Fireworks too much like "bombs bursting in air"

For some veterans, fireworks too much like "bombs bursting in air"
KPAX News
by Jacqueline Quynh
8 hours 34 minutes ago

It's seems ironic, that those who may have fought the hardest to keep our country safe and free, may have a hard time celebrating this holiday. But loud noise could potentially trigger flashbacks.

Even if you have never seen combat, if you've ever heard fireworks before, you can imagine it sounds a lot like gun fire. And that sound will be hard to escape this 4th of July weekend, and that's why some veterans who have seen combat have a hard time coping this week.

"It sounded kind of like being back on the airport in Mosul Iraq and having incoming fire," said Brian Becker an army combat veteran with the Missoula Vet Center, who's served tours in Iraq. He remembers one year when a firework display he was enjoying with family turned out to be too much.

"I remember specifically just sitting down kind of putting my head in my hands and just kind of waiting it out," said Becker.
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Veterans and the Rockets Red Glare

Montana Dog Tag Brewing Honors Troops

Marine settles in Montana, creates beer company to honor troops
Great Falls Tribune
Jenn Rowell
May 25, 2014

Over a decade on active duty in the Marine Corps, Seth Jordan squirreled away money and recently made a longtime dream come true when he opened Dog Tag Brewing in Belgrade.

When he left active duty last year, he spent months on the paperwork, financing and the fine print before Dog Tag began distributing beer this year.

Dog Tag Brewing is a family company with Jordan at the helm. His sister Emily Jordan is his business partner and sales director. His wife Katy is the company's marketing director.

Armed with a business degree from Clemson University and experience in television ad sales at ESPN, where he met Katy, Jordan was able to open the company with his own money and a bank loan. He said he considered using programs through the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration, but was able to get started without them.

Dog Tag Brewing brews two beers, an IPA and a lager, and they are distributed throughout Montana.
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Air Force loses 10 Commanders over Nuclear Test Cheating

9 Air Force commanders fired over nuclear missile test cheating
CNN
By Shirley Henry and Greg Botelho
updated 4:24 PM EDT, Thu March 27, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Official: Though they didn't cheat, the commanders didn't provide adequate oversight
Nine of 100 low-level officers implicated were cleared, Air Force secretary adds
Authorities say officers used texts to cheat on an exam for missile launch officers

Washington (CNN) -- Nine Air Force commanders have been "recommended for removal" in the wake of a scandal involving cheating on tests related to the U.S. nuclear missile program, that military branch's top official said Thursday.

The fired officers were in "leadership positions" at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. Though not directly involved in cheating, they failed to provide adequate oversight of their crews, according to James.

A 10th commander submitted his resignation and will retire.

About 190 officers oversee the readiness of nuclear weapons systems in Montana, meaning the episode has tainted about half that force in some way.
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Iraq veteran, triple amputee inspires crowd in Montana

Iraq veteran, triple amputee inspires crowd at MSU
GALLATIN COUNTY
NBC Montana
By Grace Ditzler, KTVM Reporter
Mar 26 2014

BOZEMAN, Mont.
Bryan Anderson has survived the odds, being one of only a few triple amputees to make it back from Iraq alive.

In October of 2005, an IED explosion left him without both his legs and left hand.

"And that really kind of forced me to live in the moment, focus on what was in front of me," Anderson told a crowd of a few hundred at Montana State University on Wednesday. He shared his story, and what life is like now.

Anderson spent 13 months in rehab before returning home, and says the hardest part of his recovery was the fear of the unknown.

"Getting past the fact that you don't know what's going to happen in the next few months or next year after rehab, but you just kind of have to go through it," he said.
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Vietnam veteran medals returned

Flathead war vet medals returned
MTN News
by Laura Wilson
Posted: Feb 11, 2014

KALISPELL - The stolen medals of a Vietnam Veteran are back where they belong Tuesday, as authorities were able to recover and return all of them to their rightful owner.

Greg Smith never could have imagined someone would steal his deceased brother's war medals from right out of his Kalispell store, nor could he have imagined the way the community would rally around him, once they were taken.

"Everybody wanted to get involved and find the suspect. It was really nice and I appreciated the support," Smith said.

Smith's shadowbox was stolen last month. Authorities quickly got to work recovering as much of the war memorial as possible-even taking a metal detector to the snow to locate the Purple Heart.

"They went way over and beyond what they needed to. For my family, it's nice and comforting that everyone cared," Smith said.

"It's not unusual for officers in our department and other departments to work together to solve a lot of the crimes that happen. In this case, it was really neat to see the amount of effort that everyone put in to try and work on it," said Brett Corbet, Kalispell Police Department Patrol Sgt.
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New Senator From Montana Iraq Veteran

Meet the Newest US Senator Who Earned a Bronze Star in Iraq
KVOR News
February 7, 2014

(WASHINGTON) -- Montana Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Lt. Gov. John Walsh, an Iraq war veteran, as the interim replacement to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Max Baucus on Friday.

“It’s a tremendous honor to accept your appointment as Montana’s next United States senator,” Walsh said at a news conference in Helena on Friday. “I do it humbly and with great respect for the people of our state.”

The appointment will give Walsh, a Democrat, the ability to run as an incumbent in the 2014 Senate race. Walsh had already announced his intent to run for the seat Baucus planned on vacating at the end of 2014, before President Obama selected Baucus as his nominee to be the next ambassador to China. read more here

Air Force has "morale issues"

SECAF Has Picked Up on 'Morale Issues'
Associated Press
by James MacPherson
Jan 23, 2014

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. - The top civilian leader in the Air Force says she senses morale issues among airmen and officers in charge of the nation's nuclear force but remains confident in its mission.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James visited the three bases that care for the arsenal Tuesday and Wednesday.

Her trip was in response to cheating and drug scandals the Air Force announced last week as well as other missteps The Associated Press revealed last year.

James visited F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming Tuesday, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana Tuesday and Wednesday and finished the fact-finding tour Wednesday at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

She met with 1,700 officers and airmen and later briefly answered questions.

James says she wishes the trouble didn't happen.

James has been on the job for a month. Last week, she said the Air Force is investigating 11 officers suspected of illegal drug possession. Three of the 11 are in nuclear missile units.
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Veteran faces felony charge for pointing a gun

Veteran charged in Missoula assault held on $30K bail
The Missoulian
By Rob Chaney
December 26, 2013

A visibly shaking suspect in a felony assault case said he needed treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder during an appearance in Missoula County Justice Court on Thursday.

Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech ordered Richard Heilman, 44, of Missoula held pending $30,000 bail but said he could seek treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital at Fort Harrison if he posted bond. Heilman is in the Missoula County Detention Center on a charge of felony assault with a weapon.

According to an affidavit filed by Deputy County Attorney Jordan Kilby, Missoula police officers came to a Hillview Way house early Wednesday morning after getting a call from a woman who said Heilman had pointed a gun at her.
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Documentary looks at Native American traditions and PTSD

Healing PTSD is about as basic and natural as it can be but above all, close to free. It is as old as when the first war and has been recorded in the pages of the Bible but while you won't find the term we use today, you can see it in the writings of those who struggled with it.

Native Americans have also been dealing with PTSD for generations with sweat lodges, helping to find peace and honor with all living things on this earth. Much of what is done connects the veteran with what is already inside of them. Much like my job, I just help them find what is already there and has been there all along in their souls.

“Guilt and shame are the biggest things guys bring back with them,” Telonidis said. Often, veterans with PTSD have one particular image that is frightening and they relive it over and over. Sometimes it’s the death of a colleague or friend or a memory of killing an enemy.

The medicine man instructs the veteran to bring the spirits of the people in those memories with them into the sweat lodge. Then, he tells the veterans to have the conversation the veteran has been wanting to have with them all these years. Veterans are encouraged to talk to those people and tell them how they feel, and to ask forgiveness if they feel they need to."

The stories veterans tell me are all different but they have one thing in common. Their stories all involve forgiveness. Either forgiving someone else or forgiving themselves. Once that has been achieved, they begin to really heal no longer burden with guilt or hatred.

As long as they take care of their spiritual needs along with their minds and bodies, they heal and live better lives. As for what works, that all depends on what they already believe.

Documentary looks at Native American traditions and PTSD
Elko Daily Free Press
By Elaine Bassier
November 22, 2013

ELKO — Native American traditions may be the key to helping modern-day veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Taki Telonidis, the producer for the Western Folklife Center’s media office in Salt Lake City, has been working on a documentary called “Healing the Warrior’s Heart” that explores the ways some Native American tribes treat their veterans when they return from war.

Telonidis said around two million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some come home fine, others have life-changing injuries and “many are coming home with invisible drama,” or PTSD.

Some tribes refer to PTSD as a wounding of the soul, Telonidis said. Part of the veteran’s spirit is still on the battlefield, and he said the tribes have traditions that can heal his or her heart.

“What they’re trying to do is bring their spirit home,” Telonidis said.

He said a lot of Native Americans have lost their connection to the warrior spirituality, but he is seeing a revitalization of that idea. The traditional healing methods are not only working for some Native American soldiers — Telonidis has seen the method work for other veterans suffering from PTSD.

Telonidis is studying two specific locations for his film: the George Wallen Veteran Affairs Center in Salt Lake and the Blackfeet reservation in Montana and Canada.
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Missoula Veterans Day ceremony puts focus on 'unseen wounds' of war

Missoula Veterans Day ceremony puts focus on 'unseen wounds' of war
Missoulian
By Kim Briggeman
November 11, 2013

It’s sobering that more American veterans of Vietnam have ended their own lives than were lost in the long war itself.

“Even more frightening,” Dan Gallagher told a crowd of several hundred gathered on the Missoula County Courthouse lawn Monday, “is our newest generation of veterans, those of Iraq and Afghanistan, are committing suicide at a rate that’s on par with the Vietnam veterans statistics.”

Gallagher, a Vietnam vet, was speaking at the annual American Legion Post 101 Veterans Day ceremony that he helped start 32 Novembers ago. He said the statistics demonstrate how much work is left to do to help returning U.S. warriors.

“It’s extremely easy to recognize those severely wounded physically by combat ... but recognizing the existence of wounds that show no scars is vastly more difficult,” he said.

Those unseen wounds touch many lives, said retiring U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, who also spoke at Missoula’s first courthouse veterans ceremony in 1982. Baucus was joined in Missoula by Matt Kuntz of Helena, an Army infantry officer whose stepbrother served in Iraq with the Montana National Guard.

“Like too many of our soldiers, Matt’s stepbrother suffered from the unseen wounds of war. When the pain of coping with PTSD became too much to bear, Matt’s stepbrother tragically took his own life,” Baucus said.
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Spc. Chris Dana

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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Navy SEAL taking a leap to help wounded SEAL

Navy SEALs to parachute into Washington-Grizzly, hope to raise $50K for wounded Montana colleague
The Missoulian
By Martin Kidston
August 29, 2013

Attending a University of Montana football game was the last thing on Bo Reichenbach’s mind last July when he was critically injured by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Afghanistan.

More than a year later, the 24-year old Navy SEAL and Billings native continues to recover at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital, learning to use his prosthetic legs while fighting off infections.

While the battle toward recovery has been slow, Reichenbach is winning the fight, and this weekend, at least, he’ll get his chance to attend Montana’s season opener against Appalachian State University on Saturday night.

“He’s a Griz fan, and he’s very excited to come out,” said Reichenbach’s father, Don. “I never thought I’d be doing what I am with him. All things considered, it’s all pretty amazing.”

Reichenbach’s road to Washington-Grizzly Stadium and the season opener was a long one.
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Community comes together for Navy SEAL critically wounded in Afghanistan

Community comes together for Navy SEAL critically wounded in Afghanistan

Billings Navy SEAL critically wounded in Afghanistan
Billings Gazette
By CINDY UKEN
August 15, 2012

Navy SEAL Bo Reichenbach, of Billings, is recovering from critical injuries suffered in Afghanistan.

Navy SEALs to parachute into Washington-Grizzly, hope to raise $50K for wounded Montana colleague

How to help
A benefit fund has been set up to assist Bo Reichenbach in his recovery. Donations may be made to First Interstate Bank’s Billings Heights branch, 730 Main St., Suite 100, Billings, MT 59105. Donations also may be mailed to Dana and Jenn Brumwell, 2105 Concord Drive, Billings, MT 59102. Checks should be made to the Bo Reichenbach Benefit Fund.

BILLINGS – A 24-year-old Navy SEAL from Billings is recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after being critically wounded in Afghanistan by a makeshift bomb.

Bo Reichenbach was injured by an improvised explosive device in July, said U.S. Navy Lt. Dave Lloyd, public affairs officer for Naval Special Warfare Group 2. He would not disclose the extent of Reichenbach’s injuries.

Lloyd also would not disclose the nature of Reichenbach’s mission, other than to say it was part of the U.S. forces’ “ongoing operations in Afghanistan.”

Reichenbach, the father of a 4-year-old son, Landon, grew up in the Lockwood area. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in March 2008 and became a SEAL in May 2010.

SEALs take their name from the environments in which they are trained to operate: sea, air and land. Their small, highly trained teams usually conduct some of the nation’s most critical missions.
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Vet commits suicide at Montana VA hospital

Vet commits suicide at VA hospital campus
Independent Record
By SANJAY TALWANI
August 26, 2013

A 62-year-old man committed suicide Monday at the Veterans Affairs hospital campus at Fort Harrison.

“We did have a death here on campus,” VA Montana spokeswoman Terrie Casey said. “Obviously we’re saddened and concerned about the event.”

She said the deceased man was a veteran. She did not immediately know whether he was a patient receiving care at the facility.

Lewis and Clark County Coroner M.E. “Mickey” Nelson confirmed that the man died from a single gunshot wound in a restroom with the door closed. It was reported at about 12:30 p.m.
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Montana Vietnam Veteran walking from Washington state to Washington DC

Vietnam veteran walking cross country makes stop in Eastern Kentucky
WYMT.com
By: Hillary Thornton
Aug 19, 2013

SALYERSVILLE, Ky. (WYMT) - A Montana man is on a journey, walking cross country from Washington state to Washington, D.C. and on Monday, he made a stop in Eastern Kentucky.

Each step with a purpose, "Trying to bring awareness for the high suicide rate of our young warriors," explains Vietnam War veteran Marine Sgt. Chuck Lewis. He began this journey more than four months ago in Everett, Washington.

Lewis says, "It began with the fact that we had a Marine that separated 3 June, came home 4 June and we buried him on 30 June, he had taken his own life...left behind a wife and 1-year-old daughter."

With each step Sgt. Lewis takes along his journey he says he is thinking of all the fallen soldiers, but he has a very unique description of who exactly a fallen soldier is.

Jeremy Holbrook explains, "When he uses the word fallen he doesn't mean the ones that didn't come back, he means all of us."
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Heroic soldier says "It was only one day" in his career

A soldier's story: It was only one day in his military career
By TIM TRAINOR
The Montana Standard, Butte
Published: June 24, 2012

Fueled by anger, suffering from a serious back injury and with no feeling in his legs, Nick Keene fired 2,800 rounds into a group of Taliban fighters.

Then he picked up a machine gun and emptied that. He put seven or eight clips into his own personal weapon and did the same until the pain was too much and he lost consciousness.

He woke up in a hospital somewhere. Kandahar maybe, Germany. There were generals gathered around his bed. He wasn’t wearing a shirt so they pinned a Purple Heart to his blanket before he fell back into unconsciousness.

Keene, 24, a 2006 graduate of Butte High School, spent five dramatic and violent months in the Panjwayi District in Afghanistan, known as the “birthplace of the Taliban.” Located in the southeastern part of the country along the Pakistan border, it has been home to some of the most sustained fighting in the now decade-long war.

Yet, it is a place Keene was not looking to leave so soon.

“I wish I could have stayed longer,” he said. “It was hard to think that while my guys were sweating, bleeding in the mud, I’m sitting on a couch doing nothing.”

Commendations

It was only one day in his military career, but Keene’s actions resulted in a Purple Heart and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. He may have saved the lives of each of those soldiers lying prone on the roadside and his injured lieutenant, who was able to be transported from the fight with shrapnel wounds from which he recovered.

Nick will never be the same. Discs and vertebrae in his back were more than broken — they disintegrated and were ground into sand and chalk. It took months for doctors to confirm they did not need to amputate, but even then Keene thought he would be confined to a wheelchair. After months of painful physical therapy he learned to walk with the help of a cane that he will use for the rest of his life. He cannot climb steps and he has a lifetime of surgeries ahead of him, some of which carry the possibility of paralysis if one of the already-frayed nerves is severed.
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Documentary shows how program gives veterans an outlet for healing

Documentary shows how program gives veterans an outlet for healing

Mar. 31, 2012
Written by KRISTEN CATES

When 28-year-old Great Falls native Jesse Scollin signed up for the U.S. Army 10 years ago, he knew that he would go into combat at some point. "I was just ready to go," he said. "I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into."

What the 2002 C.M. Russell High School graduate got was work as a combat medic in Iraq in 2003, experiencing things he struggles to describe even seven years after being medically discharged from the military. He and other veterans are getting the chance to tell their stories through a new documentary being produced by a Great Falls-area native and Iraq war veteran about a relatively new program in Missoula that gives wounded and traumatized soldiers a sense of peace.

"A Brotherhood Reforged" was created by Sun River alumnus, recent University of Montana graduate and Army veteran Dan West. read more here

Montana pilot killed in firefighting tanker crash

Montana pilot killed in firefighting tanker crash
By The Associated Press - 08/22/09
MISSOULA (AP) — A Missoula-area pilot died in an air tanker crash near Reno, Nev.

The pilot was identified as Dave Jamsa by an official with Minuteman Aerial Applications, which owned the single-engine Air Tractor 802 that crashed Thursday.

“He was trying to make his drop when he crashed,” Minuteman director of operations Forest Gue told the Missoulian newspaper in a story published Friday. “We’re doing everything we can to find out why it happened.”

The plane went down about 125 miles northeast of Reno while crews battled the Hoyt fire, which has burned about 2,000 acres, or 3.1 square miles, and was about 5 percent contained.

Jamsa had worked at Minuteman for four years and is survived by his wife and four children.
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Montana pilot killed in firefighting tanker crash

Ex-Marine fends off Wyo. lion attack with chainsaw

Man fends off Wyo. lion attack with chainsaw
The Associated Press
Man fends off Wyo. lion attack with chainsaw
By MATTHEW BROWN (AP) – 21 hours ago

BILLINGS, Mont. — Wielding his chain saw as a weapon, a Colorado man says he fought off a starving mountain lion that attacked him while he was camping with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.

Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and ex-Marine from Windsor, Colo., said he was alone cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite in the Shoshone National Forest when he saw the lion staring at him from some bushes.

Britton revved his 18-inch chain saw and tried to back away. But the 100-pound lion followed.
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Asbestos 'emergency' declared in Montana

Asbestos 'emergency' declared in Montana
A Montana town where asbestos contamination has been blamed for more than 200 deaths will get new cleanup and medical assistance from the Obama administration under a "public health emergency" declared today. The declaration is the first ever issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has overseen the cleanup of Libby, Montana, for 10 years. full story

This is the wondeful part to all of this,,,,,,,

The Libby operation began producing vermiculite -- a mineral often used in insulation -- in 1919. Dust from the plant covered patches of grass, dusted the tops of cars and drifted through the air in a hazy smoke that became a part of residents' daily lives.

But the product was contaminated with tremolite asbestos, a particularly toxic substance that has been linked to mesothelioma, a cancer that can attack the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or heart.

Vermiculite was used in a lot of houses and everyone was told it was safe,.,,,