Army Reserve Pvts. Alexis Bliss, Brandy Talbot and Lona Adams have graduated from basic combat training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C.

During the nine weeks of training, the soldiers studied the Army mission, history, tradition and core values, and physical fitness, and received instruction and practice in basic combat skills, military weapons, chemical warfare and bayonet training, drill and ceremony, marching, rifle marksmanship, armed and unarmed combat, map reading, field tactics, military courtesy, military justice system, basic first aid, foot marches, and field training exercises.

Bliss, a 2000 graduate of Free State High School, is the daughter of Dee Bliss, Lawrence.

Talbot, a 2003 graduate of Lawrence High School, is the daughter of Michelle Hesselman, Tonganoxie, and Michael Talbot, Eudora.

Adams is a 2003 graduate of Eudora High School.

• Army Pfc. Edward Grant participated in an exercise called Determined Promise directed by the U.S. Northern Command based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. The multilevel exercise involved Joint Task Force Civil Support and focused on military assistance to civil authorities mission, and incorporated various Homeland Defense and Homeland Security situations.

About 2,000 individuals participated in the two-week exercise, which focused on a simulated bioterrorism event involving local authorities dealing with an outbreak of pneumonic plague that escalated rapidly and involved state and federal resources.

Grant is a satellite communication systems operator-maintainer assigned to the 235th Signal Company at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga.

He is the son of Brad and Linda Grant, Lawrence. He is a 1994 graduate of Lawrence High School.