Sgt. Chad Sparks of Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 2^nd Stryker Brigade can focus a little easier on getting ready for his upcoming mission in Afghanistan. His visit to the Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday left his family in good hands to cope with his  nine-month deployment.

Sparks on the show received a $50,000 check from country star Dierks Bentley, who was moved by a letter Sparks’ wife wrote to DeGeneres. Watch the video here.

Ashley Sparks described her husband as “truly the man every girl dreams of, an honest, hard-working, dedicated soldier.”

She wrote that the family recently fell …

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January was a hard month for Washington State’s military community. It lost five service members who grew up here or served here to fighting in Afghanistan, the most casualties in a single month since July 2010 when seven were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those numbers of fallen service members remain well below the heavy fighting Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers saw during the Iraq surge and during the first months of the 5th Stryker Brigade’s deployment to Afghanistan in the late summer of 2009. But they’re a reminder that difficult days lay ahead even as the Obama administration …

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A Joint Base Lewis-McChord lieutenant from Wisconsin was killed in Afghanistan Wednesday while leading a foot patrol in Kandahar Province.

Lt. David Johnson, 24, is the first casualty this year in the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The Stryker brigade deployed with about 2,500 soldiers to Afghanistan last month and took positions in Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.

He is a graduate of Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. who was commissioned in the Army in 2010 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. The Defense Department said he was killed by an improvised explosive.

“We are very proud of …

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The Army has recorded its first combat deaths in new “double V” hull Strykers that were designed to provide better protection against improvised explosives, according to an update on the vehicle in Stars and Stripes.

Three soldiers from the Alaska-based 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division were killed in two attacks while riding in a double V Stryker last month. News of their deaths reverberates at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the home of three Stryker brigades that could be called up to deploy to Afghanistan.

Commanders in the Alaska brigade told Stars and Stripes that the new Strykers are saving …

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Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division spent the past month training in the California desert with an eye on a possible deployment to Afghanistan, according to Army reports from its exercises.

Brigade commander Col. Barry Huggins went so far as to act out a ceremony marking the completion of a civil affairs project that would benefit Afghans. An Afghan flag fluttered above the exercise as Huggins depicted the pomp that would follow a bridge opening, an Army writer wrote.

“A man with seven sons, gave seven sticks to his sons and told them to break them. …

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A Stryker combat brigade is heading to southern Afghanistan starting at the end of the month for a yearlong deployment with some of its forces staying behind.

A small crowd braved the cold and driving rain at the installation Tuesday to bid farewell to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which is headed to overseas combat for the fourth time in seven years.

Soldiers cased the unit colors of its headquarters and three of its infantry battalions during the ceremony in front of the brigade headquarters and surrounding a memorial that honors the unit’s fallen from its three prior deployments …

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The Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who died in a training accident this week was a 31-year-old veteran from Portland with two deployments to Iraq behind him.

Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Huntley joined the Army in 1998. He died Monday when his Stryker vehicle rolled over at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif.

Huntley was assigned to Lewis-McChord’s C Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The brigade is carrying out drills in the California desert to demonstrate that it’s prepared for an overseas mission. The Defense Department has not released official deployment …

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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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