Maintaining Vigilant Focus

Thanks to my family & friends for the comments on my last blog and for your emails of encouragement. With regard to the count down clock, I have been advised it is an operational security risk indicating when personnel will be moving from the area of operations. Speaking of operational security, I can no longer blog from work either and must come to the MWR tent to compose my blog. Believe me, you'll know by my blog entry the day I am headed home.

A big event in the news lately. The Dept of Homeland Defense has publicized the findings of a draft National Intelligence Estimate. "Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. Intelligence agencies:
— Al Qaeda is probably still pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and would use them if its operatives developed sufficient capability.
— The terror group has been able to restore three of the four key tools it would need to launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas, operational lieutenants and senior leaders. It could not immediately be learned what the missing fourth element is.
— The group will bolster its efforts to position operatives inside U.S. borders.

In public statements, U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ease with which people can enter the United States through Europe because of a program that allows most Europeans to enter without visas.

The document also discusses increasing concern about individuals already inside the United States who are adopting an extremist brand of Islam.

National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative written judgments that reflect the consensus long-term thinking of senior intelligence analysts."

This report is not to be taken lightly. There is no better defense for America than an alert public willing to call the authorities about suspicious or out-of-the-ordinary activities.

The Liberal Left and ACLU will call this Profiling, but what the heck, it's our country! If you see people of Middle East appearance acting suspiciously, have a mosque in your city, or if you know of Americans who have converted to Islam...keep a watchful eye. The jackasses who carried out the Sept 11 attacks lived quietly in our neighborhoods & enjoyed our freedoms while they deliberatley planned their attacks with a money stream piped in from the Middle East.

Who staged the first World Trade Center attack? Who staged the USS Cole attack? Who blew up two US Embassies in Africa? Who crashed the jets in to the World Trade Center towers? Who are we fighting over here every day after they stream across porous borders? I am afraid the answer is not some red headed freckled face European. No. They were radical Islamists from the Middle East. In Afghanistan and here in Iraq we roll up saudis, yemenis, syrians, iranians, pakistanis, afghanis, morrocans, algerians to mention a few. Are they white and pure as apple pie? Uh, NO.

Bottom line: We all need to maintain our vigilance. The US government takes this very seriously and so should every American. Our own porous borders and inability to account for the numerous people illegally in our country only aids the enemy in their plans to bring destruction to our country. As I have mentioned before, this world is becoming polarized and the radical Islamist absolutely seethes with hatred for America. It is my belief they will attempt an attack or series of attacks to dwarf the consequences of Sept 11, 2001. We can only do our best to identify them before they strike.

Transition Time

The light at the end of the tunnel has gone from the width of a pin, to the width of a pencil, and now I'm seeing light of day.

My replacement, Bear, has arrived and is currently in our progammed class for all new members of the squadron. Sunday will be a day of rest for everyone.

Effective Monday, I'll be in the teaching phase for one week and then shadow phase for the next. Lastly, I get some down time to decompress, rest, and change my sleep pattern in order to be on Mountain time when I return.

The fatigue has taken its toll and my last several posts have been from a soap box and have not been kind to the country I love. My place is not and should never be from a soap box. This is the life and duty I volunteered for and the freedoms I swore to preserve and protect. I have found the humble side of me and wish to thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

Operation AMERICA RISING

Troop Rallies Held Across U.S.
Associated Press
July 09, 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY - With a son-in-law in Iraq and a son who served in Afghanistan, Kathy Johnston says she wants to make sure her five grandchildren know it's important to support U.S. troops, no matter how they feel about the war.
That's why she, her daughter and daughter-in-law took them Saturday afternoon to the Oklahoma version of Operation America Rising, a nationwide event touted as a nonpartisan way to express appreciation for the job that U.S. Soldiers are doing.
"Her husband wants to be here (at home)," Johnston said, motioning toward her daughter-in-law, Melissa Morning of Fort Bragg, N.C. "But he knows what he is doing is right.
"There is a lot of good going on over there, and we hear about it firsthand, even if the media doesn't report it," she added.
The rallies - some numbering in the hundreds, others with a handful in attendance - took place from California to Connecticut.
The Oklahoma event, held at State Capitol Park, included three speakers and six bands. All the participants offered their services for free, said Ren Schuffman, the lead singer for Oklahoma City band StoneWater and one of the event's organizers.
"It's not anti-war. It's not pro-war," Schuffman said. "It has nothing to do with war."
In New Hampshire, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and his rock band, Capitol Offense, entertained 600 to 700 people beforehand, event organizer Jennifer Horn said.
"Good people can disagree about policy and politics, but ... when we have children or neighbors or co-workers who are serving in active duty, we stand united behind them," Horn said. "We don't ever want there to be any misunderstanding that as Americans we are a united nation."
In Bristol, Conn., several hundred people milled under tents, ate picnic food and listened to bands on a school lawn. In Sacramento, Calif. about 600 people, including 16 military and veterans groups, gathered near the state Capitol, event organizers said.
Hundreds of motorcycle riders from a group of Harley-Davidson owners roared past the city hall in Dover, Del., carrying American flags.
At least 100 people gathered in Baton Rouge, La., next to the plaza where the battleship museum USS Kidd is docked. Organizer Janet Broussard described it as "speeches, music; just a good-time kind of get-together visit with our veterans."
The names of the 182 Pennsylvania service members who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan were read aloud to a silent crowd in Ford City, Pa. The Veterans of Foreign Wars honor guard then fired a 21-gun salute.
Speakers told the crowd that they can support the troops in tangible ways. Navy Warrant Officer Willie Grier, who served in Iraq, said troops look forward to getting packages containing everything from baby wipes and candy to paper and pens.
"Nothing goes wasted over there," Grier said. "If we do have an abundance of stuff, we'll give some of it to the Iraqis, the children. It's great for morale."
In Colorado, Douglas County sheriff's officials estimated 60 people attended a four-hour event at a park south of Denver, with musicians and speakers.
"One of best things about the event, even though it didn't turn out as big as I would've liked, is the people who were there were genuine and care more about supporting our troops and being there for others than they do about their own comforts," said Robyn Hill, 44.

Guardians Angels on Duty

Psalm 91:11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;


Had the closest call yet two days ago. Orto and I had just dropped a friend off at 1st Cav HQ. As we made a turn on to the main road, our perimeter defense weapon fired and blew a 107mm rocket out of the sky over our heads. Had we lingered any longer with our friend and if the rocket weren't intercepted we would have been on the receiving end of that rocket. Unfortunately more rockets came a couple hours later and 1 Soldier was killed and another 10 people wounded. So much for thinking, "big base, little me".

The news from America hasn't been positive lately with many people going missing & murdered, flooding, heat waves, fires, brutality to children, tainted toothpaste, 2 teenage kids kidnap the neighbor's 1 yr old and hold the baby for $200,000 ransom, and the political mud slinging well in advance of the next elections. What are we doing to each other? As we can see, only horrific and violent tragedy makes headline news.

4th of July

This is the day when it all began. 231 years ago, our founding fathers declared they would not live under tyranny or oppression.

From David McCullough's book 1776:

"In a ringing preamble, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the document declared it 'self-evident' that 'all men are created equal' and were endowed with the 'unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' And to this noble end the delegates pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor."

It is with great honor that I continue the tradition of protecting our freedom whether it is at home or across the seas helping further freedom in a land once oppressed. Our freedom is the envy and ideal of many countries in the world and the scourge of the so-called peaceful religion of Islam.

I am an American and completely proud of it.

The honor of carrying the lit torch of freedom, paid in full by many who have given the ultimate sacrifice, is mine on your behalf.

Enjoy this day and all of its meaning to you, generations to come, and our country. May God continue to bless the United States of America.




The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Iran is Making Trouble

First, thanks to all for the emails of support and care!

Second, how can we expect to make progress over here with security and stabilization if the Iranians keep messing with the works. The are taking advantage of the situation and doing their best to destabilize the region and challenge us for the regional power.

Read on from the Associated Press report:

Iran Linked to U.S. Troops' Deaths

Associated Press July 02, 2007

BAGHDAD - Iran is using the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a "proxy" to arm Shiite militants in Iraq and Tehran's Quds force [Special Forces] had prior knowledge of a January attack in Karbala in which five Americans died, a U.S. general said Monday.

U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner said a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, was captured March 20 in southern Iraq. Bergner said Dakdouk served for 24 years in Hezbollah and was "working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds force."

The general also said that Dakdouk was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shiite group led by Qais al-Kazaali, a former spokesman for cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Bergner said al-Kazaali's group carried out the January attack against a provincial government building in Karbala and that the Iranians assisted in preparations.

Al-Khazaali and his brother Ali al-Khazaali, both captured in March, have told U.S. interrogators that they "could not have conducted it (the Karbala attack) without support from the Quds force," Bergner said.

Documents captured with al-Khazaali showed that the Quds Force had developed detailed information on the U.S. position at the government building, including "shift changes and defense" and shared this information with the attackers, the general said.
U.S. officials at the time of the Karbala attack said it was unusually sophisticated, with the attackers dressed in U.S. uniforms to get close to the building, and suggested Iran may have had a role in it.

The U.S. military in the past has accused the Quds Force - the external arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards - of arming and financing Iraqi extremists to carry out attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. Tehran has denied the U.S. accusations.

Bergner said Iraqi extremists were taken to Iran in groups of 20 to 60 for training in three camps "not too far from Tehran." When they returned to Iraq, they formed units called "special groups" to carry out attacks, bombings and kidnappings, he said.

Dakdouk helped train and organize the groups, making four visits to Iraq in the past year after a May 2006 trip to Iran, the general said. Hezbollah, he said, helps the Iranians as a "proxy ... to do things they didn't want to have to do themselves in terms of interacting with special groups."
"Our intelligence reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," he said. Asked if Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could be unaware of the activity, Bergner said "that would be hard to imagine."

Blog Interview

It's almost the end of June already...one full month left before the out-processing and travel begins. My replacement is going through his weeks of combat training as I had to do before arriving. My patience is wearing thin as the fatigue grows in the monotonous daily routine of a combat zone. I can't imagine what the Soldiers endure as they spend their 12 turned 15 month tour in this place. I guess it's different when you train your mind and spirit to expect a certain amount of time being deployed.

I received an email from a gentleman who writes a weblog called VAJoe. He cruises through all of the military blogs and highlights the ones that have caught his attention. The address is www.vajoe.com/blog/ if you are interested in checking out blogs authored by military personnel.

Here's the excerpt of my interview found on the 26 Jun entry of VAJoe's blog:
June 26, 2007
Stoli of Mission Iraq - Round 2

Posted in: Military Bloggers, MilBlogger Interviews, Iraq, Air Force — valane @ 11:06 am

Stoli talks about his milblog Mission Iraq - Round 2.

Question: How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?
I have been blogging since January 07 when I started this deployment. This is an easy way for family and friends to stay up with what I am doing in Iraq.

Question: What is your military experience?
I have been in the Air Force for 16 years and have worked many different types of jobs…although lately been doing a lot of staff work. I have been to Korea, Japan, England, Germany, Italy, Bosnia, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq.

Question: What are some of your other favorite Milblogs?
The One Wire, The Landlocked Sailor, and the AF EWO in Iraq. They are linked on my blog. I should probably expand my blog horizons and check out some others.

Question: What has been the biggest factor in helping you create and publish a successful blog?
My children are growing up without me while I serve over here. Thus, the blog lets them see what I am doing, seeing, and thinking while 8,000 miles away from home. It gives them something tangible to keep for later in life in addition to memories of my phone calls and emails.

Question: Do you have anything else you would like us to mention about you, your blog, or your readers?
I really appreciate the random emails of support and thanks from people back in America. Our presence has become unpopular both in America and in Iraq, yet it’s good to know we have a loyal following of support from home.

My last two answers are important to me on several levels. When I finally return home from this mission, I will have been gone for 207 days from my family. In the last two years, I have been away from my family for a total 330 days. Having this blog, pictures, emails, and daily phone calls has helped me stay in touch and be a part of my wife and children's lives. My legacy will be in the way my children grow into adults and the path they choose for their lives. I can't be a part of their development when I am constantly 8,000 miles away. It's a painful reality.

My folks have been with me the whole way with daily emails and helping to take care of my family in my absence. I owe them a great debt of gratitude. The commitment and bonds of family have escaped my sister though. I called her last night out of concern for the flooding I have been reading about where she lives. She and her family are fine, but she just didn't think I was in harms way here in Iraq. That must be the reason I haven't received even an email of encouragement from her.

For the rest of my extended family, in-laws, friends, and those of you I have never met...a heart felt Thank You for your letters, emails, cards, and care packages that have raised my spirits and let me know we are still supported and prayed for back home.