[USAR Personnel Center] The Secretary of the Air Force has reimplemented the Voluntary Retired Return to Active Duty Program in an effort to leverage the talents of our highly trained and experienced officer and enlisted military retirees to help minimize the service's critical manning shortages. Application window opens Feb. 8, 2024.
Applications must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2026, and the program allows up to 1,000 retired officer or enlisted personnel to active duty at any given time. Additionally, under this VRRAD program, the period of active duty service is limited to no more than 48 months. Personnel will only fill vacant active duty authorizations. Retired applicants selected for Extended Active Duty can expect to return to active duty anywhere from 4 to 6 months from their date of application.
"The VRRAD program is a strategic enabler to embrace experienced talent, tapping into a valuable resource of retired members to fill critical roles to close the gap against our peer competitors," said Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services.
Retired officer applicants are limited to Line of the Air Force commissioned officers retired in the grade of captain through lieutenant colonel. Officers who volunteer to return to active duty under the VRRAD program will primarily fill vacant rated staff, active flying staff, Officer Training School, Squadron Officer School, and Jeanne M. Holm Center academic staff. While all members that meet eligibility may apply, we are targeting the following Air Force special duty codes:
#5
Almost every military in the world is dealing with this and future generations will be even less inclined to join. I bet in a couple decades the US goes to a limited draft again.
#9
Just for grins, I checked the USAF Retiree Services page.
(Not that any war would last long enough for me to be selected for return to active duty.).
Although the Officer criteria are pretty well spelled out, the Enlisted criteria are a surprise that may only be revealed by a recruiter.
As SSGT Clayton once told us, "My recruiter lied to me too."
[Mil Times] Thousands of veterans exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the United States will for the first time be eligible for fast-track disability benefits under plans unveiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday.
The move represents another major expansion of toxic exposure benefits for veterans, this time for individuals suffering from illnesses dating back to the Vietnam War era. The changes follow mandates included in the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — better known as the PACT Act — passed by Congress in August 2022.
Over the last two years, a combination of administration moves and new legislation opened access to disability benefits for millions of veterans who incurred injuries from burn pit smoke, radiation contamination and other military toxic exposure events.
[KRQE] Little known fact, Americans also get deported from Mexico, something that happened 261 times last year according to Mexico’s Institute of Migration in Tijuana.
In 2023 alone, 288 foreign nationals were deported out of Baja to countries such as Peru, Germany, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, but most were Americans.
In all, more than 17,000 people were deported from Mexico last year, with more than 2,500 from China alone. Another 1,500 were sent back to Uzbekistan.
Many on the list were Brazilians and from other South American countries.
Hundreds of African immigrants were also deported from Mexico to countries such as Mauritania, Guinea and Ghana.
Russians and many Central American immigrants also found themselves being sent back home from Mexico in 2023.
#1
Yet native Chinese continue to pour across the US/Mexico border.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2024 9:47 Comments ||
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#2
It makes sense. Deportation takes paperwork. Waving folks across our border takes no paperwork. Deportation is left for misbehaving Europeans and Americans.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/10/2024 10:33 Comments ||
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[RedState] Another War May Be About to Break Out in America's Backyard
Venezuela is sending troops to its border with neighboring Guyana as tensions continue to escalate over a territorial dispute, raising the risk of a military conflict between the two South American nations.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal citing satellite images and videos made public by the country's military, Venezuelan forces have stationed troops, tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats, and an armored carrier at its border with Guyana.
The dispute comes as Venezuela attempts to annex the region of Essequibo, where the country's socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro has said he plans to “grant operating licenses for the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas, and mines.”
Recent offshore oil discoveries by an Exxon Mobil-led consortium have turned Guyana, a former British colony with a population of 800,000, into one of the world's hottest oil properties.
According to Energy World, Exxon plans to start drilling "two exploratory wells north and west of its prolific Stabroek block, where three oil fields are producing close to 650,000 barrels of oil a day."
"We are not going anywhere," the president of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, told reporters earlier this week.
The ratcheting up of tensions comes despite an agreement signed by Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali in December, where the two sides agreed to de-escalate threats of physical force and create a joint commission to solve their territorial disputes.
In a statement to the Journal, Guyana's Foreign Ministry said that they were "not surprised by the bad faith of Venezuela" in reneging on that agreement. “We are disappointed, not surprised," they added.
Posting on the X platform on Friday, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino launched into a bizarre tirade where he accused Guyana of agreeing to "military alliances" with the U.S. and reiterated the regime's position that it belongs to Venezuela:
The world is upside down! While Exxon Mobil, with the approval of Guyana, announces military alliances with the United States to provide security in the exploitation of oil and gas in waters to be delimited, the Bolivarian government works tirelessly bringing better living conditions, health and education to the Essequiban people, with the support of the Venezuelan armed forces.
The Argyle agreements continue to be threatened by the irresponsible attitude of the Guyana government, while the mainstream media of manipulation and deception make it seem otherwise. Essequibo is ours!
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reiterated its support for Guyana, with presidential senior adviser Juan Gonzalez telling reporters on Monday that they would help the country continue to "strengthen its defensive capability."
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[US News] The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency's headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman's attorney called the action a brazen retaliation.
While the CIA said that accusation was "factually inaccurate," it wouldn't comment further on the case and declined to explain why the 36-year-old did not make it through the agency’s clandestine officer training program known as "the Farm" and, unlike many of her classmates, was not hired into another job.
"To be clear, the CIA does not tolerate sexual assault, sexual harassment or whistleblower retaliation," CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp told The Associated Press, adding the agency uses "consistent processes to ensure the fair and equal treatment of every officer going through training."
The woman’s termination came less than six months after she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the CIA retaliated against her for reporting what she said was a 2022 stairwell assault in Langley, Virginia, to law enforcement and testifying about it in a closed congressional hearing.
#2
/\ She reneged on the Farm training 'cone of silence' option and continued to pursue a civil rights remedy. A generous financial settlement was the likely outcome. A tell-all book and movie script in 3-5 years possibly. Do drive carefully.
The whistleblower protections I have seen are a private workspace, minimum tasks commensurate with employment stature, reduced project team involvement and general isolation from everyday workforce engagement. This behavior lasts until the complaint is resolved by an investigating agency. Only then is the complaintant offered a guaranteed mind-numbing continuation of the practice for the duration of their career, or a door.
Sexual antics will occur with close proximity and the stress/isolation of a classified role. Unmonitored stairwells, closed briefing rooms, closets, document storage areas, and warehouse shelves(turned into daybeds), Senate chambers, etc.
Hell, I even found a prophylactic appliance in my office couch cushions. From the night watch.
#5
The outline a rubber made in a wallet was called a "gold coin" years ago...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2024 8:09 Comments ||
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#6
They did the risk calculation and decided that they could fire the employee and then clamp down on any talking or book writing the employee might do.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/10/2024 10:11 Comments ||
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#7
@#2 - I bet Obama and Netflix are making preparations as we speak.
BLUF:
[Blaze] In reality, the 2020 election was most likely marred by widespread mail-in voting fraud. And even worse, the extensive mail-in voter fraud almost certainly tipped the election in favor of Joe Biden.
In other words, had rampant mail-in voter fraud been prevented in the 2020 election, Donald Trump would have won the Electoral College and been re-elected to a second term.
At this point, you may be wondering how I can be so sure that the 2020 election was tainted by mail-in voter fraud. The answer is simple: The voters have told us so.
In late 2023, the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports conducted a simple survey to gauge the degree of voter fraud in the 2020 election. We asked 1,085 voters who participated in the 2020 election about their voting behaviors three years prior. To our surprise, the results showed that at least one in five mail-in voters admitted to committing ballot fraud in the 2020 election.
#3
^^Yes. My wife likes to say, "There was no widespread election interference."
Not widespread. Just enough to be sure.
Remember Mayor Daley's Cook County was late with enough votes to put JFK in the White House.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/10/2024 8:12 Comments ||
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#4
Single points of failure are the imprimatur of a bad design...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2024 8:15 Comments ||
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#5
Mayor Daley's Cook County was late with enough votes to put JFK in the White House.
I was in Ill. in '68 and the Downstaters (aka honest) wouldn't report their tallies till after Chicago. They knew that Dems would "find" just enough votes to win if they knew the number before hand. Nixon won.
#6
That they cheated is not amazing, the targeting and brazen execution with nobody breaking afterward is amazing. The coordinators did an excellent job. Think of what good those type of skills could accomplish if they weren’t given to people that are totally reprehensible.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/10/2024 10:24 Comments ||
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#7
Trump did not win, there was widespread by the dems though, what was it again? 83 million? No way.
[FoxNews] Combat exercises between the United States and the Philippines involving thousands of forces each year will not be affected by America’s focus on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a U.S. general said Thursday.
The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to build deterrence and to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.
But there have been concerns that the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict could hamper America’s pivot to Asia and the Pacific and divert military resources intended for the region.
"Certainly, it does not affect our presence," Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, told The Associated Press in an interview late Thursday when asked to comment on those concerns.
"If anything, it drives an increased sense of urgency to focus on these partnerships that we’ve developed decades ago and it’s our responsibility to continue to build on these unique training opportunities.," said Evans, who has 12,000 soldiers under his command.
Evans, who is based in Hawaii, was in Manila for talks with his Philippine army counterparts ahead of largescale combat maneuvers between the U.S. and Philippine forces.
The annual drills include the Salaknib, which are army-to-army drills first held in the country in 2016, and the larger Balikatan, a Tagalog term for shoulder-to-shoulder, which was joined by more than 17,600 military personnel in April of 2023 in their largest combat exercises in decades.
Some of last year's Balikatan exercises were held in Philippine coastal areas across the sea from the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. The expanded combat exercises involving U.S. forces have been criticized by China as a threat to regional unity and peace.
Evans said the scope of this year’s Salaknib and Balikatan exercises, which would include jungle training, "remains consistent with last year." After the exercises, a contingent from a Hawaii-based combat readiness center would take part for the first time in a "very focused evaluation exercise" to assess the ability of the allied forces to operate together, he said.
#2
And if there's an 'event' with China, our forces in WestPac will be told what they told McArthur in Dec 1941: "You're on your own."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/10/2024 13:26 Comments ||
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#3
Balikatan has been going on for decades. Moving off of Luzon to the islands is a strategic move for both countries as the smaller islands are Muslim or Maoist controlled.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/10/2024 14:10 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[US News] The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency's headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman's attorney called the action a brazen retaliation.
