CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force airmen of the 437th Security Forces Squadron arrive at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, after returning from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kally White, of the 437th Security Forces Squadron, hugs her father after arriving at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Peter Christoff, of the 437th Security Forces Squadron, hugs his wife after arriving at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chad Hashley, of the 437th Security Forces Squadron, holds his daughter after arriving at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ryan Hall, of the 437th Security Forces Squadron, holds his daughter after returning to Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


CHARLESTON HOMECOMING — U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Josh Rance, of the 437th Security Forces Squadron, holds his daughter after arriving at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., April 4, 2006, from a deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Pilch


Welcome Home to all of these brave Heroes! Thank you for all you do for all of us.

COALITION PARTNERS — (Left to right) Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Polish Army Maj. Gen. Edward Gruszka, commander of Multinational Division Central South, Camp Echo, Diwaniyah, Iraq, and Polish Minister of Defense Radoslaw Sikorski tour Camp Echo, April 6, 2006. Kaczynski wished the troops a happy Easter and also explained a newly-created medal which recognizes the bravery of Polish soldiers in combat. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jason T. Bailey

ON THE GROUND
Deployed Servicemembers Become Citizens - Story
Bayji Council Coordinates Security Efforts - Story
Cleaner Water Available for Basra Residents - Story
Governor, Khost Residents Celebrate Project - Story

IN IRAQ
Firefighters Stand Ready to Protect Soldiers
Father Keeps Memory Alive Through Museum
Iraqis, U.S. Soldiers Conduct Medical Clinic
U.S. Troops Secure Baghdad’s Route Redwing

IN AFGHANISTAN
Forward Deployed B-52 Pilot Surpasses 5,000 Hours
U.S. Airmen Destroy 1,100-Pound Russian Bomb
Ground Breaks For New Shibar Police Station
U.S. Navy Corpsman’s Good Works Live On

FACE OF DEFENSE
Pup Steps in as New Depot Mascot - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU



USA Basketball Scores with Kids - Story - Photos
Volunteers Make Clinic a Success



TOP NEWS
IRAQ
3 Servicemembers Killed
Bush Defends Iraq War for Peace
Manhunt Leads to Capture
Pace Talks Positive, Negative News
Tikrit Courthouse Renovated
Iraqis Assume Salah Ad Din Duties
Forces Rescue Kidnap Victims
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (PDF)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
PRT Commanders' Topic: Security
Forces Destroy Rocket in Ghazni
Insurgent Killed; Pilots Ready to Fly
Forces Secure IEDs, Weapons Cache
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Defense Chiefs: Time to Stand Firm
Teen Terror Suspect Case Hits Snags
D.C. Exercise Tests Guard Response
Official Thanks Lawmakers
Interagency Cooperation Vital
Hearings Begin for Terror Suspect
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
England Named Deputy Secretary
Enlisted Advisor Talks to Grads
IED Survivors Apply Experiences
Cyber Network Will Save Lives
World Affairs Council Honors Troops
First Team Dedicates OIF Memorial
Wounded Troops Conquer Obstacles
'Milkshake Man' Inspires Wounded
America Pays Tribute to Weinberger
National Guard, Reserve Update

CASUALTIES
Officials Identify Army Casualty - Story

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

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
1195 - Alexius III Angelus drives out brother Isaäk II as Byzantine emperor
1341 - Francesco Petrarca crowned in Rome
1378 - Bartolomeo Prignano elected as Pope Urban VI
1455 - Alfonso de Borgia elected as Pope Callistus III
1500 - Battle at Novara - King Louis XII beats duke Ludovico Sforza
1716 - Duke Karel Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin signs covenant with Russia & marries Czar Peter the Great's niece
1759 - British troops chase French out of Masulipatam India
1783 - Catharina II of Russia annexes the Krim
1789 - House of Representives 1st meeting
1801 - Soldiers riot in Bucharest, kill 128 Jews
1832 - Charles Darwin begins trip through Rio de Janeiro
1848 - 1st battle at Gioto Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians; Battle at Xaquixaguana, Peru Pedro de la Gasca beats Gonzalo Pizarro
1861 - US mint at Dahlonega GA seized by confederacy
1862 - John D. Lynde, patents aerosol dispenser
1864 - of Mansfield, Federals routed by General Richard Taylor
1865 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
1869 - American Museum of Natural History opens (New York, NY)
1879 - Khedive Ismael of Egypt fires French/British ministers; Milk is sold in glass bottles for 1st time
1893 - The Critic reports that the ice cream soda is our national drink
1898 - Battle of Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush 6,000 Sudanese
1904 - Great Britain & France sign Cordial Entente concerning colonial matter
1908 - Lord Herbert Henry Asquith succeeds Henry Campbell-Bannerman as British Prime Minister
1912 - Steamers collide in the Nile, drowning 200
1913 - 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified; Opening of China's 1st parliament takes place in Peking (now Beijing)
1914 - US & Colombia sign a treaty concerning the Panamá Canal Zone
1916 - Norway approves active & passive female suffrage
1933 - Manchester Guardian warns of unknown Nazi terror
1935 - Works Progress Administration approved by Congress
1939 - King Zog I of Albania, flees
1940 - Germany battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier Glorious
1945 - Nazi occupiers executed, Nazi General Christiansen flees Netherlands
1946 - League of Nations assembles for last time
1947 - Largest recorded sunspot (7,000) observed
1952 - President Harry Truman seizes the steel mills to prevent a strike
1953 - Dag Hammarskjöld chosen as Secretary-General of UN
1956 - 6 marine recruits drown during exercise at Paradise Island SC; M Bandaranaike's People's front wins election in Ceylon
1960 - Netherlands & Germany sign accord concerning war casualties
1961 - British liner "Dara" explodes in Persian Gulf, kills 236
1962 - Accords of Evian (Algeria) accepted by referendum in France
1964 - Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
1966 - OAO 1, the 1st orbiting astronomical observatory, is launched; Leonid Brezhnev elected Secretary-General of communist party
1968 - New socialist constitution of East Germany takes effect; Czechoslovakia Cernik government forms
1970 - Senate rejects Nixon's nomination of Carswell to Supreme Court
1977 - Israel premier Yitzhak Rabin resigns
1979 - People's Republic of China joins IOC
1985 - Amdahl releases UTS/V, 1st mainframe Unix
1986 - Clint Eastwood elected mayor of Carmel, CA
1988 - Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, 52, was defrocked by the Assemblies of God following the disclosure of his involvement with a prostitute. (Swaggart was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but returned after only three months.)
1990 - King Birendra of Nepal lifts 30-year ban on political parties; Norwegian Scandinavian Star catches fire; about 170 die
1993 - STS-56 (Discovery) launches into orbit
1994 - Japan's premier Morihiro Hosokawa resigns; Smoking banned in Pentagon & all US military bases
1997 - STS 83 (Columbia 22), lands

Birthdays
0563BC - Gautama Buddha (as celebrated in Japan-Kambutsue)
1460 - Ponce de León San Tervas de Campos, Spanish conqueror/explorer, searched for fountain of youth, found Florida
1605 - Philip IV, King of Spain & Portugal (1621-65)
1642 - Gerard Callenbach, Dutch Admiral
1655 - Louis Willem I Margrave (Baden-Baden)
1726 - Lewis Morris, US farmer (signed Declaration of Independence)
1775 - Adam A. earl von Neipperg, Austrian General/Napoleon's wife Marie lover
1818 - Christaan IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
1828 - George Baird Hodge, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1832 - Alfred von Waldersee, Prussian fieldmarshal
1875 - Albert I von Saksen-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34)
1898 - Achiel H. Acker, Belgian Premier (1945-46, 1954-58)
1904 - John R. Hicks, British economist (Nobel 1972)
1905 - Helen B. M. Fennell Joseph, anti-apartheid writer (Side by Side); Pierre Wigny, Belgian minister of Foreign affairs (1958-61) [or 4/18]
1908 - Neil Lawson, British high court judge
1909 - William James Millar Mackenzie, political scientist
1911 - Melvin Calvin, US chemist (photosynthesis, Nobel 1961)
1912 - Josef Gabcík, Czechoslovakian resistance fighter (attacked Heydrich)
1919 - [Douglas] Ian Smith, Premier of Rhodesia
1921 - Betty [Bloomer] Ford, First Lady (1975-76)/namesake for Betty Ford Clinic
1935 - Albert G. Bustamante (Representative-TX)
1937 - Seymour Hersh, award winning investigative reporter (New York Times)
1943 - Tony Banks English politician (Labour Party)
1944 - Anthony Farrar, Hockley military historian
1945 - Ian White, Member of European Parliament for Bristol
1947 - Thomas D. Delay (Representative-TX)

Passings
0217 - Caracalla [Marcus Aurelius Antoniius], Roman emperor (198-217), murdered at 29
1143 - John II Comnenus, Emperor of Byzantium (1118-43), dies in an accident
1364 - Jan II the Good, King of France (1350-64), dies at 44
1492 - Lorenzo I de' Medici "il Magnifico," ruler of Florence (1469-92)
1498 - Charles VIII, King of France (1483-98), beheaded at 27
1697 - Niels Juel, Danish Admiral (Oland, Moen, Kjögebocht), dies at 67
1861 - Elisha G. Otis, US elevator builder (Otis), dies at 50
1897 - Heinrich von Stephan, UK politician
1902 - Sipyagain, Russian minister of interior/headed Secret Service, assassinated
1919 - Roland baron Eötvös, Hungarian physicist, dies at 70
1943 - Paul Colin, Belgian journalist/collaborator, executed
1947 - Henry Ford, US industrialist (Ford cars)
1969 - Denton Cooley, got 1st fully artificial heart, dies at 48
1981 - Omar Bradley, last US 5-star General, (Normandy) dies in New York at 88
1987 - Francis C. Denebrink, US Naval officer (WWI, WWII, Korea) dies at 90
1990 - Ryan White, hemophiliac AIDS sufferer, dies at 18 - The Ryan White Foundation was founded later in 1991 by Jeanne White and Phil Donahue

Reported Missing in Action
1962
Groom, George E., US Army SF (MO); released May, 1962

Gabriel, James, Jr., US Army SF (HI); remains recovered April, 1962

Marchand, Wayne Ellsworth, US Army SF (NE); remains recovered April, 1968

Quinn, Francis, US Army (NY); released May, 1962

1970
Bellendorf, Dieter, Civilian - NBC (Germany); (sp Ballendorf?)

Gensluckner, Georg, Civilian (Austria)

Yieng, Ung Ling, Civilian (Cambodia);

1972
Ray, Johnnie L., US Army (OK); released by PRG February, 1973

Wanat, George K., Jr., US Army (CN); released by PRG February, 1973