Casualty list of 27 US dead starting to come in.

[lebkuchen]

Icasualties.org (click on yellow half circle at top and scroll to the bottom) lists soldiers out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. However, the Regimental Combat Team 5 is Marines out of Camp Pendleton, CA. The 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment (Airborne) is out of Alaska.

According to this article, the RCT5 assumed "tactical control" of the 3-509 Infantry on Christmas Day and "established the unit’s battlespace in the Karmah region Jan. 2."

The 3-509 hadn't been on active duty status since WWII.

“Our whole brigade, this battalion in particular, 18 months ago consisted of zero people,” said Maj. Paul Edgar, the battalion’s executive officer. “It was a plan on paper only.”

So sad, but indicative of Bush/Cheney/Rummy plans run amok:

“Having the light infantry skill set of the 3/509th will be a force multiplier for RCT-5 in our quest to reduce violence in the city of Karmah,” said Col. Larry Nicholson, the commanding officer of RCT-5.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8913&Itemid=21

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Yes, it was reported here that five of the 27 casualties

were based out of Ft. Rich. We have been taking a hard hit up here over the past couple of months.

[lebkuchen]

2. Is the Stryker Brigade out of Fort Wainwright back yet?

They had been extended. I hadn't heard anything lately.

BTW, how sweet of Ted Stevens to push for cheaper phone rates for troops calling home. How does he feel about all the troops from his state dying?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. The Strykers got back right before Christmas.

Here is a link to the soldiers either from Alaska or with Alaska connections who have been killed in the war. It was up to 58 exclusive of these last five. Reading the tributes really personalizes their sacrifices. I'm so sick of this war.


http://community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/103499

[lebkuchen]

5. So much potential

what a great loss to our country.



http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7303480p-7215232c.html

[lebkuchen]

6. 8 out of Fort Richardson, Alaska on the casualty list from last weekend

Looks like there will be even more. However, these 8 weren't in the chopper, but were killed in an ambush or by an IED in Karbala. There were in a meeting area that got ambushed. A CPT died there, too, from mortar/small arms fire. I wonder how many survived the attack.

http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=10426

...the city of Karbala had an estimated population in 2003 of 572,300 people. Shi'a Muslims consider Karbala to be one of the holiest places in the world, second only to Mecca and Najaf.

http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/places/karbala.htm

The 3rd BN, 509th Infantry was just recently reactivated, since WWII, and had come under Marine command on Christmas Day. The Shi'a want them out of their Holy City.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Thanks, I was just going to post that.

Here is the article from the Anchorage Daily News this morning.

http://www.adn.com/news/military/iraq/story/8586545p-8479574c.html

[lebkuchen]

8. "New" brigade, arrived last fall, 21 already dead

Troops returning to Germany say that Anbar Province is a very difficult assignment...they've seen some "bad stuff" there.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. K&R