Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in charlespaolino's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
9:42 pm	"Happy birthday, dear Jackie ...." I didn't get to see any of the TV coverage of the pope's birthday celebration at the White House  the other day, but I understand he heard "Happy Birthday" a few times. He seems to be fluent in English, but even if he weren't he probably could have sung along, because "Happy Birthday" -- or, more properly, "Happy Birthday to You" -- is often sung in English in countries where English isn't spoken. Just recently, I heard a radio report about a family in some province in China. An interpreter was necessary to translate the conversation, but the family sang "Happy Birthday" in English. The story of the copyright status of this song is long and tortured. The short version is that, as generic as the song may seem, it is still covered by copyright in some places and under some circumstances. I went to a birthday party when I was a kid and stirred an ice cream soda so hard that the soda started leaking out of the bottom of the glass and seeping into the white linen tablecloth. Why would Jackie Carroll's mother have put out a tablecloth like that for a bunch of seven- or eight-year-old boys? She didn't take responsibility for it either; she simply didn't invite me back. I irritated the mother of another friend by declining to eat turnip soup, but by refusing to eat it, I eliminated any threat to the table cloth. In theory, that is. In that house, the plates went directly on the Formica. It was more my speed - except for the turnips. I'll eat pretty much any vegetable except beets. I never eat beets. I'll eat turnips if I have to, but I have never run into circumstances in which I've had to. Unlike Mrs. Carroll, the turnip lady forgave me, invited me back, fed me pasta e fagioli, which I didn't turn down, even though she used linguine and white kidney beans whereas my grandmother used tagliatelle and lima beans. I just didn't tell my grandmother about it; it was always better not to tell her you had eaten someone else's cooking, unless you were prepared to lie and say that you had nearly gagged on it. I miss her. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
5:16 pm	Had enough? The Department of Defense has announced that: Spc. William E. Allmon, 25, of Ardmore, Okla., died April 12 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, of Saint Paul, Minn., died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.  Sgt. Jesse A. Ault, 28, of Dublin, Va., died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds suffered in Tunnis, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 429th Brigade Support Battalion, Virginia Army National Guard, Roanoke, Va.  Staff Sgt. Jeffery L. Hartley, 25, of Hempstead, Texas, died April 8 in Kharguliah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.    (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
8:40 am	Come again?  So Bloomberg reports that several universities are accepting money from corporations in exchange for a promise to make the works of Ayn Rand required reading for students. Evidently some CEOs are still enamoured of Rand's secular ethicism. According to Bloomberg , ""The charitable arm of BB&T Corp., a banking company, pledged $1 million to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2005 and obtained an agreement that Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged'' would become required reading for students. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they also took grants and agreed to teach Rand.''' Speaking of ethics, what are these universities thinking? If the Catholic Church came around with enough money, would these schools require their students to read Theresa of Avia or Thomas Merton?  Anyway, the mention of Ayn Rand evokes an embarrassing episode for me and the old Perth Amboy Evening News. In my first couple of weeks as a reporter there in the 1960s, I was dispatched to Douglass College to cover a talk by the writer. I recall that she was a nasty woman who carried on about an error in the printed program and actually tore one copy of it to shreds when a Douglass student asked that it be autographed. That wasn't so much of a problem for me as the fact that I didn't understand anything Ayn Rand said in her talk. I could tell that she was speaking English, because I recognized the individual words, but I could divine no meaning at all from the way they were connected end to end. I was working for a hardened, cigar-smoking, night editor at the time, and I wasn't about to go back to Perth Amboy and tell him I didn't understand what I had heard. So I wrote a story about it anyway, turned it in, and beat it before anyone could read it. That was a Friday night. I was amazed when I returned to work on Monday and found that the story was published on Page 1 of Saturday's paper. I still have the clip. I suspect no one else wanted to admit that they didn't understand it.   (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
9:48 pm	Does the e-postman knock twice?  I went to the tax man on Saturday and, as usual, was a few digits shy of complete information. I assembled the missing data over the next couple of days, and yesterday I e-mailed the information to the tax man, using the e-mail address on the business card he handed me when we agreed that I would get him the additional figures. When I got home tonight, there was a voice message on my phone from the tax man - -sounding a tad impatient - - reminding me that if I would give him the missing information he could finish my returns. I told him I had e-mailed it to him yesterday morning, and he said, in effect, "Oh. I don't use that e-mail account." Uh. Excuse me? Why did you hand me a business card with that address on it if you don't use the account? I guess e-mail etiquette is still in its infancy. I got the impression that this was still somehow my fault, but I haven't figured out the logic  yet. (Comment on this)
9:10 pm	Had enough?  The Department of Defense has announced that: Sgt. Shaun P. Tousha, 30, of Hull, Texas, died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds  suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. You can see Sgt. Tousha's myspace site by clicking here. Tech. Sgt. Anthony L. Capra, 31, of Hanford, Calif., died April 9 near Golden Hills, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when he encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to Detachment 63, 688 Armament Systems Squadron, Indian Head City, Md. You can read about Sgt. Capra and see his photograph at this site. Sgt. Jeremiah C. Hughes, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla., died April 9 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries he sustained in a non-combat related incident in Abu Gharab, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team (Stryker), 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. You can see a television news account of Sgt. Hughes' death by clicking here. Maj. Mark E. Rosenberg, 32, of Miami Lakes, Fla., died April 8 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. You can read about Maj. Rosenberg and see his photograph by clicking here. Staff Sgt. Jeremiah E. McNeal, 23, of Norfolk, Va, died April 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when his  vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 237th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command, Virginia Army National Guard, West Point, Va. You can read more about Sgt. McNeal and hear comments from his widow at this site. Sgt. Richard A. Vaughn, 22, of San Diego, Calif., died April 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds he suffered when enemy forces attacked, using a rocket-propelled grenade, improvised explosive device, and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
1:32 pm	"I hear music, but there's no one there" I heard a radio report this morning about Chelsea Clinton's mode of campaigning for Hillary Clinton. The theme of the story on NPR was that the younger Clinton is very smooth at her campaign appearances and is generally well received, but that she includes no personal information in her presentations or in response to questions. The report included some sound bites from students on a campus where Chelsea Clinton appeared, and they were generally positive. One student went so far as to say that Chelsea Clinton would be a better candidate than her mother is. But none of the people who hear her speak have any idea how she spends her time, what career she intends to pursue, or what her personal life consists of, even in broad terms. How can such a person be taken seriously as an advocate for a presidential candidate? The fact that Hillary Clinton's daughter supports the candidacy is hardly useful information. So in the absence of any knowledge that the young woman is, perhaps, a student of politics or of public policy, that she plans to engage in political life herself, that she has drawn lessons from the experiences she has had in her father's administration and her mother's candidacy, that she likes sushi or roots for the Yankees or the Mets, for heaven's sake - without knowing anything about her -- and precisely because she chooses to conceal virtually everything about herself -- why should we care that she wants another of her parents to be president? (Comment on this)
12:50 pm	Had enough? The Department of Defense has announced that: Spc. Jason C. Kazarick, 30, of Oakmont, Pa. and Sgt. Michael T. Lilly, 23, of Boise, Idaho, died April 7 in Sadr City, Iraq, when enemy forces attacked using a rocket propelled grenade. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.  Sgt. Timothy M. Smith, 25, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., died April 7 in Baghdad, Iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La. You can see a photograph of Sgt. Smith and read more about him here. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
9:13 pm	"What have my contraries ever been to this?'' - Mrs. Gummage ("David Cooperfield") I was going to complain that Progresso is making wedding soup using ditalini instead of pearl pasta. Why can't people leave things alone? But when I sat down to write in this journal tonight, I began by entering the information below this about the deaths of more American solidiers in Iraq. As the reader can see, I look around on the Web and try to find photographs and more information about these brave people, because I can't bear to just post the Defense Department's formula announcements that repeatedly use the term "improvised explosive device." I guess the DOD told the press office to use that language hoping that it doesn't upset us as much as "home-made bomb" would, we might not be as upset by the word "died" either. DOD hasn't yet resorted to "passed" or "expired" or "crossed over." There may be time for that, though. David Petreas was saying today that the U.S. should stop decreasing the numbers of troops Over There for the balance of this administration.  Meanwhile, I don't know where to go for an accurate account of the loose change in this war, namely the Iraqis who -- because of an invasion based on premises known by the perpetrators of war to be false - have passed, expired, and crossed over. Soup, indeed. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
8:39 pm	Had enough?  The Department of Defense has announced that two soldiers died on April 6 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with indirect fire. Those who died were Col. Stephen K. Scott, 54, of New Market, Ala., assigned to the 356th Quartermaster Battalion, Laurel, Miss., and Maj. Stuart A. Wolfer, 36, of Coral Springs, Fla., assigned to the 11th Battalion, 104th Division, Boise, Idaho.  You can read more about Col. Scott, who held a doctorate in business and engineering technology, by clicking here, and you can see his picture here. You can read an interview with Col. Scott from February 2008 by clicking here, and you can read his biography here. You can watch a television account of Maj. Wolfer's death by visiting this site. You can read more about Maj. Wolfer and see his photograph here . The Defense Department also announced the death of Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett, 34, of Teachey, N.C. He died on April 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when enemy forces attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1132nd Military Police Company, North Carolina Army National Guard, Rocky Mount, N.C. Sgt. Pickett was a police detective in Wallace, N.C. You can read more about him, see his picture, and watch a television report of his death by clicking on this link.   (Comment on this)
5:43 pm	Had enough? The Department of Defense has announced that two soldiers died on April 6 in Balad, Iraq, when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.  Those who died were Capt. Ulises Burgos-Cruz, 29, of Puerto Rico, who was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.; and Spc. Matthew T. Morris, 23, of Cedar Park, Texas, who was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas. You can see a photo of Capt. Burgos-Cruz by clicking here. He was an ordnance officer serving on a military transition team. He entered the Army in June 2001 and deployed to Iraq in June 2007.  The Defense Department also announced that Pfc. Shane D. Penley, 19, of Sauk Village, Ill., died April 6 at Patrol Base Copper, Iraq, from wounds suffered while on duty at a guard post.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. You can see Pfc. Penley's photograph by clicking on this link. You can watch a television report of his family's reaction to his death by clicking here. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
5:34 pm	"Some people take, some people get took" -- Shirley MacLaine ("The Apartment")  Neflix update: We watched "The Apartment," the 1960 Billy Wilder film with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, and Ray Walston. It's a fine film, written with plausible language and performed by Lemmon and MacLaine at their most engaging. You want to take both of them home with you. The premise is that Lemmon is an otherwise anonymous drudge in a huge Manhattan insurance office, but he has attracted the attention of several executives of the firm who pressure him to lend out his convenient westside apartment so they can carry on extramarital affairs. Lemmon, meanwhile, is a lonely soul -- the quintessential schlemiel, as only he could play it -- who moons over a stunning elevator operator (MacLaine) who treats him decently but does not encourage his interest. She is having her own self-destructive affair with Lemmon's ultimate boss, Jeff Sheldrake, played by MacMurray. Paul Douglas was supposed to play Sheldrake, but he died before filming began. MacMurray was as good at playing the louse  as he was at playing the good guy. After seeing MacMurray in this part, I wouldn't want to see anyone else, including Paul Douglas. Incidentally, Claire  Ruth -- who was understandably upset when William Bendix was cast as Babe Ruth in the movie biography -- thought Douglas would have been a better choice. I agree with her about Bendix, but I can't follow her reasoning with regard to Douglas. I always thought Jonathan Winters could have played The Babe, but that's another blog. "The Apartment" strikes an unusually delicate and effective balance between drama and comedy - both of which, of course, are the stuff of everyday life. This story is especially insightful regarding the tension people often feel between upholding the right as they understand it and doing what is expedient to get ahead or, at least, to keep peace.  I read in a couple of places that Wilder was inspired to write this screenplay when he saw the 1945 film "Brief Encounter" with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. In that film, a lonely married woman and a doctor have a chance meeting at a railway station and it develops into a sustained relationship - so serious, that  the doctor tries to use a friend's apartment for a private meeting with the woman. That relatively small aspect of the film led Wilder to produce this brilliant piece of work. (Comment on this)
5:29 pm	I hate when that happens I wrote a column yesterday about Danny Thomas, the singer, comic actor, and television producer who became an American hero when he fulfilled a promise to St. Jude by founding the pediatric research hospital that bears the saint's name. When I was writing the column, I couldn't remember what Tennessee city the hospital is in, so I wrote in "Nashville" as a place-keeper, figuring I would check the location when I got done. Wrong. I forgot to check. The hospital is in Memphis. The thing is, I'm the biggest critic of writing real words as place keepers, or "dummy type," as we call it. If I had put a series of XXXXXs in that spot, chances are I would have noticed them when I re-read the column before filing it, or one of the editors who read it before it was published would have known that there is no city in Tennessee called XXXXXXX. So I didn't follow my own advice, and I got bitten in the butt. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
4:20 pm	What's up, Doc?  I can't shake these cold symptoms, which seems to an almost universal experience these days. But I shouldn't complain, because for many years now, a cold or even a case of bronchitis is about as sick as I get. It seems to me I was sick a lot more frequently - and with more variety - when I was a kid. I was actually sick in bed for a couple of days once, and it was persistent enough that my parents thought it was necessary to call in a doctor. Doctors used to come to your house, even if they weren't related to you. In this case, the doctor was John Fenwick who had had a career in the Navy and was just being mustered out when he opened a practice next door to our house. In fact, when he came in to see if I was really sick, he was in a full dress uniform. No one had prepared me for this, so when this large man in his dress blues appeared in the doorway of my room, I thought I was dying and this was a policeman come to monitor the removal of my limp body, life barely apparent. The reality was less dramatic, a diagnosis of chronic constipation. "Make the boy drink more fluids." Probably the favorite prescription of a Navy man. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
2:38 pm	Had enough?  The Department of Defense has announced that: Sgt. Nicholas A. Robertson, 27, of Old Town, Maine, died April 3 at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered on April 2 while conducting dismounted combat operations in the Zahn Khan District of Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C. You can watch a television report of Sgt. Robertson's death and see his photo by clicking here. Spc. Charles A. Jankowski, 24, of Panama City, Fla., died March 28 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. You can see Spc. Jankowski's photograph and read more about him here. Staff Sgt. Travis L. Griffin, 28, of Dover, Del., died on April 3 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds he suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 377th Security Forces Squadron, Kirtland Air Force Base, in New Mexico. You can see a November 2007 photo of Sgt. Griffin by clicking here. Sgt. Dayne D. Dhanoolal, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., died March 31 in Baghdad, iraq, of wounds he received when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga. You can read more about Sgt. Dhanoolal -- who went by the name ""Darren'' -- and see his photo at this site. Sgt. Jevon K. Jordan, 32, of Norfolk, Va., died March 29 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, from injuries he suffered on March 23 in Abu Jassim, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. You can see Sgt. Jordan's photograph and read more about him by clicking here. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
10:45 am	Chances are .... If Johnny Mathis was born in 1935, and I was born in 1942, why is he  younger than me? 'Splain that, Lucy! Pat and I saw him last night at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. His performances hardly change at all, so we are never either surprised or disappointed when we catch one of his concerts. He has lost just a little of his ability to sustain notes, but otherwise he's still the best male vocalist around. Based on record sales, he's one of the three or four top male singers ever.  As I was telling a colleague earlier today, one of the things that interests me about Mathis is the extent to which he minds his own business. He's not one of these celebrities who's always in your face. He performs, he goes away. He does raise a lot of money for charity, but even that is done in the highly organized, very discrete manner in which he does everything else.  His age shows in his face, but he's still a handsome devil and a graceful as a much younger man. Of course, the fact that he is a good athlete - broke Bill Russell's pole-vault record at San Francisco State - and I am largely a dolt, probably accounts for some of the disparity in our overall conditions. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
9:21 am	Pulling our legs My son Christian (sic!) passed this along, and it's one of the funniest things I've read recently. It's an announcement that the Episcopal Church has become the official denomination of Major League Baseball. You can read about it here. My favorite part - which Chris also zeroed in on - is the observation attributed to the commissioner of baseball: "(Bud) Selig said that Episcopalians bring the right mix of arcane tradition, an appreciation of minutiae and a tolerance for long stretches of relative inaction that make them 'a good fit for us.' " (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
8:19 pm	Had enough? The Department of Defense has announced that Maj. William G. Hall, 38 of Seattle, died March 30 from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on March 29.  He was assigned to 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine Air Control Group 38, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. You can read more about Maj. Hall, who served in the military for 15 years, by clicking here and here, and you can see his photo at this site. (Comment on this)
9:56 am	Say what? Gov. Corzine is outraged that New York City Mayor Bloomberg wants to increase Hudson River crossing tolls for New Jersey commuters entering Manhattan during rush hours. It isn't fair to Jersey drivers, says the governor -- the same governor, mind you, who would rather increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and impose tolls on Route 440 than make a serious (I said serious) pass at cutting state expenses. New Jersey, though not Corzine himself, ultimately shares with New York culpability for the congestion in Manhattan. This toll plan is designed to intimidate drivers into using mass transit rather than driving private vehicles into Midtown. It's too little too late. What was wanted -- 30 years ago when the present problem was forseeable -- was a Marshall Plan to establish a network of transit stations and commuter parking lots around the perimeter of Manhattan and prohibit private non-commercial vehicles from entering the city during peak hours or maybe altogether. It would be expensive, but so is the war in Iraq, and somehow we have managed to find the money for that. If the authorities want to keep cars out of Manhattan, the solution isn't extortion; the solution is making it easy for folks to leave their cars in New Jersey or Long Island or Connecticut and get in and out of town.  The same lack of foresight plagues the airport in Newark, which I had to navigate last Sunday. One of the most important activities that takes place in the airport is the "pickup," but the airport is actually hostile toward people trying to perform that task. The roads are too narrow, there is no place to wait for an arrival, limos and private cars that try to stop away from a terminal until their passengers are ready to leave are either chased or ticketed. The design should have been to keep those cars away from the terminals altogether by moving arriving passengers by monorail from the terminal to one of several pick-up points on the outskirts of the airport proper. That way only drop-off traffic and vehicles destined for the internal parking lots would have to approach the terminals.    Hey, that's just me. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
9:02 pm	Boom, ka-boom. Yattata yattata yattata ya . . . .  I thought it felt like summer when I got home from work shortly before 8 tonight. The air was heavy, the temperature balmy, and I heard what sounded like crickets. It those were crickets, I hope they didn't jump the gun. Just now, the thunder was rolling through. I've always been a fan of thunderstorms. When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I used to drive up to the top of Skyline Drive in what I guess are the Ramapo mountains to watch the lightning flashing over New York City off in the distance. Of course, there can be too much of a good thing. One night in the summer of 1975 we were camping in Rockford, Ill., and there was a thunder storm that sounded like the Battle of the Bulge. The camper was shaking and the lighting was turning night into day. The kids were inconsolable, so we made a rush to the Chevy Suburban where their grandfather was trying to sleep and all piled inside. We thought we'd feel safer in there, but we could see the rain and lightning that we could only imagine when we were in the camper, so it really made matters worse, except that the kids may have felt safer near their grandfather, who wasn't afraid of anything, least of all the weather. That didn't say much for their father. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
8:44 pm	Had enough?  The Department of Defense has announced that: Two soldiers died March 29 in Baghdad from wounds suffered when they encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. Those who were killed were  Spc. Durrell L. Bennett, 22, of Spanaway, Wash., and Pfc. Patrick J. Miller, 23, of New Port Richey, Fla.  Sgt. Terrell W. Gilmore, 38, of Baton Rouge, La., died March 30 in Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 769th Engineer Battalion of the Louisiana Army National Guard in Baton Rouge.  Cpl. Steven I. Candelo, 20, of Houston, died March 26 in Baghdad, when his vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.  You can see a photo of Spc. Bennett and read more about him, click here. To see a photo of Sgt. Gilmore and read more about him, click here. (Comment on this)