Barracks

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the cause of a Marine's death in his Fort Meade barracks room Wednesday afternoon. Emergency medical teams that responded to the call pronounced him dead at the scene. The name of the Marine, who was assigned to the Marine Corps student training detachment, is being withheld pending next of kin notification. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Victims of domestic violence across Maryland have a new team of advocates within the Maryland State Police. On Wednesday, State Police Superintendent Col. Marcus L. Brown announced a new position of domestic violence investigations coordinator at all 22 state police barracks. The specially-trained coordinators will be tasked with following up with victims, informing them of their legal rights - involving peace or protective orders - and putting them in touch with counselors, police said.

Troopers from the 56-year-old Bel Air barracks in Benson began moving to temporary headquarters at the Fallston Mall on Friday.The move paves the way for construction of a new facility and will not affect law enforcement services, barracks commander Lt. Earl Bredenburg said.He said the relocation, from Benson at Belair and Harford roads to the Fallston Mall at Belair Road and Route 152, will be completed tomorrow.The Bel Air barracks, the oldest in Maryland, are scheduled for demolition in August.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the cause of a Marine's death in his Fort Meade barracks room Wednesday afternoon. Emergency medical teams that responded to the call pronounced him dead at the scene. The name of the Marine, who was assigned to the Marine Corps student training detachment, is being withheld pending next of kin notification. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

The Westminster state police barracks gets a new commander today, five months after the previous commander assumed the post. Capt. Scott Yinger, a former barracks commander in Frederick, will oversee the biggest and busiest barracks in the state, with nearly 100 troopers answering an average of 251 calls per eight-hour shift, officials said. Until being promoted to captain and given the Westminster assignment, Yinger was a lieutenant in the Homeland Security and Intelligence Bureau, said Lt. Michael Cain, assistant barracks commander.

Three corporals at the Westminster barracks of the state police have received promotions to sergeant, but two -- Ronald W. Riggin and James W. Long -- will transfer to the Centreville barracks.All promotions and transfers are effective Jan. 14.Riggin recently received a Governor's Citation for his role in preventing a distraught man from shooting himself.Long, a resident trooper, has been involved with community policing programs in Carroll County.Palmer Grotte, the third new sergeant, will remain at Westminster as a resident trooper in Mount Airy.

About 325 state troopers and family members shared helpings of fried chicken and nostalgia yesterday at a picnic to say goodbye to the Westminster barracks.Westminster, with 96 troopers, is Maryland's largest -- and some say, busiest -- barracks.But the Baltimore Boulevard building, which opened in 1961, is also small, outdated and slated for demolition as soon as a new barracks is built next door.Groundbreaking is scheduled for fall.So with the old barracks on its way out, some of the troopers and civilian staff decided to have a reunion, sending invitations to more than 400 troopers who have been stationed there.

At the Air Force Student Detachment barracks at Fort Meade, almost every room contains mold. Water drips from leaky pipes into buckets on the floor. Shower water seeps down a hallway wall. Forty-seven airmen live in these half-century-old barracks, among the worst on the Army installation in western Anne Arundel County. "I think we've gone beyond the point of saying these barracks are unsuitable," said Maj. Danny S. Chung, commander of a Marine Corps detachment at Fort Meade.

Three veteran troopers, including two former Troopers of the Year, have transferred to new posts and six rookie graduates of the Maryland State Police Academy will bolster the ranks at the Westminster barracks.Cpl. Douglas W. Reitz, Tfc. Chris Hannon and Trooper Dave Thomas have left and Troopers James Ardinger, Kurt Dominick, Matthew Devalk, Jerry Schlossnagle, Jeffrey Leppert and Timothy Shrout have arrived, said 1st Sgt. Eric Danz, barracks spokesman.Reitz was honored as Trooper of the Year in 1996 and Hannon in 1997.

A proposal to have troopers in Westminster work 10-hour shifts will mean less overtime, improve protection at peak periods and boost morale, state police officials say.Troopers now work eight-hour shifts but often collect overtime when incidents occur just before a shift change, said 1st Sgt. Eric Danz, a spokesman for the Westminster barracks, the state's largest.As attendance control supervisor at the barracks, Danz coordinates the troopers' rotating shifts, allowing time for days off and court appearances.

WESTMINSTER - A lifelong resident of Carroll County has been named as the new commander of the Westminster Barrack for the Maryland State Police. Lt. Jim DeWees, 40, was transferred to the new position, effective this past week, by State Police Superintendent Col. Marcus Brown. He replaces former commander Lt. Andrew Winner, who was promoted to captain and will become the commander of the Central Troop, the police division that includes the Westminster Barrack. DeWees is a 20-year veteran of the State Police.

Local archaeologists have not only confirmed that Baltimore's Lafayette Square Park was once the stomping ground of a Civil War army barracks, but they also dug up a little-known fact about the soldiers who dwelled there: They had a knack for losing buttons. On Sunday, volunteers who joined the Baltimore Heritage and Archaeological Society of Maryland in searching for remnants at the former Union army encampment ended a three-day quest of exploring the park's history in the 19th century.

In a recent obituary, I mauled the spelling of a ship's name, the USS Reina Mercedes, which was a three-masted Spanish-American War prize that dated to 1887 and had been a fixture on the Naval Academy waterfront for decades. It wasn't long before my inbox was swimming with emails regarding my mistake, and a few old salts even put pen to paper to let me know I had it wrong. A number of academy graduates pointed out the error of my ways, and they were joined by Jeff Landaw , an eagle-eyed veteran Baltimore Sun copy editor and longtime colleague, who saw it after it was too late to spare me professional embarrassment.

On Dec. 7, 1941, a young Army nurse reported to Schofield barracks hospital in Hawaii for what would be her first solo weekend assignment. She would not leave for about three months. At 97, Myrtle Miller Watson, a longtime Baltimore resident who lives at Oak Crest Retirement Community in Parkville, can vividly recall the details of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the men whose lives she touched. She remembers the fatally wounded soldier, who could barely breathe but asked her to check on his buddy.

R ussell Sears was there when the state police barracks opened on Taylor Avenue in Annapolis in 1971, and he was there when it closed in 2008. He finished hanging metal doors left off their hinges by a bankrupt contractor, and four decades later stood in the courtyard at midnight and took possession of the Maryland flag that had flown over his beloved building for the final time. Russell Sears died this month in his Annapolis home at the age of 88 after a long illness, leaving a behind a wife, two grown children and a legacy of volunteerism that spanned a half-century with the state police and even longer, 73 years, with the West Annapolis Volunteer Fire Company.

A 10-vehicle collision on the inner loop of the Beltway near Pikesville sent six people to hospitals last night and tied up traffic for more than an hour, state police at the Golden Ring barracks said. Police said the vehicles collided about 9 p.m. near the Stevenson Road exit ramp. At least one of the autos caught fire. Three people were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. St. Joseph Medical Center and Greater Baltimore Medical Center treated the other three people. The names of the injured and their conditions were not available.

Lt. Terry L. Katz, new barracks commander of the Maryland State Police in Westminster, was introduced to the county commissioners yesterday and immediately struck a deal.Katz, a 29-year veteran with a background in criminal intelligence and police training, promised to keep the commissioners informed about law enforcement activities and asked them to share any concerns with him."I'm sure glad to be coming to my first command in Westminster, the state's flagship barracks," said Katz, 50, a county resident.

One-hundred state troopers reported for work yesterday at the realigned Special Operations Division in Waterloo -- a "one-stop shop" police officials say will provide quick response to large-scale crimes, emergencies or disasters anywhere in Maryland.The centrally located barracks in Howard County will be headquarters for a strike force, a police dog unit, the commando-like Special Tactical Assault Team Element (STATE), a motorcycle unit and soon, a crash investigative team.Before the realignment, some of the units were part time, scattered around the state.

At the Air Force Student Detachment barracks at Fort Meade, almost every room contains mold. Water drips from leaky pipes into buckets on the floor. Shower water seeps down a hallway wall. Forty-seven airmen live in these half-century-old barracks, among the worst on the Army installation in western Anne Arundel County. "I think we've gone beyond the point of saying these barracks are unsuitable," said Maj. Danny S. Chung, commander of a Marine Corps detachment at Fort Meade.

State police at the Westminster barracks are looking for the driver of a vehicle that struck a jogger about 8 p.m. Thursday in Finksburg and left the scene. Police said Donald Grone, 55, was jogging near his home on Constellation Way north of Kays Mill Road when he was struck and fell to the pavement. Police said Grone, who was unable to describe the vehicle, was taken by a Gamber Volunteer Fire Department ambulance to Sinai Hospital, where he was treated for nonlife-threatening injuries.