Message Center

An unprecedented joint report issued March 10 by researchers from the United States, China, Russia, Japan and China recommends a new approach to promoting the modernization of North Korea.

The RAND Corporation study, stemming from a 2-year-long collaboration between RAND and five research institutions, prescribes specific policies that could be pursued by the United States and the other countries to create fundamental, but peaceful, change in North Korea’s archaic political, economic and security systems.

The study does not advocate regime change, noting that “without broader and deeper modernization of the North Korea system itself, ‘normal’ relations with the outside world will not be possible.”

Besides RAND, the institutions behind the study are the POSCO Research Institute and the Research Institute for National Security Affairs, both in Seoul, Korea; the Center for Contemporary Korean Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow; the China Reform Forum in Beijing; and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. North Korea was invited to participate in the group’s five workshops, but declined. All six institutions agreed on a portfolio of recommendations, which include:

• Verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula
• Six-nation declaration of non-aggression and peaceful co-existence
• Direct bilateral and multilateral talks toward normalization of relations with North Korea
• Encouragement of fledgling market-oriented experiments such as free economic zones
• Assistance for the development of small businesses and protection of private property rights
• Academic and cultural/arts exchanges

The study, “Modernizing the North Korea System: Objectives, Methods, Applications,” can be found at www.rand.org.

Why would someone give up a cozy life in the leafy bedroom community of Chappaqua, N.Y., for the muck and peril of writing about our soldiers in Iraq, without even a paycheck as consolation?

Shelby Monroe, a librarian here, did just that. Footloose at 44, with no journalism experience, she persuaded the 101st Airborne Division to let her be embedded, not once but twice in the past two years. As you’re reading this, she’s at a base somewhere south of Samarra in a sky-blue flak jacket purchased on eBay and a helmet that hides her honey-brown hair, sleeping in her own trailer and figuring out how to share latrines and showers with the men.

Through her laptop, this combat correspondent is posting blogs with titles like “The Adventures of a Restless Librarian in Iraq” and articles for the Mount Kisco and Pleasantville Examiner weekly newspapers and for a weekly in Tennessee.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

For a group of older ladies in Greenbelt, Md., their war on terror is being waged with scissors and coupons. These members of the American Legion meet weekly to clip coupons that are sent to overseas bases, where they are accepted up to six months past the expiration date. The coupons help military families make ends meet at bases as far away as Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Last year alone, the group sent almost half a million dollars worth of coupons overseas. For the full story, visit The Washington Post.

Married to the Military is one of four new monthly columns that will be featured in Message Center.

I hate goodbyes.

Once, when my husband was leaving for yet another far away trip, I found myself standing around in “hurry up and wait” mode along with everyone else. While he was off being issued gear, I had an “I don’t like the Army today” moment. Somehow, those thoughts became spoken words that were rudely directed to the nearest living, breathing soul in uniform. Clearly, the poor soldier standing next to me was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the look on his face said it all: Please let me be anywhere in this world except standing next to this psycho wife. I’m certain he was a single guy who planned to stay single after that.

The sad truth is goodbyes never are easy — no matter how often you say them. And, without a doubt, military spouses today get way too much practice. Over and over again, we let go of the strong hands that mean the most to us, and we say silent prayers for their safe return. We gear up for a life of geographical bachelorhood and we deal with our kids as best we can under the circumstances.

Recently, an exasperated friend of mine joked that she was on the verge of leaving her children. Sometime between sunset and sunrise, they had transformed into tiny monsters determined to test the limits of her mothering abilities. She knew why right away, of course. It was because their Air Force dad was leaving in a couple days for yet another far away trip. They didn’t know where he was going or when he would be back. And they weren’t going to know either.

I hate goodbyes. The only good thing about them is they bring us a step closer to being with the ones we love again.

— Janet Farley is the author of The Military Spouse’s Complete Guide to Career Success (Impact Publications, 2008) and writes the career advice column JobTalk for the Stars and Stripes newspapers.

The nonprofit Military Child Education Coalition is gathering input, insight and wisdom from youth who were ages 12 through 20 when their loved one deployed, to be used in a book that will act as a resource for teens and school counselors.

If you’re a teenager who has experienced the deployment of a loved one since Sept. 11, 2001, here’s your chance to offer advice to help other teens.

The deadline for input is March 31, and teens can download and fill out a questionnaire, which asks questions about age and grade in school at the time of deployment and at the time the service member returned; questions about support networks, relationships, communication during deployment, and experiences after the deployment.

More information is available on the Military Child Education Coalition Web site.

Read the full story, originally published in the Air Force Times.

To relieve the wartime strain on ground troops and meet a mandate to expand the force, the Army plans to offer a series of new and costly incentives, including a home mortgage fund and a military prep school for high school dropouts, to help draw in a shrinking pool of eligible volunteers, according to military officials and federal budget documents.

The military has historically provided a variety of benefits to compensate troops for their service – most notably the GI Bill, which gave World War II veterans money for college. In recent years, the Army has emphasized to recruits the advanced training they will receive, skills that could help them land a high-tech civilian career, and the force has provided increasingly sizable cash bonuses to lure enlistees and persuade more soldiers to reenlist.

Now the Army is taking its efforts to find qualified 18- to 24-year-old recruits to another level, through a combination of financial benefits that would accrue long after new soldiers complete their Army career and a series of new programs intended to help less qualified young people meet the military’s eligibility requirements.

Read the full article from the Boston Globe.

Beginning May 5, U.S. Airways will charge a $25 fee for passengers who want to check a second bag. However, all active duty servicemembers in uniform with an ID are exempt from the policy.

The policy, which is a result of increasing fuel costs, applies to all flights within the U.S., to and from Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Passengers can still check one bag for free, and travelers who purchased tickets on or before Feb. 26 for flights on or after May 5, are exempt from the policy change.

For more information about the new policy or for a complete list of exemptions, visit www.usairways.com/awa/content/FAQs/newpolicy.aspx.

Mil Tech is one of four new monthly columns that will be featured in Message Center. Look for a new column every Monday.

Quick treatment of wounded servicemembers in combat zones always is a concern, but there might be a new solution — in servicemembers’ clothing.

Blackhawk, a Richmond, Va., company, has turned an Army surgeon’s idea into a system that builds tourniquets into the arms and legs of a servicemember’s uniform.

The Integrated Tourniquet System (ITS) is backpack-like straps sewn into a servicemember’s uniform — two in each arm and leg for a total of eight tourniquets. The ITS is positioned at the leg’s femoral artery and at the ankle. Arm units are at the brachial artery and wrist.

According to Terry Naughton, Blackhawk’s director of licensed products, currently there is a mobile unit similar to the ITS — the Combat Action Tourniquet (CAT) — that can be carried in a backpack, battle dress uniform, or vest pocket. “But if you don’t have the tourniquet with you when an attack occurs, it’s of zero value,” Naughton says. “With the ITS, you have tourniquets that can be self-activated or applied by someone else.”

To activate the ITS, a servicemember reaches inside a concealed flap and lifts a windlass-like lever to pull the strap tight. The mechanism locks down the artery so blood flow can’t continue to move up into the body.

Naughton says that while body armor can protect the core mass, extremities are still vulnerable.

“Sixty percent of all injuries happen to the extremities,” Naughton says, “and 10 percent of combat deaths are because of an extremity injury where bleeding couldn’t be controlled in the field.”

Col. Patricia R. Hastings, director of U.S. Army Emergency Medical Services at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, says the greatest benefit to the ITS is that it’s already around the limb, and you can activate it very quickly. “And if you have someone with multiple injuries, you don’t have to scream for people to throw CATs over to you,” Hastings says.

She adds that if the ITS can save a medic a few minutes of time, then it has great possibilities. “I think it’s actually quite brilliant,” she says. “When you look at many innovations, you look back and say, ‘That’s so simple.’ ”

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz. freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He also is the author of the historical mystery, Full Moon (JoNa Books, 2005).