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(AP) GREELEY, Colo. The funeral for a soldier from Evans killed while serving in Iraq was held on Friday, Veterans' Day. Pvt. 1st Class Tyler Ryan MacKenzie, 20, died Nov. 2 when a roadside bomb blew up south of Baghdad near the Humvee he and his fellow soldiers were riding in. MacKenzie was assigned to the First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was the first Weld County resident killed in the Iraq war.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2005 – The 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division formally took control of the southwestern Baghdad area of operations from the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team on Oct. 31. Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, 48th BCT commander, and brigade Command Sgt. Maj. James Nelson cased the unit's colors, representing the end of their mission and responsibility for this area. Shortly after the 48th's guidon was cased, Army Col. Todd Ebel, commander of 2nd BCT, 101st Airborne Division, and Army Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Stall, the brigade's senior enlisted soldier, uncased the colors...

TIKRIT, Iraq — Standing in the shadow of Saddam Hussein’s former pleasure palaces, officials with the 42nd Infantry Division Tuesday morning formally ceded operations in north central Iraq to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky. Attendees and leaders praised the progress that has been made since the 42nd ID, a New York Army National Guard unit, took control of the area in February. “They have helped us in every aspect,” said Abdul Rahman Mustafa Fatah, 54, the governor of Kirkuk province. “Services, projects … for security, also.” “The mission has been executed brilliantly,” said Lt. Gen....

TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 2, 2005 – Task Force Band of Brothers and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) officially took command of military operations in north-central Iraq in a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Danger here Nov. 1. The ceremony marked the transfer of authority from Task Force Liberty and the 42nd Infantry Division, a National Guard unit from New York that has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for a year, to TF Band of Brothers. TF Band of Brothers is composed of two brigade combat teams and a combat aviation brigade of the 101st Airborne Division,...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The 101st Airborne Division (search) on Thursday reactivated a historic unit whose actions during World War II and Vietnam were the subject of the book "Band of Brothers." (search) The 506th Regimental Combat Team — also known as the "Currahees," a Cherokee Indian word meaning "stands alone" — returned to the division just as its soldiers were completing final preparations to return to Iraq.

Facts and Figures Total Death Row Inmates: 8 (as of 4/29/05) RACE Black - 6 White - 1 Asian - 1 GENDER Male - 8 United States Military Death Row Roster 1. Kenneth Parker (B) 2. Wade L. Walker (B) 3. Jessie Quintanilla (A) 4. James T. Murphy (B)* 5. Ronald Gray (B) 6. Dwight J. Loving (B) 7. William Kreutzer (W)* 8. Hasan Akbar (B) *Awaiting re-trial or re-sentencing. (Source: NAACP Legal Defense Fund) Number of Executions 135 people have been executed by the Army since 1916 (Source: National Law Journal, 4/5/99) Date of last military execution On April...

Forged in the fight Eads foundry's unit will shine at home of 101st By Jon W. Sparks Contact June 12, 2005 Standing in the same room with the unfinished warriors is unnerving. Four life-size figures loom in the sculpture studio of Andrea Holmes Lugar in Eads. They represent soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who have faced the foe in World War II, Vietnam and both Gulf wars. Their destiny is to become part of a monument at Fort Campbell, Ky., headquarters of the 101st. Until then, they will undergo an amazing process of being shaped and then cast in...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

The military has not executed one of its own since 1961, while states have put scores of civilian killers to their deaths. Specialists say the key difference in military justice is the role of the president, who unlike a governor, must take an active role in signing off when a service member gets the ultimate punishment.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to die Thursday night for a grenade and rifle attack that killed Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert and an Air Force officer and wounded 14 others. Helen Seifert, of Williams Township, began to weep as she watched the man who killed her son chained and led away from the courtroom.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Hours after giving a brief, barely audible apology, a soldier was sentenced to death by a military jury for attacking comrades with a rifle and grenades early in the Iraq invasion. Sgt. Hasan Akbar, 34, could have been sentenced Thursday to life in prison with or without parole for the March 2003 attack on members of the elite 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Two officers were killed and 14 other soldiers were wounded. "I want to apologize for the attack that occurred. I felt that my life was in jeopardy, and I had...

A US soldier said to have hated America has been sentenced to death for the murder and attempted murder of comrades during the invasion of Iraq. Sgt Hasan Akbar used grenades and a rifle to kill two officers and wound 14 other personnel at a camp in Kuwait in the opening days of the war.Prosecutors said the murders were ideologically driven hate crimes. Defence lawyers do not dispute the attack but argue Akbar was too mentally ill to have planned the attack. The death penalty was announced a week after he was convicted by a military jury at Fort Bragg,...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A military jury sentenced Sergeant Hasan Akbar (search) to death for the 2003 murders of two officers in a grenade attack at an Army camp in Kuwait.

Fort Bragg -- An Army sergeant convicted of murdering two officers in a grenade attack on his comrades in Kuwait quietly said he was sorry Thursday before a military prosecutor urged the jury to sentence the soldier to death because he was an idealogically driven killer. "I apologize for my actions. ... When I did that, I felt my life was in jeopardy, and I had other problems," Sgt. Hasan Akbar told the 15-person military jury. Akbar spoke for less than a minute, making an unsworn statement that could not be cross-examined. He testified in such a low voice that...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Facing a possible death penalty for his fatal attack on fellow soldiers, Sgt. Hasan Akbar will make an unsworn statement to the jury in his own defense, a lawyer said Wednesday. The statement by Akbar is to come Thursday, the fourth day of the sentencing phase of his court-martial, said the defense lawyer, Maj. David Coombs. Akbar was convicted last week of premeditated murder and attempted murder in the March 2003 attack on the 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Akbar will speak from the witness box, and prosecutors will be able to call...

(FORT BRAGG) - The prosecution has rested its case in the sentencing phase of the court-martial of an Army sergeant convicted of murdering his fellow soldiers. Seven witnesses testified, following the 15 that testified on Monday. Defense attorneys are expected to call their witnesses Wednesday. The defense admits Sergeant Hasan Akbar carried out the attack, but claims he was mentally unstable at the time. The judge in the case says he expects deliberations to begin on Thursday. Meanwhile, jurors have been sent home for the day with copies of Akbar's diary and a mitigation report. Witnesses detail physical, emotional trauma...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The parents of an officer killed by a soldier's grenade and rifle attack on a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait testified Tuesday that their son's death created a hole in their lives that they can't fill. "When you think about all the plans you were going to carry out ... that's not going to happen now," said Richard Stone, father of Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone. "With Greg, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him." Gregory Stone and Army Capt. Christopher Seifert were killed and 14 other service members...

Last Friday I wrote that "Hasan Akbar's jihad has reached its conclusion." That seems to have been premature: it has now come to light that he stabbed an MP last month, and I suspect he will go on looking for opportunities to kill. But Judge Stephen Henley is unmoved; it was, after all, just an "opportunistic stabbing." An "opportunistic stabbing"? What the heck does that mean? What about Akbar's stated motives, priorities, and values? I suppose 9/11 was just a case of "opportunistic building destruction." "Judge won't allow evidence of fight in Akbar sentencing," from AP, with thanks to the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. | -- In the weeks after her husband's death in Kuwait, Terri Seifert did not have many answers. She was strong nonetheless. As the weeks turned to months and answers began to filter in about Army Airborne Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert's fatal shooting at Camp Pennsylvania, Terri Seifert seemed to get stronger for herself and for her son, Benjamin, Lt. Col. Kenneth Romaine said Monday. But, there was one thing she could not do, Romaine said, because it was a job her husband was expected to do with his first son. "It was somewhere around Benjamin's first...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - A sergeant's attack on his own colleagues in the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait made key planners unavailable just before the invasion of Iraq, a commander testified Monday. ``Everybody knew this would be a big fight,'' Col. Ben Hodges testified Monday at a sentencing hearing for Sgt. Hasan Akbar, convicted in a grenade and rifle attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14. ``I never dreamed my first casualties would occur inside Camp Pennsylvania and they would be caused by one of my own soldiers.'' Hodges commanded the 101st's 1st Brigade Combat Team and was...