Briefs
Advertiser Staff
ARMY
Ethnic violence kills seven in Kirkuk
Ethnic rivalries left seven people dead last week in the northern Iraqi oil center of Kirkuk, the region soldiers from Schofield Barracks are expected to patrol this year during a yearlong deployment.
The violence was linked to the recent rise in ethnic tensions that have challenged relations between Kirkuk's Kurdish majority and Arabs and Turkmen.
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for Combined Joint Task Force 7 in Iraq, said there has been "a general sense of unity in this country," with very few attacks that are Kurdish vs. Arab or Kurdish vs. Turkmen.
"Certainly, when you think about it in historical comparisons, in France, for instance, following the Second World War, there were 100,000 individual acts of retribution — French against collaborators," Kimmitt said.
"So certainly by historical standards we see nominal numbers in Iraq. And this development ... we really think is just that: nominal, just an exception, not part of a larger trend. But we will monitor it."
Businesses offer special deals
More than 200 businesses around Schofield Barracks are participating in a program to offer free and discounted merchandise to soldiers as thanks ahead of two big deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
About 4,800 soldiers are deploying to Iraq later this month and in February, and 3,500 other soldiers are leaving for Afghanistan in March and April.
Longs Drugs, Dole Plantation, Bank of Hawaii, and Baskin Robbins Wahiawa are among the businesses that have agreed to offer special discounts and offers to soldiers and their families through the year.
Participating merchants will display a bright yellow "We Support the 25th Infantry Division (Light)" sticker in their shops.
"These young men and women are part of our community," said Jack Smith, president of the Wahiawa Community & Business Association. "We've developed this program to show them this community cares about them and their families."
$5,000 re-up bonuses offered
Soldiers who re-enlist in the Central Command area of responsibility this fiscal year are eligible for a lump-sum bonus of about $5,000, the Army News Service said.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved the Targeted Selective Re-enlistment Bonus Dec. 17 for active-component soldiers.
National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan are eligible for re-enlistment bonuses under a separate program — $2,500 for a three-year re-enlistment and $5,000 for a six-year commitment.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
New stability force considered
The Pentagon is considering creating a military force that would be dedicated to stability and reconstruction operations.
Arthur Cebrowski, chief of the Defense Department's Office of Force Transformation, said the post-Sept. 11 security environment makes a strong case for such a force.
"We're going to need this capability. And we're going to need it repeatedly," Cebrowski said, adding such a force could include combat arms, military police, civil affairs, military intelligence, psychological affairs, engineers and explosive ordnance teams.
