Soldier's Home : Navy

In the News: Night Patrols, Psych Units, and Military Town Money

David Botti — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:53:53 GMT

News roundup:

*Bill Ardolino of The Long War Journal takes his readers along on a night patrol with U.S. soldiers and members of a Baghdad neighborhood watch called Sons of Iraq:

Co-founded seven months ago by local leaders and members of the 82nd Airborne, the Al Sadria branch of the neighborhood watch is composed of about 250 members who are paid by and coordinate with American units. The branch is responsible for a series of predominantly Shia neighborhoods in central Baghdad that include part of the Shorja Market. Though leader Faris Abdul-Hassan refers to his group as “the first Shia Awakening” against criminals and terrorists, he refuses to hire anyone with sectarian allegiances.

According to Ardolino, with a decrease in the number of U.S. troops, the Sons of Iraq have been successful in shouldering the burden of peacekeeping in their own section of Baghdad. While the final goal is integration with the Iraqi police, many in the Sons of Iraq are weary of high infiltration rates within the police by members of the Mahdi Army. See a photo slideshow of the patrol here.

*The Marine Corps Times reports that the Navy plans to expand the number of mobile psychiatric teams embedded within Marine units. A bit of context: the Marine Corps doesn't have its own medical services, but rather relies on the Navy to provide personnel (the Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy). The units, known as Navy Operational Stress Control and Readiness (or OSCAR), should number at 23 within two years. The purpose is to provide initial psychiatric counseling to Marines while they are still serving out in the field:

“We want to put mental health professionals with our small-unit leaders,” Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson said. “We think if we can train them there. Tere’s a real synergy that can come. We can be there to help with treatment, training and surveillance.”

*One doesn't see much reporting out of Basra these days, but the New York Times Baghdad Bureau blog has an interesting piece today. An Iraqi member of the Times staff took a four-day reporting trip to Basra to see just what the situation is there. Some selections:

I stopped for a while and I saw many Iraqi Army cars riddled with bullets. I saw troops deployed everywhere I looked: on the roof of every high building, every road intersection, occupying government offices that before were occupied by political factions.

I was shocked when I saw traces of the fight, which was clear on the buildings close to the main streets.

As an Iraqi from the south who knows exactly what was going on, with the militias controlling everything in particular cities or ports, I did not expect that the Iraqi forces – which are majority Shia - would be able to confront the militia influence.

There was a new feeling. I had never seen before the Iraq Army, without hesitation, accusing the Mahdi Army of being involved in all the disorder there.

One of the soldiers told me: “The Mahdi Army are a group of criminals, they will destroy everything if we don’t stop them.”

In the past, I have never seen soldiers dare to say anything about them. I felt the reign of fear is broken, and that is it. Exactly the same feeling as when the Baathist regime fell.

*Military.com recently posted an article taking a look at the rise in per capita income within military communities:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be behind the jumps in income, according to experts. Combat pay and re-enlistment bonuses for professional soldiers, combined with the activation of National Guard and Reserve units, put more money in the bank accounts of personnel shipping out of Fort Bragg, said David G. Lenze of the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which issued the income data.

According to the piece, in North Carolina two major military communities ranked first and second in areas of the state with the highest per capita growth. The first of these, the Fort Bragg area, saw personal income rise more than $8,900 over five years. Military towns in Georgia and Tennessee saw these numbers rise by between 35 and 37 percent.

In the News: Iraqi Recruits, Grassroots, and a New Memoir

David Botti — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:49:17 GMT

A selection of military news stories over the recent days:

The Associated Press reports on troubles with training the Iraqi Navy and Marine Corps, and cites recent issues with Iraqi Army troops fighting in Basra as indicative of the overall training situation. As the rebuilt Iraqi navy is tasked with defending the country's two vital oil platforms, the AP tells of a disconnect between the reality of the situation and how it is perceived by the navy recruits:

The day when Iraq alone can defend its shores — and protect its critical offshore oil installations — seems remote.

Iraq’s navy now has five Chinese-made patrol boats and 26 fast-attack aluminum vessels — fewer than half of which are operational. Its personnel number about 1,350, including 350 Marines.

“They think they are an elite unit, but they are not,” said Capt. Jock Alexander of the British Royal Marines, who is in charge of training Iraqi Marines to guard the 1.8-mile exclusion zone around each of the country’s two oil platforms.

The struggle to build a credible Iraqi navy is mirrored — on larger scales — by the mounting delays and costs to form a new Iraqi army and air force after Washington disbanded Saddam Hussein’s military.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a series of grass-roots efforts aimed at joining Iraq veterans in need with U.S. citizens ready to help. Among the programs are an upcoming online forum of therapists around the country who've offered their services to treating Iraq veterans. Many of these therapists have committed one hour of free counseling to Iraq vets per week, for as long as they wish. Then there's a series of Websites dedicated to linking vets with people willing to donate money for basic necessities. Still, the VA is hesitant to get on board with these groups:

While Veterans Affairs officials appreciate the support of community groups like Bobrow's, they're careful about embracing them. Because of privacy regulations, the VA can't disclose who has used their services. Often, VA employees are reluctant to even hand out flyers from fledgling groups until thoroughly checking them out.

"The veterans and their families have suffered enough. So when they put up a public profile or say they need help, we want to make sure they don't get injured again," said Patricia Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Center.

In a profile of Elise Forbes Tripp, author of "Surviving Iraq: Soldiers' Stories," the Portsmouth Herald News details some of her most interesting findings through interviews with Iraq vets, including this one:

She was surprised at the men being upset at having women in their units. "I would get long responses about how useless women are in war ...; not sexist but how they don't belong there."

Men said they created sexual tension and diverted attention. They require involvement from male colleagues for their safety, for example, having to guard their showers or to calm them during a difficult time. "And I think they felt it was unfair that woman could get pregnant and go home," she says. "I was just listening, thinking this is amazing."

The New York Times reports that Donald Rumsfeld is set to pen his own memoir:

Donald H. Rumsfeld, who resigned as secretary of defense in late 2006, will write his memoirs for the Sentinel imprint of Penguin Group USA. Mr. Rumsfeld, 75, will cover not only his years in the Bush administration but also his experiences with Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan; his work in the private sector; and his early life. In contrast to other recent political figures who have produced memoirs, Mr. Rumsfeld is forgoing an advance and will donate profits to a nonprofit foundation he recently established to make educational grants to young people interested in public service and establishing links between the United States and Central Asia.

The Marine Corps Times reports that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is proposing new measures that would provide homes for severely injured veterans on VA property. The proposal came during a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee hearing where issues of long-term veterans care were raised. Sen. Feinstein cited VA property in West Los Angeles that includes 300 acres of undeveloped land:

Feinstein said she offered VA’s West LA campus as an example because she often visits the site, but she believes such housing also could be built at other VA facilities around the country.

Feinstein and other California lawmakers have been trying to block VA from leasing out the unused land for commercial purposes, but they have not agreed on what to do with the property. Some want the land to be public park land, some have proposed building housing for homeless veterans and others have talked about leaving it completely undeveloped so it can be used by future generations.

Interactive Map Showing Hometowns of Casualties

David Botti — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:36:36 GMT

A reader recently pointed me to an incredibly detailed interactive map indicating the hometowns of U.S. military casualties from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Based on information available from the Department of Defense, the map's creator has allowed viewers to filter the map by branch of service, military operation, sex, and age. Check it out here. It first appears zoomed in on the New York City area, but one can view anywhere in the country.

From the Website's mission statement:

In mid 2007 oobgolf.com launched an advanced golf course finder for our users. We recently made the decision to use that same technology and development resources to map the hometowns of soldiers who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This was not done as a political statement. We simply felt that this tool provided a unique way for Americans to connect to these fallen soldiers in a new more personal way.

In the News: Bill O'Reilly, Filmmaker Vets

David Botti — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:18:59 GMT

The veterans advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America is ramping up its criticism against Bill O'Reilly's recent comments on homeless vets. Users of IAVA's website can sign an online letter protesting O'Reilly's statement that:

“They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? … If you know where there's a veteran sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it.”

O'Reilly pulled presidential politics into the mix as well accusing John Edwards of using the homeless veterans issue for his own political gain. Today a transcript from one of O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memos" was published on the Fox News Website. It referenced an exchange between Edwards and David Letterman:

DAVID LETTERMAN: Tell me a little bit about your feud with Bill O'Reilly. Now there's a tough guy. He's been on the show a couple of times. And he's a tough guy. What's going on there? What's at the core of the feud?

JOHN EDWARDS: Well, the core of the feud is I've been talking about homeless veterans and the fact that we have a couple hundred thousand homeless veterans who have no place to sleep at night. They're either in shelters...

LETTERMAN: It's embarrassing, isn't it?

EDWARDS: It's incredibly embarrassing for America. Huge moral issue facing the country. And he kind of went on his show and said that I was exaggerating, making it up. And I think he got a lot of correspondence, a lot of homeless veterans have been calling in.

LETTERMAN: Well, you know what I've noticed about Bill O'Reilly — and he's a marvelous communicator. But he's not — he doesn't really care much about telling the truth.

O'Reilly then countered:

As Laura Ingraham might say, tedious. Edwards and Letterman could not care less about the truth unless it fits into their far-left vision of the world. Using homeless veterans to make a dishonest political point is wrong. That's one of the reasons Edwards is going nowhere in his campaign. The man simply cannot be trusted.

Recently the Associated Press reported on an interesting program giving wounded Marines and Navy Corpsmen job placement in the film industry. Working with the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation gives these vets hands on training in the various aspects of filmmaking--even the camera equipment can be modified to suite any injuries the vets may have. As the center's co-founder Kev Lombard tells the AP, the idea for the program came out of his own project:

Lombard came up with the idea for the foundation's Wounded Marine Training Center for Careers in Media program after being asked by a friend in the military nearly two years ago to document the stories of wounded veterans at military hospitals.

"It wasn't our story to tell. It was theirs," he said. "So I said how about we teach them to tell their own story."

Throughout the story we follow one young wounded Marine who's filming a mock scene of helmets atop inverted rifles set as battlefield memorials to those killed. If movies about Iraq will continue to be made in the future, his lens offers an idea of just how valuable these aspiring filmmakers may be:

Frey focuses on the helmets, which sit near a box of blank ammunition. For a moment he considers taking pictures. But then he decides against it, saying later that the scene didn't look real.

Pearl Harbor Memories After 66 Years

David Botti — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:29:57 GMT

A quick roundup of news articles commemorating the 66th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. A primary theme of many of the pieces: the dwindling number of Pearl Harbor veterans still alive.

An editorial from the Cincinnati Post has a particularly poignant message:
Every December, on or around the 7th, I would write about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. My concern, even back then, was that we had begun to forget the significance of that day, not just to us, but to the entire world.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
[87-year-old Alex] Haynes' voice faltered as he recalled seeing what remained of the battleship Arizona where 1,177 sailors and Marines died in the heartbeat of a massive explosion. "Those men never knew what hit them," he said. "Maybe, in a way, it was a blessing."...That's why he never returned to Pearl Harbor after the war. "I never wanted to go back," Haynes said. "I always try to keep in my mind, pictures of the way it used to be before the attack."

From the LA Times:
The exact number of Pearl Harbor survivors, though unknown, is smaller, and they are older than the average WWII veteran. [Jack Ray] Hammett, a former Costa Mesa mayor, said he liked to think of his buddies as "walking, living history."

From the Baltimore Sun:
[The] national survivors group decided that last year's anniversary gathering at Pearl Harbor would be the last in Hawaii. The group would meet there every five years, but now it's just too hard for the survivors, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s, to travel so far.

The Associated Press takes a look at the civilian victims of the attack:
Children carried gas masks to the playground. Military officers commanded civilian courts under martial law. Residents feared enemy troops would parachute into the mountains and then swarm the beaches...This year's 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor offers reminders of how the assault upended the lives of Hawaii's civilians, in addition to the severe damage inflicted on the military.

Here's some good archival footage of the attack from Encyclopedia Britannica: