Camp Blanding News

Soldiers headed to war pack light. What does not fit in a duffle bag they must carry in their hearts.

Edwin Voyle recently found himself surrounded by family and friends at the gazebo outside of the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Special Some Jewish children rescued from a Nazi death train in April 1945 in Germany can barely stand, but mile to have their picture taken by Army Sgt.

Tomorrow, Dec. 7, marks the date that America entered World War II. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Riding in the front passenger seat of an armored Humvee, Staff Sgt. Jaime Lugo calmly alerted others in the vehicle: "There is a possible IED." The Army convoy, which included Lugo and his fellow soldiers, had just gone around a curve.

STARKE - Gov. Charlie Crist expressed his gratitude to the 2,450 members of the Florida National Guard's 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team during a visit to Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Jacksonville on Monday.

Flagler County officials gave Florida's Army National Guard the nod Monday for a $21 million, 80,000-square-foot armed forces reserve center just south of the county airport.

Soldiers with the Florida Army National GuardOs 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team participate in small-unit combat training at Camp Blanding Thursday, November 12, 2009.

It's the first time an entire brigade from Florida will be deployed for combat since World War II and it's the largest single deployment of Florida National Guard units.

Ivan Morton Nelson, 87, of Newark, died Saturday Nov. 7, 2009, in Sandwich, Ill.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla/HUDSON FALLS, N.Y. -- As World War II came to a close in 1945, a small American tank battalion discovered a train full of Jewish prisoners abandoned in the German countryside.

To this day, it's still a mystery how William Jasper Sims died near the railroad tracks at Crown Cotton Mill on Aug.

Published: Friday, November 6, 2009 at 9:58 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, November 6, 2009 at 9:58 a.m. The shootings at Fort Hood have not changed anything, so far, at Camp Blanding outside Starke.

Each year, as Veterans' Day comes around, there are fewer and fewer Jewish veterans to observe it.

When he was growing up, Kenneth Tucker dreamed of flying airplanes. Years later, his daughter, Wanda Tucker Goodwin, had dreams of becoming a writer.

TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS/The Times-Union Two members of the 53rd Infantry Brigade have a man portraying an Iraqi national open his gas tank as they search his car during training Thursday at Camp Blanding.

The Florida National Guard opened training this month for the 2,500 troops in a Pinellas County-based unit that will be sent to Iraq and Kuwait in January in the largest overseas deployment for the Florida Guard since World War II.

Chief Warrant Officer Mark Toddy arrived in Panama City Tuesday after a year-long deployment south of Baghdad.

The man killed Saturday night during a dispute in Suffolk was a decorated soldier who had served in Operation Desert Storm and the current Iraq war.

Army medical technicians are returning home to tears of joy after being gone for at least a year in the Middle East.