The 2021 Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Exchange was conducted virtually from Hawaii, with a focus on the global problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The event took place Sept. 8-9, and was moderated by retired Navy Capt. Larry Osborn, Navy League Pacific Region vice president, and hosted by the East West center, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and the Pacific Forum.

The Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Exchange (IMSE) is produced annually by Navy League of the United States Honolulu Council. The enduring IMSE theme is “building partnerships for security, stability and prosperity. IMSE’s purpose is to provide a forum for senior leaders, subject matter experts and interested members of the general public to engage in dialogue about maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The two-day event concentrated on the problems created by IIU fishing and the solutions available to counter the illegal fishing and the impacts on this vital global food resource.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, IUU fishing is a pervasive, far-reaching security threat.

“IUU fishing has replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat. If IUU fishing continues unchecked, we can expect deterioration of fragile coastal states and increased tension among foreign-fishing nations, threatening geo-political stability around the world,” said Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz in the service’s IUU Fishing Strategic Outlook, released in September 2020.

The IMSE conference examined new technologies to conduct all-domain sensing and gather information through satellite imagery and acoustic data, as well as methods to share and analyze huge amounts of data to deter illegal fishing.

Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, and Rear Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, both delivered keynote addresses that emphasized the importance of partnerships, especially between multi-national organizations, nations and agencies with the means to detect and interdict violators and those countries who rely on their fisheries. Rear Adm. Matthew W. Sibley, commander of USCG District 14, shared the Coast Guard’s support to the nations in Oceania, which have limited assets and resources, to help them combat IUU fishing.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, IUU fishing is “a broad term that captures a wide variety of fishing activity. IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction. It concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilization of fish, and it may sometimes be associated with organized crime.” 

Capt. Holly Harrison, commanding officer USCG Kimball (WMSL 756), detailed the actual operations involved in approaching, boarding, inspecting and taking any necessary action aboard fishing vessels on the high seas.

There is no one solution to the problem that affects both large and small nations in so many ways.  “Combating IUU fishing has to be a whole of government and a whole of society approach,” said retired Rear Adm. Pete Gumataotao, head of the East West Center at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Osborn said IUUF is a maritime security threat that has a destabilizing effect on the Indo-Pacific region.

“The war on IUUF is won through trust and international collaboration. Data from commercial SIGINT [signals intelligence], EO [electro-optical imagery] and SAR [synthetic aperture radar] satellite constellations, as well as commercial acoustic arrays attached to unmanned surface vehicles, will make it impossible for ‘dark vessels’ to conceal their locations and identities.”

Osborn said the conference examined the application of artificial intelligence and machine language learning, which have become indispensable tools in creating actionable intelligence from disparate datasets.

“We found academics, NGOs, and small entrepreneurial companies with relevant technologies and solutions,” he said. “I think this made our conference a success.

“The international stakeholders have done a commendable job in illuminating the problem and holding the violators accountable.  The key has been collaboration and transparency,” Osborn said. “Once you have that many of the other problems go away.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — Shipyards are having challenges attracting or training skilled workers to build and maintain U.S. Navy ships, a Maine congressman said. 

“We have serious workforce challenges similar to the rest of the country, both inside and outside the military industrial base,” said Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, speaking Sept. 2 in a Hudson Institute webinar. In general, manufacturing workforces are in decline.” 

Maine is the home of two major shipyards that build or maintain U.S. Navy ships: General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. 

“We have seen in Maine a population decline accompanied with a change in how we directed youth to pursue work and studies, so an entire generation encouraged to go to four-year college degrees,” Golden said. “We saw a lot of people leaving the state of Maine for those types of opportunities, not necessarily coming back, while at the same time the best jobs we have in the state of Maine [are] at Bath Iron Works, or many of our paper mills. These are very blue-collar, hands-on jobs that historically have not required a four-year degree but require hard skill sets that have been allowed to go away and be lost.”  

Golden said Bath Iron Works “not only has an aging workforce that is retiring or coming up on retirement at a pretty rapid rate, hiring thousands every year just to try and keep up. They are slowly growing, but they’re having to start from scratch with a lot of these young workers and teach them the very basics of shipbuilding, whether that be welding or whatever. It is a different workforce challenge than in other generations past.”  

The congressman spoke of having Maine stand up programs at community colleges, apprenticeship programs or pre-apprenticeship programs “that are going to help people get a foot in the door of eventually getting a great job opportunity in a place like Bath Iron Works.”

Golden said it “takes on average seven years to get a fully competent, specialized shipbuilder at place like Bath Iron Works. That’s a big investment you’re going to make.” 

SAN DIEGO — General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems’ (GA-EMS) Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) aboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) successfully performed as designed as the ship underwent full ship shock trials off the eastern seaboard during the months of June, July and August 2021, the company said in a Sept. 3 release.  

Ford is the first aircraft carrier in more than three decades to undergo full ship shock trials, which provide crucial data for analysis to validate the shock hardness of the ship and all systems aboard to withstand battle conditions.    

“The completion of this milestone is a validation of the critical steps we took early in the development process to work closely with the Navy to conduct preliminary shock qualification testing prior to delivering EMALS and AAG equipment to the shipyard for installation,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “We actually mount equipment on floating barges, and detonate ordnance at various distances and underwater to simulate operation and combat situations. This process allows us to address any issues prior to delivery and installation on the carrier. More importantly, this additional step helps ensure we deliver extremely robust systems to all Ford-class carriers that will provide decades of reliable operational performance under the most challenging conditions.” 

After completing full ship shock trials, CVN 78 enters a six-month planned incremental (PIA) availability period of modernization, maintenance and repairs. Prior to the recent shock test trials, EMALS and AAG successfully completed various additional milestones during the post delivery trials and test (PDT&T) period, including the completion of critical aircraft compatibility testing and flight deck certification involving F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2C/D Hawkeyes and Advanced Hawkeyes, C-2A Greyhounds, EA-18G Growlers and T-45C Goshawks. At the end of the 18-month PDT&T period, EMALS and AAG successfully achieved and exceeded the Navy’s target of 8,000 launches and recoveries aboard CVN 78. 

“We will continue to work closely with the Navy to implement system upgrades during the PIA period to meet the ship’s readiness requirements and upcoming deployment schedule,” continued Forney. “We are extremely proud of our team, the crew, and of EMALS and AAG’s successful progress in meeting the ship’s performance milestones. We continue to work with the Navy as installation of these critical technologies moves forward aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) and USS Enterprise (CVN 80), and as the Navy determines the production schedule requirements for the USS Doris Miller (CVN 81).”  

SAN DIEGO — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) continues to advance new levels of autonomous control for unmanned aircraft, successfully completing an airborne Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) demonstration on Aug. 25, 2021, pairing a company-owned MQ-20 Avenger with a modified King Air 200 as a surrogate for fourth- and fifth-generation tactical fighters. 

The flight demonstrated autonomous collaboration using command and control (C2) of the Avenger from a ruggedized tactical control tablet, integrated with Autonodyne’s RCU-1000 Advanced Human Machine Interface, to provide real-time situational awareness combined with complex behavior tasking. The airborne node utilized a GA-ASI-modified King Air 200, which allowed for rapid integration and test of the C2 hardware. 

“GA-ASI continues to innovate by integrating state-of-the-art technology, providing combatant commanders with tested solutions for persistent, affordable air sensing with challenging target sets,” said Mike Atwood, senior director of advanced concepts at GA-ASI. “This flight builds on the previous long-wave IR [infrared] passive autonomous testing and continues to validate that persistent Group 5 UAS aircraft can perform complex Air Moving Target Indication.” 

The Avenger flight originated from GA-ASI’s Desert Horizon facility in the Mojave Desert and the King Air took off from Montgomery Airport in San Diego. The demo lasted for approximately two hours. The successful test proves the ability for GA-ASI MUM-T to command airborne assets while autonomously executing behaviors and missions that provide increased awareness and effectiveness to the warfighter. 

“Autonodyne was thrilled to work with GA-ASI to leverage our previous work in MUM-T C2 and apply it to such an impressive air vehicle,” said Autonodyne CEO Steve Jacobson. “Tactical control combined with powerful autonomy capabilities is critical to providing our warfighters the tools they need now.” 

EVENDALE, Ohio — GE Marine has renewed a long-term, customized service agreement (CSA) with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), the company said in a Sept. 1 announcement. The CSA covers an operating fleet of 24 GE LM2500 aeroderivative marine gas turbines plus spare engines used to power Halifax-class frigates.  

According to Kris Shepherd, vice president, general Manager, GE Marine, Evendale, Ohio, “GE has been providing the RCN with 20 years of customized service for their LM2500 engines, yielding significant performance and operational advantages in terms of improved reliability and the high availability of the gas turbines to power their surface combatants.”  

“GE builds on its relationship of trust and reliability with the RCN, dating back to the early 1990s. The CSA provides the Navy with high availability of the RCN’s LM2500 fleet over the initial five years of contract support, as well as helping to promote supplier and skills development in Canada. The five-year contract comes with renewal and sustainment options until the eventual decommissioning of the Halifax-class frigates,” Shepherd added.  

Other benefits of this CSA include formal and on-the-job training with GE and Navy personnel working side by side to maintain the LM2500 fleet, and assistance with procurement, inspection, technical support and materials inventory management. 

Backed by GE’s extensive network of global field service technicians, the RCN has access to GE services located throughout the globe, providing immediate onsite technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Similar to the original contract, the scope of the renewed contract includes:  

• Repair, overhaul and engineering support  
• Parts warehousing and inventory management (including spare engines, supply of spare parts and replenishment of inventory)  
• Field service representative support (home port and deployed)  
• Support of naval engineering school training curriculum for on-engine and equipment maintenance  
• Operational level maintenance  
• Configuration management  
• Supply and distribution of technical manuals  

Customized agreements provide direct access to GE’s global inventory of parts and spare engines, and the ability to tap into GE’s worldwide service and support expertise such as training, maintenance, repair and overhaul services — all on an as-needed basis. With a CSA, navies can realize the full potential for their critical propulsion gas turbines while balancing performance and risk, along with predictable costs and less administrative oversight. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III released the following statement Aug. 30 to mark the end of American involvement in the war in Afghanistan. 

“Today, we completed the U.S. military evacuation of civilians and the removal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan.   

I am deeply saddened that, in the course of this historic evacuation mission, we lost 13 of our own, along with so many others who were killed and wounded days ago by cruel terrorists.  

We mourn alongside the families of those who were lost, and we will never forget your loved ones’ heroism and sacrifice. They gave their lives trying to save the lives of others. And I know that you share my pride in them.   

I hope that all Americans also share my pride in all the troops and diplomats who raced to help save lives during those critical days of August.   

Our service members secured, defended, and ran a major international airport. They learned how to help consular officers screen and verify visa applicants. They provided medical care, food and water, and compassion to people in need.  They flew tens of thousands of people to safety, virtually around the clock. They even delivered babies. 

No other military in the world could accomplish what we and our allies and partners did in such a short span of time.  That is a testament not only to our forces’ capabilities and courage but also to our relationships and the capabilities of our allies and partners.  

Over the course of more than four decades in service, I have never ceased to be amazed at what an American service member can do. I remain in awe. And I am thankful for the skill and professionalism with which they do it. 

I want to thank all those who labored so hard and under such difficult circumstances over the past few weeks, including dozens of our diplomats, to move some 6,000 of our fellow citizens out of harm’s way and evacuate more than 123,000 people from Afghanistan — the vast majority of whom are Afghans, friends and allies who fought by our side and fought for our shared values. 

We will help these Afghan friends as they now turn to the task of beginning new lives in new places. We will provide these men, women, and children with temporary living spaces, medical care, and sustenance at military facilities at home and abroad. We will continue to support the interagency effort led by the Department of Homeland Security to screen them and to process some of them to lead new lives in America. And we will work hard to defend our citizens from terrorist threats emanating from anywhere around the globe. 

Now, the end of this operation also signals the end of America’s longest war.   

We lost 2,461 troops in that war, and tens of thousands of others suffered wounds, seen and unseen.  
 
The scars of combat don’t heal easily, and often never heal at all.   

As we look back as a nation on two decades of combat and struggle in Afghanistan, I hope that we will do so with as much thoughtfulness and humility as we can muster.  And I know that we will wish for a brighter future for the Afghan people — for all their sons, and for all their daughters.  

Amid these discussions, we must remember our Gold Star families, and the support that we owe them. We must remember the wounded and the family members and the caregivers who still tend to them. We must remember the veterans of this war, those still on duty and those who have hung up the uniform. This country owes them all a profound debt of gratitude. 

And we must remember the citizens whom we serve and the nation that we defend.   

For my part, I am proud of the part that we played in this war. I am proud of the men and women who led me. I am proud of those with whom I served and led. And I am proud of the intrepid, resilient families who made what we did possible.” 

BURLINGTON, Mass. — BAE Systems Inc. has received a $6.5 million Phase 2 contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further develop software that will enable semi-autonomous, multi-domain mission planning. The Phase 2 award under the Adapting Cross-Domain Kill-Webs, or ACK, program follows a successful Phase 1 demonstration.  

As part of Phase 1, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs research and development organization, along with teammates Carnegie Mellon University and Uncharted Software, created software called the Multi-domain Adaptive Request Service. The Phase 1 demonstration highlighted the software’s ability to update a plan in real time during a live exercise by ingesting information feeds to track the state of planned tasks, and then generating options to adapt the plan to insert new tasks. The Multi-domain Adaptive Request Service software adapts a plan with 100s of missions to insert tasks against new targets, requiring only fractions of a second per target added.   

Under Phase 2, BAE Systems will continue to mature and advance the software to scale up the capabilities designed to help operators make informed decisions by automatically identifying available assets across domains, and then rapidly assessing the costs and benefits of using those assets when adapting mission tasks. Phase 2 is a step toward the ultimate goal of the program: demonstrating the techniques in a full scale, operationally realistic setting. 

“Autonomy is a critical enabler for multi-domain mission planning,” said Chris Eisenbies, product line director of the Autonomy, Controls, and Estimation group at BAE Systems. “The Phase 2 award will focus on advancing the software designed for military operators to leverage battlespace resources from across various domains, including space, air, land, and sea, for more effective, efficient missions.”  

The software builds on BAE Systems’ robust autonomy portfolio and 20-year history pioneering autonomy technology. Work on the ACK program is being performed at the company’s facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts and Arlington, Virginia. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Department of Defense announced Aug. 28 the deaths of 13 service members who were supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. They died Aug. 26, 2021, as the result of an enemy attack while supporting non-combatant evacuation operations in Kabul, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.    

For the Marine Corps, the deceased are: 

Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah. 
Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California.
Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California.
Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska.
Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana.
Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas.
Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri.
Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming.
Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California.  

Hoover, Lopez, Page, Sanchez, Schmitz, Espinoza, McCollum, Merola and Nikoui were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California.  

Gee was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 24, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.  

Rosariopichardo was assigned to 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Naval Support Activity Bahrain.  

For the Navy, the deceased is:  

Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio.  

Soviak was assigned to 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California.  

For the Army, the deceased is:  

Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee. 

Knauss was assigned to 9th PSYOP Battalion, 8th PSYOP Group, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.  

The Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of two shipyards executing a service life extension program (SLEP) for the U.S. Naval Academy’s (USNA) fleet of yard patrol craft (YPs) used to train midshipmen in navigation and seamanship. Lyon ship yard in Norfolk is also conducting the SLEP.

The USNA has a fleet of 21 YPs, which are used to support pierside familiarization, basic damage control and basic to advanced seamanship and navigation underway. There are two variants. The YP 676 class boats are 108 feet long, while the newer YP 703 class are 119 feet long.

YP 676-class boats have wooden hulls and entered service in the mid-1980s. By comparison, the seven YP 703 boats have steel hulls and entered service at the academy in 2010.

The USNA Waterfront Operations Department provides a crew of four, including a craft master (normally a senior Boatswains Mate or Quartermaster), an Engineman and two deck seamen, augmented by the midshipmen who come aboard for training. The Seamanship and Navigation Department provides an officer to train the midshipmen.

YPs are also used to cruise along the eastern seaboard and can be used as platforms for research. The YPs have been used for summer cruises as far as the Great Lakes, but that hasn’t happened for about 20 years. They have a range of  1,800 nautical miles at 12 knots, and can travel for about five days without refueling. YPs spend about 150 days underway conducting training per crew per year.

“The bridges of the YPs are also being upgraded to bring them up to date with electronic navigation standards and newer radar and charting systems. They’ll now have the same version of VMS [vessel management system] that the fleet has,” said Capt. John Tobin of the Seamanship & Navigation department. 

The SLEP affects the YP 676 class boats and will include hull and deck repair, as well as habitability upgrades and overhaul and modernization of the engines and electric generating equipment. The SLEP is being managed by the Support Ships, Boats, and Craft Program Office (PMS 325) within Program Executive Office Ships. Additional YP availabilities are scheduled to continue through March 2022.

“We have completed five SLEPs of the 676 wooden hulled class,” said Cmdr. David Kowalczyk, the CG Yard’s chief of project management. “Two YP’s — YP-683 and YP-684 — are currently undergoing SLEP, and two more are pending.”

The program will be complete with all 12 YPs by 2022. The program will overhaul only two YPs at a time so that there will be enough craft to perform training.

The Navy specified that the repair facility be within 150-mile radius of the Naval Academy, and the Coast Guard Yard — less than 30 miles by car and easy to reach by water — meets that criterion by a wide margin.

The repairs require the YPs to be drydocked or removed from the water to inspect, evaluate, and perform repairs to wooden hull, as well as removal and overhaul of main engines and generators, replacement of galley equipment and inspection and repair of auxiliary systems.

“YP SLEP gives the CG YARD an opportunity to exercise our strengths in vessel renovations and waterfront industrial trade work, and the Navy benefits from our efficient work practices and experience. Ultimately, these strengths combine to  give our customers a quality product, minimal down-time for the vessel, and excellent value for their money,” said Kowalczyk.

Kowalczyk said some of the wood work is done by the CG Yard’s Structural Group’s wood crafters, with portions subcontracted. “YP SLEP is a great opportunity for our wood crafters to employ their skills, and diversify their workload and experience.”

He said there are some challenges inherent in wooden ship overhauls.

“When you undock a wooden vessel after several months of being on land, the wood dries out and shrinks, which can lead to leaks upon undocking. Teaming with the Navy, we’ve cooperatively developed to slowly refloat the vessel on our electric shiplift, to allow the wood to swell back up in a controlled environment. Our electric shiplift is basically an elevator that allows us to lift ships out of the water. This process minimizes leaks, and if it proved necessary, we could lift the vessel back up expeditiously and complete repairs.”

Upon completing the SLEP program, each of the YPs will be able to remain in service for another 10 years.

This report was updated on Aug. 27.

ARLINGTON, Va. — A suicide bomber attacked a gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, killing 13 U.S. military personnel and wounding at least 15 others, U.S. military officials said. 

Killed were 11 Marines and one Sailor, according to official statements as of 27 Aug. A press report said that the 13^th military person killed was a soldier. The service identities of the 15 wounded personnel have not been announced yet, pending notification of next of kin, though some are confirmed to be Marines, according to the HQMC statement. 

The units of the dead and wounded have not been announced. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, staged from the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, had dispatched Marines to Kabul in mid-August as part of the U.S. forces deployed to the Kabul airport to evacuate Americans and certain Afghan nationals who had helped with the U.S. war effort.   

The attack is believed to have been conducted by ISIS-K, rather than the Taliban, said Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander, U.S. Central Command, speaking Aug. 26 via internet link to reporters at the Pentagon. At least 79 other people were killed at the scene of the attack, which included small arms fire as well as a suicide vest. 

A second attack thought to have occurred at the Baron Hotel near the airport turned out not to have occurred, said Army Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor, the Joint Staff’s deputy director of regional operations, in an Aug. 27 briefing to reporters.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III issued the following statement: 

“On behalf of the men and women of the Department of Defense, I express my deepest condolences to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and wounded in Kabul today.  

“Terrorists took their lives at the very moment these troops were trying to save the lives of others. 

“We mourn their loss. We will treat their wounds. And we will support their families in what will most assuredly be devastating grief. 

“But we will not be dissuaded from the task at hand.  

“To do anything less — especially now — would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.” 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday also memorialized in the following statement the Navy and Marine Corps personnel lost in the attacks:  

“This is a solemn day for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps team. Those warriors who died gave their lives to save thousands of men, women and children, Americans and Afghans alike.   

“Their courage and selflessness represent the highest ideals of America. We pay solemn tribute to their sacrifice.  

“To the families and loved ones who grieve — you are not alone. We stand beside you in this pain, humbled by the loss of these heroes, grateful that individuals of such valor chose to serve among us.”  

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David H. Berger issued the following statement: 

“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we learned several Marines and other service members were killed and wounded in the Kabul attacks today. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families as they are notified of this devastating loss.   

“These fallen heroes answered the call to go into harm’s way to do the honorable work of helping others. We are proud of their service and deeply saddened by their loss. As we mourn, we also keep those who are still over there protecting Americans and our Afghan partners at the forefront of our thoughts. Our Marines will continue the mission, carrying on our Corps’ legacy of always standing ready to meet the challenges of every extraordinary task our Nation requires of her Marines.      

“I am continually humbled by the courage and warrior spirit exhibited every day by Marines across the globe. The sacrifices Marines make on behalf of freedom must never go unnoticed or unappreciated. I ask that you keep these Marines and service members, and especially their families, in your thoughts and prayers.”