Iraq War News

Spc. William Sturges

7/12/2003

Support Our Troops
Iraqi Council Announcement May Come Sun.

By PAUL HAVEN
.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi political leaders and the U.S.-led provisional government are in the final stages of setting up Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein political body, a watershed on the nation's path to democracy that could be announced as soon as Sunday, according to diplomats and negotiators.

In another step forward, the U.S. military said it was turning control of a restive western city over to Iraqi police, the first time coalition forces have agreed to leave security in the hands of local law enforcement in a major population center.

Iraq's seven main groups that opposed Saddam's rule and other political leaders met Saturday in Baghdad and were hoping to hold a final organizational meeting in the capital the next day, said Adel Noory Mohammed, a leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Union. He said final details, such as how to announce the council, were still being worked out.

Many Iraqi political leaders want the council to announce itself, to give the appearance of independence from the occupying powers. Others want to hold a joint news conference with top U.S. officials to highlight cooperation.

The council will consist of 25 to 30 prominent Iraqis and will have the power to name ministers and select an independent central bank governor. It will be consulted by Iraq's American leaders on all important issues and is meant to be the forerunner of a larger constitutional assembly that will have about a year to draft a new constitution.

National elections to select a fully sovereign Iraqi government are expected to follow sometime in late 2004 or early 2005.

A Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that the timing of an announcement of the council depended on the outcome of the ongoing meetings.

``We are in the final stages of getting the Governance Council together,'' he told The Associated Press. ``It will take as long as it takes.''

Iraq's American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, had scheduled a news conference for Saturday at which he was expected to announce the makeup of the council, but the meeting was canceled and no reason was given.

The Americans promised a constitutional assembly would be set up within weeks in the aftermath of Saddam's ouster in April. But they revised their plans several times.

The governing council had at first been envisioned as a consultative panel, but Bremer later acceded to Iraqi demands for real political power.

U.S. backtracking on the issue has fueled a growing perception among Iraqis that the American mission amounts to colonization rather than liberation, and U.S. troops have become the daily targets of a growing insurgency.

``If the Americans do not get this done quickly they will lose even more legitimacy and popularity in the eyes of the Iraqi people and they will put themselves under enormous pressure,'' said Mohammed of the Kurdistan Islamic Union ``The new government, if it is a strong government, will have the respect of the Iraqi street, and people will obey it.''

The council is expected to have a Shiite majority. Sixty percent of Iraq's 24 million people are Shiite Muslims, but the country has been ruled for decades by minority Sunnis led by Saddam.

Internationally known former exiles like Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Council and former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are expected to be on the panel. Groups that remained in Iraq during Saddam's 23-year rule will have a more prominent role, the western diplomat said.

Women - who make up 55 percent of Iraq's population after decades of war - and minorities also will be represented.

In another sign of America's emerging attitude of compromise, the military said Saturday it was sharply cutting back its presence in Fallujah at the request of police and the U.S.-appointed mayor after several attacks in the town by Saddam loyalists.

Police in the city demanded Thursday that American forces withdraw from their station, saying they feared being caught in the cross hairs if insurgents attacked again. Americans went one step further, turning the entire city of 200,000 over to the Iraqi forces.

Iraqi police were widely deployed on the roads and downtown. Some of them were directing traffic while others protected government buildings.

The military said it would ``allow the Fallujah police to patrol the streets themselves instead of jointly with military police.'' It said it would keep a quick-reaction team on call in case the police needed help.

People in Fallujah said they were pleased with the American pullout.

``The American decision to withdraw is a good step and we have the capabilities to protect the city,'' policeman Walid Jasim said.

Added Hamed al-Kubeisi, a 39-year-old shop owner: ``We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.''

Despite the announcement, an AP reporter in the town saw 10 American patrols as well as six U.S. Humvees and soldiers outside the office of Mayor Taha Bedewi. Bedewi insisted, however, that the Americans were in town to discuss reconstruction and that he was being protected by Iraqi police.

In other developments:

Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is overseeing Iraq's Interior Ministry, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested five former members of Saddam's personal security forces, four of whom were cousins of the former dictator. Authorities seized pictures that showed the four cousins torturing an unidentified man, Kerik said.

Kerik also appealed Saturday to former Iraqi police officers dismissed on political grounds in the last 10 years to apply for reinstatement. He said those under 45 years of age should apply at police stations from Aug. 15 to Nov. 1.

The military reported that one soldier of the 4th Infantry Division died and a second was wounded in ``a non-hostile gunshot incident.'' No details were available.

Pruden also said U.S. military police securing a prison west of Baghdad came under attack early Saturday, but no casualties were reported.

A U.S.-appointed city council took office in Baqouba, a city northeast of Baghdad that has been the site of attacks on coalition forces.

Attackers in a passing pickup truck threw a homemade bomb at U.S. soldiers guarding a hospital in downtown Baghdad, slightly injuring one of them.

EDITOR'S NOTE: AP reporters Sameer N. Yacoub in Fallujah and Jamie Tarabay in Baghdad contributed to this report.

07/12/03 15:04 EDT

posted by Patti @ 12:21 PM |

Last of the Marines ride home

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Last of the Marines ride home

Ridolfi, leads the entourage in a limosine of 10 U.S. Marines returning from Iraq at the U.S. Naval & Marine Center, 2949 Ramada Way (photo by Tina Gohr).

Green Bay reservists are all back from Iraq
By Monique Balas
News-Chronicle
They pulled up in a white limo to a cheering crowd and swarms of media. No, it wasn't Oscar Night at the Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, but for families of the last 10 members of a Marine fuel unit to return from Iraq, it was the best type of party ever.

The rear party of Detachment, Bulk Fuel Company Bravo, 6th Engineering Support Battalion, arrived from Camp Pendleton, Calif., were greeted by a loving group of their biggest fans - their families.

"You're afraid for him constantly," said Lynn Gossen, whose son Felix Van Enkenvoort of Green Bay returned Thursday. "The mail was really slow. He still hasn't received some of the letters I wrote him," she said. Van Enkenvoort said the thing he missed most was greenery.

"It's a really brown country," he said.

Meanwhile, blond-haired Lance Cpl. Michael Volz was the star of the show as his trains of relatives surrounded him.

"I couldn't wait to come back," Volz, of Cambellsport, told reporters as he juggled his son Michael Jr. in his arms.

"We all love him and miss him and are very proud of him," said his older sister Cathy Fay, as the family waited impatiently for the Marines' arrival.

She said she was fearful of his choice to come home early so he could continue to serve in Iraq.

"I think the war's on now," Fay said. "That's why I'm glad he's out."

While they waited, Volz's sisters told stories of his bravery: How he went three days without food because he saved his MREs for starving Iraqi children, how he carried a corner of his young son's blanket with him during his days in Iraq.

The last of the company remained in Iraq after other parts of the battalion came home in early June to clean and prepare their vehicles, fuel pumps and other gear.

"They just want to make sure the gear's clean," Cook said. "Regardless of where it was, it would go through the same process."

posted by Patti @ 10:55 AM |

Halliburton Will House Up to 100,000 Soldiers in Iraq, NYT Says

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Halliburton Will House Up to 100,000 Soldiers in Iraq, NYT Says
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary has been hired by the U.S. Army to feed and house as many as 100,000 troops in Iraq, where thousands of soldiers may be stationed for years to come, the New York Times reported today, citing Gen. Tommy Franks.

The contractor could set up large tents, but an Army spokesman told the Times that the $200 million contract placed last month could include semi-permanent wooden buildings.

Franks told a House panel yesterday that about 150,000 soldiers will be needed in Iraq ``for the foreseeable future'' and that a rotation policy is being formulated by the Pentagon, the Times said. Soldiers already sent by other countries to Iraq and those due to arrive total about 30,000, the newspaper said.

Taken together, the troop-rotation policy and housing contract are signs of the Pentagon's long-term commitment to Iraq and an acknowledgment that rebuilding the country will probably take years and large numbers of U.S. forces, the Times said, not citing anyone.

posted by Patti @ 10:45 AM |

France Stinks

Support Our Troops
France and Germany unsure on Iraq troops
Brian Knowlton IHT Friday, July 11, 2003
They would seek precise UN mandates

WASHINGTON Despite Congressional pressure here for the United States to broaden the coalition of troops occupying Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assurance that he would welcome French and German troops, those two countries said Thursday they had not been contacted for such help and were unsure if they would give it.
.
France said it would require a "precise mandate" from the United Nations to send troops, and Germany took a similar position and has already turned down a Polish request to join an Iraq peacekeeping unit.
.
The suggestion of seeking greater international military support in pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, particularly from countries like France and Germany that vigorously opposed the war, is an awkward one. But members of the U.S. Congress have shown a growing willingness to raise the issue as the human and financial costs in Iraq have steadily grown. Three more American troops died Wednesday and Thursday in Iraq in the latest in what has become an unremitting series of attacks.
.
A Democratic senator said Wednesday that the U.S. deployment of more than 145,000 troops would be "difficult to sustain" without greater foreign help. Although foreign allies have promised to send 20,000 or more troops by the end of September, 12,000 of them will be replacements for soldiers already in place. France said Thursday that it would consider a U.S. troop request, if received. But in its clearest expression of the conditions it would attach before sending troops, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that a "precise mandate" from the United Nations would be required. Whether such a mandate could be found in an existing Security Council resolution remained to be seen, he told Le Figaro. In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman similarly said that any German troop deployment would have to come under a UN mandate, Agence France-Presse reported. But no U.S. request had been lodged, and Berlin therefore was not studying the matter. Germany earlier turned down a request to take part in a Polish-led stabilization force of 9,000 troops for Iraq. Villepin said that any U.S. request could "only be eventually considered in the framework of a United Nations peace force, founded on a precise Security Council mandate and benefiting, by this fact, from the support of the entire international community." He said it was unclear whether such a mandate already existed, perhaps in Security Council Resolution 1483, which ended UN sanctions on Iraq and called for the world organization to "play a vital role in humanitarian relief, the reconstruction of Iraq, and the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions for representative governance." That resolution, however, did not call for a UN peace force, Villepin noted. Further, he said, "there would be some incoherence for France to participate in a coalition force when it did not support this war." Rumsfeld drew pointed questioning Wednesday in a Senate appearance when he would not say clearly whether specific entreaties had been made to France and Germany, both of which angered Bush administration officials by their outspoken opposition to an Iraq war. "Our goal is to get a large number of international forces from a lot of countries, including those two," Rumsfeld told the Armed Services Committee. "We have made requests to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries."
.
Villepin declined to express a sense of vindication that the problems now facing the coalition in Iraq demonstrated that France was right to oppose the war. "The war happened. We rejoiced in the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. We have always been very conscious of the fact that to win the war was one thing" while "to win the peace was going to be much more difficult. Day by day, we are seeing just how difficult the situation is."
.
The U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for military operations in Iraq, does not provide breakdowns of the contributions of coalition members, leaving each country to do so, a spokesman at its headquarters in Tampa said Thursday. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "we've got 19 countries on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19" and others are in discussion. But after the leading coalition members, the United States and Britain, followed by Poland, Australia and Italy, most countries taking part have offered relatively small contingents. Ukraine has promised to send a mechanized unit of 1,800 soldiers. Macedonian and Albanian troops are in Iraq in small numbers, and Sri Lanka has said it will consider requests. Slovakia has said it will take part. Some countries are sending as few as two dozen soldiers. The Polish-led stabilization force will include troops from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. Britain will lead another international division and Pentagon officials have suggested that a third might be led by India.
.
International Herald Tribune

< < Back to Start of Article They would seek precise UN mandates

WASHINGTON Despite Congressional pressure here for the United States to broaden the coalition of troops occupying Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assurance that he would welcome French and German troops, those two countries said Thursday they had not been contacted for such help and were unsure if they would give it.
.
France said it would require a "precise mandate" from the United Nations to send troops, and Germany took a similar position and has already turned down a Polish request to join an Iraq peacekeeping unit.
.
The suggestion of seeking greater international military support in pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, particularly from countries like France and Germany that vigorously opposed the war, is an awkward one. But members of the U.S. Congress have shown a growing willingness to raise the issue as the human and financial costs in Iraq have steadily grown. Three more American troops died Wednesday and Thursday in Iraq in the latest in what has become an unremitting series of attacks.
.
A Democratic senator said Wednesday that the U.S. deployment of more than 145,000 troops would be "difficult to sustain" without greater foreign help. Although foreign allies have promised to send 20,000 or more troops by the end of September, 12,000 of them will be replacements for soldiers already in place. France said Thursday that it would consider a U.S. troop request, if received. But in its clearest expression of the conditions it would attach before sending troops, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that a "precise mandate" from the United Nations would be required. Whether such a mandate could be found in an existing Security Council resolution remained to be seen, he told Le Figaro. In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman similarly said that any German troop deployment would have to come under a UN mandate, Agence France-Presse reported. But no U.S. request had been lodged, and Berlin therefore was not studying the matter. Germany earlier turned down a request to take part in a Polish-led stabilization force of 9,000 troops for Iraq. Villepin said that any U.S. request could "only be eventually considered in the framework of a United Nations peace force, founded on a precise Security Council mandate and benefiting, by this fact, from the support of the entire international community." He said it was unclear whether such a mandate already existed, perhaps in Security Council Resolution 1483, which ended UN sanctions on Iraq and called for the world organization to "play a vital role in humanitarian relief, the reconstruction of Iraq, and the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions for representative governance." That resolution, however, did not call for a UN peace force, Villepin noted. Further, he said, "there would be some incoherence for France to participate in a coalition force when it did not support this war." Rumsfeld drew pointed questioning Wednesday in a Senate appearance when he would not say clearly whether specific entreaties had been made to France and Germany, both of which angered Bush administration officials by their outspoken opposition to an Iraq war. "Our goal is to get a large number of international forces from a lot of countries, including those two," Rumsfeld told the Armed Services Committee. "We have made requests to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries."
.
Villepin declined to express a sense of vindication that the problems now facing the coalition in Iraq demonstrated that France was right to oppose the war. "The war happened. We rejoiced in the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. We have always been very conscious of the fact that to win the war was one thing" while "to win the peace was going to be much more difficult. Day by day, we are seeing just how difficult the situation is."
.
The U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for military operations in Iraq, does not provide breakdowns of the contributions of coalition members, leaving each country to do so, a spokesman at its headquarters in Tampa said Thursday. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "we've got 19 countries on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19" and others are in discussion. But after the leading coalition members, the United States and Britain, followed by Poland, Australia and Italy, most countries taking part have offered relatively small contingents. Ukraine has promised to send a mechanized unit of 1,800 soldiers. Macedonian and Albanian troops are in Iraq in small numbers, and Sri Lanka has said it will consider requests. Slovakia has said it will take part. Some countries are sending as few as two dozen soldiers. The Polish-led stabilization force will include troops from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. Britain will lead another international division and Pentagon officials have suggested that a third might be led by India.
.
International Herald Tribune They would seek precise UN mandates

WASHINGTON Despite Congressional pressure here for the United States to broaden the coalition of troops occupying Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assurance that he would welcome French and German troops, those two countries said Thursday they had not been contacted for such help and were unsure if they would give it.
.
France said it would require a "precise mandate" from the United Nations to send troops, and Germany took a similar position and has already turned down a Polish request to join an Iraq peacekeeping unit.
.
The suggestion of seeking greater international military support in pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, particularly from countries like France and Germany that vigorously opposed the war, is an awkward one. But members of the U.S. Congress have shown a growing willingness to raise the issue as the human and financial costs in Iraq have steadily grown. Three more American troops died Wednesday and Thursday in Iraq in the latest in what has become an unremitting series of attacks.
.
A Democratic senator said Wednesday that the U.S. deployment of more than 145,000 troops would be "difficult to sustain" without greater foreign help. Although foreign allies have promised to send 20,000 or more troops by the end of September, 12,000 of them will be replacements for soldiers already in place. France said Thursday that it would consider a U.S. troop request, if received. But in its clearest expression of the conditions it would attach before sending troops, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that a "precise mandate" from the United Nations would be required. Whether such a mandate could be found in an existing Security Council resolution remained to be seen, he told Le Figaro. In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman similarly said that any German troop deployment would have to come under a UN mandate, Agence France-Presse reported. But no U.S. request had been lodged, and Berlin therefore was not studying the matter. Germany earlier turned down a request to take part in a Polish-led stabilization force of 9,000 troops for Iraq. Villepin said that any U.S. request could "only be eventually considered in the framework of a United Nations peace force, founded on a precise Security Council mandate and benefiting, by this fact, from the support of the entire international community." He said it was unclear whether such a mandate already existed, perhaps in Security Council Resolution 1483, which ended UN sanctions on Iraq and called for the world organization to "play a vital role in humanitarian relief, the reconstruction of Iraq, and the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions for representative governance." That resolution, however, did not call for a UN peace force, Villepin noted. Further, he said, "there would be some incoherence for France to participate in a coalition force when it did not support this war." Rumsfeld drew pointed questioning Wednesday in a Senate appearance when he would not say clearly whether specific entreaties had been made to France and Germany, both of which angered Bush administration officials by their outspoken opposition to an Iraq war. "Our goal is to get a large number of international forces from a lot of countries, including those two," Rumsfeld told the Armed Services Committee. "We have made requests to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries."
.
Villepin declined to express a sense of vindication that the problems now facing the coalition in Iraq demonstrated that France was right to oppose the war. "The war happened. We rejoiced in the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. We have always been very conscious of the fact that to win the war was one thing" while "to win the peace was going to be much more difficult. Day by day, we are seeing just how difficult the situation is."
.
The U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for military operations in Iraq, does not provide breakdowns of the contributions of coalition members, leaving each country to do so, a spokesman at its headquarters in Tampa said Thursday. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "we've got 19 countries on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19" and others are in discussion. But after the leading coalition members, the United States and Britain, followed by Poland, Australia and Italy, most countries taking part have offered relatively small contingents. Ukraine has promised to send a mechanized unit of 1,800 soldiers. Macedonian and Albanian troops are in Iraq in small numbers, and Sri Lanka has said it will consider requests. Slovakia has said it will take part. Some countries are sending as few as two dozen soldiers. The Polish-led stabilization force will include troops from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. Britain will lead another international division and Pentagon officials have suggested that a third might be led by India.
.
International Herald Tribune They would seek precise UN mandates

WASHINGTON Despite Congressional pressure here for the United States to broaden the coalition of troops occupying Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assurance that he would welcome French and German troops, those two countries said Thursday they had not been contacted for such help and were unsure if they would give it.
.
France said it would require a "precise mandate" from the United Nations to send troops, and Germany took a similar position and has already turned down a Polish request to join an Iraq peacekeeping unit.
.
The suggestion of seeking greater international military support in pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, particularly from countries like France and Germany that vigorously opposed the war, is an awkward one. But members of the U.S. Congress have shown a growing willingness to raise the issue as the human and financial costs in Iraq have steadily grown. Three more American troops died Wednesday and Thursday in Iraq in the latest in what has become an unremitting series of attacks.
.
A Democratic senator said Wednesday that the U.S. deployment of more than 145,000 troops would be "difficult to sustain" without greater foreign help. Although foreign allies have promised to send 20,000 or more troops by the end of September, 12,000 of them will be replacements for soldiers already in place. France said Thursday that it would consider a U.S. troop request, if received. But in its clearest expression of the conditions it would attach before sending troops, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that a "precise mandate" from the United Nations would be required. Whether such a mandate could be found in an existing Security Council resolution remained to be seen, he told Le Figaro. In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman similarly said that any German troop deployment would have to come under a UN mandate, Agence France-Presse reported. But no U.S. request had been lodged, and Berlin therefore was not studying the matter. Germany earlier turned down a request to take part in a Polish-led stabilization force of 9,000 troops for Iraq. Villepin said that any U.S. request could "only be eventually considered in the framework of a United Nations peace force, founded on a precise Security Council mandate and benefiting, by this fact, from the support of the entire international community." He said it was unclear whether such a mandate already existed, perhaps in Security Council Resolution 1483, which ended UN sanctions on Iraq and called for the world organization to "play a vital role in humanitarian relief, the reconstruction of Iraq, and the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions for representative governance." That resolution, however, did not call for a UN peace force, Villepin noted. Further, he said, "there would be some incoherence for France to participate in a coalition force when it did not support this war." Rumsfeld drew pointed questioning Wednesday in a Senate appearance when he would not say clearly whether specific entreaties had been made to France and Germany, both of which angered Bush administration officials by their outspoken opposition to an Iraq war. "Our goal is to get a large number of international forces from a lot of countries, including those two," Rumsfeld told the Armed Services Committee. "We have made requests to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries."
.
Villepin declined to express a sense of vindication that the problems now facing the coalition in Iraq demonstrated that France was right to oppose the war. "The war happened. We rejoiced in the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. We have always been very conscious of the fact that to win the war was one thing" while "to win the peace was going to be much more difficult. Day by day, we are seeing just how difficult the situation is."
.
The U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for military operations in Iraq, does not provide breakdowns of the contributions of coalition members, leaving each country to do so, a spokesman at its headquarters in Tampa said Thursday. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "we've got 19 countries on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19" and others are in discussion. But after the leading coalition members, the United States and Britain, followed by Poland, Australia and Italy, most countries taking part have offered relatively small contingents. Ukraine has promised to send a mechanized unit of 1,800 soldiers. Macedonian and Albanian troops are in Iraq in small numbers, and Sri Lanka has said it will consider requests. Slovakia has said it will take part. Some countries are sending as few as two dozen soldiers. The Polish-led stabilization force will include troops from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. Britain will lead another international division and Pentagon officials have suggested that a third might be led by India.
.
International Herald Tribune

posted by Patti @ 10:38 AM |

Marine Cpl. Joshua Sullivan

Support Our Troops
Celebration of coming home

By STEPHANIE HOOPER Telegraph Staff
hoopers@telegraph-nh.com

Staff photo by Dan Williamson
Marine Cpl. Joshua Sullivan hugs friend Katelyn Rivard during a welcome-home celebration for servicemen at Big Bear Lodge in Brookline on Friday.

BROOKLINE â€“ â€œMom, Iâ€™m alive and Iâ€™m coming home.â€?

Brookline resident Monica Lopez Bonaglia closed her eyes as she spoke the first words her son said to her over the phone at 2:30 a.m. on Motherâ€™s Day.

It had been almost two months since Lopez Bonaglia had heard from her son Andres Lopez Bonaglia, 19, a lance corporal rifleman with the 3rd Battalion Second Marines who was deployed to Iraq.

Since the war began, Lopez Bonaglia and her husband, Guido Lopez, both immigrants from Venezuela, had been glued to the television in hopes of news bits about their sonâ€™s unit, all the while praying he was OK.

Lopez Bonaglia seemed to relive the relief she felt upon hearing her sonâ€™s voice that morning.

â€œIt was the best Motherâ€™s Day gift ever,â€? Lopez Bonaglia said.

Lopez Bonaglia was just one of several Brookline moms who partied Friday night to honor the return and anticipated return of their sons who had been deployed to Iraq and other places around the world.

The celebration, at the Big Bear Lodge on Route 13, began at about 6:30 p.m. as family members and friends eagerly began filing into the upper level of the lodge with bowls of food and homemade sheet cakes decorated into American flags.

Pictures of the celebrated local military men, some home, some not yet, were prominently displayed on the wooden beams of the large room.

By 8:30 p.m., about 80 people had climbed the stairs to the top level of the lodge to welcome the boys back home and join in the festivities.

â€œIt feels great,â€? said Andres Lopez Bonaglia about his return home.

â€œIt just goes to show the amount of support that they have had for us all along.â€?

Lopez Bonaglia, who experienced heavy fighting while deployed, said because he had heard about protests at home he was unsure what kind of homecoming he would receive after returning from the war.

But since returning to Camp LeJeune in North Carolina in June, Lopez Bonaglia said he has received tremendous support.

â€œThey know that we just did our job,â€? Lopez Bonaglia said.

Local brothers Josh and James Sullivan, both deployed to Iraq as Marines, were also home for the celebration.

Josh Sullivan, 22, a corporal in the 1st Battalion Fourth Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, was the first of the brothers to be deployed in January.

James Sullivan, 20, a lance corporal in the 1st Battalion Second Marines based in Camp LeJeune, was deployed to Iraq weeks later.

Both brothers saw heavy fighting and said they lost friends and acquaintances in the war.

James, a machine gunner, talked about the rigorous training on the monthlong ocean trip prior to arriving in Kuwait and the uncertainness he felt while sitting with members of his unit on an Iraqi bridge that was being fired upon.

His unit lost 18 men, he said.

Josh, who was in infantry, talked about a fierce 93-minute battle, the sergeant he knew that had drowned while attempting to rescue downed helicopter pilots and the sweet smell of grass upon his return home.

As the men talked, many of the arriving partiers stopped to give hugs, shake hands or gently slap their backs.

All three military men said they were grateful for the support from their home community.

â€œIt shows a lot of support that they would actually do this for us,â€? said James Sullivan.

Josh and Jamesâ€™ mother, Nina Berry, along with Monica Lopez Bonaglia and several other mothers, began planning the party in March in anticipation of their sonsâ€™ safe return.

The women began meeting weekly at the Dunkinâ€™ Donuts in Hollis after being introduced to each other through the help of a postal clerk.

The meetings were a form of support, said Berry, at a time when all they could do was watch the news and hope no figures in uniform appeared at their doors.

â€œIt is like having a child in a coma because you donâ€™t know what is going to happen. It is such an unknown,â€? Berry said.

Cathy Fessender is still living in that uncertain state.

Fessender, who attended the party with her 19-year-old son, Shawn Fessender, is still waiting for her 20-year-old son, Doug Fessender, a U.S. Army specialist in the 3rd Infantry Mechanized Unit, to come home safe from Iraq.

Doug Fessender, stationed in Georgia, left for Kuwait in late November and has had several of his return dates canceled in recent months.

â€œHe is still there now and there are weird things going on,â€? Cathy Fessender said, the worry apparent in her face.

With tears in her eyes, Fessender looked around at the homecoming party and said she was hoping her son would be sent home in September.

Fessender recently got a glimpse of her son in a newspaper photo. He was moving explosives.

â€œHe looked good,â€? Cathy Fessender said.

Stephanie Hooper can be reached at 594-6413

posted by Patti @ 10:37 AM |

posted by Patti @ 7:23 AM |

posted by Patti @ 6:46 AM |

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