Fire Hydrant of Freedom
Politics, Religion, Science, Culture and Humanities => Politics & Religion => Topic started by: Crafty_Dog on February 02, 2007, 01:05:25 PM
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Woof All:
We highly recommend the work of courageous front line work of Michael Yon in Iraq. If you search for Truth, he should be a regular source for you. We give money to support his workt, and hope that you will too. To learn about who he is we recommend a thorough surf through his website.
This thread is to connect you with what he is doing.
Michael, green light to post whatever you want.
The Adventure continues,
Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny
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Greetings from Iraq:
When I arrived in Mosul a few weeks ago, they were getting about 1 car bomb per week. Now it’s up to about 1 per day. The fighting is intensifying here, and that’s the bad news. There is some good news, however: Iraqi Security Forces, though taking losses, are thoroughly punishing the enemy here. Just a few days ago, the enemy launched a large and well-planned attack on a police station. In late 2004 or 2005, such an attack would have been devastating – and was. But this time, when the enemy demanded the Iraq Police surrender, the police responded with gunfire. Lots of it. After several hours of fighting, the enemy fled in front of their blood trails.
I'll be writing about that incident in an upcoming dispatch. Meanwhile, a new dispatch is available at: “The Hands of God.”
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-hands-of-god.htm
In addition to the audio file of a conversation between American soldiers and Iraqi villagers, after a homicide bomber attack, it also includes links to several previous dispatches. To get a better context for the new reports out of Mosul, readers might want to read Gates of Fire and Battle for Mosul IV.
Thank you for supporting this site. Many have asked for a mailing address to use as an alternative to the paypal system. It is included below my signature.
Respectfully,
Michael
Michael Yon
P O Box 416
Westport Pt MA 02791
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
Greetings:
I was present today in Baghdad for the Transfer of Authority. Godspeed to the Coalition and to the people of Iraq. General David Petraeus is now running the war in Iraq. Anyone who knows much about the General might agree that David Petraeus seems to have been born and raised to win this particular war.
Frankly, the odds seem nearly impossible. Iraq is broiling and it's getting worse. Yet, there are glimmers of hope, and I see those glimmers with my own eyes here in Iraq. But make no mistake: America has asked David Petraeus to walk into a burning barn and perform brain surgery on a dying patient. If it can be done, David Petraeus is our man.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to run combat missions with our troops, and to talk with as many Iraqis as possible, and keep the news flowing back. Due to the great number of missions I am running, there may be fewer dispatches in the coming days, but I am planing to do more radio interviews and you can link to these from the home page of my website.
A new dispatch, Roughnecks, is available now. It contains some combat video shot from above. The previous dispatch, Hands of God, has an audio clip that was heavily downloaded for many days, making it slow to access for some visitors. For those who haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, there is a link built into the dispatch name above.
No one can predict the outcome of events here, especially those who have never set foot on Iraqi soil. But, given how vital the outcome is to our national interest, it is imperative that someone be reporting from the ground. Because this site operates soley on reader donations and photograph sales,
I appreciate the support that insures at least this one man's independent perspective.
V/R,
Michael
Michael Yon
P O Box 416
Westport Pt MA 02791
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/roughnecks.htm
Another report from MY on our brave troops in action.
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http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/...with_the_s.php
http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/..._and_the_3.php
Habbaniyah and the 3/3-1 Snake Eaters
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On 2/23/07, robert.schoenenberger@us.army.mil <robert.schoenenberger@us.army.mil >
wrote:
Gentlemen, it is w/ great sorrow I report the passing of two of my good friends, SSG
Joshua Hagar, and PFC Rowan Walters.
SSG Hagar and I attended the April 06 CF Cert at Santa Cruz. At the time, he was
the platoon sergeant for our CF testbed platoon. He later was assigned as the
platoon sergeant for our battalion scouts. Josh had a large personality, and a
great leader. I don't know what the process or criteria there is for having a CF
workout named after a fallen comrade, but I would like to nominate SSG Hagar for
that honor. Stories of Josh's exploits are numerous. Most outstanding was his
daily push for excellence in himself and has Soldiers. He was always quick w/ a
word of encouragement, and tirelessly made time to teach his subordinates.
PFC Walters was one of my medics that was killed enroute to help the group of
Soldiers injured when SSG Hagar was killed. PFC Walters was the Soldier selected by
his commander to attend the train-the-trainer CrossFit course we implented while in
Kuwait. PFC Walters fell in love w/ CF and began passing the kool-aid to the
Soldiers in his platoon. PFC Walters was the complete package: intelligent,
strong, motivated, and a great attitude. One quick story about Walters: an M1 tank
had been disabled by and IED, and Walters was the first medic on the scene. He
single handedly pulled all four Soldiers from the tank, and had them bandaged up and
ready to go when the evacuation vehicle arrived. Tanks are very large on the
outside, but cramped and confined on the inside. What Walters accomplished was no
small task! Imagine lifting a fully equipped soldier from beneath your feet,
through a hole, and then high enough to clear the hole, 4 rounds, for time, then
applying bandag
es, tourniquets, and starting IV's, 4 rounds, for time.
I attempted to attach pictures of Josh and Rowan, but I am having some IT issues w/
my email. I will continue trying to send the pictures
This letter is not meant to incite sorry, but rather to firm our resolve. I quote
my battalion commander: "We will not let these losses cause us to hesitate. We
will go back again, again, and again, and kick some motherfucking ass!" Fairwinds,
Josh and Rowan.
Robert Schoenenberger
1LT, SP PA-C
1/9 INF Physician Assistant
Some day you will thank me. Today is not that day.
RLTW
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Just got this from Michael Yon but there is no URL included, some I'm guessing he has posted something new on his website (see post starting this thread for details)
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Greetings from Iraq:
It's been weeks since I have been able to publish anything substantial. This is
partially due to running nearly constant missions with our troops; I've driven well
over a thousand miles on Iraqi roads since the last dispatch. The remainder is due
to incessant internet problems. Simply put, I am choking on information that will
never be published simply due to lack on reliable internet connections. Sad but
true.
That said, I have been able to write a very short dispatch with photos. Please
click here.
V/R,
Michael
Baghdad
US Mail Address:
Michael Yon
P O Box 416
Westport Pt MA 02791
To manage your preferences or unsubscribe, please click here.
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My latest dispatch is published on the front page of Fox News. I am both honored and that Fox has agreed to begin publishing my major dispatches on their front page. I am also flattered that Fox has agreed to publish my work unedited.
Please click "Ernie is Dead" to read the latest.
This site remains independent and is 100% contingent on reader support. Thank you for considering supporting my work in Iraq through the end of 2007.
Currently I am searching for a good unit in Baghdad to embed with. I need what Ernie needed: a secure place to live and reliable communications. If you are the commander of such a unit, please contact me.
Respectfully
Michael
Michael Yon
P O Box 416
Westport Pt MA 02791
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Greetings,
An American General threatens to kick me out of Iraq. To find out why, please click here to read a brief dispatch "RUBS."
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/rubs.htm
I'll keep giving the good, bad and the ugly for as long as possible.
Respectfully,
Michael
Baghdad
This site is 100% reader supported. No advertisers, no bosses: Readers are the only Royalty here.
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Greetings,
General Petraeus and his people seem to be making progress here. I can actually see hope in the areas I go. Please click for the latest RUBS dispatch.
General Barry McCaffrey (Ret) has just released a report of his Iraq trip and it is also published on the website. All his trip reports are excellent resources for helping one understand the true situation here in Iraq. The man is blunt, and knows his business.
I greatly appreciate the reader support that comes in. Without it, my own mission of observing and reporting on the events unfolding in Iraq would fail. I cannot adequately express my gratitude, other than by sticking it out here.
Very Respectfully,
Michael
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Greetings:
I am in Basra, with our British Coalition partners, who this week launched a clever operation that lured enemy fighters into combat, a decision that proved fatal for more than two dozen of militia members and terrorists. Please click the link to read about Operation Arezzo.
New readers will find the dispatch Tabula Rasa gives context to my work from Iraq.
Another dispatch, with more than 100 photos of the 1-4 Cav at work in Baghdad, is nearly ready. What an excellent bunch of soldiers! I'll send out an announcement when "Desires of the Human Heart" is published and folks at home can see and read about things rarely reported.
I am energized by this embed with British soldiers, which has me in the thick of things with their soldiers who are engaged with the enemy. I broke yet another lens in combat with the British on Tuesday.
Before it got smashed, the lens was taking great photos, some of which you'll see in the latest dispatch, and others will be published in the coming days.
This site is wholly contingent on reader support, for which I'm truly grateful. In addition to keeping me in camera lenses, reader support is the best indication I have of how important it is for me to continue this work.
Respectfully,
Michael
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Also, read this! http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/tabula-rasa.htm
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Greetings,
NBC anchor Brian Williams -- whose reports from Iraq earlier this year were spot-on -- has kindly introduced my latest dispatch about American soldiers at war on his blog on the MSNBC news website. Please click here for Part I of "Desires of the Human Heart."
I will publish the second part soon.
I am still with our British friends in Basra. These excellent soldiers have been fighting harder than I realized. Just some hours ago, I was present when British soldiers honored three of their fallen. We were briefly attacked during the memorial ceremony, when the coffins were carefully carried onto the airplane, but the Brits did not miss a step in bestowing honors on their brethren. Please click here to read British Forces at War.
At least three more installments are coming about the Brits, possibly four, depending on communications. I'm able to get more work done with the Brits due to the hefty support they offer. It’s made a tremendous difference and is another reason I will regret leaving the Brits later this week, although I have requested a return later this year.
The sad news about leaving the Brits is lightened by some very good news. I've asked our Marines fighting in Anbar province for permission to accompany them and I'll be embedding with our Marines in roughly one week.
On a final note, this site is funded by readers and your support is essential. The recent action in Basra and surrounding areas has left me with destroyed photo gear—including a lens I had just managed to replace--and a dying laptop. I appreciate the support more than I can ever adequately express.
V/R,
Michael
Basra, Iraq
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/desires-of-the-human-heart-part-ii.htm
As always, MY is a must read.
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http://www.blackfive.net/
Here is a SITREP from an NCO on the ground in Ramadi. He sees all the intelligence reports and incident reports in the country. Unit and a couple other items have been #$^^$# for security. More evidence that things are working in Iraq.
...Our morale for killing the enemy is high, but to a man everyone is thoroughly disgusted with the US and all of the stupid things that people are saying about the war. Even watching commercials on TV here makes you upset when you see just how frivolous it all is. You really have to come here to understand just how well things are going at least here in Anbar. AQIZ is getting rolled up left and right and our attacks right now are averaging less than 2 per week in the entire AO! The ones that they do pull off are incredibly weak and all I see on FNC is spot reps of a vbied someplace in the country. I know there are hot areas, but I read all the intel reports and we are creaming these fools.
[armor unit] is an army unit here and they just got done f@#king up AQIZ in [redacted] big time. They swept through the joint and just slayed fools. We are having trouble figuring out where to go right now because everybody is getting rolled and the locals are ratting them out constantly. I'm serious, it is dead out here. That could change, but the people here are not having it anymore. The biggest problem in Ramadi is no electricity. It's getting hot out so that is going to suck for the people in a month or so. Apparently the way the grid is setup makes it difficult to fix but hopefully someone is working on it. Not my department...
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These are perhaps the most interesting days of all to be in Iraq. I'll keep the dispatches coming. Please click here for latest: Death or Glory III of IV
To understand why I have maintained independence, please click here for Chapter 1 of my book "Danger Close." Purchases of "Danger Close" support this site and are greatly appreciated. Several chapters in "Danger Close" (first published in 1999) detail my early experiences with the press both favorable and unfavorable.
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
Baghdad
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As always, a must read from MY:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/be-not-afraid.htm
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http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/..._of_baquba.php
Major offensive in al Qaeda's so-called capital of the Islamic State of Iraq
The Diyala Campaign is underway. As part of major offensive operations throughout the belts regions of Baghdad, Iraqi and U.S. forces have launched a large scale operation in the city of Baqubah, the provincial capital of Diyala. Dubbed Operation Arrowhead Ripper, the offensive is massive. This is a division sized operation of "approximately 10,000 Soldiers, with a full complement of attack helicopters, close air support, Strykers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles."
Over 30 al Qaeda operatives have been killed since the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division kicked off the operation with a "quick-strike nighttime air assault."
Elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, and the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, are operating in Baqubah, along with the 2nd Brigade of the 5th Iraqi Army Division. American forces are in the lead of the assault, with the Iraqi Army in support. The 2-5 Iraqi Army Brigade killed four al Qaeda after receiving sniper fire, and captured 2 others.
The New York Times, which incorrectly reported the operation as consisting of 2,000 U.S. troops, reported that the western portion of the city of Baqubah has been sealed off with ground and air units as troops pursue the 300 to 500 Qaeda believed to be operating in the area.
The 1920 Revolution Brigades, which turned on al Qaeda in Diyala and cleared the city of Buhriz with U.S. assistance, is actively working along side Iraqi Army units in Baqubah. "The Iraqi forces were joined by some members of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade, a Sunni Arab group with units that have recently repudiated a longstanding alliance with Al Qaeda, and witnesses said the two groups were welcomed by the residents," note the Times.
Map of southern Diyala. Click map to view.
Back in May, we noted Diyala has become the main hub of al Qaeda's operations. Al Qaeda in Iraq made Baqubah the capital of its rump Islamic State of Iraq last year. Since the inception of the Baghdad Security Plan in mid-February, the security situation, which was deteriorating after U.S. forces pulled back last fall, has markedly worsened. Al Qaeda has prepared fighting positions, supply bases, IED traps, bomb rigged buildings, and training camps in the province.
Over 2,000 hardened al Qaeda fighters fled Baghdad and are operating in Diyala. An American intelligence official and a U.S. military officer informed us that al Qaeda is operating along the lines of Hezbollah's military structure in Lebanon. Al Qaeda attacks in the region proved this, as a series of assaults along the Iranian border and elsewhere in the province bore the hallmark of a well led, well trained fighting unit.
The fighting in Diyala will be hard. Al Qaeda is organized in small military units with infantry, mortars, anti-tank and anti-aircraft teams, as well as suicide and IED cells and the accompanying logistical nodes. Al Qaeda has been conducting a terror campaign to remove tribal leaders and others who oppose them, while waging a campaign of intimidation designed to cow the local population.
The Diyala Campaign has been a long time coming. The 10,000 U.S. troops and supporting Iraqi units won't sit pat in Baqubah, but will reach out to strike at other al Qaeda bases in the troubled province. These areas include Khalis, Muqdadiyah and a host of small towns up and down the Diyala River Valley and along the Iranian border where al Qaeda has established bases, training camps and logistical nodes.
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MY's latest report:
http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/surrender-or-die.htm
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I just pay-pal'ed him 25.00. I wish Rogt and Milt read his work. They might might get it then.
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The latest from MY. As always, a must read.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
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Friday, July 06, 2007
The Zawahiri Tape
Power Line thinks al-Qaeda is having a rough time of it, and Ayman al-Zawahiri's video, which describes their travails in Iraq and elsewhere is clear proof. The Zawahiri video with subtitles is shown. The video is worth watching in detail to get more than a superficial sense of Zawahiri's message. Here was how I heard it:
Zawahiri reminds his listeners of the establishment of the Caliphate-in-exile "which everybody applauded"; but bitterly notes that some of those who once clapped now opposed the Islamic State of Iraq "because it is not empowered", which I can only take to mean "in declining fortune". But never fear, he now claims, the "wind is blowing against Washington". Then he digresses and excoriates the Saudis, contrasting the way they sent the youth for Jihad into Afghanistan and but now have forbidden young men to go into Iraq; and who Zawahiri accuses of working tirelessly on behalf of the Americans to deliver Muslim lands into the hands of the Jew! He then switches to a audio clip from a commander who asks why he is getting no reinforcements, why Muslim scholars are hanging back from endorsing their struggle. At this point in watching the video, I realized that although the idea of the "moderate Muslim" may be laughed to scorn by conservatives, the concept was real to Zawahiri at least, as a bitter and galling reality. He seemed disappointed that the Ummah was not prepared to go as far as he.
The degree of despair can be gathered from the video's choice of metaphor. The Al-Qaeda tape compared the Muslim debates over whether or to follow it's lead in the Jihad to the idle discussions within Constantinople over how many devils could stand on the tip of a pin as the Muslims were battering the walls with catapaults -- except this time the roles were reversed. It was the hated Americans were doing the battering and the bickering Muslims who were counting the devils upon the pins. Even allowing for hyperbole, the choice of metaphor does little to convey confidence.
His commander exclaims "May Allah pluck your eyes out if you don't come an join the Jihad!". Quite a line that. It might be that al-Qaeda has been missing its recruitment targets lately and this video is the equivalent of the America's "Army Strong" pitch, except in this case it is more like Jihad On It's Last Legs.
Zawahiri urges the "youth" to hurry to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Palestine and the Atlas Mountains. Support through propaganda (books and cassettes) are not enough. What he needs are sandals on the ground.
As to his boys in Iraq being too "unempowered" for recognition, Zawahiri ask bristlingly whether the Islamic State of Iraq could be any weaker than the Jihadis in Gaza, who only exists he says, at the sufferance of Israel and who commute to the West Bank only after consenting to a search? He asks if those semi-prisoners of Israel can be a government, why can't his boys in Iraq be given the same standing? (These passages were immensely revealing, because they frankly conveyed the fact that despite their bluster, and the media's amplification of it, the bald truth was that mighty Hamas and Fatah lived only because Israel let them. Whether the Israeli hand was stayed from decency or fear of Western political correctness is an open question, but clearly not out of a fear for Palestinian firepower, which Zawahiri can hardly conceal his contempt for.
Indeed, Zawahiri goes on so long and hard against Palestine and Hamas that I strongly suspect he dislikes the spotlight on Gaza and the West Bank because, were he frank enough to admit it, it is a competitor for resources for his own project, the Islamic State of Iraq. Shorn of his holy Joe attitude, and Koranic pretensions, what Zawahiri is actually talking about is money, just like a used car salesman. The message is gimme, gimme! This is a better model than that Gaza jalopy you've paid so much for. Gimme.
Zawahiri then goes and declares how pure the al-Qaeda in Iraq is compared to Hamas, how unstained by innocent blood. He says this with a straight face, but his whiskers have me at a disadvantage. Then having denied any misdeeds, he makes the extraordinary offer to submit the Caliphate's leaders and men to Muslim judicial proceedings -- some kind of Islamic International Criminal Court -- strange that the Brussel's ICC's writ runs so short that Zawahiri doesn't even consider it from across the Mediterranean Sea. And my guess on hearing these words is that Zawahiri is feeling the heat, despite his disclaimers of innocence and heading off the complaints about al-Qaeda's bloody tactics in Iraq. He is saying "I promise to cooperate fully with any investigation". That would be the way it would be phrased in Washington. Then he claims is being wronged by the Mainstream Media, which reserves favorable coverage for those bozos Hamas when they are thugs, while his pure warriors are depicted as baby-killers by ignorant correspondents.
Zawahiri's explains that al-Qaeda's counterattacked in Iraq was to save it from the defeat which overtook Afghanistan. He says so plainly. He saw it -- initially at least -- as fundamentally defensive in character; a blocking action to an imminent American threat. And in my opinion, his great fortune lay in that Iraq was so close, to the sources of his Arabian manpower pool that he was able generate a much greater force than has been possible in Afghanistan. And yet despite the advantage of fighting in the heart of the Arab World he was running out of recruits, which is the entire point of his whole video. Maybe the American strategy of turning the Sunnis against the al-Qaeda has had international repercussions on his recruiting. Word is filtering back to other Arab countries that al-Qaeda is the enemy; that it's not all it was cracked up to be when it could be viewed from the romantic distance of Afghanistan. Up close it was ugly. In an indirect way the battlefield has produced what diplomacy was supposed to and could not. It has alienated al-Qaeda from some of its Sunni base. If I am right, it's a thunderclap. And I suspect I am right because right aferward Zawahiri waxes poetic on the great "conquests" of Islam. The attacks on the embassies, on the USS Cole. September 11. Attacks in Europe. But he has no victories to offer after that. Except one. Political victories in America. He offers a clip from Thomas Kean saying that America is facing a tough challenge as if to underscore how the winds are now turning against Washington, though the winds blow from Washington itself. Zawahiri then plays clips asserting that al-Qaeda has grown to Pan-Islamic power, with cells everywhere, even in London. (Interestingly enough, one of the reasons his cited experts give for al-Qaeda's increasing strength "is not just American policy" but the repressive policies of Arab governments. The same people our "realists" want us to rely upon once we withdraw from Iraq.) His cited experts say that if al-Qaeda can drive America from Iraq then not only will al-Qaeda's stock rise but those of Arab governments will correspondingly decline. But he fears those governments still and in his last statements warns of cryptic dangers "outside of Iraq", to pefidies of all types and I wonder whether he meant Iran.
I think anyone who has the time should watch the video in its entirety. Especially Senators, though I doubt they have the time. Zawahiri is not a man who exudes the air of a winner. The entire 23 minute segment shows a man who seeking comfort from past glories, is agonizing over a quagmire, worried he is losing international support, and whose army is breaking down from overstretch.
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/...hiri-tape.html
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Second post of the day:
Al Qaeda continues to commit suicide in Iraq. More Iraqis are turning against al Qaeda for the crimes they commit.
Real progess is showing in Baqubah on D +16 since the launch of operation Arrowhead Ripper: the Battle for Baqubah.
Please click here for photos and text: http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/baqubah-update-05-july-2007.htm
Sincerely,
Michael Yon
Baqubah, Iraq
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Greetings from Baqubah,
Another quiet day has unfolded here. Tonight, Thursday 12 June, I will do a live radio interview with Hugh Hewitt at 7PM EST.
Also, a new dispatch is published: Al Qaeda on the Run
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/al-qaeda-on-the-run-feasting-on-the-moveable-beast.htm
Very Respectfully,
Michael
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Second post of the day
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog..._in_the_no.asp
Iraq Report: Al Qaeda in the Northern Villages
As Operations Phantom Thunder pushes forward in Baghdad and the Belts, U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked and killed an al Qaeda team attempting to take control of a rural Kurdish village in Diyala. Meanwhile, with critics claiming the U.S. is too al Qaeda focused in its operations, Iraqi and U.S. forces put a significant dent in the Mahdi Army over the past several days.
Diyala
As Operations Arrowhead Ripper proceeds in the provincial capital of Baqubah and the surrounding areas, al Qaeda in Iraq has been pushed into the farmlands north of the city. Last weekend, al Qaeda struck with suicide attacks at Kurdish cities along the Iranian border, and in a Kurdish village in neighboring Salahadin province, with devastating effects. Almost 200 civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded.
Al Qaeda is pushing into villages where it did not have a presence in the recent past. Yesterday, reports of an al Qaeda assault on the small Shiite village of Sherween slashed across the wires. The AP reported that when al Qaeda in Iraq moved on Sherween, there were no security forces present to stop them. Residents of the town fought back; "25 militants and 18 residents were killed and 40 people wounded in the fighting," a resident of a neighboring town reported. He also stated that al Qaeda was winning.
While the AP report lamented the failure of the Iraqi and U.S. security forces to respond, a joint U.S. and Iraqi task force was quickly assembled and moved in on Sherween early today. "The operation began early Tuesday morning with close air support engaging three river crossings and one bridge with eight 2,000-pound bombs and 14 500-pound bombs. The locations are used by al-Qaida to conduct their attacks and were engaged to prevent their escape," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. "The people of Sherween played a vital role in this operation as they fought side-by-side [with] the ISF to help them capture and kill known terrorists." The attack resulted in "20 al-Qaida terrorists killed, 20 detained, and two weapons caches and 12 improvised explosive devices discovered."
Also north of Baqubah, U.S. and Iraqi security forces found an al Qaeda safe house, which contained a possible torture room. "Inside, the patrol found medical supplies, medical equipment and al-Qaida related propaganda," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. "Also inside the building was a room with indicators that it had been used as a place of torture, such as blood on the walls and blacked out windows."
As U.S. and Iraq forces move forward with securing Baqubah and the outlying regions, the attacks such at those in Sherween are expected to increase. Al Qaeda is working the seams in Diyala, and the rural farmlands and the Hamrin mountain chain are ideal locations for al Qaeda and allied insurgent groups to fall back upon.
Northern Babil
Operations Marne Torch in the Arab Jabour region and Commando Eagle in the Mahmudiyah region continue largely under the radar. A tip from an Iraqi led to the capture of south Baghdad’s most wanted terrorist, along with seven of his associates. The captured man led an al Qaeda terror and intimidation network and was responsible "for shooting down an AH-64 helicopter in April 2006, the abductions of two Soldiers in June 2006, and complex attacks on patrol bases and terrorist acts against both Coalition Forces and Iraqi civilians."
In Arab Jabour, 13 insurgents were detained and several weapons caches were found. In Jisr Diyala, three insurgents were killed after attacking U.S. forces who were attempting to provide medical assistance to Iraqi citizens.
Baghdad
The Green Zone, or International Zone, came under a relatively heavy mortar attack on Tuesday. Upwards of 20 mortars hit inside the Green zone, killing three and wounding 18. Mortars have been launched from inside Sadr City by "rogue" elements of the Mahdi Army. While attacks on the Green Zone have been relatively ineffective militarily, they provide for breathless news reporting.
U.S. forces continue to establish a presence inside Baghdad's worst neighborhood. The Army built a combat outpost in the Ameriya neighborhood in western Baghdad. Ameriya has been the scene of a local uprising against al Qaeda in Iraq by residents and Sunni insurgent groups. Clearing operations in the Rashid district resulted in the discovery of two small caches containing mortars and rockets.
The North
Al Qaeda and allied insurgent groups are pressing hard in Salahadin and Ninewa province as operations are underway in Baghdad, the Belts and Diyala. The mayor of Samarra was reported to have been assassinated in his home on Tuesday, according to Voices of Iraq. He took office in May and was tasked with working to rebuild the al Askaria mosque, which was destroyed by al Qaeda in 2006 and attacked again this June. Iraqi police captured a cell leader of a mortar and sniper network in the city on July 9. In Mosul, the Iraqi Army found a roadside bomb factory that produced IEDs made to look like sections of curb.
Al Qaeda
Coalition and Iraqi commandos continue to strike at al Qaeda's command network and senior operatives nationwide. In Tuesday's raids, 17 operatives were captured in Mosul, Baghdad, Taji, and northern Babil province. Wednesday's raids resulted in two al Qaeda operatives killed and 20 captured in Mosul, Baghdad, Samarra, and Taji.
Mahdi Army and the Iranian Special Groups
While some commentators are claiming military leaders are only focused on the al Qaeda threat at the exclusion of all other insurgent groups, U.S. and Iraqi security forces continue to devote resources towards dismantling the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-backed "Special Groups."
On July 9, U.S. forces killed eight members of a "criminal militia" inside Sadr City. Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured "twelve insurgents linked to a rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi militia [Mahdi Army]" during two operations in Baghdad on July 8. One of the Mahdi cells was responsible for conducting explosively formed penetrator attacks on U.S. forces. Today, Coalition forces captured a "Secret Cell terrorist ... affiliated with the Jaysh al-Mahdi affiliated Special Groups." Multinational Forces Iraq has been increasingly linking the Mahdi Army and the Iranian Special Groups in its press releases.
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From MY:
===========Hello From Baqubah:
Superman is published at: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/superman.htm
I made an appearance today (Tuesday) from Baqubah on Good Morning America to talk about events in Baqubah. That video should be available on their site, and includes loud combat video I shot yesterday (Monday.)
I will be appearing on the Laura Ingraham radio show tomorrow (Wednesday.)
We realize the site has become difficult to navigate after growing beyond all expectations, both in content and readership. The site will be overhauled during the coming months, but the work is very expensive so this will happen in stages.
This site depends 100% on reader support. Every bit helps and is critical. We'll revamp the site as funding permits to allow for easier searches, and will continue to bring cutting edge stories from the war.
Very Respectfully,
Michael
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RIP General Downing
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/american-legacy-wayne-downing.htm
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Second post of the day:
July 19, 2007: While Saudi Arabia is not happy with how Shia Arabs have taken control of Iraq, and appear able to hold on to it, they are pleased with how the fighting in Iraq has greatly depleted the number of al Qaeda backers inside Saudi Arabia. Over 5,000 Saudi Islamic radicals are believed to have died in Iraq so far. For the last four years, up to half the suicide bombers have been Saudis, and about half the 135 foreigners currently held in U.S. military prisons over there, are Saudis. Currently, American intelligence believes about 45 percent of the foreign fighters (less than ten percent of all terrorists there) are Saudis. The next largest group is Syrians and Lebanese (15 percent), followed by North Africans (10 percent). The other 30 percent are from all over, including Europe.
The Saudis themselves are coy about how all those Saudi Islamic radicals got into Iraq. The Saudi border with Iraq is heavily patrolled, and not easy to get across, no matter which direction you are going. But the Saudis have refused calls to crack down on their young men going to Syria or Jordan, and crossing from there into Iraq.
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/
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http://www.youtube.com/michaelyon
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/birds-eye-view.htm
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http://www.fumento.com/military/ramadireturn.html
The tactics and learnings observed by Fumento last NOVEMBER where the product of many months of experience before THAT.
Belmont Club notes the same: http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/...e-on-iraq.html
"Of course these Iraqi units did not spring into existence over night. They are the cumulative result of years of sustained effort. Even the removal of Iraqi deadwood grew from a process of weeding out the failures. Without diminishing the achievements of the current group of commanders the situation in Iraq must reflect both the mistakes and the solid accomplishments of those who came before."
and
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Interestingly, al-Qaeda chose to make Iraq its decisive arena of confrontation with the United States. The US came to Iraq primarily to topple Saddam Hussein and remove one "state sponsor of terrorism" but it was Al-Qaeda that rushed in to stake its reputation there. A networked insurgency with followers in many Muslim countries could have chosen to attack America elsewhere. But instead it decided to focus its efforts on driving the US from Iraq. For that purpose its leadership established al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and funneled recruits into it from all over the world. This force was tasked with the explicit political goal of creating a Islamic Caliphate that would provide a prototype for a future Islamic state after the hated Americans had been driven out. Therefore much of the post-Saddam violence was probably the consequence of al-Qaeda's decision to flood all the resources of world terrorism into Iraq. Clearly Zarqawi's clear intention from the Samarra mosque bombing onward was to incite as much violence as he could. Given that al-Qaeda made Iraq the center of its global efforts, O’Hanlon and Pollack's admiration of MNF-I's decision to focus against it seems perplexing. Surely Petraeus had no alternative? Surely he was simply picking up the gauntlet? But that would not quite be true. Through much of 2005 and 2006 a variety of lines were suggested. Some argued that the US should lash out against Syria or Iran for allowing "militants" to transit their borders. Some believed Shi'a militias should be the primary target operations. Until recently many argued -- and still argue -- that al-Qaeda didn't exist in Iraq at all; so how could MNF-I focus against what was not there? So while taking on al-Qaeda now seems the obvious choice, in retrospect there were many other candidates vying for the title of Center of Gravity. Those bad guys still remain, but MNF-I saw al-Qaeda in Iraq as the key to the position and that choice, according to O’Hanlon and Pollack, appears to be the right one.
Time will tell. But if focusing on al-Qaeda in Iraq is the right choice the most interesting question is why. My own guess is that by attacking al-Qaeda, the US took engaged not only the most fanatical force in Iraq but the one with the most powerful narrative. And by shrewdly matching kinetic warfare with political warfare, organizing the victims of al-Qaeda's depredations, it brought the myth down to earth. As long as al-Qaeda remained an "idea" it might be regarded as invincible, a mystical will o' the wisp. But once this mystical force was forced to materialize in Iraq, it became embodied in the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his henchmen, who, viewed up close, turned out to be nothing more than brutal gangsters of the lowest and most sadistic type instead of latter day Companions of the Prophet. Even Zawahiri, despite his pretensions to refinement, could not avoid discrediting himself as he proved unable to resist threatening to gouge people's eyes out if they did not follow his bidding. It is said that no man is a hero to his own valet. Familiarity with the genuine article brought disillusionment, contempt and finally hatred for al-Qaeda.
And without the romantic mantle of apocalyptic Islamism to puff them up, both Syria and Iran would shrink to the third-rate powers that they truly are. In choosing al-Qaeda as its focus, MNF-I indirectly weakened both Teheran and Damascus in ways that both were powerless to counter. None of this has been completely achieved yet. But as O’Hanlon and Pollack state, Iraq while not yet won is getting better. And if the process continues much will be accomplished if al-Qaeda can be defeated in Iraq; their image tarnished beyond repair and their narrative shown to be a pack of lies. The New York Times article concludes "there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008." Yes, but to some degree it misses the point. What is happening on the battlefield is changing perceptions in Iraq and perhaps throughout the region. Ironically, the US Armed Forces may now know much better than the press that operations go beyond body counts. But whenever US forces are withdrawn the information war must go on. Because the one great probability in the Middle East is that each failed creed gives rise to a new one. The same Six Day War which discredited Nasserism simultaneously launched its successor movement. Radical Islamism harnessed the tide of disillusionment and redirected it to its purposes. And as Al-Qaeda falls in esteem in the Muslim world from its post-September 11 halcyon days, other ideologues will probably attempt to fashion a new movement based on its carcass. That's why the information war should go on until politics in the Middle East is transformed from a sequence of messianic movements to practical endeavor. Until then the victories on Iraq's battlefields will be temporary.
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A new dispatch is posted: "Bread and a Circus."
I'll be on the Dennis Miller show live in few hours. The time for the show is 1015 EST. Please click here to visit Dennis' site. The man is hilarious.
I'm taking a quick break from the war and am in Singapore. They sincerely like Americans here, and so I love Singapore.
V/r,
Michael
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A particularly fine post from Michael Yon:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bread-and-a-circus-part-ii-of-ii.htm
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http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/three-marks-on-the-horizon.htm
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http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/into-the-sea.htm
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http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-ghosts-of-anbar-part-1-of-4.htm
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http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-ghosts-of-anbar-part-ii-of-iv.htm
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http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001506.html
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/ghosts-of-anbar-part-iii-of-iv.htm
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msihSBaq8UM by Michael Yon
http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/ghosts-of-anbar-part-iv-of-iv.htm Note MY's closing words.
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/resistance-is-futile.htm
As always, a fine piece of work from MY.
Here is his accompanying email:
It is clear that Iraq is turning a corner. Not only are Sunni and Shia talking here in Baghdad, but the fighting definitely is abating. I'll be out in Sunni and Shia neighborhoods all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Petraeus' ideas are starting to work.
I've been watching for days as LTC Patrick Frank pulls neighborhoods together here in the Rashid district of Baghdad. We've been swamped going to reconciliation meetings. ( Spent hours in meetings today. ) LTC Frank is one of many battalion commanders I have seen who are winning in their zones. A Washington Post writer was here for several days and his observations were similar.
Again, I suggest to media to get in touch with Infantry battalion commanders around Iraq. They are the sweet-spot on the ups and downs in Iraq.
I am working with the National Newspaper Association to get the increasingly good news about Iraq to a wider audience. This is described in the latest dispatch, Resistance is Futile. With reader support, this effort can get current news from the ground in Iraq in to 2700 daily and weekly newspapers in the US.
Michael
Baghdad
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Note that Bill Roggio's The Fourth Rail is now found at this site. And it's always chuck full of news from multiple theaters of the Long War.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...ss_has_bec.php
The Long War Journal: "The darkness has become pitch black" - Osama bin Laden on Iraq situation
Written by Bill Roggio on October 24, 2007 6:19 PM to The Long War Journal
Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...ss_has_bec.php
Recent report from US commanders in Iraq have stated al Qaeda in Iraq has been set back by a combination of the latest offensive and the willingness of local Iraqis to turn on the terror group. Based Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape, al Qaeda central command agrees that the fight against the US and the Iraqi government is not going well.
A clearer picture of Osama bin Laden's view on the state of jihad in Iraq emerges after the release of the full transcript of Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape, Not only does bin Laden admit errors in the Iraqi leader's ability to unite the tribes and Sunni insurgent groups, he views the situation in Iraq as dire for al Qaeda. Bin Laden accuses his foot soldier of "negligence" for failing to properly employ IEDs, laments the unwillingness of Iraqis who do not wish to attack their brothers in the police and army, and closes his statement by saying "the darkness [in Iraq] has become pitch black."
Al Qaeda, IEDs, and "negligence"
Bin Laden addresses a tactical failure of al Qaeda in Iraq's IED cells. He clearly is unhappy with their performance, and indicated the failure to employ IEDs efficiently against U.S. forces is due to "negligence." He is also concerned about the infiltration of Iraqi and American spies.
I tell my brothers: beware of your enemies, especially the hypocrites who infiltrate your ranks to stir up strife among the Mujahid groups, and refer such people to the judiciary. And you must check and verify, and avert the Hudood through doubts. You must protect your secrets and excel in your actions, for among the things which sadden the Muslims and the delight the unbelievers is the hindering of some combat operations against the enemy because of negligence in any of the stages of preparation for the operation, whether it be reconnaissance of the target, training, integrity, and suitability of weapons and ammunition, quality of the explosive device or other such arrangements. And when you lay a mine, do it right, and don't leave so much as one wounded American soldier or spy.
US and Iraqi Security Forces have specifically focused on targeting IED and suicide bomb cells over the course of the summer. In some cases, IED cells have been captured wholesale by conventional and special forces and in other cases IED emplacers have been killed in groups of five to 15 while attempting to plant their weapons by Coalition aircraft. In Anbar province, al Qaeda in Iraq has failed to kill a single US serviceman by IED since September 10. It seems bin Laden is acutely aware of this.
Osama bin Laden is often portrayed as a spiritual leader and figurehead detached from day-to-day operations, but this recent speech merely reinforces what we already know about him. An engineer by training, bin Laden is very interested in the planning and execution of attacks and operations. The 9/11 Commission Report stated bin Laden was personally involved in reviewing the operational attack plans for the embassy bombings, the Cole, and 9/11. He immerses himself in the technical details and the tactics used by his operators, and keeps apprised of the situation on the battlefields.
A split with the insurgency over attacking the Iraqi Security Forces
While bin Laden repeatedly admonishes his leaders for failing to build the relationships with Sunni tribal groups and allied insurgent groups, he continues to push attacks on Iraqi police and soldiers. This attitude has pitted some of the more nationalist Sunni groups away from al Qaeda, as they loath to attack their own countrymen, instead viewing the US and Coalition forces as the enemy.
Bin Laden tells the Iraqi people to "beware of ... those in the land of the Two Sanctuaries in particular, who forbid the Mujahideen from fighting the army and police of the traitors – like al-Alawi, al-Jafari and al-Maliki - although they know that they are tools of the American occupation helping it to kill the people of Islam which is obvious apostasy on the part of the soldiers."
The violent attacks against the Iraqi Security Forces, particularly in Anbar province during the winter and spring of 2007, were accompanied by strikes against the families and tribes which supported the establishment police and army units. Mishan al-Jabouri, a leader in the Islamic Army in Iraq and the proprietor of Al Zawraa, an insurgent TV channel, attacked al Qaeda in Iraq for intentionally targeting members of the Iraqi Army and police forces. Al-Jabouri and other Sunni insurgents believed those joining the security forces were acting in the best interest of Iraqis.
Contempt for the Saudi king
In the next paragraph, bin Laden shows his contempt for Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who he describes as "the idol-king of Riyadh" and "the biggest promoter of the American-Zionist project in the region."
And worst of all is that these men of knowledge consider the idol-king of Riyadh to be guardian of the Muslims' affair, and call on the Muslims to rally around him, although they know that he is the biggest promoter of the American-Zionist project in the region, and is one of those who called on it to invade Iraq. These, "they are the enemies, so beware of them. Allah curse them, how they lie!" (63:4)
Earlier in the speech, bin Laden chastises Abdullah for backing the deployment of African peacekeepers to Darfur in Sudan. He refer to Abdullah as "the governor of Riyadh" who "again sought to convince the Sudanese president, this time to implement the demands of the United Atheist Nations to allow the entrance of Crusader forces to Darfur." Bin Laden described the Darfur peacekeeping mission as "a brazen occupation" and stated "only an infidel apostate seeks it or agrees to it."
Darkness. Where are the mujahideen?
While bin Laden clearly sees the situation in Iraq as dire -- he said "the darkness has become pitch black" -- he holds out hope that the vanguard fighters of al Qaeda can hold the line until reinforcements arrive.
In closing, I tell our people in Iraq, the patient ones garrisoned on the first line of the religion and sanctities of the Muslims: the malice has increased and the darkness has become pitch black, and with the likes of you, nations reinforce themselves and climb summits.
He calls on Muslims of the Middle East to rejoin the fight, challenging their honor and willingness to fight when they are needed.
So where are those who prefer the religion to the lives of themselves and their children? Where are the people of Tawheed and those who topple the banner of unbelief and polytheism? Where are those who find torture to be pleasant and don't fear the blows? Where are those who find difficulty to be easy and bitterness to be sweet, because they are certain that the fire of Hell is much hotter? Where are those who go out to fight the Romans, as on the day of Tabuk? Where are those who pledge to fight to the death, as on the day of Yarmuk? Where are the soldiers of the Levant and the reinforcements of Yemen? Where are the knights of the Quiver (Egypt) and the lions of the Hijaz (western Saudi Arabia) and al-Yamamah (central Saudi Arabia)? Come and aid your brothers in Mesopotamia and relieve them by coordinating with them by way of dependable guides.
An outside view
Al Qaeda, via As Sahab Media, its propaganda arm, resists the interpretation of bin Laden's speech. As Sahab attacked Al Jazeera for "counterfeiting" the facts of his speech. As Sahab posted the video online at the Ekhlaas forum, along with the following note in English: "Note: We are publishing the whole speech of Shiekh Osama Bin Laden After the tremendous amount of Counterfeiting of the facts and altering the purposes and objectives of the Speech by AL-Jazeerah Satellite channel which ignored all the pillars of honor professional media."
Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of al-Quds al-Arabi who interviewed bin Laden in 1996, disagrees. Atwan stated in a published editorial that this is the first time al Qaeda admitted errors and was seeking to rectify the situation in Iraq. He noted al Qaeda's zeal in enforcing its radical ideology on Sunni Iraqis turned the majority of Sunnis against the terror group.
"Launching diatribes against others and imposing a particular theological school of thought on everyone, has allowed al-Qaeda's enemies to gain an advantage," Atwan said. "In particular, it's helped the Americans to win the trust of certain tribal leaders. In this way, for the Iraqis the enemy has become al-Qaeda and not the occupying forces."
In Ramadi, "the city that al Qaeda leaders once declared the seat of a new Islamic caliphate and capital of the Iraqi insurgency," the Anbar Awakening held a march honoring Sheik Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the movement who was slain by al Qaeda 40 days ago. The parade lasted four two hours and Iraqi government officials were in attendance. There were no attacks on the procession.
"Al-Qaeda never wanted to see the sons of Anbar to unite and form security forces. Now I think we have broken their back by building the police and security force," said Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the brother of Sattar who succeeded him as the leader of the Anbar Awakening. "Let them come forward and show their faces.... Let them come out, we will fight them."
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MY's latest email:
Greetings,
Many interesting developments in Iraq: I am working hard to produce dispatches to convey the situation in the various locations where I've been traveling. I have numerous dispatches on the British and the situation down in Basra that will start going up as early as next week, but timing depends in part on the ground conditions here in south Baghdad.
A new dispatch is published here.
I wrote an editorial piece for the New York Post that was published on Sunday. You can read it here.
I will publish the first foreign language translation soon. Your support made that happen, and is very much appreciated. I am having difficulty sending thank you acknowledgements due to an ongoing glitch with PayPal that makes it impossible to download the logs. We're working to resolve this, because we want people to know their help is making a very real difference.
V/r,
Michael
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Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.”
O1 November 2007
Iraqi Islamic Party: “Al Qaeda is Defeated”
“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.
Colonel Ricky Gibbs, the American brigade commander with responsibility for the Rashid District in south Baghdad today told me, “So goes South Baghdad goes Baghdad.” General Petraeus had told me similar things about the importance of South Baghdad. In fact, Rashid is quickly developing into what might be one of the final serious battlegrounds of the war.
During the meeting, another member of the Iraqi Islamic Party said that al Qaeda has changed its strategy now that fomenting civil war between Sunni and Shia has backfired. Al Qaeda has shifted targets, now trying to generate friction between tribes. This time, however, the tribes are onto the game early, and they are not playing.
Sheik Omar, who has gained the respect of American combat leaders for his intelligence and organizational skills, said the tough line against al Qaeda is also enforced at the tribal level. According to Sheik Omar, the Jabouri tribe, too, is actively committed to destroying al Qaeda. So much so, that Jabouri tribal leaders have decided they would “kill their own sons” if any aided al Qaeda. To underscore the point, he went on to say that about 70 Jabouri “sons” had been killed by the Jabouri tribe so far.
In addition to brigade commander Colonel Ricky Gibbs, four of his battalion commanders were also present: Lieutenant Colonels James Crider, Patrick Frank, Stephen Michael and Myron Reineke. Sheik Omar expressed deep gratitude for their assistance.
Omar’s influence extends beyond tribal and party levels, to include important channels within the Iraqi government and the US military in Baghdad, as evidenced by the agenda of the hours-long meeting. But for the talk about al Qaeda, the focus was mostly on other topics, such as returning displaced persons to their homes, efficiently delivering basic services and jumpstarting the economy. In fact, more and more meetings in Iraq are turning to day-to-day business, and less time is required on military and security topics like targeting and addressing intelligence-type matters, which until recently monopolized most meetings across Iraq.
Michael Yon
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A church re-opens in Baghdad
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/come-home.htm
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http://www.theindychannel.com/news/14732117/detail.html
INDIANAPOLIS -- Jenni Crowley says she can't understand why her son, a Marine reservist, is charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi soldier. Next week, she'll be in California to watch his lawyers try to clear him.The court-martial of Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, 22, a graduate of Indianapolis' Ben Davis High School, is scheduled to begin Monday at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he has been held in a brig since February.Holmes (pictured) is accused of fatally stabbing Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin as the two men stood watch at a security post in Fallujah, Iraq, on Dec. 31, according to one of Holmes' attorneys.
Holmes is charged with unpremeditated murder. Crowley and Holmes' defense team say he was acting in self-defense."I can't believe this," Crowley told 6News' Rafael Sanchez of the charge. "This is a nightmare."Steve Cook, one of Holmes' attorneys, said earlier this year that Holmes and Hassin struggled in darkness after Hassin allegedly opened his cell phone and then lit a cigarette. The men were not supposed to display any illuminated objects because of the threat of sniper fire, and Holmes made repeated attempts to make Hassin extinguish the cigarette, Cook said.
Holmes knocked the cigarette out of Hassin's hands, and they started wrestling, according to Cook. Holmes thought Hassin was reaching for his loaded AK-47, so the Marine killed him with his bayonet and then radioed for help, Cook said.Crowley said her son "has never wavered from the fact that he did not intend to kill this Iraqi soldier.""He facing the possibility of life in prison, based on the charges, simply for defending himself when he felt he had no other option," Crowley said.Crowley started a Web site to inform people about the case and raise money for Holmes' legal defense fund.Crowley will go to California for the court-martial, which is expected to last about two weeks."It won't be easy," she said. "It will be a very hard time again for our family and for Del, but I have to believe that the God I know and love and trust will see us through somehow."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-snipers8dec08,1,4472879.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Sniper accused of murder disputes statement
Sgt. Vela says officers changed his account of shooting an Iraqi. He says he thinks the Army 'should have had my back.'
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
BAGHDAD — As a military court prepares to try the last of three U.S. snipers on murder charges, the soldiers have accused their commanding officers of pushing to expand rules of engagement to produce more "kills" and then abandoning them when they were accused of murder.
Two soldiers already have been acquitted of murder, but found guilty on lesser charges.
The third, Army Sgt. Evan Vela, faces a pretrial hearing Tuesday, seven months to the day after he shot at close range a man who had wandered into a sniper camp. The area, 30 miles south of Baghdad, was rife with Sunni militants.
Vela alleges that investigators changed the statement he made to them, and that a military lawyer urged him to waive his right to a hearing -- which he only won back on appeal. Vela has acknowledged that he shot the man, but said he was only doing his job and criticized his commanders for not looking out for him.
"It seems like when they should have had my back, they let me down," Vela said in an interview.
At Tuesday's hearing, Vela's lawyers hope to have the statement thrown out. They say they will ask that he be released from confinement in Kuwait, and that the trial, scheduled to start Jan. 28, be moved to Ft. Richardson, Alaska, where Vela's battalion is based.
According to court testimony and interviews, Vela's sniper unit was revamped in spring after the 1st Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division's 501st Regiment suffered a number of casualties in the Jurf Sakhar region. By June, as many as 20 soldiers had been killed.
In an interview, the unit's leader, Sgt. Michael S. Hensley, who was acquitted of murder charges, said that Sgt. Maj. Bernie Knight brought him in to get more kills.
"The reason I am doing this is I want to start killing some bad guys, I want to increase our kill ratio," Hensley said Knight told him.
Hensley said he agreed on the condition that he would run the section by himself and report directly to the battalion commander. The unit expanded from seven to 13 men. Knight and Lt. Col. Robert Balcavage pushed the soldiers to become more aggressive, Hensley said.
"Balcavage and Knight, they would throw out their things like, 'You guys don't need to worry if you feel threatened for a second, don't hesitate to engage.' "
Knight and Balcavage refused to comment for this article. Their commander, Col. Michael Garrett, said they had done nothing wrong. "We were all under pressure fighting an elusive enemy," he said.
Until January, the sniper unit had killed no more than two people. But under Hensley's command, by June it had killed at least 15 people.
The platoon's senior noncommissioned officer, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Kipling, testified that Knight marginalized him. Scout platoon leader Lt. Matthew Didier, under whose command the sniper section fell, said Balcavage and Knight took a strong interest in what the sniper units did, and that Hensley sometimes would meet alone with the battalion's operation officer.
The unit also had sought clearance for a baiting program, in which snipers would plant weapons and parts and shoot Iraqis who picked them up, according to testimony by Kipling and Didier. Vela and other soldiers said they were briefed on the plan, but it is unclear whether it was implemented.
The subsequent demise of the sniper unit destroyed Didier's career. He plans to leave the Army after receiving a letter of reprimand for his platoon's conduct.
Murder charges were filed against the snipers in three incidents. But it is the final shooting, of an unarmed man who wandered into the sniper camp on May 11, that has drawn the most attention.
The five-man team was positioned along the Euphrates River to look for anyone fleeing a late-night raid on a house suspected to have a cache of rockets packed with chemicals. According to sworn statements and testimony in three hearings, Vela fired two bullets into the man's head at close range.
At the time, Hensley hid the incident from his battalion. Asked about it, Hensley provided a sworn statement in which he said his soldiers had tried to restrain the Iraqi but the man pointed a rifle at them.
In the interview, Hensley defended his actions. But he refused to say what happened because he might be called to testify in Vela's case.
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"Anything that was done to that insurgent was done to refrain him from making noise," Hensley said. "We were in an area where we could not get resupplied. There was only five of us out there with sniper weapons. We couldn't rapidly shoot at anything. . . . For all those reasons, this guy was killed out of self-defense."
Three weeks after that shooting, Knight and Balcavage promoted Hensley to platoon sergeant. His appointment lasted less than a month, however. With Balcavage on vacation, a captain invited the Army's criminal investigators to look into allegations by two lower-ranking soldiers, who had been punished by the unit for falling asleep, that the snipers had murdered civilians.
Before his November trial, the last time he saw his superiors, Hensley said, was in late June when he was brought to Balcavage's office and had charge sheets read against him. He was escorted to a helicopter to fly to prison in Kuwait.
He accused his superiors of only taking issue with his actions after criminal investigators became involved. "When they had issue with it, was when Criminal Investigation Department came on station and suddenly everybody was in the spotlight," said Hensley, who was found guilty of planting a weapon and disrespecting an officer. He also was demoted from staff sergeant.
The battalion rounded up the entire sniper unit as well and placed its members in solitary confinement. When he was summoned for questioning, Vela said he was held for nearly seven hours and threatened.
"To get me to make a statement, they threatened me that I would never see my family again. After I made the statement, CID actually sat down at the computer and changed my statement without me knowing it," Vela said in an unsworn statement at a hearing last month to determine whether his case would go to trial.
Vela was held for 30 days in Kuwait without seeing a court-appointed lawyer, who then recommended by phone that Vela waive his right to an Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a grand jury, to determine whether the case should go to court-martial.
He agreed to waive it, but a civilian defense team hired by his father appealed the decision and won. Vela's defense team accused senior commanders, including Army Gen. Rick Lynch of the Multi-National Division Center, of obstructing his access to a fair trial.
Vela also was asked to testify with immunity at the trials of the two other snipers charged with murder -- Hensley and then-Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval Jr., who was convicted of poor conduct for planting of a detonation wire on a body and demoted. At Sandoval's trial, Vela broke down on the witness stand; at Hensley's, he said he remembered nothing of the events.
In August, a forensic psychiatrist, Carol Malone Carr, the assistant director at the National Naval Medical Center's Mental Health directorate, had diagnosed Vela with signs of post traumatic stress disorder, including battle flashbacks, and suicidal thoughts.
The experience has left a bitter taste for most soldiers. Sgt. Richard Hand, who had been on the May 11 mission, said he believed his association with the unit had ruined his career, and that he planned to leave the Army. "They were very lax in their care of anybody except themselves," he said.
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U.S. refuses `Any Wounded Soldier' mail By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer
Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to "Any Wounded Soldier" for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages.
Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces — a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season.
"Are we going to forget our soldiers because we are running in fear?" Fena D'Ottavio asked. The suburban Chicago woman was using her blog to encourage friends to send mail to unspecified soldiers until she learned of the ban, which she called a sad commentary on society.
Last season, despite the rule, officials say as many as 450,000 pieces of mail not addressed to anyone in particular managed to reach Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. But they were returned or, if they had no return address, were thrown out altogether, because the hospital lacked the manpower to open and screen all the mail, spokesman Terry Goodman said.
"A lot of this is because of security concerns because it's unsolicited mail that someone is going to have to go through," Goodman said. "Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn't support the war, and then you've got a wounded soldier getting it."
Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, a spokesman with the Army Human Resources Command, said no one tracks the amount of unnamed-soldier mail being returned, so it is impossible to judge the size of the problem.
The busiest part of the holiday season has yet to arrive, but officials said they are receiving far less mail this year addressed simply to "A Recovering American Soldier" or "Any Wounded Soldier."
Candy Roquemore of Austin, Texas, was also promoting the idea of sending cards to wounded soldiers until she found out about the rule. She suggested the ban is an overreaction.
"I think there are some wackos who might do something, so I can understand that. But I think with a Christmas postcard it would be pretty easy to see it doesn't have anthrax in it," Roquemore said.
She added: "I just wanted to say, `Thank you, sorry you're hurt, and happy holidays.'"
USO spokesman John Hanson said that like the military, the nonprofit service organization does not deliver unopened mail to unspecified recipients. He said the USO worries about security as well as hateful messages from war critics.
"We just want to make sure it's not, `Die, baby killer,'" he said. "There are people out there who act irrationally, and we don't want anyone to get a message that would be discouraging."
The USO is one of the organizations the military is encouraging people to support with donations as an alternative to sending cards to unspecified soldiers. The military is also referring people to the American Red Cross and a Defense Department Web site where supporters have posted thousands of messages to troops.
Some groups are offering to forward mail to the troops. Aides to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., are offering to accept letters, screen them through the U.S. Capitol mail operation, and get them to members of the armed forces.
"We've had about a dozen complaints from constituents about returned mail that they sent to troops," said Steven Boyd, a Sessions spokesman.
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MY makes the NY Times! Plus his most recent email letter:
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Michael Yon covers the Iraq war intimately by staying with soldiers under fire.
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: January 21, 2008
Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home.
Enlarge This Image
© Michael P. Yon
Michael Yon, a former Special Forces fighter, writes dispatches and posts photographs from the front lines in Iraq.
Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.
“The easiest thing in the world to write about is combat, because all the drama is there,” said Mr. Yon, a fit, ruddy-faced 43-year-old who was a Special Forces soldier more than two decades ago. He insists that he still does not really know the rules of journalism, but says he has recently, grudgingly, accepted that he has become a journalist.
His detailed, mostly admiring accounts of front-line soldiers’ daily work have won him a loyal following, especially among service members and journalists and bloggers who follow the war. One of his photographs showing an American soldier cradling an Iraqi girl injured in a car bombing (the girl later died) appeared on Time magazine’s Web site and was later voted one of top images of the year by visitors.
Mr. Yon, however, does not work for any organization; no news outlet pays him for the hundreds of dispatches and photos he has produced. He publishes his work on his own Web site, michaelyon-online.com (some will appear again in a book set for release in April), and he also posts submissions from military people serving in Iraq. He says contributions from his readers have paid most of his costs, though he declines to say how much they have given.
Like most bloggers, Mr. Yon has an agenda, writing often that the United States’ mission to build a stable, democratic Iraq is succeeding and must continue. He rarely disparages those who disagree, though, and he does not shy away from describing the disturbing things he sees.
He sometimes criticizes United States forces, their Iraqi allies, and even decision makers in Washington; lately, he has warned that while the American focus is on Iraq, Afghanistan is being lost.
His upbeat outlook on the war has made Mr. Yon a favorite of the war’s supporters. But others in that camp have attacked him for insisting that Iraq is in a civil war, and for condemning American treatment of some detainees.
“His work has a remarkable, chin-out, unvarnished intimacy,” said Jackie Lyden, a National Public Radio reporter who has worked in Iraq. “He isn’t a guarded, diplomatically toned reporter; he can be very frank, and he questions his own assumptions.”
The Internet has fostered such citizen journalism, shaking up ideas about where news comes from, but few have taken on the expense and danger of working in a war zone. Mr. Yon’s daily expenses are small, but he has paid tens of thousands of dollars for computers, cameras, phones and body armor.
He went to Iraq believing that the mainstream news media were bungling the story, and he still often criticizes the media’s pessimism. But he has also praised particular reporters from major outlets, or defended the media in general, explaining how difficult and dangerous it is to cover the war.
Along the way, he created a niche outlet that is better reported than most blogs, and more opinionated than most news reporting, with enough first-hand observation, clarity and skepticism to put many professional journalists to shame.
“We saw the man lying face down, barefoot, in filthy, oily mud, human excrement all around him,” he wrote in 2005, describing the aftermath of a gun battle he had witnessed. “He had fallen in an open air toilet, where he lay, belly-shot,” Mr. Yon continued. “The man brought his hand to his head, and touched his forehead with his index finger, pointing right between his eyes. ‘Shoot me, shoot me,’ he said. ‘I want to die.’ ”
Col. Stephen Twitty, a brigade commander with whom Mr. Yon has spent time in Iraq, had high praise for his work, saying that he often takes the same risks as the soldiers he accompanies.
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Frontline Blogger Covers War in Iraq With a Soldier’s Eyes
Published: January 21, 2008
(Page 2 of 2)
In his first year and a half of online writing, Mr. Yon carefully avoided a position on whether he thought the war should have been waged in the first place. He eventually said that he had supported it reluctantly because of claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Yon aims some barbs at the military brass, but talking with him and reading his work, it becomes clear that he has also pulled punches, not wanting to undermine the war effort.
In an interview, he said that when he first went to Iraq, in December 2004, “I knew we were losing the war,” and that “it was worse than the news was portraying.”
He said that in the early going, the military mishandled both the fighting and the press, and that among field commanders, “I started finding quite a few that seemed to be dialed in and knew what they were doing, and I found quite a lot that were quite clueless.”
Little of that dark view made its way into his dispatches, especially in his first year.
Mr. Yon has spent much of his life traveling and immersing himself in new places. Along the way, he wrote and self-published a book about his childhood. He decided to see the Iraq war for himself after three of his friends were killed there in 2004, and the military decided that his book was credential enough to let him accompany a combat unit.
Since then, bloggers and independent journalists have grown in numbers in Iraq, while the mainstream media there has shrunk. Overall, the number of embedded reporters at a given time dropped from several hundred in the early going to a few dozen in recent months.
In 2005 and 2006, Mr. Yon went through a period of rocky relations with the military hierarchy, which at times tried to bar him from accompanying units. But since then, things have improved, and the military has generally become more conscious — and solicitous — of Internet journalists. To Mr. Yon, ever-hopeful about the war, that change is healthy for Iraq, as well as for him.
“If you have bad media relations, you don’t know how to run a counterinsurgency,” he said. “Now they’re very good at it.”
=====================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Yon
To: craftydog@dogbrothers.com
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 3:13 AM
Subject: Preparing for a return to Iraq
If you have trouble reading this email, go to the online version.
Greetings:
I am preparing to head back to Iraq at the end of this week.
We've added a lot of new material to the site in the past week, including updates on units I've embedded with and stories published during 2007, and links to news items, like a profile in the New York Times.
If you haven't been to the website recently, we have added new archive pages that can be accessed here.
News that my book, Moment of Truth in Iraq (which will be published in April 2008) is now available for special advance purchase has prompted renewed interest in my first book Danger Close, and we've republished the first chapter of that book here.
Also, at the suggestion of readers, my Dragon Skin body armor is up for auction on E-Bay. You can read why here, and follow the bidding here.
As always, reader support is greatly appreciated, especially as I organize and assemble the gear needed for this next embed. Without the generosity of readers, this mission could not go forward. And during this election year when important decisions will be made on Iraq, front line news will be critical for identifying political truth-tellers.
Thank you,
V/r
Michael
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Greetings,
South Baghdad has truly quieted down. There is still some violence reminding us this is not over, but I walked down the street of one neighborhood the other day wearing no body armor or helmet.
I mentioned back in December that I expected US casualties likely would rise in January and February, and unfortunately this is occurring. The same is likely to happen in March. This masks the reality that much progress is being made and Iraq as a whole appears to be settling down, because it is easy to cherry pick facts that make it appear worse than it is. I believe that JAM is cooperating more than is being reported in the news.
The increased US causalities are to be expected due to the rapidly diminishing habitat for al Qaeda. Al Qaeda continues to get hammered south of Baghdad, out in Diyala, up in Salah ad Dinh, Nineveh, and other places, but of course some of them always squirt and escape.
Many al Qaeda have "escaped" to (or are being trapped in? ) Mosul. There are reports that al Qaeda has learned from their mistakes and are treating the people in Mosul better than they have treated people elsewhere; this could make it tougher to root them out of Mosul. But these reports are ambiguous: AQI typically treats people mostly well when they first move in, but the pattern is clear: eventually they go Helter Skelter and start cutting off kids' heads and so forth.
I expect fierce fighting to unfold in Mosul, and I should be there in a few days.
On Monday, I'll talk on the Dennis Miller show, and Tuesday on NPR. Please click here for more information, and to see three "Photos of the Year" (almost), that I shot in Iraq.
Michael Yon
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http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/rubs-dinner-with-general-dubik.htm
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From Western Nineveh Province, Northern Iraq
Despite recent news reports, progress in Iraq continues. The 5th year, the 4,000th death... these are sad truths. Also true is that violence is down and al Qaeda loses ground day by day. The biggest challenge now is national reconciliation.
Nevertheless, I've planted myself up here in Nineveh where al Qaeda is making a last stand. They are putting up a good fight, but my gut instinct is that AQI will essentially be finished in Iraq by the end of this summer. This does not imply that they will be completely exterminated or that attacks will cease, but, for all intents and purposes, al Qaeda will have suffered a devastating defeat in Iraq.
Al Qaeda Central seems to have finally realized that the United States and Great Britain are the wrong animals to kick. They might prefer easier targets in Europe. Whatever happens, it's clear that al Qaeda is devastated here. What is left of al Qaeda here is being mulched, mostly up here in Nineveh, where I think there will be more fighting in the coming months.
Please read "Stake through their Hearts" to learn more about the fighting in Nineveh.
And please buy an advance copy of Moment of Truth in Iraq to help keep me on the battlefield. Looks like I've got Nineveh mostly to myself, again.
V/r,
Michael
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If you want to forward this message to a friend, click here.
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Dear friends,
Our soldiers are turning defeat and disaster into victory and hope. But we could still fumble—if the American people don’t hear the truth now. There remain serious perils in Iraq and this is a time for action.
To get the message out, please help me get Moment of Truth in Iraq stocked in bookstores, and especially in free libraries and military exchanges.
Here’s how: Please click on “Handout for Bookstores and Libraries” below. This will open a printable one-page handout that can be given to any local bookstore manager, librarian, or military exchange. (Or all three if you can.)
The handout will tell bookstores and libraries everything they need to order Moment of Truth in Iraq. But what will really motivate retailers and librarians is you, the reader, a member of their community, requesting the book.
So please click here and ask your bookstore, library, or military exchange to please stock Moment of Truth in Iraq today.
Moment of Truth in Iraq is available on Amazon.com. We have hit the Amazon top 50 before the book even hit stores or libraries.
Thank you for your help,
Michael
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May 5, 2008
Dear Employer:
As the Chairman of the Orange County Veterans Employment Committee (OCVEC), I would like to invite you and your organization to participate in the “Honor a Hero, Hire a Vet” 24th Annual Ultimate Career Fair. The OCVEC, in partnership with the Employment Development Department Veterans’ Program, sponsors this annual event.
We are thrilled once again to be working with the Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The goal of the “Honor a Hero, Hire a Vet” 24th Annual Ultimate Career Fair is to bring together job seekers and employers. We anticipate a substantial number of qualified job seekers of varying backgrounds will attend this well-established employment opportunity event.
The Fair will be held on Wednesday, May 21st 2008, 9am-1pm at the Anaheim Angel Stadium: 2000 East Gene Autry Way, Anaheim, California 92806. The Fair is open to the general public. We have accommodations for over 85 employers.
Attached is a registration form for you to complete and return before May 14th. The registration fee of two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) is due upon registration. This fee includes: an 8’x 8’ curtained booth, 2 chairs, a 6 foot-table, booth signage, continental breakfast and a delicious sit down luncheon for two. If you have special requests, please make these known on the registration form.
The registration deadline is May 14th. Make your check payable to the OCVEC. We request that you fax a copy of the completed form to our office so that we can reserve a space for you.
The Orange County Veterans Employment Committee looks forward to having you participate in this annual career fair. Contact a Veterans Representative at (714) 241-4955, if you require additional information.
Sincerely,
Dick Akins
Dick Akins
OCVEC Chairman
ADVISORY TO: EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA
2450 EAST LINCOLN AVENUE, SUITE 200, ANAHEIM, CA 92806-4272
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Some folks have asked if I plan to do book signings in stores. None are planned because I need to take care of business here before heading back to the war, but I have been making dozens of media appearances and many more are scheduled this month. The big issue at hand is the launch of my book Moment of Truth in Iraq. Doesn't do any good to spend all that time on the battlefields if I do not take time to convey the facts to folks at home.
I'll try to sign one more gigantic stack of Moment of Truth before heading back to the war, but for those folks who were buying signed copies for Christmas presents, now is the best time as we still have about a thousand signed copies.
Amazon.com is fully stocked and has the lowest current price--$17.97 as I type this.
Moment of Truth is available at all Barnes & Noble stores and at BN.com at a reduced price. Please click the link and enter your zip code to check availability of Moment of Truth in Iraq at nearby stores. This function maps nearby stores with copies in stock.
Great to be back in America but sure comes with a lot of work before heading back to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Next time you see a service member in an airport, please say "thank you" to him or her. Those simple words go a long, long way. Back in the war, I often have heard combat soldiers saying how good it made them feel when someone in an airport simply said "thank you" and kept on walking. Very powerful words. They hugely appreciate those words.
Your correspondent,
Michael Yon
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Protesting the Antiwar Protestors
By KEVIN FERRIS
May 24, 2008
West Chester, Pa.
Memorial Day isn't until Monday. But for Rich Davis, a 20-year veteran of the Navy, it seems to come every Saturday. That's when he pulls out a handmade sign and heads for a street corner near the Chester County Court House in this suburban Philadelphia community.
Mr. Davis, 54, is a pro-military protester who makes a public stand each week in support of the troops and their mission.
Sean Carpenter
Supporters of the Chester County Victory Movement rally on May 17, 2008.
In 2001, Mr. Davis retired from the Navy and ended up settling in West Chester, where he spent 2006 and 2007 watching antiwar protesters rally each Saturday from 11 a.m. until noon outside the courthouse near his apartment. The Chester County Peace Movement, Mr. Davis would later learn, had been demonstrating at the site since March 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. At first he hoped someone would challenge the protesters, speak up for the troops, and defend their mission. On Sept. 8, 2007 he decided that someone had to be him.
Mr. Davis had been building to such a decision for a long time. He was just a kid during the Vietnam War, but he is still bothered by the disrespect heaped on returning Vietnam vets in the 1960s and '70s. In part that is because, in 1967, Mr. Davis attended the funeral of a man he idolized – his sister's boyfriend, Marine Lance Cpl. Alan R. Schultz from Levittown, Pa. Schultz was killed by mortar fire in Vietnam.
"Al was a great guy," Mr. Davis remembers. "When we got the word that he had been killed, I felt the bottom fall out. I cried the rest of that summer."
Even today, Mr. Davis can't look at an antiwar protest without thinking that Schultz, his comrades and their modern-day counterparts are being disrespected. So after seeing the war protesters each week, Mr. Davis said to himself, "Not this war. Not this time."
"We're not silent anymore," Mr. Davis told me. "We refuse to let antiwar protesters have the stage to themselves."
Not that he wants to stifle dissent. He just doesn't want to go unanswered the signs and protests that he believes encourage the enemy and demoralize U.S. troops. So, sign in hand in September, he walked to the corner praying he would have the strength to stand there, to be seen and heard.
Seen he was. Though there was plenty of room on the corner, he says he was bumped, shoved and challenged. One person asked, "Do you live in fear?" Another demanded, "Why don't you go and serve?"
"They had that corner for five years, every Saturday, unopposed," Mr. Davis told me. "They couldn't stand the thought of one person having a sign they couldn't tolerate."
More people than the antiwar protesters took notice. A few weeks after he started his own weekly protests, Mr. Davis had about 40 sign-holding, flag-waving supporters at his side, thanks to support from the Gathering of Eagles, a national organization supporting the troops.
The number of antiwar protesters began to swell in response, which led to an increase in taunts hurled between the two groups. Mr. Davis admits the childish behavior cut both ways. "At times we have been confrontational and done things that were inappropriate, especially in the early days." But now, he says, "I have zero tolerance for yelling and buffoonery."
In March, an angry antiwar protester hit a woman who covers the weekly demonstrations on her pro-troop blog. That led the local police to lay down a few ground rules. Now each group is to keep to its own side of the street, and the two groups swap sides of the street each week.
There are a few other changes. Mr. Davis's once informal group is getting organized. They have a name, Chester County Victory Movement, and a Web site (www.americansheepdogs.com) that they use to share information about welcoming troops home, sending care packages, and joining discussions at West Chester University.
Mr. Davis also sends weekly emails to thank people for their support, and to pass on encouragement. A few members of Mr. Davis's group meet regularly to discuss problems. At these meetings, some people raise ideas aimed at embarrassing those on the antiwar side of the street. But Mr. Davis constantly refers back to the reason that brought him to the corner in the first place: letting the public and the troops know that there is a reservoir of support for the sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines who risk their lives to fight the war on terror.
"Every time we go out, I remind the guys that we represent more than ourselves," he told me. "The troops and their families look at us. So I hope we present ourselves with the same type of dignity, courage and honor that our own sons and daughters are showing in Iraq and Afghanistan."
What Mr. Davis wants those troops to see is the solid wall of red, white and blue of his group's flags and "Support Our Troops" signs. He averages about 30 supporters a week, but hopes for a larger turnout for Flag Day, June 14.
Mr. Davis notes that he has been accused of being part of a vast right-wing conspiracy that trains and pays pro-troop advocates. Asked about that, he offers an answer that may inspire others to join his efforts.
"In a way they're right," he told me. "I was trained by a family that taught me to love our country, not blame it. And I am paid by troops and their families who say thanks for doing this, thanks for being here."
Mr. Ferris is an assistant editor and columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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From Michael Yon's website: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
============================
Copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq are in distribution, but this is the only place to get signed copies. Moment of Truth is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is also available in Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores. Download this handout to give to your military exchange, local bookstore or library so that they may order the book.
Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq.
Comments (1)
Curiouser and curiouser
Bob Owens at Pajamas Media hunts it down:
Please Click here.
Copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq are in distribution, but this is the only place to get signed copies. Moment of Truth is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is also available in Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores. Download this handout to give to your military exchange, local bookstore or library so that they may order the book.
Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq.
Comments (3)
Distributor Refuses to Carry "Moment of Truth in Iraq" on Military Bases
Folks are asking why "Moment of Truth in Iraq" is not being carried on most military bases within the United States.
Here's why:
My publisher and literary agent have been working with the private companies who handle book distribution on military bases in order to get "Moment of Truth in Iraq" on their shelves. The process is arduous, to put it mildly.
They have succeeded in getting the book into overseas bases. But as the publisher and my agent are slowly working their way through US distributors who cover different geographic regions, they have been told "no" by the largest distributor, the Anderson News Company.
A letter from Anderson News:
Thank you for submitting Moment of Truth in Iraq to Anderson News for review. We have reviewed this book and do not consider it appropriate for our company to handle at this time, as it does not fit our current distribution needs and capabilities.
Thank you for considering us to distribute your book.
Sincerely,
Book Purchasing
Anderson News Company
Stunning response. Over the past weeks, as my literary agent spoke to Anderson while they reviewed the book, Anderson told him that the desires of the base exchange customers would have no influence and play no role in their decision making process. Anderson also stated that even appeals from high ranking military officers could not persuade Anderson to carry a title. Apparently, in Anderson's mind, they outrank the Joint Chiefs of Staff when it comes to doing business on military bases.
Anderson News Company has almost a complete monopoly over the books carried on Army, Navy and Air Force book shelves in the following US states:
ALABAMA, ARIZONA, ARKANSAS, COLORADO, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, HAWAII, ILLINOIS, INDIANA, IOWA, KANSAS, KENTUCKY, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, MISSOURI, N CAROLINA, NEBRASKA, NEVADA, NEW MEXICO, OHIO, OKLAHOMA, OREGON, S CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, TEXAS, UTAH, VIRGINIA, W VIRGINIA, WASHINGTON
The two military agencies, AAFES and NEXCOM, handle book distribution on base exchanges and work directly with private distributors such as Anderson News. AAFES and NEXCOM allow companies such as Anderson News to choose the books they will sell.
The best way to encourage Anderson to do the right thing is to contact the AAFES and NEXCOM, and encourage them to pay attention to what Anderson is not doing. My publisher and agent have tried without success.
If this is important to you, please call and request that base exchanges carry the book. Please be polite. You may also contact Anderson directly.
AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service) handles Army and Air Force bases and the phone number for their book buying section is (214) 312-2741.
NEXCOM (Navy Exchange Service Command) handles Navy bases and the phone number for their book buying section is (757) 631-3465 .
Anderson News Company may be reached at (865) 588-0254. That is a general number and you will need to go to the operator and ask for the book buyers for military bases.
Please look at or print this handout: it contains all necessary information about "Moment of Truth in Iraq." The ISBN No. is 978-0-9800763-2-5.
While we struggle to get the book on exchange shelves, signed copies are still available and Barnes & Noble and Amazon are fully stocked. It also goes on front tables in Barnes & Noble stores across the country today. Hopefully, if we sell in Barnes & Noble stores, other book sellers will realize this is an important book they need to carry.
As always, I humbly thank you for your help and your efforts. You continue to make my sacrifices worthwhile.
Michael
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Another Haditha Marine cleared
“Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them,” Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said in May 2006, “and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” Murtha was referring to the Haditha “massacre,” an incident in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed after a roadside bomb killed Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas in November 2005. Five Marines had already seen charges against them dropped, and this week brought a sixth. 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson finally got the not-guilty verdict for which he had waited more than two years. Grayson, who was actually not even present with the others at Haditha, was found not guilty of making false statements, obstruction of justice and attempting to separate from service fraudulently. One Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, still awaits trial, but it seems to us that Murtha and others who have made a spectacle of the situation should be preparing their apologies.
patriotpost.com
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My Heart on the Line
By Frank Schaeffer
The Washington Post
Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was
defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in
Iraq , it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who
has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.
In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues
and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was
headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and
flawless uniforms. I did not. I live in the Volvo-driving, higher
education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I
have never served in the military.
It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown
and New York University . John's enlisting was unexpected, so deeply
unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question, "So where is
John going to college?" from the parents who were itching to tell me all about
how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school
John attended, no other students were going into the military.
"But aren't the Marines terribly Southern?" asked one perplexed mother
while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. "What a waste, he
was such a good student," said another parent. One parent (a professor at
a nearby and rather famous university) spoke up at a school meeting and
suggested that the school should "carefully evaluate what went wrong."
When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000
parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our
Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many
economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of
pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not
afford the trip.
We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab
and African American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars
of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles' names. We were
Southern whites from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids
from Cleveland wearing ghetto rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock
forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the
educated and well-heeled parents gathered on the lawns of John's private
school a half-year before.
After graduation one new Marine told John, "Before I was a Marine, if I
had ever seen you on my block I would've probably killed you just because you
were standing there." This was a serious statement from one of John's good
friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John
said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him."
My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and
insular to experience before. I feel closer to the waitress at our local
diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps.
They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car
asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in
the Navy.
Why were I and the other parents at my son's private school so surprised
by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most
powerful and educated families did their bit. If the idea of the immorality of the
Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged
the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military
service once that war was done?
Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world
a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend
us?
What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the
janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm's
way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean?
I feel shame because it took my son's joining the Marine Corps to make me
take notice of who is defending me. I feel hope because perhaps my son is
part of a future "greatest generation." As the storm clouds of war gather,
at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye.
My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_us/blind_soldier&printer=1;_ylt=Aq6UZXum0E5gVdLSa5Z.H9VH2ocA
Blind Special Forces soldier: determined to serve
By KEVIN MAURER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 34 minutes ago
When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.
"Once you're blind, you have to set new goals," Castro said.
He set them higher.
Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.
As executive officer of the 7th Special Forces Group's headquarters company in Fort Bragg, Castro's duties don't directly involve combat, though they do have him taking part in just about everything that leads up to it.
"I am going to push the limits," the 40-year-old said. "I don't want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission."
Since the war began in Iraq, more than 100 troops have been blinded and 247 others have lost sight in one eye. Only two other blind officers serve in the active-duty Army: one a captain studying to be an instructor at West Point, the other an instructor at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Castro's unit commander said his is no charity assignment. Rather it draws on his experience as a Special Forces team member and platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division.
"The only reason that anyone serves with 7th Special Forces Group is if they have real talents," said Col. Sean Mulholland. "We don't treat (Castro) as a public affairs or a recruiting tool."
An 18-year Army veteran, Castro was a Ranger before completing Special Forces training, the grueling yearlong course many soldiers fail to finish. He joined the Special Forces as a weapons sergeant, earned an officer's commission and moved on to the 82nd — hoping to return one day to the Special Forces as a team leader.
Then life changed on a rooftop outside Youssifiyah, Iraq, in September 2006.
Castro had relieved other paratroopers atop a house after a night of fighting. He never heard the incoming mortar round. There was just a flash of light, then darkness.
Shrapnel tore through his body, breaking his arm and shoulder and shredding the left side of his face. Two other paratroopers died.
When Castro awoke six weeks later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his right eye was gone. Doctors were unable to save his left.
The Blinded Veterans Association estimates 13 percent of all combat hospital emergency procedures in Iraq have involved eye injuries and more than half of the soldiers with traumatic brain injuries also suffer some visual impairment. That makes them the third most common injury — behind post traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries — in Iraq.
"What he is doing is a strong example that blind individuals can lead exciting and meaningful careers," said Thomas Zampieri, director of government relations for the association.
After 17 months in recovery, Castro sought a permanent assignment in the service's Special Operations Command, landing duty with the 7th Special Forces Group. He focuses on managerial tasks while honing the group's Spanish training, a useful language for a unit that deploys regularly to train South American troops.
"I want to support the guys and make sure life is easier for those guys so that they can accomplish the mission," he said.
Though not fully independent, he spent a weekend before starting his job walking around the Group area at Fort Bragg to know just where he was going. He carefully measured the steps from car to office.
"Obviously, he cannot do some things that a sighted person can do. But Ivan will find a way to get done whatever he needs to get done," Mulholland said. "What I am most impressed with, though, is his determination to continue to serve his country after all that he's been through."
Castro works out regularly at the gym and runs, his legs powerful and muscular. And though he has a prosthetic right eye and his arms are scarred by shrapnel, his outsized personality overshadows his war wounds: Nobody escapes his booming hellos, friendly banter and limitless drive.
He ran the Boston marathon this year with Adm. Eric T. Olson, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Last year it was the Marine Corps Marathon. He wants to compete in the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii and graduate from the Army's officer advanced course, which teaches captains how to lead troops and plan operations.
Mulholland said Castro, who was awarded a Purple Heart like others wounded in combat, will always be part of the Special Forces family.
"I will fight for Ivan as long as Ivan wants to be in the Army," Mulholland said.
Married and the father of a 14-year-old son, Castro still needs help getting to the gym. He recently needed an escort to the front of the headquarters company formation, where he promoted a supply clerk.
Once in front, Ivan took charge.
Affixing the new soldier's rank to his uniform, Castro urged the soldier to perform two ranks higher. In the Special Forces, he said, one has to go above and beyond what is asked — advice he lives by.
"I want to be treated the same way as other officers," Castro said. "I don't want them to take pity over me or give me something I've not earned."
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Endorsed by Michael Yon!
http://www.soldiersangels.org/
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"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country." --George Washington
USMC 233rd ANNIVERSARY
On 10 November 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to create two battalions of Continental Marines for the War of Independence from Britain. In 1798, President John Adams signed the Act establishing the United States Marine Corps.
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus [or community] organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
-- Father Dennis Edward O'Brian, USMC
Semper Fi!
(In honor of our fellow Marines today, and in advance of honoring Veterans from all Service Branches tomorrow, at sunrise, we respectfully lowered, righted, and returned our flag to full mast. It is a beautiful day here in Tennessee, and our flag is waving briskly in the fall winds, a reminder of all that is still good and right with America.)
VETERANS DAY -- 11 NOVEMBER 2008
Tomorrow is Veterans Day.
We encourage all Patriots to set aside time and reflect on the sacrifice of our Patriot veterans and those serving today, and honor them accordingly.
On November 11, 1921, an unknown American soldier from World War I was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, in recognition of WWI veterans and in conjunction with the timing of cessation of hostilities at 11 a.m., November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). President Warren Harding requested that: "All ... citizens ... indulge in a period of silent thanks to God for these ... valorous lives and of supplication for His Divine mercy ... on our beloved country." Inscribed on the Tomb are the words: "Here lies in honored glory an American soldier know but to God." The day became known as "Armistice Day." In 1954, Congress, wanting to recognize the sacrifice of veterans since WWI, proposed to change Armistice Day to Veterans Day in their honor. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, former Supreme Commander in WWII, signed the legislation.
To honor those veterans who sacrificed all, an Army honor guard from the 3d U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) keeps day and night vigil at Arlington. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, a combined color guard representing all military service branches executes "Present Arms" at the tomb for the laying of a wreath by the president, followed by "Taps."
More than a million Patriots stand ready, or are actively defending our nation today. These men and women were not drafted into service, but volunteered to serve.
Every Friday, in our Profiles in Valor section, we tell the stories of some of these volunteers from around the nation.
Today, we include some brief remarks from four uniformed Patriots who call our local community home -- bright young people who could have pursued promising careers in the private sector, like many of their peers, but who chose a higher calling of service to our great nation. Mr. Alexander asked each of them for brief comment about that calling.
MD, 2nd Lieutenant, USMC. Graduate, Harvard University
"My faith compels me to invest my life in some form of service to others. As a student at Harvard, I became increasingly aware of the sacrifices being made by Americans of my generation overseas. While we debated the merits of policy decisions, they lived them out, putting their lives on the line for our country. I had always been proud of my father and grandfathers for their military service in their generations' wars. My father served as a Marine machine gunner in Vietnam, both of my grandfathers served during WWII as did my great-grandfathers in WWI. I felt like I had a duty to do my part now. I joined the Marines because I wanted to serve as close to the point of impact as I could, where leadership and sacrifice make the greatest difference. Whether in the deserts of Iraq or the schools, churches and offices here at home, I believe that we are all called to give of ourselves in service to others."
DK, Lieutenant JG, USN. Graduate, United States Naval Academy
"The past two weeks have been the toughest in flight school -- three check rides so that I could be instrument and solo qualified in the helicopter. I can't believe I get paid to fly and am looking forward to my real job out to the fleet. Leadership involves constantly analyzing yourself and a willingness to constantly better yourself, not for your own benefit but for those who work for you. All of the young sailors, marines, aircrew who serve in our military have CHOSEN to serve. I want to work with these men and women and give them opportunities to reach their goals and exceed the expectations (or lack of expectations) that their families or friends or society has set before them. I get the chance to make a difference in their lives -- I get to trust them with my life -- and I get to serve not above them but beside them for a common cause. I have found that the best military leaders are those that have a strong faith. So many have seen the worst and the best of mankind and they just have no other option but to trust God and keep going."
RN, Captain, USA. Graduate, Princeton University
"I came home and told my parents I kind of felt like something was missing from my college career, and signed up in 2001. If I come back limbless or dead, that's my fate, but I worry about it happening to my guys. You live with them, you train with them, you eat with them, you dig fighting positions with them, you share misery with them, learn about their families and their girlfriends and their dreams and hopes, and they're good men, deserving of a wonderful future, and you want them to have that future. It has been very rewarding to see the improvements here in the last two years. We were the last pre-surge battalion to redeploy and the improvements have been dramatic. I have had the pleasure to get to know many Iraqis very well. Soldiers patrolling heavily populated urban areas, such as our current area of operations, spend a great deal of time getting to know shop owners, local leaders and ordinary citizens. We are routinely invited into homes for Chai tea and food. There is certainly some animosity among some Iraqis, but most that I have encountered appreciate our reconstruction projects and efforts to support the local governments and their desires in the community."
DW, Ensign, USN. Graduate, United States Naval Academy
"While there are a multitude of convictions that led me into Naval Aviation (including the events of 9/11), there is one that stands out. I'll try to state it simply: the defense of our nation is a necessary task, and that task demands service and sacrifice from individuals who are both willing and able to do the jobs that are required of them. I was not comfortable sitting idly by and trusting that someone else will do that job instead. I am a strong believer in putting one's skills to use in the best manner possible, and in my case I feel like my current occupation is the one I am best suited for -- both as a naval officer and a tactical jet pilot. I find myself obligated to another eight years of service. Fortunately, I'm enjoying every day of it, and I find it easy to sleep at night with a sense of accomplishment and pride in what I am doing and why I'm doing it."
Clearly there is a common theme reflected in the comments from these four service personnel. They are motivated to serve a cause bigger than themselves. They put their country, and those under their commands, first. They have taken an oath to defend our Constitution not as a formality, but with their lives.
John Stuart Mill wrote, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
We are concerned that the next few years will be characterized by political leadership exemplifying precisely the character deficit that Mill describes.
We remain the proud and the free because American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen have stood bravely in harm's way, and remain on post today. For this, we, the American People, offer our heartfelt gratitude and thanks.
THE GIPPER
"It's been my responsibility, my duty and very much my honor to serve as Commander in Chief of this nation's Armed Forces these past eight years. That is the most sacred, most important ask of the Presidency. Since our nation's founding, the primary obligation of the national government has been the common defense of these United States. But as I have sought to perform this sacred task as best I could, I have done so with the knowledge that my role in this day-to-day-to-day effort, from sunrise to sunrise, every moment of every hour of every day of every year, is a glancing one compared to yours. ... But it's not just your fellow Americans who owe you a debt. No, I believe many more do, for I believe that military service in the Armed Forces of the United States is a profound form of service to all humankind. You stand engaged in an effort to keep America safe at home, to protect our allies and interests abroad, to keep the seas and the skies free of threat. Just as America stands as an example to the world of the inestimable benefits of freedom and democracy, so too an America with the capacity to project her power for the purpose of protecting and expanding freedom and democracy abroad benefits the suffering people of the world." --Ronald Reagan
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The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our hero's, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq
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By JONATHAN GURWITZ
San Antonio
When Judith Markelz took a job as program manager for the Soldier and Family Assistance Center at Fort Sam Houston, she thought she was signing up for a temporary position. The hope in 2003 was that the center here -- which coordinates care for soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and helps their families navigate the military's health-care system -- could close its doors within six months.
It's been five years now and Mrs. Markelz is still on the job.
In the interim, more than 4,000 wounded soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen have received treatment at the nearby Brooke Army Medical Center. Many of them have come through her door looking to find everything from books and movies to pass the time, to a place where members of their families can stay while they recuperate.
For wounded warriors, arriving at the center coincides with the start of a sometimes months-long, painful rehabilitation. Depression and boredom are common.
"They are amazing people, with strength beyond anything I have ever seen," Mrs. Markelz tells me. "They cry at night, but they don't cry during the day."
Mrs. Markelz is a counselor, activity director and surrogate mother to all the soldiers in the center. "This is a new group of young men and women," the former schoolteacher says. "We need to be meeting their needs in any way we can."
The facility, which has been renamed the Warrior and Family Support Center, is a multipurpose community room, refuge and second home for wounded soldiers and their families. Enter it, and you can't help being overwhelmed by the bravery of the young men and women in uniform, and the outpouring of support from religious groups, businesses and individual volunteers who enrich it.
But for years you also couldn't help notice that the facility was too small for the number it cares for -- crammed into a 1,200-square-foot office in a guest house on post. This was suitable, perhaps, for a "temporary" center, but inadequate for something that had become an integral part of the military's health-care system.
Private donors are already doing a lot to help recuperating soldiers in San Antonio. In recent years, two "Fisher Houses" were built near Brooke Army Medical Center by the Fisher House Foundation to give family members of injured soldiers a place to stay. And across the street from Mrs. Markelz's facility is the gleaming new Center for the Intrepid, a state-of-the-art amputee and burn-victim rehabilitation facility built with private funds and donated to the Army.
"I'm not spiritual," Mrs. Markelz says when asked if she ever wondered whether the needs of her own facility would be met, "but there's magic in this room, and I don't know where it comes from. If I say something, if I say we're out of cookies, cookies walk in."
Les Huffman, a commercial developer, walked in one day in late 2006 and was overwhelmed -- by the spirit of the military personnel, by the devotion of the staff and volunteers, and by the obvious need for more space. Mr. Huffman and his brother Steve, sons of a career Air Force officer, decided to lead an effort to build larger quarters for the center.
In short order they created a nonprofit organization -- the Returning Heroes Home -- pulled together a board of directors, made a proffer to the Army, and started raising money. They sought input from the wounded soldiers, staff, doctors and rehabilitation specialists for the design.
The nonprofit raised $3.6 million in cash contributions and another $1.5 million worth of in-kind contributions that included 275 tons of limestone, computers, audio-visual equipment and more. More than 5,000 individuals, businesses and foundations donated in one way or another.
A little more than a year after breaking ground, the new Warrior and Family Support Center was complete. On Dec. 1, Mrs. Markelz began moving into her new 12,000-square foot home.
"The mission of this facility is to have an impact on the lives of these kids -- do something positive that's uplifting, get them out of the environment of depression in those barracks," Steve Huffman says.
A 24-foot Christmas tree stands in the lobby, decked with red, white and blue ornaments. Mrs. Markelz says, "It's not my new home. It belongs to the wounded warriors and their families. . . . It's not about me. They deserve it -- big time."
Critics ask why private efforts are needed, why the military isn't building these centers on its own. Paul Begala, for one, has said "t is an obscenity that a government that can find billions in no-bid contracts for Halliburton . . . cannot find a few million dollars to bind up the wounds of its heroes." Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) has sounded similar notes.
In Today's Opinion Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Harry Reid v. the ConstitutionCredit Default Swamp
TODAY'S COLUMNISTS
Declarations: In With the New
– Peggy NoonanPotomac Watch: The Senate Goes Wobbly on Card Check
– Kimberley A. Strassel
COMMENTARY
The Weekend Interview: London's Mayor Issues a Challenge to Gordon Brown
– Matthew KaminskiObama Will Find the White House Is a Lonely Place
– Jay WinikLet's Commit to a Nuclear-Free World
– Dianne FeinsteinCross Country: Government Alone Can't Do Right by Our Wounded Soldiers
– Jonathan GurwitzBlame Television for the Bubble
– Jim SollischSteve Huffman offers a partial answer to these critics. He says that the government recognizes the needs of the troops, as evidenced by its huge investment in military medicine, but it has to prioritize its spending and can't always fill in the gaps.
"I like to paraphrase what Arnold Fisher [the driving force behind the Center for the Intrepid] said," Steve Huffman told me. "This is not about philanthropy, this is not a gift. It's an obligation. It's a partial repayment on a debt we owe these guys."
We live in an era of earmarks and ever-expanding bailouts where there is seemingly little that the government is incapable of doing. But you cannot earmark bravery or budget patriotism. And perhaps that is the best justification for what citizens -- and not government alone -- should do to aid those who have volunteered to defend their freedoms.
Through the Returning Heroes Home Foundation the Huffmans are now raising money to create fitness trails on property adjacent to center they've just built. Steve Huffman explains the motivations for all of his efforts this way, "This is the most important thing I've ever done in my life."
Mr. Gurwitz is an editorial board member of the San Antonio Express-News.
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http://www.fightforthetroops.com - Make your donation here (Spike and UFC)
http://www.fallenheroesfund.org/
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Help the families of fallen Spec Ops Warriors
http://www.specialops.org
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1129143/Soldier-lost-legs-Afghanistan-refused-permission-specially-adapted-bungalow-grandparents-land.html
Soldier who lost both legs in Afghanistan is refused permission for specially-adapted bungalow on grandparents' land
By Vanessa Allen
Last updated at 1:09 AM on 28th January 2009
Comments (95) Add to My Stories
'Devastated': Marine Joe Townsend with his grandfather David Carter
After losing both legs to an anti-tank mine while serving in Afghanistan, 20-year-old Joe Townsend was trying his best to rebuild his life.
And after 20 operations in hospital, the Royal Marine’s grandfather gave him the best possible incentive to get better.
David Carter decided to build a modest bungalow on land near the home he shares with his wife Lynda, 60, to help Joe become more independent. It seemed the perfect solution.
But the council disagreed. Joe’s bungalow would be ‘intrusive’, planners said. And anyway, his case was not exceptional enough for them to waive strict laws and allow the bungalow to be built.
They narrowly ruled against the plans, even though there had been no objections – and despite a direct appeal from Joe, who was desperate to live near his family, in Pevensey, East Sussex.
Their decision devastated the wheelchair-bound veteran. It means he must stay in a rehabilitation centre instead.
‘I said I had been a local lad all my life and always wanted to live round my granddad’s,’ he said.
‘His idea of building me a place in his paddock was a massive incentive for me to crack on, get better and get my independence back. The rejection was a kick in the teeth.’
Mr Townsend was 19 when his legs were amputated after he stepped on an anti-tank mine buried on his patrol’s route in Helmand in February.
He has had many operations, with more surgery due next month, and has received round-the-clock care at Headley Court Armed Forces rehabilitation centre, in Surrey.
Rejected: Mr Carter stands by the plot of land where he wanted to build the bungalow
Most people had seemed happy to help him get on with his life. The plans for his bungalow, which would have had a treatment room, a bedroom for a carer and an en- suite bathroom, were drawn up for free by an architect who wanted to thank Joe for his sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Mr Carter, 72, said his neighbours had supported the scheme. Critics condemned the council for not doing the same. Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former soldier, said: ‘Marine Townsend has paid an extraordinary price for his service to this country. I believe he is an extraordinary case and should be viewed as such.’
The Royal British Legion said: ‘This man’s injuries were incurred defending this country abroad.
‘I hope this council will reconsider what their decision means, not only to this individual but symbolically to all our Armed Forces.’
Councillor Niki Oakes, who considered the application and by coincidence is also a double amputee, had called on the committee to help Joe.
‘I said “Damn the rules!” There has to be a way to get round them sometimes in a case like this,’ she said.
But Wealden District Council stood firm: ‘The proposed dwelling by reason of its siting and detailed design would appear as an intrusive development within this semi-rural area. The circumstances in this case are not considered sufficient to warrant an exception to the usual restraint policies.’
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Jesus...that's just...wow.... :x
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http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/16/american-legion-commander-angered-after-meeting-obama/comment-page-1/#comments
American Legion commander “angered” after meeting Obama
posted at 7:00 pm on March 16, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Apparently, the Obama administration hasn’t backed away from its plans to start offloading costs for wounded veterans to third-party insurance, which will make acquiring such insurance nearly impossible. The commander of the American Legion emerged from a meeting with President Obama “angered” at Obama’s insistence on generating revenue from those who sacrificed for American security:
The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”
The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”
Commander Rehbein was among a group of senior officials from veterans service organizations joining the President, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, the overseer of defense spending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The group’s early afternoon conversation at The White House was precipitated by a letter of protest presented to the President earlier this month. The letter, co-signed by Commander Rehbein and the heads of ten colleague organizations, read, in part, ” There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran’s personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide. While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable.”
The Obama administration explains that it wants private insurers who sell coverage to vets to pay their fair share, but there are two things wrong with that argument. First, the United States has a moral obligation to provide treatment for those wounded in the service of their country. That’s a commitment we make to the people who enlist in military, and should not get outsourced.
Second, vets with service-related injuries and illnesses can only get third-party insurance because insurers know the US will cover all service-related medical treatment through the VA. If the government reneges on that commitment, it will put insurers on the hook for veterans already enrolled — but it will make it a lot harder for the next set of veterans to get insured. It will also raise costs to the rest of the insured by those companies, when the burden should fall on all Americans equally.
If the country needs more revenue streams, it should find some other way to find them than the backs of our wounded veterans. They’ve sacrificed enough. Shame on the Obama administration for attempting to weasel out of our commitment.
Update: This Ain’t Hell wonders when General Eric Shinseki will resign in protest.
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second post on the subject
The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President's Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment
This lame idea has me so angry I can hardly see straight. If nothing else this more than anything reveals the contempt this administration has for the men and women in uniform and their families. Mac
Contact: Craig Roberts of The American Legion, +1-202-263-2982 Office, +1-202-406-0887 Cell
WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it." The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"
Commander Rehbein was among a group of senior officials from veterans service organizations joining the President, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, the overseer of defense spending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The group's early afternoon conversation at The White House was precipitated by a letter of protest presented to the President earlier this month. The letter, co-signed by Commander Rehbein and the heads of ten colleague organizations, read, in part, " There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran's personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide. While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable."
Commander Rehbein reiterated points made last week in testimony to both House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees. It was stated then that The American Legion believes that the reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate that VA treat service-connected injuries and disabilities given that the United States government sends members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. The proposed requirement for these companies to reimburse the VA would not only be unfair, says the Legion, but would have an adverse impact on service-connected disabled veterans and their families. The Legion argues that, depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran's condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health care benefits. The Legion also points out that many health insurance companies require deductibles to be paid before any benefits are covered. Additionally, the Legion is concerned that private insurance premiums would be elevated to cover service-connected disabled veterans and their families, especially if the veterans are self-employed or employed in small businesses unable to negotiate more favorable across-the-board insurance policy pricing. The American Legion also believes that some employers, especially small businesses, would be reluctant to hire veterans with service-connected disabilities due to the negative impact their employment might have on obtaining and financing company health care benefits.
"I got the distinct impression that the only hope of this plan not being enacted," said Commander Rehbein, "is for an alternative plan to be developed that would generate the desired $540-million in revenue. The American Legion has long advocated for Medicare reimbursement to VA for the treatment of veterans. This, we believe, would more easily meet the President's financial goal. We will present that idea in an anticipated conference call with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in the near future.
"I only hope the administration will really listen to us then. This matter has far more serious ramifications than the President is imagining," concluded the Commander.
SOURCE The American Legion
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GM's post repasted here:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/17/flashback-video-obama-on-sacred-trust/comment-page-1/#comments
Bush, for his flaws was a good man. Obama is a piece of lying garbage.
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By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
WASHINGTON -- The Army plans to phase out its deeply unpopular stop-loss program, which forces soldiers to remain in the military after their enlistments end.
The first Army units will deploy overseas without stop-loss soldiers in August. Barring a national-security emergency, the Army hopes to effectively eliminate the practice in 2011.
Pentagon officials said the move was meant to reduce the strains on soldiers and their families, and to help lower the alarmingly high rates of military suicide and divorce.
The move could also help defuse the anger in military circles over the Obama administration's aborted plan to make veterans' private health insurers reimburse the government for the cost of treating combat-related injuries. Amid a political furor, the White House dropped the proposal Wednesday.
Robert Gates
About 13,000 soldiers are being kept in the Army against their will because of the stop-loss program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hopes to cut that number in half by June 2010 and bring it down to the "scores, not thousands," by March 2011.
"I felt, particularly in these numbers, that it was breaking faith," Mr. Gates told reporters. "When somebody's end date of service comes, to hold them against their will...is just not the right thing to do."
Wednesday's announcement caps a multiyear controversy over the stop-loss program, created by Congress as part of the Army's transition to an all-volunteer force after the Vietnam War.
The policy affects soldiers whose units are set to deploy within three months of the end of their service commitment to the Army. Commanders say the policy helps maintain unit cohesion at a time of war and ensures that the Army doesn't face shortages of soldiers with specific skills.
The widespread use of the policy during the Iraq War became a heated political issue. In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry likened it to a "backdoor draft."
In the 2008 movie "Stop-Loss," an Iraq veteran makes plans to flee to Mexico or Canada after he receives notice that he is being kept in the military and sent back to Iraq.
Under the Army's plan, the Army Reserve will begin mobilizing units without stop-loss soldiers in August, and the National Guard will do the same in September. The active-duty Army will follow suit in January 2010.
Mr. Gates said the Army would also give all soldiers who are affected by stop-loss a $500-a-month bonus, with the payments made retroactive to soldiers serving involuntarily as of Oct. 1, 2008.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
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Obama backs down on vets insurance billing
Marine Corps Times
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Mar 18, 2009 19:35:13 EDT
The Obama administration waved a white flag of surrender Wednesday, dropping a budget proposal that would have billed private insurance companies for treatment of service-connected medical problems at Veterans Affairs Department hospitals and clinics.
“It was total capitulation,” one participant said at a meeting Wednesday with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in which 11 veterans groups vowed they would fight to the end to kill the proposal.
AmVets Executive Director Jim King said he was glad the White House promised to kill the idea, which was distracting from the good news of the Obama administration’s proposed $4.9 billion increase in the VA budget, and which would have hurt disabled veterans, their families and maybe even employees at the same companies.
Billing private insurance to pay for veterans’ health care would make disabled veterans less desirable employees for companies worried about holding down health care costs, and could have led to veterans and their families paying higher premiums — even raising premiums for everyone working for the same company, King said.
Veterans groups met Monday with President Barack Obama to discuss the controversial proposal, but Obama promised only to look at the issue.
On Wednesday, Emanuel “said he was wrong” in his earlier support of the proposal, King said. “The 11 groups spoke with one voice, and he accepted that.”
The announcement of the reversal came from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., not from the White House.
“I feel something good happened for veterans,” King said, adding that the White House deserved criticism for proposing the idea in the first place but also credit for quickly dropping it.
Disabled American Veterans also commended the reversal. “The president was very open and candid when he met with veterans groups earlier this week, and we are pleased that he has heard our concerns and taken them to heart,” said David Gorman, executive director of DAV’s Washington office.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed the White House had changed its position.
“In considering the third party billing issue, the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for veterans,” Gibbs said in a statement. However, the president “listened to concerns raised by the VSOs that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families’ ability to access health care” and agreed with them. “The president has instructed that its consideration be dropped.”
In an effort that could be viewed as making up for some of the political damage caused by the controversy, Gibbs said that President Barack Obama “wants to continue a constructive partnership” with military and veterans groups and is “grateful” to the groups that worked with him on the proposal, even in opposition.
The White House is not talking about reversing current policy, which does bill the private insurers of some veterans for treatment not directly related to a service-connected injury, illness or disease. If anything, billing for nonservice-connected care could become even more aggressive in an effort to generate money for health care, which is what Emanuel told veterans groups was the whole reason for even considering expanding insurance billing.
The White House idea was not getting support in Congress. On Wednesday morning, before the change was announced, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, issued a statement saying he would not even consider such legislation.
“The Obama administration’s proposal to charge third-party insurance companies for service-connected medical treatment will not be taken up by the Veterans Affairs Committee,” Filner said. “Our budget cannot be balanced on the backs, or legs, or kidneys or hearts of our nation’s combat-wounded heroes,” he said.
The proposal gave Republicans an opening to question whether the Obama administration really wants to help veterans. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, a decorated Air Force veteran and former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called the insurance billing idea “sad and shameful.”
“As a combat-wounded fighter pilot who served in two wars, I find the White House idea of charging wounded war heroes for care absurd, abhorrent and unconscionable,” he said in a speech on the House floor.
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A forum comment: ""Seems to me it's kind of hard for him to push socialized medicine on all of us and at the same time admit that socialized medicine isn't up to the task of taking care of our troops."
ZANG!
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http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2009/03/18/
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2009/03/19/
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2009/03/23/
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http://www.anotsocapitolidea.com/2009/02/youll-never-walk-alone-by-tiger-woods.html
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By MERRILEE CARLSON
April 9 marked the sixth anniversary of Iraqi Liberation Day. Most of us vividly remember the stirring image of Iraqi citizens tearing down the statue of the man who dominated their lives. While toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein six years ago liberated Iraqis from their fear of his oppressive regime, they still were not free. Eliminating this dictator opened a void which was quickly filled with a mixture of coalition soldiers, insurgents and Iraqi citizens who desired to govern themselves.
In February 2004, my son, Spc. Michael Carlson, arrived in the Diyala province of Iraq. During the next 11 months he and his team searched houses, hunted insurgents, and made a difference in the lives of the Iraqi people. I think about him today because I miss him very much.
He gave his life in an overturned Bradley fighting vehicle in a water-filled canal, one week before the first Iraqi elections in January 2005.
I think about what his service to our country meant to him: defending and protecting us. But it goes further than that because Michael had a vision of his life that few young people have, and amazingly he put that vision on paper while in high school. In May 2000, Michael wrote that he "sometimes dreams of being a soldier in a war." In this war he is " helping liberate people from oppression." He wrote the only way that one could live forever "is to live on in those you have affected." These are prophetic words.
The Iraq we see today was hard won and costly. The Iraqi government has come a long way from the oppression of Hussein's regime. Their military is now being redeveloped, and local communities have come together to work for security. Though there have been pitfalls, this has been a fast transformation with great successes.
In America, we often think that this transformation happened solely by the work of our American heroes. But the Iraqi people have worked very hard to transform their country and to take back control.
I remember meeting Brig. Gen. Ismael Alsodani, the Iraqi defense attaché, when he visited Arlington National Cemetery and Michael's grave last year. He leaned next to my older son, Dan, and said, "I've lost my brother too."
Those five words changed Dan's life. He had been living in a chasm of grief for Mike, and suddenly his perspective opened up. He was able to look beyond his personal grief and recognize all who have fought for freedom in our country, in Iraq, and around the world.
Our military is the most effective military in the world. We give thanks to each and every man and woman who has served and helped to change the world in which we live. They have given hope for the new Iraq and for the future of its people.
Mrs. Carlson is the president of Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission.
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By JAMES TARANTO
"What if it was 'Oh, the gay one,' or 'Oh, the Asian kid?' " asks Maggie Kwok, head of the Penn State Veterans Organization in an interview with the Daily Collegian, PSU's student newspaper. She is referring to a "training video," prepared by the university's Counseling and Psychological Services office, depicting "worrisome student behavior."
The office swiftly removed the video when it prompted a kerfuffle, but the PSU College Republicans preserved it on YouTube. It's a fascinating documentation of academic prejudice.
Just shy of five minutes, the video depicts a vignette in two scenes. As it opens, a timorous young female instructor is talking with an older man, perhaps the department chairman. We join the conversation as it is about to wrap up, before she brings up a new and worrisome subject:
Instructor: . . . So, I think that we should talk to everybody about that.
Chairman: Good, let's bring it up at the staff meeting, OK?
Instructor: Actually, I kinda wanted to talk to you about something else? Um, I'm still having problems with that student I mentioned?
Chairman: The Veteran.
Instructor: Yeah. He's having problems with his papers still. His grammar is really poor, and he veers off subject, and he's just not really seeming to understand the assignments.
Sound familiar? "You know, education--if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
The video's salient stereotype, however, is not of veterans as thickheaded but as angry. The instructor reluctantly tells the chairman that the student's "tone is very confrontational, and I feel like he's always on the verge of losing his temper." The chairman asks if he has threatened her or if she is "worried about what he might do." She says no, but "he makes me really uneasy." He gives her some obvious advice, beginning: "If he ever threatens you, you call the police right away."
After this inconclusive chat, the story shifts to the classroom, where The Veteran confronts the instructor, demanding to know why he only got a C-plus on his paper even after rewriting it to her specifications. She says that while there was some improvement after the rewrite, she graded the paper on the merits. He thinks she has it in for him and says, "I don't see why you're doing this":
Instructor: I'm not doing anything, Matthew. This isn't a personal thing against you.
The Veteran: I think it is! You've made it very clear in class how you feel about the war, and you're taking it out on me!
Instructor: My personal beliefs have nothing to do with the way that I treat you. I think that you need to relax and we need to discuss this. Or I could give you the name of someone to talk to if you feel like you want to get some help.
The Veteran: Help? Do you think I'm an idiot? You're the one who's being unreasonable! I just want the grade that I deserve. [Pauses.] You know what? You'll see, you'll be sorry. I'm gonna get you fired.
With this, The Veteran exits stage left. Fade to black as the instructor's jaw goes slack in an expression midway between terror and pensiveness.
"Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the university responded to the veterans' concerns as quickly as possible by removing the video," the Collegian reports:
"We heard them, we responded and there was certainly no intent to suggest that any particular student group was inclined toward worrisome behavior," Powers said. . . .
"Obviously someone has taken our video and has posted it elsewhere," Powers said. "Since it has been posted on the Internet, we have received some e-mails from veterans and friends of veterans who have seen the video out of context."
We watched the other three videos in the series, and we must say we don't see how the "context" ameliorates the veterans' objections to the depiction of The Veteran.
All the videos in the series concern students behaving in ways that are creepy but not necessarily dangerous. In the first, a young woman tells her professor that a young man in her class has an unreciprocated romantic interest in her and has been making her feel uncomfortable. "It's not like he's stalking me or anything," she allows, but then she describes behavior that some may reckon crossed that line.
The second depicts a female student who is behaving erratically for reasons that are unspecified--perhaps trauma, mental illness or drug abuse.
Podcast
James Taranto on the Penn State video kerfuffle.
The third shows a classroom discussion on news coverage of violent crime. When the conversation turns toward school shootings, a black-shirted male student in the back row remarks that such violence "doesn't make sense to me. Why shoot at the other students? Personally, I'd blow up Old Main or shoot up the administration. That's where the real problems are."
The video about The Veteran is similar to the others, in that all depict abnormal behavior by young people who probably are normal, but are immature or temporarily impaired. But the characters in the other videos are all completely generic, with no distinguishing characteristics other than their sex. Only The Veteran is fleshed out enough even to be a stereotype.
The obvious objection to the depiction of The Veteran is that there is no reason to think that veterans are more prone than anyone else to lash out angrily, blaming others for their own failings. If anything, one would think that the rigors of military training and deployment would leave them more mature, at least in this regard.
But The Veteran's status as a veteran is relevant to the video's story, inasmuch as he believes the instructor is treating him unfairly because he is a veteran. This lends another dimension to Maggie Kwok's speculation about the reaction if the character were depicted as a member of an ethnic or sexual minority.
What if the student in the video were black and accused the instructor of racial discrimination? Would this be depicted, as it is in this video, as if the charge was absurd on its face? Would the student's threat to have the (presumably untenured) instructor "fired" come across as an empty one, the way it does in the actual video? And if the department chairman in the opening exchange identified the student by asking, "Oh, the black guy?," would that not be seen--with some justification--as bolstering the charge of discrimination?
In the video, The Veteran behaves inappropriately--but he also accuses the instructor of inappropriately bringing her politics into the classroom at his expense. We are meant to think the accusation is preposterous. But at a university that produces such a video, is it hard to believe that such things actually go on?
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WASHINGTON — The Army has promised to lighten the soldier’s load, and nowhere more urgently than in eastern Afghanistan, where the unforgiving terrain tests the stamina of troops whose weapons, body armor, rucksacks and survival gear can weigh 130 pounds.
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Multimedia
Graphic
Finding the Right Coverage But an experiment to shave up to 20 pounds off a soldier’s burden — much of it by reducing the bulletproof plates that protect the chest and back — has stalled, leaving $3 million in new, lightweight equipment sitting in a warehouse in the United States instead of being sent to the war zone where it was to have been tried out by a battalion-size group of 500 soldiers. The delay offers a new window into how Army rules have slowed the deployment of specialized gear that small units are seeking for harsh combat environments.
The new lightweight bulletproof plates, part of what is known as a Modular Body Armor Vest, are already in use by the military’s Special Operations Command, which includes the Army’s elite light-infantry troops, the Rangers.
A team of Army experts went to eastern Afghanistan in early March expecting to begin trial runs of the gear for regular Army soldiers, including a company assigned to the remote Korangal Valley, a harsh and primitive area of eastern Afghanistan where the insurgency has proved especially resilient, and where soldiers regularly set off on multiple-day patrols that require them to hike up and down steep hills and valleys.
But the assessment team was ordered back to the United States late last month when its experiment was put off. The delays in the assessment were reported first by Army Times.
According to Army officials familiar with the effort, senior Army leaders ordered further reviews of the lighter bulletproof plates to guarantee that soldiers would not be put at risk wearing them during the combat field tests; the leaders also wanted to expand the goals for the assessment. The officials who discussed the stalled study did so on ground rules of anonymity because of the senior-level review of the matter still under way.
The lighter set of plates and vest could reduce the load of conventional troops by about 20 pounds compared with the current Army-issue Improved Outer Tactical Vest.
The Special Operations Command prides itself on rapidly equipping its units with the latest in weaponry, body armor and war-fighting technology, and many of its innovations subsequently have been adopted by conventional forces. But some of its highly specialized gear carries with it a greater risk for the user, one that Special Operations commanders say is mitigated by the elite level of training given their forces.
All involved in the debate agree that the lighter plates and vest do not cover as much of the torso as the current Army body armor. But advocates of the lighter protection say that giving a soldier greater mobility contributes to survivability, and that the greatest threat to troops in eastern Afghanistan is from bullets, while the heavier vests were designed also to guard against shrapnel from roadside bombs.
Army officials say that the assessment, headed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in conjunction with the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, will resume in about a month, and that the focus will be on the impact of the total soldier’s load and not on analyzing particular pieces of equipment, like the body armor alone.
“To preserve the validity of this assessment and evaluation on soldier performance, the Army decided to equip the unit with all types of lighter equipment simultaneously rather than in a piecemeal fashion,” an Army spokesman said.
The assessment is expected to resume “in the next month, pending a final decision from senior Army leadership,” the spokesman said.
Advocates of a more cautious assessment schedule cite the importance of getting the study right, saying it will guide decisions on equipping the entire force both to meet the challenges of combat in Afghanistan — where thousands of additional troops are being sent this year — and to lessen the physical strain that can lead to long-term injury.
But other officials counter that time has been wasted, and that the lighter gear is only one option to commanders whose troops are going out on patrol, because heavier body armor would remain at each base for use when more coverage of the upper body was needed.
Critics say the delays in testing the lighter body armor are another sign of Army inflexibility, even after years of efforts by the service to speed up its procurement process. The Army was also late to recognize the dangers posed by a reliance on soft-skinned Humvees for troops in Iraq, and then was slow in buying and building better-armored troop transports.
The Army has been driven to examine how to lighten the soldier’s load after years of adding heavier armor, night-vision goggles, rifle scopes, knives, water and food. A soldier on patrol carries, on average, 60 pounds of equipment, but in places like Afghanistan, where the terrain requires prolonged missions away from an operating base, the load can be doubled by the need for shelter, extra food, ammunition and other gear.
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Today is Armed Forces Day.
Thank you for all you do.
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President Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I
God bless America.
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Through Sunday night only, President Reagan at Normandy for the 40th Anniversary of D-Day.
http://www.dogbrothers.com/
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Here's a scene from the movie OVERRIDE i made in support of our troops and intel people like
my dad and brother...(covered in this month's Blackbelt magazine -the one with Dan on cover).
I had a tiny budget so of course i would love to have Seal Team smashing into
a building from helicopter drop but this is what i could do....Next time right!
After movie premieres JULY 9 in BELLMORE NY... want to hold events to raise money for
Wounded Warrior Project.
CLIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzynBfmrlkc
SITE: WWW.OVERRIDETHEMOVIE.COM
cheers
Randall K
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A Good Teacher
A lesson that should be taught in all schools . . And colleges
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School inLittle Rock, did something not to be forgotten.
On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.
'Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?'
She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.'
They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades..'
'No,' she said..
'Maybe it's our behavior.'
She told them, 'No, it's not even your behavior.'
And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom. By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms.Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.
The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'
At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.
Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it.'
By the way, this is a true story.
Please consider passing this along so others won't forget that the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by U. S. Veterans.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/michael-s-dispatches/
Michael's Dispatches
SatComms for Soldiers
25 July 2009
Sangin, Afghanistan
Have been out with British forces in the area of Sangin in northern Helmand Province. This area appears to be turning into the main effort of the current fight in Afghanistan, but this is unclear to me at the moment. I do know that air assets are heavy. During our mission yesterday, a B-1 could be seen overhead, though it was miles high. On the ground, this place is loaded with IEDs and there were many firefights during yesterday’s mission. My section of eight soldiers did not fire a single round; we did not come into direct contact, though bullets sometimes zipped overhead. Nearly all missions are conducted on foot and the soldiers like it that way. I am with the British battalion called 2 Rifles. The last mission I did with 2 Rifles was in Iraq, and they killed maybe 26-27 JAM members during that fight. Yesterday they only killed two Taliban (Predator actually made the shot), but the mission was well run, and morale here is very high. Everybody is ready to roll again and missions are near continuous. I’ll ask British commanders to let me stay, though that might not be necessary because there are so few helicopters. More likely I am stuck here. FOB Jackson is probably going to be my Hotel California, but that’s all good because these are great soldiers, in the thick of it, and I want to stay.
More broadly speaking, our forces are spread to the high winds across desolate stretches of Afghanistan, sometimes in tiny “bases” with as few as a half-dozen soldiers. Last December, I spent some time with a group of such soldiers in Zabul Province, but hardly wrote a word about them, yet. They were deep in wild country and it took two days for us to drive out to a paved road. Those soldiers had no access to Internet, and said that on one occasion they didn’t even get mail for three months.
Until December, I used a satellite antenna called a “Regional BGAN” (R-BGAN) HNS-9101 to transmit dispatches from remote areas. These small, portable systems are expensive; during a fifteen-day period last year, I spent almost exactly $5,000. (Prices based on bandwidth usage.)
During late 2008, when I saw the group of a half-dozen American soldiers, out there in the boondocks, two days from a road and once going three months without mail, I told Mrs. Frankie Mayo, who runs Operation AC. Frankie and Operation AC had sent loads of gear to Iraq, including air conditioners and generators. When I told Frankie about the isolated soldiers, she got to work with Hughes to send R-BGANs to Afghanistan.
Lucky for me, with the old R-BGAN no longer usable, Hughes, through Frankie, shipped a newer model, the Hughes 9201 BGAN Inmarsat Terminal. Many of this year’s dispatches will come through the 9201.
Without such a terminal, large numbers of Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors will be without regular communications for much or most of their time in Afghanistan. The infrastructure is Spartan to non-existent. Life here is tougher than it was in Iraq, and the fighting will be tougher still. Yes, there are the gigantic bases—as in Iraq—where everything is available, but little of the war is being fought from the larger bases.
Extended battlefield journalism from Afghanistan is relatively non-existent. Broadly speaking, folks at home will not know how their loved ones are doing unless they can communicate directly. To learn more about the effort to send satellite communications gear to troops downrange, please see Operation AC.
http://www.operationac.com/index.html
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I'm a big fan of Robert Heinlein and have read just about everything he ever wrote, including Starship Troopers, which, IMO tripped over itself trying to be both Sci Fi novel about mechanically enhanced soldiers and an examination of political ethics and who deserves enfranchisement. Be that as it may, I think ST made a strong argument that those who put up the most to support a system of government should have a strong stake in the way things are run. This piece instead documents how our troops regularly have their political voices stifled. One would think that those who have made some much hay out of other disenfranchisement claims would take note.
July 28, 2009
America's Military Voters: Re-enfranchising the Disenfranchised
by Hans A. von Spakovsky and M. Eric Eversole
Legal Memorandum #45
For many Americans, the 2008 presidential election was historic, both in its outcome and the number of citizens who voted, many for the first time. The overall turnout of the votingeligible population was 61.7 percent, the highest turnout since the 1964 presidential election.[1] Local election officials in many states reported high levels of voting by many individuals who have not traditionally participated in the election process. The same, however, cannot be said for America's military members and their votingage dependents ("military voters"). For these voters, especially those serving in dangerous combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2008 presidential election was an embarrassing reminder of the difficulties faced by America's men and women in uniform when they attempt to vote.
Military voters have long been disenfranchised--both at the state and federal level--by a voting process that fails to recognize the unique challenges created by a military voter's transitory existence or the delays associated with delivering an absentee ballot to a war zone halfway around the world. Given these soldiers' daily sacrifices and their willingness to defend this nation's freedom, it is incumbent on Americans to remedy this problem and provide U.S. soldiers with the same rights they are being asked to protect. Unless Congress (and the states) finally act to remedy this problem, military personnel will continue to be the largest group of disenfranchised voters in the United States.
Current Law
All military personnel and their dependents, as well as overseas citizens, are guaranteed the right to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).[2] President Ronald Reagan designated the Department of Defense (DOD) to administer the statute, and the department organized the Federal Voting Assistance Program office (FVAP) to provide support to UOCAVA voters.[3] Enforcement of the UOCAVA is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice.
In short, the UOCAVA requires all states to "permit absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters to use absentee registration procedures and to vote by absentee ballot in general, special, primary, and runoff elections for Federal office."[4] The UOCAVA does not specify the exact number of days prior to the election that absentee ballots must be mailed to overseas voters. However, since 1988 the Department of Justice has filed 35 civil lawsuits against states and local governments arguing that the statute's guarantee of the right to vote by absentee ballots requires states to mail out such ballots in time to be received and returned by overseas voters.[5] In 1986, Congress found that "{b}ased on surveys of the U.S. Postal Service and of military postal authorities, ballots should be mailed to overseas addresses at least 45 days prior to an election in order to ensure adequate time for a ballot to reach a voter and be returned."[6] The U.S. Election Assistance Commission recommended the same 45day transit time in 2004 when it released a report on the best practices for facilitating voting by overseas citizens covered by the UOCAVA.[7]
Disenfranchised Heroes
Despite many states reporting record turnout in 2008, data from the election demonstrates a shockingly low level of participation among military voters.[8] Take, for example, the treatment of military voters in Minnesota. In a state that prides itself on the nation's highest voter participation rate--78.2 percent of the eligible population participated in the 2008 presidential election--only 15.8 percent of Minnesota's 23,346 military members and their votingage dependents were able to cast an absentee ballot in the same election.[9] To make matters worse, even if the military voter in Minnesota cast his or her absentee ballot, that ballot was nearly sixteen times more likely to be rejected by local election officials, as compared to other absentee voters statewide.[10] A vast majority of the rejected military ballots--nearly 70 percent--were rejected because the ballot was returned after the election deadline. Ultimately, only 14.4 percent of Minnesota's eligible military voters were able to cast a vote that counted in the 2008 presidential election.
Military personnel move frequently and receive scant assistance from both the military and state voting officials. Consequently, the absentee ballot request rate is extremely low. In the three states with the largest number of military voters--Florida, Texas, and California (accounting for nearly 40 percent of all military voters)--data from each state shows that less than a quarter of military voters and their dependents requested an absentee ballot for the 2008 presidential election. Florida had the highest number of requests with 27.8 percent of nearly 324,000 military voters requesting an absentee ballot. Texas was second with 22.9 percent and California was third with 17.8 percent. All told, of the estimated 943,879 military voters in these three states, only 23.4 percent or 220,595 requested an absentee ballot to vote in the 2008 presidential election. The rate of return of those same absentee ballots was even lower. Only 11.3 percent of the eligible military voters in California actually returned their ballots compared to 20.6 percent in Florida and 13.1 percent in Texas.
These low participation rates, however, were not isolated to Florida, Texas, and California. Other states, like Alaska, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania--all of which have significant military populations--experienced similar levels of disenfranchisement. The number of military voters that requested an absentee ballot in these five states ranged from 18.5 percent in Alaska to 25.2 percent in Pennsylvania. However, the number of military voters that were able to cast and have their absentee ballots counted was much lower, ranging from 11.9 percent in Maryland to 19.1 percent in Pennsylvania. Said another way, nearly 80 to 85 percent of military voters were unable to cast an absentee ballot that counted during the 2008 presidential election and, thus, were likely disenfranchised during the election. This low participation rate is as severe as any in the nation's recent history, including that which resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to strike down the barriers to registration and turnout that kept black Americans out of the polls.[11]
The state data further shows that a large number of ballots were mailed, but never returned by the absentee military voter or were returned undelivered to local election officials because they had the wrong mailing address. For example, in California, Florida, and Texas, nearly 34.8 percent of the military absentee ballots that were requested were not returned to the local election official or were returned because of an undeliverable address (i.e., the military voter no longer lived at that address). According to a recent study by the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF), many of these overseas military ballots may have been lost or significantly delayed by the postal service. The OVF found that nearly 22 percent of respondents to a survey, which included military and overseas voters, never received their requested absentee ballot for the 2008 presidential election.[12] In addition, 10 percent received their absentee ballots less than seven days before the election and 1 percent received their ballots after November 4, 2008. In other words, the 2008 OVF Report found that nearly onethird of its respondents either did not receive their absentee ballot or received it with insufficient time to return it to election officials.
Unfortunately, the 2008 presidential election was not an anomaly. Data collected by the Defense Manpower Data Center and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission showed a similar pattern of disenfranchisement of military voters in the 2006 election. In particular, the Defense Manpower Data Center stated that only 22 percent of active duty military members (which does not include military dependents) voted in the 2006 election.[13] Of that 22 percent, approximately 16 percent attempted to vote by absentee ballot and 7 percent voted in person.[14] This data corresponds with data collected by the Election Assistance Commission, which found that only 16.5 percent of the estimated 6 million eligible military and overseas voters requested an absentee ballot and only 5.5 percent of these ballots were returned and counted.[15] As was the case in 2008, many military and overseas absentee ballots (nearly 70 percent) were not returned by the voter or were returned as undeliverable.[16] The Election Assistance Commission also found that many ballots were rejected because they were received after the deadline for receipt.[17]
Why Military Voters Are Disenfranchised
1. Inability to Participate
The 2008 election data makes it clear that a vast majority of military voters (an estimated 75 to 80 percent)[18] were disenfranchised by their inability to request an absentee ballot. This failure rests squarely on the DOD and FVAP.
Unlike most Americans, who receive voting assistance from various state agencies in their local communities, military voters frequently live in remote locations far from their voting residences. Overseas military voters cannot simply walk into their local registrar's office, driver's license bureau, or public assistance office and register to vote or update their voter registration information.[19] Nor do they receive voting assistance from thirdparty voter registration groups because military installations are closed to the public. In short, military voters do not have access to the same level of voting assistance as other Americans and that lack of assistance directly affects their ability to participate in elections.
Recognizing this fact after the 2000 election, Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), in part, to ensure that the FVAP provided military voters with sufficient voting assistance. As Congress made clear, the FVAP must "ensure that members of the Armed Forces and their dependents who are qualified to vote have ready access to information regarding voter registration requirements and deadlines (including voter registration), absentee ballot application requirements and deadlines, and the availability of voting assistance officers to assist members and dependents to understand and comply with these requirements."[20] The HAVA also requires the FVAP to ensure that military personnel assigned to voting assistance duty (commonly referred to as voting assistance officers (VAOs)) have the time and the resources needed to provide votingrelated services.[21]
Unfortunately, the FVAP's voting assistance program has been a failure. In a post2004 election report by the DOD Inspector General (IG),[22] the IG found that the FVAP was ineffective because only 40 to 50 percent of military members, and a lesser percentage of family members, received voting information from the FVAP or VAOs.[23] The main failure, according to the report, was the FVAP's use of VAOs as the primary means of distributing voting information.[24] The report found that the VAO program failed to provide "the consistent, focused attention" necessary to achieve the FVAP's federally mandated mission because the military assigned VAO duty as a collateral duty-- that is, the VAO responsibility was a secondary duty to an officer's primary obligations.[25] The IG concluded that "senior leadership can expect significant improvement only if a radically different approach is applied."[26]
That different approach has not been forthcoming. In the 2006 election cycle, the IG once again found that the VAO program did not provide military voters with the necessary registration or absentee ballot information needed to participate in the election.[27] As in the 2004 election, the IG found that less than 40 percent of military members and their families received voting information and assistance from the FVAP and VAOs.[28] In fact, the IG noted that only 33 percent of military voters even knew about the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), the federal form provided by the UOCAVA that allows a military voter to register, update his or her address, or request an absentee ballot.[29]
The result of this failure is clear: When the FVAP does not provide the requisite assistance to military voters, which civilians receive through numerous state agencies, these voters are significantly less likely to participate in elections. That is at least one reason why only 22 percent of military voters participated in the 2006 federal election,[30] even though 41.3 percent of the general population voted in the same election.[31] It also largely explains the low percentage of military voters who participated in the 2008 presidential election, even though 61.7 percent of the general population voted in that election.[32] Military voter participation rates will only increase, as noted by the IG's 2004 report, when the FVAP dramatically changes its voting assistance program and provides consistent and timely voterrelated services.
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2. Lost and Undeliverable Ballots
The 2008 data also shows that a significant number of military ballots (approximately 33 percent of the total requested)[33] were never returned to local election officials or were returned as undeliverable. Once again, both the DOD and FVAP are primarily responsibility for this failure.
Given the transitory nature of military voters, who typically move every two to three years and often deploy for months on end, mailing addresses frequently change and quickly become obsolete. It is difficult for the military voter, as well as their state of residence, to keep up with these changes. As a result, many military ballots are sent to wrong addresses and, thus, are returned as undeliverable.
The failure, again, rests with the FVAP and, more specifically, its failure to provide consistent and timely voter assistance--as noted in the IG's 2004 election report. If military voters were provided voting assistance on a consistent and timely basis (i.e., each time they move or deploy to a new duty station), such aid would ensure that states receive timely updates regarding a military voter's change of address and, thus, reduce the number of absentee ballots sent to the wrong address.
In addition, the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) must do more to ensure that ballots are sent and received in a timely manner. The delivery of mail, especially to war zones, is a difficult task. In 2004, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that while ballot transit times (one way) generally met the 12 to 18day standard required by Army regulations,[34] nearly 25 percent of all mail took more than 18 days to deliver.[35] Further, GAO reported that "[n]early half [of interviewed military members] said that, after arriving in theater, they waited more than 4 weeks to get their mail, and many commented that some mail took as long as 4 months to work its way through the system."[36] The 2008 OVF study also demonstrates that mail delivery problems continue to hamper the delivery of absentee ballots to foreign locations. Ballot delivery has to be a priority for the DOD and the MPSA.
3. Not Enough Time to Vote
Every federal agency and nonprofit group examining the issue of ballot delivery times to military voters in war zones has concluded that ballots need to be sent at least 45 days before the state deadline for receiving absentee ballots. In fact, some government officials, like the chief of operations for the MPSA, recommend that absentee ballots be sent 60 days before the state deadline. These recommendations are based on two critical factors: (1) it takes at least 12 to 18 days for a ballot to make the oneway transit from an election official to a designated mailbox in a combat zone;[37] and (2) military exigencies (i.e., fighting the war) further delay the delivery of ballots to military voters. In other words, it takes at least 36 days of mail time (18 days each way) for a ballot to be sent to and from a war zone and some additional amount of time to account for military exigencies.
Unfortunately, nearly onethird of the states refuse to follow the 45day standard.[38] In fact, ten states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Vermont) give military voters 35 or less days to receive, cast, and return their ballots before the state deadline. Not only does 35 days fail to account for mail delivery times, it provides no time for the military voter to receive and cast the absentee ballot. By refusing to follow the 45day standard, these ten states led the nation in a rather dubious category: the systematic disenfranchisement of military voters.. Six additional states (Alabama, Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) allow military voters less than 40 days to receive and return their absentee ballots.
Unfortunately, the voters in these states receive their ballots so close to the election that the voter does not have time to return it or, even if the ballot is returned, it arrives after the election. This fact was evident in the 2008 presidential election in Minnesota, where absentee ballots were sent to military voters only 30 days before the election. According to data provided by the state, approximately 8 percent of military absentee ballots that were returned to local election officials were rejected, whereas only 0.5 percent of 300,000 absentee ballots were rejected statewide.[39] The higher rejection rate is caused primarily by the number of absentee ballots (nearly 70 percent of the rejected military and overseas absentee ballots) that were delivered after the election deadline. If Minnesota had used the 45day standard (i.e., it would have given military voters an additional 10 or 15 days to receive and return their ballots), a vast majority (if not all) of the late arriving military ballots would have been counted--potentially changing the outcome of one of the closest Senate races in the state's history.
4. Rejected for Other State Law Reasons
In addition to ballots that are rejected for being late, states also reject ballots that fail to adhere to a variety of state laws. For example, ballots are frequently rejected because the absentee ballot or absentee ballot envelope are not signed or dated by the voter or do not have the voter's address. Some states also reject ballots if they are sent to the wrong jurisdiction or if they lack a postmark showing that the ballot was cast before the election. In addition, some states require a witness or notary to sign the military voter's absentee ballot or the absentee ballot envelope to verify the identity of a voter. Finally, a few states have rejected absentee ballots when the absentee ballot or absentee ballot envelope was not printed on the correct paper weight or were printed on the wrong size paper.
While some of the state law bases for rejecting military absentee ballots are dubious at best, these requirements impact relatively few absentee ballots. For example, in Florida during the 2008 presidential election, only 1 percent of the 66,668 ballots that were returned by absentee military voters were rejected. Approximately onehalf of these ballots appeared to be rejected because they arrived after the state deadline. The other half (about 330 ballots) were rejected for a variety of reasons, including (1) the ballot or ballot envelope was not signed by the voter; (2) the absentee voter's signature did not match the one on file; (3) the voter sent two ballots and, thus, one was rejected for being a duplicate; and (4) the voter no longer lived in the county or was registered to vote in a different county.
Pennsylvania also had a low rejection rate for absentee military ballots in the 2008 presidential election. According to data provided by state election officials, only 0.4 percent of 15,523 military absentee ballots were not counted in the election. Like Florida, approximately onehalf of the absentee ballots were rejected because they were returned after the state's deadline. The other half was rejected for some other state law requirement.
Florida's and Pennsylvania's experiences appear to be consistent with other states that were surveyed for this study. Excluding ballots that were returned after the election deadline, most states had a rejection rate of military ballots between 1 and 4 percent.
Failure to Act
If the disenfranchisement of military voters was a freight train, Congress heard its whistle long before the 2008 presidential election and, nevertheless, stood by as the train ran over military voters. The leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate share equal responsibility for this failure.
Congress was well aware of the difficulties faced by military voters prior to the 2008 presidential election, as evidenced by the reports and studies issued on prior elections by various agencies including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In response to these studies, Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) introduced legislation in May 2008 that would have required the DOD and FVAP to collect absentee ballots from overseas military members on the Friday before the election and deliver them stateside by express air transport.[40] Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) sponsored a nearly identical bill in the Senate.[41] Both bills would have shortened the delivery time for overseas ballots from three or four weeks to four to seven days-- meaning that thousands of ballots that were rejected in 2008 would have counted.
Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) also introduced a congressional resolution in July 2008 to address the FVAP's failure to provide sufficient assistance to military voters.[42] The resolution required the FVAP to provide military voters with monthly notices regarding their opportunities to request an absentee ballot. The resolution also would have provided Congress with critical preelection reports regarding the FVAP's efforts to ensure that military voters were provided with election assistance.
Unfortunately, the leadership in the House and the Senate either ignored the legislation or refused to act until it was too late for the bills to be effective. For example, even though Representative Blunt introduced his resolution in July 2008, House leadership did not allow a vote on the resolution until September 17, 2008--that is, 48 days before the November 4, 2008, election. The twomonth delay prevented the resolution from providing any real benefit to military voters.
Likewise, Representative McCarthy's bill never made it out of the House Administration Committee chaired by Representative Robert Brady (D-PA). Senator Cornyn's bill fared a little better and was voted out of the Senate on October 1, 2008. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did not bring the legislation to the floor for a vote and the bill ultimately expired at the end of the 110th Congress.
Practical Solutions
Military voters should not suffer another election where only 15 to 20 percent of them are able to vote. Significant improvement, however, does not require significant change. Four minor modifications to existing federal law would directly address the lack of assistance and timing issue and, more importantly, would substantially improve participation rates among military voters.
1. Designate Military Offices as Voter Registration Agencies. To the extent that Congress wants to ensure that military voters receive adequate assistance, it must legislate a different approach-- an approach that the FVAP has been unwilling to implement. Like state driver's license and public assistance offices designated as voter registration agencies under section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act, certain military offices should be designated as voter registration agencies through an amendment to the NVRA. The DOD could provide votingrelated assistance and registration at locations where military members already receive administrative support or social services (e.g., pay offices, military ID offices, etc.). Not only would such an approach greatly improve the consistency of the FVAP, it would ensure that military voters receive information when they need it most--when they have a permanent change of duty station or when they deploy.
For example, in the Navy, sailors are required to visit their personnel support detachment when they check in to a new base. Soldiers in the Army have a similar obligation. As part of that visit, sailors and soldiers are required to complete various federal forms to update their contact information, the address of their dependents, and their Servicemen's Group Life Insurance. Having the military member complete one additional form, the federal post card application, will not materially burden the process. It would, however, ensure that military personnel have an opportunity to complete a new federal post card application when their addresses have changed. Completion of this form and its forwarding to the relevant state election official by the designated DOD office would greatly increase participation rates, as well as the accuracy of information maintained by state election officials on military voters.
Senator Cornyn has introduced a bill that would implement just such a procedure by amending the NVRA and require DOD to "designate an office on each installation of the Armed Forces" as a voter registration agency.[43] Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) likewise has incorporated this concept in a bill that he recently introduced.[44]
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2. Make the 45Day Standard Mandatory under the UOCAVA. Currently, the federal law that requires states to mail absentee ballots to military voters, the UOCAVA, does not specify when states are required to mail absentee ballots to military and overseas citizens. As noted previously, this oversight has allowed numerous states to avoid sending ballots at least 45 days before an election. This failure can be easily rectified with a minor modification to 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff1:
Each State shall--(1) permit absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters to use absentee registration procedures and to vote by absentee ballot in general, special, primary, and runoff elections for Federal office, and
(2) ensure that absentee ballots are sent at least 45 days before the state deadline for receiving absentee ballots unless such ballots are sent by express mail or other electronic means that will ensure that the ballots are received with sufficient time to be returned to state election officials.
Such a change would greatly reduce the number of ballots that are rejected because they were received after the state's deadline for receiving absentee ballots. This statutory change would complement a bill already introduced by Senator Schumer that would amend the UOCAVA to require states to send military and overseas ballots at least 45 days before the election.[45]
3. Require the Military to Provide Expedited Return Delivery. Senator Cornyn and Representative McCarthy have reintroduced their legislation to require the FVAP to use expedited delivery methods to return ballots from overseas military members in the 111th Congress.[46] Even if Congress mandates a 45day standard, as discussed above, this legislation serves an important function: providing an expedited delivery and return mechanism for overseas military absentee ballots.
Notwithstanding the best efforts of states to send ballots at least 45 days before the state deadline, there are numerous factors that delay the delivery of mail to and from war zones. In fact, as noted in the 2004 GAO report, a sizeable percentage of mail (25 percent) took longer than 18 days to deliver and some mail took as much as 4 months to arrive overseas. Senator Cornyn's and Representative McCarthy's legislation helps to resolve the uncertainty regarding mail delivery times and provides a guarantee that an overseas military voter's ballot will be delivered to state election officials by the election deadline.
One serious shortcoming in the bills introduced by Cornyn, McCarthy, and Schumer is that they limit the DOD to using the United States Postal Service for express mail service, despite the fact that there are a number of other private companies that provide such service. The DOD should be allowed to accept competitive bids from all companies that provide international express mail service, including the USPS, so that this service is provided at the lowest cost possible for the American taxpayer.[47]
4. Eliminate NonMaterial State Law Reasons for Rejecting a Ballot. There are certain state requirements for the absentee ballot process that could be eliminated. For example, absentee ballot requests and absentee ballots, including the official UOCAVA post card ballots, should not be rejected by state election authorities because of state restrictions on the paper type, weight, or size of such election materials. Senator Schumer's bill, S. 1415, would eliminate such requirements.
However, state requirements that the signatures of absentee ballot voters be witnessed or notarized are necessary to protect the security and integrity of the absentee ballot process. Absentee ballots are unfortunately one of the biggest sources of voter fraud. Contrary to what some would think, neither of these requirements is difficult for military voters to meet. All military personnel, regardless of their location, should be able to obtain the signature of a witness. Further, federal law mandates that a wide variety of military personnel, including Judge Advocate General Corps, are federal notaries and, thus, overseas military members should have little trouble finding a notary.[48] The most that needs to be done is to ensure that all states that require notaries will accept the notarization of JAGs and any other military personnel who are authorized notaries.
If Members of Congress and their leadership are serious about protecting the rights of all voters, and, as they often claim, concerned about the welfare of American military personnel, they can provide actual proof of those sentiment by ensuring that this country's military men and women have the same right to vote as all other Americans. These four very simple legislative changes could make the difference in guaranteeing the right to vote of the largest group of disenfranchised American voters. They deserve America's support.
Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Legal Scholar in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation and a former Commissioner on the Federal Election Commissioner. Eric Eversole is a former active duty officer in the Navy JAG Corps and former lawyer in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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[1]2008 General Election Turnout Rates, United States Elections Project, available at http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html.
[2]42 U.S.C. § 1973ff et seq. The UOCAVA was passed in 1986 to "update and consolidate provisions of current law relating to absentee registration and voting in elections for Federal office by members of the uniformed services and by citizens of the United States who reside abroad." H.R. Rep. No. 765, 99th Cong., 2nd Sess., at 5 (1986). The predecessor statutes were the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973dd, and the Federal Voting Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973cc.
[3]Exec. Order No. 12,642, 53 Fed. Reg. 21,975 (June 8, 1988).
[4]42 U.S.C. § 1973ff1(1).
[5]Cases Raising Claims Under The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/litigation/caselist.php#
uocava_cases
[6]H.R. Rep. No. 765, 99th Cong., 2d Sess. 1011 (1986).
[7]Best Practices for Facilitating Voting by U.S. Citizens Covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, Report of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (2004); available at www.eac.gov.
[8]The authors collected data by email and telephone inquiries from 19 of the largest states with military voting populations, including: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. These states combined have nearly 60 percent of the military voting population.
[9]The FVAP collects and provides data regarding the total number of military voters in each state, including Minnesota. These figures are available at http://www.fvap.gov/reference/laws/stateinitiatives.html.
[10]Minnesota state data indicates that election officials rejected nearly 8.2 percent of cast military absentee ballots, whereas only 0.5 percent of all absentee ballots statewide were rejected. See Sheehan v. Franken, No. 62CV0956, Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law, and Order for Judgment, at 9 (Minn. Dist. Ct. Apr. 13, 2009), available at http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/
electionlaw/litigation/documents/MNfinalorder.pdf.
[11]See Edward Blum, An Assessment of Voting Right Progress in Mississippi, American Enterprise Institute, available at www.aei.org/docLib/2006041
7_MississippiStudy.pdf; Edward Blum and Lauren Campbell, Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Jurisdictions Covered Under Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, American Enterprise Institute, available at www.aei.org/docLib/
20060515_BlumCampbellreport.pdf.
[12]Overseas Vote Foundation, 2008 OVF Post Election UOCAVA Survey Report and Analysis, at 20 (Arlington, VA: Feb. 2009) (2008 OVF Report).
[13]Defense Manpower Data Center, Human Resources Strategic Assessment Program, 2006 Survey Results on Voting Assistance Among Military Members and DoD Civilian Employees, Survey Note No. 2007010, at 2 and Table 1 (May 7, 2007) ("2006 DMDC Survey").
[14]Id.
[15]Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act Survey Report Findings, September 2007, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at 1, Tables 21c and 22; available at www.eac.gov.
[16]Id. at Tables 21c, 22, and 25a (showing that 658,855 ballots were not returned by the voter (992,034 - 333,179) and 34,458 ballots were returned to the local election jurisdiction as undeliverable).
[17]Id. at 1 and Table 25a.
[18]The estimate is based on data collected from 19 states (see footnote 8, supra) which showed that only 325,000 military voters out of approximately 1.5 million requested an absentee ballot for the 2008 presidential election.
[19]Under Sections 5 and 7 of the National Voter Registration Act, state motor vehicle driver's license offices as well public assistance agencies must provide voter registration opportunities to individuals using those offices. 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973gg3 and 1973gg5.
[20]See 10 U.S.C. § 1566(i)(1).
[21]Id. § 1566(f)(2).
[22]Department of Defense Inspector General, Evaluation of the Voting Assistance Program, Report No. IE2005001 (Mar. 31, 2005), http://www.
dodig.mil/inspections/IE/Reports/Final_VoterAssistanceProgram.pdf).
[23]Id. at 17, 22.
[24]Id. at 25.
[25]Id. at 22.
[26]Id. at 26.
[27]DOD Inspector General, Evaluation of the Voting Assistance Program, Report No. IE2007004 (Mar. 31, 2007), available at http://www.dodig.mil
/inspections/IE/Reports/Final_2006%20Federal%20Voting%20Assistance
%20Program_Mar%202007.pdf; see also H. Con. Res. 388, 110th Congress (2008).
[28]Id. at 6.
[29]Id.
[30]Defense Manpower Data Center, Human Resources Strategic Assessment Program, 2006 Survey Results on Voting Assistance Among Military members and DoD Civilian Employees, Survey Note No. 20007010, Table 1 (May 7, 2007).
[31]2008 General Election Turnout Rates, United States Elections Project.
[32]Id.
[33]The estimate is based on data collected from 19 states (see footnote 8, supra) which showed that approximately 106,000 of the 325,000 that were sent to military voters in the 2008 presidential election were not returned by the voter.
[34]U.S. Government Accountability Office, Operation Iraqi Freedom: Longstanding Problems Hampering Mail Delivery Need to Be Resolved, Report No. GAO04484, at 13 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).
[35]Id.
[36]Id. at 15.
[37]See Government Accountability Office, Operation Iraqi Freedom: Longstanding Problems Hampering Mail Delivery Need to Be Resolved, GAO04484, at 1012 (April 14, 2004). However, the same study found that nearly 25 percent of test letters sent to war zones took more than 18 days. Id. at 13.
[38]The state deadlines for mailing and receiving absentee ballots from military voters have been compiled in the FVAP's "Voting Assistance Guide," available at http://www.fvap.gov/vao/guide.html.
[39]Sheehan v. Franken, No. 62CV0956, Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law, and Order for Judgment, at 9 (Minn. Dist. Ct. Apr. 13, 2009), available at http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/MNfinalorder
.pdf.
[40]H.R. 5673.
[41]S. 3073.
[42]H. Con. Res. 388.
[43]S. 1265.
[44]S. 1415, Sec. 9. Schumer's bill was passed by the Senate on July 23, 2009 as Amendment No. 1764 to S. 1390, the FY10 National Defense Authorization Act.
[45]S. 1415, Sec. 5. See also Amendment No. 1764 to S. 1390, the FY10 National Defense Authorization Act.
[46]H.R. 2393 and S. 1026. Such a requirement is also contained in Senator Schumer's bill, S. 1415, in section 5. However, the bill does not provide the DOD with a date certain by which it must collect absentee ballots or guarantee the return delivery of these ballots. In short, this bill fails to provide any assurance that the overseas military ballot will be returned to the United States in order to be counted.
[47]This limitation is apparently in the bill because John E. Potter, United States Postmaster General, protested to the Senate that no private company should be allowed to interfere with the USPS's monopoly on mail service. See Letter from John E. Potter to Senator Robert F. Bennett, Ranking Member, Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate (June 10, 2008).
[48]10 U.S.C. § 1044 (2008).
http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/lm0045.cfm
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http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/audio-care-packages-for-service-members.html
Audio care packages for service members with Google Voice
8/04/2009 04:00:00 AM (From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest and are pleased to have Sergeant Dale Sweetnam join us here. SGT Sweetnam is working with Google's communications team this year through the U.S. Army's "Training with Industry" Program. -Ed.)
It's not easy to stay in touch with friends and family when you're fighting in a country thousands of miles from home. I spent 13 months in Iraq as an Army journalist where I flew in Black Hawks over Balad and Baghdad working to generate news coverage about my fellow soldiers. The whole experience was physically and emotionally draining, but it was especially difficult when I called home at the end of the day and nobody was there to answer.
For servicemen and women who are constantly on the move, having a single number and an easy way to retrieve messages from loved ones can be invaluable. To help our service members communicate with their loved ones and show our support to those serving our country, Google is launching a new program. Starting today, any active U.S. service member with a .mil email address can sign up for a
Google Voice account at www.google.com/militaryinvite and start using the free service within a day.
When you deploy, your life is put on hold. While you live and work in a different world, everyone else moves on with life back home. Your family and friends keep moving, and this sometimes means it's just not possible for them to stay awake until 2 a.m. to receive a phone call. Calling Iraq or Afghanistan is seldom an option.
Google Voice provides a solution to some of these problems. Service members can set up an account before they deploy. Or if they're already deployed, families can now set up an account for their service member. Loved ones can call to leave messages throughout the day, and then when that service member visits an Internet trailer, all the messages are right there. It's like a care package in audio form.
I signed up for an account when I came to Google, and it's already making communications much easier here in the States. I know when I return to combat, Google Voice will help make life a little more manageable.
Posted by U.S. Army SGT Dale Sweetnam, Army Fellow
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amongst the coverage of Michael Jackson:
http://blip.tv/play/AYGJ5h6YgmE
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By LAURA LANDRO
In World War I, it was known as "shell shock," in World War II, "battle fatigue." The British Royal Air Force called it LMF, for "lack of moral fibre." Only after the Vietnam War was a concerted effort made to understand the effect of combat on the human mind. These days, the lexicon of mental health includes the phrase "post-traumatic stress disorder," referring to a crippling condition that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event.
In "Shadow of the Sword" Jeremiah Workman, a Marine staff sergeant who won the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire in Iraq, offers a searing account of his own struggle with the demon now known simply by its acronym, PTSD. A small-town boy from Ohio who enlisted in the Marines after high school, he gets the warrior ethos drilled into him at Parris Island, the Marine Corps' boot camp, and heads to Iraq in 2004.
Soon enough, Sgt. Workman is assigned to a "mop-up crew" after the battle for Fallujah in Iraq's turbulent Anwar Province. But the mopping up proves to be an ordeal in itself. Sgt. Workman and his platoon come across a building in which fellow Marines are trapped by insurgents. In the firefight that ensues, he kills more than 20 of the enemy but loses three of his own men. The memories of the experience haunt him long after the fighting ends.
In its depiction of combat, "Shadow of the Sword" ranks with Marcus Luttrell's "Lone Survivor," the tale of the Navy Seals and Special Forces who died in a battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan. At one point in the Fallujah mop-up, Sgt. Workman's squad leaves a house they have just searched: "The volume of fire has spiked even higher. Now long automatic bursts from multiple AK's overlap each other into one sustained cacophony. I can't tell how many there are, but it has to be at least a half dozen, maybe more. A bullet skips off the roadbed a few feet in front of me. Another one smacks into the wall and gouges out a little pit from the concrete."
But the greater theme of "Shadow of the Sword" is the aftermath—the wounds that hurt from the inside. When Sgt. Workman returns from Iraq, he suffers from nightmares and unpredictable meltdowns that wreak havoc on his personal life.
“The dream was bad, the worst in weeks. The ceiling comes into focus. I blink the sleep out of my eyes. My heart races, sweat stains my sheets. I'm burning up.
”
Read an excerpt from 'Shadow of the Sword'
And he is not alone. A recent study by researchers at the San Francisco Veterans Administration medical center found that 37% of soldiers returning Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from a mental-health problem, most often PTSD or depression. Efforts are under way to provide better counseling and to train troops in coping skills, but there is a barrier. As a New York Times reporter put it in a story about the Army's new mental-stress training: The challenge is to "transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness."
Not surprisingly, Sgt. Workman is troubled when he finds himself diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "All that PTSD nonsense," he writes, "was for pussies who couldn't hack a warrior's life." The acronym itself feels like "a stigma."
Still, Sgt. Workman can't help re-living the fatal day, often in flashbacks. He asks himself why he lived and others didn't and whether he could have done more to save his platoon members.
Back in Parris Island as a drill instructor, Sgt. Workman says that he is told push at least two recruits into suicide attempts, in an effort to weed out the weak. This is the only part of the book that sounds implausible, given the standards that define the Marines. One recruit slashes his wrists, he claims, which makes him feel despicable. During one drill, he has a flashback that results in a meltdown in front of the young men he is charged with making into Marines.
The flashbacks are part of the physiology of PTSD, as Sgt. Workman learns. Once the brain receives an overdose of trauma, its neurochemistry changes. Sgt. Workman likens the effect to a record gouged with scratches, causing the needle to replay the same passage again and again. Time does not heal all wounds; it can often make them worse.
.Victims of post-traumatic stress disorder often self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. Some turn violent. In the middle ground there is anger. "A misplaced toy, a casual remark, a wayward glance or a traffic jam is all it takes to trigger the overreaction," Sgt. Workman writes. One day he gets so angry that he nearly kills a neighbor's dog. He is prescribed anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs that numb him so much that he thinks: "I could watch my mother die right now and just shrug it off." He swallows a bottle of pills and puts a gun in his mouth before his frightened family intervenes—then doesn't remember the incident.
Sgt. Workman has other problems weighing on him, including a troubled marriage. He begins to seethe over his maltreatment as a kid by a brutish stepfather. Ultimately, though, he comes to realize that if he can't integrate his wartime experience into his life he will be a "fractured and malfunctioning human being." It is a gruff sergeant who begins to set him straight, enabling him to understand that he did everything he could to save his brothers-in-arms. "It was a terrible story, but that's war," he tells Sgt. Workman. "Men die despite our best."
Light at the end of the tunnel appears as Sgt. Workman begins to embrace his future; there is a reconciliation with his wife and a new son. He soon leaves the Marines but continues to work with a group called the Wounded Warrior Regiment. He meets many other veterans who suffer as he has suffered but who don't always want to admit they are hurting. The shame, he tells them, is not in PTSD but in refusing help: "Giving in, disgracing those we left behind and dying here at home after all we've gone through is simply not acceptable." Semper Fidelis, Sgt. Workman.
—Ms. Landro writes The Informed Patient column for the Journal. Her brother is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves.
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A friend of mine wrote me today:
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I had a wonderful experience Sat night. Got to the hotel about 1030 after an evening on the riverfront in Wilmington.
At the lobby entrance there was a squad (about 15 men) of what was obviously marines (LaJune just up the road a piece).
I approached and asked if they were on leave. “Yes sir we got back fro Iraq last night”. I thanked them for their service and bid them a good evening.
As we checked in I started thinking. Hell I didn’t have the college soccer thing until noon Sunday and the wife, while she thought I was totally crazy, did not mind if I bought the lads a couple of libations. So back down to the lobby I go and floated the idea to the young Marines. “No sir you don’t have to do that”. After a bit of conversation they relented so we all pile in the cabs and down to the riverfront we go.
They pick the Rhinoceros Club that has an outdoor patio. We go to the bar for a beer. “Thank you sir this is really nice of you.” I stood back and watched from a distance. There were a group of 20 year old girls shaking and slapping each others butt… ah the men were REAL into that. One of the girls asked me, in a NC version of a Valley girl affected accent, “Who ARE you? You look like a cop from my home town”. One of the men asked me, in what I took as a real compliment, was I a Marine. Ya’ll know in that branch of the service, once a Marine always a Marine. I thanked him but the answer was the same as the young lady got, “I am just a guy who appreciates the service to the country.”
As they drained beer I signaled them over for another. More thank you sir. Time went by and the men would linger at the bar for more thanks and small talk. Always the subject was of their choice. Home, family, training, officers, Afghan casualties, EOD and motor T danger, girlfriends, wives kids, motor T as room clearers, the poor bastards in the turret after an IED detonation, Afghan history, snipers, Navy customs and so forth and so on.
To make a long story short for the next three hours none of those fellas had an empty hand or a dry mouth. To a man each thanked me and expressed that this had never happened to them and they were often not treated well in Jacksonville. That surprised me. One of the old timers (a 26 year old) in his sixth year in the Marines said he had had a meal bought in an airport once.
Owing to my advanced age, the penalty paid for over indulgence in seniors and the hour being well beyond the witching it was time for me to take leave. Their genuine appreciation and gratitude of my simple gesture of respect was heartwarming. Undoubtedly some of the best money I have ever spent. If you have never done this I would highly recommend it.
Those men deploy to Afghanistan in January…
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I awoke this Saturday morning at PT time (0430), and looked at my surroundings. The worst winter storm in DC for a number of years had arrived in force. Snow, and lots of it. Roads are closed, planes are grounded, and people are huddled comfortably inside their homes or foolishly out trying to learn how to drive in snow.
Rather than roll over, I put some warm clothes on, leashed the dogs, and out we went for some exercise and introspection. As I walked, I was trying to imagine being in those winter camps and fights so long ago.
I thought of Washington's Christmas raid at Trenton, and his last, lonely winter camp. I thought of the soldiers at Fort Niagara. I thought of the bitter cold of the Argonne, the Huertgen Forest and Bastogne, the Aleutians, the Chosin Reservoir, the Sava River, and Tora Bora.
As I thought of those heroes of our past, those legendary Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen that we regularly honor and pay tribute to, I thought of those quiet professionals in current fights that we don't speak of often enough.
Look around on any forward operating base or outpost in Afghanistan, the Philippines or Iraq. Watch the Soldiers passing through our airports coming home on or returning from R&R. Listen to speeches during a deployment or redployment ceremony. Stand silently and render honors to one of our fallen (something which is hardly more sincere than on Disney Road and at that airfield!).
Modern American heroes (not our over-indulged athletes or actors) are hardly given their due. They walked or still pass quietly among us, never seeking acknowledgement or fame, but simply doing their duty as they have sworn oaths to do. We already know some of their names:
- Smith, Murphy, Monsoor, Dunham, McGinnis - Medal of Honor;
- Hollenbaugh, Cooper, Nein, Sanford, Coffman - Distinguished Service Cross;
- Hester, Birch, Roundtree, Kandarian, LaFrenz - Silver Star;
- Kopp, Shumney, Kuban, DeLeon, Gentry - Bronze Star for Valor;
- Biggs, Carbone, Turecheck, Rushing, Berwald - Army Commendation for Valor.
And, I submit, for every warrior we acknowledge in a ceremony, there are a hundred or a thousand more who are never acknowledged for the difference they make every day.
So as I finished my peaceful walk in the snow, I thought of the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors that are carrying the fight away from home so that I could have this walk in peace, and I am forever grateful. I thought of those in MRAPs slowly searching roadways for hidden dangers, others working with local police to secure a village, and yet others moving quietly and quickly to eliminate or capture a hidden enemy, and I am filled with pride.
Wherever you are, and whatever you do or did to continue to guarantee my safety and freedom, I thank each of you in, headed to, returning from, or supporting the fight. You are my heroes, and I thank you.
CSM Jeff Mellinger
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Though its perspective is Christian and mine is not, I agree with the larger point the following makes. I hope to trigger more posts on this subject:
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I've grown quite fond of a show on the History Channel called "Warriors". In
this show US Army Green Beret Terry Schappert goes all over the world to
study, engage and report on the great warrior cultures of history. In one
episode he profiled the Zulu people of South Africa and the warrior culture
which, under the sometimes brutal leadership of Shaka Zulu, changed the very
nature of warfare in Africa. But what captured my interest was not the
weapons and tactics of the Zulu warriors-it was what happened after the
battle. The Zulu community understood that their men returning from battle
had blood on their hands. In most cases they did not have the benefit of
long range weaponry that made the killing distant and faceless, but instead
had experienced the physical and psychological horrors of close quarters
combat with edged and blunt force weapons. As any combat veteran will tell
you, reintegrating into a peaceful society after witnessing the bloody
carnage of war is no simple matter, especially if there is blood on your own
hands. So, as the men returned from fighting they underwent spiritual
cleansing rituals which were intended to cleanse their hands of the blood
they had shed, freeing their consciences from guilt, their hearts of blood
lust, and helping them to transition back into peaceful life inside the
community. Schappert, a seasoned combat veteran himself, was clearly moved
by this, turning to the camera and explaining that "we don't get this."
And I really have to wonder why.
Why is it that we find it so easy to send our young people off to war,
giving them the latest, greatest and most effective training and weaponry on
the planet, applaud them for accomplishing their mission with honor and
valor, and then find it so difficult to reintegrate them into our peace
loving society when the battle is over? The secular authorities take steps
to provide counseling, treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
and other post-war psychological and psychiatric issues and I do not mean to
downplay the vital importance of the counseling disciplines in dealing with
the whole person, but I am convinced that the Church of Jesus Christ has a
profoundly important role to play in the lives of our returning warriors.
But to first discover what that role is we need to first swallow our western
pride and take a lesson from the Zulus. True, the Zulus were animistic in
their beliefs and practices and we do not condone or affirm anything that is
contrary to the Scriptures, but that doesn't mean the Zulus got it all wrong
on what a warrior returning from combat needs. We are quick to celebrate and
honor God's call on some to be warriors. We should be all the more eager to
honor the warriors who have heeded that call and return to us with blood on
their hands and horrifying images that have been seared into their minds by
being first in line to help give them what they really need: spiritual
cleansing.
The Zulus, along with just a few other warrior cultures throughout history
including some Native American Indian tribes, correctly understood that the
cleansing a warrior needed was deeply spiritual. For some reason we in the
US have seemed largely content with seeing our returning warriors' needs as
primarily mental and emotional, and trying to help them in those areas. But
as the Church we understand that God created us as multi-layered
people-physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. These layers overlap
and intermingle, creating powerful reactions throughout the entire being
when any single layer is acted upon. When your heart is broken you can't
eat. When your mind is racing you can't sleep. Fasting quickens the spirit.
Emotive music can soothe and pacify or excite and invigorate the mind and
body. God created it all, and never intended that any part be ignored. Plato
thought the spiritual was to be valued to the exclusion of the temporal
(physical, emotional, intellectual), but he went too far. The temporal
aspects are also part of God's human creation and are therefore precious in
His sight! But the spiritual layer-the soul-is foundational to the rest. The
body, the heart and the mind are dead without the soul, and outside of
Christ the soul is dead. If the body, heart and mind have participated in or
even simply witnessed the unnatural act of taking a human life-no matter how
despicable that life may have been-the only hope for that person's cleansing
is through a soul that is made alive in Christ Jesus, and a soul-bond to the
resurrected Christ where Jesus' blood is brought to bear against the
darkness left in war's wake. We are comfortable with the blood of Christ
cleansing us from sin, and we need to be comfortable with the truth that the
blood of Christ also "heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:3). Isn't the
blood of Jesus who gave His life for that warrior in your midst also enough
to cleanse his hands of the blood of the enemy and make powerless the
memories that fester and haunt him in the middle of the night? Isn't the Son
who raised the dead also able to heal the heart and mind that have been
scarred by the horror of war? We confess that Jesus' blood is all that we
need. It's time to put that confession into action in a new way.
The War on Terror is much more than an ideological struggle-it is the very
battle between good and evil, between freedom and slavery, fulfilling the
word of the angel of the Lord in Genesis 16:12, that the hand of Ishmael
will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him. It is a spiritual
war waged first in the heavenly realms, spilling over into the created world
where casualties are by no means limited to the physically wounded and
killed. As a result our nation is now faced with a spiritual humanitarian
disaster of cataclysmic proportions as our warriors return from battlefields
in the middle east. Our brave soldiers have shed the blood of the enemy, and
have had their hands stained by the blood of their brethren whom they were
not able to save. The secular world may be able to help the mind and body,
but it cannot hope to touch the spiritual wounds these warriors now
bear-only Jesus can. As the nation welcomes them home with pomp and
circumstance, let us, the Church, welcome them in with minds that understand
them, hearts that weep with them, arms that hold them and hands that pour
the oil of anointing in rich, spiritual ceremony, washing their hands,
hearts, minds and souls in the cleansing blood of Christ.
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In war and 48 hours later, peacefulville USA. The Warrior, fresh from the warzone is aggressively confronted by a drunk, still being on war reflexes the warrior reacts killing the drunk. Who is at fault? You make an excellent point about there being some sort of ritual for someone to go through to turn off his kill switches.
This is probably part of the reason vetrans remain silent, they KNOW that 99% of the population simply does not have a clue, and a few are still of the "baby killer" camp. Maybe they find an understang priest of their faith, or have just figured out their own process. There are some that don't have it figured out and you get a nasty destroyed mess when the wrong buttons are pushed. It is a hard nasty job support lady liberty in the style she has become accustomed, and I see indicators everyday that it is not understood.
When was the last time you drove your car to the corner store instead of walking the block for that gallon of milk?
Why are you buying that Hummer, then emasculating it with those rims and other bling that makes it simply a status symbol rather than a legitamate truck?
When was the last time you thought, what can I do to keep them from having to go do that again?
Like I said no one understands that there are litlle thing we do everyday that affect things in the big picture, and we end up burning blood in the gas tanks, wearing blood in our clothes, snoting blood in our recreational drugs..............
Sorry about the soapbox, but I think the point had to be made.
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Military tells Congress to keep gay ban for now - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_military_gays
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It is an issue the troops have generally adjusted to, why solve a problem that has been solved? easier to let congress think it is tabled for a while while the war is fought, peripherial bullcrap is not needed.
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is bad for customer relations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PnlWHdJGLM&feature=player_embedded
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Second post of the day:
It may be "Armed Forces Day" today, but they are there every day for us. Let us do the same for them.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_gays_military
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From Michael Yon, who has this site's full support:
========================================
Dear Friend,
I have just returned to Afghanistan and I’m writing to tell you about a new book project I’m working on and an important organization that I’m backing with this book. I hope you will too.
ABOUT SOLDIERS’ ANGELS
Soldiers’ Angels is a volunteer-led nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the American soldier in the field. Morally, materially, and spiritually. Its volunteers number over 200,000. In my opinion, SA is the most effective of all civilian support groups. You’ve read about them in some of my dispatches as I have been a champion of their heroic efforts for years.
Soldier’s Angels has a number of great projects, including Adopt a Soldier, which matches one soldier in the field to one supporter or family at home who sends a letter every week and a care package at least once a month. But their most important contribution is also one of the most expensive is theFirst Response Backpack.
U.S. military personnel who are injured or wounded are moved out to treatment so fast that sometimes their gear and personal items never catch up with them. Evacuated in the clothing damaged or removed during treatment, these soldiers often find themselves without basic supplies. A Soldiers’ Angels First Response Backpack provides comfortable clothing, a full set of travel-sized toiletries and accessories, an international calling card the soldier can use to phone home, and a handmade Blanket of Hope. To date, Soldiers’ Angels has distributed more than 15,000 backpacks to the wounded.
I’ve seen the great impact Soldiers’ Angels has in the field, so you won’t be surprised that I want to help them. Or that I’m asking you to join me in that effort.
A NEW BOOK DEDICATED TO THE MISSION & SOLDIERS’ ANGELS
I am currently at work on a new book called IRAQ: INSIDE THE INFERNO. It will cover my years reporting in the field from 2005-2008. It will tell, with words and pictures, the dramatic story of how we won the war in Iraq – not primarily with our overwhelming technology, not with shock and awe destruction, but with the far more important force of American values.
The book will assemble some two hundred of the most powerful, telling, and dramatic photographs I have taken in Iraq (many never before published). With my publisher, Richard Vigilante Books, we have enlisted an award-winning documentary producer from Discovery Channel, Karen Kraft, and her handpicked team to create the book. Pictures of American warriors at work, engaged in killing terrorists or rebuilding a school or a shattered neighborhood. My intent is to combine the best of my pictures with the best of my writing to create an entirely new type of experience. And for the final product to have the enduring memorial value of the most treasured, well-crafted volume in a great library.
IRAQ: INSIDE THE INFERNO will come off the press for shipment late this year before the holidays, but my publisher is not going to ship the regular version to bookstores until Spring. Why? Because we want to raise $50,000 to help Soldiers’ Angels.
To meet this goal, my publisher is creating a limited number of boxed, signed, and numbered deluxe editions of the book to be offered exclusively to my supporters and both of us are contributing a portion of our proceeds to Soldier’s Angels.
THIS BOOK IS SPECIAL
This 220 page, full color book will be printed on the finest paper used for art books and bound using timeless techniques of the book-makers’ craft. Here are some of the details:
- The pages will be Smythe sewn, not just glued the way most books are today.
- The paper is acid free and guaranteed to last 800 years without yellowing or deterioration.
- The beautiful cloth cover – not plastic or some other synthetic fabric – will be gold stamped on both front and spine.
- And each book will be encased in a cloth-covered, gold stamped slipcase.
I will personally sign and hand-number each copy of this special edition and enclose a certificate, suitable for framing, to memorialize your support of my mission and of Soldiers’ Angels.
PRE-ORDERS
The cost for each signed, numbered deluxe copy is $49.95, plus shipping. A lot of money, but here is the bottom line: The money we raise from sales of this book is crucial not only to support my own mission but for our goal of raising at least $50,000 for Soldiers’ Angels. That’s why we have tried so hard to create a work that expresses our gratitude for your support. As you know, I have returned to Afghanistan just days ago and my arrangement with my publisher provides book royalties to me earlier than a traditional publishing arrangement in order to assist me with my mission.
My publisher is now accepting pre-orders for IRAQ: INSIDE THE INFERNO. Pre-ordering will guarantee you a copy – we can print this special edition only once – and within days of the book coming off the press. If our experience with the special signed edition of my last book, A Moment of Truth in Iraq, is any guide, it will sell out, so the only way to absolutely guarantee you will be able to get a copy is to pre-order.
More importantly, pre-orders will help us raise funds for Soldiers’ Angels more quickly. I’d be thrilled if we could raise all of the $50,000 we have targeted for Soldiers’ Angels on pre-orders of the special edition alone. If we can do that, then we can raise even more.
I think you’ll love the book and hope you’ll pre-order today. It makes a great gift, especially because it is also a gift to the American soldier, who, as I said in A Moment of Truth In Iraq, ‘is not only the most dangerous man in the world, but the best man, too.’
--
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
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Not having served, my idea is that DADT and related matters are for those who do, not Barney Frank et al in the US Congress.
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"The U.S. military, already strained by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, faces transformation from the world's most powerful fighting machine into an organization where political correctness is more important than victory. Saturday's Senate vote cleared the final hurdle for the repeal of President Clinton's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy designed to prevent homosexual conduct in the ranks. Battle lines will now form over how the homosexual advocacy policies will be implemented. Though the repudiated lawmakers who rammed the repeal through this weekend's session pretend they are simply latter-day Rosa Parkses seeking to end discrimination, there is no comparison. Since 2005, a mere 1 percent of Army discharges involved homosexual conduct. This issue isn't about retaining or recruiting qualified personnel for the military. This is part of the Left's larger societal goal of using government to force others to embrace unorthodox personal lifestyle choices. The implications are clear from a look at how the federal government treats issues of homosexuality. ... Troops can look forward to so-called pride parades on military bases and awareness days for the transgendered. Everyone knows the sort of thing that might work in Greenwich Village or a San Francisco neighborhood doesn't go over well in a fighting force drawn largely from red state America -- an area whose residents Mr. Obama once derisively referred to as the type who 'cling to guns or religion.' That's why implementing the New Gay Army means forcing soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to endure 'diversity' training. Those who don't like it will be told to get out, as several senior military leaders have suggested already. Chaplains in particular will face the dilemma that preaching their faith will violate the new pro-homosexual code of conduct. As a result, far more are likely to leave or be thrown out of the military as a result of Mr. Obama's policy than were ever affected by Mr. Clinton's. It's hard to see how that will do anything to strengthen the nation's defenses." --The Washington Times
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"It's hard to see how that will do anything to strengthen the nation's defenses."
It's not supposed to strengthen the nation's defenses, it's supposed to make deviant sexual behavior a norm via gov't fiat.
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https://www.saluteheroesproject.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=87&custom_1=CHR7NAAE&custom_3=E073P
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http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2011/09/07/house-to-investigate-military-readiness/
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I am ashamed to admit that it has taken me this long, but I finally got around to signing up to make a monthly donation to the Wounded Warrior Project.
How about each and every one of us?
www.supportwwp.org
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This article touchs on many themes, but strikes me as, at root, a plea to support the troops. So it it here.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/robert-bales-lone-gunman-article-1.1046802
"Our country today is in the enviable position of being able to fight a gritty multi-front counterinsurgency far away in unfriendly and inhospitable terrain. And we’ve been doing it for over 10 years now. The average American hasn’t felt so much as a bump in the road for it. There has been no draft, no fuel rations, no chocolate shortages. When I served in Iraq, we used to say “the military is at war: America is at the mall.”
Since the recent murders committed by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in Afghanistan, the perpetrator as has been called “troubled,” “crazed” and other such adjectives. The military is probing for alcohol involvement. He received a medical exam prior to deployment but, no surprise, was given a clean bill of health by military doctors. He was injured twice and witnessed fellow soldiers maimed and killed on previous deployments. He was also reportedly having family troubles back home.
They’re looking for the reasons why Bales did it. Yet, none of these single things caused this incident on their own. All of these circumstances were caused by yet another circumstance: sending a man to Iraq three times and then to Afghanistan for a fourth tour."
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I haven't read this long piece completely yet, and Pravda on the Hudson has been a suspect source with regard to PTSD previously, so caveat lector. That said, this time around the initial pages seem to actually be positive:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/post-traumatic-stresss-surprisingly-positive-flip-side.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120325
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By KARL ROVE
The great 19th-century French observer of our country, Alexis de Tocqueville, was amazed at how "Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations . . . proposing a common object for the exertions of a great many men and . . . inducing them voluntarily to pursue it." Once combined, "they are no longer isolated men, but a power seen from afar, whose actions serve for an example and whose language is listened to."
This remains true today. Since 9/11, the American habit of voluntary associations has been particularly pronounced as groups have sprung into existence to support the military, especially combat wounded and families of the fallen. Many of these groups, including the Semper Fi Fund and Hope For The Warriors, were founded and are now led by military wives.
Karen Guenther is a nurse and the wife of a Marine. In 2003, she was working at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital in California when the first wave of wounded arrived from Iraq. She was standing next to a young military wife, when the woman saw her horribly injured husband for the first time. Shaken, she nearly collapsed.
As Karen quietly steadied the woman, she realized something more was needed to help families cope with the combat injuries and deaths of their loved ones. Karen and seven other determined women met around her kitchen table to talk about what to do. They were drawn together by the recognition that while government does an incredible job of binding up wounds and putting warriors on the road to recovery, it is a large, often impersonal, bureaucracy. Their response was to launch the Semper Fi Fund.
Taking its name from the Marine Corps motto, "Semper Fidelis" or "always faithful," the Fund provides a wide variety of services to wounded and critically ill military personnel from any branch who served in support of Marines, as well as their families.
More than 8,000 members of our armed forces and their families have benefited from the compassion of what Karen calls the Fund's "Mighty Mouse Team" of mostly military wives and family members. Over $63 million in Semper Fi Fund grants have made possible everything from travel assistance to adaptive equipment, housing and transportation, and from programs for those dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder to children's camps and transition assistance.
On the other side of the country in North Carolina in 2006, Robin Kelleher, also the wife of a Marine, recognized the need to assist wounded soldiers, their families, and families of the fallen. This realization came when her husband's best friend Lt. Col. Timothy Maxwell returned home with a traumatic brain injury.
Out of Robin's compassion came Hope For The Warriors, which she co-founded with Shannon Maxwell, the wife of Lt. Col. Maxwell (USMC, Ret.) It supplies immediate help—with transportation, groceries and other such needs—for service members and families dealing with combat wounds and injuries. It also provides long-term assistance as they cope with challenges of rehabilitation and recovery, helping integrate warriors back into civilian life by (among other things) matching military skills and training with private sector opportunities. And why? "It seemed like the right thing to do," Robin replies simply.
Both national organizations are led and mostly staffed by military wives and draw on the extended community of active-duty military and veterans for support and leadership. They spend nearly 95 cents of every dollar on programs and because of their sharp focus, the respected watchdog organization Charity Navigators gives both high ratings. Both groups understand that their work will not be completed in days or months or even years. They are about the work of lifetimes.
Benjamin Rush, the physician and educator who signed the Declaration of Independence 236 years ago Wednesday, wrote, "Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." The men and women who fight for America on battlefields across the world understand this. So do those who tend to them and their families. Love of country is what animates women of resolve like Karen Guenther and Robin Kelleher and the many others like them across this great land. God bless them and their work.
Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.
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New California Law Protects Military Parents Child Custody Rights
Assemblyman Paul Cook
By Rita Fuerst Adams, National Executive Director, Fathers and Families
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. signed into law AB 1807, protecting child custody rights for military parents. Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, introduced the legislation to protect our military parents.
Fathers and Families has lobbied and advocated for the rights of our military in child custody. This legislation is another success.
When a divorced couple shares custody of a child and one of the parents is deployed due to military orders, full custody of the child is given temporarily to the non-deployed parent. Often, when the deployed parent returns, a custody battle ensues.
Now, the parental rights of those deployed are protected. The original child custody agreement is reinstated post-deployment. Parent and child are reunited as soon as the parent returns home. This new legislation makes the process quick, efficient, and fair, without compromising the best interest of both the parent and the child.
Michael Robinson, policy consultant for Fathers and Families, stated, "It's a great day for military parents. Much appreciation to Cook for his dedication on not just one, but two bills helping military parents."
Cook explained, "This bill is all about the bond between parent and child and making sure our laws honor our values and that bond. The last thing military parents should be worrying about when deployed is a custody battle when they return home. This legislation will help end the courts' prejudice against military parents and right a terrible wrong that has plagued service members for too long. I'm very grateful for all the hard work Michael Robinson and Fathers and Families have done on this important subject."
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America-California State Council, and the Family Law Section of the State Bar support this law.
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I believe this to be reliable-- Marc
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I apologize for the mass e-mail. It's not normal for me to correspond much less to reach out en mass. The combat loss of so many of our fellow countrymen in one fell swoop has prompted me to reach out to any and all addresses I have as a small token of effort to support our fallen and their families.
Thank you to those who have reached out both to me direct and through my family to check to see if I am okay and to extend thoughts and prayers and ask what can be done to help. Before we get too far into how to help I want to offer some background. On the night of 05 August 2011 38 brave souls and one canine boarded a CH-47 helicopter here in Afghanistan bound for combat operations to take the fight to our nation's enemies, as has been done nearly every single night of the now almost 10 year war. Tragically fate caught up to the men that border that helicopter as enemy forces engaged them with RPG fire. All 38 souls on board perished in the ensuing crash and explosions.
This constitutes the single greatest loss of life for our community and the selfless Army air crew and Airforce attachments since the onset of the Global War on Terrorism. A similar incident occurred in 2005 with the downing of a helicopter carrying my fellow brothers attempting to re-enforce troops already engaged in combat. This episode is highlighted in the New York Times best seller "Lone Survivor." Those events in 2005 sent shockwaves through Virginia Beach as the news of the mass casualties reached the families of the fallen. Over 3000 people were in attendance for the memorial service.
Events of 4 days ago double the loss from 2005 and tragically Virginia Beach is now engulfed in the loss of so many of our nation's finest men at once. The ultimate tragedy though is not the fallen. Our vocation is our calling. After a brief pause to pay our respects to the fallen we continue to board the same helicopters and continue to fly into harms way because that is what our nation asks of us. We will continue to bring justice to the doorsteps of our enemies so that our enemies do not bring tyranny and terror to ours. This does not change regardless of the toll or the danger. Of my graduating class in the training pipeline 1/5th have been killed in action to include two room mates. It does not deter, it solidifies our resolve and lends nobility to our lives and our nation. Ultimately, the tragedy lies in the remnants of a life that now must be pieced back to gather by the families and loved ones of the fallen. One loss constitutes ripple effects far and wide as all of those touched by the lives of the fallen deal with the grief and the loss. The number of lives touched by the loss of over 20 Frogmen in a single night is unfathomable.
So, as many have asked "how can I help" I want to provide a conduit to do so. Help can come in three forms. First and foremost, thank God that we have the privilege to be Americans. Take pause when you see our flag to think of what has been sacrificed to keep her flying as a light and a beacon to the rest of the world. Second comes in the form of spreading the word on how to help. Third comes in the form of donations. The Navy SEAL Foundation is a non for profit organization that pools money from charitable donations to support the families of the fallen. They will pay the lion's share of the cost to transport and house over 20 families to the memorial and funeral services and will establish endowments for the most effected by events -- the children left without a father. I am not attempting to solicit donations but if you feel as though you want to contribute to the families the information for the foundation is as follows:
The Navy SEAL Foundation
1619 D Street
Virginia Beach, VA 23459
www.navysealfoundation.org
or simply text "SEAL" to 90999 and it will automatically levy a $10.00 donation to the foundation out of your cell phone bill.
Again, I am not attempting to solicit donations. What I am asking everyone to do is to spread the word. There are literally thousands of Americans who feel helpless as they do not know how to help but want to. Take the information about the Navy SEAL Foundation and post it in every Church. Put it in every Gym. Put it in the local coffee shop. Put it in the office (if you are allowed to). Forward this e-mail to those whom you think might care and want to make a difference. Let the spider web of support extend out beyond my limited reach.
To ward off the inevitable questions, I am in one piece and doing well. I am about half way through a year long tour overseas and won't be back into the States for quite some time.
God Bless the United States of America.
Chad S.
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www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/08/obama-honored-fallen-seals-by-sending-their-parents-a-form-letter-signed-by-electric-pen/
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/naked-angels-busted.htm
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/txblacklabel/true-love-in-pictures-only-28m7
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War Tragedies Strike Families Twice .
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
MILLTOWN, N.J.—One night in March 2008, William and Christine Koch opened their front door to see two soldiers in green dress uniforms bearing news that their son, Army Cpl. Steven Koch, had been killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
Two years later, Mr. and Mrs. Koch opened the door to see two police officers in blue. This time, they learned their daughter, Lynne, brokenhearted over her brother's death, had killed herself with an overdose of prescription drugs.
Christine Koch knelt at a memorial for her son Steven that the family erected at his elementary school, Our Lady of Lourdes in Milltown, N.J. Cpl. Steven Koch died in Afghanistan in 2008.
"She is a casualty of this war, and I don't care what anybody says," Mrs. Koch said. "If my son was not killed, my daughter would be here."
The military tracks suicides among the troops. The Department of Veterans Affairs studies self-inflicted deaths among people who have left the service. Nobody collects data on suicides among the parents, siblings and spouses of the more than 6,500 Americans killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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But anecdotal evidence from military families, support groups and suicide survivors suggests that over the past 11 years of war, the U.S. has experienced a little-recognized suicide outbreak among the bereaved. This second round of tragedy often takes place years after a loved one's death, when the finality of the loss becomes inescapable.
"We've all had the idea of suicide at one time or another," said Nadia McCaffrey of Tracy, Calif., whose son Patrick died in an ambush in Iraq in 2004. She said she personally knows a half dozen military parents who have killed themselves.
To learn more about war grief, researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a federal institution in Bethesda, Md., are recruiting 3,000 people to participate in a first-ever U.S. study of bereavement among families of those killed on active duty.
"We don't know whether or in what ways military-service deaths—combat-related, accidents or suicides—differ from similarly sudden or violent civilian deaths in their impact on bereaved family members," said Stephen Cozza, a psychiatrist involved in the research.
The violent and faraway nature of combat death—often following months of dread—may make it harder to accept for those left behind, said Bonnie Carroll. She founded the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, after her husband, an Army general, died in a 1992 plane crash.
"To have someone come to the house and deliver this devastating information that you'd never see them again is impossible to absorb," Mrs. Carroll said. In her grief after her husband's death, she found herself taking high-speed, late-night drives along the Alaska coast, as if daring herself to join him.
"When you lose a loved one, death is very real," she said. "It's at the forefront of your every waking thought. It seems as if you just yearn to be reunited with your loved one."
The U.S. military assigns a casualty-assistance officer to families in the wake of a combat death, to help secure insurance payments and other benefits, and also to steer survivors to emotional help. Widows and children can retain their military health insurance, which covers antidepressants and psychiatric services. Since 2003, VA Veterans Centers also have offered counseling to all surviving family members.
"Support for our family members does not stop," said Marine Corps spokeswoman Maj. Shawn Haney. "It is always there and available if they want or need it."
TAPS and other private organizations offer grief camps for children, peer counseling groups for parents and spouses, as well as telephone hotlines.
Since April, seven family members of deceased service members have called TAPS in apparent suicide crises, the group said. Then there are the family members who either don't seek help or are immune to its consolations.
Jo Beth Brookshire, age 71, suffered from depression even before her 36-year-old son, Maj. Sid Brookshire, died in a bomb attack in Iraq in 2007, an example of how a combat death can be a final blow in an already-troubled life.
Soon after her son was killed, Ms. Brookshire guzzled vodka, swallowed a bottle of Excedrin PM and walked into the ocean at Laguna Beach, Calif. The surf beat her back to shore and passersby pulled her to safety. She survived two more attempts over the following years.
"I had a hard, hard time with life after Sid died," Ms. Brookshire said. "I've never loved anybody like I loved Sid."
Each year, roughly 12 out of every 100,000 people in the U.S. kill themselves, according to 2010 data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No similar accounting exists for military families.
Mrs. Koch, who has wrestled with despondency since Steven's combat death and Lynne's suicide, said, "Nobody knows what goes on behind these closed doors of our house."
Sister
Lynne had a history of suicidal thoughts and mental-health problems, including bipolar disorder, according to medical records. She saw a therapist while a teenager, her mother said, but recovered her cheerfulness when she went to college.
As the eldest of three children, Lynne was a "little mom" to her brothers, Steven and Billy, her parents said. After college, she became an estimator at the electrical-contracting firm where her father worked.
Billy, the middle child, was a student at Pace University in Manhattan and on Sept. 11 watched as terrified office workers jumped to their deaths from the upper floors of the World Trade Center.
The terror attacks motivated Steven to enlist. He was 23 and five weeks from the end of his combat tour when an insurgent drove a truck filled with explosives into a building where his unit was resting. Mrs. Koch, a 55-year-old oncology nurse, had been telling patients that her son had called to say he was coming home soon.
When the uniformed soldiers came to the door, Mrs. Koch hit one of them on the shoulder each time he started to say, "We are sorry to inform you…"
"You have the wrong the house, you have the wrong soldier," she recalled screaming at him. "You misidentified. My son is coming home."
Lynne spoke at the dedication of a black-marble memorial to her brother at their elementary school, Our Lady of Lourdes, in Milltown.
"When once a sunrise meant so many new beginnings, it now rises to merely blossom what's left of the flowers at the ending of a season," Lynne said. "I find no glory in this sunrise, no comfort. I find no hope in this new day. My brother is gone."
Still, for more than a year after Cpl. Koch's death, Lynne sought refuge in the fantasy that Steven was alive in Afghanistan. She "worried she would 'fall apart'…if and when she allowed herself to acknowledge fully that Steven was dead," according to a therapist's report.
The bubble burst in 2009 when she wrote in an email to Mrs. Koch: "Mommy, I finally realize Steven isn't coming home."
During that period, she was on antidepressants, antipsychotics and other medications, her records show. She spent days in tears, chanting, "I want my brother," Mrs. Koch recalled.
In September 2009, the therapist became concerned about Lynne's "suicidal thoughts," although Lynne revealed no plan to kill herself, according to medical records. At the therapist's suggestion, Lynne's boyfriend delivered her to Hackensack University Medical Center, where, according to her mother, she stayed for about a week.
On May 6, 2010, Lynne emailed her parents: "I love you very much."
Mr. Koch was worried enough by the note to give her a call. Lynne assured her father she was fine and talked him out of making the hourlong drive to her home in Wayne, N.J., he said.
Lynne, then 29 years old, had been preparing her death for weeks, her mother believes. She left notes for her parents and Billy. She described where she wanted to be buried. On her bed she laid out the black gown and diamond necklace she wanted to wear. Then she swallowed a lethal mixture of medications.
At 2:20 in the morning, Mrs. Koch stood on the stairs as the two police officers talked to Mr. Koch. At first she thought they said Lynne had overdosed and was hospitalized. Then she saw the ashen face of one of the officers.
"Wait a minute," she said. "Are you trying to tell me my daughter is dead?"
"Yes, ma'am, I am," the officer said.
Mrs. Koch dropped weeping to the floor.
Earlier this year, Mr. and Mrs. Koch filed suit against Lynne's psychiatrist, nurse and pharmacy, alleging they were negligent in the care they provided her at a time the medical team should have known she was suicidal. The defendants deny the allegations.
"I don't know where we stand either, the three of us who are left," Mr. Koch said. "We're on the same line that she stood on. Hopefully you never cross that line like she did."
Mother
By early September 2008, George Vaughan thought his wife, Debra, was finally recovering. She laughed more than she had in the 17 months since their son, 20-year-old Michael Vaughan, had been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. She volunteered to help train search-and-rescue dogs.
He said he now realizes she was apparently relieved to have made her decision.
The senior Vaughans met in the Army in 1987. He is fully disabled from his service in the first Gulf War; she was in military intelligence and then worked at the post office in Lincoln City, Ore. They signed the papers when Michael begged them to let him enlist at age 17. He became a scout in the 82nd Airborne Division.
The military advised the Vaughans not to view Michael's body. But Mrs. Vaughan rushed the casket to make sure it was her son inside. Mr. Vaughan went after her, and together they saw their son's head, wrapped in gauze, like a mummy. The funeral director took a photo of the crucifix tattoo on Michael's arm to assuage his mother's doubts.
Michael's death "just crushed Debra," recalled Mr. Vaughan, 50, who lives in Otis, Ore. She built a shrine in her son's bedroom—flags, medals and military tokens in an oak-and-glass cabinet. Mr. Vaughan discovered later she didn't take the antidepressants her doctor had prescribed.
On Sept. 27, 2008, the couple attended an event honoring veterans, where Mr. Vaughan was scheduled to speak. Mrs. Vaughan, 42 years old, left early, saying she wasn't feeling well. He returned home to find his wife's car gone.
When he reached her cellphone, she was at the cemetery in St. Paul, standing next to Michael's grave. "George, I love you," she said. "If I'm unsuccessful, I don't want life support."
He heard the gunshot. Debra's ashes are buried in Michael's grave, held in a wooden urn with a brass plaque that reads: "Rest in Peace with Mike."
Father
Those who try and fail to take their own lives provide vivid insight into the motivations of those who complete suicides. Some talk of wanting to join lost sons or brothers. Others seek relief from anguish.
Scott Warner said he was numb for the first 18 months after his son, Pvt. Heath Warner, was killed by a hidden bomb in Iraq on Nov. 22, 2006. The remembrance ceremonies that accompany a military death helped keep the pain at bay for a while.
"The challenges of trying to work, hold the family together, the reality of Heath's death—my emotional reserves began to deplete," said Mr. Warner, 49 years old, from Canton, Ohio. "It was like part of your heart was torn out of you."
He would come home from work, go to his bedroom and mix booze and pills. The nadir came in 2010, when he and his wife learned that Heath's body may have been mislabeled or misplaced at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. Warner went to Arlington for the disinterment of the body in his son's grave. "That sent me over the edge," he said, "because I had to look at this decomposed body." Mr. Warner could only tell it was Heath from the tattoo on his arm.
"I don't know how to describe the darkness," he said. "It was unlike anything I'd ever felt before." Four years after Heath's death, Mr. Warner took a handful of drugs and washed it down with gin.
He survived the night, and awoke to a gradual realization that his son would have wanted him to live. "You have to make a choice, either I'm going to live for the living or I'm going to stay living for the dead," Mr. Warner said.
Brother
Lance Cpl. Alex Arredondo's father, Carlos Arredondo, was painting his fence in Hollywood, Fla., when a Marine van arrived in 2004 to deliver the news that his 20-year-old son had been killed by a sniper.
"I was begging God to wake me up from this bad dream," Mr. Arredondo recalled. He tried to shoo the Marines off his property, but they decided to stay until his wife, Melida Arredondo, came home to comfort him.
Before his wife returned, Mr. Arredondo grabbed a hammer, a five-gallon can of gasoline and a propane torch from the garage. He smashed the Marine van's window, climbed inside and splashed gas around him, soaking his socks, pants and shirt. Then he ignited the torch.
The blast blew him out of the van. Ms. Arredondo, Alex's stepmother, arrived at the house and found her husband in flames. The Marines and others managed to put out the fire.
"It was this crazy moment I wasn't expecting," said Mr. Arredondo, 52 years old. "There are no scripts for how I'm supposed to handle all of this." He suffered burns on a quarter of his body.
A separate notification team had gone that day to the house of Lance Cpl. Arredondo's mother, Victoria Foley, age 47, in Norwood, Mass., where the Marine's 17-year-old brother Brian was living. Brian learned of the death and then saw his father burning on cable TV news.
Alex's death hit Brian hard. He dropped out of school, fell into drug use and got in trouble with the police. In March 2011, he threatened officers with a machete, saying, "Shoot me, shoot me," according to his parents. He landed in a psychiatric hospital and then in jail.
On Dec. 19, 2011, Brian hanged himself in the shed outside his mother's house. He was having girlfriend problems, and criminal charges were still pending. His father and mother said Brian's downward slide began when his brother was killed.
"He really didn't want to live after he lost his brother," said Mr. Arredondo.
Mr. Arredondo and his 47-year-old wife were hospitalized in 2010 for "rampant depression," Ms. Arredondo said. Mr. Arredondo is considering checking in again. Ms. Foley, Alex's mother, said she thought about suicide this year. Now, she said, she feels distraught but stable.
Stepmother
Marie Coon's suicide in 2009 followed two years of despondency over her stepson Jimmy's death in Iraq. Ms. Coon, formerly a welder in the Air Force, couldn't forgive herself for failing to talk him out of joining the Army, family members said.
"She thought it was her fault that he got killed," said her husband, James Coon, age 55. "She kept blaming herself even though he was 21 years old when he went in."
Ms. Coon, who sewed wedding dresses for a living, had a turbulent life and was estranged from two other children from previous marriages. She discussed killing herself, said her mother-in-law, Helen Hurd, who lived with the couple at the time.
Her sister, Cindy Gattenby, said Ms. Coon visited a psychic to communicate with Jimmy and make sure he didn't blame her for his death.
"I spent the last nine years doing things for his benefit and basing decisions on how it would affect him," Ms. Coon told the psychic in a recorded phone session months after Jimmy's death. "Now I don't know what to do or where to go."
With her marriage unraveling, she left her home in Paradise, Calif., and moved in with a Southern California couple who had also lost their son at war.
On Mother's Day, 2009, Ms. Coon, 48 years old, taped up the windows of her pickup truck and lighted two hibachi grills in the front seat. She crawled into the back seat and waited for the carbon monoxide to kill her.
The note she left behind said she was going to be with Jimmy. Tattooed on her arm was a portrait of him with the caption, "A mother's love is forever."
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Last Marine Standing: A Life Tormented by Survival .
WSJ
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
On August 3, 2005, Marine Lance Corporal Travis Williams lost his entire squad in an explosion in Iraq. Seven years later, the noise from his work making custom knives helps him drown out the memories. WSJ's Michael M. Phillips reports.
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MISSOULA, Mont.—Many troops have lost a close friend in combat. Travis Williams lost them all.
Marine Lance Cpl. Williams is the sole survivor of his 12-man squad. His comrades were wiped out by a roadside bomb in Iraq, leaving him physically unharmed but with psychological wounds that remain unhealed seven years later.
Since the explosion, the 29-year-old has kept the world at arm's length. Gregarious on the outside, he lives a life of emotional isolation. He buries himself in work every day. He smokes marijuana every night. Like many vets who have seen the worst of combat, he feels that outsiders could never understand what he experienced.
On bad days he is tortured by guilt for having gotten out of Iraq alive. On good days he feels guilty for not having a bad day. "It's like I lost 11 family members, and I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it," Lance Cpl. Williams said.
During more than a decade of continuous war, the military has made a priority of treating post-traumatic stress disorder, learning lessons from Vietnam veterans whose psychological problems went unchecked. Now, clinicians fear many combat veterans are suffering from symptoms that PTSD treatment alone doesn't best address.
Cases like that of Lance Cpl. Williams might constitute a different kind of mental injury from war, some clinicians are concluding, one that falls into less-understood categories of "traumatic loss" and "moral injury."
PTSD is largely induced by fear, leaving sufferers impaired by their exaggerated responses to everyday events, says Shira Maguen, a research psychologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Those who suffer traumatic loss, by contrast, often experience guilt over surviving and tend to isolate themselves. Among Dr. Maguen's patients are a vet who killed a child who reminds him of his own son; a medic who, after saving a comrade's life, killed an enemy fighter in self-defense; and a veteran who was ordered to shoot into a crowd of unruly civilians.
Though he has been diagnosed with PTSD, Lance Cpl. Williams doesn't suffer from some classic symptoms, such as being jittery around loud noises. Instead, he remains furious about a fateful decision made by his company commander. He wrestles with memories of the moment when in a rage he fired a warning shot that narrowly missed an innocent Iraqi boy. And he weeps over his lost friends.
The VA's Dr. Maguen hasn't met Lance Cpl. Williams. But she says his symptoms are typical of these more-complicated cases "where there are many different elements of moral injury and loss acting together, making it challenging for [the patient] to recover."
Researchers are just beginning to study the prevalence of these types of psychological injury among combat veterans and seek treatments to supplement PTSD therapies. In small-scale studies, researchers have found that about 30% of Marines and soldiers seeking treatment reported that moral-injury experiences were the incidents that most haunted them on their return from war.
In a pilot program with the Marines, clinicians used "adaptive disclosure" therapy to treat traumatic loss and moral injury. Patients held mock conversations with dead friends and imagined aloud how their buddies would respond.
The Pentagon has agreed to fund a larger-scale trial among Marines, according to psychologist Brett Litz of the Boston VA, who along with Dr. Maguen is a pioneer in the field. Dr. Maguen, meanwhile, is recruiting candidates for a VA study of treatment for troops troubled by having taken the lives of others.
Lance Cpl. Williams enlisted in the Marines during his senior year in high school, in 2002. Smoking dope, he watched the movie "Behind Enemy Lines," in which Marines help rescue a downed Navy flier in Bosnia. Still stoned, he went to the recruiting office to join the Air Force, he said. The only recruiter there was a Marine, who badgered him about his manliness until he signed up for the reserves.
He was attached to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, out of Columbus, Ohio. In 2005 he was sent to Iraq. In combat, Lance Cpl. Williams and 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, grew tight. They talked about the homecoming party they'd have, the trip to Thailand they'd take and the bar they'd buy together.
In early August, insurgents overran six Marine snipers on a hilltop in Barwanah, west of Baghdad. When reinforcements arrived, they found five bodies. Commanders tapped Lance Cpl. Williams's squad to search for the missing man, and sent a steak-and-lobster dinner to the front, a last-supper gesture the Marines found ominous.
At 6 a.m. the following day, the platoon moved out with a few truckloads of Iraqi security men. The Marines traveled in tracked armored vehicles. Lance Cpl. Williams sat next to his best friend, Lance Cpl. Aaron Reed, and fell asleep.
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Lance Cpl. Aaron Reed.
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Just before the column moved, platoon commander Lt. Col. Chris Toland—then a captain—leaned down from the command hatch and said he had to change vehicles to supervise the Iraqi troops. He wanted Lance Cpl. Williams, his radio man, at his side.
Lance Cpl. Williams didn't want to leave. But he clambered over groggy Marines and out the rear door. He turned and said, "I'll catch you on the flip side."
At first the Marines drove through the desert to avoid booby-traps on the roads. But the Iraqi trucks kept getting stuck, and the Lima Company commander, Lt. Col. Steve Lawson, ordered everyone onto the road.
They hadn't gone very far when Lance Cpl. Williams heard a tremendous explosion. He looked up at an Iraqi security man whose head was poking through a hatch, and saw an orange fireball reflected in his sunglasses.
The rear ramp dropped open, and Lance Cpl. Williams saw a blackened hull spouting flames 30 feet high. First Squad's vehicle had triggered a buried bomb containing artillery rounds and propane tanks. The explosion killed his 11 squad mates, a translator and two crewmen. The driver, not a member of 1st Squad, survived.
Lt. Col. Toland sent Lance Cpl. Williams to the roof of a nearby house to work the radio. The lance corporal watched 2nd and 3rd Squads pile into the building. It dawned on him: 1st Squad was gone.
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Lance Cpl. Williams's squad members became some of his closest friends. Here, Lance Cpl. Timothy Bell.
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Sgt. Justin Hoffman, the squad leader who "put our well-being before his own," and Lance Cpl. Reed, who "looked like Harry Potter." Gone. Lance Cpl. Chris Dyer, "I gave him the most god-awful Mohawk," and Lance Cpl. Eric Bernholtz, "like a big Dolph Lundgren except really nice." Gone. Lance Cpl. Edward "Auggie" Schroeder, who "would crack just the right joke at just the right time," and Lance Cpl. Nicholas Bloem, who paid Iraqis for chicken dinners for the other Marines. Gone. Lance Cpl. Brett Wightman, Lance Cpl. Timothy Bell, Lance Cpl. Michael Cifuentes, Lance Cpl. Grant Fraser, and Cpl. Dave Kreuter, who had left a pregnant wife at home. All just gone.
Lance Cpl. Williams watched Marines cover body parts in blankets. He rampaged through the house, grabbed a rifle and returned to the roof, looking for someone to kill. He saw an Iraqi kid peek around a corner and fired a round near his head to scare him away. He didn't trust himself to miss the next time.
"I never understood what it meant to want to kill somebody until that day," he said.
For a week, the platoon went on with the search for the missing Marine sniper, whose body was eventually found.
Lt. Col. Lawson, Lima's commander, declined to comment. He wrote in a blog after the incident that the road had been swept for bombs, "otherwise I wouldn't have taken it."
Back at base, Lance Cpl. Williams and a few other Marines packed their dead friends' gear in seabags. He mailed the unsent letters he found on their bunks. He tore nametags from their spare uniforms and bundled them together for himself.
Commanders brought in four psychologists to talk to the men. Two fell asleep as the Marines told their stories, Lance Cpl. Williams says.
Lima Company returned home in October 2005.
The following month, the unit held its annual Marine Corps birthday ball. Lance Cpl. Williams was confronted with grieving widows and devastated parents and an infant who would never meet his father. They wanted him to tell stories about their loved ones.
He got drunk and fled into the streets of Columbus, tearing at his uniform.
That was the last time he saw the families. Every once in a while one of his friends' fathers will call him.
"Every time I talked to families from Ohio they'd want to know how I'm doing," said Lance Cpl. Williams. "I'm like, 'You lost a son.' I lost friends I'd known for seven months. I'm doing great. I'm doing s—. How do I answer that?"
Only rarely does he talk to other Lima Company veterans.
Lt. Col. Toland, the platoon leader, continues to be haunted by that day. He can't help but think about the decision to change vehicles before the ill-fated patrol. "I know he feels guilty—I feel the same way," says the 42-year-old from Missouri City, Texas. "There's not much he can say to me and I can say to him that will make it better."
Lt. Col. Toland found some solace by returning to combat, an Afghanistan tour in which none of his men were killed. He, too, spends little time with other Lima Company survivors.
"The assumption was we've built a bond up together and we'll be friends for life," said Lt. Col. Toland. "But then, after the events in August, the shared experience you have is a bad shared experience."
Lance Cpl. Williams returned to Montana and reserve status. He spent much of the next year in bed, when he wasn't working at a Best Buy BBY +7.38%store. He tried to return to Iraq, but the military was wary about his psychological state, he says.
“It's like I lost 11 family members, and I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.”
Lance Cpl. Travis Williams
In 2006, he left the Marine Corps. On his 23rd birthday, he and a Marine friend, Wes Dudley, ended up drinking at a Missoula bar. Lance Cpl. Williams went to the alley to urinate. His thoughts flashed back to the moment he nearly shot the Iraqi boy.
When Mr. Dudley found him, he was banging his head against the brick wall "to stop thinking about it." Then he ran up an exterior staircase and launched himself over the railing some 18 feet to the alley below, breaking an ankle. To the extent he can parse his drunken intentions, Lance Cpl. Williams thinks it was a suicide attempt.
"He's employed and involved with his friends and stuff—he's not shut down," said Mr. Dudley, who was shot in the arm in Iraq in 2005. But, he added: "You really never know. We all pretty much just kind of live with the reality that any one of our Marine Corps buddies that went through that stuff could pretty much kill themselves any day."
Dr. Litz, the Boston VA psychologist, who hasn't met Lance Cpl. Williams, calls his symptoms a "really good example of how complex adaptation" is for troops exposed to traumatic loss and moral injury.
Lance Cpl. Williams enrolled in college with the intention of becoming a doctor. He couldn't concentrate in classes and dropped out. He became a paramedic so he would never have to feel helpless in an emergency again. He volunteered in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. He worked as a private investigator. He grew a goatee and let his hair get shaggy. He hiked and fished.
For a while he lived with a girlfriend, Mallory Mizelle. She recalls him as "the nicest guy." But "he would say that he just felt an overwhelming hopelessness," said Ms. Mizelle.
When they broke up in 2009, he punched a door so hard that his hand bled. He stuffed Ms. Mizelle's clothes in garbage bags and had a few drinks. Then he started playing with a loaded rifle, he recalls. When a friend tried to take the weapon away, it went off and the bullet hit the wall.
Enlarge Image
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Travis Williams
Lance Cpl. Williams, Lance Cpl. Bell and Sgt. Justin Hoffman ham it up.
.
These days, romantic relationships usually last a month before he breaks them off.
He misses the Marine Corps and even Iraq. Some days he puts on a chest-rack full of ammunition and practices quick reloads of his rifle. He plans how to defend his house from attack, "just to feel like a warrior again."
The government pays him $300 a month for his PTSD. Over the years, doctors have prescribed Adderall, Prozac, Wellbutrin, buspirone, Ritalin and amitriptyline. Some pills made him sleepy. Others kept him up. Some made him famished. Others killed his appetite. One helped him concentrate, but also made him feel like vomiting.
He sees a VA counselor, Dave Anderson, who completed two tours of Vietnam with a battalion that lost 747 dead over 48 months. Mr. Anderson keeps a list in his desk with death dates of close friends highlighted.
Lance Cpl. Williams likes confiding in a vet but feels his own losses can't measure up to Mr. Anderson's. He seems unable to forgive himself for coming home, a "lack of self-compassion" that the VA's Dr. Litz says is typical among troops suffering from moral injury and traumatic loss.
Mr. Anderson said he sees progress in Lance Cpl. Williams. His anger has ebbed, and he has reduced his drinking. "He has come a long ways," Mr. Anderson said. But "he definitely does continue to isolate."
In the mornings, Lance Cpl. Williams takes his three dogs to his job as an apprentice at Behring Made Knives, a maker of combat and hunting knives. He spends long hours hammering red-hot steel or grinding handles out of walrus ivory, musk-oxen horn and brass. The humming of machines and the clanging of steel keep his mind from drifting toward Iraq.
"Sometimes I wish life was just as easy as when I was in high school and didn't know about all of the s—, horrible things going around elsewhere," he said.
"On the other hand, I guess it makes me appreciate everything a lot more, knowing that one day I can be smoking and joking with my best friends in the world and the next day I'm f— lonely."
Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPKpIuX3cY
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http://thehill.com/special-reports/tribute-to-the-troops-may-2013-/301171-remember-and-uphold-tradition
From the article:
A veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg, an English teacher named Joshua Chamberlain wrote, “In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays ... reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream...”
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http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2457671
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/decline-of-dustoff-a-symptom.htm
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http://www.houseofheroes.org/plaintext/home/home.aspx
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrMeBR8W-c
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The first official four legged trooper:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Stubby
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Shot Down, Twice
Shot down over Laos in 1969, the bodies of two MIA Vietnam era Air Force
aviators were recovered and returned home for burial at Arlington National
Cemetery this week. Major James Sizemore and his navigator Major Howard Andre
were buried at Arlington National Cemetery, laid to rest side by side, just
the way they flew.
However, the Air Force refused the traditional ceremonial flyover to honor
these men. Captain Rose Richardson noted, "The Air Force is unable to support
the flyover request for Major Sizemore due to limited flying hours and budget
constraints." In other words, this is the latest entry in Obama's "blame the
Republican sequester (http://patriotpost.us/alexander/17100)" charade.
However, volunteer pilots with the Warrior Flight Team
(http://www.warrioraviation.org/) stepped into the gap and provided a flyover,
including a Douglas A26 Invader of the type Sizemore and Andre were flying
when they were shot down 44 years ago. The Invader was joined by P51 Mustangs
off its wings.
The Patriot Post has now written about Obama's moratorium on honor flights
several times since his sequestration cuts began, and each time we have noted
that, while these flights have been denied, Barack Obama continues to use Air
Force One and its entire contingent of additional Air Force aircraft and
support crews to commute to political fundraisers, stump speeches and
vacations (http://patriotpost.us/alexander/18752). It is not that we think
Obama should book his flights on Expedia, but the fact that the Commander in
Chief continues to use this most costly Air Force asset for purely political
or pleasure trips, while denying honor flights, should be called out by the
national media. Even the conservative Beltway media have not seen fit to
mention this unmitigated hypocrisy once.
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http://greenberetproam.org/
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How best to support our troops/our veterans?
Wounded Warrior Warning
Emotional Appeals? Caveat Emptor
By Mark Alexander · May 20, 2015
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." —John Adams (1770)
It appears that some Leftmedia talkingheads have finally decided to ask some tough questions about the corrupt practices of the Clintons, Bill and Demo presidential hopeful Hillary, and their flush Clinton Family Foundation.
Charity Watch has the CFF on its "watch list," and Bill Allison, senior fellow at the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group, has likened the CFF to a "slush fund" for the Clintons. And for good reason: The Clintons took in more than $140 million in donations in 2013, but spent a comparatively paltry $9 million on direct aid.
Seeing the corrupt Clinton Machine subjected to some scrutiny by the media is a welcome sight indeed, but it's also a temporary one. It won't be long before the Clintons' media sycophants have circled the wagons around their Demo darlings and once again trained their guns on Republican presidential hopefuls.
But I digress...
This week, midway between Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day, a Marine officer requested I ask some tough questions about another foundation amid charges of questionable practices.
He forwarded me an email assailing the integrity of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) — a Florida-based organization that spends so much of its revenue on advertising that it is now the most widely recognized veteran support organization.
My Marine colleague asked that we investigate the email claims, and we did.
On behalf of our readers, including tens of thousands of military Patriots and their families who have or are considering financially supporting WWP, here is what we've determined concerning the questions raised by a widely circulated email.
That email makes claims about exorbitant salaries being paid to WWP executives and then referenced a website "that exposed exactly how the charity spends the money it receives from patriotic Americans." It then concludes, "WWP might as well be run by the Mafia," and references an article at an online site called "Veterans Today" as the source.
Notably, that article has now been removed, and for the record, Veterans Today is a purveyor of mindless "conspiracy theories" and borderline neo-Nazi propaganda. Thus, neither the original email nor its "source" is credible.
That errant email notwithstanding, I have noted the enormous amount of donor dollars WWP spends asking for more donor dollars, and so further reviewed WWP's history and financial statements.
For background, the WWP was founded in 2003 by John Melia, who himself suffered severe injuries in a 1992 Somalia helicopter crash. In 2005, the United Spinal Association granted $2.7 million to WWP to "develop into a stand-alone charity with its own identity and programs." WWP became an independent charitable organization shortly thereafter, certified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
WWP's mission is to "honor and empower Wounded Warriors" and to "foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation's history." Its stated objective is to "raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members, help injured service members aid and assist each other and provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members."
Fact is, WWP makes great strides to achieve its mission — all well and good. But to determine the degree to which WWP's revenues support that mission, our team reviewed the two most recent audited financial statements available, 2012 and 2013, as well as the WWP's marketing material and website.
In 2013, WWP took in almost $305 million in donations and claimed service to about 35,000 registered alumni and 4,000 others defined as "family or caregivers of a registered alumni." Those donations were up from $200 million in 2012, due primarily to massive advertising expenditures.
With its proceeds, WWP funds about 15 programs and writes grants to other veteran support groups. But what we found most alarming is the amount of funding paid for advertising and administration.
Many veteran support organizations are run effectively by volunteers — but not WWP.
According to Charity Navigator, the nation's largest oversight and review organization for charitable groups, WWP allocates about 55% of its revenue to program expenses while the remaining 45% is used for fundraising, salaries, consulting, meetings, events and travel.
WWP received a "D" rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy and only a C+ by Charity Watch. Indeed, WWP ranks substantially below other national veteran support groups like Fisher House Foundation, Operation Homefront and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
WWP's CEO Steven Nardizzi, a lawyer who now receives a $375,000 salary, served up a legalese rebuttal to the evaluations from Charity Watch and Charity Navigator, insisting in The Chronicle of Philanthropy that those rating organizations were "horribly ineffective and misinformed."
However, facts are stubborn things, and an organization's audited financial statements can certainly expose a lot of facts.
While WWP expenditures appear to qualify under the legal parameters for 501(c)(3) nonprofits, only about 55 cents of every dollar WWP takes in goes to direct benefits for a wounded warrior. We have no objection to WWP's considerable efforts to raise funds, but it should raise questions when such a large percentage of donations fail to make it to our wounded warriors.
My recommendation?
The growth of veteran support organizations since 2001, some of them worthy of your investment, is as viral as those surprise military homecoming videos — and most of those organizations are appealing to similar sentiments.
Of course, no American Patriot would oppose supporting veterans, particularly those who have suffered severe injuries. I know more than a few of them, and last year The Patriot Post helped build a house to accommodate the needs of a young soldier who lost both legs to an IED in Afghanistan. But, when organizations pitch strong sentimental appeals asking for your money, whether those appeals be for starving children in Africa or disabled Veterans at home, caveat emptor. When investing your dollars to support veterans, seek out good third-party evaluations to determine how much of those dollars will actually support that mission, and choose one where at least 75% of revenues do just that.
Pro Deo et Constitutione -- Libertas aut Mors
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
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http://dailyheadlines.net/2015/11/wounded-warriors-execs-make-out-like-bandits-actual-wounded-warriors-not-so-much/#
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Interesting. New ship named after a private first class deceased medal of honor recipient:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/watch-navy-latest-1-8-175000141.html
Seems better than just after another President or State.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/former-wounded-warrior-employees-accuse-charity-of-wasting-millions/
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I have been giving to this charity for several years. It receives a top rating from Charity Navigator. An extremely high % of donations go to beneficiaries:
818-805-9400
warrior@specialops.org
www.specialops.org
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My day of LARPing in Pineland:
Fort Bragg, NC is where a lot of our Special Forces get selected and trained.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Forces_selection_and_training#UW_CULEX_(Robin_Sage):_Phase_V_(4_weeks)
For many Americans, Special Forces/Green Beret simply means "Super Soldier" but unappreciated by many of us is distinct skill sets for working with locals in unconventional warfare contexts-- in many cases training them up to be an effective force against an oppressive government. This is why a challenge coin from a SF group features "De Oppresser Libre" meaning "Freedom from Oppression".
One of the final steps in the selection process is Robin Sage.
"Since 1974, Robin Sage, the culmination exercise for the SFQC, has been the litmus test for soldiers striving to earn the coveted Green Beret. (Prior to 1974, similar exercises were held under the name Devil's Arrow, Swift Strike, and Guerrilla USA.)[9] During Robin Sage, held across 15 rural North Carolina counties, soldiers put all of the skills they learned throughout the SFQC to the test in an unconventional-warfare training exercise.
"The exercise, broken into two phases, puts students on their first SFODA. The SFODA is trained, advised, and mentored throughout the exercise—from mission receipt through planning and infiltration. During the first week, the students are taught the necessary skills to survive and succeed in a UW environment using the small group instruction teaching method. The remaining three weeks focus on their planning and application during Robin Sage. The students are placed into an environment of political instability characterized by armed conflict to force soldiers to exercise individual and collective problem-solving. A key to the success of the Robin Sage training is its real-world feel[citation needed] by the use of guerrilla forces. The SFODA must assess the combat effectiveness of the G-forces, then trains them in basic individual tasks from each of the MOSs as well as collective tasks in basic small-unit tactics, while remaining responsive to asymmetrical challenges. Just as language plays a key role in all other phases of the pipeline, language skills will be put to the test during Robin Sage. During this training, the SFODA must demonstrate their knowledge of UW doctrine and operational techniques.
"The 15 counties of the People's Republic of Pineland
"On the last day of isolation, the detachment presents their plan to the battalion command and staff. This plan explains the ways the commander intends to execute the mission. The next day, the students make an airborne infiltration into the fictitious country of "Pineland". They contact guerrilla forces to initiate Robin Sage. Students accomplish their task of training, advising, and assisting the guerrillas. The training educates the guerrillas in various specialties, including weapons, communications, medical, and demolitions. The training is designed to enable the guerrillas to begin liberating their country from oppression. It is the last portion of the Special Forces Qualification Course before they receive their "Green Berets".
"Robin Sage involves approximately 100 Special Forces students, 100 counter-insurgent personnel (OPFOR), 200 guerrilla personnel, 40 auxiliary personnel, and 50 cadre. The local communities of North Carolina also participate in the exercise by roleplaying as citizens of Pineland.[10] The exercise is conducted in approximately 50,000 square miles (130,000 km2) of North Carolina. Many of the OPFOR and guerrilla personnel are North Carolina residents and are paid for their participation.[11] The role of the guerrilla chief, "G-chief", is sometimes played by a retired Green Beret. During the summer Robin Sage exercises, Army ROTC cadets from The Citadel and cadets from the United States Military Academy act as guerrilla fighters.[12]"
In this context that this past week I got to participate as a Bad Guy. As a civilian, this is a wonderful opportunity to do a mini-reality check: Just how ready am I with my gear? Whoops, my "camel back water carrier" had a leak! Whoops-- these boots require two pairs of socks so that I don't get blisters! How heavy is all this equipment? How fast, how far, how long could I realistically move and fight in it?
While waiting for the Good Guys to attack (rumored that they were coming in rappelling from helicopters) there was time to listen to the candid telling of war and other stories from the many well-seasoned veterans on our teams. There is much of great depth to be gleaned from such stories!
Due to my lesser mobility that comes with age I was put on an M249 SAW-- (Squad Auto Weapon). I was quickly trained up on how to fire one (all guns in the exercise were real and set to fire blanks only-- thus the weight and noise were entirely realistic) This meant I was in kneeling position (in that I was on gravel thank God for my knee pads, which passed the test for staying in place) that both gave me pretty good cover and enabled me to rotate my line of fire 90 degrees.
As the attack came there were smoke grenades a plenty and in the chaos of the fire-fight I had a visceral experience of just how easily friendly fire could happen.
As I fired (full auto is fun!) and watched the shooting and moving of the fire fight by those with carbines (the Good Guys with M4s, the Bad Guys with AKs), I thought to myself "I'm not so old-- I can do that!". With that in mind and the next iteration of the games in three months I will be continuing and increasing the portion of my training focused on my ability to sprint.
In conclusion and summary, I would say to my fellow civilians--
a) this is a great way to check on how ready you are gear wise to show up at a fire fight;
b) this is a great way to learn from the stories of our war fighters;
c) this is a great way to indulge in your LARPing fantasies; and
d) it is a great feeling to contribute in a small way to helping our next generation of war fighters get ready.
The Adventure continues!
Marc F. Denny
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Very cool!
My day of LARPing in Pineland:
Fort Bragg, NC is where a lot of our Special Forces get selected and trained.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Forces_selection_and_training#UW_CULEX_(Robin_Sage):_Phase_V_(4_weeks)
For many Americans, Special Forces/Green Beret simply means "Super Soldier" but unappreciated by many of us is distinct skill sets for working with locals in unconventional warfare contexts-- in many cases training them up to be an effective force against an oppressive government. This is why a challenge coin from a SF group features "De Oppresser Libre" meaning "Freedom from Oppression".
One of the final steps in the selection process is Robin Sage.
"Since 1974, Robin Sage, the culmination exercise for the SFQC, has been the litmus test for soldiers striving to earn the coveted Green Beret. (Prior to 1974, similar exercises were held under the name Devil's Arrow, Swift Strike, and Guerrilla USA.)[9] During Robin Sage, held across 15 rural North Carolina counties, soldiers put all of the skills they learned throughout the SFQC to the test in an unconventional-warfare training exercise.
"The exercise, broken into two phases, puts students on their first SFODA. The SFODA is trained, advised, and mentored throughout the exercise—from mission receipt through planning and infiltration. During the first week, the students are taught the necessary skills to survive and succeed in a UW environment using the small group instruction teaching method. The remaining three weeks focus on their planning and application during Robin Sage. The students are placed into an environment of political instability characterized by armed conflict to force soldiers to exercise individual and collective problem-solving. A key to the success of the Robin Sage training is its real-world feel[citation needed] by the use of guerrilla forces. The SFODA must assess the combat effectiveness of the G-forces, then trains them in basic individual tasks from each of the MOSs as well as collective tasks in basic small-unit tactics, while remaining responsive to asymmetrical challenges. Just as language plays a key role in all other phases of the pipeline, language skills will be put to the test during Robin Sage. During this training, the SFODA must demonstrate their knowledge of UW doctrine and operational techniques.
"The 15 counties of the People's Republic of Pineland
"On the last day of isolation, the detachment presents their plan to the battalion command and staff. This plan explains the ways the commander intends to execute the mission. The next day, the students make an airborne infiltration into the fictitious country of "Pineland". They contact guerrilla forces to initiate Robin Sage. Students accomplish their task of training, advising, and assisting the guerrillas. The training educates the guerrillas in various specialties, including weapons, communications, medical, and demolitions. The training is designed to enable the guerrillas to begin liberating their country from oppression. It is the last portion of the Special Forces Qualification Course before they receive their "Green Berets".
"Robin Sage involves approximately 100 Special Forces students, 100 counter-insurgent personnel (OPFOR), 200 guerrilla personnel, 40 auxiliary personnel, and 50 cadre. The local communities of North Carolina also participate in the exercise by roleplaying as citizens of Pineland.[10] The exercise is conducted in approximately 50,000 square miles (130,000 km2) of North Carolina. Many of the OPFOR and guerrilla personnel are North Carolina residents and are paid for their participation.[11] The role of the guerrilla chief, "G-chief", is sometimes played by a retired Green Beret. During the summer Robin Sage exercises, Army ROTC cadets from The Citadel and cadets from the United States Military Academy act as guerrilla fighters.[12]"
In this context that this past week I got to participate as a Bad Guy. As a civilian, this is a wonderful opportunity to do a mini-reality check: Just how ready am I with my gear? Whoops, my "camel back water carrier" had a leak! Whoops-- these boots require two pairs of socks so that I don't get blisters! How heavy is all this equipment? How fast, how far, how long could I realistically move and fight in it?
While waiting for the Good Guys to attack (rumored that they were coming in rappelling from helicopters) there was time to listen to the candid telling of war and other stories from the many well-seasoned veterans on our teams. There is much of great depth to be gleaned from such stories!
Due to my lesser mobility that comes with age I was put on an M249 SAW-- (Squad Auto Weapon). I was quickly trained up on how to fire one (all guns in the exercise were real and set to fire blanks only-- thus the weight and noise were entirely realistic) This meant I was in kneeling position (in that I was on gravel thank God for my knee pads, which passed the test for staying in place) that both gave me pretty good cover and enabled me to rotate my line of fire 90 degrees.
As the attack came there were smoke grenades a plenty and in the chaos of the fire-fight I had a visceral experience of just how easily friendly fire could happen.
As I fired (full auto is fun!) and watched the shooting and moving of the fire fight by those with carbines (the Good Guys with M4s, the Bad Guys with AKs), I thought to myself "I'm not so old-- I can do that!". With that in mind and the next iteration of the games in three months I will be continuing and increasing the portion of my training focused on my ability to sprint.
In conclusion and summary, I would say to my fellow civilians--
a) this is a great way to check on how ready you are gear wise to show up at a fire fight;
b) this is a great way to learn from the stories of our war fighters;
c) this is a great way to indulge in your LARPing fantasies; and
d) it is a great feeling to contribute in a small way to helping our next generation of war fighters get ready.
The Adventure continues!
Marc F. Denny