All that and more on The Briefing for Aug. 25, 2020.

It was an event senior leaders at the Jacob Javits Convention Center had already thought about holding if a veteran died in the hospital’s care, explained Sgt. Maj. Robert Jenks in a new release. Jenks, a member of the New York Army National Guard’s 53rd Digital Liaison Detachment, is serving as the sergeant major for the Incident Command.

Senior NCOs coordinated with chaplains at the facility to determine the protocols to follow, and worked with American Legion Post 178 in Dutchess County to obtain 15 casket flags.

The male veteran died Saturday, April 18, but because of the high number of COVID-19 deaths, the funeral home was unable to say when it could send staff to the field hospital to pick up the veteran’s remains.

With a five-minute warning before a hearse arrived to collect the remains the next day, Command Sgt. Maj. Morgan Cady and Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Pardi, members of the New York Army National Guard, put their plan into action.

Calls went out to hospital staff and word quickly spread — at least 60 people gathered in the loading area to bid farewell to a veteran they did not know. Those in attendance represented each of the military services, as well as federal, state and local first responders.

Army Maj. Ivan Arreguin, chaplain for the 44th Medical Brigade, conducted a short service, according to the release.

“It felt like I was participating in the burial of an unknown soldier known only by God,” Arreguin said.

“It was solemn, respectful, honoring, and with the key elements normally performed at a military funeral,” he added.

Military wife Veronica Alvarez-Rodriguez said she and her husband purchased the Baby Einstein bouncer Sunday while on their way to a baby shower in Valparaiso, Fla., according to a Facebook post. She said the box hadn’t even been opened, and only cost $10.

But upon opening the box at the shower, they found it contained a loaded Mossberg 715T semi-automatic rifle inside.

Alvarez-Rodriguez told the Northwest Florida Daily News, who identified her as a military wife, that the dad-to-be was thrilled and shouted: “You guys got me a gun!”

A few of the guests were amused, but the Alvarez-Rodriguez said she and her husband were astonished, per the Daily News.

Crestview Police Department officials confirmed to Military Times that the incident was reported on Dec. 1 and that an investigation was ongoing as of Wednesday. The police department said the family who received the gun contacted them, and voluntarily relinquished the weapon for investigation.

Additionally, the police department verified the weapon had not been stolen, and are now running it through a database with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives to check its purchase history. Crestview and Valparaiso Police Departments have also determined that the the firearm could have been donated at collection points between Tallahassee and Pensacola before heading to the Goodwill location Alvarez-Rodriguez purchased it from.

So far, police say there is no evidence of foul play and all signs indicate someone dropped the baby-bouncer off without knowing what it contained.

Crestview is home to Florida’s Army National Guard Armory, and is less than 50 miles from Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida. It’s unclear what branch Alvarez-Rodriguez’s husband belongs to.

While there have been significant steps toward a deal to end the nearly 18 years of war, those diplomatic gains have come with some costs — namely travel costs for the Taliban, according to the spokesman for the Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Kevin Spicer, the spokesman for Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky, told Roll Call that the Trump administration asked Congress for funds to cover the Taliban’s costs for transportation, lodging, food and supplies.

“The Defense Department requested fiscal 2020 funding to support certain reconciliation activities, including logistic support for members of the Taliban and, in March 2019, they sent a notification letter to the Committee on using fiscal year 2019 funds for similar activities,” Spicer said. He added that the request “would implicate provisions of law concerning material support to terrorists… .”

Consequently, Visclosky’s committee approved a defense spending bill for fiscal 2020 on Wednesday that bars reimbursing the Taliban.

And as noted in the Roll Call story, the Taliban is a well-funded organization that gets much of its money from opium sales.

Steve Ellis, executive vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, told Roll Call that the request for reimbursing the Taliban is like “life imitating The Onion.”

“Even if you leave aside that they are still conducting operations against our interests and allies, having to pay for someone to be at the table undercuts our bargaining position and demonstrates their lack of enthusiasm for a deal,” Ellis told CQ Roll Call.

The story, which was submitted for the blog’s science fiction writing contest, follows hostility between the fictional nations of Otso, a close ally of the U.S., and Donovia, a near-peer competitor of the U.S., in the year 2030. The U.S. is compelled to intervene in combat operations when Donovia launches an invasion against its neighbor on April Fool’s Day.

Here are some of the themes we picked up from the “pre-mortem” of the Battle of Otso, as well as some of the wild predictions of what war fighters might face in the future:

• Keep humans in the decision-making loop and avoid relying on automation. Removing human authority from lethal force can lead to escalations.
• Don’t rely on stealth technology to keep pilots safe.
• A “Four-ship” concept of each F-35 controlling three Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles.
• Unmanned vehicles in the air and under water proved to be lethal.
• Most battlefield wounds were burns inflicted by non-lethal microwave projectors, but medical triage was aided by medical sensors woven into uniforms.

Read the full excerpt here or the complete short story at the Small Wars Journal.

About 1,700 Marines began arriving in Darwin, Australia, in April for training and exercises, and their ranks eventually are expected to grow to 2,500.

And despite being in its eighth iteration of Marine Rotational Force–Darwin — not to mention speaking the same language — Australian troops have been ordered to avoid using slang around American counterparts.

“Imagine an American asking an Aussie soldier if they can see the enemy approaching and they respond with the classic local phrase of ‘nah, yeah’. The Yank would have no clue if they meant yes or no, which is understandable for someone who doesn’t get our slang,” the site LADbible said.

It seems that communication should be crystal clear if you’re operating military equipment. Here’s what Australian Air Force Group Captain Stewart Dowrie, from Robertson Barracks, explained to news site 10 Daily:

“We have lost in translation moments more than you would realise.”

“The time to figure that out is not on the battlefield when the bullets are flying.”

“Classic phrase ‘lucked out’ ― for some people it means you get lucky, for others it didn’t happen.”

“So you start using colloquialisms and all of a sudden you have complete misunderstandings about whether something is going to happen.”

Football, anyone?

Citing an email notification to Pentagon staffers, the report says the bases would be used for minors who arrive at the border without an adult relative or after the government separated them from their parents.

The bases include Fort Bliss, Goodfellow Air Force Base and Dyess Air Force Base ― all in Texas ― while Little Rock Air Force Base will also be evaluated.

The site visits are characterized as preliminary assessments, according to the Post.

“No decisions have been made at this time,” the email states.

If the plans are implemented, it wouldn’t be the first time military facilities have been used to house immigrant children until an adult relative or sponsor can assume custody.

A complex with an 1,800-bed capacity was used in 2016 at Fort Bliss to house unaccompanied minors who immigrated to the U.S. And about 700 immigrant children stayed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico that same year. The minors spent about a month at the facilities.

But for Nate Weber, an Army Green Beret and member of the four-man U.S. bobsled team, Trump’s invitation to his two daughters to watch his performance with her was “an amazing experience for them.”

That tweet apparently didn’t sit well with everyone in the Twittersphere as folks replied to voice their dislike of the Trump administration.

Here’s how Weber, a 30-year-old sergeant first class, responded to criticism:

And while Weber’s team finished a disappointing 20th in the event, he said on Twitter that he was proud of his team for having the fourth-best final run.

The text mentioning Fischer was from a high school in Washington state worked. Mattis grew up in Richland, Washington, and is a Central Washington University graduate. After some back and forth to schedule a time to conduct an interview, the two eventually connected on Memorial Day. The interview — originally set for 15 minutes or so, but ran about 45 minutes — was heavy on foreign policy and national politics.

During the interview, Fischer asked the obvious question about why would Mattis call him back out of all of the media requests he must get. Mattis’ reply: “You left a message there and I was going through listening to the messages and deleting them. But you’re from Washington state. I grew up in Washington state on the other side of the mountains there on the Columbia River. I just thought I’d give you a call.”

Fischer’s story about how he landed an interview with the normally press-shy retired 4-star Marine Corps general — who is affectionately known in military circles as “Mad Dog Mattis,” “the Warrior Monk,” and “Chaos”  — garnered the attention of national outlets like the Washington Postand NPR, and the Seattle-area media like King 5 Newsand the Seattle Times.

While the story got plenty of play from journos and foreign-policy types, Fischer, who will be a junior in the fall, and Jane Gormley, his classmate and editor at the Islander, got a firsthand lesson in modern journalism: a video of their fellow students lip-syncing to songs has more Facebook likes than the Mattis piece, as they explained in this NPR interview:

Read the entire

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