NEWS FLASH, April 23,
2008: Former Spearheader to Become
Top U.S. Commander in Iraq
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno,
above at right, shown in Baghdad in
July, 2007, has been scheduled to take over the Iraq Command
from Gen. David Petraeus around September, 2008. Before and during
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Odierno served with the
3rd Armored Division under Spearhead Commander Paul E. Funk,
first as the Executive Officer of 2-3 Field Artillery and then
as XO of Spearhead Division Artillery. The Pentagon announcement
on 4.23.08 included Defense Secretary Robert Gates' decision
to reassign Petraeus as the next commander of the U.S. Central
Command, which oversees operations from the Middle East to Central
Asia, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Read
More
ANOTHER FORMER SPEARHEADER in the
NEWS:
Lt. Gen. Chiarelli Nominated as next Army Vice Chief of
Staff
Lt.
Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli
Formerly 4-8 Cav, 3AD
In the above Pentagon release
of 4.23.08, Defense Secretary Gates also announced that Lt. Gen.
Peter Chiarelli, Mr. Gates' senior military assistant, would
be nominated as the next Army Vice Chief of Staff, replacing
General Richard Cody. Chiarelli has had two tours in Iraq - first
as commander of the First Cavalry Division and coalition forces
in Baghdad, and then as the No. 2 commander in the country. He
is the same Major "Pete" Chiarelli, well remembered
as the Bn S-3 Officer for 3rd Armored Division's 4-8 Cav in Gelnhausen,
and the behind-the-scene "brains" of Spearhead's great
victory at NATO's 1987 CAT tank gunnery competition. His 3AD
service in 1985-88 included the 4-8's transition from 3-33 AR.
A glimpse of the capture of Cologne,
the first major German city to fall to Allied forces. Includes
the famous footage of the destruction of a German Mark V Panther
tank by a 3rd Armored M-26 Pershing and its gunner, Clarence
Smoyer.
Tag along in a bouncing Humvee
and view the awesome might of 3AD's 3rd "Thunder" Brigade
on the first day of the Division's advance into Iraq to square-off
with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
A short but very touching interview
in 1989 of a vet who did not like to talk about his war experiences,
and it shows at the very end of this 2-minute clip. Kiefer was
with Service Co, 33rd Armored Regiment.
Scenes of the victory by D Co,
4th Bn, 8 Cav at NATO's Canadian Army Trophy (CAT) competition
at Grafenwoehr in 1987. This was the first win ever by a U.S.
team in the event's 24-year history.
A first-rate collection of video's
showing night-vision prowling & attacking by 2 Bn, 227 Aviation
during Operation Desert Storm, 1991. See the destructive power
of the Apache as 3AD radio transmissions can be clearly heard.
Photographed from a fast-moving
3rd Armored Division humvee in early March, 1991, the view from
a highway in northern Kuwait shows the results of Coalition ground
and air attacks on Iraqi vehicles & facilities.
Scenes from the ceremony in 2002
in Middletown, Connecticut, where the birthplace of 3AD's great
WWII commander, Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose, was dedicated. He was
born in 1899.
