After Sept. 11, 2001, then-Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior Amanda Irish knew she would enlist. She’d been thinking about college, but also about old concepts of duty and sacrifice (she was reading “The Red Badge of Courage” at the time, she remembers). The choice was clear. “Somebody had to stand up to defend this [...]
continue »By The Gazette Editorial Board —- Our soldiers face more than homesickness when they’re sent to combat zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Danger is a constant. Many days, just surviving until the next is mighty hard. So when they’re wounded or otherwise injured during their tour of duty, a caring nation and its [...]
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By Dennis Lamb — I agree with the Republicans on many issues. Mitt Romney’s selection of a team of military-industrial complex-connected Dick Cheney-it’s for guidance in foreign affairs, several of whom led the charge into Iraq, causes me concern, however. Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency at [...]
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For six months, Joshua Casteel slept 100 yards from an open-air burn pit that devoured everything from plastics and paint to electronics and human body parts. The Cedar Rapids native didn’t know smoke from the pit may also have been devouring his lungs. Casteel, a 32-year-old writer and peace activist, died Aug. 25 of lung [...]
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Under the bright light of a magnifying glass, Jake Long squints as he applies a screwdriver to the tiny parts of a Samsung cell phone. Beside him, Perry Graham chats with a customer on his HTC phone. They are in the back shop of their business, Cedar Rapids Cell Phone Repair. Behind them, Graham’s blue [...]
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By Gabe Haugland —- Editor’s note: Following are excerpts from Gabe Haugland’s remarks delivered during today’s Memorial Day Service in Clear Lake. Last year, I spoke here in this same cemetery as I was still mourning the loss of SGT Brent Maher of Honey Creek, Iowa, who I served with in Afghanistan. I [...]
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Some West Des Moines high school students have been selling T-shirts and conducting other fundraisers to help return the body of a classmate to Iraq. Eighteen-year-old Husam Abdul-Hameed was killed Saturday night in an accident alongside Interstate 80 on the west side of Des Moines. Abdul-Hameed’s family left Iraq more than two years and ended [...]
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By Karl Knutson —– Since World War II, the United States has become more like the enemies we defeated. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a pre-emptive event because they felt threatened by the United States. Our attack on Iraq was pre-emptive and planned by President Georgve W. Bush and Vice President Dick [...]
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Matt Macke makes sure to keep his cellphone charged and within reach as he waits. He’s ready for the call when he is feeding his horses, and when he and his wife are feeding their four children. He is hoping for a job offer to arrive. Soon. In late May, Iowa National [...]
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As the challenges of the past 10 years – including its largest deployment since World War II — new challenges are emerging for the Iowa National Guard on the home front. With the exception of 90 members of the Guard and Air Guard, for the first time since 2001 the Iowa Guard has no units [...]
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