Posted on 01/28/2006 6:53:27 PM PST by Gucho
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 28, 2006
The Army has awarded its third-highest unit citation to the special operations unit that participated in the high-profile rescue of former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch.
The 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based in Savannah, Ga., received the Valorous Unit Award during a Friday ceremony at Hunter Army Airfield.
"Being a special operator, a Ranger, is not a job. It's who you are," said special operations commander Lt. Gen. Robert W. Wagner.
The battalion helped rescue Lynch from an Iraqi hospital during a nighttime raid and dug up the bodies of eight soldiers who had been killed in fighting with Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company.
A convoy from Lynch's company took a wrong turn and was attacked in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah in March 2003. Eleven American soldiers were killed and six were captured, including Lynch. She suffered two spinal fractures, nerve damage and a shattered right arm, right foot and left leg when her Humvee crashed during the battle.
Friday, the Rangers were restricted in what they could say about their combat service because the Army's Special Operations Command has classified much of it.
More than 50 individual awards were also presented to Rangers, including a Bronze Star for valor and 40 Bronze Star medals for service. In addition, the Army awarded five Commendation medals and eight Purple Hearts.
The Rangers "demonstrated the value of a highly trained and disciplined force of elite soldiers" in the unit's seven deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2002, Wagner said.
In August, Lynch started classes at West Virginia University, one of several universities that offered her a scholarship so she could achieve her dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher.
The battalion returned earlier this month from a three-month split deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, a spokeswoman said.
January 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amidst the 800 shiny new cars at the 2006 Washington D.C. Auto Show, the Stryker stands out like a sturdy green oak in a flower garden.
"We’re here in support of recruiting command and basically to show the taxpayers what they’re getting for their money," said Randall R. Rankin, spokesperson for the Stryker display. "It’s big, it’s green, it’s got a gun on it, and it draws a crowd."
The purpose of the display is to showcase the Army’s newest capabilities, the Stryker family of vehicles being one of the newer vehicles in the military inventory.
Children stared at it with wide eyes before climbing aboard. A gaggle of models taking a break from pitching cars admired the Stryker, lining up to have their pictures taken by the rear door. A pair of potential recruits sitting inside recovered quickly from their surprise and invited the models to join them.
"The Stryker appeals to all ages," said Rankin, noting the different reactions people had as they approached the eight-wheeled, olive-drab armored vehicle. "The older folks, especially the retirees, look at it and say, ‘It’s not my old M-113!’ The real young kids get in there and climb on it and are oohing and aahing. The recruiting targets for the most part ask some intelligent questions. They want to know what we do with it, how it works, and how well they survive."
Rankin rattles off Stryker statistics at machinegun speed: composition, speed, variations, weapons, and the two Medal of Honor recipients, one from World War I, one from Vietnam that the vehicle was named after.
This particular vehicle, an infantry carrier from the assortment of 10 mission-specific configurations in the Stryker family, will go from the DC show to a Chicago show, then on to another show in Cleveland. After that the days of car shows and models will be over and it’s off to duty at Fort Lewis for use by Soldiers.
"I did the show in Detroit and we were non-stop people around the vehicle from start of show to end of show," said Rankin. "Saturday and Sunday is going to be very busy. In Detroit we probably had, in the course of the weekend, a thousand people in and around the vehicle."
Having the Stryker at the auto show helps the recruiting effort, said Staff Sgt. Albert L. Cook, Baltimore Recruiting Battalion.
"We get a lot of contacts," he said. "This is our target market. Its exposure."
"The Stryker generates interest," added fellow recruiter Cpl. Nicholas Watts. "We talk to people, try to get the Army name out there, because a lot of people don’t know all of the things the Army has to offer. As long as we can get that message out to them and better inform the public, the better the recruiting effort will be."
The huge auto show attracted thousands of people, including the mayor of the nation’s capital.
"The Army is a big part of our city and a big part our country, and whenever the Army participates it’s a wonderful thing," said car buff Mayor Anthony A. Williams after a press conference and luncheon at the show. "We’re certainly happy to have them participating."
"I think it gives a very positive image to the public," said Rankin. "It shows that the military is transforming and that we are getting the best equipment possible for Soldiers."
The auto show will continue through Jan. 29.
By John Reese - Army News Service
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Militants 'burn Afghan schools'
January 28, 2006
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq -- Iraqi Army soldiers and U.S. Marines finished Operation Wadi Aljundi (Koa Canyon) along the Western Euphrates River Valley Jan. 27 after finding and destroying 45 weapons caches and detaining 20 suspected insurgents.
The cordon-and-knock operation began Jan. 15 north of Hit along the Euphrates River in an effort to disrupt insurgent activity and to root out their weapons stores. No Iraqi or Coalition forces were injured during the operation, although the force did uncover several improvised explosive devices along the way.
Iraqi soldiers and Coalition forces worked well together said Lt. Col. Drew Smith, the commanding officer of Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Smith said that, as the operation progressed, so did the level of cooperation among the Iraqis and Americans. “The Iraqi Army soldiers were totally integrated with BLT 1/2 Marines. It was a team effort,” said Smith.
Elements of 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Infantry Division and Smith’s reinforced infantry battalion along with MEU Service Support Group 22 managed to keep insurgents off balance and unable to tap into their stores of weapons stashed along the Euphrates.
From village to village, the force located and destroyed thousands of discovered artillery shells, mortars rounds and other rockets. Complete mortar systems were found, in addition to the numerous automatic weapons and nearly 11,000 rounds of small and large caliber ammunition. Hundreds of pounds of explosives were also uncovered and destroyed. One of the sites uncovered was a small building that was being used as an IED-making facility. More than 250 IED components and various explosives were found at the shack, which was subsequently destroyed.
The Iraqi Army battalion and 22nd MEU (SOC) are conducting counterinsurgency operations in Al Anbar province under the tactical control of the 2nd Marine Division.
Source : MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER - BAGHDAD, Iraq
Thank you Diva.
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This is awesome, Gucho. You are a great American.
I saw this thread a time or two before. I didn't realize it is so frequently renewed and all, forgive me for not following it until now.
Thank you La Enchiladita.
Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 3:50 PM PST
By: NICK WADHAMS - Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the U.S. Army, which has so many acronyms, expressions and opaque phrases that it seems to deserve its own language, there is one word that is quite possibly uttered more than any other.
That word is "hooah." Pronounced HOO-ah. Alternatively spelled hua and huah.
Attend a company command meeting and you'll hear hooah uttered as often as a 15-year-old says "like" or "you know." Head to the post exchange and buy a Hooah Energy Bar or Hoo-Ahhs wet wipes or HOOAH2O water.
It's not just in Iraq. At U.S. bases around the world, hooah seems an inseparable element of Army life.
Just don't try to define it. And definitely don't try to figure out where it comes from.
"I believe it came from hurrah. It basically means everything from 'yes' and 'yes, sir,' to 'that's great,"' said Capt. James Lowe, public affairs officer for the 506th Regimental Combat Team. "You could use it as a generalized cheer. It's one of those multipurpose phrases -- when in doubt, say hooah."
That doesn't even begin to cover it.
They shout hooah to get motivated, and they whisper it when they concur with something someone just said. Hooah means you understood something, or is the proper reply when someone says "thank you." On the other hand, it may also be used to say "thank you."
Hooah is a catchall phrase that will get you out of any situation, particularly when receiving a scolding from a higher-ranking officer.
"You use it when you've got a flame on your butt and you're just trying to extinguish it," said Capt. Brian Buckner, 30, of Sumter, S.C.
Take this conversation, overheard recently outside the mess hall at Camp Rustamiyah, on Baghdad's eastern outskirts:
Soldier 1: How you doing?
Soldier 2: Fine. How you doing?
Soldier 1: Hooah.
For the different branches of the military, each vastly competitive with and jealous of its distinctions from one another, hooah has become something of a sore point. Marines and sailors have their own saying, more of a "hoo-RAH" or a "hoo-yah," which they claim is entirely separate in origin.
The Air Force brass once reportedly got so irked about sharing "hooah" with the Army that it tried to get airmen to shout "Air power!" instead. But "Air power!" did not have the same potency as "hooah," and has been largely abandoned.
Sgt. Joe Carter, a 23-year-old from Kennett, Mo., recalls how, after arriving at basic training, he and other young Army recruits attended a motivational talk from their commander.
"When we first got there, the commander gave a speech, and at the end he told us, 'I want to hear a loud and thunderous hooah!"' Carter said. "We were real pumped and amped up."
Yet the use of hooah by the uninitiated is generally frowned on. Carter recounted that a drill sergeant barred him and his fellow recruits from saying hooah until they had finished the basic course and earned the right.
And civilians uttering hooah are generally looked upon with either disdain or the astonishment of a person who has just heard a koala bear recite lines from e.e. cummings.
As with any good word, the origins of hooah are highly disputed.
Some claim it derives from the military acronym HUA -- Heard, Understood, Acknowledged.
Another tale: When Army Rangers landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, a sergeant ordered them to scale the cliffs looming above them and neutralize the German pillboxes perched on top. One soldier, aghast at the idea, responded, "Who, us?" Soldiers ended up following the order, in what became one of the most celebrated acts of World War II.
Then there's the theory that hooah comes from hurrah and hooray, themselves believed to be bastardizations of the sailor's cry "huzzah," which dates back to the 16th century.
With the Internet widening the forum for debate, blog entries suggesting definitions of hooah have been met with dozens upon dozens of comments from those who think they know better.
With all the derivations that exist, a few souls have tried to come up with an official meaning. One such half-serious, half-humorous definition, listed by the Urban Dictionary, reads in part: "U.S. Army slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except 'no.' Generally used when at a loss for words."
Lt. Col. Brian Winski, commander of the Army's 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, who sometimes says "hooah" so often it seems to have entered into his subconscious, isn't entirely satisfied with that definition, but says it will have to suffice.
"That's about right if you have to really box it in," he said. "I guess that's about as close as you could get."
One tongue-in-cheek definition of 'hooah' The word "hooah" has come to mean just about everything in the U.S. Army. Here's a definition from Urban Dictionary, half serious and half tongue-in-cheek:
Hooah (who-ah), adjective. U.S. Army slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except "no." Generally used when at a loss for words.
Also:
Good copy, solid copy, roger, good or great; message received, understood.
Glad to meet you, welcome.
I do not know, but will check on it, I haven't the vaguest idea.
I am not listening.
That is enough of your drivel. Sit down.
Stop sniveling.
You've got to be kidding.
Yes.
Thank you.
Go to the next (briefing) slide.
You have taken the correct action.
I don't know what that means, but am too embarrassed to ask for clarification.
That is really neat, I want one, too.
Amen.
1:45 pm PST - January 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Saddam Hussein trial has a new chief judge, but the same old problems continue to dog the case against the former Iraqi dictator.
The trial resumes Sunday after a string of long delays. The latest delay was called earlier this week after Iraqi officials appointed a new chief judge to replace the one who'd resigned earlier this month.
One of Saddam's defense lawyers said his team would file several motions questioning the court's independence and legitimacy because of the resignation.
Similar questions are also being raised by Human Rights Watch and another international observer of the trial. They're concerned that political interference is threatening the tribunal's independence.
Associated Press
President's Saturday Radio Address
January 28, 2006
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. The United States Senate is now considering my nomination of Judge Sam Alito to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court. As Americans saw in his confirmation hearings, Sam Alito is a man of great character and integrity. He has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years. He understands that the role of a judge is to strictly interpret the law, not to advance a personal or political agenda. And throughout his extraordinary career, Sam Alito has earned the tremendous respect of his colleagues and attorneys across the political spectrum.
This past Wednesday, I met with a distinguished group of 39 former law clerks to Judge Alito. During Judge Alito's 15 years on the bench, these fine men and women have worked side-by-side with him, providing legal research, discussing and debating pending cases, and seeing firsthand how he arrives at decisions. They are uniquely qualified to assess what kind of Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito would be, and they are united in their strong support of Judge Alito's nomination.
One of Judge Alito's former clerks, who describes herself as a "left-leaning Democrat," says this about Sam Alito: "He's a man of great decency, integrity, and character. I believe very strongly he deserves to be confirmed as the Court's next associate justice." Another former clerk worked on Senator Kerry's presidential campaign. She says this about Judge Alito: "His approach to judging is not about personal ideology or ambition, but about hard work and devotion to law and justice." In fact, Judge Alito has the strong support of all 54 of his former clerks, regardless of their political beliefs. They know him well, and they know he'll make an outstanding Supreme Court Justice.
Judge Alito has also earned broad support from his fellow judges on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Seven of them took the extraordinary step of testifying on his behalf before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Former Chief Judge Ed Becker -- who sat with Judge Alito on more than 1,000 cases -- said this about his colleague: "He's a real judge, deciding each case on the facts and the law, not on his personal views." Another colleague on the Third Circuit who was appointed by President Clinton said this about Judge Alito: "He is a fair-minded man, a modest man, a humble man, and he reveres the rule of law." This judge went on to say that, if confirmed, Judge Alito "will serve as a marvelous and distinguished associate justice."
Judge Alito received the American Bar Association's highest possible rating -- a unanimous "well-qualified." The ABA based its rating on its assessment of Judge Alito's integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament. In the past, leading Democratic senators have called the ABA rating the "gold standard" for judicial nominees.
This past week, Judge Alito gained the endorsement of Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor, Ed Rendell. Governor Rendell said he was not pleased with the partisan way some of his fellow Democrats have handled Sam Alito's nomination. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia announced he was voting for Judge Alito. And he said that many people in his state were calling the treatment of Judge Alito by some Democrats "an outrage and a disgrace." Another Democratic Senator expressed concern that the Senate confirmation process in recent years has become "overly politicized, to the detriment of the rule of law."
The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to hold an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito's nomination. Throughout its 216-year history, the Senate has held an up-or-down vote on every Supreme Court nominee with majority Senate support. Judge Alito has demonstrated that he is eminently qualified to serve on our nation's highest court, and America is fortunate to have a man of his integrity and intellect willing to serve.
I'm grateful to Judge Alito, his wife Martha, and the Alito children for their patience and dignity during the process. And I look forward to the Senate voting to confirm Judge Sam Alito as the 110th justice of the Supreme Court.
Thank you for listening.
END
January 28, 2006 - 10:00 PM ET
Associated Press
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) - He didn't have to go, it wasn't his job and nobody paid him to do it. But Michael Yon says he went to Iraq because he wanted to see for himself what was going on.
The 41-year-old former Army Green Beret, self-published author and world traveler didn't know exactly what he was going to do when he got to the war zone last year, nor did he have any particular plans to report what he saw to the world at-large.
But that's what he did.
After getting himself embedded as a freelance journalist with troops last year, he used his Internet blog to report on the car bombs, firefights and dead soldiers. But he also wrote descriptively about acts of compassion and heroism, small triumphs in the country's crawl toward democracy and the gritty inner workings of the military machine.
Yon's dispatches have been extolled by loyal readers as gutsy and honest reporting by a guy who's not afraid to get his hands dirty. He has been interviewed and his blog quoted by major newspapers and TV news networks, and he has drawn comparisons to Ernie Pyle, the renowned World War II correspondent who shared the trenches with fighting soldiers.
Actor Bruce Willis is a fan and has said he wants to make a movie about the exploits of the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment -- aka the "Deuce Four" -- which Yon followed through battles against insurgents in Mosul.
"Deuce Four is an overwhelmingly aggressive and effective unit, and they believe the best defense is a dead enemy," Yon wrote in one dispatch. "They are constantly thinking up innovative, unique and effective ways to kill or capture the enemy; proactive not reactive."
In May, a poignant photo he shot of a soldier cradling a dying Iraqi girl after an explosion in Mosul was printed in major U.S. newspapers and brought even more attention to his unpaid mission. A subsequent appeal for donations on the Web site brought in thousands of dollars.
And at one point he crossed the line from observer to participant.
In August, during a fierce firefight in downtown Mosul, Yon and witnesses say he picked up an M4 rifle, reloaded and fired three times at insurgents inside a shop as two of the battalion leaders lay wounded nearby. That's a no-no for embedded journalists, and it brought a stern reprimand from the Army.
"As soon I saw the rifle, I just grabbed it," he says. "It was just a reflex."
The slant of Yon's blog is unflinchingly pro-military, but he has frequently criticized Army public affairs officers in print over how news out of Iraq is managed. He hasn't shied away from describing the horrors of war, and he once wrote about an Iraqi taxi driver killed by U.S. troops during a fire fight.
"They know I don't follow the party line," says the soft-spoken Yon, whose broad, solid physique makes him seem taller than his 5 feet and 6 inches. "Like when our guys get killed, I'll write about it and I'll write about it the way it really happened, which sometimes is pretty graphic."
Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, the Deuce Four commander who was wounded in the downtown Mosul battle, says Yon was effective because he stayed with the unit longer than most embedded reporters.
"Mike, by spending five months with us, understood the unit, the idiosyncrasies, the good and the bad, and how we made decisions," Kurilla says. "You don't get that from coming in for 48 or 72 hours."
A native of Winter Haven in central Florida, Yon is a professional adventurer of sorts. His tales range from establishing a vending business in Poland to tracking cannibals in India, all after serving five years in the Army in the 1980s. In 2000 he self-published a memoir called "Danger Close," which includes details of the 19-year-old Yon killing a man in a bar fight, a case later determined to be self-defense.
At the urging of friends connected the military, Yon went to Iraq a year ago, began blogging a few weeks later and within a few months had a good Internet following. It really took off when he started writing about the Deuce Four in Mosul, and in the last four months of 2005 the site logged around 1.5 million hits.
"I think Michael set out to chronicle what it was like for regular rank-and-file soldiers who went out outside the wire every day in a city that has been a very dangerous place," says Richard A. Oppel Jr., a New York Times reporter who was in Iraq with Yon.
Not being a journalist by trade, Yon says he initially had trouble being an objective observer when the explosions and gunfire started.
"In the beginning I would just help people, and I wouldn't get any photos," he says. "I realized that I could do a lot more with my camera and my pen than I could with my hands, and so I disciplined myself to just stay out of the way and photograph, unless somebody really, really needs me."
He felt that was the case in the downtown Mosul battle in August when he got involved in the battle. But before picking up the rifle, he shot a stunning sequence of photos of Kurilla crumpling to the ground as an insurgent's bullets pierced both his legs and an arm.
Kurilla and the rest of the Deuce Four are home now, with dozens of Purple Hearts among them. Lately Yon has been traveling in the United States and interviewing them for a book about the unit and the Battle for Mosul.
He recently bought new body armor and, if all goes as planned, he'll return to Iraq later this year.
"It's a very complicated world and you can't learn about it by sitting back and reading about it," Yon says. "Not the way I wanted to learn about it anyway."
On the Net:
Michael Yon: Online Magazine: http://michaelyon-online.com
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