Coast to Coast Freedom Ride for Our Troops
Mother of a Soldier
On March 1, 2004, Dan Forant, father of Spc. Daniel Forant III, will begin a 3,000 mile trip by bicycle to benefit our troops serving in Iraq. His journey will begin in Albany, New York and finish in Pasadena, California taking approximately 45 days, weather permitting. Due to a generous offer, Mr. Forant will have a laptop with video and still picture capability whereby that information is sent to New York City via satellite-broadband-uplink. America will be able to watch his daily progress by visiting his site.
Mr. Forant?s website www.supportourtroops.com was established to honor his son and his brave comrades during their deployment in Iraq. The website has grown immeasurably in this short time and has been able to reach out to many service members. Recently he teamed up with the Soldier?s Angels http://soldiersangels.homestead.com in this endeavor to reach out to our troops.
Soldier?s Angels is a website founded by Patti Patton-Bader, mother of Spc. Brandon Varn also deployed to Iraq. Staff includes Susie Feaster, Ana-Marie Smith, Robin Boerner, and Peggy Baker. The Soldier?s Angels mission is to provide aide and comfort to any of the armed forces and their families. To date they have accomplished to send over 2000 care packages to deployed soldiers, helped the wounded at three major military hospitals and aided many military families.
These two groups are?.CALLING ALL AMERICANS?
Please raise up your communities?Help us help them!
We are asking for a donation of $20 from each American family, but any amount will be appreciated. All proceeds will go to benefit our troops. You can contact either website for information on how to make a donation.
Help us show our troops that from the East Coast to the West Coast ?
America Supports You!
US seeks Turkish base access in Iraq troop rotation
Military Care Packages
US seeks Turkish base access in Iraq troop rotation
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The United States has asked Turkey to allow the U.S. military to use Incirlik Air Base in rotating thousands of troops and equipment into and out of Iraq in the biggest American force rotation since World War II, administration officials said on Friday.
"We have asked Turkey and other allies in the region to help facilitate the troop movements," said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified.
The officials told Reuters no final agreement had been reached with Ankara, which last March refused to allow U.S. forces to roll through Turkey and launch a "northern front" against Iraq when American and British troops invaded.
Since NATO ally Turkey's refusal to allow U.S. troops to land on its soil in the build-up for the March invasion, U.S. use of Incirlik has dropped sharply. For more than a decade, dozens of U.S. warplanes were based there to police a "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq declared after the 1991 Gulf War.
The "no-fly zone" disappeared with last year's Iraq invasion and U.S. and British aircraft involved in "Operation Northern Watch" were removed from Incirlik.
The United States currently has about 123,000 troops in Iraq and virtually all of them will be brought home in the rotation and replaced by a force of up to 110,000 or more.
Pentagon officials refused to comment on the Incirlik request, citing security concerns for American troops involved in the rotation between now and the end of May.
Incirlik has two long runways and dozens of hardened aircraft shelters. It could be a target for use by the U.S. military as the Pentagon studies movement of forces southward and eastward from traditional Cold War basing in Western Europe as part of a major shift of U.S. forces around the world over the next decade.
'NOT AS DELICATE'
"The matter of using Turkey now probably is not as delicate for Ankara as it was last year," said one Bush administration official.
Nearly 20 big cargo ships loaded with equipment for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division waited for weeks off the coast of Turkey last year before Ankara refused the American troops entry in March. The ships then took a time-consuming trip through the Suez Canal and were unloaded in Kuwait.
U.S. Navy ships began departing last week with equipment for the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, and the 25th Infantry Division from Hawaii. An administration official said they were headed for Kuwait.
After last year's invasion, Turkey responded to a U.S. call for allies to help provide security in Iraq by offering to send as many as 10,000 troops. That offer was later withdrawn because of opposition from Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
Turkey is wary of Kurdish control over northern Iraq because of demands from Kurds in the region to form their own state.
01/09/04 14:58 ET
Coast to Coast Freedom Ride for Our Troops
By Peggy Baker
Mother of a Soldier
On March 1, 2004, Dan Forant, father of Spc. Daniel Forant III, will begin a 3,000 mile trip by bicycle to benefit our troops serving in Iraq. His journey will begin in Albany, New York and finish in Pasadena, California taking approximately 45 days, weather permitting. Due to a generous offer, Mr. Forant will have a laptop with video and still picture capability whereby that information is sent to New York City via satellite-broadband-uplink. America will be able to watch his daily progress by visiting his site.
Mr. Forantâ??s website www.supportourtroops.com was established to honor his son and his brave comrades during their deployment in Iraq. The website has grown immeasurably in this short time and has been able to reach out to many service members. Recently he teamed up with the Soldierâ??s Angels http://soldiersangels.homestead.com in this endeavor to reach out to our troops.
Soldierâ??s Angels is a website founded by Patti Patton-Bader, mother of Spc. Brandon Varn also deployed to Iraq. Staff includes Susie Feaster, Ana-Marie Smith, Robin Boerner, and Peggy Baker. The Soldierâ??s Angels mission is to provide aide and comfort to any of the armed forces and their families. To date they have accomplished to send over 2000 care packages to deployed soldiers, helped the wounded at three major military hospitals and aided many military families.
These two groups areâ?¦.CALLING ALL AMERICANSâ?¦
Please raise up your communitiesâ?¦Help us help them!
We are asking for a donation of $20 from each American family, but any amount will be appreciated. All proceeds will go to benefit our troops. You can contact either website for information on how to make a donation.
Help us show our troops that from the East Coast to the West Coast â?¦
America Supports You!
Terror alert level will drop to yellow: "
The nation's terror alert level will be lowered one step, to yellow, on Friday, a Homeland Security official said. However, airports and airlines will keep their high alert status."
In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated PressIraq mosque blast leaves at least 2 dead: "
An explosion ripped through a busy street Friday as worshippers streamed out of a Shiite Muslim mosque after midday prayers in the central town of Baqouba, killing at least two people and wounding dozens of others, doctors and officials said."
In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated PressBush plans missions to the moon, Mars: "
President Bush is said to be on the verge of announcing plans to build a permanent science base for men on the moon that could serve as a steppingstone for sending astronauts ultimately on to Mars."
In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated PressLibya signs $170M jet bombing settlement: "
Libya signed a $170 million compensation accord Friday with families of people who died in the 1989 bombing of a French jetliner, its latest overture to the West after decades as an international pariah."
In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press
Adopt A Soldier
" If anybody is wondering: Where are the young idealists? Where are the people willing to devote themselves to causes larger than themselves? They are in uniform in Iraq, straddling the divide between insanity and order."
By DAVID BROOKS
Adopt A Soldier
