101st Airborne Division

Air National Guard Airman Sean J. Murphy has graduated from Air Force Training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.Murphy, the son of Joseph and Gail Murphy of Woodbine, is a 1989 Glenelg High School graduate.CARO AWARDED STARArmy 1st Lt. Stephen T. Caro has been awarded the Bronze Star.It was awarded for exceptionally meritorious service in support of U.S. forces and the multi-national coalition coalition during operation Desert Storm. He is a rifle platoon leader with the 327th InfantryRegiment, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Oak Grove, Ky.Caro, is the son of Dana and Eunice Caro of Ellicott City, graduated from West Point in 1989.

William Robert McMahon Jr., a retired ironworker and World War II paratrooper, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Conover, N.C. He was 81 and a former resident of Anne Arundel County's Poplar Ridge neighborhood. Born and raised in South Baltimore, Mr. McMahon left school in the ninth grade to help support his family. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and was assigned as a paratrooper to the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles. On June 5, 1944, the eve of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, Mr. McMahon's 501st Parachute Infantry unit was flown to France, where it jumped and landed behind Utah Beach to prevent German reinforcements from reaching the area.

William Shirley Spotts, an Army veteran who served in Korea and later worked for Bethlehem Steel Corp., died of congestive heart failure July 4 at a hospice in Stuart, Fla. He was 75. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Spotts graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1948. During his junior year, his basketball team won the state championship and Mr. Spotts was named most valuable player. He enlisted in the Army in 1948 and served with the 101st Airborne Division. Mr. Spotts was awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in the Korean War. He was honorably discharged in 1952.

William L. Brooks, a retired contractor with the Raytheon Service Co. at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, died of lung cancer June 21 at the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center in Baltimore. The Annapolis resident was 64. In his position at Raytheon, Mr. Brooks managed the vehicle fleet and ensured that supplies got to NASA stations around the world, according to his wife, Sara Jensen Brooks. He traveled extensively to Guam, Hawaii, Bermuda and elsewhere, she said.

A Special Forces soldier from Baltimore County was killed Saturday in Afghanistan, officials said. Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Robert Pepper, a 1999 graduate of Kenwood High School in Essex, was on patrol in Ghazni province in Eastern Afghanistan when his unit was attacked by insurgents, according to Army Special Forces Command. He was 31. In a statement, his family called him "A good brother, a caring brother, a loving brother. " "Brandon was a good friend to all of us, and was always willing to help.

The battlefield In the push north to Baghdad, American-led forces bomb a Republican Guard fuel depot and a missile facility, and Royal Air Force pilots strike areas near Baghdad. Marines and Iraqi troops continue a fierce battle for control of the strategic city of Nasiriyah. Four Marines with the 1st Expeditionary Force are reported missing. A missile, apparently fired from southern Iraq, explodes near a shopping mall in Kuwait City but causes no injuries and little damage, U.S. and Kuwaiti officials say. U.S. planes deliver tanks, off-road vehicles and equipment to an airfield in northern Iraq, helping the effort to open a second front.

BAGHDAD - With July 1 as the target date for Iraqis to take the political helm of their country, Washington is moving swiftly to shift the dangerous and costly burden of security into Iraqis' hands. As another U.S. soldier died in a roadside bombing in Mosul yesterday, the top U.S. general in Iraq outlined the growing effort to shift security "to Iraqi faces," including a decision to triple the size of Iraq's new civil defense forces in coming months. The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a paramilitary unit designed to help hunt insurgents and foster communication with citizens, is expected to grow from 12,500 personnel to nearly 40,000 in the next four months, said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

TIKRIT, Iraq -- A U.S. soldier testified yesterday that members of his squadron accused of murdering three Iraqis had received orders to kill all the insurgents they encountered during a raid on an island believed to harbor al-Qaida members. Pfc. Bradley Mason said that orders to "kill all of them" were clear prior to the raid that ended in the deaths of the three male detainees. He was testifying during a hearing in Tikrit to decide whether soldiers will be court-martialed for murder.

Sgt. 1st Class Brad Bonnell isn't worried about his two brothers in Iraq. His brother Bryon is a major and, because he's an aide to the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, stays a safe distance from the action. His oldest brother, Brett, is also a major; he flies helicopters, but Brad doesn't think he has done so in this war theater. It's their mother Brad worries about most. "She's never been in a conflict with all three sons," he said one afternoon last week, while sitting on the back of a Humvee in Baghdad.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- The first hours of ground combat suggested that U.S. military planners calculated correctly when they made preparations to house and feed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi prisoners of war.U.S. military planners spent months planning for the potential surrender of hundreds of thousands of prisoners. But allied commanders had warned before combat began that a torrent of POWs could force the allies to walk captured Iraqis south to Saudi Arabia under armed guard.That would stretch the resources of the military police, so National Guard details are standing by to assist, said Maj. Rex Forney, MP deputy provost marshal for the 101st Airborne Division.