Miami's Mad Max Marines [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:07 AM

Army Uniforms Redesigned
Associated Press
February 9, 2005

FORT STEWART, Ga. - Army soldiers are being issued new fatigues with easy-to-use Velcro openings and a redesigned camouflage pattern that can help conceal them as they move rapidly from desert to forest to city in places like Baghdad.

"It might give you the extra second you need, save your life maybe," Sgt. Marcio Soares said Tuesday after trying on the new all-in-one camouflage uniform that is the first major redesign in Army fatigues since 1983.

Soares' unit, the Georgia National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade, is the first to be issued the new fatigues as part of a $3.4 billion Army-wide makeover being phased in over the next three years.

The uniform will replace the standard forest camouflage - green, brown and black - and the desert camouflage - tan, brown and grey - now used by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Twenty-two changes were made to the uniforms, most notably the new camouflage pattern.

Instead of bold jigsaw swatches of colors, the new camouflage pattern uses muted shades of desert brown, urban gray and foliage green broken into one-centimeter segments. Black was eliminated completely because it catches the eye too easily.

The resulting camouflage - similar to a pattern the Marines adopted two years ago - conceals soldiers in forest, desert or urban battlegrounds, said Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Myhre, the uniform's lead designer.

"In Baghdad, you can go from the desert to vegetation to the city in 10 minutes," Myhre said. "What we realized very quickly is there's no camouflage that's the 100 percent solution for any environment."

Other changes were prompted by complaints from soldiers in the field. Jacket and pocket buttons, which can snag on nets and other gear, have been replaced with zippers and Velcro.

Pockets at the jacket's waistline were moved to the shoulders, where soldiers can reach them while wearing body armor. And the uniforms have a looser fit, with more room to wear layers underneath.

Rank, unit and name patches attach with Velcro rather than being sewn on. Infrared-reflecting squares on the shoulders make friendly troops easier to identify while using night-vision goggles.

"The only problem I have with the uniform is, once the soldiers put it on, they don't want to take it off," said Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, commander of the 48th Infantry Brigade, which has 4,000 reservists training at Fort Stewart to go off to Iraq in May.

The Army started developing the uniform two years ago and field-tested prototypes in Iraq. The final version was rolled out June 24 - the Army's 229th birthday.

Col. John Norwood, the Army's project manager for soldier equipment, said the new uniforms will be issued in coming months to units being sent to Iraq. New soldiers entering basic training will be issued them by October, and all Army troops will be required to wear them by April 2008.

The new uniforms cost a little more - $85 each, compared with $60 for the old ones. But Norwood said the Army will save money by having to produce only one combat uniform rather than three - standard greens, desert camouflage and cold-weather fatigues.

And they should make soldiers' lives easier, too. The fabric is wrinkle-free and machine-washable, and the new suede boots do not require polishing like the old black boots.

"If you have a choice whether you teach them to polish boots or teach them how to survive in battle, we'd rather teach them to survive in battle," Rodeheaver said.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:08 AM

Pentagon Wins A Stop Loss Round 
United Press International 
February 9, 2005 
 
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon easily won the first round of the legal battle over its "stop-loss" policy, which...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:08 AM

Alcohol Abuse Up At Air Force Academy
Associated Press
February 9, 2005

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Alcohol offenses at the Air Force Academy jumped 57 percent last semester, largely because of an incident in which 15 underage cadets were drinking at a retreat, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs, citing academy officials, said there were 74 alcohol offenses between June and December, compared with 47 in the same period in 2003.

"While the number of incidents is down, there is a trend in having more people involved in each incident," said academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker.

Alcohol is a crucial issue at the school near Colorado Springs: Forty percent of sexual assaults in which two cadets were involved in the past 10 years also involved drinking, according to a 2003 Air Force investigation.

The school has overhauled its alcohol policy as part of reforms put in place after scores of female cadets complained their sexual assault cases were mishandled.

Whitaker blamed last semester's increase on an October incident in which 21 cadets were involved in a party at an academy-approved, but unsupervised retreat. The incident involved 15 underage cadets.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:08 AM

Pentagon Drops Toxic Drug Diagnosis
United Press International
February 9, 2005

WASHINGTON - A military physician who linked brain damage in several soldiers to a controversial malaria drug now says he doesn't know if that caused the problem.

The doctor, Navy Cmdr. Michael Hoffer, said he changed his mind based on new information. Critics of the military's handling of the drug, called Lariam, say it fits a pattern of not acknowledging severe side effects -- and that Hoffer was overruled.

"The military is stonewalling again," said Jeanne Lese of Lariam Action USA, an advocacy group for people who believe they have been harmed by the drug. "These GIs deserve better than this."

Hoffer is co-director of the Pentagon's Spatial Orientation Lab at Naval Medical Center, San Diego. Beginning last spring he diagnosed several service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with vestibular -- or balance system -- disorders resulting from damage to a nerve in their brainstem. handled.

Hoffer said then that side effects of Lariam were the likely cause of the damage. He put the terms "Lariam-induced" and "Drug Toxicity Malarials" in two soldiers' medical records reviewed by United Press International.

Hoffer told UPI in an interview Friday he subsequently learned the soldiers had other risk factors that could explain the brain damage and therefore decided to discontinue citing the drug.

The records now state the disorder is "of unknown origin in individuals stationed in Afghanistan or involved in OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom)."

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:09 AM

Suicide Bomber Kills 21 In Crowd 
Associated Press 
February 9, 2005 
 
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd of army recruits Tuesday, killing 21 other people...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:09 AM

Ft. Bragg Soldier, Teen Found Dead
Associated Press
February 9, 2005

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A Fort Bragg soldier and a 16-year-old girl were found dead Tuesday in his home, the second shooting in a week involving soldiers at the base.

Authorities said Pfc. George Daniel Katsigiannis, 21, and Jenna Bolgna, both natives of New York City, could have died as early as Friday. The girl had been staying with Katsigiannis.

Maj. Sam Pennica of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said investigators are looking at suspects but have no motive for the killings.

The bodies were discovered when Katsigiannis, a support member of the 3rd Special Forces Group, did not show up at work for two days, and some members of his unit went to his home to check on him, said sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Tanna.

No weapons were found in the home, she said.

On Thursday, a Special Forces trainee at Fort Bragg shot his estranged wife and her boyfriend at her home, then killed himself. Both of the others survived.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:10 AM

Woman Charged With Stealing Fund Money 
 
 
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) -- A woman has been charged with taking money from a memorial fund to honor a slain Marine. 
Shari L. Rel, of Grand Island, was...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:10 AM

Veterans Legacy Project bestows honor on Marines
By WILLIAM BENDER, wbender@delcotimes.com02/06/2005
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RIDLEY TOWNSHIP -- On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon, more than 100 Marines were presented with a token of appreciation for their contribution to the war on terror.
The U.S. Veterans Legacy Project awarded each Marine at the Marines Corps Reserve Center in Folsom a newly minted coin, one that project chairman Bob McMahon hopes will be passed down through their family lines so no Marine’s sacrifice is ever forgotten.

"We really appreciate you accepting these coins and the responsibility of passing them on to future generations," said McMahon, a Vietnam War veteran and mayor of Media.

The coins, which were paid for by Citizens Bank at a total cost of $3,500, are emblazoned with the phrases: "Welcome Home Veterans of the Global War on Terrorism" and "Thank You, From a Grateful Nation."

Three Marines with the 6th Engineers, Bridge Company B were killed outside Baghdad last June by a roadside bomb: Lance Cpl. Patrick Adle of Bel Air, Md., Cpl. John Todd III of Bridgeport, Montgomery County and Sgt. Alan Sherman of Wanamassa, N.J.

Three streets at the training center were renamed in honor of the late Marines.

After Saturday’s presentation, Sgt. Matthew Crawford, 25, of Upper Darby, said he has mostly recovered from serious shrapnel wounds to his face, eyes and other parts of his body, though his left-eye vision remains impaired.

"My eye is still all fuzzy, but everything else has cleared up pretty good," he said.

The high turnout for the Iraqi elections last Sunday was encouraging for both Crawford and fellow Marine, Sgt. David Craddock, 26, of Upper Darby. Both men served two tours in Iraq.

Despite persistent opposition by insurgents, Crawford said most Iraqis support America’s efforts to foster democracy in their country. The elections were an important step toward that goal.

"We got into something, and now we have to stay there until the job is done," he said.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 06:12 AM

Twins joined by blood, separated by the Corps
Submitted by: 2nd Force Service Support Group
Story Identification #: 200524151953
Story by Cpl. C.J. Yard

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Feb. 1, 2005) -- Separated by only one minute at birth, fraternal twin brothers, Cpls. James J. and Christopher F. Hoffman, stationed here are gearing up to deploy with their units to Iraq.

Before joining the Marine Corps three-and-a-half years ago, the two spent their time in high school hanging out with friends in Gulfport, Miss., where they spent the majority of their lives.

Born in Maryland, the self-proclaimed “Navy brats” moved around a lot with their parents, Rosita and Richard, because their father spent 20 years as a Seabee. Now they are preparing for their next move.

The brothers did not intend on joining the Marine Corps together. Christopher had already entered the Delayed Entry Program and was on his way to the recruiting station and asked James if he wanted to ride along. “From there, the recruiters took over,” said Christopher. “I had no influence on him, the recruiter sold him on the Marine Corps and my brother said, ‘I’ll buy.’”

The twins will be located at different camps in Iraq, but living separate is something the two have gotten used to since joining the Marine Corps. They were at recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Calif., together, but in different companies.

“We were on the depot at the same time, but he went to boot camp six weeks before me,” said Christopher, a technical data network specialist, with Communications Platoon, Headquarters and Service Company, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2d FSSG. “He would write me letters from across the depot and drop hints for me.”

“I’d let him know about team week and the hikes, things like that,” commented James.

After they both attended Military Occupational Specialty school at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., for their respective specialties, James was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, while Christopher was sent here. Finally together again, they will now be separated by the barren landscape of Iraq in just a short amount of time.

“It’s a bonus if we get to see each other,” said Christopher. “It would be nice, but we’re not asking for any special favors.”

James, a circuit card repair technician with Wire Platoon, Electronics Maintenance Company, 2d Maintenance Battalion, 2d FSSG, echoed the sentiments of his one-minute-older brother. “It would just give us that ‘peace of mind’ seeing each other. Expect the worst, hope for the best.”

They said their parents, like most, feel a bit scared about their sons being deployed to a combat zone at the same time.

“It’s hitting them a little harder this time,” said the elder of the two. “This is my second time there, but it’s harder because both of us are going. Everybody at home has been very supportive, though.”

Christopher spent time in Iraq attached to Combat Service Support Detachment 22 with Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom and also deployed to Haiti with Combined Joint Task Force Haiti.

“This time I’m going to make it worth my while,” claimed Christopher. “The first time it went by so fast, I didn’t even know what day or even what month it was. I didn’t want to know, though. The next thing I knew they were telling us to pack up; we were going home.”

Both agree things have changed; this time around it might be tougher. Christopher will be leaving behind his wife Sarah, and James will leave his wife Marsha, and daughter, Isabella. The time apart will be difficult for them all, but they are not worried.

“The first time I was single, now I’ve got a wife and my brother has [a wife and] a daughter,” said Christopher.

The twins believe in taking the best from every situation, and they know that laughter can brighten anyone’s day.

“You just have to find the humor in everything,” said Christopher. “You come across that person who is having a bad day and try to make them smile. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, but when you get him and I together everybody laughs.”

“You have to be able to laugh at everything,” said James. “Otherwise you just get uptight.”

The two claim they think a lot alike, even to the point where they can finish each other’s sentences or know what the other is going to do.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, I know that if I’m going to walk by him, he’s going to try to trip me,” said Christopher.

Christopher and James said the time in Iraq is going to be tough, but it will be similar to the times they spent apart during boot camp.

“It’s easier knowing that somebody you grew up with is going through the same thing,” said Christopher. “Especially, if that person is your brother.”

“Your best friend!” James added.

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200524152753/$file/Facinglow.jpg

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Feb. 1, 2005) – Twin brothers, Cpls. Christopher F. and James J. Hoffman are scheduled to deploy to Iraq with units from 2d Force Service Support Group (Forward). Christopher (Right), older by just one minute, is attached to Communications Platoon, Headquarters and Service Company, 8th Engineer Support Battalion. James is assigned to Wire Platoon, Electronics Maintenance Company, 2d Maintenance Battalion. (Official Marine Corps photo by Cpl. C.J. Yard) Photo by: Cpl. C.J. Yard

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 07:27 AM

Dead G.I. tale may be 'fraud'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily Sentinel

Local and military authorities have been unable to confirm the existence of a Grand Junction soldier who was said to have died in Iraq on Jan. 29.

Based on information received from Homefront Heroes President Phyllis Derby, purported spokeswoman for the soldier’s family, The Daily Sentinel ran a story Feb. 4 detailing Spc. Jonathan Kenney’s death in Iraq.

Derby said Monday she has the same questions as everyone else. She said Homefront Heroes is conducting its own investigatin, but “it does not look 100 percent OK.”

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said he was taken aback by the possibility that Kenney might not exist.

“I’ll speak to my chief investigator first thing in the morning,” Hautzinger said Monday night.

Homefront Heroes relayed the story of Kenney’s death to The Daily Sentinel, describing his attempts to remove Iraqi children from crossfire.

The organization that operates as a support group for soldiers’ families as well as sending needed items to soldiers from home said Kenney was caught in the crossfire and killed in Baqouba, Iraq, while trying to save a young Iraqi girl.

Department of Defense Spokesman Lt. Col. John Skinner could not deny or confirm Kenney’s existence late Monday night.

The military posts all deaths on its Web site, but only after the family has been notified and then after waiting another 24 hours, Skinner said.

No Jonathan Kenney is listed on the Web site provided by Skinner, defenselink.mil. Another Web site that lists all coalition deaths in Iraq has no listing for Jonathan Kenney during January.

“It’s not unusual for next-of-kin notification to take a while,” Skinner said.

“The reality is, when someone passes away in the military, it ends up being posted,” Skinner said. “If there isn’t a release, we just don’t have record of it. We don’t speculate.”

Derby said last week notification had taken place. She also requested that donations in Kenney’s name be made to Homefront Heroes.

A woman claiming to be Amber Kenney, Jonathan Kenney’s wife, relayed through Derby and former U.S. Marine Greg Merschel all the information The Daily Sentinel used for its news story.

Derby said Amber Kenney graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1988.

There are no seniors with the first name Amber in the 1988 online edition of the Grand Junction High School Yearbook.

Derby also told The Daily Sentinel that Jonathan Kenney had worked at Grand Junction Chrysler Jeep Dodge after the couple had moved to the Grand Valley from Denver.

Tom Nowak, general manager at the dealership, said a Jonathan Kenney never worked there.

Merschel, who volunteers for military causes, but not officially affiliated with Homefront Heroes, said late Monday, “Right now we can’t tell you whether he exists or not.”

There is a slim chance that Jonathan Kenney did exist, Merschel said.

“There is the outside chance according to the Army that the paperwork has fallen through the cracks,” Merschel said.

Derby told Merschel last week she had seen a Department of Defense death certificate. She changed her story Monday, however, when she told Merschel that she had not seen it, but that a reporter with a radio station in Grand Junction had seen it.

Merschel said Amber Kenney may be a fraud.

“If she’s a fraud, she’s a damned good one,” Merschel said of the woman claiming to be Amber Kenney. “She had enough information to make it look good.”

Merschel noted Kenney’s alleged unit, the 1-44th Air Defense Artillery Battalion, is not currently serving in Iraq.

“They were deployed in 2003. They are already back in Fort Bliss,” Merschel said.

Derby originally said Amber Kenney was in Fort Bliss, Texas, when she learned of her husband’s death.

Sgt. First Class Bird at Fort Bliss said there was no record of an Amber Kenney or a Jonathan Kenney at the post.

According to Homefront Heroes, Kenney was to have been buried Feb. 5 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Employees at the Des Moines Iowa Register said no Jonathan Kenney was buried Saturday in Iowa.

“It’s a hoax,” said Audrey Burgs, night city editor with the Des Moines Register. “No one knows anything about it. The only military burial here in Iowa last Saturday was in a small town, not in Des Moines, and it wasn’t Kenney.”

Burgs said Kenney did not go to high school in Iowa City and did not have a twin sister who died at birth, as Merschel stated in a press release.

“It’s all a lot of B.S.,” Burgs said. “We never ran a story about any of these things because none of it ever happened.”

The end of the Feb. 3 e-mail to The Daily Sentinel from Derby, included the following statement: “Memorial contributions may be made to Homefront Heroes in Jonathan’s name.”

Merschel said he did not know how much money had been raised in Jonathan’s name, and that Derby would return to Grand Junction this week to find out.

“If she’s a fraud, she just soured everybody’s generosity to the troops, because we’re going to have to check everything twice,” Merschel said. “I was told the death certificate had been seen.

“This is going to sour everybody on Phyllis.”

Merschel said Derby did not intentionally devise the hoax.

“Phyllis is too damned busy ... physically she just wouldn’t have time.”

Hautzinger agreed, saying he doubted Homefront Heroes was connected to a scam.

“I just find it very hard to believe Phyllis Derby would be involved in this knowingly,” Hautzinger said.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:06 AM

GI Demoted for Iraq Mud-Wrestling Party

RALEIGH, N.C. — Military officials have demoted a female member of a National Guard military police unit for indecent exposure after a mud-wrestling party at the Camp Bucca (search) detention center in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, spokesman for detainee operations at the U.S. Army-run camp did not released the name of the soldier. However, the New York Daily News identified her as Deanna Allen, 19, and Allen's mother, Ladyna Waldrop of Black Mountain, confirmed the identification.

After an inquiry, Allen was demoted from specialist to private first class and placed on restriction for participating in the event. She is still a guard at the camp, the newspaper said.

Four or five other members of the 105th who were spectators received counseling, Johnson said.

The party occurred Oct. 30, as the 160th Military Police Battalion, an Army Reserve Unit from Tallahassee, Fla., prepared to turn over its duties to the Asheville-based 105th Military Police Battalion (search), Johnson said.

In the course of the transfer of duties, "some individuals in their exuberance decided to put together a mud-wrestling thing," Johnson said Sunday by telephone. "There were females involved, and some members of the 105th also became involved, one female soldier in particular."

The Daily News said it was given 30 of the party photos, and it printed several in Sunday's editions.

Waldrop said her daughter is devastated by the events.

"It was just a thing where she was coerced by a bunch of people, and with all the excitement, she lost her sanity for a moment and that's all it took," she said.

"It seems like they're just singling her out," Waldrop said. "She's the one getting all the publicity and punishment, and that's not right."

The 105th took over Camp Bucca on Nov. 1, and photos of the party were found after the 160th had left Iraq, Johnson said, adding that he understood a soldier had turned over the photos to commanders.

Results of the inquiry were sent to the commander of the 160th, he said. "It appears from the commander's inquiry that this was primarily put on by troops of the 160th, who are no longer under our command," Johnson said.

It wasn't immediately clear Sunday if any members of the 160th had been disciplined.

The party was isolated, Johnson said. "Detainees were nowhere in the vicinity," he said. "They had no possible way of seeing what occurred."

A scandal involving the separate Abu Ghraib (search) prison erupted last spring when photographs were made public showing soldiers taunting naked Iraqi prisoners.

Waldrop said she communicates with her daughter almost every day via Internet instant messaging, and they also see each other by means of a Web camera. "She's very tearful, very upset," Waldrop said.

Waldrop said she was proud of her daughter for joining the National Guard. "But I hate that this happened, and so does she," she said. The party "just got way out of hand, and before you know it, pictures were taken, and she didn't have time to react.

"My mom and I have both had talks with her that she's supposed to be an example for her country."

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 09:15 AM

February 08, 2005

Administration wants ‘don’t ask’ lawsuit dismissed

Associated Press

The Bush administration on Monday asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon’s 11-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
The government said last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws making gay sex a crime does not undercut the military’s policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve as long as they abstain from homosexual activity and don’t reveal their sexual orientation.

Courts previously have upheld the policy, approved by Congress and put in place by the Clinton administration.

“These decisions are unaffected by the Supreme Court’s decision,” the administration said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Boston, where the lawsuit was filed.

Twelve gays expelled from the military because of their sexual orientation filed the legal challenge in December, citing the Supreme Court ruling that state laws making homosexual sex a crime were unconstitutional. That decision overturned an earlier Supreme Court ruling that had upheld sodomy laws.

Two other lawsuits challenging the policy have been filed since the high court’s reversal.

One was brought in California by the Log Cabin Republicans, a political organization for gays. The other was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which generally deals with cases involving money. That plaintiff, who was separated from the Army, is seeking to recover his pension and is challenging the ban in the process.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 09:44 AM

War documentary lets dad share in son's final days
February 09,2005
JACK BROOM
THE SEATTLE TIMES

SEATTLE - It's not easy, said Joe Colgan. Not easy to sit in a darkened screening room and watch some of the last days of the son you remember from hiking and camping trips, from the times the two of you tossed a football back and forth.

"But it's helpful for me to see just what he was facing, to understand the things he was going through," said Colgan, 63, after watching a screening of the war documentary, "Gunner Palace."

Filmed by former Seattle resident Michael Tucker, the movie shows the Army's 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, riding patrols and conducting raids in a dangerous section of Baghdad in early autumn of 2003.

Among the soldiers is Lt. Ben Colgan, 30, a 1991 graduate of Des Moines' Mount Rainier High School.

Colgan was killed by a roadside bomb Nov. 1, 2003, just weeks after he was filmed in Iraq. Besides his parents, he left behind four brothers, three sisters, two daughters and a wife pregnant with their third child.

The movie, to open in theaters in March, takes its name from Colgan's 400-person regiment, nicknamed "The Gunners," which operated out of a bombed-out Baghdad palace formerly owned by Saddam Hussein's older son, Uday, killed in July 2003.

Joe Colgan said his son mentioned the palace in e-mails home: "He said it had a pool, but he also said they were getting mortared a lot."

Some members of the Colgan family met Tucker this week and attended a screening of the film last night at the Seattle Art Museum.

Joe Colgan is a longtime Catholic peace activist. In the 1970s, he and his wife, Patricia, sometimes took young Ben along when they demonstrated against the nuclear-armed submarine base at Bangor.

Although they opposed the war in Iraq, they didn't discuss their position with their son once the fighting started.

"Ben knew how much I was against this war, but I always said, 'I'm right beside you in spirit.' And that's still true," said Colgan, who wears a crucifix containing some of his son's ashes.

"I know he really felt like he might be able to do something good for those people. That's what he wanted."

Ben Colgan enlisted in the Army right after high-school graduation. He served in Special Forces and the elite Delta Force before going to Officer Candidate School. On graduation, he was assigned to the artillery unit.

His widow, Jill, a Missouri native, lives in Kansas with their daughters, Grace, 3; Paige, 2; and Cooper, 1, born seven weeks after Ben's death.

Watching the movie, Joe Colgan noted in the young soldiers' faces and voices the conflicting emotions of war: pride, anger, frustration, confusion - emotions he remembered from his son's e-mails.

Ben Colgan's attitude about the mission in Iraq changed over time as early optimism faded. "At first, he talked about the good things," his father said. "They were opening up schools, trying to get the water and electricity going."

But the longer the conflict lasted, the more difficult it was to see progress. And the more difficult it became to tell which Iraqis were friends and which were foes.

One Iraqi man, seen in the early part of the film working for the Americans as an interpreter, is later suspected of helping insurgents and may have provided information that led to the deaths of Ben Colgan and two other soldiers in the unit.

The day before his death, Ben Colgan's parents received his last e-mail, with an especially pessimistic view. "You could tell he was down," Joe Colgan said. "He said, 'It's getting real old and getting real crazy.' "

While some soldiers in the movie mug or clown for the camera, and some deliver potent rap lyrics about their situation, Colgan was reserved and quiet.

In a scene near the movie's end, Colgan is seen talking to an older Iraqi man on a Baghdad street. Their voices can't be heard, but at the end of the conversation, the man grasps Colgan's arm warmly, and the two wave as they part.

Shortly afterward, Tucker's voice as narrator tells of Ben Colgan's death, adding, "Ben's death was close to home. He was from Seattle like me. I knew the kind of house he grew up in. And the mountains he dreamt of. He had two daughters. Looking at my own daughter, I couldn't think of his death, only his life."

For Joe Colgan, the pain of being reminded of his son's final days is worth it if the movie prompts some Americans to take a closer look at war and the suffering it causes.

"What I'd like to see is a lot of open and honest talk about war, just what it is and just what it is about," he said. "I think if we could put these things in perspective, then we would never go to war unless we absolutely have to - and maybe a war like this wouldn't happen."

'Gunner Palace' is an 85-minute documentary on the war in Iraq that captures a mix of bravado and anxiety, frustration and determination and a chillingly grim sense of humor. Filming began in September 2003. The gritty language heard in the film has earned it an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, a rating being appealed by the film's distributor, Palm Pictures.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 10:41 AM

3rd MAW provides security/transport during elections 
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing 
Story Identification #: 20052615738 
Story by Cpl. Joel A. Chaverri 
 
 
 
AL ASAD, Iraq (Feb. 06, 2005)...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 12:18 PM

CNN slimes our troops 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Michelle Malkin 
February 9, 2005 
 
One of the most common complaints I hear from our troops...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 12:22 PM

COMMENTARY: The Marines: a few good sensitive men
KATHLEEN PARKER
Feb. 9, 2005

In the 1998 movie "Soldier," Sgt. Todd is talking to the woman who nursed him back to health when she asks: "What are you going to do?"

Todd replies: "I'm going to kill them all, sir."

Excellent. Just the sort of response we expect from a soldier and by which we understand that his spirit, if not his body, is intact. War is hell, but somebody has to prevail and preferably that somebody is "us."

Or maybe not. Given the breathless reaction to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis of the U.S. Marine Corps, who had the audacity to speak candidly - admitting that he sometimes enjoys his work - maybe we'd be happier if Todd said something (cue violins) along these lines:

"Actually, Sandra - may I call you Sandra? - I've been thinking about that. As soon as I'm all patched up, I'm going to get some therapy and seek forgiveness from those who left me for dead."

Whereupon Sandra says, "Oopsey-daisy, we're fresh out of painkillers."

That's a joke, I hasten to add, lest the bow-tied brigades of humorless harrumphers unleash a Deeply Offended jeremiad my way.

That I have to say so ruins the joke, of course, but so it goes in the briar patch these days. I do not personally wish to inflict pain and suffering on anyone, but - if I may speak candidly - I don't mind if a few murdering Islamofascists cease contributing to depletion of Earth's precious oxygen supply.

Oh, chortle, chortle. If only Mattis had said some such, or thrown out some "attic humor," as humorist Christopher Buckley once put it. You know, the sort of bon mot that elicits precious titters from the studiously dowdy. Why, then, Mattis would be the darling of dyspeptic America instead of the barbarian anathema he's become.

But, alas, Mattis isn't a parlor boy; he's a kick-down-the-door Marine who, as a military friend defines the job, "takes human life on behalf of the nation." Mattis doesn't speak latte; he speaks spit. So instead of making some arch remark about how to conduct warfare against terrorists, he ignited a national snit by saying that he found killing the enemy, in so many words, not unpleasant.

His precise words were: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling." Mattis told a San Diego gathering that included military personnel, many of whom reportedly laughed.

Then Mattis went on to clarify who "some people" are.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Hear, hear. With all due respect to sensitive Talibanistas, who, in addition to routinely killing women for walking down a street unescorted by a male relative, also aided and abetted Osama bin Laden, I find Mattis' attitude neither too cold nor too hot, but just about right.

Nevertheless, his comments have provoked scathing editorials and calls for his resignation. His boss, Gen. Michael Hagee, commander of the Marine Corps, has declined to impose disciplinary action on Mattis but did counsel him about choosing his words more carefully.

Hagee also praised Mattis for his record as a warrior and leader. Mattis' resume is too long for this space, but suffice it to say he fought both in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, he commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade during Operation Enduring Freedom; in Iraq, he commanded 1st Marine Division during the initial attack and subsequent stabilizing operations.

He did not accomplish these successful military operations by being nice. My guess is he spoke candidly to his men, who from all reports greatly admire their leader.

The crux of the Mattis problem, aside from the obvious exercising of antiwar sentiment whenever possible, is our discomfort with the warrior culture. We want Clint Eastwood in the trenches and David Niven home for dinner.

Parfait. As soon as we get World Peace straightened out, maybe we can send Mattis for a weekend with Prudence. In the meantime, it seems neither shocking nor offensive that a Marine general might find some pleasure - whether moral reward or winning the battle for survival - in taking out a particularly despicable enemy.

As a woman trying to imagine living under a Taliban regime, I'd be whole lot happier to see Mattis coming to my rescue than any of those whose tiny feathers got mussed by his blunt talk.

Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, welcomes comments via e-mail at kparker@kparker.com.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 01:12 PM

Purple Heart times 3
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification #: 200527171035
Story by Cpl. Tom Sloan

SAN MATEO, CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Jan. 26, 2005) -- Pinned on the chest of Pfc. Rogelio F. Rosales, of Riverside, Calif., a mortarman with Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, are three Purple Hearts.

Standing less than 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing a buck 50 soaking wet, the 23- year-old doesn’t consider himself a walking disaster, though. He believes he’s living a charmed life and that a greater power has been looking out for him during his three and a half years in the Corps.

“God is taking care of me,” Rosales said humbly in his soft Latin accent. “He has to be, or I would be here today.”

His friends call him “Angel,” and the nickname suits him. Rosales has seen combat in Iraq twice – Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 and 2. He has taken an indirect hit from a rocket propelled grenade, had a enemy mortar lobbed almost right on top of him and was shot with an AK-47; all failed to take him out of commission for good. Rosales marches on and, besides the three awards, a slight limp in his walk is the only thing he has to show for all his injuries.

Rosales went through OIF 1 unscathed, but that wasn’t the case in OIF 2. Fallujah proved to be a bad place for Rosales as he was awarded all three of his Purple Hearts for injuries he sustained during his deployment there.

His first injury occurred while he was serving as a humvee driver for Weapons Platoon.
“We were going down the road and we started to take heavy (enemy) fire,” recalled Rosales. “I jumped out (of the humvee) and started to lay down fire. An RPG hit the humvee and (some of the blast) hit me. It seemed to come out of nowhere.”

Rosales received wounds to the face but without careful study, few can tell he was hit there. “I had a good surgeon fix me up,” he said while grinning.
Injury number two drips with irony. Though Rosales was serving a humvee driver, his military occupational specialty is mortarman.

He was engaged in another firefight and had just got permission to call in a fire mission. While he was on the radio, an enemy mortar landed and exploded right next to him. He was a mortarman hit by a mortar while calling in a fire mission to lob mortars on the enemy.

His third injury was an AK-47 round to the right arm just before he left Fallujah. “I got shot my last day there.”

Each time the warrior was injured, he was evacuated from the battlefield by medics and treated at the facilities there. Because of his injuries, Rosales could have stayed there where it was safer, but he didn’t. He paid no regard to his injuries and routinely disobeyed medical officers orders to stay. Each time he would leave to find his way back to his “Marine brothers” and join then again in waging war against the enemy.

“He would disobey the MOs, hop a convoy, and find his way back to the guys,” said Sgt. David L. Boire, 28, of Carson City, Mich., and section leader for Weapons Platoon. “He was always volunteering his services for me and the other Marines.”

Rosales was Boire’s humvee driver and was “the best one there,” Boire said, recalling a time when he took Rosales from the field hospital and put him back behind the wheel.
“I was in a convoy visiting some of my other Marines at the hospital when Rosales came up to me and said, ‘the MOs said I was good to go and can leave,’ so I put him back to work because we were hurting for Marines,” Boire said.

Boire said he’s not sure the MOs gave Rosales permission to leave or not.

Rosales has a positive attitude and good character, according to Boire and other Marines who know him.

Despite the glory of receiving three Purple Hearts, Rosales prefers being in the United States where he can enjoy his favorite things, which are street-racing his Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 Twin Turbo with his friends through his hometown of Riverside, Calif., and eating grilled shrimp, a food he considers a delicacy and should be reserved for special occasions “like a fine bottle of wine.” He also enjoys attending Christian youth functions too.

Though his nickname is “Angel,” he considers himself to be a bit of a daredevil.

“I’ve gone 140 (mph) before,” he said. “If I was going to die, I would have in Iraq.”

Rosales will be re-deploying to Iraq when 1/5 leaves in late February.

When he returns, he plans on leaving the Marines to attend college and pursue a career in law enforcement.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 01:31 PM

The Marines: A few sensitive men

Kathleen Parker, Tribune Media Services. Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper
Published February 9, 2005

In the 1998 movie "Soldier," Sgt. Todd is talking to the woman who nursed him back to health, and she asks: "What are you going to do?"

Todd replies: "I'm going to kill them all, Sir."

Excellent. Just the sort of response we expect from a soldier. War is hell, but somebody has to prevail and preferably that somebody is "us."

Or maybe not. Given the breathless reaction to Lt. Gen. James Mattis of the Marine Corps, who had the audacity to speak candidly--admitting that he sometimes enjoys his work--maybe we'd be happier if Todd said something (cue violins) along these lines:

"Actually, Sandra--may I call you Sandra?--I've been thinking about that. As soon as I'm all patched up, I'm going to get some therapy and seek forgiveness from those who left me for dead."

Whereupon Sandra says, "Oopsey-daisy, we're fresh out of painkillers."

That's a joke, I hasten to add, lest the bow-tied brigades of humorless harrumphers unleash a Deeply Offended jeremiad my way.

That I have to say so ruins the joke, but so it goes in the briar patch these days. I do not personally wish to inflict pain and suffering on anyone, but I don't mind if a few murdering Islamofascists cease contributing to the depletion of Earth's precious oxygen supply.

Oh, chortle, chortle. If only Mattis had said some such, or thrown out some "attic humor," as humorist Christopher Buckley once put it. You know, the sort of bon mot that elicits precious titters from the studiously dowdy. Why, then, Mattis would be the darling of dyspeptic U.S. instead of the barbarian anathema he has become.

But, alas, Mattis isn't a parlor boy; he's a kick-down-the-door Marine who, as a military friend defines the job, "takes human life on behalf of the nation." Mattis doesn't speak latte; he speaks spit. So instead of making some arch remark about how to conduct warfare against terrorists, he ignited a national snit by saying that he found killing the enemy, in so many words, not unpleasant.

His precise words were: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling." Mattis told that to a San Diego gathering that included military personnel, many of whom reportedly laughed.

Then Mattis went on to clarify who "some people" are.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Hear, hear. With all due respect to sensitive Talibanistas, who, in addition to routinely killing women for walking down a street unescorted by a male relative, also aided and abetted Osama bin Laden, I find Mattis' attitude neither too cold nor too hot, but just about right.

Nevertheless, his comments have provoked scathing editorials and calls for his resignation. His boss, Gen. Michael Hagee, the commandant of the Marine Corps, has declined to impose disciplinary action on Mattis but did counsel him about choosing his words more carefully.

Hagee also praised Mattis for his record as a warrior and leader. Mattis' resume is too long for this space, but suffice it to say he fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, he commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade during Operation Enduring Freedom; in Iraq, he commanded the 1st Marine Division during the initial attack and subsequent stabilizing operations. He did not accomplish these successful military operations by being nice. My guess is he spoke candidly to his men, who from all reports admire their leader.

The crux of the Mattis problem is our discomfort with the warrior culture. We want Clint Eastwood in the trenches and David Niven home for dinner.

Parfait. As soon as we get World Peace straightened out, maybe we can send Mattis for a weekend with Prudence. In the meantime, it seems neither shocking nor offensive that a Marine general might find some pleasure--whether moral reward or winning the battle for survival--in taking out a particularly despicable enemy.

As a woman trying to imagine living under a Taliban regime, I'd be whole lot happier to see Mattis coming to my rescue than any of those whose tiny feathers got mussed by his blunt talk.

E-mail: kparker@kparker.com

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 01:31 PM

Security holds at Iraqi elections
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20052245921
Story by Lance Cpl. Paul Robbins Jr.

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 30, 2005) -- With the streets lined in concertina wire, multiple security checkpoints and a host of Marines standing by, this wasn’t your average election.

The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, provided security alongside the Iraqi Army at two poll sites inside the city of Fallujah Jan. 30.

Nearly 1,800 voters made their voices heard at the two sites without any disturbances from anti-Iraqi forces.

“There really weren’t any security issues,” said Capt. Joseph M. Turgeon, 32, the commanding officer of Company K, 3/4, “ We almost expected something to happen, but nothing did.”

Citizens of Fallujah filed through the security starting at 7 a.m. and didn’t stop until the polls closed at 5 p.m.

“The turnout was very good,” Turgeon said. “More showed up to our site than they showed up for food and water when it was a (humanitarian assistance) site.”

Soldiers of the Iraqi Army provided the bulk of security for the voters. Marines assisted on the outskirts of the polling site and kept a quick reaction force nearby.

“We were just assisting the Iraqi officials with their security,” said 1st Sgt. George W. Young, 40, a native of Danville, Va., who serves as the Weapons Company First Sergeant for 3/4. “We weren’t actually involved with the voting process.”

The Marines of 3/4 stood watch at the very entrance to the poll site, nearly three blocks from the voting area.

“We were working in conjunction with the (Iraqi Army) soldiers,” said Turgeon, a native of Cathlamet, Wash. “We had external and they had internal.”

Voters filed through the tight security during the ten-hour process with no fear of attack or reprisal from anti-Iraqi forces.

“The Marines and (Iraqi Army) soldiers provided such a tight blanket of security, that it gave the locals a feeling of safety and comfort,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jean-Paul Courville, 32, a native of Denham Springs, La., who serves as company gunnery sergeant for Company K.

The two sites, where 3/4 assisted in providing security, received no attacks during the process and elections there went as smoothly as the Marines could have hoped.

“I was pleased with the low level of violence in the city,” said Lt. Col. Andrew R. Kennedy, commanding officer of 3/4, “ and the voter turnout was pretty surprising to me.”

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 01:53 PM

Serving in every clime and place
Study of troop strength overseas shows global ebb and flow, not static Cold War-era structure

By Vince Crawley
Times staff writer

When President Bush announced a plan in August to bring home 60,000 to 70,000 Americans from Germany, South Korea and other overseas bases, officials characterized the troops involved as being stranded in leftover Cold War bases that are no longer relevant to modern geopolitical reality.
However, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation analyzed more than half a century of global deployment statistics and found that rather than being a static Cold War structure, the U.S. military presence on foreign shores has ebbed and flowed significantly over the past six decades, with battles won and lost and constant shifts in political alliances.

Of course, Germany has been, by far, the top location for Americans stationed abroad, racking up more than 10 million U.S. military “man-years” since the 1950s. However, most troops served multiyear and multiple tours in Germany, so the number of Americans who actually served there is likely closer to 3 million — still more than 1 percent of the entire U.S. population. And that doesn’t count family members or Defense Department civilians.

But until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of American troops also lived on bases in France, and until the early 1970s, Libya provided a safe haven for thousands more military troops. Also, close to 1,000 Americans were based in Iran until shortly before the pro-American shah was swept from power in 1979.

In fact, since 1950, at least 54 nations have hosted 1,000 or more American troops on their soil, Heritage researcher Tim Kane said.

Although Bush’s announced moves “have been characterized by some as dramatic — even risky — they are actually part of an ongoing process of threat assessment and long-range planning at the Pentagon,” Kane said.

In compiling what he calls a “troop deployment dataset” for Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, Kane was surprised to find that the Pentagon had no comprehensive database showing where troops have been stationed during the past half century.

The Pentagon’s Directorate for Information Operations and Reports publishes annual records of where Americans have been stationed. But it was up to Kane to compile the records into a single database so that troop-deployment figures could be compared from region to region and across the years.

The database reinforces many current assumptions while also unearthing a few surprises.

The 12 nations that have hosted the most American troops over the past half-century are Germany, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Great Britain, France, the Philippines, Italy, Panama, Thailand, Spain and Turkey.

On average, Kane found that 22 percent of the U.S. military was deployed overseas at any given time.

The low point was the height of the post-Cold War drawdown in the mid-1990s, when just 13.7 percent of U.S. troops were stationed overseas. The high points were 1951 and 1968, when 31 percent of all service members were deployed overseas because of the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

In 2003, the most recent year in Kane’s database, 27 percent of all U.S. troops were deployed overseas, mainly due to the Iraq war. In human terms, 387,920 troops were based on foreign soil last year.

Total overseas troop strength peaked at 1.08 million in 1968 and hit a low of 206,000 in 1999, a time when many politicians complained of the strains on an “over-deployed” force.

Perspective needed

Bush’s proposed redeployment of 70,000 troops from foreign countries to domestic bases has been greeted as a “major movement,” Kane said. “But it needs to be kept in perspective.”

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, more than 20 percent of all U.S. troops were based overseas. In Europe, troop strength averaged roughly 312,000 in the late 1980s, and then was quickly slashed to less than 110,000 after the Berlin Wall fell.

In other regions, U.S. troop levels in Africa ranged from 5,000 to 6,000 through the late 1960s, chiefly in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Libya, then dropped off sharply in the late 1960s before recently rising again as terrorist groups migrated to Africa.

In the Middle East, deployments ranged as high as 25,000 troops a year in the 1950s and 1960s, dropping dramatically in the 1980s, then climbing again during the 1990s.

In Latin America, troop levels averaged 37,000 in the 1950s, then declined to a steady 14,000 to 16,000 after the 1960s.

In Asia, U.S. presence spiked during the Korean and Vietnam wars, then maintained a steady presence of more than 100,000 personnel through the end of the Cold War. In the 1990s, troop levels declined to roughly 80,000 in the Pacific region.

There are gaps in Kane’s data, and he acknowledges having problems in trying to meld the Pentagon’s often conflicting rosters.

Short-duration missions also aren’t always accurately captured because the data are reported on an annual basis. For example, the U.S. mission in Somalia peaked at more than 25,000 troops in early 1993, but Kane’s numbers show just 6,345 service members were there that year.

Many recent deployments also were marked by high turnover of personnel on the ground for just a few months at a time. So, in the Somalia example, the peak force may have been 25,000, but perhaps twice that number of Americans actually served there at one time or another over the main 16 months of the mission.

The data also account for the 15,000 American troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996 and more than 7,000 in Algeria in 1954. Kane heartily writes “unknown” for the number of U.S. troops in Cambodia in the early 1970s. He even discovered obscure deployments of several hundred troops to Antigua and South Africa in the late 1950s.

However, Kane’s data don’t capture the massive, brief deployment of 500,000 U.S. troops to the Persian Gulf in 1990-91, probably due in part to the short duration of the overall mission, which saw the bulk of that force rush home in the weeks following the swift liberation of Kuwait.

His data also don’t fully reflect that an average of 20,000 U.S. personnel were deployed to the Persian Gulf region throughout the mid- and late 1990s in the mission to keep Iraq’s military from becoming a regional threat.

Still, the data make clear that “no other military in the world has been so widely deployed as that of the United States,” Kane noted. “Troop deployments are overwhelmingly supportive of host countries, and warm relations between [troops] and local populations are the norm.”

However, Kane said, the “first priority” of U.S. deployments is “not a particular foreign government’s desire to keep a certain number of American troops in its country,” but rather “the American need to align its forces against contemporary and future threats.”

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 02:22 PM

Serviceable material disposal saves money 
Submitted by: MCB Camp Lejeune 
Story Identification #: 200523155143 
Story by Lance Cpl. Matthew K. Hacker 
 
 
 
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C....

thedrifter

02-09-05, 03:27 PM

Camp Pendleton Marines welcomed home from Iraq

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. Nearly 180 Marines have returned from Iraq to cheers and hugs.

Members of the Eleventh Marine Expeditionary Force were greeted at Camp Pendleton today by relatives who haven't seen them for eight months.

Seven Marines from the expeditionary force died in August as they battled insurgents loyal to a radical cleric.

Several Marines who were in Iraq during the winter holidays said they will be celebrating a late Christmas with their relatives, who have put up stockings and decorated trees.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 03:40 PM

Eleven Marines must give back their Purple Hearts

ATCHISON, Kan. Nearly two years ago, Marine Corporal Travis Eichelberger watched as his commandant pinned a Purple Heart to his hospital gown at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Now the same commandant is revoking that medal and removing it from the Kansas man's record -- because he was run over by a tank driven by an American.

Eichelberger is one of eleven Marines who have received "letters of error" within the past two months telling them that they were given their medals by mistake.

The commandant says it was necessary to revoke Eichelberger's medal because his injuries weren't caused directly or indirectly by enemy action.

Eichelberger says he's disappointed and doesn't understand how the mistake could have happened.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 04:38 PM

First Medal of Honor Since Somalia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary by Steve Yuhas
February 9, 2005

Not since the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 has a member of the armed forces of the United States earned the Medal of Honor; a distinction so rare that since the medal was created in 1862 it has been awarded by the President in the name of Congress a mere 3,459 times. That is about to change and it is the war in Iraq and the bravery of an army Sergeant First Class from Tampa named Paul Smith who will forever change the way an entire generation looks at a hero.

Bravery is not an uncommon commodity on the battle fields for freedom. Whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan or places we don't hear about all over the world where America is answering the call to purge the world of those who would impose the will of a tyrannical few on the many, American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are doing what they always do.

So many are overcoming the challenges and pain of battle to uphold the adage of Admiral Chester Nimitz when he described the Marines for the battle of Iwo Jima that "uncommon valor was a common virtue" cannot simply apply to Marines anymore.

In a nation starving for heroes it is sometimes curious that so many look to football, Hollywood and journalists to find them, but it is only on a battlefield where a hero can be discovered and heroism be defined.

On April 4, 2003 Sergeant Smith's platoon came under tremendous fire and without hesitation he boarded an armored vehicle and manned a machine gun to cover the withdrawal of his troops. Smith was fatally wounded and died after the engagement and was the only American to die during the fight.

As medals for bravery go there is none so coveted and so difficult to achieve that it often requires the sacrifice of ones life in order to attain it. Nobody knows that better than the group of living Medal of Honor recipients who will gather in Phoenix later this year to welcome their newest member, posthumously, in a club of heroes that dwarfs any other.

Sergeant Smith was just thirty-three-years old when he defended his men, but what all of us can learn from him is something that only age and wisdom can teach. There is no greater calling for a man or woman serving in the military than to be in a position where the troops assigned beneath you survive even if it costs you your life; Sergeant Smith put himself in that position and still there are Americans who focus on the events of Abu Ghraib to represent soldiers during the war and who look at the mediocrity of Hollywood for heroism.

Heroism in combat is not an unusual thing, but for an act of heroism to rise to the level of receiving the Medal of Honor is.

In a column once I wrote of my first encounter with a man who earned the Medal of Honor. I was sitting in the waiting room at the spine injury center at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in La Jolla, California. While there I was contemplating my future as an injury of mine progresses and we began to exchange words - I was dismissive at first, but eventually we exchanged cards and he told me to keep my chin up. Never once did he speak of the heroism that he did and his sole concern was my feeling sorry for myself for an injury that has forever changed my life.

The point is that heroes don't talk about their heroism - they don't have to. When I returned home to find out that the man who bucked me up won the Medal of Honor and didn't mention it I realized that I was in the presence of a true hero, but that is how selfless men act. It is when a man runs around telling everyone that he is a hero that you have to dismiss him because if he has to tell you - he probably isn't.

During the State of the Union address the most telling moment was when a woman, Safia Taleb al-Suhail, who lost her father to Saddam Hussein was embraced by the mother of Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood who was killed during a battle in Iraq. The moment will forever be remembered by those of us who saw it because the embrace of two women who had never met and the genuine tears that brought the House chamber to applause for minutes was the acknowledgment that the sacrifice of our men and women is not lost on those who came out in percentages that put American voters to shame in Iraq.

Parents should take the video of the State of the Union and focus their efforts on that segment to show their children what a hero is. A hero is a man or woman who is wiling to give up his or her life for the life, liberty or support of strangers; a hero is not a fictional character in a Hollywood film or a man who is the best defensive back that football has ever seen.

Heroism comes whenever America is at war and it is true that sometimes peacetime makes us yearn for someone for our children to emulate or look up to. It is unfortunate that so many parents don't know that they have to look no further than their closest military installation or to any man or woman who made the sacrifice to serve the country.

Army Sergeant First Class Paul Smith sacrificed his life so that Iraqis could live one of freedom and so his soldiers could return home, Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood would have been proud, according to his mother, that the vote in Iraq happened and that Iraqis braved terrorists in order to do what so many of us take for granted.

Every generation has an opportunity to put forward people who inspire us to action and for the Baby Boomers they've redefined it as celebrities and sports stars, but the times are changing back to the way they used to be where heroes are defined by what they do for others, not for what they do for themselves.

The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest award and Sergeant Smith will proudly represent the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who may not have earned that medal, but provide us every day with the inspiration that can only come from people who dismiss their heroism by describing it as doing their job.

If only there were more of them and less of the other.

---Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 05:56 PM

The Unforgotten 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
By Ragnar Carlson 
The Honolulu Weekly 
February 02, 2005 
 
O'ahu is home to the world's largest...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 05:56 PM

Byrd tells us that this lab has positively identified nearly 1,200 American personnel since 1973, in many cases using techniques pioneered on site. The investigation begins by assembling a biological profile of the individual using whatever dental and skeletal remains are available.

The profile includes the sex, age, height and ethnic/racial profile of the individual and gives investigators a place to start. From there, they compare the remains to databases full of dental and skeletal information on missing personnel.

In many cases, this process results in a positive match, the return of the remains to the family and, ultimately, reburial.

In roughly half of JPAC's cases, investigators use mitochondrial DNA analysis to complete the process. DNA analysis is slow, taking up to a year to complete, but often provides the final piece of evidence needed to establish identity.

One of the keys to the entire process, according to Byrd, is that the entire investigation process is carried out "blind," which means that the scientist leading the identification effort has no information about the suspected identity of the individual, nor where the remains were recovered. This "blind" process sets a very high standard for identification, as in many cases at least three separate parts of a mission will have come up with the same suspected identification of the remains.

Despite JPAC's size and the military's commitment to its mission, the work is slow going. In addition to the 100,000-plus remains yet to be recovered, there are many thousands more for whom the technology and supporting information does not yet exist to make a positive identification. In addition to its heavy workload, JPAC conducts a high number of tours and trains civilians and military officials from around the world.

Still, the atmosphere at JPAC is upbeat. The current tsunami relief efforts in which JPAC is participating have brought greater publicity to the operation, but one gets the sense that the JPAC staff prefers to work anonymously. "They've got a bit of interview fatigue around here," one press aide told me. "Most of these people just like to focus on the work."

"This is where I want to be," says Master Sgt. Frank Tauanuu, the senior enlisted leader at JPAC. "I love Hawai'i…but it helps that our mission is so rewarding." Born on O'ahu, Tauanuu attended 'Aiea High School before his family moved to Pennsylvania in his late teens. He joined the Army in 1984 and has gone on to a distinguished career. Everything about Tauanuu-his bearing, the cadence of his speech-suggests Georgia or North Carolina. That he was raised here is a shock, and another testament to the military's intense sense of culture.

A few days after my visit, JPAC announced the deployment of two teams to Papua New Guinea, where they will investigate 15 cases; a recovery team is operating in the Port Moresby area, where a B-25 aircraft was lost in bad weather in 1942. There are currently three JPAC teams in Southeast Asia assisting in identification of remains.

"The important thing to understand," says Air Force Lt. Ken Hall, "is that our mission is that no one, ever, is left behind. However long it takes, we're committed to bringing every American home." Like everyone else I spoke with, Hall's discussion of JPAC activities sounded a lot more like personal commitment than corporate mission-speak.

As if to underscore Hall's point, two sets of skeletal remains sat just on the opposite side of the glass from where we stood. Each had been largely reconstructed, and the anatomical dimensions looked about right. I asked Byrd about them.

"We received those remains recently," he said. "They're from men who died aboard the USS Monitor."

I was stunned. The Monitor, the first ironclad ship, sank during the Civil War. Byrd and Hall smiled.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 07:06 PM

9 lives?
Lance corporal may hold record for surviving bombings in Iraq

The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it.
By bombing No. 9, the former minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, patrolling the so-called “triangle of death” south of Baghdad.

With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour in Iraq as of late January, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most.

Many Marines in Iraq have been bombed two or three times, and a couple have survived seven or eight.

Stevens, at nine, appears to hold the record that no one wants to break.

His streak started Aug. 8 when his unit was checking on a mortar attack; his Humvee ended up next to one bomb and on top of a second.

Bombing No. 2 was Aug. 9 — the next morning. A freezer filled with five 155mm shells was set off by a detonating cord left on the road. It cost a fellow Marine some fingers.

Bomb No. 3 exploded on a security patrol. It injured a Marine riding in the turret of Stevens’ vehicle.

Bomb No. 4 hit his vehicle; there were no wounded.

Bomb No. 5 hit his vehicle and sheared off a live power line overhead, sending it sparking onto the collar of Stevens’ flak jacket.

Bombs Nos. 6 through 9 hit convoys in which he was traveling.

Despite all the bombings, Stevens says he would sign up again. He speaks against a backdrop of explosions as his company sets off cratering blasts to destroy a dirt road, preventing insurgents from using it.

“Ow!” the Marine standing next to Stevens shouts. The man grabs a wrist slapped numb by a stinging chunk of dirt thrown from a cratering blast more than a quarter-mile away.

“I told you not to be around me,” Stevens says.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 07:48 PM

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)...

thedrifter

02-09-05, 07:58 PM

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 140-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb 09, 2005
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of 9 Feb 2005

This week, the Army and Navy announced an increase in the number of
reservists on active duty in support of the partial mobilization, while the Air
Force and Marine Corps had a decrease and Coast Guard number remained the same. The
net collective result is 1,688 more reservists mobilized than last week.

At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals
while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase
or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial
mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 156,866; Naval
Reserve, 3,674; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 9,085; Marine Corps
Reserve, 13,094; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 902. This brings the total National
Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 183,621 including both
units and individual augmentees.

A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel, who
are currently mobilized can be found at
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/d20050209.pdf

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:26 PM

GOOD MORNING, IRAQ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phil Bronstein
SanFranGate.com
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Longtime San Francisco resident, actor and comedian Robin Williams visited Iraq and Afghanistan in December to entertain U.S. troops. It was his second trip to Iraq, his third to Afghanistan. Williams, who won the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Golden Globe for lifetime achievement in film last month, sat down with Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein right before the Iraqi election. Williams talked about his trip, what he saw and what heexperienced. His travels were part of a tour organized by the USO (United Service Organizations).

Robin Williams: Some of the shows in Iraq were indoors. A lot were outdoors. It's weird when you're doing the shows, like in Iraq we do these shows and everyone's in full camo (camouflage) and we're not -- so it's kinda like, "Woooow."

One time we did a show two years ago, it was in Iraq and the entire audience was all in helmets and camo except for a group of Australians sitting in this truck smoking. I thought it was a fuel truck, but they said later on it's a water truck. (Australian accent): "No, go ahead Robin," (makes sound of match and an explosion noise) ...

It's weird to see all these different camouflages because in the coalition troops, the coalition of the willing, there's all types of camo. The Australians come with somewhat desert camo, we have desert camo and some guys come straight deployment and they have full green, which I'm going: "Doesn't work here. Nice desert." And then the Air Force has this new blue camouflage. Unless you're up against the sky, what is this s -- ? Blue, like big time. Even gay people are going, "Like: no. Quail egg, what is it? It's teal, it's teal and white, it's so fabulous!"

The shows, we would perform to 2,000 to 3,000 in some places ... by the end, it got to be a good rhythm. It was first Leeann Tweeden, who had just got to be on the cover of what was that magazine? FX magazine or one of those ... And she did one of those spreads that was, it was just close enough to go (in dramatic loud voice) "WHEW! Helloooo boys!" And the guys are going "YEAHHH!"

Chronicle: So, the structure was like an old Bob Hope show?

RW: Oh, yeah, like a traditional Bob Hope show, kind of, except blue. You know, Bob Hope with a strap-on. The general (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers) opened the show. He was like the hardcore. He sets the tone just to say, hey, thank you. He's very personal because he gets out and meets everyone. In the first year, we went with him. The first year we went alone. It was just USO shows, just me. We did the shows and most times we'd stay in the bases overnight. Like in Afghanistan, we'd stayed. Bagram, Kandahar, Jacobabad (Pakistan) and then a base in Afghanistan. You'd go visit all the bases. When you go with the general, it's in and out. The first time it was just me. Last year it was with the general again, which was fun. You travel on his nickel and you get in and get out. No waiting.
###
Chronicle: Was this the longest time you spent over there?

RW: No, I think the first time was. Same amount of time as last year but more shows. It was like 13 shows. It was all what we used to call "one-night 'Stans." All these former Russian republics. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan ending up in Pakistan.

Chronicle: You were at some secret bases -- They couldn't say where you were?

RW: They couldn't. You'd go, "Where were we?" (in Arab accent) "It's beautiful, I don't know." My favorite thing is when you go, especially in Afghanistan, and you see all the Special Forces -- and the covert-op guys. You'd see these heavily bearded guys going "Who are the surfers?" Oh, and they're heavily armed, like heavily armed Amish. Hardcore stuff. Usually some beards. A lot of them have typical Afghan wear. Couple of times you'd see a guy in full Afghan clothes, except for a New York Yankees hat -- which confuses the Afghans. Yankees caps are huge (in Arab accent): "Can you also get me Steelers, Oakland Raiders? Perfect?" The first year we went there were no restrictions ... the shows were the shows. And it was just me. It was pretty wild and they just set up makeshift stages outside and that was pretty crazy -- the first time, it was a really hot room, like 500 or 800 guys. It was like a sauna. But we had a blast. And afterwards, we'd sign pictures.

Chronicle: So did you get a sense this year the mood was different?

RW: No, I think they're still kind of hanging in. Plus it's a volunteer army still, except for the National Guard. We played this one base which was like a staging base, what was it called? Camp Virginia (Kuwait) -- that's where they come to stage and that was the only place, where you made the joke about Rumsfeld and the iron and we're trying to get you some iron and they went "Yeaaah." And we're like "Are you going to pimp your own irons?" And they're like "F -- , yeah!"

Blake Clark was a Vietnam vet and a comic in Kuwait and he was edgy because for him it was cathartic because he said, "I never want you to go through what I went through. I want you to come back and not have people look at you like ... (moans)." There are a lot of National Guard units going back, and re-equipping and going back -- and it was a week after Rumsfeld and that's the only place you kind of got the sense of, "We need more s -- , come on, you know."

Chronicle: In "Good Morning, Vietnam," you kind of had the movie sets of the same --

RW: Yeah, and in a weird way, that would be your opening line, and just like Blake when he would come out would do his thing from -- he had been in "The Waterboy," and he would do that, and they all knew the character so well. Because he had played a Cajun character in "Waterboy" you couldn't understand -- and his opening line was: "The only movie you know me from, you can't understand a f -- word I said." The order was, Leann Tweeden would go out and would basically work it, and very sweet and but basically the T&A factor. And her family had been in the service for years and she's done a lot of these shows everywhere -- so she goes out and then it was John Elway, who was great, who actually by the end started to get really funny.

Chronicle: And he's like shooting footballs out into the audience? No steroids?

RW: None. (in Southern accent): "I'm just clean and happy." And he was throwing out footballs and then Blake went on and then kicked *** and then I'd go on so it was like more of a show than we ever had before. I would start off with "Good Morning whatever the name of the place was, and then riff, and go off from there.

Chronicle: I mean, the tension for you, you're on these Blackhawks and even with the armor --

RW: As weird as it is, as weird as it seems, it isn't scary -- it's like the only time. The first year we went, they had combat landings and takeoffs, which is kinda surreal -- like a weird ride except you realize the consequence of the ride is if someone shoots at you that maybe you go down. But most of the time they spiral in and you're sitting up front. And the first time they land in Afghanistan, they say, "Mr. Williams, you want to stay up here," you start seeing the whole flight crew strapping in Kevlar and helmets and guys getting up by the doors. And you're going, "Shouldn't we ... ?" And then they spiral in and you land, and the moment you get off the plane, they say, "Please sir, stay on the path." "Why? What's on the other side?" "It's still mined." I went, "Thank you."

(Switches to Bob Hope voice) Yeah, it's crazy isn't it? The back nine is still mined. Yeah, I love it here. I'll keep my feet, thank you. Who's that? Stumpy? (in soft Arab accent) "I'm local mineworker."

But the one takeoff, out of Balad, at night. Totally blacked out. They're in all night-vision goggles and I was sitting in the back this time. ... And they just go whoooom and it's straight up, just like Space Mountain, and all you hear is like WHOA! And people who have done it are like, "Shut up. Is that your hand?" "Maybe." It's all C-130s, which are these old, the standard ones they've been using for years. They don't have the gunner anymore. The weird thing is with the crew on the C-130, everyone's looking for flashes, even with night vision. They're just looking for that. One time we took off out of Afghanistan, I was sitting in the cockpit. You hear: (robotic voice) "Missile launch, missile launch," and they pop flares but it can be a reflection off the ground. Any heat signature off the ground registers as a missile? "Is that OK?" And they say, "Yeah, that's nothing." Oh really? OK, thank you. (In robotic voice: Windshear, 500. Missile launch.) And they run the test on all of those things. (Robotic voice, shrill this time): "Warning: You're f -- . Warning: Back up, move out." But there was never a sense of imminent danger, I mean, even though the week after we left, they hit that cafeteria, which we'd been in the year before.

Chronicle: How much did you travel on the ground?

RW: You travel in between bases all over -- we never went into to the cities. Like in Kandahar, it used to be like a minor equivalent of what La Guardia was. A little TWA-built, shot up, shot to s -- , man, with all sorts of Farsi on the wall, "F -- you." And big blown-up buildings, especially when we went there the first time because it was right after the invasion. ... And that was the one thing about Afghanistan. You'd fly over it and realize, this is bleak, and then you land and you realize it's even bleaker. And they said at one point, that whole valley was the most fertile valley in Afghanistan. It was beautiful. And obviously for poppies -- opium. And it's back, big. The good news for heroin addicts, the opium is back, big! And you saw the article in the paper, where they go, "We don't know if it will affect the election if we stop poppy growth." Livelihood: "Potatoes? Poppies? Your call." We found that nobody's freebasing French fries. "What are you, chasing the potato?"

continued........

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:28 PM

Chronicle: You would wade into the crowd, I read.

RW: You would do kind of a re-con, and find out what's happening at the base. In Afghanistan I kind of knew certain things about the place, the dust. The first time we landed in Afghanistan, it was at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. And the dust was so big it was like "Lawrence of Arabia," except played in Oklahoma. It was to the point the guys would say you would cough an adobe brick. And I transferred that, so, basically: "You can s -- your own buildings here." The second time we went was at night and we went and did a show in Kandahar and the Special Forces and all these guys were all up on the roof and they have their own compound because they're pretty much off reservation anyway -- they're all up there with glow sticks, it's like Woodstock -- they're like "F -- dude." They're all up there with glow sticks, which they use to mark landing zones.

Chronicle: Except they don't grab their own ordnance.

RW: "What's that? Oww! F -- you, idiot! That's not a flare, dumb f -- , C-4, f -- off!" The first time we landed, there was still a lot of coalition. The Australians were still there, the English, all these guys. The second time we came back there were fewer and fewer, Lithuanians, Latvians. I'd meet guys from Estonia: "What are you here for?"

Chronicle : So when you'd go into the crowds, would you --

RW: Meet people, talk to them -- and get re-con for what the show could be about. Like when we did this one major base in Qatar, the big one ... I said, "You guys really have it hard," because they had a thing that said "day spa." I went, "ah, war is heck, isn't it?" And all these guys said: "Day spa? Ah, f -- off." "They got the day spa, you bastards." And then we did an aircraft carrier, which is pretty crazy. And a guy complained about the food and everybody went, "Shut the f -- up. Have an MRE (meal ready to eat) and shut up."

Chronicle: And when you'd go in to talk to them, what kinds of things did people say to you?

RW: Most of the time, they'd say, thanks for coming, thanks for being here, thanks, it helps -- because it's before Christmas. I think for them it's like, the show is pretty loose. Like last year, I do the full thing like on HBO and I'd look up and see the general and he's there laughing -- kind of, I mean. He has to hold decorum and he's having a great time and I'd see his wife and I'm like "sorry!" and I'd be doing this really blue Viagra kind of string and spraying the audience and they're going nuts and -- I'd look down and I'm like, "please."

Chronicle: So you could do anything you wanted?

RW: Pretty much. This year they said, just back off a little because it's the general's final tour and they don't want him to take flak for bringing the little blue boy. But it was cool. I backed it up a little and it still worked.

There was one show where there were a lot of kids in the audience and that was pretty much like, (in Mr. Rogers accent) "Hi, boys and girls."

Chronicle: Kids? Like, actual kids?

RW: Kids like kids. In Bahrain, there were a lot of families -- they've since moved them out. They thought it was too dangerous -- even in Bahrain - - even this year there were more kids so that was the place I just (makes smooch sound) "hi boys and girls." When you talked to them, you'd meet people, a husband and wife either stationed at the same base, like a nurse and doctor -- or nurse and her husband's a helicopter pilot. And I'd meet them and they'd ask if you'd go to the next base and try and say hi to so-and-so and we'd run into people like that. Or one time we got a box of cookies from this girl and the cookies were left behind because they got mixed up in some luggage, we changed planes but I still met the girl on the other end and said thanks for trying. I think it's the main object of just showing up and having a good time with them.

Did I get a sense that things are tougher? Yeah, you can pick up on that. You get a sense that it's hardcore. We toured a hospital in Kandahar. The wounded there were a couple of helicopter pilots. I don't know if they'd been shot down or crashed but they were stable and conscious. The first time we went there we met these kids and that was pretty rough because there was a boy who had been wounded by a mine and his parents wanted nothing to do with it. He was pretty beaten up, I don't think he was going to make it. And you just saw the look in his eyes, like "What? why? why?" But there was also a little boy who they were going to adopt, who was part of a thing -- remember that wedding party that got shot up because they got celebratory fire -- well, there was this little boy who had survived that and his parents didn't and they were going to adopt him he was just riding around on hot wheels like, "What happened?" "Nothing."

Chronicle: You heard about this kid who got brought to Oakland, we did a big long series on him. He came across a mine. And the guys over there pulled him in and fixed him and Children's Hospital in Oakland said we'll take him and they sent him here with his father.

RW: The mines are hideous. Plus now, the explosive damage, the only show where you saw a lot of wounded was in Ramstein (Germany), which is the main base. If you can make it to Ramstein, you're going to make it. They have a 24- 7 constant hospital, and they say the problem is the body armor protects the core body. but limbs ... I met a lot of guys, even when we did the challenged athletes, which is amputees and different things, there were a lot there this year -- even a couple that were going back, who get a prosthesis and go back to Iraq to their unit. They want to go back and they'll have some function, like a driver, but they don't want to leave their unit.

Chronicle: What always struck me after being in combat and war zones for so long, was that "wounded" and "killed" never fully describe the kind of indignities the human body can go through.

RW: No you can't even think. I mean, there was a guy sitting in front and he'd obviously been burned, and they had him with that burn gel on and he was watching the show and his hands were in the blanket and at first everyone thought he'd lost his arms. He was still kind of shell shocked but he was OK and he was kind of laughing like this -- you saw that he'd been pretty badly burned but they're reconstructing. But it wasn't like the hideous burns but he'd taken a major hit. A lot of those guys were there. But they didn't have the hardcore in the front. But it's still like you said, no one can explain this -- especially the more brutal the weapons are.

Chronicle: Have you heard from people who saw you over there?

RW: Yeah, we get all sorts of amazing letters. Yeah, you get letters from them, you get letters from their families, you get letters from spouses, you get letters saying thanks. I got this weird kind of bittersweet letter from this woman who said thank you for my son -- saying he's having a really tough time but you performed and he had a really great day and he said it helped him so much. Sorry to say that he passed away, he was killed. That was last year.

Even Blake said, when he was in Vietnam sometimes the only things you can kind of get were those shows. The first time we went we got to see more people, and they actually would take you to all the different extremities of the base and you'd met the guys at the perimeter who were like, "What the f -- are you doing here, man?" And you'd see them and they'd come out dressed like mosquito men in the night-vision and go "Hey, Mr. Williams, how are you dude?" And they'd show you the stuff, which is pretty wild. I'd say put on the night- vision goggles. And one guy said one night he was looking out with the night- vision goggles in Afghanistan and saw an Afghan with a goat and he said, "I don't want to see that again." He was like: "That f -- me up for a week, Jack. " (In calm, clinical accent) "What's he doing to the goat?" "Don't ask." A good goat'll do that.

But the shows themselves were pretty wild and great. In terms of a performance, it's some of the best audiences you'll ever get in your life.

continued.....

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:29 PM

Chronicle: Is it like a different energy?

RW: It's like insane. You kind of wonder, do they tell them: (in very official command) "You must laugh at these people or we will hurt you." I think they just have a good time. They go nuts, and especially if you start playing with them, if you start f -- with the officers, or you start making fun, like. You start messing with different groups of people and you talk about the camo, going, "What were you thinking?" The thing you see that kind of gets you is how young, and there's this dedication and this kind of force and you go and you see this youth, and that's why you think "war -- how insane." This youth, these people and this incredible energy and intelligence and dedication is getting chewed up.

Chronicle: You probably don't think about it at the moment, but 1,200 people killed and tens of thousands wounded. ... There is a scene in "Good Morning, Vietnam" when the convoy's stuck, you do the impromptu shtick and there is a moment clearly when your character realizes what this was all about.

Robin Williams: And you will know, among these people, some of them won't come back, or be like you said, maimed. That's the thing of going and so you're here and you do this thing that gives them kind of a jolt, just a breakthrough. And a lot of the times, they'll say this, the constant stuff that they're going through on a daily basis. But you realize the one thing with all of this technology, it still comes down to people. ... It comes down to people wading into other people -- and like when you do see the trucks, you'll see the hardcore Hummers and the Bradleys and all the other stuff but then you will see ones that are rigged like "Road Warrior" and you realize, "Don, Don, come on." They are sending units in and they need the best. And the body armor thing, and literally, everyone having the full kit.

We're also traveling with the Joint Chiefs of Staff so there's not going to be somebody coming up, going, "Sir, I've got one old helmet from World War I." But you do meet National Guards who've been there way beyond their tour of duty. ... These are guards who were called up and have been here two years -- especially support guys and support units and they're not support anymore, they're doing frontline stuff. There's no such thing as a rear area.

Chronicle: Do they talk to you about that?

RW: No, they didn't talk about it. You just know. We did this show in this place, I ... Al Asad (air base), which was a base built by the Czechoslovakians for Hussein. They dug out an entire valley and they built it. And in that valley there is supposedly a pond or a little oasis where, was it Abraham? -- it was actually spoken of in the Bible. It's called the Lion's Mouth -- they call it the "Lion's a -- hole." It's this f -- hole, where it's like a staging area. It's mainly Marines and mainly Marines that stage. And it's near all the cities that you'd be reading about. And you see these guys and they're like just hardcore.

But the show we did, we're in this room, this old theater, which looked like it was probably the old Iraqi movie theater. We're doing this show and all of sudden the sound cuts out and the lights cut out and so the only light we have is coming from two doors -- and everyone's kind of like: "What do we do?" And we went, "F -- it," (then in Ethel Merman voice) "I went to Juilliard," so I'm like, "Buck up!" and they start laughing and you f -- around with them. It was wild but it was probably one of the best. And they're like laughing and I said, "Does this happen a lot?" And they're like, "F -- yeah, we're on the Iraqi grid ... and we blew up the only power station." And we're like, "Hey, way to go."

Chronicle: Like "M*A*S*H." But you probably didn't do a lot of Bush stuff, or did you?

RW: The first time we did and you could make fun of him not being the brightest bulb. We didn't do a lot of political stuff. We'd try and it would be kind of like "Hoooooo," and we'd go, "Hmmm, so: This is a red state." In one place we made fun of Rumsfeld, because it was -- I kind of went off on Rumsfeld, that he kind of sounds like my dad after a couple of gin and tonics. And they would laugh about that. We didn't hardcore bash him. The first time you could get pretty close to the line. This time I didn't go after it so much. Elections were over, and it seemed like you're here. For me, personally, I kinda find it pretty hypocritical -- (Bush) didn't show up for his unit, but they did for theirs. I find that kind of like, he was in the same National Guard unit as Big Foot and he couldn't show up for his physical but these guys did -- and they're going back. I find that a little hypocritical. But did we do a lot of that stuff? No. Some politics, some. You can talk about the election a little bit, but I think mostly it was just riffing and, I don't know, I tried it a couple of times, and it seemed to be like, "Wooooooo, heeey, easy, (switches to military voice) 'Don't make fun of the MAN.' "

Chronicle: How was the general (Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)?

RW: He's great, I find him to be very personable. And he brings his wife, which is kinda wild. And they both kind of wade in to meet people, and she's very much about taking pictures with people. And visiting hospitals and doing all that.

Chronicle: He always seemed like the guy who, when he's at Rumsfeld's briefings, he's the tall one.

RW: He's the tall one -- good cop/bad cop. I think he has to do the cleanup after Rumsfeld. ... He loved having Blake (Blake Clark, a comic on the tour) there because Blake being a Vietnam vet. And he was in the air in Vietnam and Blake did a great routine about one time they ran into a tank and Blake called in for fire support and the guy said, "Is it friendly?" and he went, "I don't think so." And he said, "They don't have tanks." "They do. Either that or it's a very well-armed water buffalo." So he called in for an airstrike. And he gave them the coordinates and this guy all of a sudden came over. And the Phantom comes, and he said he launched a dumb bomb, and this is not a smart bomb, and the f -- thing nailed the tank and the pilot blew away and Blake's going, "You f -- got it, you f -- blew a tank away." And from the radio he heard (calm voice), "Uh roger that." And that was the one time the audience just went, "Yeoow." And anytime you f -- with the Air Force ... especially with the new (blue) camouflage, it's like oh man, it's ridiculous. But you know, a lot of times we'd go to these Air Force bases, and they were like the day spa, but it doesn't mean the guys aren't, you know, they get shot at. But it's not like going to the Marine bases, where they guys are like going house to house -- it's a different thing. But everybody's in it in a weird way. As of yet, I've never been to the city. The Red Zone. ...

PB: Because the Green Zone is supposed to be protected in Baghdad.

RW: I love the fact (Bush) is calling for elections: (Arab accent) "We have very few people to run." How can you have an election (Arab accent again) "um, when the polling booth is gone, the electoral officials have been killed? But if you'd like to have an election we can run one like yours online, and get results from Ohio, the 300 to 600 village." It's literally between a rock and a hard place. But do you see a big drop in people? No. We're doing shows with the Joint Chiefs of Staff but I don't think that they're like trying to jack it up to look like everything's good. You're doing a show to say, "Hey man, you're here, we came for you." And I'd go back because it's kind of a powerful experience. I don't think I want to be the Bob Hope of the year 2100, but then you realize, I got why he did it. But I also want to get other people to go, people in their 20s to go and perform for people in their 20s. Listen, I'm 53, I can kind of riff but if I could get someone their age to riff, it would be great, to riff with them and play with them.

continued.......

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:30 PM

Chronicle: You don't want to keep going back, and be the only one. ...

RW: I want to get other people but it's a hard thing to say to people with your politics -- you say, you want to go do this. In a war, that even though I go: I don't know why we're there, but I know they're there, so that's why you still go for them.

Chronicle: Do you get in political trouble for any of this?

RW: No, not so far. Like "F -- you man, why are you doing this?" Bush, I don't support him. You go over there for them (the troops). I don't have to come up with a disclaimer (in official sounding voice): "These are not necessarily the opinions of the present administration." They know that. That's why I won't be at the inaugural ball.

But if you go, you also see the people. You see them. And it's men and women and boys and girls. I mean literally. ... Have things changed? And I kind of sensed in Afghanistan, that things seemed to be a little better, but you can't judge, it's like judging how's New York living in a precinct. You just see a slight, kind of maybe. But you read today, gradual withdrawal. That's what Kerry said, it's like Vietnamization. As soon as you have elections it's like: "That's it, everything's good. Bye, thank you."

Chronicle: When you're onstage doing the routine or when you're with the audience, there have to be moments where it kind of hits you. Or is it a profound experience period?

RW: It hits you because it just hits you. You kind of look out and you see them. It's more when you're taking pictures -- 'cause that's when people will talk to you. There will be guys coming up saying stuff like "Thanks man." A couple of guys said, "We saw you in Afghanistan," and now they're in Iraq. This old Chicano guy who was a helicopter maintenance guy in Afghanistan who must have been in his 60s. He said, "Man, I was in Vietnam," and I sensed that. He'd been there and is probably still there. I didn't see him this time. I had this weird illusion that if I went back each year I'd see the same people. But thank God not. So you can do some of the same stuff and they're going: "It's new." They're cycled out, which is great.

Chronicle: There are routines you did the first time that went over much better?

RW: Yeah, it was like whew. It's like I should do new stuff (in a whisper) "These aren't the same folks: You don't have to worry." And you come back and it's all new commanding officers. The only guy we recognized as the same was in Kuwait or in Bahrain was this big tattooed gunnery sergeant. This guy has got tats everywhere. He's kind of crazy and he's built like a brick s -- house. And, on the way to the airport this guy is driving a Toyota with a couple of Department of Defense security guards and pulls up next to the bus and goes (in booming voice), "GOOD DAY TO DIE!" He was a maniac. He normally drives his Harley in Bahrain. And he is this giant, he is like a lifer -- kind of the ultimate -- funny, weird. As I'm leaving, I say: "You take care of yourself, I'll come back." He said, "I hope so." The tat man. He was the only guy you can't help but recognize. He'll be there. He'll be the last guy out. If they ever leave, he'll be the one in a dinghy going, "F -- this."

But, yeah, it hits you when you see them and when you go to the hospitals. Sometimes it hits you. It hits you. But I haven't been to the hardcore hospitals. I've seen some of the guys in San Diego, but they're ready to go back. Which is weird. That's the kind of loyalty to their unit. Are you doing this for Bush? No.

Chronicle: I guess that's why you don't sense a lessening of enthusiasm -- I mean how can you? If you're there, you're in it?

RW: Your focus is that. And they are focused on that. They also know, when you talk to them. ... But you want to think of what you can do to help people but that's not the problem. The problem is what do you do to get things stable, and withdrawing won't be it. You will create something a million times worse.

Chronicle: But your responsibility while you're there ...

RW: Your responsibility is just to have a good time with them and to play and to riff. People say to you to be politically aware. I don't think they have time to be politically aware. But like you said, you could be working with somebody and the next day they're gone.

Chronicle: We look at some of these guys who do blogs from there.

RW: That would be the only place you can really get what's going on. I don't think I can get at these because there's a general there. The first time we went, some guys would talk about things and what they were doing and the guys who lived in the safe house in Mazar-e-Sharif, those were the Special Forces guys. They'd go out during the day and at night withdraw to this compound. But I don't know, Afghanistan is the only place I felt maybe things are working a little bit, but I don't know -- comparatively only in the sense that the heroin business is back so they're occupied and they're refunding with that -- happy, at least, but nodding off more. Oh and when we were in Djibouti, there's that drug that's legal? Khat, and the general of the base said, "Look over there," and he said, "That's the khat train," and he said, "That's the only thing that delivers on time in this country." And all the trucks are waiting to deliver the khat to be taken to the dealers to be taken to the different points downtown. He said at 2 o'clock it hits the streets, by 5 everyone is kind of whacked and then they get very talky. ... It's legal there and Yemen. Djibouti is the horn of Africa, and that is the hottest inhabited place on earth. Heat-hottest. And Baghdad is the hottest place gunfire-hottest.

Chronicle: Would you want to keep going back?

RW: Yeah, I'd go back. I just want to find out the people that go -- and get people more in the age bracket, some music or something that would be kind of kick-***. ...There's a lot of people who go a lot. There's also other bases, people forget there's Bosnia, South Korea, other places to go, that's the hardcore. The times we've gone, I always come back going, "I'm glad I did it." The weirdest thing is, they give you unit coins, those alone, I'm going: "Thanks." Unit coins are basically the unit. Usually between officers, if you're at a bar, they hand them off. If you have your unit coin, you have to buy the round. Since I don't drink, I have basically have a s -- load of unit coins.

Chronicle: Khat.

RW: Yeah, khat. That's all I need. "What'd you do the tour for?" "A bag of khat. Khat and two uniforms." (In hillbilly voice) "And I got some hats and T-shirts."

Chronicle: How's dealing with USO?

RW: They're pretty mild -- at first I was worried about censorship. Last year it was pretty blue -- just this year they said, just tone it back a rat's *** because it's his last year, because it's (Gen. Myers') last tour. I guess after last year, it was really blue, they were like, "We got a few letters." It was like, "OK." ... The bad news is, they're probably going to be there for a while.

Chronicle: Somewhere between one and 20 years.

RW: That's the English. (In posh British accent) "If you're lucky, I'd imagine 50. If things fail, one of two things happens. Either they civilize and join you, or you go broke. Look at the English ... " But I would go back. The weird thing is the connection was (Myers) and he's gone. He'll be gone in October, so I'll have to meet the new joint chief of staff. (In nerdy voice) "Hello, sir."

Chronicle: He'll be shorter.

RW: They'll find a little guy. (In loud military command) "We need a small Marine."

Ellie

From Mark(Fontman)

thedrifter

02-09-05, 08:57 PM

OIF Marines, families reunite at Horno
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification #: 200524141753
Story by Lance Cpl. Joseph DiGirolamo

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Feb. 3, 2004) -- Lance Cpl. Patrick D. Guild is among hundreds of Marines who now don't have to worry about what's behind a closed door or whether he's amply protected.

"Finally, I can wake up without having to worry about putting on my gear," said Guild, a machine gunner for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, who joined scores of other Marines from the battalion as they greeted elated, drenched family members Friday at Camp Horno after a grueling, heart-wrenching seven-month deployment in Iraq.

Heart-wrenching because many comrades from the battalion died during a stint that included Operation Phantom Fury, the two-week, house-to-house campaign to rid Fallujah of insurgents.

"The first couple of days we encountered heavy sniper fire," Guild said. "After that we went on house-to-house sweeps where the heaviest combat took place.

"Insurgents hid in homes waiting for us; this is where we lost most of our brothers."

The cold, wet weather didn't dampen the enthusiasm of family members eager to reunite with beloved Marines and sailors on Friday. It was the final wave of battalion arrivals after similar reunions the previous two days.

Marines marched in platoons to the edge of "Lover's Bridge," then ambled across the bridge. Family members swarmed to the bridge's edge as they saw Marines making their way across.

The loved ones converged in a sea of hugs and kisses accented by hooting, hollering and sobs. Some family members' and Marines' heads darted back and forth as they tried to see through the crowd to a loved one.

Many families traveled across country to see their loved ones come home.

The Comeau family came all the way from New Hampshire.

"It's great he's finally coming home. We've waited for this day since June 18," said George and Louise Comeau, parents of Sgt. Stephen Comeau, an anti-tank assault guided missileman for 3/1.

"The first thing were going to do is celebrate Christmas together," added Brooke, Stephen Comeau's wife.

Others waited restlessly for their significant others.

"Its been a long time, but I cant wait to start making up lost time with him," 1st Lt. Juliet H. Hetz said while awaiting the arrival of her boyfriend, 1st Lt. Carin O. Calvin, Weapons Platoon commander for Company L.

"We've missed each other several times because of each other's deployments," she said.

Many families said their hearts go out to the families of those who died.

The unit's mission in Iraq included clearing improvised explosive devices (IED), ambushes and security patrols.

"The intense schedule and blistering heat was the roughest part to get use to," said Guild, from Oshkosh, Wis., adding that he just wanted to return home and relax with friends and family.

This was the battalion's second deployment to Iraq. They were part of the first wave of battalions that pushed through Iraq at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

E-mail Lance Cpl. DiGirolamo at joseph.digirolamo@usmc.mil.

Ellie

thedrifter

02-09-05, 10:17 PM

Predators Protect Troops
By Spc. Leah R. Burton, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, BALAD, Iraq, Feb. 9, 2005 - The loud roars of Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons here are familiar reminders of close-air support, but unmanned Predators silently swarm the skies protecting troops by different means.

The MQ-1 Predator, a lightweight, low-horsepower, unmanned aerial vehicle capable of taking daylight and infrared video imagery traverses the atmosphere above virtually undetectable.

The 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron here aids Army personnel by keeping eyes on the combat situation via the Predators.

Although the Predator's main mission is to collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information, it can also be used to introduce some lethal firepower to an intense combat situation.

"Obviously if we catch the bad guys that are shooting mortars at our base, the mortars stop," said Air Force Maj. Michael Bruzzini, squadron commander. "We saw mortars launched and took out the perpetrators with Hellfire missiles."

All of this is done from a terminal on the ground, where a pilot and a sensor operator control the movements and actions of the UAV.

The Predator was used during a recent raid where Army personnel detained several high-value targets, increasing the unit's combat effectiveness by 50 percent, Bruzzini said.

"As the raid was going down, a 'God's-eye' view was being passed down to the soldiers. The Predator had eyes on the whole time and was able to inform the soldiers of what was going on around them," Bruzzini said.

This type of mission is part and parcel what the Predator was meant for. "Our biggest mission is to support [the Army]. We want to be your God's-eye view," Bruzzini said.

While the Predator's two onboard Hellfire missiles and surveillance capabilities supports the mission, Bruzzini still understands what his sister service's bottom line. "You win wars by securing ground, and troops on the ground are the only way you secure ground," the former F-16 pilot said.

He noted that there are challenges that are unique to the Predator. "You feel like you're in it. You do lose some situational awareness, because you can't look around your aircraft," Bruzzini said. "You take for granted a lot of things that are very easy in other aircraft, like taxiing."

Other than challenges borne of the fact that the pilot isn't actually in the aircraft, piloting the Predator is very similar to operating other aircraft.

The sensor operators control the movement of the cameras on the Predator and undergo nine months of training for that responsibility. Six months of that training takes place at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, and the other three months take place at a formal training unit.

"In the first couple of weeks of the FTU, you want to quit [because of difficulties controlling the equipment,]" said Airman 1st Class Tyler Farley, a squadron sensor operator.

Farley has since mastered the operation of the equipment and now acts on instinct. "You just trust what the pilots do and play your 'video game' for five hours or so," he said.

Although it can be scary controlling a $4.2 million aircraft by remote control, Bruzzini said they are more apt to take risks in this aircraft because they're not risking loss of life.

"What's going through my head (when I'm piloting the Predator) is we have troops getting shot at who are Americans, and I want to help save American lives. ... It's very rewarding to know that what you do saves lives. ... There are combat missions with people on the ground, and I'm saving their lives on a daily basis," Bruzzini said.

(Army Spc. Leah R. Burton is a member of the 28th Public Affairs Detachment from Fort Lewis, Wash. and is deployed to Iraq in support of units at LSA Anaconda.)

Ellie