Amboy soldier killed in Iraq
Sgt. Earl D. Werner was on his third deployment
THE COLUMBIAN
Saturday, August 29 | 3:18 p.m.
An Amboy man on his third deployment in Iraq with the Oregon Army National Guard was one of two soldiers killed Friday by insurgent forces.
Sgt. Earl D. Werner, 38, died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an explosively formed penetrator, an improvised device powerful enough to send lethal shards of metal through even heavily armored military vehicles.
The attack in Rashid, Iraq, also claimed the life of Taylor D. Marks, 19, of Monmouth, Ore., who was posthumously promoted to the rank of specialist. Both soldiers were assigned to the 41st Special Troops Battalion, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Oregon Army National Guard, which had been in Iraq since June.
Werner is survived by his wife of two years, Casey, and son, Justin, 19. They live near Amboy just inside Cowlitz County.
"This was the second tour of his marriage, so they didn't have a heck of a lot of time together," said Eunice Royer of Vancouver, Casey Werner's grandmother. "It's just so sad for us to see that Casey has to go through this."
"The military was one thing that was very important to his life," said Duane Royer of Vancouver, Werner's father-in-law. "He had such a great caring for the other people he worked with in the National Guard. He felt very responsible for them. That was a driving force of him wanting to do it again. He wanted to take care of people."
When not on active duty, Werner worked as a truck driver. He'd driven long-haul trucks, heavy equipment and gravel trucks.
"He was a very talented young man who knew how to do his job," said Duane Royer. He said that when a landslide blocked a road near Amboy, Werner rounded up equipment to clear the road and deliver gravel for his neighbors.
Werner raised horses, loved his pets and was an avid fisherman. "He actually went fishing in Baghdad," Royer said. "It wasn't any fish he'd want to keep, but he did it."
Werner's first deployment was as part of the 2nd Battalion, 162 Infantry in 2004. Later he deployed with the 234th Engineer Company in 2007 before transferring to the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team for deployment.
During his time with the Oregon National Guard, Werner was awarded the Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals and the Combat Action Badge.
Details about possible memorial arrangements are pending.
-- Mark Bowder; mark.bowder@columbian.com
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thank you for your service and sacrifices
Left: Spc. Taylor Marks, 19, grew up in Monmouth and went to Central High School. Right: Sgt. Earl Werner, 38, was on his third deployment and had been awarded the Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals and the Combat Action Badge.Military verve inspired Oregon teenager killed in Iraq
By Peter Ames Carlin, The Oregonian
Saturday August 29, 2009, 10:00 PM
Taylor Marks, 19, grew up in Monmouth and went to Central High School.
The moment Taylor Marks fell in love with the U.S. military was on the first day he spent posing as its enemy.
It was January 2008, and Marks, then an 18-year-old senior at Central High School in Monmouth, was spending his first day as a volunteer for a nonprofit group that helps train soldiers for battle. The day turned into a marathon: 37 hours outdoors in the snow, sleet and rain. By the time it was over, Marks had been knocked down, frisked, zip-cuffed and dragged off the battlefield, multiple times. And he loved it.
"I asked him, 'Why do you do that?'" his mother, Michelle, said Saturday. "And he said, 'Because it's fun!'"
John Bruning, a military writer who had recruited Marks for the training group, said the teenager was inspired in part by the fire in the troops' eyes. "He saw their commitment to the upcoming mission, and to each other," Bruning said. "He believed wholeheartedly that his place was with them."
On Friday, Pfc. Marks, 19, and Sgt. Earl Werner, 38, from Amboy, Wash., were killed in Rashid, Iraq, when their convoy was struck in a roadside bombing. They were the first deaths in the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team since the 2,600-member unit deployed to Iraq in July.
Another Oregon Guard member, identified by a Bend TV station as Spc. Reid Walch of Redmond, was injured and flown to a hospital in Germany for treatment.
Werner was on his third deployment with the National Guard, after serving with the 162nd Infantry in 2004 and with the 234th Engineer Company in 2007. For his service, Werner was awarded the Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals and the Combat Action Badge.
He is survived by his wife, Casey, and son, Charles, 19, both of Amboy, in rural Clark County. On Saturday, the family was traveling to Dover, Md., for the arrival of Werner's coffin, according to Oregon Military Department public affairs officer Kay Fristad.
Marks, who joined the Guard in June 2008, was posthumously promoted to the rank of specialist.
Back in Monmouth, Marks' friends and family spent Saturday mourning his loss and recalling a young man whose intelligence and sensitivity were offset by a sense of adventure.
"He was always ready to laugh; he always reached out for something bigger, more fun and more entertaining," his mother said.
Bruning noticed the same trait the day he visited Central High School to give some of his wife's students a tutorial on ballroom dancing. Most of the kids were too self-conscious to embrace the task. Marks dived in happily.
"He was absolutely willing to try new things, and I could see he was exceptionally intelligent," Bruning recalled. When the older man told him about his group's weekend expeditions as volunteer military targets, the high schooler asked to be included.
Marks became a regular and spent free hours with a friend building simulated explosive devices with the same triggers as the real ones currently being used by Iraqi insurgents. These projects grew out of childhood fascinations for science fiction ("Star Wars" was a particular favorite) and all things that seemed complicated or confusing, recalled his father, Morey Marks.
"He loved high-tech things. Was it possible to build an invisibility suit? He was fascinated by all that," Morey Marks said.
Taylor Marks, the son of a diagnostic imagery technician (his father) and a Medicaid policy analyst for the state (his mother), left high school with a dean's scholarship to the University of Oregon. He took an appointment to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey in California, where he planned to study to become a linguist and a military interrogator.
Marks deferred his admission in order to go to Iraq, but he intended to complete his military studies, then continue his work at the University of Oregon, studying Asian cultures and, perhaps, psychology.
"He knew exactly what he wanted to do, and did it," Morey Marks said.
Arriving in the Middle East in July, Taylor Marks spoke eagerly about how strange and beautiful Kuwait and then Iraq were. Even the military encampments engaged his imagination.
"He said, 'Think of a desert scene from 'Star Wars,'" Morey Marks recalled. "'No clouds. Nothing but blue sky, desert and a lot of weird-looking tents.'"
Taylor Marks told his mother about the new friends he was making and talked about the military missions that lay ahead.
"He believed in the mission," said Bruning. "He wouldn't have been anywhere else."
Marks is survived by his mother, Michelle, his stepfather, Don, his sister, Courtney, 15, and stepbrother, Alex, also 19, all of Monmouth, and his father, Morey Marks of Salem.
He is also survived by the legion of friends, both young and old, who came to be inspired by his enthusiasm for life.
"A lot of friends say he motivated them to do more, and to live bigger" his mother said. "We're going to miss him a lot."
-- Peter Ames Carlin; petercarlin@news.oregonian.com
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Is it only because I'm a journalist?
Two Oregon National Guardsmen were killed Friday in Baghdad, with a third wounded. Their names have not been publicly released. This is the Associated Press story:
A parent of a soldier commented on OregonLive.com wondering why the story ran before the names were available. Because of this, the commenter said, "all 2,600 families of Oregon servicemen and women were made to suffer and grieve instead of just the three unfortunate families."
Seriously? Selfish much? I said this in return: "Don't you think all 2,600 families are grieving anyway? And news needs to come out when it's new instead of two days later when the names are available. That would do more disservice to the public and families involved."
Maybe that was bitchy. The person sort of has a point. But I cannot fathom waiting two days to know of this, especially if it's my loved one. It's scary, yes, and worrisome, but it's news.
But do I think this only because I'm a journalist? Would I think differently were I just some other Army girlfriend?
Seriously, though, that comment made me mad. We are all grieving. The two families, possibly three, are grieving harder, yes, but this is a loss for the whole Oregon Guard, all of Oregon, all of America. They are not "three unfortunate families." They are families of soldiers who deserve to be honored, remembered and cherished. They are not families that got unlucky because their loved ones died or got wounded and yours didn't.
BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military says two American soldiers have died of wounds sustained during a roadside bomb attack in the Iraqi capital.
A military statement says the two soldiers died Friday following an attack on a patrol in eastern Baghdad.
Military spokesman, Lt. Col. David Patterson, says the soldiers were assigned to Multi-National Corps Iraq. The statement says the two were with the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).
It says the soldiers identities are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, and the incident is under investigation.
The death raises to at least 4,337 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That's according to an Associated Press count.
A parent of a soldier commented on OregonLive.com wondering why the story ran before the names were available. Because of this, the commenter said, "all 2,600 families of Oregon servicemen and women were made to suffer and grieve instead of just the three unfortunate families."
Seriously? Selfish much? I said this in return: "Don't you think all 2,600 families are grieving anyway? And news needs to come out when it's new instead of two days later when the names are available. That would do more disservice to the public and families involved."
Maybe that was bitchy. The person sort of has a point. But I cannot fathom waiting two days to know of this, especially if it's my loved one. It's scary, yes, and worrisome, but it's news.
But do I think this only because I'm a journalist? Would I think differently were I just some other Army girlfriend?
Seriously, though, that comment made me mad. We are all grieving. The two families, possibly three, are grieving harder, yes, but this is a loss for the whole Oregon Guard, all of Oregon, all of America. They are not "three unfortunate families." They are families of soldiers who deserve to be honored, remembered and cherished. They are not families that got unlucky because their loved ones died or got wounded and yours didn't.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Absolutely lovely
I am so glad older veterans are reaching out to younger ones. It would be so easy to stay on their respective sides because they experienced extremely different wars. But this shows that no matter what, servicepeople take care of their own.
g to raise awareness of the state's newer ones.
Medallions honor Marine Cpl. Matthew Lembke, who died in July from wounds suffered in Afghanistan.
Tualatin opens vital, new VFW
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Tuesday August 25, 2009, 9:43 PM
Veterans groups, facing the loss of their oldest members, are reinventing themselves as family-friendly, forward-looking clubs for the recently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. And the generation gap, which put World War II vets on one side of the old hall and Vietnam vets on the other, appears closed.
Older vets are banding together to reach the newest veterans, hoping to rebuild their organizations, offer military families comfort and support one another.
Nowhere is the trend more obvious than on a single square block on Boones Ferry Road in Tualatin, where a hole in the ground is all that remains of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3452.
Today, the Tualatin VFW will open a new hall, named for Marine Cpl. Matthew Lembke. The honor, just six weeks after Lembke died from wounds sustained in Afghanistan, is a reminder of how popular the Tualatin High football player was in his hometown.
But it's also an indication that this is not your father's VFW.
Since 1951, the veterans in that area padded down stairs to meet in the basement-level concrete headquarters where musty smells arose from frequent floods. Even the framed charters on the walls were water-stained.
"No matter how many cosmetic changes we made," said former post commander and Vietnam Navy vet Dale Potts, "it was still a dump."
The vets swapped the old site for the top floor of the 1912 Robinson building, the oldest commercial building in Tualatin. Developer David Emami had saved it from demolition.
Inside the new headquarters, toffee-colored walls and tasteful carpet make Lembke Hall feel more swanky Starbucks than smoky canteen. A new commercial kitchen sits off a cozy coffee bar. Post Commander Ron Holland is already preparing for the return of the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Iraq next May. He plans practical seminars on employment, schooling and health, and family issues. And yes, 12 soldiers from the 41st have joined so far.
"Times have changed. The smoky, dingy old clubhouse is certainly not going to attract this new generation of veterans," says Jerry Newberry, national director of communications for the VFW. "They're family oriented. They've served multiple deployments and had a lot of time away."
The VFW requires service in war or an imminent danger area to become a member. Since membership peaked at 2 million in the 1990s, the organization has shrunk to less than 1.6 million as World War II vets have aged or died. Across the nation, many of the posts built 60 years ago have outlived their maintenance budgets, leases and neighborhoods. Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville and Lake Oswego all have shuttered their VFW posts in recent years.
The Tualatin post serves area vets and their relatives. The post is launching a new men's auxiliary -- like the women's auxiliary -- to attract any male member in the Southwest Portland area who has a sibling, child, grandchild, spouse, parent or grandparent who served in a war overseas or under hostile fire.
A vital post with plenty of members, they say, provides immediate benefits to all veterans, from armloads of hand-sewn quilts and neck pillows delivered to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to emergency grants, free phone service for deployed soldiers and a national lobbying effort on such issues as the new GI Bill.
But it also gives older vets a sense of purpose. Many of the men and women leading posts today are Vietnam veterans still stung by World War II and Korean vets who shut the youngsters out.
Last week, Thomas Laing, who served as a Marine in Vietnam and is the national vice chairman for military service, traveled to the VFW convention with Shane Addis, a Eugene Marine reservist who served in Iraq. Their goal: stage the Telling Project, a play by and about soldiers that started in Oregon, at the next national convention.
"The Vietnam vet wants to make sure they don't get treated the way we were treated," Laing says.
Newberry says that instinct has its roots in military service.
"In combat it's all about taking care of your buddy, not about the flag and the Constitution. Being a member of a veterans group gives you the opportunity and ability to continue to take care of your buddies," he says.
Many older vets are doing that by belonging to multiple organizations. Some are starting new ones.
Eighteen months ago, three older vets started meeting on Mondays at Jake's Diner in Bend to talk about how to help. Today, with no formal organization, the "Bend Band of Brothers" numbers 105 and ranges in age from 25 to 96, says organizer Dick Tobiason. They've helped pass a law declaring U.S. 97 "World War II Veterans Historic Highway" and will break ground Thursday on a World War II memorial in Bend.
They also have several flag campaigns and have presented commemorative medallions and coins to the families of the 115 Oregonians killed in action since 2001.
Bill Bussey traveled to Tualatin on Tuesday to present Claudia and Dale Lembke and their daughter Carolyn with medallions as well as Dave and Sandy Troyer of Sherwood, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler J. Troyer, died last year in Iraq.
Sandy said: "It means so much that you guys are doing this."
The families received the medallions and coins while Bob Maxwell, the state's only living Medal of Honor Recipient, watched. Maxwell was honored after falling on a hand grenade on Sept. 7, 1944, in eastern France. At 88, the retired community college instructor has had five hip replacements and a triple bypass. Still, on Sunday, he drove from Bend to Madras to dedicate a new statue to Thomas Tucker, the Oregonian abducted and killed by insurgents in Iraq in 2006.
On Tuesday, he drove to Tualatin.
"The families of those who gave their lives don't need a memorial. They will never forget," Maxwell says.
"But the rest of us must be reminded."
Both sisters of the Marines spoke. Brittany Troyer said that having an Albany baseball clubhouse named for her brother "means so much."
Carolyn Lembke said she had gone by the Tualatin building to take pictures where his name will be installed in bronze above the door. "I love the building so much.
"Matt's VFW."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
Olivia Bucks/The Oregonian
Bill Bussey of La Pine, a Vietnam veteran, presents Claudia (left), Dale and Carolyn Lembke with a copy of the certificate that will hang in the new Tualatin VFW, which will be dedicated today as Matthew Lembke Hall. The gesture is the latest example of Oregon's older veterans helpin
g to raise awareness of the state's newer ones.Medallions honor Marine Cpl. Matthew Lembke, who died in July from wounds suffered in Afghanistan.
Tualatin opens vital, new VFW
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Tuesday August 25, 2009, 9:43 PM
Veterans groups, facing the loss of their oldest members, are reinventing themselves as family-friendly, forward-looking clubs for the recently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. And the generation gap, which put World War II vets on one side of the old hall and Vietnam vets on the other, appears closed.
Older vets are banding together to reach the newest veterans, hoping to rebuild their organizations, offer military families comfort and support one another.
Nowhere is the trend more obvious than on a single square block on Boones Ferry Road in Tualatin, where a hole in the ground is all that remains of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3452.
Today, the Tualatin VFW will open a new hall, named for Marine Cpl. Matthew Lembke. The honor, just six weeks after Lembke died from wounds sustained in Afghanistan, is a reminder of how popular the Tualatin High football player was in his hometown.
But it's also an indication that this is not your father's VFW.
Since 1951, the veterans in that area padded down stairs to meet in the basement-level concrete headquarters where musty smells arose from frequent floods. Even the framed charters on the walls were water-stained.
"No matter how many cosmetic changes we made," said former post commander and Vietnam Navy vet Dale Potts, "it was still a dump."
The vets swapped the old site for the top floor of the 1912 Robinson building, the oldest commercial building in Tualatin. Developer David Emami had saved it from demolition.
Inside the new headquarters, toffee-colored walls and tasteful carpet make Lembke Hall feel more swanky Starbucks than smoky canteen. A new commercial kitchen sits off a cozy coffee bar. Post Commander Ron Holland is already preparing for the return of the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Iraq next May. He plans practical seminars on employment, schooling and health, and family issues. And yes, 12 soldiers from the 41st have joined so far.
"Times have changed. The smoky, dingy old clubhouse is certainly not going to attract this new generation of veterans," says Jerry Newberry, national director of communications for the VFW. "They're family oriented. They've served multiple deployments and had a lot of time away."
The VFW requires service in war or an imminent danger area to become a member. Since membership peaked at 2 million in the 1990s, the organization has shrunk to less than 1.6 million as World War II vets have aged or died. Across the nation, many of the posts built 60 years ago have outlived their maintenance budgets, leases and neighborhoods. Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville and Lake Oswego all have shuttered their VFW posts in recent years.
The Tualatin post serves area vets and their relatives. The post is launching a new men's auxiliary -- like the women's auxiliary -- to attract any male member in the Southwest Portland area who has a sibling, child, grandchild, spouse, parent or grandparent who served in a war overseas or under hostile fire.
A vital post with plenty of members, they say, provides immediate benefits to all veterans, from armloads of hand-sewn quilts and neck pillows delivered to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to emergency grants, free phone service for deployed soldiers and a national lobbying effort on such issues as the new GI Bill.
Buddy system
But it also gives older vets a sense of purpose. Many of the men and women leading posts today are Vietnam veterans still stung by World War II and Korean vets who shut the youngsters out.
Last week, Thomas Laing, who served as a Marine in Vietnam and is the national vice chairman for military service, traveled to the VFW convention with Shane Addis, a Eugene Marine reservist who served in Iraq. Their goal: stage the Telling Project, a play by and about soldiers that started in Oregon, at the next national convention.
"The Vietnam vet wants to make sure they don't get treated the way we were treated," Laing says.
Newberry says that instinct has its roots in military service.
"In combat it's all about taking care of your buddy, not about the flag and the Constitution. Being a member of a veterans group gives you the opportunity and ability to continue to take care of your buddies," he says.
Many older vets are doing that by belonging to multiple organizations. Some are starting new ones.
Eighteen months ago, three older vets started meeting on Mondays at Jake's Diner in Bend to talk about how to help. Today, with no formal organization, the "Bend Band of Brothers" numbers 105 and ranges in age from 25 to 96, says organizer Dick Tobiason. They've helped pass a law declaring U.S. 97 "World War II Veterans Historic Highway" and will break ground Thursday on a World War II memorial in Bend.
They also have several flag campaigns and have presented commemorative medallions and coins to the families of the 115 Oregonians killed in action since 2001.
"Never forget"
Bill Bussey traveled to Tualatin on Tuesday to present Claudia and Dale Lembke and their daughter Carolyn with medallions as well as Dave and Sandy Troyer of Sherwood, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler J. Troyer, died last year in Iraq.
Sandy said: "It means so much that you guys are doing this."
The families received the medallions and coins while Bob Maxwell, the state's only living Medal of Honor Recipient, watched. Maxwell was honored after falling on a hand grenade on Sept. 7, 1944, in eastern France. At 88, the retired community college instructor has had five hip replacements and a triple bypass. Still, on Sunday, he drove from Bend to Madras to dedicate a new statue to Thomas Tucker, the Oregonian abducted and killed by insurgents in Iraq in 2006.
On Tuesday, he drove to Tualatin.
"The families of those who gave their lives don't need a memorial. They will never forget," Maxwell says.
"But the rest of us must be reminded."
Both sisters of the Marines spoke. Brittany Troyer said that having an Albany baseball clubhouse named for her brother "means so much."
Carolyn Lembke said she had gone by the Tualatin building to take pictures where his name will be installed in bronze above the door. "I love the building so much.
"Matt's VFW."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Leave
I'm a little late with this news, but Adam likely is getting leave in October. He doesn't know which two weeks yet. He thought he had applied for January, but apparently it was October -- I don't know how he can mix up January and October.
But because it's sooner than he thought, he likely will come home instead of go on vacation, as he might have done were his leave in January. He hasn't had time to plan for a vacation or saved up money, so coming home makes the most sense. I had told him I wouldn't be mad if he didn't come home because the Army pays for his airfare, so he should take advantage. But obviously I miss him and would like to see him, though we likely would have taken the vacation together anyway.
Hopefully we'll know sooner than later which two weeks. It is also entirely possible that he won't get leave at all because the tour is so short and there are so many lower-ranked men who have to go first.
But because it's sooner than he thought, he likely will come home instead of go on vacation, as he might have done were his leave in January. He hasn't had time to plan for a vacation or saved up money, so coming home makes the most sense. I had told him I wouldn't be mad if he didn't come home because the Army pays for his airfare, so he should take advantage. But obviously I miss him and would like to see him, though we likely would have taken the vacation together anyway.
Hopefully we'll know sooner than later which two weeks. It is also entirely possible that he won't get leave at all because the tour is so short and there are so many lower-ranked men who have to go first.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
I don't like this either, trust me
Cali Bagby/Special to The Oregonian
Gen. Paul Wentz presents Spc. Jeremy Pierce with the Purple Heart.Oregon Guard soldier wounded in roadside bombing, receives Purple Heart
By Cali Bagby, Special to The Oregonian
Friday August 14, 2009, 6:18 PM
Just hours after the Oregon Army National Guard took over convoy security in Iraq Wednesday, a Salem soldier lost his left leg in a roadside bombing.
Spc. Jeremy Pierce, 22, was the first casualty among the 2,600 Oregonians serving a 10-month tour with the 41st Infantry Combat Brigade Team.
Pierce was a gunner guarding a late-night convoy when a roadside bomb ripped through his armored security vehicle. The blast trapped him in the turret where soldiers were unable to reach him. Pierce, who also lost all the toes on his right foot and a finger, was left to his own devices.
"No one could get to me. I held my thigh so I wouldn't bleed out. I started to pull myself out of the hatch," Pierce said in an interview Friday at a hospital in Balad, an airbase about 70 miles north of Baghdad.
"I remember Sgt. Brandon Christopherson telling me to stay awake as I was losing most of my blood," Pierce said from his hospital bed. "I remember looking at my left hand, noticing that I had part of my finger missing. I knew I couldn't stand up; my boot was in another spot. I remember wanting water."
Once Pierce dragged himself outside the vehicle, fellow soldiers stayed by his side as he was transported by ground to Baghdad. The precise location of the bombing remains classified. About 10 hours later, a Salem-based Blackhawk helicopter transported Pierce to the Balad hospital.
It mattered to the Guard medevac unit that a fellow Oregon soldier needed them. "This time we had one of ours wounded," said Balad flight medic 1st Sergeant Travis Powell, 39, of Molalla.
Sgt. Ben Sjullie, 30, of Salem, wasn't on duty, but when he heard that a soldier serving with an Oregon unit needed an evacuation, he volunteered as a second medic. "You know if it's somebody from an Oregon brigade, you don't want another medevac unit to bring in your patient," said Sjullie. "The injured soldier brings you real close to home, you want to be there for him and bring your own wounded home."
Back in Balad, flight medic Powell notified other medevac soldiers that a fellow Oregonian was being brought in. "The least we could do was give him a salute after he finished the last convoy he'll be doing for us," said Powell.
As the Blackhawk landed on Balad's helipad with Pierce inside, about 30 fellow soldiers lined up on the walkway to the hospital doors and saluted as Pierce's gurney rolled by.
Until Pierce is transferred from Balad to Germany, which could happen as early as today, Brigade Commander Col. Dan Hokanson and about eight Oregon soldiers will take shifts so Pierce is never alone. His battle buddy, Spc. Scott Tyrrel, 26, who lives in California, is also by his side offering juice or Chap Stick, or whatever his wounded friend needs. Tyrrel will travel with Pierce to Germany, and then Tyrrel will return to his base in Al-Asad, where they were both stationed. Pierce will be going back to Oregon. "He doesn't want to get sent home," says Tyrrel.
On Friday afternoon, Pierce received a Purple Heart. He already has a Bronze Star from his first deployment with the Alaskan National Guard in 2008. He joined the Oregon Guard after that, and deployed to Iraq this summer.
"You can't really prepare yourself for this," said Pierce, his bright green eyes illuminated by the fluorescent hospital lights. "I knew what I was getting into."
Pierce will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Aug. 21.
-- Cali Bagby is an embedded journalist with Charlie Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation, a medevac unit based out of Salem. She has been with the unit in Iraq for a little over three months.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
MagicJack
I bought Adam one today and plan to mail it out this week. His phone number is (503) 882-7885. Let the free calls begin (in two weeks)!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Update from Col. Dan Hokanson
Col. Dan Hokanson commands the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
And this video made me cry. I don't even know why. Maybe it's because I miss him. Maybe it's because I'm so proud. These men don't have to do this, but they do because they can.
These are the only two for now, but additional videos about the 41st will be posted on YouTube's TheJungleerTube channel.
And this video made me cry. I don't even know why. Maybe it's because I miss him. Maybe it's because I'm so proud. These men don't have to do this, but they do because they can.
These are the only two for now, but additional videos about the 41st will be posted on YouTube's TheJungleerTube channel.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Is it really that hard to protect our soldiers?
Senator says Army failed to protect troops from 'deadly poison' in Iraq
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Monday August 03, 2009, 8:48 PM
Democrats in the U.S. Senate say the Army and the nation's largest war contractor failed to protect troops from a "deadly poison" in Iraq and are demanding that the inspector general investigate.
The statement came after a former Oregon Army National Guardsman and three other combat veterans testified before a Senate panel Monday that since being exposed to hexavalent chromium in 2003, they have been chronically ill and that some of their fellow soldiers have died.
"Before my service to Iraq, I was physically fit. I used to run several miles without much effort," said Rocky Bixby of Hillsboro, who struggled to speak between raspy coughs. "Now I have trouble walking from my house to my car. I simply run out of breath."
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called the Army's investigation into the exposure "tragically inadequate" and likened it to the government's mishandling of Agent Orange.
"The Defense Department failed to protect our troops," Dorgan said. "And I believe they are downplaying this in part because it is an embarrassment to them."
The Army has defended its handling of the case and of Kellogg Brown & Root, the company that earned millions in bonuses for restoring Iraqi oil production.
Dorgan spoke at the 20th oversight hearing he has conducted, mostly into the contracts between the Defense Department and KBR, the Houston firm that provides almost all basic services for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. After last year's hearings, the inspector general reported that KBR's shoddy electrical work failed to protect a Marine electrocuted in the shower and that it served troops contaminated drinking water.
The troops' exposure to the industrial chemical first came to light at a June 2008 hearing. A former KBR safety official testified that he was sent home from Iraq in 2003 after raising concerns about the reddish-orange powder piled at a water treatment plant near Basra. The plant was needed to restore pressure in nearby oil wells.
Ed Blacke testified that in addition to KBR employees, hundreds of U.S. troops were exposed to the toxic powder as they slept, ate and patrolled the plant between April and August of 2003. Among those exposed: members of the 1st Battalion, 162nd Infantry, the first Oregon Guard members sent to Iraq.
But the troops, including others from Indiana and West Virginia, knew almost nothing of the toxin until the state military departments and the Pentagon began mailing letters out earlier this year. Troops say windstorms whipped up the reddish dust that spilled from hundreds of 100-pound bags and turned the soldiers into "orange-powdered doughnuts." They recalled the constant metallic taste that one veteran described like "a mouthful of pennies."
But they were never told to use masks and other protective gear they had carried into combat. And their constant nosebleeds, skin sores and headaches were written off as allergies to desert dust.
"Within two months, you could shine a light into my nasal cavity through a hole that had eaten throughout to the outside of my nose," testified Russell Kimberling, a former Indiana National Guard commander who was medically evacuated to Germany. Kimberling was still guarding the plant that August when KBR employees showed up in full protection suits. The Guard commander escorting them is now in hospice care with lung disease.
Kimberling testified that company officials dismissed the corrosion fighter as a "mild irritant" and that they said one would "literally have to bathe" in it for harm to occur.
Within weeks, the plant was shuttered and cleaned up. The Army eventually administered blood tests to 137 troops a month later. The men never received written results.
On Monday, Herman Gibb, an epidemiologist and the Environmental Protection Agency's former top expert on hexavalent chromium, testified before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee that much of the toxin would have been out of the troops' bodies at the time of the tests. Gibb likened it to "giving a Breathalyzer to a person three days after they were pulled over for erratic driving."
Gibb said an epidemiological study based on the military's medical records was needed, as well as ongoing medical evaluation and care.
Oregon has tried to provide that. This summer, the Legislature, led by Rep. Chip Shields of Portland, approved money for soldiers who develop cancer as a result. Some soldiers are also going to court.
Bixby is one of five current and former Oregon Army National Guard members, along with dozens of other soldiers in Indiana and West Virginia, who are suing KBR.
Bixby, a public safety officer at Oregon Health & Science University, told the senators that after receiving his letter earlier this year, the nonsmoker finally had a chest X-ray at Veterans Affairs.
"The doctors discovered I have a node on my lung."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Monday August 03, 2009, 8:48 PM
Democrats in the U.S. Senate say the Army and the nation's largest war contractor failed to protect troops from a "deadly poison" in Iraq and are demanding that the inspector general investigate.
The statement came after a former Oregon Army National Guardsman and three other combat veterans testified before a Senate panel Monday that since being exposed to hexavalent chromium in 2003, they have been chronically ill and that some of their fellow soldiers have died.
"Before my service to Iraq, I was physically fit. I used to run several miles without much effort," said Rocky Bixby of Hillsboro, who struggled to speak between raspy coughs. "Now I have trouble walking from my house to my car. I simply run out of breath."
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called the Army's investigation into the exposure "tragically inadequate" and likened it to the government's mishandling of Agent Orange.
"The Defense Department failed to protect our troops," Dorgan said. "And I believe they are downplaying this in part because it is an embarrassment to them."
The Army has defended its handling of the case and of Kellogg Brown & Root, the company that earned millions in bonuses for restoring Iraqi oil production.
Dorgan spoke at the 20th oversight hearing he has conducted, mostly into the contracts between the Defense Department and KBR, the Houston firm that provides almost all basic services for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. After last year's hearings, the inspector general reported that KBR's shoddy electrical work failed to protect a Marine electrocuted in the shower and that it served troops contaminated drinking water.
The troops' exposure to the industrial chemical first came to light at a June 2008 hearing. A former KBR safety official testified that he was sent home from Iraq in 2003 after raising concerns about the reddish-orange powder piled at a water treatment plant near Basra. The plant was needed to restore pressure in nearby oil wells.
Ed Blacke testified that in addition to KBR employees, hundreds of U.S. troops were exposed to the toxic powder as they slept, ate and patrolled the plant between April and August of 2003. Among those exposed: members of the 1st Battalion, 162nd Infantry, the first Oregon Guard members sent to Iraq.
But the troops, including others from Indiana and West Virginia, knew almost nothing of the toxin until the state military departments and the Pentagon began mailing letters out earlier this year. Troops say windstorms whipped up the reddish dust that spilled from hundreds of 100-pound bags and turned the soldiers into "orange-powdered doughnuts." They recalled the constant metallic taste that one veteran described like "a mouthful of pennies."
But they were never told to use masks and other protective gear they had carried into combat. And their constant nosebleeds, skin sores and headaches were written off as allergies to desert dust.
"Within two months, you could shine a light into my nasal cavity through a hole that had eaten throughout to the outside of my nose," testified Russell Kimberling, a former Indiana National Guard commander who was medically evacuated to Germany. Kimberling was still guarding the plant that August when KBR employees showed up in full protection suits. The Guard commander escorting them is now in hospice care with lung disease.
Kimberling testified that company officials dismissed the corrosion fighter as a "mild irritant" and that they said one would "literally have to bathe" in it for harm to occur.
Within weeks, the plant was shuttered and cleaned up. The Army eventually administered blood tests to 137 troops a month later. The men never received written results.
On Monday, Herman Gibb, an epidemiologist and the Environmental Protection Agency's former top expert on hexavalent chromium, testified before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee that much of the toxin would have been out of the troops' bodies at the time of the tests. Gibb likened it to "giving a Breathalyzer to a person three days after they were pulled over for erratic driving."
Gibb said an epidemiological study based on the military's medical records was needed, as well as ongoing medical evaluation and care.
Oregon has tried to provide that. This summer, the Legislature, led by Rep. Chip Shields of Portland, approved money for soldiers who develop cancer as a result. Some soldiers are also going to court.
Bixby is one of five current and former Oregon Army National Guard members, along with dozens of other soldiers in Indiana and West Virginia, who are suing KBR.
Bixby, a public safety officer at Oregon Health & Science University, told the senators that after receiving his letter earlier this year, the nonsmoker finally had a chest X-ray at Veterans Affairs.
"The doctors discovered I have a node on my lung."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Additional resources
Here are some other resources about the Oregon National Guard's deployment to Iraq.
Oregon Military Department: Official blog for the Oregon National Guard
The Oregonian special coverage: From all corners of Oregon
The Oregonian blog by Mike Francis: Oregon at War
Oregon Military Department: Official blog for the Oregon National Guard
The Oregonian special coverage: From all corners of Oregon
The Oregonian blog by Mike Francis: Oregon at War
Quite frightening
Oregon National Guard troops escape injury in two attacks in Iraq
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Thursday July 30, 2009, 9:20 PM
Spc. Cory Grogan/Oregon National Guard
Soldiers from the Oregon National Guards 41st Brigade take a moment to relax after finishing last-minute details before heading out on a convoy.
Spc. Jason Rosalez takes a moment while checking his gunner turret on a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. The same type of vehicle likely saved Oregon troops from injury in two recent IED attacks.
A truck gunner from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team communicates with his truck commander before going on a mission.
Troops will uncase the Oregon flag and unit colors Saturday in Iraq, formally launching the tour they will serve for the next 10 months.
The IED attacks came as the Oregon-led brigade began taking over from Texas and Washington state troops the responsibility of protecting supply convoys, a transfer that should be complete in the coming week. The 41st is divided between Camp Victory in Baghdad, Al Asad in northern Iraq, and Tallil, a base in southern Iraq where more than half the force, including the brigade headquarters, is located.
Public affairs Spc. Cory Grogan, 35, of Silverton, who was traveling with the convoy, described the attacks in his official account:
The vehicles were passing a checkpoint as the gunners scanned their zones. When the trail vehicle slowed, the IED went off.
"Everything went orange; there was smoke everywhere; I dropped down into the vehicle and checked in with the (commander) to let him know I was fine," said Pfc. Storm Brown, 30, of Forest Grove.
About a half-hour later, another vehicle was hit by a second explosion. Pfc. Michael Byrd of Portland, the gunner in the vehicle, said he had been scanning his sector from 3 o'clock to 1 o'clock. "I went to my three and scanned with a spotlight, and came back around to my one, and then, whoom! It kind of sucked me up a little bit, and then I went back down and there was nothing but dust everywhere, and I just started coughing."
Grogan reported they were traveling in the Army's new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, which may have prevented serious injury.
Violence against U.S. troops has dropped sharply since the transfer of authority to Iraqis on June 30. Seven U.S. troops have died in July, mostly from IED attacks, according to icasualties.org, the lowest monthly figure since the war began. The Associated Press reports 274 Iraqis have died in July. That, too, is a fraction of the monthly tolls earlier in the war. On average this year, at least 10 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence each day. In 2007, during the height of Iraq's civil unrest, an average of 50 Iraqis died each day, according to the AP.
That relative calm led Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday to suggest that the U.S. may speed up its withdrawal of troops. Most of the 130,000 American troops in Iraq are scheduled to stay until after the national elections in January. The 41st is scheduled to remain at least until spring 2010.
The shifting political landscape in Iraq comes as the Oregonians acclimate to the brutality of the climate there.
In 2003, when U.S. troops arrived at the cratered airfield at Tallil, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, the landscape looked "like the surface of the moon," according to published reports.
In July, Oregon troops found far better living conditions but have had to help build their headquarters in a massive warehouse, Reese said.
Many have also been studying history. The base lies near the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, believed to be the oldest city in the world and the birthplace of Abraham, a patriarch in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Beginning in 1919, British archaeologists and, later, American archaeologists, uncovered many of its riches. Its ziggurat, or distinct ramped pyramid, is considered the best preserved temple of its kind in Iraq and can be seen from the base.
Reese said that ferocious sandstorms with 45 mph winds have helped cool the 125-degree temperatures but have also made living conditions at Tallil difficult.
"I told my wife it's like holding a handful of sand in front of your face, then directing a blow dryer at it," Grogan said.
Reese agreed: "It's horrible."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
__________
IED attack introduces Oregon Soldiers to the combat zone
Soldiers from 2/218 Field Artillery's 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad, from the Oregon National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, were reminded that Iraq is still a combat zone when they were struck by two separate improvised explosive devices.
The Soldiers have been in Iraq for around two weeks and were conducting their first or second mission in a seven vehicle convoy that was going to meet the vehicles they were to escort.
The first explosion rocked a vehicle in the convoy where the truck commander, Sgt. Enrique Dominguez from Portland, and the truck gunner, Pfc. Storm Brown from Forest Grove, were exposed to the blast.
The vehicles were passing a checkpoint as the gunners scanned their zones. When the trail vehicle slowed down, the IED went off, Brown said.
"Everything went orange; there was smoke everywhere; I dropped down into the vehicle and checked in with the TC to let him know I was fine. We called in, told them we were fine, and then moved out," Brown said.
The soldiers were in one of the Army's new mine resistant ambush protected vehicles, which may have prevented serious injury.
About a half-hour after continuing their mission another vehicle in the convoy was hit with a second explosion.
Pfc. Michael Byrd from Portland, the gunner in the vehicle, said he was scanning his sector from three-o-clock to one-o-clock.
"I went to my three and scanned with a spotlight, and came back around to my one, and then, whoom! It kind of sucked me up a little bit, and then I went back down and there was nothing but dust everywhere, and I just started coughing."
The convoy commander, Staff Sgt. David Gowan of Portland, who was also the TC during the second explosion, mentioned that having this happen on his first mission has helped him tune in to potential danger on convoys, and that it will help him know what to do if the situation occurs again.
All of the soldiers in the convoy were aware of danger in Iraq, but the convoy's experience was still a wake-up call for those involved. They think the experience will help them be even more aware on future convoys.
"You know that things like this can happen, but it was totally unexpected. There's a war going on here, it's still dangerous and you've got to stick to your training and know what you're trying to do. We are all OK," Byrd said.
Brown said that the platoon they are taking over for hasn't been hit the whole time they have been in Iraq, and that being hit twice on his first mission has made him feel more aware of the realities of a combat zone
The violence in Iraq has calmed down, but the Soldiers from Alpha Battery's 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad, are now acutely aware that anything can happen at any time in a combat zone.
"Being the first mission a lot of stuff went on the last few days. I just hope we got that part of it over with," Gowan said.
-- Spc. Cory Grogan, Oregon National Guard
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Thursday July 30, 2009, 9:20 PM
Spc. Cory Grogan/Oregon National GuardSoldiers from the Oregon National Guards 41st Brigade take a moment to relax after finishing last-minute details before heading out on a convoy.
Spc. Jason Rosalez takes a moment while checking his gunner turret on a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. The same type of vehicle likely saved Oregon troops from injury in two recent IED attacks.
A truck gunner from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team communicates with his truck commander before going on a mission.
Oregon Army National Guard troops narrowly escaped serious injury earlier this month when two roadside bombs exploded during one of their first missions in Iraq.
Since the troops began arriving from Kuwait in mid-July, they have faced skin-scouring sandstorms and IED attacks, spokesman Maj. Christopher Reese said Wednesday in a call from southern Iraq.
More than 2,600 Oregon soldiers are in Iraq with the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, along with soldiers from Nebraska, Delaware, South Carolina, New Mexico and the Individual Ready Reserve.
Since the troops began arriving from Kuwait in mid-July, they have faced skin-scouring sandstorms and IED attacks, spokesman Maj. Christopher Reese said Wednesday in a call from southern Iraq.
More than 2,600 Oregon soldiers are in Iraq with the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, along with soldiers from Nebraska, Delaware, South Carolina, New Mexico and the Individual Ready Reserve.
Troops will uncase the Oregon flag and unit colors Saturday in Iraq, formally launching the tour they will serve for the next 10 months.
The IED attacks came as the Oregon-led brigade began taking over from Texas and Washington state troops the responsibility of protecting supply convoys, a transfer that should be complete in the coming week. The 41st is divided between Camp Victory in Baghdad, Al Asad in northern Iraq, and Tallil, a base in southern Iraq where more than half the force, including the brigade headquarters, is located.
Troops were in seven vehicles en route to meet the supply vehicles they were to escort when they were struck by two separate bombs more than a week ago.
Public affairs Spc. Cory Grogan, 35, of Silverton, who was traveling with the convoy, described the attacks in his official account:
The vehicles were passing a checkpoint as the gunners scanned their zones. When the trail vehicle slowed, the IED went off.
"Everything went orange; there was smoke everywhere; I dropped down into the vehicle and checked in with the (commander) to let him know I was fine," said Pfc. Storm Brown, 30, of Forest Grove.
About a half-hour later, another vehicle was hit by a second explosion. Pfc. Michael Byrd of Portland, the gunner in the vehicle, said he had been scanning his sector from 3 o'clock to 1 o'clock. "I went to my three and scanned with a spotlight, and came back around to my one, and then, whoom! It kind of sucked me up a little bit, and then I went back down and there was nothing but dust everywhere, and I just started coughing."
Grogan reported they were traveling in the Army's new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, which may have prevented serious injury.
Violence against U.S. troops has dropped sharply since the transfer of authority to Iraqis on June 30. Seven U.S. troops have died in July, mostly from IED attacks, according to icasualties.org, the lowest monthly figure since the war began. The Associated Press reports 274 Iraqis have died in July. That, too, is a fraction of the monthly tolls earlier in the war. On average this year, at least 10 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence each day. In 2007, during the height of Iraq's civil unrest, an average of 50 Iraqis died each day, according to the AP.
That relative calm led Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday to suggest that the U.S. may speed up its withdrawal of troops. Most of the 130,000 American troops in Iraq are scheduled to stay until after the national elections in January. The 41st is scheduled to remain at least until spring 2010.
The shifting political landscape in Iraq comes as the Oregonians acclimate to the brutality of the climate there.
In 2003, when U.S. troops arrived at the cratered airfield at Tallil, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, the landscape looked "like the surface of the moon," according to published reports.
In July, Oregon troops found far better living conditions but have had to help build their headquarters in a massive warehouse, Reese said.
Many have also been studying history. The base lies near the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, believed to be the oldest city in the world and the birthplace of Abraham, a patriarch in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Beginning in 1919, British archaeologists and, later, American archaeologists, uncovered many of its riches. Its ziggurat, or distinct ramped pyramid, is considered the best preserved temple of its kind in Iraq and can be seen from the base.
Reese said that ferocious sandstorms with 45 mph winds have helped cool the 125-degree temperatures but have also made living conditions at Tallil difficult.
"I told my wife it's like holding a handful of sand in front of your face, then directing a blow dryer at it," Grogan said.
Reese agreed: "It's horrible."
-- Julie Sullivan; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
__________
IED attack introduces Oregon Soldiers to the combat zone
Soldiers from 2/218 Field Artillery's 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad, from the Oregon National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, were reminded that Iraq is still a combat zone when they were struck by two separate improvised explosive devices.
The Soldiers have been in Iraq for around two weeks and were conducting their first or second mission in a seven vehicle convoy that was going to meet the vehicles they were to escort.
The first explosion rocked a vehicle in the convoy where the truck commander, Sgt. Enrique Dominguez from Portland, and the truck gunner, Pfc. Storm Brown from Forest Grove, were exposed to the blast.
The vehicles were passing a checkpoint as the gunners scanned their zones. When the trail vehicle slowed down, the IED went off, Brown said.
"Everything went orange; there was smoke everywhere; I dropped down into the vehicle and checked in with the TC to let him know I was fine. We called in, told them we were fine, and then moved out," Brown said.
The soldiers were in one of the Army's new mine resistant ambush protected vehicles, which may have prevented serious injury.
About a half-hour after continuing their mission another vehicle in the convoy was hit with a second explosion.
Pfc. Michael Byrd from Portland, the gunner in the vehicle, said he was scanning his sector from three-o-clock to one-o-clock.
"I went to my three and scanned with a spotlight, and came back around to my one, and then, whoom! It kind of sucked me up a little bit, and then I went back down and there was nothing but dust everywhere, and I just started coughing."
The convoy commander, Staff Sgt. David Gowan of Portland, who was also the TC during the second explosion, mentioned that having this happen on his first mission has helped him tune in to potential danger on convoys, and that it will help him know what to do if the situation occurs again.
All of the soldiers in the convoy were aware of danger in Iraq, but the convoy's experience was still a wake-up call for those involved. They think the experience will help them be even more aware on future convoys.
"You know that things like this can happen, but it was totally unexpected. There's a war going on here, it's still dangerous and you've got to stick to your training and know what you're trying to do. We are all OK," Byrd said.
Brown said that the platoon they are taking over for hasn't been hit the whole time they have been in Iraq, and that being hit twice on his first mission has made him feel more aware of the realities of a combat zone
The violence in Iraq has calmed down, but the Soldiers from Alpha Battery's 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad, are now acutely aware that anything can happen at any time in a combat zone.
"Being the first mission a lot of stuff went on the last few days. I just hope we got that part of it over with," Gowan said.
-- Spc. Cory Grogan, Oregon National Guard
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