Iraq Veteran From Florida Killed in Michigan

Man killed in Parma Township shooting was Iraq war vet, father of 2
MLive
Nathan Clark
January 23, 2018

Campbell, originally from Crystal River Fla., was a resident of Fort Wayne, Ind. prior to moving to the Parma Township home about a year ago.

PARMA TWP., MI - Dan Wendling heard the shot. He thought someone was lighting fireworks.

His dog seemed to know something was amiss and soon emergency lights filled the street around Athena Drive.

He soon learned his neighbor, John D. Campbell, 31, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17.

"I can't believe it. Totally shocked by it," Wendling said. "He seemed like a decent enough guy to me."

Campbell was a U.S. Army veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq, loved skiing, fishing and was a loyal friend to many, according to his obituary.
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Military Funeral For Homeless Veteran

Homeless veteran to receive military burial Area groups honor a man whose life remains a mystery
The Journal Gazette
Rosa Salter Rodriguez
March 30, 2016

A U.S. Army veteran who died homeless in Fort Wayne earlier this month will be given a military funeral today with the aid of several area veterans’ groups.

John Pawlowski, 69, died March 5 at Parkview Hospital of natural causes stemming from septic shock, according to Michael Burris, chief investigator for the Allen County coroner’s office. Septic shock is a full-body infection that causes organ shutdown.

Pawlowski’s birthdate, May 17, 1947, and his military service were verified through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Burris said. But much of his life remains a mystery, and no family members willing to step forward to claim the body could be found, he said.

Nonetheless, contacts made through the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program by staff members at Fort Wayne’s Klaehn, Fahl and Melton funeral home have yielded a chaplain to conduct the services, as well as members of about a half-dozen area veterans groups who make a practice of participating in military funerals.

They include the Indiana Patriot Guard Riders and American Freedom Riders motorcycle groups; members of American Legion Post 241 in Waynedale; a group of Army members in active service; and representatives of Fort Wayne’s Safe Haven home for veterans struggling with addiction.

David Wilson, Safe Haven’s regional program director, said the agency will receive the American flag typically given to members of a veteran’s family – even though Safe Haven never had contact with Pawlowski.

“To me, it’s tragic when you have someone who served his country and dies and has nothing and no one. It’s tragic, but it happens,” Wilson said, adding that it has happened two or three times in the Fort Wayne area in the past two years.
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'Real Forrest Gump' Sammy Davis brings his song to Fort Wayne

'Real Forrest Gump' brings his song, Vietnam tale here
The Journal Gazette
Jeff Wiehe
December 10, 2014

He carries the harmonica whenever he’s in uniform.

It’s been nearly 50 years since he first learned to play it, teaching himself the notes to “Shenandoah” solely to please a sergeant who would make the rounds of his artillery unit in Vietnam.

“It’s getting better,” the sergeant would tell him, noting that he needed to hold that note longer or another note shorter.

Sammy L. Davis brought out his harmonica Tuesday for the people gathered in an auditorium at Indiana Tech, and he told them this:

“I hope this finds a place in your heart and renews your soul.”

Those people, they were there to hear his story.

It’s a story about a 42-man artillery unit just west of Cai Lay, Vietnam, trying to hold off 1,500 swarming members of the North Vietnamese Army early one November morning in 1967.

It’s about how one of those young men manned a lone howitzer and fended off hundreds of enemies, and how, despite suffering horrendous injuries, he used an air mattress to cross a deep river to rescue three of his comrades.

If this sounds like a movie, well, there’s a reason people call Davis, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and a man who put a harmonica to his mouth to play “Shenandoah” before the rapt audience, the “real Forrest Gump.”

‘“Forrest Gump” based on me’
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Sammy was at the Homes from Our Troops Fundraiser a couple of years ago and we had some time to sit down for a chat with his wife Dixie. In the first video, Sammy talks about playing Shenandoah.

May 15, 2012
During the Orlando Nam Knights Homes For Our Troops fundraiser, MOH Sammy Davis tells the story of how he became known for playing Shenandoah. This fundraiser will be called the Dannis Wolf Bish Memorial fundraiser from now on. Dannis was killed right after the bike week party and Homes For Our Troops was his passion.

May 7, 2012
At the Orlando Nam Knights fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor hero Sammy Davis talked to me about what it was like coming home after all he'd been through. It is a story few have heard before. As Sammy put it, it is one of the reasons no other veteran will ever come home treated like that again.

May 8, 2012
Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

VA Canceled Appointment for Mental Illness Awareness Week?

Update to the original story

Local veteran finds 'twisted humor' in VA's ironic decision -- but she's not laughing
Counseling session a victim of 'Mental Health Week'
By Kevin Leininger of The News-Sentinel
November 4, 2014

Leslie Haines figures it could have been worse.

"I'm just glad it wasn't "suicide prevention day," she said, remembering how her Oct. 9 counseling session for post-traumatic stress disorder had been canceled -- without warning, she says -- so 47 staff members at Fort Wayne's VA Medical Center could attend a Mental Health Awareness week training session.

But if the Army Reserve major and executive director of Lutheran Military Veterans and Families Ministry was able to appreciate the irony in her aggravation -- and she was -- Haines also believes the incident illustrates a potential danger for people already struggling with serious issues that may have been exacerbated by the very bureaucracy that is supposed to be helping them.

"I can generally find twisted humor in things," said Haines, who served as a military police officer at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and injured while serving in Iraq -- duty that also produced emotional scars she is reluctant to discuss but remain years later. "With PTSD you're already dealing with trust issues, and is somebody breaks that trust, it only erodes further. I'm glad (Lutheran Military Veterans) is a not-for-profit organization where we don't look at the clock, with no bureaucratic issues to deal with."
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Veteran's canceled appointment drips with irony
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
October 27, 2014

In October, Army Reserve Maj. Leslie Haines walked into the Fort Wayne campus of the Northern Indiana VA Health Care System for her regularly scheduled appointment at the PTSD clinic.

The session had been on the books for months; Haines says she attends appointments like clockwork to treat her “high-level PTSD, that’s often exacerbated” by her civilian job — counseling troops and veterans.

But on Oct. 9, the clinic receptionist told Haines her appointment that day had been canceled.

The reason?

Mental Illness Awareness Week.

The staff, it seems, was attending a guest lecture on resiliency from an inspirational speaker.

“Do they see the irony in that?” Haines said. “I was thinking, I’m glad it wasn’t National Suicide Prevention Day.”
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Marine buddies band together for Alzheimer's walk

Marine buddies band together for Alzheimer's walk
Sep 20, 2013 (The News-Sentinel (Menafn - Fort Wayne - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -

The Marine motto of never leaving a Marine behind doesn't just apply to the battlefield.

Three of Wade Smola's Vietnam buddies are coming from Chicago; Louisville, Ky.; and Indianapolis to walk with him and his family Saturday in the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's.

A Fort Wayne native, Smola joined the Corps in October of 1967, reported to Monument Circle in Indianapolis to be sworn in, was bused to San Diego for boot camp and then transferred to Camp Pendleton for infantry training before being shipped to Vietnam. He served one tour of duty as a Marine private in the Hoosier Platoon 1108 and was honorably discharged in 1971.

On returning home he used the GI Bill to earn bachelor and master degrees in fine arts and graphic design. After his employer went out of business five years ago and he was unable to find work, he suffered depression and began showing signs of early Alzheimer's. He was officially diagnosed with the disease in January.

Because of his condition, his daughter, Azure, has been taking him to the annual platoon reunions the past few years in Spencer, southwest of Bloomington, and keeping in touch with his buddies via the Internet.
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Budget cuts keep 900 National Guardsmen from being deployed

Deployments canceled for 3 Guard units
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 20, 2013

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — More than 900 Indiana National Guard soldiers will not deploy as scheduled this summer because of federal budget issues.

The Journal Gazette reports that units from Fort Wayne, New Albany and Scottsburg had their missions canceled because of automatic federal budget cuts and military downsizing.
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Fort Wayne National Guard soldier and girlfriend killed in house fire

Young Fort Wayne Couple ID'd in Fatal House Fire on Robinwood Drive



Fort Wayne, Indiana (Indiana's NewsCenter) - The Allen County Coroner’s Officer has conducted their autopsies of the two young adults that lost their lives during an early morning house fire on Robinwood Drive.

The victims of the fatal fire have been identified as 20-year-old Carson Tubbs of Fort Wayne and 19-year-old Jonette Chacon, also of Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne Fire officials say that a female resident was awakened by the smell of smoke. She and her daughter were able to leave the house safely. The woman’s son and his fiancee were both still inside the residence when fire crews arrived.

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Fort Wayne Veteran witnessed suicide at VA hospital

Witness saw man shoot self in head
Veteran witness: I knew exactly what the sound was

Updated: Monday, 31 Oct 2011, 2:05 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 31 Oct 2011, 12:18 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Fort Wayne police are looking into a death investigation that happened around 11:00 Monday morning in the parking lot of the Veterans Hospital. The hospital is located at 2121 Lake Avenue.
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So much for public's right to know

Published: March 23, 2008 6:00 a.m.
So much for public's right to know
Commentary by Sylvia A. Smith
Washington editor

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration wants to pick and choose what you are permitted to know when it comes to spending your tax dollars.

A brash, sweeping statement? You bet. True? Sadly, yes.

How else to explain the White House’s continued acceptance of a 2001 memo written by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft telling federal agencies to withhold documents whenever they could – and that the Justice Department would defend them in court.

This is a sharp contrast to the Clinton-era standard. During that administration, federal documents were censored only when their publication would result in real harm.

If you need any convincing, consider the fragments of a report I received from the Veterans Administration last week.

You spent $530,000 for a 78-page assessment of the recommendation to close the outpatient services at the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center and direct veterans to Indianapolis for their care.

But you will never see the consultant’s recommendations or the information used to reach those suggestions.

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