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FORT HUACHUCA — On a hill not far from Brown Parade Feld, a large white star shined on a Christmas NOEL scene. The field and houses and former enlisted barracks dating to the late 1800s, lining the north and south ends of the field, were lit with festive lights adding an even more glow. Inside a large tent, children did holiday crafts, some making decorations for their family tree, or as gifts for friends and families — all at no cost, courtesy of the post’s Family, Morale and Welfare Division. Brother and sister, Dylan, 8, and Skylar, 6, Rubstello were...

SIERRA VISTA — Army officials will be listening to what the civilian community does to support Fort Huachuca at a listening session Tuesday. “We need to tell the Department of the Army all the good we are already doing to help soldiers and their families and retirees and their families,” Mayor Rick Mueller said. Tuesday will be the second listening session concerning a potential reduction of soldiers and civil service employees at the post. The cuts are part of an overall “reduction in force,” that the Army is charged with carrying out, according to Maj. Gen. Robert P. Ashley, the...

SIERRA VISTA — Thursday’s slow-moving storm dropped as much as 6 inches of rain during a 24-hour period on parts of Cochise County, according to the National Weather Service. The steady rainfall began Wednesday afternoon and continued throughout most of the county on Thursday, gradually increasing the flow of the San Pedro River and creating flooding conditions that closed roads, including portions of Highway 92 east of Palominas Road. Cochise County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Carol Capas said some property damage was caused by the slow-moving weather front, with two women being rescued from a house in Portal early Thursday morning....

SIERRA VISTA — It was standing room only at Regis hair salon Wednesday evening, with a line that stretched out the door. More than 20 Troop 444 Boy Scouts, along with scout masters, friends and family members, crowded the salon located in the Mall at Sierra Vista for a group head shaving. They were doing it in a show of support for Assistant Scoutmaster Janet Thompson who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. And they were doing it for cancer awareness. All smiles, 12-year-old Dakota Pierce was one of the first in the group to climb onto the stylist’s chair...

FORT HUACHUCA — This morning, special FBI checks of vehicles entering the post were supposed to start, but the fort’s Public Affairs Officer Angela Camara said it will not happen. “At this time only the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency can connect to the Defense Manpower Data Center’s Identity Matching Engine for Statistics and Analysis,” she told the Herald/Review on Thursday. There are plans in the near future to implement, if not the same, a similar system on the fort to connect to the FBI’s criminal database to show if an arrest, felony or outstanding warrant involving...

FORT HUACHUCA — About four months ago John B. Morrison Jr., arrived on this southern Arizona Army post wearing the one-star of a brigadier general. Monday morning he was stripped of his one star and it was replaced by the two-stars of a major general, the authorized rank for the leader of the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command on the fort. Of Morrison, Lt. Gen. Edward C. Cardon, said to a person that much is given, ”much is expected.” Cardon added Morrison’s promotion falls into the giving and expecting categories. “I fully expect to see this from this leader,” said...

<p>You may have heard talk recently of Fort Huachuca potentially losing 2,700 jobs. There's a lot of confusion and some misinformation floating around on exactly what that means. I'll try to clear some of that up.</p> <p>Perhaps most importantly, this isn't just about Fort Huachuca. Rather, the potential loss of 2,700 jobs (actually, 2,739, which includes 1,726 permanent party soldiers and 1,013 Army civilians) is part of the larger Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment. The realignment considers huge force reductions at 30 installations Army-wide between 2015 and 2020.</p>

Submitted by Second District Congressman Ron Barber For 137 years — for 3½ decades before Arizona was a state and 80 years before Sierra Vista was a city — Fort Huachuca has secured our nation’s Southwestern flank. But now the fort faces a new type of threat — a threat from within our own nation. The harmful requirements of sequestration, the irresponsible across-the-board budget cuts passed by Congress in 2011, are forcing the U.S. Army to consider slashing the size of its active-duty force to levels not seen since before Pearl Harbor was attacked. This makes no sense and I...

FORT HUACUCA — Friday’s induction of the late Army Col. Kurush Bharucha-Reid into the Military Intelligence Corps of Hall of Fame was one of two special recognitions given to him. An award, established this year, recognizing honor graduates of the Human Intelligence Training Joint Center of Excellence has been established and the first five recipients have been named — Capt. Robert Hammond, Capt. Todd Miguel, 1st Lt. Janie D’Amato, Staff Sgt. Eric Hack and Spc. Mark Phelps — as winners of the Col. KB Reid HUMINT Award for the Special Operations Course and the Defense Advanced Tradecraft Course. Col. Kurush...

FORT HUACHUCA — At least it wasn’t a life-size replica of the sphinx, which sits out the Intelligence Center of Excellence headquarters building. Rather, it’s a small model which Capt. Chad R. Lorenz was presented at a Friday luncheon during the day’s Military Intelligence Hall of Fame events. He was named this year’s winner of the Lt. Gen. Sidney T. Weinstein Award, at which the general’s widow, Pauline, and several of their children and grandchildren attended. Earlier, the general’s widow had been inducted as an Honorary Member of the MI Corps. Speaking at the luncheon was retired Army Col.Daniel F....

SIERRA VISTA — With a 60-day public comment period underway, the U.S. Army is looking for feedback on a plan that would cut 2,700 jobs at Fort Huachuca as part of an overall force restructuring that will bring troop levels down from more than 570,000 soldiers, to 420,000 by 2019. The revelation that 2,700 positions may be cut from the local post was first announced in March by Maj. Gen. Robert Ashley. “For Fort Huachuca the planning (reduction) numbers are 1,700 military and 1,000 civil service (positions). Again, it is not the (approved) number but part of the planning assessment...

SIERRA VISTA — For more than 100 years Elks lodges throughout the country have been holding special ceremonies to honor Flag Day. It began with a lodge in Texas in 1908 said Shirley Dixon, the exalted ruler of SierraVista Elks Lodge 2065. Saturday the special ceremony was held outside, at the lodge’s ramada area, attended by more than 150 people. Sitting in the audience were six World War II veterans, as special guests, as the 70th anniversary of the end of that war closes happens in 2015 — May when Germany surrendered and September when Japan signed its surrender documents....

FORT HUACHUCA — Two soldiers were recognized as the top enlisted GIs for the Network Enterprise Technology Command, the day before the Army celebrated its 239th birthday. For Brig. Gen. John B. Morrison Jr., Friday morning’s ceremony highlighting the naming of the command’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year (NCOY) and Soldier of the Year (SOY) is an extension of what the Army has provided the nation through dedicated service, even before the nation declared its independence in 1776. The Army was established on June 14, 1775. Chosen as the NCOY was Staff Sgt. Jose Mosquera, representing the 5th Signal Command...

FORT HUACHUCA — At what Army Chaplain (Col.) Samuel Godfrey calls “The Bivouac of the Dead,” a few people sat among their deceased loved ones. A small girl held the hand of a man, as she carried flowers to a grave, but too soon she was out of sight, disappearing among the tombstones as the annual Memorial Day Ceremony on Fort Huachuca’s Old Post Cemetery began Monday morning While Memorial Day is a time “for us to salute all the brave men and women” who have given what Abraham Lincoln said is “the last full measure of devotion” — their...

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friend WASHINGTON — The type of plane which crashed Saturday morning on Fort Huachuca, injuring two aboard the plane, was a Rockwell Aero Commander 500S. Monday, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) correctly identified the type of plane as an Aero Commander and added the initial report of the accident indicates “the plane was taking off, made a left turn and impacted the ground." Initially the plane involved was identified as a Cessna 500. The accident happened around 10 a.m. and the NTSB spokesman said a preliminary report should be ready...

FORT HUACHUCA — There was a lot of energy — for kids and adults — on Friday, as 3- to-5-year-olds dressed in green T-shirts engaged in a field day. The students were part of the Fort Huachuca Accommodation School District’s special education classes, helping to prepare the future kindergartners to cope in a more formal education setting. Teacher Annette Rogers said part of the program is ensuring the children have time outdoors to help in their physical development. It’s called “adaptive PE,” she said. As a part of foundational physical education it is important for children with special needs, Rogers...

FORT HUACHUCA — B Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry (Memorial) hosts a cavalry riding school graduation ceremony on historic Brown Parade Field at 2 p.m., May 22, to honor the most recent graduates. The public is invited to attend this unique, colorful ceremony which highlights Fort Huachuca’s Old West cavalry heritage. The 4th Cavalry Regiment is one of the most famous and most decorated regiments in the U.S. Army. Since its activation in 1855, the 4th Cavalry has continuously served in peace and war. The regiment has fought gallantly in the Indian Wars, the Civil War, the Philippine Insurrection, World War...

FORT HUACHUCA — In the Army, two years in a leadership position goes by quickly and “in a blink of an eye,” the old commander leaves and a new ones takes over. That’s how Thomas Schoenbeck described a hand off of command Wednesday morning on Brown Parade Field when Col. Dan McFarland turned over the reigns of the garrison to Col. Thomas Boone. “The most valuable gift you can give is your time,” Schoenbeck said and that’s what McFarland did for soldiers and their families and for the garrison’s civilian work force while obtaining the support of off-post civilian communities....

FORT HUACHUCA — A fire, which apparently began in a picnic area in the post’s Lower Garden Canyon, consumed 75 acres but as of 7 p.m. Saturday the blaze was well underway of being extinguished, post and U.S. Forest Service officials said. “We’re fairly certain it was human-caused,” said the post’s director of Emergency Services Dan Ortega, noting there were people picnicking in the area. However the exact cause of the blaze is under investigation, he emphasized. While it is being called the Aerostat Fire, the site of the blaze is not close to the special function on the post...

SIERRA VISTA — The synergy between the various functions on Fort Huachuca has always been strong, but it is becoming more so, the fort’s senior leader said. But other people beyond those who live in close proximity to the post and know its missions have to be told to a wider audience, Maj. Gen. Robert Ashley said. Speaking to a dinner group of Fort Huachuca 50 members, an organization founded 28 years ago to both support the installation and to ensure its continued use, the commander of the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence said he and other leaders on the...