European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 7, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                May 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 7 Sodom celebrates its 20th anniversary by Mitch Stacy the associated press the virility of the military special operations forces Sank to an Embarrass ing Low when an air Force trans port plane and a Navy helicopter collided on the ground in an Irani an desert in april killing eight men in a botched Mission to Rescue 53 american the debacle underscored for military leaders and Congress that special operations those army Green Navy seals and other elite fighters who carry out highly specialized missions around the Globe needed More Money and major organizational a congressional act called for a unified command for All special forces with its own commander and special operations com Mand was activated on april headquartered at Macdill air Force base in since its commandos have fought in operation desert storm and carried out missions from the per Sian Gulf to usually with Little As the group commonly known As Sodom celebrates its 20th an it has been thrust into a Frontan Center role organizing and coordinating the War Chris Sodom commander army Bryan Brown poses next to a cv22 Osprey april 27 during the special operations commands 20th anniversary at Macdill air Force base in against terrorists in Iraq and of where its highly trained commandos have been key soc oms army Bryan Doug said the attacks and the country new focus on smoking out terrorists changed How we do this put us in the Lead for pull ing together All of the depart ment of defense plans for the Glo bal War on and that is a big Brown we had to design and grow a build the facilities and build the processes for synchronizing the global War on when in fact it had never been done be fore by another combatant com Brown so this is All new and that been the number of deployed special operations person Nel has grown from an average of around before the 11 attacks to an Al time High of about Brown personnel under soc oms authority has swollen to a record High of about around the its the biggest growth weve had since the command was stood up 20 years he Sodom operates from a spa Cious new building at Macdill not far from the Headquarters of Central which has ultimate authority for coordinating the wars in Iraq and As part of its 20th anniversary Sodom invited a group of reporters in for a rare look at the shadowy to 194 special operations troops have been killed fighting in Iraq and including army Ranger and former nil player Pat the latest announced casualty was an army Green staff Michael who was killed april 27 in fast attack sub Hawaii commissioned George the Crew and officers stand on deck during the commissioning ceremony saturday for the navys newest fast attack the uss at the submarine base in the associated press uss Hawaii officially became part of the Navy on the third Virgin i class fast attack submarine to join the the commissioning ceremony at the submarine base included Hula dancers and military and government officials wearing they were there to watch As Hawaii Linda Lingle gave the boats officers and Crew the com Mand Man our ship and bring her to the billion boat is the third in a group of 10 Virginia class subs being built jointly by general dynamics electric boat shipyard and the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Newport the uss Virginia was commissioned in in and the uss commissioned in in officials say the class could eventually have about 30 the Virginia class submarines Are being built to be longer but lighter than the previous the 377foot submarine has of tons and can travel at speeds greater than 25 or Miles per it can reach Depths greater than 800 feet and will carry a complement of 134 officers and Crew the Hawaii Crew will be Able to launch Toma Hawk land attack missiles and Mark 48 and can also conduct Covert it will also be Able to deliver mines and map deliver and support special forces Crew and work with other Craft for Antisubmarine and anti ship War Navy officials the Hawaii will be based in Connecticut for two years before moving to Pearl save thousands on your new coi Purchase simple online ordering m the Middle East to take at your local Dealership in free 4 maintenance plan on All stateside of de Vivenes overseas can be ail us government card holders overseas Bow might City sales serving the Best since Superior motors map 00 973 17 813 883 kingdom of Bahrain authorized Bow military sales agent