tha mom

I haven't talked to my PFC. all week. He's in hmmm... what did he called it now....I think he called it field operations or manuvers. I teased him because he said when they goota go they either go to a bush for #1 or dig a hole in the ground for #2!!! I teased him about not being able to sit and read the paper. LOL! Since there is no ocean or water for him to drive the amphibius assult vehicles, I wonder if he will be considered infatry? Anyone have answers for me? When he calls we get to talking about everything except the questions I think of, but I suppose it works out best for him to talk about things here at home instead of what he does everyday.

Ndnsoldierboy

No, he is still an AMTRAC Marine...if he was infantry he would be on some foot patrol more than likely. There is alot of water over Iraq though. There are 2 big rivers and canals are all over the place.

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Ndnsoldierboy

As of today: Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4765

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tha mom

Howdy dudies! I sent a quart of huckleberries that I canned to my PFC. in North Carolina. The bottomless pit ate the whole thing by the next day!! He said he bought some ice cream and ate the berries on top of the ice cream. Poor homesick son said he could smell the mountains as he wolfed down the berries. So now I've been busy drying corn, and putting up other foods for him to eat when he comes home before he get send overseas. He said for me to tell his uncles he wants to go hunting at least once before he leaves. Put his sharpshooter medal to work. LOL

Ndnsoldierboy

Choctaw code talkers finally recognized

By Ron Jenkins - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Oct 18, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY — Tewanna Edwards remembers her late great-uncle as a gentle old man who fed her raisins and laughed as she grimaced while eating them.

She had no idea as a child that the 6-foot-3 Choctaw Indian was one of the first American Indian code talkers.

He was among 18 original Choctaw code talkers who never lived to see public recognition of their war deeds. Legislation signed by President Bush last week authorizes congressional medals to be issued to the Choctaw Nation and family members.

The law also recognizes members of Oklahoma’s Comanche Tribe and other code talkers of World War II from tribes across the country.

Code talkers is a term given to Indians who used words from their native languages to transmit strategic messages from the American military in the two world wars. Their work is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives and shortening both wars.

The Choctaws used words like “tali,” their word for stone, to describe a grenade; “ittibbi,” which meant “fight,” used when they needed to warn of an attack, and “iti tanamp,” their word for bow, used to describe a “company.”

The enemy never deciphered the code and the Choctaws laid the groundwork for the U.S. military using Indians for communications in other conflicts.

They include the Navajos of the southwestern part of the country, whose actions during WW II were portrayed in the 2002 movie, “Windtalkers,” starring Nicolas Cage. They were authorized to be recognized through congressional medals in 2001.

For descendants of the original Choctaw code talkers, also being honored by congressional medals is recognition long overdue.

They point out that the young Choctaws enlisted in the military to fight for their country in 1918, even though they had yet to be given the right to become U.S. citizens.

After war, they were told to keep their communication techniques secret, so they could be used again.

Tewanna Edwards, who lives in Shawnee, Okla., about 35 miles west of Oklahoma City, did not find out her uncle was a code talker until she was in her 20s.

“I was shocked,” said Edwards. “He never talked about it. They were sworn to secrecy. He wrote a diary when he was in the trenches in World War I and never mentioned being a code talker using the Choctaw language.”

At the time, she said, she could not mentally link the cruel war with her jovial uncle, the large man in his 70s, who liked to sit in his rocking chair, watch Tarzan movies with her when she was 8 years old and laugh when she choked down raisins.

“To me, he was kind of like Santa Claus. He just radiated warmth,” she said.

Nuchi Nashoba, who lives in Blanchard, about 40 miles south of Oklahoma City, never met her great-grandfather, Choctaw code talker Ben Carterby, who died two weeks before she was born.

“But granny always kept a picture of grandpa in the house. He was in military uniform.”

She says she researched history of the code talkers as a young adult and came to realize the significance of their war effort.

“I have a lot of pride knowing my grandfather was in the war and helped fight for this country,” she said.

Clarence Wolf Guts, a member of the Sioux Nation from South Dakota, is believed to be the last surviving code talker from WWII, according to Judy Allen, public relations director for the Choctaw Nation.

Under the Code Talkers Recognition Act, a congressional gold medal will be designed in honor of the 18 original Choctaws and their families will get duplicate silver medals. Also, bronze duplicates will be sold by the U.S. Mint.

Besides Leader and Carterby, other original code talkers were Albert Billy, Mitchell Bobb, Victor Brown, George Davenport, Joseph Davenport, James Edwards, Tobias Frazier, Benjamin Hampton, Noel Johnson, Solomon Louis, Pete Maytubby, Jeff Nelson, Joseph Oklahombi, Robert Taylor, Walter Veach and Calvin Wilson.

The legislation honoring them was introduced in the House in 2007 by Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., who gathered up 300 co-sponsors. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., sponsored a Senate companion measure. Both passed the Senate with ease.

The Choctaws, members of Army’s 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, have been deceased a long time, but their war acts have become a part of the consciousness of their descendants and tribal members.

“Our people, they are very quiet, but the honor is so important, to have their heroes finally recognized,” said Gregory Pyle, chief of the Choctaw Nation.

Allen, who has done extensive research on code talkers, said the Choctaws came into existence in 1918 at a time U.S. forces were in France and suffering a string of defeats at the hands of enemy forces.

“The Germans were tapping into our phone lines and were experts at decoding our messages. They knew where our ammunition dumps were; they knew where our troops were. We couldn’t make a move without the German Army knowing about it.

“A commanding officer happened to walk by two Choctaw men speaking in our native language. It was as if a light bulb went off in his head,” Allen said.

What was unique about the Choctaw code talkers, Pyle said, is that “they died with secrets that were never really revealed” in their lifetime so Indian code talkers could be used in future wars, such as World War II.

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Ndnsoldierboy

Suspected US strike kills Pakistan Taliban chief

Suspected U.S. Missile Strike in Pakistan ABC News PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A Taliban commander and at least 15 others died in a suspected US missile strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.

The attack came hours before officials and tribal leaders from both countries met in Islamabad to discuss how to counter the growing threat from Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists holed up along the porous frontier.

It was the latest in a series of strikes on Pakistani soil which have raised tensions between Washington and key ally Islamabad since a new government took power in March.

Officials said Haji Omar Khan, a lieutenant of veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, died in the incident in the lawless South Waziristan area on Sunday.

"The death toll has gone up to 16 as six more bodies have been recovered from the site. Senior Taliban commander Haji Omar died in the strike," local administration official Mawaz Khan told AFP.

Two lower-level Taliban commanders from neighbouring North Waziristan tribal district, identified only as Waheedullah and Nasrullah, were among those killed, security officials and residents in that area said.

They had gone to meet Omar at his camp, along with five militants from North Waziristan who also died. The others killed were mainly guards of the commanders.

US and Afghan officials have pinpointed Pakistan's tribal belt as a "safe haven" where militants have regrouped and allied with local tribesmen after fleeing the 2001 US-led toppling of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Khan, a member of Pakistan's feared Wazir tribe, was active in attacks on US-led and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan, local residents and security officials said.

He was a cousin of late Taliban commander Nek Mohammed, who was killed in 2004 in one of the first apparent US missile strikes in the region.

"Omar was sending fighters into Afghanistan and commanded them in several outings. He did not have any political affiliations and was linked to Haqqani," a security official said on condition of anonymity.

Sunday's strike was the 12th such incident in the past 10 weeks, all of which have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.

Many have targeted militants who, like Khan, were close to Haqqani, increasingly seen in Washington as one of the prime movers behind the escalating unrest in Afghanistan.

A religious school operated by Haqqani was targeted in another suspected US missile strike last Thursday, killing 11 people.

Haqqani was one of the most prominent Afghan commanders who fought the Soviet Red Army between 1978 and 1989. He became close to Mullah Omar, the leader of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The strike came as the New York Times reported that Washington is refraining from using its special forces on Pakistani territory following a September 3 raid that resulted in civilian casualties and vehement protests from Islamabad.

According to The New York Times, Pakistani national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani made an unannounced visit to Washington and voiced his country's anger in person to top White House officials.

Pakistan's upper house of parliament passed a unanimous resolution saying it "strongly condemned the missile attacks by US drones in Pakistani territory resulting in immense loss of life".

"The Senate calls upon the government to convey Pakistan's strong protest to the US" and NATO-led force in Afghanistan and seek assurances for "full respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," it said.

Such attacks are "most unfortunate" and constitute a "gross violation of our national sovereignty and territory," it went on.

Afghan and Pakistani officials held a "mini-jirga" to find a solution amid recent speculation about talks between the Afghan government and remnants of the Taliban.

The two-day meeting is a smaller follow-up to a traditional "jirga" or tribal meeting held between the two feuding neighbours in August 2007.

"Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are faced with terrorism and together they need to face the challenge," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at the start of the session.

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Ndnsoldierboy

Gunfire brings down US helicopter in Afghanistan


Insurgents exchanged fire with U.S. troops aboard a Black Hawk helicopter in central Afghanistan on Monday before the aircraft was hit and forced to land. The crew was rescued, but in the north a suicide bomber killed two U.S. soldiers.

Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman, said there were no U.S. casualties as a result of the crash in a province neighboring Kabul.

"The helicopter crew exchanged fire with the enemy before the damage brought the helicopter down," Matthews said.

At least four militants were killed in the exchange, said Fazel Karim Muslim, the chief of Sayed Abad district.

Another helicopter hovered as the U.S. troops secured the area around the downed chopper, which didn't appear to sustain major damage, Muslim said.

The U.S. and other foreign forces rely heavily on helicopters for transportation around Afghanistan, which is covered by rough mountains and long stretches of desert and has few decent roads. Insurgents rarely bring down military helicopters, though they have hit several in recent years.

Wardak province has seen an increase in insurgent activity the last two years, and its main highway is now extremely risky to travel on, particularly at night. In mid-October, a U.S. Special Forces raid freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers who had been held captive in Wardak for two months.

Also Monday, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up at a police station in northern Afghanistan, killing two American soldiers and wounding five other people, including an American, officials said.

The bomber entered a police station in Pul-e-Khumri, capital of Baghlan province, while Afghan officials were meeting with U.S. troops advising a police training program, provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Sayed Kheil said.

The blast killed two American soldiers who had been beside a beige Humvee, AP Television News footage of the blast scene showed.

It was not immediately clear if the bomber was a policeman or just wearing the police uniform.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the blast in a phone call to an Associated Press reporter. Mujahid said the bomber's name was Abdul Had and that he was from Baghlan province.

Militants in Afghanistan have in the past disguised themselves in police or army uniforms when attacking Afghan and foreign troops. But actual policemen in the Afghan force were responsible for at least two recent attacks in eastern Afghanistan in which two U.S. soldiers died after police opened fire on them.

More U.S. and NATO troops have died this year in Afghanistan than any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.

But NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, said he is tired of negative headlines and what he sees as a wave of unwarranted pessimism in news reports.

"Somebody likes to report an attack somewhere and that becomes the trend in Afghanistan, or they don't report the positive events or the absolute brutality or the illegitimacy of the Taliban," McKiernan told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

"What happens sometimes in reporting is that there's this idea that the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, or after Sarposa (a massive June prison break) they're about ready to take control of Kandahar, or they're resurgent in Uruzgan or Helmand, and it's just not true," he said.

McKiernan, who took command of the NATO mission here in June, has acknowledged that the country lacks security and governance in many regions but concluded in a recent news conference that "we are not losing Afghanistan."

Elsewhere, the Interior Ministry said Taliban militants kidnapped 17 road construction workers in Kunar province on Sunday. The ministry said the kidnappers were gunmen for a Mullah Nasrullah. Three of the workers had already been released, it said. Kidnappings by militants and criminal groups seeking ransom is a growing problem in Afghanistan.

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Ann111

Thanks for the great news about the codetalkers being given their long awaited medals and recognition of the what they have done. This is long overdue and it goes to so many well deserving men. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families.

This is a picture of the Choctaw codetalkers:
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...odetalkers.jpg

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Beauty comes in all colors.:shades_sm

50cal

BIRTHDAY BALL SCAM
A 26-year-old former Ma­rine was arrested in Delaware after going door to door selling fraudulent raffle tickets for the Marine Corps Ball, local police said Oct. 27.
Marcus K. Jackson Jr., of Dover, Del., faces 18 counts of criminal impersonation and 17 counts of theft by false pretense.
According to court records, when an officer searched Jackson, who was dressed in his old Marine Corps uni­form, he found generic raffle tickets with various names and telephone numbers.
An investigation revealed that Jackson was “other than honorably discharged in April.” Police said he sold $120 in fake raffle tickets to 17 people.
BERKELEY PROTESTS WANE
CodePink, the organiza­tion known for its protests against the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Berkeley Calif., is closing its East Bay location because of financial constraints, ac­cording to a report in the Oakland Tribune.
The office is “very hard to maintain in this economic climate,” CodePink’s Zanne Sam Joi told the Tribune.
“It’s too much of a financial strain.” For more than a year, women from CodePink have been picketing weekly in front of the Marine re­cruiting center in down­town Berkeley. They believe the Marines are not wel­come in liberal, anti-war Berkeley.
In January, the Berkeley City Council got involved, calling the Marines “unin­vited and unwelcome in­truders,” the newspaper said. City officials granted CodePink a permit waiver and a free parking space in front of the recruiting cen­ter for the weekly protests.
CodePink’s weekly Wednesday protests, which sometimes attracted dozens, have dwindled to just a few people lately.
Critics suspect closing CodePink’s Solano Avenue office will end the protests entirely, the Tribune reported.
“The fact of the matter is they are out of money.
CodePink is running red,” Melanie Morgan, head of Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, told the news­paper. “It really is amusing that they said they would sit there every day until they ran the Marines out of town, and yet they are the ones closing their doors.”

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"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"

Ndnsoldierboy

BERKELEY PROTESTS WANE
CodePink, the organiza*tion known for its protests against the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Berkeley Calif., is closing its East Bay location because of financial constraints, ac*cording to a report in the Oakland Tribune.
The office is “very hard to maintain in this economic climate,” CodePink’s Zanne Sam Joi told the Tribune.
“It’s too much of a financial strain.” For more than a year, women from CodePink have been picketing weekly in front of the Marine re*cruiting center in down*town Berkeley. They believe the Marines are not wel*come in liberal, anti-war Berkeley.
In January, the Berkeley City Council got involved, calling the Marines “unin*vited and unwelcome in*truders,” the newspaper said. City officials granted CodePink a permit waiver and a free parking space in front of the recruiting cen*ter for the weekly protests.
CodePink’s weekly Wednesday protests, which sometimes attracted dozens, have dwindled to just a few people lately.
Critics suspect closing CodePink’s Solano Avenue office will end the protests entirely, the Tribune reported.
“The fact of the matter is they are out of money.
CodePink is running red,” Melanie Morgan, head of Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, told the news*paper. “It really is amusing that they said they would sit there every day until they ran the Marines out of town, and yet they are the ones closing their doors.”[/quote]



good...now they can go suck a ****.


Watched those morons on youtube awhile back.......loved it when they came up against the Cuban exiles in Miami. They got a rude awakening from them .

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50cal