What do football, rock 'n' roll and military troops have in common? Today they'll all be in Mountville for a free community concert.The Atlantic Coast Patriots Minor League Football organization and Mountville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8757 commander Clyde Snyder have teame......

While most high school graduates are enjoying a summer of leisure and fun, Caitlin March and Leigh Rosenberger are gearing up for the "beast." The two best friends are headed for West Point June 30 to start eight weeks of basic training, dubbed the "beast," before classes st......

The rebirth of an American treasure is nearly complete.With just three months remaining until it goes back on public display, the finishing touches are being applied to the famous Cyclorama painting at the new Gettysburg Museum & Visitor Center."We're in the home stretc......

Those who served were themselves served Friday during a special dinner honoring the men and women who wore the uniform of America's armed forces.The Cocalico Senior Association, which performs outreach programs for seniors in northern Lancaster County, hosted about 230 people, includin......

Amber Nitchman, co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society at McCaskey High School, wants the U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan to end.Until it does, however, she and the rest of SDS plan to do whatever they can to aid soldiers and civilians in the two nations.......

A plan to expand veterans' benefits under the GI Bill has many former soldiers at odds with their commander-in-chief and the Republicans' front-running presidential candidate.The bill, part of a 10-year, $250 billion spending package, includes a $52 billion expansion of the GI Bill......

On Nov. 8, 1862, young Ebenezer S. Killian was drafted into the military, donning the blue kersey uniform of a Union soldier to take up arms in a struggle to preserve freedom and end slavery.The Lancaster County man was made a member of a local militia organization, the 178th Pennsylvania ......

The story of Tal Al Khaym, a village southeast of Mosul, is heart-wrenching, but inspiring. Over the last four months, this once-repressed community has grown, not only in population, but in spirit. The story begins in a traditional military fashion. Together with our Iraqi Army battalion, we w......

A yellow ribbon is tied outside of Rose Mary Nightingale's home. It is there for the son who served six months in Afghanistan, and now is stationed in North Dakota. And it is there for all of the U.S. military men and women serving in harm's way. "I'm so patriotic because ......

To lower tuition costs, college students need to be "better consumers of higher education" by focusing less on a university's amenities and more on academics, presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday during a swing through the Philadelphia suburbs.Obama, a Democr......

When the Gettysburg National Military Park closes for business this Sunday, an era dating back some 80 years will come to an end.Park superintendent John A. Latschar will shut off the utilities and lock the doors forever on the present visitor center and Cyclorama building.The next ......

John Getz Jr. didn't get a hero's welcome when he returned in 1968 from the Vietnam War.In fact, the Lancaster County native was told to try to avoid even being noticed.With anti-war protests reaching a fevered pitch and returning soldiers being called "baby killers,&qu......

Hillary Clinton has touted her experience in foreign policy while first lady as proof she's ready to be commander in chief, but on Tuesday a controversy over her account of a 1996 Bosnia trip continued to dog the New York senator on the campaign trail.Clinton on more than one occasion ......

U.S. Navy veteran Ryan Barrick is tired of the war in Iraq, and he wants people to know it.Barrick joined about 100 students at Millersville University Thursday for an anti-Iraq War rally/walkout, where he spoke of his disgust over the conflict."It's over; it's done,&qu......

Local peace groups braved the rain Wednesday night and held a vigil to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War."I wasn't worried about the turnout at all," said 17-year-old Pamela Carnes, a Manheim Township High School student and member of the Lancaster chapt......

While a Manheim Township man was serving his country in England, his father used credit cards in the soldier's name to make purchases totaling $4,784, police said. On Tuesday, township police announced that the father, Raymond A. Wall 51, of Timber Drive, Mountville, has been charged with o......

A 51-year-old Mountville man was charged Tuesday with stealing the identity of his son — who is on active military duty in England — and racking up nearly $5,000 in credit card purchases in his son's name.Manheim Township police said Raymond A. Wall of Timber Drive ope......

Hillary Clinton stirred a crowd at Millersville University into a near-frenzy Tuesday night when she promised to scrap the federal No Child Left Behind Act if she's elected president this November."I know we can do better than that," she said. "I know we can have a bette......

Dozens of people stood for hours in a chilly rain on a Lancaster city sidewalk Tuesday, hoping for a glimpse of Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as she walked a few feet from the side door of Lancaster Brewing Co. to her waiting car.They got a whole lot more. Clinton, seeing the crowd chan......

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton will speak this evening at Millersville University as the issues of race and the Iraq War hang over the Democratic campaign for president.Dana Edlestein, a Clinton spokeswoman, said the New York senator will focus her speech in the 3,000-seat Pucillo Gymnasium on ......

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain described the struggle against congressional earmarks as something biblical during a stop in suburban Philadelphia on Friday.McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, spoke the morning after a bill he supported that would have stopped ......

Jamie Krauss held the rifle steady.With her blond hair pulled back into a bouncy ponytail, the York teenager took aim and fired, successfully hitting her target as military personnel looked on. "Here, you wanna try it?" she asked cheerfully as she handed the weapon to the young m......

After peace, what?Even as local groups ramp up for Saturday's peace rally marking the Iraq war's fifth anniversary, they're thinking about life after the war."What happens to us then?" asked John Schreck, administrator of Lancaster Coalition for Peace and ......

The $477 million expansion of the Aberdeen Proving Ground military base in Maryland is set to begin next week. That's despite a lawsuit that challenges the decision to close Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and have the installation in Harford County, Md., take over its functions. Lancas......

Thanks to an anonymous donor, there will be music and marching in the streets of Lancaster next month after all.Organizers of the American Spirit Parade say they now have enough money to hold the event as planned April 26.Earlier this year, the volunteer group that organizes the par......

More than a dozen young men and women from Lancaster County gathered in West Chester Saturday for a reception with the congressman who had nominated them for appointment to the U.S. service academies. "These are the cream of the crop," said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-16th District, after th......

When the Navy Club gets together, there's always an empty table. Draped with a white tablecloth and decorated with a single red rose, it honors fallen or missing soldiers. The men (and smattering of women) sitting nearby are undeniably alive, swapping decades-old war stories and the......

"Freedom is not free." That's one lesson the Eshleman Elementary School second-graders in Gail Thomson's and Beth Kaplan's classes learned when veterans from the Lancaster Chapter of Military Officers Association of America visited them last week. The Thursday evening......

Sgt. Paul Abernathy, at the wheel of a 10-ton truck carrying parts of a temporary bridge, tried to settle his nerves.A 23-year-old Pittsburgh-area native who enlisted in the Army Reserves when he was 17, Abernathy found himself part of a convoy crossing into Iraq on Day 1 of the March 2003......

Paul Abernathy believes America's war in Iraq is not in the best interests of either nation.A member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Abernathy, a combat veteran of the conflict, will bring his anti-war message to the auditorium of McCaskey East High School at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The ta......

Recruiting for the U.S. military has become a daunting task of late, and no one knows that better than Brig. Gen. David L. Mann.Mann, son of Harold and Patricia Mann of East Hempfield Township, was promoted to general Feb. 11 and has been the deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Recr......

One year ago, the U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security tightened border security by requiring citizens to present passports to re-enter the United States by air from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.Beginning Jan. 31, the government will require similar proof of citizen......

The feds are stepping in to take over removal of radioactive instrument dials from seven Strube Inc. sites in western Lancaster County.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially took on the job at the request of the state Department of Environmental Protection after Strube Inc. of......

To some students of the American Civil War, Gen. Robert E. Lee was a brilliant general whose masterful handling of the Army of Northern Virginia almost won independence for the South.To local author Edward H. Bonekemper, Lee was a good general but overrated; a man whose unyielding focus on......

A Lancaster County firm is under 24-hour surveillance by representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency while radioactive material is removed from seven of its warehouses.Strube Inc., of Marietta, was ordered Monday by the state Department of Environmental Protection to remo......

The United States made mistakes in the beginning, but nearly five years after invading Iraq, U.S. efforts to establish a democracy there are starting to pay off, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts said Monday.During an interview in Lancaster a week after returning from the Middle East, Pitts said a long ......

They are forever young and handsome, looking out confidently from beneath their military uniforms, many also with hats and insignias. There are 17 of them at various places around Jane Hershey's Christmas tree, pictures of the men and women wearing the uniforms of this nation's battles ......

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts is spending the first week of the New Year in Baghdad meeting with American troops, a news release from Iraq said Thursday.Details of Pitts' visit are being kept secret for security reasons, but according to the Multi-National Security Transition Command, Pitts ate ......

Lancaster County supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul can't vote for him during the Iowa caucuses this week.They can and did, however, rally along West King Street Monday afternoon in support of the Texas congressman, hoping to spread his conservative message to New......

It's still Christmas at Linda Morrow's house. And it could be for months.Her plan to send Christmas care boxes to soldiers serving in Iraq has taken on unexpected dimensions, especially after an article about Morrow's effort appeared in the Intelligencer Journal in late Novembe......

Christmas is a time for families to come together.And for one Lititz family, this Christmas season was a long time coming.Don William Ketchem, 83, and his half-sister, Nancy Batdorf Moore, 74, sat on the sofa in Batdorf Moore's living room Sunday afternoon and talked about their......

Legislators in Harrisburg are looking to give military veterans who live in long-term care centers better access to prescription medicine, according to two bills introduced by Lancaster County Republicans.State Rep. John Bear of Lititz and state Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong of Refton have auth......

A year ago, as his parishioners gathered to celebrate the start of the Advent season, the Rev. William Worley of First Reformed Church United Church of Christ was in a military convoy headed for Fallujah in Iraq.This year the Marine chaplain and pastor of the downtown Lancaster church for ......

Suzette Mann stifled back her tears as she packed sugar cookies into plastic containers. This morning at Lancaster Catholic High School was the Washington Boro mother's first time creating care packages for men and women serving in the military. For 20 years, local members of United St......

Marine Gunnery Sgt. John D. Fry of Texas was killed in 2006 in Anbar province, Iraq, doing what he was trained to do and what he successfully did many times.He died trying to disarm a bomb.President Bush on Veterans Day spoke at a ceremony in Waco, Texas, honoring Fry and three othe......

After six months of renovations, two historic town clocks are back and looking better than ever.The clocks, one in Landisville and the other at Hempfield Fire Department Community Park in Salunga, were re-erected in their original locations last week.Installed in 1946, the clocks ar......

Throughout America's military past, blacks who served in the armed forces have received few, if any, honors or accolades for their service.The African-American Veterans Project is out to change that, and this weekend it will hold its fifth annual remembrance of the contributions made t......

Local veterans are making great patriots out of little people.Veterans from the Lancaster Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America visited St. Leo the Great Catholic School Tuesday as part of their annual Adopt-a-Vet, Adopt-a-Kid program.Last month, veterans visited t......

The history of warfare is linked indelibly to transportation.From aircraft and naval vessels to jeeps and motorbikes, the military always has had to find better ways to get where it needs to go. That's where the histories of trains and troops overlap."Railroads really were ......

Kathy Reifsnyder was here Tuesday remembering a big brother with a big heart, someone who liked to hunt and fish and sometimes go to the movies. "But the movies were probably just a nickel back then!" she said. She also recalled his kindness, like the time the 18-year-old sent......

President Bush used his appearance in Lancaster County on Wednesday to defend his morning veto of a $35 billion expansion of a popular children's health insurance program. Speaking to a mostly friendly crowd at the Jay Group in West Hempfield Township, Bush also put Democrats on notice t......

On a firing range overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, a 155-mm howitzer is getting ready to fire. A trajectory is set. A high-explosive shell is loaded. Just the right amount of gunpowder is added. A soldier gives the word — "Fire!" Depending on the wind speed and directio......

Fifty-four-year-old Neil Gussman is in the Army now. Actually, he's in it for the second time. He originally joined back in 1972, when the draft and the Vietnam War were still on. Gussman had just graduated from high school in Boston. He enlisted to get money for college. He was, ......

An few years ago, an odd fact in the memoirs of a Civil War general caught the eye of Elizabethtown College English professor David Downing.Among the topics Maj. Gen. Grenville Mellen Dodge wrote about was his time as commander of the XVI Corps under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman during the......

From pulpit to deployment and back again, all in one year. That's been the Rev. William Worley's world lately. Worley returned quietly to First Reformed Church, United Church of Christ, 40 E. Orange St., in May after a year as chaplain to the 3rd Battalion, 14th Marines, 4th Marine Divisio......

Col. Xavier Stewart bent down next to the "victim" and applied a deep red substance to her skin.He took his time, careful to make it appear the "victim" was in fact injured. When satisfied, he stood up and went back to his microphone."Anybody else need any m......

Succeeding in business can be like succeeding as a military fighter pilot: Planning is key. While most businesses plan, few do a thorough, military-like follow-up to see how things have gone, says Charles Campbell, a retired brigadier general and fighter pilot. Today nearly 100 local bu......

War is hell, and business can be, too. The trick is surviving to fight another day.That's the message a group of current and former fighter pilots hopes to drill into Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry members Friday during The Afterburner Day, a motivational seminar at Mille......

As a member of the Army National Guard, Deb Fisher of Elizabethtown knows it's important to be ready. And that includes physically ready — in top-notch shape. So Fisher makes the two-block trek from Lancaster's Stahr Armory to the Lancaster Family YMCA three or four times a w......

Commissioners see expansion of a northern Maryland military base as a possible threat to Lancaster County's rural southern end, but also as a huge business opportunity. Upwards of 20,000 new jobs are expected to be created at and near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland's Harford County over th......

Lancaster County commissioners today are expected to sign an agreement that will ensure they are kept in the loop as upwards of 20,000 new jobs are created at a northern Maryland military base.Dick Shellenberger, chairman of the commissioners, said it's important for his board to join ......

When Tim Sterner discovered  that  the International Baccalaureate history course at J.P. McCaskey High School would focus on peace this year, he wanted to take advantage.So Sterner, the IB music instructor and director of the McCaskey Vocal Ensemble, decided that the 60-person e......

Memorial Day is Monday, May 28, and Lancaster County has plenty of events planned to honor U.S. military service casualties.Below is a list of events beginning with today's and ending with Wednesday's.TodayMOUNT JOY: A 2 p.m. parade w......

Peter Matthews has served as a U.S. Army basic private and demolitions specialist in the darkest days of World War II. But here's the catch: He's just 19 years old.No, he's not a time traveler — just one of more than 70 re-enactors who volunteer at the Lancaster County Hi......

They're not the Greatest Generation, but they are an incredible simulation.The Lancaster County Historical Society will host its annual World War II encampment this weekend.More than 75 re-enactors representing both Allied and Axis soldiers and civilians will set up canvas tents and......

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts introduced a bill today that would help to expand the nation's oil-refining capacity, saying the move could eventually push down gas prices at the pump. The legislation would direct the Bush administration to identify three military bases that would be suitable for locating ......

Annalise Romoser, a senior associate with the U.S. Office on Colombia in Washington, D.C., has seen plenty of disaster during her years working with the South American country. But besides the warfare, kidnappings and gun violence, one of the biggest tragedies she's personally experienced was......

Cheryl A. Lefever has always loved sailing with her family, and Annapolis, Md., has always been a favorite destination. She's going to be spending a lot of time there during the next four years as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. Lefever, a senior at Lampeter-Strasburg High Scho......

There are enough rape and sexual assault stories coming out of Iraq these days to keep Americans variously outraged and confused. In the past few weeks, two major stories have appeared — on Salon.com and in The New York Times Sunday magazine ......

Barbara Benard experienced a parent's worst nightmare when her son was killed while serving in Iraq.Sgt. Brent Adams, a 1983 Hempfield High graduate who served with the National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, died in December 2005 when a roadside bomb expl......

Capt. Edward A. Davis, a retired U.S. Navy pilot who spent 7 and ½ years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, will be laid to rest with full military honors May 2 in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Davis died of cancer Nov. 7 at Essa Flory Hospice Center. He was 67. &qu......

The last thing U.S. Marine Cpl. Michael Good Jr. of Bowmansville wanted to think about was dying."I tried not to," said Good, 21, who drove the lead vehicle during troop convoys in western Iraq for seven months last year. "When we were going along in the truck, I just try to......

If wishes were horses, then parents of horse-crazy girls would be driving to Hershey or Harrisburg this weekend.

Two major attractions, the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, will draw thousands of equine enthusiasts to central Pennsylvania this we...

The scene shows the "safe house" in Baghdad in which Al-Zarqawi was living. As a U.S. warplane approaches the house, a gunsight locks on the target. Shortly thereafter, a 500-pound guided missile strikes the building and it disappears in clouds of smoke. The voice of Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell narra......

Herley allegedly earned profits of up to 300 percent on sales of more than $3.9 million sales in components, according to an indictment handed down in Philadelphia. The indictment also accused Lee N. Blatt, Herley's founder and chairman, with orchestrating inflated prices on products for which He......

Rothsville’s parade, which will form at Salem United Methodist Church on Old Rothsville Road, will begin at 8:45 a.m.

The Lititz parade, which forms on Warwick Street, across from Tim’s Gym, will begin at 10:45 a.m.

The Rothsville marchers will parade to Jerusalem Lutheran Church c...

Even then, Lowe was a young man with discipline and character, says the teacher, Jack Yuska, now retired. “He was the kind of person you’d want to have in a foxhole with you,” Yuska recalls. “He had the right stuff.” Now a sergeant in the Army, Lowe was awarded the Silver Star Thursday for his......

Each license plate will cost $20 in addition to the normal annual registration fee to obtain. PennDOT is required to certify those veterans applying for such plates as serving in one of the above mentioned military campaigns or in the case of the general service veteran plate, any military service b...

She's been there and done that.

From January 2004 to April 2005, her husband, Sgt. Sean Underwood, served as a gun truck commander in the U.S. Army Reserves Alpha Company, 3rd battalion of the 319th regiment.

While her husband was away, Underwood, of Lancaster city, volunteered her...

The proposal, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, would force all four branches of the military to create and issue Combat Medevac Badges to veterans of so-called “dustoff” crews. The Army has been reluctant to award such group-specific medals. “These dustoff crews deserve all the honor we ca......

We came to a very rare point of political agreement on the subject of the Swift Boat Veterans going after the medals that were awarded to John Kerry.

The various systems used by the various services to recognize valor and meritorious service makes the whole system impossible to quantify - and...

"It's in the spirit of cooperation," Georgelis said of the announcement. "I knew from what I read in the newspapers that they were having difficulties." The commissioners voted Friday to allocate the $915,000 to restore funding to 2004 levels for 16 agencies, including $200,000 that wa......

Spur Road, the four-lane roadway leading from Route 272 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, will be renamed Colonel George Howard Boulevard.

The request for the renaming was made last year by the East Cocalico Township supervisors and was approved unanimously by both houses of the st......

"Practically speaking, it's not really going to have an impact on my business," said Joe Keffer, owner of The Sportsman's Shop in New Holland, which sells guns and ammunition among other hunting, fishing and target-shooting equipment.

"You could buy the guns that were banned right......

This is a gift that Sandy Cove gives to military personnel and their loved ones at no cost. Even though you may not be one of these folks; you may be related to or know someone who is coming home from Iraq. Pass this information on to them.

Sandy Cove has received a great response to this pro...

"She's confused, in the sense she doesn't know where things are going,'' said the soldier's mother, Barbara Wharton of Quarryville.

Wharton's daughter, a sergeant with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, was flown home late Monday by the U.S. Army. She rejoined her husband, Pvt. Paul ...

They'll be honored during a special ceremony scheduled for noon Thursday, Sept. 11, in Lancaster Square.

"Those who answered the call to serve their country in its time of need should be honored,'' said Mayor Charlie Smithgall.

"It is appropriate that they receive our thanks and ou...

In October, three months into their courtship, the couple traveled to Denmark and got married, Adam's mother, Jane Schneider, said Sunday.

Duty recently separated the couple for the first time since they tied the knot.

Sharon, who turned 20 Friday, is staying behind i......

Stoffa, now 21, is serving in Iraq with the 2nd Expeditionary Brigade, Battalion 3.

According to his most recent letter home, he's been braving sandstorms, scorching temperatures and the constant threat of enemy fire.

"There are so many young soldiers out there go......

Activists: Oppose military training school Lancaster County activists heading to Fort Benning, Ga. Demanding govt. close military training school Ally Styan......