The SgtMajMC take on issues affecting devil dogs

[thedrifter]

sent to me by Mark aka The Fontman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inquiring minds want to know …

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

1. What's your favorite military book?

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

2. And your favorite military movie?

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

3. What's your favorite MRE?

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

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

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

5. What is your favorite Marine Corps rank?

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Edge of the empire
By Robert Hodierne
Times staff writer

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

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

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

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

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

It was, in every sense, a dry well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It goes like this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John G. Roos is editor of Armed Forces Journal.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

They call it "riding the Rhino."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it's not as simple as that.

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

He died. No one on the buses did.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You kill it."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Leathernecks labor round the clock to beef up Humvees
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Spread across a warehouse and maintenance center at Camp Las Pulgas here, two shifts of Marines have been transforming the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit's fleet of 144 Humvees into hardened armored vehicles.

"They've been working - 24/7 - since May 2nd," said Gunnery Sgt. Christian Rosario, 32, of Portland, Ore., a platoon staff noncommissioned officer in charge of Motor Transport Maintenance Company, 1st Maintenance Battalion. The goal was to have all of the vehicles outfitted with new armor by May 20.

Nearly 150 Marines in the maintenance company and other units have been muscling through the boxed armor kits and replacing bolts, doors, side and undercarriage panels and even suspension systems.

"There are five different packages they are using," said Capt. Ed Esposito, the 13th MEU's assistant supply officer.

The 13th MEU is the first expeditionary unit on the West Coast to get the heavier armor on its Humvees, Esposito said. The Marine Armor Kit costs about $34,000 and includes steel doors, sturdier latches and thick ballistic glass.

The kits are adding 1,800 to 3,800 pounds to each vehicle, depending on the type of vehicle and the kit installed. To handle the added weight, each Humvee gets a beefed-up suspension system, including sturdier springs and shocks.

The unit's 7-ton trucks and logistics vehicles won't get the same kind of kits, but won't deploy unprotected.

"We're handling that ourselves," Esposito said. "We're exchanging all the stuff with the 11th MEU," whose combat vehicles and equipment recently returned to California.

The next step: Getting Humvee drivers accustomed to the extra weight, which Marines say alters the driving experience, especially in off-road situations.

"It is a different feel," Esposito said. "All the drivers have to adjust the speed they can operate with, how they load and offload."

Along with the extra protection, each Humvee is getting an air- conditioning system - a perk that is among the first things leathernecks notice about the refitted vehicles.

Rosario said that on extremely hot days in Iraq, when the mercury reaches 120 degrees, the air conditioning can cool the inside of a Humvee to about 85 degrees.

"This is a great thing," said Rosario, who deployed to Iraq last year with Combat Service Battalion 7. "I just remember those long convoys, being hot and being miserable."

On May 16, Marines lined up a batch of newly armored Humvees to load them across the beach at Camp Pendleton onto the 13th MEU's amphibious ships just off the coast to test the tactical load plan for the upcoming at-sea training and deployment later this summer.

The unit includes Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines; Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163; and MEU Service Support Group 13.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Insurgents are also using more sophisticated tactics.

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

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

Bloodshed has continued despite the arrests of suspected insurgent commanders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

IRAQ: US FORCES SURROUND CITY OF HADITHA


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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sent to me by Mark aka The Fontman

U.S. Unveils Coin Honoring Marine Corps
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
May 25, 2005

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Mint is unveiling a new coin to honor the 230th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps - the first time the government has struck a commemorative coin to salute a branch of the military.

The new silver dollar will feature on one side the famous photograph of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima taken by Associated Press Photographer Joe Rosenthal, and on the other side the official Marine Corps emblem of an eagle, globe and anchor and the Marine motto, "Semper Fidelis" - always faithful.

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

Fore and Marine Corps officials participated in a ceremonial striking of the shiny new dollars on Wednesday at the Philadelphia branch of the U.S. Mint. Proceeds from the sale of the new commemorative coin will go toward building the Marine Corps National Museum in Quantico, Va.

"I can think of no better way to honor our Marine men and women than to capture the proud history and heritage of the Marine Corps in a museum that will forever educate visitors from around the world," said General William L. Nyland, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, who also took part in the ceremony.

The Marine Corps dates to November 10, 1775, when the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and passed a resolution saying that "two Battalions of Marines be raised" to serve as landing forces at sea. Their first amphibious raid quickly followed, in the Bahamas, in March 1776.

Congress authorizes two official commemorative coins to be produced by the U.S. Mint each year. For 2005, the two coins are the Marine Corps 230th anniversary silver dollar and the Chief Justice John Marshall silver dollar which was released earlier this year.

The regular price for the proof silver dollar in a presentation case is $39 with the uncirculated silver dollar in a gift box priced at $35. That price includes a $10 surcharge that will go toward building the Marine Corps museum in Quantico. The coins are scheduled to go on sale in July.

Commemorative coins are not minted for general circulation although they are legal tender. They are minted in limited quantity and are available only for a limited time.

Since the modern commemorative coin program began in 1982 with the striking of the George Washington 250th anniversary coin, more than $422 million in surcharges have been raised to help build new museums, maintain national monuments such as the Vietnam War memorial and preserve historical sites such as George Washington's home.

On the Net: U.S. Mint: http://www.usmint.gov

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005


Marine photographer captured face of Fallujah combat

BY CHRIS VAUGHN

Knight Ridder Newspapers



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005


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

JOHN MILBURN

Associated Press



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

From Mark aka The Fontman

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

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

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

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

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

But there is more to our story.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie