24th MEU, 3rd CAG Marines visit Jurf as Sakhr

[thedrifter]

Echo Company

By Thaai Walker
San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News

ARLETA, Calif. - It has been four months and six days since Marine Private First Class Eric Ayon lost his life at a dusty intersection in the Iraqi desert. Yet inside the San Fernando Valley house where his family lives, time has found a way to stand still.

Eric's sister Cynthia, 23, tells herself that he's just away on vacation. His father, Henry, tries not to talk about what happened, because doing so threatens to sever the thin thread of a feeling that Eric is still alive. And as Ayon's mother, Maria, bustles around the house, she talks aloud to Eric, who peers out from a life-size photo over the mantel.

Sometimes the family goes out to the driveway and gets in the silver Toyota that Eric, 26, had said would belong to his baby sister, Jazmine, if anything happened to him in Iraq. They sit in his car, start the engine and roll down the windows, but they don't go anywhere. "Just so it can be ready," Cynthia says, "when he comes back."

This is where the Ayon family is suspended these days: Somewhere between a past where Eric still cracks jokes and lectures Jazmine on the virtue-less nature of boys, and that April day when two somber Marines arrived to tell them Eric was dead, blown up by a homemade bomb.

Cynthia was the one who opened the door to the Marines. As their words filled the Ayons' tidy living room, her thoughts narrowed to a promise she'd made to her brother. He'd asked if she would meet him at the airport and bring him home when he finally returned from Iraq. He had wanted to surprise their mother.

The Ayons cannot deny they would have preferred that Eric had never enlisted. His father, who has muscled arms, a shaved head and kind brown eyes, taught Eric how to fight, but also taught him to stay away from the fight unless it came to him.

"Are you sure?" he asked his son, his companion in a household of women, after he enlisted.

Still, the Ayons were proud that Eric had followed through on something he'd wanted to do since childhood.

Each day during the week before he left for Iraq in February, Eric drove two and a half hours each way from his military base to the Ayon home. He would have dinner with his family and get his fill of his mother's chilaquiles, a homey Mexican dish of crispy tortilla strips drowned in a chile-based sauce.

He visited former coworkers at the Mid-Valley Community Day School, where news clippings about his death now decorate a hallway, to pass out his e-mail address, saying he couldn't promise speedy replies.

He said goodbye to student Ashley Mendez, a round-faced 17-year-old whose tangles with gangs and drugs have repeatedly landed her in juvenile hall. She remembers how Eric, in his L.A. Lakers jersey, rescued students from the fluorescent lights of gloomy classrooms and took them to play soccer in the sun.

He could garner respect from these hardcore teens, his coworkers say, yet they also considered him one of their own because he acted like a big kid most of the time.

"He was a really good friend," Ashley said recently, a "Trust No One" tattoo around her pale neck. "I thought he was going to come back. But he never did."

Nowadays, the Ayon house is often full of people and sound and movement and recollections.

His girlfriend, Angie Oonsiri - a quiet girl who Eric talked of someday marrying and who has earned a place in the Ayon family despite the absence of rings and vows - visits every week. So do friends who wear mock dogtags imprinted with his image.

Their presence soothes Henry Ayon, because it reminds him of the many times his son would pick up stray kids from the street and bring them home to play.

Throughout the week, Eric's friends crowd into the Ayon home. They bring their children, who race around the backyard and fill it with shouts and squeals. Every Sunday after church, they all join the Ayons in a caravan to the cemetery.

Often, Cynthia is not with them. She avoids these graveside trips, although she has trouble saying why.

She did attend the private family viewing at the funeral home where her brother was laid out in his military dress blues, but even then, she really wasn't there.

She saw everyone crying, going up to Eric, touching him, making sure it was him. She approached his coffin but remained at a distance as she stole a look. Then she turned away and never looked back.

Eric had sent her a birthday card while he was in Iraq. He signed it "Wi-Wi," a family nickname she'd saddled him with in their grade school days because he'd always beat her to the bathroom when they got home from school.

He wrote: "Always know that when things get hard and you don't know what to do, I will always be here for you."

Things are hard now. She doesn't know what to do.

And he's not here.



Age: 26
Home: Arleta, Calif.
Pfc. Eric Ayon
Each day during the week before he left for Iraq, Eric drove two and a half hours each way from his military base to the Ayon home so he could have dinner with his family.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwash...ny/9227224.htm


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Group sailor awarded Bronze Star
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 2004818193245
Story by Lance Cpl. Jonathan K. Teslevich



CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, Japan — (August 13, 2004) -- A 3rd Force Service Support Group sailor was awarded the Bronze Star Medal in a ceremony here Aug. 13 for his life-saving actions in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.

Navy Capt. Stephen F. McCartney, group surgeon, 3rd FSSG, was recognized for his achievements as the 1st FSSG surgeon, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, from January to June 2003.

During his tour, McCartney established Surgical Company A, Health Services Battalion, as the I MEF medical referral center. He also personally performed 1,500 patient visits, 130 admissions and 23 surgeries, and he coordinated 85 medical evacuations.

“The hardest part was witnessing the severity of the injuries we treated, McCartney said. “That is why I feel a sense of pride in the capabilities of Alpha Surgical Company. The expert staff and our patients showed amazing strengths of character when faced with tough situations.”

As an experienced vascular surgeon, he recognized two cases of limb-compromising arterial injuries and performed vascular reconstructive surgery on both, in each case saving the leg of the injured servicemember.

“Vascular injuries are the most dangerous because a person can quickly succumb to the loss of blood,” McCartney explained. “It is essential that a surgical team goes in rapidly to repair and reconstruct the damaged parts of the vascular system.”

McCartney’s actions continued outside of surgery as well, working with fellow naval medical colleagues to collate data and closely analyze medical operations.

The information, findings and suggestions for improvement will greatly enhance medical care on future deployments, according to McCartney.

Receiving this award while serving with operating forces is important to McCartney because he said he has always respected Marines and taken great pride as a member of the Navy-Marine Corps team.

“I’m humbled by this and most honored by being a recipient of a Marine Corps award,” McCartney said to Marines, sailors, friends and family after receiving the medal.




CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, Japan — After receiving the Bronze Star medal, Navy Capt. Stephen F. McCartney shakes hands with Brig. Gen. Frank A. Panter, commanding general, 3rd Force Service Support Group. McCartney, the 3rd FSSG surgeon, received the medal for meritorious achievement as 1st FSSG surgeon, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, from January to June 2003 in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Jonathan K. Teslevich

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn20...7?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. marines in tense Najaf standoff
Thu 19 August, 2004 06:17

By Michael Georgy

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines and a radical Iraqi cleric are locked in a tense standoff after the firebrand leader refused to leave a holy shrine in Najaf despite earlier agreeing to disarm his militia and withdraw.

Sporadic fighting echoed through the night in the southern city, raising doubts that an uprising which has badly dented the authority of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and killed hundreds across eight cities could be resolved quickly.

Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr agreed on Wednesday to end his two-week rebellion after the government threatened to storm the Imam Ali Mosque to teach his Mehdi Army militia "a lesson they will never forget".

U.S. officials expressed scepticism Sadr would comply.

"I don't think we can trust al-Sadr. I think we have to see action, not just words," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Fox News on hearing of the deal.

Early on Thursday Najaf was tense, though some residents ventured from their homes near the battle zone.

In Baghdad, witnesses said a U.S. helicopter attacked positions soon after dawn in a poor Shi'ite Muslim suburb that is a Sadr powerbase. A large explosion in the area sent plumes of black smoke into the air, though the cause was unclear.

The U.S. military said late on Wednesday it had killed more than 50 militia loyal to Sadr when it advanced into the area.

After vowing to fight to the death a few days ago, Sadr said his forces would disarm and leave Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque, but only after U.S. marines encircling the city agreed to a truce.

Iraq's Defence Ministry ordered them to lay down their weapons and leave their sanctuary in the country's holiest Shi'ite shrine immediately. They would then be granted an amnesty, the ministry said.

Sadr has proved a wily strategist in past confrontations. Despite the plump, bearded cleric's youth -- he is only about 30 -- the latest rebellion has transformed him into the most recognisable face of resistance to the U.S. presence in Iraq.

DRAMATIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Intermittent exchanges of artillery and machinegun and mortar fire continued well into the night in Najaf, hours after Sadr's dramatic announcement that he was prepared to withdraw.

"Sayyed Moqtada and his fighters are ready to throw down their weapons and leave for the sake of Iraq," Ali al-Yassiri, Sadr's political liaison officer, told Reuters.

Delegates at a meeting in Baghdad that chose a 100-member interim national assembly said Sadr, the scion of a respected Shi'ite clerical dynasty, had agreed to accept their demands.

Sadr's fighters have holed up in the golden-domed mosque in the heart of Najaf, knowing that any assault on the shrine could spark outrage among Iraq's majority Shi'ite community.

The Baghdad conference ended four days of talks by announcing members of a new council to oversee the interim government, comprising 81 government-backed candidates and members of Iraq's now defunct governing council.

Al Jazeera television reported that Iraqi militants who said they captured a U.S. journalist last week had threatened to kill him within 48 hours if U.S. forces did not leave Najaf.

It showed footage of a man with a moustache kneeling in front of five masked men holding rifles. The channel identified the man as Micah Garen and the group as the Martyrs Brigades.


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackage...2&section=news


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Linux to help Marines become Semper Wi-Fi

One of the benefits of attending conferences like Blackhat Briefings and Defcon is the networking that occurs in the background. In this case, wireless networking. I met John Hering when he and his posse were in the press room giving a demo of their Bluetooth Sniper Gun ahead of their presentation. That's when I heard John mention the "UnwireIraq" project, which aims to provide American servicemen and women in Afghanistan and Iraq with high-speed Internet access, so that they can stay more closely in touch with friends and families back home. He gave me a brief overview of the project that day. I told him I would like to follow-up with him after the conference. Now that I've done so, here's what I've learned.

The
story actually begins with LT. Phillip Geiger, Medical Officer with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. Geiger's unit was sent to Afghanistan in May of this year, and has recently moved to Iraq. Naturally, one of the things they miss most is regular realtime contact with their friends and families back home.

Geiger wrote that the "morale network" provided by the military just didn't meet their needs as well as it might. He said:

At most locations there is one or a few government-owned "morale" computers that can be used by anyone for email and recreational Web browsing (albeit at extremely slow speeds -- less than .5-1Kbps during peak hours). The lines are invariably long (45+ minute waits for 15-30 minute blocks of time). The same goes for phones -- the waits are long and the time limits are relatively short.
An additional (and huge) problem with the government network is that connecting personally owned computers is prohibited. This is partly a security issue (they don't have a way to ensure that everyones laptop has the current security patches) and partly a performance issue (the network is already slow enough, and would likely become completely unusable if everyone plugged in).

So the network/phone problem came down to:

long lines with short time limits for actual use
slow network (too many users, not enough bandwidth)
can't connect personal laptops
Geiger and others came up with solution to the problems mentioned with the "morale network." They would simply do it themselves, providing their own bandwidth and networking equipment, Geiger said.

Our general plan is:
a bidirectional dish for satellite Internet service
802.11 access points to provide coverage over our compound
Internet Protocol phones
Linux and Squid
Once the plan was done, all that was needed was the money for the bandwidth and the equipment. That's where Ernie's House of Whoop Ass comes into the story.

Ernie organized a fund-raiser over the 4th of July and more than $8,000 was raised. Geiger said, "This allowed us to buy the satellite dish, receiver hardware, pay for 3 months of 1024 down / 256 up service, and buy a few wireless access points and network cards."

That's also about the time that John Hering started getting involved. John told me:

I was browsing the Internet really late at night, going through some Wi-Fi message boards, actually, and I came across a soldier by the name of Phil Geiger in Afghanistan, who basically was looking for some advice from Wi-Fi guys on what kind of kind of equipment the guys in Afghanistan could use to try and connect to the Internet. They were trying to figure out a way that would, hopefully, allow them to be able to talk to their loved ones.
One thing led to another and Hering's DailyWireless site set up a new called UnwireIraq to raise additional funding and hardware.
Geiger noted Hering's support, saying that "Through his efforts, Tropos Networks has offered to donate some of their high-end 5110 outdoor access points."

The Tropos donations should put the 3/6 Marines over the top, and it's expected they will have a live network operation going on in the near future. If you, too, would like to help the 3/6 Marines stay "Semper Wi-Fi" -- and help other units get that way -- visit The UnwireIraq site to arrange your donation of hardware or cash.

http://trends.newsforge.com/article....041215&tid=137


Ellie