Saturday, November 26, 2011

Elderly veteran dies in apartment fire

Elderly veteran dies in apartment fire
Updated: Friday, 25 Nov 2011
Cory Pippin
PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - An Army veteran in his 70s, who used a wheelchair and lived alone, died Thursday morning when his Pensacola apartment caught fire.

Eloise Nelson said the victim was Leo Lambert. She had lived next door to him for more than a year. She said when she looked out her door Thanksgiving morning, emergency responders were everywhere.

“I told the fireman that there was a man in the apartment. That’s when they broke down the door and pulled him out. They tried to perform CPR on him for a while," said Nelson.
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Elderly veteran dies in apartment fire: fox10tv.com

Marine Who Lost Legs in Afghanistan Inspires Many During 5K

Marine Who Lost Legs Inspires Many During 5K
November 25, 2011
BROOMFIELD, Colo. (CBS4) – A Marine severely wounded in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving in 2010 inspired many at a 5K run in Broomfield during this year’s holiday.

Cpl. Gabriel Martinez lost both his legs to a roadside bomb and his recovery has been surprisingly fast. He’s now got two prosthetic legs and has skied, biked and even rock climbed. On Thursday he was out in the Colorado sun running along with both friends and strangers in the Anthem Turkey Day 5k-10k.

“My boys are still in Afghanistan. It was all about getting back in shape and just fighting the fight whether it’s here or in Afghanistan,” he said.

The injured Marine knows the blast could have killed him, but he was fortunate.

“I knew I was hit — I knew I was in the air, ears ringing. All I could see was dust. I just wanted to know if my Marines were okay,” he told CBS4 while making his way through the 5K route.
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Friday, November 25, 2011

Jeff Lucey's parents fight to save lives after his suicide

Lucey family of Belchertown honors their late son by campaigning for veterans services
Published: Friday, November 25, 2011
By Fred Contrada, The Republican
File photo by Don Treeger / The Republican
Joyce T. and Kevin P. Lucey sit in their Belchertown home in 2009 with a picture of their son, Jeffrey, who hanged himself shortly after returning home from active duty in Iraq with the Marines.

Veterans Day is a bittersweet holiday for many, as they celebrate the soldiers who served America and mourn those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

For Joyce and Kevin Lucey there’s nothing sweet about it.

The Belchertown couple lost their son Jeffrey to a war that is only recently being talked about, a war many veterans wage with themselves in the America they return to. Jeffrey Lucey was 19 when he enlisted in the Marines out of Belchertown High School in 1999. He shipped off to Iraq in 2003, after the World Trade Center bombing had led to war in that country. He returned after a turbulent tour of duty there and hanged himself in his parent’s Belchertown home in June of 2004 after an equally turbulent period of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He was 23.

Since then, Joyce and Kevin Lucey have worked tirelessly to help change the lot of veterans who come home still at war with themselves. Most recently, the couple traveled to New York City on the Monday before Veterans Day to tell their son’s story at an event organized by Services for the Underserved. The non-profit group’s mission is to provide assistance for veterans battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, struggling to find homes and jobs, trying to reassimilate with their families and fighting the urge to kill themselves.
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Navy to kick out 28 sailors from USS Ronald Reagan for using Spice

Navy to kick out 28 sailors from USS Ronald Reagan for using Spice
By CHARLIE REED
Stars and Stripes
Published: November 21, 2011


YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — A month after kicking out 64 sailors for using synthetic marijuana, the Navy announced Monday that another 28 are getting the boot for similar infractions.

The 28 sailors — all from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan — were caught red-handed, according to a Navy news release.

The dismissal announcement reinforces recent military campaigns to stop troops from smoking fake pot, often called Spice, a catch-all name for a designer drug that mimics the effect of marijuana.
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Groundbreaking research looks at how blasts injure brain

Groundbreaking research looks at how blasts injure brain
By SETH ROBBINS
Stars and Stripes
Published: November 25, 2011

LANDSTUHL, Germany — During a firefight in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province in 2002, U.S. Army Maj. Kevin Kit Parker stood atop a hill awaiting a Medevac flight for an injured soldier when a bomb exploded several miles away.

He saw the bomb’s intense light first, then felt its shock waves ripple through his body.

“It felt like it was lifting my bowels, and I was quite far away,” Parker said.

Several years later, when he was working in bioengineering research at Harvard University, a friend of Parker’s suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, and Parker was reminded of his Kandahar experience. Parker chose to shift his focus from cardiac tissue to brain research after receiving encouragement from Col. Geoffrey Ling, a neurologist and program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Now a professor at Harvard, Parker has published groundbreaking research describing how blasts injure the brain. Gathering data directly on the battlefield from servicemembers who’ve been in close proximity to blasts, he said, will be key to understanding the devastating yet subtle damage caused.
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Price for Veterans exposed to Agent Orange skyrockets

They are talking about the money but when our families read something like this, we think of their lives.

Agent Orange: With more diseases tied to use during Vietnam War, bill for veterans' care skyrockets
Over the past two years, federal officials say, an estimated 10,000 more veterans have sought medical compensation for diseases related to Agent Orange, an herbicide that contains a toxic chemical called dioxin.
By: Lindsey Bever, Dallas Morning News / MCT
DALLAS

More than 40 years after the U.S. military used Agent Orange to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam, the health-care bill is escalating.

Over the past two years, federal officials say, an estimated 10,000 more veterans have sought medical compensation for diseases related to Agent Orange, an herbicide that contains a toxic chemical called dioxin.

The Institute of Medicine said in a recent report that there is sufficient evidence of an association between exposure to Agent Orange and illnesses including soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma and chloracne.

The report recommended further research to determine whether there could be a link between Agent Orange exposure and other illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, tonsil cancer, melanoma and Alzheimer’s disease.

Over the next decade, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to pay $50 billion for health-care compensation for ischemic heart disease alone — one of the 14 diseases the VA says is associated with Agent Orange exposure.
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83 plaintiffs join in on Hood victims lawsuit

83 plaintiffs join in on Hood victims lawsuit
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 25, 2011 10:18:24 EST
The Army, the Defense Department, the FBI and the Department of Justice should have stopped Maj. Nidal Hasan before his deadly shooting rampage in 2009, according to legal action filed by the relatives of his victims.

Eighty-three plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of victims of the attacks at Fort Hood, Texas, seek $750 million in government compensation and have filed an administrative claim against the Army, said their attorney, Neal Sher.

The claim alleges government agencies were guilty of “gross and willful negligence and wanton disregard for the safety of military and civilian personnel,” Sher said in a press release. The government promoted Hasan instead of heeding “warning signs that Hasan posed a grave danger to the lives and safety of soldiers and civilians.”

Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Haug said the Army was legally barred from commenting on the pending civil claims and the criminal case against Hasan.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist and American-born Muslim, faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He is awaiting trial.
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Some of the war's battles are fought at home

Some of the war's battles are fought at home
Families left behind when loved ones are deployed have found deepening support at Camp Pendleton.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
November 25, 2011
Marines and family members pay their respects at a Camp Pendleton ceremony for 17 Marines killed in action in Afghanistan. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times / November 4, 2011)
Reporting from Camp Pendleton— Six-year-old Keegan Ramirez knows that his father, Marine Sgt. Rafael Ramirez, is in Afghanistan.

But there is nothing unusual about that. The Ramirez family lives in base housing, where nearly all the fathers and some of the mothers leave home regularly for seven to 12 months at a stretch.

Sgt. Ramirez, 27, is with an artillery battalion in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province. He has made three other deployments to Iraq to the insurgent-battleground of Anbar province.

Recently, Keegan has come to understand an inescapable fact about his father's chosen profession: Not everyone comes home alive or uninjured.

"We hadn't heard from his father in a couple of days," said Keegan's mother, Emma Ramirez, "and Keegan came to me one night and asked, 'Did daddy die?' It broke my heart."

Children have had to grow up quickly in the last decade at Camp Pendleton.
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Fort Riley Soldier found dead on post

Soldier found dead on post
Staff reports
Military police at Fort Riley said Wednesday they are investigating the discovery of a body found on post Sunday.
The soldier was identified as Spc. James Joseph Pizzo, 30, of the Warrior Transition Battalion.
No other details regarding the body's discovery were made available.
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Operation Recovery: Fort Hood Soldiers Demand Right to Heal

Operation Recovery: Fort Hood Soldiers Demand Right to Heal

Vets and active duty Soldiers march for their brothers and sisters who aren't receiving the quality mental care they deserve. PTSD,, military sexual trauma, and combat stress are marginalized and overlooked in the push for deployment numbers and checking the block. We hold the leadership accountable to do their Duty and place their Soldiers' welfare first.