Free Republic

PATROL BASE YATES — As part of their commitment to keeping insurgents away, members of the Sons of Iraq built a checkpoint on a narrow stretch of road through Fuhail Mujeer Village, 25 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, April 25. As recently as December, Rakkasan Soldiers of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), established a presence in the area, which was previously an insurgent safe haven. Now Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, assigned to their battalion’s Company D, are living at the newly built Patrol Base Yates and working with the SoI...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — One hundred and fifty residents of Warij volunteered to become Sons of Iraq last week. On April 20, the new SoI began guarding a stretch of the southern Baghdad community, which falls in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division’s area of operation. The Warij program is unique in its make-up. “It is the only area within the brigade that has both sects operating jointly at SoI checkpoints,” said Capt. Gregory Curry, commander of Troop A, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. “It is the so-called ‘check and balance’ that...

Lt. Col. Hee-Choon S. Lee, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, battalion surgeon, gives a routine checkup to a young boy during a combined medical engagement in Arab Jabour March 19. Care provided throughout the day included treatment of minor scrapes, sprains, allergies and distribution of antibiotics. Photo courtesy of 1-30th Inf. Regt. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and Sons of Iraq conducted a combined medical engagement in Arab Jabour March 19. Two hundred and twenty-seven people were treated during the event, which provided treatment for minor injuries, such as scrapes,...