.

Not everyone appreciated Fokas’ low-key style, Delorenzo said, “but the majority did.”

And Delorenzo said that if Fokas had ever acted inappropriately, he would have heard about it. “There was nothing whatsoever,” Delorenzo said.

After Fokas’ 12-month deployment at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, with the 228th, he extended his stay in Iraq for six months with the 372nd Military Police Battalion in Baghdad.

Jeff Cox, 41, of Salem, Mass., a clinical social worker with the Massachusetts National Guard, worked with Fokas in the same Baghdad unit in 2006.

“I was not in his chain of command,” Cox said, “but what I can speak to as a person is I have great respect for him. He has a strong ethical, moral commitment and I enjoyed working with him. ... I would serve with him again.”

Cox said he never discussed issues of sexual orientation with Fokas. “It just never came up,” he said.

Other service members wrote letters of recommendation for Fokas last year before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” accusation arose.

Fokas provided the Intelligencer Journal with copies of three letters written by a Fort Dix, N.J. chaplain, a Pennsylvania National Guard physician and a Pennsylvania National Guard major. The letters recommend Fokas highly.

“Any organization would be blessed to have him as part of their team,” one said.

An economics major, graduating from Franklin & Marshall College in 1989, Fokas had a variety of work experiences before entering the ministry.

He was, for example, a college admissions director, a marketing director for a winery and a funeral home assistant.

Fokas graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1996. As a United Church of Christ minister, he was assistant of campus ministries at F&M and the pastor or interim pastor at several churches, including Grace Alsace UCC outside Reading and Salem UCC of Columbia.

For many years, Fokas mulled becoming a military chaplain. The opportunities for adventure and personal growth appealed to him. And he felt a call to a greater purpose.

Fokas remembers the evening in 2003 when he made up his mind.

He was in his kitchen watching The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer when the program featured a story about a fallen soldier.

“I openly wept,” Fokas recalled. “I felt a very strong sense that I can help.”

Writing in his blog in April 2005, while training at Fort Shelby, Fokas noted that people sometimes ask why he became a military chaplain.

The answer “is as complex,” he wrote, “as the experiences that have made me who I am and as simple as the desire to do something with dignity and meaning.”

These days, Fokas is a Lancaster seminary student in the Doctor of Ministry program, which he plans to complete next year.

Then he’ll be at a new crossroads.

His eight-year National Guard commitment expires in 2011. Fokas thinks about seeking promotion and extending his time in the military, but he has not decided.

The military may, of course, choose to kick him out. But Fokas said he’s not going to let that happen without a fight.

He said he will defend himself against his accuser. In addition, he will stand up for an end to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“Almost all of our military allies, notably Israel and Great Britain, have openly gay and lesbian soldiers serving without problems,” Fokas said. “There was consternation in Britain about what would happen if soldiers came out. But what happened is people went to work the next day and the world did not fall off its axis.”

Fokas said “don’t ask, don’t tell” has proven to be a dangerous policy because it gives cover to abusers.

“To frighten and intimidate someone,” he said, “all you have to say is, ‘Well, I heard you’re gay.’ ”

Fokas said he won’t be intimidated. Being a captain, chaplain and minister, Fokas said, gives him greater freedom than many in the military to speak out against a policy he views as unjust.

He said that’s why he has chosen to take a public stand.

In speaking against “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Fokas said, “I hope I can make life easier for those who don’t have the luxury of speaking their conscience.”

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to donate the $1.4 million from his Nobel Peace Prize to helping students, veterans’ families and survivors of Haiti’s earthquake, among others, drawing attention to organizations he said “do extraordinary work.”

Obama is giving a total of $750,000 to six groups that help kids go to college. Fisher House, which provides housing for families with loved ones at Veterans Administration hospitals, will receive $250,000, the White House said Thursday. And the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, for which two former presidents are raising money to rebuild earthquake-ravaged Haiti, will receive $200,000.

“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need,” Obama said in a statement. “I’m proud to support their work.”

Obama was chosen for the Nobel award more for his aspirations and approach than his accomplishments thus far. The Nobel committee honored him for changing the tenor of international politics and for pursuing goals Obama says will require worldwide effort, such as nuclear disarmament and reversing global warming.

Obama himself was surprised by the award, and aides said at the time he would donate the cash prize to charity.

The Fisher’s House donation would help pay for three new homes at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies of Americans killed overseas are flown.

“It’s work that needs to be done for these men and women who have served this nation so gallantly,” Fisher’s House Foundation Chairman and CEO Kenneth Fisher said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s a privilege to serve these men and women and these families because they give so much to this nation.”

The funds for Haiti would go to the rebuilding effort led by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. A Jan. 12 earthquake wrecked Haiti and killed an estimated 200,000 people, and the U.S. is playing an active role in rebuilding the country.

In addition, Obama plans to give $125,000 apiece to groups that help students go to college: College Summit, a national nonprofit that works with elementary and middle school students to boost college enrollment rates; the Posse Foundation, which gives full college scholarships to public school students who might be overlooked by traditional scholarship programs; United Negro College Fund; the Hispanic Scholarship Fund; the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation; and the American Indian College Fund.

And Obama is donating $100,000 to AfriCare, which funds HIV/AIDS programs, public health programs, water resource development and agriculture in 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He will give $100,000 to the Central Asia Institute, which promotes education for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Obama accepted his peace prize just days after announcing he was ramping up U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

After only 16 days on the job, the Pentagon’s new personnel chief has drawn the ire of the nation’s largest organization for combat veterans.

Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Clifford Stanley, recently confirmed as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told a Senate panel Wednesday that the Defense Department is worried about rising personnel costs, especially rising costs for medical care.

“We are at the point where rising personnel costs could affect the readiness of our forces,” Stanley said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel.

Thomas Tradewell, who heads Veterans of Foreign Wars, the largest and oldest organization of U.S. combat veterans, said Stanley is making a mistake.

“Any attempt to link rising military personnel costs with shrinking military readiness is total nonsense,” he said. “If the Defense Department needs a larger budget for personnel programs, then let the VFW carry that message to Congress. Don’t pin the budget blame on service members and military retirees.”

Stanley’s remarks came as he was talking about the 1.4 percent military raise proposed for 2011 and about concerns about holding down health care expenses, especially for retirees.

Tradewell likened Stanley’s comments to those of Stanley’s predecessor, Dr. David Chu, who in 2005 angered veterans and retirees by saying the cost of benefits had reached the point where they were “hurtful” to national defense and were “taking away from the nation’s ability to defend itself.”

“What is hurtful is a continuing perception that DoD is more concerned about the budget than they are about recruiting and retaining a professional volunteer force that has been at war now for more than eight years,” Tradewell said.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Two Fort Campbell soldiers were killed during an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to the military.

The Department of Defense said in a news release Thursday that Sgt. Jonathan J. Richardson, 24, of Bald Knob, Ark., and Pfc. Jason M. Kropat, 25, of White Lake, N.Y., were killed Tuesday. They are both assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing inside the U.S.-Afghan base in Khost that killed two and wounded a number of others.

Richardson was a fire support specialist who joined the Army in June 2006 and came to Fort Campbell in January 2007. He is survived by his wife, Rachel Richardson, of Clarksville, Tenn.; mother, Sharon Dunigan, of Bridgeport, W.V.; and father, Jeffery Richardson, of Germany.

Kropat was an infantryman who joined the Army in November 2008 and arrived at Fort Campbell in March 2009. Kropat is survived by his parents, Kathleen and Glenn Kropat of Fredericksburg, Texas.

His girlfriend, Shannon Kinne of White Lake, said Kropat was “the all-American Boy Scout.” She told the Middletown Times Herald-Record that Kropat joined the Army to make a stable life for the couple as well as to prove to himself he could do it.

Kropat grew up in Sullivan County with his three sisters. His sister, Kristina, said he loved the outdoors and was an avid fisherman.