Petty Officer Had Surprise Baby Girl While On Eisenhower?

A U.S. sailor delivered a baby at sea — in the middle of the ISIS war 
Navy Times By: David B Larter September 12, 2016

“As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the U.S. Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and well-being of the baby and the mother," Urban said in an email.

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower's crew proved Sunday that they can simultaneously deliver ISIS airstrikes and babies.

A third class petty officer from Carrier Air Wing 3 checked into the carrier's medical clinic after stomach pains Saturday. Nine hours later, in the early hours of Sept. 11, she gave birth to a healthy 7-pound baby girl, according to an internal memo on the incident obtained by Navy Times.

“Both the mother and the baby are healthy and are doing well,” 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban said of the new family on the carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Neither the mother nor her command knew she was pregnant before Saturday, Urban said. Normally pregnant service members would leave an operational command at 20 weeks and would certainly not deploy.
read more here

Death of Air Force Lt. Col. Under Investigation

Washington airman dies from non-combat injury in Asia
KING 5 News and Associated Press
August 06, 2016

LANSING, Mich. - A U.S. airman assigned to Washington's Camp Murray has died in southwest Asia from an injury not related to combat.

Lt. Col. Flando Jackson (Credit: Washington Military Department)

The Defense Department says Saturday that Lt. Col. Flando Jackson's death on Thursday is under investigation.

Officials say the 45-year-old Jackson was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State forces and terrorists at war against the governments of Iraq and Syria.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran's Son Killed Fighting ISIS Wanted to Be a Marine

Colorado mother struggles to bring her son’s body home from Syria
“Jack” Shirley of Arvada was killed fighting the Islamic State with Kurdish forces in Syria
Denver Post
By CLAIRE CLEVELAND
PUBLISHED: August 6, 2016

Frustrated that his eyesight rendered him unfit for the U.S. Marines, Jack joined the war on terror, against the wishes of his government, by volunteering with the People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish group clashing with the Islamic State in northern Syria. Amid the tangled geopolitical alliances of the Middle East, the YPG — shorthand for Jack’s unit — falls under a political wing believed to have ties to yet another group the U.S. has classified as a terrorist organization.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post
Susan Shirley with a picture of

her son Levi Jonathan Shirley that
died in Syria as a volunteer with
an armed Kurdish group, the YPG to
fight ISIS.

Day after day, Susan Shirley sits at the round, wooden table in her Arvada kitchen, her blue eyes intensely scanning e-mails or Facebook messages on her laptop and then, eventually, wandering past the window into the yard where her son once played.

She refocuses on the spiral notebook before her and logs another entry in a minute-by-minute to-do list of grief: 10:30: …request info costs embalming etc….

The notes go on for pages, chronicling a mother’s complex quest to bring home her son, 24-year-old Levi Jonathan “Jack” Shirley, who was killed on a Syrian battlefield while fighting the Islamic State.

And so news of his death, the second among an estimated 100 Americans who have volunteered with such militias, arrived not with a hero’s accolades and the thanks of a grateful nation, but with a logistical burden heaped upon sorrow at the loss of a son.

Russell Shirley, who served two tours in Vietnam and has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to civilian life, felt relief when Jack was disqualified from the Marines. He figured that put an end to the possibility of his son joining a foreign battle.
read more here

Navy Seal Killed in Iraq

American killed in Iraq after ISIS broke through Peshmerga lines
CNN
By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond
May 3, 2016

(CNN)An American service member was killed in Iraq as a result of enemy fire about thirty kilometers north of Mosul, Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday.

The service member was a Navy SEAL, a U.S. defense official told CNN, though the SEAL's rank is still unclear.

The person was an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga forces that are fighting ISIS and was killed during an ISIS assault "on a Peshmerga position approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday in a statement.

The Pentagon will provide additional information on the service member's identity after next of kin have been notified.
read more here

Sailor's Death in Abu Dhabi Under Investigation

Sailor from Illinois dies overseas 
WGN News
BY TOM NEGOVAN
MAY 22, 2015

ABU DHABI– A sailor from Illinois has died overseas, according to the Department of Defense.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan D. Burris, 24, of Lisle, died May 21, in Abu Dhabi, UAE, of a non-combat related incident at Zayed Military City as he was helping to support Operation Inherent Resolve—that is the fight against ISIS.

He was temporarily assigned to the Crisis Response Element of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula, Special Operations Command Central, U.S. Central Command, according to the Department of Defense. read more here

California Airman's Death Under Investigation

DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Department of Defense
Release No: NR-125-15
April 14, 2015

The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.

Tech. Sgt. Anthony E. Salazar, 40, of Hermosa Beach, California, died April 13, at an air base in southwest Asia in a non-combat related incident.

The incident is under investigation.

He was assigned to the 577th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron, 1st Expeditionary Civil Engineer Group, U.S. Air Forces Central Command.

Navy Response to ISIS Hit List Frustrates Families

Families frustrated by Navy response to Islamic State 'hit list'
By Dianna Cahn
The Virginian-Pilot (Tribune News Service)
Published: March 25, 2015

NORFOLK (Tribune News Service) — Families of some of the 100 servicemembers whose names and addresses appeared on an online "hit list" by Islamic State militants are struggling to figure out how much danger they really face.

The weekend posting by a group that identified itself as the Islamic State Hacking Division included pictures of servicemembers along with their names, home addresses, branches of service and, in some cases, ranks and titles. It claimed the information was hacked from military sites, while the Pentagon insists it was culled from the Internet. The posting, which has since been removed, called on unnamed "brothers in America" to seek out the servicemembers and "kill them in their own land."

On the list: 15 servicemembers from Hampton Roads, most of whom were assigned to warships that launched strikes against the Islamic State.

The wife of one sailor named said affected families are frustrated. They maintain that the Navy's public relations arm has been too lax in allowing information about naval operations onto the web and that the Pentagon is not taking the threats seriously enough. Additionally, they said, the Navy is not being forthcoming enough with them about how it intends to deal with the risk.
read more here

Cater Ash Says ISIS Troops Info Taken From Social Media, Not DOD

Carter: Troop Data in Online Kill List Was Not Stolen 
Associated Press
by Robert Burns
Mar 24, 2015

WASHINGTON — The names, photos and addresses of 100 U.S. military members posted online by a group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division were not stolen from confidential government files, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday.

During a news conference at Camp David, Maryland, Carter was asked about the Internet listing over the weekend in which the purported hackers urged that the 100 individuals be murdered by sympathizers inside the U.S.

"The information that was posted by ISIL was information taken from social websites and publicly available," Carter said. "It wasn't stolen from any (Defense Department) websites or any confidential databases." He said the Pentagon, nonetheless, takes this event seriously.

Other officials have said it is being investigated by the FBI. "At the same time, this is the kind of social media messaging of a vile sort that ISIL specializes in" and is one reason the U.S. is determined to defeat the group, he added, using a common acronym for the Islamic State group that has captured large portions of territory in Iraq and Syria and beheaded a number of Americans.
read more here

Florida Veteran Seeking Others to Fight ISIS?

This story doesn't add up. Hope they do a followup to explain it.

Florida man recruiting veterans to fight ISIS
First Coast News
THV11 affiliate
March 2, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (March 2, 2015) - A U.S. veteran is putting out a call to other veterans to come together to fight the Islamic State on their turf.

"There has been strong support and numerous veterans who are interested in going."

According to THV11 affiliate, WTLV, eight-year military veteran Sean Rowe launched the website, Veterans against ISIS.

He's recruiting veterans to fight the terror group in places like Iraq and he's asking for four years of military experience.

"So, I will be talking with them and screening them. I want to keep it small and simple," said Rowe.

From kidnappings to beheadings, the violence unleashed by ISIL continues, and Rowe says he's had enough.

"I'm not scared of these guys. They can come for me if they want but I am going to take the fight to them," said Rowe.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Returns to Fight for Assyrian Christians

Iraq Vet Joins Fight Against ISIS 
Video report from ABC News
He is fighting for Iraq's Assyrian Christians
World News Videos | US News Videos

ISIS abducts scores of Christians in northeastern Syria, groups say
CNN
By Greg Botelho and Gul Tuysuz
February 24, 2015

CNN)Assyrians in northeastern Syria villages awoke Tuesday to ISIS militants at their doors, with the Islamist extremists abducting scores from the Christian group and forcing hundreds more to run for their lives, an advocate said.

The ISIS fighters burst past a few men guarding the village of Tal Shamiram at about 4 a.m. (9 p.m. ET Monday) and abducted children, women and the elderly, said Usama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network.

Talking to CNN from Stockholm, Sweden, Edward said that between 70 and 100 people were kidnapped in that village and others in the same cluster near Tal Tamer.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Chuck Hagel Leaving Department of Defense

A Shifting Battleground: Why Chuck Hagel Resigned
NBC News
BY PERRY BACON JR.
November 24, 2014

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s resignation at the urging of the president is not a sign of a broader shift in the White House’s national security or defense policies, according to former and current administration officials.

Rather, Hagel’s departure reflects two new dynamics that have emerged since he took the helm at the Pentagon early last year. Hagel’s background as a Vietnam War veteran and former Nebraska senator was seen by administration officials as giving credibility and clout to implement one of President Obama’s major priorities back then: a broad overhaul of America’s military that would reduce defense spending and shrink the U.S. Army to its smallest force levels in decades.

But the rise of ISIS and other military challenges, like halting Russia’s incursions into the Ukraine and stopping the spread of Ebola, have emerged over the last two years, so the restructuring of the Pentagon is no longer at the top of Obama’s to-do list.

He had a crappy relationship with Susan Rice.

And those events abroad have focused attention on Hagel’s management skills. The Defense Secretary, according to administration sources, simply failed to convince leaders at the White House or the Pentagon that he is the right person to lead what is akin to a war against ISIS.

“They chose Hagel for a job that just turned out to be very different than what was expected with the rise of ISIS,” said one former Obama national security aide.
read more here

Iraq Army Ranger Veteran Beheaded by ISIS

American veteran executed by ISIS?
MYFOX Tampa Bay
Associated Press
Posted: Nov 16, 2014

The Islamic State group released a graphic video on Sunday in which a black-clad militant claimed to have beheaded U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, who was captured last year.

The militant was standing over a severed head, but it was not immediately possible to confirm that it was Kassig, 26, who was pictured in the video. U.S. officials said they were working to determine the video's authenticity and the Kassig family said it was awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

The video, which was posted on websites used by the group in the past, appeared to be the latest in a series of blood-soaked messages to the U.S. warning of further brutality if it does not abandon its air campaign in Iraq and Syria.

Kassig, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was providing medical aid to Syrians fleeing the civil war when he was captured inside Syria on Oct. 1, 2013. His friends say he converted to Islam in captivity and took the first name Abdul-Rahman.
read more here

Cpl. Nathan Cirillo's Dogs Wait For Him To Come Home

Gut-Wrenching Photos: Dogs Belonging to Canadian Soldier Killed in Terrorist Attack Seemingly Wait for Their Master to Return
The Blaze
Jason Howerton
Oct. 23, 2014

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Peter Power)

TORONTO (TheBlaze/AP) — Canadians mourned the army reservist killed in a terrorist attack on Parliament Hill, with friends remembering Cpl. Nathan Cirillo as a devoted father so ready to make people smile that he was once known as the class clown.

Gut-wrenching photos showing Cirillo’s dogs seemingly waiting for their master to return also emerged Thursday. Cirillo, a 24-year-old a reservist from Hamilton, Ontario, was shot dead as he stood guard before the country’s Tomb of the Unknown soldier, that start of an attack Wednesday that ended with a lone gunman storming into Parliament and opening fire before being shot dead himself.
read more here

Ottawa shooting: Haunting last picture of soldier Nathan Cirillo moments before he was killed

Death of 19 Year Old Marine in Iraq "Non-combat Injury"

First US military death announced since Isis offensive started in Iraq
The first US service member has died in the third US-Iraq war, although not in combat, the Department of Defense says
The Guardian
October 24, 2014

Nearly three years after Barack Obama withdrew the US military from its bloody, exhausting second conflict in Iraq, the first US service member has died there in the third US-Iraq war.

Marine Lance Corporal Sean P Neal, one of 1,600 troops serving in Iraq to support the Iraqi struggle against Islamic State (Isis), died of a “non-combat” injury, the US announced late on Friday. Neal, of Riverside, California, died in Baghdad, more than 7600 miles from his home, on Thursday.

Neal, 19, was the first American acknowledged to have died in Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military’s new name for the war Obama launched on August 7. Americans have been dying in Iraq since 1991, some four years before Neal was born.

Technically, Neal may not have been the first US fatality of the Iraq-Syria war against the Islamic State. Naval forces assigned to US Central Command, which has operational control of the war, acknowledged on October 3 that a Marine, Corporal Jordan L. Spears, went missing at sea in the North Arabian Gulf after bailing out of his MV-22 Osprey. Spears took off from the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, which carried Marines of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, assigned to support the war in Iraq and Syria.
read more here

Queens Police Officers Attacked by Terrorist with Hatchet

'Rookie cops' recovering after hatchet attack
CNN
By Shimon Prokupecz and Kevin Conlon
October 24, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
There's no indication the attack is tied to radical Islam, official says
Officials: New York police told to be on alert "against random attacks"
A man rushed four police officers in Queens, New York, police commissioner says
Two were hit; the two who weren't shot at the attacker, who was killed, commissioner says

New York (CNN) -- A New York City police officer remains in critical condition at a Queens hospital Friday, one day after suffering a hatchet wound to the head.

Officer Kenneth Healey and three on-duty colleagues were posing for a picture on the sidewalk Thursday afternoon when a hatchet-wielding man charged at them "unprovoked," according Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

The suspect, identified as Zale H. Thompson, was hiding behind a bus shelter as if he was waiting to attack the officers, according to a law enforcement official, who said it almost appeared as if he were stalking them.

Healey, 28, was struck in the back of the head. Officer Joseph Meeker, 24, was struck in the arm. The remaining two officers fired at Thompson, killing him.

In the chaos, one of the officer's bullets struck a nearby pedestrian in her lower back. Bratton said she was recovering in surgery Thursday evening.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the officers' swift response. "Here are four rookie cops, just starting out in their career, when the absolute unexpected happened," de Blasio said at a Thursday press conference. "They responded exactly as their training dictated and ended the situation -- thank God -- very, very quickly. "
read more here

Michael Savage Lashes Out After Veteran with PTSD Calls

Savage said the country needs "men like him to save the country" after a caller saying he was a veteran with PTSD. He said people with PTSD are a bunch of losers and looking for a paycheck. Yep! He went off digging the hole in his mouth bigger and bigger while I was thinking about the Navy SEALs with PTSD and some of them committed suicide, along with other members of Special Forces, along with Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen. Along with them members of the National Guards and Reservists. Along with them the other millions of veterans with PTSD and along with them firefighters and police officers. As if all that wasn't bad enough, he also said that ISIS defeated our military!

Michael Savage rails against PTSD sufferers: ‘No wonder ISIS can defeat our military’
The Washington Times
By Jessica Chasmar
Tuesday, October 21, 2014

“I am so sick and tired of everyone with their complaints about PTSD, depression,” the host began. “Everyone wants their hand held, and a government check. What are you, the only generation that had PTSD? The only generation that’s depressed? I’m sick of it. I can’t take the celebration of weakness and depression.”

Conservative radio host Michael Savage recently launched into a fiery rant against those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, arguing that the “celebration of weakness and depression” has undermined the United States and its military.

“No wonder we’re being laughed at around the world. No wonder ISIS can defeat our military,” Mr. Savage said about veterans with PTSD during his radio program on Oct.14, Mediaite reported.
read more here

I am sure there are a lot of veterans out there with medals to prove they were brave enough to go into combat ready to have a conversation with this man about his view of the nation they defended.

US Soldier's Families Targets of Jihadist Tweets

Soldiers’ families and homes may be IS targets
The Army Times
October 6, 2014

An image made available on a jihadist website this summer shows militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with the trademark Jihadists flag in Iraq. U.S. officials are concerned IS supporters may attack Americans in the States.
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images )

Soldiers and their families should be warned the Islamic State is calling on its followers in the United States to use social media sites to “find the addresses of service members, show up (at their homes) and slaughter them,” according to the Army Threat Integration Center.

“ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) has called on lone offenders in the U.S. to use the “yellow pages,” social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter to find the addresses,” states the ARTIC special assessment published Sept. 25.

The warning is “based on a law enforcement bulletin citing a jihadist tweet,” ARTIC states.

Fort Campbell officials did not return calls seeking comment on Monday.

After U.S. began air strikes in Iraq in August and Syria in late September, IS supporters launched a Twitter campaign threatening to retaliate with violence in the U.S., according to the report.

“A recent audio message from an ISIL spokesman called, for the first time, for lone offender attacks in the homeland in retaliation for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria,” the ARTIC report states.

“According to the US government as many as 300 Americans are fighting with ISIL. ... There is concern that these Americans could return to the U.S. and commit attacks using the skills they learned overseas.”
read more here

Former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig held by ISIS

Peter Kassig's parents make video plea to ISIS
CNN
By Arwa Damon and Michael Martinez
October 4, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Ed and Paula Kassig urge ISIS to release their son
Peter Kassig changed his first name to Abdul-Rahman when converting to Islam
"We implore his captors to show mercy," his father says on videotaped message
"Most of all, know that we love you," his mother says to son

(CNN) -- The family of ISIS hostage and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig released a YouTube video Saturday asking his captors to show mercy and free him.

Referring to him as Abdul-Rahman -- a first name his family says he took, having converted to Islam while being held hostage -- father Ed Kassig said: "We implore his captors to show mercy and use their power to let our son go."

Peter Kassig, 26, first went to the Middle East as a U.S. soldier and returned as a medical worker, feeling compelled to help victims of war.

His mother, Paula, addressed her son in the video: "We are so very proud of you and the work you have done to bring humanitarian aid to the Syrian people," she said.
read more here

'LET OUR SON GO'

How former U.S. Army Ranger threatened with beheading fought in Iraq and then returned to Middle East to run Syrian aid group
Daily Mail
By EMMA GLANFIELD and WILLS ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE
3 October 2014

Former U.S. Army Ranger and Iraq war veteran Peter Kassig, 26, is believed to be the latest U.S hostage to be held by Islamic State militants in Syria after he featured at the end of Alan Henning's execution video

Peter Kassig appears in latest ISIS video showing British aid worker's death
In footage, 26-year-old is shown on his knees as he is held by 'Jihadi John'
Video released tonight claims to show beheading of hostage Alan Henning
'Jihadi John' tells camera that President Obama's aerial bombardment in Syria means that 'it is only right to continue to strike necks of your people'
Mr Kassig enlisted in the Army in 2006 and served in the Iraq war in 2007
He then went to provide aid to Syrian war refugees and his family said that while in captivity he converted to Islam and took the name Abdul Rahman

The 26-year-old, from Indianapolis, (pictured) enlisted in the Army in 2004 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007

An Iraq war veteran who launched his own aid group to provide medical help for Syrian war refugees has been named as the next potential victim of ISIS.

Former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig, 26, has been confirmed as the latest American hostage to be held by Islamic State militants after he featured at the end of a video showing the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.

In the footage, which emerged on the internet tonight, Mr Kassig, from Indianapolis, is shown on his knees next to 'Jihadi John'.

The young aid worker is being held by the Jihadi who tells the camera that President Obama's aerial bombardment in Syria means that 'it is only right to continue to strike the necks of your people.'
read more here

UCF Community in shock after Steven Sotloff beheaded

Purported killing of journalist Steven Sotloff by ISIS shocks UCF community
Orlando Sentinel
By Gal Tziperman Lotan
September 2, 2014

A video purporting to show the killing of journalist and former UCF student Steven Sotloff by militants was released today, sparking outrage and calls for more action against his killers.

The White House is working to determine the authenticity of the video, which shows an Islamic State militant beheading a man he identifies as Sotloff, 31, and threatening British hostage David Haines, according to the SITE Intelligence Group monitoring service.

"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State," the man said, according to SITE. "So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

If the video is legitimate, Sotloff would be the second American journalist killed by the Islamic State militant group known as ISIS in two weeks. Reporter James Foley was beheaded in a video released Aug. 19.

Sotloff attended UCF between 2002 and 2004, took a few journalism classes, and wrote for the student paper, the Central Florida Future. He left during his junior year.
read more here

ISIS Video Shows Journalist Beheaded in Iraq

BREAKING: US officials confirm video released by ISIS shows gruesome beheading of US journalist James Foley
BY LARA JAKES AND BRADLEY KLAPPER
Aug 20th 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A grisly video released Tuesday shows Islamic State militants beheading American journalist James Foley, U.S. officials said, in what the extremists called retribution for recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. The militants threatened to kill another captive they also identified as an American journalist.

Separately, Foley's family confirmed his death in a statement posted on a Facebook page that was created to rally support for his release, saying they "have never been prouder of him."

"He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people," said the statement, which was attributed to Foley's mother, Diane Foley. She implored the militants to spare the lives of other hostages. "Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world."

The statement was posted on a Facebook page called "Find James Foley," which his family has used a number of times since his November 2012 disappearance. Earlier Tuesday, a red-eyed but gracious Diane Foley said the family would not have an immediate statement when approached at her home by an Associated Press reporter. A priest arrived at the home several hours later.
read more here