The Cool Blue Blog

Major Orlando Ortega

Major Orlando Ortega was responsible for leading approximately 200 soldiers in Iraq as the commander of G Battery 202 Air Defense Artillery.

He led his unit to conduct more than 650 missions in different parts of Iraq without losing any soldiers. This was no small feat, and Ortega will be the first to say that you can never become too comfortable.

Sept. 15, 2004, was a perfect case in point. The day started as a 'routine' reconnaissance mission, and ended with two roadside bombs and ground combat operations against enemy forces that earned Ortega the Bronze Star with Valor.

"During this time (that he was in Iraq), the main routes were being heavily targeted by insurgents," says Ortega as he begins recounting the incident.

The 7 a.m. mission for the six vehicle convoy and 30 soldiers was to recon new routes to move the brigade south to Kuwait in the upcoming year.

"It took 17 hours from start to finish with several stops to refuel. The trip south towards Kuwait was very long with few a roadside bombs and sniper attacks," Ortega continued.

"The return trip was a different story, we were southeast of Baghdad returning to our forward operating base in the north. A loud roadside bomb exploded and my vehicle stopped," Ortega continued. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. Immediately, I checked my legs to ensure they were intact."

"My driver was slumped over the steering wheel and the passengers in the rear were stunned. We received small arms fire from the second and third floor of a building on our right."

When asked about the condition of his troops, Ortega said no one was seriously injured. Everyone was just stunned by the impact. When they got their bearings, they discovered they were in a kill zone and 7-10 insurgents armed with AK47 were in and around a three-story building.

Still in the midst of the kill zone, Ortega guided the convoy forward about 100-150 meters. Then the insurgents attacked the last vehicle of the convoy as their target

"After a split second of weighing my options I decided to conduct a counter attack," said Ortega. "It was an extremely difficult decision to make knowing the threat to my soldiers' lives."

However, the last vehicle was being pounded, even though they persevered returning fire.

Once clear of the ambush site, Ortega successfully led the convoy in two counter-attacks, each time employing accurate and deadly fire as he maneuvered the convoy to engage the enemy.

According to the award citation, Ortega "successfully defeated the anti-Iraqi forces with no friendly casualties or major equipment damage."

"Within 48 hours my soldiers were back on new missions. Incidents like this one occur every day in Iraq but go untold," concluded Ortega.

His heroism and dedication to his fellow soldiers on the battlefield upholds the finest traditions of military service, the citation reads.

Reflecting on his troops, Ortega said, "The U.S. should be proud of the soldiers that defend our country every day

Energy, Education, and Health

During President Obama's address to the joint session of congress, he let us know that in addition to addressing the economy, his administration will be focusing on three themes for his first term as President: Energy, Education and Health Care.

Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.  That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

And he makes good arguments as to why he picked these three

We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy.  Yet we import more oil today than ever before.  The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform.  Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for.  And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before...

The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit.  That is our responsibility.

I can get behind these goals. I agree that these are issues we need to be focusing on.

Now clearly I have my own requirements for these things and I can not tell from his address what precisely he intends to do.

For Health Care, the problem to me is not how we pay but what we pay. I am not so interested in shifting the cost of health care from me to government as much as I am interested is stemming the cost of health care. We must find ways of making health care affordable for people. It will do not good if Government takes over health care but the cost to me continues to increase.

And for me, there are other better reasons to keep health care out of the hands of Government, but again, to me, the underlying issue is the cost and we should be focusing on what we can do to reduce that cost.

And it seems the President and I agree on this

...we must also address the crushing cost of health care.   

This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds.  By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.  In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages.  And in each of these years, one million more Americans have lost their health insurance.  It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas.  And it’s one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget. 

Given these facts, we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold.

With regards to Education the President addressed the problem

In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a pre-requisite.    

Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma.  And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education.  We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation.  And half of the students who begin college never finish. 

This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.

All of this is true. And I agree with this

But we know that our schools don’t just need more resources.  They need more reform.  That is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success.  We’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps.  And we will expand our commitment to charter schools. 

I noticed that this last did not get a lot of applause from the Democratic side.

I also liked his challenge to the American people

But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it.  And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training.  This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.  But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.  And dropping out of high school is no longer an option.  It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American.

This is every bit as bold and idealistic as President's Bush drive to bring Democracy to the world.

And I like it.

But one of the problems right now is that like Health Care, the cost of a college education is way out of control. More, it is way more cost than benefit at least with regards to an individuals earning power vs the debt they incur. So to my mind this needs to be worked on.

And again, like health care, we don't necessarily need to have government pay for this as the President implied

...it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career....

That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal:  by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

So how to do that? How do we pay for that on top of the spending we have already incurred? Again, it's not how we pay for an education it how much we pay. It will do no good if Government takes over paying because the cost of education will just go up if other cost reforms are not put in place.

But again I agree with the President when he said

I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education.  And to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations, I ask this Congress to send me the bipartisan legislation that bears the name of Senator Orrin Hatch as well as an American who has never stopped asking what he can do for his country – Senator Edward Kennedy.

And on Energy. I am in full agreement that Energy is a national security issue among other things. And I am all for using "stimulus" funds to enhance our energy delivery systems.

...we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.  We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology. 

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country.  And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

And I further agree that we have to do more than just make renewables available; we also have to make them cost effective.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.

To me, though, since we have no idea how long that will take, we need to develop domestic sources of energy in the form of exploiting American oil and oil shale as well as investing in nuclear power.

It just makes sense. Europe is reinvigorating their nuclear industry, we should as well.

Finally I was glad to hear that he has not neglected our armed forces

As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy. To each and every one of them, and to the families who bear the quiet burden of their absence, Americans are united in sending one message: we honor your service, we are inspired by your sacrifice, and you have our unyielding support.  To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.

And I also think it is good and right that we put the cost of the wars in the budget, not off-budget as President Bush did. I understand why he did, but I think this is better.

President Obama gave a optimistic and hopeful speech that did not dismiss our current problems. And I think he is addressing serious issues that have been neglected for far too long.

He has promised entitlement reform both  with respect to welfare and Social Security and Medicare. These are also needed.

But I suspect he will have as much trouble with his own party in enacting his agenda as he will with the Republicans.

I wish him luck in general but I also reserve the right to criticize the implementation....

Tax and Spend II

President Obama is having a summit today in order to come up with ways to reduce the enormous deficit he and the Democratic Congress are running up.

Now that his $787 billion stimulus bill is law, President Obama plans to spend this week promoting a budget plan designed to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term.

His first term, huh? Four years, huh?

Well let's see, first let's identify the magnitude of the problem

Obama said, "We will need to do everything in the short term to get our economy moving again, while at the same time recognizing that we have inherited a trillion-dollar deficit, and we need to begin restoring fiscal discipline and taming our exploding deficits over the long term."

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that the administration pegs the current deficit at $1.3 trillion, or 9.2% of the overall economy, and projects that in four years the deficit will be down to $533 billion, or 3% of the economy as measured by the gross domestic product.

But wait, the 1.3 Trillion Dollars of inherited debt is not the whole story

...the $1.3 [trillion] figure doesn’t include the nearly $800 billion in stimulus spending or the $275 billion to forestall mortgage defaults or war costs for FY2009 or whatever TARP 2 costs, so the actual deficit figure (assuming revenue projections are good, which they likely aren’t) is somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 [trillion] at a bare minimum.

So we are talking probably double the deficit when all is said and done.

Is Obama saying he is going to reduce the deficit down to the $1.3 trillion he started with? Or is he saying he is going to end his first term in the neighborhood of $1.9 trillion in deficit spending?

I'm not sure.

But one thing I am sure of is that there will be tax increases.

Obama's 2010 budget includes plans for defense cuts — including a rollback of the Iraq war — and ending the Bush administration's high-income tax cuts, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

So tax increases are a given but is he really going to cut defense spending as well?

In the middle of a war?

But I thought part of the problem was that our military was stretched too thin?

How many more stereotypes of Democrats can they fulfill in the first 30 days of an all Democratic government?

-Massive increase in spending - check
-Increased taxes - check
-Weak on Defense - check

How about Social Security?

President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and other priorities.

So maybe tax and spend should be it's own category on my blog, because until things change in Washington, I suspect there will be more and more instances of this in our future.

At least the next two years.

Then we'll see what people want America to be. I know what they say they want it to be. But elections don't lie. Politicians may misrepresent themselves and that may work for an election cycle.

But in the end, American's will get the Government they generally want.

So we'll see what they really want come 2010.

Tech. Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock

It's 1 p.m., Aug. 16, 2006, on a white-hot highway 70 miles west of Baghdad. One soldier is down after being hit by a sniper, and bullets kick up dust a few yards from Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock. "Cover me!" he yells to a U.S. gunner. Adrenaline floods his body, and he runs as fast as he can, faster than he thought possible, to get even closer to the action. Armed with a Nikon digital camera, Lock starts shooting - photographs.

Lock photographed soldiers crouching behind cars as bullets whizzed in from a field. He turned his lens toward the soldiers tending to the fallen GI. Lock saw they needed a hand. He picked up the wounded soldier's M-4 rifle and provided cover until the GI was pulled to safety. Lock then switched back to his camera. The wounded soldier survived.

It was this battle and Lock's ability to switch from photographer to fighter in a split second without thought that earned him a Bronze Star. As a 15-year Air Force photographer that is assigned to the 1st Combat Camera Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, he routinely braves bullets and bombs to tell the military's story through the lenses of his Nikon cameras. He has photographed U.S. servicemembers in action during multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has participated in more than 90 missions occurring 'outside the wire' resulting in more than 2,350 of the highest quality still images that are used to record history.

Combat photographers are generally paired with military combat videographers and are embedded with units. They accompany those units as they perform their missions.

One of Lock's most poignant photos among his award winning portfolio was taken in Iraq in August 2006. The image depicts a grimacing Iraqi citizen lying in a Ramadi street. He had been caught in the middle of a firefight between U.S. troops and insurgents, according to Lock.

"We really don't know who shot him," Lock recalled. "We did a traffic control stop, and right before we mounted up, one of our soldiers took a bullet to the back and we got into a gunfight. After searching houses, this guy was found lying wounded on his side."

The Iraqi had been hit in the hip, Lock said, noting the injured man received medical treatment by U.S. medics and survived. The wounded Iraqi's photo was intentionally taken from an angle, Lock noted. "I just tried to show the viewer something different than what the normal eye would see," the veteran photographer explained. "A good photo will tell the whole story in a split-second of a frame," Lock said. "It leaves a lasting impression and will be etched into your mind."

Lock's photos have won many awards and also appeared in major publications such as the New York Times and the LA Times.

Whenever he accompanies a unit, Lock arms himself with two Nikon D2X digital cameras and a 9 mm Beretta automatic, so that when he's with a team, be it Army, Marines or Special Forces, he is an asset, instead of being a liability. He said he takes turns with the troops he accompanies, watching each other's backs.

Lock recalls being shot at numerous times during his tours in war-zones. During firefights, "adrenalin starts rushing, and your training kicks in," Lock explained. "I tend not to be scared until the night before a mission or just afterward."

For Lock, the medal is a reminder of the inherent risks in capturing images of war, along with the difficult decisions they sometimes make. Lock summarizes it well when he says most photographers aren't faced with the choice of shooting a photograph or a person.

Excerpts taken from article by dippold, July 17, 2007 and The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, January 31, 2007.

Tech Sgt Lock's photos can be seen here.

From Russia with Love, Hope, and Change

Afghanistan was to be President Obama's focus when it comes to fighting the Islamist threat to the United States. To him, Iraq was the wrong war that sapped resources from the right war: Afghanistan.

He has mandated that troop strength will increase there, though not as much as has been requested by the General in charge of the Theater.

But his focus on Afghanistan has been made more difficult when Kyrgyzstan decided to kick the US out of a critical supply base.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament today voted to evict the United States from its last military airbase in central Asia, dealing a serious blow to US efforts to supply troops in nearby Afghanistan...

Today's vote provides a major logistical headache for the US president, Barack Obama, who has made winning the war in Afghanistan a strategic priority. On Wednesday, Obama pledged to send an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban's spring offensive.

Kyrgyzstan may have made the decision, but Russia was behind the move

Along with China, Russia has lobbied the Kyrgyz government to evict the United States and NATO from Manas. This is not the first instance of evicting NATO bases from Central Asia. In 2005, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, Moscow and Beijing had pushed for the closure of the American Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan. Since 2005, Manas remained the only U.S. air base in Central Asia.

But Russia did more than just lobby the Kyrgyz government, they bribed them

Bakiyev announced last month he would close the base during a trip to Moscow. In return Russia promised him a $2.15bn loan and agreed to write off the impoverished country's debts. Both Kyrgyzstan and Russia insist the generous aid package and the decision to close the base are unrelated. Few are convinced.

"This $2bn has been paid in order to convince Kyrgyzstan to close the base," Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition politician, told Reuters this morning. "I am saddened by the fact that Kyrgyzstan's image has now been so seriously tarnished."

Recently, Pakistan made a deal, yet again, with the Tribal Areas that house al Qaida and the Taliban

For months, Taliban militants have instituted a reign of terror in the valley of Swat, a former tourist mecca once known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan." The militants have burned girls' schools. They've beheaded policemen. They've whipped people in public squares.

And how has the Pakistani government responded? By sending in more armed forces to crush the Taliban? Unfortunately, no. Instead, Pakistan is giving in to the militants, allowing fundamentalist sharia law in the Swat Valley in return for promises of a cease-fire.

Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are the only two supply routes into Afghanistan that the US currently has.

Talking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Only a “comprehensive strategy” that also relies on diplomacy and development can halt the Taliban and the spread of extremism, Obama said.

Diplomacy will be important, but for now, that diplomacy had better be focused on getting us bases and lines of logistics to support and sustain US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

But one has to ask, why now? Why did Russia not make this play while Bush was President?

The Democrat's War

Hidden among the hoopla surrounding President Obama's signing of the "Stimulus" bill yesterday was the announcement that the President is sending 12,000 soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama has ordered a Marine expeditionary brigade and an Army Stryker brigade combat team -- totaling 12,000 soldiers and Marines -- to Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signed the orders today. The soldiers are part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Lewis, Wash., and the Marines serve with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Of the 12,000, 4,000 are soldiers and the remaining 8,000 are Marines. Both units will deploy later this spring.

This is the president’s first deployment decision. “There is no more solemn duty as president than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm’s way,” Obama said in a written statement released by the White House. “I do it today mindful that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action.”

As the President likes to say, this is just a "downpayment" on a larger, future deployment.

The deployment partially fulfills the request that Army Gen. David D. McKiernan made upon taking command in Afghanistan last year. McKiernan is the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan...

In addition, the 82nd Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade based at Fort Bragg, N.C., will deploy to Afghanistan later this spring. Aviation assets are needed in the rough terrain of Afghanistan.

McKiernan has asked for another brigade combat team, or its equivalent.

The President has long stated, both in the Whitehouse and on the campaign trail, that more needs to be done in Afghanistan.

Obama called the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan “resurgent,” and said the groups threaten America from safe havens along the Pakistani-Afghan border...

“This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” Obama said.

Those who have criticized Bush on the war in Iraq often mention that Afghanistan has been neglected because Iraq has sucked up so many resources. And now that Iraq is all but won, the new President can focus on Afghanistan. Of course the reason why Afghanistan has become so dangerous is because al Qaida and their ilk were militarily defeated in Iraq and have retreated to the safe-havens of Pakistan's border regions.

But this war will be very different from Iraq. The terrain is much different, not lending itself to armored units. In fact, mechanized units will only have limited effectiveness. Light infantry and Special Operations units (and of course, Marines) will be the front line troops.

And it will be different because the enemy's staging and training areas remain in Pakistan requireing strikes inside a different soverign nation.

It will also be different because Russia is actively attempting to inderdict our supply lines. And they want to be a part of things....

But it will be the same in that if executed properly, it will become unpopular.

Because if we get aggressive enough to win, our casualty rate will go up until we have broken the back of the enemy. And if not handled carefully, Pakistan will become an enemy which will further complicate our logistics situation.

But it is no longer a Republican War. With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, it will be the Democrats War. And the outcome will be compared to Iraq.

So the question will be, do they have the resolve to win this thing? And now that there is a war on their watch, will they decide to cut and run as they attempted to do so many times in Iraq?

The critics of Bush have always claimed that Afghanistan was the Good War that we should have been paying attention to all along.

So will they?

I find it interesting, and disturbing, that there were so few funds for the military in the "Stimulus" bill. And nothing yet has come up about increasing the size of the military that for so long they criticized as being "stretched thin". Both military spending and an increase in the force size would have been stimulative (as Reagan found out) but so far, nothing.

So what will they do?

Eleven

The NEFA Foundation has released a report detailing the exploits of eleven jihadists released from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia

On February 2, 2009, the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued a new public roster of most wanted Al-Qaida terrorist suspects sought in connection with credible threats of violence inside the Arabian Peninsula...

Of the 85 names listed by the Interior Ministry, at least eleven men now wanted by Saudi authorities are known to be former detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who were later transferred into the custody of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Those eleven men are as follows: Saeed Ali Jabir al-Kathim al-Shehri (a.k.a. “Abu Sufyan”, “Abu Asma”); Yusuf Muhammad Mubarak al-Jebairy al-Shehri; Jabir Jubran Ali al-Faify (a.k.a. “Abu Ibrahim, “Abu Jaffar al-Ansari”); Fahd Saleh Suleiman al-Jutayli (a.k.a. “Hamza Aqeedah”); Mohammed Ateeq Owaid al- Awfi al-Harbi (a.k.a. “Abul-Hareth Mohammed al-Awfi”); Murtadha Ali Saeed Magram (a.k.a. “Abul-Baraa al-Hadrami”); Meshal Mohammed Rashid Al-Shedoky (a.k.a. Mishale Ashadouki); Adnan Muhammad Ali al-Sayegh; Ibrahim Sulaiman Mohammed ar-Rubaish (a.k.a. “Abu Mohammed”); Turki Meshawi Zayid al-Assiri (a.k.a. “Al-Mutasim al-Makki”); and, Othman Bin Ahmed Bin Othman al-Ghamdi (a.k.a. Othman al-Omairah).

The Conclusion?

There is also one other final lesson to be learned from the ARB panel reviews of the eleven Guantanamo veterans currently sought by Saudi authorities: the danger of blindly taking anyone at their word that they are not, in fact, enemy combatants. Arguably, the most dangerous of the eleven Saudi Gitmo veterans currently on the run—Saeed al-Shehri and Mohammed al-Harbi—were cooperative, non-confrontational, and even charming during their interactions with ARB panel members in Guantanamo Bay. One cannot but appreciate the irony of Mohammed al-Harbi—now thought to be in the midst of planning imminent terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen—making a “heartfelt” offer “to work for American authorities once he was back in Saudi Arabia.”356 Likewise, at least seven of the eleven men solemnly vowed before the ARB panel members that their days as mujahideen were permanently over. Even Murtadha Magram—who made his personal hatred for Americans and his desire for martyrdom well-known—still attempted to convince his captors in Guantanamo that, “if released, he would never again think of participating in any military conflict.”357 Though perhaps it may seem an obvious point, these men can display an unexpected degree of sophistication in their efforts to deceive interrogators and manipulate judicial proceedings. But, in order just to survive the tumultuous coming months of 2009, the “Saudi eleven” will need to demonstrate an equal, if not greater, level of sophistication in ensuring their own security and in executing future military operations in the Arabian Peninsula.

I'm sure this will feed into the commission studying how to close Guantanamo.

Black Bears

Maine’s Black Bears Save Lives in Iraq
449th Theater Aviation Brigade

Story by Capt. Katherine Zyla
Date: 01.08.2009
Posted: 01.08.2009 09:47

A Maine National Guard Medevac Company recently completed their
nine-month deployment and will return home after flying more than 3,000 hours
and evacuating more than 670 patients.

By Capt. Katherine Zyla
449th Theater Aviation Brigade

TALLIL, Iraq – A Maine National Guard Medevac Company recently completed their
nine-month deployment and will return home after flying more than 3,000 hours
and evacuating more than 670 patients.

Soldiers of Company C, 1-126th Black Bears pride themselves in being an air ambulance unit, where every mission is critical and the crew functions
under the expectation and commitment to rescue those injured.

“Depending on how you look at it, each mission is a success. We go out every day and move patients,” said Maj. Brian J. Veneziano, Commander, C/1- 126, “Think about how many people’s lives we influence, not only the ones we are saving, but also those who care for the injured personnel.”

Veneziano said their mission is not easy, especially when a patient has passed away.

“Losing someone is extremely emotional and painful for everyone, but to see my Soldiers remain calm and do their job, shows the caliber of medics we have in C/1-126,” said Veneziano, a Herman, Maine native and 18-year guardsmen. “Every medic can tell you a story from this deployment that will make hair on the back of your neck stand up.”

Pilots and crew chiefs also play a critical role in medevac missions. Not only do they fly in severe weather, but they also render aid as appropriate. All pilots and crew chiefs have rudimentary medical training and are combat life savers.

“To see an aircraft mechanic calmly help administer oxygen to a severely injured patient is eye opening," said Veneziano.

The Black Bears had one particularly memorable mission when a team on the ground came under hostile fire. One Soldier died, and two were severely injured. The air crew flew in limited-visibility weather, successfully evacuated the injured Soldiers and helped save their lives. The crew members were awarded U.S. Army Air Medals.

“I am most proud of the fact that we never knew what we were going to get, but we never failed to get there,” said Veneziano. "We had zero dropped missions [accomplished all missions]; and were always within the Golden Hour [first hour after an accident, where chances of survival are greatly increased].”

The Black Bears not only worked together to save lives, but also successfully set up their fourth MEDEVAC site from scratch, extending their reach and making operations even more effective. The C/1-126 Soldiers were responsible for developing the site to include all logistical, communication, maintenance and life support efforts.

“One of the greatest things about a MEDEVAC unit, whether you’re transporting patients, maintaining aircraft, facilitating logistics, etc., is we work as a team and put our mission first,” said 1st Lt. Brian F. McClellan, operations officer, C/1-126. “Medevac is based on speed, and it is critical our sites are fully operational at all times, so we can respond to those on the ground.“

The Soldiers used their civilian job skills - carpentry, electrical and communication and contracting - to make the new site’s work and living areas as comfortable as possible, which is essential when crew rest plays such a vital role. Some of the Soldiers argued it was the best place on camp.

“We have a lot of moving parts: guys on the ground calling in the grid coordinate; maintainers ensuring aircraft are fully operational; and crew members ready to fly. Everyone is vital to our mission, and timing is everything; lives are at risk, and we have to be ready at all times,“ said McClellan, a native of Eliot, Maine.

The C/1-126 team, consisting of flight crews, medical staff, maintainers, supply and administrative personnel, is self sufficient and structured similarly to an aviation battalion. Everything from aircraft maintenance to awards paperwork is done internally.

“I am very proud to have all the different job functions that make us a stand-alone company,” said Veneziano. “We have enjoyed a very good operational
readiness rate, and the mission success we share helps keep morale high. It is contagious.”

McClellan added that everyone in the unit has specific roles. Regardless of job, the Soldiers are a team, and the non-commissioned officers lead the way with their knowledge, training and mentoring junior Soldiers; they fully understand the mission and how their individual roles support it.

The C/1-126 Black Bears, named after the University of Maine, transitioned from a legacy MEDEVAC company in October 2006. When the company was alerted in 2007, they received a legacy mission, meaning the team had to be rebuilt.

“My personal key to success was being able to pick my team," said Veneziano. “I would put the company’s leadership against any aviation battalion in theater to staff problems, develop courses of action and execute missions.”

SSgt. Omar Hernandez

Army SSgt. Omar Hernandez traveled a long, hard road on his way to earning the Silver Star.

Hernandez, 27, came to the United States from Mexico with his family when he was 6 months old.

He joined the Army Reserve at age 19 as an engineer, and went to Iraq for the first time in February 2003. He switched to the regular Army in March 2004 as an infantryman and was promptly sent back to Iraq. He earned his citizenship after his second Iraq tour.

Hernandez was deployed for the third time in November 2006, as part of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Bliss, Texas. The unit has since changed its name to 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.

Five months into the deployment, Hernandez and other 4-1 soldiers moved from Forward Operating Base Kalsu in Iskandariyah to Baghdad, where they were assigned to Joint Security Station "Maverick" in Ghazaliya, a primarily Sunni Baghdad neighborhood.

June 6, 2007, was supposed to be a rare day off for Hernandez, a team leader in charge of mentoring four Iraqi police recruits.

Instead, he and another team leader were ordered to take their Iraqi counterparts out on a census patrol.

Four American soldiers and nine Iraqis went out on the mission.

No sooner had they set off on foot, they got ambushed, right outside the JSS.

In the blink of an eye, two Iraqi police were shot: one in the back, the other in the leg and arm. They both collapsed, bleeding, in a T-shaped intersection.

As Hernandez turned to return fire with his M-4, he too was shot, in his right thigh.

"I didn't really feel it too much at the time," he said. "I just felt a lot of pressure on my leg. You know, like Forrest Gump, where he goes, 'Somethin' jumped up and bit meeee'," Hernandez drawled.

The bullet "bit him," all right. It entered through the back of his thigh, narrowly missed his femoral artery, and exited the front, taking 30 percent of his quadriceps along with it.

But right then, all Hernandez was focused on was his Iraqis, lying vulnerable in the street, as the enemy fire got heavier.

"I couldn't let anyone die out there, exposed like that," Hernandez said. "They were under my command. I didn't want anybody under my command to die."

He dashed into the intersection, grabbed the nearest Iraqi by the arm, and dragged him 15 feet to safety behind a wall as the three U.S. soldiers on the opposite side of the street laid down cover fire.

Then Hernandez ran back for the second Iraqi, straddled him, grabbed the bleeding man's protective vest under the armpits, and with one heave, levered the Iraqi up onto his shoulder.

Then he made his second mad dash for the wall.

"At the time I was Superman, so I didn't know whether he was heavy or not," Hernandez said.

Once the Iraqis were safe and receiving treatment, Hernandez began returning fire. Finally, he accepted medical treatment himself.

If Hernandez had not scooped the wounded Iraqis off the street, the outcome would have been grim, Lt. Matthew Allen, 25, platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, Company B, 177 Armor Regiment and executive officer for Hernandez' company at the time, told Stars and Stripes.

"In the position that they were in, had they been left without cover, whoever was shooting could easily have hit them a couple more times and finished the job," Allen said.

Hernandez learned he would receive the nation's third-highest military award in February, and "I almost did a back flip," Hernandez told Stripes.

"For a common person like me to get something like that, it means a lot, and it means a lot to my family."

But not as much as the Army, he said.
"I love the Army, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," Hernandez said. "If they were to give me $20 million for me to get out, I don't think I'd take it."

By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes, July 3, 2008

Enemy combatants haven't gone away

It's a relief to hear that the Obama Administration agrees with Former President Bush with regards to Enemy Combatants.

a) That there are such things
b) That they can be held without trial
c) They can be held for as long as the war against Terrorists continues.

You know, I meet a lot of people who do not know that Congress declared War on Terrorists. They seem to know that Congress gave authorization to President Bush to go to War against Iraq. And many of these think that this was illegal. But why is it any more illegal than the Authorization to go to War in Afghanistan?

That Authorization to use military force (AUMF) is much broader and is not restricted to a single country. In fact, that authorization says:

Whereas, the President has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States: Now, therefore, be it...

That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

So while Iraq winds down, we are still at war. And that war will not necessarily end when we leave Afghanistan either.

So it was heartening to hear that the Obama Administration understands this. Or at least says it does.

During Confirmation Hearings for the new Solicitor General Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, the following exchange occurred.

Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, stressed the stark difference between criminal law and the law of war. He and Kagan agreed that under criminal law, no person can be held indefinitely without a trial.

"Do you believe we are at war?" Graham asked.

"I do, Senator," Kagan replied.

Graham cited the example of someone who is not carrying a gun or fighting on a battlefield. "If our intelligence agencies should capture someone in the Philippines that is suspected of financing Al Qaeda worldwide, would you consider that person part of the battlefield?" he asked. He added that he had asked the same question of Holder, who replied that he agreed that person was on the battlefield.

"Do you agree with that?" the senator said.

"I do," Kagan replied.

Graham said that under the law of war, the government can say, "If you're part of the enemy force, there is no requirement to let them go back to the war and kill our troops. Do you agree that makes sense?"

Kagan replied, "I think it makes sense, and I think you're correct that that is the law."

"So America needs to get ready for this proposition that some people are going to be detained as enemy combatants, not criminals," Graham concluded.

As I've noted before, President Obama can close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, but the problem of what to do with "persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks" remains.