Burke man accused of cheating VA gets bond
The News Herald
BY SHARON MCBRAYER Staff Writer
September 12, 2016
A Morganton man facing federal charges for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was released on bond Monday.
Roy Lee Ross Jr., a.k.a. Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr., 64, of Morganton, received a $25,000 unsecured bond during his initial appearance and arraignment in federal court in Asheville. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and he asked for and was granted a court-appointed attorney, Fredilyn Sison.
Magistrate Judge Dennis Howell set conditions on Ross’ release but those conditions have been sealed by the court, according to federal documents.
The court also has sealed a pretrial report on Ross.
Ross was indicted in August on one count of executing a scheme to defraud a health benefit organization (the VA), which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; and two counts of making false statements in connection with the delivery of health care benefits by the VA, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He also is charged with two counts of stealing from the VA, a charge has a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine, and one count of a making false claim for travel benefits from the VA, which carries a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine,
The initial indictment on him said Ross, who was discharged from the U.S. Army “Under Conditions Other Than Honorable,” started falsely representing himself to the VA Medical Center in Asheville as a U.S. Army veteran named “Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr.” around June 2007. The indictment alleges Ross, as Sullivan, claimed that he had served in the Special Forces, that he had been wounded in combat and that he had been honorably discharged from the Army. The indictment goes on to say Ross claimed he was suffering from nightmares caused by his wartime service and his combat-related injuries.
Then in 2015, still claiming to be Daniel Sullivan, Ross filed a third claim for “increased evaluation,” claiming that he was suffering from cervical (neck) impairment and pain due to his injuries while on active duty.
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Lawmakers urge defense bill to help less-than-honorable discharges
THE HILL
Rebecca Kheel
9-13-2016
Kristofer Goldsmith, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, said he was discharged after attempting suicide by overdosing on Percocet and vodka.
A bipartisan group of nine lawmakers joined with leading veterans groups Tuesday to call for the final version of a defense policy bill to include language aimed at making it easier for veterans who were discharged for behavior related to mental health issues to upgrade their discharges.
“We are very close to making sure that these service men and women get the help that they need, and we’re going to make it a reality in the next weeks,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), whose Fairness for Veterans Act was included in the Senate-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The provision in the Senate version would require discharge review boards to provide “liberal consideration” to the diagnosis of a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or military sexual assault when considering whether to upgrade a less-than-honorable discharge.
The House-passed version does not include that provision. Conferees are in the process of reconciling the two versions of the bill.
Advocates say thousands of veterans have received “bad discharge papers” as a result of behavior associated with PTSD, TBI or sexual trauma. Such discharges haunt veterans for the rest of their lives, advocates say, denying them veterans benefits and casting a stigma that can affect aspects of civilian life, such as finding employment.
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Good Samaritan shot in attempt to rescue woman at Shawnee Wal-Mart was Iraq War veteran
FOX 4 KY
BY ROBERT TOWNSEND
SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
They said the man joined the Air Force shortly after 9/11. They said he made his mom proud in his six years in the service in which he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
SHAWNEE, Kan. -- New details reveal more information on the deadly shooting outside a Shawnee Wal-Mart Sunday. One suspect was killed in the incident, but another is reportedly still on the run after police released a man they thought was involved.
FOX 4's Robert Townsend has more on the investigation.
When a woman with a baby was attacked in the parking lot by two men, two bystanders came to her rescue. When it was all over, the woman was left with head injuries, one bystander -- an Iraq War veteran -- was shot and critically wounded, and one suspect was shot dead.
Family members of that heroic veteran did not want to appear on camera, but told FOX 4 they're not surprised he stepped in to help.
"My son is just a wonderful guy. He'd help anybody because that's just his nature. I"m not surprised at all," said the man's mom, who lives in Oregon.
FOX 4 has learned the Good Samaritan is 33 years old, now working as a landscaper, and has a 15-year-old step-daughter.
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A U.S. sailor delivered a baby at sea — in the middle of the ISIS war
Navy Times
By: David B Larter
September 12, 2016
“As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the U.S. Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and well-being of the baby and the mother," Urban said in an email.
The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower's crew proved Sunday that they can simultaneously deliver ISIS airstrikes and babies.
A third class petty officer from Carrier Air Wing 3 checked into the carrier's medical clinic after stomach pains Saturday. Nine hours later, in the early hours of Sept. 11, she gave birth to a healthy 7-pound baby girl, according to an internal memo on the incident obtained by Navy Times.
“Both the mother and the baby are healthy and are doing well,” 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban said of the new family on the carrier in the Persian Gulf.
Neither the mother nor her command knew she was pregnant before Saturday, Urban said. Normally pregnant service members would leave an operational command at 20 weeks and would certainly not deploy.
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Ground Zero: Memories From Priests Who Went to Battle on 9/11
The terror attacks of Sept. 11 left an imprint on the nation — and also on the lives of clergy who witnessed it and ministered to the victims.
National Catholic Register
BY PETER JESSERER SMITH
09/11/2016
When people ask him — and many have — “Where was God that day?” Father Colucci says that he saw, firsthand, the Body of Christ in action. “The best of humanity came out that day.”
An American flag flies above the cross of steel beams discovered in the rubble at Ground Zero on Aug. 19, 2002, in New York City.
– Mario Tama/Getty Images
NEW YORK — “It started coming down on us.”
Fifteen years ago, Capt. Thomas Colucci led the men of his 31st Street firehouse into what would be the finest hour for New York City’s fire, police and emergency responders: Ground Zero on Sept. 11.
After the South Tower collapsed, the Catholic fire captain and his firefighters began digging through the wreckage, searching for any hope of survivors and the firefighters who had gone into the tower to save them.
Then, at 10:28am, the sky opened up with a roar, and a collective scream of terror erupted from the ground — the North Tower and iconic spire begin to fall — and the men and women who donned the uniforms of New York’s first responders would give the final sacrifice amid a hail of steel, concrete and debris.
As they escaped, Colucci saw some of his comrades struck down — he and a few of the firefighters found their only refuge sheltering behind a car. Enveloped in that cloud of darkness, the fireman’s vocation became clear: He would become a priest, helping those in darkness see a great light.
Nearly 3,000 men, women and children perished in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. But the legacy of 9/11 is that more than 25,000 other lives were saved that day, because ordinary men and women put on their uniforms and ran to save others from death and danger. On a Tuesday morning, 343 firefighters and emergency personnel, 23 New York Police Department and 37 Port Authority officers laid down their lives for others. Many more would give their lives — a payment deferred by cancer they gathered from the rescue work.
Colucci retired in 2004, and, this year, he became Father Colucci.
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