Marine Veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan shot after police standoff

Man shot in Custer was honorably discharged Marine
Emilie Rusch Journal staff

Stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Engen was trained as a scout/sniper in the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and served in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He was honorably discharged in May.

The Custer man who was shot and killed by a South Dakota Highway Patrol officer early Tuesday after going on a destructive rampage through his hometown was a Marine who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cody G. Engen, 22, died during a standoff with law enforcement officers about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to South Dakota Attorney General’s office. In the previous hour, he had used his pickup and a handgun to cause considerable damage to buildings, vehicles, mailboxes and street signs throughout Custer. No one else was injured in the incident.

“Cody was just a normal young man growing up,” said Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler, who has worked with his father, Dan Engen, a sheriff’s deputy, for a number of years. “As far as I know, there were no issues or anything.”
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Last South Dakota code talker from World War II laid to rest

Last South Dakota code talker from World War II laid to rest
By Associated Press

June 23, 2010
STURGIS, S.D. (AP) — The last of the American Indian code talkers of South Dakota who served during World War II has been laid to rest.

Clarence Wolf Guts of Wanblee was buried Tuesday in Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. The 86-year-old Wolf Guts died June 16 at the South Dakota Veterans Home in Hot Springs.

Wolf Guts was one of 11 Lakota, Nakota and Dakota code talkers from South Dakota. During the war, they transmitted messages from an Army general to his chief of staff in the field using their native language, which the Germans and the Japanese could not translate.
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South Dakota code talker laid to rest

Veterans proud of service but left to feel ashamed after they survived it

It gets to me every time I hear it. They are proud they served but when you think about what happens to too many of them when they survive it because of claims denied or delayed, it's hard to understand why they feel that way. Think of how you'd feel after risking your life for this country and then left with nothing after because your body or your mind paid the price. These veterans have bills to pay. They have families to support. They have all the same needs and demands on them the rest of us face but unlike the rest of us, they put their bodies and their minds and their dedication on the line for the sake of the rest of us. Unlike the rest of us loving this nation enough to lay down their lives for it, cost them their future. We need to get this right once and for all of them.

Native American veterans claim racial discrimination by VA in South Dakota

By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji)
© 2010 Native Sun News

March 29 2010

There is a credo lamented daily in the waiting rooms of the Veterans Administration Hospitals scattered across America. It goes, "First you apply, then they deny and hope you will die." This has a special meaning to Native American veterans.

For too many Indian veterans it strikes close to the bone. They are so entangled in bureaucratic red tape they are all but suffocating. Many have been reduced to living lives well below the poverty level set by the very government they fought for and nearly died defending.

Several months ago I wrote about one such veteran named Andres Torres, an Oglala Lakota, living in Rapid City. What has happened to this veteran since then?

"I was told to open a new claim called Unemployability which means I have not been able to work since the second operation they performed on me at Fort Meade VA Hospital in 1989. I filed the claim in February and I have not heard from the VA since. As far as I know it is still sitting on somebody's desk in Sioux Falls or Washington, D. C.," Torres said.

Torres said that since I wrote about his plight in 2009 he got a call from Governor Mike Rounds (R-SD) and was told that his office was interested in helping him and other veterans in similar situations.
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Native American veterans claim racial discrimination by VA

King: Life is bare bones on the Lakota reservation for Vietnam Vet and others

King: Life is bare bones on the Lakota reservation
Story Highlights
In nation's poorest county, about 56 percent of residents live below poverty line

Herbert Hale, who is a member of the Lakota tribe, is unemployed

Hale gets about $17 a week from a tribal welfare fund; tries to find odd jobs

Lawmakers don't get "the plight on the reservation," tribal council member says



By John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent


Editor's note: On CNN's "State of the Union," host and Chief National Correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country.


Herbert Hale lives on a check of a little less than $17 a week and whatever he can pick up from odd jobs.

CHERRY CREEK, South Dakota (CNN) -- The tiny one-room house rests on a hill; no electricity and no running water. A creaky metal cot and a rusting wood-burning stove is all the comfort Herbert Hale says he needs.

"All it is is logs, glue -- dirt and water put together -- then cement and the chicken string," Hale says of his home. "Long as the windows don't break, it's nice and warm in here."

The roof leaks a bit, and the floorboards are rotted in one corner, but Hale isn't one to complain.

"It's home," he says, almost under his breath, as he invites a visitor to have a look.

Firewood is stacked in one corner inside, and more outside as Hale uses the summer months to stockpile for prairie winters, where 20 below zero is not all that uncommon.

He also pulls bunches of long weeds in the prairie grass, to dry for use as a firestarter.

"I have to be careful," Hale says matter-of-factly as he pulls a few fistfuls. "Sometimes there are some snakes. Rattlesnakes. Nothing to mess around with."

He is 54 years old, a veteran of two Army combat tours in Vietnam, a member of the Lakota tribe and part of two stunning statistics, even as communities across America deal with the pain and challenges of recession:
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Life is bare bones on the Lakota reservation

Sanford woman dies returning from motorcycle rally

Sanford woman dies returning from motorcycle rally

The Associated Press

10:19 p.m. EDT, August 12, 2009


COLUMBIA, Mo. - A Central Florida woman heading home from a South Dakota motorcycle rally has died in a crash on Interstate 70 in Missouri.

Columbia, Mo., police said Evonne Manner-Wilson, 49, of Sanford was one of 13 people in a van that veered off eastbound I-70, struck a median post and flipped over about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
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Sanford woman dies returning from motorcycle rally

Veteran Talks About PTSD

Message to all the veterans out there thinking they're hiding anything, you're not. The people who know you, know what you're like notice. They may not know what the "it" is you're trying to hide from them, but believe me, they know something is not right, you are not the same and you are acting differently.

While you cannot control what PTSD is doing to you any more than you can control the nightmares, unless you get help, admit you need it and to the people in your life, they will think it's their fault you are acting the way you do instead of the wound you brought home with you. You can't cover it up with drinking or not talking anymore. You can't hide it by denying it. It's not a problem you caused or could avoid and no matter what the military tells you, you could not toughen you mind to prevent it any more than you could changed the fact you were a caring person.

It does not come from inside of you but comes from outside and attacks what makes you, you. That's why they call it Post Traumatic Stress. It comes from after a traumatic event. Trauma is Greek for wound. Now do you get it? Now do you understand it? Still want to deny it? Still want to let your family suffer thinking the chaos in the house is because of them? Still want to treat your friends as if they are total strangers you cannot trust with the same life you were willing to trust them with when you were deployed? You are a lot smarter than that!

Veteran Talks About PTSD

A former South Dakota National Guard soldier who was shot at repeatedly while serving in Iraq still suffers from post-traumatic stress. She wants people to know it's a real disorder that affects a lot more people than you think.

Health officials say the stress of repeat and extended tours is considered a main contributor to post traumatic stress disorder.

"I can totally understand perfectly," Paula Kettenburg of Sioux Falls.

In June of 2005, Paula Kettenburg returned home after serving 18 months in Iraq. Gun fire and grenades were constant threats. She suffers from post traumatic stress but wasn't diagnosed until just recently.

"I hid it for a long time and didn't get help and I wish I would have sooner gone in and ask for help," Kettenburg said.
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Veteran Talks About PTSD

Probe continues in Army National Guards soldier's death

Probe continues in soldier's death
Sioux Falls Argus Leader - Sioux Falls,SD,USA

Army National Guard looking into cause, height of fall from ladder at workshop
Matthew Gruchow • mgruchow@argusleader.com • September 23, 2008


An investigation continues into the death of an Army National Guardsman after he fell Thursday while working at the Guard's Combined Surface Maintenance Shop in Mitchell.

Harlan Jay Niewenhuis, 58, died at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls from injuries received after he fell from a ladder while working on a large bay door.

Niewenhuis apparently was working alone at the time, said Maj. Orson Ward, with the Army National Guard's public affairs office.

"Right now we're not sure what caused the fall, and we don't know the height of the fall," Ward said.

Ward said OSHA and the Army National Guard continue to investigate Niewenhuis' death.

Niewenhuis' oldest son, 37-year-old Brandon of Brandon, said his father was a quiet, hardworking man in love with his family and helping people.

"He was probably the easiest-going man on the face of the earth," he said. "He never really got riled up. He didn't ever really talk unless you pulled words out of him."

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Spc. Estell L. Turner succumbs to wounds from bomb blast

4th BCT soldier dies in Afghan IED blast
Clarksville Leaf Chronicle - Clarksville, TN,USA
The Leaf-Chronicle • July 4, 2008

A 101st Airborne Division soldier with 4th Brigade Combat Team died Wednesday of injuries suffered in Afghanistan.

Spc. Estell L. Turner, 43, of Sioux Falls, S.D., died at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds suffered June 28 in Malikheyl, Afghanistan, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device, according to a news release today from the Department of Defense.
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South Dakota National Guard has ACE for PTSD

Maj.Gen. Steven R. Doohen Photo by Andy Jacobs

Two SD Guardsmen committed suicide in 2007; risk taken very seriously

Some soldiers and airmen find it difficult to return to regular life after service
By Tom Lawrence
The Weekly News

A soldier’s biggest battle sometimes occurs after he or she returns home.

As American service members continue to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, many men and women in uniform come home profoundly changed. Some discover they suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Others struggle with depression, anger and/or substance abuse and find it difficult to readjust to civilian life.A few can’t deal with the pain they feel. They commit suicide.Two South Dakota National Guard members killed themselves in the past year, according to Maj. Orson Ward, a Rapid City-based spokesman for the state Guard.

They witnessed a friend who was killed by an improvised explosive device in a combat zone in Iraq. One man killed himself a few days later while he was still deployed; the second man committed suicide after he returned to South Dakota.Ward, who has had to deal with his own PTSD-related issues, said the Guard is very aware of the mental health concerns that soldiers and airmen face in and out of combat.Maj. Gen. Steven R. Doohen, who commands the South Dakota Air and Army National Guard, said he has learned that the “big tough men” and the women he commands can be very vulnerable.

When soldiers and airmen come off the plane as they complete an overseas deployment, the general greets them with a handshake — and a card advising them of counseling available to them. “I strongly encourage them to go,” Doohen said.He said going to counseling with a family member can be useful. A soldier may not be aware, at least consciously, of changes he or she has undergone. But a loved one can often spot the pain they are feeling.Taking suicide, depression and PTSD seriously is a priority for the state Guard, Doohen said.“I’ve had it hit pretty close to home,” he said. “There is nothing more devastating than suicide.”

A program called ACE: Ask for help, Care for your buddy and Escort your buddy, has helped soldiers deal with the pain, he said.

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http://www.bhpioneer.com/articles/2008/06/18/
breaking_news/doc48599857336ea057377080.txt

Master Sgt. Woodrow Keeble Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor going to Native American soldier
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 23, 2008


WASHINGTON — A Native American soldier who fought in World War II and the Korean War will be posthumously honored with the Medal of Honor next month, White House officials announced Friday.

Retired Master Sgt. Woodrow Keeble, a South Dakota native who died in 1984, will be recognized for actions in North Korea in October 1951. According to Army records, he ignored life-threatening wounds to take out three mountainside enemy pillboxes which had pinned down a U.S. platoon.

Keeble was initially awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for those actions, but members of his state’s congressional delegation have pushed for Medal of Honor recognition for him for years.

Army records say Keeble displayed “extraordinary heroism and completely selfless devotion to duty” during his assault on enemy troops in Korea.

After seeing an advance platoon was pinned down by gunfire, Keeble rushed from his support unit to the front line. He then crawled ahead to take out three enemy positions with grenades, despite intense fire trained on him as he moved along the mountainside.

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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52728

South Dakota Health Care Providers to Learn About PTSD

South Dakota Health Care Providers to Learn About PTSD at TriWest and VA-Sponsored Conference



SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Feb. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the National
Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), one in six returning
service members will develop PTSD or other combat stress-related disorders.
Affected service members may suffer memory loss, irritability, depression,
trouble sleeping and other challenges within 60 to 90 days post deployment,
but these symptoms may occur earlier or later. If left untreated, symptoms
could cause serious physical and mental health problems for service members
and their families.

To address and support the health care needs of South Dakota's military
families, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
(VA) Medical Centers in South Dakota (Sioux Falls and Black Hills) are
hosting a "Combat Stress-related Disorders" videoconference on Wednesday,
Feb. 20, 2008. The videoconference will last from 1 until 4 p.m. CST (noon
to 3 p.m. MST).

The videoconference will bring together nearly 150 community-based
physicians, nurses, psychiatrists and other health care professionals that
care for service members and their families. The providers will learn to
identify symptoms of PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other
combat-stress disorders, as well as treatment methods.

Key conference presenters are Paul Rentz, Ph.D., staff psychologist at
Sioux Falls VA Medical Center; and Ashok V. Kumar, M.D., director of Sleep
Lab and Respiratory Division at VA Black Hills Health Care System and chief
of Aviation Medicine at South Dakota Army National Guard (SDARNG).

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War wounded on trial

In More U.S. Court Cases, Combat Trauma Is Taking The Stand



When it came time to sentence James Allen Gregg for his conviction on murder charges, the judge in South Dakota took a moment to reflect on the defendant as an Iraq combat veteran who suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“This is a terrible case, as all here have observed,” said Judge Charles B. Kornmann of United States District Court. “Obviously not all the casualties coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan come home in body bags.”

Judge Kornmann noted that Gregg, a fresh-faced young man who grew up on a cattle ranch, led “an exemplary life until that day, that terrible morning.” With no criminal record or psychiatric history, Gregg had started unraveling in Iraq, growing disillusioned with the war and volunteering for dangerous missions in the hope of getting killed, he testified.

Nonetheless, the judge found that Gregg’s combat trauma had not rendered him incapable of comprehending his actions when he shot an acquaintance in the back, fled the scene, and then pointed the gun at himself as a SWAT team approached - the helmeted officers “low crawling,” Gregg testified, and looking “like my own soldiers turning on me.”


When combat veterans like Gregg stand accused of killings and other offenses on their return from Iraq and Afghanistan, prosecutors, judges and juries are increasingly prodded to assess the role of combat trauma in their crimes and whether they deserve special treatment because of it.

That idea has met with considerable resistance from prosecutors and judges leery of creating any class of offenders with distinct privileges. In Gregg’s case, for instance, Judge Kornmann cautioned the jury that nobody got “a free pass to shoot somebody” because they “went to Iraq or Afghanistan or the moon.”
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http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=15070

PTSD 'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'

'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'
By Steve Young
syoung@argusleader.com
Comment Print Email PUBLISHED: January 20, 2008

The stress of war is no stranger in South Dakota.

It lies in the memory of a self-inflicted gunshot blast that ended Staff Sgt. Cory Brooks' despair on an April day in 2004 in Baghdad.

And it troubles a community of military and health care officials back here at home who know that one of every four suicides in this state involves a veteran - but aren't sure why.

"It is troubling," says Rick Barg, state adjutant/quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "If you get shot in the arm or leg and you lose that arm or leg, people can see that.

"But if you get shot in the soul, you bring it home and no one can see it."

Of 750,000 U.S. veterans who have marched off to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003, 100,500 have come home with a mental-health condition, said Dr. Ira Katz of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Mental Health.

How many of those are South Dakotans is difficult to gauge. There are only statistical bits and pieces that offer a snapshot of the overal problem. For example, the state Division of Veterans Affairs says it has helped 8,500 veterans receive monthly service-related compensation for health issues. Of those, 833 - or almost 10 percent - are receiving payments for post-traumatic stress disorder disabilities covering all wars from World War II to present.

Last July, the federal government set up a 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline for veterans. From its start to the end of October, it had received 28 phone calls from South Dakota, said Janell Christenson, suicide prevention coordinator for the VA Medical Center in Sioux Falls, as well as 19 from Minnesota and three from Iowa.
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South Dakota National Guard has a real leader when it comes to PTSD

This is what it takes to remove an obstacle course in the way.

Letter: A Call To Soldiers

By: Maj. Gen. Steven Doohen
Rapid City, South Dakota National Guard
The holiday season is also a time to reflect on the gifts of freedom provided to us by our veterans who have served and sacrificed for our country throughout the years.

Some of these veterans give more than most of us realize. The months and even years away from family and home can never be repaid. The scars left from wounds received in combat may never fully heal.

But what I am concerned about the most, are the wounds to the hearts and minds of our veterans that are not marked by scars. These wounds, commonly known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), run deeper than any cut to the flesh and must be treated in order to live a full and happy life.


For those of you whose wounds have not healed, I am asking that you take the first step in seeking the help and care available to all our South Dakota veterans. You only need to make that first step and I promise that the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs will support you the rest of the way.

Some of our veterans may think it a weakness to have issues not pronounced by a missing limb or an obvious physical disability. Veterans may think they have dealt with these issues for so long that it is too late to seek help. It's never too late. The sooner you take action, the sooner you can lead a healthier and happier life.
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http://www.yankton.net/stories/122707/ope_229338444.shtml

Linked from Veterans For Common Sense

They come home with wounds no one can see but everyone manages to notice, as odd as that sounds. They notice the changes in them but fail to make the connection. When they come home with the war with them they change. For some it is a subtle change, like not sleeping through the night. For others it appears to be a full blown character change but the person they were before they left is still there beneath the wound and all that came with the wound.

It takes a real leader to recognize this and take an active roll in healing his/her troops. There has been a lot of talk about what the best way to treat PTSD is and there will be a lot more discussion on this but one thing all the experts agree on is the earlier treatment begin, the better the healing rate is. Look at it like an infection. If you leave an infection to fester, it spreads out and goes deeper. Once you begin to treat the infection it stops getting worse and begins to heal.

The men and women from the Vietnam generation wouldn't have progressed so deep into their illnesses had there been early intervention but there wasn't any. It's not as if any of this is new considering the well publicized The War interviews.

THE WAR PBS
Check local listings for encore presentations of THE WAR » ... The War - A Ken Burns Film - Directed & Produced by Ken Burns

Some of their stories the general public was never made aware of. We regarded them as if they were made out of cast iron coming home untouched. We forgot about some of the war movies we saw because the wounded veteran was always in a minor role but the hero was always portrayed as rock solid, untouched by horror or grief, unmoved by loss, thus giving us all the impression they would all just "get over it" but the truth was not a movie actor playing a part. The truth was in the men and women who served.

With Vietnam the imagery of the 60's and 70's with drugged out veteran's glassy eyes along with the label of "freaks" prevented us from looking at them honestly and fully. We failed to see the boy next door coming home still trying to live like the same kid who left, raking leaves, washing his car and mowing the lawn without one single peace emblem to be found. After all most of them were gone for a year so no big deal. Right? Wrong. We got it all wrong when it came to them. They did what they were asked to do and suffered the way all generations of combat veterans suffered before them. Over 30 years later, we still don't have it right.

Now we have this new generation coming home, surviving what would have killed off a lot more had it not been for the advances in trauma treatment and field hospitals, yet we dare to wonder why the cases of PTSD are a lot higher. We dare to wonder why so many come home with wounds inside of them when the Army stated the redeployments would increase the risk of developing PTSD by 50%. We also dare to wonder why so many of them have taken their own lives.


We need a nation full of leaders like Maj. Gen. Steven Doohen taking a real look at how best to serve the troops we sent into combat. He just managed to do in this shot letter what Congress has failed to do in years. Changes in the way we treat the wounded will only come when all base commanders decide to fight this enemy still killing their men and women as surly as an enemy's gun would. This enemy was brought home in their minds and can only be defeated by loosening the lips of those who carry it within them. Loose lips may have suck ships but silence when it comes to PTSD kills.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Fort Carson still does not get it

Jodi Rave: Saving Private Ryan LeCompte, Lakota
Monday, August 27, 2007
Filed Under: Opinion

"It's been hell trying to save Private Ryan.

Pfc. Ryan LeCompte, an Army scout, has been diagnosed by military and private doctors with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury after serving two tours in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

He came home with a wounded mind and a broken body.

Now senior officers want to get rid of him.

The 27-year-old Lakota warrior from Lower Brule, S.D., was a standout soldier, earning accolades for working “tirelessly, without complaint, despite the long hours and harsh conditions he faced,” according to a December 2003 award recommendation.

He participated in more than 160 combat missions.

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Fort Carson still does not get what PTSD is. For starters, decision making is another injured part of the warrior. Short term memory loss is another. Mood swings with outbursts of anger along with sadness is another. Most get symptoms of obsessive compulsive actions where they will latch hold of something and are unable to let it go. Usually this is extreme worry. While treatment and medication will help, a great number of them will still seek their own self medicating by drinking and doing drugs. If they drink while in therapy, or do drugs, they are making a bad situation worse. They also have to deal with the fact that as each individual comes with a different chemistry, some medications can make their PTSD worse. It takes a long time to find the right medication along with the right dose to discover the right one for that individual.

If they are a problem in this process and want to stay in the military, then the military has to figure out a way to keep them in the military without placing them into greater jeopardy along with their comrades. Once they are in recovery, therapy and medication working, most of the side effects of PTSD calm down. They can still be an effective soldier, just not in the same way. The military is made up of a lot of different duties and not all of them involve combat roles. Discharging or "getting rid" of them, does not make sense and it also sends a message to the rest of the military that the wounded are no longer welcome among their ranks.

It takes a rare person to find it within them to enter into the military. It is an even rarer person who goes into combat. Ryan LeCompte had a history of being a rare breed. He didn't suddenly change into something less because he was wounded. He just needs help to return to wellness. The military can spend money and time to train them to go into combat. They need to remember that they also have to spend time to heal them when they come back. If they are willing to stay in the military, then the military has an obligation to provide them with the tools to do it.

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington