Disabled Vietnam Veteran will live in car to help homeless veterans

Mesa man to live in car for 3 days to raise awareness of homeless vets
By Mike Sakal, Tribune

A Mesa man soon will begin an "on the street" experience aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of homeless veterans while accepting donations of cash and blue jeans for a nonprofit organization that helps them.

From 9 a.m. Thursday until 6 p.m. Sunday, Tom Steinhagen, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, will start fasting and living in his car outside of Berge Ford, 460 E. Auto Center Drive, near Mesa Drive and the U.S. 60, for the Stand Up and Stand Proud organization, giving the community an around-the-clock opportunity to stop by and see how he's living - rain or shine.

Steinhagen, the founder of Stand Up and Stand Proud, is a member of Legion Riders and the Arizona Patriot Guard Riders, and is also active with local American Legion groups. He has set a goal of filling the trunk of his car with new or slightly used blue jeans that will be passed on to homeless veterans within those 80 hours.
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Dignity Memorial provides 1,000th military funeral for homeless veteran

Dignity Memorial® Network to Provide Military Burial for Homeless Portland Veteran
Homeless Veterans Burial Program provides 1,000th military funeral service


By Dignity Memorial network
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 - 9:50 am
PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 24, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Memorial Park, a member of the Dignity Memorial network, will provide a funeral with full military honors on Jan. 25 at the Willamette National Cemetery for a homeless Portland veteran, the 1,000th burial provided through the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program.

Naval Petty Officer 2nd Class Stevenson L. Roy, a recently deceased homeless Vietnam veteran, will be buried at the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 1:30 p.m.

"We are humbled to help provide the military honors that Mr. Roy deserves," said Jean-Christophe Aubry, market director for the Portland area Dignity Memorial providers. "It is a great privilege to show our community's deep gratitude for veterans like him who have given so much to our country."
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US Spec-ops raid in Somalia frees American, Dane

Spec-ops raid in Somalia frees American, Dane
By Abdi Guled and Katharine Houreld - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jan 25, 2012 6:02:34 EST

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. military forces flew into Somalia in a nighttime helicopter raid Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage, and killed nine pirates in a mission President Obama appeared to reference before his State of the Union speech, officials and a pirate source said.

The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed "during an operation in Somalia." Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

Obama seemed to refer to the mission before his State of the Union address in Washington on Tuesday night. As he entered the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol, he pointed at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the crowd and said, "Good job tonight."
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Last military shipment from Iraq

Beaumont receives last military shipment from Iraq


By Courtney Francisco - email
The end of the war in Iraq has brought the end of an era here in Beaumont, for the Port that is.

Military service personnel and port workers unloaded the last ship returning military equipment to the U.S. from Iraq Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Michael Arnold is Commander of the 842nd Transportation Battalion stations at the Port of Beaumont and says the ship more than just another job to unload.

Nearly 400 ships have traveled from Iraq to Beaumont since 2002 stocked full of supplies ranging from helicopters to military equipment.

However, now that troops have been withdrawn from Iraq the equipment is no longer needed there, and Lt. Col. Arnold says unloading it marks a milestone.
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U.S. Marine spared from jail time in Iraq killings

If you read about any war, civilians died. It is an ugly part of what happens that "polite" civilians never want to think about. Most of the time it is because of the type of warfare being waged where enemy forces are part of the population, dressed like everyone else and attacking from the crowds of innocent people. That is what happened in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, just as it happened in Vietnam.

The men and women we send to fight these wars never know who is a simple bystander and who wants to kill them until it is too late for second guesses.

Did these Marines snap or was it more a case of everything else that happened in Iraq? None of of us really know because we weren't there. These memories will be with them for the rest of their lives.

U.S. Marine spared from jail time in Iraq killings


By Mary Slosson
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif
Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:13am EST
(Reuters) - A U.S. Marine accused of leading a 2005 massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha was spared jail time when he was sentenced on Tuesday for his role in killings that brought international condemnation on U.S. troops.

The harshest penalty Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, now faces for his guilty plea on Monday to a single count of dereliction of duty is a demotion to the rank of private, the lowest rank in the service, as recommended by a military judge.

As part of his guilty plea, Wuterich accepted responsibility for giving negligent verbal instructions to the Marines under his command when he told them to "shoot first and ask questions later," orders that resulted in the deaths of civilians.

In his court statement on Tuesday, Wuterich added that when he gave that order, "the intent wasn't that they should shoot civilians. It was that they would not hesitate in the face of the enemy."

He said that he and his fellow Marines behaved honorably under extreme circumstances, and that he "never fired my weapon at any women or children that day."
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