The 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment held its redeployment and colors uncasing ceremony today at Fort Lewis. The 600 soldiers of the unit recently returned from a 15-month tour in Iraq.

The unit served as part of Task Force Redcatcher in northern Iraq. They flew OH-58 Kiowa Warriors, UH-60 Black Hawks and Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles.

They were spread throughout the northern region of the country, with the largest concentration of aircraft at the Mosul airfield.

It also had a presence in Tal Afar, Kirkuk, Tikrit and a base near the Syrian border.

The uncasing ceremony symbolizes a unit’s return to Fort Lewis and typically takes place after the entirety of the unit’s soldiers have returned from a deployment. Soldiers from the 4-6 Air Cav began returning in late August.

New Year's Eve is swiftly approaching.

That's when United Nations mandate that allows American troops in Iraq expires. Negotiators from both Iraq and the United States are working to hammer something out, but the "final draft" of a long-term security agreement isn't looking so final.

The draft agreement calls for a withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011. Combat forces will pull out of cities, villages and towns by June 30, 2009. If you want to read the agreement yourself, the Los Angeles Times has a copy on its Web site. The newspaper obtained the draft from the Iraqis and had it translated from Arabic to English.

Meanwhile, McClatchy Baghdad bureau chief Leila Fadel writes that the draft was downgraded from a final draft to work in progress after Shiite lawmakers objected to certain wordings.

The wording of the final draft – and what it means in real life – could have a major impact for what day-to-day life will like for the 13,000 or so soldiers from Fort Lewis and the Washington National Guard who are scheduled to serve in Iraq throughout next year.

Lots happened on the military beat yesterday -- in retrospect, not the wisest day to take off for your humble correspondent. But in case you missed anything, here’s what happened Tuesday:

● A soldier previously assigned to a Stryker brigade at Fort Lewis will be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for combat valor, at a ceremony Thursday. Spc. Christopher Waiters was the senior medic of his company of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division last April 5 when a Bradley exploded, trapping soldiers inside. Waiters fought two armed insurgents and then braved the flames to save two soldiers and recover the body of the third. It's the first time the Distinguished Service Cross will be awarded to a Fort Lewis soldier since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

● A federal judge ruled the Army can't retry Ehren Watada, the Fort Lewis-based war objector, on charges of missing his unit's deployment to Iraq and for denouncing President Bush and the war. Doing so, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled, would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

● Gov. Chris Gregoire and John Lee, the director of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, visited a veterans retraining program run by the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry in Lacey. The union is helping retrain combat vets so they can transition back into civilian life.

● A Tacoma barber was found shot to death in a training area of Fort Lewis last week. Army investigators are asking the public's help to find out what happened to 56-year-old Vong Lam.

● The Pentagon announced a soldier from Washington died in Afghanistan on Monday. (The Department of Defense lists his hometown as Camano Island; Special Operations Command says he is from Seattle.) Capt. Robert D. Lindenau, 39, died when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle. He was serving with the 91st Battalion, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade based at Fort Bragg, N.C.