Dan Morrison and Cali Bagby embedded with the Marines in Afghanistan as multimedia journalists for KVAL.com. They share their stories Monday in Eugene and Wednesday in Portland.

"Everyone make sure their helmets and seatbelts are on," says Cpt Ryan Bumgardner, 29, of Hood River, Ore., "and the doors are locked.”

Conversations start with phrases like, "if we get blown up" and "if we receive indirect fire." This is life for Oregon Marines in the war zone of Helmand province, Afghanistan.

You could hear the dull thump of the explosion as the charge, buried probably no more than a foot or so under soft sand, erupted into an enormous geyser of black and white smoke mixed with the light brown dirt and sand.

It is an odd feeling to travel with men who not only know they are walking into an ambush, but who actually want it to happen.

The Army provided no new money for the Humvee in the service's recent budget proposal. Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, an Army spokesman, says the 2,620 vehicles ordered from Mishawaka, Ind.-based AM General will be the last as the Army moves on to newer designs.

A minibus carrying an extended Iraqi family collided Wednesday with an Oregon National Guard vehicle south of Baghdad, killing five Iraqis and wounding at least 10 people, including three American soldiers, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

A Mine Resistant Ambush Proof vehicle rolls across the gravel with green and yellow dice hanging inside near the driver’s head, a small rubber Oregon Duck strapped to the front of the vehicle. Far from Autzen Stadium, Duck and Beaver fans in Iraq...

As violence in Iraq is sharply down and Iraqi forces are taking more responsibilities, the United States is preparing for the withdrawal of all combat forces by August 2010 and everyone else by 2012.

Inside the armored vehicle hangs a pair of orange and black dice, a good luck charm in Oregon State Beaver colors from Justin Wrightman previous deployment to Iraq in 2007. Today, he stands guard near his Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle,...

A Muslim woman garbed in a head-to-toe swimsuit - dubbed a "burquini" - may have opened a new chapter in France's tussle between religious practices and its stern secular code.

The Explosive Ordinance Disposal is the military’s equivalent of a bomb squad at Joint Base Balad in Iraq, where Oregon National Guard medevac units from Charlie Company are stationed. A staff sergeant who grew up in Lincoln City, Ore., takes us inside his job.

The Marine Corps left troops in Iraq vulnerable to deadly roadside bombs by failing to answer an urgent request from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, according to an internal Pentagon investigation obtained by The Associated Press.