NEWS
May 13, 2013
I wish to express how delighted I am that the Maryland National Guard is seeing its final deployment to Afghanistan ("Md. Guard preparing for Afghanistan, and after," May 10). Now, let's bring all of them home from the all the other hellholes. (Kosovo, perhaps?) Along with many others, I believe the Maryland Guard is a state resource, and from the beginning of America's ill-advised adventures into Afghanistan and Iraq, I've resented these members of our state's preparedness team being poached for wars halfway around the planet.
NEWS
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun | May 13, 2013
For Capt. Martin Noorsalu, deploying to Afghanistan with the Maryland National Guard last year was an unusual opportunity. Noorsalu is one of only a dozen helicopter pilots in the Estonian Air Force. The sole air defense service of the former Soviet republic numbers some 400 personnel. They fly four helicopters. But from September to December, Noorsalu and fellow Estonian Air Force Capt. Rene Kallis flew medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan with Maryland National Guard members in the 1st General Support Aviation Battalion of the 169th Aviation Regiment.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Catherine Mallette, The Baltimore Sun | May 10, 2013
On paper, Lisa Scottoline is a little intimidating. She's got more than 30 million copies in print of her books, including 20 best-selling novels. She writes a weekly column, with her daughter, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and taught a class at the latter called "Justice and Fiction. " But ask her about any connections she might have to Baltimore, where she'll be visiting May 20 as a featured author in the Baltimore Sun Book Club, and you'll quickly discover her self-deprecating sense of humor.
NEWS
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun | May 9, 2013
As the Maryland National Guard prepares for what could be its final deployment to Afghanistan, its commander sees a "pivotal point" in the nation's history. More than a decade of deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and other battlegrounds since Sept. 11, 2001, has produced a highly skilled and deeply experienced generation of warriors. But with the United States out of Iraq and planning to leave Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Adkins sees a new challenge. "Many of the soldiers that are serving now have known only war," he said Thursday from Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where members of the 244 t h Engineer Co. are training for a deployment starting later this year.
FEATURES
By Dave Rosenthal and The Baltimore Sun | May 2, 2013
The Books For Kids Day event has a touching twist this year: It's being dedicated to Anne Smedinghoff, the 25-year-old Johns Hopkins University alum who was killed in a bombing while delivering textbooks to school children in Afghanistan. Smedinghoff, who worked in the public diplomacy section of the State Department, was killed along with three U.S. soldiers and a civilian employee of the Defense Department, according to reports in The Baltimore Sun. Those who knew her said the work illustrated her drive to help others.
NEWS
By Ian Duncan, The Baltimore Sun | April 27, 2013
Friends and former classmates gathered Saturday at Johns Hopkins University to remember Anne Smedinghoff, a Foreign Service officer who was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan earlier this month, sharing stories of a too-short life marked by adventure. As photographs of Smedinghoff in front of monuments and ruins around the world flashed by on projector screens, friends recalled her various escapades, including a coast-to-coast cycling trip, which saw the young woman eat a live bug to fulfill an item on a scavenger hunt list.