More than 120 airmen from Joint Base Lewis-McChord will return from a 120-day Middle East deployment Thursday morning after having set a record with what squadron leaders called “Operation Everest.”

In early August, the air crews with McChord Field’s 8th Airlift Squadron dropped a record-breaking 837 bundles on 22 drop zones with a combined weight of more than 1.1 million pounds of cargo, according to a spokeswoman. That is the most bundles ever dropped in a week by a C-17 cargo jet squadron, she said.

All told during the deployment, the squadron flew 2,789 sorties, equaling more than 7,000 …

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A memorial service will be held today at 3 p.m. for an intelligence soldier killed while in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ceremony will be held in the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Main Chapel.

Sgt. Faith R. Hinkley, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died Aug. 7 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked her unit in Iskandariya, Iraq.

She was assigned to the 502nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 201st Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The battalion deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September, 2009.

A News Tribune reporter will be attending the event this afternoon. …

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Four fallen Green Berets from Joint Base Lewis-McChord live on in the memories of their loved ones, including some in the Tacoma area. And they will be in the hearts of a team of current and former soldiers as they swim, bike and run for a good cause on Sept. 11.

The Warrior Triathlon Half Ironman (1.2 miles swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run) will take place in Williamsburg, Va. Participants raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which helps provide a college education to any child of special operators who are killed in action.

The …

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Air crews from the 62nd and 446th airlift wings at Joint Base Lewis-McChord are set to leave Monday to help in the U.S. relief effort for victim’s of Pakistan’s catastrophic floods.

They’ll fly two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to Cherry Point, N.C., to pick up helicopters and transport them to Afghanistan, Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson, said this morning.

The choppers will be assembled in Afghanistan before they’re flown into Pakistan to help render humanitarian aid, Jefferson said.

The local crews are scheduled to take off from McChord Field Monday afternoon.

The McChord airmen will be joined by …

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Service members and veterans might want to start marking their calendars now for free-admission days at this year’s Puyallup Fair.

The fair will run from Sept. 10-26 and, as in previous years, admission will be free at all gates on both Mondays of the fair for those who show valid military identification. Eligibility extends to all active, reserve and retired military and National Guard – as well as their dependents – plus disabled veterans.

Mondays are also good days for military families to go to the fair when combined with other deals. Sept. 13 is a $2 Madness Day, …

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National media attention the last few days has fastened on the return of troops from overseas, with everyone from CNN to the NBC Nightly News doing stories on Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division — the last major combat brigade out of Iraq.

We, too, have written extensively about the 18,000 troops that are coming home to the South Puget Sound this year.

Perhaps lost in all this is the fact that smaller groups of soldiers are still headed into harm’s way.

About 130 soldiers from B Company of the 51st Signal Battalion (Expeditionary), for …

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The last local infantry brigade still serving in a war zone is starting to come home. And if the soldiers’ good fortune holds out, they will make it back from Iraq having taken no combat casualties on this deployment.

A group of about 250 soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will be welcomed by loved ones at a ceremony Saturday morning at Joint Base Lewis-McChord – the first of several emotional reunions over the coming weeks as planes full of Stryker soldiers touch down.

The 4,000-member brigade deployed to Iraq last August and was based in Baghdad. It transferred …

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More than 21,000 surviving Army and Air Force spouses and family members live in the Pacific Northwest, according to officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. They range from people who lost a loved one in combat, to those whose husband or wife died after retiring from the uniformed service.

They come in all ages, but they have this in common: a need for some kind of help with the next phase of life – everything from Social Security survivorship pay to funeral and burial benefits, from grief support to wills and powers of attorney, from parenting resources to resume preparation.

Friday …

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