RENO — Friends say a Reno soldier was among eight killed during a weekend firefight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
Military
A former Army Reserve sergeant whose family says his Iraq war experiences led to an outburst last year that left him and a Nye County sheriff’s deputy with gunshot wounds pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday to several charges, including attempted murder.
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday asked the State Department and Pentagon to investigate the electrocution of a 25-year-old private security contractor while showering in his dormitory in Baghdad.
CARSON CITY — A 20-year-old soldier from Fernley has been killed in Iraq.
WASHINGTON — A Henderson man who worked for a State Department contractor has been electrocuted while showering in Baghdad even as U.S. authorities in Iraq try to remedy bathhouse wiring problems that have led to the deaths of U.S. troops there.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a collection of periodic essays from Afghanistan by Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, commander of the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry, the largest overseas deployment of Nevada National Guard troops.
A suicide bomber attacked a marketplace in Afghanistan on Wednesday near where Nevada Army National Guard soldiers are serving, killing the country’s deputy intelligence chief and 22 others who were leaving a mosque near the city’s main bazaar, authorities said.
In a collection of essays by Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, the Review-Journal will follow him and the 700 soldiers he commands in the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry as they experience the largest overseas deployment of Nevada National Guard troops. The unit departed Las Vegas on April 18 and trained at Camp Atterbury, Ind. They were flown to Afghanistan at the end of June to conduct combat operations with NATO forces as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Duty permitting, Cunningham will periodically report his impressions from the embattled country.
Slide show
Gov. Jim Gibbons visited soldiers in Iraq on Sunday as part of a three-governor tour to gauge troop morale in the Basra area, according to a military news release.
Little Julian Quintana visited his daddy in Iraq today, the second such visit in his three days of life. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy Quintana, 20, who is stationed in Iraq, visited with his newborn son and his wife, Crystal, through a satellite video conference arranged through Freedom Calls, a charity that facilitates hundreds of “baby conferences” for military families each month.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is seeking to help families of National Guard and Reserve troops whose incomes as citizen-soldiers are reduced by deployments in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Lowells and the Petersens, seen above training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, are just two of nine sets of brothers serving in Nevada’s 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry of the Nevada Army National Guard, which will be heading out in a few weeks for some of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan.
Video
From left, Selwyn Goldberg, Jack Cohen and Ed Kranson, all volunteers from Jewish War Veterans Post 65, are leading the effort to help local veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by sponsoring the “Welcome Home” event June 5 at the Gold Coast.
“It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver.”
On Saturday morning, after all the tearful goodbyes to family were over, buses left the Clark County Armory, taking more than 600 soldiers from Nevada’s 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry on the first leg of their year-long journey to the war front in Afghanistan.
Video of local soldier leaving