Ten things to know around DoD in February

By Guv CallahanJanuary 30, 2015

Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Dailey has become the 15th Sergeant Major of the Army Jan. 30. He succeeds Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler, who held the position since March 2011. Dailey is a combat veteran with four deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom and one in support of Operation Desert Storm. In his new role, he will advise the Army Chief of Staff on matters affecting the enlisted force, according to DoD.

Jan. 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during World War II, at the hands of the Soviet Army. Approximately 1.1 million died at the camp between 1940 and 1945, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Auschwitz was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama's nomination to replace Chuck Hagel as the Secretary of Defense, in early February, according to Sen. John McCain, the committee's chairman. Hagel announced his resignation last November, sparking a search for the fourth defense secretary in six years. A physicist and longtime national security insider, Carter, 60, was also a candidate for the job when Hagel was appointed two years ago. Carter is expected to make it through the hearings with ease.

United States troops tasked with training moderate Syrian opposition forces will begin arriving in the U.S. Central Command area of operations at the end of January and the beginning of February, according to the Department of Defense. Several hundred troops will help establish training sites around the region, with training slated to begin in the spring.

Army National Guard Soldiers originally set to replace forces in Senegal and Liberia combating West Africa's Ebola outbreak will no longer be needed, according to Pentagon officials. About 350 troops from four different states -- Minnesota, Texas, Ohio and Iowa -- were slated to join the 2,300 U.S. service members currently serving in West Africa, helping to fight the disease as part of Operation United Assistance. "We are confident that we can meet the continuing needs of this mission without activating these reserves," said Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Adm. John Kirby.

Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Dailey will become the 15th Sergeant Major of the Army Jan. 30. He will succeed Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler, who has held the position since March 2011. Dailey is a combat veteran with four deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom and one in support of Operation Desert Storm. In his new role, he will advise the Army Chief of Staff on matters affecting the enlisted force, according to DoD.

Marine Sgt. Maj. Ronald L. Green will assume his post as the 18th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps during a ceremony Feb. 20 at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Green currently serves as the sergeant major of I Marine Expeditionary Force and will replace Sgt. Maj. Michael P. Barett, who has held the position since June 2011. Green previously served as the sergeant major of Headquarters and Service Battalion at Headquarters Marine Corps, Henderson Hall.

With blizzard warnings mounting in the Northeast on Jan. 26, the New York National Guard put 260 Soldiers and Airmen on duty to assist with New York's response to the storm. Army and Air National Guard units from Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley were ordered to mobilize their initial response forces, according to a DoD release.

U.S. Transportation Command has introduced a new capability that will allow the DoD to use air transport to move multiple patients with highly infectious diseases. Transport Isolation System (TIS) is operational and crews are trained and ready to deploy anywhere in the world in response to a biological event. The need for such a system was made apparent during Operation United Assistance, helping countries in West Africa respond an outbreak of the Ebola Virus.

U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, according to DoD news reports. The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, an effort to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the danger they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region and the international community.

The Department of Defense will celebrate National African-American History Month during the month of February.