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Page 2 | THE RED 7 | Friday, February 27, 2015

Soldiers assault mock outpost

Year No. 5 edition No. 9

The Red 7 is published by the Northwest Florida Daily News, a pri-vate firm in no way connected with the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) or the U.S. Army.

This publication’s content is not necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, the U.S. govern-ment, the Department of Defense, the Depart-ment of the Army or 7th Special Forc-es Group (Airborne). The official news source for 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) is http://www.soc.mil/.

The appearance of advertising in this publication does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. govern-ment, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) or the Northwest Florida Daily News for products or services advertised. Ev-erything advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national ori-gin, age, marital status, physical handi-cap, political affiliation or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user or patron. Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the North-west Florida Daily News.

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Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

A Green Beret assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) observes activ-ity at a compound during a training mission held Feb. 20 on Eglin Air Force Base. The mission required a team of Special Forces Soldiers to assault a mock drug-cartel out-post and document sensitive materials found inside.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

Green Berets assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) engage enemy targets during a training mission.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

A Green Beret assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) clears along a compound wall during a training mission.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

A Green Beret assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) uses a power saw to cut through locks securing a door during a training mission.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

Green Berets assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) clear rooms inside a compound during a train-ing mission.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

A Green Beret assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) applies a tourniquet on the arm of a simulated casualty during a training mission.

above, a Green Beret as-signed to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) records a 9 Line Medical Evacuation Request for a simulated casualty. at left, a soldier assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) photographs materials discovered while searching a compound.

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

Capt. thomas Cieslak | U.S. Army

A Green Beret assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) looks at documents discovered while searching a compound.

Page 4 | THE RED 7 | Friday, February 27, 2015 Friday, February 27, 2015 | THE RED 7 | Page 5

By kellY hUmphReY Northwest Florida Daily News

Once a Green Beret, always a Green Beret.

On Friday, Army Chief Warrant Of-ficer 3 Romulo “Romy” Camargo will re-

tire after 20 years of active duty. He’ll have his ceremony at the 7th Special Forces Group com-pound, surrounded by his family and friends and fellow Green Berets.

Most of the first 13 years of his career were spent in special operations, where he earned a reputation as a gung-ho soldier.

Despite being paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet in Afghanistan in 2008, Camargo has spent the last six years on active duty, counseling other wounded warriors.

“Considering the severity of his injuries, no one ever predicted he’d be able to breathe on his own, let alone talk to other veterans,” said Col. Robert Kirila, the deputy commander of the 7th SFG. “He’s been an amazing example for all of us.”

‘Chief got hit! Chief got hit’On Sept. 16, 2008, Camargo was on a hu-

manitarian assistance mission during his third tour in Afghanistan when he and his team were ambushed by insurgents.

“I remember turning to my left to get a box of grenades,” he recalled. “As I did that, I felt like someone had punched me in the back of the neck.”

The last thing Camargo remembers was hearing his buddy yell, “Chief got hit! Chief got hit!”

A sniper’s bullet had ripped through Camar-go’s C3 vertebrae, located near the top of his spinal cord. As he lay limp on the ground, his team’s medic performed a tracheotomy, prob-ably saving his life.

Three days later, he was at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Gaby, at his side. There the doctors told them that he was paralyzed from the shoulders down, and would never walk again.

He was 32 years old.

Never quitCamargo spent the next 18 months as an

inpatient at a Tampa veterans’ hospital, where he received intensive physical therapy.

One thing the hospital didn’t have to instill was a positive attitude.

“From my earliest days, the Army really drilled into my head to never quit,” Camargo said. “I just never gave up.”

Despite his catastrophic injuries, Camargo wasn’t ready to quit the Army, either.

Although he would have been eligible for a medical discharge and disability pay, Camargo was determined to remain on active duty. He found a role with the Special Operations Com-mand Care Coalition, where he has worked to inspire and encourage fellow wounded warriors.

“I’ve overcome a lot of the issues that these guys are going through,” he said. “I try to show them that they don’t have to give up on life.”

staying in step

Having spent the last few years working with wounded warriors, Camargo and Gaby have set a new goal: To build a rehabilitation center in Tampa that caters to people with spinal cord injuries, military and civilian alike.

The center will have a state-of-the-art gym with equipment especially for patients with

spinal cord injuries, as well as services for pa-tients’ family members.

“This is not a personal injury,” Camargo said. “It affects the whole family, and the whole family needs to be assisted.”

‘always been home to me’Born in Washington, D.C., Camargo grew up

near Crystal River, Fla. After joining the Army in 1995, he traveled around the world, spending 2001 to 2008 with the 7th Group’s 1st Battalion in Fort Bragg, N.C.

“The group has always been home to me,” he said. “Being a part of the group was a pin-nacle of my career. They have been a great support to me, so I try to go up and visit with them as often as I can.”

According to Kirila, the 7th Group’s deputy commander, Camargo’s feelings for the group are mutual.

“He’s just one of those genuinely internally peaceful people who makes everyone around him feel better about themselves,” Kirila said, his voice catching with emotion. “When I first visited him in the hospital, he really believed that he was going to recover and go back on a team.”

“But what he’s doing now is just as impor-tant. He is able to teach and coach and men-tor our young people through their personal challenges.”

When he visits with the group on Friday, Camargo will be dressed in his uniform, his medals gleaming on his chest. No wheelchair can confine his larger than life personality, or the spirit that has kept him going the past six years.

“I’m still here,” he said. “I’m still a husband, still a father, still a brother and a friend. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave me a second chance at life, and I’m going to make the most of it.”

For more info about Romy Camargo and the Stay in Step Foundation,

visit www.stayinstep.org

Green Beret Romy Camargo will retire today, six years after being paralyzed in combat

‘an amazing example for all of us’

speCial to the DailY News

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Romy Camargo, a Green Beret with the 7th Special Forces Group, served three tours in Afghanistan before being paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet in 2008.

aNDY JoNes | Tampa Tribune

Romy Camargo answers email using a mouth- operated stylus during a trip to Orlando for physical re-habilitation. Camargo and his wife, Gaby, want to open a facility in Tampa to treat spinal chord patients from the military and civilian world.

above, Romy Camargo works hard during a physical therapy session at Project Walk Orlando. Camargo, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down by a sniper’s bullet, hopes to build a rehabilitation center in Tampa that caters to people with spinal cord injuries. at left, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Romy Camargo is pictured with his family. Camargo will retire from active duty on Friday during a ceremony at the 7th Special Forces Group compound on Eglin Air Force Base.

aNDY JoNes | Tampa Tribune

speCial to the DailY News

The Defense Depart-ment’s fiscal 2016 budget request would slash taxpayer support of base grocery stores by $322 mil-lion in 2016 and by $1 billion next year, enough to “de-stroy” the shopping benefit, warns the American Logis-tics Association.

ALA, which represents manufacturers, distribu-tors and brokers of prod-ucts sold in commissaries and base exchanges, re-leased a position paper that contrasts DoD’s plan to “wreck” commissaries with less onerous recommenda-tions of a blue-ribbon panel to consolidate all base store operations to gain efficiencies.

That would seem to leave Congress with an easy choice. But the Army and Air Force Exchange Service warns in its own position paper that the store consolidation path laid down by the Military Compensation and Retire-ment Modernization Com-mission won’t produce the savings it touts.

AAFES says re-quiring the three exchange services, including Navy and Marine Corps store systems, to merge

with Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) into a new Defense Resale Activ-ity would add near-term costs of $466 million, which wouldn’t be recouped through efficiencies for “85 years.”

That is no typo. AAFES says the commission’s plan to integrate four “compa-nies” that provide shopping discounts on base could take six to nine years to ex-ecute. Meanwhile, it says, AAFES stores alone would suffer “lost improvements” over that span of $45 mil-lion to $80 million a year.

On the commission idea that exchange profits be used to fund commissary and other store operations

that historically have been backed by defense appro-priations or tax dollars, AAFES warns it lower or eliminate exchange “divi-dends” which for decades have paid for base morale, welfare and recreational activities such as gymna-sium and libraries.

Analysts at the Penta-gon are studying whether to recommend replacing or modifying DeCA budget plans based on the com-mission’s report.

Other commission ideas also would have unintend-ed consequences, AAFES says. For example, trying to preserve shopper savings at commissaries by allow-ing base grocers to sell items now sold only in ex-changes would “cannibalize exchange sales, earnings and MWR dividends.”

AAFES cites stud-ies showing that up to 60 percent commercial store mergers “destroy or fail to create value as expected.” Such mergers typically save the equivalent of a third of one percent of sales. AAFES warns to expect even less savings from consolidating military systems, which have no brands to merge, no tax re-lief to gain and no unprofit-able stores to eliminate.

And yet the military re-sale industry nearly howls with delight at the consoli-dation idea versus DoD’s budget plan to gut commis-sary funding.

“The President’s own Commission report stands in stark contrast to the President’s own 2016 bud-get” which “would destroy these valuable benefits,” ALA argues. “The Com-mission seeks to sustain these benefits and calls for management efficiencies to be implemented instead of diminishing the savings that patrons now realize.”

One commissioner, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Higgins who served an even longer sec-ond career as professional staff on compensation for the House Armed Services Committee, warned in testimony this month that commissaries will remain under attack if operations aren’t consolidated.

“There should be no illu-sions that DoD is not going to come after commissary money year after year after year…You are going to have a very difficult time here in the Congress pro-tecting commissary fund-ing. That means services are going to erode.”

The commission seeks

to preserve the sale of gro-ceries on base at cost-plus-a-five-percent-surcharge, Higgins said. But if store hours drop and days that stores are open are cut, he warned, commissary shop-pers will go elsewhere and “the exchanges are going to take a terrible hit.”

“We need to reform [to] a single manager” to be able “to negotiate deals that protect MWR funding. We can do that,” Higgins told Congress.

The president’s budget goes down the path he warns against. It reflects the Joint Chiefs of Staff desperate search for bud-get trims to help stay a freefall in readiness from the mindless cost-cutting formula of sequestra-tion. Congress adopted sequestration in 2011 and has lacked the courage to repeal it by reaching a com-promise that will both slow spending on entitlements and close tax loopholes for the wealthy and special interests.

Commissary funding, in this environment, is a ripe plum to pick. The defense budget request would do so in stages, explained Jo-seph Jeu, DeCA’s director, in a budget memo drafted for an under secretary of defense.

First, DeCA would lower its $1.4 billion budget by $183 million through ad-ministrative actions, saving $29.5 million by cutting store hours; $4.5 million by

closing stores on holidays; $58.2 million by reducing days stores are opened and $18.8 million by cutting staff.

Store staffs would be cut by an average of six employees next year. The number of days commis-saries open would be cut a day or two per week across 183 locations. If a base would want to keep its store open longer than DeCA proposes, it would have to find the money in its own budget.

DoD proposes securing an additional $139 million in DeCA savings next year through legislation. It seeks authority to raise prices enough to pay the cost of shipping products to stores overseas. It also wants a change in law so DeCA can pay for store supplies from surcharges collected at checkout. This presumably would lower the amount of money available to main-tain commissaries and to build new ones.

The $1 billion cut to DeCA in 2017 would force most stateside stores to be-come self-sustaining, which would mean deep cuts to shopper discounts. Com-missaries also would have to sell items they cannot today, including beer and wine, gift cards and greet-ing cards, which would put exchange profits at risk. DeCA also would have to advertise heavily, budget documents explain, to be able to persuade patrons that shopping on base still has value.

This same legislative package was proposed last year and Congress ignored it. Without sequestration relief, it will be harder to ignore this year.

tom philpott is a syndicated columnist. You may write to him at military Update, p.o. Box 231111, Centreville, Va 20120-1111; or at milupdate@aol.com.

Page 6 | THE RED 7 | Friday, February 27, 2015 Friday, February 27, 2015 | THE RED 7 | Page 7

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DoD plan would ‘destroy’ commissaries, say industry reps

Tom Philpott

From staff reports

Terrorism awareness Course

Attention military and US Government civil-ians. The next Dynamics of International Terror-ism (DIT) course will be March 9-13 at the USAF Special Operations School, 357 Tully St., Bldg 90503, Hurlburt Field. DIT is a basic course designed to provide students with an awareness and apprecia-tion of the organization, motivation, operational capabilities, and threat posed by terrorists on an international, national, and regional basis.

Seating is limited so sign-up now through your unit training manager. For information, visit http://www.afsoc.af.mil/Units/AirForceSpecialOperation-sAirWarfareCenter/USAF-SOS/DIT.aspx.

New golf course discounts

Daily green fees are free for active duty E-1 to E-4 on weekdays. Ranks E-5 and above receive 50% off their E-5 and above regular daily green fees. Discounts do not apply to equipment rental and carts. All other golfers and family mem-bers pay their regular green fee rates. An “Active Duty ID Card” must be presented to receive the promotional rates Monday - Friday through Sept. 30. For information, call the golf course, 882-2949.

Family Fun golfIt’s family fun on the

Falcon Course every Sun-day afternoon after 2 p.m. Each adult accompanied by a child age 17 or under pays a half-price green fee and the child plays for free.

Golf carts and equipment rentals are available at full price. To make playing as a family easier and more fun, forward tees will be used on the course along with a new 15” cup, which will be located on the Fal-con Greens every Sunday for Family Golf, along with the regular 4 1/4” cups for “regular play.” Ask about the new relaxed rules for golf, 882-2949.

green Fee monthly plans

Our competitive Annual Green Fee monthly rates and great amenities make being a part of our Eglin golf community an easy choice. The Gold Plan includes a golf cart with play and prices starting at $89 per month per indi-vidual or $122 with family. The Silver Plan does not include cart and prices be-gin at $39 per month or $59 with family. The Bronze Plan does not include cart and requires a $3 trail fee and prices start at $30 per month or $39 with family. All plans include unlim-ited play, big Family Rate Discounts, Pro Shop Dis-counts, Discounts on Tour-nament Play, and more! Rates and amenity pack-ages vary by plan. Join to-day for the best savings of the year. Full details are available online at www.eglinforcesupport.com or call 882-2949.

Fishing Clinic 101A professional instruc-

tor will teach basic tech-niques of fishing Feb. 28 at 10 a.m., to include baiting, casting, reeling, and fish identification. Cost is $25 for ages 10 and up which includes all equipment and bait needed to com-plete the class. To reserve a date, call Outdoor Rec, 882-5058.

eRaUMarch Term dates are

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Engineering, Project Man-agement, and Unmanned Systems. Courses are held in-residence, eagle-vision home and online. POC: Dawn Hitt or Lauren Lee, ERAU Eglin Campus, 850-678-3137.

Relay for Life Fundraiser

Eat at Joe’s to Benefit the Cause. The Comptrol-lers for a Cause Team is hosting a Relay For Life

fundraiser every Thurs-day in March at Joe’s Crab Shack in Destin from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For copy of flyer to be presented or questions about the event, contact Kristen Pedro at (850)687-3226.

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Page 8 | THE RED 7 | Friday, February 27, 2015

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