SandBoxBlogs: Stars and Stripes "GOP plan boosts Pentagon, cuts social programs"

Andrew Taylor:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republicans who control the House are using cuts to food aid, health care and social services like Meals on Wheels to protect the Pentagon from a crippling wave of budget cuts come January.

The reductions, while controversial, are but a fraction of what Republicans called for in the broader, nonbinding budget plan they passed in March. Totaling a little more than $300 billion over a decade, the new cuts are aimed less at tackling $1 trillion-plus government deficits and more at preventing cuts to troop levels and military modernization.

The House Budget Committee meets Monday to officially act on the measure, the product of six separate House panels. It faces a likely floor vote Thursday....." (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Seoul holds military drills despite NKorea threat "

Hyung-Jin Kim:
"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea conducted live-fire military drills near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea on Monday despite Pyongyang's threat to respond with a "merciless" attack.

North Korea did not carry out the threat as it focuses on internal stability two months after the death of longtime leader Kim Jong Il and prepares for nuclear disarmament talks with the United States later this week. But with American forces scheduled to conduct additional military exercises with ally South Korea over the next few months, tensions are expected to remain high in the region.

Washington and North Korea's neighbors are closely watching how new leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son, navigates strained ties with rival South Korea, the planned U.S.-South Korean military drills and a long-running standoff over the country's nuclear weapons programs.

South Korea's drills took place Monday in an area of the Yellow Sea that was the target of a North Korean artillery attack in 2010 that killed four South Koreans and raised fears of a wider conflict. North Korea didn't threaten similar South Korean firing drills in the area in January, but called the latest exercise a "premeditated military provocation" and warned it would retaliate for what it considered an attack on its territory...."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "For visiting Marines, an 'incredibly powerful, healing measure'"

Carlos Bongioanni:
"ARLINGTON, Va. — It wasn’t easy to talk about. Four Marines awarded Purple Hearts Thursday in front of the national Marine Corps Memorial found it difficult to open up about their recent deployment to Afghanistan.

“We had a job to do. We went over there and did our job, and now we’re home,” said Sgt. Curt Bartz, who was awarded two purple hearts at the ceremony. “Everybody is proud of us. We know that we did a good job. That’s all we can do.”

The four Marines, wounded at different times during their deployment, said they still don’t know for sure what hit them. They could have been hit with improvised explosive devices or rocket-propelled grenades, they said.

Lance Cpl. Robert Henry was the only one of the four willing to talk about his injuries. “Mainly a concussion,” he said. “I got medevaced for it. Have some lingering symptoms. It’s a lot better, but some things ain’t the same. My left eye is a little blurry.”

None of the Purple Heart recipients -- including Bartz, Henry, Cpl. Efren Garcia and Lance Cpl. Andrew Walker -- wanted to talk about the Marines their company lost...." (Read more?  Click title)

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Marine awarded Silver Star for heroism in Afghanistan"

Thank you for your service, Sgt. McCulloch.  You are so appreciated.  Come home safe.

"For his actions on Jan. 8, 2011 in Sangin, Afghanistan, Sgt. Philip McCulloch Jr. was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest medal for valor in combat.

The San Diego Union-Tribune provided this account of the battle in Sangin:

"The young Marine could have gone home after he was blasted by a rocket-propelled grenade. But Sgt. Philip McCulloch Jr., like many of his brothers-in-arms wounded on that tour to Afghanistan, begged to be sent back to the front lines after recuperating at a rear base.

"The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, an infantry unit from Camp Pendleton, was encircled by enemy fighters in a fierce and protracted battle for the Sangin valley. By the time the Marines finished their seven-month tour last spring, they had lost 25 killed and some 200 wounded – the worst casualties of any battalion in the decade-long war.

"McCulloch, 22 at the time and serving his third combat tour after two previous stints in Iraq, rejoined the battalion and later led his squad on a six-hour running battle against a larger force of enemy fighters. They only turned back to base for lack of ammunition."

Read more about Sgt. McCulloch and the Silver Star ceremony in the San Diego Union-Tribune"

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Southern Exposure: Mission in Antarctica "

Because they have all this way cool heavy equipment...like mongo size planes with 'skis' attached to the wheels....and huge, huge all terrain vehicles....and they like the cute little penquins enough to take lots of pictures and videos of them....and because they're on a mission for the United States of America.....

Those are the reasons that 'SandBox Nanny' seeks out the stories of our military when they head to Antartica.  (See all the news from Stars and Stripes on this mission?  Watch the penguins?  Click title)

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "U-2 spy plane to linger overhead a bit longer"

They should be left to linger for decades to come.  So much of our military needs, our border control and security needs, our homeland security needs could be done with the technology of drones.

In our view the value of human life is far greater than the loss of privacy we may be subjected to.  To not send an American life into battle or security enforcement and instead rely on technology is well worth considering.

This, is great news on the U-2.

W.J. Hennigan:

"Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.

The high-flying U-2 spy plane was first designed during the Eisenhower administration to breach the iron curtain and, as engineers said, snap "picture postcards for Ike" of hidden military strongholds in the Soviet Union.

And although the plane is perhaps best known for being shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the subsequent capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 continues to play a critical role in national security today, hunting Al Qaeda forces in the Middle East. The aging cold warrior once slated for retirement in 2015 may fight on into the next decade.

The fleet of 33 spycraft was supposed to be replaced in the next few years with RQ-4 Global Hawks, the high-tech drones that have been part of the Air Force since 2001. But this week the Pentagon proposed delaying the U-2's retirement as part of Defense Department cutbacks.

At an estimated cost of $176 million each, the Global Hawk drone had "priced itself out of the niche, in terms of taking pictures in the air," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter at a Thursday news conference. "That's a disappointment for us, but that's the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment."

The Pentagon has determined that operating the U-2 would be cheaper for the foreseeable future; it won't disclose how much operating the U-2s will cost for security reasons. The government has relied on the U-2 since 1955, when the aircraft was first built and designed under tight security by Lockheed Corp. at its famed Skunk Works facilities in Burbank headed by legendary chief engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson....."

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Army honors WWII nurse for aiding U.S. troops during Battle of the Bulge"

Ms. Chiwy, thank you so much for your service.

A delightful story of extraordinary bravery and service.

Steven Beardsley:
"...Chiwy also once accompanied Prior to the front lines to retrieve wounded. According to King, when Prior remarked that Chiwy’s small size must be the reason she wasn’t wounded by oncoming fire, she replied, “ ‘Oh, so they’re not going to see a black face in white snow? They’re just bad shots.’ ”

King describes Chiwy as a wry wit with the “heart of an ox” in a 5-foot, 2-inch frame. Born in Africa of a Belgian father and Congolese mother, she was sent to Belgium in her youth for an education. She attended nursing school and was working near Brussels in 1944 when she made her way to Bastogne.
In the chaotic days that followed, Prior and Chiwy developed a close relationship, King said. The doctor brought Chiwy to work with him at the 101st headquarters in Heintz Barracks after the aid station’s destruction. When someone raised concerns over a black woman treating white soldiers, Prior fought for her, King said.

Chiwy hoped to continue with the division after it left Bastogne, but was told she wasn’t needed.

King said he needed four years to get Chiwy’s story from her and compare it to Prior’s diaries, along with official reports from the war. Also at Monday’s ceremony was a representative from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, and retired Gen. David Petraeus, former 101st commander, wrote a letter for the ceremony, said Col. Greg Julian, public affairs officer for SHAPE. McGee later said that, even now, Chiwy looked like someone capable of braving the enemy.

“She still has that fire,” he said. “You can just tell.”

King, who sat next to Chiwy during the ceremony, said when they first walked into Monday’s event, she turned to him and said in French, “ ‘They took their bloody time, didn’t they?’....”

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SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Marines to wind down Afghan combat in 2012 "

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country's southwestern reaches, American military officers say.

At the same time, U.S. reinforcements will go to eastern Afghanistan in a bid to reverse recent gains by insurgents targeting Kabul, the capital.

Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said in an Associated Press interview that the number of Marines in Helmand province will drop "markedly" in 2012, and the role of those who stay will shift from countering the insurgency to training and advising Afghan security forces.

The change suggests an early exit from Afghanistan for the Marine Corps even as the prospects for solidifying their recent successes are uncertain...."

(Robert Burns)

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SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "U.S. Marine Corps fights for its budget"

"Toward the end of his tenure, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates encouraged the U.S. Marine Corps to redefine itself.

Amphibious landings have become less crucial than they were a few generations ago, when Marines stormed beaches from Iwo Jima, Japan, to Inchon, South Korea. There is no longer a pressing need, he and others would point out, for essentially "a second land army."

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos responded by asserting that Marines could have a role as a light, fast and self-sustaining force that would take and hold an area while a larger force was being assembled.

With all the armed services now fighting to maintain a financial foothold in anticipation of a decade-long drive to trim the Pentagon budget by $450 billion, the Marine Corps seems especially under the gun to stay relevant, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

“Looking ahead," Gates said last year, "I do think it is proper to ask whether large-scale amphibious assault landings along the lines of Inchon are feasible....”
(Stars and Stripes)

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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "In the Afghan city of Herat, the young are restless as war grinds on"

"HERAT, Afghanistan — Near the heart of this traffic-clogged western city stands a fortress almost as long as three football fields, with battlements that rise 10 stories above the swarming streets.

The Citadel of Herat traces to the Timurid dynasty of the 15th century. The Sunni Muslim tribe declared Herat the capital of its vast Persian Empire, and the brick stronghold was the crown jewel for ensuing regimes that seized the city.

In the 1970s, the Afghan government converted the imposing structure into a museum. The Taliban were less civic-minded, bolting artillery guns on the parapets and torturing political prisoners in the dirt courtyards.

With the help of $1.2 million in U.S. aid, the ravages of time and the Taliban have been repaired. Earlier this month, Afghan and U.S. officials presided over a ceremony celebrating the citadel’s restoration.

On a recent afternoon, Omid Mojaddidy, 30, a Herat native, ascended the steep, curling stairs inside a corner tower, stepping from shadows into sunlight when he reached the top.

The country’s third-largest city spread out below him, an urban labyrinth of some 400,000 people. The majority live in mud-brick homes as primitive as the dwellings of the Timurids.

He blew out a long breath. The climb hadn’t tired him. He was suffering from history fatigue.

“Enough with the past,” said Mojaddidy, who has resided in the city his entire life except to attend college in neighboring Iran. “Tear down the citadel, get rid of the old buildings....”
(Martin Kuz )

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SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Why you Fight"

Make the time.

Take the time to read all the stories.  Every page.

Take the time to put a face, the story of individual American lives to every single day since 9/11.

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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."