Here are recent headlines about the military in Kansas:Fort Riley ¢ 1st Infantry Division(Salina Journal) Delivering death messages difficult: Deb Shelkey, a civilian employee in Fort Riley’s Casualty Office, said that in each case, the officer recites the same message that begins: “The Secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your son (or daughter) was killed in action …” Some 150 officers have been trained at Fort Riley to perform the duty that has been performed for 130 soldiers and two airmen from the fort killed in the war. There have been 4,202 U.S. military deaths from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since March 19, 2003, according to a Department of Defense Web site. “We tell them this is probably going to be the most difficult duty they’ve ever done,” Shelkey said. Maj. Nathan Bond concurs. A deputy public affairs officer at Fort Riley, he has broken the news three times in his 18 years in the service. While he would rather be deployed “anywhere” rather than do it again, Bond, 37, said it is a most necessary duty. “It is a privilege and an honor to be that connection between a soldier and a family in the Army, but you know that when you get to that door, you’re the lasting memory for that family. They’re not going to forget that morning they got that knock on the door,” he said. “You want to make sure it’s a memory that has the appropriate dignity that reflects the life of that loved one, a memory that’s consistent with the person whose death is being announced, consistent with what we hope to be as a nation, what we hope to be as an army.”(Wichita Eagle) Two Fort Riley soldiers killed in Iraq, Afghanistan: Two sergeants assigned to Fort Riley died overseas, the military announced Wednesday. One was an airman and adviser in Afghanistan and the other was an Army soldier serving in Iraq. The airman, Master Sgt. Patrick Magnani, 38, of Martinez, Calif., was killed in an incident Sept. 4 near Bagram. He had been assigned to the Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division and had arrived at Fort Riley in May. He was a transition team member. Fort Riley trains such teams to advise military officers and civilian officials in Iraq and Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Courtney Hollinsworth, 26, of Yonkers, N.Y., died of wounds received when his unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device and grenades Sunday in Baghdad, the military said.(Matt Sanchez, embedded with the 1st Squadron 4th Cavalry out of Fort Riley) Life in Saddam’s palace: Prosperity is the home to the 4-9 Cavalry after having been the residence of Saddam Hussein. For a city that is conservatively over 1,000 years old, Baghdad has a short memory. No one can accurately remember or admit to how Saddam used the grounds of the present FOB Prosperity. … Today, at Prosperity, sandbags are stacked alongside the columns, extra protection against possible shrapnel from a stray mortar round. The main reception room, the exclusive residence where perhaps the heads of state gathered for leisurely discussion before the business of business, is now a gym and quite possibly the most luxurious fitness center in the entire American industrial-military complex. Marble steps lead to the free weights. While pumping iron, soldiers can admire the millennial craftsmanship of Baghdadi artisans whose forefathers built the hanging gardens of Babylon one of the wonders of the Ancient World. The manmade lakes intended to keep the vegetation green and flourishing despite the merciless heat have been expanded. The 4th Squadron 9th Cavalry has converted one pond into a swimming pool complete with the cavalry crest, the silhouette of a lone horse against a yellow backdrop painted on the pool’s floor.