In Memoriam

[Edwina's Secretary]

How long will this go on??? (http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/thewrongstuff/)

[Grace]

2 March 2011



Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden

From: Williamston, South Carolina
Age: 25
Unit: 48th Security Forces Squadron, 48th Mission Support Group, 48th Fighter Wing


U.S. Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden was standing outside of a bus at Frankfurt airport when a young man first asked him for a cigarette, then whether he was bound for Afghanistan.

When Alden answered yes, the 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian fatally shot him, point blank, in the back of the head, then stormed aboard the bus shouting "Allah Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great." He shot and killed Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback, who was at the wheel, then shot and injured two others, German authorities said Friday.


Though he was from Indiana, Alden, 25, lived in South Carolina, where he met his wife. The couple recently had their second child, according to a report by ABC News' Indianapolis affiliate WRTV.

"The thing that I'm going to miss the most is being able to talk to him, being able to see him. It hurts even worse because he's got two children and they won't get to fully know him and what a great person he was," Nicholas Alden's brother, Joe, told WRTV.

[Grace]

From the Washington Post -

Amputations and genital injuries increase sharply among soldiers in Afghanistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030403258.html)

[Grace]

Veteran of WWII

Bud Lomell. (http://brick.patch.com/articles/bud-lomell-local-world-war-ii-hero-dies)

[Grace]

3 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Jason M. Weaver, 22, of Anaheim, Calif., died March 3 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

[Grace]

4 March 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Jordan R. Stanton, 20, of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., died March 4 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

5 March 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Mark C. Wells, 31, of San Jose, Calif., died March 5 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 45th Sustainment Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

[Grace]

8 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Kalin C. Johnson, 19, of Lexington, S.C., died March 8 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

[Grace]

9 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Andrew P. Wade, 22, of Antioch, Ill., died March 9 in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, as a result of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

http://www.myabc50.com/media/lib/21/7/7/5/775e9fc6-63b4-4eec-88a2-37a10b835255/Story.jpg

[Grace]

7 March 2011




Two Navy sailors who were killed in a rollover crash at Camp Pendleton on Monday have been identified as Petty Officer Third Class Daniel M. Shirar and Constructionman Mychael A. Flint.

Navy officials say the two were passengers in a 7 ton water truck that rolled over during a Navy- Marine training exercise called "Pacific Horizon."

Flint, 21, was based in Coronado but grew up in Fort Ann, New York.

"He was just the funniest kid, he was always just happy, I don't care what the situation was, Myke made it good,"said his grandmother Pamela Pecue from her home in Fort Edward, New York.

Pecue says Flint joined the Navy because he wanted to serve his country and learn how to operated heavy equipment.

Flint chose the Navy over the other armed services because he thought it was the "safest of all of them."

Navy officials say Flint and Shirar, 27, who was from Baytown, Texas, were thrown from the water truck as they were delivering drinking water to a campsite.

"I keep asking myself why him? and how did he get thrown from this vehicle, why he couldn't stay in it," said Pecue.

The driver of the truck has not been identified and was taken to a nearby hospital for injuries suffered in the crash.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

[Grace]

9 March 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Loren M. Buffalo, 20, of Mountain Pine, Ark., died March 9 in Kandahar province of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.


http://cmsimg.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DA&Date=20110310&Category=NEWS08&ArtNo=110310022&Ref=AR&MaxW=180&Border=0

[Grace]

10 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Eric S. Trueblood, 27, of Alameda, Calif., died March 10 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 391st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, Spinelli Barracks, Mannheim, Germany.

[Grace]

Ireland


It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Lance Corporal Stephen McKee, from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, was killed in Afghanistan on 9 March 2011.

Ministry of Defence statement (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/LanceCorporalStephenMckeeKilledInAfghanistan.htm)

[Grace]

11 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Andrew M. Harper, 19, of Maidsville, W. Va., died March 11, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

[Grace]

12 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Daehan Park, 36, of Watertown, Conn. died March 12, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.


http://www.wfsb.com/2011/0314/27191011_240X180.jpg

[Grace]

11 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Ian M. Muller, 22, of Danville, Vt., died March 11 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

12 March 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Arturo E. Rodriguez, 19, of Bellflower, Calif., died March, 12 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.arturo.rodriguez.101st.jpg

[Grace]

16 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Travis M. Tompkins, 31, of Lawton, Okla., died March 16 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained on March 15, when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.

[Grace]

16 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Senior Airman Michael J. Hinkle II, 24, of Corona, Calif., died March 16 due to a non-combat related incident in Southwest Asia. He was assigned to the 28th Communications Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.

[Grace]

17 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Christopher S. Meis, 20, of Bennett, Colo., died March 17 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

Army Released February Suicide Data

The Army released suicide data today for the month of February. Among active-duty soldiers, there were eight potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicide, and eight remain under investigation. For January 2011, the Army reported 15 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, five cases have been confirmed as suicide, and 10 cases remain under investigation.

During February 2011, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were eight potential suicides: one has been confirmed as a suicide, and seven remain under investigation. For January 2011, among that same group, there were eight total suicides. Of those, two were confirmed as suicides and six are pending determination of the manner of death.

“Efforts to mitigate risk and improve the health of the force demand decisive engagement at every echelon. The complexity of suicide demands the need for a coordinated effort by every member across the Army to reduce the negative outcomes of high-risk behavior, risk-related deaths and suicides,” said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director, Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force.

Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or by visiting their website at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org .

[Grace]

Country of Georgia


Cpl. Valeri Verskiani

From: Kutaisi, Georgia
Age:
Unit: 32nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade
Died: March 14, 2011

Died on March 14, 2011, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany of wounds sustained in an explosion in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

19 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died March 19 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they were allegedly shot with small arms fire by an individual from a military security group. The incident is under investigation. They were assigned to the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

Killed were:

Cpl. Donald R. Mickler Jr., 29, of Bucyrus, Ohio;

Pfc. Rudy A. Acosta, 19, of Canyon Country, Calif.


Cpl. Mickler - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.donald.mickler.usareur.jpg

Pfc. Acosta - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.rudy.acosta.usareur.jpg

[Grace]

19 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Mecolus C. McDaniel, 33, of Fort Hood, Texas, died March 19 in Khowst province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, Ky.


http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.mecolus.mcdaniel.ftknox.jpg

[Grace]

England


Pvt. Daniel Steven Prior

From: Peacehaven, Sussex
Age: 27
Unit: Company D, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
Died: March 18, 2011

Died on March 18, 2011, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, of wounds sustained on March 16, 2011, when a roadside bomb detonated near his patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.daniel.prior.ukmod.jpg

[Grace]

20 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. James M. Malachowski, 25, of Westminster, Md., died March 20 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://www.wusa9.com/images/300/169/2/assetpool/images/110322042633_Jims%20pic.JPG

[Grace]

18 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Master Sgt. Jamal H. Bowers, 41, of Raleigh, N.C., died March 18 at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, as a result of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 6th Battalion, 4th Military Information Support Group, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.jamal.bowers.usasoc.jpg

[Grace]

21 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Cpl. Brandon S. Hocking, 24, of Seattle, Wash., died March 21 in As Samawah, Iraq, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 87th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

http://news.google.com/news/tbn/3jvK_Vhs_lkJ

[Grace]

22 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 1st Class Vincent A. Filpi III, 41, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., died March 22 as a result of a non-combat related incident. Filpi was assigned to USS Enterprise as an aviation ordnanceman. Enterprise is currently deployed to the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

http://images.onset.freedom.com/nwfdn/medium/lija1x-lij9abfilpiandson.jpg

[Grace]

22 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died March 22, in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device, rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Joshua S. Gire, 28, of Chillicothe, Ohio.

Pfc. Michael C. Mahr, 26, of Homosassa, Fla.

They were assigned to the 54th Engineer Battalion, 18th Engineer Brigade, Bamberg, Germany.



Staff Sgt. Gire - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.joshua.gire.21tsc.jpg

Pfc. Michael Mahr - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.michael.mahr.21tsc.jpg

[Grace]

United Kingdom


It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Major Matthew James Collins and Lance Sergeant Mark Terence Burgan, both from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday 23 March 2011.


Ministry of Defence statement (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/MajorMatthewJamesCollinsAndLanceSergeantMarkTerenc eBurganKilledInAfghanistan.htm)

[Grace]

Canada


Cpl. Yannick Scherrer


From: Victoriaville, Québec
Age: 24
Unit: 1er Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment (1st Battalion, 22nd Royal Regiment)
Died: March 27, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a dismounted partnered patrol in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.yannick.scherrer.cf.jpg

[Grace]

29 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died March 29 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with small arms fire in Konar province.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Bryan A. Burgess, 29, of Cleburne, Texas.

Pfc. Dustin J. Feldhaus, 20, of Glendale, Ariz.

They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.


Staff Sgt. Burgess - http://media2.myfoxdfw.com//photo/2011/03/31/Untitled-1_20110331151109_320_240.JPG


Pfc. Feldhaus - http://www.timesunion.com/mediaManager/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=830800&format=gallery_thumb

[Grace]

29 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died March 29 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with small arms fire in Konar province, Afghanistan.

Killed were:

Sgt. 1st Class Ofren Arrechaga, 28, of Hialeah, Fla.;

Staff Sgt. Frank E. Adamski III, 26, of Moosup, Conn.; and

Spc. Jameson L. Lindskog, 23, of Pleasanton, Calif.

They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

Sgt. Arrechaga - http://d.yimg.com/b/util/anysize/116-3456000,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F201 10331%2Fthumb.254a63d4e3844d9c8778df844621ccd8-254a63d4e3844d9c8778df844621ccd8-0.jpg

Sgt. Adamski - http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/mediaManager/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=829145&width=628&height=471

Spc. Lindskog - http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--47g_kaefkA/TZW9ntAtLSI/AAAAAAAAAEI/gSz7ZroX1tk/s1600/14355741_BG4.jpg

[Grace]

The troops listed in # 1283 and 1284, along with the next listing were all killed at the same time. We go days without a death - then 6 at one time. What is wrong with this country that we allow it to continue?

[Grace]

29 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pvt. Jeremy P. Faulkner, 23, of Griffin, Ga., died March 29 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire in Konar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pBIfMaHSfAE/TZW9bL0oJlI/AAAAAAAAAEE/zi9mefUIU_o/s1600/PV2-FAULKNER-JEREMY-KIA.jpg

[Grace]

31 March 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Dennis C. Poulin, 26, of Cumberland, R.I., died March 31 in the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries sustained on March 28 in Konar province, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment, Massachusetts National Guard, Milford, Mass.

Article about his death from the ProJo. (http://www.projo.com/news/content/CUMBERLAND_GUARDSMAN_04-02-11_9RNASST_v18.1bd627f.html)

http://www.projo.com/a/2011/04/01/poulin_90.jpg

[Grace]

A Soldier's Tragedy (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2055169,00.html?xid=thepage_newsletter)

[Grace]

United Nations Staff


The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has been plunged into jeopardy after protesters enraged by the burning of a Qur'an by Christian extremists in the US stormed a UN compound in the north of the country and killed at least seven foreign staff members.

Amid uncertainty about the overall death toll, the UN said its staff were killed when the usually peaceful city of Mazar-e-Sharif exploded into violent protest.

Four of the seven foreigners killed were former Gurkhas working as private security guards. Norway's defence ministry named another victim as Lieutenant Colonel Siki Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot working for the UN, while the sixth victim was named as Joakin Dungel, 33, a Swede working in the UN office. The seventh foreigner killed was believed to be Romanian. Two of the UN workers were reported to have been beheaded

source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/01/afghanistan-united-nations-killings)

[Grace]

3 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, 21, of Santa Clara, Calif., died April 3 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

This incident is under investigation.

[Grace]

3 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

1st Lt. Robert F. Welch III, 26, of Denton, Texas, died April 3 in Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his base with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 201st Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, Ky.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.robert.welch.ftknox.jpg

[Grace]

3 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Sgt. Jorge A. Scatliffe, 32, of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, died April 3 in a non-combat related incident at Mosul, Iraq. He was assigned to the 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

[Grace]

Poland



Chief Warrant Officer Bartosz Spychala

From: Lubliniec, Poland
Age: 39
Unit: 1 Pulku Specjalnym Komandosow (1st Special Commando Regiment)
Died: April 3, 2011

Died in a non-combat related incident in Ghanzi, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.bartosz.spychala.plarmy.jpg

link to Polish News article (http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul152611_commando-killed-in-afghanistan.html)

[Grace]

4 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Capt. Wesley J. Hinkley, 36, of Carlisle, Pa., died April 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, as a result of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, Fort Stewart, Ga.

[Grace]

4 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died April 4 of wounds suffered from small arms fire in Faryab province, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Scott H. Burgess, 32, of Franklin, Texas.

Sgt. Michael S. Lammerts, 26, of Tonawanda, N.Y.

They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Baumholder, Germany.

[Grace]

2 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn. They died April 2 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their position with indirect fire in Babil, Iraq.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins, 26, of New Orleans, La.

Sgt. Christian A. S. Garcia, 30, of Goodyear, Ariz.

They were assigned to the Maintenance Troop, Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

[Grace]

5 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Spc. Gary L. Nelson III, 20, of Woodstock, Ga., died April 5 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

[Daisy and Delilah]

The troops listed in # 1283 and 1284, along with the next listing were all killed at the same time. We go days without a death - then 6 at one time. What is wrong with this country that we allow it to continue?

So true, Gretchen. :( :( :(
What in the world is wrong with this country???? Please make it stop!!!

[Grace]

I was thinking, hoping, maybe even praying, with the possibility of a government shutdown, that just maybe that would mean the soldiers would stop these idiotic wars. No such luck - they'll keep doing - they just won't get paid until the government is up and running again.

[Grace]

6 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jeremy D. Smith, 26, of Arlington, Texas, died April 6 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of Houston, Texas.

This incident is under investigation.

[Grace]

6 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Seaman Benjamin D. Rast, 23, of Niles, Mich., died April 6 while conducting a dismounted patrol northeast of Patrol Base Alcatraz, Helmand province, Afghanistan. Rast was assigned as a hospitalman to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Rast was stationed at Naval Medical Center, Expeditionary Medical Force Detachment, San Diego, Calif.

The incident is under investigation.

http://www.nilesstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Rastagain.jpg

[Grace]

Norway

This is an update for #1289


Lt. Col. Siri Skare

From: Oslo, Norway
Age: 52
Unit: Norwegian Air Force officer working as a military adviser to the United Nations
Died: April 1, 2011

Skare, the first female military pilot in the Norwegian Air Force, was killed during an attack on a United Nations office in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, on April 1, 2011. The attack followed a demonstration against the reported burning of a Quran by a Florida pastor in March 2011.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.siri.skare.nomod.jpg

[Grace]

7 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jason A. Rogers, 28, of Brandon, Miss., died April 7 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://images.ibsys.com/media/200X150/27481342.jpg

[Grace]

7 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Keith T. Buzinski, 26, of Daytona Beach, Fla., died April 7 in Logar province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

[Grace]

Scotland


It is with regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Colour Sergeant Alan Cameron from 1st Battalion Scots Guards died on 31 March 2011 as a result of wounds he received in Afghanistan on 13 April 2010.

Ministry of Defence statement (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/ColourSergeantAlanCameronDiesOfWoundsSustainedInAf ghanistan.htm)

[Grace]

10 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jose M. Caraballo Pietri, 32, of Yauco, Puerto Rico, died April 10 in Badghis province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Baumholder, Germany.

[Grace]

10 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Sgt. Vorasack T. Xaysana, 30, of Westminster, Colo., died April 10 in Kirkuk, Iraq, of injuries sustained April 9 in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, Fort Hood, Texas.


http://militaryyearbookproject.com/media/k2/items/cache/cd4f96c55e95e78e94868b367a0ea268_XS.jpg

[Grace]

11 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Brent M. Maher, 31, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, died April 11 in Paktia province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry Regiment, Iowa National Guard, Shenandoah, Iowa.


http://thegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Maher.Brent_-184x225.jpg

[Grace]

Korea



Soldier Missing from Korean War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. John W. Lutz, 21, of Kearny, N.J., will be buried tomorrow at Arlington National Cemetery. From May 16-20, 1951, Task Force Zebra, a multinational force made up of Dutch, French, and U.S. forces, was attacked and isolated into smaller units. Lutz, of the 1st Ranger Infantry Company, part of Task Force Zebra, went missing while his unit was attempting to infiltrate enemy lines near Chaun-ni, South Korea, along the Hongcheon River Valley.

After the 1953 armistice, surviving POWs said Lutz had been captured by enemy forces on May 19, marched north to a POW camp in Suan County, North Korea, and died of malnutrition in July 1951.

Between 1991-94, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 servicemen. North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated the remains inside were exhumed near Suan County. This location correlates with the corporal’s last known location.

Analysts from DPMO developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. Through interviews with surviving POW eyewitnesses, experts validated circumstances surrounding the soldier’s captivity and death, confirming wartime documentation of his loss.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of his niece—in the identification of the remains.

More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War. With this accounting, 8,001 service members still remain missing from the conflict. For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703- 699-1169.

[cassiesmom]

Grace, I'm going to hijack your thread for just a moment. I heard this story on the news last evening.

WASHINGTON (WBBM) – A wounded U.S. Marine hopes to come home to Antioch next month, one year after losing both arms and legs in Afghanistan.

As WBBM Newsradio 780′s Regine Schlesinger reports, Marine Cpl. John Peck, 25, is now at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, learning to live as a quadruple amputee.

Peck suffered a head wound when he fought in Iraq, but when he recovered, he re-enlisted and went to Afghanistan.

A year ago while on patrol, he volunteered as his unit’s minesweeper to look for IEDs.

“I took a step forward; the next thing I know, I’m being flung through the air. Dirt’s in my eyes; I can barely see anything at all,” Peck said.

When he woke from a drug-induced coma two months later, Peck had lost both arms and both legs. He says it’s a struggle, but he has no regrets about his service.

“If I still had my arms, and I was missing a leg or even both my legs, I’d still probably go back,” he said.

Peck says he hopes Americans appreciate the sacrifices of so many soldiers.

His message to them is: “Care about someone besides yourself. Stop bickering. There’s guys out there every day fighting for your freedom.”

Through 27 operations, Peck has had 81 transfusions of blood products. On May 9, LifeSource and the VFW will hold a blood drive for Peck at the VFW Hall in Antioch.


So-- not only in memoriam but also a prayer for wounded soldiers too.
Thank you, and I now return you to your regularly scheduled topic--
elyse

[Grace]

10 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pvt. Brandon T. Pickering, 21, of Fort Thomas, Ky., died April 10 in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade in Wardak province, Afghanistan, April 8. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.


http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/hash/1c/54/1c541b838945de8deeb780cdef1cd272.jpg

[Grace]

13 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Donald L. Nichols, 21, of Shell Rock, Iowa, died April 13, in Laghman province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, Iowa Army National Guard, Waterloo, Iowa.

[Grace]

World War II



Airman Missing in Action from WWII Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Martin P. Murray, 21, of Lowell, Mass., will be buried on April 16 in Marshfield, Mass. Murray, along with 11 other crew members, took off on Oct. 27, 1943, in their B-24D Liberator from an airfield near Port Moresby, New Guinea. Allied plans were being formulated to mount an attack on the Japanese redoubt at Rabaul, New Britain. The crew’s assigned area of reconnaissance was the nearby shipping lanes in the Bismarck Sea. But during their mission, they were radioed to land at a friendly air strip nearby due to poor weather conditions. The last radio transmission from the crew did not indicate their location. Multiple search missions in the following weeks did not locate the aircraft.

Following World War II, the Army Graves Registration Service conducted searches for 43 missing airmen, including Murray, in the area but concluded in June 1949 that all were unrecoverable.

In August 2003, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) received information on a crash site from a citizen in Papua New Guinea while it was investigating another case. The citizen also turned over an identification card from one of the crew members and reported that there were possible human remains at the site of the crash. Twice in 2004 other JPAC teams attempted to visit the site but were unable to do so due to poor weather and hazardous conditions at the helicopter landing site. Another team was able to successfully excavate the site from January to March 2007 where they found several identification tags from the B-24D crew as well as human remains.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Murray’s remains.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 74,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict. For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.

[Grace]

Army Released March Suicide Data

The Army released suicide data today for the month of March. Among active-duty soldiers, there were seven potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicide, and seven remain under investigation. For February 2011, the Army reported eight potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, one case has been confirmed as suicide, and seven cases remain under investigation.

During March 2011, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were eight potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicide, and eight remain under investigation. For February 2011, among that same group, there were eight total potential suicides. Of those, three were confirmed as suicides and five are pending determination of the manner of death.

“Army efforts to improve suicide prevention awareness, education and support that is readily available to all members of the Army family continue to be of paramount importance to senior Army leadership. Informed and engaged leaders at every level help foster a sense of responsibility in soldiers, Army civilians and family members.” said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director, Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force. “Leaders will reduce the stigma associated with seeking help by promoting positive behavioral health opportunities that include physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual well-being,” Philbrick said.

Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or by visiting their website at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org .

The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil .

Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 (Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf .

Suicide prevention training resources for Army families can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download materials).

Information about Military OneSource is located at http://www.militaryonesource.com or by dialing the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647for those residing in the continental United States. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource website for dialing instructions for their specific location.

Information about the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is located at http://www.army.mil/csf/ .

The Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at [email protected] and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil .

The website for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is http://www.afsp.org/ and the Suicide Prevention Resource Council site is found at http://www.sprc.org/index.asp .

The website for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors is http://www.TAPS.org and they can be reached at 1-800-959-TAPS (8277).

[Grace]

All that information about suicide prevention was too late for Clay Hunt.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POPULAR_VETERAN_SUICIDE?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[wombat2u2004]

Interview: Joe Galloway - Soldier's Reporter Speaks His Mind
By Vietnam magazine | Vietnam First Person | Published: April 18, 2011 at 3:31 pm

"I wish I 'd have written a story so powerful about Ia Drang that it would have driven LBJ to withdraw."

Just months after 23-year-old reporter Joe Galloway got to Vietnam, he found himself with Lt. Col. Hal Moore and his beleaguered 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment at Ia Drang. The epic Nov. 1965 battle, where Galloway took up arms to save soldiers' lives—for which he received a Bronze Star with V Device—forged a deep friendship between the two men. Their collaboration led to two books, We Were Soldiers Once…And Young and We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam, and the film We Were Soldiers Once, destined to be a classic on the war. Galloway's storied career of reporting around the globe has spanned more than four decades. His unyielding commitment to truth—and to Vietnam vets—is as solid as ever.

You were born just before Pearl Harbor. Did WWII have an impression on you?
I did not meet my father until the end of 1945. He was gone to war, as were five of his brothers and four of my mother's brothers. So my earliest memories are of living in houses full of frightened women, peering out the window for the telegram man. It kind of sensitizes you to that stuff. I was young, but I followed the Korean War too. I well remember a local boy, a Marine killed in Korea, coming home to a hero's funeral.

Were you destined to be a war reporter?
I had read Ernie Pyle's columns and his collected work and I thought if a war comes along in my generation, I want to cover it. And preferably as Pyle covered his war. I didn't see myself as doing it for a lifetime or a career.

Did you see the Vietnam War coming?
I was reading the early dispatches by David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Malcolm Browne and I knew we were going to have a war there and it would be our generation's war. I was in Topeka, Kan., covering state politics and some juicy murder trials and things like that for the UPI.
I thought it was be a big war and I've got to see and experience this. I thought, it's coming, and it's my generation's war and I'm going to be there, come hell or high water. I'd actually been working to get there since 1963. I just started writing a letter each week to my bosses, explaining why they should send me to Vietnam. Well, you know, right after the 1964 election was over, I got a call from my boss asking if you have a trench coat. I didn't know what he was talking about and I said no. He said, "Well you better buy one, because you've been transferred to Tokyo." It was the UPI Asia headquarters, so at least I was propositioned for Vietnam. So I got out there in November 1964, and the first thing I did was put in for a transfer to Saigon. The chief laughed at me and said "I just sent a second man to Saigon. There's no way in the world we'll need any more than that." I said, "Well, we'll see."

Did you know much about the place?
I read like a madman trying to get the history right and get a feel for this place and these people. There were many times that I wished some of those who were ordering this war and commanding it had done the same thing.

Your wish didn't take long to come true?
The Marines landed in March 1965, and they had to start shuffling people in, and I came along a few weeks later, in April. They shipped me in and I had two days in Saigon and then I was off to cover the Marines. I cut my teeth on the Marines and made every operation in I Corps—I even made a combat amphibious assault landing. I was only 23, but I had been working for UPI since 1961, and I'd worked for papers for a couple of years before that.

Were you prepared for what you found?
I've got to say I arrived knowing nothing about war firsthand. I'd seen some John Wayne movies and such and I thought, with the Marines landing, I need to get there in a hurry because it might be over pretty quick.

How long before reality set in?
I was disabused of that notion pretty early on with the Marines. I hadn't even got to the black market to get fatigues and combat boots. I was still wearing chinos and loafers when Henri Huet, who was shooting pictures for UPI at Da Nang, dragged me onto a C-130 and we were off to someplace I didn't know. We landed in Quang Tri city. It was under so much heavy enemy pressure that the Americans would fly in to operate in the day but flew back out at night back to Da Nang. We got off that bird and Huet ran over to a Marine UH-34, talked to the crew chief and then waved at me to get on this thing. I still didn't know where we were going but were off and soon we were circling a hill in the middle of a rice paddy. I could see concentric rings of fighting holes and people in them. So we dropped down and landed, and the guy shut down the engine. When he did, there was literally dead silence on that hill and there was a battalion of South Vietnamese all dead. These guys hadn't had time to dig a proper foxhole, but just to scrape out a little depression. Their hands were out like they were still holding rifles, but all the rifles were gone. We were there to pick up the bodies of the two American advisers. We stayed that night at the MACV compound, and it got mortared and the ARVN compound across the road was hit with a satchel charge. I then began to wonder just how long this might war might take. It didn't seem to be going our way.

So, even before Ia Drang, you were having doubts?
No, it didn't take Ia Drang to convince me that we didn't have enough force to counter a guerrilla force the size of the Viet Cong, never mind the NVA. If you read your Clauswitz, you know you need 10 regulars for one guerrilla, and we sure didn't have that.

And the South Vietnamese weren't up to it?
They didn't look to be. But it's like we walked in and said, "OK, were taking over this war." And, you know, the Vietnamese had been fighting a long time themselves and they were more than happy to sit back and see how we did.

So, your views of the war were getting shaped right away?Shortly after I got to Da Nang, an old UPI hand, Ray Herndon, took me to meet a Vietnamese corps commander. He was a very intense guy and we were sitting there, drinking tea, when he leaned forward in his chair and said: "Are you Americans serious about this? Are you here for the long run? Because we've been fighting this war for 20 years and if you come in and take it over, I want you to know if you cut and run, your helicopters taking you out will have people shooting at them, and it will be me and my troops." I sat there thinking, these are questions for Westmoreland, not me!

But, you were confident we could defeat the Viet Cong?
Well, at that moment I knew they were damn good local guerrilla boys, they knew the terrain and all the hiding holes and we didn't. They were very skilled at what they did and made do with not a lot. But they were more a nuisance if you were a Marine battalion— unless they laid a battalion-size ambush, and then you'd have your hands full.

How did Ia Drang affect you?
That's when the chill really ran up my back, when the NVA were coming at us in division-size force. And those guys, there was no quit in them, they came through a sea of our fire to close with us. Hal Moore looked at me one time and said, "You know, I'm really glad we don't have to walk to work through that." That's when I really realized that we'd bit off a really big chunk here and I wasn't sure it going to turn out very well at all.

You thought that, but couldn't say it in your reporting?
I worked for UPI. We were not paid to have an opinion and if we did we were to keep it to ourselves. And for me, there was the other thing. I thought, "This war we can't win but I'm not going to say that, because I don't want to hurt my friends, the soldiers who are fighting this war." You know the one thing about soldiers is that if they are in combat and they are losing their friends and buddies, you can't tell them that they died for nothing. You can't say that, you wound them, you hurt them, you damage them. And that I could not do.

Do you regret that you couldn't express what you were beginning to believe?
I did the best I could through my pictures and my stories. I did go home on leave in 1966, and the local paper sponsored a talk about the war. I showed some of my pictures and I told them the truth as I saw it. I said: "You know we are really up against it, and I'm not sure this will come out well. This will take a lot longer and a lot more of your sons, and even then you have to know, if we are going to go into this thing, are you going to stick with it? Because this is going to be a lot harder than anybody thinks." I don't know what of that audience absorbed, you know, it was very early in the war and the folks down here are very patriotic.

Were they feeling the war directly by then?
There were probably 25 young men from a 100-mile radius around my hometown who fought in the Ia Drang Valley. Some of them were the best friends of my life and all but one of them was Hispanic. They were drafted, late 1963, early 1964. And who got drafted then? If mama had money to get you into college, you didn't get drafted or if you had some plausible excuse, but these kids got drafted.

You've been called a "soldier's reporter." Why is that?
It was the Ernie Pyle thing. I didn't go over there to cover Saigon politics, I was there to cover soldiers in the field, which was what I saw as my job. There were maybe 500 accredited correspondents at any give time in Vietnam, but I saw the same 15 or 20 on most of the operations or in most of the battles. There were just those people that did their job and it was the one they wanted to do even though it was not particularly easy to spend a lot of nights on the ground and in a foxhole and get shot at a lot. But if you're going to be reporting on soldiers in a war, that's where you have to be.

What was that experience like, diving into an operation?
Almost always the same. You hooked up with a company and you were dressed like they were, you marched alongside them and sooner or later there was time for a smoke break and you're sitting there in whatever shade you can find and the Marine or GI next to you looks around and says, "Who the hell are you?" When you say you're a reporter, he looks at you and says: "You're a civilian and you're out here with me? Damn, they must pay you a lot of money." When I'd say, "No, I work for UPI, the cheapest outfit in the world," he'd say, "Well, then you're crazy!" Then the next guy down the line asks, "Who is that guy?" He's a "crazy damn reporter." But if you stay the night, and the next day you became "their crazy damn reporter." And nobody understands crazy like the infantry. They didn't have much but they were the soul of generosity—the grunts would share their last canteen of water with you. They didn't have much, but they would share it all, including their lives and their deaths.

Was it tough when guys you were with were suddenly gone?
I went out once to spend a day and night with an amtrac crew. Three days later they hit a mine and killed them all. Those things happen and they are stunning in the intensity of it. And as you get into worse fights, then you've got dead and wounded people all around you and, you know, you just have to do like the soldiers do. You've got to do your job first.

And there is not time to deal with it?
There was one time General Moore was taking several of us who had been at a reunion out to the Fort Benning cemetery. I had a young woman photographer with us and one of the guys she'd been talking to, Tony Nadall, who'd been a company commander at Ia Drang, found the headstone of a sergeant who was his radioman on the first day at LZ Xray. There were five of them abreast with Nadall out forward when a burst of machine gun fire came across and killed the other four. Nadall didn't see it and couldn't hear it because of the din of battle. He only knew something was wrong when the cord on his radio stretched to the max. He turned back and saw them all lying there. Well, when he saw this tombstone, he just knelt down and wept. Later, the photographer asked him, "You know, that was a long time ago, why are you weeping now?" Nadall said: "At the time nobody could stop to grieve, if we did stop to grieve for every man who was killed, we'd all die. We had to keep going to do the job. We told ourselves we'd deal with this some other time. Well this is the time for me, the first time I've seen his name carved on that white marble marker."

Has time helped you all heal the pain?
It doesn't stop. It doesn't go away, I think we all know that now. Hal Moore and I used to hope, "OK, we'll get the book done, that will close the loop." But, when all those men were dying around us, we were all young, we didn't know what life held, or even understand what those around us dying were giving up. You know, the joy of a wife, having kids and seeing grandkids, and shit, even the bad stuff that happens in life. So your appreciation of their sacrifices only grows as you understand more of what there is good in life, that they gave up. So the passage of years doesn't make it easier, in fact it makes it harder.

You also had to be a soldier.
Only on occasion, when it got so intense that I thought my helping would make a difference. And I have no apologies. It really pissed me off to have people shooting at me. You know, they gave reporters these lovely little ID cards, and in the tiniest print it said that I was a civilian noncombatant with the equivalent rank of major in the U.S. Army, and if I fall into the hands of the enemies of the U.S. I'm to be afforded all the privileges they would afford a major in the army. You know your chances of waving that card at some guy with a bayonet on his AK coming at you are not very good at all. I figured, they didn't sign up for the Geneva Convention and I didn't either. The first time I was introduced to General Giap in Hanoi, he turned to me and said: "Ah yes, the reporter who carried a rifle. I heard about you."

How did Hal Moore impress you?
I watched him in battle, I watched him back at base camp and I saw a man who was born to be a soldier, to be a commander. I've known him for 46 years and we call each other best friends. He is the least changed individual that I ever met over those many decades. A man of high morals, high integrity. He likes to say that he graduated at the very top of the lower 20 percent of his class at West Point. He worked hard to get into and through that school, and he totally applied himself to the job of leading soldiers. On the boat headed for Vietnam in July 1965, he had a box of books with him. He was reading the history of the conflict, the country and the people. He became as knowledgeable as he could as fast as he could, so as to be more effective. He was the finest commander on a battlefield that I ever saw. He had the knowledge base with which to fine tune his instincts and he was focused like a welding torch. Of all of us on that battlefield at Ia Drang, there was really only one guy who was certain that we weren't going down, that we were going to defeat that enemy in that place. Everybody else, including Sergeant Major Plumely, the three-war guy, had doubts. But out there, Hal Moore was supremely confident that we could do it, that we would do it, that we would prevail—or at least survive.

Your deep relationship was forged there and in subsequent operations?
When we left Ia Drang, we did get off by ourselves and talk. And any time he was planning an operation, he would get word to me or even sometimes send a chopper to get me and sometimes I would sit in on the planning. I was back and forth often and he would always put me with the 1st of the 7th. To this day, I consider that battalion my home in the Army. So I saw him often and then I marched with the battalion when it had other commanders, during my first tour.

Hal Moore left before you ended your first tour?
And I watched them try to get him to leave when his tour was over. He didn't want to. He kept saying, "I got one more thing I need to do." And they had his replacement standing by for about a month, as he ran a couple more operations before he finally gave up and went home.

What finally got you to end your first tour, after 16 months?My first tour lasted until September 1966, and I swear to God I would have stayed but for one thing, all my buddies had served their 12 months, or 13 if they were a Marine or Hal Moore, and they went home. All the sudden I'm out there marching among a bunch of greenhorns, and that's a bad situation to be in. As the statistics show, it's that first three months that you're in combat that you take 65 to 70 percent of your casualties for the year. It's a real steep learning curve, and if you are marching with them you are vulnerable to all the mistakes you've already seen made and you have to wait for them to wake up in the situation, and that can be depressing and dangerous. Sometimes I went on these operations with a Vietnamese who shot movie film for UPI. He was a veteran—not sure which side he fought on—of the war against the Viet Minh. We could be marching along with an American infantry outfit, through the rubber country, for instance, and I'd see his eyes get real big and he'd say to me, "Mr. Joe, this is a bad situation, they don't have flanks out." He knew and I knew the VC could snap an ambush in rubber country from a quarter-mile on your flank and whack you before you knew what was happening. In a case like that, I'd try, diplomatically as possible, to say something to the colonel, and sometimes they'd listen and sometimes they'd say, "Who the hell are you to tell me how to run the battalion?" And with that I'd just put up my hands and say, "Hey, the next helicopter that comes by, would you have it give me and my cameraman a ride out of here?" You know, it was best just to leave.

Years later, you learned how your experience at Ia Drang was a model for the final thrust of the NVA?
We were desking the fall of Cambodia out of Saigon. And I was sitting there working on that when the end started in the Central Highlands. It all seemed very familiar. Later I talked to the NVA General Man. By 1975 he was senior general, but back in 1965 he was a division commander at LZ Xray. He was an old revolutionary and he had a twinkle in his eye as he told me: "You know, we tried to cut the country in half with that operation in 1965, we were going to besiege Plei Me camp, draw a relief force out of Pleiku with the last of the troops there, draw them into regiment-size ambush, turn and take Pleiku and ride on down the highway to the coast. The only thing to stop that from happening was the intervention of the First Cavalry. You were able to bring artillery and hopscotch along with the relief column and really lay the air cover on, so our plan didn't work. So in 1975, all we had to do was pull that plan off the shelf, dust it off, make a few changes and this time it worked real good."

Are you amazed you survived more than two years covering the war?
When I was 23 living with my roommates in our "animal house" in Saigon, we'd make book on who among us might actually live to see our 25th birthdays. Some didn't make it. I'm the luckiest man you ever talked to.

Was the reporting coming out of Vietnam getting it right?
You know, it may seem counterintuitive, but I say it was mostly right. Now, the truth was not palatable to the politicians and certainly not the commanders at times, but I think the reporting in the field was pretty good. I know it was bought at a terrible price. Some 70 of my friends paid for those stories with their lives. I think the field reporting and reporting on the war itself by the people at the front, such as it was, was accurate. And one reason why it was so good was that I knew that I could go out with a company of Marines, and might spend three hours, three days or a week, and eventually I would leave and write a story and ship my pictures. I knew chances were real good that my story would run in Stars & Stripes. It might take weeks, but eventually my story would filter back to that company. Or, if it didn't run in Stars & Stripes, it would run in their hometown paper and mama would cut it out and put it in their next letter. And I knew I could see those guys again, and you really don't want to screw up a story about men who are armed and dangerous and who you will likely see again. It makes you a very cautious and careful reporter with the facts. That was one of the benefits of learning the trade in a deadly place. I'm fortunate because I sort of came of age on the battlefields of Vietnam, professionally and personally.

Were reporters lied to by the military and government?
I would go back to Saigon and everyone there would be bitching and complaining about the Five O'Clock Follies. They'd say, "Joe, they are lying to us." I'd say: "Well, come out with me. Nobody lies to you within the sound of the guns."

Has Vietnam been the most uncensored war in our history?Absolutely. Every war up to then had some form of censorship. WWII was absolute, every line of your copy had to be read by an official Army censor, every picture had to be looked at. They had absolute authority. They could take out a paragraph, a page or throw your whole story into the waste can. Reporters wore a uniform and were subject to the Code of Military Justice. Korea was not so much official censorship, but through control of communications and transport there was censorship by more subtle means. When you come to Vietnam, there is no censorship at all. You come in, you get a letter from somebody saying you're writing for them or are a staff member and you signed a one-page, five-paragraph set of simple rules of operational security, and that's it. In Vietnam, in 10 years I think maybe five correspondents had their accreditation removed for violating those simple rules. By contrast, I would say I'm one of the few people who has ever read the embed agreement in 2003. It was 36 pages, single-spaced, and clearly had taken thousands of JAG man-hours to put together. Everybody signed it and nobody read it, including the battalion commanders. They were given their five media people and were told to take care of them. They would sit them down and say "I don't know about this document, but I'll tell you how things work in my battalion." That's how it worked.

If the reporting was so unfettered, how did the war become so unpopular and still drag on for so long?
On the whole, we did a good a job in reporting the war itself. I don't speak to politics in Saigon, or the efficacy, or lack thereof of our commanding generals and things like that, just about American soldiers at war.

In light of Vietnam, how could we have gotten into another decade-long war?
If there was a lesson to be learned from Vietnam experience, obviously we didn't learn it. The easiest thing in the world is to start a war and the hardest is to stop one and get out of it. Someone may be farsighted enough to see victory at the end of that hole in Afghanistan, but I don't. I don't even know how you could define victory there, unless it is just getting out alive. The puzzling thing to me is that we are all big boys and we learned when we were kids, especially if you lived in a city, there are neighborhoods you didn't go into. Yet, as a country and a people we don't seem to have a facility for picking out weaker people to fight. We pick out the ones who have the bark on 'em.

And we even had the Soviet experience to study to boot?When I was in Moscow and the Soviets began making their move in Afghanistan, I hotfooted to see my minder in the foreign ministry. I usually went there to bitch about something, so he asked me, "Why are you here, Joseph?" I said, "I'm here to congratulate you, because you've invaded Afghanistan. I'll tell you, if you gave me the most powerful computer in the world and I have plenty of time to work out the one place for you to invade in the world so you could end up like we did after Vietnam, it would spit out Afghanistan. But you guys figured it out without the computer." He was outraged, but it was true.

Did you try to tell that story to someone at the Pentagon?I wrote my column every week for eight years and tried my best to wave them off this war, to no avail. There are all these great books and history and all the lessons learned, but nobody seems to read it—no politicians anyway. I look at those Afghans and Iraqis and their improvised explosion devices, IEDs, and they cost us 65 percent of our casualties in Iraq. We never saw the enemy; he blew us up from a quarter mile away with a cell phone, or 200 meters away with a garage door opener. People have no conception of what an IED can do. It makes your blood run cold. Try six 155mm shells in the bottom of the pit, onto that put 60 pounds of C4 explosives and just for fun put five gallons of gas on top of that. Then just put the road back over it and sit back until some Americans drive by.

How do you respond to those who claim the media lost the Vietnam War?
It wasn't the media. It wasn't me. It wasn't Peter Arnett or Walter Cronkite. The war was lost at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by a succession of American presidents. They all had a hand in it. It was easy for the embittered military officers, sitting around the clubs in the years after Vietnam to bitch and moan about how the press lost the war. We didn't do it. We did not lose the war. The media does not have the power now to start or end a war. But, frankly, I wish I could have gotten myself out of LZ XRay and sat down and written a story so powerful about that battle that it would have driven LBJ to withdraw the American forces and cut our loses. If I could have done that, if I'd had that power, then there would only be some 1,100 names on that Wall in Washington instead of 58,270. And I would be proud to have carved on my tombstone, "He stopped the war." But that's not the way it works, its not how it happened. The press didn't lose it, and we couldn't win it, all we could do was our job and that was to try to tell the truth about what was going on.

Beyond Washington, was our military leadership flawed?
It didn't help that the commander in the crucial years was William Westmoreland, who was a fine fellow and certainly looked every inch a general. But even his own aide wrote a book later about the war and said that Westmoreland's idea was a "strategy of attrition," and a strategy of attrition is the proof they you have no strategy at all. And certainly, attrition was never going to work there. There was never one year in the Vietnam War when we killed a number of the enemy that equaled or exceeded the natural birth rate increase in North Vietnam alone. So every year looking out into the farthest future there would be a fresh crop of draftees up there. We certainly were not going to win with those tactics and I'm not sure what other tactic we could have used to win short of nuking North Vietnam and turning into a parking lot. And if we had, I guarantee our sons would be out there garrisoning that place now, and people would still be shooting at them.

How do you feel when vets say that the press stabbed them in the back?
Well, first of all there are not many people who will say that to my face. If they've got a real bone to pick with somebody, it's usually Cronkite or Arnett. All I can do is explain who did lose the war. If you really want to get down to why the war was lost, it is that our military was a draftee force that was at the height of the war taking 20,000 young men a month out of whatever comfortable life they had, giving them a very fast basic training and a little advanced, and bang, they are on there way to Vietnam. And what that meant was the coffins came home to every town and village in America. The first few boys that came back were viewed as heroes and affection was lavished on them and their families. But in a small town, by the third or fourth one, the people begin to wonder: "How long is this going to last. When and how is it going to end?" Somewhere there after Tet, the American people changed their minds about the war. It was costing too much, taking too many lives and it didn't look like it was ending any time soon.

Your emotions must be very mixed when thinking of the war?Vietnam is so complicated. You know, these kids who went there and survived and came home, they weren't given any kind of welcome to speak of. I don't know that everybody who thinks he was spat upon at the Oakland airport actually was, but I think the attitude of the people that represents was there, and the returning vets felt it deeply. It was shameful that the American people could not separate the war from the young men they sent involuntarily to fight it. And then turned their backs on them, that's the part that just drives me up the wall. These guys, the veterans of Vietnam, are such patriots. They still love this country in spite of all that, and I think most of them have forgiven the country. But I'm not sure I have yet, not for anything done to me, but for what was happening to my friends. I'm still angry on their behalf. I was proud to be permitted to stand alongside the men who fought in Vietnam, and I'm proud to stand beside them today in the other wars they have to fight.

Did we learn from Vietnam that we must never turn our backs on our war veterans again?
We have to take care of them. I don't want to hear we don't have any money left because we pissed it all away on the wars that destroyed those people. Cough it up because you owe it, just like the Vietnam veterans and all the others. You've got to do what's right. I can't say it better than Hal Moore, who says, "Hate war, but love the warrior."
We sent them there, we owe them all of the support, all that we promised them. You know, I look at these kids today, pulling five or six tours in Iraq and now Afghanistan, and I know what 12 months in Vietnam could do to a kid, and I know what five or six such tours would have done to them, and it's not pretty. We are going to be dealing with the consequences, and the cost, of taking care of many of those young men and woman for the rest of their lives. And every war we've ever had we say we will do the right thing, then somehow the money doesn't get voted in by Congress.

Read Kipling:

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Chuck him out, the brute!
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot….

[Grace]

Thank you, John. I'll make sure my husband reads this. He read the books, saw the movie - and did two tours in Vietnam.

[wombat2u2004]

Thank you, John. I'll make sure my husband reads this. He read the books, saw the movie - and did two tours in Vietnam.

Who was he with Gretchen ????

[Grace]

Who was he with Gretchen ????

He was in the Air Force. First with the 3rd TAC Fighter Wing at Bien Hoa. Second tour at Cam Ranh Bay, C7 Caribou. He didn't fly, he was aircraft maintenance.

[Grace]

16 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died of wounds suffered April 16, in Nimroz province, Afghanistan when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

Killed were:

Spc. Paul J. Atim, 27, of Green Bay, Wis.;

Spc. Charles J. Wren, 25, of Beeville, Texas; and

Pfc. Joel A. Ramirez, 22, of Waxahachie, Texas.

Wren - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.charles.wren.ftdrum.jpg

Ramirez - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.joel.ramirez.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

16 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of five soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died April 16, at Forward Operating Base Gamberi, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an Afghan National Army soldier attacked them with multiple grenades.

Killed were:

Capt. Charles E. Ridgley Jr., 40, of Baltimore, Md. He was assigned to the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Anchorage, Alaska; also,

Sgt. 1st Class Charles L. Adkins, 36, of Sandusky, Ohio;

Staff Sgt. Cynthia R. Taylor, 39, of Columbus, Ga.;

Sgt. Linda L. Pierre, 28, Immokalee, Fla.; and

Spc. Joseph B. Cemper, 21, Warrensburg, Mo.

They were assigned to the 101st Special Troops Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

Pierre - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.linda.pierre.101st.jpg

Taylor - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.cynthia.taylor.101st.jpg

Cemper - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.joseph.cemper.101st.jpg

Adkins - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/topics.charles.adkins.101st.jpg

[Grace]

19 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Micah Aaron Hill, 27, of Ralston, Neb., died April 19 as a result of a non-combat related incident. Hill was assigned to the USS Enterprise as a machinist’s mate. Enterprise is currently deployed to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting operations in support of Operation New Dawn.

[Grace]

World War II



Missing WWII Airman Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. James G. Maynard, of Ellenwood, Ga., will be buried on April 22 at Arlington National Cemetery. On March 12, 1945, Maynard and five crew members aboard a C-47A Skytrain departed Tanauan Airfield on Leyte, Philippines, on a resupply mission to guerilla troops. Once cleared for takeoff, there was no further communication between the aircrew and airfield operators. When the aircraft failed to return, a thorough search of an area ten miles on either side of the intended route was initiated. No evidence of the aircraft was found and the six men were presumed killed in action. Their remains were determined to be non-recoverable in 1949.

In 1989, a Philippine National Police officer contacted U.S. officials regarding a possible World War II-era aircraft crash near Leyte. Human remains, aircraft parts and artifacts were turned over to the local police, then to U.S. officials at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).

From 1989 to 2009, JPAC sought permission to send teams to the crash site but unrest in the Burauen region precluded on-scene investigations or recovery operations. Meanwhile, JPAC scientists continued the forensic process, analyzing the remains and physical evidence already in hand.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA—which matched that of Maynard’s cousin—in the identification of his remains.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 72,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

[Grace]

England


It is with regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Captain Lisa Head from 321 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squadron, 11 EOD Regiment RLC, died on 19 April 2011, in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, of wounds received in Afghanistan.

Ministry of Defence statement (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/CaptainLisaJadeHeadDiesOfWoundsSustainedInAfghanis tan.htm)

Note the dates - she was there for 23 days!

[wombat2u2004]

He was in the Air Force. First with the 3rd TAC Fighter Wing at Bien Hoa. Second tour at Cam Ranh Bay, C7 Caribou. He didn't fly, he was aircraft maintenance.

Ah ok. I never got to those places. I very nearly went to up Bien Hoa to see some show there (could have been Bob Hope), but was called to go on ops at the last minute.

[Grace]

19 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. John F. Kihm, 19, of Philadelphia, Pa., died April 19 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=WD&Date=20110421&Category=NEWS03&ArtNo=304219955&Ref=AR&border=0&maxw=200&maxh=386&rand=1092199

[Grace]

18 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Sonny J. Moses, 22, of Koror, Palau, died April 18 in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered as a result of a grenade attack at Forward Operating Base Gamberi, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, April 16. He was assigned to the 101st Special Troops Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.sonny.moses.101st.jpg

[Grace]

France


Cpl. Alexandre Riviere

From: France
Age: 23
Unit: 2e Regiment d’Infanterie de Marine (2nd Marine Infantry Regiment Infantry)
Died: April 20, 2011

Killed when his armored vehicle struck a roadside bomb near the village of Payendakhel in Kapisa province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.alexandre.riviere.frarmy.jpg

[Grace]

World War II



Missing WWII Airman Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Army Air Forces Pfc. Mervyn E. Sims, 23, of Petaluma, Calif., will be buried Friday in his hometown. On April 24, 1943, Sims and four crew members aboard a C-87 Liberator Express departed from Yangkai, China, in support of “the Hump” resupply mission between India and China. Prior to takeoff, a ground crew determined the aircraft had sufficient fuel for the six-hour flight to the air base on other side of the Himalayas in Chabua, India. Once cleared for takeoff, there was no further communication between the aircrew and airfield operators. Army officials launched a search effort when the plane did not arrive at the destination. No evidence of the aircraft was found and the five men were presumed killed in action.

In 2003, an American citizen in Burma reported to U.S. officials at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) that he had found aircraft wreckage he believed to be an American C-87 in the mountains 112 miles east of Chabua. He was detained by Burmese officials when he attempted to leave the country with human remains and artifacts from the site. The remains and materials were handed over to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon. Attempts to excavate the site are being negotiated with the Indian government.

Meanwhile, JPAC scientists continued the forensic process, analyzing the remains and physical evidence already in hand.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA, which matched that of Sims’ sister, in the identification of his remains.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died. At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 72,000 are unaccounted for from the conflict.

[Grace]

22 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. John P. Castro, 25, of Andrews, Texas died April 22 at Paktika province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by small arms fire. He was assigned to1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.john.castro.101st.jpg

[Grace]

22 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died of wounds suffered April 22, in Numaniyah, Iraq when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

1st Lt. Omar J. Vazquez, 25, of Hamilton, N.J.; and

Pfc. Antonio G. Stiggins, 25, of Rio Rancho, N.M.

[Grace]

23 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.


Staff Sgt. James, A. Justice, 32, of Grimes, Iowa died April 23 at Kapisa province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, Le Mars, Iowa.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.james.justice.iaarng.jpg

[Grace]

23 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Chief Warrant Officer, Terry L. Varnadore II, 29, of Hendersonville, N.C. died April 23 in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his helicopter went down due to an undetermined cause. This accident is under investigation. He was assigned to the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.terry.varnadore.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

23 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The following Marines died April 23 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan:

Sgt. Sean T. Callahan, 23, of Warrenton, Va.

Lance Cpl. Dominic J. Ciaramitaro, 19, of South Lyon, Mich.

Callahan and Ciaramitaro were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

23 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin F. Bitner, 37, of Greencastle, Pa., died April 23 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.benjamin.bitner.usasoc.jpg

[Grace]

24 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Bradley S. Hughes, 41, of Newark, Ohio, died April 24 of a non-combat incident, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 528th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.

[Grace]

24 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. David P. Day, 26, of Gaylord, Mich., died April 24 while conducting combat operations in Badghis province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Special Operations Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

22 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Capt. Joshua M. McClimans, 30, of Akron, Ohio, died April 22 at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 848th Forward Surgical Team, U.S. Army Reserve, Twinsburg, Ohio.

[Grace]

24 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Joe M. Jackson, 22, of White Swan, Wash., died April 24 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

[Grace]

From the AP -


– Wed Apr 27, 12:17 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Eight troops and a civilian contractor killed in a Kabul airport shooting on Wednesday were all Americans, a Pentagon spokesman said.

"The current information we have from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) is that eight service members and one civilian were killed in the attack. ... All U.S.," said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

The troops and contractor were killed in a shooting incident involving an Afghan Air Force pilot at Kabul's airport on Wednesday, NATO said. It was one of the deadliest incidents of "rogue" Afghans turning their weapons on foreign soldiers.

More information when it becomes available.

[Grace]

27 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Adam D. Jones, 29, of Germantown, Ohio, died April 27 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

27 April 2011


he Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Spc. Andrew E. Lara, 25, of Albany, Ore., died April 27, of a noncombat related incident, in Babil province, Iraq. He was assigned to F Company, 145th Brigade Support Battalion, attached to the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment.

[Grace]

28 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Ronald D. Freeman, 25, of Plant City, Fla., died April 28 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

27 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of eight airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died April 27, at the Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from gunfire. The incident is under investigation.

Killed were:

Maj. Philip D. Ambard, 44, of Edmonds, Wash. He was assigned to the 460th Space Communications Squadron, Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.

Maj. Jeffrey O. Ausborn, 41, of Gadsden, Ala. He was assigned to the 99th Flying Training Squadron, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

Maj. David L. Brodeur, 34, of Auburn, Mass. He was assigned to the 11th Air Force, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, of Deltona, Fla. She was assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Joint Base Andrews, Md.

Lt. Col. Frank D. Bryant Jr., 37, of Knoxville, Tenn. He was assigned to the 56th Operations Group, Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

Maj. Raymond G. Estelle II, 40, of New Haven, Conn. He was assigned to Headquarters Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.

Capt. Nathan J. Nylander, 35, of Hockley, Texas. He was assigned to the 25th Operational Weather Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Capt. Charles A. Ransom, 31, of Midlothian, Va. He was assigned to the 83rd Network Operations Squadron, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.

Major Ambard - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.philip.ambard.usaf.jpg


Major Ausborn - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.jeff.ausborn.usaf.jpg

[Grace]

28 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Matthew D. Hermanson, 22, of Appleton, Wis., died April 28, in Wardak province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.


http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.matthew.hermanson.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

27 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Jonathan M. Villanueva, 19, of Jacksonville, Fla., died April 27, in Wardak province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.


http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.jonathan.villanueva.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

28 April 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Preston J. Dennis, 23, of Redding, Calif., died April 28 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.


http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.preston.dennis.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

From post #1344 -

Major David L. Brodeur - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.david.brodeur.usafa.jpg


Master Sgt. Tara Brown - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.tara.brown.usaf.jpg


Captain Nathan Nylander - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.nathan.nylander.usaf.jpg


Lt. Col. Frank D. Bryant Jr. - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.frank.bryant.usafa.jpg

[Grace]

29 April 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Pfc. Robert M. Friese, 21, of Chesterfield, Mich., died April 29 in Al Qadisiyah province, Iraq, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

[Grace]

4 March 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Adam D. Craig, 23, of Cherokee, Iowa, died March 4 at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of a non-combat related illness. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Sioux City, Iowa.

[Grace]

2 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Kevin W. White, 22, of Westfield, N.Y., died May 2 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

[Grace]

World War II



Soldier Missing in Action from WWII Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Pfc. Robert B. Bayne, of Dundalk, Md., will be buried on May 7 in his hometown. On March 28, 1945, while patrolling the Rhine River in an inflatable raft, Bayne, a lieutenant and two other enlisted men were attacked near Schwegenheim, Germany. Bayne and the officer were wounded, forcing all four men into the swift waters of the river. The lieutenant was rescued but the enlisted men were not found.

Between 1945 and 1946, Army Graves Registration personnel exhumed remains of three men from two different locations when German citizens reported the graves contained remains of American soldiers recovered from the river in March 1945. Among items found with the remains were military identification tags. Two of the men were identified as enlisted men from the raft -- Pvt. Edward Kulback and Pfc. William Gaffney -- but due to limited forensic science of the time, the remains of the other individual could not be identified and were interred at the U.S. Military Cemetery in St. Avold, France as “unknown.”

In 1948, the remains of the unknown soldier were exhumed to compare them to available records for Bayne. After several years of analysis the remains could not be identified and were reinterred as unknown at the Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial in Draguignan, France, in 1951.

More than 60 years later, analysts from DPMO and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) developed case leads, evaluated records and determined that modern forensic technology could offer methods to identify the remains. In 2010, the remains were exhumed once again for analysis.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC used dental comparisons and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of Bayne’s brothers -- in the identification of his remains.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 74,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

[Grace]

The last known male British combat veteran of the First World War has died in Australia aged 110.

Ministry of Defence statement. (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/HistoryAndHonour/LastBritishMaleWwiVeteranDies.htm)

[Grace]

4 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Riley S. Spaulding, 21, of Sheridan, Texas, died May 4 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.


http://militaryyearbookproject.com/media/k2/items/cache/d446bd5b214698397917d385a315641b_S.jpg

[Grace]

9 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Ken K. Hermogino, 30, of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., died May 9 in Herat province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat related vehicle accident. He was assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.ken.hermogino.ftcarson.jpg

[Grace]

Korean War


U.S. Soldier MIA from Korean War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Primo C. Carnabuci of Old Saybrook, Conn., will be buried May 12 in his hometown. On Nov. 1, 1950, Carnabuci’s unit, the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, occupied a defensive position along the Kuryong River, near Unsan, North Korea. Chinese units attacked the area and forced a withdrawal. Almost 600 men, including Carnabuci, were reported missing or killed in action following the battle.

In 2000, a joint U.S-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), excavated a mass grave discovered earlier in Unsan County, south of the area known as “Camel’s Head.” The team recovered remains of at least five individuals as well as military clothing.

Analysts from DPMO and JPAC developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. They evaluated the circumstances surrounding the soldier’s death and researched wartime documentation on the movements of U.S. and enemy forces on the battlefield.

Among forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC used dental comparisons and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of Carnabuci’s brother -- in the identification.

With this identification, 7,997 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

[Grace]

10 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

1st Lt. Demetrius M. Frison, 26, of Lancaster, Pa., died May 10 in Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, Ky.


http://militaryyearbookproject.com/media/k2/items/cache/8d7d02f71473cf9eb30ec6c51b579c80_S.jpg

[Grace]

Romania


Cpl. Constantin Laurentiu Lixandru
From: Romania
Age: 30
Unit: Batalionul 26 Infanterie (26th Infantry Battalion)
Died: May 4, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a reconnaissance patrol on Highway A1 in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.constantin.lixandru.romod.jpg

[Grace]

France


Pfc. Loic Roperh

From: France
Age: 24
Unit: 13e Regiment du Genie (13th Engineer Regiment)
Died: May 10, 2011

Died of wounds sustained when a roadside bomb detonated during a reconnaissance mission in the Tagab Valley in Kapisa province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.loic.roperh.frarmy.jpg

[Grace]

Romania


Cpl. Catalin Ionel Marinescu

From: Romania
Age: 28
Unit: Batalionul 26 Infanterie (26th Infantry Battalion)
Died: May 10, 2011

Died of wounds sustained when a roadside bomb detonated during a patrol mission on Highway A1 in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.catalin.marinescu.romod.jpg

[Grace]

13 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Amaru Aguilar, 26, of Miami, Fla. died May 13, at Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit encountered small arms fire. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

[Grace]

12 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Kevin B. Balduf, 27, of Nashville, Tenn., and Lt. Col. Benjamin J. Palmer, 43, of Modesto, Calif., died May 12 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

This incident is currently under investigation.

Sgt. Balduf was assigned to 8th Communications Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lt. Col. Palmer was assigned to Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Cherry Point, N.C.


Lt. Col. Palmer -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.benjamin.palmer.dvids.jpg

[Grace]

15 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Brian D. Riley Jr., 24, of Longwood, Fla., died May 15, in Kunar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

[Grace]

14 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Robert C. Schlote, 26, of Norfolk, Neb., died May 14, in Omaha, Neb., from a non-combat related medical illness. He was assigned to the 195th Forward Support Company, Nebraska Army National Guard, Omaha, Neb.

[Grace]

16 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died May 16, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit using an improvised explosive device in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. David D. Self, 29, of Pearl, Miss. He was assigned to the Fires Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany; also,

Spc. Bradley L. Melton, 29, Rolla, Mo.;

Pvt. Lamarol J. Tucker, 26, of Gainesville, Fla.; and

Pvt. Cheizray Pressley, 21, of North Charleston, S.C. They were assigned to the Brigade Troops Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Anchorage, Alaska.

Staff Sgt. Self -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.david.self.usareur.jpg

[Grace]

18 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Brandon M. Kirton, 25, of Centennial, Colo., died May 18, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire and mortar rounds. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.brandon.kirton.101st.jpg

[Grace]

Wales



It is with regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Marine Nigel Dean Mead from Lima Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines, Combined Force Nad 'Ali (North), was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday 15 May 2011.

Ministry of Defence statement. (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/MarineNigelDeanMeadKilledInAfghanistan.htm)

[Grace]

22 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died May 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

Killed were:

Sgt. 1st Class Clifford E. Beattie, 37, of Medical Lake, Wash., and

Pfc. Ramon Mora Jr., 19, of Ontario, Calif.

[Grace]

23 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died May 23, in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Kristofferson B. Lorenzo, 33, of Chula Vista, Calif.,

Pfc. William S. Blevins, 21, of Sardinia, Ohio,

Pvt. Andrew M. Krippner, 20, Garland, Texas; and

Pvt. Thomas C. Allers, 23, of Plainwell, Mich.

[Grace]

Hungary


Sgt. Orsolya Roth

From: Besnyo, Hungary
Age: 24
Unit: 5 István Bocskai Loveszdandar (5th István Bocskai Infantry Brigade)
Died: May 17, 2011

Cpl. Andras Dalnoki

From: Nyírmeggyes, Hungary
Age: 26
Unit: 5 István Bocskai Loveszdandar (5th István Bocskai Infantry Brigade)
Died: May 17, 2011

Two Hungarian soldiers killed when their Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected armored vehicle overturned in a traffic accident near Mazar-e Sharif in Baghlan province, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Roth -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.orsolya.roth.humod.jpg

Cpl. Dalnoki -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.andras.dalnoki.humod.jpg

[Grace]

Jordan


1st Lt. Majid Amir Abu Qdairi

From: Jordan
Age:
Unit: Jordan Armed Forces
Died: May 22, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated near the humanitarian aid convoy his unit was escorting in Logar province, Afghanistan

[Grace]

England


It is with regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Colour Serjeant Kevin Charles Fortuna from A Company, 1st Battalion The Rifles, was killed in Afghanistan on Monday 23 May 2011.


Ministry of Defence statement . . . (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/ColourSerjeantKevinCharlesFortunaKilledInAfghanist an.htm)

[Grace]

Australia


Sgt. Brett Wood

From: Ferntree Gully, Victoria
Age: 32
Unit: 2nd Commando Regiment
Died: May 23, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a dismounted patrol in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.brett.wood.ausmod.jpg

[Grace]

26 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Chief Warrant Officer Christopher R. Thibodeau, 28, of Chesterland, Ohio, died May 26 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas.

[Grace]

26 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of SIX soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died May 26 of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. They were assigned to the 4th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

Killed were:

1st Lt. John M. Runkle, 27, of West Salem, Ohio;

Staff Sgt. Edward D. Mills Jr., 29, of New Castle, Pa.;

Staff Sgt. Ergin V. Osman, 35, of Jacksonville, N.C.;

Sgt. Thomas A. Bohall, 25, of Bel Aire, Kan.;

Sgt. Louie A. Ramos Velazquez, 39, of Camuy, Puerto Rico; and

Spc. Adam J. Patton, 21, of Port Orchard, Wash.

Staff Sgt Osman -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.ergin.osman.101st.jpg

Spc. Patton -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.adam.patton.101st.jpg

Staff Sgt. Bohall -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.thomas.bohall.101st.jpg

Staff Sgt. Mills -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.edwards.mills.101st.jpg

Lt. Runkle -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.john.runkle.101st.jpg

Sgt. Velaquez -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.louie.velazquez.101st.jpg

[Grace]

26 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The airmen died May 26 in the Shorabak district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Joseph J. Hamski, 28, of Ottumwa, Iowa. He was assigned to the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.

Tech. Sgt. Kristoffer M. Solesbee, 32, of Citrus Heights, Calif. He was assigned to the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Staff Sgt. Hamski -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.joseph.hamski.usaf.jpg
Tech Sgt. Solesbee -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.kristoffer.solesbee.usaf.jpg

[Grace]

27 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. John C. Johnson, 28, of Phoenix, Ariz., died May 27 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

[Grace]

28 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Adam S. Hamilton, 22, of Kent, Ohio, died May 28 in Haji Ruf, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

[Grace]

England


Lt. Oliver Richard Augustin

From: Kent, England
Age: 23
Unit: Juliet Company, 42 Commando, Royal Marines
Died: May 27, 2011

Marine Samuel Giles William Alexander

From: London, England
Age: 28
Unit: Juliet Company, 42 Commando, Royal Marines
Died: May 27, 2011

Two Royal Marines killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a patrol in the Loy Mandeh area of the Nad-e Ali district in Helmand province, Afghanistan.


Alexander -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.sam.alexander.ukmod.jpg

Augustin -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.oliver.augustin.ukmod.jpg

[Grace]

Spain


Lt. Pedro Lopez Molina

From: Zaragoza, Spain
Age: 50
Unit: Grupo 31 (31st Group)
Died: May 27, 2011

Died of natural causes as a forward support base in Herat, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

Québec, Canada


Bombardier Karl Manning

From: Chicoutimi, Québec
Age: 31
Unit: 5e Régiment d'Artillerie Légère (5th Light Artillery Regiment)
Died: May 27, 2011

Manning's body was found by fellow soldiers at Forward Operating Base Zangabad, located 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Kandahar Airfield in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Foul play and enemy action were ruled out as causes of death.

[Grace]

Georgia


Junior Sgt. Lavrosi Ivaniadze

From: Kutaisi, Georgia
Age:
Unit: Company B, 33rd Infantry Battalion
Died: May 24, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

From WTOV9


New Philadelphia Marine Killed By Enemy Fire


Marine Lance Cpl. Peter Clore, 23, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, died Saturday(5/28/2011) as the result of enemy small-arms fire in Afghanistan.

He is a son of Cliff and Chris Clore and a 2006 graduate of Tuscarawas Central Catholic High School, according to our news partners at the Times Reporter.

A dog handler, he was performing his duties to locate improvised explosive devices when he was killed, according to a news release.

The Clores were notified Saturday morning that he was pronounced dead about 12 a.m.

Arrangements are pending with the Linn-Hert-Geib Funeral Home & Crematory in New Philadelphia.

http://www.timesreporter.com/archive/x530594940/g12c000000000000000a5677fa5e896bab9a24253667f1e098 18d5c5f25.jpg

[Grace]

Since Memorial Day 2010, 549 American service members have given their lives. Have your kleenex ready and watch this tribute to them. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdii_wBbAps)

[cassiesmom]

"For the Fallen" - poem by Lawrence Binion
This is just one stanza from a longer poem. It was part of our worship folder at church yesterday for Memorial Day.


"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

[wombat2u2004]

"For the Fallen" - poem by Lawrence Binion
This is just one stanza from a longer poem. It was part of our worship folder at church yesterday for Memorial Day.


"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Lest we forget

We say the poem every year on Anzac Day.

[Grace]

Australia


Lance Cpl. Gordon Andrew

From: Melbourne, Victoria
Age: 25
Unit: 9th Force Support Battalion
Died: May 30, 2011

Jones was performing guard duty when was shot by an Afghan National Army soldier who was also manning a security guard tower at Patrol Base Mashal in the Chorah Valley north of Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, Aghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.andrew.jones.adf.jpg

[Grace]

Australia


Lt. Marcus Sean Case

From: Melbourne, Victoria
Age: 27
Unit: 6th Aviation Regiment
Died: May 30, 2011

Died of injuries sustained when an Australian Chinook helicopter flying a resupply mission crashed 56 miles (90 kilometers) east of Tarin Kot in Zabul province, Aghanistan.

[Grace]

30 May 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Anthony M. Nunn, 19, of Burnet, Texas, died May 30, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

http://wtvf.images.worldnow.com/images/14761558_BG2.jpg

[Grace]

29 May 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died May 29, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Killed were:

Capt. Joseph W. Schultz, 36, of Port Angeles, Wash.

Staff Sgt. Martin R. Apolinar, 28, of Glendale, Ariz.

Sgt. Aaron J. Blasjo, 25, of Riverside, Calif.

Capt. Schultz -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.joseph.schultz.usasoc.jpg

Staff Sgt. Apolinar -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.martin.apolinar.usasoc.jpg

Sgt. Blasjo -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.aaron.blasjo.usasoc.jpg

[Grace]

31 may 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Richard C. Emmons III, 22, of North Granby, Conn., died May, 31, in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.



http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.richard.emmons.ftdrum.jpg

[Grace]

Germany


Sgt. 1st Class Tobias Lagenstein

From: Hanover, Germany
Age: 31
Unit: Feldjägerbataillons 152 (Military Police Battalion 152)
Died: May 28, 2011


Maj. Thomas Tholi

From: Kastellaun, Germany
Age: 43
Unit: Führungsunterstützungsbataillon 282 (Command Support Battalion 282)
Died: May 28, 2011

Two German soldiers killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at a high-level meeting of Afghan and coalition officials in a governor's office in Taloqan, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Lagenstein -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.tobias.lagenstein.bundeswehr.jpg

Major Tholi -
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.thomas.tholi.bundeswehr.jpg

[Grace]

France


Cpl. Guillaume Nunes-Patego

From: Montauban, France
Age: 30
Unit: 17e Regiment du Genie Parachutiste (17th Paratrooper Engineer Regiment)
Died: June 1, 2011

Killed when his unit was attacked by insurgents during a mission to search for weapons caches near the village of Shinza in the Alasay Valley of Kapisa province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.guilllaume.nunes.patego.frarmy.jpg

[Grace]

Poland


Cpl. Jaroslaw Mackowiak

From: Poland
Age: 27
Unit: 2. Kompanii Piechoty Zmotoryzowanej, 17. Wielkopolska Brygada Zmechanizowana (2nd Motorized Infantry Company, 17th Wielkopolska Mechanized Brigade)
Died: June 2, 2011

Killed when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades while on patrol near Giru in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.jaroslaw.mackowiak.pldmod.jpg

[Grace]

2 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Jeffrey C. S. Sherer, 29, of Four Oaks, N.C. died June 2, in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

[Grace]

Czech Republic


Sgt. Roberta Vyroubala

From: Praslavice, Czech Republic
Age: 31
Unit: 73. Tankového Praporu (73rd Tank Battalion)
Died: May 31, 2011

Killed when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

Germany



Cpl. Alexej K.

From: Augustdof, Germany
Age: 23
Unit: Panzerbrigade 21 (21st Panzer Brigade)
Died: June 2, 2011

Killed when a roadside bomb detonated near his Marder armored vehicle 22 miles (36 kilometers) south of Kunduz in Baghlan province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

Scotland


Cpl. Michael John Pike

From: Huntly, Scotland
Age: 26
Unit: The Highlanders, Company A, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland
Died: June 3, 2011

Killed during a contact with a group of insurgents while leading a patrol in the vicinity of Popalzai along Highway 601 in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.michael.pike.ukmod.jpg

[Grace]

Come June 29th, I will have been posting these obituaries for two years. And there seems to be no end in sight. Just this morning comes the news that FIVE troops were killed in Iraq - while they were sleeping.

I will post details when they are available.

I'm not sure I can continue with this. It is so very depressing, with no end in sight, and for what purpose?

Really good article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/us/politics/07jones.html?hp

[Grace]

England


It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Lance Corporal Martin Joseph Gill from 42 Commando Royal Marines was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday 5 June 2011.

Ministry of Defence statement - (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/LanceCorporalMartinJosephGillRmKilledInAfghanistan .htm)

[Grace]

4 June 2011


Cohocton, N.Y. – Devin Snyder, 20, a specialist in the U.S. Army Military Police, was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday, June 4.

Specialist Snyder is survived by her parents, Ed and Dineen of Cohocton, a sister Natasha Snyder; a niece, Ariel; and two brothers, Derek and Damien Snyder—listed on Wayland- Cohocton School District’s Website.

Snyder’s father, Edward Snyder is a U.S. Navy veteran.

Her brother Damien serves in the U.S. Army.

Her sister Natasha is serving in the U.S. Navy.


http://www.13wham.com/media/lib/16/6/5/8/658d43cd-3ae9-4a1c-9ad1-af7a4fb07c53/Story.jpg

[Grace]

England


It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Rifleman Martin Jon Lamb from 1st Battalion The Rifles was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday 5 June 2011.


Ministry of Defence statement - (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/RiflemanMartinJonLambKilledInAfghanistan.htm)

[phesina]

Come June 29th, I will have been posting these obituaries for two years. And there seems to be no end in sight. Just this morning comes the news that FIVE troops were killed in Iraq - while they were sleeping.

I will post details when they are available.

I'm not sure I can continue with this. It is so very depressing, with no end in sight, and for what purpose?

Really good article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/us/politics/07jones.html?hp

Oh, Gretchen, thank you so much for doing this and for all this time now too. I read every one of them, see the names, ages, homes, maybe pictures, and causes of death. You've made it all much more real: So much loss, so much heartbreak. And for what purpose, as you asked.

God bless you, Gretchen, whether or not you are up to continuing for much longer.

[Grace]

4 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died of wounds suffered June 4, in Laghman province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 793rd Military Police Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

Killed were:

Sgt. Christopher R. Bell, 21, of Golden, Miss.;

Sgt. Joshua D. Powell, 28, of Quitman, Texas;

Spc. Devin A. Snyder, 20, of Cohocton, N.Y.; and

Pfc. Robert L. Voakes Jr., 21, of L’Anse, Mich.

[Grace]

6 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Joseph M. Garrison, 27, of New Bethlehem, Pa., died June 6 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

[Grace]

Vietnam



Missing Vietnam War Airman Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Air Force Capt. Darrell J. Spinler of Browns Valley, Minn., will be buried on June 18 near his hometown. On June 21, 1967, Spinler was aboard an A-1E Skyraider aircraft attacking enemy targets along the Xekong River in Laos when villagers reported hearing an explosion before his aircraft crashed. The pilot of another A-1E remained in the area for more than two hours but saw no sign of Spinler.

In 1993, a joint U.S.-Laos People’s Democratic Republic team, led by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), interviewed villagers who witnessed the crash. They claimed Spinler’s body was on the river bank after the crash but likely washed away during the ensuing rainy season. The team surveyed the location and found wreckage consistent with Spinler’s aircraft.

In 1995, the U.S. government evaluated Spinler’s case and determined his remains unrecoverable based on witness statements and available evidence. Teams working in the area revisited the location in 1999 and 2003 and confirmed Spinler’s remains had likely been carried away by the Xekong River. However, in 2010, JPAC conducted a full excavation of the location and recovered aircraft wreckage, human remains, crew-related equipment and personal effects.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command used dental x-rays in the identification of Spinler’s remains.

With the accounting of this airman, 1,689 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

[Grace]

Australia


Sapper Rowan Jaie Robinson

From: Wahroonga, New South Wales
Age: 23
Unit: Combat engineer, Incident Response Regiment, attached to the Australian Special Operations Task Group
Died: June 6, 2011

Robinson was part of an Australian Special Operations Task Group patrol that had uncovered a large cache of explosives and was moving to another area of interest when the patrol came under fire from Taliban insurgents in northern Helmand province, Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/afghanistan/tzcas.rowan.robinson.adf.jpg

[Grace]

5 June 2011


Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth R. White

From: Fort Collins, Colorado
Age: 35
Unit: 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division


Chief Warrant Officer Bradley J. Gaudet

From: Gladewater, Texas
Age: 31
Unit: 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division


Two soldiers killed when their OH-58D Kiowa helicopter crashed in the Sabari district of Khost province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

7 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. William J. Woitowicz, 23, of Middlesex, Mass., died June 7 while conducting combat operations in Badghis province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Special Operations Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h8VjvyGa_iQ/TfW3XVUPV7I/AAAAAAAABnY/PcosdxHEEtA/s320/woitowicz-w.JPG

[Grace]

In Iraq - at 0530, while they were sleeping - 6 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of five soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died June 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with indirect fire. They were assigned to the1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

Killed were:

Spc. Emilio J. Campo Jr., 20, of Madelia, Minn.;

Spc. Michael B. Cook Jr., 27, of Middletown, Ohio;

Spc. Christopher B. Fishbeck, 24, of Victorville, Calif.;

Spc. Robert P. Hartwick, 20, of Rockbridge, Ohio; and

Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri, 26, Chicago, Ill.

[Grace]

9 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Matthew T. Richard, 21, of Acadia, La., died June 9 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
http://militaryyearbookproject.com/media/k2/items/cache/e5a7ca3d1b9367d321544f663b586abb_S.jpg

[Grace]

8 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Pfc. Matthew J. England, 22, of Gainesville, Mo., died June 8, in An Najaf province, Iraq, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

[wombat2u2004]

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including
those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized.
It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall,
appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then
resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth
(numbered 70W - continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained within the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956.
His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl.
Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

The largest age group, 8,283 were just 19 years old

3,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.


997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.


31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia .
I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville , Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There
are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football
and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop.
5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In
quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in
the Apache National Forest . And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of
Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a
group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966.
Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on
Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They
played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam.
In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was
killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's
assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom
was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245
deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.
That's 2,415 dead in a single month.

[Grace]

9 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Nicholas S. O’Brien, 21, of Stanley, N.C., died June 9 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, IMarine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

http://media2.newsobserver.com/smedia/2011/06/11/01/03/426-1oD13F.Em.138.jpg

[Grace]

11 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Capt. Michael W. Newton, 30, of Newport News, Va.,died June 11 at Faryab province, Afghanistan,of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Baumholder, Germany.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-hxwrh8jUtEG79quMO27Ht-JD12-SbYu3clskgzN0mRCRTpM5DQ

[Grace]

12 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Joshua B. McDaniels, 21, of Dublin, Ohio, died June 12 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hBzhg79XDCY/TfZzwmTf_hI/AAAAAAAABno/LDWW318hc0A/s320/mcdaniels-j.JPG

[Grace]

Korea



Soldier Missing from Korean War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. A.V. Scott, 27, of Detroit, Mich., will be buried June 22 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Feb. 12, 1951, Scott’s unit, the 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, was supplying friendly forces approximately 70 miles east of Seoul, South Korea, when Chinese Communist units attacked the area and forced a withdrawal. Scott was captured by enemy forces and marched north to a prisoner-of-war camp in Suan County, North Korea. Surviving POWs within the camp reported Scott died in April 1951.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200 to 400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated the remains were exhumed near Suan County, which correlates with Scott’s last known location.

Among forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command used dental comparisons, and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA, which matched that of Scott’s cousins, in the identification.

More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War. With this identification, 7,993 service members remain missing from the conflict.

[Grace]

France


French Army helicopter pilot Lieutenant Matthieu Gaudin, age 37, was killed on 10th June 2011 when his Gazelle helicopter crashed in bad weather about 20km from Bagram, Afghanistan.

Lt. Gaudin, serving with a Regiment of Combat Helicopters (RHC) had previously served in Croatia (2002), Kosovo (2008), Cote d'Ivoire (2005 and 2010). He deployed to Afghanistan in June 2011.

His awards include the Gold Medal of National Defence, the Vermeil Medal with overseas clasp, the Yugoslavia Medal with clasp and the NATO medal.

Lt. Gaudin joined the military in 1997 and qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1998. He was described as a willfull and passionate officer.

He leaves a wife and four children.


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HfeOWToH2zA/TfRog4DvqOI/AAAAAAAABnQ/cEB7DhTx5u0/s320/gaudin-m.jpg

[Grace]

2011 Foreign Fatalities

* Australia: 6
* Canada: 2
* Czech: 1
* Denmark: 1
* Fiji: 1
* Finland: 1
* France: 9
* Georgia: 3
* Germany: 7
* Hungary: 2
* Italy: 2
* Jordan: 1
* NATO: 3
* New Zealand: 1
* Norway: 1
* Poland: 5
* Romania: 2
* Spain: 1
* UK: 24
* UN: 6
* US: 172

[Grace]

France


French Army Caporal-chef (Master Corporal) Lionel Chevalier, age 24, died in Tagab, Afghanistan on 10th June 2011.

M-Cpl Chevalier, serving with the 35th Infantry Regiment, suffered a fatal gunshot wound while holding his weapon when he was returning from a patrol mission.

M-Cpl. Chevalier, from Saint-Pol-sur-Mer, joined the French Army in 2005. He had previously served in Central Africa, Lebanon and Guyana. He deployed to Afghanistan in May 2011.

His comrades described him as an excellent athlete, cheerful and highly motivated.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_0DPvKlub2A/TfRlLhRsszI/AAAAAAAABnI/nI1m2Hf0DQQ/s320/chevalier-l.jpg

[Grace]

12 June 2011



22-year-old US Marine, Lance Corporal Sean M. N. O'Connor, from Douglas, Wyoming was killed in Helmand province on 12th June 2011 whilst conducting combat operations.

L-Cpl. O'Connor served with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

L-Cpl. O'Connor enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 2007. His personal service awards include the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SVdDfEk7fp8/Tff3uv4tK-I/AAAAAAAABn4/vZan5DlVKTM/s320/oconnor-s.jpg

[Grace]

11 June 2011


20-year-old US Marine, Lance Corporal Jason D. Hill from Poway, California, was killed in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 11th June 2011 whilst conducting combat operations.

L-Cpl. Hill served with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

L-Cpl. Hill enlisted in the Marine Corps in March 2010. His personal decorations include the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon and the NATO Medal.

His father, Charles, raised Jason and his two brothers, Dylan and Aaron as a single parent.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kVlkyvfLyaU/Tff7mb0iz_I/AAAAAAAABoI/bSLZK65OUd4/s320/hill-j.jpg

[RICHARD]

http://www.wave3.com/story/14745332/long-lost-wwii-pilot-finally-gets-proper-burial

Home at last.

[cassiesmom]

In Iraq - at 0530, while they were sleeping - 6 June 2011




The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of five soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died June 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with indirect fire. They were assigned to the1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

Killed were:

Spc. Emilio J. Campo Jr., 20, of Madelia, Minn.;

Spc. Michael B. Cook Jr., 27, of Middletown, Ohio;

Spc. Christopher B. Fishbeck, 24, of Victorville, Calif.;

Spc. Robert P. Hartwick, 20, of Rockbridge, Ohio; and

Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri, 26, Chicago, Ill.



From the Chicago Sun-Times:



Help honor fallen Homer Glen soldier
Flags for Pfc. Olivieri

HOMER GLEN — Residents can help honor Pfc. Michael Olivieri and his family by lining the streets of Bell Road between 143rd and 159th, and 159th Street, between Bell and Gougar, during his funeral procession Thursday to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

Flags can be picked up at the village offices, on the west side of the building, 14933 S. Founders Crossing (Bell Road and 149th), until 4:30 p.m. daily and at the Homer Township Library, 14320 151st St., from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Flags also can be picked up at Dominick’s on Bell Road; Animal Care Clinic, 13061 W. 143rd St.; Sears, Bell Road and 159th; and Blueberry Hill Restaurant.

The funeral procession will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday from Modell Funeral Home, 12641 W. 143rd St.

[Grace]

England



British Army WO2 Grant Armstrong of the Light Dragoons died on 4th June 2011 from cancer after being diagnosed with a brain tumour last year.

WO2 Armstrong had served two tours of duty in Afghanistan as well as a tour in Iraq and four tours in Bosnia. After surviving Taliban bullets and bombs, he prepared for a battle with cancer.

WO2 Armstrong was buried on 14th June 2011 with full military honours at Swanton Morley Cemetery in Norfolk, England.

His funeral was held on what would have been his eighth wedding anniversary. His wife Donna, released a white dove as a symbol of hope and freedom.

Soil from the soldier's birthplace in Northumberland was specially brought in to cover his grave.

Note: we have included WO2 Armstrong on this website as a tribute to a soldier who served in Afghanistan. May he rest in peace.

[phesina]

Yes, indeed, he fully deserves to be memorialized here. Thank you, sir, and rest in peace.

[Grace]

13 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died June 13 in Wasit province, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Nicholas P. Bellard, 26, of El Paso, Texas; and

Sgt. Glenn M. Sewell, 23, of Live Oak, Texas.

[Grace]

14 June 2011



26-year-old US Army Staff Sergeant Jeremy A. Katzenberger from Weatherby Lake, Missouri was killed in action in Paktika province, Afghanistan on 14th June 2011 in a battle with enemy forces who attacked his unit.

SSgt. Katzenberger served with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia. He had previously served four tours in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan. He joined the army in 2004.

SSgt. Katzenberger leaves his wife Colleen and baby son Everett James, and his parents Robert and Peggy. He would have celebrated his first Father's Day on Sunday.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qwVxJtOH5rg/Tfllo8X55nI/AAAAAAAABoQ/JcKdGp2lv3I/s320/katzenberger-j.jpg

[Grace]

14 June 2011


20-year-old US Army Private First Class Eric D. Soufrine, from Woodbridge, Conn., died on 14th June 2011 from wounds suffered when a bomb exploded near his unit. The incident happened in Farah province, Afghanistan.

Pfc. Soufrine served with the 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Pfc. Soufrine joined the army in May 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan in December. His awards include the National Defense Service Medal and NATO Service Medal.

He leaves his parents, Michael and Donna, an older brother Joshua and older sister Rebecca.

[Grace]

15 June 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pvt. Ryan J. Larson, 19, of Friendship, Wis., died June 15 at Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oCMCzvAzevo/Tfql5VvAkrI/AAAAAAAABoY/d_rrKLo-OzU/s320/larson-r.jpg

[Grace]

The Army announced today the promotion of a soldier listed as Missing-Captured while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom to the rank of sergeant effective June 12, 2011.

Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 25, is assigned to 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

This is Bergdahl’s second promotion since he was listed as Missing-Captured on June 30, 2009. He was promoted to the rank of specialist on June 12, 2010.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvIlYlzpe6MCc5XgjE3GvDhFJErGMjX 892TqsYNRxUUr93uqa5hQ

[Grace]

16 June 2011


US Marine Sergeant Mark Andrew Bradley, age 25, died on Thursday 16th June 2011 from injuries he received in Afghanistan from a bomb blast on 3rd June.

Sgt. Bradley served with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune. He was on his first deployment to Afghanistan and had previously completed four overseas tours of duty.

He had been medically evacuated from Afghanistan to Germany and then to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

His wife, Samantha, said that doctors had amputated both of Sgt. Bradley's legs above the knee. His lungs had collapsed, his kidney and liver failed, and he suffered brain trauma. Doctors also had operated on his heart.

Sgt. Bradley joined the Marines eight years ago after he finished high school in Cuba, New York.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5MjxckE4uIU/TftsSo-0ksI/AAAAAAAABoo/D6zz6ngbY-o/s320/bradley-m.jpg

[Grace]

Vietnam


Airman Missing from Vietnam War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Air Force 1st Lt. David A. Thorpe of Seneca Falls, N.Y., will be buried June 23 at Arlington National Cemetery. On Oct. 3, 1966, Thorpe’s C-130E, with four other men aboard, failed to arrive at Nha Trang Air Base following their departure from Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam. Rescue personnel found their remains at the crash site in South Vietnam eight days later approximately 40 miles west of Nha Trang. The cause of the crash is not known.

Between 1984 and 1996, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) received human remains tentatively linked to Thorpe and the other crew members from various sources including refugees from the Vietnam War and Vietnamese citizens. Lacking advanced scientific tools and complete records during this time period, JPAC was unable to make an individual identification of Thorpe’s remains, so he was buried as part of a group at Arlington. Other remains associated with the entire group were held at JPAC’s laboratory for future testing.

As DNA testing procedures improved in the late 1990s, JPAC’s forensic anthropologists applied the latest technologies from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory to include mitochondrial testing, a sample of which matched the DNA from Thorpe’s sister. His dental records also helped confirm the identification.

With the accounting of this airman, 1,687 service members still remain missing from the Vietnam War.

[Grace]

England


British Army Corporal Lloyd Newell, from the Parachute Regiment, was killed in a gun battle with insurgent forces during an operation in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Thursday 16th June 2011.

British newspaper, The Sun, claim that Cpl. Newell was serving with the Special Air Service (SAS). However, the British MoD are remaining tight-lipped about his unit and his mission.

Cpl. Newell was married with a nine-week-old daughter.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WNd9mXEdHMQ/Tf1CTiN2QuI/AAAAAAAABo4/NGXeGGm26Ao/s320/Newell-l.JPG

[Grace]

England


British Army Craftsman Andrew Found, was killed by the blast of a roadside bomb on Thursday 16th June 2011 in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Craftsman Found, from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was serving with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

The incident happened near Adinza’i in the Gereshk Valley area, within the northern Nahr-e Saraj District of Helmand Province. His squadron were targeting insurgents in that area. During the operation, an armoured patrol vehicle struck a road mine which disabled the vehicle and injured its crew. As the Recovery Mechanic, Craftsman Found was assessing the damage to the vehicle when he was caught in a secondary explosion in which he was fatally wounded.

Craftsman Found was married to Samantha and they had one son, Jaxson. He was also father to Michael from a previous relationship.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etwtGSdZNGc/Tf0-QxL2ekI/AAAAAAAABow/iigtF6Hm-XU/s320/found-a.JPG

[Grace]

16 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Spc. Marcos A. Cintron, 32, of Orlando, Fla., died June 16 at a medical facility in Boston, Mass., of wounds suffered June 6 at Baghdad, Iraq, when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

http://d2.static.dvidshub.net/media/thumbs/258w/photos/1106/417327_q75.jpg

This soldier was one of the group who were killed in that early morning attack on 6 June 2011 - five others were killed instantly.

[Grace]

France



French Paratrooper Florian Morillon was killed in action on Saturday 18th June 2011 while on foot patrol in the Tagab valley, Kapisa province. His unit was attacked by enemy forces and 1re-classe Morillon was critically injured in an exchange of fire.

He was evacuated by helicopter to the French Military hospital in Kabul, where he later died from his wounds.

Prior to serving in Afghanistan, he served in Gabon and the Central African Republic. He deployed to Afghanistan mid-May 2011.

1re-classe Morillon served with the 1st Parachute Regiment.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-10JWtBXho7c/Tf4q8eMrUFI/AAAAAAAABpA/RPLMOJZkJRY/s320/morillon.jpg

[Grace]

England


British Army Private Gareth Leslie William Bellingham, serving with 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Staffords), was killed by enemy gunfire in the Gereshk Valley, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Saturday 18th June 2011.

His unit was conducting a patrol to assess the situation on the ground and meet with the local population who had recently returned to compounds in the area. During the patrol, a local Afghan was injured by an Improvised Explosive Device (homemade bomb). As Private Bellingham's unit was providing security, insurgents fired upon the patrol and he was fatally wounded.

He had been in Afghanistan since April 2011.

His parents, Leslie and Suzanne said of their son: “Gareth died doing the job he loved and we are all proud of the job he did. He will be sadly missed by family, friends and all those who knew him. Rest in peace”

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zh_0gah9nec/Tf6SPo1Sq_I/AAAAAAAABpI/xvH-HSjazwo/s320/bellingham-g.jpg

[Grace]

World War II



Airman Missing in Action From WWII Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Staff Sgt. Marvin J. Steinford, of Keystone, Iowa, will be buried on June 21 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On March 24, 1945, Steinford, along with nine other crew members, bailed out of their B-17G Flying Fortress bomber over Gic, Hungary. It had been hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire while on a bombing mission over Germany. Steinford and another crew member were struck by small arms fire while parachuting into a firefight between Soviet and German forces. The remains of the other crew member were found after the war where they had been buried by Hungarian villagers. The remaining eight members of the aircrew were captured by the Germans, held as POWs, and released at the end of the war.

According to accounts gathered by U.S. Army Graves Registration Service personnel in the late 1940s, Steinford’s body was seen beside a German tank near Gic, but no further details about his exact whereabouts were recorded. Growing tensions in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe closed off further U.S. access to Hungary.

In January 2003, in an effort to develop archival leads in Hungary from the Vietnam War, Korean and Cold Wars and World War II, a U.S. commissioner with the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs met with Hungarian officials in Budapest. Additional follow-up in Hungary by a DPMO researcher began to uncover specific information related to Steinford’s loss. A second DPMO staff member, assisted by Hungarian academics and researchers, discovered archives and interviewed villagers who related first-hand information about the B-17G crash. Shortly thereafter the U.S. Embassy in Budapest notified DPMO that a local cemetery director had information directly related to Steinford.

He related that during a 2004 excavation and transfer of Soviet soldiers’ remains at a war memorial and grave site in the city of Zirc, Hungarian workers discovered remains with a set of identification tags that bore Steinford’s name. The dog tags were removed and all remains were transferred to another site on the outskirts of Zirc. What was believed to be Steinford’s remains were marked with the Hungarian word “Cedulas,” [translation: the one with the tags] and reburied. The dog tags were returned to U.S. officials in March 2005.

From 2005 through late 2007, DPMO facilitated negotiations between U.S., Hungarian and Russian officials. Finally, in December 2007, the U.S. chairman of the commission secured agreement with the Russian first deputy minister of defense to allow a July 2009 exhumation from the war memorial site by specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC used dental comparisons in the identification of Steinford’s remains.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

[Grace]

17 June 2011



US Army Specialist Scott D. Smith, age 36, from Indianapolis, Indiana, died on 17th June 2011 in Khowst province, Afghanistan, from non-combat related injuries.

Spc. Smith served with 81st Troop Command, Indiana Army National Guard, Indianapolis.

[Grace]

18 June 2011


US Army Specialist Tyler R. Kreinz, age 21, from Beloit, Wisconsin, was one of four soldiers killed when their armoured patrol vehicle rolled over during an operation in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on 18th June 2011.

Spc. Kreinz served with 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Baumholder, Germany.

Spc. Kreinz, who wanted to join the military since he was twelve, leaves his parents David and Marilyn.

Tyler Kreinz - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AJv1WzGmUkU/TgBnSxuwfxI/AAAAAAAABpg/jGkbbmlGbNs/s320/Kreinz-t-oefkia.jpg



US Army Sergeant Alan L. Snyder, age 28, from Blackstone, Mass., was one of four soldiers killed when their armoured patrol vehicle rolled over during an operation in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on 18th June 2011.

Sgt. Snyder served with 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Baumholder, Germany.

Alan Snyder - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uW3mBog_nOE/TgE3V6M_nCI/AAAAAAAABp4/pgfQ3zTZlsg/s320/snyder-a.jpg



US Army Sergeant Edward F. Dixon III, age 37, from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., was one of four soldiers killed when their armoured patrol vehicle rolled over during an operation in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on 18th June 2011.

Sgt. Dixon served with 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Baumholder, Germany.

Edward Dixon - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lvyLSLFSlis/TgE3j5NDPlI/AAAAAAAABqA/bgMk3Ectato/s320/dixon-e.jpgd


US Army Sergeant 1st Class Alvin A. Boatwright, age 33, from Lodge, S.C., was one of four soldiers killed when their armoured patrol vehicle rolled over during an operation in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on 18th June 2011.

Sfc. Boatwright served with 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Baumholder, Germany.

Alvin Boatwright - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hg9F5c6nIas/TgBPpgxIjGI/AAAAAAAABpQ/mw6NJ7BNBk0/s320/boatwright-a-oefkia.jpg

[Grace]

18 June 2011



U.S Army Pfc. Brian J. Backus, age 21, from Saginaw Township, Michigan, was killed in action on 18th June from enemy fire during a battle with insurgents. The incident happened in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Pfc. Backus served with the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York. He joined the army in June 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan in March this year.

Reverend Paula M. Timm, pastor of Harbor Beach United Methodist Church, where Pfc. Backus and his family were regular worshipers, said of him: “He had that twinkle in his eye and he was just a sweetheart. This is just breaking our hearts.”

Pfc. Backus leaves his two-year-old son Jack, his parents Alan and Anne, and brother Paul.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OfE9uU-A-h4/TgBRB5361RI/AAAAAAAABpY/ZdS2xXtt4Eg/s320/backus-b-oefkia.jpg

[Grace]

19 June 2011


US Marine Pfc. Josue Ibarra, age 21, from Midland, Texas, died on 19th June 2011 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Pfc. Ibarra served with the 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. He joined the Marines in June 2010.

His awards include the National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pLQLPt84IdU/TgCXlBN9A2I/AAAAAAAABpo/yCoDzqJSTSM/s320/ibarra-j-oefkia.jpg

[Grace]

Mietek Pemper, 91, on June 7 in Augsburg, Germany. He was the man who compiled Schindler's List. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/world/europe/19pemper.html?src=recg)

[Grace]

20 June 2011


US Army Pfc. Gustavo A. Rios-Ordonez was killed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan on 20th June 2011 when a homemade bomb exploded as he was on patrol. Pfc. Rios-Ordonez died from his injuries.

25-year-old Pfc. Rios Ordonez, from Englewood, Ohio, served with the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas.

He joined the army in August last year and deployed to Afghanistan in February this year.

Pfc. Rios-Ordonez leaves behind his 22-year-old wife, Tiffani Rios, and two daughters, ages 2 and 7 months.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2ZuKRGXg6ug/TgEvx9r0mNI/AAAAAAAABpw/Navm7LRsd5k/s320/Rios-Ordonez-g.JPG

[Grace]

20 June 2011


US Army Sergeant James W. Harvey II was killed in action on 20th June whilst engaging enemy forces in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. He was wounded by small arms fire and subsequently died from his injuries.

Sgt. Harvey, age 23, from Toms River, New Jersey, served with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Sgt. Harvey, known to has family and friends as "Jimmy", leaves his parents James and Susan and three sisters, Tracey, Robin and Christine.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i9nEb-zI2Nw/TgFukFnBgzI/AAAAAAAABqI/W67opMWGIYA/s320/harvey-j.jpg

[lizbud]

All Indiana soldiers killed in the Iraq & Afghanistan were listed in today's
Indianapolis Star newspaper. May they all rest in peace.

http://www.indystar.com/data/community/fallen/list.shtml

[Grace]

Thank you, liz.

[Grace]

21 June 2011



22-year-old US Marine Lance Corporal Jared C. Verbeek, from Visalia, California died on 21st June 2011 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

L-Cpl. Verbeek, a military policeman, served with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

He joined the Marines in September 2007 and was on his second combat deployment.

L-Cpl. Verbeek leaves his wife Vanessa, their 18-month-old son Jacob, and parents Travis and Rosalia.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MOCAkhQuLM0/TgKUS27WGbI/AAAAAAAABqQ/BPhjB9xuHYo/s320/verbeek-j.jpg

[Grace]

20 June 2011



US Army Pfc. Joshua L. Jetton, serving with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii, was killed in action in Kunar province on 20th June 2011.

His unit was ambushed by insurgent forces and Pfc. Jetton was shot during the battle that followed.

The body of 21-year-old Pfc. Jetton, from Sebring, Florida, was flown to Dover Air Force Base at 1pm on Wednesday 22nd June 2011.

Pfc. Jetton leaves his wife Alicia who is expecting twins.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2flTq5fr674/TgOp009TJpI/AAAAAAAABqY/RB09J-pDttU/s320/jetton-j-oefkia.jpg

[Grace]

World War II



Airmen Missing In Action from WWII Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of five Army Air Forces servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Capt. Leonard E. Orcutt, Alameda, Calif., was buried on May 5 in Oakland, Calif; Tech. Sgt. Louis H. Miller, Philadelphia, was buried on June 17 in Arlington National Cemetery; Staff Sgt. George L. Winkler, Huntington, W.Va., was buried May 5 in Arlington National Cemetery; 2nd Lt. Harry L. Bedard, Minneapolis, will be buried on June 25 in Dayton, Minn.; and 2nd Lt. Robert S. Emerson, Norway, Maine, will be buried July 9 in his hometown.

On April 3, 1945, Orcutt and his crew took off in their B-25J Mitchell bomber from Palawan Field, Philippines. The pilot of another aircraft in the flight reported seeing Orcutt’s plane stall out and crash about one mile northeast of the village of Consolacion in a swampy area. There were no survivors.

In early 1947, personnel from the Army’s Graves Registration Service recovered additional remains from the crash site and buried them as unknowns in Leyte, Philippines. Later that year, they were exhumed and transferred to Manila for possible identification. In 1949, a military review board declared these unknown group remains to be those of the aircrew and re-buried them at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo.

Two years later, the Graves Registration Service returned to the crash site and recovered additional remains. The case was reanalyzed and a recommendation was made that the group remains at Jefferson Barracks be disinterred for individual identification. All remains from the crash site were examined with no resulting identification. They were reburied at the same location. A sister of one of the airmen contacted the Army in 2001 upon learning of the recovery of additional remains in the 1950s. The Army then disinterred the group remains at Jefferson Barracks in 2008 which were taken to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii for identification.

Among forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC used dental comparisons and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of relatives of the aircrew -- in the identification of these airmen.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

[Grace]

22 June 2011


Hawaii-based US Army Specialist Levi E. Nuncio, 24, from Harrisonburg, Virginia, was killed in action on 22nd June 2011 during an engagement with enemy forces in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Spc. Nuncio died after being hit with small arms fire.

Spc. Nuncio served with the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

He joined the army in 2009. This was his first deployment to Afghanistan.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SabyLuzdx_Y/TgP9W6mXxzI/AAAAAAAABqo/rLEDZZtjgSU/s320/nuncio-oefkia.jpg

[Grace]

22 June 2011


21-year-old US Marine Corporal Gurpreet Singh from Antelope, California, died in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 22nd June 2011 from wounds received while conducting combat operations.

Cpl. Singh was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California. He joined the Marines in November 2007 and had deployed in combat twice.

[Grace]

24 June 2011


28-year-old US Army Specialist Nicholas C. D. Hensley from Prattville, Alabama, died on 24th June 2011 from wounds received when a bomb detonated in Kandahar on 15th June. He had been evacuated to to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. His family were at his side when he died.

Spc. Hensley served with the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Spc. Hensley had served two combat tours in Iraq and deployed to Afghanistan in February this year.

He holds a Purple Heart, two Army Commendation Medals and a Combat Action Badge, among other awards.

[Grace]

France


Para 1st Class Cyrille Hugodot, serving with the French 1st Parachute Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday 25th June 2011 during a battle with enemy forces in Tagab, Kapisa province.

His unit was protecting engineers deployed to find and destroy bombs and other explosive devices in the area, when they were attacked.

Paratrooper Hugodot, age 24, joined the RCP (Paras) in March 2009. He had previously deployed to Gabon and arrived in Afghanistan on 15th May this year. He leaves a wife and young daughter.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bKUls0j0Oc4/TgZ3s2ko0AI/AAAAAAAABqw/_NfZLh1x8WY/s320/hugodot.jpg

[Grace]

Canada


Canadian Army Master Corporal Francis Roy, from Rimouski, Quebec, died on 25th June 2011 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from what military officials described as "non-combat related wounds".

MCpl. Roy was serving with the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) and a former member of the Royal 22e Regiment.

MCpl. Roy, a logistician specializing in transport movements, volunteered to join CSOR in 2007. The Canadian Task Force Kandahar commander, Brigadier-General Dean Milner described MCpl. Roy as "an avid fisherman and runner, with a passion for old cars."

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xK7_Im8EBjA/TgfmgMNJYiI/AAAAAAAABrY/c5qFwhbu3TI/s320/roy-f.jpg

[Grace]

Spain


Spanish Infantry Sergeant Manuel Argudin Perrino was one of two troops killed in action on 26th June when a roadside bomb exploded beside the armoured reconnaissance patrol he was with.

The incident happened some 20km from the northern Afghanistan town of Qala-i-Naw.

Three other Spanish soldiers were injured in the blast and evacuated by helicopter to Bala Murghab military hospital.

All of the troops belonged to the 9th Infantry Regiment based in Fuerteventura.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HbDvcCLrjmQ/TgfftBFYkvI/AAAAAAAABrQ/79Qs1tjz9k0/s320/ARGUDIN_PERRINO.jpg

[Grace]

Spain


Spanish Infantry soldier Niyireth Pineda Marin was one of two troops killed in action on 26th June when a roadside bomb exploded beside the armoured reconnaissance patrol she was with.

The incident happened some 20km from the northern Afghanistan town of Qala-i-Naw.

Three other Spanish soldiers were injured in the blast and evacuated by helicopter to Bala Murghab military hospital.

All of the troops belonged to the 9th Infantry Regiment based in Fuerteventura.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7AP9FGIPA7I/TgfcmKHMSzI/AAAAAAAABrI/RtdgERgVljE/s320/PINEDA_MARTIN.jpg

[Grace]

25 June 2011


25-year-old US Marine Sergeant Marlon E. Myrie died in Helmand province on 25th June 2011 while conducting combat operations.

Sgt. Myrie, from Oakland Park, Florida, served with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

He joined the Marines in 2004 and served two tours of duty in Iraq (2005 and 2007). He deployed to Afghanistan in January this year.

[Grace]

26 June 2011


US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Ralph E. Pate Jr., age 29, from Mullins, S.C., died on 26th June 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

He was assigned to 2nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Gunnery Sgt. Pate joined the Marines in 1998, served four tours of duty in Iraq and deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2011. He holds a Bronze Star Medal among other awards and decorations.

[Grace]

26 June 2011


US Air Force Tech. Sgt. Daniel L. Douville, from Harvey, Louisiana, was killed in action on 26th June 2011 when a bomb exploded in the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand province. He was 33 years old.

He was assigned to the 96th Civil Engineer Squadron, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

Tech. Sgt. Douville had been in the USAF since 1997. He was a bomb-disposal technician who his former EOD instructors described as having "a quiet presence."

Married for 14 years, he leaves his wife LaShana, son Daniel Jr., and daughters Jadelynn and Ayjah.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vr12jKupuIo/TglG7AwIzjI/AAAAAAAABrg/gCP9ZczbguM/s320/douville-d.jpg

[Grace]

26 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Spc. Matthew R. Gallagher, 22, of North Falmouth, Mass., died June 26 in Wasit province, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

[Grace]

26 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died June 26, in Diyala province, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Russell J. Proctor, 25, of Oroville, Calif.; and

Pfc. Dylan J. Johnson, 20, of Tulsa, Okla.

[Grace]

26 June 2011


US Army Specialist Kevin J. Hilaman, from Albany, California, was killed in action on 26th June 2011 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, during a battle with enemy forces who attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Spc. Hilaman, age 28, served with the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TMLb9RvoP-0/TgqN7q0tofI/AAAAAAAABr4/w0JKGMJiR2g/s320/hilaman.jpg

[Grace]

25 June 2011


US Army First Lieutenant Dimitri A. Del Castillo was killed in action on 25th June 2011 in Kunar, Afghanistan during an engagement with enemy forces who attacked his unit with small arms fire.

1Lt. Del Castillo, age 24, served with the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

He was engaged to Katie Pulliam, a fellow graduate of the Military Academy at West Point. They planned to marry in May 2012 in Tampa, where 1Lt. Del Castillo's parents live.

His body arrived at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware on Monday 27th June.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V1hh2mUZWpk/TgqNMCSxZ9I/AAAAAAAABro/Z1_6PjZsSOw/s320/castillo-d.jpg

[Grace]

25 June 2011


US Army Staff Sergeant Nigel D. Kelly, age 26, from Menifee, California, was killed in action on 25th June 2011 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, during a battle with enemy forces who attacked his unit with small arms fire.

SSgt. Kelly served with the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oVUpF9m1B6M/TgqNkxWHaWI/AAAAAAAABrw/olVpxwTiXak/s320/kelly-n.jpg

[Grace]

27 June 2011


US Marine Corporal Michael C. Nolen died in Helmand province on 27th June 2011 while on combat operations in the area.

The 22-year-old Marine, from Spring Valley, Wisconsin, served with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

[Grace]

28 June 2011


23-year-old US Parachute Regiment Staff Sgt. Donald V. Stacy, from Avondale, Arizona, was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan on 28th June 2011 from injuries sustained when a bomb detonated beside his combat unit.

SSgt. Stacy served in the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

This was his first deployment to Afghanistan. He had previously served in Iraq in 2006 and 2008.

He holds a Bronze Star and Purple Heart among other awards he has received since joining the Army in 2005

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1bymBAjkUs/TgxrG9lg0qI/AAAAAAAABsI/XEYiC9tOjSA/s1600/stacy-d.jpg

[Grace]

28 June 2011



20-year-old US Marine Lance Cpl. John F. Farias, from New Braunfels, Texas, died on 28th June 2011 in Helmand province while conducting combat operations.

L-Cpl. Farias serving in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

He joined the Marines in August 2009 and this was his first combat deployment.

He was awarded a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fW42YIIpqhU/TgxvmUtR_NI/AAAAAAAABsQ/CrHcUW4XcP8/s320/Farias-j.jpg

[Grace]

28 June 2011



22-year-old US Marine Lance Cpl. Mark R. Goyet, from Sinton, Texas, died on 28th June 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

L-Cpl. Goyet was a mortar operator serving in the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms, California.

L-Cpl. Goyet joined the Marines in February 2008. This tour was his third deployment in three years. He was due to leave the Marines in February but volunteered to go to Afghanistan out of loyalty to friends who died there.

He holds a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sqedmcG7Dyo/Tg122uRv-6I/AAAAAAAABso/21lqvB2XjFQ/s320/goyet-m.jpg

[Grace]

25 June 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Nicholas P. Bernier, 21, of East Kingston, N.H., died June 25 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered June 22 when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire in Kherwar, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R-cL17ct8LU/Tg1wAutY-aI/AAAAAAAABsY/CCCpLJI59Vo/s320/bernier-n.jpg

[Grace]

Spain



Spanish airline pilot, Antonio Planas, was one of the victims murdered by Taliban suicide bombers at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on 28th June 2011.

Mr. Planas, from Mallorca, was employed by Istanbul-based Saga Airlines and was in Kabul to pilot an aircraft that had been hired from Afghan airline Ariana. He was staying at the Intercontinental.

He was in the lobby checking out of the hotel at the time. He was wounded in the attack and died later from his injuries.

The attack began at around 10pm Tuesday, when a group of seven insurgents armed with grenades, rifles and jackets full of explosives, entered the hotel and started shooting at guests and employees.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5X9GEctngXI/Tg2QV2jNL9I/AAAAAAAABsw/MhPZBfpSQbc/s320/planas-antonio.jpg

[Grace]

30 June 2011



US Marine Corporal Kyle R. Schneider, died on 30th June 2011 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations.

23-year-old Cpl. Schneider, from Pheonix, NY, joined the Marines in March 2008 and served with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He deployed to Afghanistan in January this year and was scheduled to return home in August. It was his first tour of combat duty.

Cpl. Schneider's younger brother, Kevin, described him as "an American Hero."

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X6PNieJ1zJs/Tg5y2KmlimI/AAAAAAAABtA/DZiW26n9P_c/s320/schneider-k-2.jpg

[Grace]

30 June 2011



US Marine Sergeant Chad D. Frokjer, died in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 30th June 2010 while conducting combat operations.

The 27-year-old Marine, from Maplewood, Minnesota, served with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

Sgt. Frokjer was a convoy commander of a Mobile Assault Team for the Battalion's Alpha Company - dubbed a "quick reaction force and combat logistics unit."

He leaves his wife, Leslie, and their child.

[Grace]

29 June 2011


Army Capt. David Van Camp died while serving in Iraq.

WHEELING -- As our nation prepares to celebrate our nation's independence, the Ohio Valley says goodbye to one of their own.

Army Capt. David Van Camp was killed in action this week while serving a tour of duty in Iraq.

Van Camp was a 2000 graduate of Wheeling Park High School and a member of the Patriot Baseball team.

Before joining the army, Van Camp studied at Marshall University.

David's dad said he was killed by either a mortar round or missile that hit the vehicle he was riding in with two other soldiers - assigned to 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

Services are now being planned.

http://www.wvnstv.com/images/070111104848_van%20camp.jpg

[Grace]

29 June 2011


[QUOTE]Captain Matthew Nielsen, 27, of Jefferson, Iowa; died 29 June in Badrah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas. He received his commission in May 2008 as an armor officer and was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, since November 2010.

He was deployed in support of Operation New Dawn. His awards and decorations include an Army Achievement Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Medal, Overseas Service Medal and Air Assault Badge.[/QUOTE

http://militarytimes.com/valor/xml/images/matthew-nielson-6567850.jpg

[Grace]

29 June 2011



The Department of Defense is reporting that 29 year old Specialist Robert Tenney, Jr. of Warner Robins, Georgia was killed in Iraq while supporting Operation New Dawn.

According to a Department of Defense news release, Tenney died June 29th in Badrah, Iraq when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.

He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Regiment in Fort Hood, Texas.

Tenney's awards and decorations include an Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal with combat service star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and an Overseas Service Ribbon.

[Grace]

Italy


29-year-old Italian Army Caporal Maggiore Gaetano Tuccillo was killed in Afghanistan on 2nd July 2011 when a roadside bomb detonated as his mounted unit returned from a reconnaissance patrol.

The incident happened near the village of Caghaz, 16 kilometers west of Bakwa in eastern Farah. An Italian paratrooper was injured by the explosion.

Caporal Tuccillo served with the Logistics Battalion of the Maniago Aries Brigade. He was born near Naples and married to a Dutch woman.

[Grace]

1 July 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. James A. Waters, 21, of Cloverdale, Ind., died July 1 at Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.


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[Grace]

4 July 2011



27-year-old US Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Garcia, died on 4th July 2011 from injuries he received from a bomb blast in Logar province, Afghanistan.

SSgt. Garcia served with the 63rd Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance Group (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 20th Support Command (CBRNE), based at Fort Polk.

[Grace]

Scotland


It is with regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Highlander Scott McLaren from D Company, D Company, The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed in Afghanistan on Monday 4 July 2011.

Ministry of Defence statement. (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/HighlanderScottMclarenKilledInAfghanistan.htm)

[Grace]

Australia


Sergeant Todd Matthew Langley, age 35, from the Sydney-based 2nd Commando regiment, was killed in action during a battle with enemy forces in southern Afghanistan on 4th July 2011. He died on the battlefield from gun shot wounds to the head.

Sgt. Langley was on his fifth deployment to Afghanistan and had previously deployed twice to East Timor. He had been awarded two Commendations for Distinguished Service in 2002 and again in 2008. In 2006 he was awarded a Unit Citation for Gallantry

Sgt. Langley was born in Western Australia in 1976. He joined the Army in 1993 and served with 1 RAR. In 2004, he completed the Commando selection course and was posted to the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Commando), now 2nd Commando Regiment.

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[Grace]

Vietnam



Air Force Pilot Missing from Vietnam War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Air Force Maj. Richard G. Elzinga of Shedd, Ore., will be buried on July 8 in Arlington National Cemetery. On March 26, 1970, Elzinga and his co-pilot went missing when their O-1G Birddog aircraft failed to return to base from a familiarization flight over Laos. Fifteen minutes after the last radio contact, a communication and visual search showed no sign of the men or their aircraft. Search and rescue missions continued for two days with no results.

Between 1994 and 2009, joint U.S.-Lao People’s Democratic Republic teams led by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, analyzed leads, interviewed villagers and surveyed possible crash site locations. During several joint field surveys, teams recovered human remains, aircraft wreckage, and crew-related equipment.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of his aunt and cousin -- in the identification of Elzinga’s remains.

[Grace]

Azerbaijan


An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane belonging to Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijan crashed into a mountainside in Afghanistan's Parwan Province at approximately 21.10 GMT on 5th July. The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Bagram military base, carrying cargo for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Body parts have been found with the wreckage of the plane although no formal identifications have been possible.

It is not thought that any of the crew could have survived the crash. The airline has released the names of the nine crew members on board the aircraft.

1. Captain Sergey Kuzmin (born in 1969)
2. Co-pilot Oleg Marshikhin (born in 1979, from Azerbaijan)
3. Navigator Igor Zheng (born in 1966)
4. Engineer Vladimir Shatobin (born in 1969)
5. Radio operator Ahmedjan Khajayev (born in 1955, from Azerbajian)
6. Radio operator Elnur Mahmudov (born in 1981, from Azerbaijan)
7. Onboard operator Tapdig Gahramanov (born in 1964, from Azerbaijan)
8. Mechanic Afghan Rahimov (born in 1980, from Azerbaijan)
9. Mechanic Mehman Huseynov (born in 1962, from Azerbaijan)

[Grace]

5 July 2011


US Army soldier Preston J. Suter, 22, Sandy, Utah, was killed in action in Afghanistan on Tuesday 5th July 2011. He was riding in a patrol vehicle when a roadside bomb detonated beside it.

Two other US soldiers died in the blast -
Sergeant Joshua Throckmorton and Spc. Jordan Schumann.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lwazYSOzSB0/Thbq1Xq5KdI/AAAAAAAABug/rz8DyVv_F14/s320/suter-p.jpg

[Grace]

5 July 2011



24-year-old US Army Spc Jordan C. Schumann was killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday 5th July 2011 by the blast of a roadside bomb while he was in a Humvee patrol vehicle.

Spc. Schumann, son of a Port St Lucie, Florida family, graduated from St Lucie West Centennial in 2006 and is survived by his wife Sarah, their unborn baby due in September, his parents Clay and Linda, brother Clay Jr., and sister Heather.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hlwIsZ3dreY/ThVOcWdgA0I/AAAAAAAABuY/1g3uxQqMM3E/s320/schumann-j.jpg

[Grace]

5 July 2011


US Army Sergeant Joshua Throckmorton, age 28, was killed in action in Afghanistan on Tuesday 5th July 2011. Sgt. Throckmorton was a native of Battle Creek, Michigan and a father of three.

Sgt. Throckmorton was most recently stationed in Germany, but had previously spent fifteen months in Iraq and was three months in to a one year deployment in Afghanistan.

http://media.mlive.com/kzgazette_impact/photo/soldier-killed-joshua-throckmorton-throckmorton-josh-throckmorton-d52b6625b3e8fbce.jpg

Article from his hometown paper. (http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110707/NEWS01/307070006/Staff-Sgt-Joshua-Throckmorton-killed-Afghanistan-an-amazing-man-?odyssey=nav|head)

[Grace]

5 July 2011


US Army Sergeant Nicanor Amper IV was killed in Khowst, Afghanistan when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade on 5th July 2011.

36-year-old Sgt. Nicanor, from San Jose, California, served with 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Sgt. Amper was married and had two sons from a previous marriage.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1zB6G80WMfo/ThfGmi-RwoI/AAAAAAAABu4/OQRp0-JFM6s/s320/amper-n.jpg

[Grace]

7 July 2011


29-year-old US Marine Staff Sgt. Thomas Joseph Dudley, from Tega Cay, South Carolina, died on 7th July 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

SSgt. Dudley served with Marine Air Group 26, 2nd Marine Air Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina. This was his sixth overseas deployment. He had just two weeks left before returning home.

SSgt. Dudley leaves his wife, Mary, and their three children - Taylor, 13, Thomas Carter, 5 and Jenna Robyn, 23 months.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4luHb8R_0UM/ThfEgxTm8SI/AAAAAAAABuw/pEQmKW-CcKI/s320/doddsdudley1.jpg

[Grace]

7 July 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died July 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked their convoy using an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to 145th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Cavalry Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Post Falls, Idaho.

Killed were:

Spc. Nathan R. Beyers, 24, of Littleton, Colo. and

Spc. Nicholas W. Newby, 20, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Beyers -
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/journalnet.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/00/40030ef4-aa4b-11e0-99f0-001cc4c03286/4e18865494390.preview-300.jpg

Newby -
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/journalnet.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/e3/1e3f0b2e-aa4b-11e0-99b8-001cc4c03286/4e18861e7ae9d.preview-300.jpg

[Grace]

9 July 2011


Retired US Trooper First Class Paul Protzenko died in Afghanistan 9th July 2011 while working for a private contracting firm training Afghan police.

The 47-year-old former Connecticut State Trooper retired in 2009 after 20 years service working for the state police. Prior to that, he had served in the US Army.

At the time of the incident, in Panjshir province, Mr. Protzenko was in a vehicle with US Army Sergeant 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker. An Afghan security officer stopped their vehicle and opened fire. Both men died at the scene. A US soldier in another vehicle shot and killed the Afghan guard.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4sbrjSic4iU/Thutd4xP86I/AAAAAAAABvI/S_rBBVTwESQ/s320/protzenko-p.jpg

[Grace]

9 July 2011


US Army Sergeant 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker, age 39, from Cedar Rapids, died on 9th July 2011 in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, after being shot by an Afghan security officer. The assailant was subsequently shot and killed by a US soldier.

Sfc. Pasker, served with the Iowa Army National Guard's Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. He was due to return home later this month. He enlisted in the US Army in July 1990 and joined the Iowa National Guard in April 1995.

Sfc. Pasker, leaves his wife, Erica, of Cedar Rapids, his parents, one brother and two sisters.

In the same incident, Retired US Trooper Paul Protzenko, a civilian contractor died.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bc6vt_Upb7c/Thrr96_Q_eI/AAAAAAAABvA/aKE8IDoFXb8/s320/Pasker-t.jpg

[Grace]

10 July 2011



The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Sgt. Steven L. Talamantez, 34, of Laredo, Texas, died July 10, in Al Amarah, Iraq, of injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

https://fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/267629_257475637601791_199244223424933_1284395_753 5783_s.jpg

[Grace]

10 July 2011


101st Airborne Spc. Rafael A. Nieves Jr. was killed in action on 10th July 2011 in Paktika province, Afghanistan during a battle with enemy forces. The 22-year-old, from Albany, New York, died from wounds sustained after his vehicle came under small-arms and RPG fire.

Spc. Nieves served with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Spc. Nieves leaves his wife Sarah A. McKinney, their two children, Emma Grace and Rafael A. III, his father, Rafael A. Nieves Sr. and his mother, Tina R. Roman.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xk9l82__H1Y/ThvBnUQK0aI/AAAAAAAABvY/PXriMKKKpW8/s320/nieves-r.jpg

[Grace]

9 July 2011


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Christopher P. Soderlund, 23, of Pineville, La., died July 9 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with rocket-propelled grenade fire. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.

[Grace]

10 July 2011


US Marine Lance Corporal Norberto Mendez Hernandez, age 22, from Logan, Utah, died on 10th July 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He served with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wmaj8M5oNQs/ThxOzHRZdqI/AAAAAAAABwA/Pdjai0fkT2w/s320/hernandez-r.jpg

[Grace]

France


22-year-old French Army Brigadier Clement Kovac was killed on 11th July 2011 when a colleague accidentally shot him. The incident happened at Operating Base Hutnik in Kapisa province, Afghanistan. He served with the 1st Regiment of Chasseurs.

Brig. Kovac had previously served in New Caledonia and deployed to Afghanistan on 2nd June 2011 as a crew member in a AMX-10 light tank.

His commanding officer said of Brig. Kovak that he was "noted for his sense of responsibility" and that he had "a very good state of mind in all missions he participated in.

The young soldier had been awarded the National Defense Medal (bronze level).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XW_dh1DPv9I/Thu0Z32giLI/AAAAAAAABvQ/yKYAKwH3DQ4/s320/kovac-clement.jpg

[Grace]

Italy


Italian Army Primo Caporal Maggiore Roberto Marchini was killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday 12th July 2011 during a joint patrol about 3km from FOB Lavaredo, in Bakwa district, Farah province, Afghanistan. It was the last day of his deployment in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Maj. Marchini, born in 1983, served with the 8th Parachute Engineer Regiment based at Legnago, a unit within the Folgore Parachute Brigade. He was a bomb-disposal engineer on his third overseas combat mission.

He joined the army in 2005 and was proud to be a part of a team specializing in reconnaissance and bomb disposal. He leaves his parents and a sister.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dtMAofxTvOU/ThxNUMxqyZI/AAAAAAAABv4/lysoXd4PsM4/s320/marchini-roberto.jpg

[Grace]

Denmark


COPENHAGEN — A Danish soldier was killed in an explosion in the southern Afghan province of Helmand Sunday morning, the Danish military said.

The soldier, who had been carrying out "an operative duty west of the Patrol Base Line," was evacuated by helicopter to the Danish field hospital at Camp Bastion, but "his life could not be saved," the military said in a statement.

It provided no further details of the circumstances around the explosion.

There are some 750 Danish troops in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in Helmand province under British command.

Denmark has said that 30 of them will be brought home this summer, and that by the second half of 2012, the force will be reduced to about 650 soldiers.

Sunday's death brought to 39 the number of Danish soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan since the deployment began. Two others have died outside of combat, one of a heart attack and the other by suicide.

I can find no further information on this - no name has been posted.

[Grace]

Denmark

Finally got the information.


23-year-old Danish Army Konstabel Alexander Biune was killed in Helmand province on 10th July 2011 by the blast from a roadside bomb. He died in a military field hospital in Camp Bastion after being airlifted by helicopter.

Konstabel Biune served with the Jutland Dragoons based at Holstebro. He joined the army in February 2010.

Head of Danish Battlegroup, Colonel Jens Riis, said of Konstabel Biune: "He trusted himself and everyone felt safe when he took the lead. He lead his mates through perilous areas and did it with a conviction that he was better than anyone. He did until this tragic day for all of us."

Konstabel Biune leaves his parents, his girlfriend and two siblings.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mX1BL0fWZ4w/ThzpfBS52yI/AAAAAAAABwI/2q_BoNfZa0Q/s320/biune-alex.jpg