Marine found dead at Camp Pendleton on Sunday

UPDATE
Local marine found dead at Camp Pendleton
Posted at: 01/18/2012
By: Christine VanTimmeren
WHEC.com

The family of a local marine is searching for answers after their son was found dead in his barracks at Camp Pendleton.

21-year-old Private First Class Tom Angelo was found dead early Monday morning. NCIS investigators say there is no sign of foul play in this case, but the official death investigation will probably take another couple months.

Private Angelo was a 2008 graduate of Gates Chili High School. His stepmom says after graduation Tom immediately went into the military.

The family is still trying to make sense of how their marine could have died on American soil.

Christine Andrews says her stepson wanted to do more than sit at a desk in college. He wanted hands on experience. “I think he just wanted to find a place in life and thought he might learn something from the military.”
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MILITARY: Marine found dead at Camp Pendleton on Sunday
Story
Discussion
By MARK WALKER
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Foul play has been all but ruled out in the death of a Marine private found dead in his Camp Pendleton barracks room on Sunday.

Pfc. Thomas J. Angelo, 21, of Rochester, N.Y., was an avionics technician assigned to a helicopter training squad.

A base announcement on Tuesday gave no hint of how Angelo might have died, referring any questions to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
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After decades of untreated rage, Vietnam veteran finds peace

After decades of untreated rage, Vietnam veteran finds peace

Lorene Parshall, Staff Writer
January 17, 2012

Edward Fischer Jr. served as senior radio operator for Combat Operations with the 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry, 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam (Courtesy photo)

GAYLORD — Friday, Jan. 27, will mark the 39th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accord that ended U.S. participation in the Vietnam War.

Many of the veterans who fought in that war, however, have yet to find peace.

A government study estimated there are a million Vietnam vets with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following them throughout their lives.

Edward Fischer Jr. was one of those vets. He served with the 1st Cavalry Division from September 1967 until May 1968.

“One of the traumas for me was the day after day, week after week, month after month of constant combat,” said Fischer, who was a senior radio operator. “There were 900 men in my unit. We trained together for nine months before leaving the states and all knew each other. I had to watch my buddies getting killed and wounded all around me.”

Photos of a 23-year-old Fischer in Vietnam give the impression of a good-natured young man with a big grin, a person who looked forward to the glories of war. The realities of war knocked that grin off his face and tortured him for decades with the invisible wounds of PTSD.

“I had nightmares about combat every night,” he said. “I felt aghast, helpless, anxious, lost. I started drinking constantly and was angry and screaming at people all the time.”
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Retired Military Officer's body found on Camp Bullis

Man's body found on Camp Bullis
By Sig Christenson
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Army on Tuesday said it was investigating the death of a retired military officer whose body was found on Camp Bullis.

The man, whose identity wasn't immediately available, suffered an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

“It looks like suicide,” said Brent Boller, a spokesman for Joint Base San Antonio. “It's just not formally declared yet.”
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Marine Corps ends 2011 with record number of suicide attempts

MILITARY: Marine Corps ends 2011 with record number of suicide attempts
By MARK WALKER
Posted: Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Marine Corps ended 2011 with 175 suicide attempts among its active-duty troops, the highest number ever recorded.

Thirty-three Marines committed suicide during the year, down from 37 reported in 2010, according to the latest report from service's Suicide Prevention Program.

The 175 attempted suicides were three more than the 172 recorded in 2010 and more than twice the 82 recorded in 2002, the first year the Marine Corps began keeping a detailed count of the grim statistic.

Suicide attempts jumped dramatically between 2007 and 2008, going from 103 to 146.

Officials have not been able to fully explain the increase other than to point to stress from multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 11 Marines who took their own lives last year were stationed at Camp Pendleton or assigned to a unit headquartered at the base, officials recently confirmed.
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Alleged Dyer Street Shooter Was A Homeless Iraq Veteran

Alleged Dyer Street Shooter Was A Homeless Veteran
By ABC-7 Reporter Darren Hunt
POSTED: 6:17 pm MST January 17, 2012

EL PASO, Texas -- New details have emerged on Sunday morning's soldier shooting on Dyer street, which left one military man dead, two others injured and another behind bars.

Police say shots were fired in the air before the fatal shots being fired. ABC-7 also learned that the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Craig Graham, is a homeless veteran of the Marine Corps, who recently returned from a tour in Iraq.

"We currently have a caseload of about 63 or 65 homeless veterans," said Chet Frame, Director of the Excel Learning Center's Homeless Veteran's Program, which had been working with the alleged shooter. "He had just started back into the re-integration program."
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