Wisconsin soldier describes blast that put him on the cover of Time

The LaCrosse Tribune interviewed Master Sgt. Chet Millard about President Obama's plans to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Millard recalled missions that would last for weeks, with scant opportunities for rest.

"We were constantly being pushed, with very little down time," Millard said Tuesday from his home in Sparta.

Reporter Chris Hubbuch of the Tribune also talked to Millard about the blast the resulted in his appearance on the cover of a national news magazine. He was serving with the 951st Engineer Company with the Wisconsin National Guard, when the truck he was riding in hit a roadside bomb. A photographer from Time came to the scene, and Millard ended up on the cover.
Read the story here.

Economy hits groups helping military families

Military families in need can pick up gifts this year at a "pop up" toy store in Fayetteville, N.C., near Fort Bragg.

By Forrest MacCormack for USA TODAY

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

Groups that help military families are reporting a drop in cash donations at a time of greater need for those struggling in a down economy while one or more parents fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We're seeing an increase in requests for assistance this year over the same time last year," says Jim Knotts, chief executive of Operation Homefront, a charitable organization that helps military families. Knotts cited an 86% increase in requests for food assistance over last year. "We attribute that to the effects of the economy."

Although active-duty troops can count on a regular paycheck from Uncle Sam, many military families face the same pressures affecting other Americans during this downturn: Spouses are having difficulty finding work, and mounting debts and foreclosures are forcing them out of rental homes, says John Alexander of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

Beginning today, Operation Homefront will team up with Wal-Mart to provide "pop up" toy stores in parking lots near the six bases that have deployed the most troops. Thousands of selected parents will be able to choose holiday gifts provided by Wal-Mart.

"That's going to give my kids at least four gifts a piece, which was no way I could afford," says Nicole Gardner, 26, of Raeford, N.C., whose husband is in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. They have three children.

"I was talking about canceling Christmas or giving them one little thing apiece and that's it," Gardner says.

MILITARY FAMILIES: Help comes in creative ways

The $1.1 million holiday giving effort will provide toys to 10,000 children at temporary toy stores outside military installations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Stewart in Georgia and Camp Pendleton in California, says Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation.

Wal-Mart will also give $1,000 shopping sprees to 50 families chosen by Operation Homefront and 1,000 gift baskets to caregivers of wounded servicemembers.

Other groups that send gifts to troops or their families say the holiday season is complicated this year because they also have seen a drop in monetary contributions.

Marty Horn, founder of Any Soldier, which has sent care packages and supplies to 1.5 million deployed servicemembers since 2003, says cash donations are down 50% from last year. In 2008, they were down 70% from 2007.

Operation Gratitude, which sends about 100,000 care packages to deployed troops each year, has seen monetary donations drop about 30% compared with last year.

"This year is going to be a bit of a challenge," founder Carolyn Blashek says.

Alexander says 2008 saw a 70% jump in Marines and sailors needing financial assistance, compared with the previous year, and this year is projected to see an additional 18% increase.

Until Operation Homefront chose her family for the toy store at Fort Bragg, Nicole Farley and her Army mechanic husband were worried about providing their six children with a decent Christmas.

Farley, 28, is a full-time student and has been looking for work since 2007 without success. Everywhere she applies, she says, 10 others have applied for the same job. "We're on a very tight budget."

She plans all meals and snacks before grocery shopping, making it easier to buy only what's on her list. She and husband Jeremy have ditched their house phone, cable and nights out. She tries to get all her errands done in one trip to save gas. "And we're juggling bills just to provide a Christmas. … Now it looks like we're going to give them a decent Christmas this year."

Iwo Jima flag raiser's body 'was never sent to rest'

Ira Hayes
Flag Raising at Iwo Jima

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous war photographs ever taken — the World War II image of U.S. military personnel raising the flag over Iwo Jima.

Last month, 54 years since his death, his family learned that another image of Hayes, a face mask, had been cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary. The mask of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, Ariz., was made without the family's knowledge and ended up on display at the Gilbert Ortega Museum Gallery of Scottsdale.

"In Pima culture, when you pass on, everything you own is supposed to go with you," says Sharon Cook, a Hayes family member. "They say because of this, Ira's body was never sent to rest."

Kenneth Hayes, 78, received his brother's mask in November from the gallery. Hours later, relatives returned it to the Gila River Indian Reservation where Ira Hayes was born and died, according to Larry Cook, Hayes' grand-nephew.

The mask was broken to bits and buried near the graves of his parents, Sharon Cook says.

The discovery of the mask adds one more chapter to the odyssey of Hayes, who has been depicted in books, films (including Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers) and music.

Amid the final battles of World War II, Cpl. Ira Hamilton Hayes, four Marines and a Navy corpsman were captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal as they raised the Stars and Stripes.

The 1945 picture, which came to symbolize American courage and patriotism, transformed a troubled Indian kid into an unwilling national celebrity. Hayes was one of only 27 of the company of 250 to survive the battle on Mount Suribachi, according to historical reports.

President Harry Truman declared Hayes a hero and ordered him back to the states to join a tour raising money through the sale of war bonds.

According to S.D. Nelson, who wrote, Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story, the 23-year-old corporal considered his fallen comrades the true heroes. After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Nelson wrote, Hayes returned to his home in the poverty-stricken Gila River Indian Community, seeking solitude — and often turning to alcohol. Hayes died of exposure in 1955 at the age of 32 after getting into a drunken fight during a poker game. His body was found lying in a creek, Larry Cook said.

Gilbert Ortega Jr., the gallery president, says the history of the mask can be found in a one-page document written in 1986 by Shirley Nelson of Yuma: A Phoenix artist named Hortense Johnson went to the funeral parlor and made a cast of Hayes' face. It was her intent to make a bust of Ira.

After Johnson's death, her husband gave the mask to Nelson and her mother. "My mom and I were the only people who knew what it was, so he gave it to us," she says.

In the early 1980s, artist Robert Yellowhair expressed an interest in making a sculpture of Hayes. Nelson says she gave the mask to Yellowhair.

Yellowhair never created the sculpture and in 1995 gave the mask to Gilbert Ortega Sr., owner of Native American art and jewelry stores.

"My dad always prided himself on the mask," Ortega Jr. says. "There's no way to put a value on something like that."

Larry Cook and his great uncle, Kenneth approached Ortega Jr. about donating the mask to Ira's descendants. "I believe it still has the spirit in there, and that's what led the family here," Ortega Jr. says.

Fort Bragg wives react to Afghanistan decision

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/video?id=7148170

FORT BRAGG (WTVD) -- Military families in Fort Bragg are keeping close tabs on President Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan.

While many families will be impacted, others already have loved ones in harm's way. However, they say they think the president is making the right decision.

"Our overall goal remains the same --to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to prevent Al-Qaeda from threatening American and her allies in the future," Obama said.

Just about three-fourths of the Army 82nd Airborne Division is deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Tarita Harris, whose husband is a part of the 82nd Airborne, said she liked what her husband's commander and chief said Tuesday night.

"I like that he is able to come together, listen to the generals, listen to everyone else, concerns along with our allies, and then come to a really great end result," she said.

Harris' husband is currently deployed to Afghanistan. The president's speech has a direct impact on her husband and their family.

"I feel that it will hopefully bring him home safely, along with his other comrades that are over there," she said.

According to reports, the majority of troops in the president's plan will come from Fort Drum, New York and Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

But military sources tell ABC11 Eyewitness News that the 82nd 2nd Brigade Combat Team may also be included in those plans.

An 82nd spokesman says there are no official deployment or mobilization orders issued for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

Sources tell ABC11 those orders could come in the next several days.

In January 2007, the 2nd Brigade was the first Army unit President George W. Bush sent to Iraq to quell growing violence and insurgents there.

The Army says that surge reduced violence in Iraq by 95 percent.

Now back at Fort Bragg, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team is part of the military's Rapid Deployment Forces, able to deploy anywhere in the world in 18 hours.

Marva Moore, whose husband is deployed to Iraq, says for the first time since the war began, military families around Fort Bragg and the country finally see an end in sight.

"I like that now we know by 2011 all the troops will be out of Iraq," Moore said.