Oldest Living World War II Veteran Richard Overton to Turn 109
By Associated Press
Published: May 7, 2015
“That’s what God only knows. That’s God’s work. He’s the one who keeps me living,” said Overton, who said he smokes 12 cigars a day.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR PHILIPS LIFELINE- 107-year-old Richard Overton, the oldest recorded living US veteran, surveys the backyard of his home in Austin, Texas after being presented with the Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert service on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. The medical alert service, which will help protect Overton as he continues to remain independent in his home, was provided free of charge for the rest of his life in appreciation for his courageous service to our country. Overton served for the Army in the Pacific during World War II. (Jack Plunkett / AP Images for Philips Lifeline)
(AP) — The oldest living World War II veteran will turn 109 years old Monday, but he already has a head start with celebrations.
Richard Overton’s friends and family threw him a birthday bash Sunday in Austin, Texas, with as many as 100 people in attendance, including Mayor Steve Adler and the assistant chief of the Austin Police Department, ABC’s Austin affiliate station KVUE-TV reported.
“I feel happy that I’ve made it,” Overton told ABC News. “I know I can’t make another 109, so I’m satisfied with this one.”
Mighty Fine Burgers Fries and Shakes sponsored the event at his neighbor’s house.
read more here
14 NFL teams took tax dollars for patriotic pregame displays
NBC Sportstalk
Posted by Darin Gantt
May 11, 2015
The Jets are just as patriotic as anybody else, I’m sure.
But it’s easier to wave the red, white and blue when it comes with a healthy dose of green.
According to Christopher Baxter and Jonathan Salant of NJ.com, the New Jersey Army National Guard and the Department of Defense paid the Jets a total of $377,000 from 2011 to 2014 for the salutes and other advertising, citing federal contracts.
While the heartfelt salutes to military members seems like a win-win (good for the league’s image, high-visibility advertising for the military), the reality that it’s as much of an ad as the ones for beer and trucks does make it a bit distasteful, not to mention expensive.
According to their documents, the Defense Department has paid 14 NFL teams $5.4 million over the past four seasons for the patriotic displays. read more here
Ok! Tracked back the link to the list of teams and it turns out that the report came from NJ.com
Which NFL teams got your federal tax dollars?
By Christopher Baxter | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
May 07, 2015
TRENTON — At the same time Congress and the president have imposed caps on military spending, the Department of Defense has paid $5.4 million in taxpayer money to 14 NFL teams across the country, including $377,500 to the Jets, with the bulk spent by the National Guard.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz) last week called out the New Jersey Army National Guard for the spending, which, in part, paid for a segment at Jets home games in which soldiers were featured on the big screen, thanked for their service and given tickets to the game.
read more here
Here is the list. Suggest you go to the link back to New Jersey.com to see how much money they were paid to "honor" our military members at the same time they were getting pink slips while deployed to Afghanistan!
While they were being forced out of the military after being willing to sacrifice their lives for.
After they were betrayed with less than honorable discharges instead of being taken care of and helped to heal.
After their families were using food stamps to feed their kids.
After they were the subject of debate when it came to being able to raise their pay to a living wage!
If you get the impression I am furious over this you are not even close to what is coming out of my mouth while I attempt to type fairly calmly.
Do you think they deserve some angry emails from you?
UPDATE
Deals Between National Guard and NFL Cause Stir
Los Angeles Times
by Nathan Fenno
May 12, 2015
At halftime of each home game last season, the New England Patriots invited a soldier on the field to honor the troops. Dressed in camouflage, they smiled and waved to the crowd during the feel-good moment.
However, the "True Patriot" program wasn't simply patriotism. It was part of a $225,000 advertising deal between the team and the Massachusetts and New Hampshire National Guard.
The military has long advertised at sporting events and during sports broadcasts as a way to reach potential recruits. But new revelations about deals between professional football teams and the National Guard have caused a stir over whether the military and the league should be more transparent about what's a display of goodwill toward the troops and what's a paid advertisement.
A report on government waste issued last week by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) detailed the expenditure and questioned why the Guard spent $49.1 million on professional sports sponsorships in 2014. Some of that money funded programs by NFL teams similar to the "True Patriot" program that appeared to honor the military but were actually part of advertising agreements with the Guard. read more here
Nation can do more to help its veterans
Philly.com
By Tom MacArthur
POSTED: Tuesday, May 5, 2015
One man from Marlton described it as "something you always live with." Another said: "Trying to live with this stuff . . . it's hard. It's really hard."
They're not talking about physical afflictions.
These men are both veterans of our Armed Forces, and they're talking about their post-traumatic stress disorder. For them, it's the constant reminder of their time in Vietnam more than 40 years ago.
"When I first got home, my parents sent me to a psychologist, and he said I was suffering from malaise," one former Army sergeant told me. "I didn't know there was anything available to help me.
Nobody ever told us that. I didn't talk to anybody."
A former Marine corporal explained it this way: "I know what it's like to spill blood for your country, and when you come home with problems, you're smacked in the face and told, 'There's nothing wrong with you. Come on, suck it up, you're a Marine.' "
These are the voices of the people I represent, and they speak for veterans all across the country.
read more here
Wounded Times Blog •
Seriously? How do politicians actually try to ignore the fact that they are responsible for what the VA does and does not do? How do they completely avoid mentioning that taking care of veterans has been their job all along? The first House Veterans Affairs Committee was seated in 1946. The VA didn't have a Secretary to blame until President Reagan turned it into cabinet level. They have been funding the VA to take care of PTSD veterans since the early 80's but now they wonder why they are still not seeking help? Still wondering why there are so many suicides after they spend billions a year to "prevent them" from happening? Both sides failed veterans and all of this goes back decades!
"Nation can do more to help its veterans?" Then why don't you guys get it right and actually do it instead of blaming everyone else?
Exposure to toxic ‘burn pits’ the new Agent Orange
WTNH News
By Mark Davis, News 8
Chief Capitol Correspondent
Published: May 8, 2015
The V.A. has admitted some veterans could have long-term aftereffects, especially those with preexisting conditions like asthma or other heart or lung conditions.
They have established a burn pit exposure registry and are conducting research into it.
For more information, click here.
WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — Some are calling toxic “burn pits” near military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan the “new Agent Orange.” Veterans at an event in Waterbury Friday say they had to live and breath contaminated air from the burn pits for extended periods of time, and now they’re worried about their health.
read more here
Vietnam Vet dies waiting on military benefits after Agent Orange exposure
WREG News
BY STEPHANIE SCURLOCK
MAY 8, 2015
In our investigation WREG found out his wife can file to receive his benefits if he died from one of these presumptive diseases caused by Agent Orange.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A sad update to a WREG investigation into problems facing Vietnam vets and their families.
Thursday morning, the vet we introduced you to last week passed away.
His death came hours after finishing paper work for full benefits.
WREG found out this battle may not be over.
This is exactly what so many Vietnam vets fear dying before their benefits kick in.
New wars created a backlog as older vets got sick and eventually passed away. However, in our investigation we learned the fight can continue even after death.
“Do you want to die at home or do you want to die at the hospital. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to die,” said Paul Hines last week to WREG.
Ponchatoula war veteran spearheads memorial to honor Medal of Honor recipient, TV station reports The Times-Picayune
By Bob Warren, NOLA.com
May 09, 2015
It always bothered Phil Monteleone of Ponchatoula that his buddy Raymond "Mike'' Clausen never got a hero's funeral when he died in 2004.
After all, Clausen, a Marine, had been awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Vietnam.
So Monteleone, himself a Vietnam veteran who became good friends with Clausen when both military men came home to Ponchatoula, did something about it.
He raised money to erect a memorial to his pal, WGNO TV in New Orleans reports. read more here
Raymond Clausen, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War
Medal of Honor: Oral Histories
Army's record-breaking sniper who killed two Taliban a mile and a half away driven to the brink of suicide by his chilling job
Daily Mail UK
By TIM MACFARLAN FOR MAILONLINE
10 May 2015
Craig Harrison, 40, killed two militant assassins from range of 2,475 metres
Created history with the shots in Musa Qala, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in November 2009
But Corporal of Horse Harrison, from Cheltenham, Gloucs, almost took his own life as he was haunted by dozens of victims and hunted by terrorists
Chilling: A veteran sniper told Craig: 'You make a sniper by taking a human being and re-engineering him. A sniper isn't a man any more. He is a weapon, waiting to be fired'
The British Army's record-breaking sniper who killed two Taliban a mile and a half away has revealed how he was driven to the brink of suicide by his chilling job.
Craig Harrison, 40, killed two militant assassins from a range of 2,475 metres - more than 900 metres beyond his rifle's effective range.
He created history with the shots in Musa Qala, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in November 2009, which remain the longest confirmed kills ever recorded.
But the nightmare that came with being the Army's number one marksmen almost cost Corporal of Horse Harrison his own life as he was haunted by his dozens of victims and hunted by terrorists, according to the Sun.
In his new book 'The Longest Kill', Craig, from Cheltenham, Gloucs, describes the events leading up to the record-breaking kills, and the shots themselves, in harrowing detail.
The soldiers ahead of him were ambushed when he was was part of a three-armoured-vehicle dawn patrol south of Musa Qala escorting Afghan fighters on foot.
The area was full of Taliban and for three hours Craig let rip with his Accuracy International L115A3 rifle.
He said: 'I was sweating, stripped down to a T-shirt under my body armour, even though it was a mild winter's day.
Craig developed post-traumatic stress disorder and was denied the Military Cross for his bravery.
His colonel refused it on his behalf, thinking he would not have been able to handle the pressure. Craig was 'dumbfounded' by the decision.
read more here
A veteran got defensive with me a few years ago saying "What the hell do you know? You were never in combat!" To that I replied, "I don't have to understand combat do understand what it did to you. You don't have to understand what almost killed me to be able to understand what it did to me."
I grew up with a violent alcoholic Dad. He stopped drinking and joined AA when I was 13. Traumatic? Hell yes but then again, not the first time I faced trauma. I almost died when I was 4 and a kid decided to shove me down a slide but pushed too hard on my right side sending me over the edge. Then there was a car accident, a few health emergencies and oh, my ex-husband came home from work one night and tried to kill me.
The veteran didn't have to experience all that to understand what all those things put me through and he was able to understand what got me through all of them. He finally understood that I not only studied PTSD, I was living proof that trauma doesn't have to win and no one is stuck suffering as they are. Healing is possible and living a better quality of life is always possible with the right kind of help and willingness to work at it.
When I became a Chaplain in 2008 with the IFOC I did it for several reasons. The first one was that searching for reasons why I didn't have PTSD after many life threatening events, it became first hand knowledge that talking about it helped me recover from it over and over again. The shock wasn't allowed to take hold and my family let me talk for as long as I needed to. They gave lousy advice but I knew I was loved and they cared about what the event did to me. The other inspiration was my faith. Both mattered equally.
People of some kind of faith walk away after trauma one of two ways. God did it to them or God spared them. There are three parts of a human hit by trauma. Mind, body and spirit, with each part requiring treatment to heal the whole person. When you add in the moral torment, PTSD takes on a different battle to fight. That is when the ministry of presence is needed. We are not to be judge but we are to be comforter and healer.
My other response to healing is with Point Man International Ministries acting as bridge between veterans and families. Point Man started in 1984 working with veterans and their families. I know what it is like to be a spouse of a veteran more than I understand what it is like to be a veteran but in a unique position due to over 30 years of study and helping veterans heal. After all, my first teacher is a Vietnam veteran. We've been married for 30 years.
PMIM is a service organization with an evangelical purpose. Keeping Jesus Christ the focal point PMIM acts as a referral service to connect hurting veterans and their families to our Outpost and Home Front system for continued support and fellowship. These support groups are available at no charge, and utilize the gospel of Jesus Christ and Biblical principles to facilitate healing and restoration.
PMIM participates in national conferences and international publishing, radio and television as well as other forms of media to help educate and raise awareness of the needs of veterans around the world. We provide evangelistic materials, leadership training seminars, restoration conferences and support outreaches as missionaries to a target group (active duty soldiers, veterans and their families).
PMIM is an interdenominational mission-oriented ministry. We embrace any Christian denomination that agrees with the basic evangelical statement of faith established by the Corporate Board of Directors of PMIM.
I don't turn anyone away especially when most of the veterans I talk to believe in God and most of the time they believe Christ was sent by God, but haven't attended church in years and even those who say they don't believe at all. My job isn't to get them into a church pew, it is to help them heal no matter where they are coming from spiritually.
Chaplains have to change but not the way many think. It it going back to the way it was back in the beginning. Ministering to those in need much like the 72 others Christ sent out to the people.
Eugene Kapaun, left, and Bishop Eugene Gerber look at the statue honoring Chaplain Emil Kapaun at its 2001 unveiling at St. John Nepomucene Church in Pilson, Kan. Kapaun served in the Korean War and died in a prisoner of war camp on May 23, 1951. Soldiers who knew him never forgot the plain-spoken chaplain who urged them to keep their spirits up and is credited with saving hundreds of soldiers during the Korean War. On April 11, 2013, President Obama will award Kapaun the Medal of Honor posthumously.
(Dave Williams / The Wichita Eagle via AP)
The changing role of a military chaplain
Desert News
Mark A Kellner
May 9, 2015
According to that poll, nearly 20 percent of service members identified themselves as having either no religious affiliation or as being atheistic or agnostic.
Some 240 years after the Continental Congress authorized the presence of chaplains in the colonist's revolutionary forces, do clergy in the military still have a prayer?
Critics of chaplaincy decry any attempt to proselytize, saying those clergy who insist on fidelity to their own doctrines should resign. And as the makeup of the U.S. armed forces changes, the spiritual needs of service members is evolving as well.
All that's a lot to handle for a chaplain, even one wearing the same camouflage uniform as the soldiers they serve.
"The growing diversity of the military population has meant focusing on really listening and hearing, rather than coming at them from our own theological backgrounds," said U.S. Army Capt. Prathima Dharm, who is based in Silver Spring, Maryland. She said a soldier's spirituality is often "fluid," something Dharm herself experienced. Joining the Army in 2006 as a Christian chaplain, Dharm returned to her family's religious roots during her service, eventually becoming the Army's first Hindu chaplain.
"As an interfaith and Hindu chaplain, I saw a lot more commonality of needs between the soldiers of diverse population than differences," said Dharm, who left the military in the autumn of 2014.
U.S. Marine Corps Chaplain Lt. Cdr. Gary Thornton, regimental chaplain for the Wounded Warrior Regiment at Virginia's Marine Corps Base Quantico, said chaplains provide the proper atmosphere to help fighters handle such issues.
"When someone is conflicted like that, it allows them to ask those hard questions to someone who — as a chaplain — has given some thought and consideration to those questions, such as where was God, what was he doing, how do I handle or deal with these feelings and questions that I am wrestling with," Thornton said. "It allows people to ask those questions in that safe, confidential and caring environment and walk through that with a chaplain who should be versed and ready to engage in those things."
read more here
The VA’s Hepatitis C Problem
Newsweek
BY GERARD FLYNN
5/9/15
Approximately 174,000 veterans in government care have been diagnosed with hepatitis C, but an additional 50,000 are thought to carry the infection unbeknownst to them.
Army veteran Richard Gudewicz, 52, of Trenton, Michigan gets
his annual liver ultrasound at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
SUSAN TUSA/KRT/NEWSCOM
Martin Dames is a highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. He received the Bronze Star for heroism in the combat zone and three Purple Hearts for injuries he suffered while fighting. He made it out alive, only to find out years later that those combat wounds got him infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), a deadly blood-borne pathogen discovered in 1989 that claims about 19,000 lives annually, a large number of them veterans. That number is growing every year.
A chronic infection in around 80 percent of cases, HCV often shows no signs of its corrosive presence until extensive liver scarring occurs after decades of infection. In some cases, the disease isn’t found until it has led to cirrhosis—advanced and potentially lethal amounts of scarring. Infection with the virus is a leading cause of liver cancer and transplants in the U.S.
read more here
Lawsuit blames Phoenix VA hospital for veteran's suicide
AZ Centeral
Dennis Wagner, The Republic
May 9, 2015
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Gene Spencer killed himself after a VA doctor erroneously said his death from cancer was imminent.
A federal lawsuit was filed when the VA rejected a wrongful-death claim for $2.5 million in damages.
Spencer's widow says, "It just wasn't right; he deserved better than what they did to him."
Shirley Fobke holds a photo taken on the day she married Army veteran Gene Spencer in 1997.
Spencer battled cancer and received care from the Phoenix VA. He committed suicide in 2012.
(Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
The lawsuit says U.S. Army veteran Gene Spencer was at the Phoenix VA Medical Center on Oct. 5, 2012, when a physician told him cancer had metastasized in his lungs and he should go home to prepare for the end.
Three days passed, according to the complaint, before the 67-year-old husband, writer, audiologist, building contractor and dog lover used a gun to take his own life.
One day after that, Spencer's wife, Shirley Fobke, says, she received a phone call from the hospital notifying her of good news: There was an error in the diagnosis, and Spencer was not about to die.
Those are the key allegations in a wrongful-death action filed April 30 with the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, seeking damages from the VA on behalf of Spencer's widow.
"As a result of the misdiagnosis," says the suit, "Shirley Fobke suffered and will continue to suffer emotional and economic injury, lost wages, lost opportunity for financial gain, future earning capacity, loss of consortium, loss of love and affection. ..." read more here
Audit: Air Force sexual assault teams skipped training, missed background checks
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
May 9, 2015
Military service members at Joint Base Lewis-McChord frequently participate in sexual harassment and assault training. In January, I Corps Command Sgt. Maj. James Norman participated in a conference for noncomissioned officers. U.S. ARMY — Courtesy
A large majority of Air Force personnel chosen to work with victims of sex assault were not properly trained or did not go through background checks before beginning their assignments, according to an April 2014 audit obtained by The News Tribune.
The results were so striking that the military began making corrections before the Air Force Audit Agency even completed its report, according to the document.
Since then, Air Force officials told the newspaper, they have adopted more thorough training standards for airmen selected to work as sex assault response coordinators and victim advocates.
“That cannot happen anymore,” said Kimberly Dickman, chief of training and development for the Air Force Sex Assault Prevention and Response program.
The audit, conducted in 2013 and early 2014, looked at the qualifications of almost 2,500 Air Force personnel who were chosen to work with victims as sex assault response coordinators or victim advocates.
It found that:
• 117 of them did not participate in initial training before beginning their work.
• 852 of them did not participate in required refresher training.
• 826 of them did not receive the background checks the Air Force is required to conduct.
• 167 of them did not have security clearances.
• Altogether, 1,435 sex assault response coordinators and victim advocates had flaws in their records either from deficient background checks or from missed training. read more here
VFW, DAV Joint Legal Fight Against VA Over New Claims System
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
May 08, 2015
Veterans groups, including the VFW and DAV, told the VA two years ago that any new system that eliminated the informal claims process would be opposed.
Two more veterans organizations are going to court against the Veterans Affairs Department over the agency's decision to end its historic informal claims process.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans say that a new claims system the VA adopted in March "severely undercuts the non-adversarial, pro-veteran principles upon which the veterans' benefits system was built. In particular, the VA alters decades-long pro-veterans practices under the guise of creating efficiencies within the VA."
The efficiencies include the use of standardized forms that veterans would have to download, fill out and file.
"The VFW doesn't oppose the use of standardized forms," VFW National Veterans Service Director William L. Bradshaw said. "Our opposition is to this all or nothing approach that VA is forcing on veterans -- changes, that if left in place, will guarantee in this year alone that tens of thousands of service-connected wounded, ill and injured veterans will be denied benefits they were entitled to before the change became effective."
The VFW and DAV are only the latest veterans' advocates to sue the VA over the new system.
Attorney Douglas J. Rosinski of Veterans Justice Group in Columbia, South Carolina, also filed a suit challenging the new system last November.
In March, The American Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the National Veterans Legal Services Program, AMVETS, and the Vietnam Veterans of America filed suit. read more here
These groups are fighting for all generations of veterans. That says something right there considering they have all been doing it for decades!
The VFW and the DAV are very dear to my heart. The VFW fights for all veterans no matter what generation they belong to.
My husband is a lifetime member of the VFW and DAV and I am a lifetime member of the DAV Auxiliary. My Dad (Korean veteran) was a lifetime member of the DAV, so in one way or another, I've known how hard they work all my life. They fight for all veterans to obtain what they are eligible for and compensated appropriately for their disabilities/wounds caused by serving this country.
While it may feel warm and fuzzy to think these politicians have the best interest of veterans in mind, the reality is they are like a rusty wheel making a lot of noise going in circles. Every year veterans don't even get excuses from them. They just spin their gears so they can point their fingers at whoever happens to sit in the seat as Secretary of the VA. Don't believe me. Just look up what they are supposed to be responsible for on the link above. Educate yourself so you know exactly what has been going on and why veterans blame congress!
Published on Apr 12, 2015
Saturday fed up veterans got into a dumpster to show how they feel. Congress has failed them and made them feel like they are disposable. Congress blames the VA only because they refuse to blame themselves! They write the rules, pass the budgets and are supposed to be in control over what the VA
The VFW and DAV earned your support and need your voice to fight for all generations of veterans.
How many more times will you end up supporting charities to provide "awareness" of what some veterans are going through when these groups have been fighting for all veterans to make sure they didn't have to go through it?
who served in the armed forces during a period of war or under conditions simulating war, and was wounded, disabled to any degree, or left with long-term illness as a result of military service, and was discharged or retired from military service under honorable conditions.
What does DAV do for you?
Helps returning veterans transition back to civilian life by linking them with services that address their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
Provides free, professional assistance to veterans of all generations in obtaining VA and other government benefits earned through service.
Fights for veterans’ rights on Capitol Hill.
Links veterans to job training and job assistance programs.
Funds rehabilitation programs for veterans with severe disabilities, such as blindness or amputation.
WASHINGTON — The national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States said the U.S. House of Representatives is set to penalize disabled veterans this week if it votes to reduce the Department of Veterans Affairs budget request by more than $1.5 billion.
“The nationwide crisis in care and confidence that erupted in the VA last year was caused in many ways by a lack of adequate resourcing that only Congress is authorized to provide,” said John W. Stroud, who leads the 1.9 million-member VFW and its Auxiliaries. “That’s why the VFW is demanding that the House amend this bill to appropriate a funding level that fully funds VA.”
In its current form, the fiscal year 2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill makes across-the-board cuts to all VA discretionary accounts, and drastically underfunds medical care, major construction and Information Technology accounts. Stroud said across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending is what Congress created back in 2011, but by another name, sequestration. Now the House wants to impose its own sequester on a federal department whose sole mission is to care for wounded, ill and injured veterans.
“The VA cannot fulfill its mission without proper funding, but the House for whatever reason now wants to ration care, eliminate infrastructure projects, and stop improving upon the programs and services that the VA was created to provide,” said the VFW national commander. “This bill is bad for veterans and any vote for it is unconscionable, which is why we want veterans and advocates everywhere to get involved by urging their elected officials to fully fund the VA.”
49 years later, apology for racism from American Gold Star Mothers brings healing for Steelton family
PennLive.com
By Debbie Truong
May 09, 2015
The sadness, anger and frustration that lingered from that slight was eased only recently after a classmate of Lise learned the family's story and helped seek a written apology from the organization.
It was March of 1966. Tracie Garnett, 6, was playing house in the playroom at her home on Ridge Street when a driver from the Steelton Taxi Cab Company pulled up. Tracie answered and was handed a Western Union telegram.
Reuben Garnett was killed trying to save a fellow officer during the Vietnam War. According to his family, decorations, personal and unit awards were not reflected in his record. Also, according to his family, Garnett's mother submitted an application to join the American Gold Star Mothers shortly after her son's death but was told that other mothers in the organization were uncomfortable with her joining because she was black. India Elaine Garnett, Tracie Garnett, and Lise Garnett, 3 of Reuben's sisters, with some of his medals. Sean Simmers, PennLive.com. May08 2015. (SEAN SIMMERS)
One of her parents — Tracie, now 55, can't remember which — read the note and started crying. Her brother, Reuben Louis Garnett Jr., the only boy and the oldest in the family, had died in the Vietnam War.
He was "on a combat operation when hit by hostile small arms fire," the telegram, addressed to Reuben's parents, read. He was 23.
Tracie was too young to understand what death meant. But her three older sisters — Janine Garnett, Lise Garnett and India Elaine Garnett — did.
Janine, 9, cried to herself on the stairs. Lise, 12, doesn't remember much of that day — she's blocked it from her memory, she said. Half a block away, India, 22, began screaming and wailing after her parents came over and showed her the note.
The Garnett sisters point to their brother's death as a turning point in their family's history. Their mother, they said, was forever changed. Her loss was further compounded after she tried to join a local chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers, an organization for mothers who lost a child in the military, and was turned away because she was black. read more here
Apology letter erases years of hurt for woman
India Elaine Garnett, 71, said an apology from the American Gold Star Mothers helped erase 49 years of agony. In the video, she is opening a gift bag containing an American Gold Star Mothers flag.
Soldier in military Humvee that crashed in NJ dies
Associated Press
May 7, 2015
HAMILTON – One of four soldiers from upstate New York injured in a military Humvee crash on the New Jersey Turnpike last week has died.
New Jersey state police Capt. Stephen Jones says 25-year-old John Levulis died Thursday at a hospital in Trenton.
Levulis was from a town named Eden.
He and the other soldiers were in the last Humvee of a 12-vehicle convoy in Hamilton traveling to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on May 1. Police say a vehicle trying to pass hit the Humvee.read more here
Fort Bragg soldier charged in connection with dead dogs
WRAL News
May 9, 2015
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Fort Bragg soldier has been charged in connection with the abuse of dogs that were found with their throats slit.
Al Richard Charlie, 32, is accused of killing a female Labrador mixed breed and her puppy on May 4 at the home of their owner, then driving to a wooded lot on Camden Road the next day and dumping them, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said.
“The mamma dog, her throat was cut so viciously that it completely transected,” said Dr. John Lauby, Cumberland County animal control director.
The dogs belonged to an acquaintance of the suspect, authorities said. The acquaintance is not a suspect in the case, investigators said.
Charlie, who recently returned from deployment overseas, is charged with two counts each of felony larceny of a canine, felony possession of stolen property, felony animal cruelty and improper disposal of a domestic animal.
read more here
