Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirado, served with her husband

Death quiets hero's music
Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirado, who played Taps, comes home at last

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer

First published in print: Saturday, November 7, 2009

COLONIE -- Someone else will have to play Taps.

Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador was remembered Friday as a determined soldier who was passionate about her job, family and hometown. She is the first woman soldier in the Capital Region to die in Iraq.

The 29-year-old Albany native grew up with sports and music at South Colonie High School, and had played Taps on her trumpet at the funerals of family members who were veterans of World War II, her father Gerard Seyboth recalled.

Tirador also played the instrument in church and excelled in softball and lacrosse. She grew up to become an Army medic, and helped save the life of a soldier while taking arms fire in Iraq during an attack on an American convoy. She also volunteered to return to Iraq in August as an Arabic-speaking interrogator, a job she would not talk about, her father said.

Amy Tirador deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the Army's First Infantry Division. She provided medical support for escorts on convoys, a dangerous job in an environment of roadside bombs and snipers.

"She had no problems with it," her father recalled. Amy Tirador returned happy, and her family threw a welcome back party in the Joseph E. Zaloga Post 1520 on Everett Road.

A few years later, she met her husband on a military base. They moved to Washington before deploying together.

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Del. Guardsman charged with raping soldier

Del. Guardsman charged with raping soldier
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 27, 2009 12:47:12 EDT

GEORGETOWN, Del. — A member of the Delaware Army National Guard has been charged with raping a fellow soldier at the Georgetown Armory and sexual extortion.

Georgetown police say Staff Sgt. Theodoric Dixon, 36, was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment, sexual extortion, coercion and official misconduct. He has since been released.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/04/ap_del_guard_rape_charge_042709/

Second female Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan

Second female Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service
April 14, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan - The second Canadian female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan died Monday when the light armoured vehicle she was patrolling in struck an improvised explosive device.

Trooper Karine Blais, who had arrived just days ago from Canada with the 12th Armoured Regiment based in Val Cartier, Que., was killed in action when her vehicle was hit by a homemade bomb.

Blais, 21, was the 117th Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan since the start of the conflict in 2002.

Four other Canadian soldiers were injured in the attack, which happened about one hour before dusk in Shah Wali Kowt, a district about 40 kilometres northwest of Kandahar City that is known to be a centre of Taliban activity.

"She was an energetic person who always gave 100 per cent," said Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, the Canadian task force commander. "She has a great sense and truth and was remarked upon for her honesty. Frank and direct, she showed strong leadership qualities and was respected by all the members of her squadron. She will be missed."
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Second female Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan

2,212 reports of military sexual assaults in 2007 alone

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach said she was raped by a fellow Marine. A Marine has been charged in her death.

Attacker 'still comes after me in my dreams'
A lawmaker says she was shocked when told 4 in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. "My jaw dropped," Rep. Jane Harman says. "We have an epidemic here." A government report indicates the numbers could be even higher. One woman today told a congressional panel: "I was raped while I slept." full story

Story Highlights
Official: "My jaw dropped" after women described rape, sex abuse in military

Hearing prompts allegations of "cover-up" after top Defense official doesn't show

Mom of slain pregnant soldier: Victim shouldn't have burden to "generate evidence"

Woman describes rape: "He still comes after me in my dreams"

In 2007, Harman said, only 181 out of 2,212 reports of military sexual assaults, or 8 percent, were referred to courts martial. By comparison, she said, 40 percent of those arrested in the civilian world on such charges are prosecuted.

Defense statistics show that military commanders took unspecified action, which can include anything from punishment to dismissal, in an additional 419 cases.

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100 U.S. female service members have died in Iraq

100 U.S. female service members have died in Iraq
Story Highlights
Latest death of female service member in Iraq blamed on natural causes

Of the 100 dead, 97 were troops and three were military civilian employees

Sixty-one of the deaths have been classified as hostile

NEW: Female suicide bomber kills 8 at checkpoint outside Baquba
(CNN) -- The death of an Air Force technical sergeant in Iraq last week quietly ushered in a somber milestone: 100 American female service members now have died in Iraq, according to a CNN count of Pentagon figures.

The latest death was Tech. Sgt. Jackie L. Larsen, 37, of Tacoma, Washington, who died of natural causes July 17 at Balad Air Base, Iraq. She was assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, California, according to the Pentagon.

The death comes during what is on pace to be the lowest monthly toll in the war. Pentagon records show that at least nine U.S. troops have died in July. The lowest number in the war was in May, with 19. The total of U.S. service member deaths in the Iraq war now stands at 4,124.

Of the 100 female service members who died:


97 were troops and three were military civilian employees.


61 of them have been classified as hostile -- occurring during combat or enemy attacks -- and 39 have been non-hostile.


12 died in 2003, 19 in 2004, 20 in 2005, 15 in 2006, 27 in 2007, and seven this year so far.


80 of those were members of the Army, nine were Navy, seven were Marines, and four were Air Force.

Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber detonated explosives at an Awakening Council checkpoint just outside of Baquba, killing eight people and wounding 24 Thursday night, Baquba police said.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/24/iraq.main/index.html
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Female soldiers raise alarm on sexual assaults

Female soldiers raise alarm on sexual assaults
Pentagon responses include new trauma ward, prevention strategy
By Kimberly Hefling

updated 12:54 p.m. ET, Mon., July. 21, 2008
YORK, Pa. - It took Diane Pickel Plappert six months to tell a counselor that she had been raped while on duty in Iraq. While time passed, the former Navy nurse disconnected from her children and her life slowly unraveled.

Carolyn Schapper says she was harassed in Iraq by a fellow Army National Guard soldier to the extent that she began changing clothes in the shower for fear he'd barge into her room unannounced — as he already had on several occasions.

Even as women distinguish themselves in battle alongside men, they're fighting off sexual assault and harassment. It's not a new consequence of war. But the sheer number of women serving today — more than 190,000 so far in Iraq and Afghanistan — is forcing the military and Department of Veterans Affairs to more aggressively address it.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25784465/
Linked from ICasualties.org

UK:Female soldiers say "remove us at your peril"

Remove us from the front at your peril, say women soldiers
As the war in Afghanistan claims its first British female fatality, the debate about the role of women in war zones has been reopened. But the message from the 1,600 women in Afghanistan and Iraq is clear: mutiny would follow any attempts to withdraw them from danger. Mark Townsend reports

Her 'girls' called it roadside roulette - the lottery of the landmines and bombs that haunt the highways of Helmand province where Captain Alli Shields spent months squinting through the Afghan dust clouds for the tell-tale signs of hidden explosives.

Last week the bombers struck again, taking the life of Corporal Sarah Bryant, Britain's first female fatality in Afghanistan, another bleak milestone and one that not only raised familiar questions of whether British women should serve on the front line, but also on whether they could handle the unique challenges that Helmand presents.

For Shields, 39, the reaction to the death of Bryant from a largely male-dominated media was a shock. Until last week she and her friends had assumed the debate about women being able to handle the pressures of war had been laid to rest. Yesterday the message from the 1,600 women currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan was that mutiny would ensue if attempts were made to remove them from the front line. Any moves by the Ministry of Defence to withdraw British women from danger would be fiercely resisted, they said. Some warned it would precipitate an exodus at a time the undermanned armed forces are coping with two major conflicts, insisting they would rather resign from the military than endure a career where they were ordered out of harm's way.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/22/military.gender

Silver Star for Pfc. Monica Brown followed by insult

Woman Gains Silver Star -- And Removal From Combat
Case Shows Contradictions of Army Rules

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008; Page A01

KHOST, Afghanistan -- Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle.


Vice President Cheney pinned Brown, of Lake Jackson, Tex., with a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.

Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.

"We weren't supposed to take her out" on missions "but we had to because there was no other medic," said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved. "By regulations you're not supposed to," he said, but Brown "was one of the guys, mixing it up, clearing rooms, doing everything that anybody else was doing."

In Afghanistan as well as Iraq, female soldiers are often tasked to work in all-male combat units -- not only for their skills but also for the culturally sensitive role of providing medical treatment for local women, as well as searching them and otherwise interacting with them. Such war-zone pragmatism is at odds with Army rules intended to bar women from units that engage in direct combat or collocate with combat forces.
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Sen. Patty Murray Seeks Help For Survivors Of Military Sexual Trauma

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., says women in the military return home traumatized because, in addition to the pressures of living in a war zone, they have been living in close quarters with men and, in many cases, report that they had been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped.

Senator Seeks Help For Survivors Of Military Sexual Trauma


Published on 2/10/2008



Washington — Scurrying back to her Army barracks in the dark after her shift at the hospital, Sally, a 21-year-old medic, was grabbed by a man who dragged her to the woods and raped her at knifepoint.

When she reported the attack, Sally, of Kirkland, Wash., who asks that her full name not be used, was brushed off by her superior officer at Fort Belvoir, Va., who dismissed the rape as a spat with a boyfriend.

Her story is alarmingly like that of hundreds of other veterans who have suffered sexual harassment, assault and rape in the military, according to Susan Avila-Smith, a Seattle-based advocate who has helped hundreds of women veterans get VA benefits and treatment for military sexual trauma (MST).

Avila-Smith says she also was a victim when she served in the Army, having been sexually assaulted in a hospital recovery room after sinus surgery at Fort Hood, Texas.

The pressures on women service members, who now comprise about 7 percent of all veterans, are escalating:

• According to the Veterans Administration, 19 percent of women who have sought health care in the VA were diagnosed as victims of military sexual trauma.

• Cases of military sexual trauma increased from 1,700 in 2004 to 2,374 in 2005, according to the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention Response Program.
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What kind of a nation are we now? Are we a nation of laws or have we become a fraud? Women in the military raped, yet it is passed off and ignored, or worse, the women who report it face harassment instead of justice. Hallibuton/KBR employees are raped and yet when they report it they face retribution. Instead of turning it over to law enforcement, they only allow the victim to be heard in arbitration. What are we now?

Rape is a crime. When did it become something to ignore? Who wrote the rule that the victim is supposed to be ashamed someone with more power, usually possessing a weapon, decided to get their rocks off by forcing themselves on a woman? Does the nation really think that this only happens in the military and "boys will be boys" only when they are in the military? How deluded are they? Don't they understand that this type of crime will continue when they become civilians again?

Whenever we read reports like this we need to ask ourselves what kind of justice would be appropriate if it happened to someone in our own family. What if it was your daughter deployed into a foreign nation, risking her life for the sake of the nation and then finding that life taken with such disregard no one cared she was raped? What if it was your wife who was just doing her job as a nurse only to be raped by someone who apparently thinks they are worth so much more than she is?

People who rape are criminals. People who are raped are victims of a crime. This nation has laws against crimes. There are penalties when you commit a crime. Or at least that is the way it's supposed to work. Lately this nation has proven laws don't matter when the people committing the crime are employed under the banner of the nation.

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

POSTED: 12:34 am EST December 19, 2007

A soldier was found dead inside her housing unit in Virginia on Monday.

Investigators have not released the dead soldier's name or age.

The FBI is now involved in the mysterious death of the woman found inside the Fort Belvoir army base in Fairfax County.


Officials would confirm only that the dead woman was an army reservist who was living on the base.

They would not say how long she had been assigned the military facility, give an address where she was found or say what circumstances led military police at the scene to contact the FBI.
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http://www.nbc4.com/news/14886625/detail.html