HM2 Qi was with OHSU DALLAS DET C from NOSC Austin, TX and volunteered to mobilize and deploy with 4th LAR out of Camp Pendleton, CA.

He was on foot patrol in Helmand Province when a suicide bomber attacked. Didn’t make it to MTF.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Xin’s family, shipmates, Marines and Friends.

The official Notification Reads:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Xin Qi, 25, of Cordova, Tenn., died Jan. 23, while supporting combat operations in Afghanistan. Qi was assigned to Fourth Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Marine Expeditionary Brigade – Afghanistan.

For further information related to this release, contact Marine Forces Reserve Public Affairs at 504-235-6128.

I don’t have a picture of HM2, but when we obtain one I will post it.

D/C

It’s extremely hard to fight 2 wars at the same time and also stomp out fires all over the globe be it pirates or tsunami’s etc.

The top U.S. military officer said Tuesday that he’s confident that most of the 30,000 additional troops that are being sent to Afghanistan will be there by August.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him in Afghanistan that the first 16,000 troops who already have orders will be in on schedule.

On Monday, Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, the second-highest ranking U.S. general in Afghanistan, said the rapid escalation of American troops would take longer than expected, possibly as long as 11 months. Rodriguez blamed the delay on the logistical challenges the military faces in bringing in so many forces so quickly.

You can read the whole article here on Navy Times: Mullen: Afghan surge troops in place by Aug.

This one is rough, they all are, but this one has a story that has hit the press recently.

I am attaching the story from the Modesto Bee to this email.

I will be posting a story announcing HM3 Layton’s passing later today.

HM3 James Ray Layton

——————–

A Riverbank sailor was killed Tuesday in an ambush in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced this morning.

Petty Officer 3rd Class James R. Layton, 22, died in Kunar Province while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to an embedded training team with Combined Security Transition Command in Afghanistan.

Layton’s death was described by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Jonathan Landay, who was embedded with a group of Marines and pinned down by heavy fire in a rugged section of Kunar Province on Tuesday.

The story appeared on the front page of The Modesto Bee on Wednesday:

“The Marines were cut down as they sought cover in a trench at the base of the village’s first layer cake-style stone house. Much of their ammunition was gone. One Marine (later determined to be Layton) was bending over a second, tending his wounds, when both were killed, said Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 21, of Greensburg, Ky., who retrieved their bodies.”

Layton is the 28th soldier or Marine from the Northern San Joaquin Valley and foothills killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the first from Riverbank.

Editor’s note: Read Landay’s account of the deaths of Layton and three others by clicking on the story link at left or by clicking here.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/848962.html

Our hearts and prayers go out to HM3’s family, Marines, Shipmates, and friends.

Da-Chief

HM3 Benjamine Castiglione KIA 03 SEPT 2009

We have recieved confirmation via family as well as local press (Livingstondaily.com I spoke verbally to their Editor, Thanks to the Livingstondaily for helping us out), that HM3 Benjamin Castiglione was killed by a IED in the HELMAND Province of Afghanistan on 3 Sept 2009.

(We will be hosting a online memorial service tonight (04 Sep 2009)  for HM3 Ben Castiglione.  You can watch/listen live @ http://www.stickam.com/da_chief .  The show will be taped and put up on the site tomorrow AM.  We start @ 9:00 PM CST.  Please attend if you can. **Please leave Condolence messages below, Hm3’s family reads our site.–D/C)

We will post more when we receive the info.

HM3 was from Howell, MI, and a article below was written about him receiving a Meritorious NAM while serving in IRAQ.

Our hearts and prayers go out to HM3’s family, Shipmates, Marines and friends.

A Special AOTC will be taped tonight to honor this hero.

Da-Chief
——————-

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20090904/NEWS01/90904002&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL#pluckcomments

A 2006 Howell High School graduate was killed on Thursday while serving in Afghanistan.

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Ben Castiglione was killed by an improvised explosive device, the man’s family reported Friday morning.

The family was notified Thursday, but didn’t have further details. Castiglione served the military as a medic.

The Press & Argus ran a neighbors story about Castiglione on February 6, 2009.

To read the story, click here

For more information, visit LivingstonDaily.com.

February 6, 2009
Navy hospitalman is modest military hero

By Christopher Nagy
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Ben Castiglione said he doesn’t feel like he did anything especially heroic.

The U.S. Navy, however, begs to differ.

The 2006 Howell High School graduate and current hospitalman with the Navy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal last fall for superior performance of duties during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In particular, U.S Marine Corps Col. R.E. Smith, Castiglione’s commanding officer, cited two specific incidents in the commendation — one in which Castiglione treated two Iraqi civilians who sustained broken bones and lacerations following an automobile accident near the Rio Lobo combat outpost, and another where Castiglione made a quick assessment and gave treatment to an unconscious Marine suffering heart palpitations and troubled breathing due to a scorpion sting.

“Hospitalman Castiglione expertly and efficiently treated numerous Marines, Iraqi security forces and civilians in basic health care and advanced trauma. … Hospitalman Castiglione’s initiative, perseverance and total dedication to duty reflected credit on him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and United States Naval Service,” Smith wrote in the certificate that accompanied the medal.

Ben Castiglione, on the other hand, addresses his recent recognition with a healthy dose of modesty.

“I definitely do not feel like any type of hero,” he recently wrote in an e-mail from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. “Many Marines and corpsman did great things on our deployment, and — this sounds cliché — but I was just doing my job.”

The Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal is awarded to members of the military below the rank of lieutenant commander, Ben Castiglione explained. It is given for meritorious service or achievement that exceeds what is normally required or expected based upon an individual’s rank, training or experience.

“I’m very proud of him,” said father Joel Castiglione of Cohoctah Township. “He’s done so well with this. He’s really excelled in all of his classes and training.”

Joel Castiglione was able to see the medal for himself when Ben Castiglione came back to Livingston County over the holidays, and he described his son as a “gung-ho, John Wayne type of guy” when it comes to his military service — a point with which the hospitalman’s stepmother agreed.

“He’s really into it,” said Gloria Castiglione. “We’re very proud of him, and very proud of everyone else who is over there, too.”

Ben Castiglione joined the Navy as a Marine fleet force corpsman on Halloween 2006.

“I always had an interest in medicine and wanted an opportunity to operate with the Marine Corps on deployments,” he explained. “I’m able to learn medicine while also being able to operate within the Marine Corps. I have seen what the Navy has done for people in my family. I have an uncle who started off as a corpsman and now is a doctor.”

Ben Castiglione’s rank is hospitalman, and his job is corpsman, which are to the Navy what a medic is to the Army. Because the Marine Corps is a component of the U.S. Department of the Navy, Marines “pull their medical personnel from the Navy to treat wounded Marines in the field, work in battle aid stations and for every echelon of care that is required for the Marines to be able to operate effectively,” he said.

“He was always interested in medicine,” Joel Castiglione said. “He just decided he wanted to serve his country, and he didn’t understand why the same people had to keep going back (overseas) again and again. He wanted to take his turn.”

It’s a decision that Ben Castiglione said he doesn’t regret.

“The military life is not easy, but I believe that I am a stronger person for it,” he said. “The hardships I have dealt with was worth what I have learned and the bonds I have with the Marines in my platoon. When my platoon and I have downtime and talk and mess around with each other, it’s like one big hilarious, dysfunctional family — and it’s a blast. We take care of each other.”

Ben Castiglione came back late last year from Iraq, his first deployment since joining the military. A Navy corpsman assigned to a Marine Corps division generally sees two deployments before being transferred to another command to share learned services and experiences to a more clinical level outside of field service, he explained.

“I believe that being deployed overseas, people think that service members would have a better idea of what is going on within this conflict than someone who has never seen that part of the world,” Ben Castiglione said. “Honestly, you don’t have time to make opinions of the war or why you are there. You are more concerned about making it back with your friends and getting the job done.”

As for interacting with the civilians in Iraq, Ben Castiglione said most seem happy to see U.S. forces.

“Especially when they were hurt in some way and we’re there to help,” he said. “As a corpsman, I am required to treat the locals just as I would my Marines, so I had great opportunities to interact with the people there. Most of the people who where not happy to see us were foreign fighters from surrounding countries.”

When it comes to the troops, Ben Castiglione said many are tired; however, he said servicemembers are always ready to act when called upon, and the withdrawal from Iraq and the refocus on conflict in Afghanistan has rejuvenated many in the military.

“A lot of people in the military, I believe, are ready for Afghanistan,” he said.

For now, Ben Castiglione hopes to only continue his time as a corpsman; however, his life’s plan will likely take him out of the military and allow him to use his knowledge and experience in the civilian world.

“If an opportunity presents itself for me to advance my medical knowledge while being able to be with the Marines, I’ll take it,” he said. “My long-term goal is to eventually get out of the military and take what I have experienced and learned, and become a physician’s assistant.”

Contact Daily Press & Argus copy editor Christopher Nagy at (517) 552-2826 or at cnagy@gannett.com.
Additional Facts
ABOUT BENJAMIN CASTIGLIONE

* Age: 20

* Residence: A 2006 Howell High School graduate, Castiglione is currently stationed with 2nd Armored Reconnaissance at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

* Family: Father, Joel Castiglione; stepmother, Gloria Castiglione; mother, Carrie Castiglione grandparents, James and Frances Petre

* Career: Castiglione is a hospitalman with the U.S Navy.

* Hobbies: Basketball, paintball, spending time with his friends in the U.S. Marine Corps

* Awards: He received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal on Oct. 8 for actions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Just a all around good time.. You can view the show below or Download it..

Da-Chief discuses all news of the week, plus a interview with HM1(FMF) Sean Ramey USN(RET) who was actually on a plane during the interview heading back to Afghanistan.
Listen in Sunday Mornings!

All Story Links can be found here: http://www.delicious.com/corpsman_com

Hope to see/hear from ya’all..

D/C

From “AP”.
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an interview broadcast Friday that he’s “extremely concerned” about indications the Taliban is moving ever closer to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad.

Pakistani Taliban militants Friday withdrew from Buner, a rural area about 60 miles from the capital, after taking control earlier in the week.

“We’re certainly moving closer to the tipping point” where Pakistan could be overtaken by Islamic extremists, Adm. Mike Mullen said in the interview.

Speaking from Afghanistan, he said he believes “events continue to move in the wrong direction” in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Mullen also said he hopes that the arrival soon of an additional 17,000 American combat troops will stabilize things.

“We’re going as fast as we can go right now and we want to get it right,” he said. But Mullen also said the Afghan people “have to take over security for their nation. That’s the only way we’re going to be successful.”

Mullen said he shares the sentiments of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who told a House committee earlier this week she believes the Pakistani government is “basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists.”

“Changing paradigms and mindsets is not easy,” Clinton said at the time, “but I do believe there is an increasing awareness of not just the Pakistani government but the Pakistani people that this insurgency coming closer and closer to major cities does pose such a threat.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday noted Clinton’s remarks and said, alluding to Pakistan, “I think the news over the past several days is very disturbing. The administration is extremely concerned.”

Clinton said Thursday that the administration’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has had “painful, specific” conversations with a wide range of Pakistanis about the need to act more effectively against the insurgents.

“There is a significant opportunity here for us working in collaboration with the Pakistani government to help them get the support they need to make that mind-set change and act more vigorously against this threat,” she said, adding, “There are no promises. They have to do it.”

Mullen was interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is having trouble finding the hundreds of civilians it wants to bolster its troop buildup in Afghanistan, so military reservists might be asked to do many of the jobs.

In announcing the new strategy for the war last month, the administration said it would send several hundred civilians — such as agronomists, economists and legal experts — to work on reconstruction and development issues as part of the military’s counterinsurgency campaign.

Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that the military is trying to find ways to fill the gap. That would likely be with reservists, who often have the necessary skills because of the experience they have in their civilian lives, officials said.

“It’s just a realization that they are not going to be able to provide the ‘civilian surge’ in the near future and the need is now,” Morrell said. “We’re looking at ways to step into the breach and figure out how we can get additional personnel there to help out on the civilian side.”

The Pentagon has been asked to see if it can find 200 to 300 reservists, and officials are canvassing the force to find the needed experts — educators, engineers, lawyers and others, said Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman.

The phenomenon of looking to the military is far from new and was a sore point in Iraq after the Pentagon was asked to do tasks the State Department lacked staff to do. The military, among government departments, has long had more money to train and hire people and a greater ability to order its employees to war zones and other hardship posts.

In an attempt to address this, the State Department in 2006 created a Civilian Response Corps with the aim of building a cadre of hundreds of civilian government workers with expertise in different areas of post-conflict reconstruction.

But funding for the project, led by veteran diplomat John Herbst, was slow to come from Congress. It currently has only 35 of its planned 250 active members from various government departments.

With $75 million more just allocated to the corps, officials said Thursday they are now ramping up staffing and hope to have hired, trained and equipped at least 100 personnel by the end of the year.

In addition to the active component, the corps has a 300-strong standby unit for short-term emergency deployments that officials want to boost to 500 by the end of the year with an eventual goal of 2,000.

At the State Department on Thursday, spokesman Robert A. Wood said he could not specify how many additional civilian personnel the department is planning to send to Afghanistan. He said some Defense Department civilians may be needed to fill some of those slots, but he said he would not consider that a disappointment.

“We plan to fill all the civilian positions on schedule. We will be working closely with other government agencies, including the military, to make sure we have the right mix of both military and civilian staffing,” Wood said.

The administration over the coming months is sending about 17,000 additional combat troops and 4,000 more trainers to mentor Afghan security forces — a buildup long delayed by the war in Iraq as the Afghan campaign became more and more violent in recent years.

Officials haven’t released the number of civilians they want to bolster the new effort and have said there is no firm number yet. But two officials said the number of 500 to 600 was being considered at one point as the new war strategy was being developed in recent months.

In addition to the nation’s 1.4 million-strong active duty armed forces, there are some 850,000 “citizen soldier” reservists across the services. It was unclear whether reservists with needed skills would be activated to fill the Afghanistan positions. It is also possible that they could instead be hired as private contractors rather than going in uniform, one official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because plans are still sketchy.

“We are going to be looking beyond the government resources, we’re going to be looking to our reserve components, where we can tap individuals based on their civilian skill set,” Michele Flournoy, under secretary for defense policy, said in a speech Tuesday.

Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske will become the fourth Army Reservist to receive the Silver Star for heroism demonstrated after he and his fellow soldiers were ambushed in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province April 21, 2008.

The 28-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., native will become the fourth Army reservist to receive the prestigious award for heroism in the war on terror. Army Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of the Army Reserve, will present Ruske the Silver Star during a ceremony in Orlando, Fla.

Ruske visited Washington yesterday to meet with Stultz and other Army Reserve officials and to attend the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting taking place here. He said he doesn’t see the actions he took when his platoon was attacked by a much larger Taliban force as anything exceptional.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” he said. “I was just an ordinary guy put in an extraordinary situation. I reacted based on my upbringing, training and compassion, and thankfully, it worked out in the end.”

Ruske was assigned to Combined Joint Task Force 101, operating in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, when the incident that led to his Silver Star award took place April 21. He and his fellow soldiers from 3rd Platoon, A Company, Task Force Gladiator, were on a patrol in a remote area not accessible by vehicle when Taliban operatives attacked them with heavy grenade, machine-gun and rifle fire.

“There was no way our gun truck support could get to us, so we were kind of out here by ourselves when all Hades broke loose,” he said.

Trapped with his unit in an exposed position, Ruske returned fire so most of the platoon could move to protective cover. Ruske then moved to a rooftop and continued laying fire even after taking a bullet to the hip.

At that point, Ruske realized that two Afghan National Police officers were still pinned down in the open, taking fire from their Taliban attackers. One ran for cover, but the other officer — one Ruske had worked with at vehicle checkpoints and chatted with through an interpreter – had been shot and was trying to crawl to safety through a hail of bullets.

“Seeing that dirt kick up no more than six inches from his head, I said, ‘Man, this is jacked up,’” Ruske recalled thinking. “They are still shooting at this guy. He is still bleeding and shot. And I said, ‘We have to go get him.’”

Ruske said he didn’t take time to think about his own safety, but simply reacted to the training the Army had used to prepare him for combat.

Ruske credited his mentor during his three years of active duty, Sgt. 1st Class Glen Boucher, with instilling the discipline and skills that he drew on while under fire.

“He was fair, but if you stepped across that line, he would check you, and that was good,” Ruske said of his former squad leader, then a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle commander. “He could joke with you and mess around with you, but when it came down to work, it was time to work.”

A stickler for soldiering skills, Boucher taught Ruske tactics he said enabled him to assist the fallen Afghan police officer.

“He’s the one who taught me all the ins and outs of dismounted and mounted techniques, and actually it was the ‘Z’ pattern he taught me that I had my [squad automatic weapon] gunner do to suppress [enemy fire] and buy us a little time when they were shooting at us,” Ruske said.

Ruske ordered his SAW gunner, Spc. Walter Reed, to spray the enemy in a Z-shaped pattern, expending a whole box of 200 rounds to give Ruske and his buddy, Spc. Eric Seagraves, time to run out to retrieve the officer.

The two dodged bullets as they grabbed the Afghan police officer’s arms and dragged him toward a wall that provided protective covering.

Only when Ruske and Seagraves went to lift the man behind the wall did they realize that his leg had been shattered.

Later that day, after Ruske was taken to Bagram Air Base to receive treatment for his gunshot wound, he checked on the Afghan officer and was relieved to see that he had survived and would keep both legs.

Almost six months later, Ruske said he finds it amazing that he will receive a Silver Star for his actions. “I still don’t really believe it,” he said. Ruske deflected attention from himself, emphasizing that he acted as part of a team.

“I had help the whole time. It’s not like it was just me,” he said. “None of it would have been possible without Reed [and] with the SAW and Seagraves helping me with the guy. It was the one plan that turned out all right.”

Now back at his civilian job as a juvenile corrections officer in Denver, Ruske is awaiting his reassignment to a new Army Reserve unit because his former unit was deactivated. Once he gets his new assignment, he said, he hopes to be like the combat veterans within the Army Reserve who helped him get ready to deploy by sharing what they had learned about roadside bombs, search techniques and other combat techniques.

“I picked their brains, and they passed their experience and lessons learned to me,” Ruske said. “Now that I’m back, it’s my turn to pass on my knowledge and experience to some of the newer guys, just like the other guys did for me.”

Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske

Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske, center, and an interpreter try to calm Afghan National Police officers he helped save after they were wounded in combat in the Afghanya Valley of Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, April 21, 2008. Ruske, the interpreter and the officers were on patrol as part of Combined Joint Task Force 101 when they came under insurgent attack. Ruske will receive the Silver Star for his actions. U.S. Army photo

HM3 Strickland was Killed in Action last week in Afghanistan by a IED along with 2 Marine Corps Officers.

I have known about the loss of HM3 since last week, but we were not able to post it due to DOD not announcing it until today.  His Command in Japan had been notified as well as his family, but we don’t post until the DOD notification gives us the okay.

This truly hurts, during a week when we are pinning our new Chief Petty Officers, to have to do this as well.

Our Hearts and Prayers go out to HM3 Strickland’s Family, Friends, Shipmates.  We at Corpsman.com Salute you and will honor Eichmann’s memory.

D/C