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|Posted by neighboursgroup on August 25, 2013 at 1:55 PM
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Following the recent ministerial decree upgrading Government Secondary School Bafaka Balue to a High School, the Ministry of Secondary Education has assigned a principal to run the institution. This is a move which comes to clear the lingering doubts whether or not the institution was to run this coming academic year to positive.
Meanwhile, the urgent need for atleast four high school teachers to boost the standing staff remains a major priority to the Bafaka population. Teachers are needed in the following departments; Literature, Geography, History, Economics and Mathematics. An estimated sum of 2.000.000 francs CFA would be needed to cater for the sallaries of these four teachers where each teacher is offered the sum of 50.000francs CFA per month for one academic year.
Worthy of note is the fact that just recently a sweeping storm made away with the roof over the principals office, which, given the urgency at hand with the resumption of schools by the start of next month will be needing attention. It has been estimated that close to 1.500.000 francs CFA would be needed to mend the damaged roof.
Generally, therefore, teachers, repaires and invaluable didactic materials for the grand project stand the people at estimated budget of close to 4.000.000francs CFA. The sons and daughters of Bafaka Balue at home and especially in the diaspora have therefore been urged to conduct themselves into freewill donation excercises to help realise these projects.
Blessed E.Wa Ngoe
|Posted by neighboursgroup on March 20, 2013 at 4:30 AM
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The people of Bafaka Balue have resolved to meet the demands of development through community commitment to social responsibility. This was during the annual sitting of the Bafaka Balue Development Association (BAF.D.A), which held at Club 75, Kumba, on Saturday the 16th of March 2013.
The meeting which held under the chairmanship of Mr. Nico Nambo, former president of BAF.D. and the guidance of HRH Dr. Mokube John, Chief of Bafaka Balue, was to discuss major development stakes affecting the people and community as well as strengthen the weakening muscles of BAF.D.A through election of a new executive body.
Chief among the deliberations was the age-old road plight which has kept the Bafaka community in the despair for years. As per the presentation of Mme. Evelyn Namasso, Women Representative of BAF.D.A, it was resolved that maintenance of the Bekora-Bafaka stretch of road would be the responsibility of the female elite. Government and other organizations would however be consulted to solicit for support in the venture.
On education, it was decided that the time is now for the Bafaka people to take the bull of eradicating illiteracy in the community by the horns. The Government Secondary School which began operating in 2005 was seen as ripe to move up to a high school. Meanwhile maintenance of existing infrastructure in the nursery, primary and secondary schools as well as canvassing for teachers was also tabled. General opinion held that to meet up with these projects, it would require the sum of over one million francs CFA. Hence, the sum of four hundred and eighty-three thousand francs CFA was raised through freewill donations from attendants. The money was later apportioned to delegates charged with the follow-up on the high school, teachers and infrastructure projects.
A move towards acute development was the election of a new executive body to run the affairs of BAF.D.A. It should be noted that this was BAF.D.A's first meeting since 2009. Reports from various branches proved the need for a well coordinated and vibrant body to pilot development in Bafaka Balue. Hence, Dr. Nefenda Emmanuel Lenya was elected President with Mr. David Ngomoh as Vice. Mr. John E. Messembe was elected Secretary General for a mandate of three years.
In his speech, Dr. Nefenda promised to hold BAF.D.A in the hand to her expected heights, while leaning on the positive support of all Bafaka people. He pledged that he and his executive would do their best for Bafaka given that all are committed to the same dream of development.
The meeting ended with feasting and cultural fanfare.
Blessed Efilo Wa Ngoe
|Posted by neighboursgroup on March 5, 2013 at 10:30 AM
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Delegates all over the national territory will be converging in Kumba for the Bafaka Development Association sitting, billed for Sunday March 16, 2013.
The meeting will be holding to discuss issues affecting the development process in Bafaka Balue as well as to address the immediate administrative stakes of the association.
The meeting which will be presided over by Mr. Nicko Nambo, the National President of BAF.D.A would be the first of its kind this year 2013. It is expected to be attended by over 200 Bafaka Balue citizens. According to Delegate William Itoe, the meeting will decide not only the fate of the Bafaka Balue community but also the internal reorganization of the association.
It should be noted that BAF.D. A has been existing for over two decades and has been active in the development process of not only Bafaka Balue but that of other communities like Bekatako Balue.
While it is true that BAF.D.A has been almost entirely concerned with the development of Bafaka Balue, many still feel that more could be done to regularize the rugged regions in the fight for development. Chief among such concerns are the issues of education especially of the girl child;d which has been faced with a serious challenge from inception, personal and moral responsibility to the community on the part of individuals and above all, the elevation of Bafaka Balue to greater administrative standings.
"It is for this reason therefore that sons and daughters of Bafaka Balue will be meeting in kumba to device practical measures by which the development of Bafaka could be achieved within the short run." Says Mr. Bertin Sakwe, worker at the Secretariat of the Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Buea.
It has been said that this sitting will witness among other things, the presentation of Bafaka Balue in cuisine, fanfare and communication.


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Movie Musicals
Though I'm very fond of movie musicals, I rarely go to them; or perhaps I should say I rarely go because I'm very fond of them. I may be unduly exclusive in what I want a film musical to be, but among the things I don't want are musical films whose principals don't dance, or whose musical numbers are confined by some "realistic" premise (e.g., a show within the show), or reverential transcriptions of hit Broadway shows. (For reasons one and three, among others, you'll see no review of Fiddler on the Roof here.) Of course, I'm aware that the kind of film musical I want is dead as the proverbial dodo; the last (and, I think, best) instance of the genre at its peak was The Band Wagon in 1953, and it's been seventeen years now since I've seen a film which came even momentarily within striking distance of those musicals of which I'm fondest.
Because I'm fond of movies, I rarely go to Ken Russell movies; I'm willing to waive my right to an opinion on The Music Lovers and The Devils rather than sit through them. But I can restrain my critic's lust for opinion only so long, and so I went to see Ken Russell's The Boy Friend. I gather that the Sandy Wilson show from which Russell's film is adapted was an intimately scaled, affectionate evocation of the stage musicals of the 20's and 30's, and that, to the proceedings, Russell's loveless super-spoof contributes the character of De Thrill, a flamboyant Hollywood director watching the tacky show within the show as a prospective movie property and simultaneously reimagining it on the grandiose scale of his own productions. De Thrill, along with everything else in the movie, is mocked, but what is Ken Russell if not De Thrill, the genius director pouncing on this flimsy work as a vehicle for the display of his own virtuosity? The extension, via De Thrill, of The Boy Friend into the world of the movies allows Russell to add Busby Berkeley-like production numbers to the things made fun of, but it is a bad joke, both because (as Eric Bentley observed in reviewing the original stage show) good jokes are against one's own generation, and because Busby Berkeley in particular, being unintentionally funny to begin with, is virtually parody-proof. (Which is not to say that one can't, as in Singin' in the Rain, do a number wittily imitating the style of Busby Berkeley that actually far surpasses the original.) The laughter of the audience watching Russell's spoof is really no different from that of the audience watching the recent camp revival of Berkeley's own The Gang's All Here, with the exception that there is nothing in the Russell film as funny as the dancing bananas number in the Berkeley. To the extent that outrageous taste and failed seriousness are constituents of camp, Berkeley is the essence of camp; he is the melodramatist of the movie musical, and it is, in great measure, his utter humorlessness which makes him seem so ridiculous. But, though I wasn't around at the time, I doubt, Ken Russell's smug assumption to the contrary, that the audience of the early 30's took Berkeley any more seriously than one does today—that is, other than the kind of people in it who now find Russell's film the epitome of wit and style. And the depressing thing about being in the audience now laughing in condescension at The Gang's All Here (condescension not only toward Berkeley but toward the audience imagined once to have taken him seriously) is that the laughter is so thoroughly an instance of herd response. Individually, most of these people would probably tune out the film for the tedium it mainly is if they happened to come across it on television; collectively, the derisive acknowledgment of that tedium offers an occasion for self-congratulation. Watching The Gang's All Here in this ambience, I had the unpleasant sensation of finding myself once again in a 1950's college audience, whose members could always be counted on to laugh at every film except for a handful of bad ones (as contrasted with a college audience of today, whose members can be counted on to sit with solemn film-cult reverence through every film except for a handful of good ones).
But the tedium of The Gang's All Here (which, apart from the banana number, is far from Berkeley's best work, lacking, as it does, his best work's fantastic energy and manic precision, and the mad splendor these things can occasionally attain) is nothing compared to the tedium of The Boy Friend. At the least, The Gang's All Here has two nostalgia-drenched, 40's-vintage pop tunes in "Journey to a Star" and "No Love, No Nothin'," and room for Eugene Pallette, Edward Everett Horton, and Charlotte Greenwood to do their turns. The Boy Friend has a sweet, nebulous score (the witty arrangement of which, by Peter Maxwell Davies, is the best thing in the movie), a sweet, nebulous leading lady in Twiggy, and a rubber-legged, comic dancer in the Ray Bolger tradition in Tommy Tune, but these small attractions are so nearly buried beneath the weight of the director's ponderous touches as to be all but canceled out. Yet, even had they survived this, it's doubtful they could have escaped the work's prevailing rancidness. Singin' in the Rain, as have other musicals, sharply satirized the vanity of show folk, but Jean Hagen's dumb movie star is treated with an exemplary generosity compared with the characters in The Boy Friend, almost all of whom are seen as positively steeped in malicious pettiness. Russell may think he's making Singin' in the Rain—at the end, De Thrill announces Singin' in the Rain will be his next work rather than The Boy Friend—but The Boy Friend, in Ken Russell's busy hands, is less the kin of Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds than of Malcolm McDowell performing "Singin' in the Rain" as he ostentatiously bashes another victim in A Clock-work Orange.
Probably, a fondness for musicals is impossible to argue objectively; either you like them, or you don't, and people whose tastes I share on almost everything else will still part company with me when a movie erupts into song and dance. I suppose there is some correlation between one's responsiveness to musicals and to fantasy in general. But though successful works of fantasy—in films, works such as Ugetsu and Beauty and the Beast—create a world which, at least for the work's duration, absorbs us and compels belief, musicals, while at their best creating a world, create a world to which, far from losing ourselves in it, we are never quite admitted. It's not merely by random choice that, when Brecht wished to achieve his famous "alienation" effect, he would have one of his characters sing a song.
The Boy Friend is a musical by and for people who don't like musicals, who find them silly. (As if in acknowledgment of that fact, a Mario Lanza film was brought in as a co-feature once business started to sag at the San Francisco theater where The Boy Friend opened.) There is something almost always at least on the verge of being silly about a character in a play or movie suddenly breaking into dance or song, as I who was dragged as a child through the Golden Age of Broadway musicals know only too well. ("Gee, Curly, it sure is a beautiful morning"/"It sure is, Laurie; it sorta kinda makes ya wanta sing, don't it?"—will stand as a composite memory of the experience.) But the musical theater that gave birth to the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics of Broadway Americana also saw the creation of Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls, and Wonderful Town. And, in the movies, during roughly the same period as that in which Nelson Eddy was bellowing at Jeanette MacDonald and Busby Berkeley was staging those exercises in astro-geometry which The Boy Friend spoofs, there were also made, in the best of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films, musical comedies which in their un-pretentiousness and mellifluous grace have arguably never been surpassed, on the stage or in the movies. And later, during the period of backstage biographies of assorted vaudeville stars and Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths (The Dolly Sisters, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, etc.), and, somewhat later still, while Mario Lanza was bellowing at Kathryn Grayson, a different strain of movie musicals was eventuating in works as imaginative and delightful as Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon.
Pauline Kael has described musicals as "at their best . . . an apotheosis of romance," and, while this characterization of them is true enough, it seems to me not quite to define or exhaust all there is to be said about the uniqueness of the genre. When Ginger Rogers, who has been invulnerably resistant to the attentions of Fred Astaire until then, suddenly collapses in a state of rapt amazement at the conclusion of their first dance (to "Night and Day") in The Gay Divorcee, one does feel it to be (though neither dance nor film is at the level of its best) a true romantic apotheosis: a summation and distillation of what it means to "fall in love." Yet if such moments are rarely attained, it's not for lack of being sought after by non-musical movie genres, most of which revolve no less fixedly than musicals around the drama of will-or-won't the hero and heroine get together. Arlene Croce, in a piece on the Astaire-Rogers films which appeared in Ballet Review several years ago and which probably remains the best essay that has been written on movie musicals, has argued for the supremacy among their films (and, implicitly, among musical films generally) of Swing Time because of the primacy in it of the dance: its total propulsion by a series of situations in which the chief issue is, will-or-won't conditions enable hero and heroine to dance. If I persist in preferring Miss Croce's acknowledged runner-up, Top Hat (which never goes dead, as Swing Time occasionally does, between the dances), it's not for rejecting her criterion of dance as the lifeblood of movie musicals. A musical either soars or it is earthbound, and musicals in which the principals don't dance are untranscendingly earthbound from the start. It follows, then, that the question of will-they-or-won't-they get together inevitably translates into will-they-or-won't-they dance in Top Hat no less than in Swing Time, and in every other fulfilled musical no less than in these. We fervently wish to see them get together just so we may watch them dance; and their dancing, the magic they make together, is at once the magnet of their union and its celebration.
When Astaire and Rogers aren't dancing in Top Hat or Swing Time or any of their other 30's films, the films become straight comedies. What happened in the best of movie musicals in the 40's and early 50's was an evolution of the genre into one in which all elements were touched by that sense of lyric flight which theretofore had attached itself only to the moments of actual dance. If this meant that the musical increasingly became a director's medium with its greater emphasis on a totality of style (a director's medium, one should add, virtually all of whose finest achievements are the work of either Vincente Minnelli or the team of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly), it was not for any diminution in it of the prominence of the dancer. Of the musicals of the 40's and 50's I cherish most, I can think of only one—Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland—which doesn't star either Astaire or Gene Kelly, and Meet Me in St. Louis is probably unique among musical films in being able to stand as a wholly achieved work even without its musical sequences. (One might say the same of Cukor's A Star is Born of a decade later, if the Cukor didn't seem really to be a dramatic film with songs added.) But a film like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, despite all the vigor of Michael Kidd's choreography, seems fundamentally to founder in the fact of its stars, Jane Powell and Howard Keel, not dancing but being essentially the stodgy center of the dancing that takes place around them; though the film, likable as it is, falters elsewhere as well. In fact, the masterpieces of the genre are almost as few as its masters: Top Hat, Meet Me in St. Louis, the Donen-Kelly On the Town and Singin' in the Rain, and Minnelli's The Band Wagon, with Minnelli's An American in Paris, despite its tendency to bog down in pastiche, probably heading up the short list of near-misses.
Of these, On the Town might be called the avant-garde musical in the sense that Ford's Wagon-master is an avant-garde Western: a work pressing out to the formal limits of its genre, and becoming, in the case of On the Town, virtually one extended dance with comic-romantic interludes (it's the uninspired comedy which is the film's chief blemish; that, and the largely uninspired score which adds new songs to Leonard Bernstein's original, and inexplicably drops, in "Lucky to Be Me" and "Some Other Time," what are probably Bernstein's best and next-best popular songs). (On the Town is probably also the least sentimental of musicals: at the end, the three sailors leave their girls and return from their day's shore leave to their ship, having formed no lasting attachments, while a new trio of sailors arrives to take their place.) On the Town was made in 1949; Singin' in the Rain followed in 1952 and The Band Wagon in 1953; and, if neither of the latter films seems quite as formally audacious as the earlier one, both exceed it, I think, in the consistency of their inventiveness. But four years after On the Town's adventurous extension of the genre, with The Band Wagon's rich fulfillment of it, the movie musical as an original form in effect simply ceased to exist, leaving, apart from the few films mentioned, mainly an anthology of bits and pieces: the "Coffee Time" dance in Yolanda and the Thief; the "Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" number from The Harvey Girls; the kitschy but irresistible chinoiserie of the "Limehouse Blues" dance in Ziegfeld Follies; the musical numbers, title "ballet" excepted, from The Pirate; and musical numbers from Easter Parade, The Barkleys of Broadway (an oddly sour reunion in 1949 of Astaire with Ginger Rogers), Royal Wedding, and some but not much more. When one speaks of the American Western, one thinks of a rich tradition; when one speaks of the musical, a few masterworks and a miscellany of privileged moments.
And yet the camera gravitates to the dance with a natural affinity, an affinity of media which find their expression in physical movement. Why the genre of the movie musical should have so thoroughly dried up is in part attributable to high finance: musicals are expensive to make and erratic at the box office, and, with the competition from television, it became safer to invest in mammoth adaptations of proven Broadway hits; the question is no longer, will- they-or-won't-they get to dance, but will each new musical sink or save such-and-such studio. But the extinction of the original musical, always the work of a few gifted individuals, is surely owed also to the loss of those individuals' gifts, whether through their retirement, decline, diminished interest, or distraction elsewhere. Musicals are an aristocratic creation; De Sica and others have demonstrated that everyone is a potential film actor, but no one has gone very far with the democratic proposition that anyone can sing and dance (and it is largely this consciousness of its performers' special gifts which accounts, I think, for the exclusion one feels from the world of musicals, and, for me, the faint letdown I always experience at their conclusion on being thrust from contemplation of so appealing but self-contained a fantasy world out into the prosaic streets). Indeed, the film of Guys and Dolls falling flat on its face with Brando, Sinatra, and Jean Simmons under Joseph L. Mankiewicz's direction only goes to show how far good musicals are beyond the reach of even the most gifted, if inappositely gifted, performers. For all the talent involved in the effort, a Guys and Dolls can't even begin to take flight: to convey that sense of poetry in motion which characterizes musicals at their best. And if the "poetry" of even the best musicals is only frivolous light verse, it is this with a perfect sense of its own proportions, and its frivolity of a kind which only a considerable refinement of taste has made possible.
The Band Wagon, in which some performers make a mess of staging a production of Oedipus Rex which they finally scrap in favor of a musical, is a case in point, since what is mocked is not Oedipus Rex and high culture, but the pretensions of theater people who don't know the limits of their capabilities. (A film like Funny Face, on the other hand, turns unpleasant in large part because of its derision, from the perspective of haute couture, of bohemian-ism, existentialism, and intellect generally, which seems inimical to the civilized spirit of its genre, unearned and philistine.) The Band Wagon is exemplary also in its concern, like that of Swing Time, The Pirate, Singin' in the Rain, etc., with entertainers and putting on a show; for, if it is the performers' magic that the musicals celebrate, what they ultimately celebrate is that seemingly effortless art through which, as if by magic, the commonplace is transformed; what they celebrate ultimately is the transformational magic of art itself. Though this is implicit throughout most of the best musicals, it is concentrated into what is almost a fable of the dancer's ability to transform the mundane into the lyrical in a brief sequence from the MGM revue, Ziegfeld Follies, that has nothing whatever to do with romantic apotheosis, and is as beautiful as anything in musicals on film. In it, while the director, Vincente Minnelli, does almost nothing but what is indispensable—that is to say, while he unfailingly respects the integrity of the dancer's space—Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly sing and dance to the Gershwins' "The Babbit and the Bromide"—two men, who have nothing to say, danced by two men, who don't need to say anything. Apart from the delight it provides in itself, the sequence offers now the additional excitement of seeing dance together, under the direction of the genre's most talented director, the two men who virtually divided the movie musical between them, with the irresistible opportunity given to compare them. Yet even to notice how much looser and more "conversational" is the older dancer's style does nothing to detract from the joy of the moment. Gene Kelly, after all, is only a movie star; Fred Astaire, in his own way as fully expressive a kinetic object as Chaplin or Keaton, is in himself a movie.
Among the several good reasons I could think of for not seeing Cabaret was Liza Minnelli. My feelings about Judy Garland, Miss Minnelli's mother and the obvious influence on her style, are extremely schizoid: in her movie musicals through the 50's, I always loved her; in her later, Miss Show Business or Judy-at-the-Palace role, she turned into something I couldn't stand. Miss Minnelli is already a more proficient dramatic actress than her mother probably would have ever been, though I doubt she will ever be capable of a performance of the emotional intensity of her mother's in A Star Is Born: a performance which draws, one feels, in an unrepeatable way on a nervous energy that has very little to do with the controlled art of the actor (Miss Garland's subsequent dramatic performances in Judgment at Nuremberg and A Child Is Waiting convey nothing of that power). Miss Minnelli's first dramatic performance in the lead role of a movie (in The Sterile Cuckoo) already seemed more accomplished than her mother's last ones, but in a way I found myself slightly disliking. I remember watching during, I believe, the early 50's Judy Garland doing a TV version of her Palace act, at the end of which she sat at the edge of the stage, and tearfully thanked the audience for its applause; the next morning, I read that the show had been done without a live audience. Miss Minnelli's acting reminds me of that; I feel similarly manipulated, similarly the victim of what seems always to verge on tear-jerking.
Miss Minnelli's singing, however, is something about which my feelings are entirely unmixed. Like her mother in her Palace role, and the interim heir to Garland's mantle, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, singing, is, not to put too fine a point on it, the ne plus ultra of tastelessness, a load of loud-mouthed, show-biz schmaltz. Like her predecessors in the tradition, Miss Minnelli isn't a singer but a belter; she doesn't sing a song, she sells it; and, whenever she opens her mouth to sing, in Cabaret or out, it's strictly Las Vegas. To say that a little of Garland (outside her movies) or Streisand or Minnelli sends me rushing for the antidote of some Ernestine Anderson or Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday is unfairly to load the comparison; one need hardly go to jazz to find a musical style and level of musicianship to use as a stick to beat Miss Streisand and Minnelli with. The fact is their muse isn't musical at all, but histrionic: every song becomes either a big, get-happy production number or a miniature tragedy. Nor is it a question of unfairly judging one style by the standards of another. The Garland-Streisand-Minnelli style, trading as it does in trumped-up emotion, is in itself an artistically corrupt one.
There was, however, one good reason for me to see Cabaret, and that was its director and choreographer, Bob Fosse. My affection for Fosse stems from his work as choreographer and dancer in the 1955 musical version of My Sister Eileen, an amiable film with two numbers, a dance of two rival suitors in an alley and an elaborate conga, that are among the wittiest sequences in movie musicals I know. That affection wasn't quite strong enough to bring me to see Fosse's one previous film as a director, Sweet Charity, since my feeling about remakes of Broadway shows applies a fortiori to shows that are themselves, as they increasingly are, remakes of old movies (Sweet Charity being a musical version of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria; as I write, plans have been announced for a stage version of An American in Paris). But, on the strength of Cabaret, I regret that I missed Sweet Charity, for it must be said that Cabaret is, for only the second work of its director, an enormously impressive accomplishment. (I assume here what I cannot know: that the accomplishment is the director's. I've had occasion to admire the work of the film's photographer, Geoffrey Unsworth, before.) Fluently paced and cut together, firm in its command of composition and color, above all, stylistically controlled, Cabaret is virtually a showpiece of what, at its smoothly professional best, a conventionally well-made film might be.
But for all the skillfulness with which it has been made, what is it? I'm not much concerned with the movie's degree of faithfulness to Isherwood's original Berlin Stories; who in his right mind would attempt to judge a Liza Minnelli musical brought to the screen via Broadway by its fidelity to some short stories in the distant past of a series of adaptations? (Nor am I really able, some twenty years after having read them, to make any such detailed judgment without rereading; for all I know, the movie's maudlin sub-plot about an assimilated gigolo finding the courage to assert his Jewish identity in his true love for a Jewish girl may have its source in the original, though I rather doubt it.) But I do recall the stories well enough to be conscious of one large deviation from their spirit, which, original or no, is crushingly destructive to the present version, and that is its relentless moralizing. Continually played off against the private drama of Sally Bowles and her circle, and the world of the Kit Kat Klub where she works, is the rise of Nazism as seen in street beatings and murders, anti-Semitic persecution, and, in the heaviest touch of all, a proto-rally that begins with a close-up of the face of a blond, angelic boy from which the camera pans down to reveal the uniform of the Hitler Youth as he leads the crowd assembled in a beer garden in singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me." Indeed, the scenes of Sally and the cabaret are at times intercut with these others so as to suggest that the former are somehow responsible for the latter, or at least partially culpable in its decadence and political apathy. There is, I suppose, some truth to the charge of culpability, but only insofar as it might be leveled at German society at large, decadent and otherwise, for which (not to say for Weimar culture) the synecdoche of the Kit Kat Klub makes a pretty flimsy stand-in. But what really makes the equation of private decadence and public totalitarianism insupportable is the fact of the film's playing the Sally Bowles scenes for heartache and poignancy, with Liza Minnelli only intensifying the conception of Sally as decadent waif (who got that way because her father didn't love her). It's as though the film were trying to balance on some scale a bowl of mush and the phalanx of Hitler's advancing army.
Of course, it's only a musical, you can say, which might be all right if Cabaret didn't have pretensions to being, in the words of its television advertisements, "more than a musical," or at least, and on more internal evidence, an "adult" musical, in touch with reality. (In fact, the film's one formal innovation—its restriction of its musical numbers to the stage of the cabaret while at the same time integrating them wholly with the non-musical drama—creates for me the effect of Cabaret's not being a musical at all, but I won't press here for the exclusivity of my definitions.) The film's actual distance from this is damningly suggested by the gestures toward Weill and Brecht in the scenes with Joel Grey in the cabaret, which only serve to remind one of the distance between The Threepenny Opera (not to say Mahagonny) and Cabaret's watered-down simulacrum. And, though Joel Grey does look like an acceptable facsimile in his white-face, death's-head make-up, his voice is at once thin and lacking in a cutting edge, while the musical score, when not instantly unmemorable, has a tendency to stick in one's mind in the rather hateful manner of "Hello, Dolly" and the jingles in some TV commercials. (Elsewhere, when it's not tugging on your heartstrings or imitating Weill and Brecht, the film is recreating figures from George Grosz in the cabaret audience in the literalistic fashion of Moulin Rouge's recreations of Lautrec; not that such pastiche is unacceptable in a musical, Moulin Rouge itself having the effect of turning into a musical in one's memory at this distance from it.)
In fact, Cabaret is an adult musical in the same way that High Noon is an adult Western: adult by virtue of its wholesale infusion into its genre of the most cherished of liberaloid pieties and a free-floating, generalized pessimism. I hate to think of the consequences were Cabaret's success, like High Noon's, to spawn a flock of imitations: blue skies into gray, and all the downbeat trappings of Hollywood-style maturity. There has, of course, always been in American films a flirtation with a pessimism as shallow as the optimism of the standard Hollywood happy ending: a conviction that unhappy endings are in themselves more honest and "true to life"; and the pessimism of Cabaret (whose ending is perhaps not unhappy but "ambiguous") seems only the latest, if best dressed, embodiment of these things. I don't mean to suggest that musicals, quite apart from those of Brecht and Weill, can't of their nature cope successfully with emotions other than the high-spirited; Minnelli's films, in particular, have often been touched by a sense of melancholy. What I mean is quite simply that Cabaret is only the counterfeit of such a musical: that the Weltschmerz of Cabaret is not more but less profound than the gaiety of Top Hat, Singin' in the Rain, and (when it is gay) The Band Wagon.


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All diatom cells have an older and a younger half-wall, known as the epi- and hypo-theca respectively. When diatom cells divide vegetatively, the two offspring inherit one half-wall but must generate a new half-wall (semi-conservative wall development). Thus the hypotheca of the parent cell becomes the epitheca of one of the offspring (the epitheca of the parent becomes the epitheca of the other offspring).
New walls are formed within the protoplast of the offspring, in a special membrane-bound vesicle, the silica deposition vesicle (SDV). When the new half-wall is complete, there is reorganisation of the plasmalemma (cell membrane) and the silicalemma (membrane of the SDV), so that the inner face of the SDV becomes part of the plasmalemma.
The close juxtaposition of developing sibling valves means that they sometimes have corresponding humps and depressions, but also that they can become linked together to form colonies by the formation of interlocking spines around their margins. This is particularly found in diatoms that live in the plankton.


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Deferred Payment Plan
Deferred Payment Plan *Update 08/12/2011*
A Deferred Payment Plan exists for those students who prefer to pay in five monthly installments. A non-refundable participation fee of $40 will be assessed to your CARS account for each semester that the Deferred Payment Plan is utilized.
Enrollment in the Deferred Payment Plan is done through the e-billing system. To enroll, submit the amount of the first installment noted in the "Deferred Payment Amount Due" box of the e-billing statement via e-Check. The account will not be on the plan until the first payment is received; subsequent payment amounts will be included in the "Minimum Amount Due" box listed on the monthly bill.
Financial Aid and the Deferred Payment Plan
Students receiving financial aid for a portion of their fees may choose to utilize the Deferred Payment Plan as well. The student's financial aid disbursement is applied toward the payments when it disburses, usually after the first bill is generated. Consequently you are still responsible for the first installment until the funds actually disburse.


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Five Best Tweets From Cardinals Epic 8th-Inning Meltdown
Categories: Cardinals
|Cards recovering from nasty case of twitterhea.
As you might imagine, the #stlcards hashtag on Twitter was on fire last night during the eighth inning, with hundreds of Cardinals fans voicing their frustration. Here, then, are my five favorite musings from last night...
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WASHINGTON - President Bush made the plea to the American public during his address to the nation June 28, and now Defense Department leaders are asking Congress to go out and do the same. That is to ask Americans, especially those of enlistment age, to step up and serve their country.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has recovered the bodies of the aircrew and passengers aboard a MH-47 Chinook helicopter that was reported shot down by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan June 28, the Defense Department announced today.
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - A routine orientation flight turned out to be anything but routine, at least for three Afghan children stranded in the middle of a flooded river near Salerno, Afghanistan, June 29.
ATLANTA - Country music artist Mark Wills didn't deliver a speech during the Military Child Education Coalition lunch and opening general session here June 29, but he spoke to the more than 550 conferees in the international language: music.
WASHINGTON - Insurgents in Iraq are increasingly employing suicide bombers and roadside explosives and not engaging U.S. and coalition forces in stand-up battles like the one at Fallujah last fall, a senior U.S. military officer said in Baghdad today.
WASHINGTON - Iraqi security forces detained eight suspected terrorists June 29 in eastern Baghdad during combined operations, military officials in Iraq reported.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers held the first worldwide town hall meeting today at the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON - Probably no example in modern history matches the extent of the effort going into ensuring the fairest and most humane treatment possible for enemy combatants being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the task force commander there asserted today during questioning by the House Armed Services Committee.
WASHINGTON - In anticipation of upcoming Independence Day celebrations, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers asked for support of the troops and expressed confidence in the American people's spirit during a Pentagon town hall meeting today.
WASHINGTON - President Bush's nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff laid out his priorities during confirmation hearings at the Senate Armed Services Committee here today.
WASHINGTON - The families of three U.S. servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam and Korean conflicts will lay their loved ones' remains to rest in early July.
WASHINGTON - When Karen Grimord found out in August 2004 that war-wounded servicemembers were spending long days and nights at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany without any entertainment in their hospital rooms, she decided to do something about it.
WASHINGTON - Members of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Cuba, go to great lengths to respect the religious practices and beliefs of an estimated 520 enemy combatants being detained there, senior task force leaders told Congress today.
STUTTGART, Germany - Sworn enemies during the Cold War, the Republic of Georgia - part of the former Soviet Union -- and the United States are brothers in arms now, forming friendships and training side by side.
WASHINGTON - The plan to relocate troops from overseas bases back to the United States as part of the Defense Department's Global Defense Posture Realignment will mean less stress on military people and their families, DoD officials told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee here June 28.
WASHINGTON - If you're a Muslim extremist captured while fighting your holy war against "infidels," avoid revealing information at all costs, don't give your real name and claim that you were mistreated or tortured during your detention.
ATLANTA - More than 550 people from around the world are gathered here for the three-day Military Child Education Coalition's 7th annual conference that starts today. This year's conference theme is "Making Connections for Children."
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO's International Security Assistance Force deployed its Quick Reaction Force to the area of the Farah provincial reconstruction team in western Afghanistan, an ISAF spokesman said during a news briefing at ISAF headquarters here today.
WASHINGTON - Task Force Liberty soldiers seized a number of weapons and found a pair of weapons caches in north central Iraq today, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - Seventeen servicemembers were on board a CH-47 Chinook helicopter that crashed in mountainous terrain west of Asadabad, Afghanistan, June 28, military officials said today.
WASHINGTON - President Bush said troop levels in Iraq are where military commanders want them and explained why he believes setting a deadline for their withdrawal would be a mistake in a nationally televised June 28 speech at Fort Bragg, N.C.
WASHINGTON - President Bush tonight expressed his gratitude to the nation's military members and their families, and urged the American people to take time on Independence Day to make their own gesture of thanks.
WASHINGTON - On the one-year anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq to a transitional Iraqi government, President Bush tonight promised that U.S. forces would remain in Iraq until the job is complete, "but not one day longer."
WASHINGTON - June 28 marks 60 years since representatives from 50 nations signed the United Nations Charter in a ceremony in San Francisco.
ATLANTA - Home Depot announced today all active duty personnel, reservists, retired service members, veterans and their families will receive 10 percent off their purchases in recognition of Independence Day.
NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Camp 4, the only medium-security camp at Guantanamo Bay, is the most sought-after camp here for detainees here. It's reserved only for those who live by the camp rules and offers them the privilege of living in a communal setting that offers more freedoms and perks than less-cooperative detainees receive.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld took to the airwaves June 27 to clear up what he characterized as "misinformation" by the media about the war in Iraq, telling radio listeners in Kansas City, Mo., that "the news media seem to want to carry the negative."
WASHINGTON - Air Force Reserve Maj. Eduardo Alzona, an Air Reserve attache with the U.S. Defense Attache Office at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, is proficient in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Tagalog and Arabic. And DoD is targeting people like him -- reservists and guardsmen with specialized skills -- more and more to fill specific unique positions.
SHOAL WATER BAY TRAINING AREA, Australia - Dropping in and destroying enemy ground forces is the specialty of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. Based at Fort Richardson, Alaska, the unit is playing a pivotal role this week in Talisman Saber '05, a combined joint exercise with Australian forces.
STUTTGART, Germany - The $64 million Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program, known as GSSOP and administered by U.S. European Command, recently began a 15-month run and is the answer to Georgia's commitment to deploy troops to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department will work with the Veterans Affairs Department to help cover a shortfall in VA funds due to increased dental benefits claimed by returning veterans of the global war on terror, a top DoD health official told Congress today.
WASHINGTON - Oakland Athletics pitcher Barry Zito has decided to support America's troops by helping to make wounded servicemembers a bit more comfortable while they recover.
WASHINGTON - A year to the day after a new, democratic government assumed sovereignty in Iraq, insurgents there still are seeking to derail the country's political progress through violence, the State Department's senior official said today.
WASHINGTON - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation signed a statement of support for the Guard and Reserve here June 23.
WASHINGTON - Two Task Force Liberty soldiers were killed today in separate suicide car-bomb attacks in Iraq, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - A perceived increase in violence in Iraq does not mean insurgents are winning or that progress is slowed, top military leaders said today in a news conference at the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON - The National Military Family Association honored Air Force Gen. Richard B. and Mary Jo Myers during the group's annual luncheon today.
NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - In its quest to provide the fairest treatment possible for enemy combatants detained here, the Defense Department is constantly fine-tuning the practices and procedures in place and introducing new ones as appropriate, according to DoD's detainee affairs chief.
WASHINGTON - A major home-improvement store chain is offering all active, reserve and retired military personnel and their immediate family members a 10 percent discount on in-store purchases made during the July 4 holiday weekend.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Being thrown around in the dirt after working a 12- to 15-hour shift in a combat zone may not be an ideal ending to the day. But 14 soldiers, sailors and airmen at Camp Eggers, Afghanistan, volunteered for it.
WASHINGTON - Marines, former Marines, family members and guests were treated to a big-screen showing of the "Rockin' the Corps" concert June 26 at the Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14 theater here.
WASHINGTON - The momentum in Iraq has swung toward democracy and against terror, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said on ABC's "Good Morning America" program today.
WASHINGTON - An American helicopter crashed at approximately 11 a.m. local time today northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, killing two soldiers, military officials in Iraq reported.
WASHINGTON - Though a "legitimate national debate" can be had over the status of military detainees being at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld insisted today that the detainees are being treated humanely.
WASHINGTON - The Shiia majority in the Iraqi government drew praise from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today for reaching out to political opponents who might be amenable to working within that country's nascent political framework.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today vigorously disputed the notion that the Army is in danger of being "broken" by its recent overseas commitments and recruitment challenges.
WASHINGTON - The "solid progress" being made in Iraq seldom gets the same level of media attention as terrorist killings and beheadings there, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today.
WASHINGTON - A Task Force Liberty soldier was killed and two others were wounded today by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, military officials in Iraq reported.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld clarified widespread media and legislative confusion over the status of U.S. and Iraqi security forces when he appeared today on NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week," and "Fox News Sunday."
WASHINGTON - Insurgents "don't have a chance" provided the United States stays the course in Iraq, Army Gen. John Abizaid said today on CBS's Face the Nation and CNN's Late Edition.
WASHINGTON - Coalition forces discovered and neutralized four improvised explosive devices June 24(in Afghanistan, Combined Forces Afghanistan officials reported today.
WASHINGTON - Two Marines assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) who were previously listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown" are now confirmed dead, military officials in Baghdad, Iraq, reported today.
WASHINGTON - America has a winning "two-track strategy for victory" in Iraq that is vital to the safety and well-being of the American people, President Bush said today in his weekly radio address.
NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Talk about troops fighting the war on terror, and most minds leap immediately to Iraq and Afghanistan. But servicemembers serving here say they feel the important contribution they're making to the effort sometimes gets overlooked.
WASHINGTON - With President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on hand to enjoy a night of major league baseball, the first-place Washington Nationals paused to honor the military before the team's interleague game against the Toronto Blue Jays at RFK Stadium here June 24.
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - The Afghan National Army and local government officials coordinated efforts with coalition forces to rescue 119 Afghans stranded on a small island by floodwaters June 23.
SHOALWATER BAY TRAINING AREA, Australia - U.S. and Australian military forces participating in Exercise Talisman Saber '05 near the Great Barrier Reef get special instruction on the unique Southern Hemisphere environment.
WASHINGTON - Amid recent reports of a dip in public opinion about the war in Iraq, top military leaders said that although difficult times are ahead, progress is being made in Iraq.
WASHINGTON - Camp Island Lake, a summer camp for kids in Starrucca, Pa., is giving away 30 free spaces this summer to children of military personnel who have served overseas since Sept. 11, 2001.
WASHINGTON - There will not be any timetables to schedule the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq, President Bush said today at a White House news conference.
WASHINGTON - Media reports that Americans are losing support for the war effort concern military leaders and troops serving abroad, the general responsible for troops in the Middle East said in congressional testimony here June 23.
WASHINGTON - More than 80 nations and organizations from around the world gathered in Brussels, Belgium, June 22 to support the Iraqi transitional government and its vision and priorities for the future.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. strategy is correct, and America must stay the course in Iraq, the nation's top military officer told the House Armed Services Committee here June 23.
WASHINGTON - The results in Iraq are worth the costs, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee here June 23.
WASHINGTON - Increased violence and a growing number of foreign insurgents are signs that the United States is close to accomplishing its objective in Iraq, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer June 23.
WASHINGTON - Two Marines assigned to 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) were killed and 13 were wounded when a suicide car bomber struck their convoy June 23 in Fallujah, Iraq, U.S. military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - The term "all-volunteer force" is a misnomer, a senior Defense Department personnel official said here June 23. In truth, the U.S. military is an "all-recruited force," and its success depends on recruiters having access to potential recruits, David S. C. Chu, undersecretary for personnel and readiness, told reporters in the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON - Seeing servicemembers return from battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan missing arms and legs or paralyzed was so heartrending for Victoria Mosier that she quit her full-time job to help improve their quality of life.
WASHINGTON - America is not losing the war in Iraq, and despite the insurgency's efforts at disruption, the political process will continue on schedule through elections planned there for December, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in radio interviews June 21.
WASHINGTON - Afghanistan "has come alive," thanks to progress made during Operation Enduring Freedom, and troops serving there can't help but feel motivated knowing the role they're playing in that progress, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe said here today.
WASHINGTON - The transformation taking place throughout the Defense Department started early for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, which began reshaping and repositioning its assets 15 years ago and is now better prepared to support the war on terror, the command's top officer said today.
WASHINGTON - There has been no torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a series of radio interviews June 21. In fact, he added, the facility there is being run as a model detention facility.
WASHINGTON - Setting a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal in Iraq would be a mistake, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee here today.
WASHINGTON - A device for detecting early stages of breast cancer is being developed at the University of Pennsylvania and partly funded by the Defense Department.
WASHINGTON - The second year of "Operation Purple" summer camps had its ceremonial kickoff with a reception at the Russell Senate Office Building here June 22.
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - With increased awareness about the capabilities and uses of nonlethal weapons, the Marine Corps detachment here that instructs trainers for all the military services may soon be expanding its program.
WASHINGTON - Iraqi security forces and U.S. Marines and sailors with Regimental Combat Team 2 completed Operation Spear on June 22, concluding a five-day operation in and around the city of Karabilah, near Iraq's border with Syria, military officials in Baghdad reported today.
WASHINGTON - Coalition forces raided and destroyed a hideout used by associates of fugitive Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi today, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - Air Forces officials have instituted changes designed to stop instances of religious intolerance. The changes came as a result of an investigation into allegations of religious disrespect at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
WASHINGTON - Money dispersed by the Coalition Provisional Authority from the Development Fund for Iraq were properly distributed to the new Iraqi government in an open and transparent manner, Defense officials told Congress June 21.
WASHINGTON - Just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ellen Harpin sat in her Florida home and began to knit a pair of slippers for a sailor aboard the USS Bataan. The sailor had responded to an "any sailor" letter and had asked Harpin, an avid knitter, if she'd make her a pair of slippers.
CAMP ROCKHAMPTON, Australia - Friendship and firepower reigned June 12 as American and Australian forces kicked off Talisman Saber '05.
WASHINGTON - More violence by Taliban extremists is expected when Afghan voters go to the polls Sept. 18 to elect a national assembly and provincial councils, Defense Department officials said today.
STUTTGART, Germany - Often overlooked and little-publicized, the people who work in the Defense Department's Humanitarian Assistance Program are accustomed to living in the shadows, content to go about the business of winning hearts and minds in the host nations the program serves.
WASHINGTON - "Operation Purple Hearts" is not about the well-known medal awarded to those wounded in war, but about honoring heroes by helping them and their families overcome difficulties associated with military service.
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - "There's no silver bullet" for dealing with improvised explosive devices killing and wounding U.S. troops in Iraq, the chief of staff for the Army Engineer School here told American Forces Press Service.
WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government and the international community are in Belgium today discussing priorities, aspirations and expectations for the future, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in opening remarks at the Brussels Conference hosted by the United States and the European Union.
WASHINGTON - A $10,000 check is a wonderful reward for doing something you'd do anyway without even thinking about being paid for your efforts. That's how much money "Operation Helping Hand" was granted on June 20 as the first-place winner in the 2005 Newman's Own Awards competition.
WASHINGTON - Afghan and coalition forces killed about 40 enemies June 21 in fighting southwest of Deh Chopan, Afghanistan, after insurgents attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, military officials reported today.
WASHINGTON - A soldier was killed June 21 by small-arms fire during combat operations near Ramadi, Iraq, according to U.S. officials at Camp Fallujah.
WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps is adapting the way it protects its servicemembers against improvised explosive devices, according to a statement read to the House Armed Services Committee here today.
WASHINGTON - Today's meeting between President Bush and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai represents an important step forward as the two countries put the past behind them and build on common ground, the Pentagon's international security affairs chief said today.
DENVER - When Lowry Air Force Base, Colo., was selected to be shuttered as part of the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Act, many recession-battered Denver residents thought the end had come to the "Mile High" city.
WASHINGTON - With the one-year anniversary of the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi government approaching, the commander of ground troops there today said he is pleased with the progress being made in the country.
WASHINGTON - Five-year-old Lydia Townsend, of Rockford, Mich., loves the troops and wants them to know To show her appreciation for their sacrifice, she has transformed ordinary rocks into "Freedom Rocks" by painting them with American flags.
WASHINGTON - The recently escalating insurgency in Iraq cannot stop the rapid, revolutionary political change that is occurring there, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a TV interview June 20 in Cairo, Egypt.
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - First responders will soon have a state-of-the-art facility here to hone the skills they'll need to deal with weapons of mass destruction and other chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological incidents.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon Channel, a Defense Department news and information service, has added two new television markets to its audience.
ARLINGTON, Va. - They were elated, yelling with joy. Some of them even hugged the defense official who announced June 17 that the Vietnamese government had agreed to allow Americans to visit the site where seven soldiers perished in a plane crash on Jan 3, 1971. But the excitement didn't last long.
WASHINGTON - A soldier with the 1st Corps Support Command was killed today in an improvised-explosive-device attack while on patrol west of Rutbah, Iraq, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - Eleven volunteer organizations that reach out to help improve the quality of life of military families took home between $2,500 and $10,000 today to help them continue their work in military communities.
WASHINGTON - To meet post-Sept. 11 security responsibilities, the United States Coast Guard has crafted and is implementing a transformation policy to ensure America's coastlines and waterways are safe, the Coast Guard's top official said June 17.
WASHINGTON - The upcoming international summit on support for Iraq sends "an important signal for people to hear loud and clear," President Bush said today during a news conference in the East Room of the White House.
WASHINGTON - While awaiting a federal court ruling about how to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United States continues to treat them humanely and according to the Geneva Conventions, President Bush said today during a news conference at the White House.
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - Recognizing that many of their students are likely to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan within three or four months of leaving here, the cadre at the U.S. Army Military Police School is stepping up the curriculum to infuse as much realism as possible, the school's director of training told the American Forces Press Service.
WASHINGTON - Two U.S. servicemembers died in recent days in operations in Iraq, military officials in Baghdad said.
WASHINGTON - Iraqi security forces and multinational forces killed two terrorists, detained 17 terror suspects, and seized a large cache of weapons in northern Iraq June 19, military officials said today.
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - The communities surrounding Fort Leonard Wood are preparing for the growth anticipated due to upcoming base realignments and the return of forces from Europe and Korea to stateside bases -- and applying important lessons they learned from the past.
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Defense Department annually briefs families of servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia, and in their quest for closure, mother and daughter Jeanette Lilly, 79, and Susan J. Harvey, 58, haven't missed a meeting in more than 15 years.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department gave Congress a look at the Army of the future during a "Soldiers Modernization Day" exhibit at the Russell Senate Office Building here June 16.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi soldiers and coalition forces, working together and independently, captured 11 known terrorists in a series of early-morning raids in central and western Baghdad, Iraq, June 17. One other terror suspect was also taken into custody.
WASHINGTON - Operations throughout Iraq this weekend resulted in the capture of violent extremists and the discovery of weapons.
WASHINGTON - Two attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, today have left at least 16 civilians and five Iraqi police officers dead and scores wounded. A mortar attack in Mosul killed one civilian and injured five more.
WASHINGTON - Marines and Iraqi security forces continue Operation Spear, called Rohme in Arabic, in Iraq's Anbar province, finding weapons caches and calling in air strikes on terrorist strong points.
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - An unprovoked attack on a coalition patrol today left 15 to 20 militants dead in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.
WASHINGTON - Americans cannot forget the progress being made in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said from Jerusalem today.
WASHINGTON - Two Task Force Liberty soldiers were killed near Buhritz, in Iraq's Diyala province, June 17. One Iraqi civilian and one detainee, who was being transported by the combat patrol at the time of the engagement, were also killed.
WASHINGTON - Operation Spear continues in Iraq's Anbar province. Marines and Iraqi soldiers are making good progress, according to a Marine press release issued today.
WASHINGTON - While people may disagree on the decision to liberate Iraq, all should agree that the country is the central front in the war on terror, President Bush said in his weekly national radio address today.
WASHINGTON - Servicemembers who are victims of sexual assault or who need information on the DoD policy on preventing sexual assaults can find the information at a new Web site.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department has launched a new effort to educate servicemembers about the dangers of borrowing from "loan-shark" lending companies and to teach them how to avoid ending up in a spiral of compounding debt, a DoD official said here today.
WASHINGTON - There is more than one way to fight terrorism, as U.S. servicemembers participating in Exercise Flintlock '05 are finding. The biennial exercise now under way in Africa is designed to enhance African nations' ability to patrol and control their own territory
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - For a look at what's ahead following the next round of base realignments, you'll find few better examples than the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center here in the Ozarks.
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. - The greatest challenge facing recruiters is the people who influence young men and women of the "Millennium Generation" not to serve, the commander of the Army Recruiting Command said here today.
WASHINGTON - In line with the idea that all aspects of national power must be applied against terror, the Defense Department is working closely with the office of the State Department's Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, DoD officials said before a Senate committee June 16.
WASHINGTON - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers this month continued their efforts to repair and rebuild areas battered by war, improve the lives and education of children, and help the citizens of Iraq advance toward a safe, secure and democratic nation.
WASHINGTON - Amid voices on Capitol Hill calling for an exit strategy in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked for patience as America helps establish democracy and unity in the Middle East.
ARLINGTON, Va. - A top Army general this week thanked more than 270 family members of servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia for their service and sacrifice during the Defense Department's 2005 annual government briefings for Vietnam War-era families.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces today began Operation Spear, aimed at rooting out terrorists and foreign fighters and disrupting terror support systems in and around Karabilah, Iraq.
WASHINGTON - If there is a government building here in the nation's capital, said James Phillip Poole of American Metal Fabricators Inc., chances are his company has built its food-service equipment.
WASHINGTON - DoD officials this month issued new guidelines for military medical personnel dealing with detainees.
WASHINGTON - The 2005 POW/MIA Recognition Day poster was unveiled here June 15 in honor of the sacrifices made by prisoners of war and servicemembers still unaccounted for, spanning World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
WASHINGTON - A soldier in Iraq has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder in connection with the June 7 deaths of two other soldiers in his unit, military officials in Baghdad announced today.
WASHINGTON - Americans need to go back and evaluate the progress that has been made in Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said today.
WASHINGTON - A deadline on pulling out U.S. troops from Iraq would simply encourage the enemy, defense leaders said today.
WASHINGTON - For the first time since World War II, a woman soldier was awarded the Silver Star Medal today in Iraq.
WASHINGTON - Good Housekeeping magazine has recognized a Defense Department employee for getting the Iraqi education system up and running.
WASHINGTON - More and more, Iraqi citizens are helping suppress the insurgency in that country, a senior U.S. officer in Baghdad said today.
WASHINGTON - The June 14 capture of Muhammad Khalaf Shakar reflects the growing intolerance of the Iraqi people for an "unpopular insurgency" and shows the increasing capability of Iraqi security forces, a U.S. military official in Iraq said today.
WASHINGTON - Over the Memorial Day weekend, "Operation Gratitude" assembled and shipped almost 20,000 care packages to deployed troops as part of its "Patriotic Drive," the group is gearing up for another big push.
BRANSON, Mo. - Active-duty servicemembers here for "Operation Homecoming USA" are giving Vietnam veterans faith that the U.S. military is working aggressively to account for some 1,800 Americans still missing from the Vietnam War.
WASHINGTON - Coalition and Iraqi security forces captured al Qaeda's top operative in Iraq's Mosul region without incident June 14, military officials in Baghdad announced today.
WASHINGTON - Five Marines assigned to 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed near Ramadi, Iraq, June 15 when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. A sailor assigned to the same unit also died June 15 from wounds received from enemy small-arms fire.
WASHINGTON - The man who became famous bellowing "Good morning, Vietnam!" to his military radio audience today praised the families of servicemembers still listed as missing in action in Southeast Asia.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department has made progress in several areas of chemical and biological defense, is coordinating regularly with other federal agencies, and has developed a long-term science and technology investment strategy to protect U.S. forces well into the future, a DoD official said June 14 at a congressional hearing.
WASHINGTON - Australia's prime minister today praised the Iraqi forces who rescued former hostage Douglas Wood in Baghdad, Iraq, this morning, as well as the American forces who supported the operation
WASHINGTON - DoD officials testified about the ongoing department efforts in regards to detainees before a Senate committee today.
INDIANAPOLIS - After Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., closed nearly a decade ago as a result of the 1991 base realignment and closure process, more than a million square feet of building space has been demolished. In its place has risen millions of more square feet in new business and housing.
WASHINGTON - Despite the insurgency, things are getting better in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the BBC's David Frost in a June 13 interview.
WASHINGTON - Iraqi soldiers rescued Australian hostage Douglas Wood this morning, Military officials in Baghdad reported.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Military travelers can purchase vacations to Australia for about the same cost as a getaway to Europe simply by visiting a military-sponsored Web site.
WASHINGTON - Two Marines assigned to 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed by improvised explosive devices in separate incidents June 14 in Iraq, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - Defense leaders are confident that the U.S. Army is doing what it needs to do to attract qualified recruits.
WASHINGTON - The coalition and Iraqi security forces are facing a "thinking enemy," and that enemy has changed its tactics in response to what the coalition has done, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.
WASHINGTON - The United States can no longer afford the luxury of treating terrorism as a law enforcement problem, and that is why the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is necessary, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at a press conference at the Pentagon today.
BRANSON, Mo. - Thirty years after the last U.S. forces left Vietnam, tens of thousands of veterans of that conflict gathered here in the Ozark Mountains today to get the official welcome home and thanks they never received.
BRANSON, Mo. - Today's young military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan "are walking in our bootprints," the secretary of Veterans Affairs told thousands of Vietnam veterans and their families here today.
WASHINGTON - In addition to making the Army a more sleek, deployable force, transformation will add predictability and stability to the lives of soldiers and their families, the Army's top noncommissioned officer said in an interview with the Pentagon Channel.
WASHINGTON - Media focuses on a "drive to report the sensational," said Vice President Richard B. Cheney during an interview with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity that aired on the "Hannity and Colmes" show June 13.
WASHINGTON - Sony BMG Music Entertainment company today, Flag Day, released a CD entitled Patriotic Country 2, which features 17 patriotic songs from well-known country music artists.
WASHINGTON - After 230 years, the one thing a soldier of 1775 and one today have had in common is the desire to fight and protect the United States.
WASHINGTON - A soldier serving with the 18th Military Police Brigade was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while on patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, today.
WASHINGTON - Four U.S. servicemembers and an Afghan interpreter were wounded today when an improvised explosive device detonated near their up-armored Humvee south of Ghazni, Afghanistan, the capital of Ghazni province, on the Lora River.
WASHINGTON - Thousands of visitors have come to the National World War II Memorial here since it opened last year. But the miles between the memorial and the ever-dwindling, increasingly frail ranks of World War II veterans make it difficult for many members of "The Greatest Generation" to make the pilgrimage to the nation's long-overdue tribute to their service.
WASHINGTON - It's been a little more than two months since I returned from Iraq. The day I returned, I watched my wife eagerly remove the Blue Star Service Banner from our front window, and she happily watched me bring down the yellow ribbon that had hugged our yard's corner tree for a year.
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Vice President Richard B. Cheney urged patience as Iraq continues on the road toward self-sufficiency in a June 10 interview here.
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Vice President Richard B. Cheney bristled in a June 10 interview here at the attention being given to allegations made by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and how the publicity given to those allegations far outweighs that given to the good things U.S. servicemembers are doing.
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The United States is far from alone in facing the threat posed by terrorists, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said here June 10.
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio - Two of the top distance runners of all time will be part of the ninth annual U.S. Air Force Marathon in September.
WASHINGTON - Four U.S. servicemembers were injured today near Kandahar, Afghanistan, by a suicide bomber driving a vehicle laden with explosives, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan officials reported.
WASHINGTON - Four thousand miles is a long distance to travel, especially if the mode of transportation is a bicycle.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Third Infantry Division soldiers conducted a raid in southern Baghdad on June 11, uncovering a weapons cache that led to the arrest of several men, according to coalition officials in Iraq.
WASHINGTON - Four soldiers assigned to elements of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) were killed in separate roadside bomb incidents in Iraq on June 11, according to military officials today.
WASHINGTON - Seven U.S. Marines died in two improvised explosive device attacks June 9 and 10 in Iraq, Multinational Force Iraq reported.
WASHINGTON - Praising the warriors he calls "the silent professionals," Vice President Richard B. Cheney culminated International Special Forces Week here June 10, providing closing remarks for U.S. Special Operations Command's annual conference.
WASHINGTON - One child stood out above the rest of the nearly 100 children from military families and their parents packed into the room here on Capitol Hill June 10.
WASHINGTON - When teen actress and singer Hilary Duff finally arrived here after a rain-delayed flight from New York, the children -- and some parents -- let out ear-piercing screams.
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - More than 600 suspected terrorists have been detained in Baghdad area operations led by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, since May 20, said the team's deputy commander Lt. Col. Michael J. Infanti on June 10 here.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE CONSTITUTION, BAGHDAD, Iraq - A ceremony was held in western Baghdad June 9 to officially transfer the authority of Raider Base from the coalition forces to the Iraqi Army.
WASHINGTON - Iraqi Army and Task Force Baghdad soldiers captured 33 terror suspects, seized 2 million Iraqi dinars and confiscated a variety of bomb-making materials in a series of operations conducted June 8 and 9, military officials in Baghdad reported.
WASHINGTON - Multinational Corps Iraq has opened a criminal investigation into two Task Force Liberty soldiers' deaths June 7 at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit, Iraq, officials in Iraq reported today.
WASHINGTON - President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun today said their governments are united in keeping the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.
WASHINGTON - The Army hopes to introduce new incentives to attract recruits while working to educate parents, teachers and other adults who influence young people's decision to enlist about the long-term benefits of military service.
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The global war on terror is not the kind of conflict that will end clearly with a treaty signing, Vice President Richard B. Cheney told servicemembers here today.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO is establishing a military training center for Iraqi officers on the outskirts of Baghdad, officials here said this week.
PETERSON AIR FOR BASE, Colo. - Several U.S. military's highest-placed enlisted warfighters met in Colorado for the first Combatant Command Senior Enlisted Leader Conference recently.
WASHINGTON - Despite recruiting shortfalls for the active Army and all reserve components except the Air Force Reserve in May, defense officials say they will strive to fill the ranks with the highest-quality recruits possible and have no intention of supporting a draft.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO is committed to expanding its International Security Assistance Force into western and southern Afghanistan, and will reinforce Afghan security forces during upcoming elections.
WASHINGTON - Two U.S. servicemembers died in noncombat-related incidents June 8 and 9 in Iraq, according to Multinational Force Iraq officials today.
WASHINGTON - Homeland security requires defense in depth and at a distance, the Defense Department's top official for homeland defense said during a speech today at the Heritage Foundation here.
WASHINGTON - Recognizing the stresses military life and multiple deployments put on families, the services are stepping up their efforts to help their members strengthen their family relationships and avoid the divorce courts.
BETHESDA, Md. - Servicemembers being treated at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center were guests for the pro-am round of the Booz Allen Classic golf tournament at the Congressional Country Club here June 8, a day after PGA Tour officials and pro golfers visited patients at Walter Reed.
WASHINGTON - The "seabasing" capability being developed for the Marine Corps will enable the service to deploy 15,000 troops anywhere in the world in as little as 10 to 12 days, according to the commandant of the Marine Corps.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO counties are working together in ways they never have before, and the alliance is expanding its membership and global responsibilities, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at NATO headquarters here today.
ABOARD USS BLUE RIDGE - Exercise Talisman Saber, the first of a biennial series of exercises aimed at further developing and enhancing the defense relationships between the United States and Australia, began in various locations in eastern Australia on June 8.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO will support the African Union with airlift support into the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan, alliance officials announced here June 8.
WASHINGTON - The wife of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today received the National Defense University Foundation's inaugural American Spirit Award at Fort Lesley J. McNair here during NDU's 2005 American Patriot Award Gala Kickoff.
WASHINGTON - Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad testified June 7 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has been serving as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON - America's armed forces face a "thinking enemy" on the battlefield, and defeating it demands adaptable tactics and a fast application of lessons learned, the commandant of the Marine Corps said here today.
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department has made "tremendous efforts and strides" to meet the needs of Reserve and Guard servicemembers who now qualify for health-care coverage under the Tricare program, the program manager said today during an interview on Fox News.
FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, District Of Columbia - The nation's top military officer stressed the role international relationships play in the struggle against violent extremists in remarks here today.
STAVANGER, Norway - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today visited NATO's Joint Warfare Center here, where Iraqi troops and international forces in NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan have trained.
STAVANGER, Norway - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Norwegian counterpart today signed an agreement here to allow U.S. Marines to pre-position military equipment in Norway for use should they ever have to come to this country's aid.
WASHINGTON - Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper of the U.S. military, will publish a "Heroes" supplement on June 14, Flag Day, to honor those who have fought in the global war on terror.
WASHINGTON - AT&T has joined the Defense Department's "America Supports You" team, continuing its more than 85 years of support for the U.S. military through a range of activities and contributions designed to benefit America's servicemen and women, officials announced today.
WASHINGTON - For an amateur musician and a guy with a doctorate in political science, Andras Simonyi plays a pretty mean guitar. He can carry a tune as well.
DENVER - Redevelopment efforts have created more than 115,000 new jobs nationwide in communities affected by the last four base realignment and closure actions, a senior Defense Department official said here this week.
WASHINGTON - Improvised explosive devices killed two soldiers In Iraq, and two other soldiers were killed by indirect fire in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, military officials in Baghdad reported today.
WASHINGTON - The United States and Great Britain share a common commitment to spreading peace and freedom in the world and are working together to promote that vision - in Iraq, Afghanistan, the greater Middle East and Africa, the leaders of the two countries affirmed during a news conference here June 7.
WASHINGTON - Emphasizing that the Defense Department has "very high ethical standards," acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expects everyone in DoD to act legally and ethically with every action they deal with.
WASHINGTON - Midway through the survey period, the Defense Department is reporting steady returns on its latest health-related behaviors survey, and officials are urging others selected to participate to weigh in with their responses.
TAMPA, Fla. - Two Ladies Professional Golf Association pros and longtime friends have teamed up to support the Special Operations Warrior Foundation through the Operation Birdie program.
WASHINGTON - Afghan and coalition forces apprehended 17 insurgents armed with rifles along the Pakistani border June 6, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan reported today.
WASHINGTON - Terrorists attacked a convoy of contractors about 11:30 a.m. today while the contractors were delivering supplies for coalition forces west of Baghdad, Iraq, according to U.S. officials.
WASHINGTON - The first phase of the Defense Department's new National Security Personnel System has been adjusted slightly, to later in the fiscal year, NSPS officials told the American Forces Press Service today.
WASHINGTON - Many civilian communities emerge from military base closures or realignments often in better economic health than before, a senior DoD official noted at a defense community redevelopment association meeting here June 6.
WASHINGTON - Veterans Affairs Department and Walter Reed Army Medical Center leaders took a step today toward helping severely injured servicemembers transition to civilian jobs.
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - A paratrooper from the 173rd Combat Support Company re-enlisted here recently as he sat in bed with a bullet hole in his left foot.
WASHINGTON - Tips from local residents helped Iraqi security forces rescue a kidnapping victim, seize weapons and uncover a weapons cache June 5, Multinational Force Iraq officials in Baghdad reported today.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld took a brief break from his whirlwind overseas trip today to do some sightseeing here -- but many of the tourists seemed more excited to see him than their actual destination.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The media ought to focus on the very real, vicious acts of violent extremists, and not on vague allegations of Koran abuse, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said to reporters here today.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - While debate about the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is good, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today, a separate debate is needed on an underlying problem: How does a civilized nation deal with non-state violent extremists?
WASHINGTON - Marines serving today in Iraq are living up to the legacy Marines of previous conflicts have passed on to them, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a gathering of Korean War era veterans June 4.
WASHINGTON - A nationwide project is under way to pay lasting tribute to fallen servicemembers in their hometowns.
WASHINGTON - A Task Force Liberty soldier was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near a vehicle patrol in Iraq's Kirkuk province at about 4 p.m. today, military officials in Baghdad reported.
SINGAPORE - The Straits of Malacca is a maritime choke point for ships going from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. Asian defense experts examined the problem here today at the Asia Security Conference, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
WASHINGTON - Two U.S. servicemembers were killed and another was wounded after an improvised explosive device detonated near their convoy near Orgun-E June 3, according to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan officials.
WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's upcoming trial is expected to help bolster the security situation in Iraq, and the sooner the proceedings begin, the better, Iraq's foreign minister said today on CNN's "Late Edition."
BANGKOK, Thailand - In a driving monsoon rain, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived here today after spending the weekend at a regional-security conference in Singapore.
SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this weekend urged China to become more involved in persuading North Korea to return to six-nation talks -- among the United States, China, Russia, Japan and both Koreas -- and to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
WASHINGTON - Three insurgents were captured and one was killed today following an ambush of Afghan and coalition forces south of Qalat in Afghanistan's Zabul province.
WASHINGTON - Operations in Iraq during the past three days yielded a terrorist hideaway, terror suspects, weapons and ammunition stockpiles, and a treasure chest of Iraqi artifacts looted from the Baghdad Museum more than two years ago.
WASHINGTON - An inquiry into allegations of mishandling of the Koran by U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reveals "a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling" dating back almost two and a half years, the general who led the effort said June 3.
KABUL, Afghanistan - The chief of operations of the Afghan National Army's General Staff will represent his nation at a conference on U.S. special operations forces in Tampa, Fla.
SINGAPORE - The difference between freedom and tyranny is more vivid on the Korean peninsula than in any other place on Earth, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
SINGAPORE - The greatest threat facing nations in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world is the combination of weapons proliferation and terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
SINGAPORE - China's emergence as a potentially stronger military power "is an important new reality of this era, one that the countries of the region would no doubt like to embrace," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
SINGAPORE - Korean and Japanese defense ministers today called on North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks aimed at ending North Korea's push for nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON - Two officials who have experience with base realignment and closure - one the former mayor of an affected city and the other who directs the Defense Department office charged with helping affected cities meet economic challenges, have written some insights they hope will be of value to communities that may lose facilities in this year's BRAC round.
WASHINGTON - The secretary of veterans affairs said today that where some might see challenges for the department, he sees opportunities.
WASHINGTON - The American public has more confidence in the military than in any other institution, according to a Gallup poll released this week.
WASHINGTON - Nine servicemembers representing the four active duty services, reserve components and the Coast Guard were presented the Federal Asian-Pacific American Council's Military Meritorious Service Award during the Defense Department's Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month luncheon and military awards ceremony here June 2.
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Defense Department's top personnel official gave a history lesson about Asian-Pacific Americans' contributions to the defense of the nation to about 800 attendees at the DoD Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month luncheon and military awards ceremony here June 2.
WASHINGTON - Two Iraqi civilians died today when a coalition forces truck and an Iraqi civilian vehicle collided near Khalis in Iraq's Diyala province, military officials in Baghdad reported.
SINGAPORE - America's top military officer received the highest Singaporean award given to foreigners at a ceremony here today.
SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in this island nation today to meet with local leaders and deliver a speech on security issues facing the Asia-Pacific Region.
WASHINGTON - Armed services recruiting information, including that of the reserve components, will now be made available to the public on the 10th day of each month, a Pentagon spokeswoman noted today.
WASHINGTON - Cardstore.com announced June 1 that it's providing a Father's Day card service for troops and their families.
WASHINGTON - With forecasters predicting an active hurricane season this year, military responders are geared up for whatever Mother Nature whirls their way.
WASHINGTON - Two soldiers assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed in action June 1 while conducting combat operations near Ramadi, Iraq, military officials reported today.
WASHINGTON - A sculptor moved by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks unveiled her talent in the Pentagon today as a "welcome home" gesture to servicemembers everywhere.
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Vice President Richard B. Cheney told more than 900 graduating cadets here today that they are taking their places as commissioned officers of the most powerful air and space force in the history of mankind.
WASHINGTON - NATO "will stay the course" in furthering the organization's values, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer affirmed here today following a meeting at the White House with President Bush.
WASHINGTON - Defense officials today opened a secure reading room containing more information on the Defense Department's base realignment and closure recommendations.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld departs from Washington early June 2 to attend international security conferences in Singapore and Belgium.
WASHINGTON - Some 85 percent of Iraqis said they will vote in October elections to ratify a new constitution in October, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at a Pentagon news conference today, citing recent polling data.
WASHINGTON - Iraq's foreign minister asked the United Nations May 31 to extend its authorization for Multinational Force Iraq to remain in the country.
WASHINGTON - Seventeen people were killed today when a suicide bomber reportedly linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban blew himself up in the Abdul Rub Akhundzadar Mosque in Kandahar province.
WASHINGTON - U.S. helicopter gunships fired on a suspected foreign-fighter safe house north of the Euphrates River near Husaybah early today, military officials in Iraq reported.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended U.S. military men and women accused of running a "gulag" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The secretary spoke during a Pentagon press conference today.
WASHINGTON - NATO took command of two more provincial reconstruction teams and a forward support base in Afghanistan May 31, expanding the alliance's security and reconstruction mission in the western part of the country.
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text:
By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2005 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said U.S. servicemembers today are fighting for the same ideals and rights their grandfathers did during World War II.
Rumsfeld noted this week marks the 60th anniversary of some of the fiercest fighting of World War II. He said that as the World War II generation fought -- they transformed much of the world. He said they turned menacing dictatorships into peaceful democracies and turned long-standing enemies into friends.
"Today, another generation of Americans and their coalition allies have come to freedom's defense," he said during a Pentagon news conference. Today's servicemembers are engaged against terrorist cells around the world, and they are helping millions of people in Afghanistan and Iraq "to transform their countries from terrorist states into peaceful democracies."
Extremists are trying to turn back the clock, and they will not be successful. "Iraqis and Afghans are increasingly standing up to those who seek to return their countries to dark intolerance," Rumsfeld said.
The secretary spoke about his recent trip to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. "Everywhere we went, I came across outstanding men and women wearing our country's uniform, volunteers all, who with courage and confidence are risking their lives to confront the extremists before they attack our country and our people again," he said.
"The debt we owe our military and civilian personnel and their families is immeasurable. They should find comfort in the knowledge that they're preserving a great legacy of freedom and safeguarding it for generations to come, and we thank them for their service."