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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — American society may be less religious than it was a few generations ago, but its religious diversity has greatly increased. That change has dramatically impacted the Army, which must now offer religious services not only for Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants but also for a wide variety of different Christian denominations and minority faiths. That’s far different from what Lt. Col. John Bjarnason, Fort Leonard Wood’s family life chaplain, saw when he joined the Army in 1969. “We have a wide range of all kinds of different choices for our trainees to...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — Shortly before Army personnel nationwide conducted a moment of silence for the 13 soldiers and others killed by an Army psychiatrist Friday afternoon at Fort Hood in Texas, an Army chaplain assigned to family life issues at Fort Leonard Wood explained how the Army tries to help soldiers and families. “Our military is grieving now this great loss at Fort Hood,” said Lt. Col. John Bjarnason. “We feel very sad for the families that have lost a dear one there.” Bjarnason, 64, entered the Army during the Vietnam era, returned to active...

Investigators believe that the gunmen had "political and religious motives." Meanwhile, Obama is set to give a major speech in Cairo in which, among other things, he's going to point out Muslim many contributions to America. "This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said in a phone interview. "He has converted to Muslim here in the past few years," Hastings said. "To be honest we're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in...

Pfc. Marquest Smith, a former Fort Worth resident who joined the Army just over a year ago, was in a small cubicle inside the Soldier Readiness Center when he heard popping sounds. A bullet tore through the cubicle wall and lodged in the heel of his boot. Within 15 minutes, the 21-year-old soldier was rushing through the chaos in the huge processing center to pull four wounded victims to safety and help take them to the hospital. The gunman fired toward him from across the room as Smith was fleeing the building. Other tales of heroism spread throughout this grief-stricken...

Juanita Warman, 55, leaves behind 2 children, 6 grandchildren. Juanita Warman, 55, was a single mother who worked her way through the University of Pittsburgh, became a nurse and joined the military, where she worked as a physician assistant, said her sister, Margaret Yaggie of Roaring Branch in north-central Pennsylvania. Warman was being deployed to Iraq for medical duty, after serving a recent posting in Washington state. She was excited to go, but her thoughts were of her two daughters and six grandchildren, Yaggie said. On her Facebook page, Warman wrote, "I miss my girls and their beautiful children. It's...

Francheska Velez was due home soon from Fort Hood. The army private, stationed in Iraq, returned to Chicago to celebrate her 21st birthday last August. Back in Iraq, where she disarmed bombs, she learned she was pregnant, her family said, and arranged for maternity leave. "She was supposed to be coming very, very soon. Everyone's devastated. Everyone's at a loss for words," said her cousin Jennifer Arzuaga. "She was very young. She wasn't supposed to die the way she died." Velez, whose father came from Colombia and mother from Puerto Rico, attended Kelvyn Park High School and joined the army...

Russell Seager, a 51-year-old nurse practitioner from Mount Pleasant, Wis., was among those killed in Thursday's violence. Seager, like others at Fort Hood, was preparing to deploy to Iraq, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. His uncle, Larry Seager, told the paper that he was eager to go abroad and had "pushed officials for deployment." "He wanted to get in there and help the soldiers coming home and leaving," Larry Seager told the paper. "I still can't believe it. Such a foolish thing," he said of the shooting. He learned of his nephew's death Friday morning when he received a...

Pfc. Michael Pearson taught himself to play the piano and became a guitar virtuoso long before he joined the Army last year. "He had a little Jimi Hendrix in him," a relative said Friday as the family gathered to grieve in suburban Chicago. Before the attack at Fort Hood, Pearson was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan to become a bomb disposal specialist. His family knew he had received a series of inoculations and, when they learned of the shooting, figured that Pearson would be safely elsewhere. He died Thursday at age 21. A surgeon called with the news. Pearson graduated...

PFC Aaron Thomas Nemelka had barely finished all his service training when he was killed by gunshots Thursday at Fort Hood. The 19-year-old had been in the Army for just over a year and had signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service: bomb defusing. His grandfather, Michael Nemelka, Sr. said his grandson choose the job because he was tired of seeing American soldiers die and wanted to help save lives. "I think his dad even tried to talk him out of it," Michael Nemelka, Sr. said referring to the reservations of his son, Michael...

Amy Krueger joined Army in aftermath of Sept. 11 attacks. In Kiel, Wis., a rural community of 3,200, feeling for the military runs so strong that, every Veterans Day, the high school invites local vets to lunch. So it was not entirely surprising that the week after Amy Krueger, a college student preparing to be a social worker, watched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on television, she and her roommate walked into an Army recruiting office to enlist. She felt she needed to be "an army of one," a story in the local Tri-County Times quoted Krueger as saying...

Jason Hunt transferred to Texas to be closer to his family. As a boy, Jason Hunt once had to wear silver caps on his front teeth. When he was too timid to smile, his sister, appealing to his love of video games, asked him to show his Ninja Turtle teeth. "He was so embarrassed and such a shy boy," recalled his sister Leila Willingham, 30, of Frederick, Okla. "That was the only way I could make him smile." In high school, Hunt refused to dissect a cat for a class assignment. He was so upset that his mother had to...

John P. Gaffaney, 56, lobbied for 3 years to return to active duty. John P. Gaffaney already had retired from the Army as a major, already had won his 20-year service award in the San Diego county government as a supervisor in a program that helps elderly people through abuse and mental health crises. But at 56, trained as a psychiatric nurse, he longed to return to active duty in the Army National Guard. For three years, a board kept rejecting him because he had a hearing problem, according to Ellen Schmeding, an administrator in the county agency for which...

Justin M. DeCrow had been in the Army for 13 years. At 32, Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow had been in the Army for 13 years and -- with a wife, 13-year-old daughter and bothersome case of sleep apnea -- had decided it was time to become a civilian. His mother, Rhonda Thompson, said Friday that DeCrow had returned over the summer from a year's deployment in South Korea to Evans, Ga., where he had built a house several years ago. His wife, Marikay -- whom he had known since the start of elementary school -- had a business there...

Michael G. Cahill was a dedicated physician's assistant, voracious reader and history buff who remembered the smallest details about the most remote places. "The night before he died, we sat and watched the Mark Twain awards," said his wife, Joleen Cahill of Cameron, Tex. "And we just sat there laughing." Cahill, 62, was among the 13 people killed in a shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood. He is survived by his wife; daughter Keely and son-in-law Lee; daughter Kerry; son James; and grandson Brody. Michael G. Cahill had been a physician's assistant for 22 years. A retired chief warrant officer...

Army PFC Kham Xiong, 23, came from a St. Paul, Minn., family with ties to military life that spanned hemispheres. His father, Chor Xiong, battled Communist insurgents in Laos during the Vietnam War, according to Minnesota Public Radio, and his younger brother Nelson is enlisted in the Marines. In a phone interview, his 8th grade teacher, Tim McGowan, recalled Xiong's positive energy and his commitment to supporting his family. "Kham was just a person of sound character, and his greatest attribute was his ability to make everybody smile," said McGowan, now a principal at Community of Peace Academy, a St....

“Welcome to the GREAT place,” reads the sign outside the main entrance of Fort Hood, Texas, set in rolling lawns just off US Route 190... It certainly looks like a pleasant spot to live. In fact, it is hard to believe this 340 square mile, self-contained city of 70,000 people, which resembles a vast, sleepy university campus, is actually the world’s largest military facility.*** There is a certain open-mindedness to Fort Hood as well, as evidenced by the closed-circuit television footage of Major Hasan, in Muslim dress, buying his morning coffee on Thursday about an hour before he allegedly opened...

When Wrightsville Beach police detective Shaun Appler pulled over a suspected drunk driver in 2000, he couldn’t have foreseen the dangerous situation that was about to ensue. Thankfully Appler’s partner, Kimberly Munley, was there to save his life. While Appler was talking to the driver of the vehicle, a third man approached the detective and interjected himself into the discussion. Appler said he asked the third man to leave, when he didn’t, the detective tried to arrest him. A struggle ensued, and the two men eventually rolled down a hill. When they came to a stop, the man was straddling...

Today, this army wife is mad as hell. This afternoon I saw an interview on FOX with the Army Chief of Staff, General Casey. During the Q&A period, every question and answer centered around Combat Stress and suicides among our military. Not ONE person addressed the FACT that this was an individual practicing his view of Islamic Jihad. After the press conference, the cameras went back to Shep Smith at the FOX studios. The first thing he said was, “The question on everyone’s mind is, ‘Why did he do this?’” Why? WHY, you ask?? Let me tell you cowards in...

Fort Hood shooting suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, wanted out of the Army after being constantly harassed by others in the military and was called a "camel jockey," his family said. As Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq, he was suffering from some of the same stresses that he was trained as an Army psychiatrist to treat. Although the 39-year-old had just been promoted to major in May, his family says he had hired a lawyer to help him get out of the Armed Forces. "Apparently became very disgruntled in the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and voiced...

On the occasion of Veterans Day 2009, I pay honor to those who’ve served and/or paid the ultimate price in service to their country by publishing a series of war stories that holds a special value in my heart, because they were written by my father, Ted.

ACTION ALERT: FT. HOOD SHOOTINGS November 6th, 2009 8 : 09 AM Our Family has a soldier stationed at Ft. Hood. We have contacted him and he is safe. Overnight I have made contact with friends at the 1st Cav and I am collecting cards and letters from the public of support for those who were injured and for the families of those who were killed. We will collect your cards and letters of support and get them to the correct individuals in bulk via Federal Express. Send them today! It costs you 44 cents to support these troops and...

Witnesses to Thursday's massacre at Fort Hood said alleged shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was calm as he opened fire at a crowd of young soldiers, pausing only to reload before he was taken down by a female officer that many hailed today as a hero. "It was very deliberate in his approach, they said that he was calm," Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the base commander at Fort Hood, told "Good Morning America" today. "Several soldiers shot multiple times and were recounting how they were shot." The attacker killed 13 people, mostly military, and wounded 30. The Fort Hood...

Twelve soldiers were murdered in cold blood at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirty others were wounded. Our Commander in Chief calls a press conference and begins it with a long thanks to the Department of the Interior and Native Americans who just concluded a conference and then gives a good natured ''shout out'' to an attendee , all with a studied nonchalance, before he even mentions the outrage on our military base. Linda Chavez calls it, "Obama's pet goat moment."

FORT HOOD, Texas – The base commander at Fort Hood says soldiers who witnessed a shooting rampage that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Robert Cone told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" before the rampage Thursday that also left 30 people wounded.

The body of a Marshall County soldier was on its way back to the United States on Thursday. 25 year-old Julian Berisford's body will be flown back with a military escort. Julian's death is still very raw to all of his family, especially to his wife Gina. However, they agreed to talk to 7News Reporter Melissa Reid. They want everyone to know just who this hero was.

He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, according to his aunt, was on the eve of his first deployment to war. On Thursday, authorities said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Arlington, Va.-born psychiatrist, shot and killed at least 12 people at Fort Hood.*** Nidal Hasan spent much of his professional career at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., caring for the victims of trauma, yet he spoke openly of his deep opposition to the wars in Iraq and...

According to retired Col. Mike Pheneger, who spent 30 years as a military intelligence officer including five years at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, said United States intelligence should be focusing on why suspected Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan did what he did. It is possible that Hasan was merely unhappy about an imminent deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan, as some have speculated, Pheneger said. But Pheneger believes there are enough facts about Hasan's background that merit at least some suspicion about his motivation. "One of the issues they're trying to figure out is whether the guy...

<p>Thursday's deadly rampage raises a red flag over the issue of combat stress.</p> <p>The suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, worked on that very issue at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS), which assesses the behavioral and psychological risks of traumatic events, such as combat, terrorism, natural disasters and public health threats.</p>

Age: 39 Education: 1997 graduate of Virginia Tech University. Received doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Career: U.S. Army psychiatrist. As of Oct. 13, he had less than a year of clinical practice. From 2003 through this summer, was an intern, a resident and then a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. Also, he was listed by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress as a fellow for disaster and preventive psychology. Commissioned as a captain, he was promoted to major in May. Personal information: He...

Incredibly, it appears that Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan, the alleged shooter in the massacre that resulted in at least 12 dead and 31 wounded at Fort Hood today, served on the Homeland Security Policy Institute’s presidential transition task force between April 2008 and January 2009 when Barack Obama was inaugurated as the nation’s 44th president.

More intriguing to me than the story behind an unhinged Muslin is how in the hell a General could stand before America and deal out so much misinformation – there was only one shooter who had two pistols, he was shot dead and the person who shot the shooter was also shot dead. Now I know why so many of our young are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our Generals don’t know their asses from their elbows. One would expect miss information from civilians, but hearing it from seasoned military people who are very accustomed to battle is amazing. When...

RPG's are cheap, lethal, and they're everywhere. They operate by focusing a jet of explosive gas on one tiny point of armor, piercing it with a tiny stream. Currently, heavy "birdcage"-type armor serves to prematurely detonate that gas stream, diminishing it to a level that proves comparatively harmless --but cage armor is HEAVY. This new armor concept is like a car air bag; the incoming warhead detonates, emitting a recognizable flash. The special light flash is picked up by the vehicle receiver, causing micro-second release of the airbag on the vehicle area of interest. The lightweight but sturdy airbag meets...

MAJ. GEN. ROBERT SCALES (RET.) "This was a deliberate act of execution."

As many as nine people are dead and as many as 30 more are injured after two or more gunmen in military uniforms opened fire Thursday afternoon in a deployment processing center at Fort Hood. Schools on and around the post are locked down and hospitals report receiving mass casualties.

At least 12 people were killed and 31 others were wounded in a mass shooting incident Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, military officials said. The shooter was shot to death, they said. More shots were reported later in the afternoon, reported NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco, which said no further details were immediately available. A senior administration official told NBC News analyst Roger Cressey that the suspect who was in custody was an Army major with an Arabic-sounding name.snip Milly Land, who works at the base fitness center, said she was headed for the graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. at...

Surrounded by her family, Maj. Stella Carroll looked out over a sea of fluttering American flags Wednesday morning at Parma Elementary School. More than 400 tiny voices greeted the mother of five with the national anthem and other patriotic songs, and the children presented her with letters calling her a hero. Carroll, who has served in the U.S. Army Reserves for more than 20 years, will leave Saturday for a year-long tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We want you to know how much we respect and appreciate you," Parma Elementary School Principal Sue Haney told Carroll during the send-off ceremony at...

NEW YORK — Maryland and South Carolina will wear uniforms with camouflage designs during their games Nov. 14 to honor military veterans and promote the Wounded Warrior Project. The black with tan camouflage uniforms, designed by Under Armour, will have a Wounded Warrior logo on them. Instead of players' names, the backs of the jerseys will have words such as courage, loyalty, integrity and service. "Ooooh," South Carolina defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye said Tuesday after seeing the camouflage cleats the Gamecocks will wear. "I could wear these the whole season." The Wounded Warrior Project acts as an advocate for injured...

An Army recruiter used a gay slur and an expletive during military-supervised testing at Durango High School last week, an incident that has raised parents' ire. DHS students who overheard the comment confronted the man, whose identity was not released, and notified school personnel. Juniors and seniors were required to attend a testing session Thursday that was overseen by recruiters from the U.S. Army Denver Recruiting Battalion, or to do an alternative project as part of a career day. More than 500 students took the test. During the military aptitude test, several students overheard the soldier use the expletive and...

This Iraqi Security Force Update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during October 2009. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle as of 31 October 2009 is published at Montrose Toast. Joint Special Forces Strike Teams [Battalions] In late 2007, Prime Minister Maliki announced plans for “elite” quick reaction force (QRF) battalions in the Iraqi Army. These battalions were to be equipped with the most modern light armor and used for counter-insurgency. During the same time-period, eight battalions worth [336] of BTR-3E1 armored personnel carriers were ordered via US Foreign Military Sales. The BTR-3E1s were cancelled in 2008...

All Army chaplains wear the same uniform, and...answer to the same calling: to provide comfort and to relieve the suffering of American soldiers. But one chaplain stands out from the crowd. Thomas Dyer is the first and only Buddhist chaplain in the history of the U.S. Army. Dyer will be deployed to the Middle East in December along with the 278th Armored Calvary Regiment. Although his faith is grounded in pacifism, the 43-year-old Dyer says war has become a necessary part of peace. "My teacher has concluded that without the military, without civil protection, the world would enter into a...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 27, 2009) — Teamed with several military organizations, the 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team from Fort Leonard Wood participated in confined space training on Oct. 20 and 21 as part of Operation Joint Eagle in Camp Gruber, Okla. The exercise was conducted by Response International Group, an organization composed of several of the firefighters who responded to the Oklahoma City bombing. The unit worked with the Illinois National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package. “Working side by side with the CERFP helped each team understand its roles...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 16, 2009) — The Missouri National Guard’s 35th Engineer Brigade welcomed its new top non-commissioned officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Will Pierce, of Camdenton, in a recent change of responsibility ceremony. Pierce took over from Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Harding, of Saint Robert, who is retiring this month after 37 years in the Guard. “Command Sgt. Maj. Pierce has several qualities that will make him an excellent command sergeant major,” said Brig. Gen. David Irwin, brigade commander. “He has deployed multiple times with both an engineer battalion and the engineer brigade. He knows what it feels...

When Gunnery Sgt. Marcus Hyman was told he’d get to sit down with Barack Obama on Monday, the Marine knew what he wanted to find out: What’s the president’s plan for Afghanistan? Obama didn’t go into great detail answering Hyman, the young man said after their chat, but the future of the faltering war was clearly on the president’s mind during his afternoon visit to Jacksonville Naval Air Station. (snip) Not everyone in the audience was as excited — some sailors said they were upset about being ordered to come — but for many, the speech was a unique opportunity.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 16, 2009) — While training with civilian agencies in Columbia to clean up a mock terrorist lab producing chlorine gas, the Missouri National Guard’s 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team had to handle serious injuries sustained by one of its members. The injuries were only simulated but weren’t expected by those participating in the training of the Fort Leonard Wood unit with Columbia-area civilian firefighters, police, members of HAZMAT and SWAT teams, and FBI and bomb squad members. “There were a couple of hiccups, but that’s to be expected when you get that...

There have been significant changes in the reporting on the Iraqi Army's 14th Motorized Division in Basrah province. These changes indicate the 14th Division is the first to get armored battalions transferred from 9th Armored Division as the 9th upgrades to M1A1 armored battalions.

It's an all-volunteer Army. But there were days when Andrew Harriman felt like a draftee. The Largo man signed up for a three-year Army hitch. Harriman, 26, gets out next month — three years, five months and 13 days after his enlistment expired. Not that he's counting. Harriman, whose leg was shot in Iraq, found his Army stint prolonged by a program created to ensure soldiers get the best medical care for their wounds. But critics say the program can sometimes delay discharge long after any medical necessity to do so. An Army spokesman said it was in Harriman's best...

The Army will make an exception to a decades-old rule and allow a Sikh doctor to serve without removing his turban and cutting his hair, an advocacy group said Friday. The doctor, Capt. Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi of Riverdale, N.J., is the first Sikh to be allowed to go on active duty with a turban, beard and unshorn hair in more than 20 years, the New York-based Sikh Coalition said.The decision does not overturn an Army policy from the 1980s that regulates the wearing of religious items, the acting deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Gina Farrisee, wrote in a letter...

VIRGINIA BEACH One person was killed and eight others were injured when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Navy ship during joint training with the Army. The services were doing "fast rope" exercises 20 nautical miles off Fort Story about 8 p.m. Thursday, sliding down a rope from helicopters and landing on the fast combat support ship Arctic, when one of the Army helicopters made a hard landing, said Capt. Cate Mueller, a Navy spokeswoman. It was unclear whether the injured were from the Navy, the Army or both. A Navy news release this morning says that members of...

When the Army made the decision earlier this year to install the first noncommissioned officer to head the Sergeants Major Academy, there were concerns about whether an enlistee would be able to wield the sort of power it takes to change the way troops are taught to fight wars today. "There was some angst," Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Chandler explains from the office where he began his new job as commandant in August. "Change is hard." That has been true throughout the military, particularly since Chandler's days as a young sergeant, when his unit practiced for weeks to pull off...

Army Sgt. Aaron Johnston, 24, of Redlands, will leave Friday on a mission with the Army Reserves to a mission in Afghanistan he didn't have to take. Johnston, a maintenance engineer for Redlands Hospital, volunteered to take the place of Sgt. Pete Schaffer, when Schaffer's father became ill. Johnston will be with the Riverside 2nd/413th 95th Division, helping the Afghan National Army for nine months learn how to protect and defend its country when the Americans leave. He will serve 14 months total on the entire mission, leaving behind his wife Ashley and two year-old daughter, Chloe. "Sergeant Schaffer called...