It’s official: I Corps is heading to Iraq next year to take on day-to-day operations.

And the unit that runs Fort Lewis will have two familiar brigades under its command.

The Department of Defense announced the major units in its next rotation Tuesday, and joining I Corps will be the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – both based at Fort Lewis. The announcement likely caught few people by surprise on post, where personnel have expected this decision.

A firm timetable hasn’t been set, but I Corps is expected to arrive in the winter. The two Stryker brigades will arrive during by summer; a more exact time or location hasn’t been determined because it’s not certain which units they will replace, I Corps spokeswoman Maj. Kathy Turner said.

With smaller units also expected to deploy, as many as 10,000 Fort Lewis personnel will be serving in Iraq next year, Turner said.

This will be I Corps’ first combat deployment since the Korean War. 3rd Brigade will make its third trip to Iraq, and this will be the first time 5th Brigade sees combat.

=> Read more!

It's hardly been a secret, but the Department of Defense made it official this morning: I Corps, the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, are all in the next rotation for Iraq.

I don't have anything official in terms of a timeline, but I am told the Corps headquarters will go early in the year -- late winter, early spring -- and that the two Stryker brigades will deploy in the summer or early fall. Not sure which one goes first.

The Corps' deployment is historic -- its first since Korea. Each of the Army's three other standing Corps -- III, V and XVIII -- have done two turns each. The Corps headquarters runs the day-to-day operations across the country, with the commanding general effectively the No. 2 to the Multi-National Force-Iraq commander (formerly Gen. David Petraeus, now Gen. Ray Odierno).

3rd Brigade will be making its third Iraq deployment. And this announcement, for now at least, would appear to end speculation that the brigade might be sent to Afghanistan instead.

And 5th Brigade, as we reported Sunday, is the last of the Army's seven Stryker brigades and will be making its first trip. It still has to conduct is final brigade certification exercise early next year at Fort Irwin, Calif., but its work at Fort Lewis is nearly done.

UPDATE: A few other thoughts, following my colleague Scott's fine report from the Fort Lewis news conference.

After a late summer, fall and winter with Standing Room Only at Fort Lewis, these deployments will have the effect of emptying the place out again to levels not seen since the 3rd and 4th Brigades were gone at the same time in 2007.

Also, with I Corps, 3rd Brigade, 5th Brigade and the Washington National Guard's 81st Brigade Combat Team back in the box, there will be some 13,000 or so Washington-based soldiers downrange. (The 81st is casing its colors Wednesday at Fort McCoy, Wis., and expects to be in Kuwait by the end of October. Then it'll be onward into Iraq.)

Iraq will once again be a very local story here.

Finally, one last word on 3rd Brigade and Afghanistan: Perhaps it's premature to end the speculation. Bear in mind that as recently as two weeks ago, the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division was headed to Iraq. Now they're due in Afghanistan in January.

I have decided to take The News Tribune's offer of a buyout and leave the paper after 21 years here as a reporter and editor.

It's hard to go, for sure, but the truth is I have been thinking about a change for some time now. I'm looking forward to starting something new.

I'll wrap things up here next week. I don't think the editors have decided who will cover the military beat, but I suspect they'll make that assignment soon.

In the meantime, thank you, readers, for your interest and your support.

KXLY TV in Spokane interviewed the two Fort Lewis soldiers accused of deserting and then going on a petty crime spree to feed their addiction to prescription painkillers.

Below is the Spokane County Sheriff's Office press release about the arrests.

And I'm just going to leave it at that.

Deserters Nabbed In Mini-Crime Wave

A pair of U.S. Army deserters was arrested Tuesday after Spokane Valley property crimes detectives linked them to a series of thefts and other criminal incidents committed during the past two months.

Michael W. Grenkavich, 21, and Mitchell L. Rea, 22, have been living a transient lifestyle in Spokane since deserting from Ft. Lewis within two days of each other last July. Grenkavich had ties to the
Spokane area prior to enlisting in the military.

=> Read more!

Interest in the new POW/MIA memorial wall at Tacoma's War Memorial Park has taken off since our original story published in early September.

At that time the project's ringleader, retired Army Lt. Col. Joseph Zelazny of Tacoma, said it looked like there would be 42 black granite tiles mounted in time for the Sept. 19 dedication ceremony. Each engraved tile briefly states the service record of a former local prisoner of war or service member who went missing in action.

We caught up with Zelazny this week and he was pleasantly surprised about underestimating the number.

"We put up 59 tiles. That's what's on the wall now," said Zelazny, 88, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. "And since then, I've received 7 more in the mail that want to go up. We'll fill that wall up pretty damn quick."

A few other numbers shared by Zelazny:

* Of those 59 names now on the wall, 43 were represented in person at the ceremony either by the veteran serviceman, the surviving spouse or the next of kin.

* A total of 216 people attended the event.

Zelazny's group also gave the city a 6-by-8 foot POW/MIA flag to be displayed permanently at the park near the Narrows bridges. It replaces a smaller version of the flag that just wasn't visible enough, he said.

"That baby is flying up there now," he said, "and she looks good."

It's not too late to get a tile for a loved one. Any former prisoners with ties to Pierce County, or their next of kin, can contact Joseph Zelazny at 253-752-8266 or write to: POW/MIA Monument Committee, 1035 S. Whitman St., No. 1, Tacoma, WA 98465.

Freelancer Kayt Sukel has a personal essay in this weekend's Washington Post about her experiences as a Family Readiness Group leader.

I have been chided in the past for saying FRG leader is the toughest job in the Army, so I won't repeat that. But it's gotta be in the Top 5, no?

Author and McClatchy military columnist Joe Galloway will be at the Fort Lewis PX 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to sign copies of his new book, "We Are Soldiers Still." (Review here.)

It's a followup to his "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young" with retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore.

If you don't have a Department of Defense sticker or ID, but you want to get a signed copy or meet the author, you can still get on Fort Lewis. Go to the visitor center at the main gate – Exit 120 off of Interstate 5 – and present your driver's license, proof of insurance and registration to get a visitor pass. Everybody over the age of 16 needs to present photo ID.

Following up on the story Thursday about the annual naturalization ceremony at Fort Lewis: The military – and in particular, the military during wartime – has long been a path to U.S. citizenship.

The numbers tell the story, as published by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics. (Download Table 20.)

The government first started tracking naturalizations in the military in 1918 – the last year of World War I –  when 63,993 service members took the Oath of Allegiance. That was out of a total of 151,449 new citizens that year.

The following year military naturalizations shot up to 128,335 – well over half of the total of 217,358 new citizens that year. The number dropped to 51,972 in 1920 and then sharply after that and special citizenship provisions for those who'd served in uniform ended in 1925.

The next big jump was in World War II. Military naturalizations went from 1,602 in 1942, the year after Pearl Harbor, to 37,474 in 1943, 49,213 in 1944 and 22,695 in 1945. The numbers fell off again to 15,000-16,000 over the next two years and then down some more. They surpassed 2,000 only twice in the next several years.

Until Korea, that is. Naturalizations in the military jumped from 1,575 in 1953 to 13,745 in 1954, the year after the cease-fire, and totaled 11,958 in 1955.

Another plunge followed, with the numbers burbling along at 1,000 and 2,000 until the height of the Vietnam War. They jumped in 1969 to 5,458, and then to 10,616 in 1970, 9,549 in 1971, 8,475 in 1972 and gradually down from there through the early 1980s.

There was another bump, although a modest one, after Desert Storm – military naturalizations went from 1,802 in 1991 to 5,699 in 1992, 7,062 in 1993, 5,890 in 1994 and 3,855 in 1995 before dipping again.

It never got above 1,000 until 2002, but has been on a mostly upward trend since then: 3,865 in 2003, 4,668 in 2004, 4,614 in 2005, 6,259 in 2006 and 3,808 last year.

Wednesday's 18 new Americans in uniform were just the latest in a long line of men and women who served the country even before it became their own.

A Fort Lewis soldier was injured early Friday at the Yakima Training Center, where his unit, the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, is conducting a major exercise.

The unidentified soldier was trapped between two vehicles, The Associated Press and the Yakima Herald-Republic reported. The solder was reported in serious condition at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, the wire service reported.

Checking with Fort Lewis for more information.

Update: Fort Lewis says the 21-year-old soldier was injured about 2:30 a.m. during maneuvers on the north end of the 300,000+ acre post.

He was airlifted to Yakima Valley Memorial where he is listed in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit, a Fort Lewis spokeswoman said.

He was on foot "when he was apparently trapped between two Stryker vehicles, and sustained serious injuries," the post said in a prepared statement.

The soldier is assigned to C Company of the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment.

"Military training is inherently dangerous, and the Army takes training accidents, such as this one, very seriously," the post's statement said. "We will investigate the circumstances surrounding this incident, and incorporate any lessons learned into future training to help ensure the safety of our soldiers."

His hometown paper, The Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, has a story about the young Fort Lewis engineer who died Wednesday in a vehicle accident in Baghdad. There's a memorial planned for today at the high school where he graduated last year.

The Chicago Tribune also had a story about Gulczynski and another area soldier, 24-year-old Sgt. Jason Antonio Vazquez, who was killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Now that it's legal to register voters in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Secretary of State Sam Reed want to get the word out about how nonpartisan groups can go about doing so. My McClatchy colleague Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has the goods.

The hitch is that voters have to be registered by Oct. 4, so the deadline's coming up fast.

The retired Army general from Fox Island who shouted "dump Rumsfeld!" from the pages of the New York Times in 2006 these days is leading a committee of Washington military veterans for Barack Obama.

Paul Eaton, who was at the center of the so-called "Revolt of the Generals," initially supported Hillary Clinton but switched to Obama after she withdrew from the race. Since then he's been traveling the country speaking and writing about defense issues as a surrogate for the Democratic nominee – notably at the two political conventions and (sometimes painfully) on TV.

He headlined a Washington Veterans for Obama press conference today in Seattle.

"Basically the last eight years of military incompetence and government incompetence on the part of the Republican Party has completely soured me, and I do not want another day of a Republican administration," Eaton said in an interview en route to the event.

=> Read more!

There are personnel moves this week at two organizations that provide important support to the military community.

• James Shepherd, 60, of Puyallup is the new state chairman of the Washington Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. Shepherd is a retired Army Reserve colonel. He succeeds Gordon Jacobson as state chair.

• Don Leingang, 46, of Kent is the USO Puget Sound Area's new executive director. He recently retired as a Navy commander and executive officer at Naval Station Everett. The area's USO group provides a variety of services for military members and their families, most notably those passing through Sea-Tac Airport and at McChord Air Force Base.

The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division headquarters and much of one of its infantry battalions are in Germany for a month-long joint exercise with forces from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Stars & Stripes notes that the five nations all have forces working together in Afghanistan, and that the training scenario is drawn from Afghanistan. A Germany-based U.S. infantry battalion is playing the role of the Taliban.

All of which raises the question: Is the 3rd Brigade, home now for about a year from its last trip to Iraq, preparing for a deployment to Afghanistan?

The exercise – dubbed Cooperative Spirit 2008 – has an official blog, which doesn't go there.

The Stripes story included one quick unattributed line that says the Army considers it unlikely.

At Fort Lewis, a spokesman reiterated that the Army typically does not speculate about where or when units might be deployed.

Bottom line: Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Lakewood spokesman Jeff Brewster sent this e-mail regarding an event Thursday in honor of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:

At 7 a.m., Thursday, September 11 at Burs Restaurant, representatives from the 4-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Lakewood’s 'Community Connection' to Fort Lewis, will provide an overview of their 15-month deployment to Iraq. Lakewood residents are encouraged to commemorate Patriot Day by attending in this presentation and learning more about the 4-2 SBCT’s historic deployment.

The 4-2 began returning to Fort Lewis in late May after a grueling extended tour of nearly 15 months in Iraq.

For those interested in attending Thursday's event, Burs Restaurant is located at 6151 Steilacoom Blvd. SW.

The Army Times' Kelly Kennedy has a good piece this week about the use of hard labor in sentencing in UCMJ cases.

Her lead example is a former Fort Lewis private who was made to dig a trench in full battle rattle after he was sentenced to 45 days hard labor for peeing hot for cocaine.

Gen. Carter Ham took command of U.S. Army Europe in a ceremony in Heidelberg today.

Check out that combat patch.

Finished this story to run in the paper sometime over the weekend. Placed a few calls in search of neighbors who might have something to say about the prospect but came up empty Friday afternoon. Feel free to comment as you see fit here.

The Army is looking into firing sonic boom-inducing rockets at Fort Lewis and wants to know what the neighbors will think.

Post officials are holding a public meeting Tuesday night in Lacey. It’s part of the environmental assessment of a proposal to fire the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System – HIMARS, for short – on the post’s training ranges.

The meeting is 6-9 p.m. at the Lacey Community Center, 6729 Pacific Ave. S.E.

“We recognize that noise that comes from training at Fort Lewis is an issue with some of our communities, and we recognize that noise would be one of the primary issues with firing HIMARS rockets,” said Joseph Piek, a post spokesman.

“That’s why we’re taking the necessary time to do the environmental assessment and analysis and taking all of this into consideration.”

The South Sound is already home to an array of military training noise – mortars, artillery, gunfire, demolitions and helicopters at Fort Lewis, and aircraft at McChord Air Force Base.

The HIMARS would add a new, although not necessarily louder, dimension. The rockets create a sonic boom shortly after they’re fired from a launcher mounted on the back of a 5-ton truck.

=> Read more!

The USO Puget Sound holds its big annual fundraiser – a black-tie gala and auction featuring country music star Jake Owen – on Oct. 3 at Qwest Field in Seattle. Tickets are $175. For more information see the USO web site via the link above or call 1-206-246-1908.

Fort Lewis' Triple Nickel packed up Thursday for its third trip to Iraq, and a military police battalion will do the same today.

About 130 soldiers from the 555th Engineer Brigade's headquarters will leave soon to work with U.S. government provincial reconstruction teams and Iraqi engineer units. They held a deployment ceremony on post Thursday.

The brigade went over the first time in April 2003 and set up the big U.S. military base in Tikrit, Forward Operating Base Speicher, and directed a task force of some 3,000 engineers from various units.

The 555th returned to north central Iraq in October 2005 and conducted engineer, support and munitions clearance operations across the northern part of the country.

About 150 soldiers from the post's 508th Military Police Battalion and its 67th Military Police Company will assemble today for a deployment ceremony ahead of their departure for Taji, north of Baghdad.

There the battalion headquarters will spend a year operating the Theater Internment Facility. The company's soldiers will train Iraqi corrections officers, according to a Fort Lewis press release.

The 508th previously deployed for a year in January 2006 to run Fort Suse, another U.S. military prison in Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq.

Digging out after a nice two-week vacation. ... Fort Lewis' new deputy commanding general, Brig. Gen. John D. Johnson, is on the promotion list to major general that (finally) came out Tuesday. (I say finally because I am told this promotion board met back in October 2007 and only now are the announcements coming out.)

Anyway, the list includes a number of other Fort Lewis alumni, the most recent being Brig. Gen. Donald Campbell, who was here for what seemed like just a cup of coffee before moving on to Fort Knox. Others, I'm told, include Brig. Gens. John M. Bednarek (a former 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment commander), Gina S. Farrisee, Michael Ferriter and Gregg F. Martin.

Not that there's a shortage of pachyderms at the post these days. There are more general officers at Lewis now than at any time in recent memory (OK, my recent memory going back eight years now).

For those of you scoring at home, they are:

• Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby, the I Corps and Fort Lewis commander.

• Maj. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the new commander at Madigan Army Medical Center and chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.

• Brig. Gen. Peter C. Bayer, the new I Corps chief of staff.

• Johnson, the deputy commanding general for operations.

• Brig. Gen. Jeff W. Mathis, the rear detachment deputy commanding general.

• Col. Heidi V. Brown was nominated July 15 for brigadier general. She's the I Corps effects coordinator.

• Col. Brett Daugherty, installed as commander of the Washington National Guard's 66th Theater Aviation Command in June, is also scheduled for promotion to brigadier general.