Team USA meets

Ghana in its frst

match today.
SPORTS, D1
2014 WORLD CUP
ets
rst
CUP
U.S. FACES
FIRST TEST
An M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq.
PHOTO COURTESY AGIFA CONSTABLE
For tankers, their Abrams is their home. In Baghdad,
they live in the heat, sleeping on the tank on top of un-
rolled sleeping bags in the heart of the city. They soak
themselves in bug spray nightly. When it rains, they
sleep in the tank, arranging themselves as comfortably
as they can. Because of insurgent attacks, supplies
dwindle. At one point, the four-man crew of Bandit 44
lives on only two bottles of water and two MREs, meals
ready-to-eat, a day.
In the tank, sweat drenches their clothes and soaks
their boots. The stale odor of the other men pervades
the tank. So does the dank smell of fuel and hydraulic
fluid.
Outside on this day, it is 110 degrees. Behind the ar-
mored walls, temperatures soar higher, sometimes by
20 degrees.
It makes them wish they could shed their protective
clothing. That includes their Vietnam-era fragmenta-
tion vests better body armor will come later in the
war and balaclavas. Flame-resistant Nomex fiber
gloves protect Lightner and Constables hands from
possible burns from the blow-back of propellant fired
from the tanks 120 mm gun.
Ordinarily the intense heat brings fatigue and dis-
traction.
Not now.
An adrenaline rush triggers intense focus and a hun-
Second in a series
Friendly convoy ambushed by a large number of enemy. One KIA and
three casualties. Within weeks of crossing into the war zone of Bagh-
dad in May 2003, Army Spc. Agifa Constable and Sgt. Bobby Lightner hear that tense
call through the tangle of radio traffic. About nine miles away from their M1A1
Abrams tanks position south of the city, they hear, enemy fighters have just killed a
platoon leader and left three American troops wounded, using an IED and small-arms
fire. The call sends Constable and Lightner, and their code-named Bandit 44 tank,
into combat for the first time.
By Ken Serrano @KenSerranoAPP
See IRAQ, Page A5
After several months, signs of PTSD emerge;
Constable credited with saving fellow soldier
CHAPTER 3
INTO IRAQ
Visit veterans.app.com to read prior chap-
ters, other stories, view videos and see an
interactive graphic about PTSD.
About this series
The Asbury Park Press this week examines
the emotional and physical toll the decade-
long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have
taken on veterans.
Army Spc. Agifa Constable in Iraq around 2003. He was in combat there for 17 months. PHOTO COURTESY OF AGIFA CONSTABLE
RETURNING HOME: LIVING WITH PTSD
Asbury Park Press APP.COM $1.00
),
/sbury Park Press daily

MONDAY 06.16.14
VOLUME 135
NUMBER 143
SINCE 1879
ADVICE C6
BUSINESS A8
CLASSIFIED D6
COMICS C7
LOCAL A3
LOTTERIES A2
OBITUARIES A9
OPINION A11
SPORTS D1
WEATHER D14
USA TODAY A LOOK AT THE HEROIN SMUGGLING PATHS USED BY MEXICAN CARTELS. PAGE 1B
a 7.5 acre parcel will submit their summations
Wednesday and zoning board professionals are expect-
ed to comment, Gertner said.
Rabbi Ephraim Birnbaum is seeking a variance
from the zoning board to build the school in a residen-
tial area of mostly one-acre lots, where schools are not
JACKSON During the last eight months, thousands
of residents have attended four public hearings about
whether an Orthodox Jewish high school in Lakewood
can build a new facility in a residential area of the town-
ship.
On Wednesday, a decision finally could come.
The township zoning board is likely to decide
Wednesday on the proposal to build an all-girls Ortho-
dox high school on Cross Street, said Sean Gertner, at-
torney for the board.
I fully expect a determination to made on Wednes-
day barring unforeseen circumstances, he said.
Attorneys arguing over the proposal to construct
Oros Bais Yaakov a two-story, 400-student school on
Ruling expected Wednesday on Orthodox high school in Jackson
By Brett Bodner @brettbodner
See JACKSON, Page A4
NBA FINALS 2014
SPURS PUT AN END TO HEATS REIGN
Led by MVP Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio beats
Miami, 104-87, at home to win its fifth NBA
championship, 4 games to 1.
Sports, D1
MIDDLETOWN Trinity Hall will appeal the planning
boards denial of its plans to build a campus for its all-
girls private high school on Chapel Hill Road.
Officials from the school announced Friday that
they intend to appeal the denial, which came early
Thursday morning after a six-hour hearing Wednesday
night. The board voted 6-3 to deny the application.
As a Middletown resident and Trinity Hall board of
trustees member, I am disappointed in the decision of
the Middletown Planning Board, which seems arbi-
trary and contrary to township ordinance, Donna Win-
chell said in a prepared release. The school is commit-
ted to being a good neighbor and has given back to the
community through almost 500 hours of community
service in just nine months.
In a release, school trustees said they are confident
in the merits of their case and anticipate this decision
will be reversed. The trustees said the board directed
the application be submitted without variances from
the zoning ordinance and that Trinity Hall accepts rea-
sonable additional conditions or amendments, which
Girls school
wont abandon
bid to expand
Middletown planners reject
Trinity Halls building proposal
By Larry Higgs @APPLarry
See EXPAND, Page A4