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By Janet Evans
Thursday, Aug 14 2008, 11:45 AM
1945: Japan Surrenders
Japan accepted terms for surrender to the Allied Forces today, though Washington officials had not received the official confirmation. "NBC Correspondent Max Jordan reported from Basle, Switzerland, today that a Japanese note will be at the White House in Washington 'within two hours.' Jordan broadcast the report at 4:20 p.m., eastern war time," informed The Sheboygan Press on August 14, 1945.
”A rising tide of joy is sweeping from the Pacific across the United States today,” reported the Sheboygan Journal on August 14, 1945. “Pearl Harbor – scene of the first Japanese attack – set the stage for the celebrations. The tension pent up since December 7, 1941, was let loose as soon as Tokyo broadcast the enemy surrender.”
NOTE: Four hours after President Truman addressed Americans, Emperor Hirohito said in the first broadcast he ever made over the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation network that the atomic bomb forced Japan to accept the first military defeat in the 2,605 years of its history.
Sheboygan Press Newspaper frontpage~ Japan Surrenders.pdf
(actual frontpage - may be offensive)
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By Janet Evans
Wednesday, Aug 13 2008, 11:50 AM
There has been a change noticed regarding the attitude of al Qaeda over the past year.
It is a subtle change.
They have been noticed to be in a more defensive mode in their communications.
The questions is, does this mean anything in the long run?
It does appear to be a positive sign.
But what next?
We will have to see what happens during the next presidency, also.
Will al Qaeda test the waters?
Only time will tell...
“A senior Bush administration counterterrorism official said Tuesday that an analysis of public statements by al Qaeda in the past year shows that nearly half the verbiage is devoted to justifying the group's legitimacy.
The terrorist group seems to be adopting a more defensive tone in its public pronouncements, indicating that its leaders may be concerned that criticism from former allies and the increasing civilian death toll from attacks are undermining support. Al Qaeda senior leaders this year "have devoted nearly half their airtime to defending the group's legitimacy," said senior U.S. intelligence official Ted Gistaro.
"This defensive tone continues a trend observed since at least last summer and reflects concern over allegations by militant leaders and religious scholars that al Qaeda and its affiliates have violated the Islamic laws of war, particularly in Iraq and North Africa."
[...]
Sheik al-Oadah was one of the first religious leaders to preach against the presence of U.S. forces in the desert kingdom back in the early 1990s and was an early inspiration for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In an open letter to bin Laden last September, the cleric accused him of having the blood on his hands of "at least hundreds of thousands of innocent people, if not millions."
"Are you happy to meet Allah with this heavy burden on your shoulders?" he said. In a lengthy treatise faxed to Arab media outlets from an Egyptian jail earlier last year, Dr. Fadl wrote: "We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that."
Al Qaeda leaders, and in particular the group's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, have addressed these criticisms in several ways, analysts said.
"Do they now have fax machines in Egyptian jail cells?" al-Zawahri asked in an al Qaeda video message after Dr. Fadl's fax appeared. "I wonder if they're connected to the same line as the electric-shock machines."
Lawrence Wright, author and longtime specialist on al Qaeda, speculated earlier this year that "this sarcastic dismissal was perhaps intended to dampen anxiety about Fadl's manifesto ... among al Qaeda insiders."
But, according to the Jamestown Foundation, al-Zawahri also sought to deal substantively with Dr. Fadl's detailed critique, publishing a 188-page rebuttal of his thesis in March this year.
The rebuttal was "comprehensive," wrote Jamestown analyst Abdul Hameed Bakier, "using religious arguments and logic to refute and highlight weaknesses in the document.
"On the other hand," he continued, "the lengthy response demonstrates that al Qaeda is seriously alarmed by the possible negative consequences the document might inflict on their ideology and the jihadi movement."
Read the complete article from the Washington Times
HERE
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By Janet Evans
Tuesday, Aug 12 2008, 09:40 PM
Yes, according to Bing West, former Assistant Secretary of Defense.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, he describes his observations from Iraq, and why he believes this to be so…
“The war I witnessed for more than five years in Iraq is over. In July, there were five American fatalities in Iraq, the lowest since the war began in March 2003. In Mosul recently, I chatted with shopkeepers on the same corner where last January a Humvee was blown apart in front of me. In the Baghdad district of Ghazilia -- where last January snipers controlled streets awash in human waste -- I saw clean streets and soccer games. In Basra, the local British colonel was dining at a restaurant in the center of the bustling city.
For the first time in 15 trips across the country, I didn't hear one shot or a single blast from a roadside bomb. In Anbar Province, scene of the fiercest fighting during the war, the tribal sheiks insisted to Barack Obama on his recent visit that the U.S. Marines had to stay because they were the most trusted force.”
Continued HERE
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By Janet Evans
Monday, Aug 4 2008, 08:46 PM
The U.S. Army is in dire need of native Arabic translators and is willing to pay bonuses of $150,000 in hopes of keeping them. And it isn’t just a matter of knowing the language…it’s a matter of knowing the culture of the region. It’s a matter of knowing how the people think. That’s why just learning the language and becoming a translator won’t cut it.
"This is a war not only against the US, but against our way of freedom," says Sergeant Madi, a native interpreter and US citizen who asked to be identified only by his surname due to security concerns for him and his family. "We have been fighting for over 16 years against Islamic extremism. It is also my war."
The matter of trust comes into play here also. Can we totally trust the interpreter? The U.S. is using interpreters who have been rushed through the Green Card process....pushed through just so they can be used for this purpose. Can they be trusted? Who is the ultimate judge here?
“The Army has also been quietly growing its own capability to recruit and train Arab-Americans and others as American soldiers to do high-level work overseas. The Army now has more than 600 such linguists, known by their military job designation as "09 Limas." They come from places like Morocco, Egypt, and Sudan, but are recruited by the Army wherever there are large Arab-American populations, including Dearborn, Mich.; Miami; Dallas; Los Angeles; and Washington, D.C. The Defense Department is now authorized to put green-card holders on a fast track to US citizenship. The 09 Lima linguists are in so much demand that the Army is raising the number it will recruit next year, from 250 to 275. "
Then there are stories like this. The ultimate judge? Ask the commander… "Yet when it comes to linguistic and cultural expertise, few can compare to a native speaker, defense officials say. "They hear things that are said around them, they are able to see things that others can't see," says Mr. Smith. Smith tells the story of a commander in Iraq who was using a civilian interpreter, or "terp" in the vernacular of the military, employed by a private contractor, as the American commander spoke to a local Iraqi. During the meeting, the civilian interpreted literally the words of the local Iraqi, who had told other Iraqis to feed the American commander parsley. But an 09 Lima standing nearby heard something different: feeding parsley to someone was a reference to an old expression in which parsley was fed to a bird to choke it to death. "He was pretty much giving an order to have the commander killed," says Smith. "Right there, a life was saved .... You can see just by knowing a bit of slang, being a native speaker, it can make a difference."
Read the entire article from the Christian Science Monitor
HERE
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By Janet Evans
Sunday, Aug 3 2008, 07:15 AM
Attention! Wake up, for crying out loud! I know it must be boring as hell, but there are many, many jobs that are that way. Yours is life or death!
It’s a very good thing we did not have a nuclear threat while you were taking your little cat naps.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Air force Missile Launch Crew Fell Asleep
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By Janet Evans
Saturday, Aug 2 2008, 10:30 PM
Truly a wonderful thing. We really are fortunate to have DNA forensics. What would we have done after September 11th if not for DNA forensics? Tragically, many of the victims of the attack only had bone and tissue left. For the families, this was the only way to identify their loved ones.
Criminals don’t like DNA forensics. Although some criminals have been proven innocent due to this science.
The government has a mission. It is to find and identify soldiers from past wars.
MIAs…
Read the opening and then continue this interesting story from the Boston Globe
Army Major George Eyster didn't know - couldn't know - the two young men whose fighter planes disappeared into the jungle 64 years ago. But Eyster, a 32-year-old combat veteran of the Iraq war, feels like he does.
Gazing down over a sparkling harbor toward the caves where Japanese forces once hid from relentless American bombing, he thinks about the costs of war, then and now.
Eyster flew a helicopter gunship in Iraq, hovering only 50 feet above the charred battlegrounds of the Sunni Triangle and trying to take out enemy insurgents before they could kill American troops. Sometimes he succeeded. Sometimes he didn't.
Now, as a rumbling volcano spews ash in the distance, he stands on the killing fields of another war, where an earlier generation of young Americans sat in the terrifying loneliness of their cockpits, trying to take out enemy fighters defending the main Japanese base in the South Pacific.
Eyster, who traded in his military uniform for a polo shirt emblazoned with the signature black and white POW/MIA flag, came to Papua New Guinea to lead a group of soldiers - most of them Iraq and Afghanistan veterans - to try to find the remains of two World War II fliers who were just 19 and 25 when they were lost in 1944.
The expedition is part of the Pentagon's ambitious new initiative to locate tens of thousands of MIAs from World War II, many lost for decades in terrain that was considered unreachable, masked by unforgiving jungles or closed off by hostile regimes.
Armed with new technologies that can extract DNA from mere shards of tooth or bone, the searchers are trying to bring closure to a war that is starting to recede from living memory. For Eyster, the feeling of connection is palpable: The two men his team is endeavoring to find - Marion R. McCown and Allan S. Harrison III - might as well be the pilots he led into battle in Iraq.
"I think to myself, I have been in command of 18- and 19-year-old men - and women, in fact - flying helicopters across Iraq," Eyster says. "One of our aircraft was shot down over Baqubah, and we lost the two pilots in there.
"Both of the World War II pilots, McCown and Harrison, now belong to military history. Neither has any known descendants. No one is waiting at home for the recovery of their remains. Eyster and his fellow soldiers are undertaking this mission for the pilots - and for themselves.
"In our own minds we are doing what we would want to be done for ourselves," Eyster says. "I have seen guys break their backs for the idea that we are going to bring this little shred of evidence back home because he is a comrade-in-arms, he is a buddy."
Continued...
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By Janet Evans
Friday, Jul 11 2008, 01:31 AM
Face of Defense: Canadian-Born Soldier Serves as Sniper in Iraq By Army Staff Sgt. Matt Meadows
Special to American Forces Press Service
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| WASHINGTON, July 10, 2008 – Looking through a rifle sight into the eyes of an enemy -- no matter how evil that enemy is or how many innocent people he has killed -- and then pulling the trigger to end that enemy’s existence affects a soldier.
Army Sgt. Murray Spence (left), an infantry scout sniper originally from Canada, reads the serial number of his M-24 sniper rifle as Army Staff Sgt. Tommy Peek, Spence’s platoon sergeant from Fort Polk, La., verifies the number during an inventory at Forward Operating Base Loyalty, Iraq, July 8, 2008. Both soldiers are assigned to Multinational Division Baghdad with Scout Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Matt Meadows, Multinational Division Baghdad
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. | | It takes a certain type of person to perform the duties of a sniper.
Army Sgt. Murray Spence -- a 30-year-old sniper assigned to Multinational Division Baghdad with the 10th Mountain Division’s Scout Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team -- is a full-blooded Sioux who was raised by German Mennonites in Canada after he was put up for adoption at birth.
“They raised me as one of their own, and I consider them my family,” he said. “That’s the way it is. It really helped shape me to be who I am. They were really Christian, God-fearing people, and they instilled that in me. I am very thankful for that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Whenever Spence is not on a mission, he likes to work out at the gymnasium and to go running. When Spence says he likes to run, he is not joking. He represented Fort Polk, La., in the Army 10-miler race in Washington in October 2007. His team placed first in the active-duty military mixed division, with a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes.
Nowadays, Spence spends most of his day cleaning his “kit” -- weapons and equipment -- and getting ready to go out on missions.
“Missions shift and change every day,” he explained. “It might be one thing for a day, or maybe one thing for a week or two weeks, and then again six hours before [we are scheduled to leave], we might get shifted to do something else.”
He spends his time getting ready, he said, “so if I have people relying on me, then they can rely on me.”
Spence said he is allowed to operate fairly independently, which took some getting used to. Although he coordinates movement with the battalion, he said, it’s good to have the freedom to choose his positions during missions to take advantage of his sniper-school training. “I definitely don’t just run around out there and do my own thing,” he said.
Being a sniper might seem to be a lonely existence. But even though Spence operates separately from other soldiers, he does not feel he is alone or unsupported.
“I don’t feel isolated at all,” he said. “The Wild Boar battalion treats me pretty well, and they make sure I’ve got what I need [and] all the support I need. As long as I’m doing the right things for the right people at the right time, everything just falls into place. It’s a pretty good system. I like it.”
The life of a sniper is challenging, to say the least. But Spence has been facing and overcoming challenges since the day he was born. He served as a reservist in the Canadian military for two years, assigned to a rifle company called the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. After leaving Canadian military service, Spence tried to return, he said, but the process was taking too long, so he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He decided to become an infantry scout and earned honor graduate honors in his sniper school class.
After I got out of the Canadian army, Spence said, he thought his military days were over. “But I got into construction,” he explained, “and just got bored. Somehow, I ended up here. Somehow I ended up a sniper in Iraq.”
Spence overcame the sweltering August summer heat of Georgia in 2007 and the challenge of mathematics to leave the sniper school with top honors. He was 28 years old when he attended the school, years removed from high school math classes. “Getting back to the math and how to figure out calculations … on the fly was pretty tough,” he admitted, “but it was worth it.”
If Spence had had a little money at the time, he might not have joined the Army. His life almost took a turn toward a much different military lifestyle.
“I toyed with the idea of joining the French Foreign Legion before I came here, actually,” he said. “I was about $200 short of buying a plane ticket to Marseilles, France, and that still interests me a little bit, just for the adventure. I might have enough of the Army lifestyle after this. We’ll see what happens.”
Spence is more than just a long-range shooter. Army Staff Sgt. Tommy Peek, Spence’s platoon sergeant from Fort Polk, said Spence has provided protection for their battalion commander while moving throughout the Wild Boar operating environment and also has helped many less-experienced soldiers.
“He is a very diverse soldier,” Peek said, explaining Spence was a crew-served-weapons expert with the M-240 and 50-caliber machine guns and the Mk-19 while assigned to Company D. “All his information and guidance to the younger soldiers we had actually helped a lot in their mentorship and their understanding of the crew-served weapons systems.
“He is a cut above the rest,” Peek continued. “He is not just the basic soldier. He has a lot more to offer than just long-range target acquisition.”
Working with Spence is a “delight” because of his consistent professionalism and guidance to younger soldiers, which makes Peek’s job much easier, he said.
Because of his Canadian birth, Spence could not be considered for Special Forces, and several attempts to go to Ranger school have not worked out for one reason or another. But whatever Spence does in his life after he leaves Iraq, it is a safe bet it will not be boring.
“So, I guess it’s time to move on and see what else is out there -- something interesting, something challenging,” he said. “Hopefully, [I’ll] try to become an underwater welder or something like that. It’s different. It’s challenging. It’s operating on your own a lot. It’s pretty dangerous, I think.”
Being on his own a lot and having to do what he does, Spence said, his religious faith is very important in sustaining him and the majority of his sniper comrades. “It helps me day to day, every day, all day,” he said.
Spence’s message is a simple one. He would like people to know he and other Army snipers are not heartless, hardened gunmen.
“We are not just stone-cold, steely-eyed killers without souls,” he said. “We are just regular people like everybody else.”
(Army Staff Sgt. Matt Meadows serves in Multinational Division Baghdad with the 10th Mountain Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office.)
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Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq
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Army Sgt. Murray Spence, an infantry scout sniper originally from Canada, lays out his “kit” for inventory in front of his battalion’s headquarters at Forward Operating Base Loyalty, Iraq, July 8, 2008. Spence is assigned to Multinational Division Baghdad with Scout Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Matt Meadows, Multinational Division Baghdad
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By Janet Evans
Wednesday, Jul 2 2008, 07:11 AM
"U.S. Army Task Force Regulators 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment Staff Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneels on a knee to talk with a young Iraqi boy at the future site of Regular 6 Park in the Thawra 1 section of the Sadr City District of Baghdad on June 20. Photo: Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq."
The children warm your heart…they’re the same no matter what country…no matter where in the world.
from Soldier's Angels
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By Janet Evans
Monday, Jun 30 2008, 07:35 PM
My nephew served during Operation Desert Storm and brought home left over MREs for some reason….along with other souvenirs. He left a boxful of stuff from that time with me…some of it pretty interesting.
At that time, I remember bringing a few MREs to my kid’s classes for them to see what they were like, and to taste them. I recall that each one of them always had a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce in them. They were pretty bland meals.
It looks like since Desert Storm, they are trying to improve those meals. They’ve even dropped them for people in need during disasters.
The US Army has a taste tester who makes sure the meals are just right.
“Like any chef, Jeanette Kennedy's pallet has become so refined over the years that, given any dish, she can single out virtually every ingredient – the pinch of black pepper, the hint of oregano, or the vegetable oil subbing for olive oil.
On a recent morning she was testing a slab of pound cake, her face blank as she silenced her other senses and focused on taste and texture. After a good long chew, Ms. Kennedy spit the cake into a paper cup – an indelicacy that was not a comment on the cake (which she deemed pretty good), but the result of a high calorie occupational hazard. This pound cake is no tea party trifle; it's combat cuisine – part of an MRE, Meal Ready to Eat – designed to fuel soldiers lugging 100-pound packs all day.
A food technologist at the US Army Natick Soldier Systems Center (NSSC) west of Boston, Kennedy faces creative challenges unlike those before any other chef. Meals can't just taste good; they've got to last ... for three years stored at 80 degrees F., be capable of withstanding chemical or biological attacks, and survive a 10-story free fall.”
Read the entire article from Christian Science Monitor
Hmm…3-year shelf life. Operation Desert Storm …1991….I guess I better go see if those MREs in the souvenir box have burst open!
There might be some funky noodle casserole in there. With those sheets of toilet paper (yes, they have some of that in with the MREs).
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By Janet Evans
Wednesday, Jun 25 2008, 11:50 AM
By Janet Evans
Thursday, Jun 19 2008, 07:07 AM
Terrorists Use Roadside Bombs as Strategic Weapon, General Says
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service |
WASHINGTON, June 18, 2008 – Terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq employ improvised explosive devices as a weapon of choice to sap the willpower of the American people, a senior U.S. officer said here today. Terrorists use IEDs “as a strategic weapon to wear our will down, because our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines can whip this thing, tactically,” Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told attendees at the 2008 Joint Warfighting Conference.
Metz compared the enemy’s strategy today in Afghanistan and Iraq to what occurred more than 30 years ago in Southeast Asia, when North Vietnamese leaders also employed irregular warfare to grind down the U.S. public’s desire to continue the Vietnam War. The United States and its allies now are involved in a global, irregular war against terrorism that’s likely to last 20 to 30 years, Metz said.
“And the enemy in that warfare will use asymmetric weapons against us; he will try to figure out where we don’t want to fight,” he added.
Metz, a past commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said his organization has scored many successes in its battle against roadside bombs. Various jamming devices, he said, have proved capable of thwarting many terrorist attempts to detonate IEDs by radio signal.
However, the terrorists are a wily enemy that change IED-detonation procedures in reaction to U.S. countermeasures, Metz said. For example, he said, the terrorists often alternate between using wireless and hard-wired detonation methods to set off their roadside bombs.
The enemy also employs mentally challenged people as suicide bombers, Metz said. In these instances, he noted, the charges often are detonated by a remote device when the bombers reach their targets.
“We’re fighting in an irregular way because the enemy doesn’t want to mess with us in a conventional way,” Metz said. The terrorists, he said, realize they can’t compete with the U.S. military on a conventional battlefield. However, al-Qaida, the Taliban and other terrorists are relentless foes who telegraph their plans in their writings and messages to the world, Metz pointed out.
“Make no mistake about it – these thugs write what they’re going to do, just as clearly as Adolf Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf,” Metz said. “Mein Kampf,” meaning “My Struggle” in English, was written a decade before Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. The book clearly outlined Hitler’s plans for world domination and destruction of the Jewish people.
Terrorists use IEDs as a strategic tool to “get us to quit, so that the caliphate can rise up and the thugs can take over,” Metz said. It’s therefore paramount, Metz emphasized, that using the IED as a strategic weapon doesn’t lead terrorists to decide to use it to attack Americans in the homeland.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces “are absolutely confident they can win” in Afghanistan and Iraq, Metz said, adding that American servicemembers “are a super-quality bunch of men and women.” U.S. servicemembers can win the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq if they’re supported properly, Metz emphasized.
“And that is what I want to do with the Joint IED Defeat Organization,” he said. |
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By Janet Evans
Monday, Jun 9 2008, 11:39 AM
America Supports You: Distillery Raises Glass to Troops, Support GroupBy Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service |
WASHINGTON, June 6, 2008 – With symbolic glasses raised on high, Jim Beam distillery offered a toast to U.S. servicemembers and their families with a $175,000 donation to Operation Homefront. Operation Homefront provides emergency assistance and morale to the nation’s troops, to the families they leave behind, and to wounded warriors when they return home.
In supporting the organization, Jim Beam honors it as part of the brand’s renewed top-down commitment to its own original values of true character, integrity and doing the right thing, Jim Beam officials said in a news release announcing the donation.
"Jim Beam is doing the right thing by helping us keep military families and wounded warriors from homelessness and to keep these families safe and secure," said Amy Palmer, executive vice president of operations and development for Operation Homefront. "We're so grateful for this donation, which will allow us to enhance our support of the brave men and women in uniform and their families who are experiencing hardships."
The admiration is mutual.
“We're so proud of Operation Homefront and all that they do, so we're putting it right on our bottle,” said Fred Noe, seventh-generation Beam distiller and self-described Beam family ambassador. “A special limited-edition Operation Homefront label is going on more than 500,000 bottles of Jim Beam bourbon."
In addition, Jim Beam has partnered with the ABC Fine Wine and Spirits chain in Florida to celebrate America and support the nation’s military families.
“Jim Beam has the heritage of the only distilled spirit indigenous to America,” said Andy Abernathy, senior vice president, ABC Fine Wine and Spirits. “As the largest bourbon retailer in the state, we are thrilled we can show respect for our country while providing our customers with an opportunity for them to support Operation Homefront.”
ABC Fine Wine and Spirits will donate $1 for every 750 milliliter bottle of Jim Beam White and Jim Beam Black sold between June 1 and July 6. Patrons also will have a chance to learn more about the military and Operation Homefront at ABC Fine Wine and Spirit stores throughout the Sunshine State.
Operation Homefront and military personnel will greet customers at various locations, which will have military vehicles, including Humvees and tanks, on display, through July 6.
Jim Beam also is inviting its customers of legal drinking age to support the troops by posting a toast on its “The Stuff Inside” Web site. Toasts will appear on the site until July 4. Of those submitted, best toast or toasts that capture the spirit of “the stuff inside” may be considered for use in Jim Beam advertising, officials said.
Bottles of Jim Beam featuring the limited edition Operation Homefront labels are on store shelves now and are estimated to be available until July 4.
Operation Homefront is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad. |
TheStuffInside.com.
For more information, please visit www.operationhomefront.net.
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By Janet Evans
Saturday, Jun 7 2008, 09:10 AM
….I’m Rambo, damn it!
Too bad there isn’t a way to make sure these weapons never get in the hands of the enemy. But that’s impossible.
The close-up of the ammunition was pretty chilling.
In the end, it's just like when the military used to throw a grenade into a building before they went in...now, they use this weapon instead.
Don't forget about military Robobugs .
If you're interested, here's a link to BLACKWATER Ã
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By Janet Evans
Monday, Jun 2 2008, 04:15 PM
I know…It’s a war.
There’s nothing positive about war.
Well, we have to mention when things are looking up, because the media tends to ignore that.
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war
high.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago.
Read the story from Reuters
Iraq hits milestones on U.S. troop deaths and oil í here
Some photos of those who serve…
ACADEMY FLYOVER
U.S. Naval Academy graduates cheer as the Navy's Blue Angels fly over Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., during their commencement ceremony, May 23, 2008. U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the ceremony's guest speaker.
Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
NIGHT FIRE
While looking through night vision gear, U.S. Marine firefighters put out a fire in front of the old
Gunner’s Gym, May 6, 2008, during a simulated terrorist bombing on Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ashley Stadel
STAYING THE COURSE
A plebe listens for instructions before starting an obstacle course
during Sea Trails at the U.S. Naval Academy, May 13, 2008.
Sea Trials are divided into six phases to provides physical and
mental challenges to test the plebes teamwork and mental stamina
through shared adversities.
U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Todd P. Cichonowicz
CEREMONIAL COLOR
U.S. Navy Seaman Seth Green participates in the color guard for a change of
command ceremony for the mine countermeasures ship USS Guardian, Sasebo,
Japan, May 8, 2008. Lt. Cmdr. Steven H. DeMoss relinquished command to
Lt. Cmdr. Theodore E. Essenfield.
U.S. Navy photo Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua J. Wahl
WE ARE AMERICANS
Two hundred fifty-nine foreign-born U.S. troops serving throughout Iraq become American citizens
at Al Faw Palace, Camp Victory, Iraq, April 12, 2008, in the largest U.S. naturalization ceremony to date in Iraq.
U.S. Army Sgt. Jasmine Chopra
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By Janet Evans
Friday, May 30 2008, 07:10 AM
Freedom is Most Powerful Weapon, Bush SaysBy Fred W. Baker III American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 28, 2008 – President Bush called upon the newest graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy today to lead the cause of freedom in their generation, calling freedom the most powerful weapon in the U.S. arsenal. Bush addressed the 1,012 cadets who made up the 50th graduating class in the history of the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy during commencement ceremonies.
The president drew comparisons between the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries, citing similar ideological struggles first with fascism and communism, and now with Islamic extremism.
“We are once again facing evil men who despise freedom and despise America and aim to subject millions to their violent rule,” Bush said. “And once again, our nation is called to defeat these adversaries and secure the peace for millions across the world.”
Defeating those ideologies will require all elements of national power, the president said. It will take new and advanced weaponry that offers speed, precision, agile and lethal fires. And it will take patience, the president said. But the most important factor to securing a peaceful future is the perpetuation of freedom, he said.
“For all the advanced military capabilities at our disposal, the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the power of freedom,” Bush said.
The president remarked that in one generation the technology of aviation moved from its historic first flight, to the age of supersonic flight and space exploration. As aviation progressed, he said, it changed the face of war.
Technology today allows for more precision targeting of enemy regimes. The ability to eliminate a regime, with minimal damage to the civilian population serves as a deterrent, Bush said.
“We've removed two cruel regimes in weeks instead of years,” Bush said, comparing World War II and operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
“In Afghanistan, coalition forces and their Afghan allies drove the Taliban from power in less than two months,” Bush said. “In Iraq, with the help of the United States Air Force, our troops raced across 350 miles of enemy territory to liberate Baghdad in less than one month, one of the fastest armored advances in military history.”
This creates both opportunities and challenges in current and future wars. The United States can now fight its enemies with greater humanity by sparing innocent casualties of war. But, because many enemy forces know they cannot take on the U.S. military in a head-on fight, they turn to terrorist tactics and asymmetrical warfare.
“We've seen this in Afghanistan and Iraq. In those countries, our adversaries did not lay down their arms after the regime had been removed,” the president said. “Instead, they blended into the civilian population and, with the help of stateless terrorist networks, continue to fight through suicide bombings and attacks on innocent people.”
One way to meet the challenge is to continue developing new technologies that offer speed, agility and precision lethal targeting.
But, to win at asymmetric warfare requires patience. The enemy works to unnerve its opponent hoping they will retreat, Bush said.
Terrorists take advantage of the information age and 24-hour news cycles, creating images of chaos and suffering for the cameras, hoping it will undermine the resolve and morale of Americans, the president said.
“This means that to win the first war of the 21st century, we need to prevail, not just in the battle of arms but also in the battle of wills,” Bush said. “And we need to recognize that the only way America can lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves.”
Also, key in defeating hate-filled ideologies is strengthening free institutions in countries that are fighting extremists.
Bush said the United States had a “special obligation” to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq as partners in the fight against terrorism. He compared the two countries to Japan and Germany, both which the United States helped to rebuild after World War II.
“These efforts took time and patience. And a result, Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity,” Bush said. “Germany and Japan, once mortal enemies, are now allies of the United States, and people across the world have reaped the benefits from that alliance.
“Today we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq. By helping these young democracies grow in freedom and prosperity, we will lay the foundation of peace for generations to come,” Bush said.
One difference between the rebuilding efforts, though, is that in Germany and Japan the rebuilding took place in relative peace, as opposed to today, when the United States and its allies are helping to rebuild democracies still under fire from terrorist networks and suffering significant security challenges as they grow.
“In Iraq we learned from hard experience that newly liberated people cannot make political and economic progress unless they first have some measure of security,” Bush said.
This led to last year’s strategy change, in which the president sent an additional 30,000 troops there to help stabilize the region while the government established its political roots.
“Violence in Iraq is down to the lowest point since March of 2004. Civilian deaths are down. Sectarian killings are down,” Bush said. “And as security has improved, the economy has improved as well. Political reconciliation is taking place at the grass-roots and national level.”
Another challenge to warfare today is defining success, Bush said. Wars past have ended with ceremonial surrenders and victory parades.
“Today when the war continues, after the regime has fallen, the definition of success is more complicated,” Bush said.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, success will come when al-Qaida is not safe, the people can protect themselves, and the countries are economically viable, the president said.
“Success will come when Iraq and Afghanistan are democracies that govern themselves effectively and respond to the will of their people,” Bush said. “Success will come when Iraq and Afghanistan are strong and capable allies on the war on terror.”
Well-rooted freedom ultimately prevails in overcoming tyranny and transforming societies, the president said. When offered a choice, he told the cadets, people always choose to live in freedom.
“The enemies of freedom understand this, and that is why they're fighting desperately to deny this choice to men and women across the Middle East,” Bush said.
Building a free society removes the recruiting grounds for terrorists. Also, free societies are peaceful, and people who live in liberty and hope do not turn to the ideologies of hatred and fear, the president said.
“And that is why, for the security of America and the peace for the world, the great mission of your generation is to lead the cause of freedom,” Bush said.
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By Janet Evans
Monday, May 26 2008, 08:05 AM
 Carolyn and Keith Maupin fight back tears during a memorial service honoring their fallen son,
Army Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin, at the Army Reserve Command headquarters at Fort McPherson, Ga.,
May 22, 2008. Photo by Timothy L. Hale
Comrades, Loved Ones Provide Reminders of Memorial Day’s MeaningBy Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service |
| WASHINGTON, May 23, 2008 – |
To many Americans, Memorial Day means a day off from work with parades, pool openings and barbecues. But for those who have lost a comrade or loved one in combat, the day takes on a whole new significance. Here are some of their stories.
Army 1st Lt. Brent Pounders
Army 1st Lt. Brent Pounders remembers his childhood, reading textbooks about patriots who sacrificed their lives through the country’s history and thinking of Memorial Day as the end of the school year.
“You think about it, but [its meaning] really doesn’t hit home or register as much until you lose some of your dear friends and realize that their families are affected by this and what it actually signifies,” he said.
For Pounders, that significance hit home Jan. 20, 2007.
Twelve soldiers died that day when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down east of Baghdad. Among them were three members of Pounders’ unit, the Arkansas Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment, 77th Aviation Brigade, as well as a Texas National Guard soldier who worked closely with them on a day-to-day basis.
Pounds remembers Maj. Michael Taylor, the company commander, for his great sense of humor as he looked out for the best for his unit and held every soldier to the highest standard. First Sgt. John Brown, the company standardization instructor, was “one of those guys who always had a smile on his face, was always in a good mood and always willing to do anything he could to help.” Sgt. Maj. William Warren had a funny habit of adding “and everything” to just about everything he said, prompting the unit to yell out the catch-line in unison just as Warren finished taping a video to send home from Iraq.
Capt. Sean Lyerly wasn’t assigned to the unit, but quickly bonded with the Arkansas Guardsmen he worked with in the theater at Company C, 1st Brigade, 131st Aviation Regiment. “He was a really good guy who got along with everybody in the company,” Pounds recalls. “Everybody liked him, and he did a good job for us.”
Pounders said the first Memorial Day spent back at home, away from the heavy operational demands of the combat zone, will give him a lot more time to reflect on what he and his unit have lost.
“In the past, I’ve had some people I knew who had been killed in Iraq, but this time there’s a more personal aspect to it,” he said. “This time it is people I knew and was good friends with and have known for years giving their lives for their country.”
The unit still is recovering from their deaths, but Pounders said it is the families who have lost the most. “They are the ones who have to live on without their fathers or their husbands or their sons,” he said.
Pounders said it’s fitting that the American people recognize the sacrifices they and their fellow servicemembers have made. “These people all gave so much,” he said. “The least we can do is set one day aside out of the year and stop our busy schedules and just show some remembrance for them and what they gave and what their families gave. I think that’s the very least we can do as a nation.”
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Rafael Barney
As they were deploying to Iraq from March Air Force Base, Calif., Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Rafael Barney formed a fast friendship with Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Jimmy Arroyave.
Barney, a religious program specialist, and Arroyave, a member of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s 1st Force Service Support Group, shared common roots in Colombia. They spent the entire trip to Kuwait swapping stories and experiences, quickly bonding and promising to stay in touch.
It wasn’t until two months later, when he was in Fallujah, Iraq, with the Marine Corps’ 7th Engineer Support Battalion in April 2004, that Barney would again hear his new friend’s name. Arroyave, he learned, had been killed when his Humvee rolled over during a mission northeast of Ramadi.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard his name,” Barney said. “I froze. He was my friend.”
Barney took the news to heart. After he returned from Iraq, he contacted Arroyave’s widow, Rachael, and went to meet her, her two daughters, and the newborn son his fallen Marine friend wound never lay eyes on.
This week, Barney, now assigned to the chief of naval chaplains office in Washington, visited the Marine Corps Museum near Quantico, Va., where a memorial brick honors Arroyave. “It was touching,” he said. “I wanted to go see it.”
Now that a loss has touched him in a very personal way, Barney said, Memorial Day has taken on a new level of importance. “It’s not just a weekend off any more,” he said. “You reflect on your experiences, and it becomes personal.”
Barney called Memorial Day a time for Americans to recognize the contributions their military has made, often at great cost. “This military has been through a lot of pain and a lot of losses,” he said.
“[Americans] need to be reminded of the sacrifices their fellow citizens are taking,” Barney continued. “And they need to understand the value of military service to this country, and the reason we are here.”
Wesley and Peggy Bushnell
Parents of Army Sgt. William Bushnell
Just over a year after losing their 24-year-old son in Iraq, Wesley and Peggy Bushnell plan a weekend of activity honoring his memory.
Army Sgt. William Bushnell, a soldier with 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, died in combat April 21, 2007, when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle during operations in Baghdad. He was among 31 “Long Knife” Brigade Combat Team soldiers killed during the unit’s 15-month deployment to Iraq.
The Bushnells joined their son’s comrades when, after they returned to El Paso, Texas, the city hosted a Texas-size hometown heroes’ parade in February. Wesley walked the parade route alongside one of 31 riderless horses with empty boots reversed in the stirrups that commemorated his son and the other fallen soldiers.
This weekend, the Bushnells will again pay public tribute to the son they grieve for every day in private. They and fellow church members in Jasper, Ark., will board a bus bound for Indian Village, La., where their son is buried in a family grave.
They plan a weekend of worship, music and fellowship remembering their son and what he stood for.
Memorial Day has always had special meaning to the Bushnells, a patriotic family that always took time to pause and “remember the people who gave their all,” Wesley said.
“It’s an important day, because it honors the people who fought for what they believe in and gave us the opportunity to be sitting here watching color TV,” he said.
But since their son’s death, Memorial Day has become deeply personal, he said. He and his wife reflect all the time on what they’ve lost -- Wesley, during long days on the road driving a truck for Wal-Mart, a dog tag with his son’s photo around his neck, and Becky, as she painstakingly toils over the memorial quilts she sews.
If there’s any consolation in their loss, Wesley said, it’s that their son died for a noble cause. “He went with dignity and honor. That’s what makes it tolerable to me,” he said. “I can accept war, and I know that bad things happen in war. It hurts, but I can accept it.”
Carolyn and Keith Maupin
Parents of Army Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin
For the past four Memorial Days, Carolyn and Keith Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, didn’t know if their Army Reserve son was dead or alive.
Army Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin was among two soldiers and seven contract employees reported missing after insurgents attacked their fuel convoy west of Baghdad on April 9, 2004. Maupin was later reported as the only missing soldier.
A videotape that aired two weeks later on Al Jazeera TV showed him being held captive by masked gunmen, raising hopes he was still alive. Al Jazeera reported two months later that Maupin had been killed, but the U.S. Army ruled the video of the execution too poor to conclusively identify Maupin.
The Maupin family waited for four years, never giving up hope that Matt was still alive. Only when the Army announced March 20, 2008, that it had found and identified his remains using DNA did the Maupins finally know his fate.
The city of Cincinnati heralded its fallen son, hosting a memorial ceremony in late April at Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds. Pallbearers from Maupin’s unit carried his flag-draped casket, placing it on the pitchers’ mound before the 25,000 mourners. Later that day, Maupin was buried in Cincinnati’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
U.S. Army Reserve Command honored Maupin during a May 22 memorial service at its headquarters at Fort McPherson, Ga. Carolyn called the service “quite touching,” knowing that more than 200 soldiers were honoring her son. “We know they are not going to forget, don’t we?” she said.
The Maupins will spend this Memorial Day weekend as they have the last three, riding on the back of a motorcycle down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue as part of “Rolling Thunder.” The annual ride, now in its 21st year, helps raise awareness about prisoners of war, troops missing in action and veterans’ benefits. It also offers veterans the chance to reconnect with their brothers-in-arms.
Carolyn said she’s always honored Memorial Day as a time to remember the fallen. She remembers years past, watching Memorial Day parades on television. “What was different then was that Matt was with us, and now he is not,” she said. “So the emotions are different. We miss him.”
As they remember their fallen son and honor another son serving in the military, Marine Sgt. Micah Maupin, the Maupins said it’s important for all Americans to recognize the significance of Memorial Day.
“That’s who gives them what they are able to do every day -- those guys who have died and those guys who have served,” Keith said. “To me it means freedom, and what they have sacrificed to give us our freedom each and every day,” Carolyn echoed.
Air Force Maj. Frances Robertson
While others attend Memorial Day commemorations in the coming days, Air Force Maj. Frances Robertson plans to stay away, saying they still bring up too many painful memories.
The Air Force flight nurse remembers growing up in San Antonio and enjoying the ceremony and celebration that surrounded Memorial Day. “When you were a kid, it was all about backyard barbecues and seeing the little flags on the funeral grounds at Fort Sam Houston,” she said. “The music was always great, and the gunfire was really neat.”
But after two combat deployments with the Air Force Reserve’s 433rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, including one to Iraq at the start of the war, Robertson sees military cemeteries and wonders if she treated any of those buried there. She doesn’t like hearing gunfire. She feels she’s seen too much death to bring herself to attend Memorial Day ceremonies.
“It’s not the memorial service I don’t like, it’s the memories,” she said. “When you go to these functions, it brings it all back. You are reminded of it all over again.”
Robertson said she holds dear memories of the servicemembers she treated in both Iraq and Kuwait and calls them heroes who willingly put themselves on the line for their fellow Americans.
“Any time a military member goes out, they don’t know if they are coming home, and their families don’t know if they are coming home,” | | | |
