U.S. soldiers at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, enjoyed Thanksgiving with a traditional American meal followed by traditional American pastimes: darts, football and a hot-dog-eating contest.

There were also invited guests from the surrounding community.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Army Col. Marion Gale with guests at the Thanksgiving celebration. Credit: U.S. Army.

If they can get approval from the national chain of command, the Marines would like to send more than 15,000 combat troops to Afghanistan.

"We want to expand our footprint and crush the enemies of Afghanistan," Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commanding general of Marine Force Central Command, last week told Marines already deployed to Afghanistan.

In orders to one of his commanders, Helland envisions an aggressive campaign of chasing and confronting the Taliban throughout the country. "We will go where the mission takes us and where the enemy is located," he wrote to Col. Duffy White.

On one point Helland is unmovable: "I will not tolerate any violation of detainee handling procedures."

For the rest of the story about  Marine plans for Afghanistan, click here.

-- Tony Perry, reporting from Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan

Photo: Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, learn from a traveling general that the Marines are back in Afghanistan "to stay." Credit: Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times

Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Smith was among the Marines of the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment sent to Afghanistan in the spring for what was meant as a mission to mentor Afghan police. The deployment proved much more violent.

"We had to adapt and overcome, like Marines have been doing since 1775," said Smith, 20, of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.

For the rest of the story about the embattled Two-Seven, go to Marines got more than they bargained for in Afghanistan

Tony Perry, Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan.

Photo: Lance Cpl. Nathan Smith. Credit: Tony Perry/Los Angeles Times

.

By tradition, the Royal Marines Band deploys as ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers when British troops go to war.

So band members are hard at work at the British-run hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan that provides life-saving emergency care for British and American troops and Afghan civilians. But they haven't forgotten their initial duties.

On Remembrance Day -- the British equivalent of Veterans Day -- band members donned their formal uniforms and provided a morale-boosting concert in the desert for troops and patients.

How was it?

"Top shelf, capital, as they would say," said Gunnery Sgt. Paul Martin, the U.S. Marine Corps liaison to the hospital.

-- Tony Perry at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

Photo: The Royal Marines Band during a performance in Britain. Credit: Royal Marines

Some of the best on-the-ground reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan has been done by reporter/journalism professor Andrew Lubin.

He's done multiple tours with U.S. troops in both countries. And he's not averse to the strategic use of firepower. Witness his book "Charlie Battery: A Marine Battery Unit in Iraq."

But in two recent dispatches from Afghanistan, he emphasizes the vexing economic aspects of the war against the Taliban.

In "Afghanistan--A Local War: The Tegab Valley," he writes "...with literacy levels under 20% there are many issues that need to be addressed before Afghanistan reaches even 'developing world' status."

Spec. Beau Jordan was trained as a machine-gunner for the Oklahoma Army National Guard. But he used to work summers as a lifeguard, and his hobby is scuba diving.

So when two Marines were in danger of being swept away by a swift-moving river in Afghanistan, Jordan says he "reacted instinctively."

Jordan, 22, was waiting for the two to return from a Taliban-hunting mission with Afghan troops. It was dark before he spotted the Marines, in full combat gear, trying to cross the rain-swollen Alishang River. The two were using the red headlamps on their helmets for guidance.

Then one of the headlamps went under the water.

As the debate over revamping U.S. policy in Afghanistan intensifies, Bing West has checked in with strong views.

West -- a Marine veteran of Vietnam, former assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and author of three books and numerous articles on the war in Iraq -- takes aim at two assertions that seem, to him, to be morphing into givens.

One is that the "surge" tactics used in Iraq won't work in Afghanistan because of differences in terrain and other factors.

The second, as expressed by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is that military power alone won't crush the enemy -- that improving the political and physical infrastructure of Afghanistan is equally important.

West thinks both ideas are wrongheaded.

His views often are consistent with those privately held by many -- although maybe not all -- Marine brass.

Another day, another horrific attack in Afghanistan.

This time a suicide bomber managed to get inside Kabul's heavily-guarded Information and Culture Ministry building and blow himself to smithereens, killing at least three other people, according to a report from Kabul by the Los Angeles Times' Laura King.

With Iraq appearing to simmer down, Afghanistan will continue as one of the greatest challenges for the next president.

According to an Oct. 24 opinion article in the Boston Globe, written by former Reagan administration diplomat Lawrence J. Kolb and his colleague Laura Conley, there will be no peace in Afghanistan unless the U.S. comes to terms with Iran, which now holds enormous sway over certain parts of the country.

Korb and Conley argue that the U.S. botched an opportunity to reward Iran's good behavior in 2001, when it helped Washington overthrow the Taliban. If the U.S. wants to win in Afghanistan, it must talk with Iran, they argue:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a kind of building boom as the Fisher House Foundation and its financial partners build facilities across the country to accommodate families of wounded military personnel who are undergoing medical treatment.

In 2006, the foundation opened a house (above) near the Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto. In a few weeks a Fisher House will open in Dallas, and a few months later one will open adjacent to the VA hospital in West Los Angeles.

Projects for 2008, according to the foundation's website, www.fisherhouse.org, include houses in West Roxbury, Mass.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Elgin Air Force Base, Fla.; and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Begun in 1991, the foundation's goal is to provide free accommodations for family members as military personnel receive medical treatment.

On Friday, military personnel and foundation officials gathered at the Naval Medical Center San Diego for the grand opening of the 41st Fisher House, the second at the medical center. The Navy will provide maintenance and management of the 8,000-square-foot, 12-suite house.

The U.S. military and its allies in Afghanistan have to do a more thorough and public investigation when civilians are killed by multinational forces in their fight with the resurgent Taliban, the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights said Wednesday in San Diego.

Louise Arbour, a Canadian lawyer and former war-crimes prosecutor whose four-year term in the U.N. post expired in June, said the U.S. and NATO forces are deeply alienating the Afghan people and undercutting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"It's just not good enough for the Army to say, 'We've done an investigation and, contrary to what other people say, it was insurgents who were killed,' " Arbour said in an interview before a speech at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego.

Arbour said that civilian deaths, particularly those caused by aerial bombing, may be pushing people to side with the Taliban, even though the Taliban are known for ruthlessness.

The Pakistani military flew helicopter missions into Afghanistan to help the Taliban during a firefight with U.S. Marines in 2007, according to a story in DefenseNews.

The story quotes Marine Lt. Col. Chris Nash, who led a U.S. team embedded with Afghan forces in the Tora Bora region on the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Al Qaida and Taliban forces are thought to be hiding.

Nash said that he and his troops did not see the Pakistani copter but received information about it from the Afghan intelligence service, which allegedly had a source in the Taliban camp. The copter flew several resupply missions to a Taliban base 10 to 12 miles inside Afghanistan during the June 2007 fight, Nash told reporter Sean Naylor.

The relationship between rogue segments of the Pakistan military and the Taliban is one of the touchier parts of the alliance between the U.S. and Pakistani governments.

Naylor's story includes a strong denial from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Marine Lance Cpl. Liab Cheng in the mountains near the Pakistani border. Credit: Steve Hebert Polaris / For The Times 

By institutional culture, the Navy SEALs don't let out much information about their combat missions.

But recent death announcements suggest the SEALs are playing a major role in the increasing battle against the resurgent Taliban and their allies in Afghanistan.

On Sept. 3, the SEALs announced the death of Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Harris, who drowned during a combat operation in Afghanistan.

And on Saturday, the SEALs announced the deaths of Senior Chief Petty Officer John Wayne Marcum (pictured right, above) and Chief Petty Officer-select Jason Richard Freiwald (pictured right, below).

Both died Friday of wounds incurred a day earlier during a firefight with "heavily armed militants."

Marcum, 34, was from Flushing, Mich.; Freiwald, 30, from Armada, Mich.

Both were decorated veterans from previous combat tours and were attached to a SEAL unit in Virginia when they deployed to Afghanistan. Each is survived by a wife and daughter.

"They died while taking the fight to the enemy, going in harm's way with the selflessness that resonated in their character and  made them giants among men," said Capt. Scott Moore, commanding officer of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

— Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo credit: U.S. Navy

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can subscribe by logging in at the website here, clicking on the box for "L.A. Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

He was an all-star football player in high school, received a degree in studio art from Davidson College, and studied architecture at the University of North Carolina. He studied art history in France, was a devotee of Camus, and his artwork was displayed in numerous galleries, including Lincoln Center.

In 2000, he enlisted in the Navy and soon graduated from SEAL training in Coronado, considered the most grueling of military specialties.

And this weekend Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Harris, now 36, drowned in Afghanistan during a combat mission. He was the 513th American to die in Afghanistan in combat. The Lexington, N.C., resident had served combat tours in Iraq and received a Bronze Star, Combat Action Ribbon and other commendations.

"He felt really compelled to do something purposeful in his life," his high school choral teacher told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Here's a full profile in today's Washington Post.

-- Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Joshua Harris and his twin sister, Kiki. Credit: Naval Special Warfare Command

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can subscribe by logging in at the website here, clicking on the box for "L.A. Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

When the Pentagon rushed 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan in the spring, the orders were clear: the mission would be for seven months, no longer, and the Marines would not be replaced once their deployment was finished.

But with the Taliban, possibly in alliance with Al Qaeda, resurging, plans have changed. First, the stay of the Marines from Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., was extended for 30 days, pushing their arrival back home to late November.

Now there are growing indications that a different Marine unit, possibly including troops and equipment from several Marine bases, will replace the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment from Twentynine Palms and/or the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune.

In Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine commander, appears on the verge of suggesting a significant drawdown of forces there, freeing troops for Afghanistan. He has already redeployed eight helicopters and Marines to fly and maintain them to Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Rick Hall, commander of the Two-Seven, told reporters by telephone that he hopes that a replacement force is ready to continue the work his Marines have done in disrupting the Taliban and mentoring the Afghan National Police. The 30-day extension, he said, will allow a better transition.

Thirteen troops and an interpreter from the Two-Seven have been killed. Dozens more have been wounded. Not to send a replacement unit would be a major disappointment to his Marines, Hall said.

"I think it would be quite a blow to all of us," he said.

The Marine Corps has tweaked training at its desert and mountain sites to be more "Afghanistan-centric." Hall said he sends back "lessons-learned" virtually every day so they can be incorporated into training, particularly on how to work with the Afghans.

"We know we've made a difference in the lives of these people," Hall said. "We've given them a sense of liberty."

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of the Marine Forces Central Command, with authority for Iraq and Afghanistan, said in a separate interview that no decision has been made on whether to replace Hall's troops or those from Camp Lejeune.

But if the commander-in-chief and Defense secretary want a Marine replacement for Afghanistan, what is called a Marine air-ground task force -- infantry plus aircraft squadrons -- could be quickly assembled, Helland said.

"Absolutely," he said.

--Tony Perry, at Camp Pendleton

Photo: Marines from the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment during a raid on a suspected Taliban outpost. Credit: Marine Corps

The Marines from Twentynine Palms, assigned to train the Afghan National Police, have had their seven-month deployment extended by 30 days.

The 1,250 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, were expected to return home in early November. But Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, at the urging of senior military leaders, has extended their mission.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited with the 2/7 last month at its base in Helmand province, praising the Marines but noting that the training is hampered by rampant corruption among the Afghan police.

The extension of the 2/7 comes a month after a similar decision was made concerning the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

It's no secret that U.S. civilian and military leaders are frustrated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for not providing more troops for the fight against the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Some of our allies do not want to fight, or they impose caveats on where, when and how their forces may be used," Gates wrote recently in a widely distributed memo.

NATO countries, Gates noted, have two million troops -- not counting the U.S.

"Yet we struggle to sustain a deployment of less than 30,000 non-U.S. forces in Afghanistan," Gates wrote in the same memo, "and we are forced to scrounge for a handful of helicopters."

Along with extending the 2/7, Gates also approved sending additional U.S. helicopters, possibly from Iraq.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Marines and Afghan youth. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

In Afghanistan for a six-day trip, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Friday with Marines from the Twentynine Palms-based 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment.

The two-seven is assigned to train the Afghan National Police.

Afghan police, Mullen said, "have a history of corruption, and they've had challenges with this in every local area and district. Up until now, they haven't been trained very well, and so we start with a significant deficit, and it's going to take some time to catch up."

Mullen is known for straight talk. While it's not unusual for brass to talk candidly to the troops and then ask reporters to keep their comments off the record, Mullen had his posted on a military website.

The two-seven, Mullen added, has "a very critical, top priority mission in a very tough environment." Also dangerous: the battalion has had 10 Marines killed, 50 wounded since arriving in the spring.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Adm. Mike Mullen meets troops in Afghanistan. Credit: U.S. Navy

For months, commanders in Afghanistan have been saying that more troops are needed to train the Afghan army (pictured) and thwart a resurgent Taliban.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the 2,200 Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will remain in Afghanistan an extra 30 days -- returning to Camp Lejeune in November rather than October.

Thirty days in a struggle with complex issues, brutal weather, rugged terrain and seemingly intractable cultural divides?

Andrew Lubin, journalist, author and journalism professor, is just back from six weeks embedded with Marines in Afghanistan. He thinks the 30 days is meant to give Gen. David McKiernan more time to beg, borrow or otherwise scrounge another military unit from the U.S. or NATO to continue the fight.

Lubin was with Marines fighting to wrest control of Helmand province from the Taliban. Helmand is the center of Afghanistan's poppy growing region. The Taliban uses profits from the opium trade to finance their fight to topple the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

''We could see the area improving daily," Lubin e-mails. "But there is NO unit -- Marine, Army, Canadian or Brit -- scheduled to backfill. If they (U.S./NATO troops) leave, control of that area goes back to the Taliban.''

Lubin's reporting from Afghanistan can be seen on www.getthegouge.com.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Afghan soldiers being trained by U.S. Marines; credit: Marine Corps.

In a moving pregame ceremony Saturday night at Petco Park, the San Diego Padres paid tribute to the 11 Navy SEALs and 8 Army commandos killed on June 28, 2005, in Afghanistan.

The SEALs and commandos were killed when a SEAL team on a high-risk mission was ambushed by the Taliban and then a helicopter full of troops sent to rescue them crashed.

The tribute included a demonstration by the Navy Leap Frog parachute team, a flyby by Navy jets and a standing ovation by the crowd for two-dozen family members of the SEALs and commandos. Marcus Luttrell, the sole SEAL survivor, threw out the first pitch.

For the SEALs, Operation Red Wing was the largest single-day loss of life since World War II. Two of the 11 received the Navy Cross, one received the Medal of Honor. Luttrell has written a book, "Lone Survivor."

The tribute was arranged by First American Military Inc., a nonprofit support group.

One discordant note: Several members of the Seattle Mariners continued to do their stretching exercises just a few yards from where the family members were standing along the third-base line while the crowd gave them the standing ovation. By comparison, Padres players were standing and clapping along with the fans.

-- Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Navy SEALs in Afghanistan. Only Marcus Luttrell, fourth from left, survived. Credit. U.S. Navy

The Pentagon issued a dire report about Afghanistan on Friday. U.S. commanders say more troops are needed.

Does that mean that Marines already there will have their deployments extended through the winter? Or does it mean other Marine units will be sent to Afghanistan to thwart the resurgent Taliban?

Nobody in the know is talking. But maybe a story in Footwear News last week carries a clue.

The Marine Corps has just placed a $3-million order for 19,000 pairs of Mountain Cold Weather Boots made by Portland, Ore.-based Danner. It's the biggest order the corps has placed since signing a contract two years ago with Danner's corporate parent, LaCrosse Footwear Inc.

The Marines want the order filled by year's end. The boots are said to be warm, snug and durable, perfect for terrain that is rocky, snowy and wintry cold, like the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan that serve as a sanctuary for the Taliban.

-- Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: The Mountain Cold Weather Boot by Danner. Credit: Danner

Twenty-five outfits worn by actor James Gandolfini in his starring role in "The Sopranos" were auctioned this week in New York for $187,750, with proceeds going to the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps Marines and soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The auction, held at Christie's, was Gandolfini's idea. Last year his production company, Attaboy Films, did a well-received documentary for HBO about wounded military personnel and their struggles. Gandolfini was the interviewer.

Of the auction items, the polo shirt, tank top and black pants worn by Gandolfini in the episode in which he was shot by his demented uncle Junior fetched the most: $43,750. The bathrobe worn by the faux mobster as he brought in the morning newspaper went for $13,750.

The troops are big fans of "The Sopranos." At the Marine-Army base outside Ramadi, Iraq, the shack that served as an after-hours joint is called the Bada Bing. It's exactly like the one in the HBO series, except it has no strippers, no booze, no gambling and no smoking. The weapons are real though.

-- Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Actor James Gandolfini played Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series "The Sopranos." Credit: Associated Press

One was a third-generation Marine. Another was a Polish immigrant.

A third was 19 years old and had only recently married his high-school sweetheart. And the fourth had tried to enlist in the Marines soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but was rejected because he was only 16.

All four were part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, based at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles. They were killed June 14 by a roadside bomb in Farah province, where the battalion is assigned to shape up the Afghan security forces.

Killed were: Sgt. Michael T. Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash.; Lance Cpl. Layton B. Crass, 22, of Richmond, Ind.; Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill.; and Pfc. Michael Robert Patton, 19, of Fenton, Mo.

Although often overshadowed in the media by Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms has been key to the U.S. efforts in Iraq and, now, Afghanistan. According to the unofficial website icasualties.org, 117 Marines from Twentynine Palms have been killed in the two conflicts (23 of the 117 are listed in The Times database for troops with hometowns in California).

Camp Pendleton, with more battalions, has had at least 335 killed (78 are listed in The Times database).

Pietrek, the Polish emigre, "had his dreams and goals and he achieved it," a family friend told the Chicago Tribune. "He always wanted to be a Marine."

Washington's father was a Marine during the Persian Gulf War, his grandfather during the Korean War. Crass' brother Devin, 19, is also a Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms.

UPDATE: The Pentagon on Monday announced the deaths of two Marines and a Navy corpsman from Twentynine Palms, pushing the base's death toll to 120.

— Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: The casket of Marine Sgt. Michael T. Washington arrives Thursday at a funeral home in Auburn, Wash. Saluting in the doorway is his father, Michael W. Washington. Credit: Associated Press

The Defense Department has announced the deaths of two soldiers in Afghanistan and three soldiers in Iraq. At least  500 American military personnel have died in the Afghan war and at least 4,075 in the Iraq war.

Pfc. Ara T. Deysie, 18, of Parker, Ariz., died Friday in Paktia Province, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by a rocket-propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Sgt. Isaac Palomarez, 26, of Loveland, Colo., died Friday in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, after his patrol was attacked with a roadside bomb, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Pfc. Aaron J. Ward, 19, of San Jacinto, Calif., died Tuesday in Anbar province, Iraq, of gunshot wounds suffered during cordon and search operations. He was assigned to the 170th Military Police Company, 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade, Ft. Lewis, Wash.

Spc. Alex D. Gonzalez, 21, of Mission, Texas, died Tuesday in Mosul, Iraq, after his vehicle was attacked with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 43rd Combat Engineer Company, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Ft. Hood, Texas.

Spc. Mary J. Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula, Calif., died Friday in Iskandariya, Iraq, of an injury unrelated to combat. She was assigned to the Brigade Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military's controversial "stop-loss" program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was briefed about the program by Army officials who said that thousands of new stop-loss orders were issued to keep soldiers from leaving the service after Gates ordered combat tours extended from 12 to 15 months last spring.

The Army has resorted to involuntary extensions of soldiers' enlistment terms to prevent them from leaving immediately before a combat tour or in the middle of a deployment.

Army officials have argued that the policy is necessary to ensure that they are not forced to send inadequately trained soldiers and unprepared units into war.

However, many soldiers subjected to the stop-loss policy consider it a "backdoor draft." Critics argue that once soldiers have completed the enlistment period they agreed to, they should be allowed to return home. The involuntary retention program is so unpopular that it helped inspire a recent movie called "Stop-Loss."

Click here to read more.

-- Julian E. Barnes in Washington, D.C.

The Defense Department has identified two soldiers who were killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday in Afghanistan, where at least 496 U.S. military personnel have died since 2001:

Spc. Jeremy R. Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky., who was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N. M., who was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky.

The Defense Department on Wednesday announced the deaths of several soldiers and an airman. At least 4,063 American military personnel have died in Iraq and at least 496 in Afghanistan, according to the independent website icasualties.org.

Pfc. Adam L. Marion, 26, of Mount Airy, N.C., died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 171st Engineer Company, North Carolina Army National Guard, Saint Pauls, N.C.

Sgt. Marcus C. Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills, Fla., died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 94th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La.

Sgt. Mark A. Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 94th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La.

Pfc. William T. Dix, 32, of Culver City, Calif., died Sunday at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 14th Engineer Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade, I Corps, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, 30, of Ramona, Calif., died Tuesday in Bastion, Afghanistan, of gunshot wounds. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Senior Airman Jonathan A. V. Yelner, 24, of Lafayette, Calif., died Tuesday near Bagram, Afghanistan, of roadside bomb wounds. He was assigned to the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.