Green Berets still serving after amputations

Warriors stand tall in combat once again
Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan Media Operations Center
Story by Gunnery Sgt. Ryan O'Hare

Sgt. Devin James U.S. Army Major Robert Eldridge, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group executive officer, mounts a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, May 7. Eldridge was injured while on a combat patrol in Shkin, Patika province, Afghanistan, Dec 17, 2004. He was in the lead vehicle when it was struck by an anti-tank mine. Upon arriving at Forward Operating Base Salerno, his left leg was amputated in order to save his life.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – Becoming a part of the U.S. Army’s elite fighting force takes total dedication and an unwavering fortitude to persevere in the toughest environments. These grueling conditions not only test an individual’s physical limits, but the mental capacity to forge forward in the face of adversity when most other men would falter. The few left standing at the end of this arduous gauntlet are known by two words - Green Berets.

For Maj. Kent Solheim, the Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group Company commander and Maj. Robert Eldridge, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group executive officer, their personal courage, coupled with their desire to continue to serve alongside their Special Forces brothers, was stronger than any challenge that confronted them, including the amputation of their limbs.
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Medal of Honor for Oviedo FL's Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller

White House: Medal of Honor for Green Beret

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 13:47:19 EDT

WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that President Obama will present a posthumous Medal of Honor to an Army sergeant from Pennsylvania.

Obama will present the medal to the parents of Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller on Oct. 6 at the White House, according to administration officials.

According to the White House, the Harrisburg, Pa., native, a resident of Oviedo, Fla., at the time of his death, performed heroically in Afghanistan on Jan. 25, 2008, by showing courage and valor when he sacrificed his own life to help the others.

Miller, 24, was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), out of Fort Bragg, N.C.
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Medal of Honor for Green Beret

MRAPS and horseback

MRAPs reducing IED deaths in Afghanistan

Vehicles have reduced deaths and injuries by 30 percent since 2009
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA TODAY
Posted : Tuesday Sep 7, 2010 13:38:22 EDT

WASHINGTON — The military’s new armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in Afghanistan are significantly reducing troop deaths in roadside attacks at a time when insurgent bombings are at record levels, according to statistics provided to USA TODAY.

Deaths of U.S. and allied troops fell from 76 in July 2009 to 57 in July of this year, according to the military command in Afghanistan.

Nearly 80 percent of roadside bomb attacks on Humvees from January 2009 through the end of July 2010 killed occupants, according to Air Force Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the top command in Afghanistan. That figure dropped to 15 percent for attacks on MRAP vehicles, and an all-terrain MRAP model tailor-made for Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. The trucks are designed to shield people from roadside bomb blasts.
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MRAPs reducing IED deaths in Afghanistan

Ft. Carson Special Forces train on horseback

By Lance Benzel - The (Colorado Springs) Gazette via AP
Posted : Tuesday Sep 7, 2010 13:37:49 EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Before dawn one recent morning, as much of the city slept, a small group of elite Fort Carson soldiers was choppered onto a mountain clearing near Colorado Springs and left to find its way down — in the dark, on horseback.

It’s an image straight out of a military thriller, but it’s exactly how Green Berets from the post’s 10th Special Forces Group have been training for upcoming operations.

The horsemanship training at the Stables at the Broadmoor — which began in late July and concluded last week — offers a rare glimpse at what the unit expects on the battlefield.

Not that you’ll hear that from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

“This is basic training for Special Forces,” said 10th Special Forces Group spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Osterholzer, downplaying the maneuvers as “standard stuff” for soldiers who use nontraditional means to get in and out of the hostile areas where they battle insurgents under the cloak of secrecy.
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Ft. Carson Special Forces train on horseback

Injured and disoriented, soldier 'had some fight left'

Injured and disoriented, soldier 'had some fight left'

By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 6, 2009
Blinded by a dust storm kicked up by helicopter rotor wash and grenade explosions, all Sgt. 1st Class Michael Lindsay could see was shadowy figures scurrying about in the dim light, grabbing weapons.

In the ensuing firefight inside a remote rural compound in Samarra, Iraq, Lindsay was seriously wounded. But he and his fellow Army Green Berets kept firing.

When it was over, 11 insurgents were dead - including the target of the predawn raid, a man described by the Army as a high-value terrorist who had been financing weapons and roadside bombs with profits from a kidnapping and extortion ring.

Last month, in recognition of his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" in the Sept. 10, 2007, firefight, Lindsay, a 1997 graduate of Gates County High School in North Carolina, was awarded the Silver Star, the Army's third-highest medal for valor.
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Injured and disoriented, soldier had some fight left

3 Carson soldiers to receive high honors

3 Carson soldiers to receive high honors

By Dan Elliott - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 13, 2009 17:39:41 EDT

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Staff Sgt. Jarion Halbisen-Gibbs felt something like “a white-hot shot of lightning” pierce his gut when an Iraqi insurgent’s bullet tore through his small intestine and lodged in his buttock.

He and other Green Berets kept fighting, and when the September 2007 raid was over, 12 suspected Iraqi insurgents were dead — including the target of the raid, a man described by the Army as a high-value terrorist who was masterminding extortion and kidnappings.

On Thursday, the Army will give the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal for valor a soldier can get, to Halbisen-Gibbs. Two of his fellow soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group, Capt. Matthew A. Chaney and Sgt. 1st Class Michael D. Lindsay, will get the Silver Star, which ranks just below the Distinguished Service Cross.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_army_carson_valor_051309/

Iraq: flawed wiring could cause further “catastrophic results” for the troops

Safety team: Iraq site wiring deemed risky

By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Apr 8, 2009 12:37:04 EDT

WASHINGTON — A military team sent to evaluate electrical problems at U.S. facilities in Iraq determined there was a high risk that flawed wiring could cause further “catastrophic results” — namely, the electrocutions of U.S. soldiers.

The team said the use of a required device, commonly found in American houses to prevent electrical shocks, was “patchy at best” near showers and latrines in U.S. military facilities. There also was widespread use of uncertified electrical devices and “incomplete application” of U.S. electrical codes in buildings throughout the war-torn country, the team found.

At least three U.S. service members have been electrocuted in Iraq while taking showers in the six years since the U.S.-led invasion of the country.

The highest-profile death was that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, a Green Beret from Pittsburgh who was electrocuted while showering in his barracks early last year. Other troops and contractors have died or have been seriously injured in other electrical incidents.

A copy of the team’s Sept. 8 report to the then-commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, was obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/04/ap_electrocutions_iraq_safety_040809/

Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, one of 10 Green Berets with Silver Stars

Soldier carries own leg after firefight

Caught in a firefight 2:07
CNN's Barbara Starr has the story and the dramatic video of U.S. troops caught in a firefight in Afghanistan.





Bonded in battle, Green Berets earn Silver Stars
Dec. 11: Ten Special Forces soldiers who fought one of the Afghanistan war's fiercest battles will be honored at Fort Bragg Friday. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

By Ann Scott Tyson

WASHINGTON - After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target — an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan.

"Our plan," Capt. Kyle M. Walton recalled in an interview, "was to fight downhill."

But as the soldiers maneuvered toward a cluster of thick-walled mud buildings constructed layer upon layer about 1,000 feet farther up the mountain, insurgents quickly manned fighting positions, readying a barrage of fire for the exposed Green Berets.

A harrowing, nearly seven-hour battle unfolded on that mountainside in Afghanistan's Nuristan province on April 6, as Walton, his team and a few dozen Afghan commandos they had trained took fire from all directions. Outnumbered, the Green Berets fought on even after half of them were wounded — four critically — and managed to subdue an estimated 150 to 200 insurgents, according to interviews with several team members and official citations.

Today, Walton and nine of his teammates from Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group will receive the Silver Star for their heroism in that battle — the highest number of such awards given to the elite troops for a single engagement since the Vietnam War.

As Ford and Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding returned fire, Walding was hit below his right knee. Ford turned and saw that the bullet "basically amputated his right leg right there on the battlefield."

Walding, of Groesbeck, Tex., recalled: "I literally grabbed my boot and put it in my crotch, then got the boot laces and tied it to my thigh, so it would not flop around. There was about two inches of meat holding my leg on." He put on a tourniquet, watching the blood flow out the stump to see when it was tight enough.
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Report appears to clear KBR in Sgt. Ryan Maseth's death

Report appears to clear KBR in soldier's death
The Associated PressPublished: July 29, 2008

WASHINGTON: An interim Defense Department report has found no evidence KBR was involved in the death of at least one U.S. soldier electrocuted in Iraq.

The inspector general's report said while electrical systems in Iraq were known to "pose a hazard to personnel," there is no evidence Houston-based KBR Inc. was aware of any life-threatening hazards at the Army barracks where Sgt. Ryan Maseth died.

Maseth, an Army Ranger and Green Beret from Pittsburgh, was electrocuted in January while showering.

Details of the IG report explain that an ungrounded water pump on the roof of Maseth's barracks failed and electrified the water pipes. Additionally, a circuit breaker failed because tar from roof repairs appeared to have leaked into the panel.

Maseth's mother, Cheryl Harris, has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania against KBR over her son's death. Her attorney, Patrick Cavanaugh, said the inspector general's conclusions do not change their position that KBR is at fault in Maseth's death.
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Fort Bragg Army IDs Green Beret candidate found dead

Army IDs Green Beret candidate found dead

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 12, 2008 10:48:07 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The Army says it is investigating the death of a Green Beret candidate whose body was discovered in a Fort Bragg training area after he was reported missing.

The Army Special Operations Command said in a statement released Thursday that the soldier was Pfc. Norman Michael Murburg III of Gainesville, Fla. He was assigned to the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg and was taking part in Special Forces training.

Murburg was missing after a 10-hour land navigation exercise ended at 11 a.m. Monday in the Hoffman Training Area, about 50 miles west of the post. About 475 soldiers searched for him until his body was found about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Officials said they received no signal from the emergency tracking device that he was issued and his flares were not used.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_braggdead_061108/

DOD tried to cover up electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth

Green Beret electrocuted in shower on Iraq base
Story Highlights
At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq from wiring problems

Ryan Maseth, 24, died January 2 while taking a shower on base

"I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted," his mom says

Defense Department inspector general, Congress launch investigation


By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
CNN Special Investigations Unit

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A highly decorated Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died a painful death in Iraq this year. He died not on the battlefield. He died in what should have been one of the safest spots in Iraq: on a U.S. base, in his bathroom.


Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in his shower January 2.

1 of 2 The water pump was not properly grounded, and when he turned on the shower, a jolt of electricity shot through his body and electrocuted him January 2.

The next day, Cheryl Harris was informed of his death. A mother of three sons serving in Iraq, she had feared such news might come one day.

"I did ask exactly, 'How did Ryan die? What happened to him?' And he had told me that Ryan was electrocuted," she said.

Her reaction was disbelief. "I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted ... in the shower," she said.

Maseth, 24, was not the first. At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, according to military and government officials. Watch mom describe horror, heartbreak over son's electrocution »

In fact, the Army issued a bulletin in 2004 warning that electrocution was "growing at an alarming rate." It said five soldiers died that year by electrocution, with improper grounding the likely culprit in each case.

The Army bulletin detailed one soldier's death in a shower -- eerily similar to Maseth's case -- that said he was found "lying on a shower room floor with burn marks on his body."

Maseth's mother says the Army was not immediately forthcoming with details about her son's death.

At one point, she says, the Army told her he had a small appliance with him in the shower on his base, a former palace complex near the Baghdad airport.

"It just created so much doubt, and I know Ryan, I know Ryan, I know how he was trained, I know that he would not have been in a shower with a small appliance and electrocuted himself," she said. Watch "I can't make sense around Ryan's death" »

The Army refused to answer CNN's questions about the case, citing pending litigation by Maseth's family.

Maseth's mother says she pressed the military for answers, eventually uncovering more details about her son's electrocution. The surging current left burn marks across his body, even singeing his hair. Army reports show that he probably suffered a long, painful death.

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/soldier.electrocutions/index.html

What Afghanistan is like for Green Berets

Videos »Watch videos including a special behind-the-scenes interview with the program’s producer.

Description »Learn more about this program featuring unprecedented access to the Green Berets.

Photos »View photos documenting the filmmakers’ intense embed at Firebase Cobra.

Blog »Get more details about the program at the NGC Blog.
About the Green Berets »Facts about this select group of soldiers.

Last night the National Geographic Channel gave us glimpse of what life is like for the Special Forces in Afghanistan. The Green Berets are trying to "win the hearts and minds" as well as kill the "bad guys" as they face IEDs and ambushes.

Many serving in Afghanistan, no matter what country's flag they serve under, feel as if Afghanistan is the forgotten war. Can you blame them? All the attention, the bulk of the money, equipment and force levels from the US rest on the occupation of Iraq. While American forces risk their lives in Iraq, the Coalition falls apart, the Iraqi continue to suffer instead of fighting back. When they do take on the security of their own country, they are involved with sectarian revenge. This was all known in advance. The "planners" knew exactly what the outcome of the invasion would be. You need only look back at the history following the end of engagement in Iraq to know this is a fact. In all of this, the primary goal of defeating the Taliban and capturing or killing Al-Qaeda, is failing. Afghanistan is the forgotten war for the American people, but not the nations within NATO.

(August 2007)
Afghan security forces:
~5,820 killed
~5,000 wounded
725 captured
Northern Alliance:
~200 killed[5][6][7]
Coalition:
730 killed
(US:466, UK: 83, Canada:73, Others: 110[8])
1,693 wounded (US 1,472, Canada 270+, UK 131, Other 100+ [9])
'Contractors
83 KIA
2,428 WIA[10]


International support
Further information: Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan: Allies, Coalition combat operations in Afghanistan in 2006, and Afghanistan War order of battle
The first wave of attacks were carried out solely by American and British forces. Since the initial invasion period, these forces were augmented by troops and aircraft from Australia, Canada, Spain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway amongst others. In 2006, there were about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.


The International Security Assistance Force
Main article: International Security Assistance Force
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is an international stabilization force authorized by the United Nations Security Council on December 20, 2001. As of 5 October 2006, ISAF was consisting of about 32,000 personnel of 34 nations. [57]

On July 31, 2006, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force assumed command of the south of the country, and by October 5, 2006, also of the east Afghanistan.

for more go here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)

The other nations are sending more into Afghanistan while they are pulling forces out of Iraq. With the US, it is the other way around. Many of the forces serving today have done tours in both occupations.

If you are ever going to understand why there are so many with PTSD involved in the occupations of these nations, you need to watch programs like this.

The National Georgraphic Channel did not do a a recreation of the events. The film crew was imbedded. The interviews and coverage of a couple of days covering Camp Cobra were originally supposed to last ten days. Following an attack at night, the assignment ended. Go to the links to learn more and then maybe you will understand why there are so many with PTSD, not just from right here in America, but in all nations within the Coalition. This was the deadliest year in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq. If you think we've seen the worst of PTSD, you need to know why this is just the beginning of what is coming. Both occupations are ongoing. Both occupations are producing deaths as well as wounded solders and the numbers of "post conflict" wounds will only rise. We cannot even begin to take care of the wounded we already have.

This nation has to mobilize behind the wounded and the families of the fallen. While Washington has their battle of words, they have their battles of life or death. They should not have to come home and face fighting Washington to have their wounds taken care of.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com