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thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:11 AM
Nov. 13, 2004, 12:39AM

Marines' enemy both craftier, deadlier
Insurgents using tunnels and ruses in their last stand
By DEXTER FILKINS
New York Times

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The farther south the Marines push through this rebellious city, the more often they are noticing that the men shooting at them are wearing tan uniforms with a smart-looking camouflage pattern that is the color of chocolate chips.


Those are the uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard.

On Friday, after several hours of nonstop gunbattles around a mosque in southern Fallujah that killed about 100 insurgents, the Marines said those tan uniforms had cost one of their own his life the day before. It happened in what they at first called an ambush, but now say was a case of mistaken identity, combined with quick reflexes by insurgents who are using their wits to deadly effect as they approach their last stand.


Tunnels suspected
The insurgents are also believed to have killed troops of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, with the help of a network of tunnels gouged beneath Fallujah for this fight. And they have apparently found a way to zero in with their mortars on strobes that the Marines use to mark their position as a protection against fire from coalition forces — strobes that they thought were invisible to their foe.

"You can tell that the quality of the fighters has improved as we've moved south through the city," said Lt. Steven Berch. "They shoot better, they move better, they cover themselves better."

That progression, too, seems to have been part of a plan by the rebels. How well it has worked is open to debate, but the 50-man platoon that lost the Marine on Thursday had nine other casualties as well — a stunning rate of 20 percent in a single day — all a result of the rebels' skill.

This tale begins with the Iraqi soldiers who sat in a circle, cross-legged, within the Jama al-Qabir, or Great Mosque, on Friday wearing those same tan uniforms. The only difference was that these Iraqis had been ordered to mark themselves as friendlies with wide pieces of red tape on their right arms and white tape on their left legs.


Iraqis first into mosques
On this day, the soldiers were doing not much of anything except eating MREs, the U.S. military's ready-to-eat meals. In fact, they have done little if any fighting at all, but as a gesture to Muslim sensitivities they are generally the first to enter each mosque as it is taken.

The soldiers here have revealed more of themselves during their limited periods of activity. During the battle around the mosque, an Iraqi in civilian clothes who had been seriously wounded in the face appeared on the street waving a white flag. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" he pleaded in Arabic. "I have a family with me. There are women in the car."

There were no obvious signs of an ambush, but two of the Iraqi soldiers said, "Just shoot him." The Americans held off, though and the man produced his wife, his mother and two children, all suffering from bullet wounds.

These seemingly loyal Iraqi soldiers had no direct involvement in the incident on Thursday, the one that was first classified as an ambush. But visual memory being what it is, when members of the 1st Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Regiment of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, turned right onto a street on Thursday, they saw the chocolate-chip camouflage pattern and hesitated.

There was no red tape on the right arm or white tape on the left leg. It did not matter. Before that registered with the Marines, the insurgents opened fire, killing one American and wounding two. The rebels fled.


Marines hesitated
Inside the mosque, Staff Sgt. Eric Brown of the 1st Platoon looked toward the Iraqis who were sitting in a circle. "They should just take these guys out of here," Brown said, "because they're causing my men to hesitate."

He added, "That hesitation cost my Marine his life."

It is not clear whether the bootlegged uniforms were stolen or bought on the black market, or whether their wearers are among the Iraqis trained by Americans as a replacement for Saddam Hussein's disbanded security forces. After an aborted invasion of this city in April, a uniformed group called the Fallujah Brigade was formed but quickly disbanded.

"You can't see the tape at night," conceded Col. Craig Tucker, commander of a huge combat team made up of several battalions, including the 1st Battalion.

The Marines here say that insurgents also turn up in the olive uniforms of the old Iraqi Army. Whether the uniforms are some tactical ploy by the insurgents or just a way to stay warm, though, it is clear that this is not the only way they are getting inside the Americans' heads.


Explosions on entry
Seven of the 1st Platoon's casualties on Thursday came when Marines entered a house and there were two big explosions. Some of the wounded said grenades had been tossed at them, and when Marines later discovered a tunnel system under the house, they surmised that the insurgents had entered that way and attacked.

"We were briefed that there was a tunnel system under the city," said Sgt. Sam Williams, who saw the tunnels under the house before tank and artillery fire was called in to destroy the entire structure.

As for the insurgents apparently using the U.S. military's own strobes — the ones that protect against fire by their own forces — to guide their nighttime mortar attacks, the Marines solved that problem by removing them from buildings they occupied.

And for a few minutes on Thursday night, as Capt. Read Omohundro and about a dozen other members of B Company sat in the dark on a rooftop, things were quiet. There was only slight concern when Omohundro heard on the radio that a group of about 15 insurgents had been identified somewhere close to his position, and that an airstrike had been called in to destroy them.

Then something clicked in his mind, and he rushed to the radio and called off the airstrike. The captain had been mistaken for an insurgent.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2898637

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:11 AM
http://www.foxnews.com/photo_essay/photoessay_208_images/111004_fallujah2.jpg

Photo of Kentucky Marine hits front pages
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - The mother of a Marine from eastern Kentucky now fighting in Iraq said she was thrilled to see her son's photograph on the front pages of newspapers this week.

Maxie Webber of Robinson Creek said the close-up of Lance Cpl. Blake Miller, his face covered with dirt and a cigarette hanging from his lips, let her know that her son was OK.

Miller, 20, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold.

Fallujah has been the site of some of the most severe battles with the Iraqi insurgency, and this week U.S. troops began a fierce battle for control of the city.

The photo, taken by Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco, has appeared in newspapers across the nation. Webber said she first saw it when CBS News anchor Dan Rather showed it to viewers on Wednesday. Photo editor Alan Hagman confirmed Friday that the photo was of Miller.

''I just sat here and I thought, that's my son,'' Webber said. ''I couldn't believe it. To me, it's just God's way because Blake is a Christian. It's just like God saying, 'I'm letting you know he's OK.'''

Webber said she stays home as much as possible in case her son calls.

''I don't want to miss his call because you never know if that call will be the last one,'' she said.

Webber said she also bought an answering machine for her phone just in case Miller, the oldest of her three sons, calls while she's out. She has one message on the answering machine from Aug. 1.

''And when I get lonely, and it's been a few days, I play that tape,'' Webber said.

Webber said her son's decision to join the Marines has changed the way she thinks about America.

''Until my son went into the Marines, I never really realized what that flag stood for - but now I do.''


Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:12 AM
Sent to me by a Marine Friend


Marine fights on with dwindling supply of smokes




By Patrick J. McDonnell
Los Angeles Times

FALLUJAH, Iraq - The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes.

"If you want to write something,'' he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit.''

Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side of the world from his home on the farm.

"I just don't understand what all the fuss is about,'' Miller drawls on Friday as he crouches - Marlboro firmly in place - inside an abandoned building with his platoon mates, preparing to fight insurgents holed up in yet another mosque.

"I was just smokin' a cigarette, and someone takes my picture and it all blows up.''

Miller is the young man whose gritty, war-hardened portrait appeared Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times, shot by Luis Sinco, a Los Angeles Times photographer embedded with Miller's unit, Charlie Co., 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.

In the full-frame photo, taken after more than 12 hours of nearly non-stop deadly combat, Miller's camouflage war paint is smudged. He sports a bloody nick on his nose. His helmet and chin strap frame a weary expression that seems to convey the timeless fatigue of battle. And there is the cigarette, of course, drooping from the right side of his mouth in a jaunty manner that Humphrey Bogart or John Wayne would have approved of. Wispy smoke drifts off to his left.

The image has quickly moved into the realm of the iconic.

More than 100 newspapers printed it, although it took the New York Post to sum it up in a front-page headline: "Marlboro Men Kick Butt in Fallujah.''The fact that Miller's name was not included in the caption material only seemed to enhance its punch.

The Los Angeles Times and other publications have received scores of e-mails wanting to know about this mysterious figure. Many women, in particular, have inquired about how to contact him. "The photo captures his weariness, yet his eyes hold the spirit of the hunter and the hunted,'' wrote one e-mailing admirer. "His gaze is warm but deadly. I want to send a letter.''

Maybe it's about America striking back at a perceived enemy, or maybe it's just the sense of one young man putting his life on the line halfway across the globe.

Whatever the case, the photo seems to have struck a chord, and top Marine brass are thrilled.

Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, dropped in on Charlie Company Friday to laud the Marlboro Men.

Miller, though, has been oddly absent from the hoopla. In fact, Miller only heard about it from the two Los Angeles Times staffers embedded with his unit. He seemed incredulous. "A picture?'' he asked. "What's the fuss?''

And what does he think about the Marines, anyway? "I already signed the papers, so I got no choice but to do what we're doing.''

The photo was taken on the afternoon after Charlie Company's harrowing entry into Falloujah under intense enemy fire, in the cold and rain. Miller was on the roof of a home where he and his fellow First Platoon members had spent the day engaged in practically non-stop firefights, fending off snipers and attackers who rushed the building. No one had slept in more than 24 hours. All were physically and emotionally drained.

"It was kind of crazy out here at first,'' Miller says. "No one really knew what to expect. They told us about it all the time, but no one knows for sure until you get here.''

In person, Miller is unassuming: of medium height, his face slightly pimpled, his teeth a little crooked. He takes his share of small-town hic ribbing from a unit that includes Marines from big cities as well as small towns.

And it has only increased as word of the platoon radio man's instant fame has spread among his mates.

"Miller, when you get home you'll be a hero,'' Cpl. Mark Waller, 21, from Oklahoma, said Friday. "They'll put out a big sign: 'Welcome home, Marlboro Man.' ''

Miller is now obliged to provide smokes to just about anyone who asks. It's just about wiped out his stash in a town where Marlboros aren't available just yet.

"When we came to Fallujah, I had two cartons and three packs,'' Miller explains glumly, adding that his supply has dwindled to four packs, not much for a Marine with a three-pack-a day habit. "I don't know what I'm going to do.''

Even in the Marines, where smoking is widespread, the extent of Miller's habit has raised eyebrows.

"I tried to get him to stop - the cigarettes will kill him before the war,'' says Navy Corpsman Anthony Lopez, a company medic. "I get on him all the time. But this guy is a true Marlboro man.''

Miller, who was sent to Iraq in June, is the eldest of three brothers from the hamlet of Jonancey, Ky., in the heart of Appalachian coal country.

Never heard of Jonancy?

"It's named after my great great great grandparents: Joe and Nancy Miller,'' the young Marine explains. "They were the first people in those parts.''

His father, James Miller, is a mechanic and farmer, and Miller grew up working crops: potatoes, corn, green beans.

His mother, Maxie Webber, 39, is a nurse. She last talked to her son briefly on Sunday via a satellite phone. He could only speak for a few minutes, enough time to say hello and reassure his family.

After the U.S. attack on Fallujah began Monday, family members waited for some message that he was still alive. Days later, they sat in shock as newscaster Dan Rather talked about the Times photograph. Who is this man, Rather asked, with the tired eyes and a look of determination?

"I screamed at the TV, 'That's my son!' '' Webber said.

Others in Jonancy, including his own father, didn't recognize the camouflaged and bloodied man as the boy they knew.

"He had that stuff on his face. And the expression, that look,'' said Rodney Rowe, Miller's high school basketball coach. "Those are not the eyes I'm used to seeing in his face.''

Back in high school, Miller was an athlete, joining every team that played a sport involving a ball. The school, Shelby Valley High, is located in Pikeville, Ky., the nearest town of any consequence and the home of an annual three-day spring festival called "Hillbilly Days.'' Miller was adrift after high school, wondering what to do with himself. His father never wanted him to work in the mines. "He would have been disappointed if I did that,'' Miller says. "He told me it was awful work.''

So Miller enlisted in the Marines in July 2003 after a conversation with a recruiter he met at a football game. His road to fame was paved in Marine khaki.

"What I really wanted to do was auto body repair,'' he says. "But before I knew it I was in boot camp.''

Now, he says he's just trying to get through each day. His predecessor as platoon radio man was sent home after being injured in a car bomb attack.

Miller has three years to go in active duty, but he appears disinclined to reenlist.

And he shrugs off suggestions he may cash in on his fleeting stardom. He has no plans to hire an agent.

"When I get out, I just want to chill out a little bit,'' he explains. "Go back to my house, farm a little bit, do some mechanical stuff around the house and call it a day.''

Oh, and one more thing: "I'll just sit on my roof and smoke a cigarette.''

McDonnell is traveling with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment in Faloujah. Staff writer P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago also contributed to this story.

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:13 AM
Naperville man driven to join Marines killed in Iraq firefight

November 13, 2004

BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter




David Caruso had dreamed of joining the Marines since he was in eighth grade, but when he graduated from high school, a knee injury prevented him from enlisting.

The Naperville man didn't give up. He had a damaged ligament surgically repaired, then exercised fanatically and did such intensive physical therapy to strengthen his knee that doctors had to tell him not to work so hard, family members recalled.

"He did a little too much; they had to pull the reins back on him,'' his older brother, Michael Caruso, said Friday. "He just wanted in the Marines that much.''

His efforts succeeded. David Caruso joined the Marines in 1999, spent more than three years overseas, then returned to the United States until his unit was assigned in August to Iraq.

6th Illinoisan killed this week



The 25-year-old Marine sergeant was killed in action Tuesday during a firefight in Fallujah, family members said.

Also Friday, military officials announced the death of Marine Cpl. Peter Giannopoulos, 22, of northwest suburban Inverness.

Sgt. Caruso, described by his dad as "a caring person,'' was the sixth Marine from Illinois to die this week fighting in Iraq.

At Sgt. Caruso's boyhood home near Naperville, a U.S. flag flew at half staff and a Marine Corps flag rippled in the breeze as family members looked at photos and shared memories of a young man who never ducked a challenge and always strived to do his best.

"He was always interested in cramming more in, in being better,'' Joseph Caruso said of his youngest son, a former Eagle Scout and football player at Waubonsie Valley High School.

It was that sense of challenge and the desire to succeed that drew him to the Marines, family members said. He never seriously considered joining any other branch of the military, believing the other services were "too tame,'' his dad said.

"He wanted what the Marines could offer,'' Joseph Caruso said, adding his son also was drawn to the sense of brotherhood the Marines offered.

That was typical of his son's more reflective side, his dad said.

"He was a caring person, a shy person,'' his father said. "He sized you up, got to know you, and if he thought you were a friend, you were a friend for life.''

He also loved to read and to travel. During the 3-1/2 years he was stationed in Japan, he visited China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia, his family said.

David had a close relationship with his family, and suffered a devastating loss in 1996 when his older brother, Steve, died from an illness. Those strong bonds didn't ebb even when David was stationed far from home.

'He was glad he was there'



Before being sent to Iraq, Sgt. Caruso arranged a 24-hour leave in June to come home for Michael's wedding. A family friend picked him up at the airport, he changed into his tuxedo in the car en route to the ceremony, then joined the wedding party as best man.

It was only later that relatives learned he participated in the wedding even though he was ill and seriously dehydrated after intensive desert training designed to prepare his unit for action in Iraq.

"He never showed it. None of us knew until he told us,'' Michael said.

David had no fears about being sent to Iraq.

"He wanted to do it. He believed in what we were doing there, he believed he was making a difference,'' Michael said. "He was glad he was there.''

Funeral services are pending.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:14 AM
Army Diverts Unit From Fallujah to Mosul <br />
<br />
FALLUJAH, Iraq - The U.S. Army has diverted an infantry battalion from the fighting in Fallujah and sent them back to Mosul after an uprising there by...

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:15 AM
November 15, 2004

Major’s honor for Iraq action delayed by 2nd war-zone tour
Leftwich Trophy winner volunteered for rotation

By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer


For his actions during the lightning drive to take down Baghdad during the opening phase of the Iraq war last spring, the Corps paid tribute to one of its own with one of the service’s most esteemed awards.
But Maj. Christeon C. Griffin has been too busy to attend the ceremony that typically comes after a Marine officer is honored with the Leftwich Trophy for Outstanding Leadership.

Griffin, 33, was named the 2003 Leftwich Trophy winner June 8.

If this weren’t such a hectic time for the Corps, he likely would have received his award a few months ago.

Looks like this one will have to wait until Griffin finishes up his second tour in the war zone, though.

He was honored for his leadership as a captain while serving with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, during the major combat phase of the Iraq war.

But after volunteering for a second round in Iraq, he’s serving as operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, which has been in Iraq since late summer and is gearing up for an expected clash with insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq.

He’ll have to wait until the battalion comes home in January to receive his award.

Outstanding leadership

Griffin was commended for his tactical knowledge, team-building skills and courage while leading Alpha Company, 1/4, through numerous battles in the war’s initial ground offensive.

The company led on numerous offensives, including a night movement along Route 7 into Nasiriyah on March 24, the day after 18 Marines were killed in one of the war’s bloodiest fights to date.

“I know it’s cliché, but I am rewarded by my profession every day, by being around some of the finest people in the world,” Griffin wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

“I had a tremendous rifle company that was a part of a tremendous battalion … when you are surrounded by Marines like that, you can’t help but succeed.”

According to a citation written by Griffin’s battalion commander, Griffin led his unit to tactical success while maintaining “an incredibly high level of esprit de corps.”

In the citation, Lt. Col. John Mayer recounts the movements of Griffin’s unit from Kuwait to Baghdad, citing engagement after engagement in which Griffin risked his life to observe and coordinate his units.

Once, after going 72 hours without sleep, Griffin was ordered to establish a defensive position south of the town of Shatrah.

As the battalion came under attack and Iraqi forces moved closer under the cover of darkness, Griffin organized a counterattack that beat the enemy back.

“His willingness to move among his Marines, without fear of personal injury and in the confusion of the unit’s first night battle, was directly responsible for the success of the defense,” Mayer wrote.

His actions before the war also drew praise.

During the unit’s first weeks in Kuwait, Griffin worked closely with his Marines to build a “sense of cohesive purpose that prepared them to survive the first days of combat,” the citation states.

“His demanding inspections, knowledge of his unit’s equipment and attention to detail resulted in the last-minute redistribution of critical assets to ensure every element was mission capable and reassured more than 100 newly joined attachments that the commander was making every effort to build a team.”

For his part, though, Griffin says the award has to do more with his “supporting cast” than with himself.

“Nothing in the Corps is an individual effort,” he wrote. “I have been surrounded by a tremendous team, my family, my seniors and my subordinates alike. I have had two consecutive battalion commanders that lead by example and care about and inspire people around them. When you work in that type of climate, you’ll do everything in your power to never let them down.”

Support back home

Griffin said he looks forward to returning home and sharing the award with his wife and two young children.

“For my wife’s sake, I hope it can be presented after I return,” he said of the trophy. “I want her to enjoy some fruits of her labor. After all that my wife in particular has sacrificed and put into supporting me and the Marine Corps, she deserves to take pride in the accomplishments she has facilitated.”

Griffin, who hails from Titusville, Fla., is scheduled to become a recruiter in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for his next tour.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-484009.php

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:18 AM
November 12, 2004 <br />
Marine close air support hammers terrorists in Fallujah with precision JDAM <br />
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by Cpl. Paul Leicht <br />
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AL ASAD, Iraq -- With a massive Marine air and ground offensive...

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:19 AM
Posted on Sat, Nov. 13, 2004





Cartoon offends Marines, Iraqis in Fallujah


I was disgusted by Jim Morin's Nov. 11 cartoon that portrays the city of Fallujah as a giant toilet that needs to be flushed. Is this how we show our children to be respectful of other people and cultures?

We make fun of Fidel Castro by showing Havana being flushed or show Hitler flushing a concentration camp. We need to get it through our thick skull that we have invaded a sovereign nation. We are bombarding Iraqi civilians. That is the cruel reality of war.

The people of Fallujah are not doing anything that you and I wouldn't do. They are defending themselves and have that right. That does not make them unworthy of respect. They are not human excrement, they are human beings.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10169785.htm

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 07:54 AM
Tired Troops 'Keep Heat' On Foes
Miami Herald
November 13, 2004

Jump out. Kick in door. Spray machine-gun fire. Run to rooftop. Kill enemy. Jump back into armored vehicle. Move to new location.

Repeat.

So goes the battle for Fallujah as experienced Friday by the exhausted and bewildered soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Infantry Division. Flanked by Marines, the bleary-eyed troops led the southern push to corner diehard Sunni Muslim insurgents who were the last obstacles to full American control of the city.

With about 80 percent of Fallujah under military occupation, U.S. forces were confident they'd gained the upper hand in the battle, Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Sattler, commander of the offensive, told journalists Friday at a military base outside the town.

"Our goal right now -- we feel we've broken their back and their spirit -- is to keep the heat on them," Sattler said of the militant holdouts.

That's where the 1st ID comes in. Hyped up on No-Doz and survival instincts, the soldiers thrust toward rebel strongholds with four days of relentless combat showing on their faces. They lost their sense of time and place. They didn't know that 22 of their colleagues had died or that 170 were wounded in other parts of the city. They didn't know what day it was.


They weren't certain they were winning.

"I'm not sure about stabilizing Iraq," said Spc. John Bandy, 23, of Little Rock, Ark., sucking on a cigarette as bullets ricocheted nearby. "I'm not sure it will be better when we're gone, but it's gotten to the point of retribution for all the things that have happened. The beheadings, the bombings and everything."

In the face of death, little things took on importance. Soldiers wondered how their favorite football teams were doing or where their wives took their kids for dinner.

When it rained, they trudged through mud that dried and turned to dust flecking skin, hair and gear. None of them had bathed or changed clothes in nearly five days. Sleep became impossible. Crammed six to a bench in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they were a sweat-soaked, blood-spattered, stinking mess.

The 3rd Brigade, based in Vilseck, Germany, came to Iraq eight months ago. A microcosm of America, the brigade includes Midwesterners from Sheboygan, Wis., city kids from East L.A. and Jersey, and Southerners from Augusta, Ga. They are white, black and Native American. Spc. Frederick Ofori, 24, is from Ghana.

They are normally stationed in Muqdadiya, a mostly Sunni Muslim city 70 miles northeast of Baghdad. They were briefly deployed outside the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf during rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr's uprising in April. However, they never entered the city, saw no real combat and soon returned to their northern base.

Back then, soldiers said, Fallujah was a place they knew only through grisly news updates on CNN.

The brigade's rank and file was given just a few days' notice of their role on the front lines of Operation Dawn. Many haven't even told their families that they're in Fallujah. After days of relentless fighting, the soldiers no longer winced through a symphony of rifle fire, artillery booms, AK-47 bursts and grenade explosions.

Seemingly interminable Bradley rides ended suddenly. "Dismount!" a soldier yelled. The back gate dropped and troops poured out, running as fast as they could toward the nearest wall. They dropped to their knees and got ready to shoot. After a big fight, gunners emptied their turrets and sent bullet casings clinking to the ground.

Knight Ridder correspondent Hannah Allam and special correspondent Yasser Salihee contributed to this report.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 08:35 AM
Troops Shrink Insurgents' Turf


By Patrick J. McDonnell
LA Times Staff Writer
November 13, 2004

FALLOUJA, Iraq - U.S. forces moved Friday to consolidate control of the center of this rebel stronghold, pushing into southern neighborhoods to root out fighters dug in there.

As many as 50 rebels surrendered Friday, said Col. Craig Tucker, who heads one of the two regimental combat teams that swooped in from the north Monday.

"I understand from the enemy we have captured that their morale is low," said Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, who heads the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment. "They feel that the city is surrounded, and the only thing remaining for them is to surrender or die."

Most of those who capitulate are Iraqis, said Tucker, not the fervent foreign fighters who are said to have used the city as their base of operations in recent months. The Iraqis may be less willing to fight to the death, commanders said.

There also were indications Friday that the bodies of several fighters from Chechnya, the breakaway Russian republic, had been found in Fallouja. There was no official confirmation of the report. Muslim separatist fighters from Chechnya are rumored to have infiltrated Iraq, along with militants from other Muslim nations. There also have been reports of rebel fighters in Fallouja displaying white flags in a ruse to gain cover, to move their positions or to launch surprise attacks.

In central Fallouja, Marines said, several fighters carrying white flags - with rifles concealed below their robes - were seen among those gathered near a mosque. Marine snipers posted on a roof in the nearby U.S.-controlled municipal government complex opened fire, killing 10 to 12, said Staff Sgt. Jorge Olalde of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.

"They were playing the game of surrendering but had their [AK-47s] under their cloaks," Olalde said.

The downtown mosque where the fighters were spotted, the Marines said, had been broadcasting a call to fight U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies. American snipers destroyed the mosque's loudspeakers.

The bulk of the rebel force - including most of the non-Iraqis - was believed to have concentrated in south Fallouja. Fighters fleeing U.S. troops were thought to have joined them. The rebels were being in an ever-tightening noose, U.S. commanders said. And U.S. forces also blocked the city's southern exits.

"They're basically surrounded," said Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Regiment. "They know they can't go anywhere, so they're fighting hard…. We're crushing his back, one vertebra at a time."

The insurgents are said to have built earthen mounds and other fortifications, booby-trapped houses and dug tunnels and other underground positions.

"We've known for months that [south Fallouja] is where most of the foreign fighters are," Tucker said, displaying a satellite photograph of the city. "This is where we find fortifications. We've seen a lot of tunnels and spider holes…. These guys are probably better trained. They've got fortified positions."

American and Iraqi forces now control 80% of Fallouja, Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler told Pentagon reporters Friday in a telephone news conference from the embattled city. Coalition troops have killed about 600 insurgents and captured 300 who surrendered at a mosque plus 151 others. Twenty-two coalition troops have been killed and 170 wounded. Forty of the wounded have returned to duty.

Several Marine companies and at least one Army unit have moved into south Fallouja, fighting house to house and street to street, commanders said. Resistance has been stiff.

South Fallouja also may be where rebel leaders are holed up, although the most-wanted men - Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi and his Iraqi ally Omar Hadid - may have fled.

The whereabouts of a third leader, cleric Abdullah Janabi, remained a mystery. A man resembling Janabi was found shot to death at one of the mosques taken by Iraqi forces, U.S. commanders said. But the body had not been identified, Tucker said Friday. The circumstances of the shooting were unknown.

U.S. forces continued to draw sniper fire near the government center. But the intensity of the attacks had lessened since Thursday, when Marines fought around the clock.

The city center is considered strategic because a U.S.-backed Iraqi government will be based there after the fighting, U.S. officials said. Fallouja's central east-west thoroughfare, once bustling, is now a deserted row of mostly bombed-out storefronts.

Marines found City Hall, police headquarters and the school administration building abandoned when they arrived. They have since pushed furniture against the windows to block sniper fire.

The insurgents "obviously knew this was going to be the seat of government power and we were going to want to take this back," Brandl said, standing in the police station as incoming mortar fire shook the ground and snipers' bullets whizzed nearby. "We've been fighting a 360-degree battle here."

On Friday, Marines of Charlie Company attacked a mosque and the adjoining buildings, including an apartment house and an electronics warehouse that snipers had used to fire on U.S. troops in the government center. A U.S. missile hit one of the mosque's minarets, though the structure remained intact.

Marines attacking the mosque on foot came under fire from the building, then responded with overwhelming force. The mosque's walls were breached but no one was inside. On the second-floor balcony, Marines found a single AK-47, but the insurgents had slipped out the back.

It was a scene repeated over and over again. Insurgents chose to flee the superior force. "The enemy uses some pretty smart tactics," said Staff Sgt. Dennis Nash of Charlie Company. "They always have an egress set up so they can get out."

The extensive damage to Fallouja's mosques has provoked an outcry in the Arab media, and the issue is likely to resonate strongly throughout Iraq when the scale of the destruction is known. Fallouja is a conservative Sunni Muslim community often called the city of mosques.

Marines have avoided demolishing mosques, but they have entered many. Minarets on at least two mosques have been destroyed by 500-pound bombs. Domes have been damaged, ornate glass shattered and walls knocked down.

"If we are fired on, mosques lose their protected status," said Capt. Theodore Bethea, commander of Charlie Company, which attacked the mosque in central Fallouja on Friday.

During the fighting, Mohammed Joundi, a Syrian kidnapped with two French journalists for whom he worked as a driver, was rescued by Marines from a Fallouja house. He told authorities that he last saw the Frenchmen a month ago - the first confirmed word on the captives since they disappeared in August.

This city of almost 300,000 appeared to be largely devoid of civilians. Most are believed to have fled in anticipation of the U.S. invasion.

Some have come forward to seek protection from Marines and their Iraqi allies. But civilians have mostly been only glimpsed, their faces displaying terror as the fighting rages around them and their city turns to rubble.

Ahmed Aboud, 37, said he stayed in Fallouja because he could not afford to leave. This week, he said, two of his children were killed.

"I buried my two children in my garden yesterday because they were wounded by gunfire of American troops. I watched them bleed to death and die in front of my eyes," he said. "I had no way to treat them because the hospital is closed, and anyway, I cannot go out because people are shooting and the Americans are bombing."

* McDonnell is traveling with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. A Times special correspondent in Fallouja and Times staff writer John Hendren in Washington contributed to this report.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 09:32 AM
Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004





Six Illinois Marines killed in Iraq this week

JAN DENNIS

Associated Press


Sgt. David Caruso had called home to Naperville every week since joining the Marines five years ago, but he told his parents last week they wouldn't hear from him for a while because his unit in Iraq was "going to do some stuff."

"He told me not to worry about him. I told him that's like telling me not to breathe," his mother, Gloria Caruso, said Friday.

The 25-year-old was killed in a firefight Tuesday as American troops fought to capture the city of Fallujah from Islamic insurgents, his parents and military officials said.

Caruso was one of six Marines from Illinois, all assigned to different units, to die this week in Iraq. Five were part of the U.S. offensive launched on Fallujah. As of Friday morning, 22 American troops had died in that offensive, military officials said. They called the high number of Illinois casualties a coincidence.

"Usually with something like that there's really no connection," said Lance Cpl. Lucian Friel, a spokesman for the defense department.

Caruso, a 1998 graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, had his sights set on the Marines since he was in eighth grade, his mother said.

"He said 'We live in a great country, mom, and I think everyone should give something back,'" Gloria Caruso said.

He had always been a high achiever, setting goals and generally exceeding them, his parents said. He worked in reconnaissance for Marine special operations, and also passed the Army's Ranger school.

At 16, Caruso became an Eagle Scout, then spent the next two years earning the three Palms that are the only remaining honors for Eagle scouts.

"We never had to push him, we usually had to try to hold him back," his mother said.

Joseph Caruso said he first noticed his son's drive when he was three or four years old and he was giving him a ride on the back of a bicycle.

"He said he wanted to get out and run. I figured he'd run a little bit then get back on. He ran at least a half a mile. He just always strived to do more," Joseph Caruso said.

Friendly but a little on the shy side, Caruso was an honor student and played football in high school. Since joining the Marines, he had taken up photography, filling photo albums with shots taken during leaves in China, Vietnam and other stops.

"Looking back now, it's almost like he knew he had to try to do a lot in a short amount of time," his mother said.

Caruso had been in Iraq since August, and was assigned to the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Legeune, N.C.

Five other Marines from Illinois also died this week in Iraq:

_ Cpl. Peter Giannopoulos, 22, of Inverness died Thursday in action in Babil province, far south of the fighting in Fallujah, his family said.

_ Lance Cpl. Aaron Pickering, 20, of Harrisburg, was killed Wednesday in fighting near Fallujah, according to his family and military officials.

_ Lance Cpl. Nicholas Larson, 19, of Wheaton was killed Tuesday as U.S. forces pushed toward Fallujah, family and military officials said.

_ Lance Cpl. Branden Ramey, 22, of Belvidere died Monday, also in the push toward Fallujah, family and military officials said.

_ Cpl. Joshua Palmer, 24, of Blandinsville died Monday when his bulldozer fell into the Euphrates River on the Fallujah peninsula, military officials said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/10160015.htm

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 09:58 AM
4 U.S. Copters Hit By Gunfire
Associated Press
November 13, 2004

NEAR FALLUJAH - Four U.S. helicopters were hit by ground fire in two separate attacks near Fallujah, but their crews were able to return to base, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The attacks marked the third straight day that helicopters were targeted since the Fallujah offensive began.

Two Kiowa OH-58 helicopters were hit at about 5 a.m. local time during a coordinated ambush in Karma, a town just northeast of Fallujah, the military said.

The pilots had been flying over a canal when they spotted someonelying on the ground next to a car. As they flew lower to investigate, they were hit from both sides of the road by insurgents firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. military said.

Both choppers were damaged, but their pilots managed to fly back to the U.S. base at Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad.

Late Friday, two Apache helicopters were hit by small arms fire while on patrol over the marsh areas southeast of Fallujah, near the village of Zaidan. The pilots managed to fly the helicopters back to Baghdad International Airport.


No crew members were hurt in either incident.

Earlier Friday, a U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk was shot down by anti-aircraft fire in Taji, wounding three of four crew members, the military said.

The crew was rescued and the helicopter was recovered.

On Thursday, two Marine helicopters were downed by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire in separate incidents near Fallujah.

The crews of the two-man Super Cobra helicopters were forced to make hard landings, the military said. One of the four pilots was slightly injured and other helicopters rescued them from the area, the military said.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 10:46 AM
U.S. launches broad attack on southern Fallujah
Official says 1,000 insurgents killed; battalion diverted to Mosul

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:39 a.m. ET Nov. 13, 2004FALLUJAH, Iraq - Backed by tanks and artillery fire, U.S. troops launched a major attack Saturday against insurgent holdouts in southern Fallujah, hoping to finish off resistance in what had been the major guerrilla bastion of central Iraq.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded as a convoy of Iraqi National Guards passed by in the eastern part of the city, witnesses said. In recent days, an armed uprising in sympathy with Fallujah's insurgents has killed 10 Iraqi National Guards and one American soldier since Thursday, the U.S. military said.


The region's governor blamed the uprising on "the betrayal of some police members" and said National Guard units had arrived to help quell the violence. Also, a U.S. infantry battalion was diverted from Fallujah and sent back to Mosul because of insurgent attacks in that northern city.

Insurgents appeared to be taking advantage of the thinning out of American troop strength around Fallujah as U.S. commanders report an increase in small-scale rebel attacks.

Latest Fallujah attack
All of Fallujah appeared engulfed in thick, black smoke as the latest U.S. attack began at midday Saturday (4 a.m. ET) amid the crackle of machine guns and the flashes of fire from muzzles of American tanks arrayed around the city's southern rim. A single minaret stood out against the blackened southern skyline.

In Baghdad, Iraq's national security adviser Qassem Dawoud said claimed the Fallujah operation "is accomplished" with about 1,000 insurgents killed and 200 captured.

In his weekly radio address, Bush applauded the assault.

“Our forces have made significant progress in the last several days. They are taking back the city, clearing mosques of weapons and explosives stockpiled by insurgents and restoring order for law-abiding citizens,” Bush said.



"We are just pushing them against the anvil," said U.S. Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front."

Overnight, two city mosques were hit by airstrikes after troops reported sniper fire from inside. On Saturday, two U.S. Marines were killed by a homemade bomb southeast of Fallujah.

As the U.S. Army and Marines attacked inside Fallujah from the north, the Marines' 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion blocked insurgents from fleeing.

U.S. officials estimate there are about 1,000-2,000 insurgents in the towns and villages around Fallujah who were not trapped inside the city during the U.S.-Iraqi siege, which began Monday.

A U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb to destroy an insurgent tunnel network in the city Saturday, according to CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf.

U.S. officials said they hoped the attack would be the final assault on Fallujah, followed by a house-to-house clearing operation to search for boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas hiding in the rubble.

U.S. toll
The fierce fighting has taken its toll on the Americans: at least 24 troops have died in the assault, and 73 more U.S. soldiers from Iraq were flown Saturday to a military hospital in Germany,
most of them wounded in the battle for Fallujah, officials said.

The number of arrivals this week is up to 412, hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw said.
A four-vehicle convoy of the Iraqi Red Crescent carrying humanitarian assistance arrived at the heart of Fallujah on Saturday after the Iraqi and American troops allowed them to pass.

Also, officials have begun evacuating wounded civilians trapped inside Fallujah during the past four days of military operations. Iraqi Health Minister Alaa Alwan said in a statement that ambulances have begun transferring "significant numbers" of wounded to Baghdad hospitals. He did not specify how many. Many of Fallujah's 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled the city before the assault.

Al-Zarqawi reportedly escaped
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched their mass ground assault against Fallujah late Monday after the city's hard-line clerical leadership refused to hand over extremists, including Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25 bounty on his head from the Americans.

The clerics insisted al-Zarqawi was not there, and U.S. officials confirmed the arrest of about 14 suspected foreign fighters. U.S. and Iraqi officials wanted to restore control of Fallujah and other Sunni militant strongholds before national elections due by Jan. 31.

Dawoud said Saturday that al-Zarqawi and Fallujah leader Abdullah al-Janabi "have escaped."

With resistance in Fallujah waning, U.S. and Iraqi forces began moving against insurgent sympathizers among the country's hard-line Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four clerics and raiding offices of groups that spoke out against the assault.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said four American helicopters had been hit by insurgent ground fire in two separate attacks near Fallujah. Their uninjured crews were able to return to base safely.

Earlier this week, three helicopters were downed by ground fire during the Fallujah operation.

Before Saturday's offensive, U.S. forces reported that mortar fire from inside Fallujah had nearly ceased but insurgent mortar attacks against U.S. positions and bases outside the city had stepped up.

Violence flared elsewhere in the volatile Sunni Muslim areas, including Mosul, where attacks Thursday killed a U.S. soldier.

Another soldier was killed in Baghdad as clashes erupted Friday in at least four neighborhoods. Clashes also broke out from Hawija and Tal Afar in the north to Samarra -- where the police chief also was fired -- and Ramadi in central Iraq.

Mosul uprising
The most serious uprising occurred in Mosul, a city of about 1 million people 220 miles north of Baghdad, where insurgents targeted bridges, police stations and government buildings starting Thursday.

The 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 25th Infantry Division, was ordered out of Fallujah and back to Mosul late Thursday. The battalion, which is now part of the Stryker Brigade of Task Force Olympia, already was back in the Mosul area.

On Saturday, a car bomb detonated as a seven-vehicle convoy of Iraqi National Guards passed by the main road in the eastern Nour district, witnesses said. One vehicle was damaged but it was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

Iraqi authorities requested reinforcements into the city after police abandoned their posts. On Saturday, Iraqi National Guardsmen, many of them ethnic Kurds, were seen patrolling parts of the city, while insurgents were seen elsewhere.

In a radio statement, Mosul Gov. Duriad Kashmoula blamed the uprising on "the betrayal of some police members." Kashmoula said more National Guard units had arrived to help restore order, and 40 insurgents had been killed in fighting.

In Baghdad, multiple explosions echoed across the capital Saturday as heavy clashes broke out in the streets. A car bomb exploded along the main highway leading to Baghdad's airport, though there was no immediate information on casualties.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6403689/


Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 12:18 PM
Rumsfeld Presents Bronze Star to Salvadoran Heroes <br />
By Donna Miles <br />
American Forces Press Service <br />
<br />
SAN SALVADOR, Nov. 12, 2004 — Fifteen years ago today, Salvadoran Army 1st Sgt. Fredy Adolfo...

thedrifter
11-13-04, 12:43 PM
Disguised in Iraqi Uniforms, Rebels Kill a Marine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By DEXTER FILKINS
New York Times

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 - The farther south the marines push through this rebellious city, the more often they notice that the men shooting at them are wearing tan uniforms with a smart-looking camouflage pattern that is the color of chocolate chips.

Those are the uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard.

On Friday, after several hours of nonstop gun battles around a mosque in southern Falluja had killed about 100 insurgents, the marines said that those tan uniforms had cost one of their own his life the day before. It happened in what they first called an ambush, but now believe was a case of mistaken identity, combined with quick reflexes by insurgents who are using their wits to deadly effect as they approach their last stand.

The insurgents are also believed to have killed marines in the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, with the help of a network of tunnels gouged beneath Falluja for this fight. And they have apparently found a way to zero in with their mortars on strobes that the marines use to mark their position as a protection against friendly fire - strobes that they thought were invisible to their foe.

"You can tell that the quality of the fighters has improved as we've moved south through the city," said Lt. Steven Berch. "They shoot better, they move better, they cover themselves better."

That progression, too, seems to have been part of a plan by the rebels. How well it has worked is open to debate, but the 50-man platoon that lost the marine on Thursday had nine other casualties as well - a stunning rate of 20 percent in a single day - all a result of the rebels' skill.

This tale begins with the Iraqi soldiers who sat in a circle, cross-legged, within the Great Mosque on Friday, wearing those same tan uniforms. The only difference was that these Iraqis had been ordered to mark themselves as friendlies with swatches of red tape on their right arms and white tape on their left legs.

On this day, the soldiers were not doing much of anything except eating MRE's, the American military's "Meals - Ready to Eat." In fact, they have done little if any fighting at all, but as a gesture to Muslim sensitivities are generally the first to enter each mosque as it is taken.

When approached and asked about themselves, the soldiers reflexively lapse into robotic platitudes. "I joined the Iraqi Army to clean the terrorists out of our country," said a man who identified himself only as Muhammad, a Sunni Arab from Mosul. "I am proud to be doing this."

The soldiers have revealed more of themselves during their limited periods of activity. During the gun battle around the mosque, an Iraqi in civilian clothes who had been seriously wounded in the face appeared on the street waving a white flag. "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" he pleaded in Arabic. "I have a family with me. There are women in the car."

There were no obvious signs of an ambush, but two of the Iraqi soldiers said, "Just shoot him." But for whatever reason, the Americans held off, and the man produced his wife, mother and two children, all struck by gunfire. His daughter had been shot in the back and his mother in the head. Trying their best to avoid stepping on another set of Muslim taboos, Marines attempted to remove the bullet from the man's daughter while she was standing up, with her clothes on. Her fate is unknown, but the man's mother died later.

These seemingly loyal Iraqi soldiers had no direct involvement in the Thursday incident first classified as an ambush. But visual memory being what it is, when members of the First Platoon, B Company, First Battalion, Eighth Regiment of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, turned onto a street on Thursday, they saw the chocolate-chip camouflage pattern and hesitated.

There was no red tape on the right arm or white tape on the left leg. It did not matter. Before that registered with the marines, the insurgents opened fire, killing one and wounding two. The rebels fled.

Inside the mosque, Staff Sgt. Eric Brown of the First Platoon looked toward the Iraqis who were eating the MRE's. "They should just take these guys out of here," Sergeant Brown said, "because they're causing my men to hesitate.'' He added, "That hesitation cost my marine his life."

It is not clear whether the bootlegged uniforms have been stolen or bought on the black market, or whether they are actually on the backs of the Iraqis who have been trained and put into the uniforms by Americans as a replacement for Saddam Hussein's disbanded security forces. After an aborted invasion of this city in April, a uniformed group called the Falluja Brigade was formed but quickly disbanded.

"You can't see the tape at night," conceded Col. Craig Tucker, commander of a huge combat team made up of several battalions, including the First Battalion.

Colonel Tucker also conceded that the Iraqi fighters were not in the same league as the marines. But he said, "It's important to the people of Falluja that Iraqi soldiers are here."

The marines here say that insurgents also turn up in the uniforms of the old Iraqi Army. Whether the uniforms are some ploy or just a way to stay warm, though, it is clear that this is not the only way they are getting inside the Americans' heads.

Seven of the First Platoon's casualties Thursday came when marines entered a house and there were two big explosions. Some of the wounded said that grenades had been tossed at them, and when marines later discovered a tunnel system under the house, they surmised that the insurgents had entered that way and attacked. "We were briefed that there was a tunnel system under the city," said Sgt. Sam Williams, who saw the tunnels before the entire structure was destroyed .

As for the insurgents apparently using the American military's strobes - the ones that protect against friendly fire - to guide their nighttime mortar attacks, the marines solved that problem by removing them from the buildings they occupied.

And for a few minutes on Thursday night, as Capt. Read Omohundro and about a dozen other members of B Company sat in the dark on a rooftop, things were quiet. There was only slight concern when Captain Omohundro heard on the radio that a group of about 15 insurgents had been identified somewhere close to his position, and that an airstrike had been called in to destroy them.

Then something clicked in his mind, and he rushed to the radio and called off the airstrike. The captain had been mistaken for an insurgent.


Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 01:01 PM
Weary GIs endure relentless combat

By Tom Lasseter Knight Ridder/Tribune news

Jump out. Kick in door. Spray machine-gun fire. Run to rooftop. Kill enemy. Jump back into armored vehicle. Move to new location.


Repeat.


So goes the battle for Fallujah as experienced Friday by the exhausted and bewildered soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Infantry Division. Flanked by Marines, the bleary-eyed troops led the southern push to corner die-hard Sunni Muslim insurgents who were the last obstacles to full American control of the city.


"Our goal right now -- we feel we've broken their back and their spirit -- is to keep the heat on them," Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Sattler, commander of the offensive, said of the militant holdouts.


That is where the 1st ID comes in. Hyped up on No-Doz and survival instincts, the soldiers thrust toward rebel strongholds with four days of relentless combat showing on their faces. They lost their sense of time and place. They did not know 22 of their colleagues had died or about 170 were wounded in other parts of the city. They did not know what day it was.


They were not certain what they were accomplishing.


"I'm not sure about stabilizing Iraq (news - web sites)," said Spec. John Bandy, 23, of Little Rock, Ark., sucking on a cigarette as bullets ricocheted nearby. "I'm not sure it will be better when we're gone, but it's gotten to the point of retribution for all the things that have happened. The beheadings, the bombings and everything."


In the face of death, little things took on importance. Soldiers wondered how their favorite football teams were doing or where their wives took their kids for dinner.


Sleep virtually impossible


When it rained, they trudged through mud that dried and turned to dust flecking skin, hair and gear. None of them had bathed or changed clothes in nearly five days. Sleep became impossible. Crammed six to a bench in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they were a sweat-soaked, blood-spattered stinking mess.


The 3rd Brigade, normally based in Vilseck, Germany, came to Iraq eight months ago. A microcosm of America, the brigade includes Midwesterners from Sheboygan, Wis., city kids from East Los Angeles and New Jersey and Southerners from Augusta, Ga. They are white, black and American Indian. Spec. Frederick Ofori, 24, is from Ghana. Their base in Iraq is Muqdadiya, a mostly Sunni city 70 miles northeast of Baghdad.


The brigade's rank and file was given just a few days' notice of their role on the front lines of Operation Dawn. Many have not even told their families that they are in Fallujah. After days of relentless fighting, the soldiers no longer winced through a symphony of rifle fire, artillery booms, AK-47 bursts and grenade explosions.


Seemingly interminable Bradley rides ended suddenly.


"Dismount!" a soldier yelled. The back gate dropped and troops poured out, running as fast as they could toward the nearest wall. They dropped to their knees and got ready to shoot. After a big fight, gunners emptied their turrets and sent bullet casings clinking to the ground.


Reporters embedded with the military are not allowed to report American deaths or injuries in much detail. But bad news sometimes crackled across a radio, silencing the laughter and grumbles inside the Bradley.


Other times, death was closer. A soldier outside his tank was directing traffic when he dropped dead of a sniper bullet. Another was killed by a grenade injury to his chest. Fragments of a rocket-propelled grenade shattered the ankle of a third.


1st Lt. Jeff Emery, 24, of Ramsey, N.J., voiced the frustration of many soldiers when he complained Friday about bursting into a house only to find it empty. The Iraqi home he stood in had lost a large chunk of its roof to American artillery. Rain fell through the hole, and soldiers tried to doze on the concrete floor.





Emery's Bradley was hit by rocket-propelled grenade shrapnel Friday afternoon. So were two others in the platoon.

`Hard to maneuver'

"It's hard to maneuver against [the insurgents] because we have so many guys and vehicles, and there's just a few of them, who can drop their weapons and run," Emery said. "Every time we do a mass invasion, it seems like most of them are gone."

The soldiers shared laughs during the more surreal moments, such as when a psychological-operations truck rolled through the city blaring the theme song to the movie "Team America: World Police." In the film, Rambo-like puppets hunt terrorists and blow up the Eiffel Tower in the process. There is no need to thank us, the puppets tell outraged Parisians.

Later that night, 500-pound bombs fell on Fallujah.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&ncid=2027&e=2&u=/chitribts/20041113/ts_chicagotrib/wearygisendurerelentlesscombat


Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 02:36 PM
Injured leader tells of Marine buddies' deaths
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Tim Eberly
The Fresno Bee
November 13, 2004

Timothy LaSage was 15 feet behind the Marines when the bomb exploded. It shattered the silence of the Iraqi night and threw the Marines into the air. Shrapnel pierced LaSage's left thigh and right calf. He knew he was hit: His legs felt warm and numb.

But the two Marines in front of him, 21-year-old Cpl. Jeremiah Baro and Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, 22, got the worst of the blast.

"All of us pretty much got picked up and thrown down," says LaSage, the 29-year-old leader of the eight-man platoon of snipers. "As soon as I landed, I ran over to them." The makeshift bomb, hidden on the road, killed Baro and Hubbard Nov. 4 in downtown Ramadi west of Baghdad. It's the reason why LaSage, still recovering from his wounds, came to Clovis on Friday: to give the Marines' families a firsthand account of how Baro and Hubbard died.

In addition to LaSage, two other Marines were injured in the explosion. One of them, Cpl. Adam Blair, 20, made the five-hour drive with LaSage from Camp Pendleton to attend the double funeral for Baro and Hubbard. Another is still recovering in a San Diego hospital. LaSage and Blair were supposed to be in wheelchairs, but they carried canes instead.

LaSage was dumbfounded by the community's response to his friends' deaths.

"The drive to the cemetery, I'll never forget it for the rest of my life," says the 12-year military veteran from Milwaukee. "Every intersection was blocked by police or firetrucks. There were civilians on the streets, with their hands over their hearts."

LaSage and his men were shocked by the attack. He says his platoon had completed dozens of missions without coming under fire. On this particular night, they were heading to Ramadi to conduct "preraid surveillance" at an undisclosed location. They had been walking for about an hour from their base outside Ramadi into the small town. They used the darkness to their advantage, moving through alleys in silence.

Two "point men" were leading the pack. Baro and Hubbard were walking next to each other behind them. LaSage, the leader, trailed the Clovis men. And three others behind LaSage rounded out the group. It was 2:20 a.m. Iraqi time.

The platoon had just walked through an alley and needed to cross a street. They were a couple of hundred yards from their destination. The two point men crossed. Then it was Baro's and Hubbard's turn. As they moved across, the bomb went off. It was big - a bomb usually reserved for armored vehicles. LaSage also says it was set off by someone. "Somebody was watching them and remote-detonated it."

The fiery explosion went high and wide, and created a dust storm around them.

"When the explosion hit, I couldn't see the building across the street, which was a two-story building," LaSage says. He says most roadside bombs are mortar shells rigged with a timer or fuse. Insurgents hide mortars in gas cans or debris that litters Iraqi streets.

"It's out in plain view, but it's not a sign that says, 'Bomb,'" LaSage says.

One of the point men later said he saw a large vegetable-oil can on the ground. After LaSage landed, he found Baro first. He couldn't find a pulse. Hubbard was lying about 10 feet away. He, too, had been killed instantly. The other Marines pulled their bodies to a sidewalk, and performed CPR.

"That was more for us, and a chance of a miracle," LaSage says.

An Iraqi father and his two sons came outside of a nearby home. They kept repeating, "Sorry, sorry." They brought the Marines water, but the men refused. Knowing that gunfire usually follows roadside bombs, they carried Baro and Hubbard around the corner. Twenty feet away from the explosion, they found refuge in the courtyard of an abandoned building. They radioed for help and waited for armored trucks to transport them to safety.

"We were all kind of working on each other and holding security."

They were yelling at each other. They were yelling at Baro and Hubbard, though their friends couldn't hear them.

"We told them we loved them," LaSage says.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 02:59 PM
Soldiers honored for attempt to save wounded officer after Iraq ambush


By Steve Liewer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, November 11, 2004


FORWARD OPERATING BASE MACKENZIE, Iraq — Staff Sgt. Paul Sponsel and Sgt. Charles Fray stood stiff and unsmiling as the general shook their hands and congratulated them for their courage.

The two men, from Troop A of the 1st Battalion, 4th Cavalry Regiment, had just received the Army Commendation Medal with Valor for their unwavering efforts under fire to save their platoon leader, 1st Lt. Andrew Houghton, after an ambush July 10.

Sponsel, 25, and Fray, 22, were among three dozen men from the 1/4 Cavalry whom Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the 1st Infantry Division commander, pinned with combat awards during a ceremony Tuesday at FOB MacKenzie, the unit’s headquarters northeast of Samarra.

Two OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilots from Troop E — Chief Warrant Officer 3 Almous Irby, 36, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Bushmaker, 32 — received Air Medals with Valor. Other soldiers received Purple Hearts, Combat Infantryman Badges, and Combat Medical Badges.

For Sponsel and Fray, the ceremony brought honor but no joy. Houghton, 25, succumbed to his injuries at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., a month after the attack, never regaining consciousness.

The soldiers took little comfort in knowing they saved Houghton long enough to die surrounded by family and friends instead of on a desolate Iraqi road.

The new medal carries only bad memories.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Sponsel said, after he and others described the actions that earned the award. “I could care less if I ever talk about it again.”

Houghton led two Bradley fighting vehicles from Troop A’s 3rd Platoon out of the gates at FOB MacKenzie about 1 a.m. July 10. Their mission: to drop off a six-man team for a mission in the town of Duluiyah, about eight miles away. It was Houghton’s first night out after returning from rest-and-recuperation leave with his family in Texas.

About an hour later, the Bradleys let the team out, then turned at an intersection back toward their base. Sponsel stood in the turret of the lead vehicle, while Houghton was in the hatch of the trailing vehicle alongside Fray, his gunner.

“We were talking about R&R,” recalled Spc. Adrian Stone, 27, of Lytle, Texas, Houghton’s driver that night. “He was talking about how much fun he had with his family, that he’d seen lots of friends he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“That’s when Sgt. Fray screamed ‘RPG!’”

Peering through his infrared night scope, Fray saw a rocket-propelled grenade race by so close he felt he could touch it. He didn’t see who fired it, only that it came from a nearby rooftop. The gunner instantly laid down a stream of high-explosive machine-gun fire against the enemy position.

It surprised him that Houghton didn’t immediately shout orders over the radio. When Fray looked over, he saw the officer had slumped in the turret, his chin tucked in the right side of his chest. Shining a flashlight into his face, he saw that a piece of shrapnel from the RPG had penetrated Houghton’s face around the left eye. He was bleeding badly.

Fray grabbed the radio mike from Houghton’s hand and reported that the platoon leader was “bleeding out.”

“I just knew we had to get out of there,” Fray said.

Sponsel, now in command, could hear the report. But his radio failed at that moment, making it impossible for him to give orders. His gunner, Pfc. Calvin Perry, shouted over the roar of the Bradleys’ engines for them to leave the city fast.

They raced four miles to a spot outside the city, where a medevac helicopter could pick up the injured lieutenant. Once stopped, they pulled him out through the back of the Bradley and laid him on the ground.

“That’s when I realized how messed up he was,” Sponsel said.

They placed bandages on his wound to slow the bleeding, and Perry inserted an intravenous line. Over the radio, Sponsel learned a medevac helicopter couldn’t get there for 20 minutes, longer than it would take them to get back to MacKenzie.

So they loaded Houghton back in the Bradley, where Sponsel stayed by his side as they raced back to base. But because of a communications breakdown, no one warned the MacKenzie medics.

“We put the ramp down, and I expected to see 10 or 15 medics there, but there was no one,” Sponsel said.

Minutes later, a helicopter arrived to take him to the hospital at Balad Air Base. Later he was flown to Germany, and to Washington.

For the rest of the night, 3rd Platoon waited restlessly.

“It was a surreal feeling, like it didn’t happen,” Fray said. “But we all had blood on us.”

The soldiers talked quietly among themselves, not sure what to do next.

“There was no sleeping. Just a lot of sitting and thinking,” Fray said.

“And lot of praying,” Stone added.

Daily they read the Web site www.andyhoughton.org Houghton’s family put up to give progress reports.

On Aug. 9, the officer, still comatose, died of a brain hemorrhage. His men still are mourning.

“He was an awesome guy,” Sponsel said. “Just because he was an officer and went to West Point, he didn’t put himself above everybody else.”

“He covered his guys’ backs numerous times,” Stone said. “They always came first.”

The loss of their leader, who was posthumously promoted to captain, left a wound no medal can heal.

Stone knows; he received his Army Commendation Medal a few weeks ago.

“I went and stuck it in my drawer. Every time I look at it, I think of Lt. Houghton dying,” Stone said. “I just want to get this over with and go home.”


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They are heroes, one and all ...

Other soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment also received combat awards for service in Iraq. They include:

Combat Infantryman Badge

Troop A

Staff Sgt. Shawn Norman, 33, Phoenix;

Staff Sgt. Colin Pettibone, 35, Roswell, N.M.;

Sgt. Howard Hawkins, 22, Melbourne, Fla.;

Sgt. Timothy Speight, 27, Caruthersville, Mo.;

Spc. Ernie Morales, 21, Kingsport, Tenn.;

Spc. Steven Perkins, 20, Steele, Ala.;

Pfc. Phillip Wroblewski, 21, Schriever, La.

Troop B

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Neiding, 36, Jacksonville, Fla.;

Spc. Michael Bellizzi, 28, Barrington, N.H.;

Spc. Jayson Carter, 21, Alliance, Neb.;

Spc. Brian Hart, 24, Crestline, Calif.;

Spc. Patrick Mattingly, 22, Roanoke, Va.;

Spc. Ariel Quezada, 26, Phoenix;

Spc. Brandon Weatherford, 23, Lebanon, Tenn.

Combat Medical Badge

Sgt. Hernandez Colon, 30, Boston

Sgt. William Rigby, 27, Midland, Ga.

Purple Hearts

Troop A

Staff Sgt. Metoyer Jordan, 28, New Orleans;

Sgt. Michael Sampsell, 29, Seville, Ohio;

Spc. Donald Alden, 28, Nacogdoches, Texas;

Spc. Derrick Lawson, 21, Spring Lake, N.C.;

Spc. Steven Bishop, 32, Auburn, N.Y.;

Spc. Graeme Field, 20, Dania, Fla.;

Spc. Larry Underwood, 29, Fort Smith, Ark.

Troop B

1st Lt. Gilbert Comley, 24, Murrietta, Calif.;

Sgt. 1st Class Eric Curless, 39, Langley, Wash.;

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Neiding;

Spc. George Hoffmeister, 21, Clay Center, Neb.;

Pfc. Anthony Wong, 19, Philadelphia.

Witchdoctor Troop

Sgt. Javier Weingart, 27, Sonara, Texas.

9th Engineer Battalion

Spc. Robert Stout, 21, Utila, Ohio;

Spc. Edgar Solis, 21, Oceanside, Calif.: Troop A, 1/4 Cavalry; Army Commendation Medal with Valor: On June 29, enemy guerrillas attacked the 1/4 Cavalry Squadron supply convoy to Logistical Support Area Anaconda in Balad with small-arms fire. Solis was cut off from his Bradley fighting vehicle and under fire but nevertheless got up and stopped civilian traffic on the road.

While still under fire, Solis signaled the source of fire to DeJesus and then returned fire himself. This allowed DeJesus’ gunner to mark the enemy position for the rest of the convoy.

Staff Sgt. Paul Sponsel, 25, Nokomis, Fla.; Troop A, 1/4 Cavalry; Army Commendation Medal with Valor: On July 10, “Anvil 31” — a Bradley fighting vehicle carrying the platoon commander, 1st Lt. Andrew Houghton — took close-range enemy fire in Duluiyah. Houghton was critically wounded in the ambush. Sponsel assumed control of Anvil 31 as well as his own Bradley.

He helped take Houghton out of his Bradley, treated him, then prepared him for transport to the unit’s headquarters at Forward Operating Base MacKenzie.

Instead of riding in his own Bradley, Sponsel gave control to his driver so he could ride with Houghton and give him medical treatment and comfort. Once at MacKenzie, Sponsel continued to help treat him and lift him into the medical evacuation helicopter.

Houghton died one month later from his serious wounds.

Sgt. Charles Fray, 22, Yreka, Calif.; Troop A, 1/4 Cavalry; Army Commendation Medal with Valor: Fray also was involved in the ambush that mortally wounded Houghton. Fray, Anvil 31’s gunner, immediately returned gunfire, suppressing the ambush and allowing his Bradley and the other in the two-vehicle convoy to escape. Fray led his Bradley to safety, then helped in removing Houghton from his vehicle.

His quick action and leadership is credited with helping Houghton survive the attack so he could be evacuated to a hospital, though the officer died of his wounds a month later.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Almous Irby, 36, Neptune, N.J., Troop E, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 2 Air Medals with Valor: On June 24, in Baqouba, Irby maneuvered his OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter to engage and destroy enemy forces.

He hit three enemy vehicles with .50-caliber machine-gun fire and a direct hit with rockets against insurgents, killing four. He brought his aircraft home without damage despite enemy fire, while avoiding both collateral damage and noncombatant casualties.

In another incident, on April 10 in Baqouba, Irby led a team of Kiowa Warrior helicopters against hostile forces at close range. He flew directly into enemy fire to battle the insurgents in spite of limited fuel and low power margins.

Irby’s aggressive actions negated the need for a nearby ground unit to engage the enemy. His team is credited with killing four guerrillas and injuring numerous others, without injury or damage to any aircraft, and without U.S. casualties.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marc Macaspac, 36, Oakland, Calif.; Troop E, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry; Air Medal with Valor: On April 10 in Baqouba, Macaspac was part of a team of OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters that destroyed armed insurgents at close range, killing four and injuring many others.

Macaspac was the first on the team to spot the enemy troops as they ran for cover and fired at them while continuing to help pilot the aircraft. He did this while under enemy fire and with aircraft weapons systems malfunctioning.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Bushmaker, 32, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.; Troop E, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, Air Medal with Valor: On April 10 in Baqouba, Bushmaker piloted an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter as part of a team that attacked and destroyed hostile insurgents. Four of the enemy were killed, and many others injured.

Bushmaker shot at the guerrillas, continuing to help pilot the aircraft while under enemy fire and with the aircraft’s weapons systems malfunctioning.

Did members of your unit receive awards for Valor or other combat awards during 2003-4 in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom? Stars and Stripes would like to tell your story. Contact Steve Liewer at: liewers@mail.estripes.osd.mil

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=24558&archive=true


Ellie

thedrifter
11-13-04, 05:50 PM
Landstuhl sees influx of wounded from Fallujah battle
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By Jessica Inigo, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, November 13, 2004

More than 200 wounded troops have arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany from Iraq within the past three days, medical officials said.

The majority of the injuries are a result of the fighting in Fallujah, where American and Iraqi government troops trying to subdue insurgents in the city have come under heavy sniper fire, according to news reports.

Lt. Col. Richard Jordan, a physician at the hospital's Deployed Warrior Center, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying the majority of injuries were "significant, but not major."

Incoming wounded are assessed at the center after their six-hour plane trip from the Middle East.

Marie Shaw, an LRMC spokeswoman, said most injuries are from blasts, burns or gunshot wounds.

However, there were several intensive-care cases involving brain or spinal injuries or traumatic amputation of limbs, Jordan said.

The rest of the wounded are receiving general and orthopedic surgeries, Shaw added.

The medical center has stepped up its capacity load by adding 10 beds to the intensive care unit, now making 28 slots available, as well as increasing the medical/surgical ward by 40 beds, allowing for about 200 patients, Shaw said.

She said the wounded will be staying at Landstuhl long enough to become stable and then will either be moving to stateside facilities or back downrange, if well enough.

"We have constant movement of patients coming in and out," Shaw said. "We're very busy."

Shaw said the change in environment is working wonders for the injured troops.

"The patients are in good spirits. Their attitude is upbeat and they're doing well," she said.

"Coming to the facility has made them a whole lot more confident."

Jordan said the staff was coping well with the heavy work load, the AP reported.

"We have had some people calling and volunteering to come in from other bases to help out," Jordan said.

Shaw said Army and hospital officials will issue a formal update on the wounded by Sunday and patients will be available for comment by Monday.

Ellie