Chelmsford man sentenced in veteran-shamming case
Wicked Local Chelmsford
September 27, 2016
A Chelmsford man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with recruiting veterans as figurehead owners of a construction company in order to receive specialized government contracts, according to a press release.
“Taking advantage of set-aside programs intended to support the economic welfare and stability of veterans is appalling,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. “Through his scheme, Mr. Gorski undercut the efforts of hard-working veterans to compete for valuable government contracts and, as such, defrauded federal agencies dedicated to serving veterans of our armed services.”
David Gorski, 51, of Chelmsford, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor to 30 months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $1 million, the press release said.
In June 2016, Gorski was found guilty by a jury following a 12-day trial of conspiring to defraud the United States by impairing the lawful governmental function of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the General Services Administration, the Army, and the Navy in the implementation and administration of the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Program. He was also convicted of four counts of wire fraud.
read more here
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Nasir Siddique Motives Unclear in Murder-Suicide Investigation
Man fatally shoots wife, son and himself in Maryland
Washington Post
By Dan Morse and Justin Wm. Moyer
September 29, 2016
By Wednesday night, friends of University of Maryland college student Farhad Siddique had grown deeply concerned. He’d missed a class that afternoon and couldn’t be reached. They reported him missing.
At 10:30 p.m. as the friends walked through a parking lot just outside the College Park campus, they spotted a red Jeep that belonged to Siddique’s father. The passenger-seat front window was shattered.
A police car, arriving to check on the young man, pulled into the same lot.
What soon became clear was a terrible sequence of events.
Siddique’s father, 57-year-old Nasir Siddique, had shot his son and then killed himself inside the Jeep, miles away from the family’s home in Harford County. Some time earlier, at the home north of Baltimore in Bel Air, Nasir Siddique had fatally shot his wife, 48-year-old Zarqa Siddique, who worked for the Harford school system helping students with severe disabilities.
read more here
Washington Post
By Dan Morse and Justin Wm. Moyer
September 29, 2016
Nasir Siddique, the father, was an employee at the Department of Public Works for the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. He had served in active duty in the Army and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.
By Wednesday night, friends of University of Maryland college student Farhad Siddique had grown deeply concerned. He’d missed a class that afternoon and couldn’t be reached. They reported him missing.
At 10:30 p.m. as the friends walked through a parking lot just outside the College Park campus, they spotted a red Jeep that belonged to Siddique’s father. The passenger-seat front window was shattered.
A police car, arriving to check on the young man, pulled into the same lot.
What soon became clear was a terrible sequence of events.
Siddique’s father, 57-year-old Nasir Siddique, had shot his son and then killed himself inside the Jeep, miles away from the family’s home in Harford County. Some time earlier, at the home north of Baltimore in Bel Air, Nasir Siddique had fatally shot his wife, 48-year-old Zarqa Siddique, who worked for the Harford school system helping students with severe disabilities.
read more here
Friday, September 30, 2016
Air Force Couple Flying High
Face of Defense: Married Air Force Pilots Serve, Fly Together
Department of Defense
By Air Force Senior Airman Christopher Thornbury
22nd Air Refueling Wing
September 29, 2016
For Air Force Maj. Matthew Jones and Air Force Capt. Chrystina Jones, love found them as C-130 Hercules pilots, and, over the years, gave them a different set of wings as KC-135 Stratotanker pilots and even added two more to their aircrew: their son and daughter.
The couple is relatively new to the KC-135, qualifying 14 months ago. Although a different mission brought them together, Matt relates his past and present with his wife with the tanker as it approaches its 60-year anniversary of its first flight.
“Chrystina and I share history together,” Matthew said. “The KC-135 has its own great history; it is just incredible for us to be a part of it.”
Before marriage, the couple served in the same squadron as C-130 pilots where they trained together. While they never operated a mission together, they did deploy with each other for five months to Iraq. As tanker pilots, they are assigned to different squadrons: Matt is a “Bandit” of the 349th Air Refueling Squadron; and Chrystina is a “Raven” of the 350th ARS.
read more here
Department of Defense
By Air Force Senior Airman Christopher Thornbury
22nd Air Refueling Wing
September 29, 2016
“It makes it easier to talk about what’s going on at work, because we understand very intimately what’s going on in terms of the struggles to make the mission happen,” Chrystina said. “We understand each other’s challenges better than most.”
The couple that flies togetherMCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.
Capt. Chrystina Jones, left, 350th Air Refueling Squadron pilot, and Maj. Matt Jones, 349th ARS pilot, pose with their son, Dec. 2015, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. They both “refuel the fight” as KC-135 Stratotanker pilots, an aircraft that first took flight for the first time 60 years ago. (Courtesy photo)
For Air Force Maj. Matthew Jones and Air Force Capt. Chrystina Jones, love found them as C-130 Hercules pilots, and, over the years, gave them a different set of wings as KC-135 Stratotanker pilots and even added two more to their aircrew: their son and daughter.
The couple is relatively new to the KC-135, qualifying 14 months ago. Although a different mission brought them together, Matt relates his past and present with his wife with the tanker as it approaches its 60-year anniversary of its first flight.
“Chrystina and I share history together,” Matthew said. “The KC-135 has its own great history; it is just incredible for us to be a part of it.”
Before marriage, the couple served in the same squadron as C-130 pilots where they trained together. While they never operated a mission together, they did deploy with each other for five months to Iraq. As tanker pilots, they are assigned to different squadrons: Matt is a “Bandit” of the 349th Air Refueling Squadron; and Chrystina is a “Raven” of the 350th ARS.
read more here
Unclaimed Veterans Left to Rot in VA Morgue
Bodies Of Unclaimed Veterans Languish At Hines VA Hospital, Whistleblower Claims
CBS News
By Charlie De Mar
September 26, 2016
(CBS) – The bodies of military veterans lay unclaimed for weeks at a time at the Hines VA Hospital, a whistleblower alleges.
Staff from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington are in town looking into that complaint.
CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reports.
When 68-year-old Marine veteran George Taylor died, no family or friends claimed him. Earlier this month, Jackie Gluekert and her funeral home made sure the hero got a dignified send-off — a burial in an a national cemetery.
“It is a final salute, and I’m proud to do it,” Jackie Glueckert says.
A whistle-blower inside the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital says unclaimed vets aren’t getting the proper goodbye they deserve.
Internal emails obtained by CBS 2 reveal at least two unclaimed vets sat inside the morgue for at least 30 days this summer, allowing the bodies to badly decompose.
read more here
And from the VA rules,
CBS News
By Charlie De Mar
September 26, 2016
(CBS) – The bodies of military veterans lay unclaimed for weeks at a time at the Hines VA Hospital, a whistleblower alleges.
CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reports.
When 68-year-old Marine veteran George Taylor died, no family or friends claimed him. Earlier this month, Jackie Gluekert and her funeral home made sure the hero got a dignified send-off — a burial in an a national cemetery.
“It is a final salute, and I’m proud to do it,” Jackie Glueckert says.
A whistle-blower inside the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital says unclaimed vets aren’t getting the proper goodbye they deserve.
Internal emails obtained by CBS 2 reveal at least two unclaimed vets sat inside the morgue for at least 30 days this summer, allowing the bodies to badly decompose.
read more here
And from the VA rules,
***If a Veteran dies while at a VA facility under authorized VA admission, and the remains are unclaimed, the facility director will ensure proper burial for the Veteran as defined by VHA Handbook 1601B.04, Decedent Affairs, Section 8, “Unclaimed Remains.” If a Veteran dies at a non-VA facility under authorized admission at VA’s expense, and is unclaimed, contact the closest VA healthcare facility to arrange for proper burial of the unclaimed Veteran. A listing is available here.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Florida Combat Medic Veteran Thinks Suicide is His Only Answer After Decades of "Awareness"
Jacksonville veteran feels suicide is only answer despite push to raise awareness during September
Florida Times Union
Joe Daraskevich
September 28, 2016
Terry Russell Bass Jr. joined the Army when he was 19 years old. He believed in the military and was willing to give his life for his country so strangers could enjoy the feeling of freedom.
He’s now 35, living with his wife and three children in a mobile home on Jacksonville’s Westside, and he’s ready to kill himself so his family doesn’t have to struggle anymore.
“I’m tired,” Bass said recently as he sat on his couch wearing one of his four white undershirts and a pair of ragged athletic shorts. “If it’s OK for me to die for my country, then why is it not OK for me to die because I’m tired of being tired?”
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the military and veteran communities in Northeast Florida have been working to spread the message of awareness and assistance that has eluded Bass for so long.
The Navy announced a new suicide-prevention program Sept. 16 called Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life, or SAIL. The new national program provides continual support to supplement regular mental-health treatment for the first 90 days after suicide-related behavior.
“We are going to assign an advocate to follow up with them, kind of like being in aftercare,” said Command Master Chief Donald Henderson of Fleet Readiness Center Southeast at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
He said a lot of times suicidal thoughts among sailors stem from something happening away from the base. Issues with family life or illicit drug use are common things that can lead to suicidal thoughts, Henderson said.
read more here
Florida Times Union
Joe Daraskevich
September 28, 2016
Terry Russell Bass Jr. joined the Army when he was 19 years old. He believed in the military and was willing to give his life for his country so strangers could enjoy the feeling of freedom.
He’s now 35, living with his wife and three children in a mobile home on Jacksonville’s Westside, and he’s ready to kill himself so his family doesn’t have to struggle anymore.
“I’m tired,” Bass said recently as he sat on his couch wearing one of his four white undershirts and a pair of ragged athletic shorts. “If it’s OK for me to die for my country, then why is it not OK for me to die because I’m tired of being tired?”
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the military and veteran communities in Northeast Florida have been working to spread the message of awareness and assistance that has eluded Bass for so long.
The Navy announced a new suicide-prevention program Sept. 16 called Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life, or SAIL. The new national program provides continual support to supplement regular mental-health treatment for the first 90 days after suicide-related behavior.
“We are going to assign an advocate to follow up with them, kind of like being in aftercare,” said Command Master Chief Donald Henderson of Fleet Readiness Center Southeast at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
He said a lot of times suicidal thoughts among sailors stem from something happening away from the base. Issues with family life or illicit drug use are common things that can lead to suicidal thoughts, Henderson said.
read more here
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