Inspirational Amputee: "It's so life-altering, but it's not life-ending."

San Diego amputee war veteran on a path to inspire

ABC 10 News
By: Amanda Brandeis
Feb 06, 2020

Doc ultimately made US Naval and Marine Corps history after becoming the first amputee Corpsman assigned to an infantry unit.

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - After losing his leg in Iraq, a San Diego veteran is accomplishing more at age 34 than most do in a lifetime.

"I love being active because of that inspiration it gives other people. I know a lot of people, especially new amputees, that I come across, they think that their time is up," said Doc Jacobs, a medically retired Navy Corpsman.

Doc was only 18 months into his service when his platoon endured an IED explosion.

He underwent 78 surgeries, losing his left leg (below the knee), three toes from his right foot, and three partial fingers from his left hand.

But he wasn't done serving his country.

"It's so life-altering, but it's not life-ending."

Doc ultimately made US Naval and Marine Corps history after becoming the first amputee Corpsman assigned to an infantry unit.

"I did another six-and-a-half years overall, from detonation to discharge."
read it here

Veteran Navy Corpsman returned home to shocking event

Veteran surprised with thousands of Christmas lights, decorations

FOX 13 News
By Kimberly Kuizon
December 4, 2019

SARASOTA, Fla. - A local veteran got quite the surprise when he returned home to find his house totally decorated for Christmas on Tuesday.

Volunteers with Florida Power & Light decorated veteran Chris Scott's home with thousands of lights. After untangling all the lights and preparing a big surprise, Chris and his family arrived.

Chris served eight years as a fleet marine force corpsman attached to the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines. In 2008, he'd been injured in Iraq, but he continued serving. He was deployed to Afghanistan and Haiti before he medically retired in 2012.

For the last two years, he's fought stage three lymphoma cancer. He's now clear, but putting up Christmas decorations can be a difficult task.

"They wanted to get lights up so we were going to start to try and work on it this week. I haven't been feeling too good lately so this is helps out a lot," he said.

Volunteers didn't disappoint, making sure their house shines bright.
read it here

Veteran Navy Corpsman lost Tricare and told Bernie Sanders he would kill himself

UPDATE Veteran who contemplated suicide reunites with Bernie Sanders The Naval Air Force veteran said he was buried in medical debt.

Ailing Navy veteran tells Bernie Sanders at Nevada town hall: "I'm gonna kill myself"

CBS NEWS
SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

In a dramatic moment caught on video, an ailing Navy veteran struggling to pay off his medical bills said he was contemplating suicide while speaking at a Bernie Sanders town hall in Carson City, Nevada. The veteran, named John, said Friday his Tricare was taken away, leaving him with more than $130,000 worth of medical bills.

"How are you going to pay it off?" Sanders asked the veteran.

"I can't, I can't. I'm gonna kill myself!" John responded.

In a video clip captured by CBS News' Cara Korte that has now gone viral, John told Sanders that he served 20 years in the Navy, including tours in Kuwait and Somalia.

"I saved lives. I was a Navy corpsman," he said. "We take care of our own except now. My Tricare is not acceptable anymore, they took it away."

The veteran said he suffers from Huntington's disease, a genetic disorder that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. According to the National Institutes of Health, there is no treatment for the disease.
read it here

Navy Corpsman hit by explosion...of cash

Navy corpsman wins $1 million on scratch off

By N.C. Education Lottery
Posted Jul 12, 2019

RALEIGH – Michael Strong has been on a lucky streak lately when it comes to scratch-off games. His luckiest ticket to date? The $150 Million Cash Explosion ticket he bought Wednesday that won him a $1 million prize.

“I decided to play this game because $20 tickets are my lucky tickets,” said Strong. “I always win when I play them. I’ve won 26 out of the last 27 $20 tickets I bought.”

Strong, a Navy corpsman, currently calls Waianae, Hawaii home, but has been stationed all over the world, including North Carolina. He was in Richlands to do some work on his home when he decided to continue his lucky streak at the Scotchman on South Wilmington Street.

“My friends were joking with me about my luck,” said Strong. “They said I should buy a ticket since I was back in town. So I took a break from the fence I was building, bought a ticket, and won $1 million!”

Strong claimed his prize Thursday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. He had the choice of taking an annuity that has 20 payments of $50,000 a year or a lump sum of $600,000. He chose the lump sum. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $424,506. He plans to use his winnings to invest and pay off bills.
read it here

“Dads Matter" VA program for healing families with PTSD

Dads back from war, struggling with PTSD, discover how to be good fathers in new Veterans Affairs program
Orange County Register
By DAVID WHITING
PUBLISHED: September 27, 2018

Kevin Lynch looks at seven of his fellow veterans and wastes no time revealing how tough it is for men who have been splattered with the blood of war to be good fathers.

Tristan Foust, with his 3-month-old son, Tristan, and Mason Donnell, attend a group meeting for combat veterans who want to become better dads, at the North Orange County Vet Center in Garden Grove on Saturday, September 22, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

“Let’s admit it, except for one of us, we’re all in a 12-step program,” Lynch exclaims, leaning back in his chair and throwing his hands up in the air. “Most of us here are rebuilding our lives.”

It is a recent Saturday and Lynch, along with his brothers in arms, is 10 weeks into a new model program called “Dads Matter.” If successful, the Veterans Administration could roll it out across the nation.

Sure, Lynch, a former Navy search and rescue corpsman, just blew up the dumbest tenet of many 12-step programs and that is to dump stigma on top of stigma by so-called experts who insist on anonymity. But on this day, not only have the men agreed to share personal battles — they have mustered the courage to go public.
read more here

Female Navy Corpsman Murdered Friday Night

Man Arrested In Fatal Shooting Of Navy Corpsman In Oceanside
By California News Wire Services
News Partner
Jul 21, 2018

The woman was identified as Devon Rideout, 24, a Navy corpsman stationed at Camp Pendleton.

OCEANSIDE, CA – The woman fatally shot at an Oceanside apartment Friday afternoon was identified as a Navy corpsman, and a suspect is in custody, police said Saturday.

The shooting took place at a building at 550 Los Arbolitos Blvd around 4 p.m. Friday, Oceanside police said.

Responding officers found the woman shot. Paramedics tried to save her but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
read more here

Death of Navy Corpsman Under Investigation

Navy Corpsman Found Dead in Barracks ID'd as Emmett Blake Rowan
NBC 7 News San Diego
By Alexander Nguyen
July 6, 2018

The sailor that was found dead in his barracks Monday was identified Friday as Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Emmett Blake Rowan, Navy officials said.

Rowan was found around 9 a.m. at Naval Medical Center San Diego, where he was stationed.

Rowan, a native of Brookville, Pennsylvania, enlisted in the Navy on June 25, 2013, and reported to basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois from June 25, 2013, to Aug. 24, 2013.
read more here

#MissingSalior U.S. Navy Seaman Shaun Palmer

UPDATE

"Seaman Shaun Palmer is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.“Please help me find my son,” his mom, Diane, tweeted, adding that her son’s phone is dead and there has been no activity on his credit cards."

read more here

Search for missing Navy sailor last seen in Waikiki
KHON 2 News
By: Brigette Namata
Posted: Jul 02, 2018

HONOLULU (KHON2) - U.S. Navy Seaman Shaun Palmer failed to report for duty at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on July 1, and was classified as unauthorized absence on July 2, after 24 hours.

Palmer is a hospital corpsman assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

A missing persons report has been filed with the Honolulu Police Department and his command is working closely with local and military officials to find the missing sailor.

Palmer was not scheduled to participate in the ongoing Exercise Rim of the Pacific, a large maritime exercise taking place on and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

Palmer's mother Elizabeth Diane Unterein, who lives in California, said she received a call from the military of her son's disappearance on Monday morning. She ran multiple scenarios in her head. "Maybe he just went out and had too much to drink and he'll show up... and he hasn't shown up."

On Saturday night, Palmer was last seen outside the Kelly O'Neil's bar on Lewers Street in Waikiki.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran "Vietnam will always live in me"

Ron Mosbaugh: Vietnam flashback offers chance to make peace
Joplin Globe
Ron Mosbaugh
May 11, 2018

"Although this flashback was traumatic and disturbing for me to relive, I believe there is a reason this memory has stayed with me. In a strange way, I think it is helping me to better understand what happened so long ago. It is giving me another chance to make my peace with myself, with my life and with my God." Ron Mosbaugh

It’s strange how a memory can be lost for 50 years and suddenly, out of nowhere, a flashback can appear and you’re back in Vietnam. I have been writing stories on Vietnam for more than three years, and I thought there was nothing else I could write that would add to those stories.

After all, one battle or one patrol in Vietnam was not much different than another. More than anything, I didn’t want to be redundant in my writing. I think, however, that flashbacks are topic worth covering.

I have always had flashbacks and nightmares from my time in Vietnam. Most of these have been repeats from previous events, but this recent flashback was from an entirely different trauma. It is strange that I haven’t thought about it since 1967.

The sad story is I don’t live in Vietnam, but Vietnam will always live in me.

Before I recount this flashback, let me give you some of my background. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which is a mental health condition characterized by witnessing and experiencing traumatic events — in my case from the Vietnam War. Common symptoms include nightmares, severe anxiety, flashbacks and uncontrollable thoughts. My PTSD was caused by combat exposure, but many of my symptoms occurred later in life.

This particular flashback involved a battle with the Viet Cong in Nui Dat Son, near Hill 55. It was a fierce battle, and we sustained several casualties. I especially remember treating a young African-American Marine. We were in a rice paddy, and the water was covering the lower half of his body. He was in pain because of a gunshot wound in his upper left leg, and he was yelling in agony. It was difficult for me to locate his exact wound location because of the low light conditions, his dark skin and the muddy rice paddy water that covered and camouflaged his wound.
read more here

Homeless Veteran Saved Life While Looking For Help

UPDATE: Heroic Homeless Navy Veteran Gets Help

Homeless veteran rushes to save victim after life-threatening car crash

ABC NEWS

Mark Osborne

October 20, 2017

Travis Wilson was simply signing up for housing when the homeless veteran heard a boom nearby and rushed to the aid of a bloodied victim in a serious car accident.

Wilson, who told ABC affiliate WPLG he is a former Navy corpsman, was first on the scene at the accident in Pembroke Pines, Florida, in harrowing video provided to the station. In the video, you see Wilson leaning into the crushed passenger side window of one of the vehicles and assisting the driver with blood splattered across the front seat.

"We get around the corner and I see what's going on and speed up, and then, I just turn it on and go sprinting to the vehicle," Wilson told WPLG.

Wilson stabilized the driver's neck and waited until paramedics arrived on the scene.

"You can't leave the scene," Wilson said. "I can't leave the scene -- it doesn't matter if the vehicle catches on fire. It doesn't matter. I'm there with him. If we're gonna die, we're gonna die together."

read more here

Jacksonville Mourns For Fallen 16

Friends, strangers mourn for the fallen 16 at the Freedom Fountain

Jacksonville Daily News
By Amanda Thames
Posted Jul 14, 2017

"But no matter how they leave this world, it’s the fact that a military man is no longer living that was the focus of those gathered Friday."

The only sound in the moment of silence was Jacksonville’s Freedom Fountain.

The fountain’s jets had been turned off -- all but one, the Freedom jet, in honor of 16 men.

The community gathered around the Fountain Friday for an observance to honor the seven raiders and nine reservists who died in an airplane crash this week.

Members of the community stood before the fountain holding photos of the 16 men, flipping a black-backed card up to show a photo of each of the men as their names and biographies were read over the speaker.

As the first name was read, Sydney Mayo and a friend held tissues to their faces, crumpled in their hands, as tears mixed with sweat on their faces.

It was a tragically true statement for two widows, Ami Little and Shari Chaney, whose husbands both died while serving. Sgt. James Little and Master Sgt. Ronald Chaney, both died of suicide after fighting a war against PTSD in the midst of fighting for their country, Chaney said.
read more here

Motorcycle Crash Claimed Life of Navy Corpsman

Man killed in Camp Lejeune crash identified as Navy corpsman

Jacksonville Daily News

Amanda Thames

June 29, 2017

Camp Lejeune has identified the man killed in a one-vehicle motorcycle crash on base this week.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Sean Youngwelch, 29, of Buffalo, New York died in a motorcycle crash Tuesday, said First Lt. Eric Abrams with the base’s public affairs office, but the details of the crash itself remain few.

“The specifics of the situation are still pending investigation,” Abrams said.

read more here

Texas Veteran Died After Fall and Botched Medial Care

While that is not the headline the news station decided to use, when you read the article, it is obvious the pain was not ignored and they sought care.

After ignoring pain, Texas veteran dies days after fall
KENS
Sharon Ko and KENS
February 10, 2017

Don was a corpsman in the Navy and will have a funeral with full honors on Monday.

SAN ANTONIO -- A veteran suddenly passed away nearly 72 hours after he slipped and fell outside.

On Saturday afternoon, Patsy Turner said that her husband, Don, was taking out the trash when he slipped and landed face down on the pavement. Patsy said that he said he was bruised but otherwise said he felt fine. Later that evening, Turner said that he had trouble sleeping.

The following day, Patsy got Don to go to urgent care, where a doctor took an X-ray. They said that all he had was bruised ribs, but Patsy said that Don kept complaining of pain.

"He just couldn't get comfortable. He kept saying, ‘I'm okay, I'm okay,’ but holding onto my hands really, really tight telling me how much he loved me," she said.

Don fell asleep that evening but Turner later found out that he fell into a coma.

"I called EMS. They ripped the sheets off the bed, put him on the gurney, and out the door they went, so fast I couldn't go with them," she recalled.

Patsy said that what they thought was a minor fall turned out to be far more serious. A doctor at the hospital that examined Don said that he had a 10 percent chance of living.

"They told me that he had sepsis. That he had, like, an air pocket in [his abdomen] that was kind of dead and a tear inside that had caused his intestines to rupture when he hit the ground," she described.
read more here

Vietnam Veterans: Did you serve with Rob Stevens of Minnesota in 1969?

AMAZING UPDATE!

How a stranger’s generosity helped a desperate Vietnam veteran
KTVA News
By Liz Raines Photojournalist: Ken Kulovany
November 22, 2016

ANCHORAGE – We first introduced you to Robert Stevens in a Problem Solvers piece on Friday. For the last three years, he and his wife, Diane, have been trying to get benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Robert Stevens was exposed to the toxic herbicide known as Agent Orange while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Now, their lives have taken a turn for the better because of one person who saw that story.

When we last met the Stevenses, they were drowning in debt.

“They just turned us into collections because I’ve gotten to a point where there’s so many medical bills for Bob,” Diane Stevens said. “I just can’t do it anymore.”

Robert Stevens believes he was exposed to Agent Orange while making his way through Vietnam after receiving orders to return home to Minnesota on April 1, 1969.

“I had a quadruple bypass,” Robert Stevens explained. “And my heart doctor said it was from Agent Orange.”

In order to get any money from the VA, the Stevens have to prove he stepped foot on Vietnamese soil. However, the VA can’t find his records, so Robert and Diane Stevens are now searching for anyone who might still recognize him from that time.

Diane Stevens posted a cry for help on a reunion page for her husband’s ship, the USS Lynde McCormick. The Stevenses haven’t received a response yet, but someone else in the community was listening to their story.

One KTVA viewer was so moved by the couple’s story that he wanted to give them a check for $3,800.
read more here

A desperate endeavor: Vietnam veteran seeks community’s help getting benefits
KTVA News
By Liz Raines
Photojournalist: Rachel McPherron
November 19, 2016

ANCHORAGE – I first met Rob and Diane Stevens at a Department of Veterans Affairs listening session in September. Diane fought back tears as she told the Alaska VA’s new director, Timothy Ballard, of her and her husband’s now three-year battle to obtain some sort of compensation for Robert’s exposure to Agent Orange.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the heroism of those who served lives on today. The soldiers wear hats now instead of helmets. Robert does so proudly. At the tender age of 17, he joined the U.S. Navy.

“I got to know the guys, the medic,” Robert recalled. “And I was like, ‘I really want to do that.’ And everybody kept telling me, ‘no, you don’t want to do that.'”

Robert spent two years in Vietnam, days he remembers with nostalgia. But there’s one day he’ll never forget: April 1,1969 — his 21st birthday.

“I got handed four sheets of paper and they said ‘your dad’s been in a car accident,'” Robert remembered.

He was sent home to Minnesota to be with his family, but to get there he had to first pass through Vietnam from Vung Tau to Saigon. That’s where Robert’s life changed forever.

“Two helicopters flew over and they dropped this white powder,” Robert said.

That white powder, he believes, was Agent Orange — an herbicide the U.S. Government used to destroy jungles during the war so it could see the enemy. Now the VA recognizes that Agent Orange destroyed a lot more.
read more here

Navy Corpsman Veteran Honors Fallen Officers with Last Call

Local veteran honors fallen officers in viral song
York Daily Record.com
Abbey Zelko
November 7, 2016

Veteran and singer-songwriter Dave Bray, of West Manchester Township, released a viral single this year called "Last Call" in memory of fallen first responders.
(Photo: Submitted)

Three times, the dispatcher called out the officer’s badge number.

And three times, there was no response. Just an empty silence that filled the airwaves.

“There’s nothing. Just that brutal loss, that hollow void that remains on the air,” said Dave Bray, a Navy and Marine veteran from West Manchester Township. “It’s haunting, definitely haunting.”

Bray wasn’t there when 34-year-old police officer and Iraq veteran Bradley Fox was killed in the line of duty outside Philadelphia in 2012. But when he later heard the recording of Fox’s “last call” – an on-air tribute for fallen police officers and first responders – he felt the emotion.

Bray knows what it’s like to put on a uniform and serve, without knowing if he'll come home.

He served in the U.S. Navy as an 8404 FMF Corpsman for the 2nd Battalion/2nd Marines for four years. And while he said he never felt like his life was in imminent danger, he could never know for sure.

“None of us ever know what’s going to happen,” he said.
read more here

Corpsman Refused to Quit After Being Wounded

Injured by rocket-propelled grenade, Navy hospital corpsman refuses to quit and now serves aboard USS Truman
The Virginian-Pilot
By Brock Vergakis
July 4, 2016

“We’re out here because we believe in one thing, and that’s keeping everyone back at home safe as well as keeping everyone out here safe as well. So just know that we’re going to continue doing that to the best of our ability.” Petty Officer 3rd Class Vanzorro L. Gross

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN

Nobody would’ve blamed Vanzorro Gross for leaving the Navy.

The hospital corpsman had served honorably for years when he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan four years ago at Camp Bastion while supporting a Marine air wing. Two Marines died in the attack, multiple Harrier aircraft were destroyed and 14 insurgents disguised in U.S. uniforms were killed during a battle that lasted hours.

When another corpsman found Gross in the midst of a firefight, his face was bleeding and he had a piece of metal protruding from his left foot that had to be yanked out immediately.

He later discovered three of his ligaments were sliced, every bone in his foot was shattered and he had shrapnel in his leg, side, neck and head.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Navy Corpsman Already Felt Lucky Before Lottery Win

Carterville grandfather, Vietnam War veteran wins $3 million from Illinois Lottery
The Southern
Molly Parker
April 5, 2016

“I survived the Vietnam War and I have a wonderful family,” he stated in the release. “I considered myself a very lucky man even before I won the lottery.”

CARTERVILLE — A 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran, retired nurse and grandfather from Carterville has won a $3 million Illinois Lottery prize, the state reported on Tuesday.

According to an Illinois Lottery news release, Bill McCamish recently purchased the winning $3,000,000 Jumbo Bucks ticket at Farm Fresh, 209 N. Division St. in Carterville.

The release said that McCamish picks up his youngest grandchildren on weekday mornings, and drives them to school. After dropping them off one recent morning, he stopped at the store to buy a copy of The Southern Illinoisan and the instant ticket, which cost him $20.

During the Vietnam War, McCamish was a Navy hospital corpsman. Back home, he worked as a registered nurse for 44 years until his retirement. McCamish, according to the release, said he plans to share his winnings with his son and daughter, make investments to help his six grandchildren pay for college, and put the rest in the bank for now.
read more here

Camp Pendleton and Hospital Corpsman Saved Neighbor and Daughter

'She's Family': Sailor Saves Mom, Daughter From Stabbing 
Jennifer Barela and her daughter were attacked viciously by Barela's husband in November
San Diego Miiltary Times
By Brie Stimson and Candice Nguyen 
March 28, 2016

Jaclyn Place, 30, was doing homework in her Oceanside home late one night last November when she heard screams coming from her neighbor’s house.

“The volume was escalating,” Place said. “That’s when I decided to go outside and noticed [my neighbor] was calling for me. As soon as I opened the door I saw her -- then a flash-- it was him running. She was screaming ‘he stabbed me,’ and as she turned I saw blood all the way down her back. I had a fight or flight second, and then went to work.”

Her neighbor, Jennifer Barela, was referring to her husband who had just viciously attacked her with a knife. Place, a lead chief petty officer at Camp Pendleton and hospital corpsman, began assessing Barela’s condition. She also called another neighbor, Staff Sgt. Thomas McDonald with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, instructing him to bring his first aid medical bag.
read more here

Navy Vet Lives After Suicide Attempt And Heals

One Vet's Sad Truth
The Pueblo Chieftain
CHIEFTAIN EDITORIAL
Published: January 16, 2016

"Wounds of the psyche, wounds of the soul: they can be every bit as disabling as the wounds from a rocket-propelled grenade. That’s what, in the end, Steve Hancock’s unfortunate tale tells."

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT statistics show that after a notable drop in active-duty military suicides in 2013 the number of service members taking their own lives has risen steadily.

We wouldn’t bring up those statistics had it not been for an email we received from paralyzed Navy veteran Steve Hancock, who lives in Pueblo West.

Hancock, a former combat medic who was usually assigned to Marine units, told us in 2013 he was severely wounded during a firefight in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to him.

That wasn’t true.

According to Hancock, the Navy’s official explanation was that he was hurt in a training accident.

That wasn’t true either.

Hancock admitted in his email sent just before the holidays that he was injured after he “jumped off the fifth floor” of his barracks in Bahrain during a suicide attempt in 2010.

“I’m no longer ashamed of how I was injured,” he told us after receiving therapy. “I’ve gone through a lot of healing. And this step, telling the real story, is the last one I need to take.”
read more here

Judge Rules For Disabled Veterans, Slams Bureacrats

Judge blasts bureaucrats, reinstates benefits for wounded combat veteran 
McClatchy
Michael Doyle September 15, 2015

Minney enlisted in the Navy in 1985, serving both in active duty and in the reserves. He also worked as a firefighter and civilian paramedic in Ohio. He was wounded at the Haditha Dam while attached to the Marines as a field corpsman. The attack came late in the afternoon of April 18.

Navy corpsman Glenn Minney badly wounded in Iraq
Judge says federal benefits were ‘extinguished on a technicality’
Office of Personnel Management bureaucrats sharply criticized in opinion

A former Navy corpsman badly wounded in Iraq will have his federal benefits restored, following a judge’s ruling that repeatedly blasts bureaucrats for their rigidity.

In a remarkably sharp-edged opinion, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ordered the Office of Personnel Management to restore benefits to 21-year Navy veteran Glenn Minney. Minney was left nearly blind following a mortar attack at the Haditha Dam in April 2005.

When Minney retired from the Navy and federal service and started working for the Blinded Veterans Association, federal officials cut his government benefits because of his private salary. Minney said he wasn’t adequately informed that his disability payments were at risk; the letter sent to him, for instance, was not in Braille.

Leon called the move a “profound injustice committed by the federal bureaucracy against a blinded veteran.”

In his 18-page decision, Leon granted Minney’s request for a preliminary injunction and directed the OPM to reinstate Minney’s disability payments under the Federal Employee Retirement System.

“Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a situation more extraordinary, or an individual more deserving, of such relief,” Leon wrote.
read more here