Fort Campbell Solider On Leave Killed By 15 Year Old

Funeral honors Blount Co. soldier killed in Harriman
WBIR
Raishad Hardnett
September 03, 2016

On Saturday, family and friends honored the life of a Ft. Campbell soldier killed while on leave.

Authorities say a Harriman teenager shot and killed Blount County native MarStratton Gordon last Sunday. Police say an argument turned deadly after a 15-year-old fired a single shot at MarStratton.

The Army soldier was visiting his girlfriend in Harriman when the shooting happened.

On Saturday afternoon, relatives held Gordon’s funeral at Heritage High School, where he played football.

Relatives described Gordon as charismatic and outspoken, with a knack for making people laugh.
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Bradenton Missing Veteran Has Been Found

UPDATE
10 News Tampa Bay 

Missing Bradenton veteran located Ian Oswald has been located, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

MISSING military veteran in Manatee County
By WFLA Web Staff
Published: September 4, 2016

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A military veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder was reported missing in Manatee County Saturday.

Ian Oswald, 36, is a 16-year veteran who was medically retired due to PTSD. He left his residence on 53rd Avenue West in Bradenton Saturday night threatening to harm himself. His wife Lori reported him missing.
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Purpose for Hospital Hostage Situation Not Known Yet

Family member of Waxahachie hostage suspect blames PTSD for incident
FOX 4
September 4, 2016

A family member of Lorenzo Zarate, the man police say walked into a Waxahachie ER waiting room Saturday night and threatened to hurt his two children, is blaming PTSD for his relative’s actions.

Zarate is in the Ellis County jail on $200,000 bond, facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, terroristic threats, placing the public in fear of serious injury and attempting to take a weapon from an officer.

Sunday, a man claiming to be his uncle, posted about Zarate and the incident on Facebook, saying, in part, "My boy fought and served America in its time of need. He needs America to understand PTSD. It's real".

Zarate is an Iraq War veteran from Austin, featured in several news publications in 2008 -- the year he came home from serving in Iraq.

Waxahachie Police say Zarate carried both a baby and a gun into the Baylor Scott and White ER waiting room Saturday night before 7:00 P.M. with another child by his side.
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Vietnam Veteran Sent Wrong Medical Records by Congressman?

Reminder, none of this is new. Vietnam veterans have been fighting to have their claims honored since the 80's, stood in lines, fought backlog of claims and all of this, when no one was paying attention. Now that it seems as if everyone is paying attention, no one is doing anything to change what has been happening all along.

My husband's claim was filed in 1993. It took six years to get approved. We heard all the speeches and promises but had to live with the reality of members of Congress breaking all the promises they made to take care of our veterans.

One more reminder is Congress has jurisdiction over the VA budget, rules and laws. They don't like to remind anyone of that so if you member of Congress has been in longer than 2 years, ask them why they didn't fix all this before. It isn't as if they didn't know what was going on.

Vietnam veterans struggle to navigate VA system
Victoria Advocate
By Laura Garcia
September 3, 2016

He was upset that the congressman’s office accidentally mailed him medical documents that belonged to two other individuals.

Vietnam veteran Weldon Holmes came back from the war 46 years ago,

but has long fought with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Photo by Rugile Kaladyte.

Weldon Holmes, 67, clenches and unclenches his fists as he tries to figure out what exactly he wants to say.

He wants to tell his story and for someone to listen.

But he also wants change.

For at least the past 14 years, the Vietnam veteran has struggled to get through the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Holmes is one of more than 440,000 veterans in the country with pending appeals that need to be resolved by the Veterans Benefits Administration.

The average wait time is three years, according to a press statement by VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald earlier this year. And for the appeals that reach the Board of Veteran Appeals, the wait is at least five years with thousands of cases lasting much longer.

McDonald said the VA needs resources to create a simplified appeals process that would enable the department to resolve appeals in a reasonable time frame. He said the backlog of claims has been reduced to 82,000 from a peak of 611,000 in March 2013.

But to veterans like Holmes, who are still waiting, this offers little consolation.

Some days Holmes is hopeful, and other days he can’t hide his anger from boiling over.
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101st Soldier Rescues Child Forgotten in Hot Car

101st soldier, Woodlawn firefighter saves infant in Texas
Leaf Chronicle
Ayrika L. Whitney
September 2, 2016

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Staff Sgt. James Munns is a combat medic for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (Rakkasans), 101st Airborne Division and a firefighter with the Woodlawn Volunteer Fire Service, providing him with intense and thorough training and experience.

Training and experience that proved to be invaluable in San Antonio on Aug. 11 — and may have even saved a life.

Munns was about to leave the city after training and needed to purchase a new phone before the flight home later that day.

About half an hour into his visit to the Verizon store, two women rushed into the store and Munns noticed they were visibly distraught, one holding a baby.

One of the women forgot the child in the car in the extreme Texan heat. The high for the day was 100 degrees according to the National Weather Service's weather records.

"The baby was bright red, is visibly not doing well," said Munns.

He realized nobody, including the women were trained to handle the situation, and his training kicked in.

"For a lot of medics, it's like a switch goes off, and you just do your job," Munns stated. "You stop what you are doing and you do your job."
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