Monday, April 23, 2012
U.S. AND IRAQ REAFFIRM COMMITMENT ENERGY PRODUCTION AND EXPORT
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Joint Statement of the U.S. - Iraq Joint Coordinating Committee on Energy
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
April 23, 2012
The Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq reaffirmed their commitment to joint cooperation in the areas of oil production and export, natural gas, electricity, and critical energy infrastructure protection during the inaugural meeting of the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) on Energy on April 23, 2012.
This meeting, held at the U.S. Department of Energy, was co-chaired by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Dr. Hussain Al Shahristani and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman and Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the U.S. Department of State Ambassador Carlos Pascual. The JCC on Energy was established by the 2008 Strategic Framework Agreement between Iraq and the United States to strengthen the countries’ strategic partnership on a variety of initiatives.
During the meeting, both sides expressed interest in making efforts to assure oil markets meet producers’ and consumers’ needs for worldwide economic growth, and recognized the bold steps Iraq has taken to increase its oil production and export. The U.S. Government supports these major steps forward.
The United States expressed its continued commitment to support Iraq’s electricity sector through training in operations and maintenance, the provision of spare parts, and the development of the Iraq Electricity Master Plans and the assistance to implement it. The United States described its significant contributions to Iraq’s energy sector since 2003, including $4.6 billion to the power sector and $2.1 billion to the oil sector.
The delegations also discussed the progress of the ongoing energy capacity building programs conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The United States outlined the potentially greater role for the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to expand financing for energy trade and investments.
Deputy Prime Minister Shahristani and Deputy Secretary Poneman will travel together to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories on April 24, 2012 where they will see demonstrations of advanced technology in the areas of critical infrastructure protection for oil facilities, advanced civilian nuclear technology and renewable energy technology.
The United States and the Republic of Iraq committed to convene the Energy JCC quarterly over the coming year.
U.S. AND AFGHANISTAN LOOK AT POST-2014 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
FROM: AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Panetta: U.S.-Afghan Agreement Shows U.S. Commitment
By Jim Garamone
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2012 - U.S. and Afghan officials are studying a tentative agreement on a strategic partnership post-2014, White House and Defense Department officials announced today.
"For the United States, that will mean review by the interagency, consultation with Congress, as appropriate, and final review by the president," according to a White House announcement. "Once these internal processes are complete, we expect to be in a position to sign the agreement."
President Barack Obama wants the agreement to be signed by the NATO Summit in Chicago next month.
"It is fair to say that it represents a significant step in the relationship and makes clear that the United States is committed to an enduring presence in Afghanistan that will be there to help Afghanistan to become a country that can securely govern itself," Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said. "We've committed to an enduring presence and this agreement makes clear that we will have that presence there beyond 2014."
Officials will not discuss the specifics of the draft agreement, although Panetta said the size of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan remains to be worked out with Afghan government officials.
Both sides took drafting the document seriously, Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "It represents the cornerstone in the long-term relationship between the United States and Afghanistan," he said.
The document lays out the strategic parameters for a long-term relationship in many areas, not just a security, Kirby said. "It is certainly ... a clear indication that the United States is not going to abandon Afghanistan," he said. "It is a clear statement of our desire to form and maintain a strategic relationship."
The size of any U.S. force that remains in the region after 2014 will be negotiated with the Afghan government, much like the recent agreement the United States signed with the Afghan government transferring the prisons to them and putting them in the lead of night operations.
Officials hope the agreement will assuage Afghans' concerns that the United States may lose interest in the region after 2014 and leave as it did after the Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan in 1989. That loss of interest and support enabled a decade of civil war and the rise of the Taliban.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AND AGRICULTURE SECRETARIES TOWN HALL MEETING ON CAREER PATHS AND POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
Secretary Duncan joined Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to host a White House Rural Council town hall with agriculture teachers and students from across Wisconsin.
USDA and Education Host White House Rural Council Meeting, Sign Interagency Agreement to Promote Career Pathways and Postsecondary Education
APRIL 18, 2012
The U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture have teamed up to enhance agricultural education and related programs that promote postsecondary and career pathways, including teaching, according to an interagency agreement to advance agricultural education. U.S. Education and Agriculture Secretaries Arne Duncan and Tom Vilsack announced the agreement today during a White House Rural Council meeting with local educators at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
“Agricultural education is central to the future of American prosperity,” Secretary Duncan said. “Many Americans may not realize that agriculture supports 1 in 12 jobs across the nation. For the U.S. economy to continue to rebound and grow, agriculture has to help lead the way.”
Duncan added: “Agricultural educators face unique challenges—but they also can tap into unique strengths within their tight-knit communities. Agricultural education is very much about the jobs of the future—and not a backwards-looking curriculum to preserve the past.”
“American agriculture makes incredible contributions to the health of our economy and the strength of our nation as a whole. That’s why it’s so important to recruit the best and brightest of the next generation to pursue careers in agriculture,” said Vilsack. “USDA works each day to help educate, train and support the scientists, farmers and ranchers we’ll need to provide America’s families with the food and energy they need. This partnership with the Department of Education will help us offer even greater opportunities for young people who want to dedicate their lives to agriculture, food and natural resources.”
The agreement calls for the Departments to exchange a variety of information and participate in joint activities, including webinars, conferences, outreach materials, and helping each other identify industry-validated standards, assessments, best practices, accreditations, and certifications. The Departments also will work jointly to find and use pathways and career programs of study that can prepare students for rewarding careers related to agriculture, food and natural resources.
Since taking office, President Obama’s administration has taken historic steps to improve the lives of rural Americans, put people back to work and build thriving economies in rural communities. From proposing the American Jobs Act to establishing the first-ever White House Rural Council – chaired by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack – the President is committed to a smarter use of existing Federal resources to foster sustainable economic prosperity and ensure the government is a strong partner for businesses, entrepreneurs and working families in rural communities. The Council is working to break down silos and find areas for better collaboration and improved flexibility in government programs and works closely with local governments, non-profits and private companies to leverage federal support.
Since August 2011, the White House Rural Council has supported a broad spectrum of rural initiatives, including a $350 million commitment in SBA funding to rural small businesses over the next five years, launching a series of conferences to connect investors with rural start-ups, creating capital marketing teams to pitch federal funding opportunities to private investors interested in making rural investments, making job search information available at 2,800 local USDA offices nationwide, making HHS loans available to help more than 1,300 Critical Access Hospitals recruit additional staff, and helping rural hospitals purchase software and hardware to implement health IT. USDA and the Navy have also announced a partnership to advance the use of next-generation biofuels in Navy operations.
FEMA SAYS NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM COULD EXPIRE MAY 31, 2012
FROM: FEMA
National Flood Insurance Program Could Expire May 31, 2012, if Not Reauthorized
Here Are a Few Things You Need to Know
April 23, 2012
Many businesses, commercial owners, homeowners and renters purchase flood insurance to reduce the escalating costs of repairing damage to buildings and their contents caused by floods.
As we approach a potentially active hurricane season, FEMA’s Administrator, W. Craig Fugate, is engaging Congress to strongly recommend reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which will expire on May 31, 2012.
The NFIP plays a key role in our Nation’s efforts to prevent and recover from flood disasters. Reauthorization of the NFIP before it expires on May 31, 2012, is essential to our Nation’s efforts to prevent and recover from flood disasters. Floods are the number one natural disaster in the United States in terms of lives lost and property damaged. The NFIP identifies areas of flood risk; it encourages communities to implement measures to mitigate against the risk of flood loss; it provides financial assistance to help individuals recover more rapidly from flooding disasters; and it lessens the financial impact of flood disasters on individuals, businesses, and all levels of government.
In recent years, a series of short-term reauthorizations and temporary suspensions of the NFIP have eroded confidence in the program among stakeholders, including state governments, tribal governments, local communities, individual policyholders, mortgage lenders, and the private insurance industry. In addition to disrupting the program's day-to-day operations, short-term reauthorizations and temporary suspensions create significant uncertainty regarding the federal government's long-term commitment to underwriting and indemnifying flood losses. In the absence of such a commitment, our stakeholders are less likely to make the investments needed to successfully sustain, strengthen, and grow the program — thereby undermining the NFIP’s effectiveness and efficiency over time.
A two year re-authorization will send a clear signal to citizens, communities, and private sector partners that the federal government will continue to support our nation's efforts to manage flood risk. If Congress does not re-authorize the NFIP before it expires on May 31, 2012:
Property owners will be unable to complete new mortgage transactions. Property owners who would normally be required to purchase flood insurance to fulfill lending requirements will be unable to obtain affordable coverage. The National Association of REALTORS estimates that a lapse in authorization jeopardizes an estimated 1,300 sales each day or about 40,000 mortgage closings per month.
The Disaster Relief Fund will bear additional costs when flood strike. Property owners who are unable to obtain flood insurance coverage may seek and be eligible for assistance from the Disaster Relief Fund. Consequently, failure to reauthorize the NFIP will result in transferring a portion of the costs of flood losses that otherwise would have been paid by the NFIP to the taxpayer through the Disaster Relief Fund.
The NFIP may have to halt payment of claims for recent events, including Hurricanes Irene and Lee, if a lapse in authorization substantially reduces cash flow into the program from premiums or a significant flood event follows the lapse and drains the remaining, non-renewable funds.
CHINA BASED OIL FIELD SERVICES CO. CHARGED WITH MISLEADING INVESTORS
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMISSION
Washington, D.C., April 23, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a China-based oil field services company and two senior officers involved in a scheme to intentionally mislead investors about the value of its assets and its use of $120 million in IPO proceeds. The SEC additionally charged the company’s chairman of the board involved in a separate $40 million theft from the company.
The SEC alleges that SinoTech Energy Limited grossly overstated the value of its primary operating assets in financial statements, specifically the lateral hydraulic drilling (LHD) units that are central to its business. The company’s IPO registration statement in November 2010 promised investors it would spend $120 million raised in the IPO to acquire LHD units, but the company’s purchase contracts and other documents otherwise show it acquired far fewer LHD units, lied about the number it acquired, and grossly overstated the value of the units. SinoTech CEO Guoqiang Xin and former CFO Boxun Zhang were responsible for the fraud.
Meanwhile, the company’s chairman Qinzeng Liu is accused of secretly siphoning at least $40 million from a SinoTech bank account in the summer of 2011. He then stood silently by as SinoTech – attempting to counter negative Internet reports that the company was potentially fraudulent – falsely assured investors that the company had that money and more in the bank. Liu later admitted his theft to SinoTech’s auditor and board of directors, but he retained his position and investors were not informed of the incident.
“SinoTech’s brief life as a public company in the U.S. markets has been rife with falsehoods,” said David Woodcock, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. “Investors deserve the utmost honesty and transparency from companies and their officers when they tap public markets in the United States.”
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana (Lake Charles Division), SinoTech’s public filings certified by both Xin and Zhang represented that the company had purchased 16 LHD units worth $94 million. In fact, the company only acquired 11 such units worth less than $17 million. SinoTech continually misled investors about the value of its equipment in press releases and SEC filings between December 2010 and November 2011. Xin went so far as to try (unsuccessfully) to convince SinoTech’s LHD unit supplier to issue public statements verifying the company’s false valuations to investors. The supplier refused.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Liu’s admitted theft of $40 million in company funds occurred sometime between June 30 and August 17. Liu withdrew the money from SinoTech’s primary bank account at the Agricultural Bank of China. SinoTech did not record Liu’s withdrawal in the company’s books and records, and it retained Liu as its chairman despite his confession.
The SEC alleges that the theft remained hidden when SinoTech attempted to rebut an Internet report alleging fraud in August 2011. In an effort to persuade investors that SinoTech was legitimate, the company issued a press release stating that SinoTech’s bank balances totaled more than $93 million and included $54 million on deposit at the Agricultural Bank of China. Liu knew this claim was false due to his earlier theft from that account.
The SEC’s complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief and financial penalties against all defendants as well as disgorgement of ill-gotten gains by SinoTech and Liu. The SEC also requests bars against each of the individual defendants from serving as officers or directors of U.S. public companies.
JUSTICE & EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS REACH SETTLEMENT WITH BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS OVER ELL STUDENTS
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, April 23, 2012
Departments of Justice and Education Reach Settlement with Boston Public Schools to Ensure Equal Opportunites for ELL Students
The Department of Justice and the Department of Education reached agreement with the Boston Public Schools (the district) and its superintendent today to ensure that English Language Learner (ELL) students in Boston receive the services and supports they need to overcome language barriers, as required by the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This agreement replaces an interim settlement agreement entered on Oct. 1, 2010, which required the district to implement short-term remedies to ensure that thousands of students improperly excluded from the district’s ELL programs were promptly assessed and provided services.
The agreement reached today governs the district’s transition from these short-term remedies to longer-term policies and programs that expand the coverage of Boston’s ELL program and are designed to ensure that the services provided to ELL students are of high quality, delivered by qualified teachers and tailored to the specific needs of each individual student. The agreement requires the district to continue its efforts to accurately identify and place ELL students, and further ensures that ELL students, who face unique challenges, including students with interrupted former education and students with disabilities, receive assessments and services that are specially designed to address and ameliorate those challenges. The agreement also affords ELL students greater access to the higher-level learning opportunities in the district. To ensure these programmatic changes are effective, the agreement further requires the district to evaluate the effect of these changes on student achievement over time through robust, disaggregated data analyses.
“We applaud the Boston Public Schools for working collaboratively with the United States to develop a comprehensive plan to effectively serve all students who are not proficient in English,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We believe this plan can guide other school districts seeking to ensure that its English Language Learner programs not only meet the requirements of federal law, but also empower English Language Learner students to strive for success in their education and lives.”
“A key to success is access to a high quality education and today, the Boston Public Schools is promising to provide limited English proficient students an equal opportunity for success by giving them access to programs and services tailored to meet their needs, including access to accelerated programs,” said Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. “The Department of Education is committed to working with the Boston School Committee as it implements this comprehensive plan.”
“ Our education system must provide our children with opportunities to develop into productive citizens regardless of their proficiency in English. When English language learners lack properly trained teachers, those opportunities are curtailed,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts. “We share the goal of continued improvement to Massachusetts schools and look forward to the progress of this collaborative effort.”
Monday, April 23, 2012
Departments of Justice and Education Reach Settlement with Boston Public Schools to Ensure Equal Opportunites for ELL Students
The Department of Justice and the Department of Education reached agreement with the Boston Public Schools (the district) and its superintendent today to ensure that English Language Learner (ELL) students in Boston receive the services and supports they need to overcome language barriers, as required by the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This agreement replaces an interim settlement agreement entered on Oct. 1, 2010, which required the district to implement short-term remedies to ensure that thousands of students improperly excluded from the district’s ELL programs were promptly assessed and provided services.
The agreement reached today governs the district’s transition from these short-term remedies to longer-term policies and programs that expand the coverage of Boston’s ELL program and are designed to ensure that the services provided to ELL students are of high quality, delivered by qualified teachers and tailored to the specific needs of each individual student. The agreement requires the district to continue its efforts to accurately identify and place ELL students, and further ensures that ELL students, who face unique challenges, including students with interrupted former education and students with disabilities, receive assessments and services that are specially designed to address and ameliorate those challenges. The agreement also affords ELL students greater access to the higher-level learning opportunities in the district. To ensure these programmatic changes are effective, the agreement further requires the district to evaluate the effect of these changes on student achievement over time through robust, disaggregated data analyses.
“We applaud the Boston Public Schools for working collaboratively with the United States to develop a comprehensive plan to effectively serve all students who are not proficient in English,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We believe this plan can guide other school districts seeking to ensure that its English Language Learner programs not only meet the requirements of federal law, but also empower English Language Learner students to strive for success in their education and lives.”
“A key to success is access to a high quality education and today, the Boston Public Schools is promising to provide limited English proficient students an equal opportunity for success by giving them access to programs and services tailored to meet their needs, including access to accelerated programs,” said Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. “The Department of Education is committed to working with the Boston School Committee as it implements this comprehensive plan.”
“ Our education system must provide our children with opportunities to develop into productive citizens regardless of their proficiency in English. When English language learners lack properly trained teachers, those opportunities are curtailed,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts. “We share the goal of continued improvement to Massachusetts schools and look forward to the progress of this collaborative effort.”
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PANETTA WORKS TO EXPAND SOUTH AMERICAN DEFENSE TIES
FROM: AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Panetta Visit to Expand South American Defense Ties
By Cheryl Pellerin
WASHINGTON, April 22, 2012 - During his first visit to South America as defense secretary, which starts today, Leon E. Panetta will meet over the next week with military officials in Brazil, Colombia and Chile, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.
The secretary "is looking to expand defense and security cooperation with three important countries in the region and, increasingly, in the world," Little added.
Panetta will travel to Brasilia and Rio de Janiero in Brazil, Bogota in Colombia, and Santiago in Chile.
This trip follows a late-March visit by Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Fla., and then to Brazil and Colombia.
In Brazil Dempsey met with Defense Minister Antonio Celoso Amorim and top-ranking military official Gen. Jose Carlos de Nardi in Brasilia, and in Bogota with Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon Bueno and Gen. Alejandro Navas, commander of the Colombian Armed Forces.
For Panetta, one set of discussions in South America will focus on partnering with Brazil, Chile and Colombia to help build capacity for the military to assist civil authorities in such Central American nations as Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize, a senior defense official told reporters in a background briefing on Friday.
"The challenges these countries face are towering compared to their own capacity to deal with them," he said, adding that Brazil, Chile and Colombia already are significant contributors to building partner capacity.
Colombia, for example, offers capacity-building assistance in 16 countries inside and outside the region, including Africa.
Colombian service members have trained more than two dozen Mexican helicopter pilots and now train police in Honduras and Guatemala. The nation also provides assistance in nondefense areas like justice reform, the official said.
Also in the region, in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Haiti, thousands of U.S. and Brazilian military personnel worked together to provide life-saving relief to the Haitian people. It was the largest combined operation of U.S. and Brazilian military forces since they fought together as allies in World War II.
"We could have done better in Haiti if we had glued together the system in advance to provide for more effective defense support to civil authorities," the official said.
"By collaborating with [all three countries]," he added, "the United States can get down to specifics about which country will be conducting specific initiatives and what kinds of initiatives, so together we can ensure the investment we're making ... is as efficient and effective as possible."
During an April 9 meeting in Washington, President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff established the U.S.-Brazil Defense Cooperation Dialogue and announced that Panetta and Amorim would hold the first meeting this week in Brazil.
The DCD will help bolster cooperation between DOD and Brazil's Ministry of National Defense, and between the nations' militaries, the White House said in a statement.
Beyond the Western Hemisphere, the Defense Department is looking to Colombia and Brazil, both of which already have deep ties to Africa and now provide assistance there, to help U.S. Africa Command with peacekeeping and other efforts there.
"Africa typifies the situation we're in, where the United States has limited capacity to help build partner capabilities," the defense official said.
"Brazil and Colombia ... are stepping up to the plate. Let's collaborate with them, establish a dialogue between their militaries and Africom so we're working in mutual support in an informed, cooperative way," he added.
Panetta will also seek to expand the range of defense collaborations, including traditional military efforts such as training, exchanges and joint exercises.
"Clearly we still have plenty to talk about in continuing to support the Colombians in their efforts against [the narcoterrorist group FARC, for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]to talk about counternarcotics," the official said.
Panetta also will discuss new challenges like cyber security and defense support to civil authorities that offer opportunities for collaboration.
In 2014 Brazil will host the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, World Cup tournament in Rio de Janeiro, and two years later that city will host the 2016 Olympic Games.
"We know in the United States how to provide defense support to civil authorities, to law enforcement or to help prepare for the kinds of challenges these world-class sporting events can attract," he said, "so we're going to share expertise [and] talk about the kind of dialogue that will help nations get prepared."
He added, "In the context of limited resources of the United States for defense ... we have an opportunity to partner together with other nations so they become security exporters."
Panetta, Little said, sees Brazil, Chile and Colombia "as increasingly important players on the regional stage and also in terms of their leadership roles internationally."
All have made progress in terms of their economies, their militaries and their political situations over the last several years, he added.
MISSILE TALK
NORCO, Calif. (March 29, 2012) Telemetry systems personnel from the performance assessment department at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Corona Division, conduct pre-operation testing and software upgrades on portable auto-tracking telemetry antennae. The department develops, operates and maintains communications, computing and instrumentation systems required for missile flight data collection, analysis and dissemination. (U.S. Navy photo by Greg Vojtko/Released)
MILITARY MEMBERS AND FAMILIES HELP ON EARTH DAY TO CLEANUP TRASH
Japan (April 21, 2012) Chief Yeoman Ken Vinoya, center, helps gather trash at the Misawa Fish Port. Misawa Air Base service members and family took part in an Earth Day cleanup in the local community, and helped remove several tons of refuse. (U.S. Navy Photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Daniel Sanford/Released)
Misawa CPO 365 Helps Conduct Beach Cleanup
By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Daniel Sanford, Naval Air Facility Misawa Public Affairs
MISAWA, Japan (NNS) -- Members of the Navy Misawa CPO 365 Program spent the morning cleaning up the local Misawa Fish Port, April 21.
The event was in coordination with the 42nd annual observance of Earth Day, a global event filled with activities highlighting environmental concerns and issues.
More than 30 Misawa Air Base chief petty officers (CPOs) and board-eligible first class petty officers worked together to help the community pick up trash and help beautify the areas in the local community.
"Were here this morning to help out our host country and Mother Nature," said Chief Navy Counselor Todd Wean, who hails from Sarasota, Fla. "The members of CPO 365 do monthly community relations projects together anyway, so it seemed like a good fit for us to combine our effort in the community, while also helping out the environment in the process."
The cleanup is always one of the largest environmental awareness projects in Misawa with several tons of refuse being collected and removed from the fish port.
"We have a great relationship with the local community, and they are very open, receptive and helpful to service members living here in Misawa," said Chief Cryptologic Technician Collection Erika Haws, who originally hails from New Orleans, and serves as the Navy Misawa CPO 365 community relations coordinator. "It's nice to return the favor, and help make this area even more beautiful than it already is."
Besides, the CPO 365 members, many more Misawa service and family members were also on hand to help with the cleanup. Misawa cub scouts, girl scouts and numerous other base groups and organizations joined CPO 365 in their effort.
"It's nice to see folks of all ages come on out from the base and take ownership in the local community," said Wean. "We love Misawa, and this is just one small way that we can make it an even better place to be stationed and live."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)