Military veterans are very proud, and very particular, about their service medals. We get that.

So we took it seriously when the News Tribune reader representative took a Monday morning call from a reader who wanted to report an error in our obituary story headlined "WWII officer led prisoner rescue."

The Associated Press story reported the death of Robert Prince, a U.S. Army officer who led the Jan. 31, 1945, assault on a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines, which led to the rescue of 571 prisoners of war. Prince died on New Year's Day in Port Townsend. He was 89.

The part that caught our reader's eye said that Prince was awarded "the U.S. Army's highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross." The reader, a veteran himself, said the highest honor is actually the Medal of Honor.

Turns out we're both right. And you can't say that very often.

The Medal of Honor, the highest military award issued by the United States, can be awarded to any member of the armed forces. The Distinguished Service Cross, on the other hand, is the highest award given solely to members of the U.S. Army.

We're running a clarification in Tuesday's paper -- not a correction, because the story was not wrong.

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.

Jack Lewis, an Army reservist who spent a year in Iraq with the old 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis – the Lancer Brigade – has a moving Memorial Day tribute up on Crosscut.

Maj. Weldon K. Groves, who flew combat missions with the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and later worked for many years at McChord Air Force Base, died May 12 at a Tacoma nursing home. He was 10 days shy of his 91st birthday.

Graveside services are 1:30 p.m. Friday at Tahoma National Cemetery with a memorial service to follow at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fern Hill Congregational Church, 6722 Yakima Ave. S. in Tacoma.

I wanted to post an unedited version of the Iraq war timeline that I put together for our fifth anniversary coverage in Wednesday's paper. Newshole being what it is, only so much of it got in.

I apologize that the entries are not sprinkled with links; had I thought of this sooner, I'd have done that.

• January 2003: The buildup begins. About 1,200 soldiers from Fort Lewis get the word they are bound for the Middle East. Hundreds more National Guard and reservists also begin mobilizing to deploy, or replace soon-to-be deployed service members at Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base. A Coast Guard port security unit from Tacoma is also called up for duty in the Persian Gulf.

• Early February: The Army loads the 62nd Medical Brigade and the 555th Engineer Brigade's trucks, Humvees and helicopters aboard cargo ships at the Port of Tacoma. No protesters are there – that will change with later load-outs and returns.

• Early March: While some troops wait at Fort Lewis, others get the word to go quick, including the truckdrivers of the 513th Transportation Company and the combat engineers of the 864th Engineer Battalion. The 47th Combat Support Hospital opens in Kuwait. The 40th Transportation Company arrives to haul gas for the invasion forces.

• March 19: The war begins. Units from the 864th break the berm at the Iraq-Kuwait border to make way for the 3rd Infantry Division's lead elements.

=> Read more!

Thanks to all the folks who responded to our invitation. We had intended to run some of them in the paper, but someone *cough, cough* couldn't keep his Iraq war timeline to a manageable length, and we ran out of room.

Ah, but that's old school. We got the web. So here are those others who sent me their thoughts via e-mail. Thank you all for sharing.

A mother’s nightmare. This is how I describe my son’s two deployments to Iraq. I do not like to watch the news, because it upsets me so much.
When I wake in the morning the first thing I do is turn on the computer to see if he has e-mailed, even if it’s a forward, just to know that he is safe. Then I can go on with my day.
I go to Mass every Sunday, and I light candles for my son. Have a few priests that I know keeping him in their prayers, hoping they have more of an influence than me.
I know that this is what he wants to do, and it’s his job, but I will not rest until he is stateside.
Every month since he has been in Iraq, a few family members and his sisters and I make up a love package and we take turns sending it to him, to share with his fellow soldiers. He is never forgotten. At Christmas, each item was individually gift-wrapped.
His picture was made into an ornament and hung in our county courthouse on a special tree made for the soldiers.
Soon my prayers will be answered and he will be back at Fort Lewis, where he is stationed.
I even quit smoking in August, so I can see him retire from the military.
I cry alot, but there are so many other mothers, who have lost their children at war, so I am not alone. I try not to cry when my son calls me, but it’s so hard. I do cry after we hang up. If I miss a call from him I feel terrible. His messages are still on the answering machine, and I play them once in a while just to hear his voice.
How has the war affected me, you ask? It has taken a piece of my heart. I want my son to come home. It’s been a long 18 months!
Thanks for listening!
Harriet Schaeffer, Pottsville, Pa.
mother of CWO4 Bernard Milyo, Jr., FOB Warhorse, Iraq.

=> Read more!

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.

With Tuesday's announcements from the Department of the Defense, the number of Fort Lewis soldiers to be killed in the Iraq war stands at 174.

Mosul 46
Baghdad 38
Baqouba 18
Taji 9
Tal Afar 9
Muqdadiyah 5
Balad 5
Total of all others 44

The post's troops and their families have paid a dear price for the continued security of Mosul and Baqouba, in particular – two areas where U.S. military officials have reduced troop levels but say they're watching carefully for renewed activity by insurgents.

Here's a Veterans Day story by former Fort Lewis marketing director, author and amateur historian Phil Raschke:

John Babcock of Spokane has the honor to be the last surviving veteran of the Canadian forces of World War I.

During WW I, Canadian forces numbered nearly 620,000 and suffered over 214,000 casualties. Today, only Babcock still remains standing.

At 107, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

John Babcock, right, and author Phil Raschke hold a photo of Babcock's World War I unit – D Company, 146th Overseas Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. The photo was taken Sept. 5, 1916 at Camp Valcartier near Quebec while the unit was en route to Nova Scotia for training and then deployment to England. Babcock is the last surviving Canadian veteran of World War I. Photo courtesy of Phil Raschke.

He needs a walker to get around, but he still enjoys going out to lunch with friends, chatting with visitors and receiving letters from queens and prime ministers.

In a recent interview, Babcock proudly noted he obtained his private pilot's license at age 65 and his high school diploma at 95. Today, he delights in entertaining visitors by reciting the alphabet backwards, tapping out Morse Code messages and signing his name with either his right or left hand.

Back in 1916, Babcock was able to enter the military by looking older than his real age of 15. He trained with the 146th Overseas Battalion in Nova Scotia and then convoyed through U-Boat infested waters to England.

Upon arrival, his training continued near Brighton on the English Channel. Babcock's favorite memory was a daily 6 a.m. march to the channel wearing only a long gray coat and canvas shoes. Upon arrival at the beach, all 1,300 soldiers would get "buck naked" and plunge into the cold water. To the watching civilians, it "was quite a sight," Babcock said.

=> Read more!

Was Googling "fort lewis" and "army" and "construction" and came across this one that I hadn't seen in a few years – from back in the day when the Army was still feeling like it had to put on the full-court press for the Stryker brigades.

The Cramer family pictured at home in Okinawa on the day -- Oct. 21, 1957 -- that Capt. Harry G. Cramer would become the first the first U.S. service man killed in Vietnam. Young Hank, age 4, clutches a hat between his sisters, Kainan, left, and Anne, right, mom Anne, and their nanny, Imiko.

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the death of U.S. Army Capt. Harry G. Cramer, who depending how you look at it, can be seen as the first U.S. combat death of the war in Vietnam. Cramer was leading a team of advisers from the 1st Special Forces Group -- the Green Beret unit his son, Hank, would later serve with during his active-duty and reserve Army career. He retired in 2004 as a reserve lieutenant colonel.

Hank Cramer and his wife, Kit, who are from Winthrop, and other family members will lay a wreath Saturday at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Then on Sunday, they'll attend a formal memorial ceremony at Capt. Cramer's burial place at West Point.

Cramer, a wounded combat veteran of Korea, was killed Oct. 21, 1957 near Nha Trang in what was either a training accident or a Viet Cong mortar attack.

Cramer's name was at first left off the wall when it opened in 1982. Maybe it's because the Special Forces missions

Capt. Harry G. Cramer

in Vietnam were secret then, or maybe it was just bureaucratic bungling. But Harry Cramer had to fight with the government to get his dad's name on the wall. He succeeded, and it was added for Veterans Day 1983.

"This really helps to heal that scar, as far as most of the family is concerned," Cramer said. "To think that at one point he was almost completely forgotten."

But no longer. Cramer's name is also listed on the 1st Special Forces Group memorial at Fort Lewis. The Seattle Times took note in 2002, observing the parallels with his story and that of Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Chapman, the 1st Group operator who was the first U.S. hostile fire casualty in Aghanistan.

Cramer was three when his father left home for the last time, to take his A Team into Thailand and later Vietnam. Still, he has a few memories of him. One is of the rough-housing, of riding around on his back and singing cowboy songs. (This may have something to do with Cramer's retirement past-time as a folk singer).

Another was the time, just before leaving, that his dad sat him down.

The Cramers in 2003 at the 1st Special Forces Group monument at Fort Lewis: Kai, Mrs. Cramer, Hank and Anne.

"Right before he left he got real serious," Cramer said. "He sat me on his knee and said, 'Until I get home, you're the man of the house.' It was a big thing to put on a 3-year-old but I really took it to heart. It really stayed with me."

The 2nd SCR lost two soldiers in Iraq, the Department of Defense announced today. Sgt. 1st Class Randy L. Johnson, 34, whose home state is listed as Washington, was killed in a bombing Saturday in Baghdad, while Sgt. Robert T. Ayres III, 23, of Los Angeles, was killed by small-arms fire, also in Baghdad, according to Pentagon press releases.

I don't know anything more about where in Washington Sgt. 1st Class Johnson was from, or whether he or Ayres served with the old 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis -- before it was reflagged as the 2nd SCR and moved to Vilseck, Germany, in 2006.

I have been trying to reach U.S. Army Europe public affairs folks to set up a link so that they can tell me about 2nd SCR soldiers who are killed in Iraq. My assumption is there are many with the regiment with significant ties to Fort Lewis, and I figure that's something that folks around here would want to know.

If you knew Sgt. 1st Class Johnson or Sgt. Ayres, please share a reflection here.

Here's a link to recent news stories and Army press releases about the regiment, as posted on Strykernews.com.

Readers who have been around a while will well know the story of the 1-25's year in Iraq. Johnson was assigned to the 2nd Squadron -- formerly the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment -- and Ayres was assigned to 3rd Squadron, formerly the famed Deuce Four, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment.

Click here to see a Northwest Guardian story that includes a rundown of the rest of the new, 2nd SCR names of the old 1-25 units.