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Sandbags are common in field encampments and in hostile territory and have the advantage of being portable. But sandbags have gaps and are labor-intensive to fill. So the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are using a new type of barrier — a collapsible form that can be quickly filled with sand or dirt. The barriers also can be emptied, collapsed, and reused.

The prefabricated Concertainer Defense Wall, made by <a href=”http://www.hesco.com/”>HESCO Bastion Ltd</a>. of Leeds, England, is a series of steel-wire Weldmesh panels joined by steel wire coils. The wire coils allow the units to be packed flat for storage and shipping. Concertainer also can be interleaved, and by inserting a pin, the units can be connected horizontally to form a wall.

For military purposes, Concertainer comes in 10 sizes, varying in cross-section from 2 feet by 2 feet to 7 feet 3 inches by 7 feet. Units come in various lengths.

Al Grice, technical representative for HESCO Military Products, says the greatest advantage of Concertainer is speed.

“As a guide, a Mil 1 unit, which is 4 feet 6 inches high and 3 feet 6 inches thick by 32 feet long, can be erected and filled by a crew of four with a loader in 20 minutes, while an equivalent volume of sandbags would require a squad about 8 hours,” Grice points out.

Other advantages, Grice notes, are that the materials used in Concertainer are more durable than sandbags, cost per given volume is less, and the footprint of structures built with Concertainer units is smaller because walls don’t need to be sloped, as in the case of sandbags, to create a stable wall.

The maximum $800 million contract for Concertainer units is managed through Defense Supply Center Philadelphia.

<span style=”FONT-WEIGHT: bold”>About the author:</span> <span style=”FONT-STYLE: italic”>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’s also the author of the historical mystery,</span> Full Moon <span style=”FONT-STYLE: italic”>(JoNa Books, 2005).</span>

Northrop Grumman Corporation and Oshkosh Truck Corporation have teamed to compete for the U.S. military’s next-generation family of lightweight vehicles.

Under the agreement announced Jan. 8, if selected for the Joint
Light Tactical Vehicle Technology Demonstration (JLTV) program,
Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector will be the prime contractor and systems integrator. Oshkosh Truck’s Defense Group will be responsible for designing, engineering, and manufacturing the vehicle.

“Northrop Grumman brings enormous experience in the design, development and systems integration of complex mission equipment on military platforms,” says Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer. “The fusion of this expertise with Oshkosh Truck’s unparalleled capability in advanced extreme-duty vehicles enables our team to deliver the best JLTV solution to our nation’s warfighters.”

The urgent need to meet JLTV survivability requirements and situational awareness without sacrificing mobility requires an innovative approach to vehicle development. “Oshkosh Truck has proven its vehicles work in actual rugged conditions — and not just on a tradeshow floor. By working together with Northrop Grumman and our partners, Oshkosh can provide the total package to meet the military’s vehicle needs and ultimately help protect soldiers and Marines,” says Robert G. Bohn, chairman and chief executive officer of Oshkosh Truck Corporation.

DoD plans to acquire the JLTV for use by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. As currently envisioned, the JLTV will be stronger and more survivable than current tactical vehicles in its class. It also will be more mobile and maneuverable than the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, being widely deployed in Iraq.

Severely wounded service members who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will participate in a summer long sports rehabilitation program offered by Disabled Sports USA (DS/USA) in partnership with 35 of its local chapters and Wounded Warrior Project. This summer’s activities for the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project will include a series of more than 35 “learn-to” clinics in cycling, golf, sailing, outrigger canoeing, kayaking, scuba, rock climbing, camping, water skiing, rafting, wake boarding, track and field, fishing and other sports.

Advanced level training and competitions are also offered to help the Wounded Warriors to remain active throughout their lives. Several of the Wounded Warriors have been certified as scuba divers, and some are training to be Paralympians, as a result of this program. Many have become active in local DS/USA chapter activities, once they return to civilian life.

Wounded Warrior Project leads AIG and others in funding the program, enabling DS/USA to provide all sports programs free of charge for severely wounded service members and their families. This includes costs for transportation, special adaptive sports equipment, training from qualified adaptive sports instructors, lodging, meals and other costs.

“The Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project is a successful partnership with Disabled Sports USA and we are honored to be able to offer severely wounded service members and their families opportunities to participate in recreational activities,” stated John Melia, Executive Director and Founder of Wounded Warrior Project. “The road to recovery is measured in years and through the WWDSP, we will continue to grow a community offering active rehabilitation to engage wounded soldiers for a lifetime.”

“The 2008 summer programs will continue to provide opportunities to show our Wounded Warriors that they can live an active life with their new physical challenges.” said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA and a disabled Vietnam veteran.

“We will conduct programs throughout the USA, taking these deserving Wounded Warriors to some fantastic venues, including river rafting and kayaking in Colorado, sailing across the Atlantic, scuba diving in Florida and the Caribbean, water skiing in New York, Texas and California; surfing in California and North Carolina; golfing and cycling at courses and paths near the hospitals where they are convalescing and many other activities” Bauer added.

Activities will be held for severely wounded service members rehabilitating in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas; Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego California; and Veterans Hospitals in Tampa Florida and Palo Alto California and other medical centers. Wounded Warriors discharged from the military will also have the opportunity to continue to participate at DS/USA national and chapter programs throughout the USA, so they can maintain an active sports life.

View the list of July events, or look for an event later in the year on the Disabled Sports USA Web site.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008, the “HEART Act,” was signed into law by President Bush. Actively pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Veterans Affairs, this legislation makes veterans who entered active military duty after December 31, 1976 eligible to apply for Qualified Veterans Mortgage Bonds (QVMB) under the state’s longstanding Cal-Vet Home Loan Program.

“All California veterans deserve our gratitude, whenever and wherever they served our country,” said Schwarzenegger. “Today is a great day now that more veterans will be eligible for Cal-Vet home loans. We have been working toward this goal for a long time and now more veterans will have access to the low-interest home loans that veterans from World War I to the Vietnam War have enjoyed.”

Gov. Schwarzenegger personally encouraged lawmakers in Washington D.C. to support the HEART Act, which changes Internal Revenue Code to allow these benefits for recent wartime veterans. Until this legislation was signed, the Internal Revenue Code limited QVMB loans to veterans who served on active duty prior to January 1, 1977. This made veterans of the Vietnam War the last wartime veterans eligible for this benefit. Supporters of the HEART Act have long contended that veterans from deployments to Panama, the Persian Gulf, Operation Desert Storm, Somalia, the Balkans, and now in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan should have access to the same benefit earlier veterans received.

Since 1922, California has operated, at no expense to its General Fund, the voter-approved Cal-Vet Home Loan Program, a QVMB program that has helped more than 419,000 California wartime veterans become homeowners. The Tax Reform Act of 1984 limited the use of QVMBs to wartime veterans with active military duty prior to 1977. The vast majority of California veterans from recent conflicts were not eligible before the HEART Act was signed. QVMB home loan programs are also available in Alaska, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin.

As if you don’t have enough to do between networking, résumé development, interview preparation, due diligence on your target companies, and the daily requirements of your current job, now you also must take time to research and monitor what the internet says about you as part of an effective job search process.

An increasing number of companies are conducting an Internet search for background information as part of the vetting process for prospective employees. Based on research by Execunet, a leading job search and recruiting network, and Joyce Gioia-Herman, a strategic business futurist, first impressions are being formed long before the interview process begins. In fact, 83 percent of recruiters recently polled are using online information to augment résumés, and 43 percent have eliminated candidates based on digital dirt discovered during online candidate vetting.

The first step in online reputation management is checking the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, and MSN, as well as Wikipedia — for your name by using a keyword search of your given name and nicknames. Google even has a special alert feature that allows a user to monitor keywords and sends a daily e-mail summarizing the search results. This feature can be accessed from the Google home page by clicking on “more” at the top of the page, then selecting “even more,” and then “Alerts.” From there you can type in your name or nickname and the frequency at which you would like updates sent. Microsoft offers a similar feature —Windows Live Alerts — at www.alerts.live.com.

Beyond a keyword search of your name, you also should be cautious when posting information on blogs, social networking sites, and online forums. According to the Execunet study, anything connected to your name online can be viewed as a reflection of your character and integrity.

Finally, recognize that online biographical information, including résumé postings, can be used as a pretext for identity theft. Job seekers have received e-mails and phone calls requesting personal information from people claiming to be recruiters or representatives of companies conducting pre-employment background checks or seeking to establish a direct-deposit account as part of the pre-employment screening process. In no case will a job candidate be asked to provide confidential personal information to the human resources department of a company before the interview process has been initiated and preliminary salary details have been discussed.

About the author: Jim Carman is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and a retired Navy Captain. He writes and lectures on career transition topics.

It’s summertime, and that means one thing in any military community: transition time.
Best friends forever will come and go. Kids will have to adjust to new schools, new buddies, and new neighborhoods all over again. If you’re moving, you’ll have to find a new hairdresser who actually listens to you. We know it’s not easy but it comes with the territory.

My friend Charlotte probably is looking for that hairdresser right now. I wonder if she’s figured out how to say it in Japanese. I’m not too convinced that the Texas star will be able to master the language of her new duty station in just a few days, but give her a month or so, and I’ll bet she has it nailed.

You know Charlotte. Every community has one. She is the military spouse who does it all, does it well, and does it in a way that makes you admire her for it. What’s more, she does it without receiving a paycheck. If she were the least bit unlikable, her many accomplishments would get on your nerves. That, however, is far from the case.

She is the president of the PTA and successfully manages the community’s largest fund-raising event. She is the mom that shows up during the class parties, field trips, and school plays. She is a volunteer and without her hard work, dedication, and commitment to a better quality of life, certain aspects of our military communities would not earn the high marks they do. She is the person who leaves a place in a much better state than she found it and sets it up for success for the next one.

In my community, Charlotte was, in fact, voted the volunteer of the year.

Maybe you are that special military spouse with a gift for bringing people and causes together for the greater good. If not, I hope she moves in next door to you this summer.

— 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.

Early last year, the Air Force was able to keep no more than 11 of the remotely piloted, armed Predator surveillance aircraft flying over Iraq and Afghanistan at any one time.

By this past Sunday, that number had more than doubled to 25, and Air Force officials now say they can guarantee at least that many of the hunter-killer aircraft will be aloft around the clock, a new element of the buildup in American forces for the two wars.

The push to increase missions by the Predator, and its larger and more deadly variant, the Reaper, has been an issue of serious contention between Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the armed services, in particular the Air Force.

Read the rest at The New York Times.

As part of a continuing effort to be a good steward of the environment, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is introducing reusable bags to military shoppers. Made of non-woven polypropylene mesh, the bags are now arriving in stores in the United States, with worldwide distribution expected by June.

“Military shoppers continue to express a strong desire for environmentally friendly products,” said Maggie Burgess, AAFES’ senior vice president of sales. “In fact, AAFES has seen compact fluorescent lighting light bulb sales increase by 160 percent in 2008 compared to the same time period last year. With that said, we anticipate exchange customers will enthusiastically embrace AAFES’ new, environmentally friendly shopping bag options.”

The AAFES recycled-reusable bag line, capable of carrying up to 35 pounds, will consist of a small shopping bag and wine bag for 99 cents each, a large shopping bag for $1.49, and a thermal bag is available for $1.99.

Besides the bags, AAFES is implementing “green initiatives” at exchange facilities across the globe to include energy efficient vending machines, inventive “pollution solutions” in fast food restaurants, and CFL options within the stores. Future real estate efforts will focus on energy and water reduction, and the incorporation of earth-friendly materials into building design. (Courtesy of AAFES)

Because it’s critical for servicemembers to quickly react to threat during combat, they must be able to accurately point a weapon.

While Picatinny rail mountings allow accessories to be snapped onto weapons without the use of tools, servicemembers often need a bipod for greater stability. However, the bipod occupies the same place as the grip handle.

Grip Pod Systems of Jacksonville, Fla., has solved this problem with a front hand grip that has a hidden spring-loaded bipod activated by a button.

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps currently use the configuration, with the Army purchasing 400,000 units and the Marines purchasing 200,000, according to J.R. Moody, who owns the firm with Joe Gaddini of Asheville, N.C.

“The GPS model 2 is a high-strength polymer made with polymer-covered, hardened stainless steel legs, and it weighs in at seven ounces,” Moody says. “It’s the fastest deploying foregrip in the world, has been tested in snow and desert heat, and can support the weight of a 300 pound man standing on an M16 with a rail system.”

Servicemembers soon will benefit from a newer grip bipod version with longer legs and a canting mechanism to create a level shooting stance from uneven ground.
Moody says he’s also working on a new light to attach to the grip pod.

“We got feedback from the guys in the sandbox that sometimes exiting a Humvee or touching a stone wall might make them squeeze the pressure pad on the grip’s side and activate the light,” Moody says. “Then they’re targeted.”

Moody says Grip Pod Systems has developed a rail that fits in the grip pod’s front accessory port, placing the light to the side where a rear-activated button unit can be tapped with the thumb.

“The light’s adjustable fore and aft on the rail, and two-sided rails are available so you can put a laser on one side and a light on the other,” he adds.

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).