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| British General Says Security Stable & Improving in SE Iraq |
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| By Gerry J. Gilmore / American Forces Press Service |
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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 |
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Live Fire With the 13th MEU
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| 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 |
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| EMPLOYER SUPPORT GROUP |
| Volunteers Protect Guard & Reserve Civilian Job Rights |
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| By Donna Miles / American Forces Press Service |
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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 |
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| Time Selects 'The American Soldier' as 'Person of Year' |
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| By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service |
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 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 |
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Heightened Security Not Tied
To Saddam Hussein's Capture |
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| By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service |
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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 |
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Fighting Marlins Return
From Persian Gulf Deployment
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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. |
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Iraqi Civil Defense Corps: A
Step Towards a Secure Future |
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| By U.S. Army Pfc. Christopher Fincham |
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BALAD, Iraq, Dec. 19, 2003 — Local nationals report to the gates of Logistical Support Area Anaconda every day for everything from masonry work or plumbing to painting or cleaning.
More and more though, are coming to the gates to train and to serve in the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Kaiser Abd, who was a student before the war, now trains daily on Anaconda with the corps . "I've learned a lot...about selfdefense and how to react to different enemy," said Abd through an interpreter. More |
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The 101st Celebrates Christmas in Northern Iraq
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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 |
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Two Weeks Before Christmas!
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By Deborah Sandberg / Proud 101st Airborne
Division Mom
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'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
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| Global War on Terrorism |
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| On Iraq |
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| Military News |
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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 |
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| Profile |
U.S. Air Force
Tech. Sgt. Ronald Everett |
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 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 |
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| 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 |
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'Iron Rakkasan' Engineers
Clear Unexploded Ordnance |
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BADUSH REGION, Iraq, Dec. 22, 2003 — With each step the soldiers took, their boots dug deeper into spongy, wet mud. They trekked slowly up a steep hill, eyes to the ground six feet ahead. All around them were dozens of pieces of unexploded ordnance.
Maj. Collin Fortier, operations officer, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) knows the dangers that face his 3rd Battalion “Iron Rakkasans” during their current mission in the Badush region of northern Iraq.
The hills in this region are littered with unexploded ordnance. Their task: to clear this dangerous land by destroying the nearly ten thousand pieces of unexploded ordnance left by the remnants of former regime. More |
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Mechanics Put Vehicles
Back in the Fight |
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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 |
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| Soldiers
Keep
Supplies in Stock |
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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
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![Home Page - DefendAmerica
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2003 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today lauded the accomplishments of those who willingly put their lives at risk so that all Americans can live in peace and freedom.
