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“Washington Rifles” is the Annual Training newsletter for the 81st Brigade. It provides a source of current items of interest to its soldiers while they are cut off from traditional news sources. Its pages feature articles about its various units and missions as well as weather, sports, and news.

Formerly known as “The Raven”, the newsletter has gone everywhere Guardsmen from the 81st Brigade go. Its pages contain pictures telling the story of a day in the life of the Washington National Guard largest unit. It can also bring a welcome diversion to troops breaking form the intensity of training. Troops eagerly seek out its crossword puzzle, word search, perhaps a military-oriented cartoon, and its back-page humor feature.

Every effort is made to provide troops visiting from other states a glimpse of news affecting their hometowns (and yes, their sports teams).

Most importantly it historically records a snapshot of the day-to-day training activity of the citizen/soldiers of the Washington National Guard.

This year the "Washington Rifles" ran 7 issues. We have removed the crossword puzzles and sports scores, but we've left in the stories of Guardsmen performing their Annual Training.  The 7th issue was replaced by a photo gallery of typical annual training activities.

"Washington Rifles" is published by the 81st Armor Brigade (Heavy) (Seperate) Public Affairs Officer.  The PAO can be reached on drill weekends at (206) 378-6541.