|
Others
in Incident:
DUSTWUN: Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; and Pvt. Byron W.
Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. The Department of Defense identified the
soldiers who were killed in the attack as Sgt. 1st Class James D.
Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn.; Pfc. Daniel W. Courneya, 19, of
Nashville, Mich.; Pfc. Christopher E. Murphy, 21, of Lynchburg, Va. and
Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.
The body of Joseph Anzack Jr., was found in
the Euphrates River in Iraq after being abducted.
Source:
Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews. 07/2007
=======================================================================
|
National
Alliance
of Families
For the Return
of Americas Missing Servicemen
World War II
Korea
Cold War
Vietnam
Gulf Wars
Dolores Alfond
--- 425-881-1499
Lynn OShea
------ 718-846-4350
Web Site -- www.nationalalliance.org
Email ------ lynn@nationalalliance.org
July 10,
2008
It is with
deep sadness that we pass along the news that the body of Sgt.
Alex Jimenez, POW in
Iraq
had been recovered and identified.
We had all hoped the news would be that of a
homecoming.
Our sympathies
to the Jimenez family and please remember PFC Byron Fouty and
Spc Ahmed Altiae in your prayers.
Body of
missing
Lawrence
soldier found in
Iraq
By
Yadira Betances
Staff writer
LAWRENCE
The body of Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez of
Lawrence
, who has been missing in
Iraq
for more than a year, has been found.
Military officials
told his family members in
Lawrence
and
New York
on Thursday that the body was identified through dental records.
Jimenez, 25, had been
missing since May 12, 2007.
He was among three
members of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division
kidnapped by terrorists during an ambush south of
Baghdad
. Four other soldiers were killed in the attack.
Jimenez's father, Andy
Jimenez, a construction worker from
Lawrence
, was informed by uniformed military officials who went to his
home early Thursday evening.
"I have lost all
hope. Oh my God. I have lost all hope," Andy Jimenez said
upon learning his son's fate.
The news saddened the
city.
"I know this is
going to hurt all of us tomorrow when the news is out because we
had been waiting for the day when he would return home,"
said Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan. "I had so much hope
that he was going to come home. And I know his mom and dad and
wife and kids felt the same way."
"Tomorrow will be
a sad day for Lawrence and people throughout the country,"
the mayor added. "He's with God in heaven now. Alex will
always go down as a hero. He died for our country and for us to
remain free."
The mayor said he will
meet with Veterans Services Director Francisco Urena to decide
what steps the city will take to honor the fallen soldier and to
assist the family, including the possibilities of having flags
throughout the city fly at half staff.
"On behalf of the
city, we're saddened for the Jimenez family," Sullivan
said. "We prayed and wished he was going to come home one
day and that never happened. The city stands ready to assist the
family in any way to remove their pain."
|
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/26/missing_soldiers_father_holds_on_to_hope/
LAWRENCE - Every few weeks, US Army officers call Ramon
"Andy" Jimenez to deliver the latest bit of news about
his son, Alex R. Jimenez, who was kidnapped in Iraq last May:
The military found Alex's Army ID. Recovered his gun. Arrested
an insurgent suspected of kidnapping him.
Andy Jimenez, a carpenter who lives in a modest basement
apartment in Lawrence, charts his life from one such phone call
to the next. The elder Jimenez, who once went to a protest to
call for the return of American troops from Iraq, attends every
meeting of local veterans, puts together care packages for
American troops deployed oversees, and calls soldiers from his
son's 10th Mountain Division his family ....
=================================================
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19148980&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=575596&rfi=%5c'%5c'
Year In Review Mother Copes During Holiday Without
Son
by Annmarie Fertoli, Assistant Editor
12/27/2007
We always put the tree, Maria Duran said.
But in this season, I dont feel like putting it.
Duran spent the holidays with her six sisters, two
brothers, their children and her two sons at her Corona home this
year. But it was the first Christmas without word from her eldest son,
25-year-old Army Spc. Alex Jimenez........
============================================
American Forces Press Service
|
BALAD, Iraq, Dec. 27, 2007 - Iraqi police and U.S. special
operations forces seized two suspected extremists believed to be
complicit in the kidnapping of three U.S. soldiers in early May,
U.S. military officials said today. The suspects were detained
during Dec. 24-25 operations in Ramadi, officials said. The raids
were prompted by intelligence reports linking the two individuals
to the May 12 abduction of three U.S. 10th Mountain Division
soldiers after an insurgent ambush near Mahmudiyah in which four
U.S. soldiers were killed.
Reports indicate the two detainees are linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.
One of the suspected terrorists is believed to have facilitated
the kidnapping and is reported to have used his home to aid in the
hiding and transporting of the captured soldiers.
The Ramadi raids were part of a series of operations conducted to
detain individuals believed complicit in the abduction of the
soldiers, officials said.
Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, a native of Torrance, Calif., Spc.
Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty,
19, of Waterford, Mich., were reported missing after the May 12
ambush. Iraqi police found Anzack's body in the Euphrates River
south of Baghdad on May 23. Jimenez and Fouty are
still missing.
During a previous operation, a weapon belonging to one of the
missing U.S. soldiers was recovered at a residence of one of the
suspects, officials said.
Both suspects allegedly are involved in terrorist cells
responsible for several roadside-bomb and mortar attacks against
Iraqi and coalition forces, as well as the kidnapping and murder
of Iraqi citizens and members of the Iraqi security forces.
Four other individuals seized during the operations are being
detained for questioning.
|
============================================================
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-08-07-mia-cover_N.htm?csp=34
By
Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
QARGHULI
VILLAGE, Iraq Sometimes when he's out on patrol, Army Spc. Samuel
Rhodes sees a shred of camouflage in the bushes, and his heart leaps.
Each
time, Rhodes hopes it will be the missing clue to the fate of two U.S.
soldiers who were captured by insurgents south of Baghdad after an
attack in May. Inevitably, though, the piece of camouflage turns out to
be from an Iraqi army uniform.
"That
just crushes you," Rhodes says. His missing comrades, he adds,
"are on my mind every day."
The
trail of Spc. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty is getting colder by the
day, leaving their platoon-mates with only faint hope that they are
still alive. Their absence is particularly poignant because such losses
have been so rare in Iraq: Unlike previous wars, when thousands of
troops have gone missing from chaotic battlefields, only four U.S.
troops are listed as missing in Iraq.
That's
largely because U.S. forces have made a point of engaging enemy fighters
only in limited and tightly controlled situations, and because of the
military's improvements in keeping track of troops by using satellite
technology and other types of communication, says Larry Greer, spokesman
for the Pentagon's POW/MIA office.
The
May 12 attack, which the U.S. military blames on al-Qaeda, killed four
other soldiers instantly. Immediately afterward, more than 4,000 U.S.
troops began searching a 500-square-mile area of date palms and goat
pastures south of Baghdad for Jimenez, Fouty and Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr.,
who also was captured in the attack. More than 1,000 Iraqi men were
detained for questioning.
On
May 23, Anzack's body was found floating in the Euphrates River about a
mile south of the attack site. Two weeks later, images posted on an
insurgent website showed close-ups of Fouty and Jimenez's military ID
cards.
Since
then, the manhunt a mission made more grim by the loss of two more
troops who took part in it has been scaled back. These days, troops
from Jimenez and Fouty's 10th Mountain Division pursue tips from local
villagers and dig for their comrades' remains in fields.
"If
they haven't been found by now, they're probably buried somewhere,"
battalion spokesman Sgt. Joseph Caron acknowledges.
The
search for Jimenez, 25, and Fouty, 19, has become a test of how much
Iraqis will cooperate with American troops a crucial element of the
counterinsurgency strategy launched this year by Gen. David Petraeus,
the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Six
of the 12 to 20 suspected attackers have been captured and are being
held at a U.S. military prison near the Baghdad airport. However, the
search also has encountered a frustrating number of dead-ends, raising
questions about how many of the clues are red herrings.
Among
the division's 800-soldier 4th Battalion, the drive to find the missing
soldiers has never been greater. Yet many are beginning to fear that
when their tour ends in three months, they will do the unthinkable:
return home without two of their own.
"I'm
actually scared to go home," says Spc. Shaun Gopaul, whose wife,
Caridad Gopaul, is close with Jimenez's wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo. "To
look her in the face what am I supposed to say?"
At
the battalion headquarters in Youssifiyah, 10 miles from where the
attack occurred, color photocopies of the two missing soldiers are
tacked to a wall. The paper edges are starting to curl. A handwritten
inscription at the top of Jimenez's photo reads: "Never Give Up, We
will find You, Keep Fighting."
Troops
say the search is now mostly a mission of pride and principle.
"You
don't want to leave a body just out there," says Pfc. Clayton
Peterson, who had been in the same company as Fouty since basic
training. "You feel like you left them behind."
A
pre-dawn ambush
The
troops of the Delta Company continue to perform the same mission that
Jimenez and Fouty did: protecting a narrow, dusty road known as
"Route Malibu." The road, which runs parallel to the Euphrates
south of Baghdad, was so bomb-infested a year ago it was considered one
of Iraq's most dangerous.
Al-Qaeda
and other insurgent groups have used the region to stash arsenals, plan
attacks and build car bombs, says Maj. Robert Griggs, the 4th
Battalion's operations officer.
Last
fall, when the 10th Mountain Division began arriving, soldiers launched
a new tactic, moving out of fortified regional bases and establishing
small outposts in houses and buildings along the road. The effort
presaged the aggressive U.S. military strategy popularly known as
"the surge" that Petraeus implemented in February.
"We
were months ahead of the surge," Griggs says.
One
company outpost where platoons of 20 or so soldiers spend a week at a
time is a concrete produce market the Army rented and surrounded with
sandbags. It has no running water, no toilet, no windows and no
furniture. It offers little escape from a room cluttered with coolers,
wet clothes and anti-tank guns. Soldiers sleep on triple-decker wood
platforms they built. The bitter stench of dried sweat hangs heavily.
They
are the sort of close quarters in which troops get to know each other
well.
Wise
and mature, Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., learned some Arabic for his
second tour in Iraq, which began a year ago. He helped platoon medic
Sgt. Michael Morse communicate with Iraqis he was treating. Jimenez
instructed other soldiers to accept tea or cigarettes offered by locals,
and gave newer troops tips on how to scan the ground for buried bombs.
"He
was one of the best," Rhodes says.
Fouty,
of Waterford, Mich., was just eight months out of basic training when he
was captured, but he was not shy about speaking his mind. "If he
saw something wasn't being done right, he'd tell you," Peterson
says.
On
May 12, the soldiers were in their Humvees guarding the road when the
attack began in darkness at 4:44 a.m., says Capt. John Gilbreth,
commander of Delta Company.
A
group of 12 to 20 al-Qaeda fighters cut through razor-wire coils that
U.S. soldiers had placed along both sides of the road to try to deter
people from planting bombs under the road's surface.
After
months of intensified U.S. attacks, al-Qaeda "needed to reassert
their dominance," Griggs says.
Rockets
and gunfire smashed the vehicles' armor. Grenades were thrown inside the
Humvees through turrets. The Humvees' fuel ignited. The soldiers' own
ammunition detonated, Griggs says.
"The
attack was extremely bold," he says.
Soldiers
from Delta Company headquarters a half-mile away on the same road heard
the explosions and charged toward them. But they had to stop their
Humvees when they saw wires that al-Qaeda operatives had laid on the
road to detonate nearby bombs.
"It
really is amazing how good the enemy was," Griggs says.
Rhodes,
the Army specialist, hopped out of his Humvee and raced toward the
burning vehicles shouting his comrades' names. He looked for them, saw a
nearby house and wondered if they had escaped inside. "That's when
we saw 'em," Rhodes says. "We saw our guys burning."
Then
Rhodes caught the smell "burning flesh."
Four
soldiers from the platoon were killed. An Iraqi soldier working with the
U.S. Army that morning also died in one of the Humvees.
Some
soldiers believe that Jimenez, Fouty and Anzack were dragged away.
Peterson,
the private first class who knows Fouty, says he and others found marks
in the dirt near the attack site that were crusted with blood. Griggs
says it's not clear how the captives were taken from the scene.
Many
missing from wars past
By
controlling its troops' exposure to insurgent forces and using
satellite-based computers and phones to track troops, the Pentagon has
made it extremely rare for a soldier to go missing from the battlefields
of Iraq.
"You
no longer have the possibility of thousands of guys or even hundreds
being isolated or cut off," Greer says.
In
World War II, hundreds of troops would go missing in a single battle
when they were surrounded by enemy fighters, killed or captured. In some
cases, their remains were buried and never found.
More
than 78,000 U.S. troops remain missing from World War II, according to
Pentagon figures. More than 8,100 remain missing from the Korean War,
and 1,779 from Vietnam. Another 867 troops who were declared missing at
some point during the Vietnam War were identified when their remains
were found.
In
Iraq, the U.S. protective tactics have frustrated insurgents, who can
gain stature and a potential bargaining chip by capturing a soldier,
Virginia Military Institute historian Malcolm Muir Jr. says.
Griggs
believes that on May 12, the attackers set out to kill not capture
U.S. soldiers but saw that three were injured and took them.
Al-Qaeda's leadership demands that live U.S. troops be brought to them,
Griggs says.
Shortly
after the attack, Griggs and other officers met with local sheiks and
told them they had a choice: They could help the U.S. and Iraqi armies
take out al-Qaeda or face a heavy-handed response. There was "a
quick turnaround of sentiment" toward the U.S. troops, Griggs says.
Last
month, Griggs went to a spot near the Euphrates where a source had told
him to dig for the soldiers' bodies. He found nothing. "You'll
never know if it was bad information or if you just weren't in the right
area," Griggs says.
More
recently, Griggs took a squad to a local mosque whose elders, he was
told, might help find people involved in the capture. The soldiers took
photos of 39 men who were at the mosque and showed them to local Iraqis
who are helping the search. The local informants identified a man they
said might know the soldiers' whereabouts, Griggs says. Troops are now
trying to find him.
Griggs
also is pursuing leads indicating that the captured soldiers may have
been transferred from one al-Qaeda cell to another. There are other
tips, too vague to act on.
"In
all of these instances," he says, "the information started as
a tip from a local citizen."
Despite
all the leads, there's no clear sign pointing to the soldiers'
whereabouts.
"Our
information has not been the greatest," Caron says.
"Obviously, they haven't been found."
'I
feel he is still alive'
Under
Pentagon policy, U.S. troops retain their missing status until a year
after a war ends.
At
that point, if they or their remains have not been found, the military
will declare them presumptively dead, Greer says. That would allow a
missing servicemember's family to receive $400,000 from a military life
insurance policy, a $100,000 "death gratuity" and lifetime
annuity for the spouse of about 40% of the servicemember's base pay.
A
week after Jimenez and Fouty were captured, their Delta Company comrades
packed their belongings and sent the boxes to Dover Air Force Base in
Delaware, along with the possessions of the soldiers who were killed.
Personal items went to families.
Meanwhile,
the unit is not as cohesive, not as spirited, not as jovial as it used
to be "because we've got all these new guys," Sgt. Michael
Morse says. "I'd go back to getting blown up and shot at every day
to have (Jimenez and Fouty) back."
Gopaul,
the Army specialist who lived with Jimenez, became so distraught after
the attack that Army mental-health counselors pulled him from combat, he
says. He now works a desk job at battalion headquarters in Youssifiyah,
and says he takes the antidepressant Lexapro and sleeping pills.
Finding
Jimenez and Fouty remains "a No. 1 priority" of the U.S. Army
units operating in the area south of Baghdad, 10th Mountain Division
spokesman Maj. Webster Wright says. The search is "still very much
alive," Wright says.
Back
in the USA, Fouty's family will be holding a vigil, the second for him,
Sunday at a veterans memorial in Lake Orion, Mich.
"In
my mind and my heart, I feel he is still alive," says Gordon Dibler,
Fouty's stepfather. "I'm going to keep that hope until I find any
evidence" he isn't.
The
troops hope to soon reopen Route Malibu, which has been closed to
vehicles for months. Delta Company will start issuing Qarghuli Village
driver's licenses that will list the make of each driver's car. Anyone
found driving a car not listed on the license will be questioned.
Rhodes,
the specialist, sounds bittersweet when he considers his platoon's fate
as he sits on a cot outside the produce market smoking a cigarette.
"We
gained a little more support in being able to work with this
village" as a result of the attack, he says.
"They're
a little more open with us. But we paid for this road in blood."
Contributing:
Andrea Stone in McLean, Va.
=================================================
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287597,00.html
Missing Soldier's Wife
Gets Green Card
Sunday , July 01, 2007
BOSTON
Yaderlin
Hiraldo Jimenez ,
the wife of missing Army Spec. Alex
Jimenez , no longer has to worry
about being deported as she awaits word of her husband's fate.
On Friday, Yaderlin walked into
a Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Buffalo, New York. She
left with a green card in her hand, guaranteeing she can stay in the
U.S. for the rest of her life.
"She was moved to
tears," her lawyer Matthew Kolken, who went with her to the
immigration office, told the Boston Sunday Globe.
"Her immigration problems
have been solved in their entirety and now her focus is completely
dedicated to her hope and desire that she's going to see her husband
again," Kolken added.
The move came after U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last
month that his agency would "terminate" the deportation case
against Yaderlin so she could stay in the country and apply for
permanent resident status.
At the time, Chertoff said in a
letter to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., that "the sacrifices made by
our soldiers and their families deserve our greatest respect."
Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass.,
and a comrade, Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. have been
missing since their unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12.
Jimenez
had petitioned for a green card for his wife, whom he married in 2004.
Yaderlin illegally entered the United
States from the Dominican Republic in June 2001, paying $500 to a
smuggler and walking three days from Mexico to California.
Her
husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for her
alerted authorities to her situation.
She has been living in Pennsylvania and had
been facing deportation but an immigration judge put a temporary stop to
the proceedings after Jimenez was reported missing.
On
Friday, the Pentagon changed the status of Jimenez and Fouty from
"whereabouts unknown" to "missing/captured."
The change reflects an official
determination that the two were seized by hostile forces. The earlier
designation is typically used when a soldier goes missing but military
officials have not confirmed the circumstances.
The
change does not mean the military has gained any new information about
their whereabouts.
An Iraqi insurgent group claimed in a video
posted on the Internet last month that the missing soldiers were killed
and buried, but offered no proof they were dead.
Kolken said Yaderlin hopes to
apply for citizenship so she can eventually vote. She also hopes to
attend college, he said.
"She
commented about how much she loved this country," Kolken said.
=================================================
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department
of Defense
No. 817-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2007
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711
DoD Announces Soldiers Status as Missing-Captured
The Department of Defense has changed the status of two
soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom from duty status
whereabouts unknown (DUSTWUN) to missing-captured.
Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and Spc. Alex
R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., were declared
missing-captured June 27.
On May 12, Fouty and Jimenez were categorized as DUSTWUN when
their patrol was attacked by enemy forces.They are assigned to
the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Efforts continue for their successful and safe return.For
more information in regard to the ongoing search and recovery
operations please contact the Coalition Press Information
Center-Baghdad at (703) 270-0299 or (703) 270-0320.
Change in status questions can be directed to Shari Lawrence,
deputy public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Human Resources
Command in Alexandria, Va., at (703) 325-8856, after hours:
(703) 946-0791.
The public affairs officer assisting Fouty's family is Maj.
Dawn Dancer, (517) 481-8140 or (517) 481-8141, after hours:
(517) 896-0860, Michigan National Guard.
The public affairs officer assisting Jimenez's family is Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Buczkowski, (212) 784-0113 or (212) 784-0112, after
hours: (785) 410-5522, Army public affairs-New York Branch.
------------------
Monday, June 4, 2007
Al-Qaeda In Iraq Claims It Killed Captured
U.S. Soldiers
June 4, 2007 -- An Al-Qaeda
umbrella group has claimed its militants killed three U.S.
soldiers after capturing them in Iraq in May.
The claim was made in a new video
recording released today by the Islamic State In Iraq.
An unidentified voice made the claim on the video, which was
made available to Western news agencies by the Washington-based
Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute.
The video does not offer any proof that the soldiers were killed
and does not show them.
The three soldiers have been missing since mid-May. The body of
one soldier was later found, but the other two are still
missing.
In other news, Iraqi police say at least 12 people, including
seven insurgents, were killed across Iraq today.
Also, Pope Benedict XVI said today he is "deeply
saddened" by the murder of a Catholic Chaldean priest and
three of his assistants in northern Iraq on June 3.
In a telegram, Paul Faraj Rahho, the pope's secretary of state,
said the pope wished to convey "heartfelt condolences"
to the victims' families over the "senseless
killings."
(AFP, AP, Reuters, CNN)
----------------------
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense
No. 591-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2007
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711
DoD Announces Army Soldiers as Whereabouts Unknown
The Department of Defense announced today the identities of four
soldiers listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) while
supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.They have been unaccounted for since
May 12 in Al Taqa, Iraq, when their patrol was attacked by enemy forces
using automatic fire and explosives.They are assigned to the 4th
Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th
Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
Reported as DUSTWUN are:
Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev. (Killed in attack,
remains recovered)
Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.
Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.
Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.
Search and recovery efforts are ongoing, and the incident is
under investigation.
=================================================
|
