The sight of their son’s name etched in granite always brings a wave of emotion to Dan and Elfriede Plumondore. Thursday was no different.

At a somber ceremony dedicating Fort Lewis’ Memorial Park, the Gresham, Ore., couple saw old friends and discussed old memories. It’s been like that every time they’ve visited Fort Lewis since their son, Sgt. Adam J. Plumondore, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Mosul, Iraq, in 2005.

But Thursday’s ceremony reminded the Plumondores of one the military’s most sacred vows.

"It just a reminder that they never forget about their fallen," Elfriede said. "This park, this setting – it’s absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. It’s an honor."

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Today's lone story about local troops (other than my story about Rev. Tim Vakoc) comes from DVIDS, which offers a story about a psychologist with 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Today's daily dose from DVIDS:

I Corps:
Army Celebrates, Soldiers Reflect

4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
Interview with Col. John Norris
Stryker Live Fire Exercises
Detainee Operations at JRTC

A few local troops made it into the news this weekend:

The Columbia of Vancouver offers a nice feature on an Army Reserve captain who's a nurse with the 396th Combat Support Hospital.

And DVIDS, where many stories written by public affairs officials are posted, offers a few stories:

Soldiers Hear Message, Address Important Issues to Senior Leader [I Corps]
Highlander Combat Medics and Balad Airmen Deliver Medical Aid to Balad Iraqis [81st Brigade Combat Team]
Medical Treatment at Fort Polk [4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division]
4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division Offload at Rail Head Station

A $1.1 million simulator to train Fort Lewis soldiers on the Mobile Gun System is up and running at the Battle Command Training Center.

My Olympian colleague, Christian Hill, was there yesterday and filed this report. Check it out.

This isn’t a surprise but sad nonetheless:

Body recovered in Nisqually River identified as Fort Lewis Soldier

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - The body of Private First Class Robert Lang Wheatley, Jr., of Arcadia, Calif., was recovered from the Nisqually River June 2 by members of Thurston County's dive team.

According to Thurston County Sheriff's Department the body was located about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday by an unidentified individual who then called 911. Members of the dive team responded to the reported location, entered the water and recovered Pfc. Wheatley's body. Next of kin notification was completed earlier this afternoon.

The thoughts and prayers of the entire Fort Lewis community are with the Soldier and his family, friends and loved ones. Additionally, we would like to thank the Thurston County Sheriff's Department, Soldiers and many others who aided in the search.

Pfc. Wheatley was assigned to Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Lewis, Wash.

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Sen. Maria Cantwell was at Fort Lewis last week at a deployment fair for soldiers from 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The event wasn’t open to the media, but it apparently made quite an impression on the senator. She has sent letters to Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and First Lady Michelle Obama (both attached).

And here’s the release her office put out:

Cantwell: Fort Lewis Program Can to Be a Model for How Military Sends Soldiers to War

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sent letters to Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, and First Lady Michelle Obama urging the U.S. Army to incorporate elements of the new Fort Lewis Deployment Day Fair program on a national scale. During the Memorial Day recess, Cantwell attended the Deployment Day Fair at Fort Lewis. This new, unique program provides soldiers and families with resources and information on housing, finances, legal affairs, educational opportunities, emotional counseling, and other quality-of-life issues that come to the fore when troops leave home.

"I believe Fort Lewis’ Deployment Fairs have the potential to be a model for how the military sends soldiers to war, and looks after the families those soldiers leave behind," Cantwell said today. "We owe our service members deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan and other dangerous assignments overseas, and their families, all the information and support they need to get through these difficult months of separation."

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Sgt. Christopher Osborne was riding in a Stryker through Baghdad’s International Zone when his view went black.

"Man, we just got smoked!" one soldier yelled.

"Catastrophic kill," another announced over his headset. "1-2 is dead."

And if Osborne had any doubt what happened, he could just look at the computer screen, which displayed a simple message in white letters: "You are dead."

Osborne’s Stryker was again rolling through the streets of Baghdad about 30 minutes later, and the 26-year-old Lacey resident was back on the headset, communicating with others in his platoon – but not before distributing some good-natured trash-talk.

"Hey," he said, "I would’ve moved out of the way."

Welcome to Virtual Battlespace 2, a computer-based trainer soldiers from 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are using this week at Fort Lewis to prepare for its fall deployment to Iraq.

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Three of Spc. Jeffrey Sigerson’s fingers are curled, the result of his right hand being crushed in the door of a Humvee during an ambush in Iraq last year while he was on a convoy-security mission.

On top of that, his entire torso twitches frequently after an accident in basic training left him with dislocated vertebrae and damaged nerves.

But as Sigerson rowed himself around American Lake Thursday, the Fort Lewis soldier found peace on the choppy waters.

"I thought it would be a lot harder to do," the 40-year-old Tacoma resident said after 30 minutes on the lake. "But I found out that it’s something I can do. It was relaxing. It’s freedom on the water."

Sigerson and 14 others from Fort Lewis’ Warrior Transition Battalion, a unit for soldiers with complex or long-term health concerns, rowed and played sitting volleyball during a camp run by the U.S. Paralympic Team.

Another 15 veterans or active-duty military personnel from other bases also participated in the camp, which began Tuesday and concludes today.

Sports are growing in popularity as a way to help wounded and injured service members; proponents say they encourage physical activity after a traumatic event and provide a sense of calm. One local nonprofit, the Wounded Warrior Adaptive Golf Project, helps link disabled soldiers and veterans with mentors on the links.

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Photographer Lui Kit Wong and I were out with guys from 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division last week for a live-fire exercise. Lui snapped some great shots – but because the story ran inside (and thus the photo was black and white), a really remarkable photo didn’t make the front page.

Here it is:

So what makes this photo so cool (at least in the opinion of this non-photog)? If you zoom in, you can actually see the bullet in mid-flight:

Neat.

These roadside bombs weren’t much of a surprise.

A convoy of three Strykers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division rolled down the muddy roads of a Fort Lewis range Wednesday afternoon. Each time, the mock bomb exploded near the second vehicle. Soldiers discovered a copper command wire leading toward a house at the base of a hill. Gunners in the vehicles fired at the house with Squad Automatic Weapons while a dismounted patrol closed in on the building and eventually stormed inside.

Then they’d regroup, reload their ammunition and repeat the scenario. It doesn’t quite mimic the exact situation on the ground in Iraq, where the brigade will deploy this fall, but Wednesday’s live-fire training was as realistic as some of the unit’s newest members have seen since joining 4th Brigade.

"We tell the guys, ‘Look, it’s not always going to be like this in Iraq,’" said Lt. Grant Carriker. "Things are going to be faster, more hectic. You’ll have to think on the fly. But we’re laying the groundwork now."

But Carriker, a platoon leader with Alpha Battery of 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, and others in the brigade have less time than other units to prepare. The Defense Department announced in March that 4th Brigade will deploy to Iraq this fall, about nine months ahead of schedule.

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Michele Bostic didn’t know much about the Stryker armored vehicle before Tuesday. But there she was, along with 21 other business and civic leaders from Lakewood, wearing body armor and a Kevlar helmet while riding in the back of the eight-wheeled vehicle as it tore through the mud of Fort Lewis.

Later that afternoon, as she and the others sat down for lunch at the headquarters building of 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Bostic was raving about the experience.

"It was phenomenal," the Graham resident said. "I had no idea what it would be like."

Bostic and her husband, Meco, took part in the half-day event that links the brigade with its partner city in the community connections program. The participants received a briefing on the history of 4th Brigade, rode to the range on a Stryker, watched squad-level exercises where the soldiers reacted to a mock roadside bomb strike and then had a chance to check out the different Stryker variants. Soldiers were on hand to answer their questions.

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