The Seattle Indymedia Center has its own wrap up of last week's events at the Port of Tacoma and outside Fort Lewis, from the protesters' perspective.

They'll get a new team at the top Friday at the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis. Brigade commander Col. Jon Lehr will give way to Col. John G. Norris, who led the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment in the old 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Alaska during its 2005-06 deployment to Iraq.

Norris wrote the occasional piece for the alternative weekly in his hometown of Louisville – not something you see every day. He is a Desert Shield/Desert Storm veteran with the 101st Airborne Division, and commanded B Company of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment Tomahawks at Fort Lewis in 1994-96.

The brigade's top noncommissioned officer, Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, will be succeeded by Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Huggins, who was with the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment during its hard fight last year in Baqoubah. Huggins earlier spent 12 years in the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment with deployments to Panama, Somalia and Haiti.

Checking to see what Lehr and Troxell do next.

UPDATE: Lehr's next job is commander of the operations group at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. (Lehr moved up to Fort Lewis from Polk with the old 2nd Cavalry Regiment before it switched to Strykers and got its new name.)

Troxell is moving on to become the command sergeant major at the U.S. Army Armor Center at Fort Knox, Ky.

RecruitMilitary, the U.S. Department of Labor and the American Legion are sponsoring a career fair 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. Click here for the news release and here for the flier.

Notes and announcements about South Puget Sound residents serving in the U.S. military. Send your news to me at mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com

Maj. Donald Crider

Plucked last fall from teaching AP Physics at Stadium High School, Maj. Donald Crider of Tacoma these days is flying medevac missions in Iraq with the 126th Aviation Regiment. He is based in Amarah, in Maysan province, flying UH-60 Black Hawks in support of the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas.

“We are here for the soldiers (and) to make sure we can respond to any kind of medical help they would need,” Crider said in an Army press release. He added that his transition from the classroom to the cockpit only intensified his motivation to help the soldiers here.

“It’s moving to know you are the difference between someone living and dying.” (Aug. 6, 2008)

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Alex D. Landress recently completed naval nuclear power training at Ballston Spa, N.Y., to qualify to become a Naval nuclear operator. Landress, son of Lydia Quinby of Bonney Lake, joined the Navy after graduating from Sumner High School in 2006. (July 21, 2008)

Marine Corps Pvt. Travis J. Richard, a 2005 graduate of Sumner High School, recently completed the small-arms repair course at the U.S. Army Proving Ground at Aberdeen, Md. Richard joined the Marine Corps in September 2007. (June 30, 2008)

White

Air Force Lt. Caroline White, daughter of Drs. Lawrence and Donna White of Lakewood, won her age division in her first Ironman triathlon competition Sunday in Coeur d'Alene. She's a 2007 Air Force Academy graduate and a 2003 graduate of Bellarmine Prep. Next she's onto the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October. White is working on her master's degree at the University of Maryland and then will go to pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

An Ironman race consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. (June 24, 2008)

I Corps and Fort Lewis NCO of the Year is Sgt. Daniel P. Dean from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, and Soldier of the Year is Spc. Justin R. Brown of the 308th Brigade Support Battalion. Click here for Northwest Guardian coverage of the competition.

Two Tacoma-area soldiers -- Spc. Jeremy J. Bucholtz of Lakewood and Spc. Wayne J. Faga of Tacoma -- are back at Fort Hood, Texas, after a 15-month deployment in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division. Bucholtz is with the 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment and Faga is with the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, according to an Army press release.

Bucholtz, a 1994 Lakes High School graduate, is the son of Laurel Smith and grandson of Lawrence Bell of Lakewood. Faga graduated from Lincoln High in 1996 and is the son of Foai and Faafoi Faga of Tacoma's East Side. (May 21, 2008)

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