High Speed Chase Started at Joint Base Lewis McChord

Police: Wash. man who threatened 'Vegas-style assault' was driving 120 mph

KATU 2 News
Bob Heye
October 6, 2017

Authorities also said Bleavins "was suicidal, had a head injury and PTSD," the acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bleavins is retired from the US Army.

KELSO, Wash. — Police say a Washington man who led police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 Wednesday and threatened a "Vegas-style assault" was driving in excess of 120 miles per hour. The chase began around 4 p.m. at Joint Base Lewis-McChord military installation south of Tacoma and ended near Kelso.

According to court documents, military police at the base said 35-year-old Christopher Bleavins was "threatening a Vegas style assault" when he fled, almost hitting officers on his way out.

Cowlitz County Sheriff's deputies picked up the chase as it headed south on I-5 near Kelso, Bleavins' car dodging in and out of freeway traffic, sometimes slamming on its breaks in front of other drivers then speeding off again, according to authorities.
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National Guardsman Dead After Standoff with State Trooper

Man with knife killed by Washington state trooper identified

KOMO News

Authorities have identified a man fatally shot by a Washington State Patrol trooper Saturday along Interstate 5 who allegedly had called 911 and requested "suicide by cop" before threatening the officer with a knife. (Photo: KOMO News)

LACEY, Wash. (AP) - Authorities have identified a man fatally shot by a Washington State Patrol trooper Saturday along Interstate 5 who allegedly had called 911 and requested "suicide by cop" before threatening the officer with a knife.

The Olympian reports 22-year-old National Guard reservist Michael Rude of Kent was shot by a trooper on the freeway in Lacey.

Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said Monday that an autopsy shows Rude died of gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen with internal bleeding.

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Airman Found Dead At Fairchild Air Force Base

Airman found dead in dorm at Fairchild identified
KXLY News
Elena Gardner
Posted: Jun 27, 2017

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. - UPDATE: The Airman has been identified as 20-year-old Nolan Fournier, assigned to the 92nd Communications Squadron.

Fournier, from West Branch, Michigan, was a Knowledge Management Apprentice who served in the Air Force since June 7, 2016.

"Airman Fournier was a great American Airman and a part of Team Fairchild, and the loss of any member of our team is felt across the community," said Col. Ryan Samuelson, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. "We are doing all we can to support the family members, teammates and loved ones impacted by this loss."
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Vietnam Veteran's Wish to Fly P-Model Cessna Granted

Vietnam War Veteran Gets Flight Of His Dreams
OPB FM
by Molly Solomon
June 17, 2017

Rowland was diagnosed with lymphocytic cancer in January. Doctors told him he only had a pint of blood left in his body. After trips to four different hospitals and two stints in rehab, Rowland was finally healthy enough to get on the plane.

It was a special day for a Vietnam War veteran in Vancouver, Washington. Simon Rowland, 66, has always wanted to fly in an old P-Model Cessna plane. And this weekend, he got his wish.

Veteran Simon Rowland peering out
the window of the Cessna plane as 
it flies across parts of southwest 
Washington. Molly Solomon/OPB

A crowd of friends who helped organize the flight met him at the runway Saturday morning. One of them is Meredith McMackin, an art therapist who met Simon while teaching a class at the VA Portland Community Living Center on the Vancouver campus.

“We were outside because it was a beautiful day and I had art supplies out there,” remembers McMackin. “And this fellow, Simon, looks up and sees a small plane and says, ‘I want to fly in one of those before I die.’”

That planted a seed for McMackin and she started making calls to the nearby Pearson Field. She got in contact with a local pilot, Bill Rollin, who was happy to help. When McMackin told Rowland she had secured a plane, he broke down in tears.
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New Hampshire Army Ranger Shot by Other Soldier Receives Outpouring of Support

Over $20,000 raised in 1 day for NH soldier shot by fellow Army ranger
NH1.com
February 18, 2017

HUDSON - There has been an outpouring of support from the community after a soldier from New Hampshire was shot in the neck by another Army ranger earlier this week.

A GoFundMe page for Joshua Keller has already collected more than $20,000. He was accidentally shot in Washington, and the other solider is facing charges.

His father Matt Keller spoke with NH1 News earlier in the week. He said his family has been in Washington since Sunday to be with their son.
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Solider from NH shot by fellow Army ranger, in critical condition
The Associated Press
February 14, 2017

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — An Army ranger from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state has been charged with shooting a fellow soldier, who remains in critical condition.

The Olympian reports that Spc. Thomas Patrick Popek was arraigned in court Monday on an assault charge. The 23-year-old victim from Hudson, N.H., is in critical condition and unable to breath on his own.
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VA Still Needs Doctors and Nurses, And Will A Lot Longer Now

Trump’s hiring freeze comes as VA in Spokane seeks doctors, nurses
The Spokesman Review
Mike Prager
FRIDAY, JAN. 27, 2017

The Mann-Grandstaff Veterans Administration Medical Center in Spokane has job openings for doctors, nurses and other care specialists that may or may not be filled because of President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze of federal workers.

The president’s press secretary initially said the freeze would extend to the VA, which has been harshly criticized for the long wait times veterans face getting care.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of the VA Tuesday, “Right now, the system’s broken,” and that the hiring freeze is meant as a “pause” while a new VA secretary takes stock of the situation.

“And I think the VA in particular, if you look at the problems that have plagued people, hiring more people isn’t the answer,” Spicer said, according to the Washington Post. “It’s hiring the right people, putting the procedures in place that ensure that our veterans – whether health care or mortgages or the other services that VA provides to those who have served our nation – get the services that they’ve earned.”
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Older Veterans in Northwest Committing Suicide in High Numbers

Veteran suicide numbers high in the Northwest
KREM
Whitney Ward
November 07, 2016

In Washington, more than half of those veterans who committed suicide were over the age of 65, while in Idaho, it was a full 65 percent.

Iraq war veteran couple Colleen Ryan and Jeff Hensley set up 1,892 American flags on the National Mall on March 27, 2014. The veterans installed the flags to represent the 1,892 veterans and service members who committed suicide that year.

Rates of veteran suicide vary widely by state. Certain factors that make someone more susceptible to suicide, things like being over the age of 45, in a rural area, American Indiana/Alaska Native or White, people from areas of higher poverty and lower education, and access to firearms.

Many of those people can be found in the Northwest.

In 2014, the state of Montana had the highest suicide rate in the country. Idaho came in as sixth, while Washington was farther down on the list.

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Vietnam Veteran Searching for Owner of Hard Drive from Iraq

A military mystery found on a hard drive in Lynnwood
Q13 FOx
BY JAMIE TOMPKINS
OCTOBER 19, 2016

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — It’s about 400 megabytes of a soldier’s memories captured on a hard drive.

George Williams says a friend found the beat-up hard drive and traded it to him for a few cigarettes.

“There were pictures of them in camp, pictures of the war, pictures of some cities around there and there were also family pictures. I don’t know if it’s fate. Maybe it was because if it was in somebody else’s hands, they would have wiped everything out and forgotten it,” says Williams.
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Five Dead After Gunman Opens Fire At Mall

Washington shooting gunman hunted by police after deadly mall rampage
CBS News
September 24, 2016

BURLINGTON, Wash. -- Police searched Saturday for a gunman authorities said opened fire in the makeup department of a Macy’s store at a mall north of Seattle, killing five people before fleeing toward an interstate on foot.

An image capture from surveillance video shows the gunman in a deadly mall shooting in Burlington, Washington, on Sept. 23, 2016. WASHINGTON STATE PATROL

People fled, customers hid in dressing rooms and employees locked the doors of nearby stores after gunshots rang out just after 7 p.m. Friday at the Cascade Mall. A helicopter, search teams and K-9 units scoured the area for a rifle-carrying man.

“We are still actively looking for the shooter,” Washington State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Mark Francis said at a news conference. “Stay indoors, stay secure.”

Francis said police were seeking a Hispanic man wearing black and armed with a “hunting-type” rifle last seen walking toward Interstate 5.
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Teenager's Life Cut Short By Accident, Soldier's Life Extended By Love

Teen who died following ladder fall donates kidney to veteran
KOMO
by Suzanne Phan
August 26th 2016

SILVERDALE, Wash. (KOMO) - A Kitsap family is preparing to bury their beloved teenage daughter on Saturday, but they find hope and promise that a part of her lives on.

Sixteen-year-old Emily Ramm was a bold, daring, and outspoken teen with big dreams and a lot of ambition, according to her family. Her life was cut short after she fell from a ladder at a construction site at Silverdale Elementary School on Aug. 13.

Loved ones say she was climbing to find higher ground and a better place to watch the meteor shower that night with friends.

KOMO News has heard from a military veteran who received Emily's kidney right after she passed.

"There's no words to describe how grateful I am. For the family, the loss is huge. I can't say thank you enough,” said Daniel Mendoza from his home.
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Spartan Alliance and Disabled American Veterans Get Pledge From Veterans To Seek Help

Veterans pledge to seek help before suicide
Washington Post
By Susan Svrluga
May 8, 2016

On Sunday, Col. Matt Pawlikowski, a chaplain from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, led a Mothers’ Day service at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial near the Mall honoring women whose children are serving or have died. The ceremony closed with the pledge.

At the Mall, veterans touch a sword and pledge to reach out to military buddies if they start to have thoughts of suicide. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

A couple of years after he left the U.S. Marine Corps, Lyndon Villone kept trying to reach a close friend who had served with him in Iraq. When he didn’t hear back,Villone thought maybe it was best to give him some space.

His friend shot himself in the head.

Within a year, Villone had lost two more Marine Corps brothers to suicide.

And he was beginning to think about it himself.

This weekend, a coalition of nonprofits led a “Spartan Weekend” for hundreds of sick and injured veterans centered on a promise: They would not take their own life without reaching out to someone for help. And they would take that oath with their hands on a sword hammer-forged of steel salvaged from the remains of the World Trade Center.

By one estimate, an average of 22 veterans take their own lives each day. Some people debate that number from the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Steve Danyluk, who worked with wounded service members after returning from a tour in Iraq with the Marines, “but I think anybody that served in a combat unit can run through a list of people that they know that committed suicide.”

And everyone says the same thing when they hear about a suicide, said Danny Prince, a retired New York City firefighter who often visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to thank service members: “’I can’t believe it — I would’ve done something.’ ”

That is why Danyluk helped organize the event for the Spartan Alliance and Disabled American Veterans. “You don’t have to be suicidal to take the pledge,” he said. “It’s finding a mission: Help your buddy. It’s reconnecting, reestablishing those relationships that seem to vanish once you leave the military.”
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Linked from Stars and Stripes

This is the report you have to read if you really want to know what the claim of "22 a day" is all about and it is far more than 22. Here is the link to the VA Suicide Report. Read at least to page 15.

Four Year Old Called 9-11 After Finding Parents on Floor

Wife dead, husband critically injured in Graham domestic shooting
News Tribune
Brynn Grimley
April 23, 2016

A woman is dead and her husband hospitalized in extremely critical condition after what a sheriff’s spokesman called an attempted murder-suicide at their Graham home.

A 4-year-old girl called 911 shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday to say her parents were on the floor after a problem at the house in the 19400 block of 91st Avenue East, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators learned the man, 36, a former member of the military, had just been fired from a hospital job while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Troyer said.
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Veteran of Vietnam and Iraq Killed Because Kids Wanted to Race

UPDATE
'He loved his country and his family': Family remembers veteran killed by street racers

Police: Teenage car racers hit and kill respected war veteran
KOMO News
BY MATT MARKOVICH
APRIL 22ND 2016

Gray was a veteran of the Vietnam War. After fighting overseas, he battled cancer and won. It was enough of a motivation for Gray to rejoin the military, serving the combat zone during the Iraq War.

TACOMA, Wash. -- A Vietnam and Iraq War veteran from Spanaway died Thursday following a crash with two cars that police say were street racing.

Rollin Gray, 61, died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma on Thursday after being taken there following the Tuesday night accident.

Pierce County sheriff's deputies say Gray was traveling eastbound on 182st East in Spanaway when two cars came over the horizon at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction.

Deputies say a red 2004 Dodge Stratus, driven by a 16-year-old boy from Spanaway with only a learner's permit, was racing with a black 2004 Acura TSX driven by an 18-year-old man from Spanaway.

"They have taken a man's life who did nothing but give to this country, give to his community, raise a family," said Saxton. "He still has a son who's not even out of high school yet, I believe he's 15-years-old, he's his namesake and now he's left without a father."
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Fairchild Air Force Base Staff Sgt Disrespectful of POW MIA?

Air Force will take ‘appropriate action’ over viral POW/MIA emblem photo 
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: February 15, 2014

"Second Lt. Rachelle Smith, a spokeswoman for Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., told Stars and Stripes that the airman in the photo is Staff Sgt. Cherish Byers. She is with the 92nd Security Forces Squadron stationed at Fairchild. Byers was a senior airman when the photo was taken."

This photo of an airman licking a POW sign went viral on Friday.

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is “disappointed” in the airman who appeared in a photo that is being circulated of her posing with her tongue in the mouth of the prisoner of war depicted on the iconic black-and-white POW/MIA emblem.

“We do not yet have all the details behind the photo, but it certainly is a concern; it’s a concern any time someone shows disrespect for prisoners of war and those missing in action,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Cody said in a statement. “They deserve our utmost respect and we must always remember their sacrifice and the legacy they’ve left for us as men and women serving our nation.

“I want to make it clear that this is not a reflection of Airmen who wear this uniform; it is a case of poor judgment of one Airman … to say we are disappointed would be an understatement. We are gathering all the details and will take appropriate action at the appropriate level,” he said. “Our Airmen fully understand the significance of the POW/MIA flag and the sacrifice of the men and women it honors.”
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Veterans Widow Shocked "Candy Man" Doctor Starting Practice

Fired 'Candy Man' Tomah VA chief of staff to start own practice
WTMJ Exclusive
Michelle Richards
Feb 3, 2016

TOMAH - The wife of a veteran who died from an overdose at the Tomah VA was shocked to learn the former chief of staff, whom veterans nicknamed "Candy Man," may soon be prescribing drugs to others.

Dr. David Houlihan was fired last fall after an investigation into over-prescribing painkillers at the VA Medical Center.

WTMJ has learned Houlihan is soliciting new patients in LaCrosse while also being considered for a job at a practice in Minnesota.

"I am shocked," Heather Simcakoski told WTMJ. Simcakoski's husband, Jason, died from an overdose in 2014. "I am just shocked to know he would be able to open a practice."

Houlihan has not been charged. Calls to his practice were redirected to another practice in Minnesota.
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Washington Rep. Graham Hunt Resigned After Military Record Questioned

Washington state lawmaker resigns over questions about military record
The Associated Press
February 2, 2016

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state Rep. Graham Hunt of Orting announced his resignation from the Legislature on Tuesday after recent questions that he exaggerated his service in the military.

Hunt has faced increasing scrutiny over his military record since The Seattle Times reported last month that records did not verify his claims of being a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He also claimed three medals the military has no record of him receiving.

In a statement on his website, Hunt wrote there are inconsistencies in the record of his military service. He said his constituents "deserve a full-time representative who can zealously advocate for their objectives without distraction."

Most recently, Washington state's Libertarian Party Chairman Steven Nielson said Hunt's statements last week saying he only suffered post-traumatic stress disorder is contrary to claims the lawmaker made in 2014 about being stabbed, according to The News Tribune.

"I was stabbed in Afghanistan and I was shot in Iraq so before you start talking about your thoughts and feelings on veterans realize first of all that I'm sorry that you've lost a loved one but I've lost brothers," Nielson claims Hunt wrote in a social media message in June 2014.
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Alaska Airlines Agent Sings Anthem In Honor of Vietnam Veteran

Airline Employee's Singing Tribute To Veteran Will Give You Chills
So touching.
The Huffington Post
Jamie Feldman
Associate Style Editor
November 17, 2015

KTVA reported back in October that AJ had served in the military for 20 years of active service including the Vietnam War.

A video from October is making the rounds on Facebook on the heels of Veteran's Day, and with good reason.

Alaska Airlines passenger Julia Collman Jette posted a video to Facebook from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport of customer service agent Denise Snow, singing the national anthem in tribute to a veteran named AJ, whose ashes she learned would be traveling on their flight from Anchorage to Seattle.

The passengers stood in silence as the employee sang a beautiful, heartwarming rendition of the national anthem.
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Double Amputee Veteran in Washington Saved Suicidal Vet In Florida

Iraq War Veteran With No Arms Saved the Life of A Suicidal Soldier She Had Never Met 
Inside Edition
by Deborah Hastings
November 10, 2015

“When a soldier gets out of the military, you have an incredible loss of purpose,” she said. “You never feel like what you are doing now is as important as what you were doing.” Mary Dague

Sometimes the hardest part of war is coming home. James Childs, who battles PTSD after serving 33 months in Iraq and Afghanistan, came to the conclusion that life was no longer worth living. And so he posted a farewell note on Facebook in April and stopped answering his phone and his emails. 

Enter total stranger Mary Dague, a veteran herself who served more than five years and lost both arms after a bomb she had dismantled nonetheless detonated.

Dague, 31, picked up the phone in Washington and called Childs in Florida.

She had heard from a male friend who said his buddy had said goodbye on line and wouldn’t answer the phone. “I called him and left a message,” Dague told INSIDE EDITION Tuesday. “I sent him texts.

It took two hours for him to call me back.” read more here

Joint Base Lewis McChord Soldier Killed By Train

Death of JBLM soldier hit by train investigated as suicide
The Olympian
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
October 22, 2015

The death of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who died Thursday after he was hit by a train is being investigated as a suicide, DuPont police said Friday.

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train hit the man about 10 a.m. when he was on the tracks roughly 2 miles south of an area called Solo Point along the water near DuPont.
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Fort Carson On Roster of Contaminated Army Bases

Hundreds of pounds of depleted uranium likely buried at Fort Carson, Army says
The Gazette
By: Tom Roeder
Published: October 18, 2015

The Army says 12,405 acres may have been contaminated during the Davy Crockett days. Fort Carson is joined on the roster by installations in Hawaii, Washington state, Georgia, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and California.

The Davy Crockett weapon in this undated Army photo featured a 51-pound warhead that packed a nuclear punch. To train with the weapon and aim it in combat, troops used a 1-pound spotting round made from depleted uranium. An estimated 1,400 depleted uranium rounds were fired at Fort Carson.

The Cold War legacy of nuclear waste at Fort Carson was quietly exposed in a routine application by the Army for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission permit to leave uranium buried on the post.

Depleted uranium, as much as 600 pounds, is thought to be in the ground at several sites from training shells fired in a 1960s classified program to give soldiers a nuclear- tipped bazooka called the Davy Crockett, according to Army documents. The training rounds were smaller spotting shells to train crews on the use of the atomic weapon without the big boom and a mushroom cloud. The Davy Crockett was never fired in combat.

Since discovering the uranium munitions in Hawaii in 2005, the service has done 10 years of detective work to figure out which bases participated in the testing program.
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