March 28, 2024

Confederate Renaming ‘Intense’

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Heated exchanges and a flood of suggestions for the Confederate renaming commission, reports Military Times. The commission has received 27,000 suggestions. Retired ADM Michelle Howard, head of the commission, said, “Some of those suggestions on the website are quite intense.” In a transcript of a media roundtable, she declined to call the sessions hostile, but said, “So, there are some folks who are distinctly opposed, and the verbiage they use is quite deliberate,” she said. “And they ― they make it clear they do not support the commission.”

Military police are investigating a Confederate flag flying from a flagpole outside the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment headquarters in Vilseck, Germany, this week, reports Stars and Stripes. An American flag and a German flag also were stolen from inside the headquarters building. The incident at Rose Barracks, home to a regiment of about 4,800 soldiers, comes more than a year after the DoD banned Confederate flags and other divisive symbols from public display.

All seven living former Veterans Affairs secretaries are calling for Sunday, November 21, to be declared “National Warrior Call Day” to draw public awareness to veteran and military suicide, reports Army Times.

VASec Denis McDonough tells Jon Stewart he is “frustrated” at the slow pace of expanding benefits for military burn pit victims, reports Military Times. “The biggest hurdle is establishing a scientific link, and I will be damned if I don’t establish that,” he said.

A new Navy unmanned and artificial intelligence task force in the Middle East will begin using off-the-shelf gear to boost maritime domain awareness in the region, reports Defense News. Task Force 59 will operate out of US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and try to apply emerging unmanned and AI technologies to address challenges in that region.

The response time of the US Coast Guard and local officials is being questioned in last week’s Southern California oil spill, reports Military.com. People who live and work in the area noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening. The Coast Guard reported and established a response Saturday afternoon. The company operating the pipeline believed responsible for the leak shut down operations Saturday night.

The owner of a pipeline at the heart of California’s worst oil spill in almost 30 years is investigating the disaster site with a remotely controlled device and local authorities warned the cleanup may take weeks, reports gCaptain. Amplify Energy Corp. is getting close to “a source and a cause” of the incident, which may have been caused by a ship’s anchor, CEO Martyn Willsher said Monday. The spill dumped about 126,000 gallons of crude into the Pacific Ocean near the seaside community of Huntington Beach, which hosted the US Open of Surfing last week, reported Bloomberg.

 

 

The US Postal Service is trying out a new business: paycheck cashing services, reports The Washington Post. Several East Coast post offices began last month, testing a plan that financial experts say has the potential to transform how low-wage and under-served Americans access their money. Postal customers can now redeem paychecks in Washington, Baltimore, Falls Church, VA, and the Bronx through this pilot program.

The US Supreme Court on Monday put an end to Oracle Corp.’s challenge to how the Pentagon awarded the government’s now-canceled $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract, reports Reuters.

L3Harris Technologies filed suit September 7 in the Court of Federal Claims protesting a decision by the Government Accountability Office requiring the Navy to potentially reopen discussion and request revised proposals for the next increment of the Navy’s powerful airborne jammer, reports C4ISRNET. The August 18 GAO decision sided with Northrop Grumman, who alleged the Navy failed to consider the impact of a potential conflict of interest for a Navy employee and L3Harris during the solicitation.

US resumes Afghan refugee flights after measles shots, reports The Associated Press. Authorities have administered the vaccination to about 49,000 people since measles was detected among some of the evacuees. That figure includes refugees at staging areas in Europe and the Middle East, as well as those already arrived at US military bases before the pause.

Time reports on the resiliency of the evacuees and also on signs of struggle ahead in the resettlement efforts. For now, nearly 13,000 Afghans in Fort McCoy wait, on the sprawling Army base in Wisconsin, for their future to unfold. The population of the evacuation center is larger now than either of the towns that flank the base.

The Senate confirms USAF GEN Jacqueline Van Ovost to head the US Transportation Command, reports Air Force Times. A key leader in the historic humanitarian evacuation from Afghanistan, Van Ovost has more than 4,200 hours in over 30 aircraft.

Naval Station Mayport became home to a new helicopter squadron October 1, Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 50 “Valkyries,” outfitted with MH-60R Seahawks to support littoral combat ships and expeditionary independent deployers, reports Navy Times. Last month, Mayport experienced an accidental foam discharge in a hanger, damaging several Seahawks.

Contracts:

Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, was awarded a $144,623,645 fixed-price incentive (firm target) modification to previously awarded contract N00024-21-C-2209 for the detail design and construction of two towing, salvage, and rescue ships (T-ATS 11 and 12). The contract modification establishes options for up to three additional ships, which, if exercised, will bring the total cumulative value of the contract to $385,084,067. Work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama (54%); Chesapeake, Virginia (20%); Jacksonville, Florida (6%); Boca Raton, Florida (4%); New Orleans, Louisiana (3%); and suppliers each representing less than 1% of contract value (13%). Fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $144,623,645 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 30, 2021)

C.E.R Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $9,703,200 firm-fixed-price task order (N4008022F4000) under a previously-awarded, multiple-award construction contract (N40080-21-D-0025) for the replacement of Chillers Three through Nine at Naval Support Activity Bethesda. Work will be performed in Bethesda, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by April 2023. Fiscal 2019 military construction (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,703,200 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Seven proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Management Services Group Inc., doing business as Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded an $9,641,729 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previously awarded contract (N0002420C5608) for Network, Processing, and Storage Technical Insertion 16, Modification 1 production equipment, spares, and engineering services. This contract combines purchases for the US government (98%); and the Commonwealth of Australia (2%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is expected to be complete by September 2022. Fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,398,915 (66%); fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,066,506 (11%); fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $592,839 (6%); fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $556,818 (5%); fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $335,241 (3%); fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $277,714 (3%), FMS (Australia) funds in the amount of $254,264 (2%); fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $79,716 (1%); fiscal 2017 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $45,552 (1%); fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $22,776 (1%); and fiscal 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,388 (1%) were obligated at the time of award, of which funds in the amount of $870,553 expired at the end of fiscal year 2021. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. (Awarded September 30, 2021)

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