Senate Confirms Two Generals Heading MacDill Air Force Base

Senate confirms Army generals for key military posts
Associated Press
By Richard Lardner
Published: March 18, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Senate has confirmed President Barack Obama's choices to lead two of the military's most important warfighting commands.

Gen. Joseph L. Votel and Lt. Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III attend a Senate hearing on March 9, 2016. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

Senators late Thursday approved the nominations of Army Gen. Joseph Votel to run U.S. Central Command and Gen. Tony Thomas to take over as the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command. Both commands are headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
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Soldiers and Families Threatened After CENTCOM hacked

Hackers hit CENTCOM sites, reveal contact info and issue threats 
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: January 12, 2015
22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — Hackers claiming to be with the militant group Islamic State took control of U.S. Central Command’s Twitter feed and YouTube channel Monday, posting threats to servicemembers and contact information of military staff and retired brass.

The postings lasted about 30 minutes and included what appeared to be a contact roster for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg and other commands, the cell phone numbers and home addresses of some retired generals, and maps of North Korea and China. Stars and Stripes could not immediately verify if the documents were authentic.

On CENTCOM’s YouTube channel, the hackers uploaded Islamic State propaganda videos and footage of the group’s fighters. When contacted Monday, a CENTCOM spokeswoman said the command was still gathering information on the hacks. “We can confirm that the CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised earlier today,” the command said in a released statement.

“We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter. We have no further information to provide at this time.
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Army suspends 2-star linked to sex-assault probe

Army suspends 2-star linked to sex-assault probe
By Robert Burns
The Associated Press
Jun. 8, 2013

WASHINGTON — A general who commands U.S. Army forces in Japan has been suspended from his duties for allegedly failing to report or properly investigate an allegation of sexual assault, the Army said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison Sr. was suspended by the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh, the Army said. It provided no details about the alleged sexual assault case.

Until the investigation of Harrison’s role is completed, Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer will take his place in Japan, the Army said.

Harrison had been selected to become deputy commander of the Army component of U.S. Central Command, based in Kuwait. That new assignment was publicly announced in February by the Pentagon, which said at the same time that Boozer would replace Harrison as commander in Japan.
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Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Tampa Bay
By Robbyn Mitchell
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, December 28, 2012

TAMPA — It was hot and clear as the military plane zipped through Tampa's airspace.

In front of a frenzied crowd, the plane landed, the door opened and out stepped Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, followed by soldiers returning from kicking Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

"He was larger than life," recalled U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who was at the old Tampa Stadium for that public thank you on May 5, 1991.

"He was a hero who controlled a war that was minimal cost in money and in causalities," Young said. "He went over there, dug them out of the sand, whipped Saddam Hussein's tail and sent them flying back to Baghdad."

Gen. Schwarzkopf came to Tampa in 1988 as the head of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He was ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush to initiate Operation Desert Storm, and the sweeping success of that campaign endeared him the nation and his new neighbors.
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U.S. House sets hearing on missing war records

U.S. House sets hearing on missing war records
Subcommittee hearing follows a ProPublica-Seattle Times investigation revealing dozens of military units deployed in the war on terror have destroyed or failed to keep field reports of their activities.
By Peter Sleeth
Special to ProPublica
November 17, 2012

Missing military records from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — detailed in a ProPublica-Seattle Times investigation over Veterans Day — will be the subject of a congressional hearing next month, the spokeswoman for a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee said Friday.

Separately, Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, called on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to respond to findings of the investigation, which detailed how dozens of Army units and U.S. Central Command destroyed or failed to keep field reports.

Michaud sits on the House Veterans Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, which added the topic to a Dec. 4 session about the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) effort to move its claims and benefit record-keeping systems into the digital era.

ProPublica and The Times found that some veterans were denied disability benefits or faced delays in some cases because field records were unavailable to prove that injuries were combat related. The stories focused on missing Army and Centcom field reports rather than those created and kept by the VA.
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CentCom Lt. Colonel accused of sexually enticing teen

CentCom officer accused of sexually enticing teen
Tampa Bay Times
Times staff
In Print: Wednesday, September 26, 2012

TAMPA — A protocol officer for a general at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base has been arrested by federal officials and accused of trying to entice a 17-year-old boy to engage in sexual activity.

Air Force Lt. Col. Stephen Michael Governale, 49, of Tampa was being held Tuesday in Seminole County without bail pending an Oct. 1 hearing in Orlando federal court.

Court documents do not name the general to whom he reported, or say where the teen lived.

On his Facebook page, Governale posted a photo in 2010 showing him with the man he said was his boss at the time, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the former chief of CentCom.
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Report: Combat Outpost Keating was ‘tactically indefensible’

Probe: Keating was ‘tactically indefensible’
By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 10, 2011 12:21:35 EDT
WASHINGTON — A military investigation says command failures left American soldiers in an indefensible position without adequate support when hundreds of insurgents attacked their remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and guns.

Eight U.S. troops were killed and 22 were wounded during the October 2009 attack on Combat Outpost Keating, one the deadliest battles during the nearly decade-long war. The investigation released Friday by U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., recommended giving four officers letters of admonition or reprimand for putting the 53 American troops in a vulnerable position at the outpost in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistan border.
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Keating was ‘tactically indefensible’

Murder in Tampa studied by Russian President Medvedev?

This is a National Security issue but the US media have other things to report on.


Julie Schenecker admitted killing her two children in Tampa. There have been a lot of cases in the US and around the world like this but what could have been so important about this case that the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences had to prepare a report for President Medvedev?

This case not only involves this but an Army Colonel with US Central Command. The report prepared by the academy also took a look at the drugs being used like Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil and Cymbalta.

Why Medvedev is so interested in this case? Is he interested in the mental health of our military? Looking for ways to avoid it happening to his military? What is really behind this interest?

In a way it makes our own media a disgrace when they can focus in on topics for days leaving no time for real reporting on stories like this. It is a shame that Russia would be taking a harder look at all of this than our own media does. Issues with these drugs has been reported in print media for years with little being done about any of it. A few minutes here and there talking about what happens to our troops and veterans does not allow the pubic to be informed enough to force politicians to do the right thing. Now a foreign nation is paying more attention to all of this than they are. This is not a good thing at all.

Family Massacre In US Linked To American Military ‘Murder Drugs’
Posted by EU Times on Feb 9th, 2011

A chilling report prepared for President Medvedev by the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS) says that a massacre in the United States committed during the past fortnight has as its “most likely cause” what are described as “murder drugs” being given by the millions to American Soldiers by their Military Leaders for the fighting of their Nations wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to this report, Julie Schenecker, the wife of US Army Colonel Parker Schenecker, shockingly murdered her two children, Carlyx, age 16, and Beau, age 13, in a sudden bloody rampage that has left family and neighbors stunned as to why a devoted wife and mother would point blank shoot her most beloved possessions to death.

US media reports about Julie Schenecker describe a devoted wife to her career US Army Officer husband (who at the time of his family’s massacre was stationed in the Middle East) and loving mother to her children, all being described as the “perfect” all-American family.

Educated at the University of Iowa, Julie Schenecker had also accompanied her husband to the many US Military bases he served at around the world, including in Germany where she worked as a Russian linguist for the US Army in Munich.

In 2008, Julie Schenecker and her family moved to Tampa, Florida where her husband, by then a US Army Colonel assigned to the US Central Command which oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and began living a life described by her childhood friend Sylvia Carroll as being the “epitome of what wholesome is”.

The same, however, cannot be said about her husband, US Army Colonel Parker Schenecker, who, like all American Military personnel heading towards their war zones in the Middle East and Asia, was “more than likely” given one, or a combination of the powerful psychotropic drugs Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil or Cymbalta, all of which carry mandatory “suicide warnings” and have been linked to nearly every single massacre in the United States for the past two-decades.

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Family Massacre In US Linked To American Military Murder Drugs

Murder in Tampa studied by Russian President Medvedev

Westboro Group ready to protest funeral for murdered children

Kansas church to protest at service for slain Florida siblings
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 2, 2011 4:19 p.m. EST

Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas, has stirred controversy through its demonstrations at funerals.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Westboro Baptist Church says it will picket service because mother is a military wife
Tampa schools sponsoring service for brother and sister, who were slain last Friday
Julie K. Schenecker, 50, is charged with murder in the deaths of her children
Her husband is with the U.S. Central Command

(CNN) -- A controversial Kansas church says members will picket before the memorial service Wednesday evening for two Florida teenagers allegedly killed by their mother.

In a press release, Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, said it will demonstrate outside the service in Tampa because the mother is a military wife and "the doomed American military declared war on God & His church."

The controversial church and its pastor, Fred Phelps, have made their name picketing near funerals of people who died of AIDS, gay people and soldiers. The church plans to picket beginning at 5:15 p.m.and ending at 6 p.m., when the service is scheduled to start, according to CNN affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa.

Julie K. Schenecker, 50, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths Friday of her 16-year-old daughter, Calyx, and her 13-year-old son, Beau. She was denied bail at a court appearance Monday, a court spokesman said.

Her husband, Army Col. Parker Schenecker, is with the U.S. Central Command, which is headquartered in Tampa. Police told WFTS that he was in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar when his children were killed.

King High School, which Calyx attended, and Liberty Middle School, where Beau was a student, are sponsoring the service at First Baptist Church of Temple Terrace in Tampa, the church said.
Josh Saliba, director of creative ministries, told CNN he would not comment on Westboro Baptist's plans to protest.

On Monday -- their first day back since the shootings became public -- students at Liberty Middle School wore blue and black in memory of Beau, who was an eighth-grader there.

CNN affiliate Bay News 9 posted a statement Monday from the Schenecker family:
"Colonel Parker Schenecker has returned from his deployment and is grieving with family and friends. He is devoted first and foremost to honoring the lives and memory of his beautiful children, Calyx and Beau," the statement said. "Parker and his family have been touched by the overwhelming support from the community both near and abroad. Arrangements and details are still being finalized with regard to the services to be held for Calyx and Beau."
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Kansas church to protest at service for slain Florida siblings

Military:Electrical review turns up 3,700 fires

Electrical review turns up 3,700 fires
The ongoing Central Command review of electrical malfunctions that have killed at least seven troops and a contractor at U.S.-occupied buildings in Iraq has uncovered more than 3,700 fires at those facilities from May 2007 to August 2008.


The total dwarfs the 483 fires at contractor-maintained facilities reported to Congress at a July 30 hearing, which the command’s 15-member Task Force for Safety Actions for Fire and Electricity now says was the five-month figure for one region, not all of Iraq.

But not all of the 3,726 fires reported were a result of electrical malfunctions, the task force says. Only about 820 were definitively characterized as electrical fires, with about 275 of those resulting from “fluorescent light ballast” malfunctions. The causes of the vast majority of the fires were “undetermined.”

On average, 4.2 fires per day have taken place over the past five weeks at U.S. facilities in Iraq, the task force said. These ranged from power strip flare-ups to full-blown fires, Maj. Gen. Tim McHale, who leads the task force, said in a Sept. 15 telephone interview.


Most, but not all, of the 86,000 U.S.-occupied buildings in Iraq are managed by KBR Inc., McHale said. KBR and Army Contracting Command came under fire in that July hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, whose members were particularly incensed over what is now reported as 18 deaths — an increase of two from earlier reports — because of inadvertent electrocutions, most of them involving U.S. troops, recorded in Iraq since 2003.
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