Fallen soldiers mourned: Injured Guardsman now in stable condition
By William B. Martin Jr.
Pacific Sunday News • July 13, 2008
Friends and family are mourning the loss of two Guam Guardsmen killed serving our country.
Sgt. Brian S. Leon Guerrero, 34, a father of three from Tamuning; and Spc. Samson A. Mora, 28, a car-show enthusiast from Dededo who was engaged to be married, died of injuries sustained when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Thursday.
The explosion also seriously injured another Guam Guardsman, Spc. Kalani Echang, 25, from Mangilao.
Leon Guerrero's wife, Emely, said her husband was a fine man.
"He was a great soldier, a great father and a great husband," she said. "I'm very proud of him and his children are very proud."
Emely Leon Guerrero also said she sends her love and prayers to the Mora and Echang families.
Brian Leon Guerrero's mother, Rose Pangelinan, said her son told her after his first deployment that he would never come back the same. "That was his third deployment," she said. "It's breaking my heart so much."
Mora family
Agnes Mora said Samson Mora, her brother-in-law, would be missed.
"He was a good guy," she said, unable to hold back her emotions. "We love him very much and we miss him."
Samson Mora's father, Abraham Mora, said he hasn't had the chance to fully process his son's untimely death.
Sheila Indalecio of Mangilao -- who's son Jaeden is godson to Samson Mora -- said that upon Samson Mora's return, he was set to marry her friend, Rosanna Castro of Ordot, who she said is currently off island with family.
"(Rosanna) was his high-school sweetheart, so you're talking about a very long relationship," she said. "She was anticipating his return so they could get married."
The deaths of the two Guardsmen bring the number of sons of Micronesia killed since the War on Terror began in 2001 to 28. More than 4,100 U.S. servicemen have been killed since the start of the war.
Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo said she, like the rest of Guam, is mourning the deaths of two of the island's sons.
"I join the people of Guam in mourning the deaths of Sgt. Brian Leon Guerrero and Spc. Samson Mora," Bordallo said. "We also pray for Spc. Kalani Echang, who was seriously injured in the same incident in Afghanistan."
On Friday, Gov. Felix Camacho and acting Gov. Mike Cruz said the two fallen soldiers "are heroes of our nation whose memory will live on in the hearts and minds of a grateful people."
Bordallo spoke with the families of both Brian Leon Guerrero and Samson Mora to offer her condolences, according to a news release from her office. She also spoke to Echang's family. "Our island mourns the loss of life and we honor their service to our nation. Their ultimate sacrifice for our freedom is a debt that we can never fully repay," Bordallo said. "We will remember them as heroes and we will do whatever we can to help ease the burden on their families."
'Prestigious'
Mora was featured in a 2004 Pacific Daily News "Cruising" article, having transformed his 1997 Toyota Tacoma into a car-show winner.
Samson Mora's cousin, Charlita Harper, wanted the people of Guam to know that Samson Mora was also a member of the Honor Guard, those responsible for giving fallen soldiers a proper military burial.
"That was very prestigious to him," she said.
Pangelinan said she will pray for all the sons of both Guam and the nation who remain in areas where conflict is taking place.
"I hope and pray that all the soldiers come back safe," she said. "I know Brian belongs to God. Right now he is safer than we are. I love him so much."
The three soldiers left for Afghanistan in January as members of the Guam Army National Guard 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion. About 180 soldiers from Alpha Company of the Guam Army National Guard are serving in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Stable
According to a release from the Guam National Guard, Echang was in stable condition and responsive at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, after suffering injuries to his lower body.
The wounded soldier called his wife, Helory Echang, yesterday morning. He awaits transport to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the release stated.
The families of Brian Leon Guerrero and Samson Mora have been assigned casualty assistance officers, said Maj. Gen. Donald Goldhorn, adjutant general for the Guam National Guard. He and other Guard officials yesterday visited the families.
Showing posts with label National Guard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Guard. Show all posts
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
States Consider Recalling National Guard Troops
Published on Saturday, February 2, 2008 by OneWorld
States Consider Calling Back Nat’l Guards from Iraq
by Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO — State legislators in Vermont introduced legislation Wednesday demanding the state’s National Guard troops return from Iraq. Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania are poised to push similar legislation.
At the heart of the matter is a contention that President George W. Bush’s legal authority to deploy the National Guard to Iraq has expired.
“Congress laid out a pretty specific mission for the Guard in 2002,” Vermont State Representative Michael Fisher (D-Lincoln) told OneWorld. “That mission was two things: it was to defend the national security of the United States [against] the threat posed by Iraq, and, two, to enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. I don’t believe there are any credible arguments that the state of Iraq poses a risk to the Untied States or that there may still be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
“If the president believes there’s still a need to have our National Guard in Iraq to stabilize that country or whatever, it’s his job to go back to Congress and ask for that authorization,” Fisher added. “The president doesn’t have the authority to permanently federalize our Guards.”
The legislation comes amid increasing antiwar sentiment in the Green Mountain state. In 2005, voters in 48 Vermont towns approved resolutions calling on the State Legislature to study the effect on Vermont of numerous deployments to Iraq and asked Vermont’s congressional delegation ”to work to restore a proper balance between the powers of the states and that of the federal government over state National Guard units.”
The Vermont State Legislature also asked the president and the Congress to withdraw the U.S. military from Iraq.
Vermont, like other rural parts of the country, has suffered disproportionately from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, say analysts. A November 2006 report by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire found soldiers from rural Vermont had the highest death rate in the nation.
A June 2007 survey sponsored by the nonpartisan Center for Rural Strategies found rural support for the war slipping: some 45 percent of rural Americans said then that the United States should “stay the course” in Iraq, down from 51 percent in 2004.
And 60 percent of respondents said they knew someone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Despite popular sentiment and rising casualties, Vermont’s Republican Gov. Jim Douglas reacted coldly to Fisher’s legislation.
“This is a federal issue,” spokesman Jason Gibbs told the Burlington Free Press. “Gov. Douglas would like to see Washington develop a strategy to bring the troops home.”
The Free Press reported that, according to Gibbs, the Vermont governor’s legal staff looked into the authority over the National Guard when the issue was under public scrutiny several years ago. They found that states had no legal basis for refusing to deploy National Guard units, Gibbs said. “To change that, Congress would have to act.”
This is not the first time states have looked into recalling their National Guards from an unpopular foreign conflict.
In the 1986, several governors opposed to President Ronald Reagan’s covert military operations in Central America refused to allow their National Guard units to participate in exercises there.
That fall, Congress, led by Mississippi Congressmen and longtime National Guard ally G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery, passed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that prevented governors from withholding units from federal training in the future.
Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich took the lead in challenging the new law, but after losing several appeals, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the law’s constitutionality in 1990.
Many constitutional authorities argue that the Montgomery Amendment essentially ended any power a governor might have to veto deployment of National Guard units.
But the bill’s backers say the war in Iraq is different than the 1980s conflict in Central America.
“In the 1980s, President Reagan said he wanted to send the National Guard to Central America for ‘training,’” said Benson Scotch, a former chief staff attorney to Vermont’s Supreme Court, who helped write the bill. “There is no such thing as a limited authorization by Congress for a permanent ongoing call-up.”
Copyright © 2008 OneWorld.net
States Consider Calling Back Nat’l Guards from Iraq
by Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO — State legislators in Vermont introduced legislation Wednesday demanding the state’s National Guard troops return from Iraq. Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania are poised to push similar legislation.
At the heart of the matter is a contention that President George W. Bush’s legal authority to deploy the National Guard to Iraq has expired.
“Congress laid out a pretty specific mission for the Guard in 2002,” Vermont State Representative Michael Fisher (D-Lincoln) told OneWorld. “That mission was two things: it was to defend the national security of the United States [against] the threat posed by Iraq, and, two, to enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. I don’t believe there are any credible arguments that the state of Iraq poses a risk to the Untied States or that there may still be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
“If the president believes there’s still a need to have our National Guard in Iraq to stabilize that country or whatever, it’s his job to go back to Congress and ask for that authorization,” Fisher added. “The president doesn’t have the authority to permanently federalize our Guards.”
The legislation comes amid increasing antiwar sentiment in the Green Mountain state. In 2005, voters in 48 Vermont towns approved resolutions calling on the State Legislature to study the effect on Vermont of numerous deployments to Iraq and asked Vermont’s congressional delegation ”to work to restore a proper balance between the powers of the states and that of the federal government over state National Guard units.”
The Vermont State Legislature also asked the president and the Congress to withdraw the U.S. military from Iraq.
Vermont, like other rural parts of the country, has suffered disproportionately from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, say analysts. A November 2006 report by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire found soldiers from rural Vermont had the highest death rate in the nation.
A June 2007 survey sponsored by the nonpartisan Center for Rural Strategies found rural support for the war slipping: some 45 percent of rural Americans said then that the United States should “stay the course” in Iraq, down from 51 percent in 2004.
And 60 percent of respondents said they knew someone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Despite popular sentiment and rising casualties, Vermont’s Republican Gov. Jim Douglas reacted coldly to Fisher’s legislation.
“This is a federal issue,” spokesman Jason Gibbs told the Burlington Free Press. “Gov. Douglas would like to see Washington develop a strategy to bring the troops home.”
The Free Press reported that, according to Gibbs, the Vermont governor’s legal staff looked into the authority over the National Guard when the issue was under public scrutiny several years ago. They found that states had no legal basis for refusing to deploy National Guard units, Gibbs said. “To change that, Congress would have to act.”
This is not the first time states have looked into recalling their National Guards from an unpopular foreign conflict.
In the 1986, several governors opposed to President Ronald Reagan’s covert military operations in Central America refused to allow their National Guard units to participate in exercises there.
That fall, Congress, led by Mississippi Congressmen and longtime National Guard ally G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery, passed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that prevented governors from withholding units from federal training in the future.
Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich took the lead in challenging the new law, but after losing several appeals, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the law’s constitutionality in 1990.
Many constitutional authorities argue that the Montgomery Amendment essentially ended any power a governor might have to veto deployment of National Guard units.
But the bill’s backers say the war in Iraq is different than the 1980s conflict in Central America.
“In the 1980s, President Reagan said he wanted to send the National Guard to Central America for ‘training,’” said Benson Scotch, a former chief staff attorney to Vermont’s Supreme Court, who helped write the bill. “There is no such thing as a limited authorization by Congress for a permanent ongoing call-up.”
Copyright © 2008 OneWorld.net
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Guard Called Up
Guard called up
180 soldiers ordered to Afghanistan
By Stephanie Godlewski
Pacific Daily News
smgodlewski@guampdn.com
More of Guam's sons and daughters will be deployed to fight the global War on Terror, according to the Guam Army National Guard.
The Guard announced yesterday that 180 Guard members of the Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry and the battalion's Forward Support Company will be deployed to Afghanistan by early next year.
The unit is being sent to the Middle East to provide security for other units in the area, according to a press release sent by the guard.
This is not the first time the unit has been deployed. Its soldiers were sent to the Horn of Africa previously.
During the coming months, the unit will be mobilizing and training on Guam before heading off island. The mobilization and deployment together will be about a year for the soldiers.
The Guard members are being sent to support Operation Enduring Freedom and the War on Terror, but they will be put through three months of mobilization and training before heading to Afghanistan.
During the months of November and December, the unit will be receiving about six weeks of pre- and post-mobilization training, according to the Guard.
By January 2008, the unit will head to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii for additional training before heading out to the Middle East in February.
The unit was deployed to the Horn of Africa in April 2004 and returned in July of the following year.
Since the war on terror began in 2001, Guam and its Pacific island neighbors have seen hundreds of their sons and daughters deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
To date, 24 sons of Micronesia are among those who have been killed.
180 soldiers ordered to Afghanistan
By Stephanie Godlewski
Pacific Daily News
smgodlewski@guampdn.com
More of Guam's sons and daughters will be deployed to fight the global War on Terror, according to the Guam Army National Guard.
The Guard announced yesterday that 180 Guard members of the Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry and the battalion's Forward Support Company will be deployed to Afghanistan by early next year.
The unit is being sent to the Middle East to provide security for other units in the area, according to a press release sent by the guard.
This is not the first time the unit has been deployed. Its soldiers were sent to the Horn of Africa previously.
During the coming months, the unit will be mobilizing and training on Guam before heading off island. The mobilization and deployment together will be about a year for the soldiers.
The Guard members are being sent to support Operation Enduring Freedom and the War on Terror, but they will be put through three months of mobilization and training before heading to Afghanistan.
During the months of November and December, the unit will be receiving about six weeks of pre- and post-mobilization training, according to the Guard.
By January 2008, the unit will head to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii for additional training before heading out to the Middle East in February.
The unit was deployed to the Horn of Africa in April 2004 and returned in July of the following year.
Since the war on terror began in 2001, Guam and its Pacific island neighbors have seen hundreds of their sons and daughters deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
To date, 24 sons of Micronesia are among those who have been killed.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Two Chamorros Killed in the Horn of Africa
National Guard confirms two killed, one injured in Horn of Africa
by Jason Salas, KUAM News
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The Guam Army National Guard has confirmed that two soldiers were killed in the Horn of Africa, with another being injured in an accident involving a military vehicle. Specialist Gregory Fejeran, Specialist Christopher Fernandez and Sergeant Robert Balajadia were in a military SUV that rolled over; Fejeran and Fernandez were killed in the incident while Balajadia sustained injuries.
SGT Balajadia was reportedly listed as being in stable condition and was medically evacuated to Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany. The military confirmed that the accident was not the result of hostile action. The soldiers are part of Team Charlie, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry, currently deployed to the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Major General Donald Goldhorn, Adjutant General of the Guam National Guard, expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased soldiers. He also offered his prayers to SGT Balajadia and to his family for a speedy recovery. The deaths of Fejeran and Fernandez are the 17th and 18th from Micronesia since 2003, respectively, due to the conflict in the Middle East.
by Jason Salas, KUAM News
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The Guam Army National Guard has confirmed that two soldiers were killed in the Horn of Africa, with another being injured in an accident involving a military vehicle. Specialist Gregory Fejeran, Specialist Christopher Fernandez and Sergeant Robert Balajadia were in a military SUV that rolled over; Fejeran and Fernandez were killed in the incident while Balajadia sustained injuries.
SGT Balajadia was reportedly listed as being in stable condition and was medically evacuated to Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany. The military confirmed that the accident was not the result of hostile action. The soldiers are part of Team Charlie, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry, currently deployed to the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Major General Donald Goldhorn, Adjutant General of the Guam National Guard, expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased soldiers. He also offered his prayers to SGT Balajadia and to his family for a speedy recovery. The deaths of Fejeran and Fernandez are the 17th and 18th from Micronesia since 2003, respectively, due to the conflict in the Middle East.
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