Photo: Russ Carmack/The News Tribune

When my colleague Russ Carmack brought his images back from this morning's "ride" in Sim No. 11 out at McChord, one of the other photographers commented as to how we must've been out there early, given the dawn's early light out the cockpit window.

For us news types an 8 a.m. showup still counts as oh-dark-thirty. But that's not why the light looked that way.

The virtual reality world they can create in the C-17 simulators is impressive – after lifting off from a faithful VR version of the McChord flightline, we flew over a VR Tacoma Dome, a VR East Side, and, as you can see, a VR Mount Rainier.

Simulator instructor Bob Callahan and Lou Matz, the facility director from Boeing, explained that in the old days they used a cartoony VR world. But these days it's high-res satellite imagery, adjusted to bring up the 3D feel.

This is not "Flight Simulator" for your old desktop; McChord's C-17 sims are RV-sized contraptions on hydraulic lifts that vibrate and rumble. The instructors can summon up weather conditions with Zeus-like authority – rain, snow, hail, lightning, you name it. The horizon dips and bobs and weaves and the sensation of movement hits you in the gut.

Sometimes, people even barf (not us, mind).

Craig Kelshaw, McChord's simulator project officer, said the quality of the effects has allowed the Air Force to move more and more of its pilot training into the VR world. Figuring in fuel costs and wear and tear on the air frames, it costs $17,900 an hour for training in a C-17, compared with $600 an hour in the simulator, Kelshaw said.

There's only one significant drawback. The pilots, like the two pictured above – Capt. Chris Robinson, left, and Lt. Col. Ted Detwiler – are professionals. And their natural sense of competition and pride drives them to take the training seriously.

But in the sim, "game over" doesn't really mean "game over." There's not that underlying fear that if you screw up, you're going to die.

Sim instructors like Callahan say they can put pilots through every worst-case scenario they could ever possibly encounter in a real live airplane. And the laws of gravity notwithstanding, if they can come through all that in the sim, their chances of making the right decisions at real-life crunchtime go way, way up.

With the Army and the Air Force keeping us busy most days, we don't get out to cover much about the Navy – even though the wider Puget Sound area is home to one of the world's larger concentrations of seapower.

So as a casual follower of things Navy, this seemed interesting. Proceedings, the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute, asked senior naval officers around the world to answer this question: "How do you explain to your government and fellow citizens why your navy is necessary and worth what it costs?"

Their answers, from Angola to Uruguay, provide an interesting cross-section of history and culture and world views. Worth a skim.

Fort Lewis wants the public to know that soldiers are going to be doing some more loud shooting at night.

March 5-16, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., they'll be firing 81 mm mortars and demolitions.

March 8-9, day and night, they'll be using bangalore torpedos. What's a bangalore torpedo, you ask? Surely you'll recall their use in the riveting opening scenes of "Saving Pvt. Ryan," when beleagured Joes use them to blast their way up and off of Omaha Beach. But they have other uses:

March 8-9, day and night, they'll be shooting the 105mm Howitzers.

And March 9-12, day and night, they'll be shooting the 155mm Howitzers.

Says the Army:

This is normally scheduled and required training, which allows Soldiers to practice and improve skills required during combat. As often as possible, Fort Lewis conducts larger scale demolition training and artillery firing at the Yakima Training Center in an effort to minimize inconvenience for the surrounding communities. However, some training must take place on the Fort Lewis military reservation.

Queries or comments about noise may be directed to the I Corps Public Affairs Office’s External Communication Division hot line at (253) 967-0852, daily.

Sgt. Wayne Leyde of Mount Spokane hit a Washington lottery scratch ticket for a cool $1 million.

As he's got two active-duty tours of Iraq under his belt and a third likely pending with his new unit, the 81st Brigade Combat Team, Leyde's luck got the attention of Good Morning America, who had him on by phone today.

The 26-year-old, who lives with his folks, says he's going to take his time and think about what to do with the dough. But he also says he fully expects to honor his commitment to the Guard.

They're going to have the second annual "Army Extreme Mountain Bike Race" March 29 at Fort Lewis. All comers invited. It's a good way to get filthy muddy, cold and exhausted, with the very distinct possibility of flying head first over the handlebars. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The post says:

Competition will include men’s and women’s divisions in three skill categories: recreational, for the first-time rider; beginner, for the entry-level rider; and sport, for advanced riders. The race is open to the public. The registration fee for civilian competitors is $20 (discounts are available for service members and other military ID card holders). The deadline to register is March 19. Rules and registration information is available online at www.FortLewisMWR.com (go to “Sports,” select “Race Calendar” from the drop-down menu, and click on the “Xtreme Mountain Bike Race”).

Danger Room has the awful news from the military's continuing struggle to come to terms with the new media, the digital habits of its service members and the opsec challenges posed therein.

Note to self: change URL.

A memorial ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, at the post's Evergreen Chapel for two 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division soldiers killed in Iraq.

Spc. Chad Groepper and Spc. Luke Runyan of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment died Feb. 17 when they were attacked with small-arms fire in Diyala Province.

Persons who wish to attend who do not have Department of Defense identification or decals on their vehicle can enter the post through the main gate. At the visitor center, present a driver's license, registration and proof of insurance to get a temporary visitor pass.

Stories are online and in the paper today about the heartbreaking end to Spc. Kevin Mowl's nearly seven-month struggle to recover from the wounds he suffered in an Aug. 2 IED blast in Baghdad.

His family keeps a journal at the CaringBridge.com site. There are also stories in his hometown Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Mowl's death is also sad reminder of two very bad days for the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.

Mowl was wounded in the explosion that killed three other 2-3 soldiers: Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego and Spc. Eric Salinas.

Two days earlier, on July 31, three other soldiers died when their truck was hit by an EFP: Spc. Zachariah Gonzalez, Spc. Charles Heinlein, Jr., and Spc. Alfred Jairala.

The 585th Engineer Company returned home this morning after a 15-month tour in Afghanistan.

The 165-soldier company deployed in November 2006 and construction work on forward operating bases and roads, according to a Fort Lewis press release. Two of its soldiers, Sgt. 1st Class Rocky Herrera, 43, and Sgt. Cory Clark, 25, were killed Aug. 28 in a suicide-bombing at a bridge where they were working.

The company is part of the 555th Engineer Brigade at Fort Lewis.

The Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy reports today that the Army has changed its mind about blocking off public access to its unclassified library of doctrinal publications.

For some damn reason, the Army on Feb. 6 sealed its Reimer Digital Library behind a password-protected firewall. Nearly everything on the site is approved for public release, according to a Washington Post story today about the move.

The FAS followed today with a post that the Army's Training and Doctrine Command has decided to re-open the site rather than have to produce the thousands and thousands of previously publicly available documents to comply with the federation's FOIA request. Not only that, there were plenty of legit researcher people besides us nosy reporter types who were making regular use of the site but were locked out in the change.

FOIAing the Army can be an olympian test of patience, but this one would've been a slam dunk, we think.

The story in today's paper and online got trimmed a bit more than I had hoped. (I can hear you asking: we get the newshole thing in the print edition, but why trim a story that's going to be online? The answer has to do with how the stories we're going to run in the paper are published to the web via shovelware dump at like 0100 each morning ... )

Anyway, so I'm posting here the slightly longer version that I filed to my editor, with a little bit more about the Soldier and Family Assistance Center, and some reaction from Sen. Patty Murray. (Click here to see Russ Carmack's photos from yesterday's tour.)

Meantime there are other places to read for more information about the Warrior Transition Units. An Army news service story yesterday announced a new "whole person" initiative in the units. It has this interesting wrinkle from Brig. Gen. Mike Tucker, the assistant surgeon general in charge of care in the transition units:

Also as of March 1, Tucker said, Soldiers in Warrior Transition Units will not be allowed to waste time playing video games or watching mindless cartoons during duty hours. They are still Soldiers in the Army, Tucker said, and their one mission is to heal: to go to their appointments, take their medications and now participate in cognitive-enhancing activities or a structured-work program, if able.

"We want them to return to duty or return to be a citizen in society and be successful and be proud of their service," he said. "If we're not careful, we'll raise a generation, 10-15 years from now, that will be panhandling because they don't have any life skills.

"It's important that we give these kids life skills. They all want to be something in life, other than what they are right now. They have to aspire. We have to allow them to achieve all they can be and provide them the structure at a time in their lives when they need it the most."

One area I didn't get a chance to get into in my story was to follow up on the staffing problems outlined in a Government Accountability Office report back in September. It showed the Army was having great difficulty filling key nurse case-manager positions in the units.

Lewis and Madigan officials said the battalion there as of early January was fully staffed. They hired 72 civilian employees to various jobs, including social workers, an occupational therapist, logisticians and human resources specialists, since June.

Madigan spokeswoman Sharon Ayala said the battalion has 24 civilian nurse case-managers, eight of whom moved over to the battalion from Madigan. Another 15 are Army nurses who were sent in by the Army Human Resources Command in January.

My story:

=> Read more!

The hometown papers have lots of coverage of the two young infantrymen killed Sunday in Diyala Province. Both 21. Both new fathers.

Spc. Luke S. Runyan of Spring Grove, Pa., is profiled in stories from the York Dispatch, the York Daily Record, and in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. There were also pictures posted here, I think from his Facebook page.

Spc. Chad D. Groepper of Kingsley, Iowa, is described in stories in the LeMars Daily Sentinel, the Sioux City Journal and the DesMoines Register.

Local airplane fans who were paying attention got a little thrill about 3:45 this afternoon, when three F-22 Raptors and a KC-10 tanker took off from McChord Air Force Base and flew out of here in formation to the northwest.

Don't see that everyday at our humble little airlift landing strip, now do you?

The F-22 is the Air Force's newest fighter. And jokesters would note that the KC-10 is the Air Force's newest tanker – ha!

At any rate, nothing too sexy to it otherwise. A McChord spokeswoman says they were passing through and stopped in for gas. The F-22s are from Elmendorf Air Force Base up in Anchorage, the KC-10 from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

In case you missed 'em:

There's a slew of stuff still alive in the Legislature that would affect veterans and military service members in some way shape or form. (I'll have a story about some of them in the paper sometime over this President's Day weekend.)

The state Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a list on its web site that includes links to each bill, with up-to-date information about its status.

Tuesday marks the cutoff for bills to get out of the house in which they were introduced. Otherwse, absent some parliamentary shenanigans, they're dead until next year.

UPDATE: SB 6447, the measure I wrote about in my story today, cleared the Senate on a 47-0 vote.

So did SB 6426, one that I didn't have space to get to in the story. It would have the state sign onto the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. More later.

And SB 5265, the property tax relief measure for 100 percent service connected disabled veterans, finally made it out of the Senate after many years of trying.

UPDATE UPDATE: My bad; thank you jaforsythe. It's SB 5256. Tpyo.

Photo: Jason Kaye/Northwest Guardian

The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division unveiled its finished monument Wednesday outside brigade headquarters at Fort Lewis.

It's a tribute to the 68 men and women who died in its two Iraq deployments, as well as others who died in training accidents prior to deployments, or who were members of units attached to the brigade while it was in Iraq.

The bronze work is by artist Gareth Curtiss, and is the finished article of the piece unveiled back in October when the brigade returned from its second tour.

Independent blogger Michael Yon has an interesting piece about his recent dinner-interview with Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, the former Fort Lewis commanding general now in charge of the effort to build and train Iraq's security forces.

Yon notes that Dubik was in at the ground level of the creation of what would become the Stryker brigades, and in Yon's view, that bodes well for Dubik's chances as commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq.

UPDATE: Yon says on his site that he was all set to get back up to Mosul but the trip was kyboshed at the last minute. Hmmm.

UPDATE UPDATE: Looks like he made it.

=> Read more!

Defense Tech's Christian Lowe has another blog post about the Stryker MGS, this time from a MGS platoon sergeants who says it rocks.

Post includes links to YouTube vids of the gun truck in action.

Another take here at Strategy Page.

There'll be more noise and air traffic in and around Fort Lewis Feb. 11-22 while the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and associated units conduct another large-scale training operation.

The Rangers will be training with aircraft from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also from Fort Lewis, and the Air Force Special Operations Command. They'll be flying low at night, mostly in the training areas at Lewis but"additional aviation activities may occur over civilian communities," the post said in a news release Thursday.

Said the release:

This is routine training conducted periodically to maintain a high level of readiness for the military personnel involved. We are extremely sensitive to the impact such training has on local citizens and we intend to train safely and courteously. Every measure to reduce the amount of noise associated with the training will be taken. We appreciate the support of the citizens and residents in the surrounding areas during this training.

The Fort Lewis noise complaint hotline is 253-967-0852.

Hannah Montana's daddy – aka Billy Ray Cyrus – and blast-from-the-past doo-wop soulsters Boyz II Men will be the featured entertainment beginning 5 p.m. Sunday at a Morale, Welfare & Recreation concert at Gray Army Airfield.

No word if Ms. Montana will be there, in which case the post would do well to lay on a bit of extra security at all gates – lest Fort Lewis be overrun by legions of pre-teen girls.

This just in: A post spokesman says emphatically that neither Miley Cyrus, nor her alter ego, will be there Sunday. At ease.

Photo: Peter Haley/The News Tribune (2003)

I've been thinking a lot lately about Mosul, and the reports of so much trouble there.

Again.

I imagine it's not just me. Fort Lewis – its soldiers and their families – have paid a dear price for whatever security and stability have been achieved in Mosul.

The 62nd Medical Brigade was there early. The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division spent most of its first deployment in Mosul, and the better part of seven months on its second. The old 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division was there a year for perhaps the worst of the insurgency. The 47th Combat Support Hospital spent a year caring for Mosul's wounded, and some of those who wouldn't make it home.

Of the 176 Fort Lewis-based service members to die in the Iraq war, 46 fell in Mosul, more than anywhere else.

Talking lately with some Mosul vets, there's a feeling that maybe the trouble there now isn't as bad as things were back in 2004-05, and a hope that the Iraqi security forces in place now are strong enough to meet the challenge.

At Fort Lewis, there's a lot riding on the outcome.

Update: If you were there, or had someone you cared about there, and wanted to share a thought, please write. I'm trying to pull together a story now for the weekend.

Meantime, compiling links to coverage elsewhere as I find it. AFP story here as it ran in the Qatar Peninsula about Moslawi stocking up on groceries, fuel and other supplies ahead of an anticipated crackdown by Iraqi security forces.

Also, didn't realize this until just now but my friend Tom Roeder of the Colorado Springs Gazette – a Tacoma boy, Stadium grad – is in Mosul with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Carson. One of its battalions, the 1-8 Infantry, is in Mosul these days. Here's his story about the horrendous bombing and ambush that killed five of the battalion's soldiers. It looks like he's also blogging here (although it's been a few days since his last post).

Elsewhere, the old town doesn't look too good in this report by NBC's Richard Engel.

More from Iraqi sources is here.

Another update: USA Today has a story today from Mosul that quotes 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment troops describing how fighting insurgents there is different than it is in Baghdad. One quote jumped out at me:

"The people don't trust us yet," says Lt. Stanford Bell, 25, from Salt Lake City. "Right now, all that's out there are the terrorists."

That seems like it must be a change.

(NOTE: Mrs. Bell writes to let us know that Lt. Bell is actually with the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, not the 3rd ACR.)

UPI has a short story here, while the latest Air Force air power summary shows they're dropping bombs again:

In Mosul, F-16s dropped a GBU-12 and GBU-38s onto an enemy building that coalition forces had been taking fire from. The mission was declared a success by the JTAC.

There was a time when Damon Armeni's family had good reason to fear they might never see a day like Tuesday, when the Army captain took command of a cavalry troop at Fort Lewis.

They had good reason to fear they might lose him, let alone see him continue his military service. He suffered massive abdominal injuries in August 2004 when his Stryker was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Mosul.

But the Wilson High School and Pacific Lutheran University graduate punctuated his long and painful recovery from life-threatening wounds by taking on the responsibility of command. For the next year or so he'll lead about 100 soldiers in the headquarters troop of the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment.

His parents, Dan and Sharon Armeni of Tacoma, and his wife, Kim, and their kids, 5-year-old Dalen and 2-year-old Brooke, were on hand for Tuesday's ceremony. So was his grandmother, Mary-Frances Lauridsen, who presented him with the silver spurs that his great grandfather's great uncle wore as a cavalryman for the queen of Denmark back at the turn of the century.

"It's a good day," said his dad, a retired Army officer. The event took place not far from a parade field at Fort Lewis where nearly 30 years ago the elder Armeni took command of his own tank company.

Footnote: Armeni was wounded in the Aug. 4, 2004 attack in Mosul that was vividly described by soldier-blogger Colby Buzzell, first online and then in his book, "My War: Killing Time in Iraq." Can't find a post of the original written version online, but an animated feature adapted from that post is up at Buzzell's blog.

Staff Sgt. Larry S. Teakell was to receive the Soldier's Medal in a ceremony at Fort Lewis this morning for his heroic effort to save the life of another soldier who was badly burned in an accident in Iraq.

The soldier was refueling a generator at a forward operating base in Baghdad last July 18 when she became engulfed in flames. Teakell tried first to put out the fire with his uniform shirt, but so much fuel was sprayed onto the other soldier that her clothing kept reigniting, according to an Army description of the incident.

Teakell then used his bare hands to try to smother the flames, suffering extensive second-degree burns on his hands and arms.

He refused medical attention until he made sure the other soldier was evacuated to a combat support hospital, but Teakell was later sent home himself to recover from burns over 15 percent of his body.

The other soldier, 19-year-old Spc. Marisol Heredia of El Monte, Calif., survived the evacuation but died Sept. 7 of pneumonia at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

The Soldier's Medal is awarded to those who risk their lives to save another while not engaged in combat with the enemy.

Teakell is assigned to the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, a unit of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

We ran the story today about the recently discovered photograph of the beloved war correspondent after his death in 1945. It's a testament to Pyle's impact with readers that this would be news, all these many years later. The photo was withheld back then out of concern for his widow Jerry; their life together is a heartbreaking story in its own right.

Pyle's timeless wartime columns are posted on the University of Indiana School of Journalism web site.

The Army Times' intrepid Matthew Cox has a more detailed look at the performance of the Stryker Mobile Gun System.

There's more here – pro and con – than what was detailed in the stories I linked to earlier.

Pro: The anecdote about how the MGS' 105mm gun put an end to one insurgent ambush.

Con: The idea of having to ride around with an IV stuck in your arm to avoid dehydration in the overheated crew compartment.

The 571st Military Police Company will have a welcome home ceremony 1 p.m. Monday at Soldiers Field House, following their return to Fort Lewis from 15 months in Iraq on Jan. 21.

The post didn't open up for any live coverage of the MPs return although there was a quick story in the Northwest Guardian.

The 150-soldier company went to Iraq in November 2006 and spent most of its deployment in dangerous Diyala Province, training more than 6,100 Iraqi police officers. They lost four soldiers during the deployment.