Mosul is well-known to the wider Fort Lewis community, but it only gets a fraction of the news coverage that comes out of the Iraqi capital. So it’s hard from the outside to gauge what’s happening there.

I meant to to point you yesterday to Patrick Cockburn’s piece in the London Independent, in which he speculates about the prospects for a battle royale there between Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Folks around here have a lot invested in Mosul. Fort Lewis troops have been stationed in the city since the first few days after it fell

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Not to be outdone by the Lewis and Ordway tributes outside Fort Lewis, the folks in Lacey are unveiling a new statue Saturday that pays tribute to military families.

The work by sculptor Gareth Curtis of Olympia depicting a soldier reuniting with his wife and daughter will stand at the corner of Quinnault Drive Northeast and Marvin Road, just off Exit 111 on Interstate 5. A dedication ceremony is set for 10 a.m. Saturday.

The Hawks Prairie Rotary raised $300,000 for the project.

Walter Gaya – war hero, Tacoma baker and crackin’ good photographer – is back from a return trip to Iraq.

Despite the fact he is a twice-wounded, six-year veteran of the U.S. Army and spent a year in Mosul with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, he reports he was denied an official embed assignment by the U.S. military public affairs authorities in Baghdad.

He went in through Turkey anyway, and spent about a month there and in Dohuk and Erbil in the Kurdish north. He posted dispatches on Michael Yon’s blog, and you can

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This morning’s Iraq roundup story in the LA Times offered this intriguing bit from a Baghdad resident, commenting on the U.S. troops in his neighborhood:

“When they came to my shop, I was playing video games with my PlayStation. And one of the Americans asked if he could play with me. And we played together.”

Hearts and minds, one GTA III session at a time?

And as Fort Lewis joes come home, so too do the 300 Washington National Guard volunteers who spent the last month down on border duty in Arizona. Task Force Cascade is due home at Camp Murray tomorrow afternoon, the Guard said.

They provided surveillance along the border for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency and did logistical support work at Forward Operating Base Cannon near Yuma.

Good thing Gov. Christine Gregoire got down there for a quick visit today or she might’ve missed ‘em.

"You are doing a great job while executing a mission under

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Looks like Fort Lewis units in Iraq have avoided the dreaded extension, at least for now, even as the Pentagon on Monday announced overtime for the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division in Ramadi and hastened the deployment of the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Bliss.

The 160 or so troops from the 528th Quartermaster Company returned home to Fort Lewis early today, along with an advance party from the 29th Signal Battalion. The 528th worked the past year at Tallil Air Base near Nasiriyah. In addition to their supply duties they even took

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Some local military families are among those taking part in the Declaration of Peace demonstrations this week in Seattle, Olympia and elsewhere. Joe Colgan of Kent, whose son, Lt. Ben Colgan, was killed in Baghdad in November 2003, is among those calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. See the link for more if you’re interested.

The Fort Steilacoom campus is back with another week-long series of performances, lectures and panel discussions beginning Monday Oct. 9.

Living Voices will make three multi-media interactive performances on World War II themes. Monday, it’s “Through the Eyes of a Friend,” about the Holocaust experiences of young people. Wednesday they’ll present “Native Vision,” about the experience of Navajos in the 1930s and ’40s, and on Thursday, it’ll be “Within the Silence,” about the Japanese internment.

Three performances are scheduled each morning in the

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