Aviation and defence colossus Boeing delivered India’s 12th maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare P-8I aircraft on Thursday (February 24). The first of these aircraft was inducted in 2013, and it made India the first country outside the United States to get one. The Navy has been receiving them regularly since.
The aircraft is designed for “long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions”, according to its maker, and is a “multi-mission aircraft” with “state of the art sensors, proven weapons systems, and a globally recognised platform”.
The first aircraft produced by Boeing flew in 2009, and has been in service with the US Navy since 2013, the same year as the Indian Navy. Apart from India and the US, it has been chosen by six other militaries in the world.
The aircraft has two variants — the P-8I, which is manufactured for the Indian Navy, and the P-8A Poseidon, which is flown by the US Navy, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Air Force. It has also been selected by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Republic of Korea Navy, and the German Navy.
Naval operations
According to Boeing, the P-8 is a “multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft, excelling at anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue”.
While the Indian Navy uses it for maritime operations, the aircraft was also used in eastern Ladakh in 2020 and 2021, when the standoff with China was at its peak, to keep an eye on Chinese troops and their manoeuvres.
The aircraft for the Indian Navy are called P-8I, and have replaced the ageing Soviet/Russian Tupolev Tu-142s. The P-8Is are capable of anti-submarine; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); patrolling, coastline defence, and other operations.
12 aircraft
In 2009, India had placed an order for eight planes, which were called P-8A Poseidon multimission maritime aircraft (MMA), by the US Navy. The order had a clause allowing the purchase of four more aircraft later. India exercised that option, and placed the order for four more aircraft in 2016.
The first eight of these aircraft are stationed at INS Rajali in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, on the eastern coast. The batch of the additional four are part of another squadron at INS Hansa in Goa, named Indian Naval Air Squadron 316.
The P-8I started operations at INS Hansa in January, after the first of them reached there on December 30, 2021. “The aircraft were inducted after fitment of indigenous equipment and Flight Acceptance Trials. On arrival, the aircraft were welcomed by a MiG 29K formation,” the Navy had said in January.
Tech specs
The P-8I can fly as high as 41,000 feet, and has a short transit time, which reduces the size of the “Area of Probability when searching for submarines, surface vessels or search and rescue survivors”. It is also used for low altitude, and humanitarian, and search and rescue missions.
The aircraft has two engines, and is about 40 metres long, with a wingspan of 37.64 metres. Each aircraft weighs about 85,000 kg, and has a top speed of 490 knots, or 789 km/hour. It requires a crew of nine, and has a range of 1,200+ nautical miles, with 4 hours on station, which means about 2,222 km.
According to Boeing, more than 140 P-8 aircraft have “executed more than 400,000 mishap free flight-hours around the globe”.
Weapons systems
The aircraft comes with one of the most advanced weapon systems in the world, and has a life of around 25 years, or 25,000 hours in the “harshest maritime flight regimes, including extended operations in icing environments”.
It is one of Boeing’s “most advanced aircraft”, and the P-8A “uses a first-in-industry in-line production system”. It plays a “crucial role in being the eyes of the Indian Navy and carrying out critical maritime operations”, and provides it a “significant edge in the strategically important Indian Ocean region,” Boeing says.
The Navy’s fleet has surpassed 29,000 flight-hours since their induction in 2013, and is responsible for coastal patrolling, search-and-rescue, anti-piracy, and supporting operations of other arms of the military, it says.
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As 3rd Marine Division commences Jungle Warfare Exercise 22, a large-scale, joint force exercise, Marine Wing Fighter Attack Squadron 314 is integrating the capabilities of the F-35C Lightning II. VMFA-314 will be supporting ground operations from their position deployed onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, displaying their ability to deliver long-range strike capabilities and close air support from an aircraft carrier.
VMFA-314, the first Marine squadron to deploy the F-35C, continues to demonstrate its proficiencies during JWX 22 by conducting simulated offensive and defensive air support, as well as air to ground support training missions alongside the Marines of 1st Marine Air Wing, Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces and the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group in support of Expeditionary Advance Base Operations.
“The opportunity to work alongside Navy and Japanese Self Defense Forces allows us to demonstrate our forward presence and to showcase our readiness to support real world operations.” Lt. Col. Brendan M. Walsh, VMFA-314 Commanding Officer
“Leveraging the Marine Corps’ decade of experience with the F-35B, we have spent the last two years working with the Navy to ensure the successful integration of the F-35C into the Carrier Air Wing and are now able to provide improved battlespace awareness and unmatched lethality,” said Lt. Col. Brendan M. Walsh, VMFA-314 Commanding Officer. “The opportunity to work alongside Navy and Japanese Self Defense Forces allows us to demonstrate our forward presence and to showcase our readiness to support real world operations.”
The integration of VMFA-314 and the F-35C into the Carrier Air Wing enables U.S. naval forces the ability to launch and recover fifth generation aircraft from nearly anywhere in the world and to relocate to new strategic locations. The employment of the F-35C provides Marine ground units stealth capabilities and combat power to create the conditions for follow on operations within key maritime terrain.
Exercises such as JWX 22 allow squadrons operating the F-35C to integrate tactics in conjunction with ground forces to help advance expeditionary capabilities such as EABO. These rehearsals of engagements will serve to reduce response times of forward-deployed units and support the continued prosperity, security and promise of a free and open, rules-based order for the U.S. and its alliances and partnerships.
Take Off Photo by Capt. Charles Allen
With continued deployments of fifth-generation fighters onto highly mobile aircraft carriers, the F-35C is able to provide precision long-range strike capabilities to allies while also garnering valuable intelligence from areas of operation, all while operating from at-sea or shore-based austere environments.
VMFA-314 was the first Marine Corps squadron to transition to the F-35C variant of the joint strike fighter after retiring its legacy F/A-18A/C aircraft and receiving its first F-35C on 21 January 2020. Now as the Marine Corps continues to develop as a modernized naval force, deploying squadrons, such as VMFA-314, to key strategic maritime locations demonstrates the Marine Corps’ capability to deter adversary aggression, and, if required, decisively win in conflict.
For questions regarding this release, please contact the 3rd MAW Communication Strategy and Operations Office at [email protected].
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden rescinded former President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. This was a historic victory for religious liberty that recognized no one should be banned from the country because of how they pray or how they worship. The Muslim ban policy was the most prominent but not the only way the Trump administration undermined religious liberty by favoring certain religions and using religion as a license to discriminate against and harm others, particularly women, LGBTQI+ individuals, religious minorities, and the nonreligious.1 Fortunately, in its first year, the Biden administration has charted a new course on religious liberty. It is helping to advance democratic principles of separating church and state while also affirming religious liberty for all, which includes protecting the rights and safety of religious minorities and the nonreligious.
Indeed, the Biden administration has taken a different and welcome approach to religious freedom, thus far reflecting an understanding that it is the principle that allows everyone to practice, or not practice, religion free from government interference. This human right is threatened by anti-democratic forces within the United States and in nations around the world.
This report details seven ways the Biden administration is advancing religious liberty at home and abroad:
Halting discrimination on the basis of religion in the U.S. immigration system
Expanding civil rights protections on the basis of religion
Resetting federal regulations to respect religious liberty
Structuring the administration’s religious affairs functions appropriately with religiously diverse leaders
Protecting sacred lands for Indigenous communities
Fighting white supremacist violence and enacting hate crimes legislation
Advancing international religious freedom as part of the interdependent human rights framework
While significant work remains to undo the harmful ways in which the Trump administration eroded religious liberty, the Biden administration has set itself on a course to restore the separation of church and state; protect religious liberty for all religions and the nonreligious; and reject claims that religious liberty includes a license to discriminate. These efforts include a recommitment to upholding essential tenets of U.S. democracy and to promoting policies that embrace the rights and dignity of all people.
Halting discrimination on the basis of religion in the U.S. immigration system
During the presidential transition period, more than 100 faith leaders called on President-elect Biden to make overturning former President Trump’s Muslim policy the top religious freedom priority.2 On the first day of his administration, President Biden did just that; his proclamation that he would overturn the Muslim ban stated:3
The United States was built on a foundation of religious freedom and tolerance, a principle enshrined in the United States Constitution. Nevertheless, the previous administration enacted a number of Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations that prevented certain individuals from entering the United States — first from primarily Muslim countries, and later, from largely African countries. Those actions are a stain on our national conscience and are inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.
As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent in the Trump v. Hawaii case that challenged the Muslim ban policy, “Taking all the relevant evidence together, a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was driven primarily by anti-Muslim animus, rather than by the Government’s asserted national-security justifications.”4
Former President Trump’s Muslim ban: A timeline
December 7, 2015: As a candidate for president, Donald Trump calls for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”5
March 9, 2016: Then-candidate Trump reiterates his support for a Muslim ban, saying “I think Islam hates us.”6
January 27, 2017: Then-President Trump attempts to enact his campaign promise of banning Muslims from coming to the United States by signing executive order 13769.7 The order banned travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days; suspended the entry of all refugees from these countries for at least 120 days; and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely.
February 3, 2017: The enforcement of executive order 13769 is blocked in federal court.8
March 6, 2017: The Trump administration attempts to enact its Muslim ban policy a second time with executive order 13780. This order removes Iraq from the list of banned countries.9
March 15, 2017: The enforcement of executive order 13780 is blocked in federal court.10
September 24, 2017: The Trump administration attempts to enact its Muslim ban policy a third time with presidential proclamation 9645. Sudan is removed from the list. Chad, North Korea, and certain Venezuelan government officials are added to the ban.11
June 26, 2018: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the third iteration of the ban, in a controversial 5-4 decision.12
January 31, 2020: Then-President Trump signs presidential proclamation 9983, which places additional restrictions on people from Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.13
January 20, 2021: President Joe Biden issues a proclamation revoking the Muslim ban policy on his first day in office.14
At least 42,650 people were barred from entering the United States because of the Muslim ban. The policy also had an immediately noticeable impact on refugee resettlement.15 According to an analysis of U.S. Department of State data by the Migration Policy Institute, “The Trump administration’s restrictions on admissions of nationals of some mostly Muslim countries, additional vetting procedures, and historically low admissions ceilings substantially affected the proportion of resettled Muslim and Christian refugees.”16
Figure 1
By taking action on day one, President Biden demonstrated that religious freedom is a priority for his administration. Former President Trump’s Muslim ban policy was one of the greatest infringements on religious freedom in U.S. history. Diverse religious liberty groups and organizations in the United States welcomed the repeal of the Muslim ban, calling it a “victory for faith freedom” that continues a welcoming tradition in the United States and restores the country’s legacy as a “beacon of opportunity for all.”17
It is important, however, to ensure that the Muslim ban—or any other attempt to ban immigrants based on their religion—cannot simply be reinstated under a future administration. For this reason, the Center for American Progress joined a broad coalition of religious freedom advocates in endorsing H.R. 1333, the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prevent future discrimination on the basis of religion by presidents as they exercise their authority to set immigration policy.18 The bill was introduced on February 25, 2021, by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), and it was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 21, 2021. A day later, the bill was received in the U.S. Senate and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, where it now awaits action.19 Religious organizations, such as the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, applauded the passage of the NO BAN Act in the House—calling the action “a robust protection of faith freedom for all”—and said they will continue to work with the NO BAN Act coalition to secure its passage in the Senate.20 In April, following House passage of the bill, the Biden administration also declared its support for the NO BAN Act, stating: “The Administration stands ready to work with the Congress to adopt a solution that protects against unfair religious discrimination.”21
The Administration stands ready to work with the Congress to adopt a solution that protects against unfair religious discrimination.
The Biden administration’s declaration of support for the NO BAN Act
Religious organizations such as Muslim Advocates and the Sikh Coalition also highlighted the importance of the bill’s passage and thanked members of Congress for introducing the measure.22 Shortly after the bill passed in the House, Madihha Ahussain, the then-Muslim Advocates’ special counsel for anti-Muslim bigotry, said: “Now we move on to the Senate, where we will ask every senator to defend our nation’s founding principles of religious freedom and equality by supporting this historic Muslim civil rights bill.”23
The Center for American Progress has condemned former President Trump’s Muslim ban policy, from its inception during the 2016 presidential campaign to the Trump administration’s various attempts to implement it during the following four years. These harms were exacerbated following the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Hawaii that ignored the rampant religious animus espoused by the government officials who enacted the policy. However, before celebrating President Biden’s decision to rescind the policy, it is vital to ensure that the president and Congress pass and enact the NO BAN Act so that the country never again allows a president to enact a religious litmus test for coming to the United States.
Expanding civil rights protections on the basis of religion
The Equality Act is groundbreaking legislation that would update the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system.24 This bill, however, does more than just protect LGBTQI+ individuals; it also expands existing civil rights protections on the basis of religion, gender, race, nationality, and more.25 Its passage would therefore be a historic victory for the cause of protecting the rights of religious minorities and the nonreligious in the United States.
The Equality Act is essential to the protection of the civil rights of those who are currently deprived of fundamental protections in certain places. For example, while the Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes protections based on religion, these do not actually extend to many places that are open to the public—such as health care providers, airlines, retail stores, hair salons, taxis, and shopping malls.26 This means that in cities and states that have not passed their own nondiscrimination laws, people can still be refused service and cast out of these establishments just because of the religion they choose to practice. However, under the Equality Act, stores open to the general public, for example, would no longer be able to post “No Muslims allowed” signs.27
On February 19, 2021, the Biden administration issued a statement on the introduction of the Equality Act in Congress.28 President Biden applauded Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and the entire Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus for introducing the act in the House of Representatives and urged its passage in both chambers. On February 25, the House passed the bill with bipartisan support; it now awaits passage in the Senate.
Opponents of the Equality Act allege that granting equal access protections to LGBTQI+ individuals would disrupt the religious exemptions currently enshrined in the United States’ civil rights framework. These claims, however, have no basis in fact and are simply spreading misinformation. The legislation would update civil rights protections for all and would cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. All existing religious exemptions from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 remain protected under the Equality Act.
More than 120 faith-based organizations have endorsed the Equality Act. Faith leaders delivered a petition from more than 17,000 people of faith to Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who then spoke about the petition during a hearing on the bill held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Biden administration has made the passage of the Equality Act a priority and engaged faith leaders in its public engagement work on the legislation. On June 30, 2021, the White House even organized a “Faith Voices for the Equality Act” event, with a diverse lineup of faith leaders speaking out in favor of the legislation.29
Resetting federal regulations to respect religious liberty
One of the Biden administration’s most important levers to advance religious liberty is its regulatory power. Federal regulations should protect Americans from discrimination based on religion alongside all protected classes. Religious liberty should never be pitted against other forms of discrimination or become a license to discriminate. In fact, turning religious liberty into a license to discriminate is itself an attack on religious liberty; allowing for discrimination on the basis of religion, in turn, increases discrimination against people based on their religion.
In partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Movement Advancement Project, CAP documented how the Trump administration expanded religious exemptions to codify discrimination against religious minorities, women, and LGBTQ people.30 The Biden administration has begun to make progress to address this misuse of religious liberty in the area of federal regulations—including in procurement, school, federal funding, and health care.
While there is much more work left to be done, these steps represent a positive change of course from the Trump administration.
Restoring nondiscrimination protections in federal contracting
On November 8, 2021, the Biden administration’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it would roll back Trump-era regulations related to nondiscrimination protections. The proposal would reverse the Trump administration’s final rule on “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption,” which was issued on December 9, 2020.31 The Trump rule established that all entities, including for-profits, that chose to contract with the federal government could retroactively claim a religious identity in order to gain access to a broad license to discriminate with taxpayer funds. This meant that religious entities would now be allowed, under a dubious interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), to make employment decisions based on religion if the position involved any of the organization’s religious activities. The rule, which took effect on January 8, 2021, made it possible for government contractors to discriminate against millions of Americans—including LGBTQI+ people, religious minorities, and women. Because of this, 110 religious leaders and 17 faith-based organizations signed a letter opposing the rule when it was first proposed in 2019.32
The Biden administration sought to restore religious freedom protections by announcing, through a notice of proposed rule-making, its intent to rescind the regulations set forth in the Trump administration’s final rule.33 The OFCCP’s proposed rescission would preserve executive order 11246, which was issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 to address discrimination by government contractors and its religious exemption. It would ensure, however, that the executive order 11246 religious exemption is not misused to allow all employers—nonprofit or for-profit, even if they did not previously identify as religious—to cite religion as a retroactive excuse for discrimination in a manner that is not consistent with principles and case law interpreting the Title VII religious exemption.34
The notice of proposed rule-making reads: “[T]o the extent the 2020 rule reflects the previous Administration’s policy judgments regarding deviating from Title VII case law and principles, the present Administration has evaluated the range of permissible policy options and determined that a return to its traditional approach of applying Title VII case law and principles will promote clarity and consistency in the application of the exemption.”
Ending religion-based discrimination in public colleges and universities
On August 19, 2021, the Biden administration announced its plans to review Trump-era regulations, referred to as the free inquiry rule, that require public colleges and universities to exempt religious student clubs from nondiscrimination provisions that applied to all other student clubs.35 This rule misapplies the principle of religious freedom by giving student clubs the ability to use religion to discriminate while still receiving official university recognition and funding. As a result, the rule has given rise to discrimination against students who are religious minorities, nonreligious, or LGBTQI+. For example, under the rule, faith-based schools are allowed to apply to the U.S. Department of Education for exemptions to federal anti-discrimination laws.
Throughout this process and beyond, public colleges and universities must ensure protection of First Amendment freedoms, including religious freedom and freedom of association, which long predate the Free Inquiry Rule.
Michelle Asha Cooper, deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs and acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education, U.S. Department of Education
The Biden administration plans to propose new regulations rescinding those parts of the free inquiry rule that attempt to circumvent First Amendment protections and undermine the promotion of an inclusive learning environment for students.36 Michelle Asha Cooper, deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs and acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the Education Department, wrote: “Throughout this process and beyond, public colleges and universities must ensure protection of First Amendment freedoms, including religious freedom and freedom of association, which long predate the Free Inquiry Rule. Compliance with nondiscrimination requirements must be in a manner consistent with the First Amendment.” Religious freedom organizations, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists, celebrated the announcement.37
Public colleges and universities have every right to enforce nondiscrimination provisions on their campuses, including those protecting LGBTQI+ students. Student clubs that discriminate should not be allowed to hide behind religious liberty as an excuse for their discrimination.
Restoring religious freedom protections in federally funded programs
The federal government has a long history of working with America’s many faith-based and community organizations as a means of providing critical services. The purpose of these partnerships has always been to serve the mission of the government, such as refugee resettlement services or housing for those in need; it has never been to specifically fund faith-based institutions, as this would be a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
On February 14, 2021, President Biden issued executive order 14015 on the “Establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” which appropriately stated a mission of partnering with faith-based organizations. It also revoked President Trump’s executive order 13831, a misguided attempt to direct federal funds to faith-based organizations.38 Executive order 13831 stated: “The executive branch wants faith-based and community organizations, to the fullest opportunity permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities.” The implementation of the Trump executive order led to new harmful regulations being put into place at a number of federal agencies: the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Biden administration has given notice that in order to implement executive order 14015, it is conducting an interagency process to review these rules and issue new guidance that is expected to help realign federal funding with the establishment clause.39 The regulatory agenda notes that each agency will be conducting new rule-making. These rules extend across many federal agencies, and religious liberty advocates will closely watch the process. Federally funded programs should be implemented consistent with federal nondiscrimination protections; the religious or nonreligious character of the entities involved in implementing the programs should not factor into the delivery of the programs. The Biden administration was right to revoke the executive order, as it now has an opportunity to rewrite the rules in a way that is consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
Restoring proper application of RFRA to child welfare agencies
On November 18, 2021, the HHS under the Biden administration announced that it would reverse a Trump-era HHS decision to issue letters to three states—South Carolina, Texas, and Michigan—waiving nondiscrimination requirements for federally funded child welfare agencies under the false guise of religious freedom. This was a misinterpretation of what federal agencies are tasked with under RFRA; it created blanket exemptions and allowed millions of federal dollars to fund discrimination against people of faith, LGBTQI+ families, and others in the child welfare system. For example, the Trump administration’s HHS provided a specific waiver to South Carolina allowing the evangelical foster care agency Miracle Hill Ministries to receive federal funding despite discriminating against Jewish and Catholic prospective foster parents.40
Instead, the Biden administration restored the application of RFRA so that requests for waivers from nondiscrimination requirements on religious freedom grounds would be determined on a case-by-case basis. At the time of the announcement, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra released the following statement:
Today’s action supports the bedrock American principle and a core mission of our Department – to ensure Americans have access to quality health and human services. Our action ensures we are best prepared to protect every American’s right to be free of discrimination. With the large number of discrimination claims before us, we owe it to all who come forward to act, whether to review, investigate or take appropriate measures to protect their rights. At HHS, we treat any violation of civil rights or religious freedoms seriously.41
Restoring nondiscrimination protections in health care
The Biden administration has also taken steps to restore nondiscrimination protections in health care, ensuring that all people have the access they need. On May 10, 2021, the Biden administration announced that the HHS Office for Civil Rights would include gender identity and sexual orientation as part of Section 1557’s prohibition against sex discrimination.42
Enforcing these protections would mitigate the harms enacted by the Trump administration on June 19, 2020, when it issued final regulations that undermined the nondiscrimination protections in Section 1557, also called the Health Care Rights Law, of the Affordable Care Act.43 The Trump regulations had erased the Obama administration’s regulations that protected transgender people from discrimination and protected against discrimination based on reproductive health care decisions.
The Trump administration’s regulations also increased the number and type of entities that were exempt from the nondiscrimination provisions. The Biden administration signaled that it intends to revise the Section 1557 regulations, which will likely include the religious exemption portion of the Trump-era regulation.
On May 2, 2019, the Trump administration issued a final rule, “Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care,” that toughened enforcement mechanisms for existing laws that protect conscience rights for health care providers who do not wish to provide services such as abortion, contraception, and sterilization based on their religious beliefs.44 Disguised as an attempt to “promote and protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious liberty,” the Trump administration gave health care providers leeway to discriminate against patients by claiming religious liberty.45
The regulations have faced legal challenges from groups, including the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. In February 2021, the Justice Department said in a court filing, “New leadership at HHS is currently in the process of arriving at the agency and plans to reassess the issues that these cases present.”46
Later, on September 17, 2021, the Biden administration’s HHS issued “Guidance on Nondiscrimination Protections under the Church Amendments.”47 The agency announced that the same amendments that traditionally have been interpreted to protect health care providers who refused to provide care also protect providers who do provide care. The HHS’ recent announcement makes clear that federal law protects health care providers who provide transition care or abortion and are often subject to discrimination for doing so. This guidance came in the wake of the passage of S.B. 8, a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.48
Structuring the administration’s religious affairs functions appropriately with religiously diverse leaders
As mentioned earlier in this report, President Biden signed an executive order reestablishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on February 14, 2021.49 The goal of the office is to promote partnerships with religious and secular organizations to better serve people in need. The first White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships was established 20 years ago by President George W. Bush.50 This initiative continued during the Obama administration, was gutted by the Trump administration, and now, the Biden administration has relaunched it.51 The office’s initial work included collaboration with civil society to “address the COVID-19 pandemic and boost economic recovery; combat systemic racism; increase opportunity and mobility for historically disadvantaged communities; and strengthen pluralism,” as well as “advance international development and global humanitarian work.”52
In announcing the executive order, the White House established that fundamental to achieving its goals is the office’s respect for “our cherished guarantees of church-state separation and freedom for people of all faiths and none,” adding that the team “will not prefer one faith over another or favor religious over secular organizations” to pursue its work.53 CAP, as well as religious organizations such as the Franciscan Action Network and Latter-day Saints for Biden Harris, praised the relaunching of the office: “After four years of using religion to divide Americans, this executive order makes clear that the White House will return to its role engaging with religious Americans, among other communities, for the purpose of serving the common good,” said Winnie Stachelberg, then-executive vice president for external affairs at CAP, in a statement.54
The White House published a fact sheet on the first anniversary of the creation of the office. “Our country has made great progress thanks to neighborhood partnerships and compassionate leaders of all faiths and beliefs, whether it was hosting vaccination clinics, preventing evictions, helping to ensure that children get back to school and workers get jobs, or countless other acts of service,” the fact sheet stated.55 Some of the specific actions highlighted in the fact sheet include:
“Established the Protecting Places of Worship Interagency Policy Committee to address increased threats and acts of violence against houses of worship.”
“Marked holidays celebrated by Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and other communities, including hosting the first-ever virtual Passover, Easter, and Eid White House events that were open to the public and included the participation of both the President and First Lady.”
“Strongly advocated for collaborations between the government and faith and community organizations to convey the facts about the COVID-19 virus and the vaccine and widely promoted guidance for faith and community leaders on how to organize vaccination clinics.”
On July 30, President Biden announced his intent to nominate and appoint four individuals to serve in key roles at the State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.56 This announcement highlighted the administration’s efforts to build a more inclusive government and society. Rashad Hussain, then serving on the U.S. National Security Council, was nominated to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom—the first Muslim American to serve in this position. This was one of the quickest nominations to this role by any administration, with Hussain being confirmed by the Senate on December 7, 2021.57 At the same time of Ambassador Hussain’s nomination, Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt was nominated to serve as special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, with the rank of ambassador. President Biden also appointed Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father who is Muslim, and Sharon Kleinbaum, a congregational rabbi, to serve as commissioners of the volunteer-based U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The nominations of two Jews and two Muslims—religious minorities in America—for senior roles on this priority area sent an important signal that the administration intends for experienced individuals from affected communities to lead the way on religious freedom.
The nominations of two Jews and two Muslims—religious minorities in America—for senior roles on this priority area sent an important signal that the administration intends for experienced individuals from affected communities to lead the way on religious freedom.
In addition, President Biden appointed Melissa Rogers, a renowned expert in church-state separation, as executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships as well as senior director for faith and public policy, a new role in the White House Domestic Policy Council.58 Rogers previously served as the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama administration. Creating a new role to oversee religious freedom work positions the Biden administration to be successful in the years to come. In August, the White House also appointed Chanan Weissman, a State Department and National Security Council official, to serve as the White House’s liaison to the Jewish community.59
In contrast, the Trump administration focused religious outreach mostly on evangelical Christians, which sent a strong signal that one specific religious community was favored by the federal government.60 The Biden administration has turned the page on this approach and is engaging with a wide variety of religious leaders and communities as well as organizations representing the nonreligious.
Protecting sacred lands for Indigenous communities
On October 8, 2021, President Biden reinstated proclamation 9558 to reestablish the Bears Ears National Monument.61 Then-President Barack Obama established the monument in 2016 to protect and preserve the sacred landscape and cultural resources in the Bears Ears region, after significant advocacy from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Indian Tribe, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.62 In 2017, President Trump issued proclamation 9681, which not only reduced the lands within the monument by more than 1.1 million acres but also removed protection from objects of historic and scientific interest across the Bear Ears landscape.
Through this action, the history of our people, our culture, and religion will be preserved for future generations.
Clark W. Tenakhongva, vice chair of the Hopi Tribe and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, in response to Biden’s plan to reinstitute federal protections for Bears Ears National Monument
President Biden’s reinstitution of federal protections for the lands within Bears Ears restores the protection granted by proclamation 9558 and honors the relationship between the federal government and tribal nations. In response to Biden’s plan, Clark W. Tenakhongva, vice chair of the Hopi Tribe and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said, “Through this action, the history of our people, our culture, and religion will be preserved for future generations.”63 Other groups, such as the Native Organizers Alliance, celebrated the restoration of these “exceptional, sacred places.”64 Indeed, the administration’s protection of sacred lands is an essential component of protecting religious freedom in the United States.
Combating white supremacist violence and hate crimes against religious communities
Religious freedom is only a reality when all are free to worship without the threat of violence. Religious minorities and houses of worship are among the primary targets of white supremacist violence.65 On June 15, 2021, the Biden administration introduced the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism to address the threat of white supremacist violence.66 This strategy incorporated67 a considerable number of recommendations that mirrored those outlined in CAP’s “A National Policy Blueprint To End White Supremacist Violence” report, published in April 2021.68
In May, President Biden also signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which establishes grants for states to create state-run hotlines for reporting hate crimes.69 Among other things, the law will improve how hate crimes are reported by law enforcement to help better protect communities. It also authorizes grants for states and local governments to implement the National Incident-Based Reporting System and to conduct law enforcement activities or crime reduction programs to prevent, address, or respond to hate crimes. It is the first major piece of hate crime legislation in 12 years, since the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed in 2009.
The act included a provision named after Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer, who were killed in hate crimes in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Their murders were prosecuted as hate crimes but were not recorded as such in federal hate crimes statistics.70 The goal is to ensure that this never happens again, by modernizing the federal hate crimes reporting system and encouraging state and local law enforcement to report hate crimes statistics to the federal government.
Many faith groups reacted to the news by applauding the passage of the act. For instance, Sim J. Singh, Sikh Coalition senior manager of policy and advocacy, said that it “marks the first necessary step towards resolving the longstanding problem of hate in our nation.”71 Other groups, such as the American Jewish Committee, Interfaith Alliance, and the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, also celebrated the passage of the act.72
Unfortunately, there is great urgency behind the need to address hate-motivated violence against religious communities. On January 15, 2022, four people were taken hostage at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.73 President Biden spoke about the event on February 3, 2022, at the National Prayer Breakfast and offered a message of religious pluralism:74
[V]iolence and vengeance didn’t pierce the goodness and grace of that scene. Heroic law enforcement officers were joined by local faith leaders, including an imam, a Baptist minister who offered their help. A nearby Catholic church opened its doors for the hostages’ families.
At sunset, a group of Muslim women — friends of the rabbi’s wife — walked in with one of the rabbi’s favorite foods. They hugged and they wept.
Because of the bravery of the hostages and the law enforcement officers, the hostages were — escaped safely, and the families were … reunited.
When asked later if he would change anything, the rabbi said, quote, “We will do what we always do, which is the best we can.” “Which is the best we can.” I had a long conversation with the rabbi. It was interesting to hear him describe the scene and how faith mattered: Whether you’re in a synagogue or a church or a mosque or a temple, whether you’re religious or not, we’re all imperfect human beings, trying our best — the best we can, because we can’t know the future. We can’t know what’s coming. But we also can’t live in fear every step of the way.
That’s America. From darkness, we found joy, hope, and light.
The Biden administration also reported providing “technical assistance to more than 7,000 faith-based and community leaders” on how to protect houses of worship,75 by connecting them with funding opportunities under the now-doubled Nonprofit Security Grant Program76 as well as guidance and training resources for houses of worship.77
Advancing international religious freedom as part of the interdependent human rights framework
America’s work to advance religious freedom does not stop at the country’s borders; it is also a critical element of U.S. foreign policy. There are serious threats to religious freedom in a number of countries around the world, such as the Chinese government’s genocide in Xinjiang. The Biden administration took a number of steps over the past year to address some of these pressing challenges and realigned America’s approach to religious freedom as interdependent with all universal human rights.
Discarding the Commission on Unalienable Rights
All human rights are indivisible and interdependent, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his preface to the Addendum on Reproductive Rights to 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: “Human rights are interdependent, and the deprivation of one right can cause the broader fabric of a society to fray.”78 Yet the Trump administration pursued a cynical agenda of prioritizing religious freedom and property rights over all other rights, perverting the universal human rights framework that has guided the world community since World War II, and undermining freedom of religion in the process. As a group of prominent American religious leaders noted in response, “Without the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, freedom from violence and freedom from discrimination in access to basic needs, education, employment, or health, and the right to participate in all social practices, freedom of religion would be hollow.”79
In addition, the Trump administration’s creation of a so-called Commission on Unalienable Rights in July 2019 prompted a swift response from hundreds of human rights, civil rights, and foreign policy and faith organizations, leaders, and scholars. These groups, organized by Human Rights First, wrote to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing profound concerns about the commission’s approach and urging him to abandon it.80 Religious leaders, including 125 Catholic theologians and activists as well as Muslim advocates, called for the immediate dismantling of the commission.81
Human rights advocates were particularly concerned that the Trump administration’s decision to single out religious freedom would be met with welcome reception among autocratic leaders eager to pick and choose which human rights they prefer to uphold.82 Trump’s endorsement of this cafeteria approach to human rights posed a grave threat to religious minorities—and other minority groups—living in countries that might already be inclined to target them.83
Fortunately, the Biden administration officially disbanded the Commission on Unalienable Rights and disavowed its approach. On March 30, 2021, Secretary of State Blinken said that there was no “hierarchy” of human rights and pledged his commitment to sexual and reproductive rights.84 He also reversed the Trump administration’s decision to remove sections on reproductive rights from the annual human rights reports on foreign countries issued by the State Department, saying: “All people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they’re born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic.”85
The Biden administration also rejoined the U.N. Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration had left. At a U.N. Security Council meeting in March 2021, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield committed U.S. support for collective action “to achieve justice and dignity for these religious and ethnic minority communities.”86 She specifically named atrocities affecting religious communities in Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Iran, Myanmar, and China.
Advocating for specific religious freedom concerns abroad
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has continued to advance international religious freedom as part of its broader human rights agenda. One of the most important actions for human rights taken by the Biden administration has been to declare the atrocities in Xinjiang as genocide.87 President Biden also ended 2021 by signing into law a bipartisan piece of legislation, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, to ensure that “goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” in Xinjiang are not allowed to be imported to the United States “unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection certifies by clear and convincing evidence that goods were not produced with forced labor.”88
Actions taken by Biden administration concerning genocide in Xinjiang: A timeline
March 22, 2021: The Biden administration designated Global Magnitsky Act sanctions of Chinese government officials Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo for having roles connected to serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.89
March 30, 2021: The Biden administration officially declared China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims to be genocide.90
June 24, 2021: The Biden administration announced a series of new actions to remove goods made with forced labor from American supply signs.91
November 15, 2021: The Biden administration named China a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations.92
November 16, 2021: The administration named human rights concerns during President Biden’s call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.93
December 6: 2021: The Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, citing human rights concerns.94
December 10, 2021: The Biden administration issued Section 7031(c) designations of current and former Chinese officials Shohrat Zakir, Erken Tuniyaz, Hu Lianhe, and Chen Mingguo, banning them from entry into the United States, while issuing concurrent Global Magnitsky Act sanctions of officials Shohrat Zakir and Erken Tuniyaz.95
December 23, 2021: President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law.96
On May 12, 2021, the Biden administration also announced a Section 7031(c) designation for Yu Hui, former office director of the “Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions” of Chengdu, Sichuan province, in China.97 This designation bans him from entering the United States due to his involvement in “gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”98
Concerning Myanmar, President Biden imposed sanctions on the nation as a result of the February 2021 coup.99 The coup was perpetrated by the nation’s military, which overthrew the democratically elected government and arrested and imprisoned political dissidents, including journalists and religious leaders.
Secretary of State Blinken also named Myanmar to the list of the countries of particular concern for their “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”100 The other countries on the list were China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The Biden administration has not yet officially determined the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar to be a genocide, despite the calls from human rights advocates to do so.101
Conclusion
Amid many competing priorities during its first year in office, the Biden administration has taken important steps toward the restoration of a religious freedom agenda that prioritizes and centers the rights of minority religious and nonreligious communities. These actions also represent a meaningful pivot away from the Trump administration’s misuse of religious liberty as a front to gut civil rights protections—including for religious minorities.
Yet work remains to undo harmful Trump administration policies that have undermined religious liberty. The Biden administration must use its power to uphold the Constitution and protect against the establishment of religion by the federal government. Specifically, it needs to undo additional Trump-era religious exemptions such as the expansion of educational institutions’ ability to claim Title IX religious exemptions and the harmful health care refusal rule that expanded the ability of health care institutions and workers with religious or moral objections to refuse to provide particular medical services.
The administration must also work with Congress to pass the NO BAN Act and the Equality Act, all while continuing to protect the sacred ancestral homelands of tribal nations, such as Oak Flat in Arizona. In addition, the Biden administration should work to address human rights violations against religious minorities around the world, and it will need to continue advocating in bilateral and multilateral forums. While work remains, religious freedom advocates anticipate more progress in the remaining three years of this administration.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Nicole Lee Ndumele, Mara Rudman, Ben Olinsky, Silva Mathema, Sharita Gruberg, Maggie Jo Buchanan, Madeline Shepherd, Nicole Gentile, Jenny Rowland-Shea, Elisa Massimino, and Jordan Link for their assistance in preparing this report.
The U.S. Space Force exercised its second contract option valued at approximately $737 million for the procurement of three additional GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) space vehicles (SVs) from Lockheed Martin on Oct. 22, 2021. This contract option is for GPS IIIF satellites 15, 16 and 17 (SV15-17).
GPS IIIF satellites build off the innovative design of Lockheed Martin’s next generation GPS III satellites (SV 01-10), which provide three times greater accuracy, up to eight times improved anti-jamming capability and increased resiliency, in addition to modernization, compared to legacy GPS satellites in today’s constellation. GPS III also adds a new L1C civil signal that is compatible with other global navigation satellite systems, such as Galileo.
“GPS IIIF satellites will add new capabilities and advanced technology to the GPS constellation, including Regional Military Protection (RMP); an upgraded Nuclear Detection Detonation System (NDS) payload; a safety-improving Search and Rescue payload; and an accuracy-enhancing Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA),” said Dave Hatch, Lockheed Martin’s GPS IIIF program management director. “The RMP capability further reinforces GPS III/IIIF as a warfighting system, providing up to 60x greater anti-jamming for our warfighters operating in contested environments.”
GPS III/IIIF support a Space Force effort to modernize the current GPS satellite constellation.
The GPS IIIF SV11-12 satellites were included in the original September 2018 GPS IIIF contract award to Lockheed Martin to build up to 22 GPS IIIF satellites. Under that contract, the government exercised the first GPS IIIF production option for SV13-14 in October 2020.
GPS IIIF SV13 and beyond will incorporate the company’s LM2100 Combat Bus, an enhanced space vehicle that provides even greater resiliency and cyber-hardening against growing threats, as well as improved spacecraft power, propulsion and electronics. This evolved bus incorporates many common components and procedures to streamline manufacturing. LM2100 Combat Bus vehicles are also capable of hosting Lockheed Martin’s Augmentation System Port Interface (ASPIN), which would allow for future on-orbit servicing and upgrade opportunities.
Today Lockheed Martin is close to finishing production on the original GPS III SV1-10 contract. GPS III SV01-05 have been launched and handed over to the Space Force for on-orbit operations. GPS III SV06-08 have been completed and placed in storage at the company’s facility waiting for the Space Force to call them up for launch. SV09 is a fully integrated space vehicle now going through final testing.
On October 26, 2021, the final GPS III satellite of the original GPS III contract – GPS III SV10 – completed an operation known as “core mate” to assemble it into a full space vehicle at Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility. It will proceed into the vehicle testing campaign before year-end.
Winchester, Va. – With a long legacy of delivering solutions in one of the most complex engineering and construction environments on earth, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division remains the ‘partner of choice’ throughout the Middle East and Central Asia by building relationships on a foundation of commitment to excellence.
This past month, the Transatlantic Division’s Team of Teams hosted Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, the 55th Chief of Engineers and commanding general of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in Kuwait and Iraq, for an action-packed week of project site tours and vital engagements with U.S. and allied nation mission partners. With more than 140 ongoing projects totaling nearly $4 billion throughout the U.S. Central Command area of operations, there was plenty to see.
Over the course of the week, Spellmon talked with hundreds of military and civilian professionals, including engineers from the Transatlantic Division’s two districts, the Transatlantic Middle East District and Transatlantic Expeditionary District, He also met with both U.S. and host nation partners to discuss bilateral ties, cooperation, and issues of common interest, especially in the military field and ways of boosting military coordination.
U.S. Army Col. Philip M. Secrist III, Middle East District commander, and Tom Waters, Middle East District director of programs, also traveled to Kuwait with Spellmon to see first-hand the complex work being accomplished by their district.
“The bulk of our current program is work on behalf our allied nation partners,” Secrist said. “They don’t have to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they choose to work with us. That speaks to both the quality of the work we’ve delivered for 70 years and just as importantly, to the relationships we’ve built with those we work with.”
U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Delfin J. Romani, Transatlantic Division command sergeant major, coordinated the week-long trip, ensuring all the moving parts lined up allowing the teams to focus on engagement.
“The Transatlantic Division has a large span of diverse stakeholders who maintain a strong interest in our program. In addition to CENTCOM and U.S. Special Operations Command, we coordinate regularly with the service component commands like U.S. Army Central, U.S. Naval Forces Command and U.S. Air Forces Central.
Additionally, we support the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Assistance for International Development, the Missile Defense Agency, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Our international stakeholders include 18 of the 20 countries comprising the CENTCOM area of responsibility as well as the Combined Joint Taskforce and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s no small endeavor ensuring we remain connected and engaged with our partners,” Romani emphasized.
Scott Sawyer, the Transatlantic Division Program Integration Division Chief, who oversees the integration of program and project data from the districts ensuring the division sees a holistic picture of the mission, shared his thoughts on the importance of seeing the projects first-hand.
“To really be in touch with the mission you have to walk the ground, talk to the people and see up close the great things going on. Photos in briefings and reports and updates on the projects really come to life when you have seen them for yourself. You get a much better grasp of the magnitude of what we are accomplishing for our mission partners and the challenges we are overcoming to deliver the program so successfully over the course of the better part of a century.”
While in Kuwait, Spellmon also had the honor of meeting with the division’s Kuwaiti partners including Brig. Gen. Hazza Al-Alati, the Chief of Kuwait Naval Forces, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Al-Eid, the Deputy Commander of Kuwait Naval Forces, Maj. Gen. Adel Al-Hafedh, the Kuwaiti Air Defense commander, and the Kuwait Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Khaled Saleh Al-Sabah, and their staffs and delegations.
“Hearing how well we are doing and how much we are contributing directly from our mission partners, both U.S. and allied nation, really has an impact,” Spellmon expressed. “Partnerships for the Army Corps of Engineers are unique in the Middle East and Central Asia. They are built first and foremost on relationships and on our legacy of commitment.”
In the Middle East, there is a choice,” Spellmon continued. “A lot of the work the Transatlantic Division is executing is for our host nation partners and they decide where they channel their money and who they partner with to execute their engineering and construction needs. They are under no obligation to choose the Army Corps of Engineers. We earn their partnership by delivering the highest quality projects on time and on budget and prioritizing building and maintaining relationships.”
The value this Division and its Districts places on relationships and their commitment to their mission partners can be seen in the time and energy they put into engagement and the overall long-term success of their mission.”
One of the Division closest partnerships in Kuwait is the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, at Ali Al Salem Air Base. While there, Spellmon met with U.S. Air Force Col. Clinton Wilson, the commander of the 386th to review current projects being managed on the base.
“I got an up-close look at the ongoing renovations of the base dining facility, along with runway repairs and the installation of aircraft barrier arresting systems,” Spellmon said. “Ali Al Salem Air Base is a vital Army Corps of Engineers partner as it’s the primary tactical airlift hub and gateway for delivering combat power to joint and coalition forces in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.
It is also one of the busiest aerial ports in the region supporting ongoing Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve missions,” Spellmon continued. “Taking care of the warfighter downrange is an honor and a privilege, and the Corps of Engineers works with CENTCOM and all its components to ensure soldiers and civilians have what they need to get the job done.”
Spellmon also viewed the construction inside one of five APS-500 buildings, located at Area Support Group – Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan. When completed the five facilities will provide critical environmental protection for Army Materiel Command’s pre-positioned stock, part of a U.S. Army program in which equipment sets are stored around the globe for use when a combatant commander requires additional capabilities.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command is another important partner in Kuwait. U.S. Navy Lt. Chris Quatroche, the officer-in-charge of U.S. Navy Construction Battalion sailors, Seabees, and members of his team, briefed Spellmon and the District leadership on the application of a hardware and software system to form and assemble cold-rolled steel framework to build semi-permanent buildings at Ali Al Salem Air Base.
The joint team of Navy Seabees and Army Theater Engineer Brigade engineers demonstrated how utilizing this modern capability allows them to build quality structures faster and cheaper than traditional wood-framed structures.
“We don’t just support construction projects,” Tom Waters, Middle East District director of programs, said following the project tour, “we are supporting regional security, we’re supporting stability operations, interoperability with our allied nation mission partners, and most importantly we are supporting U.S. service members across the CENTCOM area of responsibility”
While in Kuwait, Spellmon also hosted held two townhalls attended by more than 100 military engineers, emphasizing the importance of taking care of people.
COL Kenneth N. Reed and his team at the Expeditionary District who are located in Kuwait, picked up the tour from there and accompanied Spellmon on to Iraq to review ongoing projects in that region.
The Expeditionary District has ongoing projects in Kuwait and also serves as a Contingency Provisional Forward Postured District, delivering design, construction and related engineering services in support of named operations like Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
The “Always Forward” District’s capabilities include providing small-scale, low-risk, and high visibility services to combatant commanders on the ground in the CENTCOM and SOCOM areas of responsibility.
Alongside the Expeditionary District’s command team, Spellmon assessed projects in Erbil including the Logistic Support Area, the dining facility, an alternate taxiway, and west taxiway road.
Spellmon also had an in-depth look at a Bunker prototype. The Bunker prototype is a joint research and development project with the Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center and is designed to reduce blast pressures inside bunkers, reducing risk of traumatic brain injuries. USACE is now working with ARCENT to finalize the prototype and implement the bunker design at military installations in Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait.
While in Erbil, Spellmon took a moment to thank U.S. Army Col. Andrew Steadman, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Brigade commander, for ensuring the team’s safety during the trip.
“Without your security support,” Spellmon said, “we would not be able to complete important assessments like these.”
Spellmon summed up the trip with an acknowledgment of the magnitude of the Division’s mission and meaningful impact the districts create through their projects.
“The physical working environment in the Middle East is unlike anything I’ve encountered in the U.S.,” Spellmon said. “The Transatlantic Districts are executing engineering and construction projects in regions where foundations are built on sand and stone and structures have to stand up to intense heat and unpredictable winds and rain.
The opportunity to tackle and overcome these challenges and deliver projects that improve not only the functionality but ultimately increase the security and stability across the region is unparalleled,” Spellmon continued. “And the depth of the relationships with our allied nation partners is just amazing to witness.
The Division and its Districts are truly living up to its legacy of being the engineering services and solutions organization of choice throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.”
WINCHESTER, Va. (WDVM) — Private First Class Nelson Ritter, a combat infantryman with the 1st Division Air Cavalry [Airmobile], leaped out the frying pan into the fire when the “Point Man” in a rifle squad volunteered to become a “Tunnel Rat” during the Vietnam War.
Tunnel Rats were soldiers who crawled headfirst into tunnels and caves the Viet Cong used as storage and staging areas against U.S. forces in the Central Highlands where PFC Ritter was based.
“You didn’t have anything on except a .45 caliber pistol and a flashlight when you crawled into a hole in the ground,” said Ritter.
1911A semi-automatics like the one the Rat below is carrying were disliked because of the muzzle blast that temporarily blinded and deafened them in a tight tunnel. That’s why many Rats preferred silencer-equipped .38 Specials.
Ritter says being a tunnel rat was one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. Army because death was only a heartbeat away and the enemy always had the advantage.
“Their eyes were acclimated to the darkness,” said Ritter, “And we were in broad daylight descending into total darkness. So it took a while for our eyes to adjust.”
Rats depended on their sense of hearing and smell to determine where the enemy was lurking.
“I hear Charlie [the name GIs used to describe the Viet Cong] releasing the safety on his SKS assault rifle,” Ritter said.
He said that he could also smell the enemy’s bad breath long before they came face to face.
“I’ve been almost eye to eye with ’em; closer than you and I are sitting during this interview,” said Ritter.
Tunnel Rats only used flashlights they carried to explore tunnels and caves after they silenced enemy sentries. Ritter says the one who fired first usually survived, “Or the one who was the scaredest.”
At one point, he came upon a Viet Cong guerilla pointing a rifle at him in a tunnel, but both the “Hunted and the Hunter” didn’t open fire. Instead, Ritter said, “We backed away from each other.”
Once outside, Ritter hurled some grenades and explosive charges into the tunnel but doesn’t know if the enemy soldier survived
“It was unreal,” said Ritter.
Tunnel rats slithered into holes in the ground like snakes that the Viet Cong would hang from the ceilings of tunnels they dug underground. The Bamboo Pit Viper was one of their favorites.
Americans called the highly-poisonous reptiles “Two Step,” because two steps were about all U.S. soldiers could take before they dropped dead after being bitten by a Bamboo Pit Viper. The Viet Cong would hang them at eye-level in tunnels to make sure they didn’t miss unwanted guests.
Some of the larger tunnel complexes in the Central Highlands contained a hospital, sleeping chamber and storeroom. This one could house more than one-hundred Viet Cong guerillas.
It took a special kind of soldier to become a tunnel rat.
“Usually the person who became a tunnel rat in my unit was small enough to get down into the entrance hole,” said Ritter who was very skinny; 5’8″ and 120 pounds.
Once in a while Ritter, who has been diagnosed and treated for PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, says he’ll have a dream about something that went on over there, “But I’ve never had nightmares or anything like that.
It took almost two years before Nelson Ritter felt comfortable talking about his experience as a tunnel rat.
“When you came home, you didn’t talk about it,” said Ritter at the end of our interview at American Legion Post 21 in Winchester where his common-law wife is the post commander. “But sometimes it gets a little rough talking about it.” Tears welled up in his eyes and he hung his head down.
When WDVM’s Ross Simpson asked why it hurts so much after so long, Ritter said he wished he could answer that question.
“If I could, it would solve a lot of problems.”
Ritter doesn’t expect the pain to ever go away, saying, “I don’t think anybody who goes to war ever loses what they have experienced.”
Ritter was awarded an Air Medal for 80 hours of flying combat missions in a 1st Air Cavalry Division helicopter and was written up for a Bronze Star that he never received.
According to the Department of Defense, a total of 700 soldiers served as Tunnel Rats during the Vietnam War. Of the number, 36 were killed and 200 injured.
Ritter says it just depended on the situation and where you were. Some areas were okay. Some areas were hot spots. And you never knew what awaited you below ground.
Two Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex members made history Feb. 10 as the first civilians to graduate from Airman Leadership School at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.
Neil Grimsley, 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group, and Melissa Rice, 402nd Aircraft Maintenance Group, were among the 23 graduates of Class 22B of the Staff Sgt. Felicia R. Rivers Airman Leadership School. They lead the way in a historic school year that will see 11 Robins civilians attend ALS, four more of which are from the WR-ALC work force.
Master Sgt. Shane Flot, 78th Force Support Squadron commandant of the Robins ALS which teaches more than 200 students per year, said other ALS locations across the Air Force have integrated civilians into the program. However, this was the first class Robins AFB that has done so.
“It definitely is exciting to have our first two civilian graduates for Robins AFB ALS,” Flot said. “Despite all of the restrictions and hurdles with COVID-19, this achievement to integrate civilians into our leadership course has provided a sense of hope for our future.”
The Air Force ALS mission statement declares the school’s aim is to “Prepare Airmen to be professional, warfighting Airmen who can supervise and lead Air Force work teams in the employment of air, space, and cyberspace power!”
Air University’s website states, “ALS is the first level of professional military education enlisted Airmen experience. It is designed to be an entry level leadership enhancement course to prepare senior Airmen for positions of greater responsibility by strengthening their ability to lead, follow, and manage while also gaining a broader understanding of the military profession and their role within the Air and Space Forces.”
Believing in the benefits the school offers, Brig. Gen. Jennifer Hammerstedt, WR-ALC commander, is an enthusiastic supporter of getting civilians into ALS. Complex leadership worked with the 78th Air Base Wing to make it happen, and the general took part in the historic graduation.
“Neil and Melissa are perfect examples of why giving civilians this educational opportunity is so worthwhile,” Hammerstedt said. “They saw the value of taking part in military professional education and eagerly enrolled. Now, having completed the course work, they know what they’ve learned will make them a better teammate, worker and leader for our complex and our mission. It was great to see they are gratified with their achievement, fired up, and ready to get after it. I’m proud of them, and excited that they and more Robins civilians after them want to take such an advanced step.”
Both Rice and Grimsley feel ALS was a priceless educational experience.
Rice is a production support supervisor for the 563rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. She is responsible for tools and equipment for the 563rd, ensuring serviceability and inspection requirements are up to date along with consumable items for mechanics on a day-to-day basis. She has been at Robins for 11 years – six years as a contractor and five years in civil service.
Grimsley is an electronics engineer for the 402nd EMXG, providing engineering support for the 567th, 568th and 569th Electronics Maintenance Squadrons. He has been in civil service since May 2017, when he started an engineering internship.
Although ALS was traditionally only available to enlisted personnel, Grimsley was glad for the chance to attend. He viewed it as “a great opportunity to develop better leadership and communication skills.”
Rice’s upbringing instructed her decision to enroll.
“I was inspired by my father who was a prior service member and attended this training over 30 years ago,” Rice said. “He told me how it helped him become a better leader and how he learned a lot from this course. When I heard that civil service could now apply, I wanted to jump at the opportunity. As a civil service supervisor, I don’t think we get enough effective training or courses to help us become great leaders, so I wanted to learn from the military side and apply this great experience and knowledge to the civil service side to be a better leader.”
Fresh off ALS completion, both graduates are certain they got just what they signed up for.
“I gained the knowledge of leadership tools and techniques on how to communicate with employees and upper management, how to work with others and deal with difficult situations, and what tools are in a leader’s tool box to apply in each situation,” Rice said. “I have gained a better understanding of what it takes to become a good leader and how military leaders run operations by making decisions. We may not agree with the decision at the time, but they are for the better.
“I also learned that, as a leader, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions, and we need to own them,” Rice said. “If we made a wrong decision, we need to take responsibility for them and when the mission is successful to praise the team.”
“I feel that I gained invaluable skills and experiences through the ALS curriculum and shared time with the enlisted graduates,” Grimsley said. “The ALS instruction provided me with a better understanding of what it means to be an Airman, a wingman and an Air Force professional. Working closely with my enlisted classmates provided me with a better understanding of military operations and structure.”
Neither of the civilian grads felt like fish out of water while in classrooms surrounded by military personnel. In fact, they felt reassured that their military counterparts gained from their presence in the class.
“I was nervous about being in a mostly enlisted class, but they were very welcoming,” Grimsley said. “From our open feedback sessions, I could see that the different perspective and experiences I brought to the class were valued.”
“Because I was the only civil service employee in my (flight), I was definitely outnumbered,” Rice said. “After several days in the class I had several military members tell me that I have changed the way they view civil service employees, and they wished they had dealt with more civil service employees in their career. They stated they had no idea what jobs we provide to the military and the experience and knowledge that we have in our specialized careers.
“As military members, they have a hard time with retaining experience levels because of members deploying or leaving for other duty stations,” she continued. “But as civil service employees, we tend to stay and keep the knowledge and experience that is needed. They felt that we should work more closely together to better understand how each side of service has a common mission in the defense of this country.”
“We may wear different uniforms, but we both fight the same fight,” Rice said. “This experience has definitely driven home the point to why my job is important, because I get to see how my job impacts the warfighter and mission capabilities.”
Flot also emphasized the vast benefits of ALS being a shared educational experience between civilian and uniformed Airmen.
“I believe that it was beneficial to have the input from the civilians throughout the course and to show a sense of unity across the installation as they are frontline supervisors, as well,” he said. “Additionally, I think the civilians gained a better understanding and respect for their military counterparts.”
The commandant also said the civilian students’ military counterparts gained from the civilians’ presence in the class.
“I feel that our military students accepted them as part of their family. There was a sense of pride and respect for the civilians within the flight and the class definitely was happy that they were part of their journey. I believe the civilian perspective was an invaluable asset for our military students to gain knowledge and understanding for their professional growth,” Flot said.
Given their experience, Grimsley and Rice strongly endorse civilian attendance to ALS.
“I would highly recommend ALS to other Air Force civilians,” Grimsley said. “The school provided me with experiences that will, one day, make me a better supervisor. It also provided me with a greater understanding of the Air Force mission, what role we play as Air Force civilians in supporting that mission, and the outstanding Airman serving our nation.”
“As civil service employees, we do not get a lot of interaction with military members and their training,” Rice said. “This course definitely aids in building the comradery between each other to see how each person has a critical part in the overall mission. This course teaches different techniques that we normally wouldn’t get as a civil service employee and definitely adds knowledge to my tool belt to become a better leader and teammate.
“I feel that this course restores purpose in civil service employees, because we don’t often get daily reminders of the Air Force core values and how each of our jobs have an impact on military members who rely on our ability to do the job so they can execute their job in an active environment,” Rice said.
Neither Rice nor Grimsley were aware they’d be the first Robins civilians to graduate from ALS, but both were proud of the achievement and thankful for the chance.
“I was not aware that I would be the first civil service employee,” Rice said, “but I feel honored and appreciate and thank all the people that allowed me the opportunity. I just want to thank the Air Force for opening this training opportunity up to civil service employees because this class teaches more things than how to become a better leader. It teaches how to be a better human being inside and outside the gates of a military installation.”
The four other WR-ALC civilian Airmen selected to attend ALS in fiscal 2022 are: Jacqueline Ashby, 402nd AMXG; Shelby Sheppard, 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group; Lane Letson, 402nd Software Engineering Group; and Ryan Arflin, WR-ALC.
Rounding out the list of Robins civilians selected for ALS this year were: Matthew Avery and Toni Hicks, 78th Civil Engineer Group; James Bush, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command; Kimberly Danjou, 78th ABW; and Hiep Nguyen, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
For civilian employees interested in future ALS classes, an announcement is normally posted for applications after the year’s class schedule has been forecasted during the summer. Flot said the 78th FSS director and senior enlisted leader ensure the announcement is disseminated throughout the proper wing points of contact. The deadline for applications is included in the announcement so packages can be reviewed.
Civilians are selected based on the qualification criteria. Civilians are provided class dates to rank for their best availability within their application, and the commandant ensures they are properly slotted for upcoming classes after they are selected to attend ALS.
“I hope we can continue our path forward and ensure support for all of our partners, civilian and military. We want to instill a legacy of diversity and inclusion as we strive to provide the best ALS experience in the Air Force,” Flot said.
SUFFIELD, Conn. — Bridges are an integral part of America’s infrastructure. Day in and day out, they are used as a constant resource for critical commutes and to connect communities. Without bridges, the world would not be as interconnected as it is today.
Many northern Connecticut residents have become impatient with the ongoing construction on the Enfield-Suffield Veteran’s Bridge. They said it has caused them to put off an errand, or to go out of their way to avoid the bridge altogether.
As citizens, we understood that sentiment, and were drawn to visit the heart of the construction itself in order to see if we could get some answers on this inconvenience. We went to the CT Transportation Bridge Center’s Bridge Department, and asked to interview them on their timeline. We intended to get their side of the story, and in doing so, found out several interesting details, thanks to the eye-opening interviews from Paul Diorio, Project Engineer, Lukasz Obrebski, Chief Inspector, and Juan Cassaretto, Inspector.
The construction took 432 days in total, and ending November 2021. It covered general maintenance, such as active construction of the topside roadway, as well as the superstructure framing on the underside of the bridge. Painting and steel repair work was done as well, along with repaving and strengthening work. Overall, there were many separate projects, all overseen by ROTHA Contracting Company, Inc. ‘s Jack Thavenius, the acting project manager.
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With the overall construction itself originally costing over $6 million, the team made a day-by-day plan in order to start the construction on May 24, 2020, and to have it successfully completed by November 27, 2021 within budget, which they were able to do after much hard work and overcoming of obstacles, such as the age of the bridge, COVID-19, or a season taken off for a falcon’s nest protected by the state.
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Although it might have taken a long while in order to properly get the bridge work done, it is now much safer and generally improved than it has ever been, thanks to the work of the Department and ROTHA. Reforms like these will develop bridges all around the world to the next level, where commuters will be able to cross rivers safely, comfortably, and efficiently. This is just the beginning, and all we need to do is cross the bridge of construction to get to the other side.
RELATED: FOX61 Student News: Tik Tok challenge creates issues for schools
The FOX 61 Student News program empowers Connecticut middle and high school students to explore the world of multi-media journalism by giving them the opportunity to capture, edit and publish original content under the guidance of industry professionals.
Each student produced and hosted segment will showcase a local story or event, highlighting all that is great about our state. Segments will be featured on-air during Friday’s Morning News at 7:25 a.m., 10 p.m. news and during the FOX61 Morning News on Saturday at 7 a.m., on our Facebook page and right here on FOX61.com!
Stay tuned and keep an eye out for the next news star! If your school would like to get involved learn more here or email us at [email protected].
The young Bree Fram was obsessed with dinosaurs—the stegosaurus, to be exact—and becoming a paleontologist. (Her elder daughter Kathryn, 12, has inherited this fascination.) Then, when Bree was about 9 or 10, a friend of Fram’s dragged her “kicking and screaming” to watch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. “And suddenly I wanted to be Geordi La Forge and make the warp drives go,” Fram tells The Daily Beast, laughing.
Now Lieutenant Colonel Bree Fram is an active duty astronautical engineer in the U.S. Space Force, currently assigned to the Pentagon to lead space policy integration for the Department of the Air Force. She is also president of Sparta, the advocacy group supporting trans service-people and trans recruits to the armed forces.
Fram, 42, is currently the highest ranking out transgender officer in the Department of Defense. According to Sparta, she previously served in a wide variety of Air Force positions, including a Research and Development command position and an oversight role for all Air Force security cooperation activity with Iraq.
Fram is “very excited” to have been offered the chance to recommission into Space Force. Sadly, this will not include going to space; earlier in her career Fram was not able to gain the necessary medical certification because of eye surgery. “But as prices come down I hope to buy a ticket to go into orbit some day.”
“Not being able to go into space was really hard because it was a dream I had worked so long for,” Fram says. “It was a huge setback, but it was also one of the things that helped build my resilience, my passion for space, and to participate on a policy or technical level, and enable others to do amazing things. It was crushing, but it also helped make me realize I could do other things to make a difference.”
Fram did a masters in astronautical engineering, which focused on the design and development of space vehicles, including rockets and satellites, and the communication systems between space and earth. “Star Trek was science fiction. Now it’s a reality. We’ve surpassed the capabilities they envisioned in those days.”
Her family—Fram is married to wife Peg; as well as Kathryn, they have a younger daughter, Alivya, 8—has just moved to a new home in the D.C. area, and Fram is speaking from her office, a trans flag and American flag in the background. There is a picture of two space shuttles on landing pads, shrouded in fog. There are also pictures of both her grandfathers, who served in World War II.
Paul Fram, a first lieutenant in the army, was one of a four-person team who captured an entire German company through subterfuge, Fram recalled proudly, noting he had kept a German officer’s sword. Her other grandfather, Fred S. Hirsekorn, was a German Jew who got out of Germany and made it to the United States in the early 1930s. When World War II began, he enlisted in the army, and rose to become the youngest first sergeant in the European Theatre of operations. “His claim to fame was that he got yelled at by (General George S.) Patton,” said Fram. He also was awarded two Bronze Star medals for valor.
“I wanted to be part of something larger than myself, protect all the amazing things I had been given, and be able to defend those things for my family, friends, my children, and future.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
Joining the military wasn’t on Fram’s mind until after graduating from college in 2001 with a degree in aerospace engineering and looking for jobs in the civilian sector or maybe NASA. Before she found a job, 9/11 happened, which “absolutely changed my outlook. I wanted to be part of something larger than myself, protect all the amazing things I had been given, and be able to defend those things for my family, friends, my children, and future. That day, the way we live, who we are, were attacked—and for senseless reasons, just to kill people.”
The weekend afterwards, Fram was driving up to see then-girlfriend Peg in Duluth, a two-hour drive, and saw an American flag hanging from an overpass, “something you didn’t see prior to that. I broke down in tears on that drive. By the time, I got to my-now wife’s house, I walked in the door in tears and said, ‘I’m going to join the Air Force.’ It was my way to give back. It also allowed me to begin a space career and do other things I am passionate about. I never looked back. It was a great choice for me to serve in the United States military. I’m still taking one assignment at a time.”
She laughed. “I still don’t know what to do when I grow up. I don’t see my service ending anytime soon. I am excited to stay in the service until it makes sense not to do it anymore.”
Space Force officially began life under the Trump administration. “It has been talked about and debated for a long time. Regardless of when it was initiated, we need to advocate for space power as an important part of defending our nation well into the future. We need to do this to move forward as a 21st-century military, without political or partisan motivation.”
Lt. Col. Bree Fram, right, joining Space Force, August 2021.
Peg Fram
Critics of Space Force say it simply helps open space up as another potential arena for international conflicts. But Fram says, “This is not about aggression, but defending the way we live today.” The way information is transmitted and how we consume is dependent on “space-based capabilities,” she said. “Space Force expands and protects the capabilities we all live with.”
But if space is an inherently contested space, that will inevitably lead to conflict? “We already acknowledge space as a contested environment, and we have to be prepared to defend our space assets and capabilities should conflict occur,” said Fram. The hope is to avoid conflict, she added, “but should conflict arise, Space Force there is to protect our space assets and enable the rest of our joint forces to accomplish the mission in whatever ways it needs to.” The challenge is to achieve the hopeful visions of space exploration and innovation, and overcome the conflicts and challenges of space becoming a shared and contested international frontier.
Fram is not a critic of Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’ adventures to the fringes of space. “There are a lot of exciting aspects about what they are doing for space enthusiasts. It’s great. Whatever we can do to drive down the cost of space travel and evolve technology to do incredible things to change life for all us living on earth. Experiments in space help us develop new drugs and medications and new ways of communicating, I know Branson and Bezos may be seen as doing passion and glory projects, but I’m more interested in them getting people excited about space advancing technology and expanding frontiers.”
When Fram looks at a clear night sky, she loves seeing satellites, and the excitement of a fiery meteor, and the International Space Station. She says she has never seen a UFO, but, “We don’t know what’s over the horizon, or what the next thing for us to see. Look at the vastness of the universe. To believe we are not alone is a reasonable belief. Is something else out there? I kind of hope so. How exciting it would be to get that confirmation. It’s an exciting thing to investigate, and consider what it might mean for us on all sorts of levels.”
“We need to build a culture of acceptance. We need to hear this from senior leaders in the military. We have a ways to go before everyone is comfortable.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
Over the last few months, Fram—who was Sparta’s spokesperson before becoming its president—has observed the effects of President Biden ending-by-executive-order Trump’s ban on trans people serving in the military earlier this year.
In a press release announcing the move on Jan. 25, the Biden administration stated “that all Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve. President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service and that America’s strength is found in its diversity. This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values.”
“Things are looking up and going well,” Fram told The Daily Beast. Sparta is gathering information about what has been working effectively, and what hasn’t, for trans service-people and new recruits as policies have been updated across the services, and whether service members are receiving “the best care possible to keep them serving at the highest levels of performance, so they can reach their full potential.”
Some areas “do need work,” said Fram. “The societal pressures haven’t evaporated around coming out. It’s not easy for people to reach that place. It’s not comfortable to be out in all places. We need to build a culture of acceptance, and valuing people for who they are. By doing so, we give value to them and the organization. We need to hear this from senior leaders in the military at all levels. We have a ways to go before everyone is comfortable.
“There are also pressures outside the military—family, religion, and other personal circumstances. Some individuals are still experiencing challenging circumstances with their commanders. Not everything is perfect. This is a new policy. We have to not only give time to allow the policy to work, but also educate people on what it means.”
“It took me a long time to get to the point of, ‘This is who I am, not what I do’”
Fram was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, living in the suburbs until she left to join the Air Force, aged 23. Growing up—her father was a lawyer, her mom a housewife—Fram says she was both academic and athletic, outdoors almost as much as playing computer games. Her oldest daughter loves them too, reminding Fram of when she would play games “until the sun came up, and I would sleep for an hour until school started.”
She still affectionately recalls endless games of capture the flag played around the neighborhood with her friends—many of whom she is still close to today. She had a younger sister and brother, with whom there was “little interaction” when younger, although Fram and her brother still talk about playing games on their Sega Genesis together 25 years ago.
When she was a child, long before her transition, her parents caught the young Fram dressed in women’s clothes. “It was something I didn’t know enough about to really understand who I was at the time, and what it meant to grow up different. I always had this different feeling about me, but couldn’t express it. I was drawn to the feminine. I was Wonder Woman two Halloweens in a row. Through the years I continued to get into my mother’s things. I thought it was something I did, not who I was.
“As a teenager, I wondered if it was sexual, or my identity. Well, everything at that age is sexual, it’s hard to separate. It took me a long time to get to the point of, ‘This is who I am, not what I do.’ I knew I had something that was part of me that was not going away, but also a part of me that I had to hide.”
Fram eventually found books at the library that helped her realize, “Oh my god, there are other people like me out there,” and the she came of age at the advent of the internet and “drew courage from others” whose stories and experiences she found online.
“It was really hard to get past that, but she needed to know. In my mind it would not have been fair for that to be a revelation 5, 10 years down the road.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
For a long time, the only person who knew anything of Fram’s identity was her now-wife Peg. Three weeks after they started dating Fram told Peg “there was something different about me, and that it was important and not going away. Because there was something developing between us, it was something she needed to know. But I couldn’t do much more than express my confusion, and that I liked to wear women’s clothes. It was really hard to get past that, but she needed to know. In my mind it would not have been fair for that to be a revelation five, 10 years down the road. It would not have worked for me, and it would have been devastating for her, for her to have found it out later.”
The couple married in 2005. Until Fram hit her mid-30s, no one else—apart from Peg—knew. At that time, she started going out into the world in women’s clothes, meeting ‘folks’ in the Denver area where she then lived, and reaching out to people on Facebook who she had taken inspiration from to say, “Thank you for being there and out there.”
Fram came out as trans to her mother in 2014. “She had to think back, and said, ‘Oh, I probably should have known.’ She was wonderful and incredibly supportive.” In 2016 Fram came out on the day that the Obama administration lifted the ban on trans service (before the Trump administration reinstated it).
“Much later I had the opportunity to realize that being open let me be a better me, better for my service, and better for my family by being who I am.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
From 2000 to 2016, Fram said she wouldn’t have said she was transitioning. “I was still wondering, ‘Who am I?’ I didn’t know. I didn’t want to answer that. I had other things at the forefront of my identity, goals, and life at the time.” Fram joined the military in 2003. “If I had come out, I was risking my career and everything I was passionate about. It’s hard to think about how much not doing that introspection affected me, because I knew what I might lose if I had done it. It wasn’t until much later I had the opportunity to realize that being open let me be a better me, better for my service, and better for my family by being who I am.”
Fram wants to make it clear that she doesn’t feel she suffered over those years. “I’m lucky. I’ve never suffered from depression. There are so many good things in my life I am thankful for. I’ve had an amazing career and opportunities. I have an incredible wife and family who love me. My friends, still many from elementary and high school, have supported me my entire life. We get together whenever we can. On so many levels I was fulfilled, and had amazing things to do and focus on. This last piece—being out—has truly been incredible. I wouldn’t say it was the icing on the cake or the cherry on the sundae. It’s more than that. It’s about being my best self.”
The Fram family: Kathryn, Peg, Alivya, and Bree.
US Air Force
For Fram, unless people can be authentic selves they cannot be their best or reach their full potential. “I had a lot of amazing things going on in my life. It’s even better now. It’s so nice to be able to reach for the stars.”
Changing times has brought changing terminology, Fram says; what was once appropriate at one time is no longer. “For the longest time I considered myself a cross dresser, then that I was gender-fluid,” says Fram. “I look at all this as under the trans umbrella of time. Trans people exist in all sorts of ways. Gender is not binary, nor is gender presentation.”
It wasn’t until 2013/4 that Fram started seeing “transgender” as applying to her, as language and her own presentation evolved. “I thought, ‘That really does fit. Clearly that’s who I am, a trans woman.’ When I reached that point, when I got there, I thought ‘OK, yes, now is the time I can transition and reach my full potential. It’s who I am.’”
“She has given me incredible support. The love we have for each other is powerful. I’m so thankful to have her through all this.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram on wife Peg
This reporter asked how things had been for Peg and the couple’s children.
“You should speak to her. It has not been easy by any means for her,” Fram said. “I’m so thankful for the love, support, and grace that she has shown during this journey. What I have done in my transition and coming out isn’t just about me. It affects her and affects how society views her. Whether or not her identity has changed, the social perception of her changed—in terms of what sort of relationship she is in and in so many other ways. She lost friends and family when I came out. Her parents didn’t speak to her for over a year. Other members of her family have gone for good. She ended up having it far worse than I did. She has given me incredible support. The love we have for each other is powerful. I’m so thankful to have her through all this.”
[The Daily Beast’s interview with Peg follows at the end of this article.]
Their daughters have been “wonderful and incredible.” Fram laughs that they have become the “pronoun police,” making a siren sound and correcting whoever uses the wrong pronoun for her. “They are fantastic and a lot of fun, and amazing defenders of me,” Fram says. “I’m so thankful of their love for me.”
When telling the girls about Fram’s transition, Fram said, she and Peg told them that they loved them, that the transition didn’t change that, or how Bree and Peg would be “there for them, and for whatever they needed. Any parent needs to be there for their child, and make them know that they are safe. We made sure they saw and felt that throughout the transition process.”
“It seemed an ambiguous, potentially damaging definition that I didn’t want it on my record.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
It was Trump’s incendiary tweets, announcing the ban on trans people from serving, that led Fram to fully transition two years ago, aged 40. Alongside figuring out who she was, she also initially resisted the description of “clinically significant distress” as a condition associated with gender dysphoria.
“That was something I never felt,” Fram says. “It seemed an ambiguous, potentially damaging definition that I didn’t want it on my record because to me that implied an impairment in my functioning, or an inability to be great at my job because of this thing you’re supposedly suffering from. I wasn’t suffering, but I wasn’t as good as I could be. I fought against it for a long time.”
When the Trump policy was announced, it forced trans people serving to get a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before April 12, 2019, or risk having the opportunity to transition within the services closed to them.
“That was a crucial moment for me,” Fram recalls. (At the time she spoke to The Daily Beast’s Samantha Allen in 2019 about it, as did Peg in another article.) “I had 30 days,” Bree says now. “It was my ‘now or never’ moment. If I didn’t act, I might lose any possibility of transitioning. And so I thought, ‘OK, I am willing to accept the diagnosis to protect my future.’”
Fram also describes traveling for work, attending meetings with senior officials, and one day pulling on a sports coat, looking in a mirror and realizing, “This isn’t me.” She says, “I realized I was not representing myself authentically.” She had more discussions with Peg, received her official gender dysphoria diagnosis, and then pursued her transition “to make me a better leader and human.”
“It was a huge moment in our marriage,” Fram said. “Peg had feared me fully transitioning one day. She already had negative experiences of losing friends and family. We were both worried, ‘Would what happened next be a repeat of that? What’s going to happen? How do we get through this? What are other people going to think? How are the kids’ friends going to take it? What will happen to the kids?’ There was a lot of fear there. Thankfully, none of it has really come to pass. We are very blessed and very fortunate in how we’ve been able to navigate everything since then. It’s still not easy, but I’m so thankful for the opportunities we’ve been given—and the opportunity to get together and stay together has been fantastic.”
At the time of Trump’s tweets, the reinstatement of the ban, and the fight to lift it (achieved under Biden), Fram was the spokesperson of Sparta—and also herself at the sharp end of the ban itself. As she dealt with the concerns of trans service-members as well as many media inquiries, she was also transitioning herself.
“I still had a responsibility in the Air Force. I couldn’t abandon that to take on the advocate’s mantle full time, but I also had to ask myself, ‘If not me, then who?’”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
“It was certainly a lot of stress,” Fram said. “I had to figure out, ‘What’s my focus?’ I still had a responsibility in the Air Force. I couldn’t abandon that to take on the advocate’s mantle full time, but I also had to ask myself, ‘If not me, then who?’ As one of most senior trans individuals at the DoD, I have a lot of privilege in the circles I am able to operate in, doors I have access to, and the ability and freedom—thanks to a record of performance that I have built up—to be able to go to things junior personnel are not able to do so. Why did I join the service? To be part of something bigger than myself, to give back, to defend future generations, to exercise the freedoms we have. I don’t know how and why I internalized that, but it became so important for me to help others if I could. And because I had privilege, I had to do that.”
In a way, Fram says she is grateful to Trump. “When he tweeted those first tweets about trans people being a burden and disruption that could not be allowed in the military, public support for trans people serving was around 50 percent. What Trump did was shine a spotlight on our service. It allowed trans service-people to show what we were capable of. Suddenly we were in People magazine and on Ellen. A few months later public support was at 70 percent. Now it’s around 80 percent. Even if he placed immense burdens on trans service-members by his tweets and actions, President Trump did a lot for social acceptance, while intending to do the opposite. He also helped sharpen our arguments about why trans service is so valuable.”
Obama lifted the trans ban, Trump reinstated it, and now Biden has lifted it again. Fram says that the only way for trans service not to be a political football, at the whims of presidential executive orders and the prevailing ideology of the administration in power, is for a federal law to be passed covering the military that outlaws discrimination. “That would be a solution so future administrations could not overturn equality. It may be difficult to sell that notion, but difficult doesn’t mean impossible.”
It is “certainly feasible,” Fram says, that a future administration could choose to target trans service-members again, “so we must do all we can to buttress public opinion, show the amazing things that trans people do in the military, and also advocate for equality under the law.”
“Trans people are the last group standing, capable of being demonized and othered.”
— Lt. Col. Bree Fram
Surveying the raft of anti-trans bill-making in recent months around trans teens’ access to sports and health care, Fram says, “We are the last bogeyman for forces that don’t want us to exist. The same arguments used against African Americans and lesbians and gays in the military were used against trans people. And it’s the same in wider society. I see the trans movement as 10 to 20 years behind the gay rights movement. We’ve been through all this before.
“Trans people are the last group standing, capable of being demonized and othered. But we also have all the knowledge of other groups who have worked so hard, even though the stigma and challenges exist for them. We know what they have done, and we can learn from people who fought those battles in the past, and gather with them and work together against transphobia, homophobia, racism, and misogyny.
“I am hopeful we can get through this, and we need to make sure that trans people of color, non-binary folks, and smaller subsets are along for the ride and not forgotten. They’re the ones really suffering, particularly trans women of color who are being beaten and murdered at insanely high rates. We must push back at a society which demonizes them. I’m confident. To solve it completely will take a while, but we absolutely have to fight to make things better.”
Fram is convinced that emphasizing the contributions trans people make to society can move the dial. “When trans people can be viewed as this tiny subset, it can be utilized as a threat or something to drive fear. That’s going to remain a challenge for all of us for quite some time to come. I focus on a positive message—how we provide a different narrative to show the good of inclusion and talents of everyone. We should show what trans people can do to counter some of the fear out there today.”
As Lt. Col. Fram suggested, Tim Teeman next spoke to her wife Peg Fram, who candidly discussed her own experience and perspective of their twenty-plus year relationship.
I was 21, Bree was 20, when we met. Three weeks into our relationship, and I will remember this until the day I die, Bree, who was then my boyfriend, said, “I need to tell you something. I’m in love with you.” Oh wow, that’s fast, I thought. And then she told me she liked to dress in women’s clothes. We of course had no idea what it would turn out to be in the long run. Something in me at the time downplayed it, rightly because she didn’t understand it herself. It was something she liked to do on occasion.
I remember my 21-year-old brain thought, “Well, it’s not so bad. You’ve dated worse people. We can get through it. It’s not a big deal. I will deal with that and move on.” Our relationship continued, and over time she explored that side of herself further. Honestly, I think when we were that young, we didn’t understand what “transgender” was, even if we knew the term. It was 2000, a very different time.
I think Bree realized more about it than I did, and didn’t tell me for a while what she thought was transgender and what that meant. It was incredibly difficult. I think it wreaked a little havoc on my mental health. It was just so hard because we had to keep it a secret. Bree was learning about herself and trying to connect with people, and couldn’t tell the military or back then she’d get kicked out—which meant I had to keep the secret as well.
I felt like I couldn’t tell friends, who were mostly military spouses at that time. I had other friends from high school, but I didn’t feel comfortable saying anything, as this was Bree’s secret and I would be outing her. She told me I should talk to someone, so I didn’t go through it alone, but I felt she had to tell people herself. Now I tell people to talk to someone. Don’t do what I did, because you’re afraid of betraying your spouse’s secret. It’s yours, as well as theirs, and you need support too.
“I was so scared she would lose her job. But whatever happened, I knew she would not lose me or her daughter.”
— Peg Fram
We moved to Colorado in 2011, and Bree had begun to meet other trans people. She would go out occasionally to trans-friendly hangouts in the Denver area once or twice a month. Once she felt that freedom to express herself she began to go out more. I was terrified, so afraid, that someone would hurt her.
At the time, she wasn’t passing as a woman. I don’t want that to sound horrible, but understand that at the time I was looking through the lens of someone looking at the male partner she had been with for 7 or 8 years at the time. To me, it seemed obvious that this was a biological man dressed as a woman, and I was so scared someone would hurt her for that. This was the love of my life, the father of my then-one child. I was also scared someone would recognize Bree, and she would lose her job.
At the time I didn’t have a job. I was pregnant with our second child. The Air Force was Bree’s life. I was so scared she would lose her job. But whatever happened, I knew she would not lose me or her daughter. I was scared and angry. And fear bred more anger, as it often does.
I had kind of guessed Bree was trans in 2011/2012 when she was going out in Denver. She was trying putting on make-up and wearing a wig. I was excited for her to finally be herself, and afraid of what it meant for us. At the moments she pulled back from exploring, I was relieved.
I think for both of us it was around 2011/2012 when we started to realize Bree was transgender, and what that was and what it meant. When Bree finally told me, it was definitely a gut-punch moment. I talk to a lot of other spouses of trans people, and it’s a “gut-punch moment” because at that moment you feel the floor fall out from under you, and you can’t understand what will happen to the life you envisioned and the person you love. You initially feel a terror and deep anger: “How can you do this to me. I don’t know what to do with this information.” But you also understand logically what is happening, and you don’t want to be angry at this person you love. You know this is not their choice, this is who they are.
The Fram family, August 2021: left to right, Peg, Kathryn, Alivya, Lt. Col. Bree Fram.
Bree Fram
In 2016 Bree came out as transgender, and wanted to embrace Bree and her old self—to live a dual gender identity life. I said, “I can do nothing about this, it’s your decision and choice. I have little or no say in this. It’s what you need to do to be happy.” For a lot of spouses, there is a lot of anger we are afraid to express because we are afraid it makes us seem transphobic or cruel—not to be all forgiving and accepting of what your spouse needs.
We’re not only afraid of hurting them, we’re afraid of how people will perceive us. It sounds bad when you say, “I’m angry for you doing this to me.” So, you push it down, and try and hide it. I know now that it’s healthier to just accept the anger and live through it.
That period was difficult, to see and be with my husband one day, and then all of a sudden Bree was there, and she was very different to my husband in terms of physical mannerisms, and how she reacted to situations. When Bree was around it felt like I was living with another person I didn’t particularly like.
Some days I would wake up and Bree was standing there, talking to me. I felt like I wanted my husband back. Of course, hindsight tells me that Bree was exploring what being a woman was like, and the woman she wanted to be. At that time, it felt like I was married to two different people, and every day it seemed another part of my husband had gone.
“The important thing is that I knew I loved Bree, and I would never leave.”
— Peg Fram
I suffer from major depressive disorder and anxiety anyway, and I just lived in a pretty unhappy state in those years. It was like a rollercoaster. I’d be down if Bree was around too much, and happy when my husband was there. I also had my second child in that time, and had postpartum depression. For the 18 months after the baby was born, I was where fun went to die.
Around that time, 2012/2013, our marriage had stopped being a marriage. We were more like roommates. I pulled into myself and my children, and kind of abandoned Bree. I could not handle the two parts of my life, and I could not handle Bree. I was also focused on what I perceived to be my failings, not being accepting enough of Bree. Now I would tell people it’s OK to work through your feelings as best you can. But I hold myself to a more perfect standard.
The important thing is that I knew I loved Bree, and I would never leave. When Bree came out publicly in 2016, when the Obama administration lifted the ban, I was like, “Thank you god. I don’t have to edit myself, or lie by omission.” I could tell my mother and friends—although this was a tightrope, as some people in my family definitely had negative views of LGBTQ people.
Bree emailed people and posted on Facebook about it, very excited to be taking the next step. I was relieved, and also terrified about what was going to happen next. Some of my friends were supportive; one wrote to me that they still loved me and the girls, but not Bree, and Bree could not be part of our friendship group.
I was shocked that they could tell me that they could accept me and not my now-wife. I lost quite a few friends, some I was expecting and others I was very surprised about. I was concerned about the reactions of about 5 people, but I probably lost a dozen or so friends. It was horrible. Extended family—cousins, uncles, and aunts—stopped speaking to me. It’s very painful. I’d like to think it’s just discomfort, and not knowing how to speak to us. But it’s gone on so long, at this point I think it just must be down to transphobia.
My parents tried to understand, then communication with my dad seemed to cease for a while. My mom would call and check on the girls, but I felt a real pull-back from her that lasted about a year. Then, all of a sudden, they started speaking to me again, and now it’s much better. (Peg laughs) Mom is actually a little overly supportive of Bree!
I started to like Bree a lot more after she came out in 2016, and began to feel more comfortable. She settled into her personality and mannerisms, and her emotional response to things seemed to even out. She started to become who she is. She stopped exploring how she would talk or who she would be, and just became her. In 2019, when I told my oldest friend that Bree was going to fully transition, she said I had to make a decision about my future, that my husband was not only transitioning into my wife, but that it would lead to other medical and emotional changes. My friend said, “You’re no longer going to be married to a man, you’re going to be married to a woman. You have to think about whether that is the life you want.”
“By that time, we had been together for 19 years. I couldn’t see my life without Bree in it. Since she fully transitioned, she has been so much happier.”
— Peg Fram
She was trying to get me to see the full picture. I said to her: “I’m not going to leave her. We have kids, a marriage, a mortgage, a life. I love her. I don’t want to leave.” In my mind, it was never a question of leaving. By that time, we had been together for 19 years. I couldn’t see my life without Bree in it. Since she fully transitioned, she has been so much happier.
I still miss my husband so deeply I could cry talking about it. But I love Bree very much. That feeling of love has grown in the last three years, when I realized how incredibly thankful I was to be with her. I think I was angry at Bree for so long because I perceived her as destroying the person I loved more than anything. Sometimes I see him peek out now and then. But I have come to love the more understanding and forgiving person Bree is.
I love Bree for who she is. She is so much more open to talking to our daughters about their choices, and what they’re doing as opposed to bringing down the hammer as a dad who was more disciplinarian. It’s amazing watching Bree with them. With me, Bree is much more attentive to my feelings too, which is really lovely, and a lot more focused on us being happy and creating experiences which we will always remember, as opposed to saving for the future and retirement as my husband had been. We are definitely enjoying life more now. I love Bree very much. Considering how I felt about her at the beginning, when I look at her know I know that it’s love—that welling in the chest, that knowledge without saying it. I am so happy with her.
When Trump did those tweets my first response to Bree was to ask, “Can’t we just hide, and pretend it’s not happening.” Bree said we couldn’t do that, that I had 48 hours to curl up in a ball and watch The Golden Girls, seasons 1 to 7, with a bag of M&M’s, and then we had work to do. The Golden Girls is my favorite show in the world, ever. It has helped me through so much. If I think, “What would Dorothy do?” we’re good to go. My 8-year-old loves it too. Well, Bree was right. It really helped to have a focus, and fighting for trans service-people made us closer. Maybe that was a turning point for me. It was like, “I can be angry with Bree, I’m her wife. But nobody else better attack her.”
When Bree fully transitioned, it was a huge relief. She wasn’t going back and forth all time. Everyday things about a dual gender life—explaining things to the girls’ school, explaining things to their friends’ parents—suddenly were not an issue. I hadn’t realized how upset all the back and forth had made me. One thing is, I’m definitely more tomboyish. I never felt very feminine. So, watching my husband become a very feminine woman made me question my sexual attractiveness to other people. (Peg laughs) She is more of a girl than I am. The only thing I was afraid of was that we were going to become roommates, The Golden Girls in our old age. The sexual part of our relationship was definitely slower to develop than the emotional part, but in the last 18 months or so I would say it has really come back, and is now active and alive.
I am still very much struggling with my depression and anxiety. There are definitely days when I struggle to get out of bed, but do because my kids need me to. I still have fears—that Bree may not happy be with me, and may find someone else, or that other kids will be mean to my kids. One of my younger daughter’s friend’s cousins messaged her to say she had two moms and her dad had died. I worry our lives and choices will hurt our children, but every parent is terrified of that. When I am beset by all these thoughts, I tell myself, “You have come out of this before, you will come out of it again. You have just got to keep pushing through.”
Our 12-year-old, Kathryn, is outspoken in her support of us. She is so strong and opinionated, and will tell people, “That’s my mom, and that’s my other mom.” She calls Bree, “Maddy,” and says, “My Maddy is happier now than when she was my daddy, and if you don’t like us you don’t need to be part of us.” To hear that coming out of a 12-year-old mouth is amazing. I wish I’d had her confidence when I was 12.
“It’s also been brilliant for my children, from a young age, to be surrounded by a large community of LGBTQ, and specifically trans, people who have shown them it’s OK to be who you are.”
— Peg Fram
The great thing is that Bree and I are in a place that’s happy, and I know we will be a happily married couple. It’s also been brilliant for my children, from a young age, to be surrounded by a large community of LGBTQ, and specifically trans, people who have shown them it’s OK to be who you are. I cannot thank these people enough, who have loved my children as if they were their own, taught them wonderful lessons, and helped make them such amazing people. My youngest, Alivya, doesn’t understand why anyone would not be accepting. At the moments when I’m down in “the pit,” I can also see the future will be wonderful, and if I can just get out of the pit it will be so much better.
For the future, I am hoping to go back to school to get a social worker license, or just volunteer. I would love to help other spouses and children who have a partner or loved one transitioning. I didn’t have someone to talk to when I was going through it those first 16 years. If my experience and my traumas and happiness, and going through the process, or even just me sitting and listening, can help anyone that would make me happy and feel like I am contributing to helping someone else. I went through it alone, but you really don’t have to go through this alone.
“Fear cannot hold us hostage. It needs to be faced head-on and continually challenged.”
— Peg Fram
I hope my talking here helps people, and gives those in a similar situation the message that your marriage can make it through. It may be bad for a while, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can still be happy together, indeed make a leap to a new kind of life. You can make an entirely new future with the person you love, and that future can be just as great as the previous future you thought you had.
I worry so much how people will perceive me after reading this. Honesty is terrifying. I fear for the future—politically, emotionally, for my children, for my marriage. But that fear cannot hold us hostage. It needs to be faced head-on and continually challenged. In sharing myself this way, I am challenging that fear and winning.
Seated in his office in Prosser Village, Lt. Col. Dartanion Hayward, commander of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, describes his journey to a career in military intelligence and shares how he is inspired to join Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Hale, commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence & Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in reaching out to ROTC cadets at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (Photo Credit: (U.S. Army photo by Tanja Linton))
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(Center) Lt. Col. Dartanion Hayward, commander of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, outlines the merits of a career in military intelligence to ROTC cadets at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, while (right) Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Hale, commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence & Fort Huachuca, Arizona, looks on. The visit to Mississippi is one of many stops in Hale’s desire to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country to encourage ROTC cadets to consider a future in military intelligence. (Photo Credit: (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Robin Cox))
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Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Hale, commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence & Fort Huachuca, Arizona, visits Alcorn State and Jackson State Universities in Mississippi as part of his Historically Black Colleges and Universities tour to promote diversity in the Military Intelligence Corps. (Photo Credit: (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Robin Cox))
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Lt. Col. Dartanion Hayward displays his signed copy of Buffalo Soldier Maj. Cecil Ward White’s autobiography he keeps in his office at the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion headquarters. With Army intelligence training headquartered at the traditional home of the Buffalo Soldier, he joins Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Hale, commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence & Fort Huachuca, in feeling it is doubly important to ensure the MI Corps represents the diversity of the nation. (Photo Credit: (U.S. Army photo by Tanja Linton))
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FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. – Lt. Col. Dartanion Hayward, commander of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, knows it takes more than wishful thinking to effect change.
“Action actually drives change, not thought,” the Philadelphia native said. “Thought drives desire, but until you put action into it, nothing is going to happen.”
Hayward enlisted in the Army in 1997 as an 88M motor transport operator feeling the experience would make him a better leader. He later commissioned in 2002 after obtaining a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship in his sophomore year at Penn State.
Despite a love for combat arms, choosing Infantry as a branch was out of the question because of his severe allergy to grass, and his second choice, Aviation, wasn’t an option because his eyesight didn’t make the grade. Hayward settled into the Military Intelligence branch with a detail to Armor, making him one of a small handful of Black intelligence officers.
President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. The Army’s nine training divisions were integrated by 1951, and by 1954 the Army reported it was fully integrated.
While strides have been made and the Department of Defense reaps the benefits of a workforce where team members from a variety of backgrounds unite for a common mission, the recent DOD Board on Diversity and Inclusion Report released on Dec. 18, 2020, identified the fact that more work must be done to ensure the military accurately reflects the nation’s diversity and every member of the force is treated with dignity and respect. Women and minorities remain underrepresented in parts of the military, particularly at the highest levels of leadership.
Recent changes include reviewing hairstyle and grooming standards for racial bias resulted in revisions to Army Regulation 670-1 in 2021. The DOD report, Recommendations to Improve Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion in the U.S. Military, advocates taking other, long-term steps to improve racial and ethnic diversity. Two of those steps are diversifying senior-level positions so they reflect the nation’s racial and ethnic makeup, and identifying and removing barriers to senior leadership for diverse candidates.
In Focus Area 1: Recruitment and Accessions, the board recommends increasing the pool of qualified ROTC enrollment, scholarship and commission applicants from minority-serving institutions.
Leaders at the headquarters of the Army’s military intelligence training and the traditional home of the Buffalo Soldier, are taking action on that recruiting recommendation by visiting Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, across the country to drive change and diversify the Military Intelligence (MI) branch.
According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, HBCUs were established in the United States early in the 19th century to provide undergraduate and graduate level education opportunities to people of African descent. Congress defined an HBCU in Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as a school of higher learning that was accredited and established before 1964, and whose principal mission was the education of African Americans.
When demographic information compiled by the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence revealed a stark lack of diversity among officers currently serving in the military intelligence career fields, Maj. Gen. Anthony Hale, commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence & Fort Huachuca, wanted to make a personal difference.
Hale began incorporating visits to HBCUs on his many travels around the Army.
“I made it my objective to get on a campaign to recruit more minorities into the Intel Corps,” he said during a recent visit to Jackson State University. Hayward and other Black MI officers accompany Hale on these visits.
Their first visit was to Maryland HBCUs Morgan State and Bowie State in May 2021, followed by visits to Washington, D.C.’s Howard University, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and Virginia State University. Earlier this month, they traveled to Mississippi to visit Alcorn State and Jackson State Universities.
“Major General Hale’s recruiting briefs at 13 HBCUs in the past year, most recently to two in my home state of Mississippi, demonstrates leadership in action to ensure the next generation of military intelligence professionals are diverse and the most talented our Army has seen,” said U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss.
Hayward is inspired the Chief of Staff of the Army has placed an emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
“We can make it better in the Army; we have the ability to drive that kind of change and show the rest of society this is what right looks like,” said the commander of more than 1,100 military intelligence trainees.
“Nothing changes until something changes,” he continued. “We can talk about the change all day long, but it won’t change until something happens.”
Hayward has heard people talk about issues of diversity and inclusion within military intelligence for more than 20 years with very little action being taken.
He has his eye on the future and leaving a legacy for future Soldiers.
“If we don’t want to continue to look like and act like the things we’ve been struggling through for hundreds of years, then we need to start changing the trajectory of this compass,” Hayward said. “One azimuth on a compass makes a dramatic change when you continue to walk that way for five, six hundred meters. So if we just make one slight change and walk in that direction, it’s phenomenal what it will do in the future.”
While speaking to a group of ROTC cadets at Alcorn State University this month, Hale said, “When I talk to young officers, young minority officers in particular, they say I want to look up and see people that look like me. And right now, they don’t see a lot of folks that look them, and I am determined to change that.”
Like Hale, Hayward is motivated to be an agent of change and frequently paraphrases Proverbs 13:22, “A wise man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,” when he talks about improving diversity and inclusion in the Army.
Hayward’s travels with Hale to HBCUs are designed to educate cadets about career possibilities in military intelligence. The interactions inspire him as well.
Sometimes cadets are astonished to meet a Black MI officer from North Philadelphia.
“I bet you thought you’d never see a lieutenant colonel from the Strawberry Mansion-area of North Philadelphia?” he asks them. “No sir” is a typical response.
On one HBCU visit, Hayward recalls a cadet turning in the opposite direction when they saw a general officer. But not all cadets turn away. Many flock to Hale, Hayward and other MI officers to seek out advice, mentorship and contact information. Hayward was particularly thrilled when a cadet he had spoken with reached back to him in December to let him know she assessed MI and is branch detailed to Armor.
Because there can be generational disparity that might make it challenging for today’s college students to relate with a two-star general and lieutenant colonel, a junior officer is also a member of the HBCU outreach team.
1st Lt. John Jones is a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and serves as the executive officer at Alpha Company, 309th MI Bn. He has joined Hale on visits to HBCUs including his alma mater, and most recently, Alcorn State and Jackson State Universities. For Jones, the opportunity to take part in driving change was one he could not pass up.
“I hope to one day make a strategic impact to the MI field and also be a role model for aspiring officers,” he said, applauding Hale’s initiative and noting the general is truly getting after diversifying the ranks.
Hale tells cadets and officers they need three things: a mentor, an advocate and a sponsor. Hayward described the role of each —a mentor providing step-by-step instructions, an advocate championing you on, and a sponsor having the ability to pull you in.
“That’s the issue we have,” he observes. “We don’t have someone pulling us in.”
Hale sees himself as a person who can be a sponsor who can pull someone in, and Hayward notes it’s good for the cadets to see that.
Hayward has observed the cadets are hungry and are looking for opportunity. Their training is very maneuver based, so that is what they know about the Army, he explained. Most aren’t aware of the opportunities in military intelligence while wearing the uniform and how they can translate to a civilian career after their time in the Army.
The interactions with the future leaders of military intelligence have also made an impression on the commanding general.
“I’ve been visiting Historically Black Colleges and Universities for the last year, and it has been the most inspiring thing that I have done while in command over 18 months at Fort Huachuca,” Hale told cadets during his February visit to Alcorn State University.
Hayward hopes to continue carrying the torch. Educating and encouraging subordinates and peers alike is the influence he wants to have throughout his career.
Returning to the topic of diversity in the military intelligence corps, he notes, “It’s not a Black problem or minority problem. It’s an ‘our’ problem. It’s everyone’s problem that we’re so under-represented within intel. If all of us aren’t fighting it, it will always be ‘us’ and ‘them.’ This is a problem we all need to address.”
Hayward sees Hale’s initiative as a great start and hopes it continues when the next commanding general inevitably takes command. Having a bigger pool of diverse candidates increases the likelihood of one crossing the finish line to senior leadership.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” says Hayward. “The diversity and inclusion and equality piece is so important in that it gives other people hope to say, ‘I have the ability to obtain that.’”
(Editor’s note: Maj. Robin Cox, director of the USAICoE Strategic Communication Commander’s Action Group, contributed to this article.)
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Fort Huachuca is home to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command and more than 48 supported tenants representing a diverse, multiservice population. Our unique environment encompasses 946 square miles of restricted airspace and 2,500 square miles of protected electronic ranges, key components to the national defense mission.
Located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about 15 miles north of the border with Mexico, Fort Huachuca is an Army installation with a rich frontier history. Established in 1877, the Fort was declared a national landmark in 1976.
We are the Army’s Home. Learn more at https://home.army.mil/huachuca/.
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