Our sister blog Spew reports: A Woman in Berlin at The Grand, Korea slide show, Drag Bingo, Eric Jaradi Bandand more. Click here for details.

Looking to save big as a military person or family member?  NorthwestMilitary.com will soon launch a section of deals and support notices.  In the meantime, check out our temporary site here.

Up there now are deals on Build A Bar, Applebees, and links to our new coupon site at SouthSoundSavings.com.

The tragedy at Fort Hood yesterday is summarized at the Army's "Stand To" site.

Please feel free to add your comments below to what happened yesterday, and how it makes you feel.

By Fort Lewis PAO

Cooks with the 1st Special Forces Dining Facility have plenty of reasons to serve with a smile. A team of 32 Soldier and civilian cooks earned the highly sought-after Philip A. Connelly Award at the Installation Management Command-West level. The DFAC won in the small dining facility category, which serves an average of 300 meals or less daily. The objective of the Philip A. Connelly Awards program is to “improve the professionalism of food service personnel, thus providing the best quality food service to Soldier diners,” according to the program’s Web site.

“It really brings the best out of the best,” said Thomas Lara, food service specialist for the IMCOM-West Functional Support Team.

The 1st SFG cooks spent about six months preparing for the competition, squeezing in as much training as possible and paying extra attention to their individual roles on the team.

They were judged on a variety of categories, including food preparation, adherence to recipe cards, sanitation, customer service, food presentation and uniform, said Lara.

“This is a big challenge,” he said. “It’s really an honor for them to make it this far.”

“The cooks worked really hard at it and now here we are, ready to take it to the next level,” said Sgt. 1st Class Paydrick Adams, cook and NCO-in-charge for the team.

First Special Forces Group is no stranger to the Philip A. Connelly Awards. In addition to winning at the IMCOM-West level in 2006, they took home the trophy for being the best Armywide. The DA-level competition is currently under way, but results won’t be released until the end of December.

Here's a snippet from UPI:

The Pentagon figures -- 35 percent of the roughly 31.2 million Americans ages 17-24 are ineligible for military service (because of obesity) -- are drawn from data from the Centers for Disease Control. In a study scheduled to be released Thursday in Washington, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a group of retired military officers say young Americans' lack of overall fitness for military duty is a national security threat, the Navy Times reported.

The report, drawing on Pentagon data, says 75 percent of the nation's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service for a variety of reasons, including:

-- 35 percent ineligible for medical/physical problems.

-- 18 percent ineligible for illegal drug use.

-- 9 percent ineligible for mental problems.

-- 18 percent have too many dependents.

-- 5 percent have a criminal record.

Looking to send a little love down-range?  How about sending A LOT of care!!  The good folks at Military Avenue have listed 101 ways you can show your support and devotion.

The complete list is here.

update (3:45 p.m.) November 9, 2009

(Fort Lewis release) – Family, friends, Soldiers and the Fort Lewis

community will remember seven Fort Lewis Soldiers who died while

deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with a ceremony to be

conducted Tuesday, November 10, at 1 p.m. in the North Fort Chapel.

The White House announced today that Vice President Joe Biden will

attend the ceremony and deliver remarks.

Staff Sgt. Luis M. Gonzalez, 27, of South Ozone Park, N.Y., Sgt.

Fernando Delarosa, 24, of Alamo, Texas, Sgt. Dale R. Griffin, 29, of

Terre Haute, Ind., Sgt. Issac B. Jackson, 27, of Plattsburg, Mo., Sgt.

Patrick O. Williamson, 24, of Broussard, La., Spc. Jared D. Stanker, 22,

of Evergreen Park, Ill., and Pfc. Christopher I. Walz, 25, of Vancouver,

Wash. died Oct. 27 in Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered

when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive

device.

The Soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment,

5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. The brigade

deployed to Afghanistan in July 2009.

The memorial ceremony is intended primarily to support our fallen

soldiers' unit and family members, the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, and

our Fort Lewis community. It is an opportunity for us to gather, support

one another and grieve for our heroes. As such, the ceremony is not open

to the general public, other than invited guests of the unit or the Fort

Lewis protocol office.

UPDATE: The memorial time has not been officially released as of 11 a.m. today.  Likely, the memorial for the seven soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade will be in the afternoon.

News reports indicate that Vice President Joe Biden will attend the memorial ceremony at Fort Lewis tomorrow.

Two Stryker soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade were killed Nov. 5th in Jelewar, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when their Stryker hit an improvised explosive device. The soldiers were in the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.  Killed were:

Spc. Aaron S. Aamot, 22 of Custer, Wa.

Spc. Gary L. Gooch, 22 of Ocala, Fla.

(1st SFG (A) — Soldiers of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)

will honor two fallen comrades during a sunrise re-dedication ceremony

at the unit's memorial wall on Veteran's Day.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 a.m., the names of Sgt. 1st Class

Christopher D. Shaw and Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III will be unveiled

as the most recent additions to the roster of fallen Soldiers

memorialized on the wall.

The 1st Special Forces Group Memorial Wall honors Soldiers who have died

while serving on missions around the world. The wall currently has 164

names memorialized on it.

Shaw and Martin died Sept. 29 on Jolo Island, Philippines when their

vehicle struck an IED.

(Fort Lewis release) — The Fort Lewis museum will close its doors beginning November 16 for more than a year while the building undergoes a complete renovation. This will be the final week for guests to visit the museum, which will remain open for its regular operating hours of noon until 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, although the museum will be closed November 11, in observance of Veterans Day. The museum is expected to reopen in spring, 2011.

Additional Information:

The Fort Lewis Museum occupies the former Red Shield Inn, completed in

1919. The inn's construction was contracted by the Salvation Army in

1918 to house newly-arriving Soldiers and their families at "Camp

Lewis." The building is one of two surviving buildings from the former

Greene Park, a recreation area established for Soldiers mobilized or

stationed here during World War I (the other surviving building houses

the installation Family Readiness Center).

More information about the building's history can be found at the

museum's web page, at: http://www.lewis.army.mil/lewis-redshieldinn.asp.

This will be the building's most extensive renovation since its

construction was completed in 1919. It was transferred to government

ownership on July 1, 1924, and served the needs of Fort Lewis soldiers

and family members until 1972. In 1973, it re-opened as the home of the

Fort Lewis Military Museum.

The museum building was placed on the National Registry of Historic

Places in 1979.

When the renovations are completed, the museum will continue as a link

to the post's past and preserve the heritage of Fort Lewis and the Army

in the Pacific Northwest.