Soldiers check polling sites, prepare for Iraqi election

Attention all Facebookers, Twitter tweeters and YouTubers: a new Defense Department policy authorizes you to access these and other Web 2.0 platforms from nonclassified government computers, as long as it doesn't compromise operational security or involve prohibited activities or web sites.

Commanders, command sergeants major and first sergeants from five chemical battalions and 27 companies across the 48th Chemical Brigade gathered at Fort Polk Feb. 17-19 for the first brigade off-site training event of the brigade’s history. Fort Polk’s 83rd Chemical Battalion, one of the brigade’s subordinate commands, hosted the event, which included a brigade run, motor maintenance training, a live-fire exercise at Peason Ridge, hazardous materials response training, networking sessions for the battalion and company leaders and the Chemical Corps’ evolving mission and technology.

Preparing for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, conducted infantry tactics training at Camp Williams, Utah, Feb. 15-16.

It’s hard enough being a Soldier with two good legs.

Soldier, Infantryman, Airborne Ranger, combat diver, mountain climber, skier, triathlete, surfer, husband and father are just a few words to describe Capt. Scotty Smiley.

As a high school senior in 1944, Edward Drummond thought he would do the patriotic thing after he graduated and join the Air Corps. He was young, enthusiastic and wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Hours after the earthquake struck Haiti Jan. 12, members of U.S. Army South's Humanitarian Assistance Survey team were notified that they would be departing for Port-au-Prince the next day.

Arlington National Cemetery sits under a blanket of snow after a winter storm dumped nearly 24 inches of snow across much of the region Feb. 9. The Washington, D.C. area recieved 12 more inches Feb. 10.

Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blogs about the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ issue.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates established a Defense Department panel Feb. 2 to prepare the military for the potential elimination of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans openly gay people from serving in the armed forces.

Capt. Mark Poirier, a medical officer with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, checks a baby brought to the squadron's forward operating base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 18. Haiti was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake Jan. 12.

The U.S. government is still figuring out the details of American assistance in Haiti, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Jan. 27 in Washington D.C., noting that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Barack Obama discussed the issue Jan. 26.

President Barack Obama stressed during his State of the Union address Jan. 27 the importance of confronting terrorists who threaten the United States and of succeeding in Afghanistan while continuing a responsible military drawdown in Iraq.

As the sun rises over the sweeping palms in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 17, not much is certain about Army Lt. Col. Mike Foster's day.

The 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, N.C., will deploy a battalion with a Command and Control Element in response to the earthquake in Haiti.

Sgt. Jason Stevens, agribusiness development team horticulturist, 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard, gathers a soil sample from a field alongside the main road in Marawara, Afghanistan. The ADT stopped in Marawara to meet with local farmers about their crop output and farming in the area, as well as to gather soil samples to learn how crop production might be increased in the area.

Soldiers and others can now read the latest Army news on their iPhones, thanks to a new application created by the team that developed the Army's Web site, www.army.mil.

The U.S. Central Command chief put the Al-Qaida threat in Yemen in perspective during a news conference in Baghdad Jan. 1.

The 10th annual playing of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl is set to kick-off on Saturday at noon. This year's game marks the 10th anniversary of the game. It will be played in San Antonio's Alamodome and broadcast live on NBC.