Saturday, November 1, 2014

OEF-OIF Marine Veteran Fights to Save Lives

Service and Sacrifice: Marine fights suicide spike
WBIR News
John Becker
October 30, 2014
Retired Marine Stephen Cochran with the service dog he credits to saving his life, Semper.
(Photo: WBIR)
(WBIR) An increasing number of military veterans in Tennessee find they share this fact: they have seen more of their fellow troops die by suicide than in combat.

The Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs notes the number of suicides among veterans in Tennessee spiked from 197 in 2012, to 214 in 2013. Nationally, the Department of Veterans in its last comprehensive survey in 2013 put the number of suicides among veterans at 22 a day.

"I've been as far as you can go down the suicide line without being able to come back," said former enlisted Marine Stephen Cochran and veteran of tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I've literally lost more friends to suicide than to combat," he recalled after recounting the day after he spent months at war when he had a gun in his own mouth. He credits his service dog "Semper" for scratching at the door and saving his life that day.
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Military Suicide Leading Cause of Death

Suicide surpassed war as the military's leading cause of death
USA TODAY
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
Gregg Zoroya
October 31, 2014

War was the leading cause of death in the military nearly every year between 2004 and 2011 until suicides became the top means of dying for troops in 2012 and 2013, according to a bar chart published this week in a monthly Pentagon medical statistical analysis journal.

For those last two years, suicide outranked war, cancer, heart disease, homicide, transportation accidents and other causes as the leading killer, accounting for about three in 10 military deaths each of those two years.
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Enough said on how the military and congress failed to live up to the "one too many suicides" for them.

PTSD on Trial: Prosecutors won't seek death penalty in Chris Kyle murder trial

Erath prosecutors won’t seek death penalty in SEAL sniper slaying
Star Telegram
BY DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
October 31, 2014

Erath County prosecutors will not ask for the death penalty for an Iraq war veteran accused of fatally shooting retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and a friend at a gun range in February 2013.

Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash filed paperwork Thursday saying that his office will seek a sentence of life without parole for Eddie Routh of Lancaster.

Routh’s capital murder trial has been set for Feb. 9 in 266th state District Court in Stephenville.

Defense attorneys have said that they will use an insanity defense for Routh, 27.

State District Judge Jason Cashon imposed a gag order in the case that prohibits prosecutors and defense attorneys from commenting.

Routh is accused of shooting Chris Kyle, 38, and Chad Littlefield, 35, both of Midlothian, on Feb. 2, 2013, at the shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge, an upscale resort outside Glen Rose in Erath County. The lodge is about 77 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Area police reports documented Routh’s mental problems well before the killings at the gun range.
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Case 1 of Shell Shock 100 Years Ago

100 years since the first case of shell shock, it’s time to prioritise mental health
It’s 100 years since the first documented case of shell shock today. What progress should we be making a century on?
New Statesman
BY DAN JARVIS PUBLISHED
31 OCTOBER, 2014
Since "Case 1" of shell shock, we still need to make far more progress.
Photo: Getty

One hundred years ago today, on the morning of the 31 October 1914, a 20-year-old private ventured out into firing line of the First World War for the first time.

We know from frontline reports that he and his platoon had just left their trench when they were "found" by the German artillery.

The explosions sparked chaos and confusion as everyone dived for cover. The young soldier was separated from his comrades and became tangled in barbed wire.

As he struggled to free himself, three shells rained down on him, missing him by only a few feet. Witnesses said it was sheer miracle that he survived.

But when the young man was admitted to hospital a few days later, it was clear to the medics that his close brush with death had left a mark on him the like of which they had not seen before.

History hasn’t remembered the young private’s name. Today we know him only as "Case 1" from a seminal report published early in 1915 by a Cambridge professor and army doctor called Dr Charles Myers.

It detailed the first documented cases of what Myers came to describe as "shell shock".

More than 80,000 members of the British Army had been diagnosed with the disorder by the time the First World War came to an end, including the famous war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
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VA Contract for IT Firm Worth $31 Million

Engility Wins $31 Million Contract to Provide IT Management Services to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Business Wire
Published on October 31, 2014
That mission includes providing policy, analysis, strategy, technical guidance and products that ensure IT capabilities are defined and managed for the VA in a manner that improves the lives of our nation’s Veterans.”

Engility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EGL) , today announced it has been awarded a $31 million contract to provide information technology (IT) management services, application services and subject matter expertise to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information and Technology, Product Development Group (OI and T PD).

Under this VA contract, which represents new work, Engility will provide management, analysis, technical and support services for nearly 100 technology systems throughout VA. The award further establishes the company’s role in providing end-to-end program management, technical and analytical services in support of the VA’s critical IT investments that support its three pillars of health, benefits and corporate IT systems. The contract is a three-year (base plus two, one year options) time and materials award.
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VA to begin compensating family members of Camp Lejeune

VA vows to pay families sickened after exposure to Lejeune water
News Observer
BY MARTHA QUILLIN
October 31, 2014

Despite promises by the Department of Veterans Affairs, critics of the agency say they don’t trust it to help Marine Corps family members exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune because the VA is still fumbling the cases of sickened veterans two years after Congress ordered they be treated for free or at low cost.

The VA announced last week that it’s ready to begin compensating family members for the out-of-pocket costs they have incurred since March 2013 for 15 medical conditions associated with exposure to chemicals that entered the drinking water at the Eastern North Carolina military base. The Marine Corps has said the water was contaminated with more than a dozen chemicals, including known carcinogens, between 1957 and 1987.

The military has said that between 750,000 and 1 million people – veterans, family members and civilian workers – may have been exposed to contaminated water before the tainted sources were shut down.
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UFO surrounded by helicopters on rural road

UFO surrounded by helicopters on rural road: National Geographic hunts answers
Examiner
Roz Zurko
October 31, 2014
They were in the Piney Woods just outside of Huffman, Texas in 1981 when they saw a UFO hovering over the road ahead of them, describes the website Blue Blurry Lines.

Some UFO sightings are much more intriguing than others, like the UFO that was surrounded by 23 helicopters seemingly trying to corral the spacecraft. This is a case still talked about today. Then there's the case of an unknown spacecraft that plays cat and mouse with jet fighters, this is another UFO sighting that can’t be ignored. These sightings are too detailed and seen by too many reputable people to dismiss them as being mistaken for a weather balloon.

How about the case of the Australian pilot disappearing mid-flight just after he radios in that a “strange craft” appears to be “dancing” around his aircraft? This is another encounter not to be taken lightly, according to Open Minds TV on Oct. 30.
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Watchfire Back From Far Part Two

Watchfire to show you the way back from far
Part 2
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 1, 2014
Josh told the Watcher the stories he wanted to share
of Afghanistan and Iraq and the nine times he was sent there.
A Green Beret, fearless and tough
he never thought being home would be so rough
but the talk slowed down enough to know.
Josh's loss of hope was beginning to show.
The Watcher said I know where you are
been there myself with a fresh scar.
See, I had three sons from three different wives
sooner or later they stopped wanting me in their lives.
I traveled all across this country looking for a place to stay
but ended up with too many memories getting in the way.
So I'd pack my stuff and head down the road as far as I could get
never really trusting anyone I met.
But there is something more you need to know about the life I had
about the times when I hurt my family just because I was mad.
My kid brother named his son after me.
Your buddy Bob was actually a nephew to me
but I left soon after he was born
because they just didn't understand how I was torn.
I looked fine to them but inside I was beaten up bad
regretting living so much nothing made me glad.
After Bob was killed, I knew it was time to come back home
knowing you'd be here feeling lost and alone.
Josh started to cry with shaking hands to light his cigarette
he knew Bob understood his life of regret after regret
but wondered how he got so far into his head
to know he was thinking everyone would be better off with him dead.
So Bob pulled out a tiny book from his vest
thinking it was time for Josh to learn how to rest.
The book said "Point Man In Your Pocket"
40 days to healing what is inside your jacket
But Josh said he no longer believed in God after what he'd seen
he couldn't understand if God loved how He allowed it all
Then Bob started to question him
When you were in that hell of a mess
did you see any tenderness?
Josh thought about it for a while
then he had a broad smile
There was a time after a firefight.
All hell came down that night.
We were getting the wounded to the medivac flight
when we heard the sound of a mortar before it was in our sight
we just dropped to our knees and covered them with our bodies
not knowing if any of us would lose more buddies
but it turned out to be a dud landing nearby
had it exploded, all of us knew it wasn't our time to die.
Well one young one was shaken up and fell apart
LT grabbed his shoulders, looked him in the eye and saw his heart
First time I ever saw LT cry, he put his arms around the kid
and told him it was because he loved it hurt as much as it did.
So ya, there are lots of times like that but what is your point?
Bob put his arm around Josh's shoulder with a soft voice
telling him if love lived through all of that it was a choice
between what was bad inside of all of us and what is right within us.
That right came from God walking with them letting love live
even in the hellish place war soldiers can still givev share, pray care about someone else in pain
and be willing to die for each other all over again.
Josh started thinking of all the other times when he did see acts of kindness
The arm reached out, the head laid on a shoulder of a brother, words spoken with softness
all happened but he didn't really notice before when they were done
he hadn't stopped long enough to think of a single one.
Bob and Josh spent every night talking about God's love strong enough to live through war
and what they really did it all for.
When all was said and done they did it all for the buddy on their left and buddy on their right
fighting to save lives with all their might.
There was nothing really wrong with them after all they'd been asked to do
but something in them that was right and true.
A couple of years later, Bob passed away
but Josh took over his watch that very same day
knowing there would come someone like him needing to be shown
the way back from far from God they used to believe in feeling alone.
Just needing someone to care
knowing what it was like because he was there.

If you need to know where God was, be shown the way back from far, contact Point Man International Ministries and find an OutPost in your area.

Watchfire to show you the way back from far

Mexico Released Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi

UPDATE
U.S. Marine Tahmooressi Released From Mexican Jail
Mexico orders immediate release of Marine veteran
Associated Press
By JULIE WATSON
November 1, 2014

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Mexican judge ordered the immediate release of a jailed U.S. Marine veteran who spent eight months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.

The judge on Friday called for retired Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi (Tah-mor-EE-si) to be freed because of his mental state and did not make a determination on the illegal arms charges against the Afghanistan veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Mexican official who had knowledge of the ruling but was not authorized to give his name.

Tahmooressi has said he took a wrong turn on a California freeway that funneled him into a Tijuana port of entry with no way to turn back. His detention brought calls for his freedom from U.S. politicians, veterans groups and social media campaigns.

"It is with an overwhelming and humbling feeling of relief that we confirm that Andrew was released today after spending 214 days in Mexican Jail," the family said in a statement.

U.S. Republican and Democratic politicians had held talks with Mexican authorities to urge his release. A U.S. congressional committee also held a public hearing to pressure Mexico to free him.
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Victoria Cross For Bravery in WWI 1st Muslim Soldier

Story of the first Muslim soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross
As two former heads of the Army call for greater recognition of Khudadad Khan, the first Muslim soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross, we outline who he was and the actions that led to his medal
Telegraph UK
By Edward Malnick
31 Oct 2014
Sepoy Khudadad Khan was awarded the Victoria Cross during World War One
Photo: GETTY

It was an extraordinary act of bravery. Finding himself among the few surviving members of a force sent to repel a German advance at Ypres, a soldier manned a single machine gun to prevent the enemy making the breakthrough it needed.

Continuing to fire until he was the last man remaining, his actions helped to ensure that two vital ports used to supply British troops with food and ammunition from England, remained in Allied hands.

Now, 100 years on from being awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery, a series of military leaders, MPs, peers and Muslim leaders are calling for wider recognition of Khudadad Khan's role in the First World War. The call forms part of a plea for greater appreciation of the contribution of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim soldiers who fought for Britain in the war.

On Friday, unveiling a commemorative stone which will be laid at the National Memorial Arboretum in Khan’s honour, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the communities minister, will hail his “exceptional loyalty, courage and determination in Britain’s fight for freedom”.

Khan, who was born in the village of Dab in the Punjab province of present day Pakistan, was a 26-year-old machine gunner in the 129th Duke of Counaught’s Own Baluchis when the regiment was sent to France to aid the exhausted troops of the British Expeditionary Force.
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