Free Republic

After the 9/11 attacks, tens of thousands of young men and women joined the military, heading for the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and dusty deserts of Iraq. Many of them now are officers in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, a lot of them are being told they have to leave. It's painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Eustis in Virginia, captains talk about their new worries after 15-month deployments in which they battled insurgents and saw roadside bombs...

FORT EUSTIS, Va. - Soldiers from the 97th Transportation Company recently returned from an unconventional mission - recovering thousands of tires from off the Florida coast in an effort to dismantle the world's largest man-made reef. The 15 Soldiers spent two and a half months off the Florida coast, conducting training operations for dive teams. They then traveled down coast to Fort Lauderdale, where they began a historic effort in environmental preservation. "In 1972, a number of organizations with good intentions dropped about two million tires in the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to build the world's largest man-made reef,"...

Courtesy of U.S. Army Members of the team assist Sgt. Benjamin Park, a diver searching for a machine gun in the Tigris River. Rick Scavetta / S&S When a forklift fell in the Tigris River near Tikrit, Iraq, last week, divers from the 74th Engineer Detachment decided not to risk their lives in the fast moving current. Courtesy of U.S. Army Soldiers form the 74th Engineer Detachment dive team "Poseidon" begin searching a lake northeast of Baghdad for weapons of mass destruction. Drowned soldier not left behind TIKRIT, Iraq — A few weeks ago, soldiers from the 74th Engineer...

Pictures from The Gathering The Gathering” reunion of Vietnam transportation veterans will be at Fort Eustis Wednesday-June 15. The Transportation Museum will provide a hospitality room for the veterans to visit and display their memorabilia. “The Gathering” provides the Vietnam veterans an opportunity to return to the home of the Transportation Corps and a chance for current transporters to learn from people who helped write an important chapter in Transportation Corps history. For more information, call 878-2856/1115. The public is invited, and it runs through Sunday, 15 June. If you are in the Hampton Roads area this weekend, and...

Top Ten Reasons I Am Proud To Be An American (presented by the 622nd Movement Control Team from Fort Eustis, Virginia) 10. "Besides Switzerland, we're the only country to have a cheese named after us" (Private First Class, Peter Griffin) 9. "We have 49 awesome states...and Delaware" (Specialist, Vernell Adams) 8. "All our great presidents have been American" (Private First Class, Randall Forrester) 7. "I don't see Yao Ming playing basketball in Belgium" (Specialist, Christopher King) 6. "Our flag is one of the stripiest" (Sergeant, Nealon Sears) 5. "America has more Regises per capita than any other nation on earth"...

Virginia's two senators are urging Congress to approve $40 million next year -- nearly four times what President Bush wants to spend -- for getting rid of decrepit ships in the James River Reserve Fleet, also known as the Ghost Fleet. In a letter to the White House released Thursday, U.S. Sens. John W. Warner and George F. Allen said the 97 old ships moored off Fort Eustis in Newport News represent ``a clear and present environmental danger to the river and the coastline.'' A federal study last November said an oil spill could spread for 50 miles, from Jamestown...