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This site gets much traffic from all around the world, from people searching for news from Iraq, making it an ideal place to host stories from deployed forces in harm’s way. In my travels I’ve met many budding writers who are now wearing boots and carrying rifles, and I found their stories so compelling that I want the world to see.

A Eulogy for SSG Darrell Ray Griffin, Jr.

Details: Published: Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:00; Written by SGT. Victor Quinonez

[Note: This is the text of the eulogy delivered by Sgt Quinonez at the memorial service for SSG Darrell Ray Griffin, Jr., who died March 21, 2007, in Balad, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with small arms fire during combat operations.]

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After Action Report–General Barry R McCaffrey (Ret)

Details: Published: Monday, 26 March 2007 00:00; Written by General Barry R. McCaffrey {Ret}

1. PURPOSE: This memo provides feedback on my strategic and operational assessment of security operations in both Iraq and Kuwait in support of US Central Command. Look forward to providing lectures to the Faculty Seminar and National Security Seminar during upcoming visit on 4 April 2007.

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Nat Helms: The Brad Kasal Story

Details: Published: Saturday, 24 March 2007 00:00; Written by Nat Helms

In ’68 I fought with Marines in Northern I Corps for nine months. I owe them a huge debt. They were magnificent then and they have never lost their luster. When I got the chance to write about their exploits at Fallujah in 2004 I jumped at the opportunity. It came to me at the last real job I had editing Col David H. Hackworth’s DefenseWatch Magazine. Writing for DefenseWatch put me in daily contact with American warriors and wannabes. The book about 1st Sgt Brad Kasal and his Marines is a result of those contacts and gave me the opportunity to clearly demonstrate the difference between the two.

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Hey, Everybody

Details: Published: Wednesday, 21 February 2007 00:00; Written by CSM James Pippin

I am stationed in Mosul, Iraq and things are busy. We have about 15 - 20 incidents a day. An “incident” is an IED attack, enemy ambush, rocket attack against our vehicles, or a mortar attack against our FOB (Forward Operating Base aka where we live). We win every time whenever they stay and fight. But mostly, they hit us, then run away and blend into the crowd. We’re winning a day at a time. And we are taking the fight to them.

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A True American Hero

Details: Published: Monday, 19 February 2007 00:00; Written by Joseph L. Galloway

By Joseph L. Galloway

McClatchy Newspapers

In a few days - 41 years after the events of a long-ago November - a white-haired retired guy named Bruce Crandall will receive the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, from President George W. Bush.

He’s always been a hero to the men of the 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry who counted on Crandall and his wingman, Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman, when the chips were down in a fire-swept clearing called Landing Zone X-Ray in the remote Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

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Show Me The Money

Details: Published: Sunday, 11 February 2007 00:00; Written by Joseph L. Galloway

By Joseph L. Galloway
McClatchy Newspapers

Show me the money, or at least some receipts scribbled on the backs of old envelopes and grocery bags. This week, we were treated to the spectacle of the former U.S. civilian overlord of Iraq, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, squirming in the hot seat as he attempted with little success to explain what he did with 363 TONS of newly printed, shrink-wrapped $100 bills he had flown to Baghdad. That’s $12 billion in cold, hard American dollars, and no one, especially Bremer, seems to know where it went.

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