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Coalition Efforts and Iraq's Recovery 
June 1, 2003
CAMP DOHA, Kuwait – Coalition Forces continue to assist in developing a safer and more secure environment in Iraq through the following activities. The Coalition Humanitarian Operations Center (Kuwait) recently:
- Facilitated more than 40 humanitarian missions on Saturday, expanding their efforts to areas north of the Al Basrah governate. - Assisted the Japanese Cooperation Center for the Middle East to identify missions they can support with Japanese provided air transportation. - Met with the Umm Qasr Town Council yesterday to consider a proposal from an Iraqi well digger to identify a source of water for reverse osmosis water purification. Also met with UNICEF about funding for well drilling. - Visited Al Hillah with representatives from humanitarian assistance organizations to coordinate future HA operations. - Met with the commander, First Marine Expeditionary Force to discuss the humanitarian needs of the governates within his area of operations. - Continued to work on bank restoration and payments to civil service workers throughout Iraq.
BAGHDAD
Coalition Forces:
- Analyzed bank assessments and planned bank restoration projects. - Monitored progress of the four Baghdad Neighborhood Advisory Councils. - Coordinated with police to design a standardized badge for the Baghdad Police. - Met with the International Federation of the Red Crescent to coordinate a plan for publicizing patient rights issues within Iraq. - Identified seven potential sites for garbage transfer stations to deal with Baghdad communities with narrow streets, and worked to produce ID badges for Iraqi sanitation workers.
NORTHERN IRAQ;
IRBIL / MOSUL / TIKRIT / KIRKUK
Coalition Forces:
- Assisted the Coalition Provisional Authority to disseminate two documents, "Plan for Marketing Wheat and Barley Harvests," and "Announcement of Grain Procurement for the 2003 Wheat and Barley Crop," to 18 governate warehouses. The documents assist farmers by quoting prices, giving specifications for product grades, and by providing instructions for storing grain. - Facilitated 397 truckloads (over 9,000 metric tons) of World Food Program food consignments from turkey for deliver to Dohuk, Mosul, Erbil and Sulaymaniwah. - Received 26 truckloads of bulk food shipments at the UN food distribution site for a total of 479 shipments delivered to date. - Received 69 benzene and 58 propane trucks from Turkey and distributed more than 24,000 liters of benzene and nearly 19,000 propane canisters. - Provided security for major oil production and electrical production facilities, local banks, bridges, schools and food warehouses. - Delivered school supplies to the girl's high school in Qayyarah. - Conducted a harvest meeting in Makhmur to hear the complaints and grievances of farmers in the region. - Reported that UNESCO received a $1 million obligation of a $10 million grant to provide five million math and science textbooks that are free from former regime bias. - Reported a Prentiss Hall subsidiary company will host an Internet web site to match schools in other countries with schools in Iraq. The purpose is for children to communicate with other children as a class instead of individuals. Took estimates from local vendors in Mosul for prison guard uniforms. - Are working with the hospital staff in Tuz to assist in delivery of medical supplies from the Tikrit General Hospital. - Continued "Task Force Neighborhood" clean-up operations in Makhmur and will merge with counter- graffiti task force efforts. - Completed electrical system repairs at a bulk propane distribution center near Tal Afar. - Delivered $600 in tools to the computer-center at the University of Mosul. - Monitored $8,900 in payments to seven school headmasters to pay teachers. - Are working with civic leaders in the Dahuk/Mosul area to optimize the use of fire truck during the upcoming wheat harvest.
SOUTHERN IRAQ;
AL KUT 23rd Marine Regiment recently:
- Worked with Navy Seabees to finish repairs to the As Suwayrah bridge. - Posted weapons policy posters, and ran a public service announcement on local television that describes weapons turn-in procedures.
AN NAJAF
7th Marine Regiment recently:
- Distributed two shipments of propane to local vendors to provide local citizens with cooking fuel.
AD DIWANIYAH
5th Marine Regiment recently:
- Delivered two seven-ton truckloads of supplies to the educational warehouse for distribution to local schools. Supplies included cases of pencils, crayons, rulers, erasers, painting supplies, and other key school needs items. - The Marines also accepted 32 new school reconstruction projects.
AS SAMAWAH
5th Marine Regiment recently:
- Distributed approximately 20 tons of propane to local vendors. - Coordinated the hiring of Iraqi workers to clean up the city as part of a $3 million sewage repair project.
KARBALA
7th Marine Regiment recently:
- Continued efforts to repair the neglected sewage treatment plant by hiring extra labor and is pursuing repair parts of two cycling tanks.
May 29, 2003
Release Number: 03-05-109
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE VEHICLE ATTEMPTS TO RUN CHECKPOINT CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- Two civilians were killed and two were injured in Samarra late Wednesday night when they attempted to drive their vehicle through a Coalition checkpoint. At about 11:00 p.m., a vehicle moving an estimated 40 mph tried to drive through a well-established and well-lit checkpoint guarded by Coalition soldiers and three tanks. Soldiers fired numerous warning shots but the vehicle continued onward, forcing soldiers on the ground to jump out of the way. The soldiers then fired at it with a tank-mounted machine gun, killing two civilians inside the vehicle. Two other civilians in the vehicle were injured and taken to the Samarra Hospital. No coalition soldiers were injured in the attack.
Nation Pays Tribute to Those Who Died to Defend Freedom
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va., May 26, 2003 - "God is crying too," said 4- year-old Robert as he and his family participated in the Memorial Day ceremonies here today. Robert, whose family did not want to use his last name, was one of thousands who sat through the rain to honor the men and women who have died in defense of the United States. He and those gathered listened as President Bush spoke for the nation in tribute to the fallen. "We come to this Memorial Day with deep awareness of recent loss and recent courage," Bush said during his speech. The president spoke of Americans who fought for freedom throughout U.S. history. "Today we honor the men and women who wore the nation's uniform and were last seen on duty," Bush said, "from the battles of Iraq and Afghanistan to the conflicts of Korea and Vietnam, to the trials of world wars and the struggles that made us a nation. "Today we recall that liberty is always the achievement of courage. And today, we remember all who have died, all who are still missing and all who mourn." He said that in every generation, the United States has found people who were equal to the needs of the times. The farms, small towns and city streets of this land have always produced free citizens who assumed the discipline and duty of military life," he said. "And time after time, they have proved that the moral force of democracy is mightier than the will and cunning of any tyrant." Bush said that American service members have not fought for glory, but to fulfill a duty. "They did not yearn to be heroes. They yearned to see Mom and Dad again and to hold their sweethearts and to watch their sons and daughters grow," he said. "They wanted the daily miracle of freedom in America, yet they gave all that up and gave life itself for the sake of others. "Their sacrifice was great, but not in vain," he continued. "All Americans and every free nation on earth can trace their liberty to the white markers of places like Arlington National Cemetery. And may God keep us ever grateful." Complete story and pictures Operation Family Fund
- Giving Help & Hope to the Families of Fallen Heroes
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MISSING NAVY CREWMEMBERS FOUND AND IDENTIFIED-5/27/03 (Vietnam MIA) The remains of nine U.S. Navy crewmembers, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and their remains are being returned to their families for burial.
The nine are identified as:
Cmdr. Delbert A. Olson, Casselton, N.D.;
Lt. j.g.'s Denis L. Anderson, Hope, Kan.;
Arthur C. Buck, Sandusky, Ohio; and
Philip P. Stevens, Twin Lake, Mich.;
Petty Officers 2nd class Richard M. Mancini, Amsterdam, N.Y.;
Michael L. Roberts, Purvis, Miss.,
Donald N. Thoresen and
Kenneth H. Widon, Detroit and
Petty Officer 3rd class Gale R. Siow, Huntington Park, Calif.
A group burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on June 18, 2003.
The nine departed Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base on Jan.11, 1968 onboard a Navy OP-2E Neptune aircraft for a mission over Laos to drop sensors which detected enemy movements.
During its last radio contact, the crew reported they were descending through dense clouds. When they did not return to their home base, a search was initiated but found no evidence of a crash.
Two weeks later, an Air Force aircrew photographed what appeared to be the crash site, but enemy activity in the area prevented a recovery operation.
Between 1993 and 2002, six U.S.-Lao investigation teams led by the Joint Task Force Full Accounting interviewed villagers in the surrounding area, gathered aircraft debris and surveyed the purported crash site scattered on two ledges of Phou Louang Mountain in Khammouan Province.
During a 1996 visit, team members also recovered identification cards for several crewmembers, as well as human remains.
Full-scale recovery missions by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) in both 2001 and 2002 yielded additional remains, as well as identification of other crewmembers.
More than 1,900 Americans are missing in action from the Vietnam War, with another 86,000 MIA from the Cold War, the Korean War and WWII.
FIRST KOREAN WAR UNKNOWN IDENTIFIED
The remains of a Korean War U.S. Marine buried as an "unknown" have been identified and returned to his family. He is Pfc. Ronald D. Lilledahl of Minneapolis, Minn. This marks the first unknown serviceman from the Korean War to be identified. On Nov. 28, 1950, Lilledahl's unit, Company C of the 7th Marines, was surrounded by Chinese forces on the west side of the Chosin Reservoir and cut off from supporting units.
During a seesaw battle throughout the day, Lilledahl reportedly was struck and killed by enemy fire and buried in a shallow grave. In the ensuing withdrawal, C Company was unable to retrieve all of its dead, including Lilledahl.
Following the armistice, the North Korean government returned remains believed to be those of U.S. servicemen, but forensic technology at the time was unable to make positive identifications on more than 800 of those.
They were interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as The Punchbowl, as "unknowns."
In 1999, the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI) exhumed two of the Korean War unknowns for the purpose of possible identification. Between 1999 and 2002, CILHI scientists submitted 10 bone or dental samples to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory but no usable mitochondrial DNA data could be extracted from the remains.
Broadening their search effort, CILHI researchers uncovered a postage-stamp sized chest x-ray in Lilledahl's medical records at the National Personnel Records Center. The scientific staff enlarged it many times and was able to show very strong consistency with the remains.
The final piece of evidence confirming his identity came from a new computer program recently developed by CILHI, which allows scientists to compare dental remains to a vast database of almost 40,000 dental patterns seen in the U.S.
Lilledahl's were unique among the entire database, lending tremendous weight to the significance of the match.
Annual negotiations led by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office since 1996 have enabled CILHI teams to conduct 25 operations in North Korea, recovering what may be 178 remains of Americans. More than 8,100 are still missing in action from the Korean War.
Casuality Identification List since we last met on a News Thread
05/30/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Spc. Jose A. Perez III, 22, of San Diego, Texas, was killed on May 28, in Taji, Iraq. Perez was in a convoy that was ambushed.
Perez was assigned to 6th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Sill, Okla.
05/29/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Staff Sgt. Michael B. Quinn, 37, of Tampa, Fla., was killed May 27, in Al-Fallujah, Iraq. Quinn was on guard duty at a checkpoint when a vehicle pulled up and assailants fired on him.
Quinn was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armor Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo. The incident is under investigation.
05/28/2003:DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the identification of four soldiers who were killed in Iraq while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They are:
Pfc. Jeremiah D. Smith, 25, of Odessa, Mo., was killed on May 26 in Baghdad, Iraq. Smith was escorting heavy equipment transporters when his vehicle hit unexploded ordnance. Smith was assigned to 1st Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, Fort Riley, Kan.
Sgt. Thomas F. Broomhead, 34, of Cannon City, Colo., was killed on May 27, in Al Fallujah, Iraq. Broomhead was on guard at a checkpoint when a vehicle pulled up and assailants fired on him. Broomhead was assigned to 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armor Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.
Staff Sgt. Brett J. Petriken, 30, of Mich., and Pvt. Kenneth A. Nalley, 19, of Hamburg, Iowa, were killed on May 26, in As Samawah, Iraq.
The soldiers were escorting a convoy in a HMMWV when a heavy equipment transporter crossed the median and struck their vehicle.
Both soldiers were assigned to the 501st Military Police Company, Wiesbaden, Germany. The incident is under investigation.
05/27/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Maj. Mathew E. Schram, 36, of Wisconsin, was killed May 26, in Hadithah, Iraq.
Schram was killed while traveling in a military convoy on a resupply mission when they encountered enemy fire.
Schram was assigned to the HHT Support Squadron 3rd ACR, Fort Carson, Colo.
05/26/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Pvt. David Evans, Jr., 18, of Buffalo, N.Y., was killed May 25, in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq.
Evans was killed in an explosion at a facility which contained Iraqi ammunition.
Evans and another soldier were performing security at the site when their steel shelter collapsed during the initial explosion.
The rest of the squad returned after the first explosion and extracted the other soldier, but Pvt. Evans remains could not be located until several hours later.
Evans was assigned to the 977th Military Police Company, Fort Riley, Kan. The incident is under investigation.
05/22/2003: DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
The Department of Defense today identified the four Marines killed on May 19 in the CH-46 Sea-Knight helicopter that went down shortly after take-off in the Shatt Al Hillah Canal, in Iraq.
The helicopter was conducting a resupply mission in support of civil military operations. They are:
Capt. Andrew David LaMont, 31, of Eureka, Calif.
Lance Cpl. Jason William Moore, 21, of San Marcos, Calif.
1st Lt. Timothy Louis Ryan, 30, of Aurora, Ill.
Staff Sgt. Aaron Dean White, 27, of Shawnee, Okla.
The crew was assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron - 364, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The cause of the mishap is under investigation.
05/22/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Spc. Nathaniel A. Caldwell, 27, of Omaha, Neb., was killed May 21, in Baghdad, Iraq.
Caldwell was responding to a civilian call when his vehicle rolled over.
Caldwell was assigned to the 404th Air Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The incident is under investigation.
05/21/2003: DoD Identifies Marine Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today that Cpl. Douglas Jose Marencoreyes, 28, of Chino, Calif., was killed May 18 in Iraq, when the large transport truck he was riding in rolled over approximately 30 km southeast of Al Samawah.
Marencoreyes was a reservist assigned to the Light Armored Vehicle - Air Defense Battery, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The incident is under investigation.
The Department of Defense also announced that Sgt. Kirk Allen Straseskie, 23, of Beaver Dam, Wis., drowned May 19 in a canal near Al Hillah, Iraq, when he attempted to rescue the crewmembers of a Marine CH-46 helicopter that went down in the canal.
Straseskie was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
05/20/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Lt. Col. Dominic R. Baragona, 42, of Ohio, was killed on May 19, in Iraq.
A tractor-trailer jackknifed on the road and collided with Baragona's HMMWV causing his death.
Baragona was assigned to 19th Maintenance Battalion, Fort Sill, Okla. The incident is under investigation.
05/19/03: DoD Identifies Army Caualties
The Department of Defense announced today that Master Sgt. William L. Payne, 46, of Michigan, was killed May 16, in Haswah, Iraq.
Payne was examining unexploded ordnance when the ordnance exploded causing his death.
Payne was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, Fort Riley, Kan. The incident is under investigation.
The Department of Defense also announced today that Spc. Rasheed Sahib, 22, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was killed on May 18, in Balad, Iraq.
Sahib and another soldier were cleaning their weapons when the other soldier's weapon discharged striking Sahib in the chest.
Sahib was assigned to 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The incident is under investigation.
05/19/2003: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Sgt. 1st Class John E. Taylor, 31, of Wichita Falls, Texas, died 17 May, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Taylor suffered a heart attack after completing physical training.
Taylor was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.
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Extra Pic
This is a 2003 handout photo showing the 'Scorpion ensemble' future battle dress for U.S. soldiers, being developed at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., which is expected to be ready for action in 2011. Today's soldier when completely outfitted carries as much as 90 to 120 pounds, but the future combat uniform will weigh only 40 to 50 pounds and will include communications, night vision gear, body senors and the latest technology in protective armor. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center,Sarah Underhill, handout)
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