SPECIAL 4-PAGE PULLOUT INSIDE

Thank you so much for working for my, and so many other peoples’ safety during this horrible COVID-19 crisis. I can’t even imagine being in your position, and I

cannot thank you enough. What you are doing is so amazing. You are helping so many people. I cannot imagine the stuff that you are going through,

the challenges you are facing. But, that uniform that you wear makes me confident that I am safe. The flag that you protect, that we pledge

allegiance to, it has gone through so much. But because of you, I have no doubt that it will make it through this, too. This country is and will

continue to be the greatest country in the world because of the work you are doing. So, keep up the good work because what you are

doing is making the world a better place. One last time, THANK YOU!!!

Sincerely,

Johnny Reed, 13 William C. McCool Elementary and Middle School

To the best sailors ever

75 Celebrating

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H ello! My name is Emily Burgess and I am proud to say I am a military

child. But, unlike many other military children, neither of my parents are soldiers. In-stead, my mom works as a Do-DEA teacher. Because of this, I don’t have to go through all the hardships such as deploy-ments and moving frequently like many other military chil-dren go through. And because of this, one may say that I don’t entirely understand how my peers feel, which is true.

But I still understand what it feels like to be sad, or seper-ated from my family members. When we moved to Guam I was only 6 years old and all I knew then was that I was likely never going to see my grandparents again. I was partially correct as I’d only get to see my grand-mother in the hospital one last time, but my grandpa visited every year for Christmas! I still wish I could’ve spent more time with them, along with my cousins and aunts and uncles, but in the end, this is the best option. Over the years I’ve ex-perienced so many wonderful and not so wonderful things

I’d never really experienced before. I’ve gotten new ad-ditions to my family, but I’ve also lost a couple and I’ve had to say goodbye to my built-in best friend. But my big brother is now a sailor and I honestly couldn’t be more proud. I know what it feels like to have my best friend in the entire world slip away, and what it feels like to sit alone every lunch for three years, waiting for some-one new. I know what it feels like when that person comes. I know what it feels like to be stressed and anxious for no rea-son at a young age. I’ve laughed and cried over the years, but if

someone asked me if I would change a thing I would say no. It made me weaker at first, yet in the end built me up stronger than I’d ever been before. I’m so lucky to be a military child and have every opportunity in the world be a possibility for me. I just want to thank every-one in the military, whether you’re in the Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, or Army for being so strong and endur-ing all the hardships that come your way. Thank you for being an inspiration for me and mak-ing my dreams possible. You’re AWESOME!!!

STORY AND ARTS BY EMILY BURGESS,ANDERSEN MIDDLE SCHOOL

I, too, am a military brat

Let our networkbe your best move

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STRIPES GUAM 3MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

M ore than half of the crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt as the em-

barked staffs have completed their quarantine in various ho-tels throughout Guam and are back on board the ship. For the past two weeks, the crew has been starting up shipboard sys-tems and re-opening many of the services on board as they pre-pare to go back to sea.

One of these services resum-ing is Theodore Roosevelt’s post office. Since arriving in Guam on March 27, Theodore Roosevelt has received approximately 12 tons of mail. Theodore Roos-evelt’s post office staff has a plan in place to distribute all of it.

After holding the mail for ap-proximately six weeks, Theo-dore Roosevelt has enough qualified mail handlers on board to resume normal mail service. That, and other ship’s services resuming normal operations sends a message to the crew, and the world, that the ship is ready to resume its deployment to the Indo-Pacific, projecting power in the U.S. 7th Fleet once again.

“With postal operations back online, our ship can continue its mission no matter the duration, with continual support from home to always be ready for

hours, according to Grace.“The mail then gets trans-

ported to the ship, where it’ll sit for a day in the hangar bay be-fore it is opened,” said Grace.

Although Theodore Roosevelt has enough personnel to handle the mail, some of the ship’s post-al workers have not returned yet. Hall has been working lon-ger shifts to ensure the work gets done.

“I am working about an extra four hours a day, 12 to 13 hours total,” said Hall. “I’m learning to manage my time because I know how important mail is to people.”

Hall and the ship’s other mail orderlies must follow strict pro-tocol when handling the mail

to ensure that each package re-ceives its intended recipient.

Before being handed out, crew members’ mail is staged in the hangar bay where Sail-ors scan each package or letter as it is removed from a tri-wall (a large three-walled cardboard box full of mail). Mail orderlies collect the mail for the Sailors in their division while a retrograde team collects mail trash and an administration team handles mail with improper labeling, ensuring it goes to the intended recipient.

“From an outsider’s perspec-tive, it may look like a bunch of ants in chaos,” said Hall, “but there’s an organized system be-hind it.”

Although Theodore Roosevelt crew members may have been waiting a while for a package, they can rest assured that the ship’s supply division is working around the clock in an orderly manner to deliver every pack-age, letter and post card.

Theodore Roosevelt’s COVID negative crew returned from quarantine beginning on April 29 and is making preparations to return to sea to continue their scheduled deployment to the In-do-Pacific.

For more news from USS Theodore Roosevelt , visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn71/

in my stomach,” said Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Desmond Hall, Theodore Roosevelt’s postal financial supervisor. “I re-ceived a care package from one of my old friends who I grew up with back in Germany when I was a teenager, and he put all of my favorite German snacks and other foods in the box. It shows that someone cares about you and is rooting for you.”

Shipping mail to a floating warship is no easy task. The United States Postal Service sends Theodore Roosevelt’s mail to a fleet mail center warehouse on Naval Base Guam, where the boxes containing the mail are sprayed with disinfectant and set in the sun to disinfect for 72

the fight when the fight comes,” said Logistics Specialist 1st Class Andrew Grace, leading petty officer of Theodore Roos-evelt’s supply division. “Sailors have had packages sent to them which gives them a small piece of home that texts, phone calls, or even video calls cannot. It’s that physical aspect from home that gives some the mindset of continuing this deployment in its darkest hours.”

Although many Theodore Roosevelt sailors are half a world away from their loved ones, these personalized items help give Sailors a healthier work-life balance and boost their psycho-logical and emotional states.

“I sometimes get butterflies

BY PO2 PYOUNG YI,USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Nothing stops the mailMAY 29 − JUNE 11, 20204 STRIPES GUAM A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

Left: LS2 Desmond Hall organizes incoming mail on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Photo by MCSN Erik Melgar Right: MMFN Brian Voetberg carries mail. Photo by MC3 Dartañon D. De La Garza

STORIES AND PHOTOS BY STAFF SGT. JORDAN GILBERT,3RD MARINE LOGISTICS GROUP

Meet our MEF

COVID-19 hits home

“ I was born and raised in New Orleans, La. My mother, who is now a registered nurse, has lived there all her life, too. Unfortunately, she caught coronavirus while working at a local hospital. I was scared and angry. All

she wanted to do was help people, but she couldn’t work because she was sick. Luckily, my mother beat the virus and when she recovered, I was relieved.

I am happy to be here in Guam now, fighting a battle which has personally affected my family. I am lucky to be keeping my brothers and sisters from 3rd Medical Battal-ion safe, by providing them with proper protective equip-ment. It is an honor to be a part of this mission.”– Lance Cpl. Donté Rogers

Lance Cpl. Donté Rogers is with Supply Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group where he is assigned to Task Force Medical. TF Medical is currently assisting USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors with COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Call to serve

“ Living a life of service is a core value I grew up around in my family, so it was only natural for me to seek out ways to help others. I never really thought about mili-tary service until I toured colleges as a teenager. I saw

the Virginia Tech Cadet Corps (VTCC) performing a Pass in Review and thought, ‘I could never make it as a cadet’. This thought became a challenge and I committed to VT and VTCC that very day. My freshman year, 32 of my fellow Hokies were senselessly murdered, including one from my VTCC family, who bravely tried to save his peers. Every year I remember them and I reflect on living each day by the VT motto of ‘Ut Prosim’… ‘That I may serve’. Currently, I’m fortunate to serve in Guam, where I’m supporting the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) in the fight against CO-VID-19.” – Lt. Jessica Schmidt

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Samuel Atuahene, a native of Worcester, Mass., is a laboratory technician currently assigned to Task Force Medical on Naval Base Guam.

Ultimate calling

“ My story begins, as most immigrant stories often begin, with a search for op-portunity. Mine came when I moved from my country of birth, Ghana, to the United States with the main goal of furthering my education. I am the eldest child in the family, and with that, comes huge expectations in my culture. Ex-

pectations which had then gotten even bigger, because in my culture, going to America is synonymous with success, and this is what my family expected of me.

I’ve always had unbridled enthusiasm, a trait I suspect I inherited from my fa-ther. The will to persevere in the face of adversity, and to be selfless for my family, are things I carry with me everywhere.

For me, joining the Navy has not only reinforced those values, but has also made me stronger mentally. The Navy to me is the ultimate calling. I live to be in the service of others and I am proud of everything the Navy stands for, and I hope to continue to learn and grow in the years to come.

I am currently in Guam supporting the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the fight against COVID-19. This assignment has given me the opportunity to use my leader-ship skills to empower a group of outstanding Sailors in the campaign to get the Theodore Roosevelt back in the fight.” – HM2 Samuel Atuahene

U.S. Navy Lt. Jessica Schmidt, a native of

Reston, Va., is a medical-surgical nurse with 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd

Marine Logistics Group. She is currently assigned to Task Force Medical on

Naval Base Guam.

STRIPES GUAM 5MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 20206 STRIPES GUAM A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

‘Food safety is important to everyone’s health’

F or food safety soldiers at Public Health Activity-Guam, keeping others safe is a top priority as Guam installations re-

spond to the COVID-19 pandemic.Utilizing a team-based approach to help in

the fight against COVID-19, PHA-Guam took over all food safety responsibilities aboard Naval Base Guam to alleviate the workload of Navy preventive medicine personnel.

“When the coronavirus started to become an issue, we sat down with Navy preventive medicine to develop a strategy,” said Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jeffery Mitchell, PHA-Guam senior food safety officer. “We realized we had to implement mitigation measures for COVID-19 at food facilities to keep the military community safe.”

In total, that meant inspecting approximate-ly 40 facilities on base, including the commis-sary, Navy Exchange food court, shoppettes, galleys, and restaurants.

Starting at the NEX food court, food safety soldiers went to work identifying areas of risk and implementing COVID-19 mitigation mea-sures.

“Since the NEX food court has a lot of cus-tomers, we decided to go there first and use it as our training lab,” explained Mitchell. “We looked at all of the different areas where people could potentially spread the virus. We

focused on common areas where people would do a lot of touching and breathing, places such as seating areas and where utensils and condi-ments are available for customers.”

To help mitigate risk, the team worked with managers to train employees on sanitation measures, as well as adjusting common areas to limit customer contact.

“We focused on customer interactions and enforcing good personal hygiene. For an exam-ple, when an employee completed a transaction they would have to wash their hands or change their gloves,” said Mitchell. “We also looked at social distancing requirements to make sure customers could stand six feet apart.”

The team also focused on traditional food safety and sanitation inspections in addition to COVID-19 mitigation measures.

“Food safety is important to everyone’s health,” explained Army Warrant Officer Jai-me Jones, PHA-Guam branch food safety offi-cer. “While COVID-19 mitigation measures are important, we also need to keep customers safe from foodborne illness.”

Food safety includes everything from proper food storage, washing hands, preventing cross contamination of foods during preparation, proper cooking temperatures, clean up and disinfection and many steps in between.

One of the largest food safety efforts PHA-Guam supports are mass feeding operations for sailors in quarantine.

“There are many sailors here in quarantine

STORY AND PHOTOS BY AMBER KURKA,PUBLIC HEALTH COMMAND - PACIFIC

‘We were a very cohesive team’

BY LORI NEWMAN,BROOKE ARMY MEDICAL CENTER PUBLIC AFFAIRS

T he Navy Medicine Operational Training Center (NMOTC) successfully deployed 17 sailors to Guam in support of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sailors are all assigned to the Navy Expeditionary Medi-cal Training Institute (NEMTI), a detachment of NMOTC located on Camp Pendleton, Calif., and integrated with the Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) and Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCB) 1 and 5 under Commander, Task Force 75 (CTF-75).

The EMF will provide expanded medical capabilities in support of the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 response and will enable forces to be postured to support Guam and the region if a Defense Support of Civil Authorities mission is requested.

“We’ve brought out some of the best instructors that NEM-TI and the Navy offers to guide the sailors of NMCB 1 and 5 in the establishment of a fully functional 150 bed EMF,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Joshua Van Horn, a sailor assigned to NEMTI. “The 150 bed EMF will assist the local hospitals with additional bed space to allow for the treatment of CO-VID-19 patients.”

NEMTI is Navy Medicine’s elite readiness training insti-tute, for Expeditionary Medical Facilities, Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical Systems, Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Marine Corps and Fleet Surgical Teams. NEMTI delivers advanced trauma training, ensuring readiness of

medical personnel sup-porting the warfighter.

“As planning for the EMF began, we pulled in sailors and Marines from diverse locations around the globe to complete the EMF construction on time,” said Lt. Zach Niezgodski, 30th Naval Construction Regiment (30NCR) Oceana area op-erations officer. “We con-tinually coordinate with our subordinate units to ensure they have the nec-essary equipment to ex-ecute the mission. Syncing with our Seabees and the medical personnel that

will be running the EMF during the build has been essential to ensure the facility will be ready on time, and able to pro-vide the required medical care to those who may need it.”

The EMF includes medical materials to support casualty receiving and triage, sick call, surgery, radiology, laboratory, blood banks, operating room preparation and holding, in-tensive care/recovery room, oral surgery/dentistry, preven-tive medicine, acute care wards, specialty treatment wings, pharmacy, and central sterile reprocessing.

“I am proud to be part of a team that’s making a difference in the world,” said Lt. Quintrell Mazant, a Seabee assigned to NEMTI currently serving in Guam. “The EMF provides medical forces with essential tools and resources to fight against the worldwide impact caused by COVID-19, which is changing at a rapid pace. I am truly moved by the dedication and commitment of the personnel from NEMTI, NEMSCOM, NMCB 1, NMCB 5, 30th NCR, CBMU 303, NAVFAC and many more coming together in the fight against COVID-19. We are all playing a vital role in containing the spread of COVID-19 while supporting people in need of medical care.”

NEMTI is one of six detachments of NMOTC, whose mis-sion is to provide training for operation medicine and avia-tion survival.

“NEMTI is more than eager to assist in the world-wide fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Capt. Sharon House, the officer in charge of NEMTI. “We are happy to as-sist our fellow expeditionary sailors of CTF-75.”

ne big fight.

Spc. Regina Shillingburg, Public Health Activity-Guam veterinary food inspection specialist, conducts a food inspection of the meat department at Orote commissary and the Navy Exchange food court, Naval Base Guam.“I am proud to be part of a team that’s

making a difference inthe world.”

– Lt. Quintrell Mazant

STRIPES GUAM 7MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

‘Food safety is important to everyone’s health’that need daily meals delivered to them,” ex-plained Mitchell. “In order to produce those meals, restaurants have had to adjust their op-erations from single order meals to the mass production of meals. When restaurants change how they operate, a lot of things can go wrong.”

To keep sailors safe from foodborne illness, soldiers from PHA-Guam conduct daily on-site assessments to ensure food services maintain safety measures during meal preparations.

“We are inspecting things like the tempera-ture of the food throughout the preparation process,” explained Mitchell. “We are also making sure employees follow preparation and sanitation steps. When restaurants produce large quantities of food it can be really easy for steps to be skipped or forgotten, which could make people ill.”

Since COVID-19 mitigation measures need to be followed, the team also works to ensure food is not sitting for long durations of time be-fore it is delivered and eaten.

“To limit the contact between the staff and the sailors in quarantine, the food is boxed up and delivered to central locations with no phys-ical contact to limit the spread of COVID-19,” explained Mitchell. “So we are at the restau-rants making sure it is picked up in a timely manner and not sitting for extended periods of time to keep it safe for sailors to eat.”

As of April 29, the team has inspected more than 115,000 meals that have been served to sailors in quarantine.

“Our soldiers are out there every day work-ing hard to keep others safe,” said Jones.

In addition to supporting the sailors in quar-antine, PHA-Guam soldiers are also working to ensure all food going to ships is safe for con-sumption.

“There are thousands of sailors on the ships,” said Jones. “So we are conducting pier side inspections of food deliveries before they go onto the ship.”

To keep soldiers and sailors safe, the team follows special procedures on the pier to limit contact and touching.

“To stop the spread of COVID-19, there is a clean and a dirty side of the pier,” explained Mitchell. “We are not allowed to go into the clean areas, so food deliveries are dropped off at a specific point. Navy personnel will open up all of the boxes and our food inspectors will ob-serve the contents to make sure they are safe.”

For PHA-Guam food safety soldiers, the CO-VID-19 response has truly been a team effort with Navy partners; as PHA-Guam soldiers embrace the Public Health Command-Pacific credo of “100/0!” which means 100 percent accountability and responsibility and zero ex-cuses for not giving our best every day.

“Everyone has a stake in mitigation efforts,” said Mitchell. “This is about working together as a team to keep service members safe and healthy, whether it is preventing foodborne ill-ness or preventing the spread of COVID-19. We are all in this together.”

Maj. (Dr.) Gadiel Alvarado

‘Making difference in the world’

A n Infectious Diseases physician from Brooke Army Medical Center recently deployed to Guam in support of the USS Theodore Roosevelt COVID-19 response.

Army Maj. (Dr.) Gadiel Alvarado served as the infectious disease expert for the COVID-19 Public Health Task Force from April 12-22. The team, consisting of five Army officers, was there to perform a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of processes, asses the current situation and help with mitigation plans surrounding the TR COVID-19 outbreak.

The ship arrived in Guam March 27 for a scheduled port visit. Prior to its arrival three sailors tested positive for CO-VID-19. The Navy has since undertaken an aggressive miti-gation plan of isolating, quarantining, and treating affected sailors to keep the ship prepared to execute its mission.

“This population of personnel in close quartered and close proximity living on the USS Theodore Roosevelt represented an increased risk population with high likelihood for COV-ID-19 infection transmission,” explained Alvarado.

The 10-day mission consisted of doing face-to-face inter-views, data gathering, on-site evaluations, discussions and recommendations to the Joint Regions Marinas leadership working closely with Rear Adm. John Menoni, Joint Regions Marinas commander and personnel from the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Navy Base Guam, U.S. Naval Hospital Guam to prevent further transmission of the virus.

“The proper public health decision making and management of personnel was critical to preventing death and dis-ease burden from COVID-19 affecting the sailor population and Guam civilian population,” Alvarado said.

Alvarado, a native of Puerto Rico, who completed his Infectious Diseases fellowship at BAMC, relied on his pre-vious training and lessons learned dur-ing BAMC’s initial preparation and re-sponse to COVID-19.

“I was heavily involved with the risk identification and testing procedure planning,” he said. “One of my main roles was helping with the tent screening process and I was also on the inpatient call team for COVID patients. I had already gone through the motions at BAMC, because we had community spread here (San Antonio).”

Alvarado credits his training, BAMC leadership and being part of COVID planning efforts early on for his success in this mission.

“It was a very efficient and elaborate operation,” Alvarado said. “We were a very cohesive team. We all had our own spe-cific skills and we were able to get the job done. It was amaz-ing.”

Army Col. Samuel Jang, Guam Public Health team lead, praised Alvarado for his efforts.

“Major Alvarado shared many nuances and in-depth in-sights into COVID-19 disease epidemiology and disease trans-mission,” Jang said. “His clinical insights were translated into strategic public health planning and operational decision making. He is a highly competent physician and leader.”

Army Lt. Col. Ronal Cole, public health nurse and task force member, agrees.

“His professionalism is to be commended and emulated,” Cole said. “His ability to function in a diverse team made our long days of interviews, data gathering, evaluations and dis-cussions stress-free. He is to be commended for his contri-butions in saving the lives of approximately 160,000 civilians and 20,000 military personnel during this time of worldwide distress.”

Although the praise of his fellow Public Health Task Force teammates means a great deal to Alvarado, the support from his wife, Maureen and 8-year-old son Aidan was invaluable.

“My wife was very supportive of this mission, but my son was very sad that I was going,” Alvarado said. “But he looked at me and said ‘daddy I’m very glad they picked you.’ When I asked him why, he said ‘because I know you can help them.’”

BY PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS MATTHEW HERBST,NAVY MEDICINE OPERATIONAL TRAINING CENTER

ne big fight. ne big team !

Spc. Regina Shillingburg, Public Health Activity-Guam veterinary food inspection specialist, conducts a food inspection of the meat department at Orote commissary and the Navy Exchange food court, Naval Base Guam.

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 20208 STRIPES GUAM A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

Stripes Guam is A Stars and Stripes Community Publication. This newspaper is authorized for publication by the Department of Defense for members of the military services overseas. However, the contents of Stripes Guam are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense or the U.S. Pacific Command. As a DOD newspaper, Stripes Guam may be distributed through official channels and use appropriated funds for distribution to remote and isolated locations where overseas DOD personnel are located. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement of those products by the Department of Defense or Stars and Stripes. Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.

COLONIA, YAP – On the far side of the world from its birthplace, a beer that is made in small batches on a remote Pacific is-land has won a Silver Medal in one of the most esteemed inter-national competitions of its kind.

Every year in Lyons, France, the capital of French gastrono-my, the Concurs International de Lyons Wine, Beer and Spir-its Competition showcases the world’s top libations to decide which are the best of the best.

This year, Manta Ray Bay Re-sort’s Stone Money Manta Gold, a European lager made from malted grain and European hops, was among them. Brewed by Swiss brew master Fredy Gull in the climate-controlled microbrewery located in a cor-ner of the hotel’s lobby, visitors from all over the world who come to dive among the resident population of manta rays end every day with a cold stein or two of the popular lager.

“We attract divers from all over the globe,” notes Bill Ack-er, Texas-bred founder of the award-winning resort. “Recent-ly, we had some German guests who took a few bottles of our beer home and entered it in the competition. We were thrilled to get the news that it had won this prestigious award! Our beer was compared to hundreds of entries from the best breweries in the world. Mere words fail!”

“The ingredients are triple filtered pure aquifer water, 2

Stone Money Brewing Com-pany was launched more than 20 years ago and is named for the unique, traditional curren-cy that is found throughout the 38½ square mile island. One of four island states in the Feder-ated States of Micronesia, Yap attracts visitors who are looking for a place to dive amid some of the ocean’s rarest creatures in a place that is environmentally pristine and off the beaten track.

In addition to Manta Gold, the brewery offers Hammerhead Amber, “our dark beer that’s also a true Lager but with more of an American West Coast fla-vor,” says Gull. “Some of our

customers order the Texas Two-Step,

half Manta Gold and half Ham-merhead Amber that’s named in honor of Bill.”

O p e r a t i n g since 1986, Manta Ray Bay

Resort & Yap Divers is a small,

family-owned, luxury hotel voted by readers of Diver Magazine UK as one of the top 25 dive resorts worldwide and the Reader’s Choice Award as #5 dive resort in the Pacific/Red Sea/Indian Ocean. Serving only 1,000 divers a year, the destina-tion offers crowd-free dive sites and VIP service, spa treatments, a unique bar and dining experi-ence onboard its 100+ year old Indonesian Schooner and, of course, its internationally rec-ognized home-brewed beer.

Row Moravian Malt, a small amount of Rice Flakes (used for coloring), Hallertau Mittelfrueh German Hops and Czech Saaz Hops imported from the Czech Republic,” explains Gull. “We ferment it for one week and keep it at a constant temperature of 15 degrees Centigrade and then cool it to 3° C and transfer it slowly to a maturation tank that is held at a constant tempera-ture of 6° C for a minimum of seven days. After maturation, the beer is transferred to pre-pressurized kegs and held at 6° C for up to four months.

“These temperatures are critical to maintain the natu-ral CO2 content of this fine Lager,” the Zurich native adds. “Manta Gold is natu-rally cloudy and takes a bit of time to dis-pense properly but our guests agree that the painstaking efforts used to brew this beer and the time that it takes to dis-pense properly, with just the right amount of head, is well worth it.”

The Lyon International Com-petition judges 70 categories of beer and, according to the event’s website, “meets strict organizational rules with stor-age conditions optimal, a clas-sification of beers that takes into account many criteria, a blind tasting, a control of the selected tasters and a rating grid.”

BY RUUD VAN BAAL,MANTA RAY BAY RESORT & YAP DIVERS

Yap’s Stone Money Brewing Co. lauded in international competition

The Hammer Head Amber Lager and the Manta Gold European Lager. Photo by Joyce McClure

The Mnuw, a 100+ year Indonesian

Schooner, serves as Manta Ray Bay

Resort & Yap Divers’ restaurant and bar.

STRIPES GUAM 9MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

INFORMATION PROVIDED BYGUAM BOONIE STOMPERS

Boonie Stomps Guam

Complete 10 Boonie Stomps

to earn a Boonie Stomp

T-Shirt!

Every Saturday, Guam Boonie Stompers offers public hikes to a variety of destinations such as beaches, snorkeling sites, waterfalls, mountains, caves, latte sites, and World War II sites. We meet at 9 a.m. in the Center Court of Chamorro Village in Hagatna. The cost is $5.00 for hikers over 17. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Hikers should provide their own transportation. Guam’s trails are not developed. Weather conditions can make the hikes more difficult than described. No reservations required. For more information:www.facebook.com/GuamBoonieStompersInc or call 787-4238.

Jun.13 Mt. Sasalaguan

Difficult4 hours for 3 miles

May 30 Ghost Cave

Difficult4 hours for 3 miles

Jun.6 Southeast Coast Hike

Very Difficult6 hours for 7 miles

We take the usual trail to San Carlos Falls and Lonfit Swim Hole, then continue upriver to explore Vermont, the U shaped wall, and Lonfit Falls, all while enjoying the beautiful pristine Lonfit River. Bring: 3 quarts water, get wet shoes, swimsuit, gloves, sunscreen, insect repellent, lunch, and camera.Special conditions: Going up and down steep slopes with rope assistance, extensive walking in water, rocky footing, slippery trail.

We traverse steep hills and follow a long ridge crest with nice views, then follow a jungle path down to the small tributary that leads to the Ghost Cave for swimming and exploring. Bring: 4 quarts water, hiking shoes, gloves, insect repellant, sunscreen, lunch and snacks, and camera.Special conditions:Lots of sword grass, a lot of climbing, a long steep exit, and a very long hike.

We hike from the black sand beach and Matala along the remote, beautiful, and rocky Asiga coastline, passing Nomna to reach Inarajan. There’ll be a few stops along the way to cool off in the water. Bring: 4 quarts water, hiking shoes that can get wet, swim suit, gloves, sun screen, sunglasses, lunch, and camera. Special conditions: Long stretches of walking in water, rough sharp rocks, no shade, and possible hazardous surf.

Southeast Coast

Stomp Tips:1) Alcohol and hiking do not mix. 2) Do not bring beverages with caffeine on hikes.3) Bring plenty of water with you on hikes. 4) When hiking, lots of little snacks are better than one big meal.5) Always carry a well stocked personal first aid kit.6) Carry a couple of extra shoelaces in your first aid kit. They have many uses.7) Always bring a small flashlight in case you get lost, or delayed. Save your phone battery for calls.8) Do not hike alone and let someone know where you are going and your return time.

PinkyI’m a baby girl of 7 weeks and I’m the ding dang cutest thang you have ever seen! I’m full of life and love and want to share both with you!

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 202010 STRIPES GUAM A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

S ix months ago, the global tourism industry was celebrating a record

year for travel. Now, it’s deci-mated and facing a recovery that could take years.

Tourism Economics, a data and consulting firm, predicts global travel demand won’t resume its normal pace until 2023.

When tourists do finally re-turn, they will face a changed landscape that incorporates so-cial distancing and other mea-sures to calm residual fears over COVID-19, the disease that has so far killed more than 258,000 people worldwide and infected millions more.

“It takes time to shake fear from the hearts of people, not to mention the economy,” said Mahmoud Hadhoud, founder

of Egypt Knight Tours, who doesn’t expect foreign tour-ists to start trickling back into Egypt until September.

Last week, Hilton, Marriott and Airbnb all announced en-hanced cleaning procedures worldwide to ease travelers’ minds. In Egypt, Hadhoud is removing cruises and hot air balloon rides from his packages and replacing them with tours of Egypt’s vast western deserts, where travelers can keep their distance from one another.

At Universal Studios in Or-lando, Fla., multiple teams are working on scenarios, includ-ing putting more space be-tween riders on roller coasters, said John Sprouls, the resort’s chief administrative officer, at a recent virtual event for tour-ism officials.

Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox said his company may sanitize dice between users, put fewer seats at blackjack tables and idle slot machines between players at its casinos in Las Ve-gas, Boston and Macau.

Gary Thulander, managing director of Chatham Bars Inn, a 106-year-old resort on Cape Cod, said the resort is planning many changes when it reopens this summer, including check-ing in guests via cellphones, letting them opt out of room service and lengthening dining hours so fewer guests will be eating at the same time.

The road to recovery will be long and hard for the tourism industry. The United Nations World Tourism Organization predicts global tourist arriv-als — or visits from tourists who come to their destinations and stay at least one night — will fall 30% this year from the record 1.5 billion in 2019. Airlines have grounded near-ly two-thirds of their planes as passengers vanish. Cruise ships are docked; some won’t sail again until November.

Millions of people who de-pend on tourism are laid off or furloughed. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 8 million tourism-related workers are jobless right now, or about one-third of total U.S. unem-ployment, said Roger Dow, the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of the International Air Trans-port Association, the leading

airline trade group, said car-riers need to fill at least 70% of seats to break even on most flights. If they’re required to block or remove many seats, they will either stop flying or raise prices 50%, he said.

That will delay recovery for places like Israel, which sees almost all of its tourists arrive by air. Diklah Cohen Shein-feld, chief of staff of the Israeli Tourism Ministry’s director general’s office, said the tour-ism industry — which employs 250,000 Israelis — was the first to be impacted and will likely be the last to recover.

“There are no tourists and no entry to the country for tourists. The gates are totally closed,” she said.

In some places, governments are stepping in to help the sec-tor. Serge Cachan, president of the Astotel hotel chain in Par-is, closed his 17 properties in March and expects to lose 70% of his business this year. But the French government will help the chain get through it, he said. The government is paying around 80% of furloughed hotel workers’ salaries.

Many destinations anticipate

travelers’ behavior will change in the virus’s wake. Pornthip Hirunkate, vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, thinks more people will come in small groups or seek personalized tours.

Ander Fuentes, who works as a tour guide in Spain’s Grana-da province, thinks travelers will shift away from crowded beaches to the quieter interior mountains.

“It could be an opportunity to develop a new kind of tour-ism, which is going to be good for Spain, because in the last 10 years, the tourism boom has been in quantity but not in quality,” Fuentes said. He hopes tourism there picks back up by mid-August.

But not everyone is comfort-able with reopening. Marco Michielli, who owns the 67-room San Marco Hotel in Bibi-one, a beach resort east of Ven-ice, Italy, said many hoteliers worry their businesses will be ruined if the virus spreads on their properties. Some would rather reopen next year than serve guests this summer with desk staff and bar-tenders wearing masks.

BY DEE-ANN DURBIN,THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Recovery expected to be slow for battered tourism industry

Women wearing masks as a precaution against the new coronavirus walk April 23 at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by Lee Jin-Man, AP

A sign advises people to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus at the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” sign amid a shutdown of casinos along the Las Vegas Strip. Photo by John Locher, AP

Stripes Sports TriviaSAY MY NAME! Where do I start? The fact that I’m a 5-time NBA champ is almost as interesting as my life off the court. After being selected near the end of the 2nd round of the 1986 NBA draft, I played for 5 teams and have lived quite the life. One that includes piercings, tattoos, acting, Madonna, wrestling, dresses and world politics. Who am I?

Dennis RodmanAnswer

STRIPES GUAM 11MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

“If we have rules ap-proved by the ministry, some hotel owners would be con-vinced to start to open. But if the hotel must look like a CO-VID ward, many will refuse to open to guests,” he said.

Others say they need reas-surance from science — not just tourist sites — before they travel.

Ema Barnes visited a dozen countries last year, including Serbia, Vietnam and Chile. This year, she had planned trips to Jordan and South Ko-rea.

But right now, Barnes is working remotely in a tiny town in her native New Zea-land. Airports near her are closed, so she’s not sure when she’ll get back to New York, where she works in publish-ing.

Barnes said she needs some peace of mind — a COVID-19 vaccine, or testing to make sure she isn’t a carrier — be-fore she resumes her travels.

“I don’t think my desire to travel and explore other places is worth my risking the health of people in those

places,” Barnes said.Others remain optimistic.

Dedy Sulistiyanto, the owner of a tour and adventure pro-vider in Bali, Indonesia, has been promoting his business on social media while it’s closed. He has received so many positive responses that he thinks tourism will resume quickly when restrictions are lifted. Most of his clients are domestic tourists from Indo-nesia.

“There are so many people out there very eager to do traveling,” Sulistiyanto said.

A motorcyclist drives past a poster reminding people to guard their health against the new coronavirus April 14 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Hau Dinh, AP

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 202012 STRIPES GUAM A STARS AND STRIPES COMMUNITY PUBLICATION 75 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC

STRIPES GUAM 1MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF 2020

Grad TabClass

of

2020

Guam High School

As we end the school year, part of the new graduating Class of 2020, we will look towards those who made us the people we are today and reflect on our

appreciation for each and every one of you. Thank you for helping us accomplish this milestone in our lives. Now, we are ready to being our next chapter as young adults tackling the real world.

With Much Appreciation, GHS Class of 2020

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020STRIPES GUAM 2 A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF 2020

Alfano, Dominic Anderson, Nevaeh

Apuron, Aaron Awa, Shaianne Rae Baggatta, Fabian Baldonado, Syrel

Bamba, Joshua Phillip Blyth, Alexis Bow, Anthony Caine, Taylor

Camacho, Lara Campos, Xyon

Carlisle, Jazmyn Castro, Ivan Castro, Izaak Cruz, Alanna

Cruz, Aniah Lynn Cruz, Zackary Joe

Cutler, Darion Dahilig, Karl Matthew

Datu, Kyle Gabriel Delasierra, Kaito

Delfin, Marc Di Amore, Angela

Ebler, John Fedenko, Ella Foster, Izaiah

Gaduang, Julius James Garcia, Ethan

Grochowski, Gavin Guerrero, Amber

Haas, Joshua Haas, Thomas Henry, Kayla

Henson, Josephine Hibbert, Gregory

Hobson, Makayla Ishmael, Tiara Marie

Jack, Matthew Jackson, Jayson

Joseph, McConaughey-Hart Keefe, Nicholas Logan, Virgilio Lynch, Letycia

Madaris, Raymond Makahi, Kaiah Marler, Chloe

Martinez, Marc Martinez, Mitzy

McAfee, Rosalyn Mendoza, Jyan

Middlebrooke, Audra Middlebrooke, Deborah

Moseley, Isaiah

Neuhaus, Zolynn Nicholson, Emily

Nuque, Patrick Tracy Olson, Laurel Page, Conor Page, Sean

Pereda, Kaleigh D’Vyne Peroy, Nathaniel

Pitts, Kyra Price, James

Quichocho, Ashton Celine Ramirez, Ruben Reyes, Victoria Riley, Abigail

Sambrano, Hannah San Nicolas, Sierra

Sanchez, Eller Shanne Schoenhals, Ashlee

Sheffield, Elizabeth

Shimasaki, Alexandra

Steinhagen, Abigail

Stiffler, Wyatt

Susuico, Zabrie Monet

Tainatongo, Noah

Tainatongo, Tano’Joseph

Taitague, Ryan Michael

Takai, Aliyah

Ulloa, Serenity

Vazquez, Andy

Villegas, Jalen

Walker, Teague

Washington, Justin

Webb, Shannon

Guam High School

Grad TabGrad Tab20202020

Grad TabGrad Tab20202020Grad TabGrad Tab20202020Congratulations

CongratulationsCongratulations

Congratulations!

A group of seniors serve looks for the Homecoming Dance.

Senior members of the Student Council.

CNA students get hands-on training at Saint Dominics Hospital.

Seniors particpate in the Powder Puff football game.

STRIPES GUAM 3MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020 A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF 2020

Hanna Sambrano, SGA president, MCs at a class event.

Senior members of the court slice the cake at the Military Ball.

Deborah prepares her materials for art class.

A group of seniors serve looks for the Homecoming Dance.

Heading to class.

Senior members of the Student Council.

CNA students get hands-on training at Saint Dominics Hospital.

The Class of 2020 gathers to mark the first day of their final

year of high school last year.

Xyon Campos, Joshua Haas and Eller Shane Sanchez register for the Selective Service.

Seniors particpate in the Powder Puff football game.

TO OUR TOP SUPPORTERS

On behalf of the Class of 2020, we would like to give our thanks to all who have supported us throughout our high school career and brought us to where we are now.

No words can describe how immensely grateful and appreciative we are of those who stuck by our side since our freshmen year.

We would first like to acknowledge our counselors. Thank you for leading us in the right direction since the very start. We appreciate all the times you’ve changed our schedules and for always checking up on us, making sure we got our college applications in. We especially loved getting your emails about scholarship opportunities. From the beginning of our freshman year, you’ve always provided us with the resources necessary to graduate. Thank you for all your hard work and effort you’ve put into making our future bright. We wouldn’t be where we are without you.

Secondly, we would like to thank our teachers. Thank you for providing us with guidance and knowledge. We’ve grown a special connection with each of our teachers that we will treasure forever. You’ve given us support when we struggled. You went out of your way to make sure we passed your class, allowing us to graduate on time. You’ve helped us build our confidence to tackle future challenges, which thankfully, prepared us for the next chapter in our lives.

Our most heart-felt “thank-you” is to the most special person, our class council advisor, Mrs. Roschelle Cruz or also known as “Auntie Schelle.” We would like to thank you for the tremendous amount of time and effort you’ve put into our class events/fundraisers. Our class will always remember easily spotting you in the crowded hallways with a big welcoming smile on your face, which always brightened up our hard days. You’ve provided us with an incredible amount of support and wisdom, treating us like your own kids. You aren’t just someone who does their job because they have to, but someone who is passionate about what they’re doing and cares for us. For that we appreciate you so much Auntie Schelle because we truly wouldn’t have made it without you.

We could never forget about our wonderful Principal, Mr. Sheedy and our Assistant Principal, Mr. Hughes. Mr. Sheedy had started his journey at Guam High the same year we became freshmen, instantly creating that tight-knit bond with our class. Although Mr. Hughes wasn’t with us for all four years, everyone can agree that the bond we have with him is just as strong. We would like to thank the both of you for always keeping us in check and guiding us in the right direction towards success. We thank you for allowing us to have fun-filled, memorable events and bondings. Even though you were hesitant about some of them, you both always kept in mind to create a fun and enjoyable environment at school.

Last, but certainly not least we would like to thank our parents and our families. Thank you for giving us a roof over our head and food at the table. For supporting us since the very beginning. You were there for our firsts, our first steps, our first days, our first heartbreak, our first games, etc. You’ve helped us find our passions and our strengths. You’ve seen us at our worst and were there to get us out of the hole we dug ourselves in. You truly are our number one supporters. Thank you for always having our back and for helping us through the tough times in life. You were there to celebrate our biggest accomplishments and were there to wipe our tears. Thank you for still giving us the same love and support, even when we did mess up at times. As we go into the next chapter of our life, we will still be coming back to you for support and advice. You’ve given us strength, courage and wisdom to go out into the real world and we love you with all our hearts.

Our class wouldn’t be here without the support of all these great people along with others that we weren’t able to mention. As we end the school year, part of the new graduating Class of 2020, we will look towards those who made us the people we are today and reflect on our appreciation for each and every one of you. Thank you for helping us accomplish this milestone in our lives. Now, we are ready to being our next chapter as young adults tackling the real world.

With Much Appreciation, GHS Class of 2020

The senior class shows spirit at the 2nd quarter pep rally.

MAY 29 − JUNE 11, 2020STRIPES GUAM 4 A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF 2020

Staff Sgt. Elysia Wilson,a production recruiter with the 168th Wing, helps enlist a new recruit using a video conference call April 16 at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. This virtual enlistment allowed a new recruit to complete the oath of enlistment while complying with COVID-19 safety regulations.

SHANNON CHACE

U.S. Air National Guard

Recruiting in the time of coronavirusDespite deep cuts into numbers, officials say changes likely to stay Page 2

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2020Volume 7, No. 8 ©SS 2020

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM Friday, May 29, 2020

BY COREY DICKSTEIN

Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Staff Sgt. Riley Krebsbach still makes the same recruit-ing pitch to sell young Americans on the U.S. Army despite the current coronavi-rus outbreak, but his delivery is drasti-cally different.

Face-to-face meetings with potential recruits have been replaced by long hours on a computer and smartphone — search-ing for and chatting with prospects in a safe digital environment. Instead of work-ing from his Moreno Valley recruiting sta-tion in southern California, visiting local high schools and canvassing community events to explain the benefits that come with Army service, Krebsbach now posts messages on social media and interviews prospects via video conferencing services from his home.

Because of social distancing, recruit-ers faced a sudden shift to telework and digital prospecting, which Krebsbach said was challenging. But it has led them to rethink the art of recruiting and find innovative ways to connect. The outbreak could have lasting impact on the way the military fills its ranks.

“The transition has been sort of an ac-quired skill set,” said Krebsbach, 31, who spent seven years in the infantry before shifting two years ago to a temporary recruiting assignment that he hopes to make permanent. “Getting used to work-ing from home — moving us into social media and virtual prospecting. It’s not something we were very big on before, but we jumped right into it.”

“I’m already sure it will be a big part of recruiting for our future,” he said.

On March 18, the Army made an unprecedented decision in U.S. military recruiting history. The largest service shut down public access to its 1,400 recruiting stations. Krebsbach and others were ordered to telework when possible and target potential recruits online and by phone.

The other services quickly followed. By March 25, when the Marine Corps

announced it would shift prospecting efforts entirely to the virtual sphere, the Pentagon’s recruiting force of more than 20,100 service members had ditched recruiting stations and offices.

The military cannot simply stop recruit-ing, even in the face of the world’s worst health crisis in decades. It must bring young, healthy men and women into the services — more than 150,000 every year — to fill its ranks as others leave for civil-ian life.

Falling behind on recruiting has serious ripple effects.

For example, when the Army failed to meet its annual recruiting goal in 2018 for the first time since 2005, it was unable to meet its end-strength goal. That slowed the Army’s ability to prepare for potential conflict with near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia. Top service officials found that the Army’s recruiting pro-cesses lagged decades behind in technol-ogy. Recruiters, Army leaders said, failed to target prized 17-to-24-year-olds where they were most likely to be found — shar-ing on social media and playing online video games.

The cost of coronaDespite the digital efforts, recruiting

has suffered. All four services reported drops in the metrics that track progress on the recruiting front. In some cases, services fell short by thousands of new

contacts with potential recruits. Oth-ers projected they would sign far fewer recruits to enlistment contracts amid the pandemic.

All of the services reported drastic declines in the number of recruits they sent into their initial entrance training pipelines.

The shift to full virtual recruiting cost Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, the Army’s recruiting chief, and his team nearly two weeks of prospecting efforts.

He said he expects to face a shortfall by the end of May of about 3,100 recruits with signed contracts. His recruiters en-tered the pandemic with more than 2,000 signed contracts ahead of the short-term goals set by the Army.

“Even if we’re behind 3,500, 3,800, I still think with all of the innovation we are doing and the morale of the recruiters right now and how much they want to get after it — I think we’ll be able to make it,” Muth said.

While the Army does not yet have a spe-cific recruiting goal for fiscal year 2020, Muth expects the number to fall just shy of the 68,000 that his organization exceed-ed last year. Service officials earlier this year floated an unofficial 69,000 recruit goal, but better-than-expected retention

rates among current soldiers have likely lowered expectations.

The other military services reported similar shortfalls in March as the pan-demic spread.

The Navy saw a 45% dip in qualified individuals expressing interest in March, compared to March 2019. The Navy’s recruiting chief, Rear Adm. Dennis Velez, attributed the sharp drop almost entirely to the impact of the coronavirus.

“March was probably the peak month for shock value — no one wants to go out-side, no one wants to do anything. I think that will probably be the high mark,” Velez said from his office in Millington, Tenn. “I thoroughly believe as the country opens up we’re going to see our numbers normalizing. But 45% is a significant number and something we are really looking at closely to make sure it doesn’t become a trend.”

Velez anticipates his recruiters’ produc-tion surging in the summer months and his service meeting its original goal of 40,800 new recruits.

The Marine Corps lowered its goal for fiscal year 2020 by 2,000 amid the pandemic, aiming to ship 33,290 to basic training, said Gunnery Sgt. Justin Kronenberg, a spokesman for Marine

Recruiting Command. The service saw a drop of about 25%

in contacts with qualified individuals in March over the same month last year.

Kronenberg described the pandemic’s impacts on his service’s recruiting efforts as “dramatic.”

“Our systematic recruiting process has always placed a premium on ‘kneecap to kneecap’ interaction between a recruiter and applicant, so it may be challenging to replicate this physical assessment of those wanting to become Marines solely through tech mediums.”

Air Force officials expressed similar reservations as they saw drops in recruit-ing metrics in March that continued into April. But despite those drops, the Air Force reported its recruiters so far in 2020 have outpaced their performance in 2019, producing 50,000 more qualified leads between January and April 2020 than in the first four months combined in 2019.

Based on that early success, service of-ficials waived individual goals for its more than 1,800 recruiters. The overall goal remains — to ship 29,068 recruits to basic training, according to Chrissy Cuttita, a spokeswoman for Air Force Recruiting Service.

‘I knew we were ready’Amid the outbreak, the services have

streamlined once-clunky procedures to screen and process prospective recruits, developed innovative tactics to target those prospects, and proven that recruit-ing can be done without stations and offices.

SEE PAGE 3

NIKITA CUSTER/U.S. Navy

Staff assigned to Recruit Training Command process recruits as part of a preliminary health screening at Chicago O’Hare Airport in Chicago on April 21.

COVER STORY

Recruiting goes digital during pandemic

‘ It shows we really can almost get you ready to go to a [Military Entrance Processing Station] before we ever see you in person. I don’t think we’d ever considered that before. ’

Tech. Sgt. Joshua StanleyAir Force recruiter

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 3

FROM PAGE 2

“I think what we’ve realized is that for a lot of the basic stuff, we can do it working from home,” said Tech. Sgt. Joshua Stanley, an Air Force recruiter based in Dover, Del. “It shows we really can almost get you ready to go to a [Military Entrance Processing Station] before we ever see you in person. I don’t think we’d ever considered that before.”

Krebsbach said he looks for-ward to returning to high schools and large events, but he’ll con-tinue to post daily workout videos and memes to Instagram and Facebook. He will keep targeting prospects through applications popular with younger people, like Snapchat, where he recently used a video feature to interview a potential recruit.

“I think it’s actually a little easier to ask questions over the digital plane than face-to-face in person for some people,” he said. “It can be intimidating sit-ting down in the office talking to someone in an Army uniform.”

Muth, who heads the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky., was confident his recruiters could handle the chal-lenge of virtual prospecting. His decision to shutter stations from the general public was about pro-tecting his own people, he said.

“We saw where this thing was going, so we came out of the stations,” he said. “We wanted to reduce the risk to our soldiers and their family members.”

Muth, a helicopter pilot by trade, led Army recruiting into a digital-first effort that he believes has positioned his

enterprise well to weather the pandemic.

“I knew we were ready to do this,” Muth told Stars and Stripes. “Who would have thought that we would have had to exercise this at 100 %?”

A new normalMilitary leaders are already

studying lessons learned from the sudden, drastic change to their recruiting model.

It could result in the reorga-nization of recruiting teams, drastic shifts toward virtual prospecting and other major changes to the business.

Muth, who recently allowed a select few recruiting stations to reopen to the public in areas

deemed at less risk for the virus, is developing plans to change daily operations for his Army recruiting force. The general does not want to see recruiters return to spending large portions of their time in stations.

Instead, he wants recruiters there only for specific purposes, using offices as hubs between outings within their communities or time spent virtually prospect-ing from home. He likened them to patrol bases, small military outposts where troops stop for water, food or supplies.

He called it a “new version of the old norm.”

“I don’t need to be in the recruiting station to be able to recruit,” Muth said. “Does that mean that maybe they come into

the patrol base every other day? And on those other days they are on their own — be it Starbucks or the high school or telecommuting from home.”

The Army could close some of its smaller stations as its recruit-ers base themselves out of their vehicles, similar to the model used by many pharmaceutical representatives.

“I think it opens up a lot of possibilities for the future,” Muth said.

Officials with other services could again follow the Army’s ex-ample. The Navy has empowered its recruiters to do much of their business away from stations, said Velez, the service’s recruiting chief.

“A recruiter right now has

pretty much everything they need on a laptop,” he said.

After the initial adjustment period in mid-March, Krebsbach said he pitched the Army to more people in the past month via social media than ever.

Master Sgt. Dana Bazile, an Air Force recruiting flight chief based in Pennsylvania, said she has seen innovation across the large group of recruiters she oversees.

“This is great opportunity to evaluate how we function on a day-to-day basis and eliminate wasted man hours,” she said. “The ways that our recruiters are now using technology, social media — that will continue to increase greatly from what we were doing before. We’re not going back, in that nature.”

The bottom line, Velez said, the Navy — and the entire U.S. military — is open for business and needs new, dedicated people to fill its ranks. Recruiting is a no-fail mission, he said.

“[Recruiters] understand how critical it is for us to get new sail-ors and recruits into the Navy,” he said. “Because at the end of the day we have 90 plus ships at sea today — over one-third of our force is underway doing the nation’s business, and … if we fail at doing our part, some kid is going to stay at sea longer because we can’t get the right sailors through the schoolhouse to relieve him so he can get to shore duty and take a knee.”

dickstein.corey@stripes.com|Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

Friday, May 29, 2020

BROOKE C. WOODS/U.S. Marine Corps

New recruits with Echo Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, respond to orders during receiving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, on May 4 .

MILITARY

BY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

Veterans who served on Guam between 1962 and 1975 were likely exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides contain-ing dioxins and may have valid claims to service-related dis-abilities as a result, according to a recent report by the National Veterans Legal Services Pro-gram and the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School

The veterans meet the legal standard for exposure, said the review of government, private, archival and oral history evi-dence of herbicide use on Guam during the Vietnam era.

Past claims based on service on the island have been rejected by the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Bart Stichman, ex-ecutive director of the National Veterans Legal Services Pro-gram, in a statement issued with the report on May 11.

The standard of proof is whether it is “as likely as not” that veterans were exposed to

herbicide agents, according to the report.

“It is time that the VA ac-knowledges the strong evidence of toxic herbicide exposure in Guam and care for veterans exposed,” Stichman said in the statement.

The VA believes Agent Or-ange causes several cancers, including leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and others, according to its website. The department also recognizes the herbicide as a cause in some cases of diabetes and diseases of the nervous system, skin and heart.

Guam served as a major base for U.S. air power during the Vietnam War. At the height of bombing operations during Vietnam, three-quarters of all U.S. B-52 aircraft available for operations in Southeast Asia were based on the island.

The rapid U.S. airpower buildup on Guam created a pressing need to control fire risks and tropical growth with heavy herbicide usage, according

to the researchers.“Service members have said

for years that they sprayed Agent Orange and other toxic herbi-cides all across Guam,” Brian Moyer, a Marine veteran who served there from 1974-76 and leads the group Agent Orange Survivors of Guam, said in the statement.

“So many of us were exposed and, sadly, many have already passed away with no recognition from the VA,” he said.

Like many whose Agent Orange claims were dismissed in the 1970s and 1980s, Guam veterans have been fighting for recognition of their in-ser-vice disabilities, John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans for America, said in the statement.

“Guam veterans now have an overwhelming case that will require the VA to finally recog-nize these meritorious claims,” he said.

The report — titled “NVLSP And VLSC White Paper Con-firming That Veterans Who Served in Guam from 1962-1975

Were Likely Exposed to Dioxin-Containing Herbicide Agents Including Agent Orange — is available online at www.nvlsp.org/images/uploads/2020.05.08_-_NVLSP-VLSC_White_Paper.pdf

The VA disputed the report’s findings in an email to Stars and Stripes on May 19.

“There is no evidence agent orange was ever used on Guam,” wrote VA press secretary Chris-tina Noel.

She said the report’s authors failed to consider a 2018 Gov-ernment Accountability Office report and a recent Department

of Defense review on the subject. “GAO reviewed DoD docu-

ments, other government re-cords, and interviewed Veterans alleging Agent Orange exposure and concluded that there was no evidence of Agent Orange or other tactical herbicides, such as Agents White or Blue, on Guam,” she said.

Investigators found extensive use of approved commercial her-bicides on Guam but no evidence of Agent Orange or other tactical herbicides, Noel said.

robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1

Report says Guam tours exposed to Agent Orange

Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Army Huey helicopter sprays Agent Orange herbicide and defoliant in this undated photo from the Vietnam War.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 4 F3HIJKLM Friday, May 29, 2020

BY KIM GAMEL

Stars and Stripes

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — With the coronavirus pandemic still going strong, the U.S. military is gearing up to quarantine a surge of troops and other personnel expected to arrive for new assignments this summer.

The Pentagon has banned most military moves through at least June 30 to curtail the spread of the virus, although high-priority troops and other personnel have been allowed to travel under an exception to policy.

So far, the need for quaran-tine space has been limited to those arrivals, people who may have had contact with infected patients and anybody showing symptoms and waiting for test results.

However, U.S. Forces Korea is preparing for a summertime influx to the peninsula after the ban is lifted, opening the flood-gates for regularly scheduled arrivals and a backlog of people who have been in a holding pattern.

Officials have had a lot of prac-tice since South Korea for weeks suffered the largest outbreak outside of China before the virus spread globally.

All travelers to South Korea, including those affiliated with USFK, must be tested and quar-antined for 14 days upon arrival.

The Army quarantine system has evolved since the end of January when a few dozen troops who had been to mainland China holed up in a barracks with heating problems to the current iteration equipped with Wi-Fi.

“It’s a team-based effort,” said Lt. Col. Martyn Crighton, a spokesman for the 2nd Infantry Division. “At the beginning of this we had bumps and lumps and bruises, but it took us a few weeks and everything was sorted out and it was pretty streamlined.”

What to expect The Army has the capacity to

quarantine 900 people at a time on Camp Humphreys, the main U.S. military base south of Seoul; Camp Casey to the north of the capital; and Army Garrison Daegu in the south, officials said.

The Air Force also runs quarantine facilities at Osan Air Base.

Stars and Stripes took a tour recently of one of the main Army buildings on Camp Humphreys — a newly constructed, nine-story barracks that was quickly repurposed as a quarantine center for about 300 people.

Occupants enter through one side of the building and exit through the other to avoid cross-contamination.

Newcomers are provided with linens, a trash bag, snacks, bottles of water, toilet paper, dis-infectant wipes, hand soap and paper towels.

Hot meals are served three times per day from the military

dining facility, and snacks are available. Food can also be or-dered for delivery from on-base restaurants, and units may bring care packages.

Travelers should pack tow-els and toiletries, medication, clothes and other necessities for two weeks.

However, the post exchange and the commissary recently began delivering to the quaran-tine facilities, officials said.

“It’s super helpful for people coming on-pen who maybe didn’t bring a shower towel or some-thing like that, or need more socks,” said 2nd Lt. Hannah Shiflet of the 630th Clearance Company, 12th Engineers Bri-gade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Each suite has two rooms equipped with twin beds and other basic furniture as well as a shared kitchenette and bathroom.

People being quarantined may use laundry rooms in buildings that have them, while Army quartermaster units have begun providing laundry capabilities to those that do not, Crighton said.

Unaccompanied service members sharing a suite must take turns entering the common areas, although families may mingle.

Counselors and chaplains also are allowed to make in-person visits for behavioral health needs

while wearing protective gear. Occupants also may be escorted outside in a carefully controlled process, Shiflet said, adding that staff is available around the clock if occupants need anything.

Pets may stay with their own-ers for the time being and will have opportunities to be taken outside, said Sgt. 1st Class Alex-ander Pagel, also with the 630th Clearance Company.

“We’re working on getting the pet situation figured out,” he said. “We’re also working on get-ting cribs for any infants.”

Learning firsthandShiflet’s platoon began doing

security at the initial quarantine facility in building 577 in late February and has helped develop the system that exists today.

“We’ve gotten a lot of expe-riencing in opening up new buildings,” she said. “It’s defi-nitely been improving weekly. We make improvements all the time.”

Shiflet learned firsthand about being quarantined when she was placed in her own facility last month after being spotted on closed-circuit TV in the same store as a confirmed case during the trace investigation into their whereabouts.

“I was just picking up some-thing real quick before heading over to my shift and I happened

to come in contact with some-one who later tested positive for COVID-19 in the shoppette,” she said. “It was really actually very beneficial. I got to see the whole process that the occupants go through.”

Shiflet changed some rules after the experience, including allowing occupants to place their trash out for removal at any time instead of waiting for the bag to be full.

“You’re stuck in this room and it gets smelly,” she said.

Her advice for newcomers is to stick to a schedule. Shiflet said she made her bed every day after waking up, got a lot of work done and caught up with family.

She even managed to run six miles around the room. Less ambitious occupants get a list of workout tips and may borrow weights and other equipment that is sterilized after each use.

Shiflet said one hard rule is that occupants must stay in their rooms or face the possibility of having to start over.

“Typically, when I tell them that they stay in their room,” she said.

Work in progressThe military is working on

resolving other issues to accom-modate newcomers, including a plan to enable people to start the paperwork and other require-

ments to join their unit while in quarantine.

“We will experience a large changeover. It’ll be mostly people coming from off-pen,” Crighton said. “In-processing is a work in progress, but there’s absolutely an effort to make as much of that as possible virtual.”

Officials declined to provide numbers due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus and the stop-move order.

Some 28,500 service members are stationed in South Korea.

Most troops arrive at Osan Air Base on the government-char-tered Patriot Express flight and will be taken to quarantine facili-ties from there.

USFK and the South Korean government also have agreed that any U.S. military-affiliated individual who lands at Incheon Airport will be taken to Camp Humphreys or Osan Air Base for testing and quarantine.

Some contractors and civilian employees, however, may have to use government-designated facilities depending on availabil-ity, said USFK spokesman Col. Lee Peters.

“The on-base facilities are being prioritized for service members and their families,” he said.

“USFK service components are currently analyzing data now to make an informed decision for the number of expected USFK-affiliated personnel who will arrive and depart this summer,” he added. “As of now, we are assessing contractors will have to quarantine off-base, but this is still under review.”gamel.kim@stripes.comTwitter: @kimgamel

Surge of S. Korea arrivals set for quarantine

MATTHEW KEELER/Stars and Stripes

Newcomers must spend two weeks in rooms similar to this model room inside the isolation facility at Camp Humphreys, South Korea.

MILITARY

‘ I happened to come in contact with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19 … It was really actually very beneficial. I got to see the whole process that the occupants go through. ’

2nd Lt. Hannah Shiflet

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 5Friday, May 29, 2020

BY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — C-130J Super Hercules tacti-cal airlifters and CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotors were part of a rapid mass launch of aircraft May 21 from the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

The Samurai Surge drill, which last took place in 2018, involved nine of the 374th Airlift Wing’s 14 Super Hercules and two of five Ospreys stationed at Yokota, as well four UH-1 Huey helicopters and three C-12 transports.

“It’s a demonstration to the Japanese government and the Indo-Pacific Command that we are still ready to do a full contingency or humanitarian response despite COVID-19 and poor weather,” the wing’s vice commander, Col. Jason Mills, said shortly before the aircraft launched under gr ay skies with light rain falling.

Flying so many Super Hercu-les at one time required coordi-nation between the 353rd Special Operations Group out of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and Yokota’s 374th Operations Group, he said.

The surge was supposed to involve the first formation or “inter-fly” operation between the two aircraft types since the Osprey arrived at Yokota in Oc-tober 2018, Mills said. The Super Hercules debuted at the base in March 2017.

The plan was for the aircraft to fly in formation over Tokyo Bay, but clouds and rain meant that they stayed closer to home and plans for tactical air-drop train-ing over the base were canceled, according to officials.

The surge focused on the wing’s operations and mainte-nance groups with support from the combat mobility flight and the logistics readiness squadron refueling aircraft and transport-ing crews. Medical and wing staff were also involved, making sure 60 or so fliers and hundreds of maintainers were medically ready to do their jobs, Mills said.

“To see everything up in the air at the same time was a big deal,” said Master Sgt. David Arnold, 31, a C-130 production superintendent with the 374th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

The maintainers were respon-sible for making sure that the aircraft were ready to fly and re-

sponding to last-minute mechani-cal issues. A crew spent about 30 minutes fixing a glitch in one plane’s de-icing system before it could take off, he said.

The only time that Arnold had seen so many aircraft take off was during a typhoon evacua-tion, which was staggered rather than all at once, he said.

Rapidly launching so many aircraft required planning and

coordination that started a week-and-a-half ago. Such an opera-tion probably wouldn’t happen even during a war or disaster, Mills said.

“It would be rare to launch all the aircraft at once,” he said.

A mass launch would, however, happen if Yokota was attacked by enemy missiles, he said. It’s something that defense experts have warned of, citing Chinese

and North Korean threats.“In that situation, they would

all fly off in rapid succession,” Mills said of the wing’s aircraft. “We would send them to loca-tions in the Pacific and reestab-lish a capability to support the contingency mission and our allies in the Pacific.”

robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1

Air Force planes fly over Tokyo during Samurai Surge drill

THERON GODBOLD/Stars and Stripes

A CV-22 Osprey taxis during an elephant walk at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on May 21.

MILITARY

BY CAITLIN DOORNBOS

Stars and Stripes

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Typically known for frequent port vis-its, the 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge broke its 48-year-old record of consecu-tive days underway by remaining at sea to avoid the coronavirus, the Navy said in a statement .

After a record-breaking 72 days, the ship arrived in Okinawa for a limited port visit May 24, according to the Blue Ridge’s Facebook page.

The amphibious command ship’s previ-ous record was 64 days, which was set during the Vietnam War. The Blue Ridge is the Navy’s oldest operational warship and has been in service for nearly 50 years.

“These times are uniquely challeng-ing for the entire world, but it takes an extremely dedicated crew to maintain this old of a ship at sea for this long,” Blue Ridge commander Capt. Craig Sicola said in the statement.

The 223-year-old USS Constitution is the Navy’s oldest ship, but it does not deploy.

Meanwhile, the Yokosuka-based aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan of-ficially began its Indo-Pacific deployment last week. Its crew completed phased sequestrations before embarking the ship to mitigate the chance of bringing corona-virus-positive sailors on board, the Navy

said in a separate statement .“The [restriction-of-movement] period

allowed fleet leadership the ability to monitor the health of the force in a con-trolled facility and build a safe environ-ment for sailors to accomplish assigned missions at sea,” the statement said.

More than 1,000 tons of ordnance, 5,000 crewmembers and more than 60 aircraft were moved aboard the carrier for the deployment, the Navy said.

Like the Blue Ridge, the Reagan is un-

likely to make port visits so soon after the virus sidelined the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt for nearly two months this spring, according to an April 22 re-port in The New York Times. An outbreak among a few Roosevelt sailors in March led to over 1,150 of their shipmates testing positive for the coronavirus.

The Roosevelt returned to sea May 21 with a reduced crew.

As the 7th Fleet’s flagship, the Blue Ridge typically makes more port visits

than other ships in the fleet. It visited 11 ports in nine Indo-Pacific nations during its 114-day deployment last spring.

During that deployment, the Blue Ridge hosted more than 30 foreign leaders and brought foreign navy representatives on board for professional exchanges, the Navy said when the ship returned to Yoko-suka last May.

This year, however, the crew had to tweak its plans as the coronavirus — first reported in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31 — grew from a regional outbreak into a global pandemic as the ship was out to sea.

The Blue Ridge’s deployment this year began normally enough. After leaving Yokosuka in January, the crew made stops in Japan, South Korea and Thailand in its first month underway before port visits were canceled in response to the virus’s spread.

Sicola said that while the pandemic cast a shadow on the patrol, the crew “has been amazing.”

“I realize every day how tough it has been, especially for some who have lost loved ones or who have families that have endured challenging events during this pandemic,” he said in the statement. “Even through all that, their heads are high and they have taken great pride in Blue Ridge’s historic underway during her 50th year of service.”doornbos.caitlin@stripes.comTwitter: @CaitlinDoornbos

USS Blue Ridge breaks its days-at-sea record

AKIFUMI ISHIKAWA/Stars and Stripes

The USS Blue Ridge steams near Zushi Beach, Japan, on April 23.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 6 F3HIJKLM Friday, May 29, 2020

BY CHAD GARLAND

Stars and Stripes

Tapping into a beer rating app allowed researchers to track military and intel-ligence personnel, including some who checked in at a military base that hosts a CIA training facility known as “the farm.”

Users of Untappd, a smartphone app for beer lovers, also posted photos that showed debit cards, military ID cards, locations of fighter jets and possibly sensi-tive military documents, the open-source research and investigative journalism group Bellingcat reported .

The app encourages users to log what they’re drinking and where, and lets them rate their favorite sudsy drinks and discover new ones. Using their phone’s geolocation, they can check in to drinking establishments or discover other nearby bars and restaurants.

But with some creativity and “a little bit of digging,” those interested in snooping can use those same features to discover military posts and other sensitive sites, as well as the people who frequent them.

“Examples of users that can be tracked this way include a U.S. drone pilot, along with a list of both domestic and overseas military bases he has visited, a naval officer, who checked in at the beach next to [Guantanamo Bay’s] detention center as well as several times at the Pentagon, and a senior intelligence officer with over seven thousand check-ins, domestic and abroad,” wrote Foeke Postma, a Belling-cat researcher and trainer who authored the report. “Cross-referencing these check-ins with other social media makes it easy to find these individuals’ homes.”

Untappd shows nearly 600 unique visi-tors on its Ramstein Air Base page who

have rated more than 2,600 beers — not including other establishments on base that have their own pages.

One user highlighted in the report checked in at the Duck and Cover bar at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the NATO coalition’s military headquarters in the Afghan capital.

Another user checked in three times at Camp Peary, the CIA’s covert training

facility in Williamsburg, Va. The user posted photos showing features of the base that could be matched to a satellite image for geolocation.

The Defense Department provides broad social media guidance to its per-sonnel but does not generally focus it on specific platforms or applications, said Lt. Col. Uriah Orland, a Pentagon spokesman.

“Social media platforms pose numer-

ous threats to DoD personnel due to the collection and aggregation of location and personal information, in addition to in-formation posted by social media users,” Orland said via email.

Bellingcat found in earlier research that military users were unwittingly sharing potentially sensitive location data through fitness apps, leading the Pentagon to re-strict their use in operational areas.

“Untappd differs in three crucial ways,” Postma wrote. “It has decent privacy settings, as profiles can be set to ‘private’ easily. Users have to consciously select lo-cations they check in to. Most importantly, private residences are not registered un-less a user has added their own home.”

The fitness app report was not pub-lished until the company that operates the app had made the data inaccessible and changed its privacy standards, Postma wrote. With the beer app, the “onus is on the user” to protect their data, he wrote.

But, as might be expected with an app built around alcohol consumption, users may not be exercising their best judgment while posting, the research found.

Photos posted on Untappd “tend to focus a bit more on tables or desks where users place the bottle, and … might be taken by slightly inebriated users a bit more often,” Postma wrote.

Some uploaded photos showed a debit card with its numbers visible, plane tick-ets and military hardware.

At least one showed “documents on military matters, clearly not meant for public consumption,” Postma wrote. They were published in the report but covered with red boxes and the words “YIKES” and “Don’t upload this stuff.”garland.chad@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

Beer rating app could pose security threat

GARRETT L. DIPUMA/U.S. Army National Guard

A bottle of Red River Brewing Company’s Fear the Dark sits on the brewery bar in Shreveport, La.

BY JAMES BOLINGER

Stars and Stripes

Marine dining facilities across Okinawa are adding the Impos-sible Burger, a plant-based al-ternative to ground beef, to their food lines.

Marines and sailors taste-test-ed the burger May 13 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Gunnery Sgt. Maurice Toole, the subsistence chief for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, told Stars and Stripes. He said the Impossible Burger will be just one of the plant-based items the Marine Corps plans to roll out in its dining facilities on Okinawa this fall.

“We like to get as much input as we can from Marines: What new things do they want to see, and what things they want to get rid of?” Toole said. “Lots of Ma-rines are asking to eat healthier. And we are looking to have plant-based items represented in every area we serve — the mainline, specialty items and the snack or ‘fast-food’ line.”

Toole said his team initially wanted to add a black-bean or other vegetarian burger to the

snack line but changed its mind after the vendor offered the Im-possible Burger, which had a sat-isfying texture and appearance.

“It was a great burger,” said Lance Cpl. Alexander Skelton, an air support operations officer with 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, in a Marine Corps press release May 13. “It’s nice to see the [mess hall] committed to giving more choices to Marines with different diets and beliefs.”

The taste test was sprung on patrons out of the blue to avoid preconceived notions about plant-based meat, Toole said. It was added to the mainline, where traditional entrees are offered, and servers asked the Marines to try it.

“We wanted to shock the audi-ence,” he said. “We knew if we caught everyone off guard, that we would get better real-time re-actions. Even some of the people who were not interested initially tried it and liked it.”

A menu review board last year identified Marines’ desire for meatless protein options.

Impossible Burger, made of soy and potato protein, was approved by the Corps’ lead

dietician, who must review all new menu items before they are pushed out to troops, Toole said. The dietician will also review all the plant-based options that will be made available to Okinawa Marines in the future.

Toole’s team will introduce the burger to the snack line first as part of the Marine Corps Fuel-to-Fight initiative. The service wants Marines to see a trip to the mess hall as a way to refuel their bodies and get healthier.

The Impossible Burger and

other plant-based meat alterna-tives are popular at stateside res-taurants and have slowly made their way to troops overseas. The dining facilities on Okinawa are the first in Japan to offer the item to troops on base.

For now, it will only be avail-able at Marine Corps facilities on Okinawa, but other Marine facili-ties on Hawaii and elsewhere in Japan can offer the item if they choose, Toole said.

Most base residents overseas who don’t eat at dining facilities

will have to wait a while longer for meatless options on restau-rant menus.

Burger King’s popular Impos-sible Whopper, Qdoba’s meatless burritos and Dunkin’s meat-free breakfast sausage are sold on many Army, Air Force and Navy bases in the United States, AAFES officials have said. Wahl-burgers on Ramstein Air Base in Germany offers the Beyond plant-based burger as well.bolinger.james@stripes.comTwitter: @bolingerj2004

Impossible Burger coming to Marine menus on Okinawa

PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MADERO/U.S. Marine Corps

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Obaid Halim, an aviation ordnance system technician for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, tries an Impossible Burger at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan, on May 13. .

MILITARY

A sign advertises the meatless Impossible Burger .

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 7Friday, May 29, 2020

BY WYATT OLSON

Stars and Stripes

The sunken hulk of the USS Nevada was found off the coast of Hawaii, where the battleship — dubbed “unsinkable” for its endurance through World War II — lay since 1948.

Two private firms working together, Search Inc. and Ocean Infinity, discovered the Nevada almost three miles underwater and about 65 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, the firms said in a statement . Search Inc., a cultural resource management firm, specializes in archaeol-ogy; Ocean Infinity surveys the seabed with marine robotics, according to their websites.

The Nevada’s lifespan was exceptional, given the troubled waters in which it sailed. It stayed afloat through two world wars and two nuclear-bomb tests.

“Nevada is an iconic ship that speaks to American resil-ience and stubbornness,” James Delgado, the lead maritime archaeologist on the mission, said in the statement. “Rising from its watery grave after being sunk at Pearl Harbor, it survived torpedoes, bombs, shells and two atomic blasts. The physical reality of the ship, resting in the darkness of the great museum of the sea, reminds us not only of past events, but of those who took up the challenge of defending the United States in two global wars.”

Photos and video of the excur-sion show portions of the ship, such as an anti-aircraft gun and hatch for a 5-inch gun room, still intact. Portions of the hull num-ber are visible, as are inscrip-tions in the steel, all preserved because of the lack of light and oxygen at the extreme depth.

The Nevada was commis-sioned in 1916 and headed to Great Britain during World War I, according to an account posted online by the Naval History and Heritage Command.

It spent the interwar years cruising everywhere from the Caribbean to Australia. In the late 1920s, the ship was modern-

ized, including installation of new anti-aircraft guns and other beefed-up firepower.

After operating in the Pacific for most of the 1930s, the Nevada was moored at Pearl Harbor, Ha-waii, when the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet on Oahu on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

The attacking aircraft concen-trated on Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, sinking or crippling most of the ships, which had been moored closely together.

The Nevada took one torpedo and several bomb hits during the first of two attack waves. Moored at the end of Battleship Row, the Nevada took advantage of the lull after the first wave to get underway. But it had not made it to sea before the second wave of aircraft descended on the harbor, striking the ship with a half-dozen bombs.

The crew was forced to beach the sinking ship at the head of the channel.

After frenzied temporary repairs, the Nevada sailed on its own power to the U.S. West Coast in April 1942, where it spent the next year being repaired and overhauled.

It returned to combat during the Battle of Attu in the Aleutian Island in May 1943 and was then transferred to the Atlantic for the D-Day invasion in June 1944. It sailed back to the Pacific and became part of the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions in 1945. In the latter battle, the ship was hit by a

kamikaze plane and an artillery shell.

It was preparing to be part of the invasion force on the Japanese mainland when the war ended in September 1945.

With the end of World War II, the Navy deemed the three-de-cade old battleship too ancient for the fleet.

Its final job was to serve as a target during two atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands in 1946 — though even that dirty work left the ship only badly damaged and radioactive, not sunk.

The ship was decommis-

sioned in August 1946, and two years later it was towed to sea off the Hawaiian islands and used for target practice for other Navy ships. Even that four-day pummeling didn’t sink the battle-scarred ship. It was finally scuttled by an aerial torpedo.

Although the Navy was aware of the vicinity of the ship’s sink-ing, its exact resting spot was unknown until now.

The search for the USS Nevada

was conducted aboard Ocean Infinity’s Pacific Constructor vessel, which had set sail for a range of tasks in early 2020, well before the coronavirus had morphed into a pandemic.

“As a result of the global health crisis, the ship has remained at sea on a range of taskings,” Ocean Infinity said in the statement.

olson.wyatt@stripes.comTwitter: @WyattWOlson

Searchers find wreck of WWII battleship Nevada

U.S. Navy

The USS Nevada underway near the U.S. Atlantic coast in 1944.

Ocean Infinity/Search Inc.

A hatch leading into a shell-handling compartment for one of the USS Nevada’s 5-inch guns

‘ Rising from its watery grave after being sunk at Pearl Harbor, it survived torpedoes, bombs, shells and two atomic blasts. ’

James Delgadolead maritime archaeologist on the

mission

Ocean Infinity/Search Inc.

Top of the USS Nevada’s foremast, which would have towered more than 100 feet above the sunken battleship’s deck

Max D. Lederer Jr., PublisherTerry Leonard, Editor

Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing EditorTina Croley, Managing Editor for Content

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• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 8 F3HIJKLM Friday, May 29, 2020