Ocala Marine shot in the back has community standing behind him

Groups rally to plan dinner for wounded Marine
Ocala Star Banner
By Andy Fillmore
Correspondent
February 5, 2014

Lance Cpl. David Garrett Burgess, wounded in December while serving with the U. S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan, will be honored Saturday with an official “welcome home” fundraising dinner to benefit him and his wife Emily, and their son Joseph.

Burgess remains on active duty and is recuperating at home in Ocala until he returns to Camp Le Jeune.

“I'm not 100 percent, but I'm alright. I'm looking forward to Saturday. It should be a good time and good food,” he said.

Burgess, 19, a native of Ocala and a 2012 graduate of Vanguard High School, was shot in the back during a firefight on Dec. 4 in Helmand Province. He was first evacuated to Germany and then spent almost a month at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He still is undergoing physical therapy and nursing a broken ankle.

Burgess, a member of the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, Bravo Company, is the recipient of the Purple Heart Award.

“It's amazing what people have done, and the support of the military,” he said.

His mother, Mary Burgess, of Jacksonville, said she wanted to thank the community for the “heartfelt outpouring” of concern and support for her son.

Facts
If you go
What: Benefit dinner for Lance Cpl. David Burgess
When: 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 8
Where: Mojo's Grille, 506 S. Pine Ave., Ocala
Cost: $20, includes dinner and soft drink
Contact: 572-3982 or www.facebook.com/events/207458682776026/
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Marine Reserve Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey's family wins law suit

Family of Iraq vet gets settlement after his suicide
U.S. loses wrongful death suit
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 16, 2009
ARLINGTON, Va. — Marine Reserve Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey hanged himself on June 22, 2004, about three weeks after being released as an inpatient from the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass.

His parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming the VA initially refused to treat him for post-traumatic stress disorder because they required him to be sober first.

Now they will receive $350,000 under a settlement with the U.S. government that was announced Thursday by Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group to which they both belong.

"The Government killed my son," Lucey’s father, Kevin, said in Thursday’s news release. "It sent him into an illegal and reckless war and then, when he returned home, it denied him the basic health care he needed."
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Group Says Missing Marine 'Has Post-Traumatic Stress'

Group Says Missing Marine 'Has Post-Traumatic Stress'
KRDO - Colorado Springs,CO,USA


BOULDER - An anti-war group says a Boulder Iraq veteran accused of deserting from the Marines two years ago is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lance Hering was arrested Nov. 16 in Port Angeles, Wash., on charges of desertion and contempt of court.

He disappeared in August 2006 after a staged climbing accident.

Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military families against the Iraq war, said Tuesday Hering is "dealing with the consequences of choices he made in the grips of PTSD."
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