Content about Army

07.16.10

Local man honored for valor in Afghanistan

A local man has received the American Legion Valor Award for his actions under attack in Afghanistan last fall.

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Patrick Benson, who grew up in the Bellevue/Ross area, joined the Army in 1992, hoping to fulfill his dream of becoming a helicopter pilot. Since 1996, he has been piloting Kiowa helicopters, small, armed aircraft that provide security for the larger Black Hawk Medevac helicopters, among other assignments.

04.30.10

Local man receives Navy Achievement Award

When Andy Lang began thinking about joining the service, he couldn't decide among the Air Force, the Army or the Navy. Family lineage solved the problem for him.

After all, his grandfather Chuck Lang served in the Navy with a construction battalion in World War II, detonating coral on Tinian, a South Pacific island where airstrips were built. Airstrips from which planes flew bombing missions that dropped the atom bombs on Japan.

And his father, Chuck, stationed on a communications relay ship in the Tonkin Gulf, served as a machinist in the Navy during Vietnam.