Fort Riley

The colors of the oldest continually active unit in the U.S. Army will fly once again on Fort Riley. The 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, will hold an uncasing ceremony at 10:00 a.m. Friday, Feb. 3 at building 727 on Fort Riley's Marshall Army Airfield.   The "Destroyers," also known as "Hamilton's Own," was the last unit from Fort Riley to return from Iraq. The unit arrived in Kirkuk in May 2011 and worked alongside their Iraqi counterparts in the 12th Iraqi Army.

A soldier found dead at Fort Riley has been identified as Spc. James Joseph Pizzo. Pizzo was assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion. His body was discovered on Nov. 20. Investigators are trying to figure out how Pizzo died. He was 30-years-old.

A woman killed inside a Colorado Springs hotel has been identified as a soldier from Fort Riley. Authorities were called to the Crowne Plaza Hotel for a welfare check early Sunday morning. They found Kimberly Walker, 28, dead inside one of the hotel rooms. Investigators said Walker was strangled to death. An autopsy also revealed blunt force injuries on the brain. Officers arrested Montrell Mayo in connection to Walker's death. The 24-year-old North Carolina resident has been charged with first-degree murder.

Fort Riley will mark the completion of a massive renovation and addition project for its commissary with a six-day grand reopening celebration, beginning March 13. The event will kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9 a.m. The store will open immediately following. Grand reopening prices will run from Tuesday, March 13, through Sunday, March 18, or while supplies of promotionally priced items last. From now until the Grand Opening contest registrations will be underway to further celebrate the commissary opening.

Saline County authorities are investigating why an explosive device was placed just feet away from a busy highway. A work crew from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility found a 10-inch long mortar in a ditch at I-135 near mile-post 85 Thursday. Authorities said four directional fins were still in the tail. Members from the Fort Riley bomb squad were called to dispose of the device. No one was hurt. It is unknown how long the device was laying in the ditch.

A Fort Riley Soldier has died in Afghanistan. 26 year old Sgt. Erik May was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead at a medical facility in eastern Afghanistan on July 14. The cause of death is under investigation. May was an infantryman assigned to 2 nd Battalion, 16 th Infantry Regiment, 4 th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1 st Infantry Division which is currently deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. This was May's second combat deployment with the 'Dragon' Brigade.

A Ft. Riley soldier has been charged with murder. Private John Hughes, a wheeled vehicle mechanic with Special Troops Battalion, 1 st Sustainment Brigade, 1 st Infantry Division, has been charged with the murder of Pvt. Thomas Lavrey. The 21-year old West Seneca, N.Y., native was pronounced dead at Irwin Army Community Hospital on Fort Riley after being found unresponsive in his living quarters May 14. Lavrey was a utilities equipment repairer assigned to the same unit as Hughes.

A man has died after a pursuit involving the Kansas Highway Patrol. It happened in the eastbound lanes I-70, in Dickinson County, around 8 p.m. Friday. Authorities said the chase began when a trooper tried to stop the driver for a traffic violation, but the man drove away at a high rate of speed. The car drove off the roadway at milepost 284 and hit a cement barrier. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released. The Salina Journal reports the man was a soldier from Fort Riley.

It's an opportunity to show their support for the troops overseas. Quilts like these go a long way to showing wounded soldiers that they are appreciated. They're made by the quilts of Valor Foundation. It began as a national program in 2003 and now almost 200 people in Kansas are involved. This group meets once a month to put together quilts for those injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Today the quilts they made will be going to the 44th Calvary brigade out of fort riley.