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thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:29 AM
Marines could deploy at any moment, but are they ready? <br />
Submitted by: MCRD Parris Island <br />
Story Identification #: 200482693745 <br />
Story by Lance Cpl. Brian Kester <br />
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MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C....

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:29 AM
Shiite militants and U.S. forces battle in Baghdad, five killed

By: RAVI NESSMAN - Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite militants and U.S. forces battled throughout the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, and a mortar barrage slammed into a busy neighborhood in the capital in a new wave of violence Saturday that killed at least five people and wounded dozens of others.

U.S. warplanes and tanks later bombarded targets in Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, and U.S. forces exchanged gunfire with insurgents along the city's eastern outskirts and the main highway running to neighboring Jordan, witnesses said. The fighting left at least 14 people injured, hospital officials said.

The new violence came as residents of Najaf began digging out of the rubble and debris left by three weeks of fierce fighting between militants and U.S. forces in the holy city. The crisis ended Friday when the militants withdrew under a peace deal brokered by Iraq's most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.


Iraqi police spread out across Najaf's devastated Old City on Saturday, patrolling in vehicles and on foot and taking over checkpoints that until recently were manned by followers of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces pulled back from the neighborhood, the site of much of the fighting.

"It's a joyful thing, the armed men have left Najaf and (neighboring) Kufa," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told al-Iraqiyah television Saturday.

Around the Imam Ali Shrine -- which al-Sadr fighters surrendered Friday after weeks of using it as a stronghold -- street cleaners in orange uniforms swept up debris, trash and rubble, loading it onto trucks. Shards of glass littered the streets, and burnt cars could be seen on the roads, cratered by bomb blasts. Some buildings were blackened by blasts. Others had big holes in them.

A delegation of five government ministers visited al-Sistani to thank him for his peace efforts. They also visited the shrine.

"The shrine inside is cleaned up," Minister of State Qassim Dawoud said. "We hope to open the mosque to the public within 10 days."

Though Najaf remained calm, fighting flared in Sadr City, an al-Sadr stronghold in Baghdad named for the cleric's slain father, as militants armed with rifles and mortars fought with U.S. forces.

Sadr City has been the scene of repeated clashes in the 16 months since the fall of Saddam Hussein, but the violence intensified in recent weeks as the Najaf fighting spread to Shiite communities across the country.

Allawi blamed the continuing violence on renegade al-Sadr followers who do not want to honor the peace deal.

"I believe there are some people who are disobeying Muqtada al-Sadr's orders" to stop fighting, he told Al-Iraqiyah television.

U.S. soldiers in Humvees drove through the neighborhood with loudspeakers, telling people to stay inside because coalition forces were "cleaning the area of armed men," according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Gunfire crackled in the streets as U.S. tanks rolled by and helicopters patrolled the sky. Militants stood in the streets calmly launching round after round of mortars at U.S. forces. Black smoke rose over the neighborhood. A blue sedan was peppered with dozens of bullet holes.

Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official, said three people were killed and 25 wounded in the skirmishes. A young boy was receiving an intravenous drip at the hospital, while a little girl in a pink dress grimaced at the large, bleeding wound in her leg.

Militants fired eight mortars at U.S. troops, but all of them missed and instead hit an electricity substation, cutting power to five or six blocks of Sadr City, U.S. Capt. Brian O'Malley of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, said. U.S. forces suffered no casualties.

Insurgents also fired a round of mortars into a crowded eastern Baghdad neighborhood, killing two boys washing cars in a street, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman. At least four mortar rounds landed within an hour in the same area, sending panicked pedestrians scrambling for safety, witnesses said.

The dead teenagers were taken to a nearby morgue, where tearful relatives pounded their chests in grief and others hugged and kissed the boy's bodies. At least six other people were injured, said Bashir Mohammed of Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital.

Another mortar round hit a fuel tank at the Golden Beach hotel, starting a fire that enveloped much of the building in flames. Yet another round fell near the Palestine Hotel, where foreign journalists and contractors stay, but did not explode.

Meanwhile, Iraqi militants kidnapped two Frenchmen to protest France's ban on students wearing Islamic head coverings in public schools, which goes into effect on Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera television said it had received a tape from a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq showing several seconds of videotape with the two hostages. One of them said in poor Arabic, "We are being held by the Islamic Army in Iraq." The second hostage spoke French.

The kidnapping could not be independently confirmed. The French Foreign Ministry said it had no information.

The station's newsreader said the group described the French law banning religious apparel in public schools as "an aggression on the Islamic religion and personal freedoms" and gave the French government 48 hours to overturn the law, without mentioning any ultimatum.

The latest U.S. strikes in Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim insurgents, struck the Askari neighborhood and an industrial area in the eastern section of the city. At least 14 people were injured, including eight children, said Dr. Ali Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital.

Witnesses said the air raids began at 7 p.m. and clashes continued for several hours. Smoke billowed into the air, and fire blazed in the night sky after the strikes.

Lt. Col. Thomas V. Johnson, a Marine spokesman, said U.S. troops were responding with tank and artillery after coming under fire. A blaze in the city was sparked by a strike that apparently hit a "significant weapons cache," he said.

On Friday, U.S. airstrikes targeted the same neighborhoods, killing three people, medical officials said. U.S. forces have repeatedly carried out airstrikes in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, since Marines pulled back following a three-week siege in April aimed at rooting out Sunni Muslim insurgents.

In other violence:



Gunmen killed five policemen and injured two others in the center of the city of Baqouba, a hotbed of violence 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, said police Lt. Col. Salman Saadoon.


Police found the bodies of a slain Turkish truck driver and an Iraqi man on a highway near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, a Turkish diplomat said Saturday on condition of anonymity. It was not known who killed the men.


A civilian was killed and two other people were wounded, including an Iraqi police officer, when rebels fired a mortar round in Beiji on Friday, the U.S. military said.




http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/08/29/military/15_30_438_28_04.txt


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:30 AM
U.S. warplanes, tanks bombard Fallujah

By: Associated Press

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- U.S. warplanes and tanks bombarded targets in the volatile city of Fallujah on Saturday, and U.S. forces exchanged gunfire with insurgents on the city's eastern outskirts and the main highway that runs to neighboring Jordan, witnesses said.

The attacks struck the city's eastern al-Askari neighborhood as well as the industrial area at the eastern entrance of Fallujah. At least four homes were destroyed and people were seen being rushed to hospital.

Lt. Col. Thomas V. Johnson, a Marine spokesman, said U.S. troops based on the edge of Fallujah had been attacked.


"One of our positions near Fallujah has been taking sporadic fire," Johnson said. "Marines countered with tanks and artillery."

Witnesses said the air raids began at 7 p.m. and were still going on an hour later. Smoke could be seen billowing into the air and fire blazed in the sky after the strikes.

Johnson said one fire in the city had been started by a U.S. strike and was "believed to be related to a hit on a significant weapons cache."

U.S. forces have repeatedly carried out airstrikes in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, since Marines ended a three-week siege of the city in April aimed at rooting out Sunni Muslim insurgents.

On Friday, U.S. airstrikes targeted the same neighborhoods, killing three people and wounding 13 others, including a 6-year-old girl, medical officials said.

The military said Friday's attack had targeted an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a truck that attempted to fire on a U.S. plane.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/08/29/military/15_31_298_28_04.txt


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:30 AM
Marines back from Iraq duty
Saturday, August 28, 2004
By STAN FREEMAN
sfreeman@repub.com


CHICOPEE - Stationed primarily on the Syrian border during his seven months in Iraq, Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Leach had to endure searing 125-degree temperatures and breathtakingly fierce sandstorms.


He also had to endure the longest separation in his 16-year marriage.


Both of those tests of character ended for him yesterday when Leach and six other Marines returned from the Middle East to waiting families and friends at Westover Air Reserve Base.


Deployed to Iraq in February, they were all part of the Marine Air Support Squadron Six based at Westover. Four were reservists and three were active-duty Marines.


"I was so looking forward to getting home, I could eat a big bowl of American dirt right now," said Leach, who was met at the air base by his wife, Karen, and their three children.


Both natives of the Syracuse, N.Y., area, Leach and his wife had previously been stationed in California, New York and Alabama before the transfer to Westover and Chicopee. But they had never been apart as long as the war in Iraq had required them to be.


The Leaches' son, Dana, 12, said he followed news of the war every day in the newspapers and on television. "I just wanted him to be OK, to not get shot or anything."


Iraq was a different world than he'd anticipated, his father said. "If you've ever seen the movie 'The Mummy' with the big sandstorms, it was a wall of sand three miles high coming at you. The heat was unimaginable. With your helmet on and your flak jacket, you could add another 20 degrees. I love challenges and this was definitely a challenge."


Also returning was Reservist Master Sgt. Anthony A. Karmelowicz, who was met by his wife, Patricia, and their two children. They have been married 18 years and his deployment was also the longest separation of their marriage.


Patricia Karmelowicz said that after her husband had been sent to Iraq, it took her some time to not worry so much about his safety.


"At the beginning, I didn't hear from him that much, but after that it was like three times a week either through e-mails or phone calls. I just took his word for it that he was safe. He kept telling me not to worry," she said.


Her husband called the tour of duty "a good experience."


"It was about helping people out. It was worth going over. I know if they called me up again, I would go again," he said.


The squadron was primarily involved in communications work, doing such things as coordinating medical evacuation flights or deployment of Black Hawk helicopters.


Also returning to Westover yesterday were Reservist Marines Cpl. S.E. Weingart, Cpl. J. Von Der Heyde and Staff Sgt. D.K. McCarthy. The other active duty Marines returning were Staff Sgt. C.M. Litchard and Sgt. J.Q. Cooper. Litchard was wounded in Iraq, according to the squadron spokesman, but information about his injury was not available yesterday.

http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1093679118246370.xml


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:32 AM
Marines, Iraqi government bringing water, light to Iraqi community
Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group
Story Identification #: 200482884549
Story by Sgt. Matt Epright



CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Aug. 28, 2004) -- Working to rebuild Iraq one village at a time, Marines and a local Iraqi government official here signed several contracts, valued at $146,000, to improve the quality of life for residents of a nearby community Aug. 25, 2004.

Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, awarded the contracts to Thayer Hamdallah, the district manager for the Khalidiyah district, to pay for the construction of a water purification system, outdoor lighting, a large generator and even a flagpole with an Iraqi flag for North Al Majarrah, Iraq.

The 250-person community, made up of mobile-home-style trailers, serves as housing for the service and security personnel working at a nearby government-owned resort, said Maj. David C. DeVore, the battalion's intelligence officer.

They only have power in the town for about one hour per day, and while they do have a water source, the water from it is not healthy to drink.

Originally, French construction engineers lived in the trailers while they were building the lakeside retreat exclusively for members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and then left the trailers vacant for many years. Now the interim Iraqi government assigns the trailers to the workers, and the resort is open to all of the Iraqi people, said DeVore, a 38-year-old St. Louis native.

Elements of the reserve infantry battalion, which provide security for nearby Camp Taqaddum, headquarters of the 1st Force Service Support Group, have funded numerous improvements for communities in the area.

As with past contracts, the equipment will be purchased from and the work done by the Iraqi people. The Marines' desire is for most of the workers to come from nearby villages, to provide jobs for the area, said Maj. Luke W. Kratky, who gets the contracts approved for the battalion.

The money for the contracts came from funds appropriated from American tax dollars as part of an $87 billion Iraqi aid package approved by Congress in November 2003.

The Marines made an initial payment of $117,000 to Hamdallah for the contracts. They will monitor the progress of construction and pay the remainder of the money when the job is finished.

Work is scheduled to begin on the project in about a week, said Hamdallah, 28.

These will be among the last contracts 3/24 awards, as the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, an artillery unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C., will soon be relieving it, said Kratky, a 33-year-old native of Fenton, Mo.

Two Marines from the 4th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, accompanied the 3/24 Marines. The reserve artillery unit, headquartered in Bessemer, Ala., is here to augment 2/10, said Gunnery Sgt. A. J. Bork, a platoon sergeant with 4/14 and a 32-year-old native of Hudson, Fla.

The new arrivals shadowed the veterans in order to see how the contracting process works, so they can continue what 3/24 started, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael G. Lee, 34, a platoon commander with 4/14 and native of Birmingham, Ala.

Headquartered in Bridgeton, Mo., 3/24 has awarded contracts worth around $350,000 for numerous improvements to the communities near Camp Taqaddum, including the purchase of a generator, school repairs and school equipment for the village of Al Kabani, and a water purification complex, which serves Al Kabani and two other nearby communities.

The battalion has also visited Al Kabani on many occasions to deliver shoes, school supplies and candy donated by friends and family in the United States.

"We've done a lot of good things out here," said Cpl. Jesse C. Kuschel, a 23-year-old native of Springfield, Mo., who assists Kratky with the contracts.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200482885730/$file/AllWithCompt040825_low.jpg

From left to right, Thayer Hamdallah, 28, the Iraqi government representative for the Khalidiyah district, Cpl. Freddy S. Sobalvarro, the 1st Force Service Support Group's comptroller chief, Maj. Luke W. Kratky, the project purchasing officer for 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, and Mahdi, a freelance interpreter for the U.S. Army, discuss the stipulations of several contracts at Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq, on Aug. 25, 2004. The contracts, worth a total of $146,000, will fund a water purification system, outdoor lighting, a large generator and a flagpole with an Iraqi flag for North Al Majarrah, a 250-person village west of Fallujah. Elements of the battalion, which provide security for nearby Camp Taqaddum, the 1st FSSG's headquarters, have previously awarded contracts for work at other villages in the area to Hamdallah, who hires Iraqi subcontractors to complete the projects. Sobalvarro is a 23-year-old Miami native. Kratky, 33, is from Fenton, Mo. Photo by: Sgt. Matt Epright

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/C7849D2BC7AC4EF485256EFE00461D23?opendocument


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:32 AM
TOW Marines enjoy time off
Reservists will head back to 29 Palms this weekend
Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com

August 27, 2004

LAFAYETTE — A cup of coffee was one of the first things Sgt. Ryan LeBlanc relished when he returned home from his training at 29 Palms, Calif.

“A good cup of South Louisiana coffee,” said LeBlanc of Lafayette.

For about the past six weeks, LeBlanc and the TOW Platoon, 23rd Marines have been training for their deployment to Iraq at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.

During the past week, the reservists have been on break spending time with friends and family. They’ll begin their trip back to 29 Palms this weekend. Some will leave today. From there, they’ll leave for their mission in Iraq.

On Thursday, reservists dropped into the Marine Corps Training Center to say hello to the group that helped bring them home — the Marine Corps League of Acadiana. The organization sponsored a fund-raiser to help families pay for airline tickets. While the reservists have been away, the organization of Marine veterans have adopted the platoon families. At the training center, the group welcomed the reservists home with a barbecue and checks to reimburse them for their tickets home.

Hugs and slaps on the back greeted the men who walked through the door.

“When you get back, we’re gonna throw one helluva party,” league member Dennis Hopkins told one reservist.

The support of the league and the community has been overwhelming, the reservists said.

The league was able to raise more than $60,000 in less than three weeks from the support of the community. A single donation came in the amount of $40,000 from New Orleans businessman and philanthropist Patrick Taylor.

The time home hasn’t been as difficult as LeBlanc thought.

“All the big goodbyes were out of the way before we left,” he said. “I thought it would be difficult. Being a reservist, you train the whole time. Part of my mission is keeping my family ready. I always talk about the possibility of being sent somewhere. The unit’s good about pushing the mission. They weren’t blindsided because of that mentality.”

While home, LeBlanc fit in a trip to Destin, Fla. He joked he wasn’t tired of the sand.

“The sand’s one thing, but the beach is another,” he laughed. “29 Palms is all sand, but it’s not a beach.”

While LeBlanc fit in a trip to the beach, Lance Cpl. James Skinner of Lake Charles squeezed in a wedding.

“I got off the plane at 12:45 a.m. Aug. 21st and at 7 p.m. got married,” Skinner said. His wife, Katie stood next to him. The two had been dating for two years and had planned on getting married when Skinner got back from his tour of duty.

“He called me from California and said, ‘You want to get married?’ I said, ‘I’ll call you back,’ ” she laughed. “I wanted to make sure I had enough time. I asked my parents and they said we would.”

She said it helps ease her mind a little knowing that they’re married now.

“He’s not just my fiancé going,” she said. “He’s my husband. It’s better, but it’s not great because he still has to leave. ... I just try not to think about him having to leave.”

Not all of the reservists came home for their break, said Sgt. Brian Ardoin, the platoon’s noncommissioned public affairs officer.

“Some of them had family members go out to them,” Ardoin said. “That may have been easier than them having to come home and then having to leave again.”

Some of the reservists may leave within the first week they return to 29 Palms, Ardoin said.

“They’ll pump up and ship out,” he said.

The platoon consists of about 100 men from across Acadiana and the Lake Charles and Baton Rouge areas. The platoon is headquartered in Lafayette. While activated the platoon is attached to the First Tanks Battalion, 23rd Marines. The battalion provides combat support for the First Division.

The platoon has been activated for a year, but the platoon may be in Iraq for about seven months, Ardoin said.

Their training at 29 Palms in the Mojave Desert helped acclimate the platoon to the heat they’ll experience in Iraq, he said.

“It was 130 degrees out there,” Ardoin said. He pretended to rub off the tanned skin on Cpl. Karl Moses’ forearm.

“132,” corrected Moses of Lake Charles.

“I heard y’all had some hot water,” Ardoin ribbed.

Moses laughed, “You could have put instant coffee in it.”


©The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
August 27, 2004

http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/D176DE2C-0004-44D1-A537-06C210E0E571.shtml


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:34 AM
Echo Company

By David Swanson
Philadelphia Inquirer

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Maybe it happened while he was driving a hand-me-down pickup named the Brown Beauty, long fingers tapping the steering wheel to Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." Or it could have been while he was working a summer job as a security guard at his mother's workplace. Or perhaps it was while he was watching "Saving Private Ryan" with his three younger brothers in the rec room of their New Jersey home.

Wherever it started, John Wroblewski decided to enlist with the Marine Corps. It was something he deeply believed he needed to do.

Wroblewski was a high school linebacker. He'd played Little League baseball with his brother, Mike. He was a Yankees fan and liked Notre Dame football and the Detroit Lions. Every Sunday, he and his four brothers would watch sports on TV.

"He was our big big brother," said Mike, 24. "He watched over me."

Always smiling, John was the oldest, and he kept his brothers in line and taught them what he’d learned. The brothers bought mowers and tractors and started a landscaping business, often working seven days a week driving around in his truck.

Inherited from his father, the "piece of work" 1979 Custom Deluxe pickup that "pretty much had no floor board" got John where he needed to go, Mike remembered.

If John was lifting weights at Olympus Gym or at home, he would listen to Springsteen, Pantera, Fear Factory or Metallica. He worked out at home in the wooded back yard where he and his best friend, Ryan Flemming, had built a small obstacle course. His father would watch from a deck as he performed endless chin-ups and dips on iron bars fastened between towering trees.

Wroblewski enrolled at County College of Morris with Mike.

"He had caught my eye when he walked into class the first day," a self-defense class, wife Joanna Wroblewski said. She remembers thinking, "Wow, that guy's hot."

"I had to ask him out," she said. He was shy, or maybe humble.

John later enrolled in Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Va. He graduated in the top 10 with honors and chose the infantry. After basic school, John and Joanna drove cross-country in five days to Camp Pendleton, Calif. There he met his platoon and they trained.

Mike Wroblewski remembers when John called last winter and told them he'd be leaving for the Persian Gulf in 24 hours, heading to Ramadi, Iraq.

"It's real American-friendly," he told his younger brother, who was crying on the other end of the line. "Don't worry. Don't worry about it, Mike. Everything's going to be fine."

"What do they have there, just sand?"

"No, Mike, they have a chow hall; they have water."

"Shouldn't all these places have chow halls and water?"

"No, some places don't."

He answered his brother's questions and repeated, "I'll be fine. I'll be fine."

Joanna and John spent Valentine's Day together. They moved a coffee table and shared a romantic dance in the living room.

The next day, he and his platoon and Echo Company left for Kuwait and Iraq.

In the firefight in which he died, 2nd Lt. John Wroblewski fired his weapon between communications with his base. He was shot in the jaw April 6 and died from his wounds in a helicopter over Iraq early the next day, nine days before his 26th birthday.

Contact David Swanson at dswanson@phillynews.com

http://www.realcities.com/images/realcities/realcities/9263/85808901797.jpg

Age: 25
Home: Parsippany, N.J.
2nd Lt. John T. Wroblewski
In her eulogy to John, his wife Joanna said, "I still remember those two days before you left for Iraq. We danced in the living room. We cried together over and over. You sat me down and made me listen as you told me everything you needed to before you left. No regrets. You always made sure everything was taken care of."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/echo_company/9282956.htm

Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 07:38 AM
Wounded Marine returns home

Published: August 17, 2004



By MIKE MORRIS


Ward Stone sits bare-chested, revealing a bruise-like mark over his heart.

The mark is actually the remnants of where a bullet hit Stone — a Marine Corps lance corporal — while he fighting was in Fallujah, Iraq, on Easter.

A 19-year-old Copperopolis man, Stone was awarded the Purple Heart, a high honor given to members of the U.S. armed forces injured during battle.

Not only was Stone shot in the chest, but two small spots show where a bullet entered and exited his left arm. A bullet also skimmed his right leg, and he suffered shrapnel injuries to his left leg. While Stone was wearing bullet-proof chest protection, his legs were covered only by thin camouflage pants.

"I just heard rounds cracking by my face," he said. "It was hot. I was lying on the ground with holes all over my body. It felt like someone threw firecrackers at me. There was a hot sensation on my arm and chest. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer and hit me as hard as they could."

While standing guard in a 50-foot tower overlooking a Fallujah train station, Stone and fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Torrey Gray, were shot at by "terrorists who just want to kill Americans," as Stone put it.

Gray, a 19-year-old from Illinois, was shot in the neck and died from massive bleeding.

"The grossest thing I saw in Iraq was watching another guy bleed to death and I couldn't do anything about it," Stone said, referring to Gray.

Still being shot at, Stone said he hid behind Gray's body.

"I was too afraid to come down," he said. "If I moved they would see I'm still alive and shoot me. I was more scared about dying than thinking about how much it hurt. I just wanted to climb down that tower."

But about 30 minutes after the attack, Stone's squad leader signaled him to come down.

Back on the ground, Stone was given two shots of morphine before being taken to a nearby base for treatment.

"It was scary," Stone said of his near-death experience. "I never want to do it again."

While at the base's hospital, Stone called his then-fiance, Lyndsey Ego, on her cell phone. She was driving to Ione for Easter dinner with Ward's mother and grandparents.

"I didn't know it was Easter Sunday," he recalled. "I was too drugged up."

Lyndsey said Ward asked her to pull over from the highway.

"He said, ‘I got shot.' And I started crying," she said. "It was a big mess. Everyone was all depressed during Easter. It was a bad Easter."

Cheryl Stone remembers spending the day crying over her wounded son.

"You feel so bad the other boy died, but you're so happy he survived," she said yesterday while sobbing. "It was almost like your worst nightmare come true. It was so intense that my heart broke for him and the other family."


Marine life

Born in Sonora and raised in Copperopolis, Stone said he always knew he wanted to be in the military.

"He always talked about going in the service and that's what he did," said his father, Walt Stone, a Korean War veteran who lives in Copperopolis.

Ward Stone attended Bret Harte High School before transferring to Vallecito High School. His parents divorced when he was a sophomore.

After graduating from high school in 2002, Ward met Lyndsey through mutual friends and the pair began dating.

In March 2003, Stone made a four-year commitment to the Marine Corps. He went to a Southern California boot camp for three months and then did two more months of training before being stationed at Twentynine Palms, a Marine base between Bakersfield and Nevada.

Stone went to prepare for Iraq last December in Japan. He was not training for combat, but rather how to help maintain order in unstable situations, such as calming people down during stressful times.

On his 19th birthday, Stone learned of Saddam Hussein's Dec. 13 capture.

The young soldier was then stationed in Kuwait for three weeks before arriving to his base of Al Asad, Iraq, in March.

He spent nearly two months working on what he was trained in Japan to do.

But, "everything went down the drain when we went to Fallujah," he said.

The Iraqi city continues to be a hotbed for violence.

Less than two weeks after getting shot, Stone returned to combat in Fallujah.

But instead of fighting, Stone said, he wanted to visit with family back in Calaveras County and attend Gray's funeral in Illinois.

"I thought I could go home. They said it wasn't possible. They said this is my job," he said of his military bosses. "They're all like, ‘It's your job. You have to do it. You're a Marine.'"

Once back with his platoon, Stone returned to a difficult soldier existence.

The soldiers didn't shower for a month, Stone said, adding they ate "gross" food, like chili and beef ravioli, out of sealed packets.

He said all day and night snipers would shoot at him and the other soldiers, who were in foxholes at a cemetery filled with large flies, rats and other feral animals.

"I'm sure we were killing people," he said. "I mean we were shooting at them."


Newlyweds

After a couple of weeks of fighting in Fallujah, Stone returned to his Al Asad base until being sent back to Twentynine Palms last month.

Stone had five days off, so he and Lyndsey, 20, of Douglas Flat, drove to Las Vegas and were married July 16.

Now, Ward has a few weeks of leave. He and Lyndsey are staying at a Murphys hotel until Friday, when they'll head back to Twentynine Palms and finish moving into their house before Ward resumes training.

Before returning to Calaveras County a few days ago, Stone had to take a post-combat class that focused on being a civilian again.

"It really let us express our feelings and get stuff off our minds," he said.

Stone, who is visiting with friends and family throughout the week, said he's glad to be back in the states and eating home-cooked food.

He'll train for several months — including a month at the Marine Corps' Mountain Warfare Training Center east of the Sonora Pass — before he's scheduled to return to Iraq next March.

"Their whole country is so messed up," Stone said of Iraqis. "We're trying to help them. Kids are running around the streets carrying AK-47s. The women are treated terrible. Guys are allowed to have three wives and they treat them horrible."

Stone, once eager to fight in Iraq, doesn't want to return to the war-torn country.

"We're losing people everyday, and for not a good reason," he said.

The Marine said the war will continue to be a key campaign issue in the November election.

"Among my group of friends, we don't want Bush to get elected," he said. "We feel if Bush gets re-elected we will go back to Iraq, which we don't want to do.

"I honestly think we're fighting this war for oil. Why else would we be there? We have Saddam Hussein. I personally think Osama bin Laden's dead."

In contrast, Stone also said he believes he's helping secure the nation and protecting his family.

"He does believe in our country," said his mother, Cheryl Stone, a 44-year-old Angels Camp resident. "On the flip side, maybe he's questioning his beliefs because it's not human nature to kill people."

Stone — now with one Purple Heart on his uniform and another in a blue case — said he'll always remember the day Gray was shot and died before his eyes.

And his own battle scars are daily reminders of what he has survived.

"I consider myself very lucky," he said last night. "My family loves me very much. I feel Jesus Christ was looking down on me and telling me I have more things to accomplish in my life, that it's not my time to die. I now know there's a God out there."

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=14944


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 12:06 PM
North Texan was'proud Marine', mother says

FLOWER MOUND, Texas (AP) -- A 21-year-old Marine from North Texas who died in combat in Iraq was a newlywed, marrying his girlfriend just before shipping out.

"I'm glad we had the chance to share that together, even though it was only for a short time," said his 21-year-old wife, Lori Shelton. "We were looking forward to telling people once Jacob got back home.

"But it's not happening quite that way."

Lance Cpl. Jacob R. Lugo, a machine gunner with the 3rd Battalion's Lima Company, was killed Tuesday in an explosion while on combat patrol in Al Anbar province, a large region in northwest Iraq, the Defense Department said Thursday.




After graduating in 2001 as a trumpeter at Flower Mound's Marcus High, he committed to the Marines. A month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he was sent to boot camp, and he left for Iraq in February 2003 during the buildup to war.

"He was anxious to get over there," said his father, Raul Lugo, a 56-year-old Marine veteran from Flower Mound. "He wanted to make a difference and fight for our way of life."

When Lugo returned home in September he got engaged to Lori Shelton, a Marcus classmate now in her senior year at the University of Oklahoma.

Knowing that he would be sent back to Iraq in February, the couple decided to marry secretly and have a big wedding later. They went to a justice of the peace Dec. 29, just before Lugo had to report back to his base in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Shelton had known Lugo since elementary school and the two were close friends in high school, but they didn't date until just after graduation. They planned to renew their vows next year after she earned her finance degree and he finished his four-year enlistment.

During patrols, Lugo was sometimes the gunner in a Humvee and sometimes on foot as his unit went door to door or otherwise searched for the enemy in the Iraqi towns and countryside, his father told The Dallas Morning News for its Friday editions.

Lugo expected to start packing for his homecoming this week and was due to be back in North Texas by about Sept. 20, said his mother, Diane Salazar of Irving.

"My son was a very proud Marine," said Salazar, 50. "He loved what he did."

Paul Roberts, Lugo's father-in-law, recalled a quiet, respectful young man who asked permission to date his daughter.

Born in Dallas, Lugo grew up in Flower Mound with two older sisters and younger brother. His parents divorced in 1997.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TX_MILITARY_DEATH_TXOL-?SITE=TXODE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 12:07 PM
All's Quiet in Najaf, but Not in the Sunni Triangle
Iraqi ministers visit the city and pledge help in reconstruction. In Baghdad and elsewhere, fighting and other violence claim 10 lives.

By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer


BAGHDAD — In the aftermath of the three-week battle for Najaf, interim Iraqi government officials Saturday inspected the extensive damage and pledged to undertake major reconstruction efforts. But though the holy city was quiet, violence flared elsewhere in Iraq.

Much of the deadly activity was in the so-called Sunni Triangle region, which had been relatively calm during the conflict in Najaf. There also was violence in anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr's stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City slum

In Baqubah, a city northeast of Baghdad, militants in two minibuses ambushed a convoy of three police vehicles on patrol, killing five policemen and injuring five other officers and two civilians.

There was continued U.S. bombing in Fallouja, where Marines — required to stay outside city limits as part of an agreement in April — frequently engaged in long-distance exchanges of gunfire with insurgents. American fighter planes bombed targets in the city Saturday night, the second time in 24 hours.

U.S. military sources said their goal was to destroy houses used by anti-American insurgents. In several previous air attacks, Fallouja hospital officials reported that women and children had been injured.

Fallouja officials announced Saturday that they had met with interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to discuss the continuing bombing runs. Khalid Jumailly, a prominent Sunni Muslim sheik who led the delegation, said Fallouja officials would try to ensure that insurgents did not attack U.S. military convoys on the highway east of the city.

In exchange, Allawi said he would ask the U.S. forces to stop the almost daily air attacks on Fallouja and the Marines to move their checkpoint from the eastern side of the city, which many residents view as too close to the downtown area.

In Baghdad, there was fighting in the sprawling Sadr City slum and a mortar round exploded in a crowded neighborhood on the east side of the city. Five people were killed and several wounded in the incidents.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi militant group said it had kidnapped two French journalists, Al Jazeera satellite television reported. The group demanded that the French government lift a ban on Islamic head scarves in schools to secure the captives' release.

Al Jazeera, quoting unidentified sources, said the group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, had claimed responsibility for the execution Thursday of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.

A brief video of the French journalists, identified as George Malbrunot of Le Figaro and Christian Chesnot of Radio France International, was broadcast Saturday. The French Foreign Ministry had reported the journalists missing the same day Baldoni disappeared.

A Turkish diplomat Saturday said that police had found the bodies of a slain Turkish truck driver and an Iraqi man on a highway in northern Iraq. The corpses were discovered late Friday near Baiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad, a diplomat at the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In Najaf, the Iraqi ministers of public works, health and state said at a news conference that they would soon make a formal assessment of the damage to the city and begin rebuilding. They said the government had won its confrontation with Sadr, who agreed in a deal brokered by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to pull his forces out of the Imam Ali Mosque compound in exchange for amnesty and a pullback of U.S.-led troops.

"We believe that what happened was a victory for the Iraqis and for the sovereign government authorities," Minister of State Kasim Daoud said. "We hope after this success that peace will take over and there will be stability in the country."

However, government officials acknowledged that Sadr had survived to fight another day. They said he would continue to have the right to preach in the nearby Kufa Mosque, although it seemed that he would be barred from occupying the shrine as he has done in the past. With Kufa and Najaf declared weapons-free zones, presumably it would be difficult for Sadr to reoccupy them, unless he rearmed and broke his agreement with Sistani, which required him and his followers to leave both mosques.

U.S. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity at a briefing Saturday, said they viewed the resolution of the Najaf standoff as largely positive for the Iraqi government in comparison with discussions with Sadr in the spring when his militia first occupied the shrine. However, they also said that Sadr had not been vanquished and that unless there was rapid rebuilding of Najaf, and Sistani took a strong stand to keep Sadr's Al Mahdi militia at bay in other cities, there could be further trouble.

In the spring, Sadr's forces never fully evacuated the Imam Ali shrine, despite weeks of negotiations. "We think this was a tactical victory for the Allawi government…. When we went through the confrontation last spring, we ended up with Muqtada Sadr still in control of the mosques in Kufa and Najaf," a senior U.S. diplomat said.

"He's out of the mosque; his men are out; government authority is reestablished in both cities, and we think this came about not only because of the mediating of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, but because of the success of the coalition and Iraqi military," the diplomat said. "I'm not trying to tell you this is over. It's clearly not over. There's no nationwide agreement with Muqtada Sadr and the Jaish al Mahdi."

*


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times special correspondents Saad Sadiq in Najaf and Hamid Sulaibi in Fallouja contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-najaf29aug29,1,7077066.story


Ellie

thedrifter
08-29-04, 06:00 PM
Commercial communications gear to take stress off Marine tactical systems in Iraq <br />
Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group <br />
Story Identification #: 2004826133053 <br />
Story by Sgt. Matt Epright <br />
...