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thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:01 AM
Real ‘devil dog’ has positive effect on unit <br />
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler <br />
Story Identification #: 2005320223241 <br />
Story by Lance Cpl. Martin R. Harris <br />
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KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, Japan (March...

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:01 AM
Ambushed GIs Kill 26 Militants
Associated Press
March 22, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers, ambushed by dozens of Iraqi militants near the infamous "Triangle of Death," responded by killing 26 guerrillas in the largest single insurgent death toll since last fall's battle for Fallujah, the U.S. military said Monday.

The high number of deaths in Sunday's daylight battle south of Baghdad was attributed to the large number of attackers, unusual in a country where most clashes are carried out by small bands of gunmen or suicide bombers.

"I was surprised at the numbers," said Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, a squad leader for the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., and a native of Henryville, Ind., involved in the firefight. "Usually we can usually expect seven to 10."

As the U.S. military reported that and other successes against the insurgency, attackers struck several times Monday, killing seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers. A roadside bomb in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, killed four women and three children, police said.

Reporting on Sunday's big firefight, the U.S. military said MPs and artillery units from the Kentucky National Guard were traveling along a road 20 miles southeast of Baghdad around noon when 40 to 50 militants emerged from a grove of trees and a roadside canal firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.




The soldiers returned fire, killing or wounding all the insurgents in a field and driving away those attacking from the canal. Seven Americans were reported wounded, but no details were given on their conditions. Commanders said seven wounded insurgents and one unwounded attacker were captured.

The guerrilla death toll - 26 - was the highest in a single clash in Iraq since U.S. forces took control of the formerly insurgent-held city of Fallujah west of the capital.

In late December, an attack on a U.S. military outpost in Mosul resulted in the deaths of 25 insurgents and one U.S. soldier.

Military officials said the road where Sunday's attack occurred has seen a surge in violence against coalition forces, including an ambush Friday in nearly the same spot that killed a foreign driver. They blame a nearby village believed to be an insurgent hideout.

After the battle, U.S. troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault rifles, more than 2,900 bullets and 40 hand grenades.

It was one of several blows to the insurgency that were reported Monday.

A pre-dawn raid Monday by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Kirkuk captured 13 people believed tied to a fatal attack on a local police officer and the bombing of his funeral procession that killed three more officers. Thirty other suspects were detained Friday in Karbala.

U.S. officials also said two suspects were arrested in the suicide bombing Sunday that killed the anti-corruption director in the northern city of Mosul, Walid Kashmoula.

In addition, they said 10 men captured by Iraqi soldiers last week had confessed to staging a March 9 suicide bombing in Baghdad using a garbage truck near the Agricultural Ministry and a hotel favored by Westerners. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed in that attack.

Officials also said two insurgents were killed and two wounded in two separate incidents when they were found digging roadside holes for homemade bombs in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.

In violence Monday:

-A U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in Anbar province in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

-An Iraqi solider died and four were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad. Also in the capital, gunmen in two speeding cars fired at an Iraq army foot patrol, killing one soldier and wounding one.

-Another Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell struck his army camp.

-The head of the police force in Baghdad's Kazimiyah neighborhood, Col. Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen shot at his car but his driver suffered serious injuries.

-In Samarra, a pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber exploded prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes.

On the diplomatic front, Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday ordered his top envoy in Iraq to return to his post, just one day after recalling him over Iraqi claims that Jordan was allowing insurgents to slip across the border, Jordan's official Petra news agency said. Iraq also withdrew its envoy from Jordan in the tit-for-tat withdrawals by the two neighbors.

Political negotiations to form a coalition government remained snagged in a disagreement between Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite clergy, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was expected to meet Wednesday with Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader likely to become Iraq's next president.

The 140 seats won by the Shiite alliance in the Jan. 30 elections is the biggest bloc of seats in the new National Assembly, but it needs the support of the Kurds' 75 deputies to have enough votes to form a government.

The Kurds want the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to be returned to the autonomous Kurd region as soon as the government convenes, but an official from al-Sistani's office said he wants the issue handled in the constitution to be drafted by the National Assembly.

Former dictator Saddam Hussein drove Kurds from their homes in Kirkuk and the surrounding region and replaced them with Iraqi Arabs.

A senior member of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, Ahmad Chalabi, told Al-Arabiya television that the Kurds also wanted the powerful ministry of oil position in the new Cabinet.

Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, while Sunni Arabs account for about 20 percent. Kurds, who are Sunni Muslims but mostly secular, are 15 percent to 20 percent.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:04 AM
Virginia Ready For Scrutiny Of Bases
Daily Press
March 22, 2005

Texas spent $250 million to buy land around its military installations, an effort to make them more attractive and less likely to get the ax in the upcoming round of base closings.

Alabama is picking up the tab for a $6 million military training facility.

Florida is paying unemployment compensation to military spouses who give up jobs when forced to relocate because of reassignments.

Missouri and Mississippi hired high-priced Washington, D.C., lobbyists.

The current round of military base closings is a high-stakes war pitting state against state, city against city, politician against politician. As many as a quarter of the nation's 450 military bases are eligible for the chopping block.

On the surface, Virginia doesn't appear to have done an awful lot to prepare for this round of base closings, but state officials insist that what reasonably can be done by this point has been done.




Information was collected. Arguments were mustered. Politicians prepared.

The state appropriated $700,000 for studies and consultants. An impressive panel of retired admirals and generals was marshaled to lead the upcoming defense of Virginia's military bases. The state's congressional delegation is ready to flex its political muscle.

State lawmakers have enacted military-friendly measures, including easing paperwork needed for newly assigned active-duty personnel to obtain state drivers licenses, and waiving the one-year residency requirement to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities.

Now comes the calm before the thunderstorm.

May 16 is D-Day for bases nationwide -- the day the Pentagon will announce which installations it wants to close or consolidate to save at least $7 billion in a cash-strapped national defense budget.

At that point, Virginia will launch a major offensive -- bolstered by economic, military and social-impact data -- to save any of its bases slated for closing or consolidation.

"Virginia is as ready as Virginia can get," said former congressman Owen Pickett, chairman of the state's base retention commission. "Could we have spent more money? Sure. Would it have made a difference? I don't think so. I really don't think there's a thing more we can do."

State officials will rely on Pickett's commission -- packed with three- and four-star generals -- to make their case to the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission, known as BRAC. That panel, nominated last week by the White House, will review the Pentagon's closing list and decide whether to add or drop bases.

State officials also look for Sen. John Warner to wield his influence. The Virginia Republican is a veteran lawmaker, former secretary of the Navy and powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The military benefits of each base will be a key factor in the commission's decision-making process, of course, but other factors also will be considered, including the encroachment of urban sprawl, the possibility of combining different branches of the armed forces on the same base, and the quality of life around a base.

"I think states are anxious," said Tara Butler, the National Governors Association's base-closing expert. "There's no question about that. The Pentagon has made it clear time and time again that all bases are being evaluated, that no base is safe because of its uniqueness."

Virginia has some natural things going for it that other states don't have, so it doesn't need to shell out money it doesn't have for infrastructure improvements or well-heeled lobbyists, state officials figure.

For one, Virginia's location as a mid-Atlantic coastal state makes it a perfect staging area for troops being sent overseas or brought home from military action, said Gov. Mark Warner.

And the state has 400 years of support for the armed forces to its credit, backing other states now appear to be attempting to demonstrate, he added.

"While the commonwealth of Virginia from the beginning has funded and strongly supported every military facility in the state, the commonwealth has no lobbyist and has no public relations firm," said Joe Reeder, former undersecretary of the Army and the vice chairman of the state's base retention commission. "We frankly do not believe anything in the BRAC proceedings will turn on lobbying or on public relations."

Another card in Virginia's favor: Many bases here already are used jointly by different branches of the military, something the Pentagon is aiming to increase in base consolidations to be ordered in this round of base closings, said Art Collins, executive director of Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

His group has spent $200,000 of the state's money for BRAC consultants to compile local base information and arguments to be used if the Pentagon puts a local base on the closing list.

Perhaps the biggest issue on everyone's mind this year is a Pentagon evaluation of the effect of civilian encroachment on military bases in deciding whether to keep those bases open.

Collins said he fears what other states have been doing to make their bases more attractive to the Pentagon -- high-priced efforts to build new roads and bridges and buy open space around bases to insulate the military from urban sprawl.

"Virginia traditionally hasn't done that," said Collins, "I worry about that a lot, all those efforts to make them BRAC-proof."

Two years ago, Texas approved the $250 million Texas Military Value Loan Fund, in part to buy land around its military bases.

Corpus Christi wants to use $5.2 million for infrastructure improvements around Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, and the city of Temple plans to build a $3.5 million hangar at a helicopter repair facility near Fort Hood.

Alabama is shelling out $100 million for construction projects that could increase the value of its four bases, worth $14 billion to the state's economy. Roughly $40 million has been spent for maintenance and hangars for the Air National Guard at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base.

Alabama also will spend approximately $6 million on a new training center near Fort Rucker, and local residents have been loudly proclaiming they don't mind the helicopter noise from that base.

Noise has been a chronic complaint in Virginia Beach, where many residents hate the jet noise that comes with the busy Oceana Naval Air Station.

To lessen the appearance that residents are antagonistic toward the Navy, the General Assembly last month authorized the construction of noise-reduction barriers around residential communities near the base.

Another bill that passed requires real estate agents to inform prospective homebuyers in writing that jet noise is an issue to some of their neighbors. People who know about the problem have less standing to complain, lawmakers figured.

Lawmakers never seriously entertained the idea of buying property around the base to build a bigger buffer zone. It would have been too expensive.

North Carolina, however, spent $20 million to buy land near its bases to protect them from both civilian development and this round of base closings.

Arizona bought $10 million of open land to prevent urban encroachment on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

In South Carolina, officials so feared a repeat of 1995 -- when BRAC closed the Charleston Navy Base and Shipyard, costing 22,000 military jobs -- that the state set up a $25 million fund to help South Carolina communities buy land near their bases.

Missouri hired a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm called Birdeshaw Associates to help protect its bases. The state of Mississippi and some of its communities combined to pay $300,000 last year for Washington-based consultant Barry Rhoads and his firm to help coordinate base-saving preparations.

Rhoads has been Mississippi's base-closure lobbyist since 1993, before the last round of BRAC base closings. His contract requires the state to put up $800,000 from July 2002 to June 2006, in addition to $364,000 to be paid by nine communities that neighbor the state's military bases.

Last year, Florida burnished its image as a military-friendly state by approving new benefits to service members and their families.

That support includes waivers of residency requirements to allow children of military parents into specialty education programs. The state also granted unemployment compensation to military spouses who lose their jobs because of Pentagon-ordered relocations, something Virginia's lawmakers shot down last month.

Florida was brazen about the message it was sending to the military.

"Today, I am signing several pieces of legislation designed to provide support for military families in Florida and to ensure that our communities and military installations continue to build strong relationships," Gov. Jeb Bush said at the time.

Florida is home to 21 military bases and three unified commands. The city of Mayport is maneuvering to convince the Navy to move one of five Norfolk-based nuclear aircraft carriers there after it retires the carrier USS John F. Kennedy.

"We are not playing catch-up in Virginia," said Reeder. "Indeed, we applaud any state for making its facilities attractive to the military, even if that means playing catch-up to Virginia."

Florida's efforts to make itself appear more friendly to the military doesn't compare to Virginia's 400 years of support for the armed forces, said retired Gen. John Foss of Williamsburg, a former commander of Fort Bragg, N.C., and of the Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe.

The large number of military veterans who chose to retire in Virginia -- roughly 730,000 -- shows rank-and-file preference for the state, Foss noted.

"They could retire anywhere, but they choose here," he said. "If a service has a good feeling about a place ... it makes it harder to pick a base to be closed. Many service personnel have a good feeling about Virginia."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:05 AM
Artists Make Portraits Of U.S. War Dead
Associated Press
March 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - Row after row of photos in a newspaper, each the likeness of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, were the inspiration for an artistic tribute to those who lost their lives in the conflicts.

"Faces of the Fallen," 1,327 individual portraits of the dead produced by 200 artists, opens to the public Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

The images, each 6-by-8 inches, are mounted on plain steel rods that reach to near eye level. Each rod includes a label with the soldier's name, hometown and date of death.

Five rows are arranged chronologically by the soldiers' times of death and stretch along a half-circle inside the small museum at the entrance to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. The number of images does not represent all those killed - that figure now is more than 1,600.

Annette Polan, head of the Corcoran College of Art and Design's painting department, said she was moved to create the memorial after seeing all the photos of dead soldiers displayed in a newspaper. She hopes it can have the same healing effect as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.




Polan, 60, said she wanted to show that every death is an individual, each with their own hopes and dreams and memories. Artists were encouraged to show their own individuality and that of their subject.

A portrait artist herself who has painted Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Polan did nine of the collection's portraits. She assigned the others to artists she knew, either personally or through their work.

The artists worked mostly from newspaper and Internet photos, and some sent by families of the dead.

One particularly poignant portrait was done by John R. Phelps, a Vietnam veteran chosen to design the World War II memorial in Lander, Wyo. He painted his son, Marine Pfc. Clarence Phelps, who died April 9 from head wounds.

The artists, who donated their time and paid for all the materials, plan to give the portraits to the families when the exhibit is over, Polan said.

A large portion of the portraits were done conventionally, in color on canvas, but in other cases artists experimented with the images.

"As you view the image of your loved one, please bear in mind that each artist's hand and way of seeing is different from another's, just as each of our fingerprints are unique," Polan said in a Web site note to families. "All the artists have worked respectfully and from their hearts."

Jason Zimmerman, a Washington artist, said he took a photo, inserted it in a computer imaging program. manipulated it "to make a ghostly kind of image" and printed it on a heavy cotton fabric by ink-jet process.

Another artist molded low-relief images in clay. Another did scratch board drawings. Another did not portray faces at all, just flowers. The dead for whom no portraits could be made, for lack of photos or other reasons, are represented by generic black-and-white silhouettes.

The portraits will be on view at the memorial through Sept. 5. Admission is free. A Tuesday evening reception was planned for artists to meet family members of those they memorialized.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:06 AM
North Korea Claims Nuke Arsenal Bolster
Associated Press
March 22, 2005

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea claimed Monday that it has bolstered its nuclear arsenal to prevent an invasion and its premier began a visit to China, which has been urging the North to resume talks on its nuclear program.

Premier Pak Pong Ju began his visit amid pressure to resume six-nation nuclear talks and American hints of possible sanctions if Pyongyang doesn't cooperate.

But the North's official broadcaster said ongoing joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises were "preparation for war against us," prompting the increase in nuclear arms.

"We have taken a serious measure by increasing nuclear arms arsenal in preparation for any invasion by enemies," the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said in a commentary, according to a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The North has frequently claimed it would increase its nuclear deterrent in response to the perceived threat of invasion by the United States, but the Monday announcement appeared to be the first time Pyongyang has claimed to actually do so.




The North's statement didn't elaborate on how its arsenal was increased. The United States has repeatedly denied it intends to attack North Korea.

Last month, the North's government said for the first time that it had nuclear weapons and would indefinitely boycott the six-nation talks that began in 2003 to resolve the crisis.

International experts believe North Korea has reprocessed enough radioactive material to make about a half-dozen nuclear bombs, but it hasn't performed any known nuclear tests that would confirm it has atomic weapons.

Monday's new claim came after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left the region following visits to Japan, South Korea and China to seek a way to convince the North to return to stalled six-nation disarmament talks, which also include Russia.

The North's Korean Central News Agency gave a terse report on Pak's departure, saying only he had left and the "official goodwill visit" was at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

However, it was expected that Chinese officials would discuss the recent visit by Rice and attempts to lure the North back to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Washington has been looking to Beijing to increase pressure on its communist ally to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Rice suggested during her trip that time is running out for the North to return to the negotiations, and that Washington will pursue other means - assumed to include U.N. Security Council sanctions - if Pyongyang refuses to return to the bargaining table. The United States has said it has no intention to attack the North.

China is the North's closest ally and a key benefactor providing needed energy aid and other assistance.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:07 AM
Roadside Bomb Targets U.S. Patrol <br />
Associated Press <br />
March 22, 2005 <br />
<br />
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants targeted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Tuesday that killed four nearby civilians in the...

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:08 AM
Two Labs Confirmed Pentagon Anthrax
United Press International
March 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - Anthrax has been confirmed in samples collected from the two Pentagon mail facilities that were at first closed last week and then declared free of the pathogen, United Press International has learned.

The head of the company that was accused of contaminating the samples sent from those facilities -- a detached building on the Pentagon grounds in Arlington, Va., and the other in Falls Church, Va. -- said the presence of anthrax was detected independently by two government laboratories.

Robert B. Harris, president and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. in Richmond, Va., also said the anthrax found was the same genetic strain used in the 2001 attacks.

The dispute over the possibility of contamination -- suggested to the media by an anonymous source -- became more heated as an automated alarm warned of anthrax at yet a third Washington-area mail room Friday. That third alert, at Bolling Air Force Base, was triggered by automated sensors -- as were the alerts earlier in the week at the two other facilities.

The week of anthrax alarms began when the Pentagon mail facility was closed March 14, after tests on samples taken there the week before had been found positive for the presence of anthrax. The initial samples, consisting of swabs of surfaces from the facility, had been collected March 10, but the results were not received and the facility was not shut down until March 14.




The delay was not the fault of CBI, Harris said, noting CBI had tested more than 2,000 similar samples in the past two years and reported its results within 24 hours.

"We reported our initial ...findings on (March 11)," Harris told UPI. "Our contracting officer told us to continue testing for further analysis over the weekend -- and that was done. On Monday ... the 14th we communicated additional test results to our contracting officer. From CBI's point of view, there was absolutely no delay in reporting the results."

CBI is a sub-contractor that conducts routine testing. The identity of the prime contractor who received the results is unclear. Defense Department spokesman Glenn Flood told UPI the four-day delay was being investigated.

Harris also took issue with the anonymous suggestion in news reports that his lab had contaminated the original sample from the Pentagon site.

"It is a fact that we had a presumptive positive test come up," he said. "That presumptive positive test was confirmed by us and by at least two other labs as being a true positive."

Carlee Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., which tested the samples after CBI, confirmed that the follow-up tests on the first sample were positive and that two labs had done such tests.

"There is a component of the Homeland Security Department that has a laboratory that is located in our building," Vander Linden explained. "They have a presence here at Fort Detrick. The samples were basically parted out and there was analysis done by USAMRIID and by the forensics lab under DHS. I know that the negatives that we got were on the ones that came directly from the (mail) facility and did not pass through the contractor. The positives that we got were on samples that had been handled already by the people in Virginia."

Vander Linden also said: "USAMRIID is not saying that, 'Gee, there probably was a contamination event.' I think some people are surmising that. It certainly has been reported that way. I think that we'll just have to wait and see."

A DHS lab did conduct confirmatory tests, said Terry Bishop, a spokesman for DOD Health Affairs, but he did elaborate on the results.

"It is in our mind that this was truly a positive sample," said Harris, adding that his technicians had done everything possible to minimize contamination and were reviewing their lab and procedures.

"I emphasize," Harris said, "in over 2,000 of these samples and tens of thousands ... of other samples we have never experienced a false-positive test."

In response to a question from UPI, Harris confirmed CBI also had conducted other tests on the anthrax sample, but he would not reveal the results.

"There are lots of tests -- biochemical, morphological, genetic," Harris said, "all kinds of laboratory analyses that can be done to further qualify the type of pathogen we are looking at and those tests have been done."

Harris also said the anthrax in the initial samples was the same strain as the organism used during the first anthrax attack via U.S. Mail facilities in the fall of 2001. This was not surprising, however, he said, because it is the most common strain.

Questions over the first alarm were still swirling when the third alarm sounded last Friday at Bolling, which is located along the Anacostia River in Washington, in a mail-handling facility used by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"This morning, the DIA remote-delivery facility was closed due to an initial positive test of incoming mail for hazardous biological agents," Defense Department spokesman Maj. Paul Swiergosz told UPI last Friday afternoon.

Personnel on the scene were asked to stay, Swiergosz said, and local officials were called. An FBI team conducted further tests.

As of late Friday, the follow-up tests at the scene had been negative, said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman. Additional tests were planned at a laboratory.

The Bolling alert and the Pentagon closing were two of three anthrax-related events last week. The third, an alert in a mail room of a Defense Department complex of leased offices in Falls Church, delayed the departure of hundreds of people for hours and closed the offices for several days.

The week's events raised concern about cross-contamination from a source of anthrax somewhere in the Defense Department mail system. All of the alerts occurred in defense-related mail facilities and in each case the alerts were specific for anthrax, several federal and local DOD spokesmen confirmed during the week.

The bioweapons sensors were not connected, UPI was told repeatedly by the spokesmen. The sensors in Fairfax and at Bolling were automatic and did not involve any CBI testing.

UPI also was told by a Defense Department spokeswoman that, in at least one case, the alerts followed the mail flow. Specifically, the mail from the Pentagon site could have moved to the Falls Church location.

The Pentagon is working to gather more than 8,000 pieces of mail that moved through its detached facility between March 10 and March 14.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:09 AM
Fighting 13th enters TRUEX 05-1
Submitted by: 13th MEU
Story Identification #: 200532114225
Story by Cpl. Andy Hurt



GEORGE AIR FORCE BASE, VICTORVILLE, Calif. (March 20, 2005) -- Elements of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit came together this morning as the main body arrived for the 05-1 Training in an Urban Environment Exercise.

The exercise, dubbed “TRUEX,” is part of the MEU’s six-month pre-deployment work-up training in preparation for this summer’s WESTPAC-05 deployment.

Battalion Landing Team 2/1, the ground combat element for the MEU, began the training by establishing a defensive perimeter around their stronghold.

“Right now, we’re fortifying our strong point for our defense and clearing fields of fire,” said Lance Cpl. David Seitter, 2nd squad leader, 1st platoon, G Company.

Seitter added that although many of his Marines recently joined the company, his unit would be ready for the upcoming “pump.”

As Marines from HMM-163, “Evil Eyes,” the aerial combat element of the MEU set up across the operating area, C Battery 1/11 dug in defensive fighting positions.

It was a bustling day around the Combat Operations Center, as officers and staff buzzed around the metaphorical hive feeding information to the 13th MEU commanding officer Col. James K. LaVine, tailoring the exercise to the specific needs of the unit while training aboard the former Air Force base, now training facility.

As the week progresses, the MEU, under the direction of the Special Operations Training Group, will push its limits in order to build momentum for the Special Operations Capable Exercise (SOCEX), the final test of readiness for deployment.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:10 AM
1/6 hits the ground in Baharia, prepares for busy deployment
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200532122338
Story by Cpl. Mike Escobar



CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq (March 17, 2005) -- As he rests atop a dirt mound, the noonday Iraqi sun beating down on his face, Pfc. Mitchel T. Caluri wonders how the next seven months will unfold for him and his unit.

"This is going to be my first deployment, and it's been pretty good so far," stated the mortarman with 3rd Combined Anti-Armor Team Platoon, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I'm looking forward to going on patrol and doing our missions."

The final elements of the 19-year-old Stetson, Maine native's unit, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, arrived here March 17 to conduct security and stability operations in and around Fallujah.

The 2004 Central High School graduate's unit is replacing the California-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and will conduct operations from Camp Baharia outside Fallujah as well as bases inside the city.

1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment will work alongside Iraqi Security Forces to conduct patrols, raids and vehicle and personnel entry control points throughout the area to root out insurgents and confiscate illegal arms.

While they prepare to turnover with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Caluri and fellow Marines are seeing what facilities their home for the next seven months has to offer.

"It's actually pretty nice and comfortable in the camp," he said. "We're living in small houses with power and some plumbing."

However, he and fellow Marines agree that the camp's communication facilities are its best feature.

"The phone center and Internet café are my favorite," Caluri stated. "It makes keeping in touch with friends and family pretty simple."

Camp Baharia's Internet café provides Marines and sailors with access to several telephones and computers with Internet, web camera and instant messaging capabilities.

On their off time, troops may also attend religious services at the camp chapel, work out in the camp's gym tent, or purchase hygiene and entertainment supplies at the Baharia exchange.

Recreation needs aside, mission accomplishment is the number one concern on Caluri's mind.

"Our team will be escorting convoys going out to different areas around town to provide security. Right now, I'm just looking forward to getting started."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:13 AM
2nd Marine Division assumes control of Al Anbar province
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20053215445
Story by Sgt. Stephen D'Alessio



CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Ramadi, Iraq (March 17, 2005) -- The 2nd Marine Division's high operational tempo and level of training over the past few months have conditioned the unit for combat operations in its new area of responsibility -- the Al Anbar province.

The 2nd Marine "Tarawa" Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, is now heading up operations from Camp Blue Diamond here within the Sunni Triangle, replacing the 1st Marine Division after their successful 12-month tour.

Although this is the first time in years the 2nd Marine Division headquarters has been fully forward deployed, the unit's leadership is confident that the transition from the 1st Marine Division to the 2nd Marine Division will be very smooth due to the experience gained on prior deployments into volatile environments.

The recent deployments of many of the Tarawa Division's units have provided a wealth of experience and expertise from which to support its current mission in Iraq. Evidence of this can be found in the professionalism and experience each unit has displayed in operations around the globe.

One example of such a deployment was 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment's return from Haiti in June 2004, where they conducted four months of stability and security operations. There the Marines forged their skills in the cramped streets of Port-au-Prince applying many of the same techniques being used here in house-to-house security operations.

Many of the units currently deployed with the Tarawa Division have previously conducted similar operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan and are veterans of this type of counter-insurgency operations.

"We are a task organized Marine unit with an amalgamation of strengths from units all over the world," said Col. Bob Chase, 2nd Marine Division operations officer. "You can't tell me another unit in the world that can do that on such a large scale. We fight hard; we fight right."

This experience has also prepared the Marines of Tarawa Division to continue working with the local Iraqi Security Forces on security and stabilization operations, which began after Marine Corps units assumed control of the region more than a year ago.

"One of our main focuses here is training with the ISF," said Chase. "We'll see some fights out here, but the good news is we won't do it alone."

With the recent Iraqi elections, the local military has stepped into a larger role according to Chase. The Tarawa Division is taking action to help strengthen the bond between the Marines and the Iraqi Security Forces. In turn, it is the division's goal to share more of the responsibility for security and stabilization in the region with the ISF.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 08:17 AM
Commander of first American unit to cross Irqaq border reflects back on invasion

AP


Created: 3/20/2005 7:11:28 AM
Updated: 3/20/2005 7:31:30 AM


WASHINGTON (AP) - It was two years ago today that American troops launched their offensive in Iraq. The commander of the first U-S battalion to cross over says he remembers how all his Marines became quiet and businesslike as they headed in to what was for most of them, their first experience in battle.

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Padilla (puh-DEE'_uh) says his unit was ordered to make its move about nine hours ahead of schedule, in order to guard Iraqi oil fields from sabotage. He says that within 10 minutes after crossing the border, Iraqi troops engaged them but were quickly repelled.

One of Padilla's platoon commanders died in the initial fighting. He was the first fatality of the war. Padilla says that memory - and recollections of the valiant wounded Marines who argued against being removed from the fight - remains with him to this day. Padilla says "I don't think you're supposed to forget." He says that's why we think long and hard before going to war.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 11:14 AM
Military funeral held at Misawa for retired Marine <br />
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Pacific edition,...

thedrifter
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Hamilton candy store welcomes returning veteran <br />
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ROD DANIEL- Ravalli Republic <br />
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When John Eric DeGroot left for...

thedrifter
03-22-05, 11:23 AM
Marine In Iraq Simply Calls Home Depot For Needed Part <br />
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March 21, 2005 <br />
By Tracy Vedder <br />
KOMO TV <br />
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SILVERDALE -...

thedrifter
03-22-05, 11:50 AM
A look at the 'Faces of the Fallen'
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, March 22 2005

ARLINGTON, Va. - Spc. Brandon Tobler, an Army reservist from Portland, Ore., grew up with one mom.

But now that Tobler's life has ended - cut short at age 19 in a vehicle crash during a blinding sandstorm in Iraq on March 22, 2003 - the young soldier has two moms: his birth mother, and Washington portrait artist Annette Polan.

Now Tobler "is my baby, too," Polan said March 15, as she ran her fingers gently over the surface of the 6-inch-by-8-inch portrait she created for the new "Faces of the Fallen" project.

Polan traced a finger over the portrait's full lips.

"His mouth is so alive for me," she murmured. "I see it and think, 'I hope he had a girlfriend. I hope he had his first kiss.' "

The power of art to spark emotions in that manner - emotions a photograph may leave untouched - is what Polan and more than 150 volunteer artists are hoping to evoke with "Faces of the Fallen," an exhibition of 1,327 individual portraits of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The exhibit, which opens to the public March 23 at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5, includes portraits or silhouettes of every servicemember killed while deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom through Nov. 11, 2004.

Polan, a renowned portrait artist and professor of art at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, got her idea for the exhibit after her 81-year-old mother died in January 2004.

"I spent most of the winter," trying to deal with the grief, Polan said.

And at some point during that mourning process, Polan saw the periodic Washington Post feature "Faces of the Fallen."

The Post publishes the photos of as many servicemembers as possible that have died in Iraq or Afghanistan in a gallery format.

Looking at the latest Post installment, "I had a 'eureka' moment," Polan said.

She envisioned a space dedicated not to photographs, but to portraits, which she believes are ultimately more revealing.

Retired Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, the Women's Memorial Foundation president and a friend of Polan, was an early supporter.

Vaught acted as a liaison with the Defense Department, as well as offering the memorial as the exhibit space.

Before the project got under way, the different military services mailed letters to each family whose portrait was scheduled to be part of the exhibit, giving them the opportunity not to participate if they so chose.

They were also informed that once the exhibit is done touring, each honored servicemember's family would be given the portrait.

Not a single family declined, Polan said.

If the initial display proves popular enough, and enough donations come their way, the nonprofit "Faces" board of directors hope to both sponsor more portraits, and to put the exhibit on a national tour, Polan said.

Each painting is mounted on a specially designed gray holder on a pole - a format inspired by a photograph of a graveyard in Qom, Iraq, where each person's grave is marked by a photo of the deceased, Polan said.

The intent of the portraits, however, is not to remind viewers of death, but to celebrate lives that are normally noted only in ever-growing statistics, said Dennis O'Neil, an expert in print-making who provided 200 hand-screened silhouettes for the exhibit that are "place holders" for servicemembers whose photos were not available, or whose assigned artists have not completed their assignments.

"When one artist deals with one soul, you're re-humanizing the fact that these people lost their lives," said O'Neil, who in addition to working as an artist is also a professor of art at the Corcoran.

Whether dealing in paint, wood, fabric or any other allowable medium, each "Faces" artist had "to stretch himself to find something about that person, somehow capture a piece of their humanity," O'Neil said.

Before the exhibit opens to the public, there will be a special reception and viewing for the families of the servicemembers. Polan said that 1,800 family members have indicated that they will attend, including a family traveling from India for the event, and a military widow who is coming from Australia.

For all the viewers of "Faces of the Fallen," Polan said, "what I really hope [the exhibit] ultimately has is the quality of healing."

"We as a country are going through a very divisive time," Polan said.

"But we can all agree as Americans that the troops who sacrificed their lives, deserve to be honored and remembered."

To see a slide show of many of the completed portraits, and to learn more about Faces of the Fallen, go to: http://www.facesofthefallen.org

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 03:40 PM
Bringing new guys up to speed
March 21,2005
ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

They go almost unnoticed - nearly lost in the mix.

As upwards of 17,000 of Marines and sailors have deployed to Iraq from area bases, nearly 3,000 Marine and Navy reservists from across the country have simultaneously been processing through Camp Lejeune. They're bound for the same types of duties as their regular active-duty counterparts, but for them the transition is a bit more abrupt.

"The most important thing is I believe I'm doing the right thing by going over there," said Cpl. Benjamin Fischer, 23, an automotive body technician turned armored vehicle crewman from Fort Wayne, Ind. He's been married just two months.

They're not going it alone, though. Be it on the rifle range or in the gas chamber, they're getting more than a little help from the base's Reserve Support Unit.

Meeting demand

In peacetime, RSU consists of about 13 people, seven activated reservists and six regular active duty troops, who organize training when reserve units come to Camp Lejeune - typically on a monthly drill weekend or during a two-week summer training period.

"We billet them, broker their range requests, transport and hold ammunition and issue stock weapons," said RSU commander Lt. Col. Steve Emerson, 48, of Philadelphia, Pa.

"We're sort of a host unit - almost like an advance party."

But with the country at war, the RSU has swelled in size. It's now called the mobilization support battalion. Now they make arrangements for entire reserve units being activated for six to 12 months, or more.

"In contingency role, like now, (annual training) becomes secondary," Emerson said.

Their current staff numbers about 70, manned by reservists and even a couple of retirees returning to active duty. In an emergency, and to support all-out combat, their staff can grow to 300.

"The most important thing is getting reacquainted with Marine Corps life," said Cpl. Christopher Nibley, 23, an infantryman from Salt Lake City.

Nibley, who's taken a break from his psychology studies at Brigham Young University, is somewhat impatient about getting to Iraq. Still, he was surprised upon arriving at Camp Lejeune to find the base operating so smoothly.

"It's a lot more organized than I thought it would be," Nibley said.

Between January and the end of March, there have been - and will continue to be - between 900 and 1,200 reserve troops in the RSU's training program at any given time, Emerson said. Its capacity is 1,300.

A new arrival first gets information about the programs and organizations to help them and their families while they're activated. They get the lowdown on medical benefits, and any legal and religious needs that might arise - they're told about suicide prevention.

"The most important thing is my family supports me," said Sgt. Jonathan Smith, 27, a construction worker turned infantryman from Morehead, Ky.

A second battery of classes includes information on local regulations, directions to chow halls and the four gymnasiums within walking distance.

The last phase includes weapons training and classes on improvised explosive devices.

"It's the ultimate in one-stop shopping," said Mobilization Processing Center Chief Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Donovan, 37, from Tampa, Fla. "We're better than Wal-Mart."


Contact staff writer Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 04:59 PM
March 22, 2005

Kearsarge battle group,
26th MEU to deploy

Associated Press


NORFOLK, Va. — Some 6,300 sailors and Marines will depart Friday in the Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group to support the war on terrorism.
The strike group consists of the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, the guided missile cruiser Normandy, the amphibious transport ship Ponce, the guided missile destroyer Gonzalez, the guided missile frigate Kauffman, the attack submarine Scranton and the dock landing ship Ashland.

All of the ships are based at Norfolk except the Ashland, whose home port is Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach.

The ships will be deploying with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The sailors and Marines completed joint training exercises off coasts of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida earlier this year.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 06:59 PM
3/2 Marines assume authority of Al Qaim region

Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200532151947
Story by Lance Cpl. Lucian Friel



CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq (March 9, 2005) -- Lt. Col. Christopher Woodridge, commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, officially transferred authority of Camp Al Qaim and their area of operations to Lt. Col. T.S. Mundy, commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment in a ceremony held here March 9.

The battalion is here to continue stability and security operations in and around Al Qaim for roughly seven months, which was the same amount of time 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, was in the area.

"Seven months is a normal rotation for an infantry battalion. The Marine Corps has found that seven months in one area is the right length of time for an infantry battalion in this type of environment," Mundy explained.

According to Mundy, this is an important area of the country because of the heavy flow of insurgents and terrorists across the Syrian boarder.

The battalion's primary mission will be to continue assisting the Iraqi Security Forces in preventing this influx into Iraq by helping them assume responsibility for their region.

This will be accomplished assisting the ISF in conducting vehicle searches, personnel check points, route security and cordon and knocks, which is the isolation and search of an objective.

"I look forward to seeing the Marines and sailors of the battalion perform their mission to the ability that I know they have," Mundy said. "We spent a long time training to get here. I feel the battalion is well-trained and the Marines are going to be successful."

Mundy and his battalion entered this area with a positive attitude and a strong desire to accomplish their mission.

"It's good to be able to see young men step up to what we expect them to do here.

"We're happy to be here," he explained. "That may sound strange, but the Marines have worked hard to get here and they'll do good work to help this country."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 07:04 PM
Reservists steer past UAW
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Eric Mayne
Special to the Marine Corps Times

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers union waved a white flag March 14 in its parking skirmish with neighboring reservists. But leathernecks with 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, are not accepting surrender.

Facing intense criticism, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger reversed his decision to ban Marine reservists from driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers from parking at the union's Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit.

"I made the wrong call on the parking issue, and I have notified the Marine Corps that all reservists are welcome to park at Solidarity House as they have for the past 10 years," Gettelfinger said in a statement.

Wounded by what they consider an unpatriotic ambush, the Marines rejected the union's olive branch and secured an alternative parking lot.

"I talked to Ron; I let him know that I understand he has rescinded his decision," said Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge, commanding officer of the battalion's active-duty instructors. "However, I've made my decision - either you support the Marines or you don't."

The UAW has a long-standing policy prohibiting nonunion-made vehicles from the parking lots at its plants and meeting halls.

Until recently, the union made an exception for the Marines who parked at Solidarity House on weekends. The battalion's headquarters is nearby.

While both sides say the dispute has been overblown, it revealed the depths of the UAW's antipathy toward the Bush administration and its concern over the rise of foreign automakers in the U.S. market.

Gettelfinger and other top UAW International officials say Bush is blatantly anti-labor and has opposed measures that could have benefited working men and women.

UAW leaders backed Democratic challenger John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards in last year's election.

The UAW's March 14 reversal followed a barrage of criticism from both union members and nonunion members. The dispute became instant fodder for such Web sites as The Drudge Report and various radio programs.

The Detroit News, after reporting the story, received hundreds of e-mails starting March 13 about the controversy, the majority criticizing the UAW's decision.

"I have never belonged to the unions, but I've always bought [domestic] brand cars," said Jenny Pulcerm, 74, of Harrison Township. "Right now, I'm driving a Chrysler. But the next car will definitely not be union-made."

Outside the Marine reservists' headquarters, it wasn't hard to find signs of hard feelings.

A Chevrolet pickup truck marked as a Toyota parked in front of a phalanx of military Humvees sported three bumper stickers. One touted "Semper Fi," the second was a Bush/Cheney campaign sticker and the third an anti-UAW sign.

The UAW decision to ban Marines struck a nerve with many who say U.S. armed forces deserve more respect, especially during a time of war.

And certainly, some said, Marines should be able to support their commander in chief without facing repercussions.

"The Marines who fought at Iwo Jima - including yours truly - and those who are now in Iraq, took an oath to defend this country and its citizens," said Russ Paquette, an 87-year-old lawyer from St. Clair Shores and former commanding officer of 1/24. "There is nothing in the oath which indicates that we Marines will only fight for citizens who drive certain automobiles, or who voted in the last election for a certain president."

Gettelfinger, himself a former Marine reservist, said his initial decision should not be viewed as a lack of support for the military.

"That certainly was not my intention. ... I fully appreciate the sacrifices and contributions made by America's reservists, National Guard members and active-duty military personnel and their families," his statement said.

Gettelfinger also acknowledged that the decision reflected poorly on the UAW, which historically has supported the U.S. military.

"The controversy over this decision has overshadowed the many good things the UAW and our members are doing to support and express our appreciation to America's servicemen and women and veterans," he said.

Some supported Gettelfinger's call.

"It took a lot of guts," said Phil Davis, a 58-year-old real-estate agent in Tampa, Fla. "It was based on principle."

Dominic Roti, a 64-year-old Farmington retiree who worked 37 years for Chrysler, credits the UAW with setting the benchmark for America's standard of living.

"They're the ones who are putting bread on the table," Roti said. "We're accustomed to [living] a certain way. You have a car to go from work, to home, to the stores - not like in a lot of European countries. The UAW made it that way for us. We're thankful to them."

But many of those who weighed in said the episode changed their opinion of the UAW. Bill Reiber of Vista, Calif., whose son is serving in Iraq, is trading in his Chevrolet S-10 pickup for a vehicle made by a foreign automaker.

"I'm looking at the Toyota Tacoma," he said. "What [the UAW] did, it just wasn't right. These are Marines, and they have a right, like anybody else in America, to express their First Amendment rights."

Rutledge said he's anxious to get past the dispute and get back to business. Owners of a nearby apartment complex agreed to allow reservists to park on their premises.

"I know people are incensed by this thing," Rutledge said, "but in the big scheme of things, what I do is train Marines, and I'm preparing these guys to go overseas."

Eric Mayne is a staff writer for The Detroit News.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 09:19 PM
Parents share memories of fallen Lexington Marine

(Lexington) March 22, 2005 - For the first time, parents of a fallen marine are telling their son's story.

Lance Corporal Joshua Torrence died when insurgents attacked his assault vehicle just over a week ago. Another day or two, and Torrence would have been preparing to leave Iraq, returning to the Lexington County community of Wrenwood where the flags outside his house now fly at half staff.

His parents, Vernon and Regina Torrence, recall the shock of seeing a Marine officer at their door last week. Vernon's reaction was instant, "Your heart takes a leap when you see that. Because you know instantly, before the words are even spoken. You know."

Josh joined the Marines in 2003, fulfilling a goal he'd set while still a football player at White Knoll High School, but his love for military life dated back at least to his pre-teens, when he learned to play the fife so he could join his father as a Civil War re-enactor.

His parents say Josh eventually planned to go into law enforcement, and thought the Marines would be a good way to get started, even if that meant going to Iraq.

Vernon warned Josh of the dangers, "I basically told him that you know that you're not going to be sitting off on the sidelines somewhere. I said you're going to be in the thick of it. And he said, 'Yes, I know.' But he also said the Marines were the ones that expected the most of you and that they had the highest standards. And he wanted to be a part of that."

Regina Torrence, his mother, says, "He was always a dreamer. He believed that if you could dream it, you could achieve it."

Torrence was on patrol in Iraq's al Anbar province. He was riding in an amphibious vehicle known as a "Trac" when it was hit by a roadside bomb. Torrence was 20 years old.

Regina was hesitant when Josh told her his decision, "I didn't want him to go. And then after I thought about it, I knew that was what he wanted to do with his life, was to be able to help people."

Vernon says he still supports his son, "I do know that in his heart he knew that he was there for a specific reason. We may not always know what the reasons are, but I know that he was comfortable and confident in what he was doing."

Lance Corporal Josh Torrence will be laid to rest Thursday at 2:00pm at Saxe Gotha Church in Lexington.

Reported by Jack Kuenzie

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 09:33 PM
VMFA-142 Gators put steel on target for 3/25
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 20053218254
Story by Cpl. Rocco DeFilippis



AL ASAD, Iraq (March 21, 2005) -- Aircraft from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 142, a reserve unit, responded to a call for air support from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, a reserve infantry battalion, who was conducting security patrols in the Al Anbar province on March 18.

Two of the squadron's F/A-18A+ Hornets responded to the call from a 3/25 forward air controller, who spoke with the pilots to coordinate the air strike, after the Marines were engaged by enemy fire.

Using an infrared laser, the Hornets were guided to the target by the forward air controller on the ground, only 30 minutes after receiving the first call for support, the pilots had delivered their ordnance.

"It was hard to see at night, but the systems on our aircraft, and competence of the controller on the ground allowed us to destroy the target swiftly," said one of the pilots who asked not to be named.

On that night, 3/25 encountered two men armed with automatic rifles who appeared to be digging a hole for an improvised explosive device. The Marines engaged the insurgents, who fled to an isolated building. After continued small-arms engagement, the VMFA-142 aircraft arrived and eliminated the enemy threat with two 500lbs, laser guided bombs.

Although neither unit knew it at the time, both the Marines on the ground and in the air are from reserve units, and their actions are a testament to the readiness and preparation of the Marine Corps reserves.

"We are equally able to function with active duty and reserve forces," said Lt. Col. Tracey A. Farris, VMFA-142 executive officer and native of Nashville, Tenn. "We are all cut from the same template, so there are no obstacles or barriers that prevent us from completing the mission."

While the Marines of 3/25, headquartered in Brook Park, Ohio, continue to patrol the towns and cities of Iraq, VMFA-142, based out of Marrietta, Ga., will continue to provide precision strikes to support them from the air.

"Our pilots and maintenance Marines are extremely well prepared," Farris said. "They constantly work to stay on top of the latest technology, tactics and procedures so we can provide the support the Marines on the ground want and expect."

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200532184231/$file/anger47low.jpg

A pillar of smoke and debris erupts from the ground as seen through the camera of one of VMFA-142's F/A-18A+ Hornets. The Hornets responded to a call from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment who had engaged insurgents hunkered down in an isolated building on March 18. Photo by: Official Marine Corps Photo

Ellie

thedrifter
03-22-05, 10:23 PM
More than 30 years in the Corps not enough for one Marine
Submitted by: MCB Quantico
Story Identification #: 200531695351
Story by Lance Cpl. Lance Cpl. Sha'ahn Williams



MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (March 16, 2005) -- Once a Marine, always a Marine - a well-worn phrase heard throughout the Corps that is easily taken for granted. For some, it's just something Marines say, and many never give it more than a passing thought.

But one Marine epitomizes this phrase.

A self-proclaimed baby "born in green," retired Sgt. Maj. Lonnie Martin, now director of Youth Sports at Marine Corps Community Services, has spent his entire life around Marines.
He has so much love for the Marine Corps and its families that after 30 years active duty he refuses to leave the military community.

"My love for the Marine Corps first began with the pride I learned as a child seeing what Marines do," said Martin. "I was surrounded by doers, like my father, who fought in three wars."

Listening to the stories of his father, 1st Sgt. William F. Martin, and his father's friends about their adventures as Marines made young Martin eager to grow up and enlist in the Marine Corps, which he did Aug. 30, 1970.

"When I came in, I learned it was all I thought it would be," he said. "In the 30 years I was on active duty traveling to foreign countries, I realized that the term 'Marine' meant something to most people.

"To many it meant fear, but to most it meant respect. That left an impression on me."

Martin enjoyed a successful career, which included two tours on the drill field.

After reaching the rank of sergeant major, Martin became chief instructor at Marine Security Guard school.

He traveled around the world as a sergeant major, from Yuma, Ariz. to Iwakuni, Japan, finally settling into his last billet here.

Martin retired here in May 2000 as the base sergeant major, a position he thoroughly enjoyed because of his ability to help Marines' quality of life.

He continues to help Marines as the director of youth sports, but feels his mission has changed somewhat due to the war on terrorism.

"One thing I've found here is that it's no longer just a quality of life issue - it's a readiness issue," said Martin.

With nearly 40 percent of the parents whose children play for the league deployed, the services we provide take stress off the parent left here, he explained. "Taking stress off the family at home aids the home front."

Martin feels youth sports helps give parents peace of mind because their children are in a safe environment that is comfortable.

Helping others and giving back to the community that helped nurture him were the largest factors that motivated Martin to take the youth sports position after retiring.

"I grew up in the youth sports program and I know how valuable the lessons learned here are to a child," he said. "What better tool teaches children about life than sports?"

Those life lessons are manners, following rules, how to win and lose, the chain of command system, and mostly it teaches the children about themselves.

"The vast majority of the coaches are active duty military, so they make good mentors," Martin said.

The Marine Corps and its values touch every facet of Martin's life, and youth sports is the main beneficiary.

"Martin's leadership has changed the personality of the program," said Christian D'Orazio, head of the Semper Fit Branch and close friend of Martin. "Coming from his 30 years in the Corps, Martin is a consummate, flexible leader who has made positive changes to youth sports."

One of the many changes Martin made was the Best Buddies program.

Because the program was instituted while he was the base sergeant major, Martin gets to ensure Best Buddies is carried out properly.

This program is patterned after the National Best Buddies program. The goal is to provide to all children, no matter what their special needs, an opportunity to "buddy-up" with other military children for social, recreational, developmental, and athletic activities and events.
"This pairing allows the children to see the world out of each other's eyes," D'Orazio said.
Another change made by Martin was the end of season awards ceremony.

"These official ceremonies make the children feel special because we have the band and the chaplain there," said D'Orazio.

Under Martin's watchful eye, the programs have been expanded, the staff has grown, and more training has been implemented to make the environment more professional.

With the growth of youth sports, Larson Gym has had a resurrection of sorts, said D'Orazio. "The gym probably would have gone under if Martin hadn't started scheduling so many events and ceremonies here."

Martin is a true Marine for his ability to multitask, organize and get the job done, all while maintaining a smile on his face. He is a people person with a big personality in a small body, chuckled D'Orazio.

His priority is improving the quality of life to make a difference in the lives of the families on Marine Corps Base Quantico.

"I do things that need to be done," Martin said. "And as long as I'm making a difference here, I'll stay."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 06:40 AM
Tarawa Division enters Sunni Triangle
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200532143412
Story by Sgt. Stephen D'Alessio



CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Ar Ramadi, Iraq (March 17, 2005) -- Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general for 1st Marine Division, will transfer responsibility of the Al Anbar province this month to Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, commanding general for 2nd Marine Division.

The shift of control is a continuation of the stability and security operations already being conducted by Marine Corps units since March 2004. Although the 2nd Marine 'Tarawa' Division, from Camp Lejeune, N.C., is officially taking over operational responsibility for the infamously treacherous region, units from the division have already been in place for some time.

"Understand that this (relief in place) began months ago; we're not new here," said Col. Bob Chase, 2nd Marine Division operations officer. "Many current 'ops' were planned in conjunction between the 1st Marine Division and ourselves over the course of a few months. One of the most recent operations, River Blitz, was a joint 1st and 2nd Marine Division operation. But certainly the final decisions rested with the commander on the ground."

The Tarawa Division will continue most of the techniques, tactics and procedures the 1st Marine Division established according to Chase. The 2nd Marine Division will continue to refine and adopt new methods of thwarting insurgent activity.

"A few things we bring to the fight are a fresh set of eyes and a shift of focus as we partner more with the (Iraqi Security Forces)," said Chase. "There's a pride that certainly comes with the changeover as the Marines of our division move into this area of operations, and continue to build on the successes of 1st Division."

With the recent Iraqi elections, the local military has stepped into a larger role according to Chase. The Tarawa Division is taking action to help strengthen the bond between the Marines and the Iraqi Security Forces. In turn, it is the division's goal to share more of the responsibility for security and stabilization in the region with the ISF.

"One of our main focuses here is training with the ISF," said Chase. "We'll see some fights out here, but the good news is we won't do it alone."

As the 2nd Marine Division fully integrates as a task-organized unit, the Marines are bringing their hard-earned experience to the fight in the Global War on Terrorism.

Chase concluded by saying, "We have some new ideas, and we're well rested. That will help us finish what the 1st Marine Division did well. We owe that to the Marines to not let their work go to the wayside."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 06:43 AM
Sights set on Cobra Gold ‘05
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 2005320202811
Story by Cpl. Trevor M. Carlee



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan (March 18, 2005) -- Marines with A Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, currently assigned to 3rd Bn., 12th Marines, align the coordinates on their howitzer aboard here March 15 during the battery’s rehearsal of standard operating procedure for providing indirect artillery support for infantry units.

Sixty-six Marines with the Hawaii-based battery participated in the three-day exercise that helped prepare them for their future training at the central training area, which will in turn prepare them for their deployment to Cobra Gold '05.


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2005320203142/$file/050312-M-0004C-014low.jpg

Marines with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, currently assigned to 3rd Bn., 12th Marines, align the coordinates on their howitzer aboard here March 15 during the battery’s rehearsal of standard operating procedure for providing indirect artillery support for infantry units. Sixty-six Marines with the Hawaii-based battery participated in the three-day exercise that helped prepare them for their future training at the central training area, which will in turn prepare them for their deployment to Cobra Gold '05. See next week’s issue of the Okinawa Marine for full story. Photo by: Cpl. Trevor M. Carlee

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 06:45 AM
When the going gets tough, the tough get online
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200532113236
Story by Sgt. Stephen D'Alessio



CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Ar Ramadi, Iraq (March 21, 2005) -- The camp's computer data section is the nucleus of all vital information dispersal on the camp, and Sgt. Meade is the Marine who keeps it moving.

Sammie R. Meade, a 21-year-old Manchester, N.H., native and tactical data network specialist with Headquarters Battalion, 2d Marine Division, is the life force behind the computer network in the combat operations center. Otherwise, he likes to be known as a "Data Dink."

The Data Dinks, affectionately proclaimed as the computer gurus who maintain the network, are somewhat of an enigma around the camp. But holding the key to his mysterious computer knowledge is what Meade likes best.

The 2001 Trinity High School graduate began his love for computers there, when he won a computer arts contest for desktop publishing work. Now, his passion has become more of a trade than an art as he uses his talent to make the most efficient computer network possible for his unit's fight in the Global War on Terrorism.

Meade builds computers and networks them into the division's combat operations center, the hub of Marine operations in the Al Anbar Province. His work has brought him here, to the infamous Sunni Triangle, to support the Corps in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"We've been here for nearly three solid weeks and I'm still working out the kinks in the system," said Meade. "I've been working fourteen-hour days, one hundred hours a week and we still aren't where we need to be yet."

This is Meade's first deployment and he is taking it in stride. It's not too far from what his last goal was -- to become a computer programmer. Meade had a full ride scholarship for a graphic arts degree. But when Notre Dame College went bankrupt and closed, according to Meade, there were only two things to do - find another college or see what the Corps had to offer.

So far, his success has been abundant.

"It was too late to apply for another scholarship and college, so here I am," Meade said in a humorous tone. "I've experienced a lot of very valuable lessons so far, and being a Marine with this type of job keeps me out of the office."

Meade and his fellow Marines work long hours to accomplish their vital mission. But with the long months ahead, they find time to take a break.

"This kind of thing burns me out fast, so it's the little things I look forward to," said Meade. "A couple of the guys and I get together at the mess hall at midnight for about one hour. We do the same at lunch and that's our time to steam off."

If not for Marines like Meade, the combat operations center would look like something out of a WWII movie, according to Meade, who prides himself on keeping things up and running smoothly.

"Without the network, we'd all be communicating by radio and courier," Meade said. "There would be a lot of privates running around here with messages. I don't think people would go for that these days."

Meade is a wanted man on the camp. The work never seems to be done. On any given day, he fulfills about twenty requests for fixing network problems. According to Meade, that's average. But he can't convince the Marines of that.

"Somehow people seem to think we're a step above the rest, but that's because we fix their computers," said Meade. "We get a lot of praise for the job because there is such a high standard.

"No matter what, I intend to meet those expectations."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 06:58 AM
Ambushed GIs Kill 26 Militants
Associated Press
March 22, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers, ambushed by dozens of Iraqi militants near the infamous "Triangle of Death," responded by killing 26 guerrillas in the largest single insurgent death toll since last fall's battle for Fallujah, the U.S. military said Monday.

The high number of deaths in Sunday's daylight battle south of Baghdad was attributed to the large number of attackers, unusual in a country where most clashes are carried out by small bands of gunmen or suicide bombers.

"I was surprised at the numbers," said Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, a squad leader for the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., and a native of Henryville, Ind., involved in the firefight. "Usually we can usually expect seven to 10."

As the U.S. military reported that and other successes against the insurgency, attackers struck several times Monday, killing seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers. A roadside bomb in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, killed four women and three children, police said.

Reporting on Sunday's big firefight, the U.S. military said MPs and artillery units from the Kentucky National Guard were traveling along a road 20 miles southeast of Baghdad around noon when 40 to 50 militants emerged from a grove of trees and a roadside canal firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.




The soldiers returned fire, killing or wounding all the insurgents in a field and driving away those attacking from the canal. Seven Americans were reported wounded, but no details were given on their conditions. Commanders said seven wounded insurgents and one unwounded attacker were captured.

The guerrilla death toll - 26 - was the highest in a single clash in Iraq since U.S. forces took control of the formerly insurgent-held city of Fallujah west of the capital.

In late December, an attack on a U.S. military outpost in Mosul resulted in the deaths of 25 insurgents and one U.S. soldier.

Military officials said the road where Sunday's attack occurred has seen a surge in violence against coalition forces, including an ambush Friday in nearly the same spot that killed a foreign driver. They blame a nearby village believed to be an insurgent hideout.

After the battle, U.S. troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault rifles, more than 2,900 bullets and 40 hand grenades.

It was one of several blows to the insurgency that were reported Monday.

A pre-dawn raid Monday by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Kirkuk captured 13 people believed tied to a fatal attack on a local police officer and the bombing of his funeral procession that killed three more officers. Thirty other suspects were detained Friday in Karbala.

U.S. officials also said two suspects were arrested in the suicide bombing Sunday that killed the anti-corruption director in the northern city of Mosul, Walid Kashmoula.

In addition, they said 10 men captured by Iraqi soldiers last week had confessed to staging a March 9 suicide bombing in Baghdad using a garbage truck near the Agricultural Ministry and a hotel favored by Westerners. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed in that attack.

Officials also said two insurgents were killed and two wounded in two separate incidents when they were found digging roadside holes for homemade bombs in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.

In violence Monday:

-A U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in Anbar province in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

-An Iraqi solider died and four were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad. Also in the capital, gunmen in two speeding cars fired at an Iraq army foot patrol, killing one soldier and wounding one.

-Another Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell struck his army camp.

-The head of the police force in Baghdad's Kazimiyah neighborhood, Col. Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen shot at his car but his driver suffered serious injuries.

-In Samarra, a pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber exploded prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes.

On the diplomatic front, Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday ordered his top envoy in Iraq to return to his post, just one day after recalling him over Iraqi claims that Jordan was allowing insurgents to slip across the border, Jordan's official Petra news agency said. Iraq also withdrew its envoy from Jordan in the tit-for-tat withdrawals by the two neighbors.

Political negotiations to form a coalition government remained snagged in a disagreement between Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite clergy, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was expected to meet Wednesday with Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader likely to become Iraq's next president.

The 140 seats won by the Shiite alliance in the Jan. 30 elections is the biggest bloc of seats in the new National Assembly, but it needs the support of the Kurds' 75 deputies to have enough votes to form a government.

The Kurds want the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to be returned to the autonomous Kurd region as soon as the government convenes, but an official from al-Sistani's office said he wants the issue handled in the constitution to be drafted by the National Assembly.

Former dictator Saddam Hussein drove Kurds from their homes in Kirkuk and the surrounding region and replaced them with Iraqi Arabs.

A senior member of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, Ahmad Chalabi, told Al-Arabiya television that the Kurds also wanted the powerful ministry of oil position in the new Cabinet.

Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, while Sunni Arabs account for about 20 percent. Kurds, who are Sunni Muslims but mostly secular, are 15 percent to 20 percent.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 07:00 AM
Survivor's &quot;Psycho&quot; Marine Discharged <br />
<br />
by Angel Cohn <br />
TV Guide Online <br />
<br />
Membership in Survivor: Palau's winning tribe has its benefits. Not only did Koror land themselves a swanky hut, courtesy...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 07:54 AM
Marine's sign points directly to Whitey's
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By Bill Wundram
Quad City Times

EXACTLY 6,852 miles from home, in a parched place like Iraq, a thick Whitey's chocolate malt would go down pretty good right about now.

That must be why Cpl. Joshua VandeWiele of Colona, Ill., nailed a sentimental sign about Whitey's and the Quad-Cities on a post at the Iraq Marine Air Wing base where he's stationed. It must make him feel good, easing any pangs of homesickness to see that sign.

"He loved Whitey's," says his mom, Jeannie VandeWiele of Colona. "When he is home on leave, one of the first stops has been Whitey's. His favorite was chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and he can never get his fill of Whitey's malts and milk shakes."

Josh is on his third tour of duty "over there" with the Marines. When fellow Marines began hammering directions and details of their homes or favorite haunts to a post - places like Tupelo, Miss., and a speedway - Josh couldn't resist getting into the act. He did some research to get replicas of the logos, handpainted on the signboard, which says it is 6,852 miles to get a Whitey's.

He began the board with the words "Quad-Cities, Ill. and Ia. home of …

This is followed by the John Deere logo, which is important because his dad, Jerry, is retired from Deere. Next is the logo of Whitey's, the red-on-white swirl with upswing name of the Quad-Cities' favorite ice cream. Alongside the Whitey's logo is a drawing of the Centennial Bridge.

"Boy, is it nice to be remembered," says Jon Tunberg of Whitey's. "We'd like to pack a bunch of Whitey's in dry ice and send it over to Josh, but food shipments like that are banned."

Whitey's has sent big batches of mini-malts to troops departing from Fort Campbell, Ky., and regularly ships dry ice-packed malts to service people who are stateside, but never overseas.

His mom laughs that before leaving on his last tour of duty, Josh told her that he'd like to take Whitey's along. The closest thing to the Quad-Cities that could go with him was a John Deere cap and T-shirt.

Josh's parents live near Billy Wolf Road in Colona - which is not far from Geneseo to you city-fied folks who never heard of that landmark, Billy Wolf Road.

Josh enlisted in the Marines while a high school student in Geneseo, then reported for duty after graduation. After boot camp and training, he married his high school sweetheart, Elisabeth Ross, who now lives in Miramar, Calif., Josh's home base.

In his years as a Marine, Josh has seen a hunk of overseas duty. He was in Kuwait for six months in 2003, and seven months in Iraq in 2004. He left Jan. 19 of this year for another hitch in Iraq, where he is a computer network specialist.

Tunberg wishes that he could somehow get malts to Josh. After all, Whitey's malts have made it to England and Japan.

"Someone wanted to send our malts to Japan. We knew that would never work, but they said if we could get them to San Francisco, they'd get them the rest of the way to Japan. We got them to San Francisco, and we don't know what happened after that."

Whitey's once made up a special batch of peppermint ice cream for a White House reunion of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Wellesley College class. Peppermint ice cream was always the Sunday desert at Welleslley, and White House chefs couldn't find any in Washington. Whitey's made up many gallons and shipped it in dry ice. It arrived, without a drip.

"The White House order was great, but it's a great feeling, too, to know that when servicemen like Josh think of home and the Quad-Cities, they think of Whitey's," Tunberg says.

He tells how other servicemen have had the same feeling.

"We know. First, they can't wait to see their wives, and then they can't wait to get a Whitey's."


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 09:37 AM
Son faced raw reality of war
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By William Cole
Honolulu Advertiser Military Writer

Shipped off to Okinawa for the usual seven-month rotation, Hawai'i Marine Jerry J. "JJ" Aguirre thought that's where he'd stay while other Marines fought in two wars.

"He said, 'Dad, I'll bet you $500 we aren't going anywhere,' " recalled his father, Andy.

Lance Cpl. Aguirre would lose the bet, and four Marine buddies in Iraq.

The life-changing journey and his deployment along with 900 Hawai'i Marines, now winding down, is told through e-mail and letters from the younger Aguirre to his father.

A country music fan and baseball lover who hopes to land a job as a baseball coach, JJ Aguirre traces the arc of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment's Iraq duty through pre-war jitters in Kuwait, the loss of friends, the fighting in Fallujah, a close call with a bullet and weariness with it all.

The 23-year-old Marine is on the USS Essex, one of three ships heading to Okinawa. From there, the Marines will return to Hawai'i next month.

His father, Andy Aguirre, 51, is a retired enlisted man who was with the 82nd Airborne Division and saw combat in Grenada. He describes the worry over a son taking his turn in a war zone.

"There's no comparison being in a combat zone to having a son or daughter in a combat zone," the Fayetteville, N.C., man said. "It's excruciating - especially when it comes on TV: 'Marines killed.' "

Aguirre's personal account traces the experiences of the 1/3 Marines from Kane'ohe Bay, including house-to-house battles with insurgents in Fallujah in November. Eight 1/3 Marines were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on Oct. 30; 26 Hawai'i Marines and a corpsman died in the crash of a helicopter in a sandstorm on Jan. 26; and 11 other Marines died in Iraq - most of them in Fallujah.

A total of 159 Purple Hearts have been approved for the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. JJ Aguirre has one of them.

Here are excerpts from his e-mails to his father:

14 Oct. 04

Ready to get out of Kuwait, Dad. Waiting on aircraft, and everyone is getting on each other's nerves. We've been here since Sept. 11 now. No matter what happens, I'm pretty satisfied with my life.

The infantry battalion, one of three at Kane'ohe Bay, headed to Okinawa in July. As an Asia-Pacific contingency force for hot spots like the Korean Peninsula, the 3rd Marine Regiment had a reputation for not deploying to a combat zone. But that changed with the Marines stretched thin by two wars.

17 Oct. 04

Finally here (in Iraq) and there was an incoming rocket today. Heard that some (headquarters and service company) Marines were wounded. Platoon flew on a CH-46. A few rounds every day they say, but they are bad shots.

30 Oct. 04

Check the (Defense Department) news, Dad. I can't talk but it's a sad day in 1/3 and Bravo (Company). We lost some of our brothers today. Doc (Joel Ivy Jr., a Navy corpsman) did an awesome job doing the nine line medevacs, and some of the junior Marines did an extraordinary job. 3rd platoon was hit by a suicide car bomber. (Lance Cpl. Alberto) Felix told us all about it, and we raced down to Bravo surgical. We cussed and we cried. Dad, Foxy is gone.

Lance Cpl. Travis Fox, 25, who had gone through boot camp and infantry school at Camp Geiger with Aguirre, was one of eight 1/3 Marines killed when an explosives-laden Chevy Suburban crashed into a Marine Corps troop truck on Oct. 30 near Fallujah. Ten Marines were wounded.

Fox, from Cowpens, S.C., had visited the Aguirres while on liberty. JJ's mother, who is Korean, taught him how to eat with chopsticks. His father had attended Fox's wedding on June 5, just before the deployment.

Aguirre wrote to his father the day before the Battle of Fallujah began on Nov. 8. At least 71 U.S. troops died and 450 were wounded over the next several weeks re-taking the rebel-held city.

7 Nov. 04

Rehearsals and final checks and a two-star general talked to us today. (Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski) said he needed some 3rd Marines, and 25 to 30 years from now when our grandkids are sitting on our laps and they ask what you did, Grandpa, you can say, 'I was in Fallujah, not shoveling s*** in Hawaii.' That was pretty motivating.

Veterans Day is Nov. 11th and it will have a new meaning for all of us in 1/3. Sgt. Maj. (Carlton) Kent talked about Hue City (in Vietnam) and the Marines that came before us. I am not too worried; just keep low and keep moving. I know God will be with us.

Five days later, two more of Aguirre's buddies - Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, 21, of Baltimore; and Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, 20, of Woodbridge, Va. - would die. Aguirre and Branning were roommates on a deployment to Okinawa.

14 Nov. 04

Hey, Dad, you probably already know: We lost two guys in the platoon, and they were in my squad. Branning and Medina died from machine gun fire and just lost too much blood. It happened ... on the 12th. We were clearing buildings, and we found caches of (weapons). Also heroin and other drugs. I guess they were all hopped up because you had to shoot at least four or five rounds to drop them.

It happened so fast: (Cpl. Alexis) Ayala's team went first; Branning and Medina kicked the gate open and maybe 3 to 5 feet inside, machine gun fire. Everybody gets cover, and we suppress the building; we are talking to Branning and Medina to hang in there.

The gun position was well concealed and had great fields of fire. We fired 40mm (high explosive rounds) and had a (Light Armored Vehicle) come up and fire its guns. Cpl. (Andrew) Etheridge took a shot in the right leg; Doc (Robert C.) Trottman did a fabulous job on him; then we got Branning out of there.

DC (Cpl. Michael DanielCollins) and Ayala grabbed him. There was a trail of blood; he died seconds later. He took a shot in the neck, and it exited out of his head. Then I got hit on the left side of my back as I was laying suppressive fire with the rest of the guys.

It was a bad graze; I got lucky. Doc threw a dressing on and they put Medina on the (Light Armored Vehicle) with the rest of us, but he died five minutes later en route to the battalion aid station.

Both Branning and Medina were awesome guys, and they brought a lot to the squad and platoon. They were well-liked and good Marines. It was great seeing the rest of the platoon back, the hugs and handshakes. It is a brotherhood.

We're taking the deaths well, but we understand we have a job to do. We'll have our first beer for those guys and cry our hearts out.

15 Nov. 04

I only spent about a day and a half in Bravo surgical. I was lucky; it is a grazing wound but it feels like I was branded. Hurts like hell. They cut my cammies off me and no idea where my Kevlar (helmet), flak (vest) and weapon are now. Buddies took pics of my wound.

17 Nov. 04

It was really emotional talking to Brian (Medina's) dad. He said we are his sons now.

Fallujah would claim the life of another friend on Nov. 29. Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay, 20, a 2002 Pearl City High graduate, was killed as so many others had been: in a burst of gunfire entering a Fallujah home. He was assigned to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., but got to know the Hawai'i-based Marines. JJ Aguirre has Magaoay's father Tony's phone number and plans to meet with him back in Hawai'i.

27 Dec. 04

(Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, the battalion commander) awarded Purple Hearts to B Company Marines today; it is a honor but not something I ever want to do again. Alex Ayala and (Staff Sgt. Jason) Benedict from 3rd Platoon received one also. Plenty of pics. I will mail Purple Heart home.

The crash of the CH-53E occurred a month later. JJ told his father it was sad the Marines survived Fallujah, but died in the crash. But by then he was just tired of memorial services.

28 Jan. 05

Just found out Charlie lost a platoon and doc in helo crash. Lt. Col. Ramos said we will end combat ops soon.

7 Feb. 05

In Kuwait now. Finally out of that hellhole. Convoys will follow soon.

27 Feb. 05

Getting on ships soon. (Former pro baseball player) Bo Jackson is here, and we better be able to see him. I just want to get back to K Bay. I don't care about any port visits.

7 March 05

Dad, I am OK. Just had surgery for a right hernia that I had since Fallujah. I will heal here.

Before the deployment, JJ and his fellow Marines "were champing at the bit to go," Andy Aguirre said. When he gets back, he'll be in the Marines for a little over a year, and then he plans on getting out, his father said.

Andy Aguirre isn't sure how the experience has changed his son. "I told him, you've been through a lot, and you don't realize it, and it's just going to take time," he said. "The question that never ends is, why did I live and so-and-so die?"


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 09:39 AM
Marines now to sign safety pledge before going on leave
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By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, March 23, 2005

ARLINGTON, Va. - With the Marine Corps facing a spike in off-duty accidents, all Marines must now sign a pledge promising to be safe before going on leave.

"Essential to our mission, I pledge to maintain my commitment with a constant display of honor and professionalism," reads the pledge. "I will plan ahead, minimize risks to my safety and return from leave prepared to continue 'the fight.' "

The new policy, announced in a Corps-wide message, also will require immediate supervisors to swear they are confident their Marines will carry through on their promise.

The idea, officials say, is to raise safety awareness, help Marines remember they're Marines 24-7 - even while on leave - and highlight accountability.

"This forces the onus of responsibility down to the individual Marine, holding him or her accountable for their actions," said Lt. Col. Brad Cantrell, a top Marine Corps safety officer.

The new "Leave Pledge" comes after 55 Marines have died in off-duty mishaps over the past 12 months.

"The toll these accidents have taken in lives and on operational readiness was a major topic of discussion" among a recent gathering of general officers, according to the policy message, signed by Assistant Commandant Gen. W.L. Nyland.

Returning from the meeting, Marine Forces Atlantic commander Lt. Gen. Martin Berndt tasked five of his Marines to come up with an idea that might help curb the problem.

Taking a page from the playbook used by high schools to fight prom night drinking, the four corporals and a sergeant crafted the leave pledge.

"We wanted something that would make Marines think," said Cpl. Terrence Harrell, one of the five tapped by Berndt. "Everyone knows when your name is on the bottom line, you've got to stand by it."

Harrell said he couldn't forget a buddy on Okinawa who was nearly killed a few years ago in an off-duty car accident during a 72-hour pass when a drunken driver slammed into his car. The only reason the Marine survived, Harrell said, was because he remembered to wear his seat belt. But many forget.

Safety briefings now have become so commonplace, he said, for many Marines "it just goes in one ear and out the other. We wanted this pledge to be a wake-up call, not the death of a fellow Marine."

Their pledge was so well received by the brass, Marine Corps commandant Gen. Mike Hagee decided to adopt it Corps-wide.

"The implementation of this policy will further emphasize the importance of safe and professional conduct by all Marines, both on and off duty, and is a vitally important tool for improving safety awareness and preserving overall combat readiness," Nyland wrote.

The Leave Pledge

Marine:

I, (Rank, Full Name), recognize the contribution I make to my fellow Marines, Sailors and Civilian Marines of (Unit Name), my brothers and sisters throughout the Marine Corps and Marines and Sailors deployed in defense of freedom around the world. Essential to our mission, I pledge to maintain my commitment with a constant display of honor and professionalism.

I will plan ahead, minimize risks to my safety and return from leave prepared to continue "the fight."

(Signature of Marine)

Supervisor:

I, (Rank, Full Name), have confirmed that (the requesting Marine) has an acceptable plan for leave and fully understands the valuable contribution every Marine makes to our nation. I am confident that he/she will take the necessary steps to minimize risks and bring honor to our Corps and country while enjoying this well deserved break from the daily routine. I recommend approval.

(Signature of the first Marine in approval chain)


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 09:48 AM
Laws Must Protect the Rights of Military Dads <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
March 23, 2005 <br />
by Jeffrey Leving and Glenn Sacks <br />
<br />
When the Iraq...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 10:16 AM
Bare-breasted mud-wrestling GI discharged <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer <br />
Friday, February 18, 2005...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 10:17 AM
Navy SEALs Sue AP Over Detainee Photos
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By ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal lawsuit filed by several Navy SEALs and the wife of a special forces member claims The Associated Press violated copyright and privacy laws and endangered the servicemen's lives by publishing photographs of them with Iraqi prisoners.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in San Diego, seeks unspecified damages. It also asks the court to bar the AP from further use of the photos and to require the news agency to protect the SEALs' identities.

It replaces a lawsuit filed in state court in December to add the federal copyright infringement allegations, said plaintiffs' attorney James W. Huston.

"The claims are just as groundless in federal court as they were in state court," Dave Tomlin, the news cooperative's assistant general counsel, said in a statement. "The pictures are of obvious public interest. AP obtained them in a completely proper way and was right to publish them."

The photos, distributed worldwide with a Dec. 3 story, appear to show the servicemen in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees and also what appear to be bloodied prisoners - one with a gun to his head.

The story said the Navy had launched a formal investigation into the photographs after being shown them by an AP reporter, adding the photos did not necessarily depict any illegal activities.

The AP later reported the Navy's preliminary findings showed most of the 15 photos transmitted by the agency were taken for legitimate intelligence-gathering purposes and showed commandos using approved procedures.

"The publication of the photographs has endangered the lives of the Navy SEALs, some of whom are currently serving in Iraq and others who are expected to return there," the lawsuit contended.

The original AP story said the photographs were found on a commercial photo-sharing Web site, Smugmug.com, and were brought back from Iraq by the husband of a woman who was keeping them in a digital photo album there.

The lawsuit said another SEAL took the photographs.

According to the lawsuit, the woman incorrectly believed the nearly 1,800 photos she posted on the Internet site were protected from access by unauthorized users and required a password to view.

The lawsuit contends that the AP and writer Seth Hettena violated the woman's privacy and also the copyright of the photographer by using the photos without permission. The photos weren't formally copyrighted at the time; some were later registered.

Huston claims that under federal law any photograph in "recognizable form" is considered copyrighted, even if it is never published or formally registered.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 10:18 AM
Former POW Lynch Honors Fallen Comrade
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By BETH DeFALCO
Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX (AP) -- Almost two years to the day after their company was ambushed, former POW Jessica Lynch on Tuesday honored fallen comrade Army Spc. Lori Piestewa - the first American servicewoman killed in the Iraq war.

The women were best friends who served together in the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas. They were also roommates at Fort Bliss and tentmates in Iraq.

"Many of you may know our story, but what you may not know is what a great friend Lori was, what a great mother she is to these kids, what a great daughter she is, and what a great devoted soldier she was," Lynch said at a news conference. "She taught me so much and knowing her made me a better person."

Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe and single mother of two, is believed to be the first American Indian woman killed while fighting for the U.S. military.

The 23-year-old Piestewa died and Lynch was captured March 23, 2003, in an attack near the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah. Soldiers rescued Lynch April 1, 2003; the videotaped rescue made her an international celebrity.

Lynch is recovering from injuries that included a broken back. She still walks with a cane. She has enrolled at West Virginia University and hopes to become a kindergarten teacher.

With proceeds from a $1 million book deal, Lynch created the Jessica Lynch Foundation to help Piestewa's two children. She later expanded the foundation's mission to educate children of military veterans and casualties.

"We love her like a daughter," said Terry Piestewa, Lori's father. "We know she was blaming herself for what happened. She was blaming herself that she didn't bring Lori home.

"She wants to be there for the kids. It's good for her, helps her heal."

On Wednesday, Lynch was to attend a sunrise ceremony held on Piestewa Peak, a north Phoenix mountain named after the fallen soldier. She is scheduled to visit Piestewa's hometown of Tuba City on Thursday, and visit her grave on the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 11:37 AM
Enjoying The Comforts Of Home
Angela Lee
March 22, 2005 - 6:15PM
Mike Battery Marines begin the adjustment to life at home.

It's the first full day of family time for hundreds of Marine Reservists who just returned from their tour of duty.
Members of the Mike Battery spent several months in Iraq before ending their journey Monday back home in the Tennessee Valley.
Tuesday, NewsChannel9 caught up with Corporal Will Sherrow and his wife Kelly at the Marine Reserve Center.
He was finishing up some paperwork before leaving for their home in North Carolina.
The couple says, though it's only been a day, the transition seems to be going quite well.
Kelly Sherrow explains, “I think it's been a little bit of a shock but I think it's been an easy transition being in California.
Corporal Sherrow adds, the three days his unit spent in California gave him time to think about the return home.
He says, it was a chance to unwind and focus on the future and spending time with his wife, Kelly.
He says, getting reacquainted means, “Falling in love all over again! I feel like I'm on a second honeymoon ant that's fantastic and obviously, the most special person in my life... I get to share my life with again and re-experience that AND that's FABULOUS! That's what I look forward to the most and what I'm living now. So, it's kind of like ecstacy.”
Corporal Sherrow jokes that it will take some time to get used to driving on the right side of the road and traffic signals.
Of course family and home top the list of what he missed the most.
But there are also a few little things he says he's missed or he's grown to appreciate more: like the smell of the clean air or GRASS, and the ability to get in a car and go when ever he wants.
Just to name a few.
He says, “But truly when your gone and you are in a different culture and climate, you miss the things that are everyday here.”
Sherrow says it's a little too soon to miss anything about Iraq; after all he's only been home for a day.
But says in the time to come, he'll miss some things over there like the friendship he built with fellow Marines while deployed.
Sherrow says he truly believes in the work they've done and the efforts that continue in Iraq.
Kelly agrees but adds, it's good to have her Marine home.
She says, “It's great to look over and see him there. I've waited a long time to be able to do that.”
Sherrow says he now plans to travel and spend time with Kelly.
Adding, he's promised to take her to all the places in the world he's been..minus Iraq.
Then, he's thinking about enrolling in law school.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 01:30 PM
March 28, 2005

Medical kit has more tools for major injuries

By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer


You may not have many occasions to break into your medical kit, but when you do, you’re going to be a lot more pleased than the Marines of yesteryear.
That’s the message from medical personnel who say the new Individual First Aid Kit, introduced in 2002, and put to test in Iraq, far outshines its predecessor.

“For a corpsman, you’re a little more at ease knowing that a Marine has this medical bag,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Jason M. Foree, with Operations and Plans, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The kits are a vast improvement over the old ones, which were outdated, flimsy and too small to deal with major war wounds, he said. The old one was more like a minor first-aid kit, and its small plastic casing was too easy to break, Foree said.

With no large bandages included, it was fine for minor nicks and scrapes, but not nearly what a Marine would need should he suffer a massive traumatic injury from a rocket-propelled grenade or a hail of bullets, Foree said.

“The components didn’t match the treatment of the wounds,” he said.

But the new kit includes a minor first-aid kit and a trauma kit that has larger dressings for dealing with combat wounds. The trauma kit has two bandages that can be used to apply pressure to large bleeding wounds, as well as a Cinch Tight bandage, which can be easily self-applied with one hand to control high volumes of bleeding.

“It makes me feel better. That way, if I was out of something in my bag, that Marine’s going to have two good bandages in his IFAK that I’m going to be able to tap into,” Foree said.

The kit also contains QuikClot, a powder that can be poured on large gaping wounds to stop the bleeding, and an anesthetic-soaked burn dressing.

One small problem with the kit is that the tourniquets inside are known to break, but Foree said Marine Corps Systems Command is working to replace it with a new one, which the command should have out soon.

“Overall, I think this is a much better piece of gear than others,” he said.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 03:25 PM
&quot;The President's Own&quot; entertains MarForRes, shares knowledge <br />
Submitted by: Marine Forces Reserve <br />
Story Identification #: 200532193618 <br />
Story by Lance Cpl. Adam Tustin <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MARINE FORCES RESERVE,...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 03:41 PM
Force-retirement tools may appeal to every service <br />
<br />
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes <br />
Pacific edition, Thursday, March 24, 2005 <br />
<br />
The Defense Department has asked Congress to...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 04:34 PM
March 28, 2005

The push for more pistol punch
Army tests new ammo, technology in search for its future handgun

By Matthew Cox
Times staff writer


The Army is testing potent pistol ammo, including .45-caliber rounds, as a possible alternative for 9mm ammunition, which is often criticized for its lack of stopping power.
Since World War I, the 9mm cartridge has seen action in conflicts all over the world and is the standard pistol caliber for NATO forces. Still, soldiers have questioned the performance of the lightweight ammunition since the Army chose it as a replacement for the combat-proven .45 two decades ago.

Continued complaints from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since the war on terrorism began prompted officials at the Infantry Center at Fort Benning, Ga., to take a serious look at M9 pistol alternatives.

“The feeling is that we need to assess a caliber beyond the 9mm,” said Maj. Glenn Dean, chief of the small-arms division at Benning, citing the most common complaint from soldiers: “We’d like more stopping power.”

Complaints about reliability and a lack of accessories also prompted Dean’s office, the Army’s proponent for small arms, to scour the commercial pistol market last summer for off-the-shelf options for a Future Handgun System. “We are assessing the current technology to define what a future handgun should do and send it to the Army,” Dean said.

As a combat developer, Dean’s job is to stay on top of the needs of soldiers and turn them into future small-arms requirements for the Army.

Since the U.S. military began operations in Afghanistan in 2001, small-arms officials at Benning have talked to soldiers who say they have little confidence in the M9 9mm in the combat zone, Dean said.

Under the Soldier Enhancement Program, Benning officials began looking for solutions on the commercial market.

They started out with about 85 different semi-automatic handguns from major manufacturers such as Glock, Sigarms Inc. and Smith & Wesson.

The goal, though, was not to find a perfect pistol, Dean said. Instead, 14 pistols, in a mix of 9mm, .40 and .45 calibers, were selected for soldiers to fire, so small-arms officials could study how individual features such as calibers and safety devices performed, Dean said.

Ten soldiers participated in two weeks of shooting tests. They included men and women, commissioned and noncommissioned officers. Their job specialties ranged from infantrymen and military police to drill sergeants and signal soldiers.

Officials examined collected data such as shot placement, qualification scores, reliability and safety, Dean said. Other factors studied included how fast soldiers could recover from the shot recoil, aim and shoot again.

Some of the features examined in the test that could show up in the Future Handgun System proposal are based on past complaints about the M9, Dean said. Some of these include magazine releases that can be operated easier while wearing cold-weather gloves and safeties and decocking devices mounted on the pistol frame rather than the slide for simpler, one-handed operation.

The test also looked at pistols like the M9 that feature double-action/single-action operation versus single- and double-action-only models.

The M9 allows soldiers to shoot in double-action mode — pulling the trigger with the hammer in the down position — and in single-action mode, in which the hammer is cocked to the rear before the first shot to make the trigger easier to pull.

Revolutionary improvements in triggers over the past five years could change this, Dean said.

In both modes, the hammer remains in the rear position after each shot and requires a decocking device that lets the soldier drop the hammer safely while a round is in the chamber when the shooting is over.

A double-action-only operation eliminates the need for a decocker since the hammer remains in the down position after each shot, Dean said.

The data gathered from the experiment will likely be ready sometime in March, Dean said. If his office decides to make a recommendation, Dean said it could go before the senior leadership by this summer.

If the Army decides to move forward, weapons developers hope to invite commercial pistol makers to participate in an open competition to select a new service pistol.

“We do expect to release a [request for proposal] by late summer for a Future Handgun System,” said Col. Michael Smith, the head of Army’s Project Manager Soldier Weapons. “It really is an exciting time.”

Dean remains optimistic but knows that the program will have to compete against other expensive programs, including an effort to replace the Army’s M16s and M249 squad automatic weapons.

“The challenge is actually getting the requirement approved,” Dean said. “To be realistic, no army has won a war based on a pistol.”

Many see fewer pistols in the Army’s future, Dean said, describing how ultralight, compact carbines may replace pistols for tank crewmen and other soldiers who operate in tight places.

On the other hand, carrying a pistol as a backup weapon has always been a top priority among American soldiers.

But the Army’s current pistol has never truly won the confidence of soldiers since the Army chose it as a replacement for the M1911A1 .45 automatic pistol in 1985.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 05:28 PM
Watertown, N.Y., native recieves Purple Heart
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200531792112
Story by Pfc. Christopher J. Ohmen



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Feb. 28, 2004) -- Many know riding in a military convoy in Iraq can be hazardous. Corporal Benjamyn R. O’Connor, a field artillery fire control man, 5th Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, learned that after an improvised explosive device struck his convoy on the way back to his base of operations, near the Jordan border in western Iraq.

O’Connor received a Purple Heart on Feb. 25, for wounds received during the convoy.

“I am thankful for the corpsmen, the hospitals and the Marine Corps’ speed and dedication to helping me,” said the 25-year-old Watertown, N.Y., native. “I was back in the states within five days and saw my family soon after that.”

O’Connor was assigned to the last vehicle in the convoy headed back to the base. Without warning an IED exploded next to his vehicle.

The explosion sent shrapnel everywhere and small fragments struck O’Connor’s leg in two places causing massive bleeding. Fortunately for O’Connor, there was a corpsmen in the vehicle at the time it was hit. Only two Marines were injured bad enough to be evacuated during the incident. A few more received minor injuries.

The corpsmen used quick clot, a blood-clotting agent, to slow the bleeding from O’Connor’s leg.

“If that corpsmen didn’t use the quick clot I may have lost my life,” he stated.

Before O’Connor’s received this award, he earned a general education development diploma (GED) in 1996 and went on to further his education at Jefferson Community College taking basic education courses. He didn’t decide on a degree and plans to continue his education while still in the Marine Corps.

“I have a year left to decide to stay in or go my own way,” he said. “It has been hard to work on school right now with my rehabilitation and other obligations.”

O’Connor enlisted in the Marine Corps in Nov., 2002, and was sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., to endure the three rigorous months of recruit training. Upon graduating in February 2003, he moved to Fort Sill, Okla., to complete his military occupational specialty school.

He learned the basics of each job dealing with the M-198, 155 mm Howitzer, and details of his specific position in the gun crew during his training at Fort Sill.

“I am the one that relays fire mission information from the fire control center to the gun crew and if needed double check information that was relayed,” he stated.

After completing his artillery training he was stationed with the Camp Lejeune based 5th Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment. He was assigned to a gun platoon and started training for deployment before being sent to Iraq.

“I never thought I would be the one receiving this award with the job I have,” O’Connor stated.

While he is going through his rehabilitation he has been working in the operations and training section of the battalion.

“It is not quite as exciting as the job I had before and once I am one-hundred percent again, I will be right back out there,” he stated.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 07:03 PM
CSSB-7 comes home to warm welcome, new name
Submitted by: MCAGCC
Story Identification #: 2005321173352
Story by Gunnery Sgt. Frank Patterson



MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (March 18, 2005) -- The Marines and sailors of Combat Service Support Battalion 7 arrived home to a hero's welcome from friends and loved ones throughout February after a successful tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 2.

"During this deployment, CSSB-7 drove more than one million tactical miles averaging 33 convoys per month delivering approximately 14,000 tons of cargo," said Lt. Col. Drew Doolin, CSSB-7 commanding officer.

However, "successful" doesn't adequately describe CSSB-7's accomplishments during their deployment. The unit also recovered more than $8 million in assets by performing 20 vehicle recoveries per month and completing more than 1,100 equipment repair orders over the six-month period.

In addition, CSSB-7 engineers completed 103 major engineering projects, dispensed 140,000 gallons of JP-8 jet fuel to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and an additional 40,000 gallons of JP-8 per day to ground forces.

"The battalion completed these missions and more while maintaining equipment readiness above 92 percent and supply readiness above 98 percent," said Doolin; noteworthy statistics especially considering that CSSB-7 was, as Doolin said, "built from scratch."

According to Doolin, since a fully functional logistics battalion has to be at the Combat Center to support training missions throughout the year, CSSB-7 pulled 826 Marines and Sailors from all over the world to create a deployable support battalion to support OIF 2.

He added that, "now we're back and the lessons we learned [from OIF 1 and 2] have shown we can do this better in garrison."

In light of those lessons learned, CSSB-7, formerly CSSB-10, formed a "habitual relationship" with the 7th Regimental Combat Team. This habitual relationship is key to a reorganization of the 1st Force Service Support Group where every infantry regiment will have a combat logistics battalion in support of its efforts.

This reorganization comes with changing CSSB-7's designation to Combat Logistics Battalion 7 on April 1--all part of a seven-month "proof-of-concept" outlined in an administrative message from the commanding general of the 1st FSSG.

"The characteristics of future operations will require the logistics force to be more adaptable, deploy more rapidly, be based from the sea and have an increased operational reach," said Maj. Arthur Woods, CSSB-7 executive officer.

The proof-of-concept evaluates and assesses the expeditionary warfighting template that was employed during OIF 1. To meet the demands of the EWT, the 1st FSSG developed a task-organized combat service support organization.

"CLB-7 is one of three direct support logistics battalion under the restructured FSSG-1 which will be renamed the Marine Logistics Brigade 1," explained Doolin. "The idea is that when a particular infantry regiment goes to combat, then their respective logistics battalion will go with them."

An added benefit, according to Doolin, is the CLB and regiment can train together in garrison and establish relationships and standardize tactics, techniques and procedures for receiving and delivering logistics.

"To paraphrase Lt. Gen. [James A.] Brabham, USMC, retired [former Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics, Headquarters Marine Corps], what is important is 'relationships among commanders, not command relationships,'" said Doolin.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 07:44 PM
FALLUJAH:
A Four-Letter Word


By Ross W. Simpson



This is the conclusion of a two-part article on one platoon's actions in the April 2004 Battle of Fallujah.



Second Squad, 2d Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, I Marine Expeditionary Force will never forget April 13, 2004. It's a day the "Deadly Deuces" cheated the Grim Reaper.

First Lieutenant Christopher D. Ayres, the platoon leader, his platoon sergeant and 12 members of 2d Squad, along with the driver and crew chief of their amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) found themselves cut off from friendly forces in Fallujah in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq.

The squad was being attacked by hundreds of militants who were bent on butchering them and dragging their bodies through the streets. Militants had done something similar weeks earlier to four civilian contractors from Blackwater, a security firm in the United States.

Judgment Day


The Deadly Deuces were trying to link up with 3d Squad on April 13 when insurgents launched volleys of rocket-propelled grenades at their AAVs. One RPG hit the left side of the vehicle where 1stLt Ayres was sitting in the amtrac commander's hatch.

The RPG punched a hole about the size of a .50-caliber bullet in the Israeli armor appliqué that covered that portion of the trac and penetrated the aluminum hull of the AAV. A stream of liquid metal, or "spalling," from the high-explosive antitank (HEAT) round sliced the hamstring off the lieutenant's right leg. Fortunately, it missed the femoral artery. The explosion also knocked the driver unconscious and set fire to the engine compartment.

First Lt Jon T. McGaughey, "Bravo" Co's executive officer (XO), heard Ayres scream over the intersquad radio at Lance Corporal Mathew D. Puckett from Mason, Texas, to get them out of there.

"I also heard about an urgent casualty [Ayres]," said McGaughey, who immediately dispatched a medical evacuation team to 2d Squad's last known position. But the team never found the trac and had to turn back in the face of heavy enemy fire.

Puckett began speeding west at about 40 miles per hour. When the AAV approached a second intersection, an RPG impacted the upgun station, knocked out the .50-cal. and 40 mm heavy machine guns and killed the gunner.

Lance Corporal Abraham McCarver, a squad automatic weapon (SAW) gunner from Memphis, Tenn., was standing right behind the gun turret. He saw the round coming, but couldn't stop it from hitting Corporal Kevin T. Kolm in the chest.

Unlike 3d Squad, which was able to turn its amtrac around and limp back to friendly lines, the street was too narrow for 2d Squad's trac to do even a multipoint turn.

Puckett could drive only deeper into enemy territory in order to execute an about-face.

As they sped west, Marines in 2d Squad felt like they were ducks in a shooting gallery. McCarver saw insurgents coming from everywhere. As fast as he mowed them down, more appeared.

"There were probably 300 anticoalition forces in the streets that day," said Staff Sergeant Ismael Sagredo, who was covering the left side and the rear of the trac, "but it seemed like there were 900."

Finally, Puckett turned left onto a street leading off Route Michigan, the main east-west artery through Fallujah. He was able to hang another left and turn his burning vehicle toward friendly lines, but he didn't get very far. The diesel engine quit about 75 to 100 meters after making that last turn.

"It gave out between two intersections, leaving us stuck out there like a sore thumb," said McCarver.

Some Marines wanted Cpl Ronnie Garcia to lower the ramp on the back of the AAV so they could escape the smoke and flames, but the squad leader didn't want Marines mowed down when the ramps came down.

"Most Iraqis can't shoot very well," said Garcia, "but I did not want to give them a big target to shoot at. The smaller the better," said Garcia, who slipped out of the small hatch and led his men to a nearby house.

The Lubbock, Texas, Marine used his body as a battering ram to break through locked gates.

"I was so pumped," said Garcia, "I could have punched through a brick wall." Once inside, Garcia went room to room, making sure the house was clear so his squad could set up defensive positions.

As LCpl McCarver jumped out of the burning vehicle, an RPG exploded against the wall of the house. It was becoming a foot race between the good guys and the bad guys, and the bad guys were closing the distance.

Cpl Bruno J. Romero, a machine-gun squad leader in 2d Plt, provided suppressive fire as the rest of the Marines sprinted to safety. Once inside the house, Romero occupied a position on the roof until an enemy grenade wounded him.

McCarver told Garcia that Ayres was alive but still in the trac, and if they were going to save him, something had to be done quickly.

"Staff Sergeant Sagredo and I ran back to the burning trac and climbed up top where we found the lieutenant crawling around," said McCarver.

Sagredo thinks Ayres was temporarily blinded because he just stared at him and kept asking where they were. Sagredo saw what was left of the lieutenant's leg when he reached for him.

Sagredo told Ayres he would have to roll off the top of the trac because in his condition, he couldn't climb down. Sagredo said Ayres understood and said, "OK."

"As we grabbed him and prepared to lower him over the side of the trac commander's hatch, we could hear the pings of rounds hitting the trac and the crack of rounds going over and around us," said Sagredo.

When Ayres rolled over the side, his web gear got caught on a small bolt sticking out of a steel cage where trackers put their food, ammo and fuel. From his waist up, Ayres was exposed to enemy fire.

When Sagredo tried to lift Ayres, the web gear ripped, and the lieutenant's body fell into Sagredo's arms.

As he was setting up defensive positions inside the house, Garcia was informed that Cpl Kolm's body still was trapped inside the burning vehicle.

Cpl Romero volunteered to provide suppressive fire for Garcia to retrieve the remains of their fallen comrade.

Again, with complete disregard for his own safety, Cpl Garcia ran though a hail of enemy bullets while Cpl Romero laid down suppressive fire.

Despite intense heat and flames, Garcia tried to clear the passageway, but there was no way to get to the gunner's body.

With .50-cal. rounds cooking off, AT-4 antitank rockets on fire and flames beginning to burn through his gloves, Garcia reluctantly gave up.

"If I had stayed, there would have been two dead Marines in the trac," Garcia said.

Garcia's Bronze Star Medal citation reads, "Only after it was impossible to remain aboard the burning vehicle did Corporal Garcia return to the house."

Cpl Romero returned to the house. He refused medical attention and engaged enemy forces until he ran out of rifle ammunition.

Romero's Bronze Star Medal citation reads, "He then grabbed a pistol from a wounded corpsman and helped repel an enemy assault against the house."

Hospital Corpsman Third Class Sergio Villegas, the Navy corpsman assigned to 2d Plt, had second-degree burns to his body and shrapnel in one of his legs, but he, too, refused medical attention until he treated Ayres.

While Villegas tended to other Marines who had been wounded, Garcia changed pressure dressings on Ayres' right leg and then dragged him into an interior room where he wouldn't be hit again by RPGs that were penetrating the walls of the house.

"I was pretty much out of it," said Ayres, "but I remember them dragging me from room to room. I felt like they were trying to mop the floor with me," the lieutenant said, laughing.

The fight began about two o'clock in the afternoon. As the hours passed, insurgents pressed the fight. LCpl Cesar O. Hernandezlopez killed one of them and wounded another coming through the courtyard. Cpl Romero shot another insurgent as he ran past the kitchen window.

continued..............

thedrifter
03-23-05, 07:45 PM
"Thank goodness this house had bars on the windows, or we might have had some unwanted guests," said Romero.

Sagredo thinks one of the ricocheting rounds pierced a propane line in the kitchen, causing gas to spew all over the floor. Fearing an explosion, Garcia dragged Ayres into a bathroom and laid him on prayer rugs.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place


If SSgt Sagredo was going to die, he had determined he wasn't going to die in that house. He was going to die moving toward Alpha Co to the east.

Only one problem: 1stLt Ayres was badly wounded and would have to be carried. He was too heavy to carry to friendly lines on the run. So Sagredo gave up his plan to break out and concentrated on maintaining radio communications with his company XO.

"Once when I was on the roof, insurgents on the roof of the house next door hurled grenades at me," said Sagredo, who took his radio operator, LCpl Anthony F. Ewers, into the courtyard in front of the house. They stayed there until three RPGs exploded above their heads. But Sagredo told the XO that his squad was trapped in a house and in danger of being overrun.

"I told him our trac was on fire and that we were hunkered down in a house about 150 meters south of the burning vehicle. I informed him I had one KIA [killed in action], one urgent and two routine wounded. I also said all 203s [40 mm rounds] had been expended. All SAWs were dry, and we were down to our last two magazines," said Sagredo, who also gave McGaughey a general idea of where they were located based on terrain features. The platoon sergeant could not provide grid coordinates because the lieutenant's tracking device and maps had been destroyed in the fire.

Conserve Ammo


SSgt Sagredo spread the word that his Marines were to fire only two rounds at a time and to have a target in sight when they pulled the trigger.

Sagredo didn't give McGaughey any idea how long he could hold out, but the XO realized that insurgents already had penetrated the perimeter and were lobbing grenades onto the roof of the house.

Just when it looked like they were about to be overrun, one of the Marines in the house, Cpl Jason Palafox Jr., screamed, "I hear tanks!"

SSgt Sagredo and Cpl Romero could not hear them. In fact, they couldn't hear it thunder; RPGs exploding over their heads had blown their eardrums.

Sagredo looked out a window in the front of the house and saw an M1A1 tank go clanking by. Behind it came three more main battle tanks, blowing gaping holes in enemy ranks with their 120 mm main guns and .50-cal. heavy machine guns.

"I only saw one tank go by my positions," said Sagredo. "I didn't know there were three more out there." Sagredo also didn't know that his company commander, Captain Jason E. Smith, who led the relief column, was about to come charging through the courtyard.

"Red Cloud" to the Rescue


The quick reaction force (QRF) that got the 911 call was in no mood to mess around.

"We had been beaten up pretty badly earlier that morning," said 1stLt Joshua L. Glover, who commanded the battalion's mobile reaction force made up of Marines from Weapons Co.

First Lt McGaughey, who had been talking to SSgt Sagredo, gave Glover a grid of the friendly lines and where he thought 2d Squad was located. But it was only a guess.

With a couple of amtracs, four tanks, and six humvees from Weapons Co and three medical vehicles, Glover set out to find the missing Marines. Capt Smith rode in one of the medical humvees at the back of the column along with First Sergeant Scott A. Vandeven.

"Once we got to the grid, it was obvious we weren't in the right place," said Glover. There were apparently two columns of black smoke rising from Fallujah. One was from the Bravo trac that was burning, the other from trash. Once Glover realized the second column of smoke on the horizon was where the Deadly Deuces were hunkered down, Glover started heading that way.

When Capt Smith noticed the column was not moving as fast as it should, he grabbed his radioman's rifle and ran to the head of the column where he took control of the situation.

Smith ran down the street ahead of the tanks, firing at insurgents as he went.


Into the Eye of a Hurricane


"We fought hard to get down there," said Glover. The QRF must have been a sight for sore eyes when it came charging through the courtyard.

Capt Smith was the first Marine to reach the house, only to find himself staring down the rifles of SSgt Sagredo and Cpl Palafox.

"We distributed fresh mags to the Marines in the house, helped load their wounded, hooked an amtrac to the burning vehicle and dragged it back to friendly lines," said Glover.

Normally, a vehicle that was melting would have been blown in place, but the gunner's body still was inside it, and Smith told the battalion he was prepared to stay in Fallujah until recovery assets could be pushed to him. As it turned out, some industrious Marines were able to jury-rig a trac that pulled the burning vehicle back to friendly lines. They counted at least nine RPG holes in the vehicle.

After six hours of fierce combat, the tables had turned on the enemy in Fallujah, but the enemy didn't immediately retreat in the face of superior firepower. They stood their ground and died by the dozens. Intelligence estimated more than 100 bodies were found close to the house. More lay sprawled in the street and two nearby alleys. When the battle ended, Sagredo had one round in the chamber of his rifle and three left in the magazine. Romero had a couple of rounds left and the same for Garcia and McCarver.

Eight of the Marines in 2d Squad, 2d Plt were wounded. But Sagredo wasn't one of them. He had cheated the Grim Reaper three times: once atop the burning trac when bullets were bouncing off the trac commander's turret, again on top of the roof when an enemy grenade exploded 10 feet away and a third time in the hallway leading to the kitchen when Cpl Koreyan D. "Kary" Calloway stepped in front of him and took a bullet fragment in the forearm.

The eight wounded Marines were in good hands. Before deploying to Fallujah, everyone in the Deadly Deuces became certified medical aid men, and they put that training to use.

The "Fighting Fifth" lost 11 Marines killed in combat and hundreds wounded, some scarred for life. Despite his severe injury, Ayres remains in the Marine Corps and has been accepted into the Degree Completion Program.

"I lost a good friend over there, and a lot of my Marines got hurt," said Sagredo. "The lieutenant and I deployed to Iraq with 38 Marines, including ourselves, but when we finished the deployment, only 26 of us were combat effective." Sagredo's best friend, SSgt William M. Harrell, was fatally wounded by a sniper on April 8, 2004, in Fallujah. Harrell also was a platoon sergeant in Bravo Co.

Bad Taste


After fighting hard in Fallujah for 21 days, the Marines were ordered to pull back. SSgt Sagredo wanted to walk out of Fallujah with his head held high. Instead, he and his Marines were hustled out of town.

"It wasn't like it is in the movies," lamented Sagredo.


When 1st Bn, 5th Marines returns to Iraq in early 2005, SSgt Sagredo also will return, but he's been reassigned to Alpha Co. The only regret Sagredo has is leaving his wife and child again.


"We knew we'd be going back," said Sagredo, "because we have some unfinished business there."

Author's note: On Sept. 13, 2004, LCpl Mathew D. Puckett, the young Marine who drove his AAV through a gauntlet of fire in Fallujah, was killed in Al Anbar province. Puckett was assigned to the 3d Assault Amphibian Bn, First Marine Division, I MEF. Both he and Cpl Kevin T. Kolm have a place of honor at the Assault Amphibian School Battalion at Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 08:26 PM
Sent to me by Mark (Fontman)

In Iraq with 'reservists that fight'

By Dan Murphy
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

FORWARD OPERATING BASE IN HIT, IRAQ - When the reservists of Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion of the 23rd Marine Regiment based in Houston got the call, most expected an uneventful tour in Iraq. The marines, drawn mostly from Louisiana and Texas, had anticipated pulling only security duty.

"We figured we wouldn't do much because we were reservists,'' said Staff Sgt. Jesse Noriega, a policeman from San Antonio, Texas. "We've been in the middle of it ever since."

Six months later, the Bravo Company infantrymen are as battle-worn and "salty" as any US unit. They've seen Iraq's dangerous Anbar province. They've fought in Fallujah and Ramadi and worked at the sharp end of the spear in America's most sustained urban combat since Vietnam. They're among the tens of thousands of reservists who have fought in Iraq, a consequence of the country's insurgency and an active-duty military understaffed for long-term occupation. In the process they've become the epitome of the "citizen soldier."
Older troops

Typically older than active-duty marines and soldiers, they left behind families and civilian jobs to brave Iraq's deserts. At least a dozen in the company no longer had commitments to the Marines and volunteered to go.

Sgt. Brian Heisinger from Aurora, Colo., finished four years as an active-duty marine about four months before Bravo Company was deployed. In debt and working as a security guard, when he heard the unit was going he talked his way back in.

Cpl. Sean McKamie, a father of three from Texarkana, Texas, says his proudest moment in Iraq came after attending a Roman Catholic mass at the Al Asad airbase. When the priest found out what unit Corporal McKamie was from he said, "Oh, you're those reservists that fight."

On Bravo company's last major operation in late February and early March before heading home back to the US, they retook the city of Hit in Anbar Province from insurgents. They faced fierce resistance on their first entry to the city last October, but this time they encountered little resistance. That meant the marines could get some downtime on the roofs of Iraqi homes they stayed in, staring out at the Euphrates and reflecting on their experience.

Many in Bravo said they once foresaw a successful outcome in Iraq. But after six months of hard fighting, in which they saw towns overrun by insurgents and a flaccid response by Iraqi units, most are not optimistic. "I just hope that all that we risked here, the people who have died'' wasn't for nothing, says Sgt. Bob Grandfield, who lives in Boston. "But I'm not leaving with a lot of optimism."

Like almost every man in the company, Cpl. Daniel Benn of Houston has had clear reminders of the fragility of life. Fighting in Fallujah in November - when Bravo helped take a bridge where the bodies of two security contractors working for Blackwater Security Consulting of North Carolina were hung last April - Corporal Benn's platoon was ambushed. A piece of shrapnel buried itself in a spare rifle cartridge on his flak jacket. Bravo has been fortunate - with none of its 250-odd marines killed during their deployment.

"Definitely I see things differently," Ben says. "Being well off is still important to me, having all the things that I want to have, but not at the expense of not seeing my folks every few months just because I'm too tired to drive two and a half hours north."
The mark of service

Though the marines don't allow themselves to show much fear, such brushes with death have left their mark on all of them. To ease the pressure, the marines spend afternoons bantering and burning off nervous energy - throwing Frisbees or playing with hacky sacks. They tell jokes and laugh about near misses: About Sergeant Burlingame, the gunner on top of a humvee hit by a roadside bomb, for example. Unconscious on a stretcher, a chaplain started to administer last rites as Burlingame came awake and shouted "I'm not dead yet." He was back in the field a few days later.

But the seriousness of their task is always close. On their last foray into Hit, in October, the first platoon of about 60 men was pinned down in a six-hour gun battle with insurgents. The day before, roadside bombs killed US military contractors and rocket-propelled grenades hit a US convoy. US commanders decided a show of force was in order.

All seemed quiet as the first platoon approached.

Then came the call to prayer at about 4:45 p.m. Hundreds of insurgents opened fire from houses and from the palm groves.

"They had everything you could think of, heavy machine guns, AK-47s, propped up on window sills and coming out of houses,'' says Capt. Shayne "Skinny" McGinty of Bossier, La. "They were the most formidable enemy we faced, worse than in Fallujah, pouring fire out of the grove, then maneuvering, then firing again."

A smaller group of marines were pinned down a few hundred yards away, taking what cover they could on river banks and behind struts of a bridge. Sgt. Kris Haines, from Novato, Calif., spent "45 minutes behind a piece of steel" weathering a hail of bullets.

The rest of the marines pulled back. They couldn't fire for fear of hitting their own men and because they wanted to call in bombs on enemy positions. But malfunctioning radios meant they couldn't get the word out. So two young sergeants - Armando Sanchez and Rick Mendoza - volunteered to run up to the position, braving fire.

"They were running forward throwing grenades while shots were coming out from the palm grove - there were guys up there in the trees and we had to shoot them out like squirrels,'' recalls Captain McGinty.

Sanchez and Mendoza make light of what they did. "You just get kind of attached to the guys you're with, you want to make sure that nothing happens to them,'' says Sanchez, a community-college student from San Antonio, Texas.
Sniper's work

Sgt. Byron Hancock, a sniper with an easygoing country manner and competence that makes him seem like Bravo's Brett Favre, is another who commands company respect. In Fallujah, Sergeant Hancock, who works as a police sniper in Bryan, Texas, killed two insurgents setting up a mortar station at a distance of 1,050 meters, the longest sniper shot in Iraq.

"It feels good to just play my part, help everybody get back home safe,'' says the father of four, who grew up hunting squirrel and deer in Texas. "A sniper's worst enemy is another sniper, and an enemy sniper can paralyze your operations,'' he says. In Fallujah last April, before Bravo was here, two Chechen snipers killed 15 marines in one day.

In Hit, his position came under fire. He spotted the shooter moving through distant buildings. "He had his egress planned, his routes laid out, he knew what he was doing," he says.

After staying up all night looking for him, Hancock expected the man wouldn't take another shot till late in the day, with the sun behind him. But he didn't wait. "We saw the sun glinting off his scopes - that was his mistake," he says.

Hancock grabbed his rifle, took a deep breath, and hit the man before he could fire. Though Hancock has the adulation of his comrades, he shrugs it off as "doing my job."

"My wife, Kristi, deserves more recognition in this whole thing than I do,'' he says. "She's home, she sees kids with their fathers around, whole families. That's tough. The one thing I've learned here is to appreciate my family even more."

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 08:39 PM
March 28, 2005

New and improved firepower
XM8 still in hunt for Army’s next generation of infantry weapons

By Matthew Cox
Times staff writer


The Army wants arms makers to come up with replacements for virtually all of its infantry weapons, including its lightest machine gun.
The Army will hold an open competition this summer to select a replacement for its M16 rifles, M4 carbines and M249 squad automatic weapons by early fall.

The winning company will be awarded a low-rate initial production contract to produce up to 4,900 weapons systems and could receive an initial full-rate production contract to make more than 134,000 weapons, according to the pre-solicitation notice posted on the Internet.

This new family of weapons could be ready for fielding by the second half of fiscal 2006.

The new weapons would fulfill an Army demand for lighter, more durable small arms to replace aging designs.

The XM8 was well along in development as the Army’s next weapon, but the announcement means the program will have to prove it can outperform the rest of the small-arms industry.

The Heckler & Koch-made XM8 family of prototypes features a compact model for close quarters, a standard carbine and a designated marksman/squad automatic rifle model with a longer, heavier barrel and bipod legs for stability.

Army weapons developers have spent $29 million testing the XM8 in arctic, desert and tropical conditions to replace the venerable M16 family.

The Army’s Infantry Center, the service’s small-arms proponent, has no problem with a new family of weapons for the infantry squad, as long as it includes a light machine-gun model to replace the nearly worn-out M249 SAW.

“We see that as our number one need,” said Maj. Glenn Dean, chief of small arms at the Infantry Center, Fort Benning, Ga. “If I only replaced one weapon in the squad, it would be the SAW.”

The Infantry Center’s stance prompted the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology in late January to order a competition to decide which commercial weapons maker can best meet this new requirement.

As a result, the XM8 — which does not include a light machine- gun variant — is on hold.

“We have halted testing to let the competition be completed,” said Col. Michael Smith, who runs Project Manager Soldier Weapons, the Army office that has been developing the XM8.

Smith said the decision was made to hold off on operational tests slated for October because it’s unclear if H&K will emerge as the ultimate winner.

“It may not be XM8,” Smith said. “Our bottom line is we want the best weapon for the soldier. If someone has a better weapon than the XM8, I’m ready to support them 100 percent.”

Smith’s office has been working on the XM8 prototype as an unopposed replacement for the M16 since late 2003. It was part of a longer-range effort to perfect an over-and-under-style weapon, known as the Objective Individual Combat Weapon, or XM29, developed by Alliant Techsystems and Heckler & Koch.

The XM29 fires special air-bursting projectiles and standard 5.56mm ammunition. But at 18 pounds, it’s too heavy to meet the Army’s requirements, so planners decided to perfect each of XM29’s components separately, allowing soldiers to take advantage of new technology sooner. The XM8 is one of those components.

The March 4 “Pre-solicitation Notice for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon Increment I family of weapons” invites small-arms makers to try to meet an Infantry Center requirement, which the Army approved in October, for a “nondevelopmental family of weapons that are capable of firing U.S. standard M855 and M856” 5.56mm ammunition.

OICW Increment II deals with the separate development of the air-burst technology of XM29, and OICW Increment III would bring the two components back together when technology is available.

The OICW Increment I requirement is intended to replace current weapons systems, including the M4, M16 and selected M9 pistols for the active Army, the notice states. The special compact, carbine and designated marksman models must share 80 percent of the same parts.

The requirement also calls for the family of weapons to include a light machine-gun model rather than the XM8’s squad automatic rifle variant.

Currently, each infantry squad contains two M249 SAWs that serve as light support weapons because of their 5.56mm ammunition and high rate of fire. While very popular with soldiers, the SAW is beginning to wear out, according to the Infantry Center.

“A lot of our SAWs are 20 years old,” Dean said, describing how SAWs are rebuilt, but in many cases not fast enough to keep up with everyday wear and tear under combat conditions.

“You see soldiers carrying SAWs held together with the zip ties,” he said.

And despite its light machine gun status, the SAW weighs more than 20 pounds when loaded with a 200-round belt of 5.56mm ammo. “In the long run, we like something more durable and something that is lighter,” Dean said.

This will likely be a challenge since light machine guns are traditionally heavier than automatic rifles so they can handle the heat buildup from the high rate of sustained fire, Smith said, adding that any replacement should be lighter than the current SAW.

The XM8’s squad automatic rifle model is not designed to serve as a light machine gun. It’s not designed for sustained fire and lacks the capability for barrel changes in less than 30 seconds, a key feature in ensuring barrels don’t overheat.

Because of these differences, the LMG model will only be required to share 50 percent of the parts with the other models in the family. Still, the requirement will likely prove difficult for all competitors.

“The light machine gun is a challenge … because of that, we have a level technical playing field for all the contractors,” Smith said.

But that didn’t deter major small-arms companies such as Colt, FN Herstal USA Inc. and Steyr-Mannlicher from saying they were ready to compete when the Army polled the weapons-making community last November in what’s known as a “sources sought” document — to see what companies were willing to contend with XM8, Smith said.

“The sources-sought shows that the small-arms community had the capability to provide us with a family [of nondevelopmental weapons] so we would take them right into testing,” Smith said.

Even though the Army wants to replace the SAW, it’s not going anywhere in the near future, Dean said.

The Army’s push to grow the force from 33 brigades to 48 modular brigades known as units of action means it will need more SAWs in the short term, Dean said. Currently, the Army is planning to buy another 12,000 SAWs.

Other specific requirements are that each of the models include a common multipurpose sighting system that enables the soldier to rapidly and effectively hit stationary and moving targets at both close range and the maximum effective range of the model:

• 500 meters for the carbine.

• 150 meters for the special compact.

• 600 meters for the designated marksman.

• 600 meters and beyond for the light machine gun.

Also, the weapons must be equipped with limited-visibility fire control with infrared aim light, illuminator and visible red laser pointer. The infrared aiming light and illuminator must be greater than or equal to the capability of the current-issue AN/PEQ-2A.

A formal request for proposal is slated to be issued “on or about” March 23, the notice states.

Interested companies will be required to submit four of each type of the four different variants by late spring.

Matthew Cox covers the Army.

Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 09:09 PM
Marines honor fallen in stride
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by: II Marine Expeditionary Force
Story by Cpl. Christi Prickett

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (March 21, 2005) -- When Maj. Kevin M. Shea, communication officer, died Sept. 14, 2004, many people felt the loss of a great friend and co-worker. The same is true for the other 123 Marines from Regimental Combat Team One who passed away during the past 14 months.

Shea was scheduled to return to his home in California in November. He was posthumously promoted to lieutenant colonel.

In remembrance of them all, RCT-1 Communication Platoon organized a memorial run held March 18 and 19.

Marines throughout the regiment participated.

“I think this run is a time for remembrance of the Marines and Soldiers who have sacrificed so much and their families that have lost something that can't be replaced,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jason S. Parker, maintenance chief.

The course consisted of 123 laps around an approximate 1.5 mile square, symbolizing the Marines life potential being only half realized upon their passing. Each Marine running was required to complete one lap.

“For me, I originally was going to run one lap,” Parker said. “Later, I felt like doing more, so I ran two more laps.”

Parker was running in memory of his friend Gunnery Sgt. Robert E. Baum, who was killed in action in the Al Anbar Province on May 3, 2004.

In preparation for the run, different shops from RCT-1 Communication Platoon created batons using various materials and following guidelines from the Letter of Instruction.

The baton carried was chosen by Capt. Mark E. Halverson, the current communication officer. Once the race was over, it was placed in Halverson’s office until next year’s race.

Halverson was scheduled to run the first lap, however, due to a knee injury, Gunnery Sgt. Jeffrey J. Kirby, RCT-1 wire chief, started the commemorative event.

More than 100 other Marines ran the same route around Camp Fallujah over the following 24-hour period.

For many Marines, the run was more than a morning jog or daily unit physical training.

Kirby, native of Dixon, Ill., thought back to Shea’s birthday on his lap.

“I remember we had quite a few things going on the day with the new Regimental Commander’s change of command and reception and Lt. Col. Shea never mentioned that it was his birthday,” he said. “I didn't even realize it until I had seen the dates on the program during his memorial service. I wish I could of had the opportunity to have said happy birthday.”

In the allotted 12 minutes of run time, Kirby finished his lap in six minutes, 30 seconds.

“I focused on giving a 110 percent that first lap because that is what the lieutenant colonel always gave in total effort, 110 percent” he said.

Even the younger Marines were affected by the atmosphere of the event.

“It affects me very deeply knowing that something so small as carrying a baton and doing a one mile run, can unite and bring camaraderie to an entire unit during such stressful times,” said Sgt. Brandon S. Frakes, headquarters communication technical chief. “My cousin and I both served with this unit during the battle of Fallujah. This run has great significance because it honors the fallen warriors of RCT-1 and mainly our fallen communications officer, whom I worked for. This run means a lot to me.”

Parker had different thoughts.

"I focused on the great gift of life that I have been given,” said Parker. “I thought about the Marines I was running for and their families. Then I thought about my family and how thankful I am for the sacrifice of the Marines and Soldiers, that I might go home and enjoy our freedom.”

The run is scheduled to continue every Sept. 13 or 14 wherever RCT-1 is at, whether it be Camp Pendleton or elsewhere in the world.

“This is the kind of memorial that can and should go on for a long time,” Parker said.

Near the end of the run, emotions were high as the last runner, Halverson, ran in the baton. A final formation was held to honor the Marines to be remembered and the first verse of the “Marines’ Hymn” was sung. The names of the fallen were then spoken aloud, one at a time, throughout each of the Marines in the formation.

“I believe this run made an incredible impact to the Marines that are getting ready to go home and tell the story of Fallujah,” said Kirby. “They will tell stories of how these fallen Marines will not be forgotten. You could feel the sense of honor by each Marine that completed every lap.”

Memories are all some Marines in RCT-1 may have of their fallen brothers and friends, and their time in Camp Fallujah, but according to Halverson, by creating an environment of recollection each year, these things will continue to be remembered.

“The Marines made history here in Fallujah so we need to remember those who gave all,” said Parker.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 09:24 PM
Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Iraqi Cops Taking It To the Streets
US Official: These Are Street Fightin' Boys

by Jim Kouri, CPP

In two staggered columns, one on each side of a busy Mosul street, a group of Iraqi Police Commandos file on foot away from the safety of Forward Operation Base Blickenstaff and into the uncertainty of mid-afternoon rush hour. They make foot patrols through the streets of Mosul a few times a week, wearing body armor vests, weapons always at the ready.

“These are the street fightin’ boys,” says US Army Staff Sgt. Chris Paschel, who works with the commandos of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade with US Army Sgt. 1st Class Carl Paris. “They are combat tested.”

On a recent patrol, a group of 25 commandos covered roughly three miles, navigating spots of heavy traffic along a commercial district. At one point, gunshots ringing out in the distance forced them to take cover until it was safe to continue. Along the route, several motorists and passersby waved hello or stopped to shake the hands of the commandos and their US advisers, Paris and Paschel. On a street with a local elementary school, a cluster of children ran to shake their hands and ask for candy.

The patrols serve several purposes, Paschel and Paris say. It lets the citizens of Mosul see their security forces at work, and it sends the commandos out in search of enemies. A couple of months ago, the group of commandos captured a high-value insurgent who was identified as having beheaded several people in a business they pass by on foot patrols.

When they go out with the commandos, Paschel and Paris do not to give too much direction. The authority for the foot missions is in the hands of the ranking Iraqi officer.

The commandos also go out on coordinated missions. One recent night they set out after dark in search of a man suspected of aiding insurgents. They didn't find him, but they'll keep trying until they do, the advisers say.

“They love missions, they love to capture the bad guys,” says Iraqi Police Commando Maj. Heider. Heider says he is not only proud of his men, but emotionally connected as well.

“They aren't my company, they are my family,” says Heider.

Unit cohesion is one of their biggest strengths, Paris notes. So is courage. “They're not afraid to engage a target,” says Paris. “They will go into a fight. And they're very loyal to each other. They'll take casualties before they run away.”

Paschel and Paris have been working with the battalion since November. In that time, seven commandos have been killed in action and dozens wounded. Three suffered gunshot wounds to the chest in one day at a traffic control point, Paschel said.
But like all good things, there is always room for improvement.

“They really need an NCO corps,” says Paschel, adding that work sometimes slows while a decision makes its way through the officer corps.

Still, the US Soldiers have seen plenty of improvement since they started working with the commandos. Navigating through traffic in Mosul can be treacherous. They travel in pickup trucks, marked in blue to signify police, with two or three commandos riding with their weapons in the open back. Lights and sirens blare continuously, alerting other motorists to get out of the way.

Earlier in the day of their most recent foot patrol, the same commandos made two trips to a forward operating base to pick up boxes of T-shirts, socks, underwear and other uniform items for the battalion. Other than navigating through several traffic tie-ups, the trips were uneventful. On the way back from a third outing, however, the convoy took fire from a building less than a mile away from their base.

As Paschel and the other drivers sped away, Paris and several commandos returned fire. No one was injured. Both advisers say they have confidence in the commandos and their ability to confront the enemy.

“They hate the terrorists just as much as we do, sometimes maybe more,” says Paris. “That's a foundation for trust for me.”

Special thanks to Captain Tim Jeffers, Multinational Security Transition Command for his assistance with this article.


Ellie

thedrifter
03-23-05, 10:47 PM
PSD Marines protect CG <br />
Submitted by: II Marine Expeditionary Force <br />
Story Identification #: 200531931335 <br />
Story by Sgt. Russ Meade <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (March 18, 2005) -- Whenever the...

thedrifter
03-23-05, 11:46 PM
3/4's new engineers take control
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200532131756
Story by Lance Cpl. Paul Robbins Jr.



CAMP MERCURY, Iraq (March 19, 2004) -- When 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1, began their recent deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, they we're supported by a veteran platoon of combat engineers who assisted the battalion in many ways.

But on March 17, the tour of 1st Platoon, C Co., 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, ended, and 3rd Platoon, D Co. stepped in to fill their large shoes.

The combat engineers of 3rd Platoon, arrived aboard Camp Mercury, Iraq, March 11, to get settled into their new home.

The experienced Marines of the battalion began showing the new platoon around as soon as they arrived.

"We started taking them out on (Improvised Explosive Device) sweeps and familiarizing them with the area," said Gunnery Sgt. Dewayne E. Walters, the 35-year-old platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon. "After a few trips out, we let them lead the sweeps and attached to their teams to give advice."

The Marines of 3rd platoon, all hailing from Tennessee, learned a lot from their predecessors before taking the lead March 17.

"Charlie Company definitely helped us out," said Lance Cpl. David R. Sharp, a 23-year-old combat engineer and driver for 3rd platoon. "They passed on a lot of experience and knowledge."

Combat engineers contribute to the battalion in a variety of areas including force protection, IED detection and weapons cache discovery, according to Walters, a native of Richmond, Virg.

The Marines of 3rd platoon believe their contributions won't just benefit the Marines of the battalion, but the people of Fallujah as well.

"We're creating a safer environment for the people by removing IED's and (unexploded ordnance)," explained Gunnery Sgt. Doug I. Rines, the platoon sergeant for 3rd platoon.

A few of the Marines forming the new combat engineer platoon have experience from Operation Desert Storm, but none of them have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom before, according to the 35-year-old Morristown, Tenn., native.

Despite the lack of OIF experience, the leaders of the new engineers remain confident and optimistic about their time with the battalion.

"I feel we can adapt very quickly, and the Marines are trained well," Rines said, "...and there is a battalion of Marines around us with experience we can draw from."

The younger Marines of the platoon share Rines' enthusiasm, showing an eagerness to begin work in the city.

"I'm ready to get started and do my part," said Sharp, a native of Fairview, Tenn., "I don't know what to expect from our time here, but I'm ready to do something."

Ellie