-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! 0323. MilMod replaces current personnel system RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- In less than two months, military personnelists throughout the Air Force, Air National Guard and Reserve will begin using state-of-the-art technology to process "total force" personnel information. The Air Force Military Personnel Data System Modernization program, or MilMod, will be turned on May 1, replacing the 1970s technology currently being used with a relational database using the Oracle Human Resources software. It has been more than 20 years since the last major update. "We've been working hard for nearly five years building this modernized system to take Air Force personnel processing into the next century," said Lt. Col. Ed Oliver, MilMod program manager at the Air Force Personnel Center here. "Our folks have been working seriously long hours to get this new system up and running by the May 1 deadline. We're now in the final stretch and are building the world's largest, and we think the best, human resource system." This new system will support all "life cycle" personnel management functions from recruiting through job assignment and ultimately separation or retirement. It will provide real-time updating and reporting capabilities that are not available in today's Personnel Data System, Oliver said. "Current automation technology is being leveraged to improve support at all levels and is the foundation for building a robust integrated personnel system for the total force," he said. The new system has several inherent improvements over the current system. The most apparent improvement is the graphical-user interface, which will give personnel technicians online, real-time access to personnel information. "We've also standardized the support we're providing to the total force," Oliver said. "This will improve system support to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel processes." But, as with any new system, there will be a transition period where the normal personnel functions that people use will be unavailable, officials said. There will be a nine-day period prior to the implementation date where no personnel transactions will be accepted into the systems being replaced. All active-duty, Guard and Reserve members are urged to complete any personnel actions before April 21 to ensure the transactions are processed prior to the transition, or people can wait until MilMod comes online May 1. For more information, visit the MilMod home page at http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/modern. (Courtesy of AFPC News Service) 0324. New system makes resume updates easier RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Applying for civilian vacancies within the Air Force became easier with the latest state-of-the-art program, Resume Writer. The new automated system enables an applicant to prepare and submit a resume electronically from beginning to end. Resume Writer allows an individual to retrieve a previously submitted resume, update or change information on the resume, and submit the information as an update to the AF automated resume inventory database system, Resumix. Applicants can also electronically change any supplemental data related to a resume. The Resume Writer is very user-friendly and comes with complete instructions, information, and tips on preparing a resume, said Lee McGehee, delegated examining unit/recruitment branch chief at the Air Force Personnel Center here. "To ensure all required information is submitted with the resume, we strongly encourage applicants to use the Resume Writer when applying for Air Force positions serviced by the personnel center." Job seekers do not need to submit a resume for each position they are interested in applying for. By using the online Resumer Writer, applicants have the opportunity to make changes at any time to their resume. Information on how to prepare or update an resume can be found on AFPC's civilian employment Web site at https://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/afjobsresweb/resume/resume.htm. (Courtesy of AFPC News Service) 0325. Korean War Service Medal still available WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Department of Defense's 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee wants veterans to know that Korean War Service Medal is still available. During the Korean War, the United States disallowed the wearing of the Korean War Service Medal because of regulations at the time that prevented American servicemembers from wearing a foreign award. Congress changed that regulation in 1954, and now on the occasion of the 50th anniversary the Republic of Korea once again offers this medal. The Air Force is the lead agent for distributing the medal. People at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, are processing requests and distributing the medal to all Korean War veterans who qualify, regardless of branch of service. AFPC is processing requests on a first-come, first-served basis. After a request is processed, shipment of medals take up to six months to receive. To determine eligibility for the Korean War Service Medals, which is free to veterans who meet certain criteria, an applicant must have: -- Served during the period of hostilities, June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953; -- Been on permanent duty assignment or temporary duty for 30 consecutive or 60 nonconsecutive days; or -- Performed duty within the territorial boundaries of Korea, water adjacent to Korea or in aerial flights over Korea. Applicants must furnish a copy of their discharge papers -- Department of Defense Form 214 -- as proof of eligibility. People who need to request their military records can download a request form at http://www.nara.gov/regional/mprsf180.html. The form should be mailed to the National Personnel Record Center, Military Personnel Records, 9700 Page Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63132-5000. Veterans requesting or applying for the medal should contact AFPC by calling (800) 558-1404, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., CST or contacting the awards and decorations section by phone (210) 565-2431, (210) 565-2520, (210) 565-2516 of by fax (201) 565-3118. 0321. AMC units change designation SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- Air mobility support groups and squadrons within Air Mobility Command will soon be redesignated as air mobility operations groups and air mobility squadrons. The March 15 change affects the 615th Air Mobility Support Group at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and its squadrons throughout the Pacific, and the 621st AMSG at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and its squadrons throughout Europe. The 615th will become the 715th Air Mobility Operations Group and the 621st becomes the 721st AMOG. The AMSGs are the remains of the Cold War air mobility support units. The AMOGs were created in the early 1990s during the reduction of U.S. forces overseas to consolidate manpower. The name change was needed because the groups were operations, not support, AMC officials said. The AMC groups and squadrons are part of the command's en route system to provide fixed and deployed maintenance, aerial port and command and control support to deployed AMC forces. The support and operations groups have similar missions to provide critical en route services to deployed AMC forces across the globe. The redesignation will now reflect those similar missions. (Courtesy of AMC News Service) 0320. Command releases F-16 accident report LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- Air Combat Command investigators have determined the cause of a midair collision between an F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Cessna 172 near Bradenton, Fla., on Nov. 16. They believe a critical combination of avionics anomalies, procedural errors and individual mistakes -- on the ground and in the air -- led to the accident. The Cessna pilot, call sign Cessna 829, was killed in the accident. The F-16 pilot, call sign Ninja 2, ejected and sustained minor injuries. Both aircraft were destroyed in the accident. At the time of the accident, Ninja 2 was part of a two-ship formation preparing to begin a surface-attack-training mission at the Avon Park Air Force Range in Florida. The Cessna had taken off from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Fla. The other F-16, call sign Ninja 1, was not damaged in the accident and returned safely to Moody Air Force Base, Ga. Air Force investigators identified two causes of the mishap. First, Ninja 2 and Cessna 829 failed to "see and avoid" each other in sufficient time to prevent the mishap. According to the accident investigation report, Ninja 2 expected Ninja 1 to make a sharp left turn onto a low-level military training route at any moment. His immediate focus was to see and avoid Ninja 1. Just prior to the collision, Ninja 2 saw a white flash, but did not realize it was another aircraft. There was conflicting testimony as to whether Cessna 829 saw the F-16 and attempted to maneuver his aircraft prior to the collision. Second, Tampa air traffic controllers failed to transmit a safety alert to Cessna 829 when their radar system generated "conflict alert" warnings, indicating that two aircraft were in danger of a collision. Investigators determined that if the controllers had issued a safety alert to the Cessna when the first conflict alert began, it is likely the pilot would have had time to maneuver to avoid the collision. Also, investigators identified three factors that substantially contributed to the accident. First, the F-16 flight lead, Ninja 1, lost situational awareness and descended under visual flight rules into Tampa Class B airspace without proper clearance from Tampa approach controllers. Ninja 1 was required to either avoid entry into Class B airspace or request permission from approach controllers to enter. Second, Ninja 1's aircraft developed a position error in its navigation system that the pilot failed to recognize. The aircraft was actually nine to 11 miles south of where the pilot believed it to be, based on his internal navigation system reading. As a result, Ninja 1 unknowingly navigated his flight into Sarasota Class C airspace without the required communications with air traffic controllers. Finally, investigators determined that Ninja 1 had made an inadvertent cursor input to his navigation system during the mission. The pilot failed to recognize the error when he switched into ground attack steering mode. As a result, he unknowingly navigated the flight further off course. If Ninja 1 had noticed the error when he switched to the ground attack steering mode and corrected it, investigators believe the collision could have been avoided. (Courtesy of ACC News Service) 0319. Executive travel team provides power of communication by Tech. Sgt. Mona Ferrell Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency Public Affairs WASHINGTON (APFN) -- On Monday, "these modern-day McGyvers" may be on a plane destined for Zagreb, Croatia. Tuesday might find them in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is all part of the job for being on the executive travel team. The team provide communications support to the Defense Department's top four leaders anytime they leave Washington. Like television's McGyver, they must know how to get out of a tight spot, too. But instead of a pocketknife, they use laptop computers, satellite radios, power supplies and the latest communications technology to turn almost any area into a secure communications center. Keeping the secretary of defense and Joint Chiefs "connected" around the clock is a serious job, said Senior Master Sgt. Richard Davis. He's the executive travel director for the Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency's executive travel communications directorate. "Our job is to ensure any type of electronic communication available to them at their desk, can also be at their fingertips while traveling," Davis said. That takes more than just hooking up a printer and a laptop, he said. "If the secretary of defense is in the Middle East and needs to call back to Washington, we can't just hand him an unsecured telephone line," Davis said. The team must ensure secure voice, voice recognition quality and high-speed data communications between the National Command Authorities is available within 15 minutes of a request. Providing that kind of on-the-spot support means travel team members must know their jobs well and those of their co-workers. The team has 24 people in seven Air Force specialty codes. All are interwined. "A person in a computer-related AFSC must also know how to hook up a secure telephone line," he said. That creates a learning curve for new team members. They must realize they have to do other jobs fast, said Tech. Sgt. Tom Vera, executive travel communications team chief for the office of secretary of defense. "We don't have the luxury of saying 'that's not my AFSC,'" Vera said. "We must be able to improvise at a moment's notice." Still, raising their knowledge, while adapting to customer's "idiosyncrasies" is always a challenge, he said. "But it's one we relish." Team members do not work a nine-to-five job. They are often on the road. But at the end of the day they get great job satisfaction, Vera said. "When the secretary of defense needs a secure communication line and leaves with a smile -- it's a great feeling," he said. A "firewall five" on a customer feedback only enhances the feeling. "That means we did our job well." The team's dedication is not only valuable, but required, said Maj. Joe Wassel, military assistant to the secretary of defense for communications. "There isn't a computer store on every street corner in Istanbul (Turkey)," Wassel said. "And if we have communications problems in Tokyo at 3 a.m., we can't just run out and get whatever's needed to fix it." That is why team members must think ahead, and "outside the box," and ensure they pack what they might need. They are magicians sometimes, he said. Every overseas trip is an event in itself. From the moment, for example, that the defense secretary departs Andrews Air Force Base, Md., until he returns, the team could move 2,000 pages of classified documents. They could have done 100 telephone patches, supported 35 cellular phones and 84 movements in seven hotels. "It's a Super Bowl-level challenge," Wassel said. Meeting challenges has earned the team the respect of its customers, that's paramount, said Tech. Sgt. William Hawkins, deputy communications adviser for the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. He said real-time communications for the top military leaders is critical. So there must be "absolute confidence and trust" in the people who provide the communications capability, he said. The team's reliability and professionalism doesn't go unnoticed, Wassel said. "The secretary gets to know their faces," he said. "They're allowed in the inner circle so they can make communications happen." 0322. Women journalists came of age covering World War II by Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The women who cover today's news 24 hours a day should snap a salute to their predecessors who covered World War II. It was not until then that large numbers of American female radio broadcasters, print journalists and photojournalists would produce countless news reports and photographs from stateside and overseas locales. In fact, 127 accredited American female war correspondents brought the sights, sounds and written descriptions of conflict back to civilians at home. "The war has given women a chance to show what they can do in the news world, and they have done well," said political reporter turned war correspondent May Craig to the Women's National Press Club members in 1944 in Washington. While contemporary female journalists, such as the Washington Post's Molly Moore, who covered the Persian Gulf War, routinely travel the globe to cover conflict, few female journalists worked national or overseas news desks prior to World War II. Although women journalists such as Jane Swisshelm (Civil War, 1861-65), Anna Benjamin (Spanish-American War, 1898) and Peggy Hull (latter part of World War I) covered warfare in previous conflicts, their numbers were small. Ironically, a woman named Jose Glover of Cambridge, Mass., owned the first printing press in the colonies. Though she was in operation by 1638, American women would wait almost 300 years until their participation in journalism became commonplace. Increased education enabled more women to gain entry into American newsrooms at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, many female journalists specialized in writing about so-called women's issues like child rearing, cooking and other domestic subjects. Female journalists began forming professional associations because they desired both credibility and more varied assignments. Washington newswomen, for example, formed the Women's National Press Club in 1919. They did not merge with the previously men-only National Press Club until 1971. After women gained the right vote in 1920 via the 19th Amendment, more and more female journalists covered political news and elections across the country. Women also found it easier to join the journalism ranks during the liberal-minded "Roaring Twenties," which crashed in October 1929 along with the stock market. As the Great Depression cast a debilitating shadow over America's economic and social landscape in the 1930s, many women journalists lost their jobs in favor of men. Stepping up in support, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt instituted weekly women-only White House press conferences, causing news organizations to employ at least one female journalist. Many of these women would go on to become war correspondents. Women who had gained more leverage in newsrooms began flexing their muscles in the 1920s and 1930s. Helen Reid, made a vice president of the New York Herald Tribune in 1924, used her influence to hire women writers, who began to cover more varied and important events. In the early 1930s on both sides of the Atlantic, pundits and politicos debated the pros and cons of fascism in Europe. American journalist Dorothy Thompson snared a scoop by interviewing an up-and-coming Adolf Hitler in 1931 for Cosmopolitan magazine. Thompson, who viewed Hitler and his National Socialist followers as a threat to world peace, repeatedly warned her readers about them. Thompson was so effective at reporting the unsavory doings of the fascists that she was kicked out of Germany in 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor. When America entered World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, female journalists and photographers were assigned as overseas war correspondents. Some notable correspondents include: -- Margaret Bourke-White, hired in 1935 as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, was also the first female American war correspondent and the first allowed to work in combat zones during World War II. Bourke-White covered the London Blitz, the Russian war effort, and various World War II battles. She also was one of the first photographers to enter and document the Nazi death camps. -- Marguerite Higgins, assigned to cover the Seventh Army in Europe during 1944 for the New York Herald Tribune, entered Berlin with allied troops and reported on Hitler's demise. She later reported on the Korean War (1950 to 53) and won a Pulitzer Prize. Higgins died from a tropical disease after covering American military involvement in Southeast Asia in 1965. -- Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle, a pre-war barnstorming pilot and photojournalist, covered World War II for Look magazine. After editing Seventeen magazine in 1946, she and her husband documented the war damage in Europe. Chapelle also covered conflicts in Algeria, Lebanon and Korea, and photographed Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba. While covering the Vietnam War in 1965, she was killed by a mine explosion. After World War II, female journalists continued to make gains. Alice Allison Dunnigan became the first female African American reporter to receive congressional and White House press accreditation. As a White House correspondent, Dunnigan traveled with President Harry Truman's campaign train to California in 1948. During the socially conscious 1960s, more women were moved to become journalists, while anti-discrimination legislation helped to remove residual corporate barriers. In the mid-1970s, many young female journalists adopted the look and style of television's star news anchor Jessica Savitch. While today's famous female journalists such as Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Maria Shriver, Molly Moore and others undoubtedly owe their careers to their hard work, talent and perseverance, the pioneering efforts of the women war correspondents of World War II definitely helped to open doors which were closed years ago. As May Craig noted, those female World War II correspondents, like pioneers in other fields, made the most of the opportunities they were given. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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