Richard E. Austin VFW Post 10592 Official blog

Ambushed Soldiers Heroes VFW Chief Says; National Commander Visits Wounded at Landstuhl

LANDSTUHL, Germany, July 17, 2008--The national commander of the nation’s largest organization of combat veterans on Tuesday met with wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, who were recovering from last week’s battle on a remote outpost in Afghanistan’ Kunar Province, near the border with Pakistan, discounting some media speculation that the soldiers allegedly were ill-prepared when insurgents stormed the American and Afghan outpost in the mountainous northeastern province.

“That’s simply not true,” George Lisicki, a Vietnam War veteran from Carteret, N. J., said during an interview with Veterans of Foreign Wars “The National Defense” [listen to interview] talk-radio show,” adding that, although the men had endured a tremendously fierce battle, they were all lucid in providing details of the early morning Sunday battle.

Note: To read the TRUE account of what happened, read Stars and Stripes interview with Col. Charles "Chip" Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team: Commander: Media reports on Afghanistan outpost battle were exaggerated.

“Although it was emotionally difficult for them to talk, their spirit and morale was amazing. In their words, even though they were outnumbered four-to-one, they ‘took it to the enemy, and kicked butt,” the VFW national commander said.

The soldiers, who are with the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, had just been deployed to the outpost when the heavily-armed insurgents attacked. Nine of their comrades died during the battle. According to published sources, the attack was “one of the deadliest engagements for the international forces that arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001 to fight the hard-line Taliban movement now waging an insurgency.”

“They really smoked them,” Lisicki relayed after listening to the soldiers recant the battle in their hospital beds. “They are our heroes, and we are so proud of the individuals who fought in the battle. They gave the insurgents quite a beating.”

When asked about their morale, Lisicki said their spirits are high.

“They’re really gung ho in everything they are doing. The only thing they regret is that they are in the hospital, and their buddies are back there fighting the war,” he said. “Just about all of them want to get back there to fight the battle because they believe in what they are doing and in their mission,” adding that he knows they will win the war.

“We have great Americans fighting the battle,” he said, “and just listening to their spirit and seeing the dedication they have for their county is remarkable. They believe in what they are doing.”

Lisicki, who was on a fact-finding mission in Europe meeting military and government officials, said this unfortunate incident verifies the need for more resources and more allied help in Afghanistan, especially in the eastern area near the Pakistan border.

“We need help,” he said, sharing the governmental agencies concerns that the situation is Afghanistan is worsening. “They are telling me our allies are under resourced and are undermanned. They need more help, especially helicopter support.”

The VFW national commander of the 1.6 million-member combat veterans group will travel next to Kuwait and Bagdad, where he will spend five days with troops.

posted by Greg @ 9:33 AM Comments: 0

Commander: Media reports on Afghanistan outpost battle were exaggerated

173rd’s fight not symbol of more violent Afghanistan, says Preysler

By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, July 20, 2008

"The sky is not falling," Col. Charles "Chip" Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, said Saturday from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Preysler spoke via telephone less than a week after his paratroops and their Afghan allies were involved in a fierce attack at a small post near the village of Wanat. In the July 13 battle, nine of his men were killed and 15 others wounded.

But the attack is not a sign of conditions worsening in the country, he said.

The battle occurred just after dawn at a temporary vehicle patrol base near Wanat. A platoon-sized element of Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) soldiers and a smaller Afghan National Army force were occupying a hastily built area as they had done many times over the 15 months they’d been in country, Preysler said. The soldiers were there on a reconnaissance mission to establish a presence and find a good location to connect with the local government, populace and Afghan National Police, he said.

The small outpost had been built just days before the attack and consisted of protective wire and observation posts surrounding strategically placed vehicles. "That’s all it was, a series of vehicles that went out there," Preysler said.

"People are saying that this was a full-up [forward operating base]/combat outpost, and that is absolutely false and not true. There were no walls," Preysler said, latter adding, "FOB denotes that there are walls and perimeters and all that. It’s a vehicle patrol base, temporary in nature."

But that doesn’t mean the soldiers were not prepared to take on the enemy, he said.

"Now, obviously when you halt, you start prepping your defenses, and in this case we had [observation posts] and protective wire, we had the vehicles deployed properly to take advantage of their fields of fire, and we set up like that all over the place, and we do it routinely," he said.

The Army did not "abandon" the base after the attack, as many media reporters have suggested, Preysler said.

He said the decision to move from the location following the attack was to reposition, which his men have done countless times throughout their tour, and to move closer to the local seat of government.

"If there’s no combat outpost to abandon, there’s no position to abandon," he said. "It’s a bunch of vehicles like we do on patrol anywhere and we hold up for a night and pick up any tactical positions that we have with vehicle patrol bases.

"We do that routinely.... We’re always doing that when go out and stay in an area for longer then a few hours, and that’s what it is. So there is nothing to abandon. There was no structures, there was no COP or FOB or anything like that to even abandon. So, from the get-go, that is just [expletive], and it’s not right."

He also didn’t like the media’s characterization that his men were "overrun."

"As far as I know, and I know a lot, it was not overrun in any shape, manner or form," an emotional Preysler said. "It was close combat to be sure — hand grenade range. The enemy never got into the main position. As a matter of fact, it was, I think, the bravery of our soldiers reinforcing the hard-pressed observation post, or OP, that turned the tide to defeat the enemy attack."

Though Preysler and his staff have seen several reports on the fight and numbers of enemy, he said true specifics still remain unclear.

"I do not know the exact numbers. But I know they had much greater strength than one U.S. platoon," he said. "I believe the enemy to number over 100 in that area when he attacked. I don’t know the casualties that he took, but I know that it’s got to be substantial based on the different reports I’m getting. We may not know the true damage we inflicted on the enemy, but we certainly defeated his attack and repulsed his attack and he never got into our position."

Preysler and his staff also object to media reports that because of the size of the attack, it could be a harbinger of change in the way militants fight in eastern Afghanistan.

"I think people are taking license and just misusing statistics, and I refuse to do that," he said. "We’re in the middle of the fighting season. When we first got here last summer and started fighting here in June, we were only seeing the enemy and engaging him first about 5 percent of the time. Now we’re between 25 and 40 percent. We see the enemy, and we’re engaging him first."

When the 173rd arrived last summer, it marked the first time that a brigade-sized element operated in the upper provinces near of the Pakistan border, allowing for a much larger presence.

"By sheer numbers and sheer volume of patrols — I mean this [battalion] has had 9,000 patrols in 15 months — we’re out there taking the fight to the enemy," We’re out there taking the ground that he used to own exclusively, and we have separated him from the people in many locations," Preysler said. "This is one area that is still contested, and we’re going to have to go back in there and fight hard to separate the insurgents from the population, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.

"Now, the problem is we are in the middle of a transition, [but] I would not characterize this as anything more than the standard fighting that happens in this area in good weather that the summer provides. The harvest is in, and it’s the fighting season. I don’t see massive enemy pushes into our area. The sky is not falling, and this is what we’ve been facing all along in the summer."

Preysler ended the interview by lauding his soldiers.

"I get emotional about this, you’ll have to forgive me," he said. "These guys have fought for 15 months, and they have fought harder, and I mean this literally, they have fought harder and (had) more engagements, more direct-fire engagements, than any brigade in the United States Army in probably the toughest terrain. These guys are absolutely veterans and they know what they’re doing and they have that airborne spirit and they fought a very, very tough battle and held the ground and did everything they were supposed to do.

"I would like to also say I wish my guys who were wounded a speedy recovery and obviously condolences to the families, and that’s very close and personal to us. It’s tough to take casualties toward the end of any combat tour for any unit, but it signals that we’re in a fight, and we’re going to continue to fight."

posted by Greg @ 10:39 AM Comments: 0

What's right with America? Plenty

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A few days before the Fourth of July, I read a column in The Philadelphia Inquirer that said America didn't deserve to celebrate its independence this year.

It claimed that all of our so-called atrocities have shamed the memory of our founding fathers and, as a result, we should cancel our parades, put away our fireworks and all sit quietly while we atone for our sins.

I guess that was one way to go.

Another way to go would be to fire up the grills, bring the kids to the beach,and gather the family on a blanket to watch as your tax dollars ignite into colorful bursts.

I'm guessing that most of us chose the second option.

But just because I had fun with friends and family doesn't mean that I believe America is perfect. It just means that, for one day, I chose to celebrate the fact that America is still closer to perfect than any other country in the history of the world.

For 364 days a year we talk about high gas prices, crooked politicians, and how much people from one political party allegedly hate everyone from the other. But for 24 hours we get to put it all aside and marvel at how a few brave men risked their lives to stand up for what they believed in. Of course, I would prefer we celebrate that every day, but for now, or at least until that Inquirer columnist gets elected president and bans it, I'll take the one.

As someone who works in the media in New York City, I'll admit that I am part of the chorus of people who talk about our problems. But there's nothing wrong with that, so long as you also occasionally take the time to talk about the other side. And that's what I want to do now by asking the question that never seems to be of interest to the mainstream media: What's right with America?

Let's start with our much maligned economy. I'm not trying to sugarcoat it, times are definitely tough for an awful lot of families right now. But you know what? We've made it through a depression; we've made it through wars, oil shocks, and major terrorist attacks and we're still standing. In fact, we're not just standing, we're towering over the rest of the world.

Our economy is almost as big as the next four largest economies on Earth (Japan, Germany, China and Great Britain) combined. The state of California alone has an economy as large as the entire country of France. Illinois has the same GDP as all of Mexico. New York matches the entire GDP of Brazil. Florida's economy is as large as South Korea's. Texas has a GDP roughly equal to Canada's. Michigan's economy is as large as the entire country of Argentina.

It takes a lot longer to turn around an aircraft carrier than it does a dinghy, but the problem we have is with our ship's captain -- the pea-brains in Washington -- not her crew.

What's right with America? How about the way we educate our children. Sure, I complain a lot about left-wing professors and how some wealthy private universities hoard their billions while charging obscene amounts for tuition, but the truth is that our universities are always ranked among the best in the world.

Students aren't fleeing America to go to college in Japan, India, or China -- it's the other way around. We open our colleges and universities to more than 80,000 foreign professors, scholars and educators a year and we have more students in college right now than those three countries combined.

What's right with America? Our world-class universities don't require you to have an elite family name or Rockefeller-type wealth to get in. We don't care about your race, gender or nationality. You just have to be smart enough and work hard for it. What a concept, huh?

What's right with America? How about the way we treat the less fortunate? With no help from our government, Americans gave a record $306 billion to charities last year alone. We give twice as much as the next closest country and, relative to the size of our economies, we give 1,000 percent more than the French.

What's right with America? It's not just the wealthy who are generous. Two-thirds of American families making under $100,000 a year give to charity. Compassion is ingrained in our culture like no other.

What's right with America? How about our supposedly third-world health care system? We spend more on health care per person than Switzerland, Germany, Canada, or any other country you can think of. Do we still have problems? Absolutely, but don't fall for "the grass is greener" crowd; every country has health care problems.

What's right with America? We love our country. World Values Survey found that 77 percent of Americans are very proud of their nationality. That puts us in a first place tie with the Irish. Australia was next and no one else was really even close.

I could go on and on, but my point is that we don't need the so often wished for "change" in this country, we just need perspective.

While most of us inherently know that we've won the lottery by living here, we don't often think about the reasons why.

So, for at least that one day, let's just remember that America still leads the world in the principles that matter most: The rule of law, freedom of religion, equal rights, freedom from an oppressive government and, fortunately for the Philadelphia Inquirer, freedom of speech.

Labels: America, USA, VFW News, VFW Post 10592

posted by Greg @ 4:01 PM Comments: 0

Flag Information

July 8, 2008

TO: VFW Department Adjutants for distribution to Citizenship/Education Chairman

RE: Flag Information

In February 2008 Congress approved and the President signed the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill which included (S.1877) an amendment to title 4, USC, to allow veterans to salute the flag during the raising and lowering of the flag and during the passing of the colors.

Congress is aware that they had overlooked the National Anthem and have added an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (S.3002, section 1081) to amend title 36, USC, to allow veterans to salute during the National Anthem. Below is the wording in the bill.

Section 301(b)(1) of title 36, United States Code, is amended by striking subparagraphs (A) through (C) and inserting the following new subparagraphs:

`(A) individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note;

`(B) members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute in the manner provided for individuals in uniform; and

`(C) all other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, and men not in uniform, if applicable, should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and'.

Labels: Flag Information, VFW Post 10592

posted by Greg @ 3:15 PM Comments: 0