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thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:17 AM
Images of Iraq jar, blur
Sunday, September 05, 2004
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com


U.S. Marine Cpl. Nathan R. Bush mutters an expletive, tossing aside a newspaper and its photo of an old woman hiding in a shell-torn building in Najaf.

Nearing the end of a 25-day leave in Russell, Bush has had his fill of war images.

He preserved many himself with a digital camera he bought cheap in Okinawa, Japan: arms-length self-portraits of a dirt-encrusted face; a yawning wound left by a rocket-propelled grenade that grazed a buddy's shoulder; hooded and bound prisoners taken by his platoon.

As for images of the relentless destruction in Iraq, Bush says they ignore the other side of American troops' mission - forging relationships with Iraqis even as U.S. artillery fire rains down on suspected insurgents.

"War sucks, man. I wouldn't wish it on any living human being," Bush said, days before heading back to Camp Pendleton, Calif., from where he will likely be redeployed to Iraq.

After a five-month tour with an infantry division, the 23-year-old Marine said he is angered by the lack of media coverage of American troops' humanitarian efforts in Iraq.

While fighting insurgents in Fallujah and the Sunni Triangle, Bush said he and the other members of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, routinely exchanged fire with Iraqi rebels - killing many, wounding others - but also gave wheelbarrows to farmers and soccer balls to children.

"We did a lot of good over there," Bush said.

Still, Bush wonders why he was there at all. He is not sure when he first started to question the mission. It could have been in April while crouched on a rooftop in Fallujah.

On the lookout for a silver Mercedes believed to be carrying murderous insurgents, Bush and the other three members of his fire team spotted such a car. Bush relayed the sighting to his commanding officer, whispering into the radio clipped to his flak jacket.

"He said, 'Well, what are you waiting for? Light it up,'" Bush recalled. Bush and the others hosed the Mercedes with their M-16s. The car drifted to the side of the street and rolled to a stop.

They never went down to get a closer look. This was Bush's second day in combat - 48 hours after his platoon commander announced, "We're going to the firefight in Fallujah, gents."

Never one prone to dramatic gestures, Bush struggled to reconcile the impulse to enlist that led him to the rooftop, where self-preservation swallowed up any sense of self-loathing.

"They're trying to kill me, too," he said.

Bush enlisted in November 2002 after a bad day at work, briefly seduced by a Marines recruitment brochure tucked into a friend's back pocket. His family was stunned. He had never hinted at any interest in the military. He asked for combat duty.

Apolitical - he doesn't vote - and ambivalent about his mission in Iraq, Bush hardly fits the poster image of the eager recruit. He is convinced Saddam Hussein's ouster was essential to restore liberty, but empathizes with the general resentment he saw among Iraqis toward the U.S. occupation.

"I wouldn't want German troops coming in and occupying my country," Bush said, "but at the same time, sometimes I feel that we're freeing the peaceful people from the insurgents. They're like street gangs."

Bush's ambivalence toward the war in Iraq and the subsequent occupation may not be atypical among troops on the ground. The idea of a military united behind its mission barely survived the Vietnam War.

"They're probably like all of us. For many of them, it's just a job," said Vincent A. Ferraro, chairman of the international relations program at Mount Holyoke College. "They're there to survive."

In Russell, Bush's mother, Corinne A. Shartrand, 48, a quality assurance manager at a Westfield paper factory, said she was mesmerized by early reports of the Iraq invasion, often horrified by what she read and saw.

"I thought, 'This is just gung-ho Marines and kill, kill, kill ...' I worried about what kind of person he was going to be when he came home," Shartrand said. Her fears were intensified by long silences from her son while he was on combat duty and could not communicate with family and friends.

"When I finally talked to him, he said 'Ma, sometimes we do things we really don't like to do, like killing people. But we don't brutalize people.' He made me see they're also watching over the innocent and the oppressed," she said after her son returned to Camp Pendleton.

News coverage of the American occupation of Iraq should also include what the military has rebuilt, not just what it has destroyed, she said. But, like her son, Shartrand also wonders what it is all for.

Her uncertainty reflects national opinion. Recent surveys show public approval of the war ranging from 47 percent, in a June Washington Post poll, to about 60 percent, according to a Fox News poll the same month.

"It appears to me that not a lot has changed (in Iraq)," she said. "They went in there to bring Fallujah back to the norm and get rid of the insurgents, and that didn't happen. I don't like to think my son went through all of this for nothing."

Now Shartrand relies on reports from her son to get the real story on Iraq. For months she even sniffed his letters, hoping to catch a sensory impression of her son in Iraq. When he returned in June, there was a sadness about him, she said.

Bush said he shared his stories with few, but close friends saw his collection of pictures on a CD-ROM he had labeled "Battle Tested. Combat Approved," spoofing a commercial for breakfast cereal.

Among the hundreds of digital images on the disc are endless shots of Bush and his buddies mugging with their assault weapons; the abandoned Fallujah snack factory that served as a temporary encampment; a nondescript-looking Oldsmobile Cutlass the platoon found laden with explosives in AlKarmah, which led to the capture of prisoners.

There was no torture, Bush hastens to add. The prisoners were fed and isolated, but not beaten. Occasionally one or two Marines would strike innocuous poses with them, and snap a photo. In retrospect, perhaps that was a mistake, he said.

Bush regrets enlisting, but loves the Marines, and becomes briefly giddy when he spies the Marine Corps "ever faithful" motto, Semper Fi, on a bumper sticker. He hopes to transfer out of the infantry soon so he can go to college. An electrician before he enlisted, he aspires to be an engineer someday.

Bush believes his impressions of war are still being molded, but he knows he does not want to go back to the shallow hole in the desert where he lived for weeks; he does not want to hear the deafening roar of roadside bombs exploding.

Roger Bush, Nathan's father, says he feels no ambivalence about the war. He has willed himself to walk away from dissenters many times, he said.

"Even those people who say they support the troops but not the war. You can't do that. You can't be in favor of one and not the other," said Roger Bush, a water treatment plant manager who logs on to the CNN Web site every day without fail.

Nevertheless, Roger Bush says he's not searching for signs of public approval of the war. He is looking for signs of peace that will bring his son home.

http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1094386568323062.xml


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:17 AM
Shipped back from combat zone, Stars and Stripes find a new home
September 06,2004
CYNDI BROWN
DAILY NEWS STAFF

There was no luxury in the prison camp. But a tattered symbol of home brought some comfort to Tom Craigg and his fellow Americans held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.

After the fall of Corregidor, one of the surrendering troops carried into confinement an American flag shredded by shrapnel during battle. The prisoners kept it hidden at the risk of beatings or execution should the "contraband" be discovered. The risk, Craigg said, was worth it.

"You don't know how much you miss the flag until you're restricted from having one," said Craigg.

That's one of the reasons the retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant keeps a supply of Old Glory on hand.

"Every once in a while, someone comes along and they don't have a flag. So I give them a flag," he said.

Less frequently, one of those flags comes back.

One of Craigg's flags was sent to Gunnery Sgt. Randy Hildebrand, who was in Afghanistan with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 26, Detachment Bravo. The flag was flown over Kandahar Air Field and returned to Craigg along with a certificate authenticating its service. Craigg, in turn, presented the flag to Disabled American Veterans Chapter 16 during a ceremony Monday.

"I decided I couldn't use a flag that came from a combat area as an everyday flag," said Craigg. "The winds here would shred it. That I didn't want to happen. It's the American flag. There's been hundreds of thousands of American women and men who paid the ultimate price for freedom. To me, it's a special flag for all of us."

Craigg purchased a display case for the flag until DAV members raise it in mid-October following the dedication of the expansion of their memorial wall, the only one of its kind at a North Carolina DAV chapter.

"It's very important to us just to show the cohesion of veterans and our troops on the ground now," DAV Chapter 16 commander Stephen Ryan said. "We are at war. When our flag flies over enemy territory, our service members have been successful in taking over enemy territory.

"It's going to help enhance and increase the patriotism of our younger members. Patriotism and love and respect of our flag is the bottom line."

Hildebrand, the gunny who flew the flag in recognition of Craigg, thinks the DAV memorial wall is a fitting location for the flag to fly.

"The flag signifies America and disabled American veterans. They're the ones that fought in past wars. They're the reason we have the freedom to fly the flag," said Hildebrand. "I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it. It was a real honor to me to take part in that."

Hildebrand, however, did more than take part. He organized the effort to have his Marines create the lasting reminders of their service - they flew 220 flags over the airfield in a two-and-a-half-month period.

"A lot of guys were really liking it. It's just something to pass down," said Hildebrand.

Craigg, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, has three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. And a photo of the flag from Corregidor.

"It's something special, I think, to have a flag that's flown over a military base in combat operations," he said. "There's not many flags you see nowadays that have been flown in combat."

Craigg is proud the flag will now find a home in a public place where people who know its history can look at it and think about their liberty.

"We still have our freedom," said Craigg, "and can fly our own flag."


http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=25481&Section=News


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:19 AM
PHOTO ESSAY: Security team guards crash site investigation team <br />
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing <br />
Story Identification #: 20049614826 <br />
Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte <br />
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AL ASAD, Iraq...

thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:20 AM
MWSS-274 Ironman earns Combat Distinguishing Device <br />
Submitted by: MCAS Cherry Point <br />
Story Identification #: 200493153352 <br />
Story by Cpl. Jessica L. Kent <br />
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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY...

thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:21 AM
Enemies beware of M198's wrath: Fox 2/11 test fires CWC 729's Howitzers <br />
Submitted by: MCLB Barstow <br />
Story Identification #: 20049316850 <br />
Story by Lance Cpl. Nich R. Babb <br />
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MARINE CORPS...

thedrifter
09-07-04, 06:30 AM
34 dead in Iraq after fierce fighting
Published Tue, Sep 7, 2004

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. forces battled insurgents loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Tuesday, in clashes that killed 34 people, including one American soldier, and wounded 193, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.
U.S. tanks moved into the neighborhood and armored personnel carriers and Bradley fighting vehicles were deployed at key intersections. Ambulances with sirens wailing rushed the wounded to hospitals as plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.

Several warplanes flew over the sprawling neighborhood of more than 2 million.

In another part of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb targeted the Baghdad governor's convoy, killing two people but leaving him uninjured, the Interior Ministry said. Three of Gov. Ali al-Haidri's bodyguards were also hurt in the attack Tuesday in the western neighborhood of Hay al-Adel.

The fighting in Sadr City erupted when militants attacked U.S. forces carrying out routine patrols, said U.S. Army Capt. Brian O'Malley.

"We just kept coming under fire," he said.

O'Malley said the American soldier was killed by small-arms fire and that several others were wounded.

A senior Health Ministry official, Saad al-Amili, said 33 Iraqis have been killed and 193 injured in the Sadr City clashes in the past 24 hours.

An al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, Sheik Raed al-Kadhimi, blamed what he described as intrusive American incursions into Sadr City and attempts to arrest the cleric's followers.

"Our fighters have no choice but to return fire and to face the U.S. forces and helicopters pounding our houses," al-Kadhimi said in a statement.

The impoverished neighborhood had been relatively calm since al-Sadr called for cease-fire last week and announced he was going into politics.

Al-Sadr led a three-week uprising in the holy city of Najaf that ended 10 days ago with a peace deal that allowed his Mahdi militia fighters to walk away with their guns. The combat in Najaf left thousands dead and devastated much of the city.

Many Mahdi militiamen are believed to have returned to their stronghold in Sadr City.

Tuesday's violence came a day after a suicide attack on a military convoy outside Fallujah killed seven U.S. Marines and three Iraqi soldiers, U.S. military officials said. It was the deadliest day for American forces in four months.

A group linked to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - Tawhid and Jihad - posted a statement on the Internet Tuesday claiming responsibility for the slayings.

The force of the blast on a dusty stretch of wasteland nine miles north of Fallujah, wrecked two Humvees and hurled the suicide car's engine far from the site, witnesses said.

The bombing underscored the challenges U.S. commanders face in securing Fallujah and surrounding Anbar province, the heartland of a Sunni Muslim insurgency bent on driving coalition forces from the country.

U.S. forces have not patrolled in Fallujah since a three-week siege of the city in April that was aimed at rooting out militiaman. As a result, insurgents have strengthened their hold on the city, using it as a base to make car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

Elsewhere, one American soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack on a convoy near the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The convoy came under attack from an improvised explosive device at around 11:45 p.m Monday, the military said in a statement.

With Monday and Tuesday's deaths, 992 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press based on Defense Department figures.

The car bombing resulted in the largest number of Americans killed in combat in a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in separate mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and Kirkuk.

In other violence:

- The son of the governor of the northern city of Mosul was killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday. Lieth Duried Kashmoula died of two shots to the chest, hospital officials said.

- Unknown gunmen killed the deputy director of Baghdad's al-Karama hospital, Abbas al-Husseini, the Health Ministry said. The motive for the attack was not known.

- Two Iraqi policemen were killed and two others injured in a drive-by-shooting in Latifiyah, 25 miles south of Baghdad late Monday, police said Tuesday.

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/24hour/topstory/story/1626279p-9329484c.html


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 07:42 AM
Burned Dad Lays Marine Son To Rest
Boston Herald
September 6, 2004


The mourners cried quietly as the soldier's casket was carried in front of his stretcher-bound father - a man too wounded to walk, but too proud of his hero son to be kept away from the young man's funeral.

On the quiet Jamaica Plain street outside St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Carlos Arredondo sat alone in his stretcher and watched as his son's body disappeared into a hearse. Moments before, he had listened to a final tribute to a strong soldier who died too young.

"Alex's life was not lived in vain," the Rev. James Laughlin said as family members wept quietly yesterday. "In his short life he brought so much joy, so much love and so much strength to your lives."

That strength was drained away last week when Marines brought news that Alex Arredondo, a 20-year-old Norwood native, was killed in combat in Najaf, Iraq. The tragedy nearly took two lives when Arredondo's distraught father got into a Marine Corps van and set himself on fire, inflicting severe burns on 26 percent of his body.

The burns nearly kept Carlos Arredondo away from yesterday's funeral, but he insisted on being there. He prayed as Laughlin led the services for his boy.

"Alex was faithful, even in difficult circumstances," Laughlin said. "He was a young man of few words, but tremendous strength."


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 09:15 AM
Jack of all trades: Marines take different roles to keep camp safe, running
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004973143
Story by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes



CAMP MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq (Sep. 3, 2004) -- When approaching a gate guard here, chances are the guard won't be a rifleman.

Many of the jobs here involving security and morale and welfare are done by Marines least likely to fill those positions.

"I'm a combat engineer but they've got me manning a gate. It has it's good and it's bad points," said Lance Cpl. Jason P. Brewer, 21, of Muskegon, Mich. He added, "The rest of the engineers are always outside the wire, but I have a set schedule."

Brewer knows all too well the banes and blessings of being assigned to protect the base.

"I know every day I'll have time to get a pizza and take a shower. If I was with my platoon, there would be no telling where I'd be during the day or night," he said.

Brewer and the other Marines reassigned to ensure the base's safety are gaining experiences they would never get in their own field.

"I see everyone who comes to the gate so I have a good view of what life in our area is like for Iraqis," Brewer said. "I see the poverty and people with scars on them that just make me say, 'God!'"

But Brewer's skills are not wasted on his position, either.

"We have a good mixture of people out there on the gates. We've got communications Marines who can troubleshoot radios, motor transport Marines who know how to really get inside a vehicle to check it and engineers who know about explosives," said Gunnery Sgt. Duane D. Dixon, the battalion ordnance chief and native of Aberdeen, Md. Dixon is one of the guard chiefs here as well.

He added, "We have a very proficient crew here ... they're getting different experiences than they would if they'd have stayed with their sections."
Riflemen aren't exempt from being placed in jobs outside their sphere of knowledge either. Morale, welfare and recreation facilities on the base such as the gym and Internet café are manned by infantrymen.

"I'd rather be out with my Marines but I'm learning a lot working here," said Cpl. Alberto Arjonn, 23, a rifleman of Bronx, N.Y. "This is pretty relaxed compared to what I'm used to, but sometimes it gets really hectic in here with people coming and going. I've had to work a lot on my people skills. I know that'll help me out in the future no matter what I'm doing."

In addition, the gym and Internet center allow the Marines to come in contact with people they'd normally never meet.

"I deal with all kinds of different people in here. Normally I wouldn't meet people from outside my company but here I see people who I'd never come in contact with otherwise," said Arjonn.

Despite the challenges Marines may face by working outside their normal areas of expertise, they are still able to succeed.

"These Marines have been doing this for two months so they all have a good idea of what they're doing," Dixon said. He added that it proves Marines can accomplish whatever mission is put in front of them, whether the mission is highly stressful or somewhat relaxing.


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/3EEFE8B2993C981D85256F0800269C2C?opendocument


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 09:54 AM
Suicide bomber kills 7 Marines outside Fallujah


By Kim Housego
ASSOCIATED PRESS


BAGHDAD — A suicide attacker sped up to a U.S. military convoy outside Fallujah and detonated an explosives-packed vehicle yesterday, killing seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers, U.S. military officials said. It was the deadliest day for American forces in four months.
The blast on a dusty stretch of wasteland nine miles north of Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni insurgents, wrecked two Humvee vehicles, witnesses and military officials said. The force of the explosion hurled the engine of the attacker's car far from the site.







The bombing underscored the challenges that U.S. commanders face in securing Fallujah and the surrounding Anbar province, the heartland of a Sunni Muslim insurgency bent on driving coalition forces from the country.
U.S. forces have not patrolled Fallujah since ending a three-week siege in April aimed at rooting out militiamen from the city. Insurgents have only strengthened their hold on Fallujah since then.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said medical tests confirmed that Iraqi authorities once again had erred in reporting the capture of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, putting a stop to two days of conflicting statements about his purported arrest.
Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said unspecified tests had shown that a man being held in Iraqi custody actually was a relative of al-Douri who had played only a minor role in Saddam's regime but had been wanted by authorities.
The reports on al-Douri — the most wanted Saddam-era henchman still at large — come as an embarrassment to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government and reveal a lack of coordination among ministers competing for influence ahead of elections in January.
Including the deaths yesterday, 990 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count by the Associated Press based on Defense Department figures.
Three soldiers were wounded yesterday in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad.
After the suicide blast outside Fallujah, west of the capital, Baghdad, medical teams in helicopters ferried the injured from the blazing wreckage and troops sealed off the area.
Fallujah hospital officials said four Iraqis were wounded by gunfire from U.S. troops near the blast site, but the U.S. military had no confirmation.
The military called the bombing "a desperate act of inhumanity" but insisted that U.S. troops will stay the course in Iraq until local forces are able to take over security operations. The slain Americans were from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Hours after the attack, an unmanned U.S. spy plane crashed in Fallujah. Residents picked up pieces of debris and danced in the streets, displaying the bits to reporters, witnesses said.
Since the Marine siege ended, gunmen have been using the city as a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces. Fallujah has become a virtual no-go zone for U.S. troops, though American warplanes have carried out air strikes repeatedly against suspected militant safe houses there.
The attack yesterday resulted in the largest number of Americans killed in combat in a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and Kirkuk.
Seven troops were killed on two days last month, but in each case, there were six Americans and one foreign coalition member. On Aug. 21, six U.S. service members and one Polish soldier died in combat, and six Americans were killed Aug. 15, as was a Ukrainian soldier.
On Sunday, Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud as well as a Defense Ministry spokesman publicly proclaimed al-Douri's capture. Later in the day, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said word of the arrest was "baseless."
Mr. Kadhim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, neither identified the al-Douri relative in custody nor said when or where he was captured.
"This will make the government lose credibility after its ministers and top officials appeared to be either liars or foolish," said Abdel Amir, an Iraqi political analyst and former editor of Baghdad, the mouthpiece of Mr. Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party.
Mr. Amir said the conflicting statements reflected the rivalry among ministers from different ethnic, religious and political groups, each keen to showcase his achievements or embarrass foes.


http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040907-120829-5219r.htm


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 01:05 PM
Email from Dave - Aug 17, 04

Dad -



You probably have not heard but the Regiment has been involved in a fight on the outside of Fallujah for the past week.



On August 9th, the insurgents in the city kidnapped the two Iraqi National Guard battalion commanders within the city subsequently killing at least one of them. It is another clear example of the savagery of the enemy here. The city is now without any coalition influence other than our fires. The local militia that was created as a solution to the April fighting has become a defensive army that is in collusion with the insurgents. The police are complicit with the enemy and the city is literally run by terrorists.



The Iraqi National Guard battalion commander that was killed was Lt Col Sulaiman Hamad Ftikan. We knew him as Sulaiman. He was the closest thing to a true patriot and leader we have found who is actually from the local Falluja area. He was kidnapped and murdered because he had finally gotten his battalion to stand up to the criminals and insurgents who have had their run of the city all these months.



Of course his murder was not merciful. He was tortured and beaten to death. He was so disfigured by the torture that his friends could not bear to look at his body - this from a people who have seen their share of death and torture. There are still at least two soldiers missing that were kidnapped with Sulaiman and more good men are taken every day.



The city has continued to be an epicenter of terror and instability. With everything that I know, I cannot fathom a resolution of this problem that does not include us being allowed to take the city down once and for all. Time and space does not allow me to recount the horrible tales of torture and murder that have taken place inside this town. Too many good men have been taken into the town and beaten savagely because they are trying to be honest policemen or soldiers. It seems that the favorite torture techniques include hanging people upside down and pulverizing feet and toes. However, we have had bodies show up with various unimaginable wounds including some that have had their faces melted off by welding torches. The enemy is savage and will never come around to cooperate with the coalition or the new Iraqi government.



Sulaiman's death in large part ended the Regiment's restraint around the city. The Marines have invested so much time, energy and passion into training the two battalions of Iraqi National guards that were headquartered in and around the town. The enemy surrounded the two battalion headquarters and threatened to destroy them in total. They lured Sulaiman out with promises that they just wanted to talk and that if he exited, he could spare his men. Long story short, immediately after the commanders left their headquarters with the insurgents, the enemy poured into the buildings and beat the soldiers. After a beating, they chased the soldiers out of the headquarters and proceeded to steal all the weapons and ammunition that we had provided and loot all of the garrison property (trucks, TVs, air conditioners, etc...) that we had purchased to stand up the force. The weapons, ammunition and vehicles were taken and are now in the hands of the enemy. The garrison property was sold in the street. The leading insurgent and leading imam (go figure that) then declared that "the Iraqi National Guard no longer exists in Falluja" and that any soldiers seen in uniform should be killed. This same guy controls the Falluja Brigade as well as other insurgents inside the town.



We immediately cut any ties with the city and moved forces to the outskirts. The Marines have been fighting ever since. We have bombed, sniped and fired more tank main gun and small arms that can be counted. I have no idea how many we have killed but it is significant.



The Marines continue their heroics in ways that I am unable to describe but I will give you a vignette that is typical of what they are doing in 115 degree heat in full body armor every day.



Two days ago, as the Marines were fighting on the outskirts of the city, one of the battalion commanders' security detail was parked behind him as he was observing one his positions. Two young LCpls looked up on the highway behind them and saw a high jacking in progress. There were masked men with AK 47's stopping tractor trailers loaded with Toyota Landcruisers. The two Marines immediately began engaging the masked men. A Marine on rear security near the battalion commander heard the gunfire and turned and engaged the masked men himself. The trucks took off. The masked men made a break for the city but were chased down by the Marines and captured. However, the car carrier escaped and was speeding toward the city with a couple of taxis used by the highjackers.



A Sgt saw the trucks and sped his HMMV section (2 vehicles) toward the trucks across the open desert. He split his section and rifled past the enemy vehicles with is own HMMV. He gave a hasty order to the Marines in his vehicle and then swerved in front of the tractor trailer cutting it off. The Marines bailed out of the HMMV and caught 4 enemy exiting the truck with AK 47s. The Sgt and his team cut them down at a distance of 20 feet with their M16s. Several more insurgents tried to run from the rear. The Marines in the last vehicle cut them down in an engagement that took place at a distance of 30 feet. The two taxis took off and tried to make it to the city. They were engaged with a TOW missile and a medium machine gun. The insurgents inside the city and in a position behind the Marines immediately opened up with a heavy volume of fire. The Sgt tasked a young Marine who had never driven a semi truck before to get into the cab and drive out of the kill zone. He did. The Sgt brought all of his Marines and the high jacked truck out leaving nothing but dead insurgents in his wake.



The Marine driving the truck made it all the way back to his base but stopped short of the gate where the Sgt decided that since the young Marine "did not know how to drive a semi, he could not reliably negotiate driving the truck in through the friendly position." They stopped short and a civilian commercial driver was dispatched to the gate to get truck onboard. Yep... he rolled the truck and severely damaged all of the pristine Land cruisers that the Marines had risked their lives to save. No doubt he was doing his best and the point is that the trucks did not end up in the enemy's hands but you have to love that ending. You can only imagine the picture on the Marines' faces when the trucked rolled over.



That is just one example of what the Marines are doing. I could share with you accounts of severely wounded Sailors and Marines insisting that they can still hold a weapon and are still "in the fight" and other lesser wounded Marines refusing to be evaced. There are Marines who exit friendly lines everyday and commit acts of untold bravery that would inspire you as much as they humble me.



We have been bombing enemy positions and killing the enemy where we find them. As you can see, there is no humanity in them as they kill off the good men, murdering and stealing to further their twisted vision. It would seem that the only chance of true resolution of the "Falluja problem" will be to finish these guys once and for all. The difference between now and April is that the majority of Iraqis that we meet ask us to enter the city. They are tired of the lawless hell that exists inside the city and are literally willing to have us rubble it to save it. I know it sounds strange but it is the reality here.



We also have an entire battalion of Iraqi Special Forces soldiers who have stepped forward. We have trained these guys and they are a different breed of cat altogether. Many are veterans of the Iran Iraq war and are hardened. They don't necessarily love us but they now have a bond with the Marines and operate jointly with them everyday. They shake their head at the hesitancy to resolve Fallujah and are willing to fight inside the city. It will be a very tough fight but in the end I just don't see how we can move forward as a coalition, or Iraq as a fledgling country, while this festering sore remains open.



Interestingly enough while we have been keeping the enemy bottled up and destroying him in Fallujah, the attacks on supply convoys and on Marines have dropped off outside the city. If we take our boot off their neck now, no doubt we will see a return to enemy attacks in other parts of our area. This is further proof that the city radiates instability and terror.



We continue to catch and kill foreign fighters who are obviously answering the siren call of Fallujah. Unfortunately, one of the foreign fighters drove a suicide car bomb up to one of our positions two days ago. As he approached the Marines engaged him and detonated the vehicle but the blast killed two young Pfcs. Anyone who believes that we will extricate ourselves from the current situation in Fallujah without decisive action should ask if "conversation" or "negotiation" will work with a guy who comes to Iraq for Jihad and dies with the last thought of trying to kill Americans. Nonsense.



The Marine Battalion down in Najaf is also from our Regiment. I was fortunate enough to work with them last year as they were on our southern flank. I cannot say enough good things about them. If they and the soldiers working with them are given the authority to do so, they will destroy the threat in Najaf. Hopefully once they finish we will be allowed to destroy the threat here. If we are not, we will continue fencing with them for the foreseeable future.



Love,





Dave

http://www.thegreenside.com/story.asp?ContentID=9990


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 02:18 PM
‘Club 34’ on Baghdad: Two tales of a city


By Terry Boyd, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, September 5, 2004

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Iraq was boring. Iraq was exciting. Iraq was terrifying. Iraq was fun. Iraq triggered every emotion from excruciating tedium to total exhilaration, sometimes in seconds flat.

“One word won’t do it,” said Staff Sgt. Eric Knott, 32, trying to sum up his 15 months in Iraq with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Armored Division.

Knott went to war as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle commander with his crew, driver Spc. Joshua Reasoner, 23, and gunner Spc. James Conn, 22. In March 2003, Stars and Stripes profiled Reasoner, Knott and Conn just before they left for Iraq.

At the time, they were preparing their M2A2 Bradley, which they called “Club 34” after their platoon designation. They were typical soldiers of atypical ability, with some of the highest gunnery scores in the division. Off the range, they were relaxed and happy-go-lucky.

Back in Baumholder and trying to get used to life without guns firing and bombs going off, he’s a little “frustrated,” Reasoner said. Compared to Iraq, there’s not much going on in Germany at the moment. No mission. No thrill of being “amped up” for raids, he said.

If he were back in the war, there would be the deployment bonuses pouring in. He wouldn’t be drinking.

“In a way, I’d rather be back [in Iraq],” Reasoner said. “Of course, if I was back there, I’d be talking about getting back here.”

It’s a funny thing about war, Reasoner and Knott say. Most soldiers hate it while they’re in the middle of it. Yet back in garrison, they miss it.

Knott kept a 120-page journal with personal plans and notes including observations about the Middle East. That said, geopolitics rarely intrude into soldiers’ lives, according to Knott and Reasoner.

War is really about the other soldier, about dying for him if necessary. “If it comes to saving his ass, you know you’ll do it,” Knott said. “Even if you don’t like him.”

“That’s what I love that about the Army,” Reasoner said.

Stuck together on guard duty or at checkpoints for endless hours, soldiers become close “because there’s nothing else to do but get to know each other.” That produces what Reasoner believes will be enduring friendships, “lifetime friends, hopefully. There are guys I hate, and guys I love. But I respect them all. I’d do anything for any of them.”

If dedication to comrades increases, self-preservation wanes. Reasoner described himself as blasé about death, especially after the 1st AD was extended three months past their original one-year deployment.

“My attitude was, ‘If I die, I die.’ I didn’t care. If I died and it benefited [the Army], that’s fine. I’m pretty mercenary about it. They benefited me paying me the money.”



War survivors

At the time Stripes profiled Club 34, Knott was confident the trio would survive: “If the [crap] hits the fan, we’ll come back. We’ll come back.”

And they did, just not as a team. Conn left the Army five months into the deployment, and Stars and Stripes was unable to locate him. Knott is now training room noncommissioned officer for Headquarters, Headquarters Company, and Reasoner is a dismounted infantryman.

Reasoner and Knott made it clear they didn’t see that much action compared to so many soldiers. Club 34 only fired its weapons twice — once to destroy a vehicle suspected of being a car bomb, once to destroy a captured artillery piece. But there were far more times they were attacked without shooting back.

Looking back on Iraq, the two recall being incredibly naive. “We had no idea. We had no clue what [war] was really going to be like,” Knott said.

“We had some really good times,” Reasoner said. “We had some really bad times.”



Rough start

Though technically part of 1st AD, Charlie Company deployed March 18 — only two days before the war started — with V Corps.

Just a few days after arriving April 12 in Baghdad from Kuwait, the crew witnessed a fatal accident.

On April 18, a freak power surge in a Bradley undergoing maintenance caused the armored vehicle’s 25 mm cannon to fire. The round killed Pfc. Joseph Mayek, 20, of Rock Springs, Wyo. — the first Germany-based soldier to die in Iraq — and wounded a second soldier.

“It was our section that killed him. It was a tough way to start,” Knott said.

But there was too much to do to dwell on an accident.

Once stabilized in Iraq, Knott, Reasoner and Conn spent much oftime going to Fallujah and Ramadi to pick up fugitives from Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime, most prominently the June 14 capture of Hamid Raja Shalah, the Air Force commander who helped designed al-Samoud missiles.

“I was guarding him,” Reasoner said, smiling.

As they set into an eight-day rotation schedule on patrols, on static post and on maintenance, they found they liked Camp Muleskinner — formerly al-Rasheed Air Force school — on the southern edge of Baghdad, where they stayed from July 15, 2003 through March 19, 2004.

If the Army is a big circus, with the main venues surrounded by smaller tents, then Muleskinner “was the best tent in the circus,” Knott said.



Back with 1st AD

Though there were lulls between missions, even routine duties such as curfew enforcement could get adrenaline flowing. They’d cruise the expressways in blacked out Humvees until they spotted a car. Then they’d hop the curb and tear out after them, converging on the curfew violators and pulling out suspects at gunpoint, Knott said.

“It was awesome,” Knott said. “It was awesome.”

Reasoner and Knott are also candid about the disappointments even as they savor the highlights.

There were times they hated each other, and Knott replaced Reasoner as his driver after several confrontations, though they remain friends.

The soldiers thought they were going to return to Germany with V Corps, which would have meant only 90 days in Iraq. Instead, they were assigned back to 1st AD.

That caused deep resentment in that they’d be working with 1st AD soldiers who’d missed out on the march to Baghdad, and who hadn’t yet earned the right to wear combat infantry badges.

“For the first six months, I hated them,” Reasoner said, when he realized Company C was going to have to stay in Iraq the full 12 months. Then there was the extension.

Knott stayed in Iraq, but Reasoner returned to Baumholder on March 19, then had an 8-day reintegration. Reasoner headed out to Spain and the United States for 30 days of leave.

But on April 16, U.S. commanders announced the 1st AD was getting a 90-day extension. By May 5, he was back in Iraq for another 60 days.

The only choice, Reasoner said, “was to grit down and finish this thing out.”

What did Iraq mean to the soldiers?

On his right hand, Knott sports a high school senior ring chuck of gold and steel. But instead of “Class of 1985” it reads, “Club 34.” It has the 1st AD emblem inscribed on the side, and a tiny CIB in the stone.

Asked if he would do it all over again, Reasoner said, “Absolutely, I would. Absolutely. It sucked. ... But I’m a much better person for it.”

“I experienced life. I experienced death.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=23363&archive=true

Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 03:14 PM
September 07, 2004

Squad finds weapons in Sadr City prayer house

By Matthew Cox
Times staff writer


BAGHDAD – The column of 12 1st Cavalry Division up-armored Humvees moves up a main road here in Sadr City on Monday as if they are on a routine presence patrol.
“We are ready to make our move to the target — Blue, White, Red [platoons] make your move. Let’s go. Kick it!” Capt. Steve Gventer, commander of Cobra Company, orders over his radio.

Four M1A2 Abrams tanks from 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment roll in to provide security as Cobra’s Humvees accelerate up the road and converge on a strip of storefronts and two-story buildings.

Soldiers jump out of the Humvees and form into a squad. They line up outside the first target building and one soldier kicks open the door of the small, unmarked prayer house open. Some of the squad members rush in as other soldiers scan the rooftops and windows for enemy gunmen.

Up until Sunday evening, this massive slum section of Baghdad had been a relatively peaceful setting as the battalion pushed through its third day of patrolling the crowded neighborhoods, talking to residents and handing out huge numbers of humanitarian aid rations.

That all ended when militants attacked the battalion Sunday night, uncorking a mortar barrage and later hurled grenades and fired AK47s from rooftops.

Just minutes into their search, the soldiers uncover a grenade and three AK47 magazines. They march seven young Iraqi men, most in their early 20s, out of the building for questioning.

Then several rifle shots ring out from a hidden position in the nearby buildings.

“Watch the windows!” Gventer shouts to his men. “Watch out! You’ve got kids down the street! Don’t be firing unless you have an identified target!” An improvised explosive device detonates just down the block near a tank but inflicts minor damage.

“We’ve got to be prepared for a counterattack,” Lt. Col. Lopez Carter, 2-8’s commander tells Gventer. “They definitely don’t like us being here, so they may come at us.”

solders begin carrying out weapons from inside the unmarked prayer house. In addition to the grenade and AK47 magazines, they find two AK47s with several magazines, an RPK light machine gun, a rocket propelled grenade launcher and three grenades, an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a British-style flak vest, and IED-making materials such as a large role of wire, a 120mm shell and a 155mm shell.

One of the detainees turns out to be the assistant of the prayer house’s Sayed, or prayer leader. He quietly tells Gventer, through an interpreter, that the Sayed lets fighters come to the prayer house with weapons and leave them there.

Another explosion erupts nearby.

An unseen gunman continues to fire as soldiers search several of the surrounding buildings but can’t locate his position to return fire.

The unit quickly wraps up its search and leaves the area with the weapons and seven Iraqi detainees.

The battalion deployed into the southern portion of Sadr City three days ago to operate jointly with 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, which normally patrols the crowded portion of Baghdad that’s home to more than 3 million people. The operation comes in the wake of the withdrawal of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army from its stronghold inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.

Soldiers from 2-8 have set up a temporary patrol base here in a warehouse inside the Ministry of Trade complex to help ensure the Mehdi army doesn’t return.

It’s still not clear it was members of the Mehdi army that attacked 2-8. But yesterday’s discovery of the weapons inside the prayer house showed leaders that militants still believe that religious buildings are a safe haven from U.S. forces.

“Normally, when we go into those places, we send [Iraqi security forces] in there,” said Maj. Bill Williams, 2-8’s executive officer. “But if we don’t know, we can’t do that.”


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-339923.php


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 03:58 PM
CPO initiation doesn’t stop at war zone


By Jason Chudy, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, September 6, 2004

CAMP DUKE, Iraq — More than a dozen sailors assigned to units throughout Iraq are finding that the Navy’s traditional initiation process for those selected for promotion to chief petty officer doesn’t stop in a combat zone.

Three of these sailors are going through initiation at Camp Duke near Najaf.

“They go through physical training, CPO indoctrination, and we have Friday mentorship training, as we call it,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Ernesto Zabarte, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s medical planner.

In addition to the Navy-required CPO indoctrination class and a computer-based management course, the selectees, as they are called, are given Navy- or leadership-related tasks by their chiefs to round out their training.

Some of these tasks, Zabarte said, can be difficult to complete in the desert.

“They’re very short on resources,” said Zabarte. “As CPOs, wherever they’re at or whatever challenges they face, they’ll need to come up with a solution to get the task done.”

One leadership task, the creation and management of an imaginary division of sailors out of hard-boiled eggs, had to be adjusted. Camp Duke’s selectees used round rocks, which are poured over the sand and dirt to keep the dust down and are therefore plentiful.

“We’ve used all of our resources,” said chief selectee Petty Officer 1st Class Billy Hammond, a chaplain’s assistant with the MEU.

Other tasks range from researching Navy history or uniform regulations. For these, the selectees say that the Internet is a lifesaver, or at least a push-up saver. Failed tasks are usually “remedied” by exercise.

“There’s a lot of research,” said chief selectee Petty Officer 1st Class Roger Teel. “Without the Internet we’d be in trouble.”

The challenges of getting these tasks done have brought the three closer, another goal of the initiation process.

“We’re starting to bond,” said Teel, a corpsman with 17 years in the Navy. “But it’s a slow process.”

Slow, but necessary, said Chief Petty Officer George Frausto. “I think it’s extremely important,” he said. “We’re teaching them how to network, be a team and function under stressful situations. Given the circumstances, they’re progressing well.”

Working through the stressful situations now, the selectees realize, is better than learning after they’ve already been promoted.

“You learn something from your mistakes, correct the mistakes and move on,” said chief selectee Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Cavallo, 40, a 15-year Navy veteran. “You don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Even with the mistakes, the stress and the extra workload, the selectees say they’ve enjoyed their initiation.

“Fun? Oh yeah,” said Teel.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=24215


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 05:06 PM
Marines die in bomb attack

Tests reveal that Saddam's deputy was not captured after all, Iraqi official says

September 7, 2004






By KIM HOUSEGO


of The Associated Press


BAGHDAD - A suicide attacker sped up to a U.S. military convoy outside Fallujah and detonated an explosives-packed vehicle on Monday, killing seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers, U.S. military officials said. It was the deadliest day for American forces in four months.

The force of the blast on a dusty stretch of wasteland nine miles north of Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni insurgents, wrecked two Humvee vehicles and hurled the suicide car's engine far from the site, witnesses and military officials said.

The bombing underscored the challenges U.S. commanders face in securing Fallujah and surrounding Anbar province, the heartland of a Sunni Muslim insurgency bent on driving coalition forces from the country.

U.S. forces have not patrolled in Fallujah since ending a three-week siege of the city in April that had been aimed at rooting out militiamen. Insurgents have only strengthened their hold on Fallujah since then.

Early today, residents reported strong explosions around Fallujah. But the U.S. command said it had no information.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said medical tests confirmed that Iraqi authorities had once again mistakenly reported the capture of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, putting a stop to two days of conflicting statements about his purported arrest.

Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said unspecified tests had shown that a man being held in Iraqi custody was actually a relative of al-Douri who played only a minor role in Saddam's regime but was nevertheless wanted by authorities.

On Sunday, both Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud and a Defense Ministry spokesman publicly proclaimed al-Douri's capture. Later in the day, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said word of his arrest was "baseless."

Kadhim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, did not, however, identify the al-Douri relative in custody, nor did he say when or where he was captured.

The reports on al-Douri - the most wanted Saddam-era henchman still at large - came as an embarrassment to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government and exposed a lack of coordination among ministers competing for influence ahead of January elections.

Elsewhere, one American soldier was killed and another wounded during an attack on a convoy near the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said today. The convoy came under attack from an improvised explosive device on Monday, the military said in a statement, without providing further details.

With Monday's deaths, 991 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press based on Defense Department figures.

After the suicide blast outside Fallujah, west of the capital, medical teams in helicopters ferried away the injured from the blazing wreckage and troops sealed off the area.

Fallujah hospital officials said four Iraqis were wounded by gunfire from U.S. troops near the site of the bombing, but the U.S. military had no confirmation.

The military condemned the bombing as "a desperate act of inhumanity" but insisted American troops will stay the course in Iraq until local forces are in a position to take over security operations.

The slain Americans belonged to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Hours after the attack, an unmanned U.S. spy plane crashed in Fallujah. Afterward, jubilant residents picked up pieces of debris and danced in the streets, displaying pieces of the aircraft to reporters, witnesses said.

Since the Marine siege ended, gunmen have been using the city a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces. Fallujah has become a virtual no-go zone for U.S. troops, though American warplanes have repeatedly carried out airstrikes against alleged militant safe houses there.

The car bombing resulted in the largest number of Americans killed in combat in a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in separate mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and Kirkuk.

Seven troops were killed on two days last month, but in each case, there were six Americans and one foreign coalition member who died. On Aug. 21, six U.S. service members and one Polish soldier died in combat, and six were killed on Aug. 15, along with a Ukrainian soldier.

Also Monday, a Turkish driver taken hostage in Iraq was released by his captors, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b43ebhsj047.html


Ellie

thedrifter
09-07-04, 10:50 PM
Ramadi posts seen as 'symbol of occupation' <br />
<br />
<br />
By Pamela Hess <br />
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL <br />
<br />
<br />
RAMADI, Iraq — U.S. Marines in Ramadi, one of the deadliest cities in Iraq for American forces,...