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Gov. Riley remembers 122 Alabamians killed in War on Terror

Posted today in The Birmingham News:

Gov. Bob Riley in a ceremony at the Capitol today thanked relatives of Alabamians killed in the war on terror and recalled the sacrifices made by the 122 service members.

”When this country needed someone to step forward, they of their own volition took an oath to step forward and defend what is great about this country,” Riley said.

”To a large extent, what they did was sacrifice all of their hopes and all of their aspirations and all of their dreams so we can have ours,” he said. ”Let us vow this morning that, for as long as God gives life to this nation and to each one of us, their heroism, their courage and their noble sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

Soldiers and retired soldiers read the names and hometowns of the 122 Alabamians who died in Iraq, Afghanistan or other theaters of operation between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30. Seven were killed this year: Army Sgt. Lakeshia M. Bailey of Ft. Mitchell, Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas E. Rivers Jr. of Hoover, Army Capt. Kyle A. Comfort of Jacksonville, Army Spc. Brendan P. Neenan of Enterprise, Air Force Sgt. David C. Smith of Eight Mile, Army Spc. Andrew L. Hand of Enterprise and Air Force Senior Airman Mark A. Forester of Haleyville.

Photos of the service members cover a memorial, 8 feet high and 10 feet long, that stands on the first floor of the Capitol, not far from the late Gov. Lurleen Wallace’s statue. The American and Alabama flags flank the ”Alabama’s Fallen Heroes” memorial. When the memorial was dedicated in November 2007, 92 Alabamians had died in the war on terror.

Local hero a Purple Heart recipient

A local soldier wounded in an attack in Iraq last month has received the Purple Heart.

Pfc. Michael Campbell, 27, of Ragland was awarded the Purple Heart Oct 5 from his hospital bed at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

“It makes you feel that you are appreciated for what did happen,” Campbell said Saturday from his hospital room in Texas. “I am very grateful to receive this. It is such an honor. Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal presented it to me and some of my family was with me.”

Campbell recalled the incident, which happened Sept. 7 in Tuz, Iraq, between 3 and 5 p.m. Iraqi time.

“An Iraqi soldier climbed a wall used for security and started shooting where we were asleep,” Campbell said. “All total, 11 U.S. soldiers were shot, two of which died. The gunman was later killed by American soldiers.”

Of the nine soldiers who were wounded, Campbell is the seventh to receive the Purple Heart.

One of the nine soldiers injured is in Texas with Campbell.

“Kyle Perry is from Phoenix, Ariz., and he is one of my buddies,” Campbell said. “We stick together and try to keep each other straight. We go eat breakfast together every morning. I’m in room 127 and he is in room 126.”

Campbell’s wife, Tanya, has been by his side for the past several weeks.

“I am so proud of him,” Tanya Campbell said. “I know it is an honor to him and all the other soldiers who are Purple Heart recipients.”

Campbell’s mother, Sue Campbell, said her son has had so many challenges since he was injured in Iraq.

“But God’s blessings in his recovery has been abundant,” Sue Campbell said. “I am so proud of Michael for taking the oath as a soldier to lay down his life to protect our country, its values, and a way of life against all who seek to destroy us. Also for their mission to give the Iraqi people a real chance to realize a free democratic life for the very first time in many of their lives. So to Michael I say, ‘Thank you for serving our country and protecting our most precious gift — Freedom. You make me proud to be your mom and I love you so much.’”

The Campbells have a 4-year-old son, Jax, as well as a 15-year-old stepson, Dakota Gardner.

Tanya Campbell said her husband is scheduled to have another surgery Nov. 2 during which doctors will do a bone graft and insert a plate and pins in his left hip.

“The surgeon said in about four to six weeks we should be able to come home to Ragland for 30 days before returning back out here to Texas,” she said. “We should be home around the middle of December, so we’ll be home for Christmas.”

Campbell joined the Army Sept. 1, 2009. Basic training was held at Ft. Benning, Ga. He was then stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

He deployed from Hawaii July 2, and arrived in Iraq a few days later as a member of the 2nd Platoon, 1-27th Infantry where he is a radio telecommunications operator.

Courtesy of Charlie and The Daily Home.

Bessemer’s VFW supports today’s wounded vets with a big donation

Printed in this weekend’s edition of The Birmingham News:

Over the years, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1762 in Bessemer has dwindled.

Twice-a-week bingo stopped in 2006. Enrollment has fallen to 90, and 89 of those are veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Yet one thing hasn’t diminished — a dedication to helping other veterans in need.

Once a month the post does bingo night for veterans in a Tuscaloosa nursing home. Every patient wins coupons to buy sundries.

But next week Commander Paul Calhoun and Quartermaster James Mosier will make the post’s biggest donation ever.

The post will pay $50,000 for naming rights for a duplex being built at the Lakeshore Foundation campus. It’s one of 10 new residences that will offer free lodging for injured veterans and their families when they come to Lakeshore for free Lima Foxtrot programs.

In Lima Foxtrot, injured veterans learn to be active and independent through recreation or sport — despite blindness, amputation, paralysis or other severe injury.

Since 2006, about 800 military service members have gone through the program, but they stayed in dorms while family members had to stay elsewhere.

The new housing effort, dubbed Operation Lakeshore, will change that.

The entire family — including children — will live together on campus. Ground was broken on the $2.3 million project April 5, and the new residences, with their private, home-like atmosphere, will open on Veterans Day.

Calhoun, 80 years old and post commander for the past 18 years, had been looking for a deserving project. The retired U.S. Air Force technical sergeant knew that if the post ever has to close, remaining assets will go to the state VFW. Instead, he hoped to find a local charity to support with money the post has raised from bingo, investment and dues.

“A lot of our people were getting older,” Mosier said.

When Calhoun and Mosier heard about Operation Lakeshore, they invited Mike Mouron, president of Capstone Companies, his wife, Kathy, and veteran Noah Galloway to tell them more at a post meeting earlier this month.

Kathy Mouron was the one who came up with the idea of building the cottages as a charitable effort, which her husband leads. More than 90 companies have donated nearly $2 million in labor, materials and money.

Galloway, an Iraq veteran who lost one arm and one leg in a roadside bombing, did most of the speaking.

He told post members how much he appreciates Vietnam-era veterans, and said he regretted how they had been treated when they returned from the war. Several of the Bessemer veterans audibly said, “Thank you.”

He told them he signed up for the Army right after 9/11 and was in the first invasion of Iraq with the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles.” He told them that he re-upped for a second tour, during which his Humvee triggered a roadside bomb on a night patrol.

Galloway told the post how the cottages will serve injured veterans as they try to gain confidence through physical activities, and how much having families with them will help.

After the Mourons and Galloway left, the members of Post 1762 voted. The decision to make the gift was unanimous.

“This is going to be the largest donation the post has made anywhere,” said Mosier. “This donation is going to help veterans, and that’s what our job is.”

To help furnish the duplex, the post plans to donate photographs of veterans who were VFW members. Even as the older soldiers fade away, a plaque on the door and the historical photographs on the walls will be lasting tributes to Bessemer’s proud VFW post, and a memorial to its many wartime veterans.

Jacksonville Guard unit to return from Iraq

Posted to The Birmingham News:

The Alabama Army National Guard says about 170 members of its 2025th Transportation Company from Jacksonville are coming home from Iraq after the unit’s second tour there.

The Guard says the unit was sent to Iraq the first time in March 2003. It was called to active duty again last May.

The Guard says the unit is scheduled to arrive at the Jacksonville armory Wednesday evening, and that the public is invited to attend ceremonies welcoming the troops home

Bama Guard unit deploys to Iraq; another heading out later this week

Posted to Breaking News at The Birmingham News:

About 50 members of the an Alabama Army National Guard unit that specializes in explosive ordnance disposal have deployed to Iraq and a transportation unit with about 170 soldiers is slated to arrive there shortly.

The 111th Ordnance Group from Opelika arrived down range last week. While in Iraq, the 111th will head up Combined Joint Task Force Troy, which coordinates and oversees efforts to counter improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, throughout the country. Task Force Troy will oversee 600 to 800 U.S. troops involved in anti-IED operations, and several dozen of those troops are soldiers with one of the 111th’s subordinate units, the 441st Ordnance Battalion out of Huntsville.

Meanwhile, state Guard public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Cynthia Bachus, said the 2101st Transportation Company out of Demopolis, Aliceville and Butler is now in Kuwait and will be moving into Iraq soon. The upcoming tour will be the second one for about a third of the unit’s soldiers. The first was in 2004-05.

This morning, the commander of an Alabama Guard military police unit said in an e-mail Sunday’s national elections went smoothly in his unit’s southern sector of Iraq.

“The Iraqi Security Forces did a great job executing the security plan that they established for the province,” said Lt. Col. Charles
Buxton, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 203rd Military Police Battalion, now based in Basra Province.

Soldiers with the Athens-based 203rd have helped train Iraqi police and did pre-election assessments to improve security at 20 critical polling places throughout the province.

Through last December, according to the latest Pentagon figures, more than 4,700 Alabamians were deployed in and around Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bama Guard unit works to protect polling places as Iraq’s elections near

Printed in The Birmingham News:

As Iraq’s national elections draw near, soldiers with an Alabama Army National Guard unit are working to help protect polling places in their sector in the southern part of the country.

About 80 soldiers with the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 203rd Military Police Battalion are based in the southern city of Basrah. The unit commander, Lt. Col. Charles Buxton, said in an e-mail that battalion soldiers have done security assessments on “the 20 most critical polling sites in Basrah Province, as identified by the provincial director of police.”

“During these site assessments, we looked for structural issues and developed recommendations for force protection measures which were presented to the (director),” Buxton said. “During these site assessments, we transported members of the military working dog teams that will be used to conduct searches for explosives at the polling sites, prior to the start of the elections.”

Security at polling places and at government buildings is a concern for U.S. and Iraqi security forces as Sunday’s elections loom. Today, according to press reports, suicide bombers attacked two police stations and a hospital in the city Baqubah, north of Baghdad, and at least 31 people were killed.

In his e-mail, Buxton said 203rd soldiers had done “vulnerability assessments” of two buildings housing government offices, one of which is the Provincial Joint Coordination Center, a structure under the Ministry of Interior. As a result, Buxton said, two concrete barriers were being installed at the center this morning to thwart attacks “from a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.”

Bama Guard unit to deploy on anti-explosive mission in Iraq

Posted today in The Birmingham News:

Bomb attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq have been going down, but bombers appear to be focusing more on Iraqi security forces, government officials, and civilians.

An Alabama National Guard unit will be deploying to Iraq in less than a month and one of its main jobs will be to train Iraqis in bomb detection, disposal, and other related measures to make their country more secure.

A send-off ceremony was held today for about 50 members of the 111th Ordinance Group from Opelika. The unit’s specialty is explosive ordinance disposal and in Iraq it will head up Joint Task Force Troy, which coordinates and oversees anti-IED efforts throughout Iraq. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Devices, which killed or wounded many U.S. soldiers during much of the Iraq war.

“We are the fight against the IED,” said Col. Jose Atencio III, of Florence, the 111th commanding officer.

The task force will oversee 600 to 800 U.S. troops involved in anti-IED operations throughout Iraq. Several dozen of those troops are soldiers with one of the 111th’s subordinate units, the 441st Ordinance Battalion out of Huntsville.

Atencio said that the task force will be working closely with Iraqi security forces because U.S. forces are drawing down in Iraq and are no longer leading the anti-IED efforts around the country.

“We have got to transfer the capability and the capacity over to the Iraqi military, federal police, and the police to give them the ability to counter (IEDs) once we are gone,” Atencio said.

The 111th’s command sergeant major, Gerald Miller, of Helena, said the unit has a lot of soldiers with expertise who had previous deployments – some as far back as Desert Storm.

The 111th soldiers leave Wednesday for Camp Shelby, Miss., where they will spend about three weeks in final training before deploying.

Alabama Ft. Hood soldier intends to deploy to Iraq

Posted today in The Birmingham News:

An Alabama-born Army officer who was shot three times during the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, still has his good days and bad days, but he had a good one over the weekend when he rode on a float in the Saturday Christmas parade in his hometown of Eclectic.

“I had a wonderful time,” said Warrant Officer Christopher Royal, who was the parade’s grand marshal. Royal said he wanted to do what he could to support civic improvements in Eclectic and would be back in town next week to talk about that with local officials.

By mid-January, Royal, 37, will be following events in Eclectic at an even longer distance than he is now. He expects to be on his fourth deployment in Iraq.

“I plan on deploying … in January whether I’m at 100 percent or not,” Royal said Monday during a telephone interview while he was driving back to Fort Hood. “I’ve made provision to deploy and … I’m trusting God that that’s the right thing to do. I feel it’s the right thing to do because if it was the wrong thing, then he would have took me completely out of that realm. But he did not, he allowed me to be able to perform as a soldier, so I am going to continue to be all that I can be.”…

Read the full article here.

God bless you, W.O. Royal!

Bama Guard explosive disposal unit to get final training before Iraq

Printed in The Birmingham News:

Several dozen Alabama Army National Guard soldiers will head out for Camp Shelby, Miss., this week to begin final training for a mission that involves disposing of unexploded bombs and shells in Iraq.

A send-off ceremony will be Wednesday in Huntsville for the 441st Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). Sgt. 1st Class Terri Baker, the unit’s personnel noncommissioned officer, said the 441st will spend several weeks at Camp Shelby and will head to Iraq sometime in January.

“We render safe ordnance that is found,” Baker said. “IEDs, all that.”

In Iraq, the 441st will work under the Army’s 1st Armored Division and will have four active duty Army ordnance disposal companies under its command, Baker said.

More than 1,500 Alabama National Guard soldiers and airmen have been serving in and around Iraq and Afghanistan. About 270 Guard soldiers, with the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command from Birmingham, are now training at Fort Hood, Texas, for a deployment to Afghanistan.

Help for the Holidays

This winter, an estimated 140,000 U.S. military personnel will be serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, in combat environments or in support of combat operations. Some will be on their 4th or 5th deployments–spending yet another Holiday away from the loving arms of family and friends. We want them to know that they are remembered, that we are thinking of them during the winter Holiday Season, and that we are grateful for their service. Since we can’t all wrap our arms around them in person to show how much we love and appreciate them, Soldiers’ Angels needs your help to make sure each one of America’s heroes is Wrapped in Holiday Spirit.

Wrapped in Holiday Spirit & Blankets of Belief

Please help us make sure that our deployed Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines this Holiday Season know: “We haven’t forgotten you, we support you, and we believe in you!”

Handmade “Blankets of Belief” form the heart of the Soldiers’ Angels Wrapped in Holiday Spirit care packages for the 2009 Holiday Season. These special Blankets are designed to tell America’s service men and women, “We believe in you.” When deployed service members receive a Blanket of Belief, they know that somebody back home remembers them, that somebody labored over a handmade blanket with love and belief in them. Along with the handmade Blanket, each Wrapped in Holiday Spirit care package includes a collection of yummy snacks, socks, and a holiday card with a personal note of thanks and support.

Many Ways to Help

• Spread the word with a general info flyer, or a flyer about sending holiday greeting cards [pdf files].
• Make a Blanket of Belief (we have a no-sew-option!)
• Donate a complete care package (you can now donate in honor of someone) or contribute hot chocolate packets toward care packages — select “Any Hero” for shipping address
• Donate other care package items: gum, candy/health bars, Tootsie Rolls, and white or khaki athletic/boot socks. Please include a note inside each box that contains your name, address, phone number, and an itemized list of contents with estimated value. Click here to purchase bulk items at a discount rate and ship directly to Soldiers’ Angels.

Soldiers’ Angels
Wrapped in Holiday Spirit
4408 PanAm Expressway
San Antonio, TX 78218

Soldiers’ Angels
Wrapped in Holiday Spirit
112 Greenhill Road
Ramseur, NC 27316

Soldiers’ Angels
Wrapped in Holiday Spirit
914 Tourmaline Dr
Newbury Park, CA 91320

Help cover the cost of shipping 140,000 care packages overseas

Soldiers’ Angels
Wrapped in Holiday Spirit
1792 E. Washington Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91104

140,000 Care Packages!

Please help Soldiers’ Angels place a gift and personal message of support into the hands of each deployed military man and woman this December. Help us tell them, “We believe in you!”

We are committed to providing Wrapped in Holiday Spirit care packages to every Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s around 140,000 gifts to purchase, assemble, and ship halfway around the world! This is a big challenge but with your support and our wonderful group of hard-working volunteers, it can be done!

“I am part of [an] Air Control Squadron deployed to Iraq. I would like to thank your organization for the care package I received on Thanksgiving Day here in Iraq. The contents were very thoughtful and useful, and I greatly appreciated it. I would also like to thank the young ladies of Brownie Troop 547 in Buxton, Maine for their Christmas card.

Being away from our families and loved ones at this time of year is a definite hardship and this package has helped deal with the stresses of deployed life. Thank you again and God Bless you.”

Captain A.B.

“To those that have taken their time to prepare the packages for soldier’s here in Iraq: Thank you so much for the kind Christmas thoughts. Please see the attached. Happy holidays!!”

MSG Hyer

Tremendous thanks to Business Christmas cards leader Prudent Publishing for their generous donation of cards for the care packages for the third year in a row!

Soldiers’ Angels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and donations are tax deductible. Please consult your tax adviser for details.