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J. P. Blecksmith
James Patrick Blecksmith (September 26, 1980 – November 11, 2004) was an American military officer who was the first officer killed in Operation Phantom Fury during Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Biography Blecksmith was born in Pasadena, California, September 26, 1980. He attended Valentine School, in San Marino, through 2nd grade, before his family moved to Seattle, Washington in 1989. After two years, the family returned to Southern California and Blecksmith enrolled at the Flintridge Preparatory School where he graduated in 1999. He lettered four years in track, two years in soccer and three years in football. He was named to three national All-American teams and was first-team all San Gabriel Valley. In track, he medaled, at the California Interscholastic Federation finals, in nine events and was all-(CIF) in his sophomore, junior and senior years, and was the Prep League Most Valuable Athlete in 1999. He served as 10th grade class president and was a member of the Nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its population was 138,699 at the 2020 census, making it the 44th largest city in California and the ninth-largest city in Los Angeles County. Pasadena was incorporated on June 19, 1886, becoming one of the first cities to be incorporated in what is now Los Angeles County, following the city of Los Angeles (April 4, 1850). Pasadena is known for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. It is also home to many scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, including Caltech, Pasadena City College, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Fuller Theological Seminary, ArtCenter College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Ambassador Auditorium, the Norton Simon Museum, and the USC Pacif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have a single, statewide championships for all sports; instead, for some sports, the CIF's 10 Sections each have their own championships. Six schools near the state border are members of adjacent state's associations. San Pasqual Valley High School is part of the Arizona Interscholastic Association. Coleville High School, Needles High School, North Tahoe High School, South Tahoe High School and Truckee High School are part of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. History As early as 1891, schools around the San Francisco Bay Area began competing against each other in football organized by the Amateur Academic Athletic Association. Other boys sports were added starting 1894, organized by the Academic Athletic League. While tea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurest Support Services
Eurest Support Services (ESS) is a subsidiary of the catering company Compass Group PLC specializing in harsh-environment large-scale food service and facilities management. Its primary clients are military forces and other security services, major defense contractors, and construction, mining, and oil exploration and production facilities worldwide. ESS first came to wide public light in 2005 after being embroiled in the multibillion-dollar United Nations procurement scandal. It was reported that ESS used a broker company in New York City to get United Nations procurement contracts in West Africa with the help of a corrupt U.N. official, Alexander Yakovlev. Separately, it was also the subject of a public hearing in 2007 by the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for its role in security contract arrangements for its staff and equipment while providing dining services to the US Army in Iraq as a subcontractor to Halliburton subsidia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackwater USA
Blackwater was an American private military company founded on December 26, 1996 by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009 and known as Academi since 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy, a subsidiary of Constellis Group. Later Academi was fully integrated into parent company and therefore now operates under the name Constellis. Constellis and its predecessors provide contract security services to the United States federal government. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2013, its subsidiary, International Development Solutions, received an approximately $92 million contract for U.S. State Department security guards. In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20, for which four guards were convicted in the United Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Military Contractor
A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military contractors"; they are also referred to by academics and the press as mercenaries. The services and expertise offered by PMCs are typically similar to those of governmental security, military, or police forces but most often on a smaller scale. PMCs often provide services to train or supplement official armed forces in service of governments, but they can also be employed by private companies to provide bodyguards for key staff or protection of company premises, especially in hostile territories. However, contractors that use armed force in a warzone may be considered unlawful combatants in reference to a concept that is outlined in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly stated by the 2006 American Military Commissions Act. The servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
March 31, 2004 Fallujah Ambush
The 2004 Fallujah Blackwater incident occurred on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy containing four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater USA who were conducting a delivery for food caterers ESS. The ambush The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, and Mike Teague, were killed and dragged from their vehicles. Their bodies were beaten and burned, with their charred corpses then dragged through the city streets before being hanged over a bridge crossing the Euphrates River. Reactions Photos of the event, showing jubilant Iraqis posing with the charred corpses, were then released to news agencies worldwide, which caused a great deal of indignation in the United States. This prompted the announcement of a counter-insurgency campaign in the city. Response The ambush led to the First Battle of Fallujah, a U.S.-led operation to retake control of the city. However, the battle was halted mid-way f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iraqi Insurgency (Iraq War) , continued ISIL insurgency following territorial defeat
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Iraqi insurgency may refer to: * Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War ** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency ** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq * Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013), following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq * War in Iraq (2013–2017), armed conflict between ISIL and Iraq * ISIL insurgency in Iraq (2017–present) An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5th Marine Regiment
The 5th Marine Regiment (also referred to as "5th Marines") is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the most highly decorated regiment in the Marine Corps and falls under the command of the 1st Marine Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). Current Units The Regiment comprises four infantry battalions and one headquarters company: * Headquarters Company 5th Marines (HQ/5th Marines) * 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (1/5) * 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines (2/5) * 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5) * 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines (2/4) – (assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment for the purpose of facilitating 4th Marines as a "host" regimental headquarters for battalions on unit deployment program assignments to 3rd MARDIV on Okinawa.) History World War I The unit was activated on June 8, 1917, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the 5th Regiment of Marines. They immediately deployed to France, arrivi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5, nicknamed Dark Horse) is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps. The battalion is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California and consists of approximately 1,000 Marines and Fleet Marine Force Navy personnel. The 3rd Battalion falls under the command of the 5th Marine Regiment which falls under the command of the 1st Marine Division. Subordinate units * Headquarters and Service Company * Company I (India Company) * Company K (Kilo Company) * Company L (Lima Company) * Company M (Mike Company) (inactive) * Weapons Company History World War I 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, along with the rest of the 5th Marine Regiment, was first organized on June 8, 1917, as the United States prepared for World War I. The battalion was composed of four companies: the ''16th'', ''20th'', ''45th'' and ''47th''. Six days later, manned by Spanish–American War and Boxer Rebellion veterans along with a large number of raw recruits, they set sai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marine Corps Base Quantico
Marine Corps Base Quantico (commonly abbreviated MCB Quantico) is a United States Marine Corps installation located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly of southern Prince William County, Virginia, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County. Used primarily for training purposes, MCB Quantico is known as the "Crossroads of the Marine Corps". Quantico Station is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince William and Stafford counties in the U.S. state of Virginia, used by the Census Bureau to describe base housing. The population was 4,452 at the 2010 census. The U.S. Marine Corps' Combat Development Command, which develops strategies for U.S. Marine combat and makes up most of the community of over 12,000 military and civilian personnel (including families), is based here. It has a budget of around $300 million and is the home of the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. The Marine Corps Research Center at Quantico pursues equipment research and dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army–Navy Game
The Army–Navy Game is an American college football rivalry game between the Army Black Knights of the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, and the Navy Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapolis, Maryland. The Black Knights, or Cadets, and Midshipmen each represent their service's oldest officer commissioning sources. As such, the game has come to embody the spirit of the interservice rivalry of the United States Armed Forces. The game marks the end of the college football regular season and the third and final game of the season's Commander-in-Chief's Trophy series, which also includes the Air Force Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Army–Navy game is one of the most traditional and enduring rivalries in college football. It has been frequently attended by sitting U.S. presidents. The game has been nationally televised each year since 1945 on either ABC, CBS, or NBC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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