Vietnam Veteran Took Leap Out of Perfectly Good Plane

76-year-old Vietnam veteran starts his bucket list by skydiving
WDAY 6 News
By Bailey Vertin
Jul 10, 2017

DETROIT LAKES—One man is checking off things from his bucket list as he takes flight.

Edward Gehrke isn't a stranger to risks.

The 76-year-old Vietnam Veteran spent his life trying to experience as much as possible.

This past Sunday he took a new leap, right out a plane window.

While at the Detroit Lakes air show he saw others skydiving and decided to give it a try.
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Florida's Rep. Brian Mast Wants "Oath of Exit"

If Mast is serious, all he has to do is contact Point Man International Ministries and we'll be happy to help him do it! Especially since we've been doing in since 1984 for all veterans. Considering 65% of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50, it would be a good thing to consider. 

As for newer veterans, if he reads The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, he'd find all the documentation he needs to figure out exactly why military suicides went up after other members of Congress decided to do something to "prevent" them from happening. Then again, after I've been doing this work since 1982, no one with the power to change this has listened to me on changing the outcome. I doubt they ever will even though it works!

An oath won't undo the damage done by Resilience Training!

Afghan vet, now congressman, has idea to fight veteran suicide
San Diego Union Tribune
Jeanette Steels
July 10, 2017

U.S. House Representative Brian Mast of Florida and U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force Europe 17.1 pose for a photo following a luncheon at Vaernes Garnison, Norway, April 18, 2017. (Lance Cpl. Sarah Petrock / U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe)

A U.S. congressman who was wounded in Afghanistan is promoting the idea of a pledge to combat suicide among the nation’s veterans.

Troops leaving the service could take a voluntary oath to “to preserve the values I have learned, to maintain my body and my mind, and to not bring harm to myself without speaking to my fellow veterans first.”

Rep. Brian Mast of Florida is pitching this as an “Oath of Exit” and wants to add the language to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which is being considered in the House of Representatives this month.

The pledge would also commit troops who are being discharged to “continue to be the keeper of my brothers- and sisters-in-arms” in addition to the United States and the Constitution.
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Active Duty Soldier Arrested For Loyalty to Enemy?

US soldier arrested after pledging loyalty to Islamic State
ASSOCIATED PRESS HONOLULU
By AUDREY MCAVOY AND LOLITA C. BALDOR
Jul 11, 2017

Kang and the agents together made combat training videos he believed would be taken to the Middle East to help prepare the group's soldiers to fight American forces, according to the affidavit. Kang had received the highest level of combat training available in the Army and was a mixed martial arts enthusiast.

Red evidence tape covers part of the door leading to the condo where Ikaika Kang, a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army, lives in Waipahu, Hawaii, Monday, July 10, 2017. Kang is being held on terrorism charges after the FBI claims he tried to get secret military documents to the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

An active duty U.S. soldier was arrested on terrorism charges after authorities say he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and said he wanted to "kill a bunch of people."

The FBI arrested Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang, 34, in a suburb of Honolulu over the weekend after a yearlong investigation involving multiple undercover officers and confidential informants. He made an initial appearance in federal court on Monday.

Kang's court-appointed defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat. Bervar declined to elaborate.

He said Kang was "a decorated veteran of two deployments" to Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Marine Corps Cargo Plane Crash: At Least 16 Dead

UPDATE from (CNN) Fifteen Marines and a Navy corpsman who were killed when their transport plane crashed in the Mississippi Delta were on a training flight moving personnel and equipment from North Carolina to California, a Marine Corps spokesman said Tuesday.


Marine Corps cargo aircraft crashes in Mississippi, killing at least 16
Washington Post
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff
July 10, 2017

A Marine Corps cargo plane often used for hauling fuel and supplies crashed in western Mississippi Monday night, killing at least 16 people, local officials said.

Fred Randle, director of emergency management for LeFlore County, said 16 bodies have been recovered from the crash site.

In a brief statement, the Marines said that a “KC-130 experienced a mishap the evening of July 10.” No other information was provided. In an email, Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns confirmed that the statement correlated to the crash in Mississippi.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Lee Smithson told the Clarion-Ledger that the aircraft crashed on the Leflore-Sunflower county line, a rural stretch of woods and fields with dense underbrush and vegetation about 85 miles north of Jackson. Earlier, Sheriff Ricky Banks told the Ledger that five of the crew members were confirmed dead. It is unclear where the plane took off from.
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UPDATE

General: Plane developed in air problems that led to fatal crash

Fort Drum Shooting Left Wife and State Police Officer Dead

UPDATE WZZM News
Friends recall West Michigan ties of soldier accused of double murder

Multiple friends and acquaintances tell WZZM 13 that Walters was expelled from West Ottawa Middle School after he made a bomb threat against the school and apparently had a "hit list" of people at the school. This would have been in the late 1990s. 

"They searched his locker and they found a hit list with a list of people to kill," says one person who did not want to be identified.

UPDATE
Suspect in Trooper's killing served 2 12-month deployments in Afghanistan
Posted: Jul 10, 2017
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) - A Fort Drum soldier accused of killing his wife and also a State Trooper on Sunday night served two year-long deployments in Afghanistan, the base said on Monday.

A native of Zeeland, Mich., 32-year-old Justin Walters is listed as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Walters has been stationed at Fort Drum for 10 years.

An infantryman, he served in Afghanistan from January 2009 to January 2010 and from March 2011 to March 2012.
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The Latest: Police: Combat Veteran Killed Wife, NY Trooper

Authorities say an Afghanistan combat veteran fatally shot his wife in the driveway of their northern New York home then gunned down a state trooper who had responded to reports of gunfire at the couple's rural property.

July 10, 2017, at 2:14 p.m.

THERESA, N.Y. (AP) — The Latest on the death of a New York State Police trooper (all times local): 2:10 p.m. 

Authorities say an Afghanistan combat veteran fatally shot his wife in the driveway of their northern New York home, and then gunned down a state trooper who had responded to reports of gunfire at the couple's rural property. 

State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II says Monday that 32-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Justin Walters shot his 27-year-old wife, Nichole, on Sunday night outside their home in the town of Theresa. 

Beach says 36-year-old Trooper Joel Davis was shot once in the torso after getting out of his cruiser about 75 feet from the home near Fort Drum. Another trooper arriving on the scene found Davis in a roadside ditch. Davis died about an hour later at a hospital. 

Walters was charged with first-degree murder in Davis' slaying and second-degree murder in his wife's killing.
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More details on fatal shooting of NYS Trooper

By BETH ADAMS & ASSOCIATED PRESS • 2 HOURS AGO

A friend of a young mother slain along with a state trooper in northern New York says she was devoted to her son and always willing to help people. 

Jerry Mikels says he was shocked when he heard Army Staff Sgt. Justin Walters was charged in the shooting death Sunday night of his 27-year-old wife Nichole and New York State Trooper Joel Davis. Mikels said he didn't think Justin Walters would be capable of killing his wife. 

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