World War II POW’s medals to go to widow

World War II POW’s medals to go to widow

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 8, 2009 8:01:21 EDT

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Daniel Johnson may not have taken pride in having been a prisoner in Japan during World War II, but his widow is making sure that his service is fully noted.

Johnson, an Army corporal, was taken prisoner on May 6, 1942, on the Philippine island of Corregidor when Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright surrendered to the Japanese.

Johnson was held in some of the worst Japanese prison camps for 39 months before being liberated, only to spend another six months hospitalized because of malnutrition.

His widow, Phyllis Johnson of Mountain Home, is to formally receive her husband’s medals in a ceremony planned for Sept. 19.

“He wasn’t proud to be a POW, so he never cared about getting his medals,” Phyllis Johnson said.

Phyllis Johnson sought the medals after reading that a family member could request them. She has acquired her husband’s honorable service lapel pin, two presidential unit citations and five medals — WWII, POW, American Defense, Liberation of the Philippines and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign.

The ceremony will be held at a VFW hall in Cotter, Ark.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/ap_widowmedals_090809/

Ark. Guard not using soldier-aid funds

Ark. Guard not using soldier-aid funds

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 24, 2009 5:13:03 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A fund set up at the direction of state lawmakers in 2005 to receive donations from taxpayers for soldiers and their families has gone largely ignored by the Arkansas National Guard, despite a $65,000 balance.

The law setting up the Military Relief Trust Fund designated the Arkansas National Guard as the agency in charge of distributing the money gathered from people who checked off a box on their income tax returns authorizing the state to put $1 of their money into the fund.

The Legislature has appropriated to the National Guard $50,000 each year since 2007 to operate the fund. But neither the operating funds nor the donated money has been touched. The National Guard hasn’t even set up procedures for getting the money into the hands of needy soldiers or their families.

Command Sgt. Maj. Deborah Collins of the Arkansas National Guard said the money is not immediately needed, because a United Way fund provides loans and grants to needy Reserve and National Guard families.
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Ark. Guard not using soldier aid funds

Pvt. William Andrew Long came from military family

Slain soldier came from military family

By Jon Gambrell - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 4, 2009 10:37:51 EDT

CONWAY, Ark. — The father of a soldier slain outside a recruiting center sought a quiet life for his family in rural Arkansas after years of military service, but the battlefield came home to find them.

Daris Long’s son, Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, was shot Monday in suburban Little Rock while he stood and smoked a cigarette, far from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Long, 23, died in an attack that also wounded Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18. The alleged gunman, Abdulhakim Muhammad, also 23, told investigators he wanted to kill as many Army personnel as he could “because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,” police said.

But Ezeagwula and Long had never seen battle. Both only completed basic training recently and had volunteered to help attract others into military service. Long was heading to South Korea, not even the Middle East, for his service.

“He was a hero. The other young lad that’s in the hospital, he’s a hero,” Daris Long told Little Rock television station KATV. “They weren’t on the battlefield, but apparently, the battlefield’s here.”

Long’s service adds to his family’s military tradition, his father said. The elder Long served in the Marine Corps while his wife, Janet, was in the Navy.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_recruiting_center_shooting_2_060309/

Arkansas National Guard post have swine flu

Soldiers at Ark. Guard post have swine flu

By Andrew DeMillo - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 9, 2009 8:59:35 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ first confirmed swine flu cases came from out-of-state soldiers training at a military base in central Arkansas, officials said Friday. A school child in northeast Arkansas has also tested positive for the disease.

Officials said 11 soldiers training at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock suffered flu-like symptoms. Four tested positive for the virus, four tested negative and three test results are pending.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_swine_flu_soldiers_050809/

Missing Fort Bragg Soldier Found

Bragg soldier located in Little Rock, Ark.
By Jon Gambrell - The Associated PressPosted : Thursday Feb 19, 2009 11:23:08 EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Sheriff’s deputies say they have found a North Carolina soldier missing since Feb. 10.
Hot Spring County sheriff’s deputies say they took 22-year-old Spc. Joseph E. Putnam into custody late Wednesday night at a mobile home park near the county line. Investigator Robert Terry told The Associated Press that Putnam was involuntarily committed and taken to a Malvern hospital for treatment.
Terry says Putnam, who has family in Bismarck, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving a tour in Iraq. He apparently left Fort Bragg and took a bus to Arkansas, where surveillance camera footage at an ATM showed him withdrawing money.
Putnam is a member of the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_ark_bragg_soldier_021909/

Arkansas VA did human experimentation on veterans

VA releases report critical of Ark. hospitals

Associated Press - August 6, 2008 7:14 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A federal report has found researchers working at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System failed to follow rules governing human experimentation, including not telling those in a surgery trial about another participant's medical emergency following the procedure.

A report by the inspector general's office of the Veterans Affairs Administration found researchers also conducted several HIV tests without patients' permission, filmed dementia patients without consent and destroyed records just before a federal audit. The report says the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' internal review board, which oversaw the researchers, also failed to follow up to make sure researchers corrected the problems in several cases.
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http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8798384&nav=menu67_2

Veterans Oral History Project Reveals Cost of Combat to Soldiers

Veterans Oral History Project Reveals Cost of Combat to Soldiers

University of Arkansas, Fayettevile


News Wise

Aug 04, 2008

July 31, 2008 - Research at the University of Arkansas suggests that the very training that prepares soldiers to react quickly in combat leaves the individual vulnerable to a variety of emotional and psychological problems upon return to civilian life. Conditions in Iraq have produced particularly traumatic effects among troops.

"What we learned talking to soldiers and mental health professionals affirms the findings of the Department of Defense Health Board Task Force on Mental Health, particularly regarding the stigma attached to psychological problems and the shortcomings in available treatment," sociologist Lori Holyfield said.

Holyfield led a team of researchers in the Veterans Oral History Project. They collected oral histories of returning veterans of the war in Iraq as well as mental health professionals, both those who were active in the field and those who work in Veterans Administration facilities.

She then analyzed the oral histories along with other accounts by soldiers and mental health professionals from military blogs, documentary films and news coverage. Holyfield and graduate student Crosby Hipes will present the results in a paper titled "Emotions and Edgework in the Military: Construction of a Post-Combat Self" on Saturday, Aug. 2, at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in Boston.

Holyfield used what sociologists have learned about emotions and "edgework" as a framework for analyzing data about the soldiers' experiences. Edgework is what sociologists call voluntary risk-taking behavior involving a negotiation between danger and safety in life-and-death situations. Certain fields, such as search-and-rescue units, engage in occupational edgework. However, the researchers wrote, "The inability to retreat in combat places combat on the far end of the continuum of edgework."
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10818

Arkansas soldier returns to destroyed home needs your help

She is being redeployed in August and is worried about getting her parents settled first. Can anyone help them out with a donation or helping the family rebuild so this soldier will not have an extra burden to worry about?

Soldier on leave returns to burning home

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 9:32:10 EDT

LITTLE FLOCK, Ark. — An Arkansas soldier serving with the Army in Iraq came back to the state on leave to surprise her family but instead found her family’s home destroyed by fire after a lightning strike.

Rebecca Beaird, 20, arrived July 23 and spent the day with family. When she and the family returned to the home later that night, they found that a fire had gutted it. Beaird had lived there with her parents and two sisters since 1999.

“It was sad because you think about everything that’s in there. My family lost everything,” Beaird told KHOG television.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_housefire_072908/

Firefighter killed in Iraq one week after he arrived

Local Firefighter Dies In Iraq

POSTED: 6:28 pm CDT July 9, 2008

SPRINGDALE, Ark. -- The war in Iraq claimed the life of a Springdale man working as a civilian contractor in Iraq.

Justin English, 25, was killed Monday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

English left the Springdale Fire Department last month to join Wackenhut Services, a private firm that employs firefighters and paramedics to do the same job overseas.


He arrived in Iraq on June 30 and after being there for only a week, his life was cut short.

Those who worked with him at the fire department came together in grief to remember a man with such a big heart.

“You just couldn’t ask for a better, nicer guy. He was one of my best friends,” said Hayden Dennis, fellow firefighter.
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http://www.4029tv.com/news/16837193/detail.html
linked from ICasualties.org

Another Non-combat death in Iraq

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Anthony L. Woodham, 37, of Rogers, Ark., died on July 5 of injuries suffered in a non-combat incident at Camp Adder, Tallil, Iraq. He was assigned to the 39th Brigade Support Battalion, 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Arkansas Army National Guard, Heber Springs, Ark.

The incident is under investigation.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12046
linked from ICasualties.org

Arkansas Army National Guards tend to kids burns in Iraq

Soldiers treat Iraqi kids with severe burns

By Rick Fahr - Log Cabin Democrat via Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jul 5, 2008 15:12:02 EDT

SCANIA, Iraq — YaYa sits quietly on the table. A flowered plastic band holds back her black hair, revealing a smile that only a child’s heart musters. YaYa’s sparkle grows for a moment as a soldier walks toward her, but then she notices the tweezers and the scrub brush.

Remembering, she turns grim. The next half-hour will bring excruciating pain. There will be candy and perhaps a toy later, but the pain comes first.

Sgt. 1st Class Stanley Krupsky smiles as he reaches out to welcome YaYa back. The girl’s hand finds his shoulder. She is ready.

YaYa cries as the soldier peels and scrubs away the dead skin. She muffles her screams, and Krupsky has to gather his composure more than once. He hates to hurt the girl, but he has no choice.

“I know it hurts, but it’s got to be done,” he said.

Krupsky, a convoy escort team commander for Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 151st Cavalry Regiment, 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Arkansas Army National Guard, is helping YaYa recover from burns suffered in a fire more than a month ago. Two of her family members died from their wounds, and two others travel with their grandmother three days a week to Scania, to a free burn clinic where soldiers from Charlie Troop and other units volunteer.

Most of the patients are children who have suffered horrific burns, their arms and legs blistered and raw. YaYa’s burned skin is bright pink now, a good sign. She’s healing.

Krupsky and the troops in his team rearrange their mission schedules, sacrificing what little off time they might otherwise have between missions, to spend a few hours at the clinic. They do what they can to help the children and leave them with a smile — candy and toys the soldiers buy at the post exchanges or receive in the mail from home.

“We just do what we can to help,” said Krupsky, from Oregon.
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Oregon's rushing rivers are therapy for war scars

Oregon's rushing rivers are therapy for war scars
A Washington, D.C.-based kayaking group for Iraq veterans runs a rafting race in Oregon Monday, May 19, 2008
LAURA OPPENHEIMER The Oregonian Staff
Team River Runner launched its raft a mile upstream, powered through crashing waves and coasted under the Carter Bridge to win its race Sunday at the 25th annual Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival.

But their journey began much farther away -- in Iraq.

The six-man boat included two special guests: injured soldiers who are redefining themselves in the water. Oregon's paddling community pulled together to host Kevin Pannell and Troy Crawford, who met Portland-area guides during a December expedition to Costa Rica.

Pannell was always a physical guy. He played nose guard for his high school football team and joined the Arkansas National Guard as a teenager. But while he patrolled a Baghdad neighborhood in June 2004, a grenade exploded at his feet. Pannell had both legs amputated, and he spent more than a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He started from scratch, learning to walk on prosthetics.

Toward the end of Pannell's hospital stay, he noticed signs for Team River Runner. Kayakers created the nonprofit to help wounded veterans heal -- and find a new passion. Sounded interesting.

"It was just something I was trying," says 29-year-old Pannell. "As time progressed, I realized it was a way to get the rush back."

He'd returned to Arkansas when Crawford arrived at the hospital in March 2006, suffering from brain trauma and shrapnel wounds. The Michigan native, who spent six years in the Marines before enlisting in the Army, was hit by a bomb.

Crawford was a sports nut -- he wrestled and played football, baseball and hockey -- and he'd always wanted to try rafting. He was stoked to hear about Team River Runner, but he didn't sign up until he spotted a vanful of kayaks in the hospital parking lot.

"When do you practice?" he asked the group leader.

"Now. Get your suit and come down to the pool."
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Tornado leaves Little Rock like 'war zone'

Tornado leaves Little Rock like 'war zone'
Story Highlights
The storm hit parts of Saline County, about 12 miles west of Little Rock
More than 50 mobile homes were reported on fire at a large mobile home park
At least four people were reported injured
CNN) -- At least one tornado ripped through central Arkansas Thursday evening, savaging a mobile home park and sending National Weather Service forecasters into a bunker as the storm roared overhead.
"There's pretty extensive damage in the Little Rock area," said John Lewis, a senior forecaster with the weather service at the North Little Rock Airport.

At least four people were hurt, authorities said, but there were no reports of fatalities.
"We went into our shelter," Lewis said. "We could hear it ... go by."

The storm destroyed hangars at the North Little Rock Airport and tossed numerous small planes. The forecasters spent about three minutes in their shelter.

"The scariest moment of my life," said Mike Aubrey, who was at the airport securing his plane ahead of the storm. "Debris was flying across the ramp. Planes were beginning to stack up."
Aubrey said he saw a Douglas DC-3, an early passenger plane, spin around. The aircraft was nowhere to be found after the tornado passed, he said.
The damage extended from southwest of Little Rock to the northeast. "There's some structural damage in the city of Little Rock and several areas north of North Little Rock," said John Rehrauer, spokesman for the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department. "A lot of trees and power lines are down."

The same storm also caused damage in southwestern Little Rock and the town of Benton, Lewis said. It also pummeled the Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park in Saline County, about 12 miles southwest of Little Rock. Watch how tornado scares residents »


Again remember here, PTSD is caused by trauma.

Verdict in electrocution of Pvt. Van Ryan Marcum Upheld

Verdict in electrocution of soldier upheld

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 10:13:27 EST

LITTLE ROCK — A federal appeals panel on Tuesday upheld a $6.5 million verdict against a private contractor in the death of an Arkansas soldier who was electrocuted when he leaned back against the metal exterior wall of a latrine.

Pvt. Van Ryan Marcum died June 19, 2004, following an exercise at a firing range at Fort Benning, Ga. Marcum’s estate sued The Shaw Group Inc., which was under contract to demolish several abandoned metal latrines at the Army base. Marcum, 21, was from Prescott, Ark.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis turned away The Shaw Group’s requests for a new trial or a ruling that the company was not responsible.

The Shaw Group, based in Baton Rouge, La., argued that it had no duty to have demolished the latrine, noting that the Army had given it an extension for the demolition work.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_electrocution_022608/