Courtesy of the Tuscaloosa News:

Army National Guard Pfc. Teri L. Willis has graduated from basic combat training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, S.C. Willis is the daughter of Linda Bender of Northport. She graduated in 1997 from Hillcrest High School and received an associate degree in 1999 from Faulkner State Community College in Bay Minette.

Congratulations, Teri!

The Birmingham News featured a piece this morning about an Alabama Guard unit that left yesterday to go back to Afghanistan:

The training team is the fifth that the state Army Guard has sent to Afghanistan since 9/11. It recently completed two months of pre-deployment training at Fort Riley.

Lt. Col. Jeff Thrower of Alabaster, a member of the team, said recently that the mission had not been fully defined.

“Right now, I know that one of our biggest pushes over there has been to get the Afghanistan police up to where they can do their jobs,” he said. “The Afghan army is in a lot better situation than they were three or four years ago, but the police have still got some issues out there. So we’re doing our best to help out across the board in both areas.”

Read the full article here.

The Huntsville Times reports that a Scottsboro businessman established an account at Regions bank to help the family of Nick Bradley, a Scottsboro soldier seriously wounded in Afghanistan.

Bradley, 25, a staff sergeant in the Air Force’s 96th Wing (security forces), was injured by a roadside bomb last Sunday. He was flown Tuesday to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where his father-in-law, Scottsboro Police Chief Ralph Dawe, said he’s in stable condition.

Donations to the Nick Bradley Fund may be made at Regions Bank, located at 510 E. Laurel St. in Scottsboro. For more information, call the bank at 256-259-1516.

Tuscaloosa News reports:

Michael J. Parham, son of Doretha Parham and Michael J. Johnson, both of Tuscaloosa, completed Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. Parham is a 2008 graduate of Central High School.

Congratulations, Michael!

The Birmingham News reports an Alabama Guard initiative that is helping troops who return from war duty via the state’s Army Guard’s Yellow Ribbon reintegration program.

The Yellow Ribbon help included information about job opportunities and insurance and veterans benefits, plus activities and baby sitters for soldiers’ children. It also sought to give the soldiers and their loved ones a chance to discuss with chaplains and counselors what they face as they seek to resume the way of life they knew before deployment.

For more information, call 2nd Lt. Matthew Spivey at 334-558-4132.

The Madison County Record writes that the Redstone Arsenal is honoring military retirees with Military Retiree Appreciation Day going on September 5th and 6th. Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer and Madison Mayor Arthur “Sandy” Kirkindall will proclaim September 6th as Military Retiree Appreciation Day in their respective cities.

Me personally, I would greatly love to see that happen elsewhere in Alabama!

Event information:

September 5th: the event will be at the Redstone Officers and Civilians Club (ROCC) from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Throughout the day special MWR activities will be held at various locations across Redstone Arsenal with bus tours leaving from the ROCC.

September 6th: the event begins with a pay-as-you-go breakfast buffet at 7 a.m. in the ROCC. The event finishes out with dinner at The Soldatenstube ending at 10 p.m.

For more information, call: (256) 876-2022

The Anniston Star had a flurry of happenings printed this morning:

Warrant Officer candidate Bill Braxton of Jacksonville, above, participated in a 10K road march on July 13. Braxton had to successfully complete the road march within two hours while carrying a weapon and a 35- to 40-pound rucksack. The road march is a requirement for the Warrant Officer Candidate School at the National Guard Training Center at Fort McClellan. Braxton currently works in the ROTC department at Jacksonville State University.

* * *

Warrant Officer candidate Matthew Otwell of Anniston, above, participated in a 10K road march on July 13. Otwell had to successfully complete the road march within two hours while carrying a weapon and a 35- to 40-pound rucksack.

Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

Longtime Homewood resident to become Army brigadier general

Army Col. N. Lee S. Price, a longtime Homewood resident and a Shades Valley High School graduate, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the rank of brigadier general.

The daughter of Homewood resident Phyllis Sherk and the late Maurice D. Sherk, Price had been nominated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. She will be the first woman in the Army Acquisition Corps to become a brigadier general and the first woman to become a general officer while serving in a special operations unit. It is not yet known when Price will formally receive her brigadier’s star and what kind of command assignment she will receive.

Price was recently assigned as the deputy program manager for the Army’s Future Combat System (Brigade Combat Team) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. In that post, she is responsible for managing development of the system’s integrated network.

She previously was deputy acquisition executive for the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., where she oversaw the procurement and acquisition of specialized equipment for Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Air Force Special Operations units and the Marine Special Operations Command.

Congratulations, Lee!

Printed earlier today in the Press-Register, a story covering the return home celebrations for Prichard native Army Sgt. Donnie Leon Broughton Jr. who’s spent the last 3 years serving in Germany and Iraq.

Welcome home, Donnie!

In yesterday’s edition of The Birmingham News, there was an article about an Alabama Army Guard unit which is slated for a second tour in Iraq:

Another Alabama Army National Guard unit is slated for a second tour in the Iraq war.

The 128th Medical Company, based in Gov. Bob Riley’s hometown of Ashland, will deploy to Iraq in October following several weeks of training at Fort Lewis, Wash., state Guard spokesman Norman Arnold said Friday.

The 128th was in Iraq from December 2004 to November 2005, providing medical care to Iraqi and U.S. soldiers and civilians in and around Baghdad and beyond.

If it deploys as expected, the 128th will be the second Guard unit to have a second deployment in and around Iraq. The 226th Area Support Group from Mobile has already done two tours.

At full strength, the 128th has 75 soldiers. Maj. Cynthia Bachus, a state Guard spokeswoman, said 25 soldiers from two Mobile-based Army Guard units - the 127th Medical Company and the 161st Medical Battalion - “have been assigned to the 128th to put the unit at full strength for mobilization.”

At present, the Alabama Guard’s presence in Iraq consists of 20 members of the 1207th Quartermaster Detachment (Water Distribution) from Goodwater. The 1207th, which is commanded by Lt. Jessica Moore, is at Al-Asad, the second-largest airfield in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the 158th Maintenance Company, a unit of about 190 members with headquarters in Tallassee and a detachment in Dadeville, has been training for a fall deployment to Iraq.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Specialist Brown’s loved ones:

Pickens County soldier dies in Afghanistan

Michelle Harris said she had been expecting a phone call from her daughter, who was serving with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.

Instead, she received the unwelcome news from an Army official that her daughter, 22-year-old Army Spc. Seteria L. Harris Brown, died while serving in Sharana, Afghanistan.

‘I was shocked and devastated,’ Harris said. ‘I still can’t believe it. I had spoken to her on the phone just a week before.’

Harris said she was told that her daughter died July 25 from a gunshot wound to the chest. An Army news release said Brown died of ‘injuries sustained in a non-combat-related incident.’

Exactly what happened isn’t clear.

‘All I know is what they told me,’ Harris said.

A spokeswoman at Fort Hood, Texas, the Army base where Brown had been stationed before deployment to Afghanistan, said Thursday afternoon that Brown’s death is still under investigation.

The spokeswoman said she did not know how long the investigation would take.

Brown was a few months into her second overseas deployment, her brother said.

She was an enlisted soldier assigned to Fort Hood’s 36th Engineer Brigade since February. She was sent to Afghanistan in April.

Brown joined the Army shortly after graduation from Aliceville High School in 2004. She enjoyed Army life and re-enlisted after her initial four-year contract expired not long ago, her mother said.

She had a seven-year-old daughter, Harris said.

‘She was such a sweet person,’ Harris said. ‘Everybody liked being around her.

There’s a great article posted on the Baldwin County Now site about a Rosinton family who welcome home one of their own: Will Stanback. He served in Iraq with the 1387th Quartermaster Unit of the Army National Guard, which is from Greenville, Mississippi, also known as the “Waterdawgs.”

You can read the whole article here.

Welcome home, Will!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sergeant France’s loved ones:

Auburn soldier killed in motorcycle accident

Sunday, Raquiviaus “Quake” France told his mother about his dreams of completing aviation school and one day working on airplanes. Tuesday, the Auburn native, who turned 24, on June 4 was killed in a motorcycle accident in Pinellas Park, Fla.

“We were going to see him this weekend,” said his mother, Priscilla Daniel of Auburn. “We talked on Father’s Day and he told me he was in school.”

According to a report released by the Pinellas Park Police, France was traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 19 at 7:19 a.m. when another vehicle made a U-turn directly in front of him. The report said France’s cycle plunged into the rear of a Chevrolet Cavalier, driven by Laura Edmisten, 34. France was ejected at impact, taken to Northside Hospital in nearby St. Petersburg, and pronounced dead at the hospital’s emergency unit.

Police said the accident is under investigation and no charges have been filed.

France, a 2002 Auburn High School graduate, served five years in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of E-5 Sergeant.

Recently, France was serving in the U.S. Army National Reserves and living in St. Petersburg, where he studied aviation. Daniel told the newspaper that France experienced baptism in the Jordan River, and enjoyed worldwide travel, including stops in Rome and Paris.

“He did so much for us and our country,” Daniel said. “He served one year in Iraq and one year in Afghanistan, and then he came back to me. I remember his strength, his leadership and he knew what to do right. He never got into trouble.

Courtesy of the North Jefferson News:

Newton Duke was honored June 7 at Gardendale First Baptist Church during a ceremony in which he received his Purple Heart medal more than 50 years after he earned it in Korea.

Above, Ronnie Guin of Mt. Olive, a member of the Dixie Division Military Vehicles Club, drives Newton Duke to the ceremony.

In the back seat is Duke’s grandson, Sgt. Chase Duke. During the ceremony, Duke pinned an End of Tour award onto his grandson for meritorious service while serving in Afghanistan.

Right, Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, the commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, pins the Purple Heart onto Duke.