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Long lists of soldiers killed in wartime can have great emotional power, as anyone who has been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington can attest. However dignified and moving, though, in the end such a listing can really describe them only as a group: They wore the uniform and died in the service of their country. But who they were individually, how they served, what they left behind — that is more than a catalogue of names can convey. So here is the story behind just one of the names ''Nightline" will enumerate on Memorial Day: Sergeant Rafael Peralta...

“Memory n. 1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience; the ability to remember. 2. An act or instance of remembrance; a recollection… see smer in Appendix.” “smer – to remember. In Germanic murnon, to remember sorrowfully, in Old English murnan, to mourn.” I remember Chuck Meerholz and the day I was supposed to drive. After four months with B Company, 1st Battalion, 69th Armor; four months of on-the-job-training for a guy trained as an infantrymen, I was being taught to drive our tank. B Company was to participate in a big operation centered on the village of...

Knocked on his back by a burst of gunfire that hammered the body armor covering his chest in November in Fallujah, Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel gave his corporal the thumbs-up and continued to cover the room where his attacker lay waiting. Within minutes, the 29-year-old Gavriel would be dead, killed by more bullets and a grenade tossed by the Iraqi insurgent who would also draw his last breath that day.

Steve Rasmussen stood earnestly, his voice cracking with emotion describing his father’s love for the U. S. Military Academy and his privilege to witness something that meant so much to his father with the hope it will mean the same to its new owner. His father, James Asa Rasmussen, USMA class of 1945, who died October 26, had a last wish of contributing his class ring to the Class Ring Memorial Program. His ring was included among the 12 present at the ring ceremony conducted at the Pease & Curren Refinery in Warwick , R.I. , March 8. In four...

BAGHDAD , Iraq – Acting on intelligence sources and tips provided by Iraqi citizens, Multi-National forces conducted simultaneous raids in the Rahwah and Karabilah regions to capture or kill terrorists within the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network. Multiple sources of intelligence indicated that elements of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist network were operating in the area, including key lieutenants, suicide bombers, and a contingent of foreign fighters. Multi-National forces engaged and destroyed these targets. Operations against suspected foreign fighter strongholds resulted in killing over a dozen terrorists and foreign fighters. Specifically the bodies of three Saudis and one Moroccan have been...

MOSUL , Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) killed several terrorists and captured four people suspected of anti-Iraqi activities in northern Iraq Sunday in combined operations with Iraqi Security Forces. Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment were attacked by terrorists while conducting a raid in a village in northern Al Anbar Province. Iraqi Army and U.S. 2-14th Soldiers quickly overwhelmed the enemy. Following the attack, the units also discovered a weapons cache inside the building the terrorists had used. The suspects are in custody with no MNF or ISF injuries reported.

March 18, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Central Command Area of Responsibility: Sgt. Andrew Garrett (left) and K-Dog (the Bottle-nosed Dolphin in mid-air) of Commander Task Unit 55.4.3 (CTU-5.4.3) during a training session in the Arabian Gulf. CTU-5.4.3 conducts very risky deep/shallow water mine countermeasure operations to clear shipping lanes for humanitarian relief. PhotographerPhotographer's Mate 1st Class Brien Aho, United States Navy (USN), http://www.Navy.milBig imagehttp://www.news.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/030318-N-5319A-002.jpgCreditsCaption: http://www.news.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=5691Photo as sized above: http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050530.htm

A British soldier has been killed in south Iraq after a military convoy was attacked, the Ministry of Defence says.Lt Karim Lueibi, of the Iraqi police, told AP news agency that a roadside bomb had exploded near the troops. An unknown number of casualties were airlifted from the scene in the Kahla area south of Amara on Sunday. Earlier this month, Anthony Wakefield became the 87th UK soldier to die during the conflict after a roadside bomb blast in the same area. The MoD says it is investigating the latest hostile action against UK forces and will not identify the...

 EAST BRIDGEWATER — For several weeks, resident Marjorie Winsor could not get Gordon M. Craig off her mind.Neither could American Legion Post 91 Commander Charles Gilbert.Winsor wanted to revive the memory of the hometown hero who sacrificed his life to save four other soldiers during the Korean War. Gilbert was thinking about him while researching his Memorial Day speech.Independently, they both contacted the veterans service office for help.As a result, the town is forming a committee to petition the state to have a bridge near Craig's childhood home named after him.There are only a few people left in town who...

A tribute to fallen HEROES  from the staff and visitors at FreeRepublic.com, FreedomUSA.org and Veterans for Constitutional Restoration (VetsCoR)  During the course of this country's history brave men and women have stepped forward from time to time, answering the country's call to fight against would-be tyrants, dictators and despots,  and to defend the individual freedom that is our birthright.  Many of these brave men and women have paid the ultimate price. It is to these brave men and women of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine that we dedicate this page, and to...

NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of troops here for Fleet Week took time off Friday to attend two events to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - one a very public show of strength, the other quiet and private. Almost 300 members of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard took part in the first event, a three-mile run around lower Manhattan followed by a wreath-laying ceremony beside the former World Trade Center site. As they stood under a cloudless sky at the site of the terrorist strikes, the group let out a shout that reverberated across the 16-acre...

Perched on a tree stump stool, Sam Ross grinned and cocked his head in the direction of the concrete slab dangling from the enormous crane parked in his newly laid gravel driveway. Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Sam Ross sits in front of the handicap-accessible home being built for him near Dunbar, Fayette County, by Homes For Our Troops. Click photo for larger image. Moments later, the rectangle of prefabricated concrete swung past Ross' face, then slipped into place in the muddy pit in front of him. "What's happening?'' Ross asked yesterday, anxious for assurance that work truly had begun on the...

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Graduating U.S. Military Academy cadets - who came here just weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - were told Saturday they were a special group forged by historic events. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the class "one of the few since the early days of the Vietnam War who came to West Point in peace time, saw the nation transition to war and chose to stay, knowing you would raise your right hand and take an oath and swear to defend the constitution of a nation that was still...

ALTAMONT, New York (AP) -- A soldier held in Japanese prison camps in World War II secretly painted stars and stripes on pilfered paper hidden from his captors, then held the flag up high to greet American planes flying overhead when his camp was liberated. After returning home, Cpl. Millard Orsini consigned the object of his secret work to a closet. He rarely mentioned the war or the moldering flag, and died in 1978 from a heart attack. "He was really a hometown hero who got lost in the cracks," said Tony Ferraioli, who led the effort to restore the...

FRAMINGHAM -- When Collin Kelly arrived at Edgell Grove Cemetery to place flowers on soldiers' graves yesterday, he discovered a crowd of people and decades of emotions buried deep. The cemetery visit by the young boy, whose effort to honor dead veterans has made him a national media celebrity this past week, attracted a large group of onlookers: veterans, reporters, patriotic well-wishers and people grieving the loss of loved ones laid to rest at Edgell Grove.

TOMORROW NIGHT, in a special broadcast of ''Nightline," Ted Koppel will call the roll of the more than 900 US troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past 12 months. As each name is read, viewers will see a photograph of the fallen soldier. Executive producer Tom Bettag says the program is meant to remind Americans, ''regardless of their feelings about the war, that the men and women who have given their lives in our behalf are individuals with names and faces." Long lists of soldiers killed in wartime can have great emotional power, as anyone who...

HADITHA, Iraq - More than 1,000 Marines, sailors and soldiers are taking part in a counterinsurgency operation in Haditha, a Sunni-dominated trouble spot 140 miles north of Baghdad, the military said Friday. Two Marines have been killed in the operation, which began Wednesday. U.S. forces returned to Haditha less than two months after they thought they cleaned up the Euphrates River town. But insurgents assassinated the police chief and devastated his force more than a month ago, leaving Haditha without a security force. Iraqi troops also stayed clear of Haditha. Until Iraqi forces can handle security in places like Haditha,...

(snip, snip) "Do you ever take a half step back and say, 'Was this war really necessary?' Or you don't even go there?" asks Safer. "No, on a daily basis. Because it's a responsibility I have to my soldiers, because they're gonna ask me those questions," says Blickhan. "And no reporter can put it as blunt as an American paratrooper. 'Why are we here? Why are we doing this?' And I've gotta be able to answer that. In my heart, I've found an answer that it's worth it. And I've lost soldiers, and Americans are dying over there, and Iraqis...