Fort Hood Soldier victim of hit and run after trying to help some else

Woman killed, soldier injured after 2 consecutive hit-and-run crashes
WSMV 4 NBC News
Meredith Digial Staff
August 4, 2018

A Good Samaritan, Kalen Lawson, 20, of Fort Hood, Texas, who is also an active duty member of the U.S. Army, stopped to help the woman. As he was helping the woman, another vehicle traveling on N Galloway, hit and struck Lawson and the woman he was helping. The woman died at the scene of the crash.

LAKELAND, Fla. (Meredith/WFTS) -- A woman is dead and a Good Samaritan U.S. Army soldier coming to her aid was seriously injured after two consecutive hit-and-runs in Polk County on Thursday morning.

One of the drivers, 20-year-old Corey Wesley Jones of Lakeland, was arrested in the case. He is also known as "DB Da Kid," and is a rapper. He was driving a 2002 black GMC SUV and left the scene after hitting 40-year-old Kelli Black.

Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference on Thursday that he had spoken to Jones and Jones has promised to turn himself in. Now he has been taken into custody and charged with the leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury and reckless driving with serious bodily injury.
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Female Soldier gave birth in latrine--in Afghanistan?

Doctor used 'feelings' over test results to clear Indiana soldier for deployment
WTHR 13 News
Sandra Chapman
May 7, 2018

It's a case so rare and so shocking that the United States Army refuses to talk about what happened to Pvt. Ashley Shelton.

The 20-year old private from Indiana gave birth to a near full-term baby boy in 2012.

She was in Afghanistan – in a combat zone.

Why did the military put a pregnant soldier into a war zone?

With her permission, 13 Investigates obtained Pvt. Shelton's medical files, and what they revealed takes the questions in her case to even greater heights.

A series of pre-deployment pregnancy tests were positive or indecisive. But the doctor involved in her case noted that he didn't "feel" like she was pregnant and he signed off on her deployment.

When Ashley was in Afghanistan she was shocked to learn she was giving birth to a baby boy inside of an Army latrine.

She was assigned to an aviation unit and worked around dangerous chemicals and helicopter exhaust fumes. She exercised and wore heavy body armor every day. She took malaria pills and had both anthrax and typhoid vaccines.

Exposures to those vaccines, Pvt. Shelton now believes, impacted her son Benjamin. He has trouble walking and suffers from developmental delays. read more here

Female Soldiers Attacked Over Parking?

PREGNANT SOLDIER, HER SON YELLS HOMOPHOBIC SLURS 
KMIR News 
Sara Sanchez 
APRIL 16, 2018 

Cell phone video of a woman appearing to lunge and swing at two female soldiers in a Georgia restaurant has gone viral. The video surfaced on Instagram.

According to the local Sheriff’s Office, it all started over a parking space. Bibb County Sheriff’s investigators say it happened on Saturday at a Cheddar’s Restaurant in Macon, Georgia. The video shows a blonde woman who has been identified as 72-year-old Judy Tucker.

According to NBC affiliate WMGT, the soldiers, Treasure Sharpe and Stephanie Mitchell, told deputies Tucker’s son originally confronted them outside the restaurant and told them they need to learn how to park. A police report claims the son used homophobic slurs towards the woman. WMGT says Mitchell then tried to calm the son down. read more here

Fort Hood Soldier Took Plunge to Feed Hungry

Fort Hood soldier swims more than 6 miles, raises money for charity

Killeen Daily Herald
Julie A. Ferraro 
November 24, 2017

McQueen’s nickname is “Swim Gypsy.” She has traveled across the country — from San Francisco to Vermont — participating in open-water swim events ranging from one mile to over 45 miles in length.

Tiffany McQueen begins swimming a 10K in Belton Lake, near Dead Fish Grill, to raise money for Killeen's Food Care Center in Belton on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2017.
Eric J. Shelton | Herald 

Tiffany McQueen was sore on Friday, but it was a good kind of sore.

After swimming more than six miles in Belton Lake on Thanksgiving Day, McQueen, a Fort Hood soldier, raised over $1,200 for Killeen’s Food Care Center.

“We couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions,” McQueen said of her swim. The water was calm, and the air temperature not too chilly.

McQueen started and ended her swim at the Dead Fish Grill. The restaurant was open for Thanksgiving, and had information about the swim for diners to see. 
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Fort Hood soldier found dead on post on Christmas Eve

Fort Hood soldier found dead on post on Christmas Eve
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
December 28, 2016

A 21-year-old private was found unresponsive in a Fort Hood, Texas, home on Dec. 24, according to an Army release.

Pvt. Paige Elizabeth Briles, from Kaplan, Louisiana, was a wheeled vehicle mechanic assigned to a warrior transition unit, the release said.
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Two Fort Campbell Soldiers Charged with Murder of Female Soldier

Two Soldiers Charged with Murder in Connection with Disappearance of Fellow Soldier Shadow McClaine
NBC News
by RACHAEL TROST
November 29, 2016

Shadow Branice McClaine U.S. Army

Criminal Investigation Command

Two soldiers have been charged with murder in connection with the September disappearance of Fort Campbell soldier Shadow McClaine.

Sgt. Jamal Williams-McCray and Specialist Charles Robinson, both part of the 101st Airborne Division, face charges of conspiracy, kidnapping and premeditated murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to NBC affiliate WSMV.

Williams-McCray is Shadow's ex-husband. It's unclear if Robinson knew Shadow.

The two soldiers are being held in pre-trial confinement pending a preliminary hearing, the station reported. Authorities have not commented on whether Shadow's body has been found.
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You Have The Power To Change The Conversation On PTSD

Veterans consider the next commander-in-chief on PRI by Steven Snyder posted yesterday, this report on how our veterans are looking at the results of the election differently.

Brian McGough is a combat-wounded veteran who served in the initial invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

McGough, who has fought for the right of women to serve in combat, worries that President-elect Trump's views might result in limiting opportunities for women in the military.

"It's important to remember that there are a lot of veterans out there who are now feeling like they don't belong in this country," McGough adds. "There are veterans of color, veterans of different religious preferences, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender veterans who now feel threatened in their own country. And for me that's very concerning."

Another vet, who wrote to us from Ellwood City, Penn., expresses bitterness.

"I'm a veteran with mental health issues, and we just elected a man that thinks I need to just toughen up. ... I wish I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm neither proud of my country nor my service today. I just want to wake up from this nightmare."

But Dean Castaldo, an eight-year military veteran, points out that the men and women in the armed services — more than a million — represent a cross-section of America.

And regardless of their differences, Castaldo says, they all work together as a team.

Residual War, Something Worth Living For is about a female soldier, proven hero, suffering for what she thinks she caused by saving the wrong person. Suicides, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, military women, Warrior Transition Units mistreatment of our soldiers and the rest of the things that they really go through are within this work of fiction. 

Some hear about a female soldier with PTSD and assume it is just because of sexual assault, failing to notice females are just as human as the male soldiers and are exposed to the same dangers of combat. Some hear about soldiers committing suicide, assume they "just couldn't take it" without ever considering the simple fact they managed to "take it" when other lives were in danger, but did not receive the help they needed to heal afterwards.

Some hear about folks running around the country, screaming about how they are raising awareness, but the reality is there are less serving now than when the Army started to "address PTSD" yet it translated into more suicides among less to count.

Whatever you have heard up to this day after Veterans Day, you will now have the power to change the conversation.

Keep in mind that Combat PTSD Wounded Times has over 27,000 posts on it, so there is a lot of "news" put into this book. Your challenge is to discover what is true about the lives of these fictional characters.

"We live in deeds, not years." Fighting the Residual War of PTSD

They Live In Deeds of Courage
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 9, 2016

RESIDUAL WAR, Something Worth Living For is based on reports within the over 26,000 articles on Combat PTSD Wounded Times and over thirty years of covering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by military service. It is also from living with and spending most of my free time with veterans.

With all the publicity PTSD and suicides have received, you'd think that the truth would matter, but it doesn't. Until we actually see these men and women carrying the unique burden of serving this nation with everything they have, we'll never really change anything for their sake.  Frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing them used.

Their suffering, their agony has been used for attention getting stunts by folks claiming to be doing something about raising awareness. The truth is, they are more like people taking a video of someone dying instead of calling 911.

So I decided to jump on the fiction bandwagon and try to tell the truth in a lie.

General David King is based on what I think most Generals with PTSD would do in order to really take care of those who have paid the price for their heroic actions causing them to make bad decisions for the right reasons. He sent them to Fort Christmas to serve out their time before retirement. 

Generals with PTSD? Yes and there is an example of that in a report from the New York Times about Brig. General Donald Bolduc, Commander of Special Operations talking about his own struggles with PTSD. He isn't the first to do so. Other Generals came out with a lot of courage in 2009 because the lives of those they were in charge of really mattered so much they put them first instead of their own careers.

It is about a female Colonel, Amanda Leverage, suffering after showing great courage and blaming herself for what came afterwards.

A female with courage in combat? Yes, like Spec. Monica Lin Brown, who at the age of 19 received the Silver Star for saving lives in Afghanistan.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said. "I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Another female showing great courage during the Civil War received the Medal of Honor. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a surgeon. 

"We live in deeds, not years." – Mary Walker, title page of Hit

The men Amanda was in charge of were much like the Special Forces members in the following reports.

Special Forces suicides reached a record in 2014 but according to men like Donald Trump, they must not have been tough enough to take it. What is worse is that the head of the Army at the time passed off suicides as if they were not mentally tough and lacked intestinal fortitude. 

That was said by General Raymond Odierno during and interview on suicides with Huffington Post reporter David Wood.

"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

He wasn't thinking at all and that is the biggest problem of all. He he even considered all the veterans and those serving under him, he wouldn't have fed the stigma beast and maybe, just maybe he would have issued orders to make sure these men and women were taken care of to heal instead of betraying them with this claim of weakness. 

In April of 2014 there were reports of Special Forces soldiers committing suicide. 

U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides even after all these years of the DOD saying they were taking care of the men and women serving this country. Even after suicides and attempted suicides went up. Even after even the "toughest" of the tough suffered. Anyone know what is going to change? How to change it? Who is accountable for it?
Joe Miller, then an Army Ranger captain with three Iraq tours under his belt, sat inside his home near Fort Bragg holding a cocked Beretta 40mm, and prepared to kill himself.
Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, 25, of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, killed himself June 28 (2011) at Lewis-McChord. Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan for a ninth tour of duty.
Crowley-Smilek, 28, a former U.S. Army Ranger who suffered from combat stress and physical injuries from service in Afghanistan, was dead; shot multiple times by a police officer outside the Farmington municipal offices on U.S. Route 2.
Staff Sgt. Charles Reilly, is a Special Forces soldier who has been deployed six times in the past decade. She said psychiatrists have diagnosed him with PTSD, and he's assigned to Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion, where soldiers recover from physical and mental wounds.
Sgt. Ben Driftmyer was discharged and betrayed. Survived."I had spent eight years serving the military. I never got in trouble. Never did anything bad. And I got treated like I was a piece of crap because of it," said Ben Driftmyer, discharged U.S. Army Sergeant and Cottage Grove resident. Driftmyer was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder by Eugene doctors after he was chaptered out from the special forces unit in Baghdad. He suffered several mental breakdowns during his service, but his discharge was classified as "other than medical." "Because the military didn't want to pay for me for the rest of my life," said Driftmyer.
Chief Petty Officer Jerald Kruse, served 19 years in the Navy. He was a SEAL, an elite warrior sent to fight in some of the toughest situations around the world, including in Iraq. “His problems really began in ’05. That’s when I really began to notice something was wrong,” she said. He drank excessively, stayed up all night and lashed out at her and their three kids.
Navy Cmdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died Saturday while serving as the commanding officer of SEAL Team 4, a special warfare unit based in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo returned from Iraq, he feared seeking treatment for PTSD would endanger his career.

US Special Forces Struggle With Record Suicides(Reuters) - Suicides among U.S. special operations forces, including elite Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, are at record levels, a U.S. military official said on Thursday, citing the effects of more than a decade of "hard combat."

So while you are paying attention to the veteran in New York carrying around a skeleton dressed in a uniform to raise awareness of suicides, you need to be reminded of the most important fact of all. Lives of others matter so much to all of the above they were willing to die to save them, but they could not find hope to save their own.

They ended up on the "wrong side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell."

Newest Female Ranger School Graduate Also Mom

Latest Female to Graduate Ranger School Is 37-Year-Old Mother of Two 
Military.com
by Matthew Cox
Oct 12, 2015

Maj. Lisa A. Jaster, 37, carries a fellow soldier during the Darby Queen obstacle course at Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga., April 26, 2015. (U.S. Army)

The last remaining female soldier of the original group of 19 women who tried out for Army Ranger School in April will graduate from the punishing infantry leadership course.

Maj. Lisa A. Jaster, a combat engineer with the U.S. Army Reserve, is 37 and a mother of two children. She will earn the coveted Ranger Tab along with 87 men, according to an Oct. 12 press release from the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia. 

The West Point graduate had to repeat all three phases of the two-month course. Jaster follows two of her Ranger School classmates -- Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, who earned their Tabs in an Aug. 21 in a historic ceremony at Fort Benning. When Jaster graduates on Oct. 16, she will have spent 180 days in the course, the release states. read more here

Tiny Captain Makes 12 Mile Hike With Help From Friends

I checked for the earliest video of this since it is just so wonderful!

EFMB - Giving it your all Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Found this on Facebook today. Some folks are saying...well, she barely made it and needed encouragement

Posted by Lloyd A Mason on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 CPT Sarah Cudd from Public Health Command, Fort Knox is only 1 of the 46 candidates who earned the EFMB yesterday at Fort Dix, NJ..27 April 2015. This is her last few seconds of the 12 Mile Foot March. The Foot March is the last event of the Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB), and must be completed within 3 hours. If you want it, you have to go get it. Watch this video. This EFMB candidate wanted it, and she got it. It took heart, guts, determination, falling down and getting up, and a little motivation from the crowd to get across the finish line. Check this out.

Soldier made Dad cry

Soldier surprises father on her return from Afghanistan
Daytona News Journal
Anthony DeFeo
February 4, 2014

“At first it was really difficult,” said Heather Holman. “I didn't have anyone to communicate with, but then after a while you kind of become family with the soldiers that you work for.”

DELAND — Sitting in an anatomy lab class at Daytona State College's DeLand campus, Bill Holman and his classmates were told to expect a cardiologist to come in as a guest speaker Tuesday afternoon.

But instead, the visitor was someone much closer to Holman's heart. After a year serving as a combat medic at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, his daughter, 21-year-old Army Spc. Heather Holman, gave her father the surprise of a lifetime.

“Holy (expletive),” said the shocked father, as he turned and saw his daughter walking into the classroom.

The two embraced tightly and said only one thing to each other: “I love you.”

It was the first time since she'd been deployed that the father and daughter heard each other's voices, said Heather Holman.
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Col. Barbara Holcomb became the first registered nurse to command Landstuhl

First nurse takes command at Landstuhl
By NANCY MONTGOMERY
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 3, 2012


LANDSTUHL, Germany — Throughout Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s long, storied past, medical doctors have almost always been in charge.

But on Thursday, Col. Barbara Holcomb became the first registered nurse – and second woman – to take command of the hospital, considered a jewel in the crown of military medicine.

“ ‘Landstuhl is such an awesome place,’ ” Holcomb, in her change-of command ceremonial speech, recalled a friend telling her when she got the news of her assignment. “ ‘They saved several of my soldiers.’ ”

Such admiration for the hospital staff’s expertise at saving the lives of wounded troops “runs deeply through many military leaders,” Holcomb said. “This is indeed an honor.”

Holcomb relieves Col. Jeffrey Clark, who served less than a year before being nominated for promotion to brigadier general and, next month, to take over as commander of the Europe Regional Medical Command. Clark will replace Brig. Gen. Nadja West, who is to become an assistant Army surgeon general.
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Police still have named no suspect in disappearance of Kelli Bordeaux

Missing soldier’s mom, husband ‘keeping hope alive’
Police still have named no suspect in disappearance of Kelli Bordeaux, 23
By Scott Stump
TODAY.com contributor
updated 5/2/2012

More than two weeks since the disappearance of 23-year-old Army combat medic Kelli Bordeaux, police have not named any suspects or produced any concrete leads — but her mother is still holding out hope for her safe return.

Johnna Henson, the mother of Pfc. Bordeaux, spoke with TODAY Wednesday along with the missing soldier’s husband, Mike, as the search for Kelli continues. She was last seen April 14 at Froggy Bottoms bar in Fayetteville, N.C., and was reported missing on April 16 when she did not report for duty at nearby Fort Bragg.

“Until I know differently from Detective Locklear or the Fayetteville Police Department, I am definitely keeping hope alive,’’ Henson told Savannah Guthrie, referring to Fayetteville detective Jeff Locklear. “She’s a wonderful young lady, and she needs to be with her family.’’
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Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux's family hanging onto hope

Family of missing soldier holding on to hope
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.
The brother of a Fort Bragg soldier who has been missing for a week said Friday that the family remains confident that she is alive and will be found, despite the fact that police have no good leads in her disappearance.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to find her alive," said Matt Henson of his sister, Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux.

Last Friday, Bordeaux, 23, of St. Cloud, Fla., was last seen around 1:20 a.m. leaving a bar on Ramsey Street in Fayetteville called Froggy Bottoms.

Officials at Fort Bragg reported her missing to Fayetteville police on Monday, when she didn't show up for duty.

Investigators were searching the area near the bar and interviewing patrons on Friday after a two-day search of a pond about 8 miles away, which was prompted by a tip, turned up nothing.

Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine said that detectives are still treating Bordeaux's disappearance as an active missing person's case but that they have "grave concerns" about her well-being.

A man who told police that he gave Bordeaux a ride home from the bar was arrested Friday on a charge of failing to provide his new address to Cumberland County authorities because he is a registered sex offender.
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Female Fort Bragg Soldier missing

Fort Bragg soldier reported missing
By the CNN Wire Staff
Tue April 17, 2012


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: GI's mother said she was told daughter got out of car
The soldier got a ride home, according to a U.S. Army official
The female GI sent a text message saying "got home safely," the official says
Missing woman's sister pleads for her safe return

(CNN) -- A missing Fort Bragg, North Carolina, soldier may be in danger, police said Tuesday. The GI's sister tearfully called for her safe return.

Army Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux, 23, left a bar, Froggy Bottoms, early Saturday, Fayetteville police said in a news release. The GI had been drinking and was given a ride home by a bar employee, according to a U.S. Army official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

At some point, Bordeaux sent two text messages, according to the Army official. One said, "got home safely." The official didn't know who the text was sent to or the contents of the other text.
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139 Female Soldiers Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 800 wounded

139 Female Soldiers Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan
Thursday, April 12, 2012

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrated how much the roles of women in the U.S. military have expanded. During a decade’s worth of conflict, more than 283,000 women were deployed to the two countries. Hundreds of them served in harm’s way, according to casualty figures.

More than 800 female service members have been wounded in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and at least 139 have died from combat- and non-combat-related incidents. Of these, 110 died as a result of serving in Iraq, however the last thirteen have all died in Afghanistan.

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Army improves help for sexual assault victims

Army improves help for sexual assault victims
By Cid Standifer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 15:18:11 EDT
Pvt. Jessica Kenyon was in the Army from 2005 to 2006. In that short time, she says she was raped twice and also forcibly groped by three fellow soldiers.

She stayed silent because she feared retaliation and being ostracized, she said. She sought counseling after the groping because the cumulative trauma was crippling her ability to work, she said.

“I felt like I was betraying my country,” she said.

Instead of trying to help her, she said her commanders tried to charge her with adultery for becoming pregnant, despite having already filed divorce papers from her husband.

She told Military Times that the fetus, which she later miscarried, probably belonged to one of her alleged rapists.
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Fort Campbell soldier captured after soldier girlfriend's body found

Suspect in Tennessee shooting captured in NC
The Associated Press
Monday, Mar. 05, 2012

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- A Fort Campbell soldier suspected of killing his girlfriend, also a soldier, and leaving her body in a bathtub was arrested in North Carolina over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

A witness told police that Spc. Shardae Wright, 23, was seen trying to get away from her boyfriend, later identified as 21-year-old Spc. Nicholas Rico Durant, after he allegedly pointed a gun at her early Saturday morning. An eyewitness ran to get help and then heard several gunshots.

Her body was found Saturday morning in an apartment in Clarksville, near the Army post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line. Police found several shell casings outside the apartment and multiple bullet holes in the door.
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51-year-old woman finishes basic at Fort Leonard Wood

51-year-old finishes basic at Leonard Wood
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 16, 2012 11:14:52 EST
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — A 51-year-old woman has finished basic training at Fort Leonard Wood and has become one of the oldest people to go through the 10 weeks of physical and tactical drills.

Sgt. Sandra Coast, of Holmes, Ohio, will graduate Thursday from the program, which allows her to serve with an Army Reserve unit.

Coast served in the Navy for 11 years before leaving in 1993 to raise her son. When her son joined the Marines, she decided to join the Army.
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Friends remember Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux

Friends remember Houston soldier found murdered in Colorado barracks
by Brad Woodard
KHOU 11 News

Posted on January 10, 2012

HOUSTON – Students at Texas Southern University mourned the death of a graduate who was found murdered in Colorado last weekend.

“Wow. She’s gone,” said graduate student Herman Shelton. “She’s not supposed to be gone.”

TSU grad Brandy Fonteneaux, a 28-year-old Army Specialist, was found dead in her Fort Carson barracks Sunday morning in Colorado.

“She might have been small in stature, but big at heart,” said Shelton. “She was the life of the party, just a good person to be around.”

The Army is releasing very little information at this point. All it will say is that Fonteneaux’s death is being investigated as a homicide, and that it doesn’t believe there’s any further threat at Fort Carson. It also released a statement on behalf of Fonteneaux’s family members requesting privacy from the media. The statement comes after a Colorado Springs television station interviewed Fonteneaux’s sister here in Texas by phone.
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original story