Sailor found dead on base in Norfolk
Navy Times
By: Mark D. Faram
August 13, 2018
NORFOLK, Va. — A sailor from Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station, Atlantic was found dead at Naval Station Norfolk Friday night, Lt. Cmdr. Ben Tisdale, spokesman for U.S. Fleet Cyber Command told Navy Times on Monday.
Tisdale said the cause of the death was still under investigation on Monday but officials have identified the deceased sailor as Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Joshua I. Johnson.
A three-year Navy veteran, Johnson, 22, was originally from Orange Park, Florida.
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‘Tough as nails’ veteran urges focus on fitness, not wounds
STARS AND STRIPES
By ROSE L. THAYER
Published: August 11, 2018
Reeves said Bullock’s focus as a business owner is incredible — just as it was during his early days of recovery.“When he got injured, he said, ‘This does not define me.’ He hasn’t let it define him,” Reeves said.
Jared Bullock, a former Green Beret, and his wife Jesica stand outside Foundry Athletics, a gym they opened May 19, 2018, in Carterville, Ill.
PHOTO BY TIM KOLCZAK
AUSTIN, Texas — Everything changed for Sgt. 1st Class Jared Bullock on Nov. 13, 2013.
It was one month into his fifth deployment, and the Green Beret and a team of soldiers were riding in an all-terrain vehicle in Kandahar when it ran over an improvised explosive device. Bullock woke up in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he learned he’d lost his right arm above the elbow and his right leg above the knee.
The explosion also took the life Bullock’s best friend, Staff Sgt. Richard L. Vazquez, 28, and Staff Sgt. Alex A. Viola, 29, died days later in the hospital.
His injuries left him wondering what was next for him, after 10 years in the Army doing a job that he loved.
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Pensacola veterans struggle to pay for legal help in civil court cases, panel says
Pensacola News Journal
Melissa Nelson Gabriel
Aug. 10, 2018
A Tampa veterans crisis line receives more than 10,000 calls a month from veterans needing help, said Dennis Baker, president of the Florida Veterans Foundation. Many of the calls are about suicidal thoughts or addiction issues. A lot of the calls are also from veterans who need help negotiating the legal system, he said.
From child support hearings to eviction notices, many Florida veterans are left to fend for themselves when it comes to complicated legal issues, members of a statewide committee on civil justice heard Friday.
Judges, lawyers and veterans advocates from around the state met in Pensacola to discuss what can be done to ensure veterans have better representation in the civil justice system.
Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga, chairman of the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice, said the group took its meeting on veterans' issues to Pensacola because of the high number of active-duty military members and retirees in the region.
"Access to civil justice not only impacts the poor, it also affects those of moderate income," he said.
A Tampa veterans crisis line receives more than 10,000 calls a month from veterans needing help, said Dennis Baker, president of the Florida Veterans Foundation. Many of the calls are about suicidal thoughts or addiction issues. A lot of the calls are also from veterans who need help negotiating the legal system, he said.
"A number of callers are telling us they need an attorney. It's everything from landlord/tenant disputes, wills and estates, mortgages and foreclosures, and taxes," he said.
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Vista veteran and service dog kick off casino's new six-legged security force
San Diego Union Tribune
Pam Kragen
August 12, 2018
Four years ago, Tipton said he wouldn’t have been able to strike up a conversation with strangers and even found himself incapable of cracking a smile. Tipton said having Daisy and the self-esteem of a holding a job “have made me human again.”
After struggling for years with post-traumatic stress disorder, 22-year Marine veteran John Tipton decided three years ago to get a trained service dog. The Vista man calls the day he took Daisy home in May 2015 both the best day and the worst day of his life.
John Tipton of Vista and his service dog Daisy do their rounds at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula. The 22-year Marine Corps veterans and his dog are the first of nine human-canine security teams Pechanga plans to hire. (Pechanga Resort and Casino)
Because although the 4-year-old black Lab/terrier mix helped heal the crippling anxiety that had turned Tipton into a housebound “grumpy grandpa,” he couldn’t find anyone willing to hire a man with a full-time service dog.
“It was a pretty rough couple of years,” said Tipton, 62. “I’d walk into job interviews and they’d take one look at me and then look at the dog … You could see it in their eyes and hear it in the tone of their voice. They wondered what was wrong with me.”
But those years of isolation ended in mid-June, when Tipton and Daisy became the first six-legged safety patrol team at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. Over the next year, Pechanga plans to hire a total of 10 veteran-service dog teams.
The idea was conceived by Robert Krauss, vice president of public safety at Pechanga. Before joining Pechanga’s security team 21 years ago, Krauss spent four years in the Marine Corps. He said military veterans make up a substantial portion of his department’s 300-strong staff because their leadership qualities make them great workers.
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Search underway for Camp Pendleton Marine missing at sea
San Diego Union Tribune
Andrew Dyer
August 10, 2018
An all-hands effort is underway near the Philippines to find a U.S. Marine reported overboard Thursday morning from the amphibious assault ship Essex.
An MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft prepared to depart the flight deck of the USS Essex (LHD 2) on July 17. The Essex and its crew of sailors and marines left San Diego July 10. (U.S. Navy)
The unidentified Marine is deployed with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit based out of Camp Pendleton.
The Essex left Naval Base San Diego with its complement of Marines on July 10.
The Navy, Marine Corps and Philippine ships and aircraft are searching the Sulu Sea, where the ship was conducting routine operations, the Marines said in a news release Friday.
“It is an all-hands effort to find our missing Marine,” said Navy Capt. Gerald Olin, the amphibious squadron commander leading the search and rescue operation, in a statement. “All of our sailors, Marines and available assets aboard the USS Essex have been and will continue to be involved in this incredibly important search and rescue operation.”
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