Soldier

Michael J. McMullen, a Maryland Army National Guard truck driver who died Jan. 10 of wounds he suffered on Christmas Eve when two roadside bombs exploded in Iraq, has been posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry under fire while saving a fellow soldier. McMullen, who in civilian life was a firefighter and paramedic in the Salisbury Fire Department, also was awarded a Purple Heart and posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, according to a statement released yesterday by the Maryland National Guard.

Army Pfc. Thomas L. Brodkin, son of Peter and Kathaleen Brodkin of Columbia, has been named post soldier of the year at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.The selection was based on the soldier's exemplary duty performance, job knowledge, leadership qualities and significant self-improvement and other accomplishments.Brodkin is a 1983 graduate of Wilde Lake High School.AIR FORCE SERGEANT GETS SPECIAL MEDALStaff Sgt. Russell D. Kirk, son of Donald and Kerin Kirk of Ellicott City, has been decorated with the AirForce Commendation Medal.

A funeral service for Spc. Ari D. Brown-Weeks, an Army paratrooper who was killed Sept. 10 in Iraq, is scheduled for noon tomorrow at Mountain Christian Church, 1824 Mountain Road, Joppa. Brown-Weeks died in a truck accident in Baghdad with six other soldiers. The Massachusetts native had lived in Abingdon over the past two years with his wife, Ashley Tillery Weeks, a Harford County native. The family will receive visitors from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at McComas Funeral Home, 1317 Cokesbury Road, Abingdon.

Gloucester, Va. -- Standing at a podium overlooking a flag-draped coffin, the Rev. Douglas Nagel told hundreds of mourners gathered in Gloucester's First Presbyterian Church yesterday not to think that Army Spc. Eric Thomas Caldwell's life had been taken from him. To think that, he said amid soft cries coming from the crowd, would cheapen Caldwell's sacrifice. The 22-year-old soldier, who spent much of his childhood in Salisbury on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was killed in Iraq on Jan. 7 after his patrol encountered enemy small-arms fire north of Baghdad.

A soldier from Baltimore was killed by enemy fire while on patrol in Baghdad last week, the Department of Defense announced yesterday. Staff Sgt. Marlon B. Harper, 34, died Saturday from wounds he suffered from a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire while on patrol, the Army said in a news release. Sergeant Harper was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas. Sergeant Harper, who joined the military in 1993 as an armor crew member, apparently lived in apartments in the Tuscany-Canterbury and Brooklyn sections of Baltimore as recently as 1999, according to public records.

THE PROBLEM with the Fourth of July is that it doesn't have any great literature it can call its own. Christmas has A Christmas Carol, Thanksgiving has the poem Thanksgiving Day, even Halloween has The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Such an important day in this country's history needs a hook on which to hang its tricorn hat. I have just the book: A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, by Joseph Plumb Martin. Don't be put off by the long title (it has since been renamed Private Yankee Doodle)

It is a sad day in American jurisprudence when a soldier of conscience is court-martialed not for lying but for telling the truth, not for breaking a covenant with the military but for upholding the rule of law in wartime. The court-martial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren K. Watada is set for Monday at Fort Lewis near Seattle. The 28-year-old soldier from Hawaii is the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. He is charged with "missing movement" and "conduct unbecoming of an officer," including "use of contemptuous words for the president."

WASHINGTON -- In a heartfelt homecoming address to Congress, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf declared yesterday that he is "damned proud" to be an American soldier and told the lawmakers that it is now up to the civilians to secure peace in the Middle East."

A 26-year-old soldier from Bowie appeared in federal court in Baltimore yesterday on charges that he smuggled assault rifles out of Iraq that were later used by others in six Washington-area bank robberies. In October 2003, witnesses saw Leonard Stephan Lockley placing the component parts of AK-47-style rifles into a large black metal chest with a false bottom, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors in Baltimore. At the time, Lockley was deployed near Baghdad. Lockley's standing in the military was unclear yesterday.