You Big Mouth, You!

U.S. Army

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Army News Service, Aug. 26, 2004) — In a fight, two against one is bad odds. Ten against one is a recipe for disaster. Yet those were the odds Sgt. Tommy Rieman and his squad faced and beat when they were ambushed by more than 50 anti-American insurgents near Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq last December.

Rieman, 24, a team leader in Company B, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his actions that day during a ceremony at Devil Brigade Field August 6. He was also awarded the Army Commendation Medal with a �V� device for valor for a separate reconnaissance mission that took place in March 2003.

On December 3 of last year, Rieman was just 10 days away from leaving Iraq. He had orders to report to Fort Bragg for assignment with the 82nd. He was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family, and couldn�t wait to leave. As it turns out, Rieman was headed home, but not in the way he planned.

At the time, Rieman was with Company E of the 51st Infantry Long Range Surveillance Unit, part of V Corps LRS based in Darmstadt, Germany. His LRS unit had been conducting operations in Iraq since the war began. The mission that day was to investigate reports of suspicious activity at the residence of a former high-ranking general in Saddam Hussein�s regime.

Rieman was in charge because he had scouted the area before and knew the terrain. LRS units are not supposed to engage the enemy, and Rieman�s squad of eight men, while prepared for a fight, was not expecting one. They were driving in three light-skinned Humvees with no doors when the first rocket-propelled grenade hit. �The thing I remember most was the sound of the explosion. It was so loud,� said Rieman. They were hit by three RPGs and a barrage of small arms fire coming from 10 dug-in enemy fighting positions. Staying in the kill zone meant certain death, so the vehicles never stopped moving. Rieman knew he had to return fire. �I dove into the backseat, laid across the gunner�s legs and fired out the door,� he said.

Bullets whizzed after them as the vehicles sped away from the ambush. As soon as they were safely out of the area, they halted to assess the damage. Suddenly shots rang out, and Rieman and his squad found themselves caught in another ambush. The squad dismounted and began firing back. Rieman scrambled for cover behind his Humvee as bullets and shrapnel flew everywhere. He tried to stay calm and assess the situation.

There were maybe 50 enemy attackers blasting away at him with small arms fire from a grove of palm trees nearby. Injuries to his men were beginning to pile up. Out of his squad, Sgt. Bruce Robinson had lost his right leg in the RPG attack and Spc. Robert Macallister had been shot in the buttocks. Rieman himself had been shot in the right arm and chest, and had shrapnel wounds to his chest, stomach and ear. Worst of all, they were almost out of ammo. Despite the odds and his injuries, Rieman knew he had to go on the offensive. �I knew it was a little pain now or my life later,� he said.

He began firing away with his M203 grenade launcher, raining round after round down on the attackers. After being battered by 15 of Rieman�s 40mm grenades, the enemy�s guns were silent. The squad wasn�t out of danger, but at least they had some breathing room. Rieman quickly set up a secure perimeter, called for a medical evacuation and support from the 504th�s quick reaction force, and began tending to his wounded. And then they waited.

�That was the toughest part — the waiting,� said Rieman. �Just sitting there bleeding and questioning if this bird (helicopter) was ever going to come.� It seemed hopeless. One of the badly injured soldiers in his squad started to cry, and Rieman tried to comfort him. �I just kept telling him, it�s coming, it�s coming,� he said.

Finally, after half an hour that seemed like an eternity, the helicopter arrived. Rieman and the rest of his squad were loaded on and whisked away. Only when he was up in the air did Rieman accept that he was going to live to see another day. �I remember the burning sensation in my legs (from the shrapnel) and how cold the air was in the chopper, and all I could think about was my wife. That�s when I knew, hey, I�m coming home, I�m going to make it,� he said. Rieman spent 12 days in an Army hospital in Germany, and was back in the states in time for Christmas. He has been with the 82nd since the beginning of 2004. He said has been concentrating on getting his health back to where it was before he was wounded, and on spending precious time with his family.

When Lt. Mike Lee, Rieman�s company commander in the 82nd, learned about what Rieman had done that terrible day in Iraq, he pushed hard to make sure Rieman didn�t go unrewarded.

Despite his awards, Rieman said he�s no hero. He only did what he was trained to do, he said. �I dedicate everything I was able to do to my training,� he said. �We reacted the way we did because we were taught so well.�

But perhaps the one thing that helped him through his ordeal the most, Rieman said, was his wife, Mary. Even though she was thousands of miles away, she was with him on that terrible day. �I had to get back to her. So I just told myself, you�ve got to make it through this,� Rieman said.

Hey, Mr. President, here are some facts you can use:

• Median household income, while below the peaks of 1998-2000, was still higher than at any other time prior to 1997. The number in poverty is lower than any time in the period 1992-1997. The overall 2003 poverty rate of 12.5%, though higher than the years 1997-2002, is still lower than in any year since 1981.
• Women are closer to parity with men’s wages under the Bush administration than ever before. The female to male earnings ratio is down for 2003, but the ratios for all three years of the Bush Administration are much higher than at any other time in history, with 2002 being the record year. The 2003 ratio of 75.5% is still much higher than the previous high, before Bush, in 1998 of 74.2%.
• 139,660,000 people were employed in July, a new record. This is an increase of 1,870,000 from January 2001 when George Bush took office and an increase of 1,094,000 in 2004 alone. This is also an increase from the bottom of the recession in January 2002 of 3,945,000. Nearly four million jobs!
• The average poverty rate for the Bush term is the lowest of any President since before Reagan at 12.1%. Even Clinton in the boom years only got down to 12.3%

• Memo to Dick Cheney: Don’t clasp your hands over the mic.
• John Edwards ducked every single comment about Kerry’s voting record?
• When asked to talk without using Kerry’s name, and he did, I though Edwards was going to clap his hands over his mouth and giggle.
• Cheney was powerful with his answers on gay marriage. Perfect.
• Edwards lost it for the last half of the debate, bouncing in his chair like a schoolboy. I thought he was going to wave his hand for permission to talk.
• Questions were good. Not slanted like in the first debate.
• A solid performance by the Vice President, especially by bringing Kerry’s record out.

UPDATE:

After posting all of the links below, and then citing them on Rantburg, I felt that I had to comment.

China, Communist China, is currently consuming a vast amount of the natural resources of this planet. Were it not a centralized, neo-socialist dictatorship I might be applauding this productivity. Instead, I am very concerned.

The cites below demonstrate that China�s demand for resources is driving commodity prices higher and higher. The downfall is obvious. When China is no longer able to float its economy of the back of the trade deficit with the United States, prices will collapse and the world economy will go in to a tailspin. China is creating its own tulip bulb depression by forcing value onto commodities that the ordinary market does not support.

China is spending a huge amount of its GDP on military purchases, spaceflight, and upon building an infrastructure that the underlying economy cannot support. Modern office buildings are useless if empty. How many Kilo class submarines does China need?

China�s dollar reserves are being used to fuel their economic expansion. Its ability to provide natural resources within its borders for this expansion has grown woefully slim. Any fluctuation in commodity availability that China cannot control damages its economy in a massive way. China must buy food and fuel. If it cannot, the pyramid scheme will crumble. When that happens, the world will reel from the effects.

The largest industrial owner in Communist China is the People�s Liberation Army. Through a multitude of fronts, the PLA controls nearly half of the industrial output of the nation. Corruption and inefficiencies run rampant. The interests of the PLA, and its generals, may or may not coincide with those of the central government. In the event of an economic catastrophe, we will see the breakup of China into smaller states, probably created by these generals and their allies. That is the history of China, and its current manner of governance shows me nothing that would change that outcome. Warlords and mini-empires can be the only result of this China�s current growth and needs.

China teeters on top of a pyramid of its own creation. A disruption in world oil supplies. A drought affecting world food production. A change in the buying habits of the American public. The pyramid remains fairly stable only if none of the blocks that make it up crumble. Any change, a crumbling block, and the entire thing falls inward.

(more…)

I saw precisely one [1] black person in North Dakota during my recent week in the state. That got me pondering that portion of middle America that resembles North Dakota, the millions of people to whom race is not a daily issue.

My wife had never met a black person until she went to college. In my rural NY community, there were two black families, and migrant workers who came to pick the crops every year. In my wife’s community, being a member of the Knights of Pythias was apparently the worst thing you could be. For me, it was being Catholic. Race was not a serious issue for us.

And today, some forty years later, millions of folks live in places where there are only white folks. Not through any vast conspiracy. But because there’s nothing there to attract and keep other races. Poverty of opportunity.

Milnor had black residents once. In their community center is a book of old photos, and in it I found a photo of a young black man. As best as I can recall the typewritten caption read

Billie Blue XXXX [don’t recall the last name], one of the prominent Negro boys in the community

Linda’s mother recalls hearing about this man, as well. What he was famous for, other than being black, I do not know. In a rural community full of second generation Germans and Norwegians, that may have been enough.

So I am pondering how a significant minority of Americans with little or no experience with non-whites affects our society. Oh, sure, there are blacks on TV, and Asians and Turks and… but are the attitudes of this part of the American heartland shaped by what they see on television, or is it just a novelty to them? Like reading about Meiji Japan.

If I had to guess, I’d say that these folks bring an openness to race relations, a willingness to accept. Yet the converse is also true. Stereotypes are there, perpetuated by televison and media, and openness cuts both ways. Live a stereotype and be seen as a stereotype.

I still see this part of America as a good thing, however. I know what a crack whore looks like, where millions of Americans don’t. In the end, that’s a good thing for race relations in America.

United States Army Pfc. Christopher Fernandez, of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment, was awarded a Silver Star Medal for valor by the 1st Cavalry Division commanding general Aug. 13. The Silver Star is the Army�s fifth highest medal for valor and the third highest during combat. The medal is rarely given to enlisted Soldiers. Fernandez was awarded the Silver Star for his actions on the night of May 5, when his unit came under attack. Fernandez, a Tucson, Ariz. native, was on a patrol through the Baghdad�s Saidiyah neighborhood when insurgents ambushed his unit. An improvised explosive device hit the patrol�s rear vehicle. Immediately following the explosion, the patrol was barraged with small-arms fire. The IED explosion killed two U.S. soldiers, wounded five others and rendered their vehicle inoperable. In all the chaos, Fernandez saw the stricken vehicle�s M-240B machine gun was unused. Fernandez knew that another weapon would suppress the enemy�s fire long enough to evacuate the wounded and leave the area. He left his vehicle, ran to the disabled humvee, recovered the weapon and its ammunition, and then opened fire on the enemy. What made all of that spectacular was the recovered weapon�s condition, said Capt. Thomas Pugsley, Battery A�s commander. The handguards covering the machine-gun�s barrel, so the gunner�s hands won�t burn, were blown off in the explosion. That didn�t matter to Fernandez though; he kept firing even though his hands were burning. Almost 10 minutes later, the wounded were loaded onto Fernandez�s vehicle, and the ambush site was abandoned.

WTNH “After the (bomb) went off, I noticed their Humvee was taking fire, that’s when I started shooting back,” said Fernandez, a quiet, lanky man who wears glasses. Fernandez ran out of ammunition for his M-249 machine gun. He sprinted to the disabled Humvee and grabbed a damaged M-240 heavy machine gun and dashed back to his position to continue firing. The M-240’s protective hand guards had been blown off and Fernandez said he burned his hands in about 10 minutes of sustained shooting. “I knew I had to do something. I could’ve gotten myself killed to do it,” said Fernandez, interviewed at 1st Cavalry headquarters near Baghdad International Airport.

Arizona Daily Star The road from Tucson to Baghdad has been a tough one for teenage soldier Christopher Fernandez and his family. The Army has declared him a hero. But the honor barely eases the hearts of loved ones praying for his safety. Fernandez, a 19-year-old newlywed and new dad, received one of the nation’s highest honors for combat bravery Friday when a two-star general pinned a Silver Star on his chest. The private first class earned the honor for putting himself in danger to save others when his unit was ambushed in Baghdad in May, the Army said Monday. The Silver Star is the country’s third-highest award for valor on the battlefield. “I’m so proud of my husband. I love him so much,” said Fernandez’s wife, Maritza Fernandez, also 19, on Monday. “But there’s part of me that wishes he would run and hide when the shooting starts,” she added, cradling the couple’s 2-month-old son, Nathaniel, who was born while his father was at war. The couple were married in August of last year and have spent much of the past year apart between basic training and deployment. “It hasn’t been easy for us,” Maritza Fernandez said. “But I try to be brave because he’s so brave.”