SpringsMilitaryLife.com

Vice President Biden set to speak at Air Force Academy graduation

Vice President Joe Biden will address 1,000 graduating Air Force Academy cadets at a ceremony in Falcon Stadium May 28. The White House confirmed Biden as the graduation speaker Monday. The academy's graduation rites have traditionally included a to-flight speaker and will again feature a flyover of F-16 fighter of the Air Force...
Star named to honor fallen troops

Fort Carson officials have decided to add a more permanent memorial to troops killed in combat. The post now has stone memorials carrying the nearly 400 names of local troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But those may last only a few thousand years before the granite is weathered away. The new memorial is made of different stuff. "By our...
Military couple gets $35K dream wedding

COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. (AP) — The bride wore white, with a veil and a flowing gown. She also wore a nervous grin, the expression of someone who can't believe what is happening. That's because the bride, Paige Collins, had just been given a $35,000 wedding. In an historical farm recently, she married Army Sgt. Cody Bauman in a ceremony...
Congressional candidates slam Lamborn letter about AFA religious freedoms

Fifth Congressional District candidate Bentley Rayburn on Wednesday chided his primary election opponent, Rep. Doug Lamborn, saying the congressman is not doing enough to guarantee religious freedoms at the Air Force Academy. Lamborn announced Tuesday that he had written a letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James urging revision of Air...
Colorado World War II veteran to receive POW Medal

LAKEWOOD — An Arvada man held captive by the Nazis during World War II is being awarded a Prisoner of War Medal. Ninety-one-year-old Frank Dechant will receive the medal from congressman Ed Perlmutter during a ceremony in Lakewood Monday. Perlmutter's office says Dechant and his unit were captured in December 1944 during the Battle of the...
The Gazette and reporter Dave Philipps win Pulitzer Prize

The Gazette’s Dave Philipps has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the category of national reporting for “Other than Honorable,” a three-day series that examined how soldiers injured during war were being discharged with no benefits. The award was announced Monday by Pulitzer judges; Philipps’ series was published in The Gazette and...
Side Streets Extra: Gazette's Pulitzer Prize award result of dogged quest to right a wrong

Something very special happened Monday in Colorado Springs. Absolutely amazing, frankly. A Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, the most prestigious honor in all of journalism, was bestowed on The Gazette and Dave Philipps. It was recognition of his three-day series "Other than Honorable," which examined how wounded combat veterans were...
Veteran with no left leg to run in Boston Marathon

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The first six times Edward Lychik told his physical therapist he wanted to run again, she was noncommittal, and with good reason. The combat veteran's left leg had been amputated at the hip socket, and doctors had told him if he walked again, it would be on crutches. Lychik ignored that diagnosis and kept talking to...
Mrs. Obama, 'first dogs' visits military families

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Michelle Obama said Monday she is shining a light on military families who are her heroes and a medical facility that treats them as she gives thanks during an early Easter celebration. The first lady visited the Fisher House at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as families decorated Easter cards. She...
Obama offers solace to nation at Fort Hood

FORT HOOD, Texas — President Barack Obama returned to the grieving Army post Wednesday where he first took on the job as the nation's comforter five years ago, mourning at Fort Hood with families and uniformed comrades of those killed during last week's shooting spree. "We somehow bear what seems unbearable," he declared. It was yet another...
A baby shower from the heart: Expectant military moms pampered

With two young boys at home, a set of twins due at the end of May and an active-duty husband on his fourth tour to Afghanistan, 24-year-old Ashley Kopec has her hands full. Spending a few hours Sunday opening presents, making new friends and feeling appreciated at a baby shower with 49 other expectant mothers was a great way to take a break,...
New deputy commander at Fort Carson has familiar face

Brig. Gen Randy George has been announced as a new deputy commanding general of Fort Carson’s 4th Infantry Division. He’ll likely start the job after the division’s headquarters returned home from Afghanistan this spring. Locals may remember George as the commander of Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team. He led the unit on a...
Petition: Army appearance regs discriminate against black women

A petition that’s gathered more than 5,700 signatures on the White House website is asking President Barack Obama to overrule portions of the Army’s new appearance regulations as discriminatory against black women. The newest version of Army regulation 670-1, released Monday, cracks down on excessive tattoos and allows troops to pack...
Free concert Tuesday kicks off Air Force Academy anniversary rites

A concert at the Air Force Academy on Tuesday will mark the 60th anniversary of the school in the first of three events to celebrate its founding. The academy calls April 1 its birthday because that's the day in 1954 that President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing the school. The Air Force Academy Band will perform at 7 p.m....
Army: New limits for tattooed troops

The Army issued its new appearance regulations for soldiers Monday, including a new rule that limits soldiers to four visible tattoos below the elbow or knee. The long-anticipated updates to Army Regulation 670-1 stopped short of a visible tattoo ban, but forbid facial art and other ink that can be seen above the T-shirt line. Here’s the...