Come September 4, one of the oldest and most-loved comic strips will be celebrating its 60th birthday.

Beetle Bailey started out on September 4, 1950, the brainchild of cartoonist Mort Walker. It is set in a fictional United States Army military outpost called Camp Swampy. Bailey’s story begins at Rockview University, where he was a college student; after a year, however, he quit school and enlisted in the U.S. Army, on March 13, 1951 – a time when the United States was involved in the Korean War.

Up until now, the strip’s original creator, Mort Walker, is still part of the production team behind it. In a feature on the Navy Times, Walker, now 86, shares: “I don’t know how I’d be retired… I wake up every day with another idea.”

King Features, the syndicating service for Beetle Bailey, is celebrating 60 years of Beetle Bailey gags by running Sunday cartoons that feature Beetle in a re-enactment of various military events in history.

That places Beetle in such events as the end of World War II, and the crossing of the Delaware with George Washington.

Of Beetle, Walker says that he has not changed much over the years: “He’s still pretty much lazy… I haven’t changed him a tremendous amount because I think that’s his character that I want to keep. He represents the little man in all of us. Beetle is the embodiment of everybody’s resistance to authority, all the rules and regulations which you’ve got to follow. He deals with it in his own way. And in a way, it’s sort of what I did when I was in the Army. I just often times did what I wanted to do.”

The loss of a loved one is always painful, but it is another thing to lose a parent when one is all grown up and has shared a lifetime with them versus losing one’s dad as an 8-year-old kid.

Children of fallen heroes are forced to deal with such painful loss at a young age, and programs are being organized to help them cope. One such program is the Good Grief Camp, which aims to help families – spouses, parents, children – cope with the loss of a loved one who either died in Iraq and Afghanistan, or committed suicide after returning from war.

A feature on the Navy Times shared some stories from a Good Grief Camp held at a Pinehurst resort hotel on Saturday. James Gobble, a former Marine from Wilmington, served as a volunteer at the Camp. Among his “tasks” was wrestling with the kids of fallen heroes. He shares: “Most of these guys lost their dad, and it’s the dad that usually does the wrestling… With some of them, you can really tell there’s a deficit, so I’m a jungle gym for a day.”

Eight-year-old Ethan Hotchkin and his 4-year-old brother Tristan were among the kids Gobble played with that day. Ethan recounts his dad’s death: “He was in a vehicle, and there was a bomb underneath… I’m sad about it every day.”

As children played in one part of the hotel, the adult surviving members of fallen heroes’ families were undergoing counseling from other volunteers, who know all too well what they are going through, having lost loved ones themselves.

The “Survivor Seminar” was organized by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

A wave of attacks in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 7 U.S. troops and an Afghan politician over the weekend.

Authorities revealed on Sunday that the seven U.S. troops were killed in separate incidents. Three of the service members who were killed were casualties from two separate battles in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, according to a statement from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). An improvised bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, on the other hand, claimed the lives of two U.S. troops, while another two soldiers were killed in separate attacks, also in the south, on Sunday.

Local politician Abdul Manan, a candidate for parliament during a nationwide election scheduled for September 18, was killed in an attack in the western province of Herat on Saturday. Afghan officials believe that the killing was the handiwork of the Taliban, who are also said to be responsible for the deaths of two other candidates for parliament since the beginning of the campaign period last July.

Meanwhile, eight civilians as well as fifteen militants were also killed in separate incidents on Saturday. One of these incidents was a suicide bomb attack, and all the incidents were blamed on insurgents with ties to the Taliban.

These deaths add to the increasing list of casualties in the Afghan war, since a U.S.-led invasion removed militants from power in 2001. Independent website www.icasualties.org report that the number of foreign troops killed in the Afghan war so far this year is 472.

Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Collin Thomas has been laid to rest on Friday afternoon, following funeral services in Morehead. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Garden.

In attendance during the services were Thomas’ family, friends, and fellow Navy SEALs, as well as more than 60 veterans. Gov. Steve Beshear issued a directive that flags in state office buildings be lowered to half-staff in honor of Thomas, as well as another service member and Kentucky native who was also killed recently in Afghanistan, Spc. Christopher S. Wright according to a feature in The Gleaner. On Monday, the same tribute will be observed in memory of Pvt. Charles M. High IV, a Fort Campbell soldier killed in Afghanistan.

The saying better late than never certainly rang true for World War II veteran Kenny Eye, who, after six and a half decades, is finally getting the medals he earned while in service, according to a feature on the Navy Times.

The 88-year-old served as a mechanic in a Navy air transport squad, and also flew planes in the South Pacific. He knew about his decorations and accolades before he was discharged, but never got around to getting them as he was in a hurry to go home to Western Kansas.

In attendance during the ceremony held last Wednesday were about 150 of Eye’s friends and family, as well as Rep. Jerry Moran of Hays. Among the decorations he received were a World War II Victory Medal, a medal for participation in the Asiatic-Pacific campaign, and a good conduct medal.

Two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan were attacked by Taliban fighters on Saturday morning, according to a report by The Washington Post. The news was shared by NATO and Afghan officials.

The attacks began at 4 in the morning on Saturday, with the launching of simultaneous attacks against Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province and Forward Operating Base Chapman. The insurgents numbered in the dozens, and some of them were allegedly wearing U.S. military uniforms.

The attack involved the firing of mortars, rockets, grenades and guns. NATO officials revealed that two insurgents cut a hole in the fence of FOB Salerno and gained entry into the base. While there were no casualties among Afghan and U.S. troops, an Afghan police man, as well as NATO troops, were wounded, while a 12-year-old Afghan boy was killed. This was revealed by Khost police chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai.

Among the insurgents, fifteen were killed by Afghan security forces and U.S. troops at FOB Salerno, and six at FOB Chapman. Three more were killed by an airstrike, according to NATO, after they were spotted fleeing the scene.

It looked like the attacks were orchestrated by a dangerous Taliban faction – the Haqqani network, led by commander Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Haqqani network has been pointed as the perpetrator of violent acts in Kabul; they operate mainly in eastern Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabuillah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ishaqzai revealed that a total of 48 insurgents included in the attack, some of whom donned suicide vests. Also recovered, in addition to the seven suicide vests, are a car bomb, two recoilless rifles, and other unexploded munitions.