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My Stepson Adam is getting deployed shortly. Godspeed sir. May the Lord of Hosts be round you as a wall of fire, and shield you in the day of battle.

Pfc. Yevgeniy Kulgeko executes a pull up during a daily physical training session. Kulgeko, a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, holds Company M's pull up record with 58 repetitions. MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Oct. 18, 2007) -- Private First Class Yevgeniy Kulgeko's first memories of the military take him back to his hometown of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where his grandfather, an officer in the Soviet Army, would give him rides around the neighborhood in an armored vehicle. During this time, Uzbekistan was living under the shadow of the Cold War and was an enemy of the United States. On...

The area around Forward Operating Base Arnhem has seen continual fighting over the last 12 months and until recently was a Taliban stronghold. That was, until a new type of Warrior arrived in the neighbourhood, and one that is giving confidence to the local villagers to come home. Right Flank 1st Battalion Scots Guards, an armoured infantry company commanded by Major Chris Bell is the first unit in Afghanistan to be using the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles on a major deployment. The Guards have been at FOB Arnhem, the front line of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) operations against...

A Freeper Warrior Cat.

8/14/2007 - FORT DIX, N.J. (AFPN) -- As a Blackhawk helicopter lowers itself to the ground, voices are drowned out by the turning rotors. Some of the soon-to-be passengers are muzzled. Waiting patiently, they are in a staggered formation to board the helicopter that will take them on a training flight over Fort Dix, N.J. No ordinary Airmen are about to board. These Airmen are military working dogs and their security forces handlers, who are students in the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center's Phoenix Warrior Course at Fort Dix, N.J. The Phoenix Warrior class included its first canine training track...

Military Appreciation Day is an event organized by volunteers to provide a day of fishing for our Active Duty Military, Guard and Reservists. The event also includes activities for their families and a southern style cookout.

TAMPA, Fla., July 10, 2007 – The military paid tribute to a special operations leader at a retirement ceremony for Army Gen. Bryan “Doug” Brown here yesterday. U.S. Army Gen. Doug Brown, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, salutes during the singing of the national anthem during a change of command ceremony presided over by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla., July 9, 2007. Brown, who has commanded USSOCOM since September 2003, is retiring from active duty after 40 years of service to the nation. Navy Adm. Eric T. Olson, who...

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 – The Army’s three-month-old “Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline,” established March 19, has already fielded thousands of calls from soldiers and concerned family members, officials said here yesterday. Vanessa Bradchulis, a customer care representative at the “Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline” center in Alexandria, Va., often receives calls from fathers or mothers inquiring about the medical status of their wounded sons or daughters. Defense Dept. photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The hotline was created by the Army’s senior leadership in the wake of a series of news reports in...

Half a world away from Denver, Army Capt. Joel Parker sat in a military camp outside Baghdad on Saturday and watched his graduation ceremony from Regis University via the Internet. A virtual graduation was fitting for Parker, since he has been completing his master's of business administration degree online while fighting on the front lines. "It's a great feeling," said Parker in a telephone interview from Iraq. "It feels like a mission accomplished." His father, Leedell Parker of Denver, stood in his 36-year-old son's place Saturday, donning a black cap and gown and striding across the Regis stage to accept...

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2007 – Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffery Hartless, an airborne ranger and master parachutist, served nearly his entire 24-year career jumping out of planes. He earned parachute badges from Italy, Jordan, Norway, Korea, Germany and Honduras. His airborne career ended, though, when he was crushed under a 10-ton front loader in Afghanistan in 2005. Once stable, Hartless was taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. He has since recovered, but in an ironic and unlikely career twist for an infantryman, Hartless’ injuries have brought him back again to Walter Reed -- this time to apply...

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2007 – Army officials this morning launched a new hotline to help wounded warriors and their family members to get information or assistance with medical or other issues. The “Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline,” 1-800-984-8523, also will help Army leaders improve services to wounded soldiers and their families, officials said. "We have designed this call center to be able to collectively hear what the soldiers say about their health care issues, so as issues are raised, we can identify systemic faults or problematic areas and senior leaders can better allocate resources," said Maj. Gen. Sean J....

Soldiers train for IED and other situations they may encounter in Iraq on convoys and maneuvers. In the most recent training, an extra training aid was introduced to create a realistic setting for the soldiers. Paintball gun AK-47s, M-4s, M-16s and IED's were used instead of the MILES (A laser system used to detect hits) gear. Photo by TRADOCFORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. (TRADOC News Service, Feb. 15, 2007) -- Cadre of Company B, 305th Military Intelligence Battalion completed the evaluation part of two weeks of training, Saturday. The cadre had trained during hours outside of teaching classes. "We've organized the permanent...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2007 – With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan underway, the San Diego-area community was looking for ways to help wounded servicemembers returning to the area. So in 2004, community members started the Warrior Foundation, an organization that reaches out to wounded troops and their families. The Warrior Foundation, a subset of the San Diego Council, Navy League of the United States, began as an effort to get touch-activated electric razors to those with shoulder, arm, and hand injuries to make shaving easier, Jim Bedinger, the foundation’s treasurer, said. San Diego radio talk-show personality Rick Roberts...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2007 – Jorge DeLeon may have lost a leg in the war, but he never lost a desire to serve his country. Two years after his military aspirations were crushed by an anti-tank mine, DeLeon is back in Army service – this time as a Department of Defense civilian. Jorge DeLeon operates a radio at the Fort Sam Houston Police Department. DeLeon is the second Department of Defense employee hired at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, under the Army Wounded Warrior Program, and the first amputee. Courtesy photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The former sergeant...

Ancient 'warrior' found in permafrostFrom correspondents in Moscow January 10, 2007 11:48pm RUSSIAN archaeologists have uncovered the 2000-year-old remains of a warrior preserved intact in permafrost in the Altai mountains region, the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily says. The warrior was blond had tattoos on his body. He was wearing a felt coat with sable fur trimmings and was buried in a wooden frame containing drawings of mythological creatures with an icepick beside him, the paper said. Local archaeologists believe the man was part of the ruling elite of a local nomadic tribe known as the Pazyryk. Numerous other Pazyryk tombs...

The Democrats have a problem with America’s warrior culture, and consequently, with our military. And yet, honesty compels me to say that such hostility and scorn does not explain all of the Democratic left’s attitude to our troops, present and veterans. There are some with outright contempt, who loathe the military, but there are many Democrats who are better than this. Watching a wide range of talking heads the last few days on the various news shows, it became clear that some Democrats at least were genuinely hurt and confused by the implications drawn and accusations made that they did...

JACKSON'S GAP, Ala. — Army Pfc. Joshua Stein grew up in the water, swimming, diving and spearfishing at his native island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean. Now, however, Stein is learning to water-ski without his legs, which were blown off when a roadside bomb hit the Bradley fighting vehicle he was driving. With help, Stein straps his scarred body into a cradle fitted on a single, wide ski. Then, he grasps the tow rope with a right arm covered with skin grafts and rises out of the water, grinning and giving a thumbs-up with his mangled left arm, as...

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered a 600-year-old, large underground cemetery belonging to a Peruvian warrior culture, thought to be the first discovery of its kind, an official said on Thursday. After a tip-off from a farmer in Peru's northern Amazon jungle, archeologists from Peru's National Culture Institute last week found the 820-feet-(250-meter)deep cave that was used for burial and worship by the Chachapoyas tribe. So far archeologists have found five mummies, two of which are intact with skin and hair, as well as ceramics, textiles and wall paintings, the expedition's leader and regional cultural director Herman Corbera told...

TUCSON — Case is home. The body of Army Cpl. Casey Lee “Case” Mellen came back to Arizona around 2 p.m. Monday as a Navy cargo aircraft landed at Tucson International Airport and taxied to the executive terminal. Although it was a sad day, the soldier’s father, Casey Edward Mellen, said, “I’m happy my son’s home.” The war is claiming many American men and women, he said. Case is just one of the dead and is part “of all the future dead soldiers,” Mellen said. It was not a political statement against the war, just a reality as GIs remain...

Film Shows Youths Training to Fight for Jesus New Documentary Features Controversial Bible Camp, Evangelical Movement An in-your-face documentary out this weekend is raising eyebrows, raising hackles and raising questions about evangelizing to young people. Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush -- these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp in North Dakota, "Kids on Fire," subject of the provocative new documentary, "Jesus Camp." "I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine,...