MAYPORT NAVAL STATION: Navies from the United States and 11 other countries on Monday launched two weeks of war exercises off Florida's Atlantic coast that will include training in combating piracy and drug smuggling.Several Latin American countries, Canada and Germany are taking part in UNITAS Gold, which is now in its 50th year and is the Navy's longest-running yearly exercise. Hundreds of white-uniformed officers held a starting ceremony before embarking on ships, submarines and aircraft to begin training that is meant to foster naval cooperation throughout the Americas.Sailors, Marines and other military forces will perform live-fire exercises, undersea warfare, helicopter and amphibious operations, among other training. More than 25 ships, four submarines, 6,500sailors and 50 aircrafts are taking part in the exercise hosted by the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet, based at Mayport Naval Station just north of Jacksonville.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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