1st Marine Division

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The right hand trembles, so he has to drink his Pepsi with both hands. Controlling his vision has become maddening. And when he stands, his legs quiver as if he were going to fall to the floor.In another time, Carlos Norman Hathcock II was the ultimate terminator. As a sniper for the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam -- when the hands were rock steady, the eyes keen, the legs durable -- he was officially credited with killing 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. No sniper killed more people in the 216-year history of the Marines.

Sotiros completes basic trainingMarine Pvt. Roy J. Sotiros, son of Thomas A. Sotiros of Woodbine, recently completed recruit training.During the training cycle at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., recruits are taught the basics of battlefield survival,introduced to typical military daily routine and personal and professional standards.All recruits participate in an active physical conditioning program and gain proficiency in a variety of military skills, including first aid, rifle marksmanship and close-order drill.

FALLUJAH, Iraq - The sun was rising yesterday over the trash dump the Marines have been using as a staging area for the assault on insurgents here, and Sgt. Andy Folk was happy. The news had been passed to the grunts the night before. "Today is going to be a good day," Folk, 27, of Bangor, Pa., said as he grabbed a bottle of water and a Meal Ready to Eat for the long day ahead. "Today we're going on the attack." After an off-again, on-again 24 hours when offensive operations were suspended, the Marines were adding a third infantry battalion and launching a new push into this Sunni Triangle city.

HERBERT LEO WILHELM, 84, of King George, passed away on Saturday, November 29, 2003 at Mary Washington Hospital. Mr. Wilhelm was a retired Lieutenant with the Baltimore City Fire Department, and a World War II veteran with the 1st Marine Division. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dorothea Wilhelm; a daughter, Janice Cooper and her husband Dennis of Kinsale; a son, Barry Wilhelm and his wife Ruth of Hanover, Pennsylvania; a sister, Alma Schutte of Oklahoma; a brother, Charles Wilhelm of Baltimore, Maryland; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

BAQUBAH, Iraq -- The top U.S. general on the ground in Iraq warned yesterday that a spike in violence was likely in coming months as Iraq's new government begins its full term in office. Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of U.S.-led troops in Iraq, said that despite political progress and the growing competence of Iraqi security forces, troops in Iraq are still fighting a bloody insurgency. "There's nothing about this that I would [call] peacekeeping," he said. "We're in a fight." This month, at least 70 U.S. troops have been killed in that fight, the highest toll in five months.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Baltimore National Cemetery yesterday to dedicate four headstones to Marines who died in World War II.The Maryland chapter of the 1st Marine Corps Division Association held the ceremony to honor four of the six Marine divisions that fought during the war.The other two divisions -- the 1st and the 4th -- dedicated similar headstones at the cemetery in previous years."

His friends rarely called him anything but "Jughead," although sometimes they resorted to "Schnoz." Those were the nicknames friends gave LeRoy H. Thompson, a retired railroad dispatcher, who died of cancer Wednesday at Hospice at the Lake in Salisbury. He was 89. Mr. Thompson's wife, Terre, said from her home in Ocean Pines that her husband, a Penn Central railroad employee for 48 years, was a gregarious sort who didn't mind being teased. "Jughead was the only name the guys on the railroad knew him by," she said.

William Joseph Rivers, a retired manager at the Social Security Administration, died Thursday at St. Elizabeth Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Southwest Baltimore of complications related to multiple strokes. He was 85 and had lived in Catonsville. Raised in Anaconda, Mont., Mr. Rivers graduated from Montana State University at Bozeman. During World War II, he served with the 1st Marine Division at the Battle of Peleliu in the South Pacific. He earned the rank of lieutenant colonel during his time in the Marine Corps.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon began alerting 43,000 Reserve and National Guard troops late yesterday for the possibility of yearlong duty in Iraq or Kuwait as part of a rotation plan that would reduce the overall U.S. military presence in Iraq by next spring, senior military officials said. The alert warnings and deployment orders approved yesterday by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reflected deep concern by Pentagon officials - and within the administration - over stresses that large mobilizations have placed on reservists and their families.

Airman Mignini completes trainingAirman Christina M. Mignini, daughter of Patricia M. Milanicz of Ellicott City and Edmond A. Mignini Sr. of Baltimore, has completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio.During her six weeks of training, Airman Mignini studied the mission, organization and customs of the Air Force. She also received special instruction in human relations.She is a 1986 graduate of Catonsville High School.Navy Lt. John C. Heiss, a 1980 graduate of Mount Hebron High School, has received a master's degree from the Naval PostgraduateSchool (NPS)