DefendAmerica - Home Page 01/11/2004

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Jan 11, 2004

AFRTS Report - Special Forces Role in Terror War

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OPEN WIDE —- U.S. Army Spc. Rocky Amez, a medical technician with the 124th Signal Battalion, examines an Iraqi boy during a medical assessment of a school near Balad, Iraq, Jan. 4, 2004. Doctors, medics and other military personnel from several units provided medical assessments for students at the school. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jack Morse

Myers to Thank Asian Nations
For Support in War on Terror

By Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service

     TOKYO, Jan. 11, 2004 — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers arrived here today to thank Japanese allies for their support in the global war on terrorism and for sending personnel and money to help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
     The visit is the start of a nine-day swing through Asia that will include talks with military and defense leaders in Japan, Mongolia and Australia.
     Myers will be the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to visit Mongolia. He will thank the Mongolians for their contribution to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The country has a peacekeeping company in the Multinational Division Central/South based in Hillah. Story

Officials Call Saddam a POW
But Say Status Could Change

By Gerry J. Gilmore / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2004 — The United States now considers former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to be a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions, a senior U.S. official said today in Baghdad.
However, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor told reporters that Hussein's POW status may change, depending on any evidence that may be uncovered pertaining to his alleged crimes against humanity. More

Ridge Lowers Threat Level,
But Nation Remains On Guard

By Gerry J. Gilmore / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2004 — Although the nation's terrorist threat indicator level was lowered from Code Orange to Yellow, America remains on guard, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said here today.
"The (terrorist) threat conditions that we've been following have diminished," Ridge noted to reporters at a press briefing. More

Task Force 'All American'
Reports Progress in Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2004 — The 82nd Airborne Division and its subordinate units conducted 191 patrols, including 11 joint patrols with the Iraqi Police and Border Patrol Guards, and six offensive operations during the past 24 hours, U.S. Central command officials reported today.
While conducting a patrol, paratroopers from the division’s 3rd Brigade identified a vehicle and two people placing an improvised explosive device along the road. More

101st Airborne Division Troops Capture Anti-Coalition Suspects

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2003 —Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) captured six people suspected of anti-coalition activities during pre-dawn raids in northern Iraq Jan. 8, according to U.S. Central Command officials.
Officials said an element of the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team detained five individuals in Ash Shura for attacks on coalition forces. More

Guard Artillerymen Training
As MPs to Support Terror War

By Donna Miles / American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2004 — The third group of National Guard artillerymen is slated to begin retraining as military police at the Army’s Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Jan. 12 to support the war on terror.
The soldiers are among the first of about 2,200 Army National Guard soldiers to be retrained as provisional military police to conduct patrols, control crowd and direct traffic at military installations in the United States and Germany. 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

Defense Department
Identifies Army Casualties

      WASHINGTON, Jan. 9. 2004 — The Department of Defense announced today the names of nine soldiers killed when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, and another killed when a mortar hit a logistics base. The soldiers were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
     The helicopter crashed at approximately 2:20 p.m. Jan. 8 south of Fallujah while on a routine mission.
     The mortar attack occurred Jan. 7 at the 3rd Corps Support Command?s Logistical Base Seitz. Story

Unit Issues Mail Guidance
For Redeploying Troops

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, Jan. 9, 2004 — The Army's 3rd Personnel Command has issued guidance to redeploying troops about redirecting their mail for a smooth, timely transition to their home-bound addresses.
The unit manages postal operations in the Operation Iraqi Freedom theater, and has provided procedures to be followed by soldiers, mail clerks and commanders to ensure mail is properly channeled. More

Transformation

DoD Tests Supply
Tracking Technology

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2004 - In its ongoing effort to improve support to troops in the field, the Defense Department is testing radio-frequency identification technology, Alan Estevez, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration said here today.
RFID tags contain microchips that, when scanned, send out a unique identification signal. Tagged items can be added quickly to inventory databases and can even be wirelessly tracked for short distances. More

More Transformation News

Humvees Getting Extra
Armor Reinforcements

An Iraqi worker of the Peerot Co. Ltd. arc welds a steel plate; a piece of the new armor kits for Humvees offered to units with soldiers constantly on the road in soft-back vehicles. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Samuel A. Soza FORWARD OPERATING BASE IRONHORSE, TIKRIT, Iraq — For soldiers conducting missions outside the walls of Forward Operating Base Ironhorse, Humvees, canvas-covered, or soft-back, may not be the best protection on the road.
In an effort to improve the protection of these soldiers, improvised armor kits are being assembled for four-passenger Humvees. More

U.S. Aids Afghan Women

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2004 — The United States has implemented more than 175 programs for the benefit of Afghan women in the areas of political participation, economic opportunity, education, and health care, according to a fact sheet released Jan. 8 by the State Department's Office of International Women's Issues. Fact Sheet

Coalition Condemns Attack

Medics Bring Care to Communities

More Afghanistan Update Details

. Maps of Afghanistan

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

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Radio

Television

Slingloading Equipment for Redeployment
More Photo Essays

Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company and Bravo Company, 501st Signal Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) prepare to hook a Humvee up to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, Jan. 4, 2004. The 501st slingloaded equipment from a remote outpost on top of a mountain in Iraq in preparation for redeployment to Fort Campbell, Ky. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joshua Hutcheson 3 More Photos Story

Sailors, Marines Crack Down On
Drug Smuggling in Arabian Sea

By U.S. Army Spc. Chad D. Wilkerson / 372nd Mobile Public Affairs Det.

ABOARD USS PELELIU, January 5, 2004 — Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), along with sailors of Expeditionary Strike Group-One, recently interdicted a dhow bearing an estimated 2,800 pounds of hashish while crossing the North Arabian Sea.
Allied forces helped to track the dhow as U.S. Naval forces prepared for the interdiction. “We knew by the look of some of their (crewmembers’) faces that something was up,” said Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Mark V. Anderer, who was involved in the vessel boarding search and seizure mission. Story

Baghdad Neighborhood
Advisory Council Votes in New Members

Citizens of Baghdad's Ameria neighborhood pack in to a building to fill out ballots at the neighborhood advisory council refreshing caucus to reselect council members. U.S. Army photo

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2004 — Residents of Baghdad’s Ameria neighborhood lined the streets near the old Iraqi Airways Club to choose new neighborhood advisory council members recently.
Votes were cast in this caucus-style after residents determined that the current five council members - selected by the Coalition Provisional Authority in June - did not represent the neighborhood’s diversity. More

Coalition Provisional Authority
Rebuilds Iraq's State Services

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2004 — The Coalition Provisional Authority is working to shore up Iraq's state service capabilities in preparation for the handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi transitional government in June 2004.
Currently, the firefighters in Babil Province, south of Baghdad, are benefiting from an authority project to equip the forces with the necessary clothing and trucks to better enable them to meet their responsibilities. More

Reserve Team Handles Reimbursement
To Rasheed District Neighborhood

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan 8, 2004 — “Our main objective is to get everyone paid,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ronald McGraw from Bravo Detachment, 411th Civil Affairs, 1st Armored Division, a U.S. Army Reserve unit from Danbury, Conn. tasked with handling reimbursements for the Rasheed District neighborhood.
“Second of all, we need to get all the information sheets filled out completely,” McGraw adds. More

Mosul Central Bank Rebuilding Project Begins

MOSUL, Iraq — The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the Central Bank of Iraq recently began a project to rebuild the Mosul Central Bank, left in ruins by looters after the fall of Saddam Hussein in March.
The building is now just a burned-out cavern of what was the local central bank, it is expected to be complete by early 2005. More

'Leaders’ Rest’ Facility Dedicated To Memory of Fallen U.S. Soldier

By U.S. Army Spc. Chad D. Wilkerson / 372nd Mobile Public Affairs Det.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2004 — Freedom Rest, the U.S. Army’s designated location for troop rest and recuperation in Baghdad, opened a new addition last month.

Command Sgt. Maj. Ioakimo Falaniko, 1st Armored Division's engineer brigade command sergeant major, unveils the entrance to the new Leaders' Rest facility in Baghdad Dec. 23. The building, a rest and recuperation facility for general officers and brigade and battalion command teams, was named in honor of Pvt. Jonathan Falaniko, the command sergeant major's son who was killed earlier this year when his convoy was attacked in Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chad D. Wilkerson

Several Task Force 1st Armored Division brigade and battalion command leadership teams joined Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, 1st Armored Division commander, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Combined Joint Task Force 7 commander, for the opening and dedication of the new facility. More

Global War on Terrorism

. Hundreds of Nonviolent Iraqi Detainees Eligible for Release

. Rumsfeld: War on Terrorism Remains Top Priority for 2004

. Gen. Myers: Top U.S. Focus Continues To Be War on Terror

. Defense Leaders Cite Recent Milestones in War on Terror

Iraq

. Powell: U.N. Speech Presented Facts about Weapons Program

. Army Helicopter Crash Kills 9; Coalition Continues Patrols

. Bechtel Receives Iraqi Reconstruction Contract

. Video Dispels Claims That Troops Desecrated Mosque

. 1st Armored Div. Commander Optimistic About Iraq's Future

Military News

. Fort Campbell Troops Return Home After Deployment to Iraq

. Injured Iraqi Merchant Seaman Treated Aboard USS Enterprise

. Expanded Army Stop-Loss to Affect 7,000 Deployed Troops

. National Guard, Reserve Update

Recon Mission Provides Key Step
To Building Afghan National Army

FARYAB PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Jan. 9, 2004 — The Afghan National Army took a step closer to building its Army’s strength with a reconnaissance mission recently in the province of Faryab.
The reconnaissance mission conducted by the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan’s U.S. Recruiting Assistance Team was an attempt to select a prominent site and the secure land to build an Afghan National Army Volunteer Center in the province. More

Profile

U.S. Army
Capt. Eric Strong

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 7, 2004 — “Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be … they build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the Nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid,” said Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur in his 1962 Sylvanus Thayer Award acceptance speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. 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

Secretary of State Colin Powell

“We regret the loss of life of our brave young men and women and other coalition men and women and those civilians who have lost their lives (in Iraq) .... They are serving in a good cause to give the Iraqi people peace and freedom, and what is not there anymore is a horrible, dictatorial, filthy regime that did develop weapons of mass destruction, that used them against people, a regime that filled mass graves. It is gone. It is not coming back.”

Remarks during press conference, Jan. 8, 2004

In Afghanistan

Soldiers Give School Supplies
To Students in Afghanistan

U.S. Army 1Lt. Melinda Demott and Capt. William Nelson hand out school supplies at Tangi Kalay, near Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo

TANGI KALAY, Afghanistan, Jan. 9, 2004 - Members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghanistan Psychological Operations team recently visited Tangi Kalay, the most eastern village in the Kabul Province, to distribute school supplies. More

In Iraq

Canine Gate Guard
Follows His Nose

Master of Arms 1st Class Sean Stull, a 4th Infantry Division canine handler, stands with his German Shepard, Rocky, trained to detect explosives. U.S. Army photo by Bronwyn M. Meyer

FORWARD OPERATING BASE IRONHORSE, TIKRIT, Iraq — The newest security guard for the 4th Infantry Division can sniff out trouble before others know its coming. Good instincts and loyalty are just two things that make this sentry at the front gate of Forward Operating Base Ironhorse the best at his job. Also, no matter the hour or the weather, he doesn’t complain. More

Soldiers Help Set Up
Mosul Phone Network

AL SULAIMANYA, Iraq, Jan. 6, 2004 (Army News Service) — Members of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) participated in a two-day conference in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq to set up a telephone network centered on the city of Mosul. More

'On The Ground' Archive