All in a days work

[RatherBHuntin]

I am sort of geting tired of seeing nothing but bad news about the military in the media, so thought I would start a thread showing some of the good. (and I'm on mid shift again)
     
                           By Pfc. Erik             LeDrew
                                October 15, 2004          
               
                Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, attract a group of curious and playful Iraqi children in the Sadr City section of Baghdad as they hand out frozen chickens to residents. This photo appeared on www.army.mil.

[RatherBHuntin]

Drill instructor awarded for valor in Iraq
   Submitted by: MCRD Parris Island
   Story Identification #:2004101412752
   Story by Lance Cpl. Brian Kester
 
 
 
   MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (Oct. 15, 2004) --  When Sgt. Jonathon Novak completed drill instructor school and took on his first platoon of recruits, he knew what was important to stress to them during the training cycle - discipline. He had seen first hand in combat what can happen when discipline slips even for a moment.
 
 Distinguishing himself in combat, Novak, a drill instructor with Platoon 1085, Charlie Co., 1st RTBn., recently received the Navy Commendation Medal with a "V" for valor at the Drill Instructor Monument.
 
  After his award was bestowed upon him, the humble Novak reflected on his experiences and what the award means to him.
 
 While serving as the section leader for an obstacle clearing detachment with Mobility/Counter-Mobility Platoon, 2nd Assault Amphibian Bn., Regimental Combat Team-1, 1st Marine Division, during numerous engagements in Iraq from March 20 - April 20, Novak and his Marines could be found in many serious scrapes. So much so that some of his fellow Marines nicknamed his Assault Amphibious Vehicle, "The Bullet Magnet."
 
 On April 7, 2003, his sections responsibility was to provide security for a bridge layer south of the Saddam Canal, approximately 13 kilometers east of Baghdad, Iraq.
 
 He was involved with several missions under extreme duress, and though the actual skirmish lasted about 45 minutes to an hour, those events stood out in his mind.
 
  "It just happened, like that," he exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
 
 When Novak and his section arrived at the canal, he deployed his engineers and established security. The engineers then began their breach of the fence on the near side of the canal. During this action, they began to receive small arms fire from the far side of the canal.
 
  Recalling a mental picture and using his hands to convey the positions along the canal, Novak described the situation.
 
 "I was looking over [the far side of the canal] and I saw some pillboxes and a couple of bunkers and I told my driver, 'that doesn't look right,'" he said. "My driver was looking at me and I thought to myself, that just doesn't look safe."Then, some of the engineers got out and they began to take on fire so we opened up on the bunkers, he added.
 
 Employing his weapons and suppressing the enemy on the far side of the canal allowed the engineers to breach the fence. The bridge layer moved into position and the far side erupted with direct and indirect fire.
 
 "You are stunned for a second because they [rounds] are whizzing right past your head," said Novak, "but then you start laying down fire."
 
 After silencing one machine gun position, Novak noticed the engineers that conducted the breach were now pinned down. Acting independently, he maneuvered his AAV to their position and provided suppressing fire allowing them to escape harm. He then turned his guns on the second gun position aiding in the bridge layer to complete its mission. Though his AAV was hit numerous times by direct fire, Novak never decreased the amount of suppression fire, thus having a direct effect on the canal being bridged and the 1st Marine Regiment crossing the canal.
 
 According to the citation, in the face of stiff resistance, Novak remained calm and poised and set an example that brought assurance to his Marines during moments of chaos, while ensuring the destruction of numerous enemy positions. This directly affected the successful bridging of the Saddam Canal that would facilitate Regimental Combat Team- 1's movement into Baghdad.
 
 Always the Marine, a self-effacing Novak proclaimed, "If it were up to me, this should be given to everybody because I didn't do anything that they didn't do."
 
 Though he is modest about his accomplishment as most Marines are, he will still look to instill some of those qualities in his recruits.
 
 "It is invaluable for us to have a Marine of his caliber and experience, having first hand exposure to guiding, mentoring and training recruits to become United States Marines," said Captain Charlie Fretwell, Charlie Co. commander. "There are plenty of times where the drill instructors have the opportunity to do what we call 'hip-pocket' classes with recruits. In those 'hip-pocket' classes he can talk directly to them regarding his experiences in Iraq or in the Fleet Marine Force."
 
 Though he is in his first cycle as a drill instructor, he has already found ways to integrate the lessons he learned in Iraq into his everyday life as a drill instructor.
 
 "It all comes back to discipline," said the war veteran. "Everyday when the bullets are coming at you, you have to run at them, where most people would run away from them."
 Novak tries to stress discipline in his job so that mistakes that he saw in the field will not happen to the recruits that he has trained.

[RatherBHuntin]

Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. (Oct. 5, 2004) - Aviation Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Anthony Tranumn, assigned to the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT), removes debris left behind from Hurricane Ivan on the fitness trail bridge on board Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. Thirty CNATT staff members banned together to clear the pathway after the Hurricane ravished the base. Ivan made landfall at Gulf Shores, Ala., at approximately 3:15 a.m. EST Sept. 16, with winds of 130 MPH. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Mark A. Ebert
 

[RatherBHuntin]

Deployed medics save Iraqi child
 TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq -- Capts. Robert Hayes and Jeannette Ward monitor 8-year-old Nahida under the watchful eyes of her father, Nafl Radi. The young Iraqi girl was bitten by a venomous snake and treated at the medical facilities here. The Airmen are nurses with the 407th Expeditionary Medical Group. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Maria Bare
 

[RavenBeauty]

these are great pictures and if only the media wasn't so biased and determined to present this war as the new vietnam war.. people would on the whole feel differently I think... thank you Glenn!

[RatherBHuntin]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An 18 year old Private earned the first  U.S. Army Silver Star medal awarded to any of the 32,000 American soldiers currently serving in the Iraqi capital, after helping fight off a deadly guerrilla ambush in May that killed two of his companions and wounded five.      The 1st Cavalry Division's Pfc. Christopher Fernandez, of Tucson, Arizona received the Silver Star from the division's commander, Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, on Aug. 13. The award is given for uncommon valor in combat.
 
      Fernandez, a Humvee machine gunner, is credited with holding a band of insurgents at bay while his companions gathered wounded and dead soldiers from a vehicle disabled by a roadside bombing. The ambush took place May 5 in west Baghdad.
 
      One soldier that carried the dead and wounded to safety, 33-year-old Sgt. Timothy Buttz of Bloomington, Minnesota, was decorated with the Army's Bronze Star medal, with a special commendation for valor.
 
      "After the (bomb) went off, I noticed their Humvee was taking fire, that's when I started shooting back," said Fernandez, a quiet, lanky man who wears glasses.
 
      Fernandez ran out of ammunition for his M-249 machine gun. He sprinted to the disabled Humvee and grabbed a damaged M-240 heavy machine gun and dashed back to his position to continue firing. The M-240's protective hand guards had been blown off and Fernandez said he burned his hands in about 10 minutes of sustained shooting.
 
      "I knew I had to do something. I could've gotten myself killed to do it," said Fernandez, interviewed at 1st Cavalry headquarters near Baghdad International Airport.
 
      The two soldiers who died in the attack were 19-year-old Pfc. Bradley Kritzer, of Irvona, Pennsylvania; and 18-year-old Spc. James Marshall, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Buttz said the two were unconscious in the back of the disabled Humvee, along with two of the wounded soldiers.
 
        "I moved them from their Humvee to mine," Buttz said.  
 
      Buttz also destroyed the vehicle's sensitive radios before abandoning the damaged Humvee and driving back to their base. Kritzer and Marshall died en route, he said.
 
      The Silver Star is the military's third-highest combat medal. Since March 2003, 124 Silver Stars and 399 Bronze Stars for valor have been awarded in the Iraq conflict, according to Pentagon figures.
 
 

[Gmoney]

Thanks Glenn...

[RatherBHuntin]

It's my pleasure ladies and gentlemen.  I just hope folks enjoy seeing/reading it.  There are some great stories out there.

[RatherBHuntin]

Raid Nabs Enemy Recruiter, Mortar-Team Leader

   By Staff Sgt. Rebekah-mae Bruns, USA
 Special to American Forces Press Service

  CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2004 -- A raid launched today by Company C, 3rd  Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment of the Army's 39th Brigade Combat Team netted  a suspected cell leader and recruiter for anti-Iraqi mortar teams in eastern  Baghdad.

       Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher, 37, of Carlisle, Ark., sifts  through bomb-making material found at a suspect's house during a raid launched  today by Company C, 3rd Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment of the Army's 39th  Brigade Combat Team in eastern Baghdad. Photo by Staff Sgt. Rebekah-mae Bruns,  USA
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.  

  Company leaders claim the individual was the brains behind nearly 200 mortars  targeting their 1.5-acre compound since the unit's arrival in Baghdad in April.

  Platoon Sgt. Robert Fisher, 37, of Carlisle, Ark., said the man was difficult  to find because he frequently moved to avoid capture. "He had several places he  lived," said Fisher. "He didn't stay in one spot." The suspect was purported to  have dwellings in Fallujah and the Baghdad neighborhoods of Damyia and Rusafa.  

  The Arkansas-based Company C has destroyed three mortar teams over the past  several months. The individual captured on this mission is reportedly  responsible for recruiting those and other teams from Fallujah.  

  "He was bringing other teams in from Fallujah in order to hit us simultaneously  with mortars from two different locations," Fisher said. "He was the brain  bringing them in and firing us up."

  Upon searching the suspect's house, soldiers found a mortar tube, mortar plate  and material used to create roadside improvised explosive devices. Next to  mortar attacks, IEDs are one of the most common methods insurgents use to kill  or injure American troops in Iraq.

  Soldiers said the captured individual cooperated with officials, giving names  and locations of mortar team members underneath him in hopes of an easier  sentence. "We tell them that if they cooperate, it will make their sentence  easier," Fisher said. "We tell them we're not here to hurt them."

  The raiding party -- on its fourth combat mission in two days -- searched the  house without resistance. Soldiers were in and out within 20 minutes, giving no  time for a counterattack by insurgents.

  "I do like to get the bad guy," Fisher said.  

  Despite capturing a suspected cell leader, the soldiers stopped short of  claiming victory. "It was a relief to know we got the main cell leader, but  there are still mortar teams out there in our sector," said Fisher. "The threat  is still there."