Military News

The latest military updates, tributes and memorials in around the New Orleans area

The no-nonsense general who directed federal troops in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina returned to the city Tuesday to call for residents and leaders to adopt a permanent culture of disaster preparedness, from installing generators on the second floor instead of the first to making weather radios a staple holiday gift.

Jonnie L. Stiles and three colleagues from the Louisiana Army National Guard set out sometime Thursday on a mission to check and clear the roadways of Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan.

During that mission, an improvised explosive device detonated near Stiles' Humvee, killing the 38-year-old career military man from Colorado, the 24th member of the Louisiana unit killed since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday that he would consider asking lawmakers to find money for a program designed to collect contributions to help the families of Louisiana National Guard and Reserve personnel called to active duty, but shied away from making a financial commitment to the program.

Scott Threlkeld / The Times-PicayuneThe Tulane University Navy ROTC marches during the Veterans Celebrate Freedom parade in Slidell on Sunday. Another parade is being held today in downtown New Orleans.

The Greater New Orleans Veterans Council and the Military Order of the Purple Heart will hold a celebration and parade in downtown New Orleans today in honor of Veterans Day.

The National WWII Museum, 945 Magazine St., also will host a Veterans Day event beginning at 10:30 a.m. with a performance by the U.S. Marine Forces Reserve Band, followed by a program. Admission is free all day to veterans and active military, Guard, Reserve and their families.

More than nine months after he was promoted to oversee more than 69,400 Naval reservists spread across the world, Rear Adm. Lothrop Little has turned over his command in New Orleans to deploy to Iraq for a year.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneCivic, military and government leaders break ground on the new federal city project in Algiers on Sept. 30.

Reaching their latest milestone in transforming the Naval Support Activity in Algiers into a governmental and commercial campus, planners for the federal-city project have their first cash infusion from the state.

A $25 million bond sale was finalized Oct. 30, meeting a requirement in federal law that money be available for the project within 40 days of signing the lease with the Navy Department, a benchmark reached last month. That money will be used to start work on the headquarters campus for Marine Forces Reserve.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneA ship is surrounded by an oil sheen after the Mississippi River was closed due to a fuel spill in late July.

The Coast Guard's investigation of a July oil spill on the lower Mississippi River will reconvene this morning after a nearly two-month hiatus.