What happened to John Dees, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, was found dead?

'Some demons you can’t beat': Man found shot in woods was Iraq war veteran

Tallahassee Democrat
Jeff Burlew
Jan. 21, 2020

Kimberly Dees said her family had been looking for him for years. They were dreading the worst.

“He was sick,” she said. “And he was easy to take advantage of because he was sick. He wanted to get better. But there are some demons you can’t beat.”

John Dees, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, was found dead Jan. 13, 2020, in a wooded area off Pecan Road on Tallahassee's west side. Dees, who struggled with personal demons after coming home from the war, had been shot. (Photo: Special to the Democrat)

Military clockwork — if not fate or instant attraction — brought John Dees and Kimberly Crosby together.

They met in 2006 after both were stationed at the Army's Fort Lewis outside Tacoma, Washington. Young and starting out in life, he worked as an air defense early warning system operator; she was a human resources manager. Their names were so close alphabetically that wherever one lined up, the other inevitably would follow.

“Everywhere we went, we were always together,” she said. “I think it kind of skipped friendship and went straight to romance.”

Charming and good-looking, Dees even got her into country music, something she didn’t think possible. The two bonded listening to Brad Paisley’s “Mud on the Tires” together. Three months after meeting, they got married at the courthouse.

About the same time, a woman took him in at her Mission Road apartment in an act of charity. The night of Jan. 9, she called police to report he had become loud and combative, according to TPD records. Officers determined he had residency rights and took no action.

Less than four days later, Dees was found dead, in an area near the apartment. Police declined to discuss a possible motive, citing the ongoing investigation.
read it here

Ret. Major General Eldon A. Bargewell killed in lawnmower accident

Retired Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell dies in East Alabama lawnmower accident

WRBL News
By: Samuel Sachs Chuck Williams
Posted: Apr 30, 2019

(WRBL) - Former Delta Force Commander and retired Major General Eldon A. Bargewell has died, age 72, Barbour County Coroner Chip Chapman confirmed.

Bargewell died in a lawnmower accident at his Eufaula, Ala., home on Monday.

Bargewell was pronounced dead at 9:36 p.m. CDT, following when a lawnmower rolled over an embankment behind his house on Barbour creek, said Chapman.

He was an American soldier who fought on the nation's battlefields from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger has known Bargewell for 45 years.

"I remember in 1974 as a young Ranger in the still-forming 2d Ranger Battalion at Fort Lewis seeing and meeting quite a few legendary and highly decorated officers and non commissioned officers. Among those was Lt. Eldon Bargewell," Mellinger said. "Eldon stood out even then amongst those giants, for he had earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in 27 September 1971 as a Staff Sergeant while serving with Command and Control (North), Studies and Observations Group, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne)."
read more here

Michael Mantenuto Was So Much More Than the Actor from Miracle

Green Beret, Hockey Star, Activist and Dad: Michael Mantenuto Was So Much More Than the Actor from Miracle
PEOPLE
BY MICHAEL MILLER
April 27, 2017

Mantenuto enlisted in 2010, two years after making his final film, Surfer Dude. He attended special forces training in 2013, and went on to become a communications sergeant. He was assigned to 1st Special Forces Group, where he was stationed as a communications sergeant until his death.

Many fans recognize Michael Mantenuto from his role in Disney’s Miracle, but those who knew him best will remember him more for his work offscreen as a father, soldier, hockey star and community activists.

“He was so much more than just a Miracle actor,” Teena, a friend of the actor who asked that her last name remain anonymous, tells PEOPLE. After a short career in show business, Mantenuto joined the Army. He was a Special Forces sergeant stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington at the time of his death. He was 35.

The actor was found on Monday afternoon after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the King County medical examiner’s office in Seattle, Washington, tells PEOPLE. His death has officially been ruled a suicide. He’s survived by his wife, Kati, and two children: daughter Ava and son Leo.

He deployed in Operation Inherent Resolve, the military’s operational name for the fight against ISIS, according to Bockholt. “He was a decorated service member,” Buckholt says. His awards and decorations include the following: Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, National Defense Service Member, Global War on Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Good Conduct Medal with two knots.

read more here

Soldier in custody after firing gun at Lewis-McChord

Soldier fires shots in air at Lewis McChord
Associated Press
December 28, 2014

A soldier at JBLM is in custody after firing several shots into the air from a parking lot on base.

Soldier is in custody after shots were fired at JBLM early Sunday morning.

(Photo: Doug Dillon, KING 5 News)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord fired several shots into the air from a parking lot early Sunday.

Law enforcement at the base cordoned off the area after the incident at about 4:30 a.m. Law enforcement agencies from Pierce County assisted.

The public affairs office says the soldier was taken into custody at about 5:45 a.m.

No injuries were reported.
read more here

20-year-old JBLM soldier accused of killing his young wife

Soldier accused of killing wife free on bond to remain on base
KIRO News
By Maria Guerrero
November 2, 2014

TACOMA, Wash. — A 20-year-old JBLM soldier accused of killing his young wife was allowed to walk out of jail, just hours after his bail was reduced.

JBLM is now involved in Skylar Nemetz’ release.

KIRO 7 also obtained 911 calls on Oct. 16.

“I think someone's just been shot in my neighborhood,” said one neighbor.

That someone was 19-year-old Danielle Nemetz.

KIRO 7 listened to the 911 calls neighbors made the evening Danielle was shot in the back of the head with an AR-15 rifle inside the Lakewood apartment she shared with her husband, Skylar.

The 20-year-old is charged with her murder.
read more here

Sgt Jacob Lee Hanson, Born at Fort Lewis, Died at Fort Carson

Sgt. Jacob Lee Hanson, 27
Montana Standard
July 25, 2014

Sgt. Jacob Lee Hanson, 27, was born May 20, 1987, at Fort Lewis, Wash., and died July 21, 2014, at Fort Carson, Colo.

Jake spent his younger years in Pine River, Wis., where he attended Pleasant View Elementary School. The family moved to Deer Lodge in 2000, where he graduated from Powell County High School in 2005. He attended two years at MSU Bozeman when he then decided to enlist in the Army in 2007, and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. He was selected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2008, where after completing three years, he chose to return to the enlisted ranks. He was then assigned to Fort Carson, Colo., HHC Brigade, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team 4th Infantry attaining the rank of sergeant.

On July 13, 2013, he married his sweetheart, Jessica Fjermestad. Jake was a kind, loving husband, son and friend. He would do anything for anyone.
read more here

Fort Lewis Soldier Missing After Facebook Post saying "Goodbye World"

Washington soldier missing after posting cryptic Facebook message
 Josh Warner, a mechanic at Fort Lewis Army base and married father of two boys, has been missing since posting a message on his Facebook page reading, 'Good bye world,' on Wednesday.
BY NINA GOLGOWSKI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 26, 2014

A Washington soldier is missing after posting a chilling message on Facebook reading, "Good bye world."

Josh Warner, a mechanic at Washington's Fort Lewis Army base, has been missing since early Wednesday morning shortly after he kissed his wife and mother of his two kids goodbye, she told KOMO News.

"He woke me up to give me a hug and kiss goodbye and then there was cops at my door, pounding on my door," said Brandi Warner amid tears.

The mechanic for the 2nd Stryker Brigade and father of two young boys appeared to be going to work when he left their Spanaway home.
read more here

Another veteran killed by Sheriff's Deputy

Pierce County sheriff's deputy kills ex-soldier in University Place
25-year-old pointed shotgun at them in UP, cops say
The News Tribune
BY ROB CARSON
Staff writer
March 22, 2014

Both men were recently discharged from the Army, Troyer said. McLeod lived in the apartment with his girlfriend, who was not home at the time, the spokesman said.

A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 25-year-old former soldier late Friday after a confrontation in University Place.

The shooting happened about 11: 40 p.m. after two young men who apparently had been fighting came out of an apartment building in the 9800 block of 52nd Street West and one of them leveled a shotgun in the direction of deputies, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

“What happened is unfortunate, but you just can’t do that,” Troyer said Saturday.

Brian McLeod of University Place died at the scene. The county Medical Examiner's Office identified him Saturday evening.
read more here

This is one of the comments left on the article

I served with Brian at Ft. lewis as we were both in the same Infantry company together. He was a great soldier and I always knew him to be a very humble and relatively quiet person, never being the impulsive type. I'm shocked and saddened by his death, it is unfortunate to see a fellow soldier who survived combat die on the very soil he took and oath to defend. His reported actions that night don't seem to reflect his calm and humble nature at all, however I can understand the effects of the psychological trauma he has been through as well as our instincts on what to do when someone points a weapon at you. "Muscle memory" as we say and are taught. No one in thier right mind wishes to be shot and killed and I can confidently say that I believe he wasn't in his right mind at that instant. My most sincerest condolences go out to his family and those who loved him. "Thundering Herd" R.I.P.

Hate crime leaves 20 year old Fort Lewis soldier dead

Fort Lewis soldier fatally stabbed on Lakewood street
Associated Press
By Mike Baker
October 5, 2013

SEATTLE -- A soldier out with his friends was fatally stabbed alongside a Lakewood street early Saturday, and investigators were examining whether the attack was a racially motivated hate crime.

The 20-year-old was walking with two of his friends from Joint Base Lewis-McChord when a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. The soldiers shouted something back, and a group of five black men from the car stopped and surrounded the soldiers, authorities said.

Police said the men in the car began to leave when one of them realized the soldiers were combat veterans, but one of the suspects appeared to bump into the victim as he walked past. As the car left, the soldier fell to the ground, and his friends discovered he had been stabbed.

The soldier died at the scene. Authorities declined to release his name until family members could be notified.
read more here

UPDATE

3 soldiers arrested in fellow soldier's stabbing death
CNN
By Chuck Johnston and Jason Hanna
updated 4:13 PM EDT, Mon October 7, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
It now appears the stabbing was not racially motivated, police say
The suspects, like the victim, were soldiers assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Friends say they were on the way to celebrate Tevin Geike's pending discharge
Witnesses initially said Geike was attacked after an assailant yelled about soldiers being white

(CNN) -- Three soldiers have been arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a fellow soldier who was celebrating his pending departure from the Army -- an attack that police in Washington state now say doesn't appear to be racially motivated.

Jeremiah Hill, 23; Cedarium Johnson, 21; and Ajoni Runnion-Bareford, 21, were arrested on charges of murder in the death Saturday of Army Spc. Tevin Geike, police said Monday.

All four were assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, not far from the Lakewood sidewalk where police say Geike was accosted as he walked with two friends and fellow soldiers early Saturday.

Police initially said they were investigating the death as a possible hate crime after witnesses said a black assailant directed a racial comment toward Geike, who was white, and his white friends shortly before the stabbings.
read more here

UPDATE

Slain soldier’s friend: no reason for killing

A soldier who was present when another soldier was fatally stabbed in Lakewood on Saturday said he doesn’t know why his friend was attacked: “It’s a pity someone had to stoop that low.”

By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter
October 7, 2013

A soldier who was present when another soldier was fatally stabbed in Lakewood Saturday said he doesn’t know why his friend was attacked — and said there can be no good reason.

“I pity them for whatever forced them to want to kill someone for nothing,” Spc. Brian Johnson said Monday, “It’s a pity someone had to stoop that low.”

The three men jailed in the case, and the victim, Spc. Tevin Geike, 20, of Summerville, S.C, are all soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, according to Lakewood police.

The suspects are expected to make initial appearances in Pierce County Superior Court on Tuesday.
read more here

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales apologizes for killings, disgracing Army

Bales apologizes for killings, disgracing Army
The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune
By Adam Ashton
Published: August 22, 2013

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — In his first remarks in court, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales could not apologize enough for the lives he ruined on the night he slipped out of his combat outpost in Kandahar province and slaughtered 16 civilians in their homes.

He said he let his family down. He disgraced the Army, he said. And he robbed innocent people of their families.

"I don’t have the words to tell them how much I wish I could take it back,” he said this morning in an unsworn statement on third day of his sentencing trial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Bales, 40, will receive a life sentence for his slaughter in Kandahar’s Panjwai district on March 11, 2012. He spoke to convince a six-member military jury that he deserves a chance for parole one day.
read more here

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to withdraw guilty plea

U.S. soldier in Afghan murder trial declines to withdraw guilty plea
By Jonathan Kaminsky
TACOMA, Washington
Tue Aug 20, 2013

Bales' attorneys said they would argue that post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury were factors in the killings.

(Reuters) - A U.S. army soldier who in June admitted the slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians declined to withdraw his guilty plea in a military court on Monday.

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales made his decision in advance of legal arguments set to begin Tuesday that will determine whether his life sentence will come with the possibility of parole.

"I'm just trying to do the right thing," he said in a hearing Monday to establish ground rules for the roughly week-long sentencing proceedings.

The judge, Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, asked Bales whether he wanted to withdraw the guilty plea in light of possible misinformation about the length of time before he could be eligible for parole.

Under a plea agreement that accompanied the plea, Bales will be spared the death penalty and could be eligible for parole after 20 years, less time already served and credit for good behavior.

Bales pleaded guilty in June to walking off his base in Afghanistan's Kandahar province before dawn on March 11, 2012, and killing 16 unarmed civilians, most of them women and children, in attacks on their family compounds.
read more here

Also from April

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales Defense Must Decide Strategy His lawyers have said for the past year that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and combat-related head injuries, suggesting those ailments overcame him on what was his fourth combat deployment from Lewis-McChord since 2003.

The News Tribune has this report from yesterday

Army: Bales, wife laughed about killing charges
Published: August 19, 2013

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. — Army prosecutors said Monday they have a recording of a phone call in which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales and his wife laugh as they review the charges filed against him in the killing of 16 Afghan villagers.

Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for killing the civilians, mostly women and children, on March 11, 2012.

His sentencing begins on Tuesday with the selection of a military jury. Prosecutors told the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, on Monday they hope to play the recording, among others, to show a lack of remorse on Bales' part. He faces life in prison either with or without the possibility of release

Bales, on his fourth combat deployment, had been drinking and watching a movie with other soldiers at his remote post at Camp Belambay in Kandahar Province when he slipped away before dawn on March 11, 2012. Bales said he had also been taking steroids and snorting Valium.

Armed with a 9 mm pistol and an M-4 rifle, he attacked a village of mud-walled compounds called Alkozai then returned and woke up a fellow soldier to tell him about it. The soldier didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep. Bales left again to attack a second village known as Najiban.
read more here

Fort Lewis soldier shot and killed by police in Reno

Former Reno resident shot by police an Iraq War veteran
RGJ.com
Written by Emerson Marcus
July 18, 2013

The 27-year-old man killed Thursday in an officer-involved shooting in north Reno was an active-duty enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army who deployed to Iraq in 2011.

Kenneth Jewel Stafford, who was on leave from his duty station in Fort Lewis, Wash., to visit family in Reno, died Thursday after a shooting on the 2100 block of Belcrest Circle in north Reno.

The involved Reno and Sparks police officers were placed on routine administrative leave. No law enforcement officers were harmed in the shooting. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, the lead investigating agency, declined comment Wednesday.

Stafford, a helicopter mechanic, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2009. He was deployed in Iraq from February to December 2011.

He was a specialist assigned to the 1st Battalion, 229th Aviation Regiment at Fort Lewis. Stafford, a 2003 graduate of Washoe High School, was on leave last week, said Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, public affairs officer for 7th Infantry Division.
read more here

Anti-malarial drug linked to Afghan massacre a long time ago

What the hell is going on when reports do not research what they report on? Here is one more case of that.

MARCH 26, 2012 CNN reported Military Scrambles To Limit Malaria Drug Just After Afghanistan Massacre

That isn't the problem, even though reports on this drug go way back.

VA issued warning on Lariam in 2004

Spc. Adam Kuligowski's problems began because he couldn't sleep, April 2010

Army curbs prescriptions of anti-malaria drug Mefloquine NOVEMBER 20, 2011 and this one the same month. After four decades of use, the U.S. Army is banning the use of mefloquine (an anti-malaria drug) because of side effects.

Is Mefloquine the new Agent Orange? from August 2012

This report claims that it is "new information" but it isn't.

Anti-malarial drug linked to Afghan massacre
Soldier was taking mefloquine when he killed 16 civilians, report indicates
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Jul. 13, 2013

In less than a month, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be sentenced for the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians in March 2012.

His attorney, John Henry Browne, has not publicly disclosed whether he will use a mental health defense to fight for a parole-eligible sentence.

But an argument could be made that Bales, 40, was out of his mind:

■ He was treated for a traumatic brain injury resulting from a rollover accident in 2010 and possibly had post-traumatic stress disorder.

■ He admitted to using steroids, which can cause aggression and violence.

■ And new evidence suggests he was prescribed an anti-malaria drug known to cause hallucinations, aggression and psychotic behavior in some patients.
read more here

Warrior Transition Battalion “steals your soul and puts you in a deeper depression"

Joint Base Lewis-McChord's warrior transition unit lacks training
Some of the soldiers managing care for ill and wounded troops at Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s Warrior Transition Battalion lacked proper training before they began their assignments, according to a recently released Defense Department audit.
News Tribune
ADAM ASHTON
STAFF WRITER
Published: July 4, 2013

Some of the soldiers managing care for ill and wounded troops at Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s Warrior Transition Battalion lacked proper training before they began their assignments, according to a recently released Defense Department audit.

That inconsistent training coupled with lengthy delays in the Army’s medical retirement process exasperated soldiers at a vulnerable point in military careers, soldiers told the Defense Department Inspector General when a team visited the Lewis-McChord site in summer 2011.

The Warrior Transition Battalion “steals your soul and puts you in a deeper depression,” one National Guard soldier told the auditors. “They tell me to plan for the future, but they cannot tell me when I can leave.”

Comments in the Inspector General report echo some of the criticism that has been leveled at the Army’s 38 so-called warrior transition units since they were created in 2007. A 2010 New York Times story famously labeled them “warehouses of despair” that kept soldiers in limbo between the civilian and military worlds.
read more here

Raised concerns about mental health did little to stop redeployment from Lewis-McChord

Mental health surveys divert few soldiers from deployment
The News Tribune
ADAM ASHTON
STAFF WRITER
Published: June 29, 2013

A small fraction of soldiers deploying out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord during the peak of the Iraq War were removed from combat missions because their answers on last-minute screenings raised concerns about their mental health, according to data obtained by The News Tribune.

Just 250 out of more than 72,000 pre-deployment health surveys reviewed at Madigan Army Medical Center between 2006 and 2010 led to soldiers being taken off combat tours after they revealed signs of ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder or head injuries. That’s less than 0.4 percent of the surveys that were completed.

The numbers appear small, but they come from a group of soldiers who had been considered healthy and ready to deploy when they took the surveys in the months before they were scheduled to leave the country.

“These are the people who have already drawn their gear and are on the ramp,” said Madigan Commander Col. Dallas Homas.

The data shed new light on one of the safety valves military officials put in place after it became clear they would be sending soldiers in an all-volunteer Army on multiple combat tours, continually exposing the same troops to insurgent bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Army-supported studies since 2007 have shown that repeated deployments increase the probability soldiers will experience PTSD.
read more here

Same reminder on this one.

Army admits Staff Sgt. Robert Bales given steroids and alcohol

Lawyer: Army plied JBLM soldier behind Afghan massacre with booze, steroids
MyNorthwest.com
BY JOSH KERNS
May 30, 2013

The lawyer for the JBLM soldier accused of massacring 16 villagers during a bloody rampage in Afghanistan says his client suffered post traumatic stress disorder and was on steroids at the time. Seattle attorney John Henry Browne told CNN Thursday special forces troops "pumped" Sgt. Robert Bales with steroids and alcohol regularly before the March, 2012 rampage.

"Of course nobody forces him to take it but that's how he got it. The Army admits that," Browne said.
read more here

After Staff Sgt. Bales' arrest, military tried to delete him from the Web

Dr. Frank Ochberg talks about Sgt. Robert Bales and the nature of PTSD

Military Scrambles To Limit Malaria Drug Just After Afghanistan Massacre

Soldier premeditated killing 5 U.S. troops in Iraq

Judge: Soldier premeditated killing 5 U.S. troops in Iraq
May. 13, 2013
Associated Press

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. — A military judge found Army Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder Monday in the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

Russell now faces a sentencing phase of his court-martial to determine whether he will face life in prison with or without the possibility of release.

The 14-year veteran from Sherman, Texas, had previously pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Under the agreement, prosecutors were allowed to try to prove to an Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the killings were premeditated.
read more here

Fate of Sgt. John Russell in hands of judge

Fate of Sgt. John Russell in hands of military judge

Five killings at Camp Liberty in Iraq: Calculation or despair?
By Kim Murphy
May 11, 2013
Los Angeles Times

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, WASH. — The court-martial of Army Sgt. John Russell concluded Saturday with a military judge asked to decide whether the 14-year Army veteran was deluded by depression and despair as he shot five fellow service members in Iraq, or was executing a calculated plan of revenge against psychiatrists who had blocked his hopes for an early exit from the Army.

In closing arguments after a week of testimony, Judge David L. Conn was presented two starkly different views of what drove Russell, 48, to seize his escort’s M-16 rifle and gun down five people at the Camp Liberty combat stress center at the Baghdad airport on May 11, 2009.

While the defense says Russell was suffering from organic brain damage, major depression and post-combat stress that was aggravated by hostile mental health workers, Army prosecutors argued Saturday that Russell had been trying to paint himself as mentally ill even before the murders in an attempt to win early retirement and had then struck back “in the language of revenge” when a psychiatrist refused such a diagnosis.

Russell has already pleaded guilty to five specifications of murder, but the judge will determine whether the acts were premeditated, a key factor in whether he must serve life in prison or is eligible for parole.
read more here

Sgt. John Russell pleaded guilty

Iraq vet pleads guilty to killing fellow soldiers
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Monday, April 22, 2013


JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — An Army sergeant pleaded guilty Monday to killing four other soldiers and a Navy officer in 2009 at mental health clinic in Baghdad during the Iraq War.

The plea at a military court at Joint Base Lewis-McChord means Sgt. John Russell will avoid the death sentence. His maximum sentence would be a life term.

Russell — who is from Sherman, Texas — went on a shooting spree at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center near Baghdad in May 2009. It was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

Russell was nearing the end of his third tour when his behavior changed, members of his unit testified in 2009.

They said he became more distant in the days before the May 11, 2009, attack and that he seemed paranoid that his unit was trying to end his career.
read more here

Sgt. John Russell example of what went wrong

Between what we are told and what happens is the blank space of PTSD

Would Santiago Cisneros III still be alive if he was actually told what PTSD was? Would he have reacted the way he did facing police officers the day he was shot if during the two years he had been to the VA, he got the help he needed?

Officer: 'The only thing I could think of... is that I was going to die'
By KATU.com Staff
Published: Apr 5, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two Portland police officers were holding a routine meeting on the top of parking garage when they came under fire from a suspect armed with a shotgun, according to investigators who reviewed the incident.

The officers were not hit but returned fire and killed Santiago Cisneros, III.

In a 2009 interview with KOMO, Cisneros said he had tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq. He said the military didn’t give him the help he needed after returning home.

Cisneros’s father said his son struggled to adjust to civilian life and had some minor run-ins with the law. Despite that, he said before his death that Cisneros had been working and generally doing better.

Shattered soldiers say there was no help
KOMO News
By Liz Rocca
Published: Mar 26, 2009


The military contends it's more prepared than ever to deal with PTSD.

In fact, Fort Lewis - the very post that K-10 ran away from - was one of the first to screen every returning soldier for both physical and mental problems.

Soldiers are screened upon their return to post with a lengthy questionnaire and face-to-face meeting. They are screened a second time 90 days later.

Dr. Murray Raskind, a Veterans Administration psychiatrist who treats PTSD, says the military is getting better, but the screening isn't foolproof.

"The question is does the soldier recognize that they have a problem and are they willing to say that they have a problem?"

Raskind says too many soldiers are still reluctant to admit they are struggling for fear it will create a paper trail that will ruin their careers.

And, Raskind says, it can sometimes take up to a year for problems to surface.

Santiago Cisneros never dreamed he'd have trouble adjusting to civilian life again.

"It took a while to realize I was dealing with PTSD because I didn't know what post-traumatic stress disorder was. I had no clue"

Cisneros finally found help through the Veterans Administration and the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Northern California.

"I've started to build a foundation of hope and humanity again," Cisneros says.

Arthur Smith is getting treatment from a civilian therapist, and has resigned himself to living life as a fugitive.

"I don't mind saying that I'll never go back - if I do I'll break out," he says.

But K-10 says his dangerous rage should have raised significant red flags for the Army.