When I picked up the paper on Tuesday morning and read the obituary of retired Scottsdale police Chief Mike Gannon, it brought back instant memories of the man who always had the time to ask how we were doing.

I am a former Army Officer and combat veteran. I was commissioned from the University of Arizona’s Army ROTC Program. As a Cadet and as a young Lieutenant I believed that women should not serve in combat units for all of the same reasons we are used to hearing; physical ability, unit cohesion, rape, capture, etc. However, as most of us know, actual experience vs theory often changes one’s opinion. Once in combat my opinion changed as I witnessed all of my seemingly legitimate reasons fall to pieces one by one; they just never materialized. I expected to see combat units fall apart once a woman was attached, I expected to see women fail physically on the combat field and get men killed, I expected to see women raped when captured, I expected to see men flee a post or duty because a woman was in danger ... none of it happened, none of it. Experience trumps theory every time, and when it does intelligent humans must begin to change their mind.

Perhaps one of the first lessons learned in college reserve officer training from the study of military history is that troops are reticent to take up arms. Studies show that about a third of trained infantry soldiers facing the enemy in a conventional battlefield environment will actually point their weapons at an identified enemy and pull the trigger. Not so with field artillerymen. Usually they don’t see the enemy nor the huge explosions where their shells impact.

Spring break in Hawaii could have been a week of sun and surf for a group of Apache Junction High School students.

The U.S. Army today faces an imminent and menacing threat to our national security. We are engaged in a struggle that will determine our future. Failure to resolve this problem could leave us vulnerable and our enemies victorious.

More than 100 Army reservists from Arizona stood in formation Friday morning at Williams Gateway Airport, waiting for a flight that would ultimately take them to Iraq.

More than 100 Army reservists from Arizona stood in formation Friday morning at Williams Gateway Airport, waiting for a flight that would ultimately take them to Iraq.

WASHINGTON - On his first day as defense secretary, Robert Gates warned Monday that failure in Iraq would be a "calamity" that would haunt the United States for years. Underscoring eroding security there, a Pentagon report said the number of insurgent and sectarian attacks had risen to the highest level in years.

Three Marines and one Navy sailor are dead and one Marine is injured after a helicopter from the Yuma Marine base crashed 20 miles north of Yuma near the Colorado River, according to a military official.

ANTRIM, Northern Ireland - Catholic and Protestant congregations prayed together for peace Sunday after IRA dissidents killed two British soldiers as they collected pizzas - the first deadly attack on Northern Ireland security forces in 12 years.

The revolution that Orville and Wilbur Wright set in motion 100 year ago has had a profound economic impact on Arizona and the East Valley.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

This Memorial Day, in tribute to U.S. service members, the Tribune lists Arizonans who have been killed in the war on terrorism in the past year.

Pessimists worried about the rising generation can relax.

May 23, 2005

Technology needed to guard against terrorist infiltration is not reaching the Arizona border, and a top regional official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the reason is federal bureaucrats have misspent money reserved for that purpose.

Technology needed to guard against terrorist infiltration is not reaching the Arizona border, and a top regional official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the reason is federal bureaucrats have misspent money reserved for that purpose.

Technology needed to guard against terrorist infiltration is not reaching the Arizona border, and a top regional official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the reason is federal bureaucrats have misspent money reserved for that purpose.

Technology needed to guard against terrorist infiltration is not reaching the Arizona border, and a top regional official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the reason is federal bureaucrats have misspent money reserved for that purpose.

Read the text of the address President Barack Obama delivered Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix.

Text of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, as provided by the White House:

Text of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, as provided by the White House:

Text of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, as provided by the White House: