Fly By
An F/A-18C Hornet, assigned to the "Blue Diamonds" of Strike Fighter Squadron 146, flies over the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group is on a scheduled deployment in support of maritime security operations. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jon Hyde

Labels: aircraft, F/A-18C, Hornet, photos, ships, Strike Fighter Squadron 146, US Navy

From left to right, Sgt. Brandon A. VanSickle, Cpl. Phillip Quinones and Cpl. Miguel A. Mendoza, all from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Headquarters Commandant section, break out a tent at a MEU camp in the Middle East May 22, 2007. The Headquarters Commandant section is responsible for attending to virtually every day to day need of MEU living spaces ashore and at sea. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeremy Ross


Lance Cpl. Alexander Garcia (left), from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Intelligence section, and Cpl. Miguel A. Mendoza, a clerk from the MEU's Headquarters Commandant section, break-out a tent at the unit's camp in the Middle East, May 22, 2007. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeremy Ross


From right to left, Cpl. Miguel A. Mendoza and Sgt. Brandon A. VanSickle, both from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Headquarters Commandant section, unroll a tent in the Middle East May 22, as Sgt. Hector J. Cruz, from the MEU's Radio Battalion Detachment, looks on. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeremy Ross


From left to right, Lance Cpl. Jaime Manzo Jr., Lance Cpl. Alexander Garcia, Cpl. Miguel A. Mendoza and Sgt. Hector J. Cruz, all from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Command Element, haul a tent across the unit's camp in the Middle East, May 22, 2007. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeremy Ross


Lance Cpl. Alexander Garcia, from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Command Element, helps the unit's Headquarters Commandant section erect a tent at a MEU camp in the Middle East, May 22, 2007. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeremy Ross



More photo essays at DefendAmerica

Labels: 26th MEU, photo essays, photos, USMC

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
U.S. Officials, Iraqi PM Meet in Desert- White House: Progress Before GI Cutbacks
White House plays down report of Iraq troop cut

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Hamas: No Truce With Israel
Al Qaeda Terror Suspect Sent to U.S.
More U.S. Aid Arrives in Lebanon - VIDEO
Israel pushes Gaza offensive amid rocket attacks - Video

Fallen Heroes
U.S. deaths near grim Memorial Day mark
New Hampshire Family Gets Fallen Soldier Son's Puppy From Iraq

Other Military News
Cops: Man Beat Iraq GI's Son to Death
Chinese media blast Pentagon report
Czech demonstrators protest missile shield plans

Worldwide Wackos
Iran: We Uncovered U.S.-Organized Spying
Analysis: Iran complicates U.S. politics

Homegrown Moonbats
Moore to bring 'Sicko' to Michigan

Politics / Government
Book: Bill Planned to Divorce Hillary
Presidential Candidates Look for Boost From Ads
Texas House Speaker Fights Ouster
S.Africa, Brazil urge open World Bank appointment
Bush to be pressed on troop withdrawal

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Lindsay Lohan in California Mess
Funeral held for N.Y. man shot by police
Police: 2 dead, 3 hurt in N.J. shooting
Kevorkian's cause founders as he's freed

U.N. News
UN Peacekeeper Gunned Down in Darfur

Science / Medicine / Technology
Umbilical cord cells could produce insulin: study
New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark
Arctic, tropical islands team up for climate pact
"The Sims" to move from PC screen to silver screen

Mother Nature
Bid to save whales drags into 3rd week

Oddities
Next Vacation Hotspot: Roswell - City officials plan alien theme park
NY shoe store gets its own ZIP code

Other News of Note
Crisis in Ukraine - Feuding leaders agree to parliamentary election
Troops deployed to Kiev amid crisis

Fox News
Seeking Cheap Gas in Mexico - GAS TRACKER
The Great Beyond

Reuters: Top News
Irish PM seeks ally after vote count
Russians protest against plans for gay parade
Venezuelans march against closure of TV station
Paul Newman to retire from acting
"Pirates" plunders $57 million
Balkan romp brings happy ending to dark Cannes
May jobs data to test stocks' rally - Video
Wall St closes up as Nasdaq, Coke spur M&A optimism - Video
U.S. crude jumps $1 on gasoline worries - Video
Dollar slips after weak house data
Amgen to appeal as EU experts reject Vectibix drug
Gold bulls retreat on central bank sales
Subprime mortgage market "head fake"?
Former Wal-Mart exec accuses CEO of ethics breach
Chrysler wants to boost presence in Russia: report
Money talked in $4.1 billion Coke/Glaceau deal - Video
Home Depot looks to mend investor fences
Endemol's new owners to invest, shop: report
"Flat" world is starting to tilt

AP World News
Companies working to pare down waste
Delgado's 2 HRs power Mets past Marlins
Yanks continue struggling against Angels
Neighborhood swayed by 'liar's loans'
Federer eyes completing career Slam
Yankees' Damon to stay off DL for now

Military.com
Poll: Memorial Day Too Commercial?
Why Pay for College?
Op-Ed: Misusing Memorial Day
Podcast: Is Al Qaeda Growing?
DT: Next Gen Body Armor
Visit a Military Cemetery Near You
Military.com Career Fair Coming to Tampa on May 30th

CENTCOM: News Releases
SECRET CELL KEY LEADER DETAINED, AIR STRIKE IN SADR CITY
AFGHAN BORDER POLICE DETAIN NANGARHAR PROVINCE TALIBAN LEADER
TWO MILITANTS DETAINED
TWO TERRORISTS KILLED, 23 SUSPECTS DETAINED, EXPLOSIVES DESTROYED
PRT TAKES AFGHAN EDUCATION TO A NEW LEVEL
AFGAN NATIONAL POLICE DEATAIN AL-QAIDA CELL COMMANDER IN KOWST PROVINCE
TALIBAN MEMBERS DENY AFGHAN CIVILIANS WORLD FOOD PROGRAM GOODS
PRIME MINISTER AND US AMBASSADOR IN ANBAR
IRAQI ARMY SOLDIERS DETAIN SEVEN SUSPECTED AL QAEDA TERRORISTS IN DIYALA PROVINCE

USJFCOM
USJFCOM testing Sense Through Structures capabilities - podcast
Liveblogging: Joint Urban Warrior 07
U.S. Joint Forces Command, Marines begin Joint Urban Warrior 07
Unmanned vehicle management system capability under evaluation - podcast

Multi-National Force-Iraq
Iraqi Police reach out to communities through security, presence
2-15th Field Artillery Soldiers nab suspects
Iraqi Army Soldiers detain seven suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in Diyala province
MNC-I Soldiers attacked
Roadside bomb strikes MND-B patrol
Secret cell key leader detained, air strike in Sadr City
Two terrorists killed, 23 suspects detained, explosives destroyed

DefenseLink
Bush Calls on Americans to Remember Sacrifices
Transcript: President Bush's Weekly Radio Address
Cheney: West Pointers Understand Need for War
Abizaid Reflects on How West Point Shaped Him
Joint Organization Trains Troops to Defeat IEDs
Bush Applauds Bipartisan Supplemental Bill
Gates Urges Graduates To Be Strong, Decisive - Video - Speech Transcript
Desire to Serve and Lead Led Grads to Academy
Navy SEALs Share War Stories From Iraq
Intel Leader Explains Pentagon's New Vision
Pace Urges Reflection in Memorial Day Message

More Headline News
Officials Confirm Identity of Missing Soldier's Body
Despite Violence, Iraq Better Off Without Saddam
Gates, Pace: Local Leaders Critical to Success
Guard’s Lack of Equipment Puts U.S. at Risk
Rebuilding Progress Should Be Taken in Context

Military News
Sailor Brings Father Home from War, 37 Years Later
USS Anzio Rescues Stranded Ukrainian Sailors
New Stamp Features Air Force One

America Supports You
Indy 500 Parade Honors Troops
TAPS Helps Families Cope
Texans Greet Returning Troops
CBS Highlights ASY
Video: CBS Highlights ASY
Pro Golfer Vows Support
Phone Card Donations Flourish

War on Terror
Coalition, Iraqi Forces Detain 28
Modular Combat Team Surges
Six Soldiers Killed
Coalition Forces Detain 15
Troops Kill, Capture Insurgents

Transformation
Biological Team Protects Airmen
Officials Stand Up Joint Space Office
Thinking Lean, a Must for Force
Navy Launches USNS Byrd

Face of Defense
Reserve Chief Is Business Savvy
Firefighter Lives His Dream
Soldier Shares Experiences
Navy Dad, Marine Son Reunite
Marine Trains in Anti-Terrorism

DefendAmerica
NEWS UPDATES
Pace Urges Reflection InMemorial Day Message - Story

ON THE GROUND
Health Clinic Takes Care of Thousands in Iraq - Story
Army Paratroopers Share Thoughts on Surge - Story
Feeling the Heat: Medics Trained in Fire Rescues - Story
Marine Makes Tribal Connections in Al Anbar - Story

IN IRAQ
Al Qaim Detachment Plays Role in Iraq Transition
Security Brings Desired Results to Al Anbar
Sadoun Street Receives Facelift in Baghdad
'Battlefield Docs' Converge in Iraq to Hone Skills
Group Provides Direction for Buddhist Soldiers
Army Unit Gets New Patch During Ceremony

IN DJIBOUTI
New Water Drilling Rig Arrives In Djibouti
German Navy Donates Vehicles, Suppport
Joint Effort to Repair School Library in Africa
Task Force Showers Orphans With Supplies

IN AFGHANISTAN
Hard Work Creates Progress in Border Provinces
Coalition Forces Defuse Soviet–era Bomb

DefendAmerica Week in Review
Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

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

Today in History
1529 - Thirty Hungarian Jews are charged with conducting a blood ritual, and burned at the stake.
1679 - The Habeaus Corpus Act (no false arrest / imprisonment) passes in Great Britain.
1703 - Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg (later renamed Leningrad).
1813 - The U.S. captures Fort George, Canada.
1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse completes the first telegraph line.
1862 - Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station)
1863 - The CSS Chattahoochie explodes on the Chattahoochie River in GA, killing 18; Siege of Port Hudson, LA.
1883 - Czar Alexander III is crowned in Moscow.
1896 - The first major tornado to strike the urban U.S. hits in St. Louis and East St. Louis, killing 255 and leaving thousands homeless.
1905 - The Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Straits of Tushima.
1907 - Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Fransisco.
1918 - Battle of Aisne.
1919 - A U.S. Navy flying boat complets the first transatlantic flight - it takes 11 days; Charles Strite patents the pop-up toaster.
1921 - After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty.
1927 - Japan intervenes in the Chinese civil war.
1930 - Richard Drew invents masking tape.
1931 - The first full-scale airplane testing windtunnel opens at Langley Field, VA; the first flight into the stratosphere occurs, in the first balloon with a pressurized cabin.
1933 - The Austrian communist party is banned.
1935 - The Supreme Court declares FDR's National Recovery Act unconstitutional.
1936 - The RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage, to New York.
1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge is dedicated.
1940 - The British and French begin Operation Dynamo; the evacuation of Dunkirk.
1941 - Allied troops begin evacuating Kreta; FDR proclaimes an "unlimited national emergency" due to Germany's sinking of the Robin Moor ; the German battleship Bismarck is sunk by the British naval force.
1942 - Dorie Miller is awarded the Navy Cross for his acts at Pearl Harbor;Hitler orders the murder of 10,000 Czechoslovakians; the Italian army begins the siege of the French western Fort Bir Hachim; Nazi Reinhard Heydrich is shot and mortally wounded in Prague.
1943 - The U.S. forbids racial discrimination in the war industry.
1944 - The Allies land in Biak, Indonesia, in Operation Horlicks; the Japanese advance in Hangkhou, China.
1948 - Arabs blow up a Jewish synagogue - Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid.
1951 - Chinese Communists force the Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing.
1960 - A military coup overthrows Turkey's democratic government.
1963 - Jomo Kenyatta is elected as the first prime minister of Kenya.
1966 - The 55th German F-16 Starfighter crashes; 6 French fighters crash above Spain.
1968 - The nuclear submarine USS Scorpion is lost, five days before its scheduled return to port in Norfolk. The cause is still unknown.
1969 - Construction begins on Walt Disney World.
1977 - 2 Boeing 747s (Pan Am & KLM) collide in the Canary Islands, killing 582.
1980 - South Korean police end a people's uprising; 2,000 people are killed.
1981 - John Hinckley attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol.
1985 - Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
1986 - President Reagan orderes 2 Poseidon-class submarines dismantled.
1988 - The Senate ratifies a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles.
1994 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after 20 years in exile.
1997 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a historic treaty with NATO.

Birthdays
1818 - Amelia Jenks Bloomer, suffragette; known for her pantaloons
1819 - Julia Ward Howe, American author/lecturer (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
1823 - Union Major General John Gray Foster Major General
1836 - Confederate Brigadier General Edwin Gray Lee
1837 - Confederate Major Genreal Robert Frederick Hoke
1897 - John Douglas Cockroft, English physicist (Radar), Nobel prize winner
1911 - Hubert Humphrey, Senator-MN, 38th Vice President, 1969 Presidential candidate
1915 - Herman Wouk, novelist (Caine Mutiny, Winds of War)
1918 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese Prime Minister
1923 - Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
1930 - William S. Sessions, director of the FBI
1944 - Christopher J. Dodd (Senator-CT)
1947 - Peter DeFazio (Representative-OR)

Passings
1647 - Achsah Young, first woman known executed as a witch (Massachusetts)
1790 - Jeremiah Carlton, laziest man in history, inherited a fortune at 19, went to bed and stayed there for the next 70 years
1863 - Union Brigadier General Edward Payson Chapin
1910 - Robert Koch, German bacteriologist (TB, Cholera), Nobel prize winner
1941 - Günther Lütjens, German Admiral (Bismarck)
1951 - Thomas Blamey, soldier

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Lynn, Doyle W., USN (PA); F8D shot down, KIA/BNR

1966
Monahan, Robert W., Civilian; Released by Viet Cong January, 1967

Scales, Thomas R., Civilian; Released by Viet Cong January,1967 - deceased as of 1998

1967
Blackwood, Gordon B., USAF (CA); F105D shot down, remains returned, ID'd November, 1989

1970
Lee, Glen H., USAF (HI); F4D shot down, remains returned, ID'd August, 1994

1971
Knuckey, Thomas W., US Army (NJ); OH58A shot down (w/Taylor), remains ID'd August, 1993

Taylor, Phillip C., US Army (NY); OH58A shot down (w/Knuckey), remains ID'd August, 1993

1972
Latendresse, Thomas B., USN (WA); A4F shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well in 1998

Labels: Headlines, History