Bethel Fellowship Church in Chaska is collecting items for care packages that will be sent to soldiers in Iraq this holiday season.

Bethel Fellowship Church attendee David Mertz and his company will be the recipients of the care packages. Mertz’s 555th Engineers, 571st Sapper Company is doing road clearance and patrol in Balad, Iraq. They are due home in the latter part of 2009.

Former Chaska resident Howard “Howie” Bielke, 78, died on Aug. 2 at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee.

Bielke was one of a handful of Chaska and Carver Korean Veterans profiled for a September 2000 Herald article, “50-year-old ‘Forgotten War’ is remembered.”

As an assistant gunner/radio operator, Bielke gave the Herald readers good insight into the life of the infantry soldier. Here is an excerpt from the article:

The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV) a non-profit social services agency assisting veterans and their families statewide is hosting the American Veterans Traveling Tribute (The Wall) at Canterbury Park from June 19 to 22^nd to draw awareness to veterans issue and the organization itself.

This year’s Memorial Day parade is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., May 26. The parade will zigzag its way from the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative at Fourth and Ash Streets to end at City Square Park at Chestnut and Third Streets. A ceremony in the park will immediately follow the parade.

Nathan SchwartzbauerCadet Colonel Nathan Schwartzbauer of Chaska has accepted an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, according to a Saint Thomas Academy press release.

On March 27, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill recognizing Vietnam Veterans Day as March 29.

Approximately 800 soldiers from the St. Paul-based 34th Combat Aviation Brigade will deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in late May 2008.

Before deploying to Iraq these troops are expected to travel to Fort Sill, Okla. for three months of pre-deployment training.

The Soldiers of the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade command, direct, maintain and operate UH-60 "Blackhawk" utility helicopters and CH-47 "Chinook" cargo helicopters.