Vietnam:Taking of Dong-Ha Bridge

Submitted By: LeatherNecker on April 29, 2009
Col. John W. Ripley, USMC (Ret.) 1:34 Ripley relates his heroic feat of singlehandedly stopping the enemy during a major offensive on Easter Sunday in 1972. His "tiny force" of South Vietnamese marines was poised on one side of the Dong-Ha Bridge to take on the "enormous force" of North Vietnamese troops ready to attack from the other side. Undaunted, the determined Captain Ripley decided to take the situation in his own hands to bring down the bridge. Lugging explosives on his back and under heavy enemy fire, he precariously crawled under the bridge, set the explosives and blew up the massive structure. Submitted by: LeatherNecker Three Keywords: John Ripley USMC Marines Vietnam

Col. John W. Ripley, USMC (Ret.)

Posted to Great Americans by LeatherNecker on April 29, 2009

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Suicide Toll Fuels Worry That Army Is Strained

There is no amount of money they can spend on PTSD unless they start to understand what is already known and begin to ask the right questions.

They research books, study someone an hour or so here and there. We study PTSD but above all, we live with them. We've watched them change over the years. We knew them before they went and soon discovered we met a stranger at the welcome home ceremony. We hear their voices when the nightmares come. We see them sitting in the room but being thousands of miles away, even years away from where they sit. They are not numbers to us. They are people we love.

Ask Vietnam veterans' wives what is needed to save their lives and chances are, they had to ask themselves the same question years ago when research was new, help was scarce and hope was dissolving. Some of us walked away because we didn't understand. Others stayed, living miserable lives because they were fighting the wrong battles and looking for impossible resolution. Most of us decided to learn and fight as hard as they did to stay alive in Vietnam. This was not a research project to us. Nothing we could close at the end of the day to return to our own "normal" lives. This was and is our life.

Why isn't anyone asking the wives of Vietnam veterans what they did to save the lives of their veterans? Why isn't anyone asking us to help the newer spouses learn how to do what we had to learn on our own? Why isn't the government asking us what cannot be learned from pages in books or treating a veteran that is less than truthful to them?

If they really want to save the lives of the troops and our veterans, they are asking the wrong questions to the wrong people and believing the wrong answers. It's not that we can replace psychologists or psychiatrists. We need more of them to help our families. But what we can do is help them do their jobs better because we know them better. We live with them and this is our life.

Suicide Toll Fuels Worry That Army Is Strained

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
Sixteen American soldiers killed themselves in October in the U.S. and on duty overseas, an unusually high monthly toll that is fueling concerns about the mental health of the nation's military personnel after more than eight years of continuous warfare.

The Army's top generals worry that surging tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan could increase the strain felt by many military personnel after years of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year's record of 140 active-duty suicides. The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time.

Army officials say the strain of repeated deployments with minimal time back in the U.S. is one of the biggest factors fueling the rise in military suicides.

The Army hit a grim milestone last year when the suicide rate exceeded that of the general population for the first time: 20.2 per 100,000 people in the military, compared with the civilian rate of 19.5 per 100,000. The Army's suicide rate was 12.7 per 100,000 in 2005, 15.3 in 2006 and 16.8 in 2007.

In response, the Army has launched a broad push to better understand military suicide and develop new ways of preventing it. In August, the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health said they would conduct a five-year, $50 million effort to better identify the factors that cause some soldiers to take their own lives.

Suicide Toll Fuels Worry That Army Is Strained

FBI think nun was murdered on Navajo reservation

Death of nun investigated as a murder
November 2, 2009 8:07 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Body of Sister Marguerite Bartz, 64, found Sunday on Navajo reservation in New Mexico
Her home had been broken into and her car stolen
FBI looking for her beige 2005 HONDA CR-V with N.J. plate NF24821
Diocese: She was known to be a woman always passionate for justice, peace

(CNN) -- Federal officials said Monday they are seeking information about the killing of a 64-year-old nun whose body was found Sunday on the Navajo reservation in northwest New Mexico.

Sister Marguerite Bartz's body was found in her convent in Navajo, New Mexico, in a remote area of the Four Corners region, said Lee Lamb, communications director for the diocese. Her home had been broken into and her car stolen, Lamb said.

According to the FBI, which has jurisdiction, Bartz was killed between Halloween night and Sunday morning. When she did not appear at Sunday Mass, a colleague checked on her and found her body.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/02/new.mexico.dead.nun/index.html

Lone senator holds up veterans bill

UPDATE
Coburn named as senator holding up vets bill

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 3, 2009 17:23:29 EST

Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator — Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill.

Coburn has been identified by Senate aides as the lawmaker preventing consideration of S 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009, by using an informal but legal practice of putting a hold on a bill.

Coburn’s staff did not respond to questions, but Senate aides said the first-term senator has expressed concern about creating new and unfunded benefits and wants the opportunity to amend the measure.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/military_veteransbill_coburnhold_110309w/

Lone senator holds up veterans bill

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 2, 2009 17:01:59 EST

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is trying to bring pressure on the Senate to ignore tradition and bring a veterans health care bill up for debate despite the anonymous hold on the bill placed by a senator.

The bill in question is S 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009, which includes three top priorities of the veterans group.

It contains a package of improvements for female veterans, including more training for mental health providers in treating sexual trauma, a pilot program to offer child care so that veterans who have children find it easier make appointments, and a trial counseling program in which newly separated female veterans would be treated in retreat-like settings.

It also would expand mental health programs for veterans in rural areas by contracting with local community mental health centers, and expand mental health services for the immediate families of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/military_veteransbill_delayed_110209w/

Seattle authorities vow arrests in police officer's slaying

Seattle authorities vow arrests in police officer's slaying
November 2, 2009 9:58 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Police officer killed, student officer injured in shooting Saturday
Authorities: Officers were in parked car when shooting happened
Field training officer Timothy Brenton was married with two children, 11 and 8
Mayor: Slaying is first intentional homicide of Seattle police officer since 1994


(CNN) -- Law enforcement officials in Seattle, Washington, vowed Sunday to catch whoever is responsible for fatally shooting a police officer and injuring a student officer as they sat in a parked patrol car.

Field training officer Timothy Brenton, 39, was reviewing details of a traffic stop with student officer Brit Sweeney when a vehicle rolled up next to the squad car shortly after 10 p.m., authorities said

People inside the vehicle fired several shots into the squad car, killing Brenton and injuring Sweeney, according to police.

A shot grazed Sweeney, tearing through her uniform and protective vest, Police Chief John Diaz said at a news conference Sunday. She fired at the attackers' vehicle, but police didn't know whether any of her bullets struck it, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/01/washington.cop.killed/index.html