Tagged: JBLM

Army staff sergeant Robert Bales will plead guilty next week to murdering 16 Afghan villagers in early morning raids last year. The plea allows the soldier from western Washington’s Joint-Base Lewis McCord to avoid the death penalty. John Henry Browne, an attorney for Bales, says his client will detail his own version of the crimes as part of the plea deal.

A case that featured harrowing testimony of combat-related mental illness ended Monday with a guilty verdict. Army Sergeant John Russell was convicted for murdering five fellow servicemen at a military mental health clinic in Baghdad in 2009.

A military judge found the 48-year-old Texas native guilty of premeditated murder. A public affairs spokesman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma says Sergeant Russell showed no visible reaction.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. - The Defense Department has suspended a workplace benefit cherished by many soldiers, airmen and Coast Guardsmen. The agency has put tuition assistance on indefinite hold because of the automatic federal budget cuts known as the "sequester."

Two themes emerged from a roundtable of mostly female soldiers at the U.S. Army's biggest West Coast post. Joint Base Lewis-McChord organized the panel Thursday to speak on the Pentagon's decision to allow women into combat roles.