Just devastating news

Olmsted, 38, dies in Iraqi ambush; 1st casualty of '08

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

He was the first 2008 casualty in Iraq. And a small part of Maj. Andrew Olmsted likely would've chuckled at that fact. It would be droll and play into his sense of self-deprecation.

But for everyone else, the news would be devastating.

Amanda Wilson, his wife of 10 years, could barely talk Friday. The notifying officers came to her door in Colorado Springs on Thursday to tell her that Olmsted's unit had been ambushed and that he was dead. Also killed was Cpt. Thomas J. Casey, 32, of Albuquerque.

It was small-arms fire, they said. The gaping blackness after that moment seemed to suck away all the words, leaving only soft sobs in their wake.

"I know," she said quietly when condolences were passed on to her.

Her mother, who was flown in Friday to help, also was having trouble with the news. "She's trying to be brave," Wilson's mother said.

Spartanburg (WLTX)- Fred Coan is coping with the death of his former star athlete. "He was just a great kid, he was just one you remember."

37-year-old Army National Guard Sergeant Shawn Hill died this week in Afghanistan after his 218th Infantry Brigade unit struck a roadside bomb.

"It's just sadness, cause I know how Shawn enjoyed life and his family, enjoyed his kids," says Coan.

The husband and father of three played football for the J.F. Byrnes High School Rebels until he graduated in 1990.

I want to add one myth to his list, the one I find most galling and least debunked: that the surge has led to the pacification of large parts of Anbar province and Baghdad. Quiescence and pacification are simply not the same thing, and this is definitely a case of quiescence. In fact, the reduction in violence we are witnessing is really a result of the U.S. discontinuing its vicious raids into insurgent territory, which have been - from the beginning of the war - the largest source of violence and civilian casualties in Iraq. These raids, which consist of home invasions in search of suspected insurgents, trigger brutal arrests and assaults by American soldiers who are worried about resistance, gun fights when families resist the intrusions into their homes, and road side bombs set to deter and distract the invasions. Whenever Iraqis fight back against these raids, there is the risk of sustained gun battles that, in turn, produce U.S. artillery and air assaults that, in turn, annihilate buildings and even whole blocks.

The "surge" has reduced this violence, but not because the Iraqis have stopped resisting raids or supporting the insurgency. Violence has decreased in many Anbar towns and Baghdad neighborhoods because the U.S. has agreed to discontinue these raids; that is, the U.S. would no longer seek to capture or kill the Sunni insurgents they have been fighting for four years. In exchange the insurgents agree to police their own neighborhoods (which they had been doing all along, in defiance of the U.S.), and also suppress jihadist car bombs.

The result is that the U.S. troops now stay outside of previously insurgent communities, or march through without invading any houses or attacking any buildings.

So, ironically, this new success has not pacified these communities, but rather acknowledged the insurgents' sovereignty over the communities, and even provided them with pay and equipment to sustain and extend their control over the communities.

Hey, but that is just one of many myths that need debunking. Cole has 10 others that are just as worthy.

Best

Michael
link:[www.huffingtonpost.com]

By: North County Times

SAN MARCOS -- An Army private from San Marcos was one of three solders who died Wednesday in Iraq from wounds he suffered during combat operations in the city of Samarra, the Defense Department said late Thursday.

Pfc. Ivan E. Merlo, 19, was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment's 1st Brigade Combat Team assigned to the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Also killed in fighting that day were Army Sgt. David Hart, 22, of Lake View Terrace, and Army Pfc. Phillip J. Pannier, 20, of Washburn, Ill.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths are under investigation.

A written statement released by Fort Campbell said Merlo joined the Army in October 2006 and arrived at the Army base in February. His awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon, the statement said. It also credited him with earning a weapons qualification as an M4 expert.

Merlo is survived by his wife, Nicole, of Vista, and parents Jose Merlo and Joanna Villegas of San Marcos, according to the statement.

More from our drug and drink induced orgy in Oilraq:

By STEPHANIE HEINATZ
January 12, 2008

PASCAGOULA -- Family members confirmed Tuesday that one of two soldiers killed Monday in Afghanistan was Pascagoula native Maj. Michael Green.

Green, a member of the Army Special Forces command, was killed by a roadside bomb said his twin sister, Michelle Green LeBatard of Gautier, Miss.

She said Green, 36, was in Afghanistan to train militia recruits on detecting and disarming roadside bombs, which are also referred to as improvised explosive devices. Roadside bombs are often homemade devices that are buried underground and then exploded when American or other coalition forces come into the area.

Although the Army has not officially identified Green as a casualty, an Associated Press report from Afghanistan says that two Coalition soldiers died Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in the Kot district of the Nangarhar province.

In addition to the two deaths, a third soldier was injured in the attack.

According to the AP story, the soldiers were responding to a call from local police who had discovered another bomb nearby. As the soldiers responded to the first bomb, the second bomb exploded, the story says.

"He loved the Mississippi Gulf Coast," LeBatard said. "He lived all over the world, Egypt, Germany, Kansas, but the Coast was his home."

She said one of his favorite pastimes was to bring friends he met during his military service to the Gulf Coast. She said he looked for soldiers who didn't have family or friends to go home to over the holidays.

"He would always bring a stranger to our house for the holidays to eat Thanksgiving dinner," she said. "He was full of life. He never met a stranger."

Green would take his guests to local restaurants or load them in his boat to take them fishing at Horn Island, LeBatard said.

She said her brother was a fan of Pascagoula native Jimmy Buffett and would fly across the nation to catch one of Buffett's shows.