Reporter Pam Hess gives her impressions from a trip to Iraq. The video is about 9 minutes long, but very much worth it. She has some very important things to say about the will of our troops, and why what they're doing is important:



H/T to Brat

Labels: Iraq, MSM

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Cheney Chides Dems for Iraq Withdrawal Plans
Dems abandon war authority provision
U.S. troops to root out car-bomb shops

Operation Enduring Freedom
9 Afghan Cops Killed in Second Day of Taliban Attacks

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
House Outrage on 'Terror Apologists' (Words fail me...)
Imams Removed From Flight to Sue US Airways
'Shadow' Trackers Hunt Bin Laden
Alleged 9/11 Planner Faces Military Hearing
Misery tempts Palestinian Christians to flee
BBC correspondent kidnapped in Gaza: police
Israel cautions EU against concessions on Hamas

Troops on Trial
British judge says headquarters okayed Iraq abuse

Other Military News
Top Army Doc Out in Walter Reed Scandal
VA orders review of 1,400 clinics
List of Military Facilities to be Inspected
Mental illness common in returning U.S. soldiers
War veterans need more mental help: study
White House trades new weapons to support troops

Worldwide Wackos
Key nations split over Iran sanctions
Russians: Iran nuke plant to be delayed

Politics / Government
Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson Mulls '08 Bid - VIDEO
Israel Recalls Envoy Over Booze, Bondage
Guatemalans Greet Bush - VIDEO
Giuliani wins backing of conservative senator
Republican Paul enters 2008 White House race
U.S. condemns Zimbabwe government over attacks - Video
Elder Bush treated for dehydration

Illegal Immigration / Border Control
Under pressure, Bush says he wants immigration deal - Video
Trial tests law on illegal immigration

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
'It's Beyond Abuse' - Dad, stepmom charged in 'torture' murder of girl, 4
Baby Kidnap Suspect Faces Federal Charge
Woman Charged in Deadly Chicago Blaze
$26,000 Reward for Return of Georgia Boy, 6

U.N. News
U.N. calls for intervention in Sudan

Science / Medicine / Technology
Can Human Beings Travel Back in Time?
Study shows why exercise boosts brainpower
Efficient methods could bail out biofuels: study
Beta carotene pills may not save vision
Theory: Saturn moon's heat from decay

Mother Nature
Arson Probed in California Wildfire - PHOTOS - SPEAKOUT!

News from My Neck of the Woods
N.Y. Residents Flee Propane Train Blast
Families Mourn New York City Fire Victims

Oddities
Woman weds corpse...
Mortuary puts funerals on webcasts

Other News of Note
Gas Prices Spike 20 Cents in 2 Weeks
Critics Howl Over Halliburton's Dubai Move
U.S., Libya negotiating nuclear medicine project
U.S. counts on Russian support for Kosovo plan

Fox News
PHOTO ESSAY: Pakistani Lawyers Riot
30,000 Lose Power After Texas Gas Explosion

Reuters: Top News
All eligible for TV converter discount
Cisco, IBM to merge maintenance services abroad
Philips drops stroboscopic backlight for flat TVs
Neurological condition linked to obesity surgery
Snoop Dogg arrested in Sweden for suspected drug use - Video
Regis Philbin set for heart surgery
Nikkei down as Sony, recent gainers fall
Shares rise on deals, oil and techs
TI slightly narrows forecasts, shares fall
Novastar Financial February production volume falls
Texas Instruments shares fall
Skeptics doubt Gap growth plans
Subprime woes hit equity bond sales
New Century on bankruptcy's doorstep
Ford to sell Aston Martin in $925 mln deal
NJ jury orders Merck to pay $47.5 mln in Vioxx case
Delphi investor group may sell part of stake
UnitedHealth to buy Sierra Health for $2.4 bln
Business interests boost anti-regulation push
UPDATE 7-Lenders push New Century to bankruptcy's doorstep
KKR to buy Dollar General for about $6.9 bln
Schering-Plough to buy Akzo's Organon for $14.4 bn
Microsoft adds Office parts to enterprise software

AP World News
Van Halen, R.E.M. head into rock hall
Stocks close higher amid merger deals
Duke, Lady Vols, UConn, N.C. top seeds
Knicks extend Isiah Thomas' contract
Western Wall media fracas over Leo & pal
Ohio State No. 1 in season's final poll
Mackey team widens lead at Iditarod
Defending champ Florida gets top billing

Military.com
Poll: Lawmakers Undermining Troops?
Op-ed: Dodgers at Bat
DT: Welcome Christian Lowe
Blog: Your Stories in Print
Advisors: Resume Right Stuff
Military.com at the Movies - Miller at the Movies: 300

USJFCOM
NATO military committee visits USJFCOM
More about USJFCOM and Allied Command Transformation
JIOC-X continues to improve intelligence support for joint warfighter - podcast
New data technology makes aerial reconnaissance video available to users in the field - podcast
Congressman calls command modeling and simulation hub - podcast

DefenseLink
Cheney: Early Iraq Pullout Would Imperil U.S - Story
Army Reacting Quickly to Fix Medical System - Story
Tribunals Held for High-Value Detainees - Story
Americans Must Be Patient in Expecting Progress - Story
Coalition, Iraqi Forces Capture 48 Suspects - Story

More Headline News
Army Surgeon General Submits Retirement
Pentagon Channel Lauded for Programming
Participants Grateful for Vail Veterans Program
Ambassador: Iraqi Government Makes Progress
Iraqis Help Troops Find Weapons, Bombs Caches

Military News
Army Guard Leader Visits Troops in Afghanistan
Commander Wants to End One-Year Tours
Multi-service Crew Fights War on Terror in Afghanistan

War on Terror
Iraqi Army Provide Security - Story
Iraqi Forces Want to Fight for Sovereign Iraq, General Says
Iraqis Building Capable Air Force
Marine, Soldiers Killed in Iraq

America Supports You
Overseas Troops Enjoy Gifts - Story
Firefighters Thank Injured Vets
Wounded Vets Ski Slopes
Veterans Spend Time Tubing

Transformation
Future Bright for Space Assets - Story
Marines Finish Corporals Course
Cadets Conducting Research
Navy to Commission Transport

Face of Defense
Son Motivates Marine's Success
Reunion After 20 Years
Brothers Share Childhood Dream

DefendAmerica
NEWS UPDATES
Coalition Forces Capture 48 Suspects - Story
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Transition Teams Key to Iraqi Forces' Success - Story
Army Medics Providing Vital Support to Marines - Story
Reserve Airmen Contribute to Medical Mission - Story
Locals Helping Troops Find Weapons in Iraq - Story

IN IRAQ
U.S. Navy’s First Riverine Squadron Deploys
Soldiers, Iraqis Discuss Reconstruction Goals
Soldiers Put Knowledge, Skills to the Test
Radio, Television Network Hits Iraq Airwaves
Class Helps Soldiers Care for Combat Casualties
More than 60 Sign Up for Iraqi Police Force

IN AFGHANISTAN
Soldiers Deliver Supplies for Women's Day Event
Afghan Workers Keep Vehicles in Prime Condition

BACKGROUND
IRAQ
Renewal In Iraq
Iraq: Security, Stability
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Weekly Reconstruction Report (PDF)
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base


Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

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

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Philippines
Baler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site Manila

South Korea
Cheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'o
Osan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu

Today in History
0483 - St. Felix III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0607 - 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1138 - German king Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen crowned
1519 - Cortez lands in México
1560 - Spanish fleet occupies Djerba, at Tripoli
1567 - Battle at Oosterweel: Spanish troops destroy Geuzenleger
1569 - Battle of Jarnac, Count of Anjou defeats Huguenots
1591 - Battle at Tondibi: Moroccans army under Judar beats sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai
1639 - Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard
1656 - Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam
1677 - Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1759 - 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1781 - Sir William Herschel sees "comet" (really discovered Uranus)
1790 - John Martin, 1st American-born actor, performs in Philadelphia
1852 - Uncle Sam cartoon figure debuts in the "New York Lantern" weekly
1861 - Jefferson Davis signs bill authorizing use of slaves as soldiers
1865 - US Confederate Congress calls on black slaves for field service
1868 - Senate begins President Andrew Johnson impeachment trial
1869 - Arkansas legislature passes anti-Klan law
1884 - Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins; US adopts Standard Time
1887 - Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs
1888 - Great Blizzard of 1888 rages
1894 - J.L. Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate
1900 - British troops occupy Bloemfontein, Orange-Free state
1904 - Bronze statue of Christ on Argentine-Chilian border dedicated
1913 - Kansas legislature approves censorship of motion pictures
1915 - Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit
1918 - American Red Magen David (Jewish Red Cross) forms
1920 - Wolfgang Kapp's coup attempt in Berlin fails
1921 - Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China
1923 - Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures (New York NY)
1925 - Tennessee makes it unlawful to teach evolution
1928 - 450 die in St. Francis Valley Dam burst (California)
1930 - Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory
1933 - US Banks reopen; Josef Göbbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda
1935 - Driving tests introduced in Great Britain
1938 - Anschluß-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany
1940 - Finland-Russian cease fire signed, Finland gives up Karelische
1941 - A. Bougne forms AGRA (Amis du Grand Reich Allemand)
1942 - Julia Flikke, Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman Colonel in US Army
1943 - Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight
1944 - USSR recognizes Italian Badoglio government
1945 - Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands; Sicherheitsdienst arrest Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman
1951 - 2nd Dutch government of Drees forms; Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany
1954 - Viet Minh General Giap opens assault on That Bien Phu
1955 - Bir BSD Mahendra succeeds Tribhubana as king of Nepal
1957 - Bloody battles after anti-Batista demonstration in Havana, Cuba
1958 - Govt troops land in Sumatra, Indonesia
1961 - Elizabeth Gurley Finn (70) becomes president of US Communist Party; JFK sets up the Alliance for Progress; Landslide in USSR, kills 145; Old type, black & white notes cease to be legal tender
1962 - Yugoslavia grants 1,000 prisoners amnesty
1963 - 2 Russian reconnaissance flights over Alaska
1963 - Indonesia & Netherlands recover diplomatic relations
1964 - Turkey threatens Cyprus with armed attack
1967 - Congo sentences ex-premier Moïse Tsjombe to death
1969 - Apollo 9 returns to Earth
1970 - 100 year Beehive anniversary ends in brawl in Amsterdam; Digital Equipment Corp introduces PDP-11 minicomputer
1973 - Syria adopts constitution
1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens near Paris, France
1978 - Moluccans "suicide commandos" occupy Province house
1980 - Ford Motor Co found innocent in death of 3 women in a fiery Pinto
1981 - Attempt on Pope John Paul II's life by Mehemet Ali Agca
1985 - Funeral services held for Konstantin Chernenko (Moscow)
1986 - Soyuz T-15 carries 2 cosmonauts to Soviet space station Mir; Space probe Giotto encounters Halley's Comet
1987 - John Gotti is acquitted of racketeering
1989 - 27th shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8) launched, 1st woman to do the countdown; FDA orders recall of all Chilean fruit in US
1990 - Nicholoas Braithwaite elected premier of Grenada
1991 - Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines & cleanup of Valdez oil spill (Prince William Sound, Alaska)
1992 - 570 die in a Turkish earthquake
1993 - Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US
1994 - 33.3% of Austria votes for ultra-right FPÖ; Oil tank/airship crash at Bosporus (huge fire/15+ killed); President Mangope of Bophuthaswana deposed
1995 - Anti fascist Kazakhstan anti-parliament forms; Istanbul police shoot dead 16 Alawitische demonstrators
1996 - Thomas Hamilton kills 16 kindergardeners, their teacher & himself in Dunblane, Scotland

Birthdays
1599 - Johannes Berchmans, Dutch Jesuit/saint
1615 - Innocent XII [Antonio Pignatelli], Pope (1691-1700)
1696 - Louis F.A.D. Duke de Richelieu, French marshal
1741 - Jozef II, Arch Duke of Austria/Roman Catholic German emperor (1765-90)
1764 - Charles Earl Grey (Whig), British Prime Minister (1830-34)
1768 - Charles Louis W.J. van Keverberg, Dutch civil servant
1798 - Abigail Powers Fillmore, US First Lady - Millard Fillmore (1850-53)
1818 - Albion Parris Howe, Union Brevet Major General (Union Army)
1820 - Louis Herbert, Confederate Brigadier General
1855 - Percival "Percy" Lowell, US astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto)
1904 - Henry Iliffe Cozens, pilot
1909 - Gilbert Inglefield, Mayor of London (1967-68)
1911 - L[aFayette] Ron Hubbard, sci-fi writer/Scientologist (Dianetics)
1912 - James Friell, political cartoonist
1913 - William J. Casey, headed CIA during Iran-contra scandal (1981-87)
1916 - (Corinne) Lindy (Claiborne) Boggs (Representative-LA)
1918 - Faye Glenn Abdellan, US government official (health services)
1920 - Frans van der Elst, Flemish attorney/MP (Volksunie)
1921 - Allan Jaffee, comic strip cartoonist/illustrator (MAD Magazine)
1926 - Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine President (1983-89)
1933 - Frank H. Murkowski (Senator-AK)
1936 - Clarence Nash, animation voice (Donald Duck)
1937 - Fofo I.F. Sunia (Representative-American Samoa)
1958 - Rick A. Lazio (Representative-NY)

Passings
1202 - Mieszko III the Elder, Grand Duke of Poland (1173-77, 1200-02)
1516 - Vladislav II Jagiello, King of Bohemia (1490-1516), dies at 60
1569 - Louis Condé, French prince/co-leader of Hugenots, dies in battle
1573 - Michel de l'Hôpital, Chancellor of France (1560-68), dies at about 65
1837 - Nikita P. Panin, Russian diplomat/minister of Foreign affairs, dies at 66
1881 - Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated at 62
1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd US President (1889-1893), dies in Indianapolis at 67
1906 - Susan B[rownell] Anthony, American suffragist, dies at 85
1915 - Sergei J. Witte, Dutch count/premier of Russia, dies at 65
1938 - Clarence S. Darrow, Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80
1941 - A. Coenradi, Bernard Ijzerdraat, E. Hellendoorn, J. Eyl, Dutch resistance fighters, executed; Isaak E. Babel, Russian writer (Zakat, Marija), executed at 46
1946 - Werner von Blomberg, German minister of Reichswehr, dies at 67
1951 - Alfred Hugenberg, German Roman Catholic president-director of Krupp/media magnate, dies
1955 - Maharajadhiraja Tribhuvana Bir Bikram Yung Bahadur Shum Shere; Yung Deva, King of Nepal (191.-55), dies at about 48
1964 - Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death in Queens - 40 neighbors looked on
1975 - Ali Sastroamidjojo, Indonesian attorney/minister/premier, dies at 71
1977 - Fanie Lou Hamer, freedom fighter
1982 - Wilfred Hawker, Suriname Sergeant-Major, executed
1986 - Alvaro Fayad Delgado, Colombian guerilla leader (M-19)
1995 - Abdul Ali Mazari Afghan shite leader, shot to death; John Silverlight journalist, dies at 75; Leo Kaplan, lawyer (ASCAP), dies at 89; P.C.J. van Lierde, Dutch vicar-general of Vatican (1951-91), dies at 87
1996 - Brian Hulls, television news cameraman, dies at 48

Reported Missing in Action
1966
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their AC47D disappeared over Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam:
Davis, Gene E. (IN)

Duvall, Dean A. (IN); aerial gunner

Henninger, Howard W. (CA); pilot

Morgan, Edwin E. (NC); aerial gunner

Olson, Gerald E. (FL)

Pasekoff, Robert E. (PA)

Pauley, Marshall I. (WV); aerial gunner

Also reported MIA this day in 1966:
Parker, Udon, US Army (AL); fell into a stream and was swept away - Killed, body not recovered

1967
Harris, Paul Winiford, USMC (OH); UH34D shot down (w/Terwilliger)

Terwilliger, Virgil Byron, USMC (OH); UH34D shot down (w/Harris)

1968
The following personnel reported MIA when their UH1B was hit by enemy fire and forced to land (crew forced to attempt to evade on the ground):
Evans, Cleveland, Jr., USMC (AR); passenger

Heitman, Steven W., US Army (IN); passenger

Watson, Jimmy L., US Army (NC); pilot

Also reported MIA this day in 1968:
Byrne, Joseph Henry, USAF (IL); A1E shot down (w/Collins)

Collins, Guy Fletcher, USAF (FL); A1E shot down (w/Byrne)

Westbrook, Donald E., USAF (TX); A1E shot down while searching for survivors of the attack on Lima 85, Phou Pha Thi, Laos

1971
Creed, Barton S., USN (NY); A7E shot down, believed captured

Labels: Headlines, History