Free Republic

KARKH DISTRICT — After eight weeks of intense training, Iraqi Army Soldiers finally graduate from the first ever mechanics course, Dec. 30. More than 150 Soldiers now possess valuable knowledge in vehicle maintenance which will greatly help them with their mission. The training encompassed the basics repair of engines, clutches, manual and automatic transmissions, differential gear, two-and-four-wheel drive vehicles, brakes systems, mechanical and hydraulic steering mechanisms, cooling systems and basically everything else on the vehicle, said Eugene Koster, contractor of Fiafi Group and senior trainer at the training center. From the theoretical to in-depth, practical training, the Soldiers received clear...

RUTBAH, Iraq (Jan. 3, 2008) -- RUTBAH, Iraq – Making a choice after graduating from high school is stressful for most, but for one Yuma, Ariz., native, the military was his number one choice. The difficult decision was choosing which branch of service to enter. Looking to his father for advice was difficult because he had served a tour in the Marine Corps and then finished out his 20 years in the Army. He told his son he loved them both and he would have to research them and make his own decision. Spc. Louis Madrid III did just that....

What do you do when you think all day that it is a totally different day of the week. I mean I went all day thinking today was Wednesday. I mean today fit all the criteria of a Wednesday. Woke up pissed off a bit tired but still optimistic. Smelled the steak like substance cooking at the Dfac. Wednesday is usually steak and seafood day or at least that is what I'm told. So I spent at least 3-4 hours thinking it is Wednesday. I mean I honest to goodness thought it was Wednesday. I even said it was Wednesday....

<p>A man crashed his vehicle into the Fort Worth home of Secretary of the Army Pete Geren on Sunday before fatally shooting himself a short time later, authorities said.</p> <p>On Tuesday, Mr. Geren said that he did not know the man and that he did not think his house was intentionally targeted.</p>

A longing for home By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, December 24, 2007 Retired Air Force Reserve Capt. Ed Hrivnak recalls his first Christmas away from home, spent in Thumrait, Oman, on the eve of the Gulf War. "I was very young, and it was really my first time away from home," says Hrivnak, 38, of Bethel Park, who has served in both Gulf wars and began keeping a diary during his first mission in 1990. "There was a lot of anxiety about the upcoming war that night on Christmas Eve," he says. "At our field hospital, some British mercenaries had...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 19, 2007) - Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody today announced plans to activate three new units in 2008, and other unit-stationing decisions to support the Army's growth by up to 74,200 Soldiers, including 65,000 active-duty Soldiers, by 2010. The stationing plans announced during a Pentagon press conference this afternoon include six infantry brigade combat teams, eight active-component support brigades and various-sized combat-support and combat-service-support units. "The Army is undergoing the largest transformational change since 1942," said Gen. Cody. "We've changed our doctrine. We've changed our...

BBC documentary team "Panorama" followed a unit of British soldiers on a six-month tour to the front line in Afghanistan. It ended with one soldier dead and 12 seriously wounded.

The Real Surge in Iraq – the rapid expansion of the Iraqi Security Forces – continues. The Iraqi Security Forces is expanding with the Iraqi Army now growing to 61 planned brigades in 15 divisions while the Iraqi Special Operations Forces becomes the defacto 16th division. The latest "Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq" quarterly report was publicly released on December 18, 2007. What follows is some of the key developments of Iraqi Security Force.

An Army veteran who remembered getting free coffee and doughnuts from the Salvation Army decades ago gave a $10,000 check to a dumbfounded bell-ringer. "The $10,000 is to help pay for my coffee and donuts," he said in a handwritten note signed, "P.F.C." "Seems fair to me after 40+ years, with inflation and everything." The man gave the check to a volunteer outside a department store at the Exton Mall on Friday, said Capt. Gerald Morgan, a spokesman for the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia. The man remembered being given coffee and doughnuts while serving in World War II and...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. Army medic jailed for desertion after refusing to return to Iraq is on a mission to tell young Americans about the grim realities of war before they join the military. Mexican-born combat medic Agustin Aguayo, in Germany to receive a peace award, told Reuters that U.S. Army recruitment methods were unfair as young people got a one-sided, positive picture of combat. "I want to bring young people awareness. We ask them to sacrifice so much yet we don't educate them about the realities of war," said Aguayo, who describes himself as a conscientious objector, in...

There are four factors in determining when to transition a province to Iraqi control: the threat, Iraqi Security Forces capability, governance, and politics. The reporting on the turnover of Basrah province addresses three of the four factors in determining PIC; yet the established press leaves out one of the most important changes of the last year.

FredHeads are everywhere…including serving our country near Basra in Iraq. Click here to see the pics.

I was on a 5:45 PM flight from Atlanta to Newark, NJ on Delta tonight. As I went to my seat in row 44, I passed by a young man in fatigues (he was in row 42) and, as any Freeper would do, thanked him for his service and asked him if he was going to be home for the holidays. He said "yes I will be" and I wished him a merry Christmas and took my seat.As we were landing, the flight attendant said that we had a young army man just back from Iraq who was coming home...

As security improves in Iraq, pressure is building to reverse one of the most onerous decisions Defense Secretary Robert Gates made to enable President Bush's troop buildup to go forward this year: extending the tours of active-duty soldiers from 12 months to 15 months. The extra three months is a weighty burden, both physically and psychologically, for soldiers already stressed by multiple tours, and on families coping with strains that have mounted since the war began in 2003. "We can't sustain that," Gen. George Casey, who was the top U.S. commander in Iraq before becoming the Army chief of staff...

I had to look up the word "conniption." I wasn't sure how to spell it, but I'm sure that the likes of Code Pink, MoveOn, and other far left anti-war groups had a collective conniption fit last week. One of their poster boys, John Murtha, quit toeing their line. Surely what followed were the same fits of rage I've seen them have before. In September at a Washington D.C. rally as Senator Joe Lieberman began to address a group of pro-mission vets and Gold Star Families, several members of the anti-war groups charged toward the stage with seemingly unrestricted fury,...

The December 2007 updates to the Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle are now available at the ISF OOB Page. The significant changes to the Order of Battle are summarized below.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have announced they're planning to descend on Washington, DC this March to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like." Iraq Veterans Against the...

WASHINGTON -- A Marine company involved in the shooting of civilians in Afghanistan last March responded appropriately to an ambush against them, and should not have been pulled out of the country, the commander of Marine Corps special forces said Thursday. Marine Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, head of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, also told reporters that a legal tribunal investigating the incident has been postponed until mid-January at the request of one of the officers involved. "Obviously it was not my decision to bring the company out of theater," Hejlik said. "It was the theater commander's decision. I...

Saturday, December 1st, 2007, 12:00 P.M. EST (0900 PST). TV: CBS Radio: Sirius Channel 122

I don't think things can get more screwed up with airport security. This isn't about how investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past TSA screeners earlier this year. It's about the atrocious treatment endured by some Fort Lewis soldiers who were escorting the remains of a colleague home to Virginia earlier this month. Brief background: On the tarmac, an honor guard had been formed by Port of Seattle Police, airport fire and rescue and military personnel as the soldier's body was placed on the plane. A police officer then took the escort soldiers up to security. The...