Story and photo by 1st Lt. Justin Hackett, BFMC, 215th BSB, 3rd AAB, 1st Cav. Div. CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – After seven months in Iraq, Soldiers with B Company, 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have become accustomed to the high operational tempo and stringent daily mission requirements.B Company contains two security platoons consisting of 13 different military occupational specialties. These platoons are formed together into a unit that is responsible for sustainment replenishment operations and transporting...
Story and photo by Spc. Sharla Lewis, 3rd AAB PAO, 1st Cav. Div. CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City Sept. 11, 2001, Americans across the nation rose together, unified by the response to the events that day.For some Soldiers with the 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division serving at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq, the memory of that day was close at hand as they passed under crossed sabers into the Corps of the Noncommissioned Officer at a ceremony on the 10th...
Story by 2nd Lt. Brandon Mulrine, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-C BAGHDAD—In order to select and prepare the best candidates to fill a limited number of slots for the Army’s elite Ranger School, 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center conducted a Pre-Ranger Course in late July while deployed in support of Operation New Dawn. The month-long preparatory and selection course was led by Staff Sgt. Jeffery Paluso, a squad leader with Company A “Aces,” 1st Bn., 63rd Armor Regt. and a Chapman, Kan., native, and...
Story and photo by Capt. Adam D. Westbrook, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-C BAGHDAD—Soldiers with the 5th “Longknife” Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center finalized their roles as training advisors with the 2nd Iraqi Federal Police Division Combined Training School, formerly the Saber Academy, with a graduation ceremony Aug. 27 at Joint Security Station Justice, Iraq.The graduation marks the end of what has been more than a year’s worth of effort to create and maintain a training school specifically for the 2nd IFP...
Story by 1st Lt. Douglas Bengal, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-CBAGHDAD—It’s darker than your average midnight in a palm grove. All the lights are turned off inside the aid station where medics with Company C, 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center prepare materials for intravenous injections which they will be administering to simulated casualties.Only the dim ambient glow created by their PVS-14 monocular night vision device illuminates the outlines of Soldiers waiting to be “stuck.” It’s a worst-case scenario that medics with...
Story by Capt. Adam D. Westbrook, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-C BAGHDAD—Members of the “Tomahawk” Stability Transition Team attached to 5th “Longknife” Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center completed the second iteration of a staff planning course for key leaders with the 2nd Iraqi Federal Police Division Aug. 29 at Joint Security Station Justice, Iraq.The five-day course was offered as an additional means for continuing the combined efforts between the 2nd IFP Div. and “Team Tomahawk” to establish enduring...
Story by 1st Lt. John Chukayne, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-C BAGHDAD—In accordance with agreements between the Government of Iraq and United States Forces – Iraq, elements of Company A “Atlas,” 299th “Lifeline” Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center are preparing to transition responsibility of, or close down, the Victory Base Complex Fuel Farm, Supply Support Activity, and Ammunition Supply Point. All three hubs currently provide sustainment to forces throughout the Baghdad area of operations.The VBC Fuel Farm began...
Story and photo by Staff Sgt. Justin Phemister, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf., Div., USD –CBAGHDAD—“By order of the commander—Get Faster, Get Stronger,” says the sign written in infantry blue that hangs across the inside of the entrance to the Pfc. Ramon Mora Jr. Gym at Camp Liberty, Iraq. A group of Soldiers with Company A, 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center working out here are taking that order to heart.“A lot of us worked out back in garrison, and of course we all ran pretty well from regular morning...
Story and photo by Spc. William A. Joeckel, 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div., USD-C BAGHDAD—Soldiers with 1st “Vanguard” Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center held an induction ceremony welcoming its newest young leaders into the noncommissioned officer corps Aug. 26.The Army’s NCO corps is steeped in history, and was created at the very dawn of the nation’s history with the Continental Army in 1775.The NCO is the first trainer, mentor, and leader of a new Soldier and is ultimately responsible for developing Soldiers into...
Walgreens to drop out of Express Scripts network. In a move that surprised many, Walgreens, the nation’s largest retail drugstore chain pharmacy, announced that it will cut ties with TRICARE Retail Pharmacy’s contractor, Express Scripts, Inc., by the end of the year.
Advances in prosthetics have greatly reduced the debilitating effects of losing a limb for people in the developed world, but in Afghanistan, a country with one of the highest amputation rates, sustainable technology like this is rare.Combined Task Force Spartan soldiers developed a simple and easily reproduced prototype prosthetic leg for victims of improvised explosive devices and land mines near Forward Operating Base Pasab, Afghanistan."We came up with a way to make prosthetic limbs from local resources and in a way that was easily reproduced," Dr. (Maj.) Brian Egloff, brigade surgeon...
Sgt. 1st Class Leroy A. Petry received the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama during a historic ceremony in the East Room of the White House July 12.Petry is only the second active duty service member since Vietnam to live to accept the nation’s highest military honor.The first soldier, Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, was seated in the audience that included Vice President Joe Biden, Army senior leaders, several rows of decorated Army Rangers, and more than 100 of Petry’s family and friends, including his wife, mother, father, grandparents, brothers and four children."This could not be...
"There was a little bit of a meat skirt, for lack of better words, hanging around the edges. It was oozing. I could see the radius and ulna bone sticking up maybe about half an inch."Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry, Medal of Honor recipient, recounted the moment after his hand was taken from him by a grenade during a May 26, 2008, combat operation in Afghanistan."It was vivid – where I could see the black marks from where the burns were. And a little bit of the dirt and the smell of explosives. I sat up and I grabbed it. And it’s a little strange," Petry said.Adding, "But this is what was in my...
As the sun sets on the desert horizon, the highways of southern Iraq empty of civilian traffic.Although the local population begins to go home for the night, a new type of traffic emerges on Iraq’s highways.Long rows of headlights are exiting forward operating bases all across Iraq. Trucks full of goods going to the soldiers further north, or loaded with equipment heading for Kuwait, take over the roads.As combat logistic patrols begin their hauls into the dark of night, a small group of vehicles separates from them – vehicles brightly lit but moving slowly and deliberately.These are the...
House approves defense spending bill. After three days of debate, the House passed a $649.2 billion defense spending bill (H.R. 2219) for Fiscal Year 2012. The bill passed 336-87.
The bill would provide $530.5 billion for the Pentagon, $8.9 billion less than President Obama requested but $17 billion more than Fiscal Year 2011 levels.
It also includes $118.7 billion for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is approximately $40 billion less than current funding.
The bill provides:
Funding for a 1.6 percent military pay raise
$32.2 billion for the defense...