Sgt Jacob Lee Hanson, Born at Fort Lewis, Died at Fort Carson

Sgt. Jacob Lee Hanson, 27
Montana Standard
July 25, 2014

Sgt. Jacob Lee Hanson, 27, was born May 20, 1987, at Fort Lewis, Wash., and died July 21, 2014, at Fort Carson, Colo.

Jake spent his younger years in Pine River, Wis., where he attended Pleasant View Elementary School. The family moved to Deer Lodge in 2000, where he graduated from Powell County High School in 2005. He attended two years at MSU Bozeman when he then decided to enlist in the Army in 2007, and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. He was selected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2008, where after completing three years, he chose to return to the enlisted ranks. He was then assigned to Fort Carson, Colo., HHC Brigade, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team 4th Infantry attaining the rank of sergeant.

On July 13, 2013, he married his sweetheart, Jessica Fjermestad. Jake was a kind, loving husband, son and friend. He would do anything for anyone.
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Winter Park Welcomes Home Soldier in Style

UPDATE Here's the video

Just back from a fabulous afternoon in Winter Park and proud to say it is my city after today! This is a report from WESH 2 News. My pictures are below.

Winter Park soldier's welcome home ceremony could be in documentary, commercial
Lt. Chuck Nadd served in Afghanistan
WESH
By Michelle Meredith
Jan 08, 2014

WINTER PARK, Fla. —A U.S. Army soldier from Winter Park returned home Wednesday to a hero's welcome.

Lt. Chuck Nadd wrapped up his mission in Afghanistan and flew home to Central Florida.

Nadd was the star of a parade held in his honor in Winter Park. He had no idea the parade was planned.

"It's a surprise then. It's a good thing ... makes him feel good," resident Eugenia Baylor said.

The parade was called "A Hero's Welcome" and was, in essence, a Hollywood production staged by Anheuser-Busch. It included confetti cannons, fancy cameras and the Budweiser Clydesdales.

The turnout for the parade was huge and included his mother, his girlfriend -- and even Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia.

"He is the best friend of my son, who graduated from Trinity Prep with him," Garavaglia said. "He is a wonderful guy. He is so pro-America."

"Very proud of him, and he deserves that. He represents all the other ones, absolutely," mother Agnes Nadd said.

Nadd is a graduate of West Point and was deployed to Afghanistan in May 2013, where he has used his skills as a Blackhawk pilot.
read more here

These are some of the pictures from today that I took

Lt. Nadd's plane came in late.  Uncle Sam waited on stilts for over 45 minutes.

Cathy Haynes 

Patriotic lady brought gator

Orlando Honor Flight Always There With Smiles

1Sgt. Daniel Kalagian 812th MPCO back home on December 7,  2013

Korean War Veteran and Bride

VFW Post 4287 Orlando

Motorcycle Escorts

Budweiser Clydesdales 

OK, I made them do this.  Blame me.

The video of the parade should be up tomorrow so check back then.

Honored Couple

West Point Hosts First Wedding Between 2 Men At Military Academy

West Point Hosts First Wedding Between 2 Men At Military Academy
Huffington Post
11/02/13

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Two West Point graduates were married Saturday in the military academy's first wedding between two men.

Larry Choate III, class of 2009, married Daniel Lennox, class of 2007, before about 20 guests.

Choate, 27, taught Sunday school at the U.S. Military Academy's Cadet Chapel and said he always thought of it as the place he would get married if he could.

West Point hosted two same-sex weddings of women in late 2012, more than a year after New York legalized gay marriage. But Saturday's wedding was the first time two men wed at West Point.
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Army didn't help Captain screaming for help, now they want him out?

When you read editorial comments on Wounded Times and you get the impression I am pissed off, you are correct. Maybe after reading the story of Captain Anthony Martinez you'll get pissed off too. Lord knows with everything going on, we should be!

This is part one and there is another one up on Stars and Stripes to follow this one.

An officer on the brink
FEATURE STORY
by Megan McCloskey
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 26, 2013

Part 1: The rise and fall of Army Capt. Anthony Martinez

FROM WEST POINT TO IRAQ
From early in his career, Capt. Anthony Martinez excelled in the Army. Then came PTSD and suicidal thoughts. The Army ignored his struggles and sent him back to war. Not until Martinez lost control in Afghanistan did the Army decide to pay attention. Now the service wants to kick him out.

FORT HOOD, Texas — Six months before his deployment to Afghanistan, Capt. Anthony Martinez gravely doubted his ability to lead.

He had post-traumatic stress disorder. He wasn’t sleeping at night and was barely holding it together during the day. He told his boss he couldn’t handle command of the battalion’s largest company. Senior noncommissioned officers asked leadership to remove Martinez.

Six weeks before shipping off, Martinez threatened to kill himself.

Then he wrote a formal memo detailing who should take over the company if he had a mental breakdown while in Afghanistan.

The Army did nothing — except send him to war.

No one in his chain of command questioned whether a suicidal officer, hobbled by PTSD and addled by psychotropic drugs, was fit for combat.

Once in Afghanistan, Martinez quickly cracked under the pressure, and the meltdown some had been afraid of became a reality. He isolated himself, had angry, irrational outbursts and, finally, in the culmination of his ruin, threatened two soldiers.

He told one to get out of his office “or I’ll shoot you in the face.” Then, during an argument with his supply sergeant, he ordered a private in the room to load his weapon — an unheard of escalation on a fellow soldier.

Now the Army wants to act.

After ignoring the issues, the service wants to kick Martinez out for the very behavior that medical experts say proves why he never should have been in Afghanistan in the first place.
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Woman survives suicide attempt at the US Mint at West Point

Woman survives suicide attempt at the US Mint at West Point
Westchester News Published: May 30, 2013

WEST POINT - Police in Orange County are investigating an apparent suicide attempt at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Police say a woman who was upset over her marriage went to her husband's job at the U.S. Mint at West Point around noon today. Investigators say she then attempted to commit suicide by stabbing herself in the parking lot.
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98% of what Boehner wanted hits military hard

This is what Boehner had to say about the cuts In an interview with CBS' Scott Pelley from August 2011, Boehner conveys that he was very pleased with the result of the negotiation: Boehner: When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy.

Reminder of how we got here is Congress didn't do their jobs. The budge is their responsibility and the only budget they came up with didn't have a chance in hell of passing the Senate because it was not, repeat, not what the American people wanted. It was Paul Ryan's budget that slaughtered the middle class, poor, elderly, veterans, disabled and anything that didn't matter to the rich they were protecting. Now they can't understand that all of this is also hurting the people protecting this country!

Army plans $92 million in cuts at West Point
By Brian Tumulty
Gannett Washington Bureau
Posted : Wednesday Feb 20, 2013

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Military Academy at West Point will take the biggest hit from planned Army budget cuts in New York.

The military academy has been targeted for $92 million of the $351 million in Pentagon money that will be slashed statewide when across-the-board federal “sequestration” cuts take effect March 1.

Construction of a new dormitory to house 650 cadets will be postponed.

RELATED READING
2/19: Army lays out state-by-state cuts in report

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a request for proposals to build the $170 million dormitory late last year, but a contract has not yet been awarded.

The dormitory would be the first new one at West Point since 1965 and the first since the academy opened its doors to women. Women comprise 18 percent of the cadet corps.
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West Point Cadet may have to pay back Army

If you are a Christian, don't pass this off as a slam against Christians. Had our rights to decide what faith, denomination and doctrine we wanted to follow not been protected we'd all be forced to worship as someone else saw fit. We have to protect the rights of all people to decide how they want to worship or not at all. Forcing anyone or trying to get them to covert by force is wrong.

Blake Page, Cadet Who Quit West Point Over Religious Objections, May Have To Pay Back Army
Huffington Post
Chelsea Kiene
Posted: 02/15/2013

WASHINGTON -- A former West Point cadet who resigned from the military academy in November over what he says was unconstitutional Christian proselytizing may now owe the institution hundreds of thousands of dollars in a turn of events that have left the 24-year-old “shocked.”

Blake Page, who served in the Army prior to attending West Point, submitted an official letter of resignation from the academy on Nov. 6. In an op-ed in The Huffington Post, Page explained that he no longer desired to be part of a group of “silent bystanders” witnessing what he called “egregious violations” of the Constitution.

“The tipping point of my decision to resign was the realization that countless officers here and throughout the military are guilty of blatantly violating the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution,” Page wrote. “These men and women are criminals, complicit in light of day defiance of the Uniform Code of Military Justice through unconstitutional proselytism, discrimination against the non-religious and establishing formal policies to reward, encourage and even at times require sectarian religious participation.”
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Top 10 most popular military videos of 2012

Top 10 most popular military videos of 2012
By TOSHIO SUZUKI
Stars and Stripes
Published: December 24, 2012

There’s live video of a Coast Guard rescue at sea during Hurricane Sandy, a public service announcement on homeless veterans, and of course, a ‘Gangnam Style’ spoof music video in contention, but what were the top 10 most watched U.S. military videos of 2012?

This year’s winner, published in February, garnered almost 2.4 million views. In comparison, the most watched video from Stars and Stripes in 2012—‘Heat ray demonstration’—received about 57,500 views, good enough for 11th place if in the competition.

Videos were selected from dozens of YouTube pages affiliated with the military branches, their educational systems and government institutions focusing on veterans.
go here to view all of the top 10. These are my favorites

No. 5: ‘VA Homeless Veterans ‘Success Stories’ Public Service Announcement’ from the Department of Veterans Affairs with 647,644 views. For many reasons, there are homeless veterans out there. The more who know about resources available to them, the better

No. 2: ‘Gangnam Style-West Point’ from the U.S. Military Academy West Point with 1,407,552 views. The ‘Gangnam Style’ spoof videos came from all over the Internet, including all branches of the military, but the horse stable, operating tank and choreographed moves from the West Point cadets was too much to beat

Soldier Surprises Parents Live on 'Good Morning America'

Soldier Surprises Dad Live on 'Good Morning America'
Nov 15, 2012
by ABCNews
Stars of new OWN series Yolanda and Morris Goins reunite with their son Cameron.

Vietnam Vet on hunger strike to spur action on suicides

Vet on hunger strike to spur action on suicides
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Marine Corps Times
Posted : Friday Aug 24, 2012

A 65-year-old Army veteran is on his sixth day of a hunger strike in Washington, D.C., to push for White House action to address the rising tide of suicides in the military.

Tom Mahany, a former West Point cadet who served as a specialist second class in Vietnam in 1969, wants the Obama administration to create a federal advisory committee to address troops’ mental and physical health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and depression, which can contribute to suicide.

Such a committee, Mahany argues, would pull together the many disparate groups and task forces within the government now working on the subject.

“There are 24 different groups working on this — it’s like 24,000 people all talking at once. But what are they actually doing? They are still compiling information, not doing,” he said from his bench in Lafayette Square, across from the White House.
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Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis

Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis
2 Women Claim Academies Ignored 'Rampant Sexual Harassment'
By Kyra Phillips and Jessi Joseph
CNN
April 22, 2012

(CNN) -- Karley Marquet and Annie Kendzior said they enrolled at two of the nation's most prestigious military academies to serve their country and become military officers. Instead, they claim, they were raped -- and their military careers are now over. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court on Friday, the women claim the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, ignored "rampant sexual harassment."

The suit claims former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the former superintendents of the two academies and the current secretaries of the Army and Navy are "personally responsible" for failing to "prevent rapes and sexual assaults at the Naval Academy and West Point."

Karley Marquet was a high school honor student, championship swimmer and all-star rugby player. She could have gone to college anywhere with her credentials, but Marquet chose West Point.

"When I was accepted, it was kind of overwhelming," she says. "You can't imagine having that structure and discipline but at the same time having people look at you like, 'Wow, you're doing something great for our country.'"

But Marquet said her dream of becoming an officer was shattered in January 2011, her second semester at West Point.
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West Point amputee gymnast returns to competition

Army's Avelino overcomes amputation

Gymnast injured in 2010 accident

Army's Andrew Avelino raises his arms after competing on the high bar at the 2012 West Poin Gymnastic Open at Christl Arena on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012.TOM BUSHEY/Times Herald-Record

By Ken McMillan


Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 01/28/12
WEST POINT — Gymnastics has changed Andrew Avelino in a way no one could have imagined.

A freak accident during a training session in the fall of 2010 damaged his knee in such a way that it cut off blood supply to the lower part of his right leg and eventually required an amputation. Even in the worst days that followed, Avelino was determined to return to West Point and the Army gymnastics team.

In the amputee community, Avelino's procedure is considered "a paper cut,'' he said. That's because he still has five or six inches of his leg remaining below his knee and with a sufficient prosthetic and proper rehabilitation Avelino could resume a normal life.

That wasn't enough for Avelino — he wanted to return to gymnastics, and his doctors and therapists at Walter Reed Hospital were confident that he could.
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Lesbian who left West Point hopes to return

Lesbian who left West Point hopes to return
By John Seewer - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 26, 2010 14:53:34 EST
FINDLAY, Ohio — Katherine Miller got pretty good at hiding her sexuality in high school, brushing off questions about her weekend plans and referring to her girlfriend, Kristin, as “Kris.”

She figured she could pull it off at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, too. After all, “don’t ask, don’t tell” sounded a lot like how she had gotten through her teen years.

But something changed when she arrived at West Point two years ago. She felt the sting of guilt with every lie that violated the academy’s honor code. Then, near the end of her first year, she found herself in a classroom discussion about gays in the military, listening to friends say gays disgusted them.

“I couldn’t work up the courage to foster an argument against what they were saying for fear of being targeted as a gay myself,” Miller told The Associated Press in an interview this week. “I had to be silent. That’s not what I wanted to become.”

What she has become is an unlikely activist for repealing the ban on gays serving openly in the military. She resigned from the academy in August and within days was one of the most prominent faces of the debate. Yet her greatest hope now is that she can return to the place she just left.
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Lesbian who left West Point hopes to return

President Obama speaking at West Point

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Two females lead the way!

From hard life in LA teen heading to West Point

LA Teen Beats Odds to Earn Admission to West Point
Mara Gay
Contributor
(April 9) -- This is what it looks like to beat the odds.

Tyki Nelworth, 18, was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point last week after enduring a lifetime of obstacles that would have stopped most people from accomplishing much of anything.

Nelworth's mother is in jail, his father is dead and he has had no permanent home.

At one point, he was taken from his mother because of suspected child neglect, and his sister told him he was a "crack baby."

read more here
LA Teen Beats Odds to Earn Admission to West Point

Dad walking across country for Fisher House

Dad walking cross-country to help wounded troops' families
By Patty Lane, CNN
April 1, 2010 10:59 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Soldier's father will walk from California to Georgia
Going solo with five pairs of running shoes, two pairs of hiking boots
"Comfort homes" house injured troops' families near military hospitals

(CNN) -- Inspired by his West Point cadet son, a California man sets out Thursday on a cross-country trek to raise money for an organization that supports wounded troops and their families.

John Conte of San Diego will begin his walk at Camp Pendleton on the West Coast and expects to wrap up at Fort Benning, Georgia, sometime in July.

His goal is to raise $50,000 for Fisher House to help it build more "comfort homes." Such homes provide housing for injured soldiers' families near a hospital where their loved one is recovering. There is at least one Fisher House at every major military medical center.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/01/cross.country.walk/

West Point Grads "Knights Out" of the closet

West Point grads form gay support group
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 16, 2009 21:08:13 EDT

Thirty-eight graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., came out of the closet Monday with an offer to help their alma mater educate future Army leaders on the need to accept and honor the sacrifices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.

“Knights Out” wants to serve as a connection between gay troops and Army administrators, particularly at West Point, to provide an “open forum” for communication between gay West Point graduates and their fellow alumni and to serve in an advisory role for West Point leaders in the eventuality — which the group believes is both “imminent and inevitable” — that the law and policy collectively known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” are repealed by Congress.

“We’re publicly announcing our sexuality, our orientation,” said 1st Lt. Dan Choi, a National Guardsman with the 1st Bn., 69th Infantry, based in Manhattan. “It’s just one part of who we are in saying that we are standing to be counted.”

In forming Knights Out, its 38 members are following the example of similar support and education groups formed by graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy, known respectively as USNA Out and Blue Alliance. Most if not all of these groups’ members also belong to the Service Academy Gay and Lesbian Alumni social network, a group that Knights Out claims includes some active-duty commanders serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Number of cadets seeking mental health care at West Point rises

West Point addressing recent suicides
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 11, 2009 21:46:59 EST

WASHINGTON — Following four suicides at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, officials said Wednesday they are emphasizing to cadets that seeking help for mental health problems won’t jeopardize their military careers.

In the last seven months, two cadets, a faculty member and a staff member at the academy have taken their lives. The suicides were the first at the school in upstate New York since 1999.

They are part of a larger trend as the strained military wages war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army had its highest rate of suicide on record in 2008 and is investigating a spike in the number in January.

He said three times the number of cadets are seeking mental health help, which leaders view as a positive sign that the stigma associated with getting assistance has been reduced.

Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, commandant of cadets, said there is a misconception among cadets that seeking help will jeopardize their military careers, so leaders have aggressively emphasized that’s not the case. click link for more

West Point, 2 suicides, 2 attempts in just 2 months

West Point reacting to 2 suicides in as many months
Times Herald-Record - Middletown,NY,USA
By Alexa James
February 02, 2009
WEST POINT — As the Army reels from record-high suicide rates, officials at the U.S. Military Academy are responding to tragedies of their own.

Two West Point cadets killed themselves and at least two others made suicide “attempts or gestures,” in the past two months, prompting Academy officials to summon an Army surgeon general’s suicide team to campus last week.

The team’s investigation left West Point feeling confident that its mental health programs are robust and active, but Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, the Commandant of Cadets, said there is still room for improvement.



“We have to remove all the stigma that’s attached with going to seek help,” he said.

Hundreds of suicide prevention posters and wallet-sized help cards were doled out across campus last month, and Army brass met with every class to remind them about the confidential mental health resources at their disposal.

West Point’s 4,400 cadets have access to counselors and doctors around the clock, Linnington said, both through an on-site office called the Center for Professional Development (CPD) and also a manned telephone help-line.

“The numbers of cadets that have gone to seek help at the CPD are triple what they were just five years ago,” he said. “Some people would say ‘Oh my God, that’s bad. That means cadets are stressed,’” but Linnington takes it as a good sign, saying the programs are popular because cadets aren’t ashamed to use them anymore.

More than 200 cadets sought help last year, including the two who committed suicide: A junior from Tennessee suffocated on helium gas in a hotel room in Highland Falls on Dec. 8, and a freshman shot and killed himself Jan. 2 while on leave in North Carolina. He was home to get mental help.
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'Soldier's Heart' has heartbreaking relevance

'Soldier's Heart' has heartbreaking relevance
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
Fresh out of Harvard and Yale, Elizabeth Samet began teaching English at West Point a decade ago, when life there was peaceful — "there's no other word for it," she writes. Then came 9/11.
Samet and her students — future second lieutenants — found new meaning in works such as Tolstoy's War and Peace and Randall Jarrell's poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.
Samet's account of teaching and learning, Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, is absolutely fascinating. Never has Tolstoy or Homer seemed more relevant.
Her book explores serious issues — moral questions about courage and obedience — but with graceful writing and flashes of humor.
She is an outsider: a civilian and a woman in a military culture of, in Virginia Woolf's phrase, "unmitigated masculinity."
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