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FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Ray Gilstrap wiped away tears as he stood beside the tree planted in his nephew's honor, the latest in a living memorial to soldiers killed in Iraq that has more than doubled since the Army's 3rd Infantry Division began its second tour this year. "The numbers, compared to Vietnam, they're so small. You don't expect it," said Gilstrap, whose nephew, Sgt. Arthur R. McGill, was killed last month by an insurgent bomb while patrolling Baghdad. "Of course, we look at it differently now." Seven months after the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry deployed, the death toll during...

In Baghdad, Iraqi civilians took unusual action to protect coalition forces after a car-bomb attack Aug. 6. After U.S. medics treated the wounded at the scene in the Sumer al Ghadier District, local residents constructed a hasty barricade with trees, bricks and anything else available to protect the soldiers from additional danger. "This is the first time that I can remember where Iraqi civilians actually built a barrier to protect my soldiers," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven Merkel, commander of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, said. "The soldiers are still talking about...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, August 10, 2005 After the U.S. medics treated the wounded at the scene, local residents constructed a hasty barricade with trees, bricks, and anything else available, to further protect the Soldiers from additional danger. "This is the first time that I can remember where Iraqi civilians actually built a barrier to protect my Soldiers," said Lt. Col. Steven Merkel, commander of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.. "The Soldiers are still talking about the helpful actions of the local community and have asked to go back to the neighborhood to thank...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2005 – Coalition forces in Iraq captured seven terror suspects, seized a car bomb being prepared for an attack, and foiled five roadside-bomb attacks during a series of combat operations conducted in Baghdad over the past two days. Just before 6 a.m. today, coalition forces seized a car bomb and three terrorists who admitted they were planning to use the car bomb in an attack later in the day. An explosive ordnance disposal team safely detonated the bomb, and the terrorists were taken into custody. At 3:30 a.m. Aug. 5, Task Force Baghdad soldiers approached a man...

The delivery received a warm welcome from the local populace and many thanks from town leaders. BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 28, 2005 — Elements of 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division provided food, cooking utensils and cleaning supplies July 22 to residents of Kindi, a neighborhood north of the International Zone. The supplies were delivered in the form of a Rhode pack, a sustenance package of more than one ton of food and supplies that included rice, beans, canned fish and meat, vegetables, cooking oil, dessert treats, pots and pans, serving utensils, and propane stoves....

Local Iraqi citizens came to the aid of a Task Force Baghdad unit whose humvee got mired down in a ditch June 27. Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was traveling at a low rate of speed along a road when the passenger front tire violently lurched to the right and dropped as the crumbling highway gave way to the weight of the humvee. Since the vehicle was moving slowly, there were no injuries. An Iraqi citizen stopped to give a helping hand to the stuck Soldiers. At the same time, a boom...

You know, a lot of people join the military to see the world, only to get disillusioned and get out because it didn’t happen. Since joining the military, I’ve been to Mexico, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq (not necessarily in exotic order). With that said, even if a soldier never leaves the country, I’m willing to bet they’ve seen things and been places they hadn’t been and seen before. Now, listen to the story of the boy from Texas (although, I’m a military brat myself and had already seen the world as a teen): For instance, I...

The largest single mass re-enlistment to date in Iraq and in the history of the 3rd Infantry Division occurred at the Camp Taji airfield 3 April when 177 Soldiers from the 3ID Aviation Brigade re-enlisted during a ceremony. General Dan K. McNeill, Commander, Forces Command, FORSCOM, conducted the ceremony, accompanied by Major General William G. Webster, commanding general, 3rd Infantry Division. The mass re-enlistment was the largest ever for the division, and the largest of any Army unit while serving in the Iraqi theater. The previous record was held by the 101st Airborne Division which re-enlisted 158 Soldiers 4 July...

Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously during a White House ceremony April 4, 2005. The official citation will be made available after the White House Presentation. Baghdad Airport, April 4, 2003. On April 4, 2003, the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, attacked to seize Objective Lions, the Baghdad International Airport. As part of the Brigade scheme of maneuver, Task Force 2-7 Infantry was tasked to establish a blocking position against a brigade-sized counterattack on the main entrance to the airfield. Task Force 2-7 had been fighting for three consecutive days...

MUQDADIYA, Iraq — When his battalion took charge here in mid-February, Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier made a vow to himself and his soldiers: If one of them was attacked, the entire battalion would respond swiftly and violently. "We will hunt down the enemy if he attacks us," the colonel told his staff. "I don't want to give him any rest or refuge. I want to haunt his dreams." A week later, Cpl. Jacob Palmatier, a 29-year-old administrative clerk, asked to be relieved of desk duty to man a grenade launcher on a convoy headed south. He was in the turret...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Their enemy has changed, from Iraqi soldiers in uniform to insurgents in civilian clothes. But for the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division returning to Baghdad, some things remain the same. The smell, for instance - a mixture of smog, rotting garbage and sewage. "It's only here, it's only in Iraq," said Staff Sgt. Jason Barr of Roswell, Mich. "I don't know what it is, but it gets to you." Nearly two years after they first entered Baghdad, the Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 3rd Infantry is back in Iraq, taking charge of the Baghdad metropolitan area. While...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Army's 3rd Division returns to IraqBy Rowan ScarboroughTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished February 26, 2005 The Army's 3rd Infantry Division is back in Iraq, 22 months after it stormed the country from Kuwait and was the first U.S. unit to penetrate downtown Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein.     The Fort Stewart, Ga.-based division has a new commander and a whole new combat configuration. Of its roughly 20,000 soldiers, about 50 percent participated in the invasion and subsequent occupation that saw a rise in lawlessness and a burgeoning insurgency.     "Our soldiers, for the most part, feel like this is the...

U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment soldiers search for an insurgent sniper after taking fire on their patrol in Mosul, Iraq Friday, Feb. 4, 2005. There were no casualties. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Fort Stewart, Ga., soldier credited with saving dozens of lives by beating back an Iraqi attack before he was killed will receive the first Medal of Honor awarded since 1993, according to the officer who nominated him. Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, 33, of the Tampa Bay area, was killed in action when his outnumbered unit was attacked by Iraqi forces at the Baghdad airport on April 4, 2003. Lt. Col. Thomas Smith on Tuesday notified the soldier's wife, Birgit, that President Bush would present the nation's highest award to her and their children,...

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A Fort Stewart soldier and veteran of the 2003 invasion of Iraq refused to deploy for a second combat tour last week, days after telling commanders he was seeking conscientious objector status. Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, says he became morally opposed to war after seeing it firsthand during his first Iraq tour. Now he faces a possible court-martial after he failed to deploy last Friday with his unit in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. "I told them that I refused deployment because I just couldn't go back over there," Benderman said Wednesday. "If I'm going to sit...

An American “Prophet” Takes on the Prophet Mohammed’s Fighters in Iraq DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report November 24, 2004, 10:18 PM (GMT+02:00) Is the Prophet also a wizard? On November 19, Lt. Col. Steve Iwicki, director of the Actionable Intelligence Department of the Army G2, announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s “units of action” due for shipment to Iraq will be equipped with the first unmanned vehicles of the Prophet collection system. He disclosed that in the next few years, 9,000 of these new military intelligence positions will be deployed with US forces world wide, 5,000 with brigade-sized units, 3,000 at...

HINESVILLE, United States (AFP) - A black soldier from the impoverished US south, Private Henry Hawkins is only 20 years old but he's about to head out on his second combat mission when the Third Infantry Division returns to Iraq. When he isn't thinking of the war he will again be part of, he longs for Roxie, the impoverished hometown in Mississippi he left for a career in the military, like his father before him, his uncle and one of his sisters. He's not really looking forward to being deployed to Iraq, but is resigned to it. "It's my job....

PRESS RELEASE 14 July, 2004 Immediate Release Jim Waechter President and Director The Museum of the Soldier PO Box 518 Portland, Indiana 47371 260-726-2967 Email-www.mos@jayco.net What started out as a simple request for a uniform worn in Iraq, resulted in three Indiana members of the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Ga. traveling to Portland, Indiana for the 4th of July. The Museum of the Soldier, a veteran’s history museum located in Portland, Indiana requested a 3rd Infantry uniform to add to the Museum’s Operation Iraqi Freedom exhibit, as well as to add to the collection of 3rd Infantry...

FORT BENNING, Ga. - The Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which led the blitz to Baghdad during the Iraqi war, announced Friday that it has received deployment orders to return for at least a year to combat the nagging insurgency and to help the Iraqis establish their own government. "The deployment is part of a planned rotation of forces," said Maj. Gen. William Webster, the division's commander, in a release issued from 3rd ID headquarters at Fort Stewart, near Savannah. "We expect to be deployed for approximately one year. However, there are no guarantees. The situation on the ground and the...

The 3rd Infantry Division will team up with the New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom 3 rotation, Defense Department officials said Thursday.The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters will command two brigades of the division and the 256th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard. The division will relieve the 1st Cavalry Division in and around Baghdad. The other two maneuver brigades of the 3rd will come under command of the 42nd Infantry Division. Also with the 42nd will be the 116th Cavalry Brigade out of Boise, ID. The 42nd will relieve the 1st Infantry Division. Troop...