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Helicopters Crash; Attacks on Zarqawi Network Continue By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2004 – Two U.S. Army pilots were killed when two cargo helicopters crashed Oct. 16 in southwest Baghdad, Iraq, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported. The pilots were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. Two other soldiers were injured in the incident and were taken to a medical facility. No report on their condition was available. The incident is under investigation. Meanwhile, U.S. jets blasted a checkpoint operated by the Tawhid and Jihad terror movement of the fugitive Jordanian-born terrorist Muqtada al-Zarqawi in...

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Release On the Web: http://www.dod.mil/releases/2004/nr20041015-1394.html Media contact: Army Public Affairs - (703) 692-2000 Public contact: http://www.dod.mil/faq/comment.html or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. 1031-04 IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DoD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jeremy F. Regnier, 22, of Littleton, N.H., died October 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol. Regnier was assigned to the Army’s 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery...

Apache Troop Family Readiness Group 1-7 Cavalry Division Dear Sir or Madam, As the war in Iraq continues, we are calling on your generosity to support our deployed loved ones. Apache Troop, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment left Fort Hood in March 2004 and will not redeploy until spring of 2005. Additionally, not all of the 135 Soldiers will be able to make it home for their "R&R" for the duration of the deployment. Obviously, this holiday season will be difficult for 1-7 CAV families both home and abroad. It is during this difficult time that our deployed loved ones...

Camp Taji SpotsStrong Man Competition By Sgt. Dan Purcell122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment CAMP TAJI, Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 8, 2004 — Their goals, like their weight and ages, varied as 37 soldiers competed in the first "Strong Man" weight lifting competition Sept. 30 at the 1st Cavalry Division's northernmost base camp. The event was sponsored by Sgt. 1st Class Lorenzo Billups, 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, and Sgt. Eric Preus, 126 Aviation Detachment, Massachusetts Army National Guard, both part of the 4th Brigade Combat Team.Billups said the competition took over two months of planning and preparation and was open...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 October 8, 2004Release Number: 04-10-22 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SOLDIERS CATCH SUSPECTED BOMB MAKER; 1500 ARTILLERY ROUNDS SEIZED BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Working off a tip, Task Force Baghdad troops detained a truck carrying more than 1,500 155-millimeter artillery rounds Oct. 7. This seizure is one of the largest by the task force to date. Ground forces were alerted to the suspected vehicle and converged on it and detained the driver and passenger. The munitions were found in the back of the...

        U.S. Army Spc. Pedro Martinez kisses his 7-month-old daughter, Juliana, for the first time while his wife Raquel looks on during the 1st Cavalry Division's welcome home ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas, Sept. 28. Juliana was born while Martinez was deployed to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kelly Hunt ~ *            Supporters gather for the 1st Cavalry Division's welcome home ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas, Sept. 28 to celebrate the return of their loved ones from Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kelly...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 October 4, 2004Release Number: 04-10-08 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1ST CAV'S BLACK JACK BRIGADE TO COMPLETE YEARLONG ROTATION 1st Cav’s Black Jack Brigade to Complete Yearlong Rotation BAGHDAD, Iraq – The 1st Cavalry Division announced today that the rotation schedule of its 2nd Brigade “Black Jack” Combat Team has shifted into 2005 . “The brigade will not redeploy early,” said division spokesman, Lt. Col James Hutton. “One plan had called for the brigade to complete redeployment by December. The plan now...

  Shoe Drive is ‘Mission Complete’Unit Expectations Vastly Exceeded by American Generosity Baghdad, Iraq -- The 68th Chemical Company of the 1st Cavalry Division would have been content to collect a few hundred pairs of shoes for some Baghdad children. Instead, the unit received more than 5,000 pairs of flip-flops, sandals and sneakers from people in the United States. And the boxes kept coming. First Lt. Brian Cyr, from Nebraska, started up the shoe drive nearly three months ago. With so many shoes delivered through his unit, he’s bringing the drive to a close. The 68th Chemical Company is...

Staff Sgt. Robert Bussell, 1st Cavalry Division, examines the nose of Al-Adul, a seven-year-old stallion, which once belonged to Saddam Hussein and his family. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Susan German Troopers Instruct Iraqi Horse Handlers By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Susan German / 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 29, 2004 – Trading computers and badges for saddles and spurs has provided a welcome break for troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division's Horse Cavalry Detachment working with Saddam Hussein's former horses at the Baghdad Zoo. After months of desk duty guarding the division main headquarters...

FORT HOOD - To the strains of the romantic standard At Last, about 200 soldiers who fought for a year in one of Iraq's toughest combat zones returned home Tuesday, into the arms of loved ones who came from across the nation to greet them. The soldiers were from two 1st Cavalry Division companies that were called into action on short notice in September 2003 — five months before the rest of their division — to bolster other Army and Marine units fighting in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. The units' performance in combat "will be recorded in the histories of this...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 September 27, 2004Release Number: 04-09-78 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JOINT OPERATIONS ROUND UP SUSPECTED INSURGENTS BAGHDAD, Iraq – Morning raids by Iraqi National Guard troops and Task Force Baghdad Soldiers in Baghdad resulted in the detention of 17 suspected insurgents. A spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division called the series of raids throughout the city Sunday a “great success.” From 5:30 to 8 a.m., a joint operation in central Baghdad conducted cordon and search operations. Three of the 15 detainees taken...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops stormed a mosque in the Iraqi capital Saturday to search for illegal weapons, the U.S. military said. Religious officials said the raid left a trail of overturned furniture, scattered holy books and broken windows. Capt. Tom Burrel of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division said no weapons were found during the raid on the Ibn Taymia Mosque in west Baghdad. He said U.S. forces searched the shrine's compound while guardsmen entered the mosque itself. Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, a conservative Sunni...

Emergency Blood Drive Saves Soldier’s LifeBy Spc. Jan Critchfield, 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAGHDAD, Iraq – As surgeons of the 31st Combat Support Hospital concentrated on the First Cavalry Division Soldier on the operating table before them Sept. 20, midnight approached and time was running out. Time was not measured on a clock that night; it was measured by the pints of blood that flowed onto the operating room floor as surgeons struggled to undo the destruction caused by the round of an insurgent AK-47. “We have a Soldier who was shot in the abdomen,” Maj. Nancy Parson,...

Mechanic Has Lots of Heart (Two Purple Ones, To Be Exact)By Cpl. Benjamin Cossel, 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment CAMP HOPE, Baghdad - Lightning never strikes twice, or so the story goes, but in the case of Sgt. Dewey Gibson the lightning was a mortar round and the story was wrong. When he got back from the combat support hospital (CSH) after taking wounds to the inner thigh from a mortar round, Sgt. Dewey Gibson countedhis lucky stars that the wounds he received were not serious. "Considering how high up on my inner thigh that shrapnel went," he commented...

Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli (left), 1st Cavalry Division commanding general, prepares for an interview with Amar Al-Joburi, of Iraqi satellite station Al Sharqiya, while interpreter Nick Cosma looks on at Camp Al-Tahreer, Sept. 21, 2004. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andy Miller 1st Cavalry Div. Commander Reaffirms CommitmentMaj. Gen. Chiarelli: Insurgents won’t stop progress in Baghdad By U.S. Army Spc. Andy Miller / 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment CAMP AL-TAHREER, Iraq, Sept. 22, 2004 -— Insurgent activity won’t halt work being done to rebuild Baghdad’s infrastructure, according to the commander of American forces in Baghdad. In an interview with...

Firefighters Get Training in BaghdadBy Sgt. 1st Class Clarence Kugler, 478th Civil Affair Battalion BAGHDAD, Iraq – There are 25 fire stations in Baghdad. They are scattered on both sides of the Tigris River. The firefighters working in these stations are some of the most heavily worked firefighters in the world, according to Maj. Alan Leitschuh of the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion, a Miami, reserve unit supporting the 1st Cavalry Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom II. The need for firefighters has been so great in Baghdad that many of the new employees have had no formal firefighter training. They...

  Before departing for the day’s mission, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jamie Vasquez, a platoon leader from Company C 160th Infantry Regiment, California Army National Guard, gives a patrol briefing. Keeping the unit informed of what the convoy’s route, destination, mission and potential enemy activity is key to the survival of his soldiers and passengers. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. John Queen   Steel Dragons Reach Half-Million Mile Mark By U.S. Army Sgt. John Queen / 3rd Brigade Combat Team BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 15, 2004 — Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division reached a milestone...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An 18-year-old private earned the first Silver Star medal awarded to a soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division serving in Iraq, after he helped fight off a deadly guerrilla ambush in May that killed two of his companions and wounded five. Pfc. Christopher Fernandez, of Tucson, Ariz. received the Silver Star from the division's commander, Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, on Aug. 13. The Silver Star, the military's third-highest combat medal, 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...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An 18-year-old private earned the first Silver Star medal awarded to a soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division serving in Iraq, after he helped fight off a deadly guerrilla ambush in May that killed two of his companions and wounded five

Soldiers Give Food to Iraqis Affected by Insurgents By Sgt. Dan Purcell, USASpecial to American Forces Press Service BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 1, 2004 -- As militants fueled an uprising in southern Iraq, fighting spilled over into places like Sadr City and adjoining areas, setting back ongoing efforts to improve the lives of Iraqis. Now with a tentative truce in place, civil affairs soldiers are taking the initiative to repair the damage and secure the peace. Teams attached to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, have begun the healing process by providing humanitarian rations to the people...