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President, Americans Remembered, Inc. - http://www.americansremembered.org
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Past President/Historian - Nat'l 4th Inf Div Assn - http://www.4thinfantry.org
babcock224@aol.com
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Watch Fox News - Geraldo Rivera with 4ID/TF Ironhorse
Starting with a report that he did this morning, just as I was finishing sending out the update, Geraldo Rivera will be with 4ID and TF Ironhorse from today through his report that airs on "Geraldo Live" (or some program with a similar name) on Saturday night.
Today and tonight he is with 3rd Brigade Combat Team and tomorrow through Saturday night (EST) he'll be with 1st Brigade Combat Team and 4ID HQ. Among the units he will be reporting from are 1-22 Infantry, 4-42 Artillery, 555 Engineers, and 4ID HQ (including discussions with MG Odierno).
As those of you who watch Fox News know, he gives periodic reports, both live and recorded, throughout the day and night. I can't be specific on when he will be reporting except that he does have his own hour long show on Saturday night.
Here is part of what my friend sent me in a follow-up email note today after the phone call:
On Saturday he will be with COL Hickey and 1BCT to revisit the capture of Sadam. During his Live one hour show that airs on FOX on Saturday night, he will tape it from Tikrit with support from the soldiers of 1BCT and Task Force Ironhorse. Families can expect to see FOX air short 2-3 minute shots and interviews with Geraldo and our soldiers through the next few days, culminating with his hour show that is live on Saturday night. We will tape here at 0600-0700 on Sunday morning (that's 10:00PM EST). Throughout the next few days he'll be with our great soldiers and see for himself and report to the country what a tremendous job we have done this past year. HOOAH!!!
(You can bet I'll be watching Fox News when I get home from my Florida trip. I suggest you do the same if you want to see our 4ID/TF Ironhorse soldiers in action).
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Since I'm sending this out, I will go ahead and include what I had already prepared for the Friday update....
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Soldier from Wagram stayed with Army to see action in Iraq
Associated Press
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A soldier who died last week in Iraq was an Army brat who delayed his own retirement in order to serve in the war on terrorism, relatives said.
Sgt. 1st Class Henry A. Bacon, 45, with the 4th Infantry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas, died Friday when he was hit by one vehicle while conducting repairs on another in Dujayl, Iraq, military officials said this week.
The incident is under investigation, but is believed to have been an accident.
Services were scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Sycamore Hill Church in Maxton.
Bacon was due to retire last year. But he had been stationed in Germany during the first Gulf War and was looking forward to being on the front lines during this deployment, his family said.
"He said, 'I want to go do my job just one time before I get out,'" according to his daughter, Tabitha Bonilla.
Bacon was born in Yuma, Ariz., but spent his teenage and early adult years in Wagram. He planned to retire there like his father, Robert Bacon, who moved to Wagram in 1968 after serving 20 years in the military.
"He was raised going from one Army post to another," Robert Bacon said.
"I had tried to get him to retire before anything happened in Iraq. He said, 'Dad, I went into the service to fight for my country.'"
Butch Bacon, a mechanical maintenance supervisor with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, entered the military in Nov. 3, 1982, and had been assigned to Fort Hood since Feb. 25, 2002.
Ethel Bacon said her husband called every Saturday and Sunday when he could. He had hoped to get home in time to see his 17-year-old son, Keith, graduate from high school in May.
They last spoke on Feb. 15.
"All he was talking about was, 'Baby, the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Kuwait. I'll be out of this country,'" she said.
Copyright 2004. Associated Press.
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This was sent to me by one of our readers about a month ago. It seemed like something to include now since we're picking up quite a few readers who are just starting their deployment while our 4ID families are eagerly anticipating the imminent return of their soldiers.
The 7 Emotional Cycles of Deployment
By Jennifer L. Hochlan
Despite the many who claim otherwise, the military spouse leads a different life from most. This harsh truth becomes most evident when your family prepares for a deployment. A deployment is a scary, emotional, yet liberating journey for the spouse left behind to take care of a home, finances, and a family.
There are 7 identifiable stages that the majority of military spouses go through.
Pre-Deployment: Anticipation of Loss
Your spouse is working late to ready the unit and you are left at home knowing he or she will be leaving. You are moody and depressed, and this causes friction between you and your spouse. You are a tight little ball of stress and anxiety, and hate yourself for feeling this way. You and your spouse are at each other's throats even when you know in your heart you should be cherishing each day left together.
Whether you're a man or a woman, it is PMS multiplied by a factor of deployment.
Pre-Deployment: Detachment and Withdrawal
As the final week before deployment approaches, all those feelings you have had for weeks rise to a peak. You can think of a million and one final things to do before the deployment, but can find neither time nor energy to complete even the smallest tasks.
All the arguing has taken its toll on your level of intimacy. You appear to have lost all interest in physical contact with your spouse and have more interest in actually sleeping between the sheets than anything else. You distance yourself from your spouse without consciously knowing it.
These emotional times happen. The important thing to remember is that you are human. We all want the final weeks before a deployment to be perfect, but life seems to throw us a different fate. But the closer you come to understanding each cycle and its inevitable side effects, the closer you come to changing certain aspects of your life. If there is time, take part in some of the services offered to you on base. There are always people on base who can assist you. Reach out to your unit chaplain for guidance and support.
During Deployment: Emotional Disorganization
After your spouse leaves and all the initial tears have been shed, you wake up. The house is all yours. Even if you have children, it is yours. You can stay up late, eat cookies in bed, and watch your favorite TV channels all day without a single complaint from anyone. It's almost like a vacation.
This is a fun time, a chance to do all those things you didn't have time to do before. There are no uniforms to wash, no entertaining, and no work-related phone calls in the middle of the night. Relief!
The first few weeks have flown by. All that time you thought you would be crying, you were enjoying yourself. Then you look at the unmowed lawn, the pile of clothes in the hamper, the refrigerator with only ice cream and diet cola inside, the stack of bills on the desk, the car that needs an oil change, tune-up, and car wash, etc. Then guilt sets in. Here you are having a grand time while your spouse is possibly in harm's way and you seem to have lost sight of your household responsibilities. You sit in a heap on the floor in the kitchen and sob. You suddenly feel alone.
During Deployment: Recovery and Stabilization
Your two favorite words! By this time, you have probably heard from your spouse via e-mail or telephone. The phone calls and e-mail inspire you to find strength you never knew you had. You take on all your newfound responsibilities with passion. You are now able to fix that broken dryer, you bake cookies and write letters. You make Martha Stewart look like she hasn't a clue. This time is an opportunity that is truly a gift of the military lifestyle. During this time, you will discover your independence, your abilities, and your enduring strength.
During Deployment: Anticipation of Homecoming
The few weeks before the deployment comes to an end, there is excitement, along with questions. You fear your newfound independence will vanish once your spouse steps through the front door. You wonder what changes will happen and where your marriage will fit into the equation.
You are happy your spouse will be home soon, but there is much concern about the homecoming. There may be only sporadic phone calls or e-mail, leaving you too much time to worry about the future. You begin to do things just to keep your mind occupied. You clean like mad. You organize financial papers, get the budget back into shape, get the kids ready for school, juggle doctor appointments and soccer practice.
The final days before homecoming are full of phone calls to other spouses, to the Key Volunteer, and to the party stores. Decorations and signs are made and you are giddy with excitement and anticipation.
After Deployment: Renegotiation of the Marriage Contract
After the initial joy of having your spouse home, reality sets in. Changes need to be made to the lifestyle you had just become used to, and they are not easy. You feel stifled, at first, over the loss of your independence, but the feeling will pass in time, with some adjustments. Communicate openly with your spouse about your needs and wants, and use any marital services available on base that can help you both reconnect after your time apart. In time, loving intimacy returns and you find a way to work together again as a team.
After Deployment: Reintegration and Stabilization
Breathe a sigh of relief -- stability has returned. By the time the first couple of months post-deployment have passed, you and your spouse have hammered out the details of your marriage. You are used to having him or her home and actually enjoy the fact that they still hog all the blankets in bed.
You feel relief knowing you are not solely responsible for the household chores anymore. Knowing you can fix the dryer by yourself is liberating, but not having to fix it is another story. It is on one of those days that you glance at your spouse sitting beside you on the sofa, reading the paper, and suddenly all you can remember about the deployment was being in his or her arms the day they left. It feels like it was yesterday.
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New York Post
February 24, 2004
The Best We've Got
By Ralph Peters
Over the coming weeks, a quarter of a million U.S. troops will move into or out of Iraq. The logistics of such a transfer would be formidable even under peaceful conditions in a country with Western-quality infrastructure. No other power in the world could do it in Iraq - or anywhere else.
Our military is going to execute the mission with such skill that it won't make headlines. There'll be brief reports buried in the back pages of our newspapers and a few human interest stories on TV. But the only way this massive event will get onto the front page will be if terrorists pull off a stunt during the operation.
They'll try. There are no guarantees of safety where peace is still being made. And the terrorists desperately want to be the lead story at the top of the hour again. But even if a bomb or a missile takes American lives, the real story will remain how much our military can do - and how much our troops have accomplished over the past year.
Recall how the pundits insisted that our troops were bound to fail, that Iraq was another Vietnam, a quagmire that would only worsen. Shamelessly, American ideologues who had been too good to serve in uniform themselves pretended that their only concern was the safety of our soldiers, who they wished to bring home immediately. Morale was going to break down, civilian "experts" insisted, our military would dissolve.
It wasn't just going to be Vietnam. It was going to be Oliver Stone's Vietnam.
Our soldiers' response? They broke the back of the Ba'athist insurgency. They captured Saddam. That deck of cards? Saddam and the boys were playing on credit - and G.I. Joe called 'em.
When our soldiers were attacked, they hit back with such ferocity, precision and determination that even hardline al Qaeda operatives in Iraq have admitted to the masters of terror that the U.S. Army cannot be dislodged.
But our soldiers didn't only fight. They built. The contractors with their snouts in the Iraqi trough have a mixed record, but our soldiers have been consistently effective - and economically efficient - in their own reconstruction efforts. And yes, damn it. Our soldiers did win hearts and minds. And they continue to do so.
Terrorists rushed to Iraq, dreaming of a quick triumph that would send the Great Satan fleeing back to America's shopping-mall Hell.
Well, al Qaeda's intelligence failure dwarfed any errors the CIA ever made. Far from discouraging anyone, the terrorists only stiffened the resolve of Iraq's Kurds, Shi'as and even many Sunnis not to let foreign assassins shape their future.
Operationally, the skills and fortitude of the American soldier quickly forced the terrorists to shift their efforts to targeting our allies - in an attempt to drive them from the Coalition - or to strike Iraqis committed to rebuilding and reclaiming their own country.
That hasn't worked, either. Iraq is moving forward. Our Coalition allies have shown admirable resolve - and adaptability. After a few early successes against our partners, recent terrorist attacks have failed. A sophisticated suicide bombing a few weeks ago didn't even penetrate the Polish compound it targeted, but only killed civilians.
Does anyone imagine that the terrorists are winning hearts and minds?
Iraq remains a brutally dangerous place, a country that will struggle for years with its disastrous past. Progress will be imperfect. Success will be inconsistent. Disappointments will intoxicate the media. But, when all is said and done, Iraq is now the only major country in the Middle East with hope for a better future.
Our soldiers created that hope.
Far from the crude babykiller of campus legend, the American soldier has proved that he is as humane as he is competent, as creative as he is valorous, and as optimistic as the best traditions of his - or her - country. Our troops have tracked down war criminals, turned the tables on ambushers, faced countless roadside bombs - and built schools, created jobs, picked up garbage and set an example that even those Iraqis anxious for us to leave will not forget.
The American soldier has an immeasurably greater impact than American bombs.
For the soldiers themselves - including our superb Marines - conducting this massive "relief in place" in Iraq, the on-the-ground reality will often be frustrating. Especially to the soldier heading home, the complexities of such a huge transfer of forces will have a hurry-up-and-wait side that will draw out the enlisted man's blackest reserves of humor.
But the new troops will go in, the veterans will come home, intelligence and operational techniques will be handed off, the "newbies" will master the local environment and this great campaign for freedom will continue to march.
Iraq is working. Attacks on our troops and American casualties are down. No Iraqis argue about whether the old regime should return - only about the rules for future statehood. A broken country is recovering from a generation of shock and misery. Their hopes may take a number of different directions, but the peoples of Iraq have hope.
I only wish that those Americans so anxious to use our soldiers as political pawns in election campaigns actually knew our troops. Not as an abstract concept, but as people.
The American soldier is a historical anomaly - not a grasping conqueror, but a man or woman of courage and good heart who wishes only to do what must be done, and then go home. Our troops are inspiring in ways that no campaign speech or campus rally will ever rival. They live the virtues - courage, patriotism, love of freedom, self-sacrifice, honor - of which their critics are embarrassed to speak.
They have a wicked sense of humor. They're exuberantly politically incorrect. They're part of the most thoroughly integrated, representative American institution - our military. And when the American people and our leaders stand behind them, they can do any job on earth.
Defying countless predictions of disaster, our soldiers have accomplished more in Iraq than we had any right to expect. And they did it not because of some brilliant master plan - there was none - but because they took a look at the bloody mess they inherited, rolled up their sleeves and went to work to fix it.
They're the best we've got.
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of "Beyond Baghdad."
(Hooah!!)
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59 Years Ago Today - 4ID in Germany:
26 February 1945 - D+266
Opposite CT 12 and 22 the enemy remained wholly defensive. Stray aggressive enemy patrols operated in the central and southern part of CT 8's sector.
Considerable vehicular movement to the east tended to substantiate the belief that some elements opposite the 4th Infantry Division were being relieved.
The 12th and 22nd Regiments reported that the enemy was unusually quiet along the entire sector.
Thanks to Philippe Cornil at www.revive-it.com.
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What Our Families Are Hearing From Our Soldiers in Iraq:
1) I told my son on Instant Messenger this morning that we were counting the garbage days until he is home, he said they are counting the malaria pills ( 1 per week) LOL He said he is starting to think about what it will cost for him to travel and go visit family and friends on the east coast. He is worried 30 days of leave will be unaffordable driving cross country, meals etc. I just want family members to realize that some of our young soldiers could save money while gone, but soon the extra pay will end. Also, those with families to support back in the States probably could not save at all, so any trips to visit relatives could be a financial strain. Hopefully families should keep it in mind, that much as a soldier may want to come back home, he will have to have the money to do it.
2) I just want to say that all of 4th ID 1/10 Cav are not out of Iraq. My son is still in Balad he is with E troop and I get to talk to him after he gets off work, about 10 - 10:30 pm EST. He too is getting so excited about the end almost here. But I do keep reminding him to keep focused on where he is, they all need to do so. I have things packed and ready so when I get the call we can get the car loaded with stuff and be on our way. It is so nice to be able to IM with him and he has a web cam so can see him too. Sure has been a great plus. We will continue to pray for all the
troops that are there taking over now. One of my son's best friends is in the Marines and was on the front lines, and he is back over there now doing another tour. (Editor's Note: I hesitated to use that comment about 1-10 Cav being totally out of Iraq in Wednesday's update - shows I should have followed my gut instinct and not included it. I'm not sure any one soldier knows the status of an entire unit).
3) Today I learned from my daughter-in-law that my solider, who is with the 4 Infantry Division, 4 AVN, Delta Co, stationed out of Ft Hood, began his journey to Kuwait on his way home. I am so very happy and am scared at the same time (so close to coming home yet so far....). My heart and soul ache once again -- but, I have faith that "The Good Lord above will protect my soldier along with all the other soldiers on the journey". There are no words to express what I am feeling nor what I will feel when I see him again and get to hold him (I cannot say I will ever let go). He is my pride and joy -- and has brought me nothing but pure joy from the day he was born. He has a wonderful wife and a lot of family awaiting his return as well. Thank you once again! "One proud mother of U.S.ARMY SOLIDER"
4) I feel like the other mother who wrote in to you the other day. You can always tell how your son is feeling by the sound of his voice and my son was feeling wonderful today. There was so much excitement and joy in his voice, he had finally got a date for redeployment. He said "Mom please pray for me, only 2 more patrols for me to go on but remember the war won't be over until all of us are home!"
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