Are the Green Berets on the Chopping Block?

When I was in high school in the mid-1960’s, famed author Robin Moore wrote the book “The Green Berets”. This book lit the fire for the legendary force for whom President John F. Kennedy made the beret official. When Kennedy was buried, the Green Berets placed a fresh, new beret on his grave.

The success of the book was followed by the popular song “The Ballad of the Green Berets” (album cover above - I still have a copy) by Sergeant Barry Sadler of the Green Berets.

I had the great opportunity of meeting Robin Moore as a high school reporter. He signed my copy of the book with the note “Keep writing”. He was a helluva reporter and a helluva man who not only wrote the book, but went through their training as well.

That’s why the following article in Soldier of Fortune (referred to by Military.com) is so disturbing. Major General James Guest echoes the concern of anyone who is part of or knows anything about the Green Berets:

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Demise of the Green Berets?

Soldier of Fortune | Maj. Gen. James Guest, USA | April 16, 2008

For a glimpse into the future of Special Forces, read the Capstone Concept for Special Operations on the USSOCOM web site. Read through it carefully. Can you find the words "Special Forces" anywhere? Or "Special Forces group?" Can you find "ODA" (operational detachment - alpha)? Or "ODB" (operational detachment - bravo)? Or "Special Forces battalion?"

You can't find these words. We can read that as a strong signal that you won't be able to find Special Forces anywhere before very long. Many other signals suggest that the senior leadership in both United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and Department of the Army (DA) are working to do away with the Green Berets. The generals at USSOCOM and in the Pentagon have been blurring the distinctions between Special Forces and special operations forces (SOF) units (Rangers, JSOC, SEALs, Delta, et al.) for some time. We now see references to "Air Force special forces," "Navy special forces," and "Marine special forces" but we rarely see the term "U. S. Army Special Forces." We do see "Army SOF," which only describes a grouping of forces, not a capability. We do see SF ODAs referred to as "special operations detachments," another sad precursor of the future.

The Capstone Concept for Special Operations being developed for USSOCOM includes the concept "global expeditionary forces," and all indications point to the intent to replace the SF groups with this new concept. The organizational charts are changing, too, and the plans are for these global expeditionary forces to work directly for USSOCOM worldwide in a Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)-like configuration. Although the security assistance force (SAF) concept is a much more streamlined and effective mechanism for utilizing U. S. Army Special Forces-the SAF is regionally oriented and works directly for the combatant commander-it has been discarded.
Is USA SF Being Eviscerated?

Is this a ploy to be able to take the ODAs and use them operationally without going through the group headquarters (HQ), including the group Special Forces operating bases (SFOB)? Since 1952, conventional force headquarters have attempted to neutralize Special Forces command and control by treating the group and battalion HQ as non-operational administrative units, the purpose of which is to maintain ODAs in order that conventional units, such as JSOC, can cherry-pick them to use as support for their own missions. Reportedly, SF troops are already under the operational control of JSOC. JSOC is using the Green Berets for JSOC's own ends, whether to gather intelligence for JSOC missions or to carry out "special missions" that, if successful, JSOC can take the credit for. You can imagine who will suck up the blame if such a "special mission" goes south.

How can Special Forces be neutralized in this way? If those who want to do away with the Green Berets are successful, they will need the full support of the senior leadership of the U. S. Army. Will they do away with the Special Forces officer branch? The Special Forces warrant officer branch? The Special Forces NCO career management fields (CMF)? To date, we merely have the unusual spectacle of a relatively small unit (USSOCOM)-however joint they may be-taking control of an entire United States Army branch.

The Army transferred control of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center (SWC) and School from Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) to the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) in 1990. USASOC has since taken the combat developments capability out of SWC and made it a staff section of USASOC HQ. Bear in mind that this office is the heartbeat (perhaps also the brain) of the force developments and requirements process, and therefore has a major, if not controlling voice in all future concept development, acquisitions, organization, and support doctrine for Special Forces. This, in turn, impacts recruitment, promotions, training, and equipping the force; doctrinal studies and publications; and concept developments to support Special Forces. This also impacts U. S. Army psychological operations and civil affairs concepts and developments. Since this power node was moved from SWC to USASOC, SWC is now a pygmy in the lineup of U.S. Army schools. A harbinger of the future is the recent cut of 13 million dollars from the SWC budget.

Marine Specops Intrude

Another indication that SWC's leadership position in the unconventional warfare (UW) arena is disappearing is that on 27 June 2007, the USMC formally activated the Marine Special Operations School. The stated intent of the USMC senior leadership is that it will become "the premier FID [foreign internal defense] and Unconventional Warfare University in the entire SOF community."

Approval from USSOCOM was required for this duplication of effort, as well as for the above-quoted statement. There can be no true duplication for many years, if ever. The culture of the USMC will be even less amenable to the necessities of working with, through, and by indigenous people than the culture of the conventional Army. The Marines are a world-class service and a superb fighting force, but they are new to FID and new to unconventional warfare. Many a harsh lesson awaits them if they are going to try to replace the Green Berets. U. S. Army Special Forces has been increasing in proficiency and experience in counterinsurgency (COIN), FID, UW, and international security assistance missions for more than a half century.

Are the Marines willing to take the slots out of their own hide and form up more than 300 Special Forces-type operational detachments? Why would USSOCOM leaders be willing for the USMC to start this effort from scratch, when time is of the essence? Is USSOCOM willing to hand over U. S. Army Special Forces personnel authorizations to the USMC so they can become the premier FID and UW warriors of the future? Is somebody selling wolf tickets?

Specops Tactics Turned Upside Down

In the USSOCOM Capstone Concept, the TTP for conducting Special Forces operations are turned on their heads. This developing concept speaks in terms of pulling everything back to the continental United States (CONUS) and of deploying JSOC units in the same way as carrier battle groups (CBG) and Marine expeditionary units (MEU), instead of doing what has worked so well for so long for Special Forces. Look on pages 9 and 10 of the Capstone Concept, under "Global Expeditionary Force." While this concept would work for raids and other direct actions (such as JSOC, Rangers, SEALs, and USAF Special Tactics Teams are trained to conduct), if USSOCOM attempts to steal the mission of Special Forces by using this model, they will merely create a "roving gnome," who will soon be calling for backup. In short, the USSOCOM Capstone Concept totally ignores the demonstrated and historically successful Special Forces operational concept of working by, with, and through those we are helping.

As a result of more than fifty years of fine tuning, each Special Forces group now operates in its assigned region. Group HQ deploy joint combined exchange training (JCET) teams to enhance bilateral relations and interoperability with regional nations through military-to-military contact. These U. S. Special Forces JCET teams establish long-term relationships with indigenous personnel. They work to improve regional unit combat skills and observance of humanitarian requirements. They develop trust between host nations and the USA, with a program tailored to meet specific needs as identified by Green Berets on the ground. This capability will disappear with the Green Berets, and no SOF "shock-and awe" can replace it.

Armchair Specops

Compared to the lean organization of Special Forces, the USSOCOM model creates a bureaucracy with too many supervisors for too few workers, with the supervisors far away from the action. Money that would be better spent on the mission will be used for funding extra layers of chair-borne supervisors. Worse, an unwieldy organization will get in the way of accomplishing the mission. The men on the ground have a much better feel for what they need to do and how best to do it, while the top-down bureaucratic rigidity frustrates more than it facilitates.

Will these newly created bureaucratic slots be filled with Special Forces officers and NCOs? What do you think? The conventional officers who have risen to the highest ranks through their connections with JSOC, Delta, the Rangers, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the SEALs will be in charge. There is only one Special Forces officer (newly promoted) above the rank of major general, so, once again, Special Forces are being decapitated and will be under the ultimate command of those who have never gone through selection and assessment, never attended the SFOC, never served a tour on an ODA, and never served repeated assignments in a SFG(A).

The 2006 version of the USSOCOM Capstone Concept that we can access online does not show the new organizational charts that are presently proposed for the global expeditionary forces in the 2007 Capstone Concept. They are classified, but in the end there may be more than a dozen staff officers and NCOs for every soldier who will be assigned the mission on the ground. Reliable sources state that, even now, there are more than 130 (perhaps as many as 160) U. S. Army E-9s in Army special mission units assigned to JSOC. When that is compared with the 13 to15 E-9s in a Special Forces group, it does tend to raise eyebrows. What are they doing? According to the reports, thirteen of them are packing parachutes.

SOF DVD w/o SF

In April 2007, USSOCOM put out a 20-minute DVD celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Even though Special Forces personnel make up the greatest part of the USSOCOM forces, the U. S. Army Special Forces are never once mentioned in this DVD. Although Special Forces is the oldest force in USSOCOM and has been the USSOCOM workhorse since its inception, not one Green Beret is seen in the montage of photographs.

Colonel Banks is not mentioned in the historical overview, or General Yarborough, or General Healy. There is no reference to Colonel Bull Simons, to Colonel Charlie Beckwith, nor to General Joe Lutz. Yet without these men, the path to the present day in United States "special operations" would be difficult to imagine. Most amazingly, the DVD makes no reference to President John F. Kennedy, who supported the establishment of Special Forces in 1961.

Will Special Forces exist ten or twenty years down the road? What can we do to ensure the continuing existence and contribution of the Green Berets?
It is time to fight again, this time for the preservation of the force. If we do not protest the poor stewardship of the U. S. Army and USSOCOM leaders concerning U. S. Army Special Forces and its unique capability, we will certainly see this capability diminish.

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Pass this on to anyone who cares about keeping one of the greatest forces the American Army has ever placed on the battlefield.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Iraqi Militias Must Go

Back in 2004, the Mahdi Army consisted of only a few thousand members, mostly young street hoodlums attracted to Muqtada al Sadr because his father was a well-respected ayatollah who was executed by Saddam Hussein.

Those of us working the perilous streets of Baghdad that year were disheartened when our bosses decided to leave the Mahdi Army untouched because al Sadr indicated he would turn to politics. We didn’t believe he or his militia would ever disarm and he launched two uprisings that year. Many Americans were killed or wounded by his militia thugs.

Now Muqtada’s private army is conservatively estimated to consist of around 60,000 members. That doesn’t include the sympathizers among Iraqi civilians or the family members who help sustain and equip these black-uniformed killers. It also doesn’t include the Iranian advisors who provide arms, ammunition and training to their Iraqi revolutionary brothers – just as they did in 2004.

Al Sadr owes his life and the lives of his fellow Shiites to the American and Coalition forces, but he has refused to deal with the United States. This ungrateful fundamentalist only wants to lead the ultimate Shiite theocracy he sees simmering beneath the surface of the Iraqi political landscape. Any cooperation at all is only because it is in his interests for the moment while he pursues his own agenda.

While al Sadr hides in Iran, the new Iraqi Army has done reasonably well against his militia, even though some of the fundamentalists are surely within the military’s ranks. With Sunnis working with the Coalition for the most part to steadily wipe out the foreign fighters, one of the biggest remaining issues remains the in-fighting among the Shiites. Clearly, many of these Shiites – like al Maliki – have begun to realize that a functioning democracy is the only way to prevent a bloody civil war.

We have been correct to stay the course and we must continue to do so as long as freedom-loving Iraqis work with us. American and Coalition military forces can never impose a democracy on the people of Iraq because democracy is a free-will choice of the people of any nation.

If the average Iraqi citizen wants liberty, then he must be willing to fight for it as well. The Mahdi Army and the other militias must be squashed once and for all, but the Iranian influence in Iraqi society will always remain concealed in the shadows.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Support the Hubbard Act - Contact Your Senators and Congressmen

Today the Associated Press reported the tragic story of a soldier who lost both of his brothers in Iraq and then discovered that his sole-surviving son status had cost him and his family their own military benefits:

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Military Denied Benefits to Surviving Son

By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. (April 17) - Forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, Army Spc. Jason Hubbard faced another battle once he returned home: The military cut off his family's health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.

It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.

Now that congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, plans to join three other lawmakers in introducing a bill that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.

"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."

Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi.

At their request, the pair were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, and deployed to Iraq the next year.

In August, 21-year-old Cpl. Nathan died when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Kirkuk. Jason was part of the team assigned to remove his comrades' bodies from the wreckage.

Hubbard accompanied his little brother's body on a military aircraft to Kuwait, then on to California. He kept steady during Nathan's burial at Clovis Cemetery, standing in dress uniform between his younger brothers' graves as hundreds sobbed in the heat.

But Hubbard broke his silence when he found his wife, pregnant with their second child, had been cut off from the transitional health care the family needed to ease back to civilian life after he was discharged in October.

"This is a man who asked for nothing and gave a lot," said Nunes, R-Calif., who represents Hubbard's hometown of Clovis, a city of 90,000 next to Fresno. "Jason is one person who obviously has suffered tremendously and has given the ultimate sacrifice. One person is too many to have this happen to."

Hubbard went to Nunes, who began advocating for the former soldier in December, after hearing the Army was demanding that he repay $6,000 from his enlistment bonus and was denying him up to $40,000 in educational benefits under the GI bill.

After speaking with Army Secretary Pete Geren, Nunes got the repayment waived, and a military health policy restored for Hubbard's wife.

But the policy mandated that she be treated at a nearby base, and doctors at the Lemoore Naval Air Station warned that the 45-mile trip could put her and the fetus in danger. Hubbard said doctors offered alternative treatment at a hospital five hours away.

Meantime, Hubbard and his two-year-old son went without any coverage for a few months.

The Hubbard Act, scheduled to be introduced Wednesday, would for the first time detail the rights of sole survivors, and extend to them a number of benefits already offered to other soldiers honorably discharged from military service.

The bill - co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. - would waive payback of their enlistment bonuses, allow them to participate in G.I. educational programs, give them separation pay and access to transitional health care.

Meanwhile, Hubbard, his wife Linnea and his son Elijah, have permanent health coverage now that he is once again working as a Fresno County sheriff's deputy, the job he left in 2004 to serve in Iraq.

The Army will adopt to any changes in policy springing from the legislation, said Army spokesman Maj. Nathan Banks.

"Foremost the Army itself sympathizes with him for the loss of his brothers," Banks said. "We will do everything within our means to rectify this issue. He is still one of ours."

Hubbard's father, Jeff, said that resolving the family's bureaucratic difficulties would provide some comfort, but would not help lessen their pain.

"We're still very much deeply involved in a grieving process. We're pretty whacked," he said. "This doesn't relate back to the loss of our boys, it can't, but we would consider it a positive accomplishment."

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This terrible situation must never happen again. Please contact your Congressional representatives and encourage them to pass the Hubbard Act. Also, please forward this story to others who can assist in obtaining support for this bill.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

The Mission Continues, etc.

I spent the weekend in the “northland” where this Florida boy endured snow flurries mixed with rain and the cold weather was the kind I really don’t care for. (They don’t even have grits up there…)

Now that I’m back in Central Florida, I’ve come down with a bad cold (the Yankees did it to me, mama…) along with a few other unpleasant symptoms. Debbie will have to put up with me for a day or so (yeah, I’ll get the chicken soup routine) and then it will be back to the Army grind.

We were working once again with a unit that will soon head to war. These guys are used to the cold so they’ll need to do some adjusting no matter which war zone they go to. I traveled with one of our officers, a major who is also a cop.

So while I’m sitting around the house today sick, writing my report on our trip, Debbie’s favorite cat, Trixie, “escapes” from the house through a window (unlike the above cat who didn't get away).

Trixie is an indoor cat who ran into a dog outside and fled fifty feet up a tree. We managed to get a very long ladder up about half way, but she spent about six hours up there. Just when we thought we’d get her down, she fell onto a shed and dislocated her hip.

Sad thing, but she will have surgery tomorrow to repair the damage as best as can be done for a kitty-cat. We have several pets, but this one is almost my wife’s “fifth child”.

It kind of reminds me of an unusual convoy in Iraq back in 2004:

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One very hot and miserable day, we sat in the staging area at Camp Victory waiting for General Davidson to finish his meetings. Lieutenant Cooper came by and said he just received a phone call from one of the unit’s officers. This particular officer was at Baghdad International Airport waiting for a flight to a nearby country for a four-day pass.

Cooper told me we were ordered to go to the airport to pick up a “package”. As we pulled out of Camp Victory’s main gate onto Route Irish and turned right to go to BIAP, I joked with the guys that we were probably going to pick up a new cage for the officer’s cat. This soldier had adopted an Iraqi cat, made sure it was vaccinated and examined by the unit’s veterinarians and arrangements were made to ship it home to the States.

As we drove up to the military terminal at BIAP, this officer and a traveling companion were dressed in their country club casual clothes and they were relaxing in lounge chairs waiting for their flight. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the pet cage next to them. They planned to take the cat to Kuwait and ship it home like a stuffed toy.

Unfortunately for them, the British military, upon whose plane they were booked, said there was no way they were going to carry a cat on their plane. It was unbelievable but true. The “package” we were ordered to pick up was this orange and white Iraqi cat. My mighty warriors were now pet-sitters.

My blood pressure began to rise, but Cooper was in a very awkward position. For the cat’s owner to make me bring my guys out of Camp Victory onto the most dangerous road on earth and go to BIAP to pick up a damned personally-owned feline was an unbelievable abuse of authority.

As I stood outside our Humvee and listened to all of this, I began to get really pissed off. In fact, I was so angry I turned around and went and sat in the vehicle. I knew if I didn’t do so I was about to say something that would get me in trouble.

Higginbotham was sitting in the driver’s seat and he was already getting a laugh out of the whole thing. His window was open and he heard the officer say in a thick southern accent, “Ah don’t know if ah want Sahgent Grist to carry mah cat. He’s an asshole.” I didn’t hear the comment, but I heard Chad begin to chuckle.

Poor Cooper. With his eyeballs rolling back into his head in disbelief, he took the pet carrier and put it in the back seat of our Humvee. We drove out of the airport, back out onto Route Irish and returned to Camp Victory where we would wait for several more hours for the general.

Now the challenge really began. This poor cat was existing in a pet carrier in one hundred and twenty degree heat. As time wore on, we began to notice that the cat was looking a little “ragged”. Aaron took it out of the carrier and the foreign feline had gone from being a lively little ball of fur to looking as though it was melting. Its ears hung low, its fur drooped and the corners of its eyes began to dip downward. The poor little bastard had heat exhaustion.

A massive life-saving effort began and we turned the Humvee on so the air conditioner would run, using a great deal of U.S. Army gasoline to try and keep this cat alive. We offered it water, but it wouldn’t drink. We held its little jaws open, forced water into it and slowly, over an hour or so, the little guy began to come around. The water made a big difference, but the cool air was the deciding factor to me.

The general was finally ready to leave, so we drove up to the entrance of the Water Palace to pick him up. The little Arabian cat sat in his carrier in the back seat of our Humvee and the general probably never knew he was there. Cooper was a good guy and, even though what this officer did was improper, he protected the soldier’s reputation with the boss. We ended up giving the cat to one of the unit’s soldiers back in the Green Zone until its owner returned.

I made a short video later about the “cat convoy” as a joke for the animal’s owner. I thought about ending it with the cat’s body being sold as food to the Iraqis, but I figured that would be in bad “taste”.

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See? I really like cats….with a little mustard on whole wheat bread…..just kidding!!!

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

North Vietnamese General Giap Admits Near-Defeat

A friend from the great state of Kentucky sent me the following:

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General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi:

"What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it.

But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!"

General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew. The Vietnam war was not lost in Vietnam -- it was lost at home. The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is currently well underway. It exposes the enormous power of a biased media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.

A truism worthy of note: Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy your honor.

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My thanks to my friend for sending me the above article.

For anyone who believed that the Vietnam war was lost militarily, now you know the truth from the enemy's point of view.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Navy SEAL Will Receive Medal of Honor

The following Associated Press story tells about another great American hero, Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor:

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SEAL to Get Medal of Honor

April 01, 2008
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - A Navy SEAL who threw himself on top of a grenade in Iraq to save his comrades in 2006 will be posthumously awarded the nation's highest military tribute, a White House spokeswoman announced March 31.

The Medal of Honor will be awarded to Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor. His family will receive the medal during a White House ceremony April 8.

Monsoor is the fourth person to receive the medal since the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism on Sept. 29, 2006," press secretary Dana Perino told reporters during a briefing aboard Air Force One as President Bush headed to Europe for a NATO summit. Monsoor was part of a sniper security team in Ramadi with three other SEALs and eight Iraqi soldiers, according to a Navy account. An insurgent fighter threw the grenade, which struck Monsoor in the chest before falling in front of him.

Monsoor then threw himself on the grenade, according to a SEAL who spoke to The Associated Press in 2006 on condition of anonymity because his work requires his identity to remain secret.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant, who suffered shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him." Two SEALs next to Monsoor were injured; another who was 10 feet to 15 feet from the blast was unhurt. Monsoor, from Garden Grove, Calif., was 25 at the time.

Monsoor, a platoon machine gunner, had received the Silver Star, the third-highest award for combat valor, for his actions pulling a wounded SEAL to safety during a May 9, 2006, firefight in Ramadi.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for his sacrifice in Ramadi.

Sixteen SEALs have been killed in Afghanistan. Eleven of them died in June 2005 when a helicopter was shot down near the Pakistan border while ferrying reinforcements for troops pursuing al-Qaida militants.

There are about 2,300 of the elite fighters, based in Coronado and Little Creek, Va.

The Navy is trying to boost the number by 500 - a challenge considering more than 75 percent of candidates drop out of training, notorious for "Hell Week," five days of continual drills by the ocean broken by only four hours sleep total.

Monsoor made it through training on his second attempt.

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What would this country be without men like this?

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

POW/MIA Keith Maupin's Remains Are Identified

I was running convoys along Baghdad’s dangerous roads in 2004 when then-PFC Keith Maupin’s own convoy was ambushed. Insurgents executed a bold daylight attack that resulted in the capture of Maupin and several civilian contractors. Some of those in the Coalition convoy were killed.

Although it was suspected that Maupin had been killed by his captors, the Pentagon announced that his remains had been identified through DNA. The following story is from the Associated Press:

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Ohio Soldier's Remains Found in Iraq

By TERRY KINNEY,
Associated Press

BATAVIA, Ohio (March 31) - Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin's parents vowed to never let the U.S. Army forget about finding their son.

Their efforts included trips to the Pentagon and even meeting with President Bush, but they ended in disappointment Sunday: An Army general told them the remains of Maupin, a soldier who had been listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004, had been found.

"My heart sinks, but I know they can't hurt him anymore," Keith Maupin said after receiving word about the remains of his son, who went by Matt.

The Army didn't say how or where in Iraq his son's remains were discovered, only that the identification was made with DNA testing, Maupin said. A shirt similar to the one his son was wearing at the time of his disappearance was also found.

The Army was continuing its investigation, Maupin said.

Lt. Lee Packnett, an Army public affairs officer in Washington, said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday.

Matt Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy, part of the Bartonville, Ill.-based 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad.

A week later, the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape showing a stunned-looking Maupin wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim's head and not the execution.

The Maupins refused to believe their son was dead. They lobbied hard for the Army to continue listing him as missing-captured, fearing that another designation would undermine efforts to find him.

The Pentagon agreed to give the Maupins regular briefings, and Bush met with them when he traveled to Cincinnati.

Keith Maupin said the Army told him soon after his son's capture that there was only a 50 percent chance he would be found alive. He said he doesn't hold the Army responsible for his son's death, but that he did hold the Army responsible for bringing his son home.

"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon, whether he walks off a plane or is carried off, you're not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam," Maupin said.

Keith Maupin and his ex-wife, Carolyn, held a candlelight vigil Sunday night outside the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Batavia, an office they used to package thousands of boxes of donated snacks and toiletries for shipment to soldiers in Iraq.

"It hurts," Carolyn Maupin said. "After you go through almost four years of hope, and this is what happens, it's like a letdown, so I'm trying to get through that right now."

The Maupins were told by an Army official on Friday to expect an update on their son over the weekend, Keith Maupin said. The Army broke the news about their son's remains at a somber meeting.

"When you look out there in the parking lot and see a three-star general get out of a car, you know it ain't good news," Keith Maupin said.

Matt Maupin graduated from Glen Este High School, just east of Cincinnati, in 2001 and attended the University of Cincinnati for a year before joining the Army Reserves.

Dan Simmons, the athletic director at Glen Este, remembered him as a quiet but hardworking backup player on the school's football team.

"Matt was a selfless kid on the football field," Simmons said. "He did whatever the coaches told him. He wasn't a starter, but he made the other kids play harder."

A month after his capture, Maupin was promoted to the rank of specialist. In April 2005, he was promoted to sergeant.

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There is never an easy way to bid farewell to a fellow warrior. At least we now know that Keith Maupin will finally come home.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Special Ops General Retires

The following article was sent to me via friends at Fort Benning. It was published on WRAL.com in North Carolina. It tells the story of one helluva warrior, Major General Gary Harrell:

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A Recruiting Pitch Leads to Army Career That Includes Delta Force

Gary L. Harrell was headed for a high school algebra class when an announcement offered an attractive alternative: A pitch on Army ROTC.

Harrell was not sure how he would pay for college and had some interest in the military. He filled out the ROTC paperwork.

On March 6 at Fort Bragg, the former Delta Force commander retired as a major general from the Army at age 57, ending a career of almost 35 years that took him to every post-Viet nam hot spot, from Grenada to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I was planning on getting out as a captain," he said. "I've had the privilege of working with and commanding some of the finest soldiers we have in the military."

At his retirement ceremony, Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said the 40 or so generals or their wives who gathered to say farewell to Harrell might have been a record.

"I would also mention that we have some of Gary's closest personal friends here today: gun dealers, knife makers, ammunition purveyors, and, apparently, some people released from prison just to be here," Wagner said in a nod to Harrell's long career in some of the Army's toughest and most secretive units.

Harrell helped rescue U.S. hostage Kurt Muse from a Panamanian jail in 1989 and hunt down Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He searched for mobile Iraqi Scud missile launch ers in the first Persian Gulf war in 1991, was a commander during the 1993 battle of Mogadishu immortalized in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down" and led perhaps the largest special operations force into combat in U.S. history in Iraq.

"If it was complex, if it was difficult or critical to our nation, Gary was there," Wagner said. For the past year, Harrell has been Wagner's deputy.

"I relied on Gary's unmatched expertise, broad credibility, judgment and common sense advice on every decision we made," Wagner said.

Harrell, who played defensive tackle at East Tennessee State University, is a block at 6-foot-1, 240 pounds. People who know him roared with laughter when they saw a slightly built actor portray him in "Black Hawk Down."

Wagner says Harrell's strength helped keep him alive.

"At least twice, Gary nearly lost his life serving our nation, in a helicopter crash in Panama that broke his back and in Somali a when a mortar round detonated within feet of where he stood, severely injuring and nearly severing his leg and inflicting other life-threatening injuries," Wagner said. "Except for his brute strength of mind and body and the heroic medics, Gary would not have survived to be here with us today."

To be sure, Harrell is a study in contrasts. He spent his career dodging the spotlight in the military's most secretive units, yet he was portrayed by name in two books and a popular movie.

Acclaimed as a combat leader, he displayed his soft side at the ceremony, holding hands with his wife and high school sweetheart, Jennifer. Over the years, she accompanied him to tell families that their loved ones would not be coming home. He spoke glowingly of his children and grandchildren.

"I'm more proud of being their father and grandfather than I am of retiring as a two-star general," he said.

Although Harrell is one of the military's premier experts in rapid, violent strikes, he is quick to point out that victory against terrorism may lie in education and patiently helping other countries solve their own problems.

He sees nuances in the most notorious characters, such as Escobar, the murderous Colombian drug lord.

"If you talk to the folks on the street of Medellin, this guy took care of their rent when they couldn't make it," Harrell said in an interview a couple of days before his retirement. "As near as I understand it, he took a lot of his money and put it back into the community in terms of taking care of poor people, kind of a Robin Hood-type twist to it."

Understanding the adversary is important in today's war, he said.

"There is certainly a lot of evil there, but there's another facet you need to understand. And that's important today, because Hamas has a side of it that does a lot of that same-type deal for Palestinians who a re in need," he said. "On the other hand, Hamas has got a large cadre of murderers and brigands and those type things. ... If you omit either one of those in your analysis, you are apt to make a big mistake."

Harrell was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973. Ten years later, he got his first taste of war with the 82nd Airborne Division during the 1983 Grenada invasion.

"I remember walking out of the headquarters one morning and seeing an A-7 (attack airplane)," he said. "I could tell he was on a bomb run. I remember thinking, 'Gee, I thought the 82nd was over there.' He dropped a bomb on brigade headquarters. Those things happen in war. You make mistakes like that sometimes."

The military learned the painful lessons of Grenada, he said, such as the need to improve battlefield communications among the armed services.

Harrell was in the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, when he got a call from Col. Bill Garrison, his former battalion commander, who said selection for Delta Force was coming up.

"He could be a man of few words when he needed to be," Harrell said. "'Hey! Harrell! Selection starts in the fall. Be there!'"

Delta's selection process is famous for rigorous marches and ordeals that make even Ranger and Special Forces selection pale by comparison.

"It's more a test of your mental ability in a lot of regards than it is your physical," Harrell said.

He passed the test and became a troop commander in Delta.

During the 1989 Panama invasion, Harrell was part of the team that swooped into the prison to rescue Muse, an American imprisoned for suspected CIA ties. Success, he said, lay in repeated rehearsals in Florida and Panama.

But they could not prepare fully for the barrage they had to face.

"I remember getting ready to go, getting back on one of the helicopters for the extraction and three basketball-sized, glowing red spheres went between me and the helicopter," he said. "I remember thinking, 'Hmmm, that wasn't good.'"

In 1993, he deployed to Somalia to help counter warlords that were undermining humanitarian efforts in the East African country. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down during a Delta Force and Ranger raid meant to capture warlord leaders.

Twice, Harrell turned down the request of two Delta Force operators to go to the rescue of one downed helicopter crew being overrun by a violent mob in Mogadishu.

The third time, Harrell told Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart yes.

Almost 15 years later, Harrell pauses with emotion when asked about his decision.

"They knew there was nothing else to back them up," Harrell said. "It was just them. They felt like it was so important to go that they needed to go."

Gordon and Shughart died in the rescue attempt, but they saved the helicopter pilot. They each received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award.

"That's one of those that makes you ask, 'Where do we find men like that?'" Harrell said. "It wasn't like they just decided they'd hop off the helicopter and thought that somebody would come to their rescue. We had two helicopters down. We had the capacity to get one. We didn't have the capacity to get two. They knew what was going on."

In 1998, Harrell took command of Delta Force, officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta and called simply "the unit" by members.

"It's interesting because you've got several hundred experts who pride themselves on knowing everything about everything," he said. "You are the guy that has kind of got to keep them moving in the same direction. That was enjoyable. It could be frustrating."

Sometimes, the battles were with the bureaucracy.

In Afghanistan in 2001, Harrell asked for saddles for Special Forces soldiers operating in the mountains. The Pentagon assumed the soldiers were riding for fun.

He called back, "The phone call went something like this: 'Hey, I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal. I"l put you on a bony old horse, and let you ride around the mountains with a rucksack on, see how well you like that without a saddle.'"

As Harrell closed the book on his military career, Wagner, the USASOC commander, may have summed up the sense that the best chapters remain unpublished.

"Well, there's a lot more that could be said, but many stories remain untold," Wagner said. "Just be glad Gary was there."

* * * *

We still need leaders like this. Good luck to the general in his well-earned retirement.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Medic in Afghanistan Awarded Silver Star

This is an inspiring story that was sent to me by Dave Stieghan, Army historian at Fort Benning, Georgia:

* * * *

Associated Press

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

"We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.

"I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire," Brown said.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in frontline combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.

Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the medal posthumously last year, according to the Army's Web site.

Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.

"So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit," she said. "I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of."

For Brown, who knew all five wounded soldiers, it became a race to get them all to a safer location. Eventually, they moved the wounded some 500 yards away, treated them on site before putting them on a helicopter for evacuation.

"I did not really have time to be scared," Brown said. "Running back to the vehicle, I was nervous (since) I did not know how badly the guys were injured. That was scary."

The military said Brown's "bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat."

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

* * * *

Medics have always held a special place in the hearts of warriors. Soldiers always take care of their buddies, but none do it as well as the medics. God bless them all.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

The Warrior Prince Revisited

Some time ago I wrote an entry in this blog called "The Warrior Prince: Harry Goes to Iraq" when Prince Harry of Great Britain was believed to be headed for Iraq.

The uproar created by his potential deployment ended his chance to deploy for the time, but he has now successfully served in Afghanistan. Although his tour was only about ten weeks due to the media attention, I believe this young British officer will be back at war at some point.

You have to admire him for his grit, his courage and his determination to make his own way even as he lives in the privileged royal class.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

The Last Mission

Since my return to my home base at the end of 2007, I have been preparing for what will be my final mission in the Army. My previous job was to mobilize a battalion of military police soldiers who are now successfully engaged in one of the war zones.

Tomorrow I make a brief one-day trip to give a pre-mobilization briefing to another military police unit, but next week I begin that final mission. I have been attached to a team that will spend the next few months preparing an infantry unit for its tour at war. Yep – my last mission will be with a unit of “grunts”, the same type of hardened “bayonet and bullet” warriors with whom I shared my first experience at war.

We will begin with an extensive pre-mobilization briefing and assessment of the unit’s readiness. This means that next week I must travel to the unit (which is located in a cold and snowy place). Then we will work with them during their preparation and accompany them on their training events before they report to the mobilization station.

Then, during their stay at the mob station, we will be with them every day, monitoring their training, assisting them with their weapons and equipment issues, scheduling re-training and getting them all cleared medically. Before they make the trip to war, it is our job to ensure that the unit, as well as each individual soldier, is validated on every task they must perform and every mission they will execute.

When we say farewell to these soldiers, it will be time for me to begin my terminal leave before retirement. They will begin one of the most important journeys in their lives just as one of my own long journeys comes to an end. (The above picture is then-Lieutenant Grist in Vietnam in 1971.)

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Farewell and Godspeed Major General Sandy Davidson

During my tour in Iraq in 2004, I was the sergeant-in-charge or NCOIC of the protective service detail (PSD) for then-Brigadier General Charles “Sandy” Davidson (shown above in northern Iraq in July, 2004).

Along with the other members of the C.O.B.R.A. Team (Staff Sergeant Aaron Self, Sergeant Chad Higginbotham and Sergeant John Actis II), I was honored to protect the general during hundreds of convoys as well as during journeys to different parts of Iraq.

Upon his return from Iraq in late 2004, Sandy Davidson continued his active service and completed another overseas assignment in Pakistan. After he was selected for promotion to major general and assigned to Central Command, he began a fierce battle against the greatest enemy of his life.

Major General Davidson fought cancer with the same determination, courage and dignity with which he faced America’s enemies, but his last defensive position was finally overcome and he passed away on February 7, 2008.

He will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

* * * *

On February 17, 2004, less than two weeks after our arrival in Baghdad, we escorted the general to Tikrit for a briefing on the attack that resulted in our first soldier killed in action, PFC Nichole M. Frye. Frye was killed when an IED detonated next to her Humvee.

I later wrote about this trip which was my first chance to see Sandy Davidson in action:

"Actis and I were present during the briefing in Tikrit. Afterwards, General Davidson spoke to the officers and soldiers present. The general was visibly moved as he gave his deepest condolences for the loss of PFC Frye. He said the unit did everything it could to avoid casualties and the soldiers reacted as they were trained, but sometimes, in war, there was just nothing you could do.

I was still getting to know the general, but I was already impressed with his compassion and how much he cared about his troops."

* * * *

General Davidson got a kick out of the fact that I had been an officer during my Vietnam years, but that I returned to the Army as a sergeant. We sometimes joked about how different our relationship might have been had I continued my officer career. I later wrote the following:

"Some two years and three months after I graduated from Infantry Officer Candidate School, Charles (Sandy) Davidson completed the same course. Like me, he was commissioned in the infantry. Unlike me, he made something of his military career.

Rising through the chain of command, Davidson completed a host of military courses including the Infantry Officer Advanced Course (the one I missed that cost me my commission), the Air Assault Course, Command and General Staff College, the Army War College and many others. His career led him through a long list of command and staff positions in units involved in either training or special operations.

Davidson was mobilized as the Deputy Chief of the Coalition Warfare Branch of the Civil Affairs Task Force of the 352nd Civil Affairs Command during Operation Desert Storm. He earned his own combat infantryman badge while attached to the 5th Special Forces Group. Mobilized again in 1997 as commander of the Tactical Psychological Operations Support Element for the 1st Infantry Division, he served in Bosnia during Operation Joint Guard.

Our 'principal' was a well-educated man who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Wofford College and a Master of Arts in Psychology from the Catholic University. He and his wife, Mary Alice, lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The list of Sandy Davidson’s achievements, training and assignments would merit its own book. By the time Brigadier General Davidson took command of the 350th Civil Affairs Command, he was no novice at command or leadership. Davidson’s responsibilities in Iraq included both the command of the 350th and the duties of the director of civil-military operations for the Multi-National Forces Iraq.

Sandy Davidson walked a distinguished path even before he reached Iraq. As a sergeant it wasn’t my job to get to know him or to become too familiar with my commanding general, but it was impossible not to understand to a small degree what made him tick. I quickly learned to respect him as a leader and to like him as a man.

If I had possessed a little more ambition as a young officer, he would be the one calling me 'sir'. That’s all right; some have it and some don’t. We were both where we were meant to be; he was the dignified general and I was the grumpy old sergeant."

* * * *

Shortly after Iraq’s new leaders assumed the responsibility for their country, one of our journeys with General Davidson took us to the legendary city of Babylon. He was tasked with creating a team that would help protect the most important archeological site on earth.

At one point I noticed the general looking out over the ruins of the ancient city and I later recalled that day:

"I watched General Davidson look out over the desert as he surveyed a land that was a combination of myth, legend and history. As he stood there, it wasn’t hard to imagine Alexander the Great standing in the same place taking in the majesty of Babylon. The two generals came for much different reasons, however.

Alexander came to conquer and rule. Our general and the Coalition came to liberate, nurture and protect. Now that we had given the keys of freedom to the new nation of Iraq, its citizens possessed a great opportunity to create a new modern legend for an ageless land."

* * * *

When America lost Major General Sandy Davidson, it lost one of its most dedicated warriors and devoted citizens. His fellow soldiers lost a leader and friend who will remain an example of the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

When the general stands before the gates to Heaven, he will certainly be met by a new protective service detail of American warriors like PFC Frye who have prepared the way for all of us. I’m sure he knew we would pick up his sword and carry on the fight in the Global War on Terrorism.

Until his fellow warriors, his close friends and his family members can stand at his side once again, it is comforting to know that he will be in the company of heroes.

SFC Chuck Grist
NCOIC
PSD for General Davidson
Operation Iraqi Freedom
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com
TheRangerCop@aol.com

My Last Year in the Army Begins

My third mobilization since 9/11 began on February 1, 2007 and was scheduled to end on January 31, 2008. I decided to allow the Army to extend my active duty until February 1, 2009.

Since I turn 60 on February 28 of that year and must retire from the military, this will be my last year in the Army. The fact is that the military still needs experienced soldiers to mobilize and train the troops that are being shipped off to war.

When this final year ends, I will return to duty at the police department. From that point on, I will work as a cop until it isn’t fun any more. Then I will retire from there as well.

My decision was also based on which organization needed me more right now – the police department or the Army. Although I may be “getting on” in years, I still like a challenge and it feels good to put my experience to the maximum use possible.

All I have to do is read the casualty and after-action reports sent to us from the war zones. Then I look into the faces of the kids we are training and deploying. After everything I have done throughout my life, I believe I am needed more in the Army for the next year.

My employer has been pretty good about supporting me. Whenever there were issues about active duty, we shared information and we resolved them together. I know it is hard on them to have employees remain on active duty during wartime. When I was in Iraq, their support was invaluable and I appreciated it when they stood by me.

I haven’t heard from anyone at the PD since I forwarded my new orders, but I only hope they understand that it is worthwhile to “loan” me out to America during wartime for the purpose of teaching soldiers how to stay alive. It is one way everyone at the department can support the troops, whether or not they support the war.

I looked again at the picture of Nichole M. Frye, the young private in our unit who was killed shortly after our arrival in Iraq in 2004. PFC Frye (promoted to specialist after her death) came through a class I helped teach at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Our class was on how to clear a building, but she was killed when insurgents attacked her un-armored Humvee with an IED.

No matter how much we care and no matter how hard we train them, some of them won’t come home. That fact is causing goose bumps on my arms right now because I care about them as if they were my own kids. Their young fresh faces with the bright smiles go hand-in-hand with the positive attitudes they bring to the Army.

I am so proud of them for their professionalism, their warrior spirit and their willingness to sacrifice everything for all of us.

I simply must do everything I can for as long as I can to make them ready...

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Iranian Boats Should Have Been Destroyed

When Iranian boats approached our ships with threats that “the ships would explode”, such imminent danger to our warships and service members was all our naval commanders needed to send the likely members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to “paradise”.

Dangerous and unpredictable countries like Iran only understand and respect strength. Indecision and a hesitancy to react could very easily be interpreted as weakness. Perceived weakness will only increase the confrontations, not reduce them.

While the warship commanders may possess information we don’t have, it still seems like the appropriate response would have been similar to the photo above.

The Reuters article below talks about the incident:

* * * *

Iranians threatened U.S. ships in Hormuz: Pentagon
Mon Jan 7, 2008 6:54pm EST
By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iranian boats aggressively approached three U.S. Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a main shipping route for Gulf oil, at the weekend and threatened that the ships would explode, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Iran dismissed U.S. concerns about the incident, saying it was a routine contact. But the Pentagon termed the Iranian actions "careless, reckless and potentially hostile" and said Tehran should provide an explanation.

"This is a very volatile area and the risk of an incident escalating is real," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "It is a reminder that there is a very unpredictable government in Tehran."

Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in the Gulf, said five Iranian fast boats moved aggressively toward the U.S. ships in international waters and their actions were "unduly provocative."

"The ships received a radio call that was threatening in nature, to the effect that they were closing on our ships and ... the U.S. ships would explode," Cosgriff told reporters at the Pentagon via videolink from his Bahrain headquarters.

The incident was the latest sign of tension between Washington and Tehran, at odds over a range of issues from Iran's nuclear program to U.S. allegations of Iranian support for terrorism and interference in Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush is due to travel to the Middle East this week on a trip he has said is partly aimed at countering Iranian influence.

Cosgriff said the U.S. Navy believed the Iranian boats belonged to the country's Revolutionary Guard and they were sometimes less than 500 yards (meters) from the U.S. ships.

In October, the United States designated the Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism.

OIL PRICES ROSE

Oil prices briefly rose on the news about the confrontation as dealers weighed the threat to shipments along the key shipping route. Crude futures jumped 49 cents to $98.40 a barrel before slipping back.

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry described the encounter as "ordinary" and said it had been resolved.

"This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once in a while and, after the identification of the two sides, the issue is resolved," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran's official IRNA news agency.

An "informed source" from the naval force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards was quoted by Iranian state television as saying: "There were no out of the ordinary contacts between the Guards' naval force and American ships."

The source said three U.S. naval ships were asked by Guards' vessels "as usual" to identify themselves "which they did and they continued their path.

Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after the Iranian threats a U.S. captain was in the process of ordering sailors to open fire when the Iranian boats moved away.

According to the officials, the radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes."

Cosgriff said two Iranian boats also dropped floating white boxes into the water. He offered no explanation for that move but said the U.S. ships passed the boxes safely.

Cosgriff said the U.S. Navy was very mindful of the damage small craft could do to large ships. Al Qaeda militants killed 17 U.S. sailors when they rammed an explosives-laden boat into the side of the USS Cole, a destroyer, in Aden in 2000.

The incident took place about 0400 GMT Sunday, or late Saturday night in Washington, the officials said. Cosgriff said it was daylight with "decent visibility." The three U.S. ships were the USS Port Royal, USS Hopper and the USS Ingraham.

Last March, Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines in the Gulf and accused them of trespassing into Iranian waters. London maintained they were in Iraqi waters but the Britons were held for almost two weeks.

(Writing by Andrew Gray; Editing by David Storey)

* * * *

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Those Who Stay Behind

Back in 1973, a young Vietnam veteran wasn’t doing a whole lot with his life. He had foolishly blown all the money he saved while overseas and he was drifting from job to job. Twice he tried to return to college, but the drive just wasn’t there. He was being irresponsible, drinking too much and he had no real direction in life.

Then he met a young 18-year-old beauty who stole his heart. On January 5, 1974, she became his wife and a new life began for the ex-soldier. With fresh incentives to spur him on, he finished college and the two of them started a family that would grow to four children, three grand-daughters and one grandson on-the-way.

Today, my wife Debbie and I celebrated our thirty-fourth wedding anniversary. We have enjoyed some successes and endured a few failures. As I have said before, the successes were her inspiration; the failures resulted from my bad choices. Still, our love has endured and our lives still hold great adventures in the years ahead. With the grace of God, I will have many more years to share my life with a woman who has truly become the other half of my soul.

During my tour in Iraq, Debbie held down the fort back here in the States, she survived the multiple hurricanes of 2004 and she remained the anchor of my life. (The above photo shows us the day before I left for Iraq.)

Upon my return from the war, I held her close to me and told her that I would be blessed to walk with her through every day of the rest of our lives.

All over America, wives, children, parents, siblings and others wait for their warriors who are risking it all for the sake of America. We are grateful for the service of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but we can never forget the family members they left behind.

In many ways, they are war veterans, too.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Iraqi Citizens Are Taking Responsibility

"For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."

Quote from the Vietnam War

No citizen can ever really appreciate the value of freedom if they are not willing to defend their own liberty. Most Iraqis have come to understand this and they have learned it through the example and sacrifice of America’s warriors and civilians as well as their own valiant countrymen.

As I sit back at my unit waiting for DFAS (Defense Finance and Accounting Service) to get off their collective asses and pay my multiple travel vouchers, I saw this article in today’s Washington Times:

* * * *

Washington Times
January 2, 2008
Pg. 8

Citizen Forces Seen Key To Driving Out Violence
Deadly attack on mourners points to risk

By Richard Tomkins, Washington Times

BAGHDAD — Ordinary Iraqis helping take responsibility for neighborhood security and earning money while doing so are contributing to hopes for a continued downturn in violence in Baghdad in the new year.

Nevertheless, the year got off to a bloody start yesterday, when a suicide attacker killed at least 32 men gathered in eastern Baghdad to mourn the death of a retired Iraqi army officer, a Shi'ite who was slain last week in a car bombing blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq.

The attack was a reminder of the dangers that persist despite the recent decline of violence in Baghdad and of the peril for any mass gathering in a country where the bereaved often find themselves targets.

Still, the rapid growth of Sunni Muslim forces opposed to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden marked a dramatic turnaround from the abysmal first four years after the U.S. invasion.

In the volatile Adhamiya District of eastern Baghdad, for example, Iraqi Security Volunteers, or ISVs, last month found a large cache of explosives as well as several car bombs and reported them to U.S. and Iraqi army forces. It was the fifth such find for them in just a few weeks.

West of Baghdad, another group of volunteers discovered a large cache of artillery shells through a tip from a local resident.

In the East Rashid area of southeast Baghdad, Sunni volunteers establishing a neighborhood headquarters in a rented house last week found two artillery shells that could have been used to blow up U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

"The ISVs are doing a good and important job," said U.S. Army Capt. Alfred Boone, who is in charge of the ISV project in East Rashid.

"This is a temporary security solution that could lead to these groups going into the Iraqi army or the national police," Capt. Boone said.

The ISVs fall under the general, overall nomenclature of Concerned Local Citizens, a force distrusted in its present state by the Shi'ite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which fears the predominately Sunni volunteers could become a military force outside the control of the government.

The Sunni opposition to al Qaeda began with the so-called "Awakening" movement by Sunni tribal leaders cooperating with U.S. forces in Anbar province west of Baghdad.

President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus, architect of the counterinsurgency strategy now being followed in Iraq, credit the movement with being a major factor in the drop in violence nationwide and in pushing al Qaeda out of its strongholds.

A cornerstone of the strategy, which includes the surge of U.S. forces into Baghdad, is securing neighborhoods from a return of terrorists once the terrorists are driven out.

That means boots on the ground in the communities, or in this case, shoes and sandals.

"The fact is concerned local citizens are helping provide security," Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, chief of strategy and plans and strategic communications for U.S.-led forces, told reporters recently.

"Without it, [al Qaeda in Iraq] would move back into these areas if we didn't have our forces there," Col. Bacon said.

In East Rashid, part of the larger Dora District of Baghdad, more than 200 men turned up recently at St. Peter's Chaldean Catholic Seminary on the first day of recruiting for just 135 ISV slots.

One by one, they were called forward, presented with identity documents and questioned by Iraqi interpreters who registered their information. They were then fingerprinted by a team of Americans, who also photographed them and took biometric information, such as retina scans, for entry into a new database and for cross-referencing.

"I don't have a job," said Hazem Abdullah Ali, a middle-aged recruit. "I need the job. And I want to help bring peace."

Volunteers for the U.S.-Iraqi funded program are paid $10 a day and use their own weapons. Under Iraqi law, each household is allowed to possess one AK-47 rifle.

* * * *

We must stand beside the Iraqis who have the courage to step forward and face the brutality of the terrorists. These brave individuals want lasting peace and permanent security for their families and their communities.

It is our responsibility to finish what we started and to make sure that the sacrifices of our warriors have not been in vain.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Check out "Weaponology 2" on the Military Channel

I became an Army Ranger in June, 1970 (Ranger class 13-70) while stationed at what was then the “Ranger Department” at Fort Benning. At the time there wasn’t a Ranger Regiment and the only active Rangers were either with me at the Army’s Ranger School, assigned to one of the Army’s regular or airborne units or serving in one of the Ranger Companies in Vietnam.

Although I didn’t serve with those legendary Ranger units (I was a platoon leader with the First “Air” Cav), my Ranger training helped me adapt to the brutal war in Vietnam. With the mentoring of a couple of excellent sergeants, then-Lieutenant Grist began his real education in the craft of war.

Remembering the lessons of some of history’s famous Rangers like Major Robert Rogers of the legendary Roger’s Rangers of the mid-1700s, I learned to read the signs left by the enemy on jungle trails (“trotters” as we referred to them). My sergeants also taught me the art of locating bunker complexes, how to recognizing the smell of the enemy (which is determined by both heritage and diet), the necessity of thinking like a warrior every minute of every day and many, many other things that helped ensure our survival in combat.

I'm nothing special - just an old soldier who’s been around long enough to have served in both Vietnam and Iraq. There are untold numbers of others who have served in more wars and who endured many more horrible experiences than me. I have known or talked to many of these soldiers and I am awed by their courage and sacrifice.

Over the last year, I’ve discovered that participating in the world of blogging opens doors to many parts of the world. Emails from various countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East have inspired me to continue to write about the War on Terror. Veterans and active members of our military and the military of other nations have written to share experiences or give support to our troops.

One of the emails came from a British production company that films the series "Weaponology" which can be viewed on the Military Channel. They were filming the second season of this program, Weaponology 2, which would focus on the various special operations forces throughout the world. One program was about the Army Rangers. I guess they couldn’t believe an old Ranger from the 1970s was still serving in the Army.

When this company asked to interview me, I had to go through my chain of command in the First Army all the way to the commanding general, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, to get permission for these guys to talk to me. The interview finally took place at the Orlando reserve center and the Army Ranger program first aired on December 18th.

So if you happen to watch this program on the Military Channel and you see a few segments with some old soldier named Grist – yeah, it is this old Vietnam/Iraq war veteran. (The above photo is me in Vietnam in 1970.)

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Another Christmas at War

Christmas at war is a lonely and sobering experience. The above photo shows part of the “Soldier’s Tree” my wife Debbie created. It is covered with red, white and blue lights and dozens of patriotic ornaments of all kinds. She put this tree together the Christmas before I went to Iraq. She has kept the tradition going and displays it every year.

The following tells about my own Christmas Eve in Vietnam in 1970:

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During the Christmas season of 1970, one of my squad leaders and I hitched a ride on a Vietnamese vegetable truck back to the Bien Hoa army base so we could watch the Bob Hope Christmas Show. Afterwards we hopped on a helicopter for a quick flight to the brigade headquarters at a firebase near Xuan Loc.

We were playing cards on this particular holiday night, drinking a lot of beer and feeling somewhat melancholy when we heard mortar rounds begin to hit the firebase. We were reminded that another soldier was recently wounded by a mortar only a few feet from our tent and the hole was still in the ground.

We looked at each other and someone said “Should we take shelter?” Almost in unison we said “Nah…” and continued to play cards. The explosions from the mortars stopped shortly thereafter.

I decided to take a break, so I walked to the bunker line along the perimeter. It was dark and I looked up at the moon and the stars as I thought about my family back in Orlando and how they must be enjoying the holidays.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of weapons firing near a local village in the valley below. When I looked into the dark valley, I saw tracer rounds arching into the sky. I recognized the red tracers of the friendly troops, but then I saw the green tracers of the enemy being fired in the opposite direction.

I don’t know why it struck me as funny (sick, war-time G.I. humor, I guess), but I realized that the tracers being fired by each side were the Christmas colors of red and green. All that could be seen in the darkness of the valley were the colored tracers as they crossed each other’s path.

For no particular reason, I softly sang, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…”

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Soldiers never forget where they were during their Christmas in a war zone – no matter how many decades pass.

Merry Christmas to our warriors throughout the world; may they pass the season and their tours in safety and return to their families as soon as possible.

And may God continue to bless the United States of America.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Headed to War

After watching the unit train for months, we finally bid them farewell. They boarded their aircraft and flew away, going to a war that started before some of them even graduated from high school. (The above photo is my unit leaving for Iraq in 2004.)

I stood by the gate as they filed through and I shook hands with every single one of them: The officers, the sergeants and the young men and women they lead. Looking them in the eyes as I have so often over the years, it is impossible not to think the unthinkable.

There is that terrible chance some of them won’t come home. Because we are the ones who trained and prepared them for man’s most horrible game, we will track them carefully during their deployment. They know they can still call on us by phone, email or “snail” mail. If they need us, we will still try to help them, even from here, but their leadership is strong and they will do just fine.

We must have faith that we gave them the tools, the training and the leaders to fight their war. Fortunately, many of their officers and sergeants have already been to war – some more than once. They have the experience to mentor those wide-eyed youngsters who will set foot into their first war zone and face a dedicated, ruthless enemy.

May God bless and protect these warriors and may He safeguard their families at home.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Al Sadr's Quest for Power in Iraq

My “series” of posts on Muqtada al Sadr and the Mahdi Army continues.

Al Sadr may be trying to position himself in order to eventually declare that he is the “Mahdi” or “the guided one”. According to many fundamentalists, this individual will appear when Muslims are being oppressed throughout the world. The Mahdi will make war against those who are deemed to be oppressors. All Muslims will be joined together in peace and justice and the Mahdi will rule over all Arabs. According to believers, the Mahdi will even pray at Mecca with Jesus (“Isa” in the Quran).

Although Muqtada’s father was a high-ranking ayatollah, Muqtada has not even completed his formal religious training. This article talks about his quest for Islamic credentials:

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Iraq cleric Sadr eyes higher religious credentials

Reuters: December 14, 2007

KUFA, Iraq: Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is taking advanced Islamic studies in a bid to earn credentials that would allow him to issue religious decrees, a top aide to the young firebrand said on Friday.

Some senior figures in the Shi'ite clerical establishment view Sadr, who commands the feared Mehdi Army militia and has a bloc of legislators in parliament, as an upstart given his lack of scholarly achievement.

The anti-American cleric has a strong following among poor, urban Shi'ites across Iraq. Attaining higher religious credentials would likely enhance the influence of Sadr among majority Shi'ites, engaged in a power struggle for influence in the oil-rich south as foreign troops scale down their presence.

Senior aide Salah al-Ubaidi, speaking in the southern town of Kufa near the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, said Sadr was looking to gain the title of "Marji", a term used for a cleric who is qualified to make religious decisions for his followers.

"Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr is studying the Hawza like any other Shi'ite student who aims to reach the level of Ijtihad," Ubaidi told Reuters, referring to a term that describes a level that allows someone to issue religious decrees or "fatwas".

He said Sadr, who is believed to be in his 30s, was studying at Najaf, adding it was unclear how long it would take the cleric the achieve the credentials, but the process normally takes years.

Sadr's followers currently have to seek guidance on religious issues from clerics who have the necessary qualifications.

If Sadr succeeds, he could earn more respect from top Shi'ite clerics who have been unsettled by his rising following, which they believe stems from his respected father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, who was killed by suspected agents of Saddam Hussein along with two of his sons in 1999.

Ubaidi denied Sadr was developing his religious stature to push for more influence in mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq, a region rich in oil reserves.

"He has no interest in public funds," Ubaidi said.

Sadr's main mass movement Shi'ite rival is the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), headed by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.

Hakim also built his reputation partly through his father Muhsin al-Hakim, one of the most prominent Shi'ite scholars of recent times. But Abdel Aziz al-Hakim has a closer relationship to traditional clerics at the top of the hierarchy than Sadr.

Sadr, who led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, froze the activities of the Mehdi Army for six months in late August after some of his followers were blamed for sparking intra-Shi'ite violence at a major religious ceremony.

The U.S. military has welcomed the ceasefire and said it has helped bring down violence in Iraq.

Sadr has vowed to reorganise his militia and root out rebellious elements who are ignoring his commands and taking the law into their own hands.

(Reporting by Khaled Farhan in Najaf; writing by Mussab Al- Khairalla in Baghdad, Editing by Dean Yates and Ibon Villelabeitia)

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We must remember that the future of Iraq will ultimately be determined by Iraqis, not America and its Coalition partners.

Since Arabs have a history of following charismatic religious leaders, we should always look at the fundamentalist Islamic leaders who may be trying to position themselves as the “voice” of Islam. There are quite a few of these potential “wannabe Mahdis” including al Sadr, Osama bin Laden and the religious leaders in Iran.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com