Reports of Veteran Navy Pilot Landed Southwest Plane...yes she did!

Tammie Jo Shults, who landed crippled Southwest plane, was one of first female fighter pilots in U.S. Navy
NBC News
by Elizabeth Chuck and Shamar Walters
Apr.18.2018

Navy pilot Tammie Jo Shults in a photo from the 1990s. Courtesy of Linda Maloney

The pilot who coolly landed a Southwest Airlines plane after one of the jet's engines failed and torpedoed shrapnel through a window midflight has gone against the odds before.

Identified by The Associated Press as Tammie Jo Shults, she wasted no time steering the plane into a rapid descent toward safety when chaos broke out shortly after takeoff from New York — maintaining her composure even as passengers reported from the cabin that a woman had been partially sucked out of a shattered window.

“We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit,” she’s heard calmly telling air traffic controllers in audio transmissions after reporting the aircraft's engine failure.

“Could you have medical meet us there on the runway as well? We’ve got injured passengers,” Shults then requests.

A air traffic controller asks her if her plane is on fire, to which Shults calmly replies: “No, it’s not on fire, but part of it’s missing. They said there’s a hole, and — uh — someone went out.”
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Fire officials are sounding the alarm about PTSD,

Minnesota firefighters grapple with 'silent epidemic' of PTSD
Star Tribune
By Hannah Covington
APRIL 18, 2018

Fire officials are sounding the alarm about PTSD, suicide trends.

The nightmares still sometimes rouse Brian Cristofono from sleep.

ELIZABETH FLORES – STAR TRIBUNE
Gallery: Brian Cristofono spoke with firefighters from the Brooklyn Center Fire Department after he gave a presentation on his PTSD, Monday, March 26, 2018 in Plymouth, MN. Traumas from being a firefighter, the one he dreamed of as a kid, led to a severe PTSD diagnosis, costing him both his marriage and his work. In his 13 years on the job, three colleagues killed themselves. Twice he put a gun to his own head. Now, Cristofono is sharing his story about the plight firefighters face and the lack of job coverage for those who suffer from PTSD in Minnesota. Nationwide, firefighters are more likely to take their own lives than die in the line of duty. Like other first responders, they're more than twice as likely to commit suicide than the general population. In Minnesota, momentum is slowly building to address these troubling trends, with Cristofono as a leading voice.

Even now, nearly two years after the last calls for help came in, ghosts from his days as a firefighter and paramedic are tough to shake. Babies he couldn’t save. Parents he struggled to comfort. Crash victims beyond reviving.

“They leave scars,” said Cristofono, 42. “The job can really just be a dark look at life.”

Traumas from his job — the one he dreamed of getting as a kid — led to a severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis, costing him his marriage and causing him to retire from the St. Paul fire department in 2017. During his 13 years on the job with various departments, three colleagues killed themselves. Twice, Cristofono put a gun to his own head.

Researchers estimate that anywhere from 7 to 37 percent of firefighters have PTSD. A study from Florida State University found that nearly half of firefighters have had suicidal thoughts and that about 1 in 5 have made plans to take their own lives.
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Death of Chief Petty Officer Under Investigation

Navy identifies man killed in shooting at Ewa Beach home
Associated Press
April 18, 2018

HONOLULU (AP) — The Navy has identified a man who was killed in a shooting Sunday at an Ewa Beach home.

The Navy said 41-year-old Chief Petty Officer John Ellsworth Hasselbrink, a submariner who served 22 years at Pearl Harbor, was killed in the shooting.

Hasselbrink was shot while trying to open the door of a 33-year-old Ewa Beach resident’s house in the middle of the night, according to police reports.

The resident was arrested but released Monday night without charges, pending further investigation.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force, citing police reports, said Hasselbrink had been attempting “to enter a residence other than his own by mistake.”

He died at the scene.
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Veteran Confronts His Own Trauma With a Camera

An Army Veteran Confronts His Own Trauma With a Camera
New York Times
By Finbarr O’Reilly
April 18, 2018

While undertaking treatment last year, Mr. McCoy made a series of black and white pictures of other veterans attending the program, including the shot of the two men sleeping on the bus, and another of his own reflection in the black marble memorial with Pfc. Albert M. Nelson’s name.

Khalid, an Iraq War Marine Corp veteran, showing his tattoo reading “lost soul.”

Credit Michael A. McCoy

It was a cold, sunny day last spring when retired U.S. Army Specialist Michael McCoy visited the war memorial in Cumberland, Md., to look for the name of Pfc. Albert M. Nelson.

Mr. McCoy, who grew up in West Baltimore, and Mr. Nelson, who was from West Philadelphia, became close friends in 2006 just before Mr. McCoy’s second of two yearlong deployments to Iraq. Mr. Nelson was a bit of a joker and, at 31, a few years older than the other soldiers. He was a big brother figure, well liked, especially by Mr. McCoy.

“We used to talk about hanging out in Philly when we got home,” he said. “We never got that chance.”

Mr. Nelson died in Ramadi on Dec. 4, 2006, from wounds sustained in a combat episode that, according to Salon, may have involved friendly fire and an attempted cover-up by the military.
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70 Year Old Vietnam Veteran Tortured and Murdered

VIETNAM WAR VETERAN TORTURED, MURDERED BY COUPLE CAUGHT FLEEING TO EL SALVADOR, POLICE SAY
Newsweek
BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW
4/17/18

A couple in California has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly torturing and killing a Vietnam War veteran in pursuit of his financial information, police said in a press conference Monday.

Jose and Stacie Mendoza allegedly restrained, beat and suffocated Kenneth Coyle, 70, at his home in Hanford, California, on April 5 or 6, while interrogating him about his finances, according to police. The coroner's office has yet to announce Coyle's cause of death, but police said they suspect blunt force trauma and suffocation.
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