Fallen soldier to receive Silver Star

U.S. Army
Cpl. Jonathan Ayers fought heroically until enemy fire cut him down as outnumbered U.S. soldiers repelled a wave of Taliban fighters in July.

Fallen soldier to receive Silver Star
By MONI BASU

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Cpl. Jonathan Ayers picked up an M-240 machine gun and unleashed a hail of bullets from the observation post of a small base American soldiers had set up only days before.

Taliban fighters had attacked before sunrise on July 13, 2008, recalled the GIs’ battalion commander, Col. William Ostlund, now stationed at Fort Benning.

They were firing from a nearby mosque, storefronts in the local bazaar and homes of elders in Wanat, a village tucked in the rugged foothills of the Hindu Kush along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.

Grenades exploded. Bullets sliced through trees, severing branches. Everything was on fire, even the grass.

A bullet grazed Ayers’ helmet and knocked him back. But the 24-year-old soldier from Snellville did not recoil. His paratrooper instincts took over. He kept firing amid fierce enemy RPGs and small arms fire.

When one weapon seized up because so many rounds had been fired so rapidly, Ayers picked up another. He fought on until an enemy bullet got him. And he fell — one of nine soldiers who died that day, the largest loss of American life in a single battle in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, the military will posthumously award Ayers its third-highest medal for valor: the Silver Star. His brother Josh, 26, plans to accept the medal, a gold star with a laurel wreath and a silver star superimposed in the center. On the back, the inscription reads: “For gallantry in action.”

Only 146 soldiers who fought in Afghanistan have been honored with Silver Stars, including 13 others in Ayers’ battalion. In Iraq, the military has awarded 396 Silver Stars.
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Fallen soldier to receive Silver Star
Atlanta Journal Constitution - GA, USA

Fort Bragg soldier stars in Iraq documentary

I just watched the clip of this documentary. It shows a part of life you don't often see unless you either live it or hunt the web for reports of it. Too many in this country have no clue about what they go thru or what their families go through. I've reached the point when I wonder if it is because there is so little national news coverage or is it because they just don't care? I used to blame the media for not reporting enough but after talking to a lot of people, watching their eyes glaze over trying to explain any of this, there has been a disconnected line between soldier and civilian. It's hard enough to get military spouses to pay attention to PTSD, but to get the American public interested enough to even want to listen seems impossible at times. How can you get them to pay attention when they don't even want to pay attention to either military campaign? There has to be some way of getting them interested in these men and women risking their lives serving the nation that transcends political ideology. I don't know what the answer is but this documentary is a good step toward doing just that.

Bragg soldier stars in Iraq documentary
WRAL.com - Raleigh,NC,USA
Bragg soldier stars in Iraq documentary


Posted: Mar. 13 3:56 p.m.
Updated: Mar. 13 6:26 p.m.

Fort Bragg, N.C. — Filmmaker Jake Rademacher knew his two brothers were in the Army and serving in Iraq, but he didn't understand why.

He turned his effort to answer his questions into an acclaimed film, "Brothers at War," which opens this weekend in theaters near Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune and Fort Benning, Ga.
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1 man’s odyssey from campus to combat in Afghanistan

1 man’s odyssey from campus to combat
Michael Bhatia loved Afghanistan, and he lost his life there — the first social scientist to die in a controversial Pentagon experiment that teams soldiers and scholars. This story is the first of two parts.
By Adam Geller - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 14, 2009 9:44:30 EDT

MEDWAY, Mass. — On the overcast New England morning Michael Bhatia came home, nearly 400 of his colleagues, family and friends turned out to meet him.

Seven months had passed since Bhatia, a 31-year-old scholar in international relations from Brown University, hefted his pack across the tarmac at Fort Benning, Ga., ready to begin his sixth journey to Afghanistan.

Every trip had come with risks, but this one was the toughest to explain. No one questioned Bhatia’s commitment to Afghanistan, but many disagreed sharply with the way he’d chosen to pursue it.

“I am already preparing for both the real and ethical minefields,” he e-mailed friends, hours before boarding.

Bhatia was joining the Human Terrain System, a Pentagon experiment to re-engineer the battle against Afghan and Iraqi insurgents by teaming soldiers and scholars. Human Terrain set off a war of its own in the academic world: Critics, particularly anthropologists, argued that Human Terrain researchers could not serve two masters — that they risked betraying the people they studied by feeding information to the military.

Bhatia disagreed. But the only way to know, he told friends, was to see for himself.

Even skeptical colleagues looked forward to the conclusion of his journey: If anybody could thread the ethical minefield, it was Mike.
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Military mom reports to duty with her kids

Military mom reports to duty with her kids
By Tom Foreman Jr. - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 2, 2009 9:28:05 EST

DAVIDSON, N.C. — A North Carolina mother who reported for Army duty with her two young children in tow is waiting to see what happens next.

Lisa Pagan, who was recalled to the Army four years after being honorably discharged, drove nearly 400 miles and braved a Southeastern winter storm to report for duty Sunday at Fort Benning, Ga.

She says she has no one to take care of son Eric and daughter Elizabeth, so she brought them with her. She has reserved a motel room for a week and doesn’t plan to stay in the barracks.

“Them being away from me is not an option,” she said.

Pagan is among thousands of former service members who have left active duty since the Sept. 11 attacks, only to be recalled to service. They’re not in training, they’re not getting a Defense Department salary, but as long as they have time left on their original enlistment contracts, they’re on “individual ready reserve” status — eligible to be recalled at any time.
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UPDATE
March 2nd, 2009
Soldier reports for duty — with kids
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/
Posted: 04:39 PM ET
By Eric Marrapodi and Chris Lawrence
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A soldier who reported for duty with her children in tow has been granted her request for a discharge, her lawyer said Monday.

Lisa Pagan reported for duty Monday morning at Fort Benning, Georgia, with her two pre-school children. She had been honorably discharged from active duty four years ago but was recalled as part of the Individual Ready Reserve program.

The former Army truck driver asked for a reprieve from deployment because her husband travels for business and they would have no one to care for their children if she was sent overseas. Until Monday, her request had been denied.

Late Monday afternoon, Pagan’s lawyer told CNN the Army would grant her request and begin the process of discharge again, this time for good.

Since September 11, 2001, the Army has recalled about 25,000 soldiers. Nearly half requested a delay or a full exemption, and the Army says it granted nearly nine out of 10 delays and six out of 10 requests for exemption.

Hard Evidence, Duty, Death Dishonor

Last night on Investigation Discovery Channel I watched this program. All I could think about was the movie In the Valley of Elah. But this wasn't a movie and the parents are real. The suffering of the soldiers coming back was real, as real as many are going thru today. If you ever want to know more about what some of them go thru, I really suggest you watch this program the next time it is on.

48 Hours: Hard Evidence
Duty, Death, Dishonor
TV-14 (V), CC

In July of 2003, 25-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Richard Davis disappeared after celebrating his homecoming from Iraq with four army buddies. Nearly four months later, the four soldiers who were last seen with Davis were arrested

AP PHOTO Remy Davis and her husband hold a photo of their son U.S. Army Spc. Richard Davis.
Kate Green

Parents of U.S. soldier blame unit members for murder
November 17th, 2003


COLUMBUS, Ga. — The body was almost a skeleton when
investigators found it, hidden in the woods for nearly four months
and so decomposed that knife marks etched in its bones were the
only way to tell the man had been stabbed.

Spc. Richard Davis had survived the war in Iraq, where he turned
25 during the march to Baghdad, only to be slain after celebrating
his homecoming at a topless bar near Fort Benning.

With the discovery of his body earlier this month came an even
more disturbing twist. The four men accused of turning on him with
fists and a blade, then hiding his body, had served beside him in
the same infantry unit.

Now the Army is on the defensive, accused by Davis’ family
of writing him off as AWOL instead of quickly investigating his
disappearance.

Some people are also questioning the investigators’
conclusion that the killing was simply the result of a brawl gone
bad, wondering if trauma from the battlefield could have led to
bloodshed at home.

Program aims to help vets get good jobs

Program aims to help vets get good jobs
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 31, 2009 8:55:50 EST

Sgt. 1st Class Chad Sowash never stops working for soldiers.

The Indiana Reserve senior drill sergeant is in his second mobilization at Fort Benning, Ga., in four years.

When Sowash isn’t shaping civilians into soldiers, he spends his time finding job opportunities for veterans in the nation’s top-rated firms.

About 18 months ago, Sowash launched VetCentral, an Internet-based program designed to help veterans find success in the civilian workforce.

“It focuses on connecting Fortune 500 companies with veterans,” said Sowash, vice president for business development for Direct Employers Association, a nonprofit group that works with major corporations to help them recruit more effectively. “The jobs have always been there, but there has never been a pipeline in place to funnel those jobs to the veterans.”

This is particularly important now given that the country is in one of the worst economic crises in history, resulting in hundreds of thousands of layoffs across America.

At the same time, the Army is less willing to pay out large bonuses to keep soldiers in the service.
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Benning soldier discharged in trainee beating

Benning soldier discharged in trainee beating

By Russ Bynum - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 14:54:46 EST

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Fort Benning officials say a soldier who assaulted a Jewish trainee in September has been kicked out of the Army.

Fort Benning spokesman Bob Purtiman said Monday the accused soldier received an administrative discharge in the beating of Pvt. Michael Handman.

Handman was assaulted in September days after he complained of religious harassment in his basic training unit.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_jewish_soldier_110308/

Muslim soldier fought for America, and his faith

Muslim people are a part of "real America" just as much as Christians and Jews and atheists. What faith, or lack of it, they claim, has nothing to do with being American, loving this nation or being willing to die for the sake of this nation. Faith does not make you a better American but it does often make you appreciate it more when it works the way the Founding Fathers had envisioned it to work. All faiths were supposed to be equal in this nation because the Founding Fathers knew people will not agree on the faith they choose anymore than they will agree on the politicians they support. Even Christians cannot agree with each other. How many branches of Christianity are there today because people could not agree in the first centuries of Christianity? What Americans all agree on is they love this country or they wouldn't live here anymore.

When people disagree with what the government is doing, that does not make them un-American. They expect more out of the abilities of this nation and the rights we have under the Constitution not only allow us to voice our disagreement, it demands it of us. Jefferson knew the importance of being able to be well informed and use our free speech rights as well as he knew the importance of being able to freely choose the faith we have. Some in this country have used their free speech rights to attack people who do not agree with them and call them un-American. They fail to see that what makes the people of America strong is what they have in common as well as what they do not because we are all able to live together in this one nation. This nation made up of the people from many nations coming together as one. They fail to see that as they attack people of other faiths as part of some kind of political game, they are also attacking the men and women who serve this nation in the armed forces. This is just one of their stories.

Muslim soldier fought for America, and his faithBy NANCY A. YOUSSEF
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- "Joe the Plumber" was only one of two Americans injected into the presidential election this past week. The other was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, whom former Secretary of State Colin Powell invoked in his endorsement Sunday of Barack Obama.

Khan was a 20-year-old soldier from Manahawkin, N.J., who wanted to enlist in the Army from the time he was 10. He was an all-American boy who visited Disney World after he completed his training at Fort Benning, Ga., and made his comrades in Iraq watch "Saving Private Ryan" every week.

He was also a Muslim who joined the military, his father said, in part to show his countrymen that not all Muslims are terrorists.

"He was an American soldier first," said his father, Feroze Khan. "But he also looked at fighting in this war as fighting for his faith. He was fighting radicalism."

Khan was killed by an improvised explosive device in August 2007 along with four other soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter while searching a house in Baqouba, Iraq. He's one of four Muslims who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where 512 troops from those wars now rest.

About 3,700 of the U.S. military's 1.4 million troops are Muslims, according to Defense Department estimates.

Khan, a child of immigrant parents from Trinidad, was 14 when the Sept. 11 attacks happened. Feroze Khan said he remembered his son watching in stunned silence: "I could tell that inside a lot of things were going through his head."

Three years later, Feroze honored his son's request and allowed him to enlist him in the Army.

"I told him: 'You are going to the Army.' I never said there is a war going on in a Muslim country. I didn't want him to get any ideas that he was fighting (against) his religion."

Feroze kept his fears for his son's safety to himself.

His son was assigned to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash., deployed to Iraq in 2006 and fought on Baghdad's Haifa Street, a Sunni insurgent stronghold.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/735677.html

Medal of Honor recipient Col. Robert Nett dies at the age of 86

MoH recipient Col. Robert Nett dies

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 20, 2008 20:51:40 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Col. Robert B. Nett, who won the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat in the Philippines during World War II and later served in the Korean War and Vietnam, has died at 86.

Fort Benning spokeswoman Elsie Jackson said Nett died Sunday after a brief illness.

Nett, a New Haven, Conn. native who enlisted in Connecticut National Guard in 1940, was sent into combat on Christmas Island shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was soon sent to Fort Benning and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1942.

Nett was a company commander in December 1944 when he led an assault on a Japanese stronghold. He was seriously wounded three times during the attack but killed seven enemy soldiers with his rifle and bayonet. He later rejoined his unit and fought on Okinawa.

He helped train South Korean soldiers during the Korean conflict and was an adviser to Vietnamese troops during the war in Vietnam.

After 33 years of military service, Nett retired and spent 17 years as a teacher in the Columbus school system.

He is a member of the Army Ranger Hall of Fame and received the USO’s Spirit of Hope award.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_nett_102008/

Interview with WRBL Columbus GA

http://www.wrbl.com/index.php/news/article/colonel-robert-b-nett-shares-story-of-his-army-life/40924/

47th IPSD 2002 Reunion: Pedestal Dedication Speeches

Sacrifice Field, Fort Benning, Georgia

Saturday, May 11, 2002

http://www.47ipsd.us/472002sp.htm

List of Medal Of Honor still living, 100 now minus 1

http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/10/only-100-medal-of-honor-recipients.html

Ranger awarded Silver Star for valor in battle

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ray A. Plasterer was awarded the Silver Star on Oct. 17 at Fort Benning, Ga.

Ranger given Silver Star for valor in battle


By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 19, 2008 9:22:31 EDT

Sgt. 1st Class Ray A. Plasterer said he hadn’t seen a firefight like the one he saw May 10 in Afghanistan since he and his fellow Rangers did their part during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

This time, the firefight nearly cost Plasterer his life and on Oct. 17 he was awarded a Silver Star medal at Fort Benning, Ga., for what he did under a hail of withering gunfire.

The noonday sun was just beginning to bake the landscape as Plasterer, a reconnaissance assistant team sergeant with Regimental Special Troops Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and a convoy of more than a dozen armored vehicles coursed through a hilly desert valley on a week-long intelligence collection patrol.

At a remote truck stop area, the group – a civilian and military joint strike patrol – dismounted and shortly became engulfed by small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades and fragmentary grenades, which quickly killed four and wounded five and plunged the group into an intense two-hour firefight.
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Army Private Subjected to Anti-Semitic Attacks Brutally Beaten by Soldiers

Army Private Subjected to Anti-Semitic Attacks Brutally Beaten by Soldiers
Jason Leopold


The Public Record

Oct 01, 2008

September 30, 2008 - A U.S. Army soldier was brutally beaten by other soldiers in his platoon earlier this month following two incidents in which a drill sergeants allegedly used anti-Semitic slurs to address the soldier.

Pvt. Michael Handman, 20, who has just completed his fifth week of basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, was recently released from a hospital where he was treated for a concussion, facial wounds, and severe oral injuries following the attack, according to the boy's father, Jonathan Handman.

The soldier's father said he received a disturbing telephone call last week from his son's commanding officer "to tell me that my son is OK and out of the hospital."

"Apparently he got his clocked cleaned and beat to the point that he was sent to the hospital by ambulance with a concussion," Jonathan Handman said in an interview. "He was in bad enough shape that they did a head and neck [CAT] scan."

Jonathan Handman said his son was lured into a laundry room at the Fort Benning Army base by other soldiers, knocked unconscious and beaten while he lay on the ground.

Michael Handman enlisted in the Army earlier this year. He wears a yarmulke with his uniform, which apparently led his drill sergeants to refer to him as a "fucking Jew" and a "kike" and a demand that he remove the yarmulke during dinner, according to his father. The soldier recently wrote a letter to his mother Randi recounting the anti-Semitism he has endured by his drill sergeants and members of his platoon since arriving for basic training at Fort Benning.

"I have just never been so discriminated against/humiliated about my religion," Michael Handman wrote his mother. "I just feel like I'm always looking over my shoulder. Like my battle buddy heard some of the guys in my platoon talking about how they wanted to beat the shit out of me tonight when I'm sleeping. It just sucks. And the only justification they have is [because] I'm Jewish. Maybe your dad was right...The Army is not the place for a Jew."
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/11300

Soldier charged after dropping 11-day-old son "while playing video game"

Soldier charged after dropping 11-day-old son

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 24, 2008 5:42:18 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A 22-year-old soldier faces a child cruelty charge after police said his 11-day-old son was treated at an Army hospital for multiple fractures.

Columbus police arrested Richard Seabridge on Friday night after medical personnel summoned officers to Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning. Detectives said Brayden Seabridge suffered fractures to his arm, leg and head.

Richard Seabridge told investigators he dropped the infant while playing a video game.

The toddler was transferred to Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta where he was listed in guarded condition.

Richard Seabridge posted a $5,000 bond Monday and was released from jail. He awaits a hearing in Superior Court.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_toddlercrueltycharge_092308/

Ranger dies in free-fall accident

Ranger dies in free-fall accident

Staff report
Posted : Friday Aug 15, 2008 12:48:40 EDT

Staff Sgt. Christopher M. Roulund, a reconnaissance specialist assigned to the Regimental Special Troops Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, died Wednesday after a training exercise in Arizona.

Roulund, 27, was participating in routine military free-fall proficiency training at the Parachute Testing and Training Facility operated by the U.S. Special Operations Command near Marana, Ariz., according to a news release from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The accident occurred at about 11 a.m., and he died later that day.

A native of Jacksonville, N.C., Roulund entered the Army on Aug. 11, 1999, and completed his training at Fort Benning, Ga., before being assigned to the regiment’s 1st Battalion at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., as a gun team leader.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/army_rangerdeath_081508w/

New-old treatment for PTSD:Acupressure

Benning not officially on board for PTSD trial
BY LILY GORDON - lgordon@ledger-enquirer.com --

There are several effective treatments for patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, but the road to recovery can be slow, costly and emotionally agonizing.

Exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, talk therapies and cognitive behavioral therapy re-expose the patient to the trauma until the brain resolves it through repetition. These methods are effective, but one Columbus psychologist thinks there might be a better way to treat this crushing disorder, and he'd like to try it out on 40 Fort Benning soldiers and their families. The Army, however, is saying no.

Harold McRae is no stranger to PTSD. He's worked with hundreds of soldiers suffering from the illness over the past 35 years, treating combat veterans from every major American conflict since World War II. Though traditional treatments are successful, McRae said he is not satisfied with the emotional toll they take on his clients.

"I kept thinking, there's got to be a better way without re-traumatizing people," McRae said. "We've got over 40,000 cases of PTSD and no matter how fast we work, we're still in trouble."
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http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/370177.html

Disabled veterans suffer when the check is not in the mail

Troops risk ruin while awaiting benefit checks

By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 6:02:28 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to this for Isaac Stevens: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.

Stevens’ descent from Army private first class in 3rd Infantry Division began in 2005 — not in battle, since he was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Ga. He suffered a head injury and spinal damage.

The injury alone didn’t put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it was military bureaucracy — specifically, the way injured service members are discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their full disability payments begin to flow.

“When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, ‘OK, you’re on your own,’ ” said Stevens, who was discharged in November and was in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San Antonio apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers were discharged in the past two fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans’ advocates and others say thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

“The anecdotal evidence is depressing,” said Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., who heads a subcommittee on veterans disability benefits. “These veterans are getting medical care, but their family is going through this huge readjustment at the same time they’re dealing with financial difficulties.”

Most permanently disabled veterans qualify for payments from Social Security and the military or Veterans Affairs. Those sums can amount to about two-thirds of their active-duty pay. But until those checks show up, most disabled veterans draw a reduced Army paycheck.

The amount depends on the soldier’s injuries, service time and other factors. But a typical veteran and his family who once lived on $3,400 a month might have to make do with $970 a month.

Unless a soldier has a personal fortune or was so severely injured as to require long-term inpatient care, that can be an extreme hardship.
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read more here

When you hear of the delay in claims being approved and the time it takes between the return of the wounded and the time they get their claim approved, this is what happens to them. It's not just about time. It's about our wounded veterans suffering because they got wounded. It's wrong and it has to change today.

GAO finds Army medical evaluations lacking

GAO finds Army medical evaluations lacking

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 17:10:17 EDT

The Army does not keep good enough records to properly determine which soldiers with medical issues are eligible to deploy, according to a new Government Accountability Office study released Tuesday.

And GAO estimated that 3 percent of soldiers deploying from Forts Benning and Stewart in Georgia and Fort Drum, N.Y., who are required by their medical issues to go before the medical evaluation board did not do so before they deployed.

In other words, soldiers who might have been discharged from the military for medical conditions that make them unable to do their jobs were instead deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The GAO chose those bases because they had large numbers of deployed soldiers during the year previous to the study.

“In some cases, soldiers were not evaluated because commanders lacked timely access to profiles,” the report stated. “In other cases, commanders did not take timely actions.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/military_medicalissues_deploy_061008w/

PTSD soldier: "Don't send me back to Iraq"

Twinsburg soldier: Please don't send me back to Iraq
WKYC-TV - Cleveland,OH,USA
TWINSBURG -- A Twinsburg soldier does not want to go back to Iraq after the struggle he endured following his first two tours of duty.

Second Lt. Erick Anderson was accused not once, but twice of killing Iraqi civilians. He was cleared of all charges and is now being asked by the military to go to Iraq again.

He is scheduled to report to Fort Benning on August 3 and then ship back out to Iraq soon after.

U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Bainbridge, says the 29-year-old has paid his dues. After dealing with two sets of false charges, Anderson suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome.

The charges were based on soldiers who were already convicted. They took a plea bargain to get a shorter sentence.

Anderson's uncle, attorney Pete Lorenz, says they recanted their stories and admitted they had lied.

"They (the military) knowingly had a lousy case, a case built on lies," Lorenz said.

He says its unfair that the military expects him to serve again after falsely accusing him twice of murder.

© 2008 WKYC-TV

Fort Benning denies firing range was "known" problem

Post denies firing range fuss
Benning soldiers told Washington newspaper living in barracks near ranges triggers PTSD

BY MICK WALSH - mwalsh@ledger-enquirer.com --
Photo by Shannon Szwarc / Ledger-EnquirerSoldiers prepare for rifle shooting practice at Fort Benning’s McAndrews Range on Dixie Road and near the Warrior Transition Battalion barracks Tuesday afternoon.

Admittedly, said the commander of Fort Benning's Warrior Transition Battalion, it may not have been the best of ideas to build his unit's barracks across from a firing range.

Especially since 10-15 percent of the battalion's 350 soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Lt. Col. Sean Mulcahey bristled at the notion that soldiers' requests to transfer to another housing unit, one far from the McAndrews and Shelton Ranges across Dixie Road, are ignored.
Mulcahey was responding to WTB soldiers' charges in a Washington Post article that post officials ignored their repeated complaints about the sound of gunfire.

Mulcahey, who took command of the battalion in late April, and two ombudsmen, who serve as liaisons between the soldiers in the battalion and medical officials, said they never have received such complaints from Sgt. Jonathan Strickland or Sgt. Jonathon Redding, who were quoted at length in the Post story.

"No soldier has ever talked to me about the ranges," Mulcahey said to the author of the Post article, Ann Scott Tyson.

Later, he told a Ledger-Enquirer reporter his unit has fielded requests from soldiers in the past to move to an area away from the ranges and all those requests have been granted.

"That's why this story is so disheartening," he said in a conference room inside his headquarters.



"We respond quickly to any request from any of our soldiers. There are so many ways a complaint can be fielded -- to anyone in the chain of command, to the chaplain, to the Wounded Warrior hotline.

Terry Beckwith, the chief of public affairs and marketing for Martin Army Community Hospital, said the ranges were in operation 19 of the past 30 days, primarily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Only three times during that period was firing conducted at night (8 p.m. to midnight).

go here for more
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/339465.html


How can they say they didn't know there was a problem for the PTSD wounded? Why else would others have asked to be moved? What were they thinking or were they thinking at all?

19 days out of 30 the range was in use from 8:00 to 2:00, which means six hours of machine gun fire. Three other times it was from 8:00 at night to midnight. Any idea what that would do to PTSD wounded trying to heal from what they already lived through, being reminded of what caused the wound they carried all the way home? There is no excuse for this. They should have known if they knew anything about PTSD!

Part of the biggest problem with sending them back to combat when they have PTSD is they are being sent back to more trauma. Putting Warrior Transition unit wounded next to a firing range is worse than sending them back because back in Iraq and Afghanistan, the risk is part of "normal" life there but home to heal, it is far from "normal" to hear gun fire an ear shot away!



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

International Fellowship of Chaplains

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Fort Benning:PTSD to "recover" near bullets?

What lame brain decided sending PTSD soldiers next to firing range to "recover" would be a helpful thing? Are they out of their minds? Do they know anything about PTSD? What's next? Sending soldiers with amputations next to bombing ranges to "recover" and have them dodge targets as therapy?

Just when you think it's getting better for the wounded, (and yes that is exactly what they are) and there is hope for them to recover without screwing around anymore, they pull something like this! When will these reports get to the point when we can finally, once and for all know they are taking PTSD seriously? All of this leads to the rise in the death count from suicide and the rise in attempted suicides. Can't they understand this?

Sgt. Jonathan Strickland, 25, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, in barracks at Fort Benning that house wounded and are soldiers located across from several major firing ranges.

Firing ranges complicate vets' PTSD recoverySoldiers at Fort Benning say proximity to gunfire aggravates their disorder

By Ann Scott Tyson

updated 3:24 a.m. ET, Tues., June. 3, 2008
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.

Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.

Across the street from their assigned housing, about 200 yards away, are some of the Army infantry's main firing ranges, and day and night, several days each week, barrages from rifles and machine guns echo around Strickland's building. The noise makes the wounded cringe, startle in their formations, and stay awake and on edge, according to several soldiers interviewed at the barracks last month. The gunfire recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack, they said.

Soldiers interviewed said complaints to medical personnel at Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital and officers in their chain of command have brought no relief, prompting one soldier's father to contact The Washington Post. Fort Benning officials said that they were unaware of specific complaints but that decisions about housing and treatment for soldiers with PTSD depend on the severity of each case. They said day and night training must continue as new soldiers arrive and the Army grows.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24942390/

Appeal: War trauma in Iraq led GI to kill

Appeal: War trauma in Iraq led GI to kill


By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/20/08

When Pfc. Alberto Martinez returned from heavy combat in Iraq in 2003, he reported tightness in his chest, memory loss and sleeplessness. He would not go to bed without his gun. He repeatedly checked his windows and doors to make sure they were locked.

The soldier in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division had classic symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, according to court records. But he did not get help for it.


Instead, a few days after returning to Fort Benning, Martinez and four other soldiers who had fought side by side during some of the most violent battles in Iraq, went out for a night of hard drinking in Columbus. They first hit Hooters, then drove to the Platinum Club, a strip club.

By the end of the night, one soldier, Spc. Richard R. Davis, 24, was a tattered corpse, stabbed more than 30 times by Martinez.

The Georgia Supreme Court today will hear the appeal of Martinez, 27, convicted in 2006 of Davis' murder and serving life in prison.

Martinez's jury was never told his post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have explained his murderous act. His lawyer, David West of Marietta, argues Martinez deserves a new trial because his lawyers failed him by not adequately investigating an insanity defense.

Muscogee County prosecutors reject the notion that Martinez was delusional when he killed Davis on July 13, 2003. They argue there was bad blood between Martinez and Davis dating back to their tour in Iraq and that animosity, fueled by alcohol, triggered the slaying.

They note Roger Enfield, director of forensic services at West Central Georgia Regional Hospital, interviewed Martinez before the trial and concluded the soldier knew what he was doing when he killed Davis.

"I think there's a possibility that he had some degree of PTSD," Enfield testified. "The question is what role did it play."

Martinez's trial lawyers, called to testify on Martinez's motion for a new trial, rejected the insanity defense as well. Both attorneys said they did not believe the jury would have accepted it.

"Basically we felt like the jury would feel that he was admitting to the act, which was rather gruesome and also that it was very prolonged," attorney Thomas Flournoy III testified. "It wasn't just a ... sudden impulse."
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/05/20/soldier_0520.html
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