Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1990-1991

10

Special Functions

Special functions are those activities conducted by the Army that significantly affect the welfare of the civilian sector in both the United States and foreign nations. During FY 90 and 91 noteworthy activities included civil works by the Corps of Engineers, participation in the war against illegal drugs, increased involvement in improving and preserving the environment, Army litigation, relief for natural and war-related disasters and civil disorders, and preservation of historic structures and sites.

Civil Works

The Civil Works Program of the Army Corps of Engineers provides for nationwide water resources development and management, including investigations and surveys, preconstruction engineering and design, construction, rehabilitation, and the operation and maintenance of flood control, navigation, and multiple purpose hydroelectric power projects having a replacement value of more than $125 billion. In addition to this direct federal investment program, the Civil Works Program includes an important regulatory mission whereby the Corps of Engineers regulates the deposit of dredged and fill material in waters and wetlands of the United States. Funding of the Civil Works Program totaled $3,196,589,000 in FY 90 and $3,314,262,000 in FY 91 (Table 10).

The Water Resources Development Act of 1990 (WRDA '90) was signed into law on 28 November 1990. It was the culmination of much effort during the previous year to continue the objective set forth with WRDA '86 to establish biennial authorizations for water resources projects and programs. WRDA '90 authorized twenty-seven new projects and twenty-three modifications at an estimated cost of $3.3 billion. WRDA '90 authorized the Corps of Engineers to undertake a research and development program, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation and other agencies, to develop a magnetic levitation transportation system.

During this period the Corps of Engineers was concerned with the continuing drought that had forced a reduction in the draft of vessels navigating

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TABLE 10-CORPS OF ENGINEERS CIVIL APPROPRIATIONS FISCAL YEARS 90-91


Appropriation Title

FY 90

FY 91


Total Appropriation*

$3,196,589,000

$3,314,262,000

General Investigations

129,251

146,433,000

Construction, General

1,083,811,000

1,143,073,000

Operations and Maintenance, General**

1,398,219,000

1,450,656,000

Regulatory Program

68,455,000

71,099,000

Mississippi River and Tributaries

336,000,000

344,602,000

General Expenses

141,997,000

126,598,000

Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies

20,000,000

20,000,000

Permanent appropriations

14,700,000

11,801,000

Revolving fund

9,860,000

-


*Funds contributed by nonfederal sponsors of civil works projects and studies as part of local cooperation agreements amounted to $135,819,000 in FY 90 and $121,179,000 in FY 91.
**Special Recreation Use fees included in Operations and Maintenance appropriation.

major water ways such as the Mississippi Rive r, reduced power generation, and affected water supplies. As a result of these problems, the Corps initiated a Water Management During Drought Study to increase the value of existing projects to the economy through development of a consensus on the management of the nation's waters in time of drought.

War Against Illegal Drugs

Although the Army was legally prohibited from taking a direct part in law enforcement, as an indirect participant it played a vital role in combating illegal drug activities during FY 90 and 91. The Army contributed significantly to the overall drive to stop illegal drugs from crossing U.S. borders, to destroy the trade at its sources, and to reduce the demand for illegal drugs within the United States. The Bush administration had announced a new attack on the drug traffic within the United States, along its borders, and in Latin America late in FY 89, by targeting both supply and demand. Congress, in turn, had called for the Department of Defense to serve as the lead federal agency for the detection and monitoring of the movement of illegal drugs into the United States. The Army expected to receive $306.6 million of the more than $1 billion that Congress voted the Department of Defense for the intensified war against drugs for FY 91. These increased efforts had public support; a poll conducted in October 1990 suggested that 54 percent of Americans believed that drug use was the nation's most important problem.

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As a result of these developments, the role of the Army in assisting U.S. civilian law enforcement agencies and the governments of Latin America in their struggle against drug trafficking expanded. Up to this point, the United States had sent only military equipment and a few advisers to aid these nations. The new effort called for increased activity, especially against cocaine traffickers based in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. In outlining the role of the commanding generals of major U. S. commands and the Army's relationship with federal agencies waging the war against illegal drugs, the new plan emphasized that Army personnel respect the laws, regulations, and sovereignty of host nations and their anti-drug teams.

In April 1990 Secretary of the Army Michael P. W. Stone and Chief of Staff General Carl E. Vuono signed the Army Counter-Narcotics Plan that was designed to implement the national counternarcotics efforts called for by the Bush administration. The plan described the nature of the assistance the Army would provide to law enforcement agencies and to foreign governments that requested it. Among the Army's responsibilities were broad guidance, defining missions that supported national objectives, establishing procedures, and providing training, facilities, and intelligence support. The Army would lease or loan equipment needed to interdict drug traffic that included communications equipment, night vision devices, forward-looking radar, and aviation assets. By 20 July 1990, it had loaned almost $100 million in military equipment to law enforcement agencies.

Implementation of the anti-drug effort was the responsibility of many Army commands, agencies, and the Army National Guard (ARNG). In the summer of 1990 the DCSOPS formally created the Army Anti-Drug Task Force Division as the primary point of contact on the Army Staff for the Army's support of the war on drugs. Training for international military students at Army training activities and installations was the responsibility of the TRADOC's Security Assistance Training Field Activity. Special Operations Forces (SOF) established both formal schools and MTTs within the United States to work in host nations.

To improve the coordination of the armed services with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, a series of one-week classes began in the fall of 1990 at the National Interagency Counternarcotics Institute established by the National Guard at Camp San Luis Obispo, California. Congress voted $3.2 million to ensure the permanence of the new institution. Attendees came from all the armed services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and federal, state, and local drug law enforcement agencies. One session was attended by students from intelligence agencies and the Department of State, which provided $1.5 million to support counternarcotics training through 30

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March 1990. Students benefited from lessons already learned by the participants in the many joint anti-drug operations conducted in California and along the U.S.-Mexican border. Subject areas covered by instructors included land navigation, firearms, communications, surveillance, patrolling, and aviation.

The Army initiated another course for law enforcement personnel at Fort Benning, Georgia, in May 1990. The six-week class, taught by the Ranger Training Brigade, was designed to prepare team leaders to conduct paramilitary operations as part of Operation SNOWCAP. TRADOC created SNOWCAP in response to the Drug Enforcement Administration's request for aid in reducing the flow of illegal drugs from the producing countries. The students were experienced law enforcement agency personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and the Border Patrol (a part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service) who had demonstrated leadership ability. Graduates of the course joined MTTs in various Latin American countries, where they worked with SOF units or personnel to train, advise, and support host national police and military anti-drug forces.

FORSCOM was responsible for assisting law enforcement agencies in CONUS in the prosecution of their campaign to stem the flow of drugs across the Mexican border. An estimated 60 percent of the cocaine that entered the United States from Latin America was transported through Mexico. To intensify his command's contribution, in November 1989 the CINCFORSCOM formed Joint Task Force Six, based at Fort Bliss, Texas, to coordinate the support provided for drug law enforcement agency efforts along the Southwest border by Army active and reserve components units. The agencies with which Joint Task Force Six worked included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service, the Border Patrol, state highway patrols, and local police departments. In the summer of 1990 soldiers from the 52d Engineer Battalion stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, and part of the task force, assisted the Border Patrol by clearing underbrush along the border in Texas. The U.S. Air Force 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing also supported the Border Patrol by sending U-2s to fly the first counternarcotics imagery missions that produced photographic coverage two miles wide on each side of the border.

LISTENING POST/OBSERVATION POST, another Joint Task Force Six operation, was conducted in FY 91 with units from the 7th Infantry Division. This exercise provided ground surveillance, radar support, remotely monitored battlefield area surveillance system support, air transportation, and aerial visual and photographic reconnaissance for Border Patrol and National Forest Service anti-drug efforts near Roswell, New Mexico, and Fort Bliss, Texas. As a result of such operations, FORSCOM's contribu-

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tions to the war against illegal drugs was five times greater in FY 91 than FY 90. The Army's trained dogs took part in efforts to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States from abroad, including those going through Customs into Washington state. As part of the support offered in the Goodwill Games in Seattle in the summer of 1990, two narcotic detector dog teams, one from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the other from Fort Riley, Kansas, assisted Customs agents at the Seattle port of entry for participants. These teams discovered narcotics on several occasions; one find resulted in an important prosecution case.

With an anti-drug budget of $100 million, the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) held DOD responsibility for training and supporting local law enforcement agencies that were fighting the drug traffic in Latin America. By April 1991 SOUTHCOM had sent eleven anti-drug training teams into five Latin American countries. In June the command hosted a meeting of ambassadors to the United States from sixteen Latin American nations as part of a drive to build a regional network for drug intelligence. By that date U.S. arms and equipment valued at $60 million had been sent to assist in reducing cocaine production. Army personnel were included on tactical analysis teams that worked in U.S. embassies to counter the illegal drug traffic. The Army Corps of Engineers helped design Drug Enforcement Administration facilities in northern Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru. The Peruvian government's request to the United States for technical and educational assistance in fighting the Shining Path guerrillas, whose activities were linked to trafficking in cocaine, was denied. Congress had placed a freeze on aid to Peru based on human rights violations. In August 1991 the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters emphasized that, unless the Shining Path guerrillas were confronted, Peru could not hope for success in dealing with drug traffickers. He also noted that U.S. help was needed if this effort were to succeed. Having heard the president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, maintain that progress was being made in civil rights, Congress considered removing its freeze on anti-drug aid to Peru by the end of FY 91. The Bush administration prepared to send more than fifty U.S. military personnel, to include Green Berets, to train Peruvian forces.

The principal responsibility for interdicting waterborne drug traffic in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans had been given to two joint task forces supported by the Army-Joint Task Force Five in the Pacific and Joint Task Force Four in the Atlantic-before the start of FY 90. Each task force worked under the command of a U.S. Coast Guard flag officer. In the Pacific region in 1990, Hawaii and Alaska were major transfer points for illegal drugs, and Hawaii was a major producer of marijuana. In January 1990 the belief that drug trafficking in the Pacific region would rival that in the Caribbean led to giving the responsibility for countering all ground

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drug activities throughout the Pacific Command to the U.S. Army, Pacific (USARPAC). In conducting this program, USARPAC managed assets of the Pacific Fleet and the Pacific Air Forces as well as those of the ARNG and the Army Reserve (USAR).

USARPAC emphasized two areas, the import and manufacturing of crystal methamphetamine and the local marijuana crop. In 1990, when a multiagency task force was established to deal with the threat posed by crystal methamphetamine, USARPAC provided analytical and linguistic support. The success of the task force in bringing about the arrest and indictment of fifteen alleged traffickers in 1990 led to requests by Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) for support similar to that given to U.S. law enforcement agencies. In Hawaii, Operation WIPEOUT proved so successful in dealing with an estimated annual crop of four to five million marijuana plants that by the end of the year the state changed from being the second largest producer of marijuana in the United States to a net importer. The success of this operation led to Operation WIPEOUT-91, which began receiving Army support on 18 April 1991. The use of military dogs at U.S. Customs stations in Hawaii and Alaska increased illegal drug detection capabilities by 50 percent.

Within the United States and its territories, the ARNG played a significant role in the Army's contributions to the war against drugs during FY 90 and 91. In some states the Guard had been participating in this effort for more than thirteen years, and by 1990 every state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, employed the ARNG in its drive to eradicate marijuana. The part that the Guard played in the war against illegal drugs grew in the fall of 1989, when Congress included funds in the Defense Appropriations Act for counternarcotics operations outside of regular Guard training exercises. In FY 90 alone, the ARNG, often working with the Air National Guard, took part in twenty-five counter-drug operations. All of these activities were conducted while Guard units were under state control. ARNG drug seizures grew from 57,843 pounds of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and opium in 1989 to 139,760 pounds in 1991. One operation in 1990 involved units of the Florida National Guard under the direction of Customs Service and Drug Enforcement Administration officials. Guardsmen conducted inspections to detect drugs before they entered the country, and in FY 90 they detected almost five tons of cocaine with a street value of $295 million in addition to $26 million more in other forms of contraband.

The California National Guard, working with the Customs Service, the Border Patrol, and approximately thirty other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, watched the U.S.-Mexico border and remote deserts, handled port of entry shipping container and vehicle inspections, and conducted aerial observation. In the summer of 1990 units from both

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the California National Guard and the 7th Infantry Division conducted the first mission that involved both Guard and active component units to destroy marijuana crops. Since the 7th Infantry Division was not legally permitted to uproot the marijuana plants, this activity was left to the Guard. A civil suit filed against Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, Army commanders, and others involved in this operation (Drug Policy Foundation v. William J. Bennett) was dismissed on the grounds that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity and that the plaintiffs lacked standing to seek relief. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, which was still pending at the end of FY 91.

Another Army approach to combat the traffic in illegal drugs was reducing the demand within the United States. In Washington, D.C., the Reserve Officer's Training Corps initiated a pilot program, Operation CAPITAL, as part of an effort to make the Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps more responsive to contemporary needs of society. The purpose of the new program, which involved school administrators and community leaders as well as Army personnel, was to prevent drug abuse and increase graduation rates in the inner city schools of the nation's capital through role modeling, peer counseling, and drug education. Its success led to plans for expansion into other school districts in CONUS. In another effort to reduce the demand for narcotics, USARPAC and U.S. Pacific Command units used the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program to educate fifth and sixth graders about the dangers of drug abuse.

Environmental Protection and Preservation

The need to protect and preserve the nation's natural and historical resources was widely recognized by FY 90. The Army's twenty-year program to clean up pollution on the approximately twenty-four million acres that composed the Army's more than 2,000 installations had already been in place for several years. In 1988 the Army's intensified efforts to protect and preserve the environment had led to establishment of an Environmental Law Division in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. During the first five years of the program, the scope of contamination received the greatest emphasis. While this work was still in progress, the Army launched a drive, not only to clean up pollution, but also to prevent further damage to the environment.

The drive to increase the Army's contribution to preserving the environment moved into high gear after passage of the FY 90 Defense Authorization Act, which called for the Department of Defense to prepare a comprehensive report on long range environmental goals and challenges and to submit it no later than 29 November 1991. The Office of the Secretary of Defense, in turn, required each of the services to formulate

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an environmental strategic plan for the next ten years. This plan would include the cost of solid waste and effluent disposal through the date of the report, projected funding, a schedule of actions for the Defense Environmental Restoration Account, and an assessment of anticipated federal, state, and local laws and regulations and their effects on DOD operations. Other topics included in the plan were the environmental costs of major missions, training, facilities acquisition and base closures, demilitarization, and systems acquisition and development.

On 17 July 1990, the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff issued a memorandum in response to increasing concerns about the environment. The memorandum emphasized the importance of an Army environmental management policy that would require all Army installations to meet or exceed environmental standards. As a result, TRADOC developed an Integrated Training Area Management Program, which called for both education programs that emphasized environmental awareness and efforts to avoid or repair damage to the environment. Among the benefits expected from this program were training areas that continued to resemble terrain that might be encountered during actual combat. It also gave the Army a good image and reduced vulnerability to lawsuits that could result from failure to comply with environmental laws. The program was first implemented in February 1990 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Chaffee, Arkansas; Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

FY 91 marked the beginning of the second phase of the Army's twenty- year program to clean up pollution on Army bases. This phase involved letting contracts for the design of solutions to pollution problems and for management of the cleanup. Army officials estimated that the total cost of the second phase would reach $2.5 billion. In the course of efforts to improve its record in dealing with environmental problems, the Army tripled the funds designated for compliance in 1991 and set aside for this purpose more than $350 million of the $1.2 billion it had allocated for all of its environmental programs. When the Department of Defense increased Defense Environmental Restoration Program funding for FY 91 by 31 percent, it allotted another $209 million for Army projects.

The Army collaborated with other federal agencies on environmental problems. A program to exchange personnel with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase mutual understanding continued; an EPA employee was assigned to USAREUR for two years. The Army joined the EPA and the Justice Department in developing procedures to guide investigations of compliance with environmental laws at Army posts. One successfully tested approach involved notifying a post commander in confidence twenty-four hours in advance of an inspection. Following satisfactory completion of the investigation, the Office of The

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Judge Advocate General began to formalize this approach in a memorandum of understanding to guide future investigations. The Army also worked with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to develop a new pollution prevention directive and took part in the triservice/multiagency Pollution Prevention Model Community Pilot Study in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Army officials anticipated that lessons learned in this study would form the basis for future practices and technologies to improve recycling and solid waste minimization programs.

By the spring of 1991 the Army had made considerable progress in preparing its ten-year environmental strategic plan required by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Quantitative data were being obtained from the Pollution Prevention Control and Abatement Report, which the Army Environmental Office submitted twice a year through the EPA to the Office of Management and Budget. Work groups were preparing cost estimates of major areas not covered in that report. In FY 91 approximately $350 million more than had been allotted to environmental compliance in FY 90 was earmarked for this purpose. The Army estimated that it would spend $2.5 billion in the next five years in efforts to clean up the environment. In addition, an Environmental Compliance Achievement Program had been created to assist commanders and their staffs in complying with federal and state environmental laws with a goal to correct deficiencies in the most cost-effective manner with minimal impact on military missions. Each command was required to appoint an environmental quality control committee to notify major commands of their needs in order to comply with federal and state laws.

In spite of these efforts, 173 Notices of Violation citing Army installations for 418 separate violations of one or more federal, state, or local environmental laws or regulations were received in FY 90. The violations involved hazardous waste, waste water, underground storage tanks, polluted air, or polluted drinking water. Improper administrative and operational practices that often resulted from inadequate environmental staffing at installations caused most of the Army's violations of environmental law s. Since environmental law was growing in both size and complexity, and pressure from organized citizens' groups concerned with the environment was increasing, the FORSCOM staff judge advocate initiated a program to provide legal advice in the environmental audits conducted by that command.

Predictably, actual and alleged violations resulted in litigation. The Army became the defendant in its first toxic tort case when, after lengthy preliminary legal maneuvering that began in 1989, Werlein v. United States finally came to trial on 22 April 1991. This case involved claims for injunctive relief and damages for the adverse effects on health attributed to groundwater contamination caused by a common degreaser, trichlorethylene, used at most Army installations. Because similar cases

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were anticipated in the future, this one was particularly important for the precedents it would set. Eighty-nine plaintiffs were involved, but the court chose fifteen of them as "test plaintiffs," which left open the possibility of subsequent trials for the others. Many witnesses appeared-at least forty expert witnesses as well as eleven attorneys, of whom seven were trial attorneys for the United States. After seven months of trial, settlement was reached.

A complex series of cases also developed as a result of environmental contamination at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado; several of them continued throughout FY 90 and 91. Settlement of U.S. v. Shell Oil, a cost recovery and contribution action against the former facility lessee, resulted in a cost-sharing agreement between the Army and Shell. Other cases involved the extent to which the state of Colorado could undertake independent enforcement actions, pursuant to its hazardous waste laws at the Arsenal, independent of the ongoing cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Because of the contamination, the Army became a defendant in several personal injury or property cases.

An attempt in 1990 to require the Army to submit an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before inactivating the 2d Armored Division resulted in more litigation. In Keep Hood Alive and Kicking v. Department of the Army, the Western District Court of Texas concluded on 14 August that the Army was not required to file a complete EIS. The court upheld the Army's right to determine the fate of Army units by ruling that the Army had both the expertise and the official mission to perform that function. The plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision.

United States obligations that resulted from a treaty with the Soviet Union and a congressional mandate to destroy 80 percent of its chemical weapons by the year 2002 produced further litigation. Incineration in place, where possible, was approved as a disposal method because of the danger of leakage from movement of the munitions. As a precaution, the Army decided to conduct extensive testing of chemical weapons incineration at Johnston Atoll before permitting it at other locations. Greenpeace and four other plaintiffs opposed an attempt to move the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile in Germany to Johnston Atoll for destruction. They filed a complaint and claimed that the Army had not complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Army submitted EISs that covered both the move of the stockpile and the activities associated with burning it. On 9 August 1990, the District Court of Hawaii denied the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order. On 7 September the District Court judge denied requests by the plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction and an injunction pending review by the appeals court. The appeals court denied the request for an injunction.

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Early in FY 91 the Army became involved in two more environmental cases. Both the Sierra Club and the state of Hawaii reacted adversely to the Army Strategic Defense Command's plan to support SDI by testing nonnuclear missiles and platforms, or Strategic Target Systems (STARS), at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The Sierra Club sued to require a complete EIS before firing took place, while Hawaii asked for relief under the State Endangered Species Act and various state land use requirements. Neither plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction to stop STARS activities. The cases were consolidated in March 1991, and on 9 May the District Court of Hawaii granted the Army summary judgment on all issues except those involving hydrogen chloride emissions and Hawaii's law concerning freon. In August Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye wrote to the director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization to urge that the Strategic Defense Command stop all STARS activities until an EIS had been prepared.

In addition to preserving the environment, the Army considered both the preservation of historical buildings and sites and the impact that training exercises might have on endangered species. The anticipated closing of bases raised concerns about preserving historical structures. Congress established the Legacy Resource Management Program in the FY 91 Defense Appropriations Act which provided funding for the DOD to undertake historical and natural resources projects. The primary goal was creating plans to identify and manage biological, geophysical, cultural, and historical resources existing either on, or in connection with, DOD lands. Appointed to manage the new program, the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Environment) named representatives from each armed service to form a Legacy Steering Committee. The Army's representative was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations and Housing). The Corps of Engineers laboratories became responsible for most of the program planning and the Army Engineering and Housing Support Center for planning to preserve cultural resources. The Army's role in the Legacy Resource Management Program complemented its ongoing efforts to abide by the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

Army Litigation

Environmental suits formed but one of many types of litigation that involved the Army during FY 90 and 91. Others included those that arose from Operations JUST CAUSE and DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM, the acceptance of homosexuals as military personnel, and questions concerning the liability of medical officers to malpractice suits. In order to deal more effectively with the complex litigation it faced in FY 90 and 91, the

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Army created the Judge Advocate General's Army Litigation Center in Arlington, Virginia. This organization resulted from consolidation of the Contract Appeals, Procurement Fraud, Litigation, and Environmental Law Divisions and the Regulatory Law Office of The Judge Advocate General's Office, previously located at four different sites.

Following Operation JUST CAUSE, which occurred in Panama during December 1989 and January 1990, some 1,700 claims were filed that asked for more than $255 million in damages allegedly caused by looting in the wake of the American intervention. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a class action that attempted to force establishment of a claims tribunal to pay compensation in these instances. Ruling that the judiciary could not question executive branch decisions relating to the overseas deployment of military forces, the court also dismissed 17 lawsuits, filed by more than 120 plaintiffs, that asked in excess of $80 million in property damage and personal injuries. An appeal of the dismissal of JUST CAUSE actions in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was still pending at the end of FY 91.

Litigation related to Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM began long before DESERT STORM was launched. One of the most significant cases was Dellums v. Bush, a suit filed by fifty-three members of Congress. The plaintiffs sought an injunction to stop the President from launching an attack against Iraq without a declaration of war or a similar authorization from Congress. They maintained that the certainty of war was not clear; thus, the President could not act without congressional approval. The District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the suit on 13 December 1990.

One of the earliest cases filed by individuals who sought to avoid being sent to the Persian Gulf was Wiggins v. Secretary of the Army, heard by the District Court for the Western District of Texas. On 30 November 1990, the court refused to interfere with the deployment of Wiggins, an Army physician and U.S. Military Academy graduate, who had received his professional education at Army expense, but who decided to claim conscientious objector status. Army policy did not permit acceptance of an application for conscientious objector status until the individual had deployed to Saudi Arabia. The plaintiff's conduct after his deployment to Saudi Arabia on 17 December 1990 led to general court-martial charges for willful disobedience, dereliction of duty, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was dismissed from the Army. In a similar case, Pruner v. Department of the Army, the District Court for Kansas refused to interfere in the deployment of a 1st Infantry Division soldier to Saudi Arabia. The plaintiff then went absent without leave and later returned to military control. As a result, he was charged with being absent without leave, missing movement, and desertion.

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The volume of litigation concerning Army personnel liable for mobilization for the Persian Gulf war was low in view of the large number of reservists called to active duty. Of 126,930 members of the Selected Reserve, 20,921 members of the IRR, 5,541 reservists on temporary tours of active duty, and 1,293 recalled retirees, only 19 reservists challenged their activation. Seven more suits were brought by active component personnel. In Ange v. Bush, a reservist disputed the President's authority to send units of the Selected Reserve to the Persian Gulf. The District Court for the District of Columbia heard this case and rejected it on 13 December 1990. A member of a South Dakota National Guard unit that was mobilizing at Fort Carson, Colorado, attempted to avoid deployment to Saudi Arabia on the grounds that he suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder caused by military service in Vietnam. The District Court of Colorado summarily dismissed his claim.

A challenge to the Army's use of drugs to protect soldiers sent to the Persian Gulf against chemical and biological warfare also failed. It was dismissed by the District of Columbia Circuit Court, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a subsequent appeal. An anonymous soldier and his wife filed the case; they maintained that soldiers could not be forced to use the drugs without their informed consent. The District of Columbia Circuit Court ruled that the use of drugs in this situation reflected a strategic military decision with which it would not interfere, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the rule waiving informed consent requirements in combat situations did not violate the Food and Drug Act.

The Army litigated several cases during FY 90 and 91 regarding the right of homosexuals to serve as military personnel. In Watkins v. United States Army, the U.S. Supreme Court refused on 9 November 1990 to review a ruling made by a lower court. The lower court had ruled that, since the Army recognized that S. Sgt. Perry Watkins, a career noncommissioned officer (NCO), was a homosexual, yet had not discharged him, it could not deny him reenlistment on that ground. As a result, the Army and Watkins reached an agreement that gave him a retroactive promotion, back pay and allowances, credit for continuous service until 31 January 1991, and retirement rather than return to active duty.

Unlike Watkins v. United States Army, Ben Shalom v. John O. Marsh, Jr., et al., challenged the Army's basic policy that excluded homosexuals from military service. An appellate court had reversed a lower court decision against the Army's customary refusal to admit homosexuals, and on 4 December 1989 the plaintiff appealed for U.S. Supreme Court review. On 26 February 1990, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The refusal upheld the appellate court's decision to let the Army's exclusion policy stand and ended fourteen years of ongoing litigation. Nevertheless,

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as FY 91 came to an end, another case that challenged this practice was pending, after a federal appeals court in California ruled that the Army must demonstrate that legitimate government interests were at risk before it could discharge a homosexual.

Another type of litigation that occurred in FY 90 and affected the Army pertained to the authority of governors of states and territories over the service of the Army National Guard (ARNG). In Perpich v. Department of Defense, the governor of Minnesota maintained that the Montgomery Amendment to the FY 87 Defense Authorization Act infringed on the states' authority to train the state militias under the militia clauses of the Constitution. The Montgomery Amendment prohibited the governors of states and territories from refusing to consent to active duty by the National Guard of the United States on the basis of location, purpose, type, or schedule of the activity. On 11 June 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the amendment was a valid exercise of Congress' constitutional authority to raise an army.

The issue of the degree to which the Army could be held responsible for physical injuries incurred by military personnel incident to service continued during FY 90 and 91. The Feres Doctrine, based on a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, held that neither the armed services nor the responsible individual could be sued for physical injuries to military personnel in the United States. Several bills that pertained to injuries that resulted from medical malpractice were being considered in Congress. On 20 March 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Federal Employee Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act of 1988 protected Army medical officers from being sued for malpractice for services provided to Army personnel overseas. In this decision, the Supreme Court reversed an appellate court ruling in United States v. Smith (initially Smith v. Marshall). This decision left only administrative remedies available to military personnel who felt they had grounds to sue an Army medical officer, whether the incident occurred in the United States or overseas.

Army Energy Program

Long involved in efforts to conserve energy, the Army decreased energy consumption to 2.6 percent below its goal in FY 90. In an outstanding case, Fort Gordon, Georgia, saved $1.6 million that year by attaining a level 13.4 percent below its assigned goal. In the Department of Defense Authorization and Appropriation Acts for FY 91, however, Congress criticized the Army's lack of energy retrofit projects and voted $10 million to stimulate improvements in the Department of Defense energy conservation programs. Guidelines to encourage suggestions for new energy-saving projects were sent to major Army commands (MACOMs), installa-

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tions, and Corps of Engineers divisions and districts. In the past, the Army Energy Program had produced significant savings in energy and money. The Army set energy reduction goals for each installation.

Disaster Relief

In FY 90 and 91 the Army continued its long tradition of aiding the victims of both natural and manmade disasters. During FY 90 the Corps of Engineers played a major role in the cleanup of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill through the use of remote sensing to locate and track the oil's movement. Using two hopper dredges, the Corps collected nearly 7,000 barrels of oil in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. The Corps also explored ways to improve its response to future oil spills. A survey of the oil industry's ability to respond to spills, which the Corps initiated, included an inventory of the industry's hopper dredges as well as an engineering study of ways to modify the Corps' hopper dredges to improve recovery operations.

October 1989 brought a powerful earthquake to the San Francisco area of California. Completion of a revised CINCFORSCOM Catastrophic Earthquake Plan was awaiting publication of a final version of a disaster response plan by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when the fourth largest earthquake in recorded California history struck the Loma Prieta area on 17 October. The quake, which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, rendered the Corps of Engineers' San Francisco District and South-Pacific Division offices temporarily inoperable, so the Sacramento District immediately assumed control of the Corps' initial response to the disaster. Later that evening the Corps of Engineers set up operations at the Presidio Army Base. A JCS mobilization exercise, PROUD SCOUT, was being conducted at the Presidio, and participating personnel were released to assist the victims. The Sixth Army promptly activated its Emergency Operations Center. Army firefighters from the Presidio were the first to arrive at the fires that soon erupted in the Marina district a mile away. Military police and other soldiers from the garrison cleared cars and spectators from the area and helped move the heavy hoses that carried water pumped from the bay.

Helicopters brought earthquake victims to Letterman Army Medical Center, the only hospital in the area with a helipad. The earthquake did not damage Letterman's water and sewage systems and caused only slight damage to the telephone system. The hospital lost electrical power, however, and for forty-eight hours relied on an electric generator. Because the telephone system was severely overloaded, no attempt was made to recall off-duty hospital personnel. Nevertheless, except for those who normally used the heavily damaged Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, all hospital

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personnel came in voluntarily. By 1830 hours on the day of the earthquake, Letterman was ready to treat as many as 200 casualties. The hospital also cooperated with other facilities in the area-the Naval Hospital in Oakland, the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, and other hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area. Letterman eventually treated forty-nine civilians and admitted nine of them. It also provided meals and shelter to refugees until they could be relocated to city-operated facilities the next day. On 23 October the Letterman Medical Center returned to normal operations. For some time after the earthquake the Letterman Preventive Medicine Service assisted with health and sanitation matters in displaced persons shelters at the Presidio of San Francisco and increased its monitoring of local water supplies.

From nearby Fort Ord, the 237th Medical Detachment (AA) flew sixty units of blood and plasma for casualties being treated at the Naval Hospital in Oakland in support of its Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic (MAST) mission. The 237th also evacuated earthquake victims from small hospitals to larger facilities during the hours of darkness on 17 October 1989. To help meet the emergency, the California National Guard mobilized an engineer battalion, an air ambulance company, an evacuation hospital, a combat support hospital, and headquarters elements from a medical brigade and a military police brigade, a total of 1,178 troops. Guard units assisted in setting up emergency housing and in clearing roads.

The day after the quake, Presidio firefighters returned to search damaged buildings for survivors, and military police from the Presidio began patrolling the Marina district on a 24-hour basis. On the weekend, 21-22 October, three hundred volunteers from the various districts and divisions of the Corps of Engineers throughout the United States had arrived in response to a request by FEMA for assistance in assessing damage to private buildings. Army engineers also conducted damage assessments of public structures, conducted dredging operations, and promoted ferry service in the Bay area. The Corps supported the relief efforts of the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Education. Inspectors checked federal dams and principal levees in the area for damage. At one point, the Corps had more than 1,200 personnel in the area.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1990, the Army assisted the victims of natural disasters. Although much aid was rendered by the National Guard of the affected states, Corps of Engineers personnel were called upon when unusually heavy rainstorms struck Alabama in March. The Director of Military Support in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans (ODCSOPS) solicited assistance from the CINCFORSCOM who, in turn, required the Second U.S. Army to provide a disaster control officer. Aviation, public affairs, and engineer personnel

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from Fort McPherson and Fort Stewart, Georgia, and Fort Rucker, Alabama, supported relief efforts throughout the month.

In May similar storms hit Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, states in which the Corps of Engineers had thirty flood control reservoirs. Nevertheless, some of these areas experienced the worst flooding since 1927. The high water records at five Corps of Engineers reservoirs in the Trinity and Brazos River Basin in Texas were broken, and at one point all five exceeded their flood control capacity. Joining others working around the clock, engineer personnel attempted to reduce the danger by regulating the release of water from reservoirs. When the Cumberland Dikes system that protected an oil field in Oklahoma was severely damaged, corps personnel shored up the dike and closed the breach. The Engineer district at Little Rock, Arkansas, distributed 325,000 sandbags to hold back flood waters in that area, and the ARNG joined Marine Corps units in building sandbag levees. Helicopters from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, flew reconnaissance runs over flooded areas, and planes from Fort Hood carried congressmen on inspection trips of devastated areas in Texas.

Fire also caused disaster in 1990 when a rash of dangerous blazes broke out in the western United States after a long, dry period. Earlier in the year a meeting was held at the Boise, Idaho, Interagency Fire Center to discuss the issues involved in committing military resources to fight such conflagrations. To expedite joint planning, on 7 June the Director of Military Support alerted the CINCFORSCOM regarding the participation of Army personnel in fighting forest fires. A comprehensive plan that outlined the roles of various Army organizations was released on the fifteenth. After FORSCOM issued a warning order on 27 June, Air Force Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems were deployed to drought-stricken southern California to fight wildfires. In August two battalions from Fort Carson, Colorado, and another from Fort Lewis, Washington, approximately 1,775 active component personnel, joined by several ARNG units, worked with federal firefighters struggling to subdue forest fires in eastern Oregon and northern California.

The Army also assisted the victims of man-made and natural disasters in other nations during FY 90 and 91. Immediately after the 1st Infantry Division entered Safwan near the Ku wait-Iraq border during the Persian Gulf war in late February 1991, several U.S. Army medical personnel opened a clinic that treated as many as 150 to 200 Iraqi refugees a day. Two months later, soldiers based in Panama aided victims of an earthquake that killed 79 Panamanians and left 6,000 homeless. Coordinating their efforts with the Panamanian government, 130 soldiers of the 536th Task Force evacuated victims, brought them water and blankets, and set up temporary shelters. Eighty soldiers of the 59th Engineer Company repaired the major road between two of the largest communities in the affected province. A

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cyclone destroyed villages, roads, bridges, and communications in Bangladesh in May 1991. Five UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, a team of Army engineers en route to the United States from the Persian Gulf war, and Army SOF troops from Okinawa were among those who provided assistance. Active participation by U.S. Army personnel in Bangladesh represented a policy change. Heretofore, assistance in such circumstances was limited to food, credits, funds, and advisers.

Other Forms of Support to U.S. Agencies and Foreign Governments

On a number of occasions in FY 90 and 91, the Army was called upon to assist foreign nations in recovering from damage produced by war or to help third world nations modernize their infrastructure. For example, the U.S. Army assisted the new civilian government of Panama to function independently after Manuel Noriega's removal from power at the end of 1989. The U.S. Military Support Group-Panama was established to serve as liaison between U.S. military forces and the new government. The support included medical readiness training exercises that brought medical, dental, and veterinary assistance to the people of the Panamanian countryside. USARSO's command surgeon and the 142d Medical Battalion worked with the Panamanian Ministry of Health to provide medical treatment and vaccinations. By the end of 1990, Panamanians were ready to manage their own medical needs.

The U.S. Army assisted the new Panamanian government in other ways. The USARSO Staff Judge Advocate's Chief of International Law and Affairs was responsible for helping Panamanian legal authorities to develop a judicial system. He was assisted by his Judicial Liaison Group, composed of active and reserve component lawyers with skills in law enforcement and the management of prisons. During Operation JUST CAUSE, the U.S. Army had operated a twenty-hour law enforcement training course for the Panamanian police. The new Panamanian government forbade military participation in law enforcement training, so the U.S. Justice Department assumed control of the program. Nevertheless, Panamanian National Police continued to accompany U.S. military police on security patrols until November 1990. SOUTHCOM and USARSO engineers were already familiar with many local infrastructure problems. The Corps of Engineers assisted Panama after JUST CAUSE by using training exercises to construct and repair public facilities. During one of these exercises, USARSO's 536th Combat Engineer Battalion joined ARNG units in building and repairing schools, medical and dental clinics, bridges, and roads.

The swift conclusion of offensive operations in DESERT STORM was followed by a remarkably rapid transition to operations that supported the

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restoration of Kuwait. This classic application of civil-military operations was an effort in which the active component, the reserve components, and Army civilians were fully integrated. On 1 December 1990, responsibility for planning civil affairs assistance to Kuwait was given to fifty-seven Army Reservists from the 352d Civil Affairs Command and the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade. Created from this group, the Kuwait Task Force coordinated directly with Kuwaiti officials. In February 1991, this task force became part of the larger Combined Civil Affairs Task Force which, in turn, became part of Task Force Freedom when it was formed on 13 February. Task Force Freedom was responsible for emergency repairs to damage in Kuwait caused by the Iraqis and the collateral effects of the Persian Gulf war. The Combined Civil Affairs Task Force arrived in Kuwait on 1 March to provide assistance with infrastructure, public security and safety, public services, and commerce. It continued as part of Task Force Freedom until its disestablishment on 30 April 1991. Task Force Freedom turned the remaining reconstruction work over to the Defense Reconstruction Assistance Office, which kept twenty task force members in Kuwait until 1 June, when all but four of this group returned to the United States.

The work of the Corps of Engineers complemented that of civil affairs units in Kuwait. The Corps of Engineers participated extensively in damage assessment and supervision of repair contracts. It received $46.35 million for emergency recovery assistance from the government of Kuwait as early as 14 January 1991. Corps military and civilian personnel then established the Ku wait Emergency Recovery Office. The Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division, headquartered at Winchester, Virginia, which had worked in Saudi Arabia for many years, managed the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Office. All but 14 of its 130 personnel were civilians. Many of them were engineers, although some were specialists in contracts, computers, litigation, and personnel.

With the cooperation of Kuwaiti engineers, the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Office oversaw the work of hired civilian contractors. These efforts concentrated upon restoring the capacity for generating and distributing electric power, treating and distributing water, and collecting and treating waste water. Engineer personnel also helped to restore international airport service, roads, and public buildings. As of 7 July 1991, 694 damage surveys with estimates of repair costs of $828.2 million had been completed. By May, 1991 electric power had been reestablished, airports had been reopened, and the principal roads were again passable. Plans called for repair work to continue throughout 1991.

The multination PROVIDE COMFORT Task Force, headquartered at Incirlik, Turkey, was formed on 6 April 1991 to provide humanitarian assistance to some 500,000 Kurdish refugees living in tent cities scattered

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over northern Iraq or in villages near the Turkish border. Four of the task force's five subordinate commands were led by U.S. Army officers and contained U.S. units. One of these U.S.-led subordinate commands was the Combined Support Command, responsible for guiding supplies provided by the United Nations and nongovernment organizations to the refugees and for the overall support of the coalition troops. The second U.S.-led subordinate command, Joint Task Force Alpha, dealt with humanitarian aid and included the 10th Special Forces Group. The third, Joint Task Force Bravo, which included the 18th Engineer Brigade, created a security zone to separate the Kurdish villages from the Iraqis and helped resettle the refugees in a large area of northern Iraq after the Iraqi Army had been ousted. The fourth command led by a U.S. Army officer was an Army civil affairs brigade that included two civil affairs companies from Task Force Freedom that were reassigned to Turkey. They operated three refugee villages at Zahku and helped establish a fourth camp at al Amadiya. They assisted with civil administration and sanitation, and also supplied water, electricity, food, and other items urgently needed by the displaced Kurds.

The Corps of Engineers began a partnership with the EPA to improve the environment in Eastern Europe under the authority of the Support for Eastern European Democracies Act passed by Congress in November 1989. One of the first projects carried out under the new law involved helping the EPA to improve the quality of the water in Krakow, Poland. The engineers purchased equipment in the United States to treat both water for human consumption and waste water and then managed the shipment and installation of this equipment in Poland.

Army security assistance is an important instrument that assists allied and friendly countries to strengthen their ground forces and to develop politically democratic societies. During FY 90 and 91 Army security assistance included sales of major Army systems to several Middle East countries in support of Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM and substantial transfers to other foreign military sales claimants of equipment which had become excess because of conventional force reductions in Europe and the general Army drawdown. Under Section 506 (drawdown) of the Foreign Assistance Act, $48 million of materiel, training, and services were provided to selected Latin American countries to eradicate drug production and trafficking and to the Philippines to support counterinsurgency and nation building.

Army security assistance sales for FY 90 totaled $6.5 billion and increased sharply to $11 billion in FY 91. The total value of FY 91 sales was higher than the Army-only procurement program. Sales and transfers of Army major systems during FY 90 and 91 included the procurement of Abrams M1A2 tanks by Saudi Arabia, a coproduction agreement for man-

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ufacturing Abrams M1 tanks in Egypt, the purchase of M198 howitzers by Pakistan, and coproduction of the Stinger missile in Switzerland. In FY 90 the Army trained 6,747 foreign students in Army schools and facilities in CONUS and deployed 142 Mobile Training Teams (MTTs) abroad for on-the- job training of foreign personnel.

Enrollment of foreign students at Army schools and deployment of MTTs abroad increased to 7,013 and 152 respectively in FY 91.

Special functions during FY 90 and 91 presented the Army with challenges both familiar and new. Those encountered by the Corps of Engineers changed little, except that restricted funding required the Corps to reemphasize efficient management. The needs produced by war and disaster and by the disorders that they spawned varied with each case, but the Army had extensive experience in these matters and remained prepared to meet them. Major new challenges resulted from the increasing threat posed by the traffic in illegal drugs, growing environmental concerns, and military operations conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf. The effort to increase the Army's contribution to the war against the trade in illegal drugs, in view of legal restraints on its participation both at home and abroad, posed a difficult challenge that the Army met rather well. The intensified emphasis upon cleaning up the environment and eliminating serious future threats required creating new programs and raising the consciousness of the people who work for the Army.

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