Comrades say Marine heroism tale of Iraq veteran was untrue

There are accounts of Sgt. Rafael Peralta saving lives by shielding others after he had been shot. Accounts that simply say he fell on a grenade. Now there is another account saying he was just near it.

The LA Times reported that Defense Secretary Hagel refuses to reopen Medal of Honor bid for Sgt. Rafael Peralta because "does not meet the "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" standard required for the nation's highest award for combat bravery." Then there are reports of video footage showing exactly what happened.

So what really happened? Keep in mind that as Peralta is the subject of this debate, he is no longer here to tell anyone what happened or push for anything. That is something all of us need to remember.

Comrades say Marine heroism tale of Iraq veteran was untrue
Washington Post
Ernesto Londoño
February 21, 2014

After his death in 2004 in Fallujah, Sgt. Rafael Peralta became perhaps the most lionized Marine of the Iraq war. Shot in the head during an intense firefight, the story went, the infantryman scooped a grenade underneath his body seconds before it exploded, a stunning act of courage that saved the lives of his fellow Marines.

The Navy posthumously awarded Peralta the Navy Cross, the service’s second-highest decoration for valor; named a destroyer after him; and made plans to display his battered rifle in the Marine Corps museum in Quantico, Va.

The tale of heroism has become emblematic of Marine valor in wartime. But new accounts from comrades who fought alongside Peralta that day suggest it may not be true. In interviews, two former Marines who were with Peralta in the house when he was shot said the story was concocted spontaneously in the minutes after he was mortally wounded — likely because several of the men in the unit feared they might have been the ones who shot him.

“It has always bugged me,” said Davi Allen, a Marine who was wounded in the grenade blast and who said he watched it detonate near, but not underneath, Peralta. After years of sticking to the prevailing narrative, Allen, 30, said he recently decided to tell the truth. “I knew it’s not the truth. But who wants to be the one to tell a family: ‘Your son was not a hero’?”
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Sgt. Rafael Peralta will not receive Medal of Honor for saving lives

Iraq veteran battles for fallen Marine to be honored

Memorial for Floridians who died in Iraq wars opens in Tampa

Memorial for Floridians who died in Iraq wars opens in Tampa
Tampa Bay Times
Will Hobson, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, December 14, 2013

Jason Wyatt, left, performs the national anthem while Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland, center, and Command Sgt. Maj. Frank A. Grippe stand at attention during the dedication ceremony.

Mark Goujon lost three members of his Air Force team in January 2007 when an improvised explosive device they were sent to inspect detonated in Iraq.

He was supposed to be on that inspection, but was swapped off.

After returning to Riverview, he started thinking there should be a more fitting tribute to the friends he lost, and other Floridians who died in Iraq, than the photos displayed in his home. And so started a two-year quest of fundraising and organizing that culminated Saturday, with the opening of the Iraq Veterans Memorial in Veterans Memorial Park and Museum east of Tampa.

The ceremony was marked by a rifle salute, a rendition of taps and a reading of the names of the 190 men and women from Florida who died in Iraq by some of their mothers.

Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland, deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, spoke to the crowd of the importance of monuments.

"Without them, we forget the cost of freedom," he said. Next to him, the surviving relatives of some of those who died in Iraq sat under two white tents. Mulholland turned to the families, to say, "Our nation could never repay the debt we owe for your sacrifice."
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Therapeutic garden unearths soldier’s will

Therapeutic garden unearths soldier’s will
Beauregard Daily News
By Kathy Ports
Posted Dec. 13, 2013

Working in a therapeutic garden she helped develop has given Staff Sgt. Carolyn Darnell, a demobilized National Guard soldier in the Warrior Transition Unit, the strength to emerge from her room and the motivation to begin working her way out of her depression.

“Working in the garden allows you to let your mind go,” she said. “I gently planted those plants, nurtured them, watched them grow and it gave me the strength to come out of the dark cave I was in."

Darnell deployed to Iraq twice –– 2004 to 2006 and 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to July 2012, she was mobilized at Camp Shelby, Miss. Each deployment took its toll.

“My first deployment was tough," she said. We sustained a lot of mortar attacks. One time, I was on the phone with my mother and the shelling started. I really thought that I was going to die that night and I didn’t want my mother to be on the other end of the telephone if the end came."

The first deployment had more tough lessons in store for Darnell.
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PTSD hits one out of three contractors in war zones

Large incomes, Workers' Compensation, Health Insurance and PTSD. Think about that for a second.

They are not members of the military but they are contractors. They report rates of PTSD at one out of three.

Hmm, doesn't that sound familiar? That is because up until these recent wars, that was the percentage used by most experts when trying to explain how many get hit by PTSD.

They worry about their jobs, so only 16% have actually filed Comp Claims. It isn't that they don't have PTSD issues but more about losing their jobs.

That sounds familiar too. It does because that is what is going on with our troops and veterans.

PTSD hits civilians serving on war fronts, study finds
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
December 10, 2013

Rates of mental illness among an international force of civilian contractors hired to work in Iraq or Afghanistan rivaled those among service members, a report says.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Nearly one in three U.S. contractors show signs of PTSD after working in Iraq, Afghanistan
Most have health insurance, but few make use of it to combat stress
Working in a war zone not just stressful for troops, RAND report finds

Rates of mental illness among an international force of civilian contractors hired to work in Iraq or Afghanistan rivaled those among servicemembers, with one in four civilians showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a RAND Corp. study released today.

The prevalence of PTSD was even higher among American contractors. Nearly one in three showed signs of the disorder, researchers found in an online survey of 660 civilians working in war zones between early 2011 and early 2013.

"These findings highlight a significant but often overlooked group of people struggling with the after-effects of working in a war zone," said Molly Dunigan, co-author of the study and a political scientist with RAND.

Researchers said it is unclear how many contractors have served in war zones, but they often outnumber the troops deployed.

"Many simply avoided doing so out of concern that it would affect their employment, according to the study. Only about 16% of contractors surveyed said they filed workers' compensation claims."
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Major Troy Gilbert's partial remains returned to his family

Family of fallen veteran whose body went missing receives partial remains
WFAA
by JIM DOUGLAS
Posted on November 18, 2013

ARLINGTON –– To the soldiers he saved on the ground in Iraq, Maj. Troy Gilbert was the picture of courage, posing proudly with his F-16. Other pictures torture his family back in Texas.

Images of his corpse, stolen by insurgents, have been used in propaganda videos. Gilbert died in Nov. 2006, just a few days after recording Christmas Bible readings for his five children. He hoped to be home within weeks.

But he flew his fighter low to avoid firing on civilians as he tried to protect American forces under attack. The jet scraped the ground. Within hours, insurgents posted crash video showing the pilot's intact body.

A year later, on 9/11, they used the decaying corpse in a produced propaganda film.

When America's military left Iraq two years ago without Gilbert's remains, his mother's heart broke again.

“Ninety-nine percent is still in the ground over there,” Kaye Gilbert pleaded in 2011. “Please, please help us get him home."

Maybe someone in Iraq heard Kaye Gilbert's plea. On Friday, she called her daughter in Arlington.
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University of Montana Fallen Soldier Memorial for OEF and OIF

UM's Fallen Soldier monument dedicated as state’s official Iraq, Afghanistan war memorial
Missoulian News
By Alice Miller
October 26, 2013

Michelle Torres makes a special stop when she comes to Missoula to visit her children and grandchildren.

“When I do come to town, I usually do come and sit and visit with this,” she said, gesturing to the plaque where Travis Arndt’s name is chiseled in stone at the Fallen Soldier Memorial on the University of Montana campus.

“I really miss him,” she said of her son Saturday after a ceremony dedicating the memorial as the official state Iraq and Afghanistan veterans monument.

Torres especially misses her son’s sense of humor. “It can bring down the room.”

Arndt, 23, died in 2005 when an armored vehicle the U.S. Army sergeant was in rolled over in Iraq. The memorial helps her heal after the loss, Torres said.

Forty-two other Montana soldiers’ families and loved ones also lost a service member in Iraq or Afghanistan, and those 43 heroes are immortalized at the memorial, which was unveiled in November 2011.
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Comedian Kathy Griffin receives award for work with veterans

Kathy Griffin Receives Distinguished Service Partner Award for Work with Veterans
Harvard Crimson
By KRUTI B. VORA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
2 hours ago

Comedian and bestselling author Kathy M. Griffin received the inaugural Distinguished Service Partner Award to commemorate her work with veterans during a charity benefit hosted by the Harvard Undergraduates Honoring Veterans this Saturday.

After a performance by the improvisational comedy group Immediate Gratification Players, Griffin participated in a conversation with Undergraduate Council Finance Committee Chair Matthew R. Marotta ’14 on topics ranging from her work with veterans groups to life as a female comedian. “My involvement is built around laughter truly being the best medicine,” Griffin said in an interview with The Crimson after the event. “What I learned was that these men and women need to laugh at these moments, more than ever.”

Griffin, who has toured Iraq and Afghanistan with the United Service Organizations, also gives tickets to her comedy shows to the Veteran Tickets Foundation, allowing veterans to come free of charge and meet her after the show.

“It’s really one of my favorite things about touring, meeting these people every show,” Griffin said. “I love to hear their stories, and everybody’s story is so different.”
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When Congress had a different story on debt

This is how we got into the mess we were in. Wars were supposed to be important enough to pay for as well as plan. "If this was is important enough to fight then it ought to be important enough to pay for." (5:38) If we don't learn from the past then yep, we repeat it and let them just get away with it.

Iraq War Funding
Oct 2, 2007
U.S. Capitol
House Radio and Television Gallery

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, and Rules Committee Vice Chairman James McGovern spoke to the press conference about war funding and the nearly $200 billion that the White House is expected to request for the next year. They also answered questions from reporters.

From 2007 when this came out the lives lost in Iraq

2007 904
2008 314
2009 149
2010 60
2011 54
2012 1
Total 4486

You have to listen to this speech of when Congress was tied up in 2007 too
President Bush Urges Congress to Pass Appropriations Bills (2007)


Tammy Duckworth talks about long wait to see a VA doctor as well as how the DOD and the VA were supposed to be sharing records. Yep, all that back then too.


We can keep pretending all we want that all of this is new, but none of it is. Veterans wait, congress keeps playing games and nothing changes no matter who the President is.

How did congress pay for Iraq War?

This is how they used to pay for the military being in Iraq. October 2003

Bart Stupak, D-Michigan 1st District 10:12:41 AM (00:12:38) 1 minute Mr. STUPAK.
Mr. Speaker, today the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the President's $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq.

This $87 billion is on top of the $79 billion we approved last spring.

This is not an easy vote, and I appreciate hearing from my constituents on this issue.

I have no objection to spending every dime necessary to make sure our troops are safe and well-supplied with everything they need to do their jobs, but the $18.6 billion in the bill for civilian reconstruction is simply too big of a handout.

Iraq has vast oil reserves, and we should lend the money to Iraq. The President has refused to separate the military portion of the bill from the reconstruction money.
I will offer an amendment to set aside enough money to pay a $1,500 bonus to every serviceman and woman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another amendment would require the use of American steel to be used in the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure, helping to keep jobs here in America.

Our people at home are hurting for jobs for health care, for quality education, prescription drug coverage. I do not believe we can ask them to continue to sacrifice even more to assume an enormous additional debt for Iraq's civilian reconstruction. That is why I intend to vote against the supplemental appropriation bill.

Defense contractor takes to waters to talk about PTSD

A lot of people think PTSD is a "weakness" until it hits them. Mary Shoutherland thought that way until she discovered first hand what it was. Now she it trying to change of minds of others like her before they get the same kind of shocking awareness that told her what the truth was.

A journey to raise awareness
Times Online
By Kristen Doerschner
August 6, 2013

BRIDGEWATER — Monday evening a kayak docked along the Ohio River at Bridgewater Crossing.

Mary Southerland got out of the vessel along with her dog, Henry. Southerland set up camp for the night.

Her trip isn’t just a recreational venture. Southerland — who was a civilian contractor in Iraq — is trying to raise awareness about veterans and contractors who are returning from service and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Southerland, 35, of Salt Lake City, Utah, began her journey Sunday. She put her kayak in the water in Pittsburgh and plans to travel to Cairo, Ill. She estimates it will take 54 days to complete her journey.

Southerland worked for the Department of Defense in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, in Colorado from 2010 to 2011, and she returned to Iraq in 2012 under the Department of State. A contractor with a linguistics company, Southerland was essentially in quality assurance for prisoner education.

Most of the foreign prisoners are illiterate, she said. Her job was to make sure the linguists were teaching the prisoners what they were supposed to.

“War trauma” is what Southerland describes her experience as. She said she eventually hit a breaking point in December, was diagnosed as having PTSD and was sent home.

“I didn’t believe in mental injury before that,” Southerland said. She said she always thought things like PTSD were based on weakness. “I’m ashamed I thought that,” she said.
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Court May Reinstate Camp Pendleton Marine’s Murder Conviction

Court May Reinstate Camp Pendleton Marine’s Murder Conviction In Hamdania Case
KPBS News
By Beth Ford Roth
Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Prosecutors have asked the military court that threw out the murder conviction of Camp Pendleton Marine Lawrence Hutchins III to reconsider reinstating it, according to the Associated Press.

A military court in 2007 convicted Hutchins of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, making a false official statement, and larceny. Hutchins led an eight-man squad that kidnapped and killed unarmed Iraqi civilian Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania in 2006.

But last month, as Home Post reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces overturned Hutchins' conviction. The court agreed with Hutchins' assertion that his constitutional rights were violated when he was withheld access to his attorney during his interrogation.
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Hundreds of crosses honor Floridians Sacrifice for Memorial Day

This morning I was went to Oviedo for the Memorial Cross Tribute to the fallen members of the military from Florida. Seeing the rows of memorials for those we lost in Iraq and Afghanistan would cause anyone to shed tears. I had quite a few of them. This is on display until Memorial Day.

Oviedo Historical Society Historical Center
200 West Broadway
Oviedo, FL 32765
407-971-5612

Oviedo Florida Memorial for Fallen

Oviedo Historical Society

Floridians sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan

Created by Jim Vanderbleek

Memorial on display through Memorial Day

Oldest Floridian Lt. Col. Peter Winston

In memory of the service dogs

Youngest Floridian Pfc. Charles M. Sims

For those who lost their battles back home.

Medal of Honor Staff. Sgt. Robert J. Miller from Oviedo

For all of the men and women serving this country in their place.

Sgt. John Russell given life in prison without parole

U.S. soldier sentenced to life in prison for killing comrades in Iraq
By Chelsea J. Carter
CNN
May 16, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A judge finds that Sgt. John Russell killed with premeditation
Russell pleaded guilty to the May 2009 killings at Baghdad's Camp Liberty
He opened fire at a combat stress clinic, killing five people

(CNN) -- A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for gunning down five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

The sentence handed down at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington, came after Sgt. John Russell pleaded guilty to the killings in a deal in which prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Russell pleaded guilty to the May 11, 2009, killings at Baghdad's Camp Liberty, telling a military court last month that he "did it out of rage."

The only question facing the judge, Col. David Conn, was whether Russell committed the slayings with premeditation, which the 48-year-old soldier disputed.

During a brief sentencing hearing, Conn ruled Russell killed with premeditation," meaning the sergeant could not be given a lesser sentence.

As part of last month's plea agreement, Russell described to the court how he killed Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, Army Maj. Matthew Houseal, Sgt. Christian Bueno-Galdos, Spec. Jacob Barton and Pfc. Michael Yates Jr.
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Fallen Floridians Memorial Cross Tribute coming to Oviedo

Marines Have Six Four-Stars — But Not for Long

Marines Have Six Four-Stars — But Not for Long
Washington Wire
by Julian E. Barnes
April 29, 2013

With its emphasis on its enlisted troops and its creed that every Marine is a rifleman, the Marine Corps is the military service that keeps the smallest ratio of brass to troops. But for a brief moment —actually only until Wednesday—there are, for the first time, six four-star generals in the Corps.

Earlier this month [April 19], the officers gathered at the Home of the Commandants at the Marine Barracks Washington, the only time six active-duty four star generals have gathered together, according to the service. Except for a handful of five-star admirals and generals in American history, four-stars is the highest attainable rank in the military. And for the Marines it is unusual to have four or five, much less six.

The Corps thinks of the gathering as historic. But for the generals, the April get-together was simply a reunion of a group of men who have worked with each other and off for four decades.
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Loan program for veteran entrepreneurs

Loan program for veteran entrepreneurs
New legislation could offer small business loans
WPRI.com
Updated: Sunday, 17 Feb 2013
By: Stephanie Mangano

PROVIDENCE, R.I (WPRI)-- New legislation could help veterans looking to start a small business.

Legislation was introduced in the General Assembly last week to set up a loan program for veteran entrepreneurs
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3,258 Civilian defense workers in Iraq killed, 90,000 wounded

Iraq War contractor fined $75,000 for failing to file 30 death reports on time
By T. Christian Miller
ProPublica

As of December, 3,258 civilian contract workers had been killed or died in Iraq, and another 90,000 had reported injuries.

The U.S. Department of Labor has fined a private security contractor $75,000 for failing to file timely reports on the deaths of workers in Iraq as required by law. The Sandi Group, based in Washington D.C., delayed telling the Labor department that 30 of its employees had been killed while working for the company between 2003 and 2005, according to the department.

The Sandi Group, a privately held company known for employing large numbers of Iraqis as security guards, did not return requests for comment. Since 2005 the company has won U.S. government contracts worth at least $80.9 million, according to a federal contracting database.

The fine, believed to be the largest ever levied against a single company for failing to report war zone casualties in a timely manner, is part of an enforcement crackdown that began after a ProPublica series highlighted problems with a government program designed to provide health benefits to civilian contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Timely reporting of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities are vitally important to protect the interests of injured workers and their families,” Gary A. Steinberg, acting director of the Department of Labor office which negotiated the settlement amount with the company, said in a prepared statement.
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Congress Targets Contractors and Overseas Crimes

Congress Targets Contractors and Overseas Crimes
Feb 01, 2013
Associated Press
by Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON -- With thousands of civilian contractors remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, Justice Department officials want Congress to resolve a legal issue they say obstructs efforts to prosecute any such workers who rape, kill or commit other serious crimes abroad.

Scofflaw Pentagon employees and contractors supporting the American war mission overseas are subject to federal prosecution in the U.S., but a nonmilitary contractor who breaks the law may fall outside the Justice Department's jurisdiction. Lawmakers who have pushed in the past to extend the reach of U.S. criminal law plan to renew their efforts this session with bills to make civilian contractors and employees liable to federal prosecution for acts including murder, arson and bribery.

Federal prosecutors believe clearer and more uniform rules are needed to resolve a jurisdictional question made murkier by the end of the Iraq war and the ongoing reduction of troops in Afghanistan. The issue caused problems for authorities during the first prosecution of Blackwater contractors accused in 2007 shootings in Baghdad and could again be a stumbling block as prosecutors seek a new indictment in the case.
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‘The Revenant,’ Horror Takes On Race And Military Suicide

Sometimes I read an article on Combat PTSD and decide to just move on because it is useless information or so wrong that no amount of countering it with cold-hard facts can fix it. This time, I am stunned by a reporter with a clear attempt of trying to understand Combat PTSD, yet getting it oh so wrong.

In ‘The Revenant,’ Horror Takes On Race And Military Suicide
Think Progress
By Betsy Phillips
Jan 22, 2013

This weekend I stumbled across The Revenant on Cinemax. According to Wikipedia, this film won a ton of awards, but I somehow missed it when it was in theaters (or maybe it never came to Nashville?) Either way, I was just looking for something cheesy to watch and there it was. It’s so good that I ended up watching it twice. (Fair warning: SPOILERS AHEAD.)

Not that it’s a perfect movie. It runs long and calls individual Wiccans “Wiccas.” But it’s really good.

The general premise of the movie is that Bart Gregory, played by David Anders, dies in the Iraq War and his body is shipped home for burial. He comes back from the dead, and his best friend, Joey, played by Chris Wylde, helps him cope, through murder, mayhem, and blood-drinking.

So, here, in The Revenant, when we’re watching a man come back from the dead and prowl through the streets for victims he’s not going to feel too bad about, we’re seeing a man come back from a war and find a society not set up for him to return to. I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but he comes back from Iraq, scares the crap out of his friends with his behavior, becomes a criminal, accidentally kills his girlfriend, and then tries to kill himself, before being sent back into combat–as if being in combat has made him only good for killing.

It’s terrible to look straight at the fact that more people in the military died last year from suicide than in combat and that the military has an ongoing problem with people coming home and enacting violence on their loved ones. But, again, we see it on screen in The Revenant while we’re looking at something else.
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If you read the rest of this article, know this. This is about a horror movie and not about what is real for our veterans. Veterans with PTSD live with horror movies playing in the theater of their own minds with memories haunting them. To use them in a horror movie, especially one that has the subject being killed in combat coming back to life as zombie vampire.

This pretty much explains it. “The Revenant”: Zombies and vampires, via Tarantino

Sure, I see what some of the issues are – an absence of recognizable stars, most notably – and for the first few minutes you’re not quite sure what kind of movie this is, or who the main character will be. We begin with Bart Gregory (David Anders), a young soldier from California, who gets killed in a mysterious roadside ambush in Iraq. (I told you this was made in 2009!) Back in L.A. at Bart’s funeral, his weepy girlfriend, Janet (Louise Griffiths), and his drug-addled best friend, Joey (Chris Wylde), allow their alcohol-fueled grief to push them into a passionate makeout session. Does that event have something to do with the fact that, later that night, Bart will force open his coffin and dig his way back to the surface?

The fact this movie couldn't get a distributor for years should have been a good indication it should not have been done in the first place. When men and women killed in action are turned into this type of character it is sickening and fuels the image of PTSD veterans as some type of monster instead of what they truly are. As a wife of a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, I wish there were more movies about them in the real world and less movies like this using them to make money.

Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Tampa Bay
By Robbyn Mitchell
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, December 28, 2012

TAMPA — It was hot and clear as the military plane zipped through Tampa's airspace.

In front of a frenzied crowd, the plane landed, the door opened and out stepped Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, followed by soldiers returning from kicking Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

"He was larger than life," recalled U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who was at the old Tampa Stadium for that public thank you on May 5, 1991.

"He was a hero who controlled a war that was minimal cost in money and in causalities," Young said. "He went over there, dug them out of the sand, whipped Saddam Hussein's tail and sent them flying back to Baghdad."

Gen. Schwarzkopf came to Tampa in 1988 as the head of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He was ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush to initiate Operation Desert Storm, and the sweeping success of that campaign endeared him the nation and his new neighbors.
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