ARMED FORCES

ARMED FORCES

VETERANS

Guard’s 137th returns

About 40 soldiers from the Ohio National Guard’s 137th Signal Co. based in Newark, Ohio, who had been deployed since Oct. 11 providing communications support to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico, arrived home Wednesday at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus.

The signal company provided mobile satellite, telephone, internet, video conferences and information technology services for more than 50 missions conducted by deployed military units in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Since the first hurricane made landfall in August, more than 400 men and women of the Ohio National Guard have been engaged with rescue and relief efforts in Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Shopping benefit

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service is officially welcoming home 18.5 million honorably discharged veterans with a lifetime online military exchange shopping benefit.

Veterans can shop online at ShopMyExchange.com, marking the first expansion of military exchange privileges since 1990.

Every purchase veterans make online will help improve the quality of life for those who wear the uniform today as Exchange earnings support critical military quality-of-life programs, including combat uniforms below cost, fitness centers, child development center and youth programs on Army garrisons, Air Force outdoor recreation programs, and school lunches for war fighters’ children overseas and more.

To verify eligibility and begin shopping, veterans can visit ShopMyExchange.com.

BASIC TRAINING GRADS

Air Force: Airman Tyler J. Bennett, a 2017 graduate of Big Spring High School, Newville, Pa., a son of Terri Bennett of Carlisle, Pa.; grandson of Stanley Schubel of Mercer, Pa., and Donald Bennett of Carlisle, Pa.; and nephew of Stanley Schubel of Nesconset, N.Y.; and Airman Kaylee A. Whistler, a 2017 graduate of Canfield High School, and the daughter of Kevin L. Whistler of Canfield and Katrina C. Wolfe of Columbiana.

Items of note for the Armed Forces Digest can be sent to The Vindicator, Regional Desk, P.O. Box 780, Youngstown 44501-0780, or emailed to William K. Alcorn at alcorn@vindy.com.