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Somalia travel guide
WARNING: Except for stable Somaliland, Somalia is currently a war zone possibly the most dangerous country in the world to visit remains extremely dangerous for independent travel or sightseeing due to armed conflict between Government forces and various warlords/factions (including al Qaeda linked Al Shabab). Persons kidnapped from Kenya and, mainly, vessels overtaken by pirates are currently held in Somalia. The country has lacked a semblance of government for over 20 years and the "officially recognized" government in Mogadishu has a weak grip on the country, despite recent success in the fight against al Shabab and a dramatic improvement safety wise in Mogadishu in 2011 12. Those visiting for business, research or international aid purposes should consult with their organization and seek expert guidance before planning a trip. Also, the country is experiencing a drought that is affecting most of the country. If you must go, see War zone safety.
The de facto independent Somaliland, a former British colony, is a stunning contrast, with a decent government structure in place less violence it is safer for travel, although both the US and UK governments advise against it. Tourists in Somaliland are required to be accompanied by armed guards outside the capital of Hargeisa because of the damage the potential kidnapping/killing of a foreign tourist(s) would have to its increasing reputation. Puntland is also de facto independent, but lacks a significant government and, despite much violence, is home to rival warlords and is not safe for independent travel. And as of June 21, the US Federal Government has issued a Travel Warning for that country. Travel to Somalia is EXTREMELY NOT recommended as the conflict continues.(Updated June 2013)
Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: a ml) is on the Horn of Africa, and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the north west, and Kenya on its south west. This is a country with a troubled past. Civil war, military coups, border disputes and warlordism are the general course of events here. Things started to improve after the Ethiopian Army withdrew in 2007 after defeating an Islamist government, but since then violence has flared up again with the Wholesale Jerseys re emergence of Islamist and other clan and warlord affiliated militias. Somalia is currently (sort of) ruled by the a Coalition government, compromising the Internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the former Islamist government. However, the government is currently waging a military campaign with radical Islamic factions that refused to merge with the government and are backed by al Qaeda.
The country has the longest coastline on the African continent, and as such, has many beaches.
The history of the Somali people dates back many centuries. The first time the word Somali was mentioned in a history book was 3500 years ago, when the queen of Egypt Hatshepsut sent a fleet of 5 large ships and a crew of 250 men to Somalia which the Egyptians called The Land of Punt. Punt means "the land of spices" from the aromatic plants that grow there. The Egyptians wanted to trade and they brought jewels and glass beads that they exchanged for gold, elephant tusks, myrrh, ostrich feathers, spices and different beads. Some of these items, especially the aromatic ones, were used by the Egyptians in their religious festivals and celebrations.
Between the 7th and 9th century. immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians established trading posts along the Somali coast.
In the 14th century Ibn Battuta, the great Berber traveler, visited Mogadishu and wrote about the people, their food and clothing and how they ruled themselves. In his book he mentioned that the people in the city were very fat and everybody ate as much as they could. The Mogadishans wore very nice white clothes and turbans and their sultan was very powerful.
Somalia was an unknown country for European explorers until the Portuguese explorers reached the coastal cities of Somalia on their way to India. They called it Terra Incognita, which means the unknown land. These new discoveries encouraged many other European navigators to sail on the Somali coasts.
[edit] The colonial era
British, Italian and French imperialism all played an active role in the region in the 19th century.
In 1884 at the European powers' conference in Berlin, Somalia was divided into five parts to dilute the homogeneity imposed by its language, religion, and race.
The colonial powers divided Somalia into British Somaliland in the north, Italian Somalia in the south, the French Somali coast in Djibouti, Ogaden in the west and NFD. In the early 20th century a Somali resistance against these colonial powers started, led by Sayed Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, whom the British gave the nickname "Mad Mullah." He began his opposition after returning from Mecca and established his own army, which he called the Dervishes. He recruited from the local people and built his own headquarters in Taleex. In 1901 the fighting started between British and local Somali forces and it was the beginning of a long struggle that resulted in Somali Wholesale Jerseys independence.
[edit] Post Independence
Somalia has been intertwined in much violence since 1991. In 1969, General Siad Barre seized power over a coup d'etat. When the previous president was assassinated, a military government came into power. The military government established large scale public works programs and successfully implemented an urban and rural literacy campaign, which helped dramatically increase the literacy rate. In addition to a nationalization program regarding industry and Cheap Jerseys land, the new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world, eventually joining the Arab League in 1974. All in all, Somalia's initial friendship with the Soviet Union and later partnership with the United States enabled it to build the largest army in Africa. This, however, ended in an utter collapse in the 1980's when the Somali people were disillusioned with the government because the government was weakened further in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close and Somalia's strategic importance was diminished.
As a result, General Barre was ousted by various rebels and the civil war started in 1991. Since then, life has been horific for many Somalians. Many have left the country to settle in safer parts of the world.
The prospects of change seem remote as of now, though a new government under the President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has been making efforts to fight instability, and to end the war. Major climatic factors are a year round hot climate, seasonal monsoon winds, and irregular rainfall with recurring droughts. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 30 C to 40 C (85 105 F), except at higher elevations and along the east coast. Mean daily minimums usually vary from about 25C to 40C (77 104 F). The southwest monsoon, a sea breeze, makes the period from about May to October the mildest season at Mogadishu. The December February period of the northeast monsoon is also relatively hot. The "tangambili" periods that intervene between the two monsoons (October November and March May)are very hot and humid.
[edit] By plane
Plane travel may be problematic to/from Somalia, due to the recent bombings of the airport(s) by Ethiopian forces. However, air may be the safest means of travel to and from Somalia.
The most reliable way to get in seems to be with African Express, which has connections in Dubai, Nairobi, and other smaller Middle Eastern and East African ports of call. Tickets can be reserved in advance, but not purchased unless you are at their ticketing office check back in to ensure you have a seat reserved if you will not be in the city you fly out of before your flight!
African Express is a Kenyan airline that flies to/from Berbera, Bossaso, Galkacyo and Mogadishu primarily from Nairobi and Dubai, but also less frequently from smaller locations such as Sharjah, Entebbe or Jeddah. Major routes use MD 82 jets, shorter hops may be on a DC 9 or 120 ER.
Jubba Airways [1] is a Somali airline that operates from Mogadishu to/from: Dubai, Bossaso and Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jeddah. Flights also may be available to/from: Galkayo, Hargeisa and Sharjah. They use a Soviet made Ilyushin 18 aircraft. They are the only airline to/from Somalia that currently accepts online booking reservations, but confirm with them seven (7) days in advance before flying.
Daallo Airlines [2] was formerly the only international carrier to fly to Somalia. They are currently (as of June 2011) grounded and have inconsistent service even when open. They operated 2 3 services per week from Djibouti also using a Ilyushin 18 aircraft.
All flights to Mogadishu use Aden Abdulle International Airport, which re opened in August 2006. Prior to this, both airlines used an airport many miles from the Mogadishu due to security fears over the city's main airport.
[edit] By car
Don't. Though this may be possible if you wish to cross into Somaliland, borders are generally sealed, and always dangerous.
Taman's years of hard work pay off
REGINA Brendan Taman wore a slightly constipated look most of the weekend, but late Sunday he was one of the most relaxed people in the nation, having lifted 26 years of frustration off his shoulders.
Taman's Saskatchewan Roughriders turned the 101st Grey Cup into their coronation, their party and their rumpled GM's redemption.
A 45 23 pasting of the Hamilton Tiger Cats sent a province draped in green into bedlam and jubilation. At the fringe of the celebration, but at the heart of the construction of this team, stood a smiling Taman.
"Amazing. Real gratifying and a relief. I've waited a long time and it feels great," said Taman, the remains of a sideline soaking still dripping from his hair and clothes. "It's packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-corey-linsley-jersey.html sort of like a dream. You never feel relaxed in a game like this and I was real nervous coming in. Losing would have been a pretty big pill to swallow for a lot of people. I wanted to win but I didn't want to lose, too. If you can understand that. They made that push in the third quarter and I was still nervous. For three quarters, I was scared crapless. But now. wow."
Four times Taman had come to this game and four times he'd left a loser. Not this night. The GM who was chased out of Winnipeg after spending 10 years with the Bombers won it. The man who was discredited by Bombers coach Mike Kelly and taunted with sneers about his scouting work being second rate and recorded on "napkins," is a champion today.
Taman schemed and traded and drafted and built this team to win on this day. And they did. In professional sports, the work is one thing and the results another. Taman now has the glory to go with the grinding.
'It's sort of like a dream. You never feel relaxed in a game like this and I was real nervous coming in' Brendan Taman
Hiring head coach Corey Chamblin. Rebuilding his defensive secondary. Stealing free agent offensive guard Brendon LaBatte. Drafting tackle Ben Heenan. Dealing for veteran receiver Geroy Simon. Taman put his fingerprints all over this Riders team and by late Sunday night he finally put his hands on the Grey Cup.
The Riders were absolutely dominant, turning their hometown advantage into a thorough thumping of the Tiger Cats. The Riders owned the line of scrimmage, controlled time of possession and won the special teams battle.
Nothing went Hamilton's way. Riders quarterback Darian Durant put the ball on the field three times in the first half and lost just one of the fumbles. Corey Linsley Youth Jersey The Ticats realized no points as a result of those miscues and one of Durant's fumbles actually turned into a 42 yard gain for teammate Kory Sheets.
The story on the field boiled down to the work of Sheets and his offensive line. The Riders running back broke a 57 year old record, romping for 197 yards to set a Grey Cup mark.
LaBatte, who Taman drafted when he was in Winnipeg and then lifted from under the nose of sleepy Bomber GM Joe Mack, led the way up front.
"This is incredible. We worked together Demetri Goodson Jersey for 23 weeks and kept chipping away. This is a great bunch of guys and a great football team," said LaBatte.
Taman, despite having the acumen to uncover talents such as LaBatte, Doug Brown, Khari Jones, Simon, Charles Roberts, Chamblin and Arland Bruce over the years, had previously been unable to work his way into the club of championship GMs.
Make room Wally Buono, Jim Popp, Jim Barker, Jon Hufnagel et al. There is a new man with a ring on his hand.
"That doesn't sound right," said Taman, asked what it was like be mentioned in the same sentence as such CFL luminaries. "But I guess it's a reality. It's an amazing feeling to do it here. Those names you mention, well, I guess I have a few days to enjoy it and then I have to get back to work."
Twenty six years in the league and a man who got his start at the bottom of the food chain as a practise gopher for the Riders, Taman has paid his dues and dealt with his share of heartache.
"It's hard when you lose. But so gratifying to win," said Taman. "I have so many people to thank. I texted my parents and just said, 'we did it.' I can't name all the people who have helped me and given me a chance. People like Lyle (Bauer) in Winnipeg. He believed in me and gave me a chance to be a GM."
The 46 year old Saskatoon native will take a ride in a parade this week and soon be handed a healthy contract extension by Riders GM Jim Hopson. The days of questioning Taman and his work are over. Respect is his. Lions and a few years later traded to bring him to Winnipeg.
"This is destiny for us. and Winnipeg. He took a chance on me. I told him we would one day win together and I'm so thrilled for him," said Jones, openly weeping in the arms of his wife Justine following the game.
Taman was handed a grenade when the Riders were awarded the rights to host this Grey Cup and nothing but a win on Sunday would put the pin back in.
"It was a lot of hard work and I won't say there wasn't Demetri Goodson Kids Jersey a lot of pressure," said Taman, smiling up at a wall of green clad fans singing the Riders fight song. "To do it here, like this, I won't ever forget it and I don't think they will either."About Gary Lawless
Lawless began covering sports as a rookie reporter at The Chronicle Journal in Thunder Bay after graduating from journalism school at Durham College in Ontario.
After a Grey Cup winning stint with the Toronto Argonauts in the communications department, Lawless returned to Thunder Bay as sports editor.
In 1999 he joined the Free Press and after working on the night sports desk moved back into the field where he covered pro hockey, baseball and football beats prior to being named columnist.
Artillery Battalions in World War II
One of the keys to the success of the artillery branch in World War II lay in the structure of the battalion and its personnel. Whether it is within a division or as part of a Corps artillery group, the battalion was the primary unit structure for the artillery branch in World War II. Army had throughout the war. Between the wars, there were important changes to the standard practices of the branch. Unit structure was evaluated, standard operating procedures were rewritten, and new technologies came on line. Regardless of the theater in which they operated, the branch was able to put all of these innovations into use.
The size of the battalion depended on its main weapon. The bigger the gun, the more men you needed, though the basic battalion structure for both the 105mm M2A1 and 155mm M1 units was similar regardless of the gun. Each battalion had three firing batteries (4 guns each), a Headquarters battery (the CO and his staff along with the fire direction personnel, communications center, etc.), and a Service battery (ammunition, basic supplies, mechanics, etc.). Batteries were further subdivided into sections. Battalions were usually headed by a lieutenant colonel with an executive officer who was usually a major. Batteries were headed by a captain with an exec who was a lieutenant. A 105mm battalion contained just over 500 men. Each battery had about 100 men, which broke down into five officers and 95 enlisted of various rank. A 155mm battalion had approximately 550 enlisted men with 30 officers, with each battery having around 120 men. I use the word approximately because once combat operations began, it was rare for any unit (Division, Battalion, Regimental, etc.) to have a complete table of organization. There was a replacement system, but the exigencies of combat left all units in the combat arms (infantry, armor, engineer or artillery) short of men. The Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 caused such a manpower crisis in infantry units that even some artillery units ended up sending non essential personnel to the infantry as replacements.
Within an infantry division, there were four artillery battalions, three M2A1 105mm howitzer battalions and one 155mm battalion. The three 105mm battalion were assigned to one of the three infantry regiments to support, forming a combat team. The assignments were made back in the States and continued upon deployment. The 155mm battalion supported the units or areas most in need at the discretion of the Division artillery commander (better known as Divarty). There were also units called cannon companies that used the M3 105mm, a lightweight, short barreled version of the gun. In the first two years of the war, the 105mm self propelled and 75mm howitzer were their main weapons. But they were part of the infantry regiment, and used at the discretion of the regimental CO. In theory it was supposed to provide supplemental firepower for the infantry companies. However in practice, they just never seemed to fit into the basic operations of the regiment and in many cases, ended up being used as perimeter defense. Using the vernacular of today, they could be described as a heavy weapons company on steroids. After the war, they were disbanded.
Besides the four firing battalions, an infantry division's artillery complement contained a Division Headquarters component. It consisted of a battery headquarters, operations platoon, communication platoon, an air observation section and a maintenance section. Included in the operations platoon was an instrument and survey section along with a meteorological section. The communications platoon had the wire and radio section which was provided with over 30 miles of telephone wire and 4 radio sets. The supply and cooks sections rounded out the unit.
The jobs of the enlisted members of each firing battery varied depending on their training and circumstances with many personnel being cross trained to do a variety of work. Each gun crew was considered a section and within each section there was a sergeant (Section Chief), a gunner corporal and assistant gunner (known as the 1), two other assistant gunners and three cannoneers. A driver and assistant driver rounded out the 105mm section, making for a total of nine men. external powder bags), the duties of the 155mm crews were essentially the same.
Behind the safety plate, on the left side of the breech, the gunner corporal worked a telescopic sight known as the gunner's quadrant (or gunner's scope), containing an azimuth scale that measured horizontal deflection, which he set on orders from the firing officer. Officially, it was called the M12A2 panoramic telescope. It could be rotated manually 360 degrees. The sight had an alcohol bubble which he had to level prior to firing while using number wheel to traverse the tube left or right. Red and white aiming posts were laid to the rear of the sight, almost in a straight line. One aiming stake was approximately 30 to 40 yards back while another was placed halfway between the gun sight and the other stake. The position of aiming posts could vary depending on the unit and terrain. Upon receiving the orders from the firing officer such as Command Left 10 or Right 20, the key task for the gunner was to get the aiming stakes and the gun sight lined up on the vertical crosshair in the scope. If the command was left 10, the head of the site would then be moved off of the aiming stakes by that many degrees. Then he would use a hand wheel to traverse the gun left. Looking through the sight once again to determine that he was still lined up with the aiming stakes, his last task would be to level the bubble, and shout 'Ready!' This told the Section Chief that the gun was ready to fire; he then held up his right arm as a signal to the gun crew. Keeping the gun aligned properly was a difficult task when under the pressure of multiple fire missions, so the gunners had ways of cheating a little bit. Church steeple) and line up the angle on that. The wide dispersal of an exploding shell, which could be more than 50 yards, gave the gunners room to be off a little bit.
While the gunner corporal worked his sight, the assistant gunner, positioned on the right side of the breech, operated a hand wheel to set the elevation. During the relay of firing commands, included were terms such as Up 15 or Down 5, from the zero. Once the orders were received, he would spin his wheel to the correct angle. But his task did not end there; he also operated the breech block, set the primer and pulled the lanyard upon the order, Fire! Both he and the gunner corporal were also responsible for keeping the crew away from the tremendous recoil of the barrel which could kill or maim, especially in the 155mm. After firing, the breech was opened by the 1 and the shell casing would drop out automatically, where it was picked up one of the loaders to be tossed aside.
The two assistant gunners and three other cannoneers in the section were responsible for packing the shells with powder bags, setting the fuses according to the mission specifics and loading. Although the shells were shipped semi fixed with the fuse already installed, it was the powder that provided the punch, so that had to be added to the shell. Each shell could take up to seven bags of powder, which were wrapped in silk and tied together. Maximum range for the 105mm was approximately seven miles (12,205 yds). The ammo men would disassemble the shell, pack the bags based on the firing orders, and reattach the fuse. Then the fuse had to be set using a special wrench. The majority of the shells expended during fire missions were usually high explosive (HE). There was a setting sleeve located at the base of each fuse. On an HE round, the ammunition crews could set it for either point detonating (PD) or time superquick (TSQ). This depended on how it was turned. For example, if the setting sleeve was turned parallel to the shell, it was set for superquick. Under the pressure of a fire mission, these tasks were hellish in the freezing, wet weather of Northern Europe. If your frostbitten hands were not already cut up from separating the silk powder bags with a knife, you got soaked kneeling down in the puddles and mud that formed around the gun pit.
The crews on the 155mm had different challenges. Extra men were needed just to carry the shells. The 95 pound shell required separate loading bagged charges that were loaded with the shell according to the orders given by the firing officer. There were seven different propelling charges, with TNT being the most frequently used. It was the sheer weight and logistics involved with the operations of the 155mm ammo that was daunting. Shells were usually shipped in pallets, with eight shells per pallet. At the ammo dumps, these were broken down for shipment by truck to the batteries. A truck could carry between 50 and 60 shells per trip. The fuses were shipped in crates, about 25 per box. The shells had lifting rings attached at their nose during shipment, and they had to be removed to install the fuse. As with the 105mm, color markings were used to differentiate the type of shells. The setting sleeves also mirrored those on the 105mm ammo. Because of the separately loaded powder, it was vital that the powder chambers of the 155mm tubes be swabbed and inspected after each round was fired. If too much powder residue built up in the barrel, it could cause a catastrophic explosion when a round was fired. Amazingly, those incidents were relatively rare considering the near constant use that most of the weapons received.
Other battery and battalion personnel included radiomen, wiremen, instrument operators (survey team), cooks, drivers, and mechanics. Many of the specialists were also grouped into sections and personnel from both the communications section and survey teams often were part of forward observation teams. Artillery batteries also had a fifth section, which was called the machine gun section. They were responsible for guarding the perimeter and hauling extra ammo.
One of the primary jobs of the instrument and survey section (also called the detail section) was to scout new positions for the battery, help lead the battery into and out of their firing positions, and lay in the guns. The skills of these men also translated into high quality artillery observers. They were also charged with conducting topographical surveys, which during combat operations were carried out rather infrequently. Upon arrival at a position, using such equipment as aiming circles, range finders, and http://www.packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-jared-abbrederis-jersey.html other survey equipment like steel tapes and chains, the enlisted men of the section would lay in the guns to prepare them for aiming direction and elevation. Their officer would take a reading from the aiming circle so that the four guns of the battery would be aligned and shoot parallel with each other. The aiming circle was a small scope graduated with 6,400 mils as opposed to the usual 360 degrees (a mil is 1/6400 of a circle). It aids in laying in the guns by taking into account the Y Azimuth distance between true north and magnetic north. The reading was then given to each gunner while the howitzers were at zero deflection and a minimal elevation from level.
Many of the other non firing battery assignments came with a multitude of dangers and nowhere was that more illustrated than for the men of the wire section of HQ Battery. Their job was to lay, repair and pick up telephone line. An artillery battalion communications net was its lifeline and monitoring its operation meant constant vigilance. The risk of being spotted by enemy observers was ever present. Running a spool of black telephone cord from HQ to an observation post could put one under fire from mortars, machine guns, snipers, shelling, both friendly and German, as well as enemy patrols. The black telephone cables were constantly shot up and there were up to several miles of cable laid out between an observation post and the FDC or battery. Dense woods, thick mud and snow made repairing the lines physically demanding work. Finding the break in a line required both skill and a little bit of luck. Usually, two men were sent out. They would follow a dead line some distance, usually to a place that had just been shelled. From there, they would splice into the line with their own EE8A telephone, and crank it to ring back to their starting place. If they received an answer, they had to keep moving and the procedure was repeated until they did not get an answer. This indicated that the break was somewhere between where they were and the location of the last "Okay" call.
Officer CorpsThe officers' jobs within the battery varied. Despite the copious Army manuals and regulations that defined nearly every aspect of life, the Army still encouraged low level decision making regarding daily operations of its combat units. Junior commanders were expected to use their own initiative. Although this concept was much more limited in the artillery branch than in other branches, in practice each battery's CO had great autonomy on officer assignments. In many cases, the executive officer ran day to day operations and oversaw all firing sequences and missions. Just like the enlisted, the cross training of commissioned personnel was an essential element in every battalion. The other officers could be assigned to a variety of tasks, which included motor officer, daily maintenance, firing officer or forward Jared Abbrederis Youth Jersey observer.
Duty as an observer usually occurred on a rotating basis for the officers of each battery within the battalion. A lieutenant led the small team of 3 or Authentic Carl Bradford Jersey 4 men to a forward outpost to spend up to several days manning a front line position. There was even an instance within the 106th ID when a battery commander was actually manning an observation outpost at the time of the initial attack during the Bulge. When the situation was more fluid, as was the case in the summer and fall of 1944, the observation team may stay with a particular infantry unit for an extended time.
The majority of the officers within the artillery branch were highly skilled. If not West Pointers, many were from military schools such as the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) or the Citadel. Others were graduates of rigorous artillery ROTC programs from around the country. The Ivy League schools supplied the artillery branch with hundreds of officers throughout the war. Many others were reserve officers with established professional careers in civilian life. Later in the war, field commissions for qualified noncoms became commonplace.
Adapting to the MissionAnother key feature of American artillery during the war was the role of non divisional artillery battalions of all calibers. These battalions were directly under the command of their respective Corps which had its own commanders and staff to coordinate all its elements. Battalions were also formed into field artillery groups of various calibers. The groups began forming in 1943. The command element of the groups was structured very similarly to that of a divisional artillery HQ with such features as fire direction center, H battery and service battery. A group was usually assigned from two to six battalions. One or more of the battalions of a group might be attached for direct support to an individual division. Such was the case with many African American artillery battalions. All of these units, regardless of their group or assignment, were considered Corps artillery. In a postwar study, the Army noted that the group command structure was one of the keys to success during the war because it permitted the commanders to shift artillery battalions from army to army, corps to corps or even to support individual divisions. This way the additional fire support went where it was needed quickly. During the Bulge, many of these Corps units were on the move every 12 to 24 hours. The shift of several large caliber artillery units, particularly segregated African American battalions, to Bastogne during the first 48 hours of the battle helped save the city from capture.
There were 238 separate field artillery battalions operating in the ETO by war's end, with 36 105mm and 71 155mm battalions. This included self propelled units such as the 275th Armored Field Artillery, who were positioned just north of the 106th. The other calibers were the 8 inch, the 240mm, and the 4.5 inch gun. For the larger caliber units and the armored field artillery, the number of guns per battalion differed from those of the standard infantry division artillery. Armored field artillery battalions had the same command structure within their organic divisions as the infantry, but contained 18 self propelled howitzers instead of the usual 12 for the towed variety. The 8 inch gun and 240mm howitzer battalions had a total of six guns per battalion.
After the war, change came again. Guns continued to be improved while others were phased out. By the Korean War, they had added six guns to the standard battery. Self propelled artillery took on a greater role and of course, missile and rocket technology changed the branch forever. But it was the work those battalions did in World War II that set the stage for the rest of the 20th Century and beyond.
Dastrup, Boyd. Army's Field Artillery. TRADOC 1992.
Lee, Ulysses. The Employment of Negro Troops. Army 1966. (part of the Green Series)
Zaloga, Steven. Field Artillery in World War II. Osprey 2007.
Field Artillery Journal, March 1945.
Field Artillery Journal, October 1943.
Military History Online, "US Army in World War II: Artillery and AA Artillery." Rich Anderson, Carl Bradford Jersey 2007. Army Ret., Personal interview, October 17, 2011.
Lions WR Nate Burleson receives year's supply of DiGiorno after pizza
Nate Burleson is hoping to return in Week 10 after breaking his arm last month in car wreck.
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The Lions wide receiver who infamously landed on the injury report with a broken arm he suffered in a car accident while trying to save a pizza from sliding off the front seat recently received a year's supply of frozen pizza, courtesy of DiGiorno.
"We recently reached out to Mr. Burleson with an offer of some complimentary DiGiorno pizzas after hearing about his unfortunate injury," Deborah Cross of Nestle, DiGiorno's parent company said in an email.
"We're always working to remind pizza lovers of the 'baked in' benefits of DiGiorno delicious, hot and freshly baked pizza from your own oven, no delivery or pick up required. So, reaching out to Mr. Burleson just seemed like the right thing to do . from one pizza lover to another."
RELATED: LIONS' BURLESON REACHES FOR PIZZA, CRASHES CAR AND BREAKS ARM
Burleson showed off the haul vouchers for 52 free pizzas on Instagram along with the letter he received from the company and the hashtag NoMoreLateNightPizzaRuns.
"Hello Nate, We hope you are feeling better after your recent car accident and are on the road to recovery," the letter reads. last month when his GMC Yukon hit a center median after he lost control of his ride while trying to keep the pie from meeting the floormats.
"It was actually a whole pizza," Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw told ESPN following the crash. "He had purchased two whole pizzas, and one was sitting on top of the other one, and I guess when he was driving one of them was slipping off, and he was reaching over to push it back onto the seat and overcorrected and hit the median wall."
Burleson suffered two breaks in his left forearm and hasn't played since Week 3. He caught passes on the field before Sunday's 31 30 win at home over the Cowboys and told reporters he hopes to be back on the field for a Week 10 road battle against the Bears www.officialbearsnflauthentic.com/authentic-will-sutton-jersey.html following the bye this week.
Hopefully he's not tempted to make a late night run for some of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza.
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Editors' Picks Mets edge Yanks in Subway Series opener Daniel Murphy added some flourish to the Subway Series Monday night, tomahawking his bat into the turf as he ran to first after delivering the winning hit in the Mets' 2 1 victory over the Yankees at Citi Field.
Harper: Captain Wright's the ship for Mets The catch seemed destined to be another moment that defined the baseball pecking order in New York. Certainly the way the season has gone, Brett Gardner's spectacular catch was proof this would be another night when the Yankees and Mets would go their separate ways.
The other '42' bids farewell to Brock Vereen Kids Jersey Flushing Mariano Rivera's retirement tour continued Monday with the iconic final player in baseball ever to wear No. 42 seated in front of a giant blue version of his number inside the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field.
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Ecological Consequences of Parasitism
The ecological interactions of parasites (defined here to include both macroparasites and microparasites) are often challenging to observe. Many live their lives secretively, in intimate contact with their host, but invisible to the outside world. It may be easy to assume then, that since parasites are generally inconspicuous, they play less important roles in community ecology than free living organisms. Yet advances in the field of disease ecology have revealed that parasites are not only ecologically important, but can sometimes exert influences that equal or surpass those of free living species in shaping community structure. In fact parasitism is more common than traditional predation as a consumer lifestyle (De Mee Renaud 2002), and arguably represents the most widespread life history strategy in nature (Price 1980). Parasites also influence host behavior and fitness, and can regulate host population sizes, sometimes with profound effects on trophic interactions, food webs, competition, biodiversity and keystone species. These interactions suggest that parasites are integral components in shaping community and ecosystem structure.
Parasites can function as both predators and prey. Parasites that feed on hosts engage in a special type of predation (Raffel et al. 2008). Alternatively, parasites can also serve as important sources of prey (Figure 1). For example, predators on islands in the Gulf of California, including lizards, scorpions and spiders, are one to two orders of magnitude more abundant on islands with sea bird colonies because they feed on bird ectoparasites (Polis Hurd 1996). Predators also inadvertently consume parasites during the consumption of infected hosts (Johnson et al. 2010). When Ego Ferguson Jersey macroparasites are relatively large, such as nematodes in the gut of vertebrate hosts, the contributions of parasites to the diet of predators can be significant. The roles of parasites as predators and prey suggest that considerable amounts of energy may directly flow through parasites in food webs, despite their small size and cryptic nature.
Oligochaete worms (Chaetogaster sp., see lower left inset) feed on trematode parasites that emerge from an infected freshwater snail host.
Cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) and cleaner shrimp (Lysamata sp.) removing ectoparasites from a coral trout. Parasites may be an important food resource to predators, especially in ecosystems where parasites are highly productive. (1A courtesy of P. Johnson S. Orlofske; 1B courtesy of A. Grutter)
In some cases, predation can serve as a vehicle of transmission, allowing a parasite with a complex life cycle to move from one host to another. Parasites that infect new hosts via trophic transmission frequently alter their host's behavior or morphology in ways that increase predation risk, thereby aiding the parasite in reaching the next host in its life cycle (Poulin et al. 2005). For example, estuarine killifish infected with the trematode Euhaplorchis californiensis exhibit erratic swimming behavior that ultimately makes them up to 30 times more susceptible to bird definitive hosts (Lafferty Morris 1996). Another trematode endoparasite, Ribeiroia ondatrae, causes amphibians to develop severe limb deformities, including extra or missing limbs (Johnson et al. 1999), which impair the host's ability to jump and swim, and presumably make them more susceptible to predation by bird definitive hosts (Figure 2). The roles of parasites in predator prey interactions are rarely obvious, yet they may influence the outcome of trophic interactions at the community scale.
Figure 2: Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla) that has three extra hindlimbs due to infection with a trematode parasite (Ribeiroia ondatrae, see inset).
Limb deformities reduce the frog's ability to evade predators, possibly making it more susceptible to being eaten by the definitive host of the trematode. (Courtesy of D. Herasimtschuk P. Johnson)
Considering the prominent roles played by parasites in trophic interactions, we might expect parasites to strongly influence food web characteristics. Recent efforts to include parasites in food webs have revealed sharp changes in the topology of food webs, including species richness, the total number of links, food chain length (the number of trophic levels in a web), and connectance (Lafferty et al. 2008). In a salt marsh food web in California, parasites were involved in 78% of all links, and increased estimates of connectance by 93%, which may have implications for web stability (Lafferty et al. 2006). Incorporating parasites into food webs also reveals that mid trophic levels rather than the lowest trophic levels are most susceptible to natural enemies because this group is at risk from both predators and trophically transmitted parasites. Integrating parasites into food webs also suggests that the classical Eltonian pyramid (Elton 1927) may need to be revised: if parasites feed at a trophic level above their hosts, parasites would occupy the pinnacle of this new pyramid (Sukhdeo Hernandez 2005), which would be a significant departure from the traditional placement of top predators at the peak of the food chain.
For decades, parasites were omitted from the study of food web ecology based on the assumption that they contributed negligible biomass to ecosystems. Measuring biomass, or productivity, allows us to quantify contributions of organisms to ecosystem energetics. However, when parasite biomass was actually measured on an ecosystem scale, the results challenged the notion that parasites are unimportant in ecosystem energy flow. In some estuarine systems, the biomass of parasites is comparable to that of top predators (Kuris et al. 2008). Yearly productivity of trematode parasites, for example, was higher than the biomass of birds. Similarly, the estimated biomass of plant fungal pathogens was comparable to that of herbivores in experimental grassland plots in Minnesota (Figure 3; Mitchell 2003). In fact, top down control by fungal pathogens was more important than herbivory in predicting grass biomass. These studies suggest that parasites can contribute significantly to ecosystem energetics and exert strong control over the biomass of primary producers. While much remains to be learned about the roles of parasites in food webs, the classical approach of omitting parasites from considerations of food web ecology could lead to serious errors in our understanding.
Figure 3: Parasites of plants regulate primary productivity in a grassland ecosystem.
A fungal pathogen (Uromyces lespedezae procumbenti) on the leaves of a prairie legume.A Minnesota grassland ecosystem. In some grasslands, fungal pathogens can control productivity and biomass more strongly than herbivorous insects, suggesting that parasites play important roles in ecosystem energetics. (3A courtesy of C. Mitchell; 3B courtesy of Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve)
Parasites can influence biodiversity when they alter the outcome of competitive interactions between host species, a phenomenon termed parasite mediated competition (Price et al. 1986). In some cases, this occurs when a tolerant host species amplifies a parasite's abundance, causing an indirect negative effect on a second, less tolerant host species. For example, the displacement of red squirrels by grey squirrels in Britain may have been facilitated by a parapoxvirus (Tompkins et al. 2003). The virus infects both species, but native red squirrels are highly susceptible, whereas invasive grey squirrels experience relatively minor negative effects. In this case, a microparasite has probably facilitated a biological invasion, thereby reducing local biodiversity by eliminating populations of one host species.
Parasites can also positively contribute to biodiversity by allowing a competitively inferior species to coexist with a dominant species. For example, Anolis gingivinus outcompetes Anolis wattsi everywhere on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, except the isolated interior Ego Ferguson Youth Jersey of the island. Both lizards host a malarial parasite, Plasmodium azurophilum, but the two lizards co occur only where A. gingivinus is heavily parasitized (Figure 4). This suggests that malaria reduces the competitive ability of the dominant lizard, thereby allowing the competitively inferior lizard to coexist (Schall 1992). A similar outcome in a very different system occurs with the pathogenic soil oomycete Pythium and its plant hosts. The presence of a particular plant can change the composition of the local soil community such that the growth of that species is diminished, and other colonizing species are given a competitive advantage, which ultimately increases overall plant biodiversity (Mills Bever 1998).Malarial parasites (Plasmodium azurophilum) in the white blood cells of a lizard;Anolis wattsi; and
Anolis gingivinus. Malaria has greater negative effects on the competitively dominant A. gingivinus, allowing A. wattsi to coexist in regions of with high malaria prevalence. (4A and 4C courtesy of J. Schall; 4B courtesy of G. White)
Parasites also influence biodiversity through the direct regulation of host populations. Even though parasites can cause disease, they rarely cause extinctions, because pathogen transmission is usually reduced at low host densities. However, important exceptions can occur, particularly in cases when pathogens invade na host populations, or when reservoir hosts allow parasites to persist despite low host densities. The emergence of the amphibian fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), for example, represents a case of a parasite causing mass population declines, and even extinctions of frogs, on a global scale (Kilpatrick et al. 2010).
The effects of parasitism on ecological communities can be particularly pronounced when the hosts are keystone or dominant species with important functions in an ecosystem. For example, Diadema urchins in the Caribbean experienced a massive die off associated with microbial pathogens, eliminating the keystone roles of urchins Kyle Fuller Womens Jersey as grazers and bioeroders on coral reefs (Lessios 1988). Reefs in affected regions became overgrown with algae that displaced mature corals and prevented new coral settlement. In the most extreme examples, algal cover jumped from near 1% prior to the disease outbreak, to 95% in the following two years (Lessios 1988). Nearly twenty years later, Diadema populations recovered on some Jamaican reefs, and a shift back to a coral dominated ecosystem has begun (Edmunds Carpenter 2001).
Another example involves the introduction and subsequent removal of a viral disease called rinderpest in African ungulates. The virus was introduced to native ungulates from domestic livestock in 1890, and spread throughout the African continent within 10 years, reducing populations of buffalo and wildebeest (also known as gnus) by 80% in some regions. Vaccination of domestic cattle www.officialbearsnflauthentic.com/authentic-kyle-fuller-jersey.html began in the 1950s (Plowright Taylor 1967) and virtually eliminated the disease in wild African ungulates by 1968. The release of herbivores from parasite control had dramatic cascading effects on the ecosystem: populations of top carnivores, including lions and hyenas increased, and the productivity of grasses decreased (Sinclair 1979; Thomas et al. 2005). These examples of parasite introductions and removals provide a rare glimpse into how ecosystem structure can be dramatically altered when parasites regulate populations of functionally important host species.
The prominent roles of parasites in food webs, competitive interactions, biodiversity patterns, and the regulation of keystone species, make it clear that parasites contribute to structuring ecological communities. Yet we have only begun to dissect the complex roles played by parasites in community ecology. Patterns of increased disease emergence in wildlife, with potential implications for human health and wellbeing, make it an especially relevant time to further integrate parasitism into community ecology and improve our understanding of the roles of parasites in nature.
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