Military

US Troop Levels in Pacific Take Center Stage as Defense Secretary Huddles with Allied Defense Leaders

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles, Japanese Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru and Secretary of National Defense of Philippines Gilbert Teodoro conduct a multilateral press briefing at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command headquarters, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii.

HONOLULU -- Amid a gathering of top defense leaders from across the Pacific in Hawaii, Pentagon officials said Thursday that the U.S. not only needs to grow its ties in the region but also bolster the number of troops there to deter China.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while standing alongside his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines, said that the four leaders "discussed how we can deepen our trilateral cooperation to strengthen stability and security."

However, one military official also said that the U.S. needs "an improved force posture and it needs to be west of the International Date Line ... so that we can have a lethal and combat credible force" closer to China, Russia and North Korea.

Austin's day of meetings with his counterparts in the region comes as China continues to expand its campaign of harassing and threatening nearby countries and their ships in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, the Philippine coast guard announced that two of its ships were rammed and shot with water cannons ^[2] by vessels from the Chinese coast guard. The incident is just the latest in a growing number of skirmishes that are only increasing in frequency.

Defense officials at the Pentagon told reporters that incidents like this are "really worrisome operational behavior and coercion" and "a topic that we're going to focus on together."

Earlier in April, Austin assured Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the long-standing mutual defense treaty "extends to both countries' armed forces ^[3], public vessels, and aircraft -- including those of its coast guard -- anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea," according to Pentagon spokesman ^[4] Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

However, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippine defense secretary, told reporters that he didn't want to discuss "a scenario when or in what occasions the [defense treaty] may be invoked,” before noting that its invocation "will be a political decision, at the end of the day."

But as incidents between China and the Philippines continue to simmer, the U.S. military official said there is a worry that there aren't enough U.S. service members in the region to respond to a possible, future incident or offer "a lethal and combat credible force forward."

The military official noted to reporters that, while the Indo-Pacific has about 300,000 assigned forces, only about 80,000 of those are west of the International Date Line, which passes through the center of the Pacific, and the bulk of those are in Japan.

However, simply moving troops into the region permanently is not on the table since there are both legal and political constraints.

In February, the Philippines agreed to increase the number of military camps ^[5] that the U.S. will be allowed to maintain in the country to nine. However, those are not bases with permanently stationed troops but rather locations that the U.S. military has access to should it need them.

Meanwhile, Australia recently inked a historic deal, commonly called "AUKUS," that will see the U.S. provide the island nation with its much-coveted, nuclear-powered submarine technology. However, the military official noted that "Australia's constitution prevents us basing in Australia."

The solution, officials say, is to continue to build relationships with allies and increase the tempo of exercises and troop rotations through the region.

Austin said that he and the other leaders are "looking to conduct more maritime exercises and activities among our four countries," while officials at the Pentagon said that the aim for the meetings was to generate "'no kidding' proposals for collective action."

"We need to create opportunities for training environments, for locations that they can do rotational visits to," the military official said.

Austin acknowledged that "we're clear-eyed about the challenges that exist throughout the region and so we'll need to continue to work together."

"But that's why we're here -- because we share a common vision," Austin said.

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Tricare Appointments Will Be Honored Despite Network Turnover for Western US at End of the Year, Military Says

Yamoca Joseph, a medical support assistant in Kenner Army Health Clinic's Wilkerson Pediatric Clinic, checks the credentials of 14-year-old Jayden Rios prior to an appointment.

Tricare ^[1] beneficiaries in the West Region can expect to have access to a list of network health providers before Nov. 2 and any appointments made this year for after the first of the year will be honored, according to the Defense Health Agency.

TriWest Healthcare Alliance is set to assume management of the Tricare West Region on Jan. 1, affecting roughly 4.5 million beneficiaries in 26 states, including six states currently in the East Region.

According to Defense Health Agency spokesman Peter Graves, TriWest will publish its T-5 West Region Provider Directory online sometime before Nov. 2, and beneficiaries will be able to review it to determine whether their current providers will remain in the Tricare network.

Graves said it's also likely that providers who have established relationships with their patients will "individually notify beneficiaries if they will remain in the Tricare network" under the next-generation contract, known as T-5.

The Defense Department awarded the new Tricare contracts to TriWest in the expanded West Region and Humana Military in the East Region in December 2022, prompting a series of bid protests ^[3] and a lawsuit from Health Net Federal Services ^[4], the company that currently manages the West Region contract.

The T-5 contracts shift six East Region states to the West Region, including Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The contracts also promise to offer greater provider network flexibility, improved response times and transfer of specialty care referrals during a permanent change of station ^[5] move.

Patients have contacted Military.com with concerns over how the change will affect their medical care. Retired Navy ^[6] Lt. Cmdr. Jim Buehler said that he has appointments scheduled months out for cardiac care and pain management and worried whether his referrals and appointments would be honored when Wisconsin, where he lives, switches regions.

"I've reached out to Tricare East, Tricare West (both the current and future contract holder), and DHA Tricare Admin to find out. ... Nobody I have spoken with seems to be able to address my concern," Buehler wrote in an email. "The doctors I have scheduled book out 6 to 8 months and, if I need new referrals, I will most assuredly lose at least one of my appointments."

Graves said that all appointments scheduled before Dec. 31 for dates after Jan. 1 "will be honored and remain scheduled."

"For beneficiaries living in one of the states that's going from the East Region to the West Region, DHA and Tricare regional contractors have a variety of communications planned throughout the year to explain how the transition will occur and any action they need to take so their Tricare benefits continue seamlessly," Graves said.

A spokesperson for Health Net Federal Services said the company is "fully committed to providing exceptional health care" to patients through the end of the year and has a number of communications campaigns planned with beneficiaries to ensure a good transition.

"Our role and the activities involved in transitioning from T2017 to T-5 are carefully accounted for as part of contracted transition plans, and we will continue to make sure our transition-out activities run smoothly," the company said in a statement.

TriWest did not respond to a request for comment.

Graves encouraged beneficiaries to check the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System ^[7], or DEERS, to make sure all beneficiary information is correct.

"This will help ensure they don't miss important communications regarding their Tricare benefit," he said.

Considering Fat-Loss Supplements? New Military Study Finds Many Are Not What They Seem.

A majority of weight-loss supplements sold online at a discount to service members and tested by Defense Department researchers are mislabeled -- and some contain substances banned for consumption by troops, a new analysis has found.

The researchers, who looked into whether service members are at risk for ingesting unsafe products, tested 30 weight-loss supplements available online and in stores to determine whether they contained the ingredients listed on their labels or had any hidden additives.

They found that 24 listed ingredients that weren't actually in them, seven had additives that weren't listed as ingredients, and one-third had substances found on the Defense Department's Prohibited Dietary Supplement Ingredients List, according to the study, published online Wednesday by the journal JAMA Network Open ^[1].

All the products were also rated as "risky" when assessed against the Defense Department's Operation Supplement Safety ^[3] scorecard, according to the report. The research was done by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

Service members must maintain their weight and fitness levels as a professional requirement, making them a lucrative target for the $43.9 billion U.S. weight-loss supplement industry.

Mislabeled or dangerous supplements, however, can pose a risk to troops, endangering their health, careers and financial well-being, the researchers noted.

"The predatory marketing to service members and low quality of dietary supplements promoted for weight loss pose a threat to military members and the public," wrote the authors, led by Cindy Crawford, a senior research associate with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

The rate of obesity among U.S. troops rose by 13.3% from 2020 to 2021, while diagnoses of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes among service members also increased -- the latter, the risk of which increases greatly with poor dietary habits, was up 25% since 2018, according to data published in March 2023 ^[4] by the Defense Health Agency.

Given the pressure troops face to maintain fitness, they may be more likely to turn to dietary supplements, "mistakenly believing that dietary supplements have been declared safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration if they are available for purchase in stores and online," according to the study.

The Food and Drug Administration requires supplements to have labels listing them as dietary supplements; the name and place of the manufacturer; ingredients; and the contents of the product.

By analyzing the chemical makeup of the products via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the researchers found that many were adulterated or did not contain ingredients that were listed on their labels, such as raspberry ketones, hoodia or other extracts that claim to promote weight loss.

A few even contained DMAA, a synthetic ingredient banned by the FDA in 2013. Touted as a fat-burner, DMAA is known to elevate blood pressure and can cause health problems such as shortness of breath or heart attacks.

The Defense Department launched Operation Supplement Safety in 2012 to educate the military community about dietary supplements and the potential health risks of ingredients. The program's website ^[5] provides extensive resources on supplements and contains a list of substances banned by the Defense Department.

The researchers noted that more education is needed among health professionals and service members to address supplement safety. According to the authors, the results of their study
"require solutions."

"These issues present clear health risks for all consumers," they wrote.

Air Force Spares Nothing at Armed Forces Sports Bowling Championship > U.S. Department of Defense > Story

View of two mobile devices live streaming a bowling match at a bowling alley.

The Air Force dominated, taking the gold in both men's and women's team divisions, at the 2024 Armed Forces Sports Bowling Championship at Fort Meade, Md. The Navy took silver and Army walked away with the bronze.

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