New York Utility Charged for Hanging Flags From Its Poles at Memorial for Slain Soldier
By MARK REEVES
May 26, 2011
The folks on Shelter Island, N.Y., were furious after they held a memorial parade to honor Lt. Joseph Theinert, a town resident who was killed in Afghanistan. The service included having members of Theinert's old unit march along a flag draped street that was named after Theinert.
Then they got the bill. The Long Island Power Authority charged them for hanging the American flags from its utility poles.
The resulting outcry has prompted a change of heart from the embarassed power company and LIPA CEO Michael Hervey is offering to personally pay for the flags. The tab only comes to $23.75 to put flags on 19 LIPA poles, but it wasn't the cost that left some folks sizzling like a summer barbecue.
"It was outrageous," County Legislator Ed Romaine told ABC News. "How do you charge for putting up American flags? LIPA didn't even put up the flags. The American Legion did. To do something patriotic and get charged for it was ridiculous."
read more here
New York Utility Charged for Hanging Flags
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Team Rubicon making a difference for all
When you take a bunch of veterans, many like Clay Hunt trying to carry on with PTSD eating them alive, put them to work for others, it is the best medicine. Doing for others feeds the gift they were born with. There is not a selfish bone in their body. They have to be unselfish to be willing to serve in the military and be willing to die in the process. Clay's death after combat by suicide was a very hard story to post on because he had done everything experts say needs to be done to heal.
After the shock of his death subsided it occurred to me, and many more, that getting involved with Team Rubicon may have added to his days on earth because he was giving so much back to others. Volunteer work for these veterans is a blessing to them giving them an emotional jolt but it also wears on their souls being exposed to more and more suffering.
When they show up to do this kind of work, there needs to be more emotional support for them just as with other emergency responders. Crisis intervention teams need to be ready and able to help them after especially when they are already carrying the burden of combat inside. Team Rubicon's efforts are spot on considering veterans volunteering are happier than an isolated veteran but there is only so much they can do. If you are trained in Crisis Intervention, please be there for them so more like Clay Hunt will be here tomorrow.
After the shock of his death subsided it occurred to me, and many more, that getting involved with Team Rubicon may have added to his days on earth because he was giving so much back to others. Volunteer work for these veterans is a blessing to them giving them an emotional jolt but it also wears on their souls being exposed to more and more suffering.
When they show up to do this kind of work, there needs to be more emotional support for them just as with other emergency responders. Crisis intervention teams need to be ready and able to help them after especially when they are already carrying the burden of combat inside. Team Rubicon's efforts are spot on considering veterans volunteering are happier than an isolated veteran but there is only so much they can do. If you are trained in Crisis Intervention, please be there for them so more like Clay Hunt will be here tomorrow.
Team Rubicon
Mission Statement
Team Rubicon bridges the critical time gap between large humanitarian disasters and conventional aid response. We provide vanguard medical care by fielding small, self-sustaining, mobile teams of specially skilled first-responders. To deploy rapidly, we rely heavily on a horizontal command structure, social networking technology, and the employment of local nationals.
Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms
Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms? Well it depends on what is in the mail. A box of favorite snacks, a loving letter about how much they are missed and drawings from their kids could remind them they are loved and someone back home is thinking about them. Then again, there is another kind of mail. Dear John letters, mail from neighbors telling them there is a strange car parked in the driveway all night long, a stranger has been cutting their lawn or complaints by the spouse back home about how they are never around will leave a very bad taste in their mouth. The types of mail they can get could either help or hurt but we should be wondering what the hell this study was even done for. It is all common sense, which apparently, the military is lacking.
It said that "symptoms" of PTSD are lessened but not the rate of PTSD, but again, this would fall under common sense. When they have supportive people standing behind them it makes living with PTSD a bit easier to cope with. When they are alone, it is harder. It makes the need to isolate excusable, which is a common desire for combat veterans but supports the notion no one will ever understand them. For the lonely deployed, no news is not good news for them.
Study: Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms
May 25, 2011
Military.com|by Amy Bushatz
The more mail a happily married Soldier receives downrange, the less likely he is to have PTSD issues when he comes home -- but frequent mail for unhappily married Soldiers can result in stronger symptoms, a new study says.
While frequent mail from home works as stress relief for happily married Soldiers, it likely causes unhappily married Soldiers additional stress, the study's authors said.
"What we believe is that the communication is acting as support for the [Soldier]," said Sarah Carter, the report's primary author. "It may be that for those that aren't as satisfied, it's just not offering the same extent of support that those that are very satisfied are getting from that communication."
read more here
Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms
It said that "symptoms" of PTSD are lessened but not the rate of PTSD, but again, this would fall under common sense. When they have supportive people standing behind them it makes living with PTSD a bit easier to cope with. When they are alone, it is harder. It makes the need to isolate excusable, which is a common desire for combat veterans but supports the notion no one will ever understand them. For the lonely deployed, no news is not good news for them.
GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
May 26, 2011
Associated Press
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- An Army sergeant was found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings of his squad leader and another U.S. Soldier at a patrol base in Iraq, but he was spared the death penalty when the military jury didn't return a unanimous verdict.
Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich now faces a sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is an option in a court-martial only when there's a unanimous guilty verdict for premeditated murder. The 12-member jury at Fort Stewart did not report exactly how it was split when it announced its verdict.
Bozicevich, 41, admitted during the trial that he shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin at a patrol base outside Baghdad on Sept. 14, 2008, after they criticized him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone. But he testified that he only opened fire because the two Soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if he didn't sign off on their written reports about him.
Prosecutors insisted that he grabbed his gun in anger after the men wounded his pride, when Dawson decided to strip the Soldier of his leadership role of a four-man squad because of a series of battlefield blunders. Prosecutor Maj. Scott Ford told jurors Tuesday that Bozicevich snapped after that "final blow to his ego."
read more here
GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
May 26, 2011
Associated Press
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- An Army sergeant was found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings of his squad leader and another U.S. Soldier at a patrol base in Iraq, but he was spared the death penalty when the military jury didn't return a unanimous verdict.
Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich now faces a sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is an option in a court-martial only when there's a unanimous guilty verdict for premeditated murder. The 12-member jury at Fort Stewart did not report exactly how it was split when it announced its verdict.
Bozicevich, 41, admitted during the trial that he shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin at a patrol base outside Baghdad on Sept. 14, 2008, after they criticized him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone. But he testified that he only opened fire because the two Soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if he didn't sign off on their written reports about him.
Prosecutors insisted that he grabbed his gun in anger after the men wounded his pride, when Dawson decided to strip the Soldier of his leadership role of a four-man squad because of a series of battlefield blunders. Prosecutor Maj. Scott Ford told jurors Tuesday that Bozicevich snapped after that "final blow to his ego."
read more here
GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls, no one asks why?
Will anyone else ever ask why so many reach the point they have to call in the first place? With all the programs and money invested in helping them when they come home, the numbers go up instead of down. What is going on here? More calls to the suicide prevention hotline and more deaths. Any reporters bothering to check into why this is all happening?
VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 25, 2011 12:01:23 EDT
The Veterans Affairs Department’s Veterans Crisis Line received 14,000 calls in April, the highest monthly volume ever recorded for the four-year-old suicide prevention program.
“Every day last month, more than 400 calls were received,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chairwoman who disclosed the call volume during a Wednesday hearing. “While it is heartening to know that these calls for help are being answered, it is a sad sign of desperation and difficulties our veterans face that there are so many in need of a lifeline.”
The hotline, established in 2007, is a suicide prevention and crisis counseling program available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The number is 800-273-8255.
Antonette Zeiss, VA’s chief mental health officer, said that since the 2007 launch, the call center has received more than 400,000 calls, referred 55,000 veterans to local suicide prevention coordinators for same-day or next-day help and initiated 15,000 “rescues” of callers near suicide.
read more here
VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls
At Vietnam vet's funeral, strangers mourn a lost soul
At Vietnam vet's funeral, strangers mourn a lost soul
Written by
Will Higgins
MARION, Ind. -- Kenneth Earl Taylor Jr.'s funeral drew two-dozen Patriot Guard motorcyclists, a VFW honor guard and five Daughters of the American Revolution, among others.
Nearly 100 people in all.
But only three of them actually knew Taylor.
The others mourned not Taylor personally but rather the circumstances that formed one man's grim narrative: Vietnam veteran, living in squalor, kills himself.
Marion Behr, Indianapolis, came to the services at the national cemetery to "represent all the mentally ill people and their troubles."
David Gray, Indianapolis, came for his brother, Danny White, who died alone in Texas, a Vietnam vet who'd been living under a bridge. Gray missed that funeral -- he didn't hear of his brother's passing until five years later.
read more here
At Vietnam vet's funeral, strangers mourn a lost soul
Written by
Will Higgins
MARION, Ind. -- Kenneth Earl Taylor Jr.'s funeral drew two-dozen Patriot Guard motorcyclists, a VFW honor guard and five Daughters of the American Revolution, among others.
Nearly 100 people in all.
But only three of them actually knew Taylor.
The others mourned not Taylor personally but rather the circumstances that formed one man's grim narrative: Vietnam veteran, living in squalor, kills himself.
Marion Behr, Indianapolis, came to the services at the national cemetery to "represent all the mentally ill people and their troubles."
David Gray, Indianapolis, came for his brother, Danny White, who died alone in Texas, a Vietnam vet who'd been living under a bridge. Gray missed that funeral -- he didn't hear of his brother's passing until five years later.
read more here
At Vietnam vet's funeral, strangers mourn a lost soul
First Person: Memorial Day 2011
First Person: Memorial Day 2011: United States Marines: A ‘Band of Brothers’
May 25, 2011
By Commander (Chaplain) MANUEL DON A. BIADOG JR., CHC, USN
Band of Brothers was made famous by the 2001 Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks 10-part television miniseries based on a book about a U.S. Army elite paratrooper unit during World War II by historian and biographer Stephen E. Ambrose.
In the book and in the miniseries, the Band of Brothers were men of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. They formed together a band of brothers, a brotherhood of their shared experiences from basic training in 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Ga., to D-Day in June of 1944 and their ultimate triumph at the end of World War II.
A modern day band of brothers, or brothers-in-arms, has shared a difficult, dangerous, traumatic, and stressful experience in battle, losing their fellow brothers-in-arms in combat. Those who know the true meaning of brotherhood, have lived it each and every day, and established a special bond that binds them together for the rest of their lives.
May 25, 2011
By Commander (Chaplain) MANUEL DON A. BIADOG JR., CHC, USN
ARLINGTON, Va. (BP)—Today’s Marines in combat are our modern-day Band of Brothers.
HONORING THE FALLEN Corporals Stephen Rothermelpilla (left)and Richard Castagna salute Lance Corporal Kevin Michael Cornelius and Lance Corporal Tyler Owen Griffins gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo by Dan DeGuzman, Jr.
Band of Brothers was made famous by the 2001 Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks 10-part television miniseries based on a book about a U.S. Army elite paratrooper unit during World War II by historian and biographer Stephen E. Ambrose.
In the book and in the miniseries, the Band of Brothers were men of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. They formed together a band of brothers, a brotherhood of their shared experiences from basic training in 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Ga., to D-Day in June of 1944 and their ultimate triumph at the end of World War II.
A modern day band of brothers, or brothers-in-arms, has shared a difficult, dangerous, traumatic, and stressful experience in battle, losing their fellow brothers-in-arms in combat. Those who know the true meaning of brotherhood, have lived it each and every day, and established a special bond that binds them together for the rest of their lives.
Obamacares
Rant for the day off topic but can't help it.
I keep hearing about "Obamacare" which is nothing to be ashamed of since it shows he does care about people, not the corporations controlling their healthcare insurance. He doesn't think that companies should have the power to tell a new Mom after she delivers a child with birth defects the child will be too expensive to take care of. He doesn't think that someone finding out they have cancer after working all their lives should be shut off because staying alive will be too expensive. Just as he doesn't think that someone without getting insurance should just be able to have the rest of the country cover their care when they find out they are the patient with cancer and no insurance simply because they didn't want it when they were healthy.
This is not the only thing that gets me stirred up.
When you hear some of the talking heads on radio shows talking about the evils of "socialism" maybe you should consider the tornadoes taking out towns, leaving thousands homeless and killing many. FEMA shows up funded by taxpayer dollars. The National Guards show up funded by taxpayer dollars and civilians show up to take care of those in need.
Over and over again I keep wondering who decided that taking care of people was a bad thing and taking care of companies was a good thing? Doesn't sound fishy to you? These same folks saying that the oil companies should keep getting what they get from taxpayers also say that people don't deserve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on top of not deserving to be able to go to the doctor's office without being sent into the poor house. They complain about things people have paid into but want corporate welfare to continue? Is the deficit important or not? Do people matter to them or not? What happened to all the "family values" these same folks used to talk about? They proved they don't care when they keep going after someone who does. Every time they say "Obama care" I say, yes he does but they don't.
I keep hearing about "Obamacare" which is nothing to be ashamed of since it shows he does care about people, not the corporations controlling their healthcare insurance. He doesn't think that companies should have the power to tell a new Mom after she delivers a child with birth defects the child will be too expensive to take care of. He doesn't think that someone finding out they have cancer after working all their lives should be shut off because staying alive will be too expensive. Just as he doesn't think that someone without getting insurance should just be able to have the rest of the country cover their care when they find out they are the patient with cancer and no insurance simply because they didn't want it when they were healthy.
This is not the only thing that gets me stirred up.
When you hear some of the talking heads on radio shows talking about the evils of "socialism" maybe you should consider the tornadoes taking out towns, leaving thousands homeless and killing many. FEMA shows up funded by taxpayer dollars. The National Guards show up funded by taxpayer dollars and civilians show up to take care of those in need.
Over and over again I keep wondering who decided that taking care of people was a bad thing and taking care of companies was a good thing? Doesn't sound fishy to you? These same folks saying that the oil companies should keep getting what they get from taxpayers also say that people don't deserve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on top of not deserving to be able to go to the doctor's office without being sent into the poor house. They complain about things people have paid into but want corporate welfare to continue? Is the deficit important or not? Do people matter to them or not? What happened to all the "family values" these same folks used to talk about? They proved they don't care when they keep going after someone who does. Every time they say "Obama care" I say, yes he does but they don't.
4 hurt in accidental shooting at Smokey Bones including 4 year old boy
4 hurt in accidental shooting at Smokey Bones on East Colonial
The injuries are minor. The man whose gun went off has a concealed-weapon permit.
By David Breen, Orlando Sentinel
9:17 p.m. EDT, May 24, 2011
Thinking of bringing your gun out to dinner with the family? A man who did just that this evening ended up injuring four people, himself included, at a Smokey Bones restaurant on East Colonial Drive in Orlando.
The victims, including a 4-year-old boy, were slightly injured when the gun went off accidentally in the restaurant's foyer, Orlando police said.
The owner of the gun, a 35-year-old man who was not identified, suffered powder burns and abrasions to his leg. He declined medical treatment.
The other three people were slightly injured, primarily in the legs, by either bullet fragments or bits of floor tile, according to Orlando police Lt. John Holysz. Those victims were a 32-year-old woman, her 4-year-old son, and an unrelated man in his 20s. All three were taken to local hospitals as a precautionary measure.
According to Lt. Holysz, the man had just arrived for dinner with his wife and child at about 7 p.m. when the gun discharged near the restaurant's entrance.
read more here
4 hurt in accidental shooting at Smokey Bones
The injuries are minor. The man whose gun went off has a concealed-weapon permit.
By David Breen, Orlando Sentinel
9:17 p.m. EDT, May 24, 2011
Thinking of bringing your gun out to dinner with the family? A man who did just that this evening ended up injuring four people, himself included, at a Smokey Bones restaurant on East Colonial Drive in Orlando.
The victims, including a 4-year-old boy, were slightly injured when the gun went off accidentally in the restaurant's foyer, Orlando police said.
The owner of the gun, a 35-year-old man who was not identified, suffered powder burns and abrasions to his leg. He declined medical treatment.
The other three people were slightly injured, primarily in the legs, by either bullet fragments or bits of floor tile, according to Orlando police Lt. John Holysz. Those victims were a 32-year-old woman, her 4-year-old son, and an unrelated man in his 20s. All three were taken to local hospitals as a precautionary measure.
According to Lt. Holysz, the man had just arrived for dinner with his wife and child at about 7 p.m. when the gun discharged near the restaurant's entrance.
read more here
4 hurt in accidental shooting at Smokey Bones
Over 1,900 Guardsmen Activated for Weather Emergencies
Over 1,900 Guardsmen Activated for Weather Emergencies
May 24, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Derek Turner
WASHINGTON -- The half-mile-wide tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., Monday morning has claimed the lives of 117 people so far, and it's prompted the mobilization of the state's National Guard troops, a common occurrence lately as violent weather has pummeled parts of the South and Midwest this spring.
So far, more than 1,900 guardsmen are responding to disasters in 10 states. In Missouri, 270 had been mobilized as of Tuesday morning and members of the the 117th Engineer Team were sifting through the rubble, carrying out search-and-rescue missions. They're also conducting emergency route clearance, communications support and security efforts, according to a National Guard statement.
read more here
Over 1,900 Guardsmen Activated for Weather Emergencies
May 24, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Derek Turner
WASHINGTON -- The half-mile-wide tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., Monday morning has claimed the lives of 117 people so far, and it's prompted the mobilization of the state's National Guard troops, a common occurrence lately as violent weather has pummeled parts of the South and Midwest this spring.
So far, more than 1,900 guardsmen are responding to disasters in 10 states. In Missouri, 270 had been mobilized as of Tuesday morning and members of the the 117th Engineer Team were sifting through the rubble, carrying out search-and-rescue missions. They're also conducting emergency route clearance, communications support and security efforts, according to a National Guard statement.
read more here
Over 1,900 Guardsmen Activated for Weather Emergencies
Woman Wanted For Stealing From Marines
Woman Wanted For Stealing From Marines
By Megan Cassell / Reporter
ONSLOW COUNTY -- A woman last seen in Jacksonville is wanted for stealing from Marines.
When Victor Arroyo got a call from Navy Federal Credit Union saying he was writing bad checks, he had an idea of who may be to blame.
Christine Jean Maloney-Beville was his old roommate's girlfriend in 2009.
In a phone interview, he said, "I actually got a Facebook message from a Marine's wife that rented a room out to her...she ended up stealing a bunch of money and jewelry from them and ran and left behind my old checks."
She was allegedly signing his name of checks written for more than $1,000 each.
Authorities say he's not the only Marine she's targeted. Maloney-Beville has a list of arrest warrants dating back to 2007, including ID fraud, worthless checks, and most recently probation violations and failure to show up in court.
read more here
Woman Wanted For Stealing From Marines
By Megan Cassell / Reporter
ONSLOW COUNTY -- A woman last seen in Jacksonville is wanted for stealing from Marines.
When Victor Arroyo got a call from Navy Federal Credit Union saying he was writing bad checks, he had an idea of who may be to blame.
Christine Jean Maloney-Beville was his old roommate's girlfriend in 2009.
In a phone interview, he said, "I actually got a Facebook message from a Marine's wife that rented a room out to her...she ended up stealing a bunch of money and jewelry from them and ran and left behind my old checks."
She was allegedly signing his name of checks written for more than $1,000 each.
Authorities say he's not the only Marine she's targeted. Maloney-Beville has a list of arrest warrants dating back to 2007, including ID fraud, worthless checks, and most recently probation violations and failure to show up in court.
read more here
Woman Wanted For Stealing From Marines
Special Forces soldier in flip-flops caught suspect running from police
Special Forces soldier awarded for putting self in harm's way to assist local police officer
Story by David Chace
FAYETEVILLE, N.C. - The streets of Fayetteville, N.C., are a little safer thanks to the quick thinking and initiative of a recent Special Forces Qualification Course graduate.
Sgt. Valentin Birlean was assigned to the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) awaiting transfer to the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Carson, Colo.
In mid-April, Birlean, his wife and son were enjoying their last weeks in Fayetteville before moving the family out west, and were driving down Cliffdale Rd. toward a local park when he noticed a police officer in need of assistance.
At an intersection, a Fayetteville police officer had conducted what seemed to be a routine traffic stop. The officer and the car’s owner stood nearby.
Suddenly, the owner of the car grabbed his backpack, which they’d been searching through, and started running down the road. The police officer attempted to chase after him, but was pushed onto the ground.
Birlean didn’t think twice; he threw his car into park, jumped out and chased after the man, who didn’t expect to have to compete with a Special Forces soldier who could run 5 miles in less than 37 minutes.
Even in flip-flops, it didn’t take Birlean long to catch up with and subdue the suspect.
read more here
Special Forces soldier awarded for putting self in harm's way
Story by David Chace
FAYETEVILLE, N.C. - The streets of Fayetteville, N.C., are a little safer thanks to the quick thinking and initiative of a recent Special Forces Qualification Course graduate.
Sgt. Valentin Birlean was assigned to the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) awaiting transfer to the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Carson, Colo.
In mid-April, Birlean, his wife and son were enjoying their last weeks in Fayetteville before moving the family out west, and were driving down Cliffdale Rd. toward a local park when he noticed a police officer in need of assistance.
At an intersection, a Fayetteville police officer had conducted what seemed to be a routine traffic stop. The officer and the car’s owner stood nearby.
Suddenly, the owner of the car grabbed his backpack, which they’d been searching through, and started running down the road. The police officer attempted to chase after him, but was pushed onto the ground.
Birlean didn’t think twice; he threw his car into park, jumped out and chased after the man, who didn’t expect to have to compete with a Special Forces soldier who could run 5 miles in less than 37 minutes.
Even in flip-flops, it didn’t take Birlean long to catch up with and subdue the suspect.
read more here
Special Forces soldier awarded for putting self in harm's way
Vietnam Vet killed in motorcycle accident showed up for others
Vietnam vet who died in crash was dedicated to greeting returning soldiers
May 24, 2011 8:52 PM
Vietnam veteran David Fitzgerald saw the devastation on a soldier’s face when he wasn’t greeted home from the perils of war.
He vowed it would never happen again.
The 60-year-old Manitou Springs resident rode his burly tricycle on 140 missions the past couple years with the Colorado Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcyclists that greet soldiers when they return from tours overseas.
“When he liked something, he kind of went at something like he was killing snakes — all or nothing,” said his wife, Judith Fitzgerald.
But his time on that tricycle ended Thursday while on what was to have been one of his longest missions: A trip to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. called the Run for the Wall.
Fitzgerald, a two-time cancer survivor, lost control of his tricycle around 6:45 a.m. while exiting Interstate 25 in Albuquerque. He died at the scene of the crash; his passenger, Mark Gritton of Colorado Springs, survived.
Read more:
Vietnam vet who died in crash
May 24, 2011 8:52 PM
Vietnam veteran David Fitzgerald saw the devastation on a soldier’s face when he wasn’t greeted home from the perils of war.
He vowed it would never happen again.
The 60-year-old Manitou Springs resident rode his burly tricycle on 140 missions the past couple years with the Colorado Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcyclists that greet soldiers when they return from tours overseas.
“When he liked something, he kind of went at something like he was killing snakes — all or nothing,” said his wife, Judith Fitzgerald.
But his time on that tricycle ended Thursday while on what was to have been one of his longest missions: A trip to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. called the Run for the Wall.
Fitzgerald, a two-time cancer survivor, lost control of his tricycle around 6:45 a.m. while exiting Interstate 25 in Albuquerque. He died at the scene of the crash; his passenger, Mark Gritton of Colorado Springs, survived.
Read more:
Vietnam vet who died in crash
Fort Carson on alert after armed man robs post store
How does this happen after what happened at Fort Hood?
'Armed and Dangerous' Man Robs Fort Carson store
Fort Carson officials are looking for an armed and dangerous man accused of robbing a store on post.
Reporter: KKTV
Fort Carson sent out the following information to military and families on post: "Community members should be on the lookout for a thin, dark-complexioned black male wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, dark shorts and white tennis shoes in connection with a robbery at the Gate 3 Shoppette. He should be considered armed and dangerous.
read more here
'Armed and Dangerous' Man Robs Fort Carson store
What's a dog doing in court?
Lisa Blanchard of Clinton Township watches her 3-year-old Doberman pinscher, Rylan, get some attention Monday from Judge Brian MacKenzie of 52nd District Court. Rylan is the newest addition to the therapy-heavy program for veterans that MacKenzie started last year. / Photos by MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free PressBY L. L. BRASIER
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Fourteen men sitting in a room at the Novi district courthouse had two things in common: They were military veterans, and they were in legal trouble.
Rylan, a 3-year-old Doberman pinscher, offered up some sympathy to the men waiting Monday. She wagged her tail and placed her long snout on an occasional knee. Rylan is the nation's first veterans court dog, a trained support animal that provides distraught and often anxious veterans with a way to cope as they work through their legal problems. She sits with them before court, then accompanies them before the judge -- a calming presence in a sometimes threatening environment.
"I was surprised when I first saw her. I thought, 'What's a dog doing in court?' " said Dean Hayden, 48, of Wixom, a Marine Corps vet participating in the veterans court program following a drunken-driving arrest last year. "But then I could see how she helps everybody relax."
read more here
Court dog offers hope
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded 2nd Bronze Star
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded 2nd Bronze Star
1st Sgt. Curtis Rice Awarded Honor For Actions In Afghanistan In July 2009
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- One of the highest honors for valor in combat was presented to a Camp Pendleton Marine during a ceremony at the base on Tuesday.
1st Sgt. Curtis Rice was awarded the medal for his actions on July 27, 2009 in the Uzbin Valley in eastern Afghanistan.
"We were coming back from a village when our patrol was attacked," said Rice.
read more here
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded 2nd Bronze Star
1st Sgt. Curtis Rice Awarded Honor For Actions In Afghanistan In July 2009
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- One of the highest honors for valor in combat was presented to a Camp Pendleton Marine during a ceremony at the base on Tuesday.
1st Sgt. Curtis Rice was awarded the medal for his actions on July 27, 2009 in the Uzbin Valley in eastern Afghanistan.
"We were coming back from a village when our patrol was attacked," said Rice.
read more here
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded 2nd Bronze Star
Darkhorse Marine to receive Victory motorcycle
L-R: Sgt.Maj. Kent, Lt.Col. Morris, LCpl., Gen. Amos in Sangin, AFG; 12/25/10Home from war, Marine to receive his Victory Motorcycle
By Ann Hamilton
May 24, 2011 - 5:51:49 PM
Blackanthem Military News
VAN NUYS, Califonia - Operation Gratitude today announced that on Sunday, June 5 a Marine infantryman recently returned from Afghanistan will be given the Victory Vegas 8-Ball Motorcycle promised in the organization's milestone 600,000th Care Package assembled in December, 2010.
The milestone package was delivered on Christmas day by the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, to a Lance Corporal with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, who at the time was serving a seven-month deployment in the deadly Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province.
The name of the Marine who received the 600,000th care package will be revealed at the event on June 5.
The 3/5, also known as "Dark Horse Battalion," experienced heavy combat throughout the deployment, with 25 of its men killed and more than 150 wounded. The 600,000th package recipient, along with his 3/5 comrades, returned to Camp Pendleton in April. The Marine, who received the package containing symbolic keys attached to a letter describing the bike, was recently promoted to Corporal and will join the Operation Gratitude volunteers and guests at the armory to receive the motorcycle generously donated by Victory Motorcycles.
read more here
Home from war, Marine to receive his Victory Motorcycle
Wounded Marine cheered at Angel Stadium
Angels honor local Marine's sacrifice in Afghanistan
Bob Tompkins
As Marine sergeant Micah Crooks walked with a slight limp to to the pitcher's mound at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the Alexandria native was introduced to some 43,000 fans settling in to watch the Los Angeles Angels host the Atlanta Braves Saturday night.
Crooks, 25, had been invited by the Angels, as a Marine combat engineer who had been injured in Afghanistan, to help the team celebrate Armed Forces Day by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
"There was a low murmur from the crowd (during the intro), but when they said 'United States Marine,' everybody started cheering," Crooks said.
Crooks and his wife, Raelena, from Orange Country, Calif., live at the Marine base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and they have season tickets for Angels home games.
read more here
Angels honor local Marine's sacrifice in Afghanistan
Bob Tompkins
As Marine sergeant Micah Crooks walked with a slight limp to to the pitcher's mound at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the Alexandria native was introduced to some 43,000 fans settling in to watch the Los Angeles Angels host the Atlanta Braves Saturday night.
Crooks, 25, had been invited by the Angels, as a Marine combat engineer who had been injured in Afghanistan, to help the team celebrate Armed Forces Day by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
"There was a low murmur from the crowd (during the intro), but when they said 'United States Marine,' everybody started cheering," Crooks said.
Crooks and his wife, Raelena, from Orange Country, Calif., live at the Marine base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and they have season tickets for Angels home games.
read more here
Angels honor local Marine's sacrifice in Afghanistan
Ft. Hood massacre victim posthumously awarded the Secretary of the Army's Award for Valor
Ft. Hood massacre victim awarded by Army
The only civilian to die in the Fort Hood Shootings received high honor on Monday.
Michael Cahill was posthumously awarded the Secretary of the Army's Award for Valor, the highest honor possible for a civilian.
On November 5th, 2009, Cahill was working as a physician's assistant on Fort Hood when gunfire rang out. The retired National Guardsman threw a chair at the gunman before he was shot and killed.
read more here
Ft. Hood massacre victim awarded by Army
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
War hero to prisoner
War hero to prisoner: Would all that he valued slip away?
The war at home
Last of three chapters:
By Moni Basu, CNN
May 24, 2011 08:00 a.m. EDT
The war hero's reputation fell hard around parts of Georgia.
Disorderly conduct. Obstruction of an officer. DUI. Since his return from Iraq, the former sheriff's deputy had found himself time and again on the other side of the law.
He was accused of taking a 12-pack of beer out of a convenience store on a Sunday, when alcohol sales are prohibited in Georgia, and almost ran over the store clerk with his truck. Twice, he tried to kill himself.
A year ago, an unexpected message popped up on my Facebook page. It was Spc. Shane Parham's sister, Mandi. Her brother was in jail.
He was incarcerated in neighboring Newton County, so he would not have to deal with former colleagues in the Walton County Sheriff's Office and jail.
They were tired of dealing with him.
Some whispered that his Iraq knee injury occurred during a volleyball game at Camp Striker, not a vehicle rollover. They suggested Parham was an angry man even before Iraq and was using battle scars as a crutch to get away with belligerent behavior.
Some of his fellow soldiers in Alpha company said Parham was making up his Iraq stories in a cry for attention.
Capt. Ty Vance of the sheriff's office said Parham developed an image as a whiner who was leading life with an "I deserve better" attitude. I asked him if he felt sorry for his former colleague.
"Not anymore," Vance said. "Not after the way he's handled things."
read more here
War hero to prisoner
The war at home
Last of three chapters:
By Moni Basu, CNN
May 24, 2011 08:00 a.m. EDT
The war hero's reputation fell hard around parts of Georgia.
Disorderly conduct. Obstruction of an officer. DUI. Since his return from Iraq, the former sheriff's deputy had found himself time and again on the other side of the law.
He was accused of taking a 12-pack of beer out of a convenience store on a Sunday, when alcohol sales are prohibited in Georgia, and almost ran over the store clerk with his truck. Twice, he tried to kill himself.
A year ago, an unexpected message popped up on my Facebook page. It was Spc. Shane Parham's sister, Mandi. Her brother was in jail.
He was incarcerated in neighboring Newton County, so he would not have to deal with former colleagues in the Walton County Sheriff's Office and jail.
They were tired of dealing with him.
Some whispered that his Iraq knee injury occurred during a volleyball game at Camp Striker, not a vehicle rollover. They suggested Parham was an angry man even before Iraq and was using battle scars as a crutch to get away with belligerent behavior.
Some of his fellow soldiers in Alpha company said Parham was making up his Iraq stories in a cry for attention.
Capt. Ty Vance of the sheriff's office said Parham developed an image as a whiner who was leading life with an "I deserve better" attitude. I asked him if he felt sorry for his former colleague.
"Not anymore," Vance said. "Not after the way he's handled things."
read more here
War hero to prisoner
Blue Angels Nix Naval Academy Show After Incident
Blue Angels Nix Naval Academy Show After Incident
May 24, 2011
Associated Press
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The Blue Angels have canceled a practice and show this week at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., days after announcing a safety standown after four of the six jets flew below a specified altitude at a recent air show.
The famed flight squadron said it is scrubbing Tuesday's scheduled practice and Wednesday's show. Navy Lt. Kaitie Kelly, the Blue Angels spokeswoman, says it hasn't been decided yet if the team will perform its traditional flyover at the academy's graduation Friday.
read more here
Blue Angels Nix Naval Academy Show After Incident
May 24, 2011
Associated Press
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The Blue Angels have canceled a practice and show this week at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., days after announcing a safety standown after four of the six jets flew below a specified altitude at a recent air show.
The famed flight squadron said it is scrubbing Tuesday's scheduled practice and Wednesday's show. Navy Lt. Kaitie Kelly, the Blue Angels spokeswoman, says it hasn't been decided yet if the team will perform its traditional flyover at the academy's graduation Friday.
read more here
Blue Angels Nix Naval Academy Show After Incident
When you don't hold a job but it holds you
When you don't hold a job but it holds you
Chaplain Kathie
There are days when I get up too early, start searching the headlines and then wish I had stayed in bed a few hours longer. When you see just a few posts on this blog, more than likely it was one of those days or like yesterday, I just tied up with projects for Digital Media. Today began like one of those days when the headlines looked great but the stories ended up being written as if the reporter regretted having to cover the story. I saved a few I found then started to search for pictures for a new project. I found the above picture, being a sucker for dogs, especially puppies, I followed the link to the story. I was stunned and happy I got up early this morning.
This is a job that I do not hold. It is a job that holds me. There is no walking away from it. I didn't get a gold watch when 25 years of marriage reminded me of how long I've been doing this. But there are many more people in the country with jobs holding onto them instead of the other way around.
Less than a week from now this nation is supposed to be remembering all the men and women willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation. Usually I am in Washington DC but this year I will be at the Navy Exchange for their 65th anniversary celebration. Many of my classmates will be going away, having parties, taking very little notice of what this day is for. That is why I thought this article written last year holding a video from a Marine giving a speech to his men was so powerful. These young men and women, serving this nation, know full well what Memorial Day is for and Gunnery Sgt. Brian Walgren speech reflected the fact some in this country have no clue what it is like to have this job.
read more here
John Glenn speech to Marines in Afghanistan
Chaplain Kathie
There are days when I get up too early, start searching the headlines and then wish I had stayed in bed a few hours longer. When you see just a few posts on this blog, more than likely it was one of those days or like yesterday, I just tied up with projects for Digital Media. Today began like one of those days when the headlines looked great but the stories ended up being written as if the reporter regretted having to cover the story. I saved a few I found then started to search for pictures for a new project. I found the above picture, being a sucker for dogs, especially puppies, I followed the link to the story. I was stunned and happy I got up early this morning.
This is a job that I do not hold. It is a job that holds me. There is no walking away from it. I didn't get a gold watch when 25 years of marriage reminded me of how long I've been doing this. But there are many more people in the country with jobs holding onto them instead of the other way around.
 |
| This puppy wandered up to Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, in Afghanistan in January, and later starred in a video about 1/6 that has gone viral on the Web. (Photo by Cpl. Charles Mabry/Marine Corps) |
Less than a week from now this nation is supposed to be remembering all the men and women willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation. Usually I am in Washington DC but this year I will be at the Navy Exchange for their 65th anniversary celebration. Many of my classmates will be going away, having parties, taking very little notice of what this day is for. That is why I thought this article written last year holding a video from a Marine giving a speech to his men was so powerful. These young men and women, serving this nation, know full well what Memorial Day is for and Gunnery Sgt. Brian Walgren speech reflected the fact some in this country have no clue what it is like to have this job.
The real story behind the John Glenn speech to Marines in Afghanistan
NOVEMBER 10TH, 2010
POSTED BY DAN LAMOTHE
Times were tense before the initial February assault on Marjah, Afghanistan. A narcotics hub and Taliban stronghold, it was expected to be booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices and filled with insurgents waiting for a fight.
Obviously, the Corps took control of Marjah within days. It’s still a dangerous place, but one where Marine officials say they see hope, at least.
Before the assault, Gunnery Sgt. Brian Walgren, the company gunny for Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, fired up his troops with a gritty, heartfelt speech.
”Howard, I can’t believe you said that. I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I went through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions.
”I ask you to go with me as I went the other day to a veterans’ hospital, and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn’t hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.
”You go with me on Memorial Day coming up and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends than I like to remember, and you watch those waving flags, and you stand there and you think about this nation and you tell me that those people didn’t have a job.
”I tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men – some men – who held a job.”
read more here
John Glenn speech to Marines in Afghanistan
Monday, May 23, 2011
Army mulls future of National Guard, Reserve
Army mulls future of National Guard, Reserve
Declining demand, budget pressures are behind the review
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 23, 2011 8:03:02 EDT
Leaders of the National Guard and Army Reserve are looking to theater security cooperation missions as a way to keep their forces ready, even as demand for boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan declines after almost a decade of war.
The Reserve already is involved in these missions — working with partner nations; building schools and roads; providing medical and dental care, administering immunizations and giving lessons on diet and nutrition.
“This past year, I visited soldiers who’ve been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, El Salvador, Uganda, Kenya, doing these types of missions,” said Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, chief of the Reserve. “It’s very fulfilling for the soldier because they feel like they’re making a difference, but we’re usually there for three to four weeks, then we go home.”
In the future, when the demand in Iraq and Afghanistan diminishes, Stultz envisions more and longer missions like this.
“We have these units that are in the available year, why wouldn’t we let them go do something like that for a longer period of time?” he said. “Three months instead of three weeks, for example, and really make a huge impact and build relationships.”
The Reserve also could partner with Southern Command or Army South and assign available units to those commands to use for their missions or exercises, Stultz said.
read more here
Army mulls future of National Guard, Reserve
Declining demand, budget pressures are behind the review
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 23, 2011 8:03:02 EDT
Leaders of the National Guard and Army Reserve are looking to theater security cooperation missions as a way to keep their forces ready, even as demand for boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan declines after almost a decade of war.
The Reserve already is involved in these missions — working with partner nations; building schools and roads; providing medical and dental care, administering immunizations and giving lessons on diet and nutrition.
“This past year, I visited soldiers who’ve been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, El Salvador, Uganda, Kenya, doing these types of missions,” said Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, chief of the Reserve. “It’s very fulfilling for the soldier because they feel like they’re making a difference, but we’re usually there for three to four weeks, then we go home.”
In the future, when the demand in Iraq and Afghanistan diminishes, Stultz envisions more and longer missions like this.
“We have these units that are in the available year, why wouldn’t we let them go do something like that for a longer period of time?” he said. “Three months instead of three weeks, for example, and really make a huge impact and build relationships.”
The Reserve also could partner with Southern Command or Army South and assign available units to those commands to use for their missions or exercises, Stultz said.
read more here
Army mulls future of National Guard, Reserve
Tenn. guardsmen come to stricken man’s aid
Tenn. guardsmen come to stricken man’s aid
The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun
Posted : Sunday May 22, 2011 15:38:45 EDT
JACKSON, Tenn. — Quick thinking on the part of four Tennessee guardsmen who recently provided medical assistance to an elderly man at a Jackson restaurant may have saved his life.
While on their lunch break at about 1:15 p.m. May 15, Staff Sgt. Shane Hutchens, Staff Sgt. Kenji Yamauchi, Sgt. Loren Steele and Spc. James Davis of the Union City-based 913th Engineers, 230th Engineer Battalion, were standing in line at a Subway restaurant when they noticed an elderly man lose his balance and catch himself on the edge of the vegetable counter, according to a news release.
“He began to sway back and forth,” Davis said in the release. At this point, the soldiers asked the man if he was all right.
When the man failed to respond, Yamauchi and Hutchens caught him as he began to fall to prevent him from being injured. Davis pulled up a chair so he could sit down. But before he could be seated, the elderly man blacked out.
read more here
Tenn. guardsmen come to stricken man’s aid
The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun
Posted : Sunday May 22, 2011 15:38:45 EDT
JACKSON, Tenn. — Quick thinking on the part of four Tennessee guardsmen who recently provided medical assistance to an elderly man at a Jackson restaurant may have saved his life.
While on their lunch break at about 1:15 p.m. May 15, Staff Sgt. Shane Hutchens, Staff Sgt. Kenji Yamauchi, Sgt. Loren Steele and Spc. James Davis of the Union City-based 913th Engineers, 230th Engineer Battalion, were standing in line at a Subway restaurant when they noticed an elderly man lose his balance and catch himself on the edge of the vegetable counter, according to a news release.
“He began to sway back and forth,” Davis said in the release. At this point, the soldiers asked the man if he was all right.
When the man failed to respond, Yamauchi and Hutchens caught him as he began to fall to prevent him from being injured. Davis pulled up a chair so he could sit down. But before he could be seated, the elderly man blacked out.
read more here
Tenn. guardsmen come to stricken man’s aid
Fort Carson honors volunteers
Fort Carson honors volunteers
May 19, 2011
By Staff Sgt. Wayne Barnett (Fort Carson)
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Exemplary Volunteer Service Awards line the table at the Elkhorn Conference Center Tuesday 17. Thirty five awards were given for at least 500 hours of service to the Fort Carson Community.
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Five Fort Carson volunteers were honored for donating more than 750 hours of their time in 2010, during the annual awards luncheon held Tuesday at the Elkhorn Conference Center.
Robin Arnold, Tessa Hebert, Clara Huff, Alicia Michael and Martha Reed each received Volunteer of the Year awards during the "Celebrating Fort Carson Volunteers in Action" luncheon that honored nearly 150 post volunteers for their efforts.
"I feel that volunteers are pivotal to keeping Fort Carson running; I feel that they are giving their hearts, souls and time," said Ginger Perkins, wife of Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, commanding general, U.S. Division-North and 4th Infantry Division. "I really don't think Fort Carson could survive without its volunteers."
"I work a lot with the Families of wounded warriors making sure they are supported while their Soldier heals," Hebert said.
Nearly 2,400 registered Mountain Post volunteers logged a combined 147,532 hours in 2010, saving Fort Carson an estimated $2.5 million, according to Joey Bautista, Fort Carson volunteer coordinator.
read more here
Fort Carson honors volunteers
May 19, 2011
By Staff Sgt. Wayne Barnett (Fort Carson)
Photo credit Staff Sgt. Wayne Barnett (Fort Carson)
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Exemplary Volunteer Service Awards line the table at the Elkhorn Conference Center Tuesday 17. Thirty five awards were given for at least 500 hours of service to the Fort Carson Community.
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Five Fort Carson volunteers were honored for donating more than 750 hours of their time in 2010, during the annual awards luncheon held Tuesday at the Elkhorn Conference Center.
Robin Arnold, Tessa Hebert, Clara Huff, Alicia Michael and Martha Reed each received Volunteer of the Year awards during the "Celebrating Fort Carson Volunteers in Action" luncheon that honored nearly 150 post volunteers for their efforts.
"I feel that volunteers are pivotal to keeping Fort Carson running; I feel that they are giving their hearts, souls and time," said Ginger Perkins, wife of Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, commanding general, U.S. Division-North and 4th Infantry Division. "I really don't think Fort Carson could survive without its volunteers."
"I work a lot with the Families of wounded warriors making sure they are supported while their Soldier heals," Hebert said.
Nearly 2,400 registered Mountain Post volunteers logged a combined 147,532 hours in 2010, saving Fort Carson an estimated $2.5 million, according to Joey Bautista, Fort Carson volunteer coordinator.
read more here
Fort Carson honors volunteers
Outlaw motorcycle groups on the rise in ENC
Authorities: Outlaw motorcycle groups on the rise in ENC
May 22, 2011 10:01 PM
HOPE HODGE
If you drive anywhere in Onslow County, you have likely seen them: groups of bikers out on a run, straddling Harleys with high handlebars and sporting well-worn leather or denim vests emblazoned with an evocative image: a skull wearing an Indian headdress. A mythical troll-god. A winged harpy.
They are members of motorcycle clubs, close-knit, dedicated and frequently secretive groups formed around a shared identity and a collective love of steel pipes and roaring down the freeway.
The prized jackets are known as colors, a military term emphasizing a regimental authority structure and the notion of brotherhood that is signature to the armed forces. They identify the biker’s club affiliation and frequently his state of origin as well.
While the majority of motorcycle clubs in Onslow and elsewhere cooperate with local authorities and may even participate in community events or charitable causes, a few label themselves “outlaws” or “one-percenters,” contributing to a fierce subculture of violence, drug dealing and other fringe criminal activities.
And this region’s one-percenter population is thriving.
Last July, Onslow County Sheriff’s detective John Dubois told The Daily News that among local gangs, outlaw biker groups were among the office’s greatest concerns.
“Motorcycle gangs are the biggest problem we’re going to have right now,” he said. “They’re very active and moving into this area, although there’s no evidence of any increase in crime associated with those gangs.”
Outlaw motorcycle groups on the rise in ENC
May 22, 2011 10:01 PM
HOPE HODGE
If you drive anywhere in Onslow County, you have likely seen them: groups of bikers out on a run, straddling Harleys with high handlebars and sporting well-worn leather or denim vests emblazoned with an evocative image: a skull wearing an Indian headdress. A mythical troll-god. A winged harpy.
They are members of motorcycle clubs, close-knit, dedicated and frequently secretive groups formed around a shared identity and a collective love of steel pipes and roaring down the freeway.
The prized jackets are known as colors, a military term emphasizing a regimental authority structure and the notion of brotherhood that is signature to the armed forces. They identify the biker’s club affiliation and frequently his state of origin as well.
While the majority of motorcycle clubs in Onslow and elsewhere cooperate with local authorities and may even participate in community events or charitable causes, a few label themselves “outlaws” or “one-percenters,” contributing to a fierce subculture of violence, drug dealing and other fringe criminal activities.
And this region’s one-percenter population is thriving.
Last July, Onslow County Sheriff’s detective John Dubois told The Daily News that among local gangs, outlaw biker groups were among the office’s greatest concerns.
“Motorcycle gangs are the biggest problem we’re going to have right now,” he said. “They’re very active and moving into this area, although there’s no evidence of any increase in crime associated with those gangs.”
According to the report, Naval Criminal Investigative Service Officials observed members of the Pagans recruiting Marines for their main support club, the Untamed Rebels.read more here
“It has been observed that many members in the Untamed Rebels are either active-duty or recently retired USMC, Government contractors at Camp Lejeune, or retired military members who are attracted to the lifestyle and camaraderie of being a member or associate of an OMG,” said the report.
Among regional recommendations for law enforcement: identify the large number of Pagans support club members who are retired United States Marine Corps and/or current DoD contractors at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, and identify the United States Marines, active duty and prior enlistment, who are associating with the Outlaws OMG.
Outlaw motorcycle groups on the rise in ENC
A once-homeless vet beats 'a terrible 20 years'
From living in his truck to commencement: A once-homeless vet beats 'a terrible 20 years'
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011
By Glenn Coin / The Post-Standard
While his Le Moyne College classmates studied in the library, Tom Sleeth read by a camp light in the cab of his Ford Ranger.
While they were eating at dining halls, Sleeth, a Marine veteran, was pulling food from Dumpsters. While they were turning in for the night in warm beds, Sleeth was driving around Syracuse, seeking spots beyond the reach of stiff winds and police cruisers.
Today, on his 45th birthday, Sleeth will graduate from Le Moyne College with a bachelor’s degree in English. To get there, he has overcome more obstacles than many of his classmates will endure in their lifetimes. He has suffered two crippling, life-altering injuries; gone bankrupt twice; been divorced twice; lost his parents and extended family; lost his home; and lived for more than two years off the largesse of friends and in the back of his pickup truck.
Now he is on the verge of graduating, has a home in Clay, and just last month reconnected with the love of his life whom he had not seen for 20 years. He hopes to get into graduate school in Buffalo and rekindle the romance with Aimee Latone, who lives in Jamestown.
“Everything is looking really, really wonderful for the first time ever,” Sleeth said. “It’s been a terrible 20 years.”
He’s been driven, he said, by a faith in God and an inextinguishable sense of optimism and a fierce pride.
“I don’t like giving up,” he said.
read more here
A once-homeless vet beats a terrible 20 years
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011
By Glenn Coin / The Post-Standard
While his Le Moyne College classmates studied in the library, Tom Sleeth read by a camp light in the cab of his Ford Ranger.
While they were eating at dining halls, Sleeth, a Marine veteran, was pulling food from Dumpsters. While they were turning in for the night in warm beds, Sleeth was driving around Syracuse, seeking spots beyond the reach of stiff winds and police cruisers.
Today, on his 45th birthday, Sleeth will graduate from Le Moyne College with a bachelor’s degree in English. To get there, he has overcome more obstacles than many of his classmates will endure in their lifetimes. He has suffered two crippling, life-altering injuries; gone bankrupt twice; been divorced twice; lost his parents and extended family; lost his home; and lived for more than two years off the largesse of friends and in the back of his pickup truck.
Now he is on the verge of graduating, has a home in Clay, and just last month reconnected with the love of his life whom he had not seen for 20 years. He hopes to get into graduate school in Buffalo and rekindle the romance with Aimee Latone, who lives in Jamestown.
“Everything is looking really, really wonderful for the first time ever,” Sleeth said. “It’s been a terrible 20 years.”
He’s been driven, he said, by a faith in God and an inextinguishable sense of optimism and a fierce pride.
“I don’t like giving up,” he said.
read more here
A once-homeless vet beats a terrible 20 years
Church to hold service to remember veterans
Chaplain Robert Crossan II visited some wounded Marines and said,
“I wanted to pray for them,” Crossan said.
But, instead, they asked him if they could pray for someone else — another Marine, more badly injured, who was in intensive care.
“Can we pray for him? We don’t know if he’s going to live or die,” they told him.
No matter what they were facing they wanted to pray for someone else they felt needed the prayers more. In moments like that, God is there.
When people see the worst that people can do to others, it is very hard to believe God's love or even that He cares at all. We can walk away believing we're on our own or we can look at what else is right in front of our eyes. Compassion, tenderness, mercy and a stranger caring for someone else even while they are in need.
Church to hold service to remember veterans
PRINCE OF PEACE: Navy chaplain to deliver message after deployment to Afghanistan.
By KARI HELTON/The Valley Chronicle
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011 7:07 AM PDT
In the midst of the carnage of war, Chaplain Robert Crossan II and the Marines he serves with find evidence of God’s presence.
Crossan will be the speaker at the Armed Forces Sunday service on May 29, a day before Memorial Day, at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
The purpose of the service, said church Pastor Ron Ritter, is to remember what Memorial Day is about.
“It is to remember and give thanks for the veterans who, when the time came to defend the principles and freedom and liberty upon which this country were founded, were willing to do so and sometimes gave up their lives in so doing,” Ritter said.
Crossan, who recently returned from a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan, “brings a fresh perspective on what this global war on terrorism translates to,” Ritter said. “He certainly is going to emphasize that the young Americans who are serving the country are every bit as dedicated as the many millions of men and women who have preceded them in the military service.”
Crossan, a 27-year Navy chaplain who has served in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and tsunami-ravaged Indonesia, said he will speak of “God with us.”
“As a chaplain, I like to say that I am a reminder that God is in the midst of us,” Crossan said.
In Afghanistan, Crossan served as a group chaplain with the 1st Marine Logistics Group based at Camp Pendleton. He related stories from his and the Marines’ experience in Afghanistan in which faith was found.
There was, for example, his hospital visit to three of his guys who were injured.
“I wanted to pray for them,” Crossan said.
But, instead, they asked him if they could pray for someone else — another Marine, more badly injured, who was in intensive care.
“Can we pray for him? We don’t know if he’s going to live or die,” they told him.
“That’s powerful stuff,” Crossan said.
read more here
Church to hold service to remember veterans
When they leave combat, it is easy for them to return without the faith they may have had all their lives. Their faith was tested by horrors. Some come home thinking they deserved God to abandon them or that they have become as evil as what they have seen but if they look back at all of what they lived through, they will find moments when all that was good was still there.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Marine Corps Records on Camp Lejeune Site Missing
Marine Corps Records on Camp Lejeune Site Missing
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Published: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Some soil at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was so saturated with fuel and chemicals by the late 1980s, the Marine Corps knew it was critical to test the air in nearby buildings for carcinogens.
"We want to be sure that there are no compounds present inside the work spaces in these buildings — which could have a long-term chronic adverse health effect on occupants," base environmental engineer Bob Alexander told the public in 1988.
Testing, he said, would begin "in the very near future."
But nothing in the vast collection of public records detailing one of the nation's worst contamination sites shows the Marine Corps kept that promise.
The only indoor air quality testing reflected in records occurred a decade or more later. And by then, fuel odors were so bad that five buildings would be demolished.
After weeks of searching their files, Corps officials acknowledged to the St. Petersburg Times that they could find no documentation that testing was completed before the late 1990s.
read more here
Marine Corps Records on Camp Lejeune Site Missing
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Published: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Some soil at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was so saturated with fuel and chemicals by the late 1980s, the Marine Corps knew it was critical to test the air in nearby buildings for carcinogens.
"We want to be sure that there are no compounds present inside the work spaces in these buildings — which could have a long-term chronic adverse health effect on occupants," base environmental engineer Bob Alexander told the public in 1988.
Testing, he said, would begin "in the very near future."
But nothing in the vast collection of public records detailing one of the nation's worst contamination sites shows the Marine Corps kept that promise.
The only indoor air quality testing reflected in records occurred a decade or more later. And by then, fuel odors were so bad that five buildings would be demolished.
After weeks of searching their files, Corps officials acknowledged to the St. Petersburg Times that they could find no documentation that testing was completed before the late 1990s.
read more here
Marine Corps Records on Camp Lejeune Site Missing
Afghanistan: 82 Airborne CO PowerPoint with "Slavery Reinstated" and "Slap a bitch"
PowerPoint slides spur ouster of CO, CSM
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 22, 2011 8:45:39 EDT
On Nov. 7, 2009, in Afghanistan, a PowerPoint slide appeared in the daily battle update briefing of a battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division. The slide was meant as a joke, but it set off a firestorm.
The slide, among those emailed throughout the battalion, bore the photo of a black college basketball player crying in victory with a basketball net around his neck; draped over his shoulders is the arm of his white coach. The text beneath it reads, “Slavery Reinstated,” and “Catch yourself a strong one.”
The picture, found online, sparked a formal equal-opportunity complaint and a division-level investigation. Five months into a yearlong deployment, two rising stars, Lt. Col. Frank Jenio and Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Puckett, were fired from their positions leading 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.
An Army investigation over the course of two weeks took 32 sworn statements from soldiers in Afghanistan and compiled the 47 slides used in the briefings.
The slides, which had appeared in the morning briefings for about two months, showed scantily clad women in provocative poses, a cartoon of a man kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, and on the day after the racially charged slide, a man was shown hitting a woman in a slide above the words, “Slap a bitch.”
read more here
PowerPoint slides spur ouster of CO, CSM
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 22, 2011 8:45:39 EDT
On Nov. 7, 2009, in Afghanistan, a PowerPoint slide appeared in the daily battle update briefing of a battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division. The slide was meant as a joke, but it set off a firestorm.
The slide, among those emailed throughout the battalion, bore the photo of a black college basketball player crying in victory with a basketball net around his neck; draped over his shoulders is the arm of his white coach. The text beneath it reads, “Slavery Reinstated,” and “Catch yourself a strong one.”
The picture, found online, sparked a formal equal-opportunity complaint and a division-level investigation. Five months into a yearlong deployment, two rising stars, Lt. Col. Frank Jenio and Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Puckett, were fired from their positions leading 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.
An Army investigation over the course of two weeks took 32 sworn statements from soldiers in Afghanistan and compiled the 47 slides used in the briefings.
The slides, which had appeared in the morning briefings for about two months, showed scantily clad women in provocative poses, a cartoon of a man kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, and on the day after the racially charged slide, a man was shown hitting a woman in a slide above the words, “Slap a bitch.”
read more here
PowerPoint slides spur ouster of CO, CSM
Public defender confronts post-traumatic stress
Vandeveld: Public defender confronts post-traumatic stress
BY DARREL VANDEVELD
Contributing writer
I can still remember -- in fact, I don't think I will ever forget -- the first time I began to realize that I had been deeply affected, that I had been profoundly changed in some way that I could not define, by my experiences as a soldier serving since 2001 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Africa and Iraq.
I had returned to Erie from Iraq in August 2006, after a yearlong tour where I spent long days in southern Iraq, in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and in other small towns and villages in that hostile land. In September 2006, now safely at home, I waited in a crowded supermarket to pick up a cake for my son's seventh birthday. Without warning, a sense of unease descended upon me like a shroud.
The people around me seemed to have placed a weight on my chest, their proximity becoming a kind of oppression. My hands started to tremble, my heart began to race, and sweat ran in streams down my face. I felt unable to breathe, and fled in a panic to my car, where I sat, mystified as to what had just happened. I refused to admit to myself, as I wiped the beads of sweat from my brow, that I had just experienced the first public pangs of a disorder that would continue to afflict me and those close to me for years: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
I may have heard of the term "PTSD" before that September day, but if I had, I hadn't given it much thought. PTSD is something cowards or weaklings claim to suffer from, I thought, and I knew I was neither weak nor a coward. I'd never shirked a mission, never sought to avoid danger, never froze or failed to act when danger presented itself, and I'd borne the physical burdens of over two years of deployments, laboring in unbelievable heat, fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, with no apparent physical harm and no complaint.
To the contrary, I felt strong, confident -- a man in full, with nothing left to prove to myself or anyone else. Post-traumatic stress? I rejected the notion out of hand. My agony in the supermarket had to have been low blood sugar or an undigested bit of beef, nothing that a good meal and some rest wouldn't cure.
read more here
Public defender confronts post-traumatic stress
BY DARREL VANDEVELD
Contributing writer
I can still remember -- in fact, I don't think I will ever forget -- the first time I began to realize that I had been deeply affected, that I had been profoundly changed in some way that I could not define, by my experiences as a soldier serving since 2001 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Africa and Iraq.
I had returned to Erie from Iraq in August 2006, after a yearlong tour where I spent long days in southern Iraq, in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and in other small towns and villages in that hostile land. In September 2006, now safely at home, I waited in a crowded supermarket to pick up a cake for my son's seventh birthday. Without warning, a sense of unease descended upon me like a shroud.
The people around me seemed to have placed a weight on my chest, their proximity becoming a kind of oppression. My hands started to tremble, my heart began to race, and sweat ran in streams down my face. I felt unable to breathe, and fled in a panic to my car, where I sat, mystified as to what had just happened. I refused to admit to myself, as I wiped the beads of sweat from my brow, that I had just experienced the first public pangs of a disorder that would continue to afflict me and those close to me for years: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
I may have heard of the term "PTSD" before that September day, but if I had, I hadn't given it much thought. PTSD is something cowards or weaklings claim to suffer from, I thought, and I knew I was neither weak nor a coward. I'd never shirked a mission, never sought to avoid danger, never froze or failed to act when danger presented itself, and I'd borne the physical burdens of over two years of deployments, laboring in unbelievable heat, fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, with no apparent physical harm and no complaint.
To the contrary, I felt strong, confident -- a man in full, with nothing left to prove to myself or anyone else. Post-traumatic stress? I rejected the notion out of hand. My agony in the supermarket had to have been low blood sugar or an undigested bit of beef, nothing that a good meal and some rest wouldn't cure.
read more here
Public defender confronts post-traumatic stress
Seven months in Iraq, six years back home
Seven months in Iraq, six years back home: A soldier's war on two fronts
The war at home
By Moni Basu, CNN
April 25, 2011 11:24 a.m. EDT
The first time I met Spc. Shane Parham, his face was wrinkled with sadness. Beads of sweat met Iraqi dust and curved down his sunburned skin like the swampy Alcovy River in his native Georgia.
He was in the checkout line at Baghdad's Camp Striker commissary, only two months into his Iraq tour. But already, he'd witnessed war's brutality.
I thought of that first meeting recently as I peered at Parham through a 2-inch thick slab of glass in a prison visitation booth. The cinder-block walls, drab like the Iraqi desert, closed in on him.
Gone was his Army uniform. Instead, he wore tan prison garb, his hands bound in cuffs. His nails were long, his beard scraggly. He was not allowed to trim or shave for fear he might turn sharp instruments against himself, though he had once been chosen to man an M203 grenade launcher.
Tears trickled out of his tired blue eyes, no longer bright and full of promise.
He was a hero, honored by the governor of Georgia. Now the former sheriff's deputy was sharing quarters with thieves, addicts, even murderers.
read more here
The war at home
By Moni Basu, CNN
April 25, 2011 11:24 a.m. EDT
The first time I met Spc. Shane Parham, his face was wrinkled with sadness. Beads of sweat met Iraqi dust and curved down his sunburned skin like the swampy Alcovy River in his native Georgia.
He was in the checkout line at Baghdad's Camp Striker commissary, only two months into his Iraq tour. But already, he'd witnessed war's brutality.
I thought of that first meeting recently as I peered at Parham through a 2-inch thick slab of glass in a prison visitation booth. The cinder-block walls, drab like the Iraqi desert, closed in on him.
Gone was his Army uniform. Instead, he wore tan prison garb, his hands bound in cuffs. His nails were long, his beard scraggly. He was not allowed to trim or shave for fear he might turn sharp instruments against himself, though he had once been chosen to man an M203 grenade launcher.
Tears trickled out of his tired blue eyes, no longer bright and full of promise.
He was a hero, honored by the governor of Georgia. Now the former sheriff's deputy was sharing quarters with thieves, addicts, even murderers.
read more here
Veterans' court treatment program receives support
Veterans' court treatment program receives support from Pa. Supreme Court Justice
Published: Friday, May 20, 2011
By CARL HESSLER Jr.
Journal Register News Service
COURTHOUSE – Montgomery County’s fledgling veterans’ treatment court program has garnered support and glowing reviews from a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice.
“The Supreme Court is 110 percent behind these courts. It’s our way of giving back to our veterans. Montgomery County has taken a lead role in this,” Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffery said at a news conference at the county courthouse on Friday.
McCaffery, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who also worked as a Philadelphia police officer and municipal court judge before becoming a state justice, explained Montgomery County is home to the third-largest veterans’ community in the state.
“Many, many of our troops and reservists…they are rotating in and out from service overseas four, five and six times. These young men and women are coming home on a Friday and basically being required to go back to their civilian jobs on Monday not having the opportunity to really seek treatment where needed to help them with some of the horrors that they’ve been exposed to in war and that’s why we’re seeing a growing number of veterans in our court system,” said McCaffery, whose military career spanned 40 years.
read more here
Veterans' court treatment program receives support
Agent Orange Quilt of Tears tours for a reason
Never forget the price of Vietnam is still being paid by those we sent and their families.
The "In Memory" Plaque to Vietnam Veterans missing honor
The "In Memory" Plaque is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It serves as a place to honor the veterans who died in the years following the war from causes directly related to their military service. The Plaque, unfortunately, is unseen and unknown by many because of the way it is displayed. National Vice-President of VVA Jack Devine and President of AVVA Nancy Switzer discuss the problem with Frank Campanaro, the son of a Vietnam veteran and a combat veteran himself.
Veteran's conference aims to help veterans and their families
Veteran's conference aims to help veterans and their families
Posted: May 16, 2011 5:42 PM
By Ronnie Mason, New Media Content Producer
JACKSONVILLE, TX (KLTV) – Veterans and military life were the topic of discussion at the first Caring for All Who Serve event Monday at Lon Morris College.
Medical and military agencies gathered to discuss the resources available to them and their families. Those families say that it's important to know where to go for help.
"It's a conference designed for caregivers to learn about military culture, to learn about traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder," says Julianne Sanford of Lone Star Military Resource Group.
"What I hope people will gain is the understanding of a military patient, an understanding of the issues the family deals with and also the injuries that occur in a combat situation and how to treat them," adds Sanford.
For the last sixteen years, Sanford has been gathering resources for servicemen and women, veterans and their families, resulting in the very first veteran's conference in East Texas.
Along with medical personnel, veterans who were medically discharged shared their story, stressing the importance of seeking help.
read more here
Veteran's conference aims to help veterans and their families
Posted: May 16, 2011 5:42 PM
By Ronnie Mason, New Media Content Producer
JACKSONVILLE, TX (KLTV) – Veterans and military life were the topic of discussion at the first Caring for All Who Serve event Monday at Lon Morris College.
Medical and military agencies gathered to discuss the resources available to them and their families. Those families say that it's important to know where to go for help.
"It's a conference designed for caregivers to learn about military culture, to learn about traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder," says Julianne Sanford of Lone Star Military Resource Group.
"What I hope people will gain is the understanding of a military patient, an understanding of the issues the family deals with and also the injuries that occur in a combat situation and how to treat them," adds Sanford.
For the last sixteen years, Sanford has been gathering resources for servicemen and women, veterans and their families, resulting in the very first veteran's conference in East Texas.
Along with medical personnel, veterans who were medically discharged shared their story, stressing the importance of seeking help.
read more here
Veteran's conference aims to help veterans and their families
Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
3 Other Soldiers Die After Insurgents Attack
WJXT-TV
updated 5/19/2011 3:45:20 PM ET
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 26-year-old Gainesville soldier was among four killed during an attack in Afghanistan on Monday.
Pvt. Lamarol J. Tucker, of Gainesville, died from injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device in Zabul province, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
read more here
Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
Navy associate chaplain accused of gang rape
Men Accused In Local Gang Rape
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- An Navy religious program specialist is among three people accused in a local gang rape.
Two men have been arrested and a third is on the run.
The victim's husband said his wife is doing better but is not ready to talk about what happened.
Deputies said the victim put herself in a bad situation but couldn't predict and didn't deserve what happened to her next.
"(It's a) very graphic description, and I was horrified, because I knew two of the people very well," said one of the suspects' roommates, who did not wish to be identified.
Investigators interrogated the man about his roommate and the reported gang rape.
Police said the woman told them she went to the New Smyrna Beach area home to buy some drugs and three men attacked her, taking turns holding her down and raping her.
"I was just shocked," the roommate said. "How could they do this?"
Read more: Men Accused In Local Gang Rape
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- An Navy religious program specialist is among three people accused in a local gang rape.
Two men have been arrested and a third is on the run.
The victim's husband said his wife is doing better but is not ready to talk about what happened.
Deputies said the victim put herself in a bad situation but couldn't predict and didn't deserve what happened to her next.
"(It's a) very graphic description, and I was horrified, because I knew two of the people very well," said one of the suspects' roommates, who did not wish to be identified.
Investigators interrogated the man about his roommate and the reported gang rape.
Police said the woman told them she went to the New Smyrna Beach area home to buy some drugs and three men attacked her, taking turns holding her down and raping her.
"I was just shocked," the roommate said. "How could they do this?"
Read more: Men Accused In Local Gang Rape
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder
Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder
Michael D. Abernethy / Times-News
“The guys who make the best soldiers are the ones who’ve lost the fear of dying.”
U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. E-5 Jamie Gregory, 34, says this matter-of-factly while describing two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“An I.E.D. could explode or a bullet could come at you any time. You can’t stop it from happening, so why worry about it? You have to get over it,” Gregory says. “Once you do, you never lose it.”
It was several weeks into his first tour in Iraq in 2004 when he accepted the possibility of death. He knew military benefits would provide for his wife and two children. And at least there would be a purpose to his death there, rather than being killed by a drunken driver on an American highway. When he was deployed a second time — to Iraq first and then moved to Afghanistan — with the Alpha Company 30th Special Troops Battalion with the National Guard in 2009, he was more prepared for what life in a war zone would look and feel like.
As a crypto-linguist, he worked with Afghani civilians gathering military intelligence. He feels blessed that none of the 84 in his unit was severely injured or killed in 25 off-base missions.
But he was wounded.
When he returned to Alamance County in January, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was found to be suffering from a traumatic brain injury — likely caused by a blast, though he’s not sure when the initial injury occurred. When he first arrived home he couldn’t relax. He woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, looking for his weapon. He still has trouble remembering large numbers.
read more here
Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder
Michael D. Abernethy / Times-News
“The guys who make the best soldiers are the ones who’ve lost the fear of dying.”
U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. E-5 Jamie Gregory, 34, says this matter-of-factly while describing two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“An I.E.D. could explode or a bullet could come at you any time. You can’t stop it from happening, so why worry about it? You have to get over it,” Gregory says. “Once you do, you never lose it.”
It was several weeks into his first tour in Iraq in 2004 when he accepted the possibility of death. He knew military benefits would provide for his wife and two children. And at least there would be a purpose to his death there, rather than being killed by a drunken driver on an American highway. When he was deployed a second time — to Iraq first and then moved to Afghanistan — with the Alpha Company 30th Special Troops Battalion with the National Guard in 2009, he was more prepared for what life in a war zone would look and feel like.
As a crypto-linguist, he worked with Afghani civilians gathering military intelligence. He feels blessed that none of the 84 in his unit was severely injured or killed in 25 off-base missions.
But he was wounded.
When he returned to Alamance County in January, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was found to be suffering from a traumatic brain injury — likely caused by a blast, though he’s not sure when the initial injury occurred. When he first arrived home he couldn’t relax. He woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, looking for his weapon. He still has trouble remembering large numbers.
read more here
Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder
Jordan Frasure star of motorcycle charity ride
Orlando Bikers give hope to little girl
check back later for some pictures and maybe even a video. I'm on my way to the Nam Knights now.
UPDATE
check back later for some pictures and maybe even a video. I'm on my way to the Nam Knights now.
UPDATE
Airborne medics save life and limb from chopper over Afghanistan's war zone
Airborne medics save life and limb from chopper over Afghanistan's war zone
By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press
Her eyes speak pain, fear and confusion, even if her words are drowned out by the pulsing scream of the helicopter turbines.
Her father, clutching a stuffed animal in his left hand, reaches over and puts his right hand on her bare chest, soothing her as he gently admonishes her to be quiet.
The girl, just seven years old, is on her way to hospital via an American medevac chopper from Kandahar city, where she had been shot in the back during insurgent unrest.
The bullet tore her through her slender frame, exiting her abdomen and lodging in her arm.
U.S. Staff Sgt. Rob Marchetti places an oversized pair of headphones over her ears to quiet the noise of the chopper and allow the calm chatter of the crew to comfort her.
He puts an oxygen mask over her mouth, hooks her to a monitor, and keeps a close eye on her stable vital signs for the 15-minute flight to the hospital on an Afghan army base.
read more here
Airborne medics save life and limb from chopper over Afghanistan's war zone
By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The distressed cries of the little girl are obvious in any language: "Daddy, daddy, it hurts."U.S. medic Staff-Sgt. Rob Marchetti places ear phones on a seven-year-old Afghan girl who had been shot in the back en route a medevac chopper over southern Afghanistan on Saturday, May 7, 2011. The American medevac team provides air evacuation services to Canadian and other coalition soldiers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel
Her eyes speak pain, fear and confusion, even if her words are drowned out by the pulsing scream of the helicopter turbines.
Her father, clutching a stuffed animal in his left hand, reaches over and puts his right hand on her bare chest, soothing her as he gently admonishes her to be quiet.
The girl, just seven years old, is on her way to hospital via an American medevac chopper from Kandahar city, where she had been shot in the back during insurgent unrest.
The bullet tore her through her slender frame, exiting her abdomen and lodging in her arm.
U.S. Staff Sgt. Rob Marchetti places an oversized pair of headphones over her ears to quiet the noise of the chopper and allow the calm chatter of the crew to comfort her.
He puts an oxygen mask over her mouth, hooks her to a monitor, and keeps a close eye on her stable vital signs for the 15-minute flight to the hospital on an Afghan army base.
read more here
Airborne medics save life and limb from chopper over Afghanistan's war zone
Camp Lejeune Toxic Water, Now Toxic Air?
Lejeune Toxic Water, Now Toxic Air?
The Marine Corps may have known the air could make people sick for years before taking action.
By CHRIS BROWN
Published: May 19, 2011
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - For years we've told you about toxic chemicals in tap water at camp lejeune, and the impact they're having on the health of people exposed, but recently uncovered documents show the water may not have been the only thing making people sick.
The air on some areas of the base may also have been toxic.
Document after document, paint a startling picture.
More than a million gallons of contaminants leaked into the ground at Camp Lejeune, not only poisioning the water, but the air as well, and Jerry Ensminger found proof.
“One skeleton after another comes falling out of the closet in this situation,” said Ensminger, whose daughter died of cancer when she was 9, while their family lived on base.
read more here
Lejeune Toxic Water, Now Toxic Air?
The Marine Corps may have known the air could make people sick for years before taking action.
By CHRIS BROWN
Published: May 19, 2011
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - For years we've told you about toxic chemicals in tap water at camp lejeune, and the impact they're having on the health of people exposed, but recently uncovered documents show the water may not have been the only thing making people sick.
The air on some areas of the base may also have been toxic.
Document after document, paint a startling picture.
More than a million gallons of contaminants leaked into the ground at Camp Lejeune, not only poisioning the water, but the air as well, and Jerry Ensminger found proof.
“One skeleton after another comes falling out of the closet in this situation,” said Ensminger, whose daughter died of cancer when she was 9, while their family lived on base.
read more here
Lejeune Toxic Water, Now Toxic Air?
Search off Camp Pendleton after sailor swept out to sea
Search off Camp Pendleton after sailor swept out to sea
CAMP PENDLETON (CNS) - Lifeguards, Coast Guard crews and Marine Corps personnel searched the Pacific Ocean and miles of shoreline in the far northern reaches of San Diego County Friday for a Navy petty officer who went missing during a recreational swim off the coast of Camp Pendleton.
The serviceman, a Kentucky native in his 20s whose name was not released, was in the surf with another sailor when he was swept out to sea about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Officials suspected he may have become caught in a particularly strong rip current.
read more here
Search off Camp Pendleton after sailor swept out to sea
CAMP PENDLETON (CNS) - Lifeguards, Coast Guard crews and Marine Corps personnel searched the Pacific Ocean and miles of shoreline in the far northern reaches of San Diego County Friday for a Navy petty officer who went missing during a recreational swim off the coast of Camp Pendleton.
The serviceman, a Kentucky native in his 20s whose name was not released, was in the surf with another sailor when he was swept out to sea about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Officials suspected he may have become caught in a particularly strong rip current.
read more here
Search off Camp Pendleton after sailor swept out to sea
Praying for Osama?
UPDATES
The church ended up changing plans to pray for Osama and looks like the folks over at Family Radio are thinking things over as well considering they're all still here.
We're all still here and it looks like the folks expecting rapture are too.
The church ended up changing plans to pray for Osama and looks like the folks over at Family Radio are thinking things over as well considering they're all still here.
We're all still here and it looks like the folks expecting rapture are too.
In the end, rapture believers weren't going anywhere
To many who put stock in Harold Camping's prophecy about the end of the world, disillusionment was profound. It ended up being apocalypse … not.
In Central Florida, life goes on for believers
When Charles Roberts decided to kill little Amish school girls, leaving five of them dead, this story shocked the world. Not just because of the murders but because of the reaction of the parents and the entire community to forgive him. No one could understand being able to do that, but they did. They knew it was for their own sake they let go of the hatred and anger they felt.
This is what hatred does.
6 killed in Kabul hospital attack, official says; Taliban claims 51This was done by suicide bombers. Could you imagine that kind of hatred? A person walking around the planet decides killing patients in a hospital while blowing himself up is a good thing to do and will send a message? What kind of message do you think the rest of the world received? Most will have no compassion or understanding of this kind of action. If he thought it would help his cause, he was a fool. When innocent people are killed, they are noting more than a foolish murderer ready to die for the sake of someone telling them they needed to do it. Fools believe another human telling them to martyr themselves while they remain alive and not willing to do the same thing. If the cause is so worthy, then why don't the leaders ever do it? Osama didn't. He wasn't even willing to face his "enemy" and put his own life on the line all these years. He hid in a mansion with his wives and kids.
While most of the country has been rejoicing since President Obama announced Osama had been killed, a church in West Palm Beach Florida is praying for his soul. Some find this wrong but Christ said it was followers needed to do.
Matthew 5
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 6
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
There is another kind of leader living to make people afraid.
Doomsday church Still open for businessWhat did Camping do with all the money the church had if the judgment day was going to start today? Did he keep it? Does he plan on taking it with him when he is raptured up to heaven? Did he give it all away to the poor? Did he even pray for those he will leave behind if he really believed the end was near?
By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney May 19, 2011
Harold Camping and his devoted followers claim a massive earthquake will mark the second coming of Jesus, or so-called Judgment Day on Saturday, May 21, ushering in a five month period of catastrophes before the world comes to a complete end in October.
At the center of it all, Camping's organization, Family Radio, is perfectly happy to take your money -- and in fact, received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network based in Oakland, Calif. with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958.
Matthew 7
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
There are three churches and two very different examples of what they feel is the right way to follow Christ. Two pray for people when everyone would understand if they hated instead and then there is the other church praying for the end of days.
How do you want to live the rest of your life? Do you want to carry around hatred or do you want to be able to forgive?
Honestly I wish I could be as good as the Amish and the church able to pray for Osama's soul but I have been unable to come close to doing it. As for the end of days, I paid my bills this month and just signed up for fall classes.
4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan
4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan
12:30 AM, May. 21, 2011
Written by
TONY LEYS
Four Iowa National Guard soldiers were wounded when a bomb struck their truck in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Guard officials identified them as Sgt. Chisum Frisch, 23, of Cedar Falls; Spc. Jacob Hutchinson, 21, of Cedar Rapids; Spc. Benjamin Ward, 26, of Rowley; and Pfc. Tanner Williams, 18, of Tama.
read more here
4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan
12:30 AM, May. 21, 2011
Written by
TONY LEYS
Four Iowa National Guard soldiers were wounded when a bomb struck their truck in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Guard officials identified them as Sgt. Chisum Frisch, 23, of Cedar Falls; Spc. Jacob Hutchinson, 21, of Cedar Rapids; Spc. Benjamin Ward, 26, of Rowley; and Pfc. Tanner Williams, 18, of Tama.
read more here
4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan
Friday, May 20, 2011
First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
By Michael Hill - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 20:48:20 EDT
WEST POINT, N.Y. — First lady Michelle Obama urged more than 1,000 cadets Friday night on the brink of graduating to keep in mind the families of the soldiers they will lead.
Obama addressed the white-clad cadets and their families gathered in the U.S. Military Academy’s castle-like mess hall for a graduation-eve banquet. It marked her first trip to the storied academy and dovetails with her recent work on behalf of military families.
“You’ll be helping your troops deal with the joy of a new birth and the disappointment of not being in the delivery room,” she said. “You’ll be helping a soldier cope with a family emergency halfway around the world.”
She noted that more than half of service members are married and 40 percent have two or more kids.
Obama is the only first lady to address cadets at their graduation banquet — a rare occasion for them to wear their dress whites and dine with their relatives. The mess hall was filled with thousands more family members in suits and dresses dining on filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.
Obama reminded cadets that they not only must support their soldiers’ families, but that their families helped them to this point in their careers.
read more here
First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
By Michael Hill - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 20:48:20 EDT
WEST POINT, N.Y. — First lady Michelle Obama urged more than 1,000 cadets Friday night on the brink of graduating to keep in mind the families of the soldiers they will lead.
Obama addressed the white-clad cadets and their families gathered in the U.S. Military Academy’s castle-like mess hall for a graduation-eve banquet. It marked her first trip to the storied academy and dovetails with her recent work on behalf of military families.
“You’ll be helping your troops deal with the joy of a new birth and the disappointment of not being in the delivery room,” she said. “You’ll be helping a soldier cope with a family emergency halfway around the world.”
She noted that more than half of service members are married and 40 percent have two or more kids.
Obama is the only first lady to address cadets at their graduation banquet — a rare occasion for them to wear their dress whites and dine with their relatives. The mess hall was filled with thousands more family members in suits and dresses dining on filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.
Obama reminded cadets that they not only must support their soldiers’ families, but that their families helped them to this point in their careers.
read more here
First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
Is Agent Orange buried at Camp Carroll Korea?
USFK investigating vets' claims they buried Agent Orange on base in '70s
By ASHLEY ROWLAND
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 20, 2011
SEOUL – U.S. Forces Korea is investigating whether Agent Orange is buried at Camp Carroll, following claims from veterans who say they buried the toxic herbicide while stationed there in the late 1970s, a military spokesman said Friday.
The matter has “the full attention” of top U.S. military commanders in South Korea, including the USFK commander, Gen. Walter Sharp, and the 8th Army commander, Lt. Gen. John Johnson, said Lt. Col. Jeff Buczkowski, 8th Army spokesman.
“Our intention is to be completely transparent and cooperative with the [South Koreans] and probably do some kind of joint investigation,” he said. “We’re going to do as much as possible.”
Three former soldiers recently told a Phoenix television station that they helped bury the chemical at Camp Carroll. According to a transcript of the report, Phoenix-area resident Steve House said he was ordered in 1978 to dig a ditch nearly a city block long that was used for burying 55-gallon drums, some with the words “Province of Vietnam, Compound Orange” written on them.
read more here
USFK investigating vets' claims they buried Agent Orange
By ASHLEY ROWLAND
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 20, 2011
SEOUL – U.S. Forces Korea is investigating whether Agent Orange is buried at Camp Carroll, following claims from veterans who say they buried the toxic herbicide while stationed there in the late 1970s, a military spokesman said Friday.
The matter has “the full attention” of top U.S. military commanders in South Korea, including the USFK commander, Gen. Walter Sharp, and the 8th Army commander, Lt. Gen. John Johnson, said Lt. Col. Jeff Buczkowski, 8th Army spokesman.
“Our intention is to be completely transparent and cooperative with the [South Koreans] and probably do some kind of joint investigation,” he said. “We’re going to do as much as possible.”
Three former soldiers recently told a Phoenix television station that they helped bury the chemical at Camp Carroll. According to a transcript of the report, Phoenix-area resident Steve House said he was ordered in 1978 to dig a ditch nearly a city block long that was used for burying 55-gallon drums, some with the words “Province of Vietnam, Compound Orange” written on them.
read more here
USFK investigating vets' claims they buried Agent Orange
Troop morale In Afghanistan plummets. Would it help if we cared?
Would it help if we cared about them? Ever wonder what it would be like for you to be doing what they have to do and then end up ignored? They come back home, turn on TV and they don't see any news about Afghanistan or Iraq other than a local soldier's body may be coming home in a few days. The only recent news on them came out when Osama was killed and President Obama was thanking the 101st Airborne along with the Seals.
We see local stories about them coming home and getting into trouble or as with the report from the Orlando Sentinel today, they are having a hard time finding work but no one really seems to care about them.
Well it looks like I just got my answer. It must help when they know we care about what they are doing.
We see local stories about them coming home and getting into trouble or as with the report from the Orlando Sentinel today, they are having a hard time finding work but no one really seems to care about them.
Report: Troop Morale In Afghanistan Plummets
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 19, 2011
As fighting and casualties in Afghanistan's war reached an all-time high, U.S. soldiers and Marines there reported plunging morale and the highest rates of mental health problems in five years.
The grim statistics in a new Army report released Thursday dramatize the psychological cost of a military campaign that U.S. commanders and officials say has reversed the momentum of the Taliban insurgency.
Military doctors said the findings from a battlefield survey taken last summer were no surprise given the dramatic increase in combat, which troops reported was at its most intense level since officials began doing mental health analyses in 2003.
"There are few stresses on the human psyche as extreme as the exposure to combat and seeing what war can do," Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said at a Pentagon news conference.
Some 70 percent to 80 percent of troops surveyed for the report said they had seen a buddy killed, roughly half of soldiers and 56 percent of Marines said they'd killed an enemy fighter, and about two-thirds of troops said that a roadside bomb — the No. 1 weapon of insurgents — had gone off within 55 yards of them.
Most of those statistics were significantly higher than what troops said they experienced in the previous year in Afghanistan as well as during the 2007 surge of extra troops into the Iraq war, the report said.
read more here
Troop Morale In Afghanistan Plummets
Well it looks like I just got my answer. It must help when they know we care about what they are doing.
Commander: Morale not flagging for 101st
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 12:39:24 EDT
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The commander of the 101st Airborne Division says he doesn’t see morale flagging among his troops.
Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell said upon his return to Fort Campbell on Friday from leading his troops in eastern Afghanistan that re-enlistment rates show the soldiers remain committed to the Army.
read more here
Morale not flagging for 101st
Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel
8:58 p.m. EDT, May 19, 2011
Kyle Evans just missed certain death when a bomb exploded under his military-convoy vehicle in Iraq. The Army logistics expert survived and returned home to Orlando nearly two years ago, though for the longest time he could not find work.
"I applied for so many jobs, I lost count," said the 28-year-old husband and father of two, who finally landed a job earlier this year at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Orlando. "It was getting pretty frustrating. This job market can be tough on anyone, but it can be twice as hard on veterans."
Amid the violence of combat, many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never imagined the added stress they would face in trying to find work back home, experts say.
Unemployment among these recent veterans is higher than among the rest of the population and among military veterans overall, according to the latest U.S. Labor Department data. In April, as the country continued its slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the jobless rate among Iraq and Afghanistan vets was nearly 11 percent, compared with 8.5 percent for nonveterans and 7.7 percent for veterans overall.
read more here
Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel
8:58 p.m. EDT, May 19, 2011
Kyle Evans just missed certain death when a bomb exploded under his military-convoy vehicle in Iraq. The Army logistics expert survived and returned home to Orlando nearly two years ago, though for the longest time he could not find work.
"I applied for so many jobs, I lost count," said the 28-year-old husband and father of two, who finally landed a job earlier this year at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Orlando. "It was getting pretty frustrating. This job market can be tough on anyone, but it can be twice as hard on veterans."
Amid the violence of combat, many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never imagined the added stress they would face in trying to find work back home, experts say.
Unemployment among these recent veterans is higher than among the rest of the population and among military veterans overall, according to the latest U.S. Labor Department data. In April, as the country continued its slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the jobless rate among Iraq and Afghanistan vets was nearly 11 percent, compared with 8.5 percent for nonveterans and 7.7 percent for veterans overall.
read more here
Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
Four buses crash in LA, three of them with military personnel
Multiple bus crash shuts down 5 Freeway in L.A.; one bus transporting inmates
May 19, 2011 | 12:53 pm
Four buses -- including at least one carrying inmates for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department -- collided with one another other in a chain-reaction crash that has shut down the northbound 5 Freeway in Commerce, Channel 9 news is reporting.
[Updated at 1:05 p.m.: Authorities said that three of the buses were carrying military personnel.
Eight people suffered injuries and were taken to hospitals. One of the crash victims sustained potentially more serious injuries.
Two of those injured were inmates; the other six were military personnel.
At about 12:45 p.m., authorities shut down the entire freeway -- all northbound and southbound lanes. A new Sheriff's Department bus also arrived to collect the inmates, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Matt Levesque.
The accident occurred just south of Washington Boulevard at 11:50 a.m. Officials believe that a car slowed suddenly in front of the Sheriff's Department bus. The bus driver slammed on his brakes, leading to a chain-reaction crash with the three buses following closely behind him in the fast lane, Levesque said.]
Video from the scene shows the damaged buses and the northbound highway entirely shut down. Southbound traffic is backed up and moving slowly.
At least one inmate was transported from the scene by ambulance and other inmates suffered at least minor injuries, the station reported.
-- Howard Blume
check here for updates on this
Multiple bus crash shuts down 5 Freeway
May 19, 2011 | 12:53 pm
Four buses -- including at least one carrying inmates for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department -- collided with one another other in a chain-reaction crash that has shut down the northbound 5 Freeway in Commerce, Channel 9 news is reporting.
[Updated at 1:05 p.m.: Authorities said that three of the buses were carrying military personnel.
Eight people suffered injuries and were taken to hospitals. One of the crash victims sustained potentially more serious injuries.
Two of those injured were inmates; the other six were military personnel.
At about 12:45 p.m., authorities shut down the entire freeway -- all northbound and southbound lanes. A new Sheriff's Department bus also arrived to collect the inmates, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Matt Levesque.
The accident occurred just south of Washington Boulevard at 11:50 a.m. Officials believe that a car slowed suddenly in front of the Sheriff's Department bus. The bus driver slammed on his brakes, leading to a chain-reaction crash with the three buses following closely behind him in the fast lane, Levesque said.]
Video from the scene shows the damaged buses and the northbound highway entirely shut down. Southbound traffic is backed up and moving slowly.
At least one inmate was transported from the scene by ambulance and other inmates suffered at least minor injuries, the station reported.
-- Howard Blume
check here for updates on this
Multiple bus crash shuts down 5 Freeway
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