Free Republic

Long lists of soldiers killed in wartime can have great emotional power, as anyone who has been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington can attest. However dignified and moving, though, in the end such a listing can really describe them only as a group: They wore the uniform and died in the service of their country. But who they were individually, how they served, what they left behind — that is more than a catalogue of names can convey. So here is the story behind just one of the names ''Nightline" will enumerate on Memorial Day: Sergeant Rafael Peralta...

“Memory n. 1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience; the ability to remember. 2. An act or instance of remembrance; a recollection… see smer in Appendix.” “smer – to remember. In Germanic murnon, to remember sorrowfully, in Old English murnan, to mourn.” I remember Chuck Meerholz and the day I was supposed to drive. After four months with B Company, 1st Battalion, 69th Armor; four months of on-the-job-training for a guy trained as an infantrymen, I was being taught to drive our tank. B Company was to participate in a big operation centered on the village of...

Knocked on his back by a burst of gunfire that hammered the body armor covering his chest in November in Fallujah, Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel gave his corporal the thumbs-up and continued to cover the room where his attacker lay waiting. Within minutes, the 29-year-old Gavriel would be dead, killed by more bullets and a grenade tossed by the Iraqi insurgent who would also draw his last breath that day.

Steve Rasmussen stood earnestly, his voice cracking with emotion describing his father’s love for the U. S. Military Academy and his privilege to witness something that meant so much to his father with the hope it will mean the same to its new owner. His father, James Asa Rasmussen, USMA class of 1945, who died October 26, had a last wish of contributing his class ring to the Class Ring Memorial Program. His ring was included among the 12 present at the ring ceremony conducted at the Pease & Curren Refinery in Warwick , R.I. , March 8. In four...

MOSUL , Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) killed several terrorists and captured four people suspected of anti-Iraqi activities in northern Iraq Sunday in combined operations with Iraqi Security Forces. Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment were attacked by terrorists while conducting a raid in a village in northern Al Anbar Province. Iraqi Army and U.S. 2-14th Soldiers quickly overwhelmed the enemy. Following the attack, the units also discovered a weapons cache inside the building the terrorists had used. The suspects are in custody with no MNF or ISF injuries reported.

March 18, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Central Command Area of Responsibility: Sgt. Andrew Garrett (left) and K-Dog (the Bottle-nosed Dolphin in mid-air) of Commander Task Unit 55.4.3 (CTU-5.4.3) during a training session in the Arabian Gulf. CTU-5.4.3 conducts very risky deep/shallow water mine countermeasure operations to clear shipping lanes for humanitarian relief. PhotographerPhotographer's Mate 1st Class Brien Aho, United States Navy (USN), http://www.Navy.milBig imagehttp://www.news.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/030318-N-5319A-002.jpgCreditsCaption: http://www.news.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=5691Photo as sized above: http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050530.htm

The day after the House voted to halt all aid to rebels fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras John D. Negroponte urged the president's national security adviser and the CIA director to hang tough. The thrust of the envoy's "back channel" July 1983 message to the men running the contra war against Nicaragua was contained in a single cryptic sentence: "Hondurans believe special project is as important as ever." "Special project" was code for the secret arming of contra rebels from bases in Honduras -- a cause championed by Negroponte, then a rising diplomatic...