Operation Starting Gun
On May 20th, a EF-4 Category tornado touched down outside of Oklahoma City, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and affecting tens of thousands of lives. At times, this tornado stretched as wide as three miles across, decimating the town of Moore, OK. And more severe weather is expected.
We are launching a massive operation to help those affected, and we need your help.
Similar to our response to Superstorm Sandy, TR will activate volunteers from across the country to deploy to Oklahoma. Strike teams will work in the community, going home to home, providing damage assessments and expedient home repair.
I just became part of their fundraising team. Please help them on this important mission.
Wounded Times Team Rubicon
Let them know readers of Wounded Times Supports their work as well as these veterans.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
No postings yet for HIV-positive Marines, sailors since policy change
No postings yet for HIV-positive Marines, sailors since policy change
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 22, 2013
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — More than nine months have passed since the Navy decided to open up overseas and large-ship platform assignments to HIV-positive sailors and Marines, but not a single sailor has gotten such a posting.
The Navy’s Personnel Command is grappling with how to implement the instruction, which also covers blood-borne pathogens like hepatitis B and C.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus handed down the policy in August 2012.
Personnel Command officials declined to comment on when the policy would actually take effect. Instructions can take time to implement, Personnel Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rob Lyon told Stars and Stripes in an email.
“Navy Personnel Command recently completed a review of SECNAVINST 5300.30E, dealing with blood-borne pathogens, to ensure sailors affected will have the greatest opportunity to be successful, and any concerns by their receiving commands will be addressed,” Lyon said. “We will more than likely have more to discuss once the Milpersman article (implementation guidance) has been chopped by all parties.”
read more here
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 22, 2013
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — More than nine months have passed since the Navy decided to open up overseas and large-ship platform assignments to HIV-positive sailors and Marines, but not a single sailor has gotten such a posting.
The Navy’s Personnel Command is grappling with how to implement the instruction, which also covers blood-borne pathogens like hepatitis B and C.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus handed down the policy in August 2012.
Personnel Command officials declined to comment on when the policy would actually take effect. Instructions can take time to implement, Personnel Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rob Lyon told Stars and Stripes in an email.
“Navy Personnel Command recently completed a review of SECNAVINST 5300.30E, dealing with blood-borne pathogens, to ensure sailors affected will have the greatest opportunity to be successful, and any concerns by their receiving commands will be addressed,” Lyon said. “We will more than likely have more to discuss once the Milpersman article (implementation guidance) has been chopped by all parties.”
read more here
Man shot by FBI in Orlando over ties to Boston bombing
Friend: Orlando man shot by FBI agent was questioned in Boston Marathon bombings
By Jerriann Sullivan and Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
10:21 a.m. EDT, May 22, 2013
An Orlando man who was shot and killed by an FBI agent early Wednesday morning was friends with the Boston bombings suspects, according to a friend of the victim.
Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot in a condo at 6022 Peregrine Avenue, a quiet residential street near Universal Studios, said FBI Agent Dave Couvertier.
"The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties," Couvertier said.
An FBI post-shooting incident review team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and is expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours.
Couvertier, the FBI's spokesman for the Orlando region, released no other details on the shooting or the investigation.
read more here
By Jerriann Sullivan and Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
10:21 a.m. EDT, May 22, 2013
An Orlando man who was shot and killed by an FBI agent early Wednesday morning was friends with the Boston bombings suspects, according to a friend of the victim.
Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot in a condo at 6022 Peregrine Avenue, a quiet residential street near Universal Studios, said FBI Agent Dave Couvertier.
"The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties," Couvertier said.
An FBI post-shooting incident review team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and is expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours.
Couvertier, the FBI's spokesman for the Orlando region, released no other details on the shooting or the investigation.
read more here
House passes bill giving disabled vets expedited airport screening
House passes bill giving disabled vets expedited airport screenings
Legislation comes after reports of overzealous TSA inspections of injured veterans
May. 21, 2013
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff Writer
The House has passed a bill that would require the Transportation Security Administration to expedite security screenings for severely injured or disabled veterans and any family members or caregivers traveling with them.
The “Helping Heroes Fly” act, H.R. 1344, would mandate that TSA develop policies for screening disabled veterans to protect their privacy and let them keep on their shoes, belts and jackets when going through security. Taking them off, as is required of regular passengers, is “more than just an inconvenience” to service members or veterans who are wearing a prosthetic or are confined to a wheelchair, said bill sponsor Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
“These selfless heroes should never have to face lengthy, invasive and even humiliating screening procedures at our airports. The ‘Helping Heroes Fly Act’ is a strong step toward ensuring they do not face unnecessary hardships after having served our country with courage and dignity,” said Gabbard, who also serves as a captain in the Hawaii National Guard.
read more here
Legislation comes after reports of overzealous TSA inspections of injured veterans
May. 21, 2013
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff Writer
The House has passed a bill that would require the Transportation Security Administration to expedite security screenings for severely injured or disabled veterans and any family members or caregivers traveling with them.
The “Helping Heroes Fly” act, H.R. 1344, would mandate that TSA develop policies for screening disabled veterans to protect their privacy and let them keep on their shoes, belts and jackets when going through security. Taking them off, as is required of regular passengers, is “more than just an inconvenience” to service members or veterans who are wearing a prosthetic or are confined to a wheelchair, said bill sponsor Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
“These selfless heroes should never have to face lengthy, invasive and even humiliating screening procedures at our airports. The ‘Helping Heroes Fly Act’ is a strong step toward ensuring they do not face unnecessary hardships after having served our country with courage and dignity,” said Gabbard, who also serves as a captain in the Hawaii National Guard.
read more here
Tornado turns Marin Iraq vet’s town into war zone
Tornado turns marine vet’s town into war zone
War veteran vows to rebuild home flattened in devastating Oklahoma storm
AFP
May 22, 2013
Moore, Oklahoma: Curtis Carver has every intention of rebuilding from scratch the house he lost in Monday’s powerful and deadly hurricane that devastated this Oklahoma City suburb. But first, the construction worker and 20-year veteran of the US Marine Corps, who spent two years on active duty in Iraq, wants to recover his memories from the rubble - and law enforcement is getting in the way.
“My pictures. That’s all I want - my pictures,” he said Tuesday while cooling his heels and suppressing his anger at a road block where a police officer politely but firmly denied him access to the disaster zone.
Other residents could enter with a valid proof of address, and many did, toting out by foot whatever they could in bags and luggage of all shapes and colours to their cars parked a few kilometers away.
But Carver’s house, in the vicinity of Southwest 14th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, was in an area deemed by authorities Tuesday to be still too hazardous to enter, although he did get a glimpse of it Monday evening.
“It was my home, my kids’ home,” said Carver, a 38-year-old father of two, wearing a camouflage jacket over an Oklahoma T-shirt. “Now it’s gone. There’s nothing left. It’s a pile of sticks, and they’re keeping me away.”
read more here
War veteran vows to rebuild home flattened in devastating Oklahoma storm
AFP
May 22, 2013
Moore, Oklahoma: Curtis Carver has every intention of rebuilding from scratch the house he lost in Monday’s powerful and deadly hurricane that devastated this Oklahoma City suburb. But first, the construction worker and 20-year veteran of the US Marine Corps, who spent two years on active duty in Iraq, wants to recover his memories from the rubble - and law enforcement is getting in the way.
“My pictures. That’s all I want - my pictures,” he said Tuesday while cooling his heels and suppressing his anger at a road block where a police officer politely but firmly denied him access to the disaster zone.
Other residents could enter with a valid proof of address, and many did, toting out by foot whatever they could in bags and luggage of all shapes and colours to their cars parked a few kilometers away.
But Carver’s house, in the vicinity of Southwest 14th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, was in an area deemed by authorities Tuesday to be still too hazardous to enter, although he did get a glimpse of it Monday evening.
“It was my home, my kids’ home,” said Carver, a 38-year-old father of two, wearing a camouflage jacket over an Oklahoma T-shirt. “Now it’s gone. There’s nothing left. It’s a pile of sticks, and they’re keeping me away.”
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)