US Army Enlisted Cutoff Scores for August 2008.
July 26, 2008
Congrats on those who are being promoted.
Word 1997-2003 File is here: army-august-cutoff-scores
Word 2007 file is here: army-august-cutoff-scores
Once again Congrats!
Pvt. Andrew Jon Shields U.S. Army KIA 31 MAY 2008 in Afghanistan
June 3, 2008
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I hate days like today.
It breaks my heart every time I post one of these stories. Andrew was doing the Nations bidding helping our Armed Forces Hunt those who started this war back in 2001.
Andrew was 19 years old.
19 years ago he was a baby in his mothers arms.
At 19 years old Andrew could not buy a beer but could give his life for his greatful Country, the United States of America.
Andrew, we at corpsman.com, “the Doc’s Site” Salute you and your family and friends.
We grieve for your loss brother, As all Doc’s who are your brothers and sisters, we grieve for you.
Taps has been sounded.
Da-Chief
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Flags fly at half-staff for medic
The Oregonian
VANCOUVER — Flags in Battle Ground are flying at half-staff in honor of Pvt. Andrew Jon Shields, a U.S. Army medic killed Saturday in Afghanistan.
Shields, 19, was the 120th member of the military with ties to southwest Washington and Oregon to perish in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kuwait. He is the 13th from southwest Washington.
He was a 2007 graduate of Battle Ground High School and a former member of the Clark County Fire & Rescue cadet program. He was appointed a battalion chief shortly after joining the program his senior year.
“His leadership qualities were immediately identified and that’s why he rapidly rose to be a leader in his class,” said Battle Ground Mayor Mike Ciraulo, a division chief with Clark County Fire & Rescue. “He was morally and ethically superior in his standards and beliefs. He was well respected by his classmates and the instructional staff.”
Shields was the son of Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Shields. The younger Shields served with the 173rd Special Troops Battalion, part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Bamberg Germany, according to the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Department of Defense said he and another soldier died May 31 in Jalalabad City, in eastern Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
His family asked for privacy.
In a statement, the family said Shields joined the Army while in high school. He completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; the combat medic course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; and basic airborne training at Fort Benning, Ga.
While at Fort Benning, Shields met and became engaged to another medic, Loren Elizabeth Combs, who is serving with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
While attending Battle Ground High, Shields played football. He enjoyed his family and friends, competitive shooting, hunting and fishing.
Ciraulo said Shields visited the firefighter cadet program a month or two ago, after completing his basic training and just before deploying to Afghanistan. He shared his experience with the cadets and said he was soon heading to Afghanistan, Ciraulo said.
“He was trustworthy and could always be counted on to do the right thing,” Ciraulo said. “This is a hard one. He was a standout.”
As mayor, Ciraulo said he ordered city flags to fly at half-staff, likely until Shields’ funeral.
Shields is survived by his mother, Wendy Campbell; father and stepmother, Jon and Carol Shields; sister, Ryleigh Campbell; and other extended family members.
Following is a link to Shields’ MySpace page: www.myspace.com/CowboyUp.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Researcher Lynne Palombo contributed to this story. Holley Gilbert: holleygilbert@news.oregonian.com
A hero of heroes
May 20, 2008
A hero of heroes
Army medic saved troops’ lives during two defining battles of WWII
“Sky full of airplanes. Hear enemy guns roar. Just pulverized entire field.” — July 25, 1944
Looking back at that diary entry, Gene Kleindl admits he had no idea what he was getting into when he walked into Rockford’s Camp Grant with his older brother, Cliff, and volunteered for the military in the middle of World War II. This was in 1942, when he was 20 years old.
“Everybody wanted to be in the service at that time,” Kleindl, now 85 and living in rural Capron, said. “There was excitement about the war, a sense of not being sure what was going on.”
Kleindl’s journey as an Army medic took him from Camp Grant to training in Texas and New Jersey and eventually to Normandy, France, where he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, and then Bastogne, Belgium, for the Battle of the Bulge.
On May 26, Kleindl will serve as the honorary marshal of the Winnebago County Veterans Memorial Day parade. Kleindl has been marching in local parades since the 1950s. This year, he’ll also be representing “all the medics who served during wars,” parade Chairman Jeffrey Schroeder said.
Kleindl was in Europe for 17 months and saw 311 days of combat, by his count. He was a litter bearer with the 90th Infantry Division, nicknamed the “Tough ’Ombres,” primarily responsible for evacuating wounded soldiers and carrying them to medical stations.
Often, that included search missions under the cover of night or after fighting had ceased, looking for wounded who had been hidden by fellow soldiers making a hasty retreat. Other times, Kleindl performed routine medical checkups or dental work on soldiers if doctors were preoccupied.
In World War II, each Army company was assigned its own litter bearers, aid men, doctors, jeeps and other medical equipment. Aid men were in the thick of battles, tending to wounded soldiers immediately. The peril was so great that Kleindl often didn’t have a chance to learn an aid man’s name before someone else replaced him.
“I almost got asked to be an aid man once,” Kleindl said. “I thought that would be the end of me, but replacements came at the last minute.”
German troops generally respected the Red Cross patch that medics wore on their left sleeve and wouldn’t fire at them, Kleindl said. Some medics carried weapons, but not very often, Kleindl said.
Kleindl discovered an abandoned pistol at some point and carried it with him through the end of the war, though he never shot it. Years later, he took the gun out in his backyard for target practice, only to find it wouldn’t fire.
“I felt so brave carrying that pistol around, and it didn’t even work,” Kleindl said.
Kleindl was never gravely wounded but still had his share of close calls and saw the brutal effects of war: soldiers paralyzed by fear, unable or unwilling to move on the battlefield, and men shooting themselves in the foot to get a few days reprieve from combat.
“As a medic, all you’re trying to figure out is, ‘Is that one ours or theirs?’ and try not to get hit,” Kleindl said. “I did think sometimes, ‘Is this ever going to end? Am I ever going to get out of this place?’ ”
The memories are sharp and clear and come easily to Kleindl, at least the early years, before the “slow, hardening process of war” prompted his mind to gloss over some of the later, more horrific details. The relics of Kleindl’s service are confined mostly to his basement, which is lined wall to wall with uniforms, helmets, guns and photographs.
Kleindl collected a good portion of the souvenirs during his service, often when he searched or treated prisoners. He also kept a diary from the time he arrived in England to his discharge in fall 1945, the contents of which he transcribed and arranged in a three-ring binder, along with articles and photographs depicting other aspects of the war.
The entries chronicle everything from a day he spent playing the guitar and writing letters to his mother to the day he “kissed a nice gal on her cheek” while passing through a German village to the day in April 1945 when he saw his first concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
Included among the accounts is an October 1945 Rockford Morning Star article heralding the Kleindl brothers’ return to Rockford. Kleindl found a job at JL Clark Corp., where he worked for 35 years, and ran a small printing business out of his home. He married the friend of his high school girlfriend and together they raised four children.
In retirement, Kleindl has kept busy with gardening and reconnecting with fellow World War II veterans, including those who remain from the 90th.
“When people talk about patriotism today and dying for the flag, that’s not really it,” Kleindl said. “You’re dying for your buddies that you bonded with back in basic training. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing for them.”
Kleindl is scheduled to ride in a jeep for the parade on May 26, but if he has his way, he’ll be marching, joined by two of his grandchildren. Either way, he will be shedding light on an overlooked but crucial occupation, organizers say.
“Medics played a vital role, and the farther back you go, they played an even more vital role,” Schroeder said. “Many of them lost their lives, too. They’re very much unsung heroes.”
Kleindl doesn’t quite see it that way.
“I don’t feel qualified (to be parade marshal),” he said. “The dead people should be honored more than the living. I haven’t done anything in my opinion to be called a hero or get a special honor. I do appreciate it, though, when people seem to be interested in what I did.”
Staff writer Sarah Roberts can be reached at 815-987-1354 or smrobert@rrstar.com.
About Gene Kleindl
Age: 85
Hometown: Rockford. Moved to Capron in 1987
Education: Graduated East High School in 1942
Military service: Joined the Army in October 1942 and was discharged in 1945
Family: Wife, Joanne, four children and eight grandchildren
Hobbies: Gardening
Groups/organizations: Daniel Post 864, has marched in local Memorial Day parades since the 1950s
If you go
What: Winnebago County Veterans Memorial Day Parade and Memoriam Service.
Where: Downtown Rockford. Parade starts at Seventh Street and Third Avenue and ends at Beattie Park. The memorial service will be held on the banks of the Rock River behind the Rockford Public Library immediately after the parade ends.
When: 9 a.m. Monday, May 26
Cost: Free
Info: No rain date is scheduled. For more information, contact Jeffrey Schroeder at 815-963-6003.
IRAQ: A girl, a soldier, a dream
May 12, 2008
IRAQ: A girl, a soldier, a dream
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For months, Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon patrolled the downtrodden neighborhoods of Baqubah, where Sunni Muslim extremists had tried to create an Islamic caliphate. One day, he came upon a young girl sitting in an old, oversize wheelchair, blood crusting on the stumps where her legs had been.
Her name was Shahad Abbas Aziz, and on Friday, she sat patiently in a clinic in Baghdad’s Green Zone while doctors measured what remains of her legs. Later, they would make prosthetic limbs to replace the ones blown off seven months ago by a bomb.
As she perched on the edge of the examination table, wearing a denim jumper and lime-green earrings, Falcon stood behind her and related the extraordinary events that brought them to this point and that have changed both of their lives.
It began seven months ago, when Shahad was on her way home from school with her 10-year-old brother, Ali Abbas Aziz. A roadside bomb meant for U.S. forces exploded beneath them. “The Iraqi doctors thought that she was going to die and he was going to live, but what happened was the opposite,” said Shahad’s mother, Waheda Jabbar Mohammed.
Shahad was left with both legs amputated below the knee.
A few weeks later, Falcon was on a routine patrol when he came upon Shahad. “All I want is legs to walk to school,” she told him.
Thus began a Herculean effort to bring Shahad to Baghdad to be fitted with proper prostheses, an effort hampered by everything from military bureaucracy to dust storms but finally achieved just three weeks before Falcon was to end his Iraq tour.
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Late Friday, doctors finished work on Shahad’s new legs and she was able to briefly walk on them using a set of parallel bars. She’ll be returning Sunday for physical therapy, but “she is doing really well,” said Lt. Col. Frederick Wellman.
Falcon’s biggest fear is that the unit that replaces his won’t follow up with the family, which has five children in addition to Shahad. The father earns money by using a donkey cart to haul goods.
“I can’t order them to do what I’ve done. It has to come out their heart,” Falcon said. “They might say I don’t want to waste time here.”
For months after first meeting Shahad, Falcon would make sure to visit her family at its humble home in Baqubah. Soldiers brought them food, water, a heater in the winter, and a new wheelchair for Shahad.
Each time he visited, Falcon, 38, of New York, found that while other children clamored for soccer balls, PlayStations or money, Shahad never asked for anything except legs. But time was running out for Falcon, who arrived in Iraq early last year and whose 15-month deployment was nearing its end.
He began pushing her case up the chain of command. He went to his platoon leader, who went to the battalion commander, who went to the brigade leader. As Falcon’s departure date neared, he lost hope, until one day a man named Jerry Gardner approached him and said, “I’m here to help you.”
Gardner is a public health advisor working in Iraq on one of the U.S. State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams. He apparently provided the final push needed to get Shahad the treatment she needed.
Getting Shahad to Baghdad proved a challenge. Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, is only 50 miles north of Baghdad, but Falcon worried about roadside bombs along the road. They arranged a military helicopter flight for Shahad and her mother on Thursday to ensure they could make it to the Green Zone on Friday morning, in time for the fitting.
The work was done by Iraqi doctors and specialists in the Ministry of Defense Prosthetics Clinic, which currently is attached to the U.S.-run Ibn Sina Hospital. One of those advising the Iraqi staff was Chris Cummings, a prosthetics expert who said the method used with Shahad was as advanced as it gets and is used at VA centers. It involved using a wand to scan her limbs into a computer so that perfectly fitted, comfortable sockets could be constructed. Shahad’s upper legs fit into the plastic sockets, and limbs and feet were attached below.
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Asked what she wanted to do most once the limbs were ready, Shahad said, “I just want to walk.”
“This was what I needed,” Falcon said of his encounter with Shahad. Until then, he had wondered about his mission in Iraq. “Doing this right now, I’ll do as many tours as I need,” he said.
—Tina Susman and Said Rifai in Baghdad
Photos, from top: Limbs wait to be paired with their owners at the Ministry of Defense Prosthetics Clinic in Baghdad’s Green Zone; A doctor measures Shahad Abbas Aziz’s legs for prosthetics (Tina Susman); U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon helps Shahad take her first steps. (Airman 1st Class Andrew Davis)
Tribute video to US Army medics. IMEF CASEVAC
May 4, 2008
This is posted on the Front page as well. Video author: rayethon
Tribute video to US Army medics. IMEF CASEVAC
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