Germany and the Netherlands will organize a workshop on "Environmental future outlooks and their military implications" at the NBC School of the German Armed Forces in Sonthofen, Germany, from 9 -11 February. The event is organized under the umbrella of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Committee and with the participation of Allied Command Transformation (ACT).

For three days NATO experts as well as participants from Defence Ministries and other institutions will look at future environmental developments and trends and their direct implications for strategic military planning. The discussions will include findings of the "Multiple Futures Project 2030" that has been conducted by ACT in 2009 with the aim to enhance the Alliance's understanding of the complex new security challenges and its capacity to deal with threats across the full spectrum of conflicts.

While the consequences and implications of environmental changes for the tasks of the Armed Forces are currently being studied by individual nations, there has been little exchange of this knowledge among NATO Member and Partner countries until now.

Some of the objectives of the workshop are to establish a repository of available studies on the future environmental situation, compare the contents of the national studies, establish similarities and differences and create a network of experts and organizations.

The outcome of the discussions will serve as a basis for future long-term defence planning. They will also help to evaluate existing long term defence plans, influence concept and strategy development and improve training and threat analysis efforts, both on a national level as well as in the NATO context.

Source: NATO News

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WASHINGTON - An Army general in Iraq is going beyond the typical protocol to ensure every able-bodied soldier in his unit stays fit to fight, even if it means punishing troops for engaging in sexual activities while deployed.

Through the Multinational Division North command's General Order No. 1, Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III formally prohibits deployed soldiers under his command from becoming pregnant or impregnating a soldier. Defense Department regulations call for any servicemember who becomes pregnant in a combat theater or learns she's pregnant after deploying to a combat theater to immediately redeploy to their home duty station for medical care.

"Anyone who leaves this fight early because they made a personal choice that changed their medical status or contributed to making someone no longer deployable is not in keeping with a key element of the Army's warrior ethos - 'I will always place the mission first,'" Cucolo said. "I believe there should be professional consequences for making a choice like that." Although Cucolo, who commands Multinational Division North and 3rd Infantry Division, said he believes disciplinary action should be taken against violators of his policy, he added that courts-martial and legal action are too harsh. The cases he's dealt with since his division headquarters arrived to Iraq's Salahuddin province in October have resulted in letters of reprimand.

So far, eight female soldiers have redeployed from their expected yearlong deployment due to pregnancy. Four of the soldiers learned they were pregnant only after arriving to Iraq, and four others conceived while deployed, he said. The soldiers who conceived after they deployed were punished with local letters of reprimand, which is a minimal punishment that Cucolo explained won't damage their military careers. Two of the male soldiers also received local reprimands, he said. "I consider the male soldier as responsible for taking a soldier out of the fight - just as responsible as the female soldier that I lose," he said.

Also, one male soldier received a more severe letter of reprimand that will be in his permanent record, due to his senior rank and because he was married. The fourth male soldier wasn't punished, because the female soldier didn't disclose his identity, the general added. The general order Cucolo issued to his troops is stricter than that of his predecessors, the 25th Infantry Division, as well as his higher command at Multinational Corps Iraq, which bans soldiers from entering, residing or spending the night in living quarters with members of the opposite sex between specified hours. However, the previous and current provision doesn't apply to legally married soldiers, provided that "adequate" and private living quarters are available.

Cucolo credited previous deployments and military experiences for the order's provision explicitly banning sexual contact, and said the decision to add to the previous policy was made with support from his division's senior leadership. He stressed the importance of maintaining sufficient manpower during his deployment as "mission-critical."

"Since I'm responsible and accountable for the fighting ability of this outfit, I'm going to do everything I can to keep my combat power," he said. "And in the Army, combat power is the individual soldier." Cucolo said he doesn't believe his policy is too strict, and that the disciplinary actions aren't the provision's intent. Rather, he said, his goal in writing the provision over the summer before the deployment was to promote "thoughtful thinking and responsible behavior."

"I wanted all my soldiers to think before they act - before they make a personal choice that has consequences," he said. "That would be the consequence of leaving your team shorthanded in combat, not the consequence of punishment."

Fuente: By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden, American Forces Press Service, DODO

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WASHINGTON - When Staff Sgt. Megan Krause returned home from a deployment in Iraq in 2006, she thought the scariest moments of her life were over.

At her homecoming, "I ran to my mother in that hangar; we both cried tears of joy," said Krause, now an Army Reserve medic attached to a combat engineering unit in Pennsylvania. "I told her it was over and I was fine. Boy, was I wrong."

Krause later found herself waging a terrifying war with post-traumatic stress disorder. She described the battle and her road to recovery here today during the Real Warriors Campaign session at the 2010 Suicide Prevention Conference sponsored by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Krause said she hit rock bottom while a student at Penn State University about two years after her deployment.

"It was when I found myself face down in the mud pit, in the middle of a pigpen in State College, Pa., running from the insurgents that I thought were chasing me, that I realized I had not yet survived," Krause said. "I might not have been having suicidal ideations, but I was well on my way to killing myself."

Krause said she drank a bottle of red wine every night just to get to sleep.

"It's scary because you know you party harder than the average college kid and then get behind the wheel of your car because you just don't care anymore," she said. "It's scary because you know you're not going to class or work and you're throwing your life away. And you don't know how to stop the cycle."

Her nights, she said, were filled with nightmares of explosions and friends she couldn't save in time.

"I didn't want to die, but I wasn't leaving myself with many other options - until I asked for help," she said.

Help came in abundance, she said. "My [Reserve] unit wanted nothing more than to help me. They encouraged me to talk to the VA, talk to them." Her first sergeant admitted he, too, was seeking help for post-traumatic stress and told Krause it was the best decision he ever made.

"His words were ringing in my head that scary night as I rolled over [in bed] and called [the VA] for help," she said. "I knew I couldn't keep going down the path I had chosen." Two "battle buddies" showed up at 3 a.m. to drive her to the hospital.

Through the VA, Krause found the help she needed and, despite her initial embarrassment, "I discovered here was no shame in admitting that I was in trouble and needed help," she said.

"In fact, I earned more respect for seeking help and facing my problems head on than I ever had while failing to be the [noncommissioned officer] I wanted to be."

Wanting to help others waging similar psychological battles, Krause volunteered to share her story through the Real Warriors Campaign.

This initiative, launched by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, features stories of servicemembers who have sought treatment and continue to maintain successful military or civilian careers, according to the campaign's Web site. These efforts are aimed at combating the stigma associated with seeking psychological health care and treatment.

Krause appears in several public service announcements on the campaign's site at realwarriors.net. The response to her coming forth with her story has been amazing, she said.

A short time ago, Krause said she received a late-night call from a college friend, also a veteran, who had seen her PSA.

He "was driving his Mustang down the back roads of Pennsylvania at 70 mph, drunk, willing himself to turn into a tree," she said, fighting back tears.

Her friend was the same "battle buddy" who had driven her to the hospital a year prior, "and now he needed a return favor."

He asked her to tell him her story and she poured forth every detail -- the sleepless nights, drinking, terror, stress and that "moment of clarity, all the while begging him to pull over to the side of the road."

He did pull over and, like Krause, sought help for his post-traumatic stress.

"He said, 'Promise me you will keep doing what you're doing because there are people out there who need to hear it,'" she said.

Krause encouraged conference attendees to use the Real Warriors site, which includes links to resources, a live chat room, and information about the Defense Centers of Excellence Outreach Center, a 24/7 call center staffed by health resource consultants. The Outreach Center can be reached toll-free at 866-966-1020 or via e-mail at resources@dcoeoutreach.org.

Krause said coming forth takes courage, but it's well worth the effort.

"Our stories need to be shared with anyone who has struggled or may struggle in the future, so they too can win this terrifying battle," she said.

"I'm winning the battle with PTSD and you can too."

By Elaine Wilson, American Forces Press Service, DOD

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