Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
...Deep in the heart of Afghanistan.
Marines worked through the night in Garmser to gain ground against the retreating Taliban. The Helmand Province shares a border with Pakistan, and the Taliban and drug traffickers have long used refugee camps across the border as a sanctuary from American firepower.
Related article: U.S. Reports Gains Against Taliban Fighters
Related pictures: Routing the Taliban - slideshow
The motto of the U.S. Army National Guard is "Always Ready - Always There" but, are they really ready?
A Feb. 14, 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office on current operations readiness suggests otherwise.
Equipment Shortages Affect Availability of Items for Nondeployed Units
The GAO report cites, "As we have reported, ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan combined with harsh combat and environmental conditions are inflicting heavy wear and tear on equipment items that, in some cases, are more than 20 years old.
In response to the sustained operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army and Marine Corps developed programs to reset (repair or replace) equipment to return damaged equipment to combat-ready status for current and future operations.
We also have reported that while the Army and Marine Corps continue to meet mission requirements and report high readiness rates for deployed units, nondeployed units have reported a decrease in reported readiness rates, in part due to equipment shortages.
Some units preparing for deployment have reported shortages of equipment on hand as well as specific equipment item shortfalls that affect their ability to carry out their missions.
The Army Chief of Staff has testified that the Army has had to take equipment from nondeployed units in order to provide it to deployed units.
The Marine Corps has also made trade-offs between preparing units to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan and other unit training.
In addition, the Army National Guard and Army Reserve have transferred large quantities of equipment to deploying units, which has contributed to equipment shortages in nondeployed units.
As a result, state officials have expressed concerns about their National Guard’s equipment that would be used for domestic requirements."
106th Aviation Illinois Army National Guard
Just three months after the GAO report, on May 21, 2008, the American Forces Press Service reports a different story.
“Today, the Department of Defense -- active, reserve and National Guard -- is better prepared to assist civil authorities than at any other time in our nation's history,” said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs.
“Our men and women in military uniform are well prepared to provide substantial life-saving assistance to FEMA,” McHale said. “And with a sense of urgency, we will do so if called upon during the 2008 hurricane season.”
Who's right? Let's hope it won't take a hurricane or worse to find out.
Military Better Prepared Than Ever for Disaster Relief, Official Says (5/28/2008)
The few, the proud, the Marines.
One of several CH-46E "Sea Knight" helicopters from HMM-162 (Rein.) touch down at a landing zone to drop off Marines from BLT 2/8 during the first raid. Photo by Cpl. Eric R. Martin.
First in, last out.
Lance Cpl. Jeromy S. Pilon, a 22-year-old native of Spokane, Wash., and an assault man with 3rd Platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, looks through the sights on his M16A4 rifle for any possible insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, Dec. 11. Company I, also known as “Diesel,” recently started one of the final pushes through their sector to ensure the safety of Fallujah’s citizens, who are expected to return soon. Photo by Lance Cpl. Miguel A. Carrasco Jr.
One shot, one kill.
This is the stuff that legends are made of. Sadly, unlike fairy tales, legends aren't required to have happy endings. Witness the true account of one man's struggle to reclaim the life he left behind when he came home from war.
The Marlboro Marine, that’s what they called him.
The photo was taken after almost 12 hours of non-stop fighting during one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war, the battle of Fallujah. It was published on the front-page of over 150 newspapers and has been republished countless times.
The soldier was Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller and the effects of war were etched clearly on his face.
Miller and his squad had just survived one of the longest nights of their lives, pinned down on a rooftop under heavy enemy fire. The sun was just rising at the end of that long sleepless night, as the young Corporal reached over and lit his first cigarette of the day. Suddenly a camera shutter opened and shut immortalizing the moment.
Lance Cpl. Miller’s photo has become iconic of the war in Iraq. His camouflage smeared, his nose bloodied, and a cigarette dangling from his lips he looks every bit the battle hardened warrior. Yet the look in his eye tells another story. His eyes seem to scream, reflecting the pain of an entire generation and the horrors of war.
On the battlefield, no Marine is left behind but, what happens after they come home? A year after the photo was taken, The Marlboro Marine was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps, after being diagnosed with a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So what’s next? What happens after the last bullet has been let loose and thousands of miles are put between one and the heat of battle?
The L.A. Times has published a powerful account of life after war for this U.S. legend, with the collaboration of the Times photographer who originally shot the image, Luis Sinco.
Watch it here: Battles After the War
Writing found on hoax pipe bomb.
The FBI, in conjunction with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and other law enforcement agencies, is seeking information regarding the placement of four hoax pipe bomb devices at United States Military Recruiting Centers in Oregon since March of 2007.
Most of the devices had the phrase "Die Weisse Rose" printed on them, which is German for "The White Rose." Historically, "Die Weisse Rose" was the name of a small group of anti-Hitler activists who protested against hate during World War II.
The FBI is offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for these crimes.
Click to enlarge.
A year ago, it was a tomato-sorting shed on the north side of this sprawling base. Today, Marines are using its 30,000 square feet to learn how to survive in Iraq.
The trainer puts squads and fire teams through as realistic a scenario as is possible without live rounds. The purpose is to inoculate Marines with the sights, sounds, smells and chaos of close combat, said Tom Buscemi, the director of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s Battle Simulation Center.
“These young men have got to make the right choices in combat, but how do you practice that?” Buscemi said. “How do you rehearse making split-second moral and ethical decisions?”
The trainer is one answer, and it is a multimedia experience. Squads meet both holograms and actors playing Iraqis. As they enter the building, they hear the sounds of the Muslim call to prayer from the local mosque. As the squad enters a market, the sounds change and they need to look for warning signs. They go past the local sheikh’s house and down narrow alleys. The Marines have even managed to duplicate the open sewage smell of a bad neighborhood in Baghdad.
In one scenario, a rocket-propelled grenade wounds an Iraqi woman and kills a Marine. The squad members attempt to deal with the wounded Iraqi woman, who is covered in blood and screaming. At the same time, other members attempt to assess the Marine’s condition and evacuate him to medical care. As all this is going on, insurgents begin firing on the squad’s leaders. A Marine ducks into a room – there are women and children there. Then a hologram pops up of an insurgent with an AK-47. Fire or not? The scenarios present many choices, all intensified by the chaos.
“We want to ensure that Marines are exposed to this chaos here, that they have seen it before, and maybe this will prevent another Haditha,” said Marine Col. Robert Coates, assistant chief of staff for the training and experimentation group. U.S. Marines were accused of over-reacting to a roadside bomb attack in the Anbar province city and killing a number of noncombatants. 
Marine Sgt. William Jones, noncommissioned officer in charge of the trainer, has served a tour in Afghanistan and three tours in Iraq. He said the trainer comes very close to duplicating the chaos of combat, and presents a learning experience for the Marines. In one recent case, he played one of the insurgents. He shot at a Marine and was shot himself. He fell, and the Marine came in and shot him in the chest. “I stopped the exercise immediately,” Jones said. Had that been a real situation, he explained, the Marine would have committed murder.
The trainer has cameras around everywhere, so Jones was able to dissect the performance and hammer home the lesson to the squad. “And tapes don’t lie,” Jones said.
The Marines are talking with Hollywood studios to get more realistic effects for the trainer. Ultimately, they would like to build a far bigger facility that would allow vehicles, taller buildings and better holograms. They also want a technology that allows them to dispense with the paint-ball masks the Marines wear for protection.
“Reading facial expressions is key,” Buscemi said. “And you can’t do that with these masks.”
The facility is the only one of its kind in the Marine Corps, and the people at Camp Pendleton put it together on a shoestring budget, using Office of Naval Research technology, the tomato shed and $2.4 million they diverted from other projects. The Pendleton team also worked with Marine Training and Education Command, the Marine Warfighting Lab and the deployed forces.
The Marines here believe far more can be done in infantry simulation. Coates said that “only one-tenth of 1 percent of simulation funding is spent on infantry simulation. The technology works and is improving all the time.” The Marines want this training to become an integral part of the pre-deployment training program prior to the Mojave Viper battalion-level training exercise at Twentynine Palms, Calif.
“For all the services there is a great deal to be learned by simulation,” Mullen said. “This is important, breakthrough stuff, and we need cross-talk (among the services) to come out with best practices.”
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
