Fallen Soldier's Mom Sent to Collections by Funeral Home?

FUNERAL HOME COLLECTION NOTICES SENT TO MOM OF FALLEN SOLDIER
ABC 7 News Chicago
By Steve Campion
September 17, 2014

HOUSTON -- With bill collectors calling and letters arriving in the mail, a Houston mother said she's forced to relive her son's death.

Sergeant Graham Woody passed away in April of 2013. He died from injuries sustained in a military exercise in Fort Bliss. His mother, Maddi Armstrong, held a service for him days later at the Setteghast-Koph Funeral home in Sugar Land.

"Graham was an amazing, amazing kid. He graduated from A and M with an engineering degree," remembered Armstrong.

Armstrong says Woody joined the Army out of a love for his country.

In June of this year -- more than a year after his death -- Armstrong said she first got a call from a debt collector. Just last week, she received a letter for more than $5,000 in monies owed. The company even offered her a settlement.
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Fort Bliss "Chaplain with the dog"

'Chaplain with the Dog' breaks down barriers at Fort Bliss, Afghanistan
El Paso Times
By David Burge
POSTED: 07/06/2014

Army Chaplain (Maj.) Karen Hallett feeds Sgt. Zoe, a black Labrador retriever therapy dog, a treat Wednesday in her office. (VICTOR CALZADA-EL PASO TIMES )

Chaplain Maj. Karen Hallett has a sidekick she is seen almost everywhere with — her dog, Sgt. Zoe, a psychiatric service dog who is trained to help people dealing with post traumatic stress.

Hallett, 49, from Vernon, N.J., has had Sgt. Zoe since February 2012 and uses her as a way to break down barriers and provide additional support to the soldiers in her unit and around the Army.

Her dog can often be seen laying in the doorway of her office at West Fort Bliss, beckoning visitors.

"Here is how it works," Hallett said. "Someone comes by. Zoe is laying out in the hallway. She's cute. They stop. They pet her. I have a chance to say, 'Hey, how are you doing? What's going on?' Very often, they will come in and sit down and talk about whatever. It opens a door that wouldn't be open to me normally.

"I almost can't get work done in my office, which is what we want as a chaplain," she said. "We want people to stop by."

Hallett, a nondenominational Christian chaplain, has been the brigade chaplain for 402nd Field Artillery Brigade, First Army, Division West at Fort Bliss since April 2013.

Before that, she served as the brigade chaplain for the 411th Engineer Brigade, a reserve unit out of New York state. While with the 411th, she deployed to Afghanistan in 2012-13 and brought the dog with her.
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Fort Bliss Command Sgt. Major Died After Being Wounded

Soldier who helped in Jessica Lynch rescue dies after Afghanistan attack
Stars and Stripes
By Audrea Huff
Published: May 16, 2014

Command Sgt. Maj. Martin R. Barreras
FORT BLISS PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE/U.S. ARMY

A Fort Bliss command sergeant major died at a Texas hospital a week after his unit was attacked in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Command Sgt. Maj. Martin R. Barreras, 49, of Tucson, Ariz., died Tuesday at San Antonio Military Medical Center from wounds sustained when enemy forces opened fire on his unit May 6 in Herat province.

Fox News reported Friday that a friend and fellow Ranger said in an email that Barreras was the leader of the Army unit that conducted the successful rescue of Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. The friend said Barreras personally handed Lynch to another soldier to transfer her to the helicopter that evacuated her from the area.

And in a story on military.com, he is credited with advising the actors in the 2001 film, "Black Hawk Down."

Then-Sgt. 1st Class Martin Barreras was quoted as saying, “I want them to remember the sense of teamwork that is inherent to a Ranger organization and the amount of attention to detail that’s required from every individual that is part of that team.”
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Ocala-based 351st Military Police Company Sent Off By Hundreds

Hundreds wish Ocala-based soldiers going to Afghanistan well
Gainsville.com
By Andy Fillmore
Correspondent
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2014

Spc Daryl Robinson and his son Derrick spend a moment during the public farewell for the 351st MP company at the Ocala Marion County Veterans Memorial Park Saturday May 10, 2014. Families and friends of the unit gathered to wish them a public farewell before they deploy to Fort Bliss Texas for training then Afghanistan.
Alan Youngblood/Ocala Star-Banner

OCALA -- About 800 well-wishers gathered at the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Park Saturday for a deployment ceremony for the Ocala-based 351st Military Police Company as the 150-soldier, Ocala-based unit heads for a yearlong stint in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Amid cheers and tears, the three-platoon unit entered the park, marching to “The Army Song” played by the Kingdom of the Sun Band.

Company commander Capt. Douglas Worstell, 42, of Orlando, on his fifth deployment, addressed the crowd about the 351st, which he has nicknamed “The Outlaws.”

“I promise no soldier will go on a mission without the proper training or equipment. We have been entrusted with your loved ones,” he said.
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Fort Bragg soldier killed, 3 injured in Chinook crash

Bragg soldier killed, 3 injured in Chinook crash
Army Times
Staff Report
May. 5, 2014

A soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division’s combat aviation brigade was killed and three others injured in a helicopter accident Saturday, the Army announced Monday.

Sgt. Dwight Burn, 27, of Barstow, California, died from his injuries when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, on which he was a crew member, crashed about 8:15 p.m. at the northern training area near Orogrande, New Mexico.

The soldiers, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were conducting high altitude mountainous environment training at Fort Bliss, Texas.
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Over 100 Army Reserve MPs heading to Afghanistan

Ocala-based Army Reserve unit heading to Afghanistan
Ocala Star Banner
By Bill Thompson
Staff writer
Published: Monday, April 28, 2014

As the U.S. mission in Afghanistan winds down, more than 100 soldiers from the Ocala-based 351st Military Police Company are gearing up for another tour.

Capt. Douglas Worstell said he will be leading the unit on a deployment to an area near Bagram as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Worstell said he could not reveal many details about the Army Reserve unit's mission during its yearlong stint on active duty, which begins on May 8, when the troops are expected to report to Ocala.

They will leave soon afterward for Fort Bliss, Texas, for additional training prior to being shipped to Afghanistan, Worstell said.

A community ceremony marking the unit's return to duty will be held on May 10.

The event is set for 10 a.m. at the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, 2601 E. Fort King St., Ocala.
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Fort Bliss had 3 deaths Easter weekend thought to be suicides

3 possible suicides at Fort Bliss last weekend
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
April 24, 2014

According to Air Force figures, 55 airmen died by suicide last year, a rate of 14 per 100,000 personnel. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told a Senate panel in April that 32 airmen have died by suicide so far in 2014, a rate of more than 18 per 100,000 personnel.

Fort Bliss, Texas, is reeling from three deaths on Easter weekend that, while still under investigation, are thought to be suicides.

A source told Military Times that two enlisted soldiers and a captain have died by suicide since April 17, a blow to a post that has built a new center for mental health and suicide prevention and where President Obama in 2012 announced an executive order expanding military and veterans mental health services.

Exactly how many suicides the Army has had this year is unknown; the service, which once published the data monthly, stopped issuing them in December. The service also has not released its total figures for 2013, although preliminary figures given to Military Times in February showed 150 suicides among Army active-duty and activated Reserve or National Guard troops.
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Family told to leave Iraq veteran in ICU after motorcycle crash

Iraq veteran died after motorcycle crash
KFOX
By: Bill Melugin
December 5 2013

EL PASO, Texas -- The 34-year-old man who was injured over the weekend when his motorcycle struck a median along Lee Trevino Drive near Rojas has died. Daniel Vanegas, a former Fort Bliss soldier and three time Iraq War veteran, died Wednesday evening while in the hospital, said Venegas' family members.

El Paso police said Vanegas suffered a serious head injury when his 2006 green and black Harley-Davidson motorcycle collided with a median. He was taken to Del Sol Medical Center. KFOX14 spoke with Vanegas' family the day before he passed way.

They alleged that a nurse at Del Sol made an already difficult experience even harder for the family.

Daniel's mother, Maria Vanegas, lives in San Antonio, and flew into El Paso as soon as she heard the news. "I got the call at 3 a.m Sunday morning about my son's accident," Vanegas said. "As soon as we got here, we went to see Daniel in the intensive care unit."

Other family members had flown in as well, some from California. Vanegas told KFOX14 many of them were waiting to see Daniel in the ICU waiting room when a nurse allegedly approached them with two security guards, and told them to leave so the room could be cleaned. "My daughter in law said 'Well I'm his wife,', they said 'Well you can stay, we can accommodate you, but everyone else can go home,' and I said 'Wait a minute, what about me? I'm his mother, I have a right to be with my son," Vanegas said.

"She said, 'Well this is not a hotel, you should've made arrangements to stay, and planned ahead."
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Soldier watched pregnant wife stabbed on video from Afghanistan

Soldier's wife, days after stabbing, holds newborn for first time

UPDATE
Soldier arrested in attack on pregnant Army wife as she chatted via app with husband overseas
FoxNews.com
Published November 03, 2013

In the aftermath, Justin Poole quickly took to Facebook and posted a message about the attacker, as well as phoned Corey Bernard Moss’ colleagues at Fort Bliss, where he apparently knew Moss was training to be a soldier.

"If u are seeing this message find out what f---g hospital my wife is in and tell me the f---g whereabouts of Corey Moss,” Justin Poole reportedly wrote on his Facebook account. “He f---g went to my house while I'm deployed and stabbed her...today.”

Moss, 19, was soon apprehended upon his return to the base, and is now being held in lieu of $150,000 bond on attempted murder charges, according to ABCNews.com.

Following the attack, a battered Rachel Poole reportedly phoned 911. She was taken to an area hospital and remains in critical condition for stab wounds, fractures to her face and body and a collapsed lung.

ABCNews.com also reports doctors performed a cesarean section on Rachel Poole to deliver a baby girl. Poole’s mother, Rebecca Jones, has declined to elaborate on her daughter’s condition, but told the website the baby girl, “is in good health.”

Justin Poole has reportedly returned to El Paso from overseas, and recently posted pictures of himself and the newborn on his Facebook page, writing, "Rachel Poole is fighting to beat this." read more of this here

U.S. soldier serving abroad watches in horror on FaceTime as his pregnant wife is stabbed by an intruder
Soldier Corey Moss, 19, was arrested in Fort Bliss, Texas, in the knife attack on 31-year-old Rachel Poole
Mrs Poole suffered critical injuries just a week before delivering her baby, who is said to be in good condition
Woman recognized her assailant during attack as a man who owed her husband money for car repairs Army Pvt Justin Pele Poole watched the attack on video chat from his posting in southwest Asia Mr Poole wrote on Facebook that his wife had lost an eye in the attack
Daily Mail
By SNEJANA FARBEROV
PUBLISHED: 12:56 EST, 1 November 2013

A pregnant Texas woman has been stabbed multiple times by an intruder as her horrified soldier husband serving overseas helplessly watched the attack play out in real time on video chat.

Rachel Poole, 31, was talking to her husband, Justin Pele Poole, on FaceTime Wednesday night when a man identified as 19-year-old Corey Moss broke into their El Paso home and lunged at her with a knife.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KFOX14, Mrs Poole recognized her assailant as a man who owed her husband money and screamed out his name.

The 31-year-old mother-to-be, who is nine months pregnant, was rushed to University Medical Center in critical condition suffering from multiple stab wounds and fractures to her body and face. Doctors said her unborn baby girl, who is due in a week, was in good condition. The couple plan to name her Isabella.
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Fort Bliss soldier dies swimming in New Mexico

Wisconsin soldier drowns in New Mexico
Spc. Rob Vande Zande was 21.
By: Associated Press report, Fond du Lac (Wis.) Reporter
September 17, 2013

FOND DU LAC, Wis. — A U.S. Army soldier from Fond du Lac has died while swimming in New Mexico.

Spc. Rob Vande Zande was 21. His wife, Sarah, is due to give birth to their daughter in November. Vande Zande is the oldest son of former Fond du Lac Councilman Rob Vande Zande Sr.
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Fort Bliss soldier died of wounds suffered in April

DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Robert E. Thomas Jr., 24, of Fontana, Calif., died Sept. 13, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered during a non-combat related incident on April 21, 2013, in Maiwand, Afghanistan.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, Fort Bliss, Texas

Oregon sees its own surge in military suicides: Four so far in 2013

Oregon sees its own surge in military suicides: Four so far in 2013
The Oregonian
By Mike Francis
September 08, 2013

At the funeral service for Brady Hammer in Klamath Falls this summer, Travis Nelson, a cousin of Hammer's delivers the salute to Marie Hammer, Brady's mother, who holds the folded flag in her lap. Brady Hammer's sister, Lacee Valentine of Grants Pass, wearing a pink flannel shirt, sits to her mother's right, and his other sister, Kayla King of Oregon City, in the green shirt, sits to her left.
(Courtesy of Lacee Valentine)

Brady Hammer, an Oregon National Guard soldier who died in Texas on July 28 from what El Paso police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was a "happy-go-lucky person," according to his sister.

But the 24-year-old's moods were affected by a confusing cocktail of medications prescribed by his doctors at the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Bliss, where he had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, said his sister, Lacee Valentine of Grants Pass and his mother, Marie Hammer of Klamath Falls.
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Military investigating possible radiation hazard at Fort Bliss

Military investigating possible radiation hazard at Fort Bliss
El Paso Times
By Robert Moore
Posted: 07/16/2013

The military is investigating a potential radiation hazard at a Cold War-era nuclear weapons bunker near El Paso, the El Paso Times has learned.

Army officials are discussing the issue at a 9 a.m. news conference today at Fort Bliss. A press release said the purpose of the news conference was to "make an important announcement about the future of Fort Bliss." Post officials had scheduled a similar news conference for last Friday but canceled it the day before.

Fort Bliss spokesman Maj. Joe Buccino said officials currently believe the risk to the broader community was "fairly negligible," though people who worked in the bunker might have more significant risk. One particular worry would be ingestion of chips of epoxy paint that was used to seal off such bunkers, but might have become loose over the years.

An investigation in recent weeks found levels of alpha and beta radiation in the bunker, but not the more-dangerous gamma radiation, Buccino said.

"We sealed it, we closed it off," he said.
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Wounded soldiers paying debt to Pentagon in accounting errors!

You have the right to remain oblivious if that gets you through your day with your own troubles. Lord knows I have my own but there is no way in hell I will return to the days when these men and women were not worth the time to care. How about you? How can we ever look any of them in the eye and say we support them when we allow all of this to go on?

Special Report: How the Pentagon's payroll quagmire traps America's soldiers
By Scot J. Paltrow and Kelly Carr
EL PASO, Texas
Tue Jul 9, 2013

(Reuters) - As Christmas 2011 approached, U.S. Army medic Shawn Aiken was once again locked in desperate battle with a formidable foe. Not insurgents in Iraq, or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan - enemies he had already encountered with distinguished bravery.

This time, he was up against the U.S. Defense Department.

The mistakes in soldiers' pay may seem small - $1,000 here, a few hundred there. But for an Army private first class making a base annual salary of about $23,000, or a wounded veteran on disability, they can be devastating. Former soldiers have had their civilian wages and their Veterans Administration benefits garnished. They have been pursued by private collection agencies and forced to pay tax penalties. In other cases, too, deserters have continued to be paid for months, and sometimes years, after disappearing.

Aiken, then 30 years old, was in his second month of physical and psychological reconstruction at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, after two tours of combat duty had left him shattered. His war-related afflictions included traumatic brain injury, severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), abnormal eye movements due to nerve damage, chronic pain, and a hip injury.

But the problem that loomed largest that holiday season was different. Aiken had no money. The Defense Department was withholding big chunks of his pay. It had started that October, when he received $2,337.56, instead of his normal monthly take-home pay of about $3,300. He quickly raised the issue with staff. It only got worse. For all of December, his pay came to $117.99.

All Aiken knew was that the Defense Department was taking back money it claimed he owed. Beyond that, "they couldn't even tell me what the debts were from," he says.
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linked from Huffington Post

Victim of Fort Bliss Chaplain re-victimized by Army

Assault survivor talks of retaliation, re-victimization
Sex assault victim: 'I would never ... ever report again'
Army Times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Jul. 1, 2013

The victim of a Fort Bliss, Texas, chaplain who groped and licked her, Michelle Ten Eyck, is saying the Army mistreated her.

The 42-year-old Army contractor was vindicated in court last month, as her tormentor, Maj. Geoffrey Alleyne, pleaded guilty in a military court to charges that include assault and battery against a civilian employee on Fort Bliss, making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was sentenced to six months of confinement June 19.

“There was no protection for me in the system, and I was constantly revictimized,” Ten Eyck told Army Times in a tearful June 26 interview. “Plea deals are done, and we have no say.”

Ten Eyck said she received no comfort from the sentence, which she characterized as “a slap on the wrist.” The ordeal, she said, has left her emotionally and physically spent.

“I’m tired, because this took such a toll on me, on my family,” the mother of six said. “You can only be beat up so many times before you go crazy.”
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Army announces it is cutting 80,000 soldiers

How much would you like to bet they go after PTSD, TBI and wounded but still want to serve?

Army Announces Force Structure and Stationing Decisions

Today the Department of the Army announced force structure and stationing decisions associated with the active component end-strength reduction of 80,000 soldiers, resulting in an Army end-strength of 490,000 by 2017. These reductions are consistent with fiscal constraints resulting from the Budget Control Act of 2011 and defense planning guidance issued in 2012, but do not reflect additional reductions that will be required if sequestration-driven funding reductions remain unmitigated.

Based on extensive analysis, the lessons of a dozen years of combat and the need to increase operational capability and flexibility, the Army will make the following changes to its force structure:

-Reorganize infantry and armor brigade combat teams (BCTs) to restore the third maneuver battalion and increase engineer and fires capability.

-Reduce active component BCTs from 45 modular to 33 reorganized BCTs.

-Continue growth in aviation, special operations, missile defense and cyber capabilities.

This active component force structure, in conjunction with Army National Guard and Army Reserve capabilities, supports the current defense strategy and meets combatant command requirements through regional alignment of forces and global responsiveness for contingencies. The decision to restructure armor and infantry BCTs helps mitigate the loss of BCTs by eliminating the headquarters but preserving 13 Armor and Infantry battalions that would be lost without the reorganization.

Stationing decisions necessitated by the reductions and reorganization were based on a comprehensive analysis of installation quantitative and qualitative considerations to include training, power projection, well-being, expansibility, regeneration, geographic distribution, environmental and socio-economic impacts, cost, and alignment with the defense strategy. Opportunities for community input were included through both the programmatic environment assessment public comment period and community listening sessions conducted in parallel with the military value analysis and qualitative stationing analysis, prior to the final decision.

Based on this comprehensive analysis, a BCT will inactivate at each of the following locations by 2017:

Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Campbell, Ky; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga., and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. Two BCTs, stationed at Baumholder and Grafenwoehr, Germany, will complete their inactivation in Fiscal Year 2013, leaving two BCTs in Europe to fulfill strategic commitments.

The reduction of 80,000 soldiers from the force represents a 14 percent reduction across the AC force. The specific impacts of these decisions on individual installations are being provided to affected Congressional delegations. The Army will conduct Congressional notification in accordance with Section 993, Title 10 U.S.C. prior to taking any irrevocable actions to implement these decisions.
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Common sense and decency demand accountability on military suicides

Common sense and decency demand accountability on military suicides
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
June 24, 2013

The military and the press need to stop pretending change is working. It isn't. It hasn't worked since 2008. Common sense and decency demand accountability especially when what has been done came with higher suicides and attempted suicides.

As long as reporters fail to even know what questions to ask, we will see an increase in veterans committing suicide.

At A Texas Base, Battling Army's Top Threat: Suicide is the headline for an article on KUOW news. Some may find it pretty shocking that the biggest threat is not the Taliban or some other opposing force the troops are sent to fight. Others know it all too well.

It infuriates people of conscience. While it is good the military is trying to do something to reduce suicides the flip side is what they have been doing is producing more suicides. They haven't been able to make the connection so they push every failure hoping for different results.

While the above article is about Fort Bliss and their claim they have reduced suicides the reporter Quil Lawrence lacked enough basic knowledge to accurately report the number of military suicides for 2012. Most reporters have gotten it wrong because they omit the National Guards and Reservists. The LA Times reported 524 service members took their own lives in 2012.

There was a series of reports from The Gazette about what was going on over in Fort Carson. Wounded soldiers were being discharged instead of being taken care of.

The Gazette investigative series "Other Than Honorable," published this week, used Army data to show how the number of soldiers getting discharged for misconduct has surged to its highest levels in recent times.

Those discharged include wounded soldiers, some of whom have served in multiple deployments during a decade of war, who are more likely to break Army rules and then be denied benefits.

Is this how Fort Bliss reduced the number of suicides? We do not know. We only know what happened at Fort Carson because reporters knew enough information to ask the right questions so someone would be held accountable.

Pittard is the same person who did this a year ago.

Fort Bliss Major General Dana Pittard blamed soldiers for suicides claiming it was a selfish act and he was tired of it.

"The remarks may reflect Pittard’s own frustration and emotional exhaustion after a grim few months at Fort Bliss. A total of 14 soldiers from the post were killed in traffic accidents and training mishaps between October and December of last year, along with several suicides. Pittard himself had just come from a memorial service for a soldier who killed himself in front of his twin 6-year-old daughters."

“I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act,” he wrote on his official blog recently. “I am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us.”

This is from the above news report.

"It was kind of a no-brainer," says Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, who last month finished three years as the top commander at Fort Bliss. "Our focus was getting our soldiers to [get] help."

"In 10 years, only one case [of suicide at Fort Bliss] that we know of ... took place when a soldier was in treatment," says Pittard.

Pittard has battled to overcome the military's macho culture that considers reaching for help a sign of weakness. He mandated that all troops arriving at Fort Bliss take a two-day suicide awareness and prevention course that was different from the training used by the rest of the Army.

"In ten years only one case,,, "that we know of." What exactly does that mean? If they are discharged then they do not have to "know" about them. If they are discharged the military does not track them. If they are not in the VA system, the VA doesn't track them. Statistics out of the VA have shown that a very large percentage of suicides tied to military have occurred after they sought help. According to a report tied to a new bill from Senator Joe Donnely, 57% Military suicides happened after they sought help but it also points out that 43% had not sought help. Pittard didn't really clarify his claim.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that since October of 2001, more than 286,000 of the approximately 900,000 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Day who have used Veterans Affairs health care have been coded for PTSD, and an untold number of cases of PTSD remain unreported, undiagnosed and untreated due to lack of awareness about the illness and persistent stigma associated with mental health issues.

Claims made from Pittard along with far too many speaking for the military have not been challenged and they should have been long ago. The results proved what has been happening is the reality of what the servicemen and women face. What the military says is far from reality.

Fort Bliss chaplain gets 6 months for assault

Fort Bliss chaplain gets 6 months for assault
Associated Press
June 20, 2013

FORT BLISS, TEXAS — A chaplain at a West Texas post has been sentenced to six months of confinement after pleading guilty to assault and battery on a female civilian.

Officials at Fort Bliss on Wednesday night announced the penalty for Maj. Geoffrey Alleyne. Military investigators say the charges stem from a series of encounters last year between Alleyne and the civilian worker.
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El Paso residents upset over air show being canceled but not much else?

When Fort Bliss officials had to cancel the air show people got upset over entertainment they would have to do without. Are they upset with what the military has to do without because of sequestration cuts?

Fort Bliss receiving backlash from public over cancellation of Amigo Airsho
By Bill Melugin
June 8, 2013


EL PASO, Texas — Fort Bliss spokesman Maj. Joe Buccino told KFOX14 he woke up to a barrage of emails Saturday morning, most of which were from unhappy El Paso residents who are angry about the cancellation of the Amigo Airsho.

The airshow has been a yearly tradition for the last 31 years, drawing huge crowds every year it's been in action at Fort Bliss' Biggs Army Airfield, but due to sequestration, the military post can no longer host the event.

"Well, the reaction has not been positive. People like the air show, people are accustomed to doing it, and it's something people in the community have grown up with in some cases," Buccino said. "We understand that people are upset about this, but this wasn't a decision Fort Bliss made, we were forced to make this decision by the Department of Defense guidance on sequestration."

At a time when sequestration is forcing Fort Bliss to cut back on supplies and furlough some of its workers, Buccino says it would send the wrong message if they spent money to host the extravagant airshow, on top of the fact that hosting civilian airshows is prohibited under sequestration.
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AWOL Fort Bliss soldier charged after body of baby found

Former Fort Bliss soldier and girlfriend charged after body of baby found buried
KFOX News
By Gina Benitez
June 9, 2013

HILLSBORO, OH — A Fort Bliss soldier, who went AWOL for seven months, is charged after his girlfriend's child is found dead in a wooded area in Ohio.

"I can confirm that the soldier, Nathen Ritze, was a Fort Bliss soldier who went, essentially absent without leave," said Maj. Joe Buccino, Fort Bliss spokesman.

Ritze went AWOL last November.

But his problems don't stop there.
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