Heroic disabled veteran saved nurse from attack right after operation...then got back into bed

Disabled veteran helps nurse with confrontational patient

Your Sun
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
Community News Editor
Aug 27, 2019

ENGLEWOOD — A disabled veteran was deemed a hero after he helped tackle a man allegedly trying to harm a nurse.

Bill Tracy smiles recently with Englewood Community Hospital nurse Angie Bonakoske. Tracy received flowers and thank yous from nurses after he helped restrain a confrontational patient at the hospital. PHOTO PROVIDED

After undergoing a five-hour operation to save his right leg, 64-year-old Bill Tracy was recovering last week at Englewood Community Hospital when he heard a nurse screaming.

“I was on bed rest and attached to an IV and have two stents, but heard a ruckus going on near my room, I got up and went toward the nurse who was screaming,” said Tracy, a retired Army Paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne.

“It looked like this man was coming off of some kind of drugs. I came up behind him. I didn’t know he hit her. I helped pin him down until Tess (the nurse) could call the head nurse Cindy and security came too. Tess wasn’t hurt, just shaken up a bit.”
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Florida veteran saved from suicide marking D Day as alive day

'We Saved the World.' Veteran saved from suicide ready to mark D-DAY's 75th

First Coast News
Author: Jeannie Blaylock
May 30, 2019

Kevin Crowell, a veteran himself, will jump from a plane in Normandy on the 75th Anniversary of D-DAY to honor his fellow veterans from 1944.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kevin Crowell stands in awe of the soldiers, paratroopers, and sailors who fought on D-DAY in Normandy. "We saved the world. We saved the world from tyranny," he says in reference to the might of the American military effort on June 6th, 1944.

Crowell says it's his time to say thank you to the young men who volunteered to fight off Hitler. "And think of this," Crowell says. "The Americans who died left their homes and left their farms and left their families and left their town to fly across a giant ocean and go serve."

Crowell is particularly focused on the paratroopers. Some 13,000 American paratroopers jumped behind enemy lines to clear the canals, bridges, and gun nests of the Germans to enable the soldiers' assault onto the Beaches.

According to Dr. Rob Citino, Senior Historian for The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the paratroopers were critical. "They discombobulated the Germans."

Crowell is fired up about making a jump this D-DAY in a drop zone in Normandy. As a veteran member of the 82nd Airborne himself, he says he's practiced jumping in replica drop zones at Ft. Bragg. Now, in France, he'll jump into the real ones.

Crowell is also celebrating his own personal victory. He came home from Iraq to face a major struggle with PTSD. He'd seen his buddies blown up in an IED attack. He even planned a suicide attempt.

It failed, though. "I passed out and found myself the next morning. I felt it was my second chance." He says his service dog, Bella, from K9s for Warriors is a huge factor to his turning his life completely around. Bella even wore a cap and gown at Crowell's college graduation.
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Maryland Veteran Lives on Roof Waiting for Santa

Man sleeps on roof for 12 days for toy drive

Cecil Whig
By Katie Tabeling
9 hrs ago

Mangini is also a veteran, as he served with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in the late 1970s. In his own way, living up on the roof during Christmastime is a way to pay tribute to those in the military who are currently stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq or other far-flung places. Mangini himself never served overseas, but said his tent is “a mansion” compared to what he lived in while training. He’s willing to bet his current living conditions are miles better than active-duty troops.

ELKTON — He has eyes that twinkle and a beard as white as snow. But unlike the Santa Claus described in “The Night Before Christmas” that shimmies down chimneys to leave presents, Bruce Mangini, of Landenberg, Pa., plans on staying on his rooftop until he can rally enough people to fill his “sleigh” with toys for families of veterans in need.

Mangini, 58, started living on the roof of the Elkton Veterans of Foreign Wars Elkton Memorial Post No. 8175 on Dec. 2 in a fundraising and awareness campaign called #BruceOnTheRoof

To protect himself from the wind and rain, he built a tent out of tarp and a blue gazebo and sleeps under an electric blanket on a cot his grandson chose for him. He comes down on occasion to walk around, per his doctor’s orders, and to go into the VFW to use the bathroom.

But for the most part, Mangini stays on the roof — and he’ll come down for good when his 12 days are up or when his trailer, parked nearby, is filled with toys, coats and non-perishable food donations.

“People say I’m crazy,” he said. “Well, I’ve been called that a lot in my life.”

Mangini likes to participate and organize charity events in the tristate region, like a motorcycle ride to fundraise for the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, Pa., or coordinating with his cousin on a cookie baking and giveaway for veterans. But he’s always gravitated to Elkton after he established a friendship with Commissioner Mary Jo Jablonski and her family. After working with the Elkton VFW for other toy drives with the Steel Horse Guardians, a nonprofit charitable group of motorcyclists, he’s felt the need to continue paying it forward to Elkton.

“I don’t like talking negatively about nobody, but Elkton is a very small town, and it’s a struggling town that’s trying to do better,” Mangini said. “When I see a small town trying to do better, I want to jump in and help. Everybody needs a helping hand once in a while.”
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Sgt. Louis Loftus Passed Away

Akron-area Afghanistan War veteran dies at 30
Beacon Journal/Ohio.com
By Brandon Bounds
March 30,2018

“He was an absolute jewel. He did everything for me.”

That’s just a taste of how Lynn Loftus described her grandson, Louis Loftus.

Louis, 30, died Tuesday because of heart complications, according to his grandmother. Despite living a relatively short life, she said, he made a tremendous impact on the world and those around him.

An Afghanistan War veteran, Sgt. Louis did two tours in the U.S. Army and was strongly affected by his experiences there. His was featured on national television several times talking about his service.

Louis served two combat tours in Afghanistan, serving with the 82nd Airborne and the 173rd Airborne. He was honorably discharged in November 2010.

In 2010, he gave an emotional interview with NBC Nightly News about losing a friend in combat.

“I’m kind of numb to it,” Louis said of his friend’s death in the television report. “I don’t really feel much. I pray for his family. I pray for his soul.”

Tears flowed as he began to break down emotionally.

“I try not to think about it. Because when you think about it, then I get like this,” he added, choking on his words.

NBC News documented his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder in a special that aired in 2012 after a reporter followed Louis for two years.
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Sgt. Louis Loftus Point Man breaks down talking about the lives lost.
From 2010

Sgt. Loftus: Dealing with life during and after war
Rock Center
October 04, 2012

Two years ago, Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel met Sgt. Louis Loftus on a battlefield in Afghanistan. Since then, Loftus has allowed NBC News to document his life as a soldier and a citizen. Loftus is one of 100,000 returning veterans that is being treated for PTSD. NBC’s Richard Engel reports.

Widow of Fallen Fort Bragg Solider Has Enormous Gender Reveal Announcement

82nd Airborne in Afghanistan helps with gender reveal for fallen NC soldier

CBS 

North Carolina

October 6, 2017

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The wife of a fallen Fort Bragg soldier had a little help learning the gender of her unborn child.

U.S. Army Spc. Christopher Harris, 25, was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on August 2. His wife, Brittany, was pregnant at the time of his death.

But his fellow 82nd Airborne members helped Brittany with learning the gender of her child.

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Iraq Veteran Ron Creech Remembered After Fatal Motorcycle Accident

Family, friends gather to remember veteran killed in recent wreck

WHNT 19 News
Melissa Riopka
September 22, 2017

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Family and friends gathered together on Thursday to remember Ron Creech. They held a vigil near where the 33-year-old Iraq War Veteran died in a motorcycle wreck. The wreck happened on Triana Boulevard on September 15th.

"I knew something was wrong when I got there and the doors weren't opened," remembers Sheri Layne, the general manager of Durham School Services. "Something in my heart said I need to go check and see what's going here because Ron's not here and he's always here."

Ron was a mechanic with Durham Schools Services. Before that, he was in the military where he served with the 82nd Airborne Division with Military Intelligence. He was also a father. 

Ron had an infant daughter that passed away at 11 months old, and he was survived by a 12-year-old son.
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Experts Say Majority of PTSD Veterans Not Dangerous

Experts say most PTSD patients are not violent
The Post and Courier
Lauren Sausser
Apr 6 2015

Experts believe nearly 10 percent of adults in the United States — many of them rape victims and combat veterans — cope with post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives.

Millions suffer silently and never receive professional help for their mental disorder, but very few ever resort to violence.

“The vast majority of people with PTSD, whether it’s combat-related or not, are not violent,” said Dean Kilpatrick, director of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.

“Just like the vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent. Now, there are a subset of people who are.”

It is not clear if PTSD played any part in the tragedy that claimed Lynn Michelle Harrison’s life last week.

Witnesses say the 57-year-old was shot and killed at a Summerville intersection on Thursday by Jimi Redman Jr. He was dressed in military camouflage at the time of the attack.

Redman’s brother said last week that he served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and that he has tried to seek treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs for seven years but has been unable to access services.
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Did you hear the one about a woman, a Rabbi and a Chaplain

Did you hear the one about a woman, a Rabbi and a Chaplain walking into a room full of soldiers,,,,and then she began to preach?

Female rabbi, chaplain with 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan, has no regrets
The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
By Drew Brooks
Published: April 18, 2014

Capt. Heather Borshof, the battalion chaplain of the 330th Joint Movement Control Battalion, 1st Sustainment Command (Theater), speaks at a service at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on March 14, 2014. JARRED WOODS/U.S. ARMY

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Army Capt. Heather Borshof expects the questions.

"What's that on your uniform?" passers-by ask the chaplain for the Fort Bragg-based 330th Movement Control Battalion. It's the Ten Commandments topped with a Star of David, the symbol for Jewish chaplains.

"Women can be rabbis?" they ask. Yes, they have served in that role for decades.

Borshof, who deployed with her battalion — part of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade — in November, said she is used to the queries.

A female chaplain is a rare sight in the military. A female Jewish chaplain? There is only one other in the active-duty Army, she said. And Borshof was the first in a generation. She follows in the footsteps of Chana Timoner, who served at Fort Bragg in 1993 and died in 1998 from complications with a virus.

This week, Borshof has hosted two Passover seders at Bagram Airfield, where she is the only rabbi to be stationed long-term. But she said her chief role is to counsel soldiers, no matter their religion.

"I travel for our soldiers," she said, referring to the battalion's 19 movement control teams spread across Afghanistan. "I actually don't travel for the religious community."
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Capt. James E. Chaffin III died in Afghanistan

West Columbia paratrooper dies in Afghanistan
by South Carolina Radio Network
April 2, 2014

An airborne officer from West Columbia has died of a non-combat related accident in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department.

A brief release from the agency said Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, died Tuesday in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Army released no details of the incident, other than to say it is under investigation.

Chaffin had been assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
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Who said rich people don't serve in the military?

Retired Army Officer and Chicago Billionaire Becomes Latest High-Profile Transgender Veteran
Business Insider
BRIAN JONES
AUG. 27, 2013

In an announcement via her company last week, the normally private billionaire and retired lieutenant colonel formerly known as James Pritzker announced she is transgender and would henceforth like to be known as Jennifer Natalya Pritzker.

"This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly. Pritzker now identifies herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings," the statement said.

According to Raw Story, Pritzker, 62, enlisted in the Army in 1974 and earned her commission as an infantry officer in '79. After stints with the 82nd and 101st Airborne, she transitioned to the Illinois National Guard. She retired from the military in 2001.

But Pritzker was obviously better known for her wealth than her military ties. Her family owns the Hyatt Hotel branch, the Marmon group, and a large stake of the Carnival Cruise Line, among others.

Her cousin is current U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
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Sergeant Brad Farmer lost his battle with PTSD

Mother of Golden veteran wants more suicide prevention
Colorado 9 News
May 27, 2013
written by:
Dave Delozier

On May 22, Sergeant Brad Farmer lost his battle with the psychological wounds of war when he took his own life. He was 30 years old.

GOLDEN - When Sergeant Brad Farmer entered the United States Army he received extensive training to prepare him for combat in Iraq. When he was discharged after two tours of duty in Iraq, his mother says he wasn't as equally prepared to return to civilian life.

"They have boot camp going in [to the army]. They don't have a return boot camp," Kathy Farmer said.

The Brad Farmer who returned from Iraq struggled to deal with the memories of war. His mother says she immediately noticed a difference in her son, but he chose to deal with the problems alone.

"When he first came home and we suggested that he get help he denied that he needed it," Kathy Farmer said.

"I knew he was suffering," said Jonathan Pomeroy, a friend and fellow member of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Pomeroy and Farmer served both tours of duty in Iraq together.
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Military Police Officer found in barracks at Fort Bragg died

Death of Bragg paratrooper investigated
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 21, 2013 10:32:21 EDT

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Authorities at Fort Bragg are investigating the death of a paratrooper who was found unresponsive in his barracks last weekend and who later died.

The base said Wednesday that 21-year-old Spc. Robert P. Wasser of Marysville, Wash., was a military police officer with the 82nd Airborne Division.

The base said he was found unresponsive in his barracks Saturday morning and later pronounced dead.
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Kenneth Berez, leader of Vietnam Veterans of America, passed away

Kenneth Berez, leader of Vietnam Veterans of America
Washington Post
Published: February 15

Kenneth Berez, 64, a Vietnam veteran who worked for many years with the Vietnam Veterans of America and a related foundation, died Jan. 29 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.

He had bladder cancer, his wife, Jenny Schnaier, said.

Mr. Berez served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam. He was severely wounded in 1969 during a Viet Cong ambush and spent two years recovering.

He began volunteering with Vietnam Veterans of America in 1979 and became a full-time employee of the support and advocacy group a year later. He worked on membership initiatives and headed the group’s educational efforts.

He developed an educational program for schools and worked on a program to provide prosthetic limbs to Vietnamese and Cambodian victims of land mines. From 1996 to 1998, he worked for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
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General sent home from Afghanistan under criminal investigation

Report: Bragg 1-star removed from position
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair was sent home from Afghanistan earlier this month, according to a news report
Staff report
Posted : Saturday May 12, 2012

The deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division was relieved in Afghanistan, the subject of what a spokesman said was a “criminal investigation,” according to a news report.

The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer reported Friday that Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, the 82nd’s deputy commander for support, was sent home from Afghanistan early this month.

Ben Abel, a Fort Bragg, N.C., spokesman, said the move was related to an investigation. “This is a criminal investigation,” Abel told the Fayetteville paper.
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Murder-suicide may have ended life of 3 tour Iraq veteran and wife

Police say ex-82nd soldier and wife from Lillington killed in Daytona Beach, Fla., murder-suicide
Feb 06, 2012
A staff report

A Harnett Central High School graduate and a former 82nd Airborne soldier were killed Saturday in Daytona Beach, Fla., in what police there called a murder-suicide.

Police found Jason Pemberton, 28, and his 25-year-old wife, Tiffany Selvia Pemberton, dead in their apartment Sunday, according to a news release. A preliminary investigation indicated Pemberton shot his wife and then himself with a rifle, the release stated.

The couple had lived in Daytona Beach for about a year.

Jason Pemberton, a native of Alabama, was a former staff sergeant with the 82nd Airborne Division. He deployed to Iraq with the 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team in 2007, according to an Army news story from that year.

Jason Pemberton served three tours in Iraq, his uncle, Darrel Pemberton, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
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He was decorated, had Purple Hearts and was a sniper.

Iraq vet shoots and kills wife; himself in Daytona Beach
Updated: Sunday, 05 Feb 2012
By Steve Gehlbach
FOX 35 News
Police in Daytona Beach say a decorated Iraq War veteran shot and killed his young wife before turning the gun on himself.

Neighbors of the couple's apartment off of Jimmy Ann Drive thought they heard two gunshots late Saturday night, but didn't think anything was wrong Sunday morning. "When they didn't see or hear from them, they went knocked on the door, no response around 11 a.m. and they called us," says Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood.

Officers kicked in the door and found 25 year old Tiffany Pemberton dead from a gunshot wound in the living room. Her husband, 28 year old Jason Pemberton was dead in the bedroom about 10 feet away with what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head from a rifle.

"He was a man that had a big heart and he just snapped," said neighbor Rick Lang of Pemberton.

"He was highly decorated, three purple hearts, was really not happy about the way he was being treated by the V.A."
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Iraq vet shoots and kills wife; himself in Daytona Beach: MyFoxORLANDO.com

Original story

Two Tour Iraq veteran Sgt. Shane Scott Pease found dead in creek

NEWS
Man found dead in Chapel Hill creek served in Iraq
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011 (Updated 5:09 am)
By THE HERALD-SUN OF DURHAM
CHAPEL HILL — The man who was found dead in Bolin Creek Saturday morning was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division who served two tours of duty in Iraq.


The Chapel Hill Police Department was mum Monday on an investigation into the death of 24-year-old Sgt. Shane Scott Pease, who was found dead in the creek by a jogger, but in a press release from the 82nd Airborne, Pease was identified as an infantryman in Company A, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
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Hero combat medic "unqualified to be an emergency medical technician"

Ex-soldier is a hero abroad, but unemployed at home

By Drew Brooks
Staff writer

In Afghanistan, Nick Colgin was a hero.

In America, he's unemployed.

Colgin, who earned a Bronze Star as a member of Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division, has become one of the faces of the unemployed veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His efforts in finding employment became part of history when President Obama referred to him during a speech in August that focused on the need to better prepare veterans for the workforce.

When he was with the Army, then Spc. Colgin was recognized for saving the life of a French soldier who had been shot in the head and for working with other soldiers to rescue more than 40 civilians from a flood. Colgin assumed that a stellar military career would transfer to his civilian life when he left Fort Bragg and the Army in June 2008.

But reality was much crueler for Colgin once the Army rank was dropped from his last name.

A combat medic as a soldier, Colgin found himself unqualified to be an emergency medical technician in Wyoming, where he had hoped to start a new, adventurous life.
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82nd Airborne Soldier Killed in Ohio Shootout

82nd Airborne Soldier Killed in Ohio Shootout
Patch.com

82nd Airborne Soldier Killed in Ohio Shootout Police believe Juvon Williams killed his girlfriend before fleeing, and then opened fire on police.
By Kelly Twedell
August 13, 2011

An 82nd Airborne Division soldier who fled after allegedly killing his girlfriend Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, was killed in a shootout with officers.

Pfc. Juvon William, 19, a soldier with the 82nd Airborne, was killed by officers at about 3 a.m. Friday, according to an Ohio police report. Williams was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan on Friday.

Williams was an AH-64 Apache helicopter repairman with 1st Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, according to the 82nd Airborne Division.

The search for Williams began on Thursday night, when the body of his girlfriend, Leigh Belyn, 18, was found in the trunk of a car, according to a 10TV News.
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Afghanistan: 82 Airborne CO PowerPoint with "Slavery Reinstated" and "Slap a bitch"

PowerPoint slides spur ouster of CO, CSM
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 22, 2011 8:45:39 EDT
On Nov. 7, 2009, in Afghanistan, a PowerPoint slide appeared in the daily battle update briefing of a battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division. The slide was meant as a joke, but it set off a firestorm.

The slide, among those emailed throughout the battalion, bore the photo of a black college basketball player crying in victory with a basketball net around his neck; draped over his shoulders is the arm of his white coach. The text beneath it reads, “Slavery Reinstated,” and “Catch yourself a strong one.”

The picture, found online, sparked a formal equal-opportunity complaint and a division-level investigation. Five months into a yearlong deployment, two rising stars, Lt. Col. Frank Jenio and Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Puckett, were fired from their positions leading 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.

An Army investigation over the course of two weeks took 32 sworn statements from soldiers in Afghanistan and compiled the 47 slides used in the briefings.

The slides, which had appeared in the morning briefings for about two months, showed scantily clad women in provocative poses, a cartoon of a man kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, and on the day after the racially charged slide, a man was shown hitting a woman in a slide above the words, “Slap a bitch.”
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PowerPoint slides spur ouster of CO, CSM

82nd Airborne go Gaga in dance video from Afghanistan

Soldiers go Gaga in Afghanistan


A shout out to "MalibuMelcher" and his fellow soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division for this remake of Lady Gaga's "Telephone," shot from somewhere in Afghanistan. (Portions of the video at :52 and 2:50 are especially funny. You may notice weapons in the background.)

Soldiers go Gaga in Afghanistan