WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled Friday to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to highlight programs that the Pentagon and White House are rolling out to improve service members' quality of life as well as early childhood education in the military.
Biden and Austin visited a pre-kindergarten program the first lady has championed that funds universal preschool for children aged 3 and 4. The administration plans to expand it beyond military facilities and into education systems nationwide.
She said the program at Maxwell Elementary School — which provides full-day pre-kindergarten care for military children —“is part of the blueprint for making high-quality preschool available to every 3- and 4-year-old in America.”
In the on-base classroom, children identified letters, and once they did, got to feed a green paper dinosaur that Austin and Biden took turns holding. The kids also sang a song about frogs.
Austin said the Pentagon is looking at new ways to give service members more support to address higher prices for goods and housing. He has made improving troop quality of life a goal during his time as defense secretary.
To that end, the Pentagon is increasing the number of days that military families can stay in paid temporary housing when they move from base to base in response to concerns that it's been difficult to find off-base housing in competitive real estate markets. Austin also is looking at increasing the amount of money troops receive to cover uniform costs.
“We heard loud and clear that the families juggling work and raising kids need affordable child care and quality early childhood education,” Austin said.
His aim is to retain service members and show prospective recruits that the programs the Pentagon offers to support a military career, including more housing help, career assistance for spouses and pay raises.
Earlier this year, the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force reported they expect to meet recruitment goals for this budget year, but the Navy said it may fall short.
It has become more difficult for the military to recruit young people to serve. Fewer families have a direct connection to the military and more young people fall short of the fitness requirements to qualify.
First lady Jill Biden, center, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, watch four and five-year-olds build with blocks at a military early childhood education program at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Tara Copp)
FILE - First lady Jill Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris attend a ceremony with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown at the Pentagon in Washington, to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept.11, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A fuel spill is “highly probable” after a New Zealand navy ship grounded, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa, the Pacific island nation's acting prime minister said late Sunday.
All 75 people on board the HMNZS Manawanui were taken to safety on life boats. The ship, one of only nine in New Zealand's navy, was the first the country has lost at sea since World War II.
Officials in Samoa are assessing the environmental impact in the area where the ship sank on Sunday morning, acting Prime Minister Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio said in a statement.
The vessel's passengers — including civilian scientists and foreign military personnel — evacuated in “challenging conditions” and darkness, New Zealand’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters. The vessel was about a mile from shore when it grounded on a reef and began taking on water, and it took five hours for the first survivors to reach land, he said.
One person was treated in hospital for minor injuries and has been discharged, the military said. Up to 17 others sustained lacerations, contusions, or suspected concussions. An Air Force plane carrying 72 of those on board the ship touched down at an air base in Auckland on Monday night.
New Zealand will hold a court of inquiry into the loss of the ship. The cause of the accident is not known, but Defence Minister Judith Collins told 1News on Monday that she had been told a loss of power to the vessel had led to its grounding.
The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel had been in service for New Zealand since 2019, but was 20 years old and had previously belonged to Norway, Collins said. It was surveying a reef off the coast of Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island, when it ran aground on the reef.
Photos and videos taken from the shore appeared to show the ship listing before disappearing completely below the waves, with a large plume of smoke rising where it sank. Collins said Sunday that she did not expect the vessel could be salvaged.
“This is a ship that unfortunately is pretty much gone,” she told reporters.
There was “a lot of fuel” on the ship and efforts had turned to assessing the potential environmental impact, Collins told Radio New Zealand Monday. New Zealand “would obviously have to front up” if there was a spill, she added.
The military said the ship, purchased for $100 million NZ dollars ($61 million) in 2018, was not covered by insurance.
The state of New Zealand’s aging military hardware has prompted warnings from the defense agency, which in a March report described the navy as “extremely fragile,” with ships idle due to problems retaining the staff needed to service and maintain them. Of the navy’s eight remaining ships, five are currently operational.
Golding said the HMNZS Manawanui underwent its usual maintenance before the deployment. The ship’s captain was an experienced commander who had worked on the vessel for two years, he said.
Smoke rises from the sinking HMNZS Manawanui in Upolu, Samoa, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Dave Poole via AP)
This image released by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), shows HMNZS Manawanui at the Three Kings islands off the coast New Zealand, on Dec. 1, 2023. (Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn/NZDF via AP)
In this image released by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), HMNZS Manawanui arrives in Funafuti Lagoon, Tuvalu, on Sept. 7, 2022. (PO Christopher Weissenborn/NZDF via AP)
