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The Fort Campbell Courier the next full edition of the Courier will be printed Jan. 14. Join us Jan. 7 for a "Year in Review" edition
The Fort Campbell Courier Across Fort Campbell, students took time out during class to write letters to Santa.
6 new photos
The Fort Campbell Courier
Dear Santa,
Can you bring presents to the poor? Can you bring me a Xbox-360, Halo 3 ODST game, a electric guitar, a big Godzilla toy and game for the PS2. Oh Santa can you please watch my dad at Afghanistan?
Sincerely, Nikolai
To read all the letters to Santa from the Fort Campbell Elementary school children, please go to, www.fortcampbellcourier.com
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Fort Campbell Courier — Command Information News Source for the Fort Campbell Military Community
The Fort Campbell Courier
by Dave Campbell
Courier staff
Barkley Elementary School opened avenues to other countries and continents Dec. 17 as teachers and students splashed the corridors with a blend of cultural and seasonal awareness that brought learning to a fun level for kids.
Classes were assigned a country and their assignment was either t...o decorate their classrooms with displays of that country or to give a cultural-related performance or interactive lesson for any visitors.
There was also the choice by each class to show how their country celebrated the holiday season or just to celebrate with a cultural display or performance.
“If they’re having fun with it, they don’t even realize they’re learning,” Barkley Pre-Kindergarten teacher Amanda Tejkowski said.
She organized the event as a basic introduction of cultural diversity and to teach kids more about other countries other than their own.
Vincent Taman’s daughters Alexis and Krystal go to Barkley and he and his wife helped contribute to the celebration by setting up a table that represented his home country of Guam.
It was great helping out, he said. “It’s great for us as Soldiers to come out here and interact with the kids,” Vincent said. “But we’re not just Soldiers, we’re also parents.”
Helping out with the celebration and giving a little insight of what kids do during Christmas in Guam, was something he enjoyed getting to be a part of.
“It gives them a better understanding of other cultures,” he said.
Vincent said that since Guam is a U.S. territory near the International Date Line, their slogan is “Where America’s Day Begins.”
“So we get Christmas before anybody else,” Vincent said, laughing.
The biggest difference he’s noticed between Christmas in Guam and in the states is the length of the celebration.
Like many Families, people in Guam usually open their packages around midnight because they’re so excited.
“The way we do it, the Family get-together starts on Christmas Eve and they start cooking and stay throughout the whole night and go to midnight mass,” Vincent said.
Tejkowski agrees that the event is important for Fort Campbell schools since students will encounter a broad mix of people from different cultures.
“There are so many people from different backgrounds just in our building alone,” Tejkowski said. “Our intention is to give these kids a little more insight into other countries.”
The country of Australia was represented for Laura Dowdy and Emily Waack’s third grade class, where students made Aborigine sticks for their Christmas tree – a custom for Australians.
Karyn Oxendine’s fifth grade class gave a Christmas-themed African Noel Performance while the Christmas trees of Germany were a focus for another class.
Before they began their journey from one country (or classroom) to another, children were given passports that were stamped, so they could learn how people travel to different countries around the world.
Just to make sure things were running smoothly, some students were acting as customs agents to help the process along.
Third grader Antonio Weeler said he had fun checking passports, at his stop in the hallway.
All the while, as children learn the norms of life in other hemispheres, Tejkowski said teachers simultaneously help their classes build up and work through the necessary Department of Defense Education Activity standards and have fun while meeting their mark as a school.
“We’ve worked DODEA curricula through these activities,” Tejkowski said. “It’s a fun way to work through the standards.”
The Fort Campbell Courier
Pratt Museum honors 101st battle
by Sgt. Scott Davis
101st Airborne Division
Fort Campbell’s Pratt Museum hosted a Bastogne exhibit Saturday to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the historic 101st battle during World War II.
“The museum and the volunteers do a display similar to this one for all the major anniversary eve...nts associated with the 101st Airborne during World War II,” said Capt. Jim Page, 101st Airborne Division historian. “We do an event in June for D-Day, an event in September commemorating the invasion of Holland and we do this event for the Battle of the Bulge. This particular event is especially important because it coincides with the actual 65th anniversary.”
Most of the items on display are owned by private collectors who volunteer to help the museum every year.
John McGee is a re-enactor and brought along his collection for the exhibit. “I’ve always been a fan of World War II and military vehicles. I also worked on military vehicles for 35 years, so I guess keeping the tradition going kind of rubbed off on me.”
“It’s a unique mixture of a museum display with people exhibiting private collections,” Page said. “What’s really unique about it is people can come out and can lay hands on these items. Instead of being locked in a case, people can actually handle them, look at them and get a little bit of better understanding of what Soldiers carried.”
Bastogne was a city that really didn’t see much fighting during the war until the Germans launched a huge operation.
“Bastogne was something nobody saw happening. The Germans launched a major counteroffensive that caught the U.S. Army completely by surprise. It was known later as the Battle of the Bulge,” Page said. “The 101st was in a rest area in France and was rushed by trucks to Bastogne and told to defend that critical point because the Germans were going to try to capture it. They got there on Dec. 19, 1944, and defended the city until relieved on Dec. 26, 1944. The 101st defense there is taught in military textbooks and is one of the most famous instances in military history.”
The exhibit, along with rest of the World War II exhibits, is expected to return next year.
“We, collectively, love interfacing with the public and teaching them about the U.S. Army during World War II and different kinds of things that their grandfathers and great grandfathers might have done,” Page said.
The Fort Campbell Courier
by Sgt. Grant Matthes
101st Airborne Division
The 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Divison, uncased its colors during a ceremony at Fort Campbell Friday, symbolizing the unit’s return from Afghanistan.
“Job well done and welcome home,” said Col. Ronald F. Lewis, 159th CAB commander. “We demanded much from y...ou, and you responded like professional Screaming Eagle Soldiers.”
The brigade was officially relieved by 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, during a transfer of authority ceremony at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Nov. 24.
“[The 159th CAB] served our nation and the cause of freedom in Afghanistan with honor and you have added to the legend of the 101st Airborne Division, Air Assault,” said Col. Don Galli, commander of the 3rd CAB, during the TOA ceremony. “Your brigade has set the standard by which all of Army aviation will be measured. Today, as we transfer authority from Task Force Thunder to Task Force Falcon, the records we seek to break are yours.”
The brigade left for Afghanistan Dec. 19, 2008, and assumed responsibility as the only U.S. aviation brigade operating in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The brigade operated out of Bagram, Jalalabad, Salerno and Kandahar with a follow-on establishment at Forward Operating Base Shank.
In the past year, 159th CAB provided direct and general support to Regional Commands-South, East, Capital and North.
The brigade flew more than 136,000 hours and conducted more than 509 deliberate air assaults.
It executed 3,700 air-movement operations moving approximately 132,000 Soldiers and 6,570 tons of cargo and performed 2,400 medical evacuations.
“I will just about have the entire brigade back by the 23rd of December, with the exception of those we still have going to Iraq,” Lewis said. “It’s great to have the majority of the brigade back for the holidays.”
“The ceremony is about a reunion - Family members with their Soldiers, rear forces with forward forces,” Lewis said. “It’s to get the formation reunited, get the Soldiers reintegrated to the community and into society, reset the equipment and begin retraining for the next rendezvous with destiny.”
4 new photos
The Fort Campbell Courier
Dear Santa Claus,
Will you please if you may give every one a Christmas they will never forget. Santa I want you to have a Merry Christmas. This is what I want for Christmas…I really want Barbie toys. I want my mom, dad, and brother to be happy. I want my dogs to have little dresses. I hope and want everyone to have a h...olly jolly Christmas! I hope and want you and your reindeer and Mrs. Claus to have the best Christmas in your lives. I want books too! And movies too! I want Andrea and her family to be happy and get some things that they want too! The Barbie toys I want are the Barbie jet, the Barbie 3 story house, the beach Barbie doll stuff, the Barbie beach Jeep. I want the children at St. Jude hospital to have the best Christmas too! I think that poor women, men, and children should get presents too. I don’t want people to be greedy on Christmas. If people are greedy on Christmas I always tell them to stop being greedy. Oh Santa Claus, may I have these items? The Best Christmas Ever book, the Heartland book series, a merry Christmas, and a happy family.
Sincerely, Alyssa
P.S. Santa you should have a holly jolly Christmas
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Fort Campbell Courier — Command Information News Source for the Fort Campbell Military Community
The Fort Campbell Courier
by Megan Locke
Courier staff
The 194th Military Police Company Soldiers are patrolling Fort Campbell streets with some extra spirit these days, and it’s not just because Christmas is near.
The 194th MPs were named the Best Military Police Company in the Army and received the Brig. Gen. Jeremiah P. Holland Award for fiscal... year 2009. Before becoming the Army’s best, the 194th MPs received the Freedom Award, which recognized them as the best in the XVIII Airborne Corp, and the Eagle Award, which recognizes the best MP Company in FORSCOM.
These awards are not the first for the company this year, as they have also received many certificates of appreciation for their efforts. The 194th MPs returned from a 13-month deployment this year, where they served jointly with Marines in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, and trained Iraqi police for duty. After coming back to post, the MPs got right back to work by enforcing law and order.
Individually, Soldiers from the 194th received 18th MP Brigade Soldier of the Year, the 101st Sustainment Brigade NCO and Soldier of the Year, as well as the 101st Airborne’s NCO of the Year award.
The 194th MPs have won the best MP Co. Award in the past, and their commitment to excellence is remembered year after year at Fort Campbell. In his endorsement letter of the company, which was forwarded to FORSCOM for consideration during the award process, Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, commanding general, 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell, said, “There is no military police company in FORSCOM that better epitomizes the dedication to duty expected of military police Soldiers.”
To be eligible for the Brig. Gen. Jeremiah P. Holland Award, the 194th MPs submitted a packet with 12 enclosures detailing everything from training to awards to safety measures. The award honors the most outstanding military police unit, company size or smaller, each fiscal year. The award, created after military police officer Holland retired in 1969, promotes esprit de corps and professionalism in MP units throughout the Army.
“They look at everything, everything from your accomplishments throughout the year, your training, PT, what weapons, your equipment within the unit, NCO education, civilian and military education, unit awards, individual awards, and then foundations of excellence, which is just a combination of any of those things,” said Capt. Michael Cotovsky, commander, 194th MP Co.
It’s the people from the unit that contributed to the recognition this year, Cotovsky said.
“The Soldiers earned it,” Cotovsky said. “Just day in and day out just trying to make a positive difference, and they’ve earned it. And we’re just happy and proud, and yet humbled at the same time. There’s a lot of good units out there doing a lot of good things every day. We just try to do well at what we do, whatever it is, each day.”
The 194th falls under the 716th MP Battalion at Fort Campbell. Lieutenant Col. Mike Dolata Jr., 716th commander, said the company’s achievements reflect well on Fort Campbell, and it is no wonder that they were selected the best in the Army this year.
“We felt that the 194th … absolutely had all the right content, for lack of a better word,” he said. “Their achievements stand alone.”
The Fort Campbell Courier
Dear Santa,
I would like a sewing machine, a livworld doll, a girl gourmet cake factory, and a drum set. I wish the kids in Africa could have more food.
Merry Christmas, Tiauna
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Fort Campbell Courier — Command Information News Source for the Fort Campbell Military Community
The Fort Campbell Courier
Dear Santa, I wish that the whole world had peace. I wish that no one was poor. I wish that war was no more. I want peace because I want war to end. I want no one to be poor because I want no one to be sad. From, Nolan
For more Letters to Santa, please read this week's issue of the Courier or visit www.fortcampbellcourier.com.
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Fort Campbell Courier — Command Information News Source for the Fort Campbell Military Community
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