by Staff Sgt. Andrew Kosterman
April 24, 2006
An Army Ranger parachutes over Fort Benning, Ga., during the "Spot Jump" portion of the 2006 Best Ranger competition, Apr. 21. Click here for results of the competition.

Fresh off the Milblog Conference, and I'm travelling again - this time for work.

I'm in a city that was the departure point for the ill-fated Avengers of Flight 19, which disappeared in December, 1945.

Former President George H.W. Bush also received pilot training at this city's Naval Air Station.

So....

Where Am I?

First to answer correctly (via email) gets a copy of Walking With Heroes

UPDATE: Congratulations to Bryan (a hero himself), who correctly guessed that I'm in Fort Lauderdale. Your book will be on the way shortly!

REMOVING GRAFFITI — A local child lends a hand to help remove anti-coalition graffiti from walls in his village south of Baghdad, April 14, 2006. Iraqi army soldiers and Multinational Division–Baghdad patrols immediately paint over the graffiti when it is discovered. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. James Spofford

News of Note
Homeland Security / War on Terror
'What Is Coming Is Even Worse' - Video
Lawmaker Blocks Funding for Flight 93 Memorial
U.S. Man Guilty of Supporting Terrorists in Lodi Case
Arrests Made in Egypt Blasts- Video: 'Sinful Terrorist Action'
Background Checks for 400,000 Port Workers
No verdict yet in Moussaoui case - Video
Saudi boycotts tribunal, calls US God's enemy

Immigration
Senate leaders optimistic on immigration

Worldwide Wackos
Rice Concerned Over Iran's Sharing of Nuclear Tech
Israel launches "eye in the sky" over Iran
Iran to shun UN watchdog if hit by embargo

Politics
Bush Taps Tony Snow for Press Secretary
Bush Orders Oil Probe - Reserve deliveries halted - Video
Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline

U.N. News
First U.N. Sanctions for Darfur

Oddities
Tempest in a D-cup as bust sizes grow
Police hunt killer chimps

Other News of Note
Thousands March to Honor Holocaust Victims
Fox News
Duke Rape Suspect to Stand Trial on Unrelated Charge
Israel Launches Spy Satellite
NEW! Small Business Page
NEW! Cybersecurity Center

Reuters: Top News
Stocks fall on renewed rate fears
Amazon.com 1st-qtr sales rise
Refco creditors sue BAWAG, judge freezes assets
Lay says "witch hunt" triggered Enron demise
US insurer Aflac posts higher 1st-quarter earnings
Sanmina-SCI posts quarterly loss, stock up
Omnicom quarterly profit rises 10 percent
Stocks fall on rate fear; banks, oil sector hit
RF Micro, Amazon shares up on Inet
Boyd Gaming profit rises, sees more competition
Burlington Northern profit up, but stock slides
CME misses estimates on product mix
Cheap chemicals
Allure, risks of foreign stocks
Experts debate beefing up future hurricane warnings
Experts debate beefing up future hurricane warnings
Jane Jacobs, renowned urban activist, dead at 89
Nokia sells over 5 mln N-series multimedia phones
New TiVo boxes let users record two shows at once
NY sniping at Super Mario's $12 mln temple to food
Eco-friendly Belize wary of oil fever
Film, television scares off potential organ donors
Many middle-income Americans lack insurance: study
Chris Rock tied to Pellicano wiretap probe: report

AP World News
NASA Chief Eyes 2011 for New Spacecraft
'Lost' Actress Chooses Jail Over Service
Amazon.com 1Q Earnings Slide 35 Percent
NFL Suspends Ricky Williams for 2006
Spellings Summons SAT Execs Over Errors
Risk Cited in Replacing Heart Device
Cindy Margolis to Pose for Playboy
Canucks Fire Coach Marc Crawford
Police: Remains of White Man Found in Pa.
Mavs' Avery Johnson Named Coach of Year
Girl Dies Looking for Mom in Burning Home
'Idol's Ryan and Paula Disagree on Feud

Military.com
Red Cross: Gitmo Conditions Better
Al-Zarqawi Appears in Rare Video
U.S. Tries to Curb Iraq Human Trafficking
Sailors Get Soldiers' Training
Navy Fears Medical Personnel Crisis

CENTCOM: News Releases
COALITION FORCES INTERDICT ENEMIES

ONE ANP OFFICER, THREE TALIBAN KILLED IN FIREFIGHT

PRT JOINS FORCES WITH WORLD FOOD PROGRAM TO HELP AFGHANS

Department of Defense
Bush: Iraqi Government Reflects Society - Story
Iraqi Unity at All-Time High, Rice Says
Representation Issue Arises in Terror Case - Story
Cell Coordinates Coalition Maritime Operations - Story
Civilian Leaders Test New Rollover Trainer - Story
Civilian Leaders Conference Visits CENTCOM
Joint Civilian Orientation Conference

IRAQIS TAKE THE LEAD
Iraqi Highway Patrol Hold 'Career Day' - Story
Iraqi Security Forces Build Capabilities, Trust
New Boats Help Police Secure Waterways

REBUILDING IRAQ
Oil Terminal Upgrade Will Increase Efficiency - Story
Iraqi School Gets New Playground Equipment - Photos
Iraqi Oil Terminal Increases Loading Capacity

ON THE GROUND
U.S. Soldiers Tackle Dual Mission in Iraqi City - Story

IN IRAQ
Brigade Chinooks Deliver Vital Supplies
Soldiers Provide Medical, Humanitarian Aid
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Visits Iraqi Soldiers Photos

IN AFGHANISTAN
U.S. Army Engineer Unit Ready for Afghan Duty

IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
Navy Secretary Thanks Troops for Humanitarian Work
Task Force Faces Horn of Africa 'Complexity'

FACE OF DEFENSE
Civil War Re-enactor Serves in Iraq - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Author Explains 'Brat' Culture - Story
Former Marine to Get Honors - Story
Calif. Mom’s Efforts Support Troops

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Rumsfeld Topic: Unity Government
Casey: Iraqi Airmen Part of Future
Bush: Iraq Reaches Milestone
Troops Hold Suspects, Nab Weapons
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
Taliban Killed; Enemy Targeted
PRT, U.N. Food Program Aid Afghans
Coalition Assists Crash Victims
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Coast Guard Cutter Joins Exercise
Iraq Victory Will Frustrate Terrorists
Commissions to Resume at Gitmo
Pakistani Officer Commands CTF 150
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
Bush Congratulates Navy Team
President Praises Marines
Deployment Impacts Kids, Doc Says
National Guard, Reserve Update

CASUALTIES
Defense Officials Identify Casualties - 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
0757 - Paolo Orsini replaces his brother Pope Stephen II, as Paul I
1220 - German king Frederick II grants bishops sovereign rights
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo & kill Giuliano de'Medici; Easter is celebrated for the first time
1514 - Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
1607 - 1st British to establish an American colony land at Cape Henry, VA
1654 - Jews are expelled from Brazil
1655 - Dutch West Indies Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam
1721 - Smallpox vaccination 1st administrated
1777 - Sybil Ludington, 16, rides from New York to Connecticut rallying her father's militia
1803 - Meteorites fall in L'Aigle, France
1814 - King Louis XVIII lands on Calais, from England
1828 - Russia declares war on Turkey to support Greece's independence
1853 - Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
1865 - Battle of Fort Tobacco, VA; Confederate General J. E. Johnston surrenders Army of Tennessee, at Durham, NC
1887 - Huntsville Electric Company is established to sell electricity
1890 - Henry Morton Stanley inaugurated in London
1906 - 1st motion pictures shown in Hawaii
1913 - Sun Yet San calls for revolt against President Yuan Shikai in China
1915 - Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain, France & Russia
1920 - H. Shapley & H. D. Curtis hold "great debate" on nature of nebulae
1926 - Karachai Autonomous Region is established in RSFSR (until 1943); Germany & Russia sign neutrality/peace treaty
1928 - Madame Tussaud's waxworks exhibition opens in London
1929 - 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
1933 - Jewish students are barred from school in Germany
1937 - German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in Spain
1938 - Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks
1941 - Potatoes rationed in Holland
1942 - Colliery explosion kills 1,549 at Honkeiko, Manchuria; Luftwaffe bombs Bath
1944 - 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter shot down; Papandreou government in Greece forms
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during WWII, arrested for treason
1948 - The XP-86 prototype for the Sabre Jet first "officially" breaks the sound barrier. The first operational F-86A Sabres entered service in May of the same year
1950 - Last horse race at Havre de Grace Track in Maryland is run
1952 - US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp, killing 176
1954 - Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
1959 - Cuba invades Panamá
1961 - French paratroopers' revolt suppressed in Algeria
1962 - 1st Lockheed A-12 flies; Ariel 1 Launch (1st UK Satellite); Ranger 4 crash lands on (backside of) Moon
1964 - Tanganyika & Zanzibar unite to form Tanzania (Tanzanian Union Day)
1967 - San Marco 2 Launch (1st Equatorial Launch)
1968 - Students seize administration building at Ohio State
1971 - San Francisco lightship replaced by automatic buoy; Turkey state of siege proclaimed
1974 - Landslide in Huancavelica Province, Peru creates a natural dam; Malta adopts constitution
1976 - Pan Am begins non-stop flights New York-Tokyo
1977 - New York's famed disco Studio 54 opens
1978 - NASA launches space vehicle S-201; France sends troops to Chad
1980 - Iran begins scattering US hostages from the US Embassy; Longest jump by a jet boat is set at 120'
1981 - Largest US bank robbery (Tucson AZ), more than $33 million stolen
1982 - Argentina surrenders to Britain on South Georgia near Falkland Island
1984 - President Ronald Reagan visits China
1986 - Worst nuclear disaster -- the 4th reactor at Chernobyl (USSR) explodes, killing 31
1989 - AT&T announces New Jersey's 201 area code will split into 908 & 201
1990 - 126 die in a (6.9) earthquake in China; New York court of appeals ends 2½ year legal battle over 1988 America's Cup by refusing jurisdiction of the case
1991 - 23 killed in Kansas & Oklahoma by tornadoes
1993 - Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, killing 56; STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
1994 - 1st multi-racial election in South Africa begins [3 days] -- Dr. Nomaza Paintin in New Zealand is 1st Black South African to vote; Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, killing 262

Birthdays
0121 - Antonius Marcus Aurelius [Marcus A Verus], Emperor of Rome (161-180)
1319 - Jean II the Good, King of France (1350-64)
1573 - Marie de'Medici, Queen of France
1648 - Pedro II, King of Portugal (1683-1706)
1718 - Esek Hopkins, 1st commander-in-chief (US Navy)
1726 - Pasquale Paoli, Corsican freedom fighter
1785 - John James Audubon, bird watcher/artist
1827 - Charles Edward Hovey, Union Brevet Major General
1839 - Cyrus Hamblin, Union Brevet Major General
1875 - Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (1948-60)
1879 - Sir Owen Williams Richardson, English physicist (Nobel 1928)
1886 - Ma Rainey [Gertrude Pridgett], "Mother of the Blues", US blues singer
1895 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Deputy Führer, only prisoner at Spandau
1900 - Charles Richter, seismologist (Richter scale)
1903 - Geoffrey Worthington, Air vice-marshall
1910 - Johan Doorn, Dutch journalist/resistance fighter (Orange Newspaper)
1921 - Harry Knutton, Major-General/Director-General (London City & Guilds Institute)
1922 - Jeanne Sauvé, 1st female Governor-General (Canada, 1984-90)
1936 - Edward Cazalet, British High Court Judge
1939 - Roger Buckley, British High Court Judge
1942 - Vitali Andreyevich Grishchenko, cosmonaut
1944 - David Martin (Representative-NY)
1948 - Boyd Matson, TV host/correspondent (National Geographic Explorer); Gerry Sikorski (Representative-MN)
1951 - Lynne Jones, MP
1952 - Popo Simon Molefe, Secretary-General (South Africa UDF)

Passings
0757 - Stephen II, Pope (752-57)
1196 - Alfonso II, King of Aragon (1162-96)
1789 - Peter I Panin, Russian General (Pugatshov-uprising), dies at about 67
1865 - John Wilkes Booth, assassin, shot dead near Bowling Green VA at 27
1940 - Carl Bosch, German chemist (BASF, IG Farben, Nobel 1931), dies at 65
1960 - Wander J. de Haas Dutch physicist (Einstein-De Haas effect), dies at 82
1990 - Carlos Pizarro Leongomez, Colombian presidential candidate, assassinated
1997 - Peng Zhen, mayor of Beijing China (1951-66); Yegorov, Russian leader (1994-95)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Anderson, Warren L., USAF (MI); RF4C shot down (w/Tucker)

Reilly, Edward D., US Army (PA); remains returned August, 1989

Tucker, James H., USAF (OK); RF4C shot down (w/Anderson)

1967
Austin, Charles D., USAF (CT); F4C shot down

Dudash, John F., USAF (NJ); F105F shot down (w/ A. Meyer) - remains returned June, 1983

Estocin, Michael J., USN (PA); A4E shot down

Meyer, Alton B., USAF (TN) F105F shot down (w/Dudash), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Meyer, William, USAF (MI); F105D shot down - remains returned August, 1985

Riate Alfonso R., USMC (CA); released by PRG March, 1973 - accused of collaboration

1968
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their C130B was shot down - all listed as KIA / BNR:
McDaniel, John Lewis (NC)

Stow, Lilburn Ray (OK)

Todd, Larry Richard (GA)

1969
East, James Boyd, Jr., USAF (OK); A1J shot down - remains returned / ID'd July, 1997

1970
Elliott, Artice W., US Army (TX); released by PRG March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1972
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their C130E was shot down:
Amesbury, Harry A., Jr. (IL); pilot

Cooke, Calvin C., Jr., (DC); crew

Dunn, Richard E., (CT); loadmaster - remains recovered

Hoskins, Donald R., (IN); crew

Russell, Richard L. (TX); navigator

Weisman, Kurt F. (IN); crew - remains returned February, 1975

Also reported MIA this day in 1972:
Hirons, Alan, Civilian-UPI; captured (w/Reynolds)

Reynolds, Terry L., Civilian-UPI (KS); captured (w/Hirons)