Army pallbearers hold a flag over the casket of Sgt. Edris Viers, an Iowan who was killed in action during the Korean War.

Updated at 2:40 p.m.

PLEASANTVILLE, Iowa – Sgt. First Class Edris Arthur Viers died in a massacre in a riverbed in Korea 61 years ago. He was interred there and then, years later, exhumed, examined and buried again, at the Punchbowl in Hawaii.

Those decades – a literal lifetime for the family and friends and fellow soldiers confronted with his death – passed by without certainty, and without closure. His remains couldn’t be positively identified.

On Friday, at long last, closure came. Eddie Viers was repatriated to the soil of Swan, Iowa, his home, and laid to rest next to his mother and father.

Viers, a veteran of World War II who reenlisted to fight in Korea, was 32 when he was killed in August of 1950 during the notorious firefight at Pongam-Ni known by those who survived it as the Battle of Bloody Gulch.

A hundred or more soldiers from two U.S. Army units were killed in the battle itself, and dozens more were executed afterward by the North Korean forces.

Charles Garrett remembers the battle, and he remembers Viers. He was an 18-year-old private at the time, and got to know the older Viers because they were both Iowans.

“I got to know him very well, because I lived close by and he always had something to say to me.” Garrett, now 80, of Osceola, said. “I remember him as being a very humble guy,”

Garrett said decades passed before he knew the full extent of the battle and the executions that followed. But immediately afterward, before his unit left Korea, he said, the survivors vowed to make Aug. 12 – the day of the attack – a holiday. He’s observed it every year since.

Family members on Friday recalled Viers’ devotion to the Army.

Viers volunteered twice, said niece Mabel Flaig, who was 15 when he was killed, and was in the service for almost as long as she knew him. In World War II, he served in New Guinea and the Philippines. He reenlisted in 1950.

He was “fiercely patriotic” and “married to the Army,” added nephew Jerry Viers. His personal hero was Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

“It’s closure for the family,” he said. “We’re a close-knit family and it seems like over the years something’s been missing, and something wasn’t right.”

But even from across the Pacific, Viers was committed to his family. At his funeral service Friday, Flaig read a letter from Viers to his mother and family written just three days before he was killed. As a dateline, he wrote, “Battlefront, somewhere in Korea.”

In it, he offered a reply for every bit of news that had come across in an earlier letter: relief that his brother’s baby had gotten over an illness, apologies for “Wilma’s hogs” that had gotten sick, pleasure that his sister in law had received the grass skirt he sent her from Hawaii.

He promised to send his mother money.

And in between all the talk of home, he downplayed his own situation. He described a sleepless night of constant and noisy shelling, but added, “I don’t mind because we are dug in pretty good.”

“Well, mom, I’ll write later,” he wrote toward the end of the letter. “Write me when you can. Write me all the news.”

Viers is the fifth soldier repatriation involving the Iowa National Guard since 2006. Bringing his remains home to Iowa from across the seas represents the United States’ commitment to those who sacrifice themselves for its ideals, said Guard Col. Greg Hapgood.

“If you want to be able to maintain a democracy, it comes at a really high price,” Hapgood said. “We have to have a strong defense as a nation, and in order for men and women to be willing to serve they have understand that their country stands behind them every step of the way during and after their duty.”

The efforts to repatriate service members killed in action are relentless, exhaustive and meticulously documented, he said, involving teams of forensic scientists, historical experts and others who travel the world to secure military remains.

Flaig described receiving a book from the U.S. Department of Defense describing its work to identify and repatriate Viers’ remains – efforts that included twice exhuming his body, conducting DNA testing, comparing x-rays and even checking his shoe size.

Viers went unidentified for so long because of his proximity to another soldier of similar age and rank, family members said.

After the service here and all the graveside ceremonials of a military funeral, Viers was buried – once again, at last – at a windswept cemetery outside Swan, the hometown he left to defend so many years ago.

Members of the Iowa Air Guard's 132nd Fighter Wing in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Travis Acheson, far right, is leading the unit's two-month deployment to Kandahar. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Iowa National Guard fighter pilots are attacking Taliban insurgents with bombs or scaring them off with the thunder of jet engines, their commander said from Afghanistan today.

About 300 members of the Air Guard’s 132nd Fighter Wing are serving a two-month deployment to southern Afghanistan. The unit flies F-16 jets, which are flying numerous missions from Kandahar Airfield.

Lt. Col. Travis Acheson of West Des Moines, the top officer on the deployment, said the Iowa planes are mainly assigned to protect U.S. and Afghan troops patrolling on the ground. “Those folks are coming under fire every day, and if they need air power, if they need air cover, we are there to provide them that blanket of security,” Acheson told reporters in a conference call.

An Iowa Air Guard F-16 at Kandahar Airfield. (Air Force photo)

The ground troops often are accompanied by Air Force members, who help guide the fighter jets to their targets, Acheson said. The pilots use the coordinates to ensure their bombs hit the enemy without endangering friendly forces and civilians, Acheson said. Even though the jets are traveling hundreds of miles per hour, he said, the bombs they drop hit within 30 feet of their targets. Some of the bombs can be aimed with lasers to hit a moving motorcycle carrying insurgents, he said.

“It’s very critical in conflicts in this day and age that we carry precision-guided munitions, because it’s very different from World War II,” in which waves of bombers would try to hit one target, he said. “We absolutely have to have that bomb go where it needs to go. … We absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, have collateral damage or any fear of injuring any of the friendly forces.”

Pilots sometimes refer to the modern rules of engagement as “handcuffs,” Acheson said, but the precautions are necessary in a war where insurgents often fight near civilians.

In many cases, the fighter jets fly right over the heads of insurgents to try to intimidate them. “Sometimes it’s just us making noise, and the bad guys will disengage,” said 1st Lt. Ryan Stott of Jefferson. “I’ve actually had guys on the radio say they were nervous and weren’t feeling real comfortable, but as soon as we checked in overhead, making the jet noise… the guys’ spirits will lift up, and for me as a young pilot, that’s a very rewarding mission.”

All of the Iowans volunteered for the deployment. About 250 of them are involved in fixing and preparing the jets, which require 10 to 12 hours of maintenance work for every hour they’re in the air. The planes are nearly 30 years old, so they require extra care. Among the challenges is to ensure that the plane’s engines don’t inhale debris from the rocky, dusty environment of southern Afghanistan. Dozens of Iowans scour the tarmac several times a day, cleaning it of every loose rock, said Maj. Trenton Twedt of Roland, who leads maintenance for the unit. “When I say clean, you can’t imagine. This is cleaner than probably anybody’s driveway,” he said. “There is not a pebble on it.”

The Des Moines unit is slated to lose its F-16s under national budget cuts, which Iowa leaders are seeking to have reversed. If the cuts go through, this could be the unit’s last overseas deployment. In the future, the unit would control unmanned drones, which can be flown from the United States.

Twedt said members talk a bit about the situation, but not much. “Right now, we’re trying not to get wrapped up in what’s going on back home,” he said. “…The big thing is focus, finish the mission, finish strong, come home in one piece, hug our families and shake a lot of hands, and then we’ll deal with that back there.”

Some of the F-16s came from Air Guard units in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., which preceded the Iowans in Afghanistan. The Iowa pilots will fly all of them back to the United States when their deployment ends.

CBS reporter Lara Logan talks to Army Capt. John Hintz of Ankeny after a firefight in eastern Afghanistan in 2010. (Photo courtesy of "60 Minutes.")

A “60 Minutes” correspondent has invited an Army captain from Iowa to accompany her onstage in New York this week when she accepts a prestigious award for a story about the harrowing duty the officer’s company performed in Afghanistan.

Capt. John Hintz, 42, of Ankeny commanded about 100 troops posted at a tiny base in the mountains near the turbulent Pakistan border in 2010. A CBS crew led by Lara Logan lived with him and his soldiers for two weeks and followed them on missions, including during heavy firefights with insurgents. The troops from the 101st Airborne Division were stationed in the same volatile region where 2,800 Iowa National Guard soldiers would spend about 10 months in 2010-11.

Logan’s piece, “A Relentless Enemy,” has won an Alfred I. DuPont Award from Columbia University, which is one of broadcast journalism’s top awards. Hintz said she called him and asked if he would come to New York to be onstage when she accepts the award. Hintz said CBS is paying to fly him out to New York this week for the Thursday ceremony.

Hintz recently started a two-year hitch as the Army’s top recruiting officer in the Des Moines area. He said he routinely shows the “60 Minutes” piece to high-school students, because they should know what they might face if they join the military. “You’ve got to be up front and tell them the truth,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Peter Madsen of Holstein receives his Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals Saturday at Camp Dodge. (Iowa National Guard photo)

Peter Madsen, 38, of Holstein was helping lead a platoon on June 1 when it got into a firefight with insurgents, Guard officials said. He was shot in the shoulder, but he declined medical treatment and continued to help lead the battle.

In a ceremony Saturday at Camp Dodge in Johnston, Madsen received a Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor. A Guard spokesman said it was the highest award given to any member of the Iowa brigade that served in Afghanistan from fall 2010 to mid-summer 2011.

The battle happened in Paktia Province, a turbulent, mountainous area along the Pakistan border, where the Iowa Guard’s 1-168th Battalion was stationed.

His company commander, Capt. Ryan Vogel of Omaha, said the incident happened just outside a village near the company’s small base, Combat Outpost Herrera. “It was in an area that was pretty bad. You pretty much knew that when you went there, you were going to get in a firefight,” Vogel said Tuesday.

Madsen’s platoon was helping Afghan police set up a roadside checkpoint when insurgents on a ridgeline began firing at them with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Madsen was standing behind an armored truck, directing return fire, when more insurgents on another ridgeline fired from behind him. A bullet ricocheted and hit him in the arm. “At one point, he looked down and saw a lot of blood,” Vogel said. Madsen waved a medic away and continued to lead his troops for about another hour, the captain said.

Vogel, who also served with Madsen in Iraq, said no one was surprised by his actions that day. Even though he didn’t have the customary rank, Madsen volunteered to serve as his platoon’s lead sergeant. “He just did a phenomenal job,” the captain said. “All the guys look up to him and respect him.”

At Saturday’s ceremony, Madsen also received a Purple Heart medal for his injury. So did seven other Iowa Guard troops: Spc. Andrew Cohrs, 24, of Woodbine; Sgt. Joseph Daniels, 28, of Carroll; Pvt. Zachary Foster, 24, of Shenandoah; Pvt. Dustin Fuehrer, 23, of Sioux City; Spc. Jorge Sandoval, 34, of Storm Lake; Pfc. Joseph St. Cyr, 24, of Sioux City; and Spc. Justin Weeks, 25, of Manning.

Several other Iowa Guard troops have received Bronze Stars for actions in Afghanistan, and many more have received Purple Hearts for injuries.

Adam Eilers at VA hospital in September

Eilers, 24, of Garber had been in government hospitals since last February, when a Taliban bomb blew up the armored truck carrying him and two other Iowa National Guard troops in eastern Afghanistan. The blast broke numerous bones, including in Eilers’ back, and seriously damaged his brain. He spent about eight months at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis. He originally was slated for release shortly before Christmas, but Thursday afternoon, he stunned his family by showing up for Thanksgiving dinner at his brother’s house in Guttenberg.

“It is the greatest surprise ever!” his mother, Kathy Eilers, e-mailed to friends and supporters. “It has been a very long road, we also know that he is still healing and will get better than he is now in time.”

Adam Eilers, who was profiled in the Des Moines Sunday Register in September, described his feelings Monday in his typical straightforward style. “I’m home,” he said, “so I’m pretty damn good.”

Dozens of other families are still waiting. Col. Greg Hapgood, an Iowa National Guard spokesman, said about 60 of the 2,800 Iowa soldiers who went on the Afghanistan deployment remain in hospitals around the country. They’re being treated for a variety of injuries and illnesses. Another 50 Iowa Guard soldiers are home and are receiving outpatient treatment at nearby hospitals, he said.

Eilers relearned how to walk and talk during extensive rehabilitation sessions in Minneapolis. He said Monday that the VA recently sent him to a hospital in Washington state, whose staff members wanted him to stay for another year. He decided he’d had enough of hospitals, so he signed out and caught a flight back to Iowa. He still needs a cane to walk, but his mother reported that he made it through a transfer at Chicago’s O’Hare airport by piling two backpacks and a rucksack onto a wheelchair and pushing it through the terminal.

Now he’ll stay at home with his family and continue outpatient therapy at the VA hospital in Iowa City. His active-duty pay should continue through January. He plans to resume his beloved hobby of hunting next weekend, and he hopes to return to his security job at an asphalt company next spring.

The 75 soldiers flew and maintained CH-47D ”Chinook” helicopters while serving in Iraq. The units took part in both assault operations and humanitarian aid efforts, and were also responsible for moving equipment and supplies.

In the past, the soldiers from the units have been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers are currently in debriefing at Fort Hood, Texas

Community members are invited to attend a homecoming celebration at 11:30 on Wednesday at the Iowa Army National Guard’s Army Aviation Support Facility No. 3, at 9650 Harrison St. in Davenport.

Iowa Guard officer in Afghanistan

Iowa Public Television’ s half-hour documentary about the Iowa National Guard’s deployment to Afghanistan debuted Thursday night and is available online.

The program, “Iowa Soldiers Remember Afghanistan,” includes interviews with Guard soldiers and commanders, plus video footage from the Des Moines Register and Army sources. It covers key challenges and battles, plus the re-entry into civilian life.

The show will air again at 10:30 p.m. today on IPTV.

The program, “Iowa Soldiers Remember Afghanistan,” will run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 10:30 p.m. Friday on IPTV.

The program includes interviews with veterans of the deployment.

Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle

Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle was wounded July 9 in Afghanistan during an attack by an Afghan police officer on a National Guard unit. The policeman killed one of Eipperle’s comrades, Sgt. 1^st Class Terryl Pasker of Cedar Rapids, and Paul Protzenko, who was a retired Connecticut state trooper working as a civilian contractor. Eipperle ran toward Pasker’s truck and confronted the rogue policeman, who shot him in the hip and knee. Eipperle returned fired, killing the policeman. His commanders said he surely saved several lives by doing so.

The Bronze Star recognizes heroism in combat. Eipperle has already received the Purple Heart for his wounds.

Eipperle was part of the 2,800 member Iowa Guard brigade that returned from Afghanistan in July. He is returning to Marshalltown today after being treated at a military hospital in Kansas.

His welcome-home ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at the Iowa National Guard Armory at 909 Summit St. in Marshalltown. The public is invited to attend.

The awards went to The Principal Financial Group and the Davis Brown law firm, both of Des Moines, and to the Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Department.

The awards were recommended by the state’s Committee of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, whose leaders participated in Monday’s ceremony. Because the employers were selected as state award recipients, they were nominated for national awards. That process led to the Principal Financial Group being selected as one of 15 winners of the “National Freedom Award,” which will be presented in Washington, D.C., Sept. 22.

Members of the Guard and reserves, or their spouses, can nominate their employers for the state awards at www.iowaesgr.org.

Organizers say 450 people have signed up for the second annual “Remembrance Run.” The event, which includes a five-kilometer run or walk starts at 9:45 a.m. at Sandpiper Recreation Area.

Registration for the event is$30, and the deadline is Thursday. In addition to the 5K, the event will also feature live music from Brother Trucker, lunch from Smokey D’s barbecue, and a raffle. A traveling exhibit, Remembering Our Fallen, will also be at the event.

The run is organized by Iowa Remembers, a charity that supports the families the 88 Iowa soldiers and other service members who have died since the Iraq war began in 2003. Many families and friends of the fallen are expected to be in attendance. Amanda Justice, widow of Staff Sgt. James Justice, is scheduled to speak before the run. James Justice, an Iowa National Guardsman, was killed April 23 in Afghanistan.

For more information about the 2nd Annual Remembrance Run, visit www.iowaremembrancerun.com.

The 2,200 member Oklahoma Guard brigade has now lost 10 soldiers in eastern Afghanistan in less than three months. The Iowa Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which deployed with more than 2,800 troops, suffered four deaths in about nine months’ service in the region.

The latest deaths happened Friday, when insurgents in Paktia province attacked an Oklahoma unit with small-arms fire, the Oklahoman newspaper reported. The soldiers who were killed were identified as Sgt. Bret D. Isenhower, 26, of Lamar, Okla.; Spc. Christopher D. Horton, 26, of Collinsville, Okla.; and Pfc. Tony J. Potter Jr., 20, of Okmulgee, Okla. Two other soldiers were injured.

Most of the Oklahoma Guard deaths have happened in Paktia province, a rugged, mountainous area that borders Pakistan. The Iowa Guard’s 1-168th Battalion, which patrolled Paktia province from last fall until mid-summer, saw one soldier killed and several wounded. The Oklahoma Guard took over in summer, which tends to bring the heaviest fighting.

Eric Shinseki said in a press conference that the new computer system will go into use next year and it will help clear the hundreds of thousands of cases that have been trapped in a paper-bound system.

Shinseki

“How quickly does that tide turn? We’ll see. This has been decades in the making,” he said of the snarl. “I’m telling you we start in 2012 and you’re just going to have to help us watch this.”

He said the VA is working carefully to ensure the new computer system works correctly. “You don’t just automate bad processes and expect the best outcomes. If you’re not careful, you automate a bad process and you just get bad outcomes faster.”

Many injured veterans have complained that their disability claims can take years to process, meaning they have to find other ways to support themselves and their families while they wait for an answer.

Shinseki said he doesn’t know why it took so long for the VA to start automating its claims process. He noted that he only has been on the job two years.

Shinseki, who was wounded in combat in the Vietnam War, rose to become a general and chief of staff of the Army. He clashed with the Bush administration when he told Congress in 2003 that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to maintain control of Iraq, a view that many experts later said should have been heeded.

President Obama drew Shinseki out of retirement to reform the VA, and the secretary said today that the agency has made big strides. He said he knows some soldiers now returning from Afghanistan or Iraq are skeptical of the VA’s care, sometimes because they’ve heard complaints from older veterans. “My outreach to them is, ‘Try us. You’ll find us different from the VA you might have run into a few years ago.’” Among the differences, he said, was the addition of outpatient clinics in smaller towns, including 13 in Iowa. “Instead of saying, ‘Come to us,’ this system has provided health care delivery to where they live.”

Shinseki spoke to reporters at the VA Medical Center in Des Moines before heading to Indianola, where he was to hold a round table discussion with about 30 veterans and officials from veterans groups and members of Congress. That meeting was closed to the public, because the secretary wanted to hear frank views, an aide said.

The Army announced Friday that a fourth Oklahoma Guard soldier in less than a week had been killed in combat in Paktia province.

Peterson

The Tulsa World newspaper reported that Sgt. Anthony Del Mar Peterson, 24, of Chelsea, Okla., was hit with small-arms fire during a foot patrol Thursday. Three other Oklahomans were killed in bomb attacks in Paktia province since last Friday. One of those attacks also reportedly killed five Afghan National Army soldiers.

Several Oklahoma Guard troops have been wounded in the attacks. The Oklahomans are part of a 2,200 brigade that replaced a 2,800 member Iowa National Guard brigade in eastern Afghanistan several weeks ago. The Iowa brigade lost four soldiers in combat during about nine months in Afghanistan.

All of the Oklahomans who have been killed were members of the 1-279th Infantry Battalion, which replaced Iowa’s 1-168th Battalion in Paktia. The mountainous province borders Pakistan and has been the site of numerous attacks by the Taliban and a ruthless insurgent group known as the Haqqani network. The Iowa battalion lost one soldier, Sgt. Brent Maher, to a roadside bomb April 11. Several other members of the battalion were injured in similar attacks.

The Tulsa World newspaper reported this morning that Staff Sgt. Kirk Owen, 37, of Sapulpa Okla., died Tuesday when a roadside bomb ripped through his vehicle during a mine-sweeping operation in Paktia province. Four other Oklahoma Guard soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Staff Sgt. Kirk Owen

Last Friday, an insurgent’s bomb killed two Oklahoma Guard soldiers, 2nd Lt. Jered W. Ewy, 33, of Edmond and Spc. Augustus J. Vicari, 22, of Broken Arrow. That attack, which also happened in Paktia province, reportedly also killed five Afghan National Army troops and wounded three more American soldiers.

A 2,200-member Oklahoma Guard brigade recently took the reins in eastern Afghanistan from a 2,800 member Iowa Guard brigade, which then returned home. Paktia Province, a mountainous area bordering Pakistan, was one of the most volatile areas patrolled by Iowa Guard troops during their nine months in Afghanistan. Iowa’s 1-168th Battalion, which had responsibility for Paktia province, lost a soldier, Sgt. Brent Maher of Honey Creek, to an insurgent’s bomb on April 11. Maher was one of four Iowa Guard members killed during the deployment. Several dozen more were wounded.

The World reported that Owen previously served in Iraq, and that he leaves behind a wife and two daughters. Besides being a scout, he was an assistant chaplain, the newspaper said.

The soldiers were identified as 2nd Lt. Jered Ewy, 33, of Edmond, Okla., and Spc. Augustus Vicari, 22, of Broken Arrow Okla. The Tulsa World newspaper reported that two other Oklahoma Guard soldiers and a Mississippi Air National Guardsman were injured.

The New York Times, apparently citing the same incident, is reporting that five Afghan National Army soldiers also were killed in the incident and that the Taliban are claiming responsibility.

The attack happened in Paktia Province, which is part of the eastern Afghanistan region that the Oklahoma Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team recently took control of as the Iowa Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat team returned to the United States. These were the first two casualties the 2,200-member Oklahoma unit has suffered since it arrived in Afghanistan in June. The last of the more than 2,800 Iowa Guard troops returned home Saturday.

The Times said at least three other American soldiers died in July in Paktia province, which is in a mountainous area bordering Pakistan. Sgt. Brent Maher, one of the four Iowans who died in combat in Afghanistan during the deployment, was killed by a roadside bomb in Paktia province April 11. Several other Iowa soldiers were injured in the province.

2nd Lt. Jered Ewy, left, and Spc. Augustus Vicari

About 70 Iowa National Guard soldiers will be welcomed home in Cedar Rapids. The ceremony, which is to start at 12:30 p.m. at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, will be for members of Company A, 334th Brigade Support Battalion, plus some members of Company C, Headquarters and Headquarters Company and the 134th Medical Company.

About 35 soldiers are to be welcomed home at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Northwest Iowa Community College’s Lifelong Learning and Recreation Center in Sheldon. The soldiers are from the 2168th Transportation Company or from Detachment 1 from Sioux City and Detachment 2 from Fort Dodge.

The soldiers are among more than 2,800 Iowa Guard troops returning this month from Afghanistan.

About 70 soldiers from Company B of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion are scheduled to be welcomed back at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

About 70 members of Company A of the Brigade Special Troops Battalion are to be welcomed back at noon Wednesday at Vickie Anne Palmer Hall at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport. (The building is also known as the old Masonic Temple.)

The public is encouraged to attend the events, which are among about 30 such ceremonies being held around the state this month as more than 2,800 National Guard troops return from Afghanistan.

The soldiers, from Troops A and B of the 1-113th Cavalry, are among more than 2,800 Guard members who deployed to Afghanistan last year. The homecoming celebration is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Saturday at Camp Dodge’s Freedom Center. The event is one of about 30 such celebrations being held around the state this month.

Because many motorcyclists have been attending the events, the Guard made a special note about rules for motorcycles at Camp Dodge.  Drivers and passengers must wear helmets with full face shield or goggles, gloves, long-sleeve shirt or jacket, long pants, boots and a reflective vest or belt.

About 50 members of the 832nd Engineer Company are to be welcomed back at 1 p.m. at Mount Pleasant High School.

About 45 members of the company’s Keokuk detachment are to be welcomed back at 2 p.m. at Keokuk High School.

About 110 members of the 1-168th Battalion’s A Company are to be welcomed back at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Carroll High School football complex.

About 165 members of the 1-168th Battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company are to be welcomed back at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.

The public is encouraged to attend the ceremonies, which are among about 30 being held this month as more than 2,800 Iowa National Guard troops return from eastern Afghanistan.

About 130 members of the 1-168th Battalion’s D Company are to be welcomed back at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in Denison.

About 80 members of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion’s F Company are to be welcomed back at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Red Oak High School football field.

The public is encouraged to attend the events, which are part of about 30 such ceremonies being held around the state this month as more than 2,800 Iowa National Guard troops complete their deployments.

“He could have stayed home, and no one would have blamed him,” his pastor, Jeff Timmerman, told family and friends Monday.
Pasker, 39, returned to the dangerous desert with his comrades. On July 9, he went out on what was supposed to be his last mission, a routine foray in Panjshir Province. The U.S. military considered the area so safe soldiers didn’t wear body armor, so as not to offend the friendly locals.

Pasker was buried Monday in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, where he had lived with his wife of four years, Erica. Approximately 1,000 turned out for the funeral at River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids.

A rogue Afghan soldier at  a makeshift checkpoint shot Pasker, 39, for reasons that still aren’t clear. “They don’t answer to their country, they answer to their faction,” said Iowa National Guard spokesman Col. Greg Hapgood, still searching for an explanation Monday.

Pasker and his fellow soldiers were on their way to teach Afghan police how to handle criminal cases. After 182 missions without complications, they were just days from returning to Iowa. A Connecticut contractor also was killed before Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle of Marshalltown, who also was shot, killed the Afghan soldier. Eipperle lived.

Pasker’s former pastor Scott Breedlove, on Monday recalled the Anamosa native and Lisbon High School graduate as a fisher of men and women, who didn’t shy away from a dinner plate.

“I preach about Jesus feeding the multitude,” Breedlove told mourners in a modern sanctuary adorned with a few floral arrangements on stage and the flags of assorted nations in the back. “There were baskets of food left over, so we know Terry wasn’t there. He would have messed up the miracle.”

The remark brought guffaws from the audience, which included Gov. Terry Branstad and Iowa National Guard Major Gen. Tim Orr. Attendees wore in golf shirts and dark shirts, dresses and skirts. The heat index passed 100, but riders on flag-adorned motorcycles waited to escort the white hearse carrying Pasker.

Breedlove said Pasker was one of the leaders of the early church. He taught karate at the building in hopes of attracting new members. He often had youngsters hanging from his well-built frame.

Pasker used that build to beat Breedlove at racquetball, a favorite sport. “I wasn’t very accurate,” Breedlove recalled. “All I knew was to hit the ball hard, but I couldn’t control it. So there were marks on Terry’s back. He never complained; he just stayed patient.”

It was Pasker who taught Breedlove an important Iowa courtesy. When Pasker met someone driving on the other side of the road, he would lift a finger from the steering wheel in greeting. Or he would go whole hog and wave his hand. “I thought he knew everyone in town,” Breedlove said with a chuckle.

“Terry was the most steady, dependable person you could know,” his family said in a statement. “He was unwaveringly loyal to his friends and family, and would do anything for them. He was a very humble and unpretentious man, and those who knew him are proud to have been loved by him.”

Before the service, Pasker’s open casket was at the sanctuary entrance. He wore his dress uniform, white gloves and all. His hair was close-cropped on the sides.

Pasker served with Company B, 334th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his sacrifice, which is common when soldiers are killed in action. Branstad ordered flags flown at half-staff.

Pasker had been a home-builder and joined the U.S. Army after he graduated from high school. He married Erica on Nov. 4, 2006, in Waterloo.

Pasker was the fourth Iowa Guardsman killed in Afghanistan since about 2,800 members of the Guard deployed there last fall.
He is survived by his wife, Erica; his parents, Mary and David Pasker, of Blairstown; brother Andrew Pasker, of Lisbon; sisters Christine Ross, of Oakland, Tenn. and Rebecca Southard, of Salem, Ore.; and grandparents William and Rosemary Pasker.

He performed the feat on his couch Sunday afternoon, making 8-month-old Lola grin as if she understood how lucky she was to have her grandpa alive.

Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle reconnects with his granddaughter, Lola, at his home in Marshalltown. Lola was born last November, on the day Eipperle arrived in Afghanistan. He last saw her during his leave in February. (Mary Chind/The Register)

Eight days earlier and 7,000 miles away, a strange man in Afghanistan killed two of her grandfather’s comrades, then tried to kill him. Eipperle, a master sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, was wounded, but he saved himself and several others by shooting back and killing the attacker.

The incident happened during what was supposed to be the soldiers’ last mission before they returned to Iowa with more than 2,800 other National Guard troops. Eipperle’s trip home included short stays in Army hospitals in Afghanistan, Germany and Kansas. He has at least a month of rehabilitation ahead in Kansas, but he was granted a few days’ pass home so he could attend today’s funeral of his friend, Sgt. 1st Class Terryl Pasker of Cedar Rapids, who was killed in the attack.

The gunman hit Eipperle from a few feet away, but the bullets passed through his hip and knee without damaging any bones. “It’s just incredible,” said the soldier, who can hobble a bit on crutches.

Eipperle, 46, said the shooting brought a bizarre, tragic ending to a productive deployment to Panjshir province, one of the most tranquil spots in Afghanistan. No one in his 10-man unit had fired a shot in anger until last Saturday. It’s a nice, quiet, peaceful little province. … That’s why it was hard for me to realize at first that this was actually happening,” he said of the attack.

Six of the unit’s soldiers had already left the province to begin their trips home. Eipperle, Pasker and two others had stayed behind to finish up a few tasks and to show the ropes to their replacements.

On last Saturday morning, Eipperle was driving a lightly armored pickup truck to a training and farewell meeting with Afghan policemen. Pasker was driving a second truck. As they passed through a village, they saw a broken-down car by the side of the road and an officer from the national intelligence agency waving them down. Eipperle said they didn’t know the officer, but they decided to stop. “I thought, ‘Well, they must need help, and we’re supposed to help,’” he recalled.

His interpreter asked the security officer what was wrong, and the officer immediately started shouting angry questions, including why the Americans were there. “My interpreter said, ‘We need to get out of here. This guy’s crazy.’”

Eipperle radioed the second truck to say they were moving on. But the people in the second truck apparently didn’t get the message, because they didn’t immediately follow. Eipperle said he drove 50 feet or so, then got out of his truck because he figured the radio signals weren’t carrying in the mountainous area. As he waved his arm forward in a “let’s go” motion, he saw the gunman fire a pistol into the second truck.

Eipperle wasn’t wearing his body armor or helmet, because American soldiers don’t routinely do so in Panjshir. There was no time to put the equipment on now, so he just grabbed his assault rifle and ran toward the second truck. He looked in and saw that Pasker and an American contractor, retired Connecticut state trooper Paul Protzenko, were gravely wounded. Then he saw the gunman, who had reloaded the pistol, aiming at him from behind the truck. “I’m pretty sure he was planning on killing us all,” Eipperle said.

Eipperle shouted at him to stop, but the man shot him in the hip and the knee. As Eipperle fell backward, he fired about six times, hitting the gunman in the chest. As soon as Eipperle could collect himself, he fired a couple of more times. “At that point, I wasn’t taking any chances,” he said.

The master sergeant said he didn’t have time to be frightened during the incident, which he figures took less than two minutes. The terror of it hit later, he said. His commander has said Eipperle’s actions undoubtedly saved other lives, including those of two interpreters and a second American contractor.

Eipperle plans to attend Pasker’s funeral, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today at the River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids. He doesn’t think he’ll have the strength to speak publicly, but he’ll quietly remember the way his friend brought life and fun to their little unit. Pasker, 39, had been married for just a few years, and he intended to start a family. He was proud to have deployed twice to Afghanistan, but he was ready to retire from the military and concentrate on his carpentry business.

“He’d be bragging. ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be retired in six months. I won’t be seeing you guys anymore,’” Eipperle recalled with a smile. “He’d harass us every day. ‘You guys are going to be doing drills, and I’m going to be sitting home.’ He really rubbed it in.”

Eipperle, who previously served in Iraq, re-enlisted for six more years while he was in Afghanistan. But because he already has served more than 20 years in the military, he would be allowed to opt out of any future deployments. In fact, he could have declined to go last summer, but he’s glad he went.

In civilian life, Eipperle is a longtime administrator for the Boy Scouts, and he’ll continue to tell the young men he meets about the good experiences he’s had in the National Guard. “I don’t want them to be discouraged about the military,” he said. “I still think it’s a really good opportunity.”

Gov. Terry Branstad, who plans to attend the funeral, has ordered flags to be flown at half staff today to honor Pasker.

In addition, National Guard officials Sunday announced details of three more public homecoming ceremonies for troops returning from Afghanistan:

About 100 soldiers from Company C of the 1-133rd Battalion are scheduled to return at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

About 110 soldiers from Company B of the 1-133rd Battalion are to return at noon Monday at the Marriott Conference Center in Coralville.

About 95 soldiers from Company E of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion and parts of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1-133rd Battalion are to be welcomed back at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

Vietnam U.S. Navy veteran Jake Blitsch of Oelwein took a group of American Legion Boys State boys to visit the Iowa Gold Star Memorial Museum on the grounds of the Iowa National Guard headquarters at Camp Dodge.

Blitsch noticed a portrait of Gov. Terry Branstad on the wall, but not one of President Barack Obama. Blitsch stopped a volunteer to ask him a couple of questions about the museum, among them why there wasn’t a portrait of the president, who is commander in chief of U.S. armed forces.

The volunteer, whose name was “Phil” according to his name tag, said Obama “was never in the service so they saw no need to include him in the museum,” Blitsch wrote in a letter to the editor published in several Iowa newspapers, including The Des Moines Register on Thursday.

“I mentioned the fact that President Obama was the commander in chief of all our military personnel,” Blitsch wrote. “To my absolute horror, he opined without reservation, ‘He may be your commander in chief, but he is not ours.’”

It turns out the Gold Star museum had never displayed a presidential portrait, said Col. Gregory Hapgood,  spokesman for the Iowa National Guard.

Military armories, such as Camp Dodge, are required to post a chain of command, which includes portraits of the president, governor, and commanding officer at the base.

However, the Gold Star museum is a privately run institution with an independent board of directors that is housed at Camp Dodge. The museum isn’t required to post the photo. But Camp Dodge and museum officials have now decided to hang Obama’s portrait.

“It was the right thing to do,” Hapgood said. “The volunteer in question probably regrets that his comments were taken as representative of the museum. It was one individual expressing his opinion — which is what the men and women wear the uniform to protect people’s right to do.”

The move assuaged Blitsch’s worries.

“I’m glad,” he said. “I don’t believe this reflects on the museum. It really is a great and informative place. I just found that answer very disrespectful of the office. ”

Geneva Templeton, of Ames, got a seat in the gymnasium’s first row with her 2-year-old son, Chase, on her lap. The boy patiently held a blue balloon in his hand for his father, Sgt. First Class B.J. Templeton. Chase has gone half of his young life without his father.

“It will be quite an adjustment period, coming home to a 2-year-old,” Geneva said. “I’ve been busy with him and work and keeping up the house. It will be good to have (B.J.) back.”

Before Chase was born, B.J. also served in Iraq. Geneva said that for soldiers returning from deployment, settling in can be both relaxing and difficult.

“It’s never the same,” she said. “Them getting back into finding a job, a normal life, is not always easy.”

Across the gym, Christine Post held up a long banner that read: “Welcome home! We are proud of you!” with photos of her husband, Major Doug Post, and son, Sgt. Mitchell Songer. They served this deployment together in Bagram.

Doug returns today with Mitchell – whose homecoming is next week – close behind.

For Christine, the military is a family affair. Doug and Mitchell also served together in Iraq from 2005 to 2006. They spent Father’s Day together, and Doug was Mitchell’s company commander.

“This is old hat,” she said, straightening out the banner.

She drove to Boone in a red Hummer with a Wapello tag that read ‘GRDFMLY” (Guard family). Its back window has Doug’s and Mitchell’s names and ranks with the words, “’Till they come home.”

That day finally has come.

The soldiers marched out to the gym’s center to great applause and, after some words, a song and a benediction, were released. B.J darted to one corner of the gym and Doug to another, dodging the other husbands, wives and children who ran to their soldiers with a magnetic pull.

“I’m just very positive,” Doug said, alongside most of his family again. “[The emotions] are very heightened when you get here and relaxed when you finally get to your family.”

The tall, stone-faced soldier, Capt. Nicholas Bonifazi of Hiawatha, turned to the 70 soldiers in his company, a military intelligence unit that just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. The soldiers looked back at him and saluted him. They were stone-faced, too, and the hundreds of family members in the gym at Johnston Senior High School were hushed.

(Justin Hayworth/The Register)

“Company B, attention!” Bonifazi said. “Fall out!”

With that, and plenty of screams and hugs and tears, the first homecoming came to a happy end for the 2,800 Iowa National Guard troops completing a nearly yearlong deployment to Afghanistan. Also today were homecomings in Boone and Cedar Rapids, with plenty more to come in the next few weeks as the largest Iowa National Guard troop deployment since World War II comes to an end.

Bonifazi’s wife, Michelle, scooted toward him, carrying Arianna, 2, and Olivia, 10 months. Olivia was born just as Bonifazi was getting ready to leave for Afghanistan in October.

“I’ve got a lot of catching up to do with them,” he said, one girl in each arm. “Coming back to see these guys again, it’s just awesome. Always something new with them. They’ve grown up a lot since last year.”

(Justin Hayworth/The Register)

Within 20 minutes, the gym cleared out, and the newly released troops headed home with their families. What did most say they planned to do over the next few days? Some said they plan to take the kids to Adventureland. But most said they planned to do very, very little, a breather after a stressful year.

That’s the feeling at the gym at Johnston Senior High School as military families wait for 70 Iowa National Guard soldiers to return from their deployment to Afghanistan. The buses are running a couple of hours late for the scheduled 12:30 p.m. ceremony, and hundreds of family members are already filling the un-air-conditioned gym with balloons, signs, American flags and excited children.

Pam Martin clutched three balloons and wore a nervous smile as she waited for her son, Spc. Christian Faust, who turned 21 on the day he left for Afghanistan.

“My other son got sent to Iraq on his 21^st, too,” she said. “I’m anxious. I hear they just passed from Iowa into Minnesota. They’re running behind, which is frustrating. But we told him we’d embarrass the crap out of him. We’re gonna yell and scream and whoop and holler. Certainly there will be happier tears than when he left.”

Three homecomings today – in Johnston, Boone and Cedar Rapids – are the first in a wave of homecomings during the next several weeks as 2,800 soldiers return from the Iowa National Guard’s largest deployment since World War II.

“This is a big thing for families,” said Capt. Nic Jones, a rear detachment commander for the battalion. “We want to be sure we can properly welcome home the soldiers, yet do it in a way that’s efficient to get them back to their families as soon as possible.”

3 welcome ceremonies set for today

Three ceremonies will be held today welcoming Iowa National Guard troops home from Afghanistan:

- Cedar Rapids: 11:30 a.m., Prairie Point Middle School gym. About 50 members of Company C, Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

- Johnston: 12:30 p.m., high school gym. About 50 members of Company B, Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

- Boone: 1 p.m., high school gym. About 85 members of Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

The public is invited.

More than 2,800 Iowa Guard troops n started serving in Afghanistan last fall, as part of the largest such deployment the state had seen since World War II. The troops, who are members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, are all expected home by the end of July.

Here is the schedule for Thursday’s homecoming ceremonies:

Cedar Rapids: 11:30 a.m., Prairie Point Middle School gym. About 50 members of Company C, Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

Johnston: 12:30 p.m., Johnston High School gym. About 50 members of Company B, Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

Boone: 1 p.m., Boone High School gym. About 85 members of Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

About 30 homecoming ceremonies are expected to be held around the state in the coming weeks. The soldiers left for training in Mississippi last August and deployed to Afghanistan in October and November. Four have been killed in Afghanistan and several dozen have been wounded.

Sgt. 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker, 39, of Cedar Rapids, who was killed July 9, 2011, in Panjshir province, Afghanistan. (Special to the Register)

The dead Iowa soldier was identified Sunday night as Sgt. 1st Class Terryl Pasker, 39, of Cedar Rapids. The wounded soldier, Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle of Marshalltown, killed the attacker during the gunfight, officials said.

Pasker was the fourth Iowa Guardsman killed in Afghanistan since about 2,800 members of the Guard deployed there last fall. The second American killed in Saturday’s attack was a civilian law-enforcement official, said Col. Gregory Hapgood, a Guard spokesman. The colonel said he didn’t know the man’s identity or home state.

The incident happened in Panjshir province, one of the most peaceful areas of Afghanistan. Panjshir is a small province north of Kabul that has long resisted the Taliban. It is considered so safe that U.S. soldiers often walk around without wearing helmets or body armor, and they don’t routinely ride in the large, heavily armored trucks American soldiers use in most other parts of the country.

Master Sgt. Todd Eipperle of Marshalltown, who was wounded in Afghanistan on July 9, 2011. He was driving an armored vehicle and exchanged fire with an Afghan security officer who authorities say had just shot and killed Sgt. 1st Class Terryl Pasker of Cedar Rapids. (Special to the Register)

Hapgood said he didn’t know whether the Iowa soldiers were wearing protective equipment. He said the soldiers were riding in two armored pickup trucks, which are commonly used in Panjshir, and they were on their way to a development project.

He said Eipperle drove the lead truck through an impromptu checkpoint, and saw the Afghan police officer wave down the second truck. The officer fired through the driver’s side window, killing Pasker and the American civilian, he said. Eipperle jumped out of his truck and exchanged fire with the gunman. Hapgood said he didn’t know the extent of Eipperle’s injuries, but he said the wounded soldier was being treated at a hospital in Afghanistan.

Hapgood said there was no known motive for the attack.

The deployment is scheduled to be finished by the end of July, and some Iowa troops have already returned to the United States. Hapgood said Pasker and Eipperle would have left Afghanistan within a couple of weeks.

Pasker is survived by his wife, Erica; his parents, Mary and David Pasker of Blairstown; a brother, Andrew of Lisbon; and two sisters, Christine Ross of Oakland, Tenn., and Rebecca Southard of Salem, Ore. Funeral arrangements are pending.

At a news conference Sunday evening at Camp Dodge in Johnston, his friend, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Gronewold, said Pasker was an upbeat, religious man who owned a building contracting business.

“He was a hard worker,” Gronewold said. “You could tell he had that construction mentality.”

Pasker had been in the military since 1990, and this was his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Gronewold said Pasker and his wife intended to start a family after he retired from the military next year.

The 3-year-old boy broke rank midway through a major general’s speech. He hopped off his father’s lap and ran across the gymnasium floor to his grandmother, Lt. Col. Mary Parmenter, who was just back from Afghanistan, standing in formation next to the podium.

The two had seen each other only once, briefly, in the past 12 months, and she folded him in her arms while 1,200 people watched. Then she handed him a rose and sent him bouncing back across the gym while the crowd roared its approval.

The “Dirt Warriors” came home on Saturday after nearly a year in Afghanistan. The Iowa National Guard’s 734th Agribusiness Development Team started or expanded six demonstration farms in Kunar Province along the border with Pakistan, underwrote the planting of 70,000 trees for orchards and reforestation, trained hundreds of Afghan men and women in farming and started a paid internship program for young Afghan agricultural professionals.

The unit was formally dismissed in a ceremony at the Johnston High School gym. Gov. Terry Branstad spoke while the roughly 65 soldiers stood at attention in rows to the left of the stage, each holding a red rose.

“Everybody’s excited to be back, but to stand in formation was an eternity,” said Parmenter, 42, of Perry, after the ceremony.

Lt. Col. Neil Stockfleth, an Air National Guard officer from Sergeant Bluff, said the most satisfying part of the deployment for him was working with six young Afghan men he hired as interns. They were bright and hardworking, and helped the Americans work with the Afghan government or run farms, he said.

“I take that away, how fortunate we were to have those guys,” Stockfleth, 51, said. “I’m hopeful that in the future they can build on that.”

The unit also funded cash-for-work canal cleaning projects that helped irrigate thousands of acres and employed dozens of Afghans. Training for Afghans included instruction on tree nurseries, orchards, greenhouses, row crops, veterinary, rabies control and basic livestock care.

Teams of soldiers also helped women with entrepreneurial projects like soapmaking or sewing, or with basic medical care and hygiene. Sgt. Tessa Poppe, 23, of Iowa City, said her main role was to protect agricultural specialists in the fields. But she and her roommates also worked on health screenings, and helped teach mothers how to better care for their children.

It wasn’t as if the soldiers were free from danger, though. All members of the unit received combat badges, Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood said, meaning they all encountered the enemy one way or another — even if it was through an improvised explosive device or a stray shell.

Branstad thanked the soldiers, who began drilling together in January 2010 and left for Afghanistan in August, for their service.

“Thank you for a job well done,” he said, as the crowd applauded. “You have helped to improve agriculture in an emerging democracy, and the world is a better place.”

Some of the roughest service was at Combat Outpost Najil, a small, remote base in the mountains of Laghman Province. The outpost was home to Company A of the Guard’s 1-133rd Battalion, which was involved in numerous firefights with the Taliban.

The soldiers’ thoughts were relayed this week in an Army press release.

“I like to think that we helped the people here,” said Pvt. Carl Roth of East Dubuque, Ill. “I think we gave them some peace of mind and made them feel safe to live their lives.”

Capt. Jason Merchant of Dysart, the company’s commander, said that when the Iowans arrived last fall, they found that they controlled only a small area around the outpost, according to an Army news release. He said the company got to work immediately on pushing insurgents back and protecting a vital road through the mountains. He said his philosophy when engaging the enemy was simple.

“Relentless pursuit was my intention,” Merchant said.

At the same time, he said, his company worked to strengthen relations with local civilians, so they would stand with the Americans and the Afghan National Army. The effort continued after several civilians were killed during a military operation, the news release said.

“I have to have a unit that can deliver overwhelming force, but one that is also compassionate,” Merchant said. “Connecting with the civilian population supports our security bubble.”

Afghan National Army Capt. Abdul Quader was Merchant’s counterpart at the outpost.

“The groups that were here before us promised the locals a lot of things, so when we came here they didn’t know us,” Quader said. “When we said something, we’d do it; we wouldn’t promise anything unless we were going to do it.”

Some of the 2,800 Iowa Guard troops have started their journey home, which will include a de-mobilization stint at Fort McCoy, Wis. Most are expected home by late July.

Staff Sgt. Daniel Schumacher of Dubuque leads a group of Iowa National Guard soldiers on one of their last patrols out of Combat Outpost Najil June 15. Schumacher is wrapping up his fourth deployment. (Photo by Capt. Jason Beck)

“You’re always going to see fighting in Afghanistan, just because you’re always going to have those groups that are set in their hundreds of years worth of ways,” said Cpl. Matt Macke, 26, of Cedar Rapids. “There’s no way in two years that we’re going to be totally out of there.”

Macke and Spc. Tom Kennedy, 27, of Ankeny are back in Iowa, recuperating from injuries they sustained this spring while serving with a 2,800-member Iowa Guard brigade in eastern Afghanistan. Macke broke his left leg and his right foot when a bomb struck the truck he was riding in April 27. Kennedy sustained a concussion in that same explosion, and then was shot through the stomach while on a foot patrol May 31. The men watched the president’s speech on TV Wednesday night.

The soldiers, who were based at a small outpost in Paktia province, said the Afghan soldiers with whom they were partnered showed the skill and courage necessary to take the lead as the Americans pull back. “Where we were, the guys were pretty spot-on. They wanted to capture the terrorists and the people that attacked us,” Kennedy said. “But I don’t know about all of Afghanistan. I’m sure there’s places where we still need to be.”

Kennedy believes some American units will have to stay in Afghanistan for years to help prevent it from becoming a terrorist haven again. He said he was a bit nervous to hear reports that the president’s drawdown plan is more aggressive than proposed by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. But he agreed with Obama that it’s time to invest more money in tackling problems back home instead of in wars overseas.

Macke also liked that point, and he agreed with the president that the United States should not be expected to patrol Afghanistan’s streets and mountains forever. He also supports Obama’s call for U.S. allies to do their share in peacekeeping efforts. But he said the president’s pledge to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan by 30,000 by next summer appeared to be an attempt to impress voters before the 2012 elections.

Macke also fought and was wounded in Iraq. He said he has higher hopes for that country than for Afghanistan, because Iraq had a fairly modern society and economy before the war. In Afghanistan, he said, “it’s like pulling people out of Biblical times.”

Spc. Devin Snyder

The story quotes Iowa Lt. Col. Steve Kremer, the battalion commander, as saying gender no longer makes a difference in war. “Can that person on my left or right shoot is what matters.”

Spc. Devin Snyder, 20, of New York State, was one of four American soldiers and a civilian killed when a bomb hit their truck June 4. The incident happened near the Laghman province capital of Mehtar Lam, which holds the Iowa battalion’s headquarters.

Snyder’s unit, the 164th Military Police Company, is attached to the 1-133rd.

A ceremony recognizing the 734th Agribusiness Development Team of the Iowa National Guard is set for 11 a.m. Saturday in the large gym at Johnston High School, 6501 N.W. 62nd Ave.

According to a news release, the Guard members, who all have experience in agribusiness, trained and advised universities, provincial ministries and farmers with the aim of building stability. The team left Iowa in July 2010 and served in Kunar province in Afghanistan.

The Agribusiness Development Team is the first joint Iowa Army and Air National Guard unit to be deployed overseas, the Guard said.

About 2,800 troops will be coming back to Iowa over the next six weeks or so, and although most of them will return to their former employers, some will have to find new work.

“The way to best respect and honor them is to have jobs for them when they come home,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Latham. The Iowa Republican headed up a meeting on the subject Friday morning at Camp Dodge in Johnston, which is the Guard’s headquarters. The meeting included representatives of several employers, plus state employment experts.

Col. Mark Johnston, a national representative of the Army Reserve, noted a new Web site, employerpartnership.org, which matches soldiers’ skills to employers’ needs. “Think about it as Monster.com for the military,” he said, referring to the prominent national jobs website.

The Iowa Guard also has an employment-issues agency, the Iowa Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, at iowaesgr.org.

Johnston noted that many soldiers have valuable expertise, such as medical knowledge, management experience and training in driving trucks or maintaining equipment. He said troops are expected to show up on time, work in teams, solve problems and respect authority. “That’s what we want of employees, and that’s what you get by hiring a soldier,” he told the employers.

Col. Steve Altman of the Iowa Guard said many soldiers may want to improve their civilian positions after taking on new military roles during deployment, including supervising others during stressful situations. “Coming back to the job they had may not be fulfilling,” he said.

Experts at the meeting said employers and employees should talk frankly about the returning soldiers’ skills and needs, so both can benefit.

Returning soldiers will fill out surveys about their employment status, and they will be offered help in writing resumes, searching for openings and preparing for interviews. The Guard also will offer advice on legal rights soldiers have to the jobs they held before deployment.

Military leaders said that returning Guard and Reserve soldiers tend to have about the same unemployment rates as the general public. Each soldier should have a cushion of about 30 days’ paid leave, plus up to 90 days of unemployment benefits if they can’t immediately find work.

Spc. Tom Albers, 20, of Alton, was on a foot patrol in Parwan Province late last month when shots started coming out of a nearby building, according to an Army press release.

Spc. Tom Albers (Photos by Spc. James Wilton)

“I felt something hit me in the side of the helmet and was knocked to the ground,” Albers said. “It felt like someone had hit me in the head with a wooden baseball bat.”

As his 1-113th Cavalry comrades fired on the building, Albers was stunned.

“I laid there for what seemed like five minutes but realized later that it was just a couple of seconds. I thought to myself, ‘Am I dying? No I don’t really think so,’” Albers recalled. “Felt my head, no blood or anything, so I thought, ‘OK, what just happened to me?’ I was confused but I turned around and started laying down fire from the direction it had come from.”

It was only after the firefight subsided that Albers and the other soldiers realized the close call he had just come through. A medic looked at his helmet and realized that a bullet had passed through it.

Albers was taken to a hospital at Bagram Airfield, where it was determined that the burn mark on his head was the most serious consequence of the incident.

These pictures show where the bullet entered the front of Albers' helmet, ripped the interior padding, then exited the rear.

The fight happened in the Nuristan Province town of Do Ab, which the Taliban had reoccupied. Forty-two members of the Iowa Guard’s 1-133rd Battalion, plus 16 Afghan soldiers, were flown into the area in helicopters before dawn May 25. They immediately came under mortar and machine-gun fire. But with help from American airpower and Afghan Army reinforcements, they retook the town.

“We had many points through the day where luck was on our side. Our guys did an outstanding job, which led to all of us coming home,” added Lt. Col. Steve Kremer of Cherokee, who is the battalion’s commander. “It’s just amazing to me, it’s unbelievable everyone came out.”

Iowa soldiers injured this week in Afghanistan are, clockwise from top left, Sgt. Martin Ennor, 1st Lt. Nicholas Morris, Staff Sgt. Daniel Wilczak and Pfc. Tyler Sirovy. (Provided photos)

A Guard news release says the blast occurred on Tuesday.

The four were identified as 1st Lt. Nicholas Morris, of Columbia, S.C.; Staff Sgt. Daniel Wilczak, Luther, Iowa; Sgt. Martin Ennor, of Cedar Rapids; and Pfc. Tyler Sirovy, of Deep River.

All are members of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division.

The Guard says Ennor has been sent to a U.S. hospital in German for more treatment. The Guard says medical information about the other three isn’t available.

The mother of Sirovy told Des Moines television station WHO that he was being flown to Germany for treatment.



Sgt. Micheal Sullivan, a 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Task Force Red Bulls, Iowa National Guard operations sergeant from Des Moines, Iowa, deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom crosses the finish line of the 5 kilometer Dam to Dam

Soldiers and civilians at Afghanistan participated Saturday in a “shadow” version of Des Moines’ famous Dam to Dam run.

As in Des Moines, the runners at Bagram could choose between 5k and 20k runs. The Bagram event drew about 300 participants, compared to about 12,000 for its Iowa counterpart. Organizers said it was a way for members of the Iowa Guard’s 2,800-soldier deployment to feel connected to their home state.

Bagram is a huge base that holds the headquarters for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which is the main Iowa Guard unit in Afghanistan. The event organizers invited other soldiers and civilians to join them in the run.

Staff Sgt. Ashlee Lolkus, left, from Chandler, Minn., and Pfc. Ashley O'Hearn, right, from Pipestone, Minn., hold their Dam to Dam T-shirts.

Joe Nichols, 26, was serving with an Army Reserve road-clearing crew in southern Afghanistan in mid-April when someone handed him a phone and told him he needed to call home right away.

Joe Nichols was serving in Afghanistan when his brother Don was killed there. Joe and others in Shell Rock wear necklaces consisting of dog tags and shell casings salvaged from the last time Don was target-shooting with friends at home. / Mary Chind/The Register

He correctly feared that the call would bring dreadful news about Don, an Iowa National Guard specialist posted in eastern Afghanistan.

Don, 21, who had followed Joe into the military, was driving an armored truck on a gravel road when an insurgent’s bomb killed him April 13.

After returning to Iowa for the funeral, Joe considered rejoining his unit and getting right back into the war. “I was mad, and I wanted to get some bad guys,” he said. “But after a little while, I saw the bigger picture. I needed to stay here in Iowa and take care of my family.” Army officials told him it was his choice.

He’ll spend the summer in Shell Rock, and probably go to school in the fall. But he will fulfill the remaining four years of his commitment to the military, which could include more overseas service.

He believes that many Iowans will give more than passing thought today to the meaning of Memorial Day. “In the last few months, with all the stuff that’s been going on, people are starting to wake up to it, and realizing that people are still over there,” he said.

Brothers Joe and Nick Nichols check out the winch on their late brother Don's beloved Jeep Cherokee, which he enjoyed mudding in. The vehicle is now being used by the brothers' father, Jeff. / Mary Chind/The Register

The past four months have been wrenching for Iowa military families, with three guardsmen, an active-duty Army soldier and an Air Force airman being killed by bombs or bullets in Afghanistan. A few dozen others have been wounded in action.

Joe Nichols said he constantly worried that his brother would be hurt while they both were in Afghanistan. After taking the awful phone call confirming the death, Joe flew by helicopter to Bagram Airfield, which holds the headquarters for the Iowa Guard’s 2,800 troops in eastern Afghanistan. He participated in a solemn “ramp ceremony” with his brother’s comrades and commanders at the back of the plane that would carry Don’s body out of Afghanistan. Then Joe and an Army Reserve buddy climbed into the plane to accompany the body on a 36-hour odyssey back to the United States.

Joe wrote a tribute to his brother during the 7,000-mile journey, but he couldn’t bear to read it at the funeral, so a chaplain read it for him.

The family will always treasure the sight of hundreds and hundreds of Iowans waving flags and holding signs as Don’s funeral procession headed to the cemetery April 23.

“You’d think the president passed away,” Joe said. “The amount of people that were lined along the roads all the way there – it was insane. I had friends tell me, ‘Dude, you can’t buy a flag anywhere. They’re sold out for 30 miles from here.’ ”

Last week, Joe Nichols sat in his family’s living room and calmly talked about Don’s death and his own future. Their stepmother, Jeanie, his middle brother, Nick, and two National Guard representatives listened in and shared anecdotes. Bubba, a tan-and-white cat that Don rescued several years ago, made a circuit of the room, rubbing against the legs of people who were recalling his owner.

At the time of Don’s death, Joe was serving on a road-clearance team in Kandahar province. He and his crewmates would spend day after day in specially equipped armored trucks, crawling down roads at a couple of miles per hour, looking for hidden bombs. It’s important work, he said, but it’s tedious and it made him envious of his brother’s infantry mission.

Don was an avid hunter and adventurer, whose prized possession was a jacked-up, 1999 Jeep Cherokee capable of plowing through muddy streambeds. His family said he embraced his platoon’s duty in eastern Afghanistan’s rugged mountains.

“They were always out rucking, climbing mountains, sleeping in the dirt, trying to find the bad guys. He loved it,” Joe said.

Their stepmother looked a bit pained when Joe expressed his desire to honor his brother by transferring into an Iowa Guard infantry unit. He owes the military about four more years, and there’s a good chance he will be deployed again. “We’ll try to talk him out of it,” Jeanie Nichols said of the transfer. “The whole family will.” But in the end, she said, the family will respect his decision.

Joe remembers counseling his younger brother about joining the military at 17. He would give the same advice to any young person.

“I’d tell them to make sure they really think about it. It’s not like ‘Call of Duty 4′ on a Nintendo game,” he said. “If you’re going to do it, it’s serious. Make sure you want to serve for a purpose – not just to wear an Army uniform because it looks cool.”

Don did it for the right reasons, he said, and neither of them regretted joining. “I think it’s one of the more honorable things you could do in your whole life,” he said. “It definitely makes people grow up very quickly. It matures people. It’s been good for me.”

Staff Sgt. Joseph Hamski, far right, shows Kyrgyz army explosive ordnance disposal technicians how a computer system works with an X-ray machine to see inside packages during an information exchange in March 2010. Hamski was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Thursday, military officials said Friday. SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

An Ottumwa native was killed in Afghanistan Thursday while serving in the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Defence announced Friday night.

Staff Sgt. Joseph J. Hamski, 28, died when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

A second airman, Tech Sgt. Kristoffer M. Solebee, 32, of Citrus Heights, Calif, also died in the attack, officials said.

The incident occurred in the Shorabak district of Kandahar province.

Hamski graduated from Ottumwa High School in 2001. He briefly attended Iowa State University before joining the Air Force, said his grandfather, Ray Hamski, 83, of Duluth, Minn.

“He really found himself in the Air Force — he just blossomed into a super young man,” Ray Hamski said. “He was kind of a free spirit in high school and he just wasn’t a college man. But he really shaped up in the Air Force. It’s a devastating loss.”

Hamski was assigned to the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, at the time of his death.

He previously served at Elgin Air Force Base, Cannon Air Force Base and Kusan Air Base. Hamski worked as an explosives and demolitions engineer and trained others how to detect and deactivate bombs.

“You can be thankful for all the lives he saved,” said Jennifer Hensley, Hamski’s sister. “We just sorry he was gone so soon.”

Hamski was the 82nd person with ties to Iowa to have died in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere from combat, illness or accident since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

Hamski is survived by his wife, Air Force Staff Sgt. Maria Christina Hamski, Spangdahlem, Germany; mother, Mary Ellen Winston, a sixth-grade teacher in Ottumwa; sisters Jennifer Hensley of Shakopee, Minn., and Nicole Friedman of Blakesburg; and his brother Thomas Hamski of Nevada.

A memorial service for Hamski is pending at Rede’s Funeral in Ottumwa.

“I believe the time has come for us to begin an immediate withdrawal of our combat troops from Afghanistan – with the goal of having them home by the end of 2011. This isn’t a decision I came to lightly, but one that I have struggled with for some time. Our justifications for going into Afghanistan are no longer valid, and meanwhile, the costs – both human and financial – of continuing this war are just too high.

“Earlier this year, I had a chance to travel to Afghanistan and meet with General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry to discuss our progress there. I spoke with commanders on the ground and met with some of our 2,800 Iowa National Guardtroops who are currently stationed in Afghanistan. I’ve met with too many families who’ve lost a loved one or seen them come home with missing limbs and other serious injuries. I believe it’s time to get as many of our brave men and women in uniform home as quickly as possible.”

Sgt. Chisum Frisch

Four Iowa National Guard soldiers were wounded when a bomb struck their truck in Afghanistan Wednesday.

Guard officials identified the soldiers as Sgt. Chisum Frisch, 23, of Cedar Falls; Spc. Jacob Hutchinson, 21, of Cedar Rapids; Spc. Benjamin Ward, 26, of Rowley; and Pfc. Tanner Williams, 18, of Tama.

Spc. Jacob Hutchinson

A Guard press release said all four were taken to a hospital at Bagram Airfield. Frisch, Ward and Williams are members of C Company of the 1-133rd Battalion. Hutchinson belongs to Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s Special Troops Battalion.

Frisch’s mother, Tracy Frisch, said he told her by phone early today that he and his men were hit while they were patrolling an area that normally is relatively peaceful. He told her the blast was powerful enough to blow his door off the truck. He suffered a broken ankle and broken elbow, and he was to be flown to Germany soon for surgery at a military hospital.

Spc. Benjamin Ward

Pfc. Tanner Williams

Tracy Frisch said her son seemed sluggish from the painkillers when she spoke to him. “Just hearing his voice was all I needed,” she said. “He’s very upset that he had to leave his boys behind.”

She didn’t know how the other three soldiers were faring.

The Guard press release gives no indication of the severity of the injuries. Three Iowa Guard troops have been killed and several dozen have suffered combat injuries since 2,800 Iowa National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan last fall. The brigade is due to return to Iowa in late July.

James Justice of Grimes.

The fundraising event is scheduled to run from noon to 10 p.m.  at Bogie’s Pub,  8980 Hickman Road in Clive. The bands are to include Nothing Special, Sean Bright, MooseKnuckle,  In The Between and The Crystal Blue Band featuring the Hebrons. The $10 cover charge will go to the Justice family.

The event is being organized by friends and co-workers of Justice’s widow, Amanda. Besides music, the event will include a raffle, barbecue and car decals available for purchase. In addition, a portion of Bogie’s sales during the concert will also be donated to the cause.

Donations also are being accepted via the James Justice Benefit Account at Veridian Credit Union, 5910 University Avenue, West Des Moines, IA 50266.

Justice, 32, was killed in a firefight April 23 while he and his cavalry unit were trying to help rescue crew members of a helicopter that crashed. It was the third death among the 2,800 Iowa Guard troops who deployed to Afghanistan last fall. His survivors include his wife, Amanda, and their 3-year-old daughter, Caydence. His funeral was May 4 in Manning. He was buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The donations were collected by students at West Middle School in Sioux City, according to an Army press release. The students’ English teacher is Christine Poeckes, whose son, Ryan Downs, is a sergeant in the Guard’s 1-113th Cavalry Squadron. Poeckes initiated a similar donation drive for Iraqi children when Downs was stationed there five years ago. After he was deployed to Afghanistan, she offered to do it again.

Afghan girls check out new stuffed animals that were collected by middle-school students in Sioux City, Ia. (Photos by Staff Sgt. Ashlee Lolkus)

Poeckes said she suggested that for a service-learning project, her students raise donations for Afghan kids. The details were set after one of her students came in one day with a newspaper picture that showed two shoeless Afghan girls watching U.S. soldiers go by.

“The students came up with different ways to collect donations,” she explained. “They completed public service announcements, posters, and public speaking appearances asking for help in collecting. The response was overwhelming.”

She said they received more than 300 pairs of shoes, plus some socks and various other items.

“We had to cut off collecting in order to find ways to ship them which cost $594 to ship all of those shoes,” Poeckes said. “We had some fundraisers and donations from other school activities and sent them off.”

Last week, Downs and other soldiers organized the children in a line to distribute the treats and other goods while interpreters helped the children find shoes that fit. After a while, the courtyard was bustling with movement and excitement.

“I think the drop went good,” Downs said of the visit to the orphanage. “I mean, kids are kids, right? They looked happy. They looked a little skeptical at first. … I don’t know if it’s going to change anything, but those kids have shoes now.”

Sgt. Tom Peck and Sgt. Ryan Downs, both members of the Iowa Guard's 1-113th Cavalry, hand out donated goods to boys.

Pvt. Alexander Meyer

Pvt. Alexander Meyer, 19, of Ainsworth was wounded during a routine foot patrol. His mother, Shirley Meyer, said today that he is being treated at a military hospital in Germany and hopes to be back in the United States by the end of the week.

Shirley Meyer said she spoke to her son by phone today, and he seemed in relatively good spirits. “It’s never fun to get shot,” she said. She declined to say where he was shot, but she said he will need to go through rehabilitation.

Alexander Meyer joined the Guard in 2009, in the summer between his junior and senior years of high school. He finished basic training last October and was sent to Afghanistan in January.

He is a member of the 1-133rd Battalion’s A Company, which has been helping provide security in a tumultuous part of Afghanistan’s Laghman province.

Three deaths and about four dozen combat injuries have been reported among the 2,800 Iowa National Guard troops who deployed to Afghanistan last fall. The soldiers are expected to return home by late July.

Former Iowan, veterans advocate and independent musician Lem Genovese will play benefit for the National Veterans Recovery Center Project Saturday in Des Moines.

The event is set for 8 p.m., Saturday, at the Fourth Street Theater, adjacent to Java Joe’s Coffeehouse, 214 Fourth St. The National Veterans Recovery Center Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing a holistic treatment facility in Knoxville for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Genovese, of La Crosse, Wis., is a 1968 Des Moines North High School alumnus. He served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam and as a member of the Iowa National Guard in the first Iraq war. He suffered from PTSD after his experiences in Vietnam. He retired from the Iowa National Guard in 2005. Genovese tours the country seeking to educate the public on PTSD and veterans.

Tickets for the event are $10 in advance and $12 the day of the show. To purchase tickets, call 288-5282 or visit www.vnrc.us.