Marines describe survival in the blast zone

[thedrifter]

Marines describe survival in the blast zone
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004526135026
Story by Lance Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.



CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq(May 24, 2004) -- Lance Cpl. Christian A. Holloway knows what it's like to survive the blast of an improvised explosive device.

"The boom hits and everything becomes silent," said Holloway, an infantryman from Round Rock, Texas. "Your body is in motion, but you can't hear a thing. It's like that scene from 'Saving Private Ryan.'"

Holloway, assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, along with 15 other Marines, was on a convoy several days ago when his vehicle was struck by an IED. The roadside bomb was made of 155 mm artillery rounds buried in the dirt. The blast tore through a seven-ton truck, wounding nine Marines.

One wounded was evacuated to an Army hospital in Baghdad. The other eight Marines were treated and released. All received fragmentation wounds from the explosion, but eye protection saved the sight of eight of the nine Marines.

The explosion left the Marines dazed, bleeding and wondering how they survived to speak about it.

Lance Cpl. Joseph D. Brooks, an infantryman from Palm Bay, Fla., said the effects of the blast were sobering. He's seen the effects of combat last year during the invasion of Iraq. But that was the enemy. This time, he was battling to keep his fellow Marines alive.

"He had a piece of shrapnel...," Brooks explained of seeing his wounded friend. "During our first time here it was different seeing the bodies of our enemies. But, when it's your friend, your buddy you're giving first aid to, it makes you sick."

The convoy quickly set up a perimeter in search of the enemy. Nothing was there. No movement could be seen. There weren't any wires to trace the bomb. It was triggered by a remote detonator.

"Everything was like second nature," said Pvt. Jesus Rivera, an infantryman from Phoenix. "We weren't even thinking. We just did what we were supposed to.

Rivera added that even one of the worst wounded Marines was barking orders.

It wasn't until after the incident was over that any of them were able to grasp exactly what happened.

"While it was happening we were all just so angry," Holloway explained. "We just wanted to get them back."

"At first I was just angry," added Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Pearce, an infantryman from Dallas. "Then I started thinking about all the other Marines. A lot of these guys have fiancés and wives."

Pearce said one Marine has a son yet to be born.

The Marines in the convoy weren't surprised by what had happened. Rather, many expected it. They trained for it, how to react and briefed it before they left on the mission. Still, none knew exactly what it would be like.

"I was scared at first," said Lance Cpl. Eric S. Freemen, an infantryman and from Thousand Oaks, Calif. "It was like, 'Wow, it finally happened.' It didn't feel real for a while. We all knew it would happen, we just didn't know when."

Several days later, the Marines still wondered how they weren't killed or severely injured.

"There were large holes everywhere," Holloway said. "We are amazed nothing too bad happened to us. Someone was looking out for us."

And it didn't slow them down.

In less than a day, the Marines were out patrolling the same street where it happened. Some still wore the same blood-stained uniforms.

"This is what we do. It's all muscle memory," Rivera said. "They can't stop us."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004526141223/$file/survive1lr.jpg

Lance Cpls. Christian A. Holloway, of Round Rock, Texas and Joshua C. Pearce, of Dallas, both infantrymen with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, show off pieces of shrapnel from an improvised explosive device. The two were on a convoy that was hit by two 155 mm rounds while on a routine patrol. Pearce is holding a piece which went into his leg.
(USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.) Photo by: Lance Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/7A39C8B27B51C0C985256EA0006200A9?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Students offer comfort to Marines <br />
<br />
By: JOANNA CORMAN - Staff Writer <br />
<br />
TEMECULA ---- Sixth-grader Marc Veale has heard about the bad news coming out of Iraq in the last two months. It's especially...

[thedrifter]

Hero gave own life <br />
to save others <br />
<br />
Puch congressional Medal of Honor for fallen N.Y. Marine <br />
<br />
By CORKY SIEMASZKO <br />
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER <br />
<br />
A New Yorker who died saving two other Marines...

[thedrifter]

Marines break ground on new mosque and school improvements
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004526124158
Story by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes



ZADAN, Iraq(May 24, 2004) -- The civil affairs team with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment recently completed the initial stages of a project that will improve a mosque, school and medical clinic in the city.

The event was celebrated by a groundbreaking ceremony on the property May 19.

"Today was a big day for us," said Sgt. Daniel P. Carreon, an assistant team leader for the civil affairs team from Garden Grove, Calif. "It was one of the first times we've been invited to a mosque in the city and been welcomed by everyone. It's just the first step toward showing the locals we're here to help and improve their quality of life."

The project will consist of a room built onto the mosque where the local sheikhs, or tribal leaders, can meet to discuss community affairs, explained the 27-year-old Carreon. In addition, the adjacent primary school will receive renovations along with the nearby medical clinic.

"My strongest memory of the ceremony was when they cut the ribbon and broke the ground with a shovel," said Lance Cpl. Brian M. Gill a 25-year-old from Philadelphia. "Everybody shouted and an old man raised his cane up in the air. You could tell they were genuinely happy to have us there."

After the event, a lamb was sacrificed at the mosque in accordance with Muslim tradition.
Construction is currently underway on the improvements and everything is expected to be complete by Aug. 15, Carreon said.

The improvements are a few of many that are underway in the community. The local water treatment plant, secondary and primary schools are also receiving improvements, spearheaded by the civil affairs team.

"This was the first time we've seen the local sheikhs working with the Coalition Forces and it's the first time they've been involved with us," said Maj. Mark P. DeVito, the civil affairs team leader from San Diego. "It's a positive step for the coalition forces and the sheikhs of Zadan."

Outside the ceremony, many of the Marines providing security noticed a major difference in the attitude of the people.

"People were a little more comfortable around us and there was a big turnout," said Cpl. Michael S. Edwards, a 23-year-old from Cincinnati. "This proves to them we are really here to help them out, make their lives better however we can."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004526125951/$file/breakground1lr.jpg

Town council leader Taha Rashid cuts the ribbon for the ground breaking cermony for a new school and mosque in Zadan during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Carl A. Atherton) Photo by: Cpl. Carl A. Atherton

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/21D70C8E39AA8A5A85256EA0005BBBCE?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine making up for lost time with Iraq tour
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004526101756
Story by Sgt. Jose L. Garcia



CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq(May 24, 2004) -- Cpl. Norman J. Sutphin knows that when it comes to being a Marine, it's not years, but the miles that matter.

The more than 10,000 miles he spanned from his home in North Carolina to here pale in comparison to the 12 years he spent outside of the Marine Corps

The 37-year-old High Point, N.C. Marine from Company L, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment is serving a tour in Iraq, the latest jaunt in a Marine career that began in June 1986. That's when Sutphin first enlisted. He left the Marine Corps in March of 1990 after meeting his wife.

"Once a Marine, always a Marine," Sutphin said of his broken service. "The Marine Corps will always stay in your blood."

There was a time, though the machine gunner thought his days in uniform were over.

"I didn't want to get married and be in the military and live a grunt life," Sutphin said. "I decided to give the civilian life a try. I did not want to be a career Marine, so I decided to get out and get married."

His Marine Corps commitments recalled him during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. Sutphin was recalled and spent six weeks training at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Still, he never got to deploy.

"I was excited to be in the Marines again and wanted to serve in Desert Storm but after six weeks we were sent home," he explained. "I was devastated and decided to try to get back in."

Sutphin said he talked to the recruiter several times but drawdowns in the force structure prevented his prior-service re-enlistment. He gave up and returned to civilian life.

The time in between stints in uniform for Sutphin found him working in several jobs. His tour as a Marine opened doors for jobs in construction work, a lumberyard, waste plant, and furniture factory.

He landed a job laying underground power lines. The money was good and he was able to support his wife and four children. Still, he knew he wanted something more.
He took another job where he soon found his ticket back into the Corps. He met Gunnery Sgt. John Zachman, a reservist from Greensborough, NC.

Sutphin's sense of duty also tugged at him after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Soon after, he raised his hand again and swore his oath again as a Marine.

"Gunny Z was a big factor for me coming back in," Sutphin explained. "Plus I missed the Marine Corps and the civilian life, well...it's not the same."

They both took a trip to the recruiting office and a year-half later after all the paperwork, he enlisted once again but this time into the reserves for a two-year contract.

"You never think about coming back," Sutphin said. "When you get out, you get out and that's that."

Sutphin now finds himself in Camp Al Asad participating in different convoys, along with providing security, conducting foot patrols, standing observation posts. He's also taken part in operations that uncovered several cache of weapons.

It's not easy keeping up with the younger Marines. Sutphin's at an age when most enlisted Marines are looking forward to retirement. Instead, he and his fellow Marines joke about him being the oldest lance corporal when he first came back in.

"He's just one of the guys," said Cpl. Steven C. Boring, a 24-year-old from Maryville, Tenn. "Younger guys look up to him. We call him grandpa as a joke and he just laughs. He gets along with everyone from private to colonel."

Sutphin admits younger Marines see him as an older brother and he sees himself in a lot of them when he was their age.

Other say it's a quirky having an older noncommissioned officer. Lance Cpl. Joshua A. Morris, a close friend of Sutphin's from Johnson City, Tenn., said some Marines they see Sutphin as a staff NCO.

"He should be a gunny or something. It's weird," explained 21-year-old Morris. "He's a great person to go for help and good guy to hang out with. I hope he stays with us for a long time."

"He is real good in schooling the young Marines in what to expect and what is normal," said Maj. Don R. Avant, 46, from Charlotte, N.C., and the commanding officer for Company L. "He definitely is a good mentor. I'm very pleased to serve with him and have him in this unit."

Sutphin's coy about what his future plans are as a Marine. He's soon got to decide if he's going to again re-enlist or shed his uniform once more.

Still, he offered one hint.

"I'll hang around for a while and see what happens."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004526103121/$file/gap1lr.jpg

Cpl. Norman J. Sutphin, of High Point, N.C. and machine gunner for Weapons Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, jumps atop a humvee and checks the MK-19 autmomatic grenade launcher for proper maintenance. The 37-year-old missed the Corps for twelve years and after Sept. 11, 2001, he decided to come back in. Sutphin's first enlistment was in June 1986.
(USMC photo by Sgt. Jose L. Garcia) Photo by: Sgt. Jose L. Garcia

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/0EBDB962723F415385256EA0004E8C2A?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi amputees travel from Houston to White House <br />
Bush told of horrors at Abu Ghraib under Saddam's regime <br />
<br />
<br />
By MICHAEL HEDGES <br />
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON --...

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: May 31, 2004

Extended deployments
Officials: Iraq tours could last more than 7 months

By Gordon Lubold and Laura Bailey
Times staff writers

Senior Pentagon officials are hinting that Marines in Iraq could be ordered to stay until at least December, three months after their anticipated return, a move that could affect other units slated to deploy and put the Marine Corps on the same deployment par as the Army.
The possibility has existed for months that Marines could be expected to serve in Iraq for as long as a year, but Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee has fought to limit Marine tours to seven months.

So far, he’s been successful.

But a possible extension for the roughly 25,000 Marines there now seems more likely after a senior defense official commented on the matter during a May 17 background briefing.

During the briefing, held to inform reporters of plans for moving a brigade of soldiers from South Korea to replace units in Iraq, the official was asked whether the Pentagon would extend the Marines in theater.

While the tour lengths for Marines and soldiers vary — seven months for Marines and 12 months for soldiers — the operations tempo between the two services remains proportionately the same, the official said.

“That’s not to say that there isn’t consideration to looking at the Marines’ tour length because there is,” said the military official, who held the briefing on condition of anonymity. “Frankly, there is.”

The comments echo remarks made by a Pentagon planner in late April, who suggested Marines could be extended for about three months, possibly not returning until December. That group of Marines, serving in the first of two planned seven-month rotations, was slated to return in September.

But the idea of an extension seems to be gaining traction.

None of this is sitting well with Marine leaders, who believe the seven-month tours agreed upon best fit their capabilities.

“We are not looking at 12-month tours for Marines right now,” said Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, in an interview on May 21. “Having said that, I’m not going to sit here and say [operational] requirements aren’t going to make us extend someone.”

Command elements of the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based I Marine Expeditionary Force are in Iraq with orders for a year already; nearly all other Marines are scheduled to stay for just seven months.

Yet deployments always change, Huly said, something he’s seen often during his nearly 35 years in the Corps.

“Seldom do you come home as scheduled,” he said. “In these turbulent times, I would say that is a possibility.”

A domino effect

Pentagon planners are reviewing various options to maintain a force of at least 135,000 troops in Iraq through the Iraqi elections in December or January. Part of that means determining how long units and services should stay. As planners search for the most workable rotation plan for the next year, much is up in the air.

An extension of the Marine units in Iraq could have a ripple effect across the Corps. The current plan is to replace the Marine force there with a force of equal size this fall that would be built from remaining units with I MEF at Camp Pendleton and II MEF at Camp Lejeune, N.C., along with units from Marine Forces Reserve. Those units are tentatively scheduled to deploy in September.

But if the existing force is extended by three or more months, the Marines slated to follow likely wouldn’t deploy until early next year. That, in turn, could have an effect on the Corps’ contribution to the rotation slated to begin in spring 2005, what Pentagon planners are calling Operation Iraqi Freedom III.

Although the Defense Department planned to withdraw troops gradually from Iraq through normal attrition, ending with a force of between 105,000 and 115,000, Pentagon officials said in April that the security situation in Iraq dictates that a force of 135,000 is needed.

Defense officials slowly are releasing details about how they’ll increase the force by the 20,000 needed.

The Corps’ contribution is significant. Both the 11th and 24th Marine Expeditionary Units will spend their previously planned at-sea deployments in Iraq instead, where they are expected to relieve elements of the Army’s 1st Armored Division and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, both of which are on emergency 90-day extensions following their 12-month tours. That combination of both MEUs, a force of about 4,400 Marines, is to be augmented by another 500 Marines and sailors, including two medical detachments and an assault amphibian company.

It will fall to the Army to come up with the rest of the 20,000 troops needed in Iraq. The bulk of that number comes from 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, in South Korea, and an assortment of active and reserve combat support and combat service support components, the senior military official said during the briefing.

In a sign of the scramble to amass the force needed in Iraq, the 24th MEU scrapped the remainder of its six-month pre-deployment training package — to include its Special Operations Capable certification exercise — to leave for Iraq about a month sooner than planned.

The MEU wrapped up its Training in an Urban Environment Exercise in Morgantown, W.Va., six days early and hustled back to Lejeune to ready for deployment.

The Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship Kearsarge will carry the 24th MEU’s air element to Iraq, a “surge” deployment for the ship that is the latest example of how the Navy is maintaining ships under the Fleet Response Plan. That plan is designed to keep more of the fleet maintained and ready to get underway on short notice.

Operational planning these days is as fluid as the new MRE milkshakes are runny: Plans change from one day to the next, and it’s hard to pin down planners on anything they said the day before.

Word that they’d head back to Iraq initially came as a shock to Marines, because occupation duty usually falls to the Army. But as the security situation in Iraq worsened, it became clear that troop strength couldn’t be reduced any time soon and war-weary soldiers would need to be relieved. The Marines were tapped to do their part.

“We do windows,” Hagee said in an interview with Marine Corps Times on Sept. 29, acknowledging that Marines would have to break from tradition and play a role in the occupying force.

At the time, Hagee publicly attempted to manage expectations, hinting that if Marines returned to Iraq, they might go for as long as a year. But inside the Pentagon, he “went to the mat” to convince Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Marines should do only seven-month tours and won, Lt. Gen. James Conway, commanding general of I MEF, said during a speech in Washington in January.

Marine leaders argue that the Corps is built for six- or seven-month tours, not for 10- or 12-month deployments like those used by the Army.

MEU deployments and Unit Deployment Program rotations to Okinawa and Iwakuni, Japan, are designed to be six months. That gives Marines predictability, combat effectiveness and helps maintain troop morale.

“The seven-month rotation we feel best suits the Marine Corps,” said Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, sergeant major of the Marine Corps, in a May 21 interview.

“But,” he said, “if we were told we had to do it for a year, I’m not saying we couldn’t do that.”

More than 400 days

Meanwhile, Marines’ operations tempo is creeping upward, and the days of routine deployments are in the Corps’ rearview mirror.

Within a two-year period, Marines typically deploy for six months followed by another 18 months at home before they do another deployment. This pace is viewed as the optimal deployment routine.

That’s changed. Now, the average Marine deployment tempo is one-for-one: Within a two-year period, Marines are spending about seven months on deployment and another seven months home before they leave again, said Kerry Cerny, a management analyst with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va.

Some Marines are doing even more.

As of May 21, 2,715 active-duty Marines had logged at least 400 days deployed within a two-year period. Another 1,773 reservists have exceeded that mark, Cerny said. The 400-day mark is used as a threshold to gauge individual deployment tempo.

Huly said he is concerned by those totals but conceded there’s not much he can do about it.

“There is a war on,” he said. “I would rather see it lower than that, but we’re doing what we have to do right now.”

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2938722.php


Ellie

[Super Dave]

That's my old unit 3/4.....hard chargers!!

[thedrifter]

Marine's Marine Is a Quiet Hero
Silver Star nominee says he was just doing his job in a bloody encounter with insurgents in Fallouja.

By Erin Ailworth and Tony Perry, Times Staff Writers


CAMP PENDLETON — Carlos Gomez-Perez was about to be sent to Iraq when he joined more than 200 Marines and sailors earlier this year at Camp Pendleton, where they took the oath of citizenship.

Back from combat, the 21-year-old lance corporal from El Cajon is receiving new praise — this time for bravery during a fierce firefight.

His heroism has earned Gomez-Perez a nomination for a Silver Star but ended his tour of duty — at least for now.

Recovering after being shot in the right shoulder and cheek during an encounter with insurgents, Gomez-Perez spoke Wednesday about his combat experience during an interview at Camp Pendleton, where his Marine unit is based.

He downplayed his actions, saying that he was just doing his job, and expressed guilt for leaving Iraq.

"My job was just to throw grenades," he said.

But the nomination for the Silver Star, the third-highest award for bravery after the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, says of the Mexican native: His "courage, professionalism and outstanding dedication to duty reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest tradition of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service."

The fight that led to a nomination for the Silver Star unfolded last month in the Jolan neighborhood of northwest Fallouja. Insurgents used AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades to attack Marines clearing a nearby building, with some insurgents coming within 65 feet of the Marines' position.

"The insurgents were so close to us — they were next door — when they threw the grenades, they didn't bounce, they just landed," Gomez-Perez said.

After moving wounded platoon members to safety and getting medical care for them, Gomez-Perez rushed to take a rooftop position.

"Braving withering enemy machine and rocket-propelled grenade fire, Lance Cpl. Gomez delivered lethal fire to the enemy," according to a report included in his nomination.

He was joined on the rooftop by Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin, who was shot in the chest and abdomen as he tried to throw a grenade.

As Gomez-Perez moved to pull Austin to safety, a bullet tore through his cheek and another struck his shoulder.

Still, Gomez-Perez pumped Austin's chest 10 times, administering CPR, before Austin was moved on a stretcher improvised from a door. Austin later died at a hospital.

Gomez-Perez returned and continued firing until he collapsed. He was pulled to safety and taken to a hospital.

Friends who were in the fight said his actions were to be expected.

"He's always finding a way to get things done. He's a quiet guy, not one of those loud guys. He's terrific," said Lance Cpl. Garrett Amerine, 23, of Laguna Niguel.

Cpl. Roger Pierce, 24, of East Mesa, Ariz., said: "He has no fear. He's always looking to help his Marines. I'm not surprised this happened. Nothing could stop him from doing his job. He's a Marine's Marine."

Sitting at a sunlit table Wednesday, Gomez-Perez said he wanted to do more.

"I asked to go back; they won't let me go back," he said. "My family is over there…. I felt like a traitor." Marines, he said, "never leave anyone behind, no matter how bad it is."

The road that led Gomez-Perez to Iraq began when he was 9 and his family moved to the United States.

He joined the Marines after graduating from Grossmont High School in El Cajon. He had been accepted on the football team at the University of Hawaii but couldn't afford tuition.

The Marines, he thought, would help further his education.

"The last thing I remember before leaving for boot camp was my son crying and my wife crying and all I could do was say goodbye," Gomez-Perez said.

Leaving his wife, Samantha Izaguirre-Gomez, and his infant son, Jose Carlos, Gomez-Perez set off for boot camp in 2001.

"As soon as I got to boot camp, the drill instructors are telling you, 'You know what? You guys are going to war,' " he said.

Gomez-Perez said he adopted the makeshift motto: "Push yourself to the limit, and when you break, push yourself some more," which served him and others well in combat when they watched friends die and had to force themselves on.

Gomez-Perez first arrived in Iraq in March 2003, living for three to four months at a time in fighting holes.

After returning from combat, he applied for a green card and was awarded citizenship under a federal program that assists immigrants in the military.

That was just days before he returned to Iraq. This time, he said, the fighting was different.

People were less friendly and enemies were always nearby.

"They would just pop out of the corner, fire and go away," Gomez-Perez said.

"I got real upset. You want to come out and fight, [then] come out and fight."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hero27may27,1,1813094.story


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: May 24, 2004

Armored trucks heading to Iraq
‘Cougar’ vehicles going to engineer, ordnance units

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

It looks like a cross between a Brinks armored truck and a Light Armored Vehicle, and pretty soon it’ll head to Iraq for some of the Corps’ most dangerous duties.
Late last year, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command signed a deal with Ladson, S.C.-based Force Protection Inc. to build 27 heavily armored vehicles for use by explosive ordnance disposal teams and combat engineers. Those teams dispose of land mines and improvised explosives — common weapons on the Iraqi battlefield.

The trucks, which range in size from seven to 14 tons, are not only built to survive a direct hit from an anti-tank mine, but stand a good chance of driving away — something a fully armored Humvee can’t do. The truck has a compartment encased in thick steel and bulletproof glass.

“This company’s technology and testing [have] proven that their vehicle can drive over a mine and not be dead right there on the road,” said Maj. Bob Gordon, project officer for the hardened engineer vehicle program with Systems Command at Quantico, Va.

So far the Corps has purchased nine “Cougar” four-passenger armored vehicles. These primarily will be used for Marine EOD teams.

The Corps also has purchased five Cougar variants that seat up to 12 — designated for Marine combat engineer teams.

Officials have signed a contract for a total of 27 Cougars — 15 for EOD teams and 12 for combat engineer teams — under an urgent wartime needs statement issued by I Marine Expeditionary Force last year, Gordon said. The Corps spent $4.7 million for the first 14 Cougars but does not yet have funding for the remaining 13, he added.

The first shipment of four vehicles is to be sent to EOD units in Iraq in September, with five more heading over each month through November.

The Cougar has significant advantages over a typical up-armored Humvee in its ability to survive explosive detonations from beneath the vehicle, said Mike Aldrich, vice president for marketing and sales with Force Protection Inc.

“My real gripe with armored Humvees is … from a blast standpoint you’re fighting uphill, you’re just never going to win that battle,” Aldrich said. “The vehicle is too light and too flat. So any significant amount of energy coming up from underneath the vehicle is going to launch the vehicle into the air and flip it over, as we regularly see on the news.”

The Cougar is based on a design that traces its lineage to the South African army and other militaries in land mine-plagued regions.

The armored crew capsule — which has an angular shape designed to deflect blast energy away from the vehicle — is mounted on a frame built by Denton, Texas-based Peterbilt Motor Company, and the truck has the same Detroit Diesel Corp.-built engine as the Army’s Stryker infantry carrier vehicle, Aldrich said.

Gordon, an engineer officer, says the Cougar is a long overdue addition to the EOD and combat engineer community, which in the past had to make do with whatever vehicles it could get.

“Obviously with Iraq and the improvised explosive devices that are out there, that has put a high interest and high visibility for the engineers to have a vehicle that can withstand those, so they can go out there and defuse the IEDs,” Gordon said.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2916210.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Reality Check -- This Is War
Recent low-casualty conflicts have spoiled the U.S. In fact, the Iraq loss rate is among our smallest ever.


The panic gripping Washington over the state of Iraq makes it clear we have been spoiled by the seemingly easy, apparently bloodless victories of the last decade. From the Persian Gulf War of 1991 to the Afghanistan war of 2001, we got used to winning largely through air power. There were casualties, of course, but few of them were on our side. In Kosovo, we managed to prevail without losing a single person. We forgot what real war looks like. Iraq is providing an unwelcome reminder of how messy and costly it can be.

By comparison with the wars of the last decade, what's happening in Iraq appears to be a terrible failure. Things look a little different if you compare it with earlier conflicts.

Look at three key indicators:

• Casualties. As of Wednesday, we've lost 800 service people in Iraq (666 of them from hostile fire), and more than 4,500 have been wounded (of whom 1,769 returned to duty within 72 hours). At least 200,000 soldiers and Marines have served in Iraq — including many who have since left — so that amounts to a total casualty rate of about 2.5%. If you add Air Force, Navy and logistics personnel supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom (at least 150,000), the casualty rate drops to 1.5%.

How does that compare with previous U.S. wars? By my calculation, using data from Information Please and the Oxford Companion to American Military History, the losses we've suffered in Iraq are so far among the lowest of any of our major conflicts. Comparing the number of U.S. wounded and dead with the size of the force deployed, in Vietnam the casualty rate was 6.2%; in World War I and World War II, just above 6.5%. On D-day, June 6, 1944, more than three times as many servicemen were lost as died in Iraq in the past year.

The Iraq war rate seems high only because our unstated benchmark is the 1991 Gulf War (total casualty rate: 0.14%). This is not meant to deprecate the sacrifices of our soldiers; for friends and family members, no statistics can assuage their grief. But, from a historical vantage point, what's remarkable is how few casualties we've suffered, not how many.

• Nation-building. No, we haven't established a liberal democracy in Iraq. But it's only been a year. We occupied West Germany for four years after 1945, Japan for seven years. We occupied the Philippines for almost half a century after the Spanish-American War. More recently, Bosnia is still occupied by the international community nine years after the end of hostilities, as is Kosovo five years later.

It takes a long time to bring order out of chaos. The most successful examples of nation-building, such as the British in India, required hundreds of years. No one is suggesting that the United States should occupy Iraq nearly that long, of course, but it's unrealistic to expect too much in only a year. The fact that an interim Iraqi government will be established June 30, and elections held by Jan. 30, is actually pretty speedy by historical norms.

• Abuses: I make no excuses for the sadistic creeps at Abu Ghraib whose misconduct deserves the harshest possible punishment. But let's be serious. For all the media's coverage, this is no My Lai (1968) or No Gun Ri (1950) — both instances in which innocent civilians were gunned down by U.S. troops. Nor is this comparable to the abuses that occurred during the Philippine War (1899-1903), when Brig. Gen. Jacob Smith instructed his men to turn the island of Samar into "a howling wilderness" and kill "all persons … who are capable of bearing arms."

In Iraq, there is no evidence of the kind of systematic torture employed by the French in Algeria (1954-62) or the kind of "concentration camps" invented by the British in the Boer War (1899-1902). U.S. troops haven't simply leveled whole towns, as the Russians did in Chechnya (1994-95) or the Syrians in Hama (1982). Even in World War II — the "good war" — there were numerous instances of Americans shooting enemy soldiers trying to surrender, to say nothing of the carpet-bombing of German and Japanese civilians.

On the historical scale of abuses, the misconduct of a few soldiers in Iraq ranks pretty low. Most soldiers and Marines actually have exhibited great restraint in the face of an enemy that hides behind civilians and fires from mosques.

I don't mean to imply that everything is going great in Iraq. There are huge problems, especially the lack of security, and the Bush administration has badly bungled many aspects of the occupation. All I'm suggesting is that we keep a sense of perspective: Mistakes and setbacks occur in every war. At least in every war before the 1990s.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Chronicling the Casualties

Percentages of personnel injured or killed among the totals that served in major American conflicts (in descending order):

Civil War (Union forces): 29%

Mexican War: 22%

War of Independence: 11.6%

Korean War: 7.8%

World War I: 6.8%

World War II: 6.6%

Vietnam War: 6.2%

Philippine War: 5.6%

War of 1812: 2.3%

Iraq war: 1.5-2.5%

Spanish-American War: 1.3%

1991 Persian Gulf War: 0.14%

*

Sources: Information Please, Oxford Companion to American Military History

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-boot27may27,1,7228821.column


Ellie