Special forces soldier sues Fountain SWAT after legal pot grow raid Denver Post Kirk Mitchell August 17, 2017
A former special forces infantryman, who was awarded the Bronze Star and uses marijuana to treat PTSD after tours to Iraq and Bosnia, has sued the Fountain police SWAT team after officers raided his legal marijuana greenhouse.
Eli Olivas and his girlfriend Marisela Chavez sued the city of Fountain and Fountain police Sgt. Matthew Racine, claiming the city failed to properly train its police to investigate pot cases in a state where it’s legal to grow marijuana.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Denver by attorney Terrence Johnson. Olivas and Chavez seek compensatory damages of more than $100,000. Olivas, a paramedic, also wants his guns returned: an AK-47 rifle, a 5.56 millimeter Sig Sauer rifle and a Glock 17, court records show Police confiscated the weapons but haven’t returned them, the lawsuit says.
Fountain Police Chief Chris Heberer said the department had a valid search warrant signed by a judge.
Olivas is a former U.S. Army Special Forces staff sergeant, infantryman, medic and combat veteran. Besides the Bronze Star, he earned numerous other service medals. He also was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder linked to combat.
Olivas is a registered medical marijuana patient with a permit to grow up to 99 marijuana plants for his own treatment of PTSD. He was growing 18 marijuana plants behind a locked, 6-foot privacy fence. The plants were further enclosed in a greenhouse walled with opaque glass. read more here
Manhunt for suspect extends from Colorado to Virginia NBC 9 News Colorado KUSA Jacob Rodriguez and Allison Sytte August 4, 2017
Roberts is a MARSOC Marine - a highly trained branch of the Special Forces and is believed to be armed and dangerous, Dillon Police say. Roberts' family is working with authorities to try and resolve the situation.
The manhunt for a veteran suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder has extended from Colorado to Kansas and now Virginia over the past week.
William Roberts, 34, reportedly slammed into a Dillon Police car back on Tuesday after officers tried to arrest him at the Dillon Dam Brewery. A SWAT team entered the hotel room he was supposed to be staying in, but by the time they arrived, he'd already gone, police say.
Then, later that night, Roberts was pulled over for speeding in North Newton, Kansas - 557 miles from Dillon. When the officer that pulled him over learned he was wanted for hitting a police car, Roberts sped off, prompting a high-speed chase that spanned two counties.
Even though his tires had been damaged by spike strips, he got away and is believed to have fled in a stolen truck all the way to Virginia.
Police in Botetourt County, Virginia, 1,700 miles from Dillon on the west side of the Appalachian mountains are currently conducting a manhunt for Roberts. read more here
Milwaukee Navy SEAL veteran shot while helping humanitarian group rescue girl from ISIS gunfire Maddie Koss Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 9:21 a.m. CT July 19, 2017
Check out the story and video here, then look at the one reported a month ago. Am I out of my mind or is this the same story with different names and dates?
Video shows ex-Special Forces soldier-turned-aid worker dodge ISIS sniper fire to save little girl during battle for Mosul FOX News By Maryse Godden Published June 19, 2017
A former U.S. Special Forces soldier has been captured on camera braving ISIS gunshots to rescue a young Iraqi girl from the line of fire.
David Eubank, who works as an aid worker, was in the worn-torn northern Iraq city of Mosul when he saved the youngster’s life.
The 56-year-old, who founded the Free Burma Rangers, told the Los Angeles Times he spotted the small child among bodies of dozens of civilians killed by ISIS snipers as they tried to flee. read more here
Affidavit details armed standoff with police, allegations of gunshots, threats, animal abuse Lawrence Journal By Conrad Swanson May 21, 2017
Lawrence police officers were familiar with Kewley, according to a recently released arrest affidavit. They were aware that he is a veteran who reportedly served time in special forces and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors and blackouts.
When Michael Kewley surrendered himself to officers, police say they found several loose rounds of .45-caliber ammunition in his pocket.
Across the street, Kewley's neighbor found another bullet on his kitchen floor and several bullet holes in his home.
Photo by Nick Krug.
Armored members of the Lawrence Police Department respond to a standoff in the 2500 block of Scottsdale Street, Tuesday, April 4, 2017.
Lawrence police officers were familiar with Kewley, according to a recently released arrest affidavit. They were aware that he is a veteran who reportedly served time in special forces and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors and blackouts.
The affidavit — a document that explains the reasons for an arrest — offers new details in the case of an armed standoff between police and Kewley that lasted several hours on Lawrence's southwest side and resulted in a number of felony charges. Allegations in an affidavit still must be proved in a court of law.
Currently Kewley is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $50,000 bond and is awaiting a hearing later this month.
Kewley served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, said one person who asked not to be named but said she lived with him. The woman also said Kewley is under care of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and recently experienced the deaths of two close friends, which caused him to become suicidal, the Journal-World previously reported.
And if officers weren't aware before, they were told on April 4 of Kewley's distrust of law enforcement, the affidavit says.
That morning, around 7:15 a.m. officers were dispatched to Kewley's home at 2525 Scottsdale St. to check on Kewley, who was reportedly threatening to commit suicide.
One woman who met Kewley on a dating website called police, the affidavit says. She told them she woke up that morning to a text message from Kewley that said "I'm sorry dear I'm gonna have to do something very dumb and regretful. And please leave poppy flowers at my grave at Arlington." read more here
Hear 'Voice' Singer Barrett Baber's Emotional Tribute to Fallen Soldier Rolling Stone By Stephen L. Betts 18 hours ago
Inspired by Pirelli's actions, Baber wrote the song, saying, "When I heard the story of Staff Sgt Rob Pirelli, and how, through the outpost he built to protect his fellow soldiers, his legacy remained long after his ultimate sacrifice, I was moved at the depth of this very personal, human story. I'm proud to have been able to tell his story in song."
Barrett Baber, whose full-throated, Southern rock-tinged vocals took him to a third-place finish on Season Nine of NBC's The Voice in 2015, has released "Still Stands," a powerful song from his album A Room Full of Fighters. Penned by Baber with Kenny Lamb, the tune recounts the brave, inspiring story of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Ryan Pirelli, who was killed in action in Iraq in August 2007, but not before leaving behind a combat outpost that would one day bear his name and inspire a documentary film.
A native of Franklin, Massachusetts, Pirelli volunteered for military service in 2003 as a Special Forces (Green Beret) recruit in the Army. Deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2007, he used his engineering skill to establish an outpost in the dangerous Diyala province. The outpost Pirelli built protected American soldiers from harm during his deployment and continued to protect American troops for several years after he was killed. Remembered by his fellow soldiers not only for his ingenuity, bravery and a thick Boston accent, Pirelli, a hockey enthusiast, also spent time teaching local Iraqi children how to play baseball. After he was killed, the combat outpost was renamed Combat Outpost Pirelli in his honor and a symbol to remember him - a sword, lightning bolts and fire – became part of what his fellow soldiers called "The House That Rob Built." read more here
U.S. Soldier Killed In Afghanistan WPRL News By MAGGIE PENMAN April 8, 2017 An American soldier was killed in Afghanistan late Saturday, according to a statement posted on Twitter by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission. A spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan said that the soldier was part of an operation against ISIS-Khorasan, a branch of the Islamic State operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The same spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the soldier was a special forces operator. read more here
Residual War Horrors and Neglected Heroes Residual War Kathie Costos April 8, 2017
On Combat PTSD Wounded Times there are over 27,000 articles spanning nearly 10 years of news and government reports on what our heroes have to go through for our sake. They tell of the price men and women pay for doing what they believe in doing. Oh, sure, we can boil it all down to being a patriot and doing it because freedom isn't free, but then you'd have to get into the reasons behind sending them into combat. The purest reason they have to risk their lives, is also what cuts them the deepest. They risk their lives for those they are with. War is often a wrong choice made by those who do not have to go. But those who go make the choice to be willing to die for the sake of their combat family members. Yes, family. Think of what you'd do for your own family and then maybe you'll be able to understand how devoted they are to each other. That bond adds to what they face afterwards. That bond is what makes being out of combat more dangerous than being in it for them. In combat, the concern of the threat of death is not about their own lives. It is about the others. After combat, when it is about what the risk did to them, they run out of reasons to stay alive for.
"Life is like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." Jim Henson
Residual Waris out of my own brain but it is based on real accounts from heroes trying to recover from what we asked them to do. Wow, bet that hit you like a sledgehammer. I envisioned a world where wounded soldiers were sent into a healing unit instead of being cast out of the military after it all cut too deeply into their soul. Fort Christmas was a place where they would stop risking their lives and start simply risking their pride, asking for help and getting it. The accounts of what placed them in jeopardy are based on what has happened to many different generations of soldiers and woven into a tale of what can happen...or should I say, what should happen. It should have happened to someone like Tech. Sgt Steven Bellino in the following report, but it didn't.
Audio recordings, military records, an Air Force psychiatric evaluation, and a timeline Bellino made of key events in his life — most provided to the San Antonio Express-News by his family — show Bellino dealt with steadily worsening symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder as he struggled to change careers after a stellar record throughout multiple Army deployments and CIA contract work in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Special Forces soldier dies in accident in Niger STARS AND STRIPES By ALEX HORTON Published: February 11, 2017
SAN ANTONIO — An Army Special Forces officer was killed in a non-combat accident in Niger on Feb. 2, the Army said Friday.
Warrant Officer 1 Shawn Thomas, 35, was killed in a vehicle accident in Niger, according to a statement released by U.S. Africa Command. Another soldier was injured in the accident, which occurred during a “routine administrative movement” between partner force outposts, the release stated.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to their families during this difficult time,” the Africa Command release stated.
read more here
'Hiring Vets Is Who We Are': Black Rifle Coffee Company Hits Back at Starbucks FOX February 7, 2017
In response to Starbucks announcing it would hire 10,000 refugees to protest President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, one veteran has a different plan.
Evan Hafer, an Army Special Forces veteran and CEO of Black Rifle Coffee Company, said he would hire 10,000 veterans.
"Our plan is to build 600 stores in the next six years. I'm gonna try to push this forward with the community behind me," Hafer said Tuesday as a guest on "Fox and Friends." read more here
Airman to receive Air Force Cross for valor in Afghanistan Fay Observer By Drew Brooks Military editor Jan 19, 2017
On April 6, 2013, Baradat's actions were credited with saving the lives of more than 150 allies, both American and Afghan.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher G. Baradat stood in an open Afghan courtyard as dirt kicked up by enemy bullets hitting the ground around him sprayed his uniform.
With members of the Special Forces team he was attached to shouting for him to take cover, Baradat instead zeroed in on the roughly 100 enemy fighters bearing down on his teammates with sniper fire, machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
Exposing himself to the hostile fire to better communicate with air crews overhead, Baradat orchestrated the supporting fire that would save the lives of his team and the allied forces they had been dispatched to rescue, synchronizing attacks from AC-130 and A-10 aircraft fighting back with their own barrage of fire, including 25 mm, 30 mm, 40 mm and 105 mm munitions and 500-pound bombs.
"I do not think that what I did that day was heroic; I was completely focused on coordinating close air support as I was trained to do in support of my team," Baradat said. "I witnessed many heroic acts from the Army Special Forces team, and I hope that they receive the recognition that they deserve. I also want to thank the A-10 and AC-130 aircrew that day. Without their support, the day would have turned out much worse." read more here
Fort Campbell Soldier From Texas Dies In Jordan News Channel 5 Jan 9, 2017
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - The Department of Defense has announced the death of Special Forces soldier who was serving in Jordan.
According to a statement from the DOD, Spc. Isiah L. Booker of Cibolo, Texas, died Jan. 7 in a noncombat-related incident. Booker was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, a sprawling Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. read more here
Army South soldier dies from illness Army Times By: Charlsy Panzino January 6, 2017
A Texas-based soldier died Thursday after a prolonged illness, according to an Army release.
Sgt. Maj. William A. Robles, who was assigned to the Regional Affairs Directorate at U.S. Army South, died at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
Robles served as an instructor at the Brazilian Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, part of the Army South Military Personnel Exchange Program, according to the release.
“We are extremely saddened and will miss Bill tremendously. He was an incredible Soldier who has served his country for decades and inspired everyone he encountered. I extend my heartfelt sympathy to Sgt. Maj. Robles’ family and to everyone who knew him,” Maj. Gen. K.K. Chinn, commander of Army South, said in the release. “He was a credit to the uniform he wore.”
Robles, born in El Salvador but raised in Los Angeles, enlisted in the California National Guard in 1986 and entered active duty in 1988 upon graduating high school.
He became an Army Special Forces communications sergeant and served multiple assignments in the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. read more here
Army Investigating Death Of NH Soldier During Dive Training CBS Boston November 5, 2016
“U.S. Army Special Forces Staff Sergeant David J. Whitcher was a decorated soldier whose service and sacrifice made our country safer and our freedom stronger,” Gov. Maggie Hassan
David Whitcher. (Image Credit: U.S. Army Special Operations Command)
MANCHESTER, N.H. (CBS/AP) — The commander of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School says the death of a soldier from New Hampshire is “sobering reminder” of the dangerous training undertaken by the Special Forces.
The Army says 30-year-old Staff Sgt. David Whitcher of Bradford died Wednesday while dive training off of Key West, Florida. The death is under investigation.
Maj. Gen. James B. Linder said thoughts and prayers go to Whitcher’s family, including his wife and son.
read more here
Replace Stupidity with Spectacular Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos October 23, 2016 For over three decades I have heard all kinds of things, had my heart broken more times than I can calculate, but then there are moments, when I am in awe of how spectacular these veterans truly are. Parade Magazine published an article written by Paula Spencer Scott this month, "Feeling Awe May Be the Secret to Health and Happiness." Stacy Bare, an Iraq veteran said he was suffering from PTSD and wondered "What does it mean to be at home, a veteran anyway?" He went to the Druid Arch in Utah and was struck by "awe" beginning a change within him.
“Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or beyond human scale, that transcends our current understanding of things,” says psychologist Dacher Keltner, who heads the University of California, Berkeley’s Social Interaction Lab.
That keeps getting missed in this messed up, convoluted dialog on PTSD and suicides connected to military service. It isn't that they were not able to "handle it" but handled it the whole time when the men and women in their unit are deployed with them. Why? Because their lives matter and they are willing to die for one another. That comes from a strong emotional core. The very worthy part of them that caused such devotion is also the part of them that grieves from losing so many they cared for. The "awe" moment for them is when they realize they are not stuck suffering, do not have anything to be ashamed of and they can heal. We just allow other conversations to permeate the news they hear.
When Donald Trump said “When you talk about the mental health problems - when people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it. But a lot of people can’t handle it." he showed he doesn't get it. The problem is, far too many are just like him.
There are Medal of Honor Recipients openly talking about their own battles with PTSD so that others may overcome the rumor of weakness or claims of lacking intestinal fortitude. There are Special Forces veterans talking about what they also experience coming home along with Generals speaking openly, hoping to lead by example. Folks can do all the talking they want about the "problem" of suicides to make others aware, and get noticed by the press, but they never seem to mention their talk is doing no good at all. It is feeding the stigma. If they want to do pushups or other publicity stunts, who does that actually serve? Is it the suffering veterans forced to remain in the shadows? Is it the families left behind wondering what they did wrong and blaming themselves? Or is it the people wanting attention for themselves? Stupidity feeds the stigma of PTSD and leaves them trapped in an endless cycle of suffering and search for what will bring them out of the darkness within their souls. What may be an easy number to remember, they were more than an abstract number to their families. Isn't it time to actually focus on what is possible and good instead of simply focusing on all this talk of anguish? It is obvious that none of the popular "efforts" managed to change anything other than spread the heartache. How about we talk more about the "awe" moments that begin the healing and replace despair with encouragement?
They Live In Deeds of Courage Wounded Times Kathie Costos October 9, 2016
RESIDUAL WAR, Something Worth Living For is based on reports within the over 26,000 articles on Combat PTSD Wounded Times and over thirty years of covering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by military service. It is also from living with and spending most of my free time with veterans.
With all the publicity PTSD and suicides have received, you'd think that the truth would matter, but it doesn't. Until we actually see these men and women carrying the unique burden of serving this nation with everything they have, we'll never really change anything for their sake. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing them used.
Their suffering, their agony has been used for attention getting stunts by folks claiming to be doing something about raising awareness. The truth is, they are more like people taking a video of someone dying instead of calling 911.
So I decided to jump on the fiction bandwagon and try to tell the truth in a lie.
General David King is based on what I think most Generals with PTSD would do in order to really take care of those who have paid the price for their heroic actions causing them to make bad decisions for the right reasons. He sent them to Fort Christmas to serve out their time before retirement.
Generals with PTSD? Yes and there is an example of that in a report from the New York Times about Brig. General Donald Bolduc, Commander of Special Operations talking about his own struggles with PTSD. He isn't the first to do so. Other Generals came out with a lot of courage in 2009 because the lives of those they were in charge of really mattered so much they put them first instead of their own careers.
It is about a female Colonel, Amanda Leverage, suffering after showing great courage and blaming herself for what came afterwards.
A female with courage in combat? Yes, like Spec. Monica Lin Brown, who at the age of 19 received the Silver Star for saving lives in Afghanistan.
After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.
"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.
Another female showing great courage during the Civil War received the Medal of Honor. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a surgeon.
"We live in deeds, not years."
– Mary Walker, title page of Hit
The men Amanda was in charge of were much like the Special Forces members in the following reports.
Special Forces suicides reached a record in 2014 but according to men like Donald Trump, they must not have been tough enough to take it. What is worse is that the head of the Army at the time passed off suicides as if they were not mentally tough and lacked intestinal fortitude.
"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."
He wasn't thinking at all and that is the biggest problem of all. He he even considered all the veterans and those serving under him, he wouldn't have fed the stigma beast and maybe, just maybe he would have issued orders to make sure these men and women were taken care of to heal instead of betraying them with this claim of weakness. In April of 2014 there were reports of Special Forces soldiers committing suicide.
U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides even after all these years of the DOD saying they were taking care of the men and women serving this country. Even after suicides and attempted suicides went up. Even after even the "toughest" of the tough suffered. Anyone know what is going to change? How to change it? Who is accountable for it? Joe Miller, then an Army Ranger captain with three Iraq tours under his belt, sat inside his home near Fort Bragg holding a cocked Beretta 40mm, and prepared to kill himself. Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, 25, of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, killed himself June 28 (2011) at Lewis-McChord. Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan for a ninth tour of duty. Crowley-Smilek, 28, a former U.S. Army Ranger who suffered from combat stress and physical injuries from service in Afghanistan, was dead; shot multiple times by a police officer outside the Farmington municipal offices on U.S. Route 2. Staff Sgt. Charles Reilly, is a Special Forces soldier who has been deployed six times in the past decade. She said psychiatrists have diagnosed him with PTSD, and he's assigned to Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion, where soldiers recover from physical and mental wounds. Sgt. Ben Driftmyer was discharged and betrayed. Survived."I had spent eight years serving the military. I never got in trouble. Never did anything bad. And I got treated like I was a piece of crap because of it," said Ben Driftmyer, discharged U.S. Army Sergeant and Cottage Grove resident. Driftmyer was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder by Eugene doctors after he was chaptered out from the special forces unit in Baghdad. He suffered several mental breakdowns during his service, but his discharge was classified as "other than medical." "Because the military didn't want to pay for me for the rest of my life," said Driftmyer. Chief Petty Officer Jerald Kruse, served 19 years in the Navy. He was a SEAL, an elite warrior sent to fight in some of the toughest situations around the world, including in Iraq. “His problems really began in ’05. That’s when I really began to notice something was wrong,” she said. He drank excessively, stayed up all night and lashed out at her and their three kids. Navy Cmdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died Saturday while serving as the commanding officer of SEAL Team 4, a special warfare unit based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo returned from Iraq, he feared seeking treatment for PTSD would endanger his career.
US Special Forces Struggle With Record Suicides(Reuters) - Suicides among U.S. special operations forces, including elite Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, are at record levels, a U.S. military official said on Thursday, citing the effects of more than a decade of "hard combat."
So while you are paying attention to the veteran in New York carrying around a skeleton dressed in a uniform to raise awareness of suicides, you need to be reminded of the most important fact of all. Lives of others matter so much to all of the above they were willing to die to save them, but they could not find hope to save their own. They ended up on the "wrong side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell."
Burke man accused of cheating VA gets bond The News Herald
BY SHARON MCBRAYER Staff Writer
September 12, 2016
A Morganton man facing federal charges for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was released on bond Monday.
Roy Lee Ross Jr., a.k.a. Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr., 64, of Morganton, received a $25,000 unsecured bond during his initial appearance and arraignment in federal court in Asheville. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and he asked for and was granted a court-appointed attorney, Fredilyn Sison.
Magistrate Judge Dennis Howell set conditions on Ross’ release but those conditions have been sealed by the court, according to federal documents.
The court also has sealed a pretrial report on Ross.
Ross was indicted in August on one count of executing a scheme to defraud a health benefit organization (the VA), which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; and two counts of making false statements in connection with the delivery of health care benefits by the VA, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He also is charged with two counts of stealing from the VA, a charge has a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine, and one count of a making false claim for travel benefits from the VA, which carries a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine,
The initial indictment on him said Ross, who was discharged from the U.S. Army “Under Conditions Other Than Honorable,” started falsely representing himself to the VA Medical Center in Asheville as a U.S. Army veteran named “Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr.” around June 2007. The indictment alleges Ross, as Sullivan, claimed that he had served in the Special Forces, that he had been wounded in combat and that he had been honorably discharged from the Army. The indictment goes on to say Ross claimed he was suffering from nightmares caused by his wartime service and his combat-related injuries.
Then in 2015, still claiming to be Daniel Sullivan, Ross filed a third claim for “increased evaluation,” claiming that he was suffering from cervical (neck) impairment and pain due to his injuries while on active duty. read more here
Americans injured fighting Islamic State group in Afghanistan Stars and Stripes
By Corey Dickstein
Published: July 28, 2016
WASHINGTON – Five U.S. servicemembers were wounded in recent days fighting militants aligned with the Islamic State group in eastern Afghanistan, Army Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson said Thursday.
The American special operators were accompanying Afghan special forces this week in southern Nangarhar Province, where the Afghans began a major operation that aimed to route the militants from the country, said Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan.
None of the injuries were life-threatening, he said. Two operators were quickly returned to their units and three were evacuated from Afghanistan for further medical treatment.
“They are in good spirits and have talked to their families,” Nicholson said. “We expect a full recovery.” read more here
Green Beret medic could be next Vietnam War MOH recipient Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: July 14, 2016
Gary Michael Rose receives the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, for heroism during Operation Tailwind.
COURTESY OF TED WICOREK
“God knows how many times he risked his life to make sure as many guys as possible came out alive,” Retired Maj. John Plaster.
WASHINGTON — The story of Green Beret Gary Michael Rose’s heroism is an epic of classified warfare and a stinging media scandal, but it might soon end with a Medal of Honor.
In 1970, Rose was the lone medic for a company of Special Forces soldiers and indigenous Vietnamese fighters during a risky, four-day assault deep into Laos. The badly injured Rose helped bring all the soldiers back alive and received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military honor, during a ceremony at the time in Vietnam.
“He is not a gung-ho person, he is very thoughtful, but he was a hell of a medic and I trusted him with my life,” said Keith Plancich, 66, who was a Special Forces squad leader on the mission.
But Rose and the other men were wrongly accused of taking part in war crimes in 1998 after the mission, called Operation Tailwind, was declassified and unearthed for the first time by CNN and its partner Time magazine. read more here
GUEST POST by David Staffa The title of the book is:
The Afghanistan War Follies: There is no beauty in truth
David Staffa
I am David Staffa and I served in the Afghanistan War from 2010-2011 as a Special Forces Engineer. Before you read this book, there are a few things that you need to know. Number one, I was a soldier and I tell it like I saw it or as it was told to me.
Second, don’t assume that this is a book about the Afghanistan War combat because you will be disappointed. This book is about my and others experiences and what we have learned from these experiences and how it can help you understand people who have served or will serve in the Afghan War. Although we had many rocket attacks, human wave attacks and suicide bombers, I will let others tell those stories.
Third, I do not have any political aspirations because I have no ax to grind with anyone; well maybe with a few of those people in Congress but that is another story.
Fourth, this is a book about our struggles to make the “military machine” work in our favor. In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
For me, it was also a personal journey. Is the Afghanistan Army, with the help of thousands of U.S. and ISAF Forces and advisors, making any headway against the Taliban? Is the Karzai government “winning the hearts and minds of the people?” Does Karzai and his brother seem more interested in suppressing the Afghan people than in dealing with the corruption and incompetence in their government? I wanted answers to these questions by being “on the ground.”
Join the small percentage that have served recently in Afghanistan and read about military life in Afghanistan.
The names have either been redacted or changed to protect their anonymity. The events portrayed here are reality and are reflective of the author’s experience and observations and of the soldiers that I served with during my military tour in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011.
I am intensely curious about the things which I see around me and I was the man of a thousand questions. I earned the right to ask these questions to all people in Afghanistan because I noticed no one else bothered to ask them.
These collection of stories are garnered from many personal experiences and stories related to me by U.S. military officers and enlisted men and women, DIA and CIA personnel as well as U.S. military contractors and Afghan military and civilians. Consider these observations a cross between Rambo, MASH and Hogan's Heroes. You will have first hand knowledge because there are battles on many fronts to be won as we look at who the real enemy is here.
Why Special Forces? It was intriguing to me. I am intuitively a winner and that was my appeal. Plus, I liked the free-lance, unbureaucratic, James Bond-like initiative. Humans, as a whole, have always been my initiative in getting things done rather than using hardware. Hardware is merely the tool for succeeding. This is where the conventional Army (also known as Big Army) loses over Special Forces. They lead from the top down rather than from the bottom up. Better decisions and planning always come from the people who do the work – the bottom up theory. Oh, how I wish the civilian working world would learn from this as well.
Although you will find that many things that I reflect back to you in writing seem to state that things are in disarray with everyone in Afghanistan, such is not the case. I worked with a few good civilians and military people but the point I want to make is that competent people, military or civilian, were the exception rather than the rule. As you read the stories in this book, you can see why I state this. Watching U.S. dollars being wasted in this corrupt country while the people in the United States suffer from an economic crisis was disheartening.
My travels in Afghanistan were many. Bagram, Chamkani, Gardez, FOB Curry, FOB Salerno, Shkin, Camp Clark to name a few. Conversing with civilians, government employees and soldiers from different branches of military services and governmental services gave me an entirely objective view of the war and its effects on the U.S. and Afghanistan civilians and soldiers as well. I saw myself as a plain, ordinary soldier but always intensely conscious of my rank, my position in social life as well as my gift of leading people, staff or getting the job done. I am the last person in the world that would let success go to my head because my personality is not designed as such. Eliciting groups of experts for combined judgments was always my secret of being successful and that is the secret of these stories.
Working with some of my fellow soldiers and soldiers of the units - I wasn’t sure what effect they would have on the enemy but some of our soldiers did frighten me because of their lack of competence and intelligence. Many of us “older vets” wanted to go back and join our younger brothers in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our thinking is that we can teach them how to stay alive. We want to reconnect with our youth, the thrill of battle, that adrenaline rush that you cannot get anywhere else in the world. I and my brothers wanted to be a father and or a brother to these younger guys. I was able to make this happen for myself and I remember thinking these thoughts as well prior to deployment.
What you read going forward is actually put down in writing in chronological order. This means
that the soldiers’ personal experiences as well as mine were put down in writing as soon as I
was able to get to my laptop. Nothing is exaggerated but is merely put down in words as I saw
it or others, both civilian and military, had relayed to me in conversation.
Dave Staffa dstaffa54@gmail.com
Police release name of Special Forces soldier in barricade at National Guard armory The Baltimore Sun
Ian Duncan
May 3, 2016
(XXXXXX) turned out to be unarmed and did not have access to the weapons, which were locked with a code, a police spokeswoman said. He eventually agreed to come out of the building and was sent for a medical evaluation.
Baltimore County police released the name of the Special Forces soldier who is accused of trespassing at an armory in Glen Arm on Monday.
(XXXXXX) 43, of Virginia, allegedly tripped an alarm at the Gunpowder Military Reservation at about 11 a.m. Monday, starting a standoff with heavily armed police that lasted several hours.
He was taken into custody without incident and released on $7,500 bail, online court records show. He could not be reached for comment on Thursday, and had no attorney listed in online records.
Police responded in force to the facility on Notchcliff Road, unsure if (XXXXXX) had access to the weapons stored there. read more here
