Posted on 03/03/2004 9:24:08 PM PST by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - The 101st Airborne brigade commander whose "Screaming Eagle" Division troops ended the horrendous careers of Uday and Qusay Hussein puts it simply: The United States is safer today, more than two years after 9-11, with American forces fighting terrorists in Iraq rather than on home soil. On Tuesday as voters streamed toward polling booths, veterans from virtually all service organizations in the Antelope Valley trooped to Lancaster City Hall to greet Col. Joseph Anderson, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 502nd Infantry Regiment.
Mayor Frank Roberts proffered a ceremonial "Key to the City" to Anderson and his wife, Beth, who oversees family readiness issues for her husband's unit. While Anderson coped with battles, boots and bullets, Beth Anderson fought the battle for babysitters to help overwhelmed mothers on the home front.
Roberts looked over his shoulder at fellow council members and asked, "Have we ever done this before?" about the key ceremony. A murmur of discussion followed, but all present agreed they were glad they'd thought to make the gesture on Tuesday, including Vice Mayor Henry Hearns, a Korean War veteran.
One veteran told Anderson not to stress over the political debate about the war on terror.
"Just keep doing what you are doing and don't worry over what the politicians are arguing about," Fred Coby of American Legion Post 311, told Anderson as they shook hands. Coby's son, Sgt. Jose Coby, served with Lancaster unit of the National Guard in Iraq.
"It is so good to see all of you veterans here," Anderson said.
Anderson surveyed rows of seats at City Hall filled by members of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Retired Enlisted Association, Marine Corps League and Pearl Harbor Survivors. Retired Navy Capt. Tom Craft, leader of the committee for a Veterans Home in Lancaster, was there to salute, as well as was Fran Stewart of the Antelope Valley chapter of the American Red Cross, her late husband a Marine Corps senior officer.
"You understand what we do. You heard the call, and you answered it," Anderson said.
It was Anderson's unit, "Screaming Eagle" troops of 101st Airborne (Air Assault), that closed the net around the murderous sons of Saddam Hussein.
"We had the human intelligence. We did not know at first that it was them," Anderson recalled.
Task Force 121, the special operations unit tasked to track Saddam and other "high value targets," found the fugitive brothers in the northern city of Mosul on July 22. A fierce firefight waged by the airborne troopers of 2nd Brigade ended in the deaths of Saddam's sons, a development that President George W. Bush hailed as the death knell for the disintegrating Ba'athist regime.
Anderson recalled he was making a civic action call at a school opening and was next headed toward a briefing for newly minted Iraqi police when he got the radio call that alerted him to the developing fatal encounter. Six months later, Anderson is proud of his troops, and all the troops waging the fight to establish freedom in Iraq.
"Their performance was magnificent to rid the world of a regime that was nasty, and a regime that was a threat," Anderson told the assembled veterans.
The colonel arrived at Lancaster City Hall, a guest of Air Force veteran and businessman Frank Visco. Visco, a former GOP state chairman, said, "I try to never miss a chance to thank our veterans. And with Col. Anderson, we have a real hero in our midst."
Anderson, accepting the golden key, said his troops were the heroes, and the key would make its home on display at "Little old Ft. Campbell, Kentucky," the home of the 101st Airborne.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, he said, "may not have been about weapons of mass destruction, but it certainly was about terrorism. It was about a country that was a very bad place, with all the caches of weapons," he said. The troops, he said, "did a superb job with great restraint, and at great cost."
"I truly believe if we had not defeated (Saddam) it would have permitted a safe haven that would bring terrorists to our home land."
Anderson's assessment is that the remnants of Saddam's regime "are about beat," but that al-Qaida and Ansar Al Islam are attempting to subvert the effort to establish peace, freedom and democracy.
The brigade commander from the Army's oldest airborne regiment spoke on a day that the terror bombing of a Shiite mosque claimed more than 140 lives. Such attacks, he said, are aimed at driving a wedge between the minority Sunni people who received favored treatment under Saddam, and the majority Shiites who often suffered disproportionately.
Although new Iraqi homegrown security forces are receiving better equipment, they remain vulnerable to attack by often better armed opponents. They are also targeted by infiltrators.
Intelligence is king in the postwar guerrilla battleground, Anderson said. American troops face the challenge of maintaining intelligence as units headed home on rotation hand off to incoming units.
The 101st Airborne Division prided itself on building relationships with local residents. "No matter how well you brief the guy coming in, it waits until he builds his own relationships."
The fight for a decent future in postwar Iraq is turning in favor of those who want peace and democracy, the colonel said. Schools are open with higher enrollments than before the war. The infrastructure of government institutions and utilities are being restored.
The hazards faced by the Iraqi people include its neighboring countries' hostility to a free and democratic state in their midst, Anderson said. The hazards Americans face increase with the length of time that a major commitment of American troops force remains in the country.
"We have turned the tide on the information war, and we've gotten the idea across that 'Hey, we don't want your country,' but the longer we stay … that makes it difficult."
The 101st Airborne brigade commander whose "Screaming Eagle" Division troops ended the horrendous careers of Uday and Qusay Hussein puts it simply: The United States is safer today, more than two years after 9-11, with American forces fighting terrorists in Iraq rather than on home soil. On Tuesday as voters streamed toward polling booths, veterans from virtually all service organizations in the Antelope Valley trooped to Lancaster City Hall to greet Col. Joseph Anderson, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 502nd Infantry Regiment.
Private Mail to be added to or removed from the GNFI (or Pro-Coalition) ping list.
John Ferret Kerry is still ready, willing and eager to surrender to them.
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
And one of the finest divisions in the history of the U.S. armed services.
I support our troops and GWB 100% and I proudly served in the US Navy, many years ago.
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
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