Word: missions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Benjamin Lichtenwalner was working as a cook in the Marine Corps when he got word that his unit's mission was about to change - drastically. He spent two tours in Iraq working in "mortuary affairs," a job that took him all over the country to search for, recover and clean up the remains of fallen soldiers - one of the most important and gruesome yet least talked-about military assignments. TIME spoke with Lichtenwalner about his experiences and why he and fellow Marine Ryan Sawyer decided to launch a company called Biotrauma Inc. in their native Georgia that performs similar tasks...
TIME: How did you first react to your unit's new mission? Lichtenwalner: It was a shock, but of course, when I joined the Marine Corps, I anticipated having to be around death. I wasn't really crazy about being a cook, but when they switched our job up, I wasn't really crazy about doing [mortuary affairs] either. [Laughs.] But I was prepared to be around death, and once we got started, there was really no turning back. I realized just how important a mission Ryan and I both had. We kind of viewed it as a calling. Just...
...effective in the high crags of Central Asia. Indeed, apart from sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, the U.S. is looking to redesign their equipment - from the gear they carry to the vehicles they drive to the drones that spot trouble ahead - as they pursue the mission Barack Obama has called the "right war." (See pictures of a mountainous outpost in Afghanistan...
...women - sometimes referred to as the "Knocked Up" phenomenon - caught the attention of researchers a few years ago. The numbers were sufficiently alarming that the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, knowing that 7 of 10 pregnancies to single women in their 20s are unplanned, decided to expand its mission to include young women in this vulnerable age group. Says Sarah Brown, CEO of the newly named National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy: "We first started to notice this trend [because] when teen birthrates went down, those for women in their 20s were going up. Historically, those rates...
...century B.C., made of Syrian ivory, overlaid with gold, inlaid with lapis lazuli and carnelian. It is still missing. It's always a painful reminder to me, and until each and every piece that has been stolen from the museum is returned, I will have considered my mission in Iraq to have been a failure. When the Iraqi people have everything returned to display in a museum open to all. That's how I define success...