Retired Army chaplain assistant convicted of two counts of murder

Former soldier gets 35 years
Lawyer tells judge post-traumatic stress disorder a factor in incident

By NOELLE PHILLIPS
A retired Army chaplain assistant convicted of two counts of murder explained his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder Wednesday in an attempt to convince a judge to reduce his prison time.

Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Leslie Todd Parvin, 40, to 35 years in prison Wednesday for shooting and killing Edgar Lopez of Guatemala and Pablo Gutierrez-Guzman in July 2010. The maximum sentence he could have received was life in prison, and the minimum, 30 years.
Newman said he had reviewed Parvin’s military records and the treatment he had received for his post-traumatic stress disorder, which was diagnosed in 2007.
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Fort Hood investigating deaths of two soldiers

Texas Today: Fort Hood identifies two dead soldiers
Posted On: Tuesday, Jan. 3 2012

FORT HOOD — Post officials on Tuesday released the names of two Fort Hood soldiers who died recently:

Spc. Michael Henry Bailey II, 26, of Flint, Mich., died Thursday in Temple from injuries suffered after a gunshot wound Dec. 23 in Killeen. Officials said an investigation is under way in his death.

Bailey joined the military in August 2008 as an air traffic control equipment repairer. He was assigned to 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, since June 2010.

Bailey deployed to Iraq from May 2011 to November 2011.

His awards and decorations include the Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with campaign star and Army Service Ribbon.

Pfc. Kenneth McDaniel, 23, of Tomball, died Sunday in Tomball. Officials said the Army is investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.

McDaniel joined the military in May 2010 as an infantryman. He was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, since September 2010.

McDaniel deployed to Iraq from February 2011 to November 2011.

His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with campaign star and Army Service Ribbon.
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Increased calls to Oregon Partnership’s military helpline

Increased calls to Oregon Partnership’s military helpline
Posted: Jan 03, 2012
By Natalie Brand

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
With more troops returning home from war, the need for help and resources continues to rise, according to experts.

Crisis workers at Oregon Partnership, a statewide non-profit for people in crisis, say their Military HelpLine experienced an increase in calls during December as service members returned from Iraq.

"We have many callers who are dealing with relationship conflicts with their spouses, with their family," said Josh Groesz, the director of Military Crisis Lines. He said they're also dealing with financial issues, unemployment and reintegration challenges.

Groesz, a veteran himself who served in Iraq with the Oregon Army National Guard, admits the transition back to civilian life can be a struggle.

"For me, I experienced loss," said Groesz. "I went from being a part of something that was bigger than myself, to coming home and losing that, almost like a loss of identity."

Groesz said educating himself through classes on PTSD offered by the V.A. as well as counseling helped him through the transition.

"These guys, when they come back, they want to talk to someone who understands," said David Dedrickson, an outreach manager at Oregon Partnership and army veteran himself.

"There's a lot of things that change when you come home," said Dedrickson, who said returning veterans may miss the structure, camaraderie and friends they've left behind.

Symptoms of post traumatic stress can range from quick anger to frustration or a desire to withdraw or isolate oneself, according to experts. The timeline of PTSD can vary as well.

Dedrickson said a number of calls received last month as troops returned from Iraq came from Vietnam veterans.

"They were experiencing flashbacks, PTS from when they were coming home," said Dedrickson. "It's not just a couple of months, couple of years; it can be as long as 40 or 50 years."
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Media too late to prevent Barnes from killing

If you've been paying attention to what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, then you know there were no "safe" zones in Iraq just are there are no safe zones in Afghanistan now. In 2007, the US military had seen the deadliest year. 904 US servicemen and women died that year. It was also the deadliest for UK forces with 47 deaths and another 10 from other coalition forces according to the website iCasualties.org

PTSD has been a huge issue but you'd never know it watching CNN, FOX or MSNBC. All they have been interested in is politics. With an appointment to keep, I turned on my satellite radio in the car, hoping to hear more news on the "manhunt" but these stations were talking about the campaigns instead. Now they are paying attention once more but only after another tragedy leaving too many grieving.

The news is filled with reports on Benjamin Colton Barnes. Reporters are now guessing on what really happened before he opened fire. The cops are guessing too.

Cops: Veteran who killed park ranger didn't have PTSD

By MyNorthwest.com
Staff report

While the man suspected of killing a park ranger at Mount Rainier was an Iraq war veteran, police say there's no way Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, had a post traumatic stress disorder.

"He seems to be kind of a jerk more than anything else before he even went into the military, as we're starting to do some background on him," Detective Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff's Office told 97.3 KIRO FM's Ron and Don Show. "There's zero percent chance this is PTSD. I don't think the guy ever saw combat."

"He was a trouble maker from the get go and the military did the right thing by getting rid of him," Troyer said. "To use that term, PTSD, does a disgrace to people that really have suffered...and who need the help."
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"I don't think this guy ever saw combat" is showing the attitude of too many. He wouldn't have had to seen the enemy face to face to end up with PTSD. With IEDs blowing up all over the place and too many of soldiers being blown up, there was a constant threat to everyone there.

Rainier shooting suspect’s Army discharge does not bar VA benefits
Post by Adam Ashton / The News Tribune on Jan. 3, 2012

The Army today released more detailed information about Barnes’ service record. He joined the Army on Feb. 8, 2007 and cited Temecula, Calif. as his home of record. He served at Fort Lewis with the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division during its deployment during the Iraq surge. Barnes was a signal support specialist in the brigade’s cavalry squadron. That’s a communications assignment that generally centers on work on forward bases.
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There seems to be more of a need to dismiss PTSD as behind this tragedy but then again, that is always a factor when reports come out on one of them involved in a crime. If people think they are defending other veterans with PTSD, not causing any trouble at all, they are missing the point. Soldiers are still human after all and they can heroes or trouble makers with and without PTSD. The percentage of them getting into trouble is low but you don't hear about the average veteran doing the best he/she can with PTSD. Even with the low numbers of veterans causing trouble, there were enough across the country that there was a need to address them differently in Veterans' Courts. More veterans call the Suicide Prevention Hotline than cause any kind of trouble. More veterans commit suicide on a daily basis than end up in situations with law enforcement. 18 a day commit suicide with even more attempting it.

Most want help but don't get it. On Fort Lewis (Joint Base Lewis-McChord) this was going on the same year Barnes was discharged.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

AWOL Soldier Requested Treatment for PTSD and was Denied/Refused/Threatened
How many more stories do we have to read to understand the DOD still does not get it

VETWOW

Enumclaw, Washington, February 3, 2009

Two OIF soldiers from different units at Ft. Lewis, Washington have gone AWOL multiple times after each had multiple requests for mental health care with regards to their "undiagnosed" PTSD. Panic attacks, hypervigilance and inability to sleep are just a few of the symptoms these soldiers are experiencing. Not being allowed to obtain treatment, leaves them without a Diagnosis, which traps them in a Catch-22 situation.

After calling Ft. Lewis Inspector General as well as their AWOL Apprehension Team, Susan Avila-Smith discovered that the only way Fort Lewis officials will "approach this" is to have the soldiers return to base, be taken into custody by Ft. Lewis Military Police, and release them to their prospective units, the very Commanders that would not listen to their plea for treatment in the first place.

"While I understand that there are military rules and regulations, there comes a point when the best interests of the Military, the Soldiers and taxpayers need to step up to the plate and give medical and mental health care to those who need it, and who know enough to ask for help.

Throwing them into the stockade and having their Command punish them, and possibly kicking them out of service when they have a valid medical issue is no way to treat our American Soldiers who have fought for our Freedom."

We encourage people to contact Fort Lewis officials to make sure that any soldier have complete access to Mental Health care, and hold Command accountable for their actions, rather than the soldier for their illness.

Susan Avila-Smith,
Director,
VETWOW
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Alcohol is a drug of choice to stop them from feeling, calm down the shaking and slow down their pounding hearts. Did Barnes fall through the cracks too?

Troubled picture emerges of suspect in park ranger's slaying
By Phil Gast and Michael Pearson, CNN
updated 11:02 PM EST, Tue January 3, 2012
Barnes, 24, served as a radio and communications repair specialist with 2nd Squadron, 1st Calvary Regiment, a unit of the 2nd Infantry Division located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, according to Army spokesman Troy Rolan.
Park official talks ranger's shooting

He joined the Army in February 2007 and was deployed to Iraq from that year to shortly before his discharge in 2009, Rolan said. Details of his discharge were not immediately available, Rolan said, and Army policy prohibits release of information about a soldier's medical condition.
Despite photos of a muscular Barnes, shirtless, tattooed and brandishing two guns, Barnes wasn't a combat soldier. Instead, he was responsible for fixing radios and other communications equipment, Rolan said.
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If you ask a Vietnam veteran what their MOS was, they may say clerk but then show you pictures of them going out on sweeps with machine guns in hand and no steno pad. Again, the media seems to want to dismiss Barnes having PTSD by painting a picture of him just fixing radios.

Here is another report making the news on this.

Ex-soldier in Mount Rainier killing stationed at deeply troubled base

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com
Updated at 8:50 p.m. ET: Brandon Friedman, an Army combat veteran in Afghanistan and Iraq and author of the highly regarded memoir "The War I Always Wanted," warned against linking post-traumatic stress disorder or conditions at Joint Base Lewis-McChord to Barnes' alleged behavior.
There's "obviously no question of a tie between combat and PTSD," Friedman said in a Twitter message to msnbc.com. "But having PTSD doesn't signify a propensity to murder Americans."
Mount Rainier National Park remains closed until at least Saturday, park officials said.
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Few veterans will snap like this but it does happen. While most go on to be peaceful citizens suffering in silence, some will react badly to feeling their life is on the line again. The reports say this began with guns being fired at a party. It is possible that set him off.

Mt. Rainier killing sparks concern for war veterans
By Melissa Bell
Over the weekend, the usually idyllic vacation spot of Mount Rainier National Park was engulfed in a nightmarish killing and manhunt.

Police suspect Benjamin Colton Barnes of opening fire at a New Year’s party near Seattle, wounding four people, then running to Mount Rainier National Park and killing a park ranger. Barnes was later found dead in the park, likely from exposure to the cold.
What makes the story all the more jarring is Barnes’s background: The 24-year-old was an Iraq war veteran, possibly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The deaths come as the Department of Veterans Affairs is stepping up its outreach programs to veterans who are battling with rising suicide rates, homelessness rates and aggressive behavior.
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Now we know that Barnes had asked for help well before this happened.

Mt. Rainier shooting suspect from Riverside County likely suffered PTSD
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Rudabeh Shahbazi
More: Bio, E-mail, Recent Stories, News Team
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. (KABC) -- More information has been discovered about 24-year-old Benjamin Barnes, the Iraq War veteran accused of fatally shooting a park ranger in Washington's Mount Rainier National Park. That happened after a shooting rampage at a New Year's Eve house party outside Seattle.

Barnes was from Riverside County. Barnes contacted a local veterans organization there.

Barnes had a troubled transition back to civilian life after his tour in Iraq, according to court documents.

Vietnam veteran and founder of the National Veterans Foundation, Shad Meshad, says Barnes called his organization for help in June.

"Benjamin called our line, generically asking for healthcare benefits," said Meshad, National Veterans Foundation founder and president. "He was probably really on the verge then of really doing something crazy. But we don't know that. They're not deprogrammed when they come back and they have symptoms of PTSD or traumatic brain injury, things are going to happen, and they're going to be tragic."
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It would be wonderful if PTSD had been in the news all along before something like this happens.

Experts hope recent tragedy shines light on PTSD
By Denise Whitaker Published: Jan 3, 2012
SEATTLE -- Friends and family of the man who killed a park ranger on Sunday say he likely suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

We'll never know if Benjamin Barnes snapped from that stress, but experts say we can learn from the tragedy and work to prevent it from happening again.

Recent studies show that one in every five veterans suffer from stress or depression, but medical professionals emphasize that few veterans back from deployment will reach a level of stress that leads to the catastrophic violence seen on Mount Rainier this weekend.

It was New Year's Day that Barnes, a military veteran, shot and killed Park Ranger Margaret Anderson.

That was just the latest in a string of incidents where veterans suffering from post combat stress killed themselves or others.

Merinda McLaren noticed her son was suffering when he returned from two consecutive tours in Iraq, and she refused to give up her fight to get him the help he needed.

"Listen," McLaren said. "Really listen, not just to the pieces you want to hear."
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Benjamin Colton Barnes, discharged from Joint Base Lewis-McChord with PTSD

Here are some more stories from Lewis-McChord
This is from 2008

Army answer for WTU problem, take in less wounded
A recent case at Fort Lewis, Wash., shows how this can happen. A month ago, a soldier told Army Times his company has several soldiers being medically retired. He said his first sergeant told them they had better keep their noses clean or he would process them out on Article 15s because he needs deployable soldiers in their slots.

Meanwhile, the soldier said he has been assigned staff duty during times when he had out-processing briefings or medical appointments, and was told if he misses the duty, he’ll be in trouble. Then he was told he already had orders to go to the WTU — good news because he’d had to fight to get paperwork written up and signed.
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General's story highlights combat stress
November 25, 2008
Today, Ham, 56, is one of only 12 four-star generals in the Army. He commands all U.S. soldiers in Europe. The stress of his combat service could have derailed his career, but Ham says he realized that he needed help transitioning from life on the battlefields of Iraq to the halls of power at the Pentagon. So he sought screening for post-traumatic stress and got counseling from a chaplain. That helped him "get realigned," he says.

"You need somebody to assure you that it's not abnormal," Ham says. "It's not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It's not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds. It's not abnormal to find yourself with mood swings at seemingly trivial matters. More than anything else, just to be able to say that out loud."

The willingness of Ham, one of the military's top officers, to speak candidly with USA TODAY for the first time about post-traumatic stress represents a tectonic shift for a military system in which seeking such help has long been seen as a sign of weakness.

It's also a recognition of the seriousness of combat stress, which can often worsen to become post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Shattered soldiers say there was no help when they needed it

"I probably need to get some help before I slit your throats while you're sleeping." That's what a now AWOL Fort Lewis soldier said he told his command staff before he tried to kill his sergeant in Iraq. Even after the alleged attack, the soldier said, the Army never got him any mental help.
By Liz Rocca

My job was to kick down doors."
His Army buddies called him "K-10." On the dusty streets of Iraq he had one goal: "Find insurgents and punish them. Period."

K-10 can't use his real name because now he's a fugitive - a deserter. With just three weeks left in the Army, K-10 went AWOL from the Fort Lewis Post when, he says, the flashbacks of battle became more than he could bear.

"I never had nightmares before I went to Iraq," says K-10.

Another soldier, who now goes by the fictitious name of Arthur Smith, says he was so tortured by terrifying nightmares he went AWOL from the National Guard.

"I would wake up shaking, I would wake up sweating," he says. "I would have dreams of being gunned down by other Army soldiers."

Army Combat Veteran Santiago Cisneros tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

"I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn't know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself," says Santiago.

All three men told the Problem Solvers they are shattered soldiers, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and didn't get the help they needed from the military they served.
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PTSD Help Available For Local War Vets

Park Ranger Slaying Suggests Link To War Stress

POSTED: 3:53 pm CST January 3, 2012

ROGERS, Ark. -- An Iraq war veteran suspected of killing a park ranger in Washington State has left communities wondering whether post-traumatic stress was responsible, and whether services should be made available for local returning veterans.
Police said Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, shot and killed ranger Margaret Anderson on New Year's day in Mt. Rainier National Park.
Kim Copps works with veterans and their families every day in Northwest Arkansas. She's an expert on post-traumatic stress and said it's not uncommon among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"If you think about living in a combat zone 24/7 and not knowing if you or someone with you could be harmed or even killed, you come home and you're not sure if the same things could happen here," she said. "So we help people re-adjust."
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We can keep reading reports like this, learn everything from them but if nothing is done to fix what is wrong, they'll keep making the news in a bad way. It is not just the Army. It happened a few years back with another major story but this time, involved a Marine.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N.Twiggs hugged Bush last month, died this month
Marine who died after cross-state chase wrote of war stress

Marine who died after Grand Canyon crash, carjacking, cross-state chase wrote of war stress

ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
AP News

May 17, 2008 11:17 EST

Last month, Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N. "T-Bo" Twiggs went to the White House with a group of Iraq war veterans called the Wounded Warriors Regiment and met the president.


Twiggs had been through four tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan and months of therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in which he said he was on up to 12 different medications.

"He said, `Sir, I've served over there many times, and I would serve for you any time,' and he grabbed the president and gave him a big hug," said Kellee Twiggs, his widow.

About two weeks later, Travis Twiggs went absent without leave from his job in Quantico, Va.

He and his brother drove to the Grand Canyon, where their car was found hanging in a tree in what appeared to be a failed attempt to drive into the chasm.

The brothers carjacked a vehicle at the park Monday. Two days later they were at a southwestern Arizona border checkpoint, and took off when they were asked to pull into a secondary inspection area, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bernacke said.

Eighty miles later, the car was on the Tohono O'odham reservation, its tires wrecked by spike strips.

As tribal police and Border Patrol agents closed in, Twiggs, 36, apparently fatally shot his 38-year-old brother, Willard J. "Will" Twiggs, then killed himself.

Pinal County Sheriff's spokesman Mike Minter said no motive has been established. But Kellee Twiggs said the decorated Marine would still be alive if the military had given him enough help.

"All this violent behavior, him killing his brother, that was not my husband. If the PTSD would have been handled in a correct manner, none of this would have happened," she said in a telephone interview from Stafford, Va.

Travis Twiggs, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993 and held the combat action ribbon, wrote about his efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette.

The symptoms would disappear when he began each tour, he said, but came back stronger than ever when he came home.
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The following is from a report on Stars and Stripes

Barnes was homeless

In recent months, he'd lost his apartment and his job, friends said. He started sleeping in his car in casino parking lots.

Barnes was not as some suggested, out of danger.

Barnes spent two years and seven months in the service, including a tour in Iraq, one of more than 3,500 soldiers with the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which was part of an influx of troops into Diyala province that sought to contain insurgent forces in the city of Baquba. But he was discharged from the Army in 2009 after an arrest for driving under the influence and illegal transportation of a private weapon.

Many soldiers spent much of their time outside of major fortified U.S. bases in smaller outposts shared with Iraqi troops, according to Christopher Williams, a former sergeant who served in Iraq with the brigade.

Army records state that Barnes was assigned to a headquarters unit, a job that typically involves installing, maintaining and troubleshooting communications equipment.

Barnes was from a military family.

Barnes' Facebook profile contains a photograph of him in full battle dress carrying an M4 rifle, posing in front of what appears to be a group of Iraqi men. It also notes that his father was a Marine and that he has a brother who served in Afghanistan.

One of his friends committed suicide two months ago.

About two months ago, Barnes attended the burial in a Riverside-area military cemetery of a close friend and Army soldier who committed suicide, according to Chris Smith, a friend of both men. The soldier, who was 24 and married with a young daughter, died in October, according to a website obituary.

Barnes "was pretty darn heartbroken," Smith, also 24, said in a telephone interview. "He was on the verge of dropping tears."

The comments left of some of these reports show a hugh divide in this country. Some say that Barnes couldn't have PTSD and was just a trouble maker. Some say that he had it but didn't get help for it. No one can agree on any of this. The fact is still the same and the result is what it is. An Iraq veteran is dead, a Park Ranger is dead, two families are left grieving and a community is in shock. What we are about to see in the following days will be claims made by the military about addressing PTSD when they have made the same claims before, usually after a tragedy like this. We will see more reporters trying to get the front page with more of the same reports we've already read about Barnes and what the DOD is claiming to do just as we will see more reports on defending what has been happening at Lewis-McChord. More reporters will come out with crazy numbers pulled out of the hat of whomever they are interviewing and they won't take the time to find out what the real facts are. Weeks from now this will be a dead story and nothing will really change as reporters move on to the election coverage and whatever celebrity ends up being arrested or divorced.

The truth is, they should have been on top of all that has been happening with PTSD all along and then maybe, just maybe, things could have changed for the better a long time ago.

Iraq war vet may have drowned searching for golf balls

Body of missing Florida golf ball diver found in lake; Iraq war vet may have drowned
David Voiles was not killed by alligators, as investigators initially feared


BY PHILIP CAULFIELD / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, January 3 2012, 4:57 PM


Tampa area search crews on Tuesday recovered the dead body of a diver who went missing while recovering golf balls from a country club lake, authorities said.

David Voiles, 43, an Iraq war veteran who received a Purple Heart after surviving an IED attack while serving with the Tennessee National Guard, was not killed by alligators, as investigators initially feared, but appears to have drowned, medical examiners told local station WTSP.

Local dive teams found him submerged in about 8 feet of water around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the station said.

The lake's depth was estimated to range between 10 and 25 feet.
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