OCR Text |
Show tOMES February 18,2010 +v+ 419th Fighter Wing Master Sgt. Cindy George 419th Medical Squadron First Sergeant of the Year 2009 Senior Master Sgt. Scott Clements 419th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Senior Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year 2009 Staff Sgt. David Kruger 419th Civil Engineer Squadron Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year 2009 Senior Airman "•^7Q^^^{ Byron Mortensen ^x^""^ 419th Logistics Readiness Squadron Airman of the Year 2009 1st Lt. Nancy Immormino 419th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Company Grade Officer of the Year 2009 Bryan Magana 419th Headquarters Section Civilian of the Year 2009 STAFF SGT. CAROLYN VISS/U.S. Air Force BETH SCHLANKER/Standard-Examiner ' Ray Matheney discusses his time spent as a B-.17 engineer and POW during World War II at an Airplane Talk session at the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base on Feb. 6. Talking planes " Veteran speaks of his time as a bomber crewman in WWII BY LORETTA PARK Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau lpark@standard.net R OY — Ray Matheney lied about his age to serve in World War II, like many teenagers did back then. Matheney, now 84, spoke before a packed house at Hill Aerospace Museum's Plane Talk on Feb. 6. He recently published a book, "Rite of Passage: A teenager's chronicle of combat and captivity in Nazi Germany," about his service in World War II and his time as a prisoner of war. He was 17 and had dropped out of high school when he en- listed in the Air Corps in 1943. A year later his high school sent him a graduation certificate. His presentation centered around his service with the Eighth Air Force 384th Bomb Group as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17, named "Deacon's Sinners." "There are many today who have no knowledge whatsoever what our country went through or what our servicemen and women went through at that time," Matheney said. Matheney, who retired in 2004 Arek is a military working dog deployed to the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, who has been in two explosions while on patrol in Iraq. He and his handler, Staff Sgt. Patrick Lau, are from Hill Air Force Base. K-9 without a canine Military Working Dog works through challenges, including loss of a tooth BY STAFF SGT. CAROLYN VISS 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs T RANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan — He eats, he sleeps, he plays, and sometimes he works, but it's not really work. It's a dog's life. Arek is a military working dog who's seen it all and still lives to tear apart squeaky toys. And just like some military service members, one of the only things he's really scared of is ... mice. "He doesn't really like gunshots or explosions either," admitted his handler, Staff Sgt. Patrick Lau, who's deployed with Arek from Hill Air Force Base. But he pushes through and doesn't show many of the typical Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms military working dogs can exhibit, according to Joe Villalobos, an Ah' Force Reserve staff sergeant who is permanently contracted to work as the Transit Center at Manas MWD trainer. This 85-pound German shepherd has been in two explosions while on patrol in Iraq. When an improvised explosive device hit a convoy that Arek and his then-handler were in, Arek clenched his jaw in fear so hard that he shattered four teeth, See AREK I page 13 See PLANES I page 10 •: 4-crA'- ^rv 'Whiteout' sure to chill BY ROBERT W. BUTLER •-Y McClatchy Newspapers E arly in "Whiteout," a murder mystery set in a South Pole research station, a federal marshal played by Kate Beckinsale : a strips down and takes a shower. •;••;•• Why? No particular reason. But ,^v enjoy it while you can, fellas. She'll .,;! spend the rest of the film in a parka. That scene makes about as much *** sense as anything else in Dominic •'' Sena's thriller. Beckinsale plays Carrie Stetko, • .-v who requested this remote, easy asC P signment after a particularly ugly './ on-the-job incident. Her main duties •.. involve riding herd on several dozen . young scientists who behave like college freshmen during orientation week. But after two years, Carrie is ready to rejoin the real world. That is, until a pilot reports seeing a corpse out on the ice. The dead man, a geologist, has been murdered. The trail of clues leads Carrie to an abandoned Russian outpost — now occupied by a masked killer with an ice ax — and Warner Bros. Pictures See REVIEW I page 10 Gabriel Macht and Kate Beckinsale star in "White Out." |