Part of highway to be named after Craig Medal of Honor recipient
By Nicole Inglis
May 15, 2010
Craig — On Memorial Day weekend in 1971, an Army officer knocked on Sandra Adams’ door on Taylor Street in Craig, bearing news of sacrifice, honor and tragedy.
She wasn’t ready to believe the truth.
For 29 days, she held out hope that her husband, Maj. William E. Adams, would be found alive after being shot down in a Huey helicopter in the Kontum Province of Vietnam.
He had volunteered to fly into a hostile area to evacuate three seriously wounded soldiers while on his second tour of duty as an Army pilot.
“He was considered missing, but then as time went on and on, it just seemed like I wanted some answers and there weren’t any,” Sandra said.
A month later, her husband’s remains were flown back to the U.S.
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Part of highway to be named after Medal of Honor
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Helena native, Vietnam veteran among state’s most decorated
Helena native, Vietnam veteran among state’s most decorated
By CURT SYNNESS Independent Record
Bill Willing had been in the central highlands of Vietnam less than a week in early April of 1970 when the 21-year old gunship commander from Helena decided there was no way he was going to survive the war.
“My first week in country, we were involved in the Battle of Dak Seang, and I just knew I wouldn’t make it out alive,” said Ret. Col. Bill Willing in a recent telephone interview from his home in Anaconda.
Willing, of course, did survive. In fact, he went on to become what no less an authority than retired Maj. Gen. Gene Prendergast describes as one of the Montana National Guard’s most highly decorated Vietnam combat veterans.
And anyone who drives to the Helena Regional Airport is bound to see a memento of his career — Willing is the pilot who flew the helicopter that became known as the “helicopter on a stick” from San Antonio to Helena.
By CURT SYNNESS Independent Record
Bill Willing had been in the central highlands of Vietnam less than a week in early April of 1970 when the 21-year old gunship commander from Helena decided there was no way he was going to survive the war.
“My first week in country, we were involved in the Battle of Dak Seang, and I just knew I wouldn’t make it out alive,” said Ret. Col. Bill Willing in a recent telephone interview from his home in Anaconda.
Willing, of course, did survive. In fact, he went on to become what no less an authority than retired Maj. Gen. Gene Prendergast describes as one of the Montana National Guard’s most highly decorated Vietnam combat veterans.
And anyone who drives to the Helena Regional Airport is bound to see a memento of his career — Willing is the pilot who flew the helicopter that became known as the “helicopter on a stick” from San Antonio to Helena.
Willing’s 55 military decorations are too numerous to list, but a few of the more notable ones include the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Air Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Army Commendation Medal.
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Freedom Memorial ride for Armed Forces Day
FREEDOM-MEMORIAL RIDE TO NATIONAL CEMETERY
05/15/2010 - 05/15/2010
Freedom - Memorial ride begins at Stormy Hill HD at 830-9am registration - FREE BREAKFAST BY MCDONALDS WITH OJ) LUNCH TICKET on May 15th Saturday - kick stands up at 9:30am sharp = POLICE ESCORTED to Bushnell Cemetery for a memorial and then on to Gator HD for lunch - refreshments - military speakers, Boy Scouts, lots of vendors, live band and more $10.00 driver $5.00 passenger (proceeds for Disabled American Veterans)
An honor for those serving
There is a definite need for Armed Forces Day. What isn't needed, or wanted, is for those honored by this celebration to become part of a better-known holiday observed later this month.
Armed Forces Day is not an American holiday. It is marked in 33 other countries, on a variety of dates. The U.S. has commemorated it on the third Saturday in May since 1949, usually within a couple of weeks of Memorial Day.
But while the latter pays homage to those who fought and died while serving in the military service, Armed Forces Day honors those who are currently part of the armed services: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard.
It is imperative to remember the importance of such a day, if only because those it honors are willing to risk their existance in defense of this country.
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http://www.dailycommercial.com/voices/story/0514ArmedForcesEdit
Medal of Honor Recipient Offers Lifetime of Service Joe Jackson
Medal of Honor Recipient Offers Lifetime of Service
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
Joe Jackson describes his 33 years of military service
An act of service, born of routine
Source: msnbc.com
Tags: msnbc video, routine, service
At 87 years old, Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Col. Joe M. Jackson hasn't let age slow him down. Every Monday for the past 18 years, the war hero helps to feed the needy. NBC's Christina Brown reports. (Nightly News)
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
Joe Jackson describes his 33 years of military service
An act of service, born of routine
Source: msnbc.com
Tags: msnbc video, routine, service
At 87 years old, Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Col. Joe M. Jackson hasn't let age slow him down. Every Monday for the past 18 years, the war hero helps to feed the needy. NBC's Christina Brown reports. (Nightly News)
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
5th try to protect child custody for troops
5th try to protect child custody for troops
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 12:18:53 EDT
An Ohio congressman is hoping the fifth time is a charm in his efforts to give special child custody protection to service members.
Four times, the House of Representatives has passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, to prevent past, present or future deployments from being used against a service member as the basis for determining or changing child custody arrangements.
Four times, Turner has run into opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense Department, and his legislation has been rejected.
Turner is back. On Wednesday, the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee agreed to include his legislation in the 2011 defense authorization bill. He expects it will pass the committee, again, without any dissent and will also easily pass the House.
It remains unclear if anything has changed in the Senate or Defense Department that will end years of opposition.
Turner said his legislation is “straightforward” in trying to protect service members from losing custody of a child solely because of their military service. Fifteen states have laws that provide varying degrees of protection, he said, but there is no single standard, and nothing prevents an ex-spouse from jurisdiction-shopping to file for a change in custody in one of the states without any protections for a service member.
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5th try to protect child custody for troops
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 12:18:53 EDT
An Ohio congressman is hoping the fifth time is a charm in his efforts to give special child custody protection to service members.
Four times, the House of Representatives has passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, to prevent past, present or future deployments from being used against a service member as the basis for determining or changing child custody arrangements.
Four times, Turner has run into opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense Department, and his legislation has been rejected.
Turner is back. On Wednesday, the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee agreed to include his legislation in the 2011 defense authorization bill. He expects it will pass the committee, again, without any dissent and will also easily pass the House.
It remains unclear if anything has changed in the Senate or Defense Department that will end years of opposition.
Turner said his legislation is “straightforward” in trying to protect service members from losing custody of a child solely because of their military service. Fifteen states have laws that provide varying degrees of protection, he said, but there is no single standard, and nothing prevents an ex-spouse from jurisdiction-shopping to file for a change in custody in one of the states without any protections for a service member.
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5th try to protect child custody for troops
Army recalls 44,000 helmets
Army recalls 44,000 helmets
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 17:53:23 EDT
The Army is recalling 44,000 Advanced Combat Helmets amid concerns that they offer substandard ballistic protection.
All the helmets are made by ArmorSource LLC, formerly Rabintex USA LLC.
“There is evidence that ArmorSource and Rabintex ACHs were produced using unauthorized manufacturing practices, defective materials and improper quality procedures which could potentially reduce ballistic and fragmentation protection,” according to an All Army Activities message released May 14.
The Army-wide message orders an immediate inspection of all ACHs and the “immediate direct exchange of those ACHs manufactured by ArmorSource and Rabintex” through unit central issue facilities.
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Army recalls 44000 helmets
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 17:53:23 EDT
The Army is recalling 44,000 Advanced Combat Helmets amid concerns that they offer substandard ballistic protection.
All the helmets are made by ArmorSource LLC, formerly Rabintex USA LLC.
“There is evidence that ArmorSource and Rabintex ACHs were produced using unauthorized manufacturing practices, defective materials and improper quality procedures which could potentially reduce ballistic and fragmentation protection,” according to an All Army Activities message released May 14.
The Army-wide message orders an immediate inspection of all ACHs and the “immediate direct exchange of those ACHs manufactured by ArmorSource and Rabintex” through unit central issue facilities.
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Army recalls 44000 helmets
Walk in memory of friend who committed suicide
Local woman participates in walk in memory of friend who committed suicide
Friday, May 14, 2010
By MICHAEL CLEVELAND
Correspondent
BEDFORD – Eleven years after a close friend committed suicide, Kimberly Paquette will walk 18 miles through the night in the hope that by doing so, she can stop others from dying by their own hands.
“It’s called the Out of the Darkness Walk,” Paquette said, “because quite literally, you’re walking overnight, walking out of the darkness of the night into the sunrise to bring attention to depression and suicide.”
She believes it might have been depression that led her friend Benjamen Bugden to kill himself, although she can’t be sure. She’d only known him for about three years and had only a vague idea of what his life was like before they met while both were in the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash.
“We were together my entire enlistment,” she said of the friend who died 11 years ago. “He was so funny.”
She and Bugden were in military intelligence, a small, close-knit unit.
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Walk in memory of friend who committed suicide
Four years ago I made this video about coming out of the dark of PTSD. Four years later, they are still dying by their own hands because so little has been done to save them. They need to understand what PTSD is and what it does to change them so they will find hope of healing.
Fort Campbell thinking outside the box reduces suicides
This is what can be done when the military stops thinking inside the box repeating the same mistakes over and over again. They have reached out to the community around them for ideas to respond to combat trauma.
The rest of the population of this country has been doing this for years but the military has found too many excuses to avoid what other humans need. Responding to traumatic events in the civilian world is a common sense approach to bring survivors back into the "normal" world outside of the event. For combat forces, they are carrying around too many of those events on their shoulders and this makes sense!
The rest of the population of this country has been doing this for years but the military has found too many excuses to avoid what other humans need. Responding to traumatic events in the civilian world is a common sense approach to bring survivors back into the "normal" world outside of the event. For combat forces, they are carrying around too many of those events on their shoulders and this makes sense!
Suicides down at Fort Campbell
BY JAKE LOWARY • THE LEAF-CHRONICLE • May 14, 2010
A year ago, the mood at Fort Campbell became eerily somber — the reality of the mental condition of many of its soldiers was at the forefront of media reports and Department of Defense scrutiny.
The installation, home of the heralded 101st Airborne Division, was leading the way, and not in a category any of its leaders wanted to be in; Fort Campbell led the Army in suicides with 11 so far that year.
The news is better today. Fort Campbell has had just four suicides this year, according to Joe Varney, suicide prevention manager at Fort Campbell.
The installation has deployed more staff and more resources and made a concerted effort to defeat a stigma attached to the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. They credit those moves for the decrease.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the installation hosted about 200 civilian professionals in the behavioral health field to discuss Army suicides and to brainstorm ideas on how to better address the problem and treat soldiers.
"That was the whole idea — to bring in people from the behavioral health realm that are civilians," said Tiffany Shaw, suicide prevention specialist at Fort Campbell.Shaw said officials tossed around many ideas, some of which have already been put into practice, such as in-theater treatment following a traumatic event like an improvised-explosive device blast or death, which Shaw said was "fairly new."
"It's something they're working on, and so far it's a good thing," she said.
Mandatory annual testing of soldiers also was suggested, but that has not proven as effective when tested, Shaw said.
"All of the behavioral health people spent all their time doing evaluations and not providing care," she said.read more here
Cops with PTSD:New Orleans Accused Police Commission Member
Dad: Accused Police Commission Member 'Heavily Medicated'
Governor's Appointee Accused Of Pulling Gun On Deputies, I-Team Reported Thursday
NEW ORLEANS -- A former member of the Louisiana State Police Commission accused of pointing a gun at two off-duty deputies shot and killed a man in 2001 and was being treated for post traumatic stress disorder, the WDSU I-Team reported Friday.
Seth Dawson is charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer with a firearm -- a felony -- and five misdemeanors stemming from an incident at Harrah's Casino Wednesday night.
Sources close to the investigation said Dawson tried to re-enter the casino after being removed by security and pulled a gun on two Orleans Parish Sheriff's deputies who were working private detail.
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http://www.wdsu.com/mostpopular/23563278/detail.html
Governor's Appointee Accused Of Pulling Gun On Deputies, I-Team Reported Thursday
NEW ORLEANS -- A former member of the Louisiana State Police Commission accused of pointing a gun at two off-duty deputies shot and killed a man in 2001 and was being treated for post traumatic stress disorder, the WDSU I-Team reported Friday.
Seth Dawson is charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer with a firearm -- a felony -- and five misdemeanors stemming from an incident at Harrah's Casino Wednesday night.
Sources close to the investigation said Dawson tried to re-enter the casino after being removed by security and pulled a gun on two Orleans Parish Sheriff's deputies who were working private detail.
read more here
http://www.wdsu.com/mostpopular/23563278/detail.html
San Jose Veteran's Memorial damaged
San Jose: Veteran's Memorial damaged; vandalism suspected
By Mark Gomez
mgomez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 05/14/2010 01:50:03 PM PDT
Updated: 05/14/2010 09:59:14 PM PDT
San Jose officials think vandals are responsible for shattering an 8-foot-tall pane of glass that is part of the Veteran's Memorial — and the damage probably won't be repaired by Memorial Day.
The shattered glass was reported Tuesday to the city's Office of Cultural Affairs, according to Jennifer Easton, a manager for public art. Easton said a big piece of metal was found near the shattered glass.
"We think it was probably vandalism," she said.
A city employee who noticed the broken glass Tuesday called San Jose police at 2:11 p.m., according to police spokesman Dirk Parsons. The broken glass was from a panel measuring about 8 feet by 4 feet, Parsons said. Police reported that the glass appears to have been broken by "an undisclosed hard object that was found at the scene." Police said they have no suspects and are investigating the case.
Easton estimated that a replacement will cost more than $15,000.
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Veterans Memorial damaged
By Mark Gomez
mgomez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 05/14/2010 01:50:03 PM PDT
Updated: 05/14/2010 09:59:14 PM PDT
San Jose officials think vandals are responsible for shattering an 8-foot-tall pane of glass that is part of the Veteran's Memorial — and the damage probably won't be repaired by Memorial Day.
The shattered glass was reported Tuesday to the city's Office of Cultural Affairs, according to Jennifer Easton, a manager for public art. Easton said a big piece of metal was found near the shattered glass.
"We think it was probably vandalism," she said.
A city employee who noticed the broken glass Tuesday called San Jose police at 2:11 p.m., according to police spokesman Dirk Parsons. The broken glass was from a panel measuring about 8 feet by 4 feet, Parsons said. Police reported that the glass appears to have been broken by "an undisclosed hard object that was found at the scene." Police said they have no suspects and are investigating the case.
Easton estimated that a replacement will cost more than $15,000.
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Veterans Memorial damaged
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