Showing posts with label Iraq deployments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq deployments. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Navy Seal Killed in Iraq

American killed in Iraq after ISIS broke through Peshmerga lines
CNN
By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond
May 3, 2016

(CNN)An American service member was killed in Iraq as a result of enemy fire about thirty kilometers north of Mosul, Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday.

The service member was a Navy SEAL, a U.S. defense official told CNN, though the SEAL's rank is still unclear.

The person was an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga forces that are fighting ISIS and was killed during an ISIS assault "on a Peshmerga position approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday in a statement.

The Pentagon will provide additional information on the service member's identity after next of kin have been notified.
read more here

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Austin Police Warn Public About Charity Claiming to Support Troops

Police warn of group claiming to raise money for soldiers
By WSLS.com Staff
Published: April 29, 2016

“It’s almost like an act of stolen valor. They [are] basically taking people’s patriotism and taking advantage of it,” said Alvarez.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Neighbors and police are raising concerns about a group claiming to raise money in order to send care packages to military members deployed overseas.

“Just the fact that we have somebody out here that’s portraying that they want to do that and that’s preying on the heart strings of our community is just unacceptable,” said Leander Police Chief Greg Minton.

Callers in Leander, Texas reported someone soliciting donations earlier this month for a group called United Soldier Outreach. Minton noticed a few red flags. First, the organization was willing to accept cash. They also seemed willing to break city rules. Minton says Leander requires a permit for solicitors and the city does not allow going door-to-door on a Sunday. He says United Soldier Outreach didn’t have a permit and they were soliciting on a Sunday.

Leander is hardly the only community raising concerns about United Soldier Outreach. Media in the Houston and San Antonio areas also found neighbors and police reporting similar interactions. Now, potential donors report seeing them in Steiner Ranch, Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown and Wells Branch.
read more here

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin Made Sure Others Made It Into Bunker

Marine Killed in Iraq 'Made Sure Everybody Got in the Bunker'
Military.com
by Hope Hodge Seck
Mar 26, 2016

The remains of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin of Temecula, Calif., arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on March 21. (Air Force/Zachary Cacicia)
The commandant of the Marine Corps paid tribute to a staff sergeant killed by Islamic State rocket fire in Iraq last week, shedding new light on the circumstances surrounding the loss.

Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, 27, a member of Battalion Landing Team 2/6, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was killed by indirect fire March 19 at a new artillery outpost near Makhmour, Iraq, shortly after he and a small element of Marines had detached from the MEU in order to support the small post.

Speaking at a Marine Corps Association awards dinner near Washington, D.C. Thursday night, Gen. Robert Neller said three other Marines wounded in that same rocket attack were due to arrive back in the United States that evening, headed for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Reflecting on Cardin's loss, Neller did not prevaricate about a fight that US officials still refuse to describe as a combat operation.

"The loss of a Marine is sad, but I thought about it: He was leading his Marines in combat," Neller said. "They were in indirect fire and he made sure everybody got in the bunker, and he just didn't make it in time. Is that sad? That's sad. But if you're going to go, you want to go in the fight.
read more here

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Marine Killed In Rocket Attack Was From California

Marine killed in rocket attack identified; Detachment sent to Iraq
Stars and Stripes
Chris Church
March 20, 2016

MANAMA, Bahrain — The Marine killed in a rocket attack in Iraq Saturday was assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which has deployed a detachment to Iraq, defense officials said Sunday.

Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, of Temecula, Calif., was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th MEU out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., the Pentagon said in a statement.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State announced Sunday that a detachment from the 26th MEU had been deployed to Iraq for "the support of Iraqi security force and coalition ground operations."
read more here

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Marine Killed Others Wounded in Iraq Rocket Attack

US servicemember killed by enemy fire in Iraq
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 19, 2016

A U.S. Marine was killed Saturday and several others were wounded in a rocket attack on a base in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said.

"Earlier today a U.S. Marine providing force protection fire support at a recently established coalition fire base near Makhmour in northern Iraq was killed after coming under ISIL rocket fire," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. He used an acronym for the Islamic State group. Several other Marines were wounded and being treated, he said. Further information would not be released until after notification of next of kin.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the servicemembers involved, their families and their coalition teammates who will continue the fight against ISIL with resolve and determination," Cook said.

The Makhmour base is outside Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in 2014.
read more here

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Fort Riley Soldier Died in Iraq

UPDATE
Soldier from Glendale killed in crash while serving in Iraq
Los Angeles Times
Ryan Fonseca
January 30, 2016

An Army sergeant from Glendale serving in Iraq was killed earlier this week in a rollover accident, Army and Department of Defense officials said.
Sgt. Joseph F. Stifter, 30, from Glendale, suffered fatal injuries after his armored vehicle rolled over at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division)
Sgt. Joseph F. Stifter, 30, suffered fatal injuries after his armored vehicle rolled over at Al Asad Airbase in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, the DOD confirmed Friday.
read more here
Fort Riley soldier dies in Iraq
WIBW News
Jan 31, 2016

FORT RILEY, Kan. (WIBW) -- A Fort Riley soldier has died on Thursday while serving in Iraq.

Sgt. Joseph F. Stifter died on Thursday from non-combat-related injuries, the post said. 

He was a field artillery cannon crewmember with the 1st Infantry Division Soldier with the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team

"Sgt. Stifter was an exceptional Soldier and leader in our battalion," said Col. Miles Brown, commander of the 2nd ABCT.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of a member of the 'Dagger' family."
read more here

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Non Combat Death in Iraq Under Investigation

Coalition servicemember dies in Iraq from noncombat injuries
Stars and Stripes
Published: January 28, 2016

A coalition servicemember supporting operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria died of a noncombat-related injury in Iraq, the Combined Joint Task Force in charge of Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement.

The incident is under investigation, the statement said.
read more here

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Special Operations Soldier Killed Saving 70 Hostages in Iraq

Soldier Killed in Iraq Raid Belonged to Delta Force
ABC News
By LUIS MARTINEZ LEE FERRAN JAMES GORDON MEEK
Oct 23, 2015

The U.S. Army soldier killed in the raid that freed 70 hostages from an ISIS prison in northern Iraq was a highly-decorated, veteran member of the elite Delta Force, U.S. military sources told ABC News.

Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler is the first American combat death in Iraq since American troops returned in mid-2014 to train, advise and assist the Iraqi military to fight ISIS, military officials said.

Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, "died Oct. 22, in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, from wounds received by enemy small-arms fire during an operation," the Defense Department said in a statement, which also noted that he was assigned to "Headquarters U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina." He is survived by his wife and four sons, the Army said.

Two military officials have told ABC News that Wheeler was a team leader for the elite Army special operations unit commonly known as "Delta Force," which is based at that command at Fort Bragg.
read more here
22 minutes ago
US Special Ops servicemember killed in rescue operation in Iraq
Stars and Stripes
By Tara Copp
Published: October 22, 2015

WASHINGTON — A U.S. special operations servicemember was killed Thursday during a raid to free captives from an Islamic State-controlled prison in northern Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed.

The rescue took place near the town of Hawijah, after U.S. and Iraqi officials received "information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.

The operation freed 70 hostages, 22 of whom were members of the Iraqi Security Forces, and a number of Islamic State fighters were killed, he said.

The operation on Thursday marks the first American killed in combat in Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It also raised questions about whether the U.S. forces were operating beyond the "train, advise, assist" mission that President Barack Obama authorized when the United States began attacks against the Islamic State last year.
Based on information provided by DOD as of Oct. 22, there have been no other U.S. servicemember deaths in Iraq as a result of hostile action. There have been nine non-combat related deaths, and five servicemembers have been wounded since U.S. forces returned last year to Iraq for Operation Inherent Resolve.
read more here

Monday, February 9, 2015

Brian Williams’ interview with Stars and Stripes

UPDATE From WCPO News
9 On Your Side talked Monday with Terpak, an Iraq veteran who had a fateful encounter with Williams during the invasion, to ask why he hasn't spoken up about the controversy. Terpak said he wanted to say something but he was concerned his every word would be dissected.

The Ripley County man said he hadn't spoken publicly all these years because he wasn't in the chopper that really was shot down in the desert that day and he wasn't in Williams' chopper, which landed an hour later. Williams' helicopter wasn't fired upon and arrived safely.

Terpak was in charge of the armored platoon sent to protect Williams' crew and others in the desert. Terpak's platoon didn't get there until three days after the choppers landed. So for Terpak, it was not his place to say what did or did not happen to Williams in Iraq.

Terpak, who earned three Bronze Stars, returned home Friday and said he never expected so much attention.

But Terpak is in the spotlight because Williams put him there.
55 minutes ago
EXCLUSIVE REPORT
In his words: Brian Williams’ interview with Stars and Stripes 
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: February 9, 2015

WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Sunday scuttled what would have been his first public appearance to explain his situation when he canceled a planned appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Williams has only ever answered questions about the Iraq incident — how he ended up telling a war story he now admits was false — during an interview with Stars and Stripes.

The embattled anchor published a Facebook apology to troops after claiming he was in a Chinook forced down by rocket-propelled grenade fire in 2003, addressed the issue on air Wednesday, and issued a brief statement over the weekend saying he will temporarily leave the news desk while NBC investigates.

Questions have also arisen around statements he made about reporting on Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans in 2005, and Israel’s war with the militant group Hezbollah in 2006.
read more here

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Troubling Leadership Bringing More Troops Into Iraq

Army chief: Division headquarters going to Iraq
The Leaf Chronicle
Michelle Tan
September 24, 2014

Odierno says division has not yet been identified, but headquarters will be 'small'


As the U.S. expands its war against the Islamic State, the Army is preparing to deploy a division headquarters to Iraq.

Officials have not identified the division that will deploy — the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.

An official announcement is expected in the coming days. But Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno recently confirmed the Army "will send another division headquarters to Iraq to control what we're doing there, a small headquarters."

It's unclear how many soldiers will be sent, or how long they will deploy. Division headquarters average between 100 and 500 soldiers and deploy for one year.

The division headquarters deploying to Iraq is expected to be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the 1,600 troops President Obama has sent to Iraq. Many of these troops are advising and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces, others are providing extra security, while others are providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The headquarters also is expected to head up the joint operations center that since July has been run by Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, the deputy commanding general for operations for U.S. Army Central.
read more here
Who are these two leaders?

Start with Major General Dana Pittard and what he wrote on the Fort Bliss blog while "Working out in the gym."

“I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act,” he wrote on his official blog recently. “I am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us.”
And General Raymond Odierno, Army Chief of Staff said this last year during Suicide Prevention Month
"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations.

But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do. It built confidence in myself, and I believe that enables you to better deal with stress. It enables you to cope more easily than maybe some other people.

Makes what more troops being sent to Iraq are going to be subjected to above combat all the more troubling.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Marine known as the 'Lion of Fallujah' died during CIA work

Marine known as the 'Lion of Fallujah' died during CIA work
The Washington Post
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff
Published: July 16, 2014
Marine Maj. Douglas Zembiec, seen in this undated photo with wife Pam and daughter Fallyn, four months old at the time, died May 11, 2007, in Baghdad during an operation for the CIA Special Activities Division's Ground Branch.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAM ZEMBIEC/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — In the foyer of the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, there is a marble wall covered in stars. They are carved divots that represent those who have fallen in the service of the CIA. Below them, jutting out from the polished rock, is a black book entombed in a case of glass and steel. The book is a guide to the stars, giving the names of some of those who died and withholding the names of others.

On the pages of the CIA's Book of Honor are 107 hand-drawn stars organized by the years those officers died. For 2007, there is a single, anonymous star.

It belongs to Marine Maj. Douglas Alexander Zembiec.

Long thought to be an active-duty Marine when he was killed in Baghdad, Zembiec was actually serving with the CIA's paramilitary arm. While the CIA would not comment on whether Zembiec worked for the agency, former U.S. intelligence officials said in interviews that he died in an alley in Baghdad's Sadr City on May 11, 2007, as a member of the Special Activities Division's Ground Branch.

It was the final chapter in the life of a Marine known to many as the Lion of Fallujah but whose story, until now, has never been fully told. He is one of the few Americans to be simultaneously honored by the military and the CIA for his actions. But because he was working covertly, his role was never acknowledged publicly.
read more here

Sunday, June 29, 2014

AWOL Marine faces charges after 10 years

Marine who disappeared in Iraq in 2004 back in US
Jun 29th 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether to court martial Hassoun.

In a written statement from its headquarters at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service "worked with" Hassoun to turn himself in and return to the U.S. to face charges.

Hassoun disappeared from his unit in Iraq's western desert in June 2004. The following month he turned up unharmed in Beirut, Lebanon and blamed his disappearance on Islamic extremist kidnappers. He was returned to Lejeune and was about to face the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing when he disappeared again.

Wonder if he was getting paid too?
Audit: Army paid $16M to deserters, AWOL soldiers
The Associated Press
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Published: September 27, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Even as the Army faces shrinking budgets, an audit shows it paid out $16 million in paychecks over a 2 1/2-year period to soldiers designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the military has been dinged for the error.

A memo issued by Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky., found that the Army lacked sufficient controls to enforce policies and procedures for reporting deserters and absentee soldiers to cut off their pay and benefits immediately. The oversight was blamed primarily on a failure by commanders to fill out paperwork in a timely manner.
the link is still live so go here to read the rest

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Montana National Guardsman remind folks of second class Army

Paralyzed veteran defends Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) in new ad
Washington Post
BY SEAN SULLIVAN
June 19, 2014

Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) released a new TV Thursday in which a retired soldier who served under Walsh's command in Iraq defends his military record against Republican attacks that note Walsh was reprimanded by the U.S. Army.

In the commercial shared with Post Politics, retired Staff Sgt. John Bennett, who was paralyzed from the waist down after taking sniper fire, vouches for Walsh, who he says "went to bat for us."

Walsh is a former adjutant general of the Montana National Guard who led more than 700 soldiers in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. Bennett served under his command in Iraq.
read more here

Monday, June 16, 2014

US sending 275 troops to Iraq


7 minutes ago

US deploying 275 troops to Iraq, considering special forces soldiers


Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 15, 2014. Emboldened by a call to arms by the top Shiite cleric, Iranian-backed militias have moved quickly to the center of Iraq’s political landscape, spearheading what its Shiite majority sees as a fight for survival against Sunni militants who control of large swaths of territory north of Baghdad.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Six year old honored for lifetime in Air Force

Dog who served in Iraq, Afghanistan honored at Wright-Patt
Dayton Daily News
By Chris Stewart
Staff Writer
April 25, 2014

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Speaking next to an empty dog crate, Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher Pritchett fought through tears Friday while remembering his one-time partner, Arko.

“Those who have called themselves dog handlers are the only people who can truly understand the bond between handlers and dogs. A bond that can’t be broken even in death,” Pritchett told those attending a memorial service for the military working dog.

Members of the 88th Security Forces Squadron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remembered the German shepherd as one of their own during a service Friday morning at the Base Club. About 60 people attended the memorial along with eight other military and area police dogs and their handlers.

Arko served nearly five years as a patrol and explosive detector dog at the base. Arko and Pritchett, now the squadron’s kennel master, served two overseas tours together in Iraq and Afghanistan, always side-by-side. Arko was laid to rest Feb. 16, 2014, at the base kennel after dying suddenly of a twist in his intestines. He was six.
read more here

Saturday, March 22, 2014

MRAP Joins Sheriff's Department After Serving in Iraq

Six-wheeled Iraq veteran joins sheriff's department
Southeast Missourian
By Emily Priddy
Friday, March 21, 2014

Lt. Chris Hull with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, opens the 700-pound driver's side door to the department's new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle Friday afternoon.
(Laura Simon)
If Batman owned a station wagon, it might look a little like the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department's newest vehicle.

The department recently acquired a 31-ton, six-wheeled Iraq War veteran capable of hauling eight to 11 people through ice, high water and improvised explosive devices.

"It's seriously armored. They made these things to protect the troops from IEDs," said Lt. Chris Hull of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

The vehicle, called an MRAP -- an acronym for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle -- had 20 miles on its odometer when the U.S. Department of Defense transferred it to the county, Hull said.

"It was a vehicle that we acquired through the DOD program where they demilitarize certain pieces of equipment from the military and offer it to law enforcement," he said.

The department announced the acquisition on Facebook, where Hull said some "haters" were questioning why a local law-enforcement agency would need such a powerful tool.

"It was free," he said. "It was offered to us. ... Even if this thing gets utilized one time or so and it saves someone's life, it's well worth it."

Hull said several thousand of the vehicles exist, but only 350 were reconditioned for police use before the federal government canceled the program; the rest will be scrapped.
read more here

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans homelessness increases to 50,000

Homelessness surges among veterans of recent wars
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
January 16, 2014

As more young veterans of recent wars leave the military, the number of them falling on hard times and homelessness continues to rise sharply.

Nearly 50,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were either homeless or in a federal program aimed at keeping them off the streets during 2013, almost triple the number in 2011, according to numbers released Thursday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The number among this generation falling on hard times is rising sharply even as homelessness among veterans of all ages and conflicts has been on the decline, according to the VA.

Advocates for the homeless say many of the estimated 2.5 million Americans who served in the two wars went into combat zones on multiple deployments, something many veterans of previous conflicts never had to endure.

"They're coming home to a bad economy. The country is different. Their families are different. They are different. Plus they are dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other issues around mental health," says Gregory Scott, president of New Directions For Veterans, a non-profit assistance group in Los Angeles.
read more here

Friday, November 22, 2013

Soldier Connects Terrorist in Kentucky to Slain Brothers in Arms

Soldier Connects Terrorist in Kentucky to Slain Brothers in Arms
ABC News
By JAMES GORDON MEEK, BRIAN ROSS, CINDY GALLI and LEE FERRAN
Nov. 21, 2013

Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Hedetniemi couldn't believe what he was hearing: Two al Qaeda terrorists had been arrested in a small town in Kentucky, right in America's heartland.

But it wasn't the 2011 arrests that caught the combat veteran's attention, but the offhand mention in a press report of a town in Iraq called Bayji, where the terrorists had operated before slipping into the States.

"It's an extremely small town and not very well-known," Hedetniemi told ABC News. But Hedetniemi knew it all too well.

He was just south of the town in 2005 when another group in his Pennsylvania National Guard platoon was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) and attacked by small arms fire. The Americans managed to fend off the attack, but four soldiers died.

"So once I actually read the bulletin [about the Kentucky arrests]… the more research I did on it, I realized that these guys were operating in the same area that we were at the time we were attacked," Hedetniemi said. "It was more than a coincidence, I think it was fate that the news broke."
read more here

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Bush insider talks about why Iraq war started

For years we have waited for one good reason the Bush Administration pushed to send troops into Iraq. Now we know and the reason is not good. "Former Bush Official: We Went Into Iraq Because 'We Were Looking For Somebody's Ass To Kick'"


If this turns out to be the truth finally, may God have mercy on their souls for doing this.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Travis: A Soldier's Story one of 5 quadruple amputees

Soldier receives hero's welcome at screening of documentary 'Travis: A Soldier's Story'
Fay Observer
Drew Brooks Staff Writer
Oct 18, 2013

Staff Sgt. Travis Mills insists he's not a hero, that he doesn't deserve any more praise than any other soldier.

Nonetheless, he received a hero's welcome Thursday in Fayetteville, as scores of people viewed a documentary about Mills, one of only five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mills was injured in April 2012 while serving with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division in southern Afghanistan.

Addressing more than 200 people who paid to see "Travis: A Soldier's Story" at the Carmike 12, Mills told jokes, sang and otherwise showed the larger-than-life personality that his friends and fellow paratroopers said never went away, even after his limbs were blown off by an improvised explosive device.

"They may have taken his legs and arms, but his personality has stayed intact," said Sgt. David Flynn, a member of the Army's Golden Knights and Mills' best friend.

Mills, who is currently assigned to a unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., returned to Fayetteville for the movie's screening after a successful online effort to have the film shown near Fort Bragg.

The audience was filled with veterans, including Mills' cohorts from the Fury Brigade, and family and friends. They gave Mills a standing ovation when he was introduced before the film.

Some viewers traveled from as far as Pennsylvania for the chance to see the film and meet Mills.

"My story's just one of so many," Mills said. "But I was really nervous about showing it here."

Mills said he hoped his story wouldn't discourage anyone from joining the Army or deploying.
read more here