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Military features

PHOTO GALLERIES

Back from Kosovo

Alaska Army National Guard soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment, were reunited with friends and family at the Alaska National Guard armory at Camp Denali on Fort Richardson on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, after a year-long deployment where they supported peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions in Kosovo.

Obama at Elmendorf Air Force Base

President Barack Obama spoke to a hanger full of airman and soldiers at Elmendorf Air Force Base Thursday afternoon, November 12, 2009.

SOLDIER PROFILES

Alaska's Fallen Soldiers

Running list of profiles of Alaskan, or Alaska-based, soldiers who have died since 2003.

Soldiers allege the medically unfit sent to Afghanistan, Iraq

Daily News staff and wire reports

Published: March 27th, 2009 12:12 AM
Last Modified: March 27th, 2009 12:12 AM

FAIRBANKS -- A group of active-duty soldiers at Fort Richardson in Anchorage and Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks is accusing commanders of forcing medically unfit soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

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The soldiers are gathering signatures to send a petition to Congress calling for a full investigation.

Sgt. Jesse Raymo -- among those spearheading the effort -- says he sustained a sports-related shoulder injury in January 2005 just before deploying to Iraq with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright. Raymo says he was denied access to an MRI because his supervisors thought it was too close to deployment.

He was later injured again in a roadside bomb, then he was part of a convoy that was shot at by insurgents.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen says soldiers are thoroughly reviewed by a medical board and deployed only after doctors say they're ready.