In Fallujah, Marines Feel Shock of War

[thedrifter]

In Fallujah, Marines Feel Shock of War
'We Knew When We Got to the South We Were Going to Get Pounded'

By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page A31

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 13 -- On his first night in the city, Sgt. Aristotel Barbosa slept uneasily on the floor near the door of a vacant house that his Marine unit had taken over. A squad leader in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, Barbosa had been prepared for the worst when U.S. and Iraqi forces began storming into Fallujah on Monday night.

Instead, the slight 26-year-old from Southern California was surprised to find fighters in the city putting up little resistance. By Thursday night, U.S. troops had taken control of the northern half of Fallujah, which lies about 35 miles west of Baghdad, and Barbosa was feeling optimistic about the battle when he woke up Friday. He decided not to shave, figuring things would be over soon enough. "I'm thinking and hoping that it's not that bad," he said, recalling his mood at the time.

But for many Marine and Army units, the battle for Fallujah was only beginning.

Barbosa and his squad set off on foot at 7:40 a.m. Friday following a slow-moving column of Marine infantrymen heading east just below the main highway that divides northern and southern Fallujah.

As he trudged through the desolate, rubble-filled streets, Barbosa said he remembered thinking how bad the city looked, worse than he had imagined. "Basically every house has a hole through it," he said.

Then the unease hit again. "All the squad leaders and myself, we knew when we got to the south we were going to get pounded."

As they began the turn south, gunfire burst from a mosque in front of them. Another platoon began shooting back, and Barbosa led his squad around to the side. "The whole company kept pushing, and we started getting hit from the other side of the street," he said.

Gunfire tore through an aluminum gate when the squad passed a house. Barbosa said he felt a sting in his right bicep. He had been shot. Two other members of his squad were wounded within minutes of each other, including Lance Cpl. Matthew Vetor, 21, who was hit in the lower back just under his flak jacket.

"It was like a whole block of insurgents," Barbosa said Saturday while recuperating with Vetor in a Navy field hospital at a military outpost near the city. "They started throwing grenades at us. It was like a shock. I couldn't believe I got hurt. I went two more blocks. I couldn't believe it."

It was 12:30 p.m.

Barbosa found his gunnery sergeant, who ordered him back to a medical vehicle that the Marines call the "track" or the "big bus."

"I thought they were going to get me out of there," Barbosa said. "But we kept pushing. I could still fight. I had to go leftie, but I was still fighting."

Meanwhile, Vetor was feeling the blood trickling down his face from a shrapnel wound. "I thought it was just my face," he said, until he felt the pain in his back. "I started to run," he recalled. "But it was difficult. We just kept making our way to the track. The hatch opened, and I jumped in. I gave out all my ammo. They took my flak and Kevlar. The doc had me lay down in the center and pulled out some shrapnel."

From inside the medical vehicle, Vetor said he could hear the fighting. "I'm there without my flak or helmet. You hear the shooting going on," he said. He felt afraid.

The column of Marines kept moving, with Vetor riding in the medical vehicle and Barbosa continuing on foot. Barbosa said the unit had to keep moving so the air power could come in behind them and clear the houses the insurgents were shooting from.

"There wasn't one house that didn't have weapons," Barbosa said. Every house had at last one rocket-propelled grenade and a couple of hand grenades, he said.

"They were very prepared," Vetor said, as he and Barbosa sat next to each other on a green cot in the field hospital's overflow medical ward.

"Like they were waiting for us," Barbosa said. "They were waiting for us."

As he walked along the street, Barbosa said, he had to step gingerly around improvised explosive devices that had been strung together.

About an hour later, Barbosa and Vetor found themselves in a large, vacant residence not far from the scene of the gun battle. The Iraqi special forces assigned to their unit found some rice and vegetables and made lunch. The Marines were nursing their wounds and eating hot chow when an explosion occurred nearby, shattering the windows and flicking shards of glass into the food.

It was 1:45 p.m.

Five hours later, Barbosa and Vetor made it out of the city to a staging area. They were taken to the military hospital, where on Saturday afternoon they were watching a movie and waiting to be transferred back to their unit.

Barbosa, twirling a cigarette lighter in his hand, planned to get back into the fight. Vetor, who said he could squeeze shrapnel out of his facial wounds, would not be able to return just yet.

"You know it could happen to you, but you really don't think it will be you," Vetor said, looking at the TV screen. "I'm just glad I was part of it. I was glad I got to fight with these guys. It had to be done. We were really fighting. We were doing great. It doesn't stop us. We'll keep going."

Barbosa said that even when the offensive was officially declared over, his squad planned to remain in the city to keep the peace. He expected things might get worse then, particularly if the artillery and mechanized infantry move out.

"We're not going to kill everyone, and they're not all going to surrender," he said. "I know that a lot of them are left. They'll wait for things to calm down, and they'll come back. They always do."

Barbosa said he would, too, and took a swig of juice from the box in his hand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48226-2004Nov13_2.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Three marines die in booby-trapped building in Fallujah: officer

Sun Nov 14, 1:48 AM ET World - AFP



FALLUJAH (AFP) - Three marines have been killed in an explosion as they entered a booby-trapped building in central Fallujah, while another 13 were wounded in a firefight nearby, a marine officer said.


Of the 13, 10 were seriously injured in the gun battle just south of the main road that cuts through the centre of the Sunni Muslim bastion, the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.


The latest deaths bring to at least 25 the number of US troops who have been killed in the fight for Fallujah, which was launched on Monday.


Five Iraqi soldiers have also died along with more than 1,000 rebels.


On Saturday, Iraq (news - web sites)'s top security official said the battle for the restive city had been completed and only stubborn pockets of resistance remained.


But US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the comments were premature, while US commanders insisted that the largest military operation in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion was still going on.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041114/wl_afp/iraq_us_fallujah_toll_041114064823

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Body of Caucasian woman with blonde hair found in Fallujah: marines

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - The body of a blonde-haired woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found lying on the street in Fallujah, a notorious enclave for hostage-takers, marines said.



"It is definitely a Caucasian woman with long blonde hair," said a military official, who cut open a cover that had been over the corpse.


The gruesome discovery was made as the marines moved through the south of Fallujah, hunting out the remaining die-hard rebels after a week of fierce fighting to regain control of the city.


"It is a female... missing all four appendages, with a slashed throat and disembowled, she has been dead for a while but only in this location for a day or two," said Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the Navy Corps, who had inspected the body.


An AFP photographer embedded with the marines said the woman was wearing a blue dress and her face was completely disfigured.


The marines said she appeared to have been on the street for about two days.


Sweeps of rubble-strewn neighbourhoods in Fallujah have already uncovered a grisly underworld of hostage slaughterhouses, prisons and torture chambers as well as the corpses of Iraqis who had been executed, marines say.


Surviving hostages have also been found, but only one has been a foreigner -- a Syrian driver who was abducted with two French journalists in August.


Two foreign women have been abducted in Iraq (news - web sites) and remain missing.


One, Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole, has blonde hair, the other, British aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, has chestnut-coloured hair.


Borcz, married to an Iraqi and a resident in Iraq for 30 years, was abducted late last month. She has appeared in two video cassettes appealing to the Polish government to help her but her fate is unknown.


Hassan, the Iraqi head of relief agency CARE International, was kidnapped on her way to work in Baghdad on October 19 and has appeared in three videos.


She also holds Iraqi citizenship after marrying an Iraq and is a long-term resident of the country.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041114/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_fallujah_body_041114103054

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Friends Who Died Together Honored
Associated Press
November 13, 2004

FRESNO, Calif. - Childhood friends who enlisted in the Marine Corps together and died together in Iraq were buried side by side.

Jeremiah Baro and Jared Hubbard, who played together, wrestled each other in high school and toughed it out together through boot camp, died Nov. 4, after a roadside bomb exploded. They were in Iraq's Anbar province, where the military was preparing to attack the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Members of the armed forces, classmates from the nearby high school, more than 700 friends and family members packed the church pews and stood pressed against the walls at Thursday's memorial. Many wore red armbands with the Marine motto - Semper Fi, or always faithful. Friends said the phrase described the young men's dedication to each other and their families as much as it defined their commitment to their country, and to their mission as Marines.

"You couldn't say anything about Jared without saying something about Jeremiah, and you couldn't say something about Jeremiah without saying a little something about Jared," said the Rev. Tim Rolen.

Hubbard, who wrestled and played football in high school, and the slighter but pugnacious Baro were "two peas in a pod," said Bert Baro, Jeremiah Baro's father.

"You can't have one without the other," he told the Fresno Bee. "If one or the other survived, I don't think they would have been the same people."

Hubbard, 22, and Baro, 21, enlisted in December 2001, acting on an idea they'd had since high school, but motivated by the terrorist attacks that September.





The two men were dedicated athletes with a close group of friends - among them the dozens of high school classmates who attended the memorial.

When a group of friends went out, Hubbard was the last to go home, and the first up in the morning, ready for breakfast and a hike, said Benny Clay, who had known him since the fifth grade. Baro was more intense, and had a way of earning the respect of those around him, said Rolen.

Baro's girlfriend, Stephine Sanchez, also showed his lighter, caring side by reading a poem he gave her. Her voice broke into sobs before she reached the end: "You were meant to be my heart, my soul mate, my everything."

It was their second tour in Iraq. They returned home during the summer and trained together as snipers when they returned to their unit.

Two weeks before he was killed, Jeremiah Baro told his father of the latest action they had seen, when they had run into insurgents setting up a roadside ambush, Bert Baro said.

Bert Baro said he wished he had paid closer attention to the 30-minute conversation, not knowing it would be their last. He had been concentrating, he said, on enjoying "the sound of my son's voice."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

November 15, 2004

Reserve units tapped to join Iraq rotation
More than 3,400 reservists deploying for 7-month tours starting this spring

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


More than 3,400 reservists have been issued warning orders to prepare for a deployment to Iraq in the spring.
They will be part of a force of about 20,000 Marines, primarily from II Marine Expeditionary Force, headed for a seven-month stint in Iraq beginning in March.

The warning order came in late October and gives reservists several weeks to get their affairs in order before they are formally activated and have to leave their civilian jobs or school, Reserve officials say.

The activation will include 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, the only Reserve infantry battalion not to be mobilized since the war on terrorism began in fall 2001.

More than 8,000 reservists have deployed to Iraq for security operations since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.

The last group of 4,500 reservists deployed for a seven-month tour that is expected to end in March.

Many of the units activating for the next rotation will be serving in “provisional” units, pulling duty outside their typical military occupational specialties.

Three companies from the San Diego-based 4th Tank Battalion — Headquarters, Alpha and Bravo companies — will leave behind their M1A1 Abrams tanks and pick up nightsticks and flex cuffs for work as military police companies in Iraq.

The Marine Corps recently has been forced to deploy units for provisional duty in military police, security, civil affairs and convoy roles as the demands of the Iraq occupation create a greater need for such troops.

In June, Reserve officials mobilized 250 volunteers from the 8th Tank Battalion to deploy to Djibouti as security forces for the U.S. base at Camp Lemonier — an early sign that Marine reservists should be prepared for some unconventional deployments.

Reservists from Delta Battery, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marines, also will deploy to Iraq in March as a military police unit, continuing a pattern of using Reserve artillerymen for such pinch-hitter roles.

This spring, more than 40 artillerymen from the 14th Marines volunteered to join the 3rd Civil Affairs Group for reconstruction work in Iraq.

In another role shake-up, the Jackson, Miss.-based Echo Battery and Grand Prairie, Texas-based Headquarters Battery, 2/14, will deploy for work as provisional motor transport units.

Christian Lowe covers the Marine Corps Reserve. He can be reached at (703) 750-8613 or clowe@marinecorpstimes.com.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Finding Surrendering Fighters <br />
<br />
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines charged up the stairs in one of Fallujah's grandest buildings Saturday, seeking...

[thedrifter]

Nine who served in Vietnam team up on Veterans Day copter mission in Iraq


By Ron Jensen, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, November 12, 2004


LOGISTICAL SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Iraq — They fought in a war that ended 30 years ago, but now find themselves fighting another one, alongside soldiers young enough to be their children.

Or grandchildren.

A group of veterans of the Vietnam War who have joined their country’s latest fray marked Veterans Day Thursday by making up the crew of two Black Hawk helicopters and executing a mission.

It is not unusual for the Vietnam vets to fly down in Iraq, but they have never flown a mission made up of so many veterans of that war. Nine of the 10 crew members on the two aircraft were in Vietnam.

The 10th, Sgt. Jose Perez, a crew chief, is the grandson of a Vietnam vet.

“It’s an honor,” Perez said before the mission Thursday morning. “I’m doing this for my grandfather. He lives in Puerto Rico.”

The nine veterans had combined for more than 8,000 hours of combat flying in the war. Their time in Southeast Asia ranged from 1968 to 1971.

The idea for the mission came from Chief Warrant Officer 4 Mike Chapman, 55, who flew UH-1 gunships in Vietnam for the 92nd Assault Helicopter Company and is now with the Louisiana National Guard’s 244th Command Aviation Battalion.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said of the mission, which was to fly personnel to Fallujah. “It depicts that we’re still here and we’re still doing our job. We still have full dedication to God, duty and country.”

The helicopters that went on the mission were from the 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment and the 1st Battalion, 244th Aviation Regiment

When these veterans first flew in combat more than three decades ago, the concept of using helicopters in battle still was new. They were on the frontier of that entire strategy.

Now, the Army is more likely to enter combat without helmets than helicopters, thanks, in part, to the aircraft’s success in Vietnam.

Staff Sgt. Bona Dyal, who was a crew chief on a UH-1 in Vietnam, is now with the Florida National Guard.

“It means a whole lot,” he said of the mission. “At least we’ve got survivability.”

It is hard to compare today’s soldiers with those of Vietnam, he said, because of the different technology and training. One thing, however, hasn’t changed.

“[Soldiers] still got the same heart,” Dyal said.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Wyatt Jr., 57, who was an air cavalry captain in Vietnam, said the biggest difference between the two wars is the lessened threat level in Iraq.

In Vietnam, “if you made it past 30 days, you were considered a veteran,” he said.

In Iraq, the threat from enemy fire is minimal. He said he expects to leave without having lost a single soldier in his unit. That was unheard of in Vietnam.

Of Thursday’s flight, he said, “It’s sort of a memorial for the ones that are no longer flying because they can’t or they didn’t make it home from Vietnam.”

There was little time for talk as Chapman, Dyal, Wyatt and the other six veterans — Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Lanning, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Richard Erickson, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Don Berres, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ben Roche, Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne Eden and 1st Sgt. William Wellmon — joined Perez for a pre-mission briefing and then rushed to their choppers.

They did, however, stop to pose for a group shot as a memento of the day, kidding one another about gray hair and no hair as they formed two lines.

Despite the wrinkles and the signs of age, the men are fit and ready to fly. They are doing one-year tours in Iraq just like their younger brethren.

“It’s a country worth fighting for,” Wyatt said.

http://www.estripes.com/photos/25455_1111185116b.jpg

Ron Jensen / S&S
Nine Vietnam veterans posed for a group photo Thursday before they flew a mission in two Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq. The Vietnam vets joined together to make up the crews to mark Veterans Day.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25455

Ellie

[thedrifter]

War crime by Marines?

WASHINGTON: Human rights experts said Friday that American soldiers might have committed a war crime on Thursday when they sent fleeing civilians back into Falluja.

Citing several articles of the Geneva Conventions, the experts said recognized laws of war require military forces to protect civilians as refugees and forbid returning them to a combat zone. "This is highly problematical conduct in terms of exposing people to grave danger by returning them to an area where fighting is going on," said Jordan Paust, a law professor at the University of Houston.

James Ross, senior legal adviser to Human Rights Watch, said, "If that's what happened, it would be a war crime."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/922111.cms

Ellie

[Sparrowhawk]

"I can still see and feel the Smell of War."

Semper Fi

Cook

[thedrifter]

31 U.S. Troops Killed So Far in Fallujah <br />
<br />
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - The U.S. military's ground and air assault of Fallujah has gone quicker than expected,...

[thedrifter]

Family, old friends mourn Fresno classmates felled by bomb on way to Fallujah

By Juliana Barbassa
Associated Press

FRESNO Jeremiah Baro and Jared Hubbard, childhood friends who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps together and died together in Iraq, were buried side by side after a memorial that drew more than 700 mourners.
The friends played together as kids, wrestled each other as high school athletes, and toughed it out together through Marine boot camp. They died by each other on Nov. 4, after a roadside bomb exploded. They were in Iraq's Anbar province, where the military was preparing to attack the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Members of the armed forces, classmates from the nearby high school, friends and family packed the pews in St. Anthony of Padua church and stood pressed against the walls. Many of them wore red armbands with the Marine motto Semper Fi, or always faithful. Friends said the phrase described the young men's dedication to each other and their families as much as it defined their commitment to their country, and their mission as Marines.

Hubbard, who wrestled and played football in high school, and the slighter but pugnacious Baro were "two peas in a pod,' said Bert Baro, Jeremiah Baro's father.

"You can't have one without the other,' he told the Fresno Bee. "If one or the other survived, I don't think they would have been the same people.'

Hubbard, 22, and Baro, 21, enlisted in December 2001, acting on an idea they'd had since high school, but motivated by a sense of duty following the terrorist attacks a few months earlier.

Hubbard was one to always bring people together, said Benny Clay, who knew him since the fifth grade. When a group of friends went out at night, Hubbard was the last one to go home, and the first one up in the morning, ready for breakfast and a hike, Clay said.

Baro's girlfriend, Stephine Sanchez, also showed him in a lighter, caring light by reading a poem he gave her.

"You pick me up when I'm feeling down, even when I'm out of town,' she read, her voice breaking into sobs before she reached the end: "You were meant to be my heart, my soul mate, my everything.'

This was Baro and Hubbard's second tour in Iraq. They returned home during the summer and trained together as snipers when they returned to their unit.

Two weeks before he was killed, Jeremiah Baro told his father of the latest action the two Camp Pendleton-based Marines had seen. They had run into insurgents setting up a roadside ambush, Bert Baro said. The two opened fire, and killed all but one man, he told the Bee.

Hubbard's family had conflicting emotions about his decision to join the Marines, a mixture of pride and apprehension.

Baro's parents issued a statement describing Hubbard and their son as best friends who died "protecting the country that they loved.'


Ellie

[MillRatUSMC]

War Crimes by Americans?
What about the crime done to that female, missing limba and her throat was slit.
James Ross has his own interests, I suggest that he view the body of the female in the above, than he will know what a "War Crime" is all about. :-(

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[thedrifter]

Two Girls Sacrifice Their Christmas Toys In Memory of Marine

By Karen Hensel

(Indianapolis) – Two very young Indianapolis girls share their story of sacrifice.

They said their heart, along with the death of one marine, has led them to make a difference for other children.

Nicole Smith, 8, and her sister Brittani, 6 know what it means to sacrifice.

"Everything he does, he sacrifices almost everything,” Nicole Smith said.

She’s talking about their father, Indiana State Trooper Mark Smith . He is also one of the Marine Reserves Top Commanders in Iraq.

"He's sacrificing his Christmas,” Nicole said. “And if he can do that, I can at least do a little sacrifice by giving up my Christmas."

These young girls are giving up their Christmas gifts in honor of one of their dad's marines, killed last month in the line of duty in Iraq. Lance Corporal Daniel Wyatt was a Toys For Tots Marine.

"When we found out Lance Cpl. Wyatt was a Toys For Tots Marine, we went shopping with our Christmas money and drove the toys to Chicago and delivered them, since all the Marines are over in Iraq," said the girls’ mother, Sheila Smith.

"Give to kids who don't have very much toys,” Brittani said. “And I thought it was good."

"I don't know what it's like,” Nicole Smith said. “But I wish I knew what it was like for kids who don't have toys or food."

But she does know how to give. Both girls have a gift to daddy from their heart.

"I am so proud of you and all you are sacrificing,” Nicole said. “I love you and you'll always be in my heart."

"I am so proud of him,” Brittani said. “I miss him and I love him so much."

The Smiths have already taken one load of donated gifts to Chicago. The Second Battalion, 24th Marines are based out of Chicago.

If you would like to support Nicole and Brittani's Christmas Sacrifice, you can donate at the Indiana State Police Alliance at 1415 South Shelby Street.



http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2552686&nav=0Ra7T1Bz


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Retired Marines continue to serve
11/13/2004 6:04 PM
By: Lisa Reyes, News 14 Carolina


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A group of retired Marines are still active when it comes to disaster relief. They received a mission during this hurricane season and were not about to turn it down because of their age.

"The average age of our team was 70 years and three months," said Sgt. Mike Goodman.

The Marine Corps. League Disaster Relief Unit began after Sept. 11. Many retired military personnel wanted to jump into action and fight against terrorists but they could not.

"Our young guys are in Iraq and as much as we would like to do something for them, we can't," Goodman said. "But we can do this to help the folks that need us most."

Instead of heading to war, they are helping out disaster victims around the country. This summer, they were in Florida.

"When you can still contribute after all these years and do something really useful, it makes you feel good," said Staff Sgt. Paul Juneau.

The team of eight volunteers was deployed to some of the hardest hit areas -- like Leesburg and Daytona. They made healthy meals and talked to victims who lost everything.

"Homes were destroyed, (they had) no power at all," said Capt. Edward Luisa.

For Luisa, the devastation was all too familiar. He served in Korea and Vietnam.

"Children, especially, getting displaced, it does remind me a little bit of war," he said.

They may not wear the uniform anymore, but the definition of a Marine remains. They took a vow to serve this country and they always will.

The league has teamed up with the Salvation Army to help in relief efforts around the country when needed. Several thousand volunteers can be deployed at a time if necessary.

Web Journalist: Mike Cartelli

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/cabarrus/?ArID=79122&SecID=5

Ellie

[thedrifter]

General Praises Speed of Fallujah Success

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - In April, 2,000 Marines fought for three weeks and failed to take Fallujah from its insurgent defenders. This time, war planners sent six times the troops, who fought their way across the rebel city in just six days — far more quickly than expected, the Marine general who designed the ground attack said Sunday.


"We had the green light this time and we went all the way," Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski told The Associated Press.


Natonski said he and other planners took lessons from the failed three-week U.S. assault on the city in April, which was called off by the Bush administration after a worldwide outcry over civilian deaths.


This time the military used swarms of aircraft — more than 20 types — that pounded the city before and during the assault. Troops also faked attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.


"Maybe we learned from April," Natonski said. "We learned we can't do it piecemeal. When we go in, we go all the way through."


Privately, U.S. military officials say April's assault was botched by the Bush administration which forced the Marines to attack with insufficient forces on just a week's notice and then called off the assault before the city was taken.


For the latest assault, commanders had time to plan. Also, the Iraqi and U.S. governments were determined to wipe out the insurgent nest. And the Iraqi troops, who melted away in April, stood their ground.


Even the worldwide outcry was muted this time, by revulsion at an insurgency blamed for grisly beheadings of hostages.


Natonski described the first six days of ground war as a "flawless execution of the plan we drew up. We are actually ahead of schedule."


As quick as the assault was, perhaps thousands were killed and maimed, most of them Iraqi defenders. Natonski put the toll of guerrillas killed at more than 1,200.


Later Sunday, Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said 31 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers died in the battle. The number of injured U.S. troops was "up in the high 200s," Sattler said.


There is still no estimate of civilians killed or wounded in the assault.


On Sunday, Marines and Army troops still battled pockets of hardcore defenders scattered inside the Sunni Muslim stronghold. Behind U.S. forces, Iraqi troops were engaged in the painstaking task of clearing weapons and fighters from every room of each of Fallujah's 50,000 buildings.


Bands of rebels were still roving neighborhoods crushed by tons of U.S. bombs and shells. The holdouts are harried by U.S. forces who occupy — but have yet to subdue — the entire city.


"There are groups numbering from five to 30," Natonski said. "They're trying to get behind us."


Military officials said it would take days to finish the fight.


As troops uproot the insurgents, contractors are supposed to swarm into Fallujah in coming weeks to cart away rubble, repair buildings, and fix the city's water, sewer and electricity systems.





The Iraqi government has already picked leaders for Fallujah, and thousands of Iraqi police and paramilitary forces have been recruited to try to impose order — critical to the U.S. goal of setting conditions for elections in Fallujah and the rest of Anbar province.

To prevent the insurgents' return, Iraqi forces will halt all traffic flowing in and out of the city — once roads reopen — checking IDs and looking for suspects, Natonski said.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders have long vowed to deal with Fallujah, which in May became a virtual independent rebel city-state and nationwide model for rebellion. One event in August crystallized their resolve.

Back then, an Iraqi National Guard commander acting as a liaison between Fallujah and the U.S. military, Lt. Col. Sulaiman Hamad Ftikan, was beaten to death by mujahedeen inside the city.

"That's when we realized Fallujah was the bright ember in the ash pit of the insurgency, and we needed to douse it," said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson, a planner with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Battle planning began in September, with Natonski given responsibility for the combat phase, Wilson said.

Hundreds of other U.S. military and civilian planners designed the overall effort, which is intended to mimic the ongoing post-siege rebuilding under way in Najaf, Wilson said.

Several pre-assault tactics made the battle easier than expected, Natonski said.

Insurgent defenses were weakened by bombing raids on command posts and safe houses. And in the days before the raid, ground troops feinted invasions, charging right up to the edge of Fallujah in tanks and armored vehicles.

Natonski said these fake attacks forced the insurgents to build up forces in the south and east, perhaps diverting defenders from the north, where six battalions of Army and Marine troops finally punched into the city Monday.

The deceptive maneuvers also drew fire from defenders' bunkers, which were exposed and relentlessly bombed before the ground assault.

"We desensitized the enemy to the formations they saw on the night we attacked," Natonski said.

Another key tactic was choking off the city, the responsibility of the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, Natonski said.

That move prevented insurgents from slipping out of the city during the assault, although many, including top leaders like Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar al-Hadid, are thought to have fled.

"We never expected them to be there," Natonski said. "We're not after Zarqawi. We're after insurgents in general."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S.: 'Enemy is broken' in Falluja
U.S. death toll in assault rises to 31
Sunday, November 14, 2004 Posted: 2:11 PM EST (1911 GMT)


FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines spread through the deserted streets of Falluja on Sunday, kicking in doors during a dangerous house-to-house search for insurgents -- targets of the U.S.-Iraqi military operation.

American soldiers took sporadic gunfire from insurgents, who, a Marine general said, apparently want to "fight to the death."

Between 1,000 and 2,000 insurgents have been killed in the week-long assault, Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler said. The American death toll rose to 31, with six Iraqi forces also reported killed. Nearly 300 Americans have been wounded, Sattler said.

"As of late last night, we have been in all parts of the city," Sattler told reporters. "We have liberated the city of Falluja."

"The enemy is broken," Sattler said, but troops "have to go back to still isolated pockets" of insurgents.

"If they are trapped and want to fight till death, we have no choice but to accommodate," the general said.

Sattler said the military had about 1,000 people in custody and expected as many as 700 would be released after interrogation.

Sattler accompanied the U.S. Central Command chief, Army Gen. John Abizaid, into the area. Abizaid spoke to many of the Marines and soldiers fighting the battle and told reporters they had "been very effective" in their efforts.

Earlier, Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Natanski, commander of the 1st Marine Division, said the assault on Falluja had deprived the insurgents of their "base of operations."

"This was their sanctuary," he said, describing the city as a place where insurgents could could rest and then re-arm themselves before attacking U.S. and Iraqi troops. "They no longer have that luxury."

Some insurgents fled Falluja in advance of the assault, and could launch attacks from elsewhere in the country. Before the assault on the city, U.S. officials said it was likely that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a lieutenant, Abdullah Junabi, were among those who fled.

"We don't know where [al-Zarqawi] is right now," Sattler said. "Maybe he's dead; we don't know. But we never focused on him. We focused on ... reinstating the rule of law, which we are in the process of doing, and giving Falluja back to the Fallujan people, which will come fairly soon."

It's unclear how many civilians have been killed or wounded in the airstrikes or heavy ground battles that have gripped the city. Military officials said at least 14 civilians were wounded.

Overnight, U.S. forces dropped bunker-busting bombs on an underground complex used by insurgents, military officials said Sunday.

The Air Force -- working with Task Force 2-2 of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division -- dropped four 2,000-pound bombs and ordered C-130 air strikes, firing more than 100 rounds at the complex in southeastern Falluja. Military officials said the site was stocked with medical and other supplies, and may be as large as 400 meters by 300 meters (1,300 feet by 1,000 feet) and lined with tunnels.

The military has taken out other similar sites throughout the week.

The United States has said the Falluja operation was aimed -- in large part -- at helping pave the way for elections to take place as scheduled in January.

As major operations wind down in Falluja, there is increased focus on humanitarian needs.

It's unclear how many civilians are in Falluja. The city's population ranges from 250,000 to 300,000. U.S. and Iraqi officials estimated that 90 percent fled before the assault.

An Iraqi humanitarian organization set up a makeshift campground for displaced Falluja residents at the location of the Baghdad International Fair, about 30 miles away. Some children rode a Ferris wheel and played games, while some parents protested the ongoing violence in their home city.

Also in Falluja on Sunday, U.S. forces were barring from the city's center an Iraqi Red Crescent convoy carrying food, blankets, water purification tablets and medicine for hundreds of trapped families, a U.S. Marine officer told Reuters. (Full story)

Meanwhile, U.S. Marines reopened to military traffic a Falluja bridge over the Euphrates River where Iraqi mobs on March 31 hanged the burned and mutilated bodies of two American contract workers. The attack on the contractors of Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., sparked the first major U.S. military operation in Falluja, in April.

"This is a big event for us," Maj. Todd Des Grosseilliers told The Associated Press earlier. "It's symbolic because the insurgents closed the bridge and we are going to reopen it," said Des Grosseilliers, 41, of Auburn, Maine.

Other developments

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a car bombing of an Iraqi national guard base Saturday night killed two guardsmen and wounded three others, Mosul police director Maj. Gen. Salim al-Hajj Issa said Sunday. Issa said that authorities planned an Iraqi police program throughout the Nineva province aimed at finding infiltrators within the force.


About 125 miles north of Baghdad, in Baiji, home of Iraq's largest oil refinery, insurgents attacked a 1st Infantry Division patrol Sunday, said Capt. Bill Coppernoll. U.S. forces returned fire, surrounded the insurgents in a building and fired Hellfire missiles from U.S. helicopters. The attack on U.S. forces followed a blast from several hundred pounds of explosives used to sabotage a railroad overpass, Coppernoll said.


Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera reported Sunday that two women relatives of Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, have been released by kidnappers. A group called Ansar al-Jihad last week claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on a Web site.


One coalition soldier was killed and three were wounded when insurgents attacked a military base outside Baghdad on Saturday evening, the U.S. military said. The nationalities of the casualties weren't immediately available.


Baghdad International Airport will remain closed to commercial traffic until further notice, a spokesman for Allawi said Saturday. The airport was closed to commercial traffic earlier in the week because of security concerns. Iraqi authorities fear reprisals for the U.S. offensive in Falluja.

CNN's Jane Arraf, Nic Robertson, Cal Perry, Faris Qasira, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/14/iraq.main/index.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines take no chances in sweeping Fallujah <br />
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press writer <br />
<br />
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- U.S. Marines charged up the stairs in one of Fallujah's grandest buildings yesterday,...

[thedrifter]

GIs Totally Occupy Fallujah
Associated Press
November 14, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. military officials said Saturday that American troops had now "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah and there were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting after nearly a week of intense urban combat.

A U.S. officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fallujah was "occupied but not subdued." Iraqi officials declared the operation to free Fallujah of militants was "accomplished" but acknowledged the two most wanted figures in the city - Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi - had escaped.

Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division, said Sunday that more than 1,200 insurgents have been killed since the operation began. U.S. officers said, however, that resistance had not been entirely subdued and that it still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets.

On Sunday, Marines expected to reopen the bridge where two American contractors killed by militants were strung up on March 31, sparking an earlier siege of Fallujah by U.S forces.

"This is a big event for us," said Maj. Todd Des Grosseilliers, 41, from Auburn, Maine. "It's symbolic because the insurgents closed the bridge, and we are going to reopen it."


Overnight, U.S. planes fired at rebel positions inside Fallujah and in nearby Amiriyah, and clashes broke out north of Baghdad as militants tried to block a U.S. military supply route. U.S. warplanes lobbed bombs and artillery after oil tankers were hit, eyewitnesses said.

The offensive against Fallujah killed at least 24 American troops and an estimated 1,000 insurgents, and rebel attacks elsewhere - especially in the northern city of Mosul - have forced the Americans to shift troops away from Fallujah.

Exploiting the redeployment, insurgents stepped up attacks in areas outside Fallujah, including a bombing that killed two Marines on the outskirts of the former rebel bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Military activity also surged along the Euphrates River valley well to the north and west of Baghdad, with clashes reported in Qaim on the Syrian border and in Hit and Ramadi, nearer to the capital.

A series of thunderous explosions rocked central Baghdad after sunset Saturday, and sirens wailed in the fortified Green Zone, which houses major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy. There was no immediate explanation for the blasts, but the Ansar al-Sunnah Army later claimed responsibility for firing several rockets at the zone. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.

A car bomb exploded on the main road to Baghdad airport, and there was fighting near the Education Ministry in the heart of the capital.

Insurgents also attacked a military base outside Baghdad Saturday, killing one coalition soldier and wounding three others, the U.S. military said. The nationalities of the casualties weren't immediately available.

Baghdad's international airport was ordered Saturday to remain closed to civilian traffic for a further 24 hours, according to government adviser Georges Sada.

The airport was closed for 48 hours under the state of emergency imposed last Sunday and has remained shut under a series of one-day extensions ever since.

At least four people were killed and 29 wounded, police said, during a U.S. airstrike on rebels and clashes Saturday in the Abu Ghraib suburb of western Baghdad. One Iraqi was killed and 10 wounded in fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.

Flames of fire and heavy black smoke were billowing to the sky after saboteurs attacked an oil pipeline north of Baghdad Saturday night, witnesses said.

The oil pipeline carries crude oil from Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, to the Dora refinery in Baghdad.

Witnesses said insurgents have virtually controlled the town of Taji for the last several days, distributing leaflets warning people not to leave their houses or open their shops.

The drive against remaining insurgent holdouts in southern Fallujah was aimed to eradicate the last major concentration of fighters at the end of nearly a week of air and ground assaults.

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

As a prelude to the Saturday assault, a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent tunnel network in the city, CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf reported.

U.S. and Iraqi forces also have begun moving against insurgent sympathizers among Iraq's hardline Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four prominent clerics and raiding offices of religious groups that had spoken out against the Fallujah assault.

U.S. officials said they hoped the latest attack would finish off the last pocket of significant resistance in Fallujah. Next was a planned house-to-house clearing operation to find boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas still hiding in the rubble.

In Baghdad, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud proclaimed the Fallujah assault - code-name Operation Al-Fajr, or "Dawn" - was "accomplished" except for mopping up "evil pockets which we are dealing with now."

"The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000," Dawoud said. "As for the detainees, the number is 200 people."

However, Dawoud said al-Zarqawi, whose al-Qaida-linked group was responsible for numerous car-bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, and the main Fallujah resistance leader, Sheik al-Janabi "have escaped." The United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi.

As U.S. forces pressed their attacks in southern Fallujah, Marines in the northern districts were hunting for about a dozen insurgents dressed in Iraqi National Guard uniforms who were reportedly wandering the city streets.

"Any (Iraqi National Guard) or (Iraqi special forces) not seen with the Marines are to be considered hostile," Lt. Owen Boyce, 24, of Simsbury, Conn., told his men.

U.S. and Iraqi officials want to restore control of Fallujah and other Sunni militant strongholds before national elections scheduled by Jan. 31.

A four-vehicle convoy of the Iraqi Red Crescent carrying humanitarian assistance arrived in Fallujah after the Iraqi and American troops allowed it to pass.

In the southern city of Nasiriyah, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he expected the operation in Fallujah to conclude by Sunday with a "clear-cut" victory over the insurgents and the terrorists.

"We have captured their safe houses, where they killed people," Allawi said. "We have captured the masks they wore when they slaughtered and decapitated people."

Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, brushed aside suggestions the operation would create a backlash among the country's Sunni minority.

"There is no problem of Sunnis or Shiites," he said. "This is all Iraqis against the terrorists. We are going to keep on breaking their back everywhere in Iraq. We are not going to allow them to win."

Despite the evident military success in Fallujah, U.S. commanders have warned that the insurgency in Iraq will continue - evidenced by the recent spike in violence in the remainder of the Sunni Muslim regions of central Iraq.

The U.S. command withdrew one battalion of the 25th Infantry Division in Fallujah and returned it to Mosul after insurgents attacked police stations, bridges and government buildings Thursday in clashes that killed 10 Iraqi troops and one U.S. soldier.

Mosul was quieter Saturday, but a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi National Guard convoy sent from Kirkuk passed, witnesses said. Seven National Guardsmen were wounded.

The region's governor blamed the uprising on "the betrayal of some police members" and said National Guard reinforcements had arrived to help end the violence. The events in Mosul cast further doubt on capabilities of Iraqi forces to maintain order - a key U.S. strategy goal.

Fierce fighting in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq has taken its toll on the Americans. More than 400 wounded soldiers have been transported to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

These Unseen Wounds Cut Deep <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By Esther Schrader <br />
LA Times Staff Writer <br />
November 14, 2004 <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON - Matt...

[thedrifter]

Renamed road honors late Marine war hero
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By LETITIA STEIN
St. Petersburg Times
Published November 14, 2004

TAMPA - In somber rows, Marine reservists Saturday marched down a sliver of asphalt near the Gandy Bridge to pay their final respects.

"Left-right," a platoon sergeant called out. "Eyes right."

With a single gesture in unison, all eyes turned to the name embossed in yellow letters, unveiling the road marker for Andrew J. Aviles Trail with a dignitary's honors.

The Marines saluted one of their own, Lance Cpl. Aviles, who died last year in Iraq.

"He wanted to be somebody very important," said his mother, Norma Aviles. "In a way, I guess he has become somebody important."

Her tinted sunglasses hid tear-filled eyes.

"I wish it wasn't this way."

The middle child of three siblings, Aviles dreamed of earning a degree in business administration and making a fortune in real estate. At Robinson High School he made a name for himself as class president and as a member of the National Honor Society.

Aviles passed up an academic scholarship to Florida State University to join the Marines. He planned to continue his education after his military service.

Aviles died on a bridge outside Baghdad on April 7, 2003. Enemy artillery struck his assault amphibian vehicle, a boxy carrier to transport Marines from ship to shore. He was two weeks from celebrating his 19th birthday.

Friends and family members found comfort Saturday in photographs of the smiling young man, which they wore on memorial pins to the street-naming ceremony. Stone-faced members of the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion vowed to remember their fallen hero.

"From this time forward, every time a Marine turns onto this access road to come to drill weekend, he's going to see that sign and think of Andy and his service to our country," said Maj. John Wright, who went to Iraq with Aviles as commanding officer of the Headquarters and Service Company. "It is a noble and a very fitting gesture."

Local government officials spearheaded the effort to rename for Aviles an access road that leads to the Marine Reserve Center. Aviles lived nearby in Port Tampa.

"There will come a day when people will ask, "Who is Andy Aviles? Why is this road named after him?"' said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio. "I think the best answer they could be given is that Andy Aviles represented the very best of America."


Ellie

[MillRatUSMC]

Why do I see Vietnam Veterans in returning veterans from Iraq, possibly Afghanistan.
Much of what they are suffering, we suffered before.
What they learn treating us, will be put to good use on treating these returning veterans.
Only if they seek treatment, but some might by-pass seeking treatment.
They will do like many did after Vietnam, only to have surface, 10, 20, 30 years later.
One day they will awaken, to the feeling that they have loss control of what they thought they had hidden a long time ago.
I think that some of those feelings coming from being in a situtation that you really could not control, it left you feeling rather "helpless" and full of anger.
Some might seek to drown those feeling as many of did after Vietnam.
It does not work, talking from experience.
Some sought relief by taking their own lives, which should be dealth with in the case of Sgt. Matt LaBranche U.S Army, because he shows all the signs of wanting to end it all.
It say "former wife", did his wife divorce him while he was in Iraq?
Or has he been married more than once.
All this stress will take it toll and many will return suffering from PTSD or Post Traumic Stress Disorder.
I always thought that PTSD was known as the "Old Soldier Disease" instead of the "soldier's heart" but whatever name it goes by, it will always be with those suffering it's effects.
Meds might help you control it but it will always be there, coming on when you least expect it.
Let's hope that they learn from our suffering...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo