[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

“Caster Lay Bleeding And Dying 56 Minutes”
“The Incident That Resulted In Our Son’s Death Illustrates The Poor Readiness Of The United States Army To Perform Its Mission In Iraq”

The details of Stephen L. and Kay Castner’s son’s last hours and minutes, and the delay in potential lifesaving medical attention, were painful enough, were it not compounded by his letters from training camp expressing concerns with the training.

October 31, 2006 By LISA CURTIS, Ozaukee County News Graphic

CEDARBURG: From the time he reported to a National Guard training at Camp Shelby, Miss., in May until he was mortally wounded over two months later in Iraq, it seems Stephen W. Castner was the victim of a series of military errors and miscommunications.

A report released to his parents this week shows that Caster, who told his father of equipment shortages and military instructors openly arguing about the best training tactics, lay bleeding and dying 56 minutes before a medical helicopter reached him.

According to the U.S. Army report, Castner was part of a large convoy of trucks traveling from Kuwait to western Iraq when his Humvee was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Obscured by large clouds of black smoke, soldiers in the flat-bed truck directly behind Castner’s Humvee were unaware that his Humvee was hit and radioed in that all of the trucks were “mission capable.” The convoy moved along for about 10 minutes before noticing that Castner’s B41 gun truck was missing.

The blast had sent the Humvee off the road, into a canal hidden by tall reeds and immersed in water up to the windows. When soldiers found the truck, three of the four National Guard soldiers assigned to the truck had escaped the vehicle.

Castner was trapped in the Humvee, bleeding severely from 52 shrapnel wounds to his thighs and buttocks. Radio communications signaling for medical help were delayed because the radio network was “clogged with trucks calling in their status reports,” according to the report.

An Army sergeant who treated Castner until the medical helicopter arrived said he was in and out of consciousness, but was “breathing within normal limits” once he was on the Medevac. By the time the helicopter landed at a military hospital seven minutes later, Castner had no pulse, no blood pressure and was not breathing. Forty-eight minutes later he was dead.

The details of Stephen L. and Kay Castner’s son’s last hours and minutes, and the delay in potential lifesaving medical attention, were painful enough, were it not compounded by his letters from training camp expressing concerns with the training.

The Castners contacted Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner with those concerns, but their son was killed before Sensenbrenner had a chance to look into the matter. The latest report only intensifies their concerns about the safety of the U.S. military in the Mideast.

“The incident that resulted in our son’s death illustrates the poor readiness of the United States Army to perform its mission in Iraq,” they said. “The soldiers in the convoy were not properly trained and were not adequately equipped. Neither has been corrected.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Baghdad Soldier Killed By IED

02 November 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061102-01

BAGHDAD: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died at approximately noon Wednesday when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device west of Baghdad.

Rumsfeld Gets Another Kill:
Family Mourning Illinois Native From The 172nd

Nov. 01, 2006 Associated Press

LAPORTE, Ind.: A family is mourning the death of their 26-year-old son who was killed in Iraq.

Sgt. Kraig Foyteck’s mother, Connie, says she was notified Tuesday that her son was killed when he was hit in the neck by a bullet or mortar fragment Monday in Mosul.

Officials told her his death was still under investigation.

Foyteck grew up in Skokie, Ill., and attended Niles West High School, but his family moved to LaPorte while he was in Iraq.

Connie Foyteck said she knew something was wrong when she didn’t get her daily e-mail from her son Tuesday. A few hours later, military officials came to her door to notify her of her son’s death.

“They caught me so off guard,” she said. “I just want to hold him one more time.”

Foyteck served with the 172nd Brigade, based in Alaska. He was awarded the Purple Heart in December after breaking four bones in his back.

He was supposed to have finished his tour in August, but the day before he was scheduled to leave Iraq, he was told he would be staying for a few more months.

Foyteck was looking forward to spending time on his new boat, sailing along the lake near his new house, his mother said.

“I thought we were in the end,” she said.

Foyteck is survived by his mother, brother and grandparents.

MORE:

Never Forget What Rumsfeld Did

[www.bringhome172nd.org/stryker/]

[Excerpts from: www.bringhome172nd.org/stryker/]

On July 26th, the men and women of the 172nd Stryker Combat Brigade prepared to end their unit’s deployment to Iraq. This unit of 3,800 Americans had endured the fight for a year, distinguishing itself as an essential and effective factor in bringing stability to the North of Iraq. A small number of the brigade had taken the first steps back on U.S. soil, arriving to their base near Fairbanks, Alaska, while many others were already in Kuwait waiting to board homebound planes.

With these successes behind them, their flak vests packed, personal items sent stateside, and their Stryker Armored Vehicles turned over to other newly-arrived units, this battle brigade was able to breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to Go Home.

The following day, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld gave his approval to extend the 172nd Brigade’s deployment in Iraq. Instead of greeting their loved ones, the Strykers will help to fight the insurgency in Baghdad.

A Morris Marine Is Killed In Iraq

October 27, 2006 BY JOHN WIHBEY AND MAURA McDERMOTT, Star-Ledger Staff

Marine Pfc. Donald Steven Brown saw his brother survive three tours in Iraq. He was determined to go, too.

And he finally did last month, fulfilling a dream he had to defend his country just like his big brother once did.

But Brown’s desire to serve his country was cut short. The buoyant 19-year-old who graduated from Roxbury High School last year died Wednesday from wounds suffered in combat, his family and military officials said yesterday.

The youngest of four children, Brown had followed the path of his 23-year-old brother, Kenneth, a Marine who had served in Iraq before leaving the corps last September.

“I think he knew that when he went in he would have to go to Iraq — Kenneth told him that,” his father, Philip Brown, said. “He wanted to be a history teacher, but he wanted to go into the Marines first. He wanted to take part in history.”

Brown’s parents recalled that their son loved being in the woods and playing football at the high school. He had gotten engaged in May, but long ago had set his sights on serving in the military.

“It was something that he really wanted to do to protect his country,” his mother, Annette Brown, said from the family’s home in Succasunna.

The Marine rifleman died from wounds he suffered during combat operations in Al Anbar province, according to a Department of Defense statement. Violence in the Sunni Muslim stronghold has plagued the American military effort.

Brown was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Six Marines from Brown’s battalion were killed this month in Iraq, and another Marine, Pfc. Daniel B. Chaires, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., from the same battalion was killed the same day, according to Marine 1st. Lt. Binford Strickland.

Brown was the 62nd soldier with New Jersey ties to be killed in the war.

He has been awarded the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. Brown was in line for promotion to lance corporal on Nov. 1, military officials said.

Annette Brown said her son always had a smile and loved four-wheeling, eating “no-fuss” baked chicken — his favorite meal — and hunting at his grandfather’s farm in Belmont, N.Y.

A member of Maranatha Baptist Church in Succasunna, Donald Brown joined the Marines in September 2005 and trained at the Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C.

Brown’s father said only one thing made his son flinch from the assignment.

“He knew he was going to leave his fiancée behind, so there was a little reservation there,” Philip Brown said. Donald Brown’s older sister, Michele Riera, 28, of Michigan, said he met his fiancée, Megan Robinson of Flanders, through a friend.

Roxbury School Superintendent Dennis Mack said it was a “difficult situation” for the high school yesterday after Brown’s death was announced over the school intercom as students sat in classrooms.

Rumors of the recent graduate’s death had begun circulating in the morning, and the school made grief counselors and psychologists available after administrators broke the news to students.

“He’s very close to a lot of kids who are still in school,” Mack said. “It’s a shocking turn of events.”

Roxbury has not had a former student die in combat since 1970, when a young man was killed in the Vietnam War, the superintendent said. A shrine to honor that veteran sits near the high school auditorium, and the school hopes to add a tribute to Brown soon, Mack said.

A Veterans Day ceremony to be held Nov. 8 in Roxbury will commemorate Brown, school officials said.

Mark Solis, 20, a classmate who played football and ran track with Brown, recalled the tall and slender teen always talked with friends about how excited he was to join the Marines.

“He just always seemed to be the perfect kind of person to be in the military,” said Solis, a college sophomore. “He was very disciplined, he was very honest, very positive, nice to everyone.”

Brown often spoke about “how much he wanted to go over there and make a difference,” Solis said. “He was a pretty quiet kid at first from an outsider’s point of view, but if you got to know him he was definitely just one of the nicest kids you’d ever know.”

Brown only went out for the football team his freshman and senior years, but he was a dedicated athlete who was one of the fastest runners on the track team, Solis said.

R.J. Canning, a fellow football player and 19-year-old sophomore at Rowan University, said he remembers Brown making a playful whooping noise while he was running back a punt and all his fellow players on the sideline laughing at it.

“That was definitely one of the better moments of that season,” he said.

He said the last time he saw Brown was in the Ledgewood Mall, where he was hard at work with his Marine uniform on.

“I saw him over winter break last year, and he was actually recruiting to get some more kids signed up,” Canning said. “He was telling some stories about boot camp. He was in good spirits.”

Harry Mangiro, whose son Santino, 17, is a senior football captain this year, said Brown made a big impression on families last year when he spoke at a school function about his plans to fight for his country.

“Everybody held their breath a little bit,” Mangiro recalled. “The moms, they cringe … and the dads, you know, here’s a kid who’s focused on what he wants to do, and God bless him.”

Mangiro’s son learned of Brown’s death late Wednesday night, as teens passed the news around over instant messages on their computers. It hit a little harder, coming so soon after the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Benedict Cosgrove III, a 23-year-old Hanover man who was killed by a suicide bomber on Oct. 1, Harry Mangiro said.

“It’s finally starting to hit home here in Morris County,” Mangiro said of the war.

In addition to his mother and father and siblings Kenneth and Michele, Donald Brown is survived by another brother, Joshua. Funeral arrangements were pending yesterday.

Deltona Soldier Is Killed In Iraq

Pfc. Nicholas Rogers (COURTESY OF THE ROGERS FAMILY)

October 24, 2006 Tanya Caldwell, Sentinel Staff Writer

DELTONA: Another Army medic from Deltona was killed in combat in Iraq this week, the second such loss in the war on terror his hometown has suffered in three weeks.

Pfc. Nicholas Rogers, 27 — son of the city’s deputy fire chief, Robert Rogers — was walking on patrol with fellow soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday when he was shot and killed by enemy fire, said Peter Behnke, a longtime family friend who served as a spokesman Monday because the family was too distraught to talk to reporters.

Rogers, who had been in Baghdad for only two months, was a husband and father, with a 3-year-old daughter. His wife, Kelly, is six months pregnant with their second daughter, Behnke said.

Kelly Rogers and her daughter are planning to stay at Chief Rogers’ Deltona home, where they recently moved from Fort Drum in New York once Nicholas Rogers was deployed, Behnke said. Soldiers showed up at the fire chief’s doorstep Sunday night to tell the family about Rogers’ death.

“It was a pretty emotional scene,” Behnke said.

The news spread fast across Deltona. Members of the city’s fire and rescue team have been at the chief’s house around the clock to support the family, Behnke said. Chief Rogers has been with fire services for about 25 years, officials said.

“It’s sad,” said Division Chief David Faer, who remembered when Nicholas Rogers used to hang out with the firefighters as a child. “You don’t know how to act because it’s hard to fathom. This hits so close to home.”

Deltona Mayor Dennis Mulder, who graduated from Deltona High School with Rogers in 1997, said his classmate’s death puts an unsettling local connection to the overseas war at hand.

Mulder remembered Rogers as a classmate with a gift for making others laugh. “He would always say the funniest things at the right times,” said Mulder, who took English and foreign-language classes with Rogers and eventually attended his wedding. “He could crack the room up.”

Rogers’ death is the second tragedy to hit the school this month.

Spc. Angelo Vaccaro, also a combat medic, was killed Oct. 2 by a rocket-propelled grenade while he was trying to recover wounded soldiers in Afghanistan, officials said. Vaccaro, who graduated from Deltona High in 2001, was 23.

The two had much in common. Both were combat medics and Deltona High grads who served in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, also known as the “Mountain Lions.” And their fellow troops were so attached to them that they nicknamed them both “Doc,” their families said.

Cpl. Joshua C. Watkins was “conducting combat operations” in Al Anbar province in Iraq when he and three other North Carolina-based soldiers were killed, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The military reported that 94 Floridians have been killed in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom as of Oct. 14.

Mulder and Faer said the city and fire departments would continue to support the Rogers family as they grieve for the deputy chief’s son.

“You know, you hear about this stuff every day, but I don’t like the feeling of this being so close to home,” the mayor said. “This is a scary reality for us right now.”

Before joining the military, Nicholas Rogers earned certification as an emergency medical technician. Helping others came naturally to him, Behnke said, because it was the family business.

“It was just embedded in him,” Behnke said outside of the Rogers’ home Monday. “I think he was really there to serve and to take care of his guys.”

Leesburg Marine Wounded In Iraq

10/31/2006 By Anne Keisman, Loudoun Times Mirror

Leesburg resident David Charette answered his phone on Oct. 23, and heard the words dreaded by every parent with a child in the military.

“The voice on the other end told my husband, ‘I have some news about your son,’” said Diane Charette, mother of Lance Cpl. Christopher Charette who was wounded in Iraq on Oct. 23.

Chris Charette, a 22-year-old Marine reservist based at Fort Detrick, Md., was shot in the left shoulder and hand while conducting combat operations against anti-Iraqi forces in the Al Anbar Province, according to Capt. Christian Devine of the Fort Detrick Public Affairs Office. Charette had arrived in Iraq on Oct. 16.

Devine had no further details about the circumstances of the incident, but said Charette lost his left thumb as a result of the injuries. Charette’s unit is providing waterway and dam security in the area near the city of Haditha in the Euphrates River Valley, said Devine.

Charette is now in good and stable condition, said Devine, and was scheduled to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday evening and be transported to Bethesda Naval Medical Center to recover from his injuries.

Charette, a 2003 Stone Bridge High School graduate, received treatment at the Landsthul Regional Medical Center in Germany. He called his mother from Germany on Monday

“Hearing his voice — it is a big lift off my shoulders,” Diane Charette said. She said that she also spoke with his commander in Iraq, who said that Charette had “gone above and beyond the call of duty to execute heroic actions” at the time he was wounded.

“We’re very proud of him,” she said. She received a postcard on Saturday from her son written four days before his injury, where he described the beauty of the Euphrates River Valley. He even wrote that if it weren’t war-torn, the area would be a perfect spot for a resort.

His mother said her son drove trucks that hauled boats used to patrol the Euphrates River and the Haditha Dam.

Charette was on the wrestling team at Stone Bridge and joined the Marine reserves his junior year, as part of an early entry program.

His former wrestling coach Bill Bono, who now teaches at Loudoun Valley High School, said he was saddened to hear of Charette’s injuries.

“He was a dedicated young man,” said Bono. “We were proud of his accomplishments, and we were also proud that he was serving our country in the military. I’m very concerned about his well-being, and I’m sure his teammates are as well.”

Mike Faul, who also coached wrestling and taught Charette’s senior English class, said he appreciated Charette’s sense of humor. Faul, who still teaches at Stone Bridge, said that once as a joke Charette and some friends held Faul’s coffee thermos ransom.

“They kept it overnight, then left it on my front porch with a note and a gift card,” said Faul.

Charette’s mother said her community of Potomac Crossing in Leesburg has been very supportive of her family, which includes two other children, David, 18, and Chelsea, 14 – both students at Heritage High School.

“I came home from work, and as I turned the corner to get to my driveway, I saw that all the neighbors had yellow ribbons out front,” she said.

“It’s Combat Nearly Every Day”
“The Number Of Attacks On American Forces Increased In October To Unprecedented Levels”
“A Much More Considered Effort To Specifically Target Coalition And Iraqi Security Forces”

November 1, 2006 By Borzou Daragahi, L.A. Times Staff Writer [Excerpts]

The number of attacks on American forces increased in October to unprecedented levels, U.S. military officials said.

“There has been a much more considered effort to specifically target coalition and Iraqi security forces,” Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad as the month wore on.

“There has been a steady increase in the number of attacks specifically against security forces.”

The Marine Corps, unlike the Army, does not release information about the exact location or cause of deaths. Senior Marine officers think such information could help the enemy. The Marines, in public announcements, described at least 18 of the October deaths as “hostile” incidents in Al Anbar.

Most officials acknowledge that many of the Marine casualties in October occurred in Ramadi, the rundown provincial capital where insurgents have intimidated most Iraqi government workers into fleeing. Marines face daily threats from roadside bombs, snipers and assaults on their fortified bases.

“It’s combat nearly every day,” one Marine officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Ramadi is where the terrorists want to establish their capital. They’re armed and they’re relentless.”

REALLY BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A U.S. Soldier on a street in Mosul, Iraq, following a truck bomb Oct. 19, 2006. (AP Photo/The Olympian, Tony Overman)

“More American Soldiers Were Killed By Snipers In The First 10 Days Of October Than Were Killed By Sniper Fire In All Of September”

November 1, 2006 By THOM SHANKER and DAVID S. CLOUD, The New York Times Company [Excerpts]

About two-thirds of the deaths among American troops in Iraq in October occurred outside Baghdad, even with a sharp increase in combat deaths in the capital that made it the fourth deadliest month of the war for the United States, Defense Department figures show.

The October death toll, which stood at 103 by late Tuesday, was the highest since January 2005, when 107 American troops were killed.

Forty American soldiers were killed in and around Baghdad in October, double the number there just two months ago, a review of casualty reports shows.

Military officers and civilian analysts said the rise in October resulted in part from more aggressive American security operations in Baghdad, which exposed larger numbers of troops to danger. The security operation in the capital put American troops on the streets not only in greater numbers, but more often on foot patrols outside their armored vehicles, where they were more vulnerable to improvised bombs and a growing threat of snipers.

The spike in violence in the capital was accompanied by higher tolls in other parts of the country, notably in Anbar Province, where 37 Americans died and deaths have climbed steadily since this summer.

The jump in combat deaths in October mirrored the annual rise in violence that coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Military officers and civilian analysts rejected assertions by some Bush administration officials that the insurgents had planned offensives to influence the elections in the United States next Tuesday.

Hidden bombs remained the single biggest killer, and more deaths occurred throughout Iraq from such devices in October than in any previous month but one.

Beyond that, more soldiers were also killed by small-arms fire and snipers than in the past, according to officials and the casualty reports.

Throughout Iraq, more American soldiers were killed by snipers in the first 10 days of October than were killed by sniper fire in all of September, according to an Army spokesman, Paul Boyce. He declined to release precise numbers.

Lt. Col. Jonathan B. Withington, an Army spokesman for the multinational division responsible for Baghdad and central Iraq, said casualties were high in October because there were “twice as many forces on the ground conducting operations in Baghdad.” He also cited Ramadan, and said the enemy was “attempting to push back on us” in response to the new security operation.

The Department of Defense posts cumulative statistics on those killed and wounded in Iraq at its Web site www.defenselink.mil/news/, where statistics on Tuesday showed 2,258 American military personnel had been killed in Iraq in combat and 556 in nonhostile incidents.

The number of troops wounded in Iraq who have returned to duty stood at 11,682, and the number of those wounded so severely that they could not return to duty was 9,737.

Statistics provided by Michael S. White and Glenn Kutler of ICasualties.org, a privately operated database that uses the Defense Department’s official casualty announcements, indicated the geographical distribution of October fatalities: roughly one-third in Baghdad; one-third in Anbar Province, the restive western area that is a haven for Sunni insurgents and associates of Al Qaeda; and one-third in volatile cities to the north, including Taji, Tikrit, Samarra, Kirkuk and Mosul.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Three Foreign Fighters Wounded:
Nationality Not Announced

01 November 2006 (CNN) & (CBC)

A car bomb targeted an International Security Assistance Force convoy on Wednesday in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, wounding three NATO soldiers, according to the International Security Assistance Force, which is the NATO deployment in Afghanistan.

The attack occurred on the main highway that leads to a NATO base outside the city of Kandahar, said squadron leader Jason Chalk, spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

The bomber drove a car into a NATO convoy near a small bazaar on the highway.

Blinding Flash Of The Obvious

11.1.06 VOA News

NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, British General David Richards, told the Financial Times that he doesn’t have enough forces to defeat the Taleban within the next six months. [How about 60? 600?]

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

U.S. military medical staff treat a wounded U.S. soldier at a U.S. military hospital in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad October 30, 2006. Picture taken October 30, 2006. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ)

“A Few Of The Mourners Came Right Out And Said It:
They Weren’t Sure He Died For A Good Cause”
“There’s No Justification At All”

November 1, 2006 By Ellen Barry, David Zucchino and P.J. Huffstutter, L.A. Times Staff Writers [Excerpts]

Wellsboro, Pa.: Four were teenagers. Thirty were 21 or younger. The oldest was 53.

They left homes in big cities and small prairie towns and Southern hamlets to answer the call of duty in Iraq, where 103 soldiers, Marines, airmen and seamen died in October, the war’s fourth-deadliest month and the worst since January 2005.

On the final day of October, Sgt. 1st Class Tony L. Knier, who needed his mother’s permission to join the Army at 16, returned in a casket to the coarse green hills of central Pennsylvania. His mother was there, and his widow, and dozens of relatives and friends, and stooped veterans who whispered words of comfort in his widow’s ear.

The casket was closed. Knier, 31, was killed Oct. 21 by a roadside bomb that fractured his skull.

On a day when the American death toll in Iraq stood at 2,813, a few of the mourners came right out and said it: They weren’t sure he died for a good cause.

But all agreed on what serving in Iraq meant to Tony.

His widow, Bobbi Knier, who first met Tony when she was a 16-year-old cheerleader, said her husband “wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.” She spoke without tears. “My husband,” she said. “He’s awesome. He’s Army.”

The price has been paid each month since the war began in March 2003.

The October total could increase. The Pentagon sometimes delays announcing combat deaths.

There were scenes of finality this week in many towns, where the turned cemetery dirt was still fresh, or where burial ceremonies were being planned inside funeral homes.

In Aurora, Ill., on Monday, American flags held by volunteers snapped in a brisk wind outside San Pablo Lutheran Church as mourners said farewell to Marine sniper Edwardo “Eddy” J. Lopez, 21.

Lopez, a lance corporal, had survived duty in Afghanistan but was killed Oct. 19 during combat in the insurgent stronghold of Al Anbar province.

Before he left for Iraq, Lopez had come to the church of his childhood to hear one final service. Afterward, he sought out the Rev. Alex Merlo and asked for his blessing.

“He said: ‘If something happens to me, if I die in war, take me back to our church. Make sure I get home,’ “Merlo recalled.

The reverend kept his promise. Lopez was back at San Pablo on Monday, inside a flag-draped casket.

In Portland, Ore., a bugler sounded taps and uniformed men fired rifles into the crisp air Monday to honor Staff Sgt. Ronald L. Paulson.

A civil affairs officer and Army Reservist, Paulson was killed Oct. 17 by a roadside bomb. He was 53, the oldest American to die in Iraq in October. At Willamette National Cemetery on a hill high above the city, his widow, Beverly Paulson, accepted a folded Stars and Stripes as bagpipes sounded.

Before being recalled to active duty in December 2005, Paulson had spent 14 years working at Gunderson Inc., a company that makes rail cars and barges.

In Apex, N.C., the family of Army Maj. David G. Taylor Jr. filed into a red-brick funeral home Tuesday to plan his services, scheduled for Thursday.

Taylor, 37, was the highest-ranking serviceman to die in October. He was killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to his Humvee in Baghdad on Oct. 22 as he trained new arrivals.

Taylor was able to take mid-tour leave to be present when his wife, Michelle, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Jacob, now 4 months old. His family asked well-wishers, in lieu of flowers, to thank a soldier, police officer or firefighter for service to the country.

In Rancho Cucamonga, the death of Army Capt. Mark C. Paine left his mother deeply conflicted. Paine, 32, died when a roadside bomb was detonated next to his Humvee on Oct. 15 near Taji, north of Baghdad.

“Am I proud?” Kairyn Paine, 56, asked with a weary sigh. “Yes, of course, but what does this say about our strategy over there?”

Once a staunch supporter of President Bush, Paine said she had undergone “a complete change of heart as I’ve watched the failed strategy unfold.”

In Michigan, the governor ordered all flags in the state lowered to half-staff today to honor two Michigan Marines. Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Manoukian, 22, and Lance Cpl. Clifford R. Collinsworth, 20, were killed Oct. 21 when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb.

As casualties mounted in October, Collinsworth’s family grew apprehensive. “We worried and we worried and then it happened,” said his aunt, Debbie Ellis. “You can’t believe it until it happens to you.”

The month’s first casualty was Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, a New York National Guard soldier assigned to a transportation company.

Lannaman, the only woman among the October casualties, died from a “non-combat related incident” at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, the Pentagon said. Anyone killed in the theater of military operations is included in the monthly Iraq death toll.

Most of the October casualties were Army. One-quarter were Marines. There were three airmen and two sailors. Each individual death dealt a blow to family and friends.

The faithful who gathered at San Pablo Lutheran Church in Aurora to say goodbye to Lopez, the Marine sniper, were stunned and overpowered by a sense of loss.

Lopez’s parents were joined in the rough-hewn pews by scores of uncles, aunts and cousins. Childhood buddies and high school teachers were there. So were shopkeepers and long-ago neighbors, a town librarian and Illinois’ lieutenant governor.

Merlo and the Rev. Michael Sneath, a Navy chaplain, conducted the service in English and Spanish.

“This was a young man who really loved his country, who wanted to be a soldier all his life,” Merlo told the mourners. “Now that he is gone, how do we live our life? How do we go on?”

After the service, a milelong caravan of mourners slowly made its way to St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery in nearby Montgomery, Ill., about an hour west of Chicago. Gathered under a blue sunshade, family members clung to one another. Nearby, the military had laid out an M-16, a helmet and dog tags.

Merlo began a prayer for Lopez. Halfway through, his voice broke. He swallowed. His hands, holding a Bible, began to shake. It took him a minute to resume.

Martha Lopez, Eddy’s mother, sat on a folding chair. Tears flowed down her pale face. As a Marine honor guard raised its seven rifles and fired three volleys, the mother’s silence broke.

Lunging to her feet, she stumbled to the closed casket and smothered it with kisses.

“I miss you, papi!” she wailed, resting her head on the casket lid. “I miss you so much already! I miss you!”

Family members rushed to her, gently pried her hands from the casket and slowly walked her back to her seat.

Betty Tidwell stood near her son’s flag-draped casket inside a funeral home in Pennsylvania and recalled his campaign to join the Army Reserves at age 16.

Tony Knier tried several times to persuade her to sign a release. She finally relented, but only after asking for a promise from the recruiter that her son would not be hurt. The recruiter said he could not promise anything. But he would try.

On Oct. 21, Tidwell received the call that her son was gone. “I must have fallen down,” she said, “because my husband picked me up.”

The war that claimed her son means different things to the people who loved him.

Knier’s brother, Richard, 33, wants to stay the course.

“Now that we’re there, we’ve got to finish what we started,” he said.

Tony’s uncle and godfather, John Knier, 69, said Tony “did what he had to do. He figured he was doing it for himself and for the whole country.”

He grimaced, and then went on: “I feel bitter toward the war. We’re not going to gain nothing out of it. It means nothing.”

Tony’s close friend, Brett May, 31, said, “There’s no justification at all.”

Bobbi is struggling to explain Tony’s death to their three children. Kayli, 2, is too young to understand. On Tuesday, she picked up her aunt’s cellphone and engaged in a cheerful, imaginary conversation with her father.

Dakoda, 6, asked his mother the night before the funeral: “Why did Daddy have to die?”

Bobbi said she answered: “Honey, you know, Mommy doesn’t know. But God does have a plan for us all.”

Marcus, 8, had told his mother that he was angry with her and his father for saying that Tony would be just fine in Iraq.

“Mommy lied to me,” he told his mother. “Daddy lied to me.”

But the next day, at his father’s funeral, Marcus told a reporter: “Put this in the paper: My dad will never be forgotten.”

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

Mall Rats Sue Veterans Who Read Names Of War Dead
“The D.A. Refused To Prosecute Us On Criminal Charges, And So The Mall Filed A Suit Using Big Business”

09/15/2006 By Katie Young , Freeman staff, Daily Freeman [Just received via Veterans For Peace. T]

TOWN OF ULSTER: Kings Mall has filed a civil suit against protesters who read the names of dead soldiers and distribute anti-war literature in front of the military recruitment center at the U.S. Route 9W mall.

The mall’s attorney, Jon A. Simonson, said the suit stems from tenants’ complaints over loss of business from the protests, with damages estimated at $50,000. [Given that most people oppose the war now, the Vets should sue for the extra money the mall tenants made because the Vets were there. That would make as much sense. What lame bullshit.]

The suit follows the dismissal in late May of trespassing charges against two of the defendants, Jay Wenk and Joan Keefe, both members of the group Veterans For Peace. The two were arrested Feb. 4, and Wenk was arrested again Feb. 11, on charges of harassment.

Ulster County District Attorney Donald A. Williams said the February case was not a criminal matter and that the mall was “initiating an appropriate civil remedy.”

Wenk and Keefe were charged with trespassing in August 2005, but those charges were dropped four months later because the complaint failed to state why the two had been asked to leave the mall.

The 79-year-old Wenk, who lives in Woodstock, said he and Keefe were served with the suit while protesting at the mall on Saturday.

“The D.A. refused to prosecute us on criminal charges, and so the mall filed a suit using big business,” said Wenk, a World War II veteran.

Wenk and other protesters have read the names of dead soldiers and handed out anti-war literature in front of the military recruitment center each Saturday for the past year- and-a-half. They also bring signs and photographs: a sensitive point for mall tenants, who complained the display was driving customers away and hurting business.

“We’re doing this on behalf of the tenants because they’re the ones complaining,” Tracy Naud, the mall’s property manager, said of the lawsuit.

“It’s hurting their business by putting pictures of dead people in the hallway.”

“We understand people may have a political point of view, but at the same time, these businesses have the right to engage in their business and attract customers,” Simonson said.

Wenk and Keefe, an 84-year-old Saugerties resident, are being represented by Alan Sussman, the same attorney who pleaded their case in the past.

The suit also was addressed to “John and Jane Doe” – unnamed defendants who the plaintiff hopes to assign to other protesters.

“I don’t know how serious the mall is about collecting money; I think they want to get these people out of there,” said Stephen Bergstein, the attorney assigned to unnamed defendants.

“We believe the First Amendment has to factor into the way this case is resolved.”

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

11.1.06 By BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA & By SAMEER N. YACOUB, The Associated Press & Reuters

One policeman was killed and three injured Tuesday morning when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in the capital’s southeastern New Baghdad neighborhood, police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun said.

A second officer, police commando unit commander Ali Abdul-Kadhim, was killed by guerrilla fighters in a car while standing near his home in eastern Baghdad.

An Iraqi translator with U.S. forces, Haidar Muhsin, was shot dead late Tuesday in front of his home in Diwaniyah, the second translator killed in the southern city in recent days.

In fresh attacks Wednesday, guerrillas riding in a private car shot dead police officer Izzaddin Abbas in central Baghdad as he rode his motorcycle home.

A clerk with the Ministry of Industry was shot and killed in northeastern Baghdad as he was driving to work, police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud said.

A police officer was among three people shot dead in the northern city of Mosul, said Brig. Sa’eed Ahmed of the provincial Police Information Office. Guerrillas also killed Batool Jabur Shallal, a police receptionist in the northern city of Mosul, as she was driving with her husband.

Police Maj. Mohannad Saqiq Abbas of Transportation Ministry protection force was captured while visiting relatives in Rahsad, about 250 kilometers north of Baghdad.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“How Soldiers Rebelled Within The Ranks Of The U.S. Military In Reaction To The Insanity Of The Vietnam War”

Doug Hazen, alt.current-events [Excerpt]

One example of yanking ‘60s history out of the closet is the new film, “Sir! No Sir!,” by David Zeiger.

This documentary, which opens April 7, tells the powerful story of how soldiers rebelled within the ranks of the U.S. military in reaction to the insanity of the Vietnam War.

It portrays the culture of the GI coffeehouses and the barnstorming actors and musicians led by Jane Fonda, who nurtured the resistance.

In the end, the film makes a convincing case that Nixon and Kissinger had no choice but to get the hell out of Vietnam. Toward the end of the war, thousands of GIs were refusing to do battle: some fragging officers who attempted to force them into hopeless and treacherous situations.

When I saw the film recently in Mill Valley, Calif., both Jane Fonda and Cindy Sheehan were present to honor many of the courageous vets who fought the war from the inside.

Fonda made one crucial point that night that stuck with me. She said that everyone associated with the successful soldier rebellion and the powerful themes of the ‘60s had to be demonized by the government and the media or else our military might would be called into question: the illusion of power we need to maintain empire.

The result is that soldiers who had the best of intentions and told the truth about what was really happening in Vietnam would be forever labeled as unpatriotic.

Sir! No Sir!:
At A Theatre Near You!
To find it: www.sirnosir.com/

The Sir! No Sir! DVD is on sale now, exclusively at www.sirnosir.com.

Also available will be a Soundtrack CD (which includes the entire song from the FTA Show, “Soldier We Love You”), theatrical posters, tee shirts, and the DVD of “A Night of Ferocious Joy,” a film about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

“They Marched Until They Were Arrested”

From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: October 23, 2006 10:33 PM
Subject: They Marched Until They Were Arrested

They Marched Until They Were Arrested

35 peacemakers were arrested for blocking
the entrance to a weapons depot near Port
Townsend, Washington.

They marched and marched.

With each large step, they chanted,
“WE ARE WAR— RESISTERS.” They
took another large step, and once again,
they chanted, “WE ARE WAR—RESISTERS.”
They marched and marched and marched…
“WE ARE WAR—RESISTERS.”

By the time they got to the police and the front
gate, the hair on my arms stood up.

That is how you stop an insane war.
If need be, you die for your country.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
October 23, 2006

Photo and caption from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

Crossing Lines

From: Dennis Serdel
To: GI Special
Sent: November 01, 2006 7:43 PM
Subject: Crossing Lines

By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour), Americal Div. 11th Brigade, Light Infantry, Veterans For Peace #50, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, Perry, Michigan

Crossing Lines

When his best friend Tommy was killed
Phil wanted to kill so bad an Iraqi man
or a boy or a woman or someone to make it even
or with clenched teeth punch one of them
knock him to the ground and kick his head in
after so many deaths and another close friend
Jimmy was hit and paralyzed
Phil finally shot and killed one of them
an old Iraqi man but he didn’t care fair was fair
his world tilted like an old pinball machine
steel bullet balls now counting Iraqi anybodies
like notches on his gun he had crossed a line
like Ltn Calley’s boys did in My Lai
after so many were killed by invisible
enemy booby traps nothing to shoot at
feeling so unfair lousy roadside bombs
that the civilians knew were there
but wouldn’t tell the soldiers
what are we fighting for here it’s useless
they all hate us and we hate them
so let’s all go home the war is a mistake
and another line is crossed
we won’t fight anymore
for you miserable bastards that sent us here
we hate you too and now we get to feel
like shit for the rest of our lives
but sometimes another line is crossed too.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

Iraqi citizens trying to pick up the pieces inside a Shi’ite mosque after a raid by the U.S. forces in Baghdad October 20, 2006 trashed the mosque, and knocked down part of the building. Money and computers were taken without a search warrant. U.S. forces killed one person and two were taken prisoner, police and witnesses said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen (IRAQ)

[There’s nothing quite like invading somebody else’s country and busting into and destroying their churches and homes by force and killing the citizens to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there.

[But your commanders know that, don’t they? Don’t they?]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

War Profiteer Leaves:
Troops Stay

November 1, 2006 David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq three years ago to help rebuild a nation torn by war. Since then, 52 of its people have been killed and much of its work sabotaged as Iraq dissolved into insurgency and sectarian violence.

Now Bechtel is leaving.

The San Francisco engineering company’s last government contract to rebuild power, water and sewage plants across Iraq expired on Tuesday. Some employees remain to finish the paperwork, but essentially, the company’s job is done.

Vice-President Says “I Am Against All Forms Of Collective Punishment Against Iraqis By The Foreign Forces”

11.1.06 By SAMEER N. YACOUB (AP)

U.S. demands for a crackdown on the militia have been a sticking point in relations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose coalition government is heavily dependent on al-Sadr’s political support.

On Tuesday, U.S. forces dismantled road blocks around the Mahdi Army’s Baghdad stronghold, the Sadr City neighborhood, following an order from the prime minister that was the latest in a series of challenges to the U.S. designed to test Washington’s readiness to give him a greater say in securing the world’s most violent capital.

“Sieges all over Iraq should be lifted, not just the one on Sadr City,” said the Sunni Vice President Taha al-Hashemi, who has threatened to resign if al-Maliki did not move swiftly to eradicate militia groups.

“I am against all forms of collective punishment against Iraqis by the foreign forces.”

Dogs And False Patriots Infest The Green Zone
[Just Like Washington DC]

11.1.06 By SAMEER N. YACOUB (AP)

Parliament speaker Al-Mashhadani had been holding a news conference when he lashed out at a lawmaker from a rival Sunni bloc, Abdel-Karim al-Samarie, for alleged corruption and failure to attend sessions, calling him a “dog,” a deep insult in Iraq and other Arab societies.

Al-Samarie, a member of the main Sunni parliamentary bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, responded by calling al-Mashhadani a false patriot. The speaker then lunged at al-Samarie, but was held back by bodyguards.

Al-Mashhadani had been angered by low attendance among Iraqi Accordance Front lawmakers that prevented the 275-seat body from making the quorum of 138 of the 275 lawmakers.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send to contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential. Same to unsubscribe.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]

Chertoff Raises Threat Level On Reports Of Imminent Election:
Calls Threat Of November 7 Vote ‘Credible’

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today raised the national threat level to red after intelligence reports indicated that a national election could be imminent.

Speaking at a Washington press conference, Mr. Chertoff said that his department made the difficult decision to ratchet the nation’s terror alert system up to the highest level after being assured by intelligence officials that the threat of an impending election was “credible.”

“We do not know exactly when the election will take place, but we have credible information suggesting it will happen on or around November 7,” Mr. Chertoff said.

The homeland security secretary said that intelligence sources believe that the al-Qaeda terror network might be implementing a plot to booby-trap voting machines, causing the machines to explode if a voter pulls a lever for a Democratic candidate.

“My advice to all voters who were thinking of voting for Democrats is to stay at home until this current threat passes,” Mr. Chertoff said. “In this business, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

The warning from the Department of Homeland Security drew a harsh rebuke from Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, who said that the timing of the Homeland Security Department’s move “doesn’t pass the smell test.”

But Mr. Chertoff remained unfazed by Mr. Dean’s criticism, arguing, “Who are the American people going to believe: someone who is politically motivated, or the Department of Homeland Security?”

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers.  www.traveling-soldier.org/  And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

All GI Special issues achieved at website
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gi-special.iraq-news.de
www.notinourname.net/gi-special/
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www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/
www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
www.uruknet.info/

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