Oakland Police Officer Joshua Smith's life saved by badge

Oakland Police Officer Joshua Smith's life saved by badge
A police officer survives being shot at point blank range due to his badge. WMC's Lori Brown reports.

Well that was the story but one of Wounded Times readers left a comment with what happened after this was posted. Here it is!

Former Oakland officer pleads guilty to lying about shooting

Action 5 News
By Nick Kenney
Published: Dec. 9, 2010

OAKLAND, TN (WMC-TV) - A former Oakland police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to making up a story about his badge stopping a bullet and saving his life.

Last December, Joshua Smith claimed his police badge stopped a bullet during a Christmas Eve traffic stop on Highway 64 in Oakland.

Smith told investigators a passenger got out of the stopped car and swung a knife at him. As he subdued the man, Smith said, the driver pulled out a gun and shot at him.

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Memo used to disqualify soldiers with PTSD from getting benefits

Pentagon limits law's pledge to its wounded veterans

Noncombat injuries keep many from aid

By Amanda Carpenter

Veterans groups hailed the passage last year of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which made it easier for wounded soldiers to have their injuries rated and treated by the federal government.

But less than a year after President Bush signed the bill, the Defense Department interpreted the law in a way that reduced its scope and denied many veterans the benefits they thought they had been promised.

The Pentagon's interpretation, which veterans groups are challenging, is laid out in two memos written in 2008 by David S.C. Chu, who was undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The effect of the memos, which have been obtained by The Washington Times, is to disqualify numerous soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from receiving medical benefits and to prevent others from receiving extra pay that the NDAA promised to veterans with combat-related injuries.

In drafting the NDAA, Congress relied on the recommendations of a bipartisan panel headed by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala.
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Pentagon limits law's pledge to its wounded veterans

Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

by KING Staff

Posted on December 28, 2009 at 4:23 PM

SEATTLE – The law enforcement community is mourning another loss after Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Kent Mundell, critically wounded in a shootout a week ago, died Monday night.

Mundell's family was at his side Monday evening at Harborview Medical Center when doctors turned off life support. Officials say Dep. Mundell passed quickly and died at 5:04 p.m.

Dozens of deputies and police officers from at least six law enforcement agencies filed into Harborview Monday afternoon in the hours before Mundell died.
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Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission

Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission
(CNN) - Sgt. Stephanie Cole joined Britain's Royal Air Force more than three years ago to fly into battle - and not, as she says, to stay on the ground and "fly a desk."

Soon, she'll finally get to do what she signed up for - working on a helicopter crew in dusty and rugged southern Afghanistan, where British, U.S., other international forces and Afghan soldiers are slugging it out with Taliban militants.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Cole, 24 (on the far left in the photo above).

She will be among four female air crew members deployed to a pool of more than 100 pilots and loadmasters beginning New Year's Day to handle the newly-deployed Merlin helicopters in battle-scarred Helmand province, a haven for insurgents and an illegal drug trade.


The other three are pilots Flight Lt. Michelle Goodman, 32, the first woman to win Britain's Distinguished Flying Cross for her actions in Iraq; Flight Lt. Joanna Watkinson, 29; and loadmaster Sgt. Wendy Donald, 31 (pictured left to right after Cole). Three others are still in training.
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Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission

Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries

Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries

By William Cole - Honolulu Advertiser via Gannett News Service
Posted : Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 7:03:15 EST

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The mottled brown skull and other remains — a lower jaw with eight teeth and a pair of fillings, seven right side ribs, part of a pelvis and some arm and leg bones — showed evidence of dirt and looked like they were buried at one time.

It’s up to forensic anthropologists like Gregory Berg to build from the ground up the U.S. service member who died in North Korea more than half a century ago.

There are plenty of challenges to doing so faced by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, but there’s been a big advance relating to Korean War fallen, and a new Pentagon impetus to speed up all identifications.

In September, the Hawaii-based accounting command, charged with investigating, recovering and identifying missing U.S. war dead, opened a new lab at Pearl Harbor devoted to identifying Korean War remains. About 8,100 Americans remain missing from the Korean War.
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Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries