FORT CARSON, Colo. — A company of Army Reservists stepped inside the Special Events Center at Fort Carson, Colo., Jan. 21, after completing a one-year deployment handling detainee operations in Afghanistan.

Capt. James Balutowski, 308th Military Police Company, 244th Engineer Battalion, a Reserve unit headquartered at Fort Carson, reported the return of almost 100 soldiers. They faced a set of bleachers packed with hundreds of family members and friends, cheering with welcome home signs, gripping balloons and holding flowers. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Fort Carson’s ability to ready soldiers for contingency operations expanded and improved this month with the opening of a new Training Support Center.

Each year, more than 75,000 soldiers meet with Fort Carson training coordinators to refine their basic warrior skills, said William January, branch chief of Training Aids, Devices, Simulators and Simulations. With more than four times the space now available for the Training Support Center, he expects that number to grow.

Costing almost $9 million, the new 80,000-square-foot Training Support Center is adjacent to the installation’s Digital Training Center, a short walk from the Medical Simulation Training Center, and a couple of hundred feet from a planned Battle Command Training Center — a training campus is emerging at the Mountain Post. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — When soldiers attending the Fort Carson Warrior Leader Course rehearsed medevac requests Jan. 17, the Army’s latest in medical support aircraft responded.

A battlefield situational exercise concludes the multi-component WLC at Fort Carson, which is organized by the 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute. New coordination efforts between the training regiment and Reserve aviators are helping WLC evaluators better assess the Army’s future leaders. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Fifty soldiers were honored in the Fallen Heroes Family Center Jan. 13 for taking an extra, extraordinary step as soldiers.

The soldiers volunteered in October to mentor children during the 3rd Annual National Military Suicide Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp, offered by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors at Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs. Each child had lost a loved one, a service member, to suicide.

While hundreds of people from across the nation spent three days sharing hardships, searching for answers and making connections, the soldiers offered children of all ages their support. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Almost 200 soldiers from 4th Engineer Battalion redeployed in December, ending two one-year combat commitments in just four months.

Capt. Mike Custer, commander, 62nd Sapper Company, reported the return of the Army’s final combat unit in Iraq Dec. 22, during a ceremony surrounded by holiday decorations and cheer. Capt. John Kubeika, executive officer, 576th Engineer Company, returned from Afghanistan Dec. 30, with almost half of that unit’s soldiers. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. – El Paso County, 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson leadership broke ground Dec. 15 to begin building a massive outdoor shooting complex.

Fort Carson has allocated about 400 acres of range space for the construction of the Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex. Almost 100 firing points will open this summer, adjacent to Gate 20, near Interstate 25 and Mesa Ridge Parkway, to provide shooting lanes for public safety, according to Army officials. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Almost 150 soldiers stepped into a standing ovation Dec. 4 after returning from Iraq three months early.

Capt. Jeffrey Rawlins, commander of 59th Military Police Company, 759th MP Battalion, entered Waller Physical Fitness Center gymnasium, where he faced bleachers filled with hundreds of family members and friends. Parents, spouses and children were waving “welcome home” banners and balloons. Continue reading →

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. — Dozens of former and current Green Berets gathered in a Rocky Mountain community, Nov. 12, to unveil a bronze battle cross in honor of a local man’s military service.

More than 100 citizens of Woodland Park attended the Veterans Day weekend dedication ceremony, where the city manager, sculptor and the fallen hero’s wife and children uncovered a memorial statue at Lions Park, located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 24 and state Route 67. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Hundreds of soldiers from 10th Combat Support Hospital gathered for a casing ceremony, Nov. 4, launching a yearlong lifesaving mission in Afghanistan.

“We will provide the trauma management and hospitalization to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coalition members, civilians and, yes, enemy wounded, across nearly one third of Afghanistan,” said Col. Michael Place, 10th CSH commander, after concealing his unit’s colors on Manhart Field. Continue reading →

FORT CARSON, Colo. — An award-winning children’s author and illustrator visited the Fallen Heroes Family Center Oct. 26, to discuss the loss of a loved one.

When Trevor Romain knelt down to share photographs of him petting giraffes and rhinoceroses in Africa, Michael Petersen, 3, reluctantly giggled and then turned toward his mother’s hip. But the slender, upbeat motivational speaker’s mannerisms and South African accent quickly seized the boy’s attention. Continue reading →