CNN
Mary Cortani and her group, Operation Freedoms Paws, help veterans train their own service dogs in Northern California.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Army general is military's first openly gay flag officer
Army general is military's first openly gay flag officer
CNN
August 10, 2012
The U.S. military has its first openly gay flag officer with the promotion of Tammy Smith to the rank of Army brigadier general on Friday.
Smith received her stars in a private ceremony at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, according to a press release from the Service Members Legal Defense Network, an organization promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the U.S. military.
Friday was also the first day she publicly acknowledged her sexuality, according to a report from Stars and Stripes, and that acknowledgement comes less than a year after the military ended the "don't ask, don't tell" policy under which an active-duty service member faced punishment or discharge if he or she admitted being homosexual.
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CNN
August 10, 2012
The U.S. military has its first openly gay flag officer with the promotion of Tammy Smith to the rank of Army brigadier general on Friday.
Smith received her stars in a private ceremony at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, according to a press release from the Service Members Legal Defense Network, an organization promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the U.S. military.
Friday was also the first day she publicly acknowledged her sexuality, according to a report from Stars and Stripes, and that acknowledgement comes less than a year after the military ended the "don't ask, don't tell" policy under which an active-duty service member faced punishment or discharge if he or she admitted being homosexual.
read more here
War wounds
War Wounds
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times
Published: August 10, 2012
IT would be so much easier, Maj. Ben Richards says, if he had just lost a leg in Iraq.
Instead, he finds himself losing his mind, or at least a part of it. And if you want to understand how America is failing its soldiers and veterans, honoring them with lip service and ceremonies but breaking faith with them on all that matters most, listen to the story of Major Richards.
For starters, he’s brilliant. (Or at least he was.) He speaks Chinese and taught at West Point, and his medical evaluations suggest that until his recent problems he had an I.Q. of about 148. After he graduated from West Point, in 2000, he received glowing reviews.
“Ben Richards is one of the best military officers I have worked with in 13 years of service,” noted an evaluation, one of many military and medical documents he shared with me.
Yet Richards’s intellect almost exacerbates his suffering, for it better equips him to monitor his mental deterioration — and the failings of the Army that he has revered since he was a young boy.
Military suicides are the starkest gauge of our nation’s failure to care adequately for those who served in uniform. With America’s wars winding down, the United States is now losing more soldiers to suicide than to the enemy. Include veterans, and the tragedy is even more sweeping. For every soldier killed in war this year, about 25 veterans now take their own lives.
President Obama said recently that it was an “outrage” that some service members and veterans sought help but couldn’t get it: “We’ve got to do better. This has to be all hands on deck.” Admirable words, but so far they’ve neither made much impact nor offered consolation to those who call the suicide prevention hot line and end up on hold.
The military’s problems with mental health services go far beyond suicide or the occasional murders committed by soldiers and veterans. Far more common are people like Richards, who does not contemplate violence of any kind but is still profoundly disabled.
read more here
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times
Published: August 10, 2012
IT would be so much easier, Maj. Ben Richards says, if he had just lost a leg in Iraq.
Daniel Borris for The New York Times
Maj. Ben Richards, who suffered repeated head injuries in Iraq, sums up his future: “It comes to failure.”
Instead, he finds himself losing his mind, or at least a part of it. And if you want to understand how America is failing its soldiers and veterans, honoring them with lip service and ceremonies but breaking faith with them on all that matters most, listen to the story of Major Richards.
For starters, he’s brilliant. (Or at least he was.) He speaks Chinese and taught at West Point, and his medical evaluations suggest that until his recent problems he had an I.Q. of about 148. After he graduated from West Point, in 2000, he received glowing reviews.
“Ben Richards is one of the best military officers I have worked with in 13 years of service,” noted an evaluation, one of many military and medical documents he shared with me.
Yet Richards’s intellect almost exacerbates his suffering, for it better equips him to monitor his mental deterioration — and the failings of the Army that he has revered since he was a young boy.
Military suicides are the starkest gauge of our nation’s failure to care adequately for those who served in uniform. With America’s wars winding down, the United States is now losing more soldiers to suicide than to the enemy. Include veterans, and the tragedy is even more sweeping. For every soldier killed in war this year, about 25 veterans now take their own lives.
President Obama said recently that it was an “outrage” that some service members and veterans sought help but couldn’t get it: “We’ve got to do better. This has to be all hands on deck.” Admirable words, but so far they’ve neither made much impact nor offered consolation to those who call the suicide prevention hot line and end up on hold.
The military’s problems with mental health services go far beyond suicide or the occasional murders committed by soldiers and veterans. Far more common are people like Richards, who does not contemplate violence of any kind but is still profoundly disabled.
read more here
South Wales Soldier's mum horrified at body parts revelation
Soldier's mum horrified at body parts revelation
Friday, August 10, 2012
South Wales Evening Post
THE mum of a hero killed in Afghanistan says she was horrified at the grim discovery that the Ministry of Defence kept the body parts and tissues of dead soldiers without their families' permission.
Debbie John, whose son Corporal Dean John died in Helmand Province in 2009, said her "stomach somersaulted" after officials revealed that six body parts and more than 50 tissue samples had been kept by the Royal Military Police (RMP).
The remains were first uncovered last month by a new manager working with the Military Police's Special Investigations Branch (SIB).
Officials are now looking to get in touch with the families of 30 soldiers over the case. The Ministry of Defence said it was "deeply sorry" following the situation.
Ms John, of Port Talbot, said was stunned when she heard about what had happened.
She said: "I'm waiting for a phone call. It's terrible. The thing is, it rakes everything up for the families.
read more here
Friday, August 10, 2012
South Wales Evening Post
THE mum of a hero killed in Afghanistan says she was horrified at the grim discovery that the Ministry of Defence kept the body parts and tissues of dead soldiers without their families' permission.
Debbie John, whose son Corporal Dean John died in Helmand Province in 2009, said her "stomach somersaulted" after officials revealed that six body parts and more than 50 tissue samples had been kept by the Royal Military Police (RMP).
The remains were first uncovered last month by a new manager working with the Military Police's Special Investigations Branch (SIB).
Officials are now looking to get in touch with the families of 30 soldiers over the case. The Ministry of Defence said it was "deeply sorry" following the situation.
Ms John, of Port Talbot, said was stunned when she heard about what had happened.
She said: "I'm waiting for a phone call. It's terrible. The thing is, it rakes everything up for the families.
read more here
Fallen U.S. soldier's remains in urn stolen from car
Fallen U.S. soldier's remains in urn stolen from car, Mich. authorities say
August 10, 2012
By Crimesider Staff Topics
Daily Blotter
(CBS/WWJ) LIVONIA - Authorities in Michigan say someone stole an urn containing the remains of a U.S. soldier who died in Afghanistan.
According to CBS Detroit, the urn holding the ashes of Brian Backus was stolen on July 8 in Livonia, about 20 miles west of Detroit. The remains were were taken from a 2012 white Ford Mustang parked outside a home on Arcola street between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.
read more here
August 10, 2012
By Crimesider Staff Topics
Daily Blotter
(CBS/WWJ) LIVONIA - Authorities in Michigan say someone stole an urn containing the remains of a U.S. soldier who died in Afghanistan.
According to CBS Detroit, the urn holding the ashes of Brian Backus was stolen on July 8 in Livonia, about 20 miles west of Detroit. The remains were were taken from a 2012 white Ford Mustang parked outside a home on Arcola street between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.
read more here
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