Lost Marine Found New Way Home

What PTSD Drove a Veteran to Before he Disappeared 
13 WHO News
BY DAN WINTERS
FEBRUARY 2, 2015

"It’s a raw, aching description of life 

with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

DES MOINES, Iowa — Kate Lay had always been skeptical of love at first sight. She’s practical. She’s a surgical nurse who was born and raised in Iowa. But she says practicality flew out the window the first time she laid eyes on the man she would eventually marry.

“He was a Marine. So, he was big and buff, and beautiful. I fell in love with him right away,” she said.

After proposing, Brandon finished his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. They married, bought a house, and started life on their terms. She said Brandon’s job as a delivery driver wasn’t fulfilling his ambitious dreams of traveling the world and helping people. She could see that he was bored. Still, she never dreamed that one day he would disappear.

Kate said, “Everything that I thought I knew got torn out from underneath me.”

One day, she came home from work and Brandon was gone, along with his Jeep and his dog. Kate called the police. “I didn’t even know if he was alive.”

Several days later, Brandon finally called. He was in a small town in Montana. The secrets were about to be revealed. Kate explained, “Not a single person knew what was going on.”
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Body of Missing Camp Lejeune Marine Found

UPDATE: Body Found In Virginia Motel That Of Missing Jacksonville Marine
WITN News
Sep 05, 2014

The Onslow County sheriff's office reports a body found by the Petersburg Police Department in Virginia is that of a Marine reported missing by his wife from Onslow County on September 2.

The Marine has been identified as 21-year-old PFC Ryan Robert Smith of Trumbull, Ohio.

Smith was an infantryman assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, NC.

He joined the Marine Corps in July 2012 and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from September to December of 2013.
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Missing Marine found by police and getting help he needs

Missing marine found safe, now being treated for PTSD
FOX News
Dana Rebik

SEATTLE — For weeks, Sandy Pablik feared the worst. Her son, a 23 year-old Marine from California, was missing and was last seen in the Seattle area. On Saturday, Sandy got a phone call.

“The nurse of the hospital called me and it was a bit surreal because I thought it was just somebody calling in for a tip,” said Pablik.

Police found her son, Jonathan, outside a local grocery store. The vet reportedly suffers from PTSD, after tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was lucid enough to talk to his mom on the phone.

“He said he missed me a lot. I reassured him I loved him dearly and he said he loved me, too. It was such a sigh of relief, I can’t even tell you,” said Pablik.
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Marine Combat Vet Jonathan Pablik missing

Marine Combat Vet Jonathan Pablik is missing in the Seattle

Happy update. Police found him and he is getting help for PTSD.

Marine Missing in Seattle Washington
Salem-News.com
May 20, 2013

(SEATTLE) - A Marine Combat Vet named Jonathan Pablik is missing in the Seattle area, his friends and family are concerned, they say Jonathan is suffering from PTSD.

Paul Isaac with Occupy Marines writes, "He is a good friend of mine. If you guys could post this, it would be awesome. If anyone has any information, they can contact his Mother on facebook."

Jonathan's mother, Sandy Pablik, wrote the following in regard to her son's disappearance:

"He was following a personal journey which he called walk of faith. The problem was he was the only one who knew what this all really meant. He suffered a PTSD episode on Wednesday night and that's the last we heard of him.
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Fate of Marines left behind in Cambodia in 1975 haunts comrades

Fate of Marines left behind in Cambodia in 1975 haunts comrades
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 4, 2013

Lance Cpl. Joseph Hargrove, Pfc. Gary Hall and Pvt. Danny Marshall

KOH TANG, Cambodia — Monsoon rains and fearsome waves pound Koh Tang, as they have since the last battle of the Vietnam War nearly 38 years ago. The earth gives away on the island’s west beach, revealing a bit of cloth and a zipper.

They could be leftovers from one of the 10 excavations carried out by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command investigators; holes they have dug sit nearby. Or they could be remnants of the American troops who died during one of America’s greatest wartime failures in Southeast Asia.

Isolated by the rough waters in the Gulf of Thailand about 60 nautical miles from mainland Cambodia, Koh Tang has kept its secrets well, including what happened to at least three Marines who were likely executed after being left behind in the chaos of fierce battles that killed 38 servicemembers from the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force in less than 24 hours.

The U.S. government has never come completely clean about the missing, either refusing to provide details of investigations or releasing inaccurate information on military websites about what the White House initially called a victory.
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Foot washed up onshore belongs to missing Marine Joseph McHenry

Coroner: Foot from missing former Marine
Ellen Huet
Thursday, October 4, 2012

(10-04) 12:22 PDT REDWOOD CITY -- A human foot that washed up on the Pacifica shore in late March belongs to a San Bruno man who went missing in the area several weeks before, authorities have determined.

Joseph McHenry, a 27-year-old former Marine, had told people he was going camping and rock climbing at a Pacifica beach just before he disappeared on March 2. His car was found parked at the nearby Sharp Park Golf Course.

A foot with a section of lower leg attached washed ashore on March 25. The San Mateo County Coroner's office used DNA from McHenry's mother and determined the leg was from her son, Coroner Robert Foucrault said Wednesday.

Because McHenry could survive without a foot and leg, Foucrault said, the coroner's office can't officially declare him dead. His family is currently seeking a court order for a death certificate, Foucrault said.
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Missing Marine Noah Pippin likely died of exposure

Missing Marine likely died of exposure during blizzard in Bob Marshall Wilderness
By EVE BYRON
Independent Record

An investigation of the site where Noah Pippin died, 18 miles from the eastern edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, makes Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton believe the Iraq war veteran succumbed to exposure.

Dutton said he thinks Pippin, a former Marine described as a large, polite man with a shaved head, was seeking shelter from inclement weather and ducked behind some large boulders in a scree field near the Chinese Wall after being seen near there on Sept. 15, 2010. An icy rainstorm on Sept. 16, 2010, turned into a blizzard during the ensuing days.

“He wasn’t as ill-prepared as we had thought,” Dutton said on Saturday, after using a helicopter to get to the remote site where Pippin died. “We found his sleeping bag, a water jug, his poncho, his hand gun and a small device that plays music (like an iPod). He still had food left, and he did have a map."

“There was no sign of foul play,” Dutton added. “There was an extremely bad storm, and it was readily apparent he had sought shelter under a big rock. He was exposed when animals pulled his remains out from there and scattered them.”

The gun, a 38-caliber revolver, was too rusty for Dutton to determine whether it had been fired. He said it will be sent to the Montana State Crime Laboratory for further investigation.

Pippin, 30, had served three tours of duty in Iraq, and then joined the Los Angeles Police Department. He quit that job, spent a month in Michigan with his family, and then told them he was going back to California to join the National Guard.

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Parents believe remains found in Montana are Noah Pippin

Marine missing on California and Arizona border

Valley Police Beat: Marine missing on California/Arizona border
By ELIZABETH VARIN
Staff Writer
May 5, 2012

A Marine out of Yuma was reported missing Friday afternoon after not reporting to duty, according to Imperial County Sheriff’s Office logs. The Sheriff’s Office was called in about 4 p.m. to help search the area around Senators Wash near Winterhaven for the unnamed Marine who voluntarily left Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, according to the logs.

The man, with blond hair, blue eyes, weighing about 150 pounds and 5 feet, 8 inches tall, was last seen midnight Friday and did not report to duty.
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Camp Lejeune rifleman falls in Cape Fear river

Camp Lejeune rifleman falls in Cape Fear river, search efforts continue
By: News 14 Carolina Staff
4/18/2012
WILMINGTON — Search efforts resumed Wednesday for a Camp Lejeune Marine who fell into the Cape Fear River.

Authorities suspended the search for Lance Cpl. John Pruitt Tuesday night due to a lack of visibility.
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Oral Stuart Jr., Camp Pendleton Marine, was not AWOL, but died in 1974

Authorities say body found in California in 1974 is Iowa Marine missing from Camp Pendleton

By Associated Press, Published: March 19

LONG BEACH, Calif. — A body found naked in 1974 at a California condominium complex is a U.S. Marine from Iowa who had been listed as a deserter from Camp Pendleton, authorities said Monday.

The man known for more than 37 years as “John Doe (hash)155” is Oral Stuart Jr. of Des Moines, Long Beach police said in a statement.

His cause of death, previously listed as undetermined, has been reclassified as a homicide.

The body of Stewart, who was 18 when he disappeared, was found on Nov. 10, 1974, in the carport area of a complex near Interstate 605, police said. Twelve days later, Marine officials at Camp Pendleton some 50 miles to the south declared him a deserter.

Police looking into cold cases with a grant from the National Institute of Justice came to suspect the body may be a member of the military because of the man’s tattoos and haircut.
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No Clues Today in Search for Janice Rubendall, Missing Iraq Veteran

Iraq Vet’s Disappearance Flummoxes Family, Friends
Janice Rubendall, a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran, hasn’t been seen since Jan. 4.
By David Powell
February 13, 2012

The moment that Ashley Barton saw the car, she knew something was amiss.

The cream-colored Chrysler PT Cruiser with California plates and a U.S. Marine Corps sticker had appeared near the end of the first week of January, parked by itself in a seldom-used auxiliary lot at the Riverview Landing at Valley Forge community in West Norriton. It was nearly half a mile from any of the housing units.

"They only use that lot when the Schuylkill floods the regular parking lot," said Barton, who lives in the complex. "Maybe once or twice a year. It’s on high ground. They tell us to park there and run shuttles [to the housing units]. Nobody would [normally] park there. I knew something wasn’t right.”

Through the car’s windows, she could see a purse and some military items. Traffic audibly zipped by on the nearby Betzwood Bridge that carries US 422 over the Schuylkill River.

“All of this [military] paraphernalia,” Barton said. “Posters, war stuff.”

Barton said she called West Norriton Police, but was told that police had already checked out the car out after an earlier call from another resident.

"They said it wasn’t stolen. I was more worried about the person who left it there," Barton said.

The car belongs to Janice Rubendall, a resident of the Trooper section of Lower Providence. Rubendall, a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was reported missing by her father, Robert Rubendall, on Feb. 9. He hasn’t seen his daughter since Jan. 4.
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Update: No Clues Today in Search for Janice Rubendall
Lower Providence woman has not been seen by family or friends in more than a month.
February 17, 2012
Lower Providence Township has published the following information:

Canine and ground resources, as well as marine units, conducted an extensive search of the Betzwood recreation area from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in an effort to locate Janice M. Rubendall, a 25-year-old Lower Providence woman who was last seen Jan. 4, 2012. Personnel were unable to locate anything relating to the disappearance.

Rubendall was known to frequent the Betzwood Park area near the Route 422 overpass prior to her disappearance. Rubendall’s vehicle, a white Chrysler PT Cruiser bearing a California license plate, was located and towed on January 26, 2012. The vehicle was towed from the Riverview Condominium Complex in West Norriton Township near the Betzwood Park.

Rubendall is a white female, 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 110 lbs. and has a tattoo on her left bicep showing a mustang horse and a tattoo across her back that reads “CREED.”
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Missing Marine's mother pleads for help

UPDATE
Missing Marine found alive
Updated: Sunday, 06 Nov 2011, 12:32 AM EDT
Published : Saturday, 05 Nov 2011, 6:08 PM EDT

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A Marine who had been missing for more than a week has been found alive.

Eric Kirby, 20, disappeared from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on October 26.
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Missing Marine's mother pleads for help
Updated: Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011, 11:28 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011, 11:28 PM EDT

By: Daniel Miller
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A Hoosier marine is missing, and now his mother is pleading for the public’s help to find him.

20-year-old Eric Kirby's mother, Nora Willman, said she last spoke with her son Oct. 25 on facebook. That’s the last day he was seen, on the grounds of North Carolina's Camp Lejeune.

Willman said it's unlike her son – a 2010 graduate of Ben Davis High School - to disappear without telling anyone where he's going. So now, from hundreds of miles away, she is desperately trying to solve the mystery.

"He has a 3-year-old daughter. and there was no sign that he could be thinking about doing something like running off, " she said.

Their last conversation online centered around his 3-year-old daughter, she said.
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Missing Marine's mother pleads for help: wishtv.com

Ex-Marine from Michigan missing since last year

Ex-Marine from Michigan missing since last year

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS Traverse City Record-Eagle
Posted: 10/18/2011

LAKE ANN, Mich.—Noah Pippin looks out from a photo on his parents' dining room wall, serious in Marine dress uniform. His old dog tags lie atop a guestbook on a nearby table.

Rosalie and Mike Pippin are in mourning of a sort. The Lake Ann couple haven't seen or heard from their oldest son since he went missing in August 2010 after a visit home.

Noah, a 1998 Suttons Bay High School graduate and a former Marine who served three tours in Iraq, had recently quit the Los Angeles police force and was serving with the California National Guard.

He was expected to be deployed to Afghanistan soon.

"He needed to shake his mind off and decide what he wanted to do with his life," said Rosalie.

"His plan was to stay a week with us and then go back to San Diego ... until he picked up his orders."

During their week together the family fished, practiced at a shooting range, and visited their favorite beach and restaurants, Rosalie said. A noticeably depressed Noah, 31, stored his belongings in his parents' basement and closed out some online accounts. Then, on Aug. 25, he said goodbye in the family's driveway and rode off in a taxi for Traverse City, where he planned to rent a car for the trip back.

It wasn't until weeks later, when they got a call from the National Guard telling them that Noah failed to report for duty, that Mike and Rosalie learned their son was missing.
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Missing Miramar-Based Marine Found Safe

Missing Miramar-Based Marine Found Safe

Source: Cpl. James Jessen Found At Campground In East County
June 12, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- A missing Miramar-based Marine has been found safe.
10News confirmed Cpl. James S. Jessen, 22 –who is stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar– was found late Saturday night at a campground in the East County, according to a Marine source.
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Missing Miramar-Based Marine Found Safe

Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine from Camp Lejeune

Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 10:03pm
Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine
By Frank Gerace

Alexander Doron
County Police are looking for a Newark man they say has threatened to kill himself.

Police say 21-year-old Alexander Doron is AWOL from the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, could be armed, and could be staying in the Newark area.
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Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine

Yuma Missing Marine's body found

Missing Marine from Maine found dead in Ariz. irrigation canal
Associated Press / March 23, 2011
YUMA, Ariz. — Authorities confirmed yesterday that a US Marine from Maine, reported missing last week, was found dead in an irrigation canal in Yuma, in southwest Arizona.

The body of Corporal Joshua Barron, 22, was discovered by a farmer Monday, said Captain Eben Bratcher, Yuma County Sheriff spokesman. He was reporting missing March 16.

There was no sign of trauma, and foul play is not suspected, Bratcher said. Barron was initially identified because his name was tattooed on his shoulder. The Marine Corps helped confirm his identity, and his wife, Natasha Barron, of Standish, Maine, was notified. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

Barron was wearing civilian clothing, and it appeared that his body had been in the canal for at least several days, Bratcher said.

Barron was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, where he was a Harrier jet mechanic. He lived off base.

His roommate last saw Barron the evening of March 15, said Marine Captain Staci Reidinger. When Barron failed to show up for work on March 16, his commanding officer checked on him and found he was missing, and military investigators were called. Yuma police were notified two days later by his mother, said police spokesman Sergeant Clint Norred.
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Missing Marine from Maine found dead

Missing Marine's family speaks

Family of missing Marine speaks

Family of missing Marine speaks


Yuma, Arizona March 21, 2011 - Natasha Barron fights to stay positive from her home in Buxton, Maine. She spoke to her husband, Cpl. Joshua Barron, last Wednesday.

"We just added the candles, kind of like a vigil," says Natasha. "Just keeping the hope alive in us."

"He called me to tell me he loved me and he kept reminding me that I am his everything and that he would talk to me later."

Natasha says she called him back after missing his call, but was alarmed when a woman answered and said she found Joshua's phone by a canal.
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Family of missing Marine speaks

Missing Marine found safe

Missing Marine Located In Rutherford County
War Vet Suddenly Left Home Thursday Night

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Police in Rutherford County on Friday afternoon located a Marine Corps combat veteran who had been missing since Thursday night. Crews began their search early Friday morning for 27-year-old Chris Headrick.

Officials said he left his home along Sulphur Springs Road at about 11 p.m. Thursday.

His family apparently told police they were planning to take him to the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro. At that point, he grabbed a military-issued backpack and helmet and left in a van.
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Missing Marine Located In Rutherford County

Veteran missing in Yellowstone has PTSD

Veteran missing in Yellowstone has PTSD
Gazette Staff Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010
An Oklahoma man missing in Yellowstone National Park is a former Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder he incurred after surviving two bomb blasts while serving in Iraq.

The news is the latest information released by park officials in a search for Peter Louis Kastner, 25, whose car was found parked at the Hellroaring Trailhead on Monday. The investigating ranger found that the red Cadillac STS sedan with Oklahoma plates had been rented a month earlier and was two weeks overdue.

Kastner is 6 feet, 1 inch tall, weighs 185 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes.

According to information provided to the Park Service by Kastner’s family, he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps after serving four years. During his service, he was twice injured by improvised explosive devices in Iraq. He had moved to Oklahoma City from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to attend college. His family is concerned about his mental state and said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
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Veteran missing in Yellowstone has PTSD



Search continues for man missing in Yellowstone

Peter Louis Kastner
Courtesy of National Park Service
Rangers and investigators are still hoping the public can help with the ongoing search for Peter Louis Kastner, who has been missing in Yellowstone National Park since Monday, May 31,2010.

Rangers and investigators are still hoping the public can help with the ongoing search for a man missing in Yellowstone National Park since Monday.

A rental car belonging to Peter Louis Kastner, 25, of Oklahoma City, Okla., was discovered early Monday morning at the Hellroaring trailhead in the northcentral section of Yellowstone.

An investigation revealed the red Cadillac STS sedan with Oklahoma plates had been rented a month earlier and was two weeks overdue.

Family members told investigators they had not been in touch with Kastner in recent weeks. He had been honorably discharged from the Marine Corps after serving for four years and was twice injured by improvised explosive devices in Iraq, according to his family. He had moved to Oklahoma City from the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., area to attend college.
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Search continues for man missing in Yellowstone

Eric Hall Memorial Ride raises money to help veterans

Eric Hall Memorial Ride raises money to help veterans

By TARA HETTINGER
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com

The sounds of motorcycles revving up filled the air surrounding Faith Lutheran Church, in Jeffersonville, Saturday as 75 bikes headed out onto Allison Lane as part of the Eric Hall Memorial Ride.

The second annual event is in memory of Hall, a Marine from Jeffersonville whose death last year was attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder. He was 24 when he disappeared in Florida while experiencing a war flashback. His body was found just outside of the town where he was staying.

His family decided after he passed that they would start a foundation in his honor to help other veterans get the help they need.

“I took on a huge undertaking, because if I make this much progress,” Becky Hall, Eric’s mom, said with her fingers an inch apart, “that’s OK. At least I did something. And that could help someone’s son, child, husband.”

People drove from all over to be a part of the ride, some even as far as Florida.

“In the military, we believe no man is forgotten and I’ll never forget Eric. I have a picture of Eric hanging in my house. This is something I have to do,” said Leonard Leary, a 65-year-old veteran from Florida who helped search for Eric.
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Eric Hall Memorial Ride raises money to help veterans