February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Seven members of the 69th were killed recently when a roadside bomb blew up their Bradley Fighting Vehicle outside Baghdad.
The famed unit, now attached to the New York State National guard but with units from several other states serving under its flag, has lost more than a dozen members in Iraq since being posted there in November.
The regiment, founded, by Irish immigrants in 1851, traditionally leads the parade up Fifth Avenue every March 17.
This year it will only be able to muster its veterans corps and a detachment from its rear guard, Dunleavy said. He added that the parade committee had already sent money to some 69th regiment families and was building up a fund in case some families became “hard pressed.”
The committee had also set aside money to pay for phone cards for regiment members and was planning to send hundreds of St. Patrick’s pins to Iraq for St. Patrick’s Day.
Dunleavy said that that other ways of honoring the regiment’s service were being considered.
He said that the names of those killed in Iraq would likely be read from the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the Mass that precedes the parade.
SHANNON EVEN BIGGER U.S. STOP
Shannon Airport is hosting a growing number of U.S. military personnel en route to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Irish government figures show that 158,549 U.S. troops stopped at the County Clare airport last year. There were 1,502 landings by U.S. planes at the airport ferrying not just troops but also munitions.
The 2004 troops total was a 26 percent increase over the 2003 figure of 125,855.
According to the figures, U.S. troops now represent 6 percent of the total annual number of passengers using Shannon. They generated roughly