Headline on Retired General Chiarelli Funny and Twisted at Same Time

Is this headline a joke?

General who led Army’s PTSD and TBI reforms is on bill at TEDxTacoma
New Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
March 20, 2015

Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli spoke Secretary of the Army John McHugh at his retirement in January 2012. Since then, Chiarelli has moved to Seattle and launched One Mind, an organization that aims to improve treatment of brain injuries. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. John G. Martinez) SPC. JOHN G. MARTINEZ — Spc. John G. Martinez

A retired Army general who launched an organization to study brain injuries and a former Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army Ranger who’s now in the business of making shoes in conflict-torn communities will be among the speakers at this weekend’s TEDxTacoma.

Former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli and Combat Flip Flops co-founder Matthew Griffin are two of the three veterans on the bill at Tacoma’s version of the global Technology, Education and Design (TED) forums.

The full line-up for Saturday’s event is available at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start at $39 and the event is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Other speakers include Bradd Busick of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Tacoma-raised songwriter William Jordan and 11-year-old Olivia Anderson of Gig Harbor, who is trying to raise awareness about clean-water challenges in the developing world.

As the 32nd Army Vice of Chief of Staff, Chiarelli labored to understand and address a rising number of suicides among soldiers during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. His efforts are documented in Thank You for Your Service, a book by David Finkel of The Washington Post.
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Led reforms where? Suicides went up!

2008
The report from Associated Press

Facing prospects that one in five of the 101st Airborne Division soldiers will suffer from stress-related disorders, the base has nearly doubled its psychological health staff. Army leaders are hoping to use the base's experiences to assess the long-term impact of repeated deployments.

Chiarelli's comment

"I don't know what to expect. I don't think anybody knows," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, as he flew back to Washington from a recent tour of the base's medical facilities. "That's why I want to see numbers from the 101st's third deployment."

2009
Stars and Stripes report

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff for the Army, called the suicide figures for his service "unacceptable" and fixing them "the most difficult and critical mission" of his military career.

2010

Report from Seattle Times

Chiarelli, who served two tours of duty in Iraq, says the mental-health crisis in the military has been the toughest battle of his 37-year career.

His highest-profile role has been in shaping the Army’s response to the plight of soldiers stressed from the long wars.

A 2008 RAND Corp. study found about one-third of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq had symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Reviews of suicide cases often find a link between the deaths and troubles with spouses; repeat deployments also appear to put soldiers more at risk.

There also have been some unexpected trends.

Looking at the data, Chiarelli found that last year, suicide rates were higher among soldiers deployed to Iraq, where combat tailed off sharply, than in Afghanistan, where troops faced greater risks of insurgent attacks.

It is great to try to change things but even better if the changes actually accomplished more than staying the course or worse, making it worse, which is what we've seen. Military suicides went up and so did suicides among veterans.

Dilemma of Sharing or Suppressing News

Lunchtime at work today I had a dilemma. I talked to a couple of friends about posting how there seems to be an increase in soldiers charged with crimes, especially this morning. I couldn't decide to post them or just avoid them.

One of my friends said that operating a news site like this would mean I was suppressing news instead of covering it.

I thought about it for a while and then remembered other stories I just wanted to ignore. One of them is Dakota Meyer stories that have come out over the last few days. (It pains me to put these up)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Bristol Palin says she is engaged to Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer.
The daughter of former Alaska governor and former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said in a blog post Saturday that Meyer came to Alaska to film the "Amazing America" reality show with her mother last year. She says Meyer is wonderful with her son Tripp.

'That's just how we roll': Bristol Palin's Medal of Honor fiance defends playing with an infant as gun sits feet away on table
In an Instagram photo posted to his account, former Marine Dakota Meyer can be seen playing with an infant as a gun sits next to them
When someone pointed this out on his post, he joked 'that's just how we roll, haha'
Meyer, one of the youngest Medal of Honor recipients in American history, has a large number of posts showing him with guns on social media
One shows a sign he was gifted by friends that reads 'I Don't Call 911' with two pistols on either side In Kentucky, where Meyer is from, no permit is needed to buy a handgun and the weapons can be carried anywhere as long as they aren't concealed
The same is true in Alaska, where Meyer's new fiance Bristol Palin lives with her son Tripp
The Daily Mail By CHRIS SPARGO 20 March 2015

U.S. Air Force Veteran, Charged With Trying to Join ISIS

Anyway those are some of the stories I avoided posting on. 

These are the ones that troubled me the most.

Fort Meade-based Army Spc. is charged in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and statutory sexual assault.

A soldier with Joint Base Lewis McChord is facing charges after he allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl, Grays Harbor Sheriff's deputies said.

A Fort Bragg soldier is facing multiple child sex charges, the Hoke County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska — Soldiers in a unit in Alaska have a “tradition” of allowing racial slurs to be used freely on “Racial Thursdays,” a soldier told the Army Times. "When I first got to my unit, someone said we should do 'Racial Thursdays' because it's been a tradition," the soldier, a staff sergeant, told the Times. "It's something they made up where you can say any racist remark you want without any consequences. The platoon sergeant said no, but the (expletive) is still going on."

All of them just came out. Names omitted for Soldiers charged with crimes.

Soldier in custody after firing gun at Lewis-McChord

Soldier fires shots in air at Lewis McChord
Associated Press
December 28, 2014

A soldier at JBLM is in custody after firing several shots into the air from a parking lot on base.

Soldier is in custody after shots were fired at JBLM early Sunday morning.

(Photo: Doug Dillon, KING 5 News)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord fired several shots into the air from a parking lot early Sunday.

Law enforcement at the base cordoned off the area after the incident at about 4:30 a.m. Law enforcement agencies from Pierce County assisted.

The public affairs office says the soldier was taken into custody at about 5:45 a.m.

No injuries were reported.
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Lewis-McChord Has No Record of Stolen Valor Loser Serving There

Can't tell if they are wearing a uniform or costume? A great suggestion was made by a buddy of mine, a real veteran, on what to do if you are not sure. Ask for their military ID.

My husband is 100% and we carry ID cards we have no problem showing at stores when they offer discounts or at movie theaters. Why should they simply trust me to claim the right to the discounts they give? I even have to show the card at the carwash but every bit helps. This guy is yet one more Stolen Valor Loser confronted by a real veteran.

JBLM distances itself from Ranger impostor in viral video
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
December 5, 2014

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is distancing itself from a Pennsylvania man caught in a viral video falsely claiming to be one of the base’s Army Rangers.

Officials have no record of the man, Sean Yetman, serving in the Army at JBLM, base spokesman Joe Kubistek said.

Yetman also did not serve in the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. It’s an elite Special Operations unit that has deployed 20 times to Iraq and Afghanistan since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Ranger Regiment.

A video of Army veteran Ryan Berk confronting Yetman while shopping in a mall on Black Friday has been viewed more than 3.2 million times on YouTube and has been discussed on Fox News and on “Good Morning America.”

Yetman is “impersonating in the uniform people died for,” Berk, 26, told The Allentown Morning Call newspaper. “He was wearing awards that I earned and he didn’t.”

A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Yetman committed a crime while shopping. It is not illegal for a civilian to claim to be a military service member, but the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 prohibits civilians from seeking financial gain by lying about military service.
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Veteran Confronts Fake Army Ranger Trying to Get Discounts

Joint Base Lewis McChord Prepares to Quarantine Troops

JBLM could house about 1,000 quarantined troops ending Ebola missions
The Olympian
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
November 7, 2014

“Once they’re in, they’re in for the 21 days,”

American troops finishing overseas Ebola-response missions will be quarantined temporarily at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and four other domestic military bases, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Military service members departing from assignments in West Africa must spend 21 days in isolation under an order issued last week by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The quarantines are intended to keep them away from civilians during the Ebola virus’ incubation period.

JBLM could be asked to house about 1,000 military service members during quarantines, said I Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Dennis Swanson.

They would be kept in empty, World War II-era barracks that JBLM had used until recently to house ROTC students during summertime exercises, Swanson said. The barracks area already is somewhat separate from other headquarters buildings and barracks.

Quarantined troops would eat their meals within the confinement area. They would not be able to leave unless they have a medical emergency.
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20-year-old JBLM soldier accused of killing his young wife

Soldier accused of killing wife free on bond to remain on base
KIRO News
By Maria Guerrero
November 2, 2014

TACOMA, Wash. — A 20-year-old JBLM soldier accused of killing his young wife was allowed to walk out of jail, just hours after his bail was reduced.

JBLM is now involved in Skylar Nemetz’ release.

KIRO 7 also obtained 911 calls on Oct. 16.

“I think someone's just been shot in my neighborhood,” said one neighbor.

That someone was 19-year-old Danielle Nemetz.

KIRO 7 listened to the 911 calls neighbors made the evening Danielle was shot in the back of the head with an AR-15 rifle inside the Lakewood apartment she shared with her husband, Skylar.

The 20-year-old is charged with her murder.
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Fort Lewis-McChord soldier charged with murdering young wife

JBLM soldier charged with murder in wife’s death
The News Tribune
BY ADAM LYNN
Staff writer
October 22, 2014

Pierce County prosecutors contend a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier shot and killed his 19-year-old wife last week because he was angry that another man had bought liquor for her.

On Wednesday, they charged Skylar Nemetz, 20, with first-degree murder in the Oct. 16 death of Tarrah Nemetz.

A not-guilty plea was entered on Nemetz’s behalf during his arraignment in Superior Court. Court Commissioner Meagan Foley ordered him jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.
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Vietnam Veterans Honored At Joint Base Lewis McChord by over 2,500

Lewis-McChord honors Vietnam War veterans
The News Tribune
By ADAM ASHTON
October 10, 2014

More than 2,500 veterans or families of veterans crowded the parade field at JBLM to participate in the salute.

Command Sgt. Major Erik Frey awards commemorative pins to Auburn VFW Vietnam-era veterans John Pepper (left), Bob Newman, and Joe Audino during a ceremony at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. It part of the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Vietnam War.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — Stephen Stribling looked wide-eyed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Thursday as he walked into a column of uniformed sailors waiting to thank him for his service in the Vietnam War.

The 66-year-old grinned as he took in the appreciation of active-duty troops. It was nothing like the lonely homecoming he experienced at the end of his combat tour in 1968.

"I'm like a baby to something like this. It's so unreal," he said.

Stribling's new Vietnam homecoming — 46 years in the making — unfolded at a JBLM salute to Vietnam-era veterans. It was meant to recognize a generation of military service members who too often felt scorned by the public after serving overseas.

"It is never too late, never too late, to pay tribute to the men and women who served and continue to serve our country," said I Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, the senior Army officer at JBLM.
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1 in 5 Army hospital heads suspended just in last 2 years

One in five Army hospital leaders suspended in two years: What's behind the discipline?
By Adam Ashton
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Published: September 22, 2014

The Joint Base Lewis-McChord general who lost his command earlier this month is one of eight senior Army medical officers around the world who've been suspended or relieved of command over the past two years.

That means nearly one in five major Army medical facilities has had a commander suspended during that time.

It's an eye-grabbing amount of public discipline for an Army often criticized for being too slow to remove commanders in high-profile positions rather than dismissing them when controversy arises.

It's unclear if a theme unites the eight suspensions; each was carried out for a distinct reason.

But some officials with recent experience in Army medicine are concerned that the suspensions point to broader problems as the system recovers from 13 years of ground war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The discipline could stem from an increasing demand for health care services, they say, or from oversights in preparing top doctors for leadership positions.

"The ones that I know are very good people who have done very well in their careers, otherwise they wouldn't be hospital commanders," said Dr. Elspeth Ritchie, a former colonel and Army psychiatrist who is now chief clinical officer for the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. "The way I put this together is that there's an enormous amount of need that has overwhelmed the system."
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Combat to Criminal? How they got to that point is the question

Ever think about how in control soldiers have to be to be in the military in the first place? Think about it. All the training they have to do topped off with following orders telling them what to do, when to eat, when to wake up and when to go to sleep. They spend years of being in control.

We are always told the military is addressing their need to heal, but over and over again, we discover far too many times the military used the wrong address.

Suicides have gone up since the military started to "do something" about them. Suicides back home have gone up as well with more and more veterans facing off with law enforcement, usually when they have reached the point where suicide seems to be the only option they can see.

Communities wonder what justice really is but it wouldn't have to come to that point had they wondered first how they ended up that way after all they did for us.

These folks are not your average citizen. They were willing to die for someone else. So why do some go from that, surviving combat, years of honorable service, to being treated like a criminal?

What is not being done? What is being done needs to be changed, but when do they do it? When will they ever reach the point where the "one too many suicide" really happens and they actually do something about it instead of repeating what already failed them?

Criminal or victim?
Communities weigh how to deal with battle-scarred soldiers who do wrong after coming home
Washington Post
Greg Jaffe
September 20, 2014

FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Staff Sgt. Robert D. Carlson raised the gun to his head. In the parking lot of their duplex, his wife was calling the police.

"Please help," she cried. "He punched me in the face."

His intention, Carlson would say later, was to kill himself. Instead, alone on the second floor of their house, he lowered the gun from his head, pointed it toward a window and squeezed the trigger again and again, nine times in all.

Some of the rounds went into the roof of a garage, just below the window. Two rounds hit apartment buildings across the street. One round flew into the headlamp of a responding police SUV.

That was July 2012. Now, two years later, after being found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to eight years in prison, Carlson wonders about the fairness of such a punishment. "I know I did wrong," he said recently from the detention facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. But is jail time appropriate for someone who, before he fired those shots, spent 16 months in Iraq, followed by 12 months in Iraq, followed by another 12 months in Afghanistan?

Forty months total at war: He had survived a blast from a suicide car bomb. He had killed an Iraqi insurgent as the man's children watched in horror. He had traded places one day with a fellow soldier who then was killed by a sniper's bullet, standing in the very place where Carlson would have been if he hadn't switched. Did his years in combat mean he was deserving of compassion?

Compassion or conviction - that's the choice more and more communities across the country are facing as the effects of 12 years of war are increasingly seeping into the American legal system.
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Lewis-McChord soldier leaves hospital, minus car plus new baby

JBLM soldier's car found after being stolen from hospital
KOMO News
By Kristen Drew
Published: Aug 16, 2014

LACEY, Wash. -- The stolen vehicle belonging to a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier has been recovered by police in Lacey.

Army Spc. Jorge Garcia and his wife, Ramona, were preparing to leave St. Peter Hospital in Olympia on Wednesday after giving birth to a daughter when they noticed their 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe was stolen from the hospital parking lot.
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Fort Hood Soldier in Intensive Care after beating in Washington

Soldier in intensive care after attack outside restaurant
KIROTV
By Monique Ming Laven
May 29, 2014

TACOMA, Wash. — "He doesn't look like my son right now," said Lisa Senecal while in tears from her son's bedside. Specialist Korry McClanahan, 25, is motionless in bed, his head wrapped in gauze. Until late Friday night, he spent almost every day working out. Now his family doesn't know if he'll ever move again.

McClanahan got to Joint Base Lewis-McChord from Fort Hood, Texas, a few weeks ago. On Friday he and another soldier went to Steel Creek American Whiskey Co. in downtown Tacoma to play pool. At about midnight they went outside to smoke.

The other soldier says a group of six men, speaking in Russian, approached them and started picking a fight. The soldier says he and McClanahan wanted no part of it and tried to walk away.

The group followed and "bum rushed" them. He says McClanahan was punched in the face. He was knocked out. When he fell, his head slammed into the ground.

The soldier says the men piled into a black Infiniti G35, model year 2005 or 2006. They sped off. He called 911. And McClanahan has not spoken since.

"They don't know what the long term affect is going to be," said his mother. She says her son has not responded to any commands. He has opened his eyes but does not seem to comprehend or react to anything.
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Fort Lewis Soldier Missing After Facebook Post saying "Goodbye World"

Washington soldier missing after posting cryptic Facebook message
 Josh Warner, a mechanic at Fort Lewis Army base and married father of two boys, has been missing since posting a message on his Facebook page reading, 'Good bye world,' on Wednesday.
BY NINA GOLGOWSKI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 26, 2014

A Washington soldier is missing after posting a chilling message on Facebook reading, "Good bye world."

Josh Warner, a mechanic at Washington's Fort Lewis Army base, has been missing since early Wednesday morning shortly after he kissed his wife and mother of his two kids goodbye, she told KOMO News.

"He woke me up to give me a hug and kiss goodbye and then there was cops at my door, pounding on my door," said Brandi Warner amid tears.

The mechanic for the 2nd Stryker Brigade and father of two young boys appeared to be going to work when he left their Spanaway home.
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Soldier found dead in Capitol Forest

Soldier found dead in Capitol Forest has uncle missing in Oso slide
The Olympian
BY JEREMY PAWLOSKI
Staff writer
April 15, 2014

Thurston County search and rescue crews have found the body of a JBLM soldier who went missing in Capitol Forest Sunday night.

Chris Dombroski, 20, was found dead about 10 a.m. Tuesday, in an area of Capitol Peak near where his motorcycle had been found just hours earlier.

"It's not suspicious," Thurston County Sheriff's Lt. Greg Elwin said of the soldier's death. Elwin added that the evidence at the scene suggests Dombroski suffered a "traumatic, non-accidental death," but he would not elaborate further.

"There's no indication anyone else did this," Elwin added.

The investigation into Dombroski's death will be turned over to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office, because his body was found in Grays Harbor County, Elwin added.

The coroner in Grays Harbor County will conduct an autopsy.

Dombroski has an uncle and an aunt who are missing in the Oso mudslide, an Everett Herald reporter confirmed Tuesday.
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Medal of Honor Capt. William Swenson Rejoins Army

Medal of Honor Recipient Rejoins Army as Officer
The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
by Adam Ashton
Apr 10, 2014

Medal of Honor recipient Capt. William Swenson has rejoined the Army and been assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord's I Corps, the corps spokesman said Wednesday.

Swenson's appointment to the corps plans office means that three of the six living military service members who have received the Medal of Honor for actions of Afghanistan are now assigned to Lewis-McChord.

Swenson, Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry and Staff Sgt. Ty Carter are the only Medal of Honor recipients still on active-duty.

The three of them were recognized last week at a ceremony in Olympia in which their names were added to the state's Medal of Honor monument. Petry and Carter wore dress uniforms to the event while Swenson wore a civilian suit.

I Corps spokesman Col. Dave Johson said Swenson joined the Lewis-McChord headquarters on March 14 as a captain.

Swenson of Seattle left the Army in 2011, two years after he repeatedly risked his life to recover the bodies of ambushed Marines and Afghan soldiers in Kunar Province. Five U.S. military service members and nine of their Afghan partners lost their lives in the battle.
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Another veteran killed by Sheriff's Deputy

Pierce County sheriff's deputy kills ex-soldier in University Place
25-year-old pointed shotgun at them in UP, cops say
The News Tribune
BY ROB CARSON
Staff writer
March 22, 2014

Both men were recently discharged from the Army, Troyer said. McLeod lived in the apartment with his girlfriend, who was not home at the time, the spokesman said.

A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 25-year-old former soldier late Friday after a confrontation in University Place.

The shooting happened about 11: 40 p.m. after two young men who apparently had been fighting came out of an apartment building in the 9800 block of 52nd Street West and one of them leveled a shotgun in the direction of deputies, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

“What happened is unfortunate, but you just can’t do that,” Troyer said Saturday.

Brian McLeod of University Place died at the scene. The county Medical Examiner's Office identified him Saturday evening.
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This is one of the comments left on the article

I served with Brian at Ft. lewis as we were both in the same Infantry company together. He was a great soldier and I always knew him to be a very humble and relatively quiet person, never being the impulsive type. I'm shocked and saddened by his death, it is unfortunate to see a fellow soldier who survived combat die on the very soil he took and oath to defend. His reported actions that night don't seem to reflect his calm and humble nature at all, however I can understand the effects of the psychological trauma he has been through as well as our instincts on what to do when someone points a weapon at you. "Muscle memory" as we say and are taught. No one in thier right mind wishes to be shot and killed and I can confidently say that I believe he wasn't in his right mind at that instant. My most sincerest condolences go out to his family and those who loved him. "Thundering Herd" R.I.P.

Vietnam Veteran Helping Others to Come Home

‘We have to learn how to come home,’ says veteran
The Olympian
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
March 8, 2014

A well-timed bear hug from a Vietnam veteran persuaded Jonathan Wicks to put down the gun he’d raised to his head and start seeking therapy for the post-traumatic stress he developed after serving in Iraq.

Nine years later, Wicks is the one giving back to former military service members as a counselor at the Tacoma Vet Center. It’s rewarding work for a veteran inspired by his own therapists at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“PTSD showed me what my meaning is” in life, he said.

Wicks shared his story Friday with an audience of nearly 200 at the University of Washington Tacoma, urging them to show compassionate, nonjudgmental care for veterans leaving the military after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His testimony was part of a conference on veterans and military families that was targeted at professionals in social work, counseling and human resources. They’re among those most likely to encounter veterans struggling to adjust to civilian living.

“We have to learn how to come home just as well as we learned how to go into the military,” said Stephen Robinson, a retired soldier who helped bring the conference together as vice president of external affairs for Prudential.

“The people who helped me the most were not combat veterans,” he (Anthony Hassan) said. “They just showed me compassion. They showed me compassion I didn’t know people had.”
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Soldier died at Yakima Training Center

Soldier suffers fatal gunshot at Yakima Training Center
Yakima Herald-Republic
By Phil Ferolito
March 7, 2014

YAKIMA, Wash. — A soldier died Thursday at the Army’s Yakima Training Center, but few details about the death were released by the military.

Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins said he was told by military officials that the soldier had shot himself.

Hawkins said he was told by military officials to hold off on any initial probe of the incident until an investigator from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, arrives.
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Joint Base Lewis McChord honors heroes

2 JBLM soldiers awarded Silver Stars for defending base in Afghanistan
Military Times
By Michelle Tan
Staff writer
Feb. 13, 2014

Silver Stars
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Colbert

Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Busic

Also awarded Feb. 13 at JBLM
Ten other Special Forces soldiers were presented with valor awards Feb. 13 for their actions in Afghanistan.

They are:
■ Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Nivala: Bronze Star Medal with V device

■ Master Sgt. Aaron Hammond: Bronze Star with V

■ Staff Sgt. Joseph Joo: Bronze Star with V

■ Staff Sgt. Kristopher Xaros: Bronze Star with V

■ Capt. Alexander Hain: Bronze Star with V and Army Commendation Medal with V device

■ Sgt. 1st Class Coltin Bauder: Two ARCOMs with V

■ Staff Sgt. Joshua Waisanen: Two ARCOMs with V

■ Staff Sgt. Brian Culver: ARCOM with V

■ Sgt. 1st Class Kirk Medina: ARCOM with V

■ Sgt. 1st Class Vincent Walker: ARCOM with V

read more about heroes here

Van crashes with soldiers back from Afghanistan, one dead, several injured

UPDATE
JBLM soldier killed in van crash was bringing home soldiers from Afghanistan
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
February 8, 2014

The Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier killed Thursday in an accident on Interstate 5 was a combat engineer who joined the Army a little more than a year ago and was helping to bring home comrades returning from Afghanistan.

Pvt. Reymon Tolentino, 28, died from injuries he suffered when the driver of a van carrying 10 soldiers from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Lewis-McChord lost control of the vehicle on the highway.

Tolentino was in the van to help retrieve soldiers in the 14th Engineer Battalion who were returning from a deployment to Afghanistan. He was part of his company’s rear detachment, meaning he did not deploy to the war.
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One Soldier Killed, Nine Injured In Lewis-McChord Van Crash

BY ALEXANDER SMITH

An American soldier died and nine others were injured after a van carrying troops recently back from Afghanistan crashed on its way to a military base in Washington, the base said Friday.

The U.S. Army personnel were being driven from SeaTac airport to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, Wa., when the van crashed at 4:30 p.m. Thursday (1:30 p.m. ET), base spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Sowers told NBC News.

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