Senator Marco Rubio Too Busy With Fundraisers To Take Care of Disabled Sergeant?

ELECTION: Murphy accuses Rubio of neglecting to help wounded warrior
News 13 Orlando
By Greg Pallone, Reporter
August 31, 2016

Riley said he thought that because Rubio was running for president and ran TV ads backing the military, his son's situation would get noticed. But instead, Rubio held at least 18 fundraisers when Sgt. Riney was being brought back to Florida in need of financial help, Murphy's campaign said.

Army veteran Tim Riney Jr. was injured in a Stryker vehicle accident in Colorado in February 2015. (Courtesy of Tim Riney)

Just hours after winning their party nominations for U.S. Senate, Rep. Patrick Murphy and Sen. Marco Rubio are both on the attack.

Murphy introduced father of wounded warrior in Rubio attack
Murphy, vet's dad accused Rubio of not helping son
Son was severely injured and paralyzed in 2015 Stryker vehicle accident

Murphy on Wednesday accused Rubio of putting his presidential bid in front of helping a wounded soldier, and introduced a wounded warrior as the face of his campaign.

Tim Riney of Safety Harbor, near Clearwater, is the father of Army veteran Timothy Riney, who was paralyzed after a military training exercise in February 2015. Riney was hurt and a fellow soldier killed after their 18-ton Stryker vehicle plunged over an embankment at Fort Carson, Colo.

“They are saying it's the worst accident with a Stryker in the history of the country, and you don't have time to help us?” the elder Riney said of Rubio.

Riney said his son needed help with medical costs, and it took five months for Rubio's office to get back to him. Meanwhile, his son was transferred to a Tampa VA hospital, and they struggled to get financial assistance for home wheelchair accessibility.

“Marco Rubio is so set on putting himself first that even when a Florida veteran is lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, he can't find the time to help out," Murphy said Wednesday.
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Fort Carson Soldier Died in Training Accident

Fort Carson soldier dies after California Stryker training crash 
The soldier was a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team
The Denver Post
By Jesse Paul
09/30/2015

A Fort Carson soldier died Wednesday after a California training accident last week, Army officials said, becoming the second GI from the Mountain Post to die in a Stryker armored-vehicle crash this year.

The soldier, a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was injured Sept. 24 in a Stryker rollover crash at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.

Fort Carson officials say the soldier was taken to Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, Calif., for treatment before his death.
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UPDATE
Fort Carson ID's soldier killed in California Stryker training crash
Staff Sgt. Christopher Popham was assigned to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and was injured in a Stryker rollover during training Sept. 24.

Stryker vets disagree on role of multiple deployments in massacre

Stryker vets disagree on role of multiple deployments in massacre
Two former Stryker soldiers who both developed PTSD disagree on the significance of multiple combat deployments in Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' alleged massacre of Afghan civilians. But both reject the idea that Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a rogue base that breeds troubled soldiers.

By Lewis Kamb
News Tribune

Two former Stryker soldiers who've gone on multiple combat deployments and dealt with the trauma that can follow them offer divergent perspectives about whether such experiences could have played a role in Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' alleged massacre of Afghan civilians.

"It's not shocking to me," said Kevin Baker, a former staff sergeant with Joint Base Lewis-McChord's 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers who are screaming for help, but they aren't getting it. And this was what, his fourth deployment? That's pretty ridiculous."

But Joshua Renschler, a retired sergeant with Lewis-McChord's 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, sees it differently: "These were planned, coldblooded, clear-cut killings."

"I don't see it as just being a culmination of military-related events that took place, and he just snapped and did it," said Renschler, who belonged to the same brigade as Bales. "I'm sorry, but this is not to be blamed on multiple deployments or (post-traumatic stress disorder) and (traumatic brain injury)."
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Benjamin Colton Barnes, discharged from Joint Base Lewis-McChord with PTSD

Did the military knowingly discharge a troubled veteran into the community instead of helping him? Isn't that what they've been doing all along? Some come home and commit suicide. Others come home and snap. Most come home and do the best they can with what they have to recover from where they've been. We don't read their stories in the national news because they don't cause any trouble at all. We also don't see how much they are hurting. They are just like the rest of us when it comes to their personality and character. Predicting the outcome of sending men and women into combat is something the military should have been prepared for but they thought they found the answer in the twisted "training" telling them they can train their brains to be tough enough and resilient. All this time, all this money and the outcomes are far from good.

Suspect in ranger's slaying found dead in creek
Benjamin Colton Barnes, sought in a massive manhunt in Mount Rainier National Park, apparently died from exposure barely a mile from where he had fled into the woods a day earlier.
By Seattle Times staff
Driven relentlessly through chest-deep snow by his pursuers and unprepared for bitter, freezing temperatures, the suspect in the Sunday slaying of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger died cold and wet overnight — lying half-submerged in Paradise Creek and wearing one tennis shoe, a T-shirt and jeans, barely one mile from where he had fled into the woods.

Indications are that Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, died from exposure. His body showed no sign of injuries, and he was carrying a handgun, a magazine of ammunition and a knife, said Sgt. Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

"The manhunt has been concluded," announced Steven Dean, FBI assistant special agent in charge, at a news conference outside the park's main gate Monday afternoon.

The FBI recovered another ammunition magazine near Barnes' body, and the sheriff's Swiftwater Rescue Team found an assault-style rifle about 50 yards upstream.

Officials said Barnes had left survival gear in his car, which he fled after firing on rangers Sunday.

Killed was 34-year-old Ranger Margaret Anderson, the mother of two young children, who was gunned down after she had set a roadblock to stop a car being pursued after failing to stop at a chain-up checkpoint. A cruiser being driven by Ranger Dan Camiccia, who was in pursuit of Barnes, also was peppered with gunfire as it approached. Camiccia was not injured.

A Pierce County SWAT unit, sent to render aid to Anderson, also came under fire, according to law-enforcement officers, delaying efforts to reach the injured park ranger. Officials say Anderson was shot while still in her vehicle and never had a chance to return fire.

What Anderson and the others couldn't have known Sunday when they attempted to stop Barnes' blue Pontiac was that he apparently had been involved in a shootout eight hours earlier at a Skyway home where four people were injured, two critically. King County sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said Barnes and several other armed individuals were having a "show and tell" with their guns when an argument devolved into a gunfight.

The Army confirmed Monday that Barnes had been a private first class whose military service ended in the fall of 2009. He received a misconduct discharge at Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) after he was charged with DUI and improper transport of a privately owned weapon. By then, he had served two years and seven months of active duty, according to Army Human Resources Command information cited by Maj. Chris Ophardt, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Lewis-McChord connection

The slaying of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger is the latest in a series of high-profile crimes linked to soldiers or veterans who recently served at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Others implicated in or convicted of serious crimes:
Pfc. Dakota Wolf, 19, is charged in the stabbing death of Scarlett Paxton, 19, in Kirkland on Nov. 30 while Wolf was AWOL. He has been in the Army less than a year and never deployed abroad.

Sgt. David Stewart, 38, an active-duty Army medic, led law-enforcement officers on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 in April. Stewart killed himself and his wife, who was found in the car dead of a gunshot wound. Their 5-year-old son also was found dead in the family's home.

Ivette Gonzalez Davis, then a 24-year-old Army specialist, was sentenced to life in prison in August 2010 for shooting two fellow soldiers and kidnapping their baby.

Sgt. Sheldon Plummer, an active-duty soldier, pleaded guilty to strangling his wife in February 2010 in their Thurston County home. He received a 14-year sentence.

Hal Bernton,

Seattle Times staff reporter
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Slain ranger was living her dream
When Margaret Anderson was killed Sunday at Mount Rainier, she and her husband were living their dream, finally working as park rangers in the same national park while raising a young family.
By Steve Miletich
Seattle Times staff reporter
Margaret Anderson and her husband, Eric, were living their dream, finally working as U.S. park rangers in the same national park while raising a young family, their relatives said Sunday.

"They had been looking for that for a long time, to be in the same park," Margaret Anderson's father, the Rev. Paul Kritsch, said in a telephone interview.

Kritsch, a Lutheran minister in Scotch Plains, N.J., recalled his 34-year-old daughter's life, hours after she was fatally shot while working at her law-enforcement job in Mount Rainier National Park.

"As you can well imagine, it doesn't seem real," he said of her death.

Margaret and Eric Anderson worked at Mount Rainier for about four years after meeting at a national park in Utah and then moving about the country early in their careers.

The couple's older daughter, Anna, will turn 4 on Feb. 14, Kritsch said. The younger, Katie, will turn 2 in May.
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Massive manhunt for Iraq veteran after Park Ranger gunned down Monday, January 2, 2012

Army to Charge Stryker Soldier

Army to Charge Stryker Soldier
August 31, 2011
The News Tribune|by Adam Ashton

The Army is moving forward with most of the charges it pressed against a Joint Base Lewis-McChord sergeant linked to its Stryker "kill team" investigation, despite a July report that expressed skepticism about the soldier's guilt.

The decision means that Staff Sgt. David Bram, 27, of Vacaville, Calif., will face a general court-martial on charges that he asked a fellow soldier to kill Afghans in combat-like scenarios, abused detainees and assaulted a subordinate who blew the whistle on drug use in their platoon.
Bram has been a suspect linked to a group of five 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division soldiers who allegedly murdered Afghan noncombatants last year.
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LEWIS-MCCHORD soldier called liar and coward after three suicide attempts, hung himself

Sgt. Derrick Kirkland is a casualty of the military. He tried to commit suicide three times but when he tried to get help, he was called a liar and coward. While we read glowing reports of how the military has gotten their act together on addressing combat PTSD, the truth is far from what is reported. Will any of the leadership at Lewis-McChord be held accountable? Doubt it since there has already been an "investigation" the members of his unit do not agree with. After all, they were there by his side. What kind of message does this send to everyone else coming home with PTSD? It tells them the DOD is full of of it and they will be less likely to seek help or say a word about how much they need it.

We can excuse it when they refuse to seek help as if that is supposed to make any sense but when they do ask for help, in this case, scream for help, and they don't get it, we'll see the numbers of needless deaths go up.

Military veterans: Soldier suicides now at epidemic rate
By Keith Eldridge Published: Aug 10, 2011

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD -- When the 4th Stryker brigade returned home from Iraq last year, the soldiers were met with smiles and warm hugs.

Missing from their ranks was Sgt. Derrick Kirkland. The husband and father had been sent home from Iraq five months earlier after trying to commit suicide three times.

"The doctors at Madigan (Army Hospital), for some reason after three suicide attempts in a matter of a couple of weeks, rated Kirkland as low-risk for suicide," said Army veteran Mike Prysner.

Fellow unit members say Kirkland returned to his rear detachment unit at JBLM where he was allegedly called a liar and a coward.

"After mocking him on a Friday night, he was sent to a room by himself, which is complete contradiction to anybody who has any amounts of common sense," said fellow soldier Kevin Baker.

"He was placed by himself, and he was found Sunday morning. He'd hung himself in a closet."

Kirkland's supporters say the Army cleared itself in an internal investigation, but they want the investigation reopened.

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Frustration, pride in a year of danger in Afghanistan

Frustration, pride in a year of danger
This is the story of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment's year in Afghanistan, as soldiers struggled with their mission in the conservative Islamic region. The story reflects broader tensions within the U.S. military and among civilian leaders about the conduct of the war: how to balance battling the Taliban with winning the trust of Afghans.
By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

About the Strykers

The 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, served in Afghanistan from July 2009 to July 2010. The 750-member battalion, under command of Lt. Col. Jonathan Neumann, was divided into smaller units that include Bravo, Charlie and Alpha companies. The battalion is part of an infantry brigade of about 3,700 soldiers built around eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles that can travel at more than 60 mph and have high-tech communications and considerable firepower.

1st Battalion casualties The battalion lost 22 soldiers in Afghanistan, and more than 65 were wounded.

On a late September afternoon last year, Capt. James Pope climbed a hill that offered a sweeping view of the Arghandab Valley. He gazed on thousands of acres of irrigated farm fields and orchards that faded into a dusty, mountain-ringed desert.

Pope, a North Carolinian with a reputation as a hard charger, commanded a company of soldiers from the Western Washington-based 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.

He took a certain pride in pointing out the formidable size of his area of operations, which stretched some 15 miles through some of the most hostile terrain of southern Afghanistan, a place the Taliban claimed as a staging ground for its growing insurgency in Kandahar province.

Two months into the deployment, Pope had yet to visit all of the villages in his sector. But he knew where to find a fight: amid the orchards that offered thick cover for insurgents.

"See that green zone, where it's very thick," Pope said. "That's where the Taliban like to hide."

It was from these orchards two decades ago that Afghan mujahedeen fought off the Soviet army as it tried to secure southern Afghanistan.

Seattle Times reporter Hal Bernton spent two weeks in Afghanistan last fall with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. This story is based on reporting during that period as well as interviews this summer with soldiers after their return to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He can be reached at 206-464-2581 or hbernton@
seattletimes.com

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Frustration pride in a year of danger

4th Stryker brigade returns to cheers at Lewis McChord

End of an era as combat troops return to Lewis-McChord
By KOMO Staff and Associated Press


JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - A group of soldiers representing the last U.S. combat unit in Iraq has returned home to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, marking the end of an era.

About 150 soldiers from the Army's 4th Stryker brigade marched into Soldiers Field House on Thursday morning.

The brigade's 2nd Infantry Division was officially designated the last combat brigade to leave Iraq under Obama's plan to end combat operations in Iraq.

Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the troops were leaving well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/101082124.html

Fort Wainwright soldier recalls saving medic

Fort Wainwright soldier recalls saving medic from insurgent grenade
by Chris Freiberg

FAIRBANKS — Sgt. Ricardo Montoya didn’t feel anything as the grenade blew up at his feet.

It was May 18, and the 31-year-old father of six was on patrol in Mosul, Iraq, as part of his second deployment to the country.

While most of Fort Wainwright’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team was stationed in Iraq’s northeastern Diyala province, Montoya and the rest of Alpha Company from the 1-5 Infantry were attached to another brigade several months earlier and sent further north to Mosul.
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Fort Wainwright soldier recalls saving medic