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FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Sgt. Lawrence Sprader set out under the searing Texas sun on a map-reading exercise, carrying a cell phone in case he got hopelessly lost or fell ill in the hills and ravines of Fort Hood. And still he didn't make it out alive. For more than an hour, a lost and dehydrated Sprader used his phone to repeatedly call superiors and tell them of his plight before the 24-year-old Iraq war veteran finally collapsed in the thick underbrush, where his decomposing body was discovered four days later. (snip) A 1,700-page Army investigative report, obtained by...

FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Sgt. Lawrence Sprader set out under the searing Texas sun on a map-reading exercise, carrying a cell phone in case he got hopelessly lost or fell ill in the hills and ravines of Fort Hood. And still he didn't make it out alive. For more than an hour, a disoriented and dehydrated Sprader used his phone to repeatedly call superiors and tell them of his plight before the 24-year-old Iraq war veteran finally collapsed in the thick underbrush, where his decomposing body was discovered four days later. How could that have happened? A 1,700-page Army...

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2007 – Actor Gary Sinise received the G.I. Spirit Award yesterday during the first G.I. Film Festival, held over the Memorial Day weekend at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here. Retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his wife Mary Jo Myers, presented Sinise with the award, which is meant to honor the entertainer who most embodies the spirit of the American G.I. and his work. Despite many other film and television roles, Sinise may still be best known as Lt. Dan, a turbulent, resilient...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2006 -- While stage crews prepared for a wrestling match at the Verizon Center here yesterday, promoter Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart replaced his signature Ray-Ban sunglasses with reading glasses to dial his son’s phone number at Fort Dix, N.J. U.S. Army Pfc. Christopher Long, left, hefts a heavy weight belt as Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart poses with him for a photo. Long was one of 30 patients from Walter Reed Army Medical Center invited by the World Wrestling Entertainment to attend the Monday Night Raw held in Washington Dec. 18. Defense...

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — When they called her name, she could not move. Sgt. Leana Nishimura intended to walk up proudly, shake the dignitaries' hands and accept their honors for her service in Iraq — a special coin, a lapel pin, a glass-encased U.S. flag. But her son clung to her leg. He cried and held tight...T.J. was 9, her oldest child, and although eight months had passed since she had returned from the war zone, he was still upset by anything that reminded him of her deployment... The faraway move to live with his grandmother. The months that...

This video is about 15 minutes long, but it shows the true exemplary job that military medical personnel are doing. Take note of the Iraqi pediatrician. http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2135920n

BX. GI'S ARREST ORDEAL COP'S BIG BLUNDER By PHILIP MESSING November 6, 2006 -- A patriotic Army private, fresh out of boot camp and walking proudly through his Bronx neighborhood in fatigues, was hauled to a police station, handcuffed and interrogated by an overzealous police sergeant - for impersonating a soldier, The Post has learned. NYPD Sgt. James Herring detained serviceman Andrew Martin Jr., 19, for nearly two hours - and the incident last month is now being probed by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a board spokesman said. (snip) "There are Marines dying every day in Iraq, and he...

Army bestows prestigious heroism laurel on soldier who assisted rescue of 3 in tank There's a humming noise a cable makes when it is about to snap. On an awful morning in Iraq, the sound echoed in Kraig Lemme's head. When he heard it, the 24-year-old Tucson soldier was chest-deep in filthy water, standing atop an Abrams tank that had flipped into a canal with three crew members inside. On shore, another Abrams hooked to one end of the cable was straining to lift the disabled tank's hatch above water so Lemme could get at the trapped trio. "Everybody stood...

Edmay Mayers’ heart was touched by the children and the teachers at Al Diwaniyah Kindergarten. For Edmay Mayers the desire to volunteer for service in Iraq was the same as it was for many Americans - she wanted to do her part to support her country in the Global War on Terrorism. Once in Iraq however, she felt her heart open to the victims of war, especially those too young to have been anything but pawns of the previous regime. Mayers has been in Iraq for more than nine months of her one-year tour. She has traveled all over the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2006 -- A U.S. railroad freight firm has earned the right to blow its locomotives’ whistles in celebration of Defense Department recognition for superb support of its employees in the National Guard and Reserve. BNSF Railway, with headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of 15 U.S. businesses selected to receive the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award for 2006. “BNSF is very pleased to have been nominated and selected to receive this award,” said Connie McLendon, BNSF’s military staffing manager. “This is an important distinction that very few companies receive, recognizing outstanding support for our...

A US insurer will pay about $70 million in cash and noncash benefits to thousands of military personnel whose investments with the company earned most of them little or no money... The Securities and Exchange Commission said that American Amicable Life Insurance Co. of Texas and affiliates targeted service personnel with a product, Horizon Life, and a ``deceptive sales program that falsely suggested that investing in the company's product would make one a millionaire." Since 2000, about 57,000 armed forces personnel bought the product... ``These companies implemented a deceptive sales program from the top down... This is not a case...

Slain G.I.'s ma spurs anti-war T-shirt ban OKLAHOMA CITY - A woman whose Marine son died while serving in Iraq is fighting to keep his name off anti-war T-shirts. Judy Vincent learned last year that Cpl. Scott Vincent's name is among about 1,700 included on a T-shirt being sold by an Arizona man over the Internet. The front of the shirt reads "Bush Lied" and the back reads "They Died." The woman, whose son was killed in April 2004, pushed for Oklahoma legislators to pass a law that makes it a misdemeanor to use a soldier's name or likeness for...

/begin my summary "We were at the right place at the right time, and did the right thing." -- Words of Private Meckenles(sp ?) and Erickson(sp ?) While on the weekend leave, they pulled out an handicapped woman from the second floor of a sandwich shop which was on fire, after they called a local fire department. She could not have survived without their help because her frail elderly mother is the only person around her at the time of fire. /end my summary

Seeking to free four Russian hostages, Moscow is negotiating with the al-Qaida-led terrorist group that tortured and murdered two U.S. soldiers. The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, Sergei Mironov, said negotiations are ongoing with the Mujahedeen Shura Council, according to the English-language Moscow News. The council, led by al-Qaida in Iraq, is an umbrella organization of five terrorist groups in the country.

The mother of a U.S. Marine was grieving for her dead son when she found that his savings account had been claimed by the director of the funeral home. It was money that he had no right to and despite a court ruling, the funeral director refused to pay. What's even more puzzling is that he's not just any debtor, he's the mayor of the small town and a member of a City Council that has financial responsibility for the city's budget. 7NEWS also found that he has other debts as well, something his constituents may want to know. Jason...

60 years on, the letters and prayer books US soldiers forgot in the heat of battle By Justin Stares in Brussels (Filed: 23/04/2006) They have lain unopened in a horse manger in a forgotten part of the Belgian countryside for more than 60 years. But now, a set of incredibly well-preserved letters, prayer books, cigarettes and cartoons abandoned by American troops days before the Battle of the Bulge have been discovered. The items were left between October and December 1944, just before Germany launched its final -and ill-fated - offensive of the war as the Allies fought their way through...

SIERRA VISTA — It started as a typical day. Three older children headed for school, two younger ones went to a day-care center and the parents went to work. But, the Green family was to see their lives change when slightly after 8 a.m. on Feb. 21 the house they called home caught fire. For Carlton and Heather Green, both sergeants first class assigned to Fort Huachuca, sitting outside their home in a quiet Sierra Vista residential area on Monday the shock of an event a week ago still haunts them. It is also distressing to their three older children,...

Angry lawmakers in Senate, House move to terminate VFA Jan 19, 2006 By Philip C. Tubeza, Michael Lim Ubac Inquirer THE CONCURRENT resolution calling for the termination of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement is ready, and is expected to be approved today by the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA (Lovfa), lawmakers said yesterday. The two-page resolution calls for the termination of the VFA and its renegotiation into a Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) that would allow Philippine custody of US nationals charged with crimes in local courts. The resolution read: "It appears that the US government has failed to...

RP threatens to bring custody issue to international court By Tetch Torres SHOULD the US government refuse to hand over four American soldiers accused of rape in Subic, the Philippine government will bring the case to the International Court of Justice, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Wednesday said. At the same time, Manila could apply diplomatic pressure to the United States by recalling the Philippine ambassador in Washington DC, he said, adding: "I don't know what else can we do.” ”The only way to emphasize on this is probably to recall our ambassador in Washington DC like what we did...

SEOUL — A U.S. soldier faces up to two years in Korean jail after promising to marry a South Korean woman, having sex with her, then reneging on the engagement, according to Korean court and prosecution officials. The accusation — sexual intercourse under the pretense of marriage — is a crime in South Korea, though one rarely prosecuted against U.S. servicemembers, according to an American lawyer practicing in Seoul. “‘I will marry you, I love you,’ then (the man) calls it off — that’s a crime” if sex is involved, said Brendon Carr, who practices with the Aurora Law Offices...