Great Grandmother Deployed To Iraq

[thedrifter]

Great Grandmother Deployed To Iraq
Associated Press
November 25, 2004

LAWTON, Okla. - A 72-year-old great-grandmother is preparing for deployment to the war zone in Iraq and will become one of the oldest Department of Defense civilian workers in the war zone.

"I volunteered," said Lena Haddix of Lawton, who has five children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. "I wanted to do something for the country, because I was always left behind taking care of the children."

Haddix was a military wife from 1950 until 1979, and has worked at the Fort Sill Post Exchange, or PX, since 1977.

"I've been a supervisor of every department out there," Haddix said. "I guess I'm the flunky."

The PX is more than just a store for soldiers, she said. It's also a boost to morale, giving soldiers stationed overseas a link to the United States and Haddix said that's why she wants to go to Iraq.




"I just see so many of the boys. They're like little kids. They keep telling me, 'I'm going over,' or 'I've just come back,'" she said.

"I would just like to go over and be with them."

And Haddix said others have tried to talk her out of her decision, to no avail.

"I'd already made up my mind I wanted to go. I just wanted to do something for myself and other people instead of working and coming home.

"I'm sure there'll be times that I'll be scared, but I'm not now."

Haddix is now going through much of the same process soldiers go through before deployment, including shots and a thorough medical checkup to make sure she's physically able to do a tour of at least six months.

She will be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for one week of training, then be sent to Germany where she will receive her orders on where in Iraq she will be stationed.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Soldiers Find Weapons Caches in Fallujah

By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marine officers said Wednesday that U.S. and Iraqi troops sweeping Fallujah have uncovered enough weapons to fuel a nationwide rebellion and that clearing the former insurgent bastion of arms is holding up the return of civilians.


Most of Fallujah's estimated 250,000 civilians left the central Iraq (news - web sites) city ahead of the devastating Nov. 8 assault and "it will be probably several more weeks" before significant numbers of them can return, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.


"We are looking at a very dense city, of some 50,000 structures — each and every one of them has a potential (weapons) cache hidden inside," he told reporters.


Searching out and disposing of weapons is "very tedious hard work for the Marines," he said. "People still have to be patient, they need to have a safe and secure environment before they can go back."


Without providing details, Wilson called the amount of arms uncovered in Fallujah "stunning."


"The amount of weapons was in no way just to protect a city," said Maj. Jim West, a Marine intelligence officer. "There was enough to mount an insurgency across the country."


A huge store of weapons and explosives was discovered at the mosque of Abdullah al-Janabi, a Muslim cleric and insurgent leader, according to a report on The New York Times' Web site. Al-Janabi is thought to have fled the city.


The Times said the mosque compound in a residential area had sheds stacked with TNT, mortar shells, bombs, guns, rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition. A naval mine was in the street outside, it added.


Military officers told the Times there were no arms in al-Janabi's nearby house, but they said they discovered files on people who had been tortured and executed for cooperating with U.S. authorities and their allies.


On Wednesday, Dr. Rafie al-Issawi, director of the Fallujah General Hospital, issued an appeal on Al-Jazeera television for doctors who fled the city to report to the Health Ministry the following day "to join us and help Fallujah residents."


Al-Issawi said he issued the appeal following a meeting with U.S. and Iraqi officials who assured him they want to restore medical services in the city as soon as possible.


Marines clearing houses in Fallujah have found Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and heavy-caliber cannon — with weapons caches often marked by a brick hanging by a string on homes' outside walls.


U.S. and Iraqi forces moving into the city smashed much of the insurgents' weaponry, bending gun barrels to prevent future use. Many large weapons caches were blown up quickly with only a cursory attempt at inventory.


West noted that insurgents stashed arms in mosques. "Even gravesides were used to bury weapons," he said.


West said U.S. forces turned up a "cook book" with instructions on using mercury nitrate and silver nitrate and descriptions of nerve agents. He didn't elaborate.


West said the majority of the weapons caches were in the south, as the insurgents likely expected the attack to be initiated from there.


Marines ran repeated feints against Fallujah's southern neighborhoods in the weeks before the assault, then attacked from the north. U.S. and Iraqi forces are stepping up operations ahead of elections scheduled for Jan. 30. Marine commanders called Fallujah an important staging point for the bombings, kidnappings and ambushes plaguing Iraq.





West said Marine planners originally earmarked four days for their forces to reach Fallujah's main north-south thoroughfare, but the goal was obtained in 24 hours.

Ultimately, the country's interim government will decide when the city is safe for civilians and Iraqi security forces will screen returnees, Wilson said.

"Iraqi forces are in a much better position to screen whoever is coming and going into Fallujah," Wilson said, adding the Iraqi troops performed better in Fallujah than in previous operations across Iraq, when many deserted.

"They were getting better and better, they bonded and have now become seasoned Iraqi battalions capable of pursuing terrorists," he said. "Before you know it, they will be dealing with the insurgency."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Troops Still Face Harsh Battles <br />
Christian Science Monitor <br />
November 25, 2004 <br />
<br />
FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The four insurgents were heavily outnumbered and outgunned by U.S. Marines in Fallujah. <br />
<br />
But...

[thedrifter]

Gen. Who Ran Prisons Gets Pentagon Job
Associated Press
November 25, 2004

WASHINGTON - The two-star Army general who ran the U.S. military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later took over the U.S. military prison system in Iraq has been reassigned to a senior staff job in the Pentagon.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller will be the Army's assistant chief of staff for installation management, with responsibility for the housing, environmental and other support operations at Army bases.

Miller ran Guantanamo Bay from October 2002 to March 2004 and has been credited by senior Pentagon officials with improving the amount of useful intelligence gleaned from terror suspects held there.

In August 2003, Miller was sent to Iraq to provide advice on the screening of detainees, their interrogations and the collection of intelligence. Among his recommendations was that military police be actively involved in "setting the conditions" for successful interrogations.




The prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that exploded into an international scandal in the spring of 2004 took place mainly in October and November 2003, shortly after Miller's visit. He has not been blamed for the abuse, directly or indirectly. In March, he was sent back to Iraq as deputy commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq with responsibility for detainee operations.

Replacing Miller in Iraq will be Maj. Gen. William H. Brandenburg, who has been deputy commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, based in Hawaii, since August 2003. He served much of his career in the infantry, mostly in Europe and the United States. He also was chief of staff of the Army's 5th Corps, its largest organization in Europe.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Thanksgiving For 30 Hungry Sailors
Biloxi Sun Herald
November 25, 2004

Cooking for 30 hungry sailors means Katherine and Walter Blessey will smoke five turkeys and three prime ribs.

A quiet Thanksgiving they will not have.

But the Biloxi couple will send a family friend and his unit off to the Middle East with a pleasant memory, full stomachs and the happiness of having spent the holiday with family.

"(The unit) thought they were just going to go to a casino for Thanksgiving," said James Lapeyrouse, 34, of Houston, a Navy medical technician who will likely miss the birth of his first child while he's in the Middle East.

Lapeyrouse graduated from high school with the Blesseys' son, John, in Houston. An insurance adjuster in civilian life, his Naval Reserve medical unit from Houston will soon head for Kuwait, where they will spend a year caring for soldiers and Marines wounded in Iraq.

The Blesseys had planned to go to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.




"We thought it would be good to give (Lapeyrouse) and his unit a send-off," said Walter, who remembers a lonely holiday season in Vietnam during 1965.

The reservists appreciate the gesture.

"I feel their spirit and share the same ideals," said Petty Officer First Class Joel Diaz, who on Wednesday helped the Blesseys prepare for the feast.

The Blesseys love entertaining and cooking together.

"We just enjoy doing this," said Katherine Blessey. "It's not work for us. Walter's and my life is filled with gratitude."

The Reservists are training at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport and expect to leave soon for the Middle East. By operating a hospital in Kuwait, they will provide closer care for wounded troops now flown to Germany.

For the next year, Lapeyrouse and his unit will eat mostly in military-style chow halls. The memory of today's meal could haunt them.

Said Lapeyrouse, who already sounded hungry, "Every time I come to town, (Walter) has barbecue shrimp that's incredible."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Urban Warfare Transforms the Corps
1st Prize, Marine Corps Essay Contest Sponsored by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Major Kelly P. Houlgate, U.S. Marine Corps
Proceedings, November 2004


By 2020, 85% of the world’s inhabitants will be crowded into coastal cities—cities generally lacking the infrastructure required to support their burgeoning populations. Under these conditions, long-simmering ethnic, nationalist, and economic tensions will explode and increase the potential of crises requiring U.S. intervention.”[1] Likely U.S. enemies include a wide array of possibilities: al Qaeda terrorists; dictatorial strongmen; drug cartels; or perhaps tribal/ethnic strife leading to humanitarian crises. These potential adversaries realize that fighting high-tech U.S. forces in open terrain is suicidal, and thus enemies will tend to operate in cities and towns, attempting to use the urban terrain to neutralize U.S. technology. Therefore, it appears the most likely type of future conflict will be urban warfare.

Though Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom have dominated our nation’s view of modern warfare, post-Vietnam conflicts have been characterized primarily by urban warfare. Of 26 conflicts fought over the past two decades, 21 have involved urban areas, and 10 have been exclusively urban.[2] The Corps’ experience in Lebanon, Panama, Khafji, Somalia, Liberia, and the Balkans demonstrated the need to be able to conduct a wide array of operations in close terrain. The battles for Iraqi cities such as Nasiriyah, Najaf, and Fallujah show that high-intensity urban combat has changed little since the days of Stalingrad, Seoul, or Hué. As the global war on terrorism continues, it is increasingly necessary that the Corps adopt an institutional focus on fighting and winning in urban areas.

In light of our nation’s future strategic requirements, the Marine Corps needs redefining. It should focus the majority of its effort on developing and disseminating urban warfare doctrine. While the Corps is studying future urban warfare, it has yet to accept fully that urban warfare is likely to be the Corps’ primary role in the future. Despite a visionary warning from former Commandant General Charles Krulak concerning the “Three Block War,” the Corps has done little to develop and advance an urban-warfare ethos and mind-set.[3]

Problems in Teaching and Training

Corps-wide urban combat training remains limited and very basic.[4] The Basic School and the recruit training regiments give military operations in urban terrain scant treatment. For the Corps to take on urban combat as an all-encompassing focus, it must become second nature and fundamental to entry-level training.

Fleet training is also limited and surprisingly unchanged over the past 15-20 years, despite experience in urban conflicts. The capstone unit training exercise is still the 29 Palms-based combined arms exercise, which undeniably prepared the Corps for Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, but remains focused on operations in desert terrain and on mechanized tactics, techniques, and procedures. The combined arms exercise is superb training, and the Corps needs to retain mechanized and combined arms excellence, but this is training for the last war.

Training facilities across the Marine Corps for military operations in urban terrain are small U.S. suburban-style mock towns with concrete construction and wide streets. While the infantrymen and engineers practice “room-clearing” in these tiny facilities, logisticians, communicators, and aviators, to list only a few specialties, get almost no training and are left on their own to create training opportunities for urban combat. Clearing an enemy from an urban defensive position is a crucial skill for an infantryman or engineer, but it is just one of many skills needed to succeed in urban combat. One would be hard-pressed to find a logistician or intelligence Marine who, in training, has had to supply a unit in simulated urban combat or collect against a changing urban enemy for even two consecutive weeks.

Marine Corps urban training also lacks the most crucial component of any training for war: live-fire combined arms. It is undeniable that the application of firepower against an urban enemy is perhaps the most challenging of tasks in modern warfare, but the Corps has no facility or range to assist its warriors in the accomplishment of this task. There are small-arms urban training ranges, and “Yodaville” at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma is useful for air-to-ground urban combat training, but nowhere is there an opportunity for doing what needs to be done in combat—urban combined arms. As a result, Marines must relearn lessons from past conflicts each time urban combat occurs.

Solutions

In terms of doctrine, the new (draft) Marine Corps Warfare Publication (MCWP) 3-35.3 is an excellent start. The most important task for Marine Corps leaders and educators is to disseminate this important document throughout the Corps. This should include not only the MCWP itself, but also supporting documents, such as cargo-pocket-sized field manuals and “gouge cards.” In addition, subordinate publications, detailing specific urban warfare roles, missions, tactics, techniques, and procedures for specific military occupational specialties (MOSs), should be developed and disseminated to the Corps. Though the new MCWP may never reach the Corps-wide familiarity level of the ubiquitous Fleet Marine Force Manual I (Warfighting), the goal should be to elevate MCWP 3-35.3 to that level of familiarity and distribution.

At the heart of the MEU’s area of operations (AO) was Tarin Kowt, a small town of 17,000. The lush vegetation that follows several watersheds leading down to the town contrasts sharply with the steep, arid mountains that surround it. At the bottom of the Tarin Kowt “bowl” (at 4,400 feet) was an old abandoned dirt airstrip that became the centerpiece of the 22d MEU’s air-ground operations.

Urban warfare considerations should drive decision making in all administrative areas, from acquisitions to manpower. Vehicles, aircraft, logistics equipment, communications systems, and weapons should be procured with an emphasis on what the equipment can do in an urban environment. In the same way that the Corps buys equipment with a focus on weight and size (because of airlift and amphibious considerations), the Corps should buy equipment with an urban-warfare focus.

While acquisitions are crucial, perhaps more fundamental to the transformation of the Corps is to assess its manpower needs accurately. Current force structure and manning levels may not be appropriate for urban combat operations. Development and study of urban warfare could (and perhaps should) lead to changes in tables of organization and tables of equipment. For example, the force service support groups may develop organizations specifically designed to support Marines in the urban environment; the Marine air wings may develop a sort of adaptable urban composite squadron; and the divisions may change the structure of the hallowed infantry rifle squad. Perhaps new MOSs will be created to focus exclusively on urban warfare.

The Marine Corps must make a significant investment in urban combat training facilities. The Corps should establish large training facilities (at least a square mile) both in the continental United States and overseas. The facilities should include large, fenced-off, live-fire zones with realistic and rapidly repairable structures that will allow for combined small arms-air-artillery live-fire training. The portions of these new training facilities for maneuver and long-term operations should incorporate numerous types of construction that represent various regions of the world. Opposition forces should be established at each facility to act as a consistent, thinking enemy. When units are not engaged with a thinking, moving enemy, they should fight simulated, computerized foes. Squads of Marines could train in a warehouse-sized room surrounded by interactive video screens, working to develop their urban decision-making and fighting skills with instant feedback. In addition, each barracks (not just infantry) should be equipped with urban video games such as modern versions of the groundbreaking Marine Doom.[5] Though videos games often have a “Generation X” feel about them, and older Marines may shudder at the thought of training in front of a television or computer monitor, Corps-developed or even off-the-shelf video games undoubtedly will help build the urban warfare ethos.

While the development of urban combat training facilities will increase the proficiency of the urban warrior skills, the Corps still needs a school to train the trainers, along the lines of the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, founded in 1951 to address combat deficiencies. The center’s current mission includes: “development of both individual and unit mountain skills with primary emphasis on enhancing overall combat capability. Marines at the Center are also involved in testing cold-weather clothing, equipment, human performance, rough terrain vehicles, and developing doctrine and concepts to enhance our Corps’ ability to fight and win in mountain and cold weather environments.”[6] By simply changing the words “mountain” and “cold weather” to “urban warfare,” this mission provides exactly what the Marine Corps requires of an Urban Warfare Training Center. And it needs to establish one immediately, perhaps at 29 Palms.

Over the next few years and months, the Corps will contain Marines with the most urban fighting experience in 35 years. The Corps needs to harness that expertise and assign those urban-combat Marines to the teaching staff of the new school. In addition, Great Britain and Israel should be encouraged to send exchange officers to the school (with a reciprocal exchange for our officers and senior non-commissioned officers), allowing the Corps to reap the benefits of having lessons-learned feedback from places such as Belfast, Basra, Jenin, and Ramalla, in addition to the knowledge gained by Marines in Iraq. The Corps always has been proud of its formal schools, and the Urban Warfare Training Center should be built and funded to draw a joint and international student body. As always, however, the focus must be on training Marines for combat.

continued.......

[thedrifter]

Historically, the Corps has “made Marines” at its entry-level schools by imbuing the young men and women with the ethos and culture of the Corps. This initial indoctrination is absolutely critical. Officer Candidate School, The Basic School, and the recruit training regiments need scaled down urban combat training facilities at their bases. History classes in entry-level schools should be updated to emphasize urban combat. While the Corps should not ignore its World War II heritage, training videos should emphasize Hué, Nasiriyah, and Fallujah, as they now do Tarawa and Iwo Jima. Military occupational specialty schools other than just School of Infantry and Infantry Officers’ Course should train using urban warfare procedures and techniques. If a young Marine or Marine officer expects to fight in a city (in the way that today they expect to deploy on a ship) when he or she graduates from basic training, the Corps will be closer to making the cultural transformation.

The combined arms exercise program has served the Corps well over the years. A shift to an urban combined arms exercise (UCAX) would meet future needs even better. By having the UCAX at 29 Palms, the program could use existing Tactical Training Exercise Control Group (“Coyotes”) procedures and facilities. The new program also could be the world’s largest and most advanced urban training facility. (It should be several miles on each side-the Town of Blacktopville.) The UCAX would retain many of the same aspects of today’s combined arms exercise, but should include at least two weeks (of four weeks, as opposed to today’s three-week CAX) in an extended urban campaign against a battalion-sized operational force.

Finally, the term “urban warfare” should become a common expression. Commanders should teach their Marines about the Corps’ urban heritage. Leatherneck, the Marine Corps Gazette, Marine Corps Times, and Proceedings should sponsor writing contests for essays highlighting urban warfare. All levels of resident and nonresident professional military education should incorporate urban warfare; schools such as the SNCO Advanced Course and the Command and Staff College should incorporate multiple urban warfare case studies into their curricula. The Corps’ amphibious heritage was built into Marine Corps culture and ethos by emphasizing history, teaching classes, and similar fundamental educational and institutional methods. “Expeditionary forward deployment on amphibious ships” is simply part of the Corps’ ethos. Urban combat must take on a similar status in the Corps.

Answers to Criticism

Fiscally, the proposed urban transformation is challenging. To be sure, a re-allocation of funds currently committed to new platforms will have to occur. The Corps must present the Department of Defense (DoD) with a plan for its internal transformation and make a convincing case for additional funds, especially for the expense of constructing and maintaining the urban combat training facilities. A recent precedent exists: the Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force was created and funded in 1995-96 because the Corps convinced Congress and DoD that it had a unique capability.[7] Urban warfare expertise will be a unique Corps capability worldwide. The Marine Corps should strive to be the DoD proponent of urban warfare doctrine and development. Marine Corps leadership should emphasize that U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force units also will use the urban combat training facilities and receive training in Marine Corps urban warfare schools. Marine Corps leadership should set a goal of having doctrine established, the training facilities constructed, and schools developed and/or modified by 2010. Such a goal will allow the Corps and Congress time to reallocate spending priorities. Facing the momentum of transformation, the Corps’ fiscal and legislative teams will have their work cut out for them, but the challenge is surely no greater than during the development of amphibious warfare in the late 1930s.

The Marine Corps should address safety concerns in three ways:

• Study and perhaps revise live-fire safety regulations. The sharpest minds of Marine Corps safety, marksmanship, and training should convene to re-examine current safety systems, policies, and procedures. All units (and all MOSs) should increase the use of operational risk management to reduce risks and closely examine training procedures.

• Develop a specific urban training standard operating procedure that will apply Corps-wide. It should include concepts such as the following sequence for training: (1) operations order/brief; (2) terrain model brief and walk-through; (3) walk-through on terrain; (4) dry run with blanks; and (5) live fire. The urban standard operating procedure can be instilled in entry-level training and reinforced in the Fleet Marine Force; the process is good for both training and safety. In addition, urban warfare lessons learned from Iraq, reflecting real-world use of the latest weapon systems, needs to be incorporated into safety regulations and urban standard operating procedure.

• Develop training munitions that will foster more realistic and safer combined-arms training. “Blue bombs” have changed little in two decades, and modern technology definitely supports innovation in this area. Thin-skinned paint-filled or water-filled “bombs” and “shells” should be developed. Research should increase toward finding viable munitions such as “deadened” bullets that expend their energy more rapidly and grenades that stun temporarily and without physical damage to training personnel. The goal of the new training munitions should be maximizing safety and feedback.

Those who may say that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” need to be reminded that the Corps was not broken in the 1920s and 1930s. In fact, the Corps was heavily engaged in the Caribbean nations fighting guerrillas and enjoying success. Innovation and transformation do not necessarily occur because there is a fundamental problem—it can and should occur before there is a fundamental problem. Combat in Ramadi, Fallujah, Najaf, and other Iraqi cities bring new urgency for this transformation. Today’s newspaper front pages dramatically show the Corps’ need for urban warfare excellence.

Finally, it is commonly believed by many that specialization tends to cause basic skills to atrophy. First, to call urban warfare skills “specialization” is a stretch. That is akin to calling mechanized operations specialized. To be skilled in missions such as urban combined arms, urban sustainment, and urban reconnaissance only will improve and magnify Marines’ skills in other terrain. While jungle patrolling, cold-weather operations, and mountainous operations may become secondary skills, the Corps should not ignore those skills—it should continue to train in these areas as it does today. Urban warfare should be the focus, but not to the total exclusion of other skills.

Conclusion

When one examines potential future-war scenarios, two facts stand out: First, future conflict likely will occur in urban areas. Second, the Marine Corps will be involved in these conflicts, because the great majority of the urban areas of the world are in the littoral regions. Within this context, it is imperative that the Marine Corps act now to shift its focus to that of an urban-warfare expeditionary force-in-readiness. The Corps must not stray from the belief that urban warfare development has the potential to do for the Corps and the nation what amphibious warfare development did for the Corps and the nation prior to World War II—win this nation’s wars.

The MOUT Homepage. 4 January 2004. www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6453/stratcorp.html. [back to article]
Elizabeth Book, “Project Metropolis Brings Urban Wars to U.S. Cities.” National Defense Magazine, April 2002. www.nationaldefensemagazine,org/article. cfm?Id=762. 20 December 2003. Quoting Col. Randy Gangle, USMC (Ret.), U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. [back to article]
Center for Defense Information. 2 January 2004. www.cdi.org. Gen. Charles Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps Commandant, 1995-99, coined the term “three-block war.” In such a scenario, troops find themselves engaged in operations from humanitarian missions, through peacekeeping and peace enforcement-type actions, to full-blown combat—sometimes within the space of three city blocks. [back to article]
The Corps’ internal think-tank, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), has been innovative and aggressive in studying and experimenting with modern urban warfare. Project Metropolis and Marine Air-Ground Task Force (X) are the boldest attempts to advance the cause of urban knowledge. Unfortunately, much of the knowledge and experience remains “in the lab.” [back to article]
Army Training and Education Command. 10 March 2004. www.tec.army.mil/TD/tvd/survey/Marine_Doom.html (authorization required). “Marine Doom is a project of the Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office (MCMSMO). MCMSMO adapted the game Doom II for training four-man fire teams. The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline, and succession of command. Doom II’s characters have been replaced by Marines and enemy soldiers, and real-world representations have been used to create backgrounds that reflect real-world tactical situations.” [back to article]
Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center. 2 May 2004. www.mwtc.usmc.mil/mission.htm. [back to article]
Official U.S. Marine Corps Web site. 10 March 2004. http://www.cbirf.usmc.mil/background.htm. “In 1995, General Krulak, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, provided planning guidance that stated the need for a strategic organization to respond to the growing chemical/biological threat. The Commandant’s Warfighting Laboratory developed the concept for the establishment of CBIRF in 1996. As a result of this concept development, CBIRF was formed during the spring of 1996.” [back to article]
Major Houlgate is an infantry officer who has served with 6th Marines, 7th Marines, as an inspector and instructor in 25th Marines, and on The Basic School staff. Currently, he is assigned to the Strategic Initiatives Group in Plans, Policy & Operations, Headquarters Marine Corps.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Coalition Forces Start New Offensive
Associated Press
November 24, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi forces launched a new offensive Tuesday aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds across a cluster of dusty, small towns south of Baghdad.

The series of raids and house searches was the third large-scale military operation this month aimed at suppressing Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.

The assault aims to stem an increase of violence in an area that has been notorious for months as a danger zone. Car bombings, rocket attacks and ambushes have surged in recent weeks - likely in part due to guerrillas who slipped out of the militant stronghold of Fallujah, according to commanders.

Despite the series of offensives, violence continued unabated. Masked gunmen shot to death a Sunni cleric Tuesday in the second such attack against a member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, which has called for a boycott of the national elections.

The cleric, Sheik Ghalib Ali al-Zuhairi, was killed as he left a mosque after dawn prayers in the town of Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.




His assassination occurred a day after another prominent Sunni cleric was killed in the northern city of Mosul - Sheik Faidh Mohamed Amin al-Faidhi, who was the brother of the association's spokesman. It was unclear whether the two attacks were related.

Insurgents hit a U.S. convoy with a roadside bomb near the central Iraq city of Samarra, prompting the Americans to open fire, killing an Iraqi, hospital officials said. Mortar rounds aimed at a nearby U.S. military base injured two children.

Also Tuesday, a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the government of violating terms of the August agreement that ended an uprising by al-Sadr's followers in Najaf.

Ali Smeisim, al-Sadr's top political adviser, made no explicit threats but his remarks raised the possibility of a new confrontation with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which fought heavy battles against the Americans and their Iraqi allies in April and August.

Smeisim accused the government of breaking an agreement not to arrest members of al-Sadr's movement and to release most of those being held in detention. "Iraqi police arrested 160 al-Sadr loyalists in Najaf four days ago," he said.

The joint military operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella, 50 miles south of Baghdad, as Iraqi and American troops, backed by jets and helicopters, swarmed into the region known as the "triangle of death."

At least 32 suspected insurgents were captured in the morning's raids, the U.S. military said. In other joint raids conducted in Iskandariyah and Latifiyah, another 45 suspected terrorists were arrested, said Iraqi police Capt. Hadi Hatif.

Britain's 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, which was brought to the area from the southern city of Basra to aid U.S. forces, was also involved in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west.

Insurgents fired two rockets late Tuesday at the British camp, about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, but caused no damage or casualties, British officials said.

"We believe some fighters from Fallujah skirted away and came down to our area to, among other reasons, take a little bit of pressure off of Fallujah," said Capt. David Nevers, a spokesman for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Another reason for the increase in attacks might also be that Iraqi soldiers and Marines stepped up house-to-house searches and vehicle checkpoints in the area for the last three months, detaining nearly 250 insurgents, he said.

"For the last couple months, we've gone into areas that had formerly not seen a lot of presence ... We went in and stirred up a few hornets nests," Nevers said.

The assault follows the massive offensive against Fallujah, in which at least 54 U.S. troops were killed and 425 wounded.

In the wake of that operation, insurgent attacks throughout central and northern Iraq increased dramatically. Earlier this month, northern Mosul witnessed a mass insurgent uprising, and some 2,400 U.S. and Iraqi troops were sent in to retake control.

Since the Fallujah offensive began Nov. 8, some 850 U.S. servicemembers have been wounded throughout Iraq, bringing the total for the entire war over 9,000, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The new offensive is aimed at stemming the wellspring of violence that has engulfed much of the country ahead of the elections. But the recent attacks against the Sunni clerics, as well as last week's deadly U.S. and Iraqi raid on Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque, raise troubling questions about whether the elections can unify the religious and ethnic divisions in Iraq.

The Association of Muslim Clerics has called for a boycott of the vote, and if many Sunni Arabs refuse to vote, it could undermine the election.

Al-Faidhi, the 41-year-old cleric killed in Mosul on Monday, was the head of a religious school and a popular figure who was well-liked by the Shiite and Kurdish communities in Mosul.

"He was against the American occupation to Iraq but he opposed the use of violence, preferring peaceful means and politics," said family member Mohammed Khadr. "His goal is to unite the Muslims around the world. He insisted on making Kurds part of the community in Mosul and he managed to do that."

Mohammed Bashar al-Faidhi, the slain cleric's brother and an association spokesman in Baghdad, said he believes the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the assassination of his brother, along with "some Iraqi elements."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

November 24, 2004

Deployment durations may be underreported

By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer


Think you’re busier than the head shed realizes? You may be right. Some Marine units are under-reporting the amount of time their Marines have spent deployed, resulting in a less-than-accurate picture of how busy the Corps is, according to manpower officials.
Such oversights are not believed to be intentional. But it is a cause for concern because such data are used to decide which Marines and units will be deployed, said Kerry Cerny, a manpower management analyst with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va.

“We don’t have accurate and complete data on how busy people are,” Cerny said.

Deployment data are only 85 to 90 percent accurate, Corps officials estimate, and they’re asking commanders to report the data more accurately.

The Corps tracks deployment rates for both units and individual Marines. “Operations tempo” reflects a unit’s rate and “deployment tempo” refers to an individual’s rate. Each service has been required to report the “dep tempo” of its members since October 2000.

The Corps measures dep tempo as days deployed away over a two-year period. For example, a typical Marine might have a deployment tempo of more than 300 days nowadays, meaning he has been away for at least that long in the last two years.

The oversight emerged as Corps officials began comparing information found in the service’s personnel system with figures cited by individual Marines.

Before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marines deployed at a “three-to-one ratio,” meaning they typically deployed for six months and were home for 18 months before their next deployment. Now that rate is closer to one-to-one, so a Marine who deploys for seven months is only home for about seven months before deploying again. Cerny said he did not believe this overall rate would be significantly affected by the reporting problem.

Marines can verify the accuracy of their own deployment data through the Marine Online system, Marine officials said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Ditched in the trenches
By Michael Georgy near Fallujah
November 25, 2004

US Marines thousands of kilometres from home in Iraq face ruthless insurgents, a debilitating desert climate and tasteless food. But they dread nothing more than opening the 'Dear John' letter.

"It's so hard when your girlfriend sends you that letter and says goodbye. It just shatters all your childhood notions of romance," said Corporal Samuel Shoemaker, 22, of Shelton, Washington.

"(My girlfriend) wrote me a vague letter about our future but I had no doubt about what she meant. It's the last thing I needed out here. I first met her in grade school. I don't have the stamina to chase her anymore."

Thousands of US Marines launched an offensive this month that crushed Arab Muslim militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists in Fallujah, Iraq's most rebellious city.

But many say victory can't ease heartbreak by letter or email.

"Man I can't believe it," said an infantry Marine, who asked not to be named.

"I was engaged to a woman who I raised our child with for three years. She wrote me a letter to ask whether we could put it on hold so she could have sex with another man. Then she asked me if I could accept her having sex with another woman if I reject the man."

Strict rules of conduct have not stopped Marines from seeking love on base. But it is not always easy and dating Iraqi women is prohibited.

"(Iraqis) hit on us all the time. It is really annoying and we have enough to worry about out here," said Corporal Ann Gorecka, 23, of New York City.

Some Marines do everything they can to avoid the Dear John letter, even if it means being lonely in a country gripped by suicide bombings and kidnappings.

"I planned for it all along by making sure I was single before I came to Iraq. That way it can't happen," said Captain Oscar Marin, 28, of New York City.

But Antonio Figueroa spread the risk.

"I have never been in love so I am safe. But I have about three girlfriends so that if one sends bad news that is fine with me," said the 19-year-old native of Long Island, New York.

Lance Corporal Joc Sims was not so lucky. His girlfriend ended it when he was still in boot camp.

"It just stinks when you get the letter. She was my best friend," he said.

A married officer who asked to remain anonymous said he would welcome a Dear John letter.

"That would be great. God I would be free," he said.

To look at US Marine operations around Fallujah, it is a wonder anyone still has time for romance.

Deafening artillery shells are fired. Mechanics are priming tanks for possible battle. Hundreds of houses are searched for weapons caches.

Corporal Madison Saba, a 22-year-old Marine of Iraqi origin, said she could not understand all the fuss about goodbye letters.

"This is part of life. People should just get on with their work," said Saba, who is single.

Reuters



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Helping pad Marines' packs
CGCC students, faculty send platoon packages

Chris Ramirez
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2004 12:00 AM

Leah Heathcoat is no dentist, but she knows the value of toothpaste.

And razor blades.

Socks, too. advertisement




Even Ramen noodles are important to Heathcoat, especially now.

Why?

Because she knows that the people that she and her fellow college students are giving them to will appreciate them.

Students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College are entering the second month of their Adopt-a-Platoon donation drive. As part of the ongoing campaign, students and faculty members send care packages to a military platoon stationed in Iraq.

The 126 members of Marine Corps.' Engineer Company C were adopted this semester by the Associated Students of Chandler-Gilbert Community College, the college's student government body.

Hundreds of pounds of cards, letters, food, personal hygiene items and underwear were just a few of the items donated by students, staff, faculty, local elementary schools and churches.

"It's so important to continue to support these soldiers as the war carries on," said Heathcoat, the college's student body president. "It's so easy to forget that they're over there, but they need us more than ever right now."

Eighteen care packages were shipped this month, college spokeswoman Trish Neimann said. Students have more than half-a-dozen packages started for December.

Heathcoat said students plan to send care packages every month until the platoon's deployment ends.

Some care packages have made an impression in the Middle East.

Brian McCoic, an Engineer Company C first sergeant, recently wrote the students a letter from Iraq, thanking them for their gesture and care package wares.

"My Marines and I appreciate your support," McCoic wrote. "We will get the job done. The only way we will lose this fight is if the American people get tired or lose heart."

Drop sites were set up at the college's Pecos and Williams campuses and its Sun Lakes Education Center at Alma School and Riggs roads to take donations.

But it's money that's in short supply. Neimann said the students still need cash to help ship more items and are counting on community help.

Information on how to donate to help with shipping: (480) 857-5215 or ascgcc.president@cgcmail.maricopa.edu.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Ellen DeGeneres Honors Troops, Families on Holiday Show
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2004 -- Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres honored America's servicemembers today on her show, during which she presented $1.2 million in cruises to military families, aired messages from deployed troops, and plugged the Pentagon's new "America Supports You" program.

The show, filmed before a live studio audience of deployed troops' families, focused on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and the nation's thanks for the sacrifices its men and women in uniform and their families are making.

DeGeneres and guest host Tom Hanks sent out hearty "hooahs" to the deployed troops and urged Americans to show their support in whatever way they choose. One way, she said, is to tap into the America Supports You Web site and join in one of the many efforts already under way or send a personal note of appreciation to the troops.

During the program, several members of the audience got treated to video clips of their loved ones in Southwest Asia sending holiday messages. Among troops featured were Sgt. Carmine Vuocolo, Sgt. 1st Class David Gant, Staff Sgt. Travis Surprise, Pfc. Mark Jones and Spc. Noah Hale.

Another clip showed DeGeneres and her army of volunteers packing care packages for the troops as part of the United Services Organization's Operation Care Package program.

The icing on the cake was DeGeneres' announcement that Celebrity Cruise Lines was contributing all-expense-paid cruises for four to everyone in the audience. Recipients can choose cruises to either Alaska or Mexico for up to 10 nights.

For Miranda Ellison from Camp Pendleton, Calif., the cruise will be the honeymoon she and her Marine husband, who returns from Iraq in June, never had. Gina Mahal, also from Camp Pendleton, said she feels "lucky and proud and happy for my husband that he gets this reward."

Other audience members said they were delighted by the expressions of support.

"I'm in tears. No words can describe how I feel," said Kathy Broehl from Camp Pendleton, whose husband will return from his deployment in four months. "It makes your heart burst, because you know people care."

"I just want to say, 'God, thank you for Ellen,'" said Zephyr Edgeington from Fort Irwin, Calif., whose husband is due home in June. "It means the world to us to get recognized for the work we do as spouses."

"This was totally amazing. I didn't think so many people cared about our troops and their wives," agreed Leah Bichlmeier, also from Fort Irwin. "Thank you, Ellen. I'll never forget it."

After the show, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber thanked DeGeneres for her support for the troops and presented her an America Supports You dog tag, which features the program's logo.

DeGeneres said she was happy to see military wives singing and dancing and having a great time on the show. It's exactly what she said she was hoping for.

In addition to its regular syndicated audience, the "Ellen" program will reach U.S. servicemembers and their families around the world. The program was aired on the American Forces Network, which is broadcast to servicemembers in 177 countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as military ships at sea.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines in Falluja Find Rebel Leader's Arsenal
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By ROBERT F. WORTH
The New York Times

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 24 - United States marines and Iraqi soldiers today discovered the empty home of Abdullah Janabi, the insurgent leader of this city's mujahedeen council, and his bomb-laden mosque, where they found a massive supply of weapons that dwarfed any of the hundreds of caches yet found, military officials said.

American commanders say they do not believe Mr. Janabi has been in the city for some time, though The Washington Post published an interview with him last week in which he was quoted saying he was still in the city along with other insurgent fighters.

As they comb through the city's houses, search teams of American and Iraqi soldiers have discovered much larger supplies of weapons than they expected, and the need to detonate them safely could delay initial reconstruction efforts under way here, officials said. Explosions can be heard throughout the day as munitions teams detonate the weapons in a quarry north of the city, but some are too dangerous and must be blown up in place.

"We knew there would be ordnance," said Lt. General Richard Natonski, the Marine commander who planned the American strike here, "but what we found exceeded our wildest expectations."

General Natonski took a tour of the Janabi mosque several hours after it was discovered this morning by a company of marines from the Third Battalion, Fifth Regiment. The mosque, in a residential area just north of the main east-west artery known as Highway 10, included at least a dozen brick outbuildings packed with bombs, guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and ammunition. The diversity of the weapons surprised the officers here: in the street outside, a ship mine stood in a puddle.

Just inside the mosque compound was an aluminum shed full of mortars and TNT. Like many weapons depots in Falluja, it had been wired to explode, and had to be carefully dismantled by an American explosives team. Inside the compound was a document explaining how to destroy tanks using rocket-propelled grenades. General Natonski picked up a white pilot's helmet among the mortars and gazed wonderingly at it.

"Did you find any Darth Vader helmets?" he asked the marine captain next to him.

In the mosque caretaker's hut, there were boxes of mortars and bullets, and signs of a life hastily abandoned. A refrigerator stood in the corner, its door open, with eggs and bottles of water visible.

On the top floor of the mosque were nine artillery shells, mixed in with boxes of tile. In the back of the compound was an ice cream truck, its sides colorfully decorated with orange, red and blue popsicles. Inside it was packed with rocket-propelled grenades and bomb-making materials.

"This was probably a traveling I.E.D. factory," General Natonski said, using the military term for improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs.

Mr. Janabi's house, a few blocks away, contained no weapons and was oddly peaceful. Behind the metal gate was a tiled courtyard. Inside, a marble-floored hallway led to a living room with modest brown couches.

On a table were stacks of documents, including passports (the only country he had traveled to recently was Syria, a translator who read the document said) and other identification papers for Mr. Janabi and members of his family. There were letters, including one dated Oct. 20 from the clerical council of Baghdad asking him to negotiate the surrender of Falluja. In a box, there was a Bronze Star, an American military decoration awarded for valor - in all likelihood, the general said, stolen from a convoy.

There was also Mr. Janabi's personal name stamp, used for letters, and a white hat signifying that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca that is expected of devout Muslims at least once in a lifetime, if they can afford it.

Also found in the house were files showing the names of people who had been tortured and executed for cooperating with the Americans and their allies, military officials said.

There were also more than 500 letters from the families of insurgents who had been killed or wounded, asking for compensation from Mr. Janabi, said a military translator on the scene. They included the families of fighters from Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, and about 100 native Fallujans.

Elsewhere, aside from the debris scattered by investigators sifting through Mr. Janabi's possessions, the house was relatively clean and orderly. Upstairs were two red-and-blue tricycles, and a children's primer for learning English. A fridge stood open in the kitchen, with a plate of rice visible inside, three yogurt containers, a half-rotten apricot.

After touring the house, the general sat down to chat briefly in the living room with a dozen officers and marines, including Capt. Drew McNulty, whose men had discovered the house that morning. A detonation shook the windows.

"If you were a glass merchant in this city - ," he said. The men laughed, and there was a pause. General Natonski looked up and smiled. "Who would have thought three or four weeks ago we'd be sitting in Janabi's living room?" he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. Marines amid Fallujah's rubble mull over Iraqi foes and city's future
By KATARINA KRATOVAC
The Associated Press


FALLUJAH, Iraq - At first glance, the U.S. Marines saw nothing extraordinary about a baby crib in the corner of a bombed-out house in Fallujah. But when Lance Cpl. Nick Fenezia threw back the blankets, a Kalashnikov rifle and bulletproof vest lay on the tiny mattress.

"Man, did you have to be just another `muj?'" Fenezia mused of the baby's missing father, employing an American shorthand for Iraq's insurgents - mujahedeen - or Muslim holy warriors. "Couldn't you have stopped shooting at us and watched your baby grow instead?"

U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to fight sporadic gunbattles with rebel holdouts as they clear Fallujah of weapons. But as the battle calms, U.S. forces are reflecting on the fight, their often-unseen foes and the future of a city which lies in ruins.

Fenezia, of Red Bank, New Jersey, also turned up a bayonet, ammunition and a baby photo - all laying amid walls shattered by the Americans' devastating firepower.

A burst of gunfire sounded nearby in southern Fallujah, but the Marines shrugged it off.

"They have no idea what they are shooting at. It's just mental games they play, they know they've lost and there is no way out," says Lance Cpl. Brian Wyer, 21, of Chouteau, Oklahoma. "This is nothing, not after the intense battle here."

U.S. Marine, Army and Iraqi troops opened their Fallujah assault Nov. 8, with massive artillery and air strikes pounding the city before tanks, armored vehicles and troops on foot pushed in from the north.

They fought days of pitched battles with rebels who had been fortifying the city since April, when planners called off a Marine assault amid widespread public outcry over reports of civilian casualties emanating from Fallujah's hospital that U.S. officers call inflated.

The U.S. military says upward of 1,200 insurgents died in the latest offensive and over 1,000 suspects were captured. Over 50 U.S. forces and eight Iraqis died in the fight.

Marines are now getting down to the workaday task of clearing weapons from the city on the banks of the Euphrates River and preparing for the return of civilians who once numbered up to 300,000 by some estimates.


Nationwide elections are scheduled for Jan. 30, but some Marine estimates say Fallujah may not be fully repopulated by then.

As the fight dies down, Marines are finally finding free time to reflect on the furious battle. The Americans wonder how Fallujah could have devolved into what officers say was a center from which rebels spread bombings, beheadings and attacks across Iraq.

Cpl. Perry Bessant, 21, says Marines are "like a detective agency, coming to investigate to put the pieces together of what Fallujah was."

"It was a space for so many foreign fighters, I just can't believe the locals tolerated them," adds Bessant, from Mullins, South Carolina.

"Maybe they were terrified of them, maybe I'd feel like that too if someone said they'd kill my family," replies Staff Sgt. Alexandros Pashos, 38, from New York City.

New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Oklahoma: The Marines' homes are all a far piece from this central Iraq city in the middle of dusty plain, once dominated by Muslim men in red-checkered scarves and black masks who try to kill the American "infidel" invaders.

When Fallujans do return en masse, they will find many parts of their city in ruins, with bank buildings scorched, mosques bombed, shops destroyed, cars burned, doors to their homes forced open and their cupboards and drawers rifled by foreigners.

"It's going to be difficult putting Fallujah together again, but not impossible," said Pashos. "That is the saddest, to have it all come to this, all these people's homes destroyed."

But even before air and ground assault, Fallujah was poor by the Marines' standards, with many of its people living in mud-brick homes in tight, crowded neighborhoods.

"After we rebuild Fallujah, it will be a lot better place to live," said something that was worth our sacrifice," said Wyer, the Oklahoman. "Something that was worth our sacrifice."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Youngsters, war don't mix
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By Frederick J. Chiaventone, a retired Army officer who taught counterterrorism at the U.S. Army's Command & General Staff College
The Chicago Tribune
Published November 25, 2004

A strange and unfortunately not unusual cast of characters emerged in the battered ruins of Fallujah, Iraq. As the Marines moved in to quash the fanatic followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they were confronted again and again by one of the most ruthless beings in the world--the teenager with a gun.

They died in their hundreds as they rushed through the rubble throwing themselves against the muzzles of the Marines' weapons--Marines who in many cases were no older than their enemies. Invariably the Marines won. Why?

For those who have made a study of war, there are few surprises here, but some things emerge that give us an insight into the tactics of al-Zarqawi and his henchmen. Recently I did some interviews with PBS for its "American Experience" series for next season. The topic we were covering was the outlaw Jesse James and how his story is applicable in Fallujah.

Frequently accorded something approaching hero status in American history--a Robin Hood-like figure--the real Jesse James was nothing like his legend. A mere boy of 16 when he joined the rebel guerrilla forces operating in Missouri, James was typical of too many young men around the world today. Intellectually unformed, having grown up in a violent and unsettled region of the country, he was thrown in among some of the most ruthless killers this country has ever produced--"Bloody Bill" Anderson, Fletch Taylor, William Quantrill and Little Archie Clements. Men who lived on the fringes of society in the best of times, these guerrilla leaders, freed from restraints by war, gloried in the death and mutilation of their enemies.

The violent circumstances surrounding James' coming of age may have been unsettled, but the addition of a brutal Civil War and his immersion in a fringe society of killers--whose methods were decried even by the Confederacy they purported to serve--produced a young man who could never find another way of life. For him the gun became the final argument.

Biographer T.J. Stiles in his seminal work on James offers the studies of sociologist Lonnie Athens as a possible reason for James' warped development. Athens calls the process "violentization," in which the youth is subjected first to brutalization in which he sees friends and family members abused. Next comes belligerency, in which the youth decides to "respond to provocations with force." The next logical step in the process has the youth actually inflict pain on another person. The final and irrevocable step sees the youth become "virulent." Rewarded for his anti-social and violent behavior, he is applauded by his companions and "feels enormously powerful--in sharp contrast to the helplessness he had endured at the brutalization stage."

An interesting example of this phenomenon can be seen in the large numbers of young German men who flooded into the French Foreign Legion at the close of World War II. Having received their education at the hands of the Third Reich and served an apprenticeship in the Hitler Youth and in Hitler's crumbling armies, these young men had no occupation or skills beyond those of war. Indochina was flooded with these former boy soldiers.

Again and again we have seen the results of this process. In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot focused on the recruitment of youngsters to swell the ranks of his murderous army. Throughout Central Africa thuggish guerrilla leaders have snatched young boys from their families, pressed AK-47s into their hands and turned them into some of the most ruthless killers ever seen on this planet. Taught that murder, pillage and rapine are the highest marks of manhood, these murderous children have turned many regions of the world into hellish cesspools of conflict. The pattern recurs from the teenage suicide bombers on the West Bank to the fanatics in their early 20s who crashed hijacked airliners into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. An entire generation has been bred for slaughter in the armies of darkness.

In Iraq, the brutal repression of Saddam Hussein's reign began this process. Al-Zarqawi and his minions have attempted to turn the results of Hussein's abuses to their advantage. The streets of Fallujah are full of the results--smoking rubble and fly-infested corpses. Whatever his goals--they remain elusive and unformed--al-Zarqawi's methods are those of a latter-day Peter Pan--recruiting Lost Boys to fight and die, but ultimately indifferent to their fate.

The Marines, too, are young, but they are different. Coming from loving homes and a stable and productive society, they have the advantage of good leadership. Platoon leaders, company commanders, battalion commanders, older, sober and inspired combat leaders, they care deeply for the people they lead. That is the great difference between our leadership and that of the Iraqi insurgents. Our leaders care about their soldiers and the society. And that's why we will win.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

69-year-old Alabama doctor eager to return to Iraq
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By SAMIRA JAFARI
Associated Press Writer
November 25, 2004

Dr. John Wicks was 68 when he deployed to Iraq. One birthday and a blood clot later, he's itching to get back.

"I considered myself fit to serve and I still do," he said in a phone interview with The Associated Press from Fort Bliss, Texas where he's being treated for a blood clot in his right leg. "You know, 60 is the new 40. ...People need to stop think of age 40 as middle age."

Wicks, a psychiatrist at North Alabama Regional Hospital in Decatur, volunteered to serve in Iraq last fall and was called up a few months later. In July, the retired National Guard colonel arrived at a base in Bilad, Iraq where he evaluated soldiers for post-combat stress.

A blood clot in his leg from dehydration forced him to return to Fort Bliss for treatment. And while his family was excited to have him home for the holidays, he had hoped to stay in Iraq until at least January.

He shuns any notion that the blood clot was a result of his aging body, and blames himself for not drinking enough fluids to combat the harsh climate of the desert nation.

"Older people will be sensitive to dehydration but it could happen to anyone," he insisted.

But the 69-year-old doesn't deny that age takes a toll on even the toughest of soldiers. Wicks considers himself quite fit compared to most people flirting with 70 and sticks to a regimen of bike riding and working out three days a week.

He endured the 120-degree heat, sleepless nights and blasts from mortar shells as well as the younger members of his unit. At first, he took a little ribbing from younger soldiers who learned of his age, but he also enjoyed a greater level of respect and found many younger officers looking up to him.

"I think I got a lot of publicity because of that and fair amount of teasing. But when it was all over with and I put it behind me, the other soldiers in my unit didn't harp on that," Wicks said.

But at the end of the day, "I would get tired, fatigue was a factor I wasn't counting on."

The Gulf War veteran, whose previous military experience includes two years active duty with the Marines and 18 years in the Alabama National Guard, noticed changes within himself as he settled into his work in Iraq.

He says he felt more patient and tolerant during the most stressful of days, when wounded soldiers asked for help in dealing with horrific visions and memories of bloody blasts that left comrades dead.

"I was more understanding toward the soldiers, I had more empathy toward their situations and the time."

In some respects, Desert Storm was easier for Wicks. Back then, he was working with soldiers he had trained with for some 15 years and their expertise in mental health care and medicine was fine-tuned. Plus, Desert Storm was much shorter, while he sees no end in the fighting in Iraq.

"Desert Storm, was so brief, it was over with very short period of time. We treated a number of patients (in Kuwait), but very few of our own. We treated a lot of enemy casualties and then it was all over with," he said. "This thing is going to drag on it looks like."

Wicks' return to active duty started with a postcard the Army sent last fall that explained the need for specialists and asked if he felt he was fit to serve. He carried the card in his pocket and agonized about it for weeks before feeling ready to check "yes."

Though he committed himself to serving until at least January, Wicks' condition and medication prevents him from returning to combat. He says the Army will probably keep him on U.S. soil, filling in for other doctors serving overseas.

"I'm still an asset to the Army in United States," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines have Thanksgiving in 'death triangle'
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November 25 2004 at 06:20PM

Fallujah - United States troops in the Iraqi rebel hot spot of Fallujah on Thursday settled down to a dinner of mashed potatoes and steak in a low-key celebration of the American Thanksgiving holiday.

"Happy Thanksgiving Marines," said a staff sergeant as he scooped gravy from a green plastic food cooler in an abandoned youth centre in the town that was this month the scene of fierce battles as US-led forces ousted insurgents.

Elsewhere in the building other Marines stood in line waiting to say hello to family back in the United States during a live feed to major US television networks.

"It gives them an opportunity to share a little bit with back home amidst all the hardship and danger," said Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert.

One young Marine stood in front of a camera and toyed with a microphone while he waited to go live in an disused auditorium hastily converted into an impromptu stage.

It was bitterly cold in the devastated city, and occasional blasts could be heard beyond the youth centre's walls, over which loom the blasted facades of buildings shelled and burned during the fighting.

Across Iraq, US soldiers were trying to take some down-time to mark Thanksgiving, which is a feast that encourages Americans to step back for a moment and give thanks for all the blessings they have.

Army canteens across the war-torn country were offering special meals to the troops, but it was unlikely that many would be able to serve the traditional goose or turkey dinner followed by pumpkin pie.

South of Baghdad, thousands of Marines were involved in the latest major anti-insurgent operation in the so-called triangle of death, codenamed Operation Plymouth Rock.

The codename comes from the place where a group of English pilgrims landed in America in 1620.

Their first year in America was tough, but a year after they arrived they were able to relax a little because of the bumper harvest of the crops they had planted, and so they initiated the Thanksgiving feast.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Absent from table, not hearts
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By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

Clasping hands around the oval table and bowing their heads in prayer, the Job family of Issaquah gave thanks for the turkey feast spread out in front of them - even for the mashed cauliflower.

And, in a soft voice, Eric Job asked God's continued protection for the family member missing, a young man who looms large in the thoughts of those present and who looks out from photos on and around the refrigerator.

The Jobs don't know exactly where their son, Marine Cpl. Aaron Job, will be this Thanksgiving Day. Or what kind of dinner he'll have. Or whether he'll have a chance to call or e-mail home.

But however he spends today, the 21-year-old will be in the hearts and prayers of those at home - as will thousands of men and women serving in Iraq.

"We are thankful that God is watching over him," said Eric Job, 53. "We're thankful for the hundreds of people who are praying for him."

Thanksgiving was celebrated early at the Job (pronounced JOBE) home this year, timed to a visit by their older son, Ryan, 23, home from a break in his training as a Navy SEAL.

The family recently traveled to San Diego to see Ryan's graduation from "BUD/S," the acronym for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school. In his months of rigorous training, Ryan battled back from an infected leg cut and a ruptured eardrum.

Now, after getting to spend about a week at home, he has headed for the next step in his training, jump school at Fort Benning, Ga. "I've flown airplanes but I've never jumped out of one," said Ryan, who earned a private pilot's license after flying lessons in high school.

Besides completing BUD/S, Ryan said he's grateful for recent word that, when he finishes his training, he'll continue to be based at San Diego. "It was a 50-50 chance, East Coast or West Coast," he said.

Ryan expects to be deployed overseas eventually, and in this family with a tradition of military service, he said he looks forward to the challenge.

But the San Diego assignment means that when Ryan's not deployed, he'll still be close to Aaron's home base, Camp Pendleton.

Though they scrapped as youngsters, the two have forged an ever-strengthening bond. Between Aaron's Iraq deployments - when he was at Camp Pendleton from September 2003 until May 2004 - the two spent virtually every weekend together, often just watching movies and relaxing.

"I have a best friend who is also my brother," Ryan said.

Eric and Debbie Job know the tension and uncertainty that go along with having a loved one in a war zone. Devout Christians, they place their trust in God that Aaron will return safely from Iraq, just as he did after a five-month deployment there last year.

There have been close calls. Aaron suffered a hand wound, and lost several comrades, in fighting in August at Najaf, where his company continues to be based, training members of the Iraqi National Guard.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Although the Job family is cautious about any mention of return dates - Aaron's return from Iraq last year was delayed several times - a military spokeswoman said most of his 2,000-plus member 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is expected home "somewhere around the February 2005 timeframe."

The Job's third child, daughter Kelsie, is a junior at Sammamish's Skyline High School who is also taking a history class at Bellevue Community College.

Kelsie, 17, is thankful "that Aaron hasn't been seriously hurt and that we've been able to talk to him. Even though he doesn't call very much and we don't get letters all that often, we're still able to talk to him some."

She sent her brother some music CDs, an assortment of stuff, she said, like soundtracks from "Top Gun" and "Rocky." "He thought it was kind of funny that we like the same kind of music."

When Eric Job counts his blessings, "I'm particularly thankful I've been blessed with such a good wife. She is kind of the rock that I lean on."

He and Debbie Job, 46, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in September, traveling to Bend, Ore., where they spent their honeymoon.

Besides her children's safety, Debbie Job is thankful for the support she's found from the Washington State Marine Moms Online Web page, www.groups.yahoo.com/group/WaMMO. "There's a core group of us that have become very close, and I can't imagine not having them."

The affinity she feels for other military mothers has prompted her to travel to the funerals of Marines as far away as Yakima and Vancouver.

She has her e-mail set up so that she gets a message each time the Department of Defense identifies a U.S. soldier or Marine killed in Iraq, and she knows other Marine mothers who do the same.

"I have to know," she says simply.

Debbie Job, who works as an elementary-school teachers' aide a few days a month, is keeping her emotions in check on the subject of Aaron's return date.

Last year, she found out his return would be delayed just after she had purchased plane tickets for the family to greet him in California.

"When it gets closer, I'll probably get excited, but still cautious, wondering if it's going to change."

Eric Job said the fact Ryan is nearing completion of his training means that before too long, they may have another son in a combat zone to worry about.

"We know that will start a whole new phase. And we'll just deal with it when it comes." he said. "But right now, we have a lot to be thankful for."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Thanksgiving maneuvers
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By Chris Kenning
The Courier-Journal

After spending the past year sweating through basic training, eating chow-hall food and learning to operate an M1-Abrams tank, Joshua Flesher had hoped to go home for Thanksgiving.

But the 20-year-old Marine stationed at Fort Knox couldn't afford the trip to visit his family in Montana.

His disappointment didn't show last night, however, as he and three other Marines tucked into a spaghetti dinner at the New Albany, Ind., home of hosts they had just met. And that was just the start of a home-style holiday weekend.

Flesher is one of at least seven stranded Fort Knox Marines being temporarily adopted by area families. They will be treated to a weekend of turkey, shopping, sleeping late, watching football and helping with a Marine-sponsored toy drive.

"If it wasn't for them, I'd be standing duty right now," Flesher said last night.

It's all part of "Operation Turkey," which has placed about a dozen Marines with families each of the past five years.

The idea was born in 1972, when Louisville resident Mary Broussard was a young Marine resigned to a lonely Thanksgiving weekend in the barracks in Quantico, Va.

When a family invited her and 30 other stranded members of the military to a holiday dinner at their home, she eagerly accepted. They swam in an indoor pool, ate turkey and had a "wonderful time," she recalled.

Now a retired lieutenant colonel, Broussard has been repaying that favor for Marines who can't get home for the holiday.

"Nobody wants to be in the barracks at Thanksgiving," she said. Many of her military guests over the years have been teenagers away from home during the holidays for the first time, she said.

"Last year we had five or six. They took over my kitchen and wouldn't let anybody do dishes. They were so polite," she said. "One night we took them to rent videos. It was very loud - a lot of shoot-'em-up stuff. They were up until 2 a.m. I said, `Sleep as much as you want, this is like home.'"

Most of those in the program this year recently finished boot camp and are enrolled in Fort Knox's Marine tank gunnery school. Many likely will ship off to Iraq when they finish, Broussard said.

One is Pfc. Robert Burson, 19, who said he didn't have the money to return to his family in Louisiana.

John Heffley, a Shepherdsville, Ky., plumber and former Marine who also has military guests, said "Operation Turkey" has taken on greater meaning this year because of the war in Iraq.

"We lend a certain friendship to them, instead of them sitting in the barracks and letting the fear and anxiety build up," said Heffley, whose two teenage boys love to talk to the guests and challenge them to video games.

Richard Taylor, who has a son serving in Afghanistan, drove to Fort Knox yesterday from his New Albany home to fetch Flesher and the other Marines he had never met.

"They're Marines. That's all we need to know," Taylor said, adding that he and his wife, Helen, had stocked up on turkey, stuffing and potatoes for the weekend.

During the weekend, the Marines will also help with a Toys-for-Tots donation drive during Light Up Louisville and volunteer at a private party benefiting the drive tomorrow.

Flesher has been in the Marines less than a year and expects to head to Iraq next spring. Before then, he plans to see his family in Great Falls over the Christmas holiday.

After arriving at the Taylor home last night, Flesher unloaded his green duffel bag as Helen Taylor stood in the kitchen stirring a giant pot of spaghetti sauce with meatballs. Two of the four Marines will spend the weekend at another couple's house but they lined up to heap plates full of the home-cooked meal.

"They asked me if I'd like to be adopted, and I said, `Sounds cool,'" said 18-year-old Pvt. Branden Kruse, who couldn't make it home to Illinois this weekend. "And it is."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Mess hall caters to tradition
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November 25, 2004
KELLEY CANER
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Camp Lejeune is making sure no one celebrates Thanksgiving without the usual family traditions: embracing togetherness and throwing diet plans out the window.

Today, Mess Hall 211 at Camp Lejeune will be packed with dozens of hungry Marines who aren't going home for the holiday but want a home-cooked meal nonetheless.

"The three most important things to a Marine are money, food and mail," said mess hall manager Christa Franklin. "If they don't get those, they can get very unhappy."

Franklin and her crew of civilian chefs began preparing for the feast yesterday. They want to make their Thanksgiving meal as close as possible to grandmother's.

Number 211 is one of three mess halls at Camp Lejeune serving Thanksgiving grub. Cooks arrive as early as 7 a.m. to get ready for dinner, which is expected to serve around 250 Marines between 3 and 5 p.m.

"The chow hall is not a last-resort deal anymore," Franklin said. "We serve a good meal on Thanksgiving; it's not their mother's meal, but all the traditional Thanksgiving foods are served."

Among some of the mess halls' customary delights are roast beef and turkey, baked ham, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie - all for $5.40.

Most importantly, they can come back for seconds - or thirds and fourths. Franklin and the crew believe in liberal servings on the day of unbridled gluttony.

Four mess hall cooks prepared today's meal, along with 12 outsourced employees who help serve food, bus tables and maintain the salad bar. Prepping began Wednesday at 4 a.m., but most of the food was made early this morning to ensure freshness.

"We try to give a family touch because we know they can't go home," said assistant manager Theresa Pollock. "We try to make it feels like home because, well, this is their home."

Sometimes Thanksgiving patrons are moody because they wish they could be with their families, Pollock said, but the mess hall staff does everything they can to make them smile and feel just as fat and happy as they would be at their parents' house.

"I have a son, and whenever he's not at home, I know someone else is making him feel at home," Pollock said. "That's my job, too."

So what does it take to feed 250 hungry Marines on Thanksgiving? According to Franklin, about 80 pounds of roast beef, 80 pounds of turkey, between 50 and 75 pounds of ham, and just about that much cornbread dressing and mashed potatoes - plus all the other trimmings.

And most of these cooks will be making the same meal twice.

Deborah Washington of Hubert, Vicki Lewis of Holly Ridge and Tara Anderson of Jacksonville will be up to their elbows all day in turkey and giblet gravy, cooking for both the troops and their own relatives as well. Each got a jumpstart Wednesday.

"All of us love to cook, so it's not a problem," said Lewis, whose specialties are potato salad, stuffing and candied yams. "That's why we've been here since 4 a.m."

Another duty for the cooks is creating a sense of closeness and love. It's nice to step out of the kitchen once in a while to greet the patrons and make sure they are enjoying their meal, said Washington.

"My family loves my cooking," said Washington. "Last year's dinner (at the mess hall) was very peaceful. It was a joyful day. I just put a big smile on my face and fixed everything just the way I would if I were at home."

The mess hall tries to make any type of holiday enjoyable for its customers, not only because these people are missing their families but because sometimes they need a reminder of what day it is.

"Sometimes they forget it's even Thanksgiving," Franklin said. "They get wrapped up in every-day events, and they need someone to let them know it's a special day today."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Hail to the chefs at the USO <br />
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November 25, 2004 <br />
TIMMI TOLER <br />
DAILY NEWS STAFF <br />
<br />
If you've got to prepare enough...

[thedrifter]

Wounded troops heal over holiday
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By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 25, 2004

Pfc. Roberto Cisneros and Lance Cpls. Philip Schermer and T.J. Yonan are spending Thanksgiving recovering from physical wounds that might never heal completely.

The Marines' will, however, remains unshaken.

A tank mine in Iraq shattered Schermer's right heel so badly Oct. 12 that doctors had to fuse his foot to his ankle. A month later, a bullet fractured Cisneros' spine in three places and left his legs weak. On Nov. 15, a bullet blew a hole in Yonan's left wrist large enough to obliterate a tattoo of the Chinese character for trust.

The three are among 18 service members, mostly Marines from Camp Pendleton, being cared for in two wards at the San Diego Naval Medical Center. The hospital in Balboa Park held a holiday meal for them yesterday, with family members in attendance for a few of the Marines.

At one point, a patient from another part of the hospital came by to thank Schermer for his service in Iraq.

But not all the Marines felt up to enjoying fruit punch and candy canes.

Here, war-torn Marines can be found filling beds with white blankets pulled up to their chins or walking the halls connected to IV drips or in white casts, their fingers stained brown by anti-bacterial scrub.

It's been like this for months. Some weeks there are more Marines, some weeks there are fewer. These days, with offensives being launched by U.S. troops across Iraq, it's more.

Sixteen patients arrived Friday alone. Most had been wounded during recent house-to-house combat in Fallujah.

Navy Capt. Amy G. Wandel, who heads the center's plastic surgery department, said most of the 50 or 60 patients she's seen since June had suffered blast injuries to their arms and legs severe enough to retard movement or feeling.

With about 20,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar serving in Iraq, coupled with Marine-led offensives in that country, there is no shortage of patients.

"When I read . . . that there's been more fighting, I know we are going to see more injured Marines seven to 10 days later," Wandel said before heading into the operating room. "There have really been a lot more wounded in 2004, and the majority are from Pendleton."

So many, in fact, that the medical center has curtailed elective surgery and occasionally has opened a new ward for the injured from Iraq. Hospital officials are also looking to add a plastic surgeon to the staff.

Schermer, a 20-year-old reservist from Mobile, Ala., has endured so many operations that he's lost count.

"It's either eight or nine," including the skin grafts and procedures for his ankle, he said, squinting his ice-blue eyes.

Schermer knows his Marine career is over. So does Cisneros, 24. Yonan, 22, is getting out, too.

Despite the wounds and cloudy future, there is little or no obvious despair here.

"I'm just absolutely humbled by these young men," said Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Yonan, 42, T.J.'s father. "The pain that they are in and the dozens of operations they've faced, they are still very positive. A lot of them would go back (to Iraq) tomorrow if they could."

Schermer and Cisneros said they wished they were back in Iraq.

"I left my team behind. I feel guilty that I had to leave early when there is so much to be done," said Cisneros, his wife sitting next to him and his son sleeping close by. "I know I did my part, but I wish I were there with them now."

In a nearby room, Schermer said: "I felt worse (about) leaving my friends behind than the blast. You know what they are going through, and it kills me not to be over there.

"The people who are here are lucky. I feel extremely lucky that I am alive. I might never walk the same again, but that's OK because I'm going to be able to experience life."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

County supervisor goes off half-cocked in Iraqi shooting <br />
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San Diego Union-Tribune <br />
November 25, 2004 <br />
<br />
Bill Horn,...