Body of Missing Marine Sgt. Tristan Clinger Found

UPDATE DECEMBER 28, 2015

Death of Marine from joint base under investigation
NJ.com
By Kevin Shea
December 28, 2015

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST — The death of a Marine assigned to a unit at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst remained under investigation Monday by federal authorities, officials said.

Sgt. Tristan Clinger was found dead Saturday on the base. His wife reported him missing on Dec. 20, said base spokesman Air Force Maj. Omar Villarreal.

Clinger is originally from Jefferson County, Ky. outside Louisville. He was 28 years old.

Villarreal said the Marine's death was under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and they are being assisted by military authorities on the joint base.

Clinger was a helicopter mechanic with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772, part of the Marine Aircraft Group 49 on base.

The unit is in the Marine reserves, but Clinger was on active duty, base officials said.
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Search for Missing Marine, Father Ends in Tragedy
NBC 10 News
By David Chang and Morgan Zalot

The week-long search for a missing local Marine ended in tragedy this weekend when his body was found during a search on Saturday, according to his family and a search team leader. Officials and relatives have not yet said where Sgt. Tristan Clinger was found or how he died.

Clinger, 28, a father of two, went missing on Dec. 20 around 4 p.m. when he left Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on foot, according to his wife.
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Marine Sgt. Tristan Clinger, 28, who has served in the military for five years, was last seen around 4 p.m. on Dec. 20 at the joint base, NBC10 reported.

UPDATE from FOX

“When you're in the military, like he felt that he couldn't get help because he felt that if he tried to get help, they would kick him out, and he would lose his job," his wife told FOX29. "And he just saw his life crumbling from that point, so he was afraid to get help.”

Any more questions, see "resilience" training feeding the stigma of getting help to heal along with the bad paper discharges.

New Jersey Man Bought Uniform But Not Honor

The article says that the fraud bought his uniform and badges at Fort Dix but you can't buy anything at a PX (military store) without an ID. How did he do it?

POLICE: NJ MAN IMPERSONATED SOLDIER ON VETERANS DAY 
A New Jersey man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating a soldier on Veterans Day.
ABC 11 News
November 13, 2015

GALLOWAY TWP., N.J. -- A New Jersey man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating a soldier on Veterans Day.

Michael Porter, 25, of Galloway Township, is charged with Impersonating Military Personnel / Stolen Valor.

He was found dressed in a military uniform in the area of a base near Pomona Road and Atlantic Avenue on Wednesday.

Patrolman Gary Brenner from Galloway Township Police says he recognized Porter as a man who had prior contact with police.

"It was the same exact uniform that active military reserve would be wearing.

He stated that he bought the uniform from Fort Dix along with all of his badges," said Ptl. Gary Brennan.

Department of Corrections records show Porter has served time for eluding police, theft and illegal possession of a weapon among other crimes.
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Soldier Died in New Jersey Crash

Soldier in military Humvee that crashed in NJ dies 
Associated Press
May 7, 2015

HAMILTON – One of four soldiers from upstate New York injured in a military Humvee crash on the New Jersey Turnpike last week has died. 

New Jersey state police Capt. Stephen Jones says 25-year-old John Levulis died Thursday at a hospital in Trenton. Levulis was from a town named Eden.

He and the other soldiers were in the last Humvee of a 12-vehicle convoy in Hamilton traveling to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on May 1. Police say a vehicle trying to pass hit the Humvee. read more here

Tiny Captain Makes 12 Mile Hike With Help From Friends

I checked for the earliest video of this since it is just so wonderful!

EFMB - Giving it your all Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Found this on Facebook today. Some folks are saying...well, she barely made it and needed encouragement

Posted by Lloyd A Mason on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 CPT Sarah Cudd from Public Health Command, Fort Knox is only 1 of the 46 candidates who earned the EFMB yesterday at Fort Dix, NJ..27 April 2015. This is her last few seconds of the 12 Mile Foot March. The Foot March is the last event of the Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB), and must be completed within 3 hours. If you want it, you have to go get it. Watch this video. This EFMB candidate wanted it, and she got it. It took heart, guts, determination, falling down and getting up, and a little motivation from the crowd to get across the finish line. Check this out.

Soldier recovering after being shot at Fort Dix

Soldier wounded in accidental shooting at Fort Dix, report says
The Times of Trenton
By Cristina Rojas
on April 05, 2014

FORT DIX — Military officials are investigating what is believed to be an accidental shooting at Fort Dix that sent one soldier to the hospital Saturday night, according to a report on 6abc.com.

Officials told ABC 6 Action News Philadelphia that the shooting occurred on a range at the military base just after 6 p.m.
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Healing a vet's back, heart and soul

Healing a vet's back, heart and soul
By Jessica Trufant
Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Sep 17, 2012

UXBRIDGE
Sgt. Stephen Mandile of Uxbridge had dreams of becoming a firefighter once he fulfilled his obligation with the U.S. Army National Guard.

But those dreams were shattered in June of 2005 when Mandile was seriously injured while deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom III.

"I was the lead vehicle in a convoy driving through Baghdad to bring a prisoner to a court house for a hearing, and there was a car driving erratically trying to get out in front of our convoy, which they knew not to do because we had signs saying not to do it, and not to get too close," Mandile said. "We were going 50 or 60 (mph), and once he caught up he came to a dead stopped, which is the M.O. of suicide bombers. I didn’t have time to do anything besides crash into him, and run the vehicle off the road." Mandile suffered a slew of injuries during the crash – including five ruptured discs, spinal stenosis, damage to the sciatic nerve, radiculopathy in both legs and a traumatic brain injury – and was taken to hospitals in Iraq and Kuwait before returning to Fort Dix, N.J. in Sept. of 2005.

Mandile was given the choice of either waiting up to 18 months to see the medical of board review, or obtaining treatment through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and he choose the latter.
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Disabled veteran goes from combat to homeless

From combat to a parking lot
Disabled veteran lives with canine companion in his pickup in Augusta
By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

Aaron Rollins, a disabled veteran, is living in his truck in Augusta to be with his dog.
Staff photo by Andy Molloy

AUGUSTA -- In June 2007, Sgt. Aaron Rollins got a hero's welcome and a special ride home from New Jersey to join fellow Iraq veterans at a Freedom Salute ceremony in Bangor.

His family anxiously awaited. He had been in rehabilitation for the past six months at Fort Dix, N.J., for injuries suffered during his year in Iraq.

He was looking forward to spending time with his wife, their children and fellow members of Company B, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment of the Maine Army National Guard.

Little more than four years later, he has lost his family and -- at least temporarily -- his home.

Rollins, of Madison, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and other symptoms of battlefield injuries. He lives in his black Chevrolet Silverado pickup, moving it every couple of nights between the Walmart and Sam's Club parking lots in Augusta.

He and his service dog, Mabel, a German shepherd/Lab mix, sleep in the back seat of the crew cab. His belongings are in plastic tubs in the truck bed.
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Returned N.J. troops get support from Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program

Returned N.J. troops get support from Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program
by Tomas Dinges/The Star-Ledger
Monday August 17, 2009, 4:46 AM
The last time Major Bill Morris came home from service in 2005, he was free from his military obligations soon after demobilization. The 41-year-old New Jersey Army National Guard officer from Burlington Township was with his wife within the day and on his motorbike nearly as quick.

There was advice and counseling provided at Fort Dix by family support groups and the Veterans Administration, but nothing like the $3 million effort being done by the New Jersey Army National Guard to ease the transition of the 2,800 troops that returned home in June. Today thousands of soldiers and family members gathered in their units at the Atlantic City Convention Center as part of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, a national initiative that consists of a series of mandatory meetings for Army National Guard and Reserve troops and families.


Educators, employers and representatives from Veterans Affairs were on hand to help the soldiers and family members deal with issues ranging from basic benefits, to soldiers rights if their jobs are terminated because of their military service, to how to deal with social issues that can crop up within families.

While the National Guard has come to perform just like full-time Army in war, they lacked the support system the comes with being in the Army, said Chief Frank Albanese, the State Family Program Director for the New Jersey Army National Guard.

Active-duty soldiers return to their home base and often have access to support services there and are generally younger. By contrast, National Guard soldiers are often older, and are re-inserted directly into families, jobs, and civilian communities that they left just a year previous, Albanese said.
for more go here
Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program

For Vietnam vets, another chance to serve and to heal

For Vietnam vets, another chance to serve and to heal
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tomas Dinges
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
For the small group of dedicated Vietnam veterans who arrived at Fort Dix early every morning for 16 days in a row last month, it was an opportunity to give what they never received, a warm welcome home, a hug and a handshake.

The Vietnam veterans were there to welcome home the newest waves of veterans from Iraq and at the same time come to grips with the emotional fallout they are still experiencing from a war that ended almost 35 years ago.


"For years I haven't been emotional, there was a wall," said Michael Walters, 61, of Middlesex, "but I think it's breaking down the wall a little bit, so every time I said something, or expressed myself to the veterans, I felt better."

Walters, a Vietnam Army veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and a host of physical problems, helped usher some of the 2,800 men and women of the New Jersey Army National Guard into a transition from their military service to their civilian lives.

The days spent in the hangar of the National Guard's Joint Training Center were part of these Vietnam veterans' first attempts at addressing mental and emotional wounds that were ignored, locked away or went unrecognized since they returned home from an unpopular war in a time of social and political upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s.
read more hereFor Vietnam vets, another chance to serve and to heal

Advocates Seek Aid For Homeless Female Veterans

Advocates Seek Aid For Homeless Female Veterans

By ANN MARIE SOMMA Courant Staff Writer


Caroline Contreras says a rape at Fort Dix, N.J., 20 years ago derailed her military career and sent her on an inexorable path of addiction and homelessness.

But what the 48-year-old veteran says she remembers most painfully is how her government let her down when she finally sought help.

Last year, Contreras showed up at the U.S. Veterans Administration facility in West Haven homeless and ready to sober up and deal with the trauma of the sexual assault by fellow servicemen.

She completed the VA's substance abuse treatment program, restored her self-worth after working with a therapist and shed her destructive coping skills. When she was ready to leave the program to rebuild her life, the VA had no place to send her.

Women-only shelter beds in the state were full. Transitional housing wasn't available. The best the VA could offer her was a bus ticket to a shelter in Massachusetts.

"It brought me back to the way I felt when I was raped," Contreras said. "I was insignificant. I wasn't worthy. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the respect of a male veteran."
go here for more
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUL08/nf072808-7.htm

Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, Army Reserve and NJ State Trooper laid to rest

N.J. troopers join mourners at soldier's funeral
By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

For hours yesterday, they walked down the aisle of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlington City and paused at the open, flag-draped casket to say goodbye.

Family members, friends and soldiers were followed by hundreds of New Jersey state troopers. They were joined by scores of officers from police departments as far away as Illinois and Connecticut.

Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, a state trooper and Army Reservist who died June 24 in an explosion in Baghdad, "stood alone in his devotion to duty," said Gov. Corzine yesterday from the pulpit.

He was a "great trooper, soldier and patriot," said Col. Joseph Fuentes, the New Jersey State Police superintendent.

At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, he was a "gentle giant who walked softly and did the right thing," added Army Lt. Col. Mark Corzine, Kelley's commanding officer at Fort Dix.

Tributes to the Willingboro native, who was on his third tour in Iraq, poured in during a "homegoing" service, mixed with tearful mourning and joyful celebration.
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PTSD:Treating Wounds You Can't See

Treating Wounds You Can't See
By Linda Blum
Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page B01

On the wall in my office at Fort Dix, N.J., hung a row of nature photos and some historical documents for my patients to look at: a land grant signed by James Madison, another signed by Abraham Lincoln's secretary in his name, a Lincoln campaign ballot. The soldier from Ohio studied the wall carefully. It was amazing, he said, how much the layout of those picture frames resembled the layout of the street in Tikrit that was seared in his memory; the similarity had leapt out at him the first time he came in for a session. He traced the linear space between the frames, showing me where his Humvee had turned and traveled down the block, and where the two Iraqi men had been standing, close -- too close -- to the road.


"I knew immediately something was wrong," he said. The explosion threw him out of the vehicle, with his comrades trapped inside, screaming. Lying on the ground, he returned fire until he drove off the insurgents. His fellow soldiers survived, but nearly four years later, their screams still haunted him. "I couldn't go to them," he told me, overwhelmed with guilt and imagined failure. "I couldn't help them."

That soldier from Ohio is one of the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops diagnosed by the military with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007; the number of diagnoses increased nearly 50 percent in 2007 over the previous year, the military said this spring. I saw a number of soldiers with war trauma while working as a psychologist for the U.S. Army.

In 2006, I went to Fort Dix as a civilian contractor to treat soldiers on their way to and return from those wars. I was drawn by the immediacy of the work and the opportunity to make a difference. What the raw numbers on war trauma can't show is what I saw every day in my office: the individual stories of men and women who have sustained emotional trauma as well as physical injury, people who are still fighting an arduous postwar battle to heal, to understand a mysterious psychological condition and re-enter civilian life.

As I think about the soldiers who will be rotating back home from Iraq this summer as part of the "pause" in the "surge," as well as those who will stay behind, I remember some of the people I met on their long journey back from the war.
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Helping veterans heal, grow after war

August 25th, 2007 9:31 pm
Helping veterans heal, grow after war


By Guy Kovner / Press Democrat

Nadia McCaffrey knows the sorrow of war firsthand.

Her son, Army Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey of Tracy, was killed in Iraq in June 2004, and a year later the Pentagon admitted he and another California National Guardsman, 1st Lt. Andre Tyson of Riverside, had been killed by Iraqi civil defense officers attached to their patrol.

They served in Iraq with Petaluma-based A Company of the Guard's 579th Engineer Battalion, which suffered a third casualty -- Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ottolini, a Sebastopol hay truck driver, killed by a roadside bomb.

About 20 North Bay members of the 579th Engineers are about to leave for a year-long tour in Iraq, following a farewell ceremony Thursday at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

McCaffrey, a French-born hospice caregiver-turned-antiwar-activist, wants to make sure they have help and good care when they get back.

On Sunday, McCaffrey, will unveil her latest initiative at a public meeting in Petaluma. It's a campaign to place psychologically scarred veterans in jobs and the healing environments of small farms.

The Farmer-Veteran Coalition, backed by about 20 agricultural and veterans organizations, will be described at a meeting from noon to 3 p.m. at Elim Lutheran Church, 504 Baker St., Petaluma.

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