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Local soldiers write letters homeMerry Christmas from the 395th As the holiday season draws closer to an end, the soldiers of the 395th Ordnance Company, currently stationed overseas in Afghanistan, take time to reflect what really means the most to them. For most of us, it is the family that we left back home, the friends that we spent so many good times with, freedoms that we never realized meant so much to us and a myriad of other things. Being so far away from friends and family back home is a mere inconvenience for some. For others it is...

2nd Brigade Combat Team will go to Iraq By Bob Banta AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, December 19, 2003 FORT HOOD -- On Christmas Day, soldiers with the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team will be sitting near the tree opening presents with family. Four weeks later, many of them will be patrolling downtown Baghdad, Iraq, in armored personnel carriers with M-16s slung over their shoulders. The separation will rest heaviest on the spouses, children and parents they leave behind during their yearlong tour. "It scares me, but I know it's his job," Amy Virden, 21, said as she watched her...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Slovakia plans to deploy some 30 more soldiers to Iraq to ensure safety of the country's military engineering unit already in place, Defense Minister Juraj Liska told reporters Tuesday. Slovakia, a central European country of 5.4 million, deployed a unit of 82 military engineers to Iraq in summer. The unit is there as a part of international troops under Polish command and concentrates on de-mining work. Liska said the new unit could be deployed to Iraq in February. The decision still requires approval from the government and the Slovak parliament. Brig. Gen. Pavol Gajdos, who visited the...

PALESTINE - The brother of former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch is being deployed overseas. Relatives have said Army Specialist Greg Lynch Jr. is being deployed to Iraq as part of United States forces in the ongoing operation to restore stability to that region. Spc. Lynch just recently became a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) that is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Ky., said Walter Sokalski Jr., deputy public affairs officer U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The 160th S.O.A.R.(A) is a part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) provides...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) - About 4,000 members of the Army's first Stryker brigade got their formal farewell Thursday before they ship out next week for a yearlong mission in Iraq. "A year from now we'll probably return to Fort Lewis knowing that Iraq is a better place because of our time there," Col. Michael E. Rounds, the brigade commander, told the troops and their friends and relatives during a 60-minute departure ceremony. The brigade is built around the Stryker, the Army's first new combat vehicle in 20 years, which can carry as many as 11 soldiers. The brigade's 300...

South Korea to Send Additional Troops to Iraqby Youn Sung-ho (syoun@chosun.com) The government decided Saturday to send additional forces to Iraq in response to the United Nations Security Council's resolution that its members help out in post-war Iraq, presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said. President Roh Moo-hyun convened a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) to discuss its position on the troop dispatch. The decision came only a day before President Roh is to head to Bangkok to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Roh is scheduled to meet on Monday with U.S. President George W. Bush on the...

TACOMA -- The Army's faster and more versatile new Stryker brigade, developed at Fort Lewis, yesterday began loading more than 2,500 combat vehicles and equipment aboard cavernous ships bound for a monthlong voyage to Iraq. But some of the troops in this vanguard of the 21st-century Army carry things more personal. Capt. Roy Montgomery's wife, Karen, gave him a special journal in which to record all that the 25-year-old Arizona native's senses will take in. Sgt. 1st Class Michael Hall, a 52- year-old Tennessean who joined the military in 1968 during the Vietnam War, will again take the coin his...

TACOMA, WASH. - The Army's new Stryker armored vehicles are headed for their first operational assignment -- service in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Vehicles of the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade Combat Team began rolling onto ships today at the port of Tacoma, Wash. The Stryker vehicles and related equipment will support 3,600 soldiers from the I Corps' 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division who will begin their assignment in Iraq in a few weeks. This week’s move at the port of Tacoma represents several benchmarks for the port, according to the Military Traffic Management Command. It’s the biggest movement of military cargo...

Fri September 26, 2003 09:13 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military, faced with reluctance by other nations to send forces to Iraq, on Friday night activated 10,000 Army National Guard troops to go there and put 5,000 more Army Guard soldiers on alert for likely service in Iraq. The mobilization order for the 30th Infantry Brigade from North Carolina and the 39th Infantry Brigade from Arkansas, each with 5,000 troops, to mobilize over the next two weeks had been expected. They were earlier alerted for replacement rotation into Iraq, where the United States now has about 130,000 troops....

US has no idea when troops will pull out of Iraq By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 10 September 2003 Under fierce grilling from both Democratic and Republican Senators yesterday, senior US officials admitted they had no idea how long American troops would be staying in Iraq, or when the extra international forces sought by President George Bush would be deployed to help them. Testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, and General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered the first defence on Capitol Hill of President Bush's $87bn (£55bn)...

8/8/2003 - LUNGI, Sierra Leone (AFPN)  -- Far from the forests and castles of Germany, a handful of security forces airmen from the 52nd Security Forces Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base are deployed to the palm trees and jungle canopy of Africa supporting operations in Liberia. The airmen deployed to Dakar, Senegal, on July 13 and set up the base for oncoming support. “We were the first cops in Dakar,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Reinecke, deployed security forces leader. “This is out of the ordinary for us, but it’s what we train for.” The Spangdahlem airmen left Dakar on July 31 to...

Departing Fort Drum troops expect history to happen soon Friday August 01, 2003 By WILLIAM KATES Associated Press Writer FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) As the latest group of 10th Mountain Division soldiers departed Friday for policing duty in Afghanistan, the troops were confident U.S.-led forces in Iraq would soon capture Saddam Hussein. ``The noose is closing around his neck fast. He's up against the best ... what chance does he have,'' Pfc. Joe Bergman said as he stood with his unit waiting to board a plane at the Rapid Deployment Center at Fort Drum's Wheeler-Sack Airfield. ``We need to get...

The Army alerted an Arkansas National Guard unit yesterday that it will probably be deployed to Iraq by April to help fight the continuing war in that country. The 39th Infantry Brigade from Little Rock would leave between February and April, according the Department of Defense. The deployment would last a year. The 30th Infantry Brigade based in North Carolina would also be deployed under the same order. A battalion from the 41st Infantry Brigade would join the 39th Infantry Brigade. The 39th is an enhanced light infantry brigade that is trained to act as a strategic reserve in the...

WASHINGTON - Some 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation, officials said Monday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed a deployment order over the weekend sending a three-ship amphibious ready group from its position off the Horn of Africa into the Mediterranean Sea, defense officials said. That would put the group in a position to get to the west coast of Africa faster, if needed for an evacuation of Americans, peacekeeping or some other mission.

4,500 U.S. Troops Set for Liberia Duty WASHINGTON - Some 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation, officials said Monday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed a deployment order over the weekend sending a three-ship amphibious ready group from its position off the Horn of Africa into the Mediterranean Sea, defense officials said. That would put the group in a position to get to the west coast of Africa faster, if needed for an evacuation of Americans, peacekeeping or some...

U.S. forces to protect the American embassy and U.S. interests in the war-torn west African nation of Liberia and would work with the United Nations to help restore a cease fire. "We're concerned about our people," Bush said. At the same time, Bush indicated that he had not yet made up his mind on the size of a U.S. force that might be sent to help peacekeepers from west African nations already in Liberia. "We continue to monitor the situation very closely," Bush said during a joint news conference on his Texas ranch with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Bush spoke...

The United States plans to increase its military force in Iraq in an effort to stabilize the country. U.S. officials said nearly 20,000 troops would arrive in Iraq over the next few weeks. This would increase the U.S. force level to about 163,000 troops. Currently, about 145,000 U.S. soldiers are deployed in Iraq. U.S. troops have disarmed a militia group affiliated with pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, as part of a campaign to impose law and order in Iraq, a political official said Sunday. But fighters of the biggest Muslim Shi'ite group, trained by Washington's bitter foe Iran, reacted warily...

Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis By MICHAEL R. GORDON AGHDAD, May 20 — Iraqi citizens will be required to turn over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said today. The aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to...

MANILA, May 20 (AFP) - 09:59 GMT - The largest Muslim separatist force in the Philippines on Tuesday warned the United States against helping the local military in assaults against the insurgents. Eid Kabalu, the spokesman for the 12,500-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the group would not harm the US troops if they do not actively help in the government's fight with the rebels. "But if they help the government, that is another story. We cannot just sit down and allow them to kill us. That would be illogical," Kabalu told AFP by phone from his base in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 2,000 more experts are being sent to Iraq to help look for banned weapons as well as regime leaders, terrorists and more. The team is more than triple the size of the force now searching for weapons and larger than was previously described. It will be headed by a two-star general in defense intelligence, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The Defense Department also confirmed it is investigating what officials said may be the most promising discovery so far -- a trailer truck they say could turn out to be the first mobile biological lab recovered since the...