U.S. Army Pvt. Shawn M. Testa examines an Afghan boy's ear at a health clinic in Nawa District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, Jan. 12, 2008. Testa is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion. The clinic was sponsored by the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison


Spc. Beverly S. McDaniel gives a young child medicine at a health clinic in Nawa District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, Jan. 13, 2008. McDaniel is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 782nd Brigade Support Battalion. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison


A member of the Afghan national police force carries a child back to his father after receiving treatment at a health clinic in Nawa district, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, Jan. 13, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison


A young girl eats a bag of cookies given to her by a U.S. soldier while she waits at a health clinic in Nawa District, Afghanistan, Jan. 13, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison


A little boy looks in awe at stuffed animals given to him by the Afghan national police and coalition soldiers, Jan. 13, 2008, at a health clinic in Nawa District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison


With weather conditions making it difficult for some villagers to travel to a medical clinic in Nawa District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, coalition medics traveled to some of the more remote villages in the area, Jan. 14, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathan W. Hutchison



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Labels: 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Afghanistan, Ghazni PRT, Humanitarian Aid, photo essays, photos, US Army

A U.S. Army paratrooper receives German jump wings after a jump over Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007, during Operation Toy Drop. The 10th Annual Randy Oler memorial Operation Toy Drop is hosted by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) and is a foreign wings exchange and community service operation to support the military and local community by collecting over 1,400 toys for families in the Fayetteville area. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


A U.S. Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division has his equipment checked before a jump over Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007, during Operation Toy Drop. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


A U.S. Army jumpmaster from the 82nd Airborne Division instructs soldiers on proper exiting procedures during Operation Toy Drop at Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


An U.S. Air Force loadmaster lowers the ramp of a C-130 Hercules during Operation Toy Drop at Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Clay Lancaster


U.S. Army paratroopers prepare to board a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Clay Lancaster


U.S. Army paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division parachute from a C-130 Hercules aircraft over Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007, during Operation Toy Drop. The 10th Annual Randy Oler memorial Operation Toy Drop is hosted by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) and is a foreign wings exchange and community service operation to support the military and local community by collecting over 1,400 toys for deserving families in the Fayetteville area. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


A U.S. Army jumpmaster performs a pre-jump inspection aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop over Ft. Bragg, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Clay Lancaster


A U.S. Army paratrooper jumps from a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Clay Lancaster


A U.S. Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division parachutes from a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


U.S. Army paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division parachute from a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


U.S. Army paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division head back to base after a jump during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Dec. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Micky Bazaldua


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Labels: 82nd Airborne Division, aircraft, C-130, Civil Affairs, Fallen Heroes, Hercules, Opeartion Toy Drop, paratroopers, photo essays, photos, Pope Air Force Base, Sergeant First Class Randy Oler, US Army

From Multi-National Force - Iraq:


School girls from the Dur-Mandali Primary School for Girls in the city of Balad-Ruz receive supplies from the family of fallen Paratrooper Spc. Michael Rodriguez. Spc. Rodriquez's family said he wrote home about the wonderful kids he had met and loved. Photo by 1st Lt. Scott Marler, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.



BALAD-RUZ — The note read, “The school supplies that we are giving you today are from the family of a Soldier who died in Iraq, who loved the children of Iraq. His name is Specialist Michael Rodriguez.”

The speaker is Capt. James Goethals, a Civil-Military Affairs officer stationed in Eastern DiyalaProvince. The audience is a crowd of almost (100) young girls at the Dur-Mandali Primary School for Girls in the city of Balad-Ruz.

Spc. Rodriguez was assigned to 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. He was killed in action in April, when multiple suicide bombers driving explosives-laden vehicles attacked his unit’s base in As-Sadah. He had written home telling his family about how much affection he had for the children he saw on patrol, and so his family turned their grief to a positive end, collecting school supplies for Iraqi children.

Capt. Goethals took over the mission of delivering the school supplies when Spc. Rodriguez’s unit rotated home this past October. He was accompanied by Capt. Tony Keller from 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, the Mayor of Ballad Ruz, Mohammed Rouf Hussein and the Superintendent of Schools, Morat Kadum.

Following the presentation of the school supplies, Capt. Keller, Mayor Hussein and Superintendent Kadum spoke to the school teachers, thanking them for their service to the community and emphasizing the importance of an education, both for these children and the nation of Iraq.

Once the presentation was over, the children transitioned from the well-behaved and orderly formation to a sight similar to an American elementary school without their teachers in close attendance: running, laughing and staring in curious wonderment at the American Soldiers who accompanied the delivery. The Soldiers walked in to several classrooms, snapping pictures with the children and communicating in Pidgin English.

The lasting message of the day was communicated by Capt. Keller just before going into the meeting with the teachers, mayor and superintendent: “I want to thank all of you young ladies here today for going to school. You guys are the future of Iraq. Don’t let anyone stop you from getting an education. Always remember Specialist Rodriguez.”

(Story by 1st Lt. Scott Marler, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs)

Labels: 5-73rd Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division, Balad Ruz, children, Fallen Heroes, Iraq, SPC Michael Rodriguez

Army Capt. Dustin Menhart assists in setting up a raised angle marker on a drop zone in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 2007, in preparation for the largest air supply drop in Operation Enduring Freedom history. Menhart is commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare


As bundles from the lead C-17 Globemaster III drift to the ground, a second C-17 prepares to drop more bundles to a drop zone in Afghanistan on Oct. 11, 2007. A total of 62 cargo bundles were dropped from two C-17s in two passes. This was the first time a combat cargo drop of this magnitude has taken place using two C-17s in formation over one drop zone. The planes and crews are part of the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Manas, Kyrgyzstan. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson


A second Air Force C-17 Globemaster drops Combat Delivery System bundles just a few hundred feet above another set floating down to coalition soldiers waiting below, Oct. 11, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare


Paratroopers from the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division watch as Combat Delivery System bundles carrying food and water float to the ground in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare


A Humvee rushes to the landing site of a Combat Delivery System bundle in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare


A helicopter hovers over a bundle of airdropped supplies, where paratroopers from the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division wait to sling-load the supplies for transportation to the nearby Bandar command observation post in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare



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Labels: 782nd BSB, 817th EAS, 82nd Airborne Division, Afghanistan, aircraft, C-17, Globemaster, Paktika province, photos, US Army

MAKING FRIENDS — U.S. Army 1st Lt. Brandon Whitis, from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, greets a local girl in the Diyala River Valley region of Iraq, Aug. 14, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert C. Brogan

Labels: 1-505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, children, Dilaya River Valley, Iraq, photos, US Army

REGROUP — U.S. Army soldiers of Bravo Troop, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, regroup and receive instructions for movement during a mission in Al Haymer, Iraq, July 12, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Steve Czyz

Labels: 5-73rd Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division, Al Haymer, Iraq, photos, US Army

SECURITY DUTY - Army Pfc. Adam B. Head, a cavalry scout with Troop A, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, pulls security while his commander meets with village elders in the Hassan village, Gelan District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan,July 16, 2007. US Army photo by Spc. Matthew Leary

Labels: 4-73rd Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division, Afghanistan, Gelan District, Ghazni Province, Hassan village, military vehicles, photos, US Army

FRIENDSHIP DINNER — Brig. Gen. Sameer Abdul Kareem Hassam (left), commander of the 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Battalion, and U.S. Army Col. John G. Castles, of Fredericksburg, Va., commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, share a laugh at a "Friendship Dinner" for key leaders of the two units sponsored by the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment in Adhamiyah, Iraq, July 25, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael Pryor

Labels: 1-11th Iraqi Army Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Adhamiyah, Iraq, photos

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy Behrens, from Alpha Company, 13th Psychological Operations Battalion, provides security from the turret of a Humvee in the village of Kapisa, Afghanistan, May 15, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Dilia DeGrego


U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Brooks Jones and Aio, a military working dog, clear a construction site of unexploded ordnance in the village of Kapisa, Afghanistan, May 15, 2007. Brooks and Aio are both assigned to the 125th Military Police Company. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel



U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division test an audio speaker in the village of Kapisa, Afghanistan, May 15, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel


U.S. Army Maj. Lance Baker, commander of Alpha Company, 13th Psychological Operations Battalion, moves an audio speaker in the village of Kapisa, Afghanistan, May 15, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel


U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy Behrens, from Alpha Company, 13th Psychological Operations Battalion, provides security from the turret of a Humvee in the village of Kapisa, Afghanistan, May 15, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel


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Labels: 13th Psyops Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Afghanistan, Kapisa, Kapisa Province, military working dog, photos, US Army

GOTCHA COVERED — U.S. Army Pfc. Ryan Cole of Miami, Fla., a paratrooper with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, pulls security during the dedication ceremony for a renovated school in Al Beida, Adhamiyah District, Baghdad, April 21, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael Pryor

Labels: 1st Cavalry Division photos, 2-325 Airborne Infantry, 2BCT, 82nd Airborne Division, Adhamiyah District, Al Beida, Baghdad, Iraq, US Army

By Sgt. Mike Pryor
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 9, 2007 — Staff Sgt. Darin Morgan’s platoon had just snatched a suspected insurgent off the streets. They had done it without Apache gun ships hovering overhead and without Stryker vehicles blocking the roads. They did it without blowing open any doors or damaging any property. And they did it without firing a single shot. All of which, Morgan said, means they did it the right way.

"We live here. If we have to go in hard, we still have to come back the next day. So if we can take an insurgent off the streets with the minimum amount of firepower and resources necessary, it’s a good thing,"
-- Staff Sgt. Darin Morgan

There’s a time and a place for overwhelming force, but in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah District, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are learning that sometimes a soft touch can be just as effective.

“We live here. If we have to go in hard, we still have to come back the next day. So if we can take an insurgent off the streets with the minimum amount of firepower and resources necessary, it’s a good thing,” said Morgan, a platoon sergeant with Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

It all began at the end of a long foot patrol April 1, when Morgan’s platoon leader, 1st Lt. Larry Pitts, stopped to talk to a man on the steps of his house in Graya’at, a poor, mostly-Sunni neighborhood in the Adhamiyah district. The 2nd Platoon had just spent five hours knocking on doors and talking to people about their problems. Everyone up to that point had been happy to talk, chatting away as Pitts wrote their answers down in his little green composition pad.

But the owner of this particular house was different. He and his wife were defensive, reluctant to give Pitts any information. After a few minutes of getting nowhere, Pitts took the man's name, thanked him for his time, and walked back to his platoon.

Pitts couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. He pulled aside intelligence analyst Sgt. Zac Manafort of Moondus, Conn., and asked if he recognized the man's name. Manafort had memorized the names and aliases of hundreds of suspected insurgents in the area, and this one set off an alarm in his head.

“That guy's dirty,” Manafort said. Pitts immediately radioed the man’s name up to headquarters for verification. They said it would take a few minutes. In the meantime, Pitts told the platoon to look busy. The paratroopers spread out, pretending like they were checking out some shops on the suspect's street.

Staff Sgt. Antonio Alvarado and a few others crowded into a record store around the corner, pretending to look for CDs. The shocked shopkeepers stared wide-eyed at the paratroopers as they browsed the shelves, their bulky body armor, radio antennas, and weapons making it a tight fit inside the cramped shop.

“Here's that Ricky Martin CD you wanted,” one paratrooper teased his buddy. Pitts was across the street in a smoothie bar when the response finally came back from headquarters – the suspect's name matched that of a wanted insurgent. Detain him, they told Pitts. He and Morgan quickly huddled together to come up with a plan. They needed to separate the suspect from his family.

“We knew they had kids inside (the house). The family was all there, so instead of blowing the door down or kicking it in, we decided to try to gain entry without force," Pitts said.

Pitts and Morgan decided the circumstances called for a little deception. They went back to the house. Pitts knocked on the front gate, waving a scrap of paper. It was his phone number, he said, in case the man needed to reach him. The suspect came out to get it. As he took the paper from Pitts' hands, Pitts took a step back.

“Get him,” he said, out of the corner of his mouth. San Antonio-native Sgt. Hector Hernandez stepped forward and took the man by the hand, pulling him outside into the street. A humvee pulled up. The man looked confused. Within 30 seconds, he was flex-cuffed, searched, and bundled into the waiting vehicle.

The rest of the platoon rushed up to clear the house and search for evidence. Pitts found Morgan inside. Morgan congratulated the platoon leader on his performance with the phone number. Afterward, Morgan was pleased at how it had all gone down.

“I think it's actually more of a surprise than a traditional raid,” he said. “You're shaking the dude's hand and then you slap the cuffs on him.”

Pitts said he was just happy that the platoon had been able to take the man outside, in the open, when they knew he was unarmed.

“It's safer for our guys and it's safer for the family,” Pitts said. “If we had to go in blind, that's when bullets start flying.”

On the ride home in Morgan's truck, someone realized that it was a fitting day for the kind of deception they had just pulled off. It was April Fool's Day.

Labels: 2-319th AFAR, 82nd Airborne Division, Adhamiyah, Baghdad, Good News, Iraq