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MOSUL, Iraq, April 30, 2007 — Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, are on the frontlines every day here in Mosul, Iraq, and have a mixture of emotions on the varied experiences in the second largest city in the country. "The thing that makes me feel safe is when I hear the air support overhead. I know when we get pinned down, I can look up and hear those rockets and know the insurgents are going to pay for their damages." U.S. Army Sgt. Jesse Aguilera “We are the first ones out after something happens,” said Riverside,...

FOB FALCON — The al-Rashid Nahia Farmers’ Union and paratroopers from 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division worked together to sell 3,100 bags of a fertilizer to union members at a discounted price in the southern Baghdad al-Rashid district Feb. 27. A civil affairs team, attached to 1-40th Cavalry, advised the council and arranged to provide security for the union distribution sites and council members as they move the union’s profits from al-Rashid to a local bank. The farmers’ union is managed by an eight member council, representing the eight tribes in the...

FORT HUACHUCA — Think the days of soldiers riding Army horses are limited to memorial units? You’d be wrong. “There are 2,500 Army horses serving today,” said Paul H. Scholtz, one of the directors of the U.S. Cavalry Association who also is the group’s chaplain. The days of using four-footed members of the equine class are still needed, especially as the United States continues its engagement in the war on terrorism, he said. While many of the Army-owned mounts are part of ceremonial units, some are being used in Afghanistan and other places in the world to carry soldiers to...

Soldiers with Troop A, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, out of Fort Bliss Texas, practice reflexive fire drills at the Spears Academy range in Mosul, Jan. 26. The Soldiers are brushing up on their weapons skills in preparation for the inaugural class of Iraqi Army soldiers at the troop-run noncommissioned officers academy. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Antonieta Rico, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment) MOSUL -- Soldiers with 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, launched a noncommissioned officers academy for Iraqi Army soldiers at Forward Operating Base Marez Feb. 3. The Spear Academy grounds include a firing range, obstacle course,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH, BAGHDAD, Jan. 11, 2007 — Soldiers in Company A, 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, are doing their part to help the Iraqi national police eventually take over security operations in eastern Baghdad. Sgt. Jack G. Schnackenberg, a Cavalry team leader, said his platoon’s mission is to patrol with the Iraqi police and conduct searches. “We’re more like advisors to them,” he said. “We offer general and fire support for their mission.” Schnackenberg, of Arkansas City, Kan., said it’s been a challenge working with the national police....

COP NIMUR — Troops from 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, spent four days training Iraqi security forces in first aid, and provided them with some advanced medical techniques at Combat Outpost Nimur. The class consisted of 28 Iraqi Army soldiers, four Sinjar area Iraqi police and five Iraqi border policemen. One of the instructors of the course was Sgt. Richard Kyle, combat medic, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3-4 Cavalry, a unit based out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. “We were teaching them the Combat Lifesaver course,” he explained. “This was an...

BAGHDAD — Shaky beginnings in Baghdad’s south central al Doura neighborhood are starting to shape up, as Cavalry Soldiers work with Iraqi National Police to calm tensions between a divided populous. Task Force 1-14 is one of many units from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division making the neighborhood a safer place to live. They work hand-in-hand with companies from 1st Battalion, 6th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, and have done so since August. "It's taken a lot of work and a lot of effort to get to where we are now," Peterson said. "It was very rocky when...

CAMP LIBERTY -- Do the words rock ‘n’ roll, country music or rhythm and blues cross your mind when you think of a military band? The 1st Cavalry Division Band plays a little bit of everything to ensure Soldiers get a taste of home. The 1st Cavalry Division’s band, Amber Tight, is a group of Soldiers with different talents and musical backgrounds. Their mission is to keep morale high, said Sgt. Eric Still, a guitar player in the band.“Our band is unique in that there are so many different styles coming together,” said Still, a native of Pattysburg, Miss....

Wild Bill Wilder takes a look at the role of Air Cavalry in the Vietnam War. Upon arriving in Vietnam in the fall of 1965, the proud young sky troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) took a lot of ribbing from the grunts. They ridiculed their “cruising” around in the sky, enjoying a soft army life. In angry defense, a young private, embarrassed, yet intensely proud of his unit and his accomplishments, retorted, “Go to hell! We’re still cavalry!” And they were. It is true that their arrival on the battlefields of Southeast Asia was not heralded by a...

Wolfowitz Shares Special Forces' Afghanistan Dispatches just released by the American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2001 -- The Northern Alliance and other opposition groups have made tremendous progress in Afghanistan -- last week, they controlled about 15 percent of the country and today control about half. Defense officials said U.S. air support was pivotal in the battle. In his after-dinner keynote address at the Fletcher Conference here Nov. 14, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz spread the credit among all those participating. The Fletcher Conference is jointly sponsored by the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis and the Army. The ...

FORT HOOD, Texas (Army News Service, Aug. 8, 2006) – The Purple Heart Medal will have its own monument at the 1st Cavalry Division Museum at Fort Hood next month. The announcement came on Purple Heart Day, Aug. 7. In its 85-year history, thousands of First Team Soldiers have earned the Army’s oldest medal. Nearly 2,000 Purple Hearts were awarded during the division’s last rotation to Iraq. “This monument on the museum grounds will give units a nice, shaded area to hold ceremonies,” said Carrie Cutchens, a museum staff member and collection specialist. The monument is slated for dedication during...

FORT HUACHUCA — America’s history has been defined and shaped by what happened in the Old West. Part of that record was due to the achievement of black soldiers who help protect settlements in places such as Southern Arizona, Tom Stoney said Wednesday during the monthly luncheon hosted by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee. And part of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers legacy needs to be saved, Stoney said to nearly 90 people. That can be done by ensuring the World War II black officers club on the post remains, he told nearly...

Frederick William Benteen Brigadier General, United States Army Born at Petersburg, Virginia, on August 24, 1834, he was a career Army officer who distinguished himself in the Civil War. He was with the Seventh United States Cavalry, under the command of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, at the Battle of the Big Horn in June 1876. His was one of the columns that Custer split, his being sent on another route to the Indian encampment, thus sparing he and his command. After hard fighting with the Indians who had destroyed Custer, and after suffering many casualties, the Indians retreated...

July 1867 "M" Company 2nd Cavalry 2nd Lieut. - Lyman S. Kidder Sergeant - Oscar Close Corporal - Charles Haines Private - Roger Curry Private - Michael Cornell Private - William Floyd Private - Michael Gorman Private - Michael Haley Private - N.J. Humphries Private - Michael Lawler Private - Charles Taltin Sioux Scout - Red Bead Died in the Performance of their duty on or about July 2, 1867, in combat with Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. On June 1, 1867, Lt. Col. G.A. Custer left Fort Hays, Kansas with 1100 men of the Seventh Cavalry to quell an Indian...

CAPTAIN FRANK FURNESS: BRILLIANT ARCHITECT AND MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER Born on November 11, 1839, Frank Furness was the son of a prominent Philadelphia clergyman and abolitionist, William Henry Furness. Frank elected to take up the study of architecture, apprenticing in New York under the famed architect Richard Morris Hunt. Instead of doing what most of his peers did, twenty-two year old Frank Furness did not flee to Europe to avoid military service. Instead, he enlisted in Company I of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry and was quickly commissioned lieutenant. After a successful stint as a staff officer, on January 11,...

Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from Marshall High School in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent. Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world. Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Southeast Portland strip mall...

Biography of Elon John Farnsworth Elon Farnsworth was born on July 30, 1837 in the small town of Green Oak, Michigan. The son of James Patten Farnsworth and Achsah (Hudson), he was descended from veterans of the French and Indian, Revolutionary, and 1812 wars. An older brother, Robert, died while very young, and he had one younger half-brother, Julius, who was born in 1855 of his father's second wife. When Elon was 18, his family moved to Rockton, Illinois, and the following year he enrolled in the University of Michigan. A young prankster, Elon often led other students in mischievous...

And as far as the U.S. effort is concerned, it seems there is almost nothing the White House, the Pentagon, or for that matter any American rifleman on the ground can do that is good enough to garner so much as a one-line "attaboy" from many of our country’s largest newspapers and television news networks. Let’s look at last Thursday, March 16, the day the Iraqi National Assembly opened in Baghdad and a high-profile "air assault" northeast of Samarra, as an example:

IRWIN — With regimental flags flying in a cool, stiff breeze, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday afternoon helped the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment welcome 2,200 of its soldiers back home from duty in Iraq. While hundreds of the regiment’s soldiers, for mer soldiers, friends, family and children looked on, the governor shook the hands of 13 of the regiment’s soldiers who had suffered wounds while serving in Iraq and had been awarded the Purple Heart. The “Black Horse” regiment soldiers, he said, “have done an incredible job (in Iraq). You have assisted the Iraqi national elections, trained and partnered with Iraqi...

Would you care to guess who said this: "To the courageous men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall Afar (Iraq) from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life"? Give up? That is a letter from...