The Brandon Service League's 16th annual Holiday Home Tour was a big success, said Candy Jackson, first vice president of the league and former tour chairwoman. Hundreds of men, women and children visited the ornamented houses, owned by Valrico residents Scott and Chris Etherington and Dave and Monica Cox and Lithia residents John and Ellen Matheson. ...more

January 7, 2009

Don Frasch of Hudson recently was promoted to the position of Commodore and elected by a unanimous vote as the new leader of United States Coast Guard Auxiliary District 7. ...more

October 4, 2008

Air Force Capt. Timothy O'Sullivan tried to gather himself. He had just regained consciousness. There was blood. A soldier was asking whether he was all right. He remembered little, sitting in a decimated British Warrior tank near Basra in southern Iraq. ...more

July 12, 2008

An officer -- coping with traumatic brain injury suffered in a blast in Iraq -- accepts a Bronze Star and Purple heart during a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base. ...more

July 11, 2008

AVON PARK AIR FORCE RANGE — Get ready for the pyrotechnics and the loud booms. The Avon Park Air Force Range will host its semiannual training operation next week. Atlantic Strike VII, a large-scale training exercise where bombers and joint ground forces from all over the South simulate urban warfare missions, will train numerous military personnel for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. The training missions require forces to participate in what amounts to a war game with role-playing guerilla fighters, insurgents, sniper fire, roadside explosives and many of the conditions faced by their counterparts supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. ...more

June 11, 2008

Passions flared this week as some residents complained about noise from MacDill Air Force Base while others defended the military installation. ...more

January 24, 2008

The Hugo Schmidt Elementary School Sailors celebrated Veterans Day on Nov. 9. Kindergartners waved star-spangled banners, and everyone pledged allegiance and joined choral director Marshall Gillon's Pride chorus in singing the national anthem as the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps color guard from Tampa Bay Technical High School displayed the flag. ...more

November 21, 2007