Local serviceman deployed overseas

Air Force Chief Master Sgt. David M. Steele is currently deployed to Southwest Asia in the Persian Gulf region to support the mission of Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. The servicemember is normally assigned to the Air Force Public Affairs Agency, Washington, D.C.

Steele, a public affairs superintendent, has served in the military for 25 years.

He is the son of Harold R. and Billie H. Steele of Dudley Steele Road, Lancaster, S.C.

His wife, Julie, is the daughter of Phillip Johnson of 215th St., and Peggy Broad of 230th St., both of Fort Scott, Kan.

The chief master sergeant is a 1982 graduate of Buford High School, Lancaster.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.

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

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Active duty and reserve component members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces have been deployed to support the war against global terrorism outside the borders of the United States. U.S. troops serve in South, Southwest and Central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, islands in the Pacific, and Europe.