The Albert Lea Tribune has published an article about another send-off for Minnesota National Guard soldiers heading to Kosovo in Farewell, D Company. Some excerpts:
As many Minnesota National Guard soldiers return home this week, more are getting ready to ship out as Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Rep. Tim Walz joined family and friends Monday morning to see the troops off.
The Albert Lea National Guard Armory was decorated with posters proclaiming love and admiration for the brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and friends leaving to Kosovo. . . .. . .The entire battalion, which has its headquarters in Mankato, will send 425 soldiers to Kosovo, with 95 from the Albert Lea company. Other ceremonies were held at Rochester, St. Paul, Austin and Mankato to send off troops.
At the Albert Lea ceremony, Pawlenty spoke of the soldiers as the real role models and heroes of the American people, contrasting them to the many celebrity role models often seen in tabloids and on TV entertainment news. . . .. . .Starting off the ceremony was U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, the most senior-ranking enlisted soldier of the National Guard ever to serve in Congress. The 1st District congressman spoke of his appreciation.
“You are the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen,” Walz told the troops.
“We’re not just standing in front of you, we’re standing behind you.”
Walz said Minnesota is working and willing to take care of the soldiers and military families both during deployment and upon return. He said he realizes the soldier is not the only one making a sacrifice when enlisting.
“When a soldier deploys it’s not just the soldier. The family deploys,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito, in a particularly moving part of the ceremony, gave the soldiers something to pull out of their packs on the lonely nights and holidays when the pain of missing their family is too great to bear.
Shellito had the troops close their eyes and lower their heads and asked the family and friends in the crowd show their appreciation. The entire auditorium erupted with shouts, cheers, whistles and applause. Some family members shed tears.
The Mankato Free Press reported on the Key City's send-off in Farewells for Kosovo-bound Guardsmen. This article mentions the combat status of the mission:
The soldiers will receive imminent-danger pay after the Department of Defense decided against reclassifying the deployment as a non-combat mission.
Battalion Cmdr. Mike Funk, who will lead the battalion in Kosovo, said the classification is a big deal, partly because of the $225 per month combat pay. But the biggest savings comes because the troops’ pay won’t be taxed at all. Funk said total savings depends on rank, but many soldiers will see an extra $1,000 or so a month.
The Pentagon decided to call Kosovo a combat mission, Funk said, because while Kosovo is now a relatively peaceful protectorate of the United Nations, independence could be imminent.
If that happens, the area’s Serb minority could rebel, while a lack of independence would surely displease the ethnic Albanians living there. The mission’s primary purpose is to keep the peace between those two groups, as well as other minorities.
Representative Walz was a leader in pushing the Pentagon to leave the mission status unchanged because of the dangers and the burdens deployment puts on soldiers and their families.
Via Atrios, the Associated Press reports the VA Secretary Nicholson is returning to private life:
Veterans Affairs chief Jim Nicholson, who was forced to defend the Bush administration's handling of people injured in battle after revelations of shoddy health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, announced Tuesday he is resigning.
The 69-year-old Nicholson, who is returning to the private sector, has been head of the VA since February, 2005. Before that, he was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and chairman of the Republican National Committee.
He is the latest in a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of President Bush's administration.
Nicholson most recently has overseen a vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics, which provide supplemental care and rehabilitation to 5.8 million veterans.
Earlier this year, the VA was embarrassed by revelations of poor health care at Walter Reed for veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nicholson was named by President Bush to lead an interagency task force of seven Cabinet secretaries to determine what could be done immediately to improve veterans' care. . . .
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