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thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:42 AM
U.S. Marines, Sailors Head Home
Associated Press
March 1, 2005

MOHAMMED AL AHMED NAVAL BASE, Kuwait - Relieved U.S. Marines began a long sea trip home, satisfied with their efforts to quell Iraq's insurgency but grieving over the loss of comrades on the battlefield.

"I'm glad it is over," said Lance Corp. Frank LaRue of Buffalo, N.Y. "I lost a lot of friends."

LaRue was among 2,000 U.S. Marines and sailors attached to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit who boarded landing craft from this Kuwaiti base on Monday to Navy ships anchored off the shore ahead of a four-week voyage to a base in Okinawa, Japan.

On the landing craft, Marines armed with digital cameras took photos and video recordings of one another, while one played guitar and sang The Eagles classic, "Hotel California." Others set their M-16s aside to relax under the sun.

From Japan, the U.S. service members - many of whom served in Iraqi's hot spots, including the one-time insurgent stronghold of Fallujah - will head home to spend time off with their families after six months of service.




It will take a few more days to load the unit's equipment - around 150 amphibious assault and light armored vehicles, and trucks - onto three ships.

"Words can't even explain how I feel," said a smiling Corp. Jeff Deluca, 22, who is taking home a Purple Heart and hand-grenade shrapnel lodged in his left shoulder.

Deluca, a Marine of four years from Cleveland, Ohio, plans to marry after getting back home. He spent three months in Fallujah, taking part in the November U.S.-led offensive that took the city back from insurgents and religious extremists.

Fifty members of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit were killed in Iraq, the majority in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash. More than 220 were wounded.

"All that fighting they did, they had to die in an accident," 22-year-old LaRue said, referring to the helicopter crash.

He added that even the four-week voyage to Japan "still feels like going home. Every movement is one step closer."

Kuwait, a small oil-rich state, has been a major ally of Washington since the U.S.-led international coalition fought the 1991 Gulf War that liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.

It was the only Arab country that openly supported the American invasion of Iraq almost two years ago that toppled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. It remains a major logistics stop for American and other multinational troops serving in Iraq.

Some 25,000 troops are currently in Kuwait, but the figure fluctuates as units deploy to Iraq or leave through this country.

About 130 members of the Marine unit will stay behind for a week to take care of administrative business, while others have already left for Japan.

The unit's spokesman, Capt. Burrell Parmer, said the Marines not only fought insurgents, but they built hospitals, coordinated voter education and set up polling stations for January's national elections.

Their efforts to secure Iraq's border with Syria resulted in "seriously lessening" infiltration of fighters and smugglers into Iraq, he said.

The U.S. and Iraqi governments accuse Syria of failing to stop Arab fighters from entering Iraq through its border to attack multinational as well as Iraqi security forces.

"It felt good to liberate the city (of Fallujah) and see the people happy," said Sgt. Raul Munoz, 24, of Indio, Calif.

However, he said the memory he is taking home from his Iraqi tour of duty will be the three friends - two Marines and one sailor - who were killed there.

"I know they died for a cause," he said after staring at the landing craft's floor.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:43 AM
3 Star General To Lead Gitmo Probe <br />
Associated Press <br />
March 1, 2005 <br />
<br />
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military on Monday appointed a three-star general to lead an investigation into abuse...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:43 AM
Bin Laden Enlisting Al-Zarqawi
Associated Press
March 1, 2005

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden is enlisting his top operative in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to plan potential attacks on the United States, U.S. intelligence indicates.

Al-Zarqawi, who rivals bin Laden as the nation's public enemy No. 1, has been involved in attacks in the Middle East but has not been known before to have set his sights on the United States.

The Homeland Security Department issued a classified bulletin to officials over the weekend about the intelligence, which spokesman Brian Roehrkasse described Monday as "credible but not specific."

The intelligence was obtained over the past several weeks, officials said.

The United States has no immediate plans to raise its national terror alert level, Roehrkasse said. However, the intelligence "reiterates the desire by al-Qaida and its associates to target the homeland," he said.




Bin Laden was in contact with al-Zarqawi within the past two months in an effort to enlist him in attacks, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. The move may reflect the al-Qaida leadership's desire to involve al-Zarqawi in activities outside Iraq, the official said.

Events in Iraq, officials noted, have limited al-Zarqawi's ability to undertake attacks elsewhere.

Al-Zarqawi is blamed for scores of attacks in Iraq and pledged allegiance to bin Laden and the al-Qaida network last year. Yet he has had differences with bin Laden, and his efforts are considered somewhat distinct from central al-Qaida operations.

Another administration official with access to the Homeland Security Department's bulletin said the intelligence indicates that al-Qaida has continued to encourage al-Zarqawi, who was born in Jordan, to get involved in terrorist actions against Americans outside of Iraq - including in the United States.

"The intelligence continues to be analyzed by the intelligence community and all appropriate information will be passed on to homeland security partners," Roehrkasse said. "The department has no plans at this time to raise the threat level based on this nonspecific information."

DHS sent the bulletin to state homeland security directors. A Justice Department official said the FBI was not involved, and that the information that led to the bulletin was gleaned by CIA intelligence.

Al-Zarqawi has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head and is believed to have orchestrated a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings across Iraq. He has run an increasingly dangerous, but diffuse, network of operatives in Iraq known by a number of names. Al-Zarqawi is blamed largely for attacks in the Middle East, including numerous attacks in Iraq and foiled plots targeting U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan at the millennium.

In October, he made a first-ever pledge of loyalty to bin Laden, by posting a message on a Web site known for carrying militant Islamic content. At the time, U.S. officials believed al-Zarqawi was hoping to appeal to a larger audience and adopt bin Laden's broad objective to attack the United States.

Bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, is thought to communicate with his deputies by courier, taped messages and other means. In January 2004, Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq detained one courier, Hassan Ghul, who was carrying a letter written by al-Zarqawi to bin Laden. In it, al-Zarqawi proposed trying to start a civil war between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslim populations.

Last year, the Jordanian government also stopped a Zarqawi-linked plan to use chemicals and explosives to blow up Jordan's secret service agency, the prime minister's office and the U.S. Embassy.

The Jordanians are also after al-Zarqawi, for whom they issued a death warrant and who was convicted last year for assassinating U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in Amman in 2002.

At a Senate hearing this month, CIA Director Porter Goss warned that al-Zarqawi has "sought to bring about the final victory of Islam over the West." Goss said al-Zarqawi hopes to establish a safe haven in Iraq from which his group could operate against "'infidel' Western nations and 'apostate' Muslim governments."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:44 AM
Cadet Found Guilty Of Smuggling Steroids <br />
Associated Press <br />
March 1, 2005 <br />
<br />
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - An Air Force Academy cadet has been found guilty of smuggling steroids into the United...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:44 AM
Death Toll In Iraqi Bombing Rises To 120
Associated Press
March 1, 2005

HILLAH, Iraq - Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds of people inspected corpses at a hospital morgue in Hillah on Tuesday, trying to identify friends and family who died in a suicide bombing that killed at least 120 people, the single deadliest attack of its kind since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Hospital official Ali Hassoun said at least five people had succumbed to wounds overnight, raising the toll to 120 dead. More than 130 others were wounded in the blast, which targeted mostly Shiite police and National Guard recruits lined up for physical exams at a medical clinic.

Distraught relatives at the morgue placed the dead into coffins and loaded them onto pickup trucks, taking them to city mosques and homes where the bodies will be washed before burial, a Muslim tradition in Iraq.

Many of the corpses, charred or dismembered, were unrecognizable.

Funeral processions are expected to be held in Hillah and many of the dead will be taken to the holy Shiite city of Najaf for burial later Tuesday.




Monday's bombing presented the boldest challenge yet to Iraq's efforts to build a security force that can take over from the Americans.

The explosion in Hillah, a largely Shiite Muslim town about 60 miles south of Baghdad, was so powerful that the only thing remaining of the bomber's car was the twisted wreckage of the engine block.

Some of the victims were shoppers or vendors from a nearby outdoor street market selling produce, sandwiches and other food. But most were recruits waiting outside the clinic.

The bombing comes at a time when the Sunni Arab insurgency is trying to disrupt the formation of a new government set to be led by majority Shiites for the first time in modern history. Iraqi forces are eventually supposed to take over responsibility for security - the key to Washington's exit strategy - but they remain under-equipped, ill-prepared to fight insurgents and often make easy targets.

The Shiites have refrained from striking back - mostly at the behest of their most revered leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is widely credited with bringing them this far. Al-Sistani wants nothing to impede the Shiites from gaining the political power they have craved in Iraq, and will not allow them to engage in a sectarian war.

It's not that they lack the firepower - nominally disbanded Shiite militias could easily field thousands of tough and effective fighters that could deal a crushing blow to the insurgency.

"We sacrificed a lot of blood, we have to be patient and not drift into a civil war as Ayatollah al-Sistani has said," said Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, a senior cleric and member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq.

Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance, recently hinted that the Shiites were waiting to take power before dealing with the insurgency. He indicated that a first step would be to identify and purge the security services of any insurgency sympathizers.

"We must depend on the sons of the Iraqi people who believe in the new Iraq, and not on those bad elements that infiltrated the security circles and turned into a problem," al-Hakim told The Associated Press on Sunday. "We can't solve the security issue unless we reconsider the internal structure, to spot those bad elements."

The main Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance is seeking the support of other parties to achieve the two-thirds majority required for forming Iraq's new government. The alliance won 140 of the 275 seats in the National Assembly in the Jan. 30 elections. The main Kurdish alliance won 75 seats. Sunnis - who make up about 20 percent of the population - largely stayed away from the vote.

Finding a way to end the largely Sunni insurgency and soothe the fears of Sunnis who have dominated the Iraqi political sphere for centuries will be the most crucial and complex task for the new government.

There are no official figures available, but an AP count found that 234 people were killed and 429 people were injured in at least 55 incidents from Jan. 1 until election day. Casualties rose in February, which saw at least 38 incidents that resulted in at least 311 deaths and 433 injuries.

Although Monday's bombing did not appear to be an explicit attack against Shiites, most of the victims were Shiites.

In fact, insurgents have stepped up assaults against predominantly Shiite targets in recent weeks, most notably a series of suicide bombings and other attacks that left nearly 100 people dead over the two-day Ashoura commemoration that began on Feb. 18.

Nevertheless, Monday's blast was the culmination of hundreds of mass-casualty car bombings that began in earnest with the Aug. 7, 2003, explosion at the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, an attack that killed 19 people.

The second deadliest attack since Saddam fell took place on Aug. 29, 2003, when a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Najaf, killing more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

There was no claim of responsibility for Monday's attack. Police in Babil province said "several people" were arrested, but gave no details.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:45 AM
Yahoo to preserve e-mail of Marine killed in Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WIXOM, Mich. (AP) - Officials at Yahoo have taken action to preserve the e-mail account of a Michigan Marine killed in Iraq.

Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, was killed Nov. 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. After his death, his father, John Ellsworth, found himself in a legal battle with Yahoo! when he tried to access to Justin's Yahoo! e-mail account.

The father pleaded with the company to give him access to the account to fulfill the family's wish of knowing Justin's last words, photographs and thoughts from Iraq. While Justin was in Iraq, he and his father discussed the e-mails Justin had in his account and how John would make copies of all the correspondence for a scrapbook.

But without the account password, which only Justin and Yahoo know, the family's request was denied. To release those messages in such circumstances, Yahoo said, would violate the privacy rights of the deceased and those with whom they have corresponded.

Yahoo policy calls for erasing the entire account if, after 120 days, there is no activity.

John Ellsworth told The Detroit News for a Tuesday story that his attorneys are negotiating with Yahoo to get the e-mail password released.

Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said Yahoo has been working with Ellsworth on a "shared goal of finding a mutually agreeable resolution to a complicated and, in many ways, uncharted issue."

Justin Ellsworth's family also recently learned that the young Marine was awarded a Bronze Star for the action he took shortly before his death.

A letter authorizing the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguished Service revealed that Justin, whose job was to locate and destroy hidden bombs, had discovered a homemade explosive while out on patrol and moved toward the bomb to investigate it.

Discovering the device lacked wires and was likely remote-controlled, Justin warned his fellow Marines to clear the area. By the time he discovered a cell phone was attached to the device, the explosive was detonated. Justin was directly over the bomb at the time.

His effort saved the lives of 11 Marines and spared many others from more serious injuries, the military said.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:45 AM
States Hoping To Save Military Bases <br />
Associated Press <br />
March 1, 2005 <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON - Hit hardest by military base closings in the past, California enlisted some heavyweights to help the state...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:46 AM
Marines hire private Iraqi force to hunt insurgents
01 Mar 2005 08:48:44 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Alister Bull

HADITHA, Iraq, March 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines are using a private Iraqi security force to help them hunt down insurgents and say the tactic, while little used so far, is working.

The Marines set up the force, the Iraqi Freedom Guard, in January before embarking on their ongoing offensive in Iraq's vast and rebellious western province of Anbar. It consists of 61 men hired on a three-month contract for $400 each a month.

The Marines are quick to emphasise that the Freedom Guard is not a private militia, which are banned under Iraq's interim constitution unless under the authority of the armed forces.

Their creation appears to be part of Washington's efforts to build up and add backbone to Iraq's security forces in any way possible after nearly two years of repeated setbacks.

"The analogy that I would use is the contract security that the Marine Corps uses like Blackwater," Col Craig Tucker, regimental commander of the 7th Marines, told Reuters.

Blackwater, a U.S.-based security firm that rejects comparisons to a private army, does much of the body guarding of senior officials in Iraq. "The impact they (the Freedom Guard) have when they are out with us is tremendous. One great benefit we have with them is differentiating between dialects and accents. They can tell if a guy is from Syria or Jordan," Tucker said.

In a mission on Friday in nearby Haqliniya, it was the Freedom Guard who found the most likely suspected insurgent. They are also used during interrogations, although the Marines insist they keep everything under a watchful eye.

"Is the major in there? OK. That should stop things from getting out of hand," said Captain Chris DeAntoni, commanding a raid to round up insurgents as he stood outside a room where an Iraqi Guardsman was shouting loudly at a suspect.

GETTING BETTER

The Guard's leader, a 20-year-old Iraqi called Monir Captain, says his men are fighting to protect Iraqis across the country, including in his own neighbourhood in Baghdad.

"Life is starting to get better in Baghdad and I feel that it's because of me and my guys, fighting here in the desert, so they can live in peace," he said in good English.

Captain, who the Marines call Lt James, had no military training before he joined the militia, but his paymasters say he is a natural leader -- in stark contrast to other Iraqi army officers with whom they have worked.

"Lt James here is the first officer I've run into who is willing to lead from the front," said Major Richard Seagrist of the U.S. Marines.

"In the Marine Corps, and most other armies, the officer has to assume some of the risks. To us that is just common sense. But it is really hard to find that in Iraq."

When they came under fire from insurgents in Haqliniya on Wednesday, the Freedom Guard handled themselves well. They were also used for sensitive operations like clearing mosques.

"They did pretty good," Seagrist said. "They got down, returned fire, and the experience has not been negative for their morale. They seem pretty motivated."

Efforts to restore Iraqi forces since the U.S.-led invasion have yielded little. U.S. officials say 120,000 locals have been trained, but many are ill-equipped and some have deserted.

Captain thinks his men, while few, are the way forward.

"My guys sleep on rocks, eat MREs and they're not afraid to die," he said, referring to U.S. military rations.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 06:47 AM
Local Marines aid election security

Marine Pfc. Christopher Kay and Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler Tryon were among more than 2,100 Marines and sailors assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit that recently helped Iraqi security forces provide security for elections in Najaf, Iraq. The unit's mission was to sweep the city looking for suspicious activity and deter insurgents trying to disrupt voting.

Kay, the son of Diana Kay of Marblemount, is a 2002 graduate of Concrete High School. He joined the Marine Corps in September 2002.

Tryon, the son of Regina Tryon of Mount Vernon and Larry Hooper of Burley, Idaho, is a 2003 graduate of Mount Vernon High School. He joined the Marine Corps in August 2003.

The following Navy Seamen have completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill. During the eight-week program, the seamen completed classroom and practical instruction on naval customs, first aid, water safety and survival, shipboard and aircraft safety and fire fighting.

Navy Seaman Recruit Tyler Boyle, the son of Debbie Hayes of Stanwood and Mike Boyle of Camano Island, is a 2004 graduate of Stanwood High School.

Navy Seaman Christopher Hawkins, the son of Sherry and Joseph Hawkins of Oak Harbor, is a 2004 graduate of Oak Harbor High School.
Navy Seaman Apprentice Matthew Kunkel, the son of Suzan Kunkel of Sedro-Woolley and Eric Kunkel of Scott Air Force Base, Ill., received an early promotion for outstanding performance during all phases of the training cycle. Kunkel is a 2003 graduate of Oak Harbor High School.

Navy Seaman Dwayne Lynch Jr., the son of Dwayne Lynch of Oak Harbor and Frances Harris of San Antonio, Texas, is a 2004 graduate of Oak Harbor High School.

Navy Seaman Apprentice Benjamin Priest, the son of Vicky Pitt of Langley and Raymond Priest of Oak Harbor, is a 2000 graduate of South Whidbey High School.

Navy Seaman Apprentice Jordan Ray, the son of Nickie Ray and William Ray, both of Mount Vernon, is a 2004 graduate of La Conner High School.

Navy Seaman Apprentice Shaun Wintick is a 2004 graduate of Mount Vernon High School.

Army Reserve Pvt. Justin Bell has graduated from the Light-wheeled Vehicle Mechanic advanced individual training course at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C. Soldiers learn to perform maintenance, troubleshoot and repair wheeled vehicles and related mechanical components. Bell, the grandson of Maureen Bell of Anacortes and son of Phyllis Ford of Lynden, is a 2004 graduate of Lynden High School.

Marine Pvt. Mihail Ivaschenko and Pvt. Claudia Ramirez have completed 12 weeks of basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif. Their classroom and field assignments included learning first aid, uniform regulations, combat water survival, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat and assorted weapons training.

Ivaschenko is a 2002 graduate of Sedro-Woolley High School.

Ramirez, the daughter of Sandra Lopez of Mount Vernon, a 2004 graduate of Mount Vernon High School.

Navy Hospitalman Recruit Christopher David recently graduated from basic training at Naval Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes, Ill. During the 14-week course, David received instruction from fleet hospitals and shipboard medical departments to fleet Marine forces and medical administration offices. David's first assignment will involve direct patient care, but he is trained in several areas, including first aid and assisting with minor surgery, pharmacy and laboratory analysis, patient transportation and food service inspections. David, the son of Liguya and Eliseo David of Oak Harbor, is a 2004 graduate of Oak Harbor High School.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 07:14 AM
America Supports You: Brewery Offers Theme Park Admission


By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2005 -- Dan Hartman's "Free Ride" could be the theme song to the Anheuser-Busch Company's latest offer to the military.

This month, the brewery announced that once again it will open the gates to its SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place theme parks for free as a way of saying thanks to servicemembers and their families.

The company's latest promotion, dubbed "Here's to the Heroes," offers a free single-day admission to servicemembers, including Guardsmen and Reservists, and as many as three "direct dependents," according to Fred Jacobs, senior director for communications at Busch Entertainment Corp.

The offer runs through Dec. 31.

The company has held four similar free-admission programs since the first Gulf War: Yellow Ribbon Summer, Salute to America's Heroes, Operation Salute, and last year's Operation Homecoming.

Jacobs said, "These programs were conceived to acknowledge the men and women who serve our country and preserve freedom and security for every American."

"We benefit only from the sense of satisfaction that our employees across the country get from saying, "Thank you" to our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Coast Guardsmen."

Jacobs said the company decided on the name "Here's to the Heroes" because, "That is exactly how we view those Americans who have chosen to serve in the armed forces."

Eligible servicemembers can register for free admission online or in the entrance plaza of participating parks, Jacobs said. A Department of Defense photo ID must be presented at the gate before entrance, he added.

Military family members also can take advantage of the offer without their military sponsor; however, an adult must accompany minor children.

Jacobs said the company estimates that more than 1 million servicemembers and their families will visit its parks during the offer, and that nearly 100,000 people have registered already.

The Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Va.; SeaWorld in San Antonio; and Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pa.; are seasonal operations that open in the spring. The company's SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, both in Florida, and SeaWorld San Diego, are open year-round.

The company has received "thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters thanking us for recognizing the service and sacrifice of our armed forces," Jacobs said.

"I have had the privilege of responding to many of those notes, and I can tell you from personal experience how gratifying it is," he added.

Anheuser-Busch has a long tradition of supporting the military. In 1921, Lilly Busch, the widow of company founder Adolphus Busch, opened the Busch family garden to the public, donating admission fees to disabled veterans. And over the years the company has supported veterans memorials in Washington, such as the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The company has also provided scholarship funds for United Service Organizations members and Desert Storm survivors.

In 2003, the company created the Intrepid/Anheuser-Busch Fallen Heroes Fund, donating $1 million in scholarships for spouses and children of servicemembers and coalition personnel killed during the war in Iraq.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 07:38 AM
Project Lulu troopbatteries@yahoo.com

Lizzy Lulu is 11 years old. She is like most pre-teen girls who love music, cell phones and cool clothes, but she is quite a unique young girl. Lizzy has Cystic Fibrosis and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Like many kids with serious health problems, she has a wish, but her wishes these days are not for herself.

After hearing that the troops in Iraq need AA batteries for their hand held entertainment devices and other battery powered items, she started a campaign to send 1,000,000 AA batteries to Iraq by July 4th, 2005.

To learn more about Lizzy and her special project, please click the following link.

http://www.geocities.com/troopbatteries/flag.html troopbatteries@yahoo.com

Please support this amazing project and be sure to pass this email along to everyone in your address book.


http://www.geocities.com/troopbatteries/flag.html

http://opgratitude.com/website/html/index.php

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 07:42 AM
Dentist, 84, Gets An Offer To Reenlist <br />
Philadelphia Inquirer <br />
February 17, 2005 <br />
<br />
The last time Floyd Baker served in the U.S. Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower was still a general. <br />
<br />
So the...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 07:48 AM
Subject: Some in military just say no to Iraq service <br />
<br />
Texas National Guard Spc. Carl Webb is on the run, a deserter in the eyes of the Army, a disgrace to former comrades and a coward to many of...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 08:48 AM
In Fallujah's wake, marines go west

US and Iraqi forces have launched Operation River Blitz, targeting insurgents in cities along the Euphrates.

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

HIT, IRAQ - After five hours of shivering quietly in the desert outside Hit, where sulphur seeps from the ground and almost nothing grows, Bravo Company marines got the word - "good to go" - and began to creep into the sleeping city.


They were primed for strong resistance. But the marines of the First Battalion of the 23rd Regiment entered Hit (pronounced Heat) almost unopposed and filtered toward the neighborhood around the Mubarak mosque at 2 a.m., kicking down doors of homes in search of weapons and setting up a command post to coordinate operations to clear out the city's fighters.


Three weeks after Iraq (news - web sites)'s elections, US forces are still leading the fight in Anbar, the most dangerous of the country's 18 provinces. Marines have launched operations in at least three other provincial cities in operation "River Blitz."


Targeting hardscrabble cities like Hit, Ramadi, and Baghdadi, they are looking for foreign insurgent fighters and known insurgent hotbeds. But resistance has been light, far different from the November assault on Fallujah where dug-in mujahideen fought pitched battles with marines and died in the hundreds.


While that has been welcome news to the grunts of Bravo, a group of reservists primarily from Texas and Louisiana who have fought their way up and down the Euphrates since August, it appears to represent a shift in insurgent tactics.


Rather than standing and fighting, insurgents are melting away when troops move in. And they are focusing more intently on the emerging Iraqi government and its security forces. The hope, it seems, is that US forces won't stay long enough to develop the intelligence to root out insurgents systematically.


"There are some hard-core fighters in Hit but we can hold it easily for as long as we are here," says Maj. Mike Miller, the company commander and a policeman from San Antonio, Tex. "But we can't make any promises beyond when we leave. So I can understand that locals are reluctant to get involved."


"I guarantee you they'll be back in here when we leave," says Sgt. Shawn Hudman, who lives in Austin, Texas. "Maybe at least as we go on, there'll be fewer and fewer places for them to go."


The US effort, which flows from the November assault on Fallujah, is designed to restore some government control over the town of Anbar. Until now, Anbar has provided safe ground for insurgents, with the roads and trails along the Euphrates River serving as "rat-lines" for men and weapons to move around the country.


Many of these towns, like Hit, have centuries-old traditions of banditry and smuggling. They are also among the most severe practitioners of Sunni Islam in the country, thanks to the river which has provided a corridor for strict Saudi Arabian ideas to move into the country.


"We think the assault on Fallujah pushed a lot of fighters and leaders out of there, squeezed them west along the Euphrates," says Lieut. Col. Steven Dinauer of Verona, Wisc. "This city is not another Fallujah, but we know there are mujahideen in there, so we're going to keep them back on their heels and disrupt their lines of communication."


Major combat is still a possibility, with marines moving systematically through the cities and planning raids. Unmanned drones, their engines buzzing like lawn mowers, regularly scan the city's warren of alleys.


One of the first things the marines did was to round up and detain police officers. Hit's police force, as in most of the province's towns, appears to be completely compromised by the insurgents.


The last time Bravo company was here, in October, the "muj" had taken over the town council and the local police station without resistance. They killed locals whom they accused of supporting the new government and the US.


After the marines fought for two days around a key bridge and nearby palm groves, the town was secured. Some fighters were found in stolen police uniforms. The marines stayed four days more and then headed for Fallujah.


They felt they'd accomplished something with the "six days of Hit," as they call it. But when they left, despite repeated assurances from local sheikhs that there would be no more problems, the insurgents reasserted themselves.


"The concentration of forces for Fallujah manifested itself by allowing the enemy a little more wiggle room out here," says Colonel Dinauer. "Now we are going to ride that fine line ... where we don't spoil the goodwill that's here among many of the people, while still having enough force so if the enemy decides to fight we can kill them."





In Hit, marines are planning to fight all three blocks of what military doctrine calls the three-block war. The third block is the straight-out fighting of Fallujah. The second is security operations, like those carried out in Hit so far. And the third is humanitarian assistance and community outreach.

That means that in addition to their regular complement of tanks, mortars, and grenades, the marines have headed in with a marine lawyer, $20,000 to pay for any damage, and dozens of soccer balls.

The marines have also come in with about 20 members of an Iraqi special forces unit called the Freedom Fighters. Unlike local Iraqi guard units, who are usually unwilling to fight, the freedom fighters are Shiites from the southern city of Basra, where uprisings against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime were put down with the wholesale slaughter of civilians. There's little love between them and the Sunni Arab citizens of Anbar.

On this night in Hit, the marines found some of what they came in search of: two large weapons caches - including 115 mortar rounds and a couple of World War II-vintage 200-lb bombs - buried in lots next to houses. Intelligence came from surprising places: after a father wasn't helpful, the son pointed to the caches after being offered a $20 bill.

But at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, Bravo company got a taste of the dangers that still lurk here. A sedan turned onto the street in front of the schoolhouse they'd occupied and began speeding toward the Abrams tank the marines were using to seal off the road. The machine-gunner opened up on the car and hit the driver, a Syrian national, at least three times.

A few moments later, another man who'd been in the car made for the trunk. He, too, was shot dead.

The car was loaded with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, and a mortar tube. The marines think the men were trying to make it out of the city.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 09:19 AM
MALS-26 (Rein) commander: 'How can we make this place better?' <br />
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing <br />
Story Identification #: 20053185622 <br />
Story by Sgt. Juan Vara <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AL ASAD, Iraq (March 1,...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:28 AM
Iraq Is Another Vietnam? It's Not Even Close!
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February 28, 2005
by John Hawkins

Perhaps it's because so many left-wingers view the war protests in the sixties as the "glory days" of the liberal movement or because like Ted Rall, they believe that...

"Losing to Third Worlders in PJs led Americans to decades of relative humility, self-examination and taking the moral high ground in conflicts such as Haiti and Kosovo."

...but the left in this country is fixated on Vietnam.

Remember the Gulf War? I was in college back then and I had a liberal professor who told us to prepare for 100,000 casualties and a draft. Know why? Because that's what war was like. Remember Vietnam!

But we don't even have to go back that far; remember when Afghanistan was the next Vietnam? Hostilities started on October 7, 2001 and before a month was out there were liberals in the media who believed we were stuck in a quagmire. Take a look at this quote and you'll see what I mean:

"Could Afghanistan become another Vietnam? Is the United States facing another stalemate on the other side of the world? Premature the questions may be, three weeks after the fighting began. Unreasonable they are not, given the scars scoured into the national psyche by defeat in Southeast Asia. For all the differences between the two conflicts, and there are many, echoes of Vietnam are unavoidable." -- R.W. Apple, New York Times, Oct 31, 2001

Anyone STILL think Afghanistan is another Vietnam? Anyone?

Furthermore, we should not forget that Iraq is now in its 2nd "Quagmire Stage". There were initially left-wingers in the media claiming we were bogged down in "another Vietnam" while we were fighting our three-week-long battle against Saddam's troops. Just look at these quotes while keeping in mind that hostilities commenced on March 19, 2003:

"During the Vietnam War, there was a morose song that claimed that Lyndon Johnson had mired the United States in the ''Big Muddy,'' a dark swamp from which there was no escape. Because the U.S. military never seems to learn from its mistakes, it would appear that we are once again deep in the Big Muddy." -- Andrew Greeley on April 4, 2003.

"Already officers in the Gulf are comparing Rumsfeld to Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense and architect of Vietnam who sent his soldiers into battle when he knew nothing of the Vietnamese.

In past weeks I have been worrying about going to war in Iraq too soon without sufficient international support and worrying about the really dangerous postwar plans of the radical neo-conservatives who seem to be so influential in this administration. But I confess I never worried about the competence of Rumsfeld and Co. to run a war. I do now." -- H.D.S. Greenway in an editorial called, "Vietnam's lessons forgotten in Iraq" on April 4, 2003.

"(T)he fact of the matter is that the United States has got itself in a terrible bind here without regional allies" and suggested that "without UN legitimacy -- forget it, never work, Vietnam quagmire next stop." -- Arthur Kent on April 5, 2003

All the Vietnam talk cooled for a while after the statue was pulled down in Firdos Square, but once the insurgency got cranked up, it came back with a vengeance.

But, how alike are Iraq and Vietnam really?

In Vietnam, the country was split into two halves and North Vietnam had a large & experienced army with popular support in the North. Eventually, North Vietnam was able to conquer the South after Democrats in Congress cut off supplies and air support to our former allies and left them to be slaughtered. Compare that to Iraq where our enemies are terrorists and gangsters who hold no territory, are wildly unpopular, and who have absolutely no hope of conquering the country militarily.

Furthermore, Vietnam was called a "quagmire" with good reason. After Lyndon Johnson ramped up the number of troops we had there, we fought for 10 years and more than 58,000 of our troops lost their lives. On the other hand, in Iraq, we've lost less than 1500 American soldiers so far in a country we invaded less than 2 years ago. Were we to continue on at the same pace in Iraq, it would take more than 70 years to match the numbers from Vietnam. However, given the wildly successful elections last month in Iraq and the growing numbers of trained Iraqi Security Forces (125,000 are ready to go and their numbers will eventually reach 271,000), it's likely that we're going to see American casualty rates start to drop significantly in the coming months as the Iraqis become capable of handling their own internal security.

What it all comes down to is that you can always find vague points of comparison between wars, whether it's Iraq and Vietnam or the War of 1812 and WW2. That being said, what's happening in Iraq today is a fundamentally different conflict from Vietnam and quite frankly, that should be rather obvious to anyone other than liberals who insist that practically every war we fight is "another Vietnam."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:30 AM
End 'don't ask, don't tell' <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
Newsday.com <br />
March 1, 2005 <br />
<br />
With the military stretched painfully thin in the global...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:31 AM
Our Best and Bravest
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By John Hillen
National Review Online

I went to a presentation by a young Marine infantry lieutenant last week about the platoon he led in the assault on the insurgents in Fallujah a few months ago. It was fascinating stuff for us military types - acronyms were being slung with abandon. Some points were particularly worth noting and sharing:

The intensity of combat in Fallujah: Of the 46 Marines in this lieutenant's platoon, 20 were evacuated for wounds during the three days of fighting and only four emerged completely unscathed.

Some 20-odd insurgents were captured by his company during the battle, but there was not a single Iraqi amongst them. Muslims from all over the world, they were aspiring jihadists who had found easy recruiting networks through their local Mosques in their home countries, which plugged them right into the insurgency.

Most chose not to be captured. When surrounded in buildings and repeatedly told to surrender, they chose to fight on and become martyrs.

Many of the insurgents were injecting themselves with stimulants, bringing to mind the Moro guerillas in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century.

Intel was sparse to nonexistent at his level - a figure-it-out picture. His intelligence preparation of the battlefield amounted to urban-combat drills. When the operation kicked off, he took his men into their assigned sector of town, found what insurgents were there (usually by taking their fire), and then used fire and maneuver to destroy them or compel their surrender.

Iraqi forces fighting with them were a mixed bag, ranging from very courageous and dependable to downright sympatico with the insurgents.

The "gloves off" rules of engagement in Fallujah had a profound effect in other trouble areas, where the populace became remarkably more cooperative and engaged with the Marines after word leaked of the Americans' tough approach with the jihadists in Fallujah.

Incidentally, some sophisticate tried to prompt the young officer into musings on how he and his Marines felt about the mission in Iraq and our purpose there. The lieutenant gave a gold-plated answer, noting that his focus was on his Marines and his Marines' focus was on each other, which provided the platform for any purpose. As in all wars, ultimately the men fight for each other - perhaps one could even say firstly they fight for each other. He also noted, though, that among the things they stumbled on in Fallujah was a torture house (he showed pictures) with hooks hanging from the ceiling, black masks, knives, al Qaeda-like jihadist literature, and other more gruesome evidence of what went on there. "Nobody had a problem focusing on why we were there," he said, with Gary Cooper-like understatement.

Twenty-four years old, a Tufts graduate from a well-to-do family, he chose to go into Marine infantry and along with that rigorous training he attended the Army airborne school and even the special-warfare scuba school, one of the most physically demanding courses the American military has. This is the caliber of the young officers leading our combat troops on a confused and complex battlefield. This generation of young combat leaders is going to be a great resource for America for a number of years to come, whether they stay in the military or pursue other ventures.

- John Hillen, a contributing editor at National Review, was a defense-policy adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:32 AM
Bronze Star for fallen Marine stirs proud dad
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By Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

WIXOM -- John Ellsworth's fight for his son's e-mails from the battlefields of Iraq rages on, but news that Justin was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery brought more pride and more tears.

"I am so proud. It almost gives me the same feeling when he left for Iraq. I was so proud of him, and I was so scared," John Ellsworth said Monday. "I do know he didn't die in vain, and he did make a difference."

Justin M. Ellsworth, a 20-year-old lance corporal, was killed Nov. 13 during a foot patrol with other Marines in Al Anbar province.

Justin's family knew few details of his death, but a letter authorizing the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguished Service revealed that Justin, whose job was to locate and destroy hidden bombs, discovered a homemade explosive that morning and moved toward the bomb to investigate it.

Discovering the device lacked wires and was likely remote-controlled, Justin warned his fellow Marines to clear the area. By the time he discovered a cell phone was attached to the device, the explosive was detonated. Justin was directly over the bomb at the time.

His effort saved the lives of 11 Marines and spared many others from more serious injuries, the military stated.

"He has set an example of courage for all to emulate that has been an inspiration for the platoon as well as his fellow Marines," the statement read.

John Ellsworth said he knew when his son enlisted that he was a special young man. "I wasn't surprised by what he did. I was surprised that the information was even made available to me. It was pretty graphic. It took me back," he said.

In December, John Ellsworth found himself in a legal battle with Internet company Yahoo! when he tried to access Justin's Yahoo! E-mail account, which contained hundreds of communications between Justin and his family and friends.

The father pleaded with the company to give him access to the account to fulfill the family's wish of knowing Justin's last words, photographs and thoughts from the front lines in Iraq. While Justin was in Iraq, he and his father discussed the large volume of e-mails Justin had in his account and how John would make copies of all the correspondence for a scrapbook.

But without the account password, which only Justin and Yahoo! know, the family's request was repeatedly denied.

Yahoo! policy calls for erasing the entire account if, after 120 days, there is no activity.

On Monday Yahoo! officials said they have taken measures to preserve Justin's e-mail account.

John Ellsworth said his attorneys are negotiating with Yahoo! to get the e-mail password released. His lawyer, Brian Dailey, refused to comment on the case, which has become a probate matter and is assigned to Oakland Probate Judge Eugene Moore.

Yahoo! spokeswoman Mary Osako said Yahoo! has been working with Ellsworth on a "shared goal of finding a mutually agreeable resolution to a complicated and, in many ways, uncharted issue."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:34 AM
Invisible wounds
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By Lara Brenckle
lbrenckl@centredaily.com

FERGUSON TOWNSHIP -- When Lance Cpl. Buck Gates came home from war last weekend, he carried two indelible marks.

One is on his back. The other, in his heart.

With his four-year commitment to the Marines over, Gates, 24, was bound for his base in Kaneohe, Hawaii, on Jan. 12, when tragedy struck the unit he'd left behind in Iraq.

Twenty-seven men of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, including six of Gates' close friends, were killed when their helicopter crashed. The Marines had been on their way to provide security for the Iraqi elections.

"I started hearing rumors about (the crash) at the Detroit Airport, and I said 'Naw, no way,' " Gates said.

"And then I got a partial list in a hotel in Seattle on my way back to Hawaii. That's how I found out Sean Kelly and Joe Spence had passed away. At the Honolulu Airport, I picked up the newspaper and saw the whole list. I was just in denial, dismay. I didn't know how to handle it."

The Marines had trained Gates well. He was prepared for hand-to-hand, house-to-house combat in Fallujah at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. But dealing with the loss of 27 buddies, including his roommate in Hawaii, Nate Schubert -- no one taught him how to handle that.

Gates, whose roots go back generations in Centre County, grew up on Maple Hill Farm, a sprawling dairy operation outside the hamlet of Gatesburg in Ferguson Township. He graduated from State College Area High School in 1999, then wasn't sure what he would do.

A friend of his father, a career Marine, urged Gates to enlist. He did so in 2001, figuring it was a way for a small-town boy like himself to see the world.

His first assignment was a major one, helping provide security for President George W. Bush as part of the Marines' Yankee White detail. He spent a year and a half protecting the president, mostly at Camp David, before being transferred to Hawaii.

It was there that he met the six men who would become his best friends. He said he felt kind of lost and had been looking for a way to fit in when Dick Gilbert, Joe Spence, Matt Smith, Tim Knight, Sean Kelly and Nate Schubert decided he was just the kind of kid they needed to have a little more fun on the island.

A picture taken at a backyard barbecue just before the unit left for Iraq shows how close they became.

Gates, sporting a Penn State hat, is in the crowd making a toast. Gilbert is on Spence's shoulders, bare-chested and wearing a cowboy hat. The others crowd around and mug for the camera. Schubert is relaxed, sprawled on the ground, a grin on his face.

Another picture, taken on Christmas, shows a different side. Gilbert, Kelly and Schubert crowd around Gates. All are dressed in the somber camouflage, their weapons at hand.

Until that day in January, the mission of Gates' unit had proceeded pretty much as planned.

Gates' battalion was one of the first on the ground when the war began. It pushed into the rebel stronghold with amazing speed.

"We intercepted cell phone calls, and (the insurgents) were telling their buddies, 'Don't come here,'" Gates said. "They had their explosives on the street, and we pushed them so far away from their detonators they couldn't use them against us."

In 10 days, the battalion had secured the city. Once there, they patrolled the streets and, when the civilians returned, handed out soccer balls to children and food to the children's parents. They destroyed caches of weapons in the desert and quickly learned to identify safe houses for insurgent fighters (low shade trees, Gates said, or a rope secured to a cinder block flung over a wall).

When he left, Gates said, he felt bad about leaving his comrades but knew the unit was due to return to Hawaii in April or May. Gates said he figured, "Hey, I'll see you guys in a couple of weeks, a couple of months."

He and Sean Kelly made plans to spend lazy days at Raystown Lake this summer. Dick Gilbert, a huge Ohio State fan, and he "had planned it out for eternity to go to each other's houses for football games," Gates said.

In an instant, everything changed.

Gates volunteered to go to Iowa as a Marine representative to Schubert's funeral.

He would have attended every funeral if he could, Gates said, but he picked Schubert's not only because they were roommates, but because Schubert's father had died of cancer on Father's Day 2004.

His job was to console the family, offering kind words and stories of their son's bravery on the front because "you were the last one to see them."

"They welcomed me like they would Nate," Gates said.

To the families of his other friends, he sent letters of condolence. He hopes, eventually, to visit each one.

The grieving process is not over, he said.

"It will take a while," he said. "You lose 27 of your friends at one time, it's going to be hard."

He goes to the Veteran's Affairs office when he has time. If he needs to talk to someone, he does. But mostly, he said, being back at Maple Hill Farm in the hamlet named for his forefathers, is healing.

Just before he left Hawaii, he got a tattoo to commemorate his fallen comrades.

In black ink, the image of the statue of the flag raising at Iwo Jima rises from his midsection to the middle of his shoulder blades. On the base of the statue are the names of the 27 men killed in the helicopter crash and three others who died in combat.

"It stands as a tribute that through time, Marines have done the impossible," he said.

What Gates plans to do next is up in the air. He said he'll be "browsing" for jobs, getting an apartment, a car and re-establishing the life he put on hold.

But, he said, he will always have a duty to the men who died and to those who were there when he needed friends.

"Since I was the one left behind," he said, "I'm going to try to help the families all I can."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:41 AM
Marine reached out to child, and she saved lives
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The little Iraqi girl would not move from the road where she sat.

She kept clutching the white Beanie Baby bear she had received only weeks earlier from a U.S. Marine. Now, a Marine convoy approached.

Here's how Gunnery Sgt. Mark Francis of the II Marine Expeditionary Force described what happened next:

''Our lead security vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. This is not normal and is very unsafe, so the following vehicles began to inquire over the radio. The lead vehicle reported a little girl sitting in the road and said she just would not budge.

''The command vehicle told the lead to simply go around her and to be kind as they did. The street was wide enough to allow this maneuver and so they waved to her as they drove around.

''As the vehicles went around her, one of the Marines soon saw her sitting there, and in her arms she was clutching a little bear that he had handed her a few patrols back. Feeling an immediate connection to the girl, he then radioed that the convoy was going to stop.

''The rest of the convoy paused as he got out to make sure she was OK. The little girl looked scared and concerned, but there was a warmth in her eyes toward him. As he knelt down to talk to her, she moved over and pointed to a mine in the road.

''Immediately a cordon was set as the Marine convoy assumed a defensive posture around the site.

''The mine was destroyed in place.''

Sgt. Francis received that incredible report from a patrol because it was his efforts that brought the Beanie Baby bear and other toys to Iraq. He had asked his church, his brother's mother-in-law and his wife to mail toys for the Iraqi kids.

''On each patrol we take through the city, we take as many toys as will fit in our pockets and hand them out as we can,'' Sgt. Francis writes. ''The kids take the toys and run to show them off as if they were worth a million bucks. We are as friendly as we can be to everyone we see but especially so with the kids. Most of them don't have any idea what is going on and are completely innocent in all of this.''

Sgt. Francis asked various units to report back on their giving. He wanted to include some of the stories with ''thank you'' notes sent home. It was a report from one patrol that had the story about the little Iraqi girl and the Beanie Baby bear.

I've been tracking this story since before Christmas. It took the help of the Web site blackfive.net to find the people behind the story and needed confirmation.

The story is miraculous - first in the heroics of a little Iraqi girl and second in a Marine, who put himself at risk for her. And it was only in reaching out to her that the lives of his fellow Marines were saved.

Officially, the Marines - through Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, II MEF spokesman - have this to say: ''This type of story is representative of the positive effect our forces are having with the Iraqi people, and it is heartening to see such stories reach the American people so they know what good work their Marines are doing.''

For the rest of us, telling this story is our way of supporting our men and women in uniform and making sure Iraq does not become another Vietnam.

You hear the Vietnam analogy most frequently from critics of the war, ridiculously cited by Sen. Ted Kennedy just days before the historic Iraqi elections. And you hear it from people in the news media. They want to prosecute this war like Walter Cronkite and others did with Vietnam. So they paint things in Iraq with gloom and doom.

But a lot of us - like the Web site blackfive.net - are committed to telling the rest of the story about Iraq and the amazing good our men and women are doing. Those stories were lost in Vietnam. And opportunists such as John Kerry returned home to paint our sons as butchers.

The stories of good in Iraq will not be lost. And our heroes from this war - little Iraqi girls who sit in the road to warn a convoy of danger and Marines who hand out toys to show the power of kindness - will be celebrated, not castigated.

The reasons that put us over there don't matter much now. The Civil War did not begin to free the slaves. But it did, and that's the good it is remembered for. The Iraq war did not begin simply to free the Iraqi people. But now they are, and the fire of freedom and democracy is burning across the Middle East.

Sgt. Francis' tour in Iraq is ending. But he handed over the toy campaign to another Marine. If you'd like to support it, give me a call or drop me an e-mail.

As for the story of the Iraqi girl, Sgt. Francis says it proves that ''love is more powerful than hate.''

America is not perfect, but it remains a beacon of hope to the world. On an Iraqi road where terrorists planted their hate to kill, a little girl remembered America's kindness and responded with love to save lives. May she and her heroics serve as a reminder that good is more powerful than evil and proof that our men and women in Iraq will be remembered most for the kindness and compassion they brought to their mission.

Tim Chavez is a columnist for The Tennessean. Contact him at tchavez@tennessean.com or (615) 771-5428.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:42 AM
Dead Marine's letters tell of regret, illness
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The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - In his last letter home, Marine recruit Jason Tharp said he was sick and he wanted out of the Marines so badly that the military's promise of money he could use to study art in college didn't matter anymore.

"If you can get me out I will be forever grateful," Tharp wrote in his last letter mailed from Parris Island to his parents in Sutton, W.Va., on Feb. 2, six days before the 19-year-old drowned on the last day of water survival training.

"I don't care about the money. My health is in jeopardy because we don't have enough time to eat and I am getting sicker and sicker. I am serious this time and I will use all of my power to try and get out, too. Thanks if you help me."

The letter said he feared he would get pneumonia, coughing up blood like some of the other recruits. He could barely do the required number of sit-ups and pull-ups, and it didn't seem like he was improving.

His family released his letters to the Sunday Gazette-Mail of Charleston. The family declined Sunday and last week to talk to The Associated Press.

Linda and Johnny Tharp told the newspaper Friday that their son wasn't a strong swimmer, but he had been healthy.

"There's nothing right about this, I could feel it in my heart the night that it happened," Johnny Tharp said. "They should have let him out when he wanted out and we wanted him out."

Three investigations are under way, and six Marines have been suspended following Jason Tharp's death a day after WIS-TV of Columbia caught him on video being grabbed and shoved by a drill instructor at the side of the pool.

None of the Marines' names has been released. Grabbing and striking a recruit violates regulations, as does failing to report such an incident, said Capt. Jamie Nott, a Parris Island spokesman.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd, both D-W.Va., have also requested investigations. In a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Byrd asked Rumsfeld to give the matter his "personal attention."

In the first of seven letters he wrote home during his five weeks in basic training, Jason Tharp questioned his decision to join the Marines and apologized to his mother for not talking enough on the phone.

"I am doing fine but a little upset," he said. "I am really homesick and miss all of you."

Subsequent letters indicated he was making friends, learning martial arts and how to handle guns and liked going to church on Sundays "because drill instructors are not allowed to yell at people" there.

He also got used to eating meals in five minutes.

"Today I ate a hot-dog, hamburger, Jell-O, a banana and a piece of cake in four minutes," he wrote on Jan. 15. "That's a new record."

The newspaper reported that the focus of all his letters was on getting home. One day while marching, he saw a Pizza Hut in the distance. He told his parents in a letter that was where he wanted to eat when training was over.

In late January, Jason Tharp wrote that the drill instructors were picking on him more. They wanted him to yell louder when he marched or his platoon would not win the marching competition.

Two letters later, he wrote, "I am feeling really bad and coughing a ton. I still don't think I belong here, and I think I should go home and try to get a grant."

Johnny Tharp said he tried to make sure his son knew that he had options to attend school. "He didn't want to be a burden on us," the father said. "He thought the Marines was his only way there."

The last time the Tharps spoke to their son was in mid-January. He told them not to worry about him.

When Marines arrived on their front porch Feb. 8, Linda Tharp said she thought they were going to tell her that Jason was coming home.

"We're hoping that some kind of legislation passes so this thing won't happen to another family," Johnny Tharp said. "If a recruit wants out, and tells a drill instructor they can't make it, they should let them out. Not everyone is cut out to be in the military."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 12:32 PM
Families greet local Marines home from Iraq

CAMP PENDLETON -- More than 200 members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit have returned home after serving seven months in Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Carter Hills, 21, of La Habra Heights, saw his 4- month-old for the first time Saturday as balloons, flags and family greeted the returning Marines.

"It's awesome,' Hills said after kissing his wife, Andrea, and son, Ashton. "I don't think there is anything to describe it.'

Most of the Marines, when asked what they would do first, said they wanted to take a hot shower with water that stays hot.

Lance Cpl. Rich Boulerice, who said he witnessed five roadside bombings while traveling through Najaf, Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad, threw his rucksack in his dad's pickup and then admired his family.

"Words can't express how good it feels,' he said. "It feels like I'm dreaming and I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and still be in Iraq.' : Associated Press


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 01:02 PM
Scam Targets Families of Service Members Killed in Action


American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2005 -- Officials with the Department of Homeland Security are warning the public about two new Iraq-related Internet scams, including one directed at the relatives of fallen U.S. soldiers.

"These new Internet fraud schemes are among the worst we have ever encountered," said Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration and customs enforcement. "Most troubling is the fact that some are targeting the relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. We are also concerned about the fact that these criminals are impersonating (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and referring to ICE's official Web site in an effort to steal money from Americans who have lost loved ones."

The first scheme involves e-mail sent to relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Claiming to be a volunteer working with U.S. forces, the sender states that a late friend, who also was a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, was a very good friend of the relatives' slain son or daughter. The sender then goes on to ask for assistance in obtaining funds kept for them by the deceased friend, promising more details when the relative responds to the e-mail. The sender then adds a link to the portion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's actual Web site discussing ICE operations in Iraq.

In the second scheme, a blanket e-mail is being distributed that claims to be from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Iraq who is responsible for tracking down funds looted from the Iraqi Central Bank by Saddam Hussein's son. The sender lists ICE's Web site address in the e-mail in an effort to seem credible. The sender then asks for confirmation of the e-mail address of the recipient, stating, "there is a very important and confidential matter which I want us both to discuss."

The ICE Cyber Crimes Center in northern Virginia, in conjunction with the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility here, is investigating the schemes. Those who receive the bogus e-mail solicitations should ignore and delete them, Garcia said.

(From a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.)


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 01:04 PM
Declared 'Fit for Duty,' Amputee Plans Return to Iraq
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2005 - Like many Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans, U.S. Army Capt. David Rozelle's story began in Iraq. Unlike many of those same veterans, his is set to continue there as well.

Cleared to return to the same battlefield where he was injured, Rozelle said he is the first amputee in recent military history to be returned to a dangerous command.

Rozelle arrived in Hit, Iraq, with the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment from Fort Carson, Colo., in April 2003. Initially, his role in the town was as the "de facto sheriff," he said.

Aside from the fact that it was hot, he said, what stood out about the mission was that it was a success.

"From the time we hit the ground in Hit, from the first recon day to the point of my injury, it truly was a successful mission," Rozelle said. "We, within days, got the things back working. We made some good friends quite quickly."

He also was tapped to become one of the first servicemembers outside of special operations to train Iraqis to defend themselves. However, that never came to be.

On June 21, 2003, Rozelle was traveling the road that led to the police academy to participate in the program to train Iraqis when his Humvee hit an anti-tank mine buried by insurgents. Later he found out that the mine his Humvee hit was the last in a line of nine mines the insurgents had buried.

The Humvee became airborne and landed on Rozelle's right leg. Of the three soldiers in the vehicle, he was the only one injured.

"At first, I really didn't realize I was injured," he said. "The vehicle blew up, and I looked down and had what looked like all my parts and I had some good shrapnel and some bleeding, but I was alive and grateful."

The incident cost him his right foot, but earned him a Bronze Star with 'V' device and a Purple Heart Medal for his service in Iraq.

Following the usual medical route, Rozelle went through Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany before ending up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There, he bargained with the hospital commander, promising to meet amazing goals in his recovery, if he could make it to Colorado for the birth of his son. He arrived two days before the due date and ended up waiting for a week before his son was born.

"The baby was waiting on me to get home," Rozelle said.

The baby may have been waiting, but so were the amputee patients at Walter Reed - whether they knew it or not.

Back at Walter Reed, Rozelle was one of the first OIF amputee patients, and he had to find his own way through the healing process. It started when his boss made it clear to Rozelle and his rear detachment commander that his only mission was to get fit for active duty.

He took that mission very seriously, spending three to four hours per day training, likening the experience to basic training.

"The other four to five hours a day I spent staying in touch with other soldiers, calling back to Walter Reed, sending e-mails to other guys that are injured, creating awareness for people with disabilities from the very start. I wanted to help take care of soldiers, give them what I didn't have, which was knowledge of what's next," he said. "I found a leadership role for myself within the Army for amputees."

The training got him in shape and gave him a way to connect with and encourage other amputees to get back to their lives. He is snow skiing again and runs everything from Turkey Trots to marathons. He even organized a Walter Reed team for the Army 10-miler.

A group of doctors at the hospital had put a team together for the race when Rozelle approached them with the idea to let some of the patients take some of the slots. And so the "Missing Parts in Action Team: Some Assembly Required" was born.

"I beat most of the Navy and Air Force and kept up with the Marines," he said. "We just need to make people aware."

When Rozelle returns from Iraq, he has been asked to return to a position at Walter Reed before going on to Command and General Staff College. It will be doing one of the things he does best: Encouraging amputee patients to not give up and helping them realize that they can do the things they used to do.

"I am amazed … by the spirit of the American soldier," he said. "That's what I say to America: 'Celebrate the spirit of the American soldier.'

"These guys need to understand that, both the amputees and the able-bodied soldiers, … that the soldiers that are shown at Walter Reed are not ready to quit. They want to come back and join (their units) in combat, in a combat role. With modern science, that's a possibility."

Rozelle said the celebration of that spirit is readily evident.

"All you have to do is go over to Walter Reed sometime," he said, recounting stories of Walter Reed patients needing items and receiving an overwhelming response, and of a pillow company catching wind of plans to send pillows to troops in Iraq.

"They sent … 6,000 pillows for our soldiers," he said. "That is incredible."

Beyond these acts of support and generosity, Rozelle told of an individual who was supporting troops in a very big way.

"There's a guy over at Walter Reed who has now started an organization to continue it, but he, out of his own pocket, (is) giving every injured soldier that separated from service $30,000 to get his life started again," he said. "America supports our soldiers."

The captain, who claims to be an excellent hop-scotcher, also has found time during his recovery to write a book. "Back in Action: An American Soldier's Story of Courage, Faith, and Fortitude" is Rozelle's story of his injury, recovery and return to a command on the same battlefield.

He said the book, which he dedicated to his wife and son, came about at the suggestion of his friends and family. They are also the reason, he said, why he is going back to Iraq.

"There's a job to be done," he said.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 03:49 PM
America Supports You: 'Haley House' Established for Wounded Vets


By Terri Lukach
American Forces Press Service

TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 28, 2005 -- Volunteers here have banded together to fill the gap while a new facility for families of wounded servicemembers is being built.

A new Fisher House for sick and injured servicemembers and veterans is being established at the James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tampa, Fla.

The new facility, which will take 10 to 12 months to build, will focus on veterans with severe blast, burn, and spinal cord injuries. The new Fisher House will place a special emphasis on victims of high-energy explosions and blasts, which currently account for more than 50 percent of injuries suffered by those serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to specialists at the medical center.

Thanks to medical advances, most of those injured in such attacks survive. However, these injuries are often severe and involve multiple body systems. In addition to physical disabilities that require extensive rehabilitation, many blast-injury survivors also have residual physical, cognitive and other impairments that require treatment for extended periods.

The nonprofit Fisher House program provides lodging for families of sick or wounded military personnel, who often must travel great distances for specialized medical care. Fisher Houses typically provide eight to 11 families with a homelike atmosphere and common kitchen and living areas for less than $10 a day. Some even offer rooms at no cost.

While the new Fisher House is being built, a special coalition of volunteers has been formed to create an interim facility, named "Haley House," at a local hotel near the hospital. Among the services offered to families by the hotel are free rooms and breakfast, unlimited shuttle service, complimentary local phone calls, 24-hour security and escort service, on-site laundry facilities, and access to hotel services.

Haley House secretary/treasurer Dave Braun said he "looks forward to going to the post office every day to see what donations have come in" to make his dream a reality for returning vets, as well as for area veterans who are in imminent need of hospice care in the Tampa/MacDill Air Force Base area.

Braun said even after the new Fisher House is built, he intends to continue raising funds for additional needs of wounded veterans.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 04:02 PM
March 01, 2005

Abizaid: More effort needed to squelch roadside-bomb attacks

By Robert Burns
Associated Press


The Pentagon is not trying hard enough to defeat the makeshift roadside bombs that are the leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq, the commander of American forces in the Middle East said Tuesday.
Pentagon statistics show that over the past two months, the homemade, easy-to-hide weapons have accounted for a significantly higher share of U.S. battle deaths. In the final 10 days of February, for example, at least 13 of the 22 battle deaths were caused by roadside bombs.

In the first two months of this year, roadside bombs accounted for 54 percent of all battle deaths. In the final four months of 2004 they accounted for 19 percent, according to Pentagon figures.

Army Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee he was satisfied that the right people, with sufficient funds, were working on the problem.

“But I’m not satisfied that we have come up with the solutions that we could if we really rolled up our sleeves and looked at it the way it needs to be looked at,” Abizaid said. That statement was the most direct public challenge to the Pentagon’s approach to this deadly problem.

On another subject, Abizaid said that about 3,500 insurgents took part in election day violence in Iraq on Jan. 30, an unusually precise estimate on the threat facing coalition and Iraqi forces.

Abizaid did not cite a source for that estimate.

“It was the single most important day for the insurgents to come out in force and to disrupt,” he told the committee. “They threw their whole force at us, we think, and yet they were unable to disturb the elections because people wanted to vote.”

The problem of roadside bombs, which the U.S. military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has bedeviled the Pentagon since they began appearing in the summer of 2003. Since then they have killed and maimed hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, and Abizaid said the threat had grown to the point where it required an international effort, and not just inside Iraq.

“It’s an ongoing battle, and this IED threat has migrated from Iraq to Pakistan to Afghanistan, and as long as we are fighting the enemies that we’re fighting in the connected manner that they are fighting the battle, we’ll see it continuing to migrate,” the general said.

In Iraq there is a seemingly endless supply of available explosives and they can be adapted for use against a wide variety of targets. They have proven to be a low-tech counterpoint to the U.S. military’s high-powered arsenal.

Many of the most powerful IEDs are made from 155 mm artillery shells. The insurgents have found creative ways of disguising the weapons. Smaller ones are hidden inside animal carcasses or under piles of rubbish along roads traveled by U.S. military convoys and detonated from a distance.

Some have been encased in concrete to make them look like harmless cinder blocks.

In response, the U.S. military has put more armor on its vehicles, including Humvees and supply trucks, and experimented with electronic jammers and other means of detonating IEDs before they kill.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday that all U.S. military vehicles in Iraq will be outfitted with the best armor by summer. Until then some will rely on the less effective add-on armor, which some soldiers have dubbed “hillbilly armor” because it is an improvised solution.

“The way it’s been described makes it sound like the Beverly Hillbillies which it’s not,” Pace said. It has provided a degree of extra protection against IEDs and small arms fire.

Even as the U.S. forces have adapted to the IED threat, the insurgents have changed tactics.

In the past two months, IEDs have tended to be larger and more powerful — designed to kill larger numbers in a single explosion. On Feb. 25, for example, an IED attack in Tarmiya killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded nine. Another on Jan. 5 killed seven soldiers and destroyed their armored infantry carrier.

Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, told reporters last week that a fully armored Humvee recently was “ripped apart, just torn apart” by an IED made from three linked 155 mm shells.

Hagee said the Marines have developed a computer program that calculates vulnerabilities against IEDs for Marine vehicle convoys. It uses data such as the location of electronic jamming devices and the location and degree of armor protection of Marine trucks and other vehicles.

“It tells us, OK, do you have any vulnerabilities here? Should you change the arrangement of your vehicles? Should you change where your jammers are located? And if you can’t do that, should you reduce the size of the convoy?” he said.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 04:48 PM
Helicopter pilot receives Distinguished Flying Cross

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer


CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A helicopter pilot who flew five combat missions into Baghdad in April 2003, evacuating 28 wounded Marines and an Iraqi family of seven, has been awarded the military’s fourth highest combat award.
Marine Capt. Armando Espinoza, 36, a CH-46E Sea Knight pilot, received the Distinguished Flying Cross during a Friday morning ceremony at Camp Pendleton’s air station.

Espinoza, now the safety officer for Headquarters Squadron, was a member of the “Red Dragons” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268, which is based at Camp Pendleton. The squadron deployed in spring 2003 to support the invasion of Iraq.

Espinoza was piloting one of two Sea Knights in support of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines and the 5th Marine Regiment as infantry forces fought in Baghdad. He is cited for actions on April 10, 2003, when he flew day and night missions under enemy fire to evacuate the wounded, which included an Iraqi family and 28 Marines.

“Landing under enemy fire, he loaded casualties while the lead aircraft provided suppressive fires,” his award citation reads. “He departed the zone while returning fire and conducting evasive maneuvering en route. He made four repeated trips in order to ensure the evacuation of all wounded personnel.”

Espinoza, who is married and the father of three boys, downplayed the attention.

“We were simply doing our job,” he told those gathered at the award ceremony. “We were at the right place and the right time, saving Marines. That is the true reward for me.”

Col. Greg Goodman pinned the award — a bronze cross hanging from a red-white-and-blue-striped ribbon — onto the pocket flap of Espinoza’s camouflage blouse as the pilot’s family and crowd of over 100 well-wishers looked on.

Goodman called him “one of America’s finest.”

“It was a brave thing to do, but it was the very thing that he was trained to do,” said Goodman, commander of Camp Pendleton’s air station.

Now, Espinoza joins a unique group of military aviators. A half-dozen members of the San Diego Lindbergh chapter of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society joined the crowd in lauding Espinoza. And member Harry Kaplan, with an application form in hand, was ready to ask the Marine pilot to join the club.

Espinoza, of Tucson, Ariz., already has two Iraq tours under his belt. Last year, he returned to Iraq as the forward air controller for 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The “Red Dragons,” meanwhile, are wrapping up a second deployment to Iraq and are expected to return home later this month.

Gidget Fuentes is the San Diego bureau chief for Marine Corps Times. She can be reached at (760) 677-6145.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 07:22 PM
Trans-Am to be on the Armed Forces Network
Racing series TV TRANSAM
Date 2005-03-01

TRANS-AM SERIES RACING WILL BE SEEN BY U.S. ARMED FORCES STATIONED OVERSEAS

INDIANAPOLIS (March 1, 2005) -- Now entering its third year of providing Trans-Am Series racing to the men and women stationed overseas, the Trans-Am Series has announced the continuation of its relationship with the American Forces Network (AFN)

"The American Forces Network graciously thanks the Trans-Am Series for providing our men and women in uniform stationed overseas with race coverage for the 2005 season," said Jeff White, Director of the Department of Defense's (DoD) AFN Broadcast Center.

"Trans-Am Series racing on AFN is a tremendous morale booster for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving in harm's way," added White. "The most deserving audience in the world are our troops in remote and hostile locations defending our way of life against terrorism, and providing humanitarian support to those in need. We thank the Trans-Am Series for helping us bring them home during these telecasts."

The U.S. Armed Forces, along with DoD civilian employees and their families, can follow Trans-Am Series' 10-race calendar starting with the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Calif. April 8-10 on AFN and the U.S. Navy's Direct-to-Sailor (DTS) television service to ships at sea.

"We are privileged to continue to provide the opportunity for our men and women in uniform to experience Trans-Am racing," said Trans-Am Series Executive Director John Clagett. "With the events taking place throughout the world, we thought it was only fitting to show our appreciation for our military. It is through the great sacrifice of our troops that we enjoy the freedom we have in this country today."

In agreements with Trans-Am Series and SPEED Channel, the AFN Broadcast Center plans to provide distribution of the 10, one-hour Trans-Am Series highlight shows via its AFN | sports and AFN | prime channels, along with the U.S. Navy's DTS television service.

"The AFN audience is as diversified as the Trans-Am Series fan base, and just like stateside fans our guys and gals in camouflage look forward to the speed and excitement of Trans-Am Series racing," said Tim Mattox, Chief of Sports for the AFN Broadcast Center. "The popularity of the Trans-Am Series continues to expand within our Armed Forces."

Located in Riverside, Calif., the AFN Broadcast Center distributes U.S. radio and television news, entertainment and sports programming, along with DoD information products, via satellite to approximately 850,000 DoD military and civilian employees, and their families, stationed overseas in 176 countries and U.S. territories, and aboard more than 180 U.S. Navy ships at sea. For more information about AFN, log on to: www.afrts.osd.mil or www.myafn.net.

The Trans-Am Series features closed-fendered, production-based, V-8-powered sports cars, competing on permanent road courses, and temporary street and airport circuits throughout North America. The Trans-Am Series is America's oldest continuously running road racing series and celebrates its 40th consecutive year of competition in 2005.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 08:50 PM
Irvin grad felt duty was 'birthright'

Chris Roberts
El Paso Times

The mournful notes of taps echoed off the gravestones Monday and a Marine honor detail stepped in ceremonial slow motion as it carried the casket of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Trevor Aston, who was laid to rest at Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

Aston, 32, who died from injuries suffered in a vehicle accident Feb. 22 in Iraq, was a machine gunner with the Marine Forces Reserve's 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. Aston's unit was stationed in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah and Ramadi, where it was involved in flushing out terrorists in door-to-door operations and clearing improvised explosive devices from roadways.

Aston, who graduated from Irvin High School in 1994 and then moved to Austin, joined the Marines shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

"His father served, and I guess, he felt it was kind of a birthright," said Moses Mayo, a friend who traveled from Austin to pay his respects. "He joined up and, of course, all of us felt like maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, but he stayed fast to it."

Mayo said he had been sending "funny anecdotes" to Aston in Iraq by e-mail.

"That way he could breathe easy for a second," Mayo said, tears welling in his eyes. "When he told me some of the details, it would scare the hell out of me, but I just prayed for his safety. He was supposed to come home in three weeks."

The service was held in the late morning shade of a shelter on the cemetery's west side, and the family -- including the Marine's father, Robert R. Aston and his mother, Jewel Ann Aston -- wore handed red, white and blue roses as they took their seats. Family members declined to speak to the media.

"Our Lord and savior became a serviceman when he put on our flesh and came to live among us," said the Rev. James Richardson, a retired Marine and pastor at the Chapel of the North Hills. "Our lives here, we're just on bivouac. As we walk around in these fleshy bodies, we are in tent city. If our earthly tent is dissolved ... we get to trade a tent for a mansion.

"That's a pretty good transaction, trading a tent for a mansion. We can trade a life full of trouble and sorrow for a life of eternal bliss."

At the end of the ceremony, Aston's mother and father received folded flags from Marines in full-dress blues, and the family placed their roses on the gray casket before receiving condolences from about 120 people who attended the service.

Jim Walsh, a retired Army master sergeant who lives in El Paso, served in Germany with Aston's father.

"His dad used to go all the way to Belgium when (his son's) school would play football," Walsh said. "It must have been about 100 miles. He was always doing something with Trev. ... Everybody liked Trev."

Scott Morgan, another friend from Austin, said he created a Web site in Aston's memory -- www.trevorastonusmc.com. He said he hopes to collect photos and remembrances that he can put in a book for the family.

"He was vibrant and full of life," Morgan said. "After 9/11, he had this call to service. All of us had admiration and respect for what he did."

Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes.com; 546-6136.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 09:20 PM
Semper Fi 21st Century Marines

Zac Schultz


Marine Corps recruiters say they're starting to experience the effects of the war in Iraq. They describe increasing difficulty in recruiters' efforts to encourage young men and women to sign up for service as Marines and agree to additional tours of duty in Iraq.

The commandant of the Marines has announced plans to place another 250 recruiters on the streets during the next two years, along with re–enlistment bonuses of up to $35,000 to keep Marines from leaving after completing their first tour.

For the first time in nearly three decades, recruits joining the armed forces know they'll probably be going to war once they are properly trained.

Marine Corps recruit training hasn't changed a whole lot over the years.
The goal is still to take a raw recruit and turn them into a Marine in 13 weeks. The first step in that training is clearly marked by a pair of yellow footprints.

For decades recruits have been getting off the bus late at night–greeted by a Drill Instructor. "They'll remember the yellow footprints until they leave–whenever they die," says Marine Drill Instructor SSgt. Ryan Schepis

Once inside the recruits get their world famous haircut. They lose all of their outside possessions and they prepare to be trained like thousand of recruits before them.

Over the next three months these recruits will face physical and mental obstacles that will challenge their heart and determination.

For the next six days we'll show you some of those challenges and how the training prepares the recruits to handle them.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 09:36 PM
Iraq slayings <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BY KIERAN O'LEARY <br />
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER <br />
<br />
Former prep school classmates of a New York Marine charged with murdering two men in Iraq are coming to his defense. <br />
Marine...

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:20 PM
Our Best and Bravest; a young Marine officer talks about Fallujah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By John Hillen
National Review Online

I went to a presentation by a young Marine infantry lieutenant last week about the platoon he led in the assault on the insurgents in Fallujah a few months ago. It was fascinating stuff for us military types - acronyms were being slung with abandon. Some points were particularly worth noting and sharing:

The intensity of combat in Fallujah: Of the 46 Marines in this lieutenant's platoon, 20 were evacuated for wounds during the three days of fighting and only four emerged completely unscathed.

Some 20-odd insurgents were captured by his company during the battle, but there was not a single Iraqi amongst them. Muslims from all over the world, they were aspiring jihadists who had found easy recruiting networks through their local Mosques in their home countries, which plugged them right into the insurgency.

Most chose not to be captured. When surrounded in buildings and repeatedly told to surrender, they chose to fight on and become martyrs.

Many of the insurgents were injecting themselves with stimulants, bringing to mind the Moro guerillas in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century.

Intel was sparse to nonexistent at his level - a figure-it-out picture. His intelligence preparation of the battlefield amounted to urban-combat drills. When the operation kicked off, he took his men into their assigned sector of town, found what insurgents were there (usually by taking their fire), and then used fire and maneuver to destroy them or compel their surrender.

Iraqi forces fighting with them were a mixed bag, ranging from very courageous and dependable to downright sympatico with the insurgents.

The "gloves off" rules of engagement in Fallujah had a profound effect in other trouble areas, where the populace became remarkably more cooperative and engaged with the Marines after word leaked of the Americans' tough approach with the jihadists in Fallujah.

Incidentally, some sophisticate tried to prompt the young officer into musings on how he and his Marines felt about the mission in Iraq and our purpose there. The lieutenant gave a gold-plated answer, noting that his focus was on his Marines and his Marines' focus was on each other, which provided the platform for any purpose. As in all wars, ultimately the men fight for each other - perhaps one could even say firstly they fight for each other. He also noted, though, that among the things they stumbled on in Fallujah was a torture house (he showed pictures) with hooks hanging from the ceiling, black masks, knives, al Qaeda-like jihadist literature, and other more gruesome evidence of what went on there. "Nobody had a problem focusing on why we were there," he said, with Gary Cooper-like understatement.

Twenty-four years old, a Tufts graduate from a well-to-do family, he chose to go into Marine infantry and along with that rigorous training he attended the Army airborne school and even the special-warfare scuba school, one of the most physically demanding courses the American military has. This is the caliber of the young officers leading our combat troops on a confused and complex battlefield. This generation of young combat leaders is going to be a great resource for America for a number of years to come, whether they stay in the military or pursue other ventures.

- John Hillen, a contributing editor at National Review, was a defense-policy adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-01-05, 10:26 PM
Gang Members Learn Deadly Skills In Military
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 24, 2005
Story by nbc17.com

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Some of America's most notorious street gangs are turning up in the military. But they aren't just serving their country. Instead, many are taking the opportunity to learn a very deadly trade.

NBC 17 has learned there is a growing concern with gang members enlisting in the military with the hope of learning the art of war. Detective Hunter Glass is a an Army veteran and Fayetteville gang officer. "We do know through intelligence that some gang members are actually sent into the military to learn about military tactics," Glass said. Glass showed NBC 17 footage of a known gang member just back from Iraq firing on two California police officers -- he kills one quickly using tactics perfected on the battlefield. "Using strictly military tactics he learned in the Marine Corps, he applies suppressive fire power right into the corner," Glass explains. "He didn't learn those tactics as a gang member."

A SWAT team eventually shoots and kills the Marine. "I'm one gang officer in this entire country and I'm getting phone calls from the Army, Marines and the Air Force advising me that they are seeing (signs of gang activity)," Glass said. "It's an issue." Glass tracks gangs in the military by looking for hand signals, beads and colors that mark pride and affiliation to hardcore street gangs. Soldiers who are members defend their gang colors fiercely and unify on military bases.

Glass showed NBC 17 photos of soldiers giving gang hand signals. One soldier brazenly gives the signal during combat training. "We came across the 18th Street gang members Web site out of New York," Glass said. "(On the site) there was a photo of a character 'El Casper' who was making the 18th Street Gang hand signal. (The photo) came from Iraq. Casper was learning all kinds of great techniques that he was going to be brining back to the streets." Joshua Sharp is a full-time military investigator at Fort Bragg who also tracks gangs. He's very worried about what gang members are learning. "These guys with military tactics can use it for drug buys or during busts," Sharp told NBC 17. "They know how to handle surveillance and have other useful skills." Gang members brag they now have a pipeline from the U.S. to Baghdad and are picking up new skills, such as war time medical training.

"If you are a medic in military, you now have a valuable tool," Sharp said. "If someone gets shot up on the street, you know how to take care of it." It's training that most local law enforcement cannot match. At Fort Bragg, military officers are now working with local law enforcement in an attempt to get violent gang members out of the military. "I can't think of any problem we have as a law enforcement, other than drugs, that is this big of an epidemic," Sharp said. It's a battle not between countries but between colors with young men trained and arming for the future. NBC 17 has also learned that gangs are not the only groups the military is worried about. Officials are also concerned about extremist groups like skinheads and the Aryan Nation in the armed forces.

Ellie