New Hampshire Airman's death under investigation in Qatar

NH Airman dies overseas in non-combat incident

WMUR
Cherise Leclerc
April 20, 2019

The Department of Defense says Staff Sgt. Albert J. Miller, of Richmond, has died overseas.

Miller died on April 19th at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in a non-combat related incident.

He was assigned to the 736th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Miller was 24 years old.

An investigation into the cause of his death is ongoing
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Air Force #MissingVeteran mixed emotions about Green Alert

Balancing Safety And Privacy When A Veteran Goes Missing

NPR
Quil Lawrence
April 9, 2019

Heard on All Things Considered
A Wisconsin combat veteran was driving down the highway in February when he suddenly found his name, license plate number and mental health information broadcast on the radio, on television and posted on electronic billboards across the state.

"It felt very violating. Because I didn't want everyone who doesn't know me to know I have problems. It made me want to crawl into a bigger hole," he told NPR.

But the "Green Alert" might have saved his life.

"It's still affecting me dramatically and negatively, but at the same time it's quite possible that it's why I'm here right now," says the former Air Force staff sergeant. "It's kind of a double-edged sword."

NPR is not divulging the man's name because he never consented to have his information made public. A new Wisconsin law allows authorities to put that information out the same way an AMBER Alert publicizes missing children or a Silver Alert does for people with cognitive impairment. It's the first Green Alert to take effect — green for the color of military fatigues — though many states are considering the program.

The Wisconsin law is called the Corey Adams Searchlight Act. Adams was an Afghanistan vet from Milwaukee who went missing in 2017. His family feared he was suicidal. But police didn't immediately treat him as a missing person, because unlike children, adults have a right to disappear if they want to.

Adams was found dead weeks later. His family mobilized around the idea of an alert system for veterans and it became law in Wisconsin last year. That attracted a powerful advocate – the retired commander of U.S. special forces in Africa, Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc.
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Will Senate back building the wall or rebuilding military bases?

Camp Lejeune is still a mess 6 months after Hurricane Florence. Where's the money for repairs?

NBC News
By Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains
March 30, 2019

The Marine Corps' top general says one "negative factor" delaying repairs is the diversion of resources to the military mission at the U.S.-Mexico border.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — More than six months after Hurricane Florence ravaged North Carolina, hundreds of buildings at Camp Lejeune and two other nearby Marine Corps installations remain frozen in time, with walls still caved in and roofs missing.

The Marines say they need $3.6 billion to repair the damage to more than 900 buildings at Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station New River, and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point caused by the storm and catastrophic flooding in its aftermath. And while they have torn down soggy, moldy walls, put tarps on roofs and moved Marines into trailers, so far they have not received a penny from the federal government to fix the damage.

Now the Marine Corps' top officer is warning that readiness at Camp Lejeune — home to one third of the Corps' total combat power — is degraded and "will continue to degrade given current conditions." In a recent memo to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Commandant Gen. Robert Neller cited, among other "negative factors," the diversion of resources to the border, where the Trump administration has sent active-duty troops to patrol and plans to use military funding to pay for a wall.

"Mister Secretary, I am asking for your assistance," wrote Neller in his memo, his second this year requesting that Spencer push Congress to provide more funds. "The hurricane season is only three months away, and we have Marines, Sailors, and civilians working in compromised structures."

Neller wrote that the lack of the money needed for repairs, and unexpected expenses like the U.S. military mission at the southern border, are "imposing unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency."
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But it is not just Camp Lejeune 

Air Force Needs Almost $5 Billion To Recover Bases From Hurricane, Flood Damage

The U.S. Air Force says it needs $4.9 billion in new funding over the next two and a half years to cover the costs of rebuilding two air bases hit by natural disasters.

About one-third of Offutt Air Force Base, in eastern Nebraska, was underwater earlier this month as flooding hit large swaths of the Midwest. And Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was hit hard by Hurricane Michael in October.

The Air Force is asking for $1.2 billion in supplemental funding for fiscal year 2019 and $3.7 billion for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Congress would need to approve the funding.

Ret. Air Force Colonel killed in Seattle shooting

Killed in Seattle shooting rampage: a retired Air Force colonel and a longtime Lake City resident who loved animals

Seattle Times
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
March 28, 2019

Dr. Robert “Bob” Hassan, a retired physician and Air Force colonel who traveled the world, was supposed to fly to Florida this weekend to spend a few days with his two younger brothers. They planned to play horseshoes on Tuesday.

“I wish he’d done it last week. Then he wouldn’t have been there to meet this lunatic,” Jim Hassan, a retired police officer from upstate New York, said of his brother when reached by phone Thursday while vacationing in Florida.

Robert Hassan, 76, died from a gunshot wound to the head Wednesday during a shooting rampage in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood. He was driving home after a game of pinochle with friends.

The man arrested, who is also accused of shooting a woman in a car and a Metro bus driver in what police say was a random attack, allegedly stole Hassan’s red Prius and led officers on a short pursuit before colliding with another vehicle. The driver of that car, 75-year-old Richard T. Lee, died from his injuries.

The suspected gunman, Tad-Michael Norman, 33, was arrested at the scene on investigation of homicide, assault and robbery, and is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.

“This has been a very stressful day for me, imagining my brother lying on the ground, shot in the face. I can’t get that out of my head,” Jim Hassan said. “What a waste of my brother’s life. He basically spent his whole life in service to other people.”
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Eglin Air Force Base supporting Airman after 3 year old son was murdered

Eglin Air Force Base community rallies around airman after her son's murder

The Northwest Florida Daily News
By JIM THOMPSON
Published: March 18, 2019

EGLIN AFB (Tribune News Service) — The full range of Eglin Air Force Base resources are being marshaled around a relatively new airman whose husband killed their 3-year-old son and then attempted to kill himself last Friday.

Airman 1st Class Darrelly Franken, 38, had been assigned to Tyndall Air Force Base, but was reassigned to Eglin AFB in December, in the wake of Hurricane Michael, according to Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland. The October hurricane scored a direct hit on Tyndall as it roared across the eastern Florida panhandle on Oct. 10, all but destroying the installation.

Bourland wasn't certain in a Monday interview, but said he believed the home where Franken and her husband, 61-year-old Frederick Franken, had lived with their young son, Frederick Franken Jr., while stationed at Tyndall was destroyed by the hurricane.

On the afternoon of March 15, Darelly Franken arrived at the family's home to find her husband and son on the floor. Shortly afterward, Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies responded to the residence, according to witnesses. Details of the incident have not yet been released by the Sheriff's Office.

The child was pronounced dead at the scene, and the medical examiner's office was scheduled to perform an autopsy on Monday.

Frederick Franken was listed in critical condition at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center on Friday, and had improved to fair condition as of Monday morning, according to hospital spokeswoman Denise Kendust. Frederick Franken is not in military service, Bourland said.
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Airman killed while trying to stop robbery

Airman Shot and Killed While Trying to Stop Armed Robbery

Portland Press Herald, Maine
By Dennis Hoey
18 Mar 2019

A Westbrook native serving in the Air Force was shot and killed Friday night in Arkansas while trying to stop an armed robbery at a convenience store, authorities said.

North Little Rock police said Shawn Mckeough Jr. was killed while trying to stop a robbery at a Valero Big Red convenience store and gas station.

Shawn Mckeough Jr. Photo courtesy NewsCenter Maine

The 23-year-old Mckeough, who graduated from Westbrook High School in 2014, was a senior airman with the Air Force. Police said he was an on active duty and stationed at the Little Rock Air Force Base.

“As a result of the investigation, detectives have learned that two armed suspects entered the location in an attempt to rob the business. The victim in this incident attempted to stop the armed robbery and was fatally shot,” the police department said in a statement Sunday.

The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. Friday. Mckeough was pronounced dead at the scene. He apparently was a customer at the time of the robbery.

Sgt. Amy Cooper, spokesman for the North Little Rock Police Department, said in a telephone interview Sunday night that the two robbers – one of whom appears to be a man based on surveillance camera footage – remain at large. The police department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
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Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Peoria

'The Wall That Heals': Hundreds visit traveling replica of Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Peoria

Arizona Republic
Nathan J. Fish
March 16, 2019

Ballman walked over to another section of the wall, getting down on his knees and pointing to another name near the bottom, Alton L Staples III. Ballman knew him as Tony.

Staples and Ballman were in the Boy Scouts together before Staples dropped out of high school to join the military at age 17.

George Ballman looks at the name of his fallen friend at a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Pleasant Harbor at Lake Pleasant in Peoria on March 16, 2019. Nathan J. Fish/The Republic

As hundreds of visitors walked along the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Peoria to search for the names of their family and loved ones, George Ballman, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, held back tears as he remembered his fallen friends.

"You stand back and you walk through and you look at all these names," Ballman said. "They had a life, they had a family, they were real people. They played baseball, they played golf, they were kids."

Ballman gestured to one name in a sea of thousands on the wall, Harvey M. Reynolds — Mike, he called him.

"He got killed in a chopper accident, he was a mechanic … he went up in the chopper to help the pilot troubleshoot the problem," Ballman said. "He didn't make it back."

Ballman, a snowbird from Missouri, decided to volunteer at the park to help set up, but after experiencing multiple emotional moments, he decided to keep volunteering throughout the weekend.
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U.S. Air Force couldn't stop the Mighty Missouri River

'It was a lost cause': Air Force gives up fight to stop water at Offutt; one-third of base is flooded

Omaha World Herald
Steve Liewer
March 17, 2019

"The water came in and overtook us." Lt. Col. Vance Goodfellow

Even the U.S. Air Force couldn't stop the Mighty Missouri River from flooding Offutt Air Force Base.

Between Saturday night and early Sunday, the 55th Wing called off a 30-hour, round-the-clock sandbagging effort because the floodwaters were rising too fast.

"It was a lost cause. We gave up," said Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake, a 55th Wing spokeswoman.

By Sunday morning, one-third of the base was underwater, she said. About 60 structures have been damaged, mostly on the south end of the base.

Of the base's 200 buildings, 30 are completely inundated with as much as 8 feet of water, including the 55th Wing headquarters building, the E-4B Nightwatch hangar and the Bennie Davis Maintenance Facility. About 3,000 feet of the base's 11,700-foot runway are submerged.
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11 year oldest Military Working Dog retired

JBER’s oldest military working dog retires after 8-year career

By: Madeline McGee, Anchorage Daily News via the AP
March 10, 2019

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — After nearly eight years of military service, the oldest military working dog at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will, for the first time, become somebody’s pet.

Kimba, a military working dog, sits with her new owner, Capt. Luke Restad, at her retirement ceremony March 1 at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (Madeline McGee/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

Military Working Dog Kimba, an 11-year-old Belgian Malinois serving with JBER’s 673rd Security Forces Squadron, part of the Air Force’s 673rd Air Base Wing, retired Friday in a ceremony attended by four of her canine comrades. Her career had included everything from foot patrols of the base to drug detection to demonstration patrols.

In her eight year career at JBER, Kimba has been assigned to seven different handlers and hit on 32 narcotics finds, officials said. Her most recent handler, Staff Sgt. Christopher Bennett, called her "the best friend" he's had since he's been at serving at JBER.

Kimba completed her training in 2011 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, squadron officials said. Out of about 2,500 tested for military service every year, about 750 are selected for rigorous training. An additional quarter drop out before completing the training.
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Military sexual assault victims, now lead in the Senate

Sen. McSally, ex-Air Force pilot, says officer raped her

Associated Press
Coleen Long
March 6, 2019

McSally's revelation comes not long after Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, detailed her own abuse and assault, and at a time of increased awareness over the problem of harassment and assault in the armed forces.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was raped in the Air Force by a superior officer.

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the armed services' efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur.

McSally said she did not report being sexually assaulted because she did not trust the system, and she said she was ashamed and confused. McSally did not name the officer who she says raped her.

"I stayed silent for many years, but later in my career, as the military grappled with the scandals, and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know I too was a survivor," she said, choking up as she detailed what had happened to her. "I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences was handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years of service over my despair. Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again."
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Community searches for missing woman, husband arrested

60+ volunteers help search for Andreen McDonald

Strangers brave cold, rugged terrain to find missing 29-year-old mother
KSAT News
By Katrina Webber - Crime Fighters Reporter
March 05, 2019

SAN ANTONIO - Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar put out an appeal for help in the search for a missing mother. The response, though, surprised even him.

More than 160 people gathered Tuesday morning in a parking lot on Overlook Parkway, volunteering to try to find Andreen McDonald, 29.

Missing woman described as fitness fanatic, motivator "This is great to see. Community policing at its best right here," Salazar said, visually taking in the huge crowd. "This is giving us the capabilities that now we can start expanding our horizons a little bit more."

Sheriff's deputies on Monday were mostly on their own, as they searched a wooded area about a quarter-mile from the North Bexar County home that McDonald shared with her husband and daughter.

The mother and businesswoman was reported missing Friday under what turned out to be suspicious circumstances.

Evidence found inside her home led sheriff's investigators to suspect foul play.

Salazar later referred to her husband, Andre McDonald, 40, as a suspect in the case.

The U.S. Air Force reservist was arrested on a charge of tampering with evidence and remains in jail.

According to Salazar, Andre McDonald has not expressed any concern for his missing wife or offered any assistance in locating her.
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Air Force Colonel lost "wingman" to suicide

Commentary: Watching out for lost wingmen

By Col. (Dr.) Bruce K. Neely
446th Aerospace Medicine Squadron commander
Published February 27, 2019

There is no shame in reaching out for help, asking for help, or letting others know you are lost.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Washington

6,079. That’s the number of veteran suicides for 2016, the most recent year reported. In some ways it’s just a random number and hard to put into any type of perspective. In many ways it’s sobering, sad, disturbing and disappointing.

One. That’s the number of veteran suicides of former 446th Airlift Wing members in 2019. I’ll give you some perspective on that. It was a friend of mine. A pilot who I flew into a war with. A pilot I helped when he needed a waiver for a medical issue. A pilot who was always upbeat, encouraging and helping to others. A pilot who left behind family and hundreds of friends across the Air Force. In all ways it’s sad, disturbing, hard to comprehend, and yes, disappointing.

There will probably never be answers for the question of why people commit suicide. I deal with suicidal people at my civilian work in the Emergency Department nearly every day.

Many of them have no answer for why they are feeling that way or what led them to that point. Many feel they are a burden on others, and don’t want to go on being a burden to others.

They don’t realize the burden of helping them, be it by those of us in the hospital or by their families and friends, is nothing compared to the burden left behind if they end their own lives. That burden is much greater and felt by more people. I know that to be true from my own reaction and the reaction of others to the death of our friend.

I make it a point to ask, remind and encourage everyone to take care of the people around them, in the squadron and in the wing. That is part of being a good wingman.

But, there’s another part to being a good wingman. In the flying community there is a term called lost wingman. That call is made when the wingman loses sight or contact with the lead. The call is made because it’s a serious safety of flight issue to be lost or out of contact. The procedure is to change your direction for a short period of time and then get back into contact and back on heading. There is no shame in calling lost wingman.

So, you see the other part of being a good wingman is knowing when you’re lost, and not just in relation to flying. It’s a serious safety of life issue. There is no shame in reaching out for help, asking for help, or letting others know you are lost.

People are concerned it will end their career. It’s not an end, it’s a temporary change in direction until you can make contact and get back on the correct flight path. Remember, there’s a waiver for almost everything, except being dead. There’s no waiver for that.

Pay attention to those around you. If someone seems off, ask them what’s going on. Reach out. Be a good wingman. But if you are lost, don’t hesitate to make that lost wingman call. I don’t want to lose any more friends.

Here is a partial list of resources if you feel lost: unit commander, first sergeant, your supervisor, your flight or section chief, your flight or section officer in charge, psychological health, chaplain, emergency departments, Military OneSource (militaryonesource.mil or 800-342-9647), National Suicide Prevention Life Line (1-800-273-8255).

Military leaders blame bad leadership?

Personnel chiefs blame unsafe base housing on leadership failures

Stars and Stripes
By TOM PHILPOTT Special to Stars and Stripes 
Published: February 28, 2019

Three-star personnel chiefs and senior non-commissioned officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps testified Wednesday that unsafe and sometimes scandalous conditions of base housing units, which has sparked waves of complaints from military families, can largely be blamed on leadership failures.

Urgent reforms are underway, they contend, after military leaders and private partnership contractors that operate on-base housing analyzed failings which harmed the health of, and lowered quality of life for, some military families.

Commands across the military had not been attentive enough to the performance of housing contractors who, under a 1997 Military Housing Privatization Initiative, became responsible for construction of new housing and refurbishing legacy units on base. Under long-term contracts, companies profit from maintaining, managing and renting to military tenants who in turn forfeit their monthly Basic Allowance for Housing and sometimes even pay a little more.

Increasingly dissatisfied military families say maintenance problems and health hazards from leaky roofs or pipes, dangerous mold, problem-plagued heating or air conditioning systems, high radon readings or infestations of bugs and rodents have gone unaddressed or resulted in only temporary fixes to await new renters.

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But...they want to take money from their budget to build a wall instead of FIX THE PLACES WHERE THEY MAKE TROOPS AND FAMILIES LIVE?

Soviets plotted to target and discredit the men, then considered “high-value targets,”

COLD WAR TARGETS

Stars and Stripes
By Matthew M. Burke and Marcus Kloeckner

Disgraced U.S. Air Force officers were set up, newly uncovered Stasi documents reveal uncovered Stasi documents reveal

According to 250 pages of Stasi files obtained by Stars and Stripes from the German government, the Soviets plotted to target and discredit the men, then considered “high-value targets,” culminating on the night of the crash.

For nearly 40 years, Bill Burhans has steadfastly maintained he wasn’t drunk when, as an Air Force lieutenant colonel driving fellow U.S. military liaisons home from a holiday party with their Soviet counterparts in East Germany, he lost control of the car, careened up an embankment and slammed into a bus.

When the car came to a stop on Dec. 29, 1979, Air Force Lt. Col. James Tonge, his passenger, called to him to move the car to the shoulder. But Burhans sat frozen, except for his trembling hands.

It was as if he’d been “hit in the head with an ax at the slaughterhouse,” Tonge would later tell U.S. investigators in a sworn statement.
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Air Force Chaplain gives assurance life can get better

On suicides, Air Force’s top chaplain preaches hope over darkness to Yokota airmen

STARS AND STRIPES
By SETH ROBSON
Published: February 21, 2019

Schaick, 60, who commands 2,000 chaplains and religious affairs airmen, told the Yokota personnel that life can go to a dark place, but it always gets better.

Air Force chief of chaplains Maj. Gen. Steven Schaick told airmen gathered for a prayer breakfast Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, at the Enlisted Club at Yokota Air Base, Japan, that everyone experiences "moments of darkness" but that things get better in the end. SETH ROBSON/STARS AND STRIPES

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Even a two-star general has “moments of darkness,” the Air Force chief of chaplains told servicemembers Thursday at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Steven Schaick told several airmen gathered for a National Prayer Breakfast event at the Yokota Enlisted Club that, like everyone, he experiences disorientation, for example, on days when there are complaints at work, his kids don’t answer the phone or he has issues with his wife.

“There is a spirit in this world who wants us to believe that is where it ends,” he said. “There are airmen all over Yokota who believe this even now … We had 100 airmen last year who decided that death by suicide was their only way out.”

Yokota’s 374th Maintenance Group had a string of airman suicides in 2016 and Pacific Air Forces dispatched a “suicide prevention support team” to investigate there and at Misawa and Kadena air bases.
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11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide first 4 weeks in 2019

Air Force calls for culture change in bid to reduce suicides

STARS AND STRIPES
By Brian Ferguson
Published: February 12, 2019

Air Force senior leaders issued a memo calling for a culture change after a total of 11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide in the first four weeks of 2019.

The number of suicides within the ranks has remained relatively flat in recent years; however, the service wants to do more to bring the suicide rate down, stated a Feb. 5 memo signed by Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth Wright.

In January, five active duty airmen, four civilian employees, one Air National Guard member and one reservist died by suicide, according to data provided to Stars and Stripes by the Air Force.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Air Force had 11 servicemember suicide deaths, a Pentagon report found last year. The report did not include civilian deaths.
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Wow that is a bad report. It is also a exceptionally incomplete.

The DOD seems all too ready to blame everything...and everyone, as long as they do not have to take responsibility for any of it.

So who will be the "one too many" we keep hearing them say "One is too many" before they change? This is far beyond a SNAFU. It passed that point about a decade ago. Ever since then we've heard all kinds of excuses and slogans that have changed nothing for the better.

How many more will it take before that "one" proves to them once and for all, it is time to take a serious look at clusterfuckish "programs" they have been pushing? Is this really all proving the rumors true, that this is all about money going into the contractors' bank accounts? If this is the result of billions of bucks being spent every year, then someone needs to get damn refunds PDQ so they can help pay for the funerals that did not need to happen.

Considering that the troops still have not clue what PTSD is, wouldn't that be a good place to start?

After all, since the stigma keeps them from talking about what surviving is doing to them, should they begin to understand why PTSD is not a sign of any kind of weakness, then they have a chance at healing ASAP. This point needs to be made clear right from the start so that PTSD does not have a chance to dig-in and infiltrate to the point where they end up facing being kicked out or flipped out.

Gee it may even allow them to feel encouraged to get it out and find reinforcements to help them work through it. That won't happen until everyone gets it straight. That it hits them after they survived whatever it was that was the one too many times it happened for them. It hit the strongest part of them. 

The strongest part of them, in case you didn't know, was their emotional core that made them want to serve in the first place. Yes! PTSD comes into survivors because of the strength of their emotional core. Oh, sure some egotistic-self-serving jerk will challenge that one, but the evidence makes that point very clear.

PTSD strikes the emotional part of the brain after surviving the "event" that set it off. Therefore, the more they feel everything else, including the good stuff, the more they will be invaded by PTSD.

It is also why there are not only different levels of PTSD, but different types of it. Face it~ If we can understand a civilian with PTSD after one event, then it should be easy to understand what someones job demands they face them as part of their job requirements.

Within all of this BS, we're wondering why we knew so much back in the 70's and 80's than they do now. 

Want to keep reading headlines like this one? Then just relax and forget about all of this. Want to change the outcome? Then get busy, get educated and then, get pissed off enough to make sure that the media cannot simply do a hit job and then walk away until the next report makes us sick to our stomachs.

Murder-suicide investigation at Wurtsmith Air Force Base

Police investigate suspected murder-suicide in northern Michigan

MLIVE

By Cole Waterman
February 8, 2019

OSCODA TWP, MI – Police in northern Michigan are investigating what they believe is an attempted murder-suicide incident on a former U.S. Air Force base.

At 11:27 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, Oscoda Township police responded to a gun complaint — later upgraded to a shots-fired report — in the residential area of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. While officers were en route, the initial caller advised dispatchers that two people had been shot inside a house.

Officers entered the house and found 37-year-old Rickie L. Cheatum Jr. dead on the floor from a gunshot wound to his head. Cheatum’s 31-year-old male roommate was unconscious on the floor, suffering from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Witnesses told police the two men had a verbal altercation. During it, the younger man grabbed two handguns and shot Cheatum before turning one of the guns on himself, police reported.

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Ret. Major General Marcelite Harris buried at Arlington

Marcelite J. Harris, first black female major general, is buried in Arlington

NBC News
Gewn Aviles
February 7, 2019

She retired from the Air Force in 1997 as the nation’s highest-ranking black woman in the Department of Defense.

Marcelite J. Harris. in 1990AP file

Marcelite J. Harris, the first black woman to serve as a major general in the U.S. military, was buried with full military honors Thursday morning in Arlington National Cemetery.

Harris, who died on Sept. 7, at 75, didn’t always envision herself breaking records in the military.

Born Jan. 16, 1943, in Houston, she wanted to move to New York City to become an actress, but there was one obstacle.

“Her father told her she could only move to New York if she had a job after graduating college,” her daughter, Tenecia Harris, 37, told NBCBLK. “But that’s not really how acting works.”

Upon graduating from Spelman College in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama, Harris couldn’t find a job performing, so she signed up for the Air Force instead. She quickly moved up the ranks, becoming the first female aircraft maintenance officer and one of the first two female officers commanding at the Air Force Academy.
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Air Force Veteran, Retired NC official commited suicide

Retired NC official commits suicide before Franklin deputies can question him in investigation

WRAL News
February 5, 2019

YOUNGSVILLE, N.C. — A retired state official killed himself last week after Franklin County deputies went to his Youngsville home, authorities said.

James Prosser served as assistant secretary of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs under former Gov. Pat McCrory.

According to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, deputies went to his home Thursday to talk to him about a joint investigation between the department and the State Bureau of Investigation. When they arrived, Prosser walked out the back door of the home and shot himself in a nearby wooded area, authorities said.

Authorities have refused to provide details about the investigation because of his death.

Prosser, an Air Force veteran, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Airman found dead at Eielson Air Force Base

Airman found dead in Alaska

By STARS AND STRIPES
Published: February 6, 2019

An airman was found dead in a parking lot in North Pole, Alaska, Eielson Air Force Base officials said Tuesday.

Then-Airman 1st Class Elijah Evans in a photo from social media. Evans, 23, a senior airman from Waldorf, Md., stationed at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, was found dead on Monday in North Pole, Alaska. His death is under investigation.COURTESY OF ELIJAH EVANS/FACEBOOK VIA U.S. AIR FORCE

Senior Airman Elijah Evans, 23, was found dead on Monday, according to an Air Force statement, though where he was found is unclear. The Air Force said it was a restaurant parking lot, while North Pole police quoted by KTVF News of Fairbanks said he was found at the Gorilla Fireworks parking lot.

Evans was assigned to the 354th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Eielson, and hailed from Waldorf, Md. He joined the Air Force on May 10, 2016, according to the statement.
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