DefendAmerica - Home Page 12/23/2003

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Dec 23, 2003

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DRUG BUST — Specially trained boarding team members from the USS Philippine Sea board and take control of one of two wooden dhows found loaded with heroin and methamphetamines, Dec. 20, 2003. The drug seizure was the second in the Arabian Sea during the past week. Officials are investigating possible connections to Al Qaeda and the use of drug money to fund terrorist operations worldwide. U.S. Navy photo

Bremer: Learning Democracy
Is Iraq's Biggest Challenge

By Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service

     WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2003 – The biggest challenge facing Iraq is putting in place a new democracy, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer said today.
     "The big challenge the Iraqi people have now is to get a broad political dialogue going, to get a big debate about the future of Iraq," the coalition administrator said during a Pentagon interview today.
     The Iraqi people must learn how to do that peacefully and inclusively. Saddam Hussein dominated Iraq for more than 30 years and democratic niceties certainly weren't observed during his reign. Since the coalition liberated the country, many Iraqis have embraced freedom, but they also need to embrace the responsibilities a democracy entails. "They need to start thinking about what a democratic Iraq means," Bremer said.
      "And we're doing this with the consent and active support of the Iraqi people in the south," he pointed out. More

British General Says Security Stable & Improving in SE Iraq

By Gerry J. Gilmore / American Forces Press Service

     WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2003 — The security situation in southeastern Iraq "is now relatively stable" and improving daily along with economic conditions, the British general in charge of that area said in Baghdad today.
     Maj. Gen. Graham Lamb told reporters that British and other coalition troops in southeastern Iraq have successfully worked with Iraqis to provide security, repair power plants, restore water and sewage services, repair schools and roads, and circumvent oil-smuggling operations.
     Lamb, commander of the Multinational Division (South East) for the past six months, said his mission is "to help to create the conditions" to enable southeastern Iraq "to make a swift and successful recovery" following the fall of Saddam's regime. More

EMPLOYER SUPPORT GROUP

Volunteers Protect Guard & Reserve Civilian Job Rights

By Donna Miles / American Forces Press Service

     WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2003 — All many reservists and guardsmen want for Christmas is assurance that their civilian jobs will be waiting for them when they redeploy from overseas.
     Thanks to a federal law – and hundreds of volunteer "elves" who ensure that both employees and their Guard and Reserve employees understand its requirements – Santa is sure to deliver.
     Some 400 to 500 volunteer ombudsmen in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and Germany serve as field representatives for the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, based here. More

Iraq Weekly Progress Update (Governance, Electricity, Education, Oil, Security, Economics, Health Care)

U.S. Defense Dept. slides with facts &
figures on reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

. Maps of Iraq

Military Blood Program
Seeks Holiday Donors

FALLS CHURCH, Va., Dec. 23, 2003 — The Armed Services Blood Program urges eligible donors to give blood this holiday season to ensure supplies are available to treat service members, retirees and their families.
The blood program organization collects, processes and distributes blood and blood products for the Department of Defense. More

Transformation

Defense Comptroller Committed
To Best for Troops, Families

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2003 — If there were ever any doubts about Dov Zakheim's commitment to taking care of service members and their families, then those doubts were laid to rest during a May 2001 Defense Department press briefing.
Responding to a reporter's question about military benefits, Zakheim, undersecretary of defense (comptroller) and the Defense Department's chief financial officer, replied, "If we don't treat these people well, if we don't fix the infrastructure they work in, if we don't fix the houses they live in, if we don't provide for their kids' education, if we don't provide for their health, why in God's name should they volunteer to protect you and me?" Story

. Troop, Supply Movement to Improve

. Comptroller's Vision

. More Transformation News

Holiday Messages

From the Defense Secretary WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2003 — As Americans across our land move toward the holiday season, its message of peace and hope echoes and re-echoes in our hearts.
And so too the thoughts and prayers of Americans naturally turn to you –the men and women of the U.S. military, all who have volunteered to defend the freedom we all cherish and to advance the cause of peace. More

From the Joint Chiefs Chairman WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2003 — For generations, U.S. service men and women and government civilians have spent the holiday season far from loved ones, so that all Americans can celebrate the peace, prosperity and liberty that our armed forces have fought to protect.
Today, you continue to keep steadfast watch across the globe, from bases on land, planes overhead, and aboard ships at sea; from distant, remote locations, and within our own borders. More

Radio

Television

Time Selects 'The American Soldier' as 'Person of Year'

By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service

The American Soldier, representing all men and women who wear the uniform, has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. Three 1st Armored Division soldiers -- Sgt. Ronald Buxton, Spc. Billie Grimes and Sgt. Marquette Whiteside -- are featured on the magazine's Dec. 29 - Jan. 5 cover. Photo by James Nachtwey / VII for Time, used by permission.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2003 — Three 1st Armored Division soldiers – Sgt. Ronald Buxton, Spc. Billie Grimes and Sgt. Marquette Whiteside – grace the cover of today's Time magazine. They represent "The American Soldier" – all men and women in uniform – chosen as Time's 2003 Person of the Year.
"For uncommon skills and service, for the choices each one of them has made and the ones still ahead, for the challenge of defending not only our freedoms but those barely stirring half a world away, the American soldier is Time's Person of the Year," editor-at-large Nancy Gibbs wrote in the opening essay of the magazine. More

Myers Salutes U.S. Troops, Recaps Central Command Trip

By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2003 — The American soldier, Time magazine's choice for Person of the Year, is "exactly right," the nation's top military officer told Sunday news shows audiences here today.
The magazine cover is a "fitting tribute to these young men and women who have volunteered to serve their country and are over there doing a superb job," Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." The general just returned Dec. 20 from visiting 25,000 troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Djibouti. More

Heightened Security Not Tied
To Saddam Hussein's Capture

By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2003 — The heightened security alert in the United States is not related to the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, coalition administrator Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III said here today.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the change in the national threat level of terrorist attack from elevated (code yellow) to high (code orange) Dec 21. The decision, Ridge said in a prepared statement, was based on "a substantial increase in the volume of threat-related intelligence reports" from the intelligence community. More

Fighting Marlins Return
From Persian Gulf Deployment

WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash., Dec. 23, 2003 (NNS) — The last of seven P-3C Orion aircraft from Patrol Squadron 40 Fighting Marlins returned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Dec. 19 from a Persian Gulf deployment, which lasted more than six months.
"It's great to be back with my family, but our thoughts and prayers are still with the men and women deployed overseas," said Senior Chief Aviation Electronics Technician John Fallert of the squadron. More

Live Fire With the 13th MEU More Photo Essays

A U.S. Marine from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit Tank Platoon Battalion Landing Team fires the M1A1 Abrams tank during a live-fire training exercise in the U.S. Central Command area of operation, Dec. 14, 2003. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Ted Banks 8 More Photos

Bush, Blair Welcome Libya's
Pledge to Dismantle Weapons

By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2003 — Libya's leader, Colonel Moammar al Ghadafi, confirmed his commitment to disclose and dismantle all weapons of mass destruction programs and has agreed to allow inspectors from international organizations to enter his country, President Bush said here Dec. 19.
"These inspectors will render an accounting of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and will help oversee their elimination," he added. More President's Remarks Fact Sheet

Two Weeks Before Christmas!

By Deborah Sandberg / Proud 101st Airborne Division Mom

     'Twas two weeks before Christmas, And all through Iraq, The people still worried that Saddam would be back. The soldiers went out on their nightly patrol, Capturing the bad guys was always their goal!
     With raids seeming endless in the triangle Sunni, We hoped that not all of Iraq was so looney! We gathered the tribe of Saddam, in Tikrit, And suddenly now they all started to snit!
     They told of a farm where Hussein just might be Odierno, Then called on our boys- from the great 4th ID! More rapid than Baathists our soldiers they came, And he whistled and shouted and called them by name More

The 101st Celebrates Christmas in Northern Iraq

NORTHERN IRAQ, Dec. 23, 2003 — Army Sgt. Paul Mauney had trudged through crowded Baltimore-Washington International Airport, pushing an artificial Christmas tree in a rolling cart and enjoying onlookers' attention.
A week later, the "Freedom Tree" was sitting gloriously beside Mauney's office at the 101st Airborne Division's main compound headquarters in Mosul, Iraq, now adorned with bright lights and bells of silver, blue, red and green. Mauney, dubbed the "Christmas Tree Soldier," says his evergreen friend is a memory in the making - a charming, spirited combat zone comrade to him and his fellow soldiers. More

Operation Gratitude Ensures Soldiers Are Not Forgotten

Global War on Terrorism

. 'Tremendous Strides' Made in Iraq, Afghanistan, Collins Says

. Kimmitt: Insurgency Attempts to Terrorize ‘Will Not Succeed’

. Rumsfeld Conveys Thanks of Nation to Terror War Veterans

On Iraq

. Iraqi Legal Profession Trains to Prosecute Regime Crimes

. Iraqi Volunteering Increases Following Capture of Saddam

. Capture of Saddam Not Luck, But Skill, Gen. Abizaid Says

Military News

. Central Command Soldiers Eligible for Re-enlistment Bonus

. Rumsfeld Approves Brigade Deployment, Extension

. Defense Dept. Launches Transformation Web Site

. National Guard, Reserve Update

Offensive Operations Capture
Enemy Personnel, Weapons

AR RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 23, 2003 — During the last 24 hours, soldiers from Task Force “All American” in Al Anbar conducted 237 patrols, including 32 joint patrols with the Iraqi Border Guard and Iraqi Police, according to U.S. Central Command officials. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division also carried out six offensive operations.
Earlier this morning in 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division’s area, paratroopers conducted a cordon and search northwest of Fallujah to kill or capture former regime elements that continue to resist Coalition Forces in Fallujah. The operation resulted in the capture of 26 enemy personnel, including two former Iraqi generals and an Iraqi Special Forces colonel. More

Send your 'Best Wishes' to the
troops waging the global war on terror.

Send your message

Hello my fellow military members!
     Wishing you all peace this holiday season and a safe return home. Thank you for your service and please know that you are ALL thought of each and every day back home in the states!!! Sincerely,
     Staff Sgt. Krista LaFrance,
     New York Army National Guard

Read other messages

Sign an On-line Thank You Note

Auto Show Honors Combat
Veterans with Car Giveaway

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2003 — One lucky service member will return from combat duty to see a new Toyota Camry parked in the driveway, thanks to a spouse or family member holding on to the car – literally.
At the 2004 Washington Auto Show at the Washington Convention Center here Dec. 26 through Jan. 4, promoters will honor the military by giving away the car to one of six family members selected to participate in the show's annual "Hands On" endurance contest, in which contest participants see who can remain in contact with the car the longest. More

Profile

U.S. Air Force
Tech. Sgt. Ronald Everett

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, COLO. — U.S. Air Force Tech. Sergeant Ronald James Everett has a job that he says isn’t much different from that of a telephone, cable or satellite company technician.
As systems controller for the U.S. Northern Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., the Bangor, Maine native assists with computer systems connectivity/integrity, cable fabrication and communications troubleshooting. More

More Profiles

	U.S. Views — Quotes by President Bush & other U.S. leaders
	Defense Views — Quotes by U.S. defense leaders
	Maps of Iraq — Maps of the nation of Iraq and the region

President George W. Bush

“...Leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them will find an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations.”

Response to Libya's pledge to
dismantle WMD programs, Dec. 19, 2003

. Maps of Afghanistan

U.S. Army Spc. Matthew D. Ahner from Leighton, Pa., and his wife, Spc. Rachel M. Ahner from Roselawn, Ind., send holiday greetings from Iraq to their family at home. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tyrone Walker

In Iraq

Mechanics Put Vehicles
Back in the Fight

BAGHDAD, Iraq — When soldiers are badly wounded or seriously ill they are sent to combat support hospitals. When vehicles are seriously damaged or require extensive repairs,they go to “the third shop.”
Soldiers with B Company, 501st Forward Support Battalion, 1st Armored Division, operate one of these shops at Provider Forward Operating Base in Baghdad. More

Soldiers Keep Supplies in Stock

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Cooks need food, mechanics need vehicle parts and doctors need tongue depressors. In order to ensure that each unit has the right stuff it needs to get the mission accomplished, soldiers with A Company, 501st Forward Support Battalion, 1st Armored Division, operate the Supply Support Activity, acting as a clearing house for all the supplies needed by units in the 1st Brigade Combat Team. More

'On The Ground' Archive