Kentucky legislators push bill for Female Veterans' Day

This Kentucky legislator wants to create a Women Veterans Day

Courier Journal
Sarah Ladd
Feb. 5, 2020

The bill's language boasts, "women have proudly served their country throughout all periods of the history of the United States, whether disguised as male soldiers during the American 4 Revolution and Civil War, as nurses in World War I, or as combat helicopter pilots in 5 Afghanistan."

A Kentucky legislator wants to set aside a date for Women Veterans Day, and she has a lot of support from her colleagues.

Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, introduced a bill Tuesday into the Kentucky Legislature that asks for June 12 to be set aside to honor women in Kentucky who've served in the military.

And more than 70 Legislators have signed on as co-sponsors.

Minter told The Courier Journal she's been "overwhelmed and excited" about the support from her colleagues, which has transcended political party and gender.

Minter, who is not a veteran, said setting aside a day for female veterans would be both "celebratory and educational."

When she was first sworn into the General Assembly, Minter was assigned to a committee that worked with veterans. Through that work, she said she was "educated" by women veterans about the "unique challenges" faced by service women.
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Ret. Major Travis Riley lost last battle with PTSD

Months after veteran took his life, his Louisville family searches for answers

WDRB News
Lindsay Allen
Dec 19, 2019

"And at that moment, I looked down as I'm putting it down ... and saw one sentence myself that told me everything in one sentence what we could possibly find.

"That sentence said, 'Please cremate me.'"

Riley's body was found the next morning. He had committed suicide.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Penny Riley found her husband’s car abandoned in a Louisville park on Aug. 15, 2019. He hadn't returned her text messages, so she left home, fearing what she'd find.

Inside his car, alongside a file folder, a McDonald's bag and his phone, she found three letters, one for each of his family members. She took her letter, opened it, and began to read, her eyes stopping at one sentence.

“Please cremate me.”

Travis Riley joined the Army at age 18, later served in the Kentucky National Guard and climbed his way to the rank of major. He served in Afghanistan for a year, and his wife said he often talked about the sounds of battle.

"'You're going to hear the air traffic. You're going to hear the far-off gunfire. You're constantly hearing that sound,'" Penny Riley recalls her husband telling her. "We would Skype a lot, and I could hear that through Skype, the noises, and he would say, 'That's just what we hear all the time Penny. That's normal here. It's OK.'"

The Louisville man devoted his life to his family and his country.
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19 year old soldier found dead in Italy

173rd Brigade soldier found dead in Vicenza barracks is identified

STARS AND STRIPES
By NANCY MONTGOMERY
Published: March 6, 2019

VICENZA, Italy — The 173rd Brigade paratrooper found dead in the barracks Sunday morning has been identified as Pvt. Peter Cimino.

The paratrooper found dead in the Vicenza, Italy, barracks Sunday morning has been identified as Pvt. Peter Cimino, 19. U.S. ARMY

Cimino, 19, was a mortarman assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Cimino was from Danville, Ky. He arrived in Vicenza in August, four months after he enlisted in the Army, according to brigade officials, and was a recipient of the National Defense Service Ribbon and the Army Service Ribbon.

The cause of death is under investigation.
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Soldier accidentally shot himself in the head, lived and now denied benefits

Soldier who shot himself in head appeals Army’s decision to deny benefits

STARS AND STRIPES
By WYATT OLSON
Published: February 5, 2019

The investigator’s original determination in Holyan’s case, however, was overturned by the 101st Airborne Division’s commander and then ratified by Army Human Resources Command.

Spc. Kevin Holyan, a wounded warrior athlete from the Fort Sam Houston Warrior Transition Battalion, poses with Lt. Col. Eric Kjonnerod, commander of Warrior Transition Battalion-Hawaii, during the 2018 Pacific Regional Trials indoor rowing medal ceremony at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Nov. 10, 2018.LEANNE THOMAS/U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Army Spc. Kevin Holyan arrived especially early at the Hopkinsville, Ky., home of his former barracks mate, who had been promoted to sergeant and was celebrating with a party that evening in April 2017.

Holyan, a 22-year-old assigned to an engineer battalion with the 101st Airborne Division at nearby Fort Campbell, kept his personally owned handgun at that friend’s house, and was eager to put on new grips he’d gotten for the gun. Army regulations did not allow Holyan to keep the .40-caliber Glock 23 at his base residence.

Hours later, Holyan jokingly raised the gun to his head, and believing it was unloaded, pulled the trigger and fired a bullet through his brain. He was rushed to a hospital where a note in his medical chart that evening offered a stark assessment: “Grave prognosis,” it said. “Likely fatal [injury].”

Holyan survived, but today he cannot walk and is mentally impaired. He is in an Army Warrior Transition Unit and on his way to becoming a civilian. He is not expected to be able to work again.
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Flying tire killed 19 year old female Marine

Young Marine killed by truck’s flying tire on Indiana interstate

New York Post
Joshua Rhett Miller
January 18, 2019

A young Marine was killed in Indiana when a wheel flew off another vehicle before crossing a concrete median and crashing into her pickup truck, state police said. 


Lance Cpl. Olivia Kustes, 18, of Rineyville, Kentucky, died Wednesday after a wheel from a pickup truck fell off the vehicle and barreled into her truck after crossing a median on I-65 near the Eastern Boulevard exit in southern Indiana, WDRB reports. 

A local Marine recruiting station told WDRB that Kustes had recently returned home on a recruiters’ assistance program and was scheduled to return to North Carolina next week.
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Army veteran got to watch himself win Titan Games

Elizabethtown Army vet earns title of Titan on NBC’s Titan Games

WAVE News
Taylor Durden
January 18, 2019

ELIZABETHTOWN, KY (WAVE) - Elizabethtown Army veteran Christopher Watts impressed the nation on NBC’s new show “The Titan Games.”

Thursday night Watts beat out his competition to earn the title of Titan. He will be moving on to the next round of the competition.

Watts was a security contractor in Kabul, Afghanistan. He flew to Los Angeles just for the show, before returning back to Afghanistan to keep working.

On Thursday, more than 50 of Watts' friends and family members sat around tables at Buffalo Wild Wings in Elizabethtown to watch the show.

Watts told his family and friends he was heading to Texas so he wouldn’t be able to join them to watch. Unbeknownst to them, Watts changed his flight last minute after he heard about their gathering.
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Kentucky veteran William Lucey laid to rest with honor

Community honors veteran without family

The News-Enterprise
TREY CRUMBIE
Jan 9, 2019

After learning a U.S. Army veteran would be buried without family present, Rick Lee of Elizabethtown said he was going to be there.

(Trey Crumbie The News-Enterprise)

“I’m a veteran,” he said. “I’m going to respect the veterans.”

Dozens of people gathered Tuesday afternoon at Kentucky Veterans Cemetery-Central in Radcliff to honor a veteran who had no family listed.

“No veteran should ever have to be buried without somebody being there to represent them,” said Lee, who also is a member of American Legion Hardin Post 113.

Lee served in the military police and personnel administration for 30 years. He said he first joined the military after being raised around “coal mines and strip jobs” in Pennsylvania.

“I looked up one day and said, ‘Lord, I ain’t gonna live like this,” he said. “(I) raised the hand and went in.”

Many details on the veteran buried were not available as of Tuesday evening. According to an official from Spring Valley Funeral Home in New Albany, Indiana, the veteran was William Lucey, 61. Lucey was born Aug. 27, 1957, in Louisville. He joined the Army in 1974 and was honorably discharged about a year later. He died Dec. 2.
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Dateline NBC investigates murder of Fort Campbell soldier

Evil Was Waiting: Dateline NBC investigates murder of Fort Campbell soldier
Clarksville Now
By Nicole June
September 12, 2018

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – A report coming later this week from Dateline NBC highlights the 2012 slaying of Fort Campbell soldier Sgt. Vincent Goslyn, Jr.

Clarksville NowInvestigator Ed Stokes talks to Dateline NBC's Andrea Canning in Evil Was Waiting, a new report on the 2012 murder of Fort Campbell soldier Vincent Goslyn, Jr. (Photo courtesy of Dateline NBC)

Goslyn was gunned down on the side of the road in Christian County, Ky. in Feb. 2012, not long after returning home from a deployment to Afghanistan.

At the time of the incident his wife, Jessie Goslyn, called 911 and reported that her husband had been shot when he got out of the car to help a stranded motorist on the side of the road. She told operators she drove away from the scene as her husband supposedly instructed her to.

It was later uncovered that Jessie Goslyn and her boyfriend, Jarred Tabor Long, had plotted Vincent’s murder and used the 911 call as a cover-up.
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Burning fuel tank did not stop Fort Knox soldier from saving a life

Fort Knox soldier earns Soldier’s Medal for saving man from burning fuel truck
Army Times
By: Charlsy Panzino
September 8, 2018

“He was upside down and his feet were stuck under the dash,” King said. “He managed to grab and push out the windshield.” The sergeant first class pulled Bowling out of the vehicle and dragged him about 150 feet away as the truck’s fuel tank was engulfed in flames and its tires were exploding.

Sgt. 1st Class Mario King, Army Human Resources Command information technology specialist career adviser, is presented the Soldier's Medal during a ceremony hosted by Maj. Gen. Jason Evans, Army Human Resources Command commanding general. (Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton/Army)

Sgt. 1st Class Mario King and his wife, fellow soldier Sgt. Adriane King, were driving in Kentucky when a movie-like scene unfolded in front of them.

The information technology specialist at Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, received the Soldier’s Medal on Friday for his actions that day.

It was May 13, and the Kings were coming back from a surprise visit to Mario’s parents for Mother’s Day.

“Normally we take a different route back, but because of all the traffic that weekend, we took a detour,” King told Army Times.

They were behind a small car and a fuel truck on a two-lane highway when they noticed the small car had veered off to the left, as if to make a turn.

“But then all of a sudden, it went back to the right in front of the fuel truck, and that’s when the accident occurred,” said King, who has served in the Army for 17 years.
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KY Firefighter Shares His Battle Against PTSD

KY Firefighter Shares His Battle Against PTSD
Firehouse
August 24, 2018

Veteran Burlington firefighter Phil Hall opens up in this news segment about his struggle with PTSD after 18 years of witnessing difficult incidents.

Army 1st Lt. Garlin Murl Conner MOH

Grandson of WWI's 'Sgt. York' Will Attend Medal of Honor Ceremony
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
25 Jun 2018

On Tuesday, Pauline Conner will accept the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor for her husband, who died in 1998 at age 79

They were Appalachian farm boys and crack shots who were distantly related by marriage, and now they are both Medal of Honor recipients for their "above and beyond" actions in separate wars.

Sgt. Alvin C York (US Army)

Army Sgt. Alvin C. York, believed to be the most highly decorated American soldier of World War I and made famous in a 1941 blockbuster movie, and Army 1st Lt. Garlin Murl Conner, one of the most highly decorated soldiers of World War II, first met when York came to the parade for Conner's homecoming in May 1945 and spoke at the Clinton County Courthouse in Kentucky.

That was where Pauline Conner, or Miss Pauline as she is known in the county, first saw the man who was to become her husband. He was all of about 5-foot-6 and maybe 130 pounds -- "probably," she said with a laugh at a Pentagon briefing Monday.

Pauline, who was Pauline Wells at the time, said her future husband didn't make a good first impression. She recalled with a smile turning to her mother, Tressie, and saying "my God, Mama, that little wharf rat couldn't have done all of what they said he'd done."
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Elks cast net for PTSD veterans in Kentucky

Special event shows supports for veterans with PTSD
WPSD 6 News
Logan Gay, Justin Jones
June 23, 2018

It’s that type of support and awareness that can help these heroes conquer their battle with PTSD. They are hoping to make this fishing trip an annual event.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KY – Twenty veterans with PTSD were treated to a special fishing trip sponsored by the Marshall County Elks. The trip was made possible through a $2,000 grant from the Elks National Foundation.

According to the U.S Veterans Affairs the number of Veterans with PTSD varies by service area. About 11-20 out of every 100 veterans who served in Operations Iraqi freedom have PTSD in a given year. About 12 out of every 100 Desert Storm veterans suffer from PTSD in a given year . The VA estimates about 30 out of 100 Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.

What do you call a person who sacrifices their life for a stranger? A hero. That’s what you can call these men and women. They’re all veterans no longer in a war zone but still fighting a battle. This time with PTSD.

Randy Henson said it’s a war that can only be won through support.

“A lot of times people can’t sleep and they have bad dreams. So when they get together with their buddies. You can talk about it and they’ve been through the same thing,” said Henson.

That’s what inspired the Marshall County Elks to sponsor a fishing trip. They wanted to show respect for these veterans and give them a relaxing day on the lake.
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Vietnam Veterans Wall Permanently in Kentucky?

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall officially opens in Elizabethtown
WDRB News
By Fallon Gli
Apr 28, 2018

The permanent wall, which was built by veterans themselves, was years in the making.

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) – A near replica of the original Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is officially complete in Elizabethtown and opened to the public on Saturday. Those who served in the Vietnam War say this local memorial is now a place of healing.

The more than 58,000 names carved into the black stone each have a story.

“I was a medic and unfortunately there were a couple that I couldn't save,” veteran Richard Uhler said. “And they're listed on this wall.”

This Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall is 360-feet long, an 80 percent scale of the one in Washington D.C. Now fully finished at Veteran's Tribute Park in Elizabethtown, the men’s and women’s names represent the cost of soldiers left on the battlefield and the impact on those left behind.

“I've found some guys that I knew that I flew with, some that I kind of lived with in basic training ... sometimes it's just really hard to recognize, like someone said, that you got to come home and they didn't,” veteran Bradley Burkholder said.

For many who proudly donned their veteran hats, they remember the war like it was yesterday. Some took a knee to get an up close look at the names that weigh heavy on their hearts.

“It did bring a tear to the eye, that's right,” Uhler said.
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Fort Campbell Soldier AWOL After Hazing

Maine man charged with military desertion was hazed by team leader, father says
MORNING SENTINEL
BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
March 23, 2018

Anthony Seeley of Farmington says his son Austin and a fellow recruit were driven to leave their base in Kentucky after being put in dangerous situations by their team leader.

Austin Seeley, 19, of Farmington, third from the right in this group shot, left his Army post at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and was advised by his father to turn himself in to the Franklin County sheriff. Anthony Seeley, Austin's father, a combat veteran, said his son has been hazed and put in unnecessarily dangerous situations by his team leader. Contributed photo

The Farmington soldier who was charged with desertion was being hazed and put in dangerous situations by his team leader when he left his base without permission, his father said.

Pvt. Austin Seeley, 19, and his friend, Noah Fisher, 18, of Boise, Idaho, whose rank was unavailable but who also is enlisted in the Army, left their base, driving from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Maine, and turned themselves in Monday at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office once the military issued a warrant for their arrests.

But that’s not the whole story, said Anthony Seeley, Austin’s father.

During an interview Thursday, Seeley said his son has undergone constant hazing – to the point of physical injury – from his unit’s team leader since he arrived at Fort Campbell in October.
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PTSD: In the line of duty

One officer's struggle to recover from wounds seen and unseen
WAVE 3 News
By David Mattingly, Anchor/Reporter
Saturday, February 3rd 2018

Johnson said he has some simple advice for Detective Darrell Hyche, who was wounded on duty Thursday. "When you need help, ask for it," he said.

D'Shawn Johnson was shot in the line of duty on June 19, 1999. He says he lives with it everyday. (Source: WAVE 3 News)

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - WAVE 3 News Safety and Security Expert D'Shawn Johnson recalled vividly the night he was shot in the line of duty.

On patrol as a Louisville police officer, he stopped in the Portland neighborhood to break up a fight when shots rang out.

"It always stays in your mind," he said thoughtfully. "And you always mark that date, you know, when you could have lost your life."

In Johnson's case, it was June 19, 1999.

The bullet entered his upper arm, shattered the bone and lodged deep in his shoulder. He said there was so much blood, he thought his life was over.

He described sitting on the pavement in an alley, feeling angry that he would not be able to say goodbye to the people he loved.

"Thought about family, thought about friends. Basically that was it," he sighed.

Five surgeries and six months of metal rods protruding from his arm helped put Johnson's body back together. But there were also wounds he said he could not see.
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LMPD Officer Darrell Hyche was struck in the head by a bullet during a drug sting. He was doing a job that almost cost him his life.

101st Soldier rescued people from burning car...including himself!

A soldier caught on fire while rescuing people from a burning car. It didn't stop him
Ledger Enquirer
Scott Berson
January 29, 2018

"As I was [unbuckling her seatbelt] the whole vehicle caught fire, and I just felt a blanket of fire wrap around my body, and everything just happened in a matter of seconds from there," Davis said in an Army news release.. "But before I could get the other half of her body out, she caught fire from all the fuel that was on her. I noticed she was on fire [shortly] before noticing that I was on fire too."

Maj. Gen. Andrew Poppas, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) commanding general, pins the Soldier's Medal on Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) artillery cannon crew member and section chief, during a ceremony held at Fort Campbell, Jan. 22, 2018. Sgt. Samantha Stoffregen Special to the Ledger-Enquirer

It was a normal summer day on June 9, 2017 when Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Artillery cannon crew member and section chief, was driving home to Ellijay, Ga., from Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

As he was cruising down the road near Nashville, he noticed a car overturned on its passenger side. It had flipped almost completely over, coming to rest on a slight downward slope, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Few other drivers seemed concerned, according to the Army.

"I was pulling up, and I noticed there was a small engine fire underneath the belly of the car, so I jumped out and ran up to the vehicle," Davis said.

When he reached the car, he found two people, Rick and Sharon Steiert, trapped in the vehicle. Most distressingly, a can of fuel that had been in the back of the car had tumbled during the crash. It had now become wedged under Sharon's legs, and she was covered in gasoline.
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Did you know Vietnam Veteran Glenn Shelton?

Veteran with no family at funeral not forgotten

WTHR 13 News
Rich Nye
December 16, 2017

The veterans in the pews did not know the Marine in the casket draped with the American flag. But they answered the call to honor a brother.
"Coming and showing our solidarity and showing the love for a brother that we don't know really helps other veterans,” said Pryor. “It helps those that are homeless, those that are dealing with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), PTSDs (post traumatic stress disorder) and moral injuries."

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) – The sanctuary at Allisonville Christian Church was nearly full Saturday afternoon for the funeral service of a Marine who died with no known family.

"We didn't know him, but yet we showed up, because vets help vets,” said Russell Pryor, Veterans of Foreign Wars district 11 commander. “Vets take care of vets. I think this was wonderful today. I mean to see every place out here looking around being filled with people who just have a love in their heart because of a service that he did for us and for this country."
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Search continues for family of abandoned veteran
WTHR 13 News
Kevin Rader
December 15, 2017

FISHERS, Ind. (WTHR) - A memorial service for Glenn Shelton, 68, will take place on Saturday.

The story of the abandoned Vietnam veteran has spread all across the country.

About all we know is that Glenn Shelton was a Vietnam veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart.

We didn't know why this man came to Indiana (he had roots in Kentucky) but late Thursday we got word that revealed Shelton may have some extended family in this area. We attempted to make contact by phone and in person on Friday but got no answers.

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Over 500 People Placed 8,000 Flags to Honor Veterans

Veteran invites public to take a different kind of knee while placing 8,000 flags at veteran graves

WDRB News

Fallon Glick

November 4, 2017

“Because we claim the flag as our symbol,” Moore said. “I do feel like there is a lack of knowledge of what it means to serve."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) –  For weeks NFL players have been taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem. It’s a form of protest for the players, but a sign of disrespect to many veterans and military members. Saturday morning one veteran invited the community out to Cave Hill Cemetery to take a different kind of knee.

It started by placing an American flag at every veteran’s grave inside the cemetery.

“We had 503 people show up at the cemetery to put out 8,000 flags,” said a Fred Moore, a Navy and Marine Corps veteran who founded Flags for Vets.  

It's done out of honor for those who have died in past wars and those who have died more recently.

“I have a great appreciation for the fact that a lot of people didn't come home,” Moore said. “And in these last few years with Iraq and Afghanistan we've added another 4,000 to the list.’

Moore invited the public to take a knee to pray and give thanks at the graves of the unknown soldiers. It's a different kind of knee seen from the National Football league.

“I'm a strong advocate of freedom of speech, but I want people to know that I have freedom of speech as well. And now that you've done this thing and you take a knee, I don't think you have the foggiest idea what veterans have sacrificed for,” Moore said.

Pro football players have been kneeling in protest during the national anthem. It's an action Moore says is disrespectful.

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Honor Flight Brought Veterans of Military and Law Enforcement to DC

Veterans who also served in law enforcement get a warm welcome home at CVG

WCPO News
Ashley Zilka
October 24, 2017

HEBRON, Ky. -- The country's first-ever law enforcement "honor flight" returned home Tuesday night to a waiting crowd of 1,000 well-wishers at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport. 

Honor Flight Network organizers said they had never seen such a large turnout to welcome passengers home.

"We need more of this in America," Chief Jim Gilbert, who accompanied his Vietnam veteran father Harry and brother Officer Eric Gilbert on the trip, said.

"(It was) overwhelming," Harry Gilbert added. "I never dreamed something like this. … I am at a loss for words."

The Honor Flight Network recognizes veterans by flying them to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials dedicated to the wars in which they fought. Tuesday night's was special in that, like Harry Gilbert, every passenger honored by the trip was a veteran who entered law enforcement when they left the military.
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Fort Campbell Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster died at home

Fort Campbell garrison command sergeant major has died

Army Times

September 3, 2017

The senior enlisted soldier for U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell has died, officials announced Sunday. Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster died at home Friday, officials said. 

Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster, the garrison command sergeant major for Fort Campbell, Ky., died Sept. 1, 2017, at home.

Foster had been the garrison command sergeant major for the Kentucky post since February 2016. In that role, he served as the senior enlisted adviser to the Fort Campbell garrison commander for all matters involving enlisted personnel. Officials did not release any additional information about the cause or manner of Foster’s death.
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