Free Republic

Memorandum for President George W. Bush: The speech you will give tonight about the status of and prospects for the war will likely prove to be among the most important of your presidency. In the final analysis, the American people and history will both judge the latter principally by your conduct of the former. Indeed, you were rehired by the voters largely because they had more confidence in your leadership as a war president than in your opponent's judgment and abilities. To continue enjoying this confidence, however, the speech must not be seen as a box-checking exercise in which today's...

The White House has asked the networks to broadcast President Bush's Fort Bragg speech live tomorrow night, but will they? Here's the latest: ABC News will broadcast the speech from 8 to 9pm. Charles Gibson will anchor from NYC. "He will be joined by This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos, White House Correspondent Terry Moran with the President at Fort Bragg and National Security Correspondent Martha Raddatz who just returned from Iraq," a press release says. Spokespersons for CBS and NBC said they are waiting to hear whether their networks will air the speech. On FNC, Brit Hume will anchor live...

President Bush will deliver a major address to U.S. troops and the nation about Iraq on Tuesday night from the U.S. military base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the White House said. "This is a critical moment in Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday in announcing the speech. "This is a real time of testing." McClellan said the speech would be delivered at 8 p.m., and that the White House has asked U.S. television networks to air the address live. Bush is expected to use the prime time speech to outline his strategy in Iraq amid increasing...

Special Ops Command honors 23 soldiers killed in action The Associated Press May 26, 2005 11:56 pm FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Nearly two dozen names were added to a memorial wall at the Army Special Operations Command during an emotional ceremony attended by about 150 family members. "No one can measure this wound," Yury Tarlavsky of Passaic, N.J., said Thursday. His son, 5th Special Forces Group Capt. Michael Yury Tarlavsky, was killed in August 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. "It's like touching a wound that never heals," said his wife, Rimma Tarlavsky. Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger Jr., commander of the Special...

In his 20 years in the military, Lt. Col. Tim Gardipee of Missoula has served combat tours in Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. But Gardipee says one of the most difficult and emotionally trying duties he has been assigned by the U.S. Army came last month at Fort Bragg, N.C. The Army Reserve officer was selected from a pool of officers at Fort Bragg to serve on the court-martial jury in the trial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who was convicted of the premeditated murder of two fellow American soldiers and wounding of 14 others, at just past midnight March 23, 2003,...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. A defense psychiatrist says the Army sergeant accused in a fatal grenade attack in Kuwait had a history of mental illness in his family that hurt him as he got older. Testimony from Dr. George Woods of Oakton, California, came after a hearing with the jury out of the courtroom about his qualifications and diagnosis. Woods testified that Sergeant Hasan Akbar's (AK'-bahrz) relatives had problems going back to 1968 when an uncle was discharged from the Marine Corps because he had an emotionally unstable personality. The psychiatrist also testified that Akbar's half brother also exhibited paranoia in...

President Bush visited the troops at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. The President was cheered wildly by over 7,000 troops as he thanked them for their sacrifices to our Nation. The President later met with the families of over 30 Soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan

(FORT BRAGG) - Almost a dozen eyewitness accounts marked the second day of testimony in the court martial of Sergeant Hasan Akbar. Akbar is the army sergeant accused of murdering two fellow soldiers during the opening days of the war in Iraq. Eleven former and present soldiers testified in a Fort Bragg courtroom about what they saw on March 22nd of 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. One officer said that Akbar admitted to him that he threw grenades into tents where soldiers were preparing for bed. Akbar is accused of killing two people and wounding 14 others. A number...

I'm conducting research on the protests held in Fayetteville, North Carolina on March 19, 2005. I'm very interested in talking with someone who was part of the contingent from Free Republic. (I'm only interested in talking with people who were actually physically there.) If you are willing to talk with me, please drop me an e-mail and we can set up a time to talk via telephone. I can be reached at michael.t.heaney@yale.edu. Sincerely, Michael T. Heaney

<p>The sign that got Code Pinko leaders Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy so upset that day.</p> <p>Bush says Code Red, we say... (crowd) Code Pink!</p> <p>So I wanna address that sign over there, and those people who have been standing there for hours with a sign that says “Code Pink kills American troops, giving money to terrorists.”</p>

Fort Bragg Officer's Hiccups, Death A Mystery POSTED: 7:31 pm EST March 26, 2005 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The family of a Fort Bragg officer recently back from Iraq said Capt. Terrance Wright seemed to hiccup almost constantly for weeks before he died earlier this month. The Army said Wright died of an unknown illness shortly after returning from Iraq in February. His body was found in a Fayetteville motel room on March 2. Wright's mother, Sandra Wright, and an aunt, Karen Wright, said Wright had been a healthy 33-year-old before he deployed to Iraq in November. It was his second...

Fort Bragg soldiers are re-enlisting in droves as the Army struggles to meets its recruiting goals. Fort Bragg units have been at the heart of troop deployments for the war on terrorism. The 18th Airborne Corps' headquarters and several Fort Bragg-based units deployed to Iraq in the past several months for a one-year tour. The 82nd has two battalions in Baghdad and is preparing to send one of its brigades to Afghanistan in the spring for a year. Despite a three-year period that has had thousands of paratroopers from Fort Bragg deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, the 18th Airborne Corps...

To mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led war in Iraq on March 19, various anti-war groups are planning to protest in Fayetteville, N.C., the home of Fort Bragg. It's not the protest, but the location that has some people upset. An organization representing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan said demonstrators are "wrong and insensitive" to take their complaints to Fort Bragg, because it blames the warriors for the war. "The decision makers are not at Fort Bragg, they are in Washington. Rallying against the war by marching at Fort Bragg is like protesting the cows if...

The Pentagon today announced it will redeploy some troops currently stationed in Iraq to protect anti-war protestors in North Carolina. The troop movement comes in the wake of Saturday's protest march near Fort Bragg which drew a crowd of 3,000 who chanted and listened to speeches decrying the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. "Democracy in America is a fragile thing," said an unnamed Pentagon spokesman. "We need to do what we can to protect the emerging free speech represented by these anti-government protestors." The redeployment will involve a contingent of two unarmed U.S. Marines who will be stationed near...

Iraq War Opponents Stage Protest Near Fort Bragg N.C. Demonstration Is Largest of 800 Held Across the U.S. to Mark 2nd Anniversary of Conflict By Jonathan Finer Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page A13 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., March 19 -- Here at the heart of one of the nation's most deeply rooted military communities, nearly 3,000 peace activists, war veterans and their family members gathered Saturday to call for an end to the Iraq conflict on the second anniversary of the day it began. They marched beating drums and chanting slogans through quiet suburban streets to a wooded...

Today we met in Fayetteville, NC to Freep a motley rabble of socialists, anarchists, Code Pink-os, and other throwbacks to the 60's! As usual, we were well outnumbered by their hordes of college students, aging hippies and other bused-in protestors, but we held our own as always. Please post any reports and observations on this thread only.

This Saturday, March 19 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Old North State Chapter of Free Republic is holding a rally to support our troops.The rally will serve as a counter-demonstration of a so-called antiwar rally being held that same day in Fayetteville.This small town in North Carolina is being targeted by the anti-American left because it is the home of Fort Bragg. The leftists are trying to undermine the morale of military families and the soldiers stationed there.Freepers will be holding a peaceful, law-abiding demonstration in support for our troops and their mission fighting the war on terrorism in Iraq,...

Today is a special day. It’s the 75-year anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous “salt march.” On March 12, 1930, Gandhi began a 240-mile march to nonviolently resist the British tax on salt and move India closer to independence from British rule. Gandhi changed India and the world, with his relentless, nonviolent struggle for peace and justice. (For more on Gandhi’s life, click here.)Today is also important because it begins our 7-day countdown to the March 19 worldwide day of protest against the Iraq war. Next Saturday, people throughout the world will raise our voices on the two-year anniversary of the US...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fort Bragg paratroopers rounded up more than a dozen suspected insurgents Tuesday in a series of raids in central Baghdad. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers hit the streets just before 10 p.m. With soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division surrounding the area, the paratroopers moved out on foot from their base on Haifa Street into the surrounding neighborhood. They called it "Operation Elm Street." The objective was to detain all "military age" men - those from ages 18 to 45 - in seven houses suspected of harboring insurgents. Soldiers from the 82nd's 325th Airborne Infantry have been...

Commandos Get Duty on U.S. Soil By ERIC SCHMITT ASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - Somewhere in the shadows of the White House and the Capitol this week, a small group of super-secret commandos stood ready with state-of-the-art weaponry to swing into action to protect the presidency, a task that has never been fully revealed before. As part of the extraordinary army of 13,000 troops, police officers and federal agents marshaled to secure the inauguration, these elite forces were poised to act under a 1997 program that was updated and enhanced after the Sept. 11 attacks, but nonetheless departs from how the...

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — When Pfc. Jimmy Giron of Company B, 27th Engineer Battalion, found a weapons cache in the front of a house recently, his buddies said it seemed as if he’d witnessed the birth of his child. “You should have seen the look on his face when he pulled those mortars out of the bag,” said 1st Lt. Daniel Hurd, 1st Platoon leader with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment. “It was priceless.” The platoon, along with their assigned soldier from the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based engineer battalion, is on a nearly constant hunt for weapons caches in...

Mendocino County's district attorney is disqualifying a Fort Bragg judge from hearing criminal cases, claiming the jurist doesn't know the law and his courtroom is poorly managed. Judge Jonathan Lehan said judicial ethics prevent him from responding to the allegations by District Attorney Norman Vroman. Vroman's crusade against Lehan is forcing judicial officials to ship criminal cases to inland courts, leaving Lehan with mostly civil cases to oversee. Vroman has been filing affidavits to disqualify Lehan from all of his department's cases since mid-October. "Their calendar is dwindling rapidly," said Vroman. "By mid-December, there won't be any cases left in...

FORT BRAGG, NC -- Lawyers for Pfc. Lynndie England moved Wednesday to throw out statements she made when first questioned about Iraqi prisoner abuse, including that reservists were just "joking around, having some fun." The motion was one of five taken up by military judge Col. Stephen Henley in a hearing in advance of England's Jan. 18 court-martial on abuse charges stemming from photos of her pointing and smiling at naked detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Paul Arthur, an Army special investigator, testified that England was aware of her rights, including to have a lawyer present, when she was...

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq to provide security for the January elections, a source close to the Pentagon said Tuesday. The order is expected to involve ''at least a four-battalion-size force with all its 'slice' elements," including artillery and support. The unit will deploy before the holidays, the source said. Department of Defense officials consider it risky to wait to deploy additional forces after the holidays, and waiting could jeopardize election security, the source said. No departure date was given. ''Understand, the gloves are to come off," the source said. The 82nd was still waiting...

More than 200 Fort Bragg paratroopers returned home Sunday from Afghanistan, where they provided security for the first open election in that country's history. The 222 soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment were deployed to Afghanistan for almost nine weeks to help ensure that the elections went ahead without anticipated violence. The paratroopers arrived at Green Ramp on Pope Air Force Base at 10:45 a.m. to a crowd of cheering family and friends. Between 800 and 1,000 soldiers from the 505th were in the central and eastern regions of Afghanistan. They will all return to...

Thursday, October 28, 2004  Search Keyword Raleigh · Durham · Cary · Chapel Hill   Home   News    North Carolina    Nation & World    Crime & Safety    Health & Science    Education    Growth    Q    Rogers    Saunders    Sheehan    Sill    Corrections   Politics   Business   Sports   Lifestyles   Opinion   Obituaries   Multimedia Gallery   Weather   Archives   Print Edition   Marketplace   Classified Find|Post     Jobs Find|Post     Autos Find|Post     Homes Find|Post     Rentals Find|Post     Movies  Dining & Clubs  Weddings  Travel  Directory  Education Guide NC News Wire Home / News / NC / NC News Wire     Published: Oct 28, 2004Modified: Oct 28, 2004 3:40 PM Four 82nd Airborne soldiers injured in Blackhawk accident The Associated Press FORT BRAGG, N.C....

A crowd of dignitaries, including two congressmen, waited patiently Monday for a red, 6,000-pound wrecking ball to begin smashing a two-story building on Fort Bragg. The crowd laughed nervously, but the crane operator, unable to get the ball swinging, could do no more than tap at the brick walls. Finally, the crane backed off, and a track-hoe rumbled up and methodically began to break the building apart. Roof, bricks and boards crashed down in clouds of dust as the track-hoe worked on the long building in the Nijmegen housing area on Rhine Road. The building had housed eight families. The...

Kerry campaign bussing in over 3000 people to make it look like he's got military support. Give them a freeper welcome. See directions and info at http://www.ncveteransforkerry.org/

RELEASE NUMBER: 040825-01DATE POSTED: AUGUST 25, 2004TV’s Murdock visits real A-Team at Fort Bragg By Sgt. Kyle CosnerU.S. Army Special Operations Command FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Aug. 25, 2004) — Actor Dwight Schultz, best known for his role as special operations pilot Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock on the 1980s television series “The A-Team,” experienced the world of real-life Army special operations Soldiers during a visit to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command here Aug. 25. During his tour at USASOC, Schultz met with Green Berets from the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) here, viewed a display...

82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper Killed; 24 Injured In Training Accident One paratrooper was killed and 24 paratroopers were injured in a single-vehicle accident at the corner of Lamont Road and Longstreet Road Thursday.

<p>"We sold out in Fayetteville, home of Fort Bragg," in North Carolina, Mr. Moore said on Sunday.</p> <p>Click here to confirm Moore's quote about selling out Fayetteville in THE NEW YORK TIMES.</p> <p>Cameo Art House Theater (Fayetteville), only one of six screens in NC showing F-911. Phone is 910-486-6633.</p>

N.C. Teenager Says She Helped Her Mother Kill Soldier Stepfather Associated Press Jun 12, 2004 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A 16-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to murdering her stepfather and will testify against her mother, who is accused of plotting the killing. Elizabeth Shannon admitted she shot Army Maj. David Shannon twice as he slept on July 23, 2002. Shannon, 40, was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. Elizabeth Shannon pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder and conspiracy. She will be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison if she cooperates in the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- During a pretrial hearing May 10, the defense for Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the Soldier accused of a grenade attack which killed two 101st Airborne Division Soldiers and wounded 14 others last year in Kuwait, requested a change of venue to place the court martial outside the Army. Calling the military a “specialized society” and the Army an even more “specialized subset,” defense attorney Capt. David Coombs also asked the court to strike the entire panel for the trial which was scheduled for mid-July at Fort Bragg. Coombs, speaking on behalf of the four-man defense team, said...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Army News Service, April 27, 2004) -- A few hundred Virginia Army National Guard Soldiers, who are preparing to serve in Afghanistan, would like to set the record straight. They are getting more equipment than they know what to do with. They are getting the best equipment that the Army can buy. They are getting the time and the opportunity to train with it. They do not consider themselves second-class Soldiers. In short, the 550 or so Soldiers in the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry at Fort Bragg, N.C., are convinced they will look just like every other...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., April 16, 2004 -- Golf superstar Tiger Woods traded in his green jacket for an Army battle dress uniform and his golf spikes for combat boots this week to follow in his father's footsteps and train with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The world's top-ranked golfer, whose father is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the Army's Special Forces, said he was "amazed to see how dedicated everyone is" and praised the contributions the soldiers make every day to the nation's security. Woods said that in many respects, the physical and mental demands of the...

82nd Airborne soldiers re-enlisting in high numbers Division has already met goals for retention for fiscal year '04 Monday, April 12, 2004 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT BRAGG Though thousands of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the past two years, some of them taking hostile fire, the storied unit is exceeding its retention goals and re-enlisting soldiers in droves. Despite reports that the Army's increased operations in the war on terrorism is hurting retention, deployments have helped the division retain experienced soldiers, a spokesman said. "They came in to do something and they are actually doing...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Fresh from green jackets of Augusta National, Tiger Woods arrived at the home of the Green Berets on Monday for a week of military training. Woods, who finished 22nd at the Masters on Sunday, came on a private jet for his visit with the Army Special Forces. But Woods probably won't get the same type of training as his father, an ex-Green Beret who trained here during the Vietnam War. "I don't know how rough they're going to train him," retired Army Sgt. Maj. Dwight Nixon said Monday as he made the turn at the base's...

  Troop Rotation to Iraq Continues, Units Assuming Control By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, March 31, 2004 – The largest rotation of U.S. forces since World War II continues in Iraq, Defense Department officials said today. In all more than 250,000 U.S. service members are affected. Planning for the rotation began months ago. New units worked with units in Iraq to learn their new missions and to plan the movement. In December, new units began flowing into the region, and in January, they began the relief-in-place process. Officials expect the rotation to continue through May, when 110,000 U.S....

3/25/2004 - POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AFPN) -- A visit to Building 900 brings back a visual that retired Senior Master Sgt. Eric Truesdale said he has spent the last decade trying to forget. It was there March 23, 1994, that 24 Fort Bragg, N.C., Soldiers were killed, more than 100 were injured and countless other troops’ lives were changed in what was then the second worst aircraft incident in Air Force history, Air Force officials said. Sergeant Truesdale was chief loadmaster of the 23rd Wing standardization and evaluation and was in the building when the accident occurred. He...

FAYETTEVILLE, NC.–The Old North State Chapter of Freerepublic.net is pleased to announce that they and several other groups will be rallying together in a show of respect and support for our troops, our veterans and our country. Veterans, military families and all who support the efforts of the United States of America, in liberating the people of Iraq and in the war on terrorism, are invited to join us in Fayetteville on Saturday, March 20 between 11:30 AM and 4PM. Freepers from VA, SC, NC and Washington, DC; members of Rolling Thunder ®, Inc; various Veterans groups; military wives and...

Anti-coalition forces in western Iraq are "pretty much in disarray," Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., commander of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, told journalists today during a Baghdad press conference. Deployed to Iraq since September, Swannack's Task Force All-American patrols the Anbar province in western Iraq, which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. All of his 18,000-member force is slated to complete re-deployment back to Fort Bragg, N.C., sometime in May, and will be relieved by 24,000 Marines. "Systematically, we have captured or killed the individuals directing the insurgency (in western Iraq)," Swannack said. The Jan. 11...

<p>The U.S. Army intends to court-martial a sergeant accused of tossing grenades into fellow service members' tents while stationed in Kuwait. The attack killed two officers.</p> <p>The court-martial, expected to take place this summer, could result in the death penalty for Sgt. Hasan Akbar (search), 32.</p>

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld welcomed a new crop of Air Force combat controllers, watched an Army infantry training exercise and consoled family members Dec. 18 during a visit to Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg here. Arriving at Pope at around 1 p.m., Rumsfeld made his way to the base's community club to observe the graduation ceremony of 18 new combat controllers. A 13-week course trains and prepares airmen for parachuting into war zones to set up cargo drop areas and provide battlefield air traffic control. The controllers also are trained to coordinate air strikes. The Combat Control...

GOT YOUR BACK I am a small and precious child My dad's been sent to fight. The only place I'll see his face Is in my dreams at night. He will be gone too many days For my young mind to keep track. I may be sad, but I am proud. My daddy's got your back. I am a caring mother. My son has gone to war. My mind is filled with worries That I have never known before. Everyday I try to keep My thoughts from turning black. I may be scared, but I am proud. My son's got...

<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Unconventional warfare in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq taught the U.S. Army it needed more unconventional warriors.</p> <p>To increase the pool of potential Special Forces members, officials have started selectively recruiting civilians straight into a program that could make them Green Berets in about two years. It is attracting hundreds more recruits than expected, and they are doing well, Army officials say.</p>

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Nine paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division have been wounded since a regiment from the Fort Bragg-based unit began protecting supply lines in Iraq, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The nine soldiers from the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment suffered their wounds in four days of fighting, including two in a firefight with Iraqis on Monday, The Fayetteville Observer said. The newspaper has a reporter traveling with the unit. Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division have been given the job of neutralizing the enemy in Samawah in south-central Iraq. The soldiers said they are slowly pinching off resistance in...

An al Qaeda operative at Fort Bragg By JOHN SULLIVAN and JOSEPH NEFF Raleigh News & Observer November 13, 2001 FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A former sergeant at Fort Bragg who became a close adviser to Osama bin Laden obtained sensitive documents describing how U.S. special operations units function. Ali A. Mohamed, a trusted trainer in bin Laden's al Qaeda network, walked the halls of the U.S. military's top warfare planning center at Fort Bragg for more than two years as an Army sergeant. From 1987 to 1989, he acquired sensitive documents describing how special operations units work and a...

(2/11/03, 5 p.m. ET) -- Faith Hill will inspire the troops stationed at Fort Bragg with a live performance on Thursday (February 13) near the Fayetteville, North Carolina base. The concert will take place at a stadium that holds up to 8,000 people, and will be open to those fans with military identification. The free concert will air live on ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) both Thursday and Friday (February 14). Friday's airing will include Hill performing a special Valentine's Day song. "GMA invited me to perform in Turkey, but it didn't work with my schedule," said Hill. "I was...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. -- The United States has more troops around the world than at any other time in history, and a lot of those troops are based in North Carolina.</p> <p>North Carolina already has sent 30,000 troops into six countries within striking distance of Iraq, plus an unknown number of airmen in Oman and Turkey patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones.</p>

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Reuters) - A spate of murders involving military spouses at the Fort Bragg army base has focused new attention on domestic violence in the U.S. armed services, which critics say the Pentagon has failed to adequately address. Though the military acknowledges it could do a better job collecting statistics on domestic violence by service personnel, studies have suggested that abuse rates are two to three times higher than in the civilian population. Defense Department estimates suggest incidents of domestic violence in the military rose from 18.6 per 1,000 marriages in 1990 to 25.6 per 1,000 in 1996....