|
| TO OUR SOLDIERS AND VETERANS |
|
| THANK YOU FOR KEEPING US FREE |
Verified on Snopes…check it out
"I'm Tired"
Two weeks ago, as I
was starting my sixth month of duty in Iraq, I was forced to return to the USA for surgery for an injury I sustained prior to my deployment. With luck, I'll
return to Iraq to finish my tour.
I
left Baghdad and a war that has every indication that we are
winning, to return to a demoralized country much like the one I returned to in 1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Maybe it's because I'll turn 60 years old in just four months, but I'm
tired:
I'm tired of spineless politicians, both Democrat and Republican who lack the courage, fortitude, and
character to see these difficult tasks through.
I'm tired of the hypocrisy of politicians who want to rewrite history
when the going gets tough.
I'm tired of the disingenuous clamor from those that claim they 'Support the Troops'
by wanting them to 'Cut and Run' before victory is achieved.
I'm tired of a mainstream media that can only focus on
car bombs and casualty reports because they are too afraid to leave the safety of their hotels to report on the courage and
success our brave men and women are having on the battlefield.
I'm tired that so many Americans think you can rebuild
a dictatorship into a democracy over night.
I'm tired that so many ignore the bravery of the Iraqi people to go to
the voting booth and freely elect a Constitution and soon a permanent Parliament.
I'm tired of the so called 'Elite
Left' that prolongs this war by giving aid and comfort to our enemy, just as they did during the Vietnam War.
I'm tired
of antiwar protesters showing up at the funerals of our fallen soldiers. A family who's loved ones gave their life in a just
and noble cause, only to be cruelly tormented on the funeral day by cowardly protesters is beyond shameful.
I'm tired
that my generation, the Baby Boom -- Vietnam generation,
who have such a weak backbone that they can't stomach seeing the difficult tasks through to victory.
I'm tired that
some are more concerned about the treatment of captives than they are the slaughter and beheading of our citizens and allies.
I'm
tired that when we find mass graves it is seldom reported by the press, but mistreat a prisoner and it is front page news.
Mostly,
I'm tired that the people of this great nation didn't learn from history that there is no substitute for Victory.
Sincerely,
Joe
Repya,
Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Army
101st Airborne Division
Please send to all your e-mail friends
This
needs to get all over the U S A. | | |
March 29, 2007
Wounded
Warrior Assistance Act Passes House
Bill Ensures
Troops Experience the Seamless Transition They Deserve
Washington,
D.C. - On Wednesday, the House passed H.R. 1538, the
Wounded Warriors
Assistance Act of 2007. This legislation is a cooperative effort between
the House Armed Services Committee and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee
to address the problems facing wounded service members and to improve their
transition from the military to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Our test as a Congress and as a nation is how we are going to respond to the problems we have learned about in military and veterans' health care," said Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Bob Filner (D-CA). "The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act is a great first step towards providing a 'seamless transition' between active duty and veterans' status: one physical evaluation for both exit (from active duty) and entrance (to VA system) and one system for electronic health care records."
The Wounded Warrior Assistance Act provides the people, training, and oversight
mechanisms needed to ensure that our wounded warriors feel secure that they
will always receive committed quality care and that the system will not
fail them. The legislation also sets the stage for much needed reform of
administrative processes that will restore member confidence in the integrity
and efficiency of the disability evaluation system and begin the process
of achieving a truly seamless transition of service members to the Department
of Veterans Affairs programs. "The House Armed Services Committee
has worked closely with the House Veterans' Affairs Committee to develop
this legislation, and I am grateful that this cooperation allowed us to
bring this bill before the House so quickly," said Chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton (D-MO). "House approval of the Wounded
Warriors Assistance Act is an important first step, but more work will need
to be done. In the days ahead, both of our committees will have the opportunity
to take a more
comprehensive look at the challenges service members and their
families face during recovery."
The text of the legislation can be found at
http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.01538:
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Keith
Dailey
Friday, March 23, 2007
614-644-0957/614 506-4949
Keith.Dailey@governor.ohio.gov
Strickland Statement on the "Rest In Peace Act" Columbus, Ohio - Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today issued the
following statement regarding the United States District Court decision that the fixed barrier provision of the "Let Them
Rest in Peace Act" is constitutional. Strickland filed an amicus brief in support of the statute 2006.
"The families and loved ones of our honorable service men and women have earned the right
to pay their last respects in peace and security. Just as we honor the expression of free speech, we must also honor
the sacredness of funerals and the sacrifices of our soldiers and their families. I am heartened by the court's decision
today, which protects families from disrespectful and hateful protests and honors the memories of our soldiers."
The
United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, decided today that a fixed buffer zone to protect
the sacredness of funerals and burials is constitutional.
Subject: From the Walter Reed Hospital Chaplain
I
have had enough and am going to give my perspective on the news about Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Please understand that
I am speaking for myself and I am responsible for my thoughts alone. The news media and politicians are making it sound like
Walter Reed is a terrible place and the staff here has been abusing our brave wounded soldiers; what a bunch of bull!
I
am completing my 24th year of service in the Army next month so you decide for yourself if I have the experience to write
about this topic. I have been the senior clinical chaplain at Walter Reed for four years and will leave to go back to the
infantry this summer. I supervise the chaplain staff inside Walter Reed that cares for the 200 inpatients, the 650+ daily
outpatients from the war who come to us for medical care, the 4000+ staff, and over 3000 soldiers and their families that
come for clinical appointments daily. Walter Reed has cared for over 5500 wounded from the war. I cannot count the number
of sick and non-battle injured that have come through over that timeframe. The staff at this facility has done an incredible
job at the largest US military medical center with the worst injured of the war. We have cared for
over 400 amputees and their families. I am privileged to serve the wounded, their families, and our staff.
When
the news about building 18 broke I was on leave. I was in shock when the news broke. We in the chaplains office in Walter
Reed, as well as the majority of people at Walter Reed, did not know anyone was in building 18. I didn't even know we had
a building 18. How can that happen? Walter Reed is over 100 acres of 66 buildings on two installations. Building 18 is not
on the installation of Walter Reed and was believed to be closed years ago by our department. The fact that some leaders in
the medical brigade that is in charge of the outpatients put soldiers in there is terrible. That is why the company commander,
first sergeant, and a group of platoon leaders and platoon sergeants were relieved immediately. They failed their soldiers
and the Army. The commanding general was later relieved (more about this) and his sergeant major has been told to move on--if
he gets to. The brigade sergeant major was relieved and more relief's are sure to come and need to. As any leader knows, if
you do not take care of soldiers, lie, and then try to cover it up, you are not worthy of the commission you hold and should
be sent packing. I have no issue, and am actually proud, that they did relieve the leaders they found who knew of the terrible
conditions some of our outpatients were enduring. The media is making it sound like these conditions are rampant at Walter
Reed and nothing could be further from the truth. We need improvements and will now get them. I hate it that it took this
to make it happen.
The Army and the media made MG Weightman, our CG, out to be the problem and fired him. This
was a great injustice. He was only here for six months, is responsible for military medical care in the 20 Northeast states,
wears four "hats" of responsibilities, and relies on his subordinate leaders to know what is happening in their areas of responsibilities.
He has a colonel that runs the hospital (my hospital commander), a colonel that runs the medical brigade (where the outpatient
wounded are assigned and supposedly cared for), and a colonel that is responsible to run the garrison and installation. What
people don't know is that he was making many changes as he became aware of them and had requested money to fix other places
on the installation. The Army did not come through until four months after he asked for the money, remember that he was here
only six months, which was only days before they relieved him. His leaders responsible for outpatient care did not tell him
about conditions in building 18. He has been an incredible leader who really cares about the wounded, their families, and
our staff. I cannot say the same about a former commander, who was my first commander here at Walter Reed, and definitely
knew about many problems and is in the position to fix them and he did not. MG Weightman also should not be held responsible
for the military's unjust and inefficient medical board system and the problems in the VA system. We lost a great leader and
passionate man who showed he had the guts to make changes and was doing so when he was made the scapegoat for others.
What I am furious about is that the media is making it sound like all of Walter Reed is like building 18. Nothing
could be further from the truth. No system is perfect but the medical staff provides great care in this hospital. What needs
to be addressed, and finally will, is the bureaucratic garbage that all soldiers are put through going into medical boards
and medical retirements. Congress is finally giving the money that people have asked for at Walter Reed for years to fix places
on the installations and address shortcomings. What they don't want you to know is Congress caused many problems by the BRAC
process saying they were closing Walter Reed. We cannot keep nor attract all the quality people we need at Walter Reed when
they know this place will close in several years and they are not promised a job at the new hospital. Then they did this thing
call A76 where they fired many of the workers here for a company of contractors, IAP, to get a contract to provide care outside
the hospital proper. The company, which is responsible for maintenance, only hired half the number of people as there were
originally assigned to maintenance areas to save money. Walter Reed leadership fought the A76 and BRAC process for years but
lost. Congress instituted the BRAC and A76 process; not the leadership of Walter Reed.
What I wish everyone would
also hear is that for every horror story we are now hearing about in the media that truly needs to be addressed, you are not
hearing about the hundreds of other wounded and injured soldiers who tell a story of great care they received. You are not
hearing about the incredibly high morale of our troops and the fact that most of them want to go back, be with their teammates,
and finish the job properly. You should be very proud of the wounded troopers we have at Walter Reed. They make me so proud
to be in the Army and I will fight to get their story out.
I want you to hear the whole story because
our wounded, their families, our Army, and the nation need to know that many in the media and select politicians have an agenda.
Forget agendas and make the changes that have been needed for years to fix problems in every military hospital and the VA
system. The poor leaders will be identified and sent packing and good riddance to them. I wish the same could be said for
the politicians and media personalities who are also responsible but now want it to look like they are very concerned. Where
have they been for the last four years? I am ashamed of what they all did and the pain it has caused many to think that everyone
is like that. Please know that you are not hearing the whole story. Please know that there are thousands of dedicated soldiers
and civilian medical staff caring for your soldiers and their families. When I leave here I will end up deploying. When soldiers
in my division have to go to Walter Reed from the battlefield, I know they will get great medical care. I pray that you know
the same thing. God bless all our troops and their families wherever they may be. God bless you all,
+Chaplain
John L. Kallerson
Senior Chaplain Clinician
Walter Reed Army
Medical Center
4,000 welcome 105
members of 612th Engineer Battalion at Norwalk High
SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal
Writer
01/08/2006
NORWALK -- Their
desert tan boots were scuffed and their light-colored combat uniforms were out of place yesterday in the Ohio winter, but
Charlie Company of the 612th Engineer Battalion was happy to be home. The 105 members of the Ohio National Guard received a thundering
welcome from an estimated crowd of 4,000 in the Norwalk High School gymnasium.
After a year in Baghdad, guarding prisoners and looking
for bombs, the returning veterans will enjoy 60 days of freedom before reporting for duty one weekend a month in Ohio. Command Sgt. Major Paul Trickett,
37, said the troops had returned to Norwalk just an hour before the festivities began at the high school.
''Our main job was
route clearance and building checkpoints for the Iraqi security forces,'' said Tricket. ''We also built detention internment
facilities to hold prisoners on their way through the Iraq justice system. We were in Baghdad for about a year, and in that time we found over 300 explosive devices
of all forms and fashions.''
Trickett said the 612th Battalion lost only one soldier, Spc. Jeremy M. Hodge, of Ridgeway,
Ohio. Hodge was a member of Bravo Company.
''I'm really proud of these guys,'' said Trickett. ''To do the dangerous
job we had over there and lose only one soldier speaks volumes to the dedication these soldiers had to keeping each other
safe.''
The welcoming ceremony was led by Capt. Mike Chastain of the Ohio National Guard.
''This is a great day for the families and the
community,'' said Chastain. ''We all hold each other a little tighter and appreciate each other a little more.''
A
moment of silence was observed during the ceremony to honor Hodge. Representatives of Senators Voinovich and DeWine and Representative
Paul Gillmor (R-5th Dist.) read aloud letters of praise from the representatives. As the battalions' achievements were described,
the crowd gave several standing ovations.
During a break in the ceremonies, Sgt. Ean Esposito, 22, and his fiancee
Crystal Moga, 21, were inseparable.
''It's good to be back, but it hasn't sunk in yet,'' said Esposito. ''We got engaged
just before I left, in November 2004. I bought a cell phone over in Iraq, and spent about $4,000 on calls. I called her just about every day, most
times just to say I was safe. Some days we actually got to talk a while.''
Moga was keeping a tight hold on her soldier.
''I
love having him home,'' she said through a big smile. ''That was the longest year ever.''
Sgt Josh Weisenberger, 27,
looked forward to being reacquainted with his wife Holly, 25, and their three children.
''The kids are very excited,''
said Holly Weisenberger. ''We've been counting the days, and Brandon got himself a uniform just like daddy.''
Weisenberger said he
will return to his pre-war profession of heavy highway construction. His parents Tim and Peggy Weisenberger were relieved
to have their boy home.
''It's been an emotional roller coaster this year,'' said Peggy Weisenberger. ''The day he
left was horrible. I had a feeling of helplessness -- he was going and I couldn't do anything about it. Holly and the kids
stayed with us while he was away. Having the kids was a reminder of Josh, and they helped us get through it. Having him back
is the greatest feeling in the world.''
sallyn@morningjournal.co
This is directly from the horses mouths - from our troops in Iraq - please pass along.
This is
not very long, but very informative. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece, then ask yourself how anyone
can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back
to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979. That alarm
has been ringing for over 25 years.
US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station,
Pensacola, Florida. Here
is a copy of the speech he gave last month (October 2005). It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today
and why this action is so necessary.
AMERICA
NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed) and maybe
it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and
we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was
a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian
students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran.
This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage
and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S.
embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the
Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose
to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America 's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and down sized/right
sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute
a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle
East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working
abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In
April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US
Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
The alarm went off again and America hit
the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with
over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine
Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US
servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two
months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US
Embassy in Kuwait, and America
continues her slumber.
The following
year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US
Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon
the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented
by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August 1985
a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and
the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later in 1985
a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger
list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight
840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of
war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and
killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The
following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven
into the underground parking garage of the World Trade
Center in New York City.
Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured!
. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a
car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996,
another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force
barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.
They move to coordinate
their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the
port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing
17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a ! US War
Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know
the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first
attack against US soil or in America.
How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze
alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high
official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention
I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to
see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
The President is right on when he says we are engaged in
a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough.
America needs to "Get out! of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make
the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and
roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all we have done is
awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
Support Our
Troops and support President Bush for having the courage, political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him
didn't have the backbone to do, both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election
year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.
I Was There Last Night
By Robert Clark
*The High Ground*
P.O.
Box 457
Neillsville, WI 54456
A couple of years ago someone asked me if I still thought about Vietnam. I
nearly
laughed in their face. How do you stop thinking about it? Every day
for the last twenty-four years, I wake up with it,
and go to bed with it.
But this is what I said. "Yea, I think about it. I can't quit thinking
about it. I never will.
But, I've also learned to live with it. I'm
comfortable with the memories. I've learned to stop trying to forget and
learned
instead to embrace it. It just doesn't scare me anymore."
A psychologist once told me that NOT being affected by the
experience over
there would be abnormal. When he told me that, it was like he'd just given
me a pardon. It was as
if he said, "Go ahead and feel something about the
place, Bob. It ain't going nowhere. You're gonna wear it for the rest
of
your life. Might as well get to know it."
A lot of my "brothers" haven't been so lucky. For them the memories
are too
painful, their sense of loss too great. My sister told me of a friend she
has whose husband was in the Nam.
She asks this guy when he was there.
Here's what he said, "Just last night." It took my sister a while to figure
out
what he was talking about. JUST LAST NIGHT. Yeah I was in the Nam.
When? JUST LAST NIGHT. During sex with my wife. And
on my way to work
this morning. Over my lunch hour. Yeah, I was there.
My sister says I'm not the same brother
that went to Vietnam. My wife says
I won't let people get close to me, not even her. They are probably both
right.
Ask
a vet about making friends in Nam. It was risky. Why? Because we were
in the business of death, and death was with us
all the time. It wasn't the
death of, "If I die before I wake." This was the real thing. The kind
where boys scream
for their mothers. The kind that lingers in your mind and
becomes more real each time you cheat it. You don't want to
make a lot of
friends when the possibility of dying is that real, that close. When you
do, friends become a liability.
A
guy named Bob Flanigan was my friend. Bob Flanigan is dead. I put him in
a body bag one sunny day, April 29, 1969. We'd
been talking, only a few
minutes before he was shot, about what we were going to do when we got back
in the world.
Now, this was a guy who had come in country the same time as
myself. A guy who was loveable and generous. He had blue
eyes and sandy
blond hair.
When he talked, it was with a soft drawl. Flanigan was a hick and he knew
it. That
was part of his charm. He didn't care. Man, I loved this guy
like the brother I never had. But, I screwed up. I got too
close to him.
Maybe I didn't know any better. But I broke one of the unwritten rules of
war.
DON'T GET CLOSE
TO PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO DIE. Sometimes you can't help it.
You hear vets use the term "buddy" when they refer to
a guy they spent the
war with. "Me and this buddy a mine . . "
"Friend" sounds too intimate, doesn't it. "Friend"
calls up images of being
close. If he's a friend, then you are going to be hurt if he dies, and war
hurts enough without
adding to the pain. Get close; get hurt. It's as
simple as that.
In war you learn to keep people at that distance
my wife talks about. You
become so good at it, that twenty years after the war, you still do it
without thinking.
You won't allow yourself to be vulnerable again.
My wife knows two people who can get into the soft spots inside me.
My
daughters. I know it probably bothers her that they can do this. It's not
that I don't love my wife, I do. She's
put up with a lot from me. She'll
tell you that when she signed on for better or worse she had no idea there
was going
to be so much of the latter. But with my daughters it's
different.
My girls are mine. They'll always be my kids.
Not marriage, not distance,
not even death can change that. They are something on this earth that can
never be taken
away from me. I belong to them. Nothing can change that.
I can have an ex-wife; but my girls can never have an ex-father.
There's
the difference.
I can still see the faces, though they all seem to have the same eyes. When
I think
of us I always see a line of "dirty grunts" sitting on a paddy dike.
We're caught in the first gray silver between darkness
and light. That
first moment when we know we've survived another night, and the business of
staying alive for one
more day is about to begin. There was so much hope in
that brief space of time. It's what we used to pray for. "One more
day,
God. One more day."
And I can hear our conversatioins as if they'd only just been spoken. I
still hear
the way we sounded, the hard cynical jokes, our morbid senses of
humor. We were scared to death of dying, and trying our
best not to show
it.
I recall the smells, too. Like the way cordite hangs on the air after a
fire-fight. Or
the pungent odor of rice paddy mud. So different from the
black dirt of Iowa. The mud of Nam smells ancient, somehow.
Like it's
always been there. And I'll never forget the way blood smells, stick and
drying on my hands. I spent a long
night that way once. That memory isn't
going anywhere.
I remember how the night jungle appears almost dream like
as the pilot of a
Cessna buzzes overhead, dropping parachute flares until morning. That
artifical sun would flicker
and make shadows run through the jungle. It was
worse than not being able to see what was out there sometimes. I remember
once looking at the man next to me as a flare floated overhead. The shadows
around his eyes were so deep that it looked
like his eyes were gone. I
reached over and touched him on the arm; without looking at me he touched
my hand. "I know
man. I know." That's what he said. It was a human
moment. Two guys a long way from home and scared sh"tless.
"I
know man." And at that moment he did.
God I loved those guys. I hurt every time one of them died. We all did.
Despite
our posturing. Despite our desire to stay disconnected, we couldn't
help ourselves. I know why Tim O'Brien writes his
stories. I know what
gives Bruce Weigle the words to create poems so honest I cry at their
horrible beauty. It's love.
Love for those guys we shared the experience
with.
We did our jobs like good soldiers, and we tried our best not
to become as
hard as our surroundings. We touched each other and said, "I know." Like a
mother holding a child in
the middle of a nightmare, "It's going to be all
right." We tried not to lose touch with our humanity. We tried to walk
that line. To be the good boys our parents had raised and not to give into
that unnamed thing we knew was inside us
all.
You want to know what frightening is? It's a nineteen-year-old-boy who's
had a sip of that power over life
and death that war gives you. It's a boy
who, despite all the things he's been taught, knows that he likes it. It's
a
nineteen-year-old who's just lost a friend, and is angry and scared and,
determined that, "Some *@#*s gonna pay." To this
day, the thought of that
boy can wake me from a sound sleep and leave me staring at the ceiling.
As I write this,
I have a picture in from of me. It's of two young men. On
their laps are tablets. One is smoking a cigarette. Both stare
without
expression at the camera. They're writing letters. Staying in touch with
places they would rather be. Places
and people they hope to see again.
The picture shares space in a frame with one of my wife. She doesn't mind.
She
knows she's been included in special company. She knows I'll always
love those guys who shared thatr part of my life,
a part she never can. And
she understands how I feel about the ones I know are out there yet. The
ones who still answer
the question, "When were you in Vietnam?"
"Hey, man. I was there just last night."
Respectfully,
Joseph A. Jennings III
Exec. Dir.
VVA "BUCKEYE" State
Council
"For those that have fought for it, ' FREEDOM
' has a flavor the protected will never know"
Lynn
Ischay / The Plain Dealer
The Brook Park company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, disembarks at the IX Jet
Center.
Bittersweet
return to Brook Park
Battered and in mourning, Ohio battalion comes home
Thomas
J. Sheeran
The Associated Press
BROOK PARK — Family members with relatives in a Marine Corps battalion that lost 48 members in Iraq cheered
loudly Thursday as the unit finished its trip home.
Thousands of people lined a one-mile parade route from Cleveland
Hopkins International Airport to welcome back the 160 Marines of Headquarters & Service Company of the 3rd
Battalion, 25th Marines.
The parade route led to a recreation center where the Marines could enjoy private reunions with
friends and family anxiously awaiting their return.
“You don’t really realize what we have until it’s
gone,” said Melissa Schlabach, 25, of Canton, who brought her 2½-year old son, Josh, to welcome home her brother, Cpl.
Brent Monastra, 23, of Canton. “I’m really excited to see him. Growing up with him you don’t realize what
you have until he’s not around.”
The Marines’ fallen comrades were on their minds as they returned.
“It’s really sad, I lost a lot of good friends,” said Lance Cpl. Jason Woodliff, 23, of Massillon, who served in Iraq with his brother, Johel Woodliff, 20.
“There’s nothing else you
can do but come back and lead a normal life and think of them as you go along,” Jason Woodliff said.
Lance Cpl.
Nick Kehl, 23, of Berea, said the deaths made the homecoming
difficult.
“It’s really hard losing guys,” he said.
The battalion commander, Col. Lionel B. Urquhart,
thanked family members during a brief ceremony at the recreation center, saying their support was important to the Marines
while they served overseas.
“We couldn’t have done it without you,” he said. “You lifted our spirits
when our spirits needed to be lifted.”
Brook Park police estimated the parade crowd
at more than 5,000.
The caravan of Marines was escorted by a more than 70 civilian motorcycles plus police cars, fire
trucks and an ambulance with sirens sounding and lights flashing.
The Marines saluted the flags held by a color guard
at the recreation center. Some carried their bags. One walked with a crutch.
Lance Cpl. Eric Montgomery, whose brother
Lance Cpl. Brian Montgomery, 26, of Willoughby, was killed while the two served in Iraq, worked at the homecoming directing relatives and Marines into the recreation center’s parking
lot.
“Right now, it’s just bittersweet,” Montgomery said. “I can’t wait to
see these guys get home so bad. I love these guys.”
Montgomery escorted his brother’s body
home in early August.
“There’s a part of me wishes my brother was coming home with them and that I was coming
home with them because I was looking forward to that,” he said. “But I’m home now and I just can’t
wait to give these guys the welcome they deserve because they’re all heroes.”
The battalion’s deaths
included 14 Marines killed in back-to-back attacks within a week during the summer. Another 150 unit members were wounded.
The battalion has about 900 members.
Homecomings are planned Friday for battalion units based in Akron and Columbus. The battalion also has
units in Buffalo,
N.Y., and
Moundsville,
W.Va.
A separate arrival ceremony was held in early afternoon
for Beans, the puppy adopted by Cpl. Jeff Boskovitch, 25, of North
Royalton, and fellow Marines. Iraqi villagers sold the puppy for a quarter and three jelly beans and she became the unit’s
mascot.
Boskovitch was killed in Iraq on Aug. 1 and his mother, Kathy Wright,
asked the Marine Corps to fly the dog here to live with her. It had been her son’s wish to bring her home.
Columbus
Mayor Michael Coleman, whose son Lance Cpl. John David “J.D.” Coleman, 20, returns Friday, said the family is
thrilled. “This is a special moment for the family, a special moment for every family that is receiving their children
back,” he said.
The menu for the Coleman homecoming? “Barbecue ribs,” the mayor said. “I’m
maybe the best rib cooker in America. I don’t know if he wants mine or somebody else’s. He hasn’t specified. What
he wants is some home cookin’.”
Lorain County Marine is arriving today
Cindy Leise
The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — Leonard and Bonnie Groboske doubted they could sleep last
night.
They wondered whether their daughter-in-law Laura would be closing her eyes either.
Their son and Laura’s
husband, Lance Cpl. Jason Groboske, was expected to return home today after surviving a tour in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines.
“It’s like Christmas
in October,” Leonard Groboske said.
Many fellow Marines did not come home. His son’s reserve battalion was
one of the hardest-hit in Iraq, losing 48 members.
Groboske was among the Marines who recovered the bodies of six fellow Marines killed while on patrol 50 miles from the
Syrian border in northwest Iraq, according to his
father.
Five of the dead snipers were inside a house. The body of the sixth Marine was found across a river.
“Jason
said, ‘We were in radio contact with them and then we lost radio contact, so we had to go find them,’ ”
his father said.
“That must have been rough — I hope he’s over that,” Leonard Groboske said, shaking
his head in sorrow.
Jason Groboske, 30, an activities supervisor for the Elyria Parks and Recreation Department, was activated in early January.
He was a newlywed at the time.
Shortly after arriving in Iraq, Jason and other Marines were stationed near Haditha Dam,
where insurgent mortar attacks were a daily occurrence.
“They intercepted vehicles and tried to stop terrorists from coming in,” Leonard Groboske said. “They
stopped a car with $60,000 in it —apparently the money was going to be used to pay off suicide bombers.”
He
said his son narrowly escaped injury several times when mortar rounds rained from the sky and improvised explosive devices
detonated nearby.
Fortunately, his son was assigned a really good flak jacket, Leonard Groboske said.
While on patrol,
he said his son was the top gunner in a Humvee, manning a 50-caliber gun and M-19 grenade-launcher.
For months, the Groboske
family and city employees have been following the progress of Jason’s battalion on a Web site, www.redrupusmc.com.
Many
writings and photos were sad, telling the stories of young men who would never step out of a plane into the loving arms of
family and friends.
Leonard Groboske, himself a Marine in Vietnam, said his son’s friends, family
and co-workers “had him covered with prayer.”
While they are happy for Jason’s return, they mourn for
the lost, he said.
“I’m sure those people were praying their knees off too,” he said.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends and
marine brothers and sisters of the fine men lost recently in Iraq from the 3/25 stationed in Brook Park, Ohio.
UNIT HISTORY
The 25th Marine Regiment is a command that stretches across most of the Northeastern United States. Regimental
headquarters is located in Worcester, Massachusetts, and its battalions are located throughout the region. First Battalion
is located at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts; Second Battalion is headquartered in Garden City, New York; and Third Battalion
in Brookpark, Ohio.
The 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines also stretches across a vast area. Headquarters & Service
Company is situated in Brookpark, Ohio; India Company is located in Buffalo, New York; Kilo Company is the southernmost, head
quartered in Moundsville, West Virginia; Lima Company is located in Columbus, Ohio; and Weapons Company is located in Akron,
Ohio.
The Marines of the 25th Marine Regiment have distinguished themselves since their activation on May 1, 1943.
The 25th fought in the battles of Saipan, Tinian, Kwajalein Atoll, and Iwo Jima. In 1945 the Regiment was
deactivated. World War II had ended. On July 1, 1962 the 25th was reactivated as a Marine Corps Reserve
Unit. This proud Regiment has continued to train in “every clime and place” for its important role in the
defense of our nation.
The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines have a distinguished reputation. During the battle
for Iwo Jima, our battalion was tasked with the securing of Airfield One, then further tasked with pushing northward into
the heart of the Japanese defenses. Colonel Justice Marino Chambers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his
actions as the Commander of 3/25 during the battle of Iwo Jima. His citation reads, in part, that while “exposed
to relentless fire, he coolly reorganized his battle-weary men, inspiring them to heroic efforts by his own valor and in leading
an attack on the critical, impregnable high ground.” His medals are displayed in the trophy case located at H&S
Brookpark, Ohio.
The Marines of the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines have distinguished themselves recently as well.
During Operation Desert Storm, the Marines of 3/25 were called to active duty to support operations conducted in Southwest
Asia. Although the Marines of 3/25 did not deploy to Southwest Asia, they played a key role by participating in other
operation the Marine Corps was committed to support. Marines from 3/25 found themselves in Norway, Panama, and Honduras.
The tradition of excellence continues!
In addition every year, 3/25 and others,
participates in an (AT) Annual training Exercise. These training exercises have taken the unit to North Carolina, California,
Wisconsin, Alaska, Norway, Aruba and West Africa (WATC), Curacao (Dutch Bi-lat), Israel and Peru (Unitas).
Copied from http://www.mfr.usmc.mil/4thmardiv/25thmar/3dbn/cok/historypage.htm
Some Creditors Make Illegal Demands on Active-Duty Soldiers
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Sgt. John J. Savage III, an Army reservist, was about to climb onto a troop transport plane for a flight to Iraq
from Fayetteville, N.C., when his wife called with alarming
news: "They're foreclosing on our house."
Sergeant Savage recalled, "There was not a thing I could do; I had to jump on the plane and boil for 22 hours."
He had reason to be angry. A longstanding federal law strictly limits the ability of his mortgage company and other
lenders to foreclose against active-duty service members.
But Sergeant Savage's experience was not unusual. Though statistics are scarce, court records and interviews with
military and civilian lawyers suggest that Americans heading off to war are sometimes facing distracting and demoralizing
demands from financial companies trying to collect on obligations that, by law, they cannot enforce.
Some cases involve nationally prominent companies like Wells Fargo and Citigroup, though both say they are committed
to strict compliance with the law.
The problem, most military law specialists say, is that too many lenders, debt collectors, landlords, lawyers and
judges are unaware of the federal statute or do not fully understand it.
The law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, protects all active-duty military families from foreclosures, evictions
and other financial consequences of military service. The Supreme Court has ruled that its provisions must "be liberally construed
to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation."
Yet the relief act has not seemed to work in recent cases like these:
¶At Fort Hood, Tex., a soldier's wife was sued
by a creditor trying to collect a debt owed by her and her husband, who was serving in Baghdad
at the time. A local judge ruled against her, saying she had defaulted, even though specialists say the relief act forbids
default judgments against soldiers serving overseas and protects their spouses as well.
¶At Camp Pendleton, Calif., more than a dozen
marines returned from Iraq to find that their cars and other
possessions had been improperly sold to cover unpaid storage and towing fees. The law forbids such seizures without a court
order.
¶In northern Ohio, Wells Fargo served a young Army couple with foreclosure papers despite the wife's repeated efforts
to negotiate new repayment terms with the bank. Wells Fargo said later that it had been unaware of the couple's military status.
The foreclosure was dropped after a military lawyer intervened.
Little-Known Legislation
The relief act provides a broad spectrum of protections to service members, their spouses and their dependents. The
interest rate on debts incurred before enlistment, for example, must be capped at 6 percent if military duty has reduced a
service member's family income.
The law also protects service members from repossession or foreclosure without a court order. It allows them to terminate
any real estate lease when their military orders require them to do so. And it forbids judges from holding service members
in default on any legal matter unless the court has first appointed a lawyer to protect their interests.
The law is an updated version of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act, which was adopted on the eve of World
War II and remained largely unchanged through the Persian Gulf war of 1991. But in July 2001, a federal court ruled that service
members could sue violators of the relief act for damages. And the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 prompted Congress to take
up a long-deferred Pentagon proposal to update the old act. The revised statute, clearer and more protective than the old
one, was signed into law in December 2003.
But the news was apparently slow in reaching those who would have to interpret and enforce the law.
"There are 50,000 judges in this country and God knows how many lawyers," said Alexander P. White, a county court
judge in Chicago and the chairman of one of the American Bar Association's military
law committees. "Are people falling down on the job - the judges, the bar, the military? Probably." And broad understanding
of the law "is not going to happen overnight."
Military lawyers, credit industry organizations and some state courts and bar associations have also tried to spread
the word about the new law. But these efforts are not enough, said Col. John S. Odom Jr., retired, of Shreveport,
La., who is a specialist on the act. "What we need is a way to reach Joe Bagadoughnuts
in Wherever, Louisiana," he said. "Because that's where these cases are turning
up."
One reason they are surfacing in unlikely places is the Pentagon's increased reliance on Reserve and National Guard
units that do not hail from traditional military towns, said Lt. Col. Barry Bernstein, the judge advocate general for the
South Carolina National Guard. When these units are called up, he said, their members find themselves facing creditors and
courts that may never have dealt with the relief act.
As a result, some service members heading off to war have confronted exactly the kinds of problems the law was supposed
to prevent. The Coast Guard alone handled more than 300 complaints last year; military law specialists say the numbers are
probably higher in the branches sending troops abroad.
Financial Difficulties
Sergeant Savage's lender eventually dropped its foreclosure against him after receiving repeated warnings from military
lawyers at Fort Bragg, N.C. But damage was done. The foreclosure
dispute remained on his credit history, hurting his ability to revive his struggling wireless Internet connection business
when he returned home to Asheboro, N.C., he said. By then
he had retired on full disability after being seriously injured while working on a sabotaged electrical system at the former
Baghdad Convention Center.
Sergeant Savage has not let the matter end. Represented by Colonel Odom, he has filed a lawsuit in federal court
in Greensboro, N.C. He says the EverHome Mortgage Company,
a unit of the EverBank Financial Corporation in Jacksonville, Fla.,
violated the relief act by failing to cap his mortgage at 6 percent, wrongfully initiating foreclosure and, after dropping
the foreclosure, failing to remove information about it from his credit history.
The mortgage company denied that it violated the act or treated Sergeant Savage unfairly. His case "has unique and
extenuating circumstances" that will be raised when the dispute comes to trial, Michael C. Koster, EverHome's president, said
in a written statement.
"We are confident that court documents will reveal that EverBank treated Mr. Savage equitably and worked diligently
to resolve this matter," Mr. Koster said.
Extent of Coverage
When Sgt. Michael Gaskins of Fort Hood, Tex.,
was sent to Iraq last April, his wife, Melissa, was left to
cope with a dispute over a delinquent loan from the Tallahassee Memorial
Hospital credit union; the couple took out the loan just before Sergeant Gaskins
enlisted in November 2001. When the credit union took the couple to court in Texas
last year, a military lawyer at Fort Hood
alerted the local judge that the new relief act required that the case be deferred because Sergeant Gaskins was abroad.
But on Feb. 18, a county court judge in Gatesville, Tex.,
ruled that Mrs. Gaskins had lost the case by default. She was ordered to pay the credit union more than $6,000 and turn over
the family truck, which secured the loan. Colonel Odom, who is also representing the couple, is trying to have the default
judgment overturned, in part on the ground that the relief act protects spouses as well as service members.
The credit union in Tallahassee, Fla., disputes
that. "It's our position the act does not protect her," said Palmer Williams, a lawyer for the organization. Judge Susan R.
Stephens, the county judge who signed the default judgment, said she did not think that Mrs. Gaskins had ever invoked the
relief act but said she would review the matter when it came before her.
The relief act was also supposed to prevent the kind of situation that the marines returning to Camp
Pendleton faced when they discovered that their cars and other possessions had
been sold to cover towing and storage fees.
"The act says you need a court order to do that, and you can't get a court order without notice to the service member,"
said Maj. Michael R. Renz, director of the joint legal assistance office there. "I've got six attorneys here, and each one
of us has handled at least two or three of these cases within the last eight months."
'I'm Not Sleeping'
Stephen Lynch, a civilian lawyer for the Coast Guard in Cleveland, said
he had stepped in repeatedly over the past year to help service members invoke their rights under the act.
One of them is a young soldier sent to east Asia, leaving a wife and two children at home in northern Ohio.
His periods of unemployment and the death of a newborn daughter last July left the young family struggling financially. Their
situation was aggravated by delays in the processing of his first military paychecks, said Mr. Lynch, who asked that the couple's
name not be used because their debt problems could hurt the soldier's career.
The soldier's wife said she had tried for months to renegotiate their mortgage with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. But
on March 8, just three weeks after paying the bank $3,000 that the U.S.O. had raised on her behalf, she was served with foreclosure
papers.
"I'm having anxiety attacks," the wife said in an interview that night. "I'm not sleeping." She said she was especially
worried about how much to tell her husband. "The other military wives I've spoken to all say, 'Don't let them know you're
upset; don't let them hear you cry.' "
Kevin Waetke, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, said the foreclosure action was dropped as soon as Mr. Lynch contacted
the bank's lawyers. The bank had not known the couple was eligible for relief, he said.
Different Experiences
A Coast Guardsman, Kevin Cornell, was baffled by his experience with Citigroup's credit card unit. When he enlisted,
he had a Citibank card and another from Sears, whose credit card operations Citibank acquired in late 2003. When he applied
last fall to have the interest rates on both cards capped at 6 percent, Citibank did even better: it cut the rate on his pre-enlistment
balance to zero.
But the Sears card was another story; a different Citibank employee refused to make the interest rate cut on that
card retroactive to his date of enlistment, as the new relief act requires. Again, Mr. Lynch intervened. But he said he wondered
how many other service members had been misinformed.
Janis Tarter, a spokeswoman for the bank, said the company's policy was to go beyond the requirements of the relief
act on all its credit cards. "We regret the difficulty that our customer encountered," Ms. Tarter said. "It is not representative
of the level of service we work to provide."
Burden of Enforcement
Some problems that military personnel are confronting suggest that the new law may need more work by Congress. For
example, although mandatory arbitration clauses are becoming increasingly common in credit agreements, arbitration is not
even mentioned in the relief act.
But the biggest problem, both bankers and military lawyers say, is that the enforcement of the act rests initially
on the shoulders of the service members themselves. They must notify their creditors or landlords of their military status
to invoke their rights under the act. It is one more chore for a soldier getting ready for overseas duty, and it often does
not get done properly.
And if a landlord or creditor, out of ignorance or intransigence, refuses to comply with the act, the service member
may not have the time or money to fight back, said Capt. Kevin P. Flood, a retired Navy lawyer.
"Sure, if you take them to court and win, you can even collect damages," Captain Flood said. "But most of our people
are not in that position. They are just regular Joes, and they don't have the money to hire a lawyer."
Copyright
2005 The New York Times Company
Below is from
a letter written by Jason Wacker. Jason is the nephew of Kathy Wacker from Wellington
- she graduated with Tim Cottrell, one of the 98 men from Lorain County who died in Vietnam.
Kathy and her class reunion committee raised about $5,000 for the Lorain County Vietnam Veterans Memorial
If you get a few minutes - drop this fine lad a line or two
HERE'S WHAT JASON HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE IRAQ ELECTIONS:
hello, everything is as good as can be expected
the weather is just as unpredictable as in ohio-just a little warmer. they had a 72% turnout for the election, which
is more than the united states. i was on a mission on election day in bagdad and there were hundreds upon hundreds of
people walking down the streets and highways to go and vote, they were waving and smiling and that really made a difference
on how i felt about the iraqi people(that they support a new beginning) it really made me feel like we are making a difference
here. i have some pictures of the people walking i will email them to you when i get a chance. almost forgot i met heraldo
rivera on election day as well-that was cool. as far as a work schedule we work 24/7 for now. the people are a
pretty good mix of married and singles and it hasnt been alot of time to really make a whole lot buddies, but i have a buddy
from lorain armory that i talk to regulary. my address is as follows:
SGT Wacker, Jason
HHC 612th Engr. Bn.
APO-AE 09344
This link is for an organization where you can send an ecard to a veteran to thank him
or her for their service. You can send a card to someone you know, or send one to a stranger. Nice idea.....I hope you'll
take a minute to say thanks for all that they're doing.
Please pass along
Special thanks to Marion Stanton for this important info!
Please follow the link above to see how you can
help out a squadron with guys from Ohio and PA. please click on the link above
Let's give them something back!
FOR MORE INFO. TO HELP AND SUPPORT OUR TROOPS - THIS IS A MUST VISIT SITE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE CLICK LINK BELOW :
This is a letter from Ray Reynolds, a medic in the Iowa Army National
Guard, serving in Iraq:
As I head off to Baghdad
for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks
to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened.
I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two
week leave back home. And just so you can
rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that
is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq
recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing.)
*
Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
* School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
* Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
* The port
of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
* The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
* Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking
water for the first time ever in Iraq.
* The country
now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
* 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed,
compared to 35% before the war.
* Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
* Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
* Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
* Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
* Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling
the streets side by side with US soldiers.
* Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
* Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
* An interim
constitution has been signed.
* Girls are allowed to attend school.
* Textbooks that don't mention Saddam
are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.
Don't believe
for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many, many people from Iraq
that want us there, and in a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children
will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge
anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts. So If you happen to run into John Kerry, be sure to give him my email
address and send him to Denison, Iowa. This soldier will
set him straight. If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this
to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.
Ray Reynolds, SFC
Iowa Army National
Guard
234th Signal Battalion
 This is a little late for Veterans Day - but think it applies all year
round. Thanks to one of my favorite Aviators....Steve Borden for the following - a MUST READ!
On Veterans Day this Thursday, November 11th we will honor all those service members
and their families that have served and sacrificed before us. We deeply respect and admire the dedication and selfless
service of all combat veterans.
Task Force 185th Aviation would like to dedicate our success here
in to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots that developed the basics of our modern day Army Aviation doctrine. Thanks to our
predecessors we have the most modern high tech aircraft, we have tried and true tactics, techniques and procedures and we
have the proven skills to accomplish our mission. When we arrived in we were more than prepared for the challenge.
In
contrast the helicopter pilots of were young men that went from high school to flight school and then straight to Vietnam/
The average age of a helicopter pilot in Vietnamwas in their early 20's and the concept of helicopters in combat was a novelty.
35 years later, the average age of TF 185th pilots is 34 and the average flight experience is almost 3,000 hours. Despite
their inexperience, the era pilots were fearless and innovative as they adapted and developed ways to utilize the helicopter
in combat. The 185th is mostly a National Guard and Reserve task force. While most Vietnam Veterans have long been retired,
10% of our pilots are "old timers" in their mid 50's. Over the years these veterans along with many others have been our mentors
and role models as we trained and prepared for combat. The enemy in Vietnam was more ferocious, smarter, and dedicated.
Iraqi insurgents are cowards, picking on the innocent or using hit and run tactics to avoid a fight. The Viet Cong may
have used hit and run tactics, but they were deliberate in their prosecution of the war. When in a situation they couldn't
back out of, they fought fiercely.
Shoulder fired man portable anti-aircraft missiles appeared at the end of the Vietnam
War, so the aviators did not have to contend with them for long. What they learned about these new, small heat seeking
missiles was critical to our tactics today. The greatest threat to our aircraft in is encountering new versions of this
man portable anti-aircraft missile. Due to the enemy threat and dense airspace usage here in Iraq detailed and time consuming
mission planning is a way of life. Fortunately we have the computers, software and internet transmitted airspace coordination
means to create computer generated maps and mission data for each flight. We also have GPS navigation systems, long
range radios and complete flight instruments. For protection we only fly in pairs here, while in Vietnam they many times flew
single ship with minimal pre-planning time using only a map and compass. Today in Iraq, safety is paramount to everything
we do. We even say our biggest enemy is ourselves in the form of an accident. We are required to conduct thorough risk analysis
and track our duty time to prevent fatigue. In contrast, Vietnam Vets developed safety procedures only after frequent accidents
or shoot-downs. In addition we also enjoy the tactical advantage of flying "blacked out" at night with Night Vision Goggles
that were not invented back then. But, perhaps the greatest difference between Iraq and Vietnam is the support at home. Today
we enjoy widespread support on the home front. Even those who can't see why we are fighting rarely slander soldiers when they
protest the war. This may be in part due to 9/11, but it is also because our nation remembers the nature of 1960s war protesters,
and their actions toward returning Vietnam Vets. Such conduct is no longer acceptable in mainstream American society.
This quote by Vietnam Veteran CW4 Ronnie Wells makes it clear:"When comparing Vietnam to Iraq, there were a few things that
were painful. First, we went as individuals, not as units. We came and went at different times. We often left in the middle
of the night, coming home to a town that may or may not have known you even left. We were cursed, called baby killers, and
completely disrespected for many years. You, however, are seen as heroes and should receive the accolades you deserve. We
in Task Force 185th have a lot to thank the Aviators of Vietnam for, from their pioneering tactics in Air Mobile Warfare;
to the way they proved what was needed in the way of future aircraft. The burdens they bore both at war and at home have made
our success in Iraq possible. We could write a book about this issue, but not at this time. We ask that you forward this email
to a aviator, crewmember or mechanic and thank them. On this Veterans Day we also want to give a special thanks to our family
members for their sacrifices this year while we serve. Your thoughts, support and prayers are literally a God send. Our families
are now veterans too and they are our heroes!!!Catfish 6 Bradly MacNealy
TF 185th Aviation
"In the Sunni Triangle"
Commanding
bradly.macnealy@us.army.mil
bradly.macnealy@us.army.smil.mil
|
Thursday, June 17, 2004 |
|
Good news (from Iraq) – Soldier’s Story Of Humanity
Sam Fulwood III wrote in June
17’s Plain Dealer about the letter Josh Mandel, a city councilman from Lyndhurst and Marine serving in Iraq, sent his
parents in Beachwood.
Here's the full text of his letter:
May 7, 2004
Dear Mom
& Dad,
Word has reached us about some soldiers who are in trouble for allegedly abusing war prisoners. I don’t
know the details of the situation, but from what we’ve heard, it’s pretty ugly and all over the news. I wanted
to tell you a story about a night in the desert a few weeks ago that you won’t see in the news, but is more representative
of what’s going on over here.
Due to operational security constraints, I can’t go into great detail in
this story, but I think you’ll get the picture.
In the course of my unit’s operations, it’s very
common that suspected bad guys are captured and detained for interrogation. I’m sure the media is making interrogations
out to be bad or wrong, but they are not. Interrogations are a necessary tool to extract intelligence that helps us destroy
the enemy and protect Americans from terrorism.
Sometimes we have a hardened and roofed facility in which detainees
are held and interrogated, but if we are on the move, often times they are placed in whatever temporary detainee area we can
create.
One night last month, we were stopped in the desert outside of Fallujah. We had three detainees under our
control that were captured in the act of doing bad things against Marines. Because we were in the open without any facilities
around, the detainees were temporarily being held on a patch of desert closed off by concertina wire. Besides the wire and
guards watching them, they were out under the stars just like all of our Marines.
Around 3:00 a.m., the wind started blowing
hard and a sandstorm hit our position. As Marines covered themselves with their sleeping bags, the sky opened up and the flying
sand was joined by a downpour of rain. Most of the Marines hopped into vehicles to get some cover.
In the back of a
truck, which was the closest vehicle to the detainees, four Marines were trying to stay dry and get some sleep. The lieutenant
who was in charge of providing security for the detainees approached this truck and opened up the back hatch. He ordered the
Marines out of the truck and told them that they couldn’t stay in there. The Marines asked why and he explained to them
that he had to put the detainees in the back of the truck to protect them from the rain and sand.
Word of this spread
very quickly and everyone was livid. We couldn’t believe that our Marines were being kicked into the sandstorm/rainstorm
so these three detainees, who were caught trying to kill Marines, could stay dry. The next day I was still angry and everyone
was still talking about what had happened that night. Later in the day,after having time to cool down and think about the
situation, I switched from being angry to being proud.
Who else, other than Americans, would kick their own men into
a storm so their enemy could sleep in peace? Who else, other than Americans, feel so strongly about laws and rights that they
would go to such extremes to protect captured terrorists during a war on terrorism?
When these guys are under our
control, they eat better than they do when not in captivity, receive medical attention that they would never otherwise receive,
and are treated like Marines only know how to act -- professionally.
I assume whatever happened with the alleged prisoner
abuse is leading headlines back home, but I wanted to share this story with you, because it’s not one you’ll ever
see in the news. What I’ve described in this letter is indicative of how my unit operates, and I would venture to guess
that it’s representative of the other 99 percent of detainee handling throughout Iraq.
My spirits remain high, my body’s holding
up, and all’s well on my end. I hope the same is the case with everyone back home. I love you and miss you
lots.
Your
son,
Josh |
FAST FACTS
SURVIVING SONS
Contrary to popular belief, "only sons," "the last son to carry the family
name," and "sole surviving sons" must register and they can be drafted. However, they may be entitled to a peacetime deferment
if there is a military death in the immediate family.
Provisions regarding the survivors of veterans were written into Selective Service law after
World War II. Details have varied over the years, but the basic premise remains the same: where a family member has been lost
as a result of military service, the remaining family members should be protected insofar as possible.
It is important to keep in mind that the provisions
are directly related to service-connected deaths. The mere fact that a man is the only child or only son does not qualify
him for consideration - he must be the survivor of one who died as a result of military service.
The present law provides a peacetime exemption
for anyone whose parent or sibling was killed in action, died in line of duty, or died later as a result of disease or injury
incurred in line of duty while serving in the armed forces of the United States. Also included are those whose parent or sibling
is in a captured or missing status as a result of service in the armed forces during any period of time. This is known as
the "surviving son or brother" provision. A man does not have to be the only surviving son in order to qualify; if there are
four sons in a family and one dies in the line of duty, the remaining three would qualify for surviving son or brother status
under the present law.
The surviving son or brother provision is applicable only in peacetime. It does not apply
in time of war or national emergency declared by the Congress.
The original law, passed in 1948, exempted the sole surviving son of a family
where one or more sons or daughters died as a result of military service. No restriction existed at that time to limit the
exemption to peacetime. The provision was intended to protect families which had lost a member in World War II.
In 1964, recognizing that sons of World War II veterans were reaching draft
age, Congress changed the law to include the sole surviving son of a family where the father, or one or more sons or daughters,
died as a result of military service. At this time the peacetime-only restriction was also added to the law.
A further change was made in 1971, expanding the exemption to any son, not
necessarily the sole surviving son, of a family where the father, brother or sister died as a result of military service.
This provision was recently expanded to include mothers.
The Selective Service System Tel. 703-605-4100
Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs FAX
703-605-4106
National Headquarters
e-mail: information@sss.gov
Arlington, Virginia 22209-2425
Web: httpalwww.sss.gov
February 18. 2004
 
  |
