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MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan, Feb. 6, 2008 – Where most just see trash, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert Sommers, of 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron here, sees possibility. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert Sommers, of 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, adds details to a painting at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. Sommers sells the paintings he creates from leftover paint and wood scraps and donates the proceeds to a local heart foundation that helps pay for heart surgeries for children whose parents are unable to pay for the surgeries themselves. Photo by Senior Airman Tabitha Kuykendall, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2007 – The Pentagon Channel today served hungry television audiences its newest recipe for entertainment, a half-hour cooking show called “The Grill Sergeants.” Army Sgt. 1st Class Brad Turner, host of The Pentagon Channel's "The Grill Sergeants," serves a gumbo medley with Linda Doditch, the show's producer, to hungry staffers at the Pentagon, ahead of the program's Dec. 10, 2007, debut. Photo by John J. Kruzel  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. With a military flavor, each episode will teach audience members how to prepare a single food theme -- cakes, pies or turkey entrées, for...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2007 – Cooking talents of some of the U.S. military’s top chefs will be on the front burner of a new Pentagon Channel lifestyle program, “The Grill Sergeants.” “I want ‘The Grill Sergeants’ to be a forum on how to share the most common element in life -- food,” explained Sgt. 1st Class Brad Turner, an Army platoon sergeant chosen to be the show’s first host. A nationwide search is under way for other military members with a flair for food and a dynamic personality interested in showcasing their skills on the show. “Watch out, Emeril!”...

8/4/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Two Airmen deployed here are trying to further Iraqis' understanding of Americans through the simplest objects: children's toys. Staff Sgts. Scott Klobucher and Samantha Ross are volunteers at the Air Force Theater Hospital. The sergeants are two of about 600 people who volunteer at the hospital, providing services such as changing bed linens, answering phones and helping patients write letters home. They started volunteering shortly after their arrival, but soon discovered that helping at the hospital on their days off wasn't enough for them. Each experienced an epiphany when they saw an...

FORT BLISS, Texas (Army News Service, June 9, 2006) – Sixteen Afghan pilots, crew chiefs and flight engineers graduated the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy today at Fort Bliss, Texas. The first Afghan aviators to graduate the academy, they will use their new knowledge to help combat narcoterrorists in Afghanistan. “This is a great day for the people of Afghanistan and for the people of the United States,” said Richard J. Douglas, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics. “This sets the stage for what you have accomplished here at Fort Bliss …by helping President Hamid Karzi’s efforts to suppress...

5/2/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, or DPMO, announced May 2 that the remains of two Airmen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified. They were crewmembers on a C-130 Hercules that was shot down in 1972. The Airmen are Tech. Sgt. Donald Hoskins of Madison, Ind., and Staff Sgt. Calvin Cooke of Washington, D.C. A third person from the crew, Maj. Harry Amesbury, was previously identified. On April 26, 1972, Major Amesbury was flying a C-130 to An Loc City, South Vietnam, for an emergency resupply mission. Sergeants Hoskins and...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (May 20, 2005) -- Four depot sergeants in dress blues came to the bedside of a dying Marine Raider Monday afternoon at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Chula Vista, Calif. Color guard members Sgts. Machel M. Messias, Edgar I. Villa, Koami Fedy and Alejandro F. Galvez went to the center to fulfill the dying wish of Wallace Reid. Reid, who now has several life-threatening medical issues, has lived at the Veterans Home of California, near the center since 2001. Known as paratroopers of the sea, the Raiders were an elite World War II...

Tonight it is an appropriate time to remind ourselves why we are at war. And who is the best man to lead us. In August, my son received this from one of his sargeants... http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm this one I came across while surfing... http://www.josephgoss.com/standdown.wmv Both are great reminders.