Marine From Hawaii Found Dead At Camp Pendleton

Marine found dead in Pendleton barracks room
Marine Corps Times
Staff report
April 30, 2015

A Hawaii-based Marine attending an enlisted professional military education academy in California was pronounced dead Wednesday morning after he was found unresponsive in his barracks room.

The Corps is investigating the death of the Marine, who was assigned to Headquarters Battalion out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, according to a news release. He was temporarily assigned to Camp Pendleton, California, where he checked into the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Monday to attend the Advanced Career Course. read more here

UPDATE

Corps identifies Marine who died at Camp Pendleton
Marine Corps Times
Staff report
May 2, 2015

Corps officials have identified the Hawaii-based staff noncommissioned officer who died in California this week.

Gunnery Sgt. Eugene Jones, who was assigned to Headquarters Battalion at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, was pronounced dead on Wednesday after he was found unresponsive in his barracks room at Camp Pendleton, California. Jones had checked into the staff NCO academy at Pendleton Monday to attend an enlisted professional military education course.
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Veteran From Hawaii Shot and Burned in Costa Rica

Former U.S. soldier killed, burned on Costa Rica ranch 
FOX News Latino
Published April 17, 2015

A former U.S. soldier named Robert Lemon was found dead on the private Ojo de Agua Ranch in Puriscal County, San Jose province.

He had been shot several times and half of his body was charred, a police spokesperson told Efe Friday.

The body was found Thursday next to the stables, together with two dead dogs, by a woman who works on the ranch and who suffered a grave emotional crisis, according to the reports available. The two dogs apparently tried to defend their owner and were also shot dead.

Details like the age of the victims, how long he had been in Costa Rice and what was his occupation have not been announced to the public, only that he was a native of Hawaii. read more here

Marine and Soldier Off to Hawaii Honeymoon

San Diego military couple wins dream honeymoon contest 
CBS News 8
By Jeff Zevely, Reporter
Posted: Mar 02, 2015

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Finding the proper balance between the military and marriage can be difficult, which is one reason why a husband and wife who serve at Camp Pendleton just won a dream honeymoon to Hawaii.

Christian and Kirsten Perry met in Afghanistan. Christian's a Marine, Kirsten a soldier. Somehow they fell in love in a war zone. 

"His first question was, 'Can I get your email?' Kirsten said. "It was actually kind of like a dare… it was like, I bet you can't get her number,"

Christian said. Christian proposed on Valentine's Day last year, and wasn't sure if Kirsten would say yes. "Imagine you're about to go on stage in front of 1,000 fans or something. She's the biggest fan I've ever had," Christian said. Kirsten accepted the offer and the bling.

In order to get stationed together at Camp Pendleton, they got married in a rush two months later. read more here

Iwo Jima Veteran Remembers Enlisting At Age of 15

Iwo Jima veteran to share his story on 70th anniversary 
Bloody conflict proved turning point for U.S. forces, Houston Marine
Houston Chronicle
By St. John Barned-Smith
February 18, 2015

Just weeks after the Hawaiian attack, Sherrill, then 15, wandered into a Marine recruiting office in Houston and enlisted.

Bill Sherrill watched from the deck of an attack transport off the coast of Iwo Jima as artillery shells thudded into the small, porkchop-shaped island.

For hours, explosions tore across the landscape as salvo after salvo smashed into its beaches and forests in an initial effort to clear out 20,000 Japanese defenders. The island, with its beaches of gritty volcanic ash, a few sulfur pits, and three airfields, lay 600 miles south of the Japanese mainland and was close enough to put American forces at Japan's doorstep.

Seventy years after the ferocious battle, the impressions of the conflict remain with Sherrill - from the Purple Heart and photos he keeps at his house to the gold USMC pin he wears in his lapel.

It was hard to believe anything was still alive after the bombardment, he remembers thinking. But when thousands of Marines waded ashore, Japanese forces hidden in bunkers counterattacked. "Very quickly it became obvious that it was going to be a tough campaign," said Sherrill, now 88.

He will be sharing some of those memories at a commemoration of the battle's 70th anniversary Thursday evening in the East End, one of dozens of ceremonies around the country honoring the veterans who served in that battle. read more here

Army Captains Move Wedding After Commander-in-Chief Planned Golf Game in Hawaii

Soldiers Relocate Wedding to Accommodate Obama's Golf Game
Bloomberg News
Michael C Bender
Dec 29, 2014

An unusual RSVP from the commander in chief leads to an unforgettable moment for Army newlyweds.

Natalie Heimel and her fiancé, Edward Mallue Jr., a pair of captains in the Army, were walking from their wedding rehearsal on Saturday at the 16th tee box at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course in Hawaii when they were informed they'd have to move their wedding, scheduled for the next day.

President Barack Obama wanted to play through.

It was the second time that day that the couple heard from the nation's commander in chief, whose affinity for golf has, at times, caused political headaches for the White House.

Stationed in Hawaii and knowing the president spends his Christmas holiday on the islands, they invited him to their ceremony on a lark. They had received a letter earlier on Saturday saying Obama regretted he couldn't come and wishing them happiness on their wedding day.

“He apologized and congratulated them,” McCarthy said, adding that it was a “wonderful talk.”

“We were all there, it was perfect,” she said. “Made their day.”
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Body of Soldier's Wife Found in Honolulu

Local soldier's wife was stabbed in neck, torso
By Star-Advertiser staff
Nov 17, 2014

An Army wife whose body was found at Aliamanu Military Reservation over the weekend was stabbed in the neck and torso, the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office said Tuesday.

The ME's office identified the woman as Catherine Walker, 38. The manner of death was ruled homicide. Autopsy results are pending.
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Army Burger King Franchise Bullying Veteran After Injury

Burger King is 'bullying' a vet who bit into a needle-laced burger to get the lawsuit thrown out
Clarke Bartholomew, 46, was stationed in Hawaii in 2010 when he bit into a Triple Stacker with needles inside that lodged in his tongue and intestine
Burger King is claiming the case should be thrown out because Bartholomew did not attend a September 10 settlement meeting in person
Bartholomew is medically retired and living in Virginia, where his new job with the U.S. Parks Police conflicted with flying to Hawaii for the meeting
Daily Mail
By PETE D'AMATO FOR MAILONLINE
1 October 2014

Bartholomew has faced resistance from both Burger King and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the franchise operator.

Burger King is accused of bullying a veteran who bit into a needle-laced burger and sued after he was hospitalized.

Clarke Bartholomew, 46, says he was stationed in Hawaii in 2010 when he bit into a Triple Stacker laced with needles that pierced his tongue and got stuck in his intestine.

Bartholomew said in a court filing this week he could not attend the meeting because he recently began a new job in Virginia, where he lives after his medical retirement from the Army.

'Since I was a new employee, I had no time on the books to take time off to fly from Virginia to Hawaii, for the settlement conference,' said Bartholomew, now a U.S. Parks Police dispatcher.

His lawyers have shot back that Burger King is 'bullying a represented opponent for not appearing at a settlement conference.'
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Video: Wounded Warrior Rows Across the Pacific

Former Marine makes historic trek across the Pacific to become the first paraplegic to successfully row from California to Hawaii.
DVIDS
Petty Officer 2nd Class Lori Bent
July 21, 2014

Marine "Terminal to Ironman Tri-athalete" Survived Cancer twice

Camp Pendleton Marine survives cancer twice, runs Ironman
Staff Sgt. Clay Treska to speak at Relay for Life
By Linda McIntosh
JULY 21, 2014

CARLSBAD — When Staff Sgt. Clay Treska got back from Iraq, he had another battle to fight. He was diagnosed with cancer in April 2008. Four months later, after undergoing chemotherapy, the Camp Pendleton-based Marine was set on getting back in shape and started training to compete in a triathlon.

His testicular cancer went into remission.

But when the cancer came back a year later, and he was given six months to live, the 13-year Marine Corps veteran stuck with his plan. He kept training.

He went on to compete in the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii in 2010.

Treska, 34, is scheduled to be a guest speaker at the Carlsbad Relay for Life July 26-27 at Valley Middle School in Carlsbad.

The 24-hour relay and luminaria honors those fighting cancer along with survivors and those who died from the disease.

Treska, whose courage has made him a hero, will share his story.

His website, teamtreska.org, says “From terminal to Ironman triathalete in 10 months.” It also says, “Nothing is impossible.”
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Homeless veteran in Hawaii killed by bus

This is the strangest news report because it basically attacks a homeless veteran. Why on earth would the reporter decide to write about this veteran's adult kids not wanting anything to do with him? How else do veterans end up homeless? Families, for whatever reason, fall apart and they end up on the streets.

Homeless man killed by city bus had wheelchair stolen weeks ago
Hawaii News Now
By Keoki Kerr
Posted: Jul 03, 2014

WAIKIKI (HawaiiNewsNow) - The man who died after being run over by a city bus Saturday in Waikiki was a homeless veteran suffering from terminal cancer whose wheelchair was recently stolen, people who knew him told Hawaii News Now Thursday.

A pair of red shoes and a blue baseball cap worn by Kenneth Martyn, 71, remained at the scene in Waikiki Saturday after he was run over by a city bus along Ala Moana Boulevard and later died.

Homeless people and others who knew him said for most of the last three years he lived at a city bus stop in front of Discovery Bay condominiums, just up the road from where he died.

"He basically lived on the sidewalk, on a towel for many years,” said a man who works in the visitor industry in Waikiki and spoke to him nearly every day. “Yeah, he never bothered nobody, good old Kenny. It's sad what happened to him."

The man told Hawaii News Now says Martyn was despondent because he was suffering from terminal cancer, and someone had stolen his electric wheelchair several weeks ago.
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Two agencies become one for remains of missing U.S. war dead

Hagel announces restructuring of POW/MIA remains offices
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: March 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — A single Pentagon office will now be in charge of the troubled effort to identify and recover the remains of missing U.S. war dead, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Monday.

The order will create a “single accountable organization that has complete oversight of personnel accounting resources, research and operations,” overseen by the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Hagel said.

The decision follows a series of damning reports in the past year about the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, the two agencies that had primary responsibility for MIA recovery efforts. The two will now be combined, along with certain functions of the Air Force’s Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory, Hagel said.

To improve the search, identification and recovery process, DOD will create a centralized database and case management system containing all missing servicemembers’ information, Hagel said. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner working for the new agency will be the single identification authority. The medical examiner will oversee the science operations of the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, as well as satellite labs in Omaha, Neb., and Dayton, Ohio.

Families of the missing — who Hagel admitted have not always received clear communications from DOD — will also have a single point of contact with the new agency to make it easier for them to learn about search and identification activities.
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Marine's journey from sand in Iraq to surf in Hawaii

Wounded Marine Bodysurfs to Help Others and Himself
ABC News
Angel Canales
February 26, 2014

Ben Mercier in Baghdad, Iraq. 2006. Ben Mercier

Pyramid Rock Beach, Hawaii — When former Marine Corps Capt. Ben Mercier returned from his deployment in Iraq after being wounded, he said he just didn’t want to be around people. “I was just different. I didn’t know at the time that I had [PTSD] and I was drinking more than I should have,” says 39-year-old Mercier.

He always wanted to join the military. Growing up at the Lemoore Naval Air Station in California, he admired his best friend’s father who was a Marine pilot. After attending ROTC and graduating from college, he joined the Marine Corps in 1999. He went on to become a logistics officer with the 3rd Marine Regiment and served honorably.
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This has been a deadly week for America’s military

UPDATE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release No: NR-033-14
January 16, 2014
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Jan. 10, at Bagram Airfield, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the aircraft they were aboard crashed. The incident is under investigation.

Killed were:

Chief Warrant Officer Andrew L. McAdams, 27, of Cheyenne, Wyo., assigned to Detachment 53, Operational Support Airlift Command, Joint Force Headquarters, Wyoming Army National Guard, Cheyenne, Wyo.

Sgt. Drew M. Scobie, 25, of Kailua, Hawaii, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 487th Field Artillery, Wahiawa, Hawaii Army National Guard, Oahu, Hawaii.

3 Americans dead as military plane crashes in Afghanistan
The Washington Times
By Cheryl K. Chumley
Friday, January 10, 2014

This has been a deadly week for America’s military.

Three Americans aboard a U.S. military MC-12 plane were killed Friday morning following a crash in the eastern portion of Afghanistan.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but a defense officer told ABC News that investigators have ruled out enemy fire.

The New York Daily News reported the statement from a NATO spokesman: “Two International Security Assistance Force service members and one ISAF civilian died following an aircraft mishap in eastern Afghanistan today. It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.”
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Wounded Marine cared more about others than himself

Marine Shares Struggle with Combat Injuries
Marine Corps News
by Lance Cpl. Suzanna Knotts
Nov 01, 2013

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- Some may dread recalling the day of their brush with death, but Sgt. Rafael Cervantes Jr. embraces it as his second birthday.

After conducting a house search in Bakwa District, Farah province, Afghanistan, then Cpl. Rafael Cervantes Jr., a motor transport mechanic with Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, took the wheel of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle and hit an improvised explosive device.

On April 4, 2011, Cervantes was reborn.

Cervantes is currently with Wounded Warrior Battalion West-Detachment Hawaii recovering from injuries sustained from the IED blast.

On the day of the incident, his officer in charge, Capt. Daniel Donnerstag, told Cervantes they received intelligence of possible Taliban making IEDs in a nearby compound.

“Everything felt like it was happening slowly,” Cervantes said. “I passed out and when I woke up, everyone else was still out. It was dark and smoky. My first reaction was to make sure I had everything below my waist. I started touching my legs and I couldn’t feel anything at first.”

He recalled pulling on his leg because it was stuck, and then felt his ankle dangling from his leg.

The explosion hit to the right of the vehicle, so he felt most of his pain on the right side of his body.

“I started wiggling my leg and it felt like everything was wiggling on its own,” Cervantes said.

“I was able to get out and that’s when the pain got worse. But I didn’t care about myself. I just wanted to get everyone out of the truck.”

After waking up another Marine in the vehicle, Cervantes pulled him out and fell to the ground. At that point, he couldn’t move. The intense pain he felt spread to his back.

However, his major concern was still the safety of his fellow Marines, so he scanned the area for threats as he lay on the ground.

“I knew I needed my weapon to provide cover, but I needed to get back inside the truck,” Cervantes said. “Kyle (the Marine he pulled out) went to get the others, so I crawled back to get my weapon.”

Cervantes grabbed his weapon by the optic, and it fell apart.

“I thought, ‘what the hell?’ My weapon was broken in pieces. But I noticed the gunner’s M16 on the ground, so I grabbed it and laid down to provide cover,” Cervantes said.

The other Marines sustained serious injuries as well, but everyone inside the vehicle survived the explosion. The corpsman who was on patrol with them applied a splint to Cervantes’ leg. They waited for two and a half hours for help to arrive.
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Vietnam veteran posthumously awarded Bronze Star

Vietnam veteran posthumously awarded Bronze Star
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By RICHARD LAKE
September 3, 2013

On the desk in a room in the back corner of a congresswoman’s office Tuesday sat a series of medals and a folded U.S. flag.

Johnnette Fafard held those medals, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart and others, and she passed them to her grandchildren.

What’s it feel like? one of the TV reporters asked her. What’s it like to finally have them after all this time?

Fafard smiled and said those medals would have meant more if her husband, the man to whom they should have been awarded, were still alive. But he is not, and so they would now be passed along to the children. The children smiled and held the medals as Fafard looked at them.

“Isn’t that a wonderful thing for you to see?” she said to the TV cameras. “I think it is.”

Johnnette met Raymond Fafard when they were children growing up in Hawaii.

In 1969, Raymond was drafted into the Army. He went to Vietnam, where he served as a light-weapons soldier. He was there for a year, from March 31, 1970, to April 9, 1971.

When he came back, the two married. Raymond worked as a tour bus driver. But only a few months later, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder kicked in. He suffered for years, and eventually sought help from the Veterans Administration in 1979.

Medications, a misdiagnosis and a series of rejections from the VA followed. He was finally declared 100 percent disabled in 2001 because of his PTSD claim. The couple moved to Las Vegas in 2005 to be closer to family.
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MIA lab, Navy at odds over exhuming unknown USS Oklahoma casualties

MIA lab, Navy at odds over exhuming unknown USS Oklahoma casualties
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
By William Cole
Published: August 12, 2013

HONOLULU — The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command wants to take the unprecedented step of exhuming all of the Dec. 7, 1941, casualties of the USS Oklahoma buried as "unknowns" at Punchbowl cemetery — more than 330 crew members — to help it reach a higher number of annual identifications mandated by Congress.

But the Hawaii-based military command, known as JPAC, is getting resistance from the Navy, which prefers to maintain the "sanctity" of the graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, officials said.

Further, the Navy would like to take the partial and commingled remains of more than 100 Oklahoma crew members who were disinterred in 2003 from a single casket at Punchbowl, possibly re­bury them at a memorial and grave site to be created on Ford Island, and invite family members to an interment ceremony on Dec. 7, 2014.
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Schofield soldier dies in skydiving incident

Schofield soldier dies in skydiving incident
Associated Press
Jul. 28, 2013

HONOLULU — A Honolulu skydiver who died after losing consciousness while jumping from a plane was a decorated Army veteran.

Hawaii News Now reported Friday that 30-year-old Capt. Martin Monahan had been assigned to Schofield Barracks since 2010.

Monahan was practicing a maneuver when he attempted to jump over Dillingham Airfield on Tuesday.
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Lance Cpl. Levy Rivera remembered by Marines in Hawaii

MAG-24 mourns the loss of a Marine
By Lance Cpl. Janelle Y. Chapman
Marine Corps Base Hawaii
July 19, 2013

Marines, sailors and civilians of Marine Aircraft Group 24 and Marine Wing Support Detachment 24, along with family, attended a memorial service at the Chaplain Joseph W. Estabrook Chapel for Lance Cpl. Levy Rivera, July 11.

The 24-year-old native of Chicago was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross Pali Highway and later died of his wounds. Rivera was the dispatcher for MWSD-24, MAG-24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.

Rivera joined the U.S. Marine Corps on Aug. 8, 2011. He attended the Motor Vehicle Operations Course in Fort Leonardwood, Mo. He was in the Marine Corps for less than two years.
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Paraplegic veteran to embark on solo row from Calif. to Hawaii

Paraplegic veteran to embark on solo row from Calif. to Hawaii
By Julie Jag
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.
Published: June 7, 2013

SANTA CRUZ — Angela Madsen has shown no fear in the days approaching her impending solo row across the Pacific. When it comes to the dangers of the 2,300-mile trip scheduled to begin Saturday from the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor and end about 80 days later in Hawaii, she recounts them like she's reading off her grocery list.

"Big storms, so the boat gets passed around — it's designed to be self-righting so it shouldn't tip over. While I'm rowing the boat I could be injured. You're tied into the boat, but if a rogue wave hits you, if you come untied, you could be lost at sea — lost at sea is a category in this sport," she says. "There's the risk of getting run over by a big cargo ship, though that's less now with AIS and satellite tracking. So mostly it's weather and giant waves. Sharks will rub up against the hull at night, but I haven't seen aggressive ones. Broken bones ..."

She pauses for a breath, then adds, "My risk is the same as anybody else's when it comes to risk at sea."
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Hawaii 3rd Marines runs to honor 119 fallen heroes

3rd Marine Regiment holds run, ceremony to honor 119 fallen heroes
DVID
Marine Corps Base Hawaii – Kaneohe Bay
Story by Lance Cpl. Matthew Bragg
June 7, 2013

A Marine from 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment slides his hand down a pair of dog tags as he hangs them upon the pedestal on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, June 6, 2013. A total of 119 Marines and sailors who hung dog tags of fallen heroes wore black shirts that read, “All gave some. Some gave all. In memory of our fallen brothers.”
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Matthew Bragg)

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII — With operations winding down overseas, 3rd Marine Regiment continued the tradition of remembering 119 service members from the regiment killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan with a memorial run followed by a ceremony, June 6, 2013.

Marines and sailors from the regiment gathered in formations at Landing Zone 216. Of these runners, 119 Marines and sailors each wore a black shirt that bore the words, “All gave some. Some gave all. In memory of our fallen brothers.” In addition, each wore the dog tags of fallen service members.

Sgt. Maj. Justin LeHew, sergeant major of 3rd Marines, reminded the Marines and sailors why they were there, and encouraged them to always honor their fellow service members.
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