Free Republic

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, Aug. 18, 2005 – Call it the prototype for a new method of warfare. The Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, headquartered here, is fighting the global war on terror with good deeds, not weapons. Task force commander Marine Maj. Gen. Timothy Ghormley very proudly tells one and all that no one in his command has "fired a shot in anger," but the command may have prevented hundreds of young men and women in the region from embracing the terrorist philosophy. "My combat forces are doctors, veterinarians, engineers and dentists," Ghormley said during an interview at...

<p>CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti — Three high-definition television screens, a bank of green military radios and detailed maps line the walls. Laptop computers cover three rows of tables. And military officers, among them Lt. Cmdr. Victor Cooper, keep 24-hour vigil, tracking terrorists from afar.</p>

The American presence here has helped thwart at least three and possibly as many as 10 terrorist attacks in the Horn of Africa region, said Marine Brig. Gen. Mastin Robeson, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. Robeson spoke to press traveling with Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers during a stop at the command's headquarters here Dec. 19. Robeson said the only mission of the 1,400 Americans deployed in the region is counterterrorism. The command uses humanitarian assistance, military-to-military ties, civil-military missions and other means to help the countries of the region...

NAIROBI: US forces, including Special Forces, bombers and a Navy destroyer, would begin a two-day live-fire exercise in Djibouti on Sunday, a US military spokesman said. The day and night exercise is the largest of its kind conducted in the small but strategically important Horn of Africa nation, which the US is using as a regional base for its war on terrorism. About 50 troops, mainly Americans but also some from coalition partners, would be involved, Maj Steve Cox, spokesman for US Combined Task Force-Horn of Africa, said on Saturday. The destroyer USS Briscoe will fire 5-inch, 54-caliber naval guns...