Defense Industry Daily has a good closeup piece today on the efforts to keep the big planes flying. They’re almost like a piece of furniture in the local skies; you don’t always notice them, but every so often I’ll stop and watch and wonder where they’re going, or where they’re coming from. They connect this place with other places and events happening all around the world. I suppose some folks probably watch the container ships in Commencement Bay the same way.

The piece includes a link to the story of the C-17 that rolled off the Bagram Air

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About 100 airmen from the McChord’s 4th Airlift Squadron are flying out Wednesday morning for a four-month deployment at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, and at undisclosed points further south and east, according to a base press release.

They’ll work there as part of the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which schedules, plans and carries out all the C-17 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Central Command area of responsibility.

They’re replacing airmen from McChord’s 10th Airlift Squadron, who are due home Nov. 7.

Remember all those purple fingers? Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McDonald had a hand in that. The longtime official in the Washington Secretary of State’s office was part of the U.S. military’s election planning team in Baghdad last year.

He’ll tell his story over breakfast Friday at the World Trade Center Tacoma. Registration starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Wells Fargo Plaza downtown, 21st floor. It’s $10 for students and World Trade Center Tacoma members, $15 for everyone else.

Over on Sean’s blog he’s telling you about differences his seen in Mosul and Baghdad, and giving you a sense of what it’s really like on the streets with the soldiers.

That job – and covering the Stryker brigade in general – is going to get a lot tougher for us now that Sean and Tony are coming home from their successful reporting trip. Some people in our business have come use the term “embedded” as a dirty word, but I can tell you it’s the only way we’ve been able to independently – and I use that

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Update: Fort Lewis this afternoon identified the soldier killed in the Yuma accident as Pfc. Bryant Christopher Compean, 19, of El Campo, Texas. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment and arrived at Fort Lewis last May.

Otherwise, we’re still waiting on Fort Lewis and the Army for more details about the accident at the Yuma Proving Ground.

Fort Lewis public affairs officials Wednesday evening and again Thursday said they had limited information from the unit of the soldiers involved, an infantry company from the 4/9, which is part of the 4th Brigade,

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Fort Lewis says they’re expecting about 300 soldiers in on Friday as the 47th Combat Support Hospital completes its redeployment after a year in Mosul. There’s a celebration set for 11 a.m. Friday at Soldiers Field House.

The CSH got its share of coverage while it was away – most recently Sean’s piece here – and before that, a long story in the Boston Globe.

Sean and Tony’s coverage today focuses on the men of the scout platoon in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment – including Sgt. Emmet Cullen. Sean mentioned Cullen’s sister, Rachel Howard, writes for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I remembered reading a couple of pieces she wrote last year when Emmet – then in Mosul with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis – was home on mid-tour leave. They’re funny but also sometimes sad and almost a little too personal, but seems to me they’d speak to many parents who’ve had their soldier son or daughter home on

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I’m working on a story or two about the housing program at Fort Lewis – for the moment, at least, focusing on the new duplexes and triplexes that are going up in the Old Hillside/Discovery Village area northeast of the main gate. I’m looking for a few residents who would be willing to share their thoughts and experiences living in the new and renovated units on post. My contact info is over there on the right, next to the post office mug shot.