5:30 PM UPDATE: “Kill team” key witness Jeremy Morlock is under cross examination tonight, and his testimony is expected to continue Tuesday at a court-martial for Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs.

Gibbs’ defense attorney is hammering Morlock on the soldier’s admittedly frequent drug use during his deployment with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Morlock today acknowledged that he smoked hashish at least three times a week and as much as twice a day during his deployment.

Morlock’s drug use is important because Stackhouse wants to demonstrate that Morlock is untrustworthy and has a faulty memory. Morlock has testified for about …

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The mother of an Army captain killed in Afghanistan earlier this year is refashioning her Port Angeles bed and breakfast to offer getaways to families of fallen soldiers, the Peninsula Daily News reports today.

Here’s the lead. Follow the above link to the story.

Betsy Reed Schultz knows all too well how it feels to lose a loved one in the armed forces.

There’s the overwhelming grief but also the profound sense of gratitude for those who stand by military families in their time of loss.

And five months after her son, Army Capt. Joseph …

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12:10 PM UPDATE: The jury panel that will weigh the Army’s case against alleged “kill team” ringleader Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs consists of three officers and two noncommissioned officers.

Gibbs’ trial is in recess until Monday, when attorneys are scheduled to make their opening arguments.

10:15 AM UPDATE: Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs pleaded not guilty to all of the 16 criminal charges the Army filed against him. Jury selection is underway.

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Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs’ court-martial could at Joint Base Lewis-McChord could run a full week with 28 soldiers and criminal investigators on a roster of expected witnesses.

Gibbs …

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The Army said today that one of two Joint Base Lewis-McChord special operators who were killed in Afghanistan last weekend had served on more combat deployments than any other fallen Army Ranger.

Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer Domeij was on his 14th deployment as a Ranger. He had served on 10 missions in Afghanistan and four in Iraq.

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The Stryker soldier who allegedly hatched plans for his platoonmates to murder three Afghan civilians last year is going to trial Friday, the Army announced today.

Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Mont., faces life in prison if he’s convicted on any one of three murder charges. He’s charged with 13 other crimes alleging he beat up a subordinate who told officers about drug use in their platoon and collected bones from dead Afghans.

Gibbs has maintained his innocence on the murder charges ever since the Army put him in custody 16 months ago. Through his …

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The Army’s first Stryker brigade is about to become the first of its kind to go to war without the marquee infantry vehicle it helped develop a decade ago.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 3^rd Brigade, 2^nd Infantry Division is readying for a deployment to Afghanistan in December, and it’s leaving its fleet of roughly 300 eight-wheeled Strykers at its home station.

Instead, about 3,000 soldiers from the brigade will drive a mix of armored vehicles that are already in Afghanistan, such as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) and its all-terrain variety, the M-ATV.

Lt. Col. Wayne Brewster, the brigade’s deputy …

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Two soldiers with Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s Army Ranger battalion were killed Saturday when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, 29, of San Diego, Calif., and Pfc. Christopher A. Horns, 20, of Colorado Springs, Colo. were mortally wounded in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, according to the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Both were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Here’s a nice shot of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Air Force crew delivering Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Tripoli this week.

Clinton visited the country to offer assistance from the Obama administration and to encourage its new leaders to commit to democracy.

The C-17 Globemaster III behind her shows it belongs to McChord Air Field’s 62nd Airlift Wing.

Capt. Allison Kojack, a spokeswoman for the 62nd, confirmed that the crew included airmen from her unit and McChord’s 446th Reserve Airlift Wing.