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ONE 82ND ABN DIV SOLDIER KILLED, THREE WOUNDED IN IED ATTACK
ARTILLERYMEN, IRAQIS SPIN WRENCHES TO KEEP COALITION ROLLING
KISIK REFINERY ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
COALITION HELPS RECONSTRUCT ROADS IN BAGHDAD
CHECKPOINT GUNFIRE LEADS TO WEAPONS CACHE
IRAQI CITIZENS' TIPS AID COALITION FORCES
COALITION SUPPORTS NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAY
4 ID CONTINUES TO CAPTURE FORMER REGIME LOYALISTS
ICDC CLASS GRADUATES IN TIKRIT
4TH ID CAPTURES WEAPONS DEALERS, IED MAKERS
4TH ID CAPTURES FORMER REGIME LOYALIST
IRAQI WORKERS, COALITION SOLDIERS RESTORE MOSUL’S ZOO
WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERED IN 3rd BRIGADE AREA
3rd ACR PATROLS NET BIG WEAPONS HAUL
COALITION FORCES CONFISCATE, DESTROY WEAPONS
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Clic on the Afghanistan banner for detailed information.
Iraq's 55 Most Wanted - Status Link
DoD News Releases
Casuality Identification List for the past two weeks from the DoD
September 12, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Sgt. Henry Ybarra III, 32, of Austin, Texas, died on Sept. 11 in Balad, Iraq. Ybarra was changing the tire on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck when the tire exploded. Ybarra died of his injuries.
Ybarra was assigned to D Troop, 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry, Illesheim, Germany.
September 11, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. Joseph E. Robsky, Jr., 31, of Elizaville, N.Y., was killed on Sept. 10 in Baghdad, Iraq. Robsky was on call to neutralize an improvised explosive device (IED) after the initial attempt failed. Soldier returned to the site to render it safe, and the IED detonated. Robsky was assigned to the 759th Ordnance Company, Fort Irwin, Calif.
Spc. Ryan G. Carlock, 25, of Macomb, Ill., was killed on Sept. 9 northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. Carlock died of injuries sustained when his fuel truck was attacked by the enemy. Carlock was assigned to the 416th Transportation Company, 260th Quartermaster Battalion (Petroleum Support), Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
September 10, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Spc. Jarrett B. Thompson, 27, of Dover, Del., died on Sept. 7 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Thompson was in a convoy on Aug. 30 when a civilian vehicle passed the convoy and cut in front of the lead military vehicle and an approaching Iraqi truck. The driver of the civilian vehicle hit Thompson's truck. Thompson was medically evacuated to WRAMC where he later died of his injuries.
Thompson was assigned to the 946th Transportation Company, U.S. Army Reserve, Lewes, Del.
September 4, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Staff Sgt. Cameron B. Sarno, 43, of Waipahu, Hawaii, died on Sept. 1 in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Sarno was hit by a truck while changing his vehicle's tire. Sarno died as a result of his injuries.
Sarno was assigned to the 257th Transportation Company, U.S. Army Reserve, Las Vegas, Nev.
September 3, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Sean K. Cataudella, 28, of Tucson, Ariz., died on Aug. 30 in Ba’qubah, Iraq. Cataudella was driving a military vehicle when he hit an embankment and rolled into a canal. Cataudella was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Sgt. Charles T. Caldwell, 38, of North Providence, R.I., was killed on Sept. 1 on Main Supply Route Tampa, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Caldwell was one of two soldiers killed in a vehicle that was struck by an improvised explosive device. Caldwell died of his injuries. Caldwell was assigned to the 115th Military Police Company, U.S. Army National Guard, Cranston, R.I.
Pfc. Christopher A. Sisson, 20, of Oak Park, Ill., died on Sept. 2 in Baghdad, Iraq. Sisson was in a UH-60 helicopter participating in an air assault mission. The helicopter flipped and crashed on take off. He died of injuries sustained in the incident. Sisson was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 325th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Fort Bragg, N.C.
These incidents are under investigation.
September 3, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the identities of two soldiers who were killed on Aug. 31, in Shkin, Afghanistan, while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Killed were:
Spc. Chad C. Fuller, 24, of Potsdam, N.Y.
Pfc. Adam L. Thomas, 21, of Palos Hills, Ill.
Both soldiers were killed while on patrol when their squad was attacked. They died of injuries sustained during the attack.
The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
The incident is under investigation.
September 2, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Sgt. 1st Class Mitchell A. Lane, 34, of Lompoc, Calif., died on Aug. 29 in Afghanistan. Lane fell approximately 25 feet when he was conducting a fast rope infiltration into a known enemy cave complex. Lane died of his injuries.
Lane was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.
September 2, 2003
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today that Staff Sgt. Joseph Camara, 40, of New Bedford, Mass., was killed Sept. 1 on Main Supply Route Tampa, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Camara was one of two soldiers who were killed when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device. Camara died of his injuries.
Camara was assigned to the 115th Military Police Company, U.S. Army National Guard, Cranston, R.I.
Commemorating 9/11
DefendAmerica.mil Photo Essay
Clic on the picture for Photo Essay
September 12, 2003
Indiana Guard Unit Training, Hard Work Pays Off
Note: FReeper "DesertDog" who is FReeper BeAllYouCanBe's son is part of this unit
CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT, Sept. 12, 2003 — “The Thugs,” as they call themselves with a certain sense of pride, have learned about going to war in ways that no street gang could ever imagine.
They are 24 Army National Guard infantry soldiers from Indiana, and they joined the brotherhood of combat infantry veterans during a long, anxious night in late March while guarding a captured ammunition supply point in southern Iraq.
They also helped to write a new chapter in the history of the modern Army National Guard by moving into enemy territory and holding their ground after the first week of Operation Iraqi Freedom which began on March 19.
The Thugs are the mortar platoon for the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry, which demonstrated during this second war against the forces of Saddam Hussein that the Army Guard can handle itself in a combat situation; that it is primed for the fight.
“We have validated ourselves to the active Army. Seven years of hard work and training has paid off,” said Lt. Col. Ivan Denton, the 1st Battalion commander, about what his 650 light infantry soldiers and other Army Guard infantry units have accomplished during the second Gulf War.
The battalion is part of Indiana’s 76th Infantry Brigade, which became one of the Army Guard’s 15 separate and enhanced brigades in the mid-1990s.
“We believed that the enhanced, separate brigades’ stock would rise during this war, and we took that very seriously,” Denton said.
Army Guard infantry soldiers did not get into Operation Desert Storm a dozen years ago, when a coalition force drove the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
This time, seven different Army Guard infantry battalions had served in Iraq between late March and early September, because the Army needed all of the help it could get, said Col. Glenn Walker, chief of the Army National Guard Affairs Office in Kuwait.
“If you were ground combat and they needed you, you got used,” Walker explained.
All told, 29,000 Army Guard troops, belonging to 708 units, were operating in the Iraq-Kuwait theater by September, he said.
Many of the Guard’s support units, including transportation and medical companies, were pressed into service during the first Gulf War and have been called up again.
This time, however, the infantry can take a bow.
And the 1st of the 293rd from Fort Wayne, Ind., has led the way because it has been there the longest of any Army infantry outfit, Walker said. As many as 640 of those soldiers spent more than four months in Iraq.
A total of 476 of these soldiers received the Army’s Combat Infantryman Badge and another 31 got the Combat Medic Badge for participating in ground combat against an enemy force.(Snippy's Note: DesertDog recieved the CIB)
Furthermore, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, on Sept. 7 pinned Bronze Stars on Denton, Maj. Ronald Westfall, Maj. Eric Bray, Capt. Eric Derue, Capt. Wesley Russell and Command Sgt. Maj. John Runge.
Ironically, no one thought that outfit would actually go into that country.
It was mobilized last October to provide rear area security for Patriot missiles and for shipping and airport facilities in Kuwait, where U.S.-led coalition ground forces were massing to invade the country to the north.
The mobilization order arrived three days after Denton had officially taken command of the battalion on Oct. 19.
“I thought ‘Lord have mercy. Welcome to command,’“ recalled the new boss, a former Army Ranger, who had seen combat in Panama in late 1989, when U.S. forces overthrew the government of Manuel Noriega.
The battalion went into overdrive. The first half flew into Kuwait on Jan. 3, heavily armed, because “we didn’t know what we were stepping into,” Denton said. All of his soldiers were there by Jan. 20. Two days later, the battalion’s Humvees arrived by ship.
They were among the first military units to come from the United States. “We were very proud to be the first infantry battalion out the door,” Denton said.
They began guarding docks at the Shuiaba Port on the Persian Gulf and pulling security at Kuwait International Airport against possible terrorist attacks and sabotage as equipment and troops began pouring into the country.
They also patrolled the perimeter at Camp Arifjan, south of Kuwait City, to protect soldiers and Marines who were organizing for the invasion.
Remaining in Kuwait, however, seemed to be the Hoosier soldiers’ fate, and Denton told them it was highly unlikely they would go into Iraq.
Two days later, on March 26, he recalled, they began escorting elements of the 3rd Infantry Division into that country. It all happened that fast.
“We had a lot to do in a short amount of time,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Weaver, who was told to get his 20-man scout platoon across the border and close to the Tallil Air Base near the Iraqi city of Al Nasiriyah in 24 hours.
More
bylineBy Master Sgt. Bob Haskell / National Guard Bureau
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