Iraq War News

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Enjoys brief break after serving in Iraq

Sixty days without a shower.
No real food, and minimum amounts of it.
Steaming hot days in the desert and cold, sleepless nights watching for enemy attack.
The constant reality that your life could end at any moment.
That's only part of what Pfc. Randy Van Cleef endured while serving his country as a member of the U.S. Marines 3rd Expeditionary Brigade in Iraq.
Pfc. Van Cleef recently enjoyed a safe and happy homecoming, but he returned to his Millstone River Road home a changed young man.
"It's more serious around here," Pfc. Van Cleef said last week while spending a quiet day with his family at home. "I'll joke around, but I still don't really sleep that good."
A year ago, Pfc. Van Cleef was still preparing for basic training. He had graduated from Hillsborough High School in June, and like most other 18-year-olds, liked to hang out and joke with his friends.
To say his life has become more serious is a classic understatement. Now 19, Pfc. Van Cleef has just experienced something few can explain and even fewer can understand.
The Hillsborough resident, who will return to Camp Lejeune, N.C., today, Thursday, still has a difficult time sleeping. He looks at life differently. He feels strange talking to people who don't understand.
"Every day, it was either live or die," Pfc. Van Cleef said. "You have to live every day to the fullest. Anything can happen out there."
Pfc. Van Cleef feels fortunate that he survived the heavy combat. His unit lost 23 men. There were Marines killed next to him in the line of fire.
"There was always somebody shooting at somebody or somebody shooting at you," he said. "There were bombs, rocket, gunfire ... people dead in the street."
Pfc. Van Cleef's unit supported the main effort with house raids, military compound takeovers and prisoner interrogations to gain intelligence information. His group played a pivotal role in the much-publicized rescue of Jessica Lynch, who was being held as a POW in an Iraqi hospital.
"We took over this big compound and started doing house raids in the town," Pfc. Van Cleef said. "We interrogated them and they gave us information on her. They found out what hospital she was in."
Pfc. Van Cleef felt confident that his training would help him contribute to the U.S. military campaign but admitted to feeling scared at times. Some of the older, more experienced members of the unit helped alleviate the fears of the unknown and unexpected.
"We just went by how some of the older guys reacted," Pfc. Van Cleef said. "We just got right out of school. We had no idea what to expect."
Pfc. Van Cleef first left for Parris Island, S.C., almost a year ago on Aug. 3. He returned home for a week before starting Advanced Basic Infantry Training at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The young Marine became a member of the machine gun squad during the six-week advanced training regimen and received prompt orders to depart to Norfolk, Va.
He boarded an amphibious aircraft carrier with 2,000 Marines and 1,000 sailors headed to the Persian Gulf. The five-week voyage began Jan.12 and landed in Kuwait in the middle of February. Pfc. Van Cleef's squad was deployed by helicopter into the desert at Camp Shoop, where the Marines began field exercises and training to prepare for battle.
After contacting his family for the last time March 18, Pfc. Van Cleef and the rest of the U.S. troops went to war the next day. Some soldiers are still involved in the campaign, which Pfc. Van Cleef believes will end soon "now that Saddam's sons are dead."
Two months later on May 20, Pfc. Van Cleef took a three-day journey back to Kuwait, where he boarded a ship to civil-war torn Liberia where the Marines helped evacuate embassy personnel. After a week in Liberia, Pfc. Van Cleef started on his way home to America. He finally arrived on U.S. soil June 28.
It took another week or so to get back to Hillsborough, but Pfc. Van Cleef's family and friends couldn't wait to welcome him home. His parents, Bonnie and Jack, held a party in his honor on July 19.
"It felt real good just knowing that I was back home," said Pfc. Van Cleef, who wished to thank all the local residents for their support, letters and care packages. "I didn't have to worry about anything for a while."
Pfc. Van Cleef certainly deserved a break, a time without the deadly combat that can take a human life in an instant.
"Things just pop up in front of you so fast, you don't really realize what happened until it's over," he said. "They're always on top of you to be ready for anything. You have to have your top-notch training."
Pfc. Van Cleef will continue his military career with by returning to Camp Lejeune, where he'll be transferred to the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. That unit will work as an anti-terrorism battalion with possible deployment to Afghanistan, Cuba or Africa.
After enduring those brutal months defending his country in Iraq, Randy Van Cleef is ready for anything.

PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey

Learn How You Can Help Our Troops
Choose From A Variety Of Organizations That Need Your Help
Here's how you can help!

USA Freedom Corps

The federal government has set up a special Web site with information on how to volunteer send e-mail, thank you cards and care packages to troops overseas. There are also ways to help families of soldiers at home.


For more information:
www.usafreedomcorps.gov

American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay

The Red Cross always needs volunteers! You can help with blood donations, cash and in-kind donations or corporate sponsorships.

American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay
617-375-0700
www.bostonredcross.org


To volunteer at the Red Cross in your area:
www.bostonredcross.org


www.DefendAmerica.mil

The Department of Defense has a Web site set up that offers suggestions on how to deliver messages and other items to troops. The site, www.defendamerica.mil, has numerous links to other groups and organizations that can help.

www.operationuplink.org

People can donate calling cards to help keep servicemembers in touch with their families at www.operationuplink.org

Operation Dear Abby

www.operationdearabby.net allows people to send messages via e-mail that soldiers can read online. The messages can be viewed for at least two days.

Operation Independence

Operation Independence is a civilian-to-military delivery system based in southern California. It can deliver care packages to groups abroad. Information can be found at www.oidelivers.org

Kids Collect for "Care" Packages

The Roxbury Boys & Girls Club is collecting baby wipes, lip balm, Slim Jims, Altoids, playing cards, bandannas, paperback books and other items for soldiers overseas.

To help their effort, contact:

Anita Sutton
Roxbury Boys and Girls Club
115 Warren Street, Roxbury 02119
www.bgcb.org
617-427-6050

Collect items for "Care" packages for Massachusetts troops with Dorchester SOS

Dorchester resident Philip Carver started this drive with his neighbors to send needed items to his brother, Peter, serving overseas. The movement has grown, and now the goal is to send as many basic supplies to the troops as possible.

Dorchester SOS is collecting snacks, baby wipes, chapsticks and other personal supplies for men and women. Dorchester SOS' initial mailing list through the Federal Post Office system includes 50 Dorchester troopers that will each receive a care package that he or she will share with 20 others. In this way, Dorchester SOS hopes to provide items for at least 1000 soldiers.

For more information and a list of needed supplies:

www.popeshill.com
or email philip.carver@popeshill.com

Voluntary Service for the Department of Veterans Affairs


The VA invites individuals, veterans groups, military personnel, civic organizations, businesses, schools, celebrities and sports stars to participate in a variety of activities which pay tribute and express appreciation for our national veterans. These activities and events include special ward visits, school essay contests, special recreation activities and veteran recognition programs.


Volunteer Needs


Volunteer Drivers for the patient transportation network (all campuses). Provide transportation for patients who need assistance to scheduled appointments.


Clerical support to assist in busy clinic areas (all campuses) including Lowell OPC. Most healthcare is performed during daytime business hours ( 8 am to 5 pm) week days.

Volunteers to work with Spinal Cord Injury patients to help with meals (Silver Spoons) Brockton, Mass., and West Roxbury

Coffee hour volunteers to run hospitality programs (all campuses)

Items Needed

A number of household items are needed for the Huntington House which provides free lodging to veterans who travel more than 50 miles to Boston for care. This lodging is for veterans receiving healthcare is free of charge and your support would be appreciated.


Events

We have a number of regularly scheduled special events at all campuses in conjunction with holidays and national initiatives. Please call for more information.


Contact Information


Ralph Marche, Chief Voluntary Service
Voluntary Service Specialists Linda Peterson and Jim Will
617-232-9500


Phone Numbers:

West Roxbury Campus: 617-323-7700, ext 5135 (Bette Hughes, Program Assistant)

Jamaica Plain Campus: 617-232-9500, ext 5071 (Shirley Beckley, Program Assistant)

Brockton Campus: 508-583-4500, ext 1135 (Phyllis Turner, Program Assistant)


Help the pregnant wives of U.S. Military through "Operation Doula Care" volunteer support is needed!

Operating in all 50 states Operation Special Delivery and Operation Doula Care are a team of volunteer doulas (non-medically trained women trained to provide emotional and informational support to a woman during and after pregnancy) offer support and stability to the pregnant military wife in the form of continuous labor and birth suppport during her hosiptal stay. This free-of-charge support is available to pregnant U.S. military wives (Active Duty, Reservists, National Guard and Coast Guard) deployed as a direct result of the Sept. 11 attacks and are now taking part in Operation Enduring Freedom.

For specific information contact:
www.operationdoulacare.org
Tara Powe, C.D.
Massachusett state representative
1-978-374-4697
1-866-243-3049 (PIN 7920) toll free
outisde Massachusetts call the national office at 406-896-9292


Salvation Army to Assist Military Families in the Commonwealth

The Salvation Army is preparing to assist military families found in difficult situations due to the conflict with Iraq and the ongoing war on terrorism.

The Salvation Army has established a "Red Shield Relief Fund." They will add to the fund by accepting additional donations from the corporate community and the general public.

The Salvation Army has a long and proud history with the U.S. military dating back to World War I. At that time, Salvation Army personnel were sent directly to the front line, and stayed with the American troops for the duration of the war. During this campaign, The Salvation Army became known for their "Donut Girls" who provided donuts, other food, books and friendship to the soldiers. The Salvation Army has been actively involved with the U.S. military ever since.

Lt. Colonel Fred Van Brunt, Divisional Commander for The Salvation Army in Massachusetts, stated, "We feel privileged to be able to help those whose family members are making a great sacrifice to protect the people of the Commonwealth and the country. In addition to the relief fund, the Salvation Army is prepared to provide traditional assistance to qualified individuals from our 34 centers across the state."

Those services include fuel assistance through the Good Neighbor Energy Fund, food assistance and emergency relief when other resources are not available.

Military families should apply directly to their local or regional "Family Readiness Groups" for confirmation of need and support.

Contributions to the "Red Shield Relief Fund" can be mailed to:
The Salvation Army
147 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116
or donated online at

www.salvationarmy-ma.org
Please designate that the gift is for the "Red Shield Relief Fund."

For additional information, please contact Michael Fetcho, Director of Community Relations and Development at 617-542-5420 ext. 410.
TheBostonChannel.com - Community - Learn How You Can Help Our TTroops

Soldiers' deployment hard on families
Worries build when U.S. mail is too slow
Janet Braswell
American Senior Writer jbraswell@hattiesb.gannett.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheila Mack realizes she's a bundle of contradictions.
Patriotism and a mother's love wage daily battles in her heart and mind.

The conflicts leave her fiercely proud of her 19-year-old soldier son, terrified he'll be wounded or killed in Iraq, skeptical of some of the reasons America went to war but ready to punch anti-war protesters in the mouth and mad at the government for slow mail service.

"I'd complain to anybody that would listen about packages," she said. "When I spend $200 getting a package together and $100 worth of it goes bad because it sits in a warehouse, that makes me mad. They need to do a little bit better by our boys."

Pfc. Wayne Mack, called Baby Wayne by his mother, has been overseas since March with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. He's been in Baghdad since the end of April.

"We didn't hear from him for about a month and a half," said Mack, who lives in Seminary.

Jennifer Martin of Hattiesburg understands Mack's frustration with the mail. Letters from her husband, Sgt. Donald E. Martin, come about every three weeks but can be sporadic.

"The letters don't come like he writes them," she said. A current letter may be followed by one written weeks ago.

"We got letters from him Thursday," she said. "He wrote to each of the kids."

Donald Martin is somewhere in Iraq with Detachment 1, Company A, 890th Engineer Battalion from Lumberton.

Mail service to the troops is about as fast as it was during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, said Lt. Col. Tim Powell, Mississippi Army National Guard spokesman. Letters usually get there in 10 to 14 days, but packages take longer, he said.

"This is nothing out of the ordinary," he said. "It's the volume of mail that they're having to deal with and it has to be processed through the regular mail system to an APO address. Then it has to be shipped overseas. There may be a lot backed up waiting to be shipped."

Mack, a waitress at Dan's Cafe on U.S. 49 South, doesn't fret about the mail as much as she used to. Soldiers from Camp Shelby, frequent cafe customers, reminded her that no news is good news because communication from anyone other than her son would mean he had been hurt or killed.

"As long as I'm only hearing from my son, it doesn't matter if it's a month or more," she said.

Mack, 43, learned to ration the amount of 24-hour news she watches.

"I was leaving work at midnight and sitting up until 5 to see what was going on," she said. "You're so afraid that if you turn it off you're going to miss something about the 82nd or seeing your son."

Despite the sometimes overwhelming amount of news coverage, Mack didn't know any more about her son.

"I knew everything they were putting out, but I didn't know nothing," she said.

Mack wears a photo button of her son at work, where she greets customers with an infectious smile and calls most of them Baby.

"The hardest thing I have to do is leave that behind when I walk through that door," she said. "I see all these soldiers coming in. You really get to know these boys, these men. They keep my spirits up. The customers - they're really interested. He's on likee a million prayer lists. God's got to be watching him."

Jennifer Martin relies heavily on prayer and faith as well.

"I get through it by the grace of God, praying every day and keeping the faith," she said. She juggles her job as a teller at Trustmark Bank with the responsibilities of raising three children alone.

"My schedule is so hectic, working eight hours a day and trying to come home and do motherly duties, house duties and the children," she said. "It has taught me to be more independent. It's teaching me to be a lot stronger."

She suspects their 11-year-old son Juma is struggling the most with his father's absence because he keeps his feelings to himself.

"He'd always let my friend Winfred stay over," Juma said. "He'd make us laugh and all. He helped me with my sports and everything."

Eight-year-old Jazmine chatters easily about missing her father and helping care for his white pit bulldog, Pearl.

"I'm going to be a cheerleader this year and he won't make one game," she said. "He used to crank up my dirt bike, but we can't crank it. I've always been Daddy's little girl. I miss my daddy."

She knows the members of her father's company got new uniforms and news reports Friday about 3rd Infantry Division troops returning to Fort Stewart, Ga., in the same type uniforms raised her hopes for awhile.

"But I don't think my daddy came to Fort Stewart yet," she said.

Jennifer Martin stays in close touch with the 890th's family support organization.

"They've been having meetings and telling us not to spread rumors, like when they're coming home," she said. "We don't know when they're coming home."

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Steven Mccracken, 22, of Biloxi recently stopped at Dan's Cafe and advised troops' families to take advantage of the family support groups.

"Keep in touch with them because they know what's going on," he said. A Seabee, he will rejoin his unit in Kuwait after a brief leave.

But Mack, who waited on Mccracken and his family, doesn't have access to the family support network because her son is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. But her husband Wayne, their other three sons and her work family keep her going.

"We have sent our very best our country had to offer," she said. "They have made me and anybody with any sense of patriotism about them proud. These boys have represented our country with honor and integrity and awakened in me and others a sense of pride."

Soldiers' deployment hard on families - Local News - hattiesburgamerican.com

Military care packages on their way

By DAVE CLARKE Of The Star Courier
KEWANEE -- Nine U.S. troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom will soon be receiving care packages from home. The first shipment of items for Kewanee area troops in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region were dropped off Wednesday at the Kewanee Post Office.

A group of local volunteers, headed by Celeste Kenney and Jim Watson, launched a drive one week ago, "Operation Care Lift," seeking donations of personal items not only needed by men and women serving in the desert war, but also to let them know that they are not forgotten by the folks back home.

Kenney, who conducted a similar grassroots effort in 1991 while her sister was serving in Operation Desert Storm, got the idea again 12 years later after hearing from her son, Justin, who is visiting in Kewanee after returning from a lengthy deployment about how lonely military personnel get far away from home and how much they miss simple things like deodorant and magazines.

She has joined forces with Watson, manager of Term City, who has set up his store as a dropoff location. Osco Drug has also set up a collection box. "I'd like to make two mailings a month, but one a week would be great," she said.

Boxes weighing 55 pounds and containing shampoo, cookies, disposable razors, baby wipes, candy and other items were shipped to nine service personnel Wednesday at a cost of $96. "We could also use monetary donations to help with shipping costs," Kenney said.

She said some of the military personnel currently in Iraq may be there another nine months to a year and is hoping that school classes or ordinary individuals "adopt" someone overseas and keep in touch with care packages, letters and Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas cards. "They get to wondering if anyone back here really knows or cares about what they're doing over there," she said. "Hearing from anyone back home really means a lot."

U.S troops are on duty in a hot, arid climate where water and creature comforts are both in short supply. Items which would come in handy and not readily available include sun screen, wet wipes, small games, puzzle books, drink mix and eye drops.

Those having family members serving in the Persian Gulf wishing to have care packages sent to them should call 856-5012, or drop them off at Term City at 117 W. Second St. Photos of Kewanee area military serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom are on display in one of the front windows at Term City. Anyone wishing their family member's photo added to the board should bring it to the store.

Staff Sgt. Justin Kenney is attached to the Air Force's 321st Expeditionary Security Squadron and provided security on C-130 transport planes hauling troops, equipment and supplies into Baghdad. He was on one of the first transports to land at Baghdad International just days after it had been secured by Marines and while still exposed to hostile fire.

He performed similar duty earlier in Afghanistan.

Based at Dyes Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, SSG Kenney was deployed with his unit to Masiraha Island, one of the Coalition's main refueling hubs which supplied fighters making wave after wave of air strikes over Baghdad and Iraqi ground forces. The huge C-130 transports were also based at Masiraha.

His wife, Andrea, also in the Air Force security squadron at Dyes AFB, is partnered with a drug dog and was not deployed to the Persian Gulf, but had to remain on duty in Texas while Justin and their 10-month-old son, Marqus, returned to visit relatives in Kewanee.
Kewanee Star Courier: City News Column

Posted on Sat, Aug. 09, 2003

Bush Says Iraq Mission Vital to Security
WILL LESTER
Associated Press

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush says Iraq is making steady progress establishing its economy, basic services and a democratic system and that should improve security in this country and the Middle East.

"We're keeping our word to the Iraqi people by helping them to make their country an example of democracy and prosperity throughout the region," Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday. "This long-term undertaking is vital to peace in the region and to the security of the United States."

After giving his report on Iraq 100 days after he declared the end of major combat operations, the president was turning his attention to re-election politics.

Bush and his top political adviser, Karl Rove, planned to greet about 350 people on Saturday who had raised $50,000 for the 2004 campaign by June 30. The barbecue hosted by Stan and Kathy Hickey at the nearby Hickey Broken Spoke Ranch is a way to thank top fund-raisers for their work.

Two groups that monitor fund-raising activities, Public Citizen and Texans for Justice, said they would show up in Crawford to complain about the Bush campaign's fund-raising tactics.

The president's fund-raising program is "a bundling operation that has skirted and sidetracked the spirit of campaign finance laws," said Craig McDonald, executive director of Texans for Justice.

While individuals are limited to $2,000 contributions apiece, top fund-raisers for the Bush campaign, called Rangers and Pioneers, gather up to $100,000, $200,000 or more from many sources.

McDonald said these fund-raisers gain additional clout with the administration by their efforts - and the campaign should provide more information about the total amount they collect.

Bush campaign officials said they are very open about donors.

"The president's campaign in 2000 set a standard for disclosure in political fund raising and the campaign will again in 2004," said Dan Ronayne, a campaign spokesman. "The president's supporters are expressing their appreciation for his leadership and his compassionate conservative agenda."

In his radio address on Iraq, Bush pointed to significant progress on several fronts - establishment of a police force, reopening of banks, schools and hospitals, and production of oil.

"Life is returning to normal for the Iraqi people," he said. "Hospitals and universities have opened, and in many places water and other utility services are reaching prewar levels."

Bush said the Iraqi people are moving steadily toward democratic government.

"There is difficult and dangerous work ahead that will require time and patience," he said. "Yet all Americans can by proud of what our military and provisional authorities have achieved in Iraq."

Several Democratic presidential candidates were critical of Bush's Iraq policy. Florida Sen. Bob Graham said Bush "lost focus on the true terrorist threat of al-Qaida." North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said removing Saddam Hussein as leader of Iraq "was the right thing to do," but despite repeated warnings, the administration "went into Iraq without a clear plan for what was to come after the war."

At least 55 U.S. troops have been killed in combat since Bush declared major hostilities over May 1. Four American soldiers were reported wounded Saturday, two in the northern city of Kirkuk and two in Baghdad, in attacks on their patrols.

AP Wire | 08/09/2003 | Bush Says Iraq Mission Vital to Security

DIXON: Afghans On Edge of Chaos
Aug 09, 2003
By Robyn Dixon

Two months after a gun attack, the bullet holes in the Datsun sedan have been patched and it runs beautifully. But water engineer Asil Kahn walks with a limp and he still has two bullets in his body, one of them half an inch from his spine.

The vehicle's humanitarian logo made him a victim in the battle for Afghanistan's future, where water engineers, mine-clearers and humanitarian workers — people the country needs most — are prime targets for militants trying to destabilize President Hamid Karzai's interim government.

The May attack on the Afghanistan Development Agency car in Wardak province, south of Kabul on the road to Kandahar, injured Kahn but killed the driver.

"They weren't robbers or thieves," said Kahn, 46. "They just wanted to kill us. They're people against the government. They thought that maybe there would be some foreigners or some officials from aid organizations in the car. That's why they shot us."

U.S. forces have their hands full trying to subdue attacks in Iraq. But with the slow buildup of a national Afghan army, an inadequate U.S. and coalition presence and poor progress on reconstruction projects, Afghanistan is spiraling out of control and risks becoming a "narco-mafia" state, some humanitarian agencies warn.

Already the signs are there — a boom in opium production, rampant banditry and huge swaths of territory unsafe for Western aid workers. The central government has almost no power over regional warlords who control roads and extort money from truck drivers, choking commerce and trade.

If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of U.S. military action here could be lost — a major setback in the war against terrorism.

Money spent on the war may end up being wasted, and dragging the country back from chaos could be even more costly. America spends about $900 million a month on its forces stationed here, but little of the $3 billion authorized for aid in the Freedom Support Act has been spent.

U.S. promises of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan raised Afghan expectations, but security and reconstruction woes are undermining support for the coalition among ordinary Afghans. Their disappointment and disillusionment plays into the hands of anti-government militants.

Humanitarian agencies, calling for a big boost in international funds for security and reconstruction, contend that the commitment to Afghanistan is relatively low. A CARE International paper in January stated that postwar international aid spent in Bosnia-Herzegovina was $326 per capita, compared with $42 promised for Afghans up to 2006. For every peacekeeping soldier there were 48 Bosnians, compared with one for every 5,380 Afghans, the paper said. Yet Bosnia poses no appreciable terrorist threat.

There are 8,500 U.S. military personnel leading the 11,500 anti-terrorist coalition forces in Afghanistan. An additional 5,000 international troops secure the capital city, Kabul. A key missing piece is an Afghan army, but with only 4,000 troops trained so far, it will take many years to reach the planned 70,000-strong force. It won't be ready in time to ensure free and fair elections scheduled for June. Some of the 4,000 trained soldiers have already defected because of poor salaries and low morale.

The security vacuum outside Kabul has emboldened Taliban fighters, who constitute the bulk of anti-government militants, some who cross from Pakistan, others based in the east and south. U.S. officials say the Taliban controls part of the opium business, a rich source of funds to attract fighters.

As security worsens, there are sharp differences between the aid community and Western leaders on how to prevent a deepening slide.

Many in the international aid community in Kabul believe the coalition's latest response to the security problem — small scale military teams tackling modest reconstruction projects — will have little impact and will put aid workers at more risk by blurring the line between them and soldiers.

About 40% of the $5.2 billion pledged by the international community last year has been spent but with little progress on big reconstruction projects like the Kabul-to-Kandahar road. Much of the money has been eaten up by emergency relief — food, medicine, blankets and tents.

Haji Abdul Khaliq, 54, arrived in Kabul exhausted by 14 hours on the shattering, rocky track of a highway from Kandahar. It was inconceivable to him that $2 billion had been spent in his country since January last year.

"From what we can see, they didn't spend more than a dollar," he spluttered angrily. "There are no paved roads, no reconstruction of government buildings, no help for the people and no government salaries.

"I think at first people were very hopeful, [but] day by day they lose hope," said Khaliq, a turbaned, white-bearded general from a Kandahar military base who is fighting Taliban militants in the south.

The term Taliban can be a little confusing in a city like Kandahar, where most people in power were once with the Taliban.

Typical of many Afghan moujahedeen fighters, Khaliq is loyal only to his commander. Though he's fighting anti-government militants, he is contemptuous of Americans and despises Karzai and his government.

Khaliq said Taliban forces in the region were growing bolder. A June 30 explosion at a Kandahar mosque that injured more than a dozen was apparently aimed at the anti-Taliban mullah there. A day later another anti-Taliban mullah was shot dead in Nakobak village, six miles south of Kandahar.

In the same week, said Khaliq, Taliban fighters from Pakistan set up a base northeast of Kandahar in Zabul province. Afghan forces attacked, killing a dozen Taliban fighters and capturing about five.

The Taliban rebels offer local people good salaries — more than $100 a month — to fight, while Khaliq grumbled that he and his men are not being paid at all. Afghanistan's severe budgetary problems are leaving many civil servants unpaid.

In Afghanistan, U.S. forces have not suffered the steady casualties borne by the much larger force in Iraq. But anti-government militants in recent months have killed aid workers, attacked mine-clearers and burned girls schools. In June, a suicide bomb attack in Kabul killed four German soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

The security problem delaying the Kabul-Kandahar road project is denying the country the economic fillip of a six-hour trade route between the cities. Taxis can do the road in 14 hours, but truck transport takes at least two days.

Taxi drivers working the road daily tell hair-raising tales of armed attacks by thieves and bandits. With something akin to nostalgia, they recall the security of the Taliban era, when they could drive all night without fear.

U.S. forces are focused on eradicating remnants of the Taliban. But to many Afghans, a more immediate problem is bandits, often associated with the venal commanders and warlords who control the roads.

Sher Alimad, 38, a driver from the western city of Herat, said he was attacked in mid-June by five gunmen at Gereshk, about 40 miles west of Kandahar. He was beaten, tied up and thrown into his trunk, driven to a deserted road and robbed of 12,000 Afghanis (about $250).

A surge in trade by small businessmen after the Taliban's fall is being slowly strangled by extortion and banditry.

A group of truck drivers sat wearily in the dust at Dashte Deh Sabz on the northern outskirts of Kabul, after their loads of gravel for the thriving brick industry were seized by a local commander named Maulana. They said he had taken over the gravel trade.

"He's collecting from everyone. No one else can bring it into the city except for him," said driver Khalifa Yakub, 21, who said he was beaten by checkpoint soldiers and jailed for three days when he tried to protest. His dream of running his own small gravel transport business has died. He's become an employee.

"These people, they're commanders, they're dealers, they're businessmen, they're killers, they're everything," he said ruefully.

President Karzai has repeatedly called for the deployment of ISAF forces outside Kabul, a request echoed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and international aid agencies, but resisted by U.S. and European leaders. Last month an open letter from 80 aid organizations called for a national ISAF presence, warning that efforts to rebuild and hold elections were at risk.

Karzai has called for international donors to offer $20 billion over five years to help the country rebuild. CARE International called for at least $10 billion.

Playing down the security problem on a recent visit, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs — military-civilian teams of 50-100 people deployed to rebuild infrastructure — would play a key role in improving security. Four are working, independent of ISAF, and eight are planned.

Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst, the German commander of ISAF forces in Kabul, described the city as a "safe island" because of ISAF's presence, but expressed concern that militant attacks in the south and east could spill into the capital. However, he said, extending ISAF beyond Kabul was unrealistic.

"For the entire country you would need 10,000 additional troops, and nobody is willing to do that," he said, adding that PRTs were a more realistic first step. "I'm convinced that this concept can improve security."

It's a view contested by many in the humanitarian sector. Barbara Stapleton of ACBAR, the coordinating body for Afghan relief, said the military should focus on improving poor security, not duplicate the role of humanitarian agencies.

PRTs "have neither the mandate nor the resources to have a significant impact on either reconstruction or security," she said, adding that the teams eroded Afghan confidence in the neutrality of humanitarian agencies. "In a highly complex security situation, they further muddy the waters."

Stapleton said some U.S. military anti-terrorist forces had conducted crude searches in a village in southern Afghanistan, bursting into homes and offending cultural sensibilities.

"Then they went in later with sweeteners and built wells. And the people refused to use them. It's actually a crude way of dealing with a highly sophisticated and very intelligent people."


War blog home

Iraq no picnic for teacher/reservist
Local woman recalls tedium and loneliness


Dan Phillips, left, hands his wife, Christina Phillips, a yellow ribbon he tied to the tree growing through their front deck next to the couple's front door when Christina was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq this year. The couple untied the ribbon together, celebrating her return home from Iraq at their Nevada County home.
The Union photo/Pico van Houtryve Zoom

David mirhadi

Growing up, Christina Phillips dreamed of experiencing war like John Wayne in movies such as "The Sands of Iwo Jima" and "The Longest Day," where the Duke played flawed but proud heroes in great war battles.

But as Phillips learned during her nearly five months of active duty in Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq as a member of a reserve unit from Beale Air Force Base, art rarely imitates life.

In fact, Phillips returned to her southern Nevada County home last week simply glad to be away from the sheer loneliness and boredom brought on by serving as the only woman from a contingent of 25 civil engineers from the base's 940th Air Refueling Wing.

It wasn't the broiling 125-degree heat that killed Phillips' spirit, or digging trenches and laying miles of plastic pipe from the banks of the Euphrates River for toilets and water lines, or the 24 pounds she lost sweating, working in the sand despite eating 9,000 calories a day. And, she said, it wasn't the constant hum of planes overhead or exploding ordnance.

Because when the work stopped, Phillips lost what her hero John Wayne always had with his comrades in those old war films - a sense of teamwork, of camaraderie and cohesiveness.

"I hated having a day off, because I didn't want time off to think about home," said Phillips, 40, who works in the special-education department at Nevada Union High School.

The name of Phillips' hometown - Paradox, N.Y. - describes how she felt during her stintt in the Gulf.

"It was like, we're fighting for our freedom, but we in the military didn't have any," she said.

When her workday ended, Phillips would eat MREs, (meals ready-to-eat) especially meatloaf, which she said "was superb. Better than anything I cook."

When finished, she'd write letters to her husband of two years, Dan, and send e-mails to friends like Kathie Beckham, a co-worker at the high school.

"I've never written so much in my life," said Phillips. When Phillips wasn't playing cards or dominoes, she'd watch videos, nearly all with a military bent: "Saving Private Ryan," "Windtalkers" and "Full Metal Jacket."

Dan, a machinist, tried to keep busy between the e-mails and letters from his wife.

"Personally, my thought was, she's just in the reserves, that they would stay behind stateside and fill in the gaps left by active duty enlisted personnel, he said.

Beckham, who hasn't spoken at length with her friend, said Phillips mostly wrote about the heat and of wanting to be home.
The Union

It’s called the “honeymoon period,” a brief but intense flash of marital bliss that envelops a couple when they reunite after a long separation.

Servicemembers and their spouses are no strangers to it, especially at homecoming ceremonies. The images are seen by many: teary-eyed couples hugging and kissing as a band plays, confetti flies and people cheer.

However, such rapturous episodes usually fade in a few days, a week at most, said Kate Summers of the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on domestic violence, particularly in the military.

“The question is, when you ‘return’ from that honeymoon, ‘What happens next?’” Summers said.

For U.S. troops deployed to Iraq, Kuwait or anywhere, it’s a question worth pondering, especially after the events at Fort Bragg, N.C., last summer.

A year ago, four Army wives were slain over a six-week period, allegedly by their husbands. Three of the men had spent time in Afghanistan as members of special operations units. The series of homicides ended with the death of a Special Forces soldier. His wife and 15-year-old stepdaughter were later charged with murder and are awaiting trial.

“Any time you are away,” said Col. Ron Strong, the senior chaplain for all Army communities in Europe, “re-integration is a difficult process.”

A report by the U.S. Army surgeon general found “no discernible individual epidemiological link” between the Fort Bragg cases. It attributed the deaths to marital discord, aggravated to varying degrees by the high operations tempo.

“Many of the soldiers who participated in focus groups reported that the pace of current operations is so high that there is not enough time for the soldier to adequately recover before the next deployment,” the report stated.

It went on to conclude: “Soldiers and families need earlier, more accessible, and career-safe behavioral health care.

The deaths and subsequent report have led Army officials to re-assess family counseling programs.

Today, each service offers an array of family support programs, from finance and career development to counseling and child care. One that has drawn growing interest is the Family Advocacy Program.

The Defense Department directive that launched the effort defines it as a “program designed to address prevention, identification, evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation, follow up, and reporting of family violence.”

Ricky Gibbons, director of Army Community Service for U.S. Army Europe, said the effort to prevent domestic violence in the Army “has come a long way,” though she acknowledges that progress takes time in this most delicate of domestic issues.

“This is all pretty new stuff” for the Army, Gibbons said of developing an effective family advocacy program. “We’re still learning.”

Lessons learned from Fort Bragg and other cases have led to some changes.

For example, troops slated to leave Iraq will attend reunion workshops before departing. That wasn’t the case for Fort Bragg soldiers in Afghanistan.

On the home front, spouses will have access to similar sessions.

The purpose of them “is to help smooth the adjustment phase of the reunion for both you and your loved ones,” explains a workshop handout.

The support network is significantly broadened when Family Readiness Groups, unit ministry teams and several Army Community Service programs are taken into account.

Gibbons said Army leaders in Europe would do whatever they can to support troops coming off the line. The 173rd Airborne Brigade from Vicenza, Italy, and the 1st Armored Division, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, are expected to remain in Iraq until next spring.

“There should be no doubt that military health care professionals are committed to helping these servicemembers,” said Cynthia Vaughan, spokeswoman for the Europe Regional Medical Command.

Senior leaders realize that sending a servicemember on a long deployment “can affect their mental outlook,” Vaughan added. “That’s why we are putting these new programs in place. We are trying to approach things a lot differently” than after the 1991 Gulf War.

Servicewide, the Army is developing its Deployment Cycle Support Program. Part of the effort involves hiring 60 additional social workers for locations that have, or will have, large numbers of soldiers returning from Iraq or Kuwait.

“We’re looking to hire four additional social workers here in Europe,” Vaughan said.

Congress seems supportive, too, though there are mixed signals.

In July, the House Appropriations Committee decided to set aside an additional $26.6 million in its 2004 defense bill to increase and enhance domestic violence and family advocacy programs.

Summers, the director of Victim Services for the Miles Foundation, seemed satisfied with the figure, but wants Congress to sustain the effort.

Additionally, she wonders what happened to a $5 million outlay for victim advocacy that made it into a supplementary appropriations bill passed last year. Introduced by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., the amendment sought to expand victim advocacy programs and to create a fatality review panel.

“The priorities have been Afghanistan and Iraq,” Summers said, “but it would be interesting to know why those funds have not been set aside.”

Summers views the Fort Bragg slayings as a missed opportunity.

Before last summer, she said, there were clear indicators that a wave of redeployment rage might surface. She cites, for example, the recent increase in substantiated spousal abuse cases in the Army.

And the Miles Foundation hot line, Summers added, has been receiving three to four times more calls per month than it did prior to Sept. 11, 2001.

Asked if she thinks the military will be more proactive this time around, Summers said she hopes, but some trends trouble her.

“I am an optimistic person,” she said, “but from all the indicators we have seen, there has been a dramatic escalation of requests for crisis intervention” going back nearly two years.

Can the same military that goes to extraordinary lengths to rescue a servicemember in distress muster that same resolve when problems on the home front surface?

Strong, the senior chaplain, said one huge key is accessible, confidential counseling.

“The warriorlike attitude will not be diminished, but enhanced,” said Strong, referring to the stigma some people place on counseling. “We all have hurts, and it’s good to get help.”
European and Pacific Stars & Stripes

To Saddam, from Granny

At convenience store, a bulletin board tells of local boys and war

08/09/03

By MIKE MARSHALL
Times Staff Writer mmarshal@htimes.com


GURLEY - Next to the soft-drink cooler and just beyond a bank of King Edward cigars is the only plywood door in Super Stop No. 75, a cramped, box-shaped service station near the border of Madison and Jackson counties.

A bulletin board with nine photographs is on the door to the electrical room. The photographs form two rows of wallet-sized shots of local boys who spent their youths at the service station, discussing athletic conquests and failed romances with longtime employees Linda Huggins and Charlotte Carter.


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The boys grew up and graduated from high schools in Gurley, Woodville and Princeton. After high school, they enlisted in the military, most of them choosing the Army.

Earlier this year, they went to war in Iraq. Before they left, some of them, such as J.R. Curnel, told their fears to the Super Stop employees.

On Jan. 6, the night before he was sent to Iraq, Curnel called Carter, his grandmother. Curnel was a member of the Army's 4th Field Artillery and was to be among the first soldiers to participate in the attack on Baghdad.

"Be strong, hold your head up and kick butt,'' Carter told her grandson the night before he left.

Later, after the worst of the bombings, he phoned again, this time from the Middle East. He told her how his fellow battalion members usually relayed a message as the shells were fired.

When it was Curnel's turn, he remembered his grandmother.

"This one's to Saddam,'' he said, "from my Granny.''

When Curnel came home earlier this summer, he swapped war stories with his 84-year-old grandfather, Dwain Lindsey of Brownsboro. Lindsey is a decorated World War II veteran, earning the Purple Heart against the Japanese.

Before returning to his military base, Curnel dropped by the service station to view the bulletin board. Under his photograph was a brief summary of his military and educational background.

"Pvt. 1st Class Alton Lawrence Curnel Jr. (J.R. to his family),'' the bio began. "Back from Kuwait and currently at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.''

One by one, the soldiers parade in front of the bulletin board. Only Matt Atchley, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, scheduled for another year of service in the Middle East, hasn't dropped by Super Stop No. 75.

Watching the soldiers walk through the station, Huggins and Carter notice how combat has changed them.

"They even walk different,'' Huggins said. "That cocky teen-age walk and attitude are gone.''

'We'll stay here for you'

Super Stop No. 75, just inside the Jackson County line, has been a fixture on U.S. 72 since the late 1950s, when it began as a Kayo station.

Since then, it has been among the primary stations for residents of Woodville, Paint Rock and Gurley. It has also served the Paint Rock Valley, where only one gas station remains on the 20 or so miles of hills and hollows.

The station opens daily at 5 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m.

"But if you need diesel and call ahead of time, we'll stay here for you,'' Huggins said.

This is the kind of place where the proprietors know most of the customers by name. By Huggins' estimate, about 95 percent of the patrons are daily regulars, some coming in as often as four times a day.

Eight of the nine soldiers on the bulletin board have bought soft drinks and snacks at the station most of their lives.

"We've know them since they were 8, 9 or 10,'' Huggins said. "We'd help them with their girlfriend troubles, talk to them about the prom or what's going on at school.''

An exception is 38-year-old Johnny Moody, whose fading color photograph is on the upper-right corner of the bulletin board. Moody is a native of Moulton who was recently sent to South Korea.

One day after Moody was sent to Korea, his brother saw the bulletin board in Super Stop No. 75. Neither Moody nor his brother was a regular customer at the station, but Moody's photograph is on the bulletin board, just the same.

"He just asked if we'd put him up there, and we said OK,'' Huggins said. "He went out to his car and got the picture.''

The photograph, vintage 1978 or so, is a shot of Johnny Moody standing next to a car. It's the only nonmilitary shot and the largest photograph on the board, along with a shot of Atchley.

Atchley is also the only soldier whose picture has been replaced. After the war started, his original photograph was stolen.

Huggins isn't sure who stole the photograph - an ex-girlfriend, she figures - but she knew immediately she needed a new photograph, considering what the old one meant to Atchley's 2-year-old son, Hunter.

"When the war started, Hunter couldn't talk,'' Huggins said. "Now, every time he comes in, he looks at that photograph and says, 'That's my dad.' ''



al.com: News

A U.S. soldier stands with local residents around spools of stripped electrical utility cables, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites). Plumes of black smoke can be seen where stolen electrical wires are burnt to remove their insulation to then be melted down and sold on black markets. Much of Baghdad's electrical shortages are do to wire theft. (AP Photo/Samir Mezban) Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

The U.S. military said on August 9, 2003 that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s interior minister, number 29 on its list of most wanted of 55, was in its custody. 'Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed, number 29 on the coalition's list of most wanted government officials, is now under custody of coalition forces,' Central Command said in a statement. 'The former Iraqi Minister of Interior surrendered to coalition forces yesterday.' The U.S. military had earlier announced his capture in July, but it was not immediately clear whether this was the same person. Ahmed - the'seven of spades' on the 'deck of cards' of 55 most wanted Iraqis distributed to U.S. troops - is shown here. Photo by Reuters (Handout) Yahoo! News - World Photos - Reuters

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