News
Throughout the Vietnam War, many of those who served in the American or Allied forces came home not only unwelcomed and dishonored but spurned and spit upon. For those South Vietnamese unable to leave following the war, the war went on a lot longer. Many veterans were imprisoned for "reeducation"
Military Life
As far back as the 1830s, French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the United States and applauded Americans for their ability to see a problem and come together almost spontaneously to tackle solving it. He saw this as the foundation of our democratic society. Yet most of us
News
Despite job fairs and other support, many Puget Sound military who have gone from one deployment to another to "instant" jobless civilian status would have no place to go without recovery shelters like the Veterans Resource Center. There, within the Tacoma Rescue Mission, veterans find a clean, safe and orderly
News
"Book groups are like friendships," James Atlas wrote last year in a New York Times article. "Some coalesce and die out in a few years; others last a lifetime." Founded in 1941, Lakewood's Friday Book Club fits squarely into the latter category. One of the longest continuously running book clubs
Military Life
In 1941, the village of Lakewood did not yet have its own public library. What it did have was a group of 18 avid women readers who decided to replace their frequent trips into the downtown Tacoma library with a circulating book exchange they called the Friday Book Club. Their
Arts
Like his work, glass artist Dale Chihuly stands out in a crowd. With his black eyepatch and willful hair, he is Seattle's own fiery fusion of Picasso and Warhol. When he was growing up in Tacoma, his kindergarten teacher at Sheridan Elementary held up a ceramic pig Chihuly had adorned
Travel
The towering natural sandbox that is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is the only place in the world where you can marvel at dunes that thrust as high as 500 feet into the sky, an ocean at their feet, festooned with coastal forests and tree islands. But they're not
News
The perfect companion to Angels Flying Out of Hell, Operation Babylift is the poignant memoir of Air Force nurse Regina Aune and orphan Aryn Lockhart, both of whom were on the ill-fated initial C5-A Babylift mission out of Saigon that crashed with more than 300 babies, crew, and caregivers on
News Front
In this 40th anniversary year of the end of the Vietnam War, it seems fitting that two books have just been published about the frantic, life-saving rescue of orphaned South Vietnamese babies: Angels Flying Out of Hell: The 7,000 Mile Journey of the Operation Babylift Orphans by Bette Milleson James
Arts
Whether you have kids, house guests or nostalgia, now is the perfect time to gather up the gang and head for the exhibit, "Route 66: Dream of the Mother Road," at LeMay - America's Car Museum (ACM) in Tacoma. For almost 60 years, America got its kicks on Route 66,