US Military Casualties

[Moses]

As of December 13, 2004, 1,294 U.S. troops, 74 U.K. troops, and 72 troops from other countries (Poland, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ukraine Bulgaria, Thailand, Estonia, El Salvador, Netherlands, Slovakia, Latvia, and Hungary) have been killed in the Iraq war, according to the website Iraq Coalition Casualty Count:

icasualties.org/oif/

More than half of these deaths - 888 of them - occurred after Saddam Hussein, the man whose evil supposedly engendered this war, was captured, one year ago today.

Last month, November 2004, was the most deadly month for U.S. soldiers since the Iraq war began in March 2003. 136 US troops were killed in November, approximately 71 of them in the assault on Falluja. The second most deadly month for U.S. soldiers was April 2004, when 135 were killed in the first Falluja assault.

In addition to these deaths, there are some 25,000 troops who have been wounded. The Pentagon's preferred statistic is 9,556 soldiers, a number that includes only those who have been "wounded in action". But this is just the tip of the iceberg. At the end of November, the Pentagon admitted to the news show 60 Minutes that an additional 15,000 troops have been evacuated from Iraq due so-called 'non-battle' injuries:

Iraq: The Uncounted
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7936

The wounds are not minor ones. Many young soldiers have had faces, arms and legs blown off, according to a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine that includes a five-page spread of photographs graphically depicting the horrific injuries that are being suffered by U.S. soldiers:

Casualties of War - Military Care for the Wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8262

Caring for the Wounded in Iraq - A Photo Essay
content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/24/2476

Tragically, these numbers will likely only continue to grow as the U.S. implements its plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq from about 138,000 to 150,000, in time for the January 30 election. Most of the increase in troop count will come from the extended deployment of units already in Iraq. Some of these soldiers have had their combat tours extended over and over and over again. These extensions are most difficult for National Guard and Reserve Troops who have been dragged out of civilian life to fight for extended periods in Iraq while their families struggle to survive:

U.S. Troop Level In Iraq To Grow
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8110

In this context, it is not surprising that resistance to the Iraq war is strengthening within the U.S. military. The most publicized story of resistance this week was of the soldiers who questioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a town hall meeting about poor combat equipment, extended tours of duty, and pay delays:

Rumsfeld Gets Earful From Troops
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8202

But other stories this week told of greater problems being faced by the military - low morale, high rates of desertion, officer shortages, and lawsuits:

U.S. deserter numbers reach 5,500
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8233

US Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8232

Officer crisis hits Army Reserve
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8209

Eight Soldiers Plan to Sue Over Army's Stop-Loss Policy
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8157

This week also saw the first hearing of a U.S. soldier who is applying for asylum in Canada. The soldier, Jeremy Hinzman, says that he refuses to go to war in Iraq because he doesn't want to be forced to commit war crimes. And in San Diego, a Navy sailor, Pablo Paredes, refused to board his ship as it prepared to embark for the Persian Gulf. He told reporters that when he joined the Navy he ìnever imagined, in a million years, we would go to war with somebody who had done nothing to us.î<br>
Former Marine Testifies to Atrocities in Iraq
Unit Killed Dozens of Unarmed Civilians Last Year, Canadian Refugee Board Is Told
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8264

Navy Sailor Charged As "Deserter and Fugitive" After Refusing Iraq Deployment
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8265

Meanwhile, the rhetoric that we must ìsupport the troopsî by remaining silent about the worsening situation in Iraq, rings hollow when it reaches the doorstep of the homeless shelter, which is where returning Iraq war veterans are already showing up:

Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8208

Occupation Watch urges people who are concerned about these issues and know that the best way to support these troops - and the Iraqi people - is to bring them home immediately, to seek assistance from the following organizations:

Bring Them Home Now
www.bringthemhomenow.org

Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
www.objector.org

GI Rights Hotline
girights.objector.org/

Iraq Veterans Against War
www.ivaw.net

Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org

Veterans For Peace
www.veteransforpeace.org

We also refer our readers to Michael Moore's new book, Will They Ever Trust Us Again? Letters from the Warzone to Michael Moore, for more about these issues in the soldiers' own words:

Dear Mike, Iraq Sucks
www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7137

[Moses]

Not mentioned in this NY Times article are the shifting missions, reasons, and objectives of the war, as well as the major deceptions engaged in to send these people into war, including the New York Times, which continues to deceive:

www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/national/16stress.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

December 16, 2004

A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict

By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - The nation's hard-pressed health care system for veterans is facing a potential deluge of tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq with serious mental health problems brought on by the stress and carnage of war, veterans' advocates and military doctors say.

An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000. [?huh? Wouldn't 1/3 of 1milliion exceed 300,000? so far? ]

"There's a train coming that's packed with people who are going to need help for the next 35 years," said Stephen L. Robinson, a 20-year Army veteran who is now the executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group. Mr. Robinson wrote a report in September on the psychological toll of the war for the Center for American Progress, a Washington research group.

"I have a very strong sense that the mental health consequences are going to be the medical story of this war," said Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, who served as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs from 1994 to 1997.

What was planned as a short and decisive intervention in Iraq has become a grueling counterinsurgency that has put American troops into sustained close-quarters combat on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War. Psychiatrists say the kind of fighting seen in the recent retaking of Falluja - spooky urban settings with unlimited hiding places; the impossibility of telling Iraqi friend from Iraqi foe; the knowledge that every stretch of road may conceal an explosive device - is tailored to produce the adrenaline-gone-haywire reactions that leave lasting emotional scars.

And in no recent conflict have so many soldiers faced such uncertainty about how long they will be deployed. Veterans say the repeated extensions of duty in Iraq are emotionally battering, even for the most stoical of warriors.

Military and Department of Veterans Affairs officials say most military personnel will survive the war without serious mental issues and note that the one million troops include many who have not participated in ground combat, including sailors on ships. By comparison with troops in Vietnam, the officials said, soldiers in Iraq get far more mental health support and are likely to return to a more understanding public.

But the duration and intensity of the war have doctors at veterans hospitals across the country worried about the coming caseload.

"We're seeing an increasing number of guys with classic post-traumatic stress symptoms," said Dr. Evan Kanter, a psychiatrist at the Puget Sound veterans hospital in Seattle. "We're all anxiously waiting for a flood that we expect is coming. And I feel stretched right now."

A September report by the Government Accountability Office found that officials at six of seven Veterans Affairs medical facilities surveyed said they "may not be able to meet" increased demand for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Officers who served in Iraq say the unrelenting tension of the counterinsurgency will produce that demand.

"In the urban terrain, the enemy is everywhere, across the street, in that window, up that alley," said Paul Rieckhoff, who served as a platoon leader with the Florida Army National Guard for 10 months, going on hundreds of combat patrols around Baghdad. "It's a fishbowl. You never feel safe. You never relax."

In his platoon of 38 people, 8 were divorced while in Iraq or since they returned in February, Mr. Rieckhoff said. One man in his 120-person company killed himself after coming home.

"Too many guys are drinking," said Mr. Rieckhoff, who started the group Operation Truth to support the troops. "A lot have a hard time finding a job. I think the system is vastly under-prepared for the flood of mental health problems."

Capt. Tim Wilson, an Army chaplain serving outside Mosul, said he counseled 8 to 10 soldiers a week for combat stress. Captain Wilson said he was impressed with the resilience of his 700-strong battalion but added that fierce battles have produced turbulent emotions.

"There are usually two things they are dealing with," said Captain Wilson, a Southern Baptist from South Carolina. "Either being shot at and not wanting to get shot at again, or after shooting someone, asking, 'Did I commit murder?' or 'Is God going to forgive me?' or 'How am I going to be when I get home?' "

When all goes as it should, the life-saving medical services available to combat units like Captain Wilson's may actually swell the ranks of psychological casualties. Of wounded soldiers who are alive when medics arrive, 98 percent now survive, said Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick, the Pentagon's deputy director of deployment health support. But they must come to terms not only with emotional scars but the literal scars of amputated limbs and disfiguring injuries.

Through the end of September, the Army had evacuated 885 troops from Iraq for psychiatric reasons, including some who had threatened or tried suicide. But those are only the most extreme cases. Often, the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder do not emerge until months after discharge.

"During the war, they don't have the leisure to focus on how they're feeling," said Sonja Batten, a psychologist at the Baltimore veterans hospital. "It's when they get back and find that their relationships are suffering and they can't hold down a job that they realize they have a problem."

Robert E. Brown was proud to be in the first wave of Marines invading Iraq last year. But Mr. Brown has also found himself in the first ranks of returning soldiers to be unhinged by what they experienced.

He served for six months as a Marine chaplain's assistant, counseling wounded soldiers, organizing makeshift memorial services and filling in on raids. He knew he was in trouble by the time he was on a ship home, when the sound of a hatch slamming would send him diving to the floor.

After he came home, he began drinking heavily and saw his marriage fall apart, Mr. Brown said. He was discharged and returned to his hometown, Peru, Ind., where he slept for two weeks in his Ford Explorer, surrounded by mementos of the war.

"I just couldn't stand to be with anybody," said Mr. Brown, 35, sitting at his father's kitchen table.

Dr. Batten started him on the road to recovery by giving his torment a name, an explanation and a treatment plan. But 18 months after leaving Iraq, he takes medication for depression and anxiety and returns in dreams to the horrors of his war nearly every night.

The scenes repeat in ghastly alternation, he says: the Iraqi girl, 3 or 4 years old, her skull torn open by a stray round; the Kuwaiti man imprisoned for 13 years by Saddam Hussein, cowering in madness and covered in waste; the young American soldier, desperate to escape the fighting, who sat in the latrine and fired his M-16 through his arm; the Iraqi missile speeding in as troops scramble in the dark for cover.

"That's the one that just stops my heart," said Mr. Brown. "I'm in my rack sleeping and there's a school bus full of explosives coming down at me and there's nowhere to go."

Such costs of war, personal and financial, are not revealed by official casualty counts. "People see the figure of 1,200 dead," said Dr. Kanter, of Seattle, referring to the number of Americans killed in Iraq. "Much more rarely do they see the number of seriously wounded. And almost never do they hear anything at all about the psychiatric casualties."

As of Wednesday 5,229 Americans have been seriously wounded in Iraq. Through July, nearly 31,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom had applied for disability benefits for injuries or psychological ailments, according to the Department Veterans Affairs.
(continued)

[Moses]

Every war produces its medical signature, said Dr. Kenneth Craig Hyams, a former Navy physician now at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Soldiers came back from the Civil War with "irritable heart." In World War I there was "shell shock." World War II vets had "battle fatigue." The troubles of Vietnam veterans led to the codification of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In combat, the fight-or-flight reflex floods the body with adrenaline, permitting impressive feats of speed and endurance. But after spending weeks or months in this altered state, some soldiers cannot adjust to a peaceful setting. Like Mr. Brown, for whom a visit to a crowded bank at lunch became an ordeal, they display what doctors call "hypervigilance." They sit in restaurants with their backs to a wall; a car's backfire can transport them back to Baghdad.

To prevent such damage, the Army has deployed "combat stress control units" in Iraq to provide treatment quickly to soldiers suffering from emotional overload, keeping them close to the healing camaraderie of their unit.

"We've found through long experience that this is best treated with sleep, rest, food, showers and a clean uniform, if that is possible," said Dr. Thomas J. Burke, an Army psychiatrist who oversees mental health policy at the Department of Defense. "If they get counseling to tell them they are not crazy, they will often get better rapidly."

To detect signs of trouble, the Department of Defense gives soldiers pre-deployment and post-deployment health questionnaires. Seven of 17 questions to soldiers leaving Iraq seek signs of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

But some reports suggest that such well-intentioned policies falter in the field. During his time as a platoon leader in Iraq, Mr. Rieckhoff said, he never saw a combat stress control unit. "I never heard of them until I came back," he said.

And the health screens have run up against an old enemy of military medicine: soldiers who cover up their symptoms. In July 2003, as Jeffrey Lucey, a Marine reservist from Belchertown, Mass., prepared to leave Iraq after six months as a truck driver, he at first intended to report traumatic memories of seeing corpses, his parents, Kevin and Joyce Lucey, said. But when a supervisor suggested that such candor might delay his return home, Mr. Lucey played down his problems.

At home, he spiraled downhill, haunted by what he had seen and began to have delusions about having killed unarmed Iraqis. In June, at 23, he hanged himself with a hose in the basement of the family home.

"Other marines have verified to us that it is a subtle understanding which exists that if you want to go home you do not report any problems," Mr. Lucey's parents wrote in an e-mail message. "Jeff's perception, which is shared by others, is that to seek help is to admit that you are weak."

Dr. Kilpatrick, of the Pentagon, acknowledges the problem, saying that National Guardsmen and Reservists in particular have shown an "abysmal" level of candor in the screenings. "We still have a long ways to go," he said. "The warrior ethos is that there are no imperfections."


Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article.

[Moses]

Posted on: Monday, December 20, 2004

Kane'ohe Marine died in Fallujah[/url] (Thursday, Dec. 16) [/size]

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lance Cpl. Franklin A. Sweger, a Kane'ohe-based Marine who was killed Thursday in Iraq, died while exchanging small-arms fire with insurgents in Fallujah.


Franklin Sweger


"They were clearing a building or something," Steven Hernandez, Sweger's stepfather, said Marine Corps officials told him. "Franklin was killed and two others were seriously injured.

"That's all we know right now," he said yesterday from San Antonio. "We're hoping we'll get more information — something that will give us some closure. We're sad for the other kids and hope they recover."

Sweger is the 16th Hawai'i-based Marine to be killed in Iraq since Oct. 24. Most of them died while fighting in Fallujah.

The number of Marines who have died recently in Fallujah has been difficult to calculate because the military, after declaring Fallujah "liberated" and "secure" last month, has been reporting American casualties from that city as occurring in al Anbar province, a larger geographical area that includes Fallujah as well as other hot spots.

Marines in Fallujah have been exchanging gunfire with insurgents daily since the liberation, and American fighter planes have bombed the city.

Hernandez said Sweger, 24, of San Antonio, joined the Marine Corps after enrolling in his first semester of college and realizing he had taken so many difficult science and math classes he was in over his head.

"I said maybe he should think about the military," Hernandez said. "I thought maybe the Army or the Air Force — and I certainly wasn't thinking anything was going to start up."

Sweger became a Marine in April 2001, five months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"He one-upped me," Hernandez said of his stepson's choice of services. "He was always doing that. I said: 'Are you crazy or what?' "

Sweger was outgoing and funny and the type of person who stood out in a crowd, Hernandez said.

"He likes everybody and he wants everybody to like him," he said. "He likes to be the wisecracker. He can make you laugh when you're depressed. I guarantee, the people he met along the way will remember him. Tell all his friends he loved them — I know he did."

Hernandez said he was proud of the boy he had raised since age 7 — the young man he considered his son.

"He did something I'd never have the guts to do," he said, "but he did it — he did it, man."

In addition to the deaths of Sweger and 15 other Hawai'i-based Marines in Iraq, Hawai'i has lost one sailor since Oct. 24 and 12 Schofield Barracks soldiers in the past 11 months.

Lance Cpl. Blake A. Magaoay, 20, of Pearl City, a California-based Marine, was killed Nov. 29 in Fallujah.

Thirteen Hawai'i-based military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since March.

---

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or [e-mail].

[Moses]

Responding to Dave (Hackworth):

"To Dave - you are a liar. I am a USMC-CPL stationed at Camp Pendleton and I lost 18 good friends in the Fullujah operations. The soldier that wrote this letter, failed to mentioned the grad rocket booby traps that injured and killed over a 500 (Marine) troops on the night of the initial offense. Support forces failed to provide blocking support for the Corp and we were ambushed severely and took heavy casualties. You should be ashamed of yourself, because it sounds like a reporter wrote the letter instead of a soldier.

And I notice the letter was never addressed to a loved one, Dave! The next time you think of lying to the public consider the families at Camp Pendleton CA who would be glad if this story was true...but know that it isn't because hundreds of their dead loved ones came home in a coroners bag. And, oh, by the way, those 2-7 cav girl thingys conducted a tactical retreat on the 4th day of battle, leaving the 1st-2nd-(MEF)to fend for themselves, leaving the insurgents in control of 60% of the city."

[Moses]

Donald the Reptile Rumsfeld
12/20/2004 12:44

Tell us the truth about Fallujah, tell us the truth about Iraq

A war zone is a great filter for the truth and when the United States of America says it is sending in camera crews with the troops to record what is happening, after all the hype and spin and lies, the suspicions arise that there is in fact a cover-up going on, a massive cover-up, especially when one confronts the official version of events with the information circulating on the Internet.

Is it just chatter that the US Armed Forces sustained thousands of casualties in Fallujah? Is it just chatter that thousands of wounded are spirited out of the country at night-time? Is it just chatter that burials take place under cover of darkness? Is it just chatter that the whole campaign has been disastrously mismanaged from the beginning, that US troops are at the mercy of snipers, booby-traps and counter-offensives which kill and maim tens of soldiers every day?

Where are the lists of casualties? If not a day goes by without a serious incident taking place, how can anyone believe the official figures, which claim for example that "enemy" casualties in Fallujah were many hundreds and that US casualties were a few dozen? In hand-to-hand fighting?

Is the need for 50.000 more troops due to an admission that the 150.000 who started the campaign were not enough, providing yet again an enormous question mark as to the Pentagon's planning, or is it something more sinister, due to the fact that the casualty rate is so high that there are serious gaps on the ground which need to be filled urgently to protect an already grossly overstretched force?

Are the reports true which claim that in day one in Fallujah, the US Armed Forces took 500 casualties because of grad rocket booby traps? Are the reports true which claim that the US Armed Forces took heavy casualties in ambushes? Are the reports true which claim that part of the US Armed Forces in Fallujah made a retreat on day four leaving the front line stranded?

Is it true that the US Armed Forces are unprotected against increasingly effective insurgent attacks, that they are using scrap metal to protect their vehicles and that they are in need of 4 billion USD-worth of extra armour? Is it true that the Pentagon is incapable of proving this in the short term? Is it true that the war in Iraq is far from won, that the suicide rate among your boys, Mr. Rumsfeld, is increasing by the day, and that they are frightened and demoralised because you told them it would be a breeze but in fact it is a living nightmare?

Is it true, Mr. Rumsfeld, that you used a machine to sign your name on letters of condolences? Couldn't you even be bothered to put pen to paper? Not that this is in the slightest surprising. After the lies, after the torture scandal, after the illegal murders, what to expect from a reptilian man with cold blood cursing through his veins who is the personification of every reason why the United States of America of the Bush regime has the status of most hated nation in the hearts and minds of the international community at the end of 2004?

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

[Moses]

Article Published: Monday, December 20, 2004
Marine in Iraq shared humor, passion


Greg Rund, 21, a Columbine High graduate, was killed on his second tour of duty.


By Alicia Caldwell
Denver Post Staff Writer


Greg Rund died in Fallujah, Iraq, this month.


He drove his pastor crazy. He made his fellow Marines laugh in the most miserable of circumstances. And his girlfriend thought he was the most enchanting rogue she'd ever met.

The short and passionate life of Greg Rund, a Columbine High School graduate who died in Iraq this month, was celebrated at his funeral Sunday by an overflow crowd of 1,000 people.

The 21-year-old was remembered not just for his impish shenanigans - such as using 98 rolls of toilet paper to wrap a house - but for the zeal with which he took on each day.

It was this depth of feeling, his pastor said, that led him to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps just a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"His passion touched his patriotism on 9/11," said the Rev. Stephen Poos-Benson at the service at Columbine United Church. "His sense of patriotism was offended. Greg felt called to respond."



Rund was on his second tour of Iraq, in Fallujah, when his team entered the back door of a house. The Marines were ambushed and Rund was hit several times by small-arms fire and died.

An e-mail sent to Rund's mother from another Marine was read aloud at the service: "Let Rund's mother know that he was a good Marine. No, he was more than that. ... He was a hero."

Rund's funeral, attended by many fellow Marines and other military personnel, honored the heart of a soldier. But it was his comedian's soul that many of his friends recalled.

They spoke of how Rund's car, the "Dangermobile," would be used for "alternative sports," such as dragging a sled through a dirt field.

They talked about how Rund would hoist a boom box playing the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" to his shoulder and run on the field before soccer games.

His girlfriend told the crowd how once, when they were out on the town, he convinced her they ought to pretend they were British actors.

"You always thought you were good at accents," said Karissa Marcum, reading a note she wrote him after his death. "But you weren't. I told you to stop saying 'mate.' That would help."

Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler Kerr said that Rund's sense of humor was a welcome respite during a brutal training session conducted in weather so cold some soldiers were suffering frostbite.

Rund got up on a vehicle and began singing his heart out. He made up the words and just belted it out. It was, Kerr said, hilarious.

But underneath, the court jester was a caring young man. Just before he died, he sent a note to his parents - Mark and Jane Rund - looking for a favor for fellow Marines.

He sent the names of those in his unit who never got mail or packages and asked church members to adopt them.

Poos-Benson, the pastor, asked those who love and miss Rund to take comfort in knowing that Rund is now in God's hands.

Said Poos-Benson: "Having suffered Greg through confirmation, I would say that God has his hands full."

Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or [e-mail] .

[Moses]

Article published Dec 20, 2004
Marine's funeral full of warm memories


ARMANDO RIOS
Bulletin Staff Writer

SALEM — "Thanks" was the epitaph the Rev. John Hodges, pastor of First Baptist Church of Salem, had for 21-year-old Marine Cpl. Jason Scot Clairday, who was killed Dec. 12 in Fallujah, Iraq, from enemy fire.

Clairday's funeral was Saturday afternoon at the church, with burial in Camp Cemetery a few miles down the road.

Clairday was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, which was presented to his widow, Sarah Clairday, whom he married July 31.

He had entered the Marine Corps after graduation and married Sarah before going overseas.

During the service, attended by more than 600 people, Hodges gave mourners snippets of what Clairday was like. Like most youngsters, he was slightly mischievous, but more of an instigator who managed to stay out of trouble, always having an innocent look on his face while his compatriots got caught.

He loved to fish and hunt along the creek and loved the lake, Hodges said.

When he was in high school, it was baseball, girls and church, Hodges said, adding he was unsure in what order they came for the young man. But if it was like most young men, it would have been girls, then baseball, then church.

Shortly before he graduated from Salem High School in 2001, the deacons at the church bought Clairday a suit and shoes, Hodges said. Clairday loved to dress up for church and was always calling friends to see what they would be wearing to the Sunday service. After he joined the Marines, he returned for a visit and was wearing another new suit, his Marine dress blues.

In high school, Clairday excelled at sports. He was on the baseball team. Hodges said Clairday was not only a good athlete but also a great leader.

Clairday was a member of First Baptist Church, where he sang in the youth choir. They showed a video of Clairday and the youth choir singing one of his favorite songs, "Shouting Time in Heaven."
It is shouting time in heaven for Clairday, Hodges said.

"I don't know if anyone knew how to live life any more fully than Jason," Hodges said. "I don't know of anyone who loved people and life any more than Jason."

As a boy and later as a young man, Clairday loved hugs, Hodges said.

When he joined the church, Clairday saw the church members as a large family.

"I am sure that Jason has been on the forefront of your minds all week as we have thought about him and thought about his loss and thought about his family and thought about his young wife and thought about all his friends," Hodges said. "He was happy to have Sarah, happy to have another family."

When he first met Clairday, his future father-in-law thought he was a fake, because he could not believe a young man could be so good, Hodges said.

His father-in-law later told another church member that Clairday was no fake.

"He was building a family life and looked forward to the future, but that future is not here," Hodges said. "He has gained a better body, he has gained a better home, he has gained better riches through his faith in Christ."

Clairday made such an impact on his church and his community, Hodges said. He wanted to please his family, Sarah, the church and the Marines and never wanted anything back in return other than just simply to be loved.

"He took pride in what he was doing in Iraq," Hodges said. "He felt very honored to serve this country. He made this statement not long ago, 'You know, it is more difficult to liberate a country, than I thought.' Yet he was willing to give himself completely to what he was doing."

Clairday's casket was accompanied by Marines in dress blues. Alternating between three pairs of Marines, a pair stood at either end of his casket at parade rest during the service. At the cemetery, they stood in two lines and saluted as the family walked between their ranks. Three rifle volleys rang out from a squad of seven Marines, followed by the playing of "Taps."

The U.S. flag draping Clairday's casket was ceremoniously folded and given to his widow by a Marine officer. Then came the reading of a proclamation giving Clairday the Purple Heart, awarded to Clairday for his wounds received in action Dec. 12.

The Purple Heart also was presented to his widow. Another Marine also read "The Marine's Prayer" at the graveside service.
The Marine burial guard was from a company in Little Rock.

Clairday is survived by his wife, Sarah Clairday of Salem; his biological parents, Virgil Clairday Jr. and Nancy McWilliams, both of Delta, Colo.; "Mom and Dad," Brenda Sutherland of Salem and Rodney Sutherland of Camp; brothers Ryan Logan Clairday of Paliside, Calif., Gary Jay Clairday of Delta and Chris Youngblood of Camp; grandmother Mary Clairday of Oklahoma; and a host of relatives and friends.

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[e-mail]

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vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D3&Date=20041220&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=412200307&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&MaxW=200
Sarah Clairday, 19, of Salem, (left) is presented with an American flag during the burial of her husband, Marine Cpl. Jason Clairday, Saturday, at Camp Cemetery near Salem. Clairday was killed Dec. 12 in Fallujah, Iraq, from enemy fire. Next to Sarah Clairday is her mother, Cindy McCullough.

[Moses]

Jacksonville Daily News
www.jdnews.com

Busier times lie ahead for base hospital
December 20, 2004
ERIC STEINKOPFF AND ANDREW DEGRANDPRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF

If the number of war-wounded Marines leaving Iraq next year stays at its current rate, Camp Lejeune's Naval Hospital will get a lot busier.

Lejeune's II Marine Expeditionary Force, which boasts about 14,000 local troops, will begin deploying in January. In Iraq, it will eventually assume command of operations from the West Coast's I MEF, which is based at Camp Pendleton. Presently, there are 21,000 I MEF Marines in Iraq.

With some Lejeune units - including the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment - already on the ground there, the Naval Hospital here treats an average of 25 to 30 casualties per month, said Capt. Richard C. Welton, the hospital's commander.

At Camp Pendleton's Naval Hospital, the monthly average between February and November is about 63. However, the actual number of casualties ebbs and flows, said Doug Allen, a spokesman.

"There was one particular spike," Allen said, "right after the (November assault on) Fallujah. There was a four- to five-day period when they sent more (wounded) than normal - if there is a normal."

In mid-November, when Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler said opposition forces in Fallujah had been "broken," CNN reported that 275 American troops and soldiers were wounded in the offensive - and that about 60 of those returned to active duty. Casualties treated by doctors at the American military hospital in Germany more than doubled during that time, according to CNN.

"We normally anticipate one to two groups of two to 10 injured individuals per week (at Pendleton's Naval Hospital)," Allen said. "Fifty-six Marines and sailors arrived (between) Nov. 15 and 19."

From February through November, Pendleton's Naval Hospital treated 632 wounded troops, Allen said. Most patients have orthopedic injuries suffered as a result of gun shots or shrapnel, he added.

When Lejeune troops in Iraq suffer combat or non-combat injuries, Welton explained, they're treated at various locations before coming home to North Carolina.

"First, they are stabilized in theater, and then they are (medically evacuated) to Landstuhl, Germany for treatment," Welton said. "Then they are returned stateside. The idea is to get them as close to home as possible, (and) for Camp Lejeune, that's Bethesda, Maryland."

Medical specialists at Bethesda do what they can to help the patients they see, Welton said. Then Lejeune Naval Hospital doctors provide any additional care - be it inpatient or outpatient rehab, he added.

"Most are outpatients, but some need one to three days of additional surgery or treatment," Welton said. "We receive casualties to provide ongoing treatment and support."

At the Naval Medical Center San Diego, which is the West Coast's counterpart to Bethesda, I MEF Marines wounded in Iraq come in waves, said Amy Rohlfs, a spokeswoman. While the inpatient count has been as high as 40 at any one time, she said, there are six patients there right now. Another 20 are staying in the hospital's "med hold," Rohlfs said, which is like a dormitory used to house troops who need ongoing treatment.

Again, most require orthopedic surgery. One Marine corporal, wounded in Fallujah and admitted with substantial shrapnel wounds to his arm, was recently released from the San Diego facility after regaining almost complete mobility, she said.

"His whole arm was dangling," Rohlfs said. "It was broken and missing a huge piece of muscle. But just like Humpty Dumpty, the doctors here put him back together again."

While commanders at Lejeune quietly acknowledge the numbers may increase locally, improvements in body and vehicle armor, along with tactics that keep troops safer, have been credited with reducing the number and severity of injuries. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that for every one American service member killed in Iraq, nine others survived injuries - the highest rate for any war involving U.S. forces.

"The idea is rehabilitation - to get them back to active duty," Welton said. "Today, even those with artificial limbs have the possibility to stay in the Marine Corps if they can pass the physical requirements."




© 2004 by Freedom ENC Communications.