Veteran Chandler Davis Stood for Slain Officers--Gunned Down At Home

Veteran who saluted slain Dallas officers fatally shot, police say

The Star Telegram 
BY RYAN OSBORNE 
JULY 24, 2017 3:52 PM

The former Army combat medic told the Star-Telegram that he wanted to show that the Dallas gunman — Micah Johnson, a former soldier — did not represent people in the armed forces.

THE COLONY An Army veteran who saluted the five slain Dallas police officers for hours last summer was fatally shot by his brother in The Colony on Sunday, police said.

Retired Army combat medic Chandler Davis showed his support for the slain Dallas Police officers outside the headquarters of the Dallas Police Department last year. Davis was killed in The Colony on Sunday, police said. (Joyce Marshall jlmarshall@star-telegram.com)

Officers found Chandler Davis, 34, with a gunshot wound to his chest inside a home in the 5200 block of Ragan Road about 5:20 p.m., according to a news release. He was taken to Medical City Plano hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

His brother, John Davis, 38, was at the home and was taken into custody for questioning, the news release said. read more here

Army Combat Medic Faced One Death Too Many, His Own

Son’s suicide prompts Boylston mother to raise awareness
Worcester Telegram
By Paula J. Owen Correspondent
Posted Jul 8, 2017

“We honestly didn’t realize how much my mother’s death affected him until he chose to do what he did at her grave,” she said. “We never imagined in a million years. He always wanted to be a doctor and he texted me a few days before that he was accepted to BU.”

BOYLSTON – As a medic in the U.S Army, Sgt. Nathan R. Stark had seen a lot by the time he was 22, including several suicide attempts and a miscarriage. But it was the death of his grandmother to cancer on his birthday last year that seemed to take the heaviest emotional toll on him. It led him to take his own life at her grave.

Two months after his death, his mother, Rebecca L. Stark, 51, from Boylston, who works as a nurse, is raising awareness about high-functioning depression and how cancer affects everyone, not just those diagnosed.

Ms. Stark said her son was very close to his grandmother and that she was his confidante. Mr. Stark’s grandmother, Marion J. Stark, helped raise him while his mother was at work.

“She was his day care provider when he was little,” Ms. Stark said. “They talked a lot and he grew up around there.”

When Mr. Stark enlisted in the Army, his mother said, he felt guilty about leaving his grandmother, who had been battling endometrial cancer since 2006. He also had a hard time leaving his little sister, Jenna L. Stark, who was 6 at the time, Ms. Stark said.

“He felt guilty he couldn’t be there,” Ms. Stark said, holding back tears. “He would call from Korea and ask how his grandmother was doing. I didn’t want to keep bothering him, but I had to keep him informed. He just felt bad he wasn’t there. He was used to being a medic and making everything right.”

“Everyone was in shock,” she said. “Everybody says pay attention – people cry for help – but, sometimes they don’t. I think to myself, ‘I’m a nurse. How did I not see all this?’ I think sometimes you just have a perfect storm.” read more here

Veteran Navy SEAL Arrested, Press Doesn't Wonder Why?

"Former Navy SEAL arrested for drug smuggling"

James Dennis "JD" Smith Jr. was arrested Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute at least 700 kilograms (over 1,540 pounds) of marijuana, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. 

Smith, who served 16 years as a Navy SEAL, was awarded a bronze star during his tour in Iraq and a Special Operations Medic of the Year Award, according to the website of a global security and crisis management consulting firm where he was listed as a Principal Associate of Security Operations. A company official told CBS News that the firm had not heard from or employed Smith for the past five years.   read more here

So, you got the headline, now ask yourself what CBS should have asked. How does this happen to a Navy SEAL who served all those years, risked his life to save others, end up doing this? 

Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran Finally Receiving Medal of Honor

Vietnam veteran to receive Medal of Honor five decades later, after an act of Congress
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
June 13, 2017

He will receive the award on July 31, according to a White House press release.

This 1969 photo provided by James McCloughan shows him with the former Army medic, right, with a platoon interpreter in Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam. An Army spokeswoman said Tuesday, June 13, 2017, that McCloughan, who saved the lives of 10 soldiers during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in May 1969 in Vietnam, will become the first person to be awarded the nation's highest military honor by President Donald Trump.Photo Credit: Courtesy of James McCloughan via AP

Late last year, former Spc. Jim McCloughan was close enough to taste it. After then-President Obama signed a provision included in the annual defense authorization bill, McCloughan was cleared to receive the Medal of Honor.

But the White House was in the midst of a transition to the Trump administration, and so McCloughan's award fell by the wayside for several months, until it could be signed by the acting Army secretary and the new president.

McCloughan, 71, had been waiting for the call for six months, but the event was a decade in the making, since family started reaching out to his local Michigan lawmakers about putting McCloughan in for the Distinguished Service Cross, to recognize him for his bravery as a combat medic in Vietnam back in 1969.
read more here

Hey Cong Tien Gunner--Marine Joe Elizondo is Looking For You!

Vietnam veteran continues search for man who saved his life
KRIS TV
By Jane Caffrey
May 26, 2017

"All I want to tell him is thank you," the former marine said with tears in his eyes. "Eight people got killed in the air. His family needs to know, that he's an angel. Can you imagine how many they saved?"

CORPUS CHRISTI - The Vietnam War claimed the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers, including 100 from Corpus Christi, and with Memorial Day approaching one local veteran feels thankful to have survived that conflict.

The former Marine was close to death in Vietnam. Decades later, his search continues for the man that saved his life. He believes he will find him in Corpus Christi.

Joe Elizondo has three purple hearts and has been honored by U.S. presidents nine times for heroic acts, but he has a hero of his own from his time in Vietnam.

Elizondo was a gun squad leader and a tunnel rat, taking on dangerous underground missions. He was stationed in Cong Tien, one of the most dangerous war zones near the demilitarized area. It was so dangerous it was dubbed "The Place of Angels."

"We had gotten in the morning 11 lieutenants. And they had just arrived from the States. And the next day, only one survived," Elizondo recalled.

One morning, the Americans were ambushed.

"I got hit by a sniper, and the bullet went right through my side of my head, and went out the other side," Elizondo said, showing where the the bullet went through his neck.
read more here

Iraq Veteran's Son Dying of Cancer Has Precious Moments

Army veteran dad making 10-year-old son's final months memorable
FOX News
March 3, 2017

Ayden Zeigler-Kohler was diagnosed with DIPG after collapsing during a football practice. (Ayden Zeigler-Kohler Fund by Shay Weber - GoFundMe)

Seven months ago, 10-year-old Ayden Zeigler-Kohler was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor and given between eight and 12 months to live. His Pennsylvania-based family spent the first few months frantically searching for a clinical trial aimed at beating diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), but has since decided to focus on helping Ayden enjoy the time he has left.

DIPG brain tumors are highly aggressive and notoriously difficult to treat, and, due to their placement on the brain stem, affect breathing, blood pressure and heart rate.

Kohler, who struggled after returning from Iraq, told the news outlet that Ayden’s birth saved his life, and that the two are inseparable, often finding solace in the woods while hunting.

“I was a medic in the war, you know, and you fix things,” Kohler told the Statesman Journal. “And this was something I couldn’t even touch.”
read more here

Army Reserve Medic Missing in Japan

Colorado man missing in Japan
NBC 9 News Colorado
February 22, 2017

KUSA - Rescuers and volunteers are searching for a Colorado man who disappeared while skiing Happo-one in Nagano, Japan.

Cpt. Mathew Healy, Army Reserves, is an OEF Veteran with combat medic experience according to family members. He along with his wife and 2 children have been living in Japan for 2 years as a part of his wife’s Air Force assignment in Okinawa.
read more here

UPDATE

Search continues for lost US skier in Japan

Remains of Combat Medic Will Naugle Found by Hikers

Family: Body of missing U.S. Army reservist found
KOIN 6 News Staff
Published: February 20, 2017

Will Naugle was last seen on January 26

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The body of a missing U.S. Army reservist has been found, according to family members.

Will Naugle was last seen on January 26. He was scheduled to report for annual training and vanished.

Naugle was a combat medic and connected to the U.S. Army Reserves at Camp Whithycombe in Clackamas.

The reservist’s family said he was found dead at Powell Butte in Crook County. The family also said they believe Naugle committed suicide.

Naugle’s body was found by hikers, and it is being turned over to a funeral home.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran's Medal of Honor Ceremony On Hold

Vietnam veteran's Medal of Honor on hold during presidential transition
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
January 15, 2017

Jim McCloughan is in line for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, for his actions as a medic during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam.
Photo Credit: Courtesy photo via the Detroit Free Press

When President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act two days before Christmas, he also signed off on a provision buried down in the weeds to allow a Michigan man to receive the Medal of Honor five decades after the actions for which he earned it.

After years of wait-and-see and a push from his local congressional representatives, former Spc. Jim McCloughan, 70, was authorized to receive the military's highest award for his actions as a medic in Vietnam -- but now that the executive branch is knee-deep in a transition from the Obama to Trump administrations, the award is again on hold.

In May 1969, McCloughan was a 23-year-old private first class medic with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill, a gruesome two-day battle that left dozens killed, wounded or missing in action.

McCloughan survived with some grenade shrapnel and a bullet wound in his arm, but managed to save 10 people, he told the Detroit Free Press last year.

He also earned two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars with V device, the Vietnam Service Medal with three battle stars, and the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palms and one oak leaf, among others, according to a December release from the office of Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who lead the charge to push through the award for McCloughan.
read more here

Combat Medic Gets Help From Veterans Community to Heal

Wounded veteran finds healing in community
Daily Sun
Taylor Mahoney
Special to the Daily Sun
January 7, 2017

In Iraq in 2005-06, as an army combat medic assigned to sappers (sappers go first, clear the obstacles, clear the land mines so the infantry can follow), he attended to wounded soldiers, hunted IED’s, survived the focus of an infamous sniper, and helped save more than 2,500 lives.

Blood, pain, earth shaking explosions: William Golliher knows about these. Golliher experienced hell in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the Flagstaff man, like millions of war veterans across the ages, carries that hell within him. His journey continues as he struggles to find a new normal. Critical to that process, he said, is the company of other veterans.

Marine veteran Ralph Boyer knows Golliher through the Marine League Charities Flagstaff group.

“What you have is a hero here,” Boyer said. “That’s what.”

Golliher immediately protests.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. I did a tour in Iraq and in Afghanistan,” he said.

Golliher proudly traces his family's military history back to a soldier in the Revolutionary War and continuing unbroken through subsequent conflicts involving the United States. His grandfather fought in World War II. His father is a United States Coast Guard veteran.

Despite this, he has found healing through family and community. Although he can’t work, he keeps busy volunteering. Last September he got married. His wife, Philan Tree, just found out she’s pregnant. Golliher has trouble concentrating but has found it helps him to keep to a routine. His wife and a service dog are constant companions.

But his biggest source of support, he said, is other veterans who speak the same language. He has a support network of veterans who understand what he has had to live through and the nightmares he now has to live with.
read more here

Army Medic-War Veteran Comes to Rescue At Walmart

Army vet helps gunshot victim following Friday night shooting
FOX 4 News
LynnAnne Nguyen
December 31, 2016

“Everybody started running towards us screaming they're shooting, they're shooting,” said Semmler.

Police are still looking for the people who shot a man at a Walmart in the Red Bird area of Dallas. The victim is stable, thanks to a Good Samaritan who used his military training to step in and help as they waited for medics to get there.

Rafael Semmler was at the Walmart on Wheatland with his family, Friday night, when they heard gunfire.

Semmler says he made sure his family got out safely, then his military instincts kicked in.

“You don't really think about it, it's just at that time it's kind of like instinct, it's what you've been trained to do,” he said, “and was my first instinct was to go toward it to see if there's anything I could do to help out.

Semmler went straight to the McDonald’s inside the store where most of the commotion was.

“Another gentleman was like, I've been shot, I'm dying. So I immediately went directly to him first.”

Semmler says the man had been shot in the arm and was losing a lot of blood. After eleven years in the military as an infantryman and a medic, Semmler says he’s used to training abroad in places like Kuwait, Iraq and Bosnia, but never thought he’d be using it here at home.
read more here

WWII Veteran Played National Anthem on Pearl Harbor Anniversary

WW2 veteran wows crowd as he delivers national anthem on harmonica
97-Year-Old Veteran Plays Amazing Version Of The National Anthem [VIDEO]
CBS News
December 8, 2016

Wednesday was the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, which marked the beginning of World War II. A heavy military presence was on hand for both days of the event, which was held at Bloch Arena on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

“It’s great because being here is a pleasure,” Delgado said. “Not everybody can be here, playing in front of people that will die for you. That’s really something. It’s really special to have this opportunity.”

Peter Dupre, a 97-year old World War II veteran who served a medic treating the wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, performed the national anthem on harmonica.

Iraq Veteran: Combat Wounded to Combat Medic

Veteran Injured In Iraq Became Medic, Nurse
News Channel 5 Nashville
Steve Hayslip
Nov 17, 2016

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - For Veterans Day, we met with and honored one veteran who nearly paid the ultimate price.

TriStar Southern Hills nurse Justin Laferty was injured in Iraq nearly 13 years ago when his Humvee flipped.

A medic saved his life, which also changed his life. Laferty became an Army medic to thank the medic who was there for him.
read more here

Combat Medic Veteran and Family, No Longer Homeless or Lacking

Once homeless, veteran's new house now fully furnished
FOX 2 News
Amy Lange
November 17, 2016

WATERFORD, Mich. (WJBK) - Joel Trombley was a combat medic with the Michigan Army National Guard. He served in Iraq but fell on hard times once he was medically discharged.

"We were blessed with a pretty amazing group of people coming in and making our house a home," he says.

It's all part of Bank of America's Detroit Day of Giving, partnering with Humble Design to make this happen for the veteran and his family.

"Today we donated $20,000 to the Humble Design organization," says Rita Oldani, Bank of America. "Today is our day of give; we are giving $720,000 out through the entire community throughout metro Detroit."
read more here

Army Medic Veteran Looks Back on Three Tours of Duty

Veteran Sgt. Smith reflects on her 3 tours in Iraq
The Collegian
By Julia Hood
Nov 11, 2016

“I think the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was call my mom a week after I came back from war to tell her I was going back again in four months,” Smith said. “That was a conversation I wasn’t looking forward to.”

Retired Sgt. Jennifer Smith treats an American casualty of war suffering from a gun shot wound during her second deployment in November 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq.   (Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Smith)

Veterans Day for retired Sgt. Jennifer Smith is not just any day, but one where she can look back on the 13.5 years she spent serving as a medic in the Army and also remember her time spent on the frontlines in Iraq.

“I think that what defines me as a veteran is the fact that I stood up and said, ‘I’m gonna serve my country,'” Smith said.

“People just aren’t exposed to it so they’re not sure of all what a veteran is, so it’s nice to see the diversity, especially being a female that was in the military and coming back as a student,” she said.
read more here

Hacksaw Ridge Hero Desmond Doss Saved 75 Soldiers--Without A Gun

The Real 'Hacksaw Ridge' Soldier Saved 75 Souls Without Ever Carrying A Gun
WVPE
By ELIZABETH BLAIR
NOV 4, 2016

Doss saved 75 men — including his captain, Jack Glover — over a 12-hour period. The same soldiers who had shamed him now praised him. "He was one of the bravest persons alive," Glover says in the documentary. "And then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing."

Desmond Doss is credited with saving 75 soldiers during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the Pacific — and he did it without ever carrying a weapon. The battle at Hacksaw Ridge, on the island of Okinawa, was a close combat fight with heavy weaponry. Thousands of American and Japanese soldiers were killed, and the fact that Doss survived the battle and saved so many lives has confounded and awed those who know his story. Now, he's the subject of a new film directed by Mel Gibson called Hacksaw Ridge.

A quiet, skinny kid from Lynchburg, Va., Doss was a Seventh-day Adventist who wouldn't touch a weapon or work on the Sabbath. He enlisted in the Army as a combat medic because he believed in the cause, but had vowed not to kill. The Army wanted nothing to do with him. "He just didn't fit into the Army's model of what a good soldier would be," says Terry Benedict, who made a documentary about Doss called The Conscientious Objector.

The Army made Doss' life hell during training. "It started out as harassment and then it became abusive," Benedict says. He interviewed several World War II veterans who were in Doss' battalion. They considered him a pest, questioned his sincerity and threw shoes at him while he prayed. "They just saw him as a slacker," the filmmaker says, "someone who shouldn't have been allowed in the Army, and somebody who was their weakest link in the chain."
read more here

Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran Grateful for Veterans Court

Vet court grad: 'I'm ready to embrace life'
Livingston Daily
Lisa Roose-Church
August 19, 2016

Brig. Gen. Michael McDaniel said the court is “building a new cycle” for the veterans, and it is unique to other specialty courts.

Judge Carol Sue Reader presents U.S. Army veteran John M. a certificate and coin celebrating his graduation from the 53rd District Court's Veterans Treatment Court. Graduate Aron B., a U.S. Army veteran, waits his turn.
(Photo: Lisa Roose-Church/Livingston Daily)

John M., who spent “many years” sober, found himself standing before a judge — charged with and eventually convicted of driving drunk.

“To this day, I haven’t had a drop to drink since I was caught on that November over a year ago,” he said to thunderous applause. “I’m ready to embrace a life without any type of drug or alcohol.”

It was a sentiment echoed by the three other men, who along with John, were the inaugural graduates of the 53rd District Court Veterans Treatment Court. They were recognized during a ceremony held at the historic Livingston County Courthouse on Grand River Avenue in downtown Howell.

John, a U.S. Army combat medic during the Vietnam War, said he was able to use the court’s services to identify his emotional problems and address those as well as his drinking.

“I love my country, and I’d do it again,” he said about his service. “We’re fortunate to have a court system that bent over backward to help us guys. Thank God it’s here.”
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Helped Others, Now Needs Help From Others in Ohio

Partially paralyzed veteran in need of handicapped van
WCMH 4 News
By Rick Reitzel
Published: August 17, 2016

GAHANNA, OH (WCMH) — A Vietnam War Army veteran has fallen on hard times. Partially paralyzed and in pain, and now confined to a wheelchair without a vehicle, Stephen Karales, 70, has kept a good attitude.

Karales is a giver – volunteering 15,000 hours in the benefits office at the local VA and homeless shelter with the YWCA, until illness left him partially paralyzed.

It took a tremendous effort for Karales to stand up and move to a wheelchair wheeled up to the passenger side of Steve Guenther’s SUV.

Karales came to the Gahanna Legion and VFW Post on Johnstown Road with several other veterans who pitched in to help.

A year ago the former combat medic said he was on a mission spending all of his waking-hours helping other veterans. Then he contracted a strange virus which left him in a coma for 11 days and permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
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Combat Docs Need to Be Ready For Next War

The plan to keep military combat docs ready for America's next war
Medill News Service
Ruojing Liu
July 16, 2016

According to the report, trauma deaths of about 1,000 service members in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts between 2001 and 2011 could have been prevented with more proficient trauma care. About 20 percent of civilian deaths from serious injuries at home in 2014 could have been prevented as well.

Soldiers from the 5-20 Infantry Division carry a comrade onto a stretcher after he was wounded in a mortar blast on the outskirts of Baghdad in 2007.

(Photo: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images)

About 1,000 mortally wounded troops a year could have been saved in a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan if more military doctors had been more skilled in trauma care, a top medical organization reports, A proposal under consideration on Capitol Hill is directed at ensuring that military doctors gain and maintain proficiency in those skills by working with civilian trauma centers.

The proposal calls for grants for civilian trauma centers to hire military doctors and staff.

The idea would be to use military medical professionals in the civilian trauma system so both sides could share information about treating patients in life-or-death situations.
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ORMC Doctor Wore Army Boots Before Sneakers As A Medic

The doctor behind the bloody shoes on Facebook
Orlando Sentinel
Naseem S. Miller Contact Reporter
June 16, 2016

Corsa joined the Army after he finished high school in North Carolina. He spent six years in the Army, where he was a medic. He came back home and got his bachelor's degree in two years and then went to medical school.

A week before the bloody massacre at Pulse nightclub, Dr. Joshua Corsa bought a new pair of shoes from the REI outdoor company.

They were Keens and he liked them because he could put them on quickly – one of those important little details for a senior resident who has to rush around a busy Level I trauma center like Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Little did he know that in a few days those sneakers would become a symbol of all that's good and evil in this world.

It started with a text from an attending physician at the trauma center: possible active shooter and up to three injured with gunshot wounds.

Throughout those years he worked full-time as a firefighter/paramedic.
read more here