Navy Department Honors

Several Navy Department personnel have died serving in the Afghanistan war recently.On 20 June,a senior Navy non-commissioned officer,Command Master Chief Jeffrey Garber,died aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower(CVN69) of noncombat causes.The Eisenhower,a Nimitz class aircraft carrier,was sailing in the Arabian Sea.Chief Garber,of Hemingford,Nebraska,was 43 years old.Lance Corporal Charles S. Sharp,U.S. Marine Corps,died in combat on 2 July in Helmand Province,Afghanistan.A member of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force,based at Camp Lejeune,North Carolina,he was 20 years old, and hailed from Adairsville,Georgia.An individual augmentee,Petty Officer 2nd Class Tony Michael Randolph,was killed in action on 6 July in northern Afghanistan.He was serving with the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.A son of Henryetta,Oklahoma,he was 22 years old.
At least 727 Defense Department personnel,including one civilian,have died serving in the Afghanistan war.

Possible Militant Drugs Stopped

The U.S. Navy and U.K. forces have seized more than 20 tons of drugs on a hashish highway through the Indian Ocean.Since October,100 million dollars' worth of drugs have been halted.These could have funded Afghan militants.The drugs were seized in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden,where there have been many Somali pirate attacks.U.S. Fifth Fleet spokesman Lt.Nathan Christensen declined to say where the drugs came from,but noted that many of the narcotics stopped along the route are going to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan.