Military Base

"In response to Tim Rowland's article in the Dec. 19 newspaper, it says that he is worried about U.S. putting a moon base on the moon. He doesn't have to worry about that, because the U.S. signed an agreement with the U.N. in the 60s or early 70s that we wouldn't build a military base up there. " - Hagerstown "I am calling in regards to the Christmas decorations located throughout the city, especially the gentleman on 65 across from the Westfields development, that take the time, the energy and the expense to put up such beautiful decorations.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - A volunteer group wants to honor all past, present and future citizen soldiers at the Air National Guard's 167th Airlift Wing base south of Martinsburg by erecting a minuteman statute there. The statute will be the first of its kind in the state, said Maj. Gen. Allen E. Tackett, the West Virginia National Guard adjutant general. "We'd love to have that at all of our armories and bases across the state," Tackett said Friday. Members of The Minuteman Committee, a nonprofit organization formed to undertake the project, said Thursday that the monument is to be placed near the future entrance to the military base off U.S. 11. "We want this to be seen by everyone coming onto the base," said retired Col. Charles J. "Chuck" Enders, co-chairman of the committee and former 167th Airlift Wing squadron commander.

Community could have expected much more This is not a parcel at the intersection of the interstates, but an isolated site served only by two-lane roads that can be treacherous in winter. Despite that, COPT is willing to invest in it and create jobs. Washington County can't afford to chase this firm away. - From a Hagerstown Herald-Mail editorial, May 13. By Karl Weissenbach What a coincidence that The Herald-Mail's editorial coincided with the Pentagon's announcement to close or realign military facilities.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - Officials with the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg can uncross their fingers and release their pent-up breaths of anxiety since the Department of Defense announced Friday that the base would not lose any personnel or be forced to close. Still, though, news from the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) report left officials with the West Virginia Air National Guard unit scratching their heads. The report indicates that the base will gain 10 new employees - seven military personnel and three full-time civilians - but does not indicate who the personnel are or where they're coming from.

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. - And Washington County Hospital CEO Jim Hamill thinks he has problems. The hospital up here was built by William Miner, the chap who invented the railroad car coupler, made a mint and returned to his home in the Champlain Valley where he spent the rest of his life engaging in great works of science and philanthropy. In keeping with his dual interests, my brother Bruce told me he built a hospital for the community - but as a condition, he required that it keep and care for, in perpetuity, an ark's worth of animal species for reasons that are unclear.

pepperb@herald-mail.com Former employees and residents of Fort Ritchie gathered by Lake Royer on Sunday for the former military base's first reunion, but some said they weren't happy with the way their old stomping grounds look. Charlotte Selman, the event organizer, said she ran into many people who said they missed seeing old co-workers and neighbors that they lost once the military base was closed in 1998, which prompted her to hold the reunion. Selman, 74, who worked on the base for 24 years, said about 2,000 people lost jobs at the base when it was closed by the federal government about five years ago. Those people were sent mostly to neighboring Army bases, but others were scattered throughout the country.

"We built this church with our bare hands and faith in God," Alfred Tonolo told a large audience in a tent beside Letterkenny Army Depot Chapel on Saturday. Tonolo and other men of the Italian Service Units who were held as prisoners of war at the depot during World War II, built the ecumenical chapel as volunteers, after their work day. Tonolo, 83, who lives in Berwick, Pa., now, helped clean the native fieldstone used in the Florentine-style belfry, which stands 65 feet tall and is 6 feet square.

scottb@herald-mail.com While much of the world's attention is on Iraq, Stephanie Hood, her friends and family are thinking about soldiers in Afghanistan, including her husband of four months, U.S. Army Pvt. Matthew Hood, 21. Having the world's attention focused on another nation is a mixed blessing, Stephanie Hood, 18, and Matthew's mother, Carol, said last week. The good news is they are not barraged with the constant television news coverage about soldiers like Hood, whose jobs are to bomb caves and then see if any terrorists are inside, they said.