From the Armed Forces

• Joseph R. Ferguson, son of Samuel A. and Pamela L. Ferguson of Palatine, graduated from the Army ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) Leader Development and Assessment Course, also known as "Operation Warrior Forge," at Fort Lewis, Tacoma, Wash. The ROTC cadet has been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army.

The 33 days of training provides the professional training and evaluation for all cadets in the aspects of military life, administration and logistical support. Although continued military training and leadership development is included in the curriculum, the primary focus of the course is to develop and evaluate each cadet's officer potential as a leader by exercising the cadet's intelligence, common sense, ingenuity and physical stamina. The cadet command assesses each cadet's performance and progress in officer traits, qualities and professionalism while attending the course.

Cadets in their junior and senior year of college must complete the leadership development course. Upon successful completion of the course, the ROTC program, and graduation from college, cadets are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army, National Guard or Reserve.

Ferguson is a 2004 graduate of Palatine High School.

• Army Reserve Pvt. Nicholas A. Wells, a student at Lake Zurich High School, graduated from Basic Combat Training at Fort Knox, Ky.

During the nine-week training period, Wells received instruction in drill and ceremony, weapons, rifle marksmanship and bayonet training, chemical warfare, field training and tactical exercises, armed and unarmed combat, military courtesy, military justice, physical fitness, first aid, and Army history, traditions, and core values.

Wells is the grandson of Jacqueline Witz of Barrington.

• Air Force Airman 1st Class Justin J. Leach, a 2002 graduate of William Fremd High School, Palatine, was deployed overseas to a forward operating base supporting the missions of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Operation Enduring Freedom is the name given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Reserve members from all branches of the armed forces have been mobilized, activated and deployed along with active duty members to support the war against global terrorism. The objectives encompass combating the international terrorist network or regime forces outside the borders of the United States. U.S. troops serve in South and Southwest Asia, Central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, islands in the Pacific and Europe.

Operation Iraqi Freedom involves members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. The objectives are force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the Iraqi people.

Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces also assist in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume authority and responsibility to defend and preserve Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.

Leach, a supply journeyman, is regularly assigned to the 509th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base, Knob Noster, Mo. The airman first class has served in the military for one year. He is the son of Thomas and Lynn Leach of Chicago.