Q: Who sent our men and women onto the battlefield with inadequate equipment ?

Friday August 5, 2005
Op Ed
Loss of Marine reservists hits hard

Brown County knows what it feels like to lose one of its own in the fighting in Iraq. It has been less than two months since Lance Cpl. Mario Castillo, a 2003 graduate of Brownwood High School, was killed in an explosion.
Now, multiply that sadness we felt here 20 times.
Fourteen U.S. Marine reservists were killed Wednesday while participating in a drive to seal Iraq's border with Syria. They died when their lightly-armored amphibious vehicle was hit by a powerful roadside bomb. All the casualties were from the same Ohio-based Marine reserve unit which had lost six other members earlier in the week when its sniper squad was ambushed.
All 20 dead were members of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment based in Brook Park, described as a blue-collar town near Cleveland's regional airport.
Wednesday's attack was the single deadliest so far in a war that has killed more than 1,800 American soldiers. For some, it revived questions about the wisdom and cost of the mission. But for even the strongest supporters of Iraqi involvement, it should resurrect strong concerns that our men and women are being sent onto the battlefield with inadequate equipment.
The personnel assigned to the 3rd Battalion in Ohio are not unlike Texas Army National Guardsmen with the 3rd Battalion, 112th Armor in Brownwood; its forces come from a larger geographic area. But the concentration of fatalities in this incident is sobering. Nine of the reservists killed Wednesday were from Lima Company, a 160-member unit based in Columbus. In May, four members of that same company died in a similar attack.
Because so much of the burden in Iraq is being borne by reserve and guard units, which train and fight together, the possibility of one community suffering multiple fatalities is increased. Preventing exposure to such tragedies may be difficult to achieve, but providing the best protection for our troops should not be.
The hearts of an entire nation go out to the families and friends of the Marines from this Ohio battalion, as well as to all others close to those whose names are being added to the casualty list. May these brave soldiers rest in peace, and may the military's mission be successfully completed soon.

Brownwood Bulletin
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2005/08/05/op_ed/editorial01.txt
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We die along with these kids'

Thursday, August 04, 2005
Connie Schultz
Plain Dealer Columnist
As Jeanette Schroeder rounded the corner of her front yard with the lawn mower, she spotted two Marines standing at her brother Paul Schroeder's front door Wednesday. Immediately, she knew.
"Oh, no!" she sobbed. "Oh, no! Oh, no!"
The two men looked at her, then stepped away from the door and started walking toward her.
She froze. Her hands released the safety bar on her mower. The street went silent.
As they walked closer, she almost told them, "You've got the wrong house." But she knew.
Fourteen members of Brook Park's 25th Regiment, 3rd Battalion Marines were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
It was the same battalion that lost five Marines on Monday. It was the same battalion in which her nephew, Augie, served.
Jeanette just knew. She nodded when they asked if she knew the family next door in her Cleveland neighborhood.
"He's my brother," she said. "They probably didn't hear the doorbell."
She was sure her brother and his wife, Rosemary Palmer, were upstairs, hovering over their computer as they frantically searched the Internet for any news about the latest group of Marines who had been killed in Iraq.
Earlier that morning, Rosemary had given Jeanette a printout quoting skeletal news reports about the attack on Marines in Haditha. After reading it, Jeanette had a bad feeling. She prayed all the way to her doctor's appointment. She prayed on her drive to the grocery store, too, and all the way home.
Please, God, not Augie.Now, about 10:30 a.m., two Marines were standing in her yard, asking to speak to Augie's parents.
Aunt Nettie - that's what Augie always called her - offered to run into her house to call his parents.
"No," one of the Marines said gently. "We have to talk to them in person." Jeanette ran through Paul's back door and started to scream. "Paul! Paul! Get down here. Just get down here now!"
Paul and Rosemary saw the grim faces on the men at their door and they knew, too. They stood motionless as one of the Marines began to speak.
"We regret to inform you that Edward August Schroeder II . . ." And they knew.
Two weeks ago, Augie had called home from Iraq after spending 26 days in the field. They had not heard from him for five weeks, and their son's voice seemed to reflect a change in his convictions about this war.
"When he first arrived in Iraq in March, he was full of optimism about what his good intentions could accomplish," Paul said.
But Augie's enthusiasm eroded over time, and his father said he will never forget what his son told him.
"The closer we are to departure, the less 'worth it' this has become," Augie said. In a way, Paul was heartened by his son's words.
"When you first get there, you think everything's hunky-dory," he said. "But after four operations, the insurgents were still there. He didn't think they were having any effect. I heard him and thought, 'Well, the bloom is off the rose.' I was opposed to this war before it even started, and my son is a sharp kid." He caught himself.
"Was," he said, as he started to sob. "My son was a sharp kid. "Oh, Jesus."
Augie was 23 years old. He was six weeks from coming home.
While we don't yet have exact numbers, we now know that Ohio has lost about 80 soldiers and Marines to the Iraq war.
And there is no end in sight. That haunts Paul Schroeder.
In the first hours after he learned that his son was dead, Paul wrote a short statement.
"I hope people forgive me for what I have to say," he began. "I just don't care anymore."
He listed who he blamed for Augie's death. "I hold the Bush administration responsible, from the president through the secretaries of state and defense and all those who have had a hand in starting this war.
"I also hold every Democrat in Congress who voted to authorize this misadventure as accomplices."
His son, he wrote, "died doing his duty. So have some 1,800 other Americans.
"Augie did his duty at every turn, from being an emergency medical technician while still in high school, a lifeguard, a Boy Scout, an active church member, and, of course, as a Marine. For all this, we consider him a hero.
"To honor him, I no longer can sit still, just keeping quiet and being politically correct."
In her own way, Augie's mother also issued a statement. She made the call at 8:18 Wednesday morning, about two hours before she learned that Augie was dead.
Rosemary had sobbed the day Augie enlisted. She had begged him not to go to Iraq. On Wednesday, hers was the desperate plea of a mother trying to find out if her son was still alive.
She left this phone message for Plain Dealer reporter Brian Albrecht, who has steadfastly chronicled the war's impact here:
"This is Rosemary Palmer," she said. "I'm the mother of one of the many Marines who are deployed right now. My son is currently in Haditha and we just heard the news story this morning that 14 Marines in Haditha were killed.
"We are all obviously going nuts . . . I know you can't give out the names of people who haven't been notified, but if you have those names of the ones who have died, if you could let us know as soon as possible, I would really appreciate it - because we die along with these kids . . ."
Her voice broke. She recited her number. Then she hung up the phone.

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:
cschultz@plaind.com, 216-999-5087

source: http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/living/112314795736070.xml&coll=2
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Ceremonies officially open Congressman Conaway's district office in Brownwood
By Steve Nash -- Brownwood Bulletin
U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway's congressional office opened at the Brownwood City Hall Wednesday morning following a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by several dozen public officials and constituents.
Brownwood Mayor Bert Massey said Conaway is the first congressman to open an office in Brownwood, and described the opening of the office as "a significant event in the life of this community."
Conaway, a Republican who is in his first term as representative of the 11th District, made brief remarks after a performance by the Brownwood High School band and a flag-raising ceremony by Pecan Valley Chapter of the Marine Corps League.
Conaway said he has been surprised at how fulfilling his job is as a congressman. "I'm at the center of a storm, and it's a big storm," he said.
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After cutting the ribbon to signify the opening of the office, Conaway huddled briefly with family members of Mario Castillo, the U.S. Marine from Brownwood who was killed in Iraq in June.
Conaway said later that he thanked family members for Mario Castillo's sacrifice.
He said the U.S. military is on the right track in Iraq and said the timetable for withdrawal is "event-driven." Events that must occur, he said, are the drafting of a constitution, referendum on the constitution and national elections.
"We'll be done when we're done... right now we're staying the course," he said. "We don't want to give any hint to the Iraqi people that we are faltering in our resolve."
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2005/08/04/news/news02.txt