Fort Leonard Wood

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -  The Mrs. United States crown now resides in the Ozarks. Congratulations to Mrs. Aquillia Vang, who beat out 54 married women in Las Vegas to earn the title.  The mother of four lives in Waynesville, Missouri and works as a nurse.  Her husband is stationed in the Army at Fort Leonard Wood.   Founded in 1986, the pageant stresses good morals, physical fitness, communication skills and community involvement.  It falls under...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. --  A dream will come true for a man from Plato when he enlists into the United States Army on Tuesday after losing more than 110 pounds.  David West, 20, will be sworn into the Army during a ceremony at 10 a.m. When West entered the St. Robert recruiting station nine months ago, he did not meet the basic enlistment criteria due to his weight.  “West lost more than 110 pounds to meet the entrance criteria for...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- The prospect of planes without pilots patrolling U.S. skies by the end of this decade is sparking a round of anxiety about Big Brother peering into backyards.   We wanted to see how these drones are being used in Missouri right now. An area of Fort Leonard Wood looks like a foreign war zone.  Signs are written in Arabic; twisted metal is all around, and planes without pilots are in the air.  Soldiers peer into shaded...

FT. LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- One person has been killed and another critically hurt in a crash involving a Fort Leonard Wood military vehicle. It happened late Tuesday afternoon on the Army post when a small car collided with a vehicle known as a a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck. The driver of the car was killed; a passenger was air lifted to the University of Missouri hospital in Columbia. Two soldiers in the truck were not hurt. Fort Wood's Military Police and the Army's Criminal Investigation Command are investigating.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO  -  Every soldier wants to be home for the holidays; but members of a military police unit at Fort Leonard won't be home for Christmas. They are heading for after tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner. "It's unimaginable. It's something that I've tried very hard not to even think about," says Seargant First Class James Barrett while holding his 2 year old son, Griffin. Captain Justin Boberg is also leaving a family behind, "Wife; two kids. I have a 13 month and a 4 year old. " And if the thought of going to war isn't enough for the men and women of the 988th MP company to think about; the idea of leaving their families behind weighs just as heavily on their minds.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.--  Forty men and women returned home to Fort Leonard Wood from Afghanistan on Monday afternoon, just in time to spend Christmas with their families.  The group deployed last year just before Christmas, on Dec. 8.  One year later, all of them are back -- and everyone is safe and excited about getting to see their loved ones. "Supposedly at 1600 (4 p.m.) I'll be reunited with my family and then hopefully we can go home and have a good night," said 1st Lt. Edward Guardo after the company flew into Springfield before heading to Ft. Wood.

The USO really came in to my family's life on December 31, 2010, when a tornado tore through our neighborhood on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. While our house was not completely destroyed we were still required to vacate the neighborhood for the next week. I was scheduled to drop Kimberly, my wife, and Jackson, my 1 year old son, off at the Kansas City Airport in one week so that she could begin driving across the country to stay with her family while I deployed to Afghanistan. Needless to say, it was already a stressful situation to begin with and now, not only did we not have access to our belongings, but we also still had to properly clear our quarters on post because of the lack of damage.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - A gas leak occurred here today at about 1 p.m. in the post Child Development Center located on Replacement Avenue. The CDC director smelled gas in the facility, pulled the fire alarm and followed standard evacuation procedures. All CDC personnel and children were evacuated to the School Age Services building, and all parents were notified, said Emily Nunn, Program Operations specialist for Fort Leonard Wood Child, Youth & School Services. The Fort Leonard Wood Fire Department arrived to the CDC at about 1:05 p.m. and found a gas leak in the furnace.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- A fort spokesman says firefighting crews worked Monday to bring a 600-acre fire under control.  That fire started around midday Sunday.  It has damaged no buildings or equipment. Public Information Officer Jeff Maddy says firefighters don't know how the fire started but have no reason to think it was intentionally set or caused by negligence.  It's in the area of some of firing ranges but Maddy says no one has linked activity at the ranges to the fires.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. --  The national non-profit Soles for Souls is getting a big boost from the Ozarks.  It's a charity that provides new or gently worn shoes to people in need.  Now, Fort Leonard Wood is donating enough pairs for a small army. When soldiers finish their training they no longer need the boots the Army gave them.  So instead of throwing them away, they're giving them to those in need. "My battalion graduates about 100 soldiers a week," said Capt. David White.  "As you can imagine, basic training in the Army, we run, we train hard.

An early morning deployment to Afghanistan for soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood. Nearly 80 members of the 515th Engineer Company left from the Springfield Branson National Airport early Sunday morning. The group will be clearing roads of explosive devices.  The 515th will stay in Afghanistan for one year.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Thirty soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood were in the city on Saturday to help senior citizens.  Soldiers with the 787th Military Police Battalion spent the day cleaning up yard waste and making minor repairs to seniors' homes in the Queen City.  The United Way of the Ozarks is behind the "Hands on for Seniors" event, which brings the communities of Springfield and Fort Leonard Wood together. "It feels good.  The community gives so much to us as soldiers; it feels nice to give something back to the community," said Capt.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The commanding general of Fort Leonard Wood will talk to reporters on Wednesday morning about actions to reduce sexual assaults on the installation.  This comes after more than a dozen women and two men from across the country filed a class action lawsuit this week.  They claim the military didn't do enough to investigate the sexual crimes against them.  That suit names top level Pentagon officials, past and present, including Donald Rumsfeld. That nationwide case could reach the Ozarks in a positve way by promoting awareness of resources.

MOUNTAINBURG, Ark. -- An Army Humvee from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., was in a minor accident on Interstate 540 on Tuesday morning about 10:30.  An Army spokeswoman says two soldiers have minor, non-life threatening injuries. Soldiers from the 94th Engineer Battalion, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade were on their way from Forth Chaffee, Ark., to Fort Leonard Wood.  A silver passenger car ran into the Humvee, which was the rear vehicle in the brigade's convoy. A medical helicopter took a soldier to a hospital in Fort Smith.

A unit of soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood will head to Afghanistan Monday. The 55th Mobility Augmentation Company will leave from the Springfield-Branson National Airport's old terminal at 7:30 Monday night. The group of more than 75 soldiers will help clear roads and support other Army soldiers in the war-torn region. The 55th MAC company will be in Afghanistan for at least one year.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The former president of the National Association of Government Employees local union at Fort Leonard Wood pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday for embezzling union money.  Garold Lawson Sr., 67, of St. Robert, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr to the charge contained in a federal information. By pleading guilty, Lawson admitted he stole at least $67,566 from Local R14-139 of the  National Association of Government Employees.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- The U.S. Army's chief of staff got a firsthand look at the aftermath of an EF-3 tornado that tore through the post on Friday.  Gen. George Casey Jr. pledged to put a price tag on the damage, and to get financial help from Congress for all the soldiers affected. Some 6,000 people were off the post when the twister hit on New Year's Eve; they were still on leave for Christmas. Both Tuesday and Monday, many soldiers and their families made their way back to find their homes are gone, and there is little they can salvage.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- The Army's chief of staff, Gen. George Casey Jr., will visit here on Tuesday to survey the tornado damage.  An EF3 tornado hit the post on Friday morning, destroying 41 homes and damaging several other buildings. Monday was the first day that civilian workers were back on post after the holiday weekend.  ---- Edited news release from Fort Leonard Wood's Public Information Office FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Maj. Gen. David Quantock, commanding general of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood, provided a morning message for returning service members and families.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo -- An EF-3 Tornado came through around 9:30 am New Year's Eve morning. The sirens went off, people were notified quickly, and luckily only two minor injuries were reported. General David Phillips says it was the best possible scenario for a tornado to hit because many people had gone home for the holidays. As far as the damage is concerned, about 12 homes were completely destroyed. Home built during the World War II era were also damaged. They were a part of the World War II musuem on the post.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Congressman Ike Skelton served Missouri's 4th District for more than three decades but the new year will bring new leadership.  Rep.-elect Vicky Hartzler will be responsible for keeping the military bases in the district relevant.  Hartzler met with top brass from Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster on Monday.  After that meeting, she spoke with KY3 News and told us she is "confident" she will wind up on the Armed Services Committee that Skelton chaired for many years.