Mini Memorial Wall Draws Strong Emotions At Vietnam Vets Reunion

This year we managed to take a few trips to Melbourne for the reunion. As usual there were plenty of vendors selling things, camp grounds filled with different groups and a brotherhood that is hard to put into words.

The perfect picture seems to be this one. While he stands at the wall looking at the names, I was trying to take pictures quickly because people kept walking by. The names blurred and colors emerged in the photo but it was just a black wall with white lettering. It's perfect because when they think about their time in Vietnam, names may fade from memory, but faces didn't.

Talk to Vietnam veteran as they go thru their scrap book of fading pictures. They will look at each and everyone of them remembering the person in the picture, telling stories about them as if it all happened yesterday but they will struggle to remember their name.



Here are a few more I took yesterday.

Mini Memorial Wall Draws Strong Emotions At Vietnam Vets Reunion
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Reported by Margaret Kavanagh

MELBOURNE -- Strong emotions surrounded the 22nd Annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion this week at Wickham Park.

Roughly 80,000 people turned out to honor and remember those that gave their lives to protect the freedoms Americans enjoy here at home.

At the center of the reunion was the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, a miniature replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.

As thousands of troops fight overseas, Vietnam veterans said the event was a good way to bring people together and remember the fallen war heroes.
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Mini Memorial Wall Draws Strong Emotions At Vietnam Vets Reunion

Springfield veteran a casualty of recession

Jamie Bowshier came back from Iraq to a warm welcome, but then lost his family, perhaps because of PTSD coming home with him. I don't know because this article does not address what caused his marriage to break up. This Marine did what was asked of him, ended up wounded, lost his marriage, his job and faces losing his house. Is this right? Is any of this right? Well it keeps happening. While no one really talked about what was going on after Vietnam, this was happening to a lot of the veterans. This is part of how they end up homeless. Can we finally see that we really don't take care of our veterans?

Losing everything...
Springfield veteran a casualty of recession
By Emanuel Cavallaro
Staff Writer
Updated 10:26 AM Sunday, April 26, 2009
SPRINGFIELD — Four years ago, when Jamie Bowshier came home from Iraq, he had everything he wanted in life: A wife, three kids, a job, a house. A promising future.

When he returned to his house on Seymour Street, he found that neighbors had lined the street with American Flags and tied red, white and blue balloons to the stop signs.

His active duty period with the Marine Corps was up in three months.

“At that moment in time, everything seemed like it couldn’t possible be any better,” Bowshier said in April, four years later.

“I made it back, and I was in one piece,” he said. “Everything was good. Everybody was happy to see me, and I was happy to be home.”

Bowshier, 34, is now divorced and has lost custody of his three children. His kitchen countertop is lined with a month’s worth of mail, most of it bad news: late notices, Veterans’ Affairs documents, bills he can’t afford to pay.
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Losing Everything

Soldier hit, killed on All American Freeway identified

Please pray for the family, Christine Gail Pearce and the responders.

Soldier hit, killed on All American Freeway identified


Posted: Apr. 24, 2009
Updated: Apr. 25, 2009

Fayetteville, N.C. — Military officials said that Sgt. Jason Lightfoot, 30, died after being hit by a vehicle on the shoulder of the All-American Freeway early Friday.

Fayetteville police said that Lightfoot got out of a 2000 Jeep near the Cliffdale Road exit around 3 a.m. after arguing with the driver, identified as Christine Gail Pearce, 39, of Yorktown, Va.

Initially, police said they believed that Lightfoot next started to walk on the northbound shoulder toward Fort Bragg and was then hit by the Jeep.

However, a preliminary wreck report issued Saturday says that Lightfoot was riding on the hood of the Jeep and that he fell off onto the pavement when Pearce tried to slow down.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5022635/

Woman shot, killed outside daycare in murder-suicide

Please pray for the family, the child inside the car and the rest of the people involved from the day care to the police officers.

Woman shot, killed outside daycare in murder-suicide


Posted: Apr. 25, 2009

Roanoke Rapids, N.C. — A Roanoke Rapids man shot and killed his girlfriend in front of a daycare, then turned the gun on himself in a murder-suicide Friday afternoon, said Police Chief Jeff Hinton.

Authorities said that Dawn Taylor, 38, of Roanoke Rapids, picked up a young child from a daycare in the 800 block of Franklin Street and put the child in her car around 4 p.m.

Lavern Bradley Jr., 39, approached Taylor outside the car and shot her three times, then shot himself once in the head, Hinton said.
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/5023931/

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

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



CSM Benjamin Moore, Jr., 43, of Waycross, Ga., died Apr 24 at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq, of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3d Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Sgt. Darron Mikeworth's wounds show human spirit and family's love

Injured GI gets new face – and anonymity

By Sharon Cohen - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Apr 26, 2009 8:40:57 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — His first glimpse in the mirror was largely a blur.

Sgt. Darron Mikeworth had just come out of a drug-induced coma — his mind was still in a fog and he was so weak he could barely stand.

Three weeks before, in Iraq, a suicide bomber had raced up to the right side of his Humvee, igniting a barrel of explosives that tore into the machine gunner’s face. He nearly died.

Mikeworth awoke in a hospital bed, thousands of miles away.

He was relieved he still had his arms and legs. He was thrilled, too, that his ears had survived the blast. But he had wounds he could not see, life-changing wounds. His wife, Dea, helped break the news: His face was in bad shape. His left eye was useless.

And there was more.

At first, Mikeworth was too groggy to absorb it all. He was caught up in hallucinations of basketball players shooting hoops in the hospital, of cars on the highway floating in air. He didn’t know what was fantasy and what wasn’t — until he shuffled into the physical therapy room and stood numbly before a full-length mirror.

“I just had to keep telling myself I’m NOT going to wake up out of this one,” he says. “THIS is not a dream. THIS is real.”
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Injured GI gets new face – and anonymity

Stream of horrific crimes takes toll on town cops

And tougher than the intense work is the lull that follows, when the mask of professional composure comes down and doubts, sadness and anger come through, said Tracy police chaplain Dan Higgins.

"When they're able to focus on their jobs and do their part, they have an outlet," said Higgins. "The hard part comes later."

Stream of horrific crimes takes toll on town cops
Apr 25, 2009
By JULIANA BARBASSA, AP
TRACY, Calif. (Map, News) - Detective Nate Cogburn's last few months have been filled with the stuff of nightmares.

Neighbors charged with shackling and torturing a teenager in a Tracy home. A substitute teacher accused of molesting upward of 15 students. A surgeon arrested for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of patients. And, most recently, a Sunday school teacher charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, the playmate of her own little girl.

"I was just bombarded," said Cogburn, who grew up nearby and joined the Tracy police force after college.

"They always say don't take your cases home with you - they preach that every day from day one at the academy," said Cogburn, 28. "But I always take them home. They're with me all the time."

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Stream of horrific crimes takes toll on town cops

Police officer, suspect killed in southeast Alabama standoff

Police officer, suspect killed in southeast Alabama standoff
Posted by Associated Press April 25, 2009 1:44 PM
Categories: Crime
HEADLAND, AL -- Officers in southeast Alabama shot a suspect to death after he killed one police officer and badly wounded a sheriff's deputy, authorities said.

Police said they got a call Friday afternoon that 53-year-old Fred Davis was firing a shotgun into the air outside his trailer. Henry County Sheriff's Deputy Ted Yost was first on the scene, and Davis shot and wounded him with the shotgun, State Trooper Kevin Cook said.

Davis then shot and killed Headland Officer Dexter Hammond with a high-powered rifle before other arriving officers shot and killed him, Cook said.
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Police officer, suspect killed in southeast Alabama standoff

Wounded Soldier Keeps Giving Back

"I had some really hard times where at points I didn't have anyone to turn to," he said. "I want to be there for the guys and girls who are returning home now to lend a helping hand when they start hitting the lows that I did."

Double Dare race to benefit wounded warriors
by Mike Lesko
Associate Editor



Joseph Gross was devoted to serving in the U.S. Army. As a staff sergeant, he had seven years of active duty and was deployed twice.



His life changed in 2005 when he was wounded in Baghdad as a result of a suicide car bomb, losing his right leg below the knee, and suffering some burns and other small injuries.



Today, he is part of the Wounded Warrior Project, which oversees road races and other fundraising events including the WWP Double Dare, a 5K/10K/15K cross country race May 9 at Silver Springs Park, 5070 Stow Road, Stow. The start time is 9 a.m.



"People can run the 5K or 10K or they can take the double dare and do both, equaling 15K," Gross said.

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Double Dare race to benefit wounded warriors

Marine's Home Burglarized as She Gives Birth at Hospital

Random act? Somehow I doubt it. Marine Cpl. Claire Murphy's uniforms were trashed on the floor and her pet Iguana was killed. Someone must have known she would be gone for a long time. Imagine going to the hospital to welcome into the world a new child and then returning to your home to find this world also includes people doing something like this and then imagine you were among the few willing to lay down your life for even people like this.

Marine's Home Burglarized as She Gives Birth at Hospital

By: Rowena Lugtu-Shaddox

April 26, 2009

RANCHO CORDOVA - When Claire Murphy gave birth to her daughter on Friday, it was the happiest moment of her life.

But that time also became one of sorrow after she found out someone broke into her home, while she was at the hospital giving birth.

"I've worked so hard to get everything taken care of, you know. And then this happens," said the 27-year-old new mom, who is also a corporal in the Marines.

Whoever broke into her Rancho Cordova apartment ransacked it and stole the baby's new clothes, and even baby formula. The culprit also took her camouflage uniforms out of the closet and dumped them on the floor.
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Marine's Home Burglarized as She Gives Birth at Hospital