Military Officer - December 2006 - (Page 24)

rapidfire Honoring Pearl Harbor Survivors he Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund has launched the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project to gather and share the stories of survivors; engage and educate future generations about the critical role that the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor played in America’s history; and commemorate the 65th anniversary of the attack. The project is an online community centered on an interactive Web site — www.pearlharborstories.org — that will allow visitors to share stories of their relatives who were affected by the attack; upload photos, letters, and other memorabilia to create a living, interactive history; create a lasting tribute to Pearl Harbor survivors that will be preserved for future generations; and make a donation toward a new Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum and Visitors Center on Pearl Harbor. For relatives who are not active Internet users, a tollfree number has been established — (866) 747-8679 — so stories can be recorded by phone. Stories submitted via the toll-free number will be saved as “podcasts” so all visitors can share the memories. In Review The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century By Thomas L. Friedman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. $30. ISBN 0-37429279-5. UPS, Jet Blue, and WalMart are really doing today. Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail By Rick Newman and Don Shepperd. Ballentine Books, 2006. $29.95. ISBN 0-345-46537-7. T TRICAREUPDATE COSTS FOR MEDICAL CARE VARY, and hospitals and doctors’ offices rarely post their charges for various procedures. That makes it hard for patients to know whether they’re being charged a realistic price. To provide easier access to these prices for its users, TRICARE has posted its allowable charges on an easy-to-use Web site. The Web site shows the TRICARE Maximum Allowable Charge tables, listing more than 300 of the procedures most often performed and the amount TRICARE legally is allowed to pay for them. The charges are tied to Medicare allowable charges, effectively making them a federal standard for health care costs. To view TRICARE allowable charges, visit www.tri care.osd.mil/allowablecharges. 24 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2006 Columbus was wrong: The world really is ﬂat, according to three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas L. Friedman, who argues that rapidly improving technology and business innovations have leveled the global community so millions of people can successfully compete in the global workplace. Friedman analyzes how globalization and multinational business potentially could raise people’s standard of living, increase productivity, spread prosperity, and improve chances for tolerance, peace, and security. He intelligently explains why protectionism will not work and the destructive threat of “Islamo-Leninists” who use the same 21st-century technology. Friedman describes the “10 Forces That Flattened the World,” the rewards of wage insurance, the effective “Golden Arches Theory of Conﬂict Prevention,” and what the Chinese, Indians, Journalist Rick Newman and Vietnam War aviator Don Shepperd describe a secret Air Force unit’s efforts to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail across the North Vietnam border from 1965-70. Called the Mistys, these pilots ﬂew the twoseat model of the F-100 ﬁghter on low-level, highspeed forward air control missions, locating targets and directing bombing aircraft in attacks on North Vietnam’s vital supply route to the South. They tell of aerial duels with enemy antiaircraft guns and missiles, bombings, pilot rescues, POWs, and the pilots’ mental and physical stresses. They also describe wacky pilot antics, the excitement of a successful strike, and the frustration of ﬁghting a war the top brass and politicians did not seem to want to win. — William D. Bushnell PHOTOS: STEVE BARRETT http://www.pearlharborstories.org http://www.tricare.osd.mil/allowablecharges http://www.tricare.osd.mil/allowablecharges

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Military Officer - December 2006

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