Bragg soldiers to be in country music video
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 17, 2010 8:09:12 EDT
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The 82nd Airborne Division's All American Chorus will appear in a music video filmed at Pope Air Force Base.
The video shoot Monday will feature the chorus and country music artist Jamie Tate performing in front of a C-130 cargo plane in a hangar at the base. Tate and the All American Chorus recorded the song "I'll Give My All" at a Nashville studio in March.
A portion of sales from the song will be donated to charity, including the Wounded Warrior Project for the 82nd Airborne Division and the Military Family Lifestyle Charitable Foundation.
The video and the song will be released May 31.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/ap_bragg_chorus_051710/
Monday, May 17, 2010
PBS Frontline: The Wounded Platoon of Fort Carson
The Wounded Platoon
On air and online May 18, 2010 at 9:00pm
Since the Iraq War began, soldier arrests in the city of Colorado Springs, Colo., have tripled. At least 36 servicemen based at the nearby Army post of Fort Carson have committed suicide, and 14 Fort Carson soldiers have been charged or convicted in at least 11 killings. Many of the most violent crimes involved men who had served in the same battalion in Iraq. Three of them came from a single platoon of infantrymen.
FRONTLINE tells the dark tale of the men of 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion of the 506th Infantry, and how the war followed them home. It is a story of heroism, grief, vicious combat, depression, drugs, alcohol and brutal murder; an investigation into the Army's mental health services; and a powerful portrait of what multiple tours and post-traumatic stress are doing to a generation of young American soldiers.
PRESS RELEASE
FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES A CLUSTER OF MURDERS, VIOLENT CRIMES, MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND DRUG ABUSE AMONG A PLATOON OF SOLDIERS RETURNING FROM IRAQ
FRONTLINE Season Finale
THE WOUNDED PLATOON
Tuesday, May 18, 2010, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/woundedplatoon
www.facebook.com/frontlinepbs
Twitter: @frontlinepbs
On November 30, 2007, 24-year-old Kevin Shields went out drinking with three Army buddies from Fort Carson, a base on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, Colo. A few hours later, he was dead—shot twice in the head at close range and left by the side of the road by his fellow soldiers. Shields’ murder punctuated a string of violent attacks committed by the three, who are now serving time in prison for this and other crimes, and it contributed to a startling statistic: Since the Iraq war began, a total of 17 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed at home in the United States, and 36 have committed suicide.
In The Wounded Platoon, airing Tuesday, May 18, 2010, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET (check local listings), FRONTLINE investigates a single Fort Carson platoon of infantrymen—the 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry—and finds a group of young men changed by war and battling a range of psychiatric disorders that many blame for their violent and self-destructive behavior. Since returning from Iraq, three members of the 3rd Platoon have been convicted on murder or attempted murder charges; one has been jailed for drunk driving and another for assaulting his wife; and one has attempted suicide.
The FRONTLINE investigation also uncovers extraordinary footage from police interrogation tapes alleging that members of the platoon murdered unarmed Iraqis. “There’s a whole bunch of people in the unit that killed people they weren’t supposed to,” according to Bruce Bastien, who, along with Louis Bressler and Kenny Eastridge, is now serving time for the murder of Kevin Shields. In a stunning confession recorded by police interviewers and shown for the first time on television, Bastien admits to his role in the murder of two U.S. soldiers and the stabbing of a young woman during a robbery in Colorado Springs—and he makes claims about more murders committed in Iraq during the surge. “It’s easy to get away with that kind of s*** over there. You can just do it and be like, ‘Oh, he had a gun, and nobody really looks into it. ‘F*** it, it’s just another dead Haji.’”
While the Army has concluded that there is no evidence to back up Bastien’s allegations of soldiers killing innocent Iraqis, FRONTLINE also speaks with platoon member Jose Barco, who makes a similar claim. “We were pretty trigger-happy,” he says of the soldiers’ time in Iraq. “We’d open up on anything. We usually rolled three or four trucks, and if one of them got hit and there was any males around, we’d open up, and we’d shoot at them. ... They even didn’t have to be armed.”
Barco is now serving a 52-year prison sentence for attempted murder following an incident at a party in Colorado Springs. Once hailed as a hero for saving two soldiers during a suicide-bomb attack that left him with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, he was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and says he was prescribed nine different medications. FRONTLINE interviews retired military psychiatrist Stephen Xenakis, who says that there may be a link between Barco’s crimes and his injuries. “We have someone who’s been emotionally traumatized, and they’ve got PTSD. They’re anxious, and they’re depressed, and they’ve got TBI, which means that they’ve got problems in decision making. They can’t think as clearly. They are really vulnerable to just overreacting.”
In The Wounded Platoon, FRONTLINE reveals a military mental health system overwhelmed with soldiers suffering psychological injuries from the surge—at Fort Carson the rate of PTSD diagnosis has risen 4,000 percent since 2002—and the widespread use of prescription psychiatric drugs both at home and in combat. “Everybody was on Ambien, everybody. It was hard to find somebody that wasn’t taking Ambien,” says the 3rd Platoon’s medic, Ryan “Doc” Krebbs. “It helps you sleep, and it also f***s you up. It gets you pretty high.” After returning home, Krebbs was also prescribed the antipsychotic medication Seroquel, on which he would purposefully overdose in a suicide attempt. “I thought that my time in this place was over, and I’d already done what I was supposed to do, and I didn’t want to live anymore.”
Before the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take psychiatric medications, but by the time of the surge more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were taking antidepressants and sleeping pills. These drugs enable the Army to keep soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder on the battlefield. “What I use medications for is to treat very specific side effects,” Army psychiatrist Col. George Brandt tells FRONTLINE. “I don’t want somebody in a helplessness mode in a combat environment. I want to make sure I don’t have someone with suicidal thoughts where everyone is armed.”
Kenny Eastridge, who is now serving time for the murder of Kevin Shields and other crimes, tells FRONTLINE that he sought help for mental health problems from a combat stress center on Forward Operating Base Falcon. “I was having a total mental breakdown. Every day we were getting in battles and never having a break. It seemed like, it was just crazy,” he says. “They put me on all kinds of meds, and I was still going out on missions. They had me on Ambien, Remeron, Lexapro, Celexa, all kind of different stuff.”
Despite the warnings that patients on these medications should be closely monitored for side effects, Eastridge was sent to a remote combat outpost for weeks at a time with no medical supervision or mental health provision. He says he ran out of medication and was also smoking marijuana and taking Valium. In dramatic footage filmed by other members of the 3rd Platoon, FRONTLINE shows Eastridge behaving erratically, wandering into Iraqi homes, lying in their beds, and trying to hug local women and men.
Fort Carson’s hospital remains understaffed with almost a quarter of its psychiatry positions unfilled. The 3rd’s battalion, which has been reflagged as the 2-12 Infantry, is about to return home from a year of intense combat in Afghanistan. “We’re all wondering what’s going to happen,” says Colorado Springs psychotherapist Robert Alvarez. “It’s a scary thought, you know, what’s going to happen in this community. Are we going to have more murders? Are we going to have more suicides, or are we going to have more crime? I think the answer to that is probably yes.”
The Wounded Platoon is a FRONTLINE co-production with Mongoose Pictures in association with the BBC. The producers are Dan Edge and Christopher Buchanan. The writer and director is Dan Edge. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation and by the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation. The senior producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
pbs.org/pressroom
Promotional photography can be downloaded from the PBS pressroom.
Press contact
Diane Buxton (617) 300-5375 diane_buxton@wgbh.org
UPDATE
ALSO
Human Cost of Combat Can Come Due at Home
By MIKE HALE
Published: May 17, 2010
“The Wounded Platoon” opens with the death of an American soldier. He had been to Iraq, but he didn’t die there. That soldier, Specialist Kevin Shields, survived combat only to be killed in Colorado Springs after a night of drinking with three Army buddies, who are all now serving prison sentences for his murder.
Specialist Shields’s murder and the unusually high levels of violence and suicide seen in some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been widely reported.
“The Wounded Platoon,” the final installment of this season of “Frontline” on PBS, synthesizes a lot of information about post-traumatic stress disorder and the Army’s policies on mental health while introducing us to members of a unit — third platoon, Charlie Company of the First Battalion, 506th Infantry, based at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs — who have had a particularly hard time adjusting to life after Iraq.
Post-traumatic stress, brought about by roadside bombs and longer, more frequent tours of duty, is only part of the story. The program explores how the Army, short of troops, began to accept recruits with criminal records that would have disqualified them in the past. (A military psychiatrist points out that this is not all bad: such soldiers are more likely to have behavioral problems, but they are also more likely to display heroism.)
go here for more of this
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/arts/television/18platoon.html
On air and online May 18, 2010 at 9:00pm
Since the Iraq War began, soldier arrests in the city of Colorado Springs, Colo., have tripled. At least 36 servicemen based at the nearby Army post of Fort Carson have committed suicide, and 14 Fort Carson soldiers have been charged or convicted in at least 11 killings. Many of the most violent crimes involved men who had served in the same battalion in Iraq. Three of them came from a single platoon of infantrymen.
FRONTLINE tells the dark tale of the men of 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion of the 506th Infantry, and how the war followed them home. It is a story of heroism, grief, vicious combat, depression, drugs, alcohol and brutal murder; an investigation into the Army's mental health services; and a powerful portrait of what multiple tours and post-traumatic stress are doing to a generation of young American soldiers.
PRESS RELEASE
FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES A CLUSTER OF MURDERS, VIOLENT CRIMES, MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND DRUG ABUSE AMONG A PLATOON OF SOLDIERS RETURNING FROM IRAQ
FRONTLINE Season Finale
THE WOUNDED PLATOON
Tuesday, May 18, 2010, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/woundedplatoon
www.facebook.com/frontlinepbs
Twitter: @frontlinepbs
On November 30, 2007, 24-year-old Kevin Shields went out drinking with three Army buddies from Fort Carson, a base on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, Colo. A few hours later, he was dead—shot twice in the head at close range and left by the side of the road by his fellow soldiers. Shields’ murder punctuated a string of violent attacks committed by the three, who are now serving time in prison for this and other crimes, and it contributed to a startling statistic: Since the Iraq war began, a total of 17 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed at home in the United States, and 36 have committed suicide.
In The Wounded Platoon, airing Tuesday, May 18, 2010, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET (check local listings), FRONTLINE investigates a single Fort Carson platoon of infantrymen—the 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry—and finds a group of young men changed by war and battling a range of psychiatric disorders that many blame for their violent and self-destructive behavior. Since returning from Iraq, three members of the 3rd Platoon have been convicted on murder or attempted murder charges; one has been jailed for drunk driving and another for assaulting his wife; and one has attempted suicide.
The FRONTLINE investigation also uncovers extraordinary footage from police interrogation tapes alleging that members of the platoon murdered unarmed Iraqis. “There’s a whole bunch of people in the unit that killed people they weren’t supposed to,” according to Bruce Bastien, who, along with Louis Bressler and Kenny Eastridge, is now serving time for the murder of Kevin Shields. In a stunning confession recorded by police interviewers and shown for the first time on television, Bastien admits to his role in the murder of two U.S. soldiers and the stabbing of a young woman during a robbery in Colorado Springs—and he makes claims about more murders committed in Iraq during the surge. “It’s easy to get away with that kind of s*** over there. You can just do it and be like, ‘Oh, he had a gun, and nobody really looks into it. ‘F*** it, it’s just another dead Haji.’”
While the Army has concluded that there is no evidence to back up Bastien’s allegations of soldiers killing innocent Iraqis, FRONTLINE also speaks with platoon member Jose Barco, who makes a similar claim. “We were pretty trigger-happy,” he says of the soldiers’ time in Iraq. “We’d open up on anything. We usually rolled three or four trucks, and if one of them got hit and there was any males around, we’d open up, and we’d shoot at them. ... They even didn’t have to be armed.”
Barco is now serving a 52-year prison sentence for attempted murder following an incident at a party in Colorado Springs. Once hailed as a hero for saving two soldiers during a suicide-bomb attack that left him with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, he was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and says he was prescribed nine different medications. FRONTLINE interviews retired military psychiatrist Stephen Xenakis, who says that there may be a link between Barco’s crimes and his injuries. “We have someone who’s been emotionally traumatized, and they’ve got PTSD. They’re anxious, and they’re depressed, and they’ve got TBI, which means that they’ve got problems in decision making. They can’t think as clearly. They are really vulnerable to just overreacting.”
In The Wounded Platoon, FRONTLINE reveals a military mental health system overwhelmed with soldiers suffering psychological injuries from the surge—at Fort Carson the rate of PTSD diagnosis has risen 4,000 percent since 2002—and the widespread use of prescription psychiatric drugs both at home and in combat. “Everybody was on Ambien, everybody. It was hard to find somebody that wasn’t taking Ambien,” says the 3rd Platoon’s medic, Ryan “Doc” Krebbs. “It helps you sleep, and it also f***s you up. It gets you pretty high.” After returning home, Krebbs was also prescribed the antipsychotic medication Seroquel, on which he would purposefully overdose in a suicide attempt. “I thought that my time in this place was over, and I’d already done what I was supposed to do, and I didn’t want to live anymore.”
Before the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take psychiatric medications, but by the time of the surge more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were taking antidepressants and sleeping pills. These drugs enable the Army to keep soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder on the battlefield. “What I use medications for is to treat very specific side effects,” Army psychiatrist Col. George Brandt tells FRONTLINE. “I don’t want somebody in a helplessness mode in a combat environment. I want to make sure I don’t have someone with suicidal thoughts where everyone is armed.”
Kenny Eastridge, who is now serving time for the murder of Kevin Shields and other crimes, tells FRONTLINE that he sought help for mental health problems from a combat stress center on Forward Operating Base Falcon. “I was having a total mental breakdown. Every day we were getting in battles and never having a break. It seemed like, it was just crazy,” he says. “They put me on all kinds of meds, and I was still going out on missions. They had me on Ambien, Remeron, Lexapro, Celexa, all kind of different stuff.”
Despite the warnings that patients on these medications should be closely monitored for side effects, Eastridge was sent to a remote combat outpost for weeks at a time with no medical supervision or mental health provision. He says he ran out of medication and was also smoking marijuana and taking Valium. In dramatic footage filmed by other members of the 3rd Platoon, FRONTLINE shows Eastridge behaving erratically, wandering into Iraqi homes, lying in their beds, and trying to hug local women and men.
Fort Carson’s hospital remains understaffed with almost a quarter of its psychiatry positions unfilled. The 3rd’s battalion, which has been reflagged as the 2-12 Infantry, is about to return home from a year of intense combat in Afghanistan. “We’re all wondering what’s going to happen,” says Colorado Springs psychotherapist Robert Alvarez. “It’s a scary thought, you know, what’s going to happen in this community. Are we going to have more murders? Are we going to have more suicides, or are we going to have more crime? I think the answer to that is probably yes.”
The Wounded Platoon is a FRONTLINE co-production with Mongoose Pictures in association with the BBC. The producers are Dan Edge and Christopher Buchanan. The writer and director is Dan Edge. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation and by the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation. The senior producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
pbs.org/pressroom
Promotional photography can be downloaded from the PBS pressroom.
Press contact
Diane Buxton (617) 300-5375 diane_buxton@wgbh.org
UPDATE
ALSO
Johan Spanner
Soldiers of the third platoon of Charlie Company, First Battalion, 506th Infantry, in Iraq. Several members of the unit have had trouble adjusting to life after completing their tours in Iraq.
Human Cost of Combat Can Come Due at Home
By MIKE HALE
Published: May 17, 2010
“The Wounded Platoon” opens with the death of an American soldier. He had been to Iraq, but he didn’t die there. That soldier, Specialist Kevin Shields, survived combat only to be killed in Colorado Springs after a night of drinking with three Army buddies, who are all now serving prison sentences for his murder.
Specialist Shields’s murder and the unusually high levels of violence and suicide seen in some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been widely reported.
“The Wounded Platoon,” the final installment of this season of “Frontline” on PBS, synthesizes a lot of information about post-traumatic stress disorder and the Army’s policies on mental health while introducing us to members of a unit — third platoon, Charlie Company of the First Battalion, 506th Infantry, based at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs — who have had a particularly hard time adjusting to life after Iraq.
Post-traumatic stress, brought about by roadside bombs and longer, more frequent tours of duty, is only part of the story. The program explores how the Army, short of troops, began to accept recruits with criminal records that would have disqualified them in the past. (A military psychiatrist points out that this is not all bad: such soldiers are more likely to have behavioral problems, but they are also more likely to display heroism.)
go here for more of this
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/arts/television/18platoon.html
Can't dazzle them with brilliance, bluff for attention
This post may seem way off topic but as I watched this man, I began to wonder how it is that the media could be so desperate to fill air time, they would put someone like this on.
Given the fact that he pretended to have talent he obviously does not, he bluffed his way onto the air. Isn't there another important thing they could have used to fill air time?
Four Wisconsin TV stations were involved in this. We have to wonder why they wouldn't cover something like this instead.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Homeless Veterans Shelter opens in Wisconsin so they could have maybe asked how the shelter is doing now, how the veterans are doing now and maybe, just maybe ask if there was anything the public could do to help. That could have filled air time for them instead of this.
They could have done something like this too.
While these posts go back three years, the problems veterans face has not gotten old. As a matter of fact, they have gotten worse. When it comes to Yo-Yo reports maybe they should have done a report on how the troops and National Guards have to endure a Yo-Yo ride of their own between being cheered as they deploy and ignored when they come home. There are some great things being done to help them, as you read above but if the general public is not reminded of the need these servicemen and women have, then they forget. I'm sure they won't have a problem forgetting this stunt and how this PR nightmare happened to five TV stations!
Fake Yo-Yo Master Cons His Way to TV Fame
May 12th 2010 By Simon Crisp
A man who claimed to be a "yo-yo master" conned his way onto five TV shows where he performed such "tricks" as hitting himself in the face. Hard.
Going by the names of Kenny Strasse, Kenny Strasser and K-Strass, the prankster contacted various TV stations telling them of his amazing yo-yo ability. Emails from his "agent" said Kenny was an award-winning yo-yo swinger who worked with a non-profit organization, ZimZam Yo-Yo, to dazzle children with his skills.
go here for more
Fake YoYo Master Cons His Way to TV Fame
Given the fact that he pretended to have talent he obviously does not, he bluffed his way onto the air. Isn't there another important thing they could have used to fill air time?
Yo-yo con man appears on 5 stations
Published: May 11, 2010 at 2:26 PM
MILWAUKEE, May 11 (UPI) -- Four Wisconsin TV stations and a Missouri station said they were tricked into putting a man on air who claimed to be a yo-yo champion.
The stations, including WFRV-TV, Green Bay, and KQTV, St. Joseph, Mo., said they received e-mails purporting to be from a man named Joe Guehrke, saying he represented ZimZam Yo-Yo, "the world's first 'green'" non-profit toy company and a man whose name was variously given as Kenny Strasser, Kenny Strassburg and K-Strass, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Tuesday.
click link for more
Four Wisconsin TV stations were involved in this. We have to wonder why they wouldn't cover something like this instead.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Mental Health
www.WisVets.com/PTSDNearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a 2008 RAND study commissioned by the Pentagon.
In the study, researchers found about 19 percent of returning service members report that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with 7 percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.
Left untreated, PTSD can result in more serious health and socio-economic outcomes. Left untreated, PTSD can result in an increased risk of suicide.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Homeless Veterans Shelter opens in Wisconsin so they could have maybe asked how the shelter is doing now, how the veterans are doing now and maybe, just maybe ask if there was anything the public could do to help. That could have filled air time for them instead of this.
They could have done something like this too.
Saturday, December 22, 2007 Nation makes them combat veterans but states have to heal the warriors?
Illinois: Will require screening of all National Guard troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for traumatic brain injuries. Screening will be offered to other returning veterans. A 24-hour hotline will be set up for veterans who need counseling.
Minnesota: Offers "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," a program that helps reintegrate returning veterans into communities, including counseling for family members even before soldiers return home. This year, the Minnesota National Guard funded the program from money intended for training; the state legislature appropriated $1.5 million for next year.
While these posts go back three years, the problems veterans face has not gotten old. As a matter of fact, they have gotten worse. When it comes to Yo-Yo reports maybe they should have done a report on how the troops and National Guards have to endure a Yo-Yo ride of their own between being cheered as they deploy and ignored when they come home. There are some great things being done to help them, as you read above but if the general public is not reminded of the need these servicemen and women have, then they forget. I'm sure they won't have a problem forgetting this stunt and how this PR nightmare happened to five TV stations!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
GOP lawmakers seek to amend budget for Fort Hood survivors
If the soldiers killed at Fort Hood were not given every military honor and their families compensated for a death during service to this country, then it is truly wrong. If the soldiers wounded were not given Purple Hearts after being fired upon at their base when they were unarmed, then there is something really wrong. To use this for anything other than doing the right thing for this uncommon situation wound be really appalling.
GOP lawmakers prepare amendments to budget
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 15, 2010 8:56:43 EDT
Armed with eight amendments to the 2011 defense budget — and there could be more — Republican House Armed Services Committee members said Thursday they want to highlight the differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to keeping America safe. They are calling it their “Defend America Plan.”
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman, said he is aware of Republican plans and was not overly concerned, saying Democrats likely support much of what Republicans are proposing. Skelton said he is preparing for a lengthy debate next week on the 2011 defense authorization bill, and he hopes, even with many Republican amendments, to get the measure approved in one day.
One of the Republican amendments involves last year’s Fort Hood shootings, which Republicans want to count as part of the war on terrorism rather than an isolated incident.
Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon of California, ranking Republican on the armed services committee, said they will offer an amendment to the 2011 defense authorization bill on Wednesday that provides combat-related benefits to victims of the shooting, and requires the Defense Department to release a restricted portion of an independent report about the shooting that they believe will provide families more details.If approved, the amendment would make shooting victims eligible for the Purple Heart, would provide $150,000 in Combat Servicemembers Group Life Insurance to families of those who died — even if they had not signed up for the military insurance program — waive recoupment of bonuses, and allow families to stay in government housing for up to a year after the November 2009 shooting deaths.
read more here
Vietnam vets to get belated welcome home
Vietnam vets to get belated welcome home
By Keith Uhlig • Wausau Daily Herald • May 16, 2010
When people ask what he did in the Vietnam War, Bill Tomcek replies: "I hid."
Tomcek, 66, of Weston did reconnaissance work in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in 1968 as part of the U.S. Army's Ninth Infantry Division. His job was to find the enemy and call in either artillery or larger teams of soldiers to take them out. He was either alone or with one or two others, and part of the role was always to keep out of sight.
When he got back to the states, he kept hiding, in a manner of speaking. As anti-war efforts ramped up and much of that anger spilled onto the veterans returning home from Vietnam, Tomcek kept his military service to himself.
"I basically just became an unknown. I didn't tell anybody what I did. I didn't wear any particular clothing that identified me as a veteran," Tomcek said.
The way Vietnam veterans were mistreated upon their return home is one of the lasting legacies of the war, and it's an impetus for LZ Lambeau, which will be held Friday through May 23 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
go here for more
Vietnam vets to get belated welcome home
By Keith Uhlig • Wausau Daily Herald • May 16, 2010
When people ask what he did in the Vietnam War, Bill Tomcek replies: "I hid."
Tomcek, 66, of Weston did reconnaissance work in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in 1968 as part of the U.S. Army's Ninth Infantry Division. His job was to find the enemy and call in either artillery or larger teams of soldiers to take them out. He was either alone or with one or two others, and part of the role was always to keep out of sight.
When he got back to the states, he kept hiding, in a manner of speaking. As anti-war efforts ramped up and much of that anger spilled onto the veterans returning home from Vietnam, Tomcek kept his military service to himself.
"I basically just became an unknown. I didn't tell anybody what I did. I didn't wear any particular clothing that identified me as a veteran," Tomcek said.
The way Vietnam veterans were mistreated upon their return home is one of the lasting legacies of the war, and it's an impetus for LZ Lambeau, which will be held Friday through May 23 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
go here for more
Vietnam vets to get belated welcome home
Veterans honor fallen Vietnam medic's heroism
Veterans honor fallen Vietnam era soldier at May 20 ceremony
Published: Saturday, May 15, 2010
DEARBORN — The public is invited to attend a ceremony honoring U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Raymond J. Borowski, a resident of Dearborn, who lost his life on May 20, 1967, while serving his country as the senior medic in HHQ Company in Vietnam.
The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. on May 20, at the Veterans’ Memorial in the front of Dearborn City Hall, 13615 Michigan Ave. It is being hosted by the James L. Huard Vietnam Veterans Chapter 267 and the American Legion Post 364.
During the ceremony, Specialist 4 Louis Macellari, a fellow soldier in the 1st Batallion, 8th Infantry Regiment, will recount the events of May 20 and May 21, 1967, during which Borowski was killed.
Macellari also will return to Borowski’s family a St. Christopher medal that Borowski gave to him just before his death.
read more here
Veterans honor fallen Vietnam era soldier
Published: Saturday, May 15, 2010
DEARBORN — The public is invited to attend a ceremony honoring U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Raymond J. Borowski, a resident of Dearborn, who lost his life on May 20, 1967, while serving his country as the senior medic in HHQ Company in Vietnam.
The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. on May 20, at the Veterans’ Memorial in the front of Dearborn City Hall, 13615 Michigan Ave. It is being hosted by the James L. Huard Vietnam Veterans Chapter 267 and the American Legion Post 364.
During the ceremony, Specialist 4 Louis Macellari, a fellow soldier in the 1st Batallion, 8th Infantry Regiment, will recount the events of May 20 and May 21, 1967, during which Borowski was killed.
Macellari also will return to Borowski’s family a St. Christopher medal that Borowski gave to him just before his death.
read more here
Veterans honor fallen Vietnam era soldier
City to unveil plan to protect veterans' memorial
City to unveil plan to protect veterans' memorial
Posted at: 05/16/2010 10:33 AM Updated at: 05/16/2010 11:03 AM
By: Cristina Rodda, Eyewitness News 4
The city of Albuquerque is working to put an end to vandalism at Veterans' Memorial Park. Next week, the city will unveil a plan to restore and protect the memorials at the park. They're also considering paying for the damage and installing security cameras.
For veterans, the vandalism cuts deep.
"I believe in my country. I was there to defend my country, and it hurts my heart to think something like this happens," veteran Frank Castillo said with tears in his eyes.
Castillo was only 21-years-old when he was drafted for the Korean War. He comes to the park to remember his fallen comrades. On Saturday, he came to the park because of the vandalism.
"I heard about it and it hurt me real bad. I came to see what the damage was," said Castillo.
He can't understand how someone could break off and steal a rifle and helmet from the bronze Vietnam Veteran Memorial. He's not alone.
"Vandals they don't understand," explained veteran Keith Gilbert.
Gilbert fought in the Vietnam War. He's hoping the city will fight to keep the memorials safe.
read more here
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1562003.shtml?cat=504
Posted at: 05/16/2010 10:33 AM Updated at: 05/16/2010 11:03 AM
By: Cristina Rodda, Eyewitness News 4
The city of Albuquerque is working to put an end to vandalism at Veterans' Memorial Park. Next week, the city will unveil a plan to restore and protect the memorials at the park. They're also considering paying for the damage and installing security cameras.
For veterans, the vandalism cuts deep.
"I believe in my country. I was there to defend my country, and it hurts my heart to think something like this happens," veteran Frank Castillo said with tears in his eyes.
Castillo was only 21-years-old when he was drafted for the Korean War. He comes to the park to remember his fallen comrades. On Saturday, he came to the park because of the vandalism.
"I heard about it and it hurt me real bad. I came to see what the damage was," said Castillo.
He can't understand how someone could break off and steal a rifle and helmet from the bronze Vietnam Veteran Memorial. He's not alone.
"Vandals they don't understand," explained veteran Keith Gilbert.
Gilbert fought in the Vietnam War. He's hoping the city will fight to keep the memorials safe.
read more here
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1562003.shtml?cat=504
Ft. Knox honors Vietnam veterans
Ft. Knox honors Vietnam veterans
Posted: May 15, 2010 5:56 PM EDT
Vietnam War veterans and their accomplishments are often forgotten. At Fort Knox Saturday, an important monument was unveiled to remember those who lost their lives in that conflict.
A memorial stone honors 105 soldiers from the 19th Engineer Battalion. The battalion was remembered for there extraordinary heroism between July 16, 1967 and December 31, 1968.
read more here
Ft. Knox honors Vietnam veterans
Posted: May 15, 2010 5:56 PM EDT
Vietnam War veterans and their accomplishments are often forgotten. At Fort Knox Saturday, an important monument was unveiled to remember those who lost their lives in that conflict.
A memorial stone honors 105 soldiers from the 19th Engineer Battalion. The battalion was remembered for there extraordinary heroism between July 16, 1967 and December 31, 1968.
read more here
Ft. Knox honors Vietnam veterans
Iraq Veteran on her way of becoming an Army Chaplain
Photos by RON BASELICE/DMN
Doretta Fortenberry and fiance Joshua Remy (above) hope to have joint careers as Army chaplains. Fortenberry earned her master of divinity degree from the Perkins School of Theology on Saturday
With SMU divinity degree, Iraq veteran on way to becoming Army chaplain
09:12 AM CDT on Sunday, May 16, 2010
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.com
Most soldiers do not go into a war zone and find a new career.
But Doretta Fortenberry did.
She was a recent graduate of Texas Tech University and headed toward a teaching career when she surprised her family and friends by joining the Texas National Guard in 2003.
When her unit deployed the following year, Fortenberry landed at an Army base in southern Iraq, working as a clerk for the brigade commander.
That's when soldiers began reaching out to her for spiritual guidance, and Fortenberry recognized her calling to become an Army chaplain.
"I felt such peace and contentment doing it," she said. "You just know it's the right thing."
On Saturday, she took an important step toward that goal when she was awarded a master of divinity degree, magna cum laude, from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
"It feels wonderful," said Fortenberry, 32, as she joined her parents and other family members after commencement ceremonies at Highland Park United Methodist Church.
read more here
Iraq veteran on way to becoming Army chaplain
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