Marine under fire: Will the punishment fit the crime?
CNN
By Ivan Watson and Laura Dolan
October 29, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Jason Brezler faces possible discharge on less than honorable terms
He served for 13 years, including four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan
Brezler is accused of mishandling classified information
Influential supporters are leaping to the 32-year old veteran's defense
New York (CNN) -- Jason Brezler is an elite New York firefighter. He is also a highly decorated officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, who has served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So why is Maj. Brezler facing possible discharge on less than honorable terms after serving 13 years with the Marines?
He is accused of mishandling classified information and faces an investigation that could determine his future.
"For a man like Jason Brezler, being asked to separate from the Marine Corps that he loved so much would be an even worse punishment than jail," said Kevin Carroll, Brezler's attorney, a former CIA officer who is providing Brezler pro bono representation along with his law firm Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart and Sullivan.
In an e-mail to CNN, Marine Col. Francis Piccoli wrote that because of "the mishandling of classified information, Maj. Brezler has been ordered to show cause of retention in the U.S. Marine Corps before a Board of Inquiry."
That board will consist of three officers: one colonel and two lieutenant colonels.
Brezler, a tall man with a strong New York accent and a blond buzz-cut, is legally barred from speaking about his case.
But influential supporters are leaping to the 32-year-old veteran's defense. A congressman, a senator and two Marine Corps generals have written letters on Brezler's behalf.
read more here
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Officer's brother speaks out about murder-suicide
Officer's brother speaks out about murder-suicide
Brother says he never saw any sign of trouble
ABC News
By: Christian Schaffer
October 29, 2013
For the first time we're hearing from the brother of a Baltimore City police officer who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, a city firefighter, and then committed suicide.
The gunman, Chris Robinson, served in the Marines but he was never deployed in combat. His brother says he never saw any signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, or anything that might have led anyone to predict what happened early Sunday morning in Glen Burnie.
“He knew exactly what he was doing at all times so this is very much a shock.
Absolutely out of nowhere. Absolutely,” said his brother, Wayne Robinson.
read more here
UPDATE
Brother says he never saw any sign of trouble
ABC News
By: Christian Schaffer
October 29, 2013
For the first time we're hearing from the brother of a Baltimore City police officer who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, a city firefighter, and then committed suicide.
The gunman, Chris Robinson, served in the Marines but he was never deployed in combat. His brother says he never saw any signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, or anything that might have led anyone to predict what happened early Sunday morning in Glen Burnie.
“He knew exactly what he was doing at all times so this is very much a shock.
Absolutely out of nowhere. Absolutely,” said his brother, Wayne Robinson.
read more here
UPDATE
From The Baltimore Sun
Baltimore police officials said on Sunday there were "no indications that a military deployment was the cause of this incident" but promised an "immediate review" to see if more could be done to assist officers who have been deployed in the military when they return to civilian life.
Lt. Eric Kowalczyk, a Baltimore police spokesman, declined to clarify that statement on Monday. Lt. T.J. Smith, an Anne Arundel County police spokesman, said police would look into Robinson's past but declined to provide further updates on the investigation. He also declined to comment further on the gun used except that it was not Robinson's service weapon.
Robinson and Hartman had broken up a few months ago, family members said, and Robinson was having trouble moving on even as Hartman began dating Hoffman. Hartman's stepfather has said that Hartman's younger sister hid in a closet in Hoffman's home as Robinson opened fire on the couple.
Suicide of Marine veteran shock to friends after standoff
What happened? Someone needed help and Justin Eldridge showed up. When you read this story you'll see how many times he did that. A 911 call, police show up, Eldridge's life was over.
Former Marine’s suicide in Waterford standoff shocks friends
The Day
By Izaskun E. Larrañeta
Published 10/29/2013
Sean D. Elliot/The Day file photo In this Dec. 21, 2011, Day file photo, Justin Eldridge, right, of Toys for Tots, pulled toys from the back of a mini-van as crew from the U.S. Navy submarine Pre-Commissioning Unit North Dakota (SSN 784) help unload about 200 toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program in New London.Eldridge was married with four children. His wife helped organize a fundraiser this June to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. While promoting the event, Joanna spoke of the struggles her husband had with PTSD and with his traumatic brain injury.A Waterford man who killed himself during a standoff with police Monday night was a former Marine who was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, his friends said Tuesday.
Many of Justin Eldridge’s fellow Marines said it was too soon to talk about the death of their “brother,” who they said was also dealing with a traumatic brain injury sustained while on tour in Afghanistan.
Eldridge, 31, was the first commandant of the Thames River Detachment of the Marine Corps League in Quaker Hill.
Robert Montminy, commandant of the Thames River Detachment, said Eldridge was a good friend and great father.
“We are all very much still in shock,” he said. “We’re still trying to deal with it. Nobody had a clue that it could lead to this.”
Montminy said he knew that Eldridge had struggled with PTSD but that Eldridge told him he was getting treatment at a Veterans Affairs hospital and was trying to turn things around.
Just prior to police receiving the 911 call, Eldridge posted on his Facebook page, “See you later Facebook!!!!!!!” He then posted, “Theres only so much bashing someone can take before they react.”
read more here
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Are members of congress as clueless as they act?
Unfortunately today I shut off the radio at work today and decided to listen in on some of the hearings congress was holding today. As they pretended to be shocked over what has been going on all along and they approved of, all I could think about was there is one question that has not been asked.
What is worse about all of this? Is it that we elected these stupid people or this was the best that we could get?
Start with the hearing on our spy department.
Spy chief Clapper: "We've been snooping on our friends for years"
How long? Start with this.
If they didn't know what was going on then they must not know where the money is going since it is their job to pay for all of this.
Then there was the hearing, yet another one, on Affordable Care Act. The mess with the computer systems could have been fixed long before this if they were holding hearings on how to fix it instead of holding votes on how to kill it.
"We're sorry and we'll fix website, health officials promise," but like anything else, congress was supposed to be watching what was going on since again, they control the money.
Reminder that they voted against it then proved they didn't care what we wanted or needed.
But this is nothing new out of them.
How did we go from them doing their jobs so that they only had to hold hearings on how to fix stuff instead of holding hearings on what they screwed up in the first place?
What is worse about all of this? Is it that we elected these stupid people or this was the best that we could get?
Start with the hearing on our spy department.
Spy chief Clapper: "We've been snooping on our friends for years"
How long? Start with this.
The USA PATRIOT Act: Preserving Life and Liberty
(Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism)
Congress enacted the Patriot Act by overwhelming, bipartisan margins, arming law enforcement with new tools to detect and prevent terrorism: The USA Patriot Act was passed nearly unanimously by the Senate 98-1, and 357-66 in the House, with the support of members from across the political spectrum.
The Act Improves Our Counter-Terrorism Efforts in Several Significant Ways:
1. The Patriot Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking. Many of the tools the Act provides to law enforcement to fight terrorism have been used for decades to fight organized crime and drug dealers, and have been reviewed and approved by the courts. As Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) explained during the floor debate about the Act, "the FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. To put it bluntly, that was crazy! What's good for the mob should be good for terrorists." (Cong. Rec., 10/25/01)
If they didn't know what was going on then they must not know where the money is going since it is their job to pay for all of this.
Then there was the hearing, yet another one, on Affordable Care Act. The mess with the computer systems could have been fixed long before this if they were holding hearings on how to fix it instead of holding votes on how to kill it.
"We're sorry and we'll fix website, health officials promise," but like anything else, congress was supposed to be watching what was going on since again, they control the money.
Reminder that they voted against it then proved they didn't care what we wanted or needed.
House Republicans, who did not vote to pass the 2010 Affordable Care Act and who have voted more than 40 times to repeal it, say they won't stop trying. "There is no way to fix this monstrosity, said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). "We want to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered health care."
But this is nothing new out of them.
How did we go from them doing their jobs so that they only had to hold hearings on how to fix stuff instead of holding hearings on what they screwed up in the first place?
Soldier who stood firm against Viet Cong captors inspired fellow POWs, earned Medal of Honor
Soldier who stood firm against Viet Cong captors inspired fellow POWs, earned Medal of Honor
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: October 28, 2013
“VIET VICTORY NEAR,” blared a headline across the top of Stars and Stripes’ front page.
Farther down the page, a smaller article titled “3 Aides Seized in Vietnam Battle” told a far less celebratory tale. Three soldiers serving as advisers to Vietnamese government troops south of Saigon were feared to have been captured a few days earlier by the Viet Cong during a failed raid.
The date of the edition was Nov. 1, 1963.
For the men taken captive, years of torment lay ahead. At home, the nation would descend into increasing turmoil as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War deepened.
Two of the soldiers snatched would return to the United States, but the body of the third, Capt. Humbert “Rocky” Versace, still lies in an unmarked grave somewhere in the Mekong River Delta. Versace’s heroic and ultimately fatal resistance to his Communist captors resulted in the posthumous awarding of the Medal of Honor to him in 2002.
It wasn’t the first Medal of Honor awarded to a Vietnam veteran; that honor went to Army Special Forces Capt. Roger Donlon, who in 1964 ignored serious wounds while leading the defense of a Special Forces camp from an enemy attack and rescuing several fellow soldiers.
But Versace’s medal covers the earliest time period of any Medal of Honor awarded for service in Vietnam, having been awarded for cumulative acts that began in late 1963 and continued until his death at age 28 on Sept 26, 1965.
read more here
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: October 28, 2013
EDITOR'S NOTE: With this story, Stars and Stripes begins a look back at the Vietnam War and the cultural changes that surrounded it. With contributions from the men and women who were there, we will examine how the war was prosecuted, how it changed our military and foreign policy thinking, and how America viewed itself then and now.
“VIET VICTORY NEAR,” blared a headline across the top of Stars and Stripes’ front page.
Farther down the page, a smaller article titled “3 Aides Seized in Vietnam Battle” told a far less celebratory tale. Three soldiers serving as advisers to Vietnamese government troops south of Saigon were feared to have been captured a few days earlier by the Viet Cong during a failed raid.
The date of the edition was Nov. 1, 1963.
For the men taken captive, years of torment lay ahead. At home, the nation would descend into increasing turmoil as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War deepened.
Two of the soldiers snatched would return to the United States, but the body of the third, Capt. Humbert “Rocky” Versace, still lies in an unmarked grave somewhere in the Mekong River Delta. Versace’s heroic and ultimately fatal resistance to his Communist captors resulted in the posthumous awarding of the Medal of Honor to him in 2002.
It wasn’t the first Medal of Honor awarded to a Vietnam veteran; that honor went to Army Special Forces Capt. Roger Donlon, who in 1964 ignored serious wounds while leading the defense of a Special Forces camp from an enemy attack and rescuing several fellow soldiers.
But Versace’s medal covers the earliest time period of any Medal of Honor awarded for service in Vietnam, having been awarded for cumulative acts that began in late 1963 and continued until his death at age 28 on Sept 26, 1965.
read more here
Afghanistan veterans struggle to adapt a year after homecoming
Vets struggle, adapt a year after returning home from Afghanistan
Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
By Mary McCarty
Published: October 28, 2013
A year ago, they simply longed for home — for the cry of a newborn baby, the touch of a spouse, the comfort of sleeping in their own beds.
But life after Afghanistan has been anything but simple for the Army reservists who have shared their stories with the Dayton Daily News for the past year.
It has been a year of joyful reunion and painful adjustment; a year of welcome down time, for some, coupled with anxiety about finding a job; a year of mending — and ending — relationships.
The soldiers were greeted with open arms and “Welcome Home” banners last fall when they landed at Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus last fall, but day-to-day reality hasn’t always been a welcoming parade for these soldiers from the Ohio Army National Guard’s Columbus-based Task Force 1-134 Field Artillery Regiment.
After the initial euphoria, they have dealt with the daily indignities of life, from relationship problems to financial struggles. Worst of all, they lost a fellow Guardsman, 24-year-old combat medic John Ainslie III of Toledo, to suicide in April.
It has been an eventful and challenging year for soldiers who shared their stories with the newspaper.
read more here
Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
By Mary McCarty
Published: October 28, 2013
A year ago, they simply longed for home — for the cry of a newborn baby, the touch of a spouse, the comfort of sleeping in their own beds.
But life after Afghanistan has been anything but simple for the Army reservists who have shared their stories with the Dayton Daily News for the past year.
It has been a year of joyful reunion and painful adjustment; a year of welcome down time, for some, coupled with anxiety about finding a job; a year of mending — and ending — relationships.
The soldiers were greeted with open arms and “Welcome Home” banners last fall when they landed at Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus last fall, but day-to-day reality hasn’t always been a welcoming parade for these soldiers from the Ohio Army National Guard’s Columbus-based Task Force 1-134 Field Artillery Regiment.
After the initial euphoria, they have dealt with the daily indignities of life, from relationship problems to financial struggles. Worst of all, they lost a fellow Guardsman, 24-year-old combat medic John Ainslie III of Toledo, to suicide in April.
It has been an eventful and challenging year for soldiers who shared their stories with the newspaper.
read more here
Why does Combat PTSD come with anger?
Why does Combat PTSD come with anger?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 29, 2013
Reports like this come out all the time.
They will keep going up because we already have the evidence in what happened when Vietnam veterans came home. By 1978 500,000 Vietnam Veterans had PTSD. (The Ethnology of Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jim Goodwin Psy.D) but their numbers went up after that.
The El Paso Times had this report in October of 2007
We are still seeing their numbers go up after decades of outreach efforts and the fact that many of the Vietnam veterans retiring are no longer able to stuff what once was mild PTSD. They are shocked to discover they never really left Vietnam.
These wars will be paid for decades by those we sent.
We learned a lot from Vietnam veterans but then again, it is because of them we had anything ready, as substandard as the care is, because they fought for all of it. We learned that unless they have the proper care for their minds as well as their bodies and spirits, they do not heal as well as they should. Giving them medications does not heal them. They just become numb and sooner or later, it all catches up to them.
They get angry because a part of them was left behind in combat. That fight or flight response has no where to go. Their body reacts to triggers that make them feel threatened just as their minds do. Top all that off with the simple fact that life back in the states adds more stress onto their shoulders, especially when they are trying to get the care they were promised from the military and the VA, their families pressuring them to "get over it" and go back to "normal" because they don't understand PTSD and frustration with themselves because they can't "get back to normal" and that is where a lot of the anger comes from.
Every veteran I have talked to over the years basically told the same story. They blamed themselves for everything that happened in combat and afterwards.
It is really time to stop pretending any of this is new so that we can get angry in their place. Get angry they are still suffering after all these years on a massive scale instead of healing the way others have. Get angry the DOD had over 900 prevention programs. Get angry we have heard all the stupid claims made about why they take their own lives. Get angry families are still left clueless as they watch someone they love die a slow death.
Get angry they blame themselves when the veteran takes their own life because they didn't want to live anymore after doing whatever they had to do to stay alive in combat.
If knowing what happened so many years ago doesn't get you angry yet, then nothing will change and we'll just keep burying them under the mountain of excuses and baseless claims that we're doing something. We went from Vietnam veterans having nothing available for them to too little working for the veterans today. Anger is safe. Anger does not let them down. It does not betray them. It doesn't let them feel the pain of loss or guilt that haunts them instead of allowing them to find peace to heal from. Anger? Sure. But then again if we got angry a long time ago, they would be healing instead of just feeling hopeless.
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 29, 2013
Reports like this come out all the time.
PTSD cases in veterans on the riseReports like this will keep coming out unless we address this once and for all. The numbers are only the start of all of this and that is the most frightening thing of all.
Eyewitness News 13
By Steven Yablonski, Managing Editor
Posted: Oct 29, 2013
WATERFORD, CT (WFSB)
A former United States Marine took his life after holding his family of five hostage early Tuesday morning. Friends said the veteran was struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Channel 3 Eyewitness News looked into the disorder that studies show affects 20 percent of recently-deployed soldiers.
Sadly, that number is only expected to grow as our service members return from war.
The battles don't end overseas and continue during the tough adjustment back to civilian life.
"They tend to be very serious," Navy veteran Vincent Marotta said. "They tend to be very angry."
The sometimes nasty side of a hero's return was made evident in Waterford early Tuesday morning when 31-year-old Justin Eldridge killed himself at his Great Neck Road home after a police standoff. His four children were in the home when the event occurred.
read more here
They will keep going up because we already have the evidence in what happened when Vietnam veterans came home. By 1978 500,000 Vietnam Veterans had PTSD. (The Ethnology of Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jim Goodwin Psy.D) but their numbers went up after that.
The El Paso Times had this report in October of 2007
In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.
We are still seeing their numbers go up after decades of outreach efforts and the fact that many of the Vietnam veterans retiring are no longer able to stuff what once was mild PTSD. They are shocked to discover they never really left Vietnam.
These wars will be paid for decades by those we sent.
We learned a lot from Vietnam veterans but then again, it is because of them we had anything ready, as substandard as the care is, because they fought for all of it. We learned that unless they have the proper care for their minds as well as their bodies and spirits, they do not heal as well as they should. Giving them medications does not heal them. They just become numb and sooner or later, it all catches up to them.
They get angry because a part of them was left behind in combat. That fight or flight response has no where to go. Their body reacts to triggers that make them feel threatened just as their minds do. Top all that off with the simple fact that life back in the states adds more stress onto their shoulders, especially when they are trying to get the care they were promised from the military and the VA, their families pressuring them to "get over it" and go back to "normal" because they don't understand PTSD and frustration with themselves because they can't "get back to normal" and that is where a lot of the anger comes from.
Every veteran I have talked to over the years basically told the same story. They blamed themselves for everything that happened in combat and afterwards.
It is really time to stop pretending any of this is new so that we can get angry in their place. Get angry they are still suffering after all these years on a massive scale instead of healing the way others have. Get angry the DOD had over 900 prevention programs. Get angry we have heard all the stupid claims made about why they take their own lives. Get angry families are still left clueless as they watch someone they love die a slow death.
Get angry they blame themselves when the veteran takes their own life because they didn't want to live anymore after doing whatever they had to do to stay alive in combat.
If knowing what happened so many years ago doesn't get you angry yet, then nothing will change and we'll just keep burying them under the mountain of excuses and baseless claims that we're doing something. We went from Vietnam veterans having nothing available for them to too little working for the veterans today. Anger is safe. Anger does not let them down. It does not betray them. It doesn't let them feel the pain of loss or guilt that haunts them instead of allowing them to find peace to heal from. Anger? Sure. But then again if we got angry a long time ago, they would be healing instead of just feeling hopeless.
Dead tree turns into beautiful memorial "No More"
An Art Sculpture For ALL Veterans - "NO MORE"
CNN
By DaElmersBack Posted October 27, 2013
Iron Mountain, Michigan 75
CNN PRODUCER NOTE
DaElmersBack watched as a local artist, Charles Hamilton, unveiled his latest: a statue honoring an injured Iraq War veteran outside the man’s home in Iron Mountain, Michigan, on Saturday. The statue was created for Army National Guard Spc. Donnie Jokinen, who was deployed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 as an IED hunter, said his mother. She says her son was hit by five bombs, and came home injured. He now uses a cane, as he has pain throughout his body, and suffers from some memory loss.
“A few times you could see Donnie standing silently, deep in thought. He lost many friends in Iraq, that is one thing he can't ever forget and it haunts him,” observed Asselin. The iReporter met the Jokinen family through his involvement with the local Patriot Guard Riders, a group which attends the funerals of fallen members of the armed forces, as well as homecoming celebrations for veterans.
- zdan, CNN iReport producer
read more here
CNN
By DaElmersBack Posted October 27, 2013
Iron Mountain, Michigan 75
CNN PRODUCER NOTE
DaElmersBack watched as a local artist, Charles Hamilton, unveiled his latest: a statue honoring an injured Iraq War veteran outside the man’s home in Iron Mountain, Michigan, on Saturday. The statue was created for Army National Guard Spc. Donnie Jokinen, who was deployed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 as an IED hunter, said his mother. She says her son was hit by five bombs, and came home injured. He now uses a cane, as he has pain throughout his body, and suffers from some memory loss.
“A few times you could see Donnie standing silently, deep in thought. He lost many friends in Iraq, that is one thing he can't ever forget and it haunts him,” observed Asselin. The iReporter met the Jokinen family through his involvement with the local Patriot Guard Riders, a group which attends the funerals of fallen members of the armed forces, as well as homecoming celebrations for veterans.
- zdan, CNN iReport producer
read more here
Food stamp cuts for veterans ‘unacceptable’ and ‘revolting’
Veterans Duckworth and Soltz: Food stamp cuts for veterans ‘unacceptable’ and ‘revolting’
The Raw Story
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
An estimated 900,000 U.S. military veterans will lose some or all of their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Friday. According to Think Progress, the program — more commonly known as food stamps — will be cut by $5 billion thanks to budget shortfalls caused by the Nov. 1 expiration of 2009 stimulus funding initiated by President Barack Obama.
Veteran pilot and Iraq War soldier Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org told Raw Story that the cuts coming Friday are unnecessary and unconscionable. Duckworth called the cuts “unacceptable” and Soltz questioned why Republicans in Congress are so “hell-bent” on hurting people in need.
“Cutting assistance to veterans is completely unacceptable,” said Rep. Duckworth. “Congress needs to find ways to cut costs, but compromising our care to veterans is not one of them. We must honor those who served our country and continue to provide the benefits they need. I am hopeful that my colleagues can come together and right this wrong by reinstating funds to the SNAP program to help our veterans.”
Soltz told Raw Story, “It’s revolting that so many men and women who served this nation in uniform are about to be cut off of the help they need the most for them and their families. What’s wholly irresponsible is for the Republican Congress to repeatedly reject the idea of a conference committee to pass a budget, which would help at least stabilize the economy, so many of these families could get off SNAP, and then turn around and fight to cut their SNAP benefits too. I don’t know why they are so hell-bent on hurting the American troops, veterans, and their families who are in need.”
read more here
If you think Tammy Duckworth is wrong, think again. Aside from a lot of veterans getting by on food stamps, the reports of military families on food stamps goes back to the 90's and you read about them here.
UPDATE
The Raw Story
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
An estimated 900,000 U.S. military veterans will lose some or all of their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Friday. According to Think Progress, the program — more commonly known as food stamps — will be cut by $5 billion thanks to budget shortfalls caused by the Nov. 1 expiration of 2009 stimulus funding initiated by President Barack Obama.
Veteran pilot and Iraq War soldier Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org told Raw Story that the cuts coming Friday are unnecessary and unconscionable. Duckworth called the cuts “unacceptable” and Soltz questioned why Republicans in Congress are so “hell-bent” on hurting people in need.
“Cutting assistance to veterans is completely unacceptable,” said Rep. Duckworth. “Congress needs to find ways to cut costs, but compromising our care to veterans is not one of them. We must honor those who served our country and continue to provide the benefits they need. I am hopeful that my colleagues can come together and right this wrong by reinstating funds to the SNAP program to help our veterans.”
Soltz told Raw Story, “It’s revolting that so many men and women who served this nation in uniform are about to be cut off of the help they need the most for them and their families. What’s wholly irresponsible is for the Republican Congress to repeatedly reject the idea of a conference committee to pass a budget, which would help at least stabilize the economy, so many of these families could get off SNAP, and then turn around and fight to cut their SNAP benefits too. I don’t know why they are so hell-bent on hurting the American troops, veterans, and their families who are in need.”
read more here
If you think Tammy Duckworth is wrong, think again. Aside from a lot of veterans getting by on food stamps, the reports of military families on food stamps goes back to the 90's and you read about them here.
As Military Pay Slips Behind, Poverty Invades the Ranks
New York Times
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 12, 1994
Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about tensions far away in North Korea that could erupt into fighting and involve his supply base.
But Airman Edwards has more immediate concerns, too. He is worried about how to feed his 22-year-old wife, Beth, and their two small children on his total pay and allowances of $1,330 a month. In desperation, the Edwardses last month began drawing $228 a month in food stamps to get by.
"It's a very tight squeeze for us," Mrs. Edwards said. "We haven't bought any steaks since we've been here, and whenever I want to cook something with ham, I substitute Spam for it."
In a trend that has senior Pentagon officials deeply troubled, an increasing number of military families are turning to food stamps to make ends meet. Three-quarters of America's enlisted forces earn less than $30,000 a year, and the gap between civilian and military wages is growing.
To be sure, no one ever joined the military to get rich. But neither did they expect to have to go on welfare. Military officials worry that a growing demand for food stamps and other Government assistance may signal larger personnel problems in a culture that preaches self-reliance and self-discipline.
The overall number of military personnel on food stamps is small and difficult to measure because the Government does not track military recipients.
But a 1992 survey by the Defense and Agriculture Departments found that about 3 percent of the 1.7 million service members qualified for food stamps and that 1 percent, or about 17,000 people, received them monthly. The Agriculture Department manages the food stamp program.
The Defense Department said the total value of food stamps redeemed at military commissaries increased to $27.4 million last year from $24.5 million in 1992. That amount included those redeemed by retired military recipients. Food donation centers are bustling at bases from Hawaii to Florida.
read more here
Using food stamps now easier at commissariesWhat is more revolting? Taking food off their tables or the fact they have to be on them in the first place? In my opinion, I have no clue how any of them can sleep at night doing this to citizens but when they don't care about veterans on top of it, that only proves corporate welfare is fine with them above all else.
Army Times
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 29, 2008 16:39:58 EDT
It’s now easier for commissary customers redeeming food stamps to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards — and they have more privacy, too, as all checkout lines now accept these cards just as they do any credit or debit card.
The new checkout system is dubbed the Commissary Advanced Resale Transaction System, or CARTS.
Previously, commissaries had to use stand-alone, state-provided systems to process the benefit cards, and the terminals were installed on only one or two registers. Food stamp benefits are not received overseas.
“On occasion, customers with food-stamp EBT cards found themselves in the wrong line, and we’d have to direct them to use one of the registers with an EBT terminal,” said Gary Hensley, director of the commissary at Fort Benning, Ga., in an announcement from the Defense Commissary Agency. The Fort Benning commissary rang up more than $1.1 million in purchases in the food stamp redemption program in 2007, tops among commissaries. read more here
UPDATE
Food stamp usage levels off at commissaries
Redemptions in recent years greater than increase in past year
Army Times
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Oct. 29, 2013
Use of food stamps in commissaries continued to rise last year, although not as sharply as in previous years, while redemptions through the nutrition program for women, infants and children have declined, according to Defense Commissary Agency data.
In fiscal 2013, commissary patrons redeemed $103.6 million worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps. That’s up 5 percent over fiscal 2012. The number of transactions rose by 2 percent, to 968,358.
SNAP redemptions in commissaries began climbing in 2009 when eligibility rules were expanded due to the national economic stimulus programs. But the growth appears to be leveling off.
Commissary officials track the number of transactions and the dollar amount, but they don’t track the status of those using the benefit, so there is no way to compare usage among retirees with active-duty members, for example.
read more here
Deputy who shot 13 year old is a firearms expert?
There is something really, really wrong here. This report says the Deputy that shot this teenager was a "firearms expert." So how is it he didn't know the kid's gun was plastic?
Sonoma County Deputy ID'd Who Killed Andy Lopez, 13, as Erick Gelhaus
NBC News
By Lisa Fernandez
Tuesday, Oct 29, 2013
The Sonoma County sheriff's deputy who fired the shots that killed a 13-year-old boy carrying a replica assault rifle last week is a firearms expert, Iraq War veteran, and a regular contributor to magazines and blogs, where in one article, he wrote about needing to have a "mean gene" to stay alive in the "kill zone."
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat first reported the name of the deputy as Erick Gelhaus, 48, which was confirmed to NBC Bay Area on Monday by Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Dueñas. In a November 2008 SWAT Magazine article titled "Ambush Reaction in the Kill Zone," (PDF) Gelhaus wrote that in order to stay alive, you must take action and have a necessary "mean gene."
"If you cannot turn on the "Mean Gene" for yourself, who will?" Gelhaus wrote in a training article to teach law enforcement not to get killed while encountering an ambush.
Gelhaus' partner, a new hire with 11 years experience, did not fire his weapon, investigators said, and his name has not been publicly released.
Gelhaus and the other deputy were placed on paid administrative leave. Sheriff's officials said he has never fired upon a suspect before. Gelhaus did not return repeated calls to the Press Democrat for comment.
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