Fort Wainwright Soldier Died "Showing Gun Wasn't Loaded"

Police: Soldier dies trying to show firearm wasn't loaded
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: February 3, 2016

FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks police say an Army sergeant died when he unknowingly fired a loaded gun to his head when trying to show a friend the weapon wasn’t loaded.

Image by KTUU-TV

Police in a Tuesday statement say 25-year-old Sgt. Nathan Michael Higginbotham died early Sunday.

Police say Higginbotham had consumed alcohol and was a friend’s home in Fairbanks. He was in the process of confirming his .40 caliber Springfield XD was unloaded. Police initially said the gun was a 9 mm pistol.
read more here

Sarah Palin Denies PTSD Blame Game

Palin still has no clue how much harm she did to veterans. Not just in her speech but as Governor of Alaska.

Sarah Palin Freaks Out on ‘Today Show’ Over PTSD Question
Daily Beast
Andrew Kirell
February 1, 2016

Donald Trump's highest-profile endorser had a meltdown Monday morning.

Sarah Palin doesn't like being asked questions about questionable things she has said.

That was the lesson Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie learned Monday morning when she asked the former Alaska governor about her controversial remarks connecting her son's alleged post-traumatic stress disorder to President Obama.

"I want to ask you about something you mentioned on the campaign trail," Guthrie said. 

"You said that President Obama may be to blame for some of the PTSD that's out there."

"I never said that," Palin shot back.

Nevertheless, Palin attempted to explain away the remarks to her stunned hosts. "I never blamed President Obama," she asserted. "What I have blamed President Obama in doing, though, is this level of disrespect for the United States military that has made manifest in cutting budgets, in not trying to beef it up and let our military do the job they're trained to do, and in specific issues we're talking about that are so hot today, specifically, let's get in there and utterly destroy ISIS."
read more here

Palin Didn't Care About PTSD Until It Happened To Her Son

Truth, most veterans with PTSD, or anyone else for that matter, are more of a danger to themselves than anyone else. Suicides are a lot higher than criminal cases. But with that said, the other truth is anyone can end up suffering with PTSD after any traumatic event. Most of the time you never know someone has it unless you care to learn about them and their life. When you do take the time, you discover that had you gone through the same thing, you'd be changed too.

Maybe you wouldn't end up with PTSD, but during the days and weeks after a traumatic event, that changes you from that point on.

If you are like me you're probably wondering why we are still having the same discussion on how there is still such a strong stigma on PTSD. After all, 4 decades, billions of dollars on awareness and prevention, and folks still don't have the basic idea of what PTSD actually is. Just sad all the way around.

Sarah Palin, This Is What PTSD Is Really Like
New York Times
By NATE BETHEA
JAN. 22, 2016
AS a veteran, I want politicians and public figures to try and understand what military deployment is like, and to relate to my experiences. But I’m not sure I want Sarah Palin weighing in.

That process begins by speaking frankly. Facing up to destructive or abusive behavior comes next, along with the assertion that we are responsible for our actions, no matter what burdens we carry. Post-traumatic stress is no excuse for violence or abuse, nor should it be considered a default association.
read more here

Palin wants to blame Obama because her son was arrested on domestic violence charges and has PTSD. Palin needs to see what others saw long ago looking at her because when she had the chance to help veterans in Alaska she didn't.

Veterans For America, a veterans advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., released a report on the Alaska Army National Guard Oct. 15 that stated the Guard does not adequately care for soldiers who return from deployment. The report accuses Gov. Sarah Palin of not taking action to address this issue.

Did I mention that report came out before Obama was even elected? It came out in 2008. Guess she wasn't interested in what was happening to the troops, National Guardsmen in Alaska or any other veteran until it happened to her own son.

That is something veterans remember. Older veterans remember how many decades they have waited while politicians make speeches using them to get votes.

'Nightly Show' To Sarah Palin: 'Please Leave Us The F**k Alone' (VIDEO)

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore
Get More: The Nightly Show Full Episodes,The Nightly Show on Facebook,The Nightly Show Video Archive

Linked from Talking Points Memo

Palin Needs To See What Others Saw Long Ago Looking At Her

I was eating dinner last night with my husband when this came on the news,

At a rally for Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, Palin said her son, "like so many others," came back from Iraq "a bit different" and "hardened." She also said veterans are forced to look at "our own president" and wonder if he can relate.

Needless to say, I pretty much gagged. The woman is out of her mind!

Paul Rieckhoff of the IAVA said it best with this,

"I hope this doesn't become a portable chew toy in a political campaign," he said. This is a great opportunity for Sarah Palin to sound the alarm on PTSD.

But unfortunately, Rieckhoff is giving Palin more credit than she deserves. Back in 2008, the Alaska National Guard was facing a crisis and they had to "look" at her.

In July of 2008 there was this piece of news that didn't seem to bother Palin much at all.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Army knew that the site chosen to build a family housing complex at Fort Wainwright was a toxic dump but proceeded anyway, in violation of federal laws and service policies, according to an audit by the Army’s own Office of Staff Judge Advocate that was released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite creating a hugely expensive debacle, sickening workers, spreading pollution and retaliating against whistleblowers, the base command has absolved itself and issued an "outstanding" rating to the official who green-lighted the project.

And this one

Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the Alaska Guard's top officer, warned in an internal memo that "missions are at risk." The lack of qualified airmen, Campbell said, "has reached a crisis level."

And then there was this too,

Veterans For America, a veterans advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., released a report on the Alaska Army National Guard Oct. 15 that stated the Guard does not adequately care for soldiers who return from deployment. The report accuses Gov. Sarah Palin of not taking action to address this issue.

And this,

Brig. Gen. Thomas Tinsley by self-inflicted gunshot wound

It is one thing to say foolish things but quite another to not give a crap about service people when she had a chance to do something and maybe, just maybe, make a difference before her son fell through the cracks after being trained to be "resilient" and then didn't get what he needed at home just like all the others before him, and well, sadly, after him.

Head of Veterans Organization Says Obama Is Not to Blame for Sarah Palin's Son's Issues, Urges Her Not to 'Politicize' PTSD
People.com
Char Adams
January 21, 2016

Paul Rieckhoff, head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Sarah Palin (bottom left corner)
JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY; INSET:ALEX WONG/GETTY

President Obama isn't to blame for Sarah Palin's son's PTSD, the head of a New York City-based veteran's organization says.

"It's not President Obama's fault that Sarah Palin's son has PTSD," Paul Rieckhoff, head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told NBC News on Wednesday. "PTSD is a very serious problem, a complicated mental health injury and I would be extremely reluctant to blame any one person in particular."

The comments came after Palin linked her son, Track's, recent domestic violence arrest to his PTSD and Obama's lack of "respect" for veterans.

Track, 26, who served in Iraq, was arrested in the family's hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, on Monday for allegedly punching his girlfriend in the face, kicking her and threatening to commit suicide with an AR-15 assault rifle.
read more here

Guess someone else doesn't know this stuff either. Read this Opinion piece.

Disillusioned by America's treatment of vets? Place blame where it's due
Alaska Dispatch
Phillip Morrill
January 21, 2016

Sarah Palin has blamed Obama and post-traumatic stress disorder for her son’s troubles. She is absolutely right that today’s veterans face some tough challenges: PTSD, the worst economic growth since the Great Depression hindering civilian job prospects, flat wages since the 1970s, political impotence, lack of medical treatment and resources, outdated GI bills, etc.

I did not vote for Obama, but Obama did not get us into Iraq or Afghanistan. Those are the actions of George W. Bush -- a Republican. However, Obama is not innocent of military support and aggression in regime change -- Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt (twice), Tunisia and Yemen to name a few.
read more here

Marines Searching Alaska for Missing "Brother"

U.S. Marines who served with missing snowmachiner travel to Alaska to help search
KTUU 2 News
Dan Carpenter Reporter
Dec 16, 2015

It's been one week since Casey Graham went missing during a snowmachine trip out of McGrath.

A Wildlife State Trooper found Graham's snowmachine last week in open water on the Kuskokwim River but nothing else.

Since then, 13 U.S. Marines, who served with Graham in Afghanistan in the 3rd Light Armored Recon Battalion, have made it their mission to find their brother in arms.

"Right now, the plan is we're going to go head to McGrath, meet up with the local SARs (Search and Rescue), help them out any way we can and, hopefully, bring his family a little bit of happiness for the holidays," said Dexter Kunishige who traveled from Twentynine Palms, California.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Died In Custody After Help Was Refused

'Very, Very Disturbing': Native American Veteran Dies in Police Custody
Indian County
Simon Moya-Smith
12/1/15

Less than 20 minutes later, Murphy is seen pacing the cell; he drops to his knees, pats his chest, falls and dies only 12 hours after being booked, KTOO reported.

Photo courtesy Ed Irizarry
Joseph Murphy, center and kneeling, died while in a holding cell at a correctional facility in Juneau, Alaska. Murphy was being held on non-criminal charges.

A Native American man died in holding cell in Juneau, Alaska, after prison staff there allegedly told him "You could die right now and I don't care," according to a newly released report reviewing the state's department of corrections.

Joseph Murphy, 49, of the Yup'ik people, was booked at 7 p.m. August 13 for intoxication at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center and was placed in a holding cell for the evening, Lisa Phu of Juneau's KTOO Public Media reported. A video reviewed by the state shows a sober Murphy at 5:20 a.m. the next morning, but he appeared sweaty and and complained of chest pains to jail staff.

Murphy allegedly denied medical assistance.

According to the report, Murphy had begun to bang on the cell door when one of the jail staff members responded. Murphy and the guard then engaged in a heated verbal exchange with each other. The staff member allegedly told Murphy "I don't care. You could die right now and I don't care."
read more here

Alaska Airlines Agent Sings Anthem In Honor of Vietnam Veteran

Airline Employee's Singing Tribute To Veteran Will Give You Chills
So touching.
The Huffington Post
Jamie Feldman
Associate Style Editor
November 17, 2015

KTVA reported back in October that AJ had served in the military for 20 years of active service including the Vietnam War.

A video from October is making the rounds on Facebook on the heels of Veteran's Day, and with good reason.

Alaska Airlines passenger Julia Collman Jette posted a video to Facebook from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport of customer service agent Denise Snow, singing the national anthem in tribute to a veteran named AJ, whose ashes she learned would be traveling on their flight from Anchorage to Seattle.

The passengers stood in silence as the employee sang a beautiful, heartwarming rendition of the national anthem.
read more here

Presidential Medal of Freedom for Big Miracle TAPS Founder

Alaska military advocate to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Alaska Dispatch News
Erica Martinson
November 16, 2015

The military quickly adopted the program, and it has since been replicated across the globe, in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Israel and Germany, among others, Carroll said.

In this Jan. 17, 2012 photo, Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS, poses in her office in Washington. Carroll is being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, as part of her advocacy on behalf of grieving military families. Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON -- The White House announced plans Monday to grant a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bonnie Carroll, founder of an organization that provides support to grieving military families -- and the star of a true Alaska love story.

Carroll was working in the White House in 1988 when three California gray whales trapped in Arctic ice garnered international attention. President Ronald Reagan’s interest in the plight led the West Wing staffer to meet her future husband, Alaska Army National Guard Col.Tom Carroll. Their love story was later featured in the 2012 film “Big Miracle.”

In 1992, after he and Bonnie were married, then-commander of the Alaska Army National Guard and lifelong Alaskan Tom Carroll died in an Army C-12 plane crash in the Chilkat Mountains -- along with seven other top Guard leaders -- en route to Juneau. Tom Carroll's father, Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Carroll, had died 28 years earlier in a plane crash at Valdez while providing relief work after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Bonnie Carroll said.

Carroll channeled her grief into action, and following her husband's burial at Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage, she founded the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), which provides support for those impacted by the death of a member of the U.S. military.

Bonnie Carroll will be honored with the nation's highest civilian honor next week for her work after her husband's death.
read more here

Veteran Died While On Protective Hold After Protecting Others

Iraq war veterans remember Joseph Murphy
KTOO Public Media
By Lisa Phu
August 25, 2015

"Murphy put his life in jeopardy looking out for others." Ed Irizarry

Joseph Murphy (from left, first man kneeling) served in the Iraq War. The squad was led by Ed Irizarry (standing to the left above Murphy). Mike Mercer (far right) was a gunner with Murphy.
(Photo courtesy Ed Irizarry)

Earlier this month, 49-year-old Joseph Murphy died at Juneau’s prison 12 hours after being booked on noncriminal charges.

Among other things, Murphy was an Iraq War veteran. His squad commander says it changed him forever. I spoke to some of the men Murphy served with.

“It’s just a bond. You can’t break that. Time ain’t going to break it. I guess even the death of one of your brothers can’t break that either. Murph will always be my brother,” Mercer says.

Murphy was in the emergency room of Bartlett Regional Hospital the night of Aug. 13. Juneau Police transferred him to Lemon Creek Correctional Center on a 12-hour protective hold. A police spokesman says alcohol was a factor. Murphy died in a holding cell the next morning of an apparent heart attack.
read more here

Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital Opens in Alaska

Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital opens in Anchorage
KTVA News 11
By Alexis Fernandez
July 28, 2015

The Patriots Program has 14 locations across the country, but the new facility is the first of its kind in Alaska. It’s also the only hospital named after Chris Kyle.

ANCHORAGE – Active duty military servicemembers and veterans in Alaska have a new hospital to turn to for help.

On Tuesday, Universal Health Services — the second largest U.S. hospital chain — cut the ribbon to its new Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital at 1650 Bragaw Street in Anchorage. The 36-bed hospital will primarily focus on mental health services like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and short-term care in a non-traditional environment. It previously helped adolescents with behavior programs in Alaska.

Chris Kyle was a U.S. Navy Seal who wrote the best selling book “American Sniper” after he served four tours in Iraq. He was shot and killed in 2013 at a shooting range in Texas.

His wife, Taya Kyle, was at the dedication ceremony to represent her late husband.
read more here

Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital
Inpatient Treatment Program for Service Members and Veterans ages 18 and older
Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital provides an intensive dual track treatment program for military service members and veterans, who have experienced trauma and are in need of detoxification and/or rehabilitation for substance abuse.

At its foundation, our program provides intensive trauma-focused multi-disciplinary treatment (i.e., psychotherapy, nursing, psychiatric and spiritual) with the goal to improve patients’ overall resiliency.

Holistic in nature, the Chris Kyle Patriots Hospital is attentive to needs of the whole self—the mind, the body and the spirit, and therefore, provides services that enhance the mind, strengthen the body, and empower the spirit.

North Carolina Soldier Killed in Training Accident in Alaska

Soldier killed during Fort Wainwright training exercise 
Associated Press
June 13, 2015

FAIRBANKS -- The U.S. Army says a 23-year-old soldier died during a training exercise at Fort Wainwright. The Fairbanks News-Miner reports that the soldier was killed in a single-vehicle rollover accident on Wednesday.

The Army says Spc. Tyrice Weaver died from injuries caused when his 5-ton tactical vehicle rolled while conducting a platoon convoy at the Yukon Training Area. read more here

Afghanistan Veteran Killed By Police in Texas

Victoria police kill man wielding machete (w/Video)
Victoria Advocate
By Bianca Montes
Updated April 27, 2015

At least two Victoria police officers were placed on administrative leave Sunday after fatally shooting a 25-year-old man outside of his home.

The officers will remain on paid leave during the investigation, which is being led by the Texas Rangers, per departmental policies, chief J.J. Craig said Sunday at a news conference.

Craig declined to name the officers involved in the shooting or how many fired a weapon at the scene.

Officers responded to a disturbance call about 11 p.m. Saturday in the 800 block of Simpson Road behind Academy Sports and Outdoors.

A man, who was later identified as Brandon Lawrence, was observed by officers just inside his residence holding a 23-inch machete.
read more here

Man shot by police suffered from PTSD, wife says
Victoria Advocate
By Bianca Montes
April 26, 2015

Lawrence met her husband while stationed in Alaska.

The two were in the U.S. Army, and their attraction was instant, she said.

"He was a protector; he was sweet."

Lawrence, 23, said her husband deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 while she was pregnant with their first child.
read more here

Vietnam Veterans Day From Coast to Coast

Massachusetts

Taunton Vietnam veterans group holds POW/MIA ceremony
Wicked Local
Marc Larocque
March 29, 2015

Members of the POW/MIA awareness movement, including a faithful group of Vietnam veterans in the Taunton area, have helped foster governmental and societal responsibility toward families of U.S. service members who go missing during war, said the president of the Massachusetts Vigil Society.

Dan Golden was the keynote speaker at the 33rd annual POW/MIA Remembrance Day Ceremony on Sunday at the Vietnam Memorial Fountain downtown on Church Green. The event has been organized each year by the Taunton Area Vietnam Veterans Association to remember the 39 Massachusetts servicemen and 1,637 others nationwide whose remains were never returned from the battlefields of Southeast Asia.
read more here

Springfield ceremonies remember Vietnam veterans 
The first salute at the Vietnam Veterans’ monument at Mason Square
WWLP 22 News
By Sy Becker
Published: March 29, 2015

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – April will mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam. 

Two solemn ceremonies were held in Springfield Sunday as Vietnam veterans honored their fallen comrades.

The first salute at the Vietnam Veterans’ monument at Mason Square, where African American veterans of the Winchester Square Vietnam Era Veterans honored the soldiers who never came home, many they had known all their lives.
read more here

Springfield commemorates Vietnam Veterans Day 2015
MassLive
Elizabeth Roman
March 29, 2015

Springfield- Local leaders including Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal commemorate the Vietnam Veterans Day in Springfield.
(ELIZABETH ROMAN/ THE REPUBLICAN)

SPRINGFIELD — For more than 25 years local leaders and veterans have gathered at Court Square in honor of those who served and those who died during the Vietnam War.

A ceremony was held Sunday afternoon featuring the reading of the names of those killed or missing in action as well as laying a wreath at the Vietnam Memorial. The event included various speakers including newly appointed Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Affairs Francisco Urena who is a Purple Heart Marine, Springfield Veteran of the Year Ronald Krupke, U.S. Rep Richard E. Neal, Dr. Samuel J. Mazza, who served as a trauma surgeon during the Vietnam War, and more.
read more here

Delaware
There are a lot of great videos on this page for Vietnam veterans.

Vietnam veterans honored at ceremony in Bristol Twp.
Bucks County Courier Times
Elizabeth Fisher
March 30, 2015

Chloe Elmer/Staff Photographer
Vietnam vets
America, Hose, Hook, and Ladder Company No. 2 Fire n Bristol Borough Chief and Desert Storm veteran David Pearl shares a moment with Jesse Hill, treasurer of the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans, after he thanked him in a speech during The Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans event from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 29, 2015 at their Bristol Township Headquarters to honor veterans on the March 29, 1973 anniversary of the last U.S. troops to leave Vietnam. The group will also celebrate their 8th anniversary at the headquarters. Attendees were also given a K-9 demonstration from Falls and Bristol Township police officers, in honor of the K-9 Working Dogs Veterans Day, which was March 13.

Veterans from all service branches saluted as the American flag and the black-and-white POW-MIA flag were hoisted. A three-gun salute followed at a ceremony Sunday at the headquarters of the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans in Bristol Township.

The occasion was a ceremony to mark the 42nd anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, signaling the end of a 10-year conflict and North Vietnam’s release of what it claimed were the last of its American prisoners of war. It would be four more years before the last of the American troops came home.

Among the attendees was Dennis Parr, a Bristol resident who served in the U.S. Navy from 1969-1973. The ceremony was particularly poignant for him because of the many friends he lost in battle, and the fact that his son, Riccardo, served two tours in Iraq as a Marine hospital corpsman.
read more here

Virginia

Vietnam veterans honored for courage, service at Lynchburg commemoration
News Advance
Katrina Dix
March 28, 2015

The first U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam 50 years ago this month, but the conflict claimed one of Lynchburg’s own more than a year earlier, when Lt. Kenneth Shannon died after his helicopter was shot down over South Vietnam on March 15, 1964, just five days after his arrival overseas.

At a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War at the American Legion Post 16 Saturday afternoon, veterans who served with him or even went to college with him greeted his widow, Ginger Shannon-Young, who moved back to Lynchburg about four years ago.

Some were saying hello for the first time in almost 50 years; others, for the first time ever.
read more here

Tennessee

Vietnam Veterans Day
WDEF News
March 29, 2015

Knoxville, TN (WDEF)- Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder announced March 29th will now be known as Vietnam Veterans Day.

The day is to recognize the courage, service and sacrifice of the men and women who served during the Vietnam War.
read more here

Missouri

Missouri honors Vietnam veterans today
KMA Land
Special to KMA -- Mona Shand
March 30, 2015

(Jefferson City) -- It's been nearly 40 years since the official end of the Vietnam War and today Missouri honors the sacrifices of all those who served in the conflict. Many Vietnam veterans came home to find the country in the midst of the anti-establishment, anti-war movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Daniel Bell, public information officer with the Missouri Veterans Commission, says today's observance of Vietnam Veterans Day gives Missourians a chance to make up for the past.

"Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home in the same manner that your World War II, Korea, and your current returning veterans were treated," says Bell. "This is just a way of recognizing their sacrifices and their service to our country."
read more here

Alaska

Vietnam Veterans Day honors Alaskans who served
News Miner
By Weston Morrow
March 30, 2015

ERIN CORNELIUSSEN/FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
Vietnam Veterans Day
Veterans and audience members listen to a panel discussion during a Vietnam Veterans Day program at Randy Smith Middle School on Sunday, March 29, 2015.

FAIRBANKS — Veterans, active-duty military members and community members gathered in the gymnasium at Randy Smith Middle School on Sunday to honor the service of Alaska’s many Vietnam veterans.

The event Sunday was timed purposefully to fall on March 29 — a date that commemorates the withdrawal of the last United States troops from Vietnam in 1973. Forty years later, in 2013, the Alaska Legislature declared March 29 to serve from then on as Vietnam Veterans Day, “to acknowledge and commemorate the military service of American men and women in Vietnam.”
read more here

Dilemma of Sharing or Suppressing News

Lunchtime at work today I had a dilemma. I talked to a couple of friends about posting how there seems to be an increase in soldiers charged with crimes, especially this morning. I couldn't decide to post them or just avoid them.

One of my friends said that operating a news site like this would mean I was suppressing news instead of covering it.

I thought about it for a while and then remembered other stories I just wanted to ignore. One of them is Dakota Meyer stories that have come out over the last few days. (It pains me to put these up)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Bristol Palin says she is engaged to Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer.
The daughter of former Alaska governor and former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said in a blog post Saturday that Meyer came to Alaska to film the "Amazing America" reality show with her mother last year. She says Meyer is wonderful with her son Tripp.

'That's just how we roll': Bristol Palin's Medal of Honor fiance defends playing with an infant as gun sits feet away on table
In an Instagram photo posted to his account, former Marine Dakota Meyer can be seen playing with an infant as a gun sits next to them
When someone pointed this out on his post, he joked 'that's just how we roll, haha'
Meyer, one of the youngest Medal of Honor recipients in American history, has a large number of posts showing him with guns on social media
One shows a sign he was gifted by friends that reads 'I Don't Call 911' with two pistols on either side In Kentucky, where Meyer is from, no permit is needed to buy a handgun and the weapons can be carried anywhere as long as they aren't concealed
The same is true in Alaska, where Meyer's new fiance Bristol Palin lives with her son Tripp
The Daily Mail By CHRIS SPARGO 20 March 2015

U.S. Air Force Veteran, Charged With Trying to Join ISIS

Anyway those are some of the stories I avoided posting on. 

These are the ones that troubled me the most.

Fort Meade-based Army Spc. is charged in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and statutory sexual assault.

A soldier with Joint Base Lewis McChord is facing charges after he allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl, Grays Harbor Sheriff's deputies said.

A Fort Bragg soldier is facing multiple child sex charges, the Hoke County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska — Soldiers in a unit in Alaska have a “tradition” of allowing racial slurs to be used freely on “Racial Thursdays,” a soldier told the Army Times. "When I first got to my unit, someone said we should do 'Racial Thursdays' because it's been a tradition," the soldier, a staff sergeant, told the Times. "It's something they made up where you can say any racist remark you want without any consequences. The platoon sergeant said no, but the (expletive) is still going on."

All of them just came out. Names omitted for Soldiers charged with crimes.

Florida Comfort Food Helped Air Force Nurse in Afghanistan

Nurse saves lives during Afghanistan deployment
Chugiak Eagle River Star
Chris McCann
Published: 2014

Air Force Capt. Tavia Leonard, an intensive-care nurse assigned to the 673d Medical Group, recently returned from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, where she worked at the Craig-Joint Theater Hospital for four months. U.S. AIR FORCE JUSTIN CONNAHER

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON — The improvised explosive device detonated early — in his hand.

The 16-year-old Afghan boy was rushed to the Craig Joint Hospital on Bagram Air Field, missing a hand, an eye, and a lot of blood. Third-degree burns covered nearly half of his body.

Air Force Capt. Tania Leonard, an intensive-care nurse, was ready.

“He was an angry little fellow,” she said. “But after a while, he became the most polite kid. I may not have reached the masses in Afghanistan, but I hope in his village, he’ll tell people how we took care of him.”

Leonard joined the Air Force hoping to be an ICU nurse. Her first assignment, however, was at the pediatric unit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany. She was disappointed, but that billet prepared her for the future.

An unexpected motivation came in a care package from a friend — a jar of pickled okra. The Jacksonville, Florida, native said she was ecstatic to get such a creature comfort.

“That was the best day ever,” she said. “I was taking pictures with the okra. Oh, and there were crab legs Fridays. I was on the hunt Fridays; I’ve got to have crab legs. I love seafood. And those little comforts were just great.”
read more here

Eielson Air Force Chaplain Next Catholic Bishop

Air Force Chaplain Chosen to Become Catholic Bishop
Alaska Dispatch News, Anchorage
by Dermot Cole
Dec 17, 2014

U.S. Air Force Maj. Chad Zielinski, 354th Fighter Wing Catholic chaplain,
preaches during Sunday Mass at Fort Wainwright, Alaska,
June 29, 2014. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Joseph Swafford)

FAIRBANKS -- When the command post at Eielson Air Force Base summons an Air Force chaplain, it's almost always a crisis that requires immediate attention.

After the phone rang at 6:15 a.m. that Saturday morning in November, the Rev. Chad Zielinski, 50, thought it was not an emergency, but a big mistake.

In this case, the caller, perhaps not fully aware of the time zone, identified himself as Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the ambassador from the Vatican who represents Pope Francis in Washington, D.C. "Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has appointed you Bishop of Fairbanks," Vigano told Zielinski.

Zielinski, a chaplain for 12 years and a Catholic priest for 18 years, asked Vigano who he was three or four times, thinking that the Apostolic Nuncio had the wrong Zielinski.

"I was so tired and could not think straight," Zielinski said, reconstructing the Nov. 8 conversation in a letter to those who worship with him at Our Lady of Snows Catholic Community at Eielson.
read more here

Alaska Senate Elect Sullivan Family Fined $65 Million Price-Gouged the Veterans Administration

Sullivan’s Family Company Price-Gouged the Veterans Administration
Alaska Native News
Staff
Nov 26, 2014

ANCHORAGE – Dan Sullivan’s family company RPM attempted to rip off taxpayers by over-charging for roofing materials, including on Veterans Administration facilities. After a whistleblower reported RPM for price-gouging, the Department of Justice charged RPM under the False Claims Act and won a $65 million settlement.

Sullivan’s family, which owns RPM, has pumped nearly a million dollars into his campaign, raising questions about whether the company expects Sullivan to defend its practice of ripping off taxpayers. Sullivan has not commented on RPM’s False Claims Act settlement or criticized his family company’s decision to rip off the Veterans Administration. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/29/13].

“Other contractors who are considering bilking the government should take heed: False and fraudulent claims on the U.S. Treasury will not be tolerated,” said the prosecutor who won the settlement [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/29/13].

“A growing number of Alaskans are concluding that Sullivan is just in this to promote his own interests and the interests of his family’s multi-billion dollar business from Ohio,” said Mike Wenstrup, Executive Director of the Alaska Democratic Party. “Whether its RPM’s price-gouging his brother’s fish farming company, Dan Sullivan’s family would profit at the expense of Alaskans.”
read more here

Alaska Rep. Don Young Should Apologize to Families After Suicide Comment

Murkowski asks for Young apology on suicide comments
Alaska Dispatch News
Alex DeMarban
October 23, 2014

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she has asked Rep. Don Young to apologize to Alaskans for hurtful comments he made to high school students struggling with suicide.

“Earlier today, I talked to Don Young and encouraged him to rethink the past few days and apologize to Alaskans so we can all be rowing in the same direction against suicide,” Murkowski said in a Facebook post Thursday.

The request came after Young stunned students and staff at Wasilla High School on Tuesday -- just days after the suicide of a student -- by saying suicide was caused by a lack of support from parents and friends. That comment and others Young made at the school offended many in Alaska, where suicide rates are some of the highest in the country.

In a press release issued Thursday night, Sen. Mark Begich, who is also running for reelection, said "I believe Congressman Young’s statements were uninformed and inappropriate."

The statement said Begich had received dozens of calls to weigh in on the subject. "In addition to the alarming rates of suicide in our rural communities, especially among young Alaska Native men, there are troubling rates of suicide in the ranks of Alaska’s military and among our veterans," the statement continued, in part. "We need to encourage open conversations about this tragedy -- not make hurtful statements."
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Combat to Criminal? How they got to that point is the question

Ever think about how in control soldiers have to be to be in the military in the first place? Think about it. All the training they have to do topped off with following orders telling them what to do, when to eat, when to wake up and when to go to sleep. They spend years of being in control.

We are always told the military is addressing their need to heal, but over and over again, we discover far too many times the military used the wrong address.

Suicides have gone up since the military started to "do something" about them. Suicides back home have gone up as well with more and more veterans facing off with law enforcement, usually when they have reached the point where suicide seems to be the only option they can see.

Communities wonder what justice really is but it wouldn't have to come to that point had they wondered first how they ended up that way after all they did for us.

These folks are not your average citizen. They were willing to die for someone else. So why do some go from that, surviving combat, years of honorable service, to being treated like a criminal?

What is not being done? What is being done needs to be changed, but when do they do it? When will they ever reach the point where the "one too many suicide" really happens and they actually do something about it instead of repeating what already failed them?

Criminal or victim?
Communities weigh how to deal with battle-scarred soldiers who do wrong after coming home
Washington Post
Greg Jaffe
September 20, 2014

FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Staff Sgt. Robert D. Carlson raised the gun to his head. In the parking lot of their duplex, his wife was calling the police.

"Please help," she cried. "He punched me in the face."

His intention, Carlson would say later, was to kill himself. Instead, alone on the second floor of their house, he lowered the gun from his head, pointed it toward a window and squeezed the trigger again and again, nine times in all.

Some of the rounds went into the roof of a garage, just below the window. Two rounds hit apartment buildings across the street. One round flew into the headlamp of a responding police SUV.

That was July 2012. Now, two years later, after being found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to eight years in prison, Carlson wonders about the fairness of such a punishment. "I know I did wrong," he said recently from the detention facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. But is jail time appropriate for someone who, before he fired those shots, spent 16 months in Iraq, followed by 12 months in Iraq, followed by another 12 months in Afghanistan?

Forty months total at war: He had survived a blast from a suicide car bomb. He had killed an Iraqi insurgent as the man's children watched in horror. He had traded places one day with a fellow soldier who then was killed by a sniper's bullet, standing in the very place where Carlson would have been if he hadn't switched. Did his years in combat mean he was deserving of compassion?

Compassion or conviction - that's the choice more and more communities across the country are facing as the effects of 12 years of war are increasingly seeping into the American legal system.
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Is there a doctor in the house at Wasilla Alaska VA? Nope!

VA clinic in Wasilla without doctors
The Associated Press
September 4, 2014

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — The Veterans Affairs clinic in Wasilla is without doctors after the three physicians working under contract over the summer decided not to renew those.

A nurse practitioner, who transferred from Anchorage last week, is now carrying the 1,000-patient caseload.

The Mat-Su Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic is supposed to have two full-time doctors but has been down one since 2012. The last full-time doctor left in May, KTVA reported

"There were three physicians at various times who had been selected to come work there and had dropped out for various reason or there were credentialing issues with them," said Cynthia Joe, chief of staff for the Alaska VA Healthcare System.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has expressed concern with staffing at the clinic and asked the VA's inspector general to look into the quality of care provided there.
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