KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military has lifted a seven-month ban on fast-food restaurants and retail stores at American bases in Afghanistan.

The shops, ranging from Burger Kings to Oakley sunglasses stores and Military Car Sales outlets, were ordered closed in February by former U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who cited space issues. At the time, McChrystal’s senior enlisted adviser said the profusion of such shops was contributing to an “amusement park” atmosphere at some of the largest U.S. bases.

But Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill — who took over as the senior noncommissioned officer in Afghanistan this month — decided to reverse the ban after consulting with other top noncommissioned officers, he said in an interview Thursday.

“For troops to be able to go and grab a burger or a piece of chicken or whatever, I don’t really think it’s that bad,” he said.  [Stars and Stripes]

You can read the rest of the story at the link above.

Whoppers, Dairy Queen sundaes and the latest movies will soon disappear for U.S. military personnel serving in Afghanistan, according to a blog posting by Sgt. Maj. Michael T. Hall discussing changes to morale, welfare and recreation facilities on U.S. bases there.  

In an effort to put more focus on fighting the Taliban, the military is cutting back on “non-essentials” in Afghanistan, Hall announced on the International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan blog this week. Hall is the command sergeant major for ISAF [CNN]

This quote from CSM Hall’s blog.

Many of you have heard that there are plans to shut down some of the “amenities” throughout Afghanistan.  This is not rumor. It is fact.  This is a warzone – not an amusement park. [CSM Hall's blog]

They are also removing Orange Julius, Pizza Hut, and first run movies from bases is Afghanistan.  I don’t know what to make of this decision since I never served in Iraq or Afghanistan but I am sure the troops serving there will have a lot to say about this.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is pulling all products containing aspirin from the shelves at its contingency locations.

Department of Defense officials ordered that aspirin in combat zones be controlled and now prohibit over-the-counter access through AAFES and Morale, Welfare and Recreation activities, an AAFES press release stated.

In an order written in March by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Ward Casscells, service officials were told to make sure all U.S. troops and civilians headed into combat zones stop taking aspirin at least 10 days before they deploy, unless directed by a health care provider.

The goal of the policy is to minimize blood loss in combat injuries, he wrote, and cut down on the number of “preventable deaths” associated with those wounds.

The concern over aspirin stems from how it affects blood’s ability to clot.

“Basically, what it does is it inhibits platelet activation and aggregation,” said Air Force Col. David Schall, the command surgeon at the U.S. European Command’s headquarters. “This effect lasts for five to seven days after you take aspirin.

“If your platelets aren’t working, you are going to continue to ooze and ooze.”

Aspirin blocks an enzyme in platelets, he added.

Someone who took aspirin and is injured will have a higher rate of blood loss, and the larger the surface area of the injury that is bleeding, the bigger the problem, Schall said.

An acceptable alternative to aspirin is Tylenol, which is recommended instead of aspirin at those contingency locations, Schall said.

“Advil can have an effect on the platelets as well, but aspirin seems to be more potent,” Schall said.

It’s been well known for years that aspirin acts like a blood thinner(I take cumadin as a result of my having a mechanical heart valve). Why wasn’t this policy put in place before combat began in Iraq?

Tylenol usage doesn’t come without side effects. It can cause liver damage even in small doses.

Jeong

Jeong’s Dallas attorney, Michael Levine, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

However, in an Associated Press story datelined Dallas, Levine denied the allegations and said Jeong was a victim of “extortion.”

“This was extortion pure and simple, on the part of the American AAFES employees,” the AP quoted Levine as saying.

“It’s not what it looks like,” said Levine. “He (Jeong) was approached and these funds were demanded of him. Otherwise everything he worked so hard for would have been lost.”  [Stars & Stripes]

The article also comes up with another name involved in this corruption scandal:

The affidavit also contains allegations that Choy “orchestrated” the award of the contract to SSRT, partly with the help of John Patrick Mulligan. Mulligan had worked for a telecommunications firm and had valuable insights into contracts with AAFES in South Korea and Japan, the affidavit said.

He admitted to federal agents that he had hatched a secret deal to help SSRT in exchange for an estimated $3 million over “a term of years,” according to the affidavit.

This is the first time I have heard the name of John Patrick Mulligan come up.  Considering the amount of money this guy was due in this corruption scam, it makes me wonder if this isn’t the big fish the feds are after?

Police have busted a ring that was distributing some 33,000 cases of imported beer that was delivered to U.S. military installations [Yonhap News, Korean] but later slated for disposal after its expiration date passed.

Seoul police announced Sunday it had arrested two people, including a Mr. Yu, who was in charge of waste disposal for USFK’s exchange service (AAFES, I’ll assume), on charges of selling USFK beer whose shelf life had expired by some six months to local entertainment establishments. They also booked without detention 12 others, including a USFK exchange employee by the name of Baek, and are looking for four others who have fled.

According to police, the ring had delivered some 33,000 cases (225 tons) of old beer to local food importers between October 2005 and recently, making some 2.2 billion won in the process. The crew forged documents making it seem as if they left the beer with unlicensed waste disposal firm S, when in fact they took the beer and sold it through food importers in Namdaemun Market in Seoul, the International Market in Busan and other places.

USFK has been implementing the electronic tracking of both beer and commissary purchases in order to clamp down on black marketing, however the ajummas black marketing in the commissaries are small fries compared to the corrupt AAFES employees who really bring in the big dollars which is evident by this latest bust.

Those of us who have been in Korea for while do not find this news that AAFES employees are involved in black marketing, surprising at all. Remember just last year this black market ring in Wonju was broke up which was led by AAFES employees as well. In 2005, an AAFES black marketing ring was brought down that was operating in Uijongbu, Paju, and Dongducheon. These arrests led to the ring leader committing suicide. Then how can anyone forget the 2003 Tunnel Caper at Hanam Village. The black marketers were bold enough to dig a tunnel underneath the walls of Yongsan to smuggle out beer from.

These are just a few of the more notable cases of black marketing by AAFES employees in Korea, but there is a lot more that goes on. AAFES in Korea is corrupt in many ways and not just with black marketing as the recent SSRT corruption scandal has shown. The environment in Korea is ripe for corruption because of the cultural acceptance of it and that Korean laws are not stringent enough to discourage people from conducting corrupt ventures. It makes me wonder if the SOFA Agreement could be written so that when Koreans commit crimes on an American military installations they could be tried in a US court. That would dry up the corruption in AAFES very quickly if they new they would see real jail time for corruption. However, I don’t see any changes coming any time soon and I fully expect to see the once year bust of a black marketing ring to continue in order to create the appearance that something is being done, while the various black markets in Korea remain full of black marketed products.

Prince Harry learned last week that his royal status will curry no favor with Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees — unless he calls ahead.

The prince, who made an unannounced visit to the home of the 48th Fighter Wing last Sunday, was part of a contingent of British troops turned away from the register for failure to have a proper American identification card to shop at an AAFES facility.

“As soon as the first soldier got turned away, the prince and the other soldier left the line,” said AAFES spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Konop.

A local British paper reported that Prince Harry was trying to buy an iPod, Apple’s popular music player.

I only have one question about this, how is it AAFES can turn away Prince Harry, but for some reason can never seem to turn away an ajumma in the commissary who shows up every week with a cart full of ox tails, pork strips, Spam, Herbal Essence shampoo, Ritz crackers, among a host of other items popular in the Korean blackmarket?

The name tags would help avoid the common practice of soldiers addressing South Korean base workers as “ajoshi” (uncle) or “ajuma” (aunt). Several South Korean employees had come forward with badge designs since the proposal was made, Newton said.

Kang Hyung-do, the USFK Korean Employee Union’s Uijeongbu chapter president, said he understands U.S. soldier’s use the words to be friendly with base employees, but that long-term workers — and younger employees — find the terms offensive.

“We think Col. Newton’s proposal is really great, affirmative and encouraging for us,” Kang said. “We hope this … can help to improve the human rights of our Korean employees.”

I didn’t know I was committing human rights violations by calling the taxi driver ajushi. We better start putting these soldiers on trial in the Hague for daily human rights violations.

But seriously this is going to be a tough practice to change because everyone thinks that ajushi/ajuma is what the Koreans are supposed to be called in their language. Name tags will help to an extent because if I can see a person name I will use it. Many AAFES workers already wear name tages. Taxi drivers and bus drivers you can’t see their names when their driving. We’ll just have to see how this plays out but hopefully it doesn’t get blown out of proportion.

The Marmot has more on this on his site.