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.

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Rough and Tough Scramble part of this month's Schriever Week

Members of the military are accustomed to runs in the morning and navigating unique obstacles during the day. Several dozen airmen and a handful of troops from other branches had to conquer both challenges simultaneously during the Schriever Rough and Tough Scramble this month. The event was part of Schriever Week, which commemorated the...
Colorado Springs woman writes of life at the homefront in new memoir, 'No Man's War'

For Angela Ricketts, the life-changing epiphany came in the middle of the night on Nov. 21, 2010. She woke up with pain in her back and shoulders. It's just a panic attack, she thought as sweat rolled down her neck. The pain got uglier, and she started thinking about going to the emergency room on post. But an ambulance wasn't an option...
Air Force Academy cadets launch balloons to study near space

This time of year, mysterious objects can sometimes be seen rapidly ascending over the Air Force Academy before disappearing into the upper atmosphere. It's not a UFO or a secret government experiment; it's cadets launching hydrogen-filled weather balloons to study near space, the region of the Earth's atmosphere between 65,000 and 328,000...
Army's Iron Horse division back in the stable

The Army's Iron Horse has officially returned home. Fort Carson's 4th Infantry Division signified its homecoming this month from a 12-month tour in Afghanistan with an uncasing ceremony, during which Maj. Gen. Paul LaCamera and Command Sgt. Maj. David Clark, the division command team, removed the cover from the unit's flag. "I could quote...
Oldest female veteran loved serving her country

SAN ANTONIO - When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Lucy Coffey had left the farm in Martinsville, Ind., spent time in Chicago and finally settled in Dallas, where she worked at an A&P supermarket. After quitting the A&P in 1943, she joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, a call to service that would take her to Japan before she...
VA asks Hill not to open 'floodgates' to private care

The push by Congress and its veterans affairs committees to swiftly solve a health care wait-time crisis for tens of thousands of veterans by granting access to private-sector care appears to have run hard aground. After four weeks, joint House-Senate conferees, working through their staffs to iron out differences in separate veteran health...
Academy operates STEM teacher boot camp

As an institution of higher learning - one that specializes in science and engineering - the Air Force Academy embraces its responsibility to prepare young minds for a future in science, technology, engineering and math by opening its classrooms once a year to train teachers. The Academy Office of Research teams with the Challenger Learning...
Decision coming on bomber training area expansion

BILLINGS, Mont. - Air Force officials are expected to decide as soon as next month whether to go forward with an expansion of a bomber training area over the Northern Plains that would encompass an area larger than West Virginia. Known as the Powder River Training Complex, the area includes portions of Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. It...
Veteran cited for ducks hopes for law change

COSHOCTON, Ohio — An Army veteran who says his pet ducks help relieve his post-traumatic stress disorder is now hoping for a change in the Ohio village law that prohibits him from keeping the animals in his backyard. Darin Welker, who served in the Army National Guard, was cited for violating a ban on keeping farm animals in West Lafayette,...
Colorado Springs to hold 61st Korean War Armistice celebration

A ceremony commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Korean War Armistice is Saturday at 10:30 a.m.at Memorial Park, located south of East Pikes Peak Avenue. The event, hosted by a local chapter of the Korean War Veteran's Association, will feature The Korean Consul General to the U.S. and a representative from the Air Force. Veterans of the...
Basic cadets begin long stay at Jack’s Valley

More than 1,200 basic cadets from the Air Force Academy, led by their cadet cadre, started 11 days of training at Jack's Valley on Monday. The basic cadets will be doing various drills and team-building exercises during one of the most physically demanding parts of their summer training.
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...