U.S. Army photoU.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Matt Fitter SPC Amber Cobena
Chief Warrant Officer Five (CW5) Matt Fitter is a McAlester native, who is serving as special guest of honor and featured speaker for the 2021 Armed Forces Day Parade in McAlester.
Fitter is also serving as parade marshal for the Armed Forces Day Parade, set for 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 1 in Downtown McAlester.
No Armed Forces Day banquet is set for the day prior to the parade this year due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, but Fitter plans to deliver the Armed Forces Day address.
It s set for 11:30 a.m. on Friday, April 30, with the News-Capital planning to live stream the speech on the newspaper s Facebook page.
CW5 Chris Cottrill, Command Chief Warrant Officer, 110th Aviation Brigade
Chief Warrant Officer Five Chris Cottrill is a native of Plymouth, Minnesota. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in June 1990 and completed USMC Basic at MCRD San Diego, California. Cottrill served as a CH-53 crew chief until June 1998 before being accepted into the U.S. Army flight training program. Cottrill attended the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Basic Course and U.S. Army Helicopter Flight Training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, in 1998. He completed UH-60 pilot qualification in October 1999.
Cottrill’s previous assignments include aviation standardization officer, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Drum, New York; aviation standardization officer, 8th Army, Korea; battalion standardization officer, 2nd BN, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; standardization pilot, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Flight Detachment, Belgium; battalion and company standardization officer, 3rd BN,
4 Feb. 28 marks the 30-year anniversary of the end of the Gulf War – a nearly 7-month battle resulting in almost 300 American deaths.
Mike Durant had, as the saying goes, “a front-row seat to history”.
Long before he became a renowned master aviator, best-selling author, husband and father of six, Durant was a kid growing up with a younger sister in a working-class family in Berlin, northern New Hampshire.
One summer, he worked for an Army National Guard warrant officer who owned a small aviation business with some helicopters and airplanes in his home state. “I got to go flying with him over the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It was the most amazing thing I had experienced at that point in my life and, from that moment on, set my sights on becoming a warrant officer and flying helicopters in the Army.”
A definitive ranking of troops’ extreme napping positions January 13 Warrant Officer Daniel Johnson takes a nap during a field training exercise during Warrant Officer Basic Course 1-19 on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., April 30, 2019. (Warrant Officer Kowshon Ye/Marine Corps) Sleep can be hard to come by in the service. One of the very first things you learn when you enlist is that you should take any and every napping opportunity possible, despite the location. As thousands of National Guard members filter through the halls of the U.S. Capitol, civilians are getting firsthand looks at just how easily soldiers can turn a concrete floor into a comfortable nest.