Full Version: A Tribute To The Soldiers Who Were Lied To!
OLD American Century / White Rose Society message boards > Political Discussion forums > Politics In General
•1946 •1947 •1948 •1949 •19350 •1951 •1952 •19353 •1954 •1955
10/10/05 AP: Alabama Marine killed in Iraq explosion
Lance Cpl. Carl L. Raines II, 20, of Coffee County, was killed when
a roadside bomb exploded during a logistics patrol near Qaim.
story source: http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2005/.../news/news5.txt
1955
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/10/05 AP: Alabama Marine killed in Iraq explosion
Lance Cpl. Carl L. Raines II, 20, of Coffee County, was killed when
a roadside bomb exploded during a logistics patrol near Qaim.
story source: http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2005/.../news/news5.txt
1955
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•1956 •1957 •1958 •159 •60 •6951 •1962 •19363 •1964
10/12/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Matthew A. Kimmell, 30, of Paxton, Ind., died in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, on
Oct. 11, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
Kimmell was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort
Campbell, Ky.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51012-4887.html
1964
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/12/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Matthew A. Kimmell, 30, of Paxton, Ind., died in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, on
Oct. 11, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
Kimmell was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort
Campbell, Ky.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51012-4887.html
1964
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•1965 •1966 •1967 •1968 •1969 •1970 •1971 •1972 •1973 •1974 •1975 •1976
10/17/05 Cox: A somber tally in Iraq
On most days, Michael White rises at 5 a.m. and starts checking his e-
mail and the Internet for news of death in Iraq....
story source: http://www.oxfordpress.com/custom/images/h..._logo_right.jpg
1976
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/17/05 Cox: A somber tally in Iraq
On most days, Michael White rises at 5 a.m. and starts checking his e-
mail and the Internet for news of death in Iraq....
story source: http://www.oxfordpress.com/custom/images/h..._logo_right.jpg
1976
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•1977 •1978 •1979 •1980 •1981 •1982
10/19/05 USAToday: 1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return
More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the Iraq war
with health problems that require medical or mental health treatment,
according to the Pentagon's first detailed screening of servicemembers
leaving a war zone.
story source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...de_x.htm?csp=14
1982
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/19/05 USAToday: 1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return
More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the Iraq war
with health problems that require medical or mental health treatment,
according to the Pentagon's first detailed screening of servicemembers
leaving a war zone.
story source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...de_x.htm?csp=14
1982
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•1983 •1984 •1985 •1986 •1987 •1988 •1989 •1990 •1991•1992 •1993
10/21/05 CENTCOM: THREE MARINES KILLED IN ACTION
Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine
Division, II MEF were killed in action while conducting combat
operations against the enemy when their vehicle was attacked with an
IED in the vicinity of Nasser Wa Salaam on Oct. 20.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051028.txt
1993
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/21/05 CENTCOM: THREE MARINES KILLED IN ACTION
Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine
Division, II MEF were killed in action while conducting combat
operations against the enemy when their vehicle was attacked with an
IED in the vicinity of Nasser Wa Salaam on Oct. 20.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051028.txt
1993
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
I was listening to Randi Rhodes today and Cindy Sheehan was on.
Cindy said when the total reaches 2000, she was going to
DC and chain herself to the White House fence until
our troops come home! She said "What more could they
do to me, I already lost my son" THAT'S why she is fearless!
Thank You Cindy Sheehan!...
Cindy said when the total reaches 2000, she was going to
DC and chain herself to the White House fence until
our troops come home! She said "What more could they
do to me, I already lost my son" THAT'S why she is fearless!
Thank You Cindy Sheehan!...
QUOTE(bob.appleyard @ Friday, 7 October 2005, 5:44 pm)
[right][snapback]32424[/snapback][/right]
hahahhhhaaaaaa
God Bless Cindy Sheehan for having the great courage in confronting the AWOL Texas Boob and pinning his back against the wall for telling the terrible lies that will now have cost over 2000 dead US military men and women and the countless thousands who have been severly maimed & wounded.
Also my heart goes out to all the untold thousands needless men, women & children of Iraq who have lost their lives due to lies that the coward Neo-con George W. Bush and his filthy Chicken-hawk Cabal have caused in their quest of corporate Oil contracts & other War-profiteering.
Also my heart goes out to all the untold thousands needless men, women & children of Iraq who have lost their lives due to lies that the coward Neo-con George W. Bush and his filthy Chicken-hawk Cabal have caused in their quest of corporate Oil contracts & other War-profiteering.
•1994 •1995 •1996 •1997
10/24/05 CENTCOM: II MEF MARINE KILLED IN ACTION
A Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary
Force (Forward), was killed in action by small-arms fire during combat
operations against the enemy in ar Ramadi, Oct. 23.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051032.txt
1997
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/24/05 CENTCOM: II MEF MARINE KILLED IN ACTION
A Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary
Force (Forward), was killed in action by small-arms fire during combat
operations against the enemy in ar Ramadi, Oct. 23.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051032.txt
1997
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
A comparison: Vietnam and Iraq
History has lessons, if only they'd listen.
Not in my name. Not again.
http://www.lies.com/wp/2003/10/20/us-death...-iraq-by-month/
US Deaths in Vietnam and Iraq by Month
...
For my Vietnam statistics I used the excellent Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund site, where there is an advanced search tool that lets you query the database of war dead by month. For the Iraq statistics I used Lunaville’s page on Iraq coalition casualties.
...
FIRST YEAR
It’s interesting to me how the Iraq war, so far at least, shows dramatically more US deaths per month than the Vietnam war did at a comparable point in its political lifetime. Yes, I realize that there were far fewer troops in Vietnam at this stage of the war than we currently have in Iraq. I grant that the two wars have followed very differerent scenarios so far. What I’m really interested in here is the domestic political picture, and its relationship to the ongoing death toll.
Let’s get a little more perspective. Here’s the same chart, but with the numbers for Vietnam extended out to December of 1965, by which time, armed with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (passed in August, 1964), Johnson had dramatically increased the number of US troops on the ground:
FIRST FOUR YEARS
Finally, here’s a version of the chart that shows the entire extent of the Vietnam war, ending with the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of the US Embassy in April of 1975:
ENTIRE WAR
...
Support our troops, oppose the war.
History has lessons, if only they'd listen.
Not in my name. Not again.
http://www.lies.com/wp/2003/10/20/us-death...-iraq-by-month/
US Deaths in Vietnam and Iraq by Month
...
For my Vietnam statistics I used the excellent Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund site, where there is an advanced search tool that lets you query the database of war dead by month. For the Iraq statistics I used Lunaville’s page on Iraq coalition casualties.
...
FIRST YEAR
It’s interesting to me how the Iraq war, so far at least, shows dramatically more US deaths per month than the Vietnam war did at a comparable point in its political lifetime. Yes, I realize that there were far fewer troops in Vietnam at this stage of the war than we currently have in Iraq. I grant that the two wars have followed very differerent scenarios so far. What I’m really interested in here is the domestic political picture, and its relationship to the ongoing death toll.
Let’s get a little more perspective. Here’s the same chart, but with the numbers for Vietnam extended out to December of 1965, by which time, armed with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (passed in August, 1964), Johnson had dramatically increased the number of US troops on the ground:
FIRST FOUR YEARS
Finally, here’s a version of the chart that shows the entire extent of the Vietnam war, ending with the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of the US Embassy in April of 1975:
ENTIRE WAR
...
Support our troops, oppose the war.
•1998 •1999 •2000
10/25/05 2,000 UNITED STATES TROOPS DEAD IN IRAQ
10/25/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander, Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army
Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, on Oct. 22, of injuries sustained in Samarra,
Iraq, on Oct. 17, when an IED detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51025-4982.html
2000
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/25/05 2,000 UNITED STATES TROOPS DEAD IN IRAQ
10/25/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander, Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army
Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, on Oct. 22, of injuries sustained in Samarra,
Iraq, on Oct. 17, when an IED detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51025-4982.html
2000
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2001 •2002 •2003 •2004 •2005 •2006 •2007 •2008 •2009 •2010 •2011
10/28/05 AP: Two Marines Killed In Saqlawiyah
In Saqlawiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad, two Marines assigned to
Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine
Expeditionary Force (Forward) were killed by mortar or rocket fire, one
immediately and one later of his injuries, the military said.
story source: http://adserver.trb.com/ads/Sunspot/House/...o_728_08-05.gif
2011
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
10/28/05 AP: Two Marines Killed In Saqlawiyah
In Saqlawiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad, two Marines assigned to
Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine
Expeditionary Force (Forward) were killed by mortar or rocket fire, one
immediately and one later of his injuries, the military said.
story source: http://adserver.trb.com/ads/Sunspot/House/...o_728_08-05.gif
2011
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2012 •2013 •2014 •2015 •2016 •2017 •2018 •2019 •2020 •2021 •2022 •2023 •20214 •2025
0/31/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pfc. Dillon M. Jutras, 20, of Fairfax Station, Va., died in Al Anbar Province,
Iraq, on Oct. 28, from injuries sustained while conducting combat
operations. Jutras was assigned to the Army's 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger
Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51031-5005.html
2025
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
0/31/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pfc. Dillon M. Jutras, 20, of Fairfax Station, Va., died in Al Anbar Province,
Iraq, on Oct. 28, from injuries sustained while conducting combat
operations. Jutras was assigned to the Army's 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger
Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...51031-5005.html
2025
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2026 •2027 •2028 •2029 •2030 •2031 •2032 •2033 •2034 •20351 •2036 •2037 •2038
11/04/05 AP: Pentagon eyeing cuts in weapons programs
Struggling to pay for a costly war in Iraq, the Pentagon is considering as
much as $15 billion in cuts to aircraft, shipbuilding and other weapons
purchases as it begins to craft a budget for next year....
story source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...itarycuts_x.htm
2038
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
11/04/05 AP: Pentagon eyeing cuts in weapons programs
Struggling to pay for a costly war in Iraq, the Pentagon is considering as
much as $15 billion in cuts to aircraft, shipbuilding and other weapons
purchases as it begins to craft a budget for next year....
story source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...itarycuts_x.htm
2038
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2039 •2040 •2041 •2042 •2043 •2044 •2045 •2046 •2047 •2048 •2049
11/07/05 CENTCOM: SOLDIER KILLED BY IED (confirmed)
A Soldier attached to Task Force Band of Brothers was killed by an
improvised explosive device explosion late Nov. 6 while on patrol near ad
Dawr. Two other Soldiers and an Iraqi translator were wounded in the
attack.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051114.txt
2049
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
11/07/05 CENTCOM: SOLDIER KILLED BY IED (confirmed)
A Soldier attached to Task Force Band of Brothers was killed by an
improvised explosive device explosion late Nov. 6 while on patrol near ad
Dawr. Two other Soldiers and an Iraqi translator were wounded in the
attack.
story source: http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/Casualt...rt=20051114.txt
2049
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2050 •2051 •2052 •2053 •2054 •2056 •2057 •2058 •2059 •2060 •2061
•2062 •2063 •2064 •2065 •2066 •2067 •2068 •2069 •2070 •2071 •2072 •2073 •2074
1/16/05 KRT: Mother blames policy for son's Iraq injuries
Latseen Benson, in the 101st Airborne, was struck Sunday by a roadside
bomb in Tikrit, north of Bagdad. He lost his legs and possibly part of an
arm on Sunday, and was in a coma Tuesday night in a hospital in
Germany.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2074
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2062 •2063 •2064 •2065 •2066 •2067 •2068 •2069 •2070 •2071 •2072 •2073 •2074
1/16/05 KRT: Mother blames policy for son's Iraq injuries
Latseen Benson, in the 101st Airborne, was struck Sunday by a roadside
bomb in Tikrit, north of Bagdad. He lost his legs and possibly part of an
arm on Sunday, and was in a coma Tuesday night in a hospital in
Germany.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2074
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2075 •2076 •2077 •2078 •2079 •2080 •2081 •2062 •2083 •2084 •2085
•2086 •2087 •2088 •2089 •2090 •2091 •2092 •2093 •2004 •2095 •2096
11/21/05 MOD: Sergeant John Jones killed in Basra
It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed the
death of Sergeant John Jones in Basra on 20 November 2005, from 1st
Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers as a result of injuries
sustained from a roadside bomb.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2096
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2086 •2087 •2088 •2089 •2090 •2091 •2092 •2093 •2004 •2095 •2096
11/21/05 MOD: Sergeant John Jones killed in Basra
It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed the
death of Sergeant John Jones in Basra on 20 November 2005, from 1st
Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers as a result of injuries
sustained from a roadside bomb.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2096
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
This is the saddest thread I've ever seen. 
So many wasted lives. Young men who will never write a song, graduate university, start a small business, enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass, taste Christmas dinner with the family, get married, have children, retire and enjoy the golden years with their wives.
Truly tragic.
Made worse by the fact that Bush calls their deaths "noble."
So many wasted lives. Young men who will never write a song, graduate university, start a small business, enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass, taste Christmas dinner with the family, get married, have children, retire and enjoy the golden years with their wives.
Truly tragic.
Made worse by the fact that Bush calls their deaths "noble."
•2097 •2098 •2099 •2100 •2101 •2102 •2103 •2104 •2105 •2106 •2107
•2108 •2108 •2109 •2110 •2111 •2112 •2113
12/01/05 AP: Albany, Ore. remembers marine killed in Iraq
A U.S. Marine, Lance Cpl. Tyler Troyer, who was fatally shot in the head
while on patrol in Iraq was remembered in this working-class community
for his blazing fastball, his sense of humor and his devotion to family.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2113
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2108 •2108 •2109 •2110 •2111 •2112 •2113
12/01/05 AP: Albany, Ore. remembers marine killed in Iraq
A U.S. Marine, Lance Cpl. Tyler Troyer, who was fatally shot in the head
while on patrol in Iraq was remembered in this working-class community
for his blazing fastball, his sense of humor and his devotion to family.
story source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7210522p-7122975c.html
2113
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2114 •2115 •2116 •2117 •2118 •2119 •2120 •2121 •2122 •2123 •2124
•2125 •2126 •2127 •2128 •2129 •2130 •2131 •2132 •2133 •2134 •2131
12/08/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Cpl. Jimmy L. Shelton, 21, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., died in Bayji, on Dec. 3,
when his forward operating base was attacked by enemy forces using
mortars. Assigned to the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd
Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...1208-5202.htmll
2134
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2125 •2126 •2127 •2128 •2129 •2130 •2131 •2132 •2133 •2134 •2131
12/08/05 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Cpl. Jimmy L. Shelton, 21, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., died in Bayji, on Dec. 3,
when his forward operating base was attacked by enemy forces using
mortars. Assigned to the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd
Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne.
story source: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/n...1208-5202.htmll
2134
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
•2136 •2137 •2138 •2139 •2140 •2141 •2142 •2143 •2144 •2145 •2146
•2147 •2148 •2149 •2150 •2151 •2152 •2153 •2154 •2155 •2156 •2157
•2158 •2159 •2160 •2161 •2162 •2163
2/23/05 AP: Officials Say Marine Death in Iraq Was Accidental
12/23/05 AP: Officials Say Marine Death in Iraq Was Accidental
Military officials say a Cullman County marine who was killed in his
barracks in Iraq last week was accidentally shot to death. Corporal Adam
Fales was killed in his barracks in Fallujah on December 16th.
story source: http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/1205/288308.html
2163
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2147 •2148 •2149 •2150 •2151 •2152 •2153 •2154 •2155 •2156 •2157
•2158 •2159 •2160 •2161 •2162 •2163
2/23/05 AP: Officials Say Marine Death in Iraq Was Accidental
12/23/05 AP: Officials Say Marine Death in Iraq Was Accidental
Military officials say a Cullman County marine who was killed in his
barracks in Iraq last week was accidentally shot to death. Corporal Adam
Fales was killed in his barracks in Fallujah on December 16th.
story source: http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/1205/288308.html
2163
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
damn so many people lost their lives, only because bush is an idiot and he lied.
seriuosly, even I could be a better president, and i have no political background at all.
seriuosly, even I could be a better president, and i have no political background at all.
•2164 •2165 •2166 •2167 •2168 •2169 •2170 •2171 •2172
•2173 •2174 •2175 •2176 •2177 •2178 •2179 •2180 •2181
•2182 •2183 •2184 •2185 •2186 •2187 •2188 •2189 •2190
•2191 •2192 •2193 •2194 •2195 •2196 •2197 •2198 •2199
•2200 •2201 •2202 •2203 •2204 •2205 •2206 •2207 •2208
•2219 •2220 •2221 •2222 •2223 •2224 •2225
01/22/06 AP: U.S. troops exposed to contaminated water in Iraq
01/22/06 AP: U.S. troops exposed to contaminated water in Iraq
Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated
water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn't
get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews ...
story source: http://www.wkrc.com/news/national/story.as...EB-54A5381A3177
2225
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance
~Shears
•2173 •2174 •2175 •2176 •2177 •2178 •2179 •2180 •2181
•2182 •2183 •2184 •2185 •2186 •2187 •2188 •2189 •2190
•2191 •2192 •2193 •2194 •2195 •2196 •2197 •2198 •2199
•2200 •2201 •2202 •2203 •2204 •2205 •2206 •2207 •2208
•2219 •2220 •2221 •2222 •2223 •2224 •2225
01/22/06 AP: U.S. troops exposed to contaminated water in Iraq
01/22/06 AP: U.S. troops exposed to contaminated water in Iraq
Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated
water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn't
get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews ...
story source: http://www.wkrc.com/news/national/story.as...EB-54A5381A3177
2225
count source: http://icasualties.org/oif/
Click here to hear Lives In The Balance ~Shears
Thank you Shears, for keeping this thread alive, accurate and up to date.
QUOTE(Yelome74 @ Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 11:34 am) [snapback]41088[/snapback]
Maybe when enough sobbing and lamentations are heard around this nation, SOMETHING will be done about the criminals in Washington, DC who started this awful war AND who have allowed it to continue up to this very day. I'm not just talking about the Bushies either. I'm including the Democrats in that mix AND ALL of the 35% of STUPID Americans who still worship Bush.
Catherine
QUOTE(Catherine @ Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 8:47 am) [snapback]41090[/snapback]
Maybe when enough sobbing and lamentations are heard around this nation, SOMETHING will be done about the criminals in Washington, DC who started this awful war AND who have allowed it to continue up to this very day. I'm not just talking about the Bushies either. I'm including the Democrats in that mix AND ALL of the 35% of STUPID Americans who still worship Bush.
Catherine
I suspect this number will be closer to 5k before we're able to stop the madman!
And that's just the official number of US deaths.
This story was in my local paper this morning.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cf...jectID=10365391
Veteran's suicide reveals hidden casualties of war
26.01.06
By Andrew Buncombe
WASHINGTON - By his own admission Douglas Barber, a former Army reservist, was struggling. For two years since returning from the chaos and violence of Iraq, the 35-year-old had battled with his memories - the things he had seen and the fear he had experienced.
Recently, he seemed to have turned a corner, securing medical help and counselling. But last week, at his home in Alabama, the National Guardsman emailed some of his friends and then changed the message on his answering machine.
Anyone who called was told: "If you're looking for Doug, I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."
Barber phoned police, stepped on to the porch with his shotgun and - after a brief stand-off with officers - shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death of Barber is one of numerous instances of Iraqi veterans who have taken their own lives since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Concern is such that the Pentagon has recently instigated a new scheme for monitoring the mental health of veterans.
Barber's story would not have been told but for a group of activists and a British journalism student among the handful of people he emailed before killing himself.
Craig Evans, 19, a student at Bournemouth University, was working on a project about post-traumatic stress disorder and had been in regular contact with Barber. But the email he received on Monday, January 16, told him something was terribly wrong with the former soldier. It read: "I have nothing to live for any more - I am going to be checking out of this world."
Evans said he immediately tried to contact the US embassy as well as some of Barber's friends in the US to alert them to what he suspected was about to happen.
But within an hour of Evans receiving the message, Barber had ended his torment.
"I emailed him back and wrote, 'I am going to ring you. Don't do anything stupid'.
"He said he wasn't the same when he got back [from Iraq] - he was paranoid, he had lost his social skills, his marriage was over, he couldn't walk down the street without worrying something was going to blow up.
"I made a promise that I would do everything I could to get his story out there."
Barber was a called up to the 1485th Transport Company of the Ohio National Guard on February 11, 2003. He arrived in Iraq just as the insurgency was gathering.
He spent seven months in Iraq, driving trucks while trying to avoid the perils that confronted him and his colleagues every day. He was haunted by the deaths of his fellow soldiers and by the fear and desperation he saw in the faces of Iraqis.
Like many other reservists pushed into the front line, Barber complained that he was not properly trained.
"It was really bad - death was all around you, all the time. You couldn't escape it," he said in an interview with the Coalition for Free Thought in Media.
"Everybody in Iraq was going through suicide counselling because the stress was so high. It was at such a magnitude, such a high level, that it was unthinkable for anyone to imagine. You cannot imagine it."
Barber said he was strongly opposed to the war but felt obliged to go because he believed that without the experience his opinion would be considered invalid.
Friends said that when Barber returned to the US things started to fall apart and he split from his wife of 11 years. He had been prescribed clonazepam, an anti-anxiety drug that can cause depression.
One friend of more than 13 years, Rick Hays, a minister from Indiana, said: "He was a really good guy, pretty level-headed ... he liked to have fun. But when he came back the difference in him was so sad."
Charlie Anderson, of campaign group Iraq Veterans Against the War, said the federal Veterans Administration relied too heavily on the use of drugs for dealing with returning soldiers suffering from stress.
"[We think] that up to 30 per cent of Iraq war veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," he said.
Barber's sister, Connie Bingham, said his funeral would be held on Saturday.
Torment of a war veteran
Doug Barber wrote this internet article just days before he died:
"The Bush Administration wants to run the war like a business, and refuses to show the personal sacrifices the soldiers have made. All is not OK for those of us who return home supposedly well.
Some live with permanent scars from horrific events no one other than those who served will ever understand.
We cannot stand the memories and decide death is better. We kill ourselves because we are haunted by seeing children killed and families wiped out. Soldiers don't know how to cope with returning to a society that will never understand what they endured. When you go to bed you wonder if you will [die] because a mortar [hit] your sleeping area.
Soldiers live in deplorable conditions and can not often handle coming back to the world they left behind. It is something that drives soldiers over the edge and causes them to withdraw.
As Americans we turn our nose down at them wondering why they act the way they do. Who cares about them, why should we help them?"
- INDEPENDENT
Author
• More by Andrew Buncombe
Tools
• Printer Friendly
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cf...jectID=10365391
Veteran's suicide reveals hidden casualties of war
26.01.06
By Andrew Buncombe
WASHINGTON - By his own admission Douglas Barber, a former Army reservist, was struggling. For two years since returning from the chaos and violence of Iraq, the 35-year-old had battled with his memories - the things he had seen and the fear he had experienced.
Recently, he seemed to have turned a corner, securing medical help and counselling. But last week, at his home in Alabama, the National Guardsman emailed some of his friends and then changed the message on his answering machine.
Anyone who called was told: "If you're looking for Doug, I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."
Barber phoned police, stepped on to the porch with his shotgun and - after a brief stand-off with officers - shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The death of Barber is one of numerous instances of Iraqi veterans who have taken their own lives since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Concern is such that the Pentagon has recently instigated a new scheme for monitoring the mental health of veterans.
Barber's story would not have been told but for a group of activists and a British journalism student among the handful of people he emailed before killing himself.
Craig Evans, 19, a student at Bournemouth University, was working on a project about post-traumatic stress disorder and had been in regular contact with Barber. But the email he received on Monday, January 16, told him something was terribly wrong with the former soldier. It read: "I have nothing to live for any more - I am going to be checking out of this world."
Evans said he immediately tried to contact the US embassy as well as some of Barber's friends in the US to alert them to what he suspected was about to happen.
But within an hour of Evans receiving the message, Barber had ended his torment.
"I emailed him back and wrote, 'I am going to ring you. Don't do anything stupid'.
"He said he wasn't the same when he got back [from Iraq] - he was paranoid, he had lost his social skills, his marriage was over, he couldn't walk down the street without worrying something was going to blow up.
"I made a promise that I would do everything I could to get his story out there."
Barber was a called up to the 1485th Transport Company of the Ohio National Guard on February 11, 2003. He arrived in Iraq just as the insurgency was gathering.
He spent seven months in Iraq, driving trucks while trying to avoid the perils that confronted him and his colleagues every day. He was haunted by the deaths of his fellow soldiers and by the fear and desperation he saw in the faces of Iraqis.
Like many other reservists pushed into the front line, Barber complained that he was not properly trained.
"It was really bad - death was all around you, all the time. You couldn't escape it," he said in an interview with the Coalition for Free Thought in Media.
"Everybody in Iraq was going through suicide counselling because the stress was so high. It was at such a magnitude, such a high level, that it was unthinkable for anyone to imagine. You cannot imagine it."
Barber said he was strongly opposed to the war but felt obliged to go because he believed that without the experience his opinion would be considered invalid.
Friends said that when Barber returned to the US things started to fall apart and he split from his wife of 11 years. He had been prescribed clonazepam, an anti-anxiety drug that can cause depression.
One friend of more than 13 years, Rick Hays, a minister from Indiana, said: "He was a really good guy, pretty level-headed ... he liked to have fun. But when he came back the difference in him was so sad."
Charlie Anderson, of campaign group Iraq Veterans Against the War, said the federal Veterans Administration relied too heavily on the use of drugs for dealing with returning soldiers suffering from stress.
"[We think] that up to 30 per cent of Iraq war veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," he said.
Barber's sister, Connie Bingham, said his funeral would be held on Saturday.
Torment of a war veteran
Doug Barber wrote this internet article just days before he died:
"The Bush Administration wants to run the war like a business, and refuses to show the personal sacrifices the soldiers have made. All is not OK for those of us who return home supposedly well.
Some live with permanent scars from horrific events no one other than those who served will ever understand.
We cannot stand the memories and decide death is better. We kill ourselves because we are haunted by seeing children killed and families wiped out. Soldiers don't know how to cope with returning to a society that will never understand what they endured. When you go to bed you wonder if you will [die] because a mortar [hit] your sleeping area.
Soldiers live in deplorable conditions and can not often handle coming back to the world they left behind. It is something that drives soldiers over the edge and causes them to withdraw.
As Americans we turn our nose down at them wondering why they act the way they do. Who cares about them, why should we help them?"
- INDEPENDENT
Author
• More by Andrew Buncombe
Tools
• Printer Friendly
"They come here 19, 20 years old and when I see them leaving, missing limbs -- I've seen up to three limbs gone off people, and I don't think in our generation we've seen this amount of harm done to young people," [Maj. Gene] Delaune says.
Source: Zdechlik, Mark. "U.S. soldier injuries mount in Iraq." Minnesota Public Radio, 14 Sept 2003. Link. Posted 18 Sept 2003.
In the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for every one killed.
Bavley, Alan. "New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq." Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17 Dec 2003. Link. Posted 18 Dec 2003.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm
Source: Zdechlik, Mark. "U.S. soldier injuries mount in Iraq." Minnesota Public Radio, 14 Sept 2003. Link. Posted 18 Sept 2003.
In the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for every one killed.
Bavley, Alan. "New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq." Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17 Dec 2003. Link. Posted 18 Dec 2003.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm
QUOTE
2,247.
Scrawl it everywhere, folks.
Five more... (not sure why Cindy's shirt was 2245)
And don't forget the many many thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Scrawl it everywhere, folks.
Five more... (not sure why Cindy's shirt was 2245)
And don't forget the many many thousands of innocent Iraqis.
From a thread keeping count at http://www.smirkingchimp.com/viewtopic.php...=40259&forum=17
Catherine
If the worst crime of the Bush-Cheney administration were deceit, we could just impeach them like we did Tricky Dick Nixon. But I am convinced that something much worse has happened.
Ever since Viet Nam, our military has been trying to figure out how to use a modern army to fight insurgents who can mingle with the civilians. Clearly, the strategy we used in Viet Nam didn't work well, for whatever reason. So, my guess is that they decided to use Iraq as a testing ground for a new strategy.
Insurgents and terrorists are difficult because they look like anybody else. They don't wear uniforms, they don't carry banners, and they are spread all over the map. There is some concentration in the Middle East so the Iraq strategy was to use our troops as bait, leaving the borders with Jordan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Egypt unprotected. That allowed any terrorist attracted by the idea of shooting Americans in a barrel to hop into a car and cross into Iraq.
I believe that the Administration deliberately sent our soldiers into Iraq to tempt the terrorists out into the open where they could be more easily targeted.
Ever since Viet Nam, our military has been trying to figure out how to use a modern army to fight insurgents who can mingle with the civilians. Clearly, the strategy we used in Viet Nam didn't work well, for whatever reason. So, my guess is that they decided to use Iraq as a testing ground for a new strategy.
Insurgents and terrorists are difficult because they look like anybody else. They don't wear uniforms, they don't carry banners, and they are spread all over the map. There is some concentration in the Middle East so the Iraq strategy was to use our troops as bait, leaving the borders with Jordan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Egypt unprotected. That allowed any terrorist attracted by the idea of shooting Americans in a barrel to hop into a car and cross into Iraq.
I believe that the Administration deliberately sent our soldiers into Iraq to tempt the terrorists out into the open where they could be more easily targeted.
2248 2249 2250 2251 2252 2253 2254 2255 2256 2257 2258 2259 2260 2261 2262 2263 2264 2265 2266 2267 2268 2269 2270 2271 2272 2273 2274 2275 2276 2277 2278 2279 2280 2281 2282 2283 2284 2285
2286
2286
2287
2288
2288
2289
2290
2290
Ashamed the animation
QUOTE(cameron @ Friday, 14 April 2006, 9:12 pm) [snapback]52460[/snapback]
KISS MY ARMY ASS
Cameron?
Are you offended because these soldiers died?
Or are you offended that we choose to honor them?
Do you feel that mentioning their death somehow cheapens their sacrifice?
Or would it be better if no one knew, and no one cared?
I really am confused here Cameron,
I don't understand!
Is it that we're peace ativists and so we can't understand?
Do you understand that many of us are Veterans?
And many of us who are not, live, work and socialize with veterans?
But even so, if we are not Vets who have not served in combat,
we are not supposing to know what you know.
All that we are saying with this thread are these things.....
Thank you, who ever you are for your sacrifice.
Thank you to your families as well.
What you have given to us is not unnoticed.
We only wish you had given what you have
for something other than the lies!
none the less,
we are sincerely in your debt!
Thank you!
Edit to add.....
2429
2497
2543
http://www.jessestrong.com/
R.I.P. Marine
http://www.brandonblog.com/capt-kimberly-hampton-hero.html
R.I.P. Soldier
Two who made the ultimate sacrifice. I stand and salute our fallen warriors, our greatest gifts to the world are being lost for all the wrong reasons.
Don't forget that it's not just IED's and gunfire that kill our troops, it is also PTSD that kills them. This soldier was loved by everyone in his company, as stated by Lt. Paul Reickhoff in the book Chasing Ghosts
Link
QUOTE
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (July 1) – A graveside service for Florida Army National Guardsman Spc. Jason Bonts, who went missing May 18 and was found dead May 28, was held today at the Riverside Memorial Park, located on Jacksonville’s Westside.
Bonts, 25, a member of the Florida National Guard’s Jacksonville-based 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment, was last seen May 18 when he left his home in Ponte Vedra headed to his work at the BellSouth Office in Jacksonville as an electronics technician. His body was located by a work crew in Northeast Florida on May 28. Cause of death has not been released.
Bonts served with the Guard’s Co. B, 3rd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment in Iraq where he received the Purple Heart for wounds sustained when a roadside bomb detonated next to the vehicle he was riding in. He was treated for upper-body shrapnel wounds and was released back to duty. Bonts returned home in February after serving 13 months on active duty, with most of his duty in Baghdad.
Bonts served in the U.S. Army for four years, from August 1996 to August 2000. He was stationed in Germany and was deployed to Kosovo. He joined the Florida Army National Guard Aug. 23, 2000 and was training to be a radio operator with the 111th Aviation Regiment when he was activated in December 2002 for Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequently Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bonts, a resident of Jacksonville, would have celebrated his 26th birthday June 28th: the day Iraq soverignty was returned to the Iraqi people.
The Bonts family provided the following background information written statement:
“Jason was raised in Jacksonville and attended N.B. Forrest High School. He graduated in 1996, then went immediately to boot camp for the U.S. Army that summer.
He originally enlisted because he ultimately wanted to go to college and knew he could get help from the GI Bill. He had hopes of becoming a Green Beret.
All Jason really wanted was to find the right person and get married and raise a family.
Jason never got married or had any children, but he adored his family. He was very protective of both of his sisters. He loved to spend time with his extended family. Our mom, Karen is one out of eight children and so there are about 30 grandchildren. We are all close. Holidays always included playing football or basketball. Jason is a role model for his half brother, Christian, who wants to be just like him.
After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, he went to work for BellSouth as an electronics technician in the Carrier group. He had been working for Bellsouth for about 2 years when he was called up for Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Enduring Freedom. He was respected by his co-workers, many of which call him family. He took responsibility and ownership of jobs that needed to be completed and didn't wait for someone else to do it. There was never a ‘That's not my job attitude.’
Jason was an incredibly selfless person. Most of his adult life was spent in foreign countries fighting for people who could not fight for themselves. Even in every [day life] he played the hero. One day after work he chased down a man who had snatched a woman’s purse. Then he even went back to get the woman and drove her to the security guard he had left her purse with. When asked to stay until the media got there, so his good deed could be rewarded, he declined.”
Staff Sgt. William Dyer, squad leader for Bonts while assigned to Florida Army National Guard’s infantry battalion in Iraq, provided this insight to his squad member: “Throughout training at Fort Stewart, Jason helped with the sometimes-frustrating task of pulling a group of boys together to face the unknown. We patrolled the woods of Stewart together a great deal. He would always go with me. He told me about his life, his work, and his history, and he didn't ever complain when the wind and freezing rain turned the Georgia low country to a frozen mud bog.”
“Jason became the guy at my back,” emailed Dyer. “When we rolled out the gate, he was always (ALWAYS) in the turret of my Humvee, and when we patrolled on foot, he was always next to the radio guy.”
“We would stand building security every three days; hours of waiting for the locals to try something while sitting on a lonely outpost. Jason and I would talk about nothing in particular, the car he was going to buy on our return, events of the day, not much and everything.”
Dyer remembered: “When we got back to Fort Stewart, everyone scattered, and Jason was no different. I remember the last morning there, standing in the dawn, waiting to load up. I watched him walk to his blue truck with the dent in the door, thinking I should say goodbye, then deciding that doing so would only hold him up.”
Dyer reflected on this moment and realized he should have taken advantage of the opportunity. One thing for certain, they served as a team and looked after each other’s back.
Bonts, 25, a member of the Florida National Guard’s Jacksonville-based 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment, was last seen May 18 when he left his home in Ponte Vedra headed to his work at the BellSouth Office in Jacksonville as an electronics technician. His body was located by a work crew in Northeast Florida on May 28. Cause of death has not been released.
Bonts served with the Guard’s Co. B, 3rd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment in Iraq where he received the Purple Heart for wounds sustained when a roadside bomb detonated next to the vehicle he was riding in. He was treated for upper-body shrapnel wounds and was released back to duty. Bonts returned home in February after serving 13 months on active duty, with most of his duty in Baghdad.
Bonts served in the U.S. Army for four years, from August 1996 to August 2000. He was stationed in Germany and was deployed to Kosovo. He joined the Florida Army National Guard Aug. 23, 2000 and was training to be a radio operator with the 111th Aviation Regiment when he was activated in December 2002 for Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequently Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bonts, a resident of Jacksonville, would have celebrated his 26th birthday June 28th: the day Iraq soverignty was returned to the Iraqi people.
The Bonts family provided the following background information written statement:
“Jason was raised in Jacksonville and attended N.B. Forrest High School. He graduated in 1996, then went immediately to boot camp for the U.S. Army that summer.
He originally enlisted because he ultimately wanted to go to college and knew he could get help from the GI Bill. He had hopes of becoming a Green Beret.
All Jason really wanted was to find the right person and get married and raise a family.
Jason never got married or had any children, but he adored his family. He was very protective of both of his sisters. He loved to spend time with his extended family. Our mom, Karen is one out of eight children and so there are about 30 grandchildren. We are all close. Holidays always included playing football or basketball. Jason is a role model for his half brother, Christian, who wants to be just like him.
After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, he went to work for BellSouth as an electronics technician in the Carrier group. He had been working for Bellsouth for about 2 years when he was called up for Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Enduring Freedom. He was respected by his co-workers, many of which call him family. He took responsibility and ownership of jobs that needed to be completed and didn't wait for someone else to do it. There was never a ‘That's not my job attitude.’
Jason was an incredibly selfless person. Most of his adult life was spent in foreign countries fighting for people who could not fight for themselves. Even in every [day life] he played the hero. One day after work he chased down a man who had snatched a woman’s purse. Then he even went back to get the woman and drove her to the security guard he had left her purse with. When asked to stay until the media got there, so his good deed could be rewarded, he declined.”
Staff Sgt. William Dyer, squad leader for Bonts while assigned to Florida Army National Guard’s infantry battalion in Iraq, provided this insight to his squad member: “Throughout training at Fort Stewart, Jason helped with the sometimes-frustrating task of pulling a group of boys together to face the unknown. We patrolled the woods of Stewart together a great deal. He would always go with me. He told me about his life, his work, and his history, and he didn't ever complain when the wind and freezing rain turned the Georgia low country to a frozen mud bog.”
“Jason became the guy at my back,” emailed Dyer. “When we rolled out the gate, he was always (ALWAYS) in the turret of my Humvee, and when we patrolled on foot, he was always next to the radio guy.”
“We would stand building security every three days; hours of waiting for the locals to try something while sitting on a lonely outpost. Jason and I would talk about nothing in particular, the car he was going to buy on our return, events of the day, not much and everything.”
Dyer remembered: “When we got back to Fort Stewart, everyone scattered, and Jason was no different. I remember the last morning there, standing in the dawn, waiting to load up. I watched him walk to his blue truck with the dent in the door, thinking I should say goodbye, then deciding that doing so would only hold him up.”
Dyer reflected on this moment and realized he should have taken advantage of the opportunity. One thing for certain, they served as a team and looked after each other’s back.
Link
And then there are those who live, and come home horribly disfigured. It's not an aall inclusive number of just dead soldiers, there are the walking wounded, the those who will never be the same again.
QUOTE
Marine's future in focus
After months in Texas hospital recovering from Iraq car bomb attack, 23-year-old is back home, getting on with life
In an instant, Tyler Ziegel's world went black and silent. A car bomb exploded just as his truck rolled past in western Iraq. It cost him his face, his ears, his nose, two fingers and ultimately his left hand.
But Ziegel, who was discharged last week from an Army hospital in Texas after 18 months and nearly 30 operations, isn't bitter and doesn't want pity. He regards himself as a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Anybody who is going into the military and signs on the dotted line should expect - not that you want it to happen - but you should expect that you could be injured or worse," he said Wednesday. "I did nothing special. Bad things happen."Ziegel, 23, remembers it was cold that day. He was riding in the back, returning from a mission, when their truck passed by a car. Unbeknownst to them, it was laden with explosives. It blew up, setting the truck afire and knocking it off the road.
"It felt like someone hit me in the face with a baseball bat," he recalled. Blinded and deafened by the explosion, he rolled around on the truck bed in agony. He remembers being pulled off the burning truck by a fellow Marine. He remembers feeling cold as medics cut away his clothing and he was loaded onto a helicopter.
"I was lying on a bed which was bumpy, like someone was pushing me fast on gravel. I said my arm hurt really bad and then I woke up in February in the hospital," he said. Even then, things were blurry, literally. His eyelids had burned away, and nurses had applied a salve directly on his pupils to keep them free from infection. The right eye still got infected, and he has largely lost sight in it, though doctors are hoping a cornea transplant next year could restore vision in that eye.
Doctors kept Ziegel in a medically induced coma through February to allow his body a chance to heal and so he wouldn't suffer from the painful burns. They brought him out of the coma every now and then to test his mental ability. Doctors were worried that a large piece of shrapnel embedded in his head had caused brain damage. An operation to remove it resulted in doctors taking out a portion of the brain that controls personality.
Ziegel's fiancee, Renee Kline, remembers hearing about the attack. She fainted and then drove around in a car with a friend for hours, not knowing what to do or think. Two days later, on Christmas Eve, she and Ziegel's mom, Becky, flew to San Antonio, Texas, with a week's worth of clothing. They wound up staying for 18 months. "We would go (to the hospital) six, seven, eight times a day and stay as long as we could to look at him," Kline said. "I would tickle his feet to see if I could get a reaction from his heart rate."
Ziegel rolled his eyes at that memory. "I hate having my feet tickled. That must have been why I had bad dreams," he quipped. After that, Ziegel had only three words to sum up his experience: painful, difficult and rewarding. The physical therapy was intense. He had to learn how to function without a left hand. The big toe from his right foot became his thumb on his right hand, which still lacks two fingers.
But his positive attitude continued to help him along. Medical staff at the hospital even turned to Ziegel to help them with other patients who were injured but not doing as well.
"The nurses asked me to help, one because I had a good attitude and second, well, I said, 'It could be worse," he joked.
As the months went on, Ziegel and Kline, 20, settled into a routine. It was only on the anniversaries of the attack, of his arrival in Texas and other moments when it would sink in that their lives were in a holding pattern. Now that he's home in Washington, the couple is focusing on moving into their house there and preparing for their wedding in October. It's a difficult time for Ziegel, who had always been self-reliant but now must rely on others.
"It's hard when I can't do the things I used to do, like picking up boxes," he said. Still, he's determined, and last week he put the license plate on his new truck.
Some things will have to wait, though, like playing the guitar. A musician before the war, Ziegel has a collection that includes a signed guitar from Ted Nugent given to him while he was in the hospital. He hasn't ruled out playing again but for now, the guitars are likely just decorations.
Both Kline and Ziegel said they were amazed and overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from people, both locally and nationally. Within days of being injured, letters, cards and phone calls came into the Texas hospital. They want people to know they appreciated the kindness and thank everyone who helped.
"I am proud of the area that we live in and proud of the people and the support that they have given. I see a lot of patriotism here," he said.
After months in Texas hospital recovering from Iraq car bomb attack, 23-year-old is back home, getting on with life
In an instant, Tyler Ziegel's world went black and silent. A car bomb exploded just as his truck rolled past in western Iraq. It cost him his face, his ears, his nose, two fingers and ultimately his left hand.
But Ziegel, who was discharged last week from an Army hospital in Texas after 18 months and nearly 30 operations, isn't bitter and doesn't want pity. He regards himself as a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Anybody who is going into the military and signs on the dotted line should expect - not that you want it to happen - but you should expect that you could be injured or worse," he said Wednesday. "I did nothing special. Bad things happen."Ziegel, 23, remembers it was cold that day. He was riding in the back, returning from a mission, when their truck passed by a car. Unbeknownst to them, it was laden with explosives. It blew up, setting the truck afire and knocking it off the road.
"It felt like someone hit me in the face with a baseball bat," he recalled. Blinded and deafened by the explosion, he rolled around on the truck bed in agony. He remembers being pulled off the burning truck by a fellow Marine. He remembers feeling cold as medics cut away his clothing and he was loaded onto a helicopter.
"I was lying on a bed which was bumpy, like someone was pushing me fast on gravel. I said my arm hurt really bad and then I woke up in February in the hospital," he said. Even then, things were blurry, literally. His eyelids had burned away, and nurses had applied a salve directly on his pupils to keep them free from infection. The right eye still got infected, and he has largely lost sight in it, though doctors are hoping a cornea transplant next year could restore vision in that eye.
Doctors kept Ziegel in a medically induced coma through February to allow his body a chance to heal and so he wouldn't suffer from the painful burns. They brought him out of the coma every now and then to test his mental ability. Doctors were worried that a large piece of shrapnel embedded in his head had caused brain damage. An operation to remove it resulted in doctors taking out a portion of the brain that controls personality.
Ziegel's fiancee, Renee Kline, remembers hearing about the attack. She fainted and then drove around in a car with a friend for hours, not knowing what to do or think. Two days later, on Christmas Eve, she and Ziegel's mom, Becky, flew to San Antonio, Texas, with a week's worth of clothing. They wound up staying for 18 months. "We would go (to the hospital) six, seven, eight times a day and stay as long as we could to look at him," Kline said. "I would tickle his feet to see if I could get a reaction from his heart rate."
Ziegel rolled his eyes at that memory. "I hate having my feet tickled. That must have been why I had bad dreams," he quipped. After that, Ziegel had only three words to sum up his experience: painful, difficult and rewarding. The physical therapy was intense. He had to learn how to function without a left hand. The big toe from his right foot became his thumb on his right hand, which still lacks two fingers.
But his positive attitude continued to help him along. Medical staff at the hospital even turned to Ziegel to help them with other patients who were injured but not doing as well.
"The nurses asked me to help, one because I had a good attitude and second, well, I said, 'It could be worse," he joked.
As the months went on, Ziegel and Kline, 20, settled into a routine. It was only on the anniversaries of the attack, of his arrival in Texas and other moments when it would sink in that their lives were in a holding pattern. Now that he's home in Washington, the couple is focusing on moving into their house there and preparing for their wedding in October. It's a difficult time for Ziegel, who had always been self-reliant but now must rely on others.
"It's hard when I can't do the things I used to do, like picking up boxes," he said. Still, he's determined, and last week he put the license plate on his new truck.
Some things will have to wait, though, like playing the guitar. A musician before the war, Ziegel has a collection that includes a signed guitar from Ted Nugent given to him while he was in the hospital. He hasn't ruled out playing again but for now, the guitars are likely just decorations.
Both Kline and Ziegel said they were amazed and overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from people, both locally and nationally. Within days of being injured, letters, cards and phone calls came into the Texas hospital. They want people to know they appreciated the kindness and thank everyone who helped.
"I am proud of the area that we live in and proud of the people and the support that they have given. I see a lot of patriotism here," he said.
yes a lie to all of us soliders indeed
QUOTE(kelokid @ Sunday, 30 July 2006, 3:02 am) [snapback]65715[/snapback]
yes a lie to all of us soliders indeed
We appreciate your volunterism for your country.
We appreciate the sacrifice you are, if not willing, at least able to accept.
What we cannot accept, is that the reasons are all lies.
These are things that make us ashamed of our American way of life.
These are things that make us cry in our quiet moments.
We have all sworn openly and privately to end this madness.
It is once again time for Peace!
all soldiers in every war are lied to.
the difference here is in the types of lies.
the difference here is in the types of lies.
2, 804 U.S. troops have been KIA
21, 266 troops have been wounded, 9,603 of those troops have been seriously wounded.
21, 266 troops have been wounded, 9,603 of those troops have been seriously wounded.
2,839 U.S. troops KIA.
21,572 troops wounded
9,820 troops seriously wounded.
21,572 troops wounded
9,820 troops seriously wounded.
2,969 U.S. Troops have been KIA
Hey,
It will only get worse over the next year.
It will only get worse over the next year.
As of March 12, 2007:
Wounded - No medical air transport req'd: 16,412
Wounded - Medical air transport req'd: 7,005
Wounded - Non hostile injuries: 6,835
U.S. deaths confirmed by the DoD: 3,190
Wounded - No medical air transport req'd: 16,412
Wounded - Medical air transport req'd: 7,005
Wounded - Non hostile injuries: 6,835
U.S. deaths confirmed by the DoD: 3,190
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.