Army

MARYLAND State's honeymoon countdown Despite the losses by Republicans and the inauguration next week of a Democratic governor, the potential for fierce debate remains as the General Assembly convenes this week. The state will be grappling with billion-dollar budget shortfalls, growing pressure to expand health care access, and decisions on the death penalty and gay marriage. pg 1a NIH lab may need overhaul The National Institutes of Health says it is considering "extensive" renovations to an aging research laboratory in Southeast Baltimore because the new, $250 million lab built nearby as a replacement vibrates so much that tests there could be compromised.

Orlando Franklin Johnson, a retired Baltimore barber who performed in the stage and film versions of This Is the Army during World War II, died of heart failure Jan. 2 at his Edmondson Village home of more than half a century. He was 88. Mr. Johnson was the son of a farmer and raised in the Calvert County community of Mutual. As a youngster, he worked with his father during the winter shucking oysters for a Broomes Island packing company. He attended the two-room Pink School in Island Creek and graduated in 1936 from the old Central Industrial High School in Prince Frederick.

Moving at "creep speed" amid a business lunch crowd yesterday, the miniature tank-like machine aroused little curiosity. Diners barely noticed as the contraption passed, unaware that it was monitoring temperature, humidity and air quality. An Army engineer operated the unit remotely, occasionally raising its arm above the diners to get a better view. After reviewing the data, he pronounced the atmosphere on the patio at Harford Community College safe -- even healthy -- for diners. "Oxygen is at 20.9 percent, right where it's supposed to be," said Shawn Funk, a mechanical engineer with the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- A military judge abruptly declared a mistrial yesterday in the court-martial of an Army lieutenant who refused orders to go to Iraq, handing a temporary reprieve to the elated officer and leaving military prosecutors visibly stunned and angry with the ruling. The decision by the judge, Lt. Col. John Head, turned on the contentious issue of whether factual stipulations agreed to earlier by the prosecutors and the defense team amounted to a confession of guilt by the lieutenant, 28-year-old Ehren Watada, on the Army's charges of failure to deploy.

Mayor Sheila Dixon told a gathering of officials and media at an Army-Navy luncheon yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium that although her father was in the Army, she will be a "neutral" observer at the Dec. 1 game that returns to Baltimore for the first time since 2000 and for only the fourth time in history. It was a politically correct remark, and when Army coach Stan Brock took his turn at the microphone, he couldn't help but let everyone know he knew it. Navy vs. Army Dec. 1, noon, M&T Bank Stadium, chs. 13, 9, 1090 AM

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- Heavy shelling and gunfire continued for the second day at the Nahr al Bared refugee camp, as the Lebanese army intensified its offensive against the Fatah al Islam militia. Three soldiers were killed and 15 were wounded in the fighting by yesterday afternoon, the army reported, raising the number of the army's deaths from the two-day offensive to six. Dozens of militants from Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group, have also been killed or wounded, the army said.

BEIRUT -- A new front erupted in Lebanon's simmering political conflict yesterday in the northern city of Tripoli, where running battles between the Lebanese army and a radical new Palestinian organization said to have ties to al-Qaida killed at least 39 people. In the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's civil war 17 years ago, the army battled militants throughout the day in the streets of the port city and on the edges of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared, which late last year fell under the control of a radical group calling itself Fateh al-Islam.

The Environmental Protection Agency's order this week that the Army clean up 17 hazardous-waste sites at Fort Meade and the nearby Patuxent Research Refuge has more to do with a bureaucratic entanglement than the continuing $100 million decontamination effort, several officials on both sides said. Army officials, who have long argued that the cleanup of four parcels should be enough for the regulatory agency to take the base off its Superfund list of the nation's most polluted sites, said Wednesday that they have until the middle of September to respond to the order.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- John Batiste has traveled a long way in the past four years, from commanding the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq to quitting the Army after three decades in uniform, and now, from his new life overseeing a steel factory here, to openly challenging President Bush on his management of the war. "Mr. President, you did not listen," Batiste says in new television advertisements being broadcast in Republican congressional districts as part...

WASHINGTON -- It is touted as one of the Army's most lethal weapons, a fearsome-looking helicopter that can whiz along at more than 150 mph, pop up undetected from behind hills and spew a torrent of missiles, rockets and banana-size bullets.But when the Apaches were called upon for the Kosovo conflict, it took nearly a month to get the helicopters in place. And they never saw combat, though two pilots were killed in training accidents.Then the Army's most respected helicopter officer unleashed a stinging salvo, telling his superiors that the Apache pilots were not properly trained and the aircraft carried outdated equipment.

Rutgers@Army 8 p.m. [ESPN2] Ready for some Friday Knight football? Scarlet Knights vs. Black Knights, that is. This series dates to 1891, but it could be decided by kids who weren't born until roughly a century later. Two of the nation's six true freshmen who serve as their team's primary starters at quarterback will be on display. Rutgers' Tom Savage is fourth among true freshman quarterbacks nationally with 941 passing yards, and Trent Steelman, at right in photo at left, leads true freshman QBs with 407 rushing yards in Army's triple-option offense.

Experts say the U.S. military's recent recruitment success is due to the recession - young men and women, lacking job opportunities during a period of relatively high unemployment, have volunteered for duty in record numbers despite the nation being at war. Hard to argue with the experts; "the economy," up or down, is a factor in everything, starting with the career choices young Americans get to make. Throw in pay raises and signing bonuses, and you can see why the Army and Marine Corps were able to reach recruitment goals and then some - nearly 170,000 fresh faces signed on the dotted line during the last federal budget year.

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - -Looking every inch a governor, the thickset Iraqi, in a pinstripe jacket, sits behind an imposing desk and glares at his American guest. When he drove to work that morning, Bassam Kalasho informed the newly arrived Army colonel, he found the road full of American checkpoints and his office surrounded by American soldiers. "It looks like you took over," he said, his voice growing louder with every word. Sometimes he gets so worked up, he said later, he forgets that his "office" is on an Army base in California and that he is only pretending to be an Iraqi provincial governor.

What has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the start of our military involvement there? Anyone who hasn't been paying careful attention could be forgiven for not knowing that the answer is July 2009 - which still has four days left in it. A roadside explosion killed four Americans last Monday, meaning at least 30 have died this month; the previous high was 28 in June 2008. On the same day as the explosion in eastern Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the Army will increase in size by as many as 22,000 troops in response to the buildup in Afghanistan and our continuing efforts in Iraq.

Now that the U.S. has for all practical purposes ended its combat role in Iraq by withdrawing from its cities and towns, we should pause to honor those brave men and women who have sacrificed so much these past 75 months. But we should also think about two veterans of that war whose crimes shocked the Army and the nation. In many ways, they were also victims of this war. On May 7, Private Steven Dale Green, 24, was convicted of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then killing her and three members of her family on March 11, 2006, in Iraq, when he was 21 years old. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ending a long legal dispute, the Army has agreed to an enforceable timetable for cleaning up contaminated Superfund sites at Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin announced Monday. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the Army had signed a "federal facilities agreement" governing the cleanup of groundwater and soil contamination on the sprawling base near Odenton. The announcement comes six months after Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler filed suit against the Army for failing to comply with a cleanup order issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Suddenly, it's a lot harder to get into the National Guard, and harder to stay in. Across Maryland and the nation, National Guard recruiters are demanding higher test scores and at least a high school degree - no more GEDs. That's a big shift for the organization, which for years struggled - and often failed - to reach its recruiting goals. Just a few months ago, 42-year-olds were enlisting. Today, no one over 35 is accepted. Don't ask for the waivers for misdemeanors or minor physical conditions that were freely handed out last year.

Charles Corrothers "C.C." Clements Jr., an Army specialist who had completed tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, was killed March 29 when a gunman opened fire in a North Carolina restaurant and lounge. The Randallstown resident was 27. "Charles was home on a 15-day leave from Afghanistan and was about to go back," said his stepfather, Timothy Hutchen of Owings Mills. "It was his second tour of duty in Afghanistan." Mr. Clements was sitting with another soldier and close friend, Arthur Mwebe, from nearby Fort Bragg when an unidentified gunman began shooting in the Jamaican Restaurant and Lounge in Spring Lake, N.C. Mr. Clements was killed instantly.

Army 76, Navy 71 - Adam Teague scored 16 points, and reserves Clif Colbert and Jordan Sugars added 14 and 13, respectively, but poor shooting doomed Navy in its loss yesterday to Army in West Point, N.Y. The Midshipmen (14-6, 3-2 Patriot League) shot just 19-for-61 (31.1 percent) from the field. "Army played a great game. They didn't do anything funky or fancy, but they just completely outplayed us," Navy coach Billy Lange said. "I thought our guys had the right intentions, but we just ran into a team that was desperate to win a game.

Wiretaps limited only inside U.S., court rules WASHINGTON: The government does not need a search warrant when it taps the phones or checks the e-mails of suspected terrorists who are outside the U.S., even if Americans might be overheard on these calls, a special intelligence court ruled in an opinion released yesterday. The decision confirms what Bush administration officials and some legal experts have long said: While the Constitution protects privacy rights of Americans against "unreasonable searches and seizures," this principle does not bar U.S. spy agencies from conducting surveillance aimed at foreign targets abroad.