5 posts tagged “support the tropps”

Remember the Fallen: A Long Islander You Should Know~USMC Cpl Christopher Scherer 6/29/86-7/21/07

Jul 21, 2009
3 comments

Never Forget the Ultimate Sacrifice our Nation's heroes have made for our freedom-LIG

The Empire State Challenge Soldier Ride in the Hamptons on July 25th is in memory of many local fallen heroes, including Cpl Christopher Scherer.

Cpl Christopher Scherer

Christopher George Scherer, was born on June 29, 1986 and was raised in the town of East Northport, NY. A fun loving and energetic boy, he played soccer, baseball, lacrosse and was also a member of Boy Scout Troop 52. He was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout at the age of 17. Chris played two years of Varsity Lacrosse at Northport High School and graduated in June of 2004. One month later he was on his way to Parris Island, SC for a thirteen week job interview. He successfully completed boot camp and, on November 5, 2004, he earned the coveted title of United States Marine.

Newsday cover

He completed his infantry and combat engineer training at Camp Lejeune in spring of 2005 and was then stationed at Camp Fuji, Japan until spring of 2006. He returned to the United States and spent the next year honing his Combat Engineer Skills at Camp Pendleton, Ca. On April 11th, 2007 Chris and his fellow Marines of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division shipped out on the 13th MEU as part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The MEU stopped in Guam and Singapore before arriving in Kuwait. There, Chris’s platoon trained for several weeks before they were sent to Iraq. While training in Kuwait, Chris earned the rank of Corporal on his mother’s birthday, June 1st.

On July 21, 2007 in the province of Al Anbar, Iraq, Chris lost his life serving the Country he loved. He was felled by a single bullet from the gun of an enemy sniper.

When Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Sinclair spoke at Chris’s funeral he said the following: “Chris’s platoon commander called him the most likable marine in the platoon, no one griped or had a bad day if Cpl Scherer had anything to say about it. Lieutenant Douglas Orr told me that though the living conditions in the field have been harsh over the past two months, and the marines have been working and fighting in 120 degree temperatures while wearing body armor and carrying ammunition, weapons, water, and equipment that typically weighs over 70 pounds for each marine, he never heard Chris complain or even question their circumstances - not once. Not ever.”

Lt Col Sinclair further stated: “Lt Orr also shared with me some of the unique traits that Chris' mates will forever remember him for. For starters, there was his sense of humor - paradoxically at its best when stress and privation were highest. Most notably, he had an uncanny ability to lift spirits with his voice impressions. He was a superb mimic of more actor’s voices and accents than anyone could count. One of his favorites was that from the movie Jaws…”Captain, I think you better get a bigger boat.” He would often say this when things got particularly rough.”

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the following statement regarding Chris’s death. “The death of Corporal Christopher Scherer is a tremendous loss to our nation. Maria and I, along with all Californians, mourn the loss of this brave individual and express our sincere gratitude for his selfless service in defense of our country. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family in this time of grief.”

Although his family misses him terribly, they are without question supportive of his decision to join the Marine Corps to defend our countries freedoms and urge all of you to support the rest of our Armed Forces who are doing the same.

Through pictures, poems, and emails from his family, friends, and fellow Marines, they hope you will join us in celebrating the life of their son Chris.

Please visit Chris' website to see how you can donate or do more.....

From Newsday, after Chris' ultimate sacrifice~

His family laughed and cried Monday as they shared memories of a funny, loving and loyal boy who played high school lacrosse, became an Eagle Scout and yearned to join the Marines.

He told them he was ready to join when he was 15, and he did so two years later under an early enlistment program. Before leaving for boot camp in August 2004, he and his father erected a flagpole in the front yard and hoisted the Stars and Stripes.

"The only person that can take that flag down is you," Tim Scherer recalled telling his son.

When Christopher Scherer came home on leave, he would replace the worn flag with a new one. On Saturday, when the Scherers learned of their son's death, they faced a heartbreaking dilemma: Who would replace the flag, and raise it to half-staff in tribute to their son?

On Saturday, a member of Christopher Scherer's Eagle Scout troop helped Tim Scherer raise a new flag donated by the New York State police.

In its company are yellow ribbons dotting houses along the street.

Christopher Scherer's sister Katie, 18, Monday recalled that in 2004, after her brother had completed boot camp, she wrote him a letter telling him how scared she was.

"He wrote me back saying, 'I'm ready for anything that comes my way,'" Katie Scherer recalled Monday.

Scherer was stationed in Fuji, Japan, in 2005, and at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in March 2006. Assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, he was deployed to Iraq in April, his family said.

He wore a silver-and-gold cross that had belonged to his grandfather, the late Kevin Joseph Scherer, an Air Force staff sergeant who served in Alaska during the Korean War.

"He didn't do it to be a hero," Katie Scherer said of her brother's decision to join the Marines. "He did it because it's what he believed in."

Scherer also is survived by his sister, Meghan, 18, and his mother, Janet Scherer, 48. The family will travel tomorrow to Delaware to accompany his body home to Long Island.

Visitation will be at Nolan and Taylor-Howe Funeral Home on Laurel Road in Northport both Thursday and Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at Centerport Methodist Church on Little Neck Road in Centerport. Burial will follow in Northport Rural Cemetery.

As friends and neighbors streamed into the house Monday night, the Scherer family looked at a photograph of Christopher Scherer taken in an Irish fishing village during a long-anticipated trip with friends in 2005. Sitting on a bronze dolphin, he was smiling, his arms spread wide.

"That picture is the real Chris," said his grandmother, Margaret Burr. "He lived like he had the whole world in his hands."

Daily News article here

Long Beach, NY to host wounded veterans~8/30-9/2/09

Jun 26, 2009
Post a comment

The city of boardwalk festivals and polar bear dips is hosting a beachside vacation for wounded military veterans who crave a little lounging along with their athletic pursuits.

To salute service members who have traumatic injuries, Long Beach has teamed up with the Wounded Warrior Project to invite 18 to 20 soldiers and their families from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

Calling the program Long Beach Waterfront Warriors, volunteers, with help from the city, are planning a welcome parade, boat rides, biking on the boardwalk, and for those who want it, some down time on the shore.

The idea is to "spend a weekend on the beach, where there is no pressure to perform," said city Councilman John McLaughlin, who is spearheading the event.

I'm not going to make you get on a Jet Ski," said Wounded Warrior Project volunteer ambassador Paul Hastings, adding that this visit may be the first trip to the ocean for some of the veterans. "It's the first such program in Nassau, where wounded troops have been invited to people's homes for rest and relaxation."

More than 50 people attended a meeting at city hall last week to coordinate the visit. Organizers said they had a list of at least 125 volunteers who have offered to raise funds, prepare food, or house guests. A retired firefighter even stopped McLaughlin on the street and tried to fork over $100 in cash for the cause. (The councilman asked him to come to a meeting instead.)

"You come to a nice beach town at the height of summer and you see this tide of people saying, 'What can I do?' " McLaughlin said. "It's a nice way to pay back the soldiers."

The city is lending support with logistics, including transportation and lifeguard assistance, he said.

McLaughlin, also a retired firefighter, got the idea from the Graybeards, a Rockaway Beach nonprofit that has hosted an annual water sports festival for wounded warriors since 2004.

Over the past few months, volunteers have recruited local merchants to donate meals and provide hotel rooms accessible to those with disabilities.

Alan Adams, 46, one of several residents who have opened their homes to lodge wounded warriors, said he's hoping to host a family with children close to his son's ages - 13 and 17.

Adams, who owns Sugo Cafe on West Park Avenue, is putting his restaurateur skills to work planning a bayside luau.

"With the people of Long Beach, how friendly and how tight-knit the community is, I thought it was a natural fit," he said.

At the meeting, Sarah Nichols, who heads a local Girl Scout troop, said its five members donated $100 raised from selling cookies, and they're ready to pitch in when the weekend arrives.

"I think it's an important experience for them," Nichols said. "So that they can look outside of themselves and know there's a lot going on."

The 1st Blue Star Canteen~Western New York~Blue Star Mothers NY Chapter #1

Apr 29, 2009
Post a comment

The 1st Blue Star Canteen

The Blue Star Mothers NY Chapter #1 is starting a canteen for vets and active duty soldiers, the first of its kind in the country. They have obtained an old Victorian house on long term lease on the grounds of the Canandaigua VA hospital.

This will be a place of rest, relaxation, entertainment, gardening, homecomings, picnics, holiday dinners, in a home-like setting, for Veterans and active duty soldiers home on leave. They will also hold their "Gold Star Tea Ceremony" there where the families of our fallen heroes in western NY receive their Gold Star banners.

The house has been neglected and needs a lot of cosmetics to make it nice, but is structurally sound.

This is the first of its kind in the country and needed approval from Secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department in Washington and from Congress.

Anyone wishing to help provide supplies may send gift cards in any amount from Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart.

Blue Star Mothers
NY Chapter #1
PO Box 426
Bloomfield, NY 14469

Anyone in the local area who would like to see the full wish list of furniture, supplies and entertainment items, please leave a comment for Laurie at http://soldiersangelsny.blogspot.com/2009/04/1st-blue-star-canteen.html

Clearing the Tangi~Task Force Spartan Takes Troubled Valley~10th Mountain Division 3rd BCT

Mar 9, 2009
Post a comment

Clearing the Tangi: Task Force in Afghanistan Takes Troubled Valley

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

FORWARD OPERATING BASE AIRBORNE, Afghanistan, March 9, 2009 – Flexing for the first time the massive military muscle now deployed to this area, coalition forces cleared one of its most troubled insurgent hotspots, sending a forceful message to insurgent fighters here that the coalition will go wherever, whenever it wants.

Army Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment commander, talks to the Afghan National Army brigade commander during clearing operations in the Tangi Valley in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, March 7, 2009. Forces pushed deep into the valley, which has long been an insurgent hot spot. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The three-day operation wrapped up yesterday and took hundreds of troops deep into the Tangi, a valley of narrow roads and steep cliffs that runs along the Logar River through the southeastern part of Wardak province opening into Logar province.

The area has seen few coalition forces for the past eight months after a small U.S. military team was brutally attacked and four were killed there last summer.

Shortly after the first few soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team arrived here in February, they sent a little larger than a platoon-sized team into the valley. The troops were blasted by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire. Remarkably, no one on the patrol was killed.

But, only days afterward, two local boys who had talked with coalition leadership during the mission were dragged from their homes and killed. It was a strong-arm attempt to strike fear into the local population, officials said, because the insurgents knew that with the growing U.S presence here, the coalition forces would be back.

Army Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue is the battalion commander for the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, and runs coalition efforts in Wardak province. He is a tall, sturdy Army Ranger, a combat veteran and well-versed on the threat here. Truth be told, though, Gallahue really doesn’t care what brand of insurgency he is fighting. He just wants them gone.

He had talked to the boys on that first trip.

“That type of action is criminal. It’s murderous. It’s meant for intimidation of the population. So you can see why, when given the alternative of security and better governance, the people want it,” Gallahue said. “This enemy … they can’t win if that’s their alternative, if that’s the future they offer.”

The Tangi Valley is a fertile breadbasket in this region. Snow and rain run off the mountains into a valley of apple and pomegranate orchards. Just off of Highway 1, south of Kabul, the valley boasts one of the few paved roads in the region. But, the narrow road and high ridges make it ideal for an insurgent defense. Once entering the valley, there is nowhere to go except deeper in along its winding road flanked by small villages jutting from the hillsides. Vehicles traveling the road are easy targets, and roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices are routinely buried along the 15-kilometer route military officials dubbed “IED Alley.”

This mission was launched by the 10th Mountain Division’s Task Force Spartan, which took control of the Wardak and Logar provinces last month. The task force’s deployment tripled the firepower here, where coalition force officials initially did not predict a serious threat developing. But as more intense fighting began in the eastern part of the country, many insurgents took advantage of the two provinces’ small coalition presence and remote districts.

Soldiers from two battalions led the efforts. The 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, which runs coalition operations in the Logar province, moved northwest along the valley road, clearing mostly villages. Gallahue had his battalion’s troops move southeast, clearing the majority of the rural route. The two met near the provincial borders where the 3-71st troops established a permanent coalition force presence in the valley at a combat outpost.

At the start of the operation, U.S. Special Forces troops, along with Afghan military commandos, descended on the valley in an air assault, looking for some key suspects and weapons caches. Throughout, U.S. F-15 aircraft and Apache attack helicopters flew overhead, providing air support.

Two companies of Afghan National Army soldiers, partnered with their French mentoring company, moved side by side with U.S. forces. Afghan National Police led the searches of suspects’ homes.

For three days, soldiers cleared the route, walking the road and through the villages and fields. It was slow, tedious work as, step by step, anything found suspicious was reported up the chain, and nobody moved further until any threat was cleared.

“It’s nerve-wracking. You have a lot of things going on at one time,” said Army Staff Sgt. Erik Bonnett, who was in the lead of the dismounted clearing operations for the 2-87th. “The worst part about it was the physical part. Being up this high in altitude with all the gear we wear, it starts to get to you.” The valley sits at just under 8,000 feet above sea level.

He said his troops were looking for “snail trails” or markings on the ground where wires were run. They also looked for fresh tracks or areas where no grass was growing because of digging. They were always on alert for their biggest threat -- small-arms fire or rocket-propelled grenades launched from the nearby rooftops or ridgelines.

Troops with bomb-sniffing dogs also walked the road, clearing culverts, rock piles and any cars and trucks passing by. Military vehicles capable of detecting buried electronic devices also helped to clear the route.

It is Bonnett’s fourth deployment to Afghanistan and, even though the days were long and the pace was slow, he realized the gravity of an error on his team’s part.

“If I don’t do my job, the end result is lives are lost,” Bonnett said.

And insurgent fighters did not disappoint. Three bombs were found along the route. It took soldiers nearly a half day to dig out a large propane tank, believed to be filled with explosive, from underneath the road. Once the tank was uncovered, a second wire was found leading from it to where officials believe a second bomb was buried deeper. Rather than take any more time to unearth the second device, officials chose to explode it place and repair the road.

Army 1st Lt. Alvin Cavalier was in the lead in the route-clearing efforts. His truck was hit twice on the February trip through the valley. Cavalier said finding the bombs this time paved the way for future operations there.

“Getting hit the first couple times coming in here, you don’t want that for your guys. Getting in there and digging those IEDs out of the road gave the guys a huge boost of confidence, and we’ll be ready to come back in here next time,” Cavalier said. “This is our battle space. We’re here to clean this place up.”

There were not, however, any direct attacks on the forces this time, which military officials said was a promising sign. Officials attributed it mostly to the fact that they simply had any enemy fighters outgunned.

“We took away the lines that he could attack from,” Gallahue said. “He had to make a decision. Fight and die, or not fight at all.”

Forces stopped in each village to talk to the local people. Gallahue and others said that on this trip the villagers were more receptive to coalition forces. Some waved at the convoys, and others milled about in their villages. In February, some soldiers said, nobody was out. They mostly hid in their homes.

Gallahue was optimistic at the start of the trip when he spotted an old man walking down the road.

“That’s a good sign,” he said. If people are out, then the likelihood of an attack is less, he explained. Most know when the enemy fighters plan to strike.

Gallahue is itching to put a combat outpost on his side of the valley, but he has just put in two outposts in the Jalrez Valley, another problem spot in Wardak. There were three such outposts in Wardak when he arrived, and he has already doubled that number.

The commander said that, for the most part, the people in the Tangi are tired of the fighting. They are eager for the security that coalition forces bring.

“There is a certain amount of war-weariness in the population, and they’re ready for security,” he said. “We’re going to go in there and turn that valley around.”

Gallahue called the fight here a “true counterinsurgency,” and said it could not have been accomplished with the few troops that were here before. His province was manned by only a company-sized element before Task Force Spartan took over.
Effective counterinsurgencies are people-intensive, he said.

Two battalion-sized task forces are here. Task Force Catamount is made up of soldiers from the 2-87th Infantry, and Task Force Wolfpack is made up of troops from 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery. Both focus on operations within Wardak province. Catamount focuses on security and economic development, and Wolfpack focuses on strengthening governance in the province.

This weekend’s show of force is likely the first of many for this area as Gallahue and his troops ready for the spring thaw and the anticipated increase in insurgent fighting. So far, they have been busy setting up outposts and meeting with local leaders, hoping to have established roots in the communities by the time the insurgent fighters return.

In the meantime, Gallaghue said, his troops have shown they can travel anywhere within the province to go about the business of separating the people who want peace from those who want to fight.

“This is Wardak province, and I’m responsible for security. … Tangi Valley is part of that, and if we need to go in there we can,” Gallahue said. “We’ll take the physical terrain from the enemy, … and we’ll take the people away, because the people are the prize in this fight.”

Winning Isn't News~Success in Iraq apparently isn't newsworthy

Jul 10, 2008
2 comments

Winning Isn't News

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, July 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Iraq: What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq.

London's Sunday Times called it "the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." A terrorist force that once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere 1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul.

The destruction of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is one of the most unlikely and unforeseen events in the long history of American warfare. We can thank President Bush's surge strategy, in which he bucked both Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington by increasing our forces there instead of surrendering.

We can also thank the leadership of the new general he placed in charge there, David Petraeus, who may be the foremost expert in the world on counter-insurgency warfare. And we can thank those serving in our military in Iraq who engaged local Iraqi tribal leaders and convinced them America was their friend and AQI their enemy.

Al-Qaida's loss of the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis began in Anbar Province, which had been written off as a basket case, and spread out from there.

Now, in Operation Lion's Roar the Iraqi army and the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is destroying the fraction of terrorists who are left. More than 1,000 AQI operatives have already been apprehended.

Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, traveling with Iraqi forces in Mosul, found little AQI presence even in bullet-ridden residential areas that were once insurgency strongholds, and reported that the terrorists have lost control of its Mosul urban base, with what is left of the organization having fled south into the countryside.

Meanwhile, the State Department reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has achieved "satisfactory" progress on 15 of the 18 political benchmarks — a big change for the better from a year ago.

Things are going so well that Maliki has even for the first time floated the idea of a timetable for withdrawal of American forces. He did so while visiting the United Arab Emirates, which over the weekend announced that it was forgiving almost $7 billion of debt owed by Baghdad — an impressive vote of confidence from a fellow Arab state in the future of a free Iraq.

But where are the headlines and the front-page stories about all this good news? As the Media Research Center pointed out last week, "the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 were silent Tuesday night about the benchmarks" that signaled political progress.

The war in Iraq has been turned around 180 degrees both militarily and politically because the president stuck to his guns. Yet apart from IBD, Fox News Channel and parts of the foreign press, the media don't seem to consider this historic event a big story.