Judge Says Soldier Must Return To Iraq [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

12-09-04, 07:18 AM

Soldiers Who Refused Convoy Mission Won't be Required to Face Court-Martial

By Ron Jensen,
Stars and Stripes European Edition

LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Iraq — None of the soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company who refused to go on a convoy mission in October will face a court-martial, unless an individual soldier requests one.

Instead, the 23 soldiers from the Rock Hill, S.C., Army Reserve unit will face Article 15 nonjudicial punishments or other administrative actions, said Maj. Richard Spiegel, a spokesman for the 13th Corps Support Command, the parent headquarters of the 343rd.

The final five cases were decided last week after the conclusion of an investigation into the Oct. 13 incident to determine if the soldiers’ actions violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The other 18 involved all chose to receive nonjudicial punishment and the military is not required to release what punishments were meted out.

“After consulting with a lawyer, the soldiers can proceed with the Article 15 or demand a court-martial,” said Spiegel.

At the time, the soldiers refused to drive fuel and water trucks from Tallil Air Base, their home in southern Iraq, to Taji, a base north of Baghdad. After the incident, an Army statement said the soldiers “raised some valid concerns.”

Soldiers refused the orders because not all of the vehicles were armored, some vehicles were in poor condition and the route, known as Main Supply Route Tampa, was rife with ambushes, roadside bombs or both, according to military and news reports in October.

Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of 13th COSCOM, immediately ordered a stand-down of the unit for a safety and maintenance check. He also asked for two investigations: One to determine if the UCMJ had been violated, and one to determine if there was a systemic problem.

The result of the second investigation, done by 13th COSCOM officials, could not be released until the other legal process had been completed, said Spiegel, citing the Privacy Act for soldiers involved.

The unit’s company commander, whose name has not been released, was relieved of duty following the incident “at her request,” Spiegel said. None of the soldiers who refused the order have been identified as well.

Under an Article 15, a solder faces a possible combination of penalties, including: A reduction to the lowest rank for specialists and below or reduction by one rank for sergeants and staff sergeants; extra duty for up to 45 days; and forfeiture of a half-month’s pay for two months.

Spiegel declined to speculate on why none of the soldiers will face a court-martial.

Refusing an order during war time could have been considered mutiny and is punishable by death or prison, according to the UCMJ.

“There was a full, complete investigation into what happened,” he said. “Based on that investigation, the commander of the 300th ASG (Col. Pamela Adams) took the action she felt was appropriate. She has seen all the facts. This is what she felt was appropriate.”

The group received an outpouring of support from family in the States and from some stationed in Iraq and Kuwait.

“There are troops who support you and believe you did the right thing,” one soldier in Kuwait in had said in Stars and Stripes. “You took a stand, not just for yourselves, but for every member of the military.”

Others said they understood why the soldiers refused the order, but, at the time, questioned their methods.

Others who perform the same duty as those in the 343rd thought the punishment should have been harsher.

“I feel that’s quite unfortunate,” said Sgt. Hans Ressdorf of the 655th Transportation Company, also a reserve unit, when told the soldiers would not face courts-martial. “Mission first. [Their actions] were totally un-military. You’re given a mission, you’ve got to do the mission.”

His colleague in the unit based at Camp Cedar in Iraq and from Memphis, Tenn., agreed.

“We have a job to do,” said Sgt. Alex Buchschacher. “Saying, ‘No, we’re not going to do that mission’ should be more than an Article 15.”

He said his company has driven that same route many times without armored vehicles.

“It’s still one mission, one fight,” he said.

The process now is in the hands of the soldiers who must decide if they will accept the nonjudicial punishment or take it to a court-martial, Spiegel said.

If they face the Article 15 hearing, Spiegel said, soldiers will be allowed to present witnesses on their behalf and plead their case.

The unit went back to work Nov. 11 and all the soldiers are back on the job, Spiegel said.

“All the soldiers are back to full duty,” he said. “Some of them were moved to other units in the battalion. That was done to preserve the integrity of the investigation.”

The unit, he said, is back to performing its mission of delivering fuel and water.

“They’ve been doing an exemplary job, no issues,” Spiegel said.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 07:19 AM

Marines in Fallujah 'Get By' With Armor

By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - Marines patrolling the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah — some in open Humvees — say they've had some close calls, but "get by well" with the vehicle and body armor they have.

I think the armor we have for the vehicles is getting better and our body armor is OK, I have nothing against it," Sgt. Aaron D'Amico said Wednesday.

Told about complaints from disgruntled soldiers who told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld earlier Wednesday they lacked armored vehicles and other equipment, D'Amico said: "I'd definitely opt for higher production of armor but the Marines get by well with what we have."

D'Amico, 24, of Cleveland, Ohio, said his unit, the 1st Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment, received new, upgraded vehicle armor a year ago, with Kevlar-protected seats. D'Amico's only complaint is that the open-roof Humvee provides no protection at the back.

The armor the Marines receive is "usually leftovers from the Army, the Army usually gets the better stuff," he added.

In November, U.S. deaths in Iraq (news - web sites) reached 135, equaling the all-time high previously reached in April. Hundreds more were wounded. At least 54 deaths occurred during the Marine-led assault on Fallujah.

D'Amico said his closest call occurred four months ago in the town of Haditha in central Iraq, when a roadside bomb blew up by the side of his vehicle.

The blast and flying shrapnel nicked the side armor of the Humvee door but injured no one inside.

D'Amico said it was not just the vehicle armor that saved them, but also the bomb-makers' lack of skill in planting the device too deep to cause serious damage.

Cpl. Adam Golden, 21, of New York, agreed the armor they have is serving them well, but said he would prefer "castled-in armor," especially armor over the Humvee's open canopy.

"Our body armor stops appropriate rounds and it works great to save lives," added Golden. "There are always places you could get hit, such as on the sides of your chest or in the armpits. I know a lot of guys who got hit there."

He believes such body armor is now being designed but has not yet reached the troops.

Cpl. Joshua Munns said it isn't easy to make the best armor.

"It has to be tested against the heaviest weapons infantry would encounter," said Munns, 21, of Redding, Calif.

"The vehicle floor Kevlar, for example is not meant to stop an explosion but prevents the vehicle floor from breaking apart on the inside," Munns added.

Asked whether he would prefer a closed Humvee with bulletproof windows, Munns said "it's a yes-and-no answer."

"An enclosed vehicle reduces your visibility and if you are not able to see an attack you might as well have no armor at all," he said. "It needs to be a fine balance between visibility and protection."

Munns said he prefers mobility over the weight of extra body armor.

The three Marines agree that the most exposed person is their gunner in the turret.

"He has to think about the bigger stuff, he is up there, more exposed than any of us," Munns noted.

On the other side of the base, Capt. Joe Winslow, 36, of Dallas, said it is not so much the armor but the tactics of the Marines that has been a lifesaver.

"It's the aggressive convoy procedures, paying attention to the basics, vigilance by the gunner and the driver," said Winslow.

Winslow said he had just seen footage of the soldiers' exchange with Rumsfeld on television and was "surprised" because the armor we have is "top notch."

"I don't know why they said what they said. I can't speak for another person," he said.

"Every time I go outside the base, I am aware that what keeps me safe is not only in the equipment I have but in the mentality of being a Marine," said Gunnery Sgt. Mike Ritchie.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 07:19 AM

Marines to Boost Security in Saudi Arabia

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - A team of U.S. Marines has arrived in this Red Sea port to assist in security at a U.S. Consulate that came under attack this week by Islamic militants, an American Embassy official said Thursday.

The anti-terrorism security team arrived Wednesday, embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said.

She provided no details, but such teams typically include 50 Marines and are expert in providing security and conducting raids in urban areas, Marine officials in the United States have said. The teams often are deployed in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. In Jiddah, they will reinforce the consulate's defenses.

The State Department has warned that more terror attacks are possible in the kingdom.

The U.S. military ordered the anti-terrorism security team to Jiddah after five militants shot their way into the facility Monday, killing five non-American employees. Four Marines were believed to have been inside when the consulate was attacked. U.S. officials have not said if the Marines were involved in the gunfire exchanges.

Four of the attackers were killed and one was wounded and in police custody.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said authorities are interrogating the injured attacker — whose identity has not been released — and questioning security officials and witnesses.

Okaz newspaper, which is close to the Interior Ministry, showed pictures of what it said were the bodies of two of the attackers. Both were on their backs, with their arms stretched out to the side.

One, wearing a dark blue shirt and beige pants, had a thick black beard and appeared to have been shot in his left forearm. The other was in a purple top and dark pants, with blood on his face and left forearm.

Two other photos showed overturned white lawn chairs scattered on top of a charred surface.

Journalists have not been permitted inside the compound. The consulate remains closed to the public, but was expected to reopen in coming days.

Saudi Arabia cracked down on Muslim extremists after the May 2003 bombings of three residential compounds in Riyadh, the attacks that brought terrorism home to the kingdom. Officials and diplomats say the militants' capabilities have diminished but warn of the possibility of further attacks.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 07:20 AM

U.S. Combat Deaths In Iraq Hit 1,001
Associated Press
December 9, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Guerrillas carried out a series of raids in the city of Samarra on Wednesday, stealing weapons from a police station, blowing it up, and exchanging fire with police and U.S. troops. At least five Iraqis were killed, and the city police chief resigned.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. military said the number of American combat deaths in Iraq since the start of the war rose to 1,001; the latest reported was a soldier slain by small-arms fire in Baghdad on Tuesday. The total number who have died since March 2003 is 1,278, according to an Associated Press tally.

Underscoring security concerns, the Interior Ministry backed interim Prime Ministry Ayad Allawi's reported proposal to spread elections planned for Jan. 30 over up to three weeks in hopes of allowing people to vote safely. The decision ultimately belongs to Iraq's electoral commission; a top official there said Allawi had not mentioned the idea.

Insurgents have threatened to target the upcoming vote and already are waging a deadly campaign against security forces and police, killing dozens of people.

The fighting in Samarra, a city 60 miles from Baghdad, began when gunmen stormed a police station, looted its armory and then blew up the building, police said. A policeman and a child standing nearby were killed in clashes before the insurgents fled.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car near Bradley fighting vehicles parked outside an American base in Samarra, wounding an Iraqi civilian, and insurgents attacked American forces elsewhere in the city with machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades. No U.S. casualties were reported.

At about the same time, American soldiers came under attack by small-arms fire near a traffic intersection, but no one was hurt. The soldiers began checking cars and fired at two vehicles that failed to stop, killing both drivers, the military said.

In violence elsewhere, police clashed with gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, killing four militants. In Ramadi, a Sunni city west of the capital, fighting broke out between insurgents and U.S. troops. A hospital official said three civilians were killed.

Samarra was once overrun by militants, but the U.S. military retook it in September and October. Though violence there has persisted, Iraqi officials have said the city has been an example of how the Americans and the interim government can restore order in communities reclaimed from the insurgents.

Residents, however, say many police in Samarra are refusing to work, fearing insurgents will target them. On Wednesday, Samarra's police chief announced he was resigning; his house was attacked earlier in the day and he said his family had asked him to quit.

"When I felt that I wasn't carrying out my duties as I should, I had to give an opportunity for someone else to carry on," Maj. Gen. Talib Shamel al-Samarrai said.

Resignations of top police officials and continuing assaults on police have raised questions about next month's vote to choose a 275-seat assembly, whose primary task will be drafting a permanent constitution for this overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

Several political groups representing Sunni Muslims, who make up 20 percent of Iraq's population, are calling for the vote to be postponed.

Allawi was quoted in Belgium's Le Soir newspaper on Tuesday as saying Iraq might consider holding the vote over three weeks to defuse the threat and better protect polling stations.

"Everyone - Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Turkomen - should be able to take part in the vote," he was quoted as telling the newspaper. "That is why I think we can see elections spread over 15 days, or 20."

It was the first time such a proposal had been reported publicly, and drew immediate support from the Interior Ministry, which called it "an excellent idea."

However, the head of the electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi, said no one had come to him with the idea. "The commission hasn't been informed of anything in that regard," he said. "We haven't received anything. How can we study it if we haven't received it?"

Also Wednesday, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun made a surprise visit to northern Iraq, where 3,600 South Korean troops are stationed, his office said. And British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon met with British soldiers in the south of the country. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld saw American troops in Kuwait, and was questioned closely about long deployments and a lack of armor.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 08:22 AM

Before Marines, Bush offers assurances
Pep talk geared to boost morale as tours lengthen
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | December 8, 2004

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Seeking to buck up troops amid signs of growing impatience with extended tours of duty, President Bush told Marines yesterday to expect more attacks on US forces in the run-up to next month's Iraqi elections, but assured them that their cause is just and the United States will prevail in establishing a democratic Iraq.

ADVERTISEMENT
''As election day approaches, we can expect further violence from the terrorists," Bush said. ''The terrorists understand what is at stake."

But while stressing the importance of the mission in Iraq, Bush took pains to express gratitude to the Marines and their families, saying at one point, ''In a season where Americans stop to count their blessings, I want you to know one of America's greatest blessings is the men and women who wear our nation's uniform."

Bush flew cross-country to Southern California yesterday to deliver a pep talk to troops and their families on the 63d anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which thrust America into World War II.

The visit came amid troubling signals about the morale of American forces, with the holiday season approaching and families strained further with more troops slated to be sent to Iraq.

Troops who originally were told they would serve 10-month deployments in Iraq have seen their tenures extended to a year or longer. On Monday, eight Army soldiers who have been forced to serve longer than their initial commitments sued the government over the so-called stop-loss policy, which allows the military to keep troops in the field if their units remain deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Though specialists in military law say that suit is unlikely to succeed, it highlights a troubling issue that Bush may have to confront throughout his second term. With the military spread thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with Bush committed to an all-volunteer army, the administration must be careful to maintain the morale of the troops.

''There's going to be more strain on them, and many don't feel like they've been treated fairly," said retired US Army Colonel Paul Hughes, a senior military fellow at the National Defense University.

Bush spoke yesterday to more than 2,000 members of the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, a base that has suffered about 200 of the more than 1,200 American military deaths in the Iraq war.

The unit Bush addressed has 21,000 troops serving in Iraq, many engaged in dangerous house-to-house weapons searches in Fallujah. Before flying back to Washington yesterday afternoon, the president also had lunch with troops in the mess hall, and spent time with the families of Marines who were killed in combat.

Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said the president takes his role in shoring up morale seriously, particularly during the holidays. He is scheduled to visit wounded troops on Saturday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

''It is important to keep the spirits high of the troops and their families," Duffy told reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday. ''The president views his relationship as commander-in-chief of the troops very importantly, and he invests a great deal of time in upholding morale."

ADVERTISEMENT
Another White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, deflected questions about the lawsuit by pointing out that all troops volunteered for their service.

''We're at war against terrorism. It's important that we win this war," he said. ''We appreciate the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. And these are difficult issues sometimes that the Department of Defense has to work to address."

Bush's speech was received enthusiastically, with whoops and shouts of ''oo-rah" from the crowd in response to descriptions of Marines' exploits. Bush praised their efforts in Iraq, crediting them with saving American and Iraqi lives by helping topple Saddam Hussein.

''You helped liberate the Iraqi capital, pulled down the statues of the dictator, and pushed north to secure the homeland of Tikrit," the president said. ''You drove Saddam Hussein from his palace into a spider hole, and now he sits in an Iraqi prison awaiting justice."

Bush also encouraged Americans to express support for troops in combat, and urged them to visit a Defense Department website to coordinate such activities. ''We should be doing more," he said.

Bush was by far the preferred presidential candidate of members of the military and their families; some polls showed him to be a 3-1 or 4-1 favorite over Democrat John F. Kerry. But his relationship with the armed forces hasn't been uniformly positive.

The extended deployments in combat zones have been unpopular, and Bush drew fire during the presidential campaign for seeking to deny new health benefits to middle-income veterans.

Moreover, soldiers who were told by the administration that they would be greeted as liberators in Iraq are still facing daily violence, Hughes said.

''If he really wants to buck up morale, let's put some honesty into his statements about the war," he said. ''A lot of us see a guy go up and pump out a lot of hot air when he's talking to the troops. Words are cheap. We want to see that people are really concerned for soldiers and their families."

But Karen Guenther, president and cofounder of the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, said the fact that Bush took the time to thank Marines is ''priceless" to many military families.

''It means the world to our Marines and our families," said Guenther, who flew in from Providence for yesterday's speech. ''We sacrifice so much, and it warms our hearts to see his appreciation for our sacrifices, and for our husbands' sacrifices."

Ellie

Alan Hall

12-09-04, 08:41 AM

What is wrong with these people,most of us would give anything to be over there helping our brothers.They say Marines like killing it's not that we like it, it's our job,I come to work every day I don't like it but it's my job.The Marines aren't whinning why is the army?When you enlist in the military you do it on their terms not yours.I would much rather die in combat than in my bed or vehicle,Wake up ARMY(remember it's not a job it's an adventure).Semper Fi Marines.

thedrifter

12-09-04, 09:20 AM

1/2 Marines offer food and supplies to local Iraqis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq (Dec. 7, 2004) -- Looking to help local Iraqis, Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iskandariyah passed out food and supplies to residents near the base here.

This is the second time Marines from the Motor Transportation section and cooks from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, made a delivery of food and school supplies to families living in troubled areas of northern Babil province.

The Marines hope their humanitarian efforts will help demonstrate to local residents their good faith. The more trust between them, the thinking goes, the more cooperation the Marines can count on to end the violence wracking the country.

The first delivery seemed to have an immediate impact. It was made along an eight-mile stretch of road know as the "Southern Log Pack" - an area infamous for roadside-bomb attacks on U.S. convoys.

"We thought it would be a great way to let the Iraqis know we're here to help," said 1st Lt. Shayne P. Yenzer, a motor transportation officer from Washington, Mo. "Since that day there hasn't been a single IED attack on that road."

Upon returning a few weeks later, the Marines were happy to see a change for the better along the road. It became easier to move supplies along the route and even inspired the citizens of the area to help the visiting Marines. The Iraqis went so far as to put night watchmen out to ensure safe passage for convoys through the area.

Following the success of the initial effort, the Marines prepared to offer another batch of food to another trouble spot. This time they picked a rural area west of the Euphrates River, in the town of Musayyib.

"More and more, we were having a problem there," said, Maj. Christopher C. Lynch, the battalion's logistics officer and a Ballground, Ga., native.

Nearly 50 Marines crossed the river to hand out humanitarian packages in the neighborhoods near Bravo Company's patrol base, which has sustained several anti-Iraqi insurgent attacks since its construction in September.

The Marines drove in and blocked off any incoming traffic to protect their deliveries from enemy insurgents wanting to interrupt the humanitarian effort.
Once the area was safe, the Marines began handing out the food that was prepared and boxed by the Marines working in the base's chow hall.

"We had 1,200 humanitarian packages with a variety of stuff in the," said Lynch. "We also handed out tee-shirts."

The Marines began going house to house handing three boxes to each family. The Marines asked the residents for help in protecting the coalition forces so that those forces could better protect them.

The Marines found the families very receptive and grateful. They say more is in store for the community.

After the success of the first two campaigns," Lynch said, "we'll more than likely do it again in the next few months."

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 09:43 AM

Shiites Announce Coalition of Candidates

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s most powerful Shiite groups Thursday unveiled a unified list of 228 candidates for the Jan. 30 elections, a key step in their bid to take a leading role in post-Saddam Iraq after years on the sidelines. The list, however, does not include prominent Sunni factions.

In violence in the run-up to next month's vote, seven Iraqis were killed in separate clashes in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Ramadi.

A car bomb also rocked a busy Mosul vegetable market, wounding two civilians, while a U.S. soldier was injured by roadside bomb in the capital. Another American soldier suffered minor injuries in a similar attack the day before in Samarra, the scene of clashes that culminated in the resignation of the town's police chief.

The al-Sistani-backed coalition, called the United Iraqi Alliance, includes two major Shiite political parties — the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Dawa Party — and the Iraqi National Congress, led by former exile and one-time Pentagon (news - web sites) favorite Ahmad Chalabi, Dawa party official Ali al-Adeeb told a news conference.

Independent Sunni Muslims belonging to various tribal groups are included on the list, but no major Sunni political movements were named.

"I think that this list is a patriotic list. We hope that Iraqi people will back this list," Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, head of the powerful Sunni Shemar tribes in the northwestern city of Mosul, said at the end of the conference.

A Shiite Kurdish group, members of the Yazidis minority religious sect, and a Turkomen movement were also included on the multiparty list for the elections — the first popular vote since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s ouster. Iraqis will choose a 275-member assembly that will write a permanent constitution. If adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the legal basis for another general election to be held by Dec. 15, 2005.

Under an election law adopted this year, there will be no electoral boundaries for the January vote, with the entire country treated as a single constituency.

Major parties representing Iraq's 20 percent minority Sunnis have called for the vote's postponement because they say the country is not secure enough. Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Scholars urged Sunnis to boycott the election to protest last month's U.S.-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

The influential religious group reiterated its call for Sunnis to boycott the polls, describing as "madness" plans to hold them in January.

"The association's stance toward the elections is firm and unchanged — we will not take a part in these elections because ... no elections can be held under the pressure of the Americans and the ... deteriorating security situation," said Sheik Mohamed Bashar Al-Faidhi, an association spokesman.

Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said the party of Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi, who supported the call for postponing the elections, was among the first to register after the sign-up process began Nov. 1.

He added, however, that the party — the Independent Democratic Movement — has yet to submit a candidates' list. Pachachi was not immediately available for comment.

One of six people who drew up the United Iraqi Alliance list, nuclear physicist Hussain al-Shahristani, said the movement of firebrand anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had been left off the list because it has not registered with Iraq's electoral commission. It was not immediately clear if any al-Sadr supporters were on the list as independents.

"The Sadrist movement announced that it supports the religious authorities and its call for Iraqis to hold elections," al-Shahristani added. "It also supports the list."

Al-Sistani, an Iranian-born cleric, has been working to unite Iraq's majority Shiites ahead of the vote to ensure victory, plus include representatives from Iraq's other diverse communities.

Al-Sistani has been overseeing the work of top aides to compile the list for the national elections, which Shiite parties are expected to perform strongly in.

Shiites comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population. Despite their numbers, they've enjoyed little political power in Iraq, particularly under Saddam, who belonged to Iraq's minority Sunni community.

"The different parties and the national figures asked the religious authority to help it form an alliance that represents the Iraqi spectrum with its various religious, ethnic and geographic components," al-Shahristani said.

Al-Sistani has been working to unite Iraq's majority Shiites ahead of the vote to ensure victory, plus include representatives from Iraq's other diverse communities. The Iranian-born cleric is overseeing the work of top aides seeking to compile a 165-candidate list, which would be put to the voters nationwide.

In another play for postelection power, a senior Kurdish official said a Kurd should be made either president or prime minister following the polls.

"We have the right to ask for one of the (two) top positions in the government after the elections and we insist on taking one of them," Arsalan Biez, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's political bureau, said from the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah, 162 miles northeast of Baghdad.

"We are as a nation like other world's nations and we must receive our rights and demands."

Kurds are estimated to number between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population and have enjoyed regional self-rule in the north since 1991. Kurdish statehood aspirations have alarmed neighboring Turkey, Syria and Iran, which fear that granting Iraqi Kurds an ethnic enclave could incite separatist sentiments among Kurdish minorities within their own borders.

In renewed violence, militants fired multiple mortar rounds toward an Iraqi National Guard base and the nearby Italian Embassy in Baghdad's Waziriyah neighborhood. Police Lt. Hussein Ali said three civilians were killed and five wounded.

Insurgents and U.S. forces clashed in downtown Ramadi, a volatile city west of Baghdad, and four Iraqis were killed and three injured, according to Dr. Dhiaa Daham Hannoush of Ramadi General Hospital. U.S. military officials had no immediate comment.

Two Iraqis were injured after a car bomb exploded in the northwestern city of Mosul, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said. Iraqi policeman Hassan Ahmed said the blast happened in fruit and vegetable market.

Mosul has been the scene of regular attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces by insurgents aimed at derailing the country's reconstruction ahead of the elections.

Ellie

GunnyL

12-09-04, 10:01 AM

I don't think these guys read their contracts very thoroughly. They enlisted for 8 years. 2/3/4 Years active duty Army and 6/5/4 years Individual Ready Reserve respectively. During a time of War or National Emergency, the Army has the right to keep them on Active Duty for as long as their Country needs them. Even the Reserves and Guard sign 8 Year contracts. The Army must do a great job of pulling the wool over their eyes or they are a bunch of Cat IV's (They can breath and spell their name correctly).

GunnyL

Namvet67

12-09-04, 11:00 AM

Gunny...I think there are a lot of soldiers who went into the Army for the pay and benefits..not because they really wanted to go defend the nation and be put in harms way. I'm old school and in my days there were no enlistments for pay and benefits. When I became a Marine in 1967...all I wanted to do was to go prove I could stand the test in combat and use those skills I learned. I spent my entire enlistment in a combat zone and I really didn't want to go back stateside and "play" Marine....and I didn't.

thedrifter

12-09-04, 11:01 AM

Army Doctors Scrambling, Report Says
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Esther Schrader
LA Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2004

WASHINGTON - A shortage of surgeons to treat the wounded in Iraq has left Army medical teams in the country scrambling to handle the largest number of military casualties since the Vietnam War, the New England Journal of Medicine reports today.

The Army has fewer than 50 general surgeons and 15 orthopedic surgeons in Iraq at any one time to serve more than 138,000 troops. Despite the numbers, advances in battlefield surgical techniques and care mean a greater percentage of soldiers wounded in Iraq are surviving than in any previous American conflict.

The article describes a military medical system that has undergone fundamental changes since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but that nonetheless has been overwhelmed by the scope and severity of injuries occurring among troops in Iraq. It was written by Atul Gawande, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a former senior health advisor to the Clinton White House.

Since March 2003, 1,276 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq war, with an additional 9,765 wounded, according to Pentagon figures. The number of deaths directly related to combat passed 1,000 this week, the Pentagon said.

"Just as the rest of the military structure was unprepared for the length of the war and the evolution in the nature of the war, so has the military medical establishment been understandably unprepared for that," Gawande said in an interview.

"What is striking is that they have been able to adapt in ways that allow them to keep a high rate of survival for the soldiers," he said. "But there are costs, and what you see is a potential problem on the horizon."

Gawande did not specify the number of surgeons he thought the military should have in Iraq. He said there were several indications, though, that the current level was insufficient.

With just 120 general surgeons on active duty, the Army has been forced to use urologists, plastic surgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons to perform general surgery on soldiers in Iraq.

Many surgeons have been deployed for more than two years in the Iraq campaign, and military planners are contemplating pressing some to return, Gawande writes.

The physicians are working under difficult circumstances. In many cases, the military has taken over Iraqi hospitals, and the facilities are flooded with civilian patients whom the Americans are unable to treat. With no clear directive from the Pentagon on treating civilians, some physicians refuse to help even pediatric patients out of fear the children could be booby-trapped with bombs, Gawande writes.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of deployment health support with the Pentagon's Office of Health Affairs, acknowledged that Army surgeons working in Iraq had had to improvise in some cases and had been forced to work outside their specialties in others. But he said the relatively low number of deaths proved the system was working.

"There are certainly going to be times in any location where the workload is going to exceed the personnel present," Kilpatrick said. "There are going to be some extremely long hours at times."

But, he added, "the fact that they have responded as well as they have speaks to the fact that they were well prepared. You can't anticipate every eventuality. I think the training and preparation that people had has stood them in good stead."

Detailing the nature of combat injuries and their complications, Gawande says that blast injuries from suicide bombs and land mines are up substantially in recent months and have proved particularly difficult to treat without risking infection. Eye injuries have caused blindness among a "dismaying" number of soldiers, he says.

Soldiers who survive the initial blasts and field treatment are suffering at high rates from later complications, including pulmonary embolisms (when a blood clot travels to the lungs) and deep venous thrombosis (blood clots in the legs). Some of those soldiers have died of the complications.

Army medical teams are also worried about what Gawande calls an epidemic of multi-drug resistant bacterial infection in military hospitals. Among 442 medical evacuees seen at Walter Reed, 8.4% tested positive, a far higher rate than previously seen among wounded troops.

Despite the challenges, Gawande credits nurses, anesthetists, helicopter pilots, other transport staffers and a rethinking of the combat medicine system for improvements in soldiers' survival rates.

The system now focuses on damage control, not definitive repair, Gawande writes. Field doctors carry "mini-hospitals" in Humvees and field operating kits in backpacks so they can move with troops and undertake surgery on the spot.

They limit surgery to two hours or less, often leaving temporary closures and even plastic bags over wounds, and send soldiers to one of several combat support hospitals in Iraq.

The strategy seems to be working, Gawande finds. Although at least as many U.S. troops have been wounded in combat in the Iraq war as in the first five years of Vietnam, 90% are surviving, compared with 76% in Vietnam.

Other experts also have credited superior body armor and equipment for improving combat injury survival. But the survivors often have injuries so severe that their future prospects are uncertain, Gawande writes.

One airman lost both legs, his right hand and part of his face. "How he and others like him will be able to live and function remains an open question," Gawande said.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 11:03 AM

Rumsfeld 'not embarrassed' by troops' tough questions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, December 9, 2004

ARLINGTON, Va. - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "not embarrassed" by tough questions from troops Wednesday about the lack of armored vehicles in Iraq and other issues, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

Rather, such tough questions are the norm for the secretary when he meets with troops, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told Pentagon reporters.

Rumsfeld received a very pointed question about the lack of armored vehicles in Iraq by Army Spc. Thomas Wilson during a "town meeting" at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, on Wednesday.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" asked Wilson, a member of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is composed mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, according to the Associated Press.

Di Rita said that after hearing a broadcast of the town hall meeting, he "called and spoke with" the deputy commanding general of U.S. forces in Kuwait, Maj. Gen. Gary Speer, to ask him about the armor issue.

Di Rita said that Speer was "not certain of the specific situation [Wilson] was referring to," but that in general, it is the policy of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq to load unarmored Humvees on flat-bed trucks - which themselves are not armored, Di Rita said - and "convoy them" into Iraq.

The armored Humvees, meanwhile, are driven by soldiers into Iraq from Kuwait, Di Rita said.

"The policy is that as units move into the theater … if [their vehicles] are not armored, they are convoyed in, not driven," Di Rita said. And once in Iraq, unarmored Humvees "do not leave the base camp," but are reserved for routine errands inside the base.

Furthermore, Di Rita said, since the Army first identified a need for more armored Humvees, in the fall of 2003, the service "has done just a superb job of turning around a component of industrial base that was doing different things" and turning the manufacturers to making both armored Humvees and armor kits for other vehicles.

At the time, Humvee makers were "producing something on order of 15 armored Humvees per month," Di Rita said.

Today, that number is 450, he said, with $1.2 billion spent since August 2003 on armor and armored Humvees alone. As a result, "three out of four" Humvees now in Iraq are armored, he said.

Di Rita said that the fact that commanders did not anticipate the need for more armored vehicles in Iraq until well after the announced end of major combat operations did not reflect poor planning on the part of Pentagon leaders, as some critics have alleged.

"Combat planning is not a crystal ball; it's not predictions," Di Rita said. "It's the ability to be flexible enough to change things as needed."

Pressed for detail concerning the 278th Regimental Combat Team's situation as it prepares to move into Iraq, Di Rita said that the unit is supposed to "fall in on existing armored Humvees" that are being left behind by a unit that is redeploying home.

Asked whether the recent announcement that more than 10,000 troops will be held in Iraq longer than expected in order to provide security for elections might cause a shortage of such "swapped out" vehicles, Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, the Joint Staff's Deputy Director for Regional Operations, said that "commanders have on the ground … have adjusted their plans accordingly."

"There is a tremendous flow going in of 450" Humvees each month, Rodriguez said. The commanders "have a plan to spread (the new vehicles) out evenly" among the troops.

Rodriguez said Wilson would not face informal or formal repercussions or disciplinary actions for his question to Rumsfeld.

"No, that doesn't happen," Rodriguez, who attended the news conference with Di Rita, said.

"We don't take action (against troops) for asking questions," Rodriguez said. "That soldier will keep doing the job he [was] doing."

Ellie

Toby M

12-09-04, 11:07 AM

Say, I have an idea....why doesn't the government move the Army to a safer location where they won't get hurt...say, around the Grand Canyon. They could function as tour guides and clean toilets or something. Maybe replace the workers in Yellowstone, There they could help keep the buffalo off the roads. Any REAL men and women currently in the Army that want to actually do their duty and fight for their country could get themselves attached to a Marine unit somewhere. You know, those are the units that do the job and don't whine about everything!

Namvet67

12-09-04, 11:14 AM

OOORAH TOBY M...Semper Fi do or die...improvise and adapt..kick **s and take names later.

enviro

12-09-04, 11:31 AM

Exactly, Toby! Transfer them to the Army Corps of Engineers as Park Rangers and Nature Trail cleaners. No firearms allowed on that land.

They wouldn't even have to much paperwork - it's the same branch of service. It would be like going from 1st CAV to 3rd CAV.

Osotogary

12-09-04, 11:33 AM

I believe that within the Rumsfield visit there was provided, by the facilitators for the attendees, an opportunity to ask Rumsfield questions. I don't believe that Spc. Wilson was in any way out of line with his question unless, of course, all attendees were given a list of topics or concerns not to address. The mere possibility that Spc. could face reprisals for asking his question is insane and would certainly re-enforce the idea that the Pentagon is still in a "protect your asterisk" mode of operation. From all indications Spc.Wilson was given the impression that he could ask the Secretary of Defense any question ....and he did. Regardless of whether others think that he was whining or not. I think it took a certain amount of "Family Jewels" to Spc. Wilson to ask a question that may or may not eventually save American lives. He took a shot at it while others didn't. Good for him.

Namvet67

12-09-04, 11:46 AM

Osotogary...I think you find yourself alone in you thinking on this subject. It's the principal of thing....this goes against the way the Marines think. 101 basic Marine...do what you are told to do and don't question the order..operate with what you were issued and don't complain.

al20852

12-09-04, 12:19 PM

If you can't read an enlistment contract then you deserve everything you get. BUT, that really isn't the issue. The real issue is do we need a draft and/or is there some other way to increase the size of the military. If the risk we face is a serious one (and everyone in the Administration keeps telling us that) then we are in this for the long haul and band-aid solutions like extending tours and enlistment committments will not work. The election is over. Make the hard decisions because unless you have enough people over there more and more people will die.

yellowwing

12-09-04, 12:29 PM

CAMP PENDLETON – Marines erupted into applause yesterday morning when their commander in chief predicted ultimate victory in Iraq. Hours later, President Bush met with the relatives of Marines who died never seeing that day.

Meanwhile SecDef volunteered to be the lightning rod answering disgruntled National Guard beefs and complaints. He's doing his job doing what ever it takes being loyal to his boss.

A look at the relevant news headlines shows Rumsfeld getting bar-b-cued, not the Boss.

Osotogary

12-09-04, 12:34 PM

Gbudd, you are absolutely right ...coming from your perspective and, by the way, I appreciate your polite candor.
I wasn't looking at this from an Armed Forces point of view but merely from an outsiders point of view.
I'm truly annoyed that there was mention, that this Spc. might face reprisals from the very same people who , basically, said that it was okay for him to ask questions. That was my major concern.
If I'm in a meeting and the meetings guidelines mention that I will be able to ask any question(s) during the question and answer segment of the meeting and then afterwards find that I could possibly face reprisals for asking those questions. I'd say" Why the heck did you put in the guidelines that I could ask any questions?"
In regards to your thoughts and perspective....I couldn't agree more.
Take care.
Gary

Namvet67

12-09-04, 12:41 PM

Osotogary...good point. We (Marines) tend to get a little narrow minded at times.

thedrifter

12-09-04, 03:06 PM

Bush, Rumsfeld Try to Soothe Angry U.S. Troops 
 
By Steve Holland 
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Thursday U.S. troop concerns about inadequate equipment for...

thedrifter

12-09-04, 03:16 PM

Sent to me by a friend.......... 
 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20041207-9999-7m7paredes.html 
 
 
Subject: An open letter 
 
An Open Letter to Pablo Paredes 
 
Pablo,

Phantom Blooper

12-09-04, 04:01 PM

Judge Says Soldier Must Return To Iraq AAAHHHH! My heart bleeds for him. Remember the little joke where you rub two fingers together and ask one what it is? How about the world's smallest violin playing "Who gives a rats ass." Go do what you raised your hand to do and do it honorably and to the best of your ability. NO SYMPATHY! Hard Corps! Marine Corps! My Corps!Semper-Fi! Chuck Hall

Sgt Morales, AM

12-09-04, 04:20 PM

Our military has gotten the short end of the stick. What I mean is that we are always getting the hand-me-downs. Old flack jackets, old Kevlars, and rifles.
I think our troops have the resources, the only thing is that those resources are from generations past. There are some troops out there that can not hack it.

SUCK IT UP!!!!!

Regardless of what is given to me or the rest of the Marines, we have a job to do. It is an obligation that we signed up for. I am truly disgusted by Troops that feel desertion is the way to go. They should be grateful to have the things they have.

:marine:

thedrifter

12-09-04, 05:24 PM

Heroes, Families Welcomed to 'Road to Recovery' Conference
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 9, 2004 – The Coalition to Salute America's Heroes' Road to Recovery Tribute and Conference kicked off here with a reception Dec. 8 to open the weekend's activities.

Coalition co-founders Roger Chapin and Douglas Plank greeted the guests of honor and their families at the Coronado Springs Resort Convention Center. After a brief accounting of the business aspect of the conference, the vets and their families were turned loose to enjoy a buffet dinner and a plethora of entertainment.

Disney characters greeted the guests of honor, posed for pictures and danced with the children and adults alike. They also graciously signed autographs for the children.

The fun didn't stop there, though. There was face painting, balloon and caricature artists, strolling entertainers and a DJ spinning tunes. There were even two very tall Uncle Sam look-alikes who mesmerized the kids with their ability to remain upright while walking on stilts.

Originally scheduled to conclude after a couple of hours, the party was still going strong at 9 p.m., three hours after it started. But as much fun as the planners mapped out for the wounded veterans and their families, the conference's aims are serious.

Army Sgt. Rolando Perez, who left intelligence work to become a heavy-equipment transporter driver, after hearing the founders' description of the planned events, said the conference will be very beneficial for the veterans it aims to help.

Perez, of Edinburg, Texas, has been back in the states for about a year after having been deployed to Iraq. While in Iraq, he was wounded two separate times, once by an improvised explosive device and the other time by a rocket-propelled grenade.

After the first incident on July 20, 2003, he was sent to Germany, patched up and sent back to Iraq, he said. The wounds from the Oct. 10, 2003, RPG attack earned him a trip home. It took about eight months of surgery and therapy to mend the injuries, he said.

Despite his injuries, Perez said that having worked in law enforcement in civilian life, he's able to see both sides of the picture and have a particular perspective on what's happening in Iraq.

"We need to be there. Period," said Perez, who is here with his wife and three children.

Though Army Staff Sgt. Brad Smelley won't benefit from much of the conference material right away -- as long as he is still on active duty, the Department of Veterans Affairs benefits won't apply -- he knows it could be very helpful for him in the future.

With the 427th Field Artillery based in Baumholder, Germany, Smelley was wounded when a car bomb exploded in Baghdad on April 28. His left arm bears the scars caused by flying shrapnel. But that is secondary to the damage to his eyes.

The explosion blinded Smelley. Five surgeries at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, have given him 20/20 corrected vision in his left eye. He is awaiting a cornea replacement in the right eye, in which his vision is substantially less – even with glasses.

Smelley, who is here with his wife and three boys, said he's just grateful to have any vision, considering where he started. He's still waiting to see if he'll be cleared to return to active duty. That decision depends on the outcome of the cornea surgery.

Today's sessions begin with a motivational speech and conclude with a Gala Gratitude Tribute to Veterans, including a country music concert by Toby Keith and LeeAnn Womack.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 05:54 PM

A Marine company and a month in Fallujah 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
By Scott Peterson 
The Christian Science Monitor 
Dec. 10 Edition 
...

thedrifter

12-09-04, 05:54 PM

The marines instill a new set of values and "force you to grow up," says DeBlanc. For him, that included a growing framework of faith that he applies in Fallujah. "The big thing is the spiritual battle going on in our lives - the fight we're fighting is good against evil," he says. He knows the Americans are not the only ones to call on divine power: On the wall of one house, written with yellow paint in Arabic: "God help [Iraq's] mujahideen."

DeBlanc easily reconciles war with the biblical commandment against killing. "Doesn't the Bible say: 'There is a time to pick up the sword, a time for peace, and a time for war?' " he asks. "I can pull the trigger here and have a clear conscience."

To a degree, that goes for Lance Cpl. Jason Bell, the original Wise Man from Spokane, Wash., who tries to balance the battle with the message of his Bible, which he keeps on him in a plastic meal sleeve that also holds a stun grenade and an extra rifle magazine.

"I always prayed, before we came here, that Iraq's innocent civilians wouldn't look badly on us," says Corporal Bell. He wistfully recalls breaking out in laughter with a young Iraqi after several failed attempts to communicate - an uncommon moment of levity between Americans and Iraqis.

Bell's faith was tested during a pre-dawn raid, when small fragments of a US grenade ricocheted and embedded in his cheek, effectively shielding this correspondent from the blast.

"I thought it was a blessing in a weird way - [the wound] wasn't that bad," recalls Bell, who wants to go to Bible college and preach. "It's kind of crazy: God told David he couldn't build a temple, because he had blood on his hands.

"Though we've been in contact, I don't know that I've killed anybody," Bell adds. "I've never hesitated, but it seems whenever I've gone out, there was nothing out there."

DeBlanc also plans to go Bible college, and has dreamed of himself as an elderly man at a pulpit, his wife with three children (as yet unborn) in the front pew. That's a welcome change from the nightmares he had for a year after returning home from Iraq in 2003. "I would wake up, looking for my rifle," says DeBlanc. "I dreamed I was in a fire hole and being overrun, and couldn't find my gun."

"Doc" Nick Navarrette, the US Navy medical corpsman from Omaha, Neb., who serves as Raider's ambulance chief during casualty evacuation, had a nightmare too in Fallujah. "There are 50 Iraqis coming at us, I had an M-16 [rifle] and all it shot is dust," says the slightly built corpsman. "I reach for my [pistol], and it's only crunching sand."

The corpsman's job requires him to be a noncombatant, limited to using his M-16 rifle. But when the Raider One vehicle was sent to reinforce Red platoon during the Nov. 11 ambush, he got behind a belt-fed machine gun when he saw three insurgents shooting from a third floor. He killed at least one and stopped fire from the others.

Then, when casualties were announced on the radio, Navarrette's real work began. After he gets home from Iraq, he wants a fourth tattoo: a pair of angel wings across his back.

"As soon as I jumped out [of the vehicle], the shots started flying by my head. I could feel the wind [from the bullets] in my face," Navarrette recalls of his 30-yard dash to the wounded. He got the first casualty back to the vehicle when word came about another one. Navarrette and a gunner, bullets striking in front of their feet, retrieved Burns, who was dead.

There is speculation among Raider platoon that Navarrette may be put up for a bronze star, with a 'V' for combat valor.

But his mother was angry. "She told me, 'Don't do anything crazy,'" he recounts after a call home. "I'm already a hero to her; I don't need to be a hero to anybody else. I tell her: 'It's my job; these are my friends.' "

Days later, wrapped in McClellan's thick blanket to ward off a morning chill in the occupied house, Navarrette elaborated while eating potato chips and French onion dip from a care package.

During the call to his mother, he also learned that a close friend, Shane, was killed the same night. The news also reached Shane's wife, April, just hours after she gave birth to the couple's first child. The emotional ride gave the corpsman pause. He pulls out the video camera he used to film part of the ambush.

The rattle of bullets and pounding high-caliber rounds dominate the soundtrack. Then the footage goes calm, and Navarrette is speaking from the back of the Raider vehicle after delivering the casualties to the combat hospital.

"Yeah, well, we lost two guys. I'm here by myself," he records, clearly shaken. "I got blood all over my hands; I got blood all over my pants, and my flak [vest]. It was not a good day. I never want to go through a day like that again."

"But we're going right back out there. No breaks," Navarrette says, his voice threadbare. "I'll turn you back on, when the [bullets] start flying again. All right - peace."

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 06:38 PM

Marines hunt down Fallujah's strays to head off rabies threa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 9, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US troops fire off another volley of shots amid the trashed houses of Fallujah, hunting down new adversaries carrying a potentially deadly weapon that threatens to plague reconstruction efforts.

But this time the marines are not chasing down the insurgents who they defeated in a devastating assault on the city last month. Their quarry is stray animals grown fat on the flesh from corpses and who could harbor rabies.

The marines gather briefly over a pile of trash, one pointing across the dirt lot to a row of burned out homes where moments before a dog was seen loping for cover amid the ruined buildings.

"I think we wounded a couple and they took off that way," he said, as another marine pulled his quarry onto a ridge, its bloodied head rolling unnaturally from side to side in the dust.

As their numbers have swelled, so has the risk the animals pose to the tens of thousands of people expected to return to Fallujah in the coming weeks. The marines have been told to organize special details to "thin out" the battered city's animal population.

Medical personnel say rabies is one of the biggest threats to people returning to the city. Cases of the disease were already reported in humans in Al-Anbar province before the Fallujah attack.

"Rabies, and standing water, are our most immediate concerns," said Captain Dennis Staggs, a surgeon with the 1st Marine Exepditionary Force (MEF), adding that among a host of measures suggested to head off a health crisis, medical officers said feral animals should be cleared from the city.

"If you consider the entire public health situation, with nobody in town, there's no public health crisis, and if it is prepared correctly there won't be a health crisis," Staggs said Wednesday.

Standing by his humvee last week in northern Fallujah, marine Lance Corporal Will Lathrop of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit said, "The problem has gotten bad enough that there's actually an order for this," referring to a command issued recently to deal with Fallujah's feral animals.

His convoy of three humvees and a truck had rolled briefly into the school occupied by 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines' Charlie Company and several men with shotguns stood around the vehicles smoking.

Rock-n-roll played loudly from one of the vehicle's radios as marines just outside the base walls fired off several more shots at flashes of fur among the piles of rubble.

It was a good day for this self-described "goon squad" -- a dozen or so black plastic trash bags heavy with dead animals were dumped unceremoniously in the back of a truck.

"It eliminates the threat," marine Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert, spokesman for the 1st MEF, said Wednesday.

"Before they (residents) go into the city, dogs and cats probably should be cleared out. They're a source of rabies and other diseases."

But there was none of the bloodlust that many marines say they felt last month as they stormed the Sunni-Muslim enclave and wrested it away from insurgents during several days of vicious fighting.

A gunnery sergeant stalked past the convoy, tersely ordering his executioners to put on surgical gloves before handling the dead animals, his mouth pulled into the tight grimace of a man trying to finish the job before him as quickly as possible.

"This is hard on these guys, especially killing the dogs. But these animals have been eating dead bodies. They can spread disease," said Lieutenant Aaron Brown, grimly reciting the toll for the day -- several cats and at least one dog.

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 06:45 PM

Marine Charged With Desertion After Iraq Disappearance 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
December 9, 2004 
 
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- The Marine Corps...

thedrifter

12-09-04, 06:49 PM

Family copes with four sons in the Marines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Adam Yanelli - Managing editor
The Uvalde Leader

Josephine Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas tries not to think about the war in Iraq.

But for Alejandro, a bus driver for Community Council of Southwest Texas, it's not as easy as one might think.

For Alejandro, wartime means a greater chance that one or more of her four sons might find themselves closer to danger.

You see, all four of her boys are enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and three have already seen a combined two years of action in Iraq.

Her youngest, Ruben, is set to deploy to Iraq in February with the 5th Marine Regiment.

"I just try not to think about it at all," she said Monday during an interview. "He's the one that watches the news."

He is Alfred Alejandro Sr., Josephine's husband and stepfather to Sgt. Pedro A. Contreras, Lance Cpl. Chazaray Contreras, Sgt. Alfred C. Morin II and Pfc. Ruben Torres Jr.

"I've been the only role model for the boys, and they all call me 'Dad'," he said Monday.

Originally from Hondo, Josephine and her boys moved to Uvalde in 1996 shortly after the couple met, and each of the Marines is a graduate of Uvalde High School.

And while all four are currently in the U.S., only the two that recently returned from Iraq will be able to make it home to Uvalde for holiday visits.

But, Josephine said, because they all joined the same branch of the armed services, all four are currently stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, and while they are not together with her, they are together.

"It is a comfort to me that they are all near each other," she said. "I never have to worry about them being alone."

But that doesn't mean that she doesn't have other things to worry about. As each grew of age and entered the service - Ruben a year earlier after graduating from UHS in three years - Josephine said she was not surprised that each followed their boyhood dreams of joining the Corps.

"I always knew that they were going to join the service, but when the time actually came, it was scary. They had all always been talking about it since they were little kids," she said. "I always tell myself that we are just borrowing these kids anyway because they are all God's children."

She stressed that it is important to her not to let her boys know that she does worry about them.

"I try not to let them know I worry because I want them to focus on what they are doing," she said.

The four Marines were interviewed earlier this month in The Camp Pendleton Scout, the newspaper for the Marine base.

Josephine related a story that her son Alfred told her and also told The Scout concerning a period of time when he and Pedro were both in Iraq simultaneously.

"I heard from a buddy in Admin about a Contreras dying out there," Alfred was quoted in the story as saying. "I had my friend look at the list. The first initial was P. and he was from Texas, too. I was feeling crazy and worried. I was bugging for a couple of days."

Josephine said the family was relieved a couple of days later when Alfred was able to verify that it was not his brother.

Josephine bubbles over with pride when speaking of her sons and their willingness to serve their country. "When they first sent me that picture with all of them, I just cried," she said. "Whatever they have tried to do in their lives, whether athletics, schoolwork or whatever, they have always tried to do their best."

She added that the recent death of Army Specialist Travis Babbitt of Uvalde hit her hard. "I was driving the bus when I heard it and I just started to cry," she said.

For her husband, it left him with an eerie feeling.

"Since the war started, I've had that fear in the back of my head of someone coming to the door early on the morning," he said, not wanting to finish the sentence with what dreaded news could possibly come from such a visit.

Josephine said things have also been hard on the boys because they miss their "abuela," Andrea Salazar, her mother, who has lived with her all of her boys' lives.

But through it all, Josephine strives to look at the positive side of things.

All of her boys have grown up to become young men, proud Americans and examples of what patriots should be.

"They all just really want to serve their country," she said. "We feel that we have achieved a lot as a family, and I just thank God every day."

Ellie

thedrifter

12-09-04, 07:21 PM

Policy Changes Help Wounded Troops Stay in Service
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 9, 2004 – Fundamental changes have taken place in the Defense Department's disability policy, a top Pentagon official told attendees at the 17th DoD Disability Forum here Dec. 7.

John M. Molino, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for equal opportunity, cited a December 2003 visit by President Bush to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, when the president noted advancements in medical treatment and recovery allow many more wounded servicemembers to resume their careers. "Today, if wounded servicemembers want to remain in uniform and can do the job, the military tries to help them stay," Molino recalled the president telling the patients.

"This statement, this attitude," Molino continued, "has implications for everything from accessibility policy on military installations to the long- standing expectation that every active duty servicemember must be able to deploy to combat anywhere in the world. We're re-examining our basic assumptions, and basic changes are on the way."

The department is committed to doing all it can to bring those changes about, Molino told the group. "We're moving aggressively to help servicemembers remain on active duty if they wish to do so," he said. "This is the news in DoD disability policy today."

Noting that with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wholeheartedly supporting keeping capable servicemembers in the DoD fold, Molino said defense personnel officials also are looking for ways to improve opportunities for veterans with disabilities in DoD's civilian work force.

Ellie