Springs Military Life | Colorado Springs Gazette

Other than Honorable A Gazette special report

A Gazette investigation shows an increasing number of soldiers, including wounded combat veterans, are being kicked out of the service for misconduct, often with no benefits, as the Army downsizes after a decade of war.

Military Headlines view all

Frustrations of waiting weeks for returning soldiers dissipates with Fort Carson homecoming

Arriving in white, unmarked buses, the 355 soldiers were escorted by Fort Carson Fire Department trucks to a parking lot. The sky was dark, the sun would not come for another 50 minutes, and it was serene. But inside the nearby event center, which doubles as recreational basketball facility, it felt like a high school pep rally. Despite the...
Colorado Springs ties aided Apollo program, first step on moon

Forty-five years ago, millions of people around the world watched as Neil Armstrong planted his boot on moon soil. What none of those people saw, however, was the Colorado Springs residents who helped rocket Armstrong and the Apollo program's predecessors into space. It may have been, as Armstrong said on that historic day, one small step man...
Broncos' Wes Welker takes flight with Thunderbirds

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Denver Bronco Wes Welker says he's glad he took flight with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds in Cheyenne but he's not sure he'll do it again anytime soon. The wide receiver took off in an F-16 as the backseat passenger of Maj. Tyler Ellison on Sunday after a three-hour training session. Ellison took a rapid 360-degree turn...
Fort Carson 4th on 3rd event draws thousands from around the region

When Fort Carson throws a birthday party, everybody is invited. More than 9,000 soldiers, family members and civilians from the community attended Fort Carson's 4th on the 3rd celebration at Iron Horse Park for fun, food, music and fireworks. The free event organized by Fort Carson Moral Welfare and Recreation was open to the community and...
AF Cadets mark midway point of basic training with field day

Intense but friendly competition marked the halfway point through cadet basic training for freshman cadets at the Air Force Academy's annual field day July 11. More than 1,200 basic cadets led by their cadet cadre took to the athletic fields at the academy to compete for bragging rights as best squadron after 15 days of basic training....
Air Force issues plan to cut 275 workers at Space Command

A Pentagon budget-cutting plan will eliminate 275 military and civilian jobs at Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs and cut another 3,225 jobs from Air Force headquarters nationwide. The local cuts represent less than 10 percent of the workforce at Space Command's Peterson Air Force Base headquarters and will take effect on Oct. 1,...
Brewer bets on veteran's skills with new group

The training, leadership and technology that comes with military service is the greatest asset the Pikes Peak region holds. That's what Todd Baldwin, owner and operator of Red Leg Brewing Company in western Colorado Springs, believes. An Iraq veteran and former fire support officer in the 101st Airborne Division, Baldwin's belief in the...
918 AFA Cadets team up to shatter chain push-up record

U.S. Air Force Academy cadets one-upped Marines - rather, the cadets more than 700-upped them Friday on the Academy's athletic field. More than 900 basic cadets lined up head to beat the previous record of chain push-ups set by 138 Marines and sailors at Camp Lejeune in September 2013. To establish the record, only the feet of the first...
Chaplain finds canine partner helps erode barriers

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) — She is known simply as the "chaplain with the dog" to the many soldiers she has served with at Fort Bliss and Afghanistan and even to the people she meets in the El Paso community. Chaplain Maj. Karen Hallett has a sidekick she is seen almost everywhere with — her dog, Sgt. Zoe, a psychiatric service dog who is...
Soldiers, families reunited after yearlong deployment

Emotions flowed and the right words were sometimes scarce on Tuesday as 185 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division's headquarters battalion were reunited with friends and family after a yearlong deployment to southern Afghanistan. "I'm just, I don't know, speechless," said Donna Cordero after greeting her husband, Staff Sgt. Rowell Cordero,...
Project makes mail call brighter at basic training

One of the last bastions of the printed word is military basic training, including the grueling version held at the Air Force Academy through Aug. 2. Like their grandparents, freshmen cadets don't have smartphones, email or other electronic luxuries. But they do have mail call. Helen Simmons and her husband, Bob Simmons, an academy...
Lengyel credits cadet leadership with improving Air Force Academy

Stern and serious, Maj. Gen. Gregory Lengyel spent two years hammering cadets into officers at the Air Force Academy. He gained a reputation as a no-nonsense leader with little tolerance for those who lacked commitment, curiosity and courage. Behind all that was something else. He loved the cadets and loved the job. "It has been a great...
Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo organizers hope new format benefits fans, military charities

The Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo lowered its expenses in a move that could benefit the fans and military charities it supports. The annual rodeo's leadership decided in October to no longer be sanctioned by the Colorado Springs-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. The new invitational format allowed the event to add more sponsors,...
Air Force Academy ceremony honors departing commandant, welcomes new leader

On a green field under gray skies, several hundred cadets, friends, family and fellow airmen bid farewell to one Air Force Academy commandant and welcomed a new one as Brig. Gen. Stephen Williams replaced Maj. Gen. Gregory Lengyel to became the 27th Commandant of Cadets Tuesday. "The mission of the commandant and his staff is to train and...
Colorado Springs woman remembers service during Battle of Britain

On Sept. 12, 1940, the peak of Germany's campaign to gain air superiority over the United Kingdom ahead of a planned invasion across the Channel, an English country girl about 21 waited on a bus near the small Victorian spa town of Harrogate. As she waited with her younger sister, a single airplane came in low and began to circle overhead....