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WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2006 – Army leaders are committed to ensuring soldiers have the best force-protection capability possible, but also want to avoid giving soldiers a false sense of security, service officials said here today. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey A, Sorenson, the Army’s deputy for acquisition and systems management, took exception to an NBC News report that said the Army is not buying an Israeli system, called Trophy, that could protect soldiers and their vehicles from rocket-propelled grenades. The report alleges the Army manipulated information in favor of a competing Raytheon system, called Quick Kill. Both the Israeli and Raytheon systems...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- U.S. Air Force special investigators and Kyrgyz authorities are continuing search efforts to locate an Air Force officer missing since Sept 5, officials said. Maj. Jill Metzger, personnel chief at the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, was last seen by a group of her coworkers at the Zum shopping center in the capital city of Bishkek. “We will not rest until we find Major Metzger,” said Col. Joel “Scott” Reese, the wing’s commander. “She is an extremely valuable member of our warfighting team, and we are doing everything in our power to locate and return her...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – As the Iraqi army gains in numbers and capability, so too does the country’s air force, which aims to grow to 2,500 airmen by the year’s end, the commander of the Coalition Air Force Transition Team said. Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Hoog cited impressive improvement over the past six months, noting that the Iraqi air force continues to grow and improve its ability support the counterinsurgency mission. The Iraqi air force’s counterinsurgency mission consists primarily of aerial observation and surveillance and air transportation. Officials believe it is critical for Iraq’s long-term ability to...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – For the man who now serves as the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, watching the televised image of an airliner hitting the World Trade Center signaled the end of an era as the country was thrust into war. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, then regimental sergeant major for the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Polk, La., said he remembers returning home after an early morning run Sept. 11, 2001, and flipping on the TV news as he cooled down. Gainey was transfixed by shots of...

WINTHROP, Wash., Sep. 3, 2006 -- Task Force Blaze is returning home to Fort Lewis, Wash., today, following a three-week deployment to fight wildfires in the state’s north-central region. Spc. Aldo Gonzalez lights a fire as part of a burnout operation. Gonzalez is one of 550 soldiers making up Task Force Blaze, which deployed to firelines Aug. 17 to assist civilian firefighters with containing the huge Tripod Complex fire near Winthrop, Wash. Gonzalez is an Avenger crew member assigned to 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash. Photo by Patti Bielling  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.N. force in Lebanon will soon receive the first real boost in weapons and manpower: one battalion each of Italian and French troops with heavy armor, including tanks and artillery, officials said Thursday. Nearly 1,000 Italian soldiers are due in the war-battered southern port of Tyre on Saturday, the largest addition yet to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, spokesman Alexander Ivanko told The Associated Press. So far, only 250 extra French troops have arrived since a Security Council resolution promising an expanded U.N. force halted a month of fierce clashes between Israel and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2006 – Three coalition force soldiers were injured in a weapons accident at Camp Echo, Iraq, yesterday. Meanwhile, a hostage was released based on a tip and nine suspected insurgents were detained in three separate incidents on Aug 23, according to officials in Iraq. One American and two Polish soldiers wounded in the Camp Echo incident early yesterday morning were treated immediately at the base military hospital. The American soldier and one of the Polish soldiers were transported to the military hospital in Baghdad for further treatment, and their status was listed as stable yesterday, officials said....

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 23, 2006 – Two Air Force legal leaders journeyed through Southwest Asia from Aug. 14 to 17, stopping in Kabul, Afghanistan, for a two-day seminar and lending their expertise to help train and inform Afghan military legal leaders on the rule of law. Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, Air Force judge advocate general, and Col. Lindsey Graham, an appellate military judge, made their way to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing legal office and the Combined Air Operations Center at this undisclosed forward-deployed location, as a last stop before returning to the United States. They attended a seminar sponsored...

8/17/2006 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- The Air Force is on track to make its recruiting goal this year, marking the seventh consecutive year the service has brought in the right number and mix of new Airmen. To date, 25,645 people have enlisted in the Air Force and entered active duty in fiscal 2006. That puts the Air Force on pace to send 30,750 men and women to basic training and technical schools to fill jobs in more than 150 areas. In response to the Air Force's force shaping, fiscal 2007 recruiting goals have been reduced by...

Israel has told the United Nations that it will oppose the inclusion of troops from countries such as Malaysia in a planned U.N. force for southern Lebanon, a senior Israeli official said on Aug. 16. "Israel has informed the U.N. in no uncertain terms that it will not accept any countries in the force that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel," the official told Reuters.

For those who may never have served in an elite unit, laughing and singing in the face of death, boasting about wanting to fight and welcoming the sting of battle, might seem like the behavior of disturbed, socially disconnected people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

8/14/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Air Force Theater Hospital records here indicate that in the past year the number of combat-wounded Iraqis is increasing while U.S. casualties seen at the hospital are beginning to decrease. In a strange twist, this means more work for the U.S. Air Force and Army surgeons who performed more than 1,200 surgical procedures in July, nearly doubling April's tally. "Today, the ratio of trauma patients is about 40 percent U.S. and 60 percent Iraqi," said Col. George P. Costanzo, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group commander here. "Eight months ago, the ratio was about...

8/11/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- During a 24-hour shift that began at 7 a.m. on Aug. 7, an Air Force surgeon treated 18 patients with injuries that varied from a crushed foot and multiple improvised explosive device penetrations to gunshot wounds through the thigh and head. For Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Steve Barnes, the surgeon of the day, this meant nine operations, five of which were performed on Americans, three on Iraqis and one insurgent. "I volunteered to come to Balad for both personal and professional reasons," said the trauma surgeon instructor based at Cincinnati's University Hospital in...

BEIRUT (AP) - United Nations peacekeepers were dispatched Friday to evacuate about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police detained by Israeli forces in Marjayoun after Israeli soldiers swept into the southern Lebanese town, the UN command said. Two armoured vehicles from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, a 2,000-member peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, headed to Marjayoun, which Israeli forces occupied on Thursday, "to facilitate" the withdrawal of the Lebanese force to government territory in the north. But the UN unit, which made it to the Marjayoun barracks, was unable to leave with the Lebanese force because the roads out...

Israel to triple force on Lebanon front line By Tim Butcher, Adrian Blomfield in Tyre and Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 10/08/2006) Israel vowed yesterday to expand the ground war in Lebanon to try to deliver a knockout blow to Hizbollah, amid warnings that the conflict could last at least another month. The decision by the security cabinet after a six-hour meeting in Jerusalem increased the pressure on major powers struggling to win agreement on a United Nations resolution to end the four-week-old conflict. Israel plans to triple the size of its ground forces "Plans by defence minister Amir...

8/8/2006 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- At first glance, he looks like any other Air Force pilot: olive-green flight suit, polished boots and a bluish-gray flight cap with rank insignia prominently displayed. On closer inspection, you realize the little differences. His shoulder boards don't feature bars or leaves, but instead a combination of blue and gray stripes. When you hear him speak, his distinct accent tells you this is no ordinary Air Force pilot. Royal Air Force Squadron Leader David Arthurton is a pilot with the 13th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, flying the B-2 Spirit bomber with the...

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2006 – The NATO force in southern Afghanistan has met resistance from the Taliban and other criminal elements, but the force remains committed to establishing a safe and secure environment in the region, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe said Aug. 4. “NATO's operations in the southern region are focused on establishing a safe and secure environment in order to permit the government and international aid organizations to bring elements of reconstruction and hope for a better future to this region,” U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command,...

A FNC reporter this AM (8/6/06) in a whining voice states that Israel is using too much disproportionant force. I believe his first name was Jeff. Question to Jeff: Is this some type of a sports event where the opponents are supposed to be evenly matched so as to present a even matched game? If you think this you need to drink more "kool-aid". Finally one of FNC made a mistake and admitted there are people in North Israel. Are these people civilians. And are the huzzies bombing civilians? Israel should use twice the force they are using. By the...

8/1/2006 - CORALVILLE, Iowa (AFPN) -- Tears don’t fall lightly from a colonel, especially in front of more than 120 other Airmen. But when Col. John Clarke presented Pamela Vineyard a plaque, representing a weeklong bike ride across the state of Iowa, the tears were evidence of the inspiring and amazing example of her strength and character. Her strength and character were tested, along with 101 other Air Force cyclists and 10,000 others in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI, a more than 450-mile bike ride spanning a week. It had been more than 20 years...

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2006 – In taking over responsibility for southern Afghanistan, the NATO International Security Assistance Force is bringing thousands more troops and greater capability to the area and investing in the country’s future, the U.S. general in charge of coalition forces in Afghanistan said today. “Today marks the end of coalition leadership in the south, but it also begins a new chapter in the partnership of the Afghan and international community as, together, they continue to build an Afghanistan that is a viable, self-sustaining member of the international community free from international terror,” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl...

The Bush administration is now entangled in a risky new diplomatic venture in the Middle East -- and one with huge potential pitfalls even if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice succeeds in negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the days ahead, according to several former diplomats and specialists with long experience in the region. The controversial U.S. position -- which has pitted Washington against most European and Arab allies that pressed unsuccessfully for an immediate cease-fire -- also reflects a shift back to the Bush administration's first-term strategy, foreign policy specialists said. With Rice at the helm of...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Air Force C-17 Globemaster III crews assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron operating in Southwest Asia have added another mission to their resume, providing humanitarian civil assistance to the effort to evacuate Americans from Lebanon. Airlift operations have responded quickly to the urgent needs in the Middle East, supporting U.S. citizens evacuating from Lebanon to Cyprus, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials said. The 816th EAS is flying water and meals, as well as essential personnel and equipment, to Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. In the first four...

U.S. Army Spc. Lindaann Galeai, who mans the computer help desk for Task Force 3, practices grenade throwing in mobilization training at Fort McCoy, Wis. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sam McClarty Task Force 3 Trains to Deploy Medical personnel undergo training to prepare them for combat duty in Iraq. By U.S. Army Maj. Bob Hart 3rd MEDCOM Public Affairs Officer FORT MCCOY, Wis., July 19, 2006 -- Medical care in Operation Iraqi Freedom has progressed to the point that soldiers who are injured there are now surviving at the highest rate in U.S. military history. One of...

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2006 – While U.S. authorities in Cyprus are expecting to evacuate at least 5,000 Americans from Lebanon, they are preparing for any contingency, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said today. Navy Vice Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, who also commands the U.S. 5th Fleet, briefed Pentagon reporters from his headquarters in Bahrain. Nine U.S. Navy ships are converging on Lebanon from U.S. Central Command and from U.S. European Command. The European Command ships are arriving in the "joint operating area" already, Walsh said. The CENTCOM ships are expected over the next few days. DoD also...

Outsiders often view SEALs as supermen. Perhaps they are in the sense of infused commitment to both achieving the objective and never quitting. But ordinary, according to insiders, in the sense that they are just highly trained men doing extraordinary things. “Definitely not Supermen, my classmates particularly,” says Worthington. “One guy, however, could hold his breath five minutes. Another was a two-pack-a-day smoker who still survived BUDS. “BUDS, incidentally, is between your ears. Sure, you have to make times on the O-Course [obstacle course], the four-mile run, etc., but the kid who sticks in there, survives. It’s a mindset of...

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Cody Nelson (left), with the 28th Security Forces Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and Senior Airman Brandon Alsop (right), with the 151st Security Forces Squadron, Utah Air National Guard, practice firing the MK19 machine gun. U.S. Air Force courtesy photo Air Force Security Forces Complete Tour in Iraq For the last six months Contingency Operating Base Speicher has been kept safe and secure by the outstanding work of Air Force security forces. Sgt. Waine D. Haley 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 12, 2006 -- For the last six months Contingency...

"I honestly don’t remember ever being afraid,” Command Sergeant Major Gary L. Littrell (U.S. Army, ret.) says, recalling a fierce four-day, four-night battle he led against a numerically superior enemy force that had surrounded his battalion and was hell-bent on destroying it. “I just remember being very, very angry, because all of sudden — from the first mortar round that killed one of my best friends and seriously wounded several others — there was this nonstop fighting that lasted for days where the enemy was killing my soldiers. The effect it had on me was extreme anger.”

AL QA’IM, Iraq (June 27, 2006) -- More than 300 local Iraqis from Euphrates River towns near the Iraqi-Syrian border lined up at the Marines’ outpost June 27, 2006, in hopes of becoming policemen in one of Iraq’s newest police districts. The enlistment drive marked the largest turnout of police recruits in recent months. More than 100 Iraqis were accepted for enlistment. The drive was held just days after police here were paid months of back-pay by Iraq’s Ministry of Interior. A lack of consistent pay has been the primary cause for the high attrition rate within fledgling Iraqi police...

'"No Southern man is complete without a tenure under military rule." That one sentence penned by author Pat Conroy in his best-selling novel The Lords of Discipline , is utter truth spoken to the heart of any Southern boy or man. It does not mean all Southern men serve, have served, or will serve their country. But it does mean that deep down in the well of the soul of the Southern American male there is a sense of duty and martial responsibility that cries out to be acted upon. I’ve chosen Southerners as an example, because I am Southern....

6/27/2006 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- The U.S. military has turned to an old workhorse as the delivery method for supplies and humanitarian cargo needed to sustain Operation Enduring Freedom. The C-130 Hercules has been around, in one form or another, since the 1950s. It is the aircraft of choice for inter-theater airlift in Afghanistan, where the U.S. Army is conducting operations from areas located on some of the toughest terrain on the planet. The last time "Herc" crews flew combat airdrops at this level was the Vietnam War. "It's the perfect tool to use in this theater,"...

6/23/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- It was around 10 p.m. on June 25, 1996, when Staff Sgt. Alfredo Guerrero went to check the security post on the rooftop of an eight-story Khobar Towers apartment building at Dhahran Air Base, Saudi Arabia. He asked the sentry on watch if everything was OK. Below them, residents in the rooms were settling in for the night. Most were with the 4404th Wing -- protectors of the "no fly zone" in Southern Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch. Some Airmen were writing letters or calling home. Some were playing cards or shooting...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2006 – Ongoing efforts to provide better protective gear for soldiers also benefits other servicemembers, a senior Army officer said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing here yesterday. "The Army's Number One concern is force protection," the service's chief force-development official Maj. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes told Capitol Hill legislators. In fact, Army research teams, he said, have developed and fielded better body armor, improved helmets and enhanced vehicle protection systems. Yet, "we're a member of a joint team," Speakes said. For example, Army efforts to develop better body and wheeled vehicle armor, he said, benefits...

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2006 – The U.S. is safer because men and women have stepped forward and joined the Army to defend freedom and to liberate people all over the world, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in marking the Army's birthday here today. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker administers the oath of enlistment to a group of Army recruits from the Washington, D.C., area during the Army's 231st birthday celebration, at the Pentagon June 14. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "In the Army's two-plus centuries, we've come from...

"There are other effects when a leader in an organization like this goes down. The lesser tiers of the terrorist leadership have to start talking. They will use any number of sophisticated and unsophisticated means to do that talking. Some of them will do what is easy — get on the phones and cell phones. They’ll have to move to meet and determine their next steps. All that talk and all that movement generates what’s called ‘actionable intelligence.’ It puts more and more of them in our crosshairs."

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2006 – The U.S. will triumph over murderous extremists because of the daring and ingenuity of its people and armed forces, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in his commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy today. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld delivers his commencement speech to the 2006 graduating class of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 31. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Violent extremists are trying to terrorize and intimidate free people into submitting to their will,"...

HUSAYBAH, Iraq (May 29, 2006) -- Despite two recent suicide bombings on a new police station here, one Iraqi police officer in this Iraq-Syria border town says his men are undeterred in their duties and are ready to work on their own. "Ahmed," a 45-year-old police captain, is one of several new police officers in this city of 50,000 who has endured two attacks on the city’s district police headquarters which has resulted in the deaths of five police officers and injured eight others. The first attack occurred a week ago when a man walked to the police station and...

FORT BLISS, Texas — Since 2003, a Department of Defense joint task force has provided more than 1,600 military members to help federal agencies along Arizona’s border with Mexico, a spokesman for the organization said Thursday. Joint Task Force North, which was established in 2004, from assets previously called Joint Task Force Six, has provided active duty, Reserve and National Guard forces, “Working under the task force, primarily supporting other lead federal agencies, such as the Border Patrol,” Armando Carrasco said. Those who have been detailed to Arizona border areas have worked in the Douglas, Naco, Nogales and Yuma areas,...

May 2006 Vol. 89, No. 5       print-friendly pdf By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor Are We Losing Nuke Expertise?; Modernizing the Arsenal; Iran, North Korea, and Friends ....  Strategic Strike: Fund It or Lose It Unless steps are taken to create new programs and attract new expertise, US strategic missile capabilities will soon become extinct, warns a Defense Science Board task force. In a March report titled “Future Strategic Strike Skills,� the DSB task force said the Defense Department has failed to make long-term plans for strategic systems or adequately fund their modernization. This neglect, the DSB said,...

Scientists use quantum gravity to describe the universe before the Big Bang.Scientists may finally have an answer to a "big" question: If the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe, what could have caused it to happen? Using a theory called "loop quantum gravity," a group led by Penn State professor Abhay Ashtekar has shown that just before the Big Bang occurred, another universe very similar to ours may have been contracting. According to the group's findings, this previous universe eventually became so dense that a normally negligible repulsive component of the gravitational force overpowered the attractive component, causing...

HUSAYBAH, Iraq (May 23, 2006) -- After three years without a police presence in this western Iraqi town of approximately 10,000, the community is beginning to see a fully-restored police force with the introduction of two new police stations. With a new force of fully-trained police officers, many of whom are seasoned veterans from the previous police force, Iraqis here hope the added security forces will curb insurgent activity in the area, according to tribal sheikhs. The Police Transition Team here, a team of Coalition service members responsible for training and mentoring Iraqi police officers, has worked in recent months...

WASHINGTON - A Louisiana congressman under investigation for bribery said Monday he would not resign in the face of allegations that he was videotaped accepting $100,000 from an informant. Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), who has not been charged, called an FBI search of his Capitol office "an outrageous intrusion," telling reporters: "There are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story." House Speaker Dennis Hastert questioned whether the raid of the congressman's office, believed the first in history, overstepped constitutional limitations on executive powers. "Nothing I have learned in the last...

5/16/2006 - CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, Africa (AFPN) -- Since 2003, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa servicemembers have visited local orphanages with the hopes of learning new cultures, establishing friendships and building better futures. Currently, about 200 CJTF-HOA servicemembers visit three different orphanages each week volunteering an average of 600 hours. U.S. Navy Religious Program Specialist Richard Stoneking, CJTF-HOA chaplain's office, and Lt. Cmdr. Angie Walker, CJTF-HOA meteorology and oceanography officer, lead visits which include going to orphanages for boys, girls and infants. Commander Walker and Specialist Stoneking became involved with the program for different reasons, but both get the...

U.S. soldiers assigned to the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Quick Reaction Force provide security during a visit by U.S. Army Gen. George Casey, Multinational Forces-Iraq commanding general, to the government center in downtown Balad Ruz, Iraq, April 29, 2006. U.S. Army photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowsk Quick Reaction Force Secures Operations Areas Quick Reaction Force soldiers' security duties range from clearing the way for a visiting VIP to assisting with security during the recovery of an unexploded roadside bomb. By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowski 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment...

/9/2006 - DAYTON, Ohio (AFPN) -- The first aircraft to return Vietnam prisoners of war to the United States arrived at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at 9:30 a.m. May 6. The C-141 "Hanoi Taxi" was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up POWs returning to the United States. The "Hanoi Taxi" was one of several aircraft involved in repatriating more than 500 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese. The Hanoi Taxi -- the last C-141 Starlifter still serving in the Air Force -- made two of its final...

5/9/2006 - MOUNT HOOD, Ore. (AFPN) -- Exactly two weeks after participating in a joint search-and-rescue training exercise with other local rescue organizations, reservists from the 304th Rescue Squadron were back on top of Mount Hood, Ore., on May 6 for the longest-hauling, glacier-rescue mission ever accomplished on Mount Hood. Five pararescuemen from the 304th helped rescue an injured skier. The man was skiing with three others who were traversing the 11,200-foot mountain summit when he fell more than 300 feet through a boulder field and landed on Reid Glacier, said Sgt. Sean Collinson, incident commander for the Clackamas County...

5/9/2006 - DAYTON, Ohio (AFPN) -- Visitors can get a rare glimpse into the lives of prisoners of war through a dramatic new exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The exhibit, titled "Return with Honor: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia," located in the museum's Modern Flight Gallery, is now open to the public. Visitors enter the exhibit next to a reproduced doorway to the "Hanoi Hilton," the name given by Americans to Hoa Lo Prison. Photographs, videos, dioramas and artifacts tell the story of prisoner torture, political exploitation, filthy living conditions and endless...

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2006 – President Bush today announced Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as his choice to replace Porter Goss as next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. "Mike knows our intelligence community from the ground up," Bush said from the Oval Office today. "He's been both a provider and consumer of intelligence." Hayden currently serves as the deputy to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte. Before that, he directed the National Security Agency. Bush said throughout his military career, Hayden has demonstrated an ability to adapt U.S. intelligence services to the new challenges of the war on...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 5, 2006 — Task Force Knighthawk, part of Combined Joint Task Force-76, welcomed a new unit commander during a change-of-command ceremony here April 27. U.S. Army Capt. Kevin M. Coughlin took command of the 2nd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, Headquarters Company. “I understand the tremendous responsibility inherent in leading soldiers in combat and intend to do whatever it takes to accomplish each mission quickly and effectively,” said Coughlin, a Manchester, Conn., native who most recently served as the 2-10 Aviation Battalion adjutant. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Patterson, Task Force Knighthawk commander, presided over the ceremony...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (May 5, 2006) -- More than 300 Fallujan men stepped forward to be Iraqi police recruits during a three-day recruiting drive here, despite a homicide bomber attack and the threat of additional violence. The goal of the recruiting drive was to sign-up 300 Iraqi police recruits, however, the drive ended yesterday with 348 men accepted out of 402 screened applicants. “Our first mission was to ensure we got 300 successful applicants from the drive,” said Staff Sgt. Lamont L. Hall, the 33-year-old operations chief for the Police Transition Team assigned to the Fallujah Police District. “The second mission...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2006 – The National Guard and reserve components are key players in America's ability to fight the war on terror abroad, and respond to security threats and national disasters in the homeland, Defense Department leaders said here yesterday. These components are vital to America's total force strength, and integrated planning is the key to success in the future, Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, and Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said at the second hearing of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves....