A Camp Pendleton sailor was awarded the Silver Star for his lifesaving actions in Afghanistan.

Petty Officer First Class Benny Flores received the award during a ceremony Friday at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

Flores was deployed to Nimruz Province in southwest Afghanistan last year. He was a hospital corpsman with the First Marine Expeditionary Force.

According to his award citation, Flores’s convoy came under attack. His vehicle hit an IED, and shrapnel wounded his arms and neck. Despite his own injuries, the corpsman started treating others, dodging bullets at the same time.

“After the initial blast, I saw I was injured, but didn’t do anything to treat myself. My main thing was all the people in the vehicle, to make sure they were o.k.,” Flores said. “That’s all I cared about.”

In all, he rescued four people: Three Marines and an Afghan police officer.

His wife Jerrianne says their family is “extremely proud,” but that her husband is more humble.

“He hates making a big deal about anything,” she said. “This is a huge, prestigious honor, but it’s not something he’s really celebratory about.”

“That was my job,” Flores said simply. “My job is to take care of the Marines and support them.”

The Silver Star is the third highest honor for combat valor.

A smaller Marine Corps may have to shrink even more. The Marines have been thinning their ranks. And now with sequestration cuts in effect, those who joined the Marine Corps hoping for a career are facing an uncertain future.

The Marine Corps is in the process of cutting its force by roughly 20,000 Marines. But now with the reality of sequestration cuts that could continue over the next 10 years, the Marine Corps' top officer says the force may have to downsize even more.

It's an uncertain time for Marines and their families. "They're not letting people reenlist, so we're not sure if they're going to kick us out or not.”, said Silvia Jasso, whose husband has been in for eight years.

The top Marine Officer recently told members of Congress that the Corps' greatest asset is the individual Marine. But over the past year, they’ve been on course to drop from 202,100 Marines to 182,100 by 2016. Now, with sequestration cuts in effect, the Marine Corps is reviewing options that could mean an even smaller force. The Commandant of the Marine Corps recently told Congress that even the target 182,100 Marines is no longer sustainable if sequestration is kept in place.

Retired Master Sergeant Kevin Adkins says this is a challenging time for everyone who wants to make the Marine Corps a career.

“Everybody should be more attentive to what's making them more competitive to retention and promotion. If they're not paying attention to that, they're going to be seeking employment elsewhere," Adkins said.

The Marine Corps says they expect to be halfway to their goal of cutting 20,000 Marines by the end of this fiscal year. One of the ways they've been doing that is by bringing in fewer new Marines. Their review of a potential further reduction is expected to conclude in May and assumes the sequestration cuts remain in effect over the next 10 years.
 

A new medical clinic will celebrate its opening in the South Bay Tuesday, making health care easier and more convenient for active duty and U.S. Navy veterans.

Special Section: San Diego Military News

Naval Branch Health Clinic (NBHC) Eastlake officially opens on Boswell Road although the staff has been seeing patients for about a month.

The clinic was designed to be one-stop shopping for those seeking healthcare.

Patients will have access to primary care, but there's a pharmacy and a lab at the facility.

Employees were able to give input on how they wanted the facility to be set up.

The center is open, so doctors and patients can have more interaction.

Inside, doctors work in teams which allows for more efficient communication between specialists.

The design was intended to help offer shorter wait times for thousands of veterans who will use the center in the Chula Vista area.

Click here for more information
 

The Navy is taking action at the highest levels in an effort to tackle a problem that's plagued its ranks:  sexual assault.

Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mark Ferguson was in San Diego today,  specifically addressing this issue with the most senior Navy leaders in the region.

Navy rape victim, Carla Butcher says she'd been in the service for only 6 months, when she was repeatedly raped by another sailor after a night out with friends.

"I would continue to pass out ask him to stop and he was overpowering me - there was nothing I could do,” said Butcher.

The Navy acknowledges that it's a problem.  There were nearly 600 reported assaults last year alone, and they know most go unreported.

“This is a leadership challenge for us to address and to set a responsible and professional work environment for all our sailors," said Admiral Ferguson.

Now the Navy is trying to help victims of sexual assault like Carla, by preventing it all together.

They have a new pilot program in San Diego focused on preventing sexual assaults that grow out of behavior such as drinking, and what they call “poor risk management.”

"We've brought the alcohol detection devices for testing sailors in their use of alcohol during the work day, we have chiefs and officers in barracks at nighttime," said Admiral Ferguson.

Butcher says part of the problem is that many victims are afraid to report assaults for fear of repercussions. 

“The same sailor sexually assaulted a girl on my ship.  She told immediately the same day, and the next morning she had a first class ticket off that ship,” said Butcher.

The Navy says they’re trying to address that issue too. 

“What we're going to look for are one, that victims feel safe to report them, and second that we have mechanisms in place to support that victim," said Admiral Ferguson.
               
Butcher says anything that prevents rape is a good thing, but having lived through it, she's skeptical. 

"I'll believe it when I see it, but I want to be hopeful," said Butcher.

Admiral Ferguson says senior leaders have already been patrolling barracks at night on San Diego bases, and the Navy also plans to reach out to local businesses, like bars, for their help in preventing contributing behavior.

He says they'll know the program is working when they see a decrease in the number of reported assaults, and when those numbers better correlate with anonymous sexual assault surveys.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday that a new Navy ship will be named after local astronaut Sally Ride.

Mabus said the future ship – dubbed R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28) – will be a Neil Armstrong-class auxiliary general oceanographic research or “AGOR” ship. Traditionally, AGORs are named for nationally recognized leaders in exploration and science.

The ship will honor the memory of Ride, a renowned professor, scientist and innovator at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. Ride was also the first woman and youngest person in space, and later served as director of NASA’s Office of Exploration.

Ride, 61, died last July after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She passed away peacefully in her La Jolla home surrounded by family and friends.

The RV/Sally Ride is the first academic research ship to be named in honor of a woman.

"Sally Ride's career was one of firsts and will inspire generations to come," said Mabus on Friday. "I named R/V Sally Ride to honor a great researcher, but also to encourage generations of students to continue exploring, discovering and reaching for the stars."

Mabus says the new ship will be a well-equipped oceanographic research platform that includes acoustic equipment used to map the deepest parts of the ocean. It’ll boast modular onboard laboratories capable of supporting a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges.

The ship will be 238 feet in length and able to operate at more than 12 knots. It will be built by Dakota Creek Industries, Inc., out of Anacortes, Wash.

The RV/Sally Ride is among seven new ships named Friday by Mabus.

Other ships include three joint high speed vessels (JHSV): the USNS Trenton; the USNS Brunswick; and the USNS Carson City; an amphibious transport dock ship (LPD), the USS Portland; two littoral combat ships (LCS); the USS Wichita; and the USS Manchester.

Despite reports that suggest Fleet Week events across the country will be cancelled due to sequestration cuts, the show will go on in San Diego -- at least for the most part.

Alexandra Squires, executive director of the San Diego Fleet Week Foundation, told NBC 7 on Friday that those reports are “wild innuendo and Fleet Week is happening in San Diego.”

“We are absolutely happening in September. There is most definitely a Fleet Week in San Diego. We are America’s Finest City; we have the largest concentration of military in the world and there’s no way that we would not have a Fleet Week here in our community,” Squires added.

She does concede, however, that there will be some cutbacks.

She says this year there will not be any Ship Tours. She said last year, tours were given on ships at Naval Base San Diego – the first time the base was open to the public since the 9/11 attacks. Tours were also given on ships at NAS North Island during the Coronado Speed Festival.

Squires also says money is being raised in an effort to avoid cancellation of the annual golf tournament at Admiral Baker Field.

Squires says Fleet Week San Diego will kick off on Sep. 18 with the MAC Breakfast. The enlisted Recognition Leadership awards at Sea World will follow on Sep. 19, and the Coronado Speed Festival will take place on Sep. 21-22. A date for the annual Fleet Week football game had yet to be determined.

A special military concert series sponsored by comic book legend Stan Lee kicked off in San Diego Friday night with hundreds of military service members in attendance.

The concert, featuring the rising country band Gloriana, was held at the Pacific View Events Center at Camp Pendleton as part of “Stan Lee’s Power Concerts” series, which is aimed to honor the superheroes of the Armed Forces and their families by bringing live entertainment to the homefront.

The all-ages show began at 7 p.m. and was also open the general public. Military members were given a special rate on admission tickets.

Close to 300 people bought tickets to Friday’s concert at Camp Pendleton. Inside, attendees got to watch Gloriana perform and got a chance to meet renowned comic book creator Lee.

The entertaining night was a hit with service members.

“When things like this happen and people try and give back, it does feel good because it’s motivation to keep going,” Lance Cpl. Wade Bartels with the U.S. Marine Corps told NBC 7.

According to the “Stan Lee’s Power Concerts” website, that exactly what the concerts are designed to do: show “profound appreciation for our troops and their families.”

Gloriana – fresh off a performance on “The Tonight Show” – greeted fans backstage before the show, while Lee held a special meet-and-greet.

Paul Stamas, an avid, 11-year-old fan of Lee, said he was extremely nervous and excited to meet his idol. Stamas’ Marine sergeant uncle got him tickets to Friday’s event.

“My knees are shaking right now and I have butterflies in my stomach,” the boy said as he approached Lee, asking him to sign a comic book.

Lee joked with Stamas and signed the book.

At 90 years old, Lee hasn’t lost his spunk and sense of humor.

More importantly, he hasn’t lost his strong admiration of the U.S. military.

“All my life, I’ve created fictional super heroes. These [military] guys are the real super heroes!” Lee told NBC 7.

Lee said he began developing this concert series for the troops last year. His company, POW! Entertainment will host events at military bases, with proceeds going back to military charities like the Wounded Warriors.

For Lee, giving back to the military is incredibly important.

“Where would we be without them? They give up so much to do what they're doing and so often they're just taken for granted,” he added.

Lee’s concerts will continue throughout different bases in the U.S. The rest of the lineup hasn’t been announce just yet, but for more information, visit this website.

There's no question that our service members make sacrifices to serve in the military, but it takes a lot of sacrifice to be a military spouse too.

For one, military spouses often have to put their service member’s job ahead of their own.

Now, a San Diego legislator is trying to ease the burden when it comes to military spouses finding employment.

There are over 70,000 military spouses in the state of California, and nationwide more than a quarter are unemployed.

This is partly because they have to move as frequently as every two years, and many fields require professional licenses, usually state certifications.

Those professional licenses don't immediately transfer from state to state, such as those who work in nursing, cosmetology, and a number of other vocations.

In California, active duty military spouses are eligible to get expedited licenses if they already have one in another state.

However, that process can take months and may require additional coursework and exams.

Assemblyman Brian Maienschein is working to ease this burden on military spouses with legislation that would allow 18 month provisional licenses while they work through the California licensing process.

His bill, AB 186, covers every profession that requires a license except teachers and lawyers. Those are more specialized when it comes to differences in practicing from state to state.

The legislation could impact military spouses like Vida Donnette, a Pacific Beach resident who’s currently trying to find a job.

Donnette is a registered nurse. Though her field has many openings, a year and a half ago she became a Navy wife and followed her husband from her home in New York to San Diego, leaving her license in New York.

“It’s just an endless sacrifice, and at the same time we tend to lose our self-identity along the way,” said Donnette.

Due to the time it takes to get an expedited license in California, Donnette says she’s now considering drastic measures, just so she can lock down some work.

"I'm considering the fact of just moving back to New York and stay there and have a long distance relationship with my husband," she said.

Donnette is hopeful for this new legislation for military spouses and says it would do more than just help her become employed – it would also empower her.

“I can start working again and I could be able to do what I love to do and be passionate about it,” she added.
 

USS Decatur is in the process of being relieved by USS Fitzgerald and will start heading home to San Diego within a week NBC 7 San Diego has learned.

The Decatur detoured to the Western Pacific on its way home to San Diego from deployment to provide a ballistic missile defense capability in response to North Korean Threats.

The San Diego-based destroyer was one of two U.S. ships positioned to respond to any missile threats from North Korean, according to the Pentagon.

Civilians working for the military in San Diego have been bracing themselves for a major hit to their pocketbook in the form of furloughs due to sequestration cuts.

Now there's a little bit of good news for them: the number of days has been reduced.

The reduction in furlough days is one of the immediate positive outcomes of a Defense Budget Bill for this year finally getting signed in Washington this week.

Now civilian employees of the Defense Department can expect to be furloughed 14 days this fiscal year, down from the originally anticipated 22.

Of the approximately 800,000 Defense Department civilians nationwide, more than 22,000 are here in San Diego.

“These furlough days are reducing their income, for which they have not planned for, so now they're all - everybody’s sort of scrambling, trying to figure out how they’re going to cover costs," said Marney Cox, Chief Economist for San Diego Association of Governments.

When the Pentagon announced civilian furloughs because of sequestration cuts, DoD civilian, Michael Boone says he was frustrated but relieved.

"I was really scared that they might lay off so when they said furloughs instead of laying off to me that was a much better scenario," said Boone.

The decision to decrease the number of furlough days was made possible by a defense appropriations bill being signed this week, reducing a shortfall in the military's operations budget.

Cox says DoD civilians will now keep around $1,800 that they would have lost, but they'll still take a big hit.

“There's still furlough days that they will be hit by so close to $3600 or so is what they will lose", said Cox.

Boone says because he's single, the furloughs won't impact him as much as those with families, but he is adjusting his lifestyle.

“I wanted to go to Europe. I still want to go, now I may have to delay that a little bit," said Boone.

The Pentagon says the furloughs will also be delayed until mid-to- late June, and people will start receiving notices in early May.

Upcoming April deployments have been cancelled for a San Diego-based Navy ship and submarine, the U.S. Pacific Fleet public affairs office confirmed Friday.

According to the Navy, the deployments of USS Rentz out of Naval Base San Diego and submarine USS Jefferson City out of Naval Base Point Loma have been cancelled due to budget cuts imposed by sequestration.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet office says the Secretary of Defense has approved the cancellations.

Additionally, the deployment of San Diego-based guided-missile frigate USS Thach will be cut short, also due to sequester cuts.

The ship left San Diego on Jan. 8 for what was scheduled to be a six-month deployment in Central America, but Navy officials say USS Thach will now return home in April. The 220 sailors aboard USS Thach have been leading anti-smuggling operations targeting drug traffickers in Central America during this time.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet office says the Navy has been preparing to cancel some April deployments since early March.

Each respective chain of command has started notifying impacted sailors, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet says the commands had been previously told to prepare for these cancellations.

“The Secretary of Defense has directed, and U.S. Pacific Fleet is ensuring, that constrained resources are being prioritized to support forces operating forward, and to those being trained to relieve them,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet office said in their announcement.
 

There may soon be a way to diagnose a so-called "medically unexplained illness" that affects thousands of veterans of the First Persian Gulf War.

What's known as "Gulf War Illness" affects a quarter of the veterans who served in the first Persian Gulf War, according to the Veteran’s Affairs office.

For both patients and doctors it's frustrating because there’s been no clear way to diagnose it, or treat it.

Kahili Schucht was a Navy medic with the Marines during the first Persian Gulf War. He remembers being exposed to a number of chemicals, and a year and a half later he started noticing unexplained symptoms. 

“I’ve had a lot of things going on.  My hands are hurting , my head hurts, my knees my back, my intestines, so it’s just a combination of a lot of stuff that’s all in one,” said Schucht.

Gulf War Illness has been linked to chemical exposure, but the exact cause is unknown.  Now, new research has found evidence the illness is caused by damage to the brain.     

The study was conducted at Georgetown University using an FMRI machine; a common device available in most hospitals.  Dr. Jennifer Javors is an environmental affairs physician at the San Diego VA Hospital.  She sees this new evidence, as a ray of hope. 

“This is potentially a big step forward to have a way to diagnose the problem for the veterans,” said Javors.

As for Schucht, he hopes it will lead to a more comfortable future for him and others. 

“The hope is maybe finding a cure, or at least finding an answer,” he said. “Because we all know there's something there, but there's not a definitive answer on what it is.”

Javors says while this research is positive, it's still very preliminary because the study only involved a small number of patients.  She also says there's a need for research directed at finding a treatment, but this is a step in the right direction.

The commander of one of the world's biggest aircraft carriers dismissed the idea that the U.S. military should phase out its carriers because they’re too costly and irrelevant.

The non-partisan "Center for a New American Security" recently published a piece that has brought new energy to a debate that had existed for decades.

In the article, Capt. Henry J. Hendrix, USN (Ph.D.) outlined his thoughts about replacing carriers the writing, “After 100 years, the carrier is rapidly approaching the end of its useful strategic life.”

Not so, said Capt. Thom Burke, Commanding Officer of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

“Those kinds of comments are going to come and go but the carrier continues to prove its effectiveness,” Capt. Burke said.

USS Ronald Reagan returned to its homeport Thursday with several thousand crew members.

“Getting a big ship this in, there’s just nothing fast about it,” Capt. Burke said.

The carrier spent 14 months in Washington where it was overhauled. The ship, now with a clean hull and refurbished rudders, is only 10 years into its 50-year lifespan.

Its commander said the argument that aircraft carriers are “irrelevant” is an old debate.

In fact, Capt. Hendrix made a similar argument four years ago in a piece he entitled: "Buy Fords, Not Ferraris."

He discussed "The Carrier Dilemma" again two years ago.

According to Capt. Burke, the aircraft carrier and its strike group are in the top tier of U.S. military assets that are always ready on call.

“When the president wants a mobile platform that can take sovereign territory anywhere in the world almost, he’s often asking for an aircraft carrier,” Capt. Burke said.

The carrier will be in San Diego for about a month completing some maintenance. Then, Capt. Burke said the plan is to get USS Ronald Reagan out to sea in May.

With government budget cuts like sequestration the carrier’s scheduled deployment of early 2014 could change.

A San Diego Marine was allegedly mistreated by security at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint on his flight to San Diego last week.

Congressman Duncan Hunter wrote a letter demanding answers about the possible humiliation of wounded Marine Cpl. Toran Gaal, a double amputee assigned to the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton. He lost both his legs to an Improvised Explosive Device in Sangin Province, Afghanistan.

Gaal and other injured Marines traveled to the Phoenix area last week for a baseball spring training fundraiser. On his way back to San Diego, Gaal allegedly had a problem at airport security.

According to a witness, a TSA officer asked Gaal to get out of his wheelchair and move, even though he "couldn’t stand or walk on his own."

In a letter to the TSA, Hunter's said Gaal's prosthetic legs were exposed and removed, which he believes "humiliated" the Marine.

Read the full letter here

And while Hunter said he understands the need to screen all passengers, he told TSA Administrator John Pistole that he's concerned by the "apparent lack of situational awareness and respect” among some TSA officers, especially in dealing with those, such Gaal, who've been badly wounded in war.

The "TSA" says it works hard, to treat wounded service members with quote "dignity and respect” and said it is trying to find out more about what happened at the Phoenix Airport.

The agency says it has a special "Wounded Warrior Screening Program” and it plans to expand that program to make it even easier for the wounded to clear those security checkpoints.

A San Diego representative has recommended the highest civilian medal for two former Navy SEALs who died in Benghazi, Libya last year.

The Congressional Gold Medal award is proposed for Tyrone Woods of Imperial Beach and Glen Doherty of Encinitas. They were killed when protesters broke through security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R – Calif.) is introducing the legislation to award the posthumous award. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest award Congress gives to civilians. Since they were no longer troops, the military is unable to award them through the service.

Woods and Doherty served as SEALs before working as private security for the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. They were killed alongside U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and former San Diego resident Sean Smith, who worked as an information officer.

Friends and family of the two men called them “fearless” and a “fighter.”

Woods three sons, 18-year-old Tyrone Jr. and 15-year-old Hunter from his first marriage and an infant named Kai from his second marriage. Doherty was in a long-term relationship with girlfriend Shannon Shepherd and kept the same group of friends he had in elementary school.

Hunter’s bill has nine republican sponsors and he is expected to introduce the idea to other leaders in the House, according to his office.

U.S. Navy corpsmen heading into combat are honing skills that could save their lives and the lives of their comrades thanks to a Hollywood movie set located among the palm trees and sunshine of San Diego.

At Stu Segall productions in Kearny Mesa, the world of combat comes alive for those preparing for it.

The environment is intense from gunfire and explosions to real amputees playing the roles of injured Marines.

There are even special effects. A special medical suit allows corpsmen to perform real procedures on real people.

At Strategic Operations the directors or instructors are senior corpsmen who've done multiple combat tours.

The stars or students are corpsmen like HM3 Shane Faulker who is learning skills he’ll need to help the wounded on the battlefield.

Faulkner is approaching his first deployment where he'll serve alongside Marines

“It's so easy to do your assessment and do what you need to do like in a calm area but once you get thrown out in it you're just like ‘Oh Wow,’” Faulkner said.

Being able to function efficiently under real combat pressure is what's being tested in this recreation of urban warfare.

“We want to get them under stress under pressure get them in a scenario where they're not functioning at 100 percent so we can see how the students react," HM2 Jason Mitchell said.

The wounds and blood are make-up, and the injured are just actors but Kit Lavell, Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations, the experience is very real.

“It gives the opportunity for the first responders//to actually see something that they would not normally see unit they got in combat," Lavell said.

Those who've been there, say it's the best way to train for the reality of combat.

"In real life what's going to happen is it's going to be their best friend lying on the ground," Mitchell said.

Strategic Operations says that even as the combat mission in Afghanistan comes to a close, they plan to continue providing what they call "hyper-realistic" training

They say it will stay relevant not just for the military but for law enforcement and other first responders.