Infantry Division

When the United States entered World War II, the will to fight was abundant but the supplies required to vanquish the Axis powers were not.Symbolic of the early stages of the American war effort were the training exercises undertaken at Fort George G. Meade by members of the 29th Infantry Division: Because guns were in such short supply, the unit of National Guardsmen from Maryland and Virginia drilled with broomsticks and two-by-fours.Within two years, the American war effort had grown into a force much greater to behold.

The following soldiers were honored at yesterday's Memorial Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens: Cpl. Jonathan V. Hamm (Baltimore), 20, died May 17, 2007, in Baghdad of wounds suffered when his forward operating base came under indirect enemy fire. A 2004 graduate of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, he joined the Army a few months before his 18th birthday. He was sent to Kuwait 10 days after the death of his mother in February and died a month after being deployed to Iraq.

Maryland's portion of U.S. 29 was renamed the "29th Infantry Division Memorial Highway" yesterday, honoring the only National Guard soldiers to participate in the D-Day invasion."

As of yesterday, at least 3,583 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. Identifications Spc. Joseph P. Kenny, 20, Veneta, Ore.; died June 23 in Mosul of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident; assigned to the 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; Fort Bliss, Texas. Sgt. Michael J. Montpetit, 31, Honolulu; died June 22 in Baghdad of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident; assigned to the 15th Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; Fort Hood, Texas.

PIKESVILLE - Lt. Col. John A. Russo recently assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 29th Infantry Division (Light), Maryland Army National Guard, in change of command ceremonies at the Pikesville Military Reservation. Russo, 46, has served more than 20 years in the Maryland National Guard, most recently as the brigade executive officer of the 58th Troop Command. He is attending the U.S. Army War College. Russo, a Pasadena resident, takes over from Col. Robert L. Finn. Finn, a 53-year-old Westminster resident, served as the 3rd Brigade commander since 2001.

Edward G. Jones Jr., 80, veteran, board chairman Edward G. Jones Jr., founder of an architectural woodworking firm and a World War II combat veteran who landed in Normandy with the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day, died Wednesday of undetermined causes at his Parkton residence. He was 80. At the time of his death, Mr. Jones was chairman of the board of Sieling and Jones Inc., a hardwoods and veneer company in New Freedom, Pa., that he founded in 1949. Mr. Jones began his military career in 1938 when he enlisted in the Virginia National Guard.

As of yesterday, at least 3,583 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. Identifications Spc. Joseph P. Kenny, 20, Veneta, Ore.; died June 23 in Mosul of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident; assigned to the 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; Fort Bliss, Texas. Sgt. Michael J. Montpetit, 31, Honolulu; died June 22 in Baghdad of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident; assigned to the 15th Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; Fort Hood, Texas.

ARMYThe 7th Corps Headquarters from Stuttgart, Germany.Unit of the 2nd Armored Division, Garstedt, Germany.2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Nuernberg, Germany.The 3rd Armored Division, Ansbach, Germany.2nd Corps Support Command, Stuttgart, Germany.1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) from Fort Riley, Kan.400th Military Police Battalion, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 97th Army Reserve Command, Fort Meade, Md.Other unspecified supporting units from the United States and Europe.NAVYThree aircraft carriers and one battleship, with escort vessels.

Carroll E. "Ed" Beadenkopf, a former courthouse maintenance supervisor and sheet-metal mechanic who during World War II was captured by the Germans in Battle of the Bulge, died Friday of liver cancer at his home in Morrell Park. He was 85. Born in Southwest Baltimore, he attended the old Edgar Allan Poe School No. 1 until the ninth grade. In 1937, he entered an apprentice program with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and become a master sheet-metal mechanic and supervisor. Mr. Beadenkopf met the former Loretta Keys when they were children growing up on the same block in Southwest Baltimore.

Maryland's portion of U.S. 29 has been renamed the "29th Infantry Division Memorial Highway" to honor the only National Guardsmen to participate in the D-Day invasion."

WASHINGTON - The Army is planning to double service time for hundreds of officers going to Iraq and Afghanistan - an effort to meet "war time needs" that would include pulling officers out of military professional schools or delaying entry into these academic programs so they can deploy overseas, officials said. The plan calls for filling about 500 staff slots between Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months, with majors and lieutenant colonels serving a year in those countries rather than the current 179 days.

Carroll E. "Ed" Beadenkopf, a former courthouse maintenance supervisor and sheet-metal mechanic who during World War II was captured by the Germans in Battle of the Bulge, died Friday of liver cancer at his home in Morrell Park. He was 85. Born in Southwest Baltimore, he attended the old Edgar Allan Poe School No. 1 until the ninth grade. In 1937, he entered an apprentice program with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and become a master sheet-metal mechanic and supervisor. Mr. Beadenkopf met the former Loretta Keys when they were children growing up on the same block in Southwest Baltimore.

Col. John F. McNulty Jr., a retired career Army officer who was later a university dean of students, died of cancer June 21 at his Ocean City home. He was 87. Colonel McNulty was born in Fells Point and raised in Linthicum. He was a graduate of Glen Burnie High School and enlisted in the Maryland National Guard in 1936. He was a graduate of the Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., and after receiving his commission as a second lieutenant in 1943, was sent to an infantry unit in Europe.

HINESVILLE, Ga. - He took the money. Sgt. Matt Novak admits that much. He and several fellow soldiers could not resist after discovering nearly $200 million in $100 bills sealed inside a gardener's cottage in a Baghdad palace complex last spring. "Millions of dollars makes a lot of things go through your mind," Novak told a military review board in Georgia in December after confessing that he and the others had stolen about $12 million. A year after U.S. soldiers discovered about $760 million of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's cash hidden in several cottages, the case still raises questions.

WASHINGTON - Four of the Army's 10 divisions are returning home from Iraq duty with some of the lowest combat-readiness levels seen in years, a status that is expected to last for up to six months, a senior Army official said yesterday. The official termed the low readiness ratings a "manageable risk" against the possibility of another war on the Korean peninsula or elsewhere and said it was necessary to provide troops time off, retrain soldiers and refurbish or replace equipment. "It's not a decision.

On July 14, E. SAWYER SMITH, a fifth generation Chicagoan known throughout his life as Si, died at his current home in Vero Beach, FL. Born August 21, 1925 Chicago, he was the son of E. Sawyer Smith, Sr. and Kathryn Raithel Smith. His great, great grandfather was Archibald Clybourn, a Chicago pioneer who came to the frontier city in 1820. Si was raised in Glencoe and graduated from New Trier High School in 1943. He entered the U.S. Army that year and served in Europe 1944-46 in the 405th Regiment of the 102nd Infantry Division, the Ozarks.

IT'LL BE a long, hot summer for the men and women of the 3rd Infantry Division. Savoring their quick victory in Iraq, they were supposed to be coming home soon - but two unforeseen problems have put a wrench into those plans. The first problem has to do with the unfinished nature of the victory. For a while, Pentagon officials explained away the continued violence and anarchy in Iraq by saying they never expected the regime to collapse so swiftly. But it's a safer and safer bet to say they also never expected the last remnants of resistance to persevere for so long.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A sniper shot and killed a U.S. soldier on patrol in a northwestern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital on Monday night, the 11th serviceman to die in a series of guerrilla assaults against U.S. forces in the past three weeks. Military officials said the soldier, a member of the 1st Armored Division, had been sitting in his vehicle just before midnight when he was struck in the back by a small-caliber bullet. He was rushed to a battalion aid station, where he died from the wound.

IT'LL BE a long, hot summer for the men and women of the 3rd Infantry Division. Savoring their quick victory in Iraq, they were supposed to be coming home soon - but two unforeseen problems have put a wrench into those plans. The first problem has to do with the unfinished nature of the victory. For a while, Pentagon officials explained away the continued violence and anarchy in Iraq by saying they never expected the regime to collapse so swiftly. But it's a safer and safer bet to say they also never expected the last remnants of resistance to persevere for so long.