Afghanistan veteran and wife on motorcycle killed by vulture

Army Veteran, Wife Killed in Crash With Vulture: Kansas Patrol

By The Associated Press
April 22, 2019

MEDICINE LODGE, Kan.—Authorities say a vulture caused a crash that killed an Army veteran and his wife as they rode a motorcycle in southern Kansas.

The Kansas Highway Patrol says the bird came out of a ditch Saturday afternoon, April 20, and struck 42-year-old Brandon Husband, of Fowler, in the head on a rural road near Medicine Lodge, about 75 miles southwest of Wichita. 

The motorcycle then went off the road, struck a barbed wire fence and overturned. The patrol says neither Husband nor his wife, 43-year-old Jennifer Lynn Husband , was wearing a helmet.

Brandon Husband’s obituary says he served one tour in Kosovo, three in Afghanistan and was part of an Iraqi soldier training mission on the Iraq-Jordan border.

The Husbands leave behind four children.
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UK: Veteran Homeless After 11 Years of Service

Homeless ex-soldier says he has been urinated on and spat at while living on streets of Manchester
Manchester Evening News
BY KATIE BUTLER
21 SEPTEMBER 2015

Billy Gage, who spent 11 years in the army but is now living on the streets, also had his sleeping bag set on fire

Ex British soldier Billy Gage talks about the abuse he has suffered while on the streets

A former British soldier has told how he has been urinated on and had his sleeping bag set on fire while living on the streets of Manchester.

Billy Gage went into the Armed Forces as soon as he left school at the age of 16 and spent 11 years serving his country as an All Arms Commando and went on several tours including Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia and Sierra Leone.

After leaving in 2004 he started his own plastering business, got married and had a son, Daniel.

But when his son was just six-years-old, Daniel tragically died.

The 39-year-old said he is shocked there is not more help for soldiers and he is disgusted at how people treat those living on the streets.

He said: “Sometimes I just go to a quiet street and cry to myself. I just can’t believe I’m in this situation.

“I have put my life on the line for the good of this country and this is the way I’m treated? It’s disgusting.”

He said he has been urinated on, spat on and even had his sleeping bag set on fire while being homeless.
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Death of Soldier in Kosovo Ruled Suicide

Servicemember’s death in Kosovo ruled suicide
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: February 9, 2015

WASHINGTON — Nine months after Army Staff Sgt. Heidi Ruh died at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command has ruled her death a suicide.

Ruh died May 9, 2014, from a “noncombat related incident,” officials said when her death was announced, saying the exact cause was under investigation.

The Army investigation was completed Jan. 20.

“Based on the totality of the investigation, to include the evaluation of evidence, death scene examination, interviews, and the final autopsy and toxicology reports conducted by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, as well as the legal opinion, our investigation determined that SGT Ruh’s manner of death was suicide and the cause was an intraoral gunshot wound,” Army CID spokesman Christopher Grey said in an email.
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PTSD Army Veteran Caught in New York Police Gun Fight

Army Vet and Family in Town for Funeral Get Caught in Police Shooting
DNA Info New York
By Eddie Small
October 1, 2014

Mercado Jr., 48, a contracting specialist at the VA Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Army from April 1985 through May 2005, a time period that included stints in Somalia and Kosovo.

MOTT HAVEN — A South Carolina family's trip to New York City for a funeral turned into chaos Monday afternoon when they got caught in a police-involved shooting and narrowly missed getting struck by the gunfire.

The fusillade left them with a gaping bullet hole in the hood of the car they were driving and left one of the family members, an Army vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, "in a state of panic" because of how close the gunfire came to him, they explained.

Around 5:45 p.m., officers on patrol by East 145th Street and College Avenue started chasing a 20-year-old man who they saw shooting a gun a block away, but the suspect then started running toward and pointing his gun at them, police said.
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Fort Hood Soldier Died in Kosovo

Fort Hood soldier, 32, from Illinois dies in noncombat-related incident in Kosovo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 13, 2014

FORT HOOD, Texas — A 32-year-old Fort Hood soldier has died of injuries suffered last week in a noncombat-related incident in Kosovo.

Fort Hood officials on Tuesday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Heidi Lynn Ruh of Barrington, Illinois. She died at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo following an incident May 9. No other details were available Tuesday. The matter is under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Ruh joined the military in January 2003 as a biomedical equipment specialist and was assigned to the 1st Medical Brigade at Fort Hood. She was attached to Kosovo Force's Multinational Battle Group-East.
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UK Veteran with PTSD uses service ducks

Pets stop Paul from quacking up
Daily Record
By Paul Cargill
7 Jan 2014

Ducks help army bomb disposal hero keep flashbacks in check

Perthshire Advertiser

A former bomb disposal officer from Perth is coping with traumatic memories of Bosnia – by looking after his pet DUCKS.

Retired Royal Engineer Paul Wilkie (43), who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in October 2012, adopted his two Call ducks shortly after moving from Perth to Guildtown last September.

The former Perth Academy pupil, who served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan during his 22 years in the army, can often be spotted walking the ducks, named Hesco and Bastion, around the village.

The father-of-three, who left the Royal Engineers in June 2012, explained how he suffers from nightmarish flashbacks of his time in Bosnia every time he falls asleep.

“I was working for the United Nations in Bosnia about 18 years ago,” he said yesterday. “I won’t go into too much detail, but I saw children playing with mines and getting killed.

“Every night I go to sleep, I have to relive that horrible experience. Sometimes I have to go through it three or four or maybe even six times a night.

“I don’t know what triggers it, but I sometimes wake up covered in sweat.”

But Paul said his feathered friends, who are named after the temporary defensive walls soldiers construct around their camps on tour, were helping him to cope with his horrific nightly flashbacks.
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Iowa National Guardsman home for Christmas

Iowa National Guards

Soldier surprises children on Christmas Eve
Quad City Times
By Thomas Geyer
December 24, 2013

For Staff Sgt. Sean Jacobsmeier and the soldiers of Bravo Company of the 248th Aviation Support Battalion out of Boone, Iowa, finding out Monday they had a four-day leave for Christmas was a welcome present.

But Jacobsmeier's surprise became a bigger one for his three children on Christmas Eve when he took the stage in the middle of the Christmas pageant at First Presbyterian Church, Davenport.

Jacobsmeier, 36, and the 40 other members of his Iowa National Guard company have spent the past couple of months training at Fort Hood, Texas, for their assignment in Kosovo.

The aviation support battalion does maintenance on the aircraft, the Davenport man added.

He and his wife, Theresa, 31, talked about a possible Christmas homecoming when he was sent to Fort Hood about the first of November, he said.

“This is my second deployment,” Jacobsmeier said. “I was deployed to Iraq in 2008-2009. I had one child then, Benny, who was just a baby, and who is now 6. I now have a 3-year-old, David, and a 3-month-old girl, Alice.”
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Vietnam vet dies 'making a difference' in Afghanistan

Vietnam vet dies 'making a difference' in Afghanistan

Tom Boyle, right, shown in an undated photograph (Handout )

June 21, 2012
By Jim Jaworski
Tribune reporter

Friends recall that Tom Boyle faced many deadly situations on the streets of Chicago during more than 30 years as a police officer. More than a decade after retirement, at age 62, he was training police in war-torn Afghanistan how best to keep the peace when he died this week.

Eager to make another part of the world safer, Boyle took a job as a security contractor, according to his wife, Pauline Boyle. He trained police in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, she said.

Pauline Boyle was notified by his company and a military chaplain on Monday of her husband’s death in Afghanistan that day.

Described as a serious man with a sarcastic sense of humor, Boyle is being remembered as someone who never stopped trying to assist others — whether as a police officer, Marine or private security contractor.

“He wanted to see if he could help people,” said Steve Kirby, who sometimes employed Boyle as a private investigator at his Elmhurst company. “That’s just the kind of person he was. He’s been spending his whole life helping people.”

Boyle was born in 1949 and grew up on the Northwest side of Chicago, according to his wife of 35 years. He served two tours in Vietnam, earning multiple awards including the Cross of Gallantry.
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Army investigates ‘flat-out abuse’ in Kosovo

Army investigates ‘flat-out abuse’ in Kosovo
Officers, NCOs suspended for alleged harsh training
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 29, 2012 8:29:50 EST
Seventeen commissioned and noncommissioned officers in a single company in Kosovo have been suspended amid an Army investigation into allegations they employed harsh training tactics to initiate junior soldiers, the commander of U.S. Army Europe said.

“It was all about not respecting soldiers, using the wrong kinds of training methods, frat house kinds of jackassery, and just poor leadership,” Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said in an interview with Army Times on Friday.

“There is training to get folks tough, there is training to get folks strong, and then there is flat-out abuse,” he said. “This wasn’t training. It was a rite of initiation, ‘Are you tough enough to join this company?’”

The commander of the company — Georgia's 3rd Squadron, 108th Cavalry Regiment — was reassigned, Hertling said. Also suspended were senior noncommissioned officers and young officers, “who were obviously caught up in what their NCOs were doing,” Hertling said.

Hertling said the complaint alleged racially tinged abuse, but he declined to describe in detail the allegations, citing the Army’s ongoing criminal investigation. Hertling said the soldiers could face a range of punishments, from courts-martial to administrative action under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The soldiers were not identified.
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New Mexico National Guardsman arrested in fatal shooting

Guardsman arrested in fatal shooting
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 27, 2012 10:35:22 EST
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque police have arrested a member of the National Guard following a fatal shooting. Anthony Baldonado was arrested on suspicion of murder following a shooting Saturday that left one man dead. Baldonado appeared in court Sunday.

New Mexico Guard officials tell KOB-TV that the 22-year-old Baldonado recently returned from a deployment in Kosovo.
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Suspect in post office shooting, Iraq Veteran needs mental care

Mother: Suspect in post office shooting needs mental care
12:34 AM, Dec. 7, 2011

Written by
Scott Johnson

"He served tours in Kosovo and Bosnia in addition to his tour in Iraq"

The mother of a man ac­cused of opening fire at Mont­gomery's main post office Thursday evening said her son belongs in psychiatric care, not in the county jail.

Willa L. Darby said her son, Arthur Lee Darby Jr., spent a year serving in Iraq and has since re- ceived regular treat­ment for post- traumatic stress disorder.

Willa Darby said her son was diagnosed with the condition shortly after returning from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005.

Arthur Darby, 29, is charged with two counts of attempted murder and is being held on $1 million bond after being ar­rested Thursday at the post of­fice on Winton Blount Boule­vard.
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Father, daughter deploy jointly with ND Guard

Father, daughter deploy jointly with ND Guard

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Sep 21, 2009 18:13:08 EDT

WEST FARGO, N.D. — National Guard Spc. Heather Zimmerman followed in her father’s footsteps in joining the military. Now the two are being deployed together.

Zimmerman and her father, Sgt. Major Alvin Zimmerman of West Fargo, are among 650 North Dakota National Guard members assigned to a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Officials say the North Dakotans will lead a multinational group of about 1,400.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/ap_guard_nd_family_deployment_092109/