Community searches for missing woman, husband arrested

60+ volunteers help search for Andreen McDonald

Strangers brave cold, rugged terrain to find missing 29-year-old mother
KSAT News
By Katrina Webber - Crime Fighters Reporter
March 05, 2019

SAN ANTONIO - Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar put out an appeal for help in the search for a missing mother. The response, though, surprised even him.

More than 160 people gathered Tuesday morning in a parking lot on Overlook Parkway, volunteering to try to find Andreen McDonald, 29.

Missing woman described as fitness fanatic, motivator "This is great to see. Community policing at its best right here," Salazar said, visually taking in the huge crowd. "This is giving us the capabilities that now we can start expanding our horizons a little bit more."

Sheriff's deputies on Monday were mostly on their own, as they searched a wooded area about a quarter-mile from the North Bexar County home that McDonald shared with her husband and daughter.

The mother and businesswoman was reported missing Friday under what turned out to be suspicious circumstances.

Evidence found inside her home led sheriff's investigators to suspect foul play.

Salazar later referred to her husband, Andre McDonald, 40, as a suspect in the case.

The U.S. Air Force reservist was arrested on a charge of tampering with evidence and remains in jail.

According to Salazar, Andre McDonald has not expressed any concern for his missing wife or offered any assistance in locating her.
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Female Air Force Captain, assaulted twice...including Lackland Air Force

Faculty questioned whether Air Force Captain was really a victim of sexual assault: Witness

Comments made same month captain was terminated from internship for second time 

KSAT ABC News 12 
By Dillon Collier - Investigative Reporter 
December 21, 2018 

SAN ANTONIO - Faculty members of a clinical psychology internship at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland openly discussed the validity of claims from an intern that she was a victim of sexual and domestic assault, according to records reviewed by the KSAT 12 Defenders.

Former Air Force Capt. Robin Becker said she was removed from the internship after disclosing in 2015 that she was sexually assaulted and repeatedly physically assaulted by her former fiancé. 

In a letter submitted in January in support of Becker's attempts to get the Air Force to confer her psychology degree, Dr. Jeff Haibach recounted a lunch he attended along the Riverwalk in June 2016 with faculty from Becker's program.

Haibach, who at that time was engaged to a psychologist who had a supervisory role in Becker's internship, said faculty members were laughing and joking about Becker's tenuous standing in the rigorous year-long program at Lackland Air Force Base's Wilford Hall.

"As though Robin was making some sort of drama, as though she was entirely making information up or at least greatly exaggerating it," Haibach told the Defenders during an interview.

Becker's former fiancé, Adam Chylinski, was criminally charged in three attacks against Becker in 2014-2015. Two of the attacks happened in San Antonio while Becker was taking part in the internship; the other attack happened in their native Pennsylvania months before Becker moved to San Antonio.
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Technology and tenacity help amputees stay in service!

Soldier amputees have more options for continued service
Joint Base San Antonio
U.S. Army Warrior Care and Transition
By Whitney Delbridge Nichels
July 26, 2018

FOB FRONTERAC, Afghanistan - Col. Todd R. Wood (right), commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, administers the oath of re-enlistment to Staff Sgt. Brian Beem (left), a cavalry scout assigned to the 5th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, during a special ceremony at Forward Operating Base Frontenac, Nov. 9. Beem is a single leg amputee who has continued to serve despite his injury. He lost his leg after an improvised explosive device detonated during his 2006 deployment to Iraq.

ARLINGTON, Virginia — Thanks to advances in modern medicine and the availability of sturdier prosthetics, soldiers who are able to redeploy after amputation have a number of possible options for continued military service.

Army Staff Sgt. Brian Beem lost his leg in 2006 to an improvised explosive device in Iraq. "I thought my career was over," he said.

Beem credits his experiences at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, with helping him assess and eventually find options for returning to duty.

“It took me about a year to get up to speed with physical training, and I was feeling pretty confident,” he said. Within a short time, Beem was ready to deploy to Afghanistan with his unit. Although he was no longer on patrol as he was in previous deployments, he still played a vital role in battle staff operations.

“It was really gratifying to be able to deploy,” he said. “It’s possible, but it’s not easy. The process is there for those who have the perseverance.”
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Vietnam Veteran General Richard Cavazos Passed Away

Army's first Hispanic four-star general, Kingsville native dies
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Alexandria Rodriguez
October 30, 2017

The man who was raised by a cowhand on King Ranch and eventually became the United States Army's first Hispanic four-star general has died.

Richard Edward Cavazos, 88, died Sunday. He was living in the Army Residence Community in San Antonio. He is survived by his wife, Caroline, said Bill Fee, who served under Cavazos during the Vietnam War in 1967.

"The infantry men he led in Vietnam have been close to him ever since we got back from Vietnam, Fee said. "He's been a tremendous supporter of us ever since we got back. He's a remarkable gentleman."

The general also was the first Hispanic to attain the rank of brigadier general, according to biography.com. Cavazos spent most of his childhood on King Ranch with his father, a World World I veteran and foreman of the ranch's Santa Gertrudis division, the San Antonio Express-News reported in 2016.
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Texas Veteran of WWII and Korea Receive Awards At Age 90!

90-year-old WWII, Korean War veteran awarded 8 medals during ceremony in San Antonio

News 4 San Antonio 
by SBG San Antonio 
August 2nd 2017

WWII, Korean War veteran Petty Officer Raul de la Garza awarded eight medals during ceremony in San Antonio (SBG San Antonio)

SAN ANTONIO — A 90-year-old man who served in World War II and the Korean War was honored during a ceremony in San Antonio Wednesday. 

Petty Officer De La Garza was awarded eight awards during the ceremony: the Navy Combat Action Ribbon, the China Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Three Bronze Service Stars, the Navy Occupation Service Medal with an Asia clasp, the World War II Victory Medal, the Honorable Service Lapel Button for World War II, and the Navy Honorable Discharge Button. 
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Air Force Veteran Alone in ICU Needs Help Getting to VA Hospital

Young Air Force veteran alone in ICU at VA hospital in San Antonio
KENS 5 News
Priya Sridhar
June 01, 2017

SAN ANTONIO - A 22 year old Air Force veteran is fighting for his life in the ICU at the Audie Murphy Memorial Veterans Affairs Hospital in San Antonio.

Jacob Mitchell is in critical condition after his lung collapsed last week. He was three hours away in Del Rio when it happened. He says that he doesn't have health insurance so his only option was to make the three hour drive to San Antonio to get to the closest VA hospital.

"I told them I had chest pain and they immediately got me back to the ER and started running tests," he said.

Mitchell's girlfriend, who is from Del Rio, came with him to San Antonio but she had to leave on Memorial Day to go back to work. Now Mitchell is alone and scared.

"I'm a little nervous about it just because anything could happen," he said.
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This may help

Enhanced Eligibility For Health Care Benefits

Veterans who served in a theater of combat operations after November 11, 1998 are eligible for an extended period of eligibility for health care for 5 years post discharge.

Under the "Combat Veteran" authority, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides health care services and community living care for any condition possibly related to the Veterans’s service in the theater of operations and enrollment in Priority Group 6, unless eligible for enrollment in a higher priority group to:

Combat Veterans who were discharged or released from active service on or after January 28, 2003, are eligible to enroll in the VA health care system for 5 years from the date of discharge or release.

The 5-year enrollment period begins on the discharge or separation date of the service member from active duty military service, or in the case of multiple call-ups, the most recent discharge date.

Combat Veterans, while not required to disclose their income information, may do so to determine their eligibility for a higher priority status, beneficiary travel benefits, and exemption of copays for care unrelated to their military service.

Benefits and Services to Enjoy

• Eligible combat Veterans will have free medical care and medications for any condition that may be related to their service in theater.
• Immediate benefits of health care coverage.
• No enrollment fee, monthly premiums or deductibles.
• Low or no out-of-pocket costs.  During the five-year post discharge timeframe, there may be small medical care or prescription drug copayments for medical care for any condition not related to combat theater.   See our Copayment page for more information. (Copayment page)
• Once enrolled, the Veteran will remain enrolled.
• Enrollment with VA satisfies the health care law’s requirement to have health care coverage. 
• Medical care rated among the best in the United States.
• More than 1,700 places available to get health care.
• Choice Card Program eligibility.Click here for more information
• VA health care can be used along with Medicare and any other health insurance coverage.

Tech. Sgt. Steven Bellino PTSD and "Other Factors"

Air Force: PTSD, Other Factors Led Airman to Kill Commander
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN ANTONIO
Jan 16, 2017

U.S. Air Force investigators have determined that post-traumatic stress disorder and the unraveling of a distinguished military career led an airman to fatally shoot his commander last year at a San Antonio base before killing himself, according to Air Force documents.

The April shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland prompted a lockdown and officials to abruptly end a nearby military training parade with thousands of spectators.

Investigators determined Tech. Sgt. Steven Bellino confronted Lt. Col. William Schroeder before the two struggled and Schroeder was shot multiple times. Both men were veterans of U.S. Special Operations Command.

Air Force documents given to the San Antonio Express-News ( http://bit.ly/2jC5obt ) by Bellino's family show he participated in an elite pararescue program with Schroeder but did not complete it.
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A Long Career in Military’s Elite Spirals Into a Killing and a Suicide
The New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
APRIL 15, 2016

Military and law enforcement personnel after a shooting last week at Joint Base San Antonio in which, the authorities say, a sergeant fatally shot his commander, then killed himself. Credit Darren Abate/Reuters

Investigators believe Bellino, 41, resented the outcome following a remarkable military career that included repeated tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and time as an Army Ranger and Green Beret. He also had served as an FBI agent and was a CIA contractor before enlisting in the Air Force and attempting to join the elite unit.


After two decades in the Army Special Forces, several deployments overseas and a stint in the F.B.I., Steven Bellino switched to the Air Force to become an elite pararescue lifesaver trained to jump from planes and save aircrews behind enemy lines. The motto of the rescuers is, “That others may live.”

But last week, just a few months into training, Sergeant Bellino, facing court-martial for being absent without leave, walked into his squadron’s headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio, in Texas, with two pistols and gunned down his commander, Lt. Col. William Schroeder, according to a Department of Defense spokeswoman, who said the sergeant then killed himself.
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Shelter 140 Veterans Call Home Getting Help

Private donation helps city's only shelter just for homeless veterans
KENS
Justin Bourke
August 11, 2016

SAN ANTONIO -- The city’s only shelter specifically for homeless veterans is getting a special gift, helping the city keep its goal of leaving no homeless veteran behind.

On Thursday, Briggs Equipment handed a $29,000 check to the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans. The money will go toward the renovation of their kitchen and outdoor common areas.

Richard Rosemondeamoundu, a Vietnam veteran, said the money will help improve a place nearly 140 veterans call home.

“Out there it’s pitiful,” Richard said. “That’s why I thank god every day that I found this place.”

Richard, a former marine, has lived at the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans for two years.
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Afghanistan Veteran Shot, Killed Then Robbed in San Antonio

Man killed in South Bexar County was veteran, father
KSAT ABC 12 News
By Courtney Friedman - VJ, Reporter
July 07, 2016

"Just the idea that it could be somebody who was staying with him, that he tried to help, that they would turn around and do this to him, whether it be for money or for any other reason," she said, crying.

Days after Macias’s death, Pereyra said someone broke into her son's house and stole everything.

SAN ANTONIO - Mark Anthony Macias Jr., 25, was found dead Friday on the side of a rural road in South Bexar County after being shot several times.

Macias’s mother opened up about her son and what she thinks may have led to his death.

As soon as Macias was old enough, he joined the Army. He went straight from boot camp to Afghanistan.

"He was in combat, where he lost half of the battalion there. He couldn't understand why his friends didn't make it, and he did," said Elizabeth Pereyra, Macias’s mother.

Pereyra said her son came back home with post traumatic stress disorder.

"It was very difficult when he came back, definitely. The army changed him. He came back with some struggles,” she said. “He was overcoming them. He was doing great. He had enrolled in Brown Mackie College. He was trying to make himself better.”

Pereyra said what deployment never changed about her son was his compassion.
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Airman Intercepted By Deputies Committed Suicide

UPDATE

"The man did not show up to work at Port San Antonio Friday morning, but notified his colleagues that he "left a package with letters in it on his front porch," Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rosanne Hughes said in a statement." My San Antonio

Sources: Suspect en route to commit shooting on base intercepted, commits suicide
KENS Eyewitness News 5 San Antonio
Staff
June 24, 2016

Officials have not yet identified the man that committed suicide, but said that he is an active airman.

A man who was en route to a local military base, reportedly to attempt to commit a shooting, instead turned the gun on himself after he was intercepted by deputies, according to law enforcement sources.

The suspect was cornered by law enforcement at Culebra and 151 near a Target store just after 12:30 p.m.

Before deputies could take him into custody, he shot and killed himself, according to sources.
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San Antonio Police Officer Served Multiple Tours In Combat--Life Ended in After Last Return

SAPD identifies officer found in apparent on-duty suicide
KCEN News
Apr 20, 2016

(KENS) - San Antonio police have identified an officer who they believe took his own life while on duty Monday morning.

Steven Franco, 38, was a 10-year SAPD veteran who also served multiple tours of combat in the U.S. military.

Franco was married to another SAPD officer and had children.

Police said Franco recently had returned from military duty and had bought a new home.
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Tuesday's officer suicide highlights mission of Chaplains for Justice
Program offers training, counseling for first responders
KSAT News
By Concetta Callahan - Anchor/Reporter
April 20, 2016

SAN ANTONIO - The newly formed Chaplains for Justice program aims to train and counsel first responders in difficult situations of grief, tragedy and post traumatic stress disorder.

Its mission is highlighted after San Antonio police Officer Steven Franco, 38, took his own life Tuesday in an apparent suicide.

"Seeing the difficult tragedies that occur and bringing people to justice, keeping our community safe, our law enforcement certainly goes above and beyond anything we could even begin to imagine," said Mary Beth Fisk, CEO and executive director at the Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health.

The center provides counseling with a faith-based approach.

Fisk said traumatic situations can sometimes evolve into mounting stress.

Officer suicides aren't common in San Antonio, but the national numbers are higher. According to a recent study, just over 100 law enforcement officers intentionally took their own lives in 2015.
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Jesse Lee RIchards, Iraq Veteran Murdered at Bus Stop in Texas

Iraq war veteran shot, killed at bus stop
NEWS 4 SA
BY MELISSA VEGA
JANUARY 7TH 2016

SAN ANTONIO - Police are stepping up efforts to find two persons of interest in the shooting death of a war veteran who was waiting at a bus stop.

Jesse Lee Richards, 28, was shot and killed at an East Side Bus stop around 10 p.m. back on December 20th. He was waiting for a bus to get home.

"He had a box of food in his hand and he was headed home. That's what makes this all the more disturbing that someone could just be sitting there waiting for the bus, and have somebody approach and shoot them," said Jesse Salame with the San Antonio Police Department.

News 4 has learned Richard served in the Army and toured in Iraq, and previously lived in Georgetown.
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Easy to say "Helping Veterans" but harder to prove it

Helping veterans easier said than done
San Antonio Express News
By Martin Kuz, Staff Writer
December 26, 2015

“They all want to talk about veterans, especially if they get in front of a TV camera or a crowd, but then they never follow through.” Bill Collier

Photo: BOB OWEN, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

LAREDO — John Perez thinks back on his experience in war as a time when life made sense.

Deployed to Iraq in 2006 with the Marines, he served as an operations specialist, arranging the logistics for truck convoys delivering fuel and supplies to U.S. troops. He enjoyed the complexity of the work as much as the clarity of purpose.

What bewildered him was returning to civilian life after his honorable discharge in 2008.

He left the military hoping to save a marriage that unspooled over the next two years. In 2012, he lost his job at a retail store when his bosses refused to alter his work schedule so that he could attend community college.

As Perez started taking classes, he ran through a series of low-wage jobs that paid too little for him to keep his apartment. By this summer, he had slipped into homelessness, couch-surfing from one friend’s house to another.

He recovered a measure of stability in August after learning about a veterans transitional center housed inside the Rio Grande Plaza Hotel on the fringe of Laredo’s downtown. Since opening in February, the program has provided shelter for more than 100 homeless veterans, creating a refuge from uncertainty.

“This place has been a godsend,” said Perez, 29, looking out the wall-to-wall windows on one side of his seventh-floor room, with views of the border-town sprawl that spreads across the Rio Grande into Nuevo Laredo. “It gives you a chance to catch your breath.”

A Lubbock oilman whose late father served in World War II, Collier, who knew of Lopez’s advocacy work, offered to provide rent-free rooms to homeless veterans. Lopez agreed to coordinate the transitional program, connecting them to support services through the VA and nonprofit groups that could steer them toward independence.

The two men anticipated that the center would attract perhaps 10 to 15 veterans. By spring, more than 40 had moved into the 15-story hotel, some with spouses and young children.
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San Antonio Police Officers and PTSD Veteran Saved Man's Life

Veteran, 2 police officers honored for saving man’s life
FOX San Antonio
By: Ashlei King
October 8, 2015

SAN ANTONIO - A military veteran and two police officers were honored for saving a young man's life.

Off duty San Antonio Police Officer Oscar Torres, Alamo Colleges Police Officer Mary Ramirez and military veteran Samuel De Los Santos all jumped into action after a pick-up truck turned in front of Aaron Beaugard.

Beaugard, 22, tried to avoid the truck, but ended up hitting it. He was thrown into a ditch and lost both of his legs.

De Los Santos said he was leaving Northwest Vista College when he heard the accident.

"I wasn't sure what I was going to see," De Los Santos said.

He said he was hesitant to approach Beaugard because of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Something in me triggered and I said, 'No. I have to go down there. I have to see what's going on.' I looked down and I see his legs laying there by the sign," De Los Santos said.
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Combat Wounded Staff Sgt. Tavera Retired From Army

Wounded vet given several standing ovations in retirement sendoff 
Tampa Bay Times
Rich Shopes Times
Staff Writer
Friday, January 16, 2015

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence gave a tribute Friday to Staff Sgt. Joel Tavera, here with his parents, Maritza and Jose Tavera. Joel Tavera was badly injured in a rocket attack. Rich Shopes, Times

TAMPA — Joel Tavera was five months into his deployment in Iraq when a rocket ripped into the vehicle he was riding in, killing everyone except Tavera and another soldier.

Burns covered 60 percent of Tavera's body. Exploding shrapnel and the blast's concussion left him with severe brain trauma that took his sight. His right leg was amputated below the knee. He lost several fingers. Doctors weren't sure he'd survive the trip to a hospital in San Antonio.

"Against all odds he recovered from injuries that most people wouldn't have survived from," said Dr. Steven Scott, who specializes in traumatic brain injuries at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa.

Enduring more than 75 surgeries, Tavera, 27, became an inspiration to other wounded vets, as well as doctors, nurses and just about anyone he encountered.

"He's one of the most positive people you'll ever meet," said Taylor Urruela, a former Army sergeant who lost his right leg to an improvised explosive device in 2006. "And it comes through right away, as soon as you meet him."

On Friday, Staff Sgt. Tavera officially retired from the Army. The Army, in turn, wasn't about to let Tavera go quietly. Top brass organized a send off at Haley replete with commendations, letters of proclamation, including one from President Obama, and more than a few heartfelt tributes.
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Soldier of Fortune "We knew he was suffering but no one expected this"

Sister blames SA soldier's suicide on PTSD
Jayme Pohovey remembered as a hero, 'a soldier’s soldier'
KSAT
By Paul Venema
Reporter
September 16, 2014

SAN ANTONIO - The sister of Army Spc. Jayme Pohovey said his family was devastated upon learning that Pohovey had taken his own life Monday morning.

"We knew he was suffering but no one expected this," Jessica Baker said as she talked about her older brother’s death.

Pohovey was stationed at San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he worked as an emergency room medic.

Baker said her brother had served several tours in Afghanistan and was a decorated hero who was once featured on the cover of Soldier of Fortune magazine for acts of heroism while serving in Afghanistan.
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‘Hero’ receives welcome home
IndeOnline
By Matthew Rink
Posted Aug. 8, 2008
AKRON

Spc. Jayme Pohovey hugged mom and dad, grandma and grandpa.
The soft-spoken soldier looked over the group that turned out to welcome him home.
“Everyone’s here,” he said.

Glenn B. Dettman
Army Spc. Jayme Pohovey, center, is greeted by his grandmother Dorothy Pohovey, left, as his wife Svetlana holds daughter Selene Thursday evening at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Pohovey has spent all but 30 days in the past 3 1/2 years overseas.

Pohovey’s work that day would later earn him a nickname: the Soldier of Fortune.

“It was surprising when I found out,” he said, noting that fellow soldiers were expected to grace the cover. “I got ragged on the whole time. They kept calling me ‘Soldier of Fortune.’”

“We were just out on a normal patrol with the Afghan National Army in the lead,” he recalled Thursday.

“We were going to give the national blankets and all kinds of things.”

But the Army officers were ambushed, facing heavy fire from the Taliban.

“We heard there were casualties and they were still shooting at us,” he said.

From his Humvee, Pohovey could see an ANA truck in flames with the commander lying on the ground behind it.

“He was pretty heavily injured,” Pohovey said.

The medic pulled out his aid kit and radioed for a helicopter, reassuring the bloodied ANA commander he would be OK, the Army reported.

“The training took over,” he said. “I didn’t even think about it until the next day. I got him a a helicopter and he survived.”
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U.S., Afghan Soldiers Fight Their Way Out of an Ambush

Fort Hood Soldier died after contracting illness in Afghanistan

Fort Hood Soldier Dies from Illness Contracted in Afghanistan
By: TWC News Staff
07/26/2014

A Fort Hood soldier has died in San Antonio after he contracted an illness in Afghanistan.

Army officials say Pfc. Donnell Hamilton Jr. died Thursday at Brooke Army Medical Center from an illness sustained in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.
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Funniest Comic in Texas, OEF-OIF veteran with PTSD

A Q and A with Raul Sanchez, the Funniest Comic in Texas
Dallas Obsserver
By Danny Gallagher
Jan. 6 2014

Three tours with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan left Raul Sanchez with post-traumatic stress disorder, crippling anxiety attacks and, at one time, a substance abuse problem. So, naturally he turned to comedy.

That might sound odd, but for Sanchez, the San Antonio standup comedian recently named the Funniest Comic in Texas in a competition among 24 handpicked funny-people at the Addison Improv, comedy is a form of therapy. Sanchez spoke to Mimxaster about how a comedy club's open mic night helped him through one particularly serious panic attack, his attempts to weave his military experiences into his act and the science of "why funny is funny."

When you were invited to the FCIT competition, did you think you were going to win? Uh, not really. I thought I had a pretty good chance because some of the material I used was strong. I didn't think, man, I know I'm going to win this.

I was a drug addict there for awhile and when I won Funniest Comic in South Texas [in 2012], I was doing a lot of drugs. So when I stopped doing drugs, I thought that maybe that would be like a factor, but thank goodness that it wasn't. It turned out much better. I think I performed a lot better, which is a dumb mentality to have, but I guess that what happens when you do that.
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Will San Antonio community prove how they value veterans?

Veterans seek voter support for Props. 1, 4
My San Antonio
BY SCOTT HUDDLESTON
OCTOBER 28, 2013

A wounded Iraq veteran and a war widow who grieves the loss of a husband and father put a human face last week on a low-key statewide election on Nov. 5.

Veterans and politicians gathered Thursday to support Propositions 1 and 4, two of nine proposed state constitutional amendments. Both would provide property-tax relief to two groups of Texans who have borne a heavy burden from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Donna Engeman, whose husband, Chief Warrant Officer John Engeman, was killed at age 45 by a 2006 explosion in Iraq, said she's more fortunate that most Gold Star spouses. They typically are young wives, often with small children, with little experience in money management, she said after a news conference at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 76.

Proposition 1 would give spouses of troops killed in action a full tax exemption based on the value of the first home they own once losing a husband or wife, unless they remarry. Engeman said some widows who lost husbands in Vietnam and more recent wars later lost their homes, unable to pay taxes and living costs.

“This is truly a lifesaver, to allow them to keep their homes. To imagine a spouse having to lose their family home, it's such a tragedy,” said Engeman, who served as an Army mechanic and now works locally as an advocate for surviving military family members.

Taxes and living costs also have forced at least two wounded veterans who received donated homes from charities into foreclosure, said J.R. Garza, a local Vietnam veteran and veterans advocate.

Wounded veterans who move from an apartment to one of the dozens of new houses, typically spacious and equipped with accessibility features, can expect to pay at least $7,000 more annually in taxes and utility costs, he said.

Proposition 4 would provide a tax break commensurate to a veteran's disability rating, for veterans or surviving spouses, on homes donated by charities. A veteran who is 70 percent disabled would have a 70 percent tax reduction. Texas has provided a full property tax exemption since 2009 for veterans with a 100 percent rating, but no discount for partially disabled vets.
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Female Instructor at Fort Sam Houston Medical Center shot

UPDATE
Fort Sam shooting suspect identified
Army Times
Michael Tan
June 11, 2013

The man who shot and wounded an active-duty Army captain Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, has been identified as Alvin Leon Roundtree, 51, a retired sergeant first class.

He faces federal charges of domestic violence.

Roundtree appeared in court today and remains in custody. If convicted, Roundtree faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The captain, whom officials are not identifying but said was Roundtree’s common-law wife, was in stable condition at San Antonio Military Medical Center.

The captain, who had been an instructor at the Army Medical Department Center and School for less than a year, was shot four to six times, according to the criminal complaint against Roundtree.
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1 Wounded in Shooting at US Army Post in Texas
Associated Press
by Paul J. Weber
Jun 11, 2013

SAN ANTONIO - An instructor at an Army medical training school at a military base in Texas was wounded Monday when a fellow servicemember shot her outside her office, authorities said.

The suspect later surrendered to police, and authorities say no one else was ever in danger.

Col. Jim Chevallier, vice commander of 502 Air Base Wing, would not give the identity of the shooter or victim or discuss any possible relationship between the two. But San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told the San Antonio Express-News that the victim and shooter were involved in a relationship.

The incident took place at Fort Sam Houston's Army Medical Department Center and School at about 2:50 p.m. Authorities said the shooter was a soldier who came into the victim's office and began talking to her. The pair then continued a discussion on a veranda outside the building, where the shooter eventually fired multiple shots from a handgun, Chevallier said.

It was not clear how many shots were fired. The victim's co-workers are medical professionals, and they were the first to attend to her wounds, Chevallier. She remained hospitalized on post late Monday and was in stable condition.
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