STOCKTON:  The son of a former administrator at Stockton's University of the Pacific was killed this week in a bomb blast while on tank patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, a Department of Defense spokesman said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Jason M. Evey, 29, died immediately Sunday afternoon when the Bradley tank he commanded ran over an improvised explosive device on a road, said Maj. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman.

Evey was born in Corvallis, Ore., but lived in Stockton for a short time with his parents, Beate and John Evey.  John Evey worked from 1996 to 2001 as Pacific's vice president for institutional advancement, leading fund-raising.  Jason Evey worked in Stockton and took classes at both Pacific and San Joaquin Delta College before enlisting, his father said.

John Evey said his son wasn't shy about stating his opinion against the United States' war in Iraq, but he nonetheless led with dedication and honor. 

Too emotional to comment when contacted at the couple's San Diego home, Evey instead released a written statement.

"With an artist's sensibility, Jason enjoyed drawing and taking photographs," he said. "Even in Iraq, he found beauty, especially when earlier stationed near the historic city of Babylon."

Jason Evey was born on Christmas Eve 1976 and had a lifelong love of the outdoors.  As a boy, he was active in the Boy Scouts and camped along the Oregon Coast and in California's Yosemite National Park, his father said.

Jason Evey enlisted in the Army while in Stockton. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th Calvary Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team based in Fort Hood, Texas.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

U.S. Soldier Killed In Western Iraq

July 23, 2006 Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq U-S military officials say an American soldier has died due to "enemy action" in western Iraq.

They say the soldier was killed during combat operations yesterday.  The soldier was assigned to the First Brigade, First Armored Division.

Ruckersville Native Killed In Action

July 23, 2006 By Liesel Nowak, Daily Progress staff writer

A Ruckersville family is mourning the loss of their son and brother, an Army medic who was killed Saturday morning in Iraq by a roadside bomb.

Adam Fargo, 22, died in Baghdad after his convoy struck an improvised explosive device, according to his father, Doug Fargo.

He and his wife, Libby, got the news late Saturday afternoon from an Army chaplain and two officers stationed out of Fort Belvoir in Alexandria. Adam is also survived by his older brother, Jason, and his younger sister, Sarah.

By Saturday night, the Fargos were surrounded by friends at their home on Cedar Grove Road where they were remembering Adam, who was a standout on the William Monroe High School soccer team.

“We are very proud of him and his service … he was a top soldier at the time,” his father said.

Adam, a medic with the 101st Airborne Division, was assigned to an engineer platoon that was responsible for keeping a thoroughfare clear of IEDs.  His vehicle - the second in his convoy - struck one of the devices.  Adam was the only fatality, though other soldiers were critically injured, Doug said.

His son wasn’t much of a letter-writer, Doug said, but he used a satellite phone to call home somewhere between every 10 days to three weeks. The last time Doug talked to his son was the night of July 18.

“He sounded very good,” Doug said. “I think he felt confident in his job.  I know he was doing a good job because he was promoted to the rank of specialist.”

In May, Adam had also been awarded a combat medic badge, a coveted award in the Army.  Doug said his son received the award for “going over and above his job,” probably the result of helping a fellow soldier.

Doug said that his son could not reveal many details about his duties.  “But I’m very proud,” he said. “I’m an Army veteran myself, and so were both his grandfathers.”

Adam is the second Iraq War fatality from the Charlottesville area.

At least 2,558 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to a recent Associated Press count.

Described as a “smart and athletic kid,” Adam Fargo joined the Army on Dec. 30, 2004, after deciding against college and working at local pizza joints, his father said.

“He decided he wanted to make something of himself, get some training and so on,” Doug said.  “He didn’t really discuss this with me until he was close to deciding. He had already taken the steps and talked to recruiters.  I told him that it was a hard life, but it was a good life.  I was all for whatever decision that he was going to make. We laid out the pros and cons and he made the decision. I didn’t get the impression that he had any reservations.”

After months of training, Adam’s unit was deployed in November 2005.  He came home in March for a three-week “mid-tour” break, his father said.

“Adam and my son graduated from high school together.  He was a top soccer player,” said neighbor and friend Rodney Kibler. “He was just a great kid. Serving his country, you know.”

Doug said Adam talked about a future career in medicine after he returned from Iraq.

“Once he knew he was going to be a medic, he really latched on to that,” Doug said. “He wanted to take more classes, looked into getting a nursing degree.  He might have had his sights set farther out.  When he was younger, he talked about being a doctor.”

Salute Prepared For Aledo's Fallen Hero

July 19, 2006 By Dustin Lemmon, The Quad-City Times

ALEDO, Ill.

The giant American flag that flew over College Avenue on Tuesday night was held aloft by the same truck that Jerry Tharp used to drive around town.

Be it in Aledo, Keithsburg, or any other city he was working in, Tharp would honk to announce his arrival, saying hello to neighbors and strangers no matter the time of day.

It was one of Dan Feik’s fondest memories of Tharp, who he’d been friends with for years.  Feik spent most of Tuesday evening beside the flag and the truck, which is owned by Williams Brothers Construction of Peoria, while several hundred residents gathered nearby in Central Park in Aledo awaiting the arrival of Tharp’s remains in a motorcade that finally arrived here early today.

Tharp, 44, of Aledo, Ill., was killed in action July 12 by improvised explosive devices in the Al Anbar province of western Iraq.  He was assigned to the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25, the Seabees, which is based on Arsenal Island.

Feik recalled how Tharp would honk as he drove by his house on his way to work at 3 a.m., waking him for a laugh.  He also remembered how his friend taught him to drive that same truck before Tharp left for Iraq.

“Jerry was a very happy guy, very chipper, but he was very humble,” Feik said.  “You just couldn’t get him to say how good he was at anything.  If you said he was great he always would make you look better than him.”

Feik and several other friends and neighbors waited at the park Tuesday night for Tharp’s body and his family to arrive.  Tharp was flown into Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and a motorcade then traveled back to Aledo, passing through Milan, Preemption and Viola via U.S. 67. Several members of Tharp’s family joined the procession in Princeton, Dave Greenlief, an event organizer said.

“The whole idea is to show the families, both sides of the family, that they have support,” Greenlief said.

On the way into Aledo several business put up signs thanking Tharp for his service and saying that he would be remembered.  In the park there were luminaries waiting to be lit and patriotic music playing through amplifiers.

“This town always comes out anytime something like this happens,” said Karen King who was handing out small flags and candles to welcome the family.

On U.S. 67 south of Preemption neighbors Tom Lingafelter and Bob Melliere set up a row of 17 American flags that were lit by a light on the Matherville Fire Department’s brush truck.  The men said they set up the display for the Fourth of July and wanted to use it to honor Tharp.  Throughout the day Tuesday motorists took notice.

“They’ve been honking all day while I’ve been out working,” Lingafelter said.

“The local folks know what it’s for,” Melliere added.

According to event organizers there were also people waiting for the motorcade in Milan with flags and signs.

Tharp was an operating engineer with Local 150 and worked the past six years for Williams Brothers Construction until his deployment to Iraq in January.

Funeral service will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Bethel Baptist Church, 1196 N. Academy St., Galesburg, Ill. Burial is in Greenmound Cemetery, Keithsburg, Ill. Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Friday at First Christian Church, Keithsburg.

Jerry had more than 18 years in the military.  He enlisted in the Army in 1978.  He then served in both the Army Reserves and Navy Reserves. His tour in Iraq was with the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25.

Feik said his friend’s death struck Tharp’s family hard.  He said friends of the family want to complete renovations to Feik’s home for his wife.

“He spent more time helping other people than he would do for himself,” Feik said.

Feik said there was no one quite like his friend.

“I can just see his face, see him laughing,” Feik said. “It’s a terrible loss. He was so full of life.  It’s almost impossible to believe that he’s gone.”

Hoosier GI Killed After Missile Hits U.S. Convoy

Jul. 19, 2006 Associated Press

LOGANSPORT:  A soldier from White County was killed while traveling with an Army convoy in Iraq, becoming the fourth serviceman with an Indiana connection to be killed overseas this month.

Army Spc. Nathaniel Baughman, was killed in Iraq, workers at the Cass County Red Cross confirmed Tuesday.  His mother, Jill Baughman, is the agency’s executive director.

Baughman told WSAL-AM in Logansport that her son’s convoy was hit with a missile and he suffered massive head injuries.  She said it was her son’s last mission and he was scheduled to return home in a few weeks.

Nathaniel Baughman was a 2001 graduate of Twin Lakes High School in Monticello, and his family lives in nearby Idaville, about 30 miles northeast of Lafayette.

Altoonan Severely Wounded In Iraq

7.12.06 By Allison Bourg, The Altoona Mirror

Jeffrey Reffner was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded July 5, blowing apart his left leg and burning his face, family members said Tuesday.

Reffner, 23, is listed in stable condition, a spokeswoman at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio said.

But the Altoona native, who was in surgery Tuesday night, is looking at another year to 18 months of recovery, said his father, Jeffrey Reffner Sr.

“He lost a big chunk of his fibula, and we have to make sure it doesn’t get infected,” said Reffner, in Texas with Jeffrey’s stepmother, Chris, and mother, Nancy.

Jeffrey Jr., a U.S. Army combat engineer, was on night patrol with four others when their humvee struck a bomb implanted in the ground.

He was the only one seriously injured when he couldn’t escape from the vehicle in time. He sustained first- and second-degree burns to his face, hands and forearms.

“His glasses just melted into his face,” his father said.

His left leg suffered a double compact fracture, shattering his fibula and tibula.

“He has a long road to recovery,” Reffner Sr. said.

The younger Reffner previously served in Iraq from November 2002 to June 2004. He returned to the Middle East in November.

His father wasn’t concerned because Reffner always was careful.

But when he found out, “it was like being hit by a bus in the chest,” Reffner Sr. said.

Dawn Strobert, Jeffrey’s older sister, said she saw the realities of the Iraq war on the news everyday.

But the 26-year-old didn’t think it would hit home until last week.

“I think I kind of took advantage of the fact that he was OK the last time,” Strobert said.

She chatted with Jeffrey, “my best friend,” on the computer almost daily. The last time she spoke to him was right before the accident.

“He felt it was something he needed to do,” she said of her brother’s decision to enlist in the Army.  “He wanted to make our father proud, our grandfather proud.”

The first time Jeffrey went to Iraq, “I couldn’t watch the news,” his mother Nancy said.

“I was constantly on the computer with him, asking him how he was doing,” she said. “It’s just like having a sick feeling in the back of your throat.”

Though he’s in a lot of pain, Jeffrey’s spirits remain high, Nancy Reffner said.

“It’s all just overwhelming right now,” she said.

Dying In Vain:

Just In Case You Missed It

July 23, 2006 By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer

"Right now, coalition forces have about 8,000 troops operating within the entire Baghdad area," which has a population of 5 million, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV told reporters a day after the incident.

"We are not across the entire Baghdad city.  We are at key locations worked out in agreement with the Iraqi security forces.  We responded when asked by our counterparts."

FUTILE EXERCISE:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

U.S. military at the area of a car bomb attack July 5, 2006, in Mosul.  (AP Photo/Mohammed Ibrahim)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Canadian Killed

July 22 CP

Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, of the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, based in Montreal, killed when a car packed with explosives rammed their armoured vehicle. 

Eight other Canadian Forces personnel were injured.

Two More Canadians Killed

July 23 Xinhua News Agency

Taliban militants carried out two attacks in the southern Kandahar province Saturday, killing seven persons including two Canadian troops and injuring 24 others.

Assorted Resistance Action

07-23-2006 (AFP) & Xinhua News Agency & BBC

KHOST, Afghanistan

Taliban militants have killed four policemen and kidnapped three others after they attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan.

A police company commander was shot dead with two colleagues after the rebels attacked their post in in the town of Gelan in Ghazni late Saturday, a provincial police official said.

The enemies raided several police checkpoints in Gilan district on Saturday night, killing four policemen, Tafsil Khan told Xinhua.

Occupation Forces Short Key Supplies

22 July 2006 By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian UK

The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.

The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.

He described "poorly regulated private security companies" as unethical and "all too ready to discharge firearms".

Nato forces in Afghanistan were short of equipment, notably aircraft, but also of medical evacuation systems and life-saving equipment.

TROOP NEWS

“Why The Fuck Am I Sitting Out Here Guarding A Truck Full Of Cheesecake?”

Jul. 19, 2006 By ANA MARIE COX, Time [Excerpt]

The National Guardsman in the frame looks grim.  His bunkmates are cutting up a bit, clowning for the camera. 

The cameraman tries to coax some action out the unwilling documentary subject, who refuses: "I'm not supposed to talk to the media," he says.

You can hear the insult's sting in the cameraman's shouted protest: "I'm not the media! I'm not the media!" The sharp denial reflects a key collateral campaign in the Iraq war: to keep soldiers strictly on message.

But there's no question that the soldier behind the camera in "The War Tapes" is part of this war's media.

Just as Vietnam had been America's first "living-room war," spilling carnage in dinnertime news broadcasts, so is the Iraq conflict emerging as the first YouTube war.

Talk show host Laura Ingraham encouraged those covering Iraq to "talk to those soldiers on the ground" in order to get a sense of all the good things happening there that should be "celebrated."

By that logic, putting cameras in the hands of those soldiers on the ground should provide enough celebration for an "Up with Iraq" musical.

There's music in a lot of the soldiers' videos, but precious little uplift.

In "The War Tapes," one soldier/auteur complains frequently about the risks he and his comrades take to protect the property of the Halliburton subsidiary subcontracted to feed the troops: "Why the fuck am I sitting out here guarding a truck full of cheesecake?" he laments.

After another guardsman supplies a Bush Administration-approved justification for their presence (freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people, stability in the Middle East), the cameraman asks, "tell me how you really feel."

Deadpan, he continues: "After that happens, maybe we can buy everybody in the world a puppy."

Mac Soldier Badly Wounded:

In Texas Hospital

July 11, 2006 By DAVID BATES Of the News-Register

A 22-year-old McMinnville soldier is recovering in a Texas military hospital from burns suffered in a roadside attack on his Bradley fighting vehicle on June 23 in Iraq.

Salvador Trujillo-Lopez suffered second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body, according to his wife, Brittnay. She is with her husband at Brook Army Medical Center, at San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston, where he is expected to spend the rest of the year.

The main threat to the lightly armored Bradleys is roadside bombs, known in military parlance as improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

“We don't know if it was an IED or something else, but the main thing is that it hit the Bradley and went up the fuel line," Brittnay said in a phone interview.

The couple lived in Yamhill County prior to Salvador's deployment in the fall of 2005. Brittnay, whose father, Roger Morgan, is also a Yamhill County resident, said they plan to return once Salvador is released.

The family has not been able to get many details on the incident, not even its location.

Brittnay, staying in housing designed for the spouses of patients, said patients suffering such severe burns are often left with no memory of it.  She said that's not the case with Salvador, who clearly remembers being trapped in a burning vehicle with four others.

But she said, "He doesn't want to talk about it. I said, 'You don'