In the newsroom: Moving to the fight in Afghanistan
Published: July 27, 2009
Stripes' Dianna Cahn, reporting from Afghanistan, puts us on the ground with a group of 10th Mountain Division soldiers who have been constantly uprooted during their deployment as they seek to get closer to the Taliban fighters they're trying to eliminate.
Cahn describes their latest abode as a filthy building without running water unless you count the stuff leaking through the roof. There's no electricity and dinner is always an MRE. But being in town is where they need to be to fight the Taliban and win the support of the local population.
Meanwhile, Leo Shane has learned that the Senate will hold a hearing on "don't ask, don't tell" in the fall. It's the first such hearing since 1993 and gay-rights supporters hope it's one of the first steps in the process of repealing the policy against gays serving openly in the military.
And on a lighter note, Tim Flack in the Pacific and Mark Abramson in Europe take a look at the military car culture at and around overseas installations. Many servicemembers use the assignment as an opportunity to buy and soup up some of Japan's and Europe's hottest cars. What many find out too late is that it can cost up to $30,000 to bring them home to the States.
And our favorite non-Stripes story of the day comes from The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. Over the last two days, the paper has delved deeply into the string of murders and other crimes that popped up after a group of Fort Carson soldiers returned from a deployment in Iraq. Since returning in 2006, 10 members of what is now the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team have been charged with murder.
[PHOTO: Associated Press]
