BASEFORCE

This touched me because I am an OIF vet (heading back for another tour) and I have a 19 youar old son who followed in my footsteps. Thanks

Saw this written by Janar Wasito on Military.com, totally agreed with it and thought I would pass it on.

On April 8, 2004, a platoon of Marines from Lima Company, 3d Battalion, 7 th Marines moved down the main street in the Iraqi town of Husaybah, Iraq. The platoon was hit with a series of IEDs which injured the platoon commander, 2ndLt Bradley Watson and Lance Corporal Samuel Dial, both of who had to be medevaced. Lance Corporal Marshall Rigole and Sergeant Dusty Soudan were also injured but Sergeant Soudan did not have to be medevaced and he took command of the platoon.

Less than 15 minutes later, another IED exploded south of the main street, wounding Lance Corporal Christopher Wasser, who would later die of his wounds. The same IED also seriously injured PFC Kevin Rumley. North of the main street, an IED went off injuring PFC David Palmer. Corporal Peter Milinkovic, the non commissioned officer who led the squad north of the main street, had been using “satellite patrolling” in which his squad of 14 Marines had broken down into smaller elements by using GPS devices purchased out of their own funds, which lowered the effectiveness of the IEDs. The Marines wanted to exact immediate revenge on the Iraqi population in retaliation for the series of IEDs, which were placed throughout the town and initiated by trigger men probably mingled among the population using cell phones. But Marine NCOs like Soudan and Milinkovic kept control of their men and followed the rules of engagement. The insurgents did not combine small arms fire with the IEDs -- that would come just weeks later. The Marines had no targets that they could confirm. Soudan and Milinkovic organized a hasty perimeter and evacuated their wounded, then returned to the base at the edge of town where Lima 3/7 was garrisoned. Have you read about Lima 3/7 in Husaybah? Have the headlines, “Marines follow Rules of Engagement” or “Marine Sergeant Steps Up and Fills Lieutenant's Job” been trumpeted through all of our national news magazines? Has Lima 3/7 in Husaybah achieved the same national prominence as Kilo 3/1 in Haditha?

No you don't, Janar, and it is a shame. We at BASEFORCE along with millions of others know the truth needs to be told. Please see AIM.ORG for more truth in the media stories

**Janar Wasito serves as a staff member of Team in Training, a Leukemia charity. He has completed over 5 Olympic distance triathlons with Team in Training. He currently resides in San Diego, and is working on a book about the 1st Marine Division's use of the Small Wars Manual in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2.

Saw this from the Wall Street Journal and thought I would pass it on. It's another way to get support that troops and their families are not getting from the mainstream media. Thanks for all you do, troops and military families! J. Lippitt

P. Borda started a Web log during his 2004 National Guard deployment in Afghanistan to keep in touch with his family. But when he got home, he decided it was the mainstream media that was out of touch with the war.
"You hear so much about what's going wrong," he says. "It gets hard to hear after a while when there's so much good going on."
Mr. Borda, a specialist, read other soldiers' blogs and found he wasn't alone. Hundreds of other troops and veterans were blogging world-wide, and many focused on a common enemy: journalists.
The 31-year-old software analyst, who now lives in Dallas, wanted to make it easier for people to read soldiers' accounts. So he started a Web site, Milblogging.com, to organize as many blogs as possible by country, military branch and subject matter. Today, the site links to more than 1,400 military blogs world-wide and was recently purchased for an undisclosed amount by Military.com, a Web site catering to soldiers that is owned by Monster Worldwide Inc.
Now, Mr. Borda finds himself at the center of a growing blogging movement. Military bloggers, or "milbloggers" as they call themselves, contend that they are uniquely qualified to comment on events in armed conflicts. Many milbloggers also argue that the mainstream media tends to overplay negative stories and play down positive military developments. For many of these blogs, says Mr. Borda, "the sole purpose is to counteract the media."
There have always been at least some soldiers who have wanted to go to battle against Big Media. Some in the military blamed coverage of the Vietnam War for turning American public opinion against it. What's changed? The Internet now allows frustrated soldiers and veterans to voice their opinions and be heard instantly and globally.