Categoria: Military

Vietnam Vets Reflect On War As 50th Anniversary Is Marked

by Ufficio Stampa 25 Marzo 2023 Comments0

Every morning at 8 a.m., retired Navy Capt. Eric Jensen raises a large American flag on a tall pole secured with an anchor in front of his Laguna Beach home. When Old Glory unfurls, so does the Navy flag.

“I raise the flags in memory of my best friend, Robin Pearce, and all the other veterans that didn’t come home,” Jensen said. “Some gave some, some gave it all, but everybody did their part.”

The daily ritual is cathartic for Jensen, who said he spent 23 years internalizing his emotions after coming home from Vietnam, where he was a combat pilot with Attack Squadron 82 aboard the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier.

It took him decades, he said, to learn “there is a life.” He now proudly puts his Navy service out there, and with therapy, he’s realized his time in the Vietnam War is “nothing to be ashamed of.”

The 80-year-old flew 113 combat missions over Laos and Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 after joining the Navy Reserves and then going into active duty for 11 years, he said. “When I came back to San Francisco, they said don’t wear your uniform if you go ashore. I came home to my country, and they didn’t give a (expletive) for me defending their freedom.”

“I self-isolated,” he added. “No one understood what happened with me. I carried the war’s expenses with me and had no place to dump it.”

Now, nearing the 50th anniversary on Wednesday, March 29, of the last American troops withdrawing from the Vietnam War, Jensen and other veterans look back across the decades and reflect on what the divisive war meant to them personally and to their country.

More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam – 58,000 died and 150,000 were wounded – and today, more than 1,500 are still listed as missing.

Eric Jensen, 80, who served in the Vietnam War, raises a U.S.and Navy flag in front of his home everyday at 8 a.m. to honor his best friend, Robin Andrew Pearce, and others who died during the Vietnam War. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach kept a log of his combat missions during the Vietnam War. He flew a solo, single-engine A7 Corsair II, completing 113 missions. “I wonder if I’m going to die tonight?” He would ask himself before taking off into darkness. “There’s only one way to find out,” he’d answer.( Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach is reflected in a document that announces his appointment as a captain in the Navy reserves. Jensen piloted 113 solo combat missions in Vietnam. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Eric Jensen, left, of Laguna Beach, met his best friend, Robin Andrew Pearce, when they were in junior high school. Jensen, now 80, raises a U.S. and Navy flag everyday at 8 a.m. in front of his house to honor Pearce and others, who died in the Vietnam War. Jensen flew 113 combat missions. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach keeps mementos in his “man cave.” of his time serving in the Vietnam War. He flew a one-man, single-engine A7 Corsair II during113 combat missions. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach points to himself on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in a photo taken with his squadron during the Vietnam War (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Eric Jensen, center, and his best friend, Robin Andrew Pearce, fourth from left, were selected for a pilot training program. Both served during the Vietnam War. Pearce later died in a plane crash. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen’s photo of an A7 Corsair II launching off an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. Jensen, 80, a Laguna Beach resident, flew 113 combat missions in the same kind of plane. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach flew a one-man, single-engine A7 Corsair II during his 13 combat missions in the Vietnam War. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen, 80, of Laguna Beach, served during the Vietnam War, flying 113 combat missions in an A7 Corsair II — a one-man, single engine plane. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ret. Navy Capt. Eric Jensen of Laguna Beach keeps mementos of the time he served in the Vietnam War. This includes a model A7 Corsair II — a one-man, single engine plane like the one he flew during his 113 combat missions. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sgt. Wayne Yost at home in Dana Point, CA, on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Yost served with the U.S. Army’s 199th Light Infantry Brigade and was in Vietnam from 1967-1969. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Copy shot of Sgt. Wayne Yost in Vietnam in 1968. Yost served with the U.S. Army’s 199th Light Infantry Brigade and was in Vietnam from 1967-1969. (Photo Courtesy Wayne Yost)

Vietnam War veteran Frank Marcello at his home in Walnut, CA, on Thursday, March 23, 2023. Marcello was in the 1st Air Calvary Division and injured during a long-range reconnaissance patrol. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A lack of respect at home for many of those returning caused them to hide their pain by, as Jensen called it, “bunkering up.” Few discussed their service with family and friends. Instead, they tried to get on with life, many going quickly back to jobs they had before the war or to college without the benefits of the GI Bill that helped their predecessors. It would take decades for many to ask for help.

“For the vast majority of Vietnam veterans, I believe they made the transition back to civilian life in productive, fulfilling ways,” said Gregory Daddis, a retired Army colonel who is now director of the Center for War and Society and the USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History at San Diego State University. “Still, I think many continue to wrestle with reconciling the past, asking whether their sacrifices in Southeast Asia were worth the costs in blood and treasure.”

Wayne Yost, an Army sergeant in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, still can’t reconcile the sacrifices with the war he called a “waste, a war we should have never gotten involved with.

“It was such a waste of human, military and civilians there,” he said. “I carry that animosity even today, for wars such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, where lives and American treasure are sacrificed with no chance of a positive outcome.”

Daddis, who has studied the history of the Vietnam War, agreed and said there is much to learn from Vietnam.

“There are a number of perspectives we can gain,” he said. “That armed forces cannot solve all political problems abroad. That outsiders cannot always settle local issues over national identity and political communities. And that there are limits to what US military power can achieve overseas.

“Even after our incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m not sure we’ve thought deeply enough about these issues and what they mean for the future of how we employ military force abroad,” he added.

Remembering those lost in Vietnam is the memorial in Washington, D.C., now the most visited among the war monuments on the National Mall. Its shiny black granite lists the names of service members who died or are still missing.

It took Jensen three tries to get the strength to visit and look for his best friend’s name.

“The first two trips, I just couldn’t do it,” he said, adding that he was a commercial pilot for Western Airlines and had been on a layover in D.C. “It was so much emotion. Then, I thought, this is the last time this month I’ll be here. I found his name and had a long conversation with him. I went back to my room, wrote a really long letter, and told him how much I missed him and all that had happened since I last saw him.”

Yost, too, found a lot of meaning at the wall because the names of five of his friends are inscribed there, he said.

Yost spent most of his time in the jungles of Vietnam helping small units of South Vietnamese Army Special Forces seek out North Vietnamese fighters.

“We’d be flown into an area, call in support troops, the artillery, or a gunship, and then we were supposed to get out of there,” said Yost, a Dana Point resident who served from 1967 to 1969 and lived in villages with the South Vietnamese while on missions. “Whenever they were in trouble and needed special help,” about five to eight American soldiers would help out.

Yost, 76, who was in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the largest battle of the war, recalled a specific mission where he and his unit helped find North Vietnamese that still makes him laugh today about how it managed to work out.

They were in a rice field, hiding among the paddies and waiting for air support. Yost said he removed his helmet and put it on the tip of his rifle to draw enemy fire so the pilot could pin the enemy down quicker.

Instead, the North Vietnamese “launched a rocket-propelled grenade, and another soldier and I flew into the air,” he said of the impact of the blast. “Just as that happened, the pilot was able to attack the enemy position and illuminate them, and we were just laughing hysterically.”

But that laughter didn’t continue when Yost came back to the states, he said.

“I was a jokester and I came back sedate,” he said. “The experience of war, seeing people wounded and killed … I carry those memories.”

The negative response at home only made it worse.

“For 50 years, I suppressed all the different feelings raging in my brain and soul,” Yost said. “I never discussed anything with my family or my wife and kids. Six years ago, those feelings came out, and I was having nightmares and flashbacks, and I knew something was wrong.”

Yost joined a Vietnam veterans group at the South Orange County Veterans Center in Mission Viejo.

“We’re still in counseling six years later,” he said.

Yost said he also gets some solace from helping younger veterans who may have served in Iraq and Afghanistan navigate the services available through the Veterans Administration. As former commander of the Dana Point Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9934, and now senior vice commander of 15 VFW posts in the region, he’s organized bi-monthly clinics, which have helped 6,300 veterans get benefits and have “never had a claim denied.”

“It’s been wonderful therapy,” he said. “Every time someone comes in and says ‘Thanks, guys, I just got my disability.’ It’s great knowing we were able to help, so they don’t feel alone and have someone to hold on to.”

Kolin Williams, who chairs the VETS program at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, said many of the programs that benefit more recent veterans come on the backs of the Vietnam veterans.

“The Veterans Administration was not able to handle what they brought back,” Williams said. “And, they were also the last folks to walk into a VA and ask for mental health adjustments. They hid it and went back to their families and went to work. Veteran centers now are a response to that.”

The thinking was, Williams said, “Let’s put these centers into communities and see if veterans respond.”

The evolution in public sentiment also made a huge difference in veterans seeking help, Williams said. After the Gulf War, 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan, “there was a ton of support for returning veterans,” he said, adding that at first, many of the Vietnam veterans resented that, wondering why they didn’t get a similar response.

“That resentment was misplaced,” Williams said. “Because by shining the light on these service members, it de-stigmatized the whole conversation about mental health. It was being encouraged, ‘Go get support.’ The Vietnam veterans noticed that and appreciated the services.”

In addition to getting help with post-traumatic stress, Vietnam veterans are registering for service disabilities because of exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide used between 1961 and 1971 to kill vegetation in Vietnam for tactical warfare. The exposure has led to cancers and heart conditions for tens of thousands of veterans.

Frank Marcello, a 1st Air Calvary Division sergeant, knows a thing or two about Agent Orange. During his service between 1966 and 1967, the Purple Heart decorated soldier, who was part of a reconnaissance unit, spent most of his time in the central highlands of Vietnam. He was always the point man, he said, leading his squad, and during his time served there, “never had a soldier die.”

“We’d hump for 10 to 15 miles and do ambushes,” he said of his squad of eight. “The chopper would pick us up, drop us off again, and pick us up. I did over 125 air assaults. We were always on the go. Landing zones were all over the place and were cleared with Agent Orange.”

Marcello, 79, of Walnut, is receiving 100% disability benefits because of his exposure and, like Jensen and Yost, has been diagnosed with PTSD. For 25 years, he said, he woke up with nightmares and cold and hot sweats.

“I’d be hollering and wake up my wife,” he said, adding that he went to the VA for help but “they didn’t have anything that worked.” So, like a good cavalry soldier, he gutted it out and dealt with it, he said.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in U.S. political history and later a master’s degree and an MBA. He credits God, along with his “cool and calm” demeanor, with helping him have the grit to make it through the last half-century.

Like the others, he didn’t speak of his service publicly and never mentioned it to college classmates or friends.

“In all the other wars, people were treated with respect, but we couldn’t speak about it because we were in Vietnam,” he said.

More recently though, Marcello said he has had a different experience. He was among a group of veterans invited to the Hoag Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club. Marcello attended wearing fatigues and his stack of medals, including the Purple Heart.

“I had 200 people coming up to me,” he said, choking up with emotion. “I had men shaking my hand, and women would hug me. At a Fourth of July parade in Catalina, I wore my medals and everyone, grandmothers, little kids and men and women, they all cheered for me. Now, no matter what, I go to parades and universities and people are wanting to talk to me.”

“I’m reliving what should have happened,” he said of this newer support he wished he and other veterans deserved. “I wear the medals with pride for the guys who died.”

US Says Russian Warplane Hits American Drone Over Black Sea

by Mata 14 Marzo 2023 Comments0

By KARL RITTER

KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in a “brazen violation of international law,” causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle, the U.S. said.

The incident, which raised tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, appeared to mark the first time since the height of the Cold War that a U.S. aircraft was brought down after being hit by a Russian warplane.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to White House National Security spokesman John Kirby. He added that U.S. State Department officials would be speaking directly with their Russian counterparts and “expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price called it a “brazen violation of international law.” He said the U.S. summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest and the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.

The U.S. European Command said in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a U.S. MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.

It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters.” Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times before the collision in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the U.S. European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany.

“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added.

U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said the MQ-9 aircraft was “conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9.” He added that “in fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”

There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Kremlin has charged that by providing weapons to Ukraine and sharing intelligence information with Kyiv, the U.S. and its allies have effectively become engaged in the conflict.

Kirby emphasized that the incident wouldn’t deter the U.S. from continuing their missions in the area.

“if the message is that they want to deter or dissuade us from flying, and operating in international airspace, over the Black Sea, then that message will fail,” Kirby said, adding “that is not going to happen.”

“We’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters,” he said. “The Black Sea belongs to no one nation.”

The U.S. European Command said the incident followed a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and Allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea.

“These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation,” it warned.

Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, said that this type of collision is his greatest concern, both in that area of Europe as well as in the Pacific.

“Probably my biggest worry both there and in the Pacific is an aggressive Russia or China pilot or vessel captain, or something gets too close, doesn’t realize where they are, and causes a collision,” Berger said, in response to a question at a National Press Club event on Tuesday.

He said that whether an incident is intentional or not, it forces nation’s leaders to try and sort it out quickly from afar.

Amid the continuing fighting in Ukraine, a Russian missile on Tuesday struck an apartment building in the center of Kramatorsk, killing at least one person and wounding nine others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region.

The victims were among at least seven civilians killed and 30 wounded in 24 hours, Ukraine authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video showing gaping holes in the façade of the low-rise building that bore the brunt of the strike. The impact damaged nine apartment blocks, a kindergarten, a local bank branch and two cars, said regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.

“Russian troops are striking residential buildings, schools and hospitals, leaving cities on fire and in ruins,” Kyrylenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking Tuesday during a meeting with workers at a helicopter factory in southern Siberia, once again cast the conflict in Ukraine as an existential one for Russia, charging that unlike the West — which, he said, is seeking to advance its geopolitical clout — it’s fighting for its existence as a state.

“For us, it’s not a geopolitical task,” Putin said, “it’s the task of survival of Russian statehood and the creation of conditions for the future development of our country.”

Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal to end the fighting, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Kyiv’s refusal to have talks leaves Moscow with only military options.

“We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”

The Russian onslaught has focused on the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut where Kyiv’s troops have been fending off Russian attacks for seven months and which has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance, as well as a focal point of the war.

Zelenskyy discussed the situation in Bakhmut with the top military brass and they were unanimous in their determination to face down the Russian onslaught, according to the presidential office.

“The defensive operation in (Bakhmut) is of paramount strategic importance to deterring the enemy. It is key for the stability of the defense of the entire frontline,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said.

Lolita C. Baldor, Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed.

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Biden To Announce Australia Submarine Deal In San Diego

by Vittorio Rienzo 13 Marzo 2023 Comments0

By ZEKE MILLER | AP White House Correspondent

President Joe Biden is set to meet with two of America’s closest allies to announce that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet as concerns grow about China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Biden was traveling Monday to San Diego for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS.

The partnership, announced in 2021, enabled Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels, as a counterweight to China’s military buildup.

San Diego is Biden’s first stop on a three-day trip to California and Nevada. He will discuss gun violence prevention in the community of Monterey Park, California, and his plans to lower prescription drug costs in Las Vegas. The trip will include fundraising stops as Biden steps up his political activities before an expected announcement next month that he will seek reelection in 2024.

Australia is buying up to five Virginia-class boats as part of AUKUS, according to two people familiar with the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the plans. A future generation of submarines will be built in the U.K. and in Australia with U.S. technology and support.

The U.S. would also step up its port visits in Australia to provide the country with more familiarity with the nuclear-powered technology before it has such subs of its own.

Biden will also meet individually with Albanese and Sunak, an opportunity to coordinate strategy on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the global economy and more.

The secretly brokered AUKUS deal included the Australian government’s cancellation of a $66 billion contract for a French-built fleet of conventional submarines, which sparked a diplomatic row within the Western alliance that took months to mend.

China has argued that the AUKUS deal violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It contends that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon state to a non-nuclear-weapon state is a “blatant” violation of the spirit of the pact. Australian officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that it they are working to acquire nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, submarines.

“The question is really how does China choose to respond because Australia is not backing away from what it — what it sees to be doing in its own interests here,” said Charles Edel, a senior adviser and Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think that probably from Beijing’s perspective they’ve already counted out Australia as a wooable mid country. It seemed to have fully gone into the U.S. camp.”

Before he departed for California, Biden spoke about steps the administration is taking to safeguard depositors and protect against broader economic hardship after the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history.

Biden said the nation’s financial systems are safe. He said he’d seek to hold accountable those responsible for the bank failures, called for better oversight and regulation of larger banks and promised that taxpayers would not pay the bill for any losses.

“Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe,” Biden said.

Associated Press The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative, serving member newspapers and broadcasters in the U.S., and other customers around the world. The Southern California News Group is one of them. AP journalists in more than 100 countries tell the world’s stories, from breaking news to investigative reporting to visual storytelling. Since 1846, AP has been covering the world’s biggest news events, committed to the highest standards of objective, accurate journalism. Learn more about policies and standards in AP’s Statement of News Values and Principles. https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/

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Military Cooperation: Morocco Participates In Flintlock 2023

by valipomponi 2 Marzo 2023 Comments0

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North Korea Fires 2 Missiles In Tests Condemned By Neighbors

by Vito Califano 20 Febbraio 2023 Comments0

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea east of the country Monday in its second test launch in three days, prompting Japan to request an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The launches continue a tit-for-tat exchange that began Saturday, and follow a year in which North Korea launched more than 70 missiles, the most ever. Pyongyang has recently escalated nuclear threats and threatened an “unprecedentedly” strong response to annual U.S.-South Korea military drills, which it views as preparation for an invasion.

South Korea’s military said it detected two missile launches Monday morning from a town on North Korea’s west coast, which were later confirmed by North Korean official media. Japan said both missiles landed in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that no damage to aircraft or vessels in the area was reported, but they flew distances that suggest most of South Korea is in range.

The tests follow an intercontinental ballistic missile launch Saturday, the country’s first since Jan. 1, and a U.S. bomber flight over the Korean peninsula conducted in response Sunday.

Both South Korea and Japan condemned recent North Korean launches as threats to international peace and violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic activities by North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that Tokyo was requesting an emergency Security Council meeting to respond to recent North Korean launches.

ADDS DATE – This image made from video broadcasted by North Korea’s KRT shows what it says is a ballistic missile being launched from an undisclosed location in North Korea, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward Japan on Monday in its second weapons test in three days that drew quick condemnation from its rivals and prompted Tokyo to request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. (KRT via AP)

A TV screen shows a file image of Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward Japan on Monday in its second weapons test in three days that drew quick condemnation from its rivals and prompted Tokyo to request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

This undated photo released by the Joint Staff of Japanese Self-Defense Force, shows a B-1B bomber of the U.S. Air Force. The United States responded by flying long-range supersonic bombers Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023 for separate joint exercises with South Korean and Japanese warplanes in a show of force against North Korea. (Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Force via AP)

This photo released by the Joint Staff of Japanese Self-Defense Force, shows two F-15 warplanes, rear left and background, of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and four F-16 fighters of the U.S. Air Force during a bilateral exercise Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. The United States responded by flying long-range supersonic bombers Sunday for separate joint exercises with South Korean and Japanese warplanes in a show of force against North Korea.(Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Force via AP)

This photo released by the Joint Staff of Japanese Self-Defense Force, shows two F-15 warplanes, foreground and rear left, of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and four F-16 fighters of the U.S. Air Force during a bilateral exercise Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. The United States responded by flying long-range supersonic bombers Sunday for separate joint exercises with South Korean and Japanese warplanes in a show of force against North Korea. (Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Force via AP)

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. North Korea has fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea’s military said, two days after the North resumed testing activities with an intercontinental ballistic missile launch. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen shows a file image of Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. North Korea has fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea’s military said, two days after the North resumed testing activities with an intercontinental ballistic missile launch. She issued a statement warning of weapons demonstrations over what she called U.S. deployments of strategic military assets to the Korean Peninsula. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

An initial Security Council briefing led by Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari was set for later Monday.

Further council action against North Korea is unlikely. China and Russia, both veto-wielding powers embroiled in confrontations with Washington, opposed U.S.-led attempts to add fresh sanctions last year.

“The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range depends upon the U.S. forces’ action character,” Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in the official translation of a statement carried by state media. “We are well aware of the movement of U.S. forces’ strategic strike means, (which are) recently getting brisk around the Korean Peninsula.”

She likely referred to Sunday’s U.S. flight of B-1B long-range, supersonic bombers for separate training with South Korea and Japan, conducted in response to North Korea’s Saturday ICBM test.

North Korea typically responds to U.S. B-1B flights, which can carry a huge payload of conventional weapons, with aggressive statements or military demonstrations of its own.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that North Korea may make further provocations, such as more missile launches and nuclear tests.

In her statement earlier Sunday, Kim Yo Jong threatened to take additional “powerful” steps over upcoming military drills between the United States and South Korea.

North Korea has said many of its previous weapons tests were warnings over U.S.-South Korean military drills.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries have conducted larger and more frequent drills this year, in response to escalating missile tests, and because concerns about COVID-19 are receding. The two militaries plan to hold a table-top exercise this week to hone a joint response to use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The allies also plan to conduct a joint computer simulated exercise and field training in March.

North Korea has repeatedly condemned regular South Korea-U.S. military drills as practice for an invasion, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature. Some observers say North Korea often uses its rivals’ drills as a pretext to test and improve its weapons systems. Many experts believe that North Korea ultimately plans to win international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state to get international sanctions lifted and receive other outside concessions.

Hours after Monday’s launches, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Seoul placed unilateral sanctions on four individuals and five institutions it said were involved in illicit activities supporting the North’s nuclear arms development and evasion of sanctions. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government has placed sanctions on 31 individuals and 35 organizations, mostly from North Korea, for supporting the North’s nuclear ambitions, but these steps are mostly symbolic since the two countries do not have business ties.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the new launches highlight “the destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs. It said the U.S. commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan “remain ironclad.”

The North said the tests involved the new 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher system, which could be armed with “tactical” nuclear weapons for battlefield use. South Korean defense officials describe the weapons system as a short-range ballistic missile.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the tests simulated strikes on targets up to 395 kilometers (245 miles) away.

According to Japanese and South Korean assessments, the North Korean missiles flew at a maximum altitude of 50-100 kilometers (30-60 miles) and a distance of 340-400 kilometers (210-250 miles).

North Korea has claimed to have missiles capable of striking both the U.S. mainland and South Korea with nuclear weapons, but many foreign experts have said North Korea still has not mastered some key technologies, such as building warheads small enough to be mounted on missiles and ensuring those warheads survive atmospheric reentry.

In her statement Monday, Kim Yo Jong reiterated that North Korea has reentry vehicle technology. She also hit back at South Korean experts who questioned whether North Korea’s ICBMs would be functional in real-war situations.

Associated Press journalists Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.

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Military Contractor Pleads Guilty To Bid Rigging

by valipomponi 3 Febbraio 2023 Comments0

A Texas military contractor pleaded guilty on Jan. 12 to rigging bids on public military contracts in the state of Texas.

According to court documents, Aaron Stephens, 53, conspired with others to rig bids on certain government contracts from May 2013 to January 2018 in order to give the false impression of competition and to secure government payments in excess of $17.2 million. The plea agreement detailed six contracting bids that Stephens and his co-conspirators rigged, which included work performed for the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas. The projects included heavy military equipment work such as refurbishing armor kits for military trucks and turrets for Humvees. One of Stephens’s co-conspirators, John “Mark” Leveritt, pleaded guilty in July 2022.

Stephens pleaded guilty to a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other relevant factors.

The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal II Section is prosecuting the case, which was investigated with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Dallas Fraud Resident Agency, and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office.

In November 2019, the Department of Justice created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant, and program funding at all levels of government – federal, state and local. For more information, visit https://www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force.

Filed under Military