Ever since my story about an Army Special Operations unit summiting Mount Adams last month was published, friends and readers ask, “Did you really do that with them?”

That’s when I stand a little straighter, smile, and say, “Yeah, I kept up with the guys.”

The guys are an elite team from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The summit stands at 12,276 feet. The hike called for about 7,000 feet of elevation gain over two days with temperatures dropping into the low 20s. I had reason to be proud.

What I don’t tell my skeptical friends is that I spent the …

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A new Defense Department Inspector General report urges the Navy to slow down on its purchases of a submarine-hunting jet that Boeing manufactures in the Puget Sound.

The Inspector General wants the Navy to supervise more testing to ensure that P-8A Poseidon jets will reach a required 25-year lifespan “without succumbing to structural fatigue” before committing to a  full-rate production contract. The IG says the Navy had planned to consider that contract next month.

So far, the Navy has ordered 24 P-8A jets and it has begun assigning them to Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida. Over time, the …

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Defense leaders still can’t give Sen. Patty Murray a deadline for when they plan to wrap up a service-wide review of military behavioral health programs more than a year after they first committed to her request.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta launched the cross-service review last year following complaints from patients at Madigan Army Medical Center who had diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder changed for reasons they could not understand.

Since then, the Army has released plans to standardize its behavioral health programs. The cross-service review remains incomplete.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Murray during his …

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Joint Base Lewis-McChord is getting one break that most other military installations are not receiving this year in the Pentagon’s plan to furlough its civilian workforce for 11 days this summer

Lewis-McChord’s schools are staying open full time despite the furloughs because they’re managed by Lakewood’s CloverParkSchool District.

Elsewhere, the Defense Department plans to shut schools on military bases for five days this fall so employees can take their unpaid days off.

We’re publishing more about Lewis-McChord’s furlough plan in Tuesday’s newspaper. The base has more than 10,000 civilian employees who generally will be compelled to take Fridays …

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Sgt. Luke Cifka left for Afghanistan this past spring determined to return home to his wife and infant son.

He’s back in the states with family, but not in the way he wanted.

The 26-year-old soldier from Olympia suffered critical injuries during a patrol in Logar Province on May 31. He’s at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland at the beginning of what his wife describes as a “long road ahead” of rehabilitation.

“We’re very, super, super lucky that as serious as his injuries are, he’s still alive,” said his wife, Kait Cifka, 23. The family did not …

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Last fall, the Army toasted the arrival of a two-star general and a new headquarters for a reactivated division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with a sunny ceremony on its main parade ground.

The day had all the pomp of a military ceremony – speeches, canons and rows of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder unwilling to scratch any itch.

It all went well until the base’s brass band broke into the official but forgotten tune for the revived 7th Infantry Division. Soldiers had not sung it in the seven years the 7^th ID went dark before the Army brought the headquarters …

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2:20 p.m. update: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will not face the death penalty when an Army jury decides his punishment for massacring 16 Afghan civilians, an Army judge said today.

Bales’ maximum penalty will be life without a chance for parole, Judge Col. Jeffery Nance said in court today when he accepted Bales’ guilty plea.

The agreement lays the groundwork for an Aug. 19 sentencing trial where Bales’ attorneys hope put the March 2012 massacre in the context of the soldier’s experiences over four combat tours. Factors including Bales’ reported post-traumatic stress and a past concussive head injury could help …

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Afghanistan’s next 10 months could well determine the strength of the country’s government after U.S. forces complete their expected drawdown in 2014, said Rep. Denny Heck of Olympia who just returned from his first visit to the war zone as a U.S. Congressman.

He was one of five lawmakers who spent seven days traveling to U.S. military installations in Germany, Qatar and Afghanistan, as well as stopping in Kosovo for a meeting with leaders there.

Heck was elected in November to represent a district that includes some 46,000 military service members stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He’s been getting up …

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