And so:

To the editor,

Veteran’s Day is once a year. It is a day when, as a nation, we thank those who’ve served, risked, and sacrificed. It has recently come and gone. And with the passing of that day, the temporal heightened acknowledgment has passed as well.

I deployed for Iraq on July 1, 2006. Prior to leaving, I had lived in a small, one bedroom apartment in Lakewood that required little upkeep and little expense. I paid my bills on time and was a bother to no one. So as I left for Baghdad, I

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The Stars & Stripes reports that the pending standup of I Corps’ forward headquarters in Japan is among the grievances that will have thousands of protesters at the gates of Camp Zama on Sunday.

That’s a few more than were down at the Port of Olympia.

The corps commander, Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., and much of the corps staff is headed to Japan in the next couple weeks for the annual Yama Sakura exercises with the Japan Defense Force. Among the items on the to-do list: formally opening the corps’ presence in Japan — at

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Maj. Brent Clemmer, a former Stryker brigade company commander who we’ve featured in several stories (here and here, for instance), will receive the Silver Star for gallantry in combat in a ceremony Thursday at Fort Lewis, the post announced.

Clemmer will get the nation’s third-highest award for combat valor for his actions last Jan. 28 near Najaf. He was commander of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment at the time, serving as the ‘just in case’ force for U.S. commanders in Baghdad.

From the Lewis press release:

Capt. Clemmer was notified of a downed

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism is out with a new survey of reporters working in Iraq. The summary of their findings:

After four years of war in Iraq, the journalists reporting from that country give their coverage a mixed but generally positive assessment, but they believe they have done a better job of covering the American military and the insurgency than they have the lives of ordinary Iraqis. And they do not believe the coverage of Iraq over time has been too negative. If anything, many believe the situation over the course of the war

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Lt. Col. Bill Prior, commander of the 4th Brigade’s 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, features in a long story on the Wired web site.

It is headlined, provocatively, “How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social ? Not Electronic,” by Noah Shachtman.

A long read; Strykers figure in here. Prior’s soldiers are the guys fighting with the Land Warrior System.

UPDATE: There’s also this via YouTube. Appears to be a production by the Land Warrior project management team.

Note the Stryker’s bent slat and skinned up armor

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The Austin American-Statesman’s Robert W. Gee had a good story yesterday that provides some insight into the job ahead for Col. Jon Lehr, commander of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Gee’s story profiles the work that Col. David Sutherland has done with local sheiks the last few months in forging reconciliation in post-Arrowhead Ripper Diyala Province. He commands the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

But now Sutherland’s brigade is returning to Fort Hood. It was to formally turn over responsibility for Diyala to the 4-2 in a ceremony this week.

For the 4-2, the change

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It’s not about the Strykers or any unit from Fort Lewis but Kelly Kennedy’s series in the Army Times, “Blood Brothers,” shouldn’t be missed.

Checked out Part 1, “To Adhamiya and Back,” this morning. Could not stop reading.

NOTE: The stories are about the life-and-death experiences of soldiers in combat. If getting deep into that wouldn’t be good for you just now, you might want to wait and read it later. MG

Installments will be published at the Army Times web site Dec. 3, 10 and 17.

We’re getting hammered again on the United for Peace of Pierce County web site, this time for “embellishing” our report on the deaths Sunday of three more Fort Lewis soldiers.

If you believe the critique, I made up the part about the soccer balls.

Here’s a link to the full AP story about the Baqouba bombing.

This version of the story includes the following quote from a boy at the scene, a quote that was omitted from the version of the story cited in the UFPPC critique:

Rasoul Issam, 16, said he and

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