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6/27/2006 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Firefighters here have received nearly $10,000 in donated equipment that will improve the Airmen's comfort and protection, thanks to the help of several nonprofit organizations, families and friends. Firefighters received the ballistic liner suspension system, an upgrade to the Kevlar helmet. "Most of today's Kevlar helmets were designed to protect soldiers from gunfire and flying debris," said Tech. Sgt. Paul Jacques, 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, who served as the point of contact for the donation. "These upgrades make a good helmet significantly better." Additional benefits include making the helmet more comfortable and...

Army wives get phone death threats from Iraq By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 25/06/2006) Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph. The "nuisance" calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers' mobile telephones. The growing number of calls has led to an investigation by the Royal Military Police, which has issued a warning to all soldiers in Iraq to take great care when using...

Mars robots to get smart upgrade By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter, in Baltimore Dust devils on Mars: Catch them if you can The US space agency's rovers will get a software upgrade to allow them to make "intelligent" decisions in the study of Martian clouds and dust devils. The new algorithms will give the robots' computers the onboard ability to search through their images to find pictures that feature these phenomena. Only the most significant data will then be sent to Earth, maximising the scientific return from the missions. Nasa says its robotic craft will become increasingly autonomous...

Afghan National Army Sgt Naqibullah (left) and Staff Sgt. Samiollha, Central Movement Agency trainees, load bottled water on an A-22 Container Delivery System during training at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 9, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Mario Saenz Afghan Soldiers Get In-Depth Airdrop Training The three-day class also included a demonstration of an airdrop delivery aboard an Air National Guard C-130. By U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Mario Saenz Central Movement Agency BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 17, 2006 — Ten Afghan National Army Central Movement Agency personnel recently attended formal airdrop “rigging” training here.The Combined Joint...

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2006 – For the past six months, troops overseas have been getting a high dose of caffeine thanks to a partnership between a group dedicated to supporting combat troops and a family-owned coffee company. America Supports You member group Packages From Home partnered with Lindsey Gourmet Coffee, in Phoenix to send 3,000 pounds of coffee to troops deployed in combat zones. Here, Marines from 1st Marine Expeditionary Force pose with a coffee shipment in Camp Fallujah, Iraq, May 14. Clockwise from top left, Sgt. Wenzel, Master Sgt. Wolbaum, Cpl. Marcell, Master Sgt. McDonald, Master Sgt. Harold,...

Ancient islanders get a leg up Bruce Bower From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting Fossils of a humanlike species dubbed Homo floresiensis that lived on the Pacific island of Flores between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago recently grabbed headlines because scientists deduced that this creature stood no more than 1 meter tall and possessed a surprisingly small brain. Nonetheless, H. floresiensis packed considerable weight on its diminutive frame and possessed far stronger legs than people do today, says William L. Jungers of the State University of New York at Stony Brook....

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2006 – Boy Scouts, sorority groups, businessmen and veterans will come together for two fundraisers this spring to help a group of kayakers continue their river-borne rehabilitation effort for wounded troops. Jason Beakes holds a prosthetic leg for Army Sgt. Brandon Huff at the end of the day''s runs at Dickerson Whitewater Course, in Dickerson, Md., March 12. Beakes, a champion whitewater kayaker, volunteers with Team River Runner, teaching kayaking to disabled veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Neil Hermansdorfer   The first fundraiser for "Team River Runner" is a dinner...

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2006 – Military families will soon have a new and secure way to keep in touch with their deployed loved ones. America Supports You: Linda Dennis, founder and president of "Connect and Join," and Dr. Frederic Medway, are launching a Web site for military families. Here, they pose April 25 in the Pentagon with arts and crafts projects they developed to help military families stay in touch during deployment. Photo by Paul X. Rutz  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Connect and Join," an Internet-based communications company, provides a forum for military families to keep in...

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Navy sailors are trading sea legs for land combat as the U.S. Army is opening its largest training base to help them survive when sent into Afghanistan or Iraq. The Navy is sending thousands of men and women to support Army units in those regions and wants its sailors to hone their fighting skills. "Hit the ground and brace yourself with your weapon!" senior drill instructor Warren Brown yelled at a dozen trainees slithering across a mud-soaked field. "Look around, pick yourself up and go! You're under fire!" After struggling up from the mud with her...

Mission to get allies into united state for Long War By Alec Russell (Filed: 10/04/2006) In their mobile buildings in the beach-front car park at Central Command, the headquarters of the US-led fight against terrorism, representatives of America's allies are preparing for two significant changes. The first is a welcome move from their untidy coalition village of trailer homes, each with a national flag fluttering overhead in the sultry Florida breeze, to more spacious quarters. The prefabricated offices were never intended for the long haul and the space between them is shrinking now that 63 nations have liaison teams at...

While the Department of Defense has ample manpower and equipment for both its overseas operational needs and any likely domestic response, its organizational structure and lack of integration with other domestic preparedness and response agencies may have the unintended consequence of an ineffective mass casualty reaction in the homeland. As the response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, there are problems in local, state, and Federal responses and in communicating needs and expectations between the levels of government. When Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, once a military response was appropriately requested and authorized, National Guard and Federal military forces were on the...

Among those gathered Saturday to listen to Sen. John McCain in Iraq were Arizonans Maj. Cecil MacPherson, 34, and Sgt. Glenn Hawkins, 32, of the U.S. Army, who are serving there. Army Sgt. Brad Owensby of Dudleyville — northeast of Tucson near Winkelman — also managed to squeeze in a few moments of face time with McCain afterward. "I was surprised that he knew of the town where I was from," Owensby said in a telephone interview Saturday from Baghdad. Each of the men had their personal reasons for going to see McCain, though Hawkins joked he was decidedly less...

MIAMI (March 17) - A growing scandal over teachers who paid to get credit for courses they never took has cost nearly three dozen educators their jobs, and hundreds of others were being investigated. The Miami-Dade County School Board voted 5-4 on Wednesday to fire six teachers and accept resignations from 26 others. The punishments stem from a scam run by former high school teacher William McCoggle, who claimed to offer continuing-education classes through a private company. McCoggle pleaded guilty to fraud in November, admitting he did little more than sell transcripts, requiring no tests, homework or other academic work....

Taiwan storm set to get louder By Chris Hogg BBC News, Hong Kong Tensions between the two sides are running high It is 12 months since China passed a law authorising the use of force against Taiwan if the self-governing island moved towards formal independence. On the face of it, it looks like nothing much has changed since then. Both sides are still flinging insults at each other. China is still refusing to talk to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian. The "status quo", as people call it, remains in place. But conversations with the leading players and analysts who monitor their...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.-- (March 7, 2006) -- Active duty and reserve service members who are legal residents of the state of Massachusetts may be eligible to receive a chunk of change from their state government. According to the state’s official website, www.mass.gov, the ‘Welcome Home’ Bonus program is administered by the state Treasurer’s office. It provides a one-time $500 or $1000 tax-free payment to service members activated since September 11, 2001. Those who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq will receive $1000, and those who have served domestically or in other foreign countries for a period of...

U.S. Army Maj. Rhonda A. Keisman (second from right) checks the progress of Iraq's Muqdadiyah Technical School. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Cassandra Groce Iraq's Diyala Province Schools Get a Makeover A U.S. Army civil affairs team and Iraqi engineers monitor reconstruction work on three schools, ensuring the contractors meet the necessary requirements. By U.S. Army Pfc. Cassandra Groce 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MUQDADIYAH, Iraq, Feb. 27, 2006 — Through the efforts of Iraqi locals and coalition forces, the schools in Iraq's Diyala Province are getting a makeover. "The goal is to turn the projects over to the...

Get out of the way... he hasn't forgotten By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 16/02/2006) The reputation that elephants have for never forgetting has been given a chilling new twist by experts who believe that a generation of pachiderms may taking revenge on humans for the breakdown of elephant society. The New Scientist reports today that elephants appear to be attacking human settlements as vengeance for years of abuse by people. In Uganda, for example, elephant numbers have never been lower or food more plentiful, yet there are reports of the creatures blocking roads and trampling through villages, apparently without...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 20, 2006) – Among more than 900 Soldiers watching the Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-4, Thursday night in an overtime shootout, was a wounded warrior who aspires to one day play competitive hockey again. Spc. Tim Taylor played hockey 14 years in high school and city leagues before most of his left hand was blown off in Iraq. Now he says Walter Reed Army Medical Center will provide him with an adaptive hand so he can compete again. Taylor said he was his team’s leading scorer in Savannah, Ga., before he deployed...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2006 – For the past year and a half, Kathleen Rafiq has been drawing on her personal experiences to teach American school children on both U.S. coasts what it's like to live in Afghanistan. "I've been traveling back and forth to Afghanistan since right after 9/11," she said via telephone from California just prior to boarding an airliner for Afghanistan yesterday. "I have a 25-year-long history with Afghanistan, relationships with friends and family, and I was married to an Afghan." Rafiq works with "Kids Serve Too," a program launched in 2002 by a Virginia nonprofit group called...

Millions Get First Tap Water in Eight Years Iraqi workers completed repairs to two water treatment plants in south Baghdad. By Norris Jones Gulf Region Central District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005 — Despite insurgent activity, Iraqi workers completed repairs to two water treatment plants in south Baghdad after nearly four months of work. Due to their skill and bravery, an estimated one million Baghdad residents will benefit from the renovations that continued regardless of insurgent attacks. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Central (GRC), provided oversight for the restoration project. Local...