Lots of local stuff today:

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Funeral set for soldier with Carlisle ties killed in Afghanistan [The Patriot-News]
Funeral services set for fallen soldier [The Sentinel]
Fallen Soldier Gets Welcome Homecoming [NewsOn6.com]

81st Brigade Combat Team:
WW native works to protect convoys in Iraq [Walla Walla Union-Bulletin]

17th Fires Brigade:
Riverines stand ready to secure Iraq’s waterways [theredbulls.org]
Water trucks help fight against cholera in Iraq [theredbulls.org]
Soldiers Speak to Iraqis About U.S. Presence [DVIDS]

Washington National Guard:
1161st Trans. …

Read more »

Our links today begin with more coverage of Sgt. Andrew McConnell, who was killed Monday in Afghanistan:

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
Soldier’s loss hits harder in Carlisle [Patriot-News]
Family remembers fallen soldier [The Sentinel]

Warrior Transition Battalion:
Lakeport’s city manager resigns; new recruitment to begin[Lake County News]

17th Fires Brigade:
Soldiers Talk With Locals During Mission [DVIDS]

446th Airlift Wing:
Pot Holes [DVIDS]
Keeping spirits high [446th AW]

Fairchild Air Force Base:
Chaplain Veers From Straight, Narrow Care [DVIDS]

We lead today with more bad news from Fort Lewis’ 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Two soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.

And the news comes on the same day that friends gathered at Fort Lewis to mourn three others.

Other local stories:

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
‘You made us proud’ [The Patriot-News]
Final remembrance [Fort Lewis Ranger]
‘It was like a slow-motion day all day’ [KOMO-TV]
Three fallen Stryker soldiers remembered at Fort Lewis [KOMO-TV]

1st Special Forces Group:
…

Read more »

Jeremy Pawloski of The Olympian has gone through thousands of pages of public records from the City of Olympia concerning John Towery, the Fort Lewis employee accused of spying on an Olympia antiwar group.

Much of it is about threat assessments the Fort Lewis force protection folks sent to the Olympia Police Department about the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance group. Towery has been accused of infiltrating the group to spy on them — a possible violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

According to Fort Lewis spokesman J.C. Matthews, the investigation remains ongoing. This is what he wrote to the …

Read more »

Today’s links start with a dispatch from our D.C. correspondent, Les Blumenthal, who writes about a recent trip by U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The congressman — who sits own both the House Intelligence Committee and the armed services subcommittee that overseas special operations forces — stressed the importance of winning the AfPak fight.

“This is ground zero for al-Qaida,” Smith said. “They are still there, they are still plotting against the West. We have to deal with that threat. As much as we would like to avoid it, we can’t.”

Other local links include: …

Read more »

I’ve been away for a few days, but hopefully I didn’t miss much:

3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
Two from Fort Lewis die in vehicle rollover [The News Tribune]
Amesbury soldier dies in Iraq [Boston Globe]
Fallen hero was ray of sunshine’ [Boston Herald]
Soldier recalled as ‘ray of sunshine’ [The Daily News of North Andover, Mass.]
Burnsville soldier dies in Iraq on second tour [Star-Tribune]
He was a husband. He was a father. He was a GI. [St. Paul Pioneer-Press]

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
…

Read more »

It has been a tough couple of weeks for the local military community.

Seven soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, including six from Fort Lewis’ 5th Stryker Brigade. Our front page Saturday carried two stories about the war coming home to our local communities. Reporter Brent Champaco, photographer Lui Kit Wong and I were at the funeral of 1st Sgt. Jose S.N. Crisostomo of Spanaway. And reporter Steve Maynard talked to the parents of Pfc. Dennis M. Williams, a Federal Way native killed when a roadside bomb detonated near his Stryker.

Our executive editor, Karen Peterson, used …

Read more »

The Army is tweaking the areas of responsibility for its Special Forces groups, the Fayetteville Observer reports, but the folks at 1st SF Group at Fort Lewis will maintain their focus on the Pacific region:

1st Special Forces Group:
3rd Special Forces Group to focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan [Fayetteville Observer]

McChord Air Force Base:
Moving Cargo at the 386th Logisitics Readiness Squadron [DVIDS]

17th Fires Brigade:
Community Leaders Discuss Key Issues at Basra Forum [DVIDS]