I fear it is the calm before the storm...

[frogcycle]

but the casualty rate has dropped over the past two weeks. December was horrific, with a total of 116 killed in the month, nearly four per day. Dec 6th was the worst, with 12 killed; seven were killed on Christmas, and 6/day for the next three days. January, however, is running at just over 1/day. Eighteen so far, with two reported Sunday, none yet reported for Monday. Five were killed on the seventh - three were air force bomb specialists trying to defuse an IED when it went off. One was 23-year old senior airman Elizabeth Lonki, who was supposed to return home in 2 weeks; her boyfriend planned to propose when she returned.
Story

On the fifth there was only one - 47 year old Reserve Maj. Mike Mundell. He leaves a wife and four teenage children. He was also looking for IEDs. One found him.
Story

Please visit my website, click through to these and other stories. The older listings pass through to the Washington Post website, but of late I've been getting the names from the DoD releases and posting links to the hometown paper stories and photos. The Post takes a couple of weeks to get them. Somehow I want to do something to acknowledge these people and their families, and this is what I've come up with.

My site:
Fallen Heroes

Read their stories, and recommit yourself to doing whatever you can to get the rest out of there. Even this "calm before the storm" is gut-wrenching. And the storm, I fear, is going to keep me very, very busy. December is going to seem mild.

[magellan]

1. frogcycle, what a wonderful tribute to the men and women who've died in Iraq

A true labor of love. Bookmarked, thank you.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. I heard that the insurgents are pulling back to check out the newbies before

they strike out again.

[Porcupine]

3. Lets hope they "hunker in the bunker" till they come home.

I think the Iraqi resistance is laying low for a while to see what the new congress does. If they don't see a result they will resume efforts to push US troops out with full vigor.

However bad it is for our people in Iraq 20-30 Iraqis die for every US casualty. That includes children, pregnant women, babies, teens, as well as adults of both sexes and all ages. We are the initiators of this war and the moral weight falls on us for the horror.

Every death matters; every persons suffering is worthy of respect.

[frogcycle]

4. agreed

I feel for the Iraqi people as well. There are also 129 British and 123 other countries servicemen who've died.

I don't mean to minimize any human tragedies. Its just that these are our fellow citizens, not an insignificant number of whom have serious doubts about what we're doing there, but go out and do the job in hopes of making a positive contribution. Major Mundell had been wounded, was supposed to be on "light duty" but refused to take it. I expect he thought he could help protect his men with his leadership. Or just wanted to clear out more IEDs - he, too, I am sure, was aware of those Iraqi casualties. Or maybe that's not his story, but I have read many like that.

As bad as going in was, and as bad as staying there is, and as bad as escalating will be, the individuals tasked with this sorry assignment generally suck it up and do the job, and we have 3020 families with a permanent hole because of it. The bad stories get the publicity; these don't.

[livvy]

5. Very nice tribute. Thank you. I have bookmarked it as well. n/t

[Lowell]

6. Great Pages Frogcycle

I know what you mean about wanting to acknowledge these young people and their families. Each of us does it a different way. I've also published tribute pages for those fallen in my home state of Florida. Covering it on a national scale is just overwhelming. Check out my page at http://www.floridapatriotriders.org.

This madness has to end. 2006 was a terrible year for so many families. I attended 31 funerals for the fallen here in Florida last year. I don't think 2007 will be any better if * is allowed to move forward with his escalation.

[frogcycle]

11. I have a special place in my heart for the Patriot Guard Riders

This is such a measured but forceful response to the obscenity of the protesters. Of all the times and places to seek publicity at other's expense, these scum have selected the worst. Families in grief having to even be aware they are there is almost too much to bear. I don't know that I would be able to control myself.

I did not hear all the details, but there was a news item on the radio here in Illinois that the state has enacted a new law protecting all funerals and enabling police to keep people away. Its first test was last weekend in Arlington Heights at services for Pfc. William R. Newgard. The PGR were invited and in attendance:

http://www.patriotguard.org/Forums/tabid/61/postid/368522/view/topic/Default.aspx

I have not found any follow-ups news items describing what may have transpired, but evidently the new state law enables local and state police to define a wider stay-clear zone around the services and to be assertive in enforcing it.

Pfc Newgard's services were last weekend at his home town; interment will be at Arlington National, and the PGR are mobilizing for that as well.

I have great admiration for the PGR, and am saddened that there is not a more general outcry stifling these people.

[Lowell]

12. We passed a similar law here in Florida

last year. It keeps the protestors from interferring at national cemeteries and during the services. It has helped controlling the WBC and their minions here. But they still show up, especially if the fallen are to buried in their hometown and not at a national cemetery.

Last year I participated in 31 missions for our fallen soldiers here in Florida. I saw the knuckledragging neanderthals at four of those funerals. Regardless of how we feel about the war we have to honor those young people who have died serving this country. I cannot understand what motivates people like the WBC. I do know that they are all a bunch of lawyers and they fund their activities by sueing every one who looks at them crossways. They are recognized as a hate group.

Good luck in Illinois. I normally abhor any restrictions on our first amendment rights, but these thugs are not exercising that right. Hate speech and fighting words are not protected. I'd like to see them all behind bars.

[yellerpup]

7. Thanks for remembering the fallen in your touching website.

Today is another opportunity to write letters demanding the end of this stupid war based on lies. I appreciate the reminder of exactly what is at stake.

[frogcycle]

8. A day in the life...

From the Honolulu Advertiser:

"Posted on: Monday, January 15, 2007

Disarming bombs all in a day's work in Iraq

By Tom Philpott


AL FAW PALACE, BAGHDAD — His voice is as flat and unemotional as one would hope of someone trained to disarm and dispose of bombs.

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Justin Hamaker, 31, is an explosive ordnance disposal team leader with EOD Mobile Unit 8, out of U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy. He is among 20 sailors completing their fifth month of a six-month assignment in support of the Army's 79th Ordnance Battalion.

Hamaker's three-man team is on call 12 hours a day in and around Baghdad. Typically, the calls come from soldiers on foot patrol who find weapon caches or from convoys stopped near what they believe is a roadside bomb.

IEDs, improvised explosive devices, are the deadliest weapon of the Iraqi insurgency. Last month, IEDs killed 74 U.S. service members, the highest monthly toll since these makeshift bombs first began to appear in July 2003.

Just since September 2006, when Hamaker arrived in Iraq, IEDs have killed almost 200 Americans, most of them soldiers and Marines. Among IED victims over the past year were nine sailors, four of them EOD technicians.
..."
more:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/NEWS08/701150347/1018/NEWS

[truedelphi]

9. Thank you for the heartbrieaking effort that this has taken on your part

[frogcycle]

14. i appreciate that. more importantly though...

please click on a link, find one with a "tributes" page, and thank the family for their sacrifice.

[frogcycle]

10. four yesterday

[frogcycle]

13. make that six

[frogcycle]

15. I added links

to many much-more professional sites than mine at the bottom of the page. I have found links to newspaper stories for all identified so far this months, and pictures of all but one. The big sites will eventually have the same or better.

Sgt. Ian Anderson was killed Monday; his wife deployed was in the same unit. She headed home to break the news to their three-year-old daughter.

[frogcycle]

16. Boston soldier killed in Iraq

Boston soldier killed in Iraq
Immigrant joined service to support his new country

By Megan Tench, Globe Staff | January 20, 2007

Gregroy A. Wright came to Boston from Jamaica at 19, wanting to be closer to his father and to seize all the opportunities America had to offer.

After settling down on Tremont Street, making friends, and even applying for college, the young man decided that he wanted to show how grateful he was to be an American by enlisting in the National Guard for six years and later joining the Army full time.

On Sunday, Jan. 13, the combat engineer was killed in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles from Baghdad, when a bomb exploded near his vehicle during combat operations.

Assigned to the First Engineer Battalion, First Brigade, First Infantry Division in Fort Riley, Kan., Sergeant Wright, 28, leaves a 3-year-old daughter, Tiaja, his father, Conroy Wright , 51, said through tears yesterday.

"She was his heart," Wright said of his granddaughter, as he greeted relatives and friends who streamed through his door to offer their condolences.

"I keep wiping my eyes; I haven't slept," said Wright, a maintenance worker at the Boston YWCA. "My son, he walked proudly. He was so smart as a child in Jamaica. He took part in all his church services.

Full of ambition, Gregroy Wright was eager to make a positive life for himself, make a good living, and be a strong provider, his father said.

"I had such high expectations for him," Wright said. "He applied for Boston College, but then he changed his mind and said he wanted to join the Army National Guard."

Gregroy Wright signed up for six years, and he enjoyed military service so much that he joined the Army full time, said his father and friends.

"His mates, in the Army, they had a loyal soldier in Gregroy," said Doyen Dunkley, owner of a barber shop on Massachusetts Avenue and a family friend. "I was very close to Gregroy Wright. He was so laid back and easygoing. He saw how coming to America helped his father, so he decided he wanted to come here, too."

Army life became his true calling, Dunkley said.

"He was very proud to wear the uniform," he reminisced with a chuckle. "Even when he came back home from training, he didn't take it off for a couple of hours. I guess he liked the whole soldier thing. After coming here, he felt like a lot of immigrants from Jamaica do. He wanted to try and support America. He felt like he came here to get opportunities, and he knew that if he worked hard, he'll get what he wants."

Sadly, Gregroy Wright's dreams of life in America was cut short.

Last Saturday, Army officers, accompanied by a chaplain, knocked on Conroy Wright's door, and he has not stopped crying since, he said. "I've trying to hold up the best I can," the father said in a whisper.

Word of the death spread quickly.

"All kinds of people have called and come here since Sunday," he said. "My son, he got along with everybody, but I didn't know just how many people loved him until now."

A memorial service was held Thursday at Fort Riley in Gregroy Wright's honor, said a spokesman.

[frogcycle]

17. Every one is a story

[frogcycle]

18. I found photos for all but a few of the december and jan

and posted them today.

plus, of course, 20 new "Pending notification"

[frogcycle]

19. i really hoped i was wrong

this month is still below last months pace, but projects to be about 80, assuming there isn't another day like the 20th

ID's came out on some of them today; but no papers have yet published info - that'll probably be tomorrow

a 27-yr old navy petty officer killed herself in Bahrain last week.

[frogcycle]

20. the other death that same day

was also a suicide

that makes four I know of since Dec 23

[Hawkowl]

21. Thanks

A moving tribute.

[DearAbby]

22. Thank you, frogcycle n/t