By Marguerite Cleveland

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have key roles in Operation Warp Speed (OWS) which is a partnership among the two to engage private firms with other federal agencies to accelerate the production of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. This will enhance HHS’s current efforts. There are many promising actions taking place.

The DoD recently awarded a $42 million contract to Curative Inc to manufacture 250,000 of their oral fluid swab test kits which are for 100 military treatment facilities. This will increase the testing capability across the DoD and provide a less invasive method of testing for COVID-19. The test is an oral swab of the mouth versus the painful nose swab. “This is an important capability that will strengthen our medical professionals’ ability to detect, isolate and defeat the spread of COVID-19 across the military,” said Maj. Gen. Lee Payne, the DOD’s COVID-19 Lab Testing Task Force lead. “The ability to reliably test service members and their families is critical towards securing our forces’ health and readiness.”

“It’s no coincidence we had the right innovation network in place to source and scale this test at battlefield speeds,” said Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. “Evolving national security challenges require new and enduring partnerships with commercial innovators. We had the right people and mechanisms in place to move out on this exceptional testing capability for the Department of Defense.”

Also, in the works are ramping up the purchase of necessary supplies needed to administer a future vaccine for COVID-19. On August 4, 2020, the DoD and HHS awarded a $104 million contract to procure syringes and safety needles for the HHS Strategic National Stockpile. This will provide a total of 500 million safety syringes in a 12 month period with 134 million scheduled to be delivered by the end of the year.

“This effort demonstrates skillful collaboration between the interagency and our industry partners, and moves the nation farther forward in its fight against COVID-19,” said Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense, Douglas Bryce. “Immediate procurement and prepositioning of syringes will enable rapid vaccination of the U.S. population once an FDA-approved vaccine becomes available. We are pleased to be part of this unprecedented and critical undertaking.”

HHS and the DoD recently announced an agreement with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson for the manufacturing and delivery of the company’s COVID-19 candidate. Under the agreement the U.S. government will own the 100 million doses of the vaccine which will be used in clinical trials or distributed as part of a COVID-19 vaccination campaign if approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“With the portfolio of vaccines being assembled for OWS, the Trump Administration is increasing the likelihood that the United States will have at least one safe, effective vaccine by 2021,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “Today’s investment represents the next step in supporting Janssen’s vaccine candidate all the way through manufacturing, with the potential to bring hundreds of millions of safe and effective doses to the American people.”

While the clinical trials are underway, the company will be working on a manufacturing demonstration project which by working parallel will help speed up the traditional vaccine development timeline. This will help the federal government’s goal with OWS to be able to deliver millions of doses of a safe vaccine to the American People by the end of the year.

There are many promising vaccines and therapeutics on the horizon which hopefully will bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marguerite Cleveland is a freelance writer who specializes in human interest and travel stories. She is a military brat, a veteran and now a military spouse.  Her military experience is vast as the daughter of a Navy man who served as an enlisted sailor and then Naval Officer. She served as an enlisted soldier in the reserves and on active duty, then as an Army Officer. She currently serves as a military spouse. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two sons. Visit her website www.PeggyWhereShouldIGo.com

PFC Vanessa Guillen, age 20, was last seen alive on April 22. On July 5, her remains were identified. What happened in the weeks and months in between are shining a light on the military’s process of reporting and investigating sexual harassment and assault in the ranks.

Vanessa Guillen’s Disappearance & Death Sheds Light on DOD Sexual Harassment Reporting Flaws

According to reports from Guillen’s family and friends, she had confided in them about several instances of sexual harassment in the months leading up to her disappearance. ABC News reported that Guillen had experienced repeated harassment, including a supervisor watching her shower. However, she had not reported anything to her chain of command out of a fear of reprisals.

Since then, female troops and veterans have flooded social media using the hashtag #IamVanessaGuillen, sharing their own experiences with sexual assault and harassment in the military.

Flawed Reporting Practices Exposed?

From across the services, women are coming forward to share their experiences – and retaliation for reporting.

Military Times shared the story of former Army Spc. Ashley Martinez, who said that her chain of command actively worked to discredit her after reporting a rape. Ultimately, Martinez left the Army as a result of this process.

Martinez is one among hundred of sexual assault survivors who are coming forward in the wake of Guillen’s disappearance and death. Many survivors report that their cases were ignored or that their were attempts to discredit their accounts. Some shared that they ultimately left the military while their attackers continue to progress through the ranks.

Hundreds Share Stories of Survival Online

Survivors are coming forward and sharing their stories online and with media outlets. News organizations like ABC, PBS, The Guardian and Military Times are all sharing stories of sexual assault, harassment and retaliation. Popular true crime podcast, The Murder Squad, dedicated two separate episodes to Guillen’s case exploring additional unsolved murders and discussing the military sexual assault reporting process as well.

Across the different outlets, the theme of retaliation for reporting was consistent.

Army veteran Tiffany Summa told PBS News Hour that she was raped in 2009. She waited 6 years for the results of her rape kit. When she summoned up the courage to report it to her command, she was told to bury it and ignore it. Summa shared that she was further threatened that this high ranking officer would “bury” her if she did not comply.

Legislation was proposed in 2013 to remove the chain of command, including officers like the one Summa encountered, and place investigations in the hands of independent prosecutors. However, this bill was countered with proposal to keep investigations centered around the chain of command. Ultimately, the chain of command remains central to investigations of sexual assault and harassment.

In addition, military members are prohibited from suing the military for damages over injuries that occur while they are in the service.

Options for Reporting Sexual Assault & Harassment in Ranks

There are two types of reports that victims can make, restricted and unrestricted. Restricted reporting limits options in terms of pursuing prosecution while also offering supports like therapy or medical care. Unrestricted reporting essentially makes the report public, allowing for military prosecution.

Victims may report sexual assault to:

• medical professional
• chain of command
• military law enforcement
• civilian law enforcement
• SARC/SHARP representative
• therapist or other mental health care provider

Victims wishing to remain anonymous or receive assistance without triggering an investigation can file restricted reports with SARC/SHARP, a medical professional.

Once an unrestricted report has been made it cannot be converted to a restricted report. However, survivors may elect to change their restricted report to an unrestricted report in order to trigger an investigation.

DOD Stats Show Troubling Trend

For fiscal year 2018, the most recent data available, 24.2% of female troops indicated that they had experienced sexual harassment. In addition, 6.2% indicated that they had been sexually assaulted.

Of those who reported sexual assault, 21% of those cases met the criteria of retaliation or retaliatory behavior.

The report also noted that experiencing sexual harassment statistically increased the odds of sexual assault. Approximately 1 in 5 victims of sexual harassment would be sexually assaulted.

There was also a statistically significant increase of women reporting sexual assault across all service branches.

It should be noted that these numbers indicate sexual harassment and assault that was reported to the service member’s chain of command. It does not account for cases that were not reported.

Have you experienced sexual assault or harassment while serving in the military? Did you report it? Were you retaliated against?

The deaths of three Marine Reservists on April 8, 2019 are now at center stage in the controversy over whether Russia paid operatives in Afghanistan bounties for US troop deaths.

US Investigates Claim that Russia Placed Bounties on Troops

In late June, news broke that Russia had secretly been paying bounties to the Taliban for killing Americans in Afghanistan. Officials, speaking off the record to The New York Times, said that the intelligence community had come to this assessment in early 2020, with President Donald Trump being briefed in February or March at the latest. Despite the White House’s National Security Council creating a plan to combat and end this practice, Trump has yet to authorize any action as of July 1.

American officials reported large financial transfers between Russian accounts and Taliban accounts, based on digital records. They have also identified a possible middleman between Russia and the Taliban.

Both Russian and Taliban spokespeople have denied these allegations on the record. However, some Russian lawmakers have also spoken about such agreements in hypotheticals. Russian Parliament Member Aleksei Zhuravlyov estimated that if bounties were paid, at most 22 American troops would have been killed as targets, according to reporting by The New York Times.

Why Russia Might Be Willing to Pay

Russia and the US have long stood on opposite sides. At the end of World War II and the division of Europe among the Allies, the two nations engaged in a decades long stand-off. Known as the Cold War, the US and former USSR, now Russia, built stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, maneuvered for alliances and raced into space – all in an effort to top each other. The Cold War largely ended with the fall of the USSR in the early 1990s.

A large part of the eventual downfall of communism in Russia was connected to a nominally separate battle being waged in Afghanistan during the 1970s and 1980s. Russia was attempting to consolidate and dominate Afghans, a people who primarily identify with local or tribal leadership. The CIA covertly supplied the Afghan fighters with weapons and other war materiel. Eventually, Russian forces were depleted and withdrew at a great loss.

In recent years, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB operative and Communist Party leader in the USSR, Russia has been exerting its influence and strength in Eastern Europe. In 2014, Russian troops occupied areas of the Ukraine, claiming them as traditionally and culturally Russian. The US opposed such a move and, under President Trump, sent Javelin missiles with the condition they not be used in the conflict with Russia. In addition, US troops reportedly killed many Russian mercenaries during fighting in Syria in 2018.

Throughout his first term, Trump has largely been complimentary toward Putin and about Russia. He frequently upholds Putin as a role model and praises the Russian government. Most recently, Trump has been angling to include Putin and Russia in the G7 conferences.

Were US Troops Killed for Cash?

Democrats, who were briefed on this matter in late June, appear to believe the intelligence community.

“Nothing in the briefing that we have just received led me to believe it is a hoax,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) following their classified briefing on June 30.

However, there is no publicly available evidence to link the deaths of Staff Sgt. Christopher K.A. Slutman, 43, Staff Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31, and Robert A. Hendriks, 25, to any Russian bounty plot.

Intelligence officials are still investigating links to other US troops deaths in 2019. According to the LA Times, several associates of suspected Russian-paid Taliban operatives in the bounty scheme were arrested in March and are being held for questioning.

Bounty Scheme’s Impact on Troop Support for Trump

Friends and family of the Marines killed on April 8, 2019 described their feelings about these new allegations as “pouring salt on a wound,” according to reporting by The New York Times.

Other veterans have also spoken out against Trump’s reaction to intelligence briefings, though it remains unclear whether support for him among the military community will erode as a result. The news about Russian bounties for US troop deaths broke a month after General Jim Mattis, USMC (ret.), and Admiral Mike Mullen, USN (ret.), broke ranks to speak out against the president and his administration.

Do you think it’s plausible that Russia paid a bounty to Taliban operatives? Sound off in the comments.