H&I* Fires, 7 JUL 2007

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

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From MNF-I:

- IA Soldiers bring supplies to Ramadi

- IED ring broken by Operation Bastogne

- Paratroopers find weapons cache

- EOD blow up insurgent's plans.

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Robert Heinlein would be 100 today. You've got to be subscriber to read this piece - but the paras that non-subscribers can read as a tease are worth the visit. On the bounce, trooper!

Jack Dunphy, on paying attention to the details (oh, that's just for little people) and making deals with the devil.

Interesting reading, this, on David Halberstam. -the Armorer

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Too funny. From CAPT H, via Peeve Farm - "I want an I-Phone!" Hang around for the following vid, too.

Also from CAPT H, via Denny the Grouchy Old Cripple... I think the Castle Tool Room needs one of these. -the Armorer

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Just in time when all of you have well forgotten me, I link this CONFUSING little tid-bit. Mebbe The Denizennes can help this hapless chromosomed challenged Rican. - BOQ

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U.K. Marks Second Anniversary of July 7 London Terrorist Bombs
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. commemorated today the second anniversary of the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks that killed 52 people on London's transport network.
.......Maggie
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Concern in the heartland...

...though not quite of the same nature as covered in yesterday's H&I Fires.

An email this morning:

Some folks that hang out at the feed store are convinced that some kind of extremist muslim terrorist camp has been started up in the Easton area. Seems there have been reports of explosions and gunfire coming from those parts. Care to make a statement, sir?

The Official Response from Castle Argghhh! PR:

No worries!

I want to assure my new neighbors that we're not being over-run by any diaperhat-wearing poopy-heads. It's a buncha right-wing wackadoos, so they should stand down their worry-gene.

Rotarians, mostly. You know how dangerous *those* guys are!

Come to think of it - they all have military training, too, and at least two have significant arsenals that include small artillery.

But it's far more "Dad's Army" and "Gomer Pyle, USMC" than it is "24." No need for a Ruby Ridge or Waco op.

Gad, one of those buffoons didn't even have a magazine in his weapon, for pity's sake!

H&I* Fires, 6 JUL 2007

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Finally - access!

From MNF-I:

Commander of Multi-National Force - Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Army, re-enlists more than 500 U.S. service members during a reenlistment, naturalization and Independence Day ceremony at the Al Faw palace in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 4, 2007. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Soucy, U.S. Army. (Released)

Naturalization, re-enlistment ceremony held on America's 231st birthday.

Top U.S. commander enters the 'Lions' Den'

356th BOD bids farewell to Iraq

IAs, GIs bring security to Arab Jabour

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FbL wants you to know:

Supposed terror plans by doctors in the US.

From CNN, an organization that supports military families. Probably familiar to many readers, works with Soldiers' Angels, I believe.

From Captain's Quarters, British attacks trace directly to Zarqawi.

Canine cosmetics.

Pakistan allowing the US to actively hunt al-Qaeda? -FbL

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I'm busy today, moving stuff to the farm, mowing, and awaiting delivery of appliances... but I can amuse myself when taking breaks by plinking with one of my .22 cal trainers... -the Armorer

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Oh! CAPT H. was pretty sure the Denizennes would be interested in this... -the Armorer

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Somebody ring up Bad Cat Robot!

'Bout time they moved on this topic. I've been involved in the evaluation of some of this new gear we're developing for the troops - and just loading these guys with current-tech batteries isn't doing the job.

DoD Announces "Wearable Power" Prize Competition

The Director, Defense Research and Engineering, John Young today announced a public prize competition to develop a wearable electric power system for war fighters.The competition will take place in the fall of 2008 and the prizes are $1 million for first place, $500,000 for second place and $250,000 for third place.

The essential electronic equipment that dismounted warfighters carries today - radios, night vision devices, global positioning system - runs on batteries.This competition will gather and test the good ideas for reducing the weight of the batteries that service members carry.The prize objective is a wearable, prototype system that can power a standard warfighter's equipment for 96 hours but weighs less than half that of the current batteries carried.All components, including the power generator, electrical storage, control electronics, connectors and fuel must weigh four kilograms or less, including any attachments.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams in a final competitive demonstration planned for the fall of 2008.At this "wear-off," individuals or teams will demonstrate their prototype systems under realistic conditions.The top three competitors that demonstrate a complete, wearable system that produces 20 watts average power for 96 hours but weighs less than 4 kilograms (~8.8 lbs) will win the prizes.

A public information forum will be held in September in the Washington, D.C. area to brief potential competitors on the technical details, the competition rules, and qualification requirements. Competitors must register to participate in the prize program by Nov. 30, 2007.The competition is open for international participation; however the individual or team leader must provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Details on the forum, as well as contest registration and rules are posted on the Defense Research and Engineering Prize Web site http://www.dod.mil/ddre/prize .

H&I* Fires, 5 JUL 2007

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

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Heh. Who knew the Prius Hybrid could go 100mph? Clever way to get the younger crowd out of gas-only-burners. That's some outside-the-box thinking. -the Armorer

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Isn't it enough to know the bombs failed? Why give out the weak link that caused the failure? What public interest is served? I know what terrorist interest is served... Just askin'... -the Armorer

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Heh. This will *not* happen at the Castle. Everything contained therein is safely inert. I even have a binder for the local EOD guys that ID's everything, and lays out the signs of inerting. Why? Because EOD guys don't fiddle around with things, much. They tend to blow it up first and ask questions later. I'd hate to have that happen.

My kinda Beauty Queen. Warning, if you explore Theo's site - it's full of a lot of, um, well, for most of you NSFW pics. Nothing explicit, but Miss Thang would feel oppressed. H/t, CAPT H. -the Armorer

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Captain Ed, on Canada's problem controlling interesting devices with nuclear components (We may have a similar problem, just unreported, lest anyone think I'm picking on Canada). Captain Ed makes the same observation about media assistance to terrrorists I make above - but I do have a quibble with the story that Captain Ed links to (not what Captain Ed said).

One hopes that Mr. Bell knows better than the journalist writing the piece, and that he didn't actually say:

Some of the devices could be used in a "dirty bomb," where conventional explosives are used to detonate nuclear material, spreading the contamination over a wide area, said Alan Bell, a security and international terrorism expert from Globe Risk Security Holdings.

Dirty bombs aren't detonating nuclear material... they're using conventional or improvised explosive to *spread* nuclear material via the effects of the explosion. Important distinction, if only because of the radiation pulse (absent from a "dirty bomb") that accompanies the detonation of a nuclear explosive. Just sayin'. -the Armorer

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Redstate with a fascinating discussion of the MRAP, politics, and industrial capacity, and Senator Bidens deep understanding of the issue.

My favorite bit in the piece? Where Streiff writes...

"Unfortunately, Joe. The V-shaped things have to be actually manufactured by real people, in real factories, with real materials. They aren't created by the Legislative FairyWand™ issued to senior senators."

Now that's good eatin'! -the Armorer

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Food for thought in the current political fracas.

From an internview with Colonel Harry Summers, back in 1996.

Do you think the political leaders are too focused on elections too much of the time? That elections lead them to build up expectations, promise solutions to problems that they find it very difficult to do anything about once in office?

Their basis of power rests with the American people, and therefore they have got to be responsive to the wishes and desires of the American people. So what we would see as domestic politicking, they would argue is sort of the nature of the beast. Richard Neustadt wrote a book on alliance politics, and in talking about the Suez Crisis, he said that all politics is domestic politics -- there's no other kind -- because politicians get elected or defeated at home, not abroad. So that every action, international action or military action, has a domestic political edge to it.

Some presidents handle it better than others. Certainly, Franklin Roosevelt had to worry about the domestic reaction to Pearl Harbor -- or to the Battle of the Bulge, for that matter -- when it looked like we were about to screw it up in Europe. He handled it very well. Initially, Truman handled the Korean War very well, but then screwed it up on the Chinese intervention. With LBJ and the Vietnam War, because he didn't handle it very well, it lead to his own defeat. So again, domestic politics has to be part and parcel of military policy. It has to be factored into everything, and there's no way you can separate out the two, not in a democracy.

It's interesting that Clausewitz goes into this a hundred and fifty years ago. He said that military counsel in the councils of wars is the least important of all, that the political counsel, what he calls "the interaction of peoples and their government," is the governing factor in war. The military's job is just to execute the policy that the people and the government come up with. We don't want to involve the military in domestic politics. Part of Johnson's problem, and it was Kennedy's problem, is that he did that with Maxwell Taylor. When John Paul Vann came back from Vietnam to testify that things were screwed up in Vietnam, Maxwell Taylor forbade him to talk to the Joint Chiefs, and General Bruce Palmer said it was obvious that he and McNamara were playing domestic politics because the presidential election was coming up. That should be intolerable. As General Ridgeway, who was our leader after the Korean War, had said, a military advisor's job is to tell the president the truth in clear and unvarnished terms and not cut his advice for any reason.

That's essentially what General Powell has done as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and to some degree what General Shalikashvili has done as well. Powell did it more flamboyantly; Shalikashvili has done it more quietly. But they've tried to give the president the best military advice. Yet once the decision is made, our system says it's time to either resign or execute it. No more quibbling about the orders once the decision is made. That's what we're seeing, I think, in Bosnia. The military has been against it from the very beginning for a lot of reasons. They were told to do it. And they'll do it to the best of their ability.

How do you evaluate the media's role in educating the people about the military's role in our society?

Because we are a trinitarian military, the glue that holds the trinity together is the media. At the end of the Vietnam war, the idea was we'll do away with the draft and just enlist the great unwashed, and if we get them killed, who gives a damn. The elitists who were saying that thought that, because they not only didn't know anybody in the military, they didn't know anybody who knew about anybody in the military. But the media wouldn't let that happen. And when those marines were killed in Beirut, their pictures were on the front pages of all the papers, and reporters were talking to their mommies and their daddies and their sisters and their brothers. They were not nameless faces. The same phenomenon in Somalia and Mogadishu, and the same phenomenon not only in the Gulf but in Bosnia today. So the media serves as the glue that holds together this trinity of the people, the government, and the military. And for that, we owe them a great deal of credit and praise, although I don't think most military people see it in that light.

In the job of educating the American public, the media has not done a very good job. In the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows has a piece on the limitations of the American media. For one thing, they don't understand the military very well. It's not so much anti-militarism as just sort of benign neglect. I worked for US News for a while after I retired, and I didn't find any great anti-militarism there, but I found a great apathy about the military -- and pure ignorance. In fact, they take sort of a perverse pride in not being "captured" by the military-industrial complex.

I was on a panel for the Twentieth Century Fund after the Granada invasion, and a great many witnesses came. And what was developing was an enormous gap between the military and the media. One of the great anomalies of the Vietnam War was that the military hated the media in general and liked them in the particular, because they liked the people they knew. When my first book came out, Dan Rather held it up on CBS News and talked about it for three minutes. It was unbelievable, and I said to a friend of mine, "I can't believe that the Communist Broadcasting Company would give me that kind of air time." And he said, "What the hell are you talking about? Dan Rather was with me in the highlands. He went on patrols with us." And so he thought the world rose and set with Dan Rather -- a view that I didn't share because I didn't know that.

But after the war, all the war stories about the media began to take hold, and the media became the devil incarnate. And somebody in the press says, "You've got to talk to me. I'm an American reporter, a Time reporter. I'm an American reporter." The guy says, "You're not an American reporter, you belong to Time Inc., the international conglomerate." And of course, there is some truth in that. When Dan Rather was criticized during the Gulf War for talking about "our" tanks driving forward, a lot of his colleagues in the media said, "You can't say our, you've got to be sort of the imperial media above it all."

So, there's a gulf, and the military has tried very hard to close that gulf. War colleges and staff colleges have media days, and they bring the media in to talk to the troops and this, that, and the other. But of course, on the other side of the equation, there is no "media" -- that's just an abstraction. You've got the New York Times, the L.A. Times, and you've got all these different organs and there's no connector between them. You can't deal with the media as a block; you can only deal with them as individuals. We have a core of reporters -- Broder of the L.A. Times, Molly Moore at the Washington Post, you can go down the list, and Rich Atkinson is another one -- who are very good and who know what they are talking about. But when a crisis occurs, suddenly you get this deluge of part-timers and all the rest who come in and who don't know the difference between Abrams and an Apache.

The more things change... the rest of the interview with Colonel (R) Summers is worth a read, too.

This is the passage that most struck me.... bear in mind it refers to Gulf War 1.

So even though some could argue that there was a long-term political failure in that Saddam Hussein was not overthrown, you're saying that it was still a military success because there was a more limited political goal that the military followed and achieved.

The only legitimate measure of military success is the attainment of the political goals they set out to achieve. Anything beyond that doesn't make any sense. The military's job is to attain the political goals set by the administration. And they demonstrably did that in the Gulf. Part of the problem that people don't seem to understand is that we are committed to coalition warfare and we can no longer unilaterally set the objectives of the war. One of the reasons why the objectives in the Gulf were limited is because our allies insisted on it. They didn't want the United States occupying Baghdad. They didn't want the US to be the king-maker in the Persian Gulf, and neither did the Soviet Union, who was probably our most effective ally in the conduct of the war even though they committed no troops. So our objectives were limited by very real political considerations. And once those political objectives were realized, the military objective was obtained.

For those who wonder who Harry Summers is, he wrote a analysis of the Vietnam War, called On Strategy, that is one of the better books on the subject. Summer's laid out a pretty good analysis of what happened, and why.

No one seems to have broken the code of how to do it and succeed - which is also instructive.

A different definition of multi-role aircraft...

Apache pilots evacuate critically-wounded Soldier, kill several extremists in Ramadi firefight Staff Sgt. Lorin T. Smith 36th Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs Office

LSA ANACONDA, Iraq Apache pilots from Company B, 1st Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment (Attack), 36th Combat Aviation Brigade and Company A, 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, engaged extremists and saved a critically-wounded Soldiers life during a firefight in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on June 30, 2007.

Two attack weapons teams (with two AH-64 helicopters making up a team) flew to Ramadi in support of Coalition Forces in search of insurgents and weapons caches.

The teams reached Ramadi and received notice that Coalition Forces were taking heavy small arms fire. To maximize the helicopters time over a potential target, one team immediately went to the Ramadi forward arming and refueling point and the other attack weapons team flew into the fight.

They engaged extremists with 30 millimeter cannon fire neutralizing them. The team then supported other Coalition Forces engaging extremists using two tractor trailers as cover. The crew took small arms fire and multiple enemy rounds to their aircraft.

Despite the small arms fire, the attack weapons team destroyed the tractor trailers, causing secondary explosions, indicating to the crew that the trailers were possibly used as vehicle-born improvised explosive devices.

The crew stayed on station with the Coalition Forces until fuel levels became low, and returned to the FARP to refuel. Due to battle damage sustained, the Apache team performed a battle handoff to the second attack weapons team and flew back to LSA Anaconda.

The second team entered the engagement area in Ramadi. Coalition Forces were still taking heavy enemy fire. The attack weapons team shot hundreds of cannon rounds and rockets, expending their ammunition. As the team returned to the FARP to rearm and refuel, the ground forces commander informed the crews that he was coordinating a medical evacuation of wounded Soldiers including one critically-wounded.

Approximately 40 minutes later, after rearming and refueling, the team went back to the area and learned that the MEDEVAC aircraft had not arrived. Due to the critically-wounded Soldier and despite continued enemy activity, the Company B aviators landed and extracted the critically-wounded casualty with the Apache helicopter. While the Company A crew provided overhead security, the Company B crew landed within two kilometers of the enemy position.

Upon landing, the co-pilot/gunner helped load the injured Soldier into the front seat without further injury. Despite the heavy small arms fire and surface-to-air fire events in the area, the co-pilot/gunner strapped himself onto the left side of the aircraft and hunkered down on the wing. The pilot flew to Camp Ar Ramadi medical pad, where emergency medical personnel provided treatment. The team went back to the fight and continued to provide support for Coalition Forces. Upon neutralizing the extremists, the crew returned to LSA Anaconda.

Due to the extent of the battle damage, one extremists was confirmed killed in action, but multiple extremists were killed in conjunction with ground forces. The wounded Soldier has been transferred to LSA Anaconda and is in stable condition.

The Canadians are fighting.

...and falling, too.

A roadside bomb explosion ripped through the armoured vehicle of six Canadian soldiers Wednesday, killing them as they returned to their base after a heavy day of fighting in Afghanistan's Panjwaii district.

An Afghan interpreter riding with the soldiers also died in the blast.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of Task Force Afghanistan, said the group was travelling in an RG-31 Nyala armoured vehicle on a gravel road, used often by Canadian convoys and considered to be safe.

Two of the slain soldiers have not been identified at the request of the families, but the military has named the other four:

Captain Matthew Johnathan Dawe
Corporal Cole Bartsch
Private Lane Watkins
Master Corporal Colin Bason

Dawe, Bartsch and Watkins were all members of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.

Bason was a member of the Royal Westminster Regiment, based out of New Westminster, B.C.

Somebody break out the Labatt's down at the 'Green.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.

H/t, CAPT H. To date, 66 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

Independence Day.

As ever, I always recommend you go to the source, rather than just take some pundit's word for it. Or government official. Or corporate spokesperson. Etc.

So, go read the Source Document for today's holiday - The Declaration of Independence.

How many among us were required to memorize the preamble? And even to discuss what it meant? My son had to - but I think the Leavenworth school system isn't quite as bound-up in PC multi-culti carp as some others...

From Memory, in honor of my teachers and the Founders:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

I'm exercising my 1st Amendment right at the moment. Shortly, some friends will be coming over to exercise their Second Amendment rights at the New Castle. It seems appropriate, as these two, in a sense, secure the others.

I am mindful of the rather bloody-minded Tom Jefferson:

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

I'm thinking, in context, Mister Jefferson sees the 2nd Amendment as an Individual right.

Regardless, I'll close by honoring two men. One for whom the flag was more than just a bit of cotton bunting, Former Marine Charles Lindberg, who passed June 25th.

Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, has died. He was 86. Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg’s funeral.

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island. In the late morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flame-thrower into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the Silver Star for bravery.

“Two of our men found this big, long pipe there,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. “We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it. “Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship’s whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget,” he said. “It didn’t last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves.”

And Specialist James Adair, a Fort Riley soldier, who died last week, trying to give the Iraqis the chance that the Continental Line gave us:

Specialist. James L. Adair, 26, died of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device June 29 in Baghdad, Iraq.

Adair was an infantryman assigned to 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. His home of record is Carthage, Texas.

He entered the Army in September 2005 and began serving with the 1st Infantry Division. in February 2006. This was his first deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

To date, 116 Fort Riley Soldiers have been killed while serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance. In Memoriam.

Be safe out there people.

H&I* Fires, 3 JUL 2007

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

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Don't bring a Range Rover to a tank fight. It would have been over quicker had they been able to use their MG's.

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Today, in 1863, in a fight overshadowed by Gettysburg and the fact that it was unsuccessful - the 54th Massachusetts Infantry did answer one question - though it would be asked again and again in later wars until we finally settled it for good in Korea. -the Armorer

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I was reading this bit by Jim Dunnigan this morning... two key 'graphs:

The main problem with this is that you cannot win a war with IEDs. In Vietnam, IEDs were used, but as a minor, secondary weapon. The Vietnamese communists knew they had to drive the Americans out before they could take over. When that effort failed, North Vietnam made peace, and once the American troops left, the communists launched two conventional invasions across the border. The first one, in 1972, failed, but the second one, in 1975, succeeded. The Sunni Arab terrorists have no such invasion option. They have to drive the U.S. troops out and then, vastly outnumbered, take over the government. Many Iraqi Sunni Arabs believe they can do it, with the help of a media campaign that convinces the world that the elected government of Iraq, and their American allies, are the bad guys. This is all absurd, but the Sunni Arabs are spending over two million dollars month to build and place IEDs, just to inflict casualties on American troops, in an attempt to achieve their impossible dream.

With this as the concluding paragraph:

The U.S. is spending over four billion dollars a year to develop new technologies for thwarting roadside bombs. This is revolutionizing warfare, because the electronic devices, sensors and reconnaissance systems developed have many other uses in combat. So while the Iraqi IEDs are useless as a war-winning weapon, the countermeasures are very valuable, and the impact of this new tech will be highly visible in any future wars.

There is much of interest in his analysis, and you should (as ever) read Dunnigan's whole thing, not just my excerpts.

Still, as I read it, something else niggled at the back of my brain... from Harry Summers, in his book "On Strategy," where he recalls an exchange between himself and a former NVA officer some years after the war. It went something like this: Summers: "You never defeated us in the field." NVA Officer: "That is true. It is also irrelevant."

Heh. -the Armorer

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Oh - and yesterday we added two mechanical steeds to the Castle motor pool. An F150 and a Polaris Ranger XP700. Heh. The truck is *mine* but, in a cruel twist of fate... SWWBO is driving it today, not me. Sigh. Pics to follow. -the Armorer

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Hmmmmm. Mebbe I'll go get a few more flags....

And then there's Hitchens, with bite, as usual. -the Armorer

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More on the doctor-terrorists. - FbL

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From Pakistan: "Take back your ban on suicide bombings... or we'll suicide bomb you." - FbL

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Saw this headline on Drudge: PAPER: Is Michael Moore the new Orson Welles?...

Perhaps. In rotundity, but not profundity. -the Armorer

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Someone else you should know.

Corporal Willie Apiata, New Zealand SAS.

Photo courtesy the New Zealand Army.

While on an early morning patrol, Apiata (then a Lance Corporal) was part of a New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS) Troop in Afghanistan that came under attack from about 20 enemy fighters. The troop was attacked with rocket propelled grenades, destroying one of the troop's vehicles and immobilising another. This was followed by sustained machine gun and automatic rifle fire from close range.

A further rocket-propelled grenade attack blew Apiata off the bonnet of the vehicle he was stationed on. The two other personnel in the vehicle were wounded by shrapnel; one of them, Corporal D, was in a serious condition. After finding what cover was available, the three soldiers found that Corporal D had life-threatening injuries and was deteriorating rapidly. Apiata assumed command of the situation.

The three were about 70 metres in front of the rest of the troop, so Apiata decided the only option available was to carry Corporal D back to the rest of the troop. The other soldier was ordered to make his own way to the rear.

In part the citation for the award reads:

"In total disregard of his own safety, Lance Corporal Apiata stood up and lifted his comrade bodily. He then carried him across the seventy metres of broken, rocky and fire swept ground, fully exposed in the glare of battle to heavy enemy fire and into the face of returning fire from the main Troop position. That neither he nor his colleague were hit is scarcely possible. Having delivered his wounded companion to relative shelter with the remainder of the patrol, Lance Corporal Apiata re-armed himself and rejoined the fight in counter-attack."

Three other SAS soldiers are also to receive bravery awards for actions during the same mission. Two received the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration and one the New Zealand Gallantry Medal.

Well done, Soldier.

Davaid Farrar, a Kiwi blogger has more, and focuses on Corporal Apiata's honor.

Thus, it falls to Murray, Castle Metalsmith, to hit poor metal with a hammer to shatter its pretension and benign condescension.

I will note that Britain nor New Zealand are known for being profligate with medals.

Yet, both have living recipients of the Victoria Cross from Iraq and Afghanistan - in the case of Britain, two.

Yet we have... no living recipients of the Medal of Honor, despite our far greater numbers engaged in combat. As the Medal is usually awarded because someone has to retrieve other people's mistakes in planning or execution, this would indicate we're fighting this war simply many orders of magnitude better than we have our others. While there is no doubt we've been fighting very well at the tactical level, we still find ourselves, especially in the small unit/detachment arena, stuck in some very sticky situations.

Somehow, I suspect we're being really really really reticent to make the award - though I'm given to understand that there may actually be one in the works for award to a living recipient, in addition to at least one under consideration for a posthumous award.

Which brings to mind a different issue - *damn* we take a long time to process these. I don't mind being thorough, but sometimes it makes we wonder if it isn't because we aren't spending more time trying to find a reason to downgrade it than we are ensuring it meets the criteria.

Someone you should know...

...because they are the backbone of America. Rod left this as a comment on Corporal Warrick's post. If you're a regular here (or not, heck) and you have someone you'd like to honor, don't bury it in the comments. Send it to me.

A Denizen reports on a fallen warrior and all-round "'Murican."

Not meaning to hijack this, just someone from my own past is all.

Sheldon Lyman Rutherford
1952-2007

A VFW graveside memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 30 at the Mt. Whitney Cemetery in Lone Pine for former Lone Pine resident Sheldon Lyman Rutherford. His ashes will be interred with his father, Robert F. Rutherford, in the Lone Pine Cemetery.
Born in Lone Pine on November 17, 1952, Sheldon died from natural causes May 6, 2007 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was 54.

Sheldon graduated from Lone Pine High School in 1970. Right out of high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army and promptly volunteered for Vietnam. Sheldon served with the U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division, the Second Armored Division, and was at Fort Benning, Ga. where he learned to rappel from helicopters. After his Vietnam tour, he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. There he learned to operate the armored personnel carrier (APC), a light armored, amphibious, two-tracked vehicle that carries two crew members and 11 personnel. In January 1973, while stationed at Fort Hood, Sheldon was one of the security cordon guards for the body of President Lyndon Johnson and family at Austin, Texas at the airport, and at the funeral home.
Sheldon received the following medals: National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Air Medal and Bronze Star Medal.

Sheldon also served as a Mono County deputy sheriff. His experience with operating the personnel carrier in the Army enabled him when needed to operate the snow cat, which is also a two-tracked vehicle.

Sheldon will be missed by all.

He was preceded in death by his father, Robert F. Rutherford, and mother, June Billingsley, both of Lone Pine.

He is survived by his son, Joshua Rutherford of Ridgecrest; sister, Laura Harding of Lone Pine; niece, Janine Cuddy of Gardnerville, Nev.; nephew, Bruce Entrekin of Washoe Valley, Nev.; aunt and uncle, Jackie and Gene Billingsley of Bishop; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

Unlike Cpl. Warrick, he was perhaps fortunate enough to not have to shine, but he served regardless.

Please forgive me for intruding.

No intrusion, Rod.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance. In Memoriam.

Getting ready for the sandboxes.

By Gary Skidmore 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.

"Here they come!" came the excited shouts of Spc. Kenneth Dahl, one of five 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division opposing force Soldiers lying in wait for a convoy of transition team Soldiers.
"Get the 240 in place," shouted Sgt. 1st Class James Sheridan as he put the finishing touches on a simulated improvised explosive device.

"Alright, get ready, here they come."

Dahl, Sheridan, Staff Sgt. Robert Walthall, Pvt. Davis Culter and Spc. Scott Sharpe crouched in the bushes, lying in wait for the convoy to come close enough. When it did, they attacked it with everything they had. "That was beautiful," Dahl said as the last of the convoy passed and his M-240B machine gun was still smoking.

"That's what we're supposed to be here for, keep the teams guessing, making them think and keeping them aware of what's ahead of them," Sheridan, the NCOIC of the team said.
Sheridan and his team leave telltale signs there are IED's on the road, he said. "We use everything we can," Sheridan said, "dead animals, stacked rocks or fallen branches and trash piled up."

He and his team are trying to simulate Iraq and Afghanistan as closely as possible.
"We aren't part of the battalion exercises," Sheridan said. "They are role players built into their scenarios. We're totally unscheduled and can hit the convoys anywhere and at anytime."
The whole point to his team, Sheridan said, is to make the TT teams think. "We want to make them aware," he said. We want them to know what to look for and take this all seriously. We want them to be prepared when they deploy, and we want them to live."

Although Dahl, Sheridan, Walthall, Culter and Sharpe said they take their mission seriously, they also enjoy the job to the point they almost get giddy when a new set of targets approach.
"I've become fond of the 240," Dahl said. "It's loud and they know when it fires they are in trouble. Our AK's don't fire on auto, and this does .... it really does."

As another convoy started down the road, excitement took. The team crouched in the bushes and readied to detonate their IEDs. "This is going to be a good one," Culter said. "They can't see me in these bushes and I'm get 'em good," he giggled.

Heh. That woulda been me, many, many, many years ago, working over Reservists doing their AT that summer I spent with the 12th SF under Captain Clyde and his merry band of pirates. Except I woulda had my eyes open. And I would have been carrying right-handed, so that the hot empties wouldn't be bouncing off of my arm...

Nothing like putting a whistling booby-trap wrapped in a baggie full of CS powder, with the trip wire tied to a stake - so that they'll drive their jeep a few feet before it goes off...

Don't try this at home, kids. I was a boot loot under supervision.

Then there was the time during the E&E Ex that we chained the Sheriff's cruiser axle... not a Porky's Moment (pre-dated the movie, anyway) but... fun. Good thing that particular Sheriff's department didn't have access to dogs back then. We'd never have made the train.

Another Kansas Casualty.

This one a double-whammy for the Fort Riley area, as the soldier is from Grandview Plaza, a very small town outside of the Fort.

Sergeant William W. Crow Jr., 28, was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in struck an improvised explosive device June 28 in Baghdad, Iraq.

Sergeant Crow was an infantryman assigned to 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. His home of record is Grandview Plaza, Kansas.

He entered the Army in 2001 and began serving with the 1st Infantry Division in August 2002. This was his third deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

To date, 115 Fort Riley Soldiers have been killed while serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pull up another chair at the Division Stammtisch in the 'Green.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance. In Memoriam.

H&I* Fires, 2 JUL 2007

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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Encouraging analysis on al Qaeda. - FbL

Since we're channeling Jim Dunnigan on the war this morning... -the Armorer

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From the BBC via "Foreign Policy"
Vanished US Envoy is "found dead"
"The body of defence attache Tom Mooney was found in a remote part of the Mediterranean island. There is no confirmation by police or the US. The 45-year-old, who was married with children, was last seen leaving the US embassy in his Chevrolet Saloon car."
Lt. Col Thomas Mooney was the Embassy's military attache.....Maggie

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Terrorists are merely disaffected and disenfranchised youth (a natural result of Western oppression and racism). Wait a second... you mean they're not? - FbL

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"W" Commutes Scooter's Sentence!
President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence.
'bout time! Maggie
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Someone you should know. Corporal Clinton Warrick.

By Sgt. Stephen Baack 1st Inf. Div. PAO

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. - Even after having been thrown several meters, knocked unconscious, set aflame and buried under rubble all as a result of a suicide-vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, one deployed Fort Riley medic braved small-arms fire to save the lives of fellow
Soldiers and Iraqi policemen alike last year. Cpl. Clinton Warrick, who was a medic with 2nd Platoon, 300th Military Police Company, received the Army's third highest award for valor during
a ceremony June 18 at Riverside Park for his actions during an insurgent attack Sept. 18, 2006, at the Al Huryia Iraqi Police Station.

Presenting the award

Maj. Gen. Carter Ham, commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley, visited Warrick's hometown to present him with the Silver Star and other awards before his Family, friends, and former 300th MP Co. platoon leader, company commander and first sergeant.
"This is one of Fort Riley's great Soldiers - one of our real, no-kidding heroes," Ham said at the ceremony. "It is right and proper that we come here to present you this award for valor. Awards for valor in the United States Army are a big, big deal ... It is heroes like this that make our Army the best in the world and our nation so strong."

Warrick, who was on his second deployment with the 300th MP Co., said the sight of a fireball coming down the hallway toward him was one of the things he still remembers from that morning. "I remember trying to pick an (Iraqi policeman) up after being wounded and how I had to change hand positions just to pick the guy up so I could get him out of the rubble," Warrick said.

Shortly before the explosion, Warrick said, the first thing he heard was small-arms fire. His platoon leader, 1st Lt. Kevin Jones, had been on the roof and had seen the SVBIED approaching. Jones' said his goal was to run downstairs and get everyone as far back from the explosion as possible. "I made it about half way down the hallway when the explosion took
place," said Jones, who suffered burns and received shrapnel wounds on his lower back and legs. "Looking back on it now and piecing together, Cpl. Warrick was just within feet of me when it happened." Jones was temporarily knocked unconscious, but he was up and checking on Soldiers as soon as he assessed the situation.

"When I regained consciousness, I had an idea of what happened, but I was thrown down a si