CALIFORNIA: A U.S. military jet crashed during a training mission over the Mojave Desert, killing the pilot and injuring another crewman who ejected, the Air Force said Friday. Capt. Mark P. Graziano, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene after his T-38A jet went down at about 1:15 p.m. Thursday near California City, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Edwards Air Force Base.Maj. Lee V. Jones, a senior navigator, ejected from the twin-engine plane. He was listed in stable condition at a Bakersfield hospital, a statement from the base said.Both men were assigned to the Test Pilot School at the base. Graziano was training to be a test pilot and Jones was training to become a test navigator.
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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