there is some type of fuckery going on, the papers say Stites was from MD, but he was actually from Florida. his Wife is there.
I Salute You; Marine Corporal Jesse W. Stites
Mankato Times
Marine Corporal Jesse W. Stites, 23, of Palataka, Florida died Jan. 19 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when the CH-53D helicopter he was riding in crashed.
Corporal Jesse W. Stites was assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III MEF, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii and was serving during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Jesse Wade Stites was born March 8, 1988 to John and Carol Stites. He grew up in Roxana and Interlachen, Florida and attended high school in Interlachen, Florida graduating high school in 2006. After graduation Jesse enlisted in the United States Marines Corps on January 14, 2008.
On October 11, 2008 Jesse was united in marriage to Kristin Schwalenberg. The couple has proudly continued to serve their country.
Jesse attended South Roxana Elementary School and Roxana Junior High, said Jim Miller, who coached Stites on the seventh grade football team during the 2001-2002 school year.
“He gave 110 percent all the time,” said Miller, now the principal of CentralElementary School in Roxana. “He was a very respectful young man. He always had a positive attitude (and) a positive outlook.”
Friends say it was Jesse’s positive attitude and strong work ethic that helped make him a great marine, and an even better man.
Liz Middleton, who taught Jesse at IHS, remembered him as a polite, mature student whose one discipline referral she instantly knew was a mistake — and went to the teacher to have him realize the error.
Middleton said Jesse is often the graduate she asks her current students to model.
“He was interested in learning everything he could learn about the world,” she said. “So I can see how that would naturally lead him to a military career.”
When Jesse had free time he enjoyed going to the beach, working out, and playing Call of Duty on xbox. His ambitions and dreams were to take a three month vacation with his wife to Europe, move to Fullerton, California, and begin a family while owning a pub and finishing his bachelor’s degree.
Survivors include his wife, Kristin; mother, Carol “Ski” Stites; siblings, Angel Borgers, Donna Naterelli, and Shaun Tullar; and grandmother, Carol Lamere.
He was preceded in death by his father, John Stites; and grandparents.
Corporal Jesse W. Stites, I Salute You.
This one goes against all the others. There is something seriously wrong
HERE is THE FUCKERY. Our Marines died in Drug country!
Greetings from Helmand Province, in southwestern Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium-producing region, and the scene of some of the heaviest fighting between Taliban and NATO forces in recent years. My new location is Camp
Leatherneck, which sits in an arid basin with an unobstructed view of the surrounding plain. On most days, there’s not much to see.
Camp Leatherneck was created in 2008 to provide a headquarters for US Marine Expeditionary Forces in southwestern Afghanistan. The base is in the middle of nowhere and was created from nothing. Most structures are prefab CONEX boxes such as the housing units to the right. I live in one of these metal boxes. It’s 7’x 20’, complete with electricity, a bunk bed, HVAC and a window. It’s quiet and comfortable. I even have wifi.
Here’s one of the seven chow halls on the base. The food is pretty good. I’m impressed that they can get fresh fruits and vegetables here. I think they’re flown in from New Jersey. The cooking staff are from India. Every Saturday night, we have an excellent Indian buffet with all the trimmings. It’s a nice change from the American fare that we have the rest of the week.
Sauce: https://zoa3.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/helmand-province-southwestern-afghanistan/
Back to Helmand
Maneuver Warfare with an Afghan MAGTF
Volume 102, Issue 4
Author:
BGen Roger B. Turner, Jr
Captain Hill Hamrick
Col Matthew Reid, left, and SgtMaj Darrell Carver, center, unfurl the Marine Corps Colors during a transfer of authority ceremony at Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, 29 April 2017. Col Reid and SgtMaj Carver were the deputy commander and sergeant major, respectively, of TFSW.
Sgt Lucas Hopkins
View slideshow
As the early morning sun rose over Nawa District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a small, eclectic mix of Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) leaders casually finished their breakfast. A few kilometers away at an Afghan outpost, a team of Marine advisors grew increasingly anxious, as they still had no idea what their Afghan partners intended to do that day. Finally, a call came in from the Afghan district chief of police, who relayed the scheme of maneuver that the Afghans had constructed over their meal. The advisors, members of Task Force Southwest (TFSW), immediately relayed the plan back to the TFSW Joint Operations Center (JOC), initiating the repositioning and tasking of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and fires assets to support the Afghan operation
Sauce:
https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/2018/04/back-helmand
I am beginning to think the keystone is illegal drugs, our boys are fighting over in Afghan for the Opium fields.
27 Taliban Killed by Airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province
Officials say airstrikes targeted two areas in Nad Ali District
Jason Ditz Posted on October 10, 2018Categories NewsTags Afghanistan
According to local Afghan officials, the military ordered in two different airstrikes during fighting in Nad Ali District, in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, after Taliban tried to attack security forces.
Details are still scant, but police reported that at least 27 Taliban were killed in the airstrikes, and 13 others wounded. They provided no evidence that all the slain were Taliban, nor indicated what casualties Afghan forces may have suffered.
Nad Ali District has been the site of a lot of fighting over the course of the past month. Last week, six Afghan soldiers were killed in a separate airstrike incident, which was termed a “friendly-fire” strike.
The Taliban has heavy control across much of Helmand Province, and contests almost everyplace that they don’t control outright. The province is seen as particularly valuable because of its involvement in opium poppy farming and smuggling.
Sauce:
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/10/10/27-taliban-killed-by-airstrikes-in-afghanistans-helmand-province/
More on Stites:
Naval Academy grad killed in Afghanistan
Capt. Daniel B. Bartle, a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was killed in Afghanistan on Thursday (Baltimore Sun)
Peter Hermann, The Baltimore Sun
A 2006 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Thursday, the Marine Corps has confirmed. The 27-year-old was one of six Marines who died in the accident.
The Pentagon identified him as Marine Corps Capt. Daniel B. Bartle of Ferndale, Wash. A brief biography provided by officials at his base in Kaneohe, Hawaii, lists him as a pilot for the squadron called the "Red Lions," but it was unclear whether he was at the controls when the Vietnam-era CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in Helmand province.
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"Men of humility and honor are rare in this world. Daniel lived these values every single day and inspired others to do the same," said a statement from Bartle's older brother, John. "He was a loving son, brother, uncle and friend, and though his death saddens us greatly, we are finding consolation in all the love, laughter and joy that he gave to those who were fortunate enough to know him."
Marine Corps Base Hawaii said Bartle reported for duty with Squadron 363 in July 2011, and he was on his second deployment to Afghanistan when he died. The Pentagon said Bartle's commendations included two Air Medals, a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and a National Defense Service Medal.
While at the academy, Bartle majored in electrical engineering, minored in Spanish and competed on the power lifting team, John Bartle said. He decided to apply to the academy after serving as a congressional page during high school, his brother said.
A spokesman for the Naval Academy was unable to provide information about Bartle on Saturday, and could not say how many graduates have been killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense said Saturday that another Marine who died in Thursday's crash was from North Beach, Calvert County. They identified him as Cpl. Jesse W. Stites, 23, and said he had enlisted in 2009 and had been on his second deployment to Afghanistan.
But his father-in-law, Mark L. Schwalenberg, who lives in Idaho, said Stites grew up in Florida and went to high school there. Schwalenberg said Stites never lived in Maryland. There is no record of a Stites in North Beach, and the town's mayor, Mark Frazier, said he knew no one by that name.
Sauce:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-marine-killed-maryland-20120121-story.html
Helmand Province :
Afghanistan has been the world's leading illicit opium producer since 1992 (excluding the year 2001).[1] Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.[2][3] More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.[4] This amounts to an export value of about US$4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers.[5] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.[6] As of 2017, opium production provides about 400,000 jobs in Afghanistan, more than the Afghan National Security Forces.[7] In addition to opium, Afghanistan is also the world's leading producer of hashish.[8][9]. Almost 85% of the villages in the country's south cultivate opium poppies. The drug economy provides regular and somewhat reliable income to rural people in this extremely unstable country.The drug sector has been estimated to be worth between $4.1 billion and $6.6 billion, which would amount to about 20% to 32% of the country's gross domestic product in 2017
Sauce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
U.S. Marines headed back to Taliban hotspot 2 years after pull-out
Sauce
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-marines-afghanistan-helmand-province-taliban-opium-deployment-troops/
Nicely done.