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Chief Warrant Officer William Whealy congratulates Sgt. Ryan Cooley upon graduating from the Military Intelligence School Friday on Fort Huachuca. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) FORT HUACHUCA - The U.S. Army Intelligence Center graduated its first group of rapidly deployable National Guard and Army Reserve students Friday, intelligence specialists trained to provide "actionable intelligence" to troop commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 77 students from the 97B and 97E classes at the Military Intelligence School are the first to complete a new program to mobilize, train and deploy in a matter of weeks officers needed to fill a void in intelligence-gathering capabilities...

After enduring months of intense heat, long hours, dust and Spartan living conditions since their arrival in May, Army postal units have nearly completed turnover of military postal operations to contractors. The turnover began in October, when the first KBR postal workers began to arrive, said Lt. Col. Steven Heggen, commander of the 461st Personnel Services Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Decatur, Ga. Originally, the Joint Military Mail Terminal here was manned exclusively with soldiers from the 461st PSB and units from the National Guard, Army Reserve and active Army, numbering about 300 in all. Now, except for a...

CJTF-7 Public AffairsBAGHDAD, IraqRelease #040112d 1st AD soldiers, Iraqi firefighters rededicate fireboat BAGHDAD, Iraq – For the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Baghdad has a fire boat patrolling the Tigris River—officially. The Future 2, a fire boat found looted and inoperable by soldiers of the 40th Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Division, on the bank of the Tigris near the 14th of July Bridge, has been repaired and returned to duty. The boat was finally rededicated by 1st Armored Division soldiers and Iraqi firefighters in a ribbon-cutting and christening ceremony on the Tigris near where it was...

Army Reservist Accused of Insubordination (AP) Capt. Steve McAlpin of the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion is shown in this Jan. 8, 2003, file photo... Full Image ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Capt. Steve McAlpin, a 25-year Army reservist, spent most of last year deployed in Afghanistan and just returned home in January. Now his unit is about to ship out again, and he's facing insubordination charges for criticizing the quick turnaround. McAlpin questioned the legality of a waiver that his battalion was asked to sign that would put his unit back in a combat zone after just 11 months at home....

Forgive the Post - Member since 1998 so I get one 'rant' every 5 years This week was Basic graduation; Army reserve @ Fort Benning, GA. Looking forward to the day;I had not seen my son in 20 weeks. Barely got to speak to him when he could get away from 17 hour days to make a 2 minute call. They had no sleep but two hours prior to graduation. They would get none after, as the barracks would be disbanded, and no one does maintenance work save the soldiers. They had to dismantle and store their beds and...