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FROM THE EDITOR:

Be On Guard For Phony Vets and Fake War Heroes

By Ed Offley

"It's a lovely parade, isn't it?" said the Navy chief petty officer standing next to me in the crowd as the Memorial Day procession went by.

I turned and glanced at his trim khaki uniform, then stared closely at his five rows of ribbons.

"You @#$% fake," I snarled, turning away.

I don't usually curse at military people at public events honoring the men and women who served their nation in times of war. For this bozo, I made an exception.

It was the two Navy Crosses (actually a Navy Cross ribbon with a gold star pin denoting a second award) that he was wearing two rows above the Vietnam Service Medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal that spiked my blood pressure.

By chance, two days earlier I had been studying the file of a local decorated Navy SEAL veteran who had emerged from seclusion after years of suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome and other employment disabilities as a result of the brutal combat he had experienced in Vietnam. The self-proclaimed tripwire vet had been "adopted" by a local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, whose members provided the vet with financial and moral assistance and even flew him at the group's expense from the west coast to Washington, D.C., to view the Vietnam Memorial for the first time.

But after a while, two fellow Vietnam veterans became suspicious when his stories began failing to add up, and they made a close examination of his SEAL badge and the eight rows of ribbons (yes, eight rows!) he proudly wore on his tattered camouflage jacket.

You see, the "tripwire vet" had also claimed two Navy Crosses for valor in Vietnam.

This is what I had learned during my research on the tripwire vet two days earlier: No Navy man ever twice received the Department of the Navy's second-highest award for valor in that war. Only one brave Marine - then-Lt. Col. Martin L. Brandtner - won the Navy Cross in two separate combat actions in Vietnam.

That one simple historical fact, retrievable within seconds from an internet website listing all members of the Legion of Valor - recipients of the Medal of Honor, Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Cross and Navy Cross - enabled me to unmask two phony war heroes within 48 hours.

I thought of those two phony vets this week while reading an article in The New York Times revealing how the Fox News Channel was apparently duped by a phony war veteran. According to the article, Fox executives hired retired Army Lt. Col. Joseph A. Cafasso, purportedly a veteran of the Special Forces and participant in many top secret commando missions, to help guide them in their news coverage of the war against terrorism. Then on March 10, he abruptly resigned after Fox officials reportedly discovered his military background was a lie.

"People at Fox News had taken his credentials at face value," the Times article noted. "So had the presidential campaign of Patrick J. Buchanan, for which he was an organizer; WABC radio in New York; and several representatives, military officials and activists to whom he had sold himself for years. But records indicate that his total military experience was 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in May and June 1976, and his honorable discharge as a private, first class."

It is a sad, but inevitable fact of life that there are people who find it convenient and useful to don a uniform they never wore, adorn themselves with medals and ribbons they never earned, and spout military autobiographies that are lies. During research for my book Pen & Sword: A Journalist's Guide to Covering the Military (www.marionstreetpress.com), I talked with a number of veterans activists and POW advocates who describe the incidents of false military claims as something akin to a permanent sociological epidemic.

The types of deceit are numerous: It involves criminals who invent the psychological torments of Vietnam service to explain their failures in life. It includes ordinary people who feel driven by insecurity to invent a heroic past. It even involves people who served honorably (if not heroically) but who are driven to enhance their records. And it has even involved active-duty service personnel who do the same.

Two ongoing trends promise to ensure that this sorry phenomenon will continue: First, the war against terrorism is not going to end anytime soon, and the pressure on news media organizations to cover the conflict in the face of severe operational security will mean they will continue to rely on outside experts - "defense consultants" - who can decipher and decode arcane military subjects. The second trend is deeper and more troubling: Given the ever-widening "gap" between the military community and the wider civilian society it is sworn to defend, civilians (including civilian news executives) are less and less cognizant of military subjects and therefore are more vulnerable to victimization by self-invented commandos.

Falsely posing as a former POW or battle hero - while morally reprehensible - is not by itself illegal: Barroom bragging is still covered under the First Amendment. Or as one constitutional law expert once told me, idiocy is not unconstitutional.

(But wearing the Medal of Honor is now a federal crime that can land you a one-year prison term and/or a $100,000 fine. So too, forging government documents to support military medals or decorations, or wearing a military uniform and medals under false pretenses, is a misdemeanor that can bring a maximum six-month prison term. And, of course, using false information to secure veterans' benefits is a criminal violation.)

Mr. Cafasso (or should I say, ex-Pvt. Cafasso), was to my knowledge the first phony military hero from Operation Enduring Freedom to be unmasked. There will no doubt be others who attempt a short-cut to glory while stealing the valor of the men and women actually fighting the nation's war against terrorism.

This does not have to be inevitable, however.

There are a number of nonprofit organizations with active internet websites who are ready and willing to check out the accuracy and authenticity of a suspect veteran's military records. I encourage any company or organization encountering a person promoting himself or herself as a decorated veteran and military expert to use a healthy dose of skepticism before falling victim to a possible fraud, and take a sharp look at the medals, ribbons and credentials being waved about. (Attached is a roster of groups and their websites that can aid in research.)

It is a civic duty of all Americans - not merely news organization executives who risk professional embarrassment by hiring phonies - to be vigilant against such opportunistic liars. We owe it to our military people, and to ourselves, to root them out.

Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.

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Special Report: Defending Against Bioweapons

Hack's Target For The Week:

A Shot in Time Saves Millions

By David H. Hackworth

Although Vice President Dick Cheney recently warned Prime Minister Tony Blair to prepare Britain for possible smallpox attacks, I can't tell you for sure if Iraq's Saddam Hussein or other lowlifes have a basic load of the stuff. Or if those fanatic fruitcakes have sleepers deployed in the USA standing ready, on order, to spread that deadly plague in our subways, malls, movie theaters and other fun places.

But my military-trained mind and almost six decades of experience fighting and writing about terrorism lead me to make these assumptions:

* There could well be smallpox virus in place - packed by Muslim martyr-mules brainwashed like the 9/11 kamikazes or the Palestinian bombers - to kill still more infidels in the get-the-Christians-and-Jews crusade. Think that's impossible? If 1 percent of 1 percent of all the cocaine smuggled into the USA during the past six months were weaponized smallpox, that would be enough to wipe out millions.

* Terrorist leadership either has smallpox stock or is busily developing it along with other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and will use them just as gleefully as Saddam employed chemical weapons on the Kurds.

It's a fact that Soviet scientists produced barrels of smallpox in powder form, and folks, much as I hate to alarm you, a lot of it is AWOL, along with several of the Doctor Dooms who made it. It's also a fact that deep-pocketed haters like Osama bin Laden have long had WMD on their shopping lists, and that our new best friend Russia provided two of Dubya's evil-empire rogue states - Iraq and North Korea - with its favorite smallpox recipe in the 1990s.

True, George Bush has prudently spent millions of our bucks buying gallons of smallpox vaccine, but be warned that the Washington Beltwayites are now hotly debating when, if ever, we roll up our sleeves. It's scary that these self-appointed experts are deciding if you and I should be inoculated, and if a national vaccination program outweighs the risk of a smallpox attack, which most of these wonders in their infinite wisdom consider low. In the months ahead, these pass-the-buck pols and civil servants are planning public meetings to see how the average Joe and Jane feel about it all - if they can break away from their discussion groups long enough to follow through.

These are the same Big Brother types who couldn't get it right over a few cases of anthrax last September; pieces of work who initially said the poor soul in Florida who was the first to die from anthrax got it from drinking stream water. Bet on it - health honcho Tommy Thompson and his whiz kids will screw up a vaccination program faster than you bought Cipro.

There are countless layers of government functionaries committed to allowing little, if anything, to be done fast and efficiently. If a kid were drowning in a neighbor's swimming pool, you and I would leap the fence, outrun the dog and dive in - while our government reps would still be debating a procedural vote.

No way should we allow these bureaucrats to be responsible for our families' health, especially when the worst-case scenario envisions millions dying before the rapid-spreading epidemic can be brought under control.

What we should do:

* Vaccinate first-responders - medics, firemen, police, warriors -- ASAP.

* Store vaccine in our family doctors' offices immediately. The 300 million smallpox immunizations should be available locally - it's flat nuts for us all to rely on assurances that the red-tape-wrapped Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is capable of getting the vaccine to outbreaks at five or 5,000 places across the nation in time for effective administering.

The CDC should also be ready to announce timely warnings of smallpox so nonimmune citizens can hole up, reducing their exposure. Because when our docs have the vaccine, it should be up to each of us to weigh the health risks of being inoculated - not some Washington types whose track records concerning terrorism at airports, controlling our borders or handling aliens and anthrax since 9/11 have been so bad that a good Army top kick would have inflicted maximum pain on most of these losers.

OK. Enough said. Go back to the Robert Blake show.

http://www.hackworth.com is the address of David Hackworth's home page, and he can be reached at teagles@hackworth.com. Send mail to P.O. Box 11179, Greenwich, CT 06831.

© 2002 David H. Hackworth

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Special Report: Defending Against Bioweapons

ARTICLE 01

Iraq's Clumsy Sleight of Hand to Cloak WMD Threat

By Patrick Hayes

It may not be long before U.S. ground forces and air cover will be entering the next phase in the war against terrorism - Iraq. As Col. David Hackworth has already warned, the Washington bureaucrats must ensure that our troops on the ground are protected from a myriad of bioterrorism threats they will likely face there.

However, bioterrorism or not, we can't take our eyes off the ball - not for a second. Too many people, even self-appointed Washington insiders, seem to be fooled by Saddam Hussein's clumsy sleight of hand, which is geared to keeping us focused on the action elsewhere while he continues to build Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that could ultimately be used by his own troops, by al Qaeda terrorists or by any of the other Muslim extremist organizations we face in the war on terror.

You don't have to work in the high-security, sterile environment of the Central Intelligence Agency to get a grip on what is happening in the geopolitical chess game now facing the United States. It is evident that what we are seeing on center stage, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is, in effect, being manipulated by Iraq in a clumsy attempt to draw attention and possibly resources away from the real and potentially more dangerous problem of Saddam Hussein and his WMD program.

Dissecting the current war on terrorism into "regional conflicts" or "low-intensity warfare" may seem to be a cumbersome, almost laughable and amateurish means of trying to control public opinion (see, "We Must See Through Anti-Israel Disinformation Campaign," DefenseWatch, Apr. 24). While the eyes of the world are watching in self-righteous horror as Israel tries to protect itself from deadly, suicidal terrorists, the potentially more deadly terrorist, Saddam Hussein, is preparing for something more insidious - something more global.

Unfortunately, Saddam's ploy seems to resonate among a number of commentators and politicians, particularly in Western Europe, who are more interested in flaying Israel politically than recognizing and taking steps to counter the growing Iraqi WMD threat.

Recent news reports have made it clear than Saddam is paying the families of suicide bombers and the price has gone up - from $10,000 to $14,000, to $25,000 - a pre-ordained death insurance policy and financial bonanza for the Muslim family of the terrorist in question. All these Muslim families are required to do is to relinquish their brainwashed offspring, send him or her off to meet the 70 or so virgins in Paradise, and the family will be set for life.

According to one Associated Press report, the Iraqi state-run media reported recently that in a meeting with his high-ranking military officers and engineers, Saddam said suicide attacks were a "legitimate means used by a people whose land is being occupied." No surprise there. In the same speech, Saddam urged his former enemy, Iran, to follow his lead and cut off oil exports for one month as a show of support for the Palestinians. No great surprise there either.

In a classic case of reverse propaganda reminiscent of the raving madman he appears to be, Saddam also urged Arab governments not to yield to "U.S.-Zionist blackmail in which America and Zionism are using Hitler's deeds against the Jews in addition to the Sept. 11 attacks in order to subdue the world."

On the other hand, while paying the families of the homicidal maniacs, Saddam's engineers and scientists are hard at work. The threats are real. In addition to anthrax, other WMDs Saddam may be capable of producing include botulism, the plague, smallpox, tularemia, and a variety of viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as ebola.

In addition to funding the tactic of using homicidal bombers and gunmen to kill Israeli and Western civilians, and his building and stockpiling WMD weapons, Saddam also has a few other tricks up his sleeve.

In addition to another fairly large ground offensive, one of the strategies being considered by the inspired policy-makers in Washington is the covert war of using Special Forces troops to train and lead insurgency forces against Saddam's regime from the Kurds in the north and the Shi'ites in the south. However, even there, the Grand Master has a card or two left to play.

Very recently, the Associated Press reported that al Qaeda-trained terrorists, some of whom are Kurds from northern Iraq, have been targeting those Kurdish officials who would work with the West. In one recent assault on a pro-western leader, Barham Salih, five of his bodyguards were killed before the terrorists were killed or captured.

One of the groups working for Saddam has been identified as Ansar al-Islam - an al Qaeda-trained terror group.

This sudden return to the Koran and Islamic fundamentalism for Saddam is quite a feat. During Operation Desert Storm when Saddam looked for assistance to his Arab friends and neighbors (excluding Kuwait), his secular Baath Party became quite religious and he was shown bowing to Mecca to pray. At the time, not many of his neighbors were taken in by the ruse.

But now, Saddam has bought himself into the good graces of the rest of the Arab world by supporting Palestinian terrorists, particularly that part of the Arab world that is Islamic and fundamentalist, which is quite a large chunk. He has even attempted to become chums again with his former nemesis, Kuwait.

So, if anyone thinks that Saddam Hussein, al Qaeda, the PLO, the Abu Sayyaf Muslim terrorists in the Philippines, Hamas or any of the other Muslim terrorists groups are acting out in their own territory for limited goals, think again.

A master at playing both sides against the middle, Saddam has much of the world (specifically Europe) quaking with fear while he is buying support from a large portion of the predominantly Muslim Third World. Meanwhile, the Untied States and Israel have become the "evil-doers."

Saddam is working very hard to ensure there are many problems around the world with which Americans must contend, rather than think about, or target him. In the meantime, he contnues to build his WMD arsenal. The question is, will we be prepared for that in a confrontation with Iraq - either on the battlefield or on the home front?

Patrick Hayes is a contributing editor to DefenseWatch. He can be reached at gyrene@sftt.us.

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ARTICLE 02

Friendly Fire, And a Broken National Guard

By J. David Galland

An extremely troubling pattern of deadly U.S. military mistakes this spring took a turn for the worse on Apr. 18 when an F-16 fighter accidentally bombed a group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, killing four and seriously injuring another eight men.

Given that the mishap occurred in a war zone, it was not surprising that the Pentagon and Central Command - after issuing condolences to the families of those killed - immediately regurgitated the party-line excuse: We are involved in an inherently dangerous business as members of a deployed military force. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Apr. 22, said, "We all know that every conflict has its share of injuries to friendly forces, and they are truly painful when they occur."

While accurate, such ritual pronouncements evade the full and ugly truth: Nothing can excuse the fact that we are killing our own soldiers and allies. Now that the initial shock has worn off, and as American and Canadian investigators pursue the facts, it is imperative for all of us to ask why such a tragic accident could have happened.

We can start with several assumptions: Military leaders and trainers know full well that ground-based live fire exercises are inherently dangerous, especially in a region where actual combat operations are taking place. The perils are greatly compounded when there is a movement phase included in the exercise. It is also a safe assumption that the Canadian soldiers themselves knew the dangers of their training exercise and took great care to minimize risks to their soldiers as the exercise proceeded.

Then all of their cautious planning went up in smoke. Suddenly, two F-16s from the 183rd Fighter Wing of the Illinois Air National Guard came streaking in over the identified training area near Kandahar with a full load of live ordnance.

A reconstruction of the facts known to date, drawing on numerous press accounts and interviews I conducted with two soldiers who were there on the ground with the Canadian soldiers, confirms that the fatal accident could have - and should have - easily been prevented.

The pilot of the one F-16 that bombed the soldiers was flying in restricted training airspace directly over the established ground training area. A combat air controller twice instructed the pilot and his wingmate to change their flight course in order to move away from the troops on the ground. He failed to carry out that order.

Then, the pilot saw muzzle flashes on the ground from the Canadian small-arms exercise and mistakenly believed he was under attack. Ignoring the controller, the pilot still fired in what he apparently believed was self-defense. Seconds later, four young Canadian soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were killed and eight were seriously wounded when a 500-pound laser-guided bomb from the F-16 fell on their position.

At this juncture, it is unknown what path the official investigations into the accident are taking - whether the focus will remain on the one F-16 pilot and his particular conduct that night, or whether the inquest will expand into a broader probe of how the Central Command is managing its ongoing air operations in Afghanistan.

From my corner of the foxhole, the Pentagon should widen the probe even farther to investigate the background of the Illinois Air National Guard whose unit, aircraft and pilot are at the center of the tragedy.

As examined in depth by DefenseWatch and other news media organizations this spring, it is very clear by now that many National Guard units are dysfunctional, outdated, under-trained, and under-qualified to carry out their peacetime and wartime missions.

Three weeks ago, Dr. David Chu, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, was compelled to respond to Congress after questions were raised about serious allegations against several National Guard units. The allegations included drunkenness on National Guard bases, sexual harassment of female Guard members, misuse of taxpayer funds and thefts from life insurance payments. These offenses go far beyond youthful indiscretions.

The Illinois National Guard has been the focus of some of these accusations. In March 2000, a now-former Illinois National Guard official, Col. James Burgess, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for sexual misconduct after being caught in an FBI sting while trying to bribe Staff Sgt. Audrey Maher, also of the Illinois unit, to be less than forthcoming about his harassment. Burgess, who didn't know Maher was wearing an FBI listening device, also asked her to sleep with him. Seven former Illinois National Guard women are currently suing Burgess for a total of $16 million for sexual harassment.

Four years earlier, then-Illinois National Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Richard Austin was accused by the Pentagon for drunkenness in front of his soldiers and displaying "conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman" after he drove a jeep on base in a "drunken and reckless manner" with soldiers aboard.

Within days of the Apr. 18 accident, Maj. Gen. David Harris, the present head of the Illinois National Guard, joined the chorus of U.S. military officials expressing his sorrow over the bombing accident, while carefully avoiding any possible admission that poor training or leadership may have played a role leading up to the tragedy: "The men and women from the 183rd Fighter Wing are highly trained professionals, there is always some risk in the missions that military personnel perform and the weapons they operate."

I don't buy it. As in any organization, military performance is a direct result of leadership effectiveness.

It will take a comprehensive, detailed investigation to confirm whether or not there was any direct connection between leadership failures at the Illinois National Guard and the accident in Afghanistan. But any probe that from the outset ignores or downplays even the possibility of such a connection would do a grave disservice both to the slain Canadians and to the vast majority of honest, hard-working National Guard personnel who are struggling in a troubled institution.

It is with regret, admiration and sadness that we remember our fallen Canadian comrades. Pvt. Nathan Smith, Pvt. Richard Green, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer and Sgt. Marc Leger. But the only way we can truly honor them is to use this tragic accident as a springboard for a no-holds-barred investigation into the chronic shortcomings of the National Guard.

J. David Galland, Deputy Editor of DefenseWatch, is a retired veteran of over thirty years of service in military intelligence who resides in Germany. He can be reached at defensewatch02@yahoo.com.

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ARTICLE 03

The Sword of Damocles Over V Corps

By Harold Lafond

The troubling case of a U.S. Army sergeant who is the apparent victim of a reprisal from his command for reporting illegal activity continues to simmer in the Army community in Heidelberg, Germany.

As first reported by Col. David Hackworth in DefenseWatch last week ("An Army of Three," Apr. 24), Sgt. Ken Eiland has been banished from the Heidelberg Military Community, a dubious recipient of the V Corps version of the "bum's rush."

What was his offense that prompted V Corps to send him packing to another command in Darmstadt, about 35 miles down the road? Eiland objected to an act of adultery by a fellow senior noncommissioned officer involving his wife.

As Col. Hackworth revealed, Eiland was on temporary duty in Bosnia when he learned that his wife and a senior sergeant, Vernon Pollard, were having an affair. He flew home, confronted his wife, who asked and received her husband's forgiveness. After Pollard denied the affair, despite proof in the form of e-mail messages, Eiland went to his command to press charges. However, the command failed to take action, keeping Pollard in a sensitive military job, and punished Eiland instead.

This is a much more serious situation than a simple, "he said, she said" controversy involving private conduct.

When Sgt. Pollard's wife learned first-hand of her husband's affairs, his response was to physically assault her, pinning her to the floor while he deleted the incriminating emails from their computer.

Eiland also reported that he had credible evidence that Pollard was having a tryst with a married female MP named Spec. Andrea Johnson, who is currently assigned to the personal security detail of USAREUR commander Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, this hints of the implication that this scandal has widened and involves both V Corps and USAREUR headquarters. (One would think that the command would require people of high morals and impeccable character for the assignment of protecting a senior four-star officer.)

The reaction of V Corps officials to this situation has been despicable. Rather than turning the case over to the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, officials decided to keep the matter within the chain of command. The only logical reason I can see for this inaction is that it enables V Corps officials to sweep the matter under a rug, controlling the outcome and protecting the guilty.

It is equally depressing to watch what the command has done to Sgt. Eiland, a soldier who has done nothing wrong except to trust the Army system to bring justice against an adulterer.

When Eiland asked his two supervisors, a Sgt. Soto and a Lt. Pasley, why he was being transferred, they knew nothing. But Eiland finally queried the V Corps top NCO, a Sgt. Major Rosario, for personnel about his involuntary transfer, Rosario replied that because of the Pollard case some "adjustments" needed to be made.

It is impossible to conclude other than that the V Corps chain of command, which consists of a handful of Army leaders in Heidelberg, has closed ranks around Sgt. Pollard. As a former CID investigator myself, I would like to know why.

Left unexamined and uninvestigated, the Pollard case creates the impression that V Corps officials fear the exposure of something greater than revealing the misdeeds of one soldier. Could it be that the command is nervous about other incidents of skirt-chasing that may have occurred higher up? Why is it that an individual sergeant seems to hold "the Sword of Damocles" over the heads of senior officers up to and including a four-star general?

Last week, I forwarded a copy of Col. Hackworth's DefenseWatch article to Capt. Saul Gonzales - Eiland's company commander in Heidelberg - as well as to other senior leaders in V Corps. I thought it would be a good idea for the senior officers in V Corps to read that their junior soldiers are both disgusted with their leadership and laughing about them at the same time.

The only officer with the honesty to respond was Capt. Gonzalez, who wrote back expressing his frustration, indicating that he himself has been brought under pressure not to talk about the Eiland case. "Tell me about it," Gonzales wrote. "I cannot talk about it, but I am not happy about the whole thing."

Ken Eiland is no longer in Heidelberg, but the shameful situation he discovered remains untouched. The U.S. Army needs to investigate and carry out some thorough housecleaning in the V Corps staff if it wants to avoid this episode escalating into a serious morale crisis in the command.

Harold Lafond is a retired Warrant Officer and a former Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent who resides in Maastricht, The Netherlands. He can be reached at honorableveteran@yahoo.com.

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ARTICLE 04

Never Bring a Box Cutter to a Jihad!

Editor's Note: This email was sent by one of our general officers in Afghanistan to Hack. His identity is being withheld. While the news from Operation Anaconda is slightly dated, this account provides some new details of the heroism of slain Navy SEAL Neil Roberts and the American soldiers who attempted to rescue him.

From Anaconda AO:

Ground war will be run by CINC's man on the spot, the Commander of 10th Mtn Division. (The CINC isn't trying to run the war via video from Tampa - he has a hell of a lot more to run besides Afghanistan, and that is his job and his place). As any other senior officer who has grown up in a branch culture, the 2-star 10th Mtn Division commander is most comfortable with Army and will primarily rely on them to be the lion's share of the offense on the ground. That's the way they are designed and supported. I think the performance during ANACONDA was a bit of an eye opener. Intel very hard to pin down - it's not a perfect world.

Afghans often playing both sides of the fence, thus the senior leaders have to be cautious. Don't think they thought resistance would be as bad initially as they found. Al Qaeda were well-entrenched and prepared to fight. UK SAS had a significant cave fight on a small complex last fall, and it was a brutal close quarter battle.

That should have keyed us to always be thinking they will do the same anytime we find pockets of them, especially if you intend to surround them and provide no "back door" for escape (setting up ambushes to catch them just as they think they've gotten out.

ANACONDA AO almost impossible to close off (huge and rough terrain), and locals supported Al Qaeda in many ways. We nailed a lot of them, but a lot got away. We can expect more of the same in the future. Certainly not a failure, and we'll take them out 100 at a time or 2 at a time, it matters not. The end will be the same, just might take longer.

SF A Teams doing dynamite mixing in with locals and doing their thing. USAF CCT doing incredibly well calling in heavy fire and bombs from above with precision. USAF PJs have been on every hot mission supporting as combat medics.

Unfortunately, there's still some mistaken concept out there that SEALs are only comfortable in water. A target is a target, and very few are on water. SEALs learned long ago to conduct raids, ambushes, recon missions, hit buildings, bridges, and encampments anywhere they exist. Multiple units of SEALs are on the ground searching caves, conducting raids, and moving by helo and organic ground combat vehicles (yes they have some), taking the fight to the enemy.

(SEALs have had a mountain warfare capability for decades - they just don't advertise everything they can do. Conventional forces and leaders may not have gotten the word.) SEALs are raiding alongside other raiding brothers from the Army SF's top unit, UK SAS and SBS, Australian SAS, New Zealand SAS, German KSK, Dutch commandos, and Canadian JTFs - commandos and infantry.

(When the Pentagon doesn't tell you exactly who is conducting some of these raids, there's a reason. They also don't report every action that takes place). We now also need to get the USMC out there raiding also. There's plenty to go around and rotating troops will help keep them fresher.

The Marines can move fast, however, and having them offshore on the ships for now allows commanders the option to go into other countries quickly if an intelligence windfall identifies something that needs to be hit quickly, such as in Somalia or Yemen. UK 45 Commando now coming in to help out, with more rough terrain expertise.

Air war has been a beacon of technological genius. Unfortunately it can't do it alone. Combined with ground forces, it's extremely lethal. Army Apache gunship helos worked well until they got shot up badly at beginning of ANACONDA (but they delivered a hell of a fight where fast movers couldn't go), requiring re-intro of older (but also extremely lethal) USMC Cobras.

Underestimation appeared in a couple spots at beginning of ANACONDA, but US was always in the drivers seat and will remain so. All helo pilots, USA, USAF and USMC, have shown extreme courage in their operations under incredibly difficult circumstances. You have to ride these at night into a brown-out situation where they kick up dust until you can't see, on night vision goggles to understand. Throw in RPGs and machinegun fire, and most people would be shaking in their boots. These guys all eat it up.

As far as the SEAL story goes, the full truth may never actually come out. MH-47 was hit just before landing a recon team by an RPG that failed to detonate, but went through back end. {Navy SEAL Neil] Roberts was either assisting a USAF spec ops guy who fell on the rear ramp as a result of the hit, or was knocked down as he stood on the ramp.

When 2 more RPGs hit the helo, a hydraulic line was severed and the helo went critical, jinxed, and tried to bolt out of there, hydraulic spray all over, peppered by bullets as it flew away. In the confusion in the darkened rear, Roberts fell out off the ramp. He was a SAW gunner and his light machinegun fell inside the helo. He hit the ground with a pistol and 2 hand grenades.

The helo, having been shot up badly, was barely able to go 8 kilometers before being put down. They were lucky.

Roberts was noted missing enroute, but the helo was in an emergency mode, pilots fighting to keep it from crashing at any moment, and in no condition to try to double back at the moment. After landing, the recon team immediately boarded a sister helo and went back to get Roberts, inserted nearby and immediately got in a firefight.

Meanwhile, Roberts crawled from where he fell about 200 feet or yards (not certain which) to hide, activated his emergency beacon. 60 + heavily armed Al Qaeda in the area. When the rescue helo came back, a machinegun opened up on it as it came in. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Roberts totally disregarded his safety and attacked it with a handgun and his grenades. He was killed in a close quarter firefight, incredibly outnumbered and outgunned. The commandos on the ground were able to hold against heavy odds.

Another rescue force was launched and flew max speed to the area, inserting a couple hours later. Rangers, CCT, PJs poured out and right into an extremely heavy firefight. That's where the other 6 got killed, many wounded. This was a brutal slugfest of a firefight. Close air support called in and the fight was on for about 9-12 hours. US commandos finally won, and more helos and forces inserted to recover wounded, KIA.

Roberts body recovered as well. Predator watched after he was shot as 3 Al Qaeda dragged his body from where he was shot - he was already dead.

For my money, Roberts and the others who came to try to rescue him deserve at least the Silver Star if not more. True heroes, taking it to the enemy, so we can all relax at home in the U.S. safer from terrorist attack. Believe it or not, this incident is only one of several unbelievable combat actions yet untold.

SAS is pushing for one of their men to get the Victoria Cross as a result of the cave fight last fall. (And he clearly deserves it from all accounts). UK SBS was in an extremely heavy firefight early in the action last fall.

There are other US stories that have not (and may not) be told that are equally incredible, if not more. Stay tuned.

Whether we need heroes or not, the forces are clearly and eagerly going hand to hand and man on man with the al Qaeda. We may underestimate from time to time in small battles, but the al Qaeda have clearly underestimated what we were going to be like on the battlefield compared to their Soviet experience.

The other reason we need the appropriate top awards pinned on these heroes is this - Let the message go forth to the al Qaeda, other terrorists, and those who want to back them anywhere on the globe. Think you're tough? You want to kill our families, blow up civilians? Stand by! We are sending our very best to hunt you down and take you out.

These are the guys who are coming to get you. These are the guys who will climb into the mountains and into the darkened caves halfway around the world and look you in the eye, toe to toe, with any weapon at hand (ours or yours), to take you out. These guys have trained longer, are stronger, harder, faster, tougher, and more relentless and lethal than anything you will ever produce.

And we will arm them with the best money can buy, from Spectre gunships and thermobaric bombs to knives sharper than any box cutter you can sneak on a plane. They are now on your trail. They're hunting you down. How's it feel to be a terrorist now? Never bring a box cutter to a Jihad.

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ARTICLE 05

Man In the Sea - A Hidden Cold War Victory

By Robert G. Williscroft

She had a shark's mouth hatch in her forward deck. To most submariners, that hatch screamed: "Flooding!" On her stern she carried the first Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle - at least that's what the public thought, as did the ever-watchful Soviet intelligence agents manning a myriad of "trawlers" stationed unobtrusively off the California coast.

But the USS Halibut (SSN 587) was something else, something else entirely.

Under the shark's mouth hatch loomed the Bat Cave - 28 feet wide, 50 feet long, and 30 feet high - containing three levels of sophisticated technology, including a state-of-the-art Univac 1124 computer (about as powerful as a modern top-of-the-line hand-held programmable calculator).

Halibut carried two aluminum tethered "fish" that were launched from the bottom of the Bat Cave that could descend to 20,000 feet. These fish were outfitted with lights, recorders and all kinds of sensors.

The miniature submarine that appeared to be moored atop her stern, announced publicly as the first of several DSRVs - Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles - was actually welded to the deck. In fact, it was a pressure chamber designed to hold several saturation divers who could lock out of the chamber to retrieve objects from the sea floor more than a thousand feet down.

This is not a trailer for the latest sci-fi techno thriller. It's real. It happened. And nobody knew about it - well almost nobody.

The dramatically modified Halibut and her equally mysterious sister submarines USS Seawolf (SSN 575) and USS Parche (SSN 683) were the final products of a fantastic dream of Navy scientist John P. Craven, who wanted to do nothing less than surreptitiously retrieve Soviet missile pieces from their oceanic splash zone, and somehow tap into their underwater communications cables.

Like his arch-nemesis and close colleague, Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, Craven instinctively knew how to get things done inside the vast government bureaucracy and its CIA and Navy subsidiaries. Hidden within the budgets of a dozen or so innocuous projects, and blazing its own deep cover trail inside the Man-In-the-Sea and the DSRV Programs, Craven's project was born and grew to maturity in total secrecy. There were no leaks - absolutely none - until January 1980, when for a measly $35,000, NSA employee Ronald W. Pelton told the Soviets about the "Ivy Bells" cable-tapping project.

Back in the Summer of 1965, Astronaut Scott Carpenter joined the SeaLab II project 205 feet deep off La Jolla just north of San Diego. He spent 30 days living and working on the sea floor at ambient pressure as the team leader for two ten-man diving teams, helping to establish the foundation for the ambitious program that still lay in the future.

In 1967, he was assigned to the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project (DSSP) as Director of Aquanaut Operations, where he supervised the diving activities on SeaLab III shortly before his retirement in 1969. SeaLab III used the shell from SeaLab II, but in every other way it was dramatically different. Situated on the bottom off San Clemente Island in 600 feet of water, this experiment was top secret, designed to test procedures that would ultimately lead to the fantastic exploits of Halibut and Seawolf. Low-key public announcements only described in a superficial way the nature of the deep-sea living project, never mentioning anything else.

SeaLab III was not without problems, despite its pioneering triumphs. Dive team member Berry Cannon died when a control problem caused him to exit the habitat without a fresh charge of carbon dioxide absorbent. This effectively ended SeaLab III as a project followed by the public. In fact, most of the senior Navy personnel with peripheral oversight for SeaLab III also believed that the project had ended.

In actuality, Cannon's tragic death came near the end of the on-the-bottom-operate-out-of-a-habitat phase of Craven's grand plan. The next phase was the outfitting and employment of Halibut, first as an underwater platform for the 20,000-foot capable "fish," and later as the on-site platform for divers using the simulated DSRV to conduct underwater operations first proved on SeaLab III.

At the same time, volunteer Navy divers assembled at the submarine base at the foot of Point Loma in San Diego. They received extensive theoretical and practical training in the esoteric subject of saturation diving. Their practical training took place on Elk River (IX 501), the vessel that had supported the earlier SeaLab experiments off the California coast. Some of these sailors received shipboard assignments on USS Pigeon (ASR 21) and USS Ortolan (ASR 22). The best, however, underwent incredibly thorough background investigations, and those who passed reported to the Special Operations Group - assignment to Halibut, and later to Seawolf and Parche.

These guys in their rickety relic submarines (Halibut and Seawolf) and later in the relatively modern Parche, pulled off the greatest intelligence coup in history. They repeatedly entered the Soviet missile test range splash zone, located missile parts, and using saturated divers, retrieved these parts and brought them back.

And if that wasn't enough, they located several Soviet underwater communications cables and tapped them. At first, the pods they attached recorded information which divers retrieved during the following trip. Later, with the more modern Parche, they were able to get the tapped information real-time. This activity went on for years in both the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea, even after the Soviets found the Okhotsk taps revealed to them by Pelton.

These courageous men endured unimaginable hardships during several of their clandestine voyages. On at least two occasions, a submarine became mired in the bottom muck, once nearly killing one of the divers in the process of trying to free itself. More than once they were detected, narrowly escaping. All the while, each submarine was outfitted with self-destruct explosives, so that, in the worst possible scenario, they never were there in the first place.

As I said, this reads more like a sci-fi techno thriller than real life, but nothing in real life ever matched the bravery, the heroism, the blood-and-guts courage of the men who carried out John Craven's fantastic dream. It was a Cold War victory the nation should have celebrated, but its essential secrecy made that impossible.

Robert G. Williscroft is DefenseWatch Navy Editor. He can be reached at dwnavyeditor@argee.net.

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ARTICLE 06

Retired Soldier Named National Teacher of the Year

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - President Bush named a retired soldier the 2002 National Teacher of the Year in a White House ceremony on April 24.

Chauncey Veatch retired as a colonel from the Army in 1995 after 22 years as an infantry and Medical Service Corps officer. Today, he is a social studies teacher at Coachella Valley High School in Thermal, Calif.

The National Teacher of the Year Program is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and Scholastic Inc., the children's publishing and media company.

Veatch was cited for leading his students, 99 percent of whom are Hispanic, in developing a literacy program for third graders at two local elementary schools and in passing out pamphlets about health issues in migrant laborer camps.

He spent much of his military career in Latin American countries and speaks fluent Spanish.

"He uses the language to communicate with his students and to show respect for a culture," Bush said of Veatch during the Rose Garden ceremony. "He's involved in many after- school programs and community events. In short, he's changed a lot of lives for the better."

Bush lauded Veatch for the extra activities he leads. In addition to teaching social studies, Veatch teaches a ninth-grade career-preparation course and has established a branch of the California Cadet Corps at his school. The Cadet Corps is a leadership- and citizenship-development program for the state's junior and senior high school students. It includes information on the military and the role of the armed forces in a democracy.

"For Mr. Veatch, teaching is not just a career, it is a high calling. It's a form of service to children and to a nation he loves," Bush said. "He has served both the children and our country extraordinarily well."

(Compiled from news releases from the White House Press Office and the Council of Chief State School Officers.)

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ARTICLE 07

On the Lighter Side: Congress and the Night Watchman

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said someone may steal from it at night, so they created a night watchman position (GS-4) and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"

So they created a planning position and hired two people: one person to write the instructions (GS-12) and one person to do time studies (GS-11).

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"

So they created a Q.C. position and hired two people, one GS-9 to do the studies and one GS-11 to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?"

So they created the following positions, a timekeeper (GS-9) and a payroll officer (GS-11) and hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative position and hired three people: an Admin Officer (GS-13), an Assistant Admin Officer (GS-13), and a Legal Secretary (GS-8).

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cut back overall cost."

So they laid off the night watchman.

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ARTICLE 08

Medal of Honor Recipient - Walmsley, John S. Jr., Capt. USAF

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Air Force, 8th Bombardment Squadron, 3d Bomb Group.

Place and date: Near Yangdok, Korea, 14 September 1951.

Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Born. 7 January 1920, Baltimore, Md.

Citation: Capt. Walmsley, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While flying a B-26 aircraft on a night combat mission with the objective of developing new tactics, Capt. Walmsley sighted an enemy supply train which had been assigned top priority as a target of opportunity. He immediately attacked, producing a strike which disabled the train, and, when his ammunition was expended, radioed for friendly aircraft in the area to complete destruction of the target.

Employing the searchlight mounted on his aircraft, he guided another B-26 aircraft to the target area, meanwhile constantly exposing himself to enemy fire. Directing an incoming B-26 pilot, he twice boldly aligned himself with the target, his searchlight illuminating the area, in a determined effort to give the attacking aircraft full visibility.

As the friendly aircraft prepared for the attack, Capt. Walmsley descended into the valley in a low level run over the target with searchlight blazing, selflessly exposing himself to vicious enemy antiaircraft fire. In his determination to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, he refused to employ evasive tactics and valiantly pressed forward straight through an intense barrage, thus insuring complete destruction of the enemy's vitally needed war cargo.

While he courageously pressed his attack Capt. Walmsley's plane was hit and crashed into the surrounding mountains, exploding upon impact. His heroic initiative and daring aggressiveness in completing this important mission in the face of overwhelming opposition and at the risk of his life, reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Air Force.

Editor's Note: If you know of any MOH recipient who is hospitalized or has passed away recently, please email DefenseWatch MOH Editor Jim H. at bulldogleader@mindspring.com.