Kindness Melted Gulf War Veteran's Heart For Christmas

Veteran's family gets surprise
The Daily Item
By Justin Strawser
December 24, 2016

“There’s a lot of love in every package there,” DeFacis said.

Justin Strawser The Daily Item
Ray DeFacis, left, one of Santa's helpers in Sunbury and the co-founder of Santa's Miracle Gift of Giving, delivers presents to Anthony and Regina Fera, of Shamokin, on Friday morning.

SHAMOKIN —Anthony Fera and Ray DeFacis embraced Friday afternoon, tears in both their eyes, at the Chestnut Street home in Shamokin. Moments before, DeFacis and other volunteers dropped off dozens of presents to the Fera family of eight.

Fera, 41, a disabled Gulf War veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, said the gesture from DeFacis and the Santa’s Miracle Gift of Giving to him, his wife and six children inspired him and melted his frozen heart.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been bitter and becoming hard,” Fera said. “This renewed and rebirthed my giving spirit.”

DeFacis, who plays Santa Claus in Sunbury, is the co-founder of Santa’s Miracle Gift of Giving, a program that provides gifts and food for families across the Valley. The Fera family was one of four families who received a delivery from Santa and his helpers on Friday.

Fera and his wife, Regina Fera, 36, have one income and are raising six children: Joslynn, 14; Gabriel, 10; Joshua, 8; Leah-Marie, 6; Hannah, 4; and Autumn-Rose, 2. The family has two dogs: Snowball, a 4-year-old English golden retriever, and Athena, a 10-month-old English mastiff.

Regina Fera is a stay-at-home mother while her husband is a painter for a sub-contracting business, but work is slow in the winter months. Anthony Fera also experiences Post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety issues from combat, hearing loss from working with explosives during the war and is constant pain due to injuries from his current career. He does receive some benefits from the VA, but it’s not enough.
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Different Generations of Veterans Open Up About PTSD

Veterans open up about struggles with PTSD
WFAA
Sonia Azad
November 14, 2016

Up to 20 percent of Veterans who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom; 12 percent of Gulf War veterans; and an estimated 30 percent of Vietnam veterans, in their lifetime. 

Ed Reith, Jess Johnson and Timothy Jackson are bound by brotherhood.

“Primarily, we're warrior mentality,” said Reith, who served in Vietnam. “You don't want to admit weakness."

The three men are veterans who are haunted by the troubles of healing after war.

“You can't concentrate,” explained Johnson, a cancer survivor who served as a combat medic during the Vietnam War. “All you're thinking about is your friend who died in your arms -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Johnson is intimately familiar with the horrors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“I don't want to hear any noise, I want to be quiet, I don't want to meet new people,” recalled Johnson. “There's always a residual effect to post traumatic stress, but my ability to interact with people has improved tremendously.”

Reith, a retired staff sergeant, still fights tremors in his hands.

“Getting mad and throwing a knife through a table is not a normal reaction,” said Reith. “Getting mad and throwing a water bottle is not a normal reaction."
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Military Suicide Risk Higher Back Home

Veterans may face higher risk of suicide during first year home
Reuters
October 28, 2016

When they left the military, the risk of suicide remained higher than for current service members for several years. Six years after leaving the military, veterans had a 63 percent higher risk of suicide than those still in the service, the study found.

Veterans may be more likely to commit suicide during the first year after they leave the military than after more time passes, a U.S. study suggests.

Compared with people still on active duty in the military, veterans out of the service for up to three months were 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide, the study found. Veterans who had left the service from three to 12 months earlier had almost triple the suicide odds of current members of the military.

"Family members and community can be proactive to reach out to veterans if they recently experienced stressful events - not just limited to the stressful events we can capture in the data such as divorce or separation from the military," said lead study author Yu-Chu Shen, a researcher at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

"In addition, clinicians should be aware that deployments may increase suicide risk independently of underlying mental disorders, and so asking patients about deployment history is advisable," Shen said by email.

However, in the first quarter following deployment, service members had a 50 percent higher risk of suicide than their peers who didn't experience deployment.

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Gulf War Veteran Woke Up From Coma After Final Prayer

Veteran awakens from coma during final prayer; family now faces mountain of red tape to bring him home
WHNT News
BY DAVID KUMBROCH
OCTOBER 17, 2016

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A Gulf War veteran’s family had to make a difficult choice recently, and only a miracle could change their tragic course.

Gulf War veteran Frank Bedwell was in a coma. With the pressure of a brain bleed pressing against them, his family came to a conclusion.

“My kids and myself, we all knew what he would want for himself. We knew that he didn’t want to live on machines for the rest of his life,” said Amy Bedwell, Frank’s wife.

They decided to turn off the machines at six o’clock.

“Fifteen minutes before it was time to pull the plug, I sent everybody out except for my kids,” Amy recalled.

“We called my dad. We prayed for him. And he woke up.”
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More Than $500 Million Into Researching Gulf War Veterans, No Answers

Still sick 25 years after the Gulf War, a vet seeks answers — and the Minneapolis VA may have them.
Star Tribune
By Jeremy Olson
AUGUST 14, 2016

More than $500 million in research hasn’t found causes or cures for the illness, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs classifies as “unexplained illness” or “chronic multisymptom illness.”

Chad Donovan of Rochester is fighting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to acknowledge his pain and other symptoms as related to Gulf War Illness.

It’s been 25 years, and Chad Donovan still wonders which toxic hazard in the Gulf War might have caused the fatigue, stomach problems and rashes he has suffered ever since.

Maybe it was the nerve gas pills, which his unit took in Saudi Arabia while standing in formation so nobody refused.

Maybe one of the “false alarms” after a missile attack really did signal the presence of chemical weapons.

Maybe the mushroom-cloud detonation of unused Iraqi ordnance whooshed toxins into the air.

And then there were the sand fleas, pesticides, burning oil wells, dust storms and uranium-depleted bullets that made the Gulf War one of the most toxic conflicts in history.

Today, researchers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center are leading a wave of studies to solve the mystery of Gulf War Illness, a cluster of unexplained symptoms reported by 25 to 65 percent of the 700,000 soldiers deployed to the Gulf in 1990 and 1991. They have identified genetic markers that could improve tests and treatment, one of the most significant advances in years, and started a clinical trial on a promising prescription drug.
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Gulf War Veteran-Des Moines Police Officer Remembered For Service

Fallen West Des Moines officer found ways to serve others
The Des Moines Register
MacKenzie Elmer and Charly Haley
August 4, 2016

Miller graduated in 1987 and joined the Iowa National Guard, serving in the 186th Military Police Company. His company deployed to northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Desert Storm from January 1991 through May 1991.

Shawn Miller was remembered Thursday as a leader who found ways big and small to touch the community he served as a police officer for 26 years.

(Photo: West Des Moines Police Department)

The 47-year-old was killed in the line of duty Wednesday after colliding with a car while riding his personal motorcycle on U.S. Highway 169 in Dallas County. He was returning to West Des Moines after testifying in a hit-and-run case at the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel.

"It's always the good ones that go," said Joe Carter, of West Des Moines.

Carter knew Miller from the officer's off-duty job as a security guard at the Sheraton hotel in West Des Moines. Miller was always there to bring order during hectic weekends when Carter worked the hotel's front desk.
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Neighbors Choice on 4th of July PTSD Veterans Do Not Get One?

'Sounds of war' make celebrating freedom tough for local vets
The Leaf Chronicle
Ayrika L. Whitney
July 1, 2016

In his neighborhood close to home — where he is not always expecting it — is another story.

Retired 1st Sgt. John Brown served in the Army for 23 years and has served in four combat tours in Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has been in therapy for his PTSD for 10 years.
(Photo: Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle)

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Independence Day makes most think of fireworks, cookouts and long weekends spent with friends and family.

The loud booms and cracks the fireworks make usually bring "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd as expressions of delight light up their faces.

But for others in Clarksville, the fireworks can bring back flashbacks of war-torn countries and memories of gunfire and combat. Most of those people are the same ones who fought to preserve the freedoms the holiday celebrates – veterans who are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some spend days or weeks preparing mentally to withstand the typical holiday barrage of fireworks.

According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Vietnam veterans are the most likely to suffer from PTSD with an estimated 30% experiencing the disorder at some point in their lifetimes.

Army retired 1st Sgt. John Brown still enjoys the 4th of July fireworks — on his own terms.

Brown saw combat in Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and served for 23 years before retiring in 2011. He served four tours in combat.

He will go to fireworks shows with his family this time of year, and for him the awareness that he is in an environment with loud noises makes a difference.
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Four Out of Five Gulf War Veteran VA Claims Denied

Veteran with Gulf War syndrome: ‘I shouldn’t be like this’
Post Courier
by Derrek Asberry
Jun 7 2016

Hardie told the committee that 54,193 Gulf War syndrome claims had been filed with the VA as of March 2014. Of those claims, 42,977 of them, or four out of every five, were denied.

Gulf War veteran Justin Vosicky talks about his struggles with the VA.

Brad Nettles/Staff

Within two minutes of answering his door and sitting down for an interview, Army veteran Justin Vosicky removed his shirt, revealing the feeding tubes he had placed in his abdomen in 2013.

“Sorry, I can’t stop sweating,” said Vosicky, who was also shivering repeatedly after taking enough medication to briefly stifle his abdominal pain.

Following a 10-year stint in the Army, from 2000 to 2010, Vosicky was told by VA doctors that he had Gulf War syndrome, a sickness that the VA prefers to call “chronic multisymptom illness” or “undiagnosed illnesses,” since any number of issues could be plaguing a patient.

The VA cannot pinpoint a cause of Gulf War Syndrome, which may afflict tens of thousands of veterans from both Gulf Wars. Outside theories include exposure to nerve gas, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric disorders.
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Gulf War Veteran Heartbroken To Find Body of National Guardsman Hanging

Man reacts to finding fellow veteran dead
Mineral Wells Index
Todd Glasscock
May 27, 2016

“It was really heartbreaking,” said Page, a disabled veteran of the Gulf War, his voice breaking over the phone during an interview. “I definitely cried my eyes out.”

GRAFORD – Every Sunday Mike Page walks to a cafe here to a get a paper, and as he does so, he walks past the Old Peppermill liquor store. Until this past Sunday, those walks were uneventful.

On May 22, Page said he found the body of a young man underneath the store's carport. The young man, Dustin Yeoman, 23, had apparently committed suicide by hanging himself.

Yeoman was wearing a military uniform, Page said.

Yeoman's obituary confirms he was in the National Guard. He was living in Graford, but was originally from Ollie, Iowa.

The Index reached out by phone and online to Yeoman's family for comment but has been unsuccessful with those attempts.

Long said he spoke to Yeoman's National Guard Sergeant Major and confirmed he was an Iraq War veteran.
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This quote really pissed me off!

"Though statistics vary, as many as 22 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan commit suicide daily."

I had to leave this comment

It is not "22 a day" and that report from the VA stated it was limited research from just 21 states and it also listed who they knew were missed. That report was not about OEF and OIF veterans only, but of all generations. The majority of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50 and you just trivialized their lives because you used a quote without reading the reports. Dustin Yeoman deserved better and so do all of them. Veterans commit suicide double the civilian rate. As such, when the CDC listed over 41,000 American suicides per year, that translates into over 26,000 veterans a year. They should matter enough to get it right and stop taking the easy way out on reporting on something that is never easy on the family left behind.

Reporters seem to find veterans committing suicide newsworthy however just not worthy enough to do basic research.

Desert Storm Veteran and Dog Healed By Community

Veteran's beloved service dog breaks leg, community steps in to help
5-month-old puppy hurt playing outside needs surgery
WLWT News
By Tammy Mutasa
Published Apr 01, 2016

“I don’t look at it as trying to help Jim or help a veteran. They don’t need our help. To me, it’s repay the debt that’s never going to able to be repaid.” Curt Edwards

CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio —A service dog which has been helping a local veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is the one that needs help now.

Five-month-old Apollo has changed veteran Jim's life forever; he has never left Jim's side since they've been together for the last three months.

“He's my best friend, there ain't no doubt about it,” veteran Jim said.

Jim is an Army 82nd Airborne Division Veteran from Desert Storm battling PTSD.

“He's everything, I don't really have no friends. I don't hang out with nobody. I'm a homebody. It's just me and him,” Jim said. “He's just there for me, you know what I mean, no matter. If I've had super bad day or if I feel bad, just don't feel like talking, seeing, opening my blinds, he's here for me.”

“In the past few months we've seen him with Apollo, we've just seen Apollo change his life,” said family friend Curt Edwards.

The community said it’s coming together to help heal a dog who healed a friend who has sacrificed so much.

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Gulf War Veteran With PTSD Arrested Trying To Get Kids Back

Capitol Police arrest man holding hunger strike at Statehouse 
WIBW 13 News 
By Melissa Brunner 
Mar 24, 2016

When he launched his hunger strike March 14, Schwab said DCF used unsubstantiated allegations to take his and his wife Amelia's five children out of the home. The couple also believes Schwab's use of marijuana for treatment of pain and post-traumatic stress disorder is a factor. Schwab is a Gulf War veteran and the couple lives in Colorado, where use of medical cannabis is legal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Day 11 of Raymond Schwab's hunger strike against the Kansas Department of Children and Families ended in handcuffs and a trip to the hospital.

Capitol Police arrested Schwab around 1 p.m. Thursday, as he prepared to begin a round-the-clock campout on the north steps of the Statehouse. As Schwab set up a chair, a Capitol Police officer approached and informed Schwab there was a warrant for his arrest. Schwab said he was weak and the officer allowed him to sit for a few moments before then placing him in handcuffs, walking him down the stairs and ushering him into a law enforcement vehicle.
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Purple Heart Fake Ran Non-Profit Posing As Vietnam-Gulf War Marine

San Rafael gym owner accused of impersonating decorated veteran
SF Gate
By Jenna Lyons
March 17, 2016

Allen hosted annual fundraisers starting in 2010, dressing the part of a decorated war veteran as he raised money for the “Helping Heroes from Home” nonprofit, also known as Triple H, and his recruit training program. Allen said he was a lieutenant with the United States Marine Corps who served in the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, officials said.

A San Rafael gym owner spent years telling people he was a war hero, convincing donors he was awarded the Purple Heart as he persuaded them to give more than $20,000 to a veteran nonprofit and his own military recruit training program, authorities said.

But officials say he lied about receiving the nation’s oldest honor and bought Purple Heart ribbons to con donors into believing his story.

Gregory Bruce Allen, 68, was charged in the U.S. District Court of San Francisco Wednesday with fraudulent representations about receipt of military decoration or medals, a misdemeanor. He faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine, officials said.
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Operation Desert Storm Veteran Remembers the Price of War

Goshen Air Force veteran recalls Persian Gulf War
Associated Press
By BRUNO MATARAZZO JR.
Saturday, March 5, 2016

TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) - Soldiers suffered burns, broken bones and amputations. The trip from the various MASH units to the military hospital in Germany during Operation Desert Storm meant an airplane ride for injured troops.

Often, Donald Sage of Goshen was with them.

Now retired, the Air Force master sergeant from the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts was part of a crew of Air Force reserve soldiers who transported injured soldiers during the war in 1991.

The Persian Gulf War ended 25 years ago on Feb. 28, when President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire.

“Kuwait is liberated. Iraq’s army is defeated. Our military objectives are met,” Bush announced in a brief television address from the Oval Office the night before the cease fire.

It went into effect at midnight on the East Coast of the U.S.; 8 a.m. in Kuwait and Iraq.

“If you weren’t deployed over there, a lot of them don’t think that they deserve to be recognized, which is completely wrong,” Sage said. ” … If they weren’t doing their jobs back here, there wouldn’t be people over there.”
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Medical Marijuana ID Not Good In All States

If you have the right to use medical marijuana in your state, that's great but check the other state before you enter it. Just like gun laws change from state to state, so does this.

Veteran plans to sue Villa Rica police over arrest
WSB-12 News
February 26, 2016

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — A veteran told Channel 2 Action News he's planning to sue local law enforcement for what he's calling a "traumatic arrest." The man has a medical marijuana card from Colorado, but he had marijuana with him in Georgia.

"It was probably one of the most horrific things I've ever been through and I've been through a lot," veteran Bill Clanton said.

On Feb. 9, Villa Rica police spotted Clanton exiting I-20 eastbound onto Highway 61. Police say Clanton was pulled over, because the officer couldn't clearly see his license plate.

The officer smelled marijuana in Clanton's car and took him to jail.

Clanton says he's still shaken by his recent arrest in Carroll County. The Colorado resident served in the Persian Gulf War and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
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Gulf War Veteran Fights Back After Eviction Over Service Dog

Veteran sues over eviction due to service dog
Lincoln Journal Star
By NICHOLE MANNA
Updated 9 hrs ago

A veteran suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder filed a lawsuit against an Omaha apartment complex after they allegedly refused to give him accommodation to live with his service dog.

Dwaine Goings served in the Army and fought in the Persian Gulf War. As a result of combat, the decorated veteran suffers from PTSD and requires the assistance of his dog for daily support.

Goings signed a one-year lease in December 2014 with Hillsborough Pointe Apartments, at 14441 Sprague Court in Omaha.
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PTSD Gulf War Veteran Gets New Wheels

Valley vet wins vehicle for heartwarming life story
KPHO News
By Jason Volentine
Nov 26, 2015

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) - A Valley veteran got an early holiday surprise after a string of bad luck and a battle with addiction.

He's turned his life around and won a car for his efforts.

“Oh my goodness.Yeah! Alrighty!” said Douglas Jackson, starting his new car for the first time.

The sound of the engine turning over was the sound of a page turning in Jackson’s life. “My children are just going to be so happy. They've been having to go around on buses and riding bikes and everything. It's going to give me a whole new life with my children,” he said.

The U.S. Marine veteran served in the first Gulf War. He helped sweep mine fields so troops with heavy equipment could make it safely from the bases in Kuwait to the battlefields in Iraq.

But years after the battles faded from the headlines, the things Jackson experienced remained unforgettable. Post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism sent him into a spiral that cost him many things, including a place to live and a car to drive.
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Married Veteran Medics Battle PTSD in West Virginia

A Veteran's War: Battling PTSD
The News Center
By: Natalie Price
Nov 17, 2015

"As a medic, you see a lot of trauma sometimes. I could see anything from people missing limbs to people deceased, in the most violent ways you can imagine," Ryan Curry.

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - Servicemen and women fighting for our freedom see things that we as civilians couldn't possibly imagine. When they return home, the experiences overseas can haunt them.

U.S. combat soldiers show a drastic increase in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases compared to civilians. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, up to 20% of our veterans who fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom are now fighting PTSD. They join 12% of Gulf War veterans and 30% of Vietnam veterans.

This is the story of two retired Army medics.

From the outside, they live in a peaceful home that sits in a quiet neighborhood. The front yard is littered with toys and play sets. No one would suspect that on the inside a war is being waged.

Ryan and Kathlyn Curry are no strangers to war. They are both retired Army veterans, now adjusting to civilian life. They are both still fighting a battle.

"I was having nightmares and flashbacks, you relive it. And it doesn't seem to go away. It effects kind of every aspect of your life. You can't sleep or you get depressed or anxiety, it definitely makes things difficult," Kathlyn said.

Ryan and Kathlyn have both been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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Service Dog Comforts Family Now

After vet felled by PTSD, service dog Honor aids family now 
Associated Press
Allen G. Breed, Ap National Writer
November 7, 2015

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, NOV. 8, 2015 AND THEREAFTER - In this Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015 photo, Honor lies by the casket of Wade Baker at the Wells Funeral Home in Waynesville, N.C. When he saw his master lying in the flag-draped casket, the Labrador pushed through the clutch of weeping family members, reared up, placed his paws on the edge and tried to climb in. Unable to comfort Baker, he curled up underneath. (Susannah Smith via AP)

CLYDE, N.C. (AP) — Part of the Labrador retriever's training was to sense when the demons of war had invaded Wade Baker's dreams.

"I woke up with Honor standing on my chest, licking my face," the Gulf War veteran once told an interviewer. He tried to push his service dog away, but Honor persisted.

"He was stopping the nightmare for me," Baker said.

And so, when he saw his master lying in the flag-draped casket, Honor pushed through the clutch of weeping family members, reared up and tried to climb in. Unable to comfort Baker, the lanky black dog curled up beneath the coffin.

For Baker, the long nightmare was finally over. Yet Honor was still on duty.

Baker's quarter-century battle with post-traumatic stress disorder ended on Aug. 19, when officers responding to an alleged hostage situation at a little church in the western North Carolina mountains answered his gunfire with a hail of bullets.

Besides, suffering in silence was the "manly" thing to do.

During the mid-1990s, Baker served back-to-back tours in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. He began drinking and flouting authority.
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Gulf War Veteran Lost Job Because of Service Dog

Desert storm veteran claims he was forced out of job because of service dog
WECT News
By: Susanna Black
Posted: Nov 05, 2015

Molly, Ian Radford's service dog, helps him daily to cope with PTSD. (Source:WECT)

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - A disabled veteran is speaking out after he claims he was forced out of his job because of his service animal.

Ian Radford served in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm, and now deals with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an illness that seven to eight percent of people in the United States will deal with at some point in their lives. He relies on his service dog, Molly, to help him through his day to day life.

"I knew she would help me, but I didn't realize how much she would help me," Radford said.

She accompanies him everywhere he goes, including his job, until he said his employer, Cape Fear Eye Institute, began to raise concern about Molly being in the office.

At first, Radford said Molly stayed in a small room near his desk, but he noticed her training declining because she was not with him during the day.

"She needs to be in constant contact with me," Radford said. "She can see me, she can hear me, so she knows that's the guy I'm supposed to be looking out for."

His boss suggested he kennel Molly instead, so he agreed to give it a try. Radford said her training only got worse.
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Dad Grieves “Why he had to pay that price, we don’t know”

Titus Latchison won't be counted among the deaths by the DOD. He won't be counted among the suicide deaths by the VA. He won't even be counted as one of the veterans killed by police officers after a standoff ended what was a call for help to save his life. Only his family will remember he was suffering for his service.

"Titus Latchison’s wife, Daphanie Latchison, said her husband began to show signs of PTSD when he came back from Iraq in 2006. It was his second deployment. His first was to Afghanistan in 2003."

Whenever you read the number "22 a day" regarding how many veterans take their own lives in this country everyday, there are a lot more not included in that total. The stunning numbers of veterans committing suicide show the rates have not decreased but this story should remind everyone, we will never know how many more are simply not counted because they do not fit into an easy, exasperating, soundbite.

A tragic encounter
Killeen Daily Herald
Jacob Brooks and Clay Thorp
September 20, 2015

“Why he had to pay that price, we don’t know,” said Latchison’s father, Bobby Latchison, a retired sergeant first class and Desert Storm veteran.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

The father of Titus Latchison, Bobby Latchison, covers his face as he talks about the Sept. 4 death of his son on Tuesday.

As he wielded two knives, Army combat veteran Titus Latchison walked out of the front door of his home in west Killeen on April 4, 2014, and confronted police armed with Tasers and handguns.

Latchison’s family said he was trying to prevent his own suicide that day in a desperate 911 call for help. But as police commanded Latchison to drop his weapons, officers say the veteran charged at them and they had no choice but to fire on the troubled soldier.

Latchison’s life had just become a living hell.

Ramifications

Latchison, 37, survived the shooting, but as surgeons rushed to save his life, they removed one of his lungs, his spleen and more than half of his lower intestines, his family said. He was put into a medically induced coma at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

The family says Latchison was in the coma when police charged him with aggravated assault against a police officer.

“They came and told me I had to leave, that he was under arrest. ... No family members could see him,” said Latchison’s mother, Juanita Guillory, a Killeen resident. “I was tore up from the floor up. This is my son and he can’t do anything for himself.”

Because of his shooting injuries, his physical body withered away. The 6-foot-1 former Army sergeant went from 280 pounds at the time of the shooting to 150 pounds when he died Sept. 4, a loss of 130 pounds in 17 months.
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