Unknown vets spared paupers' graves
By Tim Hart, CNN
November 7, 2009 6:07 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin
Local coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials
Without her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility
Small army of men and women turned out to pay their respects
Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin.
Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69.
And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September.
Marsha Dickey, who works in the Kern County coroner's office, was instrumental in making sure the men got the honors they deserved.
"She worked very hard to see that they were veterans ... and without that ... we probably would not be here today to honor them," said Lynn Sprayberry, founder and chairwoman of Friends of Fallen Heroes, a local organization that makes sure veterans receive a respectful service at Bakersfield National Cemetery.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/07/vif2.unknown.vets/index.html
Saturday, November 7, 2009
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.
read more here
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=862862&TextPage=1
Friday, November 6, 2009
Fort Hood soldiers stories begin to come out
Report: Fort Hood victims include PA soldier
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - A western Pennsylvania soldier is reportedly among those wounded in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
Sabrina Heath, of Monessen, told KDKA-TV on Friday that her niece Army 2nd Lt. Brandy Mason was shot in the thigh.
Heath said Mason made a brief call Thursday. Mason said she was at the a Soldier Readiness Center waiting her turn when the suspect came in and opened fire.
Heath says Mason spent 14 months in Iraq and was never shot at.
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Fort Hood victims include PA soldier
Soldier was willing to give 'anything it took' for her country
By Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Nov. 6, 2009 2:32 p.m.
Kiel - Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger decided she was willing to put her life at risk for her country the instant a second airplane crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
"We looked at each other and knew, and the next day we were in the recruiter's office," recalled Kristin Thayer, who watched the attack with Krueger in a commons area at a college in Sheboygan. "Anything it took, anything our country needed of us, even if that meant giving our lives."
Krueger made the ultimate sacrifice that pledge carried. She died Thursday when an Army psychiatrist opened fire on soldiers proceeding through deployment preparations at Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas.
On Friday, Thayer grieved the loss of her best friend, a classmate and teammate who joined her at that recruiting station determined to serve her country. Both joined the Army Reserves.go here for more
Ogden soldier injured in Fort Hood shooting
By Joseph M. Dougherty
Deseret News
Published: Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 5:09 p.m. MST
WASHINGTON TERRACE — These emotions weren't supposed to come yet.
The worry, the heartache, the fear: They were expected later, once Aggie Foster's son deployed to Afghanistan, not on Thursday while he still was awaiting his deployment at a Texas Army base.
Aggie Foster was at work at Ogden Regional Medical Center when her daughter-in-law called to tell her that a gunman had walked into Fort Hood's Soldier Family Readiness Center and shot her youngest son, Joey, an Army private first class, in the hip.
read more here
Ogden soldier injured in Fort Hood shooting
Local Soldier Injured in Fort Hood Attack
A Dothan man serving in the Alabama National Guard was wounded yesterday when a fellow soldier allegedly opened fire on Fort Hood, Texas.
A Dothan man serving in the Alabama National Guard was wounded yesterday when a fellow soldier allegedly opened fire on Fort Hood, Texas.
13 people were killed and the Wiregrass man was among the more than 30 injured.
Major Randy Royer of the 135th expeditionary sustainment command based in Birmingham was shot twice during Thursday’s shooting spree.
read more of this here
Fort Hood victims include St. Paul soldier
11/06/2009
By AMY FORLITI / Associated Press
A Minnesota soldier and father of three who had a knack for making people laugh was among those killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.
Kham Xiong of St. Paul, died in the attack Thursday that left 13 people dead and more than two dozen wounded. The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was among the injured.
KSTP-TV reported that Xiong was 23, and had three children ages 4, 2 and 10 months. He and his wife had moved to Texas just five months ago, the station said.
go here for morehttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9BQB69G1.html
Oklahoma high school graduate one of the soldiers killed at Fort Hood
By BRYAN DEAN Staff Writer
Published: November 6, 2009
A Tipton soldier killed Thursday during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, was a quiet boy who thought the military would help him grow into a man, his family said Friday.
Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, was one of 12 soldiers killed when a gunman opened fire at a soldier readiness center on the post. The gunman, identified by authorities as Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan, 39, was shot several times by a civilian police officer but survived the attack.
Hunt was a 2005 graduate of Tipton High School. Tipton is near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.
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Oklahoma high school graduate one of the soldiers killed at Fort Hood
UPDATE from CNN
Fort Hood victims: Sons, a daughter, mother-to-be
November 7, 2009 12:52 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Kham Xiong, 23, remembered as "a very fun, outgoing person"
"What hurts the most is that one of her own killed her," Francheska Velez's father says
Sister recalls Spc. Jason Dean Hunt's words: "He said he would die for a stranger"
Sheryll Pearson, mother of slain soldier Pfc. Michael Pearson says: "We're all very angry"
A CNN Special Investigation drills down on the causes and the impact of the Fort Hood shootings, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN TV.
Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Thirteen people died after a shooting spree Thursday at Fort Hood, a sprawling Army post in Texas.
Here's a look at the victims whose names have been released:
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/fort.hood.shootings.victims/index.html
Female soldier killed at Fort Hood had just returned from Iraq due to pregnancy
Fort Hood shooting: one of victims was pregnant
One of the 13 people shot dead in the massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas was a pregnant woman, according to reports.
Francheska Velez, 21, from Chicago, was filling out paperwork when Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on the Texas base .
She had only just returned from a tour in Iraq three days before, coming back early because she was pregnant, her father Juan Velez told Fox News Chicago. She was expecting a baby boy in May, he said.
Mr Velez said it had been his daughter's dream to join the army and she had just signed up for another three years.
read more here
Fort Hood shooting one of victims was pregnant
One of the 13 people shot dead in the massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas was a pregnant woman, according to reports.
Francheska Velez, 21, from Chicago, was filling out paperwork when Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on the Texas base .
She had only just returned from a tour in Iraq three days before, coming back early because she was pregnant, her father Juan Velez told Fox News Chicago. She was expecting a baby boy in May, he said.
Mr Velez said it had been his daughter's dream to join the army and she had just signed up for another three years.
read more here
Fort Hood shooting one of victims was pregnant
DOD announced non-combat death in Iraq
DOD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. Amy C. Tirador, 29, of Albany, N.Y., died Nov. 4 in Kirkush, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 209th Military Intelligence Company, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. Amy C. Tirador, 29, of Albany, N.Y., died Nov. 4 in Kirkush, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 209th Military Intelligence Company, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
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