A higher rank

Lt. Col. Marshall Michels, a native of Vermillion, is promoted to the rank of colonel at Camp Rapid in Rapid City

Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. His children, AJ and Allie, place the new insignia on his uniform while his wife, Lynette, looks on. Michels, who currently resides in Rapid City, works full-time as the South Dakota Army National Guard's director of personnel in Joint Force Headquarters.

(SDNG photo by Sgt. Jacqueline Fitzgerald)