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Experimental testing has demonstrated that the system 100 is effective to defeat an AP bullet fired from a rifle at point-blank range (e.g. at impact V.sub.p.apprxeq.850 meters/second). Applications include, but are not limited to, body armor for infantry soldiers and law enforcement agencies, integral armor or armor appliques for vehicles such as aircraft, helicopters, and cars. Other uses include military applications, such as used in conjunction with ground vehicles or amphibious assault vehicles. Thus, the system 100 for protection against a projectile 105 having a speed, or velocity V.sub.p, comprises an accelerating layer 110, a plug layer 120, and (optionally)...

Hi All. I have a question about my son, who's graduating OSUT at Ft. Benning in December. The ITB website says that I can pick him up after graduation, but what about his travel to his first station? Does the Army pay for his travel from Benning to his first station? Can I fly him home from Benning? How the heck does all this work? I'd like to pick him up after graduation, fly him home (western US), then get him to his duty station. What does the Army expect, do, and pay for?

The idea of digging-in disgusted Patton. A victorious army, in his mind, was always on offense, never on defense. It was one of the myriad reasons Patton was such a successful combat commander. It didn’t always make him popular with his subordinates and peers, and he frequently caught hell from the media, but the man knew how to fight and win wars. He was neither a ticket puncher nor a politician. He would have scoffed at modern political correctness. And his only objective was always the combination of a decisive defeat of the enemy and the utter annihilation of his...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (Army News Service, Aug. 29, 2006) – A long wait is over for Stryker Mobile Gun System (MSG) crews of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry, received its complement of MGS vehicles last month after more than a year of waiting. They are the first vehicles to be fielded in the Army. “I think its going to give the infantry a whole new dimension of what they can do. Armor and infantry have kept each other at arm’s length for years and years," said Sgt. 1st Class David Cooper, an MGS platoon...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Aug. 10, 2006 -- Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, conducted Operation River Falcon July 25-27 in and around the town of Sayifiyah. “The goal was to set conditions in the area in support of future projects and more kinetic operations,” said Capt. Colin Brooks, commander, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. Sayifiyah had once been a “French Riviera”-type region for Sunnis, who were given preferential treatment under the Sadam regime, Brooks said.  Located southeast of Baghdad on the Tigris River, the small area, which...

WUERZBURG, Germany, July 6, 2006 – The U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, known as the "Big Red One," bid farewell to its host country of Germany at Victory Park on Leighton Barracks here today. The colors of Big Red One are scheduled to be unfurled at Fort Riley, Kan., Aug. 1, and the division will assume command and control of its units now there. Among other duties, the division is slated to take on the mission of training foreign security forces training teams in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Despite numerous deployments to distant countries within the...

(AP) — EDITOR'S NOTE: An AP reporting team has been embedded with U.S. soldiers for nearly two weeks in Kandahar and Helmand provinces as part of Operation Mount Thrust. The troops are now positioned on an isolated hilltop. BAGHRAN VALLEY, Afghanistan (AP) — By night, the troops brace for Taliban mortar attacks. By day, they carry heavy gear and weapons over rocky ledges in scorching heat, stopping only to rehydrate, sometimes with the help of intravenous drips. Life with the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment in southern Afghanistan is a battle not only against a stealthy and stubborn enemy but...

FORT HUACHUCA — America’s history has been defined and shaped by what happened in the Old West. Part of that record was due to the achievement of black soldiers who help protect settlements in places such as Southern Arizona, Tom Stoney said Wednesday during the monthly luncheon hosted by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee. And part of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers legacy needs to be saved, Stoney said to nearly 90 people. That can be done by ensuring the World War II black officers club on the post remains, he told nearly...

"There are other effects when a leader in an organization like this goes down. The lesser tiers of the terrorist leadership have to start talking. They will use any number of sophisticated and unsophisticated means to do that talking. Some of them will do what is easy — get on the phones and cell phones. They’ll have to move to meet and determine their next steps. All that talk and all that movement generates what’s called ‘actionable intelligence.’ It puts more and more of them in our crosshairs."

HIT, Iraq, June 4, 2006 – The infantry isn't going to move far without help from a bunch of oil-stained soldiers. Just 11 soldiers are responsible for keeping the vehicles of Task Force 1-36 here running. Army Pfc. Guillermo Armendariz and Pfc. James Vail work to change an engine in a Bradley fighting vehicle in Hit, Iraq, June 3. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In this environment, it's a particularly tough job. Sand and dust clog intakes and contaminate oil. The infantrymen are driving the vehicles as much in a month as they used...

The vehicle, if close enough to the blast, flips into the air, snapping necks and spinal cords. Heads and limbs are torn from bodies. Gasoline ignites and ammunition cooks off, burning any survivors to a crisp. Those soldiers and Marines (many of whom are still teenagers) who witness the action are instantly shocked, physically sickened, grief-stricken, and enraged over the horror of having watched buddies—who have become closer than any sibling might ever hope to be—torn to pieces. Badly wounded buddies are screaming in agony. Yet the ones uninjured or with minor injuries have to respond as trained. They are...

 ONE STATION UNIT TRAINING GRADUATION A CO 2-58 and C CO 2-19 INFANTRY 21 APR 2006 FORT BENNING , GA GOOD MORNING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THAT WAS PRETTY WEAK LET'S TRY IT AGAIN..... GOOD MORNING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ~ MUCH BETTER! THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING THE GRADUATION CEREMONY FOR ALPHA COMPANY, 2 ND BATTALION 58 TH INFANTRY REGIMENT; AND CHARLIE COMPANY, 2 ND BATTALION 19 TH INFANTRY ON BEHALF OF MG WALTER WATCH-A-COW-SKI, COMMANDER OF FT BENNING, COL SCOTT HENRY, THE COMMANDER OF THE INFANTRY TRAINING BRIGADE, AND LTC RICK MITCHELL, COMMANDER OF 2-19 INFANTRY; I'D LIKE TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY...

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. (NNS) -- About 200 active and Reserve Sailors undergoing predeployment training at Camp Shelby, Miss., reached the midway point of 60 days of Army combat survival training April 14. They received orders directing them to the Navy Mobilization Processing Site in Norfolk with follow-on training at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg, Miss. Their mission is to work with joint U.S. forces in small teams called Embedded Training Teams, or ETTs, teaching military doctrine to the Afghanistan National Army (ANA). “Our training here and subsequent mission in Afghanistan is a prime example of how the role of the military...

Sorry it has been five months since my last update, but then, we have been busy. Let me give you the bottom-line up front (BLUF), and then catch you up on things. Feel free to forward this to whomever, since we still can’t seem to get the press to tell folks what is going on. This is how the fight is going from my foxhole, and it is much more than the bombings, US casualties, and rumors of civil war the press seems to be focused on.

And as far as the U.S. effort is concerned, it seems there is almost nothing the White House, the Pentagon, or for that matter any American rifleman on the ground can do that is good enough to garner so much as a one-line "attaboy" from many of our country’s largest newspapers and television news networks. Let’s look at last Thursday, March 16, the day the Iraqi National Assembly opened in Baghdad and a high-profile "air assault" northeast of Samarra, as an example:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 17, 2006) -- In the middle of a relaxed game of soccer, the frantic call for counter-fire brings the fun to an abrupt end. While the ball continues to roll, Marines of the 81mm mortar platoon race to their guns and scramble into Kevlar helmets and dusty flak jackets. “We [the 81mm mortar platoon] can do all types of missions,” said Lance Cpl. Jesse L. Evans, of Clifton Springs, N.Y., a mortarman with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. “We fire counter-fire missions against insurgent mortar teams, fire illumination missions, or even mark...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 13, 2006) — While conducting an air-insertion mission into the village of Shakaria, Iraq, Task Force Ironhorse Soldiers killed several insurgents, detained one and discovered a significant weapons cache Jan. 11. As part of Operation Falcon Sweep, Black Hawk helicopters landed near Shakaria Wednesday morning and Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment swept the village to identify terrorists. The 2-502nd Soldiers received small arms and indirect fire from insurgent forces at approximately 10:45 a.m. The Soldiers returned fire, killing six terrorists and wounding one other. Following the firefight, Soldiers discovered two dead insurgents...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2006 – Fighting the war in Iraq has transformed artillerymen into light infantrymen, a job filled with cordon-and-search operations, motorized convoys and dismounted patrols. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, have accepted and excelled in their nontraditional role. The field artillery soldiers have dominated a large area throughout the city and rich farmland of Taji, performing in the role of the light infantryman and securing peace for the people of the region. "We've captured 109 insurgents; 41 have gone to Abu Ghraib," said Lt. Col. Rafael Torres, the battalion's commander. "We've discovered 15...

U.S. Army soldiers from B Company 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, make their way down a steep mountainside while on a patrol during Operation Pizmah in Dey Chopan District, Zabul Province, Afghanistan, Dec. 11, 2005. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Vincent Fusco U.S. Paratroopers Complete Operation Pizmah U.S. paratroopers in Afghanistan hunted for Taliban, as well as worked to reestablish a coalition presence in the districts of Dey Chopan, Argandab and Khaki-Afghan. By U.S. Army Pfc. Vincent Fusco 20th Public Affairs Detachment DEY CHOPAN, Afghanistan, Jan. 5, 2006 — As Operation Pizmah drew to a close Dec. 15,...

AR Freepers: I know this is late notice (I just got my drill letter..sigh) and am back from Operation Katrina duties (yes thats right, AR 39th BCT guys are still in Nuevo Orleans). We are having our annual "Family Day" event at 39th BCT HHC (HQ) at Rick's Armory. The Armory is located at 4700 West 8th Street in Little Rock, AR. (Large Dome building just east of Travellers Baseball field and 50 meters north of I-630).Anyways, its a great time to stop by for a little BBQ and say hello (or thank you) to your AR National Guard members....