One of missing troops from Houston

Houston Chronicle:

One of two soldiers missing and reportedly held captive by insurgents in Iraq is from Houston.

The Defense Department identified the man as Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23.

Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were apparently kidnapped Friday night in an attack on a checkpoint outside the restive town of Yusufiya. The Pentagon said Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack.

U.S. forces have intensified their search for Menchaca and Tucker, widening their pursuit to areas beyond Yusufiya, and drawing troops from at least three brigade combat teams.

Family members said they were awaiting word about Menchaca.

"They're looking for him everywhere," Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, of Brownsville, said by telephone.

Menchaca's brother, Julio Cesar Vasquez, of Houston, said Menchaca joined the military last year and deployed to Iraq within months. Menchaca is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne based out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Menchaca's wife, 18-year-old Christina Menchaca, of Big Spring, said representatives of the military told her they were taking "every means possible to find him."

...

The enemy in Iraq does not contact the Red Cross if it takes a POW. In fact it usually kills anyone it has custody of. What makes this case unusual is that the enemy should know that taking a US troop prisoner will create an intense manhunt for them and the prisoner. Resources will focus on the area and flood the zone with more troops making it more difficult for the enemy to operate and maneuver. It will also change operating procedures to make sure it does not happen again. The 101st is a proud unit that adopted the phrase "band of brothers" in World War II. It is unlikely that the unit will rest to a man until these soldiers are found.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t...
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more