Pentagon Says TBI and PTSD Troops Not Getting Proper Care...Again

Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on suicides is one of those videos that everyone needed to watch, but hey, Facebook is more fun. Right? Then again, August 14, 2007 I was wondering why the press wasn't on suicide watch so that maybe, just maybe someone would have done something that would have actually worked. Then again, that was assuming they wanted to do what would work instead of what was easiest.

Troops at risk for suicide not getting needed care, report finds
USA TODAY
Tom Vanden Brook
Published Aug. 7, 2017

WASHINGTON — Pentagon health care providers failed to perform critical follow-up for many troops diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome who also were at high risk for suicide, according to a new study released Monday by the RAND Corp.

Just 30% of troops with depression and 54% with PTSD received appropriate care after they were deemed at risk of harming themselves. The report, commissioned by the Pentagon, looked at the cases of 39,000 troops who had been diagnosed in 2013 with depression, PTSD or both conditions. USA TODAY received an advance copy of the report.

“We want to ensure that they get connected with behavioral health care,” said Kimberly Hepner, the report’s lead author and a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization. “The most immediate action — removal of firearms — can help to reduce risk of suicide attempts.”

The report, titled Quality of Care for PTSD and Depression in the Military Health System, also found that one third of troops with PTSD were prescribed with a medication harmful to their condition.

From 2001 to 2014, about 2.6 million troops have deployed to combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Estimates on how many have been affected by post-traumatic stress vary widely — from 4% to 20%, according to the report. Meanwhile, suicide among troops spiked crisis proportions. The rate of suicide doubled between 2005 and 2012, according to the Pentagon. It has stabilized but has not diminished; the rate remains about the same for the part of the American public that it compares with, about 20 per 100,000 people.

The key intervention to prevent suicide involves talking to the service member about their access to firearms, Hepner said. It’s also one of the most sensitive, given the nature of their work and that many troops own their own guns.

“This is important for service members because suicide death by firearms is the most common method,” Hepner said. “So the provider needs to have that discussion about access to firearms. Not only their service weapon but their access to personal weapons.”
read more here

Then again, all you had to do was read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, but don't feel bad. No one else read it, or did anything about any of it.

Veterans Get Burned Again By Court After Burn Pits

Court Deals Major Blow to Veterans Suing Over Burn Pits

Special to McClatchy Washington Bureau
By Patricia Kime
5 Aug 2017

"My husband is DEAD because of burn pits," Dina McKenna, whose husband, former Army Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 from a rare form of T-cell lymphoma after serving in Iraq, told McClatchy in an email. "I want someone to be held accountable."

A senior airman tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit at Balad Air Base, Iraq, in March 2008. (US Air Force photo/Julianne Showalter)

A federal judge has dismissed a major lawsuit against a defense contractor by veterans and their family members, over burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that plaintiffs said caused them chronic and sometimes deadly respiratory diseases and cancer.

In the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus wrote that the company, KBR, could not be held liable for what was essentially a military decision to use burn pits for waste disposal. Titus said holding the Pentagon responsible was outside of his jurisdiction.

"The extensive evidence ... demonstrates that the mission-critical, risk-based decisions surrounding the use and operation of open burn pits ... were made by the military as a matter of military wartime judgment," Titus wrote in an 81-page opinion.

The dismissal -- the second by Titus in the case -- deals a major blow to the more than 700 veterans, family members and former KBR employees who brought the suit.

read more here

Will Trump's Bigger Army Mean More Suicides?

Will Trump's Bigger Army Mean More Suicides?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 21, 2017

I thought that reading Trump’s bigger Army could cost $12B by official’s math would be informative, however, it offered a lot more than math on the budget.

The Army hit a high of 566,000 active-duty troops in 2011 to sustain the American troop surge in Iraq along with the continuing war in Afghanistan. The number has steadily dropped since the U.S. pullout from Iraq in December 2011. The debate since then has been about the pace of a planned draw-down to 450,000 by the end of fiscal 2018. This year’s defense policy bill mandated that the Army not be reduced to fewer than 476,000.

When you read this about the numbers, consider the simple fact that when there are so many fewer serving, the actual outcomes of military suicides is even more frightening. This is from a report about 2015 Army suicides.

The Pentagon reported Friday that 265 active-duty service members killed themselves last year, continuing a trend of unusually high suicide rates that have plagued the U.S. military for at least seven years.

The actual percentage went up.

The number of suicides among troops was 145 in 2001 and began a steady increase until more than doubling to 321 in 2012, the worst year in recent history for servicemembers killing themselves.

The suicide rate for the Army that year was nearly 30 suicides per 100,000 soldiers, well above the national rate of 12.5 per 100,000 for 2012.

Military suicides dropped 20% the year after that, and then held roughly steady at numbers significantly higher than during the early 2000s. The 265 suicides last year compares with 273 in 2014 and 254 in 2013. By contrast, from 2001 through 2007, suicides never exceeded 197.

We don't know what the number was for 2016, because they have not released their data. We only know about the 1st and 2nd quarters.

In the first quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
 58 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 18 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 34 deaths by suicide in the National Guard
Please refer to Appendix A for a detailed breakdown of the number of deaths by suicide within each Service and Component.

And Army Suicides for the second quarter of 2016 In the second quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:

 57 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 23 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 23 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

On veterans committing suicide, we need to look at a report from Idaho

Just between 2012 and 2014, there were more than 3,000 suicides in Washington, and 700 of them were past or current military.

In Washington, more than half of those veterans who committed suicide were over the age of 65, while in Idaho, it was a full 65 percent.

This is from Arizona

Men commit suicide more often (nearly 81 per 100,000) than women (25 per 100,000). Veterans outnumber non-veteran suicide rates 80 to 29 percent. 

Family Speaks Out After Marine's Suicide Investigation

Marine Corps withheld suicide investigation results that suggested drug use among Marines
The Washington Post
Author: Dan Lamothe
Published 1 day ago

"Have some respect, you know? We just lost a family member," Riggs said in an interview. "Don't spell his name wrong. It was just so frustrating."

Marine Cpl. Jonathan Gee committed suicide in 2015 while stationed near the Pentagon. (Photo courtesy of Janele Riggs)

WASHINGTON – The results of an investigation into the suicide of a Marine that suggested his unit might have a "drug problem" and highlighted a hostile work environment were withheld from the Marine's family for an "unacceptably long time" spanning months, according to documents and letters obtained by The Washington Post.

Cpl. Jonathan M. Gee, 22, hanged himself early Aug. 29, 2015, at the Marine Corps' Henderson Hall, near the Pentagon, after a night of partying, the investigation found. He and another Marine had been thrown out of the EchoStage concert hall in Washington hours before, when they were discovered in a restroom stall with cocaine, the investigation's report said. Gee was found the next afternoon.
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Congress Knew Two Years Ago About National Guardsmen Bonus, Did Nothing For Them

Congress knew for at least two years about Pentagon efforts to take back bonuses from veterans
LA Times
David S. Cloud and Sarah D. Wire
October 24, 2016

The California National Guard told the state’s members of Congress two years ago that the Pentagon was trying to claw back reenlistment bonuses from thousands of soldiers, and even offered a proposal to mitigate the problem, but Congress took no action, according to a senior National Guard official.

The official added that improper bonuses had been paid to National Guard members in every state, raising the possibility that many more soldiers may owe large debts to the Pentagon.

“This is a national issue and affects all states,” Andreas Mueller, the chief of federal policy for the California Guard, wrote in an email to the state’s congressional delegation Monday. Attention had focused on California because it was “the only state that audited” bonus payments at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added.

In the email, Mueller reminded members of Congress that the Guard had informed them about the issue two years ago. Whether members of Congress understood the scope of the problem at the time is unclear.
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National Guard Soldiers Forced to Repay Bonus Money?

Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after going to war
Washington Post
David S. Cloud
October 22, 2016

They’ll get their money, but I want those years back.

— Susan Haley, former Army master sergeant

Soldiers from the California Army National Guard have been ordered to return enlistment bonuses they received a decade ago when the Pentagon needed troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (California Army National Guard)

Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war.

Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.

Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.

The National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees state Guard organizations, has acknowledged that bonus overpayments occurred in every state at the height of the two wars.
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Rogue Navy Unit Tied to Texas Sheriff?

High-profile Texas sheriff tied to a rogue Navy unit facing a criminal probe
The Washington Post
By CRAIG WHITLOCK
Published: September 30, 2016

Why so many Pentagon officials and their relatives were working on the side as sheriff's deputies in Texas has not been explained in court, where much of the evidence has been sealed to protect national security. What a training base would have been used for there is just as murky.

Even among the colorful pantheon of Texas lawmen, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West has seized his share of the limelight. In his 16-year career patrolling the West Texas outback, he has busted crooner Willie Nelson for pot, accused the Mexican army of invading U.S. territory and repeatedly ripped the federal government on television over border security.

Less well known are the country sheriff's strange connections to a rogue Navy intelligence office at the Pentagon that has been under criminal investigation for the past three years.

The former director of the intelligence unit, David W. Landersman, a civilian, is facing federal conspiracy charges for allegedly orchestrating a mysterious scheme to equip Navy commandos with hundreds of untraceable AK-47 rifle silencers.

A new wrinkle in the case, however, has recently emerged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, where prosecutors have suggested that Navy officials from the intelligence unit also sought to funnel military equipment to rural Hudspeth County and set up a secret training base near the Mexican border.
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Memories From Priests Who Went to Battle on 9/11

Ground Zero: Memories From Priests Who Went to Battle on 9/11
The terror attacks of Sept. 11 left an imprint on the nation — and also on the lives of clergy who witnessed it and ministered to the victims.
National Catholic Register
BY PETER JESSERER SMITH
09/11/2016

When people ask him — and many have — “Where was God that day?” Father Colucci says that he saw, firsthand, the Body of Christ in action. “The best of humanity came out that day.”

An American flag flies above the cross of steel beams discovered in the rubble at Ground Zero on Aug. 19, 2002, in New York City. – Mario Tama/Getty Images

NEW YORK — “It started coming down on us.”

Fifteen years ago, Capt. Thomas Colucci led the men of his 31st Street firehouse into what would be the finest hour for New York City’s fire, police and emergency responders: Ground Zero on Sept. 11.

After the South Tower collapsed, the Catholic fire captain and his firefighters began digging through the wreckage, searching for any hope of survivors and the firefighters who had gone into the tower to save them.

Then, at 10:28am, the sky opened up with a roar, and a collective scream of terror erupted from the ground — the North Tower and iconic spire begin to fall — and the men and women who donned the uniforms of New York’s first responders would give the final sacrifice amid a hail of steel, concrete and debris.

As they escaped, Colucci saw some of his comrades struck down — he and a few of the firefighters found their only refuge sheltering behind a car. Enveloped in that cloud of darkness, the fireman’s vocation became clear: He would become a priest, helping those in darkness see a great light.

Nearly 3,000 men, women and children perished in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. But the legacy of 9/11 is that more than 25,000 other lives were saved that day, because ordinary men and women put on their uniforms and ran to save others from death and danger. On a Tuesday morning, 343 firefighters and emergency personnel, 23 New York Police Department and 37 Port Authority officers laid down their lives for others. Many more would give their lives — a payment deferred by cancer they gathered from the rescue work.

Colucci retired in 2004, and, this year, he became Father Colucci.
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Retired Colonel Meets the Man Whose Life He Helped Save on 9-11

Nearly 15 Years After 9/11, Retired Colonel Meets the Man Whose Life He Helped Save
PEOPLE
BY CATHY FREE
07/25/2016

"When I realized that I was looking at the same gentleman, I started to cry and told him I was so grateful that he was still alive," Maness tells PEOPLE. "We hugged each other and neither of us could believe that we were talking again. What are the odds?"

Medical personnel load wounded Pentagon worker into an ambulance outside the Pentagon on September 11, 2001
JOURNALIST 1ST CLASS MARK D. FARAM / U.S. NAVY / GETTY IMAGES

Every day for almost 15 years, Col. Rob Maness wondered about the badly-burned man he'd tried to keep conscious on a gurney after terrorists flew a 757 airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Did he make it? Was he still alive? Was he able to fully recover and live a happy and fulfilling life?

"It's something I've always thought about, but I never had an answer," Maness, 54, now living in Madisonville, Louisiana, and running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican, tells PEOPLE. "It was always a mystery."

Until now.
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Pentagon Does Not Know How Many Military Families Go Hungry?

Pentagon Doesn't Track How Many Military Families Go Hungry: Report
Military.com
by Amy Bushatz
Jul 21, 2016

Whether a military family qualifies for food stamps depends strongly on where they are stationed, since individual states set some of their own income guidelines. For example, at both Camp Pendleton, California, and Fort Hood, Texas, troops need a minimum household size of six to qualify, even though income between those locations varies widely thanks to the Basic Allowance for Housing rates.

Authorized patrons at the Fort McCoy Commissary check out their grocery items. (Photo by Geneve N. Mankel)

Defense Department officials have incomplete information on how many military families are using food assistance programs because the department doesn't completely track the data or work with other departments to do so, a new report from the Government Accountability Office finds.

While some data exist on how many service members use programs such as food stamps, known as SNAP, or the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which are both controlled by the Department of Agriculture, the Pentagon only loosely tracks the programs it administers, the report says.

Additionally, no single office at the DoD is in charge of food assistance tracking, it says.

"The Department of Defense has some data on service members' use of food assistance programs it administers, but it does not know the extent that service members use such programs," the report summary says. "Also no office within DOD is monitoring food assistance needs, such as through survey data."

Little to no information was found by auditors on service members' use of the myriad of other food assistance programs such as local food banks and free and reduced lunches for children in non-DoD schools. That's a problem military officials must tackle before they are able to accurately understand how hunger impacts troops and their families, the report says.
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New Head of Wounded Warrior Project At Expense of POW MIA Families?

Wounded Warrior Project gets new leader after troubles
Associated Press
By AUDREY McAVOY
June 16, 2016

Ann Mills-Griffiths, chairwoman of the board at the National League of POW/MIA Families, said she was surprised by Linnington’s announcement. She said he had told her group last year he was at the agency for the long haul, meaning the next 10 years. “I can only say it was a total shock. Just stunning and unexpected,” Mills-Griffiths said.

This May 28, 2012 file photo shows President Barack Obama standing with Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, Commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, during a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Linnington, now retired from the military, plans to leave his post as director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to become the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, Thursday, June 16. 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

HONOLULU (AP) - The head of the military agency that searches for and identifies the remains of missing servicemen is resigning after just one year to take over a troubled nonprofit that cares for wounded troops.

Michael Linnington became the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency last summer. He plans to leave next month to become the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project.

Linnington became the leader of the POW/MIA mission at the Pentagon after Congress and groups that advocate for families of the missing had criticized the way the military was handling identifications. Since Linnington took the helm, the agency’s laboratories have nearly doubled the identifications of missing servicemen.

At the Wounded Warrior Project, Linnington will lead a nonprofit that has been criticized for lavish spending. The New York Times and CBS News in January reported employees, veterans and charity watchdogs were complaining the organization was profiteering off veterans.
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Invictus Games Update

First gold medal of Invictus Games goes to 9-11 survivor
Orlando Sentinel
Stephen Ruiz
May 9, 2016

American Sarah Rudder kisses the 2 gold medals she earned Monday at the Invictus Games at Disney World. (Alex Menendez/Getty Images for Invictus Games)

It was a big day for Sarah Rudder. She was getting promoted in front of the Pentagon.

The date was Sept. 11, 2001.

"We were pulling survivors out at first,'' said Rudder, a retired lance corporal in the U.S. Marines. "The next day, I went to pull non-survivors, and upon pulling non-survivors, I crushed my [left] ankle. I had several reconstructive surgeries, but they couldn't save the leg.''

It seemed appropriate Monday that Rudder claimed the first gold medal awarded at the first Invictus Games on American soil. She won it in women's lightweight powerlifting and later added another gold in indoor rowing.
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Army Nurse Takes Pride in Representing Team USA at Invictus Games
DoD News
By Shannon Collins
Defense Media Activity
May 10, 2016

“I’m grateful for my family to be present to watch me compete, especially having my daughter in attendance for this year’s games, since she wasn’t able to attend the inaugural games,” she said. “These games are very personal for me, given my military career and background, and it’s a blessing to have my family in attendance to experience how much these games mean to me.”

Army Capt. Kelly Elmlinger performs laps in her race wheelchair at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, while training for the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games, June 11, 2015. DoD photo by EJ Hersom

ORLANDO, Fla., May 10, 2016 — Fierce competitor Army Capt. Kelly Elmlinger will participate in track and field, swimming and rowing at the 2016 Invictus Games being held this week at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World here.

During the 2014 Invictus Games, Elmlinger’s first foray into the competition, she earned gold medals in the 100-meter and 400-meter wheelchair races, the shot put, and in the cycling time trial; silver medals in discus during track and field, the cycling road race, and the 50-meter backstroke in swimming. She took fourth place in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle in swimming.
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At Invictus Games, athletes forge powerful friendships in beating adversity
Stars and Stripes
Dianna Cahn
May 10, 2016

ORLANDO, Fla. — They didn’t know each other when one was blown up and the other was shot a year apart in southern Afghanistan.

By the time they met at a wounded warrior competition, retired Air Force Tech Sgt. Leonard Anderson was missing one arm below the elbow and all but one finger on his other hand. Air Force Staff Sgt. August O'Niell had endured at least a dozen surgeries.

Their lives have intertwined ever since.

They train and compete together. Anderson was there for O'Niell’s leg amputation and again when his daughter was born. O'Niell was there when Anderson, missing his hands, had no choice but to retire from the Air Force.

And when Anderson prepares for the swimming finals at the Invictus Games on Wednesday, his buddy will be there to help him to pull on his Speedo.

Their friendship is the story of these warrior games, where the fierce determination needed to get here comes with a disarming vulnerability. That’s a tough pill to swallow for these guys, but it forges deep friendships and a camaraderie among competitors like none other in the world.
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Pentagon Perpetuates Stigma of Needing Help for PTSD

This is what Wounded Times has been screaming about for the last decade! 


Pentagon perpetuates stigma of mental health counseling, study says 
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroyav May 5, 2016

Even as troop suicides remain at record levels, the Pentagon has failed to persuade servicemembers to seek counseling without fears that they'll damage their careers, a stinging government review concludes.

Despite six major Pentagon or independent studies from 2007 through 2014 that urged action to end the persistent stigma linked to mental health counseling, little has changed, analysts said in the April report by the Government Accountability Office.

"The potential for inconsistent decision making by commanders and leaders in suspending clearances or removing individuals from sensitive positions may further impede the department's efforts to address stigma," the report said.One key problem is that many Defense Department policies covering job assignments and security clearances still discriminate against anyone who receives mental health care, the report said.

The Pentagon largely agreed with all the conclusions and recommendations. Air Force Maj. Benjamin Sakrisson acknowledged that the problems described in the report can cause servicemembers to pay for their own counseling to keep it "off the books."

Among other findings:
A 2014 RAND study identified 203 Pentagon policies that may contribute to stigma and need to be reviewed, but nothing has been done about them, in part, because they are not a big enough priority for the Pentagon.
Despite a 2012 directive from the secretary of Defense that seeking mental health care should not adversely impact security clearances, this practice continues. Analysts found that people who see a therapist are at least temporarily losing their access to classified information.
Department of Defense civilians who deploy overseas are not asked about whether stigma is a problem, so it is impossible to gauge whether they are also avoiding mental health care because of it.
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DOD Thinking of Cutting Funding to Stars and Stripes?

If you read Wounded Times or follow on Google+ you are well aware of how many reports come from Stars and Stripes. Had the national press been interested in what is happening the way Stars and Strips does, then there would be no reason to be upset with the prospect of the DOD cutting funding of it. 

When I am in work on breaks or lunch, I check Stars and Stripes to see what is going on and then link to their reports so no one misses the news.  It is the first place I look when my time is limited because I know I'll find something worth sharing.  With the national news the way it is, all too often, they just don't seem to be able to even make time for our troops or our veterans.

Don’t rush to judgment on Stars and Stripes funding
Stars and Stripes
By Tobias Naegele
Stars and Stripes Ombudsman
Published: April 21, 2016

The Defense Department is considering a proposal to stop funding Stars and Stripes.

Such a cut would likely kill the newspaper. It must not be made in haste or in secret.

Stars and Stripes receives about $12 million a year in appropriated funding. That’s about 40 percent of its overall budget, according to Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer, with the balance coming from advertising and circulation sales. Of the appropriated funds, $7 million comes from the regular defense budget and $5 million from overseas contingency operations funds — the war budget — mostly to pay for printing and distributing the paper downrange.

Some might argue the Pentagon would save money by shuttering Stripes and instead delivering a commercial newspaper to our troops overseas. But those papers won’t come without a price and they won’t be tailored, as Stripes is, to the interests of military readers. The beauty of Stars and Stripes is not just that it’s a daily paper available overseas, but that it’s a daily paper written and edited for military members. Its blend of staff-written articles and news culled from the nation’s leading providers — The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times — is unique, and provides depth and balance to military readers.

Another difference: Most newspapers endorse political policies and candidates, creating political baggage in the process. Stars and Stripes doesn’t take political positions.
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Congress Not Told Truth on Military Sexual Assault Cases by Pentagon Brass

Pentagon Misled Lawmakers on Military Sexual Assault Cases
Associated Press
by Richard Lardner
Apr 18, 2016

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon misled Congress with inaccurate and vague information about sexual assault cases that portrayed civilian law enforcement officials as less willing than military commanders to punish sex offenders, an Associated Press investigation found.

Adm. James "Sandy" Winnefeld

Local district attorneys and police forces failed to act against U.S. service members who were subsequently prosecuted in military courts for sex crimes, according to internal government records that summarized the outcomes of dozens of cases. But in a number of cases, the steps taken by civilian authorities were described incorrectly or omitted. Other case descriptions were too imprecise to be verified.

There also is nothing in the records that supports the primary reason the Pentagon told Congress about the cases in the first place: To show top military brass as hard-nosed crime fighters who insisted on taking the cases to trial.

The records were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, which provided the documents exclusively to AP. Protect Our Defenders is scheduled to release a report Monday that criticizes the Pentagon's use of the cases to undermine support for Senate legislation that would mandate a major change in the way the military handles sexual assault allegations.
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Pentagon Kept $78 Million Intended for Wounded Service Members

Pentagon erroneously withheld $78 million from injured veterans over 25 years
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: March 17, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has been deducting money erroneously from combat-wounded veterans’ severance pay for 25 years, an error officials knew about for years and that might have affected upwards of 13,000 troops, according to lawmakers and a veterans advocacy group.

Now lawmakers are trying to return the money — estimated to be $78 million — through a bi-partisan bill introduced Thursday.

Federal law prohibits taxation of the lump sum disability severance paid to troops who separate from service after combat-related injuries. But the pay system used by the Department of Defense has been automatically deducting taxes from those payments since 1991, according to a joint statement from the National Veterans Legal Services Program and Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Mark Warner, D-VA.
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Marine Killed Others Wounded in Iraq Rocket Attack

US servicemember killed by enemy fire in Iraq
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 19, 2016

A U.S. Marine was killed Saturday and several others were wounded in a rocket attack on a base in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said.

"Earlier today a U.S. Marine providing force protection fire support at a recently established coalition fire base near Makhmour in northern Iraq was killed after coming under ISIL rocket fire," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. He used an acronym for the Islamic State group. Several other Marines were wounded and being treated, he said. Further information would not be released until after notification of next of kin.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the servicemembers involved, their families and their coalition teammates who will continue the fight against ISIL with resolve and determination," Cook said.

The Makhmour base is outside Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in 2014.
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Virginia Gunman Facing Murder Charges, Pentagon Army Staff Sergeant

UPDATE
Police: Army staff sergeant killed rookie cop who was Marine reservist

Guindon was a former Marine Corps reservist and had a master's degree in forensic science, according to Hudson. Guindon served in the Marine Corps Reserves from May 2007 to February 2015 as a field radio operator, said Capt. Andrew Chrestman, a spokesman for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve. She ultimately reached the rank of corporal and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal.

Virginia police officer killed on her first day on the job; man charged
CNN
By Ralph Ellis, Faith Karimi and Joe Sutton
Updated 4:02 PM ET, Sun February 28, 2016
Video Source: WJLA

Ronald Williams Hamilton faces two murder charges.

Hamilton is an active duty Army staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Staff Support Center at the Pentagon, said Cindy Your of the Defense Information Systems Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Ashley Guindon was sworn in as an officer on Friday.

CNN)A police department in a Washington suburb is mourning an officer who was killed during her first day on the job.

Ashley Guindon, 28, of the Prince William County Police Department was fatally shot Saturday in Woodbridge, Virginia, while answering a domestic call in which two other officers were wounded and the suspect's wife was killed, county police Chief Steve Hudson said at a news conference on Sunday. Guindon had taken the oath of office on Friday.

Ashley Guindon was sworn in as an officer on Friday.

"The Prince William County Police Department is in deep mourning," Hudson said. "This is a sad day for everybody in this room, a sad day for law enforcement."

Ronald Williams Hamilton, 32, is accused of shooting the three police officers as they approached the front door of his house about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Hudson said.
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Pentagon Has No Clue How Often Hazing Happens?

Military hazing is often horrifying — and the Pentagon has no idea how often it happens
Washington Post
Checkpoint
Dan Lamothe
February 12, 2106

The GAO released the investigation’s findings this week, reporting that the services have no uniform way of tracking the practice and unclear definitions of what constitutes hazing in the first place.

Five years ago, 21-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew kept falling asleep while on guard duty in Afghanistan, a major gaffe for any infantryman in combat. His sergeant told two other Marines in his unit that “peers correct peers,” and so Lew was punched, kicked and forced to do pushups, crunches and other exercises in the middle of the night while wearing body armor, according to a Marine Corps investigation of the incident. Soon after, Lew turned his gun on himself and ended his life.

Lew’s suicide jump-started a debate: What constitutes hazing in the military, and what should the Pentagon do to crack down on the practice?

Lew’s case generated significant interest in Washington in part because of his aunt: Rep. Judy Chu (D.-Calif.). She pressed successfully for an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office, saying that the stories of her nephew and other victims of hazing — generally described as abusive behavior meant to correct a mistake or earn one’s way into a group — showed the military clearly needed to make improvements.

When surveyed, however, more than a third of male Marines (14 of 39) and and nearly half of female Marines (eight of 17) said they had experienced hazing during their military career. About a quarter of male sailors (10 of 40) and female sailors (four of 15) reported the same, the GAO reported.
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“My Mom Deserves to Know the Truth.”

Ret. General Petraeus Will Keep 4th Star

Pentagon won't demote Petraeus for sharing information
USA TODAY
Tom Vanden Brook
January 30, 2016

WASHINGTON — Retired General David Petraeus will not be docked one star for his conviction on charges of leaking classified information to his biographer and former lover, according to a letter sent by the Pentagon to the Senate and obtained by USA TODAY.

Stephen Hedger, a top official for legislative affairs, wrote Friday to Sen. John McCainsaying that Defense Secretary Ash Carter considers the Petraeus matter closed, according to the letter, which was obtained by USA TODAY from the Senate.

A Defense department official told USA TODAY on Saturday that Carter accepted the Army's recommendation that Petraeus not be sanctioned with demotion. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Carter agreed with the findings of an Army review that recommended Petraeus be allowed to maintain his four-star rank in retirement, the official said. Holding that rank, while prestigious, also allows him to collect a pension of around $220,000. Loss of a star could have cost him tens of thousands of dollars a year.
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