Marine Scales Tree to Save Troubled Man from Killing Himself

Marine Scales Tree to Save Troubled Man from Killing Himself: 'What I Did Was Not a Heroic Act'
People.com
BY SUSAN KEATING
07/07/2015

"When the sergeant arrived, he said, 'Hey, I'm a Marine, and I'm here to help your friend,' " Tow says. "I was so happy to see him."

Marine Sergeant Cody Leifheit

SGT. REECE LODDER

When Marine Sergeant Cody Leifheit awakened to screams from outside his apartment at 2 a.m., the 28-year-old at first thought the sound was from revelers leaving a bar. Then a hysterical voice screamed: "He's dying!"

Leifheit, who arrived in town only a week earlier to start his job as a Marine Corps recruiter in Lewiston, Idaho, jumped from bed and ran outside. There, a group of young people stood gaping at a horrific site: A man hanging by the neck from a rope, suspended from a tree branch some 25 feet above the ground.

The 19-year-old man, who asked that PEOPLE refer to him only by his first name, Tristan, had been lounging with friends inside an elaborate series of hammocks strung from trees. While in his hammock in the early morning hours of June 7, Tristan repeated to friends that he wanted to jump to his death from a tree. The friends thought that Tristan, who has sole custody of his 14-year-old brother, Dartanian, was joking. Suddenly, up in the trees, Tristan stopped talking.
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Why Did Honored Iraq Veteran End Up This Way?

Records: Estranged wife suspected war vet husband in deaths 
Associated Press
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
June 1, 2015

(Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review, via AP). This Feb. 2011 photo shows decorated Iraq War veteran Roy Murry. Murry's estranged wife, Amanda, told authorities her husband suffered from post-traumatic stress and was becoming increasingly delusional

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The estranged wife of a decorated Iraq War veteran said she had no doubt who law officers should investigate when her mother, stepfather and brother were found shot to death at their rural home.

Amanda Murry told law officers that her husband, Roy H. Murry, 30, of Lewiston, Idaho, blamed her family for the couple's marital woes.

"Amanda Murry said that Roy Murry was the only person who she suspected had any reason to do harm to the residents," according to court documents released Monday.

Roy Murry is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon after he was arrested on three counts of first-degree murder.

Amanda Murry told authorities her husband suffered from post-traumatic stress from his service in Iraq and was becoming increasingly delusional, according to court documents.

Roy Murry earned a Bronze Star for valor as an Army National Guard sergeant in Iraq, where he was severely injured by a bomb. He has had a series of run-ins involving weapons with law enforcement officers since his return from the war.

Murry remained in custody after surrendering to authorities on Saturday, four days after the home of his wife's family was set on fire near Colbert, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said.

The three bodies were found with numerous gunshot wounds on the rural property.

Amanda Murry, a nurse, told investigators that she had moved in with her mother, stepfather and brother in December and wanted a divorce.
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Amputee Veteran Marine Taking on Everest

Ex-Marine amputee begins 2nd attempt to scale Everest
Associated Press
By Binaj Gurubacharya
April 18, 2015

"My message is anything is possible. It is just not me being an amputee, but anyone sitting on the couch around the world that has problems — you can overcome life, it is just how determined you are. –Linville said in Kathmandu on Friday

In this Thursday, April 16, 2015 photo, former U.S. Marine Charlie Linville holds his prosthesis during an interview with the Associated Press in Kathmandu, Nepal. Former Staff Sgt. Linville, 29, from Boise, Idaho, who lost his right leg and several fingers in an explosion in Afghanistan is making a second attempt to scale Mount Everest to inspire others like him, a year after an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides stopped him at the base camp.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) (Niranjan Shrestha, AP)

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A former U.S. Marine who lost his right leg and several fingers in an explosion in Afghanistan is making a second attempt to scale Mount Everest to inspire others like him, a year after an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides stopped him at the base camp.

Former Staff Sgt. Charlie Linville, 29, from Boise, Idaho, is using a specially designed metal foot outfitted with a climbing boot and another one with crampons in his quest to conquer the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit next month.

"My message is anything is possible. It is just not me being an amputee, but anyone sitting on the couch around the world that has problems — you can overcome life, it is just how determined you are," Linville said in Kathmandu on Friday, on his way to Tibet in neighboring China, from where he will set out on Everest.

He was an explosives expert serving in Afghanistan in 2011, when he went to investigate an explosion that wounded his colleague.

He was hit by another explosive device and seriously wounded, and two years later, had his right leg amputated below the knee.
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Iraq Veteran and Wife Saved Shooting Victim in Idaho

Iraq War vet helps save Hauser shooting victim's life 
KXLY News
Author: Alex LeFriec , Multimedia Journalist Published
On: Apr 13 2015


HAUSER, Idaho - A shooting in Hauser, Idaho left the community shaken, but neighbors are thankful they were able to help save a man's life.

Around 9:30 Sunday night, Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies were called to the Westside Mobile Home Park for a reported shooting.

When they arrived, they found 40-year-old Jeremy Stutheit shot in the abdomen.

"At that time, I saw a car speed out, heard it squeal its tries, and then I hard some wailing and moaning," said a neighbor, who wanted to remain anonymous.

That neighbor and her husband, an Iraq War veteran with medic training, immediately began life saving measures on Stutheit. That care probably saved his life.
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Idaho Vietnam Veterans "brotherhood that looks after its own" and others

Local Vietnam Veterans Give Back 
KMVT News
By Ben Lyda
Jan 31, 2015

Twin Falls, Idaho ( KMVT-TV / KSVT-TV )

Being a veteran of war is being part of a brotherhood that looks after its own. One local group is doing everything it can to give back to those that have put their life on the line for others.

The Vietnam Vets and Legacy Vets Motorcycle Club seek out vets in need to help in any way possible and on a sunny afternoon in Twin Falls that is exactly what they did.

"Our mission is to help all veterans that we can. First of all we try to be accounted for all POW/MIA's that have never come home, we ride our bikes for the brothers and sisters who never made it back, who gave the ultimate sacrifice, but our goal is to help all veterans whenever we can”, explains

Bucky Gingell, state president of the Vietnam/Legacy Vets MC. Helping individuals such as Vietnam vet Don Gibson, who lost a leg and was in need of a new electric wheelchair.
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Idaho National Guard LT Accused of 10 Year Fraud

This person was a Lieutenant in the Idaho National Guard. Think about that for a second. This person also stands charged with fabricating wounds he did not receive while serving in Iraq. He did a lot more damage than just taking money, if all this is true. If all this is true, then the men under his command, really wounded and trying to get benefits for real wounds just suffered the ultimate betrayal.

Feds: Snoqualmie coach lied his way into Purple Heart
Former Idaho National Guard member accused of stealing $250,000 in government benefits SEATTLEPI.COM
BY LEVI PULKKINEN STAFF
January 29, 2015

Wright hired his sister, Karen Bevens, as his caretaker; Bevens, a 43-year-old Duvall resident, now faces a single fraud count.

A Snoqualmie man accused of duping the Army into awarding him a Purple Heart now faces fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors claim Darryl Lee Wright managed to steal $250,000 in government benefits during the past 10 years. Wright, 46, is alleged to fraudulently put himself forward as a wounded Iraq veteran to gain some of the money.

A federal grand jury returned a nine count indictment against Wright in November. The allegations were unsealed Wednesday; Wright is alleged to have defrauded the Veterans Affairs Department, the Army and the U.S. Commerce Department, among other federal agencies.

At the height of the fraud, Wright and his sister were receiving $10,341 a month in undeserved government benefits, according to the indictment. They did so while Wright worked, coached basketball and ran for public office.

According to the indictment, Wright claimed to have suffered traumatic brain injury during an Aug. 30, 2005, rocket attack while he was serving in Iraq as a lieutenant with the Idaho National Guard.

Wright ultimately received a Combat Action Badge – a decoration reserved for soldiers who’ve been under fire – and a Purple Heart signifying a battle wound.
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Think about the stories we've read over the years about claims not being approved and wounded suffering for their service. Here's a reminder in case you forgot.
Some from Idaho killed in Iraq 2005

• Army Sgt. Kelly S. Morris, 24, of Boise, was killed by small-arms fire March 30, 2005, while patrolling in east Baghdad.
• Army Sgt. John B. Ogburn III, 45, of Fruitland, died May 22, 2005, in a Humvee accident near Kirkuk, Iraq.
• Army Staff Sgt. Virgil R. Case, 37, of Mountain Home, died June 1, 2005, in Kirkuk, Iraq, of non-combat-related injuries.
• Army Spc.Carrie French, 19, of Caldwell, died June 5, 2005, in Kirkuk when her vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Dustin V. Birch, 22, of St. Anthony, was one of five Marines killed in a roadside bombing June 9, 2005, in Haqlaniyah, Iraq.
• Army Sgt. Ivan Vargas Alarcon, 23, of Jerome, died Nov. 17, 2005, in Tal-Afar, Iraq, when the Humvee he was riding in flipped during combat operations.

The Denver Post has a reminder of some of what people have forgotten. Here are just a few of the images they collected of war in Iraq.

A U.S. soldier carries an Iraqi girl away from the scene of three explosions September 30, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. Three separate explosions near a U.S. military convoy which was passing the opening ceremony for a sewage station killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100 others in southern Baghdad according to Iraqi police. (Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images)

Although wounded, Staff Sgt. Shannon Kay, of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, fires on an enemy position after being attacked with a car bomb, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2004, in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo/Army Times, M. Scott Mahaskey, via USA Today)

U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Troy Hawkins of the 1st Cavalry, Task Force 1-9, falls to the ground after being wounded during a firefight while on patrol with an Iraqi Army unit February 16, 2005 in the Haifa Street neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. After being tended to by a medic he continued to fight in the narrow streets. The U.S. Army was handing control of the volatile area over to the Iraqi military as they continued to decrease their involvement in the city. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Boise Police Department Awarded for Efforts to Help Veterans in Crisis

Chief accepts award on behalf of community veterans resource network
Boise Police Department
News Release
Michael F. Masterson
Chief of Police
Contact: Lynn Hightower
Communications Director
Thursday, January 08, 2015

On average, Boise police officers encounter approximately one veteran per week facing a crisis and in need of assistance, and officers are provided the opportunity to aid in referring the veteran to one of the network partners. These interactions demonstrate the value of the program, and that its objective is being met.

Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson thanked and congratulated members of the group Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans for their work over the past five years. The group, brought together by the Chief and other members of the Boise Police Department is made up of over 50 organizations across the Treasure Valley providing community resources for local veterans in need. Masterson credits the success of JFTVV for the Boise Police Department recently being named the recipient of the annual IACP and Cisco Systems Community Policing Award for 2014. This is the second straight year that Boise PD has received the prestigious international award.

“This award is not the work of any one person, or a small group of people, or even one organization,” Masterson said on Thursday. “This award is a coordinated community response involving dozens of people across the Treasure Valley coming together with great ideas and a dedication to helping the men and women who served our country and helped give us the quality of life that we enjoy here in Southern Idaho.”

In July 2009, Boise police confronted one of Idaho's most decorated soldiers, George Nickel, a military veteran diagnosed with PTSD and suffering from a traumatic brain injury, in a deadly force encounter.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. This encounter became the focal point for a community policing initiative called Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans that has not only saved lives but has led to a plethora of improved services for military veterans in crisis.

Boise police played the lead role in facilitating 50 stakeholders from a variety of disciplines who meet monthly to coordinate a multitude of veterans resources including housing, transportation, employment, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, suicide prevention, coordination of benefits, education counseling, and veterans treatment court services. What started with a small group of criminal justice system professionals has expanded to a coordinated community response (CCR). The network currently consists of 86 individuals representing 21 different community based organizations supporting their active military and veterans. It's a no cost, highly successful, community-based initiative, focused on building trust, communication, and cooperative relationships which can be easily replicated and transferred to other communities.

The objectives that the Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans Network expected to accomplish include:

1. Develop a better understanding of services' available in the community for military veterans and their families
2. Develop a higher level of trust among partners through frequent meetings and partnerships
3. Improve the quality and timeliness of services provided to veterans
4. Identify the resources available to veterans in their communities and make them widely known to other veterans in need of services could obtain access

In 2010, the Boise Police Department worked together with Sergeant George Nickel to document his 2009 police interaction. They created a video that included the audio recordings from the dreadful night to capture the intensity of the situation. The intent of this video was to provide an opportunity for other law enforcement agencies to learn from a real-life situation of a police interaction with a veteran suffering from PTSD.
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Another Family Pushes for PTSD After Another Tragedy

Family of man who shot wife, himself pushes for PTSD awareness 
My Meridian Press
Holly Beech
November 7, 2014

Kevin and Kimberly Smith

“It’s sad, the families have to go through this,” she said. “These issues are real and they need to be addressed so people don’t have tragedies.”

Family members of a 24-year-old Meridian man who shot his wife and then himself said he came back from war a changed man.

According to Meridian Police, Kevin Smith shot his wife, 32-year-old Kimberly Smith, on Sept. 20 in the garage of their home while her five children where in their rooms sleeping. The grandmother to three of the children was also in the home and called the police.

Kevin’s aunt, Diane Delvecchio, told Meridian Press in an email that Kevin suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury after serving two tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army.

“PTSD and TBI are horrific,” she said. “Kevin was a good, kindhearted man that loved his family very much.”

According to a memorial site set up by his family, Kevin was honorably discharged with PTSD after serving for five years, including as a sniper.
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Weekend proves homeless veterans matter a lot

Hundreds of homeless vets get help in Orlando
Orlando Sentinel
By Caitlin Dineen
September 27, 2014

Tufts of salt-and-pepper hair fell past Michael Clancy's blue eyes and landed on his shoulders and the floor space around him.

Clancy, who turned 54 Friday, was one of more than 300 homeless veterans in the Orlando region looking for help Saturday.

Haircuts were just one of the eight types of services available at the annual Orlando Veterans Stand Down, which first started in 2008. The daylong event took place at the Downtown Orlando Recreational Center on North Parramore Avenue.

"My next haircut will be the next Stand Down," said the Navy veteran, who sat wrapped in a black salon cape with the toes of his blue-and-gray sneakers poking out.

The Stand Down was sponsored by the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center and partner agencies. Providing wraparound services is crucial to battling homelessness among veterans in Orlando and Central Florida, said VA officials.

"The combat field is a little bit different," said Ken Mueller, coordinator of health care for homeless veterans with the Orlando VA. "It's not the combat of war, but combat of the street."
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"Stand down" helps homeless veterans get back up
KBOI 2 News Idaho
By Jacqulyn Powell
Published: Sep 27, 2014

BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - Around 200 of the Treasure Valley's homeless veterans got special care at Boise's Homeless Veteran Stand Down. The vets were given food, clothes, medical care, showers, haircuts and other gear they need for the winter.

In combat, the phrase "stand down" means a quick time to rest and get refitted before heading out to battle.

"The Homeless Veterans Stand Down is for homeless veterans that are struggling, that could use a little rest, some medical care, some basic needs and some gear to help them prepare for the winter," said John Porch, who works at Boise's Department of Veterans Affairs and serves as committee chair for the Homeless Veterans Stand Down.

At the event, struggling vets were offered heavy coats, boots and warm clothes. They were also given sleeping bags and sleeping mats to help keep them warm and dry over the next few months. All of it was retired military gear.

"I was in the Army for 12 years as an airborne infantryman, so I'm very familiar with all of this stuff," said Dough Strand, a homeless vet. "The military wouldn't let us keep any of it. But it's nice to get it now, because I need it now."
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Homeless Veterans Get Help At “Stand Down” Event In Cherry Hill
CBS Philly
Hadas Kuznits
September 27, 2014

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Hundreds of homeless veterans took advantage of the services provided at this year’s “Stand Down” event Friday at the National Guard Armory in Cherry Hill.

The goal of Stand Down 2014 is to help homeless U.S. war veterans re-enter mainstream society.

“They come through and they get a medical screening here, they get access to social services here.” says Jim Maher, chairman of Stand Down in South Jersey. “We give them a meal, we give them clothing, a haircut if they want, they get eyeglasses.”

Maher says while they provide services to take care of the veterans’ physical needs…

“It’s really important that they get the medical aspect of what they do,” he says, “and the social services.”
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Highway through Idaho is now officially Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway

I-84 now officially Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway
Eye On Boise
Spokesman Review
Posted by Betsy
Aug. 12, 2014

I-84 through Idaho is now officially Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, under legislation passed and signed into law this year; new signs for the route were unveiled at a ceremony on the state Capitol steps this morning. “It has been far too long for this recognition to come,” declared Sen. Mike Crapo, addressing a crowd of more than 100, including many veterans. He called the choice of the state’s busiest freeway for the designation “incredibly fitting.”
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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl captive since 2009 released by Taliban

Freed Soldier Bowe Bergdahl's Idaho Town Plans Celebratory Homecoming
NBC News

HAILEY, Idaho — The news Saturday of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release from captivity spread quickly in his hometown in southern Idaho, and residents immediately began making plans for a welcome-home celebration.

An annual event called "Bring Bowe Back" scheduled for June 28 was quickly renamed "Bowe is Back."

"It is going to be Bowe's official welcome-home party even if he's not quite home yet," organizer Stefanie O'Neill said Saturday.

Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009.

In Hailey, a town of 7,000 residents just down the road from upscale Sun Valley, residents have hung yellow ribbons from trees and utility poles and planted a tree in a local park each year since he was held. Signs reading "Bring Bowe Home" were placed in shop windows.
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Afghanistan Veteran Marine Amputee Taking on Mt. Everest

Boise veteran, wounded in Afghanistan, climbing Mt. Everest
KTVB.COM
by Brady Moore
Posted on April 15, 2014

Credit: The Heroes Project

BOISE -- More than 7,000 miles away from the City of Trees, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant and Boise native Charlie Linville is making the climb of his life.

In January 2011 Staff Sgt. Linville was conducting an IED sweep in Afghanistan when he was hit by an explosive device. That blast caused head trauma and devastating injuries to his right foot and hand.

Two years later, despite multiple attempts at rehabilitation, his right leg was amputated below the knee. But now, he's climbing 29,029 feet to the summit of Mt. Everest.
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UPDATE

If you think this is not dangerous,,,,,,
At Least 13 Sherpas Dead as Avalanche Sweeps Mount Everest

An avalanche swept down a slope of Mount Everest on Friday along a route used to ascend the world's highest peak, killing at least 13 people in the mountain's deadliest disaster.

NBC News confirmed that all of the dead were Sherpa guides.

The guides had gone early in the morning to fix the ropes for hundreds of climbers when the avalanche hit them just below Camp 2 around 6:30 a.m. local time, Nepal Tourism Ministry official Krishna Lamsal told The Associated Press.
click link for more on avalanche

Marine vet not caught in Everest avalanche

Veteran says he picked up paper and a pen, not his gun

With suicides way up, Treasure Valley group works to aid veterans
Figures show that more than 20 former military members take their lives each day, a number that Warrior Pointe hopes to drastically reduce.
Idaho Statesman
BY ANNA WEBB
April 13, 2014

In the summer of 2012, U.S. Army veteran Reed Pacheco had his suicide all planned out.

He has four children. He didn't want to kill himself in the same house where they live. Finding an alternate place wouldn't be hard, he figured.

"We're in the land of open space and wilderness," Pacheco said.

Something else happened instead.

"I truly believe it was God," he said.

He picked up paper and a pen, not his gun. He wrote down a list of problems veterans face when they come home from military service.

"We call them our demons," he said. "Insomnia, drinking, broken relationships, remorse, guilt, unemployment, navigating the VA, suicide."

He picked up the phone and called his friends - fellow veterans.
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Apr 11, 2014
Reed Pacheco and Joshua Petersen, two members of Warrior Pointe, talk about the Treasure Valley group's efforts to curb veterans' feelings of isolation.

Vietnam Veteran finally receives medals after 44 year wait

Vietnam vet receives medals 44 years later
KXLY4
Author: Ian Cull
Multimedia Journalist
Published On: Mar 28 2014

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho
A Coeur d'Alene man who participated in two combat tours in Southeast Asia with the 101st Airborne Division finally received awards for valor Thursday he earned more than 40 years ago in the jungles of Vietnam.

It was due to a paperwork mistake that former Army Sgt. Leon Strigotte had to wait 44 years to receive several medals he earned in Vietnam. The Idaho Army National Guard made sure to thank him for his service, with the state's Guard commander, Brig. Gen. John Goodale, on hand to present Strigotte his awards.

Guardsman and fellow combat veterans manned the hallways of the Idaho Army Guard armory in Post Falls Friday to welcome Strigotte, who served two tours in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969. During his service, he was wounded three times -- once during the Tet Offensive in March 1968 and in the Central Highlands in August and again in December of 1969.

During Tet, Strigotte was injured in a land mine explosion, was rehabilitated and then asked to go back. After his second wound in late 1969 he was sent home. He was later awarded three Purple Hearts for being wounded in combat, but the other medals he had earned were lost due to a clerical error.

He was told that after he was med-evaced from Vietnam his paper trail of what he did didn't quite follow him. One year turned into two years, then two decades. On Friday, 44 years later, that paper trail finally caught up to him. Strigotte finally received the medals he had earned, including the Bronze Star, Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.
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Former Air Force para-rescueman enlisted to help find remains

59 minutes ago
Former Air Force para-rescueman enlisted to help find remains
Idaho State Journal/AP
By Michael O'Donnell
Published: February 22, 2014

POCATELLO, Idaho — It's been 45 years since Aberdeen's Leland Sorensen clung to a thin steel cable as he was lowered into the jungle canopy of Southeast Asia. As a member of the elite U.S. Air Force para-rescue jump team, it was his job to drop from a helicopter into hostile territory to rescue downed pilots during the Vietnam War.

Sorensen's successful rescue efforts in 1968-69 earned him the Silver Star, four Distinguished Flying Crosses — and a return trip to the rugged jungles of Laos later this month.

A surprise email from the Army's Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office last December asked for Sorensen's help in finding the remains of F-105 fighter pilot David T. Dinan, who was shot down on a Laotian mountainside March 17, 1969. Sorensen was key because he was the last American to ever see Dinan's lifeless body.

"I was the one who went to the ground," Sorensen said about that fateful day nearly 45 years ago. "I was happy to tell what I recalled."

Sorensen will fly to Laos on Feb. 27 and become part of a mission to find the remains of Lt. Dinan. People are counting on his memory of the location and the events of that fateful day
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Air Force Wife Escorted Body of Husband Back Home

Fallen captain remembered as protector, athlete, loving husband
Marine Corps Times
Jeff Schogol
January 2, 2014

Capt. David Lyon, who died Dec. 27 in Afghanistan, had been with his wife, Capt. Dana Lyon, just days earlier.
(Courtesy of Pounds family)

Rick Pounds remembers the moment his daughter Dana found the man to spend her life with.

In 2008, she tried out for the Olympics as part of the Air Force team, but her javelin throw was just inches short of making the cut. She was inconsolable afterward — until her fiancee, David Lyon, comforted her by holding her, walking with her and helping her move through the pain.

“If my daughter would have given me the task of ‘go find me a husband anywhere,’ that’s who I would have picked,” Rick Pounds said in a Jan. 2 interview.

The two, both Air Force Academy graduates, did get married and both became Air Force captains. They were deployed to Afghanistan and were able to see each other this Christmas. Two days later, Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho, was killed by a suicide car bomb.

Rick Pounds had to pause to collect himself before talking about how his widowed daughter escorted Lyon’s flag-draped transfer case to the U.S.

“She got to fly back, right beside him, all the way home,” he said.
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Airman from Idaho killed in Afghanistan

DOD Identifies Air Force Casualty
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release No: NR-098-13
December 28, 2013

The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Capt. David I. Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho, died Dec. 27, 2013, from wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He was assigned to the 21st Logistics Readiness Squadron, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.

Family's search for Erik Jorgensen comes to an end

Recent guardsman suicide prompts PTSD discussion
KTVB.COM
by Stephanie Zepelin
July 23, 2013

BOISE -- KTVB has confirmed an Idaho Army National Guard member committed suicide at the National Guard's Orchard Combat Training Center.

KTVB has a policy that we do not report suicides unless there are extenuating circumstances surrounding it. Post traumatic stress disorder continues to be an ongoing battle for many veterans in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says as many of 30 in every 100 veterans suffer from PTSD.

Friends and family spent the weekend searching for Private First Class Erik Jorgensen. A friend of the family said Jorgensen is described as someone who loved life, but they can't say for sure why he took his own life out at the Orchard Combat Training Center. However, PTSD experts we talked to say suicide is a risk in some PTSD cases.

A Facebook post was all it took to get Maggie Haswell-Sheppard involved in the search for Jorgensen. She saw a post asking for help to look for the soldier who had been missing since late last week, and she even helped lead the search efforts.
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Another family searching for missing soldier with PTSD

Spc. Brandon David Bertolo's body found at Fort Campbell

Another family searching for missing soldier with PTSD

Sad Update
Family's search for Erik Jorgensen comes to an end

California mom concerned about missing Boise soldier's whereabouts
ABC News
By Nicole Pineda
CREATED JUL. 21, 2013
Nicole Pineda reports on the missing Erik Jorgenson
Video by IdahoOnYourSide.com

The family and friends of a 26-year old Boise man wait for word tonight. Searchers have been combing the Boise mountains for the past few days; and still no sign of Erik Jorgenson.

"On Thursday night he sent out a mass text message basically saying he was a waste of oxygen on this earth," said Cindy Crow, Erik’s mother. A message to make a mother's heart stop.

The moment Cindy Crow received that text message from her son; she left her home in California and headed to Idaho. She called police to check on him but they only confirmed what she already knew Erik was missing.

The only clues he left behind a text message and his beloved dog. Friends and Family all agree Erik would never leave his best friend.

Erik suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder after serving for a year in Afghanistan. His mother says this month is a particularly bad one.
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Taliban offer trade for US Soldier held captive

Bowe Bergdahl Trade: Taliban Offer To Hand Over Captive U.S. Soldier For 5 Senior Operatives
Huffington Post
By KATHY GANNON and KAY JOHNSON
06/20/13

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

The offer came as an Afghan government spokesman said President Hamid Karzai is now willing to join planned peace talks with the Taliban – provided that the Taliban flag and nameplate are removed from the militant group's newly opened political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. Karzai also wants a formal letter from the United States supporting the Afghan government.

The only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war is U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition."
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