20071002 Servicemen Missing From Vietnam War Are Identified

We owe a debt to their sacrifice and service. May we never forget… Bring them all home…

Servicemen Missing From Vietnam War Are Identified

Tue, 2 Oct 2007 16:07:00 -0500

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1180-07 October 02, 2007

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Servicemen Missing From Vietnam War Are Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Capt. Warren R. Orr Jr., U.S. Army, of Kewanee, Ill.; and Airman 1st Class George W. Long, U.S. Air Force, of Medicine, Kan. Long was buried Sept. 30 in Medicine and Orr's burial is being set by his family.

On May 12, 1968, these men were part of a crew on a C-130 Hercules evacuating Vietnamese citizens from the Kham Duc Special Forces Camp near Da Nang, South Vietnam. While taking off, the crew reported taking heavy enemy ground fire. A forward air controller flying in the area reported seeing the plane explode in mid-air soon after leaving the runway.

In 1985 and 1991, U.S. officials received remains and identification tags from sources claiming they belonged to men in this crew. Scientific analysis revealed they were not American remains, but it was believed the Vietnamese sources knew where the crash site was located.

In 1993, a joint/U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), traveled to Kham Duc and interviewed four local citizens concerning the incident. They led the team to the crash site, and turned over remains and identification tags they had recovered in 1983 while looking for scrap metal. During this visit, the team recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage at the site.

In 1994, another joint team excavated the crash site and recovered remains, pieces of life-support equipment, crew-related gear and personal effects.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

On the Web: http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/

Media Contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132

Public Contact: http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

20070903 Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

September 5^th, 2007

Hat Tip goes to the Duck. Thanks for calling this to our attention. It is getting increasing coverage…

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington – Financial Times

Published: September 3 2007 19:00 | Last updated: September 3 2007 20:53

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American ­officials.

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.

Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army.

One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible. The defence ministry in Beijing declined to comment on Monday.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, raised reports of Chinese infiltration of German government computers with Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, in a visit to Beijing, after which the Chinese foreign ministry said the government opposed and forbade “any criminal acts undermining computer systems, including hacking”.

Read the rest here: Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

20070719 The Pentagon Issues a warning to Senator Clinton

The Pentagon Issues Warning to Clinton

By Kate Phillips, July 19, 2007, 10:10 pm

Issuing a stunning rocket, one of the Pentagon’s top officials sent a letter to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this week that essentially told her that any outline of plans for withdrawing American troops from Iraq is tantamount to reinforcing “enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.”

The letter from Defense Undersecretary Eric Edelman was in response to Senator Clinton’s request in May for the Defense Department to draw up proposals to get the troops out of the battlefields. It was first obtained by the Associated Press, which termed Mr. Edelman’s missive “a stinging rebuke.” (Both Senator Clinton’s initial request and Mr. Edelman’s response are now on the senator’s Web site.)

Here is Mr. Edelman’s language:

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Mr. Edelman wrote.

He added that “such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.”

The backstory, according to the A.P. and elsewhere, is that Senator Clinton, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, has been asking the Defense Department to develop a detailed proposal for withdrawing troops, which could be complicated, she said in May, …

Read the rest here: The Pentagon Issues Warning to Clinton

20070520 Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates signs copies of his book

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates signs copies of his book

May 20, 2007

http://www.defenselink.mil/multimedia/

05/20/07 - Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates signs copies of his book, "From the Shadows," before speaking at the commencement ceremony of his alma mater, the college of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., May 20, 2007. DoD photo by Cherie A. Thurlby. (Released)

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20070520 20061201 Secretary of Defense Gates Speeches

Secretary of Defense Gates Speeches

May 20^th, 2007

05/20/2007: College of William and Mary Commencement

05/19/2007: Armed Forces Day

05/19/2007: Team America Rocketry Challenge

05/09/2007: Senate Appropriations Committee

05/03/2007: Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce

04/25/2007: Navy Flag Officers Conference

04/18/2007: American Chamber of Commerce of Cairo

04/10/2007: Army Chief of Staff Change of Responsibility Ceremony

03/29/2007: House Appropriations Committee--Defense

03/27/2007: American-Turkish Council

03/26/2007: U.S. Pacific Command Assumption of Command Ceremony

03/23/2007: U.S. Northern Command Change of Command Ceremony

03/16/2007: U.S. Central Command Change of Command Ceremony

03/09/2007: U.S. Senate Youth Program

03/08/2007: Message to the Troops on Care for Wounded Warriors

03/01/2007: NCO Breakfast

02/27/2007: U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations

02/11/2007: Munich Conference on Security Policy

02/06/2007: Posture Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee

01/12/2007: Statement on Iraq to the Senate Armed Service Committee

01/11/2007: Press Availability With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

01/11/2007: Testimony on Iraq to the House Armed Services Committee

12/22/2006: Holiday Message to the Troops

12/18/2006: Secretary Gates' Swearing-In Remarks

12/18/2006: Message to Department of Defense Personnel

12/15/2006: Farewell Parade

12/10/2006: Town Hall Meeting with 4/1 Cav

12/10/2006: Town Hall Meeting

12/08/2006: Pentagon Town Hall Meeting

12/01/2006: Union League Club Gold Medal Award Ceremony

20070520 Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert M. Gates’ Department of Defense Brief Bio

Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert M. Gates’ Department of Defense Brief Bio

Retrieved May 20th, 2007

Dr. Robert M. Gates was sworn in on December 18, 2006, as the 22nd Secretary of Defense. Before entering his present post, Secretary Gates was the President of Texas A&M University, the nation’s seventh largest university. Prior to assuming the presidency of Texas A&M on August 1, 2002, he served as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001.

Secretary Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. Secretary Gates is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. He served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House from January 20, 1989, until November 6, 1991, for President George H.W. Bush.

Secretary Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties.

Secretary Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, has twice received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received CIA’s highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

He is the author of the memoir, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, published in 1996.

Until becoming Secretary of Defense, Dr. Gates served as Chairman of the Independent Trustees of The Fidelity Funds, the nation's largest mutual fund company, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc.

Dr. Gates has also served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the American Council on Education, the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. He has also been President of the National Eagle Scout Association.

A native of Kansas, Secretary Gates received his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, his master’s degree in history from Indiana University, and his doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University. Dr. Gates is 63, and he and his wife Becky have two adult children.

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20070520 Defense Secretary Gates’ Armed Forces Day message

Message by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Washington, DC, Saturday, May 19, 2007 on the occasion of Armed Forces Day.

In the United States, Armed Forces Day is the third Saturday in May.

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1151

Armed Forces Day

Message by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Washington, DC, Saturday, May 19, 2007

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“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Many of us are familiar with that famous opening of Thomas Paine’s treatise The Crisis, written in defense of the fledgling American Revolution. Few may be as familiar with a later passage: “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. … [H]e whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

Paine knew first-hand about those who could gather strength from distress. He marched with General George Washington and his men as they suffered unbroken defeat across much of New Jersey in 1776. He felt, first-hand, their lack of supplies needed to wage war or even subsist. Yet he witnessed many who pursued the cause of liberty unto death.

I have had the honor of meeting hundreds of service members serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Their task is difficult. They and their comrades undertake dangerous missions, and endure physical hardships and separation from their families. Yet they remain firm at heart. Their bravery is beyond measure. Today’s young patriots carry the same determination Paine must have seen in their predecessors over two centuries ago.

The American people, as one, are deeply grateful for the service and sacrifice of men and women in uniform and their families, and for their unshrinking commitment to pursuing the principles of our nation. As we pause this Armed Forces Day to reflect on their service, I hope that each one of us will find a way to show them, as Paine encouraged in his treatise, “the love and thanks” of a nation.

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