The SgtMajMC take on issues affecting devil dogs

[thedrifter]

sent to me by Mark aka The Fontman

The SgtMajMC take on issues affecting devil dogs
By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer

Sgt. Maj. John L. Estrada is midway through his four-year term as the commandant's senior enlisted adviser and right in the thick of a historic time for the Corps.

The latter fact makes him proud. He says there is no better time to be a Marine than in wartime.

When Estrada became sergeant major of the Marine Corps in July 2003, he talked in broad brush strokes about accountability, mentorship and safety.

But after two years of seemingly nonstop travel around the Corps, a number of nuts-and-bolts issues have popped up on Estrada's radar, from the rules governing devil dogs' tattoos to the fairness of the physical-fitness test.

In a May 19 interview with Marine Corps Times reporters and editors, Estrada shared his views on a number of those subjects and made it clear that he wants to put some of them to rest one way or another in the months ahead.

Even as leathernecks line up in tattoo parlors to spend a little hard-earned deployment pay on ink to mark their return from war, the Corps' policy governing body art remains a hot topic among senior leaders.

"We are taking a look at it," Estrada said. "I'm not telling you we're going to change anything, but we are taking a look at it."

At one point, leaders were debating the merits of a new get-tough stance on tattoos, but the majority of those involved in the discussions felt the policy was too restrictive.

Tattoos were becoming a hot topic among recruiters at the same time, as they often were forced to turn new recruits away because they had either too many tattoos or overly large ones.

The recruiters' screening guidance is more restrictive than the policy for active-duty Marines; in that case, tattoos above the neck line or below the wrist are forbidden, as is artwork elsewhere that might be offensive in nature.

But as body art becomes more and more common in the civilian community, Estrada acknowledged that the Corps may be missing out on potential recruits.

"I think you hear a lot more about it more now with challenges we're facing with recruiting," Estrada said. "It's impacting us a little bit on Marines, future recruiters, future [drill instructors]. Of course, some of them just got excessive, but we have always had policy out there. I guess what we have now is just enforcement."

The Corps' top general officers have discussed tattoo policy in past meetings, Estrada said, and it was to be discussed at both the NCO Symposium held May 16-20 and the Sergeants Major Symposium scheduled for August.

Estrada does not oppose tattoos outright; his concern centers mainly on ink that's exposed when a Marine is wearing PT gear. He wants Marines to understand that inking to excess can sometimes have a negative effect on their career when it comes to high-profile assignments such as recruiting or DI duty.

As a first step, top leaders are considering ways to educate new Marines about tattoos in boot camp, combat training and job specialty schools, he said.

"That's where most young men and women are very vulnerable, they run out in town and they get them."

Another subject Estrada wanted the NCO Symposium to tackle is the state of the flexed-arm hang portion of the female Marine physical-fitness test.

A change to the test seems likely, as male and female Marines alike have complained that it is too easy for a woman to log a perfect score on the flexed-arm hang event, leading to unfairly high PFT scores as compared with their male counterparts.

Estrada said preliminary research shows a significantly higher number of women max out the flexed-arm hang event than men do in the pull-up event.

The Corps probably won't throw out the event altogether. Instead, it will look for possible changes that would make the exercise more difficult so it provides a better reflection of female upper-body strength, he said.

One recommendation he has heard calls for stopping the timed event not when the woman's elbows are no longer flexed, but rather when her chin drops below the pull-up bar. Another would extend the amount of time required to reach a maximum 100-point score beyond the current 70-second mark.

Responding to recent military court cases involving Marines and soldiers that have brought to light issues of enlistment fraud, Estrada said he feels confident that Marine recruiters on the whole are following the rules.

"We are watching that very closely, and I feel confident that our recruiters will do it the right way … that we are not putting any pressure on to lower their standards," said Estrada, who served as a recruiting station sergeant major in Sacramento, Calif.

Addressing the Corps' four-month string of missed recruitment contracting goals, Estrada said the service needs to focus on getting more recruiters on the streets.

He said a main factor is that the Corps is short about 200 recruiters this year.

The shortfall resulted from the focus on manning units for the war in Iraq.

A planned 3,000-Marine end-strength increase includes 425 new recruiters. Of those allocations, about 275 were planned to be brand-new recruiters, with the rest going to fill existing openings.

Corps leaders are also working to convince Marines that recruiting duty isn't a potential career-ender.

"That is a myth," Estrada said. "We have to do something about proving that's not so."

Estrada also touched on the effect of combat tours on Marine careers, stressing that leathernecks need not worry about whether promotion boards discriminate against Marines who have not deployed to combat.

"It helps, but it's not going to disqualify you," Estrada said, noting that he often has a chance to speak with promotion board members at the end of their deliberations. The main question boards are concerned with is "were you doing what the Marine Corps was asking of you?"

In fact, despite the high pace of operations, Estrada noted that "not every Marine will get a chance to go to combat. I never want them to feel because they didn't go to combat that they did not contribute."

Inquiring minds want to know …

We put the issues of the day aside near the end of our interview with Sgt. Maj. John Estrada to ask five questions we'd wondered about since he became the Corps' top sergeant major two years ago. Here's what we asked and how he answered:

1. What's your favorite military book?

"We Were Soldiers Once … and Young," by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. We're big fans, too - this tale of the first major battle of the Vietnam War and the soldiers who fought there offers fascinating insight into combat leadership. This book may be set in the Vietnam jungle, but it's just as relevant today.

2. And your favorite military movie?

"We Were Soldiers," the big-screen adaptation of the novel, starring Mel Gibson as then-Army Lt. Col. Hal Moore and Barry Pepper as journalist Joe Galloway. (We're sensing a theme here.) The movie's such a hit among Marines that, on deployments to Iraq, they watch the DVD on their down time between patrols. Go figure.

3. What's your favorite MRE?

We jokingly suggested Ham Slice (edible on the run, but dangerous when opened in the dark) or the always-popular Burrito (we won't go there), but the sergeant major voted for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. (We're partial to Country Captain Chicken.)

4. Which Marine from history would you most like to meet?

Capt. Frederick C. Branch, the Corps' first black officer, commissioned Nov. 10, 1945. The 82-year-old former Marine died April 9, before Estrada could meet him. And like any good Marine, Estrada also said he'd love to meet Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller.

5. What is your favorite Marine Corps rank?

Gunny. (No surprise there; it's our favorite, too.) It's a rank immortalized by Clint Eastwood in "Heartbreak Ridge" and R. Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket," and the sergeant major mentioned those two legendary films in particular. But in summing up why Gunny's good to go, Estrada said "Gunny makes it happen." Damn right.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Edge of the empire
By Robert Hodierne
Times staff writer

CAMP KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq - As the sun set, nearly 200 Marines squeezed into aging, eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicles and an assortment of Humvees and 7-ton trucks. The 40-vehicle convoy headed north off-road into the desert on the largest raid this part of far western Iraq has seen since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

After a dusty four-hour drive through desert so flat and hard-packed that the convoy often rolled along at 40 miles per hour, the trucks pulled to a stop. Marines slept in their vehicles or on the ground alongside. If you were in a mood to notice such things, it was a beautiful night - a startlingly bright half moon lit a landscape so desolate it looked like the surface of the moon.

At 4 a.m., the Marines mounted and headed toward their objective - a cluster of homes that Marine intelligence officers were convinced was a major staging, refitting, training and hospital site for insurgents in this lawless area. They were prepared for a major fight.

In a perfectly executed surprise assault, the attack force swept into the half-mile square area at dawn as AH-1W Cobra gunships swooped low overhead and F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets circled out of sight. Eighteen homes, many of them surprisingly elegant masonry buildings, were raided. Thirty-three Iraqi men, two in wheelchairs, were flex-cuffed and lined up, the women and children herded separately. The only shot fired was to scare off an angry dog.

Six hours later, after the men were questioned and explosive-sniffing dogs went through the buildings, the Marines cut the men loose and left, having found no sign of an enemy base camp.

It was, in every sense, a dry well.

In this part of Iraq bordering Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion patrols an area the size of South Carolina.

But the largest town in the area, Rutbah, has a population generously estimated at only 21,000. The next largest town, Akashat, has only 1,200. The rest of the region is land for which the term "trackless desert" was invented.

Marines describe their area of operation using an expression that will make Washington diplomats wince: The edge of the empire.

Chasing bad guys at the edge of the empire is maddening. Two days before the dry-hole raid, enemy forces set off two 155mm South African artillery shells alongside a convoy near the border with Jordan. Six Marines were wounded, one of whom lost an arm.

At the border, trucks leaving Iraq back up along the main, six-lane highway for 20 miles. A driver can wait in line for four days to cross. The same is true on the Jordanian side. By necessity, the men who drive these trucks are a rough crowd, and a fair number of them smuggle gasoline and other goods. The truck-stop restaurants and shops at the border crossing remind Marines of the bar scene from "Star Wars." Iraqis mingle with Jordanians, Syrians, Kuwaitis, Egyptians and Sudanese.

"We already had information that the restaurant was an insurgent meeting area," said Maj. John Polidoro, executive officer for 2nd LAR. After the roadside attack, the Marines organized and staged a raid in less than three hours. And again, they found nothing. They did detain three men for further questioning and picked up the brother of one man at his home. The brothers, Polidoro believes, are financiers who facilitate the smuggling of weapons and people.

The following day, another roadside bomb hit Marines near Rutbah, wounding five.

"There's a misconception that nothing ever happens out west," said Polidoro, 34, of North Kingstown, R.I. "This is a refit area, a meeting area, a safe haven for their main efforts up along the Euphrates [River]."

The primary mission here is to secure the main highway to allow trade with Syria and Jordan. But Polidoro says the battalion has chosen to do more than escort convoys. It has begun trying to root out the bad guys. Hence the raid on the sheep farmers and the truck stop.

And that, Polidoro believes, has resulted in the increased attacks against Marines.

"We're ****ing them off," he said.

While the aggressive raids are more in keeping with the personal preferences of most Marine infantrymen, the truth is, much of their time is spent running routine roadblocks that the leathernecks find tedious. But it is also dangerous, for Marines and Iraqi civilians alike.

It goes like this:

A quartet of LAVs takes up positions straddling the road. Warning signs are set up 150 meters away in both directions. Concertina wire and cones are put across the road. Vehicles that approach the checkpoint and don't slow down are warned - a flare is fired at them. If that doesn't slow them, warning shots are fired into the road ahead of them. These are followed by shots to the vehicle grill, the hood and finally, into the driver's window. This same escalation of force is used to keep Iraqi vehicles at safe distances from military convoys.

Once stopped, civilian vehicles are pulled off the road and passengers and vehicles alike are searched. The Marines have almost no translators, so little in the way of useful information is gathered at the checkpoints. And while the Marines make a point to shake hands when it's all over, the best they seem to get back from the Iraqis is a polite nod. No one leaves a checkpoint smiling.

Since the battalion started operations here March 20, Polidoro says a dozen innocents' cars have been shot up for failing to heed warnings. Four innocent Iraqis have been killed in those shootings, he said.

On the other hand, Marines and Iraqi national guardsmen shot and killed two suicide bombers, causing their cars to explode before reaching the checkpoint.

The Marines operate from a base just east of where the roads from Jordan and Syria meet. It is constructed around a collection of masonry structures that housed Korean laborers building the highway during Saddam Hussein's regime.

Considering that every drop of water they drink and every mouthful of food they eat has to be trucked 200 miles, the Marines, with a lot of support from Navy Seabees and soldiers, have turned this sun-baked sandbox into something that comes uncharacteristically close to being comfortable.

There are daily showers, a laundry (with same-day service) and an exchange (one so small only five customers are allowed inside at a time).

There is CNN on a pair of 48-inch plasma-screen TVs in the mess hall. True, the food is tray rations instead of the sumptuous buffets found in the KBR mess halls in the rear. And only two meals are served a day. Lunch still consists of MREs.

The Marines live in hard structures - no tents. They stay in the old Korean houses or plywood barracks the Seabees are building at the rate of one a day. Rooms are air-conditioned. There is even talk about fixing up the swimming pool.

However, all these comforts come with a price: It starts to feel dangerously like a garrison. One grunt complained that he got chewed out by his first sergeant for having his sunglasses pushed up on top of his head.

"Give me a break," he said. "This is a combat zone."

And that's where many of these Marines prefer to be.

Lance Cpl. Christopher Wood, 20, of Toms River, N.J., graduated from high school in 2003. A week later, he was at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. By March 2004, he was in Fallujah for a seven-month tour. He got eight months at home before being shipped back here for a second rotation.

"I'll probably do it again, next year, the way things are going," he said, standing in the back of his LAV amid a swirling cloud of brown dust. "I'd prefer to be here. It goes by quicker. It's more interesting."

But still, there is an unmet need among many Marines to confront the enemy.

One night, four LAVs sat alongside the six-lane freeway, engines off, hidden in the dark night from the empty trucks streaming west toward Syria and Jordan, and trucks loaded with gasoline and other goods headed east toward Baghdad and the rest of populated Iraq.

It was, the Marines on the LAVs agreed, a lovely night. Cool with little wind, which was good because the wind blows sand in your face and that would have ruined the illusion of a pleasant evening spent shooting the breeze with your friends. Talk centered on the relative merits of Grizzly fine-cut dip versus Copenhagen.

The Marines watched for drivers who might pull over to plant explosives. None did.

"It's tedious going out there and nothing's going on," said the patrol leader, Staff Sgt. Jerry Brown, 29, of Pace, Fla. Brown has seen combat in Liberia, Afghanistan and during the invasion of Iraq.

On this tour, he has neither been shot at nor shot at anyone, which in the dark of night he will admit is a bit frustrating.

On the other hand, he said, "When nothing happens, I know my men will be safe. Be careful what you wish for."

Robert Hodierne is covering II Marine Expeditionary Force operations in Iraq. Check out his Web log at www.marinecorpstimes.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Corps opens up-armoring site in Iraq
By John G. Roos
Special to the Marine Corps Times

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq - The Corps' newest "up-armored" Humvees don't carry "Made in Iraq" labels, but that's where they're being assembled.

Humvees outfitted with third-generation armor are rolling out of a new, Corps-operated facility on this sprawling, joint-service base at Taqaddum, west of Baghdad.

The Marine Armor Installation Site opened in mid-April and is the latest example of how the Corps is adapting a support structure geared for short-duration, kick-in-the-door missions to one capable of sustaining long-term combat operations.

The facility is also a prime indicator of the urgency that Marine Corps officials attach to protecting Marines traveling in Humvees. Housed in a state-of-the-art Quonset-type building, the facility opened just three months and four days after the construction contract was awarded.

Marine Corps Systems Command operates the facility, where about 20 Marines and 130 civilian contractors from Honeywell, Oshkosh and KBR install the bolt-on armor kits. The kits are fabricated by Marine Corps Logistics Command, based in Albany, Ga.

All vehicles being outfitted with new armor here are destined for units with II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), said Brig. Gen. Charles "Steve" Patton, the force's deputy commander.

Brig. Gen. William D. Catto, commander of Systems Command at Quantico, Va., attended the facility's April 17 dedication ceremony along with Patton. The facility is expected to remain in operation at least until 2,000-plus Humvees and 1,018 Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement trucks get new armor protection.

But beyond the number of vehicles expected to roll out with new armor, Catto said, the facility itself "is a significant indication that the Marine Corps will be here [in Iraq] for a very long time. I think an interesting discussion that we'll have internally is, 'How many [vehicles] do we up-armor here? How many do we do back in the United States, and equip units as they're going out?' We haven't yet determined that."

Ultimately, Catto said, armor kits will be installed both in the United States and in Iraq.

Maintenance activities were among the subjects addressed by Corps officials at a logistics conference in Bahrain just prior to the armor-facility dedication, Catto said. Another long-term logistical challenge facing Marines in Iraq, he said, is striking the right balance in positioning supplies between forward and rear-area locations.

The new armor kits are the third design used by the Corps in 13 months, Catto said.

First-generation armor, installed on 3,049 Humvees for I MEF from December 2003 to March 2004, featured 3/4-inch appliqué panels and ballistic overlay, 1/4-inch steel half-doors and ballistic blankets, among other protective upgrades.

Second-generation kits were installed on 4,148 Marine Corps vehicles between March and September 2004. Those Humvees carry 3/8-inch armor panels on their L-shaped doors, flanks, underbody, tailgates and rear cab plates. They also sport ballistic glass and gunner shields.

Third-generation integrated armor kits have been installed since November.

To a greater extent than the earlier designs, the new kits offer broader protection than previous versions, which aimed at providing zonal protection. In other words, the new armor is designed not only to stop small-arms fire and projectiles from improvised explosives, but also to channel blasts from roadside bombs and small mines into the vehicle chassis and away from occupants.

Presently, the Corps' requirement is for 3,100 new Humvee kits. Funding has been approved for 2,750 kits. Funds also have been set aside for additional armor for 1,018 MTVRs and 498 M1114 up-armored Humvees. First deliveries of the M1114s to the Marine Corps from an Army-awarded contract are scheduled for May.

Marine Corps Logistics Command is manufacturing about 500 kits a month, and officials at the installation facility expect to install about 200 a month.

Although future lessons learned from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere might prompt additional changes in the latest armor kit's design, Corps officials say it probably provides the maximum protection possible for Humvee crews.

While the possibility of a fourth-generation armor set hasn't been ruled out, efforts now are directed toward a long-term solution, including the possibility of developing a new vehicle to replace Humvees.

John G. Roos is editor of Armed Forces Journal.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

New cargo-pocket books offer latest combat lessons
By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer

Marines looking for extra schooling on how to survive Iraq will soon receive lessons straight from the battlefield in pocket-sized booklets.

The first of the series, containing information on tactics and techniques gleaned from recent operations in Fallujah, will debut in June under the direction of Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, Va.

The booklets, called Marine Corps Warfighting Publication Interims, will fit in a Marine's cargo pocket and feature up-to-date information in areas relevant to Iraq.

The idea is to get the latest lessons learned about enemy tactics and Iraq-specific information into the hands of Marines quickly, said Col. Len A. Blasiol, director of Concepts and Doctrine Divisions at MCCDC.

The Doctrine Division usually updates its publications, such as those on urban operations or mountain warfare, every four years, with information gained from experimentation and training. But every four years is not frequent enough for a wartime environment, Blasiol said.

"As soon as it's published, we recognize that things begin to change again, and the moment it's published, the information begins to degrade," he said.

"We want to be more proactive about getting these lessons out. We considered the number of ways of doing that and decided the way to do it is with doctrine. Now, obviously, we can't wait four years to get the information out there," he said.

Blasiol said the division decided to create the publications after a group of scout snipers in Fallujah wrote an unusually in-depth after-action report about small-unit tactics in last fall's battle for Fallujah.

The paper, written by Sgt. Earl Catagnus Jr. and three fellow leathernecks with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, took a close look at infantry squad tactics used in the city.

The paper made the rounds through the Marine Corps and impressed several high-level officials before MCCDC decided similar up-to-date information would be valuable for all Marines.

"It was his paper that stimulated the idea," Blasiol said. "We said, this is potentially very useful information. This Marine NCO has learned a great deal. He can tell us what worked, what didn't and how we need to change our doctrine. That was the seed of the idea."

The division used the Army's model of producing Field Manual Interims to come up with the booklets, and the division used the Catagnus report as the basis for the first one, preliminarily titled "House Take Down Tactics."

The topics will originate largely from the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned, which collects and analyzes thousands of after-action reports, briefings and observations from the field, and from the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, which experiments with combat tactics and techniques. The information will be good for two years before being refreshed, Blasiol said.

Many of the booklets will be focused on the tactical level, Blasiol said, so a sergeant can use them to pass on information to his Marines.

The publications will also have a Web-based version, making them readily available to Marines all over the world.

Some of the booklets will contain sensitive information, in which case they will be regulated like other classified material, said Lt. Col. Rick Long, an MCCDC spokesman.

"If it's classified, it will have to have appropriate [operational security] procedures applied to it," he said. In some cases, that may mean having the publications available within a secure area only, he said. Long said they will restrict sensitive information on the Web site to military users.

"House Take Down Tactics" will be available on the Internet before the end of June, and printed versions will be available in the next 30 to 60 days, said Maj. Don Han, the infantry doctrine officer who is coordinating the publications. Other books will include security- and-stabilization operations, convoy operations and possibly first aid.

The next one, titled "M16A4 Rifleman's Suite," will cover the ins and outs of the rifle and its attachments, including the combat optical gun sight and night-vision devices.

After that, Blasiol said, the division will regularly produce the publications as lessons are identified.

Han said some of the lessons will reiterate topics already in doctrine, while others will help Marines keep track of enemies' changing tactics.

"Obviously, the enemy is going to change their tactics. We're going to, too. But if there's one [tactic] that can help a Marine out, I'm all for it," he said.

The Center for Lessons Learned, which will provide many of the lessons, encouraged Marines to share their after-action reports so key combat lessons make it to other Marines.

"We need people to write and document lessons, observations, and make solid recommendations to use so we can use that to make positive changes in the Marine Corps," said Col. Monte E. Dunard, director of the center.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

'Rhinos' offer safety on dangerous highway
By Robert Hodierne
Times staff writer

They call it "riding the Rhino."

It has basically come to this: Two years after U.S. forces toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the only safe way to move troops and diplomats from Baghdad International Airport to the fortified city compound called the Green Zone is in convoys of custom-made $275,000 armored buses.

The buses, called "Rhinos," look like something out of "The Road Warrior," Mel Gibson's 1981 post-apocalyptic adventure film. They roll in the dead of night escorted by armored Humvees, with the road sealed to all other traffic and AH-64 Apache gunships loitering overhead.

The six-mile road - Route Irish to the U.S. military - is often called the world's most dangerous stretch of highway. A report released to the public April 30 that accidentally included classified information said there were 135 attacks along that road in the four-and-a-half months from Nov. 1 to March 12.

The Rhino is all flat slabs of gray or off-white steel (there are two models in service) with passenger windows angled in streamlined fashion, like an old-time Greyhound bus, as the only concession to aesthetics.

The beauty of these buses is not in their graceful line - they are as graceful as a refrigerator. Rather, their beauty lies in the armor, which covers the sides, tops and bottoms of the five buses in service in Baghdad. Twenty-six passengers ride in relative comfort on functional - if not attractive - vinyl seats.

The buses, each weighing about 13 tons and featuring bullet-resistant glass and 12 gun ports along with all that armor, are manufactured by Weston, Fla.-based Labock Technologies at the company's plant in Ashdod, Israel.

Until three months ago, the only safe ways to move diplomats, contractors and others working for the government between the airport and the Green Zone was by Rhino or helicopter. Now, the helicopters are being used elsewhere, and the only remaining safe ride is on the Rhino.

But it's not as simple as that.

The buses run on an irregular schedule to make it harder for suicide bombers to get a fix on them. Before they started running at night, one bomber, in a BMW loaded with anywhere from 250 pounds to 1,000 pounds of explosives - depending on whose account is to be believed - pulled between two Rhinos last December and set off his bomb.

He died. No one on the buses did.

About three months ago, a Rhino took a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade.

"Nobody was hurt except for some minor bumps and bruises," said Army Maj. Sharon Smith, of the Joint Area Support Group, who books the Rhino convoys.

Smith, 48, of Richmond, Va., said the convoys can run day or night. But they run mostly at night. Late at night. A recent two-bus run, for example, left the airport at 1 a.m.

And the buses don't travel alone; they are accompanied by four armored Humvees, while armored personnel carriers and other Humvees block the side streets and two Apaches provide air cover.

A recent run took 14 minutes - 14 uneventful minutes, but 14 minutes in which the passengers, who had just flown in from Kuwait City in a wisecracking, jovial mood, turned earnestly silent, as if collectively holding their breath until safely inside the Green Zone.

The soldiers in the Humvees might be thought to have a horrible job - running every night on the most dangerous highway in the world.

"Naw," insisted Pfc. Ralph Holley, 25, of Selma, Ala. "This is the best job going."

Holley is from B Battery, 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, part of the 3rd Infantry Division. His unit takes turns providing Rhino security - one week on, one week doing other duty.

"This is a good job because we're not busting doors," said Staff Sgt. Marcus Martin, 33, of Alto, Texas, referring to the job many infantry troops have in Iraq of entering Iraqi dwellings, often forcibly, to look for insurgents - never knowing for sure what will be waiting for them on the inside.

To Martin's way of thinking, Route Irish is a lot safer.

Martin and the others in his team, standing around their Humvees waiting to make a run from the airport, ticked off the reasons this job is so good: the gunships overhead, the side roads blocked, it's done in the cool of night instead of the heat of day.

And, Martin said, with the road closed to all other traffic, if they see another car, the decision on what to do is simple:

"You kill it."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Leathernecks labor round the clock to beef up Humvees <br />
By Gidget Fuentes <br />
Times staff writer <br />
<br />
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Spread across a warehouse and maintenance center at Camp Las Pulgas here, two...

[thedrifter]

May on target to become one of deadliest months for U.S. troops By Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hostile fire has killed more U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq in May than during each of the three previous months.

If the trend continues, May will be one of the deadliest months for U.S. troops during the past year.

So far, insurgents have killed 54 American troops in May, including 14 in the last three days. With a week left, the month will likely eclipse all but two others - November and September 2004 - for deaths by hostile fire since June 2004, based on figures tabulated by Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a group that tracks troop deaths from Department of Defense news releases.

The casualty figures appear to end a trend that started soon after national elections in January, when insurgents seemed to shift from targeting U.S. forces to attacking the nascent Iraqi army and police.

With sectarian violence increasing between the nation's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, the figures raise the question of whether Iraq is turning into two battlefields: one of insurgents vs. the U.S. military and another of Iraqi sects fighting each other.

Since the nation's interim government took office on April 28, more than 590 Iraqis have been killed in attacks, most of them civilians.

"There is going to be a wave of violence (targeting U.S. forces) as long there is occupation," said Amer Hassan Fayadh, a Baghdad University political science professor. At the same time, "when the regime fell, the Iraq state collapsed, too. The replacements for the police were (sectarian) militias."

Those militias, and the groups behind them, have become entangled in a tit-for-tat killing of religious and political leaders as the minority Sunni population, which didn't vote in large numbers during national elections, struggles to find its footing in a nation increasingly dominated by the majority Shiite sect.

With May's figures, though, it's clear that insurgents continue to target U.S. troops, even while fighting rages among Iraqis.

In the months after the elections, the number of insurgent attacks per day plummeted, averaging between the low 30s and mid-40s. They spiked back up this month, hitting an average of about 70 a day before starting to dip during the past couple days.

A Marine offensive this month in Iraq's restive Anbar Province contributed to the U.S. death count. Marines encountered heavy resistance in areas near the Syrian border. Nine Marines were killed and 40 were wounded; at least 125 insurgents were reported killed.

"The insurgents are trying to get back into Fallujah, with little success, but they are operating in and around (nearby) Ramadi and up the Euphrates valley," Marine Lt. Col David Lapan wrote in an e-mail from his base in Fallujah. Soldiers and Marines retook that city in bloody battles with insurgents in November.

Many American military officials have pointed to less-effective roadside and car bombs as proof that a series of captures of top insurgent leaders had weakened the insurgency. But 39 of the 54 soldiers and Marines killed so far this month died as the result of those devices.

Insurgents are also using more sophisticated tactics.

During an unsuccessful raid on an Iraqi police station south of Baghdad on Saturday, for example, soldiers responded to a tip about a possible car bomb. As they arrived at the station, the bomb exploded, and a gun battle with insurgents followed. Investigators also found four unexploded 160 mm artillery rounds rigged with timers, according to a military release.

"There has been at least an appearance of things being more sophisticated, more coordinated," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a top military spokesman in Baghdad. "I'm not sure we've seen anything that links different groups, but there's definitely more sophistication in the execution" of attacks.

Bloodshed has continued despite the arrests of suspected insurgent commanders.

The U.S. military revealed Tuesday that a man alleged to be a top insurgent leader in the western city of Ramadi had been captured the day before. Muhammed Hamadi, military officials said, commanded several insurgent cells responsible for attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces and was instrumental in a series of kidnappings meant to fund operations. He may be linked to Jordanian terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The military also announced the capture of Mullah Kamel al-Aswadi, the most wanted insurgent in all of north-central Iraq. Caught by Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint, al-Aswadi is also suspected of having ties with al-Zarqawi and of funding and training insurgents across the region.

A militant Islamic Web site also revealed, with few details, that al-Zarqawi himself may have been injured.

On the same day, a car bomb killed six people and wounded four in front of a girls' junior high school in Iraq. A national assembly member barely escaped assassination on a highway south of Baghdad; four of her guards were seriously injured. And another national assembly member announced in open session that the northern town of Tal Afar was on the brink of "street wars."

"They go down to the streets and fight each other," said councilman Muhammed Taqi al-Mawla. "You know what will happen if this tragedy continues. It will lead to the death of many innocent people."

Even if al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, were killed, it's difficult to gauge how much of a long-term effect it would have on the insurgency, a diffuse enemy thought to be made up of fighters loyal to former dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party, domestic jihadists, foreign fighters and criminals, said Boylan, the military spokesman.

"Once we kill or capture him that won't end it. ... We're pretty confident that someone else will step in," Boylan said. "Will it have an effect? Sure. But how much? We don't know."

For more information, see http://icasualties.org/oif/.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

IRAQ: US FORCES SURROUND CITY OF HADITHA


Baghdad, 25 May (AKI) - Around 1,000 US troops surrounded the city of Haditha in the western Anbar province on Wednesday, in the second major offensive in the region this month. Marines were helicoptered in to block off one side of the city while other troops approached on foot and in armoured vehicles, setting up checkpoints and sweeping through the city in search of insurgents. Several homes in Haditha were taken over by troops and used as observation and control centres, as part of Operation New Market.

There were reports that at least three insurgents were killed during the fierce gun battles that broke out as they entered Haditha, and two US marines were injured. Later, the al-Qaeda group in Iraq announced on various websites "a violent battle is in progress in the city of Haditha," and said, "Your al-Qaeda brothers are conducting a fierce battle against the crusaders and their allies, the apostates. The damage suffered during the battle of al-Qaim wasn't enough for them."

Medical sources and Iraqi witnesses confirmed the news of gun battles in the city, saying that at least five Iraqis had been killed and seven injured.

Shortly before the offensive began insurgents fired a mortar at a hydroelectric dam near Haditha, which is said to provide around a third of Iraq's electricity, and sent gallons of water pouring into the Euphrates River.

The city of Haditha has a population of around 90,000 and the US military says insurgents there have been using ever more sophisticated strategies. Earlier this month Haditha hospital was partially destroyed when insurgents used it to launch an attack which killed four US soldiers, and involved a suicide car bomber, a roadside bomb and gunfire from the hospital building.

Operation New Market follows on from Operation Matador, which began on May 7 and lasted a week, in which a similar number of troops targeted numerous towns and villages near the Syrian border in the Anbar province. At least 125 militants are thought to have been killed in the offensive.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

1,000 U.S. Troops Launch Offensive in Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:05 AM CDT
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA

HADITHA, Iraq - About 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled this Euphrates River city in the troubled Anbar province before dawn on Wednesday, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in this vast western region in less than a month.

The offensives are aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced on April 28. Many of those Insurgents are thought to be foreign fighters who have slipped across the border from Syria.


Syria is under intense pressure to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq across their porous 380 mile-long border. Both the United States and Iraq, at their highest leadership levels, have been demanding Syria do more. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said last week that he would soon visit Syria for talks with officials about repeated border infiltration.

Earlier this month, American forces conducted a weeklong operation in the city of Qaim and other Iraqi towns near the Syrian border aimed at rooting out militants allied to Jordanian-born terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and destroying their smuggling routes into Syria. At least 125 militants were killed in that operation, along with nine U.S. Marines, the military said.

A Web statement in the name of al-Zarqawi's group, al-Qaida in Iraq, said the terrorist mastermind has been wounded. But U.S. officials cautioned they did not know if the posting was authentic, and privately said the information also may have been designed to purposely mislead.

Al-Zarqawi has denounced Iraqi Shiites as U.S. collaborators and said killing them, including women and children, was justified.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday, pushing the number of U.S. troops killed in four days to 14, part of a surge in attacks that have also killed about 60 Iraqis.

Sunni and Shiite clerics and politicians have been intensifying efforts to find a way out of a sectarian crisis that threatens a civil war. Sunnis opposed to the new government are thought to make up the insurgency's core, and some Sunni extremists have been attacking Shiites.

About 3,000 Iraqi Shiite Muslim protesters staged a noisy demonstration Wednesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, to denounce recent comments made by a prominent Sunni leader who accused a Shiite militia of killing Sunni clerics.

In Haditha, helicopters swept down near palm tree groves dropping off Marines who blocked off one side of the town, while other troops on foot and in armored vehicles established checkpoints and moved toward the center of this city, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. U.S. warplanes circled overhead.

"Right now there's a larger threat than should be in Haditha and we're here to tell them that they're not welcome," said Lt. Col. Lionel Urquhart, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, which is part of the operation.

The assault, called Operation New Market, focused on this city of about 90,000 people, where the U.S. military says insurgents have been using increasingly sophisticated tactics. Earlier this month insurgents launched a multistage attack from a Haditha hospital, killing four U.S. troops in an ambush that included a suicide car bomber, a roadside bomb, and gunfire from fortified positions in the hospital, which was partially destroyed in the attack.

According to initial reports, three insurgents were killed during several fierce gun battles that broke out after U.S. forces entered this town before dawn, Marine Capt. Christopher Toland told an Associated Press reporter embedded with U.S. forces. Two Marines were also wounded and evacuated, Toland said.

U.S. Marines took over several homes in Haditha, using them as observation and control centers as other troops fanned out through the city's mainly empty streets in an apparent bid to flush any insurgents out. At least one loud explosion rocked the city early this morning, but the source of the blast was unclear.

The latest campaign demonstrates the military's ongoing concerns about insurgents in both small and large cities in Sunni-dominated areas of the country where large U.S. operations are still necessary to clear populated areas.

Haditha has no functioning police force, and U.S. military officials acknowledge that their presence has been light in the city but say Iraqi troops are expected to arrive soon.

"A lot of this is like bird hunting. You rustle it up and see what comes up," said Marine Col. Stephen W. Davis, commander of the operation made of troops in Marine Regimental Combat Team 2.

A small reconnaissance unit of Iraqi soldiers is participating in the attack, Urquhart added.

Shortly before the assault began, insurgents fired a mortar at a hydroelectric dam facility near Haditha where hundreds of Marines are based.

"Hold on, we'll be there in a minute," yelled Marine Sgt. Shawn Bryan, of Albuquerque, N.M., assigned to the 3rd Marine Battalion, from a platform on the dam as Marines scrambled into vehicles to try to locate the attackers.

U.S. officials said they hoped their presence would allow locals to feel safe enough to provide tips to the military.

"The people out there know who wrecked the hospital and those who target their power source," said Urquhart, referring to the dam that is said to provide about a third of Iraq's electricity.

Several other attacks have occurred in Haditha this year, including the April 17 killing of a police chief and the discovery three days later of the bodies of 19 fishermen. U.S. military officials say it's unclear if the fishermen were killed in a tribal dispute or by insurgents.

Haditha lies along a major highway used by travelers moving from western Iraq to major cities such as Mosul and Baghdad in the central and northern parts of the country.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called on Syria Wednesday to stop the infiltration of foreign fighters across its borders into Iraq.

Zebari, speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, said "there are responsibilities of the Syrian government to hamper and prevent this flow of terrorists from coming across."

Fini flew to Iraq on Wednesday for meetings with officials and to visit the southern town of Nasiriyah, where Italy sent some 3,000 troops to help with reconstruction after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Zebari said Italian troops will stay until at least "the end of the year." Fini said through a translator that "keeping Italian troops (in Iraq) will be linked to the demands of the new Iraqi government and Multi National Forces."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sent to me by Mark aka The Fontman <br />
<br />
U.S. Unveils Coin Honoring Marine Corps <br />
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer <br />
May 25, 2005 <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Mint is unveiling a new coin to honor...

[thedrifter]

U.S. Launches Another Major Iraq Offensive
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
The Associated Press

May. 25, 2005 - Helicopters swept down near palm tree groves and armored vehicles roared into this Euphrates River city before dawn Wednesday as 1,000 U.S. troops launched the second major offensive in less than a month aimed at uprooting insurgents.

Fierce gunbattles broke out and six insurgents were killed in central Haditha including one man identified as a cleric who was firing an automatic weapon, the U.S. military said, adding that another four were killed in separate clashes.

Marines brought by helicopters blocked one side of Haditha, while other troops on foot and in armored vehicles established checkpoints and moved toward the city's center. U.S. warplanes circled overhead.

Two Marines were wounded and evacuated, Capt. Christopher Toland told an Associated Press reporter embedded with U.S. forces.

Also Wednesday, an Islamic militant Web site statement claimed that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's point man in Iraq, has fled to an unidentified "neighboring country" with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot wounds to his lung. The claim could not be authenticated and messages on another Web site quickly denounced it as untrue and unauthorized by the terror group.

The assault, called Operation New Market, focused on this city of about 90,000 people, where the U.S. military says fighters are using increasingly sophisticated tactics. Insurgents have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced on April 28.

Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, lies along a major highway used by travelers moving from western Iraq to major cities such as Mosul and Baghdad in the central and northern parts of the country.

Earlier this month, fighters operating from a Haditha hospital killed four U.S. troops in a well-coordinated ambush that included a suicide car bomber, a roadside bomb and gunfire. The hospital was partially destroyed in the attack.

Several other attacks have occurred in Haditha this year, including the April 17 killing of a police chief and the discovery three days later of the bodies of 19 fishermen. U.S. military officials say it's unclear if the fishermen were killed in a tribal dispute or by insurgents.

"Right now there's a larger threat than should be in Haditha and we're here to tell them that they're not welcome," said Lt. Col. Lionel Urquhart, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, which is part of the operation.

U.S. officials said they hoped their presence would allow locals to feel safe enough to provide tips to the military.

"The people out there know who wrecked the hospital and those who target their power source," said Urquhart, referring to the hydroelectric dam that is said to provide about a third of Iraq's electricity.

A small reconnaissance unit of Iraqi soldiers was participating in the attack on the northwestern city, Urquhart said, but the offensive reflected the continued need for U.S. operations to clear out insurgents from Sunni-dominated areas of the country. Haditha has no functioning police force.

Marines took over several homes, using them as observation and control centers while other troops fanned out through mainly empty streets in an attempt to flush out insurgents. At least one loud explosion rocked the city early Wednesday morning, but the source of the blast was not known.

"A lot of this is like bird hunting. You rustle it up and see what comes up," said Marine Col. Stephen W. Davis, commander of the operation made of troops in Marine Regimental Combat Team 2.

Shortly before the U.S. assault began, insurgents fired a mortar at a dam facility where hundreds of Marines are based.

"Hold on, we'll be there in a minute," yelled Marine Sgt. Shawn Bryan, of Albuquerque, N.M., assigned to the 3rd Marine Battalion, from a platform on the dam as Marines scrambled into vehicles to try to locate the attackers.

Earlier this month, American forces conducted a weeklong operation in the city of Qaim and other Iraqi towns near the Syrian border aimed at rooting out militants allied to al-Zarqawi and destroying their smuggling routes into Syria. At least 125 militants were killed in that operation, along with nine U.S. Marines, the military said.

Syria is under intense pressure from the United States and the Iraqi government to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq across their porous 380-mile border.

"There are responsibilities of the Syrian government to hamper and prevent this flow of terrorists from coming across," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said at a joint news conference with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.

Violence continued elsewhere Wednesday, a day after four U.S. soldiers were killed, pushing the number of U.S. troops killed in four days to 14, part of a surge in attacks that also have killed about 60 Iraqis.

A roadside bomb exploded next to a U.S. patrol in Baghdad, wounding one American soldier, U.S. military and police officials said.

A suicide car bomber also blew himself up but missed a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, police Capt. Firas Ghaiti said. The attack left one civilian dead and four wounded.

Gunmen killed Iraqi army Capt. Ali Abdul-Amir as he left his house in the town of Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, army Col. Abdullah al-Shammari said.

In Mosul, Col. Mukhlef Moussa of the Facility Protection Service, a U.S.-trained civilian guard force, was shot to death as he walked on the campus of Mosul University, Brig. Gen. Wathiq Mohammed said.

In Dahuk, 250 miles northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a traffic policeman and wounded 10 people, including seven policemen, police Col. Nazim Silevani said.

Sunni and Shiite clerics and politicians also have been intensifying efforts to find a way out of a sectarian crisis that threatens a civil war. Sunnis opposed to the new government are thought to make up the insurgency's core, and some Sunni extremists have been attacking Shiites.

About 3,000 Iraqi Shiite Muslim protesters staged a noisy demonstration Wednesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, to denounce recent comments made by a prominent Sunni leader who accused a Shiite militia of killing Sunni clerics.

The claim that al-Zarqawi had fled the country came a day after a message in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq appeared on another Web site, saying the Jordanian-born militant was wounded. U.S. officials cautioned they did not know if that posting was authentic and privately said the information also may have been designed to mislead on purpose.

Also Wednesday, the Iraqi government said security forces have killed Sabhan Ahmad Ramadan, a senior al-Zarqawi aide in northern Iraq.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Remembering the meaning of Memorial Day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 25, 2005
by Mike Bates

What does Memorial Day stand for? A day off? The start of summer? Parades and picnics? The opening of public swimming pools? You can - finally! - start wearing white shoes again?

If public opinion surveys are accurate, most Americans don't know much about Memorial Day's purpose or history. That's a pity because it removes an important bond with those brave men, and women, who have given their lives in our Nation's service.

Decorating the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers took place in several states during that catastrophic conflict. Shortly after the war, General John A. Logan, who headed an organization of Union veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic,, issued a general order designating a day:

". . . for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."

During the first observance of what was then termed Decoration Day, the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington were adorned with flowers as the thousands of participants said prayers and sang hymns.

Southern states weren't quick to embrace Decoration Day. Perhaps the people there couldn't cotton to an observance at least partially established by Union veterans.

Certainly General Logan's citing of "the late rebellion" had to have been a problem. Many Southerners didn't see the confrontation as a rebellion.

They viewed it, as some still do, as the war of Northern aggression or the war for Southern independence or maybe the war between equal and sovereign states or something like that. If they, rather than the Yankees, had prevailed and written the history of the struggle, maybe that's how we'd characterize it today.

So several Southern states set aside their own days to honor the Confederate dead. Confederate Decoration Day, for example, is still celebrated each June 3rd in Tennessee.

After World War I, the national Decoration Day became Memorial Day. The commemoration was expanded to include those who died in all U.S. wars.

This made the observance more acceptable in the South. Most states, in accordance with federal law, officially celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May.

Three-day weekends are, in theory at least, OK, but I have to think that they erode a holiday's significance. In 1968, Congress debated the wisdom of moving several public holidays to Monday.

Writer Bill Kaufmann in The American Enterprise Online quotes a Tennessee congressman at the time as saying, "If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know what February 22 means. They will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a three-day weekend for some reason. This will come."

It has. And similarly Memorial Day, like other celebrations uprooted from their fixed dates, has lost much of its import for many of us fortunate enough to live in this blessed land.

That's not the only reason, of course. Lots of folks prefer to keep suffering and death out of their thoughts as much as possible. It's more fun concentrating on the start of summer or picnics or something else.

More than a million American fighting men and women have given, as Lincoln termed it at Gettysburg, the last full measure of devotion. Their valor and sacrifice made possible our freedoms, our values, our very existence.

Memorial Day should be a time of solemn reflection on some of the most sacred of human ideals: Faith, family, duty, commitment, heroism and honor. We are so profoundly indebted to all those soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who have given their lives defending us.

A few years ago Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act. It asked Americans to pause for one minute at 3:00 p.m. local time and think about those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

It may seem like a small gesture, but it's a way to, however briefly, keep faith with those heroes and maintain a tradition worth keeping.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005


Marine photographer captured face of Fallujah combat

BY CHRIS VAUGHN

Knight Ridder Newspapers



FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - To the men of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, he was Cpl. Kodak.

It is their faces, often muddy and weary, that Joel Chaverri captured with a camera during 30 days of intense urban combat in Fallujah, Iraq, last autumn.

Chaverri's uber-realistic work, shot when he wasn't engaged in combat himself, has earned the tender-faced Marine reservist an armload of Marine Corps and Defense Department honors for photojournalism.

On Saturday, Chaverri, 22, introduces some of his photographs to the public, at a one-day showing at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas.

"They're extremely compelling," said Dan Hamilton, director of the museum. "You can see their eyes in so many. You can see fear. You can see bravery."

Chaverri's development into an award-winning combat correspondent and battle-tested Marine could hardly have been predicted a year ago.

At this time last year, he was a student at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, south of Dallas, and was drilling every four weekends with the public affairs staff of Marine Aircraft Group 41 at Naval Air Station Fort Worth.

But the Marines came calling in July, and Chaverri mobilized for active duty. In four weeks, he found himself in Iraq's Anbar province and ordered to cover the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing for public affairs.

On his first day in Iraq, he was sent to cover a story for the Marines' Web site - a battle of the bands contest on base.

"The headline I wrote was cheesy as hell - Fighting Continues in Battle of the Bands," he said, cradling his head in shame.

By late October, the Marines had sent Chaverri to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines for the assault on Fallujah. They did not exactly welcome him.

"I was a punk," he said. "They hassled me, jeered me. They expected me to perform like a Marine in a battle, not shoot pictures."

A Marine infantryman doesn't have to wonder what his job is. A newspaper photographer doesn't either. A Marine combat correspondent does.

Chaverri carried an M-16 rifle, a sidearm and a backpack with ammunition. He also carried a camera bag, a notebook and a bulky Canon EOS digital camera. He had to learn where to keep everything for quick reaction.

"It's a fine line as to whether I'm going to fire my rifle or fire my camera," he said. "I always held my rifle because you just never know what's around the corner. But if I saw a picture, I would grab the camera, shoot and put my hands back on the rifle."

Bravo Company's commander, Capt. Read Omohundro, a fellow Texan and graduate of Texas A&M University, said Chaverri earned the respect of the other men as they walked from one end of the city to the other.

"He would clear houses with the Marines," Omohundro said. "He was always ready to go into the fight. We didn't have to worry about him. He took care of his business."

There was a sense of the surreal to looking through the lens and shooting pictures during combat.

Even now, he can hear the bullets zinging near him when he looks at certain pictures. He grows quiet when he looks at the pictures of Marines killed. Bravo Company lost 13 men.

Chaverri left Fallujah on Thanksgiving Day, ordered out by his commanders over his wishes.

"I hated leaving those guys," he said. "It was a horrible day. A lot of people died that day. Saying goodbye to those guys who I had grown so close to, with all that pain that day. It wasn't easy."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005


Marine from Hutchinson killed; third Iraq death tied to Kansas since Sunday

JOHN MILBURN

Associated Press



TOPEKA, Kan. - A Marine sergeant from Hutchinson was killed Monday while conducting combat operations in Iraq, the Marines announced Wednesday.

Sgt. Christopher S. Perez, 30, was shot and killed while fighting insurgent forces in Ramadi in the western regions of Iraq, the Marines said. He was the third member of the military with ties to Kansas to die in Iraq since Sunday and the 19th Kansan to die since the start war.

On Sunday, Sgt. Benjamin C. Morton, 24, of Wright, died when his patrol met small arms fire in Mosul. A third soldier, Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall, 22, of Peoria, Ariz., stationed at Fort Riley, died Sunday in a motor vehicle accident.

Perez, who joined the Marines in January 1996 and joined his unit in January 2004, was assigned to Headquarters and Service Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Perez worked in the division's training section before deploying, Camp Lejeune spokesman Lt. Barry Edwards said. Perez was the commander of the guard for the combat operations center and responsible for overseeing and supervising the Marines at the center, Edwards said.

Perez also implemented and organized training for the Marines in division headquarters, Edwards said.

Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., expressed his condolences to the Perez and Morton families, who live in his district.

"The loss of these two young Kansans serves as a reminder to us all that the war on terror continues and the sacrifices of our troops and their families must not be forgotten," Moran said in statement.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will lead a Memorial Day ceremony at the Statehouse in Topeka honoring all servicemen and women killed in combat during the nation's history.

"This is such an incredible loss to yet another Kansas family," Sebelius said. "My thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and comrades of this courageous man who has given his life fighting for freedom."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

From Mark aka The Fontman

'For love and for country'
By Kathryn Roth-Douquet
USA Today
May 26, 2005

Two months ago, my husband read our children a bedtime story until the tears in his eyes blurred the page. My daughter took the book from him.

"Daddy, I'll finish it for you," 7-year-old Sophie said. When she was done, my husband, Greg, rocked her and her younger brother, Charley, and held us all for a long goodnight kiss. Then he picked up his sea bag and walked out the door - to his car, to an air base, and to a plane that carried him to
Iraq.

Seventeen thousand families in southeastern North Carolina are, like mine, sending someone to Iraq this spring. The country may think of them, and especially of the ones who don't come home, as we mark another Memorial Day at wartime.

The country is divided into separate pockets, some communities shipping folks off to war, and others - like those from my pre-marriage days - witnessing the war on television, fought by strangers. For families in those other ZIP codes, the military life can sound both scary and pitiable.

But there is more to our story.

True, it is wrenching for families to send the people they love to war. As Frank Schaeffer, author of Faith of Our Sons: A Father's Wartime Diary, says of his Marine son, "He is my heart; he is the best I have to offer."

This echoes the bumper stickers in my neighborhood that read, "Half of my heart is in Iraq." It is hard to have your heart far away, so we who stay home welcome your support. But neither I nor the military wives with whom I regularly talk want pity, neither for what we do nor the reasons we do it.

"What we do" is easily understood, even by those who don't live it: We are both Mommy and Daddy to little ones who may be sad or mad that a parent is gone. We keep the household together, repair washing machines and cars. We volunteer; many of us hold demanding jobs. We e-mail our husbands, assuring them all is well; we send them kids' crayon drawings and cigars, and toys for Iraqi children. Some days we're overwhelmed; other days, we pull it off.

Why we do this, however, is a little less understood. We are motivated by the same reasons for which people have put themselves at risk through history: for love and for country. The love is for our husbands, who work with skill, discipline and determination, at a real personal cost.

The love is also for their fellow Marines. To watch a unit prepare for war is to come to care about everyone in it. Stateside, I have seen the men and women in my husband's squadron live in an environment that lacks comfort and glamour, yet strive to be their best - for the sake of their lives, each other, and the success of the mission the country asks them to do.

In their home hangar, these Marines walk up and down concrete steps that are literally stenciled with words to live by: honor, commitment, duty, fidelity, courage, respect. They talk about these words and try to live up to them. These are real people, with real flaws. But they wanted to go to Iraq and complete their missions. And they want to bring each other home.

Would I take my husband away from these men and women? No, I wouldn't. I think he and they are better off by having each other there. I am proud of them all.

The fact that we send our husbands to war for the sake of our country may confound some people, since about half of the country wouldn't send soldiers to Iraq at all. Many military wives, too, have ambivalent feelings about the current fight. But that's exactly the point. Our position on any given policy is just that - our opinion - and what transcends opinion and politics is our commitment to serve.

"Looking back, I would not have changed our lives one bit," says my friend Ingrid Mollahan, a 26-year Marine Corps spouse beginning her eighth six-month-plus separation from her husband. "I truly believe we have made a positive contribution to the nation and the world by our service."

That's a feeling many of us share. A recent Military Times Media Grouppoll found three-quarters of those on regular active duty would re-enlist or extend their commissions tomorrow if asked. Why? Not for money, security, or even for the global war on terror. The reason for their service is the service itself. The poll called it "patriotism."

Military families make the conscious decision to be engaged in "extreme citizenship." When we are called, we will stand. We choose this life understanding that there is a constitutional role for the military. That role is not to make policy, but to respond with ability and honor when called to action by our nation's elected leaders. No one - war critic or advocate - could want the military to behave otherwise. It's called civilian control of the military, and it's a bulwark of our democracy.

I once helped to elect a president of the United States, which is admittedly a much flashier experience than being a military wife. But the sense of privilege that I felt at being part of that American pageant - from walking through the empty West Wing of the White House on inauguration day to flying on Air Force One - was no greater a feeling than the one I feel today, in a different role for my country.

In the wonderful parenting book The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, author Wendy Mogel argues that trying to protect our children from hurt and difficulty is a mistake. Trials, she writes, are opportunities for character development and growth. I've learned that this lesson applies to grown-ups, too. War is no skinned knee. It's hard. But for my family, I think this experience has required us to be better people.

So the odd thing is, while my family - most military families - struggle in ways, we gain in others for the sacrifices we make. We're hopeful that the country and the world will gain from it, too. Yes, there is a limit to how much a small group can sacrifice, and we may be close to or over that limit. But we will continue to do our best, hoping for wisdom from our leaders and fellow citizens, and waiting faithfully for our Marines to come home.

Kathryn Roth-Douquet is an attorney and former aide who served in the Clinton White House and the Department of Defense.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine gets 35 years for molesting young girl <br />
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes <br />
Pacific edition, Thursday, May 26, 2005 <br />
<br />
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa - Marine Staff Sgt. Craig H. Embry was sentenced to...

[thedrifter]

Tricare provision removed from defense budget plan
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, May 26, 2005

WASHINGTON - A provision in the 2006 defense budget proposal that came out of the House Armed Services Committee last week, which would have extended Tricare benefits to more reservists and Guardsmen, was stripped from the bill this week because of budgetary reasons.

In a memo to members of the House Armed Services Committee, Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said the proposal cost more than anticipated according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis, which pushed the legislation's total price tag above limits previously set by the committee.

Under a little-used rule, that gave Hunter the authority to pull the proposal from the legislation.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., would have opened the Tricare Reserve Select program to any drilling reservist or National Guard member willing to pay the premiums.

The provision passed 32-30 during last week's committee markup of the defense budget, with Hunter opposing it.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending Tricare Reserve Select would cost $230 million in 2006 alone and nearly $4.4 billion more over the next four years.

That includes offering the health care switch to 120,000 federal employees who currently serve in the Guard or Reserve, who could see lower premiums under the military health plan.

Hunter said if the amendment had not been removed, the bill could be ruled out of order when brought before the full House for a vote.

In a statement Tuesday, Taylor said the budgetary problems could be resolved if the amendment was reworded to exclude reservists who are federal employees. Hunter declined to make that change, Taylor said.

"To say that I'm disappointed is an amazing understatement," Taylor said.

"The bottom line is that this is a technicality that could easily be resolved if the chairman wanted to get it resolved. His actions tell me that he doesn't."

A full House vote on the budget proposal is scheduled for Wednesday.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Pacific troops vocal in defense of women's combat abilities
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, May 26, 2005

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan - As the only female aviation systems warfare operator working for the Navy at Misawa, Petty Officer 3rd Class Emily Worcester said she likely would be involved in combat missions if on sea duty.

Though she declined to describe her job duties on the ship for security reasons, the 22-year-old from Harrington, Maine, said women belong in combat, whether on the front lines or in a supporting role. She opposes an effort by lawmakers to limit females in combat.

"If someone wants to go and fight, they should have the right to go and fight," she said Tuesday.

Sgt. Jenifer A. Destroyer, 40, of Riverside, Calif., who serves with the 251st Signal Detachment at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea, said the proposal screams of sexism.

"Women did not join the military to type memos and make tea and cookies for the boys," Destroyer said when contacted via phone Tuesday. "Women have been doing combat support roles for years."

Destroyer joined the military in 1987 and served in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Many of her male friends who are soldiers say, "'Come on, if the women want to serve … let them do it,'" she said.

"They need us out there," she said of her male colleagues. "Without us, they can't do their jobs."

Soldiers serving with the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea interviewed by Stars and Stripes supported the idea of women serving in combat units.

Cpl. Dominic Nolan, 20, of Las Vegas, with the Camp Stanley-based Company D, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment, said he recently discussed the issue with other soldiers in a class on equal opportunities.

"I have no problem with them being in combat. There is a lot of talk about the male instinct to protect women but if I am in a foxhole with anybody, as long as they can do what they have to do I don't have any problem with them being there," he said.

Pfc. Lenny Curet, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas, with the Camp Red Cloud-based 61st Maintenance Company, agreed, saying, "There are a lot of young ladies in my company who can hold their own. I have no problem fighting next to them, being led by one or being commanded by one."

A few male Marines on Okinawa, however, cited physical strength in expressing some support of the ban.

Marine Cpl. Robert Myler recently returned to Camp Foster after seven months in Iraq, where he was a vehicle commander and gunner in convoys.

Female Marines were essential when Muslim women had to be searched, he said. "Women have to be there because it would cause political conflict if they weren't, especially with the Shiites," Myler said. "If you so much as look at their women, they get extremely upset."

But, Myler said, he backs the ban in situations in which females are unnecessary. Were an explosive to strike a convoy and leave a servicemember badly injured, Myler said, he wonders whether a woman would be able to save a man. "I don't doubt that they have the willpower but do they have the physical strength to carry me to safety?" he asked.

Countered Marine Staff Sgt. Melissa Kanelos: "I know a lot of men that can't do that either. That's a lame excuse."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Gay or Female, Uncle Sam Should Want You <br />
By Max Boot <br />
Los Angeles Times <br />
May 26, 2005 <br />
<br />
At a time when the Army and Marine Corps are struggling to fill their ranks, many conservatives are...

[thedrifter]

An entreaty to get Americans to enlist
Sheryl McCarthy
NewsDay
May 26, 2005

Charlie Rangel's at it again.

The New York congressman two years ago assailed the hypocrisy of the war in Iraq by demanding that, if the Bush administration and Congress believed in the war so much, they should reinstate the draft. Now he is urging the president to appeal to Americans to enlist in the military.

"At the very least the president should spend some of his political capital and publicly appeal to Americans to volunteer for service in Iraq," Rangel has been saying lately. "He should go on television and explain why this war is important enough for parents to put their sons and daughters in harm's way."

Rangel's remarks are partly tongue-in-cheek, coming from a man who has opposed the war since before it started and hasn't cast a single vote in support of it. But they also are a dare. They come after the Army reported lowering its minimum required active duty from 24 to 15 months, the lowest in history, in an attempt to lure hard-to-get recruits. The prospect of dying in Iraq has made recruitment so difficult that the Army expects to have only 10 percent of the 80,000 troops it will need to replace those in Iraq and Afghanistan next year in place by this fall.

And the Army's desperation to meet its quotas has driven recruiters to sign up people who are mentally ill, who have police records, who use drugs and who can't pass the military aptitude exams without cheating, according to The New York Times.

Four American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Tuesday, bringing the total to 1,644 since the war started, more than 12,000 wounded and 20,000 Iraqi civilians dead, the Associated Press reported, although some put the last figure much higher.

Despite the much ballyhooed election and the installation of an interim government, more than 600 people, including 58 U.S. military personnel, have been killed since Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced his new government last month. If Bush still thinks all this carnage is justified, then why not personally call on young people to enlist as their patriotic duty, instead of counting on the desperation of their being out of work and doing it for the cash bonuses, steady paychecks and college educations?

A lot of Americans have bitten the bullet and accepted our involvement in Iraq, which Rangel compares to driving a car into the rental return space and having the spikes pop up, so you can't get out. But revelations about how we got there continue to insult our intelligence.

A British memo written in the summer of 2002 about a meeting of Tony Blair's top foreign-policy advisers reports that Bush was looking for a way to remove Saddam Hussein by military action months before Congress voted to authorize it and while assuring the public that he was seeking an alternative to war.

At a time when we feel stuck in Iraq, Rangel's challenge to the president shakes us out of our doldrums, reminding us that this war is no less hypocritical just because Iraq has a somewhat better government.

"If the president cannot convince the American people to make the financial and human sacrifice . . . then he should refer this policy back to the UN, where it belonged in the first place," Rangel told me.

He says the United States has done as much as it can in Iraq with guns and tanks, and that it should go to the United Nations and try to involve international diplomats who want to see a peaceful Iraq. Once the terrorists see that the international community, not just the United States, is guiding things, order might be restored, Rangel says.

I'm not nearly so hopeful as Rangel that the UN can close the Pandora's box we have opened over there. But he's right to remind us of the duplicity behind the mess we've made.

Sheryl McCarthy's e-mail address is mccart731@aol.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

America's Recruiting Dilemma
By Robert Novak
May 26, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Krohn got himself in trouble with his superiors as a Pentagon civilian public affairs official during the first three and one-half years of the Bush administration by telling the truth. He is still at it in private life. He says not to blame the military recruiters for the current recruiting "scandal." Blame the war.

"Army recruiting is in a death spiral, through no fault of the Army," Krohn told me. Always defending uniformed personnel, he resents hard-pressed recruiters being attacked for offering unauthorized benefits to make quotas. In a recent e-mail sent to friends (mostly retired military), Krohn complained that the "Army is having to compensate for a problem of national scope."

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

Krohn's e-mail describes the problem: "Consider the implications of being unable to find sufficient volunteers, as seen by our adversaries. Has the United States lost its will to survive? What's happened to the Great Satan when so few are willing to fight to defend the country? Surely bin Laden et al are making this argument, telling supporters victory is just around the corner if they are a bit more patient. And if they're successful, the energy sources in the Mideast may be within their grasp."

Krohn says this reality is accepted by recipients of his message. It also meets agreement from active duty officers I have contacted but who cannot speak publicly. They ponder how an all-volunteer force can be maintained when generals say there is no end in sight for U.S. troops facing an increasingly sophisticated insurgency.

Krohn's message goes on to say that "the recruiting problem is an unintended consequence of a prolonged war in Iraq, especially given the failure to find WMD [weapons of mass destruction]." He therefore calls for a "national consensus to address the root causes" of the recruiting problem -- that is, the war in Iraq.

But the focus at the Defense Department has been on the excesses of desperate recruiters, 37 of whom reflected their frustration in trying to meet quotas by going AWOL over the last two and one-half years. The official response was a 24-hour stand-down in recruiting to review proper procedures. It also has been proposed that enlistments, now usually three to four years with a minimum of 24 months, be cut to 15 months.

The recruiting guru Charles Moskos, professor emeritus at Northwestern University who once suggested an 18-month tour, now says shorter enlistment will not help. He proposes restoring the draft, but that is a political non-starter. Democratic Rep.

Charles Rangel, who as a drafted soldier won the Bronze Star in Korea, is one of the very few members of Congress who advocate the draft. He does not hide his motive: a president would be politically unable to take a conscript army into wars such as Iraq.

In contrast, Krohn is a lifelong Republican who actively supported George W. Bush's presidential candidacy in 2000. He specified in his e-mail that "I'm not now blaming" President Bush or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the situation. "We have a problem that transcends politics," Krohn added.

The current Iraq war is America's first prolonged conflict fought entirely with volunteers. It is a more professional and in every way a better army than the conscript army of Korean War vintage in which I served, or the conscript army that fought in Vietnam for seven years. The problem was signaled when the 9/11 attack on America did not generate the enlistments expected. Three and one-half years later, willingness to face personal peril in Iraq has faded.

That means the problem goes beyond mechanics of recruiting and the details of volunteer service and is found in the war itself. Paraphrasing Rumsfelds' comment about going into battle with the Army we had, Charles Krohn said: "The war we have now is not the war we started off with. It's much more serious."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

May 26, 2005

Marine dies of battle wounds

Associated Press


HADITHA, Iraq — The military announced Thursday that a Marine has died from wounds sustained a day earlier during the launch of an anti-insurgent offensive in this western Iraqi town.
The Marine, one of two injured during Wednesday’s launch of Operation New Market, later died of his wounds, said Maj. Steve Lawson, commander of Lima company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment.

At least 10 suspected insurgents have also been killed in the operation, which is focusing on Haditha, an Anbar province town 140 miles northwest of Baghdad where the U.S. military says insurgents have been using increasingly sophisticated tactics.

As of Wednesday, at least 1,649 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Pendleton Marines honor their fallen comrades

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ---- With its bayonet planted in the damp soil, the rifle swayed under the weight as a Marine laid a thick wreath of metal dog tags around its grip.

The heavy cluster that hung from the inverted M-16 carried the names of 75 men from a single Camp Pendleton regiment, all of them killed in action in faraway Iraqi cities such as Ramadi and Fallujah.

The next rifle held 36. The one before it, 56.


Eighteen rifles in all, the simple memorials lined up at Camp Pendleton on Thursday bore the names of 420 Marines, soldiers and sailors serving under Pendleton's 1st Marine Division. All were killed in Iraq between March 2004 and March 2005 ---- the yearlong phase of the war known as Operation Iraqi Freedom II.

About 800 Marines and family members gathered under gloomy skies on the division's parade field Thursday to honor and remember the men they say died so that others could live.

"They gave everything they had," said Sgt. Nicholas Maloney, 23, who said he attended the hourlong ceremony to honor a close friend and comrade who was killed while they both were in Iraq. "They made a sacrifice that not everyone is willing to make."

Even before the ceremony, the memorials brought back the pain of loss.

"Nothing prepares you," said Emily Dieruf of Kentucky, who knelt down before one of the inverted rifles and empty pairs of combat boots just before the ceremony.

Bowing her head and shaking softly as she wept, she clutched the dog tags of her husband, 21-year-old Marine Cpl. Nicholas Dieruf, who was killed in Fallujah on April 8, 2004.

"He was tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed ---- an exemplary Marine," she said moments later, smiling briefly as she remembered better days. "He certainly did not want to leave us. ... But he thought that they were over there doing the right thing."

The ceremony opened at 10 a.m. with the mournful wail of bagpipes.

"Amazing Grace" silenced the crowd ---- hundreds of Marines in desert camouflage, their uniform monotony broken only by a sprinkling of colorfully dressed civilians and sailors in white.

After a short invocation and readings from Scripture, the 1st Division's battle-tested chaplain, Navy Cmdr. Bill Devine, reminded them that there was "no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

"The love they had for their families, their country and their Corps gave meaning to their life," said Devine, who spent much of the last two years with the troops in Iraq. "Now it gives meaning to their death."

On what he called "the most somber of days," Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, the division's commander for the last seven months of the recent Iraq deployment, said that the troops were all "fathers, husbands sons, brothers and our neighbors" as well as Marines and soldiers.

They were "ordinary people living ordinary lives, asked to make extraordinary sacrifices," he said.

Natonski said they embodied the Marine Corps motto, semper fidelis, which means "always faithful."

"Just as they were always faithful to us and our country," he said, "so too must we be faithful to their memories."

Pendleton's 1st Division led the drive on Baghdad during the invasion in early 2003, losing 30 men in the first phase of the war.

While they returned home to victory parades and family reunions over the summer, the insurgency in Iraq grew out of control and the Marines were called to turn around and go back ---- this time for a year.

The first of two shifts ---- more than 10,000 troops ---- left Camp Pendleton in February and March 2004. A second wave replaced them in August and September.

From the time they took over for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in western Iraq in March 2004 until the second shift returned in March and April 2005, the Marines were embroiled in heavy combat and daily attacks.

Just before the ceremony ended Thursday, Division Sgt. Major Wayne Bell read the numbers of casualties by unit and service.

In all, Bell said, 336 Marines, 69 Army soldiers, 10 sailors and 5 British troops who were attached to the division were killed in Iraq between March 2004 and March 2005. At least 204 of the Marines were from Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms.

Marine buglers blew a somber "taps," causing goose pimples on arms and tears in eyes as the ceremony drew to a close.

The sheer numbers of the fallen seemed to weigh on all those who approached the memorials afterward.

At first, Marines saluted, executing crisp facing movements and sharp salutes at each in the line of 18 representing each major unit's dead.

Then, as the crowds thinned, some of them returned for personal, solitary goodbyes.

One Marine knelt and fumbled with the tangled bulge of dog tags dangling beneath the rifle representing the 1st Marine Regiment. Finding a friend, he broke into tears and made the sign of the cross before melting back into the crowd.

Some officers seemed to feel the enormous weight of leadership as they pieced through the names of the young lance corporals and sergeants who died under their command.

Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, who led an infantry battalion into Fallujah last year, knelt alongside his wife, Kathy Byrne, gingerly holding the 75 tags from the 5th Marines.

With tears in their eyes, they pieced through the bunch, stopping at familiar names, holding the tags and turning them over in their hands like relics.

Byrne lost 11 of his men in Fallujah.

"It's more than a unit, he said later. "It's nothing short of a family."

Lance Cpl. Ben Flores, 23, of Craigsville, Va., sobbed when he found the tag belonging to his friend and fellow Marine combat cameraman Cpl. William Salazar.

Salazar, 26, was killed by a suicide bomber near the Syrian border in October 2004. He was the first Marine combat photographer to die in combat since Vietnam.

Flores said Salazar's death meant not only the loss of a friend, but the loss of his innocence and his trust of many Iraqis.

"When it hits so close to home, you just know that not everyone is innocent," he said. "They are trying to kill us.

"I wish everyone could see this here," Flores said, pointing to Thursday's memorial and crowds.

"People just don't realize that there are guys out there, and every day it's mortars and (bombs) and suicide attacks.

"It's not over," he said. "It's not going to be over for a long time."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Thu, May. 26, 2005





Marines honor two pilots killed in Iraq

ELLIOT SPAGAT

Associated Press


SAN DIEGO - Two Marine pilots who died when their jets collided in Iraq were honored Thursday at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where more than 500 people packed into a chapel to share tearful remembrances.

After the 35-minute ceremony, mourners filed outside as four F/A-18 Hornet jets thundered across clear blue skies and Marines fired 21 shots from their M-16 rifles.

Lt. Col. John C. Spahr, who grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Capt. Kelly C. Hinz died May 2 when their F/A-18 Hornets crashed in southern Iraq after launching from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. The military has not elaborated, but a statement from the Hinz family said their single-seat planes collided.

The men had been in Iraq since February with the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is based at Miramar.

Spahr, whose John Wayne impersonations earned him the call name "Dukes," was eulogized as a gifted athlete with an easy laugh who was a mentor to many.

His 9-year-old daughter, Chandler Marie Spahr, was the "love of his life," said Marine Lt. Col. David A. Robinson.

The 42-year-old former Top Gun instructor also knew how to identify potential in others and always had a soft spot for the underdog, Robinson said.

Stephen Spahr agreed, recalling that when choosing sides for childhood kickball games his older brother would snap up the less talented just to boost their spirits.

"He was lookin' out for everybody, always," Stephen Spahr said, fighting back tears.

Spahr, 42, was a quarterback at Saint Joseph's Preparatory High School in Philadelphia who attended the University of Delaware on a football scholarship.

After a short stint as a physical therapist for disabled children, he joined the Marines.

Hinz was born at U.S. Naval Air Station Lemoore in California and spent much of his childhood in Minnesota. He died less than a year after his father, former Navy pilot Donald Hinz, was killed during an air show in Wisconsin.

Holidays and family get-togethers often revolved around flying for the 30-year-old pilot's son.

Marine Maj. Greg Price remembers telling Hinz he would soon enjoy the "rock-star lifestyle of a young fighter pilot," but Hinz was unmoved.

"His family came first and everything else was second," Price said.

Price turned to Hinz's wife, Molly, and said, "What he loved more than anything was spending time with you. You were his best friend, his soul mate, his life partner."

Spahr is survived by his mother, Eileen Spahr, and his daughter. Hinz is survived by his wife and their 8-month old daughter, Abby.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine polishes future job skills

By: ALEXANDRA MACE - For the North County Times

Most Marines deployed to Iraq spend their free time sleeping, reading, playing video games and watching DVDs. Capt. Kimberly Johnson chose to go to school.

During her eight-month tour with the Camp Pendleton-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit last year, Johnson, 29, used her spare time to complete distance education courses at the Gemological Institute of America via the Internet.

"It was a positive outlet," said Johnson, who recently returned from Iraq and spoke via phone from her new post at Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va. "It kept me occupied. It was good to have something constructive to focus on."


The GIA, based in Carlsbad, is the world's largest nonprofit institute of gemological research and learning. Many of its Graduate Gemologist and School of Business programs can be completed online.

Johnson said the idea to enroll at GIA came about during her first tour of duty in Iraq in 2003, when she began thinking about her future after the Marine Corps.ÝÝ

When brainstorming ideas for a second career, Johnson, who loved drawing and calligraphy as a child growing up in Carlsbad, decided it was time to tap into her long-neglected artistic side.Ý

Johnson, who graduated from Tulane University with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1997, was also eager to hit the books again.Ý

"I was ready to go back to school," she said.Ý

When she began thinking of ways to combine the two ideas, she had an epiphany: She would design jewelry.

"I've always had an appreciation for jewelry," Johnson said. "I'm a big, big fan."

She began researching degree programs, and was amazed to discover the GIA was based in her native Carlsbad.

"It was fate," she said.

Johnson enrolled in the GIA upon her return from Iraq in 2003, and continued her studies online during her second deployment to Iraq last year.

"It was very convenient," Johnson said. "The instructors and advisers were so helpful."

Johnson said she was able to take classes around her schedule, and that her teachers were very understanding about the communications problems that would sometimes occur, such as when the Internet would go down for days at a time.

"They were totally flexible," Johnson said. "They were just phenomenal."

Johnson said she became something of a resident expert among her fellow Marines when it came to jewelry. Many Marines asked for advice on buying engagements rings.

"I was able to help them for the most part," she said.

When she returned from Iraq this spring, Johnson completed practical lab courses at the GIA and earned her diamond diploma, which is half of the Graduate Gemologist degree. She is now working toward her colored stones diploma, which will complete her GG degree, and has three more classes left before earning her School of Business diploma.Ý

Even with her recent transfer to the East Coast, Johnson says she plans on continuing her studies at the GIA in the fall.Ý

"There are (GIA) seminars everywhere, but I hope to end up back in Southern California," Johnson said. "It's my home."

Contact free-lance writer Alexandra Mace at alexandramace@hotmail.com.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Father proud of Marine serving in Iraq
Thursday, May 26, 2005
State Gazette

Dyersburg resident Tommy Wilson is proud of his son. Sgt. Thomas L. Wilson, 24, has served with the U.S. Marines for the past six years and was deployed for a 14-month tour in Iraq in March 2005. His father said he believes in what his son is doing with the Marines.
"I'm proud of him," Wilson said. "He's excited about it. I'm excited for him. He knows where I stand - I support the president."

Wilson said it's an honor for his son to be able to serve his country.

"That's what he signed up to do - protect the country," Wilson said.

Meanwhile, Wilson's wife, Mary Simpson Wilson, and his two children, Thomas Lane and Benny Wilson, wait for his return, said his father, but they hear from him every other day through e-mail correspondence and telephone calls.

Wilson has another son destined for military service as well. Terry Wilson, a student at Dyer County High School, will pre-enlist in the U.S. Marines just like his older brother. He currently is a Master Sergeant in the DCHS JROTC program.

The following article was written by Staff Sgt. Ronna M. Weyland for the U.S. Marine Corps News:

Within minutes after the call for help, more than 150 Marines and Sailors literally ran to Fallujah Surgical to donate blood for a wounded comrade here May 9. Nobody knew his name, but they knew the urgent need for A+ blood was for one of their own.

Lieutenant Cmdr. Christopher A. Foster, company commander, Fallujah Surgical Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Force Service Support Group (FWD), wrote in an all hands e-mail the blood donation was a success: "Thanks to everyone's overwhelming response of providing blood due to a true emergent need to help save a life.

"That long line of Marines [and Sailors] stretched out in front of Fallujah Surgical was an awesome and beautiful sight to see. Thanks again for giving the gift of life."

At 7:11 p.m., an "all hands" e-mail message came across the local access network stating there was an urgent need for A+ blood.

"First there were 10, quickly moving to 65 or so, then, what seemed to be approximately 150-175 Marines, Sailors and Soldiers were standing in line filling out blood donor forms in the dark, waiting to donate their own pint to help the survival of our casualty," explained Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, and New Orleans native. "Some were sitting in the Mess Hall, set their trays down and exited; some were still at work and dismissed by their [staff noncommissioned officer] to go to the hospital; others were working out, who showed up in [physical training] gear."

The Navy refers to this type of donation as a "walking blood bank."

"This was surely a sight for sore eyes," described Battaglia. "As impressive as it was to see our Fallujah medical team receive, triage, and provide superb medical care, what was equally impressive was the witnessing of others standing in line waiting to donate blood to a Marine they probably didn't even know."

When donors were asked why they came to give blood the response was almost always the same: "Another Marine was hurt and he needs help."

News spread quickly around the camp about the need for blood.

"They came and told us there was a mass casualty drill and they needed A+ blood," said Seaman John Powell, 19, construction electrician construction man, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1, from Hot Springs, Ark., while filling out the donor screening paperwork.

The corpsmen were also working hard trying to get the large group of people through the screening process and drawing test tube samples. However, they seemed to think otherwise.

"It's not me working hard tonight, it's the guy in the OR [operating room]," said Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Wilson, hospital medic and laboratory technician, Fallujah Surgical Company, and native of South Bend, Ind., while taking blood from a donor.

According to Battaglia, approximately 12 casualties suddenly arrived at Fallujah Surgical as a result of injuries from an 82mm enemy mortar attack. Two of those casualties were classified as urgent and the requirement for blood donors was needed.

The walking blood bank lasted about two hours until the seriously wounded Marine was stable enough to be flown to a higher-level medical treatment facility.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Commanders
By Jim Lacey
National Review Online
May 27, 2005

Last month over 1,500 family members who have lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan gathered at Arlington National Cemetery at the behest of an organization called Faces of the Fallen, which has assembled dozens of artists to paint portraits of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the keynote speaker. While his speech managed to strike a few emotional chords, it was what he did after speaking that was remarkable. Hours after his speech concluded General Myers was still standing out in a cold drizzle talking at length to any family member who wanted to have a word with him. As the man ultimately responsible for ordering the missions that resulted in many of these American deaths, this must have been an incredibly hard thing for him to endure. Still, he never hurried a single person and listened as bereaved family members told him about the child, the spouse, or the sibling they had lost.

It would have been an easy matter for General Myers to claim pressing business and escape as soon as his speech concluded. In fact, he could have ordered a subordinate to represent him at the reception and spared himself the pain of meeting these families. Of course, no real leader would do such a thing. Like General Eisenhower, who felt compelled to go visit the paratroops on the eve of D-Day and meet the men who were expecting to take 90 percent losses, General Myers could not send anyone else to do what must be the most difficult part of his job.

I am reliably informed that General Myers starts each workday with a full briefing on the circumstances of every American casualty in the previous 24 hours. I can think of no more emotionally searing way to begin what are often long, arduous days. This is not something he has to do and I imagine he continues it only because it is a daily reminder that any decision he makes can have a dire consequence for the men and women who make it happen. During World War II, General George Marshall, the first chairman, did much the same thing. Every day he sent the casualty list to the White House to remind the president that real people died as a result of every order given. General Marshall continued this despite a White House request that the practice be discontinued.

This is a brief but telling glimpse at the character of a single man. The incredible thing is that this pattern reveals itself at every level of the chain of command. For generations, writers, moviemakers, and singers have made fortunes depicting cold, unfeeling officers who callously send young soldiers out to die while sitting safely in the rear. The stereotype still persists today and there is no more horrendous lie perpetrated about the people who lead our great soldiers into combat. Please note that I said "lead" and not "send." The Americans who have entrusted their youth to these leaders deserve to know the character of the men and women in command.

On a recent trip to Iraq I was with a small group of civilians and officers when truck loads of care packages for the soldiers were being unloaded. The boxes were opened for the soldiers to grab what they wanted. Earlier, one of the officers mentioned that he needed to get some razors from the Post Exchange. One of the civilians in our group spotted a shaving kit in a box, grabbed it, and handed it to the officer in need of razors saying, "This will save you a trip." Without a pause the officer threw the kit back in the box and replied, "That stuff was sent over for the troops to use, not me." The civilian mentioned that the officer was also a soldier serving in Iraq and no one would begrudge him the kit. The officer did his best to explain and then finally said, "That is not how it works. Just watch."

So we stood off to the side and watched. Over the next half hour, while a couple of hundred soldiers took what they wanted from the boxes about two dozen Army and Marine officers came over and looked to see what was in the boxes. Every one of them left empty handed. It was as clear a testament as I could personally imagine that they had internalized the idea that the needs of the soldiers came before their own.

Later that same day I was invited to go on a patrol with some soldiers from the 2nd BDE of the 10th Mountain Division along one of the more dangerous routes in Iraq. The patrol was led by the company commander, who tries to get out on at least one patrol a day with his men. Remarkably, the brigade commander, Colonel Mark Milley was also going along. Milley, despite an awesome workload and responsibility for over 5,000 soldiers, makes time to go on at least two patrols a week. There are a lot of things Col. Milley could be doing rather than sharing the risks of combat patrols with his soldiers on a regular basis, but he believes that nothing is nearly as important as being seen by his soldiers at the points of real danger. Also coming along was Brigadier General Anthony Cucolo, who was on a fact-finding tour after spending the previous six months in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division. Colonels and generals carrying rifles out on patrol with infantry squads is a long way from the common perception of senior officers sitting in the rear moving pins on maps, but it is the daily reality in Iraq.

At one point during the night, the patrol pulled up to a checkpoint that was watching a road intersection, a favorite terrorist target. Col Milley was far from happy with what he found. In his professional judgment the soldiers at the checkpoint had made so many mistakes that they were inviting an attack. In what could be called a well-controlled rage, Col. Milley called the company commander on his radio, only to discover he was spending the night at another checkpoint some distance away. Col. Milley admitted that it was a bit harder to be mad at the captain when he is out sharing the danger with his men. Going to the next level of command, the battalion commander, he ordered that the entire checkpoint be replaced in the next 45 minutes and that the leadership currently at the checkpoint be retrained on their duties before they were sent out again. It was past midnight when he gave this order, meaning a lot of sleepless hours for the battalion leadership.

With that done, Col. Milley turned to BG Cucolo and said, "A lot of people are going to be hating me and cursing my name tonight." As I walked away BG Cucolo commented, "That there is a lot more to loving your soldiers than making sure that they always love you."

That statement brought home something I had already noticed about the military leaders it has been my privilege to know. They truly love the soldiers they lead. While researching a book about the Iraq war I found it imperative that I try and keep any discussion with commanders away from the subject of the men they lost in combat or I would rapidly lose most of whatever time I had to conduct the interview. When the subject of casualties was broached the interviewees would without exception stare away and start recounting every loss their units had suffered in minute detail. It was plainly visible that every one of these leaders felt each loss deep within their souls. A trauma nurse said that the hardest thing she did in Iraq was comfort a burly Marine colonel who was sobbing. Someone in the group said he must have been wounded pretty badly. The nurse was puzzled for a minute and replied, "He was not hurt. His Marines were." It has been my experience that no commander ever suffers more than when he loses one of the men or women entrusted to his care. That they are able to find the will to carry on despite grievous heartache tells much about the leadership of our Armed Forces. When, as sometimes happens, our commanders fail in combat, it is never because they did not care about their men. Often it is because they cared too much.

For those who have not experienced it, it is almost impossible to explain the depth of feeling that commanders feel for their organizations and the people within them. I have seen infantry commanders who are absolutely fearless in combat break down crying when giving up their commands and moving on to other assignments. I know dozens of officers who have already done one or more tours in Iraq who cannot watch the news because they feel guilty about being safe at home while their comrades are still in danger. I have met dozens of officers who are volunteering for second and third tours in Iraq, simply because young Americans are fighting and dying there and they feel a deep need to be with them.

Those with no familiarity with America's warriors might say they just like fighting and killing. Those people have never spoken to an officer who has been in a hard fight. They have never heard the cracking voice as he relates the difficulty of looking at people, whether enemy or ally, killed as a result of his orders. They have never heard the anguish of a leader replaying for the thousandth time the loss of one of his own. They did not hear an armored company commander answer a question about how he felt about having his soldiers rebuild schools after fighting to seize Baghdad literally days before. He said, "I cannot tell you how great it feels to be able to stop killing and start helping people." Such is the overwhelming compassion of those who fight our wars.

- Jim Lacey is a Washington-based writer focused on international and military issues.

Ellie

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Marines are landing -- on silver dollars
May 26, 2005: 1:26 PM EDT
By Gordon T. Anderson, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - On the eve of Memorial Day, the U.S. Mint is remembering America's fighting men and women.

Wednesday in Philadelphia, Mint director Henrietta Holsman Fore led the ceremonial first strike of a new series of commemorative coin: a silver dollar honoring the U.S. Marine Corps. The piece will be minted at the Philadelphia facility, and is scheduled for release this summer.

The front of the coin features an engraving modeled on Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's picture of Marines raising the U.S. flag during the battle of Iwo Jima. That famous image is also the subject of a sculpture by Felix de Weldon, which honors fallen Marines at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The back side of the coin bears the Marine Corps insignia and the words "Semper Fidelis" (Always Faithful), the Corps motto. (Click here to see the design.)

"The coin design is simple and heroic," said Fore in a statement. "The Iwo Jima image is the storied symbol of the Marine Corps' heroism, courage, strength and versatility. It exemplifies Semper Fidelis to an appreciative nation every day around the world."

Congress authorizes the minting of two commemorative coins annually, produced by the U.S. Mint.

The Marine Corps 230th Anniversary Silver Dollar is the second such coin to be produced in 2005. The first was a silver dollar honoring early Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

The pieces are intended as collectible keepsakes, as compared to actual money in circulation. As such, they cost more than their face value. The Marshall dollar, for example, retails for about $35.

The price of the new Marines coin was not announced, but profits from the sale of each dollar will help pay for the creation of a National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Virginia.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

More U.S. Marines Return Home Safely
Kaneohe Bay - Handshakes and 'atta boys.

That's what greeted these members of the U.S. Marine Corps' 3rd Radio Battalion.

These troops left for California in June of last year before finally heading to Iraq in October.

"It's very tough being in Iraq," said lance corporal Erick Snow. "It's far away. You hear explosions every day."

These marines arrive in the islands at a time when U.S. military operations in Iraq continue to heat-up.

For a second straight day, marines carried out door-to-door raids in the city of Haditha.

At least eleven insurgents have been killed in what's being dubbed "Operation New Market."

One marine died after being wounding during Wednesday's fighting.

"The fact that we came back with all of our marines," replied gunnery sergeant Miguel Rodriguez when ask what he thought was the most important aspect of the deployment. "We had one marine who got hurt, but everyone else came back alive. That was the most important thing."

"It's extremely hard," adds his wife, Elida Rodriguez. "This is his second tour. We're just so glad that he's back."

These marines specialize in providing communication for intelligence units, as well as Arabic language support.

Not only did they serve in Iraq, these marines were also called to Indonesia and Sri Lanka to help out with the tsunami relief efforts, earlier this year.

And while they can't talk much about their latest tour, they do have this to say.

"It's just great to be home," said Gsgt. Rodriguez.

Not only did they serve in Iraq, these marines were also called to Indonesia and Sri Lanka to help out with the tsunami relief efforts, earlier this year.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Belvidere teen's dream segues into Marines duty
By ROBERT BAXTER
Register Star Boone County Bureau

BELVIDERE -- For years, Kyle Anderson dreamed of becoming a Navy pilot.

But when the Marines came calling and pitched a $150,000 college scholarship, Kyle knew his dream changed.

The 17-year-old will leave for the University of San Diego this fall, where he will major in music composition. After graduation, he will enter the Marines as a second lieutenant and attend six months of officer training.


Kyle received a scholarship check this week during a special ceremony at the Belvidere High School Library. He is a drum major in the high school band, runs cross country, was a pole vaulter for the track team and was vice president of the student council.

Marine Maj. Mike Yeck said the award was one of about 300 presented to officer candidates nationwide.

"He is part of an elite group," said Yeck, who is based at the Milwaukee recruiting office.

Yeck said Kyle qualified for the scholarship based on his grades, volunteer and extracurricular activities, physical skills, personal interviews, referrals and his ability to succeed in a technical field.

Kyle told about 20 friends and family gathered for the award that his mom was the driving force behind his success. He ended his short speech with the Marine Corps' motto, "Semper Fi" -- Latin for "always faithful."

After the presentation, Kyle talked more about his mom, Kris Mayborne, who also attended.

"I credit a lot of this to my mom for pushing me through the low times during my freshman year when I really didn't know if I wanted to go through with all this," he said.

Kyle started in band in fifth grade and went to sectionals, regionals and state competitions while in high school. His younger brother, Kolin, is following in his footsteps as a member of his school's band, Mayborne said.

That was another thing that appealed to Kyle: one day being a part of the legendary Marine Corps band.

"He is very good at it. He has a real talent," Mayborne said as she talked about his musicianship, which includes baritone, trombone and drum major. "I played in band when I was in grade school, but this was really him doing this."

As part of his deal with the Marines, Kyle will register for ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) and certain other classes in college, then spend two summers in Quantico, Va., for training.

"Being a parent, being involved with your child, encouraging them is so important," his mom said.

Kyle, who wants to fulfill his dream of flying, is also a member of the Civil Air Patrol at Poplar Grove Airport; his stepdad, Dan Mayborne, is an Air Force veteran.

"Everything has kind of fallen into place with my love of music," Kyle said. "But I still want to be a pilot."

Contact: rbaxter@rockford.gannett.com; 815-544-3452

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Slain Soldier's Mom Rejected by Gold Star
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press Writer

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Everyone agrees that Ligaya Lagman is a Gold Star mother, part of the long line of mournful women whose sons or daughters gave their lives for their country. Her 27-year-old son, Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Lagman, was killed last year in Afghanistan, but American Gold Star Mothers Inc., has rejected Lagman, a Filipino, for membership because - though a permanent resident and a taxpayer - she is not a U.S. citizen.

"There's nothing we can do because that's what our organization says: You have to be an American citizen," national President Ann Herd said Thursday. "We can't go changing the rules every time the wind blows."

That explanation isn't satisfying the war veterans who sponsored Lagman's application, some other members of the mothers' group or several members of Congress.

"It is disheartening that any mother of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who has died in the line of duty would be denied membership in an organization that honors the memory of fallen service men and women," said Rep. Nita Lowey, whose district includes Lagman's home in Yonkers.

Rep. Eliot Engel, who represents an adjoining district, said the group should change its rules immediately.

"Whatever the excuse, American Gold Star Mothers' decision smacks of xenophobia and is in stark contrast to what Mrs. Lagman's son fought and died for," Engel said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "We now have many noncitizens serving honorably in our armed services, and I hope that this can be satisfactorily resolved."

A past president of the mothers' group, Dorothy Oxendine, of Farmingdale, said, "There's no discrimination in a national cemetery. There's no discrimination when they get killed side by side. So how can we discriminate against a mother?"

Another past president, Ann Wolcott, of York, Pa., said, "Times have changed since this organization was started, and there are a lot of men and women serving today whose parents are not citizens. I think they deserve every honor and privilege that we have as Gold Star mothers."

Oxendine and Wolcott said they believe that given the increasing diversity of the armed forces there have been noncitizens in the 1,200-member organization who overlooked or ignored the citizenship question on the application.

Lagman has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. She was not at home Thursday, apparently tending to her husband, who is hospitalized. But her other son, Chris Lagman, said in Thursday's The Journal News that all she wants "is recognition as the mother of this fallen soldier."

Lagman's application was initiated by Ben Spadaro, a veteran from Yonkers, who said he learned about the citizenship rules of the American Gold Star Mothers while working on a national cemetery committee of the Veterans Administration. When he learned of Anthony Lagman's death and saw Lagman was a citizen but his mother was not, he thought, "He's buried in a military cemetery, with full honors. She should be able to join."

"We decided to tell the absolute truth on the application," he said. "We put down, `I am not an American citizen.' It was a ploy to get them to reject her, and then we said they should change the rules."

But the organization's 12-member executive board voted against any change.

"We can't go changing the rules every time we turn around," said Herd, the national president. "When we have problems within our organization with people not abiding by the rules, we just get it straightened out, we don't change the rules."

Oxendine, the former president, said she is sure the general membership would approve a rules change if the board did.

"I can't believe that 12 intelligent women would ever not have it in their hearts to think about another Gold Star mother," Oxendine said. "You pay a high price to join the American Gold Star Mothers. I figure her dues were paid."

Spadaro isn't giving up. He had his brother, a Florida lawyer, write to the Department of Justice, noting the mothers' organization has received federal assistance and demanding an investigation.

And on Monday, during Memorial Day observances at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2285 in Eastchester, Lagman will be presented with a gold necklace bearing a simple gold star.

On the Net: American Gold Star Mothers: http://www.goldstarmoms.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Veteran Parents Having Mixed Emotions
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

Fresh out of high school in 1971, Alan Cook enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam in the waning months before the U.S. pullout. He opposes America's war in Iraq, yet is proud of his two sons - one serving there now, the other scheduled to go soon - who decided on their own to follow his path into military service.

Cook's mixed emotions reflect a broader split among the nation's veterans at a time when Army recruiters are failing to meet their quotas. A recent Pentagon poll indicated that parents who served in the military were divided almost 50/50 between those who would encourage their children to enlist and those who would advise against it.

Veterans remain twice as likely to recommend military service to their children as parents who didn't serve, according to the Pentagon. But many veterans have specific concerns that temper their views: Some question the mission assigned to U.S. soldiers in Iraq; others are embittered by what they view as lack of empathy for health problems they link to their service in the Gulf War.

Cook, of Castro Valley, Calif., tried to steer a neutral course, even as his oldest son, Daniel, began talking about a possible Army career during middle school.

"I didn't encourage them to go into Army - there are better things to do," said Cook, 52. "But I didn't want to push them away from it, either. If you push, (kids) will do the opposite."

Both sons enlisted straight out of high school and joined the 101st Airborne Division. Daniel, 21, is now serving his second stint in Iraq; Steven, 19, is at Fort Campbell, Ky., expecting to deploy to Iraq in September.

"They could be there at the same time - it's nerve-racking," said Cook, who works for a San Francisco investment banking firm and is treasurer of Vietnam Veterans of America.

Mike Wiswell of Columbus, Ohio - who served in the Army from 1973-'94 - also has a son in Iraq; 21-year-old Doug Wiswell joined the Army Reserves while a sophomore at Ohio State, looking for a way to pay his college bills.

"I know he's patriotic - he's got flags on the wall in his room - but the decision was more a practical one," said Wiswell, the American Legion's membership director in Ohio. "I told him the Army offers great opportunities for travel, for an education, a life experience he'll never get elsewhere."

John Nelson, director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation services for the Michigan branch of the American Legion, was an Army warrant officer in 1968-71, during the height of Vietnam War protests. His son, Patrick, 26, is now at Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga.

"I discussed the military with him as a potential career choice," John Nelson said. "I played devil's advocate. ... He went in with his eyes open."

Nelson, from Ypsilanti, Mich., said he urged his son to become an officer in part because of the difficult, police-style duties being assigned to some enlisted soldiers in Iraq.

"The Iraq war, as currently being waged, is very detrimental to a soldier's mission," Nelson said. "There's no way to train a soldier for some of the decisions they have to make."

Julie Mock's sons are only 7 and 9, but she says she would never advise either of them to enter the military.

Mock, 38, has multiple sclerosis, which she links to her Army service in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. She believes that she and her husband, also a Gulf War vet, passed on health problems to their elder son, Stephen, who has experienced several developmental disorders.

"I would never encourage anyone to go into the military, ever," said Mock, of Bothell, Wash. "You're signing your health away, and you'll never get it back."

Similarly, Army veteran Bill Schadowsky of La Porte, Ind., said he would discourage his grandchildren and other young people from joining the military because of his bitterness over health issues. He is among many Gulf War veterans who contend they suffered radiation exposure from depleted uranium, a heavy metal used in armor-piercing weapons.

"It's not that I'm not proud of my service - I'm just very wary of the government right now," said Schadowsky, 50. "It's one thing to fight for your country. To come back and have to fight your government is a whole 'nother animal."

Louis Oberbeck, 64, served in the Navy from 1959 to 1979, and lives now near Jefferson, Texas. He signed paperwork when one of his sons applied to join the National Guard, but says he now would be blunt in expressing his doubts about the Iraq war and veterans' health care programs.

"I liked it while I was there," he said of his own service. "But the longer I'm out, the less enthusiastic I am. ... Now, I'd have a very strong sales pitch saying 'Don't go.'"

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Five Cases of Quran 'Mishandling' Found
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
May 27, 2005

Investigators have confirmed five cases in which military personnel mishandled the Qurans of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, but they have found no "credible evidence" that a holy book was flushed in a toilet.

The investigation also found 15 incidents in which detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Quran, including one case of a detainee ripping pages from his holy book, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, the Guantanamo Bay prison commander who led the investigation, told reporters Thursday.

Hood emphasized that his probe is not yet complete. It was launched about two weeks ago in response to a Newsweek magazine story that said U.S. officials had confirmed a Quran was flushed in a toilet. The story stirred worldwide controversy and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan.

Newsweek later retracted its report.

Hood, who has commanded the U.S. naval prison compound in Cuba since March 2004, told a Pentagon news conference that a prisoner who was reported to have complained to an FBI agent in 2002 that a military guard threw a Quran in the toilet has since told Hood's investigators that he never witnessed any form of Quran desecration.

The unidentified prisoner, re-interviewed at Guantanamo on May 14, said he had heard talk of guards mishandling religious articles but did not witness any such acts, Hood said. The prisoner also stated that he personally had not been mistreated but that he had heard fellow inmates talk of being beaten or otherwise mistreated.

The general said he could not speculate on why the prisoner did not repeat his earlier statement about a guard flushing a Quran in a toilet. The statement was contained in an Aug. 1, 2002, FBI summary of an FBI agent's July 22, 2002, interrogation of the prisoner. A partly redacted version of the summary was made public this week.

The prisoner did not specifically recant his earlier allegation; Hood said the prisoner was not asked in the May 14 interview whether he had made the specific statement in 2002 as reported by the FBI. Instead he was asked more broadly whether he had seen the Quran "defiled, desecrated or mishandled."

"He allowed as how he hadn't, but he heard that guards at some other point in time had done this," Hood said, adding that this allegation from the 2002 FBI report was the only one Hood found that involved a toilet.

Other prisoners who were returned to their home countries after serving time at Guantanamo Bay as terror suspects have alleged Quran desecration by U.S. guards, and some have said a Quran was placed in a toilet.

"I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet," Hood said. "We did identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Quran by Joint Task Force personnel. Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators."

Of the 13 alleged incidents, five were substantiated, he said. Four were by guards and one was by an interrogator. Hood said the five cases "could be broadly defined as mishandling" of the holy book, but he refused to discuss details.

In three of the five cases, the mishandling appears to have been deliberate. In the other two, it apparently was accidental.

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said at the news conference with Hood that at this point it should be clear that any mishandling of the Quran was largely inadvertent.

"I think it's safe to say that the policies and procedures down there are extraordinarily careful, and they're - as I said - policies that we've released, and people can judge for themselves. But I think people will see that the atmosphere down there is one of great respect for the practice of faith by detainees," he said.

In an indication of the Pentagon's eagerness to discredit the allegation, Hood briefed reporters on the interim findings of his investigation even though the Pentagon's standard practice is to withhold comment on the progress of any official investigation until it has been completed. Hood did not say how much longer his inquiry would last. Earlier Thursday he was on Capitol Hill to brief members of Congress.

Hood said eight of the 13 alleged incidents of Quran mishandling that he looked into were not substantiated. Six of those eight involved guards who either accidentally touched a Quran, "touched it within the scope of his duties" or did not touch it at all. "We consider each of these incidents resolved," Hood said.

The other two cases in which the allegation was not substantiated involved interrogators who either touched or "stood over" a Quran during an interrogation, Hood said. In one case not deemed to be mishandling, an interrogator placed two Qurans on a television. In the other case, which Hood did not describe fully, a Quran was not touched and Hood said the interrogator's unspecified "action" was accidental.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines lay wreath at Ground Zero
Associated Press
May 27, 2005

NEW YORK - Three Marines injured in Iraq last year laid a wreath near the World Trade Center site Friday following a 3-mile run by about 250 people, including Marines, Coast Guard members, police and firefighters.

The events were part of Fleet Week, when naval ships dock in New York each year.

Cedith Michael came to New York from her home in Lebanon, Ohio, to see her son, Lance Cpl. Mark Ryan Smith, 20, who recently returned from Iraq and docked in New York aboard the carrier John F. Kennedy for Fleet Week.

Michael said she had waited several hours to see her son, who took part in the run.

"I didn't want to miss him," she said. "In the military, that's one thing you learn - to wait." Marine Capt. Dan McSweeney of Manhattan said visiting ground zero "forces you to remember that our world changed on Sept. 11, and that service members' lives continue to be directly impacted by the events of the day." He said Marines felt a sense of belonging in New York. "The city's opened up its arms to us, and we really appreciate that," he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fighting financial battle <br />
BY TOM VAN RIPER <br />
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS <br />
May 27, 2005 <br />
<br />
John Kaiser, who had to deal with some tough money woes after serving in the Marines, now owns his own business in...

[thedrifter]

Modern memorials stand for the warriors, not the war <br />
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY <br />
May 27, 2005 <br />
<br />
Grass-roots memorials to the war dead in Iraq and Afghanistan are spreading across America, and the...

[thedrifter]

Among them are Jeff and Debbie Hower of Altamont, Mo. Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Wisdom, 39, the husband of Debbie Hower's sister, Janet, died in Iraq last year. "You can already tell that for some people, (the death) is already fading away," says Debbie, 49, a respiratory therapist. "For us, it's just too real. And I don't want them to forget about him. I want his children and his grandchildren and the community to know he was a hero."

Wisdom, a father of one and stepfather of two, was with a detachment of the Kansas National Guard assigned to escort convoys along a dangerous stretch of highway to Baghdad International Airport. On Nov. 8, a suicide car bomber raced toward a convoy he was escorting. Chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer was in the convoy.

Wisdom and Spc. Don Clary, 21, drove their armored Chevy Suburban into the bomber's path. The explosion killed both soldiers. Both have since received posthumous promotions: Wisdom to sergeant 1st class and Clary to sergeant.

The Howers, with help from members of the Kansas National Guard, are working to place two of Rist's bronze war memorials at each of three Kansas Guard armories: in Horton, in Clary's hometown of Troy and in Wisdom's hometown of Atchison.

Jeff Hower, 52, a chemical company engineer, says raising money to buy the memorials will be "a huge, huge undertaking." He hopes a series of benefits - from skeet shooting, fishing and golf to volleyball and motorcycle riding - will bring in the money. "We don't want a memorial to wind up in Washington, D.C.," Debbie Hower says. "We want them in hometowns."

Karen Meredith drives five hours from her home in Mountain View, Calif., to reach a memorial dedicated to her son and every other U.S. military death in Iraq. It's located on the beach off Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.

Every Sunday at 7:30 a.m., weather permitting, several members of Veterans for Peace, led by retired mailman and former sailor Lane Anderson, 57, begin assembling rows of wooden crosses in the sand, one for each death. They take them down by evening.

Begun in November 2003 and called "Arlington West," the memorial now covers a space the size of a football field. Other Veterans for Peace chapters across the country have begun similar displays

Last Sunday, the Santa Barbara memorial had 1,631 crosses. One carried the name of Meredith's son, Army Lt. Ken Ballard, 26, who was killed by a sniper in Najaf on Memorial Day 2004. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington. But his mother visits his cross at Arlington West.

"I just consider it a very loving memorial," says Meredith, 51. "It's a place to go and be. It means a lot to me to have a place."

An art exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery features row upon row of more than 1,200 renderings of military men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are the creative vision of Annette Polan, an associate professor of art at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington.

Photos in The Washington Post of troops killed in war inspired Polan to bring together more than 200 artists to create "Faces of the Fallen," an exhibit that runs through Veterans Day in November.

"You look at these faces and they're young. And some are shy. Some are proud. And they're so human. And they're so dead," she says. "It is an incalculable loss."

To place limits on the project, Polan authorized portraits only of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan prior to Veterans Day 2004 - still an ambitious 1,327 likenesses. Artists volunteered their time to create images in various media, from oil, acrylic and watercolor to pencil, wood carving and montage.

The Defense Department offered families of the fallen the chance not to have their loved one included in the exhibit. None declined, Polan says, and the families will receive the original renderings as gifts when the exhibit ends.

"It is such a manifestation of American generosity at all levels," says Polan, who was stunned by the responses of the families and the artists. "I haven't talked to a single artist who wasn't affected by this project, no matter what media, no matter what style, no matter what their position on the war."

Contributions for memorials for Clinton Wisdom and Don Clary, soldiers killed in action in Baghdad on Nov. 8, can be sent to the Wisdom-Clary Memorial Fund, Exchange National Bank, P.O. Box 189, Atchison, KS 66002

Rather than putting up portraits or crosses, the Army is planting a tree at Fort Stewart, Ga., for every death suffered by the 3rd Infantry Division, which is based there. The division was the first to reach Baghdad in 2003, early in the war, and it returned to Iraq this year.

Eastern redbud trees were chosen because they produce pink-purple blossoms in the spring - the season when the division's GIs began fighting and dying in Iraq, says Rich Olson, a spokesman for Fort Stewart. Currently, 84 trees line an area called Warrior's Walk.

"The last time I was there, I just couldn't believe how long the path had gotten," says Gary Holloway, chairman of a Maryland-based company that manages family housing on 18 military bases, including Fort Stewart.

His firm anonymously financed the project in 2003 and recently made its role public. "When you think about these soldiers," Holloway says, "it's really pretty minimal what we're doing in return."

Army historian William Epley says honoring individual soldiers with separate memorials is a slight departure from a military tradition that calls for remembering a unit as a whole. "It was a new idea," Olson says. "It seems appropriate."

At a base near Fallujah, Lima Company Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment dream of seeing a memorial in the hometown of every American servicemember lost in the war.

Between patrols into the city, Lance Cpl. John Romero, 25, and Lance Cpl. Gilberto Burbante Jr., 22, have led the discussion, tinkering even with details of the design: perhaps something in black granite, with a folded American flag encased in glass and special lighting. And a simple adage: All gave some and some gave all.

"I have lost a lot of good friends. So in their honor, I will see this memorial erected," Romero wrote in an e-mail from Iraq.

He laid out his dream in a letter this month in his hometown paper, The Santa Fe New Mexican. Part of his plea: "It would bring me comfort knowing that, if I were to fall, my name would last through the ages for all to see."




Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Gunfight on Takur Ghar <br />
By Matthew Dodd <br />
May 24, 2005 <br />
<br />
As a career Marine officer, it is truly sad and discouraging to be bombarded constantly with news media stories (real and imagined) that...

[thedrifter]

Duty and Patriotism
By Chris Davis
May 27, 2005

What is a soldier? A soldier, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, is a person engaged in military service. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines are more than this. They are the best of America, the very essence of America. They are the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of America, the very heartbeat of a thriving nation. They provide us with the greatest gift of all, freedom. They allow capitalism to grow in a comparably young nation.

Abraham Lincoln best stated it in the Gettysburg Address, saying, "But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract." In that day in time, when America struggled against itself, President Lincoln addressed the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters of America. His vision was of a United States of America.

Lincoln's great vision, through that terrible war, united a youthful country with the use of military force. The tragedy of Gettysburg saddened a divided nation, but united a country after four years of war. The noble sacrifices of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have brought us to that vision so long ago. It has united us into one America, the greatest nation of all.

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail," Thomas Jefferson stated. A soldier simply doing their duty will not fail. And it is the duty of every man and woman in the military to provide Americans with freedom. That duty has carried us for over 200 years, allowing individual Americans the chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the intentions of the U.S. Constitution. The Founding Fathers purpose was met with duty to their country, forming the United States of America. Their single purpose of freedom led to the creation of the greatest country in the world.

From the Founding Fathers to Abraham Lincoln to President George Bush, men and women in the military perform their duty, keeping America safe from harm. Those servicemen and women have done their duty, all that we ask of them. They have performed and exceeded expectations through their individual sacrifices to this country.

Those sacrifices allow them to live in honor. They serve and have served the people of the United States of America. The honor of each soldier, sailor, airman, and marine will allow each individual, past and present, to execute their duties faithfully to their country. For those that have gone before and for those yet to come, I give my undying gratitude and appreciation for performing their honorable duty to the United States of America.

There are men like Andy Stone, a Chartered Financial Analyst that love American, who now works for INVESCO in Louisville, Kentucky. He went to the U.S. Military Academy, graduated with the class of 1989 and commissioned in Field Artillery. He served in Augsburg, Germany, Fort Ord, California, and Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He also went to Ranger School, class 2-94, which had a pass rate of only fifty- percent and he succeeded. He left the military in 1995 and went to Duke University, obtaining his MBA. He was more than happy to tell us what he loved most about America, driving his patriotism in this great country.

"The boundless optimism of the American people," he stated. "I traveled a lot in Europe when I was stationed in Germany. As far a physical beauty of the landscape, I think Europe beats the US hands down. They have some pretty draconian zoning laws over there but it beats the endless strip malls of Middle America. But the people are ugly. They are all so glum all the time. They are very cynical, have no sense of humor, and seem too 'hip' to get excited about anything. I think it's because the big secular, socialist welfare states just sucks the life out of them. They trade vitality for security. Americans, on the other hand, are full of energy. They really believe that things will be better tomorrow. They believe that they can make things better for themselves and their families. At least they used to until the soft socialism of the welfare state here started to erode that. I feel that America is the best place to live and might even be the last great hope for humanity. And I'm not ashamed to say it. I'd do anything to keep it like that. To paraphrase Churchill: Democracy is a terrible form of government except for all the others. This is as good as it gets. This Republic is an aberration in human history. It can be a tenuous thing. If we don't take action to protect it, we could lose it."

There are also men like Emerson R. MacAfee, best known as Mac. "The most beautiful part of America I think is its people and its scenery. By spending 25 years in the Air Force and another 16 years working civil service for the Department of the Army, I have been able to travel this country from one end to the other. I have also traveled overseas a half dozen times. I have seen what other countries look like and how they live. There is no place like the U.S.A. The west has the plains and the Rocky Mountains while the southeast has the beaches. The northeast has the old houses and buildings as well as the beautiful changing of the leaves when all the colors burst forth in the Autumn. The Northwest has such an abundance of green while the upper Midwest has hundreds of small lakes. The Southwest has endless highways that open into such multicolored hills and rocks that have been hewn from the land for more than a thousand years." Mac also says that the major things that affect his patriotism are the flag, the National Anthem, and seeing our young troops in uniform. "Any one of these can grab my attention and it doesn't take much to bring a tear to my eye," he said.

And there are also veterans like John McInerney that tells us of his patriotism. "What do I find most beautiful about America," he asked. "Opportunity. Plain and simple. With hard work and perseverance, a person can make a good life for their self no matter where they come from. You can't find that many other places. As a conservative, the thing that drives my patriotism is that we have freedom and accountability. You have the freedom to do so much you can't do anywhere else in the world, but you have responsibility with that freedom. You have the freedom to make yourself a success and the accountability of being a failure. These two things drive each individual and are collectively what makes this nation successful. Taking away one or the other will be this nations collapse. You can't get that anywhere else."

These conservative veterans believe in America. They believe in the people behind America, and the concept of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I thank them for their sacrifice made in wars past. And on Memorial Day, I am grateful for their sacrifices and belief in this country. With some of the veterans serving during Vietnam, it is almost magical to find that their faith in this country has never failed. And their belief in conservative philosophies had kept this country strong. Today, and in the future, their legacy will stand for strong values, deep faith, and good old-fashioned patriotism.

Chris Davis is the author of Elective Decisions.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine Reservist Killed in Iraq Sacrificed for Family
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; A13

Lance Cpl. Jourdan Grez was the kind of young man who always made the best of whatever life threw at him.

At 15, he was injured in a car accident that killed his best friend. So he became a licensed emergency medical technician and spent the rest of his high school years working weekends as an EMT in Richmond, hoping to help others in trouble.

Six years later, while he was a student at James Madison University, his girlfriend became pregnant, so Grez joined the Marine Reserve to give the baby financial stability.

On May 11, Grez, 24, of Harrisonburg was one of four Marines killed when their amphibious assault vehicle struck an explosive device in Karabilah, Iraq, near the Syrian border, the Marines said yesterday.

His family shared memories yesterday of an outgoing, creative young man who had always tried to do the right thing.

"He was a very caring guy," recalled his father, Armand Grez II, who manages a restaurant in New Jersey.

Jourdan Grez spent most of his childhood in Richmond, where, family members said, he formed a tight bond with his brothers, Armand, 29, and Aric, 26.

Grez was an accomplished amateur artist -- painting bold, colorful abstracts that attracted attention and admiration. He also dreamed of making it big in business: One of his childhood heroes, Aric recalled, was an uncle who ran a successful company making award ribbons.

After graduating from high school in 1999, Grez followed Aric to James Madison University, where he took pre-med, international business and finance classes. But in 2001, unable to decide on a major, he dropped out.

"Until he figured out what he wanted to do, he didn't want to go back [to school] and waste time," said brother Armand Grez III, an Energy Department consultant who lives in Arlington.

While working in a restaurant, Jourdan Grez fell in love with a co-worker, Lael Lovell, with whom he had a son, Colin, in June 2003. Shortly before Colin's birth, Grez joined the Marine Reserve.

He knew he might be sent to Iraq, but family members said providing for his son was more important than his safety.

"He knew that in the armed forces, there was a great opportunity to take care of your family," said Aric Grez, a waiter who lives in the District. "I'd say . . . one of his biggest reasons he joined the Marines was just to know that he would be able to take care of Colin."

Jourdan Grez served with enthusiasm and distinction, recalled his commanding officers in Roanoke, where he served in the Marine Forces Reserve 4th Combat Engineer Battalion.

"I don't have to tell him exactly what to do," Capt. Soulynamma Pharathikone said. "I just tell him the intent, and he understands it and executes it."

Grez rarely complained to family members about his duties in Iraq. The hardest part of his service, his family said, was not seeing Colin. "He really missed his son," said Armand Grez III. "He lived for that kid."

He was to come home in September and planned to move to Texas with Lovell and Colin.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Many troops find progress in Iraq frustratingly slow
By Antonio Castaneda
Associated Press

Friday, May 27, 2005 - RAMADI, Iraq - Sgt. Shawn Biederman is simply trying to survive the next two months and make it home. His unit mate, Spc. Brent Short, has just signed up for a one-year extension.

As another summer of searing heat bears down on Iraq, many soldiers in this troubled Sunni-dominated region of central Iraq say they remain as committed as ever to winning the war, however long it takes. Others fret about missing newborns' first words or precious time with young wives.

Still others worry about the slow pace of creating an Iraqi force to relieve them, and say they aren't sure they are accomplishing anything real.

"We want to hand it over to them. But when it comes down to it, the (Iraqi police) we're hiring are all bad," said Army Sgt. Nicholas Radde, 21, of LaCrosse, Wis., as his soldiers took a break from the heat in the parking lot of an abandoned storage area.

Despite two interim Iraqi governments, a national election and the graduation of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, U.S. troops remain the ultimate security force in most of Iraq, more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Earlier this month, when U.S. Marines led a major assault against insurgents near the Syrian border and lost nine troops, Iraqi forces played a secondary role.

As the elected Iraqi government tries to coax a wary Sunni Arab population into joining the new political system, American soldiers continue to raid homes, patrol neighborhoods and hurriedly train Iraqi soldiers the faster the better if they are to get home soon.

But a resilient Sunni-led insurgency has effectively stalled progress, killing thousands of Iraqis.

Slow progress

In Shiite-and Kurdish-dominated areas, some Iraqi forces are starting to operate independently, but at a frustratingly slow pace. In Ramadi, capital of Iraq's most troubled province, Radde and his soldiers have seen a tougher fight.

Radde decided against re-enlisting in the Army, saying he has barely seen his wife since they exchanged vows. But even after deployments in Afghanistan, Korea and nearly a year in Iraq, he still clearly enjoys soldiering, quickly hopping out of his Humvee to set up a sniper position when a report comes in of suspicious people along a road.

Other soldiers are eagerly re-enlisting, and some are even asking to stay in Iraq longer. Short, 22, of Odessa, Texas, who has already served 10 months in Iraq, requested a one-year extension.

"I think it's going well here," said Short, dismounting from a gunner's turret atop a baking Humvee after his unit detained a man suspected of making fake Iraqi passports.

A fellow soldier called Short "insane' for asking to stay longer in Ramadi, but Short said he wanted to put his knowledge of the city of 350,000 to use and acknowledged that the death of his best friend influenced his decision.

"If I leave here, I think it'll be unresolved," he said in hushed tones.

Short and Radde belong to the Army's 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, which served in Korea for nine months before being sent straight to Iraq.

That means most have been home only about a month since autumn 2003.

The soldiers have about two months left in Iraq barring an extension before they hand off to the Pennsylvania National Guard.

"A lot of us are just trying to survive and make it through the next two months," said Biederman, 27, of Philadelphia, Pa., riding in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He has an infant daughter back home.

Safer and safer

To some soldiers in the 1st Battalion, the mission in Iraq is critically important to the United States.

"Every day that we're here it makes the region safer and it makes the U.S. safer," said Sgt. 1st Class Jefferson Pridgen, a career Army soldier from Lakeland, Fla.

But other soldiers in the same unit express unease about the state of Iraq, particularly around Ramadi, where many Iraqis are either sympathetic to the insurgency or too afraid of retribution to tip off the military to the presence of fighters.

A stable city council has yet to be formed in Ramadi and U.S. soldiers suspect insurgents have infiltrated the police department.

"I really don't think that we can finish this anytime soon," said Spc. Matthew Reba, 24, of Venice, Fla., bouncing in the back of a Bradley on the hunt for insurgents who had just fired at a U.S. base. Reba lost his best friend in Iraq and has decided against re-enlisting.

Other 1st Battalion soldiers said they just focus on their assigned tasks, look forward to returning home and hope Iraqis will soon turn against the insurgency.

"There's a lot of bad things happening, but our platoon is pretty good at keeping our head in the game," said Sgt. Chris Lambert, 25, of Cincinnati, Ohio, guarding the front of an apartment building while U.S. and Iraqi solders searched inside.

"I like to think we're doing some good," Lambert said. "But it's hard to tell."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Disability payments long denied
By Amie Parnes
The Stuart News
May 28, 2005

WASHINGTON · Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, made an impassioned plea at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday, insisting officials give an ailing constituent disability payments he's been denied for years.

Before a three-judge panel, Foley gave an hourlong testimony in a closed-door hearing on behalf of Al Scott, a former lance corporal in the Marines crippled by terminal multiple myeloma, a cancer that has spread through his blood and eaten through his bones.

Scott, 64, a Stuart resident, claims he acquired the disease while he guarded a top-secret nuclear weapons facility at the Argentia Naval Base in Newfoundland more than 40 years ago, during the height of the Cold War.

The veteran contends that he and other Marines were assigned to protect the materials used by the U.S. Navy for highly classified research and development work involving underwater weapons and systems that included elements of ionizing radiation and toxic chemicals.

But the U.S. government, which Foley argues might have violated international law by storing such weapons there without permission from the Canadian government, will not confirm what Scott was guarding specifically.

The Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly has denied that the condition is connected to Scott's service.

"That's an unfair standard for a veteran. Here's a man who served his country with distinction and honor and he's looking for his country to be there for him so he can go to his grave with some vindication."

As Foley spoke at the closed-door hearing, Scott was undergoing a CAT scan at the VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Foley told the panel that determinations and rulings regarding the 4-year-old case "have been made using false, incomplete or misinformation and that the proper standard of review has not been appropriately applied."

"I would argue that given the mishandling of this case, there is no way to determine what he was guarding and whether or not it caused his illness," he added. "Therefore, he must be afforded his benefit."

Meanwhile, as time slips away from him, Scott is nearing death, Foley said.

The panel of judges said that they would investigate the matter but that a decision in the case could take weeks or months, Foley recalled.

"With all do respect," Foley replied, "we don't have months."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Veteran Looks Back; No Regrets <br />
Tracey La Monica <br />
Signal Staff Writer <br />
May 28, 2005 <br />
<br />
In a quiet voice and with an occasional smile crinkling around his blue eyes, Vietnam veteran R.J. Kelly told...

[thedrifter]

Marines take time to visit their own
By Cristy Loftis
The Citrus County Chronicle
May 28, 2005

Because of his Alzheimer's disease, Max Gregory can't always remember how old he is.

But the 83-year-old former Marine can recite his serial number on command and makes his bed each day - military style.

"That's something that just gets drummed into your head," Gregory said while visiting with other veterans Wednesday.

He lives at Barrington Place, an assisted living center in Lecanto, and looks forward to monthly visits by the members of the Marine Corps League.

Bob Deck, commandant of the Citrus County Marine Corps League, said it's people like Gregory that shouldn't be forgotten.

"These people need somebody," Deck said.

Once a month, his group visits Barrington Place to pass out desk-size American flags and other military knickknacks to the veterans at the assisted living center. The men sit around and tell war stories, tease each other or sometimes complain about daily life. But regardless of the conversation topic, the company is enjoyed.

Deck said while the Korean War Veterans group has also adopted a nursing home, Citrus County needs more groups to visit the many veterans in county homes and centers.

"So many people have no one at all," Deck said. "It's showing we have not forgotten about you," Deck said.

Deck said part of the problem he's found in getting other veterans to visit the nursing homes is that they realize they may too be living in an assisted living center in the near future.

"It's hard for some of the other guys to come because they see that it could be them tomorrow," Deck said.

But Deck said that is precisely the reason why more veterans need to visit the ones in the homes.

"I personally challenge any veteran group in this county to adopt a nursing home," Deck said. "Not only will it help the veterans in the nursing home, but you'll go away with a good feeling."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. Ponders Iraq Fight After Zarqawi
By Jeffrey Fleishman
LA Times Staff Writer
May 28, 2005

BAGHDAD - Cryptic messages posted on Internet sites reporting that militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi had been wounded raise questions about the future of a factionalized Iraqi insurgency driven in part by the power of his personality and mercurial strategy against U.S.-led forces.

Sometimes pictured as thin and willowy and other times as pudgy and bearded, Zarqawi is the face of the insurgent movement. If website postings are correct in suggesting that Zarqawi has suffered a bullet wound to a lung, the rebels could lose their fiercest voice in attempting to defeat Washington's designs for a new Iraq.

U.S. military officials say that Zarqawi's passing would not break the insurgency but could trigger a leadership struggle between Al Qaeda-backed foreign fighters on one side and Iraqi Sunni Muslims and others loyal to Saddam Hussein on the other. These groups reportedly are suspicious of each other, and uncertainty about a new leader could deepen dissension while U.S. and Iraqi forces increase their raids on militant strongholds in Baghdad and western Iraq.

"It is difficult to find leaders like Zarqawi," said Mohammed Askari, an Iraqi military analyst. The absence of such a marquee name could hurt the insurgency's recruiting and fundraising abilities, he added.

"Zarqawi is daring, elusive. He has an ability for maneuvering, evading risks and has this talent for sending effective messages to the public…. Who will come after him?"

The loss of the Jordanian militant as the principal leader of a sometimes splintered, mainly Iraqi network would not mean that the movement "will crumble and cease to exist," Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said this week at a Pentagon briefing. "The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient."

Names of possible successors who follow the thinking of Al Qaeda and other militant organizations include Khalid Shami, a Syrian; Abdel Rahmaan, an Iraqi; and Abu Hifs Qurani, believed to be either a Saudi or a Yemeni.

The Qurani clan is known for producing fighters for Islamic holy war in Afghanistan and across the Middle East. One Al Qaeda-linked website this week indicated that Qurani had been named temporary leader in Zarqawi's absence. The same site later cast doubt on that information. Neither report could be independently verified.

It is unclear whether Qurani or the others possess Zarqawi's apparent ability to galvanize the factions of a movement that includes an international cadre of suicide bombers, former Iraqi military officers, radical imams and criminals. It is also unclear whether they have Zarqawi's flair for dramatic statements to a worldwide audience, like his videotaped appearances beheading kidnapped Westerners such as American contractor Nicholas Berg.

If Zarqawi is "injured or killed, it will definitely weaken the insurgency," said a spokesman for the Iraqi government commandos known as the Wolf Brigade. He argued that the rise in car bombings was a sign of desperation among the guerrillas and the "fading away of the base for people like Zarqawi."

Zarqawi's blending of terrorist tactics with hatred of the U.S. has helped make Iraq a landscape of persistent brutality.

It is believed that last year, he led insurgents in battling U.S. forces around Fallouja. In recent months, U.S. military officials say, he has concentrated on organizing car bombings and stoking sectarian animosities between Shiite and Sunni Muslims to ignite a civil war. More than 600 Iraqis, mostly civilians, have died since April 28, when the new Iraqi government was formed.

The son of a traditional healer and a tribal chief in Jordan, Zarqawi has gained mythical status among radical Islamists as a defiant warrior against infidels. He is seen as a lone figure, a man with a Kalashnikov rifle and a sword whose screeds occasionally blare over the radio, condemning Iraqis who cooperate with Washington and calling for new recruits.

If Osama bin Laden is the intellectual force behind Al Qaeda, Zarqawi is its muscle. He formally merged his fighters with the group in 2004, after resolving ideological differences.

There are no reliable numbers on the size of the insurgency or how many foreign fighters have crossed Iraq's borders. Zarqawi's reputation for elusiveness was heightened in February, when he narrowly escaped capture at a U.S. checkpoint near Ramadi. U.S. troops, however, say they confiscated his laptop computer from the truck he had been traveling in. Since then, about 20 of his lieutenants, including car bomb specialist Ghassan Mohammed Amin, have been arrested or killed.

Zarqawi's image among Iraqis has suffered since last week, when he proclaimed that killing civilians with car bombs was justified in the war against Washington. U.S. officials say that recent raids by American and Iraqi troops along the Syrian border and in the capital have killed more than 135 guerrillas and put further pressure on the insurgency's resources. The sweeps seized antitank weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and more than $6 million.

"Although Zarqawi's network has been diminished, his followers can still muster forces for attacks," Col. Don Alston, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces, said this month. The Iraqi government is concerned that Zarqawi's death might turn him into a martyr and provide a rallying cry for extremists to join the insurgency.

Some intelligence officials worry that reports of Zarqawi's injuries may be a disinformation campaign. The posting on an Al Qaeda website caught the attention of terrorism experts because the site was known to have carried messages from operatives, and the Zarqawi item was attributed to a known spokesman for his network in Iraq.

"Parts of it look consistent" with an authentic posting, an intelligence official said. "But how do you authenticate a Web statement?"

The official added that Zarqawi's group could be seeking to portray their leader as the "Harry Houdini" of Iraq, outwitting his American pursuers as he hides in towns scattered throughout the western desert. Another posting Friday on a site used by Zarqawi's followers added to the confusion. It said he was in "good health and running the jihad himself."

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Thursday that he believed Zarqawi had been wounded. An accurate medical picture, however, has been hard to come by. Months before U.S.-led forces toppled Hussein in April 2003, Western intelligence reports suggested that Zarqawi - then a small-time militant based in Jordan - had had a leg amputated. Other sources said the limb had been injured during fighting in Afghanistan but was intact.

In recent weeks, there have been intelligence and media reports that Zarqawi was sneaking into hospitals for treatment and escaping before security forces arrived. There are also unconfirmed reports that Zarqawi has fled the country and is being cared for by several doctors. The U.S. has offered $25 million for information leading to his capture.

It is difficult to pin down when Zarqawi entered Iraq. Some Western intelligence reports say his leg was treated in Baghdad while Hussein was in power. Kurdish and American intelligence officials say that shortly before the invasion, Zarqawi traveled through northern Iraq and assisted Ansar al Islam, a group of radical Sunni Kurds that was fortified with Al Qaeda fighters after the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in 2001.

Zarqawi's relationship with Ansar over the last two years suggests an ability to inspire those who were once suspicious.

Following the invasion of Iraq, Ansar regrouped to form Ansar al Sunna, responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks throughout the country, including December's explosion at a Mosul military base that killed 22 people, including 14 American soldiers.

Many members of Ansar al Sunna did not want to give their allegiance to Zarqawi, whom they viewed as a foreigner trying to manipulate the insurgency to further Al Qaeda's ambitions. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Abdurahman Ali Khurshid, an Ansar operative arrested by Kurds, said the strain between the group and Zarqawi intensified when an Ansar leader, Omar Baziyani, defected to Zarqawi's side.

But a posting on Ansar's website this week suggested that Zarqawi won them over.

"God chose him to be the needle in his enemy's eyes," the message read. "He is the one who satisfied the Muslims by his operations against the Christian forces and their followers…. Ansar al Sunna is asking God to heal [Zarqawi] in order that he continue his jihad and holy operations."

Times staff writers Greg Miller and Mark Mazzetti in Washington and special correspondent Asmaa Waguih in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Perilous Ins and Outs of Travel in Iraq
By Marjorie Miller
LA Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - The flight out of Iraq has been grounded by a sandstorm. The sky is opaque, amber-yellow, and travelers pass the time talking guns.

A well-known Sunni political leader on his way to Lebanon likes the lightweight German Glock. He can tuck it into the waistband of his pants. His friend, an American contractor, prefers the Italian Beretta, a more reliable weapon. He points out the window to the blinding sand dust.

"Can you imagine what that does to a gun?" the American says.

As the hours tick by and the weather refuses to clear, the Iraqi fingers his prayer beads. The American rocks back and forth on his heels. The airplane is still stuck in Jordan, two hours away.

"Did I tell you they tried to kill me with a suicide bomber?" the Iraqi asks his American friend.

"No, you didn't mention it."

"Two of my bodyguards died," he says.

The Iraqi, who asks not to be identified, is a player. He talks to Shiite religious and political leaders. He talks to the Americans and to Ahmad Chalabi, a former U.S. ally. He talks to Sunni sheiks, and who knows who else.

"Yeah, well, they want to kill you. A lot of people probably want to kill you," the American responds.

It is early May and I have only been in Baghdad for a few days and a couple of suicide bombs, but already I understand the numbing effect of the pervasive violence. My Royal Jordanian flight to Baghdad had made the requisite corkscrew landing to evade any insurgent missile fire. A flight attendant announced afterward that passengers should remain seated until the plane came to a full stop and refrain from opening overhead bins "for your own safety."

I chuckled. A whack on the head from carry-on luggage seemed the least of my worries with the deadly airport road and bomb-racked city looming ahead. But no one else seemed to see the irony. The other passengers stared straight ahead, seat belts dutifully fastened.

I moved around Baghdad in the back of an armored car whose thick windows separated me from kebab shops, cafes and fruit stands with bright red apples that I could see but could not touch, as if in a dream. For the return trip to the airport, I donned a black abaya and head scarf so that anyone looking in the car window would not immediately see a Western woman.

By then, my thinking tilted toward the paranoid. I wondered if the man lighting a cigarette by the side of the airport road simply wanted a smoke or meant to signal insurgents, whether a young boy herding sheep was a shepherd or a scout.

At the first airport checkpoint, I got out of the car for a suitcase and body search. Secular Iraqi women headed for work at the airport stared at my Muslim dress. They do not like the Islamization of Iraq, and danger or no danger, they did not like my abaya. I took it off inside the airport, and when one of the women working the ticket counter spotted me in my Eileen Fisher travel wear, she shouted, "Now you look beautiful!"

The airport is open to Iraqis with a passport and a ticket, but on this day most of the passengers waiting in the hall lighted by gray-green fluorescent light are U.S. contractors wearing dusty boots and pouches around their necks with badges from the Department of Defense. They line up for flights chartered by Halliburton's KBR subsidiary to places such as Tikrit and Irbil.

Some of them are veterans of past wars, former soldiers and fellow travelers from Panama, Somalia, Kosovo. They eat sandwiches of flat Iraqi bread and drink cups of strong, sweet coffee that could almost send them flying without a plane.

The talk turns to politics. The American contractor and his Iraqi friend are frustrated. Things went wrong in Iraq from the very beginning, they say, when the U.S. failed to prevent looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein, decided to disband the Iraqi army, and refused to hand power over to Iraqis immediately.

The U.S. government allowed the liberation to become an occupation, they say, and is still paying the price of that mistake. In their view, the violence is not diminishing. The transitional Iraqi government will not succeed. The ongoing violence will end in civil war.

A day before, I had visited the so-called Green Zone, encompassing U.S. installations and the seat of the government, where I was told things were improving in Iraq.

The walled Green Zone conjures images of Oz, but it's desert camouflage rather than emerald. To enter is to go through layer after layer of security barricades, past watchtowers and armored tanks with turrets, through car and body searches, beeping scanners and scrutinizing eyes. The guards are Gurkhas and Georgians, many of whom speak neither Arabic nor English.

t. Col. Fred Wellman had offered a cold drink and a slide show of the Jan. 30 election day. It was a moving presentation set to music, of men and women in separate, snaking lines waiting to vote in the first free elections of their lifetime. It had the rousing feel of a campaign ad. Voter after voter held up a purple, ink-dipped finger in an inspiring demonstration of popular will.

"Not a single polling station was compromised," Wellman said with pride.

U.S. officials in the Green Zone were in a particularly good mood that day because finally, more than three months after the election, the Iraqis had completed the formation of the new government with the selection of a Sunni defense minister. Things were moving forward, they said.

"If we're willing to stay the course here, we can do it here," enthused a senior U.S. official who, like most Americans in the Green Zone, spoke on the condition that he would not be identified. "I certainly can see the way forward. I think the Iraqi forces are going to be ever more on the job, and I think the insurgency is going to split."

Wellman said that about 162,000 Iraqi troops had been trained and equipped by the U.S. and allied forces. This is the "Iraqi-ization" of the war, the gradual turning over of combat and security to what will eventually be an estimated 300,000 Iraqi soldiers and police.

Meanwhile, a senior military officer explained with unblinking earnestness his belief that Iraqis were different from us. They tell him so. Iraqis have more children than Americans do, he said. If one child dies, of course they are sad, but they have others. They can even take a second wife to have more children.

A look of horror washed briefly across my face. Bombs explode nearly every day, sometimes several times a day in Baghdad and around the country. From what I have seen, when an Iraqi dies, mothers, fathers and children cry in grief. More than 450 Iraqi civilians have died in May alone.

The officer said that this was an unusually bad period. It had been quiet in previous weeks while the insurgents stockpiled their car bombs and gathered their foreign suicide bombers, many of whom they drugged before sending them like sheep to slaughter, he said. But they will run out of bombs soon. In a couple of weeks it will be quiet again, he said.

At the airport, I tell them about the optimism I encountered in the Green Zone over the formation of a new government, and the new Sunni defense minister, Saadoun Dulaimi. The Sunni coughs out a laugh. The interior minister is a Shiite, he says. That's where the power lies.

"The interior minister is an Iranian agent," he says. The Americans just don't get it.

The sky begins to clear a bit. We hear that the plane has taken off from Jordan and will be arriving at 4 p.m. The airport closes at 5 p.m., so we'll have just an hour to take off. Otherwise, we'll all have to head back down the airport road, back into the bombed-out wreck of Baghdad.

Finally, the flight to Jordan is announced. It takes off at 4:40 p.m. — 20 minutes before it is considered too dangerous to fly.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

SEAL Officer Not Guilty of Assaulting Iraqi <br />
By Tony Perry <br />
LA Times Staff Writer <br />
May 28, 2005 <br />
<br />
SAN DIEGO - As his family wept and his fellow Navy SEALs cheered, a SEAL lieutenant was found not...

[thedrifter]

Muslims Across World Protest Koran Reports
From Associated Press
May 28, 2005

CAIRO - Muslims spat on the American flag, threw tomatoes at a picture of President Bush and burned the U.S. Constitution in protests Friday from Egypt to Indonesia over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Waving copies of the Koran, many of the thousands of demonstrators across the Middle East and Asia chanted anti-U.S. slogans and demanded an apology from the United States, as well as punishment for those who had treated the book with disrespect at the U.S. lockup in Cuba.

U.S. investigators admitted Thursday that the Koran had been mishandled, but they contend it was mostly inadvertent and deny that a copy was put in a toilet. Friday's protests were organized before the officials' comments in Washington.

Many Muslims were outraged by a report in Newsweek's May 9 issue that interrogators at Guantanamo flushed a copy of the Koran down the toilet to get inmates to talk. The article - later retracted - sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan.

"The defilement of our holy book is outrageous because we consider it to be the word of God," said Asiya Andrabi, head of Daughters of the Community and one of about 50 Muslim women in veils who marched through Srinagar, in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir.

Police watched many of the rallies, which were mostly peaceful.

In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, about 12,000 people, some followers of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, filled a three-story building and spilled onto surrounding streets, which were sealed off by riot and street police. Through megaphones, speakers called on the government and Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand imam of Al Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious seat of learning, to demand an apology from the United States.

In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, about 1,000 demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and held black banners with the inscription "There is no god but God, Muhammad is God's messenger."

The protests also spread to Sudan, where thousands gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and called for a serious investigation into all violations against Muslim detainees held at Guantanamo.

More than 15,000 people marched in protests throughout Pakistan, including in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Lahore.

The protest in Islamabad, the capital, began in a tense atmosphere hours after a bomb at a Muslim shrine killed at least 19 people.

"It's time for Muslims to unite," Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of a religious alliance that organized many of the rallies, told a crowd of more than 5,000 watched by heavy security. "We have been given a challenge."

About 5,000 protesters marched in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and some of them spat on, kicked and burned the U.S. flag. Others shouted "Death to America!" as they held copies of the Koran above their heads.

In Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, about 50 protesters in the capital, Jakarta, pelted a portrait of Bush with tomatoes.

Hundreds of people in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shouted and burned U.S. and Israeli flags outside the U.S. Embassy. The crowd dispersed peacefully after handing a memorandum to embassy officials.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bordering on insanity
Rich Tucker
May 28, 2005

So, are you feeling more secure these days?

After all, it's been more than three and a half years since September 11, and we haven't suffered another attack on our soil. To put that in perspective, by this long after Pearl Harbor, the war was almost over. We'd defeated Germany and occupied its territory. The war against Japan was also just about finished.

But the war against terrorism is a very different type of war, one that we seem to be taking less seriously. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently announced it had arrested 60 illegal immigrants working at 12 critical infrastructure sites.

Frighteningly, our government doesn't know who these people are or where they came from. "Not only are their identities in question, but given their illegal status, these individuals are vulnerable to potential exploitation by terrorist and other criminal organizations," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Michael J. Garcia announced.

It's not simply power plants, pipelines, petrochemical facilities and airports (more than 1,000 undocumented workers have been arrested at airports) that are at risk. A congressional report notes that groups of illegal immigrants routinely tramp across Fort Huachuca, a military base in Arizona. More than 3,000 illegals were detained on the base last year. The Washington Times reports that immigrants "routinely wander through base housing units, drink from hoses and pools, and trample through the yards of military families and other private areas."

Fort Huachuca is home to the army's leading intelligence school and several units of the DHS. If we can't protect that base from illegals, it's worth wondering exactly what we can protect.

Getting illegal immigration under control is a key mission in the war against terror. After all, a country that doesn't control its borders won't be a country for long. Sadly, the government's plans to protect us don't inspire much confidence.

In April, DHS announced a plan to require anyone crossing the border from Mexico or Canada to show a passport. That rule could take effect in 2008, but it wouldn't do much except inconvenience those of us who are already law-abiding citizens. We'll face longer lines and hassles at border checkpoints, while undocumented immigrants just keep doing what they're already doing: Slipping across the border at unmanned spots, walking across military bases (if one happens to be in their path) and entering the workforce.

Meanwhile, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., have introduced what amounts to an illegal-immigrant amnesty bill. If it becomes law, millions of illegal workers could eventually gain citizenship. They'd simply have to pay $1,000 and work for six years before seeking permanent residency.

That would make little sense. If you reward people who are here illegally, you're simply going to encourage more people to come illegally. It would be better to offer illegals $1,000 to leave.
After all, there are up to 12 million illegals in the United States right now. Even if we decided to round them up and send them home, we couldn't do it. We simply don't have the manpower or the jail space. But they might return home if there was a financial incentive. And we could then give them amnesty of a sort, by allowing them to return -- as long as they do so legally.

At the same time, we should enforce our existing laws. It's already illegal to hire someone who doesn't have a social security number, for example. We ought to put the IRS on the case. That agency strikes fear into the hearts of legal Americans -- let's have it go after the employers who hire illegals. If these employers start facing penalties, they'll no longer have an incentive to hire illegals and, eventually, the flow of illegals will dry up.

Not everyone is going to like it if we do all this. Recently, Mexican President Vicente Fox waded into our immigration debate. He defended Mexicans who have crossed into the U.S. illegally by claiming they "are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States."

Fox seems to have forgotten which country he's the leader of. Even if every illegal went home, they'd still be legal Mexican citizens. It's here in the U.S. that they're illegal, and thus a concern. Of course, if all those people returned, Mexico would need to build an economy that can provide for all its citizens, instead of simply exporting so many of them.

The key is to limit illegal immigration and make sure our government has a handle on exactly who is coming across our borders. Until that happens, we won't be as safe as we need to be.

Rich Tucker is a staff editor at The Heritage Foundation, a Townhall.com member group, and the host of richtucker.net.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The fallacy of the Fallaci 'fatwa' <br />
Kathleen Parker <br />
May 27, 2005 <br />
<br />
So goes my prayerful response to news that Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci will be prosecuted on charges of &quot;outrage to...

[thedrifter]

'To support and defend... So help me God'
Mark Alexander
May 27, 2005

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means...."
--John Adams

Monday is Memorial Day, set aside to honor our fallen Patriots -- generations of American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen -- who served their country with honor from 1776 to this day. It is a day that many of our Patriot readers, and every member of The Federalist Patriot staff, observe in solemn reverence.

There will be thousands of respectful commemorations across the nation, but the media outlets will be focused on Memorial Day "sales" to commemorate the commercial exploitation that attends every national holiday. Indeed, while divisions of America's Armed Forces are standing in harm's way today against a formidable Jihadi adversary, many of their countrymen will be too preoccupied with festivity to pause and recognize their sacrifice and that of those who have gone before.

At sunrise on Saturday, in advance of Memorial Day, this Boy Scout leader will join his troop and pack at Chattanooga's National Cemetery for an official ceremony and prayer memorializing fallen veterans, by branch of service, interred in the last year. Our Scouts will then fan out across the grassy slopes of this hallowed ground and place small flags at 35,000 headstones. (See http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/BSA.asp)

It is a remarkable experience for all in attendance, though it could be the last. The Boy Scouts have yet to be kicked out of Chattanooga's National Cemetery, but they have been exiled from many other public places.

Why?

Because all Scouts are bound by the following oath: "On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country...." It is an oath which, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, makes the BSA a "religious organization," and, thus, in keeping with the ACLU's adulterated version of our Constitution's First Amendment, disqualifies the BSA from any public forum. Unfortunately, the ACLU and their patriarchs in Congress have planted enough judicial activists in U.S. Circuit Courts across the nation to impose, by judicial fiat, their God-forsaking agenda. (For a thorough Constitutional debunking of the ACLU's "wall of separation" claim, read "Public Prayer? Where's the outrage!" at http://FederalistPatriot.US/Alexander/)

In 1999, the ACLU sued the Department of Defense for sponsoring some 400 Boy Scout programs, including the national Boy Scouts Jamboree in Virginia. American Legion National Commander Thomas Cadmus protested last year, in a letter to SecDef Don Rumsfeld: "The idea that sponsorship of Scouting by American military units is 'unconstitutional' goes beyond the absurd, even well past the point of stupidity."

Absurd and stupid, indeed -- so who is funding all these ACLU suits? American taxpayers -- that's you and me.

Many of the ACLU's "attorney-fee awards" are paid for under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code Sec. 1988, legislation intended to provide compensation to legitimate victims of civil-rights violations. The ACLU is exploiting this law using phony plaintiffs suffering de minimis claims. Additionally, they are scalping state and local taxpayers. After the ACLU got the Boy Scouts removed from Balboa Park in San Diego, they collected a cool $940,000 from the city in "compensation." The Portland Public School system recently paid the ACLU $108,000 after an atheist objected to Boy Scout recruitment on school property after school hours.

Such complaints are creeping across the nation and showing up on "ACLU-friendly" Circuit Court dockets -- all because the Boy Scouts refuse to remove the word "God" from their oath. Will the United States military be cowed as well? Or will it summon the resolve to engage this mortal enemy of our national heritage?


Earlier this year, the Department of Defense settled with the ACLU, agreeing not to sponsor any of the scouting activities monetarily, while it will still allow scouting events at military installations -- a military retreat but not complete withdrawal. However, every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coastguardsman we honor this Memorial Day, and all those in service now, are bound by their oath "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.... So help me God."

So help me God.

The ACLU's Adam Schwartz noticed, protesting, "If our Constitution's promise of religious liberty is to be a reality, the government should not be administering religious oaths or discriminating based on religious beliefs." But, as noted in the essay referenced above, there is no "wall of separation" between religion and the government; there is only a prohibition on the Congress from establishing a national religion. However, the Circuit Courts are chock-full-o the ACLU's judicial activists, those who, in the words of the august Senator Sam Ervin, "interpret the Constitution to mean what it would have said if they, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it."

The courts are stacked with such despots, as Thomas Jefferson called them, because neither they, nor the members of the Senate who seat them (you know who you are), abide by their oaths to defend our Constitution -- "So help me God" -- the same Creator to whom members of our Armed Forces appeal. The difference, of course, is that our uniformed Patriots have defended, and continue to defend, that oath with their lives, while liberal senators and judges defend it with lip service over cappuccinos and tartlets.

If you are able, please join your fellow countrymen this weekend at your nearest National Cemetery, and honor those uniformed Patriots who stood and fell by their oath in defense of our Constitution. Remember to pause at 3:00pm local time on Memorial Day, and offer remembrance and prayer for these great Patriots. "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died," said Gen. George S. Patton. "Rather we should thank God that such men lived." On this and every day, please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces now standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return. Please take a moment to sign "An Open Letter in Support of America's Armed Forces" at http://PatriotPetitions.US/USMIL

Mark Alexander is Executive Editor and Publisher of The Federalist Patriot, a Townhall.com member group.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Empty table honors all U.S. MIAs, POWs
By Bruce Smith
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 28, 2005

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -- The table is set with a white tablecloth, a black napkin and white candle, and a plate with only a slice of lemon and salt. An empty chair leans against the table.

The tradition, little known to the general public, of setting an empty table with a white tablecloth in remembrance of prisoners of war and those missing in action had its beginnings with a group of fighter pilots who flew in Vietnam.

This Memorial Day, the story of the remembrance table will become a bit better known with the publication of the children's picture book "America's White Table."

"It's really thanking everyone who served -- not just Vietnam, it has gone beyond that," said Tom Hanton, a 60-year-old former fighter pilot who spent nine months as a POW in Vietnam. "It applies to those serving right now in Iraq and Afghanistan and all around the world."

The book's author, Margot Theis Raven of Mount Pleasant, said she would like to see the white table become a tradition for all Americans, just like putting out the flag on Independence Day.

"Be it Memorial Day or Veterans Day or the Fourth of July, that's the point," she said. "The point is every single day of freedom is brought to you by that person who is not sitting there."

The book tells the story of a girl who helps her mother set a remembrance table in her home and how the sight brings tears to the eyes of her uncle, who served in Vietnam. For adults, the book provides details of the white table tradition and how it started.

The tradition, started by the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association -- the so-called River Rats of Vietnam -- has spread to other branches of the military where remembrance tables are set when units or commands gather for dinners or reunions.

The symbols on the tables may vary depending on the ceremony.

Generally, the tablecloth represents purity of heart, the black napkin the sorrow of captivity and the white candle, peace. The lemon represents the missing service member's bitter fate and the salt, the tears shed by the families of the missing.

The tradition didn't spread far from the military, perhaps, in part, because of the controversy that surrounded Vietnam.

"It's characteristic of the Vietnam War," said Chuck Jackson, 59, who spent eight months as a POW after his plane was shot down over Vietnam. "It wasn't a war unless you were there. It didn't affect you unless you were there or had someone who was there."

After the war "the only people who got any sort of recognition were the POWs, which to me was almost embarrassing," Mr. Hanton said.

Miss Raven, sitting with the vets in her home, said the book "talks about people who didn't come home. But in essence, none of you came home."

"Everybody came home minus something," Mr. Jackson said. "The general public didn't really want to recognize Vietnam -- what went on there, the good and the bad."

That has been changing.

Miss Raven is scheduled to read her book during a Memorial Day weekend combined meeting of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association and NAM-POWS, the Vietnam War prisoner of war association, in Washington.

Next month, Vietnam veterans will receive a special tribute in Branson, Mo., featuring a parade, flyovers by vintage aircraft and music from the Doobie Brothers, Tony Orlando and the Four Tops.

In July, during a ceremony at the replica of a Vietnam naval support base at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, Miss Raven again will read from the book. During that event, which will feature veterans and POWs, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's sons are expected to set a white remembrance table.

Miss Raven would like to see the tradition of the white table spread to homes and restaurants across the nation.

The table is "the most important image we can ever have, and it's not political," she said. "Even the flag can get politicized. This has no party and no agenda except that a person said 'yes' to duty, and that is always to be honored."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

First-term Marines Gather Reenlistment Knowledge <br />
by Cpl. Susan Smith <br />
Marine Corps News <br />
May 27, 2005 <br />
<br />
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va - Should I get out? Should I stay in? If I stay in, can I...

[thedrifter]

Marines, Sailors say Cheese in Times Square
by Cpl. Lameen Witter
Marine Corps News
May 27, 2005

NEW YORK - The bright lights and big signs of New York's Times Square was rivaled by the images of shiny brass and sharp creases of Marines and sailors in uniform projected on the huge Panasonic monitor in the center of the square, yesterday.

Panasonic teamed up four years ago with the United Service Organization (USO) and Earth Cam to give the Marines and other service members, who come in port for the city's Fleet Week celebration, an opportunity for their friends and families to see them towering over the famed intersection.

In addition to being seen by all of New York on the massive monitor, pictures were also taken of the Marines and sailors with their images on the monitor in the background of the photo. Panasonic then sends the photo to each service members' hometown newspaper and mails a copy to the each service member in the photo. Earth Cam also interviews each service member and broadcasts it live on the Earth Cam website. Many Marines and sailors called home as they were being interviewed to tell the families to watch them.

According to Justin Camerlengo, Panasonic developer and coordinator for the event, an average of 300 Marines and sailors turned out for the function last year.

"What better way is there to say, "thanks and welcome to New York' than something like this," spouted Camerlengo with a smile.

Ensemble dancers from Broadway's hit musical Spamalot also came to the square to welcome the Marines and sailors and took photos with the service members to cement the moment.

"Aww dog, I'm loving this!!!" said Sgt. Nathan Teasley of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Atlantic"s color guard.

The Hartwell, Ga. native summed up the experience as he smiled and came from posing for a photo where one of the dancers gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Arlington Ladies
By Shawn Macomber
Published 5/27/2005 12:09:54 AM

ONE AFTERNOON towards the end of March, 200 mourners slowly trekked under a bright blue sky to the plot where 20-year-old Army Pfc. Michael Anthony Arciola was about to become the 123rd soldier killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Arciola, a recipient of both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, was shot and killed on patrol in Al Ramadi on February 15. The larger than usual crowd was no surprise. The young man had been so well loved in his hometown of Elmsford, New York, that more than a thousand people came to his memorial service there. Dying young carries with it an implicit sense of tragedy that draws people -- emotionally and physically -- to it.

Nevertheless, Pfc. Arciola was not the only one laid to rest that Friday at Arlington. Sixteen other servicemen, most of them veterans many years older than Arciola, were likewise buried. An average week at Arlington will see between 80 and 100 burials on its 612 acres, and the final week of March was within that margin. Arciola's funeral was the largest the cemetery had held in a few weeks. Others attracted dozens or fewer mourners. A smattering had no friends or loved ones in attendance at all.

As in most matters, however, the military prefers to focus on cohesion rather than dissension; on the ties that bind rather than the walls that separate. This is as true of funerals as it is of boot camp. Most people are aware of one aspect of this, the Honor Guard. But there is another unifying element, much less publicized than the 21-gun salute, but just as important in both a practical and symbolic sense. It comes in the form of a conservatively dressed woman who -- whether amongst a throng of mourners, seated alongside the family, or standing as the sole attendee -- is there to help shepherd the fallen soldier during his final mile.

These volunteer women are known as "The Arlington Ladies." They attend every funeral at Arlington to ensure, first and foremost, that no soldier is ever buried with no one in attendance, and second, to serve the needs of family members, whether they are present at the funeral or not.

Normally it isn't difficult to get someone to go on record about a noble pursuit. The first reaction to the prospect of a laudatory article is rarely reticence. But this group of no-nonsense women did not jump at the chance to talk about themselves. In fact, they were surprisingly difficult to track down at all. This is probably at least partially because the vast majority of Arlington Ladies are either retired servicewomen themselves or from military families, a culture not given to bragging.

"They don't seek publicity," Army Major Kevin Stroop, a regimental chaplain who performs funerals at Arlington, said. "What they do here is absolutely vital to our mission, but those moments they share with the families and our servicemen and women are intensely personal. The Arlington Ladies, as a group, really are committed to keeping those moments and their work sacred."

When I finally get Linda Willey, wife of a retired Air Force Colonel and a 13-year veteran of the Arlington Ladies, on the phone, she is effusive and cordial, but makes it plain she is not looking for any outside affirmation of what she does.

"We're here to pay our respects and support the families of those lost," Willey said. "We don't want a pat on the back or any gold stars. This is about something bigger than flaunting what we do for brownie points."

Interviews with other Arlington Ladies quickly make it clear that Willey's claims are not frivolous false modesty, but truth. There is, it seems, still such a thing as selfless service.

THE STORY OF THE ARLINGTON LADIES stretches back to a day in 1948 when Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg happened upon the funeral of an airman at Arlington. What he saw disturbed him: There wasn't a soul at the service, save the chaplain and the Honor Guard members conducting it. Vandenberg, the nephew of the legendary Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg, was about as dedicated an airman as they come. After winning the Distinguished Service Medal and Silver Star for his service during and tactical planning of the Normandy invasion, Vandenberg began a dizzying series of promotions that landed him in the Air Force's top spot at the sprightly age of 49. He took pride in defending his men from the enemy and Washington bureaucrats alike. It did not sit well with him to watch a fellow airman make this final journey alone.

When he brought this black cloud of concern home, his wife Gladys worked to soothe her husband's worries by personally attending Air Force personnel burials and founding the Arlington Committee. Thus, an Arlington institution -- eventually to become known as the Arlington Ladies -- was born. The complimentary Army Arlington Ladies was founded in 1972, with the Navy following suit in 1985. The Marine Corps, true to its separate nature, does not have a contingent of Arlington Ladies, but a representative of the Commandant is at every funeral. There are now more than 160 active Arlington Ladies.

The Arlington Ladies' mission has evolved since those early days. If there are family members present, an Arlington Lady will deliver a personal note of condolence from the chief of staff's office. They also write their own note of condolence, based upon an information sheet provided by the government with dates of service, awards given, and name of next of kin, as well as any other information the chaplain can provide.

"You get pretty good at reading between lines," Willey said. "When you see what period they served in, you have a good idea of what that person may have gone through."

If family is unable to attend a funeral, an Arlington Lady will send a letter describing the service and the day, right down to the sounds and smells in the air.

"What we do is always important and meaningful, but when you are alone at a funeral there is an added relevance," Willey said. "You feel an even greater need to be there, like you're helping to close the circle. For those grieving far away, a personal letter letting them know that someone was there can help soothe their sorrow. It shows them that their loved one's service was not forgotten and also that their loss has not been ignored."

The connection between the bereaved and an Arlington Lady does not end when the funeral is over, either.

"One of the first things I tell all my families is, 'I am your Arlington lady, not just now but forever, and you can always contact me,'" said Paula McKinley, the chair of the Navy Arlington Ladies. "It's a bond that is built to last."

This may sound like hyperbole, but consider the following: McKinley has placed roses on a grave for years at the request of a Navy widow and last summer on what would have been the couple's 50th anniversary she sent along 50 roses because it's what she imagined the husband would have done.

"We write everyone a follow-up letter six to eight weeks later, as well" McKinley said. "In most families, there's a great support group that hovers for a month or so. Then, it's not that their family abandons them, it's just that they go back to their own lives. But the grieving is not over. We just want to remind them they are still in our hearts and we are still available if they need us."

"Usually by the end of a service, families have a glazed look," Willey added. "They're gone emotionally. But hopefully they'll have a memory of somebody being there, being kind and touching to them in some way. The feedback we get suggests that's true. Oftentimes I'll get a letter a few months after a funeral from someone saying, 'I didn't comprehend what you were doing at the time, but thank you for being there.'"

For those who have not served in an official capacity, it might be difficult to understand what draws this group of women to events most of us spend our lives trying to avoid.

"It's not emotionally grueling in the least," McKinley said. "It can be emotional, but that's a different thing. We are not mourners. We are there to pay tribute."

"There is some distance you can get from the situation just by recognizing you are part of the ceremony," Willey agreed, but added that when death comes suddenly or orphaned children are involved it can be tougher. "There have been times, I'll admit, when I've had to fight back a big lump and stare at the sky or do whatever I have to do to keep myself from falling apart. And you do it, because part of my job is to protect the integrity of the ceremony, to make sure everything goes smoothly."

IT'S CLEAR IN SPEAKING with these women that performing the duties of an Arlington Lady calls for something above and beyond being able to dress well. So, just as not everyone is made for the Honor Guard, the Arlington Ladies are a select group. There is no sign-up form on the Internet or any open call: One must be asked to join their ranks by another Arlington Lady.

Once invited, the motivations for becoming an Arlington Lady vary, but only slightly. Mostly it comes down to the same reasoning that draws a lot of people to regular military service: Honor, duty, country.

Willey, for example, became an Arlington Lady after much cajoling from a close friend and fellow military wife.

"I agreed to try it out just to shut her up," she laughed. "It was sort of a fluke. But I quickly realized what a unique opportunity this was to serve the Air Force. It's a feeling I can't even describe, sharing these moments with people. As members of military families, we have a special insight into what their life was like. So these funerals we attend really feel like the funeral of somebody from our extended family."

"There are few things in my life that have given me as much satisfaction as serving as an Arlington Lady volunteer," Margaret Mensch of the Army's Arlington Ladies contingent added. "It's an honor to be asked to be a part of these ceremonies that pay tribute to the everyday heroes that make up the armed forces. We're just giving back a little to those who have given us so much."

For McKinley, serving as an Arlington Lady helps make up for some of the indifference to military sacrifice in modern society.

"A lot of people these days seem to believe the military is terrible," she said. "It's not easy, and it's not for everybody, that's for sure. But these people are giving of themselves every single day. There's no draft. Everyone in the military has chosen to make the military their life, and whether it's for four years or forty, they deserve to be thanked and honored. And I mean honored. That's why I'm here and I've never lost sight of that."

But there is also something larger, in the very best sense of the "one for all, and all for one" sentiment, at work here.

"One day, hopefully a long time away yet, I could be the one burying my husband," she said. "If that day comes I know there will be an Arlington Lady standing there with me. We all have our times of joy and sorrow and that's what unifies us as human beings. I'm willing to be there on both ends because I know someone will do the same for me."

Shawn Macomber is a reporter and staff writer for The American Spectator.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Corps' most decorated unit honors U.S., British personnel killed in Iraq
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 27, 2005

CAMP PENDLETON - The 420 dog tags dangling from M-16 rifles on a spring morning magnified the sense of loss, and pride, that a year's worth of casualty figures scrolling across a TV screen couldn't match.

Yesterday, members of the 1st Marine Division - the largest and most decorated unit in the Corps - saluted and prayed for the U.S. and British troops who served with them in Iraq and died between March 20, 2004, and March 17, 2005.

An estimated 1,641 U.S. military men and women have been killed in Iraq since the war began more than two years ago. About 220 of them were based at Camp Pendleton, mostly from the 1st Marine Division.

The memorial was believed to be the largest held at Camp Pendleton in decades, possibly since World War II, though that could not be confirmed.

Sgt. Maj. Wayne Bell, the top enlisted person in the 21,000-strong division, said the service gave his Marines and sailors a chance to reflect on the battles in and around Iraqi cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Hit.

"It is not saying goodbye. It gives us a chance to remember all our brothers in arms that we've lost in the last year," Bell said. "When you lose a Marine on the battlefield, you can't lose your focus. You have to keep going."

Fittingly, the service was held under overcast skies. Ranking members of the division, along with wounded Marines, sat under a large red-and-yellow canopy. Rows of state flags enclosed both ends of the parade field.

A Marine rifle team fired a three-shot volley, and a bugler played taps.

Few families attended the ceremony. Services had been held for them during previous months. Loved ones were not excluded, Marine officials said, but this memorial was intended for Marines.

Emily Dieruf, 23, was one of the few civilians present. She was married to Cpl. Nicholas Dieruf, 22, for three months before he was killed April 8, 2004.

Dieruf wore a T-shirt with her husband's photo on the back. She said she is committed to ensuring that his sacrifice is not forgotten.

"He was so proud of what he did," Dieruf said. "I am so proud of his service and what he did. I miss him so much."

About 1,000 Marines, most of them wearing desert uniforms, attended the service. Hundreds waited until the service ended to pay their respects. Several took photos with cell phones or digital cameras to record the occasion.

Flowers were placed at the foot of at least one memorial.

As people walked from one rifle to the next, they talked about their immense sense of loss.

"In 2003, we had a division memorial for 39 Marines and sailors, and this one is for 420," Bell said.

He gazed at the line of 18 memorials, each consisting of a helmet perched atop an M-16 rifle, its bayonet planted in the earth. Dog tags hung from the pistol grips. Each memorial represented a unit, and each dog tag symbolized a member of that unit who died in Iraq.

"It has a has a lot more power" than hearing daily casualty reports in the media, Bell said.

That sentiment rang true not just for the Marines.

"Looking at all the dog tags just makes the war real. It brings an incredible sense of reality," said Tammy Maddox, 28, who brought her 4-year-old daughter to the ceremony. Her husband, Lt. Clint Maddox, serves with the division.

Chief Warrant Officer Alexander Heberlein, 44, started at one end of the memorials and worked his way to the other end, often taking a knee in the grass to search for a friend's dog tag.

He paused a few times to wipe his eyes.

"Some of the Marines I knew from the States, and others from Iraq," Heberlein said. "Some of them were very young Marines, and others were senior Marines I had known since they were junior Marines.

"It hit me because I had read their names on case reports (when they were killed). But I didn't get to go to their funerals. This is my last goodbye."

Heberlein has a request for civilians.

"I just hope that people, regardless of what they think of the war, remember that Memorial Day is about those who willingly gave their lives for their country and not about a day off," he said.

While the Marines paid homage to their dead yesterday, they anticipated what would come next: more training for a scheduled return to Iraq next spring.

Bell said national elections and new schools show that progress is being made in Iraq.

"It seems like the press is always focusing on the negative and not the positive," he said. "We do a lot of good over there. Things are getting better. I've seen what we've accomplished in two years."

About 150,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq. That figure includes 23,000 Marines, who often face the greatest risk. It's a fact that Bell, Heberlein and their brothers and sisters in arms seemingly accept.

"They knew when they left that they might have to give the ultimate sacrifice," said Staff Sgt. Aaron Rathbun, 27, a platoon leader for the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, based in Twentynine Palms. He will deploy to Iraq in September.

The insurgents "can try to knock us down," Rathbun said, "but we are going to keep pushing."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Commandant says '05 recruiting goals doable, worries about '06
By Otto Kreisher
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
May 27, 2005

WASHINGTON - Despite missing recruiting quotas for four straight months, the Marine Corps expects to meet its annual recruiting goals and is re-enlisting nearly all the active and reserve personnel it needs, the Marine commandant said yesterday.

But Gen. Michael Hagee expressed concern that the Marines could come up short next year if the U.S. military remains as heavily committed in Iraq and the public support for the war continues to drop.

"This is not a Marine Corps recruiting problem. This is the nation's recruiting problem," Hagee said, apparently referring to the more severe recruiting problems being encountered by the Army.

The Army has missed its monthly recruiting goals by as much as 27 percent since February, and the Army National Guard, which fell 12 percent short of its total enlistment goal last year, is having even more trouble so far this year.

Army officials have attributed their recruiting problems to the casualties in Iraq.

The Navy and the Air Force, which are suffering very few casualties in Iraq, have continued to meet their recruiting goals.

After months of high casualties, the Marines fell just short of their quota for signing up new recruits in January, breaking a 10-year record for meeting the monthly goals. They also missed the mark the next three months and may fall short again this month.

But three-fourths of the way through the fiscal year on which the recruiting figures are determined, Marine recruiters are just 441 short of the yearly goal of 38,195 signed agreements for both the active and reserve forces, a Marine Corps recruiting command spokesman said.

Hagee said the Corps is about to enter what usually is a productive recruiting period, after high school graduations.

Despite the shortfall in signing up recruits, the Marines have been able to exceed the monthly goals for sending young men and women to boot camp by drawing on a delayed-entry pool of people signed up the previous year, he said.

Hagee said he is confident that the Marines will meet their annual recruiting quota, which includes the congressionally authorized increase of 3,000 Marines for an active force of 178,000.

And they will do that without lowering their requirement that nearly all recruits be high school graduates or offering shorter enlistment tours, which the Army has done, he said.

Hagee also noted that re-enlistments are running at 95 percent of goals for first-tour Marines, 99 percent for more experienced personnel in the active force and nearly 100 percent in the Marine Corps Reserve.

But, Hagee added, "I was in Vietnam, so I know this could turn around quickly," a reference to the massive exodus of experienced personnel after repeated tours in that conflict.

Although Marine recruiters are coming very close to meeting their goals, they are having to spend three times as long as before for each successful enlistment, he said. A majority of that additional time is spent with the potential recruits' parents, who fear that their children will be sent to Iraq.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wounded Marine Gets Hero's Welcome in Bryan
May 27, 2005, 05:44 AM

BRYAN, OHIO -- It was a hero's welcome Thursday in the community of Fryan Ohio, as a young man, wounded in Iraq, came home. Folks in Bryan lined the streets to say thanks to Marine Lance Corporal Michael Strahle, their hometown hero.

Strahle was wounded two weeks ago in Iraq when his combat vehicle ran over a land mine. The shrapnel pierced his arm and chest. "I showed up in Maryland in pieces and they put me all back together and now they got me back in my hometown already," said Strahle. "If there's anything I could change about today, it would be to have the guys that didn't make it. There was five in my track that didn't make it that day."

"I can't say enough good things about him, so i'm glad he's back home and he's safe," said Shelly Dean, Michael's friend. She wasn't the only one there to see him come home. People from the community lined the streets. "My son just joined the Army and he leaves June 2nd. [I'm here] just to show appreciation for Michael and the rest of the soldiers," said Doug Dennison, a Bryan resident.

Strahle was overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment. "Everyone tells me in the hospital when I'm getting better that the whole town's behind me and I understood that. But now that I'm home... I'm getting choked up," he said, his voice trailing off. "I'm trying to be a tough guy, but..."

"We couldn't ask for anything better. We're so proud of him and it's great to have him home," said Jody Strahle, Michael's mother. "He's doing well. He's really happy to be feeling better and he's come a long way since 2 weeks ago," said Michael Strahle, Michael's father.

Lance Corporal Michael Strahle graduated from Bryan High School in 2003. He joined the Marines last year and was sent to Iraq on March 2nd. Despite his injuries, he tells us he can't wait to go back to work.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine veteran recalls island war <br />
By DALE KILLINGBECK <br />
CADILLAC NEWS <br />
<br />
MARION - Clair Thompson wears his various &quot;USMC&quot; caps most places. <br />
<br />
In Guam foxholes almost 61 years ago he wore a helmet...

[thedrifter]

Granville names school gym after fallen native son
GRANVILLE, Mass. (AP) -- Granville Village School has named its gymnasium after Marine First Lieutenant Travis Fuller.

The Granville native was one of 31 U-S servicemen killed in a January helicopter crash in Iraq.

School principal Robert Thompson said at a ceremony yesterday that it was in the gym that Fuller first started to form his philosophy of life that made him a standout wrestler in high school and an effective officer.

The ceremony was attended by Fuller's parents and a sister. His mother Joanne says her son never forget his small town values as he served all over the world with the Marines.

A plaque with Fuller's name and photo will be mounted on a wall near the gym's entrance.

The school teaches children in kindergarten through the eighth-grade.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Burial will be Tuesday for Marine killed in Iraq <br />
By Charlie White <br />
cwhite@courier-journal.com <br />
The Courier-Journal <br />
<br />
A Trinity High School graduate who died in combat Wednesday in Iraq will be...

[thedrifter]

Marine returns from second tour of Iraq <br />
By RON X. GUMUCIO <br />
THE JOURNAL NEWS <br />
May 28, 2005 <br />
<br />
During a recent tour in Iraq, U.S. Marine Sgt. Wilfredo Santiago said he got to see how war brings out...

[thedrifter]

Posted on Sun, May. 29, 2005


Al-Zarqawi followers, Sunni fighters square off

ELLEN KNICKMEYER

The Washington Post



BAGHDAD - For four days this month, U.S. Marines were onlookers at just the kind of fight they had hoped to see: a battle between suspected followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a foreign-born insurgent, and Iraqi Sunni tribal fighters at the western frontier town of Husaybah.

In clashes sparked by the assassination of a tribal sheik, which was commissioned by Zarqawi, the foreign insurgents and the Iraqi tribal fighters pounded one another with small weapons and mortars in the streets of Husaybah as the U.S. military watched from a distance, tribal members and the U.S. military said.

When a stray mortar round accidentally hit near the Marines, Lt. Col. Tim Mundy recalled, "they'd adjust their fire, and not shoot at us" for fear of drawing Americans into the fight. "They shot at each other," he said.

The only reported damage to the U.S. side occurred when small-arms rounds struck a helicopter as the curious American crew drew too close to the fighting below. The Sunni Arab tribe involved in the clashes, the Sulaiman, lost four men, Salman Reesha Sulaiman, a member of the tribe, said in an interview after the fighting, which occurred during the first week of May.

On the al-Zarqawi side, 11 foreign fighters were killed outright, plus an unknown number of other foreign fighters and their Iraqi allies in U.S. bombing runs after local tribes tipped off their location to the Americans.

The fighting at Husaybah was a dramatic sign of the fractures in support and allegiance the foreign fighters are experiencing, several Iraqi political leaders and other Iraqis said.

At week's end, contradictory statements about al-Zarqawi's health posted on Web sites left in doubt whether he was even alive, after his lieutenants announced that he had been wounded in battle with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

The experiences of Husaybah's residents illustrate why tension has emerged between local Iraqis and the foreign fighters.

Families who had the means to escape the town began to flee in April, as al-Zarqawi's followers began building up their operations there, a Husaybah educator said. His name was withheld because of the threat of retaliation.

Zarqawi's fighters squatted in the newly abandoned homes, eating the food that the families left behind, the educator said. He said foreign Arabs had ordered women in the town to wear all-enveloping scarves and robes, called hijab, and forbidden young men to wear Western clothes. The outsiders closed music stores and satellite-dish vendors, he said.

Al-Zarqawi's group ordered the assassination of the Sulaiman sheik after the tribal leader invited Marines for lunch to show goodwill between his people and the Americans, said Salman Reesha Sulaiman, the tribal member.

He said al-Zarqawi's group asserted responsibility for the killing in a statement.

That killing touched off the clashes between foreign and tribal fighters, with Husaybah as the battleground.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Saluting Those Who Help Keep Us Free <br />
Santa Clarita pays tribute to veterans with opening of plaza. <br />
<br />
5/29/2005 <br />
Tracey La Monica Signal Staff Writer <br />
<br />
<br />
In a tranquil garden with red bricks lying...

[thedrifter]

Police school for Iraqis teaches when to search, when to shoot

By James Janega
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

AYN AL ASAD, Iraq - Afraid of being duped by their instructors, the Iraqi border patrol students hit on a simple but disconcerting tactic in a checkpoint exercise: force everyone from their cars. Search them at gunpoint. Push resisters face down in the dirt.

But as they nervously urged a growing cast of unruly volunteer drivers to reach for the sky, they almost missed the man posing as a suicide bomber who was climbing out of his car. Several patrolmen tackled the man to keep his hand off the trigger to his explosive vest.

A visiting instructor had a solution even more chilling than the Iraqis' stick-'em-up blustering. When the suicide bomber appears, he said, move your men back. Then kill him.

The lesson highlighted the brutal realities that must be conveyed in only three weeks at Iraq's Border Patrol Academy in Ayn Al Asad, whose barracks of tents and staked-out sites for future buildings illustrate both Iraq's hurried attempts to reorganize its civil services and how far the country has to go.

The abbreviated coursework is dictated by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, but it is taught by civilian contractors and a cadre of U.S. Marines.

After a class on filling out police reports or making a felony traffic stop, for instance, there are lessons on resisting bribery and forming a coordinated defense against attacking terrorists.

Master Sgt. Jose DeLeon, the visiting Marine Corps instructor, had other notes to share. Don't bother arguing, he said. If a car won't stop at your checkpoint after being asked three times, quickly "escalate the force." Roughly, that means "shoot first."

Plus, he said in concluding the checkpoint lesson, "you can't force everyone out of their cars."

Making room for more

The Al Asad dual police and border patrol academy, one of four now running in the country, has sent students to Iraq's border with Saudi Arabia and to police stations in the rough-and-tumble Al Anbar province towns of Ramadi and Rutbah.

Its ambitions are flagged by upside-down water bottles marking surveying stakes - the future site of a massive new dormitory and classroom complex. Officials in Baghdad have asked Marine Chief Warrant Officer Scott Reinhardt if his school can house as many as 300 new students, a tenfold increase.

Reinhardt has said yes. Contractors are frantically improving the site, building plywood barracks in the meantime to replace ragged canvas tents and a dining hall to replace the rat-infested abandoned building used until recently.

But many questions face the academy and its students.

Entire classes of students are moved en masse to new stations, creating police outposts manned entirely by rookies. Once he's done with them, Reinhardt said, there is no follow-up support for the students that he knows of.

The concerns have led to sometimes tense relations between Marine headquarters in Fallujah and Baghdad and the instructors at the academy - 10 Marines and 13 civilian police contractors.

Courses include lessons in human rights, newly written Iraqi laws and community policing, this for students bound for desert forts so separated that radio signals barely reach from one to another.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Mixed feelings about Iraq mission

By Antonio Castaneda

The Associated Press

RAMADI, Iraq — Sgt. Shawn Biederman is simply trying to survive the next two months and make it home. His unit mate, Spc. Brent Short, has just signed up for a one-year extension.

As another summer of searing heat bears down on Iraq, many soldiers in this troubled Sunni-dominated region of central Iraq say they remain as committed as ever to winning the war, however long it takes. Others fret about missing babies' first words or precious time with young wives.

Still others worry about the slow pace of creating an Iraqi force to relieve them, and say they aren't sure they are accomplishing anything real.

"We want to hand it over to them. But when it comes down to it, the [Iraqi police] we're hiring are all bad," said Army Sgt. Nicholas Radde, 21, of La Crosse, Wis., as his soldiers took a break from the heat in the parking lot of an abandoned storage area.

Despite two interim Iraqi governments, a national election and the graduation of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, U.S. troops remain the ultimate security force in most of Iraq, more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Earlier this month, when U.S. Marines led a major assault against insurgents near the Syrian border and lost nine troops, the Iraqi forces played a secondary role.

As the elected Iraqi government tries to coax a wary Sunni Arab population into joining the new political system, American soldiers continue to raid homes, patrol neighborhoods and hurriedly train Iraqi soldiers — the faster the better if they are to get home soon.

But a resilient Sunni-led insurgency has effectively stalled progress, killing thousands of Iraqis.

In Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated areas, some Iraqi forces are starting to operate independently, but at a frustratingly slow pace. In Ramadi, capital of Iraq's most-troubled province, Radde and his soldiers have seen a tougher fight.

Radde decided against re-enlisting in the Army, saying he has barely seen his wife since they exchanged vows. But even after deployments in Afghanistan, Korea and nearly a year in Iraq, he still clearly enjoys soldiering, quickly hopping out of his Humvee to set up a sniper position when a report comes in of suspicious people along a road.
Other soldiers are eagerly re-enlisting, and some are even asking to stay in Iraq longer. Short, 22, of Odessa, Texas, who already has served 10 months in Iraq, requested a one-year extension.

"I think it's going well here," said Short, dismounting from a gunner's turret atop a baking Humvee after his unit detained a man suspected of making fake Iraqi passports.

A fellow soldier called Short "insane" for asking to stay longer in Ramadi, but Short said he wanted to put his knowledge of the city of 350,000 to use — and acknowledged that the death of his best friend influenced his decision.

"If I leave here, I think it'll be unresolved," he said quietly.

Short and Radde belong to the Army's 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, which served in Korea for nine months before being sent straight to Iraq.

That means most have been home only about a month since autumn 2003.

The soldiers have about two months left in Iraq — barring an extension — before they hand off to the Pennsylvania National Guard.

"A lot of us are just trying to survive and make it through the next two months," said Biederman, 27, of Philadelphia, riding in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He has an infant daughter back home.

To some soldiers in the 1st Battalion, the mission in Iraq is critically important to the United States.

"Every day that we're here it makes the region safer and it makes the U.S. safer," said Sgt. 1st Class Jefferson Pridgen, a career soldier from Lakeland, Fla.

But other soldiers in the same unit express unease about the state of Iraq, particularly around Ramadi, where many Iraqis are either sympathetic to the insurgency or too afraid of retribution to tip off the military to the presence of fighters.

A stable city council has yet to be formed in Ramadi, and U.S. soldiers suspect insurgents have infiltrated the police department.

"I really don't think that we can finish this anytime soon," said Spc. Matthew Reba, 24, of Venice, Fla., bouncing in the back of a Bradley on the hunt for insurgents who had just fired at a U.S. base. Reba lost his best friend in Iraq and has decided against re-enlisting.

Other 1st Battalion soldiers said they just focus on their assigned tasks, look forward to returning home and hope Iraqis will soon turn against the insurgency.

"There's a lot of bad things happening, but our platoon is pretty good at keeping our head in the game," said Sgt. Chris Lambert, 25, of Cincinnati, guarding the front of an apartment building while U.S. and Iraqi solders searched inside.

"I like to think we're doing some good," Lambert said. "But it's hard to tell."

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A name worth cherishing
By Michael A. Scarcella

ONECO -- It's a weeknight at American Legion Post 312, and the folks at the bar are talking about the Bud Light display hanging from the ceiling. It doesn't spin anymore, hasn't for years, they say.

Sheila Cobb sits at a table nearby with a small picture of her son, Chris, and a lucky red teddy bear. Cobb is having a good night, winning a $150 bingo jackpot. Things are comfortable, familiar at Post 312. Things don't change much in the smoke-filled, dimly lit hall, where servicemen and women have gathered for camaraderie for years.

But Saturday brought a big change, one that Cobb and the other regulars had pushed for.

At a ceremony attended by politicians, veterans and the families of men killed in Iraq, American Legion officials renamed the post to honor Christopher Cobb. The Bayshore High School grad and Marine was killed in Iraq last year.

The post in Manatee County is the first in Florida and one of only a handful in the country to be named after a serviceman killed in the Iraq war.

"I know he'd tell people not to make a fuss about him," Sheila Cobb said Saturday, fighting tears.

Her son became the first Manatee casualty of the war when his patrol came under attack in April 2004. A private first class in the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, Cobb was killed in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. He was 19.

More than 1,600 U.S. personnel have been killed in the Iraq war since March 2003. Seventy-two lived in Florida, including three from Bradenton and one from Punta Gorda, in Charlotte County. A fifth war casualty attended high school in Charlotte County for a year.

Saturday's patriotic ceremony ended a yearlong push to get the name change, a trend that American Legion officials believe will begin to play out in communities across the country. Already, buildings and roads -- even a mountaintop pass in Phoenix -- have been named to honor military men and women who died in Iraq.

"Perhaps Post 312 is setting an example that others will emulate. Bless them for such a fitting tribute to a young Marine who gave his all for his country," said American Legion spokesman Joe March.

Over the bar at 312 are license plates with American Legion post numbers from around the nation. Port Charlotte. Naples. Saddlebrook, N.J. Canton, Ohio. Lebanon, N.H.

Post Commander Charles F. Shoudy Jr. said Cobb's name represents those who have died in service to their country in this latest war.

"We must never forget all of our veterans," said Shoudy, speaking at Saturday's renaming ceremony.

Hundreds attended the event at the post, where a new sign outside bears Cobb's name in blue letters above the American Legion emblem.

American Legion officials praised Sheila Cobb, commenting on her strength as a mother. U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris presented Cobb with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in her son's honor.

Chris Cobb hung out at Post 312 in Oneco years before he signed up for military service.

He listened to stories from veterans, joined the Sons of the Legion and attended Sunday breakfasts and Friday suppers.

A few years later, after completing basic training in the Marines, Cobb was proud to become a full-fledged Legionnaire.

He enlisted in the Marines' delayed entry program when he was 17, beginning basic training less than a month after his high school graduation.

He shipped out to Iraq in February 2004.

Shortly after Cobb's death, Shoudy told the Marine's mother he wanted to rename the post for her son. Post members and state officials approved the change.

Cobb's father, a war veteran, died from effects of the chemical Agent Orange, to which he had been exposed while serving in Vietnam.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Idaho Marines face road to recovery after explosion
The Idaho Statesman
May 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - Four Idaho Marine reservists spent their first two months in Iraq patrolling towns in Al Anbar province in their M1A1 Abrams tank, watching for trouble, clearing out insurgents' rocket-launching sites and providing a show of force.

Their jobs changed dramatically in early May when the men from the Marine Corps' Charlie Company, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division based in Boise joined a new unit near the Syrian border and the town of Al Qaim.

"We packed up everything we owned, threw it on the tank and went over there," said Lance Cpl. Mitchell Ehlke, 20, of Boise. "They told us we'd be gone as short as 30 days or for the rest of our deployment."

When the men learned they had been chosen to participate in one of the biggest anti-terrorist offensives of Operation Iraqi Freedom, their hearts beat a little faster, Ehlke said. The purpose of "Operation Matador" was to capture foreign fighters aligned with one of the most-wanted insurgent leaders in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The fighting lasted a week - and led to a new offensive near the Syrian border last week, "Operation New Market."

"All the possibilities of what could happen did race through my head," said Ehlke, one of about 90 Idaho Marine reservists activated in January. "But I never thought anything (bad) would actually happen."

But something bad did happen.

The fighting started in the dark, about 2 a.m. May 8 outside the town of Al Qaim near the Euphrates River. The Idaho Marines joined the fray about an hour later. They had fought for four hours when the action started to lighten up and the men were ordered back to camp.

Lance Cpl. Fernando Lazalde of Driggs was driving the M1A1 tank. He had three others on board: Staff Sgt. Chad Brumpton of Boise, tank commander; Lance Cpl. Joe Lowe of Boise, gunner; and Ehlke, who loaded the gun and worked the radios.

As they passed through an area where their tank and several Humvees had driven earlier that day, there was the sudden, loud blast of an explosion apparently set off remotely.

"It wasn't a land mine. Land mines don't do that," Ehlke said.

"It was set off by a trigger," said Lowe, 24. "That's why it didn't blow up the first time we drove over it."

Lowe figures it was an improvised explosive device, a homemade bomb made of three 155-mm artillery shells packed with other explosives. Such IEDs have emerged as one of the most common and most dangerous ways insurgents injure and kill U.S. troops in Iraq.

Neither Lowe nor Ehlke remembers what happened next. Neither remembers who pulled them from their burning tank. It's something the Marines are reluctant to discuss.

"We don't want to talk about the event," Ehlke said.

"We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened," Lowe said.

Although the four Idaho Marines sat just a few feet away from each other in the tank, their injuries varied dramatically.

• Lazalde walked away without any major injuries. He's still with his unit in Iraq.

• Ehlke's right foot and ankle were so mangled that he chose to have his leg amputated below the knee. He has a metal plate in his lower right arm where a piece of shrapnel tore it open to the bone.

• Lowe's spine was nearly severed. He is paralyzed from the chest down, but he has full use of his arms.

• Brumpton received five compound breaks on his right leg and seven on his left. His heels were shattered. Nearly all his toes were broken. He's had numerous surgeries to put pins in his bones, and he'll have more to remove the pins and for bone and skin grafts.

"It's very painful," said Brumpton's father, Bob, who lives in Boise. "He's the tank commander, and he decided to second-guess himself for days: 'What did I do wrong? What should I have done differently?' "

Lowe, Ehlke and Brumpton first went to a military hospital at Camp Anaconda near Balad, Iraq, before being flown to the Army-run Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. After a week, Lowe and Ehlke were sent to the National Medical Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Brumpton, whose injuries were less life-threatening, went to Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital in California.

A second tank of Marine reservists from Charlie Company participated in the battle, but none of its crew were injured. They are Sgt. Luke Miller of Boise, Capt. William Ward of eastern Idaho, Lance Cpl. Ryan Dollar of Boise and Cpl. Daniel Burton of Oregon.
Marines proud to pay freedom's price

Lowe spends his days in a special bed filled with air and sand, designed to prevent bedsores. The bottom is shaped like an old bathtub, but without the claw feet.

It jiggles and hums loudly as the air and sand gently massage his skin.

He exercises his lungs by blowing into a small, handheld plastic device and making a little red ball dance up and down. For the foreseeable future, he is confined to bed and a wheelchair.

Ehlke exercises what's left of his bandaged right leg, stretching and moving it so the muscles don't shrink. He has started to travel the hospital halls using a walker.

The two, telling their stories together in a hospital room at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, look very much like the Marines they are, with crewcuts and well-defined muscles bulging under their T-shirts.

"We both would still be over there if we could," Lowe said. "We both feel like we were cheated out of our time over there."

Freedom has a price, and Ehlke said he doesn't regret having made a big down payment.

"Sometimes people like us have to pay the price," he said. "I have a reminder of that, and it will be with me until the day I die. I'm proud of that."

Had he kept his foot, Ehlke is convinced, he would never have been able to run, hike or swim again. So he opted to get a prosthesis and "move on." He faces months of physical therapy, learning how to sit in a chair, go to the bathroom and drive a car. He plans some day to run and hike again, return to his studies at Boise State University and finally decide on a major.

"I'm 20 years old. I still have a long life ahead of me," Ehlke said. "I didn't want to be stopped by one part of my foot because I have an emotional attachment to it."

Before deploying to Iraq, Lowe was a customer-service manager for his father's Boise company, Tactical Design Lab, which makes quick-release gun holsters for police officers.

Lowe hopes that in the coming months, as the swelling along his spinal cord goes down, he will regain feeling in his lower chest and legs.

He, too, has months of physical therapy ahead to learn to live independently. He's had three surgeries, including one to install a titanium clamp system to reinforce his spinal column.

He said he told the doctors not to tell him his prognosis.

"I want to be able to push and not be discouraged by the statistics," Lowe said. "I don't care if it's a 2 percent chance or 70 percent chance, I want to push myself like I'm going to walk again tomorrow."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

For Iraq veterans, college takes on new meaning
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post | May 29, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The professor asked them all to give an impromptu speech on a life experience, and Daniel Wise listened, in agony, as five of his George Washington University classmates stood up one by one. The last one giggled through a speech about her summer job scooping ice cream. When it was his turn, he threw his shoulders back, stared straight ahead, and, in his best hardened-soldier monotone, told them about fighting in Iraq for the US Army.

Wise graduated from GWU this month, in a black cap and gown on the Mall. That ceremony didn't mean much to him: His real education came outside the classroom, in Humvees, tents, and Iraqi villages.

''After going to war, everything else seems trivial," he said.

Like the World War II soldiers, sailors, and Marines who came back to parades and the G.I. bill and the Vietnam veterans decades later who found protesters and divided campuses, a new generation is returning to college and finding that war changes everything.

For some, such as Conor Quinn of Rockville, Md., the lesson learned in Iraq is simple: Go to college. His friends were going to frat parties, he said, while he was waiting for the next incoming mortar fire. He had always hated school, but war showed him what education could bring.

He enrolled at Gettysburg College in January, a 23-year-old freshman, the oldest guy on the lacrosse team, the happiest one in the library. Now he looks back and sees an angry, lazy teen-ager completely changed by the Marines and Fallujah and feels grateful to be in college. ''I never thought I'd be so interested in trying to learn and find out new things."

Deployment taught Matt Bulloch that reality doesn't always measure up to his ideals. He joined the National Guard for philosophical reasons: ''John Stuart Mill said, 'War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is worse,' " he said.

Bulloch left the University of Virginia believing in the citizen-soldier and feeling the burden of fighting has always fallen too heavily on the country's most disadvantaged people.

In the Army, his commanders didn't appreciate all his philosophy; Bulloch spent days filling sandbags as punishment for asking too many questions. He didn't go into combat, but at Guantanamo Bay he got a close-up view of another side of the war.

''As a human being, it's hard to see people in cages," he said of the detention center.

He came back to the University of Virginia, from which he graduated this month, with a deep appreciation for college life. ''Three days earlier, I had to carry a rifle everywhere I went," he said. Campus ''looked so green. . . . And all the girls were gorgeous."

He loved that everyone was learning and questioning things and that if he and his friends felt like taking an inflatable raft and a case of beer out to a pond on campus, that's exactly how they'd spend the afternoon.

For Wise, the war redefined what education meant.

He grew up in Marblehead, Mass., an oceanfront town with big Colonial houses and sailboats, and like most of his classmates, he always knew he'd go to college.

But the day after his high school graduation in 2000, he left for a summer of basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., not only signing up for Army ROTC in college but enlisting in the Reserve.

It wasn't the push-ups, the yelling, the sweating that shocked him -- it was the other recruits, from such places as Oklahoma. He was freaked out by them, and they were freaked out by him.

Most of them had never met a Jewish guy before, he said. They couldn't believe he was going to college -- and that his parents were paying for it.

He got more care packages than anyone there, and one day -- when five arrived -- his drill sergeant decided things had gotten a little too cushy for Wise. The old rule was that any package had to have enough to share with everyone.

The drill sergeant's new rule: no sharing. He made Wise eat everything.

Wise started throwing up after the first box, the one with 63 bags of chips and Doritos, long, long before his grandmother's box with 63 pieces of homemade fudge.

Yet he liked learning to be a grunt. ''It was an eye-opener, because -- wow -- not everyone lives the way I do. I realized how lucky I was." He laughed. ''It was fun as hell."

Nine weeks later, he was unpacking his things in a freshman dorm at GWU, with his roommates staring at his buzz cut.

He majored in business, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he figured it was a matter of time until he was called up. So as his friends were going to study in Florence, London, and Barcelona in January 2003, he got called to Fort Bragg, N.C., to get his desert gear and write a will.

On his 21st birthday, the United States went to war in Iraq. His convoy rumbled over the Kuwait border into Iraq under an oil fire shooting bright orange flames, the heat so intense soldiers couldn't touch the windshield. They passed burned-out vehicles and heard live artillery flying overhead.

That night, Wise and his commander talked about how privileged they were to be there. ''While other people are on the couch watching this on TV, we're making it happen."

His psychological operations team would go in before anyone else, rolling through towns blaring messages through loudspeakers on their Humvee, trying to get fighters to surrender and families to leave before troops came in, with children running alongside and women hiding and his team watching for men with guns.

One night he awoke to soldiers yelling, ''Get the snipers! Get the snipers!" and tracers shooting by in the night sky.

After months of rations, weather so hot that Coke cans exploded, and little contact with home, coming back in the fall of 2003 to his old world brought reverse culture shock: Campus seemed small and sheltered and oblivious.

His stepmother said she knows there are things he can talk about only with his Army buddies. His college friends said he seemed more mature, more aware of how privileged they are, more open-minded about other parts of the world. He used to be shy, said Mike Solow, who knew Wise as a freshman. Now he's much more confident, maybe even cocky, and he carries himself like a soldier -- a 23-year-old senior with huge biceps and shoes he keeps shiny, Solow said.

Wise almost seemed indifferent about college after he came back, his friend Gaby Machabanski said. Not that he wasn't intellectual -- he seemed more so -- and not that he didn't know the value of a degree. But lectures and homework seemed insignificant because his view of the world had gotten so much larger. ''He was looking beyond school," Machabanski said.

His commissioning this week is his real graduation, Wise said. He'll be a second lieutenant, with a few months of training ahead, then a platoon of soldiers to lead into combat.

He held his Army uniform, with the patch on the chest that says ''Wise," and said, ''My job will be to get them to Iraq and bring them back alive. I feel ready."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. troops' true colors: pride, devotion
NICK OZA and MARK WASHBURN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq - Ask soldiers about military hardship and they'll let you have it. Separation from families. Hard work. Dopey regulations. Deadly danger. The heat. The cold. The unknown.

But ask them how they feel, personally, to be American soldiers abroad today, and you hear about pride in their mission, confidence in their colleagues and devotion to duty in perilous work.

Those were the overwhelming responses of dozens of service members interviewed during a 10-day tour of U.S. military posts abroad - from tidy, green American bases in Germany to dusty, broiling outposts across Iraq.

From privates fresh out of boot camp to West Point-educated officers nearing retirement, the gripes came in all stripes. But, reflecting on the coming Memorial Day holiday and their view of what they do, so did the pride.

Here are the words of some of them.

• Carlene Bloss, 40, of Jacksonville, N.C., was a Marine for six years and is now a staff sergeant in the North Carolina Army National Guard, based at Camp Anaconda, a sprawling U.S. base in central Iraq. Her son, Anthony, was 13 when she learned that she was up for deployment to Iraq.

"The Marine in me always wants to come over here. But I have a son, so I never volunteered. When I told him there's a 90 percent chance I was going to Iraq for a year, and this could change his life, I said, 'I didn't want to hurt you.'

"He said, 'Mama, I'll be the same kid a year from now that I am today. Go serve your country.'

"I cried and cried."

• In civilian life, Joe Orazen, 31, of Carlisle, Ky., is a history and world civilization teacher at Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Ky. As a National Guard engineer, he works 10 hours a day in punishing desert heat, driving heavy construction equipment building up Camp Q West, a remote base in Iraq, near the Syrian border.

"There's a lot of great things going on here, helping people who didn't have the rights of Americans. You take it for granted and you don't realize the big event you're taking part in. I can go back and help our students understand all this."

• Capt. Richard Ojeda, 34, of Logan County, W.Va., is with the HHC 20th Engineering Brigade, based at Camp Victory in Baghdad. He maintains a home-engineered boxing ring to let his men work off steam.

Of his men, he said, "Clap lightning, talk thunder, walk through graveyards and make dead men wonder, 'cause we are somebody. We can't walk on water, but it'd take us a long doggone time to sink."

• Staff Sgt. John Mueller, 32, of Molalla, Ore., is a flight engineer on Army transport planes called Sherpas, which haul passengers and freight. On a recent flight to Basra, Iraq, he hung an American flag in the back of the plane as a gift for his son Matthew who was born Jan. 23, the day after Mueller, 14-year Army vet, departed for his yearlong Iraq tour. He has yet to meet his son, but he remains upbeat.

"I know flying high-priority people and cargo around, I'm saving lives by not having people in convoys. It's an honor to serve my country. That's the truth."

• Spc. Mike Wyciechowski, 22, of Lansing, Mich., repairs vehicles at Camp Bucca, a U.S. prison camp on Iraq's border with Kuwait that has 6,000 prisoners. He works at night, when the temperature has slipped below the routine daily highs in the 100s. He likes the way the military tests his passion for motor repair.

"If they've got tools, we'll fix it."

• Maj. Kirk Milhoan, from San Antonio, Texas, is an Air Force physician who serves in the forward military surgical hospital at Camp Anaconda, where wounded servicemen are gathered for transport to Germany. When casualties are heavy, a call goes out for off-duty volunteers to carry stretchers. He said he'd never been short of hands.

Of his job, he said, "I can think of no greater honor than caring for those wounded while fighting for freedom."

• Army Pfc. Jason Tarboro, 19, of Allentown, Pa., works at Camp Q West, a hardscrabble outpost that's gearing up for a larger role as a military hub in northwest Iraq.

"Memorial Day, it's a heartfelt time. More lower enlisted personnel feel like they had something to do with our military success."

• Maj. Eddie Blackburn, of Elkin, N.C., is a probation officer in civilian life. He's spent 28 years in the military, currently with the 30th Engineering Brigade of the North Carolina Army National Guard. Now based at Camp Victory, he has a son who's a junior at West Point.

"The more you deal with the civilians over here, the more you can tell they want change. They want to control their own destinies and not have it controlled for them. Of all the things I have done in my life, being a soldier is the greatest accomplishment. People appreciate us. In the last two years, I've seen more of it. People walk up to your table and take your breakfast ticket. They say, 'Thank you. Your breakfast is on us.' "

• Maj. Marybel Johnson, of Cary, N.C., a West Point grad and a former helicopter pilot, supervises an Army operation at Baghdad International Airport that gets mail to soldiers. When her 5-year-old daughter lost a tooth recently, Johnson's mother-in-law helped the girl write a note asking for an exemption from standard procedure: "Dear Tooth Fairy: Please don't take this tooth. I want to send it to my mom in Iraq." The note - and the tooth - arrived in Johnson's mail.

"I miss my kids tremendously. When I call them and they cry, I cry. . . . My daughter says, 'You love the Army more than you love us.' How do you explain it to a 5-year-old? I can't explain it to an adult. It's just what you do."

• Sgt. Alex Rabre, 31, of Fort Bragg, N.C., a native of Guatemala, became a U.S. citizen and serves in the 30th Engineering Brigade at Camp Victory.

"To me it's an honor to be an American soldier. What the U.S. stands for is great for all people - that means, freedom. I'm here today so my children and my children's children can have freedom."

• Spc. Sydney Stuart, 19, of Charlotte, N.C., is an MP with the 105th MP Battalion and serves as a guard at Camp Bucca.

"Sometimes it is hard to see a big picture because I am such a small piece. But in years to come, I will look back and know in some way I did make a difference."

• Spc. Stacy Strayhorn, 29, of Asheville, N.C., is an intelligence specialist at Camp Anaconda. "It's hard being over here on holidays. You're away from family and friends.

"But it's an honorable time. We're serving our country on Memorial Day - and that's special because it's a holiday for soldiers."

• Capt. Alex Mendaloff, 51, of Statesville, N.C., a lawyer in civilian life and a military lawyer in the North Carolina Army National Guard at Camp Anaconda, sees his service as part of a tradition.

"It's a big deal for me to be here because my dad is still alive; he was a Pearl Harbor survivor. We're in a small clan: father and son who served in a war zone. He's proud of me."

• Spc. Shayla Johnson, 23, of Brookhaven, Miss., is assigned to the 814 Engineer Company of Fort Polk, La., now at Camp Anaconda. "It's hard being away from family, my daughter who's 1. It's hard for a single parent. But the unit is my family for now."

• Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas Parker, 25, of Trinity, N.C., an aircraft technician at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said U.S. service members were treated with respect in Europe.

"People appreciate you here, particularly the older generations. They know what we did in World War II. I hear 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and I get goose bumps." Air Force Sgt. Wes Smith, 36, of Dillon, S.C., is postmaster of the biggest Air Force post office in the world, at Ramstein, Germany. He's served four tours of duty in the Mideast, and he said U.S. military personnel were well regarded abroad.

"Our intentions are good, to help people. We always get treated with respect where we go." Sgt. Floyd Swofford, 46, of Polkville, N.C., a long-haul trucker in civilian life, serves in the 30th Engineering Brigade of the North Carolina Army National Guard at Camp Anaconda. He signed up because "I wanted to be like my dad."

"My dad served in the Korean War. I admired him for that." Of the military: "It's been a life-changing series of events for me. I want to thank him for that, putting me on the right path."

• Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel McNamara, 20, of Long Beach, Miss., near Biloxi, was a heavy-machine gunner at a Marine outpost on the Syrian border. He's recovering at Ramstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany from a leg injury he sustained when he lost his footing stepping down from a guard tower.

"No civilian will ever understand what you will do for fellow Marines and soldiers. We love the camaraderie in the Marine Corps."

• Spec. John Comito, 24, of Plano, Texas, is an Army reservist recovering at Ramstuhl Regional Medical Center from a car-bomb injury in Mosul. After nearly a year in Iraq, he said his sense was that many Iraqis were grateful for U.S. protection.

"Most people are happy to have us. They want us to leave but to get rid of the terrorists first. There's a lot of good that happens, but it doesn't get out."

• Maj. Kendra Whyatt of Greenwood, Miss., a veteran of the first Persian Gulf War, is the head nurse on a unit at Ramstuhl Regional Medical Center, where she follows the news in Iraq. It helps her predict the flow of patients in coming days.

"When it comes to what we do here, it is the front line. ... We are a living, true testament that our soldiers are still in harm's way."

• Sgt. Fred Bishop, 35, of Pageland, S.C., stands guard in 12-hour shifts in 100-degree heat at Camp Bucca. He has no doubts about why he's there.

"After Sept. 11, I had a strong sense of duty. It means you're fulfilling your nation's call. It means we're providing a service to the Iraqi people for freedom we feel they deserve."

• Master Sgt. Jimmy James, of College Park, Ga., had just submitted his retirement papers after 19 years in the Army when he was asked to provide technical advice at the detention facility for suspected insurgents at Camp Bucca because of his long experience in the military corrections system at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He agreed to serve two more years.

"I know it sounds repetitive: I'm proud to be an American. That's one of my main reasons to pull my retirement. I'm proud - and lucky - to be scheduled to come and do this mission."

• Spc. David Stewart, 19, of Mineral Wells, Texas, serves as a gunner defending convoys in the desert heat at Camp Bucca. "If my unit hadn't been deployed, I'd probably volunteer. Being here, some people don't like you. But it's like being a part of history."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Quilts offer comfort in a time of grief
By Jeff Mullin
The Edin News & Eagle
May 29, 2005

On March 23, 2003, near the town of An Nasiriya, Iraq, 18 U.S. Marines were killed in a fierce battle with Iraqi troops.

Soon thereafter, Jan Lang of St. Louis got the visit no mother with a son or daughter in the military wants to receive, news her son was missing and believed killed in action.

That news turned out to be incorrect, as Lang's son was found alive. But the experience led Lang to help found a group called Marine Comfort Quilts, whose aim is to make a quilt to present to each family of a Marine killed in the war in Iraq. That mission has since been expanded to include all fallen members of the armed forces.

Lang is scheduled to be in Enid Monday to present some 30 Marine Comfort Quilts to family members of Oklahoma fighting men and women lost in Iraq, as part of the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Wall of Honor and Veterans' Park at Enid Woodring Regional Airport.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. The names of 28 Oklahoma troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan will be added to the Wall of Honor. Families of 25 of those troops are expected to attend.

Their names, along with names of other veterans, have been inscribed on another granite monument to be dedicated Monday at Veterans' Park at the airport. The latest monument that will become part of the Wall of Honor will be dedicated by state Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid. Members of Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society will present American flags to family members.

The hand-made quilts consist of 30 squares containing an inspirational message from the donor or another member of the armed forces. Air Force and Marine quilts are blue, while Army quilts are green.

"They are all put together into a beautiful, twin-size quilt," said Elaine Johns, owner of Northwest Aero Services and coordinator of the Memorial Day ceremony. "They have gone to a lot of effort to make these quilts."

Through the Sponsor a Soldier campaign, which has generated "tremendous response from civilians at Vance Air Force Base and the local community," Johns said, each family will receive a 16- by 20-inch portrait of their fallen soldier as well as dogtags with the soldier's name, photo, service and date of death. In addition, each family will receive congressional citations as well as governor's commendations. Each family also will receive Enduring Freedom coins. These are coins about the size of a silver dollar with an image of the Statue of Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other, Johns said.

Col. Rick Adams, commander of 45th Field Artillery Brigade of Oklahoma Army National Guard, will be keynote speaker for the ceremony.

A static display of a T-37 aircraft will be dedicated by Col. Bryan Benson, commander of 71st Flying Training Wing at Vance Air Force Base. The aircraft, a gift from Vance, will be dedicated in honor of Air Force Capt. John Boria, who graduated from pilot training at Vance in 1999 and was killed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September 2004.

Singing Churchwomen of Oklahoma will perform, as will Kyle Dillingham, who will sing an original song he and Johns wrote, and John Robertson, who will play "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. A moment of silence for the fallen soldiers will follow.

State Rep. Mike Jackson, R-Enid, will make opening remarks and lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and City Manager Jerry Erwin will welcome those attending. The invocation and benediction will be given by Lt. Col. Steve Nicolai, Vance's wing chaplain.

A free meal for veterans and their families will follow the ceremony in the Northwest Aero hangar, west of Veterans' Park. The meal will be by donation for everyone else.

Johns expects as many as 1,000, more than double the number who attended last year's luncheon. The meal is sponsored by Advance Food, Mid-America Wholesale, Wal-Mart and Northwest Aero Services.

In case of rain, the services will be held in the Northwest Aero Services hangar.

"Rain is not going to stop the service," said Johns. "Those service members didn't stop serving their country in World War II when it was freezing cold. Soldiers facing unbearable conditions in Korea and Vietnam didn't quit doing their jobs. The soldiers facing unbearable heat in Iraq and Afghanistan are not asking for someone else to do their jobs. So this ceremony is going to go on for them."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Top brass not expected at funeral of war hero <br />
<br />
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | May 30, 2005 <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON -- His courage under fire was the stuff of Hollywood, such as once ordering his helicopter...

[thedrifter]

Making a difference here — and there

Marine leaves Iraq to save stranger"s life, returns to duty

By Marni Pyke
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, May 30, 2005

On a sweltering day at Camp Fallujah in Iraq, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tom Kapla got an unexpected e-mail.

Somewhere in the United States, a 64-year-old man with acute leukemia was waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

Among thousands of potential donors, Kapla was the perfect match. It was a mission he couldn’t refuse — saving a stranger’s life halfway across the world.

“He’s making a difference here and making a difference there,” she said.

Kapla, who volunteered for the national bone marrow registry 15 years ago while giving blood, downplays his contribution.

“I thought that it would be cool if I could do something to help someone else,” he said in an e-mail from Camp Fallujah.

“Now, I realize just how important it is. As several people have pointed out to me since, I may have helped save a man’s life.”

Kapla grew up in Bolingbrook when the family wasn’t following his father, a career Army officer.

“The kids grew up with the idea of the military,” said Sue Wiedemann, Kapla’s mother. “It was just like someone else’s dad going to work at the factory.”

About the time he graduated from Romeoville High School in 1985, Kapla decided to join the Marines.

“If Tom could have married the Marine Corps, he would have,” Kapla’s wife, Paula, said jokingly.

During the Gulf War, Kapla’s unit was deployed to Japan.

“He wanted to go to the Gulf War and volunteered, but they wouldn’t let him go because there was no one to replace him,” Wiedemann said.

After the war, Kapla got a civilian job but kept up with the Marines by joining the reserves in Wichita, Kan., where he and Paula are raising two teenagers.

Despite the hard-bitten, take-no-prisoners Marine sergeant reputation, Kapla’s “a big teddy bear,” Wiedemann said.

His leisure activities in Wichita involve coaching soccer and running Girl Guides — including cookie drives conducted with military precision — Paula Kapla explained.

But he missed being in uniform.

“If he’s not being a Marine, he’s not fully happy,” Paula said.

In 2003, Kapla transferred to a reserve unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to help with radio repairs and ended up with a February deployment date as part of the 8th Communications Battalion, bound for Iraq.

In December, just a few months before leaving, Kapla heard from the National Marrow Donor Program reminding him of the pledge he made 15 years ago. He was one of two people who were matches for a 64-year-old man with leukemia. Because of Kapla’s pending departure for Iraq, the other donor was picked.

Kapla, however, hadn’t been at Camp Fallujah for a week when he received an e-mail saying the other arrangement had fallen through.

“We laughed — the first thing he did when he got there was turn around and come back here,” Wiedemann said.

For Paula Kapla, the bone-marrow operation offered a brief respite from anxiety about her husband’s welfare in Iraq.

“It was nice to know he was back in the States and not to have to worry,” she said.

After numerous tests, the surgery occurred at Georgetown University Hospital. The procedure involves removing marrow, a substance that contains blood-forming stem cells. A hollow needle is inserted into the pelvic bone to extract the material. Patients with cancer receive the donated marrow to replace diseased stem cells killed by radiation or chemotherapy.

“The procedure itself was a breeze,” Kapla said. “I was under general anesthesia, I did not feel a thing.

“The one thing I was not prepared for was how many needles were involved. I thought it was just one. Stick it in and draw it out. Wrong! It was more than 50 needles on each side.”

The worst part was the return voyage to Iraq with a sore back, a trip that involved two plane rides on crowded aircraft and an eight-hour layover.

Back at Camp Fallujah, life continued as normally as it could, Kapla said.

“Things are not bad here. We have good living conditions, good food, and showers. The hardest part about being here is not being home, missing friends and family,” Kapla said.

“It is starting to get hot here. We have had several days with temps in the 110s recently. It is usually in the mid-80s by about 9 a.m. We do get incoming fire every now and then, but not very often anymore.”

What surprised him was a supportive flood of e-mails and pats on the back from others serving in Iraq.

“He just assumed that anyone with the opportunity to save someone’s life would do it,” his mother said.

Ironically, Kapla may never know the stranger he helped.

The identities of bone marrow recipients are kept anonymous, although after a year, if both sides are willing, the bone marrow group will release contact information.

Wiedemann has her own ideas about the recipient.

“I like to picture him as a grandpa who’s now going to be around a lot longer to take his grandkids to the zoo or go to a high school baseball game.”

Ellie

The 38-year-old Kapla journeyed to Washington, D.C., where bone marrow was extracted from his body April 20. Three days later, he was on his way back to Iraq to his job running a radio repair unit.

It’s not unusual for military personnel to sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program. But donating in the middle of a tour of duty is pretty unique, spokeswoman Helen Ng points out.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine veteran recalls island war <br />
<br />
By DALE KILLINGBECK, CADILLAC NEWS <br />
MARION - Clair Thompson wears his various &quot;USMC&quot; caps most places. <br />
<br />
In Guam foxholes almost 61 years ago he wore a helmet...

[thedrifter]

Marine Maj. Lavrinovich earns Bronze Star for service in Iraq <br />
<br />
May 30, 2005 <br />
<br />
By Sue Ellen Ross <br />
<br />
Post-Tribune correspondent <br />
<br />
CROWN POINT — Audrey and Walter Lavrinovich Sr. are proud...

[thedrifter]

San Antonio ‘Devil Dog’ puts the bark in embarkation
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200553052547
Story by Sgt. Juan Vara



AL ASAD, Iraq (May 30, 2005) -- The arrival and departure airfield control group here is similar to a small international airport. It’s the place where many are introduced to the region where they’ll spend months supporting the war and also the last place in Iraq they see as they make their way home.

Dozens of personnel, sometimes hundreds, pass through the terminal on a daily basis and there are always Marines ready to help and point anyone in the right direction if anybody has questions.

Lance Cpl. Jesus M. Haro is one of them. A 2002 graduate of Brackenridge High School in his native San Antonio, Haro is on his first deployment to Iraq, reinforcing Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2, from Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, N.C.

His duties as an embarkation and logistics specialist include keeping track of incoming and outgoing flights, tracking down how many passengers are in the aircraft, briefing those newly arrived to Al Asad on what they can and cannot to do while living here and assisting those continuing travel.

He also helps units move cargo in wide-body aircraft, sets up customs inspections for personnel returning to the United States and briefs returning personnel on the details of their trip home.

Though his individual efforts assist in making things run smooth in one of the busiest arrival and departure airfield control groups in Iraq, he said it’s the combined efforts of all the Marines there what truly makes a difference.

“All the Marines here work as a team,” said Haro. “Everyone knows each other’s job and we all help each other out. Out of all of the things we do our main focus is to get people back to the States.”

Haro’s original unit is the headquarters squadron of Marine Aircraft Group 29, based at MCAS New River, N.C. Prior to getting there he served for a year in Okinawa, Japan.

The experienced gained at his previous commands, working with ground units and helicopter squadrons, pays great dividends here as he uses it to ensure cargo and personnel reach their final destination.

While in Okinawa he learned about logistics, dealing mostly with motor transport issues and correspondence such as requests for ammunition and Meals-Ready-to-Eat. At MAG-29 he learned about embarkation and tracking cargo, helping the several squadrons in the group move their gear as they deploy. “It’s pretty much evened out so far,” he said. “I haven’t had any problems with anything.”

Hungry for more knowledge, Haro has been learning as much as he can to make himself more proficient at his job.

“I’ve been learning how to operate under the strict guidelines of working in a combat environment and about load plans and the capabilities of the different types of aircraft we deal with,” he said. “I’m also learning a little about a program used by the Air Force to track flights.”

The workload fluctuates as units come and go but there’s always work to be done at the terminal. Haro is there every day, and even when he’s not on the travelers’ good sides, he keeps his cool and continues to help out to the best of his ability.

“People get mad at us sometime because their flight is delayed,” he said. “I simply tell them to come back the next day, be on time and be happy that at least they’re going home and nothing bad happened to them.”


- For more information about the Marine reported on in this story, please contact Sgt. Juan Vara by e-mail at varaj@acemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil -


Ellie

[thedrifter]

A day in the life ... at war <br />
By COURTNEY DENTCH <br />
The Intelligencer <br />
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<br />
<br />
Amid insurgent uprisings and struggles to establish a Democratic government, American troops serving in the Middle East have...

[thedrifter]

Remember the Wounded
We should recognize and honor all sacrifices for America.

By John Wheeler

Monday, May 30, 2005; Page A21

Eleven years ago Lewis B. Puller Jr., winner of a Pulitzer Prize for the book "Fortunate Son" on his experiences as a Marine platoon commander who was severely wounded in Vietnam, took his own life. Puller had lost both legs and the use of his hands in the war. On May 11, 1994, he finally succumbed to stump pain, to frustration at his inability to grasp objects and to depression, which he had fought for 25 years.

We were close friends, and I can attest that Lew fought his troubles to the end. Despite his disability, he had just completed a trip to Hanoi to pick school sites for the Vietnam Children's Fund. The first school was named for him.

Wounds like Lew's -- from what is now called an improvised explosive device -- are more frequent in Iraq than they were in Vietnam. With protection around vital organs, the rate of wounded Americans having amputations is 6 percent -- three times the rate it was in Vietnam. Also, because of the angle from which such explosive devices strike, about one in five of those evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany has head or neck injuries; many have brain damage, breathing and eating impairments, blindness, or severe disfiguration.

Thanks to forward surgical teams, in mini-hospitals close to battle, the ratio of wounded to killed is 8 to 1 in Iraq, up from 5 to 1 in Vietnam. Surgeon Atul Gawande wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine about one Iraq case, "Injuries like his were unsurvivable in previous wars. The cost, however, can be high. The airman lost one leg above the knee, the other in a hip disarticulation, his right hand, and part of his face. How he and others like him will be able to live and function remains an open question."

Lew's case shows the need for recognition, support and encouragement for these wounded, especially to avert depression, isolation and suicide. Like Lew, many wounded veterans can continue to be very productive, but they can at the same time be afflicted by potentially fatal aftereffects.

Unfortunately, no Memorial Day ceremony or war memorial that I have seen has explicitly honored the wounded. In fact, under House Concurrent Resolution 587 of Feb. 10, 1966, Memorial Day is simply for paying "tribute to those who gave their lives."

This oversight needs correction. We need to honor the wounded as well as those who died. Their numbers are growing, and society needs to both acknowledge their sacrifice and understand their situation. And it needs, through this tribute, to give support and encouragement to the families of the wounded -- families that bear great anguish, time devoted to care and economic loss.

Some wounds are not as visible as others. The Purple Heart excludes post-traumatic stress disorder as well as infections and disease that often become evident after a veteran has left the war zone. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported, concerning Afghanistan and Iraq, that these new wars "will produce a new generation of veterans at risk for the chronic mental health problems that result, in part, from exposure to the stress, adversity, and trauma of war-zone experiences. . . . [I]t is important to . . . raise the awareness of civilians back home, to prepare loved ones for soldiers' return."

The nation and its government need to give some thought to ways to honor the wounded and to recognize the full range of impairments suffered by those who have served and sacrificed for their country. Topics for discussion could include officially expanding the purpose of Memorial Day, establishing medals for cases excluded from the Purple Heart (severe illness in the war zone or later, and death in battlefield accidents), and mentioning the wounded, veterans who suffer illnesses and their families in war memorials. This is a good day to start.

The writer, a Washington lawyer, graduated from West Point in 1966, served in Vietnam and chaired the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the Wall. His e-mail address iswheeler-mail@usa.net.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

onday, May 30, 2005; Page A20

ON THE opposite page today, John Wheeler urges that we broaden the meaning of Memorial Day to include not just those who have died in their country's service but also those who came back wounded, disabled and, often, shattered by their experiences. He reminds us that many veterans have, in a way, also given their lives to this country in that they will never again be the same -- in body or spirit or both. Mr. Wheeler cites the case of his friend Lewis B. Puller Jr., the son of a legendary Marine hero of World War II, who returned from his own service in Vietnam grievously wounded and who, after many years, took his own life.

It would be a good thing to recognize all our heroes on Memorial Day -- to make this a day to honor the living as well as the dead -- especially given the trend of turning it into an occasion for food-tasting festivals and poolside celebrations of summer.

And while we're at it on this formerly somber holiday, we'd like to offer a few words in support of a related movement that seems to be spreading spontaneously, with a little encouragement from people who have access to the public ear. It is the simple practice of saying "thank you" to men and women in armed forces uniform -- on the streets, in office buildings, malls and other places.

Granted, this doesn't come easily to a people who often are too self-conscious even to sing the national anthem at ballgames. This is especially true in our own city, where formality and restraint are more pronounced than in most. But in fact it's here that gestures would have a special meaning to a lot of people -- from service members assigned to the Washington area to traveling soldiers and Marines in airports to the young man in a wheelchair seeing his nation's capital on a day trip out of Walter Reed. Such acts affirm that no matter what one's view of the country's current conflicts, there is a common and widespread appreciation of those who carry the burden of war. They deserve one more word from a city that produces millions of them every day, one that isn't all that hard to offer: "Thanks."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A life of honor remembered by Marine's family and country
By SABRINA BATES
Staff Writer WCP News
May 18, 2005

Famous writer Ernest Hemingway wrote, "Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived, and how he died that distinguishes one man from another."

The details of how one local soldier lived and how he died will be recognized in a distinguished ceremony in Memphis this weekend.

United States Marine Corps Capt. Brent Morel has been posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for Valor for his brave service in battle in Iraq.

Morel was killed during a battle in the Middle East last April. The battle was considered an "ambush of mortars and automatic fire" of Morel and his men.

Morel's commander, Capt. Brad Richardson wrote the narrative describing the "valiant" acts of Morel on that fateful day. "(Capt. Morel) quickly leapt out of his own disabled vehicle ... and led a determined assault through a relentless hail of automatic weapons, RPG and mortar fire into the heart of the enemy's ambush."

"This prompt and courageous action surprised the enemy and stalled the momentum of ambush long enough for the six Marines injured in the lead vehicle to move to relative safety out of the kill zone. Capt. Morel's selfless act undoubtedly enabled his team to break contact, thus saving their lives."

Richardson went on to describe Morel's "extraordinary heroism, indomitable leadership, selfless devotion to duty and bold fighting spirit." Morel's dedication to his country and self sacrifice has earned him national recognition and the second highest award the Navy and Marine Corps bestow.

"Brent was always a guy for the underdog. He was an underdog himself," Morel's father, Mike, said.

The pain the family endures daily is very real. They are proud of the soldier who gave his life to his country. The Morels, however, miss their son with the quiet dignity and raw emotion that comes from losing a child.

"He loved being a Marine; he chose that," Mike Morel added about Morel's decision to join the sniper and reconnaissance division of the Marine Corps.

Morel served five years of active duty and three years in the reserves, according to his father.

Once he graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin as a history major, Morel took the commission that would warrant him a captain with the U.S. Marines.

More than one year after his death, his family describes the recent turn of events as "bittersweet."

"The missing him takes over as the crying slows down," Morel's mother, Molly, stated.

"It seems as if when you take two steps forward, then take one back," his father added. Although neither can "crawl into a shell and pretend as if it never happened," they ex-plained that it helps to stay busy.

With the support of strangers, friends and family, the Morels take it one day at a time.

"He would have chosen this path. Brent was dedicated to his country and his men," Mike said.

"He did what he was trained to do," he added.

His act of heroism goes without saying and his parents say they knew his actions were "the right thing to do" for their 27-year-old son. As a leader, Morel gained the respect of his men and their families.

One of Morel's soldiers lost both of his hands during that battle and according to Morel's parents, the family always recognizes Morel's brave acts with grateful appreciation.

"His (the soldier's) mother always tells us that without Brent, they would not have their son," Morel's mother explained.

"It makes us thankful that his sacrifice is appreciated," she added. According to her, there were "a lot of heroes that day."

There has been a scholarship fund set up in Morel's name and in less than a year, a student has already been awarded with the scholarship.

An organization known as the Soldier's Stewardship Found-ation is scheduled to unveil a bronze bust of Morel Saturday after his family is awarded the Navy Cross. Morel's family has chosen UTM as the final resting place of the statue to be displayed in his memory.

When asked what revelations have been discovered in the last year by the grieving family, they commented on the kindness of strangers.

"We have been overwhelmed by the goodness of people that we don't even know. Their support and sympathy have shown us that overall, there are more good people out there," his mother said as his father nodded in agreement.

In Morel's family eyes, he will always be their hero that fought for the underdog and never stopped trying to make a small difference in a big world.

The family will gather at the Marine Corps Reserve Center in Memphis this Saturday for the presentation of the Naval Cross. Morel is the highest ranking Marine killed in the war in Iraq. He is survived by his wife of almost five years, Amy. His mother and father reside in Martin.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Remembering the sacrifices made by U.S. military personnel
By FRANK JULIANO
The Connecticut Post

MILFORD - As he has for more than 20 years, Bill Donahue will mark Memorial Day by placing hundreds of small American flags on veterans' graves here.

The flags are among the 3,000 that members of the Milford Association of Patriotic Organizations put on graves to remember the sacrifices made by U.S. military personnel.

"Some towns don't do this, so we also hand out flags to people who have relatives buried elsewhere, so they can mark the graves," said the former state commander of the U.S. Disabled American Veterans. For example, the grave of Donahue's father, a military veteran buried in his native Waterbury, is decorated with a Memorial Day flag by his 86-year-old son.

"Some places, thankfully not Milford, have to mark the graves of American servicemen and women killed in Iraq," Donahue said. "It's important that we remember."

As the conflict he fought in, World War II, fades from living memory, the retired teacher said he is heartened by efforts here to pass on its lessons. West Shore Middle School - and particularly history teacher Thomas Acri - have incorporated World War II, its heroes, villains and major battles into its lesson plans "in a way that really reaches these kids," Donahue said.

As for himself, the octogenarian knows exactly what he was doing Friday, Feb. 16, 1945. He still has the faded paper "Plan of the Day" for crew members of his ship, the cruiser USS Vicksburg, anchored just offshore at Iwo Jima.

Across the top is printed "D-3-Day," three days before the planned invasion of the strategic Pacific island that sealed Japan's fate.

"We all knew what was coming and when, and we were softening up the [Japanese] defenses," Donahue said. "We were firing for effect.' You'd see where your shell landed and make adjustments."

On that morning, reveille was at 4:15 a.m., and Donahue was eating his powdered eggs by 4:50 a.m. All "hands" were at their battle stations at 5:45 a.m. and the shore bombardment commenced at 6 a.m.

A trained electrician, Donahue operated a primitive computer, feeding coordinates into the device to plot firing patterns.

"We had two triggers and we pulled them six seconds apart," the veteran said. "I'd ring a bell, use a stopwatch to count off six seconds, then pull the trigger."

A "fire controlman," he would also do electrical work on the Vicksburg's 12 6-inch guns and its 20 mm big guns. The Marines took heavy casualties in the first days of the Iwo Jima invasion, Donahue said. The Japanese knew where the landing would be - the island had only one beach - and they were waiting.

After the last Japanese troops were rooted out of caves in the northwest corner of the island and Marines raised a large American flag - borrowed from a battleship - on Iwo Jima's highest point, many ships in Donahue's group went to Ulithi, a U.S. island base, for "R&R."

In April, the battleships and cruisers regrouped for the battle to take Okinawa. By then, City Clerk Alan H. Jepson said, rumors were flying the Japanese were preparing to surrender. Jepson was loading the 40mm guns on the USS Collette, in the same battle group as Donahue, although the city men didn't know each other at the time.

"The kamikazes kept coming at us, and Adm. [William] Halsey said over the loudspeaker: It is rumored that the Japanese are going to surrender, so I want you to fire at them in a friendly fashion,' " Jepson recalled.

Donahue said he ended up in Tokyo Bay shortly after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, thus ending the war. His ship was among those accompanying the USS Missouri, where the Japanese formally surrendered.

While his war ended a long time ago, Donahue has fought on - for veterans and for the vocational students and their teachers he helped prepare for the classroom.

After teaching a few years at Bullard-Havens Technical School in Bridgeport, the man they call "Doc" went on to get a master's and, in 1972, a doctorate in education from Pacific Western University in Seattle.

He taught at the City College Graduate Center on 42nd Street for many years, taking the 6:10 a.m. train into New York City from Milford every day.

Donahue's latest project is working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to get 100 one-bedroom apartments and an assisted-living center for veterans built in Newington.

State Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, and co-chairwoman of the General Assembly's Veterans Affairs Committee, said Donahue's efforts on behalf of all state military veterans are appreciated.

These days, a year after Roselle, his wife of nearly 60 years, died, Donahue is back guarding the beach from his Melba Street home.

"When the Vicksburg was brand new, we came up the East Coast into Newport, and we patrolled Long Island Sound," the Navy veteran said. "I've come full circle."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Remembering the missing
OSCAR ABEYTA
oabeyta@tucsoncitizen.com

Lance Cpl. Joshua Lucero's Marine buddies couldn't be here yesterday to visit his grave, but family members said they understood.

"When you're in the military, your life really isn't your own," said Joshua's father, Michael. The family was still disappointed, however.

Lucero's family and friends were among about 50 people who gathered yesterday at South Lawn Cemetery on South Park Avenue for a candlelight service to honor loved ones who had passed away.

A similar service was held at East Lawn Palms Cemetery on East Grant Road.

The Marines who served alongside Lucero were to join the family yesterday, but they were recalled to duty at the last minute and had to return to Camp Lejeune, N.C. The battalion is preparing to be deployed to Iraq for a third tour.

Lucero was killed in an explosion Nov. 27 near Fallujah, Iraq. He was 19.

After the service, people gathered at the grave sites of relatives and friends and lighted candles as the sun set and night settled over them.

Yvonne Solis and her children went to the service to honor her father, who was killed in South Vietnam when she was just a toddler.

"We try to do this every year," she said. She has taught her children to respect the service and sacrifice that soldiers make for their country.

A few yards from where the service was held, Marielena Mata sat alone beside the neatly tended grave of her daughter, also named Marielena, who died 13 years ago. She attends the service every year, but that's because she's there anyway.

"She was my only daughter, and I come here every day to see her and clean up," Mata said.

She noted the gathering was smaller this year than last year and said more people should attend the annual memorial services to honor their relatives.

Rosa Barnett gathered with family members at the grave of her son Alejandro, who died last year when he was 18 months old. Her other son, 20-month-old Daniel, played around the flowers and other ornaments on the grave and hugged a stranger who stopped to talk with the family.

Barnett said the service was a good opportunity for them to gather to remember little Alejandro, but said the sense of loss is ever present for people who have lost loved ones.

"You always remember them every day of your life," Barnett said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

War's sacrifice
By ANTHONY VIOLANTI
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
5/30/2005

Jason Dunham was a walking Marine poster. The Southern Tier native stood 6-feet, 1-inch tall, with handsome chiseled features and a muscular body. At 22, he had piercing, dark hazel eyes and was brimming with charisma and leadership.

On his face was an engaging smile, tattooed on his chest was the ace of spades. He was a tough Marine corporal with a soft heart, "a good old country boy" who liked to play pool, flirt and listen to Tim McGraw CDs.

That is the Jason Dunham that Mark Dean remembers.

Not the mortally wounded, disfigured and bloodstained figure Dean found on a hot and dusty Iraqi street after Dunham threw himself on a grenade, probably saving the lives of at least two of his men.

"The face, bloated and bloodied, didn't look familiar. Then (Dean) . . . realized he was looking at one of his best friends. "Dunham, if you can hear me, give me a sign,' Dean begged. Jason didn't speak, although Dean noticed his left leg move a bit . . . Dean prayed to himself and spoke aloud to Jason to try and keep him steady . . . "You're going to be all right,' said Dean. "We're going to get you home.' "

The scene was included in "The Gift of Valor," a new book on Dunham written by Michael M. Phillips and excerpted in Sunday's Parade magazine in The Buffalo News. Today, Dean still lives with that moment, and with thoughts of Jason Dunham, who has been recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor. The medal, which has only been awarded once for the Iraq War, would put Dunham among the most select company in military history.

"I think about him every day," Dean said last week in a telephone interview from California, where he is stationed. "Some days are tougher, and some aren't."

"Cpl. Dunham had a gift from God," Dean added, his voice breaking. "Everybody who came in contact with him wanted to be like him. He was the toughest Marine but the nicest guy. He would do anything for you. Cpl. Dunham was the kind of person everybody wants as their best friend. It's hard to explain in words."

In his book, Phillips faced that journalistic challenge. Phillips, an embeded reporter for the Wall Street Journal, never met Dunham. Phillips arrived in Iraq in May 2004, a few weeks after the Marine's death. But Phillips said that everywhere he went, some Marine would tell him about Dunham.

"I never met Jason, but I kept hearing about him," said Phillips, 42. "You hear about a man who jumped on a grenade and could get the Medal of Honor, and right away you know it's a good story."

Phillips wrote a front-page piece on Dunham for the Journal last May. It struck an immediate, emotional chord with the American public. The paper received hundreds of letters and e-mails. Back in Scio, which is near Wellsville in Allegany County, Dunham's family members said they received nearly 1,000 letters since the Journal ran his story, which was also reported in The News.

Dunham's story was one "of extraordinary valor on the part of a brave Marine," retired Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf said in a statement.

"Everybody seemed touched about one young man who gave everything for his country," Phillips added.

On the surface, it seemed a simple story: Small-town boy transformed into a war hero. But, as Phillips discovered, Dunham's life and death had complex and profound meanings.

Family turmoil filled Dunham's early childhood. Dunham's mother was just 16 and a sophomore in high school when he was born, Phillips writes. Her boyfriend, Jason's father, soon left her. His mother eventually married a man named Dan Dunham, but that ended in divorce. He nonetheless adopted Jason and was granted custody, along with another son named Justin.

Dan Dunham married his current wife, Deb, a few years later, and the couple had two other children - Kyle, 16, and Katelyn, 12.

"We told Jason from the beginning that he was adopted," Deb Dunham said this week. "It didn't matter, I consider him my son, and we're all one family. I remember when he was about 6 or so, he would hug me and say, "You can be my mother.' "

In Scio, Jason had a passion for baseball and other sports. He was a popular student at Scio Central School but always rooted for the underdog. "He was easy-going, but he stuck up for people who needed help," Deb Dunham said.

Dunham was 17 when he signed up for the Marines during his senior year in high school. Late in 2003, he found out he was going to Iraq. Before shipping out, Jason talked to his parents about what might happen if he didn't come back.

If his wounds left him incapacitated, Phillips writes, Jason told his father he didn't want to remain on life support.

"Dad, don't let me lay there for a day if I'm going to be that way forever."

In the book, Phillips describes a conversation Jason had with his mother as he was leaving for Iraq: "As Jason walked to the doorway of his home to leave, Deb looked at him and said: "You want your dress blues?'

"Yep," Jason replied.

"And you want a full military service?"

"Yep."

"Nothing more was said," Phillips writes, "they both knew they were talking about Jason's funeral."

A few months later, shortly before his death, Jason phoned his mother from Iraq.

"I just felt he was saying good-bye," Deb Dunham said last week. "I don't know if it was premonition, but when you love people, especially love between a parent and child, you feel a special kind of bond."

On April 14, 2004, Dunham led a 14-man foot patrol into a town called Karabilah. Dunham approached a line of seven Iraqi vehicles along a dirt alleyway. An Iraqi in a black suit jumped out of one of the vehicles and grabbed Dunham by the throat. The two men fought as two other Marines raced to the scene.

The Iraqi had a grenade in his hand, and Dunham yelled to two Marines near him, "no, no, no, watch his hand," Phillips writes. The grenade rolled loose, and the other Marines believe Dunham placed his helmet and body over it to protect them. It exploded, and Dunham lay face down and unconscious in his blood.

"Cpl. Dunham was in the middle of the explosion," Pfc. Kelly Miller, 21, one of the Marines who raced to the scene, was quoted by Phillips. "If it was not for him, none of us would be here. He took the impact of the explosion."

A helicopter flew Dunham, near death, to battalion headquarters in Iraq. He was then transferred to another base in Iraq before being flown to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. That's where Deb and Dan Dunham went to see their son.

Phillips describes how doctors told the couple the damage was "irreversible. He would always be on a respirator. He would never hear his parents or know they were by his side. Another operation to relieve pressure on his brain had little chance of succeeding and a significant chance of killing him."

After much thought and prayer, the Dunhams decided to remove the life support.

"Jason left a living will, and Dan and Jason talked about this," Deb Dunham said last week. "It was hard to know you have to do this. You give birth to a child and you love and support and do things for your child his whole life. You meet your child's needs.

"Ultimately, we felt this was another way we had to meet Jason's needs. I saw my husband's heart torn out. But we met our child's needs. This is what he wanted."

The thought of a Medal of Honor is helpful for Deb Dunham and her family.

"It won't bring back my son," she said, "but Dan and I believe Jason is deserving of the medal. Not because we want him to have it, but because he earned it on his own merit."

"I was there, and I believe he deserves the medal," Dean said. "If he doesn't get it, I will be really disappointed because I don't know what more you can do."

So will the rest of the country when "The Gift of Valor" (Broadway Books, $19.95) is released Tuesday. Phillips will be in Scio to mark the occasion, and Deb Dunham will be there with him.

"This has been a very difficult year," she said. "The rawness and sense of loss for us will never go away. It's easy for people to forget about the sacrifice Jay made, and as his mother, I don't want anyone to forget. With this book, Michael has made it possible for people to remember Jay."

The book offers a grunt's-eye view of life in Iraq. Phillips has an accessible, easy-to-read, writing style. Like famed World War II reporter Ernie Pyle, Phillips makes the personal side of war a universal experience.

"The book tells what it's really like to be over there," Dean said. "People in America need to hear about Cpl. Dunham."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

PO3 Shane Schmidt
Michigan Woman Survives Iraq War, but Dies at Home

PLAINWELL, Mich. -- Petty Officer 3rd Class Shane Schmidt and her father share a unique, yet tragic bond - both survived their war experiences in the Navy only to be killed in car accidents back home. The 32-year-old soldier also was buried on the 32nd anniversary of her father's death.

Still, friends and relatives say they would rather focus on Schmidt's life than on the coincidences, eulogizing her at a funeral service last month in Plainwell.

"It's hard to describe how much people loved her," said the Rev. David Alderman, pastor of Plainwell Assembly of God church. "I know that we tend to put people on pedestals after they die but I'm telling you, the things you hear about her, they're true."

In high school, Schmidt supported herself and a mother, who was ill, by working two part-time jobs. At 29, she decided to join the Navy as a corpsman, knowing the likelihood of being sent to war in Iraq to help the injured.

Against the advice of nearly all her friends and relatives, Schmidt married a prison inmate just before going to war not only because they were in love but because she felt he needed someone who believed in him.

"She lived life to the fullest," Alderman said. "She loved people deeply. She lived out her Christian life and experience in a way that was exemplary."

Schmidt was born in 1972, and grew up in Allegan and Martin, two small communities in southwestern Michigan. Her mother, Jeannette Kelly, and half sister, Trissa Kelly, still live in Plainwell.

Her father, Dan Vote, missed the birth of his daughter while serving a yearlong tour of duty in the Vietnam War. He returned to the United States when she was about 6 months old but died a few weeks later.

Vote was killed in a car accident on April 12, 1973, near Kalamazoo, where his parents used to live. Police said Vote was driving drunk at the time.

"I fathered her as much as I could," said Schmidt's grandfather, Norman Vote, 79.

Allegan Police Chief Rick Hoyer also became a surrogate father to Schmidt.

As a patrol officer, he recalled sometimes seeing her out late with a group of friends, trying to concentrate on doing homework. "The reason she was doing her homework so late at night was because she was working two part-time jobs to support her and her family," he said.

Because of difficulties at home, she sometimes lived with Hoyer and his wife. Over the years, the couple stayed in touch with the young woman. And, Hoyer said that he keeps Schmidt's last postcard from Iraq on his desk at work.

Schmidt joined the Navy as a corpsman because she felt it was the best way for her to become a nurse, Alderman said. Before that, she worked at Perrigo Co., the Allegan-based drug maker.

Assigned to the Marines' 2nd Transportation Support Battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Schmidt served with distinction for seven months in Iraq. She received several commendations and awards, including the Navy Achievement Medal.

Like her father, Schmidt walked away from the war unscathed, returning in mid-March. She died within weeks of being home.

On April 1, Schmidt was struck by a driver alongside a Florida highway as she talked to her husband on her cell phone. She had pulled off the road during a downpour, perhaps to wait until the rain eased up, said Lt. Bill Leeper, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.

Authorities were awaiting toxicology results to determine whether the other driver, who survived, was legally drunk, Leeper said.

Schmidt was headed back to her relatives' home after visiting her husband in prison. Michael Schmidt learned of her death two days later - on his 30th birthday.

The couple had met through his mother, Ellen Myers, a friend of Alderman. Before they got married, Shane used to stay at Myers' home while traveling between Michigan and Tulsa, Okla., where she attended Oral Roberts University for a year.

Myers asked her to write to her son in prison and tell him about Jesus Christ. Corresponding regularly, they soon fell in love as he became a devout Christian.

The pair married two months before Shane Schmidt was deployed to Iraq.

"With what he went through, he's doing extremely well with it so far," said the Rev. Jeff Newell, Michael Schmidt's chaplain at Bay Correctional Facility in Panama City, Fla.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

It's more than a long weekend
07:36 AM CDT on Monday, May 30, 2005
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News

It began with war heavy on Americans' minds, tears fresh, graves newly dug.

But with the passing decades, Memorial Day became something else - a three-day weekend, barbecues and parties and no longer a day to pause and remember.

"And that hurts," said Richard E. Carey, a retired Marine lieutenant general who lives in Rockwall. "It hurts a lot. So many people gave their lives for this country. It's a very, very sad thing that we've forgotten what this day is all about."

The tradition of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers and honoring their memory started immediately after the Civil War ended, and perhaps during it.

"When it comes to the origins, you can argue about it all day," said Mary Looney, president of Dallas Chapter 6 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

"A lot of places claim it. But I think it first happened at the Battle of Shiloh, with all the Union dead laying there and the ladies who came out to put flowers around them."

Within three years of the war's end, Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, proclaimed May 30, 1868, the first Memorial Day. Flowers were placed on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

By 1890, Memorial Day was an official holiday everywhere across the northern U.S., though many of the states of the old Confederacy designated other days to honor their dead, and still do so.

After World War I, though, Memorial Day was widely celebrated north and south and honored all of the nation's war dead, not just those from the Civil War.

In 1971, Congress passed the National Holiday Act, making the last Monday in May a national holiday, thus ensuring a three-day weekend.

That, many say, led to the shift in focus.

"Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day," the Veterans of Foreign Wars said in 2002. "No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

Many lament that.

"It's a very important day," Gen. Carey said, "and it's tragic that all the service people who have given everything for this country have been forgotten.

"Unfortunately, over time it's evolved into another three-day weekend. People's values have changed."

The women of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and members of other heritage groups and service organizations still help decorate the graves of fallen soldiers but wonder why so few others join in.

"We've dedicated 284 brass markers to hold flags on Confederate graves at Greenwood Cemetery [in Uptown]," Mrs. Looney said, "and we've found 130 more, so we're raising money for those.

"And there are 90 former Union soldiers buried there, too, so they're our project for the summer and into next year. We put U.S. flags out there, anyway. And when the war ended, these guys all shook hands, and we should, too."

Mrs. Looney said she'll join her neighbors in Wylie for a patriotic gathering on Memorial Day. But she sees too little of that going on, too little respect for all those lives lost.

Mike Anderson, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the Marines, said it isn't our values that changed. Instead, it's the pace of life.

"Maybe Memorial Day parades have fallen by the wayside. We're such a society on the go that a lot of people can't spend a couple of hours watching a parade," said Mr. Anderson, whose son, Eric, recently returned from his second tour in Iraq.

"But I really feel people have an awareness of what our military faces. This country changed forever on 9-11, and people realize that.

"And whether or not they support the politics surrounding the war in Iraq, they've been able to successfully support the young men and women who have volunteered to do this, some of them twice or three times."

Mr. Anderson, who lives in Fort Worth and teaches school in Arlington, said he sees signs of support everywhere, often in the yellow or red-white-and-blue ribbon magnets he sees on so many cars and trucks.

"Every chance I get, I talk with the people with these little ribbons, and they tell me they support our troops," he said. "They aren't just sticking them on because it's a fad. They're very aware of what's going on in the world."

He'd love to see more parades, more services at war memorials, but he doesn't expect that to happen. Instead, he takes comfort in the welcome U.S. troops receive when they return from the Middle East.

"When we came home from Vietnam, man, that was the war we lost, and people were ready to put it out of their minds," Mr. Anderson said. "We got off the planes in ones and twos and skulked through the airport.

"But now even young people who weren't alive then say, 'Thanks for your service.'

"And today, towns across the country are stepping up for our returning troops, saying, 'Welcome home, job well done.' "

Gen. Carey sees those same things happening and said patriotism still flourishes in America, even if it's less apparent.

It could be the times, he said, or perhaps the scope of the conflict in the Middle East.

"It isn't like it was during World War II when we had 15 million in uniform. Everybody was touched by that war," he said. "But now it's just a very few."

A few days ago, Gen. Carey had an errand at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

"I ran into this young Army woman and I said, 'Are you coming or going?'

"She said, 'I'm going back,' and I thanked her for what she was doing and said she was in our prayers. She watered up a bit and thanked me. But it's evident when you see these young people that patriotism is still strong in this country.

"It's just not the way it used to be."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A day in the life ... at war <br />
By COURTNEY DENTCH <br />
The Intelligencer <br />
<br />
Amid insurgent uprisings and struggles to establish a Democratic government, American troops serving in the Middle East have...

[thedrifter]

Fitzpatrick conveys support from home
Bucks County Courier Times
May 30, 2005

Report from Iraq - "Hi, Nick Santoro? I'm Mike Fitzpatrick. From Bucks County. Well, your Mom wanted me to give this to you for your birthday." I reached over and hugged the 20-year-old tight. "Happy birthday, Nick. Stay safe."

After the Bucks County Courier Times and the Doylestown Intelligencer ran a story about my plan to travel to Iraq for Memorial Day, I received an e-mail from Penny Santoro of Bucking-ham. I immediately called the Santoro home. "My son Nick is in Fallujah. He's on the front lines. I know it's a long shot, Mike, but Monday is his twentieth birthday ...," her voice trailed.

"What can I do?" I thought. I asked Penny if I could somehow deliver a gift to him. In the short silence that followed, I was embarrassed that I suggested such a thing. "No, Mike, just give him a hug from me."

On Saturday morning, a small bipartisan delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives traveled to Iraq via Amman, Jordan. After a long flight to the Middle East, a military transport accompanying dozens of Army National Guardsmen from Olney, Md., and a helicopter from Baghdad International Airport to Fallujah East Landing Zone, we arrived for a briefing on the status and condition of our troops and the continuing armoring of military transport vehicles.

I had the opportunity and great honor to meet with the Army in Baghdad and then inspect the armoring facility at Taqaddam, which has kicked into full gear. I then traveled to Camp Fallujah and the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. It was here that I personally met (and shared a Marine MRE - "meal ready to eat") with a confident and proud Nick Santoro of Buckingham Township. We talked about his service, his living conditions and the Central Bucks East Patriots. He was a little embarrassed when I announced his birthday to the other Marines in proximity and then, armed with that attention, Nick talked with his commanding officers and other members of the congressional delegation. The meeting was too short as I boarded a Humvee convoy back through Fallujah for an operations and intelligence briefing and a trip to Balad and the 332nd Air Expeditionary Force - successors of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen.

Operation Iraqi Freedom, as reported directly from the soldiers and airmen that I met with this weekend, is showing substantial success:

Electricity load has increased significantly, and several power plants in the regions I visited are back online.

The Trade Bank of Iraq this month issued its first credit card - debit cards.

Iraqi Police Service continues to graduate police officers from advanced training and specialty courses.

Water treatment projects are under way and USAID [a government agency that delivers humanitarian aid] is implementing water distribution projects, new pipelines are being installed and thousands of homes are being connected.

Construction is under way on 143 primary health care facilities. A New York publishing company is working with the Ministry of Health on an Iraqi Journal of Medicine. They are in the process of selecting an editorial board and hope to publish a first edition later this year.

More than 500 schools have been renovated and an additional 150 are being constructed.

Three major cell phone companies in Iraq are continuing to enroll new customers. Prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, cell phones and satellite dishes were severely restricted if not completely banned - a dictatorship's control over daily communication between citizens.

The Iraqi Stock Exchange has tripled its trading volume in less than one year.**

As I prepared to board the C130 transport from Baghdad International Airport, I expressed how my constituents are so very proud of the service our men and women are providing to the country. They are diligent. They are focused. They are professional. All said that they miss their families, but all are proud of the work that they are doing for their country and they specifically asked for our continued prayers and support.

Nick Santoro, celebrating his 20th birthday far from home but with friends he serves beside, and all who serve our great nation, deserves that much and more.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Tributes carry on in rain
11:21 PM CDT on Sunday, May 29, 2005
By WENDY HUNDLEY and KRYSTLE FERNANDEZ
The Dallas Morning News

The threat of rain didn't deter crowds of people throughout the Dallas area Sunday from paying their respects to those who gave their lives for this country.

At the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, the skies opened up shortly before the Memorial Day ceremony.

But as if on cue, the rain suddenly stopped and the sun struggled to peek through the clouds at the start of the event that featured William McLemore, deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as keynote speaker.

"People point to many reasons for our nation's greatness. ... But I'm convinced that's it's here that we find the true reason for our nation's greatness," Mr. McLemore said.

"We say rest well, brave souls, for yours is the sleep of heroes."

The rain also didn't keep away Dallas Hispanics who came to Pike Park in Little Mexico to pay tribute to fallen Hispanic veterans.

Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez, a veteran of the Army, said she knows what it is like to serve the country and community as a Hispanic and be unappreciated.

"There were wars where they did not feel like they were a part of the country," Sheriff Valdez said, "but they continued to fight."

The services at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery included a special tribute to the 19 soldiers and Marines who were killed in the Iraq war and are buried in the cemetery. Their graves were marked with small flags that fluttered in the afternoon breeze.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Julius Graw read the names of the deceased as retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Farley Simon laid at wreath at the podium in honor of the fallen veterans.

DeboraYoung's father-in-law, a World War II veteran, and her mother-in-law are among the 12,000 veterans and immediate family members buried in the 638-acre cemetery that opened in May 2000 in southwest Dallas near Mountain Creek Lake.

"We just come out to honor the veterans," she said. "It's so peaceful here."

Bill and Sharon Coleman of DeSoto don't have any family members buried at the cemetery, but both of their fathers served in World War II.

They said they don't think braving a little rain is much of a sacrifice to honor the nation's veterans.

"One hour a year is no big deal," Mr. Coleman said.

Red Oak resident Don Griffin came to the service with his wife and son to honor the members of the armed forces and to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

"Think how easy we have it because of them," said his wife, Anne.

"We're thankful we live in this country," Mr. Griffin said. "God's blessed this country."

At the Pike Park service, many of the people who were gathered outside the park's recreation center were veterans of Korea or Vietnam.

Albert Valtierra of Irving served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and said service to the country "is a very natural thing in the Hispanic community. You're expected to do it."

He said he remembers how proud he was of his uncles who fought in the Korean War.

"I can remember them coming home in their uniforms," Mr. Valtierra said. "I always looked up to them."

Many in the crowd were familiar with guest speaker Troy Marceleno. He grew up in Dallas, and on Sunday he returned to Pike Park, where he spent many of his childhood years listening to his dad's band play music at neighborhood fiestas.

Mr. Marceleno served in the U.S. Health Service Commission and other government agencies for about 25 years.

"You have to extend gratitude to those who give themselves in service to our country," Mr. Marceleno said. "We need to make certain that the generations that follow can be proud of not only who they are, but the generations who went before them."

E-mail whundley@dallasnews.com and kfernandez@dallasnews.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A WARTIME MILESTONE

A week and a half after the VE Day anniversary, here’s a date that will get a lot less attention: May 19th 2005. On that day, the war on terror will have outlasted America’s participation in the Second World War. In other words, the period since 9/11 will be longer than the period of time between Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945.

Does it seem that long? For the most part, no. The war on terror has involved no major mobilization of the population at large. In contrast to Casablanca, Mrs Miniver, “I’ll Be Seeing You”, “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me”, “The Last Time I Saw Paris”, “Victory Polka”, “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition” and “There’ll Be A Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin”, American popular culture has preferred to sit this one out, aside from Michael Moore’s crockumentaries and incoherent soundbites from every Hollywood airhead who gets invited to European film festivals. And the response of US government agencies hasn’t been much better: In his testimony to the 9/11 commission, George Tenet said blithely that it would take another half-decade to rebuild the CIA’s joke of a clandestine service. In other words, three years after 9/11, he was saying he needed another five years. Imagine if FDR had turned to Tenet to start up the OSS. In 1942, he’d have told the President not to worry, we’ll have it up and running by 1950.

So, while this war may have started with the first direct assault on American territory since Pearl Harbor, it’s clearly evolved into a different kind of conflict, one in which after three and a half years it’s hard for many Americans to maintain the sense that it’s a “war” at all. By now, National Review’s British, Commonwealth and European readers will be huffing that the Second World War wasn’t three and a half years long, you idiots; it was six years, except for certain latecomers who turned up halfway through. Fair point. But if the Americans were late getting into World War II they were also late getting into the war on terror: Al-Qaeda’s bombers, Saudi moneymen and Wahhabi clerics had been trying to catch Washington’s eye for years only to be dismissed, as then Defense Secretary Bill Cohen said of the attack on the USS Kohl, as “not sufficiently provocative”. You’ll have to do better than that, Osama!

So he did. And you have to wonder whether, despite the increased T-shirt sales among the impressionable young men in the Egyptian and Pakistani bazaars, that was such a smart move. When bin Laden started yakking on about his “war aims” - taking back Spain, the restoration of the Caliphate - it was easy to scoff, yeah, dream on, loser. But a cursory glance at demographics quickly made it clear that, insofar as Europe has a future, it’s likely to be an Islamic one. That being so, why louse things up by flying planes into buildings? Why not just lie low and in the fullness of time everything you want will come your way? The Wahhabists have successfully radicalized hitherto moderate Muslim communities from Albania to Indonesia; they’ve planted their most radical clerics as in-house padres throughout US prisons and even the armed forces. Why screw things up by doing something so provocative it meets even Bill Cohen’s criteria for a response?

Here’s why. It’s always useful to test the limits of your adversaries, and, though it cost them their camps in Afghanistan and much of their leadership, the 9/11 attacks exposed many useful tidbits about the decadence of the west – the worthlessness of the post-modern NATO “alliance” and the active hostility of many of its key members to the United States, the immense deference accorded not just to Islam but to the most radical Islamic groups, especially when it comes to immigration and other aspects of national security. Many Islamists might have suspected all this but it’s heartening to have it confirmed: if the “sleeping giant” is hard to wake up, his European pals aren’t sleeping so much as in irreversible comas.

Thus, if this war is, as existential struggles go, much closer to the Cold War, there’s one key difference. The Cold War was mostly fought by proxies and clients out on the periphery: Vietnam, Yemen, Chile, Afghanistan, Grenada… This time round the periphery’s falling into place very easily: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, moves in the right direction throughout the Middle East, swathes of Central Asia falling under US influence… But the real battleground is the west itself, the heart of Europe, where bombs in Spain, murders in the Netherland, honor killings in Germany prompt only shrugs or pre-emptive capitulation from the political class. Perhaps in the end the comparison isn’t World War Two or the Cold War, but the one that created the modern Middle East in the first place – the First World War, which began with one specific act of violence and unraveled all the great European empires before it was done. Nearly four years after 9/11, a war that started with a bang seems to have fizzled to a whimper – whiney Dems, bureaucratic Homeland Security, nothing much on the horizon. Not so. There’s plenty ahead.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Have A Place To Call Their Own

By Lauren Williamson
The News Herald
Sunday, May 29, 2005

MORGANTON - Serving others is a core value to a Marine.

It's something they pride themselves on.

Former Burke County Marines now have an opportunity to reunite and serve with their band of brothers.

The newly formed local chapter of the Marine Corps League held its chartering ceremony Thursday at the Morganton Community House.

Commandant Dennis Brockland welcomed members and guests, as a chorus of "hoo-ahs" and "semper fi" filled the room.

"I am convinced we will be the number one detachment in North Carolina," Brockland said.

Steve Wilson, the national vice commandant mid-east division of the Marine Corps League, presented the group its charter and administered the oath of allegiance to new members.

Rex Carpenter and Jerry McCall recognized Capt. Robert Douglas Avery, who was Burke County's only soldier missing in action from Vietnam; Sgt. Carol Dean Dale, killed in Vietnam; Lance Cpl. Gary Glenn Tallent, also killed in Vietnam and Carl Leonhardt, who was wounded three times in World War II.

The night's key note address was given by the Rev. Dr. Scott Oxford, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Black Mountain and also a Freedom High School graduate.

Oxford told the tale of Bobby Simpson, a Morganton native who was killed while serving with his Marine Corps division on the island Iwo Jima on March 1, 1945. It was his 19th birthday.

"For as long as I could remember, my father carried a small wallet-sized photo in his wallet," Oxford said. "It was of a Marine in a khaki uniform and he referred to him as Bobby ... This photo was all we knew of Bobby, and that he died at Iwo Jima."

Finding out about Bobby's life plagued Oxford and finally on Christmas Day 1997, his dad pulled out a scrapbook filled with old newspaper clippings of obituaries and football games.

Bobby's face graced many of the pages, as he was a star football player at Morganton High School and even played in the '43 Shrine Bowl.

Oxford eventually decided to research Bobby and find out if he had any living relatives. He was determined to satisfy the longing he had to learn more about Bobby's life.

After contacting Bobby's brother, Frank, in Asheville, he found many of the answers he was searching for.

"It's been over 50 years since he died and every Christmas, they have a toast to the empty chair for Bobby," Oxford said. "After all that time, they still remember him."

The Marines and guests in attendance honored Oxford and Bobby with a standing ovation and thunderous applause.

They won't forget Bobby and his story either.

To find out more about the Marine Corps League, contact Brockland at 433-1298.

LAUREN WILLIAMSON can be reached at (828)437-2161, Ext. 20, or by e-mail at lwilliamson@morganton.com. Please read news updates throughout the day at http://www.morganton.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A Letter From War
May 31,2005


ABC6 shares a letter from a Navy commander in Kuwait describing his encounter with marines fresh off the front lines in Iraq.

It is a reminder of the sacrifices made by our brave men and women serving overseas.


http://www.abc6.com/engine.pl?station=wlne&id=16656&template=breakout_story_video.shtml&dateformat=%25M+%25e,%25Y


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Published - Tuesday, May 31, 2005


Winona's Memorial Day service honors Iwo Jima vets, World War I soldier

By Darrell Ehrlick / Winona Daily News

Sharon Nichols and Janice Fort love an uncle they never even knew.

For all the things they didn't know about Frank Meinnert, they knew enough to keep his memory alive.

They knew that he had fallen in France during World War I. They knew he had to be buried three different times, finally being laid to rest in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery. They knew he was young and his sisters never forgot him.

"We have a picture of him in a flat-brimmed hat and those leggings," said Fort, a resident of Ridgeway, Minn. "He was so young."

"They look like babies," said Nichols, Fort's cousin.

On Monday, residents — from babies to those who remembered the days of doughboys — gathered for the annual Memorial Day ceremonies at Veterans Memorial Park at Lake Winona.

A little over a decade ago, Nichols had attended the ceremony. She saw the veterans lined up in their dress blues.

She saw some of them had medals and asked how she might go about getting her deceased uncle's medals. The veterans told her obtaining medals had to be done through the Veterans' Administration.
That conversation sparked a yearlong process that led to Meinnert receiving a Purple Heart and several other medals, awarded nearly three-quarters of a century after he fell in France.

"I really didn't think that I could get anything like this," Nichols said.

After the program Monday, Nichols and Fort stood next to Meinnert's white cross, posing with the purple medal.

When the medal with George Washington's cameo arrived, Nichols said the feeling was "indescribable." Three of Meinnert's sisters were still living at that time, able to see their brother receive recognition for the ultimate sacrifice.

"They (the sisters) thought that no one would remember him," Nichols said.

On Monday, Meinnert's name was read, along with 210 others — a roster of the servicemen from Winona who died during World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

In addition to Meinnert's medal, medallions were given to area veterans who had served in Iwo Jima. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Iwo Jima. Lefty Lee, Harold Libra, John Marsolek, Bill Hamernik and Charles Kubicek were honored for their service.

Kubicek told the Memorial Day crowd, which stretched from the band shell back beyond the pavilion at the Veterans Park, about the horrific battle on the small island 600 miles southeast of Japan.

"The commanders thought that it would be easy," Kubicek said.

But nothing came easy on the island. U.S. intelligence had failed to report that Iwo Jima was heavily fortified, having miles of tunnels and several levels built underground. The imperial Japanese army had supplies, troops, munitions and even hospital rooms underground and out of sight.

The battle raged for more than a month.

"Many people thought that when the flag went up, the battle was over," Kubicek said. "That just meant we had the high ground."

It would take another 30 days of non-stop fighting after the now iconic flag raising before the island was secure. Fighting at Iwo Jima was costly for both sides. 6,000 Marines died, 18,000 were wounded; 20,000 Japanese troops died.

In Kubicek's Marine battalion, 1,038 Marines had started out on Iwo Jima. By its conclusion, only 345 were left standing, Kubicek said.

"We are not the heroes of Iwo Jima, we're the survivors," Kubicek said. "The real heroes are the ones we left back at the island."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Young vets get new take on Memorial Day

May 31, 2005

BY CHERYL L. REED Staff Reporter


With Iraqi conflict veterans returning home from the first major war since Vietnam, the term "veterans of foreign wars" has taken on a whole new meaning.

No longer is a war veteran an aging man with a chest weighted with medals. A combat veteran today can be a tawny-haired teenager or a 30-something woman wearing a skirt, earrings and high heels.

"I'm proud to be a veteran and to show it's not just for men," said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gail Marzelli, 35. "People look twice -- extra hard at a woman in uniform."

Gail, a surgical technician, returned last June from a 16-month tour in Kuwait and Iraq, where she spent most of her time assisting surgeries on wounded Iraqi insurgents and citizens. But the injuries to American soldiers were memorable even to Gail, an operating room veteran.

"I saw lost limbs, whole jaws missing. It's hard to replace half of a face," she said. "You sign up for college money and you come back without an eye and a nose. It's sad."

On Monday, she marked her first Memorial Day back in the United States since she was deployed in February 2003. It was also the first Memorial Day she and her husband, also a reservist, have spent together since both were deployed.

An air operations operator for the U.S. Marine reserves, Sgt. Gene Marzelli, 39, was deployed last August to help manage aircraft flying into Iraq. Gail had been home for about a month when Gene left. He returned in February.

No longer just a day off

"That we can join the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] seems odd to say the least," said Gene Marzelli. "When you think of veterans you think of people from Vietnam, Korea and World War II. And now it's kind of strange to have crusty, old salty guys welcome us into their organization."

The Marzellis, who have been married five years, marked this Memorial Day by decorating their yard in American flags and inviting their friends -- all non-military -- over for a barbeque. The couple say being married to another military reservist has helped them reacclimate to their "normal lives."

"One of the perks of being married to another reservist is that he understood when I said: 'Oh I want to go when a war breaks out,' " Gail said. "He understood that I wanted a good tour, a good Army experience. I don't just want to do one weekend a month on reserves."

Although she's been in the Army for 17 years and served overseas before, this tour especially affected her. "It's a do-over," she explained. "Any baggage I had with family members, I just let it go. There are so many more real issues. I'm just thankful I wasn't injured."

The Marzellis believe people are now more observant of Memorial Day.

"I'm glad this war is bringing an awareness to those who have died," Gail said. "Now people might dwell on it for a moment, whereas before Memorial Day was just a day off."

And becoming a war veteran changes the meaning of Memorial Day. Last year, Jim Amatore was a single, 24-year-old Marine reservist who had just learned he was being deployed for at least eight months in the Iraqi desert.

Amatore doesn't come from a military family and had never known anyone who had died in a war. So, the holiday usually meant a day off relaxing at his family's annual party in Lombard.

But on Monday, Amatore -- who returned home six weeks ago -- marked his first year as a war veteran by cradling his newborn daughter, hugging his wife and acknowledging how lucky he was to be alive.

Loss of a friend

"Memorial Day never had a personal meaning to me before," said Amatore, a corporal with the 2/24 Marines from Chicago. "I always knew today was about honoring veterans, but it's harder now."

Amatore's battalion lost 14 Marines: Twelve were killed in Iraq, one before the battalion was deployed and one just last week in a motorcycle accident.

Amatore didn't know the others in his battalion who were killed, but he was particularly close to Brian Glenn Smith, 27, of Carmel, Ind.

"It's so unbelievable that he got cheated," Amatore said of his friend. "I thought I had all that over with -- the deaths -- and then this great guy dies in a motorcycle accident after going through all that dangerous stuff in Iraq. It makes Memorial Day a lot harder to deal with."

Amatore and his wife, Molly, who married just days after Memorial Day last year, attended his family's party Monday. But this time, Amatore was the central attraction. "I'm really proud to be a veteran. It seems so weird to say that. I guess I think of veterans as being really old," Amatore said. "And now I'm one of them."

Decades later, veteran's picture smiles on Beverly

BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter

Thousands of names. One face.

At the end of the Moving Wall Vietnam Memorial, propped on a table, was the broad smile and bright blue eyes of Jim Beck.

There in Ridge Park, where Beck played the same games Beverly kids are playing today, stretched a black wall featuring the names of every soldier killed during the Vietnam War.

And then there was Jim Beck.

It just seemed right, his family said, to re-introduce a Beverly neighborhood boy to the neighborhood, and hundreds got to know him this Memorial Day weekend.

They read Bill Gleason's column from the Daily News, recalling what joy the "big, apple-cheeked, little boy" brought to the neighborhood, then mourning the day he was killed, at 20, in the Vietnam War.

They read Beck's letters home, nearly 40 years after he wrote them, and saw pictures of him and his buddies from Vietnam.

They found his name -- Richard J. Beck Jr. -- on that long, black wall, but on the table at the end of that wall, they found Jim Beck.

"This could be anyone's son," Colleen Mulchrone said after reading some of Beck's letters home. "You look at all these names and it can seem so impersonal, but this, this is much more real."

'Such a blessing'

She tried roping her son over, to read the letters with her. But he was too busy being a boy, bouncing a soccer ball on this glorious Monday, smiling and carefree.

A few neighborhood kids recognized their school -- St. Barnabas -- next to Beck's name, and asked a question as their parents paused.

Long before he was killed May 14, 1968, Beck was a neighborhood kid, playing on the ball field behind that wall, working as an apprentice carpenter when he was drafted.

That anyone might learn a bit more about Jim Beck, his sister said, "is such a blessing."

"We knew the wall was going to be here and so many people from the neighborhood were going to be here, we thought it might mean something more, since he was from the neighborhood, too," Mary Lou Beck said, as nieces and nephews who never knew their uncle took down the display dedicated to him.

Tom Beck came up with the idea to honor his brother, setting it up Friday, and did so with the hope of "bringing a face to this tragedy," Mary Lou Beck said.

There's a nephew named after him now, and there are annual masses in his memory, but this effort, this year, Mary Lou Beck realized, allowed hundreds more to get to know Jim Beck.

"He'll never be forgotten," she said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Returns to war zones to be expected

Gannett News Service

BELLOWS AIR FORCE STATION, Hawaii - On a stretch of gravel road that used to be part of an old airfield, Marines with the 3rd Radio Battalion zigzagged at high speed in three Humvees and a 7-ton truck, kicking up clouds of dust.

"You've got plenty of room here, use it," Sgt. Chad Bernardo, chief instructor for the exercise, bellowed as the convoy pulled up to him. The more a vehicle zigzags, the less able an Iraqi machine-gunner would be to take a bead on the Marines.

For some, the tips are new. But for other 3rd Radio Marines, it's business as usual.

The Kaneohe Bay unit, which specializes in electronic warfare, is making its third battalion deployment to Iraq. Smaller detachments have deployed almost continuously.

The radio battalion, which provides communications for intelligence units and Arabic linguist support, is in high demand. There are only three in the Marine Corps. Of the approximately 200 Marines making the latest nine-month trip, 75 have been to Iraq at least once before with the battalion. Thirty already have been there twice.

Return engagements to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming the norm, providing excitement for some, death and injury for others, constant worry for family and angst among recruiters.

"If you join the Corps now just thinking you are going to go to college, you're probably mistaken," said Staff Sgt. Jayson Landin, 31, from Wellington, Ohio, who made his first trip to Iraq with another unit at the start of the war.

"Today, if you come in, you should be expecting to go (to a war zone) within the next few years," he added.

And go again sometime after that.

With next month's deployment to Afghanistan by about 1,000 Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, all three infantry battalions at Kaneohe Bay will have served in war in less than a year's time.

The 3rd Battalion is starting to return to Hawaii following about seven months in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the 1st Battalion - which fought in Fallujah in November and lost 46 Marines and sailors in Iraq - is expected to deploy to Afghanistan early next year.

The pace has created difficulties for recruiters, who have missed their recruiting, or contracting, goals nationally for the fourth month in a row.

"At some point, if we continue to miss contracting - and I don't know where that point would be - you'd have a problem shipping," said Maj. David M. Griesmer, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va.

Griesmer said the Marine Corps is unique in its appeal and the length of time it would like individuals to serve.

"Young kid joins the Marine Corps, he's joining to go places," Griesmer said. "We're an expeditionary service, and whether you're in Afghanistan or Iraq or helping with tsunami relief in Sri Lanka ... that's what Marines do. They go places, so you know that coming in, and that attracts a different kind of individual."

Maj. Don Welch, 3rd Radio Battalion's executive officer, said every deploying Marine has issues to work through, whether personal or family. Some voluntarily extended their service to make the deployment.

"There are Marines looking forward to going," he said. "I'm sure there are Marines who are anxious or worried about going back for a third time."

Landin, a Marine with 3rd Radio, said "your first deployment there (to Iraq) is all exciting. But this is my second time now. I'm not going to say I'm happy to go; I'm going because it's my duty.

"The people do need our help," Landin said. "People only see what's on the news and they only see the bad news. But this is a country that's in dire need of help, and I believe we are making progress there."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

he Associated Press

GREENVILLE, N.C. A 7-foot granite slab that for 16 years has honored Pitt County's armed forces veterans has carried unnoticed errors in the Latin creeds engraved in the stone's burnished surface.

The monument features emblems of the five United States military services _ Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

But the Latin motto for the Marines, "Semper Fidelis," or "always faithful," appears as "Semper Fider" on the monument. The Coast Guard's "Semper Paratus," which translates to "Always Ready," is inscribed as "Semper Haratus."

The monument placed on Greenville's Town Common was commissioned by the Pitt County Veterans Council and dedicated on Memorial Day 1989. The stone was donated, but the council paid $1,600 to have the granite monument engraved and set in place.

Retired Army lieutenant colonel Gus Keyes, president of the veterans council, said he had never noticed the misspellings.

The council's records show Clifton & Clifton Monuments of Elizabeth City was hired to inscribe the monolith. Company vice president Kim Elliott said inscriptions are proofread four times during the engraving process.

Fault for the faulty inscriptions lies with "the people whoever gave us the information," she said. "There's just no doubt."

Vietnam vet Lee Pascasio believes the blemish doesn't warrant correction. The "intent and spirit" of the monument remains despite the misspelled mottos, said Pascasio, a former Marine.

Former council president and Army veteran Jeff Cooper disagreed.

"I am upset with myself now, as the former president of the Pitt County Veterans Council, that I didn't notice it and do something about it," he said.

___

Information from: The Daily Reflector, http://www.reflector.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Among the ranks of the brave
Cadets weigh possibility of duty in Iraq; veterans, families remember the fallen

By Karen E. Crummy and Elizabeth Aguilera
Denver Post Staff Writers

It was the thought that his son Zachary, who is headed into the Marines, might someday be among the wounded or fallen.

"I try and put my bravest face on," said Walter, referring to the possibility that Zachary, who is graduating from the Air Force Academy on Wednesday, will be shipped to Iraq in a few months. "If he should receive injuries or death, well, I don't know. But he is following his heart and soul."

Jena Burke, a 22-year-old senior taking part in the academy's awards ceremony Monday, said she too is following her heart by becoming a pilot. But after days of being caught up in the chaos of graduation ceremonies and parties, the 21-gun salute on Memorial Day gave her a new perspective.

"It made me realize that I'm not so special," she said. "I may be one of a long line of people who made the ultimate sacrifice protecting their country."

The young cadets join the ranks of millions who have served before them both in battle and during peacetime.

During the Memorial Day service at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, those veterans recalled their commitment to freedom and their dread when called to battle.

About 3,000 people gathered under gloomy skies for the annual service held at the edge of Veterans Lake under a flag flying at half-staff.

"Freedom is not free," said U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who spoke at the memorial. "Freedom comes our way by the sacrifice of those who came before us."

Memorial Day began on May 5, 1868, when Union veterans of the Civil War honored their fallen comrades by decorating their graves. It was called "Decoration Day." Congress recognized it as Memorial Day in 1971.

Since the Revolutionary War, 1.2 million men and women have died in the U.S. military and 42.3 million people have served, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Viola Morgan was at Fort Logan to remember her husband, Philip Morgan, a Navy veteran who served in Korea. He died two months ago.

He didn't talk much about his time at war, except to say he never forgot fishing bodies out of the sea, Morgan said. Still, her husband was a proud and patriotic veteran, she said.

"His greatest wish was to be buried in his uniform," she said.

George Meschko, 80, who served in the Army Air Forces as a gunner on B-17s, came to honor all veterans, especially those who didn't return.

"It touches an emotional nerve for your buddies," he said about the service. "My buddies are buried over there (Europe)."

Richard Marin, 58, and Paul Bustam, 55, both Vietnam veterans, wore their military gear for the ceremony. Both had been honored with Purple Hearts.

"There is a price in every war," Marin said. "The price is not just in the dead or casualties but also in the innocence lost and the lives that are changed forever."

Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Aircraft Crashes Kill Eight in Iraq

By PAUL GARWOOD

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Separate air crashes killed four American and four Italian troops, officials said Tuesday, and the governor of Anbar province was killed during clashes between U.S. forces and the insurgents who abducted him three weeks ago.

In an audio tape purportedly of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader sent a message to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden that he was in good health after suffering a slight wound in a firefight with U.S. troops, and would "tighten the noose" on his foes.

The cause of the two air crashes was not known.

The Iraqi single-engine Comp Air 7SL aircraft crashed Monday near the village of Jalula, about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing the four Americans and the Iraqi pilot, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Fred Wellman. The aircraft, one of seven used by the Iraqi air force for surveillance and personnel transport, had been heading for Jalula from a Kirkuk air base, the military said in a statement.

The Italian AB-412 military helicopter crashed overnight about eight miles southeast of Nasiriyah, killing its two pilots and two passengers, all attached to the army, Italian military spokesman Lt. Col. Fabio Mattiassi said Tuesday. Most of Italy's 3,000 troops are based in Nasiriyah, and 26 have been killed.

The body of the governor of volatile Anbar province, Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, was found Sunday in the village of Rawah, about 175 miles northwest of Baghdad, said government spokesman Laith Kuba. Al-Mahalawi was abducted May 10 near Qaim, a town near the Syrian border.

Al-Mahalawi was found tied to a gas cylinder inside a house following a gun battle between U.S. forces and insurgents holed up in the house, Kuba said.

A military spokesman said a U.S. helicopter had flown al-Mahalawi's body Monday to Qaim, where his family identified him.

Qaim also was the site of a bloody battle between militants and U.S. troops in May that al-Zarqawi claimed in the tape as a victory for the insurgency.

"Al-Qaim was the battlefield where the youth of Mohammed have proved their valiance after 10 days of fighting," the speaker on the audio tape attributed to al-Zarqawi said.

"It was one of the greatest battles of Islam," the speaker said, addressing bin Laden. "Our dear emir, if you want to know our news, we would like to assure you that we are continuing on the path of jihad, we are committed to our pledge. We will either win or die trying."

The U.S. military said it killed 125 militants during its weeklong offensive against fighters of al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group. Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during the operation, one of the largest American campaigns since militants were driven from Fallujah six months ago.

The Sunday Times of London reported that al-Zarqawi was wounded in the chest by shrapnel when a U.S. missile struck his convoy near Qaim three weeks ago. Although it reported the Jordanian may have traveled to Iran for treatment, Tehran denied the report.

"I am sure you have heard through the media that I was wounded and treated in a Ramadi hospital," according to the recording. "I would like to assure you and the Muslim nation that these were pure allegations. It was a light wound, thank God. We are back fighting them in the land of the two rivers" _ a reference to Iraq.

"The enemy _ with God's blessings _ is following the path laid out for (it)," the tape went on. "We are about to _ with God's help _ tighten the noose on it. And if the plan goes on as drawn, God willing, its results will be there for everyone to see."

There was no way to authenticate the recording, although it was carried by a Web site frequently used by militant Islamic groups, and the voice sounded similar to that previously attributed to al-Zarqawi.

In new violence, gunmen killed Jerges Mohammed Sultan, an Iraqi journalist working for Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya, in the northern city of Mosul, said Dr. Baha-aldin al-Bakri of al-Jumhouri hospital. Insurgents have targeted both the station and its employees.

A suicide car bomber killed two Iraqi soldiers in an early-morning attack on an army checkpoint near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, said Diyala provincial police spokesman Ali Fadhil.

Five gunmen fired from a speeding car on a police patrol in eastern Baghdad's Doura district, wounding four policemen, said police Capt. Firas Qaiti.

Residents of Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, found the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi soldiers who served under Saddam Hussein and had been kidnapped last week, one of the victim's relatives said. It was unclear when the men were killed.

In Baghdad, the large-scale anti-insurgent campaign known as Operation Lightning was in its third day, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari praised its success.

"We have so far achieved good results and rounded up a large number of saboteurs, some are Iraqis and some are non-Iraqis," al-Jaafari said without elaborating.

The operation, which will see more than 40,000 Iraqi security forces deployed to the capital's streets, aims at ridding Baghdad of militants and, in particular, suicide car bombers.

On Monday, at least 27 policemen were killed and 118 wounded after two terrorists carrying explosives blew themselves up among a crowd of 500 commandos protesting a government move to disband their special forces unit in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

In an apparent claim of responsibility, al-Qaida in Iraq said in an alleged Internet statement that one of its members attacked "a group of special Iraqi forces." The same group claimed responsibility for a Feb. 28 attack against police recruits in Hillah that killed 125 people.

Militants, particularly extremists entering from neighboring states, regard Iraqi security forces as prime targets in their campaign against the U.S. military, which hinges its eventual exit from Iraq on the ability of local soldiers and police to handle the insurgency.

Iraq's raging insurgency, which has killed more than 760 people since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, is believed to be strongly backed by radical Sunni extremists.

Monday's mistaken 12-hour detention of Iraqi Islamic Party leader Mohsen Abdul-Hamid by the U.S. military did little to help American efforts to entice Iraq's once-dominant Sunni community back into the political fold. Many Sunnis feel slighted by the rise to power of the country's Shiite majority, which claimed political control following Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003.

The arrest of Abdul-Hamid, his three sons and four guards was condemned by Iraq's president, prime minister and Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders.

"We condemned as early as possible (the arrest of Abdul-Hamid) ... and from now on we will confront these matters so we can be sure they won't be repeated again in the future," al-Jaafari told reporters Tuesday.

Few details were available on why the Americans arrested the Sunni leader, but it appeared to be related to the ongoing Sunni-led insurgency and fears of a broader sectarian conflict starting up.

The U.S. military acknowledged it made a "mistake" by detaining Abdul-Hamid.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Packaging care for military members
By CHRISTOPHER A. VITO
Bucks County Courier Times



To some, Memorial Day weekend is more than just the opening of the summer vacation season; it's a time to honor and recollect.

Feasterville's Donna Moran Griff likes to do both. Her many familial connections to the Marine Corps entitle her to do so. Griff's grandfather was a career Marine. Her father served in the Marines in World War II. Just two years ago, her nephew served in Iraq as a Marine reservist. Griff's soon-to-be step-nephew, Tim, is serving in Iraq as a medic. He often speaks of low morale among his peers.

"Tim would call my sister and her fianc‚ [Tim's father] and say they don't feel the support from home," Griff said. "Some don't even get letters."

But when Griff contacted two individuals - her son's middle-school teacher and the site manager at her workplace - to stir up local support for military persons serving overseas, they gladly accepted.

Griff got in touch with teacher Lisa Warrington, who teaches at Poquessing Middle School in the Neshaminy School District. She also spoke with Jim Mynaugh, the site supervisor of the Bristol offices of Rohm and Haas Co., the specialty chemical company where she works.

A month ago, Warrington invited a Vietnam War veteran to speak to her world cultures class. She collected more than 100 letters. The topics of the letters varied. Some were consoling, while others praised the soldiers' work.

Above all, Warrington wanted the letters sent out before Memorial Day. (They were written and mailed last week.) With them, Warrington enclosed a dozen calling cards of 100 minutes each. She said the nature of the assignment was not to expect return phone calls or letters; she wanted her students to gain an increased appreciation for their country.

"Some of my students thanked them, and told them that they were their heroes," Warrington said. "That's what meant the most [to me]."

Mynaugh helped organize a collection of goods for military personnel. Mynaugh manages the engineering division at Rohm and Haas' Bristol offices, where Griff works in the technology information department. He set up a table where employees could sign cards and letters, and drop off items to be sent to Iraq. Response was so strong, the deadline for the letters and supplies was extended to the middle of this week, Griff said.

This was not the first time Griff worked to rouse local support for troops stationed overseas. She said it wouldn't be her last, either.

"It doesn't matter to me what branch of the armed forces we support. I want to show my support for all of them," Griff said.

Christopher A. Vito can be reached at 215-949-4184 or cvito@phillyBurbs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

First sergeant remembered on Memorial Day in Iraq
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200553171820
Story by Cpl. C. Alex Herron



AL ASAD, Iraq (May 31, 2005) -- Memorial Day took on special meaning for Marines of 6th Engineer Support Battalion May 30. A memorial service was held here in honor of First Sgt. Michael S. Barnhill who was killed in the line of duty when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in the Al Anbar province late May. Marines and sailors in the unit reflected on the man they respected as a great Marine.

“Barnhill hated leaving the wire,” said Maj. Sean J. Riddell, the Alpha Company commander with 6th ESB. “But the only thing he hated worse was knowing his Marines were out there, and there was nothing he could do if something happened.”

World War II veterans define courage as being afraid, but going anyway, said Riddell.

“By that definition, Barnhill was a very courageous man,” Riddell said. “He hated leaving the wire, but he did it for the Marines. He was old enough to know he wouldn’t live forever, but young enough to know he wanted to do a lot more with his life.”

After the opening remarks, four of Barnhill’s younger Marines gave eulogies in honor of their fallen mentor.

“He helped out his junior Marines even when he didn’t have to,” said Sgt. Justin Babbit. “He was buoyant and loud. His personality was one of the defining personalities of our company. I had never met a bigger, tougher man who showed his love for his junior Marines.”

Barnhill was a Marine who expected all of his Marines to always look out for each other – the example he set each day.

“My first meeting with [First Sgt. Barnhill] was at a company formation before the unit was to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003,” said Cpl. James Peterson. “When he stood in front of me to ask me why my dog tag had not been placed in my left boot like he had instructed I responded that I was new and had not heard the order. Then he proceeded to explain why that was no excuse. His [Peterson’s] noncommissioned officers should have passed the word. That is what he expected of them, to look after their junior Marines just like he did.”

His door was always open for advice, help or if you just needed someone to talk to, according to Lance Cpl. Jared Tjaden.

“He always found a way to make you laugh,” Tjaden said. “He always made sure his Marines were taken care of.”

Barnhill, who was scheduled to retire in December, leaves behind a wife, Joanna, and three children, Michael, Michelle and Ashlee, and a unit that will carry on and continue their mission in his honor until they return to California to properly grieve the loss of their leader, mentor and friend.


*For more information about this story please e-mail Cpl. Herron at herronca@acemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil*

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine adjusts to life after combat in Iraq
Trujillo has difficulty sharing his experiences with his family and friends without becoming emotional

By Michelle Beaver, STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD — U.S. Marine Dante Trujillo is relieved to be home.

It's comforting to see green landscapes again; it's the best feeling in the world to hold his wife and watch his daughter smile, but something is different.

He's different.

Everyone else is too. Or are they?

He's trying to figure that out.

Trujillo, a Hayward native, recently returned from his second deployment to Iraq, where he fought in November's major offensive in Fallujah and was almost killed by a rocket.The 33-year-old said he wants to share those experiences with friends and family so they will understand him, but he doesn't want them to be scared.

"Sometimes I don't think that I fit in back here because a lot of the things I saw changed my life," Trujillo said. "Something's not right. People act different around me because they know what I've been through. They don't know what to say."

Sometimes Trujillo doesn't know what to say either.

He's comforted by the warmth people have shown him since he first left in 2003, but when he tries to thank them he gets choked up.

"I might be a Marine, but I still bleed and hurt," he said. "Every Marine, they all have this emotion in them that's really big. They just might not tell."

Though he said he knew he was loved, he still was surprised when almost 100 people came to his homecoming party a few weeks ago.

"I was helping my mom decorate and I thought 'no one's going to show up,'" he said. "I felt bad for my mom because she put all this work in, but then they all trickled in.

"At the party I got up and thanked them and told them how hard some of it was in Iraq and I broke down," he added. "It's so hard to hold back when you're exhausted. If I hold it in, it just gets worse."

Trujillo signed up for the Marines soon after he graduated from Hayward High School in 1992. His mother, Janet, supported him but wished he'd made a different choice.

Janet Trujillo is an attendance supervisor at Hayward High and said each of her son's deployments were among the hardest times of her life.

"Having him home took about a ton of bricks off my shoulders," she said as her voice cracked with emotion.

"You get worried right away when you don't hear from him," she added. "I looked to see if it was him on the news all the time, just to see if he was alive."

Next week, Trujillo will go back to his old home at Camp Pendleton near San Diego with his 33-year-old wife, Benita, and their 2-year-old daughter, Taeya. His mother knows he has to move on with his life but wishes he and his young family could stay in Hayward.

"The mom part of me doesn't want him to go," she said.

Janet and Benita were a major support system while Trujillo was in Iraq. They called each other daily, sometimes more when Benita was pregnant. Trujillo came home for 10 months after his first deployment and saw Taeya for the first time when she was five days old. There was an instant bond between the father and daughter, according to Benita.

"She took to him right away," Benita said. "When he came back this time she gave him hugs and kisses. Her first word was 'daddy.'"

Benita reminded Taeya of her father by pointing to pictures of him posted on the refrigerator.

The couple said the second trip to Iraq was the hardest for the family, especially when Trujillo developed a strong feeling that he was going to die. "As soon as I heard I was going to Fallujah I thought, 'This is it, I'm not going to make it back,'" he said.

Benita barely slept in November and spent a lot of time biting her nails as she watched the news. Now that Trujillo is home, she said she feels complete.

Trujillo is stationed in California for two years and has signed up for recruiting school. He doesn't want to go back to Iraq but said he would if he had to.

Memories of combat jolt him out of the present and take him back to a sweltering desert of mayhem and danger, but his family and the sweetness of his daughter draw him back in.

"This is what I signed up for," he said. "I knew it would be hard."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Soldiering justly: Fighting freedom's battles
Chuck Colson
May 30, 2005

It was one of the most poignant pictures to come out of Iraq: a smiling young woman, holding up a finger stained with purple ink-proof that she had just voted in the first election of her life.

It was evidence, as well, that America had gone to Iraq, not to conquer, but to set people free.

The idea that freedom is the state in which God intends us to live is found in the Bible. The Indian apologist Vishal Mangalwadi makes this clear in his teachings. In a tape on how the Bible influenced the second millennium, Mangalwadi says the prototypical model is the Exodus. This was the first time that people were delivered from slavery and bondage, and a record made of it. This, Mangalwadi says, "is what changed the whole course of Western civilization-the notion that God was bringing us freedom."

The belief that humans deserve to live in freedom is what motivated Americans to fight for their own freedom from the British. It motivated us to fight Nazi Germany and the Japanese during World War II, and against communism during the Cold War. And it's what motivates us today to bring freedom to parts of the world that have never known it-Afghanistan and Iraq. This fight for freedom has the additional advantage of striking a blow against terrorism. Once people are given freedom, they will fight to protect their freedom against terrorists who are determined to take it away.

This willingness to sacrifice on behalf of our neighbors is why serving in the military is considered such a high calling for Christians-and part of what makes just wars just. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica puts his discussion of just war in his chapter on charity-the love of God and neighbor. Aquinas applauded those who wielded the sword in protection of the community.

Reformer John Calvin agreed. He called the soldier an "agent of God's love" and called soldiering justly a "God-like act." Why? Because "restraining evil out of love for neighbor" is an imitation of God's restraining evil out of love for His creatures. And as Darrell Cole, a professor at William & Mary, argued in the journal First Things, the failure to fight a just war may be a failure to love. Fighting just wars, he wrote, "is something Christians ought to do out of love for God and neighbor."

A world where all Christians refused to fight just wars wouldn't be peaceful, and it certainly wouldn't be just. It would be a world where evil reigned unchecked by justice, and where the strong would be free to prey on the weak. The mass graves in Iraq-graves dug during Saddam Hussein's reign of terror-are grim evidence of this truth.

While the polls show that many Americans are becoming tired with the war in Iraq, our soldiers who are stationed there are not. They know they are doing a good and noble thing.

One way you might celebrate Memorial Day today is by watching a film being premiered tonight on HBO, Unknown Soldier: Searching for a Father. I was not able to attend the preview, but I'm told it is deeply moving and will fill you with gratitude for those who have laid down their lives to set us free. And it will cause you, I hope, as well, to pray for those who are still fighting for freedom around the world today.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Remembering one man's sacrifice and another's bravery
May 29, 2005
CAROLYN ALFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Hello, friends and neighbors. It is good to see you here.

In honor of Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have died in service to our country, I would like to share a moving story with you as a reminder of how important it is to honor our fallen heroes and those who put their lives on the line in defense of our country.

The story was first published in the Marine Corps Gazette and a portion of it is reprinted here with permission.

The story was written by Marine Lt. Col. Mike Strobl, assigned to Manpower Management Officer Assignments at Quantico, Va., who volunteered to escort the late Pfc. Chance Phelps to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming. Phelps, who was with 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, died April 9 from hostile fire in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.

Chance was an artillery cannoneer and his unit was acting as provisional military police outside of Baghdad. He had volunteered to man a .50 caliber machine gun in the turret of the leading vehicle in a convoy. The convoy came under intense fire, but Chance, whose father is a Vietnam vet, stayed true to his post and returned fire with the big gun, covering the rest of the convoy, until he was fatally wounded.

During his visit to Chance's hometown, Strobl met the Phelps family and was deeply moved by both the ceremony held in the brave young man's honor at a local high school gym and his burial afterward. But it was another story at the local VFW that evening that brought the day full circle for Strobl.

Here is that part of the story as Strobl reported it to the Gazette:

"The local VFW post had invited everyone over to "celebrate Chance's life." The crowd was somewhat smaller than what had been at the gym, but the post was packed.

"Marines were playing pool at the two tables near the entrance and most of the VFW members were at the bar or around the tables in the bar area. The largest room in the post was a banquet/dinning/dancing area and it was now called "The Chance Phelps Room." Above the entry were two items: a large portrait of Chance in his dress blues and the Eagle, Globe, & Anchor. In one corner of the room there was another memorial to Chance.

"I did not buy a drink that night. As had been happening all day, indeed all week, people were thanking me for my service and for bringing Chance home. Now, in addition to words and handshakes, they were thanking me with beer. After a while we all gathered in the Chance Phelps room for the formal dedication. The post commander told us of how Chance had been so looking forward to becoming a Life Member of the VFW. Now, in the Chance Phelps Room of the Dubois, Wyoming, post, he would be an eternal member. We all raised our beers and the Chance Phelps room was christened.

"Later, as I was walking toward the pool tables, a staff sergeant from the Reserve unit in Salt Lake grabbed me and said, 'Sir, you gotta hear this.' There were two other Marines with him and he told the younger one, a lance corporal, to tell me his story. The staff sergeant said the lance corporal was normally too shy and modest to tell it, but now he'd had enough beer to overcome his usual tendencies.

"As the lance corporal started to talk, an older man joined our circle. He wore a baseball cap that indicated he had been with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. Earlier in the evening he had told me about one of his former commanding officers; a Col. Puller. So, there I was, standing in a circle with three Marines recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq and one not so recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. I, who had fought with the 1st Marine Division in Kuwait, was about to gain a new insight into our Corps.

"The young lance corporal began to tell us his story. At that moment, in this circle of current and former Marines, the differences in our ages and ranks dissipated - we were all simply Marines.

"His squad had been on a patrol through a city street. They had taken small arms fire and had literally dodged an RPG round that sailed between two Marines. At one point they received fire from behind a wall and had neutralized the sniper with a SMAW round. The back blast of the SMAW, however, kicked up a substantial rock that hammered the lance corporal in the thigh; only missing his groin because he had reflexively turned his body sideways at the shot.

"Their squad had suffered some wounded and was receiving more sniper fire when suddenly he was hit in the head by an AK-47 round. I was stunned as he told us how he felt like a baseball bat had been slammed into his head. He had spun around and fell unconscious. When he came to, he had a severe scalp wound but his Kevlar helmet had saved his life. He continued with his unit for a few days before realizing he was suffering the effects of a severe concussion.

"As I stood there in the circle with the old man and the other Marines, the staff sergeant finished the story. He told of how this lance corporal had begged and pleaded with the battalion surgeon to let him stay with his unit. In the end, the doctor said there was just no way - he had suffered a severe and traumatic head wound and would have to be medevaced.

"The Marine Corps is a special fraternity. There are moments when we are reminded of this. Interestingly, those moments don't always happen at awards ceremonies or in dress blues at Birthday Balls. I have found, rather, that they occur at unexpected times and places: next to a loaded moving van at Camp Lejeune's base housing, in a dirty CP tent in northern Saudi Arabia, and in a smoky VFW post in western Wyoming.

"After the story was done, the lance corporal stepped over to the old man, put his arm over the man's shoulder and told him that he, the Korean War vet, was his hero. The two of them stood there with their arms over each other's shoulders and we were all silent for a moment. When they let go, I told the lance corporal that there were recruits down on the yellow footprints tonight that would soon be learning his story."

This weekend, be sure to hang the red, white and blue banners and fly your flag proudly. Until they all come home, don't forget to thank those you know for their service. It's what Memorial Day is all about, especially here in eastern North Carolina.

Thank you for coming.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The legalities of combat trophies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Marine Corps Times
May 30, 2005

WHAT'S UP: Veterans of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War could register firearms they brought home as war trophies under a bill introduced May 4 by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. But the bill, HR 2088, would not permit such war trophies from Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, it would allow veterans and their heirs to register only firearms that troops were permitted to bring home under U.S. military policy in effect at that time.

WHAT'S NEXT: Gibbons introduced similar legislation last year, but it never came to a vote. The fact that it applies only to firearms brought back to the United States between June 26, 1934, and Oct. 31, 1968, will make it a hard sell, as will the fact that anyone who still has an unregistered firearm is breaking the law.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Keeping Freedom Alive ~ The Class of 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By James S. Robbins
National Review Online
May 31, 2005

It was a brilliant day Saturday at West Point, where the United States Military Academy Class of 2005 received their diplomas and commissions as Second Lieutenants in the United States Army. Michie stadium was filled with family, friends and returning graduates. This class has been called the Class of 9/11, since they had arrived at West Point two months before the attacks that would change the world. As it happened, 911 cadets made it through the four years to graduate.

During the reading of the names, I was reminded of the scene in Santa Fe Trail where the Class of 1854 is receiving diplomas, and every surname is pregnant with meaning - Longstreet, Sheridan, Hood, Custer, Stuart, among others. Of course, of them only Stuart actually graduated in 1854, but the scene would not have been as dramatic with authentic, lesser-known names from that class like O'Connor, Randal, Weed, and Greble (all of whom were killed in action in the Civil War, by the way). Some from 2005 caught the ear - Patton, Pickett, Stillwell - echoes of earlier conflicts, a lot for a young officer to live up to. Others on the program may one day become household names, bywords for valor, sacrifice, or heroism.

That was the point of the roll call in the movie - at the time they graduated, neither officer nor onlooker knew the role they would one day play. The gentleman sitting next to me wore a cap with the emblem of the 101st Airborne Division. I asked him when he had served. "Bastogne," he said. He was one of the handful of soldiers, outnumbered, isolated, and under-equipped, who had helped halt the December 1944 German offensive, what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. He was present when General Anthony C. McAuliffe said "Nuts!" to the German demand to surrender. A few months earlier he had never heard of Bastogne. A few years earlier he was a teenager in Ohio who had never heard of Pearl Harbor.

A 1992 grad said that the current class differs from hers. They are more serious, she said. They looked sharper at the graduation parade, and seemed more focused at the ceremony. Guest speaker General Richard B. Myers noted that this class entered with a nation at peace, which had transitioned to war. Yet the members of the class had kept with it, even though they could leave voluntarily any time before the beginning of their third year. When General Myers made this observation the crowd, parents, siblings, and friends, began to applaud. It was a great moment, not a response to an obvious applause line, but a spontaneous tribute to a spirit that deserves respect. These new officers (and service members in general) know what they are facing. Stories of the occasional deserter or recruitment shortfall become chum for the media; that reenlistments are up, particularly in the theaters of conflict is not generally reported. Moreover, at West Point, the washout rates are down significantly. Those with doubts, questioning their commitment or ability to meet the challenge, the marginal applicants, are not showing up. Those who answer the call today are aware, determined, motivated. They are not coming just to get an education. They know they will probably soon be in harm's way, and they are preparing themselves, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

You can feel the sense of purpose on the post, talking to the cadets. This is their war. They know it. They study it. High-ranking officers visit to talk about it. Many members of the rotating faculty have just come off tours in combat zones. Few entering West Point classes have seen the transition from peace to war and gone on to graduate with the fight still on. The plebes of the summer of 1941 are analogous - Pearl Harbor took place six months after they arrived. They were scheduled to graduate in 1945, but the exigencies of war moved the date up a year. One of the cadets in that class was John S.D. Eisenhower, son of the Supreme Allied Commander. He and his classmates received their diplomas June 6, 1944, hours after Allied forces stormed the French beaches in Operation Overlord on D-Day. But there was still enough war to go around, and many of the Class of 1944 did not come back.

After the diplomas are presented, the oath taken, the class dismissed, and the hats thrown, most of the new officers hold pinning ceremonies, where family and friends gather and oaths are re-administered, gold bars affixed to new green uniforms. The graduates choose places with special meaning to them, near a monument, on the Plain, by the river. Some pin in groups, others alone. At one pinning ceremony I attended, the grad had asked a chaplain to make some remarks. The chaplain appeared in a worn camouflage uniform. He had recently done a tour in Iraq, and would probably soon be heading out for another. He said that he hoped that the young officer would not spend much time wearing his Class As, and recalled Douglas MacArthur's wish to be buried not in his finest dress uniform but in his fatigues, because, as he said, "whatever I have done that really matters, I've done wearing [them]." It was a blunt reminder of what the ceremony was all about. I was in the company of warriors.

When MacArthur graduated at the head of the Class of 1903 he had no concept of the two world wars that awaited him, or of Inchon, or after. Likewise, the members of the Class of 2005 cannot know what the long term holds for them. The graduates of the early 1840s thought they would be fighting Indians in Florida, but wound up in Mexico. Graduates of the 1850s saw their future in plains warfare against the Comanche and Sioux, but ended up fighting each other, led by the veterans of the Mexican War. Grads of the 1950s who prepared to fight World War III with the Soviet Union found themselves in Vietnam. Those of the 1990s who were told that history had ended and the future was peacekeeping are today dismantling the global terrorist network. And the war on terrorism will not last forever. New challenges will arise as the old ones are overcome. The Class of 2005 will soon have a chance to see and do things they could not have anticipated, but from those I have gotten to know over the past few years I am positive they are up to the challenge.

- James S. Robbins is senior fellow in national-security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council and an NRO contributor.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Below is an email via Seamus from a Senior Marine Officer involved in several Operations in Iraq. It touches on many things - what's really happening, the media's portrayal of our forces, etc.

Vocabularly: MSR is a Main Supply Route (ie Major route into and out of an area). BN is Battalion. RCT is a Regimental Combat Team.

All,

By now you've all seen the oft-repeated footage of the fires in Haditha under the header of our 'new offensive' Operation New Market. Figured it was about time for an update...

First "NEW MARKET." As the press is reporting, we commenced operations a few days ago in the Haditha area - a critical crossroads from west to east in the country. At Haditha the MSRs meet and provide high-speed asphalt North towards Mosul and east towards Baghdad. It is a fair size city, often referred to by locals as the 'capital of west Al Anbar province (Ramadi being the provincial capital). Some of you might remember that about 3-4 weeks ago, insurgents took the Haditha hospital and burnt it when Marines came in and took it from them -- that's the fire footage you keep seeing (The press forgets that we took that hospital back then; instead, they only remembered that we lost a few Marines there in the initial ambush - not this time however).

Over the past few months, following our 1stMARDIVs magnificent actions in Fallujah (Operation AL FAJR) we have seen elements of the insurgency scatter along the 'green belt' of the Euphrates. Because of the strategic crossroads aspects, Haditha has been a problem. Following Matador, a lot of good intel had been developed on the insurgent 'underground railroad' moving to key cities. Intel, particularly in the counterinsurgency ops (COIN) as you know drives the operations -- operations develops more Intel - and we get the 'perfect circle' that lets us continue aggressive action...see we did learn from our VN-veteran Marines!! Remember, I started this journey in '73 so all y'all were the guys that taught me how to do this -- I owe ya!

We planned a series of operations in the west -- not unusual - to exploit information gained in previous operations and from some great atmospherics from the local(s) who are, as we are, fed up with terrorists using their villages, recruiting their young, etc...Essentially, each battalion assessed their respective battlespace and, as Marine BNs have done forever, planned operations to close with...

We kicked both 3/25 (New Market) and 3/2 (Mongoose) operations off. Ironically, as we were discussing embeds (reporters) the other day - what makes one news is the ability of the embed to get the story out - that is the real insider view of New Market. It is a BATTALION operation - a series of Cordon and Search/Knocks that, found some bad guys early and hit them hard. We continued doing firm bases (kinda a kinder gentler name for COMBAT BASE or COMPANY FIRE BASES) and work through the night to whack on identified and located enemy. No shock to any of you, 1st Force had their own target sets and with its sniper and Direct Action capability has had great success in their missions - nothing here out of the ordinary -- it's how Marines do business. Bottom line is that, while we appreciate the attention, we can't explain why we're getting all this press for a 'regular' operation -- maybe Harry Truman was right about the 'best PA machine since Stalin. My personal opinion is that with all the 'reactive' actions around the major cities - the sensing the enemy has somehow gotten more powerful or aggressive -- maybe the press is fascinated by the fact that the Marines take the fight TO the enemy and make them the ones paying!!!

Wish we could claim credit for this but, we are building on 1st Divisions initiatives and foundation and, as Marines, if we know (or find out) where the bad guy is, you don't have to kick us in the ass to get us to go and kill them...THAT is one things we are still awfully good at!!!

Would like to bring you up to date on the rest of our units ---

RCT-8 that works around FALLUJAH is continuing to discover innumerable caches and, as recently reported, underground command structures. They have expanded to the surrounding cities of Fallujah (places the bad guys went to ground) and are the principals for training, integrating and operating with our ever-growing Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). We have some great units and a RECON Bn down there that have been pushing the enemy hard and have followed it up with the 'other' leg - the non-kinetic including building an Arabic newspaper, civil affairs projects and, as Marines often do, working to better the schools and children - the future of Iraq. They have rolled up some key players recently and this has provided some interesting targets...Many of you saw the fraudulent report on FOX regarding the dead civilians at Fallujah hospital - well, as was later reported (after the firing of he producer and photographer) that NEVER happened - people were killed by the insurgents in the area and it was our Marines who came in and made them pay for killing the innocent...

Finally, here in the center of the province -- Ramadi, the capital - our Army Brigade, a kick-ass unit from the 2dID (gotta like the patch that Gen Lejeune designed for 'em) has been working hard. They have commenced the training of their ISF (new units without the experience of the guys around Fallujah) and have integrated the ISF into operations in the city of Ramadi -- more coming each day. Many of you know that our 1/5 Marines are in Ramadi and, for all the old 5th Marines folks -- this unit is doing us real proud...nearly daily contact including at least 3 coordinated attacks repulsed by well placed, flanking, grazing enfilade fire...These lads are real heroes -- on a daily basis!!!!

Still a lot to do here -- no rose-colored optimism yet; rockets/mortar fire continues nearly nightly in Ramadi and across the AO. We had our first casualty <...> the other night - one of my <...> Sergeants running an enhanced marksmanship course (sustainment training in combat) was killed by 122mm rocket fire; thankfully, no one else was injured...Good Marine, will miss him...

Well, long diatribe in what I hope will be a longer lull in the fighting. Of course, it is the enemy's decision to be quiet -- as I write this to you, rest assured your Marines are moving into position somewhere in preparation to take out another aZ-hole. For all, stay tuned for more as we continue to ramp up ops and convince them that the adage is true -- "Old breed, new breed? No difference as long as it is the MARINE breed..."

Wanna thank all of you for your support - got the offer of candy and packages -- all extremely generous...

Semper Fi

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Out of the war but not at peace: the battle scars of Marine Cpl. Jack Self
By RAVI NESSMAN
The Associated Press
May 31, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE - An Associated Press reporter who was embedded with Marines during the invasion of Baghdad reconnected with the same unit for this report.

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) - As his new bride, Amanda, and her friends chuckle at stories over dinner, Jack Self stares in silence. He doesn't laugh much anymore.

He has spent half of the last two years patrolling the cities of Iraq, dodging sniper fire and roadside bombs, and watching friends die. The 26-year-old Marine corporal no longer sees the humor in everyday life.

"You forget how to have fun," he said softly, when I saw him for the first time since we shared a Humvee during the invasion of Iraq two years ago.

With bullets whistling overhead and rocket-propelled grenades exploding nearby, Jack and I quickly bonded then amid the chaos of war.

We were confused together and nervous together. I watched quietly as he fired grenade after grenade from his Mark 19 machine gun. He once exploded in anger at me - but really at himself - over one deadly trigger pull he has never forgotten.

Listening to Jack now, in a different Humvee at a Marine base in California's Mojave desert, it quickly becomes clear that the invasion we thought was chaotic and dangerous was nothing compared to what was to come.

That first deployment Jack now calls "Disneyland." His second stint in Iraq, fighting the deadly, amorphous Sunni insurgency - that was "Vietnam."

His days last summer were filled with mines and rocket propelled grenades, mortars and bombs, snipers who worked with deadly accuracy.

Enemy fire thumped the windshield of his armored Humvee on one day, his door on another. He returned from a patrol to find his bulletproof vest pocked with shrapnel. The front of his vehicle crumpled when it ran over a mine.

Other than fellow Marines, he had no idea whom he could trust. So he trusted no one. Local Iraqi officials were corrupt, poorly trained and under constant threat from the insurgents. Any civilian could be an insurgent waiting to strike. Maybe the man who sold him ice every morning would attack.

"You give them the benefit of the doubt and they kill you," he said.

Officially, the mission was to stabilize the country, help train Iraqi troops and lay the groundwork for democracy.

"My mission," Jack said, "was to keep my guys alive, and kill them before they got us."

Jack knows he's changed, but it is hard to tell how. He only really sees himself reflected in the mirror of Amanda's eyes. She tells him he is more serious than he used to be, perhaps more aggressive.

He sees it, too, in comrades from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. Some can't sleep. Some use alcohol to numb themselves. Others try counseling.

Jack, himself, spoke informally to an acquaintance who was a counselor for the Army, and found that helpful. But he said, "You can't talk about it to someone who hasn't been over there. You're always explaining yourself."

He has tried to shield Amanda from the details, but has not always succeeded.

And he and his fellow Marines have to confront yet another trial.

The 3/7 is heading back to Iraq.

When I first climbed into his Humvee in the Iraqi desert two years ago, a few days into the invasion, Jack adopted his most intimidating pose. The 6-foot-2-inch former college linebacker reveled in the image of the tough-guy Marine.

As a gunner in 3/7's Weapons Company, he spoke of his willingness to use overwhelming force. He prided himself on his restraint in shooting, but once he decided to pull the trigger he wouldn't let go until his target was obliterated.

But Jack was far more complex than his image. Weeks of long conversations during the lulls of war revealed a sensitive and thoughtful man, who, while never wavering from his mission, was deeply reflective about the violence around him.

Perhaps it was partly his age. Unlike comrades who enlisted out of high school, Jack joined the Marines at 23. He had already spent three years in college and had worked before, deciding to enlist "to do something that I could look back on and be proud of," he said.

As the Marine column moved north toward Baghdad, he quickly warmed to the Iraqis he met. Many were farmers and reminded the self-described "farm boy" of the people he knew back home in Arkansas. He wondered what he would do if columns of foreign tanks and infantry rolled through his hometown of Bentonville.

He played with Iraqi kids, when most other Marines pushed them away, and he befriended people in the Baghdad neighborhoods he patrolled, even giving gasoline to a family to power its generator.

While some Marines denigrated Iraqis as "Hajjis," a word meaning pilgrims which they turned into an epithet, Jack still talks about the most beautiful woman he ever saw, an Iraqi he glimpsed walking shyly on the side of the road to Baghdad.

The deaths of civilians gnawed at Jack's conscience, yet he insisted he wouldn't hesitate to shoot into a crowded schoolyard if an enemy was firing at him from there. The contradictory feelings collided on April 9, 2003, the day Baghdad fell.

As the Marines lined up on the side of a major road preparing for a final push into the city, they waved civilian cars off the road, far from their column. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby, and the Marines were on alert for a potential attack.

One car - Jack says it is a red sedan, I remember it as white - did not stop.

Marines frantically waved it back, but it glided past a line of civilian cars that had already heeded the Marines' warning. The Marines screamed for it to stop. Now dangerously close, it flashed its headlights and continued.

Jack, perched behind his gun on top of the Humvee, squeezed the trigger. Seven grenades tore through the car's windshield, and the vehicle exploded in flames.

The Marines watched in silence, waiting for the fire to detonate any explosives or ammunition inside the car. Nothing, not even the sound of bullets cooking off, interrupted the faint notes of Johnny Cash's "Live From Folsom Prison" playing on the speakers in Jack's turret.

The three people in the car were almost definitely civilians, and they were dead.

Still behind the gun, Jack looked down at me, standing in the road, and let out an angry, defensive yell: "Yeah, I'm a monster!"

continue....

[thedrifter]

That night, after the Marines took up positions in Baghdad not far from where the statue of Saddam was pulled down, Jack was faced with another driver racing toward him. This time it was a motorcyclist heading toward a makeshift Marine checkpoint.

The rider stopped just a few feet away when the Marines raised their rifles. They yelled at him to turn around. But he was paralyzed in fear and confusion. Their yells grew angrier and more desperate and an instant before they seemed ready to shoot, Jack pulled out his pistol and fired into the pavement in front of the bike. The man yelped, spun around and drove off.

"I knew if I didn't get rid of him, he was going to get killed," Jack later said. "I just had a feeling that he wasn't a threat."

An hour later, a ramshackle truck rolled up. But the vehicle was not stopping fast enough, and a Marine lifted his rifle and took aim. Jack looked at the Marine and at the frightened driver and yelled: "He's pumping his brakes." Again, no shot was fired.

In a calmer moment, Jack tied the shooting that morning to his actions that night. "If I don't have to kill another man, that's fine with me."

But he did kill again. And he is still haunted by the image of the burning sedan, and the thought of the other victims of his gun. Dozens, scores, maybe more, he's not really sure.

"That's something I think about: If I'll see the faces of every person I killed."

He even worries he'll be haunted by those whose faces he never saw.

Back home now, the Marines of the 3/7 carry the scars of war.

One terrified his wife when he swerved across lanes of highway traffic to avoid a bag of garbage, fearing it was a roadside bomb.

Another told of grabbing his girlfriend and running for cover at the crackle of fireworks after a college football game and of checking the rooms of her house for guerrillas when he woke to go to the bathroom in the night.

Jack, in a sleepy daze, leapt out of bed when he mistook the red light on a hotel smoke detector for a tracer round. Amanda told him he coordinates troop movements and calls out grid positions in his sleep.

The first time he returned to an American shopping mall, he was unnerved by the wide open spaces and by the numerous places snipers could hide. He wanted to back into a corner. "You don't have security to your rear, to your flanks," he said.

He turned and hurried out.

Jack speaks fondly of his first Iraq deployment in the spring of 2003, after I left his unit and before the insurgency exploded.

The Marines policed the placid streets of the Shiite holy city of Karbala, removing the doors from their Humvees and putting away their bulletproof vests and helmets.

They worked as a team with local Iraqis, who reported weapons caches and gave them other intelligence.

In return, the Marines built a playground, held a children's day and gave away soccer balls. Jack smiled as he talked of pushing a child on a swing and of the cash-strapped newlywed couple he befriended and gave $50 a week.

"It was awesome," he said.

After the 3/7 moved to Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, they encountered their first makeshift roadside bomb and were occasionally targeted by rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire. Still, the level of violence remained relatively low through September 2003, when they went home.

Jack was especially excited to return to the States. He had met Amanda in a sort of blind phone date arranged by a fellow Marine when he was in Iraq. Soon after he got home, they began seriously dating and he spent much of his free time driving from the Marine base in California to idyllic weekends at Amanda's home in Austin, Texas.

The idyll ended in February 2004, when he returned to Iraq.

The Marines of the 3/7 talk of their two deployments as if they were two different wars. The first was a mission of liberation.

The second was an apocalyptic nightmare.

By the end of the first deployment, including the invasion, the battalion lost two men.

In the second, it lost 18.

The Marines were sent to Anbar Province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency.

On their first patrol, near the Syrian border, a roadside bomb intended for the troops killed two Iraqi children instead, Jack said.

"Every single day this time we encountered something," he said. "The longer we were there, the worse it was getting."

The bombs quickly grew more elaborate. Soon they were being detonated by remote control, making it nearly impossible to find the attackers. Iraqis were burying land mines upside down so small civilian cars wouldn't trigger them but heavy military vehicles would.

The bombers were joined by snipers, and their weapons supply was continually replenished by allies in Syria, who stuffed rockets and explosives into styrofoam-filled garbage bags and floated them down the Euphrates River into Iraq, Jack said.

Local Iraqis were no longer interested in helping the Marines.

"Everybody just sits there and looks at you like, 'If I had a gun, I'd kill you,'" Jack said.

The violence could come from anywhere at anytime. In many battles, Jack only saw the shadows of the men he was shooting at. His unit began clasping hands, bowing their heads and praying before each patrol.

"There's no safe spot over there. None," he said.

Killing had become far less of a concern for Jack than being killed.

He saw nine comrades killed. Many others were badly injured.

"I don't know what's worse, a guy that's dead or a guy with his arm and half his face blown off. He's only got one eye and he's crying out of his one eye and he's patting his arm looking for it," he said.

About 200 miles away, I was also struggling through my second trip to Iraq. Amid a wave of kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners, including journalists, I had become a virtual prisoner in my Baghdad hotel, which was rocked by the nightly explosions of mortar shells aimed at the nearby Green Zone.

Almost every day, the military sent us bland, vague press releases announcing the deaths of nameless Marines killed in "security and stability operations" in Anbar. I always hoped it wouldn't be Jack, or anyone else I knew from the 3/7.

But many were from the battalion. Months later when I belatedly learned that one Marine I had grown close to, Gunnery Sgt. Elia Fontecchio, had been killed in a roadside bombing, I felt a complex wave of guilt, partially for not paying enough attention to the death notices and perhaps even more for not being there with him.

At first, Jack was reluctant to talk of his friends' deaths. In time, the stories poured out.

One Marine was laying concertina wire when he suddenly fell over dead. A single sniper's bullet had pierced his heart.

Another jumped on a grenade and covered it with his helmet, sacrificing his life to save his friends.

Once, a Marine was shot and vomiting. The medic couldn't bring himself to do CPR, so Jack did. The Marine died anyway. "I can still smell it. I can still see his eyes and know he's dead," he said.

One morning Jack and his radio operator were playing cards. Hours later his spades partner was dead.

On a mission searching for bombs, Jack's vehicle cruised past an elaborate explosive device: two rockets hidden in a roadside pile of garbage. As the next Humvee passed, the rockets were remotely launched into it, tearing through a group of Marines sitting in the back.

Jack and a medic sprinted to help and found the vehicle, which had been filled with their friends, soaked with blood and carnage. Three Marines died.

"That was the worst thing I've ever seen," Jack said.

Some Marines reacted to their buddies' deaths by wanting to kill everybody, Jack said. Others froze up.

As a leader in his platoon, Jack felt he had to remain calm for his men, but sometimes he wanted to break down, too. One day when a friend was killed, he went behind his Humvee and let himself lose control for a moment.

Then, he said, "I dried my eyes, wiped my nose and went back to work."

At a shooting range in the Mojave Desert at the Twentynine Palms Marine base in California, Jack found himself navigating the parallel paths of his future - planning his new life with Amanda and preparing for a third deployment in Iraq.

He gruffly led new recruits through live-fire drills, teaching them how to clear buildings in urban areas, shoot insurgents - "two to the chest, one to the head" - and fire heavy machine guns from moving vehicles. He yelled with impatience at times and erupted in fury when one new Marine broke a crucial safety rule, shooting his rifle too close to his comrade.

In stolen moments, Jack made last-minute preparations for his April 23 wedding, sneaking behind a Humvee when Amanda called on his cell phone to talk about flowers and invitations. He slapped his head in mock anger when she sent him text messages from Texas telling him how much she just spent on her diamond-encrusted wedding ring.

He and I again found ourselves sleeping on pads on the desert floor, eating rations and chatting about everything.

He was a little nervous about the merger of his two worlds. Amanda has never really seen Jack as the Marine now nicknamed "Beast," and he was worried about her reaction when she moved to the base.

He was concerned about life after the war, the effects the violence has already had on him and the hidden scars.

But he and the Marines were also focused on their next assignment.

They had been thrilled to hear they would be sent to Afghanistan - which appeared relatively safe - but those plans changed.

Now they wondered what new dangers await them in Iraq.

During the Iraq invasion, Jack was cavalier about his mortality. He talked about wanting to get shot, just to see how it felt. He even talked about getting killed.

"I have a father and brother back home and a mother and sister in heaven. It doesn't matter to me who I see," he said with a bravado I didn't really believe.

Now Jack has Amanda and his dreams of their future together. He has already sent out applications to fire departments in Texas, looking for a job for after he leaves the Marines early next year.

He just has one more nightmare to confront first. The 3/7 is scheduled to return to Iraq in September.

Ellie