Marine's family has sharp reprimand for Bush administration

[thedrifter]

Marine's family has sharp reprimand for Bush administration
September 30, 2004 ANGELL0930


Relatives of a Minnesota Marine who was killed in Iraq lashed out Wednesday against the war and the Bush administration's conduct in waging it.

Across the street from the Lake Elmo restaurant where Vice President Dick Cheney had finished speaking an hour earlier, the grandmother of Levi Angell spoke of "my precious grandson I lost to this useless, needless fix we're in."

Lila Angell said the war "is crazy. It's just wrong." Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry "certainly would do better" in Iraq than President Bush. "He couldn't do any worse."

Levi Angell, a 20-year-old Marine from Cloquet, was killed April 8 when his Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

His father, Gordon, said he never received a condolence call from any member of the administration. "Bush was giving a speech 20 miles away [from Cloquet] and he never bothered to pick up the damned telephone and say 'I'm sorry about your son,' " he said. "From now on, I'm a Democrat after the way they treated us."

He said he got just such a call from John Kerry. "The only ones who seem to care about this whole terrible tragedy are Democrats," he said at the news conference arranged by the Kerry campaign.

Angell said Bush "has deceived the American public so bad, up there smirking on the TV."

The family also appeared later in Duluth, alongside several veterans who are opposed to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.

Lila Angell said administration officials "have just forgotten the guys over there. But we live it over and over and over. Are we safer here? No. Osama bin Laden's still running around, and he's the one who started all this."

Jim Bootz, a Navy veteran who heads Minnesota Veterans for Kerry, challenged Cheney's assertion earlier Wednesday that the war in Iraq is a vital part of a wider war against terrorism.

"The vice president is confusing the war in Iraq with the war on terror," he said. "It's not terrorists we're fighting, but insurgents."

In Duluth, ex-Marine Bill Soderlind said that, "after Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush and his administration had the whole world at our doorstep," offering help. Now, he said, it's clear that the administration squandered that good will.

Soderlind said: "If I could propose one question at tomorrow's debate it would be, "Mr. President, what did you do with our allies?' "

Bob von Sternberg and Larry Oakes

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5007831.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine turns to collecting during deployment
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200492918051
Story by Cpl. Paul Leicht



AL ASAD, Iraq (Sept. 27, 2004) -- Marines and Sailors deployed here frequently turn to different things to help them pass the time when they are off duty. Some read books or write letters; others watch movies, play sports or engage in physical training.

One Marine here has also found collecting a peculiar form of currency, only available to deployed servicemembers, to be a fun off-duty activity.

The colorful 'coins' look like play money from a children's board game, but they have real monetary value in addition to their appeal to collectors.

They are called 'pogs' and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service has been using them as a form of currency at exchanges in deployed areas for years.

Lightweight and easily recognizable, the AAFES pogs are coated disks about the size of a half-dollar with powerful U. S. military images and come in 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent denominations.

According to the AAFES web site, the military finance office normally provides coins to patrons, however by using the pogs for small change AAFES reduces the shipment of bulky, heavy metal coins to exchange sites, which helps maximize the availability of goods and services for deployed troops.

"The pogs are kind of cool because there are so many different designs and I also thought it would be something fun to do while I am here," said Cpl. Carlos R. Garcia, adjutant clerk, Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 3, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "The series for this year has more than 36 designs for all three denominations.

"So far I have almost all of them, but there are a few that I still have to collect and put in the special collector's folder I bought at the exchange to display them in," continued the 21-year-old.

Whether kept as souvenirs or in a collection, the pogs can be used like real money and are redeemable at any AAFES store worldwide.

Because the AAFES Pogs are not real currency, they do not violate the law and were developed at the request of the Department of Defense, according to the AAFES website.

Garcia, a native of Alamo, Texas, said in addition to collecting the AAFES pogs, he also has bought some non-circulating Iraqi dinars, some of which have the face of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"Even though the bills are not really worth anything, you never know if they will become collector's items in the near or far future," said Garcia. "War memorabilia can be worth a lot.

"Some of the things from the era of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan that servicemembers found, like bayonets or flags or money, have become quite valuable to the collectors market," he explained.

Garcia added that for now, he hopes the pogs and the colorful Iraqi bills with Saddam's visage are tokens of his deployment and might make good gifts for family members or his kids in the future.

But with only a few pogs to go before he completes his collection, Garcia said there are a few he just can't seem to find.

"There are a couple that I am trying to get," said Garcia. "Sometimes I trade real U. S. coins or pogs that I already have for ones that I don't, but there are a few that I just can't seem to find. Hopefully I will get them all before I leave Iraq. I have even seen some Marines just throw their pogs away and I wonder if one of them is one that I need to complete my collection."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200492918543/$file/040927-M-0484L-001CollectorLR.jpg

Cpl. Carlos R. Garcia, casualty clerk, Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 3, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, sorts through his collection of Army and Air Force Exchange Service "pog" coins Sept. 27 that he has collected from transactions at the Al Asad Post Exchange. AAFES has been using pogs for years and the series for 2004 has 36 different designs in 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent denominations. Photo by: Cpl. Paul Leicht

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/7168ECCE4A93CC7685256F1E0078ED92?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Dental Readiness: a Key to Combat Preparedness
Submitted by: MCAS Cherry Point
Story Identification #: 2004929154528
Story by Pfc. James D. Hamel



Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. (Sept. 22, 2004) -- Plan on taking some leave next month? Going TAD? Maybe you're deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan or somewhere else?

Well, unless your dental records are updated and your dental hygiene is given the thumbs up, you may want to reconsider your plans, said Petty Officer 1st Class Straussi C. Mumford, the senior medical liaison for Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2.

Mumford said that Marines and Sailors not up to date with current dental checkups can be denied leave requests and depending on the situation can be considered non-deployable.
The basic guideline commanders use to designate dental readiness is a four-class system, he said.

Depending on how recently a person's last checkup was, and how good their current dental situation is, he or she will be placed into one of the following categories: first class for those current with cleaning and checkups and without any current dental problems; second class for those up to date but with minor pending problems; third class for serious dental work needed, like a root canal; and fourth class is having no current dental visits.

Mumford said those in third and fourth class were considered non-deployable, and being in those classes could warrant denial for leave and TAD requests.

The consequences can be stiff for lapsing on your responsibilities to keep yourself healthy, and it doesn't make any sense, Mumford said, because military members receive free dental care.

"This is your health we're talking about," he said. "This is the best place to get it done, take advantage of what you have. In the civilian world, routine work could cost hundreds of dollars."

Petty Officer 1st Class Alan E. Fenson, the Group Aid Station 27 leading petty officer agreed. He said neglecting dental work "is like saying I don't care about my health and I don't care about being in the military anymore."

Marines lose their deployable status, Mumford said, because of how poor dental hygiene can adversely affect someone in combat.

"A person with a serious health problem won't be able to focus in combat," he said.
And considering the lack of modern health facilities in a combat area, Marines and Sailors likely won't be able to fix a serious problem while deployed.

"When you go to combat, you won't be able to get a high level of care. So, it's important to get it done before you go," he said.

Those who haven't taken advantage of their dental benefits might want to consider doing so before their lack of readiness affects their duty status and their ability to serve.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/481C6650F21AD3F385256F1E006C8862?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

1st Tank Bn. Marine leads spiritually
Submitted by: I Marine Expeditionary Force
Story Identification #: 200493025456
Story by Sgt. Robert E. Jones Sr.



CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- (Sept. 30, 2004) -- Exhausted after returning from a convoy with 1st Tank Battalion, Staff Sgt. Lamar J. Byrd kneels down in front of a metal cushioned fold-up chair in the Camp Fallujah chapel. He lowers his head and clenches his hands together. Out of a humble heart, he opens his mouth to utter a compassionate prayer of thanksgiving. “Heavenly father, I thank you for…,”said Byrd, a.k.a. Minister Byrd.

Walking further into the chapel, greetings of his Bible study class express of love and concern. “Brother, you are welcome to come and grab a seat inside the ring of chairs,” another Marine said.

It was a Tuesday night, but to those who gathered in the chapel, it was an opportunity to offer up praises to God led by Byrd in a combat zone. Byrd said he had got to this point in his life due to, “steps ordered by God.”

Byrd is known to touch many hearts of his men within his unit, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division.

“I grew up on the streets,” said the 5-foot-11-inch Marine. “Living in an environment with guns and drugs was causing me to become a product of that environment. I thought that was the only way to live,” said Byrd. “Coming from Detroit and being raised in the ghetto, I felt I was just trying to find my way in life. Due to situations I put myself in, I started to develop a gang mentality.

“I came from a Baptist church, but I really did not know about a personal relationship with God,” recalled Byrd. “I thought by doing good things, doing right by people or just being a good kid was all I had to do in life, but that was far from the truth.”

The Corps did not just increase the maturity in Byrd, but also steered him in the direction of righteousness.

“I had enough sense to join the Marine Corps. I knew that college was something I could not accomplish at the time due to my thinking,” said Byrd. “My mom wanted me to go to college.

Momma, never fully knew the person I was at the time. In her eyes, I was an angel.”

“The Marine Corps really had an impact on me,” said Byrd.

Byrd stood upon the yellow foot prints of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Nov. 13, 1990.

Byrd’s relationship with God began thousands of miles away from Detroit.

His first duty station was Okinawa, Japan. There he met a Marine that they called Lance Cpl. Mack, who would come around to pray for him and his friend at the barracks.”

Because of a Bible study, Byrd’s life would take a 180 degree turn in the positive direction.

“Mack asked me, ‘Do you want to have a Bible study?’ I said no but my friend who saw I was trying to make a change convinced me to go along with it.

He ministered to us out of John 4:1-28, and when he had finished he said to me and my friend, ‘Do you want some of that living water?’ That is when my friend and I were saved together.”

“After that day my demeanor was like night is to day,” said Byrd.

The gift to minister the word of God was birthed in him with the unfortunate death of a loved one.

“One day, I was in Bible study and the Lord told me in my spirit that my grandmother was going to pass away and that I would have to preach a message from 2 Timothy 4:7,” said Byrd.

Two months later she had passed away.

“Shortly after the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘You are going to be a minister,’” said Byrd. “I did not care what people had said, God said it.”

After being saved for six months, Byrd was licensed under his church in 1992. In 1994, he went through the ordination service. In 1996 he signed up for Sacramento Bible College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Theology in 1999.

The instructors go anywhere in the world that students are enrolled, to administer test and teach lessons.

Byrd’s purpose here is to help fight a war and do the Lord’s will.

“Sure, I’m on call for all the natural things I must do. I’m the first to let my command know that when there is a convoy going out, put me on it,” said Byrd.

Those that have been in his company gave testimonies about the man they believed him to be.

“I watched him, and I think he is confident in the word of God,” said Capt. Thomas E. Thies, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, command chaplain. “I think he is a great spiritual leader.”

A Sunday service attendant shared encouraging words about Byrd.

“Every time I see him in passing, he is always upbeat. But on Sunday services, I just see the spirit of the Lord all over him,” said Lance Cpl. Mario Capetillo, I MEF, staff judge advocate clerk.

Byrd now teaches Bible study alone on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Gospel services on Sundays.

Byrd stressed the support of his wife Latrice and two daughters, Lael, 11, and Anaiah, 10.

“I have a wonderful blessed family. I am so thankful for them.”

Bending over in his chair and lowering his head, he took a breath, looked up to me, and said, “Sometimes we say, ‘Well God, what do you want me to do?’ Now I’m able to see what my mission was and still is.”

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200493031854/$file/byrdpodeum.low.jpg

Staff Sgt. Lamar J. Byrd, 1st Marine Division, 1st Tank Battalion, tank communicator stands in front the podeum at the Camp Fallujah Chapel before bible study, Sept. 30. Byrd worked alongside Capt. Robert O. Marks, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, command chaplain, until Marks returned home. Byrd now teaches Bible study alone on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Gospel services on Sundays. In 1996 he signed up for Sacramento Bible College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Theology in 1999. Photo by: Sgt. Robert E. Jones Sr.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/E09097C1D8F84A5E85256F1F0025FD4F?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: October 04, 2004 <br />
<br />
Tough call for amputee <br />
War-wounded staff NCO pushed docs to cut off his leg — and has no regrets <br />
<br />
By Laura Bailey <br />
Times staff writer <br />
<br />
<br />
When Staff Sgt. Mark...

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: October 04, 2004 <br />
<br />
Sexual assault reports continue in war zones <br />
<br />
By Deborah Funk <br />
Times staff writer <br />
<br />
<br />
As a Pentagon task force begins discussing what policy changes are needed to...

[thedrifter]

'Grandpa' Looked After Marine Buddies
28-Year-Old Lance Corporal, Whose Dream Was to Join the Military, Dies in Iraq

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004; Page B03

Marine Lance Cpl. Gregory C. Howman had wanted to serve in the military since he was a little boy. Two weeks ago, he died fulfilling that dream.

Yesterday, under a gloomy gray sky, Howman, 28, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

A rifleman assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps' 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Brigade Combat team 2, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Howman died Sept. 15 from wounds received in an explosion in Iraq's Anbar Province.

Howman, who had recently begun his second tour of duty in Iraq, had instructed his family to bury him at Arlington if he did not make it back home to Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reported. Among those who gathered yesterday to say goodbye to the burly, 6-foot-5 Marine were his father, Gary Howman, and his sister, Rebecca Lehmann.

Howman was the 84th service member from the Iraq war to be buried at Arlington.

Howman was fascinated with sports and the military. Larry Davis, manager of the Pineville, N.C., construction supply company where Howman worked before enlisting, said Howman revered the armed forces and vowed that he would join someday. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks gave him the incentive, Davis said in a telephone interview.

"I think, like a lot of people after September 11th, he just felt like he had to do something," Lehmann told the Charlotte Observer.

Howman failed the military entrance exam three times but did not give up, the Observer reported. On his fourth try, he passed. He enlisted in January 2002.

At 25, Howman was much older than most of the recruits in his unit at Camp Pendleton in California. They teasingly called Howman "Grandpa," and he looked out for them, his sister said.

Howman's unit was among the first to cross from Kuwait into Iraq when the war began in March 2003. After a fellow Marine who had a wife and children lost a leg, Howman told his sister, "It should have been me," the Observer reported.

Howman was a dedicated employee who "completed anything and everything that he started," and talked sports all the time, Davis said. He always covered his blond crew cut with baseball cap -- usually the navy blue and white of the New York Yankees, his favorite team, Davis said.

"We rarely saw what his head actually looked like," Davis said. "He wore a Yankee cap pretty much all the time."

The military seemed to make the shy Howman more confident, Davis said. When the Marine came home from boot camp for a brief visit, he was 40 pounds slimmer and stood taller and prouder, Davis said.

"He seemed like a different person," he said.

Howman believed in his mission, his sister told the Observer. But his service in Iraq did not quell his passion for his Yankees. Howman would call home from Iraq just to find out how the team was doing, Lehmann said.

Yesterday, Lehmann buried her head in the shoulder of her stepmother, Beth Howman, as Gary Howman was presented with a folded U.S. flag. After the ceremony, all three laid their hands on Howman's coffin. Lehmann, wiping away tears, bent down to kiss it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61028-2004Sep29.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Simulation Prepares Soldier-Medics for Combat
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Sept. 30, 2004 -- Move over, Resusci-Annie! Army medics-in-training are preparing for upcoming deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan by treating simulated combat casualties in conditions so realistic that they incorporate the look, sounds and smells of war.

Simulation is nothing new in medicine, and many people remember using the legless Resusci-Annie mannequin to practice their skills during cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.

But training at the U.S. Army Medical Department and School here is taking simulation training to a whole new level, giving soldier-medics who will be the first to provide care to wounded troops a taste of combat before facing it in real life.

With just three weeks left in their combat-medic training here, soldiers clad in body armor and tactical gear rush into a dark, smoky room to confront a downed helicopter and three wounded troops. The medics-in-training work in limited visibility, applying the basics of medicine they have learned during the past 13 weeks as they dodge smoke and simulated incoming gunshots.

The "patients" they treat are no Resusci-Annies. These full-body mannequins do almost everything a real body can do, including "bleed" to death, go into cardiac arrest and cease breathing.

As they triage the "patients" and begin administering life-saving procedures, the soldiers respond just as they could be called on to do on the battlefield - - possibly within weeks of graduation.

"We try to create as much realism as we can to give them a snapshot of what they could see on the battlefield," said Army Capt. Chad Garrett, chief of cadre. "Everything here is real time and has real consequences. That's critical, because for these students, it's not if they'll go (to Southwest Asia). It's when."

"They're motivated because they know this is for real," agreed Army Col. Patricia Hastings, medical director for the Department of Combat Medical Training. "They know that the lessons they learn here will be put to use."

Hastings said realistic simulation scenarios, put together by the school staff with limited funds and a lot of imagination, help drive home "very sophisticated concepts" students must learn before they deploy.

"They're getting their first year of medical school in 16 weeks," she said. "Our goal in incorporating simulation into the training is to develop a medic who can respond to trauma on the battlefield quickly."

Garrett said that's the rationale behind the tough training -- noisy, fast- paced and stressful, even to the nonparticipating observer. "You train as you fight, and you fight as you train," he said. "The more we go through this, the more mechanical the concepts become. And when you're faced with a real-life scenario, you fall back on your training. Everything comes back."

"It hits you in the face that this is going to be your reality," said Army Pvt. Rony Touch, who was catching his breath after going through the downed- helicopter simulation for the first time. "This hands-on experience emphasizes what we've been learning in the classroom and the importance of the basics in saving lives."

In another simulation scenario, Pvt. Michelle Wenger helped load a victim into an ambulance, hook up an intravenous drip, administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and open up the patient's airway when he "stopped breathing" -- all while bouncing inside the vehicle just as she would while moving a real- life patient to a field hospital.

"This really gives us a chance to use our skills and work together as a team," she said. "It also gives you confidence in your training, and that's going to be really important when we do this for real."

Other scenarios at the simulation center replicate a wide range of medical emergencies, as well as austere conditions in a forward surgical tent or combat support hospital.

Hastings said the scenarios, like all training provided to the students, emphasize lessons being learned in Iraq and Afghanistan with a focus on the "ABCs" of combat medicine: opening up the airway, ensuring the patient is breathing, and stopping bleeding to maintain circulation.

"Simulation is a way for medics to become competent in their craft. It incorporates everything they've learned through the program to get them ready before they deploy," she said. "That helps give them the confidence they'll need when they apply these concepts on a real human in a real situation."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi Translator's Service Comes at High Cost
By Cpl. Veronika R. Tuskowski, USMC
Special to American Forces Press Service

ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq, Sept. 22, 2004 -- Sally's children were taken away from her more than six months ago. Her husband beat her. Her brother threatened her life while holding a gun to her head. Her own father contracted her death with a $5,000 reward.

Sally, an Iraqi translator working with Multinational Force Iraq, lost everything by working to help Americans rebuild Iraq. Still, she feels her service with Americans is the right thing for her country.

"I lost everything I have, but I have gained so much," Sally said. "If I had to do it over again I would. I help the Americans, help my people."

Sally masks her real identity. She agreed to be interviewed on the condition her location and identity remained hidden. She is still a wanted woman with a price on her head.

Sally, 28, was born in Baghdad to a wealthy family. Her Turkish Christian mother died giving birth to her. Her Muslim father from Fallujah had ties in Iraqi oil. She wanted for little as a child, even under the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein.

Her father had another wife who raised Sally as her own child.

She was educated at a private Catholic school from the age of 5 until she was 12, learning English and several other languages. She grew up with a cross- cultural experience unknown to most Iraqis.

"Since my mother was Christian and my father was Muslim, I studied the Bible during the week and went the Mosque every Friday to study the Quran," Sally explained.

Still, there was a parochial and detached feeling to her formative years. She visited her family on the weekends and one month of the year. When she did visit her family, Sally explained that women had little power and could not make any choices of her own.

"My father. … I can't even eat at the same table and eat with him," she said. "I must always say yes to everything."

The day she graduated from her Catholic school, her father told her something that would change her life. "I was 13 years old," Sally said. "I will never forget this. … He sits beside me and says, 'Honey, you must marry.'" Three days later, she was married to her fathers' friend, 27 years her senior. "He wasn't mean at first, and he wasn't nice," she said. "He looked like my father."

She gave birth to her first son at 14 and continued studying engineering in Baghdad. Her family grew over the years to include three more children. It was a life not unlike that of many Iraqi women.

"I liked my husband, because he let me go to school," she said. "I was a child. I didn't know any better. All my life I was with one guy, and I didn't know if he was good, I didn't know if he was bad. He was the only thing I knew. He taught me what to think."

Sally's family did not like Americans, and when rumors of a war began circulating last year, her family decided to leave for Turkey. Still, Sally stayed. "I love my home," she explained. "I told them I would never leave, and they left without me."

Early one morning when the war started, she heard yelling outside her home. Americans in a Humvee were talking to one of her neighbors.

"They were speaking English and trying to talk to a man," she said. "They were going to arrest him. So I went outside to help him and talked to the Americans for the man. The Americans were very appreciative and (offered me) a job. I told them they know where I live if they ever need my help."

She thought being a translator would be a great way to help out her country. She took an English test and was accepted to become a translator.

Sally's decision, though, was unpopular with her Iraqi neighbors.

"My neighbors found out that I was helping the Americans, and they beat my children," she said. "They threw rocks at my daughter and broke both arms on my son. They told me to watch out or I will be killed."

It wasn't just her neighbors who harbored hatred for Sally's assistance to the coalition. Her family was infuriated.

"When my family came home from Turkey and found out, they told me that I would be killed," she said. "They called me horrible names like '*****' and '*****.' My brother put a pistol to my head and threatened to kill me."

She lived only because her mother intervened. It wasn't a measure of love, but rather of family honor.

"My mother stopped him by saying, 'She is not your real sister, and it's not your honor to kill her,'" she recalled. "She is not even my daughter; her real mother died when she was born."

Sally fled her home and took residence with her husband and children in Baghdad's Green Zone. She continued to help the Americans, translating at checkpoints. Her family began looking for her to kill her for betraying them.

"While I was at work, my brother found my husband and told him that I will kill your wife if I find out she is working with the coalition forces," she said. "He lied for me and told them that I was not."

Her life continued to crumble. She found her car missing and asked her husband if he knew what happened.

"I asked him about it, and he said someone stole it," Sally said. "I could not believe it. I asked who would steal? The Americans? The Green Zone was such a safe neighborhood. There was nowhere for it to go."

Her husband became enraged. He flew into a tirade.

"He messed up my face and body," she said. "He had such an angry face."

The next morning he apologized to her and told her to go to work because she was going to be late. Her face was beaten, black and blue. She tried to hide her husband's crime with sunglasses and a hat. Her ruse didn't work. Another translator saw the marks.

"I lied and said I did it to myself," she said.

She then told him that her car was also stolen. Then her world fell apart.

"He said, 'Your husband divorced you a month ago and took your car, your money and your apartment and gave it to your best friend because you are working with Americans,'" she recalled. "So I went back to my apartment and found my car in the garage and went inside."

She found her best friend inside with her husband.

"I was so angry I yelled," she said. "I went crazy. I took my keys and took off."

She drove to a nearby restaurant and parked thinking about what just happened.

"I was sitting there in the parking lot and I saw him walking up to me," she said. "I was relieved. I thought he was going to apologize. He told me to unroll the window."

When she did, he picked up a nearby rock and repeatedly hit her face. She awoke in a hospital two days later. An Army captain arrested her husband, but she insisted on finding him.

"I saw him cry," she said. "Iraqi men never cry. I was trying to get him out. I didn't care what anyone said."

She was warned to leave him in jail, that he would kill her. She insisted on his release.

"After 15 minutes of getting out the jail, he beat me up and put me in his car and took me to the apartment and locked me in the bathroom for three to four days with no food," Sally said. "I begged for water. He said 'No, I am ashamed of you. You are an interpreter, that's why I divorced you.'"

Her husband threatened to tell her family where she was, sealing her death sentence.

She escaped only because of her oldest son.

"My older son, who is 13, opened the bathroom door and said, 'Mom you need to run away,'" she recalled. "You cannot stay here. They will kill you. Mom, they will kill you!"

Sally said she did not want to leave her children behind.

"He pushed me out the door and I ran," she said. "I don't know where, but I ran."

She left with nothing but the clothes she was wearing, a picture of her kids and a stuffed tiger her son slept with at night. It was the last time she saw her children.

She returned to work with coalition forces.

Master Sgt. Tim D. Curl remembers seeing her in the chow hall days after escaping.

"She was directed by her command to seek medical attention for her wounds," Curl said. "But instead, she went to the chow hall. She got up to get something and all of a sudden she collapsed. The place when completely silent."

She spent three weeks recovering in a hospital.

When she returned to work, she opened up an e-mail from her friend to find out there was a price on her head. A poster was being distributed: a $5,000 was offered for her, dead or alive. It was offered by her father.

"He is trying to pay my friends for information on where I am," Sally said. "If I go to any Arab country, my father would find me."

Still, she doesn't fear the warrant.

"What can they take from me?" she asked. "I already have lost everything. I see the dead all the time. One of my best friends and three other interpreters were killed - beaten to death - by a knife because they were working with coalition forces."

Her commitment has earned praises from Marines.

"Sally risks her life to be here," Curl said. "Many translators we have here have had their lives threatened and their families' lives threatened. She goes on convoys, combat patrols, and they go through the same attacks we do."

Sally understands the risk, but still continues to work with Americans because of her love for the job.

"I love my job, I am helping out my people," she explained. "I am doing something for my country. This is the first time in my life I choose what I want in my life. My father would never let me choose. Now I am fighting for what I believe in."

Her family now is the circle of Marines and soldiers with whom she works. She hasn't heard from her children, but believes they are still with their father. Her worry gnaws at her.

"I can't sleep, because I think well maybe my kids are tired," Sally said. "Why should I be able to sleep? I can't eat because I think maybe somewhere my kids are hungry. I can't enjoy a nice, hot shower because I think maybe they are dirty. I can't laugh because maybe my kids are sad."

Sally hopes for a better future, possibly in the United States. She's had offers to help her get settled. She's got a passport and recommendations, but no visa. She even aspires to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

"The Army taught me how to march, how to shoot a pistol and martial arts," she said. "I want to live in America. I want to become a lieutenant for the Army. I want to go airborne."

The risks of military service, she said, are already known.

"(We) translators, we are at great risk," Sally explained. "We just want help. I will go to America. I will still work for the military. I just want this chance."

However, she hasn't forsaken her commitment to her children.

"If I do get to go to America, I promise I will make it back," she said. "It might take me 10 years, but I will be back to find my kids."

For now, though, Sally continues her work, serving as the link between Marines and Iraqis, bridging communication and cultural gaps, even as she seeks to heal her own life's wounds.

"You (soldiers and Marines) come from America to help my country," Sally said. "I must help you help my people. I see these soldiers that lose their lives for Iraqis. They come into our country and die for us. We must appreciate these guys. I appreciate the Army and Marines. I love them."

(Marine Cpl. Veronika R. Tuskowski is assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.)

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2004/n09222004_2004092201.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com


Time to decide who we want to be

By Wesley Pruden
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published October 1, 2004




In the cool early light of the morning after, there's a question American voters must ask themselves, a question more important than any posed last night to George W. Bush and John F. Kerry.
Who are we? Who have we become? What kind of people do we want to be? These are questions for the debate that counts.
The extrusions of that vile species (erectus porcinus) who murdered 35 of their own children yesterday in the streets of Baghdad in the name of a malignant theology of an eighth-century religion, imagine that we're no tougher, no more resilient, no more courageous than the French, who can never even defend themselves; the Germans, who can't push themselves away from a plate of sausages long enough to recognize peril; or the Spanish, who demonstrated in the aftermath of the Madrid railway bombing that when the going gets tough it's time to cut and run.
The cowardly ingratitude of "old Europe," though depressing, is nevertheless old stuff. What's scary is that similar voices are raised in our own midst, that a serious, credible candidate for president of the United States encourages these voices of fear with articulate nuances, subtleties, modulations, explanations, variations, distinctions, innuendos and pious evasions. He imagines that an American president, in a world of evil run amok, must demonstrate leadership by submitting the security of Americans to something he calls a "global test," showing the practiced deference that a French poodle might show the rich widow taking him out for a stroll on the avenue.
Smug and vain, John Kerry presents himself as the John Paul Jones of the Mekong, the war hero who fears no foe. Maybe he doesn't. But he can't reconcile himself to the harsh and unforgiving fact that we're at war again, and this time against an enemy more vile, more depraved and more wicked than any America has faced before. Maybe he knows that. Whatever he may think, or feel in the marrow of his bones, he cannot jettison the dead weight of the leftmost elements of his party, either now, when his candidacy falters, or later, in the unlikely event he becomes the 44th president. He must be the cut-and-run candidate, just as he would have to be the cut-and-run president.
John Kerry must, to keep his candidacy afloat, pander not only to the prejudices of the dominating anti-war element -- prospective voters who detest all wars fought in defense of the interests of America -- and as well to the terrors of those, many well meaning, who keep counsel only with paralyzing fear.
Monsieur Kerry exploits the revulsion of all civilized men at the gruesome tortures of Islamist "holy" men, and argues that al Qaeda affiliates operating in Baghdad are cutting off the heads of innocents only because the president ordered the invasion of Iraq -- the devil made them do it, and George W. Bush is the devil. Monsieur Kerry knows this is not so. Abu Musab Zarqawi was killing Americans for years before the coalition of the willing invaded Iraq, deposed Saddam Hussein and cleared his killing fields. The United States asked Saddam in early 2003 to extradite Zarqawi for killing an American diplomat on the streets of Amman. Saddam declined, as expected, because even then Zarqawi was setting up his terrorist organization in Baghdad.
No doubt there are terrified Americans who see or read about the video beheadings of Americans in Iraq, or quail before the grim photographs of dead children in Baghdad, and imagine that if civilized men just give it up, tuck tail and come home the erectus porcinus, men who walk like men and behave like pigs, will show us mercy.
During the early months of World War II, when many felt the nation's war machine was running on empty and anxiety hovered over the land of the free, Life magazine published a cover photograph of a Japanese officer with a scimitar raised to behead a kneeling American flier with a cut that was no less gruesome for its swiftness. The photograph haunted the nation for weeks. There was sadness and anger, but no rebukes of FDR, no cries of despair, no mocking of American soldiers that they were fighting "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time." The cruelty of the savagery enraged the grown-ups and fortified the fury that redoubled determination to win the war. We must determine again to show our enemies just who we can be, and passing a "global test" of approval be damned.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Joe Galloway: A Doc's Memories of Iraq, Good and Bad

WASHINGTON - The bonds between the doctors, nurses, corpsmen and medics and the soldiers and Marines they treat and care for and weep for in a combat zone are as tight as those among fighting men themselves. They do jobs that no trigger-puller thinks he could do, day in and day out.

Lt. Cmdr. Heidi Kraft, a Navy doctor and a former flight surgeon, now a psychologist, just finished a seven-month deployment to Iraq with a surgical company treating wounded Marines. Last week she returned to her family and friends near Jacksonville, Fla. She came home to the 2-year-old twins she left with her husband while she fulfilled her duty.

Before she left Iraq, Kraft wrote an e-mail home summing up the good and the bad of that tour of duty. We reprint her words, her poetry, with her permission:

"As the days move very slowly by, just waiting (for a delayed charter flight home), I decided that one of the things I should work on for my own closure and healing is a list. The list would be a comparison: 'Things That Were Good' about Iraq and being deployed with the Marines and 'Things That Were Not Good.' Of course, it's quite obvious that this list will be very lopsided. But I thought I would do it anyway, hoping that somehow the trauma, the fear, the grief, the laughter, the pride and the patriotism that have marked this long seven months for me will begin to make sense, through my writing.

"So here goes ... in reverse order of importance ...

THINGS THAT WERE GOOD

"Sunset over the desert, almost always orange. Sunrise over the desert, almost always red. The childlike excitement of having fresh fruit at dinner after going weeks without it. Being allowed to be the kind of clinician I know I can be, and want to be, with no limits placed and no doubts expressed.

"But most of all, the United States Marines, our patients.

"Walking, every day, and having literally every single person who passes by say "Oo-Rah, Ma'am..." Having them tell us, one after the other, through blinding pain or morphine-induced euphoria: 'When can I get out of here? I just want to get back to my unit ...'

"Meeting a young sergeant, who had lost an eye in an explosion ... he asked his surgeon if he could open the other one ... when he did, he sat up and looked at the young Marines from his fire team who were being treated for superficial shrapnel wounds in the next room ...

"He smiled, laid back down, and said, 'I only have one good eye, Doc, but I can see that my Marines are OK.'

"And of course, meeting the one who threw himself on a grenade to save the men at his side ... who will likely be the first Medal of Honor recipient in over 11 years ...

"My friends ... some of them will be life-long in a way that is indescribable.

"My patients ... some of them had courage unlike anything I've ever experienced before.

"My comrades, Alpha Surgical Company ... some of the things witnessed will traumatize them forever, but still they provided outstanding care to these Marines, day in and day out, sometimes for days at a time with no break, for seven endless months.

"And last, but not least ...

"Holding the hand of that dying Marine.

THINGS THAT WERE NOT GOOD

"Terrifying camel spiders, poisonous scorpions, flapping bats in the darkness, howling, territorial wild dogs, flies that insisted on landing on our faces, giant, looming mosquitoes, invisible sand flies that carry leishmaniasis.

"132 degrees.

"Wearing long sleeves, full pants and combat boots in 132 degrees. Random and totally predictable power outages that led to sweating throughout the night. Sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat, like wrists, and ears.

"The roar of helicopters overhead. The resounding thud of exploding artillery in the distance.

"The popping of gunfire ...

"Not knowing if any of the above sounds is a good thing, or bad thing. The siren, and the inevitable 'big voice' yelling at us to take cover. Not knowing if that siren was on someone's DVD or if the big voice would soon follow. The cracking sound of giant artillery rounds splitting open against rock and dirt. The rumble of the ground. The shattering of the windows ...




"Hiding under flak jackets and Kevlar helmets, away from the broken windows, waiting to be told we can come to the hospital ... to treat the ones who were not so lucky.

"Watching the helicopter with the big Red Cross on the side landing at our pad. Worse, watching Marine helicopters filled with patients landing at our pad ... because we usually did not realize they were coming.

"Ushering a sobbing Marine colonel away from the trauma bay while several of his Marines bled and cried out in pain inside. Meeting that 21-year-old Marine with three Purple Hearts, and listening to him weep because he felt ashamed of being afraid to go back.

"Telling a room full of stunned Marines in blood-soaked uniforms that their comrade, who they had tried to save, had just died of his wounds. Trying, as if in total futility, to do anything I could to ease the trauma of group after group that suffered loss after loss, grief after inconsolable grief.

"Washing blood off the boots of one of our young nurses while she told me about the one who bled out in the trauma bay, and then the one who she had to tell, when he pleaded for the truth, that his best friend didn't make it.

"Listening to another of our nurses tell of the Marine who came in talking, telling her his name, about how she pleaded with him not to give up, told him that she was there for him, about how she could see his eyes go dull when he couldn't fight any longer.

"And last, but not least ...

"Holding the hand of that dying Marine."

Welcome home, Dr. Heidi. Thank you for your service to our country.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

September 30, 2004 <br />
<br />
First sergeant acquitted of wrongfully wearing decoration <br />
<br />
By Gidget Fuentes <br />
Times staff writer <br />
<br />
<br />
MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO — A Marine first sergeant was...

[thedrifter]

From the Chicago Tribune
IRAQ IN TRANSITION
Lethal road to Iraq vote
Struggle over lawless town highlights election obstacles

By Rick Jervis
Tribune staff reporter

September 30, 2004


LATIFIYAH, Iraq -- There is no traffic in Latifiyah.

No cars, chickens, pigs, people or roadside cigarette stands, a staple in most Iraqi towns. Shops are shuttered, homes are closed and quiet, and, most disturbing to at least one Marine patrolling this rural town 20 miles south of Baghdad, there are no signs of children.

"They play inside," said Sgt. Yousif "Moose" Almoosawi, a platoon sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, as he pointed his M-16 assault rifle down another empty alley. "Not a good sign."

Away from the spotlight of insurgent uprisings in Fallujah, Ramadi and Baghdad, Latifiyah has quietly become a lawless, lethal thorn in the side of U.S. troops. Local police have fled or been killed, leaving the town in the hands of Islamic insurgents, kidnappers and common thugs, military officials said. To emphasize that point, insurgents blew up the police station two weeks ago.

The streets around Latifiyah have become so laced with roadside bombs, known in military parlance as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that military officials here call it the "IED capital of Iraq."

Two French journalists were kidnapped last month from the highway that cuts through Latifiyah. And this month, gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress party, on the highway outside Latifiyah, killing two of his bodyguards. Chalabi survived.

The struggle to return order to towns such as Latifiyah highlights the challenges faced by coalition forces to secure Iraq before general elections in January, an effort that stretches beyond the big-name cities and into towns and enclaves all over the country.

Without such stability, Washington and Baghdad must decide whether elections can be held in all parts of the country and whether the vote would be considered legitimate if all Iraqis don't have an opportunity to participate. The U.S. also must decide how many casualties--military and civilian--it would be willing to accept to pacify remote areas of the country.

"Right now, Latifiyah is more dangerous than Fallujah," said Sgt. Devon Hawkins, another platoon sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines. "Every day we have an IED. Every day someone who is seen working with Americans gets killed here. It's complete lawlessness."

Since the U.S. military closed nearby Highway 1, Highway 8 has become the main thoroughfare between Baghdad and the southern cities of Najaf, Nasiriyah and Basra. The Iraqi National Guard has permanent stations in Mahmoudiya and Iskandariyah. But in between, towns on Highway 8 such as Latifiyah have been overrun by insurgents, military officials said.

Their weapon of choice: IEDs. The homemade devices incorporate 81 mm mortar shells, 130 mm or 155 mm artillery rounds or 100-pound aerial bombs, many times daisy-chained together and wired to a stand by the side of the road, where a triggerman waits for passing convoys, officials said.

On Saturday night, a Marine Mobile Strike Team discovered an IED made of 15 130 mm artillery shells daisy-chained by the side of Highway 8, officials said.

Later that night, a six-vehicle convoy was returning from a mission in central Latifiyah when an IED exploded under one of the armored Humvees. The bomb disintegrated the Humvee's front end. Its transmission and engine parts rained down on the vehicles behind it, and the grenade launcher mounted on its roof was found in a field 30 feet away, according to a witness.

Officials blamed insurgents--described as Baath Party loyalists and an assortment of common criminals.

All five passengers survived, saved by the Humvee's armor. So far, three members from the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines have been recommended for Purple Hearts.

Sgt. Eliasard Alcauter, a vehicle commander, was in the back seat.

"I saw a bright flash but didn't even hear the bang," said Alcauter, who suffered a mild back sprain. "Next thing I know, it was like I was riding a rodeo horse. The vehicle was bouncing up and down. It was crazy."

The insurgents probably are using weapons and ammunition looted from the nearby Qa-Qaa complex, a 3-mile by 3-mile weapons-storage site about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Maj. Brian Neil, operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which initially patrolled the area.

The site was bombed during last year's invasion and then left unguarded, Neil said.

"There's definitely no shortage of weapons around here," he said.

The task to secure Latifiyah had belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which went after insurgents with large offensives and tactical cordon-and-search missions. This month that responsibility was handed to the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, a unit with headquarters in Chicago comprising mainly reservists from Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa (slogan: "Mayhem from the Heartland").

The battalion of Chicago police officers, Milwaukee students, mortgage brokers, defense lawyers, sales representatives, nurses and engineers--they exceed 1,000--could be useful as U.S.-led coalition forces continue their shift from a military role to security and reconstruction duties, military officials said.

"Marines are trained for full combat," said Lt. Col. Mark Smith, the battalion's commander. "Police officers, by nature, are trained [to understand] that the level of violence inflicted on people is reflective of the action of the people. That could be a useful skill here."

But the hand-over of a hostile area to a new battalion, made up of many inexperienced combatants, has its growing pains.

On Monday, three platoons left the base in Mahmoudiya with a predawn mission: to sweep through Latifiyah on foot patrols. But on the way there, a Humvee ran into a ditch, a 7-ton truck nose-dived into a canal and another Humvee lost a tire, said Capt. Tom Wotka, the daytime battle captain. As four injured Marines were evacuated, insurgents lobbed mortars at the accident site, Wotka said. No one else was seriously injured, he said.

"Operating as a battalion is something we haven't done much of," Wotka said. "The tactics of this are really simple. It's the actions that make this complex."

The day before, the battalion's Fox Company launched a mission to look for IEDs along Highway 8. The Marines motored along Highway 8, passing the charred carcasses of more than 20 vehicles destroyed by IEDS--including an Opel car, a Mercedes-Benz mini-van, an 18-wheeler truck--on a 2-mile stretch through Latifiyah named "IED Highway" by Marines.

The convoy stopped, vehicles 100 yards apart, diverting midday traffic to a dirt side road. Marines jumped out and began searching the sides of the highway for discolored mounds of dirt, ill-placed boxes or other signs of roadside bombs.

After an hour without finding any bombs, they were radioed instructions to find a spare M-16 barrel lost by another unit in a residential section of southern Latifiyah. On their way there, trying to alternate their routes to confuse the enemy, the convoy sped on dirt roads along canals on the outskirts of the town--and got lost. Then a Humvee got stuck in a ditch and needed help getting out.

When they arrived, the Marines created a defense cordon around the southern stretch of town while a team of three Marines, led by Capt. Joel Northey, a platoon commander, walked through Latifiyah's desolate streets, kicking through trash piles, peering down alleys and asking the rare resident on the street, through a translator, whether they had seen any military equipment. They hadn't.

The Marines, M-16s at the ready, moved slowly, deliberately, securing corners before crossing streets, scanning rooftops and peering over the fences of homes.

The spare barrel was never found. But the stroll through town had another mission, Northey said. Marines from the previous unit often had been shot at by snipers in the same section of town.

"This is a way to show them they're not going to chase us out with sporadic gunfire," Northey said. "We're here to stay."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/chi-0409300368sep30,0,6269660.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Oliver North: Gloom & Doom

September 30, 2004

Baghdad, Iraq - Maybe it's something in the water. Perhaps it's a disorder created by the political silly season back home in the United States. Whatever the cause, it's pretty clear that Senator John Kerry and a lot of my "colleagues" in the so-called mainstream media have been infected by a very bad case of Gloom and Doom. Based on Mr. Kerry's comments during the Great Debate this week - and the punditry of his press pals - we're in deep trouble here in Southwest Asia. To hear him and his buddies, the barons of bombast spin it, President Bush "took his eye off Osama" in Afghanistan and let him "get away" just to embroil America in the "quagmire" of Iraq. Where have these people been windsurfing, Madrid?

Thankfully, the pessimistic prognostications that infect the Kerry camp and his cronies who pass for correspondents have yet to adversely affect the troops here or in Afghanistan. Earlier this week at the coalition base at Bagram, north of Kabul, I listened to soldiers and Marines who have been pursuing the remnants of Al Qaeda - and helping to bring about next week's election - the first real democratic ballot in the country's history. Set aside for a moment the belief of many - from Kandahar to Kuwait - that Osama has been dead for years. The most frequent complaint I heard at Bagram was that the "good news from Afghanistan never gets reported." Nobody grumbled about inadequate resources devoted to hunting Osama.

At Bagram, where U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Eduardo Aguirre welcomed dozens of our military personnel as new American citizens, I asked several if having more U.S. troops would help catch bin Laden. No one said, "Yes," but many replied with a question: "Where would they look, Pakistan?" Interestingly, these new citizen-soldiers serving in the shadow of the Hindu Kush seemed to believe, "These elections are a critical step forward in Afghanistan's transition to democracy. After years of suffering under a brutal and repressive Taliban regime, Afghanistan is free from tyranny and no longer a safe haven for terrorists." Those are the words of their commander in chief. Perhaps that's why the folks at home haven't heard them.

It's practically the same grievance I'm hearing now, on my fifth trip to Iraq since the war began. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines I talk to here are downright angry about how their war is being "reported" - and the way those "reports" are used as political fodder back home, in Europe, even in Iraq. As a young Army captain vehemently put it, "Ernie Pyle would laugh at what passes for reporting in this war. The networks set up their cameras on a hotel balcony and send out an Iraqi producer to buy video tape from Al Jazeera. Then the reporters all sit inside the "green zone" and concoct their bad news stories. The next thing you know, it's being used in a political ad back home. For me this isn't political - it's personal. We're a whole [expletive] lot better than what people back home are seeing."

Tough words from an angry young man twice wounded leading his soldiers in action against terrorists who are trying to prevent Iraqis from doing what millions of people in Afghanistan will do just days from now - casting a vote. He wasn't alone.

After last Thursday's presidential debate, a U.S. Navy SEAL, serving in Baghdad, spoke about the negative CIA National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that has attracted so much political attention: "That document was sent to the White House, State, DoD and Congress in July. It was based on information collected while you were covering the April battles in Fallujah and Ramadi. It was a pretty depressing time. It's not any more.

"Despite what's being written, we - by 'we' I mean the Iraqis and the Coalition - are getting ahead of the terrorist's game. The Iraqi people want to have an election - and we're going to help make that happen. Terrorists like Zarqawi and Muqtada al Sadr are doing everything in their power to stop it. They can't.

"After you were out here in July and August we helped the Iraqis clean up Najaf. It was an al Sadr stronghold. His goons dragged Iraqi citizens off the streets, put them in front of his 'Courts' - then beheaded and shot men, women - even children - for infractions of 'Islamic law.' That isn't happening any more. The people of Najaf helped us fight back. They are now free to walk their streets, shops and businesses have re-opened and al Sadr's thugs are either dead or looking for a new line of work.

"Remember Samarra? You've been there. A few weeks ago, Samarra was off limits to U.S. troops. It's not any more. The locals got fed up with living in fear of terrorists and foreign radicals, let them know they weren't welcome, and today Samarra is again a thriving city - all without us firing a shot. You'd never know that from the press."

In Najaf and Samarra, ordinary citizens sided with the Interim Government against the "Jihadists." The result: 25 Iraqis are now dying for every American casualty - partly in retribution - and to derail elections in January. Yet, despite the danger, young Iraqis continue to volunteer for their National Guard and police forces. And they are the ones who now talk openly of subduing "hot spots" like Sadr City, Ramadi and Fallujah.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kerry and much of our press continue to talk about the "disaster" of having to fight terrorists in Iraq. Before carrying that line of argument too far they might consider the words of a Marine major here in Iraq who reminded me, "In war it's always better to play 'away games' than 'home games.'"

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Aerial refueling extends Marine aviation missions
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200492518715
Story by Cpl. Paul Leicht



AL ASAD, Iraq (Sept. 22, 2004) -- Imagine driving a car down the freeway at a high speed and refilling the gas tank by connecting to a moving tanker truck with a flapping hose.

That is the motor vehicle equivalent of aerial refueling.

Providing this vital resource for Marine Corps aviation, the Marines of Marine Aerial Refueling Transport Squadron 452, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, are flying daily aerial refueling missions here in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Aerial refueling is a great force multiplier and allows our helicopters and fighter jets to stay in the air longer to complete their mission,” said Lt. Col. Bradley S. James, commanding officer, VMGR-452. “We can do this day or night.”

Flying the KC-130T Hercules, the Newburgh, N.Y.-based reserve squadron has supplied more than 600,000 pounds of aviation fuel in their first month in Iraq.

“By the end of this month we expect to reach or exceed 900,000 (pounds of fuel delivered),” said the Alpharetta, Ga., native. “Our aircraft is equipped with two ring-mounted hose-and-drogue aerial refueling pods that can transfer around 300 gallons per minute to two aircraft simultaneously.

At that rate, we can fill a Harrier or a Hornet in around 10 minutes. To increase our capacity we also use a removable stainless steel fuel tank that fits inside the fuselage in the cargo area if necessary,” he added.

The drogue resembles a basket attached to a flexible hose extending from the tanker. Its valve is the point where an aircraft’s refueling probe attached to a receiver connects to allow the flow of fuel from one aircraft to another.

With the tanker flying straight and level, the drogues trail behind and just below the tanker.

“When the aircraft approaches we look out from a seat in the cargo area to make sure they have connected,” said Cpl. Jason V. Christofferson, loadmaster, VMGR-452, and a native of Great Falls, Mont. “Sometimes as they approach the basket it tends to rise so they have to aim a little high. If they plug, loose fuel could spray creating a potentially dangerous situation.”

The pilot of the aircraft receiving fuel must fly his probe directly into the basket, at which point wind drag on the basket forces the probe into the valve allowing fuel to flow, said James.

“It’s important for the aircraft receiving the fuel to keep an eye on the hose and maintain his position during the refueling,” explained James. “When he is done refueling, the pilot simply decelerates hard enough to pull the probe out of the valve and continues on with his mission.”

Since the early 1920s and the U.S. military’s first experiments with the concept, in-flight refueling operations have extended aircraft endurance and capabilities.

“Aerial refueling has several tactical advantages,” said James. “It allows us and other aircraft to fly farther and (remain) airborne longer. Also, aircraft such as fighters can take off with only a partial fuel load so they can carry additional payload instead.

“Out here in Iraq during combat operations, that can make a big difference for mission success,” he finished.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004925182127/$file/040917-M-0484L-098REFUELLR.jpg

An AV-8B Harrier II piloted by Capt. Michael P. Murphy, Marine Attack Squadron 542, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, refuels in-flight over Buhayrat ath Tharthar, the largest lake in Iraq, from a refueling boom descending from a KC-130T Hercules tanker with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 Sept. 22. After refueling, Murphy and fellow pilot Lt. Col. Russell A. Sanborn, commanding officer VMA-542, continued their combat mission over the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Photo by: Cpl. Paul Leicht

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/8330955417B4AB3685256F1A00798377?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi MiGs pass torch to Marines' fighter aircraft
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200492123236
Story by Cpl. Paul Leicht



AL ASAD, Iraq (Sep. 16, 2004) -- The second largest airbase in Iraq, Al Asad is located approximately 115 miles northwest of Baghdad and slightly west of the Euphrates River. Some might say that it is a vast and featureless relic of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi militarism.

The base was at one time the home to several fighter squadrons, the bulk of the Iraqi Air Force. After coalition forces captured the base in April 2003, scores of Soviet-made Iraqi Air Force MiG aircraft were discovered.

Abandoned, hidden under camouflage and in some cases, in flight condition, the Iraqi MiGs remain a unique feature of the airbase here.

"Most of the MiGs (aboard Al Asad) the Iraqis acquired from the (former) Soviet Union," said Gunnery Sgt. Creston P. Bailey, air analysis chief, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "The Iraqi Air Force played a major role during the Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s.

"At one time, Iraq had the largest air force in the Middle East," continued the Houston native. "By the time of the first Gulf War, Iraq had almost 1,000 combat aircraft."

Al Asad, like other military airbases across Iraq, has numerous hardened shelters and hangars with multiple runways and taxiways, patterned after their Russian counterparts.

"The Iraqis basically patterned their airbases and fighter tactics on the Soviet model," explained the 32-year-old Bailey. "Most of the (installation) construction was done by Yugoslavian contractors.

"By Iraqi standards, Al Asad is a pretty advanced base and when coalition forces captured the base (during Operation Iraqi Freedom), most of the MiGs were scattered all over the base to better protect them from allied air strikes," he added.

It is unclear however, why the MiGs-mostly MiG-21 'Fishbeds' and MiG-25 'Foxbats'-were moved, buried in the sand, or disassembled somewhat haphazardly.

Lying discarded like scraps of garbage at the side of the road, the lifeless vestiges of the Iraqi Air Force break up the barren landscape of Al Asad. Occasionally, one can find an engine of a MiG-25 Foxbat-considered to be the fastest fighter aircraft ever produced-being used as a roadblock.

Swept aside, the trashed MiGs serve in harsh contrast to the Marines' F/A-18 Hornets and AV-8B Harriers flying above them, who have now taken up the role of protector for the Iraqi people.

"It is definitely a unique opportunity to operate out of a captured Iraqi airbase, especially the one that was the equivalent of their Top Gun Fighter Weapons School," said Lt. Col. Kevin M. Iiams, commanding officer, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (All Weather) 242. "Seeing the MiGs is a stark reminder of where we are and what has happened to get us here."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200492124613/$file/040911-M-0484L-065-Al-AsadLR.jpg

Taking off in the background, a F/A-18D Hornet with Marine (All Weather) Fighter Attack Squadron 242 soars toward another mission while a Soviet-made Iraqi MiG-21 Fishbed lies abandoned at Al Asad, Iraq, Sept. 11. Scores of MiGs, often in poor to very poor condition, lie scattered across Al Asad where they were left before coalition forces occupied the base during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Photo by: Cpl. Paul Leicht

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/D04954C7BB9C328F85256F160023F1E4?opendocument


Ellie