Free Republic

HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - U.S. Marines landed on Somalia's coast in one of their most visible hunts for militants in the country since they set up a Horn of Africa counter terrorism force in 2002, Somali officials said on Thursday. Two boats brought about 20 lightly armed Marines to the fishing village of Maydh in the northwestern enclave of Somaliland on Tuesday, where they showed pictures of suspected "terrorists" to locals before leaving, residents said. "They met some of the fishermen and the people and they showed some pictures they were carrying, saying that these people are terrorists that they...

<p>Students at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School at Gallaudet University had used e-mail and a school Web log to get first-hand accounts of the insurgency in Iraq and the daily survival of a U.S. Marine stationed there.</p> <p>Yesterday, the 42 students met their personal link for the first time.</p>

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2005 – America today honored eight American servicemen who died trying to rescue American hostages in Iran 25 years ago. A ceremony here, on the 25th anniversary of their deaths, brought together the families of those killed, their comrades and those servicemembers who carry on the special operations mission. In November 1'7' Iranian militants took 53 Americans in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran hostage. It was the most egregious violation of the principles of diplomacy in the history of statecraft, L. Bruce Laingen, the highest-ranking American taken hostage, said at today's ceremony. On April 25, 1'80, the...

Sadly, watching the end of Hardball tonight, I just realized that today is the 25th anniversary of Operation Eagle Claw, the heroic, but doomed mission to rescue the American hostages held for over a year in the US embassy in Tehran.

The sergeant stationed just west of Baghdad was once again recounting the dangers of being on the front line - sometimes with dark humor. He referred to how the "muj" (mujahideen or insurgents) were the gang that couldn't shoot straight, but still represented a considerable threat. "They're horrible shots," he wrote in an e-mail to his family, "but every once in awhile they get lucky. We lost another Marine the other day." This is the first war in which American GIs and military families can communicate freely and in real time via e-mail and cellphone, while gathering endless amounts of...

WASHINGTON - It was a quarter-century ago this month, April 24, 1980, that the secret American raid into Iran to rescue 53 hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran collapsed in disaster on a make-shift airstrip in the middle of the Iranian desert. The embarrassingly public failure of the raid, code-named Operation Eagle Claw, was a low-water mark for the Carter administration and for our military as well, still struggling to get back on its feet in the wake of the debacle in Vietnam just five years before. Eight American servicemen died when the raid came apart with the fiery...

Seaman (SW) Brit L.J. Garrett stood in front of his family, friends and shipmates April 4, aboard USS Preble (DDG 88), and was awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Medal, the naval service’s one of the highest awards for extraordinary heroism. Garrett was awarded the medal for heroic acts he performed Aug. 31, 2004 while on a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of Maritime Interception Operations. What happened that Tuesday in August, Garrett will never forget. While training a seaman on the destroyer’s flight deck, a mechanical failure caused a helicopter to crash onto the ship’s flight deck during...

WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, WASHINGTON - Members of the NFL's Denver Broncos football team and the team's cheerleader squad came to visit recovering war wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. and National Navel Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. on April 7. "We came to show our support for our heroes," said one player. He was speaking of the same group of "heroes" that former NFL football player Pat Tillman belonged to before he was killed while serving in the Global War o Terrorism in Afghanistan — the United States military. "This has been a very...

Wounded in Fierce House-to-House Fighting, a Marine Tries to Recover. By NICK WATT TAOS, N.M., April 10, 2005 — Huddled in an abandoned house last November, Sgt. Jason Arellano gave his platoon a pep talk as they prepared to push deeper into insurgent-occupied Fallujah. "So they're right here in this area. There are going to be more and more as we push further down," he said. Arellano gave the speech after a Marine on an adjacent street had both his legs blown off by insurgents' grenades. "You don't want other squads giving speeches to their men about one of us,...

Michael Paterson was 45 years old when his Navy Reserve unit arrived in Iraq. He was virtually at the end of his Navy career. Paterson was more than a little surprised when he discovered he wouldn't be based at some rear area hospital where he could practice his advanced skills. He was headed to the front lines. His brothers in arms were the same age as his children. The other hospital corpsmen called him "Grandpa," and it was true. He had young grandchildren at home. When Paterson deployed into Iraq in 2003 with "follow-on" forces just behind the main invasion...

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2005 – For the Maine Troop Greeters, it’s all about expressing appreciation. Since thousands of people welcomed the first Gulf War veterans who arrived at Bangor International Airport just over 14 years ago, the greeters have met nearly 1,000 flights bringing troops to or from war zones. As of March 22, 968 flights with a total of 177,457 troops and two military working dogs have been welcomed by the Maine Troop Greeters, said group member Evelyn Bradman. The core of about 75-80 greeters began to solidify about two years ago, according to Dee Winthrop-Denning, designer and maintainer...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2005 – A 3-ton cache of TNT and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition are off the streets of Iraq following an Iraqi army raid near Jurf al-Sakher on March 25, Iraqi military officials reported. A press statement from Iraq’s Defense Ministry said 121 suspects were detained in the raid, conducted by the Iraqi army’s 8th Division, based in Karbala. Besides the TNT, Iraqi soldiers seized 624 rifles, 250,000 light ammunition rounds, 22,000 medium rounds, 193 rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, 300 RPG rockets, 27 82 mm mortar tubes, and 155 82 mm mortar rounds. Today, Task Force Liberty...

   Please welcome home Marine Captain Shannon Arnwine from his tour of duty in Iraq.He just arrived homeand met his baby girl for the first time. This thread will be printed outand delivered to his Nana. Please post your wordsof thanks here andlet this hero know he is greatly appreciated.   

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq (March 13, 2005) -- Deployed Marines are a band of brothers. They train together, live together, eat together and fight together. But do they pray for each other? Lance Cpl. Lesley T. Raulerson, an infantryman with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment definitely does. The Jacksonville, Fla., native prays at the Camp Al Qaim Chapel every time his fellow Marines travel off the base. "I pray for the troops going out. I pray for the convoys to be successful. But, mainly I pray that the Marine leaders will have sound minds and will teach their...