Staff Sgt. Steven McQueen gets to keep helmet that save his life

Soldier Gets Back Battered Helmet That Saved His Life During Insider Attack

Military.com
By Matthew Cox
4 Mar 2019

"I was surprised that I was able to react [as] quickly as I did because I knew what had happened instantly; I knew I was shot," McQueen, 30, told reporters at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on Monday.

Staff Sgt. Steven McQueen, and his wife Aaron, with a plaque featuring a portion of the Enhanced Combat Helmet that saved his life during an insider attack in Afghanistan last year. (Military.com/Matthew Cox)

Staff Sgt. Steven McQueen still can't believe how quickly he got to his feet after a bullet from an enemy rifle struck him in the back of his helmet during an insider attack in Afghanistan last year.

Two gunmen opened fire on McQueen and fellow soldiers from the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade from a distance of 20 feet during the Sept. 3 shooting.

"I was surprised that I was able to react [as] quickly as I did because I knew what had happened instantly; I knew I was shot," McQueen, 30, told reporters at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on Monday.

The bullet tore a large hole in the ballistic material, but the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH) stopped the round as it was designed to do.
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Price Harry Feels Responsible for Veterans Because He is One

It has been said that if leaders had to go to war, wars would come to an end.

January 10, 1946
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower Speech in Ottawa

Prince Harry, Michelle Obama honor wounded veterans 
The British royal said he first felt a responsibility to help veterans following his first tour of Afghanistan.
UPI
By Annie Martin
Oct. 28, 2015

"It hit me then that this flight was one of many, carrying home men and women whose lives would be changed forever, and some who had made the ultimate sacrifice. From that moment, I knew I had a responsibility to help all veterans, who had made huge personal sacrifices for their countries, to lead healthy and dignified lives after service." Prince Harry

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Prince Harry and first lady Michelle Obama honored wounded veterans Wednesday in Fort Belvoir, Va.

The 31-year-old British royal and 51-year-old American advocate visited injured servicemen and women with Jill Biden, professor and wife to vice president Joe Biden.

Prince Harry arrived in the U.S. earlier in the day to promote the upcoming Invictus Games.

The event sees wounded armed services personnel partake in multiple athletic challenges, and will be held May 8-12, 2016, outside Orlando, Fla. read more here

Son's Suicide Made Her a Gold Star Mom

Military families cope with suicides

In December, 2008, LaDart married his girlfriend, with whom he would later have a son.

Deemed by the Army to be fit for service, LaDart began helicopter mechanic training at Fort Eustis in Virginia. His problems continued to the point that he was disciplined and demoted. He then referred himself to military behavioral health providers, who once again diagnosed him with PTSD and ADHD and started a treatment program. The Army then sent him to Germany as a tactical vehicle driver.

Things continued to deteriorate, though. LaDart threatened a superior. He expressed thoughts of killing himself and others and told his commander that he tried suicide before, Army records say. But under what the Army calls "intense care," LaDart's mental health improved. He was promoted to specialist and won the Soldier of the Month competition.

"Absent PTSD symptoms, he was returned to duty," Army records show.

Things started looking up for LaDart. He was assigned to Ft. Belvoir in Virginia in September 2011. In April 2012, he completed the Army Warrior Leadership Course, "an important developmental career step," according to the Army. But a few weeks later, his life cratered again.

A domestic dispute with his wife led to his removal from the home. A protective order was issued against him and the Army considered more discipline. His commander requested a mental health evaluation. Medical officials at the fort's hospital reviewed LaDart's recent mental evaluation and determined he was not a threat to himself or others. He kept his next mental health appointment on May 29, 2012, made no mention of suicide and talked about the future.

On June 4, LaDart arrived at work "without any outward display of distress," Army records say. "He returned to his family quarters during lunch and had a phone conversation with his wife in Louisiana. Tragically, David hanged himself in the garage without leaving a suicide note."

He was 25.

The news arrived in Florida at 3 p.m.

Debbie McLean was driving home from work when she got the call from her son's mother-in-law that LaDart killed himself.

"I had a mental breakdown in my vehicle," she says. "I am surprised I didn't walk into traffic."

McLean says she knew her son was having difficulty and was separated from his wife. But she didn't know of the PTSD diagnosis or the suicidal thoughts.

"I knew nothing," she says."I just knew he was dead."

The suicide sent McLean into a downward spiral. "I went into my own hole," she says. "It was like someone took away my whole world. Everything I believed in."

Adding to her misery, her son was placed in a casket in a sergeant's uniform, but before being transported to Louisiana, the Army realized he had been promoted in error and ordered his uniform changed, shocking the family during the viewing.

It was all more than McLean could handle. Depressed, she was prescribed Zoloft, Xanax and sleeping medications. At one point, she was involuntarily committed under the state's Baker Act.

McLean says she wasn't suicidal, but "I have thoughts of wanting to be with my son. A longing to be with my son. What mother who loves her son would not?"

From David Isaiah LaDart Healing of the Wounded Spirit

During that time I had suffered a TBI and PTSD due to a head injury, I received care in WTU Wurzburg, Germany for which I was declared 80% disabled, the Army Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, told my mother, Debbie McLean, Jan 3, 2014, that I should have been Med Boarded, Hospitalized and sent on for my VA benefits and SSD benefits, to go on to live life, as best as possible, not be told that I could sign and be put back 0% and go back to Full Duty!!! Me being the gung ho Soldier I was, wanting to go back to war! There was a mistake!

How can a Soldier, or anyone suffering PTSD/TBI expect that they can make a decision such as this, that may affect your life, your families life, I want to know how do they expect someone in a mental state make these type of decisions?????

UPDATE

Debbie sent a copy of the letter she read during the ceremony,

Debbie May McLean
From the Mouth of An Amazing Daughter In Law!
Titled:I love you more.

My husband and I met in December 2007 while he was on R&R from Iraq. I wanted nothing to do with him at first because in my mind what soldier comes home for R&R looking to meet his soul mate? He spotted me out of a room full of people, and since his sister knew me she insisted on introducing us. Thankfully she did because the man that I initially shot down became my first love, future husband and father to my child.

When he returned to Iraq we talked every chance we could. He got home in late June 2008 and his sister and I drove to his parent’s lake house in Georgia to spend 4th of July together. I was already smitten but after 4 amazing days together I was in love. It’s important to know that I had never spoken those words in any other relationship, even when they were said to me. He told me that he was going to make me fall in love with him, and he did.

It was fast. He was stationed in Georgia for a short time before going to Virginia for school. He came to Louisiana a few times and I went to Virginia twice. We were head over heels in love. We got engaged in September. He decided to sell his motorcycle so I rode with him. Once it was sold he drove me to the mall. He walked me straight into a jewelry store and said “I love you more than anything and I want to you to be my wife. Pick one.”

Dave started suffering from PTSD a few months after he returned home from Iraq. He battled nightmares that were so realistic I woke up in chokeholds. He hated crowds and loud noises. He was angry and quick tempered. We sought help together and separately and in August of 2010 we welcomed a beautiful little boy into the world. My husband was on cloud 9.

The therapy and medication combination seemed to be helping, he was coping and we were a happy family. We PCS’ed to Virginia in September of 2011. He was in a different MOS and because he couldn’t fly on his medication his flight doctor decided to prescribe him something different. For months I asked how it was working and he assured me that he was fine. In early May of 2012 while my husband was away at WLC I stumbled upon an article online about Taryn Davis and the American Widow Project. The article left me with chills and an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I couldn’t fathom the pain that she and so many others went through in the wake of losing their husbands. I tried to imagine what I would do if it ever happened to me but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t picture my life without my best friend. The man I fell asleep next to every night and woke up next to every morning. The same man who shared a bowl of cereal with our son while they watched cartoons together. The man who could pick me up over his head even after I ate too many donuts. The strongest man I knew. The man who told me a hundred times a day how much he loved me. The man who promised we would spend the rest of our lives together. But on June 4, 2012 spending the rest of OUR lives together was no longer a reality, because he ended his. We were on the phone when he did it.

I hung up and called the police in Virginia and 6 hours later I was staring at 2 men in uniform standing in front of me reciting the most feared of all words when you are a military spouse “On behalf of the Secretary of Defense, we regret to inform you…” At 24 years old I was a widow and a single mother.

I used to lay with my head on my husband’s chest, listening to his heart beat because I never knew when I might not have the chance to hear it again. It still didn’t prepare me for the day that I wouldn’t. I am now one of the women I read about in the article just weeks before my husband died. I am a military widow, and as much as I hate the circumstances that have brought us together I am absolutely certain that I couldn’t find myself amongst a stronger, more compassionate group of women. from the Mouth of an Amazing Daughter In Law!
American Gold Star Mother, Debbie McLean

Wells Fargo to donate $30 million worth of property to veterans and their families

Veteran receives mortgage-free home in Harford
Joppatowne condo donated by Wells Fargo to Operation Homefront organization
Baltimore Sun
BY DAVID ANDERSON
July 3, 2014

John Laursen, an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his wife Casey have spent about a year handling his recovery after being medically evacuated from Afghanistan, but they are able to begin moving forward, with the first steps being across the threshold of their new home in Harford County Wednesday.

The Laursens and their dog, a Labrador mix named Bailey, will live in a mortgage-free condominium in Joppatowne, which they obtained through the nonprofit organization Operation Homefront.

Wells Fargo owns the property, and the San Francisco-based banking firm, one of the largest in the nation, donated it to Operation Homefront.

The property donation is part of a commitment by Wells Fargo to donate $30 million worth of property to veterans and their families; the financial institution committed $35 million over three years to assist veterans beginning in 2012.

The Laursens moved into the condominium, in the 500 block of Cider Press Court, Wednesday morning.

As part of the "key ceremony," they received a surprise greeting from representatives of Operation Homefront, as well as family members they have not seen in a year, including Casey's older sister, Stephanie Young, her mother Cindy Young and grandmother Kathy Hallsworth, all of Watertown, N.Y.

The couple had been living in an apartment in Woodbridge, Va., since July 2013 as John recovered at Ft. Belvoir Community Hospital from injuries sustained in Afghanistan that year.
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Speaker of the House silent on cuts at Military Hospitals

Speaker of the House silent on cuts at Military Hospitals
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
June 1, 2013

When John Boehner said "I got 98 percent of what I wanted." with sequestration no one asked him how he dared be so happy when it meant so much harm to the American people. Congress hadn't managed to pass a budge that had a chance of passing for the simple reason it helped the wealthy but harmed the rest of the American people. We're used to it. We're used to people like him always shooting his mouth off about what he thinks the people want when he doesn't seem to care about what we need.

As most of us were reading how Meals on Wheels would no longer be able to deliver hot meals to thousands of elderly people and the disabled, he was whining about the Air Traffic Controllers and how cutting their hours made it hard on members of congress to have to wait in line with the rest of us. They acted fast to fix that problem.

Bridges and roads fall apart but instead of putting thousands to work fixing them, he approved of so many public workers losing their jobs.

Cops and firefighters lost jobs after most of these jobs are done by veterans coming home from combat and still wanting to serve their communities.

When he pushed and pushed to blame someone over what happened in Benghazi, he didn't seem too interested that Congress cut the budget for security. Boehner doesn't seem too interested in the outcome of the 98% of what he wanted would do unless it directly affected members of Congress.

We've heard speech after speech and hearing after hearing on the backlog of claims at the VA but what we didn't hear was that there has been a history of congressional ambivalence to what disabled veterans face when they come home. The VA claims were higher during other administrations simply because Congress never really got their act together on making sure veterans didn't have to wait in long lines to be treated and compensated for what their service did to them. Reporters failed to inform the American people that when troops were sent to fight in two wars there were less people working on taking care of them than after the Gulf War. That is how we ended up in the mess in 2009 when the backlogs hit 915,000.

Now it seems we have the ultimate betrayal. Workers at Military Hospitals are being cut. Yes, that is the truth but it is doubtful Boehner will do a damn thing about it.

Walter Reed hospital workers receive furlough notices
May 30, 2013

ABC7 has confirmed the region’s two military hospitals are furloughing more than 3,500 civilian employees who care for the nation’s wounded warriors, nearly their entire civilian staffs.

The impacted employees are from departments across the board at both hospitals, including members of the trauma team, physical therapists and nurses. They will be forced to take 11 unpaid furlough days starting in July.

Hospital officials say the furloughs affect 2,392 caregivers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. That’s 94% of the civilian staff there.

Officials say 1,163 caregivers at Fort Belvoir’s hospital in Virginia are being furloughed, affecting 85% of its civilian staff.
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Spiritual Fitness "teaches" that PTSD is physiological and biological

Let's put it this way. When I read the advertisement for Jiffy Lube on this, I started to laugh because of how fitting it was. When you read the following you'll have a better idea of how little they really do understand, including what went on with Fort Belvoir Chapel.

Spiritual Fitness teaches that PTSD is physiological and biological
Belvoir Eagle
By Justin Creech
Staff writer
Posted: Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Fort Belvoir Chaplaincy, in cooperation with the Fort Belvoir Chapel Community, hosted a conference of the Spiritual Fitness Initiative May 7-9 at Thurman Lecture Hall.

The conference focused on explaining that post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t a behavior flaw or problem. PTSD is actually a biomedical condition which can affect the brain’s ability to make logical decisions.
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No suicide statistics for military family member suicides?

Are you listening?
By TERRI BARNES
Published: April 19, 2013

Army wife Karen Francis said she thought it was great that the Army devoted a whole duty day last year to suicide awareness. “Suicide Stand Down” was a service-wide mandatory training day conducted in September, the Army’s response to the alarming suicide rate among brothers and sisters in arms.

Francis couldn’t help wondering about Army spouses and children. Though family members were welcomed at the event, the program and timing — on a weekday — were not suited to them. She was concerned that suicide and its effects on military family members was not being addressed.

Francis said she can’t base that concern on statistics concerning suicides among family members. However, she said most military spouses know a story or two about a friend’s child who attempted suicide or a military spouse who tragically succeeded.

“I can’t even give you numbers, because no one counts us,” she said. “We do not have one solitary [suicide] statistic for spouses and other family members.”

Francis, a Family Resource Group leader at Fort Belvoir, Va., approached her command leadership about having a similar awareness day for families. They were supportive, she said, and encouraged her to take on the project. So she did.

“Are You Listening?” is the title of the suicide awareness symposium for military families Saturday at Fort Belvoir’s USO Warrior and Family Center, the product of several months of planning.
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It's a Wonderful Life being used for Fort Belvoir Suicide Prevention?

And they thought this was a good idea? Are they out of their minds?

Classic film provides unique suicide awareness trainin
By: By Brittany Carlson
Special to the Belvoir Eagle
Published: November 08, 2012

Fort Belvoir Soldiers and civilians learned about being resilient last week, with a little help from James Stewart.

Fort Belvoir’s Headquarters Battalion hosted a viewing of the classic holiday film "It’s a Wonderful Life" for Soldiers and garrison employees Friday at Wood Theater, as the battalion’s monthly Suicide Awareness and Resiliency training event for November.

"Resiliency, for those who don’t know, is basically the ability to bounce back from some kind of a difficult situation," said Lt. Col. Brian Zarchin, Headquarters Bn. commander, as he introduced the film. "The whole movie’s about bouncing back from what seems like an impossible problem, and that’s what resiliency is all about. George Bailey – the main character in the movie – has to bounce back from a pretty difficult, or what he sees as an impossible, situation, and he’s got a lot more going for him than he realizes."

In the movie, George Bailey (James Stewart) gives up his dreams to help others, but circumstances cause him to lose hope and consider suicide. Then his "guardian angel" appears and gives him a gift: a glimpse of what the world would be like had he never been born, revealing all of the lives George has touched and giving him a new lease on life.

The film showing was the battalion’s way to boost morale in the unit, and continue to address the issue of suicide.
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Contrary to what was claimed in this article, Resiliency Training has not worked in all these years and won't especially if they keep pulling stunts like this.

MP Sgt. Smith's suicide leaves unit in shock

Now maybe you can see that what the DOD is doing to stop suicides is not working!

Sergeant’s unexpected suicide rattles his MP unit
Army Times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 25, 2012

On a Thursday, military policeman Sgt. Derek Smith was in a small conference room at Fort Belvoir, Va., playing the role of a concerned friend in a suicide prevention training session. That Sunday, he was found in his patrol car, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

How Smith could take his own life was a mystery to his commander and others in their relatively tight-knit unit, the post’s 45-member 212th Military Police Detachment.

“From my view, he had not a care in the world, and life was going great,” said Staff Sgt. Steven Finch, Smith’s supervisor. “No sign whatsoever. Zero. I’d spoken to him that Friday and his family had spoken to him that afternoon. Nothing.”

Smith, 29, of Jacksonville, Fla., entered the Army in 2007 and deployed to Iraq a year later for 15 months, then left the Army and re-enlisted in 2010.

At least to his co-workers, he showed no signs of the behavioral health problems, financial distress or relationship issues that often precede a suicide.
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Jacksonville soldier's suicide part of growing trend in military

Jacksonville soldier's suicide part of growing trend in military
In mid-August, Derek Smith shot himself while stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
September is suicide prevention month across the country.
Posted: September 6, 2012
By William Browning

Provided by family L. Alan Smith (center) and his wife, Lavonne, pose with their son Sgt. Derek Smith in their Forest Circle home in Jacksonville.

On Aug. 19 at about 10 in the evening, a 29-year-old Army police officer at Fort Belvoir in Virginia parked his patrol vehicle, walked into a wooded area of the military post and shot himself.

His death came days after July was shown to be the worst month for Army suicides in years. During that month 26 active-duty soldiers killed themselves. In all, the Army recorded 116 suicides among active-duty soldiers between January and the end of July.

Looking at suicides across all four branches of the military is just as striking. In June the Associated Press obtained an internal Defense Department document showing that there had been 154 suicides in the first 155 days of 2012. That marked the fastest pace of active-duty suicides in the nation’s decade of war.

Military suicides are often related to cumulative stress from combat duty. Other factors are marital problems, financial problems and health issues. But no matter the reasons, behind the rising numbers are families left with only stories of their deceased loved ones — like the Fort Belvoir police officer who killed himself last month.
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Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund begins centers for TBI and PTSD

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Breaks Ground on Two New $11M Centers to Treat Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress in America's Wounded Military Service Members
PRWeb
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

First Two of Several Centers to be Built in Fort Belvoir, VA and Camp Lejeune

Thousands of American service members living with traumatic head injuries from exposure to IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to get the treatment they deserve when two new centers are opened at Fort Belvoir, VA and Camp LeJeune, NC. With the groundbreakings today at each location for the new National Intrepid Centers of Excellence (NICoE), there is new hope for those suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS).

These crucial research and treatment centers will be financed and built by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (IFHF), which today announced a $100 million capital campaign to support the effort. The first two centers, and others that will follow, will be placed at military bases and medical centers around the country to provide medical care for service members without having to separate them from their units, or leave their families, for extended periods of treatment. This proximity to family and unit is expected to enhance care and rehabilitation.
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Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger, last Vietnam-era draftee is retiring from Army

Last Vietnam-era draftee is retiring from Army
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 3, 2011 10:26:20 EDT

ALEX BRANDON / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Army Command Sgt. Major Jeffery Mellinger, 58, talks to The Associated Press about his nearly 40-year career in his office in Fort Belvoir, Va. Mellinger, a Vietnam War draftee in 1972, is believed by the Army to be the last conscripted soldier to have served continuously without a break.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — A homemade wind chime with the word “Whining” under a red slash is made from metal parts put in his leg after a parachute accident. Every Sunday he trims his crew cut. He didn’t join the Army willingly, but as Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger prepares to retire, he’s grateful he found his calling.

Mellinger was drafted to fight the Vietnam War, and the Army believes he’s the last draftee to retire, after 39 years. Most did their two years and left. But Mellinger had found home.

“I think I’m pretty good at it, but I like it. That’s the bottom line. I love being a soldier and I love being around soldiers,” he said.

Mellinger’s motto is simple: No whining — as the wind chime attests.

When the draft notice arrived in the mail in 1972 at his home in Eugene, Ore., tens of thousands of troops had been killed. Anti-war protests were rampant. Draft notices were being set on fire and returning soldiers were treated as part of the problem. The military wasn’t a popular job.
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Last Vietnam-era draftee is retiring from Army

Fishing Event Aims to Mend Those Who've Served

Event Aims to Mend Those Who've Served
'This Day Is Worth Living,' Veteran Says

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sixty-seven days after brain surgery, Staff Sgt. Dave Love was out on the Potomac, fishing for bass on a beautiful afternoon.

He and more than 90 other wounded warriors participated in the Army vs. Marines Spring Bass Challenge yesterday at Smallwood State Park in Marbury. The event was a welcome change of scene for men whose days can be a blur of doctor visits and who are often tormented at night by post-traumatic stress.

"This day is worth living," said Love, a 32-year Army National Guard veteran who suffered brain trauma from roadside bombs during four years in Iraq. "This is what life is about."

The service members were paired with tournament-level anglers, each of whom brought a boat and tackle. A few service members walked with canes, and one or two used wheelchairs. Most of the disabled service members were stationed at Fort Meade or Fort Belvoir or recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Tournament director Ken Kirk turned to bass fishing a decade ago after post-traumatic stress disorder brought him low.

"The next thing you know, no more headaches, no more nothing," he said. "If I can help one individual, if I can turn his light bulb on and help him recover, then we've accomplished what we set out to do."
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Event Aims to Mend Those Who Have Served

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

POSTED: 12:34 am EST December 19, 2007

A soldier was found dead inside her housing unit in Virginia on Monday.

Investigators have not released the dead soldier's name or age.

The FBI is now involved in the mysterious death of the woman found inside the Fort Belvoir army base in Fairfax County.


Officials would confirm only that the dead woman was an army reservist who was living on the base.

They would not say how long she had been assigned the military facility, give an address where she was found or say what circumstances led military police at the scene to contact the FBI.
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http://www.nbc4.com/news/14886625/detail.html