Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday

COURTNEY BLETHEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Family of boys keeps vigil at Green River
David Mundell, center, hugs his mother, Karen Green, as family and friends gather Saturday along the Green River where two boys are missing and presumed drowned.
Mundell is the stepfather of Austin Fuda, 13, who was in a car that went into the river Friday.
Family, friends of boys keep vigil at Green River

Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday.

By Nicole Tsong

Seattle Times staff reporter

AUBURN — On the banks of the Green River, the parents of 13-year-old Austin Fuda stood and wept.

Saturday marked their first pilgrimage to the site where a car carrying Austin and 2-year-old cousin Hunter Beaupre went into the river Friday morning. The driver, Austin's 16-year-old stepsister, swam to safety.

Officials suspended the search for the boys Friday because of the swift current, which had worsened by Saturday. Rescuers believe they know where the car is and that the boys are in it, but they need a couple of days without rain before they can bring them out, said King County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

The river was flowing at about 2,900 cubic feet per second when the car went into the water and swelled to more than 4,000 by Saturday morning, he said. The current needs to be below 2,000 cubic feet per second before it's safe for divers to go in, Urquhart said.

"It's just way too fast and too dangerous to go in there," he said.
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Hundreds on waiting list to adopt Down Syndrome children

Families Take a Leap of Love
For many parents, a diagnosis of Down syndrome can be overwhelming, but hundreds of families are on a waiting list to adopt a child with the condition. The Curtis family adopted Daniel, right, and three others with Down Syndrome.

Norman Bussel, Yorktown ex-POW describes struggles

Yorktown ex-POW describes strugglesLower Hudson Journal news - West Harrison,NY,USA
By Brian J. Howard
The Journal News • November 9, 2008

YORKTOWN

A few months after he was liberated from a German prisoner-of-war camp, Norman Bussel was invited to a wedding he just couldn't bring himself to attend.


Bussel wasn't doing well, the trauma of the past year still painfully fresh for him. Still, the pilot from his bomber crew was getting married in Atlanta and Bussel thought he could make it.

But five days before the wedding, he received a letter from the sister of his navigator, one of four fellow crew members killed when their B-17 was shot down over Berlin. She didn't understand how six men could make it off the plane while four others could not.

"To me, the implication was that I'd stepped over his dead body and just left him," Bussel, now 85, said in the living room of his Mohegan Lake home.

From the time he'd boarded in Rattlesden, England, on April 29, 1944, until the time he bailed out, the 19-year-old technical sergeant saw only one other crew member, and then only briefly while they were over the English Channel. He never heard a bail-out order, never even left his radio room until he leapt from the plane.

It exploded seven seconds later, as he was counting to 10 before pulling his parachute cord.

After reading that letter, Bussel skipped the wedding and went on a two-week drinking binge.

He recounts that day, including his subsequent capture by angry villagers, in moving detail in his book, "My Private War: Liberated Body, Captive Mind - A World War II POW's Journey," published yesterday by Pegasus Books.

A journey is what he shares, from his enlistment at 18 over his mother's objection to his grueling detainment in Stalag Luft IV in eastern Germany.

The story doesn't end with the camp's liberation by Gen. George S. Patton's tank corps, though. That comes a little more than halfway through the book. What follows is the story of his long struggle with survivor guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My medication of choice was alcohol," the Memphis, Tenn., native said. "I expect if drugs had been around then I'd have done them as well."
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For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

November 8, 2008 - 2:58PM
CAROL MCGRAW
The Gazette
The kindergartners at Patriot Elementary School are busy pasting cut-out paper socks in smallest to biggest order, when the shouts ring out:

"Mr. Carlos. Mr. Carlos."

The dark-haired man in the Army uniform heads over to one table and crouches, eye level, to 5-year-old Caleb Marlatt who gives him a big smile and holds up his paper.

"Good job. Don't forget to put your name on it," the soldier says, moving on to other children who are eager for his attention.

Caleb, watching the other kids mob the soldier, says in a loud whisper, "Mr. Carlos is like my dad. My dad is in Iraq since I was a baby. I want to see him. Mr. Carlos is not my dad. But Mr. Carlos helps you like a dad."

And the kids, in turn, are helping Mr. Carlos.

Mr. Carlos is Staff Sgt. Carlos Barreto, a 41-year-old career soldier who was brain-injured in a bomb blast In Iraq. Now he's an aide at the Fort Carson school, where his Army job is to help the students recite the alphabet, learn to count and recognize written words. In doing so, he's finding that his own war injuries, including short-term memory problems, are getting better.

Barreto is one of 600 soldiers at Fort Carson who are members of the Warrior Transition Unit - soldiers who have been wounded or have other medical problems that prevent them from returning to active duty. They are provided with medical care and other services such as legal, financial, family and education counseling.

Some of the soldiers in the unit work on post; others work off base in apprenticeships and take classes that prepare them for employment when they leave the Army.

But Barreto is the only one from the local Warrior unit serving as a teacher's aide.
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http://www.gazette.com/articles/kindergartners_43071___article.html/carlos_one.html

11 year old angel, Brenden Foster's family needs help

This was left as a comment on my original post.

I am a very close friend of the family and I must say that Brenden is such an inspiration to so many people.My kids and I love him so much and will miss him dearly. I know that Wendy(Brenden's mother) Would never ask of anything from anyone and only hopes that Brenden has inspired people to help others as he has tried to do. I however am asking for help for this family. I see her everyday struggling to make ends meet and they are having a hard time finding funds for his final resting place. There is a benevolence fund that has been set up for Brenden. It is at Washington Mutual bank under the Brenden Foster Cancer Fund.Thank you so much for all your comments. I know that Wendy shares comments to Brenden every night and they are very thankful for all of your support.

I called the news station to see if they had the address for the bank to make donations. I was told they have a Problem Solvers Fund and will get the money directly to the family. Until I have better information, here it is.

Problem Solvers At KOMO TV
Brenden Foster Fund
140 Fourth Ave. North, Suite 370,
Seattle, WA 98109

Here is the link to the original post.
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/11/11-year-old-brenden-fosters-dying-wish.html

Old soldiers never die — they just move to Florida

Military veterans are marching to Florida
Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 9, 2008


Old soldiers never die — they just move to Florida.

It is a durable trend reflected in great numbers after World War II, recently reinforced by the military men and women who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and who are again marching home to the state.

Florida's intrinsic amenities and expanded veterans' services are magnets that have boosted the state past Texas for the second-largest veteran population at 1.75 million, according to the latest tally. Only California is home to more veterans, with 2.1 million. But the Sunshine State is the hot draw. Even as the nation's veteran population withered 16.5 percent since 1980, Florida increased its ranks by nearly 400,000.

Forecasters predict the state will surpass California within 20 years.

"The Southeast, and Florida in particular, is an attractive region for military veterans and retirees," said Jay Agg, national communications director for AMVETS, noting that the state has one of the organization's fastest-growing and most active departments.

"Florida is already renowned as a friendly and hospitable retiree destination, but it is also a draw for veterans and military retirees because of its significant military community," Agg said.

Adding to that allure, say advocates for veterans, has been the lack of a state income tax, a generally strong economy and mild winters.

Across Central Florida, veteran tallies eclipse 1980 totals:
Orange County, for example, now boasts 77,947 veterans, up from 68,100 in 1980; Seminole has 38,802 veterans, up from 28,670; and
Volusia is home to 57,809 vets, up from 41,139.
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U.S. vows to back off if fighters use Afghan civilians as cover

This is a good idea because one of the worst things the troops have to recover from is when civilians die. It was harder on them during Vietnam just as it is harder in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a noble thing to do but when the Afghan fighters decide that their own people don't matter and they hide behind them, it is dangerous for the troops. What is the right answer when both sides don't play fair? The conscience of the troops will not allow them to have such disregard for the lives of civilians. It eats away at them. Still they cannot be targeted because they will not engage when civilians are near. Can't someone in the military come up with a better plan and use their brains when these situations come up? What do police officers do when thugs take hostages? What about a SWAT type of attitude for the military?

U.S. vows to back off if fighters use Afghan civilians as cover
Story Highlights
The issue of civilian casualties has rankled relations between U.S. and Afghanistan

Commanding general says there's renewed emphasis to avoid civilian casualties

U.S.: Fighting last week in Kandahar province left 37 civilians dead

Afghan officials: Civilian deaths in Kandahar were the result of a U.S. airstrike




COMBAT OUTPOST MALAKASHY, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. forces in Afghanistan will "back off" from firing at insurgents if the fighters are using civilian buildings as cover, the U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan told CNN.

"I've given direct guidance, and so has my boss to me, that if there's any doubt at all that the enemy is firing from a house or building where there might be women and children, that we'll just back off," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN's Barbara Starr.

"That potentially is something that we did not do before, but now because of this increased emphasis, we are doing," he said in an interview at an outpost in Afghanistan's Paktika province near the Pakistani border.

Schloesser spoke the same day the U.S. military announced that fighting last week in Kandahar province left 37 civilians dead and another 35 wounded. During the two-day battle in Kandahar's Shah Wali Kott district, insurgents fired from some villagers' houses, using them as cover, villagers told the U.S. military.

Afghan officials said the civilian deaths in Kandahar were the result of a U.S. airstrike. But a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation concluded that the civilians died during a battle that was sparked when insurgents ambushed an Afghan-coalition patrol.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/09/afghan.civilians/index.html

This Veteran's Day should come with remembering the homeless veterans

This Veteran's Day, as we honor our veterans, it would be really nice to stop and think about how many of them are homeless and how many of them are females as well. One thing that is often forgotten about with female homeless veterans, is a lot of them come with children!

Not enough housing for homeless female veterans

By James Hannah - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 9, 2008 13:36:03 EST

DAYTON, Ohio — When Carisa Dogen looks back on her life of 38 years, it’s easy to see where she lost her way: She left her hometown of Dayton at 15 and moved to Kentucky, where she graduated from high school and enrolled in electronics school. But drugs beckoned, and she didn’t finish.

She joined the military, but fate intervened and she later found herself homeless — forced to sleep in parks on some nights when it was bitterly cold and rainy, and scavenge for food in trash cans.

“I got accosted a couple of times by males. Walking the streets and stuff, it’s hard and it’s scary,” she said in the comfort of The Other Place, a homeless shelter in Dayton that helped put her into new housing where she will receive treatment and job training.

Particularly bewildering for Dogen, she is an Army veteran. Her life should never have come to this.

Of the 1.8 million female military veterans, Dogen was among the 7,000 to 8,000 who are homeless, as estimated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is among the few who have benefited from new housing specifically for female veterans, an initiative homeless advocates say falls far short of what is needed.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_homeless_veterans_110908/

11 year old Brenden Foster's dying wish, feed the homeless

Brenden Foster said he wants to be an angel so that he can help the homeless from Heaven. Get ready to cry for this sweet child when you watch this video. He's proof there are angels here on earth already. He's one of them.

Last wish: Feed homeless 2:18
Feeding the homeless is a Washington state 11-year-old's last wish. KOMO has the story.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/09/jaffey.wa.last.wish.komo
Boy shares heartbreaking last wish

LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Doctors gave 11-year-old Brenden Foster two weeks to live.

Those two weeks were up on Wednesday. On Friday, he shared his last wish.

Not yet a teenager, Brenden's time to die has come.

"I should be gone in a week or so," he said.

Brenden was the kid who ran the fastest, climbed the highest and dreamed of becoming a marine photographer. Leukemia took away all those things, but not his dying wish to help others.

"He's always thought about others. Never complained about having to go through this, ever," said his mother, Wendy Foster.

When Brenden was first diagnosed with leukemia, he and his mom began a new tradition. Every night they list three positive things that happened during the day, and they have to share a laugh. A chuckle will do, Brenden said, but a fake laugh will never do.

In the last days of his life, it was a homeless camp, namely Nickelsville, that captured the boy's heart.

"I was coming back from one of my clinic appoints and I saw this big thing of homeless people, and then I thought I should just get them something," he said.

Brenden is too ill to leave his bed and feed the homeless. He walked into an emergency room last December and hasn't walked since.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/34127439.html

Family, officials stunned by deaths at Fort Jackson

Family, officials stunned by deaths at Jackson

Three recruits die in less than a month at post
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Nov 9, 2008 8:54:53 EST

Cameron Oquendo will never know the soldier his mother, Pvt. Andrea Rosser, could have become.

Rosser died Oct. 25 on the toddler’s first birthday while taking the Army Physical Fitness Test at Fort Jackson, S.C. She was one week away from completing the nine-week basic combat training course.

Rosser’s family is still trying to make sense of their 21-year-old’s sudden death.

“I just spoke to her about three weeks ago; she sounded wonderful,” Rosser’s mother, Georgette, told Army Times in an Oct. 30 telephone interview from her Clayton, N.C., home.

What’s more troubling, her mother said, is Rosser is one of three privates who have died in the past month attending Jackson’s basic training program.

“Three deaths in less than a month — what’s happening?” she asked. “We are trying to grieve for our daughter, and we are still trying to grasp what happened.”

In addition to Rosser, Pvt. Dominique Brooks, 19, of Houston, died Sept. 25 after having a seizure on her barracks floor, and Pvt. Derryl Britt, 20, of Durham, N.C., died Sept. 27 when he was taken off life support after surgery to repair a brain hemorrhage.

Fort Jackson officials are still investigating Rosser’s death and provided limited details of the incident, Jackson spokeswoman Karen Soule said.

Rosser’s mother, Georgette Rosser, said post officials told her that the Oct. 27 autopsy performed on Rosser at the Richland County Coroner’s office was inconclusive.

“We are waiting for the toxicology results to come out,” she said. “She had no pre-existing heath conditions.”

Leaders at Jackson said they are shocked by the three deaths.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_trainingdeaths_110908w/