Free Republic

At 9 o’clock this morning, Sgt. Sandra Coast will graduate from Basic Combat Training on Fort Leonard Wood, officially beginning her Army career — at 51 years old. According to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the average age for an Army Reserve recruit is about 23, making Coast one of the oldest people to go through Basic Combat Training. “Everybody in the world thinks I am a total nutcase,” Coast said. “I just want to support our troops. I love all of them.” From 1982 to 1993, Coast devoted her life to the U.S. Navy. She gave up her lifestyle...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Sept. 9, 2011) — Memorial services on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks often focus on where people were on the day of the event. “In our parents’ generation, I’ve heard those stories about where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor and knew instantly it would be one of those moments that would be life-changing,” said Col. James Watson, Fort Leonard Wood’s senior chaplain during the post’s Friday morning memorial service. “Those first incomprehensible moments, when we thought there was an unexplainable accident, a plane running into a building, and a few...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (June 1, 2011) — Fort Leonard Wood personnel sent several 3 1/2-ton trucks packed full of donated items to Joplin last week to help local tornado victims. Personnel at the post, which was hit by an EF-3 tornado just five months ago in which 47 homes were destroyed and 97 damaged, started collecting donated items the day after the tornado hit Joplin. Lynn Morgan, Fort Leonard Wood Army Community Services director, said that after the tornado struck Fort Leonard Wood, donations poured in from all over the country and the magnitude of the amount of items...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (May 31, 2011) — Speaking a day before the funeral of Spc. Bradley Melton in Rolla, who was killed by an improvised explosive device earlier this month while doing route clearance work in Afghanistan as part of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the commander of Fort Leonard Wood told those assembled at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery next to the post that Americans need to use Memorial Day to remember the reason for which servicemembers died. “Freedom is a powerful word. It is one that many people, thousands and thousands and millions have given their...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (May 30, 2011) — A barrier designed to keep dangerous vehicles out of Fort Leonard Wood wasn’t ready earlier this month when a man raced through the West Gate and led police on a two-county chase out the front gate and down Interstate 44 into Rolla at speeds up to 120 mph while shooting his AK-47 at pursing law enforcement personnel. It’s not clear it would have been used since the only problem with driver Cody Willcoxson at first appeared to be an improper license, and he fled the post at speeds so fast that he...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (May 30, 2011) — Speaking before representatives of nearly four dozen community organizations at Sunset Memorial Cemetery, Col. Charles Williams said that although his home is in New Jersey, he’s glad to call Pulaski County home because of its support for the military. Williams, the Fort Leonard Wood garrison commander, said he tries to convey that message “every time I get the opportunity to speak.” Williams said the “toughest job” military personnel ever have to do is to present an American flag to the parents of spouse of a fallen servicemember, citing the recent death in Afghanistan of...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (May 19, 2011) — Finding $400 billion in additional defense spending reductions over the next 12 years will require careful thought that considers the risks the reductions create, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. In a question-and-answer session with students at the U.S. Army Engineer School here, Gates warned against what he called the “managerial cowardice” of across-the-board cuts, advocating instead an approach that retains excellence in the missions the military keeps while cutting missions and programs that have value but would pose an acceptable level of risk if eliminated ... Gates said “politically...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (May 17, 2011) — Saint Robert police have released the dash camera footage from a patrol car whose driver pursued Cody Willcoxson, 31, from Fort Leonard Wood to Rolla. The driver, a junior officer, kept up the Thursday morning chase after Chief Curtis Curenton’s car was struck by bullets from an AK-47 fired by Willcoxson during the high speed pursuit on Interstate 44 which at times reached 120 mph. The footage has sounds of racing engines and squealing tires, as well as showing evasive maneuvers by officers as they raced around semi trucks and other vehicles, and...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (May 16, 2011) — Post personnel confirmed Monday comments made by the commanding general and garrison commander of Fort Leonard Wood, Maj. Gen. David Quantock and Col. Charles Williams, that the man who raced through Fort Leonard Wood and then led police on a high speed chase was not trying to target the military installation. “This individual was actually a lost local criminal, who wandered up to the gate because of I-44 construction and panicked at the gate when he was questioned, as he allegedly had just committed a crime elsewhere,” Williams said in an incident...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (May 12, 2011) — A man who led police on a two-county high-speed chase through Fort Leonard Wood, St. Robert and Rolla has been charged with felonies that could put him in jail for at least 37 years, according to Pulaski County Prosecutor Kevin Hillman. The most serious local charges against Cody Willcoxson, 31, of South West City, accuse him of shooting and hitting the police car of St. Robert Police Chief Curtis Curenton while using a pistol and an AK-47 to fire out of his moving vehicle while driving at speeds exceeding 100 mph. Additional state...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (April 7, 2011) — Top Army engineers are gathering this week for the annual ENFORCE conference at Fort Leonard Wood, but people wearing stars and birds won’t be the only ones speaking. Lt. Col. Timothy O’Brien, who serves as the conference coordinator, emphasized that the senior leaders’ conference is an opportunity for those in key decision-making positions to hear from lower-level engineers who have recently returned from combat in Afghanistan or Iraq. Much of the focus of the conference will be on lessons learned, and that requires up-to-date information. “We will have (a) panel which is...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (April 8, 2011) — Army personnel didn’t heavily publicize it because the World War II museum chapel on post was already expected to be filled beyond capacity, but engineer soldiers held a service for fallen engineers Thursday night and unveiled a memorial to engineers who have died in the current War on Terror. The memorial is made of marble and engraved with the names of all engineer soldiers who have died in combat since the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks, said Lt. Col. Tim O’Brien, who is coordinating the ENFORCE engineer senior leader conference currently underway...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (April 7, 2011) — Top Army engineers are gathering this week for the annual ENFORCE conference at Fort Leonard Wood, but people wearing stars and birds won’t be the only ones speaking. Lt. Col. Timothy O’Brien, who serves as the conference coordinator, emphasized that the senior leaders’ conference is an opportunity for those in key decision-making positions to hear from lower-level engineers who have recently returned from combat in Afghanistan or Iraq. Much of the focus of the conference will be on lessons learned, and that requires up-to-date information. “We will have (a) panel which is...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Feb. 17, 2011) — Describing himself as a “pit bull,” Fort Leonard Wood’s commanding general told reporters during a Wednesday morning press conference that he won’t tolerate sexual misconduct, sexual assault, or rapes by his soldiers, and said he personally told U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill the same thing the previous day in her offices in Washington, D.C. “There is really nothing more vile than one soldier taking advantage of another soldier. It breaks down the very teamwork, the very fabric of what being a soldier is all about,” said Maj. Gen. David Quantock. “That’s why here...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Feb. 16, 2011) — Friends and family members from the 512th Military Police Company spent a year waiting for their soldiers to return from Iraq, but Tuesday night, they had to wait an hour less than expected when the buses bringing the troops arrived about an hour early at Fort Leonard Wood. Based in the Kirkuk and Diyala areas of Iraq, the company consisting of about 170 military police was responsible for training Iraqi personnel in 30 district headquarters, two regional training centers, and a police training academy as part of the American military pullout from...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Jan. 1, 2011) — Following up on a New Year’s Eve tornado that damaged or destroyed 159 homes, the garrison commander of Fort Leonard Wood will hold a town hall meeting at 10 a.m. this morning at the Stone Gate Community Center on Fort Leonard Wood to discuss the damage and response efforts. In an internet posting issued shortly before 10 p.m. Friday night, Col. Charles Williams apologized for the “long delay in providing any update to the community” but noted that garrison staff had been focused on emergency response to the affected areas for the...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 31, 2010) — Post spokesman Jeff Maddy announced Friday evening that a survey of damaged and destroyed housing conducted by a specialized disaster response team from Columbia found nobody trapped. Only four people were hurt on Fort Leonard Wood by the New Year’s Eve tornado and all of those injuries were minor, Maddy said. Post officials noted that many Fort Leonard Wood servicemembers and families were away from the installation for holiday leave, and in many cases the houses destroyed by the tornado were empty. None of the injuries involved trainees. That section of the...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 31, 2010) — As the sun went down on New Year’s Eve, most of the housing areas for officers and senior enlisted personnel at Fort Leonard Wood remain without electricity. Temperatures are expected to dip into the 20s tonight, and some of Fort Leonard Wood’s upper-level personnel have had to evacuate their homes due to damage following a major tornado that ripped through the post this morning. Emergency arrangements have been made to host families in Davidson Fitness Center; rescue personnel and emergency workers worked for hours on the scene of a heavily damaged housing...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 31, 2010) — Search dogs, heavy rescue equipment, and other emergency personnel are on their way from a Columbia-area fire department on a statewide mutual aid request from Fort Leonard Wood following a tornado touchdown. Information coming directly from Fort Leonard Wood has been spotty — power is out throughout much of the installation and damage is extensive — but the first clear indication of the extent of the damage came from a press release by the Boone County Fire Protection District’s Task Force One, which said that “an initial report from the Incident Commander...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Dec. 31, 2010) — NOTE: Click "comments" for live updates of damage reports. A tornado has struck Fort Leonard Wood and fire personnel on post are requesting an emergency response from both Waynesville and Saint Robert firefighters. At 10:35 a.m., Fort Leonard Wood called for additional response from Crocker firefighters and from Tri-County firefighters in Richland. Detailed information isn’t yet available, but Waynesville firefighters have sent a brush truck and a fire engine with full crews armed with chainsaws to the post; St. Robert firefighters have sent one engine. The storm has now moved out of...