Bodies of 10 Missing McCain Sailors Recovered

Navy Recovers Remains Of All 10 Missing Sailors Aboard USS John S. McCain

NPR

Mark Katkov

August 28, 2017

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain moored pier side at Changi naval base in Singapore. Grady T. Fontana/AP

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet announced Sunday that the remains of all 10 missing sailors from the USS John S. McCain have been recovered.

The remains were recovered from the ship's flooded compartments by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps divers. The Navy has released the identities of the sailors.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer collided with the Liberian-flagged commercial tanker Alnic MC before dawn local time last Monday, in waters east of the Strait of Malacca and Singapore. The incident is under investigation.

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U.S. Navy recovers remaining USS John S. McCain Sailors aboard ship

By U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs | | August 27, 2017

CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Republic of Singapore – U.S. Navy and Marine Corps divers have now recovered the remains of all 10 USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) Sailors.

The fallen Sailors are:

• Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Kansas City, Missouri
• Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from El Paso, Texas
• Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, from Gaithersburg, Maryland
• Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Cable, Ohio
• Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, from Manchester, Maryland
• Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from Poughkeepsie, New York
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, from Suffield, Connecticut
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Killeen, Texas
• Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Decatur, Illinois 
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class, Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Hurricane Harvey: Fake National Guard Social Media Message Warning

TS Harvey victims, don't share viral National Guard social media message

The number is not for a government agency

Houston Chronicle

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Houston area residents should not share or copy and paste an alleged number for the National Guard, even if intentions are noble. 

A message reading "The National Guard is being deployed to our Texas area. If you find yourself in a state of emergency. Call 1-800-527-3907. Please copy, paste or share!" is making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. 

That phone number is for an insurance company based out of state and not a number to an actual governmental entity. 

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Female Veteran Lived to Help Others, Killed During SWAT Standoff

Police officers kill U.S. Army war veteran with mental health issues

Local 10 News
By Andrea Torres - Digital Reporter/Producer , Madeleine Wright - Reporter
August 27, 2017

SUNRISE, Fla. - Kristen Ambury was a U.S. Army explosive ordnance specialist and an emergency medical technician. The 28-year-old war veteran worked for the American Heart Association, and trained others to save lives as a critical care paramedic for the American Medical Response.

The Broward College and Broward Fire Academy graduate trained to save lives. She worked with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue and also loved dogs. She died when The Sunrise Police Department could not help her Friday.

Broward Sheriffs' Office deputies said SWAT broke into her home to try to save her life. Sunrise police officers responded to the Water's Edge apartments because she was suicidal. Relatives said she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and struggled with her mental health.

Broward Sheriffs' Office deputies said SWAT broke into her home to try to save her life. Sunrise police officers responded to the Water's Edge apartments because she was suicidal. Relatives said she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and struggled with her mental health.
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Firefighter's Suicide And Those He Left Behind

Firefighter's suicide draws awareness back to mental health precautions
Daily Press 
Sarah J.Ketchum 
August 26, 2017

Ritchey died just months after the department launched new programs to prevent suicide amid a growing awareness that the job's repeated exposure to trauma and stress can have significant impacts on mental health.

"Mike" Ritchey knew how to make people laugh.

The Newport News firefighter-medic's crew said they first thought he was shy. Then he'd catch them off guard with witty comments, sometimes said during the most inappropriate times.

Capt. Eric Alberti remembers such a time at a recent house fire. His crew, Station 8, B-Shift, responded to a call that was initially reported as gunshots. But when police searched the area, they didn't find a shooter. They instead found flames coming from a house.

Alberti and Ritchey went inside the home and up the stairs where the smoke was so thick Alberti said he couldn't see in front of his face. He said he was a little more alert than normal because of the unusual circumstances of the call. "Shootings don't normally turn into structure fires," he said.

He wanted to keep Ritchey close.

"I kept calling him ... every 15 or 20 seconds," he said.

"Why do you keep calling me," Alberti remembers Ritchey asking in an irritated tone as he appeared through the smoke still spraying water on the fire. Alberti told him he was concerned they could get shot.

John Michael Ritchey, 33, of Newport News, died by suicide on July 15. He began his career with the department in 2011 and most recently was assigned to Engine Company 8 on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard.read more here 

The desperate fight at Monte Cassino and the veteran who remembers

Soldier who was there wants people to remember WWII battle of Monte Cassino

Pittsburg Post Gazette
Torsten Ove
August 27, 2017

Pearl Harbor. Midway. D-Day. The Battle of the Bulge. Iwo Jima.

The epic battles of World War II still resonate 70 years later.

Yet one of the costliest U.S. campaigns is barely remembered: The war in Italy and its linchpin, the desperate fight at Monte Cassino.

"You never hear anything about it," says Albert DeFazio. "It just boggles my mind. That's why I'm [ticked] off."

Mr. DeFazio is 92 and lives in Penn Hills.

He has two scars on his back, shrapnel wounds he suffered from a German shell burst at Monte Cassino in 1944. He earned the Bronze Star for actions under fire with the 36th Infantry Division and later came home suffering from shell shock — post-traumatic stress disorder in today's lingo — after more fighting on the way to Rome. He says he has symptoms of PTSD, all these decades later.

For years after the war, he rarely talked about his experiences in Italy. It’s a typical pattern among World War II veterans. His late brother Pat was shot in the neck at the Battle of the Bulge. The two brothers went home to live in the same house in Penn Hills, yet they never once talked to each other about what happened to them in the war.

"Never spoke a word," Mr. DeFazio says.

But Mr. DeFazio is talking now.
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