Articles
Iraq
Stryker unit air assaults to capture terrorists near Baquba
By Staff Sgt. Antonieta Rico
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Soldiers with 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment move toward a Chinook helicopter south of Baquba April 17. U.S. Army photo by Antonieta Rico.
BAQUBA, Iraq — Stryker Soldiers in Baquba launched an air assault against al-Qaida in Iraq in the farmlands south of Buhriz, April 16.
Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., captured twelve suspected terrorists and killed another during the 24-hour operation in the largest air assault ever by a Stryker unit, according to Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Huggins, battalion command sergeant major.
Two days prior, the Stryker Soldiers cleared Buhriz and were told by residents that al-Qaida operatives had fled the neighborhood.
Army platoon enters uncharted territory
Children in the village of Sharqot, in the Qayarrah region of Iraq, cheer Soldiers of 3rd Platoon, Battery A, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, Feb. 25. U.S. Army photo by Antonieta Rico.
By Staff Sgt. Antonieta Rico
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
SHARQOT, Iraq – In a moment reminiscent of the first triumphant days of the Iraq war, American Soldiers walked through a crowd of cheering Iraqi children. On a dirt road in the village of Sharqot, the children whistled loudly for the Soldiers, then, remarkably, broke into applause.
Surprised, 1st Lt. Michael E. Havey Jr. beamed at the cheering crowd.
Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/9404/army-platoon-enters-uncharted-territory#.UQSTjGfWZ20#ixzz2J8jOn7jz
New Soldier sees reality of war
By Staff Sgt. Antonieta Rico
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Pvt. Eric Rundquist, left, and Pvt. Jason Taylor, both with the 1st Cavalry Division, hold on to a strap inside a Bradley after the vehicle hit a roadside bomb. U.S. Army photo by Antonieta Rico.
BAQUBA, Iraq — Sweat mixed with dirt on the face of Pvt. Eric Rundquist. Slowly, it made glistening streaks down his face as he rode within the dusty confines of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, March 28.
A muffled thud briefly shook the 40-ton personnel carrier, and those inside checked on each other. The Bradley had just hit a roadside bomb — another combat experience for Rundquist as he rode away from the scene of his first firefight in Iraq.
Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/9876/new-soldier-sees-reality-war#.UQSVuGfWZ20#ixzz2J8liaK6e
More From Iraq
National Geographic
‘For Greater Glory’: Mexico’s War for Religious Freedom Is In a New Movie — and In Family Memories
The movie For Greater Glory, which opened this month, depicts a war that many Americans have never heard of: Mexico’s Cristero War of 1926–1929, aka La Cristiada. The war began when president Plutarco Elias Calles started enforcing anti-religious sections of the country’s constitution. He later passed the Calles Laws, which forbade priests from wearing religious clothing outside of church and imprisoned them if they criticized the government. Eventually all Roman Catholic priests in Mexico stopped openly performing Mass and other religious services.
But for me, the war is familiar. It started in Jalisco, a cactus-shaped state in western Mexico that’s also my family’s home. Watching For Greater Glory triggered memories of my own family’s role in the war. My grand-uncle, Juan Arriola Rosas, was one of the Mexican peasants who fought as a guerrilla alongside Catholic priests who’d taken up arms. I asked my family members about his time as a Cristero. My aunt, Socorro de Leon de Arriola, took care of “Don Juan” in his old age and remembered his stories from the war. She said that for my grand-uncle, who was only 15 or 16 at the time, it was not about politics but about a right of passage, about becoming a man. Continue Reading…
Real-Life Lorax Has a Few Words From (and About) Trees
The movie version of the Dr. Seuss’s classic conservation story The Lorax tells the story of Ted, a boy who wanders beyond the walls of Thneedville, a superficial, plastic-loving city, in search of a real tree to impress the artistic Audrey. By the ruins of the once beautiful Truffula-tree forest, he meets the Once-ler, who tells Ted of the tree-loving Lorax, who used to say, “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
It turns out National Geographic has its own Lorax: Meg Lowman, an NG grantee and director of the Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. She is currently working to conserve forests in Ethiopia.
You’re widely known as “Canopy Meg” but can we call you a real-life Lorax?
I do speak for the trees. Continue Reading…
Fort Drum
Help others in need through suicide awareness
Sgt. Antonieta Rico
Installation PAO NCOIC
Most people believe that with the coming of the holidays, people are more at risk for suicides. Although that is not true – most suicides happen in the springtime – lately Fort Drum has experienced its share of suicide attempts.
Leaders, family members, and friends of someone they suspect at risk for suicide do not need to feel powerless in the face of a person’s suicidal plans. There are signs to look for as well as preventive measures they can take to aid a person in need.
Signs that a person might be considering suicide include tearfulness, insomnia, talking about wanting to die or threatening suicide, and drug or alcohol abuse, said Capt. James Demer, Division Mental Health.
Other risk factors include experiencing a significant loss, deliberately injuring oneself, giving away possessions, recent breakups in a relationship and buying a gun. Continue Reading…
When a Soldier comes home
Spec. Antonieta Rico
Staff Writer
(This is the first in a two-part series on reunions. It deals with concerns that spouses might have about reunion when their loved ones redeploy.)
Most spouses spend deployments anticipating their loved ones’ return, but when redeployment comes, the joy of reunion can often be dimmed by uncertainty.
Financial worries, concerns about children, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and intimacy issues are the four major areas that cause problems for a couple reuniting, said Deborah Stellfox, Operation READY program manager and a military spouse for almost 20 years.
Operation READY hosts reunion workshops to help families make the most of redeployment.
“Everyone is happy at that moment when you come together in the gym and you are all running and you are hugging and you are loving,” Stellfox said.
The problems come later. “It’s the weeks after that, when you have to learn to give up his side of the bed again,” she said. Continue Reading…
The Broadside
Not so bad boys? A day in the life of Mason Police
Antonieta Rico
Staff Writer
George Mason University Police Officers Jorge Feliciano and Emily Ross review some paperwork on top of a patrol car. Photo by Antonieta Rico.
It’s almost 11 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11, and the night reveals a small form on the floor, crouched against a wall behind Student Union Building II.
“Are you OK?” asks George Mason University Police Officer Jorge Feliciano.
A soft voice replies “My arms hurt… ”
Minutes before, Feliciano responded to a report of a young couple having an argument by SUB II. The caller said a young woman had fallen to the ground. A young man fitting the description given by the caller said that the woman had become emotional and run off.
After speaking with Feliciano, the woman agrees to come out from behind the building. Continue Reading…
Antonieta Rico 