The young and the brave: fighting for freedom

[thedrifter]

The young and the brave: fighting for freedom
By: Eamon McNiff, Staff Reporter02/10/2005


DOVER PLAINS
Francis Bennett Jr. celebrated his 20th birthday on Feb. 2. While his mother and father sat in their Dover Plains home, quietly celebrating their son's day, Bennett was in Jacksonville, N.C.
He wasn't taking a break from the harsh New York winter, but hard at work training for his job: He's a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and is stationed at Camp Lejeune, preparing to leave for Iraq.
Bennett's mother, Ella, and her husband, George Heck, will see their son one last time before he's flown to the Middle East.
Bennett's orders are that between Feb. 15 and March 15 he could be called for duty and flown to Iraq with only a day's notice.
"He said, 'This is the best weekend, after that it's a days notice,'" Mrs. Heck explained in a recent interview. These past few weeks, Bennett has been at Camp Lejeune, getting ready to go to war.
"He's in advanced combat training," Mr. Heck, who served in the U.S. Army, said. "He's learning how to deal with the situations and people over there, so it's not so strange."
Bennett is a lance corporal whose job is in LVS Operation, Logistic Vehicle Operation for 35-33 Motor Transport. In civilian speak, he primarily works with massive vehicles that transport troops, supplies and other vehicles.
His duties include overseeing the maintenance and repair of the trucks, driving them with convoy security teams, supporting the front lines and working with the squad he is stationed with. Yet one duty supercedes all others.
"To stay alive," Mr. Heck stated.
Bennett entered the armed forces in 2003, enlisting right out of high school. He made the decision to enlist after a Marine recruiter came to his high school, and after speaking with his boss, who was an ex-Marine, where he worked at the Harlem Valley Beverage Center.
Bennett knew that a war was going on in Iraq. He received a certificate from the Marines for enlisting during a war, starting off in boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.
"That was the hardest day of my life," Mrs. Heck said. "When they took my baby," she briefly choked up, before swallowing the memory behind a forced laugh.
"He chose to do it, that was his decision. I respected it, not that I liked it," she said.
"He was into wrestling," Mrs. Heck recalled. "Funny part of it, when he went down to Parris Island, you know, boot camp, they make you do all these things, like fall off a building, and he was always as a kid afraid of heights. You could not get that kid to climb a tree, a ladder, nothing," Mrs. Heck joked.
"The Marines made him realize he can do a lot of things he never thought he could do. He's proud of himself, I'm proud of him," Mrs. Heck said.
Bennett left Parris Island on Feb. 13, 2004, one of only eight who graduated with the rank of private first class, out of roughly 800 Marines.
"He was so proud," Mrs. Heck said. She recalled that day when she and Mr. Heck and one of Bennett's three siblings, his sister, Stacie, 22, went down to watch him earn his stripes.
Bennett moved on to Camp Lejeune for more training and it was there he started in LVS Operation, learning how to inspect the vehicles, drive them, and if something broke he had to fix it.
From Camp Lejeune he shipped off to Okinawa, Japan to begin his necessary two years overseas.
Bennett also made close friends with other Marines whom Mrs. Heck would get to know and whom she described as her other "sons."
"At least he's not alone, he's with his friends," Mrs. Heck said.
Bennett then got word he would be going to Iraq, and returned to the U.S., immediately going to Camp Lejeune for more training.
Mrs. Heck said she knows his next trip, to war, is on the young man's mind.
"He's scared," she said. "When he returned, you could hear the excitement in his voice that he was back in the States," she said, adding, "He sounds nervous. I'm sure he is, he's going to a strange country."
Wherever she goes, Bennett's spirit hugs her tightly. Mrs. Heck keeps pictures of him at the Wingdale Liquor Store, where she works. She hangs photos of him in her truck. His image is found on the walls of the Heck's home.
A tense air of uncertainty hangs over Mr. and Mrs. Heck. They don't know much. Bennett only tells his family bits and pieces, as much as he's allowed. They know he'll be somewhere outside of Fallujah, the site of a major U.S. offensive, and that his stay will be around 220 days.
For now, they said they're concentrating on seeing him, and being strong for him when they say goodbye.
"It hasn't really hit me yet. I get thinking of him and I start getting teary eyed and stuff," Mrs. Heck said. "I know when I say 'goodbye' to him, I'm going to totally lose it."
Having a son involved in a war has changed Mrs. Heck's look on society. Two boys down the road are in Iraq, and other young men and women seem different to her.
"I look at our kids differently. Kids I see on the streets, things like that. You know, you look at some and it's like, they really could be doing something better, then you see the kids who are doing something like going to war, and it's like, how can you do that? I'm afraid of driving in the snow," Mrs. Heck said.
Aside from the fear and uncertainty of not knowing what to expect or hear Mrs. Heck said she thinks of soldiers building hospitals, which she said fills her with an indescribable pride.
"I can't describe the feeling, you can come out with these words, but it's like those words are not enough. There has got to be a better word, you know, like, like even fantastic isn't even it," she said.
"Maybe three years from now, we can all look back and everything will be fine," Mr. Heck said, reassuring his wife.
"It'd be nice if he called us in a couple of weeks and said he didn't have to go," Mr. Heck said.
When he's deployed, they'll be in touch. Bennett has a general mailing address in Iraq that Mrs. Heck hopes she can send him her peanut butter cups and other treats. And, they'll write to him as much as they can.
Most of all, though, Mrs. Heck said she wants her son to come home, she wants all her other "sons," like her son's friends, Ortega and Fitzpatrick, to come home, too.
"I just want him to come back safe, I want all those kids to come back home," Mrs. Heck said.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Will Reduce Iraq Presence
Associated Press
February 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps will shrink the size of its ground combat force in Iraq this spring, with the Army making a corresponding increase, the Marines' operations chief said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, said in an Associated Press interview that the Marines will draw down from about 33,000 to about 23,000 when a fresh contingent headed by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force is fully in place in Iraq in March.

"This has been planned all along," he said. He said it does not suggest the Marines are too taxed by commitments around the globe, including duty in Afghanistan and training at home.

Overall, the U.S. force is scheduled to drop by March or April from the current 153,000 to the 138,000 level that prevailed before a buildup late last year in advance of the Jan. 30 elections. Much of that temporary increase was achieved by extending the tours of Army units. The Marines also added several thousand, and they are now getting ready to return home.

Huly said that for planning purposes the Marines expect to maintain their force level in Iraq at about the 23,000 level "for the foreseeable future." He declined to define that more precisely.




A former deputy commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, Huly said he has seen no evidence that the fast pace of deployments since the start of the Iraq war - with Marines spending seven months in Iraq, then returning with only seven months' break at home - is hurting recruiting.

"So far it's not breaking their spirit, their morale or their will to fight," he said.

In fact he thinks the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are a plus for attracting and retaining Marines.

"My 35 years in the Marine Corps have shown me that that's why young men and women join the Marines - to go do that kind of stuff," he said. "Most of them would rather be going back to Iraq than sitting around at Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton shooting blanks. They make more money over there. It's more exciting."

The Marines say they are on track to meeting their recruiting goal for this year, although in January they fell short of their monthly target for the first time in almost 10 years.

More than 450 Marines have died in the Iraq war. Marines bore the brunt of the fighting in Fallujah last November when U.S. forces attacked the city to eliminate a stronghold of the insurgency.

Huly said the Marine Corps is holding up well under the strain, although the Corps is operating its vehicles and aircraft at a faster pace than officials had budgeted for before the war began.

"I think the strain on the equipment will probably show up before the strain on the people does," he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Homeless Vets Buried With Full Honors
Associated Press
February 11, 2005

DALLAS - Harold Dean Harris died homeless and destitute in an abandoned building and might have gone to a pauper's grave if not for the military papers found in his wallet.

An Army veteran, he was buried Thursday with full military honors. No friends or family came, and no old Army buddies swapped stories. But it was a soldier's farewell, the morning air broken by a 21-gun salute fired by a group of paralyzed veterans.

Harris, 63, and another homeless Army veteran, Hayden Glyn Kresge, 53, were laid to rest at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery because of a partnership between the Veterans Affairs Department and a nationwide funeral home network that has paid for military burials for more than 300 homeless vets over the past two years.

Very little was known about either man, both of whom served two-year Army stints decades earlier. Military officials could not immediately say where the two men served. Neither had relatives or friends at their brief, back-to-back ceremonies.

A few VA officials came to pay tribute, and a group of homeless men acted as pallbearers.




"Without you who came out on this cold day, these men would have had to go to their graves alone," said Cindy Simpson of Dignity Memorial Funeral Providers, the funeral home network.

Disabled American Veterans chaplain Cynthia Burks received the flag from Harris' flag-draped casket. Moving with military precision, Michael Riley, deputy commander of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, wheeled forward to give Burks three polished brass rounds from the rifle volleys, representing duty, honor and country.

"When one is in need, we'll be right there beside them," Burks said tearfully. "It was an honor to accept this flag."

The Rev. Alton Jones, a former homeless veteran himself, officiated at both services. He called on the few gathered to look ahead to a life without sickness, sorrow or homelessness, and sang a verse of "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder."

Jamie Jewell, another funeral home representative, said neither man had as much as a photograph among their belongings. But "obviously, Mr. Harris was proud of his service," she said, "because he had his papers in his wallet."

Veterans are eligible for Dignity burials if they were homeless and honorably discharged and no one comes forward to claim the body. Dignity pays costs not covered by the VA, such as the casket and a hearse. Volunteers stand in for absent loved ones.

"I really feel every veteran deserves full military honors, especially homeless veterans who die alone," Riley said. "No matter what their walk of life was after they left the service, the fact remains that they did serve our country. To me, it's the highest honor a person could do."

Kresge, who served from 1971 to 1973, died Jan. 21 after being taken to a Dallas hospital. He suffered from hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure and diabetes. A chaplain knew of his military service and passed the information on.

Harris' body was found Jan. 14 in the abandoned building where he apparently was living. He suffered from hepatitis C. He served from 1961 to 1963.

"A veteran, when he's homeless, goes through pride and doesn't want to contact family and loved ones and let them know how bad things have gotten," Jones said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Rumsfeld Meets With Troops In Iraq
Associated Press
February 11, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on a one-day trip to Iraq told U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on Friday that Iraqis, not Americans, will have to defeat the continuing insurgency here.

Rumsfeld spoke to troops in Mosul in northern Iraq before departing for Baghdad and meetings with U.S. and Iraqi officials and a review of Iraq's security forces.

In his address at the Mosul airfield, Rumsfeld told American troops "you have shown that America is in fact a land of liberators, not a land of occupiers." But, he added, "It is the Iraqis who have to over time defeat the insurgency."

He spoke after presenting the Army Commendation Medal to a group of Iraqi and American soldiers.

Rumsfeld also visited a combat hospital in Mosul, and spoke briefly with Sgt. Sean Ferguson, a California native who was shot in the hand by a sniper. Ferguson was awarded his second Purple Heart for the wound.





Rumsfeld daylong visit was not announced publicly in advance for security reasons.

Rumsfeld is the most senior U.S. official to arrive in Iraq since the nation's elections on Jan. 30. Rumsfeld's spokesman Larry di Rita said the purpose of the trip was "to recognize the great success of the elections."

Rumsfeld flew in from France, where he met with NATO defense ministers and discussed ways to increase their contributions to the U.S.-led efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In December, Rumsfeld made a surprise Christmas Eve visit to U.S. troops in Mosul, where he met many of the victims of an insurgent attack on a mess tent that had been bombed several days earlier. He also shared a Christmas Eve dinner with troops at a base outside of Baghdad and, amid tight security, visited others in Tikrit.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Army Life: Long Hours, Some Comforts
Cox News Service
February 11, 2005

TIKRIT, Iraq - There's hot chow, or at least lukewarm, and there are showers, too, although they sometimes run out of hot water, leaving lathered-up soldiers yelping as they try to rinse the soapsuds under a suddenly cold stream of water.

There's a giant screen television, complete with a seemingly endless stack of DVDs, most of them action movies. There are computers hooked up to the Internet, phones for calling home, exercise machines and a punching bag strung up from the rafters of a porch.

There's even an outdoor fast-food court at a nearby base, where soldiers coming in hungry off patrol can wolf down a Whopper from Burger King, a steaming slice fresh from Pizza Hut, a foot-long sandwich from Subway or a triple-shot latte brimming with whipped cream from the Green Beans Coffee Shop.

Life for American soldiers on the front line in Iraq is far from easy, but today's Army has managed to import enough of the comforts of home to keep its volunteers from griping too much about the legendary deprivations of duty in a combat zone.

While conditions vary from base to base, the set-up at Forward Operating Base Omaha near Tikrit, home for some of the soldiers just arriving from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division from Ft. Stewart, Ga., is probably typical for many Americans serving in Iraq.





With U.S. bases subject to mortar fire, there's been an effort to billet the troops in buildings if possible. At Omaha, home is a huge mansion said to have been under construction for one of Saddam Hussein's relatives at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003. Although the sprawling building was only half-completed at the time of the war, the soldiers have rigged the high-ceilinged rooms into dormitories.

The three-story structure is cut up into a maze of bunk areas for different squads, with rough-built walls fashioned from 2-by-4s and plywood. Eight to 10 soldiers live in each of the rooms, most fashioning their own plywood cubicles for at least a semblance of privacy.

But the place is open, drafty and loud. The makeshift plywood walls don't reach the 15-foot-high ceilings, so sound echoes inside the brick structure.

Despite frequent cleaning by soldiers wielding brooms, dust covers everything.

There are heaters for all the bunkrooms, to ward off the winter cold. While far from homey, there is a set of three couches surrounding the large-screen TV in the ground-floor recreation room, where soldiers sprawl as they wait for mess call or to go back out on patrol.

Learning to sleep anywhere at any time under any conditions seems a talent the troops quickly learn. Many soldiers coming in from patrols simply sprawl out on their cots, instantly falling asleep.

Bathroom facilities are about 100 yards out the front door: a line of green portable toilets. Elsewhere on the compound there are slightly nicer bathroom facilities in portable trailers and small buildings, complete with flush toilets, sinks and showers.

"You've got to try each of the trailers and buildings to find the ones with hot water," a veteran sergeant advised a visitor. "Mornings are usually better, too, although sometimes you have to get up really early to beat the rush."

The walled compound around the base is a giant parking lot for the trucks, tanks and various machines dedicated to fighting or supply. Vehicles coming in through the main gate must first run a gauntlet of checkpoints, barriers and blast walls, then stop at a station where every soldier must step out and clear his weapon, pointing the barrel into a metal drum filled with sandbags.

On the way to the mess hall is a small trailer with a hand-lettered sign, "Barber shop," where soldiers can get a trim.

Soldiers can drop off laundry at a facility run by a contractor, with the clean clothes coming back in 2 to 3 days.

Food is trucked from another nearby base, and served out of large insulated trays. There are endless supplies of fruit juices and sodas, deserts like cake and pudding and even a large freezer in the corner of the mess hall brimming with ice cream sandwiches and other frozen treats.

For all the comforts, though, the soldiers often work exhausting days. Patrols roll out the heavily guarded gate at all hours of the day and night, sometimes stretching into 12-hour ordeals. Gunners in the Humvee turrets have tough duty, their heads sticking up through the open hatches, catching the cold winter wind, their legs and backs aching after hours of sitting suspended in the turret's web sling.

The patrols are often out during mess hall hours, so the soldiers miss meals, although they can always pick up a packaged Meals-Ready-to-Eat to tide them over until the next mess call.

As with soldiers in any era, there are the inevitable complaints.

"I came all the way to Iraq and now they have me cleaning out the toilets," one young soldier told another as the two had a smoke on the building's roof. "I can't take this much longer."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Lawmakers Press Military On Cuts
Associated Press
February 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers overseeing the military questioned the chiefs of staff for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps on Thursday about proposed budget cuts to weapons systems and wondered about the wisdom of wartime reductions and their impact on national security.

Although the Pentagon's budget would increase by $19 billion next year, President Bush's $419 billion proposal would scale back production of a stealth fighter, a transport plane and ships, and eliminate one aircraft carrier.

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the chiefs of staff said the proposed cuts were driven by budget constraints and that the reductions ran counter to what the military previously had estimated it would need to perform at a high level.

"I want to make sure that we don't engage in a process that is in some ways penny wise and pound foolish," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

The committee chairman, Sen. John Warner, said he was shocked at the plan to reduce the number of carriers to 11, because that was not part of the Navy's original proposal. Warner, R-Va., also said the committee was "astonished" at the notion of cutting back production C130J transport aircraft.




Adm. Navy Adm. Vernon Clark said the decision to eliminate a carrier was made late last year after the administration sought additional spending cuts.

Gen. John Jumper of the Air Force told lawmakers that the Pentagon probably will reconsider its decision to cut the transport aircraft because curtailing its production will cost more than anticipated.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he feared the cuts in the shipbuilding budget would produce "a significantly diminished Navy" in 10 years to 20 years.

Clark said he was concerned that with the amount of money spent on vessels over the past 15 years that "we cannot afford over a 250-ship Navy." But he said the Navy must change the way it buys ships because it buys too few per order, which makes each more expensive.

Questioning the proposed cuts to the F/A-22 stealth fighter, Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., asked whether the Air Force can guarantee air supremacy without it.

"General, I don't want us to be in a fair fight. I want the men and women that fly for you to have the capability of knocking anything off the ground that might be shot at us, or anything coming out of the sky that might shoot at us or shoot at our men and women on the ground," Chambliss said.

Jumper said the fighter would put U.S. forces ahead of all others for the next 10 years to 20 years and that there are no other weapons systems better than the F/A-22.

Also at the hearing, Democrats criticized the budget for failing to include the billions of dollars it will cost to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat, said the request before the committee amounted to a "peacetime budget" that "hides the true size" of the federal deficit.

Both Republicans and Democrats pressed Jumper and Gen. Michael Hegge of the Marine Corps about why the budget did not pay for a permanent increase in troop levels for both branches. The money for 30,000 extra Army troops and 3,000 more Marines is to be included in an upcoming one-year war-funding request.

"We need more troops," Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said. "By essentially kicking the can down the road every year, we're losing time."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Merchant Mariners Seek Belated Thanks
Associated Press
February 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - The bullets and torpedoes they faced were just as real, but World War II merchant mariners say the government hasn't given them the same treatment as military personnel.

When the fighting ended, they got no homecoming parades, "no GI Bill, no nothing," said former mariner George Duffy of Seabrook, N.H.

Now there's proposed legislation to pay $1,000 monthly to the aged former civilian sailors, who hauled troops, tanks, bombers, fuel and other wartime goods to keep Allied forces supplied.

"My bill is a belated thank you," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.

Similar measures have failed, and supporters say time is running out because the mariners are now in their 70s and 80s. Some were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to lobby lawmakers to support this latest effort.




A bill to give mariners or their widows $1,000 a month died last year before being reintroduced last month. Estimates on who might benefit vary widely, with some saying 60,000 are surviving and others saying only 10,000 need the money and would apply for it.

The merchant marine of the 1940s was a crucial third leg of the massive U.S. war effort. The military fought on the battlefront; American factories and workers produced equipment and goods on the homefront; merchant mariners were a link between the two.

Thousands were lost or injured in rough seas, to Japanese kamikaze pilots who crashed into their decks, or to German submarines that sank ships in their convoys.

But the sailors were technically civilians and had a traditional rivalry with military sailors, said Jack Green, a spokesman for the Naval Historical Center.

A Navy movement to put them under military control was scuttled during the war by shipping companies that held lucrative government contracts and by the men's union, which didn't want to lose control of the workers, historians say.

The rivalry and later general disinterest in the merchant marines' cause conspired to relegate them to second-class veterans.

Duffy recalled the disparate treatment he received compared with a friend in the Coast Guard.

Captured by the Germans at 20 and delivered to the Japanese, Duffy spent 37 months - exactly 1,119 days, he said - in Pacific prisoner of war camps. He endured scarce food and medicine and his prisoner work detail was forced to build the Japanese a railroad across Sumatra.

"I came home after this experience and had no benefits, no (paid college tuition under the) GI Bill, no nothing," Duffy said.

His friend got full military benefits after spending the entire war as a clerk in a New York office of the Coast Guard.

A little like today's civilian contractors working with the military in war zones, the 1940s seamen got higher pay than military counterparts - though not that much higher. They say the difference was negated once they calculated that they were paid only for time at sea - not shore time like the military - and they didn't get the insurance, health care, lower mortgage rates, preferred employment status and educational opportunities that returning armed forces got.

Frank Medeiros said he was paid $3,000 in 1943 for what had been billed as a four-month convoy to supply allied Russian troops at Murmansk. The round-trip run ended up taking 13 months, and two dozen of its three dozen merchant ships were lost to attacks along the way.

Now an 83-year-old part-time dispatcher for the union Masters, Mates and Pilots in San Francisco, he says grateful Russians later invited former mariners to visit, awarding them medals.

"And I got a letter from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev," said Medeiros. "They called us patriots."

Of his own government, he says: "They shouldn't have done what they did to us."

A benefits bill was killed in the 1940s - "torpedoed by powerful military lobbyists who influenced congressmen and senators," said author Brian Herbert, who drew from government documents, diaries and survivor interviews to write his 2004 book, "The Forgotten Heroes: The Heroic Story of the United States Merchant Marine."

The mariners got veteran status - and therefore some limited benefits - when they sued the military in 1988, by which time some postwar programs had expired.

In 2000, Canada approved $34 million for one-time payments of up to $16,400 to its World War II merchant seaman, who also belatedly got veteran status.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

With America at war, Hollywood follows
By César G. Soriano and Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY
Hollywood has gone to war.

In a reflection of America's conflict in Iraq, a proliferation of TV and film projects is focusing on the U.S. military, the war or both.

Big-screen ventures in the works range from dramas (No True Glory: The Battle for Fallujah, set to star Harrison Ford; and Jarhead, about the Gulf War and starring Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal, opening Nov. 11) to comedies (The Tiger and the Snow, starring Roberto Benigni) and documentaries (Gunner Palace, opening March 4).

Television is even more emboldened:

• Three cable channels are solely devoted to all things military.

• Award-winning producer Steven Bochco is creating Over There, a drama series about an Army unit serving in Iraq, set to air this summer on FX.

• Even NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives has a plotline about a Marine who is deployed in the war on terror.

Not since World War II has Hollywood so embraced an ongoing conflict. It took years for pop culture to tackle the Korean and Vietnam wars, and it took time before the country was ready to be entertained by those politically charged conflicts.

With Iraq, however, and after 9/11, "all bets are off," says film historian Leonard Maltin. "Whatever happens in real life inspires and affects our storytellers."

With no resolution in sight, Iraq remains a timely backdrop. Audiences are hungry for glimpses of history in the making. March 19 is the war's second anniversary.





But not any and every angle of war is being depicted. One aspect is glaringly absent from most projects: negativity. The U.S. soldier is the hero; his cause is just. Storylines featuring the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal or war protests are no-nos.

"That gets you into arenas of policy," says Bochco, who has written four episodes of Over There, which is filming in Santa Clarita, Calif. "We'll be telling the story about young people's experience in war. I've always tried to stay off a soap box. I don't think proselytizing is good storytelling."

The show will focus on the men and women in uniform and the families who are left behind. The opening scene of the pilot: Bo Rider, a 20-year-old soldier, and his wife, Terry, in a tract house somewhere in California, are "having sex and loving it," as the script puts it, before he ships out.

"Our aim is to humanize soldiers and their families and to tell stories about the trials and tribulations," Bochco says.

And because it is on cable, there will be no glossing over of gory images or expletives.

FX's John Landgraf, who came up with the idea of setting a show in Iraq, says it's surprising there haven't been more projects about recent military conflicts.

"The best purpose of television and film is to tell stories that are truthful and of the moment and dig into the human experience," Landgraf says. The Iraq war "is such a grand natural human drama."

But it's also an explosive issue that can alienate viewers and advertisers. Criticize the war, and you could be accused of criticizing the warriors, Maltin says. Even Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's scathing documentary of the Iraq conflict and the war on terror, was careful not to attack the troops, he says.

"In Vietnam, the anti-war movement gradually became an anti-military, anti-soldier attitude," a concept that was reflected in pop culture, says Bing West, 62, who is writing the Battle for Fallujah screenplay with his son, Owen, a Marine infantry officer.

"The films coming out now are pro-soldier. I think it genuinely says that Americans across the political spectrum have a strong degree of admiration for the military" despite how they might feel about the war in Iraq, West says.

"Books and movies like No True Glory will focus on the bravery of our soldiers and point out why our military can be relied upon to do the right thing."

Days of Our Lives took a similar approach when a main character, Philip Kiriakis (Kyle Brandt), joined the Marines. "We will always be patriotic in our representations and will never take a political stand," executive producer Ken Corday says.

Hollywood needs the military

That makes the Pentagon brass happy.

"These days, there is an unwillingness to criticize individual servicemen and women, which was quite common in the Vietnam era," says Phil Strub, who heads the Pentagon's film liaison office. "Americans are very disinclined to do that now, and we're very glad this attitude tends to pervade all entertainment."

Hollywood always has relied on the U.S. military for assistance. That includes access to tanks, aircraft carriers, helicopters and troops that would be too expensive to re-create. The Pentagon, in return, gets to approve the script to ensure the military is portrayed in a positive light (though many of the current projects aren't being made under Pentagon rules, creators say).

That relationship is blinding Hollywood into whitewashing the Iraq conflict, says David Robb, author of the 2004 book Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies.

"In many ways, Hollywood is embedded with the military," Robb says. The military "know that when positive images are portrayed in movies and television shows, they see huge spikes in recruitment. The military is really pressing to get into these pictures. ... These films (that receive Pentagon assistance) should have a disclaimer: 'This film has been shaped and censored by the military to meet recruiting goals.'"

Viewers are either unaware of the relationship or don't mind. Military culture is hotter than ever.

"It's always been a popular genre for our viewers," says David Karp, general manager for the Military Channel, which launched in January. Previously called Discovery Wings, the channel is one of three competing for military enthusiasts. The others are the Pentagon Channel and the Military History Channel — a spinoff of A&E's History Channel, which has used the military as a staple for years.

"The fact there's front-page news daily about military matters and events heightens interest right now, but military subjects are timeless and universal," Karp says. One of the show's biggest specials in January was Delta Company, in which cameras were with Marines of Delta Company 1st Tank Battalion on their push to Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

War games — literally

Video games have jumped on board, too. Today's combat games, among the top sellers in the $10 billion-a-year video game industry, are akin to interactive movies. In them, gamers often take the role of soldiers, including:

• A sergeant coordinating realistic squad-based missions in a fictional Middle East urban war zone (Full Spectrum Warrior).

• A contracted professional soldier acting covertly in North Korea (Mercenaries).

• A soldier in battle during World War II (Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty: Finest Hour) or Vietnam (VietcongPurple Haze and Men of Valor: Vietnam).

"They have increased in realism dramatically and militarily. You work together with your team, you set up lines of fire so you're not injuring your troops," says Douglas Gentile, assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University and director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family.

Games with scenarios ripped from the headlines, Gentile says, could have a "profoundly different effect ... for a generation now growing up under the threat of terrorism and at war. It's not going to be an exercise in nostalgia."

In February 2004, one company, Kuma Reality Games, began offering downloadable games based on actual U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A retail version of War on Terror hit stores last fall. The U.S. Army's own computer game, America's Army, has been downloaded more than 17 million times. A version for Microsoft's Xbox and other consoles will be released this summer.

On the anti-war side

In the middle of the entertainment industry's obsession with military culture, a few anti-war projects can be found.

Why We Fight, director Eugene Jarecki's critical study of the American military-industrial complex, won the American Documentary Grand Jury Prize at January's Sundance Film Festival.

Embedded, a satire on the madness of the war, premieres on the Sundance Channel March 20. It is written by and stars Tim Robbins, who is well known for his anti-war stance, and was first performed in July 2003 on stage in Los Angeles.

Still, Robbins says, "about the only thing we don't poke fun of is soldiers."

Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly, the first movie made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, is a tragic look at the lives of Kurdish Iraqi children during wartime. He believes that the film's anti-war message is the reason TurtlesCan Fly was not nominated for a foreign-language Oscar.

"In Hollywood, politics and the moviemaking industry are so intertwined that it's difficult for (filmmakers) to see the realities," Ghobadi says. The film opens Feb. 18 in New York and Los Angeles.

For documentary filmmaker Mike Tucker, who co-directed Gunner Palace with wife Petra Epperlein, the experience of capturing the war on camera was intense.

"If I had an opinion when the war started, it has mutated into total confusion," Tucker says. The documentary follows an Army artillery unit based in a palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, Saddam's son. Four soldiers from the unit were killed.

"Unless you've actually been there — people are just so detached from it — you don't understand what the reality is," says Tucker, an Army veteran. "There will always be a fascination with war, but who is going to define that experience? Hollywood's tendency is to sugarcoat it."

In his film, a poignant scene features Army Spc. Richmond Shaw, a young soldier and poet. Standing in the bombed-out remains of Gunner Palace, a stoic Shaw locks-and-loads his rifle, looks straight into the camera and raps: "For y'all, this is just a show, but we live in this movie."

Contributing: Mike Snider


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Golf 2/11 winning hearts, minds across Southwestern Iraq
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200521034233
Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte



AL ASAD, Iraq (Feb. 10, 2005) -- For the last several months, Battery G, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, has been practicing a good neighbor policy with the Bedouin residents in Southwestern Iraq.

They have been supporting the Iraqi populace in every way possible since arriving in country last fall, while supporting the multinational forces effort elsewhere in the country as well.

“Our mission was to secure our area of operations, which is about 45 square kilometers of desert,” said Staff Sgt. Joseph Kepler, “Golf” Battery Combat Operations Center watch officer. “We’ve been out here pretty much doing a (Security and Stabilization) mission, but have gone as far as supporting operations in Fallujah, Iraq and other places.”

The battery’s version of SASO includes close interaction with local Iraqis.

“When we’re working within our AO, we’ll go out and patrol along (main service routes) and set up (Vehicle Checkpoints) and have also held town hall meetings,” said the 30-year-old from Jamestown, N.Y. “We’ll also go down to the point of entry (between Saudi Arabia and Iraq) and conduct interviews on the Iraqi border patrol guys down there and see how they are doing. We also check on the outpost along the border, which act as watches to prevent people from coming across the Saudi border.”

Relations with the Iraqis were a little strained in the beginning, noted Kepler.

“At first people were a little shy of us, because the local populace wasn’t really accustomed to having us around. They knew we were here and had some familiarization with us, but it wasn’t to the degree of having us out there on the streets, shaking hands and talking to kids the best we could through a translator,” Kepler explained. “As time went on, everybody has gotten more comfortable with us including the local Iraqi leaders, the border patrol, the mayor of An Nukhayb, Iraq and the local Sheik himself. Even when we’re stopping guys out there on the street, they’re telling us they’re just happy we’re here.”

The Marines not only bring peace of mind to the local Iraqis, but they have also given the local law enforcement training and confidence to conduct their own missions, Kepler added.

“When they see us, it makes them feel better, because they know somebody’s actually out there patrolling the streets,” Kepler said. “The Iraqi Police in this area have really picked up with their operations. Before you’d only see them very rarely if at all. But now you’ll see them out in the streets setting up VCPs outside their town. They’re becoming more and more involved with taking over and providing for their own safety.”

While Multi-national forces continue to counter the rampant terrorist threat in larger cities across the country, the types of crime here are proportionate to the smaller size of the city. It is still important to help the Iraqi forces deal with these problems, said Sgt. Adam Acuna, squad leader, Golf Battery.

“We basically support the (Iraqi Police) even if it’s going out looking for what they call ‘Ali-Babas,’ or thieves, which is a big deal out here,” Acuna said, referring to the Iraqi’s reference to carjacking. “We give them the support they need to take responsibility for their own actions. They have come a long way since we’ve gotten here.”

The Battery has run some operations and captured a few high-value targets since arriving, but the carjacking remains one of the larger crimes in the area. The small area is still an integral part of the country.

“This border area is important to the success of this country,” Kepler said. “Back in the old days, An Nukhayb was the gateway to Iraq (from Saudi Arabia). It’s important that we get that place re-established, so they can open it up to (trade). If it weren’t for our small unit out here supporting, they wouldn’t get anything from anyone because they are out in the middle of nowhere.”

Just recently the Marines at the outpost oversaw the safety of over 25-thousand Iraqi pilgrims crossing the border to Saudi Arabia on their way to Mecca for the Hajj.

The attention and care that the Marines have given the local villagers in the area has made a visible impact with the local population.

“The Iraqi populace here loves us. They are local Bedouins here and are really hospitable. They’ll offer you what food they have and if they don’t have any available, they’ll offer to go out and slaughter one of their sheep and feed you that,” Kepler said. “You’ll be driving down the street and the kids will beat feet to get up to the road just to say ‘hi.’ The Iraqis will come out of their Bedouin tents waving and come right up to the vehicles.”

The Battery supported Operation Al Fajr, or the Dawn, in the city of Fallujah, Iraq last Nov., supported the movement of pilgrims during the Hajj and the Iraqi elections Jan. 30. The battery is proud of the accomplishment, Kepler mentioned, because since it has been in theater, it has been operating as a provisional rifle company instead of an artillery unit.

With more than 200-thousand miles of traveling under their belts and more than 450 missions completed, the Battery has managed to complete their deployment relatively unscathed. The Battery will bring home all of its Marines except for the tragic loss of Cpl. Bryan S. Wilson, a 22-year-old Marine from Otterbein, Ind. Dec. 1 in a non-hostile Humvee accident.

The Marines have maintained their focus since the event and will continue their mission until their scheduled departure from Iraq this spring. The success of the mission continues to be the junior Noncommissioned Officers, sometimes nicknamed “strategic corporals,” Kepler said. A “strategic corporal” refers to junior NCO’s who are constantly making decisions during wartime that directly affects policy after the fact.

“It’s that ‘strategic corporal’ out there. Considering the AO that we’re in and the area we’re responsible for, we’re not always stopping vehicles, pointing weapons and treating people aggressively,” he revealed. “We’re talking to them and treating them humanely, as if we were police officers stopping anyone on the street. The majority of the population and the traffic in the area are either travelers or local residents here so we have to remember that every time we stop a vehicle we’re not dealing with bad guys.”

Acuna noted that the leadership couldn’t be more pleased with their artillery-trained, infantry-operating Marines.

“Our overall mission is to give the Iraqis confidence on taking control of their own country. The Marines work hard out here,” Acuna said. “Motivation goes up and down, but when it’s time to get the job done, they come through.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

America Supports You: Network Brings World to Military Families
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2005 – Moving to unfamiliar places can make anyone feel a bit like a fish out of water.

Combined with frequent moves, such as those in the military can be, that unsettled feeling can be much more intense.

Caroline Peabody is attempting to help by "making the world a home for military families."

To do this, Peabody introduced the Military Family Network, an online community-building organization. The network's goal is to help bridge the gap between military installation and civilian community life.

"Military families learn best from other military families and their experiences with whatever they experience when they're in a community," Peabody said.

The MFN Web site gives them a place to share their experiences and gain insight into the communities they live in or are moving to. It is designed to provide servicemembers and their families core information about the community surrounding the military installation where they are stationed.

And the same core information is offered for each installation. "What we're trying to do is standardize all these (topics and) have military families be confident that when they go from one (installation) to the other, this is the kind of information that they can find here, all the time, in the exact same place, no matter where they go," Peabody said.

While information is not yet available for all installations and communities, Peabody said that the Web site is a work in progress and will continue to grow.

"We have a lot … in our database now," she said. "It's just not live. We want to make it all live at once."

That includes information for 300 installations that are due to be added to what's already available, she said. She added that information on nearly all major military installations should be ready to go live within about six weeks.

"There will always be more that we can do," she said.

Peabody's quest to continually better the two-year-old endeavor resulted in the Community Connection Outreach project that started several months ago. The outreach portion of the Web site serves to flesh out the core information that the Web site provides.

It encourages non-profit groups, community organizations and government agencies, including local governments, to join the forum and the individuals who meet there. Their participation will make the Community Connections Forums interactive by providing information on services, events and happenings that will be able to be accessed on the site, Peabody said. It's a sort of cyber- networking of people and services.

"I like the word 'network,' she said in describing what happens through Community Connections. "It's a very powerful thing."

Peabody knows how helpful that network can be. She is the spouse of a recently retired soldier. Her husband served with the Army on active duty for 22 years and was in the National Guard for six years. He retired from the Continental Army Band based at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va., where the Military Family Network is headquartered.

What she found is that the knowledge gained by a civilian family that lives in the same area for years is lost on military families. The network Web site is her way of remedying that.

"Over time, we're creating that intergenerational knowledge for the military community," Peabody said.

The city of Hampton has formed a partnership with the Military Family Network to help bridge that generational knowledge gap, said Tammy Flynn, marketing and community outreach manager for the Hampton Neighborhood office.

Flynn said she thinks that the military is more in touch with what Hampton is doing because of the partnership with Military Family Network.

"We have resources (and) information that military folks need that we're sharing with them," Flynn said. She said the opposite also is true: The city is also more in touch with what the military needs.

"It will take awhile to see the big results of (the partnership)," Flynn said.

But a good indicator, she said, will be the number of military members who attend an event being planned for May.

City officials will be highlighting Hampton to potential homebuyers, Flynn said. The city relied on the Military Family Network for assistance to ensure that the event is useful for the military community.

"They're providing an incredible service for the military community," Flynn said, adding that it's a needed service because often communities forget that the military community has unique needs.

Peabody said she started the Military Family Neighbor of Choice Business Network to fund the Military Family Network. Businesses recommended by servicemembers because they are supportive of military families can, for a fee, elect to be included in the community directories.

For their fee, their name and services are put on the Web site in front of the military community as being "military friendly" and military families are encouraged to patronize them. There also are a few paid advertisements that appear on the site, Peabody said.

Once a member of the network, families can also leave comments about their experience with a specific business.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

3/4 motor transport keeps battalion mobile
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20052862735
Story by Lance Cpl. Paul Robbins Jr.



CAMP ABU GHURAYB, Iraq (Feb. 5, 2005) -- From the first light of the early morning to the waning light of the evening, the sound of impact wrenches, power drills and roaring engines can be heard aboard Camp Abu Ghurayb, Iraq.

The Marines of the motor transport section of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team-1, have the never-ending task of keeping more than 100 High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles, also known as ‘humvees,’ ready to navigate the hazardous city of Fallujah.

“Our job is to keep all the motor transport assets in a high state of maintenance,” said Sgt. Daniel T. HillMcBride, 28, a native of Lewisville, Texas, who serves as the shop chief for the motor transport section, Headquarters and Service Company.

In order to accomplish this, the section, consisting of seven Marines, works all day long on various mechanical problems.

“My guys are here from sun up to sun down,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jason W. Milbery, 34, a native of Bridgewater, Mass., who serves as the staff non-commissioned officer in charge of the motor transport section, “We have a heavy workload and they work hard.”

When the battalion arrived in early January, they took charge of 147 humvees, a dozen of which were already in need of repairs.

“We had 12 to work on when we got here,” said HillMcBride, “that number doubled in the first week.”

The motor transport section takes care of a wide array of problems relating to the humvees. The Marines deal with the external engine, drive train, electrical and more; but their biggest job is troubleshooting, according to HillMcBride.

“The operators come in and tell us their vehicle’s making a weird noise or isn’t working right and we have to decipher what the problem is,” said HillMcBride.

The biggest contributor to the motor transport section’s workload is time. Some of the vehicles used by 3/4 have been in country for more than two years, according to Milbery.

“The ones we received from the Army have been here since the beginning,” said Lance Cpl. Charles E. Paige, 21, a native of Petoskey, Mich., who serves as a motor transport mechanic for the motor transport section. “They’re worn out.”

The most common problem found in the battalion’s humvees has been worn brakes. This is caused by the armor attached to the vehicles, which the suspensions are not made to support, said HillMcBride.

Despite the many problematic vehicles under the charge of motor transport Marines, the turn-around time on a vehicle is minimal.

“Most problems can be fixed (within 36 hours),” Milbery said.

The battalion is yet to lose a humvee and the sturdy vehicles continuing to show their ability to shrug off wear and tear, enemy fire or improvised explosive devices, according to Paige.

“They’re pretty tough, but not indestructible,” said Paige. “You just have to keep them within their limits.”

With more than 130 vehicles operational, and and a small percentage being repaired by motor transport mechanics, the battalion is able to maintain it’s mobility in the city of Fallujah.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Enemy action critical to win a Purple Heart
February 11,2005
ANDREW DEGRANDPRÉ
DAILY NEWS STAFF

These days, Marine Lt. Dustin Ferrell tells just one war story from his time in Iraq.

Ten others can say the same. At least five of them, including Ferrell, left for Iraq in early 2003 with units based at Camp Lejeune. Each was wounded during the initial invasion, and each received a Purple Heart only to have it taken away less than two years later.

Their injuries, although sustained in a combat environment, were not caused by enemy action, the official revocation notice states. And that's the critical distinction a Purple Heart recipient must possess, according to the rules - and the guys who wear one today.

Mac McGee, a retired sergeant major from Jacksonville who served three tours in Vietnam, received his Purple Heart in 1968 after being struck with shrapnel from an exploding grenade.

"It was a minor wound," he said Thursday, "but I shed my blood and left some flesh there."

Ferrell, 26, who is back at Camp Lejeune, will medically retire from the Marine Corps on June 30. At that time, he will have served for five years.

A member of Camp Lejeune's Task Force Tarawa in March 2003, Ferrell and his infantry battalion had just crossed the Kuwaiti border - their convoy racing toward the Marines' first major hurdle in the city of an-Nasiriyah - when the Humvee in which he was riding collided with a vehicle operated by Army personnel.

He'd been in Iraq for fewer than 48 hours, and already he was being sent home.

Although Ferrell remembers nearly nothing about the incident, he bears plenty of reminders. He's partially blind in his right eye and 14 teeth shy of a full set. His face, which suffered several broken bones, was reconstructed with plastic and metal.

Arguably, he, too, left flesh on the battlefield.

"I have a lot going through my head right now," Ferrell said Thursday. "On the one hand, I think people should know about this. On the other hand, I want them to know I am faithful to the Marine Corps. I don't want people to think I'm just whining and complaining - I am a faithful Marine."

According to Marine Corps documents provided to The Daily News by Ferrell's family, the other Lejeune-based troops whose Purple Hearts were revoked are Cpl. Travis Eichelberger, Lance Cpl. Shawn Eshelman, Lance Cpl. Christopher Hanna and Lance Cpl. Bret Westerink.

Lt. Darlan Harris, a spokeswoman for the Marine base in Quantico, Va., confirmed the names. The five others who lost their medals are stationed in various places.

The story spread

In September 2004, Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, who commanded the I Marine Expeditionary Force for two combat tours in Iraq, notified the secretary of the Navy that the 11 medals had been awarded "erroneously." Ferrell was notified by letter in early December. Papers throughout the Midwest - Ferrell calls Indiana his home - picked up the story at that time; it made CNN this week.

Eichelberger, who's presently on leave at his home in Kansas, was wounded and subsequently honored after a U.S. Abrams tank rolled over him. It's a tragic story, McGee said, "but if no one was shooting at them, they don't rate a Purple Heart - as far as I'm concerned."

Purple Heart recipients, McGee said, "share a common bond."

"It's not like being a hero," he added. "We didn't choose to be awarded."

McGee commands the Military Order of the Purple Heart's Jacksonville chapter, known as the Beirut Memorial chapter. His adjutant, retired Marine Master Sgt. John Cooney, echoed McGee's sentiment. He called the current situation unfortunate but agreed with the Marine Corps' decision.

"I feel sorry for them - I do," Cooney said. "But the gist of the order says that (the wound) must come from enemy action. Now that might seem a little harsh. But sometimes, that's the way it goes.

"The kid got run over by a (U.S.) tank. It was an accident."

The Purple Heart differs from other military decorations because an individual is not so much recommended for it - he or she is entitled to it once wounded or killed and provided specific criteria is met. Those wounded or killed in combat by friendly fire earn a Purple Heart so long as the "friendly projectile or agent" is intended to damage or destroy enemy troops or equipment. Regulations stipulate that those wounded in accidents, be it explosive, aircraft or vehicular, are not eligible.

Currently, active-duty personnel are awarded the Purple Heart following an endorsement from their chain of command that states the nature of the injury and the circumstances in which the service member was wounded. Often considered an automatic for anyone hurt in combat, each Purple Heart is, however, reviewed to ensure the wounds were received from enemy action.

What next?

In the cases of these 11 troops, it seems those reviews were performed too hastily, said U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.

"It's sad that this mistake was made," said Jones, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "But it was a mistake - no question about it.

"They should have been more careful in reading the reports about their injuries."

Jones predicted there will be "some discussion" concerning the situation. Already, Eichelberger has petitioned U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan. Ferrell has found an ally in U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., who's seeking congressional support for a resolution to have four of the medals reinstated. As yet, the legislation has not been introduced.

A sense of obligation to "younger enlisted people who might be in this situation in the future" prompted Ferrell to speak up, he said.

"We want to make sure that when they come back, they don't feel the same indignity," Ferrell said.

"In the long run, it'll be better for the Marine Corps."


Contact city editor Andrew deGrandpre at adegrandpre@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 224.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles among items cut in ’06 budget
Supplemental funds counted on to fund war needs

By Christian Lowe
Special to the Times


The Marine Corps’ $17.5 billion budget request for fiscal 2006 includes a proposal to drastically reduce the number of Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles it will buy over the next five years in a move that will severely affect the critical program.
The Corps will cut 213 vehicles over the next five years, including 16 it planned to buy in 2006.

Budget officials said affordability problems and issues with key components of the vehicle, slated to replace the aging Amphibious Assault Vehicle, forced the cuts.

“It’s a more realistic schedule,” a senior Navy budget official said Feb. 3, referring to the EFV procurement plan.

The change is one of a few other highlights in the Corps’ budget request, a proposal reflecting efforts to keep annual spending levels steady despite escalating war costs.

The request will be submitted to Congress on Feb. 7 along with the Navy’s budget. It includes $10.7 billion for personnel, $4 billion for operations and maintenance, and more than $2.4 billion for procurement, research and development.

A Corps budget official said the service is requesting more money for Marine recruiters to offer bonuses of up to $5,000 to infantry applicants. Otherwise, there are few surprises, he said.

“This go-around, there really wasn’t a whole lot of movement or adjustment to Marine Corps programs. Where you see the major muscle movements going on are on EFV,” said the official, who spoke on background.

The Corps’ request grew a modest $747 million over its 2005 request, and senior budget officials admit they will rely on supplemental funding bills — during both fiscal 2005 and 2006 — to pay for much of the Corps’ current and future wartime needs.

The Marine Corps already has received more than $2 billion in extra funding since the fiscal year began Oct. 1. Corps officials declined to say how much they would seek in a second supplemental request in coming weeks, but the Pentagon reportedly plans to request $75 billion for the services to help offset war bills.

Many believe the Pentagon’s budget request is simply a “place holder” because recommendations from the Quadrennial Defense Review, expected this fall, will likely recommend significant shifts in military spending.

But Corps officials said their 2006 request is not a place holder and reflects a peacetime budget that counts on supplemental funds to pay for equipment recapitalization and other wartime costs.

Programs slashed

In addition to the EFV cuts, the Corps slashed several other high-profile programs, including the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and the KC-130J Hercules refueler-transport plane.

The Marine Corps cut 35 MV-22 Ospreys through fiscal 2011, a setback to an already struggling program. Technical hiccups have delayed the aircraft’s operational debut since its return to flight in May 2002 following a nearly 18-month grounding, but budget officials say the cuts are geared more toward saving the Corps money than to change the procurement schedule.

In another blow to aviation, the Corps will have to forego 19 KC-130J Hercules planes it had expected because of the cancellation of the Air Force’s C-130J program.

The Corps was purchasing the aircraft in tandem with the Air Force, but is forced to buy only 12 in fiscal 2006, leaving the fleet with 33 of the aircraft rather than the 52 the service needed to replace its aging KC-130F and R models.

The Corps is assessing options on making up the difference of having fewer than expected J models.

On the plus side, the new budget will mark the introduction of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, with 15 to be purchased in 2006 and 19 planned for 2007.

The 2006 budget also will buy 20 Assault Breaching Vehicles, the Corps’ newest mine countermeasures vehicle, which will augment the MK155 Mine Clearance Launcher.

The budget request also funds more than 1,300 Humvees in 2006.

Christian Lowe is a staff writer for Defense News.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

'Complete warrior' nets Navy Cross
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification #: 200527193530
Story by Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Redding



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Jan. 27, 2004) -- Injured Marines and Iraqis needed help - their lives hanging in the balance. Sgt. Scott C. Montoya risked his own life - time and again - to give it to them.

Consequently, Montoya was awarded the Navy Cross - the U.S. military's second-highest award for heroism stemming from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Montoya, a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, received the award Sunday at the Marine Corps Reserve Center here for his actions on April 8, 2003, two weeks into OIF.

Small-arms fire rained down on the men of Company F, injuring both Iraqi civilians and Marines. Pinned down, with the injured needing assistance, Montoya rushed through enemy fire to whisk four injured Marines and one Iraqi civilian out of harm's way, according to his award citation.

Montoya's "extraordinary heroism" arose out of the battle for Baghdad.

Montoya pulled off a string of harrowing rescues shortly after killing an insurgent at point-black range with a single rifle shot, according to the citation.

One Marine was wounded in the leg and bleeding badly, the citation said. Montoya fireman-carried him 500 yards to safety.

He returned to the cross-fire to cart away another wounded Marine, then returned again and dragged another - who'd been dazed by the concussion of a grenade blast - to a casualty collection point.

In all, he rescued five people while "repeatedly exposing himself to fire-swept streets," the citation said.

"I'm overwhelmed by the support I have received," Montoya said about the award ceremony. "It hasn't sunk in yet."

Montoya received the award in front of family, friends and the men of his unit. Other guests included a local congressman, a judge with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the 4th Marine Division commanding general and Michael S. Carona, the Orange County Sheriff.

A deputy sheriff in Orange County, Montoya drew praise from many of his co-workers - including Carona.

"He is a complete warrior," Carona said. "Whether as a Marine or as a law enforcement figure, he is always putting the community or the country above his own personal safety."

Carona alluded to Montoya's rapid response under fire.

"These things happen in the blink of a second, and an individual has to decide to be a hero or not. He decided to be one."

Charlene J. Thairs, Montoya's mother, said her son always makes her beam.

"I'm so incredibly proud of him," Thairs said. "He is always doing something amazing. It's a joke with his brothers and sisters - what has he done now? What is he being awarded today?"

Thairs said the award stemmed from her son's character and training shining through when the opportunity presented itself.

"He just reacted," she said. "It was complete reaction (to) what needed to be done."

Montoya described it this way:

"I saw a hurt Marine and all my training came into play. It wasn't a cognitive thing; I just saw the situation and cared for my Marines."

Sgt. Jose N. Sanchez, a supply clerk with 2/23, has known Montoya for six years and wasn't surprised when he heard the news.

"The level he went - it's above and beyond the call of anyone, even a Marine," Sanchez said, adding: "What matters to him are his Marines, not the awards or the actions he took."

In the end, Montoya said, "It's just a medal.

"Service before self is something I teach in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program," said Montoya, a MCMAP instructor for his unit. "I feel the award represents the character of the Corps."

Thairs said her son's actions were all about selflessness and devotion to others.

"He thinks his actions are those of a Marine. He is loyal to a fault to his fellow brothers. Totally, completely loyal. It didn't matter who the men he rescued were," she said.

Col. Geffery L. Cooper, the battalion's commanding officer during OIF, said Montoya's award was well-deserved.

"As we all know, we don't wear the uniform to tally up awards," Cooper said. "It means a great deal to me that the Corps can recognize such Marines of valor in combat.

(Montoya) is a man of integrity and leadership, and his loyalty is unquestionable. He is a great example and advocate for all reservists."

As an added bonus, Montoya received a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol from Rep. Howard L. Berman, congressman from the 28th District.

Montoya is the seventh Marine to receive a Navy Cross stemming from OIF.

E-mail Lance Cpl. Redding at daniel.redding@usmc.mil



Sgt. Scott C. Montoya with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, was awarded the Navy Cross Sunday in Encino for his actions in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He's credited with braving enemy gunfire to whisk five people, including wounded or injured Marines, to safety. Montoya also received a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol from a local congressman during the ceremony. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Redding

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The big hand for a few real heroes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NewsAndOpinion.com
Feb. 11, 2005

The churls, knaves, blackguards and other aging lobberheads who long for the days of their vanished youth, when the proper '60s salute for an American soldier was insult and spittle, are having a hard time adjusting to the times.

That Super Bowl commercial, of American soldiers getting a round of applause as they walked through the passenger lounge of an airport somewhere deep in Middle America, is squeezing tears from the eyes of millions.

But it's driving some folks nuts.

Internet Web sites are seething with the anger of dingbats who ought to be grateful for a little relief from the fatigue of their full-time jobs of hating George W. Bush. They're getting encouragement from the usual suspects, such as Teddy Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi with their ritual sneers at good news from Iraq. A columnist in the London Guardian, searching the ladies room for a fainting couch, sums up the anger on the looney left:

"Pass the sick bag, Alice," writes one Stefano Hatfield. "I was too stunned by the [commercial] to really take in the full import of a beer company waving off 'our boys' (and girls) to battle. But battle? Where? The war in Iraq's over, isn't it, or so they keep telling us? ... Pure propaganda, and it picked up on one of the themes of the night: patriotism."

The contents of one knave's spleen does not a consensus make, nor the racket on the Internet an anvil chorus of any size, but it brings into sharp focus the reality that's driving the anvil chorus crazy. A certain kind of nut imagines he's a hostage at the Nuremberg rally every time he sees the flag on the breeze, or hears the sweet and innocent notes of a hymn to the home of the brave and the land of the free. But these scamps and skeesicks had best get a life, because it's true, patriotism is back, and with it the traditional appreciation for the sacrifice of the soldier.

The news gets worse for the haters. The TV commercial, unlike a lot of television, actually reflects real life. One traveler tells the Wall Street Journal Online: "Last Thursday I was on a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Portland, Ore. There were four soldiers returning home for a two-week leave from Iraq. As the plane arrived at the gate in Portland, the pilot mentioned and thanked them for their service and asked that they be allowed to disembark first. As each of them walked toward the front of the plane, the rest of the passengers erupted in spontaneous applause."

Another traveler reports a similar experience: "In the past two weeks I have witnessed American Airlines giving empty first-class seats to soldiers and an entire terminal in Denver giving a plane full of disembarking soldiers a standing ovation on a busy Friday night." Still another traveler: "I, too, was spit upon and called a 'baby killer' in September 1971, in the San Diego airport, while wearing my Navy uniform. ... The Super Bowl ad brought me to tears, not of pain remembering my experience, but from pride in today's American patriots."

My cousin Chris Sarris died the other day in New Orleans at 80. The most momentous four years of his life were reduced to a single line in a modest obituary in the newspaper: "He was a Marine Corps veteran of World War II." Five decades afterward he reluctantly told me about a single night of terror in a foxhole on Okinawa. Two Marines who shared the hole were killed within a single hour. He was haunted ever afterward by the question of why them and not him. "They carried photographs of wives and children, but I never knew their names."

When I told him what a hero he had always been to me, he mumbled embarrassed thanks and left the room to get more coffee. When he returned he said: "The only mark I got in four years was a small burn when a piece of shrapnel hit my hand." Enough, maybe, for a Purple Heart for John Kerry, but he was chagrined to talk about it.

Americans make lousy imperialists. We don't do Nuremberg rallies. Americans make pretty good soldiers, as a lot of men in Valhalla could tell you, but when the shooting stops the American GI only wants to come home, marry the girl next door, pop the top on a cool one and watch the Patriots clock the Eagles. It's what makes him distinctively American.

So here's another round of heartfelt applause for the lousy imperialist: This Bud's for you.

---Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times.


Ellie