Sgt. Lucas Miller, a medic with 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, was named Special Operations Command noncomissioned officer of the year, the command announced.

Here's what's involved: "The competitors faced a 3-day-long challenge testing both their mental and physical capabilities. The event began with a physical fitness test, followed by rifle marksmanship qualification, and day and night land navigation courses. On the second day, the contestants’ skills were tested with common tasks ranging from calling indirect fire to treating a casualty on the battlefield. The final day of competition consisted of an oral board made up of each command sergeant major from the major subordinate units of USASOC."

Miller won prizes from the event's sponsors, including almost $3,000 in cash and gift certificates, a dress blue uniform and a Glock pistol.

Twenty-four names are being added to the Army Special Operations Command Memorial Wall in Fort Bragg, N.C. They were killed over the past two years in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Six of those are from Fort Lewis.

From 1st Special Forces Group:

Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, of Baltimore, Md.
Staff Sgt. David W. Textor, from Jamestown, N.Y.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Tully, from Falls Creek, Pa.

And from 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment:

Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, of Ramona, Calif.
Spc. Thomas F. Duncan III, of Rowlett, Texas
Spc. Christopher Gathercole, of Santa Rosa, Calif.

Paratroopers from the 1st Special Forces Group and the 3rd Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry drop from a C-130 Hercules above Fort Lewis during a Menton Week event on Thursday. Menton Week is an annual event celebrating a joint American-Canadian special commando unit that served during World War II.

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Connie enthusiastically shoots a M249 light machine gun as Sgt. 1st Class Wolf feeds the belt. Her husband is in Special Forces, and family members fired the weapons Monday to become more familiar with equipment the SF soldiers use. This is one of the events that make Menton Week, an annual observance by the 1st Special Forces Group.

Photo by Peter Haley, The News Tribune.

Two of Sherri's children, Kylee, 6, and Houston, 3, wince at the loud machine guns at a Fort Lewis firing range. This is one of the events that make Menton Week, an annual observance by the 1st Special Forces Group.

Photo by Peter Haley, The News Tribune.

Eight-year-old McKenna gets assistance shooting a modified M4 carbine rounds. Her dad is a Special Forces soldier at Fort Lewis. This is one of the events that make Menton Week, an annual observance by the 1st Special Forces Group.

Photo by Peter Haley, The News Tribune.

Dennis Narvaes doesn’t have much experience with firearms. But when offered a chance to pop off a few rounds with military-grade weapons at a Fort Lewis range, the Hawaii resident appeared to relish the opportunity.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said minutes before an instructor taught him the basics of how to safely load and fire an M9 pistol.

Elsewhere at a cluster of three firing ranges at Fort Lewis, military families learned how to shoot a variety of weapons used by the 1st Special Forces Group. The event was part of Menton Week, an annual celebration honoring the service of the combined U.S. and Canadian First Special Force. The elite unit, nicknamed the Devil's Brigade, fought in Alaska, Italy and southern France during World War II.

Dozens of spouses, parents and children were attending Monday’s event. Participants could shoot several weapons – including the Squad Automatic Weapon, M240B, M-4 and MP-5 – or scale a climbing wall. A tent run by the unit’s family readiness group sold refreshments and T-shirts and offered cakes donate by the group as part of a silent auction.

Family members could also use a skydiving simulator; participants hung from a parachute harness and wore virtual-reality goggles that simulated an air drop.

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Don’t worry if you see special-operations soldiers with maple leafs on their berets airdropping into Fort Lewis this week. Our northern neighbors haven’t launched an attempted annexation of Washington.

It’s the 64th annual Menton Week, which commemorates the U.S. and Canadian First Special Service Force. The two-nation commando unit, most commonly known as the Devil's Brigade, fought in Alaska, Italy and southern France during World War II.

The week coincides with the deactivation of the unit on Dec. 5, 1944 in Villenueve-Loubet, France. Canadian special operations soldiers and the Fort Lewis-based 1st Special Forces Group have a variety of events scheduled throughout the week, including:

Monday: A demonstration of special operations small-arms weapons and events for family members – and here’s the kicker – “a chance to shoot various special operations small arms.”

Tuesday: A combined wreath-laying ceremony at the 1st Special Forces Group compound.

Wednesday: A skills competition that features helicopter rappelling and marksmanship events.

Photo courtesy of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command

The 1st Special Forces Group memorial wall at Fort Lewis is a granite testament to the members of the elite unit of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the United States.

During a sunrise Veterans Day ceremony, the Green Berets unveiled the 163rd name on the wall: Staff Sgt. David Textor of Company A, 3rd Battalion, who was killed July 15 in Mosul, Iraq, during combat operations.

“These are our hallowed heroes,” group commander Col. Rand Binford said Tuesday. “This is a pantheon of men who came before us, who served before us, who gave the ultimate sacrifice. We will not forget.”

About 300 soldiers stood at attention in the steady drizzle as Binford and others honored Textor and his family. The ceremony was simple but solemn. After a playing of the national anthem and a prayer, Binford praised both Textor and all veterans for their service.

“From the fields and forest of war-torn Europe during the first and second world wars and the jungles of Southeast Asia to the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, brave patriots have protected our nation’s ideals, rescued millions from tyranny and helped spread freedom around the globe,” he said.

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A Special Forces soldier and father of five from Fort Lewis was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident in Mosul, the U.S. military announced today.

Staff Sgt. David W. Textor, 27, was in Iraq as a weapons sergeant with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group.

Three other soldiers were injured in the accident, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, speaking Wednesday at the 1st Special Forces Group headquarters at Fort Lewis.

There was no additional information Thursday about the accident, or the extent of the other soldiers’ injuries. A Special Operations Command spokesman said the accident was under investigation, and that the command doesn’t release information about wounded or injured soldiers.

Originally from Jamestown, N.Y., Textor lived in Olympia with his wife Colette and their five children, the command said in a press release.

Textor deployed in May, his first deployment in the war on terror, the command press release said.

He is the fifth soldier from 1st Group to be killed in Iraq, and the 200th from Fort Lewis to be killed while deployed worldwide since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Textor played football, wrestled and ran track in high school and joined the Army in 2002. He was an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, before winning a spot in the Special Forces in November 2006.

In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his parents and five sisters.

Two soldiers assigned to the 1st Special Forces Group were decorated Wednesday for their actions during a four-hour engagement with insurgents in June 2007 in the southern Iraqi city of Ad Diwaniyah.

Sgt. 1st Class Chad M. Kite, 27, and Staff Sgt. Chris L. Federmann, 32, were each awarded the Silver Star during a ceremony Wednesday morning at 1st Group headquarters at Fort Lewis.

Wednesday's awards followed a ceremony Monday in which a Fort Lewis MP, Sgt. Michael Espejo, received a Silver Star for killing a suicide bomber in Afghanistan before he could detonate his explosive vest.

Kite and Federmann are credited with fighting off numerous insurgent gunmen who attacked a combined U.S., coalition and Iraqi team that was trying to capture a suspected terrorist leader.

"These were multiple acts of selfless courage," said Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, who attended the ceremony.

A USASOC press release issued a couple days after the June 3 raid said Iraqi troops killed four insurgents, and said coalition forces were along as advisers. It also said the Iraqis did not find the person they were looking for.

But 1st Group on Wednesday said it was Kite and Federmann who "heroically distinguished themselves by exceptionally valorous conduct amidst the bravery exhibited by all the soldiers participating in this battle."

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Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffery D. Stigall takes over today for Command Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Sherlock at the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis.

Stigal comes from 10th Group at Fort Carson, Colo., where he was 3rd Battalion's CSM the past two years. He's been in SF for 18 years, 10 of them at 1st Group, according to a group press release.

Sherlock is moving to become senior enlisted adviser to Special Operations Command Korea.