Received via email:

From Stryker Brigade News....


It is with some urgency and a great deal of sadness that we pass along the following request from Steve Thorne. Steve's son, SGT Scott Thorne, was seriously injured in Mosul last September, and Steve chronicled his recovery here.


Dear Friends,

Your assistance in locating an abducted child is respectfully requested. The child is my granddaughter, Alyson Elisabeth Thorne, DOB 7/31/04, the only child of Staff Sergeant Scott Thorne, who sustained a gunshot wound to the head in Mosul, Iraq on September 14, 2004. She was abducted by her mother, Tiffany Thorne, DOB 3/25/82, who took the child from the State of Washington against court orders on Thursday, August 25, 2005. The current visitation order is for the mother to have supervised visits with a professional monitor. She is believed to have taken a bus from Roseburg, Oregon to Texas that night, arriving on or about 8 a.m. Sunday, August 28, 2005. This information is being sent on September 1, 2005 as we just became aware of the abduction facts yesterday in Vancouver, Washington.

Alyson has a medical condition that requires her to take antibiotic medication daily. Also, Tiffany is likely to be travelling with her dog, an approximately three year old black and tan Chihuahua named Tinkerbell.

I have attached photos of Alyson Thorne and a photo of Tiffany Thorne (see below). If you see either of these persons, do not attempt to take any action yourself. Tiffany Thorne was arraigned on two counts of assault and one count of reckless endangerment in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on August 17, 2005 and faces a trial date of October 17, 2005. SHE IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. She is not believed to be armed, but is obviously not acting rationally. Report any sightings to your local law enforcement agency. Tell them you have spotted her, give them her name, the fact that she has abducted a child from the State of Washington and any other information you have available. If you spot them in the State of Washington, tell them there is a valid Writ of Habeas Corpus from Pierce and Clark Counties directing them to take the child into custody immediately.

You should also report any sightings to the law office of J. Anne Redford-Hall at 360-357-8669, Scott's very capable attorney. Please do not call the attorney with suggestions or questions, only if you have information as to her whereabouts. It's a small office, not a national headquarters or something. If you think you've got something else that's hot, please send it to me directly (cut out the "nospam" in the address).

Tiffany may have gone through or sought shelter in the following locations as she is known to have family members or friends in these areas:
Bell County, Texas (Waco/Temple area)
Belton, Texas
Moody, Texas
Roseburg, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Vancouver, Washington

Please pass this information along to your respective e-mail lists. You never know who might have seen her. Thank you for your assistance and let's hope I can post a nice reunification photo of Scott and Alyson real soon.

Steve Thorne





Bloggers - Please feel free to copy and post this!

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM — U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpls. Michael R. Bonilla and Mark A. Price count pieces of gear to ensure that units receive their allotted amounts, at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, Aug. 24, 2005. Bonilla and Price are both reservists and ammunition technicians assigned to the Initial Issues Provision, Supply Management Unit, Combat Logistics Regiment 25, 2nd Force Service Support Group (Forward). U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. C. J. Yard

Aid mission hits closer to home for Army pilots
Houston Chronicle
Thu, 01 Sep 2005 10:37 PM PDT
FORT HOOD - They have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the U.S. Army air crews flying from this base Thursday to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina said there was a different, more personal feeling to this mission.

Seems anybody who's anybody is taking potshots at the response thus far to Katrina.

I was going to post about it, but the FreeWill blog said most of what I wanted to (and I'm not sure I'd have done it as well), so why reinvent the wheel?

Go check it out.

Hat tip to Terry.

A National Guard multi-purpose utility truck brings supplies to the Super Dome in downtown New Orleans. Tens of thousands of displaced citizens sought shelter at the dome, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, but have been forced to evacuate as floodwaters continued to rise. Photographer’s Mate Airman Jeremy L. Grisham


WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 1, 2005) -- The Army Corps of Engineers is battling to repair breaches in the 350 miles of hurricane-protection levees surrounding New Orleans, while the National Guard is helping to evacuate residents from flooded areas, and other troops scramble to stage relief supplies to help those stricken by Hurricane Katrina from Alabama to Mississippi.

Fort Polk, La., has deployed helicopters and crews in support of Joint Task Force Katrina, under U.S. Northern Command, with a major staging area at Camp Shelby, Miss. Three Army Helicopters from III Corps out of Fort Hood, Texas, are in Baton Rouge and two more are in Mississippi to assist with search and rescue and damage assessment.

Two Fort Polk UH-60 Black Hawks and two UH-1 Hueys are providing support to the Louisiana National Guard medical evacuation assets in New Orleans. Their first mission was to fly medical doctors into the Super Dome to provide triage to evacuees, officials said, adding that the helicopters will also provide air ambulance support as needed.

In addition, National Guard troops from Illinois, Louisiana and Texas will be staging at the Alexandria Airpark near Fort Polk, designated an Intermediate Staging Area for the relief operations. The Corps of Engineers has released two contracts to close the breach in the 17th Street Canal in New Orleans. The 3,000-pound sandbag operation at the canal was postponed when U.S. Army Chinooks were diverted for rescue missions. Corps officials said they are continuing to coordinate with Army officials to have helicopters assist in placement of sandbags at the breaches.

The canal and levee system was built to withstand hurricane Category 3 storms, Corps officials said, adding that Katrina exceeded that, resulting in several breaches. Water is now flowing slowly out of New Orleans, officials said, because the water is seeking its own level -- that of Lake Pontchartrain. Lake water is draining from Pontchartrain out the Rigolettes, Chef Mentour and Seabrook passes. The rate of fall is slowing down as the head differential across the passes diminishes, officials said, adding that Lake Pontchartrain is almost back to normal levels.

Unfortunately, the levee gaps aren’t allowing the water to flow back out of the city very quickly, officials said. Gaps will still need to be closed and the water pumped from flooded areas. Along with local and state officials, the Corps is contracting to build access roads to breach sites and to fill in the breaches. Rock/stone/crushed concrete will be hauled by truck for road construction and to repair the breaches, officials said.

The Corps has also delivered two 5,000-cubic-feet-per-second pumps to the Louisiana Superdome, and deployed 15 boats to assist in search and rescue. The Motor Vessel Lafourche is surveying the Mississippi River from the New Orleans District headquarters to the mouth of the Mississippi. A private business, Kirby Marine, volunteered its services and sent the Kirby Responder to survey the Gulf Intra-coastal Waterway from Pascagoula, Miss., to the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Based on aerial photos and visual observations, the Corps of Engineers has determined:
• The breach at the 17th Street Canal Levee, a levee-floodwall combination, is about 300-feet long. It’s believed that the force of the water overtopped the floodwall and scoured the structure from behind and then moved the levee wall horizontally about 20 feet, opening both ends to flow.

• At the Industrial Canal floodwall breach, two breaches have been identified: one 100-foot breach is closer to the lakeside and another 500-foot breach. Fortunately, water is receding through the breach and when it equalizes, the Corps will begin breach-closing operations.

• At the London Street floodwall, it’s estimated that there’s a 300-foot breach.Evacuees from the flooded areas, some currently at Fort Polk, are registering with the Red Cross and being assigned shelters. By registering with the American Red Cross, evacuee's relatives and loved-ones will have a stable location and contact point for inquiries, officials said.

Families of Deployed Army National Guard Soldiers affected by the Hurricane are asked to call the National Guard Bureau Family Program at 1-888-777-7731 to let family members know of their whereabouts.

Military or family members in need of counseling services as a result of the hurricane can call Military OneSource at 1-800-342-9647.

CARRIER DEPLOYMENT — U.S. Navy sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt man the rails prior to getting underway from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., Sept. 1, 2005. Nearly 7,500 sailors from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group deployed in support of the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Gregory A. Roberts

Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
31 BC- Octavian defeats Antony at the Battle of Actium, becoming Emperor Augustus.
490 BC- Phidippides, seeking aid from Sparta against the Persions, runs the first marathon.
1789 - Congress establishes the U.S. Treasury Department.
1864 - Union General William T. Sherman captures Atlanta.
1898 - Lord Kitchener retakes Sudan for Britain.
1901 - Vice President Theodore Roosevelt advises, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."
1930 - The first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the U.S. completes its trip - in 37 hours.
1935 - A hurricane kills 423 in the Florida Keys.
1936 - The first transatlantic round-trip air flight occurs.
1944 - Anne Frank (Diary of Anne Frank), is sent to Auschwitz; George H.W. Bush ejects from a burning plane in WWII.
1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam's independence from France.
1963 - CBS and NBC expand their network news from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Birthdays
1838 - Queen Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani, last queen of Hawaii (1891-93)
1853 - Wilhelm Ostwald, physical chemist, Nobel Prize Winner (1909)
1856 - Yang Hsiu-ch'ing, commander in chief of the Taiping Rebellion
1866 - Hiram Johnson (Gov-CA)
1918 - Martha Mitchell, wife of Attorney General John Mitchell
1931 - Alan K. Simpson (Sen-WY)
1936 - Joan Kennedy, 1st wife of Senator Ted Kennedy (MA)
1958 - Marlene Janssen, Playboy playmate (Nov, 1982)
1960 - Eric Dickerson, NFL halfback (LA Rams, Indianapolis Colts)

Passings
1547 - Hernan Cortes, Spanish general (defeated the Aztecs)

Reported Missing in Action
1963
Cruz, Raphael, USAF (CA); B26B disappeared during air cover mission, remains returned October, 1996
McKinney, Neil B., USAF (IN); B26B disappeared during air cover mission, remains returned October, 1996
Purcell, Howard, Philip, USAF (PA); B26B disappeared during air cover mission (pilot), remains returned October, 1996

1965
Collins, James Q., USAF (NC); F105 shot down (pilot), released by DRV (injured) February, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Bennett, William G., USAF (AL); F105D shot down, survival unlikely

1972
Greenwood, Robert R., Jr., USAF (VA); F4E shot down (WSO, w/Wood)
Herold, Richard W., USAF (NY); O1 shot down (same location as Greenwood & Wood), KIC
Wood, William C., Jr., USAF (TN); F4E shot down (pilot, w/Greenwood)