In Memoriam

[Grace]

Micronesia

Staff Sgt. Jerome Firtamag

From: Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
Age: 29
Unit: 96th Combat Support Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Divisionz
Died: February 24, 2011

Firtamag was medically evacuated from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to the United States for treatment of a non-combat related illness on December 1, 2010. He died on February 24, 2011, in Pembroke, Kentucky.

[Grace]

Speaking at the United States Military Academy at West Point today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said this -

“Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as Gen. [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it,”

Too bad Mr. Gates was not President Bush's first choice for SecDef.