SALT LAKE CITY — Hanna, whose last name we won’t use to protect her and her young sons, said she was driving to church six years ago with her now ex-husband when a police officer pulled them over. 

“My children weren’t strapped in, and they were within reach of (drug) paraphernalia,” Hanna said. “That’s the truth, and they were removed.” 

Her boys, Jace and Jagger, are now 6- and 12-years-old. They were taken to The Christmas Box House. Hanna was taken to jail. She and the boys’ father had both undergone medical procedures and what started as prescription medications for the pain, turned into addition to illegal drugs.  

The boys ended up in foster care. Jagger was just 3-years-old at the time. But he remembers it well and said what made the biggest difference for him was being able to stay with his older brother.

When the boys were placed with their first foster family, they said they felt safe. They even did fun stuff, like Lagoon and water parks. And while they were staying with that foster family, their mom had a tough realization. 

“Around the six-month mark, at one of my visits, the caseworker said, ‘You’ve done nothing to change, you’ve done nothing to improve this, we’re going to have a team meeting in court and I’m going to recommend adoption,’” Hanna said. “That’s when it hit me, that’s when I started making some changes.” 

Attending AA meetings

Hanna started attending AA meetings and utilizing resources the state offered her. It was around that time she met Tracey Allred.

Allred now works for Utah Foster Care, but at the time was fostering other children.  

“It was an instant connection,” Hanna said about meeting Allred.

Allred wasn’t caring for Jayce and Jagger, but opened her heart to all three. The relationship was a win-win. Allred said for the first time since she had started fostering children, she put herself in Hanna’s shoes. 

“She taught me through our friendship, empathy,” Allred said. “I’ve never been able to put myself in that side of foster care.” 

While Allred gained a new perspective, Hanna gained a strong female, role model for the first time in her life. 

“My relationship with Tracey, having somebody who, like I said, who answers to phone, who shows up to family events and can sort of, mentor me through motherhood was really beautiful,” Hanna said. “It was really empowering. It made me feel like I can do this.”

Gov. Cox calling on Utahns to open hearts, homes in response to need for foster families

Taking care of her boys

And she did. And while she was putting in the work, her boys said their foster families were taking good care of them.

“They made really good dinners,” Jayce said to KSL TV.

And they enjoyed evenings just hanging out. But most importantly, they were together. 

“Lets just say, two parts yin and yang, one whole,” the boys told KSL. 

Hanna said there are many misconceptions about parent who get addicted to drugs, like they don’t love their children, or if they wanted to stop using drugs, they could. She said addiction was stronger than her. But, now nearly three years sober, with her boys now living with her, she is thankful. 

“I am so grateful to the foster system,” Hanna said. “I can’t say it enough that there are people that are willing to open their homes to children who have been through the wringer.” 

Allred and her family have now fostered eight children. She believes there are many Utah families who could successfully foster children who need care. 

“If you have room in your heart and in your home, and you’re a safe, good person, you can do this,” Allred said.  

For Hanna and her boys, they are their mom’s biggest fans and recognize how hard she’s worked to get the family back together. 

“We are  really proud of her,” Jayce and Jagger said to KSL. 

Allred knows not everyone can get licensed for foster care, but she says there are many other ways to help. If you would like more information, go to utahfostercare.org. 

Two years ago, everything changed for the Utah Jazz and a big part of that change was the coaching change that brought in first-time head coach — and at the time the youngest head coach in the NBA — Will Hardy.

Though Hardy has been working in the NBA since 2010 and had been an assistant coach since 2016 (first in San Antonio, then in Boston) there wasn’t much known about his coaching style and how he would fare at the helm of a team. Unfortunately, two years in, there are still a lot of unknowns, which makes it very hard to evaluate Hardy.

Will Hardy — Pass

It’s no secret that the Utah Jazz have been prioritizing youth with an eye on the future rather than the current success of the team. Though the Jazz front office has made it clear that they want Will Hardy to coach to win, they’ve also made it nearly impossible for that to happen. Through trades, resting players and manipulating the roster, the Jazz decision-makers have created an environment in which it’s not easy to flex his coaching muscles.

Hardy signed on to be the coach of the Jazz knowing that the team would be going through a rebuild and knowing that development would be a large part of the job for the early years in Utah. And so far, Hardy has passed with flying colors in what he has been tasked with.

There are a lot of areas in which Hardy has proven to be an excellent communicator and leader for the Jazz. Most obviously, he unlocked Lauri Markkanen, letting the Finnish player flourish in a larger role than he’d ever had before. He’s asked players like Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton to change their games and take on different roles. He’s given opportunity to young players and those who have proven themselves in practice, he’s earned the trust of his players by showing that he cares about them as people first and players second, and he’s kept spirits high even through two losing seasons.

There are certainly things that we have learned about Hardy throughout his first two years as a head coach that are going to be important in the future. He does not mince words, he does not sugarcoat things, and he will not stand by and watch players go through the motions. Even if the deck is stacked against the players and they know they don’t have the chance to win, he expects them to play hard and care.

Hardy expects his players to recognize the privilege they have when they step on the court, and he expects a certain level of effort despite any other circumstances. He doesn’t hold players to standards that are unrealistic or berate them for inevitable mistakes, but he does hold them accountable. He employs some tough love for the players who can handle it and makes sure that everyone knows where they stand.

But if we’re talking about what kind of a coach is Hardy when it comes down to game-planning and outsmarting the competition or exploiting the weaknesses of an opposing team, we can’t do much in the way of evaluating him. That’s through no fault of Hardy’s. And there have been glimpses of what he might be like when he’s allowed to really coach, particularly the first half of his first season, when he had a more filled out roster and racked up a number of surprising wins. But the front office quickly made changes to the roster, putting one arm behind Hardy’s back through the latter half of that season.

There will come a time when Hardy’s coaching chops will be tested — when he’s given a roster of players and is expected to succeed in the win column rather than tread water. It’s easy to say that Hardy has been great for the development of some of the Jazz’s players and that he’s been great in the role he’s been tasked with. But, for now, it would be wrong to make any kind of declarations about if Hardy is a good or bad coach because he frankly has not been given the opportunity to do the job to its full extent.

Back to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa

AKKA, Morocco – The State Headquarters Medical Readiness Detachment (MRD), Utah National Guard (UTNG), based in Bluffdale, Utah and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) worked together to provide medical services to residents in Akka, Morocco, and the surrounding area, during African Lion 2024 (AL24).

These services fall under the umbrella of humanitarian civic assistance (HCA) operations, in which the U.S. military conducts activities in one of four categories to promote the security interests of the U.S. and the participating nation while improving the operational readiness of participating service members.

“The HCA is an event that we’ve put on for the last 20 years,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Evans, officer-in-charge of the MRD. “We go to remote areas with limited access to medical care and, in conjunction with our Moroccan counterparts, build a hospital out of nothing. The hospital is quite advanced given the conditions.”

HCA events occur throughout the year, but this iteration coincided with the largest military exercise in Africa.

AL24 is U.S. Africa Command’s premier joint exercise, led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), running from April 19 to May 31 across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, featuring over 8,100 participants from 27 nations and NATO contingents.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the exercise series and the Utah National Guard’s state partnership with the Kingdom of Morocco. The National Guard began its State Partnership Program in 1993 and has grown to include 92 partnerships with 106 nations.

Utah’s initial partnership was with the Republic of Belarus; however, that agreement came to an end in 2003. Beginning the same year, Utah transitioned to its current relationship with Morocco, bringing forth the first of many HCA programs.

With the help of FAR medical soldiers and Moroccan civilian medical professionals, Utah’s MRD provides services such as cardiology, dental surgery, lab work, X-ray services and more to hundreds of Moroccan people. Translators are assigned one or two service providers to help relay the needs of the patients and suggestions from the Moroccan specialist to the Soldiers handling their care.

“Everyone comes out a winner in this,” Evans said. “For the Moroccan people with limited healthcare, they have all of their medical concerns addressed in a timely manner. And for the military – both from Morocco and the U.S. – this is a chance to actually exercise what we do when conducting combat missions or humanitarian support elsewhere in the world.”

Keeping the field hospital running also comes with its fair share of challenges.

U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Robert Stevens, the senior enlisted advisor to Evans, said that Akka’s climate—where temperatures can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit on some days—forced them to adjust their pharmaceutical operations. Morocco primarily runs the pharmacy operations with resupply support from the UTNG. To gain some much needed relief from the heat, the facility offers a daycare area where U.S. and Moroccan soldiers entertain children while cooling down.

“We had to relocate the pharmacy because of temperature control,” Stevens said. “We didn’t have the full capability to provide that for some of the medicine because if they go above or below a certain temperature, the meds are no good. They send the supply request to us and our staff, [then] we send a group out to go pick up the pharmacy supplies and bring them back here.”

Although the current HCA operations are temporary, there is a lasting impact on the MRD soldiers and the FAR. The MRD has provided over 70,000 services to the Moroccan people as of May 28, which puts them well on track to their goal of 91,000 medical treatments completed, according to Stevens.

Evans also noted that years of operating the field hospital helped the FAR establish expeditionary medical forces in Jordan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For a soldier like U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Nelson, the MRD’s clinical manager of the HCA exercise and a paramedic back in the U.S., the benefits of working on this mission are twofold.

“I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the emergency doctors here with the Moroccan military and other doctors how to treat patients in an austere environment,” Nelson said. “That knowledge is critical and crucial to my ability to be a better medic and treat more patients in the U.S.”

Utah splits its yearly obligation to the HCA mission between its Army and Air National Guard, meaning the latter will take charge during African Lion 2025.

Improving partnerships and operational effectiveness through multinational collaboration is one of the primary tenets of the exercise and the Utah National Guard remains committed to doing its part to meet that objective.

About SETAF-AF

SETAF-AF provides U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Europe and Africa a dedicated headquarters to synchronize Army activities in Africa and scalable crisis-response options in Africa and Europe.

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