Marine Corps News Room

Marines and Sailors with 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment defended their position and attacked a simulated enemy during Clear, Hold, Build Exercise III in the Combat Center's Quackenbush and Gays Pass training areas, June 17 and 18.

http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/public/InfolineMarines.nsf/ArticlesListingReadCurrent/D32A1D2756A3BA95852575E50060E855

06/30/2009
Cpl. Margaret Hughes

The exercise is a two-day training event set up as a battalion defense throughout the first night, then transitions into an offensive counter attack against the enemy the following morning, said Master Sgt. Brian Criley, the assistant operations chief for 3/9.

The exercise is part of Enhanced Mojave Viper, a pre-deployment training package that concentrates on multiple scenarios of warfare, said Capt. David Chin, an instructor controller for Tactical Training Exercise Control Group.

"We are training to give them a full spectrum of operations," said the South Brunswick, N.J., native.

3/9 is one of the first units to train through EMV.

During the exercise, each company set up their defense as the simulated enemies pushed forward. A platoon of tanks and amphibious assault vehicles were attached for the exercise to support the battalion. Artillery and close air support were also provided, with both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, said Criley, a Butler, Pa., native.

The night was filled with explosions in the distance from tanks, close air support and artillery attacking the simulated enemy.

As the fight progressed late into the night, the enemy started their dismounted assault when the companies in the defense were able to attack with the final protective fire.

"The FPF is a mass of fire power that stops the enemy from progressing," said Capt. Nathan Dmochowski, the assistant operations officer for the battalion. "It's basically a wall of lead."

Mortars, grenade launchers and all weapons commonly used in an infantry battalion were fired down range to stop the simulated enemy in their tracks.

Early the next morning, the battalion and supporting units changed from defense to an offensive counter attack to eliminate the enemy.

The tanks initiated the attack as each company "leap frogged" one another after each objective point, Criley said.

"The overall goal is to kill the enemy," said Gunnery Sgt. Carroll Williams, the company gunnery sergeant for Company I. "But we want our Marines to take a lot away from this."

This exercise will teach the Marines and Sailors a lot of different skills, said the Pomona, Calif., native. They will learn how to set up a battalion defense, what it takes to sustain a detailed operation for over 24 hours and how to transfer from the defense to the offense.

Clear, Hold, Build Exercise III is one of the many training events 3/9 has endured over a month of pre-deployment training aboard the Combat Center. Each event will teach the Marines how to fight and make quick decisions in any situation or environment, Williams said.

Posted by sr at 11:59 AM | Permalink

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan — Marines patrol slowly along streets laced with land mines and lined with abandoned shops, clinics and homes.
As night falls over this Afghan ghost town, the only sounds are the howling of coyotes and the creaking of tin roofs in the wind.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_marines_now_zad_063009/

By Chris Brummitt - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 30, 2009 19:17:11 EDT

Three years after its residents fled, the once bustling town of Now Zad is the scene of a stalemate between a company of newly arrived Marines and a band of Taliban fighters.
The Americans have plenty of firepower.
What they don’t have is enough men to hold seized ground.

“We would just be mowing the weeds,” said Capt. Zachary Martin of any move to drive out the Taliban.

The deadlock shows how a shortage of troops has hindered the Afghan war and points to the challenges for the Obama administration as it sends 21,000 extra Marines and soldiers to the south to try to turn around a bogged down, eight-year conflict.
The influx will bring U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to about 68,000 by late summer — roughly half the current level in Iraq, a smaller country than Afghanistan.

It’s unclear if more troops will be deployed to this town in Helmand province, the heart of the Taliban insurgency and the opium poppy trade that funds it.
For the meantime at least, it appears Now Zad is too valuable to abandon to the insurgents — but not valuable enough for an all-out offensive.

The 300 or so Marines in Now Zad regularly patrol areas close to the Taliban front lines, skirmishing with them and risking attacks from the area’s biggest killer — IEDs.
Over the last month, improvised explosive devices have killed one Marine and wounded seven. Four of the men — including the fatality — suffered double leg amputations.

“Welcome to Hell,” reads one message spray-painted on a wall in the town’s main base by British troops whom the Marines replaced last year.

“Good Luck USA,” reads another.

Along with the new troops and military aircraft, Washington plans a corresponding surge in development projects to convince the largely impoverished Afghan population that the central government— not the insurgents — offers the best hope for the future.
The U.S. is also spending more on training the Afghan police and army so they can eventually take on the Taliban.

But with Now Zad’s 10,000 to 35,000 residents long gone, there are no hearts and minds to woo here — even it were safe enough to build schools, clinics and roads.
The town also has no local security forces, and no one can say when they will arrive.

“Even in our wildest dreams we are not going to have enough Marines and soldiers to be everywhere,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of the first wave of 10,000 new troops pouring into Helmand and surrounding provinces.
“That is why it is important to have the locals taking more responsibility, saying, ‘This is my neighborhood and I’m going to have to defend it.’“

Like much of Afghanistan, Now Zad was relatively peaceful in the years following the U.S.-led invasion.
Water pumps installed by the U.N. World Food Program are dotted around the town, and there is at least one health clinic funded by the European Union.

But in 2006 and 2007 — just when Washington was focused on sectarian bloodshed in Iraq — the Afghan insurgency stepped up a gear and Now Zad became the scene of fierce battles between NATO troops and the Taliban.

Now Zad remains so dangerous that this is the only Marine unit in Afghanistan that brings along two trauma doctors, as well as two armored vehicles used as ambulances and supplies of fresh blood.

Apart from one small stretch of paved road, the Marines patrol only behind an engineer who sweeps the ground with a detector.
The men who follow scratch out a path in the sand with their foot to ensure those trailing them do not stray off course.
Each carries at least one tourniquet.

“It’s a hell of ride,” said Lance Cpl. Aenoi Luangxay, a 20-year-old engineer on his first deployment.

“Every step you think this could be my last,” said Aenoi, who has found six bombs in the company’s four weeks in the town.

Just after midnight recently, the medics were wakened by a familiar report: A patrol had hit an IED in town.
Within five minutes, they put on their flak jackets and helmets and were in their vehicles leaving the base.

The bomb blew the legs off Cpl. Matthew Lembke as he walked to a building.
Lembke, from Tualatin, Ore., was loaded onto the ambulance.
On the trip to the helicopter landing zone, the medics tightened his tourniquets and gave him two units of blood along with antibiotics.

At one point, he stopped breathing. The medical team used equipment on board to pump air into his lungs.

“Our aim and intent is to give the guys the optimum chance of survival from the first minute,” said the commander of the Shock Trauma Platoon, Sean Barbabella, of Chesapeake, Va.
“If it was my son or brother out there, that is what I would want.”

Lembke was in stable condition Monday at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

The men of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines in Now Zad know where to find their enemy — to the north of town, in a maze of compounds and tunnels that back onto lush pomegranate orchards.

The Marines are garrisoned in a base that occupies the town’s former administrative center. They also have fortified observations posts on two hills.
In one of them, named ANP hill after the Afghan police who presumably once had a post there, the men sleep in “hobbit holes” dug into the earth.
The underground briefing room is partly held up by an aging Russian Howitzer gun.

Each day, the Marines aggressively patrol to limit the Taliban’s freedom of movement.
They keep a 24-hour watch on the battlefield using high-tech surveillance equipment and are able to fire mortar rounds at insurgents spotted planting bombs or gathering in numbers.

A recent daylong battle showed the massive difference in firepower between the two sides, as well as the tenacity of the Taliban.
It took place close to “Pakistani Alley,” so named because of one-time reports that fighters from across the border were deployed along the road.

The insurgents opened fire from behind high-walled compounds with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades against five armored vehicles; the Marines responded with machine gunfire and frequently called in airstrikes.

Mindful of the need to engage with what few locals remain in the area, every couple of days a small group of Marines and translators leave the base and walk a mile to a village south of Now Zad where some families who fled the town now stay.

They try to convince them that the Marines are there to help, remind them that Taliban militants plant bombs that kill innocents and discreetly try to gather intelligence.
Many of the locals are suspicious and worried about Taliban retribution for talking with the visitors, who are besieged by children demanding candy and notebooks.

Capt. Martin got some encouraging news.
One villager said he was a former soldier in the Afghan army and would be willing to fight the Taliban; another said he would like to vote in August elections, though with no local government in place that looks unlikely.

But later, one man accused coalition forces of killing 10 women and children in a bombing last year.

“I take it as a sign of success they are willing to talk to us,” Zachary said.
“Before, if you said the word Taliban, they ran away.”

Posted by BR at 11:47 AM | Permalink

MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison, which saw some of the fiercest Vietnam War protests in the nation, is shedding its long-standing antimilitary image by hiring a military historian and teaching a new course for military officers.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_military_university_wisconsin_062809/

By Ryan J. Foley - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 29, 2009 15:25:23 EDT

The university also has improved services for veterans after hiring an assistant dean with a military background last year.

“It really is a group effort to reach out to the military in a way we never have before, at least not in the last 20 to 30 years,” UW-Madison history professor Jeremi Suri said.
“We’ve actually in the last few months, out of circumstance, made enormous headway. ... We’re getting beyond this really silly notion people have that we’re antimilitary.”

The image dates to the 1960s and ’70s, when the university was a hotbed of Vietnam War protests.
In 1970, four student radicals used a car bomb to destroy a building housing the Army Mathematics Research Center, killing a young scientist.

Suri is teaching the online course on the history of U.S. war and 20th-century diplomatic strategy to military officers this summer.
His graduate assistant, retired Capt. Scott Mobley, commanded a Navy ship in the first days of the Iraq war in 2003 and helped develop the course.

Mobley said he received lots of interest in the course and more than two dozen Army, Navy and Air Force officers signed up.

They include Joshua McAuliffe, a first lieutenant in the Army who is an intelligence officer at a military prison in Iraq.
The 25-year-old from Potosi, Wis., uses free time at Camp Bucca to listen to online lectures and do course reading and homework.

“I am taking this course to better understand the historical backdrops that have led to the United States using military intervention,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“I hope through a better understanding. ... I will come out as a better leader, one that is informed and able to speak intelligently on the subject.”

Suri said he hopes to provide a new model for educating military employees if the class offered over the Internet is successful.

“If we can be educating officers out there, I’m idealistic enough to believe we’ll do a lot better job as a country,” he said.
“The idea is to give military officers a firmer historical grounding in the kinds of issues they are confronting every day — the problems of cultural difference, counterinsurgency, problems with nation-building.”

His outreach hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Roger Hertog, a conservative-leaning philanthropist in New York, agreed to donate $200,000 to the university in February to help Suri’s efforts.
“Jeremi is someone who tries to do new things — witness this whole reaching out to the military online,” Hertog said.

Suri also led the search for the university’s new military history professor, which ended in the April hiring of Maj.
John Hall, a historian who had worked in the Future Warfare Division of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command in Virginia.

Hall’s position is supported through a donation from the late historian Stephen Ambrose, a UW-Madison alumnus best known as the author of “Band of Brothers.
” He created an endowment in 1996 to support the job after the school’s longtime military historian retired.
The school received about $500,000 when Ambrose died in 2002.

The university had kept the position open until now, prompting accusations that liberals on the faculty were deliberately blocking the hiring of a military historian.
The university denied that, saying it did not want to fill the position until the endowment was worth more and it had money to pay the professor’s salary.

A search started in 2006 failed to find a suitable candidate.
The second ended with the hiring of Hall, 36, an expert on the history of U.S.-Indian military and diplomatic relations in the Great Lakes region.

“I think a lot of people see me as being perhaps uniquely capable of bridging whatever divide exists between the military and the University of Wisconsin,” Hall said.

James Kurtz, commander of a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, recalled being angered by anti-war protests in Madison after he returned from the Vietnam War in 1967, an especially turbulent time on campus.
But this year, he served on the committee that interviewed Hall, who he said would provide a valuable viewpoint for the faculty.

“This is a very positive step,” he said.

Military groups also have praised the university for hiring retired Army Lt. Col. John Bechtol last year as an assistant dean of students to serve veterans, who are enrolling in greater numbers.

Bechtol has helped the school’s 650 veterans find benefits, sped up processing of financial aid by months in some cases and resolved disputes with students called to active duty. He said he is working to change the negative perception many veterans have of the school.

“They say, ‘They don’t like veterans in Madison’ and I tell them that’s not the case at all,” he said.

Posted by BR at 4:07 PM | Permalink

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Army Spc. Cameron Briggs washes down a cocktail of prescription drugs every day for post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury he suffered when four roadside bombs rocked his Humvee in Iraq.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_military_service_dogs_062809/

By Alysia Patterson - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jun 28, 2009 13:48:10 EDT

Tramadol for pain.
Midrin for debilitating headaches.
Minipress to suppress nightmares.
Klonopin to control anger and anxiety.

His next dose of treatment will come from an unlikely source: a purebred Golden Retriever.

A new Veterans Administration program adopts dogs from animal shelters, trains them and matches them with wounded warriors home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help with their recovery.

For Briggs, his dog will be trained to help him find his wallet, cell phone and keys, which he habitually loses because of cognitive memory loss.
The dog also will brace Briggs, who has an ankle injury, so he doesn’t have to use a cane or walker in public.

“I call him my little battle buddy,” the 24-year-old Briggs said as he strapped his old camouflage assault vest onto Harper.
It’s modified to store biscuits and toys instead of ammunition.
“I most definitely think he’ll help me transfer back to civilian life.”

VA hospitals nationwide are integrating service dogs into treatment plans for disabled vets, said Will Baldwin, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the VA in Denver.
The program was formed after Freedom Service Dogs, a Denver-based nonprofit, recently partnered with the VA.

Training takes up to nine months and costs $23,000.
Service Dogs doesn’t charge its clients but relies on private donations and foundation grants.

“The population is growing exponentially down in Fort Carson with the Wounded Warriors program,” said Freedom Service Dogs’ Diane Vertovec, referring to the Army unit that prepares wounded soldiers for civilian life.
“We feel like a dog can help a vet meet physical challenges but, more importantly, can really, really help them overcome a lot of the mental instability that they’re feeling.”

Service Dogs can train 43 dogs per year — a number that doesn’t come close to meeting demand.
There are about 450 soldiers in the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Fort Carson.

David Watson, a 43-year-old Gulf War veteran who lives in Strasburg, about 40 miles east of Denver, gets out of bed every morning with the help of Summer, a trained yellow lab.
Watson’s knees were injured in the war, and daily tasks are painful.

Baldwin suggested Watson get a service dog so he also could take better care of his wife, Trish, a Navy veteran who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair.

“The relationship is just one big circle.
We just keep helping each other out,” said Watson.
“If I can’t roll over or get out of bed, [Summer] will have a little toy that she uses and she’ll pull me up.
It’s a tug-of-war game for her.”

“Get shoe, Summer!” Watson commands.
Summer drops them at his bedside so he can slip them on without bending.

Summer also helps Watson navigate a world that doesn’t always accommodate his disabilities.

“Uneven ground — she will notice that before I do and she will either nudge me over or step in front of me so I don’t trip,” Watson said.

Key, an 8-month-old mixed black Labrador puppy, is being trained to open and close doors, get food from the fridge, alert bark, pick up keys and other items and brace to provide support.

Key’s biggest service might be to “just snug up to a person in bed, which sometimes is very comforting, especially for someone that might have PTSD,” said head trainer Patti Yoensky.
“Just knowing that the dog’s there helps the person feel more confident, feel that they’re not alone.”

At Fort Carson, Briggs hopes that Harper will help him adjust.
“I don’t like large crowds of people,” Briggs said, alluding to a PTSD symptom.
“I get really fidgety and I just hate it.
So anytime a stranger comes into your personal bubble, the dog will always stand between you and the stranger.”

Stephanie Baigent, manager of dog training at Service Dogs, believes that Harper can give Briggs something “unconditional that a lot of us can’t give, because no matter what we hear about Cameron or his experiences, we can’t fully understand.

“Harper doesn’t have to understand. He just loves Cameron because he’s Cameron,” she said.

Posted by BR at 4:25 PM | Permalink

HILLAH, Iraq — The remains of what was once the greatest city in the world occupy a vast site on the bank of the Euphrates River.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63495
Click above link for Photo Gallery.

Story and photos by Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, June 28, 2009

Their roots go back 3,800 years to when the city of Babylon was the heart of a Mesopotamian empire, and the remnants include great slabs of stone that are said to be the remains of King Nebuchadnezzar’s castle. A giant stone lion guards one end of the fortifications, but the most stunning remnants were removed by European archaeologists in the early 20th century.

Now soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins as part of a U.S.-Iraqi effort to preserve the ancient city and plan for the return of Western tourists.

Members of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment escorted a group of U.S. heritage tourism experts to the ruins last week for the first of several visits to develop a preservation and tourism plan for the area.

U.S. and coalition troops have been criticized in the past for damaging and contaminating artifacts. In a 2006 report, the head of the British Museum’s Near East department said that, among other things, military vehicles crushed a 2,600-year-old brick pavement, and sand and archeological fragments were used to fill military sandbags.

Now the rapidly improving security situation in surrounding Babil province has persuaded the U.S. State Department and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to embark on the preservation project, dubbed the Future of Babylon Project.

The State Department and the World Monuments Fund have committed $700,000 to the project, which will see U.S. and Iraqi experts develop a plan to preserve the site and develop a local tourism industry, said Diane Siebrandt, the U.S. embassy’s cultural heritage officer.

The Babylon project is one of several that the State Department is involved in to conserve ancient sites in partnership with the Iraqi government, she said.

Two people with expertise developing tourism plans for historic sites in third-world nations, Gina Haney and Jeff Allen, have been employed by the State Department to run the U.S. side of the project. They visited the ruins for the first time last weekend.

Haney said the pair will involve the local community in the plan’s development, as they did with a similar project encouraging Western tourists to visit Ghana’s Gold Coast.

“You could throw money at it and do all this work, but unless you can create a sustainable situation, your opportunities for tourism will run out,” Allen said. “The idea is to develop something that is going to be here 30 to 40 years from now and has benefits for the local people. We don’t want something that will only benefit outsiders.”

The Iraqi government will be involved in the planning as well.

“If you have 200,000 people a year coming to this site, you will have people staying at hotels, visiting restaurants, buying souvenirs,” Allen said. “The site is in some ways a revenue generator for the local community.”

Babylon could be comparable to the Egyptian pyramids, which draw millions of tourists each year. But the area lacks the tourist infrastructure that has been built at sites such as the pyramids, he said.

“There is nothing for tourists here, but if you interpret and present it in the right way, you can spark interest,” he said.

Allen, who has experience designing walkways and signs for other heritage sites, said detailed planning won’t happen until authorities have worked out how best to preserve the ruins. The crumbling rocks of the original city are surrounded by more elaborate and modern fortifications, including a maze-like collection of interior walls built on top of genuine ruins during Saddam Hussein’s time.

“Some of the past restoration work hasn’t been very good,” he said. “Saddam was trying to inherit the power of the ancients and continue that legacy. His restoration methods helped reinforce that vision of himself, and he created a pattern of restoration and repair work that benefited a certain agenda.”

One of the 172nd soldiers who visited the ruins, 1st Lt. Bryan Kelso, 24, of Jacksonville, Fla., walked in wonder near the ancient stones.

“It’s amazing to be surrounded by this history. To think that we are standing where Alexander the Great has been,” he said, referring to the great Macedonian conqueror who died in Babylon. “Babylon is one of the oldest and first civilizations known to man. They created the wheel and the first calendars. Everybody coming here gets a sense of what this place really is and how it all traces back.”

Posted by sr at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Jackets might be latest piece of bikers’ required gear

Members of the Corps’ Executive Safety Board are considering whether protective jackets should join the list of personal protective equipment required for Marine motorcycle riders.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_vouchers_062709w/

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jun 27, 2009 9:15:21 EDT

“Right now, the requirement is for long sleeves,” said Maj. Tracey Jenkins, Safety Division ground branch head, but that provides little to no protection for that unfortunate Marine who skids across the blacktop in a wreck.

If they do become mandatory, jackets could be among the PPE that Marine Corps Community Services retail stores sell at discount to riders who take the required motorcycle courses, officials said in Marine Administrative message 364/09, which also officially ends the requirement that Marines wear reflective vests while riding.
The board, which has until Tuesday to make a recommendation about the jackets, plans to offer vouchers to Marines and sailors who complete the Basic Rider Course, Experienced Rider Course and Military Sportbike Course.

“It’s an incentive for Marines who have perhaps not registered their bikes on base,” which is required, Jenkins said.
“We just want to see them get the training they need.”

Officials at the Personal and Family Readiness Division, which will oversee the voucher program, have not determined how big — or how small — the discount will be, a spokesman said.
No other details about the voucher plan were immediately available.

Marines are required to wear gloves, helmets, eye protection and over-the-ankle footwear while riding motorcycles, and the equipment can be costly, depending on the brand.
Helmets and jackets, for example, can range from $50 to $450 or more.

If board members decide to include riding jackets in the PPE policy, Jenkins, a rider himself, said they’ll likely identify various types that can be worn.

“I have worn leather in summer traffic, and it’s miserable,” he said.
“The mesh jacket’s a little bit better, but it’s hot when you’re sitting stopped in traffic.
I think everything’s going to be taken into consideration.
We’re concerned about the safety of Marines.”

A record 25 Marines were killed in motorcycle crashes in fiscal 2008.
Eleven have died in motorcycle wrecks since October, according to the Naval Safety Center.

As the fatality rate has risen, the Corps has pushed tougher rules on riders.
About a year ago, officials began requiring Marines to inform their commands if they plan to buy a motorcycle.
Marines also must register their bikes with their base.

Aside from mandatory training courses, the Corps has offered “track days,” where Marines can ride on high-speed tracks aboard a base.

“What leadership found is it becomes very much a training event,” Jenkins said.
“You’re able to identify Marines that may need a little extra attention.”

The safety board also is looking for ways to refine what to offer at these events and plan to standardize the training requirements for riding coaches who run track days.

Posted by BR at 9:19 PM | Permalink

Received 59 medals for actions in three conflicts

CLACKAMAS, Ore. — Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, who was called the most decorated Marine aviator in history and was shot down in three wars, has died at age 89.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_marine_reusser_decorated_pilot_062709/

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jun 27, 2009 10:07:49 EDT

Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down in all three, five times in all.

His 59 medals included two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit.

In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at a high altitude.
When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.

In 1950 in Korea, he led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon, then destroyed an oil tanker almost blowing himself out of the sky.

In Vietnam he flew helicopters and was leading a rescue mission when his Huey was shot down.
He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his bburned body.

Reusser, who lived in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, was born Jan. 27, 1920, the son of a minister.

Reusser raced motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilots license before World War II.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp.
He remained active in veterans groups.

Reusser died June 20 of natural causes.
He is survived by his wife, Trudy; and sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr. Interment was Friday in Willamette National Cemetery.

Posted by BR at 9:02 PM | Permalink

The deadline is July 27 for troops with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, and their families, to register for a free getaway near Big Bear Lake in California’s San Bernardino Mountains.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/military_camp_TBI_062609w/

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jun 27, 2009 12:00:25 EDT

The Survive & Thrive Veterans and Families Project, launched by Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation, will hold its first session Sept. 17 to 20.
Additional sessions for other families will be held in the spring and fall of 2010.
The retreat is designed to help troops adjust to home life and community life in a relaxing environment.
The number of slots at the camp was not immediately available.

Casa Colina’s rehabilitation physicians and licensed therapists will work with participants to find ways to live a more successful and productive home life.
The troops and their families will participate in sports and outdoor activities, and talk with other TBI families.

The camp is open to veterans and active-duty members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and have traumatic brain injury.
Interested families should call the Survive & Thrive office at 909-596-7733, ext. 5577, or toll-free 1-800-926-5462, ext. 5577; or send e-mail to Survive & Thrive.

Although the registration deadline is July 27, additional applicants will be considered if spaces are available after that date, officials said.

The McCormick Foundation’s “Welcome Back Veterans” Initiative has given Casa Colina a grant to pay for camp-related costs of troops and their families, including housing, meals, activities and sports.
Travel scholarships are also available. All meals and amenities will be provided, officials said.

Posted by BR at 2:26 PM | Permalink

There were no lines when I got to the Veterans Health Administration office.

http://www.military.com/news/article/island-gataways-for-vets-a-click-away.html

June 26, 2009
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

There also was no one sitting at a desk -- merely a sign reading "Click here for Contact Details.” And there was no one moving about anywhere in the building, so far as I could see.

But there was a video screen on the wall with actor Gary Sinise offering support for vets and encouraging them to get help if they're stressed and have suicidal thoughts. Other walls bore oversized posters touting veteran health care benefits that, with a "click," reveal additional information. One wall bore a U.S. map that could provide locations of VA facilities, and elsewhere there were posters entitled "VA News" and "The American Veteran," which were links to additional benefits information.

So, just because I could, I jumped up and sat on top of the desk, then flew around the office, out the door and took in a birds-eye view of the place.

Such is the power of a virtual Veterans Health Administration office, existing as one "island" among many in a digital archipelago called Second Life, a computer-generated world created by Linden Lab of San Francisco. Access to VHA’s Second Life island can be found on its Web site, www.va.gov/health.

"About two years ago we were asked to explore all means of outreach to our veterans," said Joyce Bounds, director for VHA Web communications in Washington. The emphasis is on the younger vets, she said, who are so used to electronic communications; they looked at the various social media -- YouTube, Facebook and the virtual reality worlds of Second Life. The VHA's virtual world started out as one building, she said, "a two-story home ... with VA logos on it, a computer screen you can touch and find out where VA facilities are."

They would put up press releases on the site and posted a version the GI Bill on what looks like a roll of parchment paper. And when Veterans Day rolled around they put up an American flag that flies in the virtual breeze outside the building.

Especially for younger veterans who’ve grown up accustomed to video games and computer-generated graphics, the virtual world that provides both access and anonymity would seem a great way to get information and help from the VHA.

"Virtual reality is set up for gaming," Bounds said, "but we found there is a real training opportunity when you work in a simulated environment, you can let people go where and when they want.”

But in the half-dozen visits that Military.com made to VHA's island, we were the only ones present, with Sinise's narrative the only sound.

Bounds cannot say how many vets have visited the site -- or even if those who have been there are vets, since everyone is anonymous.

"We've not set up for measurement," she said, and acknowledged that "we're getting better [responses] out of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. ... This is not high volume like Facebook."

The purpose of the Second Life site is to give some vets, particularly those who wish to remain anonymous, an alternative means of communicating to the VA. "You don't even look like yourself" in the virtual world, she said.

VHA is not alone among government agencies or veteran-oriented organizations which have set up virtual locations. The Disabled American Veterans has two islands, says spokesman Joe Chenelly -- one for the general public and one for DAV members. Links to its islands also are found on its Web site, www.dav.org.

"We are hoping it will enable us to reach younger vets, and we believe this type of outreach will give disabled vets more access to our services," Chenelly said. Like the VHA's island, the DAV's features a plaza, some buildings and an assortment of posters and signs that a visitor may interact with and get information.

And also like the VHA island, it was uninhabited during Military.com's visit.

"We advertise [our island] in Second Life, we have posted it on our Web site, and we have advertised our island on Facebook and Twitter,” Chenelly said. “To be honest, I am not sure when or if Second Life will take off [as a popular social venue], but if it does, we will be ready."

Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America in Maryland, is familiar with the Second Life worlds, but says VVA has not established one.

"Some of the [social networking] things people are using make sense. I don't know if this does because of the amount of stuff you have to download to take advantage of it," he told Military.com.

Other sites prove to be stronger.

"Student Veterans of America went from 20 schools [participating] to over 200 just using Facebook," he said. "Other veterans groups are doing the same thing, with that and with Twitter."

But currently, while there are a number of "Vietnam Veterans of America" accounts on Facebook -- some with as few as three members, some with several hundred -- they are local or regional groups.

According to John Rowan, national president and chief executive officer of VVA, the national VVA has yet to jump into the electronic community.

"I've got a Facebook account," he said. "I haven't even utilized it."

Posted by sr at 9:52 AM | Permalink

Department of Veterans Affairs officials expressed confidence that the Aug. 1 launch of the Post-9/11 GI Bill will go smoothly, with the first benefits checks to be cut by the Treasury Department on Aug. 3.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/military_post911gibill_implementation_062509w/

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 25, 2009 15:40:12 EDT

Testifying Thursday before a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee panel, the VA’s education service director said about 84,000 applications have been received, with 47,000 already processed and awaiting final certification of enrollment and calculation of tuition and fee payments.

Keith Wilson, the VA official responsible for the program, is optimistic partly because a test of the accuracy in processing claims found 92 percent were done correctly, and most of the errors “were fairly benign.”

“There was no situation when anyone was declared eligible when they were not and vice versa,” Wilson said.

The picture sounds a little too rosy for some lawmakers.

“I think I would feel more comfortable if VA came to us with problems,” said Rep. John Boozman of Arkansas, ranking Republican on the veterans’ affairs subcommittee on economic opportunity. The panel asked Wilson and other officials involved in implementing the new education program for a status briefing.

Wilson said one potential problem — a tidal wave of applications — has not happened, for reasons that are unclear. VA officials anticipated 460,000 people would use the new GI Bill this year, including about 328,000 for the fall semester. After some initial problems, VA is processing more claims each day than it receives, he said.

Boozman suggested this might be temporary if veterans are waiting for the last minute to apply.

During the hearing, Wilson noted that two important Post-9/11 GI Bill milestones are approaching.

First, VA is expected to announce next week the names of 700 institutions that will participate in the so-called Yellow Ribbon Program, in which the institution and VA agree to cover tuition costs in excess of the tuition cap set for each state based on the in-state undergraduate rate at the most expensive four-year college or university in the state. In most cases, this will allow GI Bill users to pay no tuition at participating institutions — mostly private schools but also graduate schools at public institutions and undergraduate education for nonstate residents.

Then on July 6, VA will start accepting enrollment certifications from institutions, which are needed to begin processing payment claims.

Final processing of claims cannot begin until the state tuition caps for the 2009-10 school year are set, Wilson said. That is not expected until about Aug. 1, the official effective date of the new program.

Posted by sr at 9:30 AM | Permalink

WASHINGTON (June 25, 2009) -- The first $250 payments to veterans as part of President Obama's recovery plan were sent Monday, and officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs said all payments will be distributed by June 30.

http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/06/25/23506-va-begins-stimulus-payments-to-veterans/?ref=home-headline-title3

Jun 25, 2009
By VA Public Affairs

As part of the recovery plan, VA is making one-time payments of $250 to eligible veterans and survivors to offset the effects of the current economy.
VA estimates $500 million in payments will be made to approximately 1.9 million veterans and eligible beneficiaries as part of this measure.

To be eligible for the payment, VA beneficiaries must have received VA's compensation, pension, dependency and indemnity compensation, or spina bifida benefits at any time between November 2008 and January 2009.
Also, beneficiaries must reside within the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

No application is necessary.
VA has requested that the Department of the Treasury make the $250 payments to eligible veterans.

VA used its existing payment records to determine eligibility for the $250 payment. Beneficiaries will receive their payments the same way they receive their monthly VA benefits -- either by direct deposit or in the mail.

This payment is not countable in determining eligibility for VA pension or Parents' dependency and indemnity compensation, VA officials said.
The law allows one $250-payment per person.

The payment is tax-free.
VA beneficiaries who also receive benefits from the Social Security Administration or Railroad Retirement Board will be paid through those agencies, and will therefore not receive the payment from VA, offiicials said.

VA will spend more than $1.4 billion as part of President Obama's economic recovery plan to improve services to America's Veterans.
VA's Internet site - www.va.gov/recovery - provides current information about VA's work to deliver its portion of recovery act funds to benefit veterans.

Posted by BR at 4:44 PM | Permalink

The Marine officer who devised centralized barracks for wounded warriors is leaving the Corps.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_maxwell_062509w/

Staff report
Posted : Thursday Jun 25, 2009 21:38:01 EDT

Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell is scheduled to retire Friday afternoon in a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va.

Maxwell suffered severe traumatic brain injury on Oct. 7, 2004, during his third and final deployment to Iraq, when his forward operating base was mortared and shrapnel tore through the left side of his brain. As he recuperated, Maxwell realized that being around other wounded Marines helped in the recovery process.

The Wounded Warrior barracks was founded at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in 2005. The idea continued to grow and, in June 2007, the Corps stood up its first battalion for wounded Marines, Wounded Warriors Battalion-East at Lejeune. Two months later, Wounded Warriors Battalion-West was formed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

In July 2008, Maxwell underwent surgery to remove a piece of shrapnel near his brain stem that was leeching toxins into his cerebral fluid. The surgery led to a “reoccurrence of right-sided weakness, but has not tempered his resolve,” officials said in a news release.

Maxwell has been awarded a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, three Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.

Posted by sr at 9:38 AM | Permalink

MOSCOW — Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament ratified an agreement on Thursday to allow the United States to maintain operations at an airport that has become a key support base and transit hub for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/europe/26base.html?_r=2&ref=world

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: June 25, 2009

The vote was unanimous, with 75 deputies in the 90-seat body supporting and none opposing the measure, according to the Parliament’s Web site. It was considered largely a formality since President Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev’s party holds a majority.

The vote finalizes an agreement that essentially reversed a decision by Kyrgyzstan last February to evict American forces from the Manas Air Base, apparently under pressure from Russia. That would have hampered the war effort in Afghanistan at a time of increased military activity there.

The agreement, signed on Monday, came after months of intense lobbying by Washington. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama sent a letter to Mr. Bakiyev , seeking greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Kyrgyz officials said.

Russia has so far refrained from criticizing the measure, calling it Kyrgyzstan’s “sovereign right.” But the Russian daily Kommersant quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying this week that the deal had surprised Moscow, and that an “adequate response” would be made.

The deal does not appear to levy any significant new restrictions on the American military, though the United States will now pay $60 million annually for use of the facility, up from $17.4 million under the previous arrangement.

Posted by sr at 9:08 AM | Permalink

Press Release

The Kansas City Division is issuing information regarding a new scam involving the victimization of families of deployed U.S Military personnel through social networking sites. Significant personal data is available through these sites which users join by city, workplace, school and region to connect and interact with other people. The scam involves individuals using these social networking sites to contact relatives of deployed U.S. military personnel, most specifically grandparents. The impostor advises the grandparents that he is returning home on leave from Iraq and asks the grandparents to keep his presence secret so he can surprise his parents. A short time later, the grandparents are again contacted and the impostor advises them that he and a friend are stranded with a broken down car. He then asks the grandparents to wire a significant amount of money to cover the cost of the repairs.

http://kansascity.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/kc062409.htm

For Immediate Release
June 24, 2009

As always, caution is advised regarding the posting and protection of personal information on public websites. It is recommended that family members of U.S. Military visit social networking sites in which they have accounts to ensure that no exploitable information is available.

Additionally, it is recommended that all relatives should verify the identity of anyone who contacts them by asking specific questions known only to that person if you must wire funds or develop a code word or phrase to verify identity.

FBI Kansas City
Contact: Public Affairs Specialist Bridget Patton
(816) 512-8200

Posted by sr at 11:41 AM | Permalink

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — They endured countless hours of swimming and finning in the combat pool and then in the open, cold ocean.

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 24, 2009 13:41:57 EDT

They covered miles with heavy combat packs over steep hills and sandy beaches. They fought strong ocean currents and big swells to drive and navigate their rubber boats.

In this class of newly trained and longtime infantrymen, all dreaming of becoming reconnaissance Marines, many questioned whether they had the grit to complete the grueling course.

So they were especially proud to step onto the School of Infantry-West parade deck June 12 for graduation ceremonies from the Marine Corps’ Basic Reconnaissance Course, after nine weeks of training by Reconnaissance Training Company. The Marines survived the course and earned the coveted title and 0321 military occupational specialty of a recon Marine.

The high tempo at the course reflects some of the successes in the Corps’ effort to rebuild and reshape its reconnaissance community, positioning it for ongoing wars and future combat operations. Known simply as “Fix Recon,” the effort to grow and evolve the Corps’ capability has been ongoing for a decade, but it may be finally drawing to a close.

The men of Class 05-09 are the Corps’ newest group of trained reconnaissance Marines and soon will report to an active-duty or reserve recon unit. About 600 Marines, and a few dozen Navy corpsmen, will graduate from the course this year — roughly 120 Marines won’t make it — entering a community that has grown exponentially since the war in Afghanistan began.

Fixing recon
In 2001, the Corps had roughly 550 billets for reconnaissance Marines. Today, that number has tripled and keeps growing, with the fiscal 2009 requirement for active-duty units at about 2,038, said Maj. Brian Gilman, the 0321 occupational field manager at Plans, Policies and Operations branch in Washington.

He said that figure is expected to increase slightly by 2012 as part of an initiative aimed at the Corps’ force reconnaissance capabilities and units.

“Fix Recon” began with a 1999 directive by then-Commandant Gen. James L. Jones to look at equipment, manning, training and other issues. After Sept. 11, deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq followed, along with the birth of Marine Corps Special Operations Command and the Corps’ growth to 202,000.

“There has been a lot of changes since ‘Fix Recon’ happened,” Gilman said. “We’ve had to adjust to that.”

Continual deployments meant more demands on recon and concerns about capacity issues, he said. Standing up MarSOC, for instance, shifted 26 percent of those assets away from the Marine expeditionary forces.

High retention has helped keep the Corps rolling. New recruiting initiatives — such as an upcoming program beginning in October that gives new recon Marines five-year orders so they can spend more operational time with their unit — should buy even more time.

The recon community is shaping up. The “Fix Recon” initiative is in the third and final implementation phase, as officials work on an assessment of ground recon capabilities for the Marine air-ground task force, a study that looks at capabilities the Corps will need 10 years from now.

The Marine Requirements Oversight Council is expected to get the initial capabilities document in September, he added.

Consolidated training
The health of the recon community hinges greatly on pulling enough well-trained men into the recon pipeline. One big change began two years ago, when the Corps decided to merge the East Coast-based Amphibious Reconnaissance School and the West Coast-based BRC into a single course at Camp Pendleton, housed at SOI-West under its Advanced Infantry Training Battalion.

Centralizing training at one location meant operational recon battalions no longer had to recruit and screen future recon Marines, enabling them to focus on training, preparing and deploying platoons overseas.

“We took that burden off of them,” Gilman said.

The Corps now has a single training syllabus and, officials note, a more consistent training pipeline for all recon Marines — whether active duty or reserve, or filling a billet at division recon, Force reconnaissance companies or MarSOC’s special operations companies.

“Standardization of training was definitely one of those concerns,” Gilman said.

At Camp Pendleton, the recon growth is perhaps felt most at SOI-West, where its Recon Training Company will train and graduate eight classes this fiscal year and where instructors are preparing to ramp up with a ninth class in 2010. In mid-June, the company was “triple stacked,” with three classes on deck as Class 05-09 headed into its final week.

It’s usually busy, as new students wait to begin their class while others spend weeks or months with one of the platoons, preparing themselves to meet the tough physical fitness standards to successfully screen for the course.

Newly graduated Marines assigned the 0321 MOS report to their recon unit ready for follow-on individual and unit-level training ahead of deploying, a benefit their operational units appreciate, said Col. Brennan Byrne, who commands SOI-West.

“The guy gets to the unit a vetted recon Marine,” Byrne said. “We’ve increased the operational deployability numbers. He will be a full-up round.”

The recon training pipeline will likely be expanded to include a Recon Team Leaders Course, which SOI officials hope to begin this fall with four classes each fiscal year, and eventually other courses for unit leaders.

“We now have the opportunity to train the force as you wish to see the force,” Byrne said.

Standards remain tough
While the syllabus has been tweaked, Byrne said, the standards have not been reduced.

“We’ve actually increased standards in a number of areas,” he said. “We’re taking the approach that we are building the basic recon Marine, we are building the team leader, and we are building the unit leader.”

Students must score at least 225 on the Physical Fitness Test by training day 21, get at least a first-class water safety qualification to graduate, and meet the standard for a 1-kilometer ocean swim and 8-mile hikes with 50-pound packs, among other requirements.

About three-quarters of BRC students are entry level Marines — recent infantry school graduates — and about one-quarter are junior Marines, including corporals and sergeants from noninfantry MOSs. Handfuls of Navy corpsmen hoping to become amphibious reconnaissance corpsmen also attend.

BRC graduation rates now average about 80 percent, a big improvement from the roughly 50 percent who graduated from the courses years ago. Instructors and leaders give much credit to their local initiative — Marines Awaiting Recon Training, or MART — created to prepare and mentor Marines and sailors readying to join a new BRC class or those students recovering from an injury or illness.

Despite the name, “It’s not a basic skills set. It is an advanced skill set,” said Capt. James Richardson, Reconnaissance Training Company commander. “You expect more from a reconnaissance Marine.”

So the Marines — many are privates first class, instructors noted — soon find out that more is expected of them from the get-go.

“They are calling in live-fire mortars in this course,” Richardson said. “That’s unheard of. Most men in the infantry, they’re probably corporals or sergeants before they get this opportunity.”

The training isn’t for the faint of heart. Even the third phase, which includes operating boats in the surf zone, can be taxing, sending at least one student in each class to the corpsman or the hospital.

Recon Marines, Richardson notes, will have greater responsibilities. One day, that recon Marine will be a team leader briefing a Marine expeditionary unit commander.

“He is absolutely responsible for that mission,” said Capt. Bart Lambert, BRC officer-in-charge. “Preparing him for that, that’s the goal.”

So the company established MART Platoon so students can improve their fitness levels before beginning the course. It works — about 90 percent in MART graduate from the course.

The platoon can tailor the training to help students with anything, even tying knots, said Richardson, who calls its four instructors the “unsung heroes.”

Many students, said chief instructor Sgt. Lynn Westover, don’t have enough strength and endurance for the long runs with heavy packs and often struggle to swim with combat gear and fins longer than two kilometers. The water piece is a tough nut to crack, instructors say.

Several Marines said the extra MART training and mentoring are huge.

“The instructors got us into shape. ... They encourage you,” said Lance Cpl. Gary Manders, 19, who improved his swim during three months at MART and saw his PFT score jump from 220 to 276.

Lambert said that BRC classes have averaged 260 by the training day 21, and recent classes hit 275. Three students tallied course records in the run (17:05), crunches (160) and pull-ups (45), he added.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Manders said. “I was weak in all areas, especially the water.”

THINK YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
Considering a move to reconnaissance? Here’s what you need to know:

Getting in the door
To obtain the coveted 0321 military occupational specialty, Marines must graduate from the Basic Recon Course, taught at the School of Infantry-West’s Recon Training Company, Camp Pendleton, Calif. To get there, you must be a U.S. citizen fluent in English and meet a handful of other requirements, including:

• Score 105 or higher on your General Technical test.

• Have completed Infantry Training Battalion course, for enlisted Marines.

• Have a 3rd Class swim qualification. (You will have to reach 1st Class by the end of Phase 1.)

• Score at least 200 on your physical fitness test. (You will need a first-class score of at least 225 during Phase 1.)

• Have normal color vision and good eyesight — at least 20/200.

Once you’re there
The nine-week BRC has three phases:

• Phase 1. Four weeks. Focuses on a wealth of individual skills, including swimming, finning, rucksack hiking, land navigation, helicopter rope suspension training, communications and supporting arms.

• Phase 2. Three weeks. Focuses on combat patrolling with a mix of classroom and field training, including a nine-day exercise in full mission profiles.

• Phase 3. Two weeks. Held in Coronado, Calif. Focuses on amphibious reconnaissance, boat operations and nautical navigation.

Where you’ll go
Recon billets at Marine operational units include:

• 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton.

• Force Recon Company, 1st Recon Battalion.

• 2nd Recon Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

• Force Company, 2nd Recon Battalion.

• 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, Okinawa, Japan.

• 4th Recon Battalion (reserve), San Antonio, Texas.

• 3rd Force Recon Company (reserve), Mobile, Ala.

• 4th Force Recon Company (reserve), Alameda, Calif.

• Marine Corps Special Operations Command.

Want to learn more? Check out Recon Training Company’s Web site.

Posted by sr at 9:48 AM | Permalink

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Another Navajo Code Talker has died.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_death_navajo_codetalker_062409w/

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 24, 2009 21:28:16 EDT

Funeral services are scheduled Saturday for 84-year-old Matthew Martin of Crownpoint, N.M.

Martin’s daughter, Patricia Begay, says her father died at his home Monday after a lengthy illness.

Martin was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language.

The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marine Corps conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Their work was declassified in 1968.

Martin received a Congressional Silver Medal in recognition of his service in 2001.

He is the fourth Code Talker to die in the past five weeks.

Posted by sr at 9:47 AM | Permalink

On Saturday at 9:45 p.m., an American unmanned aerial vehicle, complete with streaming-video equipment, circled over an area in Afghanistan's Khost province and transmitted photographs of three people, including one who was digging in a roadway, apparently to plant an improvised explosive device.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202977.html

By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Information from computer data at a ground-based Counter-IED Operations Integration Center allowed intelligence specialists to "positively identify" the three as insurgents, and thereafter "coalition forces used a precision munition to eliminate the militants," according to a U.S. military news release. The drone aircraft saw one of the insurgents running from the explosion toward nearby trees and a second precision munition was used to kill him, the release said. The military's fuzzy video of the attack can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/usfora.

Saturday's episode illustrates one result from what is becoming a major transfer from Iraq to Afghanistan of people, equipment and techniques of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). The makeshift bombs caused about 70 percent of the deaths and casualties among U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq, so the administration is putting additional assets to work to reduce that threat in Afghanistan.

The fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations bill passed by Congress last week includes $1.1 billion to pay for the activities of JIEDDO, which has developed several devices to defeat improvised explosives. For example, electronic jamming devices such as Warlock are in play. Warlock uses low-power radio-frequency energy to block the signals of radio-controlled explosive detonators, such as cellphones, satellite phones and long-range cordless telephones. The supplement contains $355 million for additional Warlock devices. Other new instruments can look through the walls of metal, concrete or brick buildings and detect chemicals used for explosives.

A separate $4.5 billion in the supplemental bill is for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle Fund, of which $1.9 billion is to go for a lightweight version of the MRAP, the heavily armored troop-carrying vehicle developed to provide improved protection against IEDs. The Afghanistan version, dubbed the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), is "urgently needed to protect service members against improvised explosive devices and other threats in Afghanistan," according to the congressional conference report on the bill.

Expanded operations in Afghanistan also have led the U.S. Army to seek the assistance of contractors in one of its most secret operations -- the intelligence fusion centers in the United States and Afghanistan that work to identify the insurgent networks that produce IEDs. The Army is specifically seeking people with the highest security clearances who have specialized in irregular-warfare analysis and have an understanding of "insurgent-based unconventional warfare," according to a June 11 work statement.

Making IEDs has become a multimillion-dollar business. Some networks in Iraq and Afghanistan that have gotten into the business can trace their origins back centuries, and are based on tribal and commercial links that traditionally have supported enterprise in other areas, such as smuggling and drugs. In Iraq, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, "small, highly skilled IED cells often hire themselves out to other insurgent groups, such as al-Qaeda in Iraq or the Sunni group Ansaar al Sunna."

Some have advertised on the Internet, others have produced DVDs that show U.S. vehicles exploding to gain customers, while many have contracted for specific jobs and remained anonymous.

The CRS report described an IED cell as having someone to provide the finances, a bombmaker, someone to place the bomb in a roadway or building and another person to press the trigger. Often there will be an additional person to stand guard while the work is being done. For the more enterprising group, there is a person to photograph or videotape the results for later promotional use.

The Army contract is looking for 42 Special Forces-trained individuals, 12 of whom will serve in forward operating bases in Afghanistan where they will "engage in systematic identification and analysis of insurgent cells and networks germane or in some way associated with employing or facilitating IEDs," according to the work statement. They will deal with data on network structures; terrorist techniques; and individuals with chemistry, explosives or electronics training, as well as others who support insurgent groups with money, safe houses or bank accounts.

The 30 assigned within the United States will work on "assessing of past terrorist trends and adaptations . . . factoring current adversary intent, constraints, capabilities and likely targets at an operational level."

The end product, according to the work statement, should be development of "notional concepts of operations and courses of action that best represent likely adversary activity."

Posted by sr at 6:44 PM | Permalink

CAMP AL TAQADDUM, Iraq — Sittin’ in the desert, a thousand miles away from home, Lance Cpl. Stephen D. Davis, an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, thinks about his lifetime and all the songs he wrote.

http://www.usmc.mil/units/marforcom/iimef/2ndmlg/hq/Pages/Fromcountryrootstocombatboots,Marinesingshispatriotism.aspx

6/22/2009 By
Byline
Cpl. M. M. Bravo,
Unit
2nd Marine Logistics Group

Davis, currently deployed to Al Anbar province, Iraq, and winner of a recent talent show held aboard Camp Al Taqaddum, started playing the guitar when his parents bought him his first one when he was 10 years old.
After learning a few chords from his dad, he spent a lot of time listening and watching others play, learning as he went.
He wrote his first song about his grandfather when he was 11 years old.

“My grandpa and my great grandpa were both in the Army and my great grandpa was in World War II,” Davis said.
“He never really talked about this stuff all that much but my grandpa was in the Army during the Cold War and he used to always tell me he never did anything but he would always talk about the sacrifice people put out for their country.”

The oldest of seven kids, Davis said most of his songs are patriotic and have been inspired by war veterans he’s met and the stories they tell him.

“For some reason I can talk to old people better than I can young people. It’s almost like they’re drawn to me for some reason,” Davis said.
“I like talking to them, I like hearing their stories and how stuff used to be compared to now.”

“Most veterans come up and talk to me after they hear my songs,” Davis continued.
“They say they think it’s a little weird ‘cuz’ all the songs I wrote, I wrote before I ever joined and they think it’s pretty cool that somebody who’s never done anything wrote a song like that and they all told me that I pretty much hit the way they feel about things right on the head; like I’d actually been there or something.”

Recalling the first patriotic song he ever wrote, Davis told the story of a youth conference he attended, held by Tim Lee, a former sergeant in the Marine Corps, who lost both of his legs in combat.

“They were out on patrol,” he said.
“One of his buddies was up in front of the patrol and for some reason [Lee] said he felt that he needed to be at the front of the patrol.
So he told his buddy to get back and he took point.
Probably ten minutes after that, he walked into a minefield and he stepped on a mine and lost both his legs.”

Davis went on to explain how he met a homeless man that same day who was a Vietnam veteran.
He told Davis about the war and all the things that went on there that ended up messing with his head.
When the man came home from war, his family and friends disowned him.

“I just had that in the back of my head and when I got back from the youth conference I was playing my guitar and just wrote down how [the veterans] made me feel, telling me their stories.
How I could see how they felt about all that.”

“They’re just people doing their jobs, some of them volunteered, some of them didn’t,” he continued.
“They were just doin’ what they had to do, doin’ what they were told to do. And they get home and people hated them for it.
And they really had no control over it at all.”

“My family has always been really patriotic and taught me that what we have in America is not free.
People had to pay for it.
It’s because of veterans who fought for our freedoms, we have all those rights,” Davis said.

Davis joined the Marine Corps to give back to his country and to continue the legacy of all the men and women who fought for our freedoms.

“To me people don’t realize why we get to live as we do as Americans, so that’s why I did it,” he added.

When he went to boot camp, he met his brother-in-arms, Lance Cpl. Jeffery A. Cook.
The two of them slowly built a strong friendship throughout their training time together.

“It wasn’t until [School of Infantry] that he and I became such good friends,” Cook, a machine gunner with 1st Bn., 8th Marines said.
“We were in the same platoon in SOI and he just happened to have the rack right next to mine.
We became closer [there] and after a few weeks we realized we had a lot more in common than we thought.
Stephen is probably one of the most loyal friends I have.”

“We were like brothers and we were daily made fun of for always being by each other’s side,” he said.

With both of them raised in the country, enjoying country music comes with the territory.
Cook said he and Davis used to sing together but he didn’t know how great of a guitar player Davis was until they got to their first duty station.

“At boot camp and SOI we would pass the time as best we could by singing every country song we knew,” Cook said.
“When we ran out of songs, we just made up new ones.
I knew early on that he was an extremely talented singer, so when we got to the fleet and I heard him play the guitar, it wasn’t much of a surprise.”

“I think like most people - when he sings or plays it makes you feel like you have something to live for.
He’s definitely an inspirational writer,” Cook said.

With different military occupational specialties and being in different platoons, the two friends aren’t together as much as they used to be but they stay in touch as best they can.

“We still do our best to watch each other’s backs and I know if I ever need anything he is the first person I go to,” Cook said.
“I’m sure he feels the same way about me.”

Cook went on to describe his brother-in-arms.

“He loves his job, his friends and his family,” Cook said.
“He never takes anything for granted. Davis is one of the best friends I have. He knows he has been blessed by the Lord and he isn’t afraid to show it.
If someone doesn’t like his lifestyle, it doesn’t bother him. He just keeps right on doing what he’s doing.”

With his love for God and his country, Davis is becoming one of the veterans he sings so proudly about.

Posted by BR at 7:29 PM | Permalink

All Things Considered
June 22, 2009 · The Marines known as "America's Battalion" are in Afghanistan as part of the 21,000 additional forces President Obama is deploying in the administration's strategy to counter the Taliban insurgency. NPR is following the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment over the months of their deployment, focusing on the efforts of these Marines in Afghanistan and the burden shared by their families back home.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105747774
Please click above link to find an audio newscast.

Photo Gallery:
http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2009/06/afghan_desert_training/gallery/index.html

by Tom Bowman

At a desert camp in southern Afghanistan, a squad of Marines dashes toward the trench line, rifles high.

Sgt. Joe Garrison leads the way. They flop on their bellies, take careful aim and let loose a barrage of fire against a Taliban force in a trench cut into a landfill at Camp Leatherneck, in Helmand province.

These Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment's Fox Company are in full battle gear, carrying 70 pounds of armor and ammunition in 100-degree heat.

But the gunfire is pretend and the enemy is imaginary — for now. The Marines are running through a training exercise.

The youngest privates, their junior officers and old sergeants — even the commanding general — are doing what they have to do to get ready and stay focused for the coming fight against the Taliban.

The Marines arrived in Afghanistan recently for a seven-month tour of duty, as part of an influx of U.S. forces to carry out the Obama administration's new strategy to confront the insurgency and train the Afghan security forces.

"Once we get in a real situation, it's going to be a lot different. We're not going to be running targets; everyone's going to be hitting the deck when rounds are cracking around," says one Marine.

Iraq Easy Compared To Afghanistan

Watching it all is the platoon leader, 1st Lt. Steven Lind, a New Yorker from Long Island. The Marines have been training every day for about three weeks. He says they are ready for their mission.

The Marines at Camp Leatherneck fall into two groups: those who have seen combat before, and those who have not.

Lind has been there before. He is 25 and considered an "old man" among the young Marines in his platoon.

He saw action last year in Iraq — in the city of Ramadi — though by the time he got there, Ramadi was mostly pacified.

But Iraq was easy compared with what these Marines are about to face in Helmand province.

"They know it's not going to be Ramadi," Lind says with a laugh. "They're going to be tired. They're going to see things that people shouldn't have to see. They'll have to do things that people shouldn't have to do."

Veterans Help Marines Face Prospect Of Real Enemy Fire

Lind says many Marines will be turning to Garrison, the sergeant and squad leader who guided them through the afternoon's make-believe combat. Garrison is a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, and he knows most of his Marines have never faced enemy fire.

Garrison's first contact with the Taliban left a searing imprint, like a job loss or the death of a parent.

The Taliban attacked a Marine unit in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley on Dec. 24, 2004. Garrison's squad went to help. The insurgents ambushed the Marines in a little town called, ironically enough, Taliban.

Garrison, a short, stocky Marine from Pittsburgh, says they ended up killing some, but capturing more. Nine Taliban were rolled up.

"It's, I'll honestly say, probably the biggest adrenalin rush I ever had in my life. ... It's something that you can't really explain. It's something that you have to experience yourself," he says.

Garrison's job, though, is to explain it — to help all the young Marines in his unit who haven't experienced it yet, but are likely to soon.

He isn't sure if he shot anybody in that first firefight, but there were others.

But when asked about it, Garrison replies: "I really don't like talking about that too much, sir, if that's alright."

Honing Skills, Preparing The Mind

At a shooting range about a mile from Camp Leatherneck, the Marines line up on their stomachs and aim their rifles at paper targets, concentric circles stapled to plywood set up in the distance.

Around them, the desert stretches unbroken to the hazy mountains on the horizon.

Dozens of Marines take turns shooting.

For the battalion's senior Marines, Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss and Sgt. Maj. Robert Breeden, it turns into a friendly competition.

Several months ago on the range at their home base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the sergeant major beat the colonel by one point.

Cabaniss shoots well this day, his final four rounds closely grouped in the black at the center of the target, the size of a quarter.

The Marines will tell you that shooting that paper target — a make-believe enemy — isn't the same as shooting a person, frozen in your cross hairs.

That's something Cabaniss wants to talk to his Marines about; he wants them to think about that moment before it happens.

"I don't want the first time that the thought has ever crossed their mind is the first time the weapon comes up," he says.

Cabaniss wants to train the Marines to handle not just the enemy, but their own fears and doubts.

'Pursue The Enemy Ruthlessly'

So does the battalion's top commander, Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson. His message to the troops is simple: It's us or them.

Just before dinner, most of the battalion, hundreds of men, gather outside their tents to listen. Some sit on the ground, others gather around in a semicircle. Nicholson grips a microphone and sends them off to war.

"I know America's Battalion is going to kick ass in there. You're going to do well. You find that enemy, you hang on to him. You don't let him get away. You pursue ruthlessly this enemy, because by letting him get away, he has another day to fight. He has another chance to come back at you," Nicholson says.

As the general finishes his speech, the Marines slowly head back to their tents. The training is over. Soon they'll head out to fight, for real.

Posted by sr at 4:47 PM | Permalink

Family, friends, and military personnel gathered in New Prospect Baptist Church to say farewell to a young man taken too early.

http://www2.statesville.com/content/2009/jun/22/iredell-soldier-laid-rest/

By Chyna Broadnax | Statesville R&L
Published: June 22, 2009

Lance Cpl. Johnathan Dale Mitchell Sharpe, 19, of Statesville, was laid to rest Sunday at his home church. He was killed during a training accident June 16 at Camp Lejeune.

Saralena Sharpe, Johnathan's grandmother who adopted him at 19 months old, said the past few days have been a time to remember the young man who loved fishing, church, his Lord and Saviour, and Scouting.

"There has been a great joy of remembrance," she said. "With God as our substantial almighty being we have made it through."

Sharpe, who was operating a machine gun on top of a Humvee during a training exercise, died instantly when the vehicle flipped on a gravel road at the military base, according to Sharpe's adoptive father, Roger Sharpe.

Johnathan also leaves behind his birth mother, Amy McDaniel, and a host of family and friends, including the fellow Marines and other military personnel who came in droves to honor one of their own Sunday.

Sharpe, who was a former member of Scout Troop 618, joined the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2008.
He was training at Camp Lejeune and preparing for his deployment to Afghanistan.

Joining the Marines was a goal Johnathan set for himself at a young age.

"From the time he could walk, he wanted to fight for his country because it needed him as its defender," Saralena Sharpe said. "Everybody said Marines was the hardest to join, but he did it."

Roger Sharpe said he and his wife found out about the accident Tuesday when two uniformed officers came to their home.

"I knew what happened before I even opened the door to let them in," he said. "I felt the world come to an end."

During Sunday's celebration of life service before the funeral, a crowd of people lined the walls of the small church and extended to the entrance.

Speakers during the ceremony included Dwight Dowell, Mark Robinette, Joey Campbell and Mike Hyde.
As the service concluded, Sharpe's fellow Marines carried his casket, draped with an American flag, to a waiting hearse.

As the vehicle drove slowly to the burial site in the church's cemetery, Marines walked in a procession behind the vehicle.

During the burial ceremony, some 100 military men saluted Sharpe's casket and immediately followed with a 21-gun salute.

As two officers removed the flag from the casket and began to fold it, "Taps" was played by a Marine in the distance.

Posted by sr at 10:31 AM | Permalink

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan — Missiles, machine guns and strafing runs from fighter jets destroyed much of a Taliban compound, but the insurgents had a final surprise for a pair of U.S. Marines who pushed into the smoldering building just before nightfall.

http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/838502.html

Monday, Jun. 22, 2009
By Chris Brummitt - Associated Press

As the two men walked up an alley, the Taliban opened fire from less than 15 yards, sending bullets and tracer fire crackling inches past them. They fled under covering fire from their comrades, who hurled grenades at the enemy position before sprinting to their armored vehicles.

The assault capped a day of fighting Saturday in the poppy fields, orchards and walled compounds of southern Afghanistan between newly arrived U.S. Marines and well dug-in Taliban fighters. It was a foretaste of what will likely be a bloody summer as Washington tries to turn around a bogged-down, 8-year-old war with a surge of 21,000 troops.

"This was the first time we pushed this far. I guess they don't like us coming into their back door," said Staff Sgt. Luke Medlin, who was sweeping the alley for booby traps as Marine Gunner John Daly covered him from behind when the Taliban struck.

"And now they know we will be back," said Medlin, from Richmond, Ind.

The fighting was on the outskirts of Now Zad, a town that in many ways symbolizes what went wrong in Afghanistan and the enormous challenges facing the United States. It is in Helmand province, a center of the insurgency and the opium poppy trade that helps fund it.

Like much of Afghanistan, Now Zad and the surrounding area were largely peaceful after the 2001 invasion. The United Nations and other Western-funded agencies sent staff to build wells and health clinics.

But in 2006 — with American attention focused on Iraq — the insurgency stepped up in the south. Almost all the city's 35,000 people fled, along with the aid workers.

British and Estonian troops, then garrisoned in Now Zad, were unable to defeat the insurgents. They were replaced last year by a small company of about 300 Marines, who live in a base in the center of the deserted town and on two hills overlooking it.

The Taliban hold much of the northern outskirts and the orchards beyond, where they have entrenched defensive positions, tunnels and bunkers.

The Marines outnumber the Taliban in the area by a ratio of at least 3 to 1 and have vastly superior weapons but avoid offensive operations because they lack the manpower to hold territory once they take it. There are no Afghan police or troops here to help.

"We don't have the people to backfill us. Why clear something that we cannot hold?" said Lt. Col. Patrick Cashman, head of the battalion in charge of Now Zad and other districts in Helmand and Farah provinces, where some 10,000 Marines are slowly spreading out in the first wave of the troop surge.

Cashman said the Marines did not intend to allow the Taliban free rein in parts of Now Zad, but he was unable to give specific plans or time frames for addressing what he said is "a bad situation."

Saturday's mission was aimed at gathering intelligence and drawing a response from enemy positions close to a street called "Pakistani alley" because of one-time reports suggesting fighters from across the border had dug in there.

"We're bait," one Marine said as the convoy of five vehicles left the base at 8 a.m. and trundled north.

It quickly came across a roadside bomb — the kind that killed a member of the company on June 6 and has wounded at least seven others in the four weeks since the company has been stationed here. An engineer was dispatched and came back an hour later carrying the parts of the bomb — two 82mm mortar shells attached to a pressure plate.

The vehicles were heading to inspect a suspected tunnel when the Taliban struck, firing mortars that landed close by. Machine gunners atop the vehicles and troops in an open-sided truck scanned the scene for plumes from weapons fire.

"We're taking fire from both sides here!" Lance Cpl. James Yon yelled.

"Hit 'em Yon!" came the call from below.

Hours of exchanges followed, with the Taliban opening fire with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine-gun fire and rockets from the orchards or inside walled compounds.

A mortar punctured the tire of a Humvee; a grenade swooshed just over a troop truck.

"That was close," Daly said. "If they were a better shot, we'd be canceling Christmas."

Posted by sr at 7:53 AM | Permalink

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan -- The vehicles were heading to inspect a suspected tunnel when the Taliban struck, firing mortars that landed close by. Machine gunners atop the vehicles and troops in an open-sided truck scanned the scene for plumes from weapons fire.

http://www.fresnobee.com/world/story/1485909-p2.html
Click above link for photos.

Published online on Sunday, Jun. 21, 2009
By CHRIS BRUMMITT - Associated Press Writer

"We're taking fire from both sides here!" Lance Cpl. James Yon yelled.

"Hit 'em Yon!" came the call from below.

Hours of exchanges followed, with the Taliban opening fire with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine-gun fire and rockets from the orchards or inside walled compounds.

A mortar punctured the tire of a Humvee; a grenade swooshed just over a troop truck.

"That was close," Daly said. "If they were a better shot, we'd be canceling Christmas."

Each time the insurgents attacked, the Marines returned fire if they could spot their foes or radioed in coordinates for air strikes.

"Bombs are away," a voice crackled over the radio as Dutch fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on a compound, sending clouds of dust mushrooming into the air. The planes then strafed the position, leaving a line of fire and destruction 50 yards long. Other times mortar teams back at the base in Now Zad pummeled enemy positions.

The Marines left their vehicles twice. Each time, they came under attack as they entered maze-like, high-walled compounds with ill-fitting, aging wooden doors and small windows, ideal for sniper positions.

In the late afternoon, U.S. forces fired two missiles from 55 miles away to hit a compound being used by the attackers. Minutes later, Marine Harrier jets strafed the compound, setting fire to a wheat field outside it but sparing a poppy patch - an irony not lost on the troops.

The Marines got their final close call as they assessed the compound for damage.

After blowing a hole through the wall, Medlin and Daly were met by a hail of bullets as they pressed up an alley.

"Gunner, are you good? You need to come back!" one Marine shouted into the gathering gloom. "I'll cover you!"

The two man leapt to safety. Daly sprained his ankle as he leapt from a wall, but that was the only Marine injury.

Twenty minutes after the troops withdrew, two Cobra helicopters fired a Hellfire missile that streaked at a 45-degree angle across the night sky into the building, then bombed and strafed it, igniting a blaze.

"Payback time," one Marine muttered in the dark of a truck; cheers erupted in another vehicle.

There were no confirmed Taliban casualties, but observers later spotted a funeral, and video images suggested others were killed in the aerial attacks.

Capt. Zachary Martin said such sustained contact sent the militants a message that they were not safe anywhere and bought the Marines - and the few civilians in the area - some "security space."

"We kicked the snot out of these guys," he told the Marines on their return to base, some 14 hours after they left.

Posted by sr at 6:34 PM | Permalink

MOUNT SAN JACINTO STATE PARK, PALM SPRINGS, Calif. —
“We’d be going that fast too if we had such small packs,” said a hiker with a full camping load on her back as eight men with military hair cuts and proper civilian attire passed her on the steep mountainside.

http://www.marines.mil/units/mciwest/29palms/Pages/27ScoutSniperstakea‘little’hike.aspx

6/21/2009
By Cpl. Corey A. Blodgett
Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command 29 Palms

“Oh, those are the guys who started hiking at three in morning from the bottom,” said another man in her group.

“Never mind,” she said.

Seven Marines and a sailor from Scout Sniper Platoon, Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, passed a lot of hikers and weekend warriors June 12 on their way to San Jacinto Peak nearly 11,000 feet above Palms Springs, Calif., but the most important thing they passed was the wooden sign that told them they had reached the top.

After more than 10 hours into the hike, Sgt. Matthew C. Walker, a team leader with Scout Sniper Platoon, said it was pretty much the only thing on his mind.

“In my head I just kept thinking, ‘can I make it up to the summit?’ he said. “That is why we did this, more of a mental challenge than anything. So everyone would learn that if you keep pushing yourself you can just keep going and forget how you feel. Learn that your body can actually take a lot more than you think it can.”

Mount San Jacinto is famous for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which lifts thousands of tourists a year 8,516 feet to camping areas and trails throughout the state park. Unlike most hikers though, the Marines and sailor opted to start at the base of the mountain near the Palm Springs Art Museum, 16 miles from the summit.

“All together, from the museum to the summit and then back down to the tram it took 12 hours and 40 minutes. We went 22 miles and gained 10,500 feet of elevation,” said 1st Lt. Andrew H. Melander, the Scout Sniper Platoon commander. “It was definitely challenging. My feet felt like ground beef after it, but I was amazed by some of the performances of the guys. There were a lot of guys you could tell were struggling, and they just kept going.”

Everyone agreed on the high level of drive and endurance it took to finish.

“That was probably the most grueling thing I’ve done,” said Lance Cpl. Jesse R. Lopez, a rifleman new to the platoon. “It was not what I expected beforehand, because as we were hiking up, we’d get to the top of one peak where I thought I could see the top, but then they were like ‘no, we still have six more hours to go.’

“That was the point though,” he said. “What they wanted us to take away from that experience was to just have that ‘no-quit’ mentality, always be on top of our game and be ready to just tackle any challenge that comes our way.”

Putting the men through the struggle and labor of the climb was an important aspect of the training, said Staff Sgt. Timothy R. Solum, the Scout Sniper Platoon staff noncommissioned officer in charge.

“One of the things I learned early on in my career is that there is no better way to build camaraderie than being put through a shared, common suffering to accomplish big goals you can be proud of,” he said.

Melander agreed, saying after awhile, they would know all the pain would be worth it.

“I’m sure they were hurting quite a bit, but I know they got a lot out of it afterwards,” Melander said. “They’re going to drive down to Palm Springs now, see those peaks and know they conquered that mountain.”

Solum said he could tell the guys were “beat” after the climb, but he also saw that they built a solid connection with each other, by overcoming obstacles few have overcome.

“The hike was an excellent way to bring everyone together,” Solum said. “It was challenging and no one was looking forward to it because it was going to suck, and it did. But at the same time, even when it was sucking, the guys knew they were accomplishing something they could be proud of.

“This is probably something none of them have ever done in their lives before; most of them have probably never climbed a mountain,” he said. “Most of them probably never went 22 miles with a pack.”

Posted by sr at 6:30 PM | Permalink

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2009 – A foundation formed by the family of a fallen Marine whose story was told in the HBO movie “Taking Chance” has donated $10,000 to a group that works to help wounded veterans and their families.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54838

By Sharon Foster
American Forces Press Service

Hope for the Warriors, a national nonprofit group, received the donation from the Chance Phelps Foundation during Fleet Week activities in New York on May 22.

Gretchen Mack, mother of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Chance R. Phelps and founder of the Chance Phelps foundation, said her family decided to make the donation based on what they experienced last year in New York at a Hope for the Warriors event that included wounded warriors involved in extensive rehabilitation at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio for loss of limbs, eyesight, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We spent a lot of time with these servicemembers, and were very impressed and touched,” Mack said. “This year, we decided to donate to Hope for the Warriors because what they do for those that serve is incredible.”

The Chance Phelps Foundation, founded after Phelps was killed in Iraq in April 2004, is a nonprofit organization that raises money for donations to various charities that support quality-of-life issues for servicemembers, particularly those who have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tina Atherall, Hope for the Warriors vice president, said the contribution was gratefully accepted and will assist the group in its mission of “No sacrifice forgotten, nor need unmet.”

“We are forever grateful for their dedication and support to the wounded, their families and the families of the fallen,” Atherall said. “This donation will help enhance our various programs: Immediate Needs, Above and Beyond, Hope and Morale, A Warriors Wish, Spouse Scholarships, Family Support Program, Wounded Warrior Barracks and Warrior House.”

Mack and the fallen Marine’s father, John Phelps, presented the donation to Robin Kelleher, president of Hope for the Warriors.

Mack said money donated to Hope for the Warriors was given to her family after she lost her son, and the family wanted to pass the money on.

“Hope for the Warriors help veterans with quality-of-life issues that they and their families may face after deployment,” Mack said. “This may include physical injuries, financial issues and, of course, making sure they get the medical treatment they need and an opportunity to enjoy some well deserved rest and relaxation. We are very passionate about being a part of helping our veterans and their families.”

Posted by sr at 6:57 PM | Permalink

SEOUL, South Korea - The United States says it has deployed anti-missile defenses around Hawaii, following reports that North Korea is preparing to fire its most advanced ballistic missile in that direction to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day holiday next month.

http://www.military.com/news/article/hawaii-boosts-defense-to-counter-threat.html?col=1186032325324&ESRC=marine-a.nl

June 19, 2009
Associated Press

Last week, the communist regime vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest U.N. sanctions in the wake of its May 25 nuclear test. It conducted its first nuclear test in April, and there are suspicions it is preparing for a third.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the military has set up additional defenses around Hawaii, consisting of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby. Together they could shoot an incoming missile in mid air.

"Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory," Gates told reporters in Washington.

Gates' comments come after Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported that North Korea might test fire a Taepodong-2 missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), sometime around the U.S. holiday of Independence Day on July 4.

Yomiuri said the missile, which could be launched from North Korea's Tongchang-ri site, would fly over Japan but would not be able to reach Hawaii, which is about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4 three years ago, but it failed seconds after liftoff.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on Yomiuri's report, which cited an analysis by Japan's Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

South Korea's government also remained silent on the report, but made a general appeal to North Korea to follow international norms.

"We hope that North Korea, first of all (will) give up nuclear ambitions and abide by the agreement that we made in 1992 -- that is, a basic agreement for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told reporters.

The sanctions mandated by the U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea call on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas - with the owner country's approval - if they believe the cargo contains banned weapons.

In what would be the first test case for the sanctions, the U.S. military has begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam, which left a port in North Korea on Wednesday, two U.S. officials said.

The ship, which may be carrying illicit weapons, was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China on Thursday, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were discussing intelligence.

It was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but it has been involved in weapons proliferation before, one of the officials said.

Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs are centerpieces of the regime's catalog of weapons of mass destruction.

On Thursday, the independent International Crisis Group said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

Posted by sr at 8:01 AM | Permalink

All Things Considered

The Marines known as "America's Battalion" are in Afghanistan as part of the 21,000 additional forces President Obama is deploying in the administration's strategy to counter the Taliban insurgency. NPR is following the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment over the months of their deployment, focusing on the efforts of these Marines in Afghanistan and the burden shared by their families back home.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105470542
Please click on above link to find an audio news broadcast.

Photo Gallery:
http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2009/06/afghan_fox_company/gallery/index.html

June 16, 2009
by Tom Bowman

In hairdryer-in-the-face heat, talcum-like dust swirls around Camp Leatherneck, a U.S. Marine base in the desert of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. In the early afternoon, the dust rolls in like a brown fog and seeps into a massive tent.

Perched on a cot inside, Lt. James Wende from San Antonio, Texas, is reading The Steel Wave, a novel about World War II. Wende is eager to start his own war.

Like many Marines in the tent, Wende did a tour in Iraq last year. By then, it was largely peaceful — boring, the Marines say. That deployment ended and they went back to their base at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. There, they got word they would deploy to Afghanistan rather than head back to Iraq.

"The Marines want to go, and they want to get in the fight. So everyone was pretty much hoping for Afghanistan. We'll see. They say be careful what you wish for," Wende says.

Hanging behind the Marine is a Texas Tech banner. In front of him is most of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment's Fox Company, a sea of 120 bodies on green cots stretching out in the low-slung, circus-sized tent that is half the length of a football field. Fieldpacks and boxes are stacked next to the cots.

Some Marines are shirtless, revealing tattoos spread across torsos and arms: skulls, crossed rifles, the Marine Corps insignia. Some clean their weapons. Others lay on their cots, listening to iPods, chatting with friends, writing letters. The aroma of dirty socks fills the air.

The Marines are mostly in their 20s, some still in their teens. Their unit is part of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, the vanguard of an additional 21,000 American troops in Afghanistan, part of a new strategy by the Obama administration to take back parts of the country from Taliban control. Their territory is roughly the size of New Jersey.

Waiting, Worrying

Most of the Marines say they are anxious.

Lance Cpl. Zachary Rash says he is constantly running through various scenarios in his mind — possible encounters with insurgents, what the best reactions would be, what to do if a comrade is wounded.

His worry keeps him up at night sometimes. "But if it's my time to go, it's too late to change your mind now. I'm here," he says.

Another Marine, Cpl. Wesley Dutch Perkins from Louisiana is eager to leave the dull routine of the barren landscape.

"It's hot. It's dusty. It sucks," he says.

What keeps the men sane is word from home. Families send letters and packages.

Perkins receives a care package from his parents: baby wipes, nuts, dried fruit. A separate dose of anxiety comes in brief phone calls with the folks back home.

"[My parents] were really nervous about it. Mom is … really close friends with Army wives and they heard a lot of bad things about Afghanistan, so she's really worried. … [I tell them,] 'Don't worry, I'll be fine.' It's about all you really can tell them," he says.

Perkins, 22, is on his first deployment. When he lies in his cot at night, he admits he worries — mostly about landmines and IEDs, or roadside bombs.

"Everybody just wants to come back in one piece," he says.

Preparing For Insurgent War

About 70 percent of casualties in Afghanistan are from IEDs. Last week, a roadside bomb killed two Marines, the brigade's first loss. A few days later, a blast struck a convoy, wounding another five Marines.

It's no secret that the IEDs are the biggest threat the Marines face, says 2nd Lt. Samuel Oliver, who describes them as one of the insurgents' most effective methods for leveling the playing field.

"I put IEDs and landmines everywhere, I might not have to have as many people as you," he says, summarizing the enemy's thinking.

Oliver is a platoon leader, responsible for about 50 Marines. His biggest challenge, he says, is making sure that his Marines remain disciplined if an IED hits his team — and not reacting by lashing out at the nearest Afghan civilian.

"You step on a mine. Who are you shooting back at? Who are you going to kill?" he asks.

In a bar fight, you know who hits you — and who to hit back, Oliver says. In Afghanistan, you don't have that knowledge, he adds.

"So the biggest thing is people are going to start getting pissed off. You get blown up enough, you're going to get pissed. That's when you have to start watching how guys are acting, because it's easy, once you see your friends start getting blown up, then that's when you got to start watching, making sure nothing stupid happens," he says.

Before Oliver deployed from Camp Lejeune, he wondered whether he could lead men in combat. It's his first deployment, too.

Now, he devours after-action reports — combat reviews from Marine and British officers about firefights with Taliban forces. "What they did, didn't and should have done," Oliver says.

Before The Final Push

At the other end of the tent, Capt. Junwei Sun sits on his cot, working through a list of the Marines in his company. He is checking names, blood types, next of kin — the last of the paperwork.

The captain is among the veterans, with two tours in Iraq under his belt. Now, he is waiting for this tour of Afghanistan to start.

"You can't really complain. We have three meals and a cot. Nobody's shooting at us — yet," he says.

Sun and the rest of the Marines in America's Battalion know the shooting will begin soon enough, once they push out of the base and head deep into the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.

Posted by sr at 9:07 AM | Permalink

Comprehensive Special Features New Footage of U.S. Navy's Decisive Response, First-Ever Accounts from Maersk Alabama's Crew and Exclusive Footage From Military Channel Production Crews Aboard U.S. Navy Vessels Leading Counter-Piracy Operations

http://ca.sys-con.com/node/1002723

By: PR Newswire
Jun. 15, 2009 04:56 PM

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- This past April, news of U.S. Navy snipers bringing a swift end to the Somalia pirate standoff captivated the world's attention.
After failing to seize the Maersk Alabama, the three remaining Somali pirates were dramatically shot dead while holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage aboard a powerless lifeboat.
However, the heroic stories of the Maersk Alabama's crew and the U.S. Navy's courageous maneuvers have not been shared fully, until now.
Discovery Channel and Military Channel have combined forces to tell the complete story in the world premiere special, SOMALI PIRATE TAKEDOWN THE REAL STORY.
This comprehensive special features compelling new footage of the pirates aboard the rogue lifeboat, first-ever broadcast interviews with members of the Maersk Alabama crew, an outline of the U.S. Navy's efforts to successfully rescue Captain Phillips, and exclusive footage shot by Military Channel's embedded crews aboard U.S. Navy ships leading counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
SOMALI PIRATE TAKEDOWN THE REAL STORY premieres Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 10 PM ET/PT on Discovery Channel.
An extended version premieres on Military Channel on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 9 PM ET.

Posted by BR at 4:54 PM | Permalink

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps hopes to give Marines 14 months at home after deployments by mid-2010, Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said Thursday.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63275

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 13, 2009

Currently, Marines spend seven months deployed and seven months home, but that could change now that the Corps has grown to 202,000 ahead of schedule, and with almost all Marines expected to leave Iraq next spring, Conway said.

“That’s going to be very helpful, we think, for our families,” he said. “We think that young Marines who maybe haven’t had a chance to meet someone are going to be afforded that opportunity.”

Marines will also use that extra time to train for amphibious landings and to fight conventional wars, two types of skill-sets that have deteriorated as the Corps has focused on counterinsurgency, he said.

“We believe very strongly in this capacity of the Marine Air Ground Task Force,” Conway said. Its core competency is maneuvering under its own fires and rolling up on an enemy just as the smoke lifts. We used to do 10 of those [exercises] a year at Twentynine Palms. Today we do none.”

The importance of Marines getting back to their traditional warfighting skills is underscored by current tensions on the Korean peninsula, he said.

If a conflict broke out, Marines would likely be called upon to launch amphibious operations, he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates implied in April that amphibious landings might be a thing of the past, noting that the Corps’ last major landing was in 1950.

Asked about Gates’ comments later that month, Conway said the Corps had launched amphibious operations since then, most notably when Marines helped to evacuate U.S. citizens from Lebanon in 2006.

Conway quickly added Thursday that the Corps would be able to do the job eventually.

“But I’m simply arguing we can do it better when we’re trained to it, and that’s the value of this 1:2 deployment to dwell: to give us the opportunity to give those young Marines more time with the families and more time to, again, relax at home, but also to get on these training fields and get back some of these core competencies that have withered over time,” he said.

Posted by sr at 7:02 PM | Permalink

CAMP KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq —
Female Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 7, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), have been participating in civil affairs missions with the Civil Affairs Group 10, 2nd Marine Division for approximately three months in various cities surrounding Camp Korean Village, Iraq

http://www.marines.mil/units/marforcom/iimef/2ndmlg/hq/Pages/LionessesworktoimprovecommunityinlocalIraqcity.aspx

6/12/2009 By
Lance Cpl. Melissa A. Latty,
2nd Marine Logistics Group

The women are part of an all-female team called Lioness that was first formed several years ago to implement culturally-sensitive methods of searching Iraqi women to deter the enemy’s use of females to conduct terrorist attacks.

However, Lionesses aren’t just female searchers. In fact, they now do little to no searching at all.

Sgt. Leticia L. Eslinger, Cpl. Rachelle J. Fernandez, and Lance Cpl. Holly M. Burd were tasked to help the CAG gather information about the local economy using surveys and other methods of communication.

“We were sent here to support missions with the Civil Affairs Group and collect information and perspectives that our male counterparts are unable to obtain,” said Burd, who is originally from 1st Radio Battalion.
“When the locals see us they are interested because they don’t see many females out on these missions.
We use that interest to gain their trust or get perspectives that were unobtainable before.”

The need for Lionesses in Camp Korean Village, Iraq, came about three months ago when Fernandez, who at the time worked with the camp’s security forces, was asked to accompany an Army Operations Team on a mission to interact with local females.

Her presence in the mission was so successful that one mission turned into months of information gathering, rapport-building, and engaging with the local Iraqi populace.

Capt. Natalie M. Trogus, the camp commandant, submitted a request to 2nd Marine Headquarters Group for more Lioness-trained females to join Fernandez in helping the Army Operations Team and the CAG.

“Historically, feminine interaction with adult Iraqi males has been a rarity outside of exchanges within one’s immediate family,” said Lee Bagan, an intelligence specialist and cultural expert embedded with the CAG.
“Lioness presence is thereby a magnet effectively utilized to obtain ground truth, understanding and dialogue, otherwise difficult to achieve with all-male military interviews.”

The CAG focuses mainly on the city of Rutbah, a highly populated city where Coalition forces have recently focused on providing aid to residents.

This aid comes in a variety of forms, including food and water, as well as agricultural and educational needs.
These efforts are designed to help citizens of the town complete the transition from reliance on Coalition forces to dependence on the Government of Iraq as the responsible drawdown of U.S. Forces continues.

“I have established key communications in Rutbah,” Fernandez said.
“I have spent three months building a strong foundation with the locals there.
When working with Army Operations, we helped the locals set up a radio station, a website and a newsletter.
We also helped them develop their veterinary clinics and performed medical capability missions, where we gave on-the-spot medical care to the locals.”

“Our mission in Iraq isn’t the same as it was during the invasion,” she continued. “It’s more of a rebuilding process and that’s not something we can walk away from.
When we talk to the people we ask how progress is being made, how their government is operating and if their community is being rebuilt.”

Although the Lionesses are trained to interact with the Iraqi women, they don’t restrict themselves to only females.
They have learned that even the male Iraqis are more willing to open up to them when asked about their community.

“The Lionesses are essential to our missions in gaining atmospherics in the city of Rutbah,” said Sgt. Daniel Furner, the security chief with CAG.
“To the Iraqi men and women, females are more approachable. They are able to communicate with the locals better.”

The presence of Lioness-trained females at Camp Korean Village continues to assist Coalition and Iraqi forces in gaining knowledge of the local community’s struggles and improvements.

Posted by BR at 4:06 PM | Permalink

USS ESSEX, At Sea (NNS) -- The forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) departed Sasebo, Japan, for exercise Talisman Saber 2009 (TS09) June 12.

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=46162

Release Date: 6/12/2009 9:10:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Greg Johnson

The exercise is designed to enhance bilateral interoperability between U.S. and Australian forces and will feature more than 20,000 U.S. and 10,000 Australian personnel.

"This is the third time exercise Talisman Saber has been conducted since exercises Tandem Thrust and Crocodile were combined into a biennial, joint combined exercise with Australian and U. S. forces," said Capt. Brent Canady, Essex' commanding officer.
"Essex Sailors are looking forward to the opportunity to work with our Australian counterparts to enhance our warfighting skills."

The exercise will focus on crisis action planning and execution of contingency response operations and is concentrated in the Shoalwater Bay training area near Rockhampton in central Queensland as well as the Townsville field training area.
TS09 will provide an opportunity to work in a combined, joint environment and refine procedures and doctrine.

Essex Sailors will be instrumental in accomplishing the primary goal of the exercise, which is to train Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and the Australian Deployable Joint Force Headquarters as a designated, combined task force.

"Talisman Saber is a great opportunity for us to enhance our interoperability," said Lt. Cmdr. Ben Sigurdson, Essex' aircraft handler.
"It's especially important to what we do on the flight deck.
Being familiar and comfortable with the way each other operates is essential to conducting safe, effective operations."

The deployment will also serve as a first opportunity for many Essex Sailors to visit Australia.

"Everyone has heard stories about what a great time it is to visit Australia," said Information Systems Technician Seaman Brett Scott, of Baltimore.
"This is going to be my first visit, and I'm definitely excited to check it out for myself.
One of the great advantages of being in the forward-deployed Navy is the chance to see great ports like the ones we'll hit on this deployment.
It should be pretty cool."

Essex is the lead ship of the only forward-deployed U.S. ARG and serves as the flagship for CTF 76, the Navy's only forward-deployed amphibious force commander.
Task Force 76 is headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan, with a detachment in Sasebo, Japan

Posted by BR at 3:25 PM | Permalink

ROY, Utah — George E. Wahlen, a Medal of Honor recipient wounded during the battle of Iwo Jima, has died at 84

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_navy_wahlen_moh_dies_060709/

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 10, 2009 5:47:04 EDT

Wahlen’s family said the former sailor died Friday of lung cancer in Salt Lake City at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center that was named for him in 2004.

Wahlen, an Ogden native who lived in nearby Roy, was a World War II corpsman hit by enemy fire three times over a week in 1945 while advancing forward of front lines to aid wounded Marines.

Wahlen, a pharmacist’s mate second class, stayed in battle even after his third wounding, according to his citation awarded by President Harry S. Truman.

In separate statements offering their condolences, Gov. Jon Huntsman called Wahlen a humble hero and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, called the veteran a true-blue hero.

Posted by BR at 10:23 PM | Permalink

The first of eight new student quarters for the Corps’ newly commissioned officers is slated for completion this August as the next phase of construction at The Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., is expected to ramp into full gear.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_tbs_construction_061009w/

By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 10, 2009 9:42:43 EDT

The Corps awarded a $69 million contract May 1 to Maryland-based Harkins Builders for two additional student quarters and a new headquarters academic construction facility.

The training building will include four 300-seat lecture halls, six classrooms, a large training room and computer labs.

“We have three classrooms now and we shoehorn 300 in there,” said Maj. Craig Petersen, TBS logistics officer.

There are seven basic officer classes of 300 each and an eighth warrant officer class of 300 that go through The Basic School, where newly commissioned officers spend six months before going to their military occupational specialty schools, each year.

Although Marine officials expect those numbers to level off now that the Corps has reached its anticipated end strength of 202,000, they say the change won’t be significant and the nearly 60-year-old building was not designed to fit that capacity.

The new building allows teachers to roam around the room more freely and to interact with students.

“When you train 300 people, it’s difficult to keep their attention. The new multimedia computer system will provide more efficient instruction, and we believe it will enhance better student learning,” TBS spokesman Maj. Jeff Landis said.

Landis said officials are in the process of designing a new green concept that will include roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels to heat the water in the bathrooms. It is too early to say how much the panels will cost or how much money the Corps can save in the long run by using the solar heat, he said.

Construction on two additional 128-unit, student-officer housing structures is expected to begin in August, just as students get ready to move into a slightly smaller, but similar, building that’s under construction.

The brick housing will have blast-resistant windows and a metal roof.

“We have put thousands of officers through there since [1958, when the current housing was built] and, quite frankly, [the housing is] in dire need of replacing,” Landis said.

The project is broken into phases so training will not be disrupted. It also allows for the Corps to tear down the old buildings as new ones come online, Landis said.

The project, which eventually will include a new dining facility, artillery instruction battery, corporal leadership facility and auditorium, was expected to cost $282 million. An updated figure was not available, but officials acknowledged the final number is likely to look much different once the downturn in the economy and inflation are taken into consideration.

Posted by sr at 10:28 AM | Permalink

The Quilts of Valor organization is driving across the country to deliver 1,200 quilts to troops and some of them were on display at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's International Quilt Study Center Monday.

http://www.kolnkgin.com/home/headlines/47446712.html#
Please click on above link for a news video.

Lincoln, NE
Posted: 5:50 PM Jun 9, 2009
Last Updated: 9:46 AM Jun 10, 2009
Reporter: KOLNKGIN

The Nebraska stop is one in a cross-country mission to gather specially made quilts for members of the armed services. Quilts of Valor Across America is a journey to collect 1,200 quilts from across the country to be given to Marine and Navy corpsmen of 3/8 Battalion returning to Camp Lejeune, N.C., from Afghanistan.

Early this month a group left Valley Springs, California, with pick-up destinations in Utah, Colorado, Missouri and Tennessee, and Nebraska. It will reach Camp Lejeune June 12.

A volunteering veteran, Gail Belmont, QOV operations director, is driving the van and trailer from northern California and will be joined in caravan in Denver by the Quilts of Valor chairperson Catherine Roberts. They will be met in Lincoln by local American Legion Riders, a motorcycle group formed to show respect for service members and their families. The Riders escorted the caravan to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum and were greeted by local QOV volunteers and presented with 85 quilts from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota. Sara Kenny of Eagle, an Army and Air Force mother, and Julia Schroeder of Lincoln, have coordinated the regional collection of QOV quilts.

This is one of many projects coordinated by the Quilts of Valor Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to "cover our wounded soldiers, sailors and Marines one quilt at a time." Since its founding, about 23,000 donated quilts have been presented to service members.

Posted by sr at 10:23 AM | Permalink

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Newly arrived U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan will target insurgents crossing into the country from Pakistan and be a “game changer” in a region long dominated by the Taliban, a top commander said Tuesday.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_afghanistan_surge_changes_060909/

By Chris Brummitt - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 9, 2009 17:32:56 EDT

Col. George Amland spoke to journalists at Camp Leatherneck, a rapidly expanding base now home to around 7,000 U.S. Marines preparing to push deeper into Helmand province, an insurgent stronghold and a haven for violent criminals controlling a massive opium-poppy industry. Some 3,000 Marines are already deployed elsewhere in the province.

President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this summer to beat back the Taliban eight years after the U.S.-led invasion and create the conditions needed for the Afghan government to extend its influence and allow foreign forces to return home.

Helmand borders Pakistan, where U.S. and European commanders say Taliban insurgents have enjoyed a safe haven in recent years. Washington has targeted insurgents there with missiles fired from unmanned drones and is trying to get Islamabad to take firmer action, believing it to be essential for success in Afghanistan.

The Marines’ current area of operations is about 7,000 square miles, but they are not yet present in the border area.

Amland, the deputy commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan, said in the future the Marines and NATO forces “would address those traffic lines between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Britain has several thousand troops in Helmand that have proved unable to stop the insurgency, and critics have predicted Obama’s troop surge may be too small and too late to defeat the Taliban.

Amland disputed that prediction, saying the troop deployment was “an appreciable investment” that would provide a base for the Afghan government and security forces to build on.

“It is a very big game changer to have this many Marines in an area this size,” said Amland.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 because the country’s extremist Taliban leaders were sheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, the Islamic terrorist group behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

The forces quickly defeated the Taliban, pushing the militants out of Kabul and their southern base in Kandahar. But a guerrilla war, which turned dangerously violent in 2006, has bedeviled the international coalition and Afghan government.

Amland said the Helmand insurgency was in many cases intertwined with the criminals who control the opium and heroin industry there and that officers were trying to work out exactly who to target.

“I wish it were as simple as looking at alleged Taliban leaders,” he said. “We are going to have to assess what is really Taliban influence and what is a spin-off of the narco-industry and how these forces interact.”

The U.S. surge will bring American troop levels from about 55,000 to more than 68,000 by the end of 2009 — about half of the nearly 140,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq.

The buildup has led to comparisons with Iraq, where an influx of troops in 2007 is credited with helping to reduce violence. But unlike Iraq, where the U.S. plans to phase out its role by 2012, the military envisions a long-term presence in Afghanistan.

Posted by sr at 10:21 PM | Permalink

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Teams of builders worked through dust storms Monday to expand a base for a brigade of U.S. Marines now fanning out across southern Afghanistan to change the course of a war claiming American lives faster than ever before.

http://www.bradenton.com/world/story/1496325.html

Tuesday, Jun. 09, 2009

Some 10,000 Marines have poured into Afghanistan in the last six weeks, the military said Monday, transforming this once small base in the heart of the country’s most violent province, Helmand, into a desert fortress.

The statement to embedded journalists was the first confirmation that the military has fully deployed the first wave of 21,000 additional troops President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan this year to help stanch an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency.

The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, normally based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will battle the Taliban as well as train and fight alongside Afghan security forces.

“This is where the fight is, in Afghanistan,” said 1st Sgt. Christopher Watson, who like many of the troops was most recently deployed in Iraq. “We are here to get the job done.”

Posted by sr at 10:16 PM | Permalink

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq —
United States Marines pride themselves on being America’s force-in-readiness. At any given time, Marines are prepared to deploy anywhere in the world to defend America and respond to crises. Even while deployed, they still find ways to continue their combat training in order to maintain their reputation of always being mission-ready.

http://www.usmc.mil/units/marforcom/iimef/iimef-fwd/Pages/8thCommunicationsBattalionzerosinoncombatmarksmanship.aspx

6/9/2009
By Cpl. Jo Jones,
Multi National Force - West

Recently, Marines and sailors with 8th Communications Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group (Forward), reviewed weapons fundamentals in order to maintain their combat skills. Members of the battalion sat through courses and later put their academics into practice by shooting at a live-fire range aboard Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, June 2, 2009.

“The Marines shot their rifles to get an accurate battlesight zero setting so their weapons shoot accurately when they go outside the wire,” said Staff Sgt. Adam Nemethy, an assistant operations chief with 8th Comm. Bn., and the small arms range officer-in-charge. “If you don’t BZO your weapon, you might as well be shooting into the wind.”

Wearing full personal protective equipment, the Marines and sailors convoyed to a small arms range where they were issued ammunition and briefed on weapons conditions and weapons safety. Afterward, they shot their rifles at close-range targets so they could make adjustments to increase the accuracy of their weapons.

Many of the service members also had a chance to shoot the M9 pistol, a weapon junior Marines don’t normally have an opportunity to fire.

“Coming out here gives the Marines a chance to fire the M9, and to learn about the different shooting positions and weapons handling techniques,” said Nemethy. “The Marines will be better when they go to the pistol range because they have had experience with it.”

Lance Cpl. James Halsey, a field wireman with 8th Comm. Bn., said weapons fundamentals are crucial to mission accomplishment.

“As Marines, our basic job is to be riflemen so it’s a good reminder that we need to stay vigilant and not get complacent with our mindset or weapons handling,” said Halsey. “We always need to be ready to respond to hostile situations or other missions.”

Staff Sgt. John Isenhour, a range coach with 8th Comm. Bn., said the shoot was a confidence booster for the Marines, helps them become better shooters, and keeps them focused on their responsibility to remain combat-ready.

Posted by sr at 10:12 PM | Permalink

FORT A.P. HILL, Va —
A siren blast alerted the Marines who were sleeping at the forward operating base. They jumped up and put on their gear as they ran toward the source of the chaos. A suicide bomber hit one of the entry control points.

http://www.usmc.mil/units/marforcom/iimef/Pages/BuildingaFOBfromthegroundup.aspx

6/9/2009
By Cpl. Katie Densmore,
II MEF

Fortunately, this was only a drill at Exercise A.P. Hill, which took place May 18 through June 4, however, this training is designed to realistically prepare the Marines of Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, for such an attack.

The casualty drills were an important part of the company’s training, but from the moment the Marines stepped off for the exercise, their training had already begun.

The Marines went through the proper procedures of establishing a FOB, said 1st Lt. Trevor Krauss, the executive officer for H&S Company, and the guard officer in charge for the exercise.

“We went through all of the steps to establish the FOB,” Krauss said. “First we (did reconnaissance of) the area, then established security using gun trucks and made entry control points. After we had a secure area, we built the FOB from the ground up making sure to have sectors of fire that surround the base 360 degrees.”
With all of the hard work that went into the construction of the base, it was very important to ensure it could operate independently.

“We set up this FOB to be self sufficient,” Krauss said. “We have a (base aid station), (command operations center), (detention facility), fueling point and of course billeting. The FOB is also set up next to a field, which can act as a (landing zone) in case of a (casualty evacuation).”

With the base successfully constructed, the Marines focused on running drills to use the base and themselves to their fullest capabilities.

“The first step we went through to prepare the Marines for the drills was to sound the alarm and have everyone get on line,” he said. “The next drill involved a re-allocation of forces to a compromised (entry control point). The next drill (involved casualty evacuation). Finally, we (combined) casualties and re-allocation of security forces in the last drill.”

The evolution of the training paid off for the Marines and was represented by the increased efficiency of the drills.

“During the final drill, within three minutes the ECP got hit, the Marines got on line, brought the injured Marines to the docs in triage, and got the casualties out to the landing zone to be picked up by a bird,” Krauss said. “I time it every time. It just keeps getting better, because their gear is staged, they are ready to go and they know exactly what to do.”

The knowledge of how to set up a FOB and running drills is significant training; however, one of the most important aspects of the training was synchronizing the Marines in the battalion.

“The battalion has close to 400 new joins from privates all the way up to officers,” said Staff Sgt. George Cueva, administrative chief for H&S Company. “At least 40 percent of the battalion is new blood. This is the only chance we have to get together and prepare. It is so important because every deployment is so different. These exercises really focus on bringing the Marines together.”

With all of the Marines being trained to fight efficiently as a cohesive unit, the Marines focused on their next deployment. But, to be a successful fighting force Marines need to look ahead to future battles.

“We need to have the mentality that you can deploy anywhere,” Krauss said. “I think these skills are important for any Marine. Everybody gets caught up in the war we are in right now, but in history we’ve always done things like these. Some of these Marines haven’t dug a hole since (their basic Marine combat training), but (the basics of defending a fighting) hole will (apply to defending) a post. All those skills, like marksmanship, will be applied. It has its transition and it’s all applicable in country.”

Posted by sr at 10:06 PM | Permalink

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Teams of builders worked through dust storms Monday to expand a base for a brigade of U.S. Marines now fanning out across southern Afghanistan to change the course of a war claiming American lives faster than ever before

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_surge

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer Chris Brummitt, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 8, 4:50 pm ET

Some 10,000 Marines have poured into Afghanistan in the last six weeks, the military said Monday, transforming this once small base in the heart of the country's most violent province, Helmand, into a desert fortress.

The statement to embedded journalists, including a team from The Associated Press, was the first confirmation that the military has fully deployed the first wave of 21,000 additional troops President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan this year to help stanch an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency.

The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, normally based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will battle the Taliban as well as train and fight alongside Afghan security forces.

"This is where the fight is, in Afghanistan," said 1st Sgt. Christopher Watson, who like many of the troops was most recently deployed in Iraq.
"We are here to get the job done."

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 because the country's extremist Taliban leaders were sheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, the Islamic terrorist group behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

The forces quickly defeated the Taliban, pushing the militants out of Kabul and their southern base in Kandahar.
But a guerrilla war, which turned dangerously violent in 2006, has bedeviled the international coalition and Afghan government.

While the insurgency is active across much of the country, its stronghold remains in Helmand. The province is home to the world's largest opium-poppy growing region and borders Pakistan, where commanders say the Taliban leadership supplies money and recruits.

The Taliban has become entrenched in Helmand because of a lack of international and Afghan troops.
Several thousand British forces have engaged in heavy fighting in Helmand for much of the past three years.
Last year, a much smaller U.S. Marine force joined them, helping to clear the town of Garmser of insurgents.

"We are not under the impression that is going to be easy," said Capt. Bill Pelletier, a Marine spokesman.
"They are an adaptive enemy."

A dust storm whipped across Camp Leatherneck early Monday but did little to stop the pace of construction.
Hard-hatted workers put up wooden structures to house command centers and dining facilities, while cranes dropped blast walls close to the rows of air-conditioned tents housing troops.

The Marines are slowly spreading out to smaller bases in an area of operations about 7,000 square miles, said Pelletier, adding there already have been several engagements with insurgents.
The military has yet to announce any losses in combat suffered by the brigade.

An Army brigade of some 7,000 troops will follow this summer along with 4,000 forces to train Afghan security forces.

The surge will bring American troop levels from about 55,000 now to more than 68,000 by the end of 2009 — about half of the nearly 140,000 troops currently in Iraq.

The buildup has led to comparisons with Iraq, where an influx of troops in 2007 is credited with helping to reduce violence.

But unlike Iraq, where the U.S. plans to phase out its role by 2012, the military envisions a long-term presence in Afghanistan.

Adding troops in a country with a history of resistance to foreign forces risks increasing Afghans' resentment, which in turn fuels the insurgency.

There are also fears that the surge will push the Taliban to other parts of the country — or even across the border to Pakistan, where they could further destabilize that nuclear-armed country.

The bulk of the Marines, about 7,300, remain at Leatherneck and are training for missions — or "sharpening the sword" as one young Marine put it.
Several said Marine commanders have drilled into them the need to respect the local culture and not barge into villages, kicking down doors and alienating residents whose support they need to win the war.

"They have told us to be more friendly with the locals," said Lance Cpl. John McCall, who was marching in full battle gear around the base with two buddies to get in shape
. "We are not to shoot first and ask questions later."

Commanders warn that U.S. deaths are likely to increase this summer, the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan.

At least 70 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AP count, a 75 percent increase over the 40 U.S. troop deaths through the first week in June last year.
A record 151 American forces died in Afghanistan in 2008.

Joanna Nathan, an Afghanistan specialist at the International Crisis Group, said more troops were needed to improve security so that the task of building Afghan government structures and other infrastructure projects could happen more quickly.

"There needs to be a lot of work in the background," she said.
"You are never going to shoot the last insurgent and then leave.
The will in Western capitals to remain in Afghanistan will not last forever, so there is a need for urgency."

Posted by BR at 9:42 PM | Permalink

So long Wikipedia. Say hello to Corpspedia.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_corpspedia_060809w/

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 8, 2009 8:44:44 EDT

A new informational Web site about the Corps, specifically for Marines, will soon be tested by troops at the School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“Right now, it’s focusing on infantry skills,” said Capt. Mike Regner, Corpspedia project officer at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in Quantico, Va.

When students at SOI-West tap into the new site in July, they’ll have access to more than 150 topics, including weapons systems, offensive and defensive tactics, heli-borne operations, close air support, crew-served weapons, Combat Hunter and land navigation.

The idea sprang out of Regner’s assignment to find out why Marines are having trouble with land navigation. The light bulb turned on as soon as he entered ‘land navigation’ into the Google search engine in November 2007.

“In the process of doing all that, I had that ‘ah-ha’ moment,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if the Marine Corps had its own Google? Marines are already doing this, but they’re doing it out in Wikipedia. They’re doing it in other places. There’s finally an alternative.”

Corpspedia will be like a much smaller version of Wikipedia, which offers an encyclopedia of user-updated information in dozens of languages and via millions of links. The program can grow to thousands of topics, Regner said, and will include graphics and pictures.

“If you’re the instructor at the school, you already have the information together at that point,” Regner said. “You already have the pictures on your PowerPoints. You already have the references listed at the bottom. You just don’t have an arena. You don’t have a podium. It fills that gap.”

The bulk of Corpspedia’s content will likely consist of training materials, he said.

But the site’s content, accessed only through Navy-Marine Corps intranet accounts, will ultimately be left up to its users. Every topic site will have a five-star rating from “does not answer questions” to “answered all of my questions.”

“Corpspedia grows based on what the Marines are asking for,” Regner said.

For example, if the site does not contain information about the Corps’ latest tattoo regs, but there are a lot of requests on that topic, that information can be added.

Unlike Wikipedia, where the information on a topic may be altered by anyone who uses the site, Corpspedia topics will be managed by designated subject matter experts. Regner said he doesn’t want Marines throwing in their own “we did it this way” scenarios.

“That could get dangerous in the Marine Corps,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is put down vetted information in here. We don’t want this to become an alternative to the right way of doing things.”

Posted by sr at 8:12 AM | Permalink

7,000 Marines represent first wave of troops ordered Afghanistan by Obama

CAMP LEATHERHEAD, Afghanistan — Some 7,000 of the new U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan are fanning out across the dangerous Afghan south on a mission to defeat the Taliban insurgency and to change the course of a war claiming American lives at a record pace.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_marines_afghanistan_surge_060809/

By Chris Brummitt - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 8, 2009 8:41:26 EDT

The Marines represent the first wave of 21,000 troops ordered to Afghanistan this summer by President Barack Obama. Most of the buildup will take place in Helmand and Kandahar. The two southern provinces lie at the heart of the insurgency and are close to the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban’s top leadership is believed to be based.

Some 7,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, are now in the country, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe said. The forces have brought fighter aircraft, transport helicopters, artillery and the infrastructure needed to support what will ultimately be a force of around 11,000.

Helmand province — the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region — is also Afghanistan’s most violent.

“This is where the fight is, in Afghanistan,” said 1st Sgt. Christopher Watson, who like many here has also served in Iraq. “We are here to get the job done.”

Taliban militants and the drug lords they protect are believed to reap hundreds of millions of dollars from Afghanistan’s drug trade. U.S. and NATO troops have stepped up attacks this year on drug labs after concluding the drug trade and the insurgency are intertwined.

Most of the newly arrived Marines are now stationed at Camp Leatherhead, a small base in Helmand expanding by the hour as workers build permanent structures. Some Marines have moved out to smaller outposts and are patrolling Helmand’s deserts under a harsh summer sun.

Commanders warn that U.S. deaths are likely to increase this summer, the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan.

At least 70 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count, a 75 percent increase over the 40 U.S. troop deaths through the first week in June last year. A record 151 American forces died in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Afghan government controls some of the major towns and roads in Helmand, but most of the province of around 1 million is under the sway of the Taliban. Thousands of British forces have been deployed in Helmand since mid-2006, too few to provide security and counterinsurgency operations for the entire province

Posted by sr at 8:05 AM | Permalink

OWATONNA, Minn. — On the morning of her wedding day, Breana Michel stood next to her pastor Rev. Jay Grave. The groom was nowhere to be found in the small house on 15th Street Southeast.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_marine_wedding_iraq_060809/

By Clare Kennedy - Owatonna People’s Press via AP
Posted : Monday Jun 8, 2009 6:40:52 EDT

In fact, he was 6,384 miles away.

Michel’s groom is David Luedtke, a Marine stationed in Iraq. The two were about to say their vows last month through a Web cam in her father’s living room.

As daunting as the distance may seem, the two have been through far more than mere physical separation. It’s been a long and rocky road to the altar.

The two met in a friend’s backyard when they were both still in their teens. Michel remembers that day with startling clarity.

“It was a Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2001,” Michel said.

She saw Luedtke’s truck drive up, a beaten green 1976 Dodge Ram. At that moment, she said, her heart dropped into her stomach.

Apparently, it was mutual.

“They hit it off right away,” recalled David’s brother Drew. “They were inseparable.”

But as strong as their young love seemed, it foundered and the two went through a painful series of breakups and reunions. In 2004, the two broke up for what seemed to be the final time.

Fast forward four years. Michel was working as an apartment manager and a part-time police officer in the Twin Cities. Her son Quentin was just a year old and she had recently left her husband.

Though time had passed, the two had never forgotten each other.

“Every time I’ve envisioned my future it was always with David,” Michel said. “I could never picture my future with anyone else.”

In summer 2008, Michel and Luedtke reconnected through Facebook. Luedtke had enlisted in the Marine Corps in Christmas of 2007.

“When I saw that I knew they were either never going to talk again or they were going to get married,” Drew Luedtke said.

The two reunited Oct. 18, 2008 the day he got home from training. Luedtke shipped out Jan. 4. By March 18, they were engaged. Without hesitation, the two decided to marry over the Internet.

“We viewed it as an opportunity more than anything,” Michel said. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, we can do it over Skype? Let’s do it! We didn’t want to wait. It’s been seven years.”

It took a week to take care of the cross-continental paperwork.

Finally the day came. The wedding itself was surreal, Drew Luedtke said.

David Luedtke appeared on a grainy screen. He appeared to be in a cavernous bunker.

At home, Michel stood clutching a juice box her son had thrust into her hand while the pastor pronounced them husband and wife. Immediately, her sister burst into tears.

“It’s about time,” said Luedtke’s mother, Jan. “He wanted this so bad.”

The two newlyweds lingered over the computer screen, each unwilling to pull the plug.

At last, Luedtke said he had to go: His unit was leaving for a mission in five minutes.

Luedtke returned to the heat, the sandstorms, working on the trucks. That’s all he is authorized to tell his wife about how he spends his days.

“There’s very little he can say,” his mother said. “That is very, very difficult. It’s very hard to close your eyes and picture your son in a country where someone is trying to hurt him. It hurts really deep.”

Michel is back to her day-to-day life. For David’s sake, she stays positive, but there are some days when all she wants to do is dress up in his PT sweat suit, watch “Army Wives” and cry.

But for now, Michel is beside herself with happiness and relief. She had one simple wish on her wedding day: “I just want for him to be safe,” she said. “I just want him to come back.”

David Luedtke is scheduled to return stateside in October 2009. He will be able to come home before Thanksgiving.

Posted by sr at 7:18 AM | Permalink

CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq — As the last rays of sunlight duck behind the security barriers aboard Camp Baharia, Iraq, a chorus can be heard. It is not the crickets emerging to greet the night —it’s the Marines of Security Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 4, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), gearing up to provide security for a convoy.

http://www.usmc.mil/units/marforcom/iimef/2ndmlg/hq/Pages/OutoftheofficeandontotheroadsofAlAnbarSecurityCompanyprotectstheirown.aspx

6/7/2009 By
Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Penzik,
Combat Logistics Battalion 4

The sounds of idling engines, radio chatter, and weapon function checks mix with the stale evening air as the 38-vehicle convoy, consisting of tactical vehicles, tractor trailers and four Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, prepare to exit the confines of Camp Baharia.

In a field environment, convoy security is typically handled by military police. However, the Marines with Security Co. are far from typical. While they have their fair share of military police within the company, the majority of the unit is comprised of Marines from several different military occupational specialties such as heavy equipment operation, motor transport, disbursing, supply and communications While operating outside of one’s MOS can be a daunting task, one Marine in particular has learned to put his skill set to use while conducting security operations.

Cpl. Joseph Muise, a motor transport mechanic, traded in his tool box for a Tactical Operations Center Intercommunications System headset to take on the critical position as a vehicle commander.

“My job has completely changed from a mechanic in a shop to a vehicle commander and armory custodian involved in [convoy] operations,” Muise said. “I believe my knowledge of mechanics is very much an asset. Knowing how to quickly troubleshoot a vehicle could make the difference between life or death for my Marines after leaving friendly lines.”

Outside of running the platoon’s armory and maintaining accountability of all of the platoon’s weapon systems, Muise also ensures that weekly and monthly preventative maintenance checks and services are performed on the platoon’s vehicles and mine-rollers.

“It’s tough, but staying busy makes the time fly by,” he said.

The company is responsible for conducting personnel security, explosive ordnance disposal, recovery and combat logistics patrol escorts throughout eastern Al Anbar province.

The security teams also have their fair share of sailors. Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Boudreau, a corpsman with the company, volunteered to leave 3rd Dental Battalion in order to join Security Company.

“I would say that being a corpsman for Security Co. is one of the more demanding positions for Navy personnel that I could be filing in Iraq,” he explained. “I’m proud to serve with these gentlemen because we all work as a team, regardless of what MOS or branch of service we’re in. I know that if anything goes down, inside or outside the wire that I can depend on them and they can depend on me to have each other’s back.”

The security team was sent to Camp Baharia to reinforce the Motor Transport Company and are considered CLB-4’s 'force-in-readiness'. They are prepared to carry out any mission within 15 minutes of receiving an order and have conducted 110 missions during March and April 2009.

Posted by BR at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Marine expeditionary units have provided aid to a tsunami-ravaged southeast Asia, conducted exercises in Djibouti aimed at improving the Corps’ amphibious capabilities and captured insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_meu_uses_060609/

By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jun 6, 2009 9:39:45 EDT

They are known as the “crown jewel” of the Corps and are considered a vital military capability. But the best way to use them was a hot topic of debate long before the 15th and 26th MEUs were among the first U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan in 2001.

Since then, MEUs have routinely engaged in fighting on both fronts, either as a whole or as elements chopped off to other commands. Eight years later, as the Obama administration shifts its focus from the war in Iraq to Afghanistan, top military leaders say flexibility is still the greatest asset of strategic reserve forces such as the MEUs, and those units must be ready and waiting for the unexpected, not fully engaged in the fight.

But the Corps remains stretched thin after years of fighting, and some question whether 4,000 Marines floating in the middle of the ocean and 4,000 more working up for such deployments is the best use of their time.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said dwell time remains among his chief concerns, but keeping a sharp point on the tip of the spear is just as important.

“Every [U.S. Central Command] commander that I’ve dealt with in recent years, including the current one, is not anxious to commit his strategic reserve because you don’t know what’s going to happen possibly somewhere else,” Mullen said in a May 27 interview with Military Times reporters and editors.

Commandant Gen. James Conway has said he wants to see the Corps get to a 1:2 dwell time, meaning Marines will be deployed for seven months and home for 14 months. Although the force isn’t quite there, Mullen said he thinks it is improving.

“And I think, certainly, the commandant, in terms of providing forces, very much supports that, so from the joint perspective, I’m very comfortable with it at this point,” Mullen said. “And again, there is a built-in dwell time, but it’s nowhere close to 1:2, which is what we need right now.”

Marine expeditionary units have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least 13 times since the war on terrorism broke out, according to a search of Marine Corps Times’ archives.

Marines with the 13th MEU’s detachment of CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters left the unit in March, at CentCom’s request, and are flying combat support missions in Iraq. The MEU, which is attached to the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, just completed a weeklong amphibious ship-to-shore exercise in the Gulf of Aden and ashore at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti.

“The MEU is expected to execute any of its assigned missions, from the sea, within six hours of receiving an executive order,” Lt. Col. Tye Wallace, commanding officer, Battalion Landing Team 1/1, said in a statement released May 22 after the Djibouti exercise. “This means going directly into the fight from our ships. No one else does this. This is a unique capability that the Navy/Marine Corps team provides our nation. This allows our deployed naval forces to be relevant, responsive and ready for action.”

But being flexible isn’t always easy. Mullen said he knows the decision to remove the 13th MEU’s heavy-lift capability was a risk, but he said it was a risk worth taking.

Retired Lt. Col. Dakota Wood, now a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said such decisions can be restricting, but it doesn’t make the MEU useless.

“If you would remove that capability from the embarked Marine unit, it would dramatically shorten the ranges at which the Marine unit can operate and it would also significantly reduce the ability to sustain operations in the field,” Wood said. “It’s always a matter of how you accept risk and how you intend to employ it if you think there is a need for the reserve capability.”

Missions accomplished
Since 2001, Marine expeditionary units have played a significant role in Iraq and Afghanistan. A snapshot of their contributions:

• November 2001 — In a rare east-west pairing, the 15th and 26th MEUs combined to form Task Force 58. What followed was Operation Swift Freedom, the first U.S.-led, ground-holding operation in the war on terrorism. About 1,000 Marines from TF-58 landed in Afghanistan and established Camp Rhino, southwest of Kandahar.

• March 2003 — The 15th MEU seized the port towns of Umm Qasr and Az Zubayr, Iraq, to close supply routes and facilitate humanitarian assistance. The MEU then shifted to Nasiriyah, Iraq, where it occupied the Iraqi 11th Infantry Division Compound. The 15th MEU also participated in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

• October 2003 — Elements of the 13th MEU completed humanitarian, anti-smuggling, security and stabilization operations in southern Iraq as part of Operation Sweeney.

• March 2004 — The 22nd MEU deployed to Afghanistan, traveling almost 500 miles to the remote region of Tarin Kowt, a rugged region known for drug and arms trafficking.

• June 2004 — The 24th MEU returned to Iraq during a turbulent time, conducting direct-action raids, hundreds of cordon-and-knock searches, and thousands of patrols and vehicle checkpoints in northern Babil and southern Baghdad provinces.

• July 2004 — After just weeks on the ground, the 11th MEU faced off against an insurgent militia in Najaf, Iraq. In August, after the battle ended, the MEU doled out money and contracts to help rebuild the city.

• January 2005 — The Okinawa-based 31st MEU provided security for Iraq’s first democratic elections.

• April 2005 — Elements of the 15th MEU conducted foot patrols in a rural area of southern Baghdad for a 10-day mission to disrupt insurgent activity.

• October 2005 — The 31st MEU conducted security and stability operations in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

• June 2007 — The 13th MEU conducted counterinsurgency operations in Anbar Province, Iraq.

• November 2007— The 15th MEU was ordered into Iraq to provide additional forces in Anbar. The unit was extended twice in Iraq.

• April 2008 —The 24th MEU arrived in Garmser, Afghanistan, to open a route to move troops south near the border with Pakistan. Although the deployment was expected to be short, the MEU was extended for several weeks after facing an influx of Taliban fighters.

Posted by sr at 10:43 PM | Permalink

ORLANDO, Fla. — Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, has died after years of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_nagasaki_pilot_albury_060409/

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 5, 2009 8:31:47 EDT

Albury died May 23 at a hospital, Family Funeral Care in Orlando confirmed.

Albury helped fly the B-29 Bockscar that dropped the weapon on Aug. 9, 1945, and witnessed the deployment of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima three days earlier as a pilot for a support plane. His plane dropped instruments to measure the magnitude of the blast and levels of radioactivity for the Hiroshima mission led by Col. Paul Tibbets Jr.

“When Tibbets dropped the bomb, we dropped our instruments and made our left turn,” Albury told Time magazine four years ago. “Then this bright light hit us and the top of that mushroom cloud was the most terrifying but also the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life. Every color in the rainbow seemed to be coming out of it.”

Three days later, Albury copiloted the mission over Nagasaki. Cloud cover caused problems for the mission until the bombardier found a hole in the clouds.

The 10,200-pound explosive instantly killed an estimated 40,000 people. Another 35,000 died from injuries and radiation sickness. Japan surrendered Aug. 14.

Albury said he felt no remorse, since the attacks prevented what was certain to be a devastating loss of life in a U.S. invasion of Japan.

“My husband was a hero,” Roberta Albury, his wife of 65 years, told The Miami Herald. “He saved 1 million people. ... He sure did do a lot of praying.”

Gwyneth Clarke-Bell, Albury’s secretary at Eastern Airlines, where he worked for most of his career after World War II, told the Herald that Albury “felt he was doing his job, and that lives were saved on both sides.”

Albury was born in 1920 at his parents’ home, now the site of the Miami Police Department. He enlisted in the wartime Army before graduating from the University of Miami’s engineering school.

In 1943, Albury joined Tibbets’ unit: the elite 509th Composite Group. They trained at White Sands, N.M., where FBI agents tailed them night and day. At the time, the participants were clueless as to the scope of what they were training to do.

After the war, he settled in Coral Gables, Fla., with his wife and flew planes for Eastern Airlines. He eventually co-managed Eastern’s Airbus A-300 training program.

Albury told the Herald in 1982 that he deplored war but would do what he did again if someone attacked the United States.

“Everyone should be prepared to fight for liberty,” he said. “Our laws give us our freedom and I think that’s worth fighting for.”

Posted by sr at 9:14 AM | Permalink

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A military museum near Columbus got more than it bargained for when the widow of a World War II vet tried to donate an artillery shell.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_artillery_shell_donation_060509/

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 5, 2009 6:58:56 EDT

Officials evacuated about 60 people from six businesses and temporarily shut down a road Thursday as firefighters, police and a bomb squad checked out the 18-inch long shell.

Warren Motts, proprietor of the Motts Military Museum in Groveport in suburban Columbus, called firefighters after the 90-year-old woman dropped off the shell.

The woman said her deceased husband had been given the shell as appreciation for his service during World War II and she thought the museum might like it.

Markings on the shell said it was safe but Motts said he just wanted to be sure. Authorities confirmed there was no danger.

Motts said the museum will definitely keep the shell.

Posted by sr at 8:47 AM | Permalink

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. —
Area weather conditions are known to fluctuate in the spring. But summers are known to be hot, and maintaining safe training conditions is increasingly important.

http://www.usmc.mil/units/hqmc/quantico/Pages/WhatcoloristheweatherChecktheflag.aspx

6/4/2009 By Tiffiney Wertz, Marine Corps Base Quantico

During May 1 — Oct 31, heat conditions are measured in the environment and categorized into four conditions using the wet bulb globe temperature index, a device that calculates the outside air temperature, humidity, radiant heat and air movement.

Once tabulated, the weather conditions are indicated by colored flags: green, yellow, red or black. The flags are designed to signal the possibility of heat-related injuries or casualties.

Although the WGBTI is based on many variables, in general a green flag, being the least threatening, authorizes heavy exercise for individuals with supervision between 80 - 84.9 degrees. Next, the yellow flag, designated for 85 - 87.9 degrees, allows for strenuous exercise, however outdoor activities should be avoided. A red flag is issued once the WGBTI has reached 88 degrees and PT is cut for Marines who have not become acclimatized.

In the event the WBGTI reaches 90 degrees and above a black flag will be issued and all unit PT will be suspended. Per Marine Corps Base Order 6200.1A, “Essential outdoor physical activity will be conducted at a level that is commensurate with personnel acclimatization as determined by the unit's commanding officer in coordination with the unit's medical officer or medical personnel.

All efforts should be made to reschedule these activities during cooler periods.”

Heat flags not only concern Marines, but civilians as well. Civilians should also take the same precautions when serious issues arise such as a red or black flag. Civilian employers are also asked to adhere to heat flag regulations listed under The Base Master Agreement. For daily information on heat flags during work hours call 703-784-5502.

After hours call 703-784-5321 information is also posted at www.quantico.usmc.mil.

Heat flags are located throughout Marine Corps Base Quantico and TBS, including: Lejeune Hall, MCAF, OCS, SNCOA, AWS, HqSvcBN, TBS, WTBn, Camp Upshur and Range Control.

Posted by sr at 10:49 PM | Permalink

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — It seems like a simple request: Plant 1,000 U.S. flags along a stretch of Interstate 5 aboard Camp Pendleton during Labor Day weekend in September.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_flags_060409w/

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 4, 2009 21:57:18 EDT

But in recent years the 1st Marine Division Association’s effort to mark this and other federal holidays — including Veterans Day — has been met with a firm “no” from California state highway officials, who once allegedly told the veterans group that “if we allow you to do it, then we have to let Saddam Hussein do it,” said retired Col. Len Hayes, the association’s executive director.

The group wants to display the 3-foot-by-5-foot flags along I-5 near Camp Pendleton’s main gate in Oceanside and the exit at Las Pulgas Road to coincide with its first cross-country motorcycle charity ride. The association is asking members to help fund the event by paying $20 to sponsor an Old Glory.

But the California Department of Transportation, which rejected the association’s first request in 2006 and every year since, says a federal appeals court ordered a halt to the agency’s policy that required a permit for the display of banners along state roads but exempted U.S. flags.

“The ruling was all-or-nothing,” said Ed Cartagena, a spokesman for the transportation department. Since then, the agency has permitted no flags, memorials, banners billboards or advertisements on state roads and overpasses.

“If you allow one type, you allow all types,” he said. “If it’s the U.S. flag, then why not … the Mexican flag?”

Hayes said he’s prepared to face “a big ticket” if he’s stopped from placing flags on the state land. Still, his association could turn to the Corps for a potential alternative. In 2006, base officials allowed veterans to place about 350 flags on federal property along I-5. It’s the only time the group has successfully done a large flag display.

Posted by sr at 9:17 AM | Permalink

RED SEA – The global war on terrorism Expeditionary Medal was awarded to Marines serving with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit at a ceremony pier side in the Middle East, June 1, representing the entire MEU spread across the Middle Eastern region.

http://www.dvidshub.net/index.php?script=news/news_show.php&id=34515

Story by Cpl. Robert C. Medina
Date: 06.04.2009

Colonel David W. Coffman, commanding officer of the 13th MEU, presented the award to the Marines in a mass formation.

"Most of 13th MEU's Marines joined up after 9/11. They signed up knowing they would go in harm's way," said Coffman. "I am sure the Marines who earned their GWOTEM today see it as a fulfillment of the commitment they made when they volunteered to serve in the global war on terrorism."

The one-time award is given to those service members who served in a pre-designated specific geographical area, by the Department of Defense, for 30 consecutive or 60 nonconsecutive days in support of global war on terrorism Operations on or after September 11, 2001.

Coffman said, "13th MEU Marines and sailors earned this award as a sea-based Marine Air-Ground Task Force, forward deployed into the critical theater of operations for our time, United States Central Command. We are here as the theater reserve for the USCENTCOM Commander, which means we are ready, relevant, and responsive to his needs as he prosecutes the global war on terrorism across this region. We are always just a phone call away from moving immediately into decisive combat operations."

Coffman reminded the Marines and sailors that they are war fighters who came from afar to support operations against terrorism.

"I am tremendously proud of the work we have done so far and especially of the agility and adaptability of this MEU to a dynamic operating environment and unique mission sets, while still remaining true to our enduring focus as a sea-based MAGTF," he said.

The 13th MEU and Boxer Amphibious Ready Group are currently in the fifth month of their deployment in support of regional and Maritime Security Operations. The MEU is embarked on USS Boxer, USS Comstock, and USS New Orleans and consists of Battalion Landing Team 1/1, Combat Logistics Battalion 13, and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced).

Posted by sr at 8:43 AM | Permalink

Members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit’s battalion landing team became the first Marines to train at a joint Bulgarian-American base.

http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/06/marine_22meu_bulgaria_060309w/

Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 16:52:22 EDT

Marines from Kilo Company, BLT 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, wrapped up a weeklong training evolution Monday at the Nova Selo Training Area in Sliven, Bulgaria, according to a MEU release.

The company used the base to conduct small-arms training, land navigation, patrolling and military operations in urban terrain. At the end of the training, Marines held a squad competition that tested their communication and leadership skills.

The MEU, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., deployed May 15 aboard the ships of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group for a routine, six-month deployment.

Posted by sr at 10:32 PM | Permalink

It is January in Iraq, the evening temperature has dropped below freezing and we’re on another mission, rolling down the highway. I’ve geared up with layers of undergarments for warmth and outerwear for protection: fire-resistant Nomex to keep my skin from turning crispy in flames and body armor to keep the pointy stuff from poking holes in my body. Anyone who rides motorcycles, as I do, knows the value of good protective gear. But I don’t focus on it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07lives-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine

By JUSTIN NEWPORT
Published: June 2, 2009

This is my job: Standing behind a machine gun in an up-armored truck. The squad escorts trucks between bases, and then back again. It isn’t kicking in doors or training the Iraqi Army. We don’t charge into firefights to save someone’s bacon like cavalry in the Old West. We just drive down miles of road, waiting for someone to try to kill us.

My driver scans the road; the truck commander talks on the radio and tracks our progress. I stare out into space, looking for a muzzle flash, or the signature of a rocket. We have been doing this job for three months, but several of us have known one another for years. For some of us, me included, it’s our second trip over here. Last time, for an entire year, we patrolled the same 15-kilometer radius around our base. Now we travel farther, but it all tends to look the same.

The trip takes hours upon hours. I stand up, absorbing the movement of the truck with my legs until my back hurts too much. Then I sit down on the thin strap of a seat until my butt hurts too much.

Two years ago, during the Wild West days, we would have taken small-arms fire all the way down this road. Now there can be days between even desultory potshots; a week can pass without injuries from an I.E.D. But just because we get attacked less doesn’t mean we won’t get hit in the next few minutes.

Clipped reports flow over the radio. “Three southbound cars in the northbound lane,” says the southern drawl of my roommate in the last truck. Each vehicle commander repeats it as the three cars approach. In between reports, we discuss women, music and weapons. The only verboten subject is booze.

We finally pull into the bigger base with all 40 of our charges and go to midnight chow. There is only one hour during the day when a meal is not being served in this massive place. You can spot us from across the room: fire-resistant uniforms and a blurry look in the eyes. We sit at the same table, like a giant family dinner, and we leave together when we’re done.

Now it has been 14 hours since we started our day. Caffeine and nicotine have their limits, and the trucks we’re escorting are delayed; we have to wait. One hour stretches to two. I try to catch a nap on top of some ammo boxes.

At 0440 our charges are finally ready. Rolling home, we consume canned coffee drinks, energy drinks and sodas. Stay alert, scan your sector. Occasionally I catch myself dipping into thoughts of home; I think about hopping on the bike and screaming up into the hills. But daydreams lead to sleep, and there is no greater sin than to let your friends down.

The country begins to wake up. More cars on the road mean more threats. By the time the sun is fully over the horizon, conversation has dropped off, each soldier fighting his own battle with sleep or caffeine jitters. I really want all of this crap to have meant something, to leave behind a place that is better than when I got here. To leave and then see all the hours of boredom, fear, sweat and pain disintegrate into chaos might just drive a man crazy. But staying would probably do the same. Most days I try not to think about it.

“I.E.D., I.E.D., I.E.D.!” comes over the radio. Then I hear an explosion. I swivel to see a black cloud hanging over where the front of the convoy should be, about three or four kilometers ahead. The radio comes alive. Our lead truck doesn’t report. The convoy commander calls him. The second truck reports that they are still driving; the driver at least can keep the gas pedal down. Then there’s silence that seems to last forever.

“This is Truck 1, we’re all O.K.” A short pause. “Just another day at the office.” My driver lets out an audible sigh. He has known that crew for years. I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Then we get back to work because we still have about an hour left on the road.

“O.K.” turns out to be an overstatement; there are concussions and blast damage. But they’re right: all in all it is just another day at the office, and tomorrow will be another one, and after that still more. Someday this unit will go home; someday all of us will leave. But you can’t focus on that. You can only focus on today.

Justin Newport is serving his second tour of duty in Iraq with his California National Guard unit.

Posted by sr at 1:34 PM | Permalink

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Visiting the Great Wall of China is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63019

Photos:
http://www.stripes.com/articlephoto.asp?section=104&article=63019&photo=1&count=2

By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, June 1, 2009

It was for Capt. David Dixon, even if much of that experience is a little shrouded in the physical pain of running the Great Wall of China Marathon.

"It was certainly the hardest and most grueling physical accomplishment of my life," he said.

Dixon, 29, described the experience in a phone interview and an e-mail exchange with Stripes.

Just three days before the race, Dixon and Capt. Josh Miller, 27, hiked up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

"Iwo Jima was a tough and emotional seven-mile hike," he said. "I’m certain that it hurt our marathon performance, but I’m glad we did it. It was a piece of our Marine Corps heritage that I will never forget."

Taut with soreness and excitement, they both had trouble sleeping the night before the race, Dixon said.

And an early-morning wake-up call — the runners had to drive 2½ hours from Beijing and be at the race’s starting point by 6:15 a.m. — certainly didn’t help, Dixon said.

Walking along the "goat trails" sections of the wall to get to the starting line was "like Interstate 5 in San Diego during rush hour traffic" as you could only walk through one at a time, Dixon said.

As the race began, Dixon, Miller and Capt. Adam Gable, all pilots with the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 on Okinawa, waited about 20 minutes for the line to move.

"This was the only time during the race that I truly got to take in the wall, scenery and experience for its sheer awesomeness," Dixon said. "Most of the memories of the rest of the race are obscured by the physical pain I was in."

Only about six miles of the 26.2-mile race course was atop the wall; the rest wound through the small rural village near the wall.

"It was a surreal and almost overwhelming feeling to run a marathon on one of the seven wonders of the world," Dixon said. "The most exciting and maybe the most rewarding part of the race were the hundreds of local villagers who came out to cheer on and encourage the runners."

Despite drinking and eating throughout the race, Dixon still suffered severe muscle cramps in his quadriceps and abdomen.

During the last two miles, Dixon said, he suffered cramps in his right leg with every step.

"I pretty much dragged my right leg across the finish line," he said.

Though Dixon’s goal was to finish the race in less than six hours, he crossed the finish line in a little more than 6 hours and 18 minutes, 15 minutes after Miller. Gable completed the race in 4 hours and 56 minutes.

Looking back, Dixon said he was under-prepared for the race, because most of his training was done aboard the USS Essex during its two-month deployment this spring.

But training for distance races is how Dixon deals with the stress and tempo of deployments away from family, he said. He ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego two days after he returned from his first deployment to Iraq in 2007. He ran the eight-mile Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot after returning from his second Iraq deployment.

And he plans to keep on running.

His next goal is to run the Boston Marathon. After that, he’ll set his sights on the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland and the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya to achieve his ultimate goal of completing marathons on all seven continents.

Posted by sr at 11:21 PM | Permalink

More than 1,000 Kaneohe Marines became part last week of the 10,000-member Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, which will beef up counterinsurgency operations with Afghan forces in the southwestern part of the country. They will also train local army and police officers.

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090601_isle_marines_join_afghan_force.html

By Gregg K. Kakesako
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 01, 2009

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commanding general of the expeditionary brigade, assumed authority of Marine forces in Helmand province Friday from Col. Duffy White, commanding officer of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Afghanistan. The brigade, also known as Task Force Leatherneck, is responsible for the districts of Now Zad, Washir, Golestan, Delaram and Bakwa.

They are part of the additional 21,000 U.S. troops President Barack Obama is sending to the country this summer to bolster the roughly 40,000 already there as part of the strategy to combat insurgents, train Afghan forces and provide security for the Afghan national elections, scheduled for Aug. 20.

White, who is commander of the Kaneohe-based 3rd Marine Regiment, took more than 250 Marines and sailors from his Windward Oahu command in October to run the task force.

In his new role, White will now serve as commander of the 5,500-member ground force in the expeditionary brigade. White's new command includes three Marine Corps rifle battalions from Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Kaneohe.

Nearly 1,000 Kaneohe Marines and sailors from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, left Hawaii last month and will spend the next seven months under White's command, known as Regimental Combat Team 3. The 2nd Battalion is commanded by Lt. Col. Patrick Cashman.

The Marine Expeditionary Brigade also consists of an aviation element, known as Marine Aircraft Group 40. CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 362, nicknamed the "Ugly Angels," at Kaneohe Bay are part of Group 40.

The Kaneohe helicopter squadron originally deployed to Iraq on Jan. 23 to conduct assault support, logistics and movement of personnel missions. It was given a new mission shortly after arriving in Iraq and sent to Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is where the fight is now," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey A. Hagan, HMH-362's commander, in a Marine Corps news release. "There was a planned drawdown in Iraq and an increasing need for medium lift capabilities in Afghanistan. So we begin making arrangements to move from Al Asad to Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan."

The brigade also has a service and logistics group that includes Kaneohe Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 3.

White, in a Pentagon news release, said his task force was sent to Afghanistan in late 2008 as "a bridging force," to maintain a strong Marine Corps presence in southern Afghanistan.

"My deployment is halfway done," White said, "and as I see it, the best part is about to come. It will be a game changer for this part of the country."

The highest-ranking noncommissioned officer in the new expeditionary brigade is Sgt. Maj. Ernest Hoopii, who is from Maui.

Another 1,000 Marines from Kaneohe's 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, have been deployed to Al Asad in western Iraq since April. They replaced 900 Marines and sailors from 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, which served on Task Force Military Police providing security operations throughout the region. The recent deployment was the unit's second as a full battalion.

Posted by sr at 11:02 PM | Permalink

Lance Corporal Matthew Gregory Reza Lance Corporal Matthew Gregory Reza, age 27, died Sunday, May 31, 2009, near Khandahar province, Afghanistan, while serving his country as a member of the United States Marine Corps.

http://www.legacy.com/statesman/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=128057805

To View/Sign Guest Book:
http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=3625080455629

Matthew was born on September 23, 1981, in Austin, Texas, to Richard and Sharon Reza. He attended AISD schools and Austin Community College before enlisting in the Marines in 2007. Prior to joining the Marines, Matthew had a rewarding experience working at Hope House, a residential facility for children with special needs, and often spoke about advancing his education and career in social work after his tour of duty. After meeting in San Diego, Matthew wed Sarah Benway on February 16, 2008. The newlyweds led an active life in California, North Carolina, and South Carolina until Matthew's deployment in March 2009. Matthew will be readily remembered for his engaging personality, singular independence, exceptional sense of humor, and kind heart. To many he was a loyal friend and capable mentor, proficient at handling difficult situations with either his resourceful mind or engaging smile. To older family members, Matthew was the first grandchild, an "old soul" of exceptional intelligence who often discussed topics beyond his years. His younger sister and best friend, Stephanie Peek, to whom he was fiercely devoted, especially loved him. Stephanie's "hero" was a genuinely loving person who often put her needs, and those of many others, before his. Matthew is survived by his wife, Sarah Reza of Beaufort, South Carolina; mother, Sharon Reza; sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie and Joshua Peek of Austin, Texas; father, Richard; brother, Richard (Ricky); and sister, Emily Reza of Lansing, Michigan; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins of Austin, Texas. The family will receive friends from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, 2009, at Cook- Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home located at 6300 West William Cannon Drive, Austin, Texas, 78749. Funeral Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2009, in the Chapel of Cook-Walden/ Forest Oaks. The family has established a memorial website at www.MeM. com Please visit Matthew's site to view photos, tributes, sign the online guestbook and leave voice greetings.

Posted by sr at 12:47 PM | Permalink