VETERANS

VETERANS

Salem Memorial group

The Salem Memorial & Patriotic Association will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at AMVETS POST #45. 750 S. Broadway. The agenda will include the benefit spaghetti dinner and discussion of Memorial Day activities.

All veterans’ groups must have at least one member in attendance, and the public is welcome to attend.

HONORS

Assisted in inauguration

Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class James P. VanKirk participated in the 56th presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 as part of the contingent of National Guard members to serve in Washington, D.C., for the event.

Army and Air National Guard members from 31 states and territories provided the 2009 presidential inauguration with military working dogs, consequence management planning, and ceremonial, logistics and medical support through the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee.

National Guard members also assisted local authorities with crowd management, traffic control and emergency services operations.

VanKirk, a 1988 graduate of East Palestine High School, is a platoon sergeant with the 2nd Brigade, Special Troops Battalion based in Beaver Falls, Pa.

PROMOTION

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. — Air Force Col. James Muscatell, 403rd Wing commander, was nominated by the president for promotion, according to an announcement Feb. 25 by Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., chief of the Air Force Reserve.

A command pilot with more than 7,100 flying hours, Muscatell arrived at the wing in January. He was previously commander of the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. He is the son of Jim and Peg Muscatell of Struthers.

Muscatell, an Air Force Academy graduate, was nominated for promotion along with six Air Force Reserve brigadier generals and 14 colonels. Their nominations must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate for them to be promoted.

Muscatell and his wife are also the Air Force Reserve Command’s 2009 nominees for the Gen. and Mrs. Jerome F. O’ Malley Award, named after General O’Malley and his wife, Diane, who were killed in a 1985 aircraft crash while en route to a Boy Scout fund-raising banquet in Scranton, Pa.

The annual award is given to an Air Force wing commander-and- spouse team whose contributions best exemplify the highest ideals and positive leadership of a military couple in a key position.

BASIC TRAINING GRADS

Air Force: Airman Michael J. Fisher (Struthers High School, ’08), son of Michelle Fiorenza of Youngstown.

XItems of note for the Armed Forces Digest can be sent to The Vindicator, Regional Desk, P.O. Box 780, Youngstown 44501-0780, or e-mailed to alcorn@vindy.com.