Ocala Missing Veteran Alert Walked Away from VA Clinic

Update: Missing, endangered veteran found dead

Law enforcement officials said Friday afternoon that a missing 21-year-old U.S. Navy veteran was found dead near the vehicle he had been driving.

OPD seeks help finding missing, endangered veteran
Ocala Star Banner
Austin L Miller
June 30, 2017

Ocala Police Department officers are asking for the public’s assistance in finding a 21-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who is considered missing and endangered.

Mac McKeon, the father of Mark Raymond McKeon Jr., said Friday that his son checked himself out of the Veterans Administration Clinic in Gainesville against doctors advice on Monday. He said his son called and told him he knew it was a bad idea to leave.

McKeon said that after his son left the facility, he visited a friend and talked with several other people. He said his son lives with his sister and her husband in the 2000 block of Southwest Ninth Road in Ocala. He said his son left the home on Wednesday, which was the last time anyone has seen or heard from him.

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AdministrativeChanges at North Florida VA Facilities

Investigation reveals need for training, administrative changes at North Florida VA facilities
Action News Jax
by: Samantha Manning
Mar 4, 2016

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
Veterans Affairs said it has made changes after an investigation revealed a need for administrative changes and staff training at some of the facilities in Northeast Florida.

The investigation by the VA Office of the Inspector General did not find any evidence of intentional wrongdoing for the four main facilities serving the greater Jacksonville area.

Training, administrative changes needed at North Florida VA facilities The VA OIG investigations stem from 2014 complaints regarding patient times.

Petty Officer Chris Taylor served as a Navy Hospital corpsman for 12 years and told Action News Jax he suffers from a traumatic brain injury.

Taylor said he has been waiting for more than a year to see a neurologist at the VA Outpatient Clinic in Jacksonville.

“You call them and they put you on hold and they say you’ll get a letter in the mail, and you just never get anything,” Taylor said.

The investigation reveals the need for an administrative change at the VA Outpatient Clinic in Jacksonville when it comes to recording eyeglass prescriptions.

A report also reveals a lack of training for staff at the VA Medical Center in Gainesville.
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Iraq Veteran missing in Gainesville

Iraq veteran Larry Vantassel still missing in Gainesville
WUFT.com
Forrest Smith
May 20th, 2013
Gainesville Police Department
Larry Vantassell, 52
Gainesville police say they still haven’t been able to find 51-year-old Laurence Vantassell.

Police have considered him missing and endangered since Saturday, when he apparently called his out-of-state parents and indicated he was thinking of killing himself. Vantassell is a combat veteran from Iraq, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and other undisclosed injuries.

GPD spokesman Ben Tobias told WUFT Monday morning that a friend of VanTassell’s said he might have checked into a rehab facility, which the friend said he has been known to do.
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Marine Veteran in Pink Tutu Knocks Out Disabled Vet In Wheelchair

Marine Veteran in Pink Tutu Knocks Out Disabled Vet In Wheelchair Over Costume Dispute
by Jonathan Turley
November 1, 2012
Bizarre , Criminal law , Society

We are just hearing about torts and crimes rolling in from Halloween (to be added to our 2013 listing of Spooky Torts).

None are quite as bizarre as the arrest of Christopher Dabney, 22, a Marine veteran who took offense at the costume of Daniel Priotti in a wheelchair. It appears that Priotti was dressed as a veteran in a wheelchair. It turns out that Priotti is a disabled Marine veteran confined to a wheelchair.

At the time of the attack, Dabney was wearing a pink tutu.

The scene unfolded in a Pita Pit restaurant in Gainesville, Florida around 2 a.m. when both were in line. Dabney reportedly called Priotti a “fake” and hit the victim twice and knocked him unconscious. Dabney was stopped by men at the restaurant from leaving.
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Returning soldiers find themselves in fragile state

Returning soldiers find themselves in fragile state
By Christopher Curry
Staff writer
Published: Saturday, March 3, 2012

U.S. Marine Marco Grosso. Grosso, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, committed suicide in Gainesville last November. (Submitted Photo)

From childhood, Marco Grosso dreamed of serving in the military. His family recalls him dressed in camouflage and playing army in the woods behind his family's home near Syracuse, N.Y.

In 2007, he graduated from high school and enrolled in the Marines, a fresh-faced 17-year-old aiming to fight for his country and become a military lifer.

Grosso served two tours in Afghanistan's brutal Helmand Province. There, in March 2010, as he rode in an armored vehicle, a land mine explosion knocked him unconscious and wrecked his life.

He returned to the battlefield three weeks later and was awarded a Purple Heart. It was only after he returned home and was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that he learned the blast had cut short his military career.

He and three battle buddies, friends from his Camp LeJeune days, moved to Gainesville when they left the Marines. They were drawn here for school and work but mainly because they had experienced the college town's nightlife on several unauthorized jaunts from the North Carolina base and wanted another taste.

On Nov. 6, 2011, after a Sunday night out at a bar with his friends, Grosso returned to his Gainesville townhouse. Sometime after 11:30 p.m., he put on his Marine Corps dress blue uniform, put a rifle to his head and pulled the trigger.

He was 22 years old.

PTSD rates are as high as 35 percent in returning veterans, and those veterans are four times as likely to have suicidal thoughts, according to three studies the Journal of Traumatic Stress published in 2009 and 2010.

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Interstate 75 crashes kill at least 10 near Gainesville

Interstate 75 crashes kill at least 10 near Gainesville

By David Breen
5:04 p.m. EST, January 29, 2012

Interstate 75 is shut down this afternoon in Alachua County after a series of fatal crashes killed 10 people overnight.

Lt. Patrick Riordan of the Florida Highway Patrol said cars and trucks piled up amid poor visibility from fog and smoke from nearby wildfires. At least 18 people were taken to area hospitals as well.


At least 12 passenger cars and about seven semi-trucks were involved in the crashes, which happened at about 4 a.m. in both northbound and southbound lanes near Mile Marker 379, the FHP said.

FHP spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes said it could take days to piece together how many separate accidents took place.
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Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan

Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
3 Other Soldiers Die After Insurgents Attack

WJXT-TV
updated 5/19/2011 3:45:20 PM ET
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 26-year-old Gainesville soldier was among four killed during an attack in Afghanistan on Monday.

Pvt. Lamarol J. Tucker, of Gainesville, died from injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device in Zabul province, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
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Gainesville Soldier Killed In Afghanistan

Florida Sheriff's Office honored to escort fallen Marine back home

Sheriff's Office honored to escort fallen Marine back home

By Lise Fisher
Staff writer


Published: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 4:19 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 4:19 p.m.


When officers on Thursday escort the body of Lance Cpl. Philip Paul Clark back to Gainesville, they will be honoring a hero.

"It's to send a message to those who are serving in the armed forces that we recognize their sacrifice and their commitment," Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said.

Area law enforcement agencies will escort Clark's body from Jacksonville to Gainesville, before arriving at the Williams-Thomas Funeral Home in Jonesville.


Clark, 19, died on May 18 while serving in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. Marine was hit with shrapnel in both legs while on patrol in Marjah, Afghanistan, his family has said. He was a 2008 graduate of Buchholz High School.
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http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100526/ARTICLES/100529576/1002