Iraq Veteran James Womack Shot and Killed in Omaha

Iraq War veteran shot, killed near 60th, L streets; no arrests made

KETV ABC 7 News

Josh Planos

September 19, 2017

OMAHA, Neb.
James Womack, a father of three who served three tours in Iraq, was shot and killed on Monday -- his daughter's birthday -- during rush hour.

Omaha police haven't made any arrests in Monday's fatal shooting of the 32-year-old.

The shooting was reported around 4:30 p.m. near the intersection of 60th and L streets. Womack was driving a Hills Bros. semi-truck when he was shot. A nurse successfully attempted to keep him alive until paramedics arrived, a witness said.

"When I got to the stoplight, I saw someone resuscitating the guy on the ground at the median," Gabriel Bernal, a witness, told KETV NewsWatch 7.

Paramedics rushed Womack to Bergan Mercy Hospital while performing CPR. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
read more here

Twist As Navy Veteran Sues Because VA Diagnosed Him?

$35 million lawsuit: VA mental health misdiagnosis cost KC airline pilot his job

Kansas City Star

Tony Rizzo

September 19, 2017

A Kansas City man has filed suit alleging that he lost his job as an airline pilot after Veterans Affairs doctors misdiagnosed him with bipolar disorder.

William Royster is seeking $35 million in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City.

It is a refiling of a previous suit that Royster voluntarily dismissed last September.

Royster is a former U.S. Navy pilot who was injured in 1996 when his plane was shot down by a Japanese navy ship during a training exercise.

But in 2013, after a new psychiatrist took over his case and undertook a thorough review and conducted additional testing, the doctor determined that Royster should never have been diagnosed with the disorder.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran: electricity is not just a luxury, it’s a lifeline.

Pinellas Co. Vietnam veteran on oxygen thankful to have lights back on

WFLA 8 News

Chip Osowski

September 17, 2017

SEMINOLE, Fla. (WFLA) – Peter Wenners was one of many Pinellas County residents that were still without power on Sunday morning, despite Duke Energy’s promise to have electricity restored countywide by midnight.

Wenners is a Vietnam Veteran who is confined to a wheelchair and on oxygen. For him, electricity is not just a luxury, it’s a lifeline. “That’s all the oxygen I have left , which is about four,” said Weller as he pointed at the empty bottles of oxygen next to his front door. “And I’m done for. If it doesn’t come on tonight, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Peter and his wife, Dee, have been making do. Dee has been cooking meals on the grill, and the couple’s daughter brought a generator so they could run a room air conditioner and Peter’s electric easy chair.

So when the midnight deadline came and went, Dee became anxious. She went outside the couple’s Seminole home and finally was able to flag down a Duke Energy crew. Workers were already in the area working in that neighborhood. But no sooner did the power come on, but it turned back off. A line feeding the house had been damaged in the storm. Dee now jokes about the ordeal.

“I felt like I was in a Chevy Chase movie. Summer Vacation,” said Dee. “The power goes on…the power snaps …we have a fire in the back. Everything is black again! I’m like, this is not happening.”

Crews returned Sunday afternoon to repair the damaged line and re-restore power to the Wenners’ home. Peter couldn’t be happier. He’s breathing a sigh of relief.
read more here

Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday..."making it look easy"

On the Air Force’s 70th birthday, its chief uses the past to guide the future

Air Force Times

Stephen Losey

September 18, 2017

As the Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday, Goldfein is thinking not only about how far the service has come, but where it’s going next. After all, he said, when the old Army Air Corps emerged from World War II and became the modern Air Force, it was primarily a bomber and escort force.

Gen. Dave Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, during an interview in his office at the Pentagon on August 23, 2017. (Alan Lessig/Staff)

Nearly the entire history of flight can be traced while circling Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein’s Pentagon office.

There’s a framed scrap of fabric from the original Wright Brothers flyer, not much bigger than a postage stamp, that was given to the first chief of staff, Carl Spaatz. Goldfein points out the bulky camera used to photograph another Wright plane during a 1908 demonstration for the War Department at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Then there’s the globe Hap Arnold used during World War II — with a gash above Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain that prompts Goldfein to wonder what frustrated Arnold that particular day — plus photographs of legendary aviators such as the Tuskegee Airmen, and photographs, a parachute and a Hershey bar from the Berlin Airlift.

“One of my favorite quotes from Hap Arnold is when he said, ‘The challenge with air power is we make it look too easy,’ ” Goldfein said.
read more here

Candlelight Vigil For Missing Veteran Julia Jacobson

UPDATE

"Won't Give up": Vigil Held for Missing Army Veteran Julia Jacobson

The 37-year-old retired Army captain was last spotted on surveillance by police in Ontario, California a little more than a week ago. Surveillance at a Kearny Mesa 7/11 caught her on camera earlier that same day.

Candlelight vigil held for missing Army veteran

KUSI News

September 17, 2017

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — A candlelight vigil will be held Sunday night as the search for a missing U.S. Veteran continues. 

37-year-old Julia Jacobson was last seen Labor Day weekend at a Serra Mesa 7-Eleven, according to a social media page dedicated to finding her. 

Concerned friends, neighbors and community volunteers canvass neighborhoods around Jacobson's Idaho Street home last weekend in hopes of jogging a crucial memory from someone who may have seen her over the last week. That canvass has yet to bring up any addition information. . 

Jacobson's company car, a white Chevrolet Equinox, was found abandoned two weeks ago on the 2600 block of Monroe Avenue, a few blocks from her home, with the keys in the ignition and the windows all partially rolled down.

Police subsequently determined that Jacobson -- a corporate real estate broker for 7-Eleven who deployed to Iraq twice during her military career -- had been in Ontario on Saturday night, SDPD Lt. Mike Holden said. Why she was there and whether she indeed had been in the Riverside County desert, as well, that evening remained under investigation, he said.

Detectives have spoken with Jacobson's ex-husband, who lives in Arizona, and found him cooperative, according to Holden.

The missing woman's older sister, Casey Jacobson of North Dakota, described the circumstances of her sibling's disappearance as puzzling, saying the former servicewoman would never willingly leave her work vehicle unsecured with the ignition key and a company gas card inside.

read more here