Your vehicle constantly collects data about you every day—where you live and even when you gain weight. Who controls this data, and what are they doing with it? @AutoCareCEO provides insight in an op-ed for @nytimes @PrivacyProject: https://t.co/PGYQrxfwQ4 #yourcaryourdata
— Auto Care Association (@AutoCareOrg) May 20, 2019
Off the Hawaii Adjutant General’s Facebook page
Hawaii National Guard Photograph
Governor David Ige hosted the Governor’s Memorial Day Ceremony at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.
Off the Hawaii Air National Guard Facebook page
Hawaii Air National Guard Photograph
On this Memorial Day, we join our fellow service members, veterans and community members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific to honor our fallen heroes. Without their bravery and will to fight, we would not be able to live in a nation of peace and liberty. From our ‘Hawaiian Raptors,’ the Royal Guard of Hawaii and the rest of the Hawaii Air National Guard, we are forever grateful for their service to our country and will never forget the sacrifices they have made.
For Larry Barrett, the agonizing decision to find a memory care community for his wife, Martha, began 10 years ago. That’s when Larry first noticed that something was going on with Martha, then 60, a lawyer. She’d forget the name of a person she met the night before. On a trip to Louisville, Ky., where she grew up, she forgot the way to her childhood home.
Larry persuaded Martha in 2010 to see a neurologist, who diagnosed her with mild cognitive impairment. In the years that followed, Martha’s condition progressed to Alzheimer’s. Larry tried to care for her himself, but things got complicated. He sold their house in Friendship Heights, Md., and moved them into a nearby apartment. Martha began to wander. Once, when Larry was attending a support group for spouses of people with dementia, the apartment building’s front desk staff called to say they had found Martha disoriented.
From the This Day in Aviation website
William “Billy” Mitchell (second from right)
The court martial of Colonel William (“Billy”) Mitchell, United States Army Air Service, began at Washington, D.C. (Mitchell had been returned to his permanent rank of colonel after completing his term as Assistant Chief of the Air Service, during which he retained the temporary rank of brigadier general that he had held during World War I.) For his criticism of the U.S. Navy’s leadership in regard to a number of deadly aviation accidents, he was charged with eight counts of insubordination.
Thanks to Carol Service for forwarding this to Retiree News.
Air Force Capt. Kelly Machado and Maj. Amanda Hill outline the military training purpose behind the Innovative Readiness Training program coming in July to Cortland County. More than 400 military medical providers will provide free health and dental care, the second-largest such program in America this year, behind efforts in Puerto Rico. | Todd R. McAdam photograph
Former Hawaii Air National Guard recruiter Kelly Machado is now the Public Affairs Officer at the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT).
Dear Savvy Senior: I have heard that the VA has a benefit that can help veterans and spouses with long-term care costs. We recently had to move my 86-year-old father — who served in the army nearly 60 years ago — into an assisted living facility, and my mom isn’t far behind. Can the VA help?
The Veterans Administration does indeed have a little-known, underutilized benefit that can help wartime veterans and their surviving spouses pay for a variety of long-term care costs.
This benefit, called “Aid and Attendance,” is a special pension that’s paid in addition to a basic pension. It pays a maximum of $2,230 a month to married veterans; $1,881 a month to single veterans; or $1,209 a month to a surviving spouse. The money is tax free, and can be used to pay for in-home care, assisted living and nursing home care.
Medicare often covers a personal consultation with a pharmacist
Carla* (name changed) is a 92-year-old woman with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation and a pacemaker. Like many people who have atrial fibrillation, she takes the blood thinner warfarin (her medication’s brand name: Coumadin) to help reduce her stroke risk.
Taking warfarin correctly can be tricky. A doctor must prescribe a dose tailored to each person’s unique chemistry, and the number of warfarin pills someone takes can change each day. Adjusting the dose usually requires regular trips to the doctor, but Carla is lucky: She now has a device that allows her to monitor the effects of her warfarin at home.
Carla is a resident at an assisted living facility in Gainesville, Fla. Tackling her complex medication regimen remained a challenge for her live-in, caretaking daughter who is in her 60s.
From the Air Force Magazine website
A1C William Pitsenbarger with an M-16 outside the HH-43.| U.S. Air Force photo
Memorial Day is a time to remember all those who died fighting for their country, just like A1C William Pitsenbarger, an Air Force pararescueman who took part in more than 250 rescue missions before he was killed at the age of 21. His selflessness and valor in the Vietnam War earned him an Air Force Cross and, eventually, a Medal of Honor.
On April 11, 1966, a US Army rifle company was isolated in the Vietnamese jungle, where they were surrounded and attacked by Viet Cong troops. Two HH-43F Huskie helicopters were dispatched to fly in, land a few miles away, and help get the men out. Pitsenbarger was on the second helo.
After a few bumpy extractions, Pitsenbarger requested the pilot leave him on the ground to ensure the men were properly rigged and loaded onto the aircraft so the evacuation process could be safer and faster, and so that more soldiers could fit on the helicopter.
But after the HH-43 was attacked by enemy fire and his crewmates tried to extract him, Pitsenbarger declined the rescue so he could continue his work on the ground. He alternated between doing that, arming soldiers with ammunition, and returning fire against the VC himself. He was killed by enemy fire that night.
Pitsenbarger was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross in 1966, making him the first enlisted airman to receive the nation’s second highest honor for valor in combat, but his fellow PJs and those he fought alongside in Vietnam never gave up hope that his medal would one day be upgraded.
Finally, on Dec. 8, 2000—34 years after his death—the Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to Pitsenbarger in a ceremony at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Then-Air Force Secretary, and current AFA Chairman of the Board, Whitten Peters presented the award, which was accepted by William F. Pitsenbarger on his son’s behalf.
“What impressed me was the fact that there were a group of Air Force and Army people together who had been trying to get a Medal of Honor for this man for about 30 years at the time that they came to see me, and I thought anybody who has been honored by people trying to get the Medal of Honor for 30 years must be really something,” Peters told writer and director Todd Robinson in a video interview.
Pitsenbarger’s sacrifice—and those veterans’ fight to honor it—has now inspired a feature film, “The Last Full Measure,” written and directed by Robinson. The movie, which is based on the quest to secure the posthumous honor for Pitsenbarger, plays out “through the story of a young bureaucrat who was tasked with the job of reinvestigating” Pitsenbarger’s story, and who, through the process of interviewing veterans as part of the assignment, is “transformed as a man of total self interest to a man of total sacrifice,” Robinson explained in a May 23 interview with Air Force Magazine.
“And that is the mythology of the William Pitsenbarger story because he was a man who was altruistic and selfless and he went down into a battle he did not have to go into,” Robinson said. “He put his life at risk and then rejected the opportunity to escape and to hear one of our veterans describe it, everybody who was on the ground would’ve left if they could, but they couldn’t, and the one guy who could leave, stayed.”
The film boasts an all-star cast, including Marvel’s Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ed Harris, among others, with Jeremy Irvine playing Pitsenbarger. It’s slated to be released this October by Roadside Attractions, a subsidiary of Lionsgate.
A special private screening of the film is being held on May 28 in Washington, D.C., for active duty service members and retired veterans. Interested individuals should email the film’s executive producer, Sidney Sherman, at sidney@rosaentertainment.com for more information.
William Pitsenbarger – Hero
From the Federal News Network website
The debate over a space force has been in the public eye for quite some time now, but not much mention has been made of how the Defense Department wants to handle reserve and guard components.
That changed today, as Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. L. Scott Rice said his preference, and the preference of the DoD task force in charge of building the space force, would prefer a National Guard component to the new military service if Congress decides to establish a space force.
When is Memorial Day?
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in military service for the United States
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States of America that is observed on the last Monday of May. As this is a Federal holiday, not only will schools and libraries be closed, most federal and state offices will be closed and there will be no mail deliveries on Memorial Day.
As Memorial Day always falls on a Monday, this creates a three-day break known as Memorial Day weekend. The Memorial Day weekend is seen as the unofficial start of summer, and as such, it is a popular holiday enjoyed with outdoor events and picnics.
History of Memorial Day
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in military service for the United States.
Many cities have laid claim to have begun Memorial Day, though President Lyndon Johnson officially declared Waterloo N.Y. as the birthplace of Memorial Day in May 1966.
While there is some dispute as to the origin of the day, the first was observed on May 30, 1868, under proclamation by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. The first official observation involved placing flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
By 1890, it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).
What’s the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?
Many go around saying, “Happy Memorial Day” – Memorial Day is intended to commemorate those who have laid down their lives for U.S. national defense, whereas Veterans Day honors all who have served their country.
Off the Hawaii Air National Guard Facebook page
Hawaii Air National Guard Photograph | click to enlarge
It takes an aircrew to operate a jet, but did you know pilots aren’t the only ones who spend their livelihood in the cockpit? Our avionics Airmen are technical experts in a vast array of flight instruments and we simply can’t carry out the mission without them. Their skill and extensive knowledge of avionics systems is absolutely irreplaceable and we’re lucky to have them on our team!
From the Military Times website
The military exchanges are waiting to see what effects the higher tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. from China will have, including what effect it might have on their customers’ prices. All the stores carry some items imported from China.
“We expect to be impacted by increases for components and finished goods, but it is too early to tell on which products at this point” in Marine Corps exchanges, said Bryan Driver, spokesman for the Marine Corps’ Business and Support Services division.
On May 10, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced that the administration has increased the level of tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The tariffs are being used to turn up the heat in the U.S. trade negotiations with China.
From the Air Force Magazine website
Lyndon Johnson’s refusal to activate the Guard and Reserve lit the fuse on big changes in force structure policy.
In 1965, the United States entered the Vietnam War in strength, with large-scale deployments of air and ground combat units to Southeast Asia. President Lyndon B. Johnson rejected the advice of his Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that he request Congress for approval to call up the National Guard and Reserves.
Johnson stuck to his stand for three years as US troop levels in Vietnam rose steadily toward 500,000. He was determined to meet the need with active duty forces, increased recruiting, and larger draft calls.
In that, he was bucking almost 200 years of precedent. In every war since the American Revolution, the militia—which evolved into the National Guard and Reserves—was mobilized to fight. They were mobilized in both the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
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