Family, friends to celebrate service of local soldier

Local News

Related Photos

CSS4E81.jpg
CSS4E86.jpg

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

February 3, 2012

By Denise Richardson Staff Writer The Daily Star Fri Feb 03, 2012, 09:46 AM EST

ONEONTA _ Army Spc. Michael Dow has traveled thousands of miles to be home this week.

He is on leave from Fort Riley, Kansas, after serving more than eight months in Afghanistan, and his family and area veterans are welcoming him back.

"We're happy that he's home safe and sound," Lynette Howard, his mother and a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 259, said as she sat on a sofa next to Dow in her West Oneonta home Thursday afternoon.

Between 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday, friends who haven't seen Dow will have a chance to say hello at a party at the Oneonta Veterans Club, 279 Chestnut St., she said.

And Dow said he has been enjoying time to rest, relax and visit with friends in his hometown.

On Thursday, The Associated Press reported Thursday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said NATO allies have agreed to step back from the lead combat role in Afghanistan and let local forces take their place as early as next year, a shortened timetable that startled officials and members of Congress.

The U.S. presence in Afghanistan totals 91,000 troops, the AP said, and Obama administration officials scrambled Thursday to explain that Panetta's announcement wasn't a policy change but an optimistic view of an already-established timetable.

Panetta said he told a meeting of 27 NATO allies that he hoped Afghan forces would be ready to take the combat lead sometime in 2013, with international troops taking a support role after a decade of inconclusive combat, the AP reported. That means Afghans would bear the main burden of offensive action, with U.S. and other foreign troops assisting, he said.

Dow, a combat medic, said the situation for the United States and Afghanistan in the fight against the Taliban is better than it was 10 years ago.

Dow said he enlisted Oct. 8, 2008 at age 32 because he wanted to take a part in bettering the United States.

"I feel I'm not done," Dow said. "It's limitless the amount of ways you can make a difference."

Dow grew up in Oneonta's West End and was a student at Greater Plains Elementary School. He was a member of the Oneonta High School class of 1991 and later earned a General Equivalency Diploma. Before joining the Army, Dow said, he worked as contractor for communications companies and in construction.

Dow arrived back in the USA on Jan. 3 and returned to Fort Riley, where he is stationed as part of the 1st Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment. His leave started Jan. 28, and he arrived in Albany on Monday night, where long-time friend Peter Bonnici of Oneonta picked him up.

In Operation Enduring Freedom, the Army's goals include protecting areas, supporting training of the Afghan National Army and preventing the Taliban from exporting marijuana and opium and importing weapons, Dow said. Improvised explosive devices, bombs better known as IEDs, were part of daily life, he said, and he saw small arms contact.

His choice to become a combat medic was driven by a desire to protect and help others, Dow said.

His tour took him to "primitive" areas in south central Afghanistan, he said, where evidence of previous conflicts included destroyed homes and leftover mine fields. U.S. Navy Seabees built bases, called "tactical infrastructures," which he said were about the perimeter size of the Oneonta city parking garage with walls perhaps 12 feet high. Soldiers often slept on the ground until tents arrived, he said, and then his platoon moved on to other areas.

"There were several incidences when I had to perform my duties as a medic," said Dow, who described himself as dependable and "an experienced first responder." He occasionally provided medical aid to members of the Afghan forces and local residents, he said.

Dow, who said he has been notified of a pending promotion to sergeant, he has been with the "Big Red One" infantry division at Fort Riley since June 2009.

Dow said his deployment in Afghanistan began April 12 last year. He and his 28-member platoon were fortunate that only one soldier was injured during the tour, he said.

"I was very lucky. I escaped with no injury," Dow said. "As a group, we were very lucky."