News;Ben Fenwick

Hundreds of supporters turned out to the State Capitol Wednesday for a rally in support of embattled Republican legislator Sally Kern, under fire in recent weeks over her comments about gays.   The largely white, working- class crowd – with many members wearing patriotic or religious symbols – crowded three floors of the Capitol, disrupting […]

Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe returned Tuesday from Iraq after visiting Oklahoma National Guard troops deployed there, according to a release from his office.   State Adjutant Harry M. Wyatt III accompanied Inhofe to missions in Baghdad, and to two detainee holding centers where members of Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry, the Thunderbirds, are stationed.   “Currently, over […]

Landscaping during an economic downturn often means firing the help and bending one’s own back. But you don’t have to go it alone, according to Tommy Precure, manager of Precure Nursery & Garden Center, 8125 W. Reno. “Don’t try to do something too big for you to handle yourself, like putting in trees or big […]

This year, an $11 billion cannon was supposed to roll off an assembly line in Elgin, the beginning of a new era for the indirect-fire weapon known as a howitzer. Called the “Crusader,” the vehicle had a cooled 155mm gun that could fire 10 rounds a minute, even at different angles so the projectiles would […]

CAMP BUCCA, IRAQ ” When Steven Turner, 24, of Stillwater, got to Iraq, he wanted to kill as many Iraqis as possible. He wanted to kill them for his high school buddy back in Indiana, Marine Lance Thompson. “I didn’t want to be the one who watched everybody pass me up, and knowing that they […]

st1:country-region>, many of these same soldiers are indeed face to face with suspected insurgents ” with the soldiers acting as prison guards.   The men and women of Oklahoma’s 45th often find themselves in a guard tower, staring down into a razor wire-fitted compound where the suspected insurgents are detainees, or escorting the detainees through […]

BAGHDAD ” Badges ” multicolored, coded and biologically linked to the person to whom they are issued ” are carried by virtually everyone in Baghdad’s International Zone, or “Green Zone.” The badges mark the bearer’s status, privilege and restrictions. The bearers of these badges are almost the only ones allowed to navigate the concrete-barrier maze […]

BAGHDAD ” Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, strode through the great dome of Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad palace ” now the temporary United States Embassy ” with an air about him like he does it every day, and that he’s not all that impressed by it. With a staunchly conservative reputation, legendary for demanding cuts in […]

BAGHDAD ” A recent explosion did not kill or injure any of Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade, the Thunderbirds, but instead underscored the nature of the menace that lies outside the U.S. Embassy Annex compound where many of them reside. Oklahoma’s Thunderbirds will preside over a complex of forward operating bases, or FOBs, in the sprawling […]

CAMP BUEHRING, KUWAIT ” When University of Oklahoma architecture student Jennifer Arends hits the ground imminently in Iraq, her 5-foot-4-inch frame will bear the uniform of a U.S. Army solider, trussed with a 40-pound bulletproof vest. Her sandy blond hair will be covered with a Kevlar helmet, she will view the world through darkened ballistic-lens […]