Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Monday April 26 2004 — A7 Army rasMmg aap-SQErimiOErGdO’ up the casualty toll Bulletproof glass armor plating help protect soldiers NAJAF Iraq (AP) — Deafening noise confusion and fear erupted as the roadside bomb slammed into the US Army Humvee knocking over Spc Stephen Monti who was manning a gun in the turret “Then we started checking whether we still had our 10 Angers on" Monti recalled of the recent ambush south of Baghdad Not only had all four soldiers escaped injury but the vehicle — which had been fortified by armor plating and bulletproof glass — came through with just a few dents and a cracked windshield ‘There probably would have been wounds maybe mortal ones in your basic Humvee" said Monti of St Louis “Every vehicle that ' goes out on the road should be Your safety is dramatically increased" But many in Iraq are not and attacks against them by roadside bombs and grenades are driving d’ rocket-propell- ed told The Associated Press “I saw an the other day that said there was one up- armored Humvee in Kosovo and they were tracking it coming here’ In the meantime soldiers in Iraq are making do They’re hardening their as unarmored Humvees are called from kits available at some bases or by getting enterprising Iraqis to whack steel sheets onto their vehicles Some who have to ride in the resort to prayer “It hasn't prevented me from going out but whenever possible I bum a ride in an armored Humvee There is a little extra element of having to trust God more when going oiit in said Maj of Chip Huey Hattiesburg Miss chaplain for the 3rd Brigade 1st Infantry Division The basic M998 Humvee or High Mobility Wheeled Vehicle began rolling off assembly lines in 1985 replacing the venerable Jeep and vari-- ously configured to serve as a field ambulance scout vehi-cl- e or war zone taxi r' ! On Sunday a Humvee was engulfed in flames after a roadside bomb struck a US convoy in eastern Baghdad killing a US soldier It was not known if the Humvee had the extra armor When the war began only about 2 percent of Army’s 10000 Humvees were armored Now of the nearly 15000 Humvees in Iraq about 1500 to 2000 are armored according to the Army The numbers are increasing The Army is making a press" to locate and deliver every armored Humvee in its inventory to Iraq said Maj Gen Martin Dempsey commander of the 1st Armored Division At the same time factories are boosting production of the armored version During the war last year some Humvees were g ambushed as US troops bypassed pockets of resistance But the attacks have mounted as Iraq became what Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez commander of US forces calls to Oraing IHItsmiiiveos : “soft-skin- ’te- 1 4 as? soft-ski- “full-cou- rt 9k v ' '4V “a swift-movin- 360-degr- battlefield" ee with none of safer rear areas of conventional warfare “They were not intended to be on the front lines” Dempsey said of the unarmored vehicles “In a linear a burning US Army Humvee Sfter it battlefield Humvees always operated behind the front lines — in most cases even out of artillery range Iraq isn’t a linear battlefield As we find ourselves iii a low-t- o conflict and we mid-intensi- ty ns soft-skin- s" AP photo An Iraqi man uses an axe to help destroy gents in Baghdad Iraq on Sunday s” was attacked by insur- have all these vehicles' designed for a linear battle: field they come up short" The Armyis trying to find every heavily armored Humvee “from every other place in the world" Dempsey Multi-purpo- se Marine unit uses downtime to train Battle-teste- d 24th prepares for Gulf return ABOARD THE USS SAIPAN (AP) — In the faint greenish glow of a few small landing lights a CH-4- 6 helicopter settles on deck Hie scream of its engine pierces through earplugs and a headset the amber light on its front rotor whips through the night like a lariat ' Inside Marine 1st Lt Marcia Sandrew peers through night vision goggles for about a minute until she gets the to lift off into the inky She his been making sky go-ahe- ad “bounces” — landings — through the day and evening to earn her rating as a pilot qualified to land on aircraft carriers Below decks here and on six ' other ships are 4200 members of the 24th Marine Expedi-- : tionary Unit Some 3000 are sailors the rest are Marines who this late evening are touch-and-- go Charter Continued from A2 school" Aney said A community meeting about the charter idea’ drew about 150 people Jeffeiy said the largest town gathering he can remember outside of Friday night basketball and kindergarten graduations One concern that was voiced was that a charter - debriefing after their own flights relaxing or in bed A year ago some of these Marines were leading the United States' charge into Iraq Some wear tattoos that feature the numbers 18 and “032303" — the date their Task Force Tarawa lost 18 Marines in fighting around Nasiriyah Now the veterans are pass- ing along the hard lessons learned to a new crop of troops as the unit prepares to ' deploy for another tour in August For Sgt Daniel Shaw it’s a chance to size up — and toughen up — some of the new guys “There’s a bunch of cryba- bies — not all of them” says Shaw who at 24 is already a veteran of nearly seven years in the Marines “Some guys ' complain a lot” “They think they’re coming into something easy everyone ' can be a Marine” Lance Cpl Brandon Autin another veter- an from New Iberia La chimes in “When they actually get into it and see how hard it is the things we go through ' they get scared out of it” ' This nine-da- y exercise was the secondof four planned training exercises and ended shortly before Easter In May members of the MEU will practice urban warfare around Morgantown WVa Over the nine days pilots practiced carrier takeoffs and ' landings Marine and Navy officers on the Saipan ran “rapid response" drills talking through plans for handling hypothetical wartime situa- tions ' Marines who had never been aboard ship had time to get used to the tight spaces and maze-lik- e corridors of the three vessels — the Saipan the Oak Hill and the Trenton — where they could conceivably spend the entire deployment On the morning after Sandrew rehearsed about 50 members of the MEU’s battalion landing team landrode a breadpan-shape- d about craft seven over ing miles Of choppy water from the ship to Camp Lejeune’s Onslow Beach where they practiced moving vehicles arid heavy machinery As a small squad darted past making a show of capturing menacing “civilians” Shaw said he worries the new troops may not appreciate the importance of training’s most trivial aspects Take digging a fighting hole — a tedious chore that seems kind of pointless on a sunny spring day in North Carolina “But when mortar rounds and artillery start coming in on you you’re going to start dig- ging a hole with your fingers or whatever you’ve got" Shaw said “It’s a helpless feeling" And lives depend on doing it right It’s that sense of reality of uigency — that the MEU’s commander Col Ron Johnson of Duxbury Mass feels is the critical change in this year’s training “There’s a purpose to it now Everyone feels it now" he said “If you go to biology class how much do you pay school would collapse whenthe federal startup money runs out and it had to return to reliance bn shaky state fund- ing Paisley’s federal grant stops flowing in May 2005 But consider the alternative said Linda Banister who teach- doing the best we can" : Jeffery thinks enough has changed since the charter began to allow the Paisley school to survive past the end of the federal funding The school fired a math and English teacher and their subjects were taken over by oth- ere The curriculum is more tightly focused on 'state testing standards The cafeteria was replaced by a volunteer lunch program Students have been taught to do some janitoiial duties And then there are the cows With about $10000 of the federal money the school district bought five heifers and one bull and ranchers let the animals graze for freeThe idea said agriculture education teacher DeNae Sims is to raise money by breeding the cattle and selling their calves Jeffery said he knows that while Paisley has bought some time by changing to charter the rchool is still vulnerable six-mon- th - es social studies and English “If it is postponing the inevitable well then’we are going but in an exceptional way” she said “If we are going to cease as a school we wijl cease on our own terms six-mon- th touch-and-g- os AP photo Marines train on Wednesday March 31 in the scrub pine of Camp LeJeune's (NC) Onslow Beach A year ago some of these and other Marines were part of Task Force Tarawa leading the United States' charge into Iraq Now those veterans are passing along the hard lessons learned to a new crop of troops as the unit prepares to tour in August redeploy for another six-mon-th attention if it’s just a normal biology class? But if you know you’re going to be a doctor' and going to operate in a couple of days or months or years would you pay more attention?” This year the training exer- cises include specific language and cultural instruction about Iraq and Afghanistan! But the goal is the same now as a year ago and in every year before that: to teach each member of the MEU the ability to cope with the worst whatever that may be Move Continued from A1 : and military advisers to discuss 'the situation in Fallujah ' and the rest of Iraq The moves appeared aimed at bringing a degree of control over the cities without the intense violence that began when US authorities moved on the two fronts simultaneously at the start of April The wave of fighting since ' has killed up to 1200 Iraqis and 1 1 1 US troops nearly as many in 25 days as the 115 Americans who were killed invasion during the that toppled Saddam Hussein a ' V year ago The deal to bring patrols into Fallujah meant extending the cease-fir- e for at least another two days US officials said ' Military action in Fallujah was still an option Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said but die warning was dramatically toned down from those in the past week The new steps ip Fallujah were npt without risks: There was little guarantee that guerrillas in Fallujah won’t attack joint US Iraqi patrols yr $0 Down 0 two-mon- SUNS USE A DEERE' NOTHING APR Interest 0 Payments for one vV ' ' — Hurry offer ends soon year : y any John Deers lawn or garden tractor and paynothing Right no w fora full year And you can experience our exclusive Edge’ Cutting System for a professional quality cut expert support trom your local neighborhood John Deere dealer and die legendary reliability durability and precision of a John Deere So visit your nearest dealer today and enjoys John Deere this season without " paying until next season wwwJohnDeerecomHomeownert ‘ th -- -- : 555 N Mon-F- lOOO W 2 Logan Intended Summer Hours 753-194- SaL 8:00-5:3- 0 ri ’ " htn—nMnetw ' : 8:00-4:0- 0 ton aiUlh'ippfhulhiJihillfwCrhMiiihhiinr" mm a Hii Mpm mhHITI— hhl iii " t hr ip XHMMivnilknMlMhmlWhmiSlliVaHaMbrk —m t nn rua ryn M M I mmmti MM mww een hr mm n—hf-Wi- Ach' SXUIWWd I aw jh4 iM lrtri)h vmrmm ham flMihfW —'—l inytm piwwhg uHvv-aliihah- MUfai1' I W WMMIMMpUM' Ihw S ( vmmmm dn haul mm liWWMmw mtm ns' ahhashi' |