Military Personnel

BETHLEHEM - They filed past the tall, gaunt, old man in single file, most of the soldiers looking past him to the practice field ahead, where their clean, crisp uniforms were about to mingle with the muddy practice uniforms of the Eagles on Military Day at training camp. Every now and then, though, there was one who knew who the old man was, who would stop with an item to sign and a fervent wish to express, that the players of today were more like the white-haired fellow in the Pro Football Hall of Fame polo shirt, squinting through wire-rimmed glasses.

Gov. Christie returned to Haddon Heights on Monday to sign a package of legislation intended to honor active-duty and veteran military personnel. Christie signed three bills in an afternoon ceremony at the Honor Roll Memorial at Haddon Lake Park in the borough where he opened his campaign to become governor. A fourth measure, which he previously signed, renames a portion of Route 47 in Glassboro the South Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Highway. "Our state's servicemen, servicewomen, and their families have bravely and selflessly sacrificed in defense of our nation and our values," Christie said Monday in a written statement.

Military personnel who have been activated or reassigned because of the Sept. 11 terrorism will not have to make payments on federal college loans during their service, the Education Department said yesterday. Education Secretary Rod Paige also encouraged colleges and universities to provide either a refund of tuition or a comparable credit to students forced to withdraw from school for military service. Paige also urged colleges to offer flexible reenrollment options to returning soldiers and those otherwise affected by the attacks.

The first thing Tatiana Simpson did after her boyfriend proposed to her in a phone call from Iraq was to log on to Facebook. "Right after it happened, I posted. I had to tell them," Simpson, 17, of Sewell, said of her social-networking friends. Simpson says the Facebook page Army Girlfriends: For All the Girls Waiting Back Home is her favorite among the forums she uses to connect with others who are dating members of the military. Simpson, who doesn't know anyone locally who is dating a service member, relies on the site for advice.

Centennial School District officials say someone owes them millions of dollars for 300 students who aren't theirs. Board members on Tuesday night approved billing the U.S. Department of Education and the Navy for the education of students who live in naval housing in Warminster, attend Centennial schools but whose parents work at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Horsham. According to school officials, because the parents are military personnel at Willow Grove, the children should be considered part of the Hatboro-Horsham School District.

The federal government is mounting a massive security operation to protect the Summer Olympics in Atlanta from any possible terrorist threat. The contingent will consist of about 2,500 federal law enforcement officers, 11,000 military personnel, and at least 1,000 additional federal employees, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah) said while chairing a Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday in a room displaying an enlarged photo of a ski-masked terrorist from the 1972 Games in Munich, where 11 Israeli athletes were killed.

To make sure it has sufficient blood supply to treat American casualties in any combat in Afghanistan, the Pentagon may restrict the Red Cross and other civilian groups from collecting blood on military bases. The last time the Defense Department imposed such a restriction was during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The restriction would help ensure that service personnel would be able to donate blood when it was needed to treat those wounded in combat. "We're trying to make sure there's a steady supply of blood available if we need it," said Army Col. Michael Fitzpatrick, director of the Armed Forces Blood Program Office.

Warning that "we are in a police hiring crisis," Police Commissioner John F. Timoney yesterday urged City Council to permit the Police Department to recruit active military personnel, even if they live outside Philadelphia. Timoney spoke before a Council committee on behalf of a bill introduced by Councilman James F. Kenney. It would make an exception in a longstanding ordinance requiring civil-service employees to live in Philadelphia for a year before they can be hired. The bill will be an early test of how well Timoney's reform agenda plays in Philadelphia's political arena.

To commemorate Veterans' Day, military personnel on active duty will soon be receiving a bundle of letters postmarked from classrooms in New Jersey. About 540 Westampton Middle School students will pen letters of support to troops deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The letters will go out to men and women from the Burlington County area. Seventh-grade teacher JoAnn Donnelly proposed the letter-writing project to mark the Nov. 11 holiday after her cousin was deployed to an undisclosed location with the Air Force.

On many occasions, the Upper Darby police department's honor guard has been called on to salute a fallen comrade in another town. Not until yesterday had other departments been asked to return the salute. On a cold, breezy winter day, under a clear blue sky, nearly 1,500 police officers and military personnel spilled out of Upper Darby High School at funeral services for Dennis McNamara, the first township officer killed in the line of duty. McNamara, 43, was shot to death last week while investigating a parked car in the Stonehurst section of the township.

DALLAS - An Army nurse showed no alarm or discomfort before suddenly collapsing during a Skype video chat with his wife, who saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him, his family said Sunday. Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark's family released a statement describing what his wife saw in the video feed recording her husband's death. "Clark was suddenly knocked forward," the statement said. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark's wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole.

WASHINGTON - Conflicting images of the Secret Service and new questions about the military's handling of the prostitution scandal in Colombia emerged Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Senators challenged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to reconcile the image of agents who protect the president's life with the dozen implicated officers and supervisors. Meanwhile, the Defense Department acknowledged to other lawmakers that it knew that six military personnel had broken curfew rules prior to President Obama's arrival at a Latin American summit in Cartagena but let them remain on the job. In addition to the Secret Service officers and supervisors, another dozen military personnel also were implicated in the prostitution scandal.

WASHINGTON - Three more Secret Service employees have been forced out of the government, bringing to nine the number of people who have lost their jobs in the prostitution scandal roiling the agency. Two employees have resigned and a third is having his national-security clearance revoked, the Secret Service said Tuesday. The employee whose clearance is being revoked can appeal the decision. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said one of the resigning agents stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Cartagena, Colombia, where Obama stayed for the Summit of Americas.

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service prostitution scandal grew Monday to include a 12th member of the U.S. military as the Pentagon suspended the security clearances of all the military personnel who have been implicated. The Secret Service has also taken action against 12 of its employees. Three Defense Department officials said the 12th military person involved was in Colombia in advance of President Obama's arrival for the Summit of the Americas and was assigned to the White House Communications Agency, a military unit that provides secure communications for the president.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Two Marines, including one from New Jersey, were killed in the crash of an MV-22 Osprey during a training exercise in Morocco on Wednesday. Cpl. Derek Kerns, of Fort Dix, N.J., and Cpl Robby Reyes, of Los Angeles, both were MV-22 crew chiefs based at Marine Air Station New River in Jacksonville. Reyes had joined the Marines in 2007. Kerns had joined a year later. The military said it would not identify two Marines injured in the crash. A Marine spokesman said earlier this week the Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft, crashed in a training area southwest of Agadir, Morocco, after taking off from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.

WASHINGTON - A 29-year-old Moroccan man, who believed he was working with al-Qaeda, was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest, given to him by undercover operatives, said police and government officials. Amine El Khalifi of Alexandria, Va., was taken into custody with an inoperable gun and inert explosives, according to a counterterrorism official. He arrived near the Capitol in a van with the two undercover officers, and walked toward the building, according to court papers.

WASHINGTON - A 29-year-old Moroccan man, who believed he was working with al-Qaeda, was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest, given to him by undercover operatives, said police and government officials. Amine El Khalifi of Alexandria, Va., was taken into custody with an inoperable gun and inert explosives, according to a counterterrorism official. He arrived near the Capitol in a van with the two undercover officers, and walked toward the building, according to court papers.

WASHINGTON - U.S. military personnel will go to North Korea in March to restart efforts to recover thousands of servicemen missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, the Defense Department said Thursday. The U.S. and North Korean militaries agreed last October to restart recovery operations in what was seen as a sign of easing tensions between the wartime enemies, but they did not announce a date. But a letter from Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta notes that the agreement sets a March 1 start date.

This week's 10th anniversary of the military detention of terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay was a fitting moment for protests by human-rights advocates worldwide. Yet those decrying the continued existence of a prison that's come to represent the worst excesses in the nation's antiterror campaign also included two-dozen retired generals and admirals. In urging President Obama to renew his push to shutter the prison, those military personnel rightly warned that America's "policy of holding detainees indefinitely, perhaps forever, without charge or trial, not only stands in the way of closing Guantánamo, but is insupportable in a nation of laws.

WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators late Monday agreed to a sweeping $662 billion defense bill that requires military custody for terrorism suspects linked to al-Qaeda, including those captured within the United States, and indefinite detention without trial for some suspects. President Obama and his national-security team had appealed to lawmakers for last-minute changes to the bill to give the executive branch greater flexibility on whether to treat suspected terrorists as prisoners of war or criminals.