Under the proposal, which is not final unless also approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law, reimbursement would be allowed only when there has been no other reimbursement of expenses and when there is no other provision of law that provides help.

Through loyalty to the cause and persistence, Oczkewicz and his partner, Al Eckroth, have nurtured an event expected to attract 5,000 people Saturday morning. They say it's the only event of its kind in the country.

Both men are active members of the Rotary Club of Hawks Prairie, which sponsors the event, and about a dozen members contribute their time and energy.

The Wal-Mart on Galaxy Drive has been instrumental in the event's success by providing its large parking lot as the march's gathering place, Oczkewicz said.

The event has raised a total of about $100,000. The money goes to organizations that help families at Camp Murray, Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, including food banks and scholarship funds.

The platoon, working with a dog team from 67th Specialized Search Dogs Detachment, 5th Engineer Battalion, 16th Engineer Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, was able to clear approximately 130 residences and businesses in three days of operating in the area.

“Our mission today was to root out any weapons caches, find any foreign fighters and (eventually) bring some peace and normalcy to the area,” said Waits, a native of Littlerock, Ark.

The platoon’s two-fold mission also involved collecting information from residents about trouble in the neighborhood as well as general information about the local populace.

“We have been going more or less, house to house, getting a census of the community to see who lives where, what’s going on and what problems they have been having in the neighborhoods,” said Spc. Phillip Page, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 4th Sqdn., 14th Cav. Regt.

“For example, we are trying to gain information about terrorists groups in the area and how they are affecting the populace, and as a result, how the populace feels about Coalition Forces coming into this neighborhood,” explained Page, who is aided in these efforts by an interpreter.

“We want the local residents to feel comfortable enough to tell us what’s going on and to lead us in the right direction to track down these terrorists,” said Waits.

Many agricultural businesses operate within Adhamiyah, growing everything from date palm trees to garden vegetables. “Most of the residents we have spoken with are farmers,” said Page, a native of Alliance, Ohio. “They are good people who have been living in the area for quite a while and just trying to make a living for themselves,” he said.

The Soldiers also came across a kindergarten school that had recently come under fire from mortars launched by terrorists.

The terrorists were aiming at the Iraqi National Police station nearby, explained the head security guard for an Adhamiyah kindergarten school through an interpreter. “If (these patrols) happen more times, maybe the terrorists would leave,” he said.

He said he has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, has observed the area change for the worse, he said, and feels the current security operations being conducted in Adhamiyah will be good for the neighborhood.

“Even my babies, they see Americans and Iraqi (security) forces and they feel safe because they think this will give security to them,” said the father of three.

“A lot of the residents I have spoken with said as soon as we rolled in (three days ago), the terrorists, or whoever was taking over this area, rolled out. Violence has gone down and it seems pretty peaceful,” said Page.

“Our kids have only experienced war time,” said Hussein. “We hope we never see another war. We hope our kids live in peace.”

The brigade was all set to redeploy back home before it was rerouted to Baghdad for an additional four months of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Soldiers accepted their added responsibilities with pride, said Wuestner, in knowing they will bring a unique skill set and fresh approach to the new mission in a new area.

The field artillery Soldiers are taking over for an armored unit that performed a majority of its operations from tanks. The FA Soldiers primarily operate using humvees, although dismounted patrols are often their preferred course of action, which enables them to interact face-to-face with residents in the area, said Wuestner.

Following on the heels of their successes in Mosul with civil-military operations, the Soldiers will continue to rely heavily on human intelligence gathered through personal interaction with local Iraqi citizens.

Staff Sgt. Jeff Reisdorfer, section chief, Battery C, 4th Bn., 11th FA Regt., said that dismounted patrols and gathering intelligence from local residents are the keys to success.

“The people see us on a regular basis, and we are constantly stopping and talking to people and building rapport every day we come out here,” added Reisdorfer.

“We are capitalizing on successes of Operation Together Forward by denying terrorists the means to hide weapons,” added Capt. Miller of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Bn., 23rd Inf. Regt.

As well as securing the neighborhood, Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, commander, 1st Bn., 23rd Inf., Regt., took advantage of an opportunity to talk to residents about services offered in the neighborhood.

“With the Iraqi battalion we are working with, we are going to continue on the path to reduce violence and crime. One of the ways to do that is by cleaning up the neighborhood.” said Lt. Col. Smiley.

The extra funding from the Installation Management Agency will be used to:

• Repair and upgrade the Family Assistance Centers at forts Wainwright and Richardson;

• Extend the privately-owned vehicle and household goods storage contracts for deployed Soldiers;

• Provide funding for critical civilian and contractor hires to assist the installations in supporting affected family members;

• Fund Child and Youth Services activities;

• Fund the conversion of the Last Frontier Community Center at Fort Wainwright to a Community Activity Center;

• Fund repairs to the School Age Services building at Fort Wainwright; and

• Provide for civilian overtime pay for positions necessary to provide support for the Soldiers and their families.

In other efforts to help families of the 172nd, the mental health clinic at Bassett Army Community Hospital has transitioned to an open-access clinic, where the Army Surgeon General’s office has sent two child psychologists to train teachers and school counselors delivering mental-health services to school children.

Michele Barber, the Fort Richardson Family Assistance Center coordinator, said her staff has received 146 visitors and nearly 200 hundred phone calls by family members looking for support and information.

More than 650 phone calls have been received by the Fort Wainwright FAC staff, and they have assisted a little more than 100 visitors.

“Initially families needed counseling and emotional support to address coping with the news of the extension and talking to the kids,” Barber said. “As time progresses families are dealing with more pragmatic issues.

“Besides the many vacation plans that were interrupted, many Soldiers had plans to move on to their next mission. Some spouses were already in the process of PCSing to their next duty location, others are in housing that is scheduled to be remodeled so they need to move,” she explained.

“Some Soldiers had been on a tight timetable to go to a special training or position, which is being missed. Each of those issues is being worked individually. Other issues include expiring powers of attorney, huge telephone bills and needing additional child care.”

Karen Conrad, the USAG-AK FAC coordinator, said support will be tailored for differing circumstances.

“Every family has their own unique circumstances resulting from this extension,” Conrad said. “Each case will be handled professionally, carefully and as quickly as possible. We will work to appropriately address everyone’s problem, no matter how big or how small.”

Barber said there are still many things the civilian and military community can do for the affected families.

“Refer families affected by the deployment extension to the FAC,” she suggested. “The FAC was set up specifically to be a convenient place for families affected by the deployment extension to get support.

“When an issue involves multiple agencies, those who go through the FAC are escorted to each agency and provided immediate assistance,” she explained. “We also follow up on each FAC case to make sure the issues are addressed. When issues are not resolvable at the local level, we take those issues through our chain of command and the DA Tiger Team to get assistance to resolve the issue.”

The Tiger Team, a Department of the Army-led group of experts from various support channels, is taking issues that cannot be resolved locally to the level necessary to fix the problem, Barber said. One of the Tiger Team initiatives was to have AKO automatically extend all sponsored accounts of deployed 172nd Soldiers for 180 days.

She pointed to a recent Tiger Team success when a family member was initially turned down for a full refund of unused airline tickets.

The family’s tickets cost $2,400 and the airline agreed to refund only $700.

The issue went up the Tiger Team chain and a full refund followed soon after.

“That was reversed due to the influence of the DA Tiger Team,” Barber said. “They are working with the individual airlines and cruise lines to obtain full refunds for everyone whose travel plans were impacted by the deployment extension.”

Locally, Barber said people can “volunteer to do the things that we struggle to find volunteers for,” such as mowing lawns, shoveling snow, helping with household and car maintenance issues, and providing transportation for those who can’t drive.

Using March as a baseline, attacks on civilians peaked in August at 73 percent over March, then dropped to 8 percent above March levels, according to data Caldwell released.

Though the data didn’t include hard numbers, graphics plotting murders, executions and casualties from indirect fire and bombs indicated marked drops in the worst districts, including Kadhamiya on the northwest, Sadr City on the east, Karada in the center and Dora on the south. Rusafa, in central Baghdad just outside the Green Zone, was the only area that appeared to have an increase in all casualties.

Operations are either completed or started in about half of the city, with almost 49,000 buildings cleared, 75 detainees seized, and about 1,100 weapons seized, according to information distributed during a weekly news conference.

DeRoo’s friend and squad leader, Staff Sgt. Nicholas Crosby, Co. A, 2nd Bn., 3rd Inf. Regt., 3rd SBCT ‘Legionnaires’, recalled DeRoo’s affection for the Army-issued black fleece cold weather jacket and pull-over watch cap.

“I know that if it was up to him, we would all be in our black fleeces and beanies right now. He once said that was the best thing the Army ever gave him,” said Crosby.

“If he had his black fleece jacket and his black fleece cap, he was good and everyone around him was good.”

Chaplain (Capt.) Tim McCort, 2nd Bn, 3rd Inf. Rgt., closed out the memorial service eulogy with a Bible passage from the 23rd Psalm.

“The 23rd Psalm was written during a time of intense pain and crisis in David’s life, when his life and kingdom were at risk. The psalm tells us that God provides all in life that we really need,” said McCort. “The journey is over for Sgt. DeRoo but it is the beginning of his eternal rest. Even though Sgt. DeRoo has passed out of our sight, he has not passed out of the Shepard’s hands. In fact, the Shepard now carries him in his arms and close to his heart.”

According to Ferrera, the IA planned and executed the operation with support from U.S. forces. The IA found one person that was wanted in the Sayid Hamid neighborhood.

“The insurgent was recognized by an IA Soldier,” said Ferrera. “They did an excellent job preparing for and executing this mission.”

All supplies the BSB deals with, enables Coalition Soldiers to perform their duties daily. One supply that the BSB always tries to have more of is water.

“What we do have on hand is class I water,” said Brown. “That is one supply class we never try to be short of for the troops; so they can survive in this heat.”

In order for a unit to request supplies they have to be enrolled in the Department of Defense Activity Address Code, without it they cannot get any supplies from the BSB warehouse. Once a DODAAC is established, the unit Supply Sgt. will go to the BSB and hand in a request form for what the unit needs.

“We use the Standard Army Retail Supply System for units to order supplies,” said Brown. “The Supply Sgt. will hand in a request form depending on the class; if we have the part, we will give it to them right away; if not, we process the order. Some parts such as from having to obtain the parts form United States.

The BSB has one Sgt. working with the Iraqi Army, trying to establish their own supply unit so their units they can supply their own Soldiers.

The daily inventory at the BSB runs about four million dollars. They are also responsible for retrograde, redistribution of serviceable and non-serviceable supply. They are responsible to keep track of files, and records of everything on their main computer system.

According to Garcia, after deploying to Iraq last July, Co. B was able to bring the overall operational rate of brigade assigned equipment from 64 percent to a current operational rate of 92 percent.

“This reflects on the hard work and dedication of the Soldiers that work here,” said Garcia who is a resident of Chicago, Ill. “What’s more amazing is that the unit is currently at 45 percent strength.”

Having an under-manned unit does not seem to deter Garcia and his crew. In addition to working six and one-half days a week, they also perform guard duty at FOB Marez’s front gate, instruct Iraqi Soldiers on vehicle maintenance, and will go as far as Fort Tal Afar to retrieve broken-down military vehicles.

“One of the biggest obstacles is going out to do recovery of vehicles and other equipment because it takes at least four or five Soldiers from the motor pool,” said Garcia.

A note of importance that helps the 296th run like a well oiled motor pool is the fact that Garcia and four non-commissioned officers and six lower enlisted Soldiers have been deployed to FOB Marez before.

“They lived together and died together,” Cieply said.

Cross and Dolan were the first Stryker troops from Fort Lewis to be killed in Baghdad. About 1,400 Fort Lewis soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are part of a beefed-up U.S. and Iraqi force that’s trying to put down sectarian fighting and violent crime in the capital.

The explosion that struck a 21-ton armored Stryker on Aug. 27 instantly killed Cross and wounded Dolan, who died hours later at a Baghdad military hospital, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

The attack wounded seven soldiers, the newspaper reported. It included two roadside bombs, gunfire and a mortar attack.

The brigade has lost four soldiers since returning to Iraq in July. Sgt. Gabriel G. DeRoo, 25, was killed Aug. 20 by gunfire in Mosul, the northern city where the brigade is headquartered.

"Hello. How are you today? Pardon the intrusion into your homes and neighborhoods this morning," said Lieutenant Colonel John Norris.

On this day, the commander of the Stryker Brigade's 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel John Norris, tries to assure nervous Sunni residents in Adamiyah that help is on the way.

"We are working in cooperation with the Iraqi army, the Iraqi national police, the Iraqi police, trying to clear it of the sectarian violence and make your neighborhood safe for you and your family," he said.

"[Saeedi] is the direct supervisor of the criminal Haitham al-Badri, who planned and executed the bombing of the Askariya Shrine in Samarra," Mr. Rubaie said.

Saeedi – also known as Abu Humam and Abu Rana – was reportedly captured as he hid in a residential building southwest of Baqouba.

The Iraqi national security advisor said that Saeedi carried out the policy of the al-Qaida in Iraq organization to ignite sectarian riots. According to Rubaie, Saeedi is also accused of supervising the creation of death squads and ordering assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and attacks on Iraqi Police and Army checkpoints.

Rubaie said Saeedi’s arrest has left al-Qaida in Iraq suffering a "serious leadership crisis."

On the same day Saeedi’s capture was announced, Iraqi and Coalition leaders in Adhamiyah, an area of northeastern Baghdad, told reporters they are now focusing on phase two of operations in that neighborhood.

Taming Adhamiyah was part of Operation Together Forward, also known as Amaliya Ma’an ila Al-Amam. With the area secure, leaders are now focusing on restoring civil services – electricity, water, sewer and fuel – to the neighborhood.

“The first part of the operation is not successful unless the second part is successful,” said Maj. Gen. Mahmood Ayoub Bashar, 9th Iraqi Army Division commander.

His unit’s soldiers, along with the Iraqi Police, 6th Iraqi Army Division Soldiers and U.S. Soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, moved together to secure the area.

The combined troops were successful, according to Col. Michael Shields, 172nd SBCT commander.

Iraqi troops cleared 23 mosques, combined troops found four caches, and most significantly, they found a factory where improvised explosive devices were made, said Shields.

He was not self-congratulatory, however.

“I do gauge success in the security of Adhamiyah, and the relationship between the people of Adhamiyah and Iraqi and Coalition forces,” Shields said.

According to Brig. Gen. Emad Ismail Ali, Adhamiyah Police chief, the troops are gaining local citizens’ respect.

“We met a lot of people on the ground, and the people are pleased,” he said.

His Police officers worked with Military Police of Iraqi and Coalition forces.

“We are starting to see people stand up to the militias,” said Shields.

The colonel said Iraqi citizens there are turning more and more to Iraqi forces rather than the militias.

The 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division commander saw this as an important aspect of Operation Together Forward.

“Our goal was to regain the trust of the people and to overcome terrorists,” said Brig. Gen. Jabar Mujhed Msad.

With that goal seemingly achieved, the commanders agreed the second phase – restoring civil services – must now find success.

“Our number one concern has been security, but right behind that it is electricity, also water, sewer and fuel availability,” said Shields.

The colonel said 1,700 humanitarian assistance meals were distributed, as well as about 50 power generators.

“None of us in this room would want to live without electricity,” added Bashar. However, he said Adhamiyah citizens went 45 days without it.

Shields praised the citizens for what they endured.

“I commend the Iraqis for their patience,” he said. “Patience in supporting security searches, patience with traffic, [and] patience with lack of services.”

With Coalition and Iraqi support, Adhamiyah is on the road to recovery.

“People are shopping, small businesses are opening back up, but there is a lot of work to do,” said Shields.

For these commanders, complete recovery means a secure Iraq with the necessities of modern life.

The results were mutually beneficial as students and News-Miner journalists were introduced to military issues and learned the obstacles they might face in trying to cover a combat theater. Likewise, soldiers learned some do’s and don’ts.

Then comes the second person.

Reporter Margaret Friedenauer saw the story potential in embedding with local troops overseas to tell their stories for the people back home. She made her pitch as the 172nd was deployed and talked her bosses into the idea of spending the holidays in Mosul with the soldiers.

Her six weeks there in December 2005 and January 2006 were successful. Our community and readers, by and large, praised her stories and photos. The Web site drew so much traffic that computer techs here had to quickly put the site on a server of its own because the traffic was slowing down the company’s entire network.