Ft. Myer VA

The Fort Myer Military Community provideshousing, support and services to thousands ofactive-duty, reserve and retired Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines, members of the U.S. Coast Guard and their families stationed in the National Capital Region. Fort Myer, Va., is the garrisonheadquarters, and the installation includes Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. FMMC’s mission is to operate the Army’s showcase community andsupport Homeland Security in the nation’s capital.
Fort Myer traces its origin to the Civil War. Since then it has been an important Signal Corps post, a showcase for Army cavalry and the site of the first flight of an aircraft at a military installation.

The home of Army chiefs of staff for nearly acentury, Fort Myer today is headquarters to service personnel working throughout the National Capital Region. Of note is that the first chief of staff of the Army moved into Fort Myer quarters in 1908, acentury ago.

Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemeteryoccupy land once owned by the family of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, daughter of George Washington Parke Custis. The land, called Arlington Heights in the 1800s, and the Custis-Lee mansion wereconfiscated in 1864 the Civil War for the burial of Union war dead. Custis was Martha Washington’s grandson and adopted son of George Washington, to whom he made his mansion a memorial shrine.

Mary Anna Randolph Custis married Robert E. Lee when he was a young Army lieutenant. Lee helped rescue the estate from financial disaster in 1858. The Lees left the area in the spring of 1861, and Lee became military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and later, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He never returned to Arlington.

Arlington Estate became a massive campground with a series of fortifications built on Arlington Heights, starting with Fort Cass in August 1861, and later Fort Whipple in May 1863. Other fortifications were on parts of the estate that became Arlington National Cemetery, such as Fort McPherson (theoutline of its fortifications being followed by acemetery road, McKinley Drive).

Fort Cass, constructed where the Caisson Platoon’s stables stand today, had a 288-yardperimeter and was equipped with 12 cannons. Fort Whipple was larger, having a 658-yard perimeter and 43 cannons. It was built more to the east, in the area between present-day Grant Avenue and the tennis courts.

The now nearly 245-acre post was named in honor of Union Maj. Gen. Amiel Weeks Whipple, a division commander at the Civil War battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville in Virginia. Whipple died of wounds sustained at Chancellorsville in 1863, and the post named for him was one of the strongest fortifications built to defend the Union capital across the Potomac River.

Fort Whipple’s high elevation made it ideal for visual communications, and the Signal Corps took it over in the late 1860s. Fort Cass was not retained. Brig. Gen. Albert J. Myer commanded Fort Whipple and, in 1866, was appointed the Army’s first chiefsignal officer, a post he held until his death in 1880. The post was renamed Fort Myer the next year,primarily to honor the late chief signal officer, but also to eliminate confusion created by the existence of another Fort Whipple in Mexico.

In 1886 Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, the Army’scommanding general, decided Fort Myer should become the nation’s cavalry showplace.

Signal Corps personnel moved out and cavalrymen moved in, including the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by the 16th Field Artillery Regiment. As many as 1,500 horses were stabled at the fort during the next 62 years, and Army horsemanship became an important part of Washington’s official and social life.

Most of the buildings at the north end of Fort Myer were built between 1895 and 1908. Many of those still standing have been designated historic landmarks.

The first military test flight of an aircraft was made from the Fort Myer parade ground on Sept. 9, 1908, when Orville Wright kept one of his planes in the air for more than an hour. Alexander Graham Bell filmed the flight for posterity, and visitors can see the seven-minute film, which includes pre-flight footage, when they tour the post. A later test flight ended in tragedy when, after four minutes aloft, the aircraft crashed. Wright was injured, and passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge was killed, becoming the first powered aviation fatality. Selfridge Gate at Arlington Cemetery near the site of the crash is named for him.

During World War I, Fort Myer was a staging area for a large number of engineering, artillery and chemical companies and regiments. The area of Fort Myer now occupied by Andrew Rader Health Clinic and the Commissary were made into a trench-system training grounds where French officers taught the Americans about trench warfare.

Defense troops were stationed at Fort Myer during World War II, when it also served as a processing station for Soldiers entering and leaving the Army. The Army Band, ‘‘Pershing’s Own,” and the Army School of Music moved to the post in 1942, joined in 1957 by the Army Chorus.

The Army’s oldest infantry unit, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), was reactivated in 1948 and assigned to Forts Myer and McNair in Washington to become the Army’sofficial ceremonial unit and security force in the Washington metropolitan area.

Fort Myer’s face is now starting to undergo some additional modernization. The garrison recently completed work on Wright Gate and Henry Gateproviding for added security based on new DoD standards. A small Child Development Center was completed in the Fall of 2004 to support the child care requirements of the Pentagon after the announced closing of the Pentagon CDC. Construction of a new maintenance facility for The Old Guard was completed in fall 2006. Tencza Terrace, a high rise home to military personnel and their families for decades was imploded in 2006 in an environmentally successful project to make way for a visitor and search entry center at the Fort Myer Hatfield Gate. Other constructionprojects begun in 2006 demolished 1960s-era barracks and allow formodern barracks, garrison headquarterscommand battalion and service facilities.

Understanding and Solving Somalia's Piracy Problem

Open letter to the Anti-Piracy Coalition
By Sam Wilder King II, 5/21/2009

The recent rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama after the killing of his three pirate captors by US Navy Seals has cast new media attention on the piracy problem in Somalia.
Many voices have come forward to suggest beefing up security on the high seas against pirates or attacking pirates’ land-based “lairs” in Somalia. Both of these are policy options for the short-term, but in the long-term they will not solve the problem. They will most likely increase the level of violence off the coast of Somalia and, as more US forces and citizens are involved, increase the danger of international terrorist moving into the piracy business against US interests.

The roots of Somalia piracy lie in the anarchy that has gripped that country since the dictatorship of Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed in 1991. Barre ruled Somalia since it’s independence from Britain and Italy in 1960; before that, the northern part of Somalia, know as Somaliland (see map) was ruled by the British. The Italians ruled Puntland and Southern Somalia. The Italian and British parts joined in 1960 after the withdrawal of the colonial powers.

Since Barre’s government collapsed, the US, the UN, the African Union (AU) and Ethiopia have all tried to pacify Southern Somalia centered on Mogadishu. Many people did not notice that international fishing trawlers from as far as South Korea, Japan and Spain were illegally fishing off the coast of Puntland (Northeast Somalia) and driving the local fishermen out of business.

There are even reports of European companies dumping toxic and nuclear waste off the coast of Puntland. See http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892376,00.html

This could be done because Somalia had no government to protect its territorial waters and no one was monitoring the area.

This prompted many Somali fishermen to begin arming themselves. The foreign fishing vessels shot at them with guns and water hoses so the Somalis began shooting back. They formed the current pirate groups such as the National Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia and the Somali Marines in order to defend their fishing grounds. That is not to say they should be pitied today. While these groups started out defensively, they have morphed over the last 20 years into full-fledged international criminal pirate gangs.

However, their primary origin is critical to remember because it shows us that these groups are not ideological. Rather, they are focused on making money. There are virtually no reports of hostages being killed as the ransoms are usually paid. They appear to be very business oriented.

This is even more important to remember following the media storm of the US Navy SEAL snipers killing the three pirates.

Up until now the pirates have refrained from killing or harming anyone and the international community has been happy to simply pay them the ransoms. At the same time, the pirates have been using their new-found power and money to resist the Islamists who famously swept through Southern Somalia. Those same Islamists were driven out of power by Ethiopia just as stunningly. Few noticed, however, that the Islamists never got very far north.

The reason they did not is because the region of Puntland, where most of the pirates are from, has been semi-autonomous from the rest of Somalia and because the pirates had the money and the guns to fight back. This has been demonstrated a couple of times. One of the most famous was when Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO encouraged the Islamists to drive up to Eyl and recover their Super Tanker Sirius Star. Saudi Arabia ended up paying the ransom as the Islamists failed totally in their mission. The pirates have also clashed with the Islamists in Kismayo and Haradhere (see maps).

If the pirates perceive the US as an enemy because we kill them, the Islamists may be able to sway them into joining their cause for emotional reasons.

If we strengthen our naval efforts to stop the piracy, we may weaken the pirates’ economic and military position relative to the Islamists, tipping the balance in Islamists’ favor and allowing them to sweep through another third of Somalia (they only own the southern third right now [see maps]).

If we bomb the pirates, we will most certainly weaken them relative to the Islamists, on top of pushing them further into the Islamist camp with the inevitable killing of civilians. We will also destroy what little economy there is in Somalia, no matter how illicit, which can only serve to drive the pirates and the populations they support away from us. See http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6288745

Therefore, the only long-term solution to the Somali piracy problem is to look at Somalia as distinct political entities and deal with each accordingly.

Somaliland, the formerly British northern most chunk of Somalia, should be engaged with Free Trade Areas. They hold elections, have a functioning government and have no pirate bases in their territory.

Southern Somalia should be contained. While the “capital” of Somalia, Mogadishu, is down there, and the transitional capital at Baidoa as well, the area itself is a chaotic mess of Islamists and warlords; if the international community got directly involved, as the Ethiopians and AU have, it will probably exacerbate the situation. For now the AU, the Ethiopians, the pirates and the international naval force can keep them contained in Southern Somalia. We can also cut deals with the “moderate” Islamists (Union of Islamic Courts) and split them off from the radicals (the Shabab).

The primary focus of the international community should be in Puntland. It may even be advisable to move the Somali capital to Puntland. After that, serious nation building efforts will have to be undertaken. This will include millions of dollars for establishing the transitional government, building a Somali army, Somali police and a Somali navy. Some of the pirates could even be hired for these positions.

This would break the economic back of the pirates and create a whole new employer in Somalia. The pirates are businessmen, primarily, so they can be co-opted into a new government. It isn’t pretty, but history has shown that this is how most human governments have been formed. Eventually the country will draw away from the chaos of piracy and establish itself as a stable country. When that is done, Somaliland and Puntland can turn their focus to dealing with the Islamists in Southern Somalia.

Cuba's Cyberwar Intensifies

The "cyber-dissidents" and "cyber-communists" promise not to cede an inch. -AFP
Fri, May 22, 2009
AFP

HAVANA, Cuba - Cuban bloggers are fighting a cyberwar with the government to give their own version of reality on the communist island, from hotels and using memory sticks and laptops obtained from abroad.

Bloggers with "alternative" agendas say it is becoming harder to evade official censorship, although they have managed to multiply in the past three years in a country where Internet access is limited.

Havana accuses them of being on the payroll of Washington and other governments in a bid to denigrate the 50-year-old Cuban revolution.

The government argues that it has the right to block sites which "encourage subversion." Under names such as "Generacion Y" (Generation Y) - the internationally-renowned blog of Yoani Sanchez - or "Retazos" (Snippets) by "El Guajiro Azul" (The Blue Peasant), around 30 blogs touch sensitive themes such as Cuban travel permits, flaws in the health and education systems, political prisoners or daily hardships.

"Their entries are full of worn-out political theories that the US State Department used for years in order to include Cuba on all the black lists," according to the official Cuban portal Cubadebate.cu, where communist leader and former president Fidel Castro publishes his column.

Some local journalists have also fought back against what they call "distorted information" about Cuba found in the blogs.

They recently set up a rival website, blogcip.cu, posting a photo of Yoani Sanchez using the Internet in what they said was a luxurious hotel, alongside the text: "the unhappy girl who sells herself as a victim of ruthless persecution." "Welcome to the blogosphere!" the 33-year-old Sanchez said in an interview with AFP.

"I didn't say I was in hiding. I prefer to save money to go online and recount the reality that isn't reflected in the Cuban press, which repeats the official discourse," the literature graduate said.

Cubans are not permitted Internet accounts, but can use email services in state cybercafes, without access to navigate the web.

Although several hotels sell Internet connection cards, their cost - eight dollars an hour - is prohibitive in a country where the average monthly salary is 17 dollars.

The government accuses the decades-old US embargo of preventing Cuba from accessing underwater cables and forcing it to use slower satelite connections instead.

Work, research and study centers therefore have priority for Internet connections.

Bloggers are hosted by foreign servers, write their texts offline and save them on memory cards before updating their blogs from hotel connections or emailing friends to post their updates abroad.

But the limited options are diminishing.

A hotel from the Spanish Melia chain that was popular with bloggers has now banned Internet services for Cubans, and only permits foreigners or overseas residents to use them, a hotel worker confirmed to AFP.

Sanchez posted a video - using a hidden camera - in which a hotel employee explained that the change was due to a new directive from the Tourism Ministry and a communications company, which was also applied by other hotels that have now clamped down on bloggers.

"They want to push us into illegality, to 'underground' accounts. They accuse us buying domains outside of Cuba, but us Cubans cannot buy a '.cu' domain.

What do they want, silence?" said Sanchez, winner of the 2008 Spanish Ortega and Gasset prize for digital journalism.

Ivan Garcia, a 40-year-old blogger who received a laptop from his mother who is a resident in Switzerland, said the new measures aimed to drive bloggers into foreign embassies in order to "accuse us of being supported by foreign governments."

Cubadebate.cu accuses the bloggers of using dubious foreign host services, enjoying privileged resources and advanced tools and taking salaries from the enemy.

Sanchez said she uses a free system and earns a wage - with which she pays her blog domain of "hardly 200 euros (280 dollars) per year" - by writing for foreign media and teaching Spanish to tourists.

In this "fierce war of the blogosphere," as one Cuban newspaper called it, the "cyber-dissidents" and "cyber-communists" - as both sides call each other - promise not to cede an inch.