Authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, Washington

Viewpoint

Life in the Army has been pretty unsettled for a number of years. The challenges — professional and personal — tend to come one after another. The results can seem a bit overwhelming.

Published: 03:03PM November 13th, 2008

Last weekend, I traveled to Virginia for my brother’s wedding. With a 2 year old. By myself.

Published: 01:39PM November 6th, 2008

Living to ride another day isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

Published: 12:26PM October 30th, 2008

I still remember the first time I saw his eyes — dark, deep, but full of pride, staring straight at my husband in his Stryker vehicle as if he were a soldier himself, lifting his pointer finger in the middle of the Mosul streets and proudly displaying the black ink on the pad of that finger.

Published: 01:02PM October 23rd, 2008

Domestic violence is like toxic mold — it thrives in hidden, dark corners, but dies when exposed to open air.

Published: 01:00PM October 23rd, 2008

“Trick or treat.”

Published: 01:22PM October 16th, 2008

For the last two weeks, my husband has been in the field.

Published: 01:20PM October 16th, 2008

When we think about Soldiers deploying, the first thing that comes to our minds is tactical operations, IEDs and the usual stuff you see on the news back home.

Published: 02:35PM October 2nd, 2008

I have a fear of planes. Not so much commercial planes, just military planes — the kind that dump my husband out their doors and hurl him to an insanely hard surface 1,200 feet below with a parachute that, they tell me, will work.

Published: 01:16PM September 25th, 2008

There is a lot to like about Fort Lewis — but we should all be working to make it even better.

Published: 12:34PM September 18th, 2008

I wasn’t commissioned, and I didn’t enlist, but on May 22, 2004, I joined the Army. My uniform was my white wedding dress, my oath of office, my wedding vows. It’s just that when I said, “I do,” I had no idea how much I would really be doing.

Published: 12:29PM September 11th, 2008

Suicide. It happens far too often. Usually you see a brief note on an inside page of a local newspaper. Perhaps there is a brief mention on television, if it is a slow news day.

Published: 10:28AM September 5th, 2008

I hope that all of you vote this fall. Those who choose not to are running out of excuses.

Published: 08:07AM August 29th, 2008

I sometimes think the Army should have an eighth core value: “be physically fit.”

Published: 01:02PM August 21st, 2008

It takes a good mind to be a Soldier these days, and it’s a good thing Soldier education is keeping pace.

Published: 01:32PM August 14th, 2008

The Olympic Games in Beijing, China began last week. I hope we all take some time to celebrate what the Olympics represent.

Published: 01:01PM July 31st, 2008

It is a challenge to put out a good newspaper in a digital world.

Published: 11:15AM July 24th, 2008

Accidents don’t just happen.

Published: 02:10PM July 17th, 2008

It’s hard to believe that figuring out how to fill a summer could ever be a problem.

Published: 03:03PM July 10th, 2008

Fort Lewis has been undergoing a population boom. The most amazing result of the growth is how little most people are affected.

Published: 03:06PM July 10th, 2008

The national political conventions are just around the corner. After that comes the general election. For years the Army has campaigned to get Soldiers to register and to vote. But there are limits to how far leaders can go in encouraging voting — and there lie some lessons for us all.

Published: 12:43PM July 3rd, 2008

As we take a well deserved holiday from our duties to celebrate the nation’s 232nd birthday, I want to take a moment to mention a subject that should be on our minds at all times — the safety and well-being of our Soldiers.

Published: 12:45PM July 3rd, 2008

We live in hiking heaven. But you’ll never know that unless you get out and look for it.

Published: 08:21AM June 30th, 2008

I remember reading an article decades ago that speculated about how expensive gasoline would have to get to induce Americans to significantly alter the way they drive. I don’t remember the figure the author gave, but I think we might have reached the real tipping point.

Published: 01:35PM June 19th, 2008

Leaders bear no more important responsibility than the welfare of their subordinates. That responsibility doesn’t end when those subordinates go home and take the uniform off.

Published: 02:58PM June 19th, 2008

The Guardian has received many inquiries about last week’s article, “Lessons of Baqubah now on DVD,” most asking how to get copies of the DVD, like this one:

Published: 12:23PM June 12th, 2008

Saturday is an important day — the Army’s 233rd birthday. I hope Soldiers care.

Published: 03:14PM June 5th, 2008

The 6th of June used to be one of those days everyone could identify. Now, it seems to be fading into the historically obscure. That’s a shame.

Published: 03:11PM June 5th, 2008

A few months ago I was in the middle of an interview with a therapist when she popped out with a notion I could not believe.

Published: 01:45PM May 29th, 2008

Sometimes I open my e-mail and I am overcome by it. While I’d be delighted to write a thank-you note to any military family, I read this and wondered how a note from a stranger could possibly equal the feeling that a 9-year-old put into a recent letter?