The Thunder Run

Kabul Conference from Ramblings from a Painter by Storypainter -

A couple of days ago, two of us went up to Kabul for a conference, along with several military staff guys. We'd asked for a flight in the afternoon, so we could get some work done here, then fly up, settle in, and attend the conference the next day. Nope. Military Air is a logic unto themselves. Instead of an afternoon flight, we had to show up at 4:30 am for a 6:30 am flight. Ugh! I like my beauty rest, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Let me tell you, a flight line at 6 am on a cold winter morning, with a stiff wind blowing across the field, is no fun. But our flight left more or less on time and the plane warmed up quickly. We flew in a C-27, which is a new addition to our inventory and a nice little cargo plane. Unlike the bigger C-130, there's plenty of room for passengers to stretch their legs.

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DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

1st Lt. David A. Johnson, 24, of Horicon, Wis., died Jan. 25, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered after encountering an improvised explosive device while conducting a dismounted patrol.

Johnson was assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

For more information media may contact Joint Base Lewis-McChord public affairs office at 253-967-0152 or 253-967-0148.

KABUL, Afghanistan — No peace talks with the Taliban this week: That was the short message on Sunday from the American envoy charged with starting those negotiations.

Stopping here in Kabul this weekend on his way to Qatar, where the insurgents are in the process of opening an office, the envoy, Marc Grossman, implicitly rejected reports that he planned to begin negotiations there this week. He made it clear that there was a long way to go.

Qatar still needs to talk to the Afghans about the proposed Taliban office, he said, and the United States needs to talk to Pakistan, which rebuffed Mr. Grossman’s plans to visit last week. Perhaps most telling, the Taliban still needs to clarify whether they actually intend to engage in peace talks, he said.

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Jennifer Rowland of The AFPAK Channel gives us today's Daily Brief: Suicide attack targets NATO aid team -

Deadly blast
A suicide attack on Thursday targeting a NATO provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in the capital city of Helmand Province, Lashkar Gah, killed at least four civilians and wounded dozens (AFP, AP). Meanwhile, an Afghan identified only as Mahmood has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for spying on NATO forces on behalf of Iran, after being found with photographs of NATO bases and the telephone numbers of Iranian intelligence agents (AFP).

Reuters reports on the improvement in both the capabilities and equipment of Afghanistan's newly formed special forces division, to the extent that they now feel ready to take over the night raids usually performed by foreign forces, which President Hamid Karzai has vehemently insisted be halted (Reuters).

Defense force
Pakistani soldiers killed at least 20 militants on Thursday in Kurram Agency after coming under attack close to the Afghan border (AP). In the Sui area of Balochistan Province, five soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post on Thursday, while in the Baloch capital city of Quetta, three people were shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday (ET, Dawn, ET).

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Karl F. Inderfurth a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who also served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration (1997-2001). writes for The AFPAK Channel: A Taliban ‘Rope-a-Dope’ Strategy? -

The on-again, off-again effort by the Obama administration to begin preliminary peace talks with the Taliban is still struggling to get off the ground. The first move focuses on a statement by the Taliban against international terrorism and in support of a peace process and the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar. For this the Taliban have called for the release of its prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay.

To garner support for this initiative, the administration's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Marc Grossman, has been traveling in the region, including meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to make sure he is on board. Afghan officials have expressed concern about the possibility of a ‘secret deal' being struck between the Taliban and the U.S. But that would be unlikely, given the administration's oft-repeated public assurance that it supports an "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" reconciliation process. In fact, what is more likely than a ‘secret deal' is no deal at all.

Earlier high-level efforts by the U.S. government to have ‘peace talks' with the Taliban may be instructive. As Winston Churchill said: "The further back you look, the farther forward you can see."

As we were reminded yesterday, the Taliban has never keep any agreement with us any longer than a few weeks at most and usually they were violating their agreements within hours of pledging to keep them.

All this means, that any chance of a true peace with the loose confederation of groups colelctively called the "Taliban" is really nothing more than a pipe dream in the eyes of the politicians who can't wait for a way out, because the only real way out, the total destrcution of the enemy isn't even being considered as an option and hasn't been an option for several years even.

Over at The AFPAK Channel there is a wonderful essay called the Fog of Peace by Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason.

Thomas H. Johnson is a Research Professor in the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School and the Director of the Program for Culture & Conflict Studies. M. Chris Mason is a retired Foreign Service Officer with long experience in South Asia and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, DC and they have a lot to say about the supposed peace talks between the US, the Afghan Government and the Taliban, that they believe is destined to failure.

Afghanistan policy, like Vietnam policy before it,has taken on a life of its own, impervious to ground truth. The simple reality is that "peace talks" with the Taliban have no chance whatever of a positive outcome from the perspective of U.S. policy. Just as it did in Vietnam, the United States has been fighting the wrong war in Afghanistan with the wrong strategy from the very beginning.

In Vietnam, the United States was ideologically hell-bent on fighting a war against communism, and shaped its strategy accordingly. For nearly a decade in Afghanistan, the United States has insisted on fighting a secular war, a counterinsurgency, against a religious movement. However, our enemy in North Vietnam was not fighting a war for communism, and in Afghanistan our enemies are not fighting an insurgency. They are fighting a jihad, and no South Asian jihad in history has ever ended in a negotiated settlement. And this one will not either. There is no overlap between the way insurgencies and charismatic religious movements of this archetype in the Pashtun belt end. Insurgencies by definition have both political and military arms. Regardless of what they have learned to say, the Taliban does not. One hundred percent of the movement's leaders are Muslim clerics. After fighting a second war in Asia the wrong way for almost a decade, the United States is now again desperately seeking a way out of the quagmire from within the wrong set of potential outcomes.

The primary reasons why "peace talks" are delusional are three fold: First, there is no"Taliban" in the sense the proponents of talks envision it. To believe so is cultural mirroring at its peak. Second,the enemy is interested in pre-withdrawal concessions, not a settlement, in an alien culture in which seeking negotiations to end a war is surrender. To believe otherwise is simply wishful thinking. And third, no understanding with senior clerics in the Taliban movement has ever outlived the airplane flight back to New York. Like a second marriage, trusting the "Taliban" to keep a bargain is a victory of hope over experience.

Rooted in the mistaken belief about how to fight the war in Vietnam, Johnson and Mason argue that the US Military, and by extension their civilian commanders, have learned nothing from past experiences. We can see that the lessons of Vietnam have been tossed aside, and every failed policy of that war has been introduced in this war: Vietnamization has been transplanted by Afghanistanization, counter-insurgency against communism has been replaced with counter-insurgency against jihadism, and extensive and restrictive rules of engagement to protect public opinion have been replaced with extensive and restrictive rules of engagement to protect public opinion.

Vietnamization a policy instituted by Richard Nixon and escalated by Lyndon Johnson was intended to allow US Forces to leave Vietnam after building up the capabilities of the South Vietnamese troops and government. In its most simplistic of definitions Vietnamization had two primary components: Pacification and Militarization. The second part was achievable, in that US Forces would build up and support the South Vietnamese forces in terms of equipment, training and combat skills. The first part was a total failure, in that the goal was to pacify areas of the country by instituting government action in areas of the country where government should have already been in place. Bringing the tribal areas into a central government system proved to be too big of a challenge for the US primarily because Saigon was unable as well as unwilling to resolve the political issues of moving the tribal areas into the central government.

In Afghanistan we can see the same policies being instituted once again, in the form of a building up of equipment and training of Afghan forces by US and Coalition Forces in conjunction with a policy of Pacification, where the new Central Government of Afghanistan is supposed to politically be benevolently active in the country. Unfortunately the new central government is either unable to or unwilling or both unwilling and unable to upset the status quo in the countryside. As a result US Military actions have been pulled back to take control of the cities (what few there are, in a country the size of Texas) thereby leaving the country side and villages to the Taliban and other anti-government forces.

By all accounts Afghanistanization has been a total failure. No Afghan military unit can operate independent of US or Coalition support, and no Afghan unit is able to handle even the most basics of logistical needs. Furthermore, the US has taken and refused to hold the ground it has taken relinquishing it to the enemy on an almost daily basis, which results in a see-saw effect of taking and relinquishing the same territory over and over again.

Secondly the Rules of Engagement (ROE) as we saw in Vietnam have been resurrected in Afghanistan. Borders represent safe havens for enemy forces, where US and Coalition Forces can not pursue them resulting in highly volatile regions along the borders where enemy forces cross the border and attack a weak point and then retreat across the border to safety. This results in a blurring of who is and is not the enemy, and questions the role that neighboring countries have in their support for or against the enemy or even US and Coalition Forces.

Even more so than creating safe-havens for the enemy the ROE, instituted to protect public opinion both in the US and in Afghanistan have resulted in situations where US and Coalition Forces have been effectively turned into targets, by the civilian leadership, and resulted in not a growing support for the war, but rather a general disdain for the war. Designed to help protect against so called collateral damage the ROE have made it almost impossible to conduct war in any other manner than via the so called surgical strike, but at what cost?

With every JDAM or laser guided smart bomb dropped on a single target, sometimes just a single insurgent, and the public – at home and abroad - questions the legality of using such force. Invariably because of the length of time taken to even receive permission to engage the target the target is no longer the only person in the area and the rules set in place to reduce collateral damage have in effect only created the potential for more collateral damage. That is assuming of course that ground forces are even allowed to engage the enemy that is desperately trying to kill them.

The end result is a war in which there are no victories, no winners, only victims. US and Coalition forces are offered up as slaughter on one day and then turned into criminals the next, all to protect the “psyches” of the public at home and in the battle zone.

And finally, we have to discuss the policy of counter-insurgency. In Vietnam the goal was to contain the spread of communism but as Johnson and Mason allude to in their essay, the North Vietnamese were not fighting to become Communists, they were fighting to become a country, and the communists were the group that backed and financed their war. The spread of communism was a side-effect of their war against the South and the advent of the Khmer Rouge after the fall of the South is proof that the North was not entirely intent upon becoming Communists as the Khmer Rouge killed millions in both areas of the country after coming to power.

In Afghanistan the US has once again opted for a policy of counter-insurgency this time against a religious movement. However as noted by Johnson and Mason the Taliban aren’t fighting for a country, they are fighting for a religion.

I have been using Taliban as a singular name for a complex group, Johnson and Mason further note that the “Taliban” is comprised of similar military-religious orders, including, to name a few, the Haqqani network, the Quetta Shura, the Tora Bora Front, the Tehrik-i-Taliban, the Lashkar-i-Taiba,Hisb-i-Islami Khalis, and Hisb-i-Islami Gulbuddin. These groups share “a common purpose and acknowledge the religious supremacy of Mullah Muhammad Omar,the Amir-ul-Mumaneen, or ‘Leader of the Faithful,’ in Quetta” but they do not have a single political wing that represents them.

The local tribal chiefs would greatly appreciate if the US and Coalition forces pumped millions and millions of dollars into building up the infrastructure of their villages, and the US and Coalition forces are doing just that, but the tribal chief’s aren’t going to become a part of a secular government, when religion rules their entire life. The US cannot continue to fight a secular war for the hearts and minds of the populace when the populace is part and parcel of the religion for which the war is being prosecuted by the Taliban.

For the Taliban the war in Afghanistan is a religious war, it is being undertaken to spread their particular brand of Islam and the US will never win a war against religion, but using purely secular means, because each “wing” of the Taliban has a different set of local goals, and issues and power struggles within their local area, the only unifying goal of them all is the spread of their distinct brand of Islam, and that is a battle that the US cannot or is unwilling to control.

Statement by Secretary Panetta on Hostage Rescue Operation in Somalia

Last night U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted, by order of the President of the United States, a successful mission in Somalia to rescue two individuals taken hostage on October 25, 2011. Ms. Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen employed by the Danish Demining Group, and her Danish colleague, Mr. Poul Thisted, were kidnapped at gunpoint by criminal suspects near Galcayo, Somalia.

Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted have been transported to a safe location where we will evaluate their health and make arrangements for them to return home.

This successful hostage rescue, undertaken in a hostile environment, is a testament to the superb skills of courageous service members who risked their lives to save others. I applaud their efforts, and I am pleased that Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted were not harmed during the operation. This mission demonstrates our military's commitment to the safety of our fellow citizens wherever they may be around the world.

I am grateful to report that there was no loss of life or injuries to our personnel.

I express my deepest gratitude to all the military and civilian men and women who supported this operation. This was a team effort and required close coordination, especially between the Department of Defense and our colleagues in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are heroes and continue to inspire all of us by their bravery and service to our nation.

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cpl. Christopher G. Singer, 23, of Temecula, Calif., died Jan. 21 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

For additional information news media representatives may contact the 1st Marine Division public affairs office at 760-725-8766.

Andrew Lebovich at The AFPAK Channel gives us today's daily brief:

Reports and acrimony

Pakistan on Monday released its report into the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in November by American aircraft in Mohmand agency, roundly rejecting American claims that both sides shared responsibility for the incident and blaming the deaths on U.S. failures to coordinate with Pakistani forces (NYT, Post, AP, CNN, ABC, AFP, LAT, ET). The report also concluded that the incident was, "deliberate, at some level," and said that that bombardment did not end until army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani intervened with the U.S. military (Post, Dawn). A Pentagon spokesman stood by Washington's portrayal of events Monday (AFP).

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Storypainter, a blog that I followed for a long time when he was in Iraq has deployed to Afghanistan a few months ago.

He writes:

"Things at work have been ... well, unremarkable. What's there to say? I go through a hundred or so emails a day. I talk with State Department guys and military guys about this or that operation. I research an answer to a particularly vexing question. Then I go answer a bunch of emails based on the research and discussions with the state or military guys. I go to the DFAC. Periodically I go to the gym. Once a week I'll do my laundry. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? And you thought I was riding around in helicopters and MRAPs all the time, meeting Afghan government officials, and drinking chai with Taliban! No, reality is much more mundane."

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Gold Star Father and friend of this blog Robert Stokely is a class act.

He and his wife went to see a movie the other night and he wrote this email / review for us.

An excerpt:

"But there is one facet of Warhorse that demonstrated a vulnerability I have and I don't think I will ever live beyond. Warhorse has a good ending. A son gone to war comes home and brings his beloved horse with him. It is a quietly triumphant moment with quiet love of a mother and dad lovingly greeting their son at the front gate of their farm, hardly believing it is him, and hoping with every gaze he is whole and really alive. It is at that moment, and thankfully it came at the end of the movie for if not I don't think I could have continued watching, that I choked back sobs. It was too real for me. It was a vivid reminder what I did not get. It brought back my dreams of getting that moment even before Mike left for Iraq. It hurt.

Every parent, for that matter every family member, dreams and longs for their soldier to come home. They yearn for that moment to look with long awaited anticipation and see a son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, mom or dad come home from war. They look with anticipation to see for themselves they are alive, they are "o.k." And as I think about it now, and from time to time, I am grief stricken to the point of being sick on my stomach that we didn't get to run across the parade field and bear hug Mike and cry tears of joy. Rather, we gently touched a Flag Draped Casket with tears of grief. And when we did, we were soon to be saying a final goodbye as our life story physically connected to Mike ended as we laid him to rest."

Go read the rest...you won't be disappointed.

The Department of Defense announced today recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for fiscal 2012, through December.

Active Component.

Recruiting -- Year to Date. All four active services met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012, through December.

Army -- 11,266 accessions, with a goal of 11,100; 101 percent

Navy -- 6,689 accessions, with a goal of 6,689; 100 percent

Marine Corps -- 5,408 accessions, with a goal of 5,397; 100 percent

Air Force -- 7,110 accessions, with a goal of 7,110; 100 percent

Retention. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all exhibited strong retention numbers for the first three months of fiscal 2012.

Reserve Component.

Recruiting – Fiscal 2012. Four of the six reserve components met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012, through December.

Army National Guard -- 11,312 accessions, with a goal of 12,055; 94 percent

Army Reserve -- 7,638 accessions, with a goal of 5,991; 127 percent

Navy Reserve -- 1,798 accessions, with a goal of 1,798; 100 percent

Marine Corps Reserve -- 2,346 accessions, with a goal of 2,126; 110 percent

Air National Guard -- 1,832 accessions, with a goal of 1,959; 94 percent

Air Force Reserve -- 2,097 accessions, with a goal of 2,097; 100 percent

Attrition -- All reserve components are on target to achieve their fiscal year attrition goals.

Detailed information on specific recruiting data can be obtained by contacting the individual military recruiting commands at 502-626-0164 for Army, 210-565-4678 for Air Force, 703-784-9454 for Marine Corps, and 901-874-9048 for Navy. The reserve components can be reached at the following numbers: National Guard Bureau 703-607-2586; Army Reserve 404-464-8490; Air Force Reserve 703-697-1761; Navy Reserve 757-322-5652; and Marine Corps Reserve 504-678-6535.

VA Changes Emergency Care Policy
The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced a change in regulations regarding payments for emergency care provided to eligible veterans in non-VA facilities. More

$250k Protection for $12.50 a Month
Give yourself peace of mind by protecting your loved ones with life insurance. Get $250k in coverage for $12.50 a month through Navy Mutual -- no fine print, no hidden clauses. More

Veterans Win PTSD Settlement
A federal judge has approved a settlement that will deliver better benefits to nearly 2,100 veterans who have been medically discharged since 2002 with post-traumatic stress disorder. More

Child Support Doesn't End with Service
In the latest post on military finance expert June Wahlbert's Ask June blog, a reader asks: "If my ex-husband is getting out of the Army, will my child support end the month he is getting out?" More

Applying ACE Credits
Through ACE, you can take academic credit for most of the training you have received, including Basic Training. More

Play Military Trivia, Win an iPod
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12 Most Underrated Jobs in America
Even in a sluggish economy, there are jobs out there that have lower unemployment rates and decent salaries. More

Disability Process Streamlined
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HealtheVet Undergoes Testing
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National Salute to Veteran Patients
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Postage Prices Increase
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Study Looks at Women OEF, OIF Veterans
A recent study has found that female soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced combat at significantly higher rates than in past wars, and screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder at the same rate as men. More

Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey M. Day


Col. Jessie O. Farrington (Left), U.S. Army Aviation Center for Excellence deputy commander, presents Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey M. Day (Right), of the Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization, with the Air Medal with Valor for exceptionally meritorious achievement in valor.

Photo Courtesy U.S. Army Taken By Nathan Pfau

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Dustin P. Napier, 20, of London, Ky., died Jan. 8 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from enemy small-arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

For more information please contact the U.S. Army Alaska public affairs office at 907-384-2072.

DOD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four Soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Jan. 6 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Jonathan M. Metzger, 32, of Indianapolis, Ind.

Spc. Robert J. Tauteris Jr., 44, of Hamlet, Ind.

Spc. Christopher A. Patterson, 20, of Aurora, Ill.

Spc. Brian J. Leonhardt, 21, of Merrillville, Ind.

They were assigned to the 81st Troop Command, Indiana National Guard, Indianapolis, Ind.

For more information media should contact the Indiana National Guard public affairs office, Maj. Shawn Gardner at 317-247-3222 (office)/ 317-407-7065 (cell), or Staff Sgt. Les Newport at 317-247-3222 (office)/ 317-538-8414 (cell).

DOD Identifies Air Force Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Jan. 5 in Shir ghazi, Helmand province, Afghanistan, when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.

Killed were:

Senior Airman Bryan R. Bell, 23, of Erie, Pa. He was assigned to the 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base, La. For more information media may contact the Air Force 2nd Bomb Wing public affairs office at 318-456-3309.

Tech. Sgt. Matthew S. Schwartz, 34, of Traverse City, Mich. He was assigned to the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron, FE Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. For more information media may contact the Air Force 90th Missile Wing public affairs office at 307-630-3908.

Airman 1st Class Matthew R. Seidler, 24, of Westminster, Md. He was assigned to the 21st Civil Engineer Squadron, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. For more information media may contact the Air Force 21st Space Wing public affairs office at 719-556-5185.

DOD Identifies Navy Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 1st Class Chad R. Regelin, 24, of Cottonwood, Calif., died Jan. 2 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Regelin was assigned as an explosive ordnance disposal technician to Marine Special Operations Company Bravo. Regelin was stationed at Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3, San Diego, Calif.

For further information related to this release, contact Lt. David Bennett at 619-767-1989 or 619-405-4020.

1st Lt. Loren Douglas Hagen
25 years old from Fargo, North Dakota
U.S. Army Training Advisory Group
February 25, 1946 - August 7, 1971


The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant Loren Douglas Hagen, United States Army (Reserve), for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the team leader of a small reconnaissance team with the U.S. Army Training Advisory Group, in action against enemy aggressor forces while operating deep within enemy-held territory in the Republic of Vietnam, on 7 August 1971. At approximately 0630 hours on the morning of 7 August 1971 the small team came under a fierce assault by a superior-sized enemy force using heavy small arms, automatic weapons, mortar, and rocket fire. First Lieutenant Hagen immediately began returning small-arms fire upon the attackers and successfully led this team in repelling the first enemy onslaught. He then quickly deployed his men into more strategic defense locations before the enemy struck again in an attempt to overrun and annihilate the beleaguered team's members. First Lieutenant Hagen repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire directed at him as he constantly moved about the team's perimeter, directing fire, rallying the members, and resupplying the team with ammunition, while courageously returning small arms and hand grenade fire in a valorous attempt to repel the advancing enemy force. The courageous actions and expert leadership abilities of First Lieutenant Hagen were a great source of inspiration and instilled confidence in the team members. After observing an enemy rocket make a direct hit on and destroy one of the team's bunkers, First Lieutenant Hagen moved toward the wrecked bunker in search for team members despite the fact that the enemy force now controlled the bunker area. With total disregard for his own personal safety, he crawled through the enemy fire while returning small-arms fire upon the enemy force. Undaunted by the enemy rockets and grenades impacting all around him, First Lieutenant Hagen desperately advanced upon the destroyed bunker until he was fatally wounded by enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire. With complete disregard for his personal safety, First Lieutenant Hagen's courageous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon him and the United States Army.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Pernell J. Herrera, 33, of Espanola, N.M., died Dec. 31, in Helmand province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered in a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment, Santa Fe, N.M.

For more information, the media may contact the New Mexico Army National Guard public affairs office at 505-417-1751 or via email at Jamison.herrera@us.army.mil .

DOD Identifies Navy Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer Stacy O. Johnson, 35, of Rolling Fork, Miss., died July 18, while supporting operations in Bahrain. Johnson was a master-at-arms assigned to Naval Security Force Bahrain.

For further information related to this release, contact Naval Support Activity Bahrain Public Affairs at 011-973-1785-4520.

DOD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Dec. 27, in Paktia, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

Sgt. Noah M. Korte, 29, of Lake Elsinore, Calif.,

Spc. Kurt W. Kern, 24, of McAllen, Texas, and

Pfc. Justin M. Whitmire, 20, of Easley, S.C.

For more information related to this release, the media may visit http://www.forthoodpresscenter.com or contact the Fort Hood public affairs office at 254-287-9993 or 254-287-0106.

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Joseph J. Altmann, 27, of Marshfield, Wis., died Dec. 25, in Kunar province Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

For more information, media may contact the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at 808-655-0054.