DefendAmerica - Home Page 01/12/2004

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Jan 12, 2004

AFRTS Report - Special Forces Role in Terror War

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LAUNCH PREP — U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johnny Vargas and Senior Chief James Wright, both aviation boatswain's mate handlers, direct aircraft to their proper place in preparation for launch from the flight deck of the USS Enterprise. The carrier is currently under way in the Arabian Gulf. U.S. Navy photo by Airman Jhi L. Scott

Coalition Leaders Welcome
Iraqi Governing Council Policy

By K.L. Vantran / American Forces Press Service

     WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2004 — The Iraqi Governing Council's announcement of its new "de-Baathification" policies and procedures Jan. 11 was welcomed by the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said at a briefing in Baghdad today.
     The Baath Party – also known by its formal name, the Baath Arab Socialist Party -- is the political party of Saddam Hussein.
     Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III signed the first de-Baathification decree May 16 and delegated authority to the governing council Nov. 4, said Senor. More

Japan's Move to Send Troops To Iraq 'Historic,' Myers Says

By Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service

     TOKYO, Jan. 12, 2004 — Japan's decision to send forces to Iraq is a "historic move," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers during a press conference here today.
     Myers, here to meet with Japanese military leaders, said the Japanese decision to send about 1,000 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq is welcomed by the international community.
     Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced the decision in December. This is the first time Japanese forces will serve as part of a coalition not sponsored by the United Nations. The soldiers will be engaged in helping to rebuild Iraq, and will be based in the southern part of the country. They will work with Dutch soldiers, and will come under the command of a British general. More

Myers Begins Four-Nation Swing in Japan

Myers Says Reenlistment Rate Strong During War on Terror

By Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service

TOKYO, Jan. 12, 2003 — American service men and women are stepping forward to reenlist, "as I would expect," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers. "We are a nation at war. This is the time for our military to rise to the occasion and serve the nation at a time like no other."
Myers said in an interview with the Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper that all services are making their retention and recruiting goals. The chairman said service members realize that if the United States loses the war on terrorism, the results would be catastrophic. More

Poll Shows Most Iraqis Oppose Violence and Support Coalition

By David Shelby / Washington File Staff Writer

Washington — Iraqis are nearly unanimous in the belief that attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi police forces and international organizations are harmful to the future development of Iraq, according to a November 2003 poll conducted by the State Department's Office of Research. Sixty-six percent of the people polled said coalition forces are needed in Iraq for security.
Smaller majorities expressed disapproval of attacks on CPA officials and coalition forces. 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

R&R Program Funds
More Travel, Fewer Flights

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Army News Service), Jan. 9, 2004 — Soldiers coming home on rest and recuperation leave will now have their travel expenses covered to the airport closest to their R&R destination.
The policy change came with the Dec. 19 approval to fund the onward travel program by Charles Abell, principal deputy, under secretary of defense for Personnel & Readiness. Congress recommended spending $55 million of the Army’s Operation and Maintenance funds to cover the cost of expanding the program. More

Transformation

Pentagon Security Force
Expects the Unexpected

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2004 — When John Jester addresses military and civilian law enforcement agencies throughout the country, he offers two key pieces of advice: first, don't think it can't happen on your watch, and second, think about the unexpected.
And Jester is just the man to deliver such advice. He was chief of what was then the Defense Protective Service on Sept. 11, 2001, when a hijacked airliner crashed into the Pentagon. More

More Transformation News

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

Send your message

Read other messages

Sign an On-line Thank You Note

Reconstruction Team
Visits Afghan Orphanages

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Jan. 9, 2004 - For Jamshid, a scholarly Afghan 7th grade student, Jan. 6 was a big day. Americans were coming along with the provincial police chief and other government officials.
To the adolescent fell the imposing task of addressing the visitors on behalf of his school and orphanage located in the mountain town of Gulbahar in Kapisa Province. More

Coalition Condemns Attack

Medics Bring Care to Communities

More Afghanistan Update Details

. Maps of Afghanistan

NCOs Volunteer for Duty
Training New Iraqi Soldiers

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Fortenberry, a drill sergeant with 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment. cleans a weapon Jan. 6 preparing for his deployment to Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brian Trapp

FORT BENNING, Ga., Jan. 9, 2004 — Drill sergeants spend their time training America’s newest soldiers to be the force protecting our nation. Now, a whole company of drill sergeants has volunteered to go to Iraq and train a new army to protect the recently freed nation. More

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

Enterprise F/A-18 Jets Strike
Enemy Mortar Position in Iraq

Aviation Boatswain's Mate Handler 3rd Class Mikel Wilson guides an F/A-18 Hornet, attached to Sidewinders of Strike Fighter Squadron 86, off the landing area after it successfully caught the arresting gear wire on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Mate Milosz Reterski. ABOARD USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS), Jan. 12, 2004 -- Strike fighter aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 1, flying from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in the North Arabian Gulf, attacked an enemy mortar position near Balad, Iraq, north of Baghdad, Jan. 9, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Two Strike Fighter Squadron 86 F/A-18 Hornets from Enterprise’s embarked carrier air wing each dropped a 1,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition in the attack, striking the enemy position. More

Arlington Memorial Honors
Fallen Air Force Hero

A new memorial at Arlington National Cemetery honors U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman, who was killed March 4, 2002, while fighting against the Taliban during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jim Varhegyi

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2004 — The secretary of the Air Force unveiled a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery Jan. 8 to honor the service’s highest-decorated combat controller, killed while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron was killed March 4, 2002, while fighting against the Taliban during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. He was posthumously decorated with the nation’s second-highest award for valor, the Air Force Cross. More

FBI Honors Soldier
Killed in Karbala

Sherry Orlando (right) clasps hands with her sister-in-law, Kristin Boaz, in front of a plaque honoring her husband and Boaz' brother, Lt. Col. Kim Orlando, at the FBI National Academy. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Lorie Jewell

QUANTICO, Va. (Army News Service), Jan. 8, 2004 — The FBI’s National Academy added a new plaque to its Hall of Honor Jan. 7 for its first military fallen hero.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kim Orlando now joins 22 others on the “Martyr’s Wall,” which recognizes academy graduates who have been killed in the line of duty by adversarial actions. 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

. Ridge Lowers Threat Level, but Nation Remains On Guard

. Guard Artillerymen Training as MPs to Support Terror War

. Sailors, Marines Crack Down On Drug Smuggling in Arabian Sea

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

. Defense Leaders Cite Recent Milestones in War on Terror

Iraq

. Officials Call Saddam a POW But Say Status Could Change

. 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

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

Gen. Richard B. Myers
Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff

"Whether the terrorism attack occurs in Riyadh, or Islamabad, or New York City, or God forbid, Tokyo, the outcome is the same: it affects all countries on this planet, not just the country where the act occurred .... We're going to have to deal with this scourge as we have with other scourges of the past."

Remarks during Tokyo visit, Jan. 12, 2004

In Afghanistan

U.S. Medical Personnel
Share Technical Expertise

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 9, 2004 — Teaching and training medical residents how to save lives is a demanding but rewarding mission for American medical personnel assigned to Afghanistan. Although the hospital settings are unlike those found in the United States, these individuals, along with local doctors and nurses, are paving the way to secure a more stable hospital setting and provide better quality medical care.
Along with the help from the Department of Health and Human Services and other organizations, the Rabia-e-Balki Women’s Hospital is receiving valuable medical training needed for the future of Afghanistan. More

In Iraq

Airmen Clear Debris
To Keep Runway Safe

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. George Sims removes debris from the runway at Tallil Air Base, Iraq. More than 1,600 pounds of debris has been removed from the airfield since November. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Chris Stagner

TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN), Jan. 9, 2004 — Aircraft come, and aircraft go. Whether it is for training or a real-world mission, it is an everyday part of Air Force life.
Without certain people to accomplish certain missions, the aircraft will not come, and the aircraft will not go. Maintainers, air traffic controllers, flight engineers, pilots: everyone plays a role to ensure mission accomplishment. More

Departing Infantry Troops
Bid New Friends Goodbye

AL JAZEERA, Iraq - Mohamed Sami sat rigid in his chair. He appeared restless, as though at any moment he would try to express all the thoughts in his mind. So he did.
“I am very sad and very happy right now,” he said. “I do not want you to leave us. But I want to thank you, really, for everything you have done for us. What you have done for us, for our country, it will stay in our hearts forever. I want you to know that we will never forget you. More

'On The Ground' Archive