Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s senior leader today said he’s cautiously optimistic about NATO’s ability to hand more control of security in Afghanistan to local forces.

Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is the No. 2 commander in Afghanistan. He deployed in July with about 500 soldiers from Lewis-McChord’s I Corps.

Today, Scaparrotti told reporters the Army is sending more advisory units to Afghanistan to support the country’s growing army.

“With over 300,000 Afghans in uniform, freedom of movement has increased, insurgent support bases have been reduced, and the people are gaining respect for their Afghan security forces.  I believe this trust …

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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 Special Forces soldier from Joint Base Lewis-McChord who died Sunday from combat injuries he suffered in Afghanistan was a father of three with a long military career in the South Sound.

Benjamin Wise, 34, of Puyallup leaves behind a wife, two sons and a daughter. He died Sunday in Landstuhl, Germany, six days after he was wounded in an attack in Afghanistan’s Balkh Province.

His family released the following statement today:

“The Wise family is sincerely touched by the concern and interest all have taken in Ben’s life, his career and his sacrifice for our country. Ben was proud …

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UPDATE Dec. 27: A public affairs officer from the 3rd Stryker Brigade sent a message to clarify that the Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers pictured here will be working mostly in Zabul Province over the next year, not Kandahar. Zabul is to the east of Kandahar.

I apologize for the misinformed reporting.

*****

Infantry soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord set up their operations in Southern Afghanistan and started sending images home over Facebook this week.

About 2,500 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are set to spend the next year in the region, mostly in Kandahar Province. They’ll be …

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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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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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The Army is investing another $243 million in redesigned Stryker infantry vehicles that provide better protection from roadside bombs, the Defense Department announced this week.

That money will buy an additional 115 “double v hull” Strykers on top of the 450 the Army has already ordered from manufacturer General Dynamics. The two orders would give the Army almost enough of the redesigned Strykers to field two brigades.

Three of the Army’s seven Stryker brigades are stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. They’ve fought with the original flat-bottom Strykers in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.

The newer Strykers have a …

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