Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2007 – New York National Guardsmen will start deploying to Afghanistan late this year, Defense Department officials said today. About 1,700 Guardsmen of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will relieve South Carolina National Guardsmen of the 218th Brigade Combat Team as the primary trainers of the Afghan National Army. The New York brigade is based in Syracuse. “Thousands of New York Guardsmen have answered the call from serving at Ground Zero when the Twin Towers fell to commanding combat troops in Central Iraq and now to the mountains of Afghanistan,” said Army Lt. Col. Paul Fanning,...

My wonderful DH Ron has been deployed to Iraq for months. He is especially in need of prayers for the next TWO days ... so may I humbly ask that you lift him up during this period of time? Please pray especially for his protection and safety.... and for my peace of mind. Thank you very much ... it eases some of my worry and anxiety knowing that other believers are praying for him.

I’m extremely excited,” Ruoff said. “The anticipation is absolutely killing me.”

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — U.S. Army Europe has not yet requested a waiver from the secretary of defense to send a Baumholder-based 1st Armored Division unit back to Iraq only nine months after its last deployment, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. Although USAREUR officials maintained Tuesday that commanders had “some leeway” to resolve dwell time issues, only Defense Secretary Robert Gates can make that decision, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday. If a waiver is sought and granted, Company A of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment is facing a third straight Christmas away from home. Whitman said the policy requiring a...

FORT DRUM, N.Y., June 25, 2007 – Imagine being married for almost 18 months, but spending only one of those months together. That is exactly what Scott and Katie Horrigan experienced when Scott -- an Army captain who commands the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment’s Alpha Company -- deployed with the 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Army Capt. Scott Horrigan, a company commander with the 10th Mountain Division’s 87th Infantry Regiment, is reunited with his wife, Katie, and son, Mitchell, upon returning from a deployment to Afghanistan. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

5/24/2007 - EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- Family members gathered here May 24 to welcome home more than 175 members of the 728th Air Control Squadron from a deployment to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They arrived by plane on the runway here and were carried by bus to their anxiously awaiting families. As the buses turned the corner and came into view, the crowd erupted in cheers. Red, white and blue banners, balloons and handcrafted signs waved in the Florida breeze. Giggling laughs, smiling faces and teary eyes greeted the convoy of Airmen ready...

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. John Fisher greets his wife and seven-month-old daughter at a flight line homecoming on Naval Station Norfolk, Va., after returning with the "Rawhides" of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40, Detachment 3, May 21, 2007. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason R. Zalasky Sailors Return After Eight-Month Deployment Air Wing completes more than 11,000 sorties in war on terror. By Lt. Shannon Moore Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs NORFOLK, Va., May 23, 2007 — Pilots and air crew from Carrier Air Wing 7 embarked on board the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight...

Cpl. Cory Suttle returned from deployment on Saturday, but his parents, John and Susan Burtz, have been rolling out his welcome wagon since Thursday THE OLDER WE GET, THE BETTER WE USED TO BE!!...

Because my son was a Marine Corps rifleman, the guys I have written to, prayed for and sent packages to have most often been "trigger pullers". One guy landed in Maine just last week. One guy is over there now and leads a four man sniper team in Ramadi. Four others have made it home after up to three deployments. The guy who went there three times did not have to go, but volunteered for a sniper team, which also happened to operate in Ramadi. This experience is so different from the reality of our fathers and grandfathers. The continual...

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Brinda Kupiec of Lubbock, Texas, the host national escort noncommissioned officer in charge with the 657th Area Support Group, checks in local Iraqi laborers, May 3, 2007, as they report for work at Logistical Support Area Anaconda. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Alexandra Hemmerly-Brown Deployment Provides Direction, Focus for Anaconda Soldier By Sgt. Alexandra Hemmerly-Brown 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) LOGISTICAL SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Iraq, May 14, 2007 — Two years ago, a wife sat by her husband’s side, comforting him. The woman had quit her job a school teacher several years earlier to help her...

5/2/2007 - FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (AFNEWS) -- Applause, cheers, hugs and tears of joy awaited 44 returning warriors as they walked off of a KC-135 Stratotanker to be greeted by a crowd of more than 100 military family members, fellow Airmen and local media crews here April 30. After the welcome on the ramp next to the plane, the families and returning Airmen were driven to the Airmen's Center of Excellence for inprocessing. "Separation can be a very stressful time for all families and loved ones," said Lt. Col. Michael Gaal, the 92nd Operations Support Squadron commander. "Taking...

4/23/2007 - AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFNEWS) -- Aviano Air Base children were painted in camouflage and went through a deployment line April 20 in an effort to show them what their parents go through. "Deployments for a child are a very depressing thing, and especially for particular ages who do not know how to deal with it," said Senior Master Sergeant John Roth, the base deployment coordinator. Aviano officials hold a mock deployment for children of deployed members twice a year to give them a taste of what their parents' experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan might be like. It...

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2007 – The stress of repeated overseas deployments for National Guard and Reserve members has lessened in recent years, the Defense Department’s reserve-component chief told a special commission today at a Capitol Hill hearing. “We have relieved the stress on the (Guard and Reserve) force in the past couple of years,” Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, told members of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves. Established in 2005, Congress charged the commission to recommend any needed changes in law and policy to ensure the Guard and Reserves are organized,...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2007 – About 13,000 National Guardsmen will be alerted for possible deployment to Iraq in fiscal 2008, a senior defense official said on background today. Four National Guard brigade combat teams are likely to be alerted in the near future, the official said. If the decision is made to mobilize and deploy them, they would not leave until December 2007 at the earliest. National Guard officials said that alerting a unit does not necessarily mean mobilization and deployment. “We want to give our soldiers all the advance notice we can so they can prepare their families,...

N.Korea Develops High-Speed Military Hovercraft The North Korean Navy has reportedly developed and deployed high-speed military hovercraft. A military source in Seoul said Sunday the North developed the hovercraft with its own technology apparently to target South Korean high-speed patrol boats. The North Korean vessels are 38 m long and 12 m wide with a top speed of 90 km/h. They have 56 mm and 30 mm machine guns at the head and the stern. North Korean hovercraft landing vessels, which are presumed to be similar to Pyongyang’s newly deployed high-speed war hovercraft. South Korean military authorities say they...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, March 31, 2007 – Slovenia’s deployments to multiple countries for NATO, the United Nations and the European Union drew praise here yesterday from the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani met with Defense Minister Karl Erjavec, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Albin Gutman and Gutman’s deputy, Maj. Gen. Alojz Steiner, at the Defense Ministry of this nation at the crossroads of central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans. “Slovenia has contributed substantially to a variety of operations across NATO,” the admiral said at a news conference. “Clearly, the most...

Privacy Policy Notice: This is a U.S. Government Web Site This is a World Wide Web site for official information about the United States Navy. It is provided as a public service by the U.S. Navy's Office of Information, Washington, D.C.. The purpose of this Web site is to provide information about the United States Navy to the general public. All information on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied unless otherwise specified. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. ============================================================================================================================================== Carrier Strike Group Wraps Up Joint Exercise Story Number: NNS070308-13 Release Date: 3/8/2007 5:43:00...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2007 – The 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, based in Fort Stewart, Ga., will deploy to Iraq sooner than originally scheduled, DoD officials announced today. The unit was scheduled to begin its deployment in June, but will now begin its deployment in March. The headquarters was identified for deployment on Nov. 17. The headquarters will provide command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of Baghdad security operations, Army Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a DoD spokesman, said. This three-month acceleration affects about 1,000 servicemembers. “Force levels in Iraq continue to be conditions-based and are determined...

Maj. Greg Soukup, 611th Air Intelligence Squadron, received a short-notice deployment to Iraq just 32 days before his long-time planned wedding to Kristen Owens. They were married by the 611th AIS commander, Lt. Col. Christine Morris, in the squadron, Jan. 26. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Garrett Hothan U.S. Air Force Maj. Greg Soukup Short-notice deployment puts wedding on fast track By 1st Lt. Candice Miller Alaskan Command Public Affairs ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska, Jan. 30, 2007 -- Wedding bells were ringing at Elmendorf Jan. 26 when an officer from the 611th Air Intelligence Squadron and...

Sgt Albert Cook runs out of a M109A6 Paladin, a Self-Propelled Howitzer, to retrieve canisters for indirect fire missions at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, in the Diyala Province of Iraq. The artillery Soldier is a member of A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. BAQUBAH --If any one knows what it means to adjust fire, it is the Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. Instead of sending rounds down range, these Fort Hood Soldiers served as infantrymen, and even called for fire support during...