The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • B1

News Tribune staff and news services One of three F-16 fighter jets that patrolled the skies over Washington, D.C., during the 2001 terrorist attacks landed Tuesday at McChord Air Force Base, where it will make its new home and eventually be displayed. Lt. Col. Brad Derrig, who flew the alert mission over the capital on Sept. 11, 2001, piloted the last flight aboard the retired aircraft Tuesday morning.

His Fargo, N.D., base is making the transition to unmanned aerial vehicles and light cargo aircraft. time for us to move Derrig, of the 119th Fighter Wing known as the Happy Hooligans said before taking off from Fargo. After circling once overhead at McChord, the F-16 landed and taxied into a hangar, where crews will strip it of components for other aircraft. Eventually the fighter will be placed in front of the headquarters of the Western Air Defense Sector, known as WADS the little-known unit at McChord responsible for monitoring the skies and protecting America from attack. commander and vice commander are both F-16 pilots, so prett excited about said Vivian Wilson, a WADS spokeswoman.

Goodwill ideas often best when regifted ome ideas are logical, joyful and cheap enough to be clipped and slipped into next reminder file so we can repeat, or etter yet, pilfer them. Take the wreaths hanging from street lights in the East 34th Street and McKinley Avenue business district. Each is unique, and each proves community organizing can be fun. Matthew Lystra of Dome Top Neighborhood Alliance bought 40 plain wreaths and invited folks to ring their own decorations and deck them out. So sturdy are these wreaths that after two windstorms they are all still in place, still looking festive.

Thirty blocks to the south, Edwina Magrum and Catherine Ushka-Hall mustered carolers and handed each a songbook on loan from on the Ave. Two groups on two frosty evenings visited the biz district at East 64th Street and McKinley, then marched on to houses with holiday lights. Some residents peeked through drawn curtains; others came out and sang along. One said never heard carolers in the neighborhood before, ut hoped become a tradition. It was an evening of verse after verse of neighborly good will, absolutely free.

Dagmar Peterson spotted a wonderful Christmas idea at Asbury United Methodist Church, 5601 S. Puget Sound Ave. Members of the church had built a small shed with illuminated figures of Mary and Joseph next to a rustic crib. But there was no Baby Jesus. Instead, the readerboard carried this message: you do not have a doll for your child, take one of ours in daughter, Iris Biritz, was in the car when they spotted the sign.

They talked about Jesus, about Christmas, about giving. Iris, who is 7, liked the idea of birthday and imagined the party. Two of her Muslim friends had come to her birthday with cool plastic horses, so Iris figured Allah would give esus cool plastic horses. She was pretty sure Mother Earth would bake the cake. present, she said, would be extra fun, because when she sees an image of him, he is smiling.

Iris decided to give her favorite doll. washed it and did its hair up perfectly and wrapped it in its nicest said Dagmar. Iris made a necklace for the doll, and tucked in a little stuffed duck when she wrapped it up in her favorite lanket. wanted it to have a toy while it was waiting for its new mommy to come pick it Dagmar said. Then Iris made a card with a manger scene and signed it, Iris and Santa next morning, she put the baby in the manger, bowed her head and Dagmar said.

Then Iris popped back in the car and headed to school as if she had done nothing anyone else do. That little attitude was a perfect fit for manger, which was, in turn, a perfect fit for its neighborhood east of South Tacoma Way. members demonstrate their faith through social service and spiritual outreach. They have a day care, a food bank and a drop-in center. Sometimes a person giving to one project is receiving from another.

They understand the dignity of being able to give what you have, and the grace of allowing others to give to you. The creche made those concepts tangible. Every morning, dolls would begin to appear in it. There were Barbies and Doras, baby dolls, a bride, ballerinas, a fireman. There were teddy bears, puppets and plush pups.

Some toys came new. Others were previously loved. Each evening, a new gathering of toys would be waiting in the lighted scene. During the night, they would all go to their new homes. No one counted.

No one knows who took. No one knows who gave, though you and I are on to Iris. But everyone who came to that creche is etter for it and looking forward to visiting it next year. Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com KATHLEEN MERRYMAN SOUTHSOUND SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED Auburn Mountainview High students make their own golf clubs. B3 COMING UP IN SOUTH SOUND The Orting School District re-evaluates a grass-roots program fueled by parental involvement in classes.

Applause B2 Contact Us B2 Lottery. B2 Obituaries. B4 Opinion B6 INSIDE WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Hope buoys shot recovery A Washington State Patrol trooper shot five times in June continues to recover from her injuries. She hopes to return to work but first must overcome nerve damage. BY STACEY MULICK The News Tribune Kelly Kalmbach wants to return to work as a Washington State Patrol trooper.

She just know whether the nerves in her left arm will allow it. Kalmbach, 47, was shot five times June 28 in an exchange of gunfire with an drunken driver pulled over at a Spanaway gas station. Pierce County deputies killed the gunman, Jack Sonntag, a 25-year-old member of a prominent Pierce County family, a short time later when he refused to drop his weapon. Kalmbach, a wife and mother and a trooper for the past five years, continues RUSS CARMACK News Tribune Washington State Patrol trooper Kelly Kalmbach, right, with trooper Sgt. Monica Hunter, is still recovering after being shot five times in June.

She suffered nerve damage in her left hand. BRUCE KELLMAN News Tribune Senior Master Sgt. John Kennedy tends to an F-16 fighter jet Tuesday in a Washington Air National Guard hangar at McChord Air Force Base. The retired warbird, which made its last flight from Fargo, N.D., was one of three that patrolled the skies over Washington, D.C., during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

MOTHER SAYS SAFER IN JAIL A mall, a shotgun, a not-guilty plea HISTORIC AIRCRAFT LANDS AT FINAL HOME Please see HOPE, page B5 From one Washington to another McChord Air Force Base inherits an F-16 that guarded the capital on It will go on display at Western Air Defense Sector headquarters. RUSS CARMACK News Tribune A fire caused the roof of the Fawcett House to cave in Tuesday. The apartment building in downtown Tacoma, long plagued by criminal activity, had been scheduled for a renovation assessment that day. A crane is to demolish it today. Troubled apartment house burns Please see AIRCRAFT, page B5 A man who police say brought a sawed-off shotgun to the Tacoma Mall pleads not guilty to two felony charges.

He says he needed the illegal weapon for protection. BY KAREN HUCKS The News Tribune Jimarlow Lee Dell Ervin went to the Tacoma Mall on Saturday with an unloaded sawed-off shotgun, police said to buy a Christmas present for his girlfriend. The 18-year-old left in a police car with no presents headed for jail and two felony charges. Police said he was arrested after being spotted with an illegal weapon when officers came to the mall to deal with a brawl not involving Ervin. Pierce County prosecutors charged the self-proclaimed gangster Tuesday with unlawful possession of a stolen firearm and unlawful possession of a short- barreled shotgun.

He could face up to 14 months in prison if convicted. Please see SHOTGUN, page B4 Officials call Tacoma fire suspicious A fire destroys the Fawcett House, an abandoned building in downtown Tacoma, hours before a renovation assessment. Owners had planned to make it offices. BY STACEY MULICK The News Tribune Early Tuesday morning, flames destroyed the Fawcett House, a boarded-up 29-unit apartment building in downtown Tacoma been a magnet for criminal activity and transients. The fire broke out hours before construction managers were to have walked through the three-story building to assess how it could be renovated for use as office space, said Ron Gintz of the Tacoma- based Gintz Group.

Tacoma fire officials and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating the fire, which was deemed suspicious. The blaze left the building unsafe for investigators to enter. A crane is expected to arrive today to tear down the building, enabling investigators to seek the cause of the fire. examine it as we take it deputy fire marshal Phil Ferrell said. will take several In the meantime, the owners will consider their options.

Since the Gintz Group got 50 percent ownership of the building in September, it had discussed selling it to nearby University of Washington Tacoma and allowing Tacoma fire crews to burn down the building in a training exercise. The property falls within the eventual growing footprint of the university, but no Please see FIRE, page B2.