Update: Air Force family in fatal highway accident identified
Valley News Joshua Peguero November 23, 2018
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D (Valley News Live) – Update: Staff Sgt. Anthony James Dean, 25, assigned to the 69th Maintenance Squadron, was killed in a vehicle accident near Billings, Montana, over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Dean’s remains were recovered alongside those of his wife, Chelsi Kay Dean, 25. Also deceased in the accident are their two daughters Kaytlin Merie Dean, 5, and Avri James Dean, 1.
“Words are not enough during a time like this,” said Maj. Eric Inkenbrandt, 69th Maintenance Squadron commander. “AJ’s family brought a light to our maintenance community, and this loss strikes each of us deeply. May their friends and family be granted the strength and serenity to get through this sorrowful time.”
Montana Highway Patrol discovered the accident scene early Saturday morning after searching for the missing family since Thanksgiving Day. Initial reports indicate they were traveling on Interstate 94 when the vehicle went off the road, eventually coming to rest in a creek. The crash remains under investigation by the Montana Highway Patrol.
read more here
North Carolina Navy veteran Taveta Hobbs remains missing a decade after her Thanksgiving week disappearance
NBC News
Juliet Muir
November 23, 2018
Growing up, Taveta Hobbs and her younger brother Clinton Crier were very close, Clinton told Dateline.
“She was a sweetheart,” Clinton told Dateline. “We had a huge love for each other because I was her younger brother, and she really looked after me.”
As she grew older, Taveta showed an interest in serving in the United States Armed Forces and joined the Navy in 1982.
“She was moving around a lot then, so we became less close,” Clinton said about their relationship. He told Dateline the two would still speak on the phone whenever possible.
In 1992, Taveta married Phil Hobbs. The couple lived in Virginia before moving to California, and then ending up in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2004, Clinton told Dateline.
No longer in the Navy, Taveta took a job with Salesforce about 20 minutes away in Carey, while she studied to be a certified stenographer.
Clinton, who lives in California, told Dateline that at a 2007 family gathering, he and Taveta had an argument. “It was a stupid argument that blew up. And some other frustrations boiled over,” he told Dateline.
read more here
Alignment refers to an adjustment of a vehicle’s suspension – the system that connects a vehicle to its wheels. It is not an adjustment of the tires or wheels themselves. The key to proper alignment is adjusting the angles of the tires which affects how they make contact with the road.
That got me thinking about how veterans can do an alignment of their lives. They can adjust the angles and make different contacts with other veterans on the road.
Right now the most powerful tool to prevent suicides if not being used. Too many have just jumped on the "suicide awareness" stunts while veterans are left wondering where hope is. What is going on? We see so many groups talking about veterans killing themselves, but the outcome is more suffering and less healing. Do these people really care? That is clear for most involved that they do. The problem is, they did not care enough to know what to do to change the outcome. The answer was already inside of them. read more here
Veterans find community, hard work in rare firefighting crew
Associated Press November 24, 2018
Of the 25 positions on the crew, 17 are filled by veterans, McGirr said. There are three additional openings, and McGirr said he wants to recruit female veterans, too.
SALEM, Ore. - After being in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of one of America's newest elite wildfire crews are tasked with fighting fires in rugged country back home.
On the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's only hotshot crew focused on recruiting veterans, members have traded assault rifles and other weapons of war for chainsaws and shovels. But, like in the military, they have camaraderie, structure, and chain of command. And the occasional adrenaline rush.
Crew superintendent Michael McGirr said he and other managers took then-President Barack Obama's initiative to hire veterans to heart."We felt it was important for them to transition back home," McGirr said.
"Being in a firefight is way different than being in a wildland fire, but both are mentally taxing," said Chris Schott, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Army's 7th Special Forces Group. "In a wildland fire, no one's shooting at you, but conditions can go favorable to unfavorable very quickly."
The Lakeview Veterans Interagency Hotshot Crew, based in Klamath Falls, Oregon, received its hotshot certification after rigorous training and testing, the Bureau of Land Management announced last week. It's now among 112 elite U.S. wildland firefighting teams and the only targeting veterans for recruitment, the agency said. read more here
