New combat post in Afghanistan, new combat hospital in Anbar (Iraq)

[rainbow4321]

Yeah, I'd say chimp has plans for us to be there forever...if we are making so much progress, shouldn't we be shutting DOWN places and not building new ones?

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=44279

The U.S. military will open the first newly built combat hospital in Anbar province next week, providing what officials call an upgrade to previous facilities in the region.

The 399th Combat Support Hospital, at Asad, will serve as the primary medical facility for the Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Army troops in the region, along with Iraqi army and police units in Anbar province.

More than 40 percent of American casualties in Iraq are suffered in Anbar province, so the need for faster high-level care is apparent.

The new combat support hospital will include a women’s clinic, outpatient clinics, mental health and occupational therapy/physical therapy areas, along with a range of surgical possibilities, officials said. It will also have a lab, blood bank and CT scan capabilities.


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=44281

Soldiers from the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, Task Force Spartan — extended in Afghanistan — continue to push north in their battle space in eastern Afghanistan, the military said Tuesday.
In recent months, the area has been rife with insurgent attacks.

The new firebase was established in mid-February and is intended as a means of “impeding enemy activity along the Kamdesh road. The site marks perhaps the most primitive camp recently established in the northern sector of Regional Command-East,” a military news release read.

“In the past, every time we rolled out of the gate we were pretty sure we were going to get shot at,” Sgt. 1st Class Jason Burch, also of Troop A, said. “We were also losing a lot of supplies along the route due to the enemy ransacking our Jinga trucks.”


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=44258

‘Surge’ forces U.S. troops into makeshift bases

Under the plan announced by President Bush in early January, scores of American combat units are taking up bases in the hearts of cities scarred by the insurgency. In the Baghdad district of Rustamiyah, for example, troops from Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division found themselves living in their Humvees in a palm grove.

That temporary camp was replaced when the troops found a more permanent home in an abandoned building in Rustamiyah, southeast of Sadr City.

“It was a difficult sell to the soldiers, where, on they are relatively safe, to come out here, where they always have to keep their guard up,” Capt. Joseph Rosen, the company commander, was quoted as saying in a military news release.


The new operating base for Company C turned out to be a former snack packaging plant that had been used as a base for insurgents, officials said. When the insurgents abandoned the building they burned most of it; some of the building was still on fire when the U.S. troops moved in, soldiers said.