Ft. Campbell

The Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a western Kentucky man who pleaded guilty to killing three children and attacking their mother near Fort Campbell.

The high court on Thursday found a judge committed no errors in allowing 41-year-old Kevin Wayne Dunlap to admit to the killings in Trigg County and have a jury decide only if he would be condemned to death or face a lesser sentence.

Dunlap was sentenced to death March 19, 2010. He pleaded guilty to stabbing and killing 5-year-old Ethan Frensley, 17-year-old Kayla Williams and 14-year-old Kortney Frensley when they returned home from school on Oct. 15, 2008 near the Fort Campbell military installation in southern Kentucky.

The military says two Fort Campbell soldiers died in Afghanistan after their unit was struck by an improvised explosive device.

Killed on Monday were 23-year-old 2nd Lt. Justin Lee Sisson of Phoenix, Ariz., and 20-year-old Spc. Robert Allan Pierce of Panama, Okla. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

Sisson joined the Army about a year ago after graduating from Florida State University. Pierce joined in April 2011 and served in Korea before arriving at Fort Campbell last August.

Sisson's survivors include his parents, Kevin B. Sisson and Phyllis M. Sisson, both of Phoenix.

Pierce is survived by his spouse, Christian M. Pierce of Huntington, Ark., and parents, Randy R. Pierce of Panama and Lonnetta R. Dart of Hartford, Ark.

A soldier stationed at Fort Campbell has been killed in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense said Tuesday that 39-year-old Warrant Officer Sean W. Mullen of Dover, Del., died June 2 of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

The attack was at Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.

Mullen was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), at Fort Campbell.

Almost 300 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell are due home from Afghanistan.

A welcome-home ceremony is scheduled for late Tuesday night at the Army installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee line.

The soldiers are members of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. They have been in Afghanistan for nine months.

Notifications of planned furloughs are expected to be sent out in the next couple of weeks to federal employees who work on Kentucky military installations as unions negotiate details of the  impact of automatic budget cuts.

Thousands of federal employees who work at Fort Knox in central Kentucky and Fort Campbell on the Tennessee state line could face up to 22 unpaid days off work between April and September as part of cuts triggered on March 1.  Union officials say they expect notifications to start being sent to employees in mid to late March.

Vicki Loyall is the president of local 2302 of the American Federation of Government Employees based at Fort Knox.  She said employees there worry about paying bills and are considering cancelling their health insurance.

On the eve of automatic military budget cuts, Fort Campbell's garrison commander said the installation's 8,000 civilian employees could face up to 22 unpaid days off this year.

Col. David L. "Buck" Dellinger told reporters Thursday that Fort Campbell's leaders are making budget decisions sometimes on an hourly basis to prepare for $55 million in budget cuts scheduled to take effect on Friday.

The installation in southern Kentucky is hosting town hall meetings in the coming days with staff and soldiers.

Dellinger said they have to balance providing training for thousands of soldiers who are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan this year, while finding savings in areas like civilian employee salaries, maintenance and other operating costs.

With military budget cuts set to take effect Friday, Fort Campbell's leaders are preparing to give more details on furloughs facing thousands of civilian employees and local impact of those cuts on soldiers and their families.

Fort Campbell's commander Maj. Gen. James McConville has said more information will be provided in the coming days through town hall meetings. The installation's garrison commander, Col. David L. "Buck" Dellinger, is providing details on the local impact during a media briefing on Thursday.

The Pentagon faces a $46 billion budget reduction through the end of September and has warned that some 800,000 civilians stand to be furloughed without pay for up to 22 days.

More than 30,000 troops are based at Fort Campbell, and many are currently deployed to Afghanistan.

Soldiers serving in a combat aviation brigade at Fort Campbell are scheduled to arrive at the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line after completing a deployment to Afghanistan.

The soldiers arriving home on Friday are from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. The aviation brigade has been working in eastern Afghanistan since last year to assist U.S. and international troops.

Thousands of soldiers from Fort Campbell are deployed or are preparing to deploy this year to Afghanistan.

The Army's most elite aviation unit is proposing to allow women to fly the special operations helicopters used in missions like the one that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., and known as the Night Stalkers, wants to give women a trial as pilots and crew chiefs, pending congressional approval. The aviation unit is the first among Army special operations units to move toward less restricted roles for women as a part of military-wide review of gender exclusions for many combat jobs.

Women have been able to fly attack helicopters since the 1990s, and many women serve in aviation brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. But previous policy barred them from special operations missions.

Fort Campbell is resuming its monthly memorial ceremony for 101st Airborne Division soldiers who have died as thousands of troops from the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky are currently serving in Afghanistan.

This month's Eagle Remembrance Ceremony on Wednesday will honor Pfc. Shane G. Wilson of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and Spc. Patricia Horne of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. Both died in 2012.

Wilson, a 20-year-old infantry rifleman from Kuna, Idaho, died Oct. 18 in Khost province, Afghanistan. Horne, a 20-year-old human resource specialist of Greenwood, Miss., died Aug. 24 in a non-combat-related incident in Bagram, Afghanistan.