Free Republic

FORT HUACHUCA — The final journey of Cpl. Casey Lee Mellen begins today with a noon funeral service at the Main Post Chapel on Fort Huachuca, followed by his burial at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 2 p.m. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half staff today to honor Mellen. On Tuesday, the flags were ordered to half staff by the governor to honor Army Lt. Col. Douglas Mann, of Sierra Vista, who was killed in an accident in San Antonio, Texas, as he was preparing for deployment to...

TUCSON — Case is home. The body of Army Cpl. Casey Lee “Case” Mellen came back to Arizona around 2 p.m. Monday as a Navy cargo aircraft landed at Tucson International Airport and taxied to the executive terminal. Although it was a sad day, the soldier’s father, Casey Edward Mellen, said, “I’m happy my son’s home.” The war is claiming many American men and women, he said. Case is just one of the dead and is part “of all the future dead soldiers,” Mellen said. It was not a political statement against the war, just a reality as GIs remain...

OAXACA - Mexican migration authorities gave five U.S. tourists three days to leave the country for participating in political activities in the southern state of Oaxaca, a migration official announced Thursday. Maria Baltazar said that the five young people were taken into custody in front of the Oaxaca government palace, where a group of villagers from Santo Domingo Teojomulco have been holding a protest since June 7 demanding the release of 14 peasants accused of carrying out a massacre of Indians. Baltazar said the U.S. citizens had been identified as Simon Sedillo, Kimberly Kern, Jason Massaro, Toryn Tonasello and Christopher...