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Letters

ABL too valuable to cut

What is going on with the defense budget? There are cutbacks in the wrong places. I understand that money should be saved and used on the most important matters, but we should definitely spend money on the Airborne Laser System because it will save money in the long run.

This system is designed to individually destroy a target; you can use it for air-to-ground missions and a lot more. This one system can be used for ground support when troops need an airstrike or it can destroy IEDs found on convoys. Anything that conventional munitions do, it can do — but with pinpoint accuracy. That means less collateral damage and less spending on Joint Direct Attack Munitions that cost thousands of dollars.

This one system ensures you don’t depend solely on conventional weapons.

Senior Airman Markeis McCray

Charleston, S.C.

Red Flag ignores cyber

As an information assurance professional, I looked at the article “Different shade of red” [March 30] from a completely different perspective. While it seemed an excellent report on the airborne changes in Red Flag, it was a poster child for how our military ignores the real first battle space: cyberspace. The article was littered with quotes and statements that were perfectly valid for a conflict about 15 years ago but now seem almost willfully oblivious to the current cyber threats.

When I first read the subtitle, “Longer Red Flag exercise resculpted to more resemble look of war,” I was excited to see if cyber network operations were going to be included. After reading it, I could see that CNO wasn’t even an afterthought. What war were they talking about?

When the Russians invaded Georgia, their first avenue of attack was virtual, and it continued throughout the conflict. A recent article on crn.com about the Russian cyber offensive highlighted that the virtual war began weeks before, in July, in preparation for the invasion. During the invasion, the Russians relentlessly attacked Georgian communications online, eventually forcing Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue reports from Blogspot; many other services had to move to U.S. servers to stay in operation. Imagine what would happen to our forces if an adversary inflicted that level of command-and-control denial on our operators during a conflict.

Let’s get real. The first shots fired in a future conflict with a real military will be virtual. I guarantee it. The article mentioned that the planners didn’t want our aircrews to go into war with false expectations; they wanted them to see the most advanced threat. Well, kinetically, iron-on-iron, we are the most advanced — but will that really matter if we can’t issue commands, find our tankers, identify friends and foes or send e-mails during battle?

What do we do to solve this problem? Train like you fight. First and foremost, the “three-part war” highlighted in the article needs to go to four. The cyber battle space has to gain the respect it deserves. That means employing dedicated, gloves-off red and blue teams fighting during the exercises. They must be seen as integral parts of the fight. We need to actually break our exercise scripts (from a cyber/C2 perspective) during play and allow our fighting men and women to adjust. We cannot continue to cultivate a false hope of perfect C2 and network operations during iron-on-iron exercises. The red vs. blue cyber/C2 games must start before the kinetic players arrive, simulating access our adversaries might have in our networks today. Once the kinetic exercise begins, the red teams have to be allowed to commit data manipulation, deletion, denial of service and intel exploitation based on what they find on the blue networks. Blue force team has to train to stop them and counterexploit.

This will create significant growing pains around the Defense Department, but the more we bleed in training, the less we will bleed in war. I believe that is the whole point of these exercises.

Dave Ortiz

Annapolis, Md.

Military slackers

I agree that today’s airmen have lost the customs and courtesies of the past [April 13]. Although I’m retired, I frequent Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to go to the base exchange and commissary. I see both enlisted and officers walking from the parking lot to the BX without covers. I also don’t see salutes like I did even in the 1990s.

The BX and commissary parking lots look like a marathon on the first note signaling retreat. Don’t stand near a doorway; you’ll get knocked over by the members in uniform running to get inside.

When I attend military functions, I wear my mess dress with pride. At these functions, I’m addressed as “master sergeant” by the Marines, sailors and soldiers. The Air Force attendees address me as “sarge.” When I talk to a Marine, I address him or her as “gunnery sergeant” or “sergeant major” or “staff sergeant.” If they say, “Just call me gunny,” I’m good with that.

My son is a Marine, and he addresses me as “master sergeant” when we’re in uniform. He introduces me to other Marines by saying “This is my father, Master Sergeant Baczek.” That’s customs and courtesies.

Master Sgt. Robert A. Baczek (ret.)

San Francisco

JAG fraud trial

I realize that the Air Force has changed since I retired in 1976, but some of the happenings are a bit difficult to swallow.

I read that the legal representative of the Air Force will, in all probability, be excused for his illegal performances while in uniform.

However, I also read that convicted enlisted people sentenced to confinement are permitted to retain their rank, so I am so sorry that I am not young enough to return to the country club attitude that seems to prevail in the Air Force today.

Master Sgt. Richard F. Coffelt (ret.)

Gulfport, Miss.

I read the article “Military jury convicts phony JAG” [April 13] with utter disbelief.

An individual commits fraud for 20 years and cannot be punished because his defense team could not access sensitive records about his time as general counsel to the White House Military Office.

This decision reinforces the differences in accountability between the enlisted and officer corps. Let an enlisted member commit fraud and he would be incarcerated, but an officer will be allowed to retire.

Senior Master Sgt. Jason Stachowski

Langley Air Force Base, Va.