News Tribune reporter Adam Lynn files this story after interviewing the new top airman in the Puget Sound area Friday:
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The new commander of McChord Air Force Base will have his hands full as the Obama administration moves to draw down troops in Iraq and increase operations in Afghanistan.

McChord and its 4,600 military and civilian personnel and 43 C-17 cargo jets certainly will play a central role “if a decision is made to shift forces anywhere in the world,” Col. Kevin J. Kilb said Friday.

“Obviously, we’re focused on doing our part to win today’s fight,” Kilb said after being installed as commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing during festivities at the base south of Tacoma. “The continuous support of the war fighter is what we’re focused on.”

He replaces Col. Jeffrey Stephenson, who has been appointed as chief of staff of the Air Force Chair at the National War College in Washington, D.C.

Local concerns also will occupy Kilb, a 20-year Air Force veteran who has commanded units across the world.

Kilb, 43, told The News Tribune that one of his top priorities will be ensuring that McChord’s merger with Fort Lewis goes as smoothly as possible. Wing commander assignments usually last 20 to 24 months.

The two Pierce County military installations are scheduled to become a single base by October 2010. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission ordered the consolidation in 2005.

“Making sure we get that right” while “taking care of our airmen and their families” will require a concerted effort over the next year or so, Kilb said.

“We want to become the model joint base in the Department of Defense,” he said.

Kilb comes to McChord from Air Force headquarters in the nation’s capital, where he served as chief of the Global Mobility Division and chair of the Global Mobility Panel, Directorate of Programs, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs.

He is a command pilot with more than 3,600 hours of flight time in aircraft including the C-17A, C-130E/H Hercules and UH-1N Huey helicopter.

Kilb’s duty stations included a deployment to Iraq in 2006, where he commanded the 407th Air Expeditionary Group at Ali Air Base near the ancient city of Ur.

He and his wife, Stacey, have three daughters, ages 6, 5 and 5 months.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com

Postings will be a tad more erratic the next couple weeks. I'll be on vacation, but I'm confident others back at the TNT will update this when news breaks.

And since I'm posting about Stars and Stripes, I should give the paper credit: It has the best coverage of Iraq by a Western media outlet today. It receives funding from the Department of Defense but is editorially independent -- no S-2 folks poring over each story before it goes out. Its reporters certainly don't envision themselves as stenographers for guys with stars on their shoulders.

But apparently they're doing too good of a job for the military's taste.

From today's edition:

Asserting that Stars and Stripes "refused to highlight" good news in Iraq that the U.S. military wanted to emphasize, Army officials have barred a Stripes reporter from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul.

Officials said Stripes reporter Heath Druzin, who covered operations of the division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team in February and March, would not be permitted to rejoin the unit for another reporting tour because, among other things, he wrote in a March 8 story that many Iraqi residents of Mosul would like the American soldiers to leave and hand over security tasks to Iraqi forces.

"Despite the opportunity to visit areas of the city where Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police displayed commitment to partnership, Mr. Druzin refused to highlight any of this news," Major Ramona Bellard, a public affairs officer, wrote in denying Druzin’s embed request.

So the reporter's main crime, in the view of military officials in Mosul, was that he reported what Iraqis told him? Aren't these the people the Pentagon, Central Command, Multi-National Force-Iraq, et al, say we're there to help?

There are a few other allegations: Druzin used quotes out of context (the old standby of an angry PAO), he "behaved unprofessionally" (no examples given in this story) and that he asked to use a computer to file a story during a communications-blackout period (he can ask; they can say no).

But here’s a whopper:

Additionally, Col. Gary Volesky, the 3rd Brigade’s commander, asserted that Druzin "would not answer questions about stories he was writing."

Someone should tell Col. Volesky there's something called the First Amendment. Reporters don't need to say what they're working on -- some do as a courtesy, but it's far from a requirement -- and if the colonel tried to quash the story, it gets into a thorny issue: prior restraint by the federal government.

Or maybe the military should read the introduction to its own ground rules for embedding in Iraq: "These ground rules recognize the inherent right of the media to cover combat operations and are in no way intended to prevent release of embarrassing, negative or derogatory information."

Attention, National Guardsmen: The military wants you for Afghanistan.

Stars and Stripes has a story today about the importance of the National Guard soldiers -- specifically ones with civil affairs-type expertise -- in Afghanistan.

From the story:

Gen. David Petraeus, head of Central Command, has already suggested they could use more of the agribusiness development teams — manned by National Guardsmen from rural areas — that train Afghans in modern farming techniques. Thirteen already are in place.

An expansion of the State Partnership Program, which links state National Guard units with overseas militaries (Washington is partnered with Thailand), is also being considered.

If you haven't checked it out yet, look at Peter Haley's slideshow of 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment training with the Land Warrior system. We spent a day with the soldiers from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division last week, and I turned out this story.

Today's lone story about local troops (other than my story about Rev. Tim Vakoc) comes from DVIDS, which offers a story about a psychologist with 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek shared this story he wrote for the Northwest Guardian about Fr. Tim Vakoc when the two were deployed to Iraq in 2003.

Soldiers gather for Christmas services

By Lt. Col. Joseph Piek
3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division

FOB PACESETTER, Iraq – As Arrowhead Brigade soldiers kept round-the-clock pressure on non-compliant enemy forces in the nearby town of Samarra, many 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Soldiers gathered from across the base camp to pause for Christmas services.

For one relatively silent night, the long-abandoned and cavernous Iraqi air force hangar that serves as a dining facility by day was transformed into a cathedral-like chapel.

Chaplain assistants from across the brigade as well as 296th Brigade Support Battalion volunteers arranged rows of plastic patio chairs like pews, as the praise band greeted churchgoers with familiar Christmas carols. Others passed out candles from a box deployed from Fort Lewis to mark the occasion.

=> Read more!