Free Republic

It is my opinion that we need to pray for our leaders this election. Many Conservative are disappointed with the selection of Senator John S. McCain. But in one sense, he is the true conservative in values -- he has fought for campaign finance reform -- getting big money out of politics. This should allow the little guy (or gal) more voice in what this country is doing. In some religions, it is part of the church service to pray for the leaders of a country (Ukrainian Catholic, for example). We must pray for our leaders and pray that the...

The Korean War has been called “the forgotten war,” and “Missing in MIG Alley,” on PBS on Tuesday night, illustrates a little-known chapter. It describes the rivalry in the sky between two types of fighter jets then on the cutting edge of military aviation: the Soviet MIG-15, used by the North Koreans, and the F-86 Sabre, flown by the Americans and the British. -snip- The program, an installment of the “Nova” series, reveals that Soviet airmen were actually fighting on behalf of the North Koreans, a fact concealed by the Soviet and American governments at the time for fear of...

WASHINGTON, June 22 (AP) - (Kyodo)— In talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Friday, U.S. President George W. Bush praised the developing nation's growing economy and expressed gratitude for its help in recovering the remains of soldiers captured or missing during the Vietnam War. During what Bush described as a "frank and candid discussion" with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, the two leaders also discussed U.S. concerns with Vietnam's apparent backsliding on democracy and human rights. "I explained my strong belief that societies are enriched when people are allowed to express themselves freely or worship freely," Bush said after the meeting....

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that an electronic database listing the names of servicemembers still unaccounted for from World War II is now available for family members and researchers. This new listing will aid researchers and analysts in WWII remains recovery operations. Prior to this three-year effort, no comprehensive list of those missing from WWII has existed. This database, listing nearly 78,000 names, was compiled by researchers from DPMO and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. They used hard-copy sources including “The American Graves Registration Service Rosters of Military Personnel Whose Remains were not Recovered” from...

BAGHDAD — Soldiers continue searching around the clock for their missing comrades throughout southern Baghdad Thursday. Although the 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Commandos,” 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) troops are sometimes trucking supplies out to their brothers and sisters in arms, they mainly rely on the 1st “Warriors” Air Cavalry Brigade’s aerial assets to get the job done, said Staff Sgt. Darren Larson, a brigade supply noncommissioned officer for 2-10th Mountain. “I know everybody down range really appreciates everything (1st ACB) is doing. We couldn’t have done it without (them),” he said. “(They’re) probably, by far, one of the biggest...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2006 -- Military and defense leaders, former prisoners of war and families of missing servicemembers gathered here today to commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day and to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring a full accounting of those missing in action. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at an armed forces full honor review in honor of National POW/MIA Recognition Day Sept. 15. Photo by Helene C. Stikkel  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called today’s observance an opportunity to honor...

HANOI, Vietnam, June 5, 2006 – Recovering remains of missing American servicemembers and de-mining operations were among the host of issues Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Vietnamese counterpart discussed here today. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vietnamese Minister of Defense Gen. Pham Van Tra participate in a ceremony officially welcoming Rumsfeld to Hanoi, Vietnam, June 5. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN   In his first visit here as defense secretary, Rumsfeld and Vietnamese Minister of National Defense Pham Van Tra met at the Ministry of Defense headquarters for discussions on policy issues....

HANOI (AFX) - The government here and the US have reached an agreement in principle that should enable Vietnam to join the WTO, staterun news media reported at the weekend. The state-owned Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said Hanoi had 'technically concluded the 12th round of negotiation with the US' on WTO accession Saturday after a week of 'intense discussions'. But the VNA report also said: 'Several issues remain unsolved'. The Tuoi Tre daily newspaper quoted Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen as saying: 'The talks reached agreements in principle.' He reportedly added: 'The official signing will take place in the...

Translated Text of an Iraqi Document Concerning Kuwait POWs As the opening date of Operation Freedom neared, Qusai Saddam Hussein-one of Saddam’s bloodthirsty sons, made arrangements to move captured Kuwaiti prisoners into critical locations, to serve as “human shields”. There were 448 Kuwaitis, captured during the First Gulf War ,when Saddam made his infamous incursion into Kuwait. By the terms of the UN Cease Fire agreements –signed by Iraq on 3/03/91- all Kuwaitis were supposed to have been freed and repatriated without delay. Clearly,this never happened ; and sadly,the ultimate fate of these 448 helpless captives is unknown. CMPC-2003-012666 Republican...

Fern Lord, now 83, says the return of the remains of her long-lost brother Charles “Buddy” Feucht will be just in time. John H. Sheally II/the Virginian-Pilot file photo 2004 article: Out of the blue SUFFOLK - It's been 62 years since Fern Lord's brother disappeared.Four years since human bones were discovered in New Guinea inside the rusted wreckage of a World War II bomber. Three years since those remains were retrieved from the jungle and carried to a military lab in Hawaii. Two years since Lord submitted a vial of her blood for DNA testing.And one day since...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- “Once captured, there is no comprehending what goes through your head,” said former Marine and Vietnam prisoner of war, Walter W. Eckes, 59, who spoke at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital’s 15th annual Prisoner of War/Missing in Action remembrance ceremony Sept 16. The first national commemoration for POWs/MIAs was July 18, 1979. Since then, Congress has passed yearly resolutions for the tribute. But in 1996, a presidential proclamation designated the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. For the commemoration in 1991, the hospital planted a tree as a living memorial...

The remains of 12 servicemen listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War have been identified and are returning home, 37 years after they died in a fierce battle near the Laos-Vietnam border, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The 11 Marines and one Army soldier are the largest group of MIAs identified since the war, according to the military. "Now we don't have to wonder anymore," said Steven Fritsch of Cromwell, Conn., who will bury his older brother Sunday at St. John's Catholic Church in Cromwell. He said the news has been "bittersweet" for his parents. "Obviously now they...

RELEASE NO. #05-25 JPAC TeamS Deploy TO VIETNAM HICKAM AFB, HAWAII Five Recovery Teams, one Research and Investigation Team, and one Investigative Team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will deploy from Hawaii this week for approximately 30 days to conduct operations in Vietnam in hopes of accounting for Americans still missing from the war in Southeast Asia. This is the 82nd Joint Field Activity in Vietnam. RTs will conduct operations of up to eight cases in six provinces, the RITs will investigate up to 15 cases in six provinces, and the ITs will investigate up to 15 cases in...

The last battle of the Vietnam War was fought on November 2nd, 2004, as John Kerry was defeated in his bid to become President of the United States by John O'Neill and the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth. What was the battle about? It was a battle to recapture the honor of the Vietnam veterans who served gallantly and heroically in that war. And who were the adversaries in this battle? It was the dishonest old media culture -- CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, and the LA Times, who backed John Kerry’s version of how Vietnam veterans...

"Political parties have usurped our Constitution by stealing our representative government and replacing it with party government. The only difference between the communists and us is that we have two communist parties. It's been that way for a long time now." --Mario Communism is not just another means by which to govern. Communism is dedicated to the overthrow of all other types of government in the entire world and the communists have been very successful because they are artful in the use of lies and deception. There are two main books seeking the hearts and minds of men and they...

There is a large group of "walking dead" in our midst . . . and I cannot get them off my mind and heart. We ignored them once, and I pray we won't do it again. If this past presidential election did nothing more than bring to the fore a story that we've not heard . . . we cannot in good conscience ignore it. One, lone soldier, told his story several years ago, and we listened with "bated breath." But recently when the other side of the story was told, we slightly turned our heads and called it politics....

The Odyssey Ends For Vietnam Vets They’re finally home and they kicked ass. Never defeated in a major battle in Vietnam, American Vietnam Vets finally came home this past Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Led by John O’Neill and the Swift Boat Vets, America’s Vietnam Vets came home and threw the usurpers, the imposters and their leader out of the palace of our Republic and reclaimed their rightful place as our true heroes and leaders. Their fellow citizens heard the truth of their words cloaked and ravaged for more than thirty years by the self-serving lies and slanders of pretend heroes....

October 31, 2004, 12:42 p.m. John Kerry's Other Vietnam WarWhy would we trust this man to be our president? By Stephen Morris John Kerry has fought this election campaign as a political moderate. Certainly his main foreign-policy advisers are moderate Democrats. But that campaign posture disguises his 34-year record in public life — which produced no legislative achievement, but featured a well-documented obsession with Vietnam and Cambodia that continues to the present day. Kerry made his four and a half months of service in Vietnam an electoral issue, but it's his 34 years of political activism on Vietnam and...

John Kerry's Fellow TravellersA 5-part series exposing John Kerry's Communist connections.Part 4: Subversion in the Senate: Kerry's Communist ConstituencyBy Fedora *NOTE: The term "fellow traveller" as used in this article series refers to someone who is not a member of the Communist Party (CP) but regularly engages in actions which advance the Party's program. Some apparent fellow travellers may actually be "concealed party members": members of the CP who conceal their membership. Which of these classifications is applicable to the Kerrys is a question this series leaves unresolved. This series does not argue for any direct evidence of Richard or...

It's All About Character, Stupid! Written by the White Knight Wednesday, October 20, 2004 It is disingenuous for the media to characterize Kerry simply as an “Antiwar Protestor.” What Kerry did went far beyond protesting against the war -- Kerry supported the goals of the North Vietnamese. And, they honor him in their museums for his support to this day. George Mc Govern was a patriotic American against the war – but McGovern didn’t go to Paris 3 times and meet privately with high-ranking North Vietnamese leaders like Madame Binh. McGovern did not join Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a...

Letter to John Kerry: It's a Matter of Honor, Sir Written by Arnold Beizer Friday, October 15, 2004 Letter to Candidate John Kerry Dear Sir: We all know you have failed and neglected to sign Form 180 authorizing release of all your military service records as President George W. Bush has done, despite your broken promise on national television to news reporter Tim Russert to do so. Instead, you have repeatedly stonewalled on this character issue and left a question of honor on the minds of every American. You have called your own honesty into question by refusing to be...

> The author of this letter is well known in the Canon City, Penrose, Pueblo area. He is an author of numerous books and a businessman in Florence, Colorado. He is a retired member of the "A-team" Green Berets. > > AN OPEN LETTER TO SEN. KERRY > > My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year and the recovery is > terribly painful. Then she developed staph-epi infection, and they > had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking > about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second...

RAF MILDENHALL, England — Adrian Cronauer, who was portrayed by actor Robin Williams in the movie “Good Morning, Vietnam,” wants to get some things out of the way at the start. Ron Jensen / S&S Adrian Cronauer was portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam." He is now a spokesman for the prisoners of war/missing in action issue. “If I did half the things he did in that movie, I’d still be in Leavenworth and not England,” Cronauer said Monday morning before addressing a POW/MIA luncheon at RAF Mildenhall’s Galaxy Club. The movie, which Cronauer co-authored, was...

The new front-runner Posted: January 23, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com One of the advantages to being nearly a half-century old is historical memory. I recall the first time I ever saw John Kerry, the first time I ever heard him speak. It was a long time ago – April 1971, to be precise, nearly 33 years ago. I was impressed then. I'm not impressed any more. After having participated in the founding of an organization called the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Kerry helped organize a rally of hundreds of Vietnam vets on the Capitol Mall in Washington. There were...

WASHINGTON - Accounting operations for missing Americans lost in the central highlands of Vietnam during the war will soon resume, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. U.S. and Vietnamese technical experts will meet in September in Pleiku, a town in the central highlands, the department said. They will review cases and interview witnesses as an initial step. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Jerry Jennings met with Gia Lai Province officials in Pleiku Tuesday to discuss the return of American investigators after three years. In 2001, Vietnamese officials stopped U.S. investigators from searching for the missing Americans in the...

Coalition Troop Casualties, MIAs The Associated PressPublished: Nov 8, 2003 The Department of Defense and family members have identified 387 U.S. servicemembers who died supporting U.S.-led operations in Iraq. Of these, 249 died on or after May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations there had ended. The total of 387 includes accidental and non-combat related deaths. Other U.S. deaths have been reported but have not yet been identified. The British government said 52 of its soldiers had died. The Danish, Polish, Spanish and Ukrainian governments each said one of their soldiers had died. DEATHS: Nov. 7 Army...

ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK — The Navy has identified the remains of an F/A-18 Hornet pilot assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk and missing since his plane was shot down April 2, according to the aircraft carrier’s commanding officer. Capt. Thomas Parker said the body of Lt. Nathan D. White, 30, of Abilene, Texas, was found Saturday. He was a pilot with Strike Fighter Squadron 195, the Dambusters. He is survived by his wife and three children. “Nathan White was a fine officer and a great pilot,” Parker said. “We send our best to his family and his shipmates.”...

Troops find body of missing soldier By MICHAEL SPRENGELMEYER April 12, 2003 Stone-faced soldiers bowed their heads as a chaplain recited prayer over the body an American soldier found dead Saturday in a shallow grave on the southern outskirts of Iraq. The soldier had been missing and feared dead since last week when his infantry unit was ambushed by Iraqi militia in the Baghdad suburb of Al Dora. His identity was being withheld pending notification of his family. Finding his remains had been a priority mission for the members of the 101st Airborne Division who swept into the southern part...

Seven missing US troops head to hospital-CNN BAGHDAD, April 13 (Reuters) - Seven missing U.S. soldiers emerged from helicopters on Sunday and were taken into ambulances near Baghdad, including one African-American woman, CNN reported. Five of the troops ran out of the helicopter upon arriving at a U.S.-controlled airstrip and two walked slowly, apparently having suffered injuries, an embedded CNN correspondent said. The United States had previously listed seven soldiers as captured in the Iraq war, including five members of an Army military maintenance company taken on March 23 when their convoy made a wrong turn in southern Iraq and...

Being reported on CNN - 6 POWs - found alive. No more information.

Missing, presumed dead The fate of many people - on both sides of the conflict - is still unclear 13 April 2003 The soldiers "I didn't receive any order from the beginning." An Iraqi colonel with the elite Republican Guard, who commanded a force of about 600 men, has revealed that his demoralised men fled from their units, without fear of punishment, as Allied bombs crashed on to their positions. The colonel, who joined other comrades changing back into civilian clothes to catch the bus home about a week before Baghdad was taken, said he had initially been ordered to...

Nikki Johnson doesn't like to hear the conflict is almost over -- not with her sister a prisoner of the Iraqis FORT BLISS, Tex. - The Iraqis, giddy with the first breath from under the yoke, were properly jubilant: They, after all, have a country to build. But for the ordinary Americans who make work, tend, staff and feed their young to the great military machine which -- whatever else it has done or may yet do to varying degrees of world approval -- will give the Iraqis that glorious chance, the dramatic fall of Baghdad yesterday was greeted with...

Wednesday, April 09, 2003 The following American military personnel have either been captured or are missing during Operation Iraqi Freedom as of 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday: DUTY STATUS WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN March 23: -Army Sgt. Edward J. Anguiano, 24, of Brownsville, Texas. Missing after his convoy was ambushed in Iraq. Assigned to the 3rd Combat Support Battalion out of Fort Stewart, Ga. -Marine Sgt. Fernando Padilla-Ramirez, 26, of Yuma, Ariz. Last seen while conducting convoy operations in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the Marine Wing Support Squadron-371, Marine Wing Support Group-37, Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz. -Marine Sgt. Brendon...

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Families of soldiers missing in Iraq hoped for news of more miraculous rescues as U.S. forces continued dismantling Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad on Wednesday. Anecita Hudson's son is among seven U.S. servicemembers reported captured since the fighting began in Iraq. "I have no doubts my son is out there, and he is very alive and he is waiting to be rescued," said Hudson, mother of Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M. The family of Marine Sgt. Brendon Reiss, 23, of Caspar, Wyo., who is among 11 servicemembers listed as missing, takes comfort...

MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq - Marines found chemical weapons protective jackets bearing the names of two missing U.S. soldiers at a military airfield east of Baghdad, officials here said Tuesday. Also found at the sprawling complex at the Rashid airfield was a pair of Army pants in desert camouflage pattern. Marine officials had hoped the Americans might be at the airfield. "There were specific indications. We had reason to believe they were there," said Lt. Col. Nick Morano, 41, senior watch officer at the combat operations center of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF). "Some of the uniform items appear...

US names dead POWs The bodies were found during the mission to rescue Private Lynch United States military officials say eight bodies recovered during a mission to rescue a female US army private, in southern Iraq, are those of American soldiers.They were among a number of American service personnel initially registered as missing after their convoy was attacked by Iraqi tanks. The bodies were found on Wednesday after a midnight raid by American special forces to rescue the wounded prisoner of war Private Jessica Lynch. She was one of 15 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company who were listed...

Navy Searches for Downed Fighter Pilot By ROHAN SULLIVAN .c The Associated Press ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK (AP) - The U.S. military conducted a helicopter search-and-rescue mission Thursday for the pilot of a Navy F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet shot down by a surface-to-air missile during a bombing run over Iraq. It was the first American fighter jet shot down during the war on Iraq. The Iraqis have downed several pilotless surveillance drones. The single-seat plane from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the Persian Gulf went down just before midnight Wednesdsay near Karbala, a city about 50 miles...

Bill O’Riley and Brett Beher (sp) of FNC both all but 100% confirmed that at least some of the 11 bodies that were brought back from Iraqi hospital were U.S. POWs. It appears that at least some were executed. Beher at DOD did not want to go too deep into story, as “notifications” were not yet complete. SEAL and Ranger teams found two of the eleven bodies in the morgue of the hospital where PFC Lynch was found. An employee of the hospital led them to a shallow grave were another 9 bodies were found. All were returned by helicopter...

Even in battle, blondes get all the attentionIf a Hollywood screenwriter made up Ms Lynch's story, it would be condemned as cheesy, clichéd and racist. Deborah Orr 04 April 2003 As heart-warming human interest stories go, "Saving Private Jessica" is hard to beat. Around the world, headlines made reference to Steven Spielberg's film of the US Army's mission to rescue a soldier whose three brothers had all been killed in combat. Private Lynch's story may not have quite the mythic power of Private Ryan's, but in these terrible times it's wondrous enough. And part of the wonder must be that...

<p>Military forensics officials are working to identify the remains of 11 persons found at an Iraqi hospital used by Iraqi guerrillas, as a wounded Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued Tuesday night, was moved to Germany.</p> <p>A Central Command spokesman said some of the dead may be Americans.</p>

RETRANSMITTED TO CORRECT DATE OF AMBUSH TO MARCH 23, NOT MARCH 24 ** Jessica Lynch, 19, seen in this undated photo, one of several soldiers who went missing after their supply convoy was ambushed in southern Iraq , March 24, 2003 was rescued, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday, April 1, 2003. Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., worked as a supply clerk with the Army's 507th Maintenance Co. (AP Photo/Family Handout) CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar - Eleven bodies — at least some of them believed to be Americans — were found with prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was...

Relatives of Missing Soldiers Fear Worst By CHRIS ROBERTS .c The Associated Press FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) - Relatives of soldiers missing from the 507th Maintenance Company spent Wednesday fearing the worst after learning that 11 bodies - some of them believed to be Americans - had been found during the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. ``With every day that passes, it just gets worse,'' said Amalia Estrella-Soto, mother of 18-year-old Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto of El Paso. ``It's another day without knowing anything.'' Her son and Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, were among 15 soldiers of...

Breaking live. CENTCOM confirms 11 AMERICAN SERVICEMEN found with Pfc. Lynch. They have NOT been identified.

“WE KILL, we kill,” muttered the Iraqi driver of the pick-up truck speeding through the night-time streets of Baghdad bringing his helpless cargo of handcuffed Western journalists to Saddam Hussein’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Thus began the first of eight days in Iraqi captivity for Matt McAllester, a British foreign correspondent, the photographers Moises Saman, Molly Bingham and Johan Spanner, and a peace activist, Philip Latasha, who were seized without warning or explanation from their rooms in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad while covering the war on Iraq. During the week in which neither families nor friends had any idea...

April 2, 2003 American, Captive for Week, Is Rescued by Special ForcesBy JOHN M. BRODER OHA, Qatar, Wednesday, April 2 — American Special Operations forces today rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch of the Army from Nasiriya, Iraq, where she had been held captive since March 23. Private Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W. Va., was found in the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya, which was also being used as an Iraqi military facility, a Central Command official said. She was one of 15 members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, which was attacked by Iraqi forces after taking a wrong turn off...

Names, Listings of 507th Maintenance .c The Associated Press The personnel from the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company who were ambushed March 23 by enemy forces in Iraq, as listed by the Department of Defense: Rescued: Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, 19, Palestine, W.Va. Dead: Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, 22, Roswell, Ga. Pfc. Howard Johnson II, 21, Mobile, Ala. Whereabouts Unknown: Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, Cleveland, Ohio Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, El Paso, Texas Spc. James M. Kiehl, 22, Des Moines, Iowa Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, El Paso, Texas Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, Tuba City, Ariz....

U.S. POW's Rescue Raises Hopes Others By MATT KELLEY .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - American troops continued their hunt for prisoners of war in Iraq, buoyed by the rescue in a hospital of an Army supply clerk held for nine days in Nasiriyah. A dozen other members of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's ambushed unit remain unaccounted for, including five formally listed as prisoners of war. ``We also have others, other POWs we are just as worried about,'' Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said Tuesday. ``This is good news today but we need a lot more good news.'' A U.S....

U.S. says it rescues POW in Iraq WASHINGTON, April 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Tuesday that a U.S. Army prisoner of war has been rescued from Iraq and is now in a coalition-controlled area. In a statement, the Department of Defense identified the soldier as Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va. She was assigned to the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas, the statement said. Lynch had been listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown after her convoy was ambushed March 23. She was among 12 from her unit. Five others...

POW's Family Rejoices With Word of Rescue By ALLISON BARKER .c The Associated Press PALESTINE, W.Va. (AP) - Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch's family rejoiced Tuesday at word of her rescue as well-wishers packed their house and threw a parade of cars and fire trucks that blared in celebration. ``They said it was going to be the biggest party this road had ever seen,'' Lynch's cousin Sherri McFee said. More than 70 people gathered at Lynch's parents' home in Palestine after the Pentagon announced Tuesday night that the 19-year-old supply clerk had been rescued, more than a week after she and...

FRIENDS & PATRIOTS Tuesday, April 1, 2003 "Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but beggared is the nation that has and forgets them." It's been more than 12 years since Captain Scott Speicher was shot down while on a combat mission over Iraq during the first night of Desert Storm, becoming the first American casualty of the war. Initially classified by the Department of Defense as KIA/BNR (killed in action, body not recovered), Captain Speicher made history again in January 2001, when he became the first American service member ever to be switched from a status of KIA...