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U.S. Paratroopers with Mohawks - World War II

Video of Jake McNiece, WWII Vet and whose exploits the movie "The Dirty Dozen" was based up

A U.S. serviceman is in custody after he allegedly admitted he was planning an attack on the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, the same base where 13 people were killed in a 2009 terror attack. U.S. officials told ABC News an AWOL serviceman, identified by the FBI as a Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested Wednesday after making a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas, the same ammunition store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the weapons he allegedly used to gun down 13 people and wound 32 others on Nov. 5, 2009. Abdo, 21, allegedly...

Fort Campbell, KY – It weighs 3.5 pounds, has a barrel length of 7.75 inches, fires 12-gauge shells and can be mounted on the M4 carbine or act as a stand alone firearm; it is the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System and the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is the first unit in the Army to be issued the combat enhancer. “This is a new capability that is now in your hands for you to conduct your mission downrange,” said Col. Scott C. Armstrong, with Project Manager Soldier Weapons, during a presentation ceremony held at Fort...

Six U.S. soldiers were killed in action and at least 15 others wounded in Afghanistan earlier this week when they came under fire while on patrol in a remote and dangerous region close to the Pakistan border. ABC News' Mike Boettcher was accompanying the soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division when the attack occurred in Kunar Province on March 29. They were patrolling close to the border when they were fired upon from three sides by Taliban fighters. The troops were on a mission to show force in an area where the U.S. largely has abandoned small bases. The heavy...

A personification of American greatness, Major Richard Winters, Executive Officer, Easy Company, 101st Airborne, WW2 (aka, Band of Brothers) died January 2nd. Easy Company was the most decorated company of WW2 and was always in the heat of the worst battles. Against impossible odds and outrageous circumstances they prevailed, lragely upon Winters character and leadership. Winters, with Tom Hanks, receiving an Emmy for the HBO series, "Band of Brothers". The German command structure didn’t allow for as much improvisation by lower level troops, they had to wait for orders. Americans had much more leeway to improvise without requiring orders. Front...

In March when the coward Adam Gadahn called for Muslims serving in our Armed forces to follow “Brother Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood murderer, at least one Muslim soldier may have taken his words to heart. On August 23, 20 year old Pfc. Naser Abdo, an infantryman assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, decided that although his unit was deploying to fight in Afghanistan he was not going. Instead his is now claiming Contentious Objector (C.O.) status. Contentious Objector requirements The Department of Defense allows Contentious Objector status to be granted to soldiers who object to “war in any form.”...

In the damned if you do, damned if you don’t category, the Army’s new M320 grenade launcher is facing stiff criticism over one of the principle advantages of the system requested by Soldiers and touted by the Army. There were lots of M320s among Joes in the 3rd BCT of the 101st Airborne — in fact I don’t remember seeing a single M203 among them. But just about everyone I asked about the new H&K-made M320 was that they miss the 203. I got the sense that this was mostly a reaction against changing from a tried and true system...

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, April 12, 2010 – Join the Marines and see the world? Check. Enlist in the Army to serve with the famous Rakkasan Brigade from the 101st Airborne Division? Check. Sing on American Idol? Check. Have a mother who’s a movie star? Check. Army Pfc. Cody Anderson takes a pause from his duties in the brigade tactical operations center at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Afghanistan’s Khost province. U.S. Army photo by Maj. S. Justin Platt  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Almost unbelievable, these events are part of the life story of Army Pfc. Cody Anderson, 25,...

Here is a video report on the plan for close to 10,000 U.S. Military Personnel to be on the ground in Haiti, or on ships just offshore by Monday. The speed with which everything can be put in place is being hampered there by the fact that the Port-Au-Prince Airport has only one usable runway, and there are so many planes needing to use it. An entire brigade of 3,500 from the 82nd Airborne is expected to be on the ground by this weekend to provide security in the devastated area. The Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson should arrive on...

The US is sending up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake. President Barack Obama pledged one of the biggest relief efforts in recent US history and said Haiti would "not be forgotten" in its hour of need. The search for survivors continues but rescuers lack heavy lifting equipment and many are using their bare hands. The Red Cross estimates 45,000-50,000 people are dead and up to 3m affected. BBC correspondents say the situation is increasingly desperate, with aid only trickling in. Mr Obama confirmed that some US...

Tears filled the eyes of some Vietnam veterans who were warmly greeted with cheers from their family and friends Sunday in an re-enactment of their original return from the war, when they were often met with angry demonstrators and harsh headlines. The ceremony was a first for the 101st Airborne Division and the Army, said Maj. Patrick Seiber, an Army spokesman based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. "Our hope is that other units and other posts will follow our lead in having this type of ceremony," he said...

From Commander Fitzpatrick's site... "Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506Th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the...

<p>In a 2001 interview with The Roanoke Times, Darrell "Shifty" Powers talked about some of his experiences during World War II.</p> <p>Powers, a United States Army paratrooper and sharpshooter, belonged to Easy Company, part of the legendary 101st Airborne Division. He recalled a bitterly cold day in the Ardennes when he was able to draw down on a German sniper, sighting his target by the misty cloud of the man's breath. He killed him with one shot.</p>

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (CNN) -- The 101st Airborne's senior commander in effect ordered his soldiers Wednesday not to commit suicide, a plea that came after 11 suicides since January 1, two of them in the past week. "If you don't remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this -- suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad," Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend told his forces. "It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it's got to stop...

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky -- At Fort Campbell, an installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, at least 11 Soldiers have committed suicide this year - the most at any Army base. Commanders have set aside routine duties for three days to find and help Soldiers at risk of killing themselves as they struggle with the stress of war. From January to March, the base averaged one suicide per week, Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend said Wednesday,.... "But last week we had two. Two in a week," Townsend said. "This is not a place where Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division want to...

Lest We Forget: Screaming Eagles Know Freedom’s Cost The men of the 101st Airborne Division, or Screaming Eagles, train. (Courtesy of US Army) By MICHAEL P. TREMOGLIE, The Bulletin Friday, May 22, 2009 It is said that freedom is not free. The wise person knows this to be true. However, it takes more than wisdom to know the exact value. If anyone knows the price, it is the men of the 101st Airborne Division. They know it all too well because they have paid it many times. They are known as the Screaming Eagles, the men of the 101st Airborne. They are...

Battle of the Bulge Newsreel http://www.army.mil/botb/newsreel.html The Battle of the Bulge: Sixty-Three Years Ago Courtesy The United States Army Center of Military History Early on the misty winter morning of 16 December 1944, over 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched Adolf Hitler's last bid to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun when Allied troops landed in France on D-day. Seeking to drive to the English Channel coast and split the Allied armies as they had done in May 1940, the Germans struck in the Ardennes Forest, a seventy-five-mile stretch of the front characterized by dense...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2008 – About 3,000 soldiers assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team will leave Iraq nearly two months earlier than planned, military officials said. Improved security and decreased violence across the unit’s area of operations in northwestern Baghdad is enabling the early redeployment of the soldiers back to Fort Campbell, Ky., Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. The unit is commencing pack-up operations, Whitman said, and its return window is around the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Central Command chief, and Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational...

While a Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier searches a vehicle, an Iraqi policeman pulls security in the northwestern Baghdad community of Ghazaliyah, Iraq, Aug. 29, 2008. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Vanderboegh, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs. BAGHDAD --- During a joint patrol with Iraqi Police, Capt. Michael Kolton, a native of Fairfax Station, Va., stopped to talk with a group of men standing in the shade of a cluster of trees. The conversation went from questions regarding security, to the future of Iraq, elections and the Iraqi Police. “The Iraqi people would rather have Iraqis fix their own problems,”...