Free Republic

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. - One generation of war heroes paid tribute to another March 20 at the 16th annual Bataan Memorial Death March. After 26 miles through gravel, sand and wind-blown dust, Sgt. 1st Class Michael McNaughton sprinted toward the finish line. He was one of five men, all amputees, sponsored by Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who participated in this year's march. "I wanted to do this for the Bataan survivors," McNaughton said. "The sacrifices they made were incredible." McNaughton knows first-hand about the sacrifices Soldiers are called to make during wartime. He was wounded while deployed...

The Kentucky National Guardsmen were outnumbered and under heavy gunfire when they counterattacked Iraqi insurgents who ambushed a coalition convoy southeast of Baghdad. A 30-minute firefight ensued on a Sunday morning, pitting 10 guardsmen against dozens of insurgents. When the shooting ended, 26 guerrillas lay dead and another was mortally wounded, while six others were wounded and another was captured unharmed. The guardsmen didn't go unscathed. Three members of the military police unit were wounded and later transported for medical treatment in Germany, where they are recovering. "It was crazy," recalled Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester. "Adrenaline pumping, you didn't have...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 23 - Iraqi and American forces killed at least 80 insurgents during a Tuesday morning raid on what appeared to be the biggest guerrilla training camp yet discovered, Iraqi officials said today. Seven Iraqi police officers were also killed and six were wounded in what American and Iraqi officials characterized as an especially fierce battle. "It was one of the largest such engagements that I'm aware of," said Col. Robert Potter, a spokesman for the American command in Baghdad. The number of anti-government fighters killed was the most reported in a single conflict since the American offensive...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22, 2005 — National Guard soldiers from the Richmond, Ky.-based 617th Military Police Company were still reminiscing today about the extraordinary battle they fought on Sunday, when dozens of Iraqi insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol — touching off one of the fiercest battles in Iraq since the fight for Fallujah last fall. But what is more extraordinary is who the U.S. soldiers are — a shoe store manager, hotel worker, printing press operator and several students. The firefight serves as a reminder of how citizen-soldiers are shouldering much of the burden in Iraq. Of the U.S. forces...