A Puyallup native recently recently became commander of one the U.S.'s four naval shipyards.

Capt. William C. Kiestler took control of Norfolk Naval Shipyard, located in Portsmouth, Va. It is the oldest continuously operating naval shipyard, having opened in 1767.

Kiestler is a 1981 graduate of Puyallup’s Rogers High School. Married with four children, he is the son of Patricia Mashburn of Puyallup.

According to a Navy news release, Kiestler supervises approximately 1,000 Navy personnel and 8,000 civil servants who repair, or support the repair, of aircraft carriers and submarines in Virginia, and throughout the world.

The other three American naval shipyards are Pearl Harbor, Portsmouth and, of course, our own Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.

Susan Galleymore knows war and its effect. For the past five years, the author has traveled across the Middle East and South Asia to witness the effects fighting can have on those not directly involved.

"We fight because we’re avaricious – we’re greedy," she said. "But we also fight because we love. We love our opinions."

She recorded countless discussions with women who have suffered – many have lost children – during war, and the California resident was in Lakewood on Saturday to promote her published collection of those interviews, "Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror."

The talk took place at Coffee Strong, a café created by veterans that sits just outside the gates of Fort Lewis that its owners started as a place for soldiers and veterans to talk openly about the military and the war. About 30 people, many of whom voiced their skepticism with the war in Iraq, attended the event.

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The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, which aims to streamline the process of military kids transferring to schools in different states, has been passed by both houses of the state legislature.

It's just waiting the signature of Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Here's a bit more information from Mark San Souci, the Department of Defense liasion who has worked tirelessly on this issue:

The House amendment struck the null & void clause for funding that was in the senate's original bill. The fiscal note will indeed be funded at $49,000 annually, out of the state budget.

As the seventh largest military state, our 29,000 active duty military school children, and activated guard/reserve member school children, will now join at least 14 other states (the compact is now on the governor's desk in Alaska, Maryland, and Hawaii, respectively, with other states to follow) as a compact state seeking a level playing field for the difficult school transition issues that arise when military families move from state to state while serving our nation. …

The effective date of the bill is 90 days after adjournment of the legislative session in which the bill is passed. Hence, July 25, 2009.

Have you been wondering what's the latest with Ehren Watada, the Stryker officer who refused to deploy to Iraq?

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin offers a quick update: Basically, his case is still caught up in the system, and he's still working a desk job at I Corps.

From the article:

"The Army says it is still awaiting a decision from newly appointed U.S. Solicitor Elena Kagan, who was sworn in three weeks ago, as to whether it will appeal a federal judge's decision rendered in October.

The judge said that a second court-martial could not be held for the 1996 Kalani High School graduate pending the outcome of his claim that it would violate his Fifth Amendment rights by trying him twice for the same charges."

(Sorry most of my blogs have been links elsewhere. I return to work next week.)

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Jennifer Conner and Marcie Klatik arrived at the hotel, drawn by an invitation sent by email.

They sat next to each other in a ballroom at Tacoma’s Hotel Murano. Between sessions of the SpouseBUZZ Live conference, they discovered they have a lot in common.

Each has a husband stationed at Fort Lewis. Each is in her early 30s. Each has a special-needs child.

They shared tips on resources available to military families.

“It’s good to know that you’re not alone out there,” said Conner, a 34-year-old from Lacey. “It can be kinda hard sometimes.”

“It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who has some of these feelings about military life,” said Klatik, a 31-year-old Lakewood resident.

That was the idea behind the conference.

“We’re here to get people talking to each other,” said Jeanie St. Martin, one of the event’s organizers.

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Jerry Clark smiled proudly Saturday as fellow members of the American Legion marched down Auburn’s Main Street. People standing near the 62-year-old Black Diamond resident clapped as the group of older men wearing their trademark caps waved back to the crowd. He softly nodded and smiled.

“It’s a remembrance of our fallen comrades,” said Clark, an Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War from 1967-69.

Clark, who said he rarely missed the parade, took in the scene: Thousands of spectators jammed Main Street to cheer veterans’ groups, marching bands, elected officials and other participants in the 43rd annual Veterans Day parade.

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” he said, “that Auburn stands out as one of the most patriotic cities in the nation.”

The components of the parade were as varied as they were plentiful.

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(Note: This story by reporter Soren Anderson will appear in this Sunday’s SoundLife section.)

Filmmaker Michael Slee was in the back seat of an Army Humvee, camera running, when an anti-tank mine reduced the vehicle to a shattered hulk on the streets of Mosul in northern Iraq. The date was Nov. 18, 2007.

A freelance filmmaker who grew up in Lakewood, Slee was in Iraq to make a documentary about front-line troops patrolling one of the most dangerous cities in the country. He wound up embedded with the soldiers of Alpha Company of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment out of Fort Bliss, Texas. He lived with them, went on missions with them and got to know them very well. And on that November day, he came close to dying with them. Twice.

Slee and his camera emerged unscathed from the explosion, its bright orange flash etched dramatically on his videotape. But the Humvee driver, Pvt. Russell Ladwig, was badly wounded in both legs. (He has since recovered, Slee said.)

Ears ringing from the concussion, Slee resumed filming as Ladwig’s fellow soldiers dragged him from the wreckage, tended to his wounds and loaded him into a truck. After about 20 minutes, the patrol was ready to move out. As Slee climbed into the lead Humvee, he had a premonition. “I just went cold,” he said, “because I knew we were about to hit a second IED (improvised explosive device).”

Sure enough. The Humvee rolled barely 5 feet before a second mine “blew off its back end.”

Slee’s luck held. He escaped injury again. But the unit’s Iraqi interpreter, a man named Paul who was sitting right next to him, lost his right arm in the blast.

A frightening day in the war zone. But it was hardly the only one during the months Slee spent in Iraq.

“I was knee-deep in hands-and-knees combat on quite a few occasions,” he said. “We got blown up and shot up and torn up quite a bit.”

But Slee expected that. “I’ve made my living by being in the wrong place at the right time,” he said.

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Do you know a solider who craves bean sprouts with his MRE? What about an airman who pines for something that grows on a pine tree come dinnertime? A Marine who won’t eat marine animals? A friend in the Navy who loves navy beans?

PETA’s looking for you.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals just launched its first Sexiest Vegetarian Soldier contest. (Despite the name, it’s actually open to all members of the armed forces who “are defending the country and animals at the same time.”)

Here’s the pitch from PETA:

“Why is going vegetarian a smart military maneuver? For one thing, vegetarians are, on average, fitter and trimmer than their meat-eating counterparts, so if soldiers want to be lean, mean fighting machines, the best thing that they can do is keep meat off their plates.”

The winner will be named on the organization’s blog and receive a “vegan goodie basket” full of cookies, chocolate, a PETA T-shirt and, puzzlingly, jerky.

Click here to nominate someone. You’ve got until Nov. 26.

A post office in Cleveland, Ga., now bears the name of a Fort Lewis Stryker soldier killed in Iraq in 2007.

Sgt. Jason Robert Harkins was killed on May 6 in Baqouba with give other soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and a Russian photojournalist when a bomb exploded under their Stryker.

The explosion flipped the 20-ton vehicle upside down, and then soldiers came under fire from a nearby mosque. Harkins, 25, and his wife lived in Lakewood at the time of his death. It was his second deployment.

Friends, family members, community leaders and politicians attended the renaming ceremony on Sunday, The Gainesville Times reports. Harkins' mother, Nancy Fritchey, wore her Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Silver Star, the newspaper reported.

Harkins received a posthumous Silver Star for his actions March 17 in Baqouba. Despite being wounded in the ambush, he organized a quick perimeter to outgun attackers and helped evacuate three wounded soldiers. He died less than two months later.

Renaming a post office requires Congressional approval. Rep. Nathan Deal introduced the measure, which passed the House in February and the Senate in April. President Bush signed the bill into law on May 7.

The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Ga., has a profile of Col. Tom Macdonald, Fort Benning's new garrison commander.

As the first few paragraphs of the story say, Macdonald spent some of the most influential years of his childhood in the South Sound, attending Lakes High School in Lakewood.

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

Check out that combat patch.