Iraq and Afghanistan wars, RIP US Troops - Page 21 - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

ViolaLee · #**301** (**permalink**) 04-21-2007

Quote:

There have been 3,584 coalition deaths -- 3,316 Americans, two Australians, 144 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, six Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 32 Italians, one Kazakh, three Latvian, 19 Poles, two Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of April 19, 2007, according to a CNN count.

CNN.com - Special Reports

ViolaLee · #**302** (**permalink**) 04-21-2007

April 2007. RIP.

ViolaLee · #**303** (**permalink**) 04-21-2007

ViolaLee · #**304** (**permalink**) 04-21-2007

ViolaLee · #**305** (**permalink**) 04-21-2007

And for all the many others who have no picture to post.

ViolaLee · #**306** (**permalink**) 04-30-2007

I can't keep up. Too many are dying. So if some of you could help, we could post all of their pictures and names. But if I am going to do it alone, I'm going to stop trying to keep up and just post some of them. Anyone want to help?

ViolaLee · #**307** (**permalink**) 04-30-2007

Spc. Ryan A. Bishop

Quote:

Spc. Ryan A. Bishop was 32. 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. He was from Euless, Texas. Died of wounds sustained when a roadside bomb exploded while he was on dismounted patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 14, 2007

CNN.com - Special Reports

Rest in peace Ryan.

Mark_Twain · #**308** (**permalink**) 05-01-2007

Sign the petitition to allow the flag to fly at half-mast for a day whenever a soldier is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Tell us the MISSION

[Scroll to the bottom.]

ViolaLee · #**309** (**permalink**) 05-01-2007

Great link MarkTwain, I just heard about that video on the radio.

Petition signed. Thanks for the link.

This is the message after you sign the petition, for sending to your friends.

Quote:

Dear friend,

"I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at Virginia Tech yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member." --Army Sgt. Jim Wilt

Sign the petition below to ask Congress to fly the flag at half-staff for one day whenever an American service member dies at war.

Tell us the MISSION

ViolaLee · #**310** (**permalink**) 05-02-2007

A hero of war.

Quote:

NAME: Pfc. Lori Piestewa

AGE: 23

UNIT: 507th Army Maintenance Unit, a unit assigned to 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade

HOMETOWN: Tuba City, Arizona

FAMILY: Son, Brandon, 4; daughter, Carla, 3; mother, Terry; father, Percy

DETAILS: When her unit was ambushed in Iraq, this mother of two and American Indian soldier fought back, a congressman said. She was buried April 12 in the Hopi Reservation.

Mom, soldier and Hopi Indian: 'She fought and died valiantly'
By Jeordan Legon
CNN

(CNN) -- A gentle snow swept across Arizona's Painted Desert April 5, the same day the Pentagon announced the death of Pfc. Lori Piestewa.

The soldier, a mother of two believed to be the first American Indian woman ever killed in combat, was the pride of the Hopi Indians living in Tuba City, Arizona. In this tightknit town of 9,000, the unseasonable flurry signified Piestewa's spiritual journey home.

"In the Hopi belief, when one is deceased, they come back home. They visit the family, their community through the moisture," Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor told reporters after the snowfall. "And this is what happened just a while ago. So I think we were blessed today."

Piestewa went down fighting in the March 23 ambush of the 507th Army Maintenance Unit near Nasiriya, said Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Arizona, whose district includes Tuba City.

Renzi said he spoke to two generals and a colonel who told him Piestewa was driving the truck that was transporting Pfc. Jessica Lynch and other soldiers. When the Iraqi soldiers attacked her convoy, Piestewa and the master sergeant riding next to her tried to hold the attackers back, Renzi said.

"She fought. She drew her weapon and fought," he said. "It was her last stand. She fought and died valiantly with courage and honor."

Nine soldiers, including Piestewa, died in the battle and Lynch was taken prisoner. When Lynch, Piestewa's friend and roommate at Fort Bliss, was rescued from a Nasiriya hospital April 1, Piestewa's body was among those found nearby by U.S. troops.

Following in the tradition of her father, a Vietnam veteran, and her grandfather, a World War II veteran, Piestewa was commander of her high school ROTC corps. But her marriage her senior year in high school and the births of her two children prompted Piestewa to put her military plans on hold.

Only months after her divorce, she reconsidered her military option and on March 30, 2001, she reported to basic training at Fort Sill.

Her determination shone through in a local television interview before being sent to Iraq: "I am ready to go," she said, looking straight at the camera. "I learned to work with people. It's very important to me to know that my family is going to be taken care of."

Thanks to donations from the public, a scholarship fund has been set up for Piestewa's children. First lady Laura Bush visited the young woman's family. And two Phoenix landmarks, Squaw Peak and Squaw Peak Freeway have been renamed Piestewa Peak and Piestewa Freeway -- a decision hailed by American Indian groups who consider the word "squaw" offensive.

The "Lady Warrior," as her family referred to her, was buried April 12 in the Hopi Reservation, her brother, Wayland Piestewa, told reporters.

"She is our hero," he said. "We are going to continue to believe that. We're going to hold that in our hearts forever. She will not be forgotten."

CNN.com Specials

ViolaLee · #**311** (**permalink**) 05-02-2007

And another hero.

Quote:

NAME: Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez,

AGE: 22

UNIT: 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines

HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, California

FAMILY: Foster parents Marcelo and Nora Mosquera and sister Engracia Sirin Gutierrez

Fallen Marine wanted to give back to adopted country
'May the firearms be silent'

By Jeordan Legon
CNN

LOMITA, California (CNN) -- He was one of the first U.S. soldiers killed in combat in Iraq, even though the United States wasn't quite his country.

Lance Cpl. Jose Antonio Gutierrez, 22, an orphan who grew up on the streets of Guatemala City, made the perilous border crossing through Mexico and entered the U.S. illegally when he was 14, his family said.

He was later granted legal resident status and went to high school and college in California before joining the Marines in March 2002. Only a year in the service, Gutierrez died March 21 in a firefight near the Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr.

"He has been given many opportunities since coming here and he wanted to give back a little bit to his adopted country," said Nora Mosquera, Gutierrez's foster mother.

The lanky youth dreamed of becoming an architect and bringing his sister, Engracia Sirin Gutierrez, from Guatemala.

The sister visited Southern California in time to meet Gutierrez's flag-draped casket at the entrance of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church April 7. Now she's hoping for permission to live in the United States.

"I do feel proud, because not just anyone gives up their life for another country," she told reporters at a news conference recently. "But at the same time it makes me sad because he fought for something that wasn't his."

Cardinal Roger Mahony told the standing-room-only crowd at Gutierrez's mass that they were honoring "a great man" and an American citizen. Gutierrez was awarded his U.S. citizenship posthumously.

Bruce Harris, director of Casa Alianza, a shelter for Guatemalan street children, said Gutierrez was 8 when he went to live there. His parents both died by the time he was 4, Mosquera said.

"He would inhale a toxic shoe glue at times to escape from the hunger and loneliness," Harris said.

But yearning for a better life, the strong-willed youth left Guatemala, hopping trains and hitchhiking through Mexico until he reached the United States, Mosquera said.

"Jose was an excellent example of a child who had many problems early on, but somehow, with his strong faith in God, he was able to overcome those obstacles to reach his goals," she said.

Along with his love of soccer and chess, Gutierrez also enjoyed writing poetry, Mosquera said. "Letter to God," a poem he wrote in 2000, was read at his funeral.

"Thank you for permitting me to live another year, thank you for what I have, for the type of person I am, for my dreams that don't die," he wrote in Spanish. "May the firearms be silent and the teachings of love flourish."

CNN.com Specials

ViolaLee · #**312** (**permalink**) 05-02-2007

And another hero.

Quote:

NAME: Lt. Col. Chris Hughes

AGE: 42

UNIT: 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

HOMETOWN: Red Oak, Iowa

FAMILY: Wife, Marguerite, and three children

DETAILS: When Iraqis misunderstood his soldiers' mission, this colonel urged his infantry to back off to keep from making enemies of civilians.

Commander shows restraint, prevents unnecessary violence

CNN's Ryan Chilcote explains why the villagers in the town of Najaf, Iraq, became uneasy when U.S. military presence moved in (April 2)

PLAY VIDEO

By Ryan Chilcote
CNN

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) -- The soldiers were moving to the home of one of Iraq's leading holy men, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani, seeking his crucial support for their stay in this southern Iraqi city.

But as they turned a corner, a group of Iraqi men blocked their way.

Shouting in Arabic, "God is great," the crowd grew into hundreds, many of whom mistakenly thought the Americans were trying to capture the town's holy man and attack the Imam Ali Mosque, a holy site for Shiite Muslims around the world. Someone in the crowd lobbed a rock at the troops, then another.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, showed restraint and intelligence.

He yelled to his troops: "Smile, relax." Then he commanded his soldiers to take a knee and point their weapons to the ground. Some Iraqis backed off and sat down. But many more continued to yell and block the road.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes instructs his soldiers to get down on one knee and smile.

"We're going to withdraw out of this situation and let them defuse it themselves," he told his troops through a loudspeaker. "All vehicles turn around."

Not all commanders would have done it that way. But Hughes, 42, a career military man who lives with his wife, Marguerite, and three teenage children in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, kept his cool as two cultures almost clashed.

Responsible for hundreds of soldiers, Hughes drew praise from President Bush for his "skill and honor."

"This gesture of respect helped defuse a dangerous situation and make our peaceful intentions clear," Bush said during his weekly radio address.

Nicknamed "No Slack," Hughes' unit is described by its official Web site as "a rapidly deployable battalion that is lethal, ruthless, violent, feared in combat."

But on April 3 in Najaf, Hughes also made sure his soldiers understood cultural differences and the meaning of restraint.

With his own rifle pointed toward the ground, the colonel bowed to the crowd and turned away.

Hughes and his infantry marched back to their compound in silence. And when tempers had calmed, the Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a decree calling on the people of Najaf to welcome Hughes' soldiers.

"I've been real proud of him," his father, Dr. Patrick Hughes, told The Des Moines Register. "He is doing a good job over there like the rest of them are."

ViolaLee · #**313** (**permalink**) 05-03-2007

Staff Sgt. Robert J. Basham

Quote:

Staff Sgt. Robert J. Basham was 22. Headquarters Battery 1st Battalion, 126th Field Artillery Regiment, Wisconsin Army National Guard. He was from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Died as a result of injuries from a non-combat incident at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar, on April 14, 2007 CNN.com - Special Reports

Rest in peace Robert.

kengle · #**314** (**permalink**) 05-03-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samantha

And another hero.

This one hit me harder than the others. I remember watching that video of Lt. Col Hughes handling the crowd the way he did and making me proud of being an American. His professionalism was an inspiration. I'll make sure to say a prayer for him and his family tonight in addition to the other new entries.

moon · #**315** (**permalink**) 05-05-2007

Nobody could criticise you if you can't keep up, Samantha.

You've already performed a highly commendable service . God save them all.

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