Showing posts with label AWOL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AWOL. Show all posts

Sunday, June 29, 2014

AWOL Marine faces charges after 10 years

Marine who disappeared in Iraq in 2004 back in US
Jun 29th 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether to court martial Hassoun.

In a written statement from its headquarters at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service "worked with" Hassoun to turn himself in and return to the U.S. to face charges.

Hassoun disappeared from his unit in Iraq's western desert in June 2004. The following month he turned up unharmed in Beirut, Lebanon and blamed his disappearance on Islamic extremist kidnappers. He was returned to Lejeune and was about to face the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing when he disappeared again.

Wonder if he was getting paid too?
Audit: Army paid $16M to deserters, AWOL soldiers
The Associated Press
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Published: September 27, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Even as the Army faces shrinking budgets, an audit shows it paid out $16 million in paychecks over a 2 1/2-year period to soldiers designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the military has been dinged for the error.

A memo issued by Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky., found that the Army lacked sufficient controls to enforce policies and procedures for reporting deserters and absentee soldiers to cut off their pay and benefits immediately. The oversight was blamed primarily on a failure by commanders to fill out paperwork in a timely manner.
the link is still live so go here to read the rest

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Military disability issues keep PTSD soldier trapped

Military disability issues keep PTSD soldier trapped
YouTube Video Report

Apr 11, 2014
Although Sgt. Chris Peden suffers from mood swings and insomnia due to post-traumatic stress disorder, the Tacoma resident has had to continue going to work in his infantry battalion for the past year and a half because of the military's complicated disability retirement system. "My brain literally just doesn't work the way it used to, " he said. In the background is his wife Karen.


In the report Sgt. Chris Peden mentioned soldiers going AWOL. (One more topic that does not merit attention from the press.) Here are a few stories about AWOL soldiers.
Brian Harkin for The New York Times 2007
Two soldiers in Texas, Ronnie and James, who did not want to be fully identified, are among the Army deserters who are facing courts-martial.

In the 2006 fiscal year, 3,196 soldiers deserted, the Army said, a figure that has been climbing since the 2004 fiscal year, when 2,357 soldiers absconded. In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 871 soldiers deserted, a rate that, if it stays on pace, would produce 3,484 desertions for the fiscal year, an 8 percent increase over 2006.

Sgt. Brad Gaskins, 25, of East Orange, N.J., said he left the northern New York post in August 2006 because the Army wasn’t providing effective treatment after he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression.

Spc. Justin Faulkner, 22, of Stanton in eastern Kentucky, returned to his unit Tuesday, Brandy Faulkner said. She said she talked to him on the phone and that officers in his 101st Airborne Division combat engineer outfit welcomed him back. “He’s back on base, they’re treating him with respect and getting him the help he needs,” Brandy Faulkner said.

Cindy Goforth knows about the problem first hand. She has two sons. One who's back from Iraq, 19-year-old David, and the other who's serving his third tour there. She said her younger son is in jail because of PTSD and she hopes the new study will help convince him he can be treated. "The night before he come home on R and R one of his best buddies was killed and he did not handle that well. He didn't handle that one well at all," said Goforth. That was in October. He was supposed to go back in November, but went AWOL at the airport. "Did he ever get mental health treatment when he came home? No, of course they teach them to be Army strong. Well, they're Army strong. The only problem is these kids don't realize they've got problems," said Goforth.

The Chicago Tribune tells the story of Spc. 4 Eugene “Doc” Cherry, an Army medic who served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division and returned home with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, Cherry’s experiences are ones that VFA has seen many, many times. Cursory exposure to the psychiatrist in the field, long waits for appointments back in America, commanders making it next to impossible for servicemembers with mental injuries to receive help, going AWOL: this is a pattern that affects more and more servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is this anyway to treat a soldier? One of the worst stories I've read
Dominic Meyer was on his way to Iraq. Soon he would be pulling another soldier out of a burning Humvee. The man was returned to his family a triple-amputee, blind and deaf.

Four times in the space of four months, the unit was jarred by the sound and the fury of a roadside bomb. Jangled nerves are evidently part of the bargain. Sometimes adrenaline is your only friend in Iraq.

Meyer was shot three times while he was there. His flak jacket may have saved his life. His buddy wasn't so lucky. He was killed by sniper fire.

There is no emotion in Meyer's voice. There's something in the way he looks at you, though. His eyes tell you they have seen far too much. "He has an old soul," says his mother, Dana Spencer. Dominic Meyer is 20.

The Army sent him home in July, 18-day leave. On the 17th day of his furlough he was hit by a car in Sayreville, late at night. The driver didn't stop. Six months later his knee still bothers him. He walks with a cane.

After the hit-and-run accident, there was some mix-up. "In the confusion of having him formally transferred back to Fort Hood (Texas) for treatment, he was designated AWOL," his mother wrote in a letter to the Press. It's complicated. The doctor at Fort Monmouth has to talk to the commanding officer at Fort Hood who has to talk to the commanding officer in Iraq. Lot of paperwork, maybe a letter doesn't get stamped somewhere along the line, who knows.

By Sept. 29, Meyer was ready to report for duty. He was anxious to rejoin his unit in Iraq. He packed up his gear and loaded it into his 2003 Ford F-150. He would drive through the night, less traffic.

But before he got on the road, he was pulled over by the police, around 11:15 p.m. Someone called complaining about a pickup truck and a motorcycle racing up and down the street.

Meyer's registration was expired and he had no insurance. Then the officer saw the butt of a bayonet sticking out of the defroster vent.

The next day there was a story in the local paper: "Man AWOL from Army found in Sayreville with cache of weapons." In addition to the bayonet, the story went on to say that police had found two handguns, several magazines of ammunition, several knives, a hatchet and an unspent hollow-point bullet.

Meyer spent the next 57 days in the Middlesex County Jail. His bail originally was set at $100,000, with no 10 percent option. Under New Jersey's tough new gun law, enacted last year as a means to combat gang violence, Meyer could be facing mandatory prison time.

There are a lot more stories like these. How many? Well AWOL has been such a huge ignored story that it appears even the military wasn't really paying attention. They arrested a Marine 5 years after he was discharged in California.

In 2007 the Army was discharging 10 a day for "personality disorder." By 2012 "more than 20,000 men and women who exited the Army and Marines during the past four years with other-than-honorable discharges that hamstring their access to VA health care and may strip them of disability benefits." But last year it was 11,000 from the Army.

$16 million in paychecks over a 2 1/2-year period to soldiers designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the military has been dinged for the error. A memo issued by Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky., found that the Army lacked sufficient controls to enforce policies and procedures for reporting deserters and absentee soldiers to cut off their pay and benefits immediately. The oversight was blamed primarily on a failure by commanders to fill out paperwork in a timely manner.

But it gets worse considering "more than 100,000 other troops left the armed services with "bad paper" over the past decade of war."

All of this left this result. About 1,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era are diagnosed each week with post-traumatic stress disorder and more than 800 with depression, according to VA statistics.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Marine deserter accused of murder and beating another woman

Marine deserter's motive for Ore. attacks remains a mystery
The Associated Press
March 3, 2014

PENDLETON, ORE. — Although he talked freely about how he committed the crimes, it’s still unclear why a Marine deserter from California fatally stabbed an Eastern Oregon motel maid and beat another woman with a metal pipe, an investigator says.

Lukah Chang pleaded guilty in January and has been sentenced to life in prison for the two attacks that unnerved Pendleton.

In an extensive story that also reported on an interview with Chang’s sister, the East Oregonian described law enforcement authorities as still puzzled about Chang’s motive.

“I don’t think even he can answer that,” said Police Chief Stuart Roberts. “If he could, he would have.”

In July 2012, Chang got on a bus and left the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. He arrived at Pendleton in Eastern Oregon in August.
read more here

Monday, January 13, 2014

Ex-Fort Lewis soldier accused of deserting

Ex-Fort Lewis soldier accused of deserting, lying about combat tours
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
January 13, 2014
Veterans found Shakely’s story suspicious as soon as it aired. Skeptics posted the KTXL piece to the blog This Ain’t Hell, which identifies people who publicly tout false military experience.

A one-time Fort Lewis soldier who trumped up his military experience in a TV interview last year is facing time in prison on charges that he deserted his unit and falsely claimed to be a combat veteran.

Kevin Shakely of Sacramento, Calif., allegedly evaded law enforcement agencies for seven years, once reportedly slipping through their grasp at SeaTac Airport.

When Army police started raising pressure on him in August, Shakely, 28, contacted Sacramento’s KTXL Fox 40 News and claimed he was an honorably discharged Iraq and Afghanistan veteran being harassed by the Army.

“This is not how you treat somebody that went through what I had to go through and made the sacrifices I had to make,” he told KTXL.
Shakely in fact spent less than six months in uniform before deserting. Army records show he completed his initial training and spent just six days at his first duty station – Fort Lewis, before its reorganization as Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
read more here

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Fort Carson soldier who gave birth while incarcerated released

Fort Carson soldier who gave birth while incarcerated released
The Gazette
By Erin Prater
December 13, 2013

A former Fort Carson soldier who was pregnant at the time she was imprisoned for desertion during a tour in Iraq has been released early for good behavior and performing extra work.

Army Pvt. Kimberly Rivera was released from Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego Thursday after serving nearly seven and a half months of a 10-month sentence, her civilian lawyer, James Branum, said.

Branum submitted a clemency request to Fort Carson officials on Rivera's behalf several weeks ago, when Rivera was still pregnant with her fifth child, he said.

In the request, Branum asked that Rivera be released 45 days early, allowing her to prepare for birth, give birth, and bond with and breast-feed her baby.

The request, submitted with nearly 500 letters from supporters around the world, was denied Nov. 28, after Rivera had already given birth, Branum said.

Kimberly Rivera and her husband, Mario Rivera, will now focus on "rebuilding their lives," likely with extended family in Texas. Where the family eventually ends up will depend on "wherever they can find a job and cheap rent," Branum said.
read more here

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Fort Hood Solider and Wife Missing

Fort Hood Soldier, Wife Reported Missing
KWTX News

FORT HOOD (November 1, 2013) Fort Hood soldier E.J. Grey, 23, and his wife Courtney, 19, both of Pueblo, Colo., have been reported missing and E.J. Grey has been listed as AWOL since Tuesday, authorities confirmed Friday.
The two were last seen on Sunday.

A family member reported them missing to Killeen police on Wednesday.

They could be driving a dark blue Volkswagen Bug with Texas license plates.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Army paid $16M to deserters, AWOL soldiers

Audit: Army paid $16M to deserters, AWOL soldiers
The Associated Press
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Published: September 27, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Even as the Army faces shrinking budgets, an audit shows it paid out $16 million in paychecks over a 2 1/2-year period to soldiers designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the military has been dinged for the error.

A memo issued by Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky., found that the Army lacked sufficient controls to enforce policies and procedures for reporting deserters and absentee soldiers to cut off their pay and benefits immediately. The oversight was blamed primarily on a failure by commanders to fill out paperwork in a timely manner.
read more here

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Spc. Brandon David Bertolo's body found at Fort Campbell

Body found on post is that of missing soldier
Family members notified Friday evening
The Leaf Chronicle
Written by
Philip Grey
Jul. 19, 2013

FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — A family member of Spc. Brandon David Bertolo has confirmed that the body found in a Fort Campbell training area Friday morning is that of the 23-year-old “Strike” Brigade soldier, missing since July 14.

The announcement was made at 8:30 p.m. on a Facebook page the family has been using to track information on the soldier after the Army told them he failed to report for duty on Monday to his unit. The family member posted the news following notification of Bertolo’s mother, Anita Flores of Fort Myers, Fla., by Army officials.

Bertolo’s body was found at approximately 8:30 a.m. in a training area near South Group Patrol Road, outside of main post, a few miles west of Cole Park Golf Course.

Bertolo had been considered AWOL by the Army, according to a Fort Campbell press release issued Thursday afternoon, which said the soldier was under investigation on an unrelated matter.
read more here

Soldier's Mom needs help finding missing son

Friday, July 19, 2013

Soldier's Mom needs help finding missing son

Mom asks help to find soldier
Anyone with information urged to call military law enforcement
The Leaf-Chronicle
Written by Philip Grey
Jul. 18, 2013

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — A mother and Fort Campbell law enforcement are looking for anyone with information in the case of a soldier, Spc. Brandon David Bertolo, 23, possibly missing since July 14.

Spc Brandon David Bertolo (center) has not reported to his unit or had contact with anyone since July 14. The soldier is stationed at Fort Campbell with 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. / SUBMITTED
Anyone with information is urged to call military law enforcement at 270-956-4900 or contact Anita Flores at 512-663-9620. A flyer posted at several Facebook sites has an incorrect number for Flores.

Bertolo is 6’ 2” with brown hair and eyes. His home of record is Fort Myers, Fla.

He is driving what has been described as a powder-blue 2012 Lexus ES-type car. No license plate number is available at present.

He is stationed at Fort Campbell as a line medic with Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Strike,” 101st Airborne Division.

Information for the family can be posted at a Facebook page, “Find Missing Soldier SPC Brandon David Bertolo.”
read more here

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

'Toxic leadership' a rare but potent trigger in Fort Campbell suicides

The Leaf Chronicle is doing some great reporting on military suicides. Attempting to explain how things go so wrong that so many of the servicemen and women take their own lives after being willing to risk them for the sake of others.

In this series you'll read about how being in the military itself can in fact cause such a level of hopelessness that suicide seems to be the only way out. Toxic leadership still causing damage and a very long list of other things that went wrong.

When you read this, you will have a better idea of what is going on. The Department of Defense Suicide Event Report for 2012 has not been released yet. That is a huge issue considering this is already the middle of July. They have not released the suicide numbers for May or June. Both of these reports should have been out and that is what has researchers very concerned. Is is yet one more factor in the endless suffering these men and women are going thru? Or is it more an attempt to cover up the fact that after all these years of "efforts" to prevent suicide in the military increased them instead?
'Toxic leadership' a rare but potent trigger in Fort Campbell suicides
Fort Campbell reports highlight catalysts, but why is PTSD missing?
The Leaf Chronicle
Phillip Grey
Jul. 15, 2013

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — Relationship issues, financial problems and substance abuse have long been known to trigger suicides, but in recent years a new term has crept into the military suicide lexicon: “toxic leadership.”

“These leaders are selfish and self-serving individuals who crush the morale of subordinates and units,” said retired Lt. Col. Joe Doty and Master Sgt. Jeff Fenlason in their report for the Army on the topic.

“In the best of circumstances, subordinates endure and survive toxic leaders, then the leader or the subordinate moves, changes units or leaves the military. However, at worst, a toxic leader devastates the espirit de corps, discipline, initiative, drive and willing service of subordinates and the units they comprise.”

Hostile, indifferent or inadequate leadership was noted as a factor in seven of the 17 Fort Campbell suicide investigation reports reviewed by The Leaf-Chronicle and news partner WSMV-TV, Channel 4 in Nashville. In many cases, Army investigators called for further action and proposed solutions.

Only one case rose to the level of the “toxic leadership” label, though, and it appears that leadership may have driven one exceptional soldier to the brink.
No one in the chain of command or within the platoon even knew their brand-new private was living off-post, unauthorized, with a sergeant from another unit who was profiting financially by the arrangement and whose behavior after the private’s suicide included keeping the private’s personal possessions from the family.

Treatment within the platoon wasn’t deemed hazing, but it was characterized by the kind of pointless humiliation that prompted the private’s family to question in the harshest terms what kind of people were being allowed to serve as leaders in the Army.

Throughout the report, the overall impression of the private’s Army experience is one of meaninglessness.

In little more than four months time, the private went from wanting to go to Ranger and Officer Candidate School to wanting out. While AWOL in another state, he talked intermittently about wanting to return to Fort Campbell, but he never made it back.

Instead, on New Year’s Eve 2011, after listening repeatedly to what a close friend described as a “suicide song,” he texted a suicide message to his mother, took a gun from a relative’s home and killed himself. Evidence of marijuana in his system indicated drugs may have been an additional catalyst.

What about PTSD?

Junkin’s suicide was also one of at least five cases of the 17 studied in which the families of the deceased soldiers believed PTSD was a factor.

Yet PTSD is conspicuous in the reports by its near-total absence, despite that 14 of the 17 victims experienced a combat deployment.

The problem is that a PTSD diagnosis can be made only when a soldier has been referred for counseling or treatment, or has voluntarily sought help for an issue associated with PTSD. Only six of the 17 soldiers appear to fall into that category. And of those, only five had deployed.
read more here

Monday, June 10, 2013

AWOL Fort Bliss soldier charged after body of baby found

Former Fort Bliss soldier and girlfriend charged after body of baby found buried
KFOX News
By Gina Benitez
June 9, 2013

HILLSBORO, OH — A Fort Bliss soldier, who went AWOL for seven months, is charged after his girlfriend's child is found dead in a wooded area in Ohio.

"I can confirm that the soldier, Nathen Ritze, was a Fort Bliss soldier who went, essentially absent without leave," said Maj. Joe Buccino, Fort Bliss spokesman.

Ritze went AWOL last November.

But his problems don't stop there.
read more here

Florida Navy Officer missing in Florida

Missing Fla. Navy Recruiter's Daughter: 'I Just Wish He Would Come Home'
ABC News
By REENA NINAN and ALEXIS SHAW
June 9, 2013

Authorities are trying to piece together where a respected Jacksonville, Fla. navy recruiter may have gone after he was reported missing 12 days ago.

Chief Petty Officer Kevin Williams, 39, was first reported missing by his wife, Vanessa, after the couple got into a fight in a mall parking lot on May 28.

In the heat of the argument, Vanessa Williams told ABC News that she walked off in the other direction, but told her husband to stay put.

"I was so mad with him, so I said 'Wait here. I'm not…I don't want to walk with you and argue anymore," she said.

But when she returned to the spot where she left him, Williams was gone, but he left his cell phone behind.
read more here


Linked from Stars and Stripes

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Fort Carson female deserter sentenced to 10 months

Fort Carson female deserter sentenced to 10 months
April 29, 2013
ERIN PRATER
THE GAZETTE

The first female soldier to flee to Canada to avoid the Iraq War was sentenced by a military judge Monday to 10 months confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

Pfc. Kimberly Rivera, with the Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, pleaded guilty to two counts of desertion at the Monday court-martial.

Rivera, who served as a front gate guard at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Baghdad during a 2006-2007 tour, was granted leave in January 2007 but failed to return to duty.

When asked by judge Col. Timothy Grammel how long she remained absent, Rivera replied, “As long as I possibly could, sir. ... I intended to quit my job permanently.”

Rivera, 30, also said the military “doesn’t reflect who I want to be anymore.”

During a sentencing hearing, government lawyers argued that Rivera, who was granted leave shortly into her tour to work out marital issues, failed to return because her husband threatened to leave her and take their children.
read more here

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Will Vietnam Vet get justice after 3 attempted suicides?

We have Veterans' Courts today because of what happened to Vietnam Veterans and we have "programs" for PTSD because of what they fought for. This veteran is an example of what they came home to. How much do you want to bet this veteran was misdiagnosed?
Decades Too Late With Schizophrenic Vet's Suit
Courthouse News
By MARLENE KENNEDY
March 29, 2013
WASHINGTON (CN) - A schizophrenic veteran is about 25 years too late to sue for wrongful discharge and disability benefits, a judge for the Court of Federal Claims ruled.

An action must be filed within six years of a claim occurring for the court to have jurisdiction, according to the ruling. The military discharge being disputed here by Monroe Quailes Jr., however. dates back to 1979.

"Despite the court's recognition of the difficulties in seeking redress that plaintiff has encountered over the years, it is compelled to grant the government's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction," Judge Edward Damich wrote.

Quailes served two tours in Vietnam with the Army as a quarry machine operator and a cook before returning stateside in 1972. He soon began experiencing psychiatric problems that led to a suicide attempt in 1973 and subsequent outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A routine physical conducted before Quailes was honorably discharged in April 1975 showed "no psychiatric problems." After another suicide attempt in July that year, however, Quailes entered outpatient care at a private psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C.

Quailes nevertheless succeeded less than a year later in enlisting in the Navy - "somewhat surprisingly, in light of the indications of his troubled history," Damich noted.

Soon thereafter, he went AWOL (absent without leave) twice in August 1976, then returned to service before taking an "unauthorized absence" in October. In November, he was declared a deserter.

In December 1976, Quailes was arrested in Easton, Md., on charges of burglary and grand larceny in connection with a home break-in. A third suicide attempt while incarcerated in the county jail landed him in a Maryland psychiatric hospital.

Quailes ultimately withdrew an initial plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and pleaded guilty to the break-in in December 1977. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with five years suspended.
read more here

Friday, January 18, 2013

Military, the only job you can't just quit

I keep arguing with people when they bring up "non-deployed" soldiers committing suicide. They cannot seem to understand that just going into the military can be very traumatic for these young "adults" unprepared for the reality of combat training against playing war on a computer game. They think they are ready for it. Most of them are.

They are wired differently, able to put others first to the point where they are willing to die for their sake, endure every hardship and follow orders, ready, willing and able to be sent across the world for what this country says they need to do.

Among the many things we don't talk about is that the jobs in the military are not jobs these young "adults" can just quit. They get out of high school thinking it may be a cool job to have then when they realize they have made a huge mistake getting in way over their heads, they cannot just walk away. They will lose a lot when their record will follow them the rest of their lives.

We take jobs all the time we end up hating fast. We either don't show up for work or we give our notice and go work for some other company. For them, it is a totally different story with a very tragic outcome.

The case of Marine recruit changing his mind in just four days, escaping and then being chased by police,  shows just how hard it is for them to change their minds.

Marine recruit arrested at San Diego airport after mad dash to freedom from boot camp
A 22-year-old Marine recruit apparently had second thoughts about going through with boot camp. The man scaled two fences, one topped with barbed wire, before being arrested at a nearby San Diego airport. Police say this isn’t the first time a Marine recruit attempted an escape from the training facility.
BY DAVID KNOWLES
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013

Perhaps “Semper Infidelis” would be a better motto for this Marine.

A Marine Corps recruit proved anything but faithful on Thursday when he scaled several fences and attempted an escape from boot camp.

Police arrested the 22-year-old recruit, who has not been identified by name, at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, an airport that borders the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

After scaling two fences, one of which was topped with barbed wire, the newly conscripted Marine darted across the tarmac shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, and hid in a janitor’s van near the Southwest Airlines terminal.
read more here

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Transgendered ex-Marine given discharge after 1980s desertion

Transgendered ex-Marine given discharge after 1980s desertion
Los Angeles Times
January 14, 2013

A Marine from Maine who deserted three decades ago and later underwent sex change treatment will receive a general discharge under honorable conditions, according to the Marine's hometown newspaper.

The Marine, then known as Donald Tremblay, deserted in 1981 after graduating from boot camp in San Diego and being assigned to the base at Twentynine Palms, according to the Sun Journal newspaper.

Later, Tremblay underwent sex change treatment and changed his name to Elizabeth Tremblay, the newspaper reported. Now 57, Tremblay was arrested at home in the community of Poland in September on a fugitive warrant.

Tremblay was kept for several days in Androscoggin County jail, the newspaper reported.

On Monday, Tremblay was notified that the Marine Corps will issue a general discharge under honorable conditions, a common decision in decades-old desertion cases that do not involve violence or other criminality.
read more here

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Fort Eustis soldier accused of desertion arrested

Fort Eustis soldier accused of desertion arrested in South Carolina
Daily Press
By Tara Bozick
November 20, 2012

A Fort Eustis soldier accused of being absent without leave was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Darlington County, S.C., in a traffic stop that closed part of a highway when deputies found flammable materials in his car, a department captain said.

Andrew Richard Jackson, 19, of Jacksonville, N.C., was charged with possession of marijuana after deputies found a small amount of the drug on him in a traffic stop on Interstate 20 just before 3 p.m., said Capt. Andy Locklair with Darlington County (S.C.) Sheriff’s Office.

After Jackson was in custody, deputies searched the stopped car and found several containers filled with an unknown flammable liquid in the trunk, Locklair said.
read more here

Saturday, November 17, 2012

It took 43 years to clear Decorated Vietnam veteran missing and murdered

Woman finally has proof her brother wasn't a deserter
Mari A. Schaefer
Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: Saturday, November 17, 2012

Marine Cpl. Robert Daniel Corriveau had been under psychiatric treatment.

Virginia Cleary never gave up.

In the 43 years since her older brother, Marine Cpl. Robert Daniel Corriveau, a decorated Vietnam veteran, went missing from the Philadelphia Naval Hospital and was declared a deserter, she never stopped searching for him.

She wrote countless letters, pestered senators and congressmen, traveled from her New Hampshire home to Philadelphia to search news archives, scoured faces in crowds, battled with military and state officials for records, and enlisted police and private detectives.

Every roadblock she hit, she said, only strengthened her resolve and pushed her forward.

Finally, on May 31, Pennsylvania State Police were able to identify the remains of Corriveau, found stabbed to death in Chester County, and they are now seeking the public's assistance in solving the cold case.

"He was matched through my DNA," said Cleary, 58, of Conway, N.H.

On Nov 18, 1968, the same day the 20-year-old Marine from Lawrence, Mass., disappeared from the hospital, an unidentified man was found dead alongside the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Downingtown interchange.

He was stabbed once though the heart and covered with a Navy pea coat. He carried no identification and became known as "Bulldog John Doe" after the distinctive tattoo on his upper right arm. He was buried at Longwood Cemetery in Kennett Square.
read more here

Friday, November 9, 2012

Wounded Vietnam Vet sues Army to get care

Conn. vet wounded in Vietnam sues Army to get care
DAVE COLLINS
Associated Press
Thursday, November 8, 2012

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Purple Heart recipient from Connecticut who was wounded in the Vietnam War sued the Army on Thursday, saying he's wrongly being denied health care benefits.

Lawyers for William Dolphin, 64, of West Haven, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Haven in an attempt to upgrade his discharge status and get benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dolphin was given a bad conduct discharge in 1974 after being charged with going absent without leave, or AWOL. He didn't realize the Army considered him AWOL after he left a New York City hospital to convalesce at home while suffering from memory loss, depression and trouble concentrating, according to the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic, which is representing Dolphin.

Dolphin has been overwhelmed by medical bills and can't afford regular care for his conditions, while the bad conduct discharge has prevented him from receiving VA care, his lawyers say. He has asked Army officials to upgrade his discharge status, but they have refused.
read more from Times Union here

Monday, October 15, 2012

Military search for Sgt. Rob Larson ends

Military Search For Fort Jackson Soldier Halted
Sgt. Rob Larson, a Purple Heart recipient, served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He has since gone missing from his stationed Fort Jackson, S.C., base.

A Fort Jackson soldier missing for more than a week sufffered from a traumatic brain injury sustained in Iraq in 2005 and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a release from the team of family and friends searching for him.

He may not have his medicine for his brain injury and could be disoriented, the release stated.

Sgt. Rob Larson lives Calhoun County but was stationed in Fort Jackson. On Oct. 7, he was spotted in Gary, IN. After being spotted in another jurisdiction, the Calhoun County officials halted the search, though they are still collecting tips and remain the primary point of contact for all information coming in on the search.

Also, military officials told Pamela Larson, Rob Larson's wife, that they would not search for soldiers who are absent without leave (AWOL.), the release stated.
read more here

Fort Jackson, Missing Soldier Suffers from PTSD, Long Untreated TBI