He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money
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  1. #1

    Cool He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money

    He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money
    Spc. Robert Loria is stuck at Fort Hood, Texas

    By Dianna Cahn
    Times Herald-Record
    dcahn@th-record.com

    Middletown – He lost his arm serving his country in Iraq.
    Now this wounded soldier is being discharged from his company in Fort Hood, Texas, without enough gas money to get home. In fact, the Army says 27-year-old Spc. Robert Loria owes it close to $2,000, and confiscated his last paycheck.
    "There's people in my unit right now – one of my team leaders [who was] over in Iraq with me, is doing everything he can to help me .... but it's looking bleak," Loria said by telephone from Fort Hood yesterday. "It's coming up on Christmas and I have no way of getting home."
    Loria's expected discharge yesterday came a day after the public got a rare view of disgruntled soldiers in Kuwait peppering Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with questions about their lack of adequate armor in Iraq.
    Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq, Loria's injuries were caused by a roadside bombing. It happened in February when his team from the 588th Battalion's Bravo Company was going to help evacuate an area in Baqubah, a town 40 miles north of Baghdad. A bomb had just ripped off another soldier's arm. Loria's Humvee drove into an ambush.
    When the second bomb exploded, it tore Loria's left hand and forearm off, split his femur in two and shot shrapnel through the left side of his body. Months later, he was still recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and just beginning to adjust to life without a hand, when he was released back to Fort Hood.

    AFTER SEVERAL MORE MONTHS, the Army is releasing Loria. But "clearing Fort Hood," as the troops say, takes paperwork. Lots of it.
    Loria thought he'd done it all, and was getting ready to collect $4,486 in final Army pay.
    Then he was hit with another bomb. The Army had another tally – of money it says Loria owed to his government.
    A Separation Pay Worksheet given to Loria showed the numbers: $2,408.33 for 10 months of family separation pay that the Army erroneously paid Loria after he'd returned stateside, as a patient at Walter Reed; $2,204.25 that Loria received for travel expenses from Fort Hood back to Walter Reed for a follow-up visit, after the travel paperwork submitted by Loria never reached the correct desk. And $310 for missing items on his returned equipment inventory list.
    "There was stuff lost in transportation, others damaged in the accident," Loria said of the day he lost his hand. "When it went up the chain of command, the military denied coverage."
    Including taxes, the amount Loria owed totaled $6,255.50. The last line on the worksheet subtracted that total from his final Army payout and found $1,768.81 "due us."
    "It's nerve-racking," Loria said. "After everything I have done, it's almost like I am being abandoned, like, you did your job for us and now you are no use. That's how it feels."

    AT HOME in Middletown, yesterday, Loria's wife, Christine, was beside herself.
    "They want us to sacrifice more," she said, her voice quavering. "My husband has already sacrificed more than he should have to."
    For weeks now, Christine has been telling her 3-year-old son, Jonathan, that Robbie, who is not his birth father, will be coming home any day now.
    But the Army has delayed Loria's release at least five times already, she said, leaving a little boy confused and angry.
    "Rob was supposed to be here on Saturday," she said. "Now [Jonathan] is mad at me. How do you explain something you yourself don't understand?"
    Christine said the Department of Veterans Affairs has been helpful in giving Loria guidance about how to get his life back on track, offering vocation rehabilitation to "teach them to go back out in the world with the limitations they have."
    But the Army brass has been unreceptive, she said.
    The Lorias also contacted the offices of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Saugerties. Hinchey's office responded.
    "There's enough to go on here to call the Army on it and see if it can get worked out," said Hinchey aide Dan Ahouse. "We are expressing to the Pentagon that based on what we see here, we don't see that Mr. Loria is being treated the way we think our veterans returning from Iraq should be treated."
    Army officials at Fort Hood could not be reached for comment yesterday.
    "I don't want this to happen to another family," Christine Loria said. "Him being blown up was supposed to be the worst thing, but it wasn't. That the military doesn't care was the worst."

    The end of her rope

    Christine Loria was at the end of her rope earlier this week when she called her wounded husband's commanders at Fort Hood, Texas, and gave them a piece of her mind.
    The Army was discharging her husband, Robert, after he lost his arm and suffered other severe injuries in Iraq, without even gas money to drive his car home.
    "I am up here and he's there. That's 1,800 miles away," she said. "I had to call his chain of command and scream at them."
    Their reaction she said, was "very mature."
    "If he feels that way, why is his wife talking for him? Why doesn't he come talk to us himself?" she remembers them asking her.
    "Because on some level, he still respects you," she answered. "I don't have that problem."

    Dianna Cahn

    Who to call to help

    Outraged about Army Spc. Robert Loria's plight? Speak your mind. Below are contact numbers for federal legislators and defense officials.
    U.S. Senate: Hillary Clinton: 202-224-4451; Charles Schumer: 212-486-4430 email
    U.S. House of Representatives: Maurice Hinchey: 845-344-3211; Sue Kelly: 845-897-5200
    Secretary of Defense: Donald Rumsfeld: 703-692-7100
    Fort Hood: Major General James D. Thurman: 254-288-2255 or Fort Hood operator at 254-287-1110; Public Information Officer Jim Whitmeyer: 254-287-0103


    Ellie


  2. #2
    IRAQ: Iraqi Security Forces, Marines capture 72 Suspected Militants


    /noticias.info/ Forward Operating Base, Kalsu, Iraq -- Iraqi police and national guardsmen beat back an insurgent attack on a police station just south of Baghdad on Dec. 12, fueling optimism that the fledgling security forces are growing more confident and capable even in the face of a concerted campaign of intimidation and terror.

    The early-morning assault on the Rasheed station north of Mahmudiyah by an estimated 10 militants using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and small-arms posed the biggest test yet for the 507th ING Battalion, which has been operating alongside the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit since July.

    The policemen and soldiers immediately returned fire, holding their ground and summoning their quick-reaction force. Marines were also called to assist but were not needed, as the ING decisively repulsed the attack. Several of the attackers fled to a nearby mosque, where the ING found them and a variety of weapons and ammunition.

    In a full sweep of the area, the ING detained 34 suspected insurgents. The soldiers also discovered a car bomb across the street from the police station. Marine explosives experts were called in to defuse and dispose of the bomb.

    One ING soldier was wounded in the firefight.

    The successful defense of the Rasheed station -- the third in recent weeks -- represents an important psychological victory for the local ISF, who were not yet strong enough earlier this year to prevent the destruction by insurgents of police stations in other south-central cities and towns, including Yusufiyah, Lutafiyah, Haswah, Jurf as Sakhr and Musayyib.

    “This engagement is just the latest in which the Iraqi Security Forces have proven themselves in combat,” said Col. Ron Johnson, commander of the 24th MEU. “It demonstrates that a properly trained and equipped Iraqi unit can stand, fight and win.”

    While attacks have continued, the arrival of the Marines marked a turning point. The Marines and their Iraqi allies spread out across northern Babil province and southern Baghdad, establishing joint patrol bases and sending a message of unflinching resolve.

    With sustained presence and reinforcing firepower provided by the Marines, the ISF have begun to thrive. Though kidnappings and murders -- including the gruesome slaying of 12 ING candidates in a mosque west of Lutafiyah in November -- have led to some attrition, recruitment is on the rise. Not only are the ranks of the Iraqi police and ING swelling, their performance is improving.

    ING soldiers are increasingly taking the lead in joint U.S.-Iraqi raids, which coupled with random vehicle checkpoints have resulted in the capture and imprisonment of 537 insurgents in the area since August.

    In other action near Mahmudiyah, Marines attached to the 24th MEU rounded up 21 suspected insurgents and seized an assortment of weapons and munitions in a series of raids early on Dec. 13. Elsewhere in northern Babil province, Marines detained 17 suspects in multiple operations on Dec. 12.


    Ellie


  3. #3
    Marines prepare to deploy

    Some Camp Lejeune marines are in Wilmington busily preparing for their deployment to Iraq.

    The marines are at the State Port loading a ship full of supplies and equipment, such as tanks and HUMVEEs. The Second Marine Expeditionary Force is set to deploy beginning next month, but the equipment is being shipped by sea and it takes about a month to get from Wilmington to Iraq.

    The ship is set to leave no sooner than Tuesday. 14,000 marines and sailors will follow after the holidays.

    Ellie


  4. #4
    Words of love

    Reading books on videotape allows deployed parents to continue to bond with a child while far from home
    By Caroline Dipping
    UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
    December 11, 2004


    When Vanessa Zapata watches TV, she gets within a hair's breadth of the set and talks excitedly to the image on the screen. And she cries.

    The 3-year-old is not glued to the latest episode of "Dora the Explorer" or "Powerpuff Girls." She is watching a video of her daddy reading books to her and her two older sisters.

    Vanessa's father, Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Santiago Zapata, has been deployed in Iraq for the past six months, and nobody knows exactly when he is coming home. E-mail exchanges are few and far between, and Zapata's family last heard his voice during a fleeting phone conversation in mid-October.

    Santiago Zapata's videotaped recitation of "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "Green Eggs and Ham" is the only real connection he has had with his daughters in half a year. It arrived at their Camp Pendleton home shortly after he left. With the holiday season in full swing, the now well-worn videotape also will serve as the Zapata girls' only Christmas present from their father.

    For children, important holiday memories are formed by sitting down with a parent to read such favorites as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Those moments can still occur for children whose parents are deployed U.S. military personnel.

    An innovative program called Uniting Through Reading is achieving just that. Developed during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 by the Family Literacy Foundation, Uniting Through Reading enables parents aboard U.S. Navy ships, at air stations abroad, and in tents throughout the Middle East to connect with their children.

    Solana Beach-based
    "This program is tied to our mission, which is all about helping parents and children read aloud to each other and instill the joy of reading," said Betty Mohlenbrock, president and founder of the Solana Beach-based foundation. "It's about helping parents to continue parenting.

    "To be apart six to eight months of a child's life is a huge chunk," she added. "Uniting Through Reading is a very important bonding method, and it is also a wonderful way to help teach children the joy of reading."

    An educator and reading specialist, Mohlenbrock also is a Navy daughter and the wife of a retired naval surgeon, and she knows firsthand the challenges of being separated for months at a time. When Uniting Through Reading was created, there was no e-mail, only snail-crawling regular mail and audiocassettes. Mohlenbrock took it a step further with the idea of having parents read aloud on videotape.

    Uniting Through Reading provides a full circle of communication. Men and women who are deployed act as volunteers to promote the program in their military units, schedule videotaping sessions and provide coaching tips to participants. Homefront volunteers initially assist with creating an at-home library of children's books, and then promote the program to parents whose spouses are deployed.

    With cameras provided by the foundation, the deployed parent is given time to go into an office, room or tent and be privately videotaped reading his or her child's favorite books. The tape is mailed to the child. In turn, the parent at home can tape the child's reaction to the deployed parent's video, then send that back.

    The program is not limited to parents, either. All deployed personnel can choose to read aloud to a younger brother or sister, niece, nephew, grandchild, or even a child they are mentoring.

    Hidden benefits
    The program currently connects about 20,000 families on ships and in land-based units. Since its inception, Uniting Through Reading has served more than 75,000 parents and their children.

    "We've seen many benefits," said Mohlenbrock. "Children are much less fearful about where the parent is. They don't feel like they are gone forever. And the reunions are better because the child recognizes the parent who is deployed."

    And it's a preventive measure to combat the staggering statistic that only 50 percent of children in this country read aloud with an adult. Rather than wait until the child gets to school to practice reading skills, parents can get involved early and help spark enthusiasm for reading.

    Even parents whose own literacy skills are poor can overcome their fear of reading with programs such as Uniting Through Reading, Mohlenbrock said. The program training includes techniques to help the parent make the videotaped reading personal and interactive.

    The feedback to the literacy foundation is showing that deployed parents are having fun with the program once they get into it, with some parents even acting out parts in the storybooks and employing props such as hand puppets and "Clifford the Big Red Dog" dog ears.

    As for their target audience, the deployed parents couldn't be more warmly received. Children are not critical of their parent's performance on tape, and the spouse at home feels as if the deployed parent is being a parent, lending support in absentia, said Britta Justesen, executive director of the Family Literacy Foundation.

    Jessica Zapata learned of Uniting Through Reading at a deployment briefing, but under the welter of getting her husband ready to ship out, forgot to pack some of her daughters' favorite books, as the foundation encourages. When he reached his destination in Iraq, Santiago Zapata was able to comb through a trove of donated books and found "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "Green Eggs and Ham," favorites of 3-year-old Vanessa, 7-year-old Sabrina and 5-year-old Alyssa.

    "He sent the video to us pretty quickly after he got there," said Jessica. "I knew it was coming, but the girls didn't. When they first watched it, they just started crying, 'Papi! Papi!' It was very emotional. I had to walk out of the room.

    "It took my oldest daughter at least three times before she could watch it through completely."

    Continue the tradition
    Despite the emotional toll, Jessica says her daughters watch the videos frequently, especially during the holidays, when they are missing their father the most. Being able to see and hear him on tape has been a salve of sorts, especially for Vanessa, who has cerebral palsy and will get her books, plunk down in front of the TV, and talk to her father, sounding out her letters and responding to a joke he has made.

    "I think it's great because they get to continue the tradition of having a bedtime story read to them by dad," said Jessica. "I think it is a benefit that they can see him and he is still there. He didn't just go away and forget about them. It's kind of reassuring."

    Katrina Meredith, wife of Petty Officer 1st Class Ken Meredith, who is aboard the U.S.S. Mobile Bay, also is appreciative of the positive connection her husband's videotaped reading provides. Attending college full time for her teaching credential and mothering 8-year-old Alex and 2½-year-old Summer, Katrina is performing the same hectic juggling routine as so many others with deployed spouses.

    While Katrina Meredith does get daily e-mail and a monthly phone call from her husband, the children have his videotaped reading of "The Loving Hand," and a tale about a raccoon, which their father embellishes with a hand puppet, to play over and over again, as often as they like.

    Alex, a third-grader, loves the videos, his mother said, but they can make him a little sad and compound the hard moments when he misses his father, especially at night. Summer lights up with all a toddler's relish when she watches her father's tape.

    "It is not the way to have a family; it's not a normal way to raise kids or be married," said Katrina of the long absences deployments bring. "But I do think the military's gotten better at recognizing this, and they've gotten better with satellite programs.

    "We didn't have Uniting Through Reading before," she said of her husband's past deployments. "You get concerned your children aren't going to be able to bond when their father gets home, or not be able to remember.

    "But you play that video for them a couple of times a week and the kids look forward to it. And it keeps their father real, and it keeps him alive."

    Ellie


  5. #5
    Options for aiding troops are numerous

    Americans urged to offer holiday help
    By Rick Rogers
    UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
    December 13, 2004

    San Diegans interested in heeding President Bush's call to help U.S. troops and their loved ones can do everything from sending e-mails to writing checks to volunteering their talents.

    "The time of war is a time of sacrifice, especially for our military families," Bush said Tuesday during his visit to Camp Pendleton. "I urge every American to find some way to thank our military and to help out the military family down the street."

    Military support groups welcome his message, particularly because it comes during the holiday season. They list a variety of ways and places where people can show appreciation for the armed forces.

    The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund – based in Oceanside – along with the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation are all worthy causes, they said.

    So is United Service Organizations, or USO, the friend of all military personnel doing duty away from home.

    Regan Wright, president of the USO in San Diego, said his centers at the airport and downtown areas help about 125,000 service personnel and their families each year.

    Donations have picked up recently, he said, but so has the need for contributions and volunteers.

    "We have some corporate donors we didn't have before. We also see an increase in people who want to donate things," Wright said. "I got a call from a man who wants to give us 100,000 cookies, and we'll probably end up taking them."

    But the No. 1 need is financial donations. More money would allow the local USO to extend more services to Camp Pendleton, Wright said.

    "We exist just by the generosity of the people in San Diego," he said.

    While the Defense Department appreciates the public backing U.S. troops, it urges well-wishers not to flood the military mail system with letters, cards and gifts to service members. The reasons: security concerns and transportation constraints.

    The military mail system also can't accept items addressed to "Any Service Member," and people shouldn't try to skirt the rule by sending numerous packages to one address.

    Deployed troops can receive gifts and cards through the mail as long as the packages don't contain alcohol, explosives or material deemed offensive or illegal.

    In north San Diego County, the Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA assists Marines and their families at the base. More than 28,000 Marines from Pendleton have deployed to Iraq since January 2003.

    "All the money that is donated will stay here on the base and is only spent on active-duty military and their family," said George Brown, executive director at the Pendleton YMCA. "The holidays are kind of like Black Friday is for department stores. It is when we get our financial batteries charged."

    Donations of money and other gifts are always appreciated, he said, but the YMCA also seeks volunteers willing to share their time and skills.

    Another option is contributing to The Fisher House, which has locations throughout the United States and Germany, including one near San Diego Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park.

    Family members of patients in major military and Veterans Affairs medical centers can live in these homes. The families of four wounded Marines are currently staying at the San Diego Fisher House.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com


    S.D.-area groups helping U.S. troops
    The following are some service organizations aiding troops and their loved ones:

    Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA

    Box 555028, Bldg. 16144

    Camp Pendleton, CA 92055-5028

    (760) 385-4921

    San Diego USO

    303 A St., Suite 100

    San Diego, CA 92101

    (619) 235-6503

    Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund

    825 College Blvd., Suite 102, PMB 609

    Oceanside, CA 92057

    San Diego Naval Medical Center

    34800 Bob Wilson Drive

    Fisher House, Bldg. 46

    San Diego, CA 92134-5000

    (619) 532-9055

    Send an e-mail greeting via Operation Dear Abby at: http://anyservicemember.navy.mil.

    The Defense Department provides a list of support organizations at www.defendamerica.mil/ support_troops.html.



    Ellie


  6. #6
    Two US Marines killed in Iraq's western Anbar province
    Dec. 14, 2004


    Two US Marines were killed in action in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, the military said today, taking the number of Marines reported killed in the region in past three days to 10. A military statement said two Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in action yesterday "while conducting security and stabilization operations" in the vast Anbar province west of Baghdad, which includes the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Seven Marines died in action Sunday in Anbar, the deadliest day for the Marines since eight of their service members were killed by a car bomb October 30 outside Fallujah. Another Marine was killed Saturday. It was unclear where in Anbar the Marines died. The deaths brought to nearly 1,300 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003. Fifty-four Americans were among hundreds who died in a bloody weeklong campaign last month in Fallujah to uproot insurgents who had taken control of the city. But violence resumed there over the weekend as US forces and militants clashed in the city and American warplanes dropped at least 10 missiles on suspected rebel positions.



    Ellie


  7. #7
    Study calls embedding of reporters during Iraq war a success


    By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
    Mideast edition, Sunday, December 12, 2004



    WASHINGTON — The decision to embed journalists with U.S. military forces at the start of the Iraq war was a success for the military, the media and the American public, according to a study released Tuesday.

    Chris Paul, an associate social scientist with the RAND Corp., who wrote the report, said the embedded reporters provided news outlets with an up-close view of the combat, which allowed them to convey more information to the public.

    For the military, allowing that access built credibility among the media and their audience, Paul said. By giving reporters uncensored access to the troops, military officials conveyed that they believed the soldiers would come across as professional and noble public servants.

    “If [the military] has nothing to hide, they can only benefit from the coverage,” he said. “It really became good public relations.”

    The report said that despite conflicting goals in the battlefield — winning the war versus observing and recording the fight — the military and the media developed a respect for each other’s work.

    In the past, tension between the two has resulted in distrust and a lack of information on U.S. forces’ progress. Paul said that during the Vietnam War, military leaders would often ignore or mislead news reporters, and the media coverage would voice doubt in official statements from commanders.

    Defense department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said the goal of the embed program was to make sure the American public was given a full and honest view of operations overseas, and officials believe that was successful.

    “If we have any disappointments with the program it’s that the news media has not taken as much advantage of it as they could have,” he said. “Since the end of major combat operations, the numbers have ebbed and flowed.”

    During major combat operations more than 500 journalists were embedded with U.S. forces, according to the defense department. More than 100 accompanied troops during the recent fighting in Fallujah.

    Aly Colon, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute in Florida, said from a journalistic standpoint the embed program was an opportunity most news organizations had never had before.

    “For the first time many reporters were getting a clear and direct picture of exactly what was happening at the front,” he said. “They got to see how life was lived there, see that environment up close.”

    Paul said embedding reporters with military units will likely become commonplace in future military conflicts, but thinks that more restrictions will be placed on live reports from the battlefield. In the future enemy troops might be able to use background landmarks, satellite signals or other cues from the live broadcasts to uncover military positions.


    Ellie


  8. #8
    Car bomber kills 13; nine Marines die
    By Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press | December 14, 2004

    BAGHDAD -- A suicide car bomber linked to Al Qaeda killed 13 people just outside Baghdad's Green Zone yesterday, the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's capture. Clashes resumed in Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold that American forces believed they had conquered, and nine Marines died in combat in western Iraq and around the capital.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    The violence underlined the difficulties US-led forces have encountered in the year and a half since Hussein's ouster in trying to end a rampant insurgency and bring the country under control. US military commanders acknowledge that they initially underestimated the strength of the insurgent backlash and that coalition-trained Iraqi security forces are not yet up to securing their own country.

    The fighting in the western Anbar province, which includes Fallujah and Ramadi, killed seven Marines yesterday, the deadliest for US forces since eight Marines were killed Oct. 30 by a car bomb outside Fallujah. Today, the US military said two soldiers from the First Marine Expeditionary Force died in Baghdad province.

    The deaths brought to nearly 1,300 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

    In Baghdad, a militant in an explosives-laden car waiting in line to enter the western Harthiyah gate of the Green Zone detonated the vehicle as he drove toward the checkpoint, police said. The heavily fortified area houses the US Embassy and Iraq's interim government.

    Dr. Mohammed Abdel Satar of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital said 13 people were killed and 15 wounded in the suicide blast. The US military said there were no injuries to its troops.

    Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted on an Islamic website regularly used by militants.

    "On this blessed day, a lion from the [group's] Martyrs' Brigade has gone out to strike at a gathering of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone," the group said in a statement, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.

    A blast also struck the checkpoint this morning. Police and US officials, however, had no details on the explosion.

    The international zone has seen frequent insurgent attacks in the past 18 months. Dozens of people have been killed.

    Also yesterday, a US soldier died in a vehicle accident north of Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was injured.

    In Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded and wrecked two US Humvees, wounding three US soldiers and an Iraqi civilian, Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton said.

    Jubilant Iraqi men were seen holding up pieces of the Humvees and dancing around their charred hulks, near a large crater in the road.

    In Mishahda, 25 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen attacked an Iraqi National Guard patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding three others. The attackers fled, witnesses said.

    US forces retook Fallujah from insurgents in a bloody battle last month in which hundreds died, including 54 Americans. The city had fallen under the rule of radical clerics and their mujahedeen fighters after Marines lifted a three-week siege of the city in April. After the latest campaign, US commanders claimed that they had broken the back of the insurgency in the mainly Sunni Muslim areas of western Iraq, but fighting in the region has continued.

    In the central Iraqi city of Samarra, insurgents attacked patrolling US soldiers with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. One missed the troops and detonated near a group of children, killing a 9-year-old boy and injuring another child, US military spokesman Major Neal O'Brien said.

    Ellie


  9. #9
    What the ****?! I normally don't like to speak againsnt the military but something as bad as this is truly ****ed up. I believe there may be more to the story. Because I dont know what CO would deny getting a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine home.


  10. #10
    I agree TRLewis...more screwed up incomplete information that don't make any sense.


  11. #11
    Something smells rotten in Ft Hood.


  12. #12
    U.S. Troops on Emotional Rollercoaster in Iraq
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tue Dec 14, 2004 08:04 AM ET
    By Alastair Macdonald

    CAMP ISKANDARIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - The day began in despair of ever confronting a hidden enemy who had killed two young Marines from Bravo Company two days before.

    It ended in the heat of a tropical battle as elated U.S. troops unleashed a devastating barrage on Iraqi guerrillas who ventured from a palm grove to bombard the Marines with mortars.

    For the most part, it was a routine day in one of the most hostile parts of Iraq for a group of young American men dealing with personal grief and the collective frustration of fighting insurgents they rarely see, knowing that hunting them through farms and homes risks driving local people into the enemy camp.

    Without rest for six months, the mission for the 150 or so men of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, begins just after midnight as they gather at their trucks at Camp Iskandariya, a tented compound around a power station on the banks of the Euphrates, 40 miles south of Baghdad.

    They are to hunt for arms and guerrillas in an area of farms and villas on the river's far, western shore where loyalty to Saddam Hussein was strong and troops are attacked regularly by mortars and makeshift roadside bombs.

    In the trucks, the talk is of Hanson and Brooks, lance corporals from 3rd Platoon whose vehicle was blown up by a bomb buried in the road. Brooks, aged 20, was from Manchester, New Hamphire; 22-year-old Hanson from Panacea, Florida.

    "This is really making us mad," said Lieutenant Chris Richardella, the 45-man platoon's 23-year-old commander from Washington D.C.

    "These were two very popular men in the platoon."

    "At first I wanted to go home," admits one Marine in the dead men's 3rd Squad. "Now I want to go out and get those guys."

    After a race through the freezing night constantly braced for ambush, Marines bail out of their trucks. Dozens of houses are surrounded, the men brought out as women and children cower while the dozen or so heavily armed men of 3rd Squad search cupboards and household goods.

    Through an Iraqi interpreter, Staff Sergeant Raymond Barth goes through a prepared list of questions: "Have you seen anyone planting bombs on this road? Do you have weapons?"

    Blank looks, nervous smiles, short, defensive answers are the common response. In this bastion of the Sunni Muslim minority, which did relatively well under fellow Sunni Saddam, most are hostile or too afraid of the insurgents to cooperate.

    "He's happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein," the interpreter tells Barth.

    "Sometimes he hears bombs but doesn't know who does it," adds the interpreter through the black ski mask he wears out of fear.

    "Nobody ever knows anything round here," grumbles Barth.

    After hours of fruitless searching in the growing heat of the day, of handing out sweets to silent children and fending off packs of growling dogs, it gets too much for some Marines.

    When Barth lets a man keep a rifle, Corporal David Carroll boils over: "He killed my best friend and we give him his weapon back?" yells Carroll, who wears Hanson's name tag above his own on his helmet. "I'm not playing this game any more."

    "The Marines are very highly strung," Barth concedes.

    Others hurry to explain Carroll's anger: "It's like he lost his brother," says Lance Corporal Joe "Venti" Ventimiglia, vocal New Yorker and self-appointed squad spokesman.

    "It's the unseen enemy. He's a coward," he said of the guerrillas who plant roadside bombs. "It's very frustrating."

    Just then a burst of gunfire cranks up the tension. Another Marine, it turns out, has vented his frustration on a dog. Rage turns to laughter -- and teasing that the marksman had missed.

    Talk turns to going home in two months. Medic Seamus Marron wants to use the free college place he earned from his Purple Heart-winning gunshot wound to become a history teacher.

    Ventimiglia wants a business degree. Others will stay Marines.

    Through the teasing they talk of loving each other and of getting out of Iraq, complaining the Iraqis seem so ungrateful.

    As 3rd Squad searches what will be the final house, they take pictures of each other with their trophy find of the day -- a Nazi-era German carbine with armor-piercing bullets.

    Then, out of the blue, the crash of mortars falling around.

    Playful boys are suddenly men in battle, sprinting toward the enemy. The pent-up frustration of the day, of taking losses and of months of hard grind is released in a fury of shooting.

    For half an hour, the entire platoon, joined by an Abrams tank and two helicopters, devastate the area with rifles, machineguns, grenades and mortars. Convinced they have killed four to six insurgents in the mortar team, they are joyful.

    "It was like Vietnam!" yells one. "Warriors, dude!"

    As night falls in the palms, the glow of cigarettes dots the gloom: "This is going to help a great deal," said Barth.

    "This was such a wasted, frustrating day. Now I'm so happy," said another contented voice from the darkness of the truck.

    Afterward, Lieutenant Richardella was proud of the way his men had pulled through, though officers have yet to break it to the platoon that they found no guerrilla bodies in the field.

    "When some of the guys get wounded or killed, it's very tough on them," Richardella said. "But they snapped out of it.

    "They suppress their feelings ... The time to grieve is when we get home and they all know that. They can get frustrated, coping with a faceless enemy.

    "But they are disciplined and they take care of each other."


    Ellie


  13. #13
    Hospital nurses adopt Marines unit in Iraq

    Joelle Babula
    The Arizona Republic
    Dec. 14, 2004 12:00 AM

    Several nurses at Chandler Regional Hospital are playing Santa Claus to hundreds of U.S. Marines they've never met.

    The nurses recently stuffed more than 70 holiday stockings and wrapped dozens of gifts, shipping them off to troops in Iraq, the latest in a series of exchanges that began this summer.

    The correspondence between nurses and Marines began when nurse Jackie Borresen noticed the daughter of one of her patients crying in the hospital. She went to help the distraught woman and discovered the reason behind the tears - her son was shipping out to Iraq the following day. advertisement




    "I told her that we'd all make sure that he got letters and goodies from home," Borresen said. "I was trying to make her feel good and let her know that we would all take care of her son."

    The woman, Tammy Raynor, and her son, 21-year-old Eric Spruill, are from Spokane, Wash. Raynor and Borresen met when Raynor traveled to Chandler to visit her father in the hospital the day before Spruill left for Iraq.

    "I think it's so wonderful what these nurses have done. They are so sweet," Raynor said from her home in Washington. "The more support we can give our guys over there, the better. It's hard enough to try to stay busy and not think about him over there and wonder if he's safe."

    Borresen and Spruill have been e-mailing each other since July. Other Chandler Regional Hospital nurses soon followed suit and are now corresponding with many soldiers in Spruill's unit.

    "It's really fun," Borresen said. "The soldiers are so young and we're all old enough to be their mothers, but they really appreciate the mail."

    The holiday stockings are stuffed with a variety of items including toothbrushes, baby wipes, board games, soap, razors, candy and gourmet coffee. Stockings for female soldiers also include lip-gloss, shower gels and manicure sets.

    "They're in this terrible place, and we want them to feel pretty even for just 10 minutes," Borresen said.

    Gifts also include books, basketballs, cards and magazines.

    "We just wanted to pamper them all a bit," she said. "We want to give them a bright spot in their day."

    Spruill's grandfather, Nelson Noggle, said he's grateful to the nurses who not only took care of him in the hospital but are also continuing to support his grandson.

    "I think it's so cute. I really do," the Chandler man said. "The boys really need to know that people back here are thinking about them. The nurses are among the best to do that because they really care about people."

    It's too late to ship holiday-related items, but to donate items for later shipment to the Marines, contact Borresen at (480) 993-4286.


    Ellie


  14. #14
    Marine's Father: He Held On For Family
    Philadelphia Inquirer
    December 14, 2004

    Some people on the ground in Iraq didn't think Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Renehan would live very long after being critically wounded in a mortar attack on Nov. 29.

    But he showed them.

    The 21-year-old survived for 11 days, long enough to be flown out of Iraq to Germany, long enough for his parents to travel from their home in Oxford, Chester County, to his bedside.

    His parents and one of his brothers, also a Marine serving in Iraq, were with him when he died on Thursday.

    "We're convinced he fought those 11 days until we got over to see him because his brother was telling him to fight, be strong, that we were coming," Kyle Renehan's father, Jim, said yesterday. "A lot of people didn't think he'd survive the initial operations but he fooled 'em."




    He choked back a sob, "Tough kid."

    The Oxford community continued to rally around the Renehan family yesterday. About 90 percent of the homes in the Renehans' neighborhood were adorned with yellow ribbons. The family has received at least five personal notes from strangers - such as the man who sold Kyle Renehan his first car, another who sold him car insurance - who wanted them to know what a wonderful man he was.

    "That's the advantage of living in a small town," Jim Renehan said. "People get it, understand you, support you."

    Funeral arrangements had not been completed yesterday. His father said Kyle Renehan's body was expected at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware early this week.

    Kyle Renehan was the third of five sons, born to Jim Renehan and his wife, Theresa, on St. Patrick's Day, 1983. The family moved to Pennsylvania from Maryland about five years ago.

    Theirs was a large, tight-knit family. Kyle Renehan, his two older brothers and about eight cousins were a posse that would "go out together, double-date, you name it, they did it together," Jim Renehan said. "They were all very close and they stayed close as they grew up."

    Kyle Renehan graduated from Oxford Area High School in 2001 and joined the Marines soon after. He was an air-traffic controller for the Second Marine Aircraft Wing out of Cherry Point, N.C.

    "Part of it was he saw his older brother do it and his grandfather was retired from the Air Force," Jim Renehan said. "Part of it was he loved his country and he wanted to do something good. Part of it was adventure."

    Kyle Renehan went overseas in June on a tour scheduled to end in January. He called or e-mailed his parents once a week or so, seeking news on his grandparents, his 13 aunts and uncles, his more than 40 cousins.

    He talked to one or more of his brothers via instant messaging almost every night.

    "If it got to two weeks and we didn't hear from him, we'd check with his brothers," Jim Renehan said. "That's how his mom and I got a lot of updates."

    A Marine spokesman said Kyle Renehan's injury was the "result of enemy action" in Babil province, south of Baghdad, on Nov. 29. In Oxford, Jim Renehan got the news that his son was injured about three hours after it happened. He immediately started to write an e-mail to his son Chris, the other Marine, who was stationed about two hours from his brother.

    "They were just telling him as I was e-mailing him," Jim Renehan said.

    Chris Renehan followed his brother to Baghdad then to Germany. Although Kyle Renehan officially never regained consciousness, there were signs he knew what was going on around him, his father said. In Baghdad, a group of Marine officers visited him in the hospital and someone suggested taking a photo.

    "Kyle hadn't moved in four days, but his arm came up," Jim Renehan said. "He was either flexing his biceps - his 'guns,' he called them - or he was going to salute."

    And Kyle could hear his brother's voice. Of that his family is certain.

    "One thing we're most thankful for is his brother was with him the whole time," Jim Renehan said. "His brother was talking him through."

    Ellie


  15. #15
    NEW: Elway on celebrity morale mission in Iraq

    By The Associated Press





    Camp Liberty, Iraq - About 1,000 soldiers at this sprawling western Baghdad base took a break today from the Iraq war's day-to-day grind to be entertained by former Broncos quarterback John Elway, actor Robin Williams and sportscaster/model Leeann Tweeden.

    The three stars landed in Baghdad along with Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, in military helicopters for a visit to boost troop morale during the holiday season.

    The VIPs were greeted with deafening cheers from soldiers representing units including the 1st Cavalry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas, the 256th Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard, and the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y.

    Hall of Famer Elway said he thought twice about making the Baghdad trip, considering the worsening security situation.


    Advertisement

    "But once my kids told me that it'd be a great idea, I knew it was the right thing," he said before showing off his trademark quarterback skills by tossing several balls into a crowd of clambering soldiers.

    "I'm not funny, I'm not pretty, but I can sure throw a ball," he said.

    "I know we in America wouldn't have the life we have if it wasn't for people like you," said Tweeden, who visited Baghdad last year with Williams for a pre-Christmas event organized by the United Service Organizations.

    Williams was gang-tackled into autographing dozens of photos of himself, posing for pictures and displaying his rapid-fire humor.

    The USO is a nonprofit charity organization established before World War II to boost morale, provide welfare and deliver recreational services for American troops.


    Ellie


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