Vietnam veteran to receive medals for his service Friday at Scott Air Force Base

Vietnam Veteran and retired Army sergeant Cecil Wade will be presented medals from his time in service at 1 p.m. Friday at the base auditorium.

Wade will be presented the Army commendation with valor, Purple Heart and a second Battle Star on his Vietnam Service Medal for action during combat while under fire. Plans are for him to travel to Scott escorted by the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association and the Patriot Guard Riders, whereupon he will be presented with the medals at a ceremony to be held at the base library auditorium.

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State Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, and Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton, are set to host a veterans job and education fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 2, at Edwardsville American Legion Post No. 199.

The fair is aimed to provide career and educational opportunities for former service members, as well as care and benefit information from public and private programs.

The veterans fair features:

▪  Information and services from state programs: Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Illinois Department of Employment Security, state treasurer and attorney general

▪  Service dog provider: This Able Veteran

▪  College veteran service offices and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission

Food and refreshments will also be provided. The event is free, but those interested should visit www.SenatorHaine.com or call 618-465-4764 to register.

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The Air Force won’t make public the contract value of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s winning bid for the B-21 bomber, saying that would make it “decisively easier” for U.S. adversaries to determine the stealth aircraft’s range and weapons payload, according to Bloomberg News.

There is a “strong correlation between the cost of an air vehicle and its total weight,” Randall Walden, director of the Air Force’s secretive Rapid Capabilities Office, which is overseeing the B-21 program, wrote in a letter to Senator John McCain, chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee.

“This correlation makes calculating aircraft range and payload decisively easier for our adversaries looking to develop countermeasures,” Waldon wrote in the letter dated April 11 and obtained by Bloomberg News. He said the information has been provided to congressional staff “in the appropriate classified channels.”

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The Daily Beast is reporting a major push is taking shape in Congress for a bill that could hold the government of Saudi Arabia legally responsible for the 9/11 attacks. U.S. military and counterterrorism officials now leading the fights against al Qaeda and ISIS think that bill is a terrible idea.

“We don’t need this debate right now,” one defense official said, like others speaking on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized publicly to criticize the bill, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. Saudi officials have lobbied hard against the bill, telling members of the Obama administration, lawmakers, and journalists that the Saudi government has been a stalwart ally with the U.S. and was fighting al Qaeda years before it ever attacked American soil.

That message is resonating inside the Pentagon and in U.S. national security circles. Two former officials, who likewise declined to comment on the record about the bill, said it represented a troubling insertion of politics at a key point in the war against ISIS and would distract from a shared goal of combatting Islamic extremism.

Another currently-serving official said filing lawsuits against Saudi officials placed blame on the wrong party for the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history. “As far as I am concerned, Osama bin Laden attacked the United States,” the official said.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Vietnam veteran to receive medals for his service Friday at Scott Air Force Base."